Switzerland plans controversial nuclear waste storage facility near German border

A plan for a nuclear waste storage facility in Switzerland is raising safety concerns among Germans close to the border. The project, which is backed by power plant operators, requires approval by the Swiss government.



Haberstal could become a new storage site for nuclear waste by around 2050

Switzerland has announced plans to build a nuclear waste storage facility on the border with Germany, leaving communities concerned about the issues of safety and clean drinking water supply.

The National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (Nagra) is behind the proposal. It suggested the region of Nördlich Lägern, north of Zurich and close to the border with Germany, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy said.

Nagra was set up by power plant operators alongside the Swiss government to deal with the controversial question of how to dispose of radioactive waste.
How can the safety of the waste be guaranteed?

The waste would be embedded in opalinus clay several hundred meters underground according to Patrick Studer, an official at Nagra.

"The required confinement time is around 200,000 years for high-level waste and around 30,000 years for low-level and intermediate-level waste," Nagra's website stated.

The waste will be sourced from five Swiss nuclear power plants. Medical and industrial sectors will also be allowed to contribute their waste.

At the moment, four nuclear power plants are active in Switzerland. They may continue their operation as long as their safety is guaranteed. This would mean into the 2040s.

However, the so-called deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste needs to be approved by both the Swiss government and parliament. This process is expected to take several years.

German communities and officials remain concerned

Concerns among German communities along the border are running high. Their concerns are primarily about the issues of safety and drinking water supply.

"The question of drinking water protection is a major concern to the population," said Martin Steinebrunner from the German coordination office for the planned waste facility.

The German Federal Ministry for the Environment has criticized Switzerland's decision to build a nuclear waste repository right on the border to Germany.

The proximity of the planned site near the Baden-Württemberg village of Hohentengen "poses a problem both during the construction phase and during the operation of the repository," said Christian Kühn, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Environment Ministry and and a member of the German parliament (Bundestag) from Baden-Württemberg.

At the same time Kühn stressed that it was "right and important" that geology be the decisive criterion for the site of a repository.

There were two other sites to choose from, which are also very close to the German border.

In Germany, the decision for a dedicated repository site for highly radioactive nuclear waste will not be discussed until 2031 at the earliest.

Long process before start of construction

It is still unclear where the nuclear waste will be prepared and packaged for final storage should the waste storage facility be approved.

Nagra has said it will submit a planning application by 2024. The Swiss government then makes a decision on the application, and parliament must consent afterwards.

Taking this process into consideration, it is unlikely for the start of the storage facility to be anytime before around 2050.

los/wd (dpa, Reuters, AFP)

St. Petersburg district councillors accuse Putin of treason

Several lawmakers from a district council are openly opposing Putin's war on Ukraine and facing serious consequences for it. DW spoke with two of them.

Smolninskoye councilors holding a public session in early March 2022

Councilors in Smolninskoye, a district of St. Petersburg, the city where Vladimir Putin was born, have accused the Russian president of treason.

On Sept. 7, they petitioned the Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, to remove President Putin from office over the war on Ukraine – even though Russians are not allowed to call it that. Instead, they must refer to the war as a "special military operation."

Nikita Yuferyev joined the Smolninskoye council in 2019. When Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, he and other lawmakers from across the political spectrum requested permission to stage anti-war protests that very day. Permission was denied. 

On March 2, Yuferyev and his colleagues invited St. Petersburg residents to join an open council session. "Many people showed up, but so did the police and OMON [national guard units]. There were many officers in helmets and prison transport vans but things remained calm," Yuferyev told DW. "We agreed to send an appeal to President Putin, urging him to end the special operation." The appeal went unanswered.

St. Petersbug lawmaker Nikita Yuferyev has called on Putin to end the war in Ukraine

In August, Yuferyev himself sent a personal message to Putin, calling on him to end the "special military operation" for humanitarian reasons. This time, the Kremlin responded, justifying the war as "a special military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine."

Acting against Russian interests?

Yuferyev's fellow lawmaker Dmitry Palyuga then tabled a draft petition on Sept. 7 intended for the State Duma. Both men stress they acted entirely in accordance with Russian law. "So far, there has been no precedent for a conviction following a petition sent to a state body. In fact, Russian law rules out this possibility," Palyuga tells DW.

He says he developed the idea of sending the petition after seeing considerable criticism of the invasion of Ukraine expressed on social media, including on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. Many accused their president of acting "against Russia's interests."

In July, Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow politician, was sentenced to seven years behind bars for "spreading falsehoods" about Russia's armed forces. Palyuga is well aware of Gorinov's case and knows speaking out against Putin can have serious consequences. "We know we are taking a risk, but we feel this is the right thing to do," he told DW.

Treason?

Yuferyev and Palyuga published their petition on Twitter, for all to see. It says that according to Russia's constitution, Putin's conduct shows signs of "treason."

It mentions four aspects in particular: The destruction of combat-ready Russian army units, the death and injury of young, easily employable Russian citizens, harm to the Russian economy, and the expansion of NATO upon the outbreak of the war, alongside the equipping of Ukrainian forces with modern Western military kit, which actually undermines the objective of "demilitarizing" the country anyway.

"We do not see NATO expansion as a direct threat to Russia, but we are trying to appeal to different target groups [within Russia] with different arguments, to convince them that this whole thing has to end," says Yuferyev.

He adds that half of all the St. Petersburg council members — among them the leader of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party — were absent when the body voted to submit the petition. But bylaws state that with 10 city councillors present, the vote could go ahead in accordance with Russian law. Ultimately, seven of the councillors approved the petition.

An appeal to all Russians

When asked what sort of reaction he and his colleagues were expecting, Yuferyev said that, "our appeal, although technically directed at Russia's top decisionmakers, is not really aimed at them. We know they will either not respond at all or they'll respond with something nonsensical." He says the petition is really about rallying Russians who are just as concerned as them. "We want to show them that there are many of us, who are against what is going on." 

Dmitriy Palyuga tabled the draft petition intended for the State Duma

Palyuga has a similar opinion."We did this mainly to show other people, who also oppose what is happening in this country, that there are elected officials who also oppose this and that these officials are prepared to say so loudly," he told DW. 

There have already been consequences. Both men have now been told to report to the police to answer charges of "discrediting the armed forces."

"If they want to punish us, they will," Yuferyev said. "But what are we supposed to do? Remain silent?"

Yuferyev is convinced most Russians are not "militants."

"We were all brought up by a generation who had experienced World War II," he argued. "Our grandparents always said, 'as long as there's no war.' They are talking about a 'special operation' here but people are starting to realize what's really happening, how many deaths there are. Our people are peaceful and I think that people in Russia will soon start to reject what is happening," he concluded.

This article was originally published in Russian. 

Kherson: Ukraine battles to reclaim the gateway to Crimea

Russia occupied the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson early on in its invasion. Now, Kyiv's counteroffensive is trying to recapture the strategically important area.

The Antonovsky Bridge in Kherson bears the traces of Ukraine's recent rocket attacks

It started with holes in the pavement. Cellphone videos from July 19 show the impact of rockets that struck the Antonovsky Bridge, one of the largest and most important in Kherson.

With the southern Ukrainian city currently controlled by Russian troops, the Ukrainian army has been deploying the HIMARS precision missile system in the area. Kyiv has been using these weapons, which arrived recently from the US, to fire upon the 1,366-meter (4,482 feet) bridge, disrupting logistics for the Russian troops located on the right bank of the Dnieper, Ukraine's largest river. These attacks, and similar ones that followed, paved the way for Ukraine's counteroffensive, which began in August. 

Other bridges, along with Russian weapons depots in the region, have been consistently targeted since then. In early September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that various towns had been recaptured. The fight for Kherson could become one of the most crucial events of the war in the coming months.

Struggle for fresh water in Crimea

Russia captured the entire Kherson region during the early days of the invasion. Military resistance was minimal, and the region's capital city, Kherson, home to some 280,000 people, was occupied in early March.

Amateur videos show how Ukrainian civilians, most of whom speak Russian, protested the Russian troops. No other region of Ukraine was occupied so quickly. It remains unclear how this was possible, and the question remains a painful one for the government in Kyiv.

Ukrainians protested against Russia's takeover of Kherson in the early days of the invasion

The region of Kherson extends some 28,500 square kilometers (11,000 square miles), making it nearly as large as Belgium. The landscape is characterized by steppes — wide open spaces as far as the eye can see. Viewed strategically, it may well be the most important region of southern Ukraine due to its access to two seas: the Sea of Azov in the east and the Black Sea in the west. 

More importantly: the region of Kherson offers the only land connection to Crimea. It is the gateway to the peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 — and this gateway has remained largely open during the Russian invasion. No bridges were blown up, which could have halted troop deployments. Large Russian units in Crimea were able to advance hundreds of kilometers to the north.

Russia's principal goal during that operation was likely gaining control of the North Crimean Canal, which starts near the city of Nova Kakhovka, some 80 kilometers east of Kherson, and ends in the Crimean city of Kerch. The peninsula is chronically short of water; ever since Soviet times, it has received fresh water from the Dnieper via this canal. Following the annexation, Ukraine stopped this water flow, which led to problems for the peninsula's water-intensive agriculture industry. In response, Russia blew up a dam that had been built in 2014, once again restoring the water supply.

Crimea receives fresh water via the North Crimean Canal. Supply cutoffs following

 Russia's annexation resulted in shortfalls

By occupying Kherson and other cities near the mouth of the Dnieper, the Russian army was also simultaneously able to block Ukraine's all-important water access to the Black Sea.

Kherson known for shipbuilding and watermelons

Kherson is best known for its shipbuilding industry. The city at the mouth of the Dnieper was founded at the end of the 18th century, when the region was part of the Russian Empire. It was named after the ancient Greek settlement Chersonesus in Crimea.

Kherson is home to the oldest seaport on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, and it is where the first warships for the Russian Black Sea fleet were built. Since Soviet times, Kherson has specialized in civilian freight ships, including tankers. In February 2022, just a few days before the Russian invasion, the shipyard announced it had signed a contract for the construction of four cargo ships for the Netherlands. 

When Ukrainians think of Kherson, however, the first thing that comes to mind is not ships, but watermelons and tomatoes. Kherson watermelons are particularly legendary. Every year, starting in August, Ukrainian stores are full of the sweet fruit — though not this year. Across social networks, photos of Ukrainian soldiers holding a watermelon in their hands have become a symbol of territorial recapture.

Watermelons from Kherson are well-known across Ukraine

The Kherson region is famous for its cultivation of fruits and vegetables. It boasts some 2 million hectares of agricultural land — the most in all of Ukraine, and nearly twice as much as in the Netherlands. It should come as no surprise that the first Ukrainian ketchup manufacturer, Chumak, was founded there in 1993, in the city of Kakhovka. The company, which was started by two Swedes, is considered one of independent Ukraine's success stories. Its website proudly notes that it owns Europe's largest cucumber field. 

Kakhovka was occupied by Russian troops during the first days of the war. Chumak, currently number two on the Ukrainian market, halted production and moved its headquarters to Kyiv.

No quick path to victory

Due to its location near Crimea, Russia is likely to put up a strong defense of the occupied territory of Kherson and the North Crimean Canal in particular. Observers in Ukraine and the West expect a long fight, and reckon Ukraine will not launch a frontal offensive due to insufficient forces.

Instead, it is thought that Kyiv will attempt to push out Russian troops through local attacks. In addition to freeing various villages, Ukraine's counteroffensive also scored an additional victory: Earlier this week, a "referendum" for unification with Russia, modeled after a similar vote in Crimea in 2014, was postponed until further notice.

This article has been translated from German.

Opinion: Tories gave Queen Elizabeth II an unfitting end

Starting with Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth saw 15 prime ministers — just. Her final act was replacing a cheerful moral vacuum with a poser with no panache. DW's Mark Hallam struggles to imagine a less fitting end.

As one of her final acts, Elizabeth welcomed Liz Truss as Britain's next prime minister

Let's just hope that the end was so near earlier this week that Queen Elizabeth II failed to grasp quite how precarious a bind her beloved Britain was in at the hour of her passing. 

Alas, given the queen's famed knack for perception and reading others, and her acuity even in advanced age, that seems unlikely. 

DW's Mark Hallam writes that the queen deserved a better final week of life

On consecutive days, the 96-year-old geared up for her last official appointments. 

First, she ejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a morally bankrupt mountebank with nothing but the gift of the gab — which, granted, he occasionally deploys amusingly or eloquently. 

Then, the queen appointed Liz Truss, a woman almost five decades her junior and with all the charisma of a cabbage. The last person standing in a grueling and pointless Conservative uncivil war of Brexit-fueled attrition that cast a pall over roughly 10 of the last years of Elizabeth's reign all told.

Truss must now lead the UK through the aftermath of a global pandemic, amid the potential for outbreak of a global conflict, and facing a level of inflation unseen since her teenage years in the early 1990s.

The prime minister will have the less popular, less emotionally robust, more politically opinionated and similarly inexperienced King Charles III to help shoulder that burden. And he'll be just itching to make a difference after more than half a century waiting in the wings. What could possibly go wrong? 

From Jubilee to Conservative limbo to the grave

The last two months of her reign were marred by the two-penny political theater of a Conservative leadership contest, dragged out for an excruciating two months in the middle of spiking inflation, an energy crisis and a hot war in Europe. 

The country was forced to stand still and wait for 200,000 Conservative Party members to decide which immature lightweight least resembled the dregs of a Tory barrel Brexit scraped bare years ago. 

The comments Truss and Johnson made after Elizabeth's death spoke volumes. 

Truss, more one for posing in flashy Instagram photos than for public speaking or debate, faced her first epochal press conference far sooner than she would have liked. 

Her flat, faltering, empty delivery at least struck the tone of someone in pain. But Truss, eyes glued to her text, hit none of the high points of a perfectly well-crafted address — her monotone unwavering whether talking of the "dark days ahead" or "the rock on which modern Britain was built" or "through thick and thing [sic]" or about how "we are all devastated by the news we have just heard from Balmoral." 

No Winston Churchill

Which brings us to exhibit B: Boris Johnson.

Johnson, who often can capture a mood in a pithy phrase, wrote of a "deep and personal sense of loss — far more intense, perhaps, than we expected."

On seeing the flowery and effusive farewell from so charming a cad, the veteran British satirist Tom Jamieson addressed Johnson on Twitter: "Britain will never forget that image of The Queen sat alone at her husband's funeral to show the country she stood with them, whilst your mob in Downing Street partied. What a loathsome disgrace to the country you were." 

One hopes, rather fervently, that, in their weekly and entirely private audiences, the queen once had the chance to say to Boris what very few could with a straight face. Hopefully, the keen student of modern politics and history channeled US Senator Lloyd Bentsen's rebuke of Dan Quayle, and told Johnson — who also wrote perhaps the worst biography of Churchill among a great many who have tried — that he was a cheap imitation of her first prime minister:

"Prime minister, I served with Winston Churchill. I knew Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a friend of mine. Prime minister, you're no Winston Churchill."

I for one choose to believe this might have been said. Not that Boris Johnson would have been listening. 

Edited by: Milan Gagnon


ELIZABETH II: THE LIFE OF A QUEEN
Mourning Elizabeth II
"Grief is the price we pay for love," Queen Elizabeth II once said. Now the world mourns her — the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland died on Thursday after 70 years as sovereign. The queen saw the disintegration of the British Empire, appointed 15 prime ministers and weathered turbulent times in her family.
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• Date 09.09.2022

Jimmie Akesson leads Sweden's soaring far-right

AFP - 

As leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson has steered his party from "pariah" to heavyweight whose support is indispensable if the right-wing bloc wants to govern after Sunday's election.


The leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson (R), celebrates at the party's election night gathering in Nacka, near Stockholm© Jonathan NACKSTRAND

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats soared to become the country's second-biggest party in the legislative vote, garnering 20.7 percent with 94 percent of electoral districts counted.

With his impeccably coiffed brown hair, glasses and neatly-trimmed beard, the casually-dressed 43-year-old looks like your average Swede.

That's par for the course for someone who in 17 years as party leader has transformed an often-violent neo-Nazi movement known as "Keep Sweden Swedish" into a nationalist party with a flower as its logo.

"He wants to give the impression that he's an ordinary guy... who grills sausages, talks normally and goes on charter trips to the Canary Islands", Jonas Hinnfors, a political science professor at Gothenburg University, told AFP.


In his 17 years as party leader Akesson has transformed an often-violent neo-Nazi movement into a nationalist party with a flower as its logo© Jonathan NACKSTRAND

"He does everything he can to not come across as an intellectual or well-educated," he added.

Akesson was raised in a middle-class family with an entrepreneur father and a mother who worked as a nursing assistant in Solvesborg, a town of 9,000 people in southern Sweden.

It was there, in rural Scania's small towns and farmsteads, that SD built its stronghold, amid concerns about the heavily immigrant-populated city of Malmo nearby.

- 'Zero tolerance' -

Akesson joined the Sweden Democrats in the 1990s after a disappointing teenage stint in the main right-wing party, the conservative Moderates.

After leaving Lund University without a degree, he took over the SD party leadership in 2005, when voter support was steadily around one percent.

The party underwent a major makeover, replacing its blue-and-yellow torch logo with an anemone, and vowing to rid itself of its racist and violent roots.

It later announced a "zero tolerance" policy against racism in 2012, though critics regularly denounce the attempts as superficial.

In August, an investigative report by Swedish research group Acta Publica found that 289 politicians from parties represented in parliament were involved in either racist or Nazi activities, a large majority of them -- 214 -- from the Sweden Democrats.

Controversies regularly flare over the party's errant members, but it has managed to steadily climb in the polls nonetheless.

It won 5.7 percent of votes when it entered parliament in 2010, 12.9 percent in 2014 when it became Sweden's third biggest party in parliament, and 17.5 percent in 2018.

Its rise has come alongside Sweden's heavy immigration. The country of 10.3 million people has welcomed around half a million asylum seekers in the past decade.

The party has stolen voters from both the conservative Moderates as well as the Social Democrats, especially among working class men.

In addition, the fight against crime, which has long been one of the party's main issues, was for the first time one of voters' top concerns in Sunday's election amid a soaring rise in gang shootings.

"I think (our success) can be explained by the fact that people don't think the other parties take their problems seriously", Akesson told AFP at an election rally in Stockholm in August.

- 'The most influence' -

Akesson, who once said Muslims were "the biggest foreign threat since World War II", has over the years watered down the party's rhetoric and policies, like other nationalist parties in Europe, according to analysts.

Once in favour of a "Swexit", the party in 2019 abandoned the idea of leaving the European Union due to a lack of public support.

And while other European far-right parties have expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, SD has come out in favour of Ukraine in the war and expressed support for Sweden's NATO membership bid, a notion it had opposed until Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

According to Hinnfors, the Sweden Democrats have gone from a party "that says no to everything to a party that considers the parliamentary situation and is beginning to see where they can have the most influence, possibly cooperate, and make the fewest possible compromises".

Akesson's meteoric career success has, however, taken its toll.

In 2014, he admitted to an online gambling addiction, and then took a six-month leave from politics after suffering from burnout.

A fan of crime novels and whose favourite foods are pizza and fries, Akesson is divorced and has an eight-year-old son.

Anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats leader eyes right-wing election victory

Issued on: 12/09/2022 -

01:35

Supporters of the Sweden Democrats react on the results of the exit polls at the Elite Hotel Marina Tower in Nacka, near Stockholm, Sweden, September 11, 2022. © Agence TT News, via Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The leader of Sweden's anti-immigration Sweden Democrats early on Monday said the right-wing bloc of political parties was likely headed for victory following Sunday's election for parliament.

"Right now it looks like there will be a change of power," Jimmie Akesson said in a speech to party members.

Sweden's right bloc inched into the narrowest of leads with around three-quarters of votes counted after Sunday's general election, with results pointing to a new government after eight years of Social Democrat rule.

The figures show the Moderates, Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats and Liberals winning 175 seats in the 349-seat parliament against 174 for the centre-left.

In further evidence of a shift to the right, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats are set to overtake the Moderates as Sweden's second biggest party and the biggest in the opposition - a historic shift in a country that has long prided itself on tolerance and openness.

"Now, for the first time, we have a real chance, a real possibility to ... be, not just an opposition party, but to sit in and be an active part in a new government that takes politics in a completely new direction," Sweden Democrat party secretary Richard Jomshof told public broadcaster SVT.

With overseas and some postal votes yet to be counted and the margin between the two blocs wafer-thin, the result could still change and may not be clear until the middle of the week.

Earlier an exit survey by public broadcaster SVT gave Andersson's centre-left bloc 49.8% of the votes against 49.2% for the opposition right-wing parties.

Opinion polls have shown the race as a virtual dead heat throughout much of the campaign and exit polls can differ from the final result. A TV4 poll on election day also showed the centre-left commanding a narrow lead.

Campaigning had seen parties battle to be the toughest on gang crime, after a steady rise in shootings that has unnerved voters, while surging inflation and the energy crisis following the invasion of Ukraine have increasingly taken centre-stage.

The SVT exit poll showed Jimmie Akesson's Sweden Democrats, which demand that asylum immigration be cut to virtually zero, with 20.5% of the vote, up from 17.5% at the previous election.

While law and order issues are home turf for the right, gathering economic clouds as households and companies face sky-high power prices had been seen boosting Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, viewed as a safe pair of hands and more popular than her party.

"I have voted for a Sweden where we continue to build on our strengths. Our ability to tackle society's problems together, form a sense of community and respect each other," Andersson said after voting in a Stockholm suburb.

Andersson was finance minister for many years before becoming Sweden's first female prime minister a year ago. Her main rival, Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson, had cast himself as the only candidate who could unite the right and unseat her.
Into the mainstream

Kristersson has spent years deepening ties with the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party with white supremacists among its founders. Initially shunned by all the other parties, the Sweden Democrats are now increasingly part of the mainstream right.

The prospect the Sweden Democrats having a say in government policy or joining the cabinet, has divided voters.

"I'm fearing very much a repressive, very right-wing government coming," Malin Ericsson, 53, a travel consultant, said earlier on Sunday at a voting station in central Stockholm.

The strong result for the Sweden Democrats fit a pattern of gains for the anti-immigration right wing across Europe where Italy looks poised to elect a conservative bloc including Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) and Matteo Salvini's League later this month. Read full story

"I have voted for a change in power," said Jorgen Hellstrom 47, a small business owner, as he voted near parliament. "Taxes need to come down by quite a bit and we need to sort out crime. The last eight years have gone in the wrong direction."

Kristersson had said he would seek to form a government with the small Christian Democrats and, possibly, the Liberals, and only rely on Sweden Democrat support in parliament. But it may be hard for him to snub a party that is set to be bigger than his own.

Whichever bloc wins, negotiations to form a government in a polarised and emotionally-charged political landscape are likely to be long and difficult.

Andersson will need to get support from the Centre Party and the Left, who are ideological opposites, and the Green Party as well, if she wants a second term as prime minister.

(REUTERS)

UK

The people making a difference: the climate activist fighting fossil fuel giants

Nick Hodgkinson gave up his job when his health worsened, and began campaigning to halt climate change. Now it is his turn to be treated

Nick Hodginskon, pictured in Leeds’ Roundhay Park. 

Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Sirin Kale
Mon 5 Sep 2022
Guardian angel


Nick Hodgkinson has a dark sense of humour, which comes in useful during his climate change activism.

Take the time the 59-year-old was protesting with Extinction Rebellion outside the Houses of Parliament. Hodgkinson, a retired charity worker, has motor neurone disease (MND). He uses a heavy, motorised wheelchair and has a tracheostomy tube in his neck that connects to a ventilator, meaning he communicates mainly through typing on his phone.

“The police moved forward,” Hodgkinson recalls, “arresting people and carrying them away.” They then asked him to move, and when he refused, they arrested him too. Hodgkinson asked if they had a wheelchair-accessible van. An embarrassed officer went out to check. The answer came back: no.

Instead of being sent to the police station, Hodgkinson and the officer stayed in the road for a few hours until his shift changed and Hodgkinson’s battery was running low. “I told him I’d best be off now,” says Hodgkinson.

“He said, ‘Hang on, I have to de-arrest you first.’” Turns out, Hodgkinson jokes, that “a heavy wheelchair is handy for wrongfooting the police”.

Nick’s a brilliant campaigner: very intelligent and organised. I am in total awe of him and find him an inspiration

Campaigner Chayley Collis

Hodgkinson became involved in climate change activism after his health worsened to the point he had to give up his job at Citizens Advice. “I thought, ‘I’ve now got time to find out more [about the climate emergency]’, so I did a couple of online courses.”

What he learned was chilling. “This could really be the end of life as we know it,” he says. “And the people who will be hurt first, and worst, are the ones who have done the least to cause climate breakdown: either because they’re in countries that have been colonised and exploited by rich countries, or because they’re young, or not even born yet.” The injustice motivates him to make a change in the world for as long as his health permits – MND severely limits a person’s life expectancy.

He is active in the Fossil Fuel Free West Yorkshire campaign, which is fighting to get the West Yorkshire Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels. Hodkingson is a member of the fund himself.

“Outrageously,” he says, “the fund has millions invested in Shell and BP. The fund’s bosses say they have a duty to look after pension savings, but pensions are all about security in old age. And investing in fossil fuels is destroying everyone’s security.” (The fund has previously said it was committed to a net zero portfolio for its investments, and had reduced its holdings in oil and gas.)

Five West Yorkshire councils – Calderdale, Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and Wakefield – have passed motions calling on the fund to divest from fossil fuels.
Life – especially my life – is too short to waste with people who think the likes of Donald Trump are protecting freedom

“There are some great councillors who really get it,” says Hodgkinson, “and make the arguments.” But the lack of action from the pension fund itself is frustrating. “They say continuing to invest in BP and Shell is a good thing,” he says, “as they can influence those companies’ decisions and get them to change their fossil fuel-dependent ways.” 

He is sceptical.

“Nick is very poorly, but has dedicated himself to using the time he has left to act on the climate emergency,” says Chayley Collis, a Huddersfield-based climate campaigner. “He’s a brilliant campaigner: very intelligent and organised. I am in total awe of him and find him an inspiration.”

The people making a difference: the powerchair football coach leading his team to victory

Through his activism, Hodgkinson has found a sense of belonging and community. “I’m a sociable person,” he says, “and life – especially my life – is too short to waste in the company of people who think the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are protecting freedom. I’ve always believed that when motivated people get together for a shared cause, with shared values, they can move mountains.”

Nick watching his beloved Aston Villa and enjoying ‘all that singing’. 

Photograph: Nick Hodgkinson

He is determined not to let MND limit his activism. “We’re all used to having meetings on Zoom and I have a magic gizmo that I can fit to my tracheostomy tube, which lets me speak.”

When asked about his treat, Hodgkinson thinks of his football team, Aston Villa. “It’s in my blood,” he says of the club. He grew up in Birmingham and started watching Villa when he was seven. “There’s nothing like the match-day routine of meeting for a pint, talking about the team selection and getting into the ground for all that singing.”

The club give Hodgkinson tickets for their match against Everton, their first home game of the Premier League season. To make things even better, Villa win 2-1. “There were some squeaky bum moments in the last few minutes, but we won,” says an elated Hodgkinson when we catch up after the match. “The next win will be for the Fossil Free West Yorkshire campaign. Up the Villa and down with fossil fuels!”

North Korea's Crypto activity could be dangerously underestimated 

| The Crypto Mile

THEY CONTRACT OUT THEIR SERVICES TO CHINA 

AND RUSSIA

White House Report Recommends Banning Bitcoin Mining to Slash GHG Emissions

Author: Andrew Throuvalas 

Sep 10, 2022

The White House recommended “eliminating” the use of energy-intensive consensus methods if other measures fail to reduce crypto carbon emissions.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has released a report examining the connection between distributed ledger technologies (DLT) and climate change.

The office determined that crypto’s relationship with the environment is a mixed bag. While acknowledging the positive impact that mining can have on grid stability and renewable development, it can also exacerbate “environmental justice issues” due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other factors.

As such, the office suggested that the administration may have to consider banning the use of proof of work as a consensus mechanism.

Crypto: An Environmental Threat?

The report – titled “Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto Assets in the United States” – is a response to President Biden’s crypto executive order in March. The president directed over 20 administrative figures and agency heads to submit research reports and recommendations on various crypto-related topics to help foster responsible industry regulation.

“Crypto-assets could hinder broader efforts to achieve net-zero carbon pollution consistent with U.S. climate commitments and goals,” stated the OSTP in the report.

In particular, it stated that blockchains using a proof of work (POW) consensus mechanism – especially Bitcoin – use a “significant amount” of electricity and contribute to air, water, and noise pollution in some areas. In total, Bitcoin and other large-cap POW networks result in 0.3% of global annual GHG emissions.

As such, the report suggests that federal government action is required to ensure the broad adoption and responsible development of digital assets. One recommendation is that federal agencies collaborate with states and the crypto industry to develop environmental performance standards for the use and development of crypto-asset technologies.

These standards would target low energy usage, low water usage, low noise generation, and clean energy use by mining operators. However, should these methods prove ineffective, the OSTP suggested using executive or congressional action.

“Congress might consider legislation, to limit or eliminate the use of high energy intensity consensus mechanisms for crypto-asset mining.” it read.

 
Is Proof of Stake the Answer?

CFTC Chairman Rostin Benham has previously suggested creating incentives to transition the Bitcoin network to a Proof of Stake (POS) consensus mechanism. In March, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen funded a $5 million campaign to empower the transition.

However, Bitcoiners have long opposed such a change, claiming that POW is needed to maintain a sufficiently decentralized network.

Ethereum disagrees, however. The network is set to undergo a similar transition next week, which is expected to reduce network energy consumption by 99.5%.

US warns cryptominers must cut power use to avoid busting US carbon goals

Datacenters or digicash - what's the bigger boon to society?


Brandon VigliaroloFri 9 Sep 2022 


A White House report on the energy costs of cryptocurrency mining in the US is recommending swift policy actions to avoid disrupting the country's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The report [PDF] from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), crypto asset mining in the US uses the same amount of energy as all home computers or residential lighting. The White House claims that's around the same amount as "the annual electricity usage of all conventional data centers in the world," and let's face it, which is more useful?

That amount of consumption equates to between 25 and 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide released per year, roughly the same amount emitted by diesel fuel-powered railroad operations across the US.

In other words, get ready for a conflict between what some see as an economic innovation and the need to fight climate change.

The OSTP report was called for in March when President Biden signed an executive order calling for the development of a new cryptocurrency regulatory framework. Democratic lawmakers have also started making moves for a crackdown on crypto mining, saying that it's difficult to ever truly understand its energy impacts, something the OSTP report also concluded.

Per the report, crypto mining operations have become more energy efficient in recent years, but continue to use more electricity as block difficulty grows.

OSTP concluded that approximately 52,560 blocks are added to just the Bitcoin blockchain per year. Because total global energy estimates exist for the Bitcoin blockchain, it said it could calculate per-block energy consumption - about 1.7 to 2.7 million kWh - but said that only accounts for a fraction of total Bitcoin-related energy use.

"With Bitcoin, as with other crypto-asset transactions, centralized crypto-asset trading platforms typically use off-chain transactions … The result is crypto-asset platforms only send a portion of transactions to a blockchain, and electricity usage from off-chain activity is unlikely to be captured in estimates," the OSTP said in its report. Biden issues Executive Order to tame digital currencies
Global financial stability regulator signals crypto rules are coming soon
DARPA study challenges assumptions about distributed ledger (and Bitcoin) security
Intel ships crypto-mining ASIC at the worst possible time

Lost energy usage data aside, the report also concluded that Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit card transactions used less than 1 percent of the total energy that Bitcoin and Ethereum have consumed over the course of a year "despite [card issuers] processing many times the number of on-chain transactions."

Along with eating electricity, the OSTP concluded that cryptocurrency operations affect noise levels, disrupt the environment and create electronic waste that "can exacerbate environmental justice issues for neighboring communities, which are often already burdened with other pollutants, heat, traffic, or noise."

To stave off further negative impacts of cryptocurrency mining, the OSTP said government agencies should develop environmental performance standards that are revisited annually, assess how digicash mining may impact the energy grid reliability and adequacy, and create a reporting standard for energy usage that miners are required to follow and encourage them to publicly report that data.
Proof of stake to the rescue?

The numbers reported by the OSTP focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum, which it said accounts for more than 60 percent of the total cryptocurrency market share, and between 80 and 99 percent of its energy usage.

According to the report, "proof of stake could dramatically reduce overall power usage to less than 1 percent of today's levels." That's great timing, given Ethereum's long-promised shift to proof of stake (PoS) has actually started happening. While it hasn't been entirely smooth, if successful it could dramatically reduce the energy consumption.

Under PoS, cryptocurrency holders stake their own coins on a blockchain. By having a "stake" in the future of said blockchain, stakers are assumed to have an interest in only validating legitimate transactions.

The larger the stake, the bigger the say, meaning those willing to front a larger investment get a larger say in the system. Block writers are ultimately decided at random, but a larger stake increases a validator's odds of being chosen. If improper data is validated, the stake can be lost.

Per the report, proof of stake would reduce total blockchain energy consumption from as much as 1 percent of global energy usage to less than 0.001 percent. With multiple mentions of Ethereum 2.0 - the PoS version of the coin - throughout the report, the White House may be watching, waiting and preparing to mandate proof of stake once its impact on Ethereum's bottom line becomes clear. ®

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Fraud experts raise alarm about Calgary police ties to unaccredited college that uses Anaheim P.O. box in strip mall


By Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell Special to Global News
September 8, 2022


Dr. Robert L. Perkins, a self-described “expert in the prevention and treatment of PTSD,” a “certified sexologist,” and a board member of the North American Surfing Doctors Association, was scheduled to give an in-person presentation on Sept. 13 to Calgary Police Service members.

Over the past year, Perkins has cultivated a close association with the police service through his California-based College of Certified Psychophysiologists.

Perkins has trained CPS members on “critical incident stress debriefs,” which he has said is a “supportive crisis intervention process.” The police service’s executive director of wellness and resiliency, Stacey Ferland, recently successfully defended her PhD in clinical police pyschophysiology from the college.

In early August, the college awarded an honorary doctorate to CPS sergeant Mike Huskins – photos posted on the college’s Facebook page show CPS Chief Mark Neufeld smiling broadly as he presents Huskins with a frame for his degree.

A Global News investigation has revealed the college, which operates from a postal box in a strip mall in Anaheim, Calif., has no recognized accreditation and issues degrees that an education fraud expert said aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.

Over a 31-year career, retired FBI special agent Allen Ezell investigated and shut down some of the world’s largest, most sophisticated degree mills.

“I would not trust it. I wouldn’t give its diploma any credibility whatsoever. It has no academic value,” he said of the college.

“To me, it’s a fraud, it’s a scam. It’s a mirage, it’s not real.”

A higher-education policy expert said it is troubling that CPS officers with PTSD, or who need other counselling support, may be treated with techniques from a college that appears not to be legitimate.

“This is a field where people could be harmed, where people could die as a result of malpractice, as a result of untrained intervention,” said Barmak Nassirian, of Veterans Education Success, a Washington, D.C. veterans advocacy non-profit.

“So it is very dangerous.”

An examination of Perkins’ resume and online biographies uncovered glaring omissions about his education, chronological contradictions, and a list of touted credentials from organizations he appears to have created himself.

Veronica Maxwell is a close associate of Perkins. She claims to be a sexologist with a PhD from the college, where she is now a faculty member. Maxwell also goes by the name Sharon Rowley, who is separately listed as a faculty member and, according to a podcast episode description, is Perkins’ wife.

Maxwell has a website in which she claims she has developed “miracle breathing cures and techniques for all erectile and sexual dysfunctions.”

CPS pauses training, police commission asks for review

The Calgary Police Service declined an interview request, and instead provided a statement that did not address many specific issues raised by Global News. It said it has cancelled Perkins’ September presentation and paused any training from the college or Perkins as it conducts a review.

The college provided “various forms of supplemental training” to about 20 sworn and civilian members, CPS spokesperson Michael Nunn said. This included two PhDs in psychophysiology, about 16 online courses, and three certificates in police mental wellness.

He said the officers were not in their positions as a result of the training. Nunn said he could not provide a timeline for the completion of the review, which will include how much money CPS paid the college, and how it came to be associated with the school.

The police service has “100 per cent confidence” in the training and skills of its psychological therapies employees,” Nunn said. He previously said the police service would respond on Ferland’s behalf but it did not.

In a statement, the Calgary Police Commission said that while it trusts the mental health care that CPS officers receive from its qualified professionals, the commission has “significant concerns” about the police service’s relationship with the college.

“We have asked the service to report to us on both the quality of wellness care available to members and how training and education requests are reviewed,” spokesperson Corwin Odland wrote.

“Our next steps will depend on what is learned about existing practices.”

Lack of due diligence by Calgary police, experts say

Ezell said the Calgary Police Service has displayed an astonishing lack of due diligence. Perkins’ publicly accessible LinkedIn resume is simply not believable, he said, and the college has all the markings of a degree mill.

Although Perkins claims to have PhDs in practical chaplaincy/psychology and clinical psychophysiology, his LinkedIn profile makes no reference to formal education from any accredited university.

Ezell said he wouldn’t call Perkins’ LinkedIn resume a curriculum vitae because it lacks basic details.

He pointed to Perkins’ claim that he was an “armoured officer” in the “army” from April 1988 to July 1991, and describes what he did as “CLASSIFIED.” A proper resume would say which army he served in, what he did and whether he received an honourable discharge. He scoffed at Perkins’s claim that his work was classified.

Similarly, Perkins claims to have been a “police sergeant” in a “police department” in the Toronto area from October 1991 to September 2003. But the resume doesn’t say which police service or explain how he made the leap from being in the army in 1991 to the rank of a police sergeant three months later.

He also claims he worked as a researcher for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General from June 1991 to May 1993, which overlaps by 18 months with his job as a sergeant in the unnamed police service.

Ezell said the resume should have immediately caused anyone, but most especially a trained police officer, to be suspicious of Perkins’ alleged professional credentials and work experience.

With the access that Neufeld would have to police databases, Ezell said, he could have conducted a background check on Perkins in minutes before allowing him to train officers.

Had Neufeld consulted him, “I would tell him not to touch it with a 20-foot pole.”
A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General told Global News, “We have reviewed our records and can advise that we have no record of an employee under [Perkins’] name or any variation of that name.”

College not accredited

On its website, the College of Certified Psychophysiologists says it is an online graduate school offering master’s degrees, doctorate degrees, and certificate programs in psychophysiology, the “scientific study of the interaction between the mind and body

Under the “Accreditation” section on its website, the college claims it operates “within the required parameters and guidelines” established by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. In a July 2019 Facebook post, the college also stated it is a “registered licensed graduate school in California.”

But a search found no reference to the college in the databases of approved institutions for either the bureau or the U.S. Department of Education, which was confirmed through follow-up calls to both government agencies.

“The College Of Certified Psychophysiologists is not an institution approved by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education,” California Department of Consumer Affairs spokesperson Monica Vargas said in an email.


Vargas confirmed the bureau issued a citation order to the college for operating in the state without approval. It withdrew the citation in May 2021 after the college appealed and a review found the college “was not operating as an educational institution within California,” Vargas said.

“BPPE has jurisdiction over colleges physically operating and providing instruction in California, which the College Of Certified Psychophysiologists is not,” she said.

Both Ezell and Nassirian said the main marker of a degree mill is a lack of independent accreditation.

“A degree is worthless, useless, other than something to hang on the wall if it doesn’t have accepted, recognized accreditation,” Ezell said.

The college says it is “sponsored” by the North American Board of Certified Psychophysiologists, the “bona-fide professional organization” overseeing the profession.

But the board, of which Perkins is a director, in turn, claims it is licensed and authorized by the college. The board also shares the same postal box address and phone number in Anaheim as the college.

Perkins has specifically referenced the college’s headquarters in Anaheim. He has appeared in videos with a large teaching auditorium as the background, which is also the main photo for the college’s Facebook page.

A Google Maps search revealed the college’s head office address corresponds to a Postal Express outlet next to a nail salon in an Anaheim strip mall. The addresses of its international “offices” in Vancouver, B.C. and Sheffield, England also correspond to postal boxes.

The college recently offered half-off PhDs for $7,700 US.

Perkins declined an interview request. In an emailed statement, he did not address any of the questions about his education or work experience.

He insisted the college is operating within parameters set by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. He also insisted the college does not claim to be accredited. He said the college “delivers well written and devised core curriculum subject matter specific to the field of psychophysiology and their application in various fields.

“Students who complete Master’s or Doctorate level degrees are required to complete an intense course of study, as well as (an) in depth thesis or dissertation approved by the Dissertation Chair and then directed by a Thesis or Dissertation Advisor,” Perkins wrote.

“Our Advisors include a 30+ year veteran Investigator of (the) U.S. Department of Homeland Security as well as a current- serving Deputy District Attorney in the State of California,” Perkins claimed. “Once a paper has been completed, it is required to be defended by the committee and is evaluated before a degree is awarded.”

He said the college has no offices because it is an online institution.

In an email, Veronica Maxwell declined an interview request but acknowledged she is also known as Sharon Rowley.

Web of inter-connected organizations

Perkins is not only the president and acting dean of the psychophysiology college. The work experience section of his resume details his affiliation with a dizzying array of organizations, many of which he appears to have created.

This extensive network of self-described non-profit associations – stretching from California to British Columbia to Ontario to North Carolina – provide training and certifications to police officers and other first responders, for a fee.

These organizations, most related to PTSD, serve to lend credibility to each other and to Perkins, who touts certifications from them on his resume and in online marketing.

Ezell likened it to a daisy chain. One organization connects to the next, which connects to the next.

“You’re just making a circle,” he said. “You have never left that circle.”

Perkins is the executive director of the Canadian Practical Chaplain Association. It shares the same phone numbers as the California Practical Chaplain Association, of which he is also the executive director and chief of chaplains.

Its website states it trains chaplains to serve in police and fire departments, corporations, and prisons. Its graduates also work alongside athletes, including surfers.

“Surf Chaplains have the opportunity to provide an influence in the surfing community by demonstrating a positive role model as well as a resource for all things surfing,” the website states. “In essence, the Surf Chaplain ‘Does Life’ with the surfing community and is a friendly, familiar face to support anyone facing the trials and tribulations of everyday life both on and off the beach.”

The Canadian Practical Chaplain Association Facebook page claims it is a non-profit. The Ontario Business Registry shows the association was registered as a sole-proprietorship entity in July 2017 based in Toronto but became inactive as of September 2017. The Canada Revenue Agency has no online record of it.

The association says it provides training to become a certified chaplain for $299.99 and once certified, a member can purchase a uniform and a wide range of chaplain’s badges, including a surfing chaplain’s badge, for $149.99, or a badge wallet for $49.99.

On his LinkedIn resume, Perkins claims to have received certification from the International Fellowship of Chaplains (IFOC) through the University of Michigan in January 2003. A spokesperson for the IFOC in Temple, Texas said they have no record of Perkins and she said they don’t offer courses through universities.

Two-for-one accreditation

The chaplain’s certification includes two-for-one automatic accreditation as a Certified Critical Incident Stress Debriefer with the Ontario Critical Incident Stress Foundation, of which Perkins is one of the founders and serves as its executive director. It claims to be a registered non-profit with the Internal Revenue Service in California but an online check found the state suspended the association in 2019.

The foundation says it offers its training in Canada, Australia and 12 American states. An online certification course is $249.99 US and instructor training costs $1,000 US.

Perkins is also CEO of the Center for Chief Mental Health Officers, which is now offering its certification program for US $1,495, more than a 50 per cent discount. It operates from the same Anaheim and Vancouver postal outlet addresses as the College of Certified Psychophysiologists.

Nassirian, the higher-education expert, said it is common for degree mills to set up “supporting operations behind the entity that is actually engaged in the sale of credentials. And it becomes pretty complicated pretty quickly, with all kinds of brands and names that give you the illusion of oversight.”

Perkins is also listed as a full-time faculty member at the Rhodes Wellness College, a private institution in Vancouver. His biography on the college’s website says he has degrees in psychology, theology and applied psychophysiology – but does not say from where he earned them.

Ezell said it would be impossible for Perkins to lead, or be involved with, this many organizations if they were legitimate.

“There are only so many hours in the day,” he said.

When contacted by Global News, Ben Colling, the president of Rhodes Wellness College, said despite what the school’s website showed, Perkins is not a full-time faculty member and was in the middle of the hiring process for a two-week fall course.

“We had not finalized his contract and were in the final vetting process,” Colling wrote in an email. “As a result of final vetting, Roberts Perkins will not be teaching for us at this time and accordingly his information has been removed from our website.”

Health and safety of CPS officers at stake

A CPS officer with PTSD, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said he conducted an online search of Perkins and his college after viewing the internal announcement for the upcoming lecture.

“I started digging into him and thought things just aren’t adding up,” the officer said.

After viewing Perkins’ resume and the extraordinary web of PTSD-related associations, he was astonished that his police service would allow anyone with training from Perkins or accreditation from the college to counsel officers with PTSD.

“I think it is just that risk of doing harm, which is sort of counter-intuitive, because as a psychologist, and pretty much any doctor that I know, one of the very first things they are sworn to do is cause no harm,” he said. “And I think they’re running a real risk of causing harm.”

Nassirian said the Calgary police need to develop some fundamental conflict-of-interest rules and protocols to verify credentials for organizations with which it does business.

“Even more important than the obligation to the public is the obligation to their own officers when health and safety is at risk,” he said.

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