Nine miners rescued after collapse in Colombia


Nine miners have been rescued from an illegal coal mine in Columbia.
Getty Images

Colombian emergency crews on Thursday rescued nine miners from an illegal coal mine that collapsed the previous day, officials said.

The nine were brought to the surface from the pit in El Bosque in central Cundinamarca department.

"The nine workers were rescued alive," the National Mining Agency said on Twitter.

"The miners are in good health, receiving medical attention," it said.

With the miners trapped since Wednesday morning, rescuers managed to contact them in the rubble hours later and supply them with air.

Oil and coal are the main exports of Colombia, where mining accidents are frequent.

In 2021, the fourth largest Latin American economy recorded 148 deaths in mining incidents.

The rescue came as 10 miners have remained trapped in a Mexican coal mine for two weeks, with no signs of life.

World could save 700 mn tonnes of CO2 if people cycled more, study shows

Author: AFP|

Update: 18.08.2022 

Cycling 2.6 kilometres daily like in The Netherlands would also bring with it health benefits due to more exercise and improved air quality / © ANP/AFP/File


The world would save nearly 700 million tonnes of carbon pollution each year -- more than Canada's annual emissions -- if every person adopted the Dutch way of life and cycled on a daily basis, new research showed Thursday.

The transport sector currently accounts for a quarter of all fuel-related greenhouse gas emissions, which are warming the planet.

Half of those emissions are from passenger cars, and worldwide transport demand is predicted to triple by mid-century.

As they seek to decarbonise transport, governments and industry have turned towards electric vehicles, with 6.75 million units sold in 2021 alone.

Vehicle sales are tracked and published each year. However, it has been difficult to calculate the production and ownership of a much older, low-carbon technology: the bicycle.

An international team of researchers has now compiled the first global dataset of bicycle ownership and use by country dating back to the early 1960s, using statistical modelling to fill in any information gaps.

They found that between 1962-2015 global production of bikes outstripped that of cars, with China accounting for nearly two-thirds of the more than 123 million bikes manufactured in 2015.

Writing in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, the team showed that bicycle ownership was generally higher in upper-income and upper-middle-income countries -- but then so was the percentage of journeys undertaken by car.

This meant that high bicycle ownership does not necessarily lead to high bicycle use.

Among the 60 countries included in the dataset, the share of bicycle use for journeys was only five percent. Some countries, simply lack bicycle stocks, while others with high bike ownership, such as the United States, tended to view cycling as more of a leisure activity than a mode of transport.

- 'Going Dutch' -

The team calculated that if everyone emulated the Danish commute of cycling an average of 1.6 kilometres (1 mile) each day, the world could save some 414 million tonnes of CO2 a year -- equivalent to Britain's annual emissions.

"Going Dutch" and cycling 2.6 kilometres daily like people do in The Netherlands would save 686 million tonnes, and bring with it associated health benefits due to more exercise and improved air quality.

"A worldwide pro-bicycle policy and infrastructure development enabled modal shift like the Netherlands and Denmark can lead to significant untapped climate and health benefits," the authors wrote.

They said this dual benefit demanded better bicycle data collection, and said there was "an urgent need to promote sustainable bicycle use via supporting policy, planning, and infrastructure development."

The study's lead author, Gang Liu, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark's Department of Green Technology, said the research showed that bicycles had an important future role in lowering global transport's carbon footprint.

"Addressing such gigantic challenges requires not only technology-side strategies, such as lightweight design or electrification," he told AFP.

"But also needs demand-side strategies, such as alternative mobility patterns -- sharing mobility, on-demand mobility, and ride sharing -- and transport mode change, such as reducing short-distance car use by cycling."

Rail workers stage latest strike in UK as inflation hits four-decade high


Railway staff in Britain on Thursday staged the latest in a series of strikes, once again disrupting commuters and leisure travellers, as decades-high inflation hits salaries and prompts walkouts across various industries.


© Frank Augstein, AP

Rail workers stage latest strike in UK as inflation hits four-decade high

The latest action by rail workers, which will be repeated on Saturday, is part of a summer of strike action by the sector and others at a scale not seen since the 1980s under former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The dispute over pay rises and working conditions has shown little sign of resolution and is likely to be exacerbated by news this week that UK inflation topped 10 percent in July for the first time since 1982.

The global impact of the war in Ukraine on energy and food prices, and, to a lesser extent, post-Brexit trade frictions are blamed for the surging cost-of-living crisis in Britain.

Tens of thousands of railway staff are set to walk out over the two days, leaving a skeleton train service and stranding holidaymakers and commuters, even if home-working continues for many office staff after Covid restrictions were lifted.

Meanwhile, London transport workers serving the underground "Tube" and bus network will walk out on Friday, creating three days of travel misery in southeast England.

"It's extremely unreliable these days, so I'm finding I'm having to drive, park and pay a lot more," recruitment consultant Greg Ellwood, 26, told AFP at an unusually quiet Euston station in London.

"We're all just trying to make a living and get by... So I've got all the sympathy in the world for them," he added, referring to the strikers.
'Defend jobs'

Among the sectors also calling strikes are dockers at Felixstowe, Britain's largest freight port situated in eastern England, who will start an eight-day stoppage Sunday.

The waves of industrial action could continue into the autumn, since the Bank of England forecasts inflation will top 13 percent later this year, tipping the economy into a deep and long-lasting recession.


"We will continue to do whatever is necessary to defend jobs, pay and conditions during this cost-of-living crisis," Sharon Graham, head of major British union Unite, said this week.

"This record fall in real wages demonstrates the vital need for unions like Unite to defend the value of workers' pay," Graham said.

She hit out at suggestions, including from BoE governor Andrew Bailey, that pay rises were in part fuelling inflation.

"Wages are not driving inflation," she insisted ahead of the latest UK inflation data that showed rocketing food prices were the main factor behind July's spike.

Inflation has soared worldwide this year also on surging energy prices, fuelled by the invasion of Ukraine by major oil and gas producer Russia.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), urged the UK government to get involved in talks over pay, jobs and conditions.

"Instead of waging an ideological war against rail workers, millions of voters would rather that the Government allow for a fair negotiated settlement," he said at a picket line at Euston.
Pay deals

But a transport department spokesperson blamed union leaders like Lynch for inflicting "misery" on millions, urging them to work with industry "to agree a deal that will bring our railways into the 21st century".

Some proposed strikes planned for the British summer have been halted after unions and companies agreed pay deals at the eleventh hour.

But while British Airways ground staff and plane refuellers at Heathrow airport have scrapped proposed walkouts, other sectors are holding firm.

More than 115,000 British postal workers employed by former state-run Royal Mail plan a four-day strike from the end of August.

Telecoms giant BT will face its first stoppage in 35 years and walkouts have recently taken place or are soon to occur by Amazon warehouse staff, criminal lawyers and refuse collectors.

Major UK business lobby group, the CBI, this week acknowledged workers' ongoing "struggle with rising costs like energy prices" and said employers were "doing their level best to support staff".

It also claimed, however, that "the vast majority" of companies "can't afford large enough pay rises to keep up with inflation".

Analysts are forecasting sector-wide stoppages to last beyond the summer as inflation keeps on rising.

It comes as teachers and health workers have hinted at possible walkouts should they not receive new pay deals deemed acceptable.

(AFP)

Scientists find simple, safe method to destroy SOME 'forever chemicals'

But it represents just the tip of the iceberg, since the US Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 12,000 PFAS chemicals.

Issam AHMED
Thu, August 18, 2022 


"Forever chemicals" used in daily items like nonstick pans have long been linked to serious health issues –- a result of their toxicity and extreme resistance to being broken down as waste products.

Chemists in the United States and China on Thursday said they had finally found a breakthrough method to degrade these polluting compounds, referred to as PFAS, using relatively low temperatures and common reagents.

Their results were published in the journal Science, potentially offering a solution to a longstanding source of harm to the environment, livestock and humans.

"It really is why I do science -- so that I can have a positive impact on the world," senior author William Dichtel of Northwestern University told reporters during a news conference.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were first developed in the 1940s and are now found in a variety of products, including nonstick pans, water-resistant textiles, and fire suppression foams.

Over time, the pollutants have accumulated in the environment, entering the air, soil, groundwater and lakes and rivers as a result of industrial processes and from leaching through landfills.

A study published last week by Stockholm University scientists found rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink because of PFAS contamination.

Chronic exposure to even low levels has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights, and several kinds of cancer.

Although PFAS chemicals can be filtered out of water, there are few good solutions for how to dispose of them once they have been removed.
- 10 down, thousands to go -

Current methods to destroy PFAS require harsh treatments, such as incineration at extremely high temperatures or irradiating them ultrasonic waves.

PFAS' indestructability comes from their carbon-flouride bonds, one of the strongest types of bonds in organic chemistry.

Fluorine is the most electronegative element and wants to gain electrons, while carbon is keen to share them.

PFAS molecules contain long chains of these bonds, but the research team was able to identify a glaring weakness common to a certain class of PFAS.

At one end of the molecule, there is a group of charged oxygen atoms which can be targeted using a common solvent and reagent at mild temperatures of 80-120 degrees Celsius, decapitating the head group and leaving behind a reactive tail.

"Once that happens, that provides access to previously unrecognized pathways that cause the entire molecule to fall apart in a cascade of complex reactions," said Dichtel, ultimately making benign end products.

A second part of the study involved using powerful computational methods to map out the quantum mechanics behind the chemical reactions the team performed to destroy the molecules.

The new knowledge could eventually guide further improvements to the method.

The current study focused on 10 PFAS chemicals including a major pollutant called GenX, which for example has contaminated the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

But it represents just the tip of the iceberg, since the US Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 12,000 PFAS chemicals.

"There are other classes that don't have the same Achilles’ heel, but each one will have its own weakness," said Dichtel in a statement.

"If we can identify it, then we know how to activate it to destroy it."

ia/dw

Why China's economy is in trouble and what it means for you

Beijing this week slashed interest rates to boost demand after its zero-COVID policy and a property crash rocked the economy. China's woes will hurt global growth but could also help to cool inflation.

Operations at China's Shanghai Yangshan Port were severely disupted by a COVID lockdown in April

As growth in major global economies slows as a result of high inflation, exacerbated by the Ukraine war, many economists are hoping that China will again come to the world's rescue.

But this is not 2008, when China's then rapidly expanding economy and a huge stimulus unleashed by the Beijing government, helped Western countries to recover much faster from the financial crisis. This time, China's economic woes run deep. The government has all but given up on this year's target of 5.5% GDP growth and Premier Li Keqiang warned last month there was little appetite right now for more expansionary policymaking.

Business and consumer activity in the world's second-largest economy have been stymied by Beijing's zero-COVID policy that sparked monthslong lockdowns on workers in dozens of cities, forcing many businesses to shut. Chinese leaders are loathe to reverse the draconian policy now, for fear of unleashing a bigger crisis.

China can't learn to live with COVID

"China has effectively not lived with COVID like the rest of the world. So there would be economic chaos if the virus were suddenly to rip through the country," Jacob Gunter, senior analyst at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), told DW. "There isn't any built-up immunity — as they refused to import the mRNA vaccines — they don't have a very advanced health care system and there's a lot of vaccine hesitancy."

Worse still, the recent government crackdown on the debts of property developers sparked a real estate crash that forced one of the country's largest builders, China Evergrande, to the edge of bankruptcy.

Chinese homebuyers have stopped paying mortgages on unfinished apartments, bank loans for property purchases have fallen for the first time in a decade and the amount of residential floor space — a measure of new construction activity — dropped by nearly half in the second quarter.

"The property crash is the bigger problem [compared with the zero-COVID policy]," said Craig Botham, China expert at the research house Pantheon Macroeconomics. "The economy has shown it can recover quickly from lockdowns, but the damage from falling asset prices in a sector worth 30% of GDP is far more pernicious. Households, banks, and local governments all have damaged balance sheets."

China's property developers relied on down payments to fund future real-estate projects

While refusing to unleash more monetary stimulus until inflation and the pandemic are under control, China's central bank this week slashed interest rates, after industrial production and retail sales grew lower than expected and oil demand fell 10% year on year in July.

China cuts while the world hikes rates

"It's the opposite of what's happening everywhere else in the world where countries are ratcheting up their rates," Gunter told DW. "China has the opposite problems that we have in the United States and Europe," adding that Chinese consumers are afraid to spend for fear of being sent into quarantine with no income.

Botham said the latest rate cuts were unlikely to make much difference to economic growth for two reasons.

"One is that they will only immediately impact bank funding costs, with no requirement to pass them through to the real economy. The second, and more important, is that loan demand has fallen off a cliff. I suspect the PBoC [People's Bank of China] felt like it had to do something, even though it knows whatever it does will have minimal impact," he added.

With the prospect of further stimulus on hold, the central government has sought to deflect attention away from Beijing, telling regional governments to do more to help stabilize growth and boost employment opportunities, which was met with skepticism.

"Local governments have balance sheets full of holes, and can’t do much more," warned Botham. "We need to see the central government step in. The Pantheon Macroeconomics analyst called for a shift away from supply-side to demand-side measures.

In May, Beijing announced 50 policy measures to help regions to rebound from lockdowns. They included tax relief for businesses and consumers and other subsidies. Li this week visited the southern tech hub of Shenzhen on what he said was an economic fact-finding mission ahead of this month's Politburo meeting.

Xi under pressure to boost demand

Pressure is already building on China's leaders after a state-backed newspaper called this week in a front-page report for new pro-growth policies. Citing Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank, Financial News said Beijing should use more stimulus to boost demand. The paper also called for more industrial policies and measures for the real-estate market which it said would drive a recovery in production and consumption.

Resistance to a fresh stimulus could ease in the next few months as President Xi Jinping seeks re-election as Chinese leader by the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The summit, which is due in November, according to Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, is likely to approve Xi's third term.

Unlike 2008, when China's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion, €579 billion) monetary stimulus helped to stabilize the global economy, the impact of any future expansionary policies by Beijing is likely to be limited for the West, Botham told DW. But he said they could help to ease the cost-of-living crisis that was hurting growth in the West.

"It's safe to say it [China] won’t rescue the global economy in this cycle. Hopes for a new commodity supercycle driven by China will be dashed. However, the focus on supply-side policies, and the weakness of Chinese demand, will mean China exports disinflation and even deflation to the rest of the world over the next 12 months, helping cool global inflation."

Edited by: Hardy Graupner

FASCISM U$A HERE & NOW
Bills restricting classroom topics have nearly tripled in 2022


In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, which limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom. 

Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- State legislatures are increasingly proposing bills to restrict how topics including race, gender identity and sexual orientation are taught in school, according to a report published Wednesday by a group advocating for freedom of expression.

The number of such bills, called educational gag orders, has increased 250% in 2022 and mostly proposed by Republican legislators, according to the report by PEN America. Thirty-six states have introduced 137 such bills since January, compared to 54 bills in 22 states last year.

Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, for example, limits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity. Several other states have filed similar bills. Proponents, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, say the legislation is aimed at protecting parental rights over their children's education.

PEN America said in a press release that the trend threatens students' First Amendment rights.

RELATED   Texas school officials remove 41 books from library shelves, including the Bible   

 

EROTICISM & SEXUALITY IN BIBLE SEE SONG OF SONGS

  

"The sheer volume and unrelenting pace of censorious proposals have cast a powerful chill over the teaching of U.S. history, race, LGBTQ+ identities and other essential topics," the organization said.

Most of the gag orders are focused on limiting the teaching of race, but increasingly topics involving LGBTQ+ are a focus. Some 39% of the bills introduced this year have targeted colleges and universities.


PEN America said many of the bills will result in teachers altering their lesson plans to avoid running into legal trouble and also narrow the scope of what students hear.

RELATED Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs measure restricting discussion of race in classrooms

"Our report documents in alarming detail the threats to how young people learn and are taught in American schools," the group's CEO Suzanne Nossel said. "Lawmakers are undermining the role of our public schools as a unifying force above politics and turning them instead into a culture war battleground. By seeking to silence critical perspectives and stifle debate, they are depriving students of the tools they need to navigate a diverse and complex world."

Smith & Wesson CEO draws backlash for blaming politicians, news media for gun violence

A gun shop owner in Bridgeton, Mo., shows a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault rifle at his store. Smith & Wesson rifles have been used in several deadly mass shooting attacks.

 Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The chief executive of Smith & Wesson, one of America's most famous manufacturers of firearms, is facing backlash after defiantly arguing this week that lawmakers and news media are the ones responsible for rising gun violence in the United States.

CEO Mark Smith made the accusation in a statement early this week, which seeks to blame media outlets and politicians for mass-murder attacks in which Smith & Wesson firearms have often been the chief instrument used to carry out those bloody assaults.

"They are the ones to blame for the surge in violence and lawlessness," he said in the statement. "And they seek to avoid any responsibility for the crisis of violence they have created by attempting to shift the blame to Smith & Wesson, other firearm manufacturers and law-abiding gun owners."

Smith's statement was centered around what he said has been an "unprecedented and unjustified attack on the firearm industry."

In June, a bipartisan bill passed Congress and was signed by President Joe Biden that strengthened firearm requirements in the wake of several high-profile mass shooting attacks -- including the assault on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. It was Congress' first significant action on gun safety in decades.

Several days later, police said Robert Crimo used a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault rifle to shoot at families near Chicago during a Fourth of July parade. Seven people were killed.

"We will never back down in our defense of the 2nd Amendment," Smith concluded, adding a post-script that said, "Smith & Wesson -- EMPOWERING AMERICANS."

A variety of abandoned items are seen on a street corner in Highland Park, Ill., on July 4 following a mass shooting attack that killed seven people. Police said the shooter used a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault rifle. 

File Photo by Tannen Maury/EPA-EFE

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., head of the Democrat-majority House oversight committee, ripped Smith's accusations.

"Highland Park, Parkland, San Bernardino, Aurora -- these mass murders were all committed with Smith & Wesson assault weapons," Maloney told CNBC Wednesday.

"As the world watches the families of Parkland victims relive their trauma through the shooter's trial, it is unconscionable that Smith & Wesson is still refusing to take responsibility for selling the assault weapons used to massacre Americans."

Maloney and other critics have denounced the firearms used in mass shootings as "weapons of war" and assailed manufacturers for the way they market them to the American public. The marketing strategies have been denounced as being unfair, deceptive and overly geared toward younger male buyers.

The oversight committee has been investigating the firearms industry and held a hearing last month to question some of the executives in charge. Smith was invited to appear and give testimony -- but he didn't.

"The CEO of Smith & Wesson refused to testify before my committee and face the families who have lost a loved one because of his company's weapons of war," Maloney said.

"The committee will not permit Smith & Wesson to dodge accountability or obscure the gun industry's role in fueling our nation's gun violence epidemic."

The House panel has pointed out that Smith & Wesson generated $253 million in revenues in 2021, up from $108 million in 2020.

Smith now faces a congressional subpoena to provide information about the production and sale of his company's assault-style rifles.

"[The] subpoena was made necessary by your unwillingness to voluntarily comply with the committee's investigation, including your refusal to testify about your company's troubling business practices," Maloney said according to CNBC. "And your refusal to voluntarily produce key information about your company's sale of assault weapons to civilians.

March Fourth rally to ban assault weapons

A young girl participating in the March Fourth rally to ban assault weapons holds a "Uvalde Strong" sign outside the Senate office buildings at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 13, 2022. 

Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Israeli soldiers raid, shut down offices of Palestinian civil society groups

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- In early Thursday morning raids, Israeli soldiers shut down the offices of several Palestinian civil society advocacy groups that the Israeli government has labeled as terrorists -- an allegation the groups deny. Israeli troops raided and shut down the West Bank offices offices overnight, according to one of the groups raided.

According to a statement from Al-Haq, one of the raided groups, "Israeli occupation forces raided Al-Haq's office in Ramallah, confiscated items and shut down the main entrance with an iron plate leaving behind a military order declaring the organization unlawful."

Al-Haq is a prominent NGO that monitors compliance with human rights in the Israeli occupied territories.

The Al-Haq statement said six Palestinian civil society organizations were raided by Israel. Israel declared the groups "terrorist organizations" on Oct. 19.

RELATEDIsraeli forces kill Palestinian militant in West Bank raid

The raided groups were Al-Haq, Addameer, the Bisan Center for Research & Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine, Union of Agricultural Workers Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC).

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement in 2021, calling the Israeli declaration "an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement."

Al-Haq posted a detailed description of the Thursday morning raid on their office.

RELATEDCease-fire between Israel, Islamic Jihad holds as Gaza crossings partly reopened

"At 3:23 am, Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) forcibly blasted through the locked security door of Al-Haq's offices, bursting the door from its hinges and raiding the premises, setting off the alarms," Al Haq said in a statement posted to its website. "Below the premises of Al-Haq, the IOF bludgeoned and broke the front door of the Episcopal Church, leaving long shards of exposed broken glass, sponge-grenades, and several teargas canisters, rubber coated and live bullets around the property."

Al Haq said the groups Israel raided are civil society organizations "who advocate for human rights and international rule of law."

According to Israeli National News, Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday ratified the "designation made in October 2021 of six Palestinian Authority Organizations as terrorist organizations."

Israel alleges that all of the organizations in question operate under cover and in agency with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Israel maintains the groups operate under the guise of performing humanitarian activities.

Al-Haq is calling on the international community to "immediately intervene to protect the six designated organizations, whose finances and assets risk being confiscated, and their staff members, directly targeted, arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned."

Camp Lejeune's toxic water victims get chance to fight back

1/9
Predecessors of these U.S. Marines from 1953 to 1987 were exposed to tap water containing harmful cancer-causing chemicals, including trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Sweeping legislation to help people exposed to toxic chemicals during military service, signed into law last week by President Joe Biden, extends well beyond burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan to the U.S. Marines' Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

The new law gives long-awaited legal recourse to potentially hundreds of thousands of ex-Marines, their families and civilian workers who drank contaminated water while at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987

Many ended up with cancers and other devastating illnesses, had miscarriages or died because of their exposure to contaminants, with volatile organic compounds in the base's water system identified by the military as far back as 1980.

They are people like ex-Marine Gerard McNamara, 74, a retired plant manager for the Scranton, Pa., post office. He's the father of Gerry McNamara, a former basketball guard who now is an assistant coach at Syracuse University.

The elder McNamara told UPI in a phone interview that he spent a few months at Camp Lejeune in 1967 for advanced infantry training before being deployed to Vietnam, where he was wounded twice.

He said he was basically healthy until 2004, when cancer forced a kidney removal. Over the past five years, he has been diagnosed with brain cancer, esophageal cancer and bone cancer.

Then, there is Mike Partain, who was conceived and born at Camp Lejeune and lived on base in family housing for the first five months of his life.

RELATED Study: Marines at Camp Lejeune had high cancer death rate

Male breast cancers appear

He was stricken with male breast cancer at age 39 in 2007-- a condition he was told he had only a .005% chance of developing because he was young, had no genetic markers and led a healthy lifestyle.

Partain, now 54 and an insurance adjuster in Homosassa, Fla., said he knows of about 125 more men with male breast cancer who have one thing in common: Camp Lejeune.

RELATED House OKs Camp Lejeune health bill

Now, the legal landscape has improved for them and perhaps thousands of others.

That's because the bipartisan Camp Lejeune Justice Act was enacted into law as part of the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022.

The newly minted law gives military personnel and veterans, their family members and civilian workers up to two years from enactment to take legal action against the federal government.

They can file civil suits for fair compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries and deaths resulting from the military's botched handling of Camp Lejeune's toxic water problem.

Previously, they had faced seemingly insurmountable legal hurdles.

In 2019, the U.S. Navy denied all 4,400 civil claims filed under the federal tort law for personal injuries or deaths related to the base's contamination, contending it had no legal authority to make payouts.

Similar lawsuits filed between 2012 and 2016 also were dismissed because of the Feres doctrine that barred service members from suing the government under the federal tort law for injuries sustained during military service.

Barriers to lawsuits

A North Carolina statute also had precluded people from suing more than 10 years after exposure to contaminants, although some illnesses arose decades after people drank the water.

Moreover, while veterans have been able to file for VA health benefits if they meet certain criteria, their spouses and dependents had been effectively barred from going to court under a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"The law restores our rights to pursue the government for our damages," said Partain, whose attorney, Ed Bell, has filed a $25 million lawsuit on his behalf.

Most lawyers representing people who were impacted will get fees contingent on the size of jury awards, which the new law doesn't cap. Punitive damages aren't allowed.

Hours after the bill was signed, Bell told UPI in a phone interview he had met with almost 200 members of Congress over the past several years, "and no one, not a single one, had ever heard the real story about Camp Lejeune."

During the period identified by the federal government as problematic, the CDC says people at Camp Lejeune were exposed to tap water teeming with harmful chemicals, including trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride.

The government cited waste disposal practices at an off-base dry cleaning firm as the source. These highly carcinogenic substances were found at levels high above the current U.S. maximum contaminant level allowed in drinking water.

Superfund site

In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency placed Camp Lejeune on the Superfund program's National Priorities List for contaminated soil, sediment, surface water and groundwater.

That same year, the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry began to investigate the base and later created a panel to assist the Camp Lejeune community.

The bottom line, Partain, McNamara and others said, is that Camp Lejeune's water contamination was discovered decades ago. But little was done to mitigate risks, and people were not informed of the danger.

Or, as Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., put it: "It was in the water, and they drank it in the mess halls. And their families bathed in it ... and they filled their canteens with it."

Cartwright, a lawyer, reintroduced the Camp Lejeune Justice Act in January as part of an effort he began in 2018.

"You know you put yourself in harm's way when you join the Marine Corps," Cartwright told UPI in a phone interview. "But being poisoned by the well water isn't part of the deal, and that's why these people ought to have their day in court."

To file suit, people must have lived on the base for at least 30 days between Aug. 1, 1953, through the end of 1987. They must sue in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and prove their ill health is somehow tied to Camp Lejeune's contaminated water or that exposure to the water increased the likelihood of it.

Ability to seek compensation

Legal experts said the new law will allow people to seek compensation "for their injuries, medical costs, emotional harm and any other applicable damages," including wrongful death.

However, Cartwright said any net settlement must be offset by VA disability benefits and Medicare and Medicaid claims.

Partain said he and his friend, Jerry Ensminger, an ex-Marine whose 9-year-old daughter died of leukemia in 1985 while the family lived at Camp Lejeune, "have fought tooth and nail" on the issue for 15 and 25-plus years, respectively.

Under the Janey Ensminger Act of 2012, the VA provides limited medical care as a payor of last resort -- but no disability or death benefits -- for certain medical conditions arising from Camp LeJeune toxins. Also covered are family members who meet specific criteria.

In 2017, the Department of Veterans Affairs declared eight "presumptive conditions" linked by scientific evidence to contaminants at Camp Lejeune: adult leukemia; aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes; bladder cancer; kidney cancer; liver cancer; multiple myeloma; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Parkinson's disease.

Learned about contamination

McNamara heard about Camp Lejeune's water contaminants by chance when he followed his doctor who relocated to Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center. A paperwork clerk mentioned the toxins and suggested he contact his local VA representative.

McNamara did, and he's now on 100% disability benefits. He said he received the benefits as a kidney cancer survivor after the VA's rule took effect in 2017.

"But I'd had surgery 13 years before [in 2004]," McNamara noted, "and didn't get compensation. It wasn't retroactive."

Partain said the 2012 law was "a victory at the time" but didn't resolve the problem.

It "only pays for medical care as a last resort [after other insurers], and because my cancer was before the law was passed, I didn't get reimbursed for anything," he said.

Partain said his first marriage broke up, his four children were traumatized and the family faced economic strain because of his illness -- to the point at which they expected to lose their house.

"There's nothing that can replace what I lost," he said. "The end of the story shouldn't be about money, because that's not what it's about. It's about holding [the military] accountable."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty to charges of tax evasion, larceny, conspiracy

Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, exits Manhattan State Supreme Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to 15 felony charges. 

Photo by Peter Foley/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A top executive at the Trump Organization pleaded guilty Thursday to 15 charges, including tax evasion, in a deal that will make him a witness against the company at trial this fall.

Company Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg entered the plea in a Manhattan court to the charges stemming from a 15-year scheme to evade city, state and federal taxes on $1.76 million in unreported income.

The charges against Weisselberg included grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, conspiracy, falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing.

Weisselberg is the latest person connected to former President Donald Trump to be convicted of a felony. The others include Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen and former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

With his guilty pleas, Weisselberg admitted to engaging in the scheme to defraud together with the Trump Corp. and the Trump Payroll Corp., specifically implicating the Trump Organization in the criminal charges.

"During the scheme up until 2017, former President Donald J. Trump was president and owner of the Trump Organization," the Manhattan District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

"The court promised Weisselberg a sentence of five months in jail to be served on Rikers Island and five years' probation, contingent on Weisselberg testifying truthfully in the upcoming criminal trial of the Trump Organization by providing truthful testimony as to the facts underlying his allocution and plea."

The Trump Organization will be put on trial in October on tax fraud charges. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Weisselberg also must pay nearly $2 million to New York City and the state.

The district attorney's office said the trial against the company, which is based on similar charges, is set to start Oct. 24.

"Today, Allen Weisselberg admitted in court that he used his position at the Trump Organization to bilk taxpayers and enrich himself," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

"Instead of paying his fair share like everyone else, Weisselberg had the Trump Organization provide him with a rent-free apartment, expensive cars, private school tuition for his grandchildren and new furniture -- all without paying required taxes.

"This plea agreement directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial against the corporation," Bragg added.

Weisselberg's attorney said his client pleaded guilty to end the legal troubles that have followed him for years.