Remains of house-cat-sized dinosaur with spikes, powerful bite discovered in Argentina



Saleen Martin
Wed, August 17, 2022

Researchers in Argentina have discovered remains of a tiny, herbivorous dinosaur with protective spikes, suggesting the group it belongs to lived in a much wider area than originally thought.

The dinosaur was part of the Cretaceous period, the last era of the dinosaurs, and lived between 97 million and 94 million years ago.

The dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, belongs to a species called the thyreophoran – herbivorous animals, four-footed dinosaurs with bones along their necks to their tails, said Facundo Riguetti, a paleontologist at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation-Maimónides University and National Council of Scientific and Technical Research.

The findings were published in this month in the scientific journal Scienti Reports.

"Jakapil is the first basal thyreophoran of its kind found in South America," said Riguetti, one of the paper's authors. "Until recent years, thyreophoran findings were rare in the southern hemisphere."

Earlier thyreophorans, also called basal thyreophorans, mostly lived in North America, Europe, Asia and likely Africa, he said.

What did the dinosaur look like?

The remains found belonged to a subadult Jakapil – not a young individual, but not a fully-grown adult either. The team examined its bones under a microscope and said tissue showed a decrease in the growth rate, which doesn't happen with juveniles, Riguetti said.

The dinosaur weighed about as much as a house cat, or about 8 to 15 pounds, and its teeth were leaf-shaped, similar to those of Scelidosaurus or ankylosaurs, he said.

It's likely that Jakapil walked upright, had a beak and was capable of delivering a pretty strong bite, although not as strong as some other dinosaurs such as ornithopods or ceratopsians, Riguetti said.

Also significant about Jakapil?

This is the first time a basal thyreophoran has a predentary bone, or a beak in the front of the lower jaw. It also has "reduced arms," both in length and in robustness, he said.

He said new search efforts in South America and Africa could lead to similar discoveries.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757 – and loves all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. Follow her on Twitter at @Saleen_Martin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thyreophoran dinosaur Jakapil kaniukura found in Argentina

Video: Fossils of bus-sized 'Dragon of Death' flying reptile unearthed in Argentina

Millions in East Africa face starvation due to drought

Ben Adler

·Senior Editor

Thu, August 18, 2022 

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that millions of people in East Africa face the threat of starvation. Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that drought, climate change, rising prices and an ongoing civil war in northern Ethiopia are all contributing to worsening food insecurity.

Over 50 million people in East Africa will face acute food insecurity this year, a study from late July by the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization found. Roughly 7 million children are suffering from malnourishment and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, hundreds of thousands are leaving their homes in search of food or livelihoods. Affected countries include Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. 

A child displaced by drought walks past the rotting carcasses of goats that died from hunger and thirst, on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia. (Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“The current food security situation across the Horn of Africa is dire after four consecutive rainy seasons have failed, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years, or since the beginning of the satellite era,” Chimimba David Phiri of the Food and Agriculture Organization said in the report.

The warnings have been gradually building for months, as the situation worsens. In June, David Nash, a physical geographer at the University of Brighton, reported for the Conversation that “large areas of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are currently in the grip of a severe drought.”

The Horn of Africa has two rainy seasons per year, but the last four have been unusually dry. In some regions of Somalia, it has not rained in two years, according to Reuters.

“This meteorological drought has resulted in a loss of soil moisture, caused waterways to dry up, and led to the death of millions of livestock,” Brighton reported. “Forecasts suggest that the September to December rainy season could also fail. This would set the stage for an unprecedented five-season drought.”

Climate change increases the risk of drought because warmer air causes more evaporation and throws off the natural water cycle.

A soldier stands in front of the dried up Jubba River near the Ethiopian border. (Sally Hayden/Sopa Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Climate change and La Niña have caused an unprecedented multi-season drought [in East Africa], punctuated by one of the worst March-to-May rainy seasons in 70 years,” the U.N. News Service reported last month.

The drought has had a devastating effect on crop yields and on livestock populations. In Somalia, vegetable and grain production is expected to drop by about 80% this year.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has stalled grain exports for both countries, has also had a cascading effect for countries that relied on the crop. According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a U.S-based think tank, “Somalia is entirely dependent on Ukraine (70 percent) and Russia (30 percent) for wheat imports.

Although Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement to ensure grain exports are would resume from ports on the Black Sea, Russia subsequently bombed a port in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and has placed mines on trade routes.

The Russia-Ukraine war also comes on top of ongoing violent conflicts in East Africa that can impede food production and distribution.

The Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab controls over 20% of Somalia. Attacks by al-Shabab have increased since the Trump administration withdrew U.S. troops from the country in December 2020. The Biden administration redeployed 500 soldiers to Somalia earlier this year.

A Somali soldier stands guard next to the site where al-Shebab militants carried out a suicide attack against a military intelligence base in Mogadishu, June 21, 2015. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images)

And in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the government military, ethnic militias and soldiers from Eritrea are fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a political party that the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization.

Droughts and the resulting famines can themselves also create political instability and violent conflict. Various uprisings, including the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Tunisia and the civil war in Syria, have been linked in part to drought and climate-change-related food shortages.

In July, the U.S. Agency for International Development committed to spending $1.2 billion on food aid for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The U.N., however, says that more funds are needed. And experts argue that the international community must help countries in the region access longer-term solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change such as drought-resistant technologies and water preservation strategies.

Scientists Strapped Cameras to Navy Dolphins and Captured Something Terrifying

Maddie Bender
Wed, August 17, 2022

At the risk of awarding the title prematurely, we think we’ve found the weirdest study published in 2022. Scientists strapped GoPro cameras to the bodies of six dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy, and recorded them hunting for food and consuming their prey in grisly detail. According to the study, there was a purpose behind this potential invasion of dolphin privacy; namely, to learn more about how the mammals hunted and ate.

Scientists have previously made two competing assumptions about how dolphins ate. They engaged in either ram feeding, in which the predators swim faster than their prey and clasp the fish in their jaws as they overtake them; or suction feeding, in which predators move their tongues and expand their throats to create negative pressure and slurp up prey. The authors of the study, which was published on Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, set out to determine which method dolphins actually used.

“[S]ound and video together have never been used before to observe the behavior of dolphins and of the live fish they capture and consume,” they wrote in the study.

Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty

And, of course, there’s the fact that these dolphins were trained by the U.S. Navy. The Marine Mammal Program as it’s called today has existed in some form since before 1960, when Navy researchers attempted to improve torpedo design by studying dolphins. Since then, they have spent millions of dollars annually to foster and train bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions. According to the program’s website, these animals “have excellent low light vision and underwater directional hearing that allow them to detect and track undersea targets, even in dark or murky waters”—and unlike human divers, they don’t suffer from the bends.

Ridgway et al.

Still, the existence of a Navy program to train dolphins to identify targets like deep-sea mines does not explain why this study was conducted. And because Sam Ridgway, the lead author of the research and a founder of the Marine Mammal Program, passed away earlier this year, it does not seem like we will ever know the answer to this pressing question. We must instead hew to the text of the study itself, which is helpfully written like dolphin fan fiction. Here is a passage explaining what the GoPro footage of the three dolphins hunting looked and sounded like:

“Squeals continued as the dolphin seized, manipulated and swallowed the prey. If fish escaped, the dolphin continued the chase and sonar clicks were heard less often than the continuous terminal buzz and squeal. During captures, the dolphins’ lips flared to reveal nearly all of the teeth. The throat expanded outward. Fish continued escape swimming even as they entered the dolphins’ mouth, yet the dolphin appeared to suck the fish right down.”— Ridgway et al.

The angle of the cameras’ present a view of dolphin side eye that we have never before seen, nor care to see again. Up close, it is clear that these are not idyllic Lisa Frank dolphins; these are terrifying, nightmare-inducing Roman dolphins that seem to crave the thrill of the chase. The study, which is the Marine Mammal Program’s 330th peer-reviewed article, details how “it became apparent” when the dolphins had identified their next target: The animals picked up speed, as observed by an increase in the sound of the water as they whooshed through, and their heartbeats became audible in the recordings.

It is important to remember that there was a scientific purpose to this pseudo-horror movie footage. The researchers found that for the most part, the dolphins engaged in suction feeding, not ram feeding. “We were surprised by the ability of all of our dolphins to open their upper and lower lips” to suck in food, they wrote.

Ridgway et al.

But wait! The GoPros also captured a dolphin eating sea snakes, which has never before been observed: “It is notable that on one day, dolphin Z preyed on 8 yellow bellied sea snakes. The dolphin clicked as it approached the snake and then sucked it in with a bit more head jerking as the flopping snake tail disappeared and the dolphin made a long squeal.”

You’re welcome.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Videos from dolphins with GoPros strapped to their sides reveal they hunt venomous sea snakes and emit eerie 'victory squeals'


Videos from dolphins with GoPros strapped to their sides reveal they hunt venomous sea snakes and emit eerie 'victory squeals'

Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Thu, August 18, 2022


A dolphin with a camera attached to the left side of her harness.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

Dolphins with GoPro cameras on them captured incredible up-close footage of their hunting habits.

The videos surprised scientists, as the dolphins used suction to feed and ate venomous sea snakes.

Watch the dolphins' point of view and hear their sonar clicks and victory squeals as they hunt.

Video footage from GoPro cameras strapped to a pair of Navy-trained bottlenose dolphins reveals the ocean animals' hunting habits up close for the first time.

Scientists at the National Marine Mammal Foundation fixed the dolphins with their cameras and set them loose in the San Diego Bay. They captured hours of video and sounds that reveal a few secrets of dolphin life.

Step-by-step view of a Navy dolphin using suction to capture, rotate, and swallow a fish in the Pacific Ocean.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

It turns out that the animals use suction to feed, swallow venomous sea snakes, and squeal in victory after a successful hunt.

One video, below, shows the dolphin's face as it tracks a fish, grabs it, and swims a victory lap. It's not just the footage that's incredible. The dolphin's creaky and echoing calls are equally revealing. The dolphins emitted sonar clicks as they searched for prey. As they approached a fish, the clicks sped up to become a buzz, punctuated with a squeal as they caught and swallowed their meal.

from  Vimeo.

The research was led by Sam Ridgway, a prominent marine-mammal scientist who earned nicknames like "Dolphin Doctor" and "the father of marine mammal medicine," before he died in his San Diego home in July.

Sam Ridgway was known as the father of marine-mammal science.

US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

Ridgway helped found the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program more than 60 years ago. That's the program that trained the dolphins in this study. He also founded and led the National Marine Mammal Foundation, the nonprofit behind the new paper. He dedicated his entire career to understanding the behavior, physiology, and health of ocean mammals — especially bottlenose dolphins.

These videos are one of his final research efforts. For the first time, Ridgway and his team captured up-close video and sound of dolphins hunting and eating live fish. A paper about the footage was published in PLOS ONE on Wednesday.

"Dr. Ridgway was very proud of these findings and was ecstatic to know that this culmination was going to be published in PLOS ONE," Brittany Jones, a scientist at the National Marine Mammal Foundation who worked with the study authors while they completed their paper, told Insider in an email.

"He was always eager and excited to review the video and audio of these fish-capture sessions and recently spoke of his appreciation and admiration for [co-authors] Dianna Samuelson Dibble, Mark Baird, the amazing animals, and the animal care staff that made this research possible," Jones said.
One dolphin's diet included venomous sea snakes

Shocking to the researchers, one dolphin ate eight venomous sea snakes — a behavior never observed before in dolphins.

The video below shows one of those sea-snake meals. After catching the snake, the dolphin jerks its head and emits a high-pitched "victory squeal."

from  Vimeo.

Did you catch that? It went quickly.

A sea snake (indicated with pink arrow), moments before it is captured and eaten by a Navy dolphin.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

That's a yellow-bellied sea snake, and it's highly venomous. Scientists assumed that's why they'd only observed dolphins playing with snakes and releasing them, not consuming them — especially not consuming eight of them.

Ridgway and his co-authors couldn't believe their eyes at first. They searched for other fish that might look like a sea snake on camera, but they found no other explanation.

"I've read that other large vertebrates rarely prey on the yellow-bellied sea snake. There are reports of leopard seals eating and then regurgitating them. This snake does have the potential to cause neurotoxicity after ingestion and its venom is considered fairly dangerous," Dr. Barb Linnehan, director of medicine at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, said in a statement emailed to Insider.

The dolphin showed no signs of illness after its sea-snake meals, the researchers reported.

"Perhaps because the snakes ingested were thought to be juveniles, they had a lower amount of venom present," Linnehan said.

Dolphins appear to be suction feeders

The sea-snake footage is also revealing because the dolphin caught its prey in the open ocean, indicating that it used suction to capture and swallow its food. Researchers previously assumed that bottlenose dolphins use a technique called ram feeding, where they capture prey simply by clamping their jaws around it.

Images from a dolphin's camera show its eye closely tracking the fish it's catching (left) and its lips curled and throat expanded after it's caught the fish (right).

US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

In the videos from the dolphin with a camera on its side, however, the researchers could see the dolphin's lips opening, tongue withdrawing, and throat expanding. They think all these subtle movements increase the space in the dolphins' mouths and create negative pressure for suction.

"With years of experience in feeding dolphins, we had not noticed this lip motion," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Rather than seizing fish in a 'claptrap' of the toothy beak, dolphins appeared to mostly suck in fish."

Cracks detected around land near mine and sinkhole in Chile

Thu, August 18, 2022 

SANTIAGO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - New cracks were detected in the ground near a sinkhole around a copper mine owned by Canada's Lundin Mining Corp. in Chile, but the company said Thursday that the cracks are unrelated to the hole or mining activity.

The discovery in Chile's northern Atacama region has drawn attention to the arid region while authorities investigate the possible causes.

"The cracks detected on land near the Alcaparrosa mine are an unrelated incident to the sinkhole and we stress that there are no underground mining operations or populated communities in the nearby area," Ojos del Salado mining company, a division of Lundin, said in a statement.

"The source of their formation is currently under study," the company added.

Chile's SMA environmental regulator ordered this week "urgent and transitory" measures as investigations advance into the origin of the sinkhole 36.5 meters in diameter in the municipality of Tierra Amarilla, some 665 kilometers to the north of the Chilean capital.

The government has said it intends to bring harsh penalties against those responsible for the sinkhole, suggesting it could be linked to over-mining.

Lundin owns 80% of the property, while the remaining 20% is held by Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining and Sumitomo Corporation. 

(Reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

COWS BURP FOR FREE
The new US climate law has a gigantic methane leak

DONNA HENDREN/FIVE RIVERS CATTLE

Methane from livestock burps and farts is not covered by the new fee.

By Tim McDonnell
Published August 18, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate bill in US history, marks a turning point in the battle against methane. It imposes a fee of $900 per metric ton of methane emissions starting in 2024, rising to $1,500 by 2026. It’s the first time the US has imposed a fee or tax on any form of greenhouse gas emissions.

The only problem is: The fee won’t apply to most of the country’s methane emissions.

Methane is the sneaky, dangerous cousin of carbon dioxide. Although accounting for only 11% of US greenhouse gas emissions by volume, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, and responsible for up to 30% of the observed increase in global temperatures since the pre-industrial era. Methane emissions are not regulated in the US, and are only sporadically measured and reported by the companies that produce them—predominantly those in the fossil fuel and livestock industries.

But the new law covers only the oil and gas sectors, which account for about one-third of emissions. Farting and burping cows, landfills, and other sources can still let loose freely.

How effective is the new methane fee?

The methane fee also applies only to sources that emit more than the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. According to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), that threshold applies to 2,172 facilities—including wells, pipelines, and storage facilities—that together account for just 43% of the oil and gas sector’s total methane emissions.

Even that number is an over-estimate, because the law allows facilities to get away with a certain percentage of emissions for free, depending on the type of facility it is. For the biggest sources, that discount could shave a third off the total covered emissions, according to CRS.

Moreover, rather than directly measuring emissions, companies are allowed to self-report based on a federally approved estimation method that relies on assumptions about average emissions from certain types of equipment. Depending on how that method is applied, companies can dramatically underreport their emissions. Even in a generous interpretation, the federal method undercounts real methane emissions by up to 60%, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

But methane remains in the new law’s sights in other ways. The government will make available provides $1.5 billion for research and development into methods to monitor methane emissions and plug leaky infrastructure. Federal regulators are also finalizing a broader set of rules to require oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce their methane emissions (although such regulations are notoriously vulnerable to legal challenges and could be thrown out by a future presidential administration).

Perhaps companies’ strongest incentive is the market itself: With natural gas prices reaching record heights, any methane (the main chemical component of natural gas) lost to the atmosphere through leaks or intentional flaring is money flying away.

Fact-check: Does a cow emit more pollution than a car?

Andy Nguyen, PolitiFact.com
Wed, August 17, 2022 

Viral Facebook post: "Bill Gates and AOC say that a cow emits more pollution than a car."

PolitiFact's ruling: False

Here's why: Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have talked in the past about the pressing need for governments and corporations to take climate change seriously, including the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture industry.

One Facebook post took this a step further by claiming the two said "a cow emits more pollution than a car."

The post features an image of Gates and Ocasio-Cortez with a cartoon illustration of a cow. Underneath the image is text that makes a reference to using an idling car in an enclosed space for carbon monoxide poisoning.

"How bout I spend the night in a garage with a cow, and they spend the night in a garage with a running car," text underneath the image reads. "Then we can meet up the next morning to discuss."

Variations of the claim have popped up elsewhere on social media.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
Greenhouse gas emissions from cows and cars

The emissions coming from a cow and those from a car are not one in the same.

A cow produces methane gas when partially digested food like grass is fermented within the rumen, one of a cow’s four stomach compartments. That gas is built up during fermentation and expelled by the cow through belching and, occasionally, flatulence.

Cars with internal combustion engines primarily produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct when fuel is burned to provide energy.

A single cow will expel an average of 220 pounds of methane per year, according to the University of California, Davis.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that a typical car will emit an average of 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Methane gas is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to contributing to climate change, UC Davis reports.

Despite methane's potency, it only lasts for about 12 years in the atmosphere before a majority of it is removed through oxidation. Experts at UC Davis theorize that it’s possible the amount of methane that cows emit into the atmosphere is the same as the amount that breaks down.

As for carbon dioxide, the university said it can last anywhere from several hundred to a thousand years in the Earth's atmosphere before breaking down. Meaning the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to build up more and more in the atmosphere and will take centuries before disappearing.

There are an estimated 253 million passenger cars and trucks within the U.S., with about 1.8 million of them being electric powered. The U.S. has around 91.9 million head of cattle.
What Gates and Ocasio-Cortez have said about cows and climate change

A spokesperson for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told PolitiFact Gates has never said anything about cows producing more pollution than cars. Although a representative for Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not return a request for comment, we could not find any public remarks or written statements similar to the claim in the Facebook post made by the congresswoman.

However, both have talked in the past about the link between the agriculture industry and climate change.

Gates published a research paper in October 2021 detailing the need to make green technologies more affordable and accessible than their carbon-emitting counterparts. He mentioned in the report that livestock contributed 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions while passenger cars emitted 7%.

Gates has also previously talked about the possibility of developed nations transitioning entirely to eating synthetic beef to help reduce the need for livestock, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Ocasio-Cortez briefly came under fire in 2019 when an FAQ shared by her office regarding the Green New Deal, a proposed resolution she co-sponsored to help address climate change, included a line about "farting cows."

"We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast," the FAQ said.

The mention of "farting cows" did not appear in the resolution itself.

The resolution also mentioned the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, but makes no comparison to the emission of cars with those of cows.

Similar to Gates, Ocasio-Cortez has also advocated for the need to eat less meat and dairy products as a way to help address climate change.

She’s made statements about it on social media and in an interview on the canceled Showtime series "Desus & Mero."

"It’s not to say you get rid of agriculture. It’s not to say we’re going to force everybody to go vegan or anything crazy like that," she said on the show. "But it’s to say, listen, we’ve got to address factory farming. Maybe we shouldn’t be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Our ruling

A Facebook post claims Gates Ocasio-Cortez said cows emitted more pollution than cars.

Although both have talked about climate change in the past and the roles that fossil fuels and livestock play in greenhouse gas emissions, neither have said anything resembling the claim in the Facebook post.

The methane emitted by cows is more potent in contributing to climate change, but it breaks down in the atmosphere considerably more quickly than the carbon dioxide from cars.

We rate the Facebook post False.

This article was originally posted on PolitiFact.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fact-check: Does a cow emit more pollution than a car?

ETHNIC CLEANSING

Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth in West Bank clashes, medics say

JERUSALEM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed a Palestinian youth in predawn clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, Palestinian medics said.

At least 30 Palestinians were wounded, four of whom were shot with live ammunition and three of whom were in critical condition, the Palestine Red Crescent said.

Palestinian medics identified the man who was killed as Waseem Khalifa, 18, from Balata, the largest refugee camp in the West Bank.

Witnesses said clashes erupted when Israeli forces arrived to protect Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph's Tomb, a site that has been a flashpoint.

The Israeli military told Reuters it was checking on the incident.

According to Israeli media, armed Palestinians exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers around the site. No Israeli casualties were reported.

Last week, three Palestinian gunmen were killed in a shootout with Israeli forces in the northern city of Nablus. It was the deadliest incident in the West Bank since Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad ended three days of fighting in Gaza, the worst in more than a year.

Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip in what the military said was a pre-emptive attack aimed at preventing an imminent threat to Israel.

At least 49 people were killed in Gaza, including civilians and children, and hundreds more were wounded during 56 hours of fighting, which also saw more than 1,000 rockets launched towards Israel by the Islamic Jihad.

Israeli forces have carried out near-daily raids in the West Bank in recent months after men from the area carried out deadly street attacks in Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting and writing by Henriette Chacar; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

ZIONIST TERROR

Israeli forces raid Palestinian NGOs, UN criticises 'arbitrary' move
 

  

Funeral of Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces during clashes in a raid, in Nablus
 

A Palestinian man stands inside of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, in Ramallah in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank

 

A Palestinian woman walks next to a broken door of the Andrews Episcopal Church, in Ramallah in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank


Wed, August 17, 2022 
By James Mackenzie

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel closed seven Palestinian organisations it accuses of channelling aid to militant groups on Thursday, drawing condemnation from the United Nations, which said the closures appeared "totally arbitrary".

Security forces raided offices of the non-governmental groups in the West Bank, confiscating computers and equipment before sealing off entrances, Palestinian witnesses and officials said.

The Israeli military said the groups were used by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group it has designated a terrorist organisation. Israel has previously declared six of the groups as terrorist organisations.

The designation, which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, was ratified on Wednesday for three of them. The United Nations called for the designations to be revoked.

"Despite offers to do so, Israeli authorities have not presented to the United Nations any credible evidence to justify these declarations," the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement. "As such, the closures appear totally arbitrary."

The U.S. State Department said Israel had told the United States it would provide more information on the reasons behind the decision to close the organizations after Washington contacted Israeli officials.

"We will review what is provided to us and come to our own conclusion," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Nine European Union countries have said they will continue working with the groups, citing a lack of evidence for the Israeli accusation.

The UN identified the groups as the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al Haq; Bisan Center for Research and Development; Defense for Children International – Palestine; Health Work Committees (HWC); Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC); and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC).

EARLIER TENSIONS

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz reiterated Israel's claim that the organisations had operated undercover to serve the PFLP, which has carried out deadly attacks on Israelis and which the United States and the EU regard as a terrorist organisation.

"They also assist in raising funds for the terrorist organisation via a variety of methods that include forgery and fraud," Gantz said.

Palestinian officials condemned the move, which Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said was invalid.

"These are legal institutions that work under the law," Shtayyeh told reporters during a visit to the office of Al-Haq in Ramallah.

Earlier, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces arriving to guard Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph's Tomb, a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus. The site has seen repeated clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

An 18-year-old Palestinian, who the Israeli military alleged had shot at soldiers, was killed and at least 30 people were wounded during the clashes in Nablus, Palestinian medics said.

(Reporting by Nidal al-MughrabiAdditional reporting and writing by Henriette Chacar, Ari Rabinovitch and James MackenzieEditing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Gareth Jones)

Israel raids Palestinian rights groups it labeled terrorists






Shawan Jabarin, director of al-Haq Human rights organization, front, briefs activists who gathered to show support, at his office that was raided by Israel forces, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Israel raided the offices of several Palestinian advocacy groups it had previously designated as terrorist organizations, sealing entrance doors and leaving notices declaring them closed, the groups said Thursday. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)More

JALAL HASSAN and FARES AKRAM
Wed, August 17, 2022 

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel raided the offices of several Palestinian advocacy groups it had previously blacklisted as terrorist organizations early Thursday, sealing entrances and declaring them closed.

Western diplomats visited one of the offices hours later in a show of support for the outlawed groups. The U.S. State Department expressed concern about the raids and said it was seeking more information from senior Israeli officials.

The raids marked a major escalation against the civil society organizations, which Israel has outlawed over claims that they have ties to a militant group, a charge they deny. Israel has provided little evidence to back up its accusations. Nine European countries have rejected Israel's charges against the groups, citing a lack of evidence.

Israel claims the groups are linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular, left-wing movement with a political party as well as an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis. Israel outlawed the groups last year.

Shawan Jabarin, director of al-Haq, one of the targeted groups, said he and his staffers are still examining whether any documents were confiscated.

Israeli troops "came, blew up the door, got inside, and messed with the files,” he told The Associated Press. They then sealed the entrance to the office, he said.

Another of the groups, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, circulated video showing soldiers in full battle gear searching their office and moving equipment.

Rights defenders have described Israel’s moves against the groups as part of a decades-long crackdown on political activism in the occupied territories. Last month, nine EU member states said Israel hasn’t backed up its allegations and that they will continue working with the groups.

A delegation of mostly European diplomats visited al-Haq's office hours after the raid in a show of support.

“We express our solidarity with our partners, which we have been supporting for many, many years,” said Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the EU representative to the Palestinian territories, who led the delegation. He said their work in supporting human rights was “indispensable.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington that the U.S. was “concerned” about the raids and closures, adding that civil society is an “integral element to thriving democracies.”

He said Israeli officials have pledged to provide further information, without detailing what has been received so far or what conclusions U.S. officials have drawn from it.

The Israeli military said it closed seven institutions and seized their property in Thursday’s raids. The military did not immediately explain the discrepancy in the numbers, between groups designated and groups raided.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz's office reiterated its claim that the groups "operate under the guise of performing humanitarian activities to further the goals of the PFLP terrorist organization, to strengthen the organization and to recruit operatives.”

Most of the targeted organizations document alleged human rights violations by Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority, both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists.

The groups reportedly raided include al-Haq, a veteran, internationally respected Palestinian rights group; Addameer, which advocates for Palestinian prisoners; Defense for Children International-Palestine; the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Bisan Center for Research and Development.

Jabarin said “neighbors and strangers” who were nearby during Thursday's raid had opened the office in Ramallah as soo as the Israeli forces left, and that al-Haq’s staff were inside and resuming their work.

“We don’t take permission from any Israeli military or political official. We are proceeding, encouraged by our belief in accountability and the international law,” he said.

Troops raiding al-Haq's office broke through a door leading to the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church compound, which rents the office space to the group, according to the church rector, Rev. Fadi Diab. The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem condemned what it said was a “flagrant attack” on the compound, saying the al-Haq office had its own separate entrance.

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the church statement.

Thursday's raids come seven months after Israel outlawed Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan and others.

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank described the closure of the organizations as a “dangerous escalation and an attempt to silence the voice of truth and justice.” Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, said the PA will appeal to the international community to reopen the institutions.

Israel and Western countries consider the PFLP a terrorist organization.

A Defense Ministry statement last year said some of the outlawed groups are “controlled by senior leaders” of the PFLP and employ its members, including some who have “participated in terror activity.”

It said the groups serve as a “central source” of financing for the PFLP and had received “large sums of money from European countries and international organizations,” without elaborating.

Israel has long accused human rights groups and international bodies of being biased against it and of singling it out while ignoring graver violations by other countries.

Also Thursday, the Israeli military said Palestinian gunmen fired at soldiers who were escorting Jewish worshippers to a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus and that the soldiers returned fire. The army was referring to an incident in the early hours in which Palestinians said an 18-year-old Palestinian, Waseem Khalifa, was killed.

Joseph’s Tomb is a flashpoint prayer site. Some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried in the tomb, while Muslims say a local sheikh is buried there. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces. Clashes sometimes break out at the site.

___

Akram reported from Gaza City. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Ontario and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Families of 9/11 victims urge Biden to direct $3.5 billion worth of frozen assets to the Afghan people. 'This is their money, not ours,' they argue.


Lloyd Lee
Tue, August 16, 2022 

Mothers with their babies on a children’s ward at Indira Gandhi hospital receive treatment for malnutrition on August 13, 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images

President Joe Biden froze $7 billion in funds held by Afghanistan's central bank in February.

Half the funds would go to humanitarian aid, and the rest would go to the families of 9/11 victims.

Some 9/11 family members called the move "legally suspect and morally wrong."

Some family members of 9/11 victims are calling on President Joe Biden to return billions of dollars worth of frozen assets, held by the Afghanistan central bank, back to the Afghan people as a humanitarian crisis lingers in the country.

In a letter sent to the president on Tuesday, 77 family members signed a request to modify an executive order from February which effectively held the Afghan central bank's $7 billion worth of assets in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The letter was first reported by Politico.

The goal was to keep the funds out of reach from the Taliban as the group embarked on a swift takeover of the country following the US military withdrawal nearly one year ago. At the same time, the Biden administration hoped to direct half of those assets towards aid for the Afghan people, while the other half could go towards relatives of 9/11 victims — who have sought compensation for years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — pending ongoing negotiations.

But the family members who signed the letter are arguing that any use of those funds to pay relatives is "legally suspect and morally wrong," and that they "belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone."

Nearly two decades ago, about 150 family members of the 9/11 victims successfully sued several groups, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban, when a court ordered in a default judgment that the defendants pay $7 billion worth of damages, according to The New York Times.

The remaining issue, however, was to find a way to collect.

With the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government, some lawyers for the relatives of the victims have renewed their efforts to seek compensation through the frozen assets. Last year, after the plaintiffs of the $7 billion default judgment asked a judge to begin repayments, a US Marshal served the Federal Reserve of New York a "writ of execution" to seize the funds, The Times reported.

However, the undersigned family members are claiming that the arguments are legally dubious.

"Their argument is that, when the Taliban took control over the Afghan government, the Taliban presumptively gained control of the frozen assets as well, freeing the funds for the plaintiffs to pursue," the letter states. "These suits, and the legal claims involved, are complex. But these arguments are founded on a false premise. This money does not belong to the Taliban. This money comes from Afghanistan's central bank, and as such, it belongs to the Afghan people."

Who has legal access to the funds has been a point of contention. Leaders of the Taliban believe the funds rightfully belong to them, and talks with the Biden administration over the reserves have stalled.

Family members who signed the letter also pointed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis afflicting the Afghan people, underscoring the urgency behind releasing the funds.

Famine and poverty continue to ravage the country. According to a report from the United Nations, one year after the Taliban takeover, nearly 23 million people are food insecure, and two million children suffer from malnutrition.

"Simply put, this money belongs to the Afghan people, not 9/11 family members – and they need it more," the letter states.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Ruling clears Biden's 2021 pause on new oil, gas leases


 A judge’s order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.

 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

KEVIN McGILL and MATTHEW BROWN

 Wed, August 17, 2022

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A judge’s order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.

It was at least a temporary victory for President Joe Biden but the immediate effect was unclear.

The much-heralded climate bill that Biden signed into law Tuesday provides for new drilling opportunities, in a compromise among Democrats, and mandates that several lease sales be held over the next year in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

Biden had signed an executive order that suspended new lease sales soon after taking office in 2021. The following March, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, blocked the policy, siding with a more than a dozen Republican-leaning states opposed to Biden's move.

The appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday said the judge’s reasons were unclear and sent the case back to him.

“We cannot reach the merits of the Government’s challenge when we cannot ascertain from the record what conduct — an unwritten agency policy, a written policy outside of the Executive Order, or the Executive Order itself — is enjoined,” Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for a panel that also included judges James Dennis and James Graves.

Department of the Interior officials were reviewing the decision, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said. She declined to say whether the climate law made the issue moot.

The practical impacts of the ruling could be minor because of the fossil fuel leasing mandates in the climate law, said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents oil and gas companies.

The law requires the government to reinstate $192 million in leases in the Gulf of Mexico that were blocked by another court ruling last year. And it requires two more sales in the Gulf and one in Alaska before October 2023. Those sales had been canceled under Biden. The provision reviving them was inserted into the law at the insistence of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, an advocate for fossil fuels.

Going forward the law says Interior will hold periodic oil and gas lease sales and offer at least 60 million acres (24 million hectares) of offshore parcels and 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) onshore during the prior year before it can approve any renewable energy leases.

“Offshore oil and gas leasing has been protected and will proceed,” said Milito.

Environmentalists remained hopeful that the ruling would prompt the administration to move forward with other changes to the oil and gas leasing program, such as limits on future development including where leasing occurs.

“They may not be able to deliver a full moratorium on leasing, but at least they can exercise more restraint than they could with the injunction in place,” said Jeremy Nichols with the environmental group WildEarth Guardians. “All eyes are going to be on the Interior Department to see what their next move might be.”

Following last year’s injunction from Doughty that forced lease sales to resume, the Biden administration auctioned off more than 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers) of leases in the Gulf of Mexico in November. The sale was later overturned by a federal judge in Washington D.C., who said the government had failed to adequately consider climate change impacts from burning oil and gas from the Gulf.

In June, the administration sold leases on about 110 square miles (285 square kilometers) of federal land, mostly in Wyoming, despite concluding that future emissions from the parcels offered could cause billions of dollars in damages due to climate change impacts. Legal challenges of those sales by environmentalists are pending.

Doughty was appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump. Higginbotham was appointed to the appeals court by former President Ronald Reagan; Dennis, by former President Bill Clinton; Graves, by former President Barack Obama.

U$ 

Climate bill's unlikely beneficiary: US oil and gas industry



While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)More


MATTHEW BROWN and MICHAEL PHILLIS
Thu, August 18, 2022 


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. oil industry hit a legal roadblock in January when a judge struck down a $192 million oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico over future global warming emissions from burning the fuels. It came at a pivotal time for Chevron, Exxon and other industry players: the Biden administration had curtailed opportunities for new offshore drilling, while raising climate change concerns.

The industry’s setback was short-lived, however. The climate measure President Joe Biden signed Tuesday bypasses the administration's concerns about emissions and guarantees new drilling opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. The legislation was crafted to secure backing from a top recipient of oil and gas donations, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and was shaped in part by industry lobbyists.

While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. And it locks renewables and fossil fuels together: If the Biden administration wants solar and wind on public lands, it must offer new oil and gas leases first.

As a result, U.S. oil and gas production and emissions from burning fuels could keep growing, according to some industry analysts and climate experts. With domestic demand sliding, that means more fossil fuels exported to growing foreign markets, including from the Gulf where pollution from oil and gas activity plagues many poor and minority communities.

To the industry, the new law signals Democrats are willing to work with them and to abandon the notion fossil fuels could soon be rendered obsolete, said Andrew Gillick with Enverus, an energy analytics company whose data is used by industry and government agencies.

“The folks that think oil and gas will be gone in 10 years may not be thinking through what this means," Gillick said. "Both supply and demand will increase over the next decade.”

The result would be more planet-warming carbon dioxide — up to 110 million tons (100 million metric tons) annually — from U.S.-produced oil and gas by 2030, with most coming from fuel burned after export, according to some economists and analysts. Others predict smaller increases.

The law reinstates within 30 days the 2,700-square miles (6,950-square kilometers) of Gulf leases that had been withheld. It ensures companies like Chevron will have the chance to expand and overrides the concerns of U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that the government was “barreling full-steam ahead” without adequately considering global emission increases.

The measure's importance was underscored by Chevron executives during a recent earnings call, where they predicted continued growth in the Gulf and tied that directly to being able "to lease and acquire additional acreage.”

The fossil fuel industry's ambitions are now directly linked to wind and solar development: The bill prohibits leasing of federal lands and waters for renewable energy unless the government has offered at least 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) of public land and 60 million acres (24 million hectares) in federal waters for oil and gas leasing during the prior year. The law does not require leases to be sold, only offered for sale.

The measure’s critics say that's holding renewables hostage unless the fossil fuel industry gets its way. Some accuse Biden and Democrats of abandoning pledges to confront the industry.

“It’s 10 more years of mandatory leases," said Brett Hartl with the Center for Biological Diversity. "We will do our damnedest but it’s hard to fight them all.”

Communities near polluting industrial plants will continue to suffer if the oil and gas industry remains vibrant, said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She worries that incentives in the law for technology that captures carbon from industrial processes could also perpetuate harm to these poor, mostly minority residents.

In Louisiana’s St. James Parish, where petrochemical plants dominate the landscape, environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne said the legislation will allow pollution from fossil fuels to keep harming her community.

“That’s just like saying they’re going to continue to poison us, going to continue to cause us cancer,” said Lavigne, a former high school teacher who founded the group Rising St. James.

The leasing provisions mark a failure in efforts by environmentalists and social justice advocates to impose a nationwide leasing ban. The movement’s high point came when Biden followed campaign pledges to end new drilling on federal lands with an order his first week in office suspending lease sales.

Republicans complained the administration still wasn't holding enough sales even after a federal judge blocked Biden's order. On Wednesday a federal appeals court struck down an injunction that had blocked the leasing suspension, but the impact could be minimal because of the new law's mandates.

A stream of potential drilling sites is crucial for companies to maintain future production because wells can take years to develop and some yield nothing, said Jim Noe, an industry lobbyist who worked with Senate staff on the climate bill's leasing provisions.

“The industry is in constant need — almost like a treadmill — of lease sales,” said Noe, an attorney at Holland & Knight who represented offshore oil and gas companies. Noe said demand for oil and gas won’t decline immediately and Gulf drilling brings jobs and more energy security.

A United Nations report before Biden took office warned that the U.S. and other nations need to sharply decrease investments in oil, gas and coal to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Other bill provisions that focus on renewable energy and capturing carbon dioxide from industrial plants would result in net emission reductions 10 to 50 times greater than emission increases from burning more oil and gas, analysts say.

The increase in oil and gas emissions still could be substantial — as much as 77 million to 110 million tons (70 to 100 million metric tons) of additional carbon dioxide annually by 2030 from new leasing, according to economist Brian Prest with the research group Resources for the Future.

Other experts had lower projections: The San Francisco-based climate research group Energy Innovation predicted up to 55 million tons (50 million metric tons) of additional carbon dioxide annually from new leasing. Researchers from Princeton and Dartmouth said the impact could be negligible or as much as 22 million tons (20 million metric tons) in the U.S., plus much more abroad.

Any increase hinges on global oil and natural gas prices staying high — and that in turn depends on a range of factors including the ongoing war in Ukraine, said Robbie Orvis with Energy Innovation.

“It may increase oil and gas production somewhat, but that is very much offset by all of the other pieces of the bill,” Orvis said.

Yet there's uncertainty about how quickly other pieces of the bill could bring emission cuts. Wind and solar construction could run into the supply chain problems hindering many economic sectors. And technology to capture and store carbon dioxide is still being refined and is in limited use.

Other provisions could make it potentially more expensive to drill on public lands and waters. There are modest increases in royalty and rental rates and a new $5-per-acre fee when companies want particular parcels offered for lease. Another fee would require companies to pay for natural gas, or methane, that enters the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas.

The higher costs could dampen interest among companies, said Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at University of Colorado Law School.

“Even though the industry is going to be getting more oil and gas leasing if they want it, it's an interesting question: Do they want it?” Squillace asked.

__

Phillis reported from St. Louis.

___

On Twitter follow Brown: @MatthewBrownAP and Phillis: @mjphillis

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment