CORPORATE LAW RULES

Virginia judge dismisses youth climate change lawsuit


DENISE LAVOIE
Fri, September 16, 2022 

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 young people who claim that the state's permitting of fossil fuel projects is exacerbating climate change and violating their constitutional rights.

The lawsuit filed by Our Children's Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit public interest law firm, asked the court to declare portions of the Virginia Gas and Oil Act unconstitutional. It also seeks to find the state's reliance on and promotion of fossil fuels violates the rights of the plaintiffs, who range in age from 10 to 19.

But Richmond Circuit Court Judge Clarence Jenkins Jr. granted the state's request to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the complaint is barred by sovereign immunity. That's a legal doctrine that says a state cannot be sued without its consent. The state argued that sovereign immunity prohibited the plaintiffs’ claims because they sought to restrain the state from issuing permits for fossil fuel infrastructure and to interfere with governmental functions. The judge did not rule on the merits of the plaintiffs' constitutional claims.

The lawsuit is one of five filed by Our Children’s Trust in states around the country. Lawsuits in Hawaii and Utah are in the early stages, while a lawsuit it Montana is expected to go to trial next year. A federal lawsuit filed in Oregon in 2015 remains in litigation after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiffs last year. They have since asked to file a more narrow amended complaint and are awaiting a decision.

Jenkins ruled from the bench and dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled again in the same court. Their attorney, Nathan Bellinger, said they will promptly appeal the ruling to the state Court of Appeals.

Ten of the plaintiffs — accompanied by their parents — listened in court as Bellinger said the state is knowingly contributing to the climate crisis by continuing to rely on fossil fuels as its main energy sources and polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions. He asked the judge to allow the case to proceed to trial.

The lawsuit alleges that climate change has contributed to health problems experienced by the plaintiffs, including asthma and heat exhaustion. Four of the plaintiffs have become ill after being bitten by ticks, a population that has increased due to climate change, Bellinger said.

It also claims that Virginia has violated the public trust doctrine, which says that the state has a duty to hold certain natural resources in trust.

“These courageous Virginia youths ... are turning to the judiciary to protect their fundamental rights,” Bellinger argued in court.

Bellinger said the Virginia lawsuit is the first to leave out a request for an injunction to require the state to take certain actions or to submit a remedial plan. Instead, it asked only for a declaration that the continued permitting of fossil fuel projects violated the plaintiffs' rights.

But attorneys for the state argued that the plaintiffs are attempting to usurp the role of the state legislature and impose their preferred energy and environmental policies on the state.

“Simply put, this action belongs two blocks over at the General Assembly and not before this court,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Sanford.

After the court hearing, several of the plaintiffs spoke during a news conference where they held a large banner proclaiming, “Climate Justice in our Courts NOW!”

An 18-year-old identified in the lawsuit as “Layla H.” said she has experienced everything from heat exhaustion to flooding due to climate change. The lawsuit says “an extreme precipitation event” in 2018 flooded the basement of her family's home, causing water damage and mold growth that cost approximately $17,000 to remediate.

She said she's tired of inaction on the part of state leaders.

“Every alarm bell has been rung, and yet, nothing,” she said. “We will not wait any longer to do what must be done.”

Tacoma got dragged into DeSantis’ immigration stunt. Even from here, his cruelty is clear


Lynne Sladky/AP

Matt Driscoll
Sat, September 17, 2022

Sometimes one quote says it all. Sometimes one description — one sequence of perfectly chosen words — gets to the heart of the matter the way 10,000 words can’t.

Rachel Self, a Boston immigration attorney who momentarily found herself at the center of one of the most bizarrely cruel acts of political callousness in recent memory, delivered just such a moment this week.

“They were told there was a surprise present for them, and that there would be jobs and housing awaiting for them when they arrived. This was obviously a sadistic lie,” Self told a throng of reporters on Thursday night, standing in front of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Martha’s Vineyard.

The church and the small, wealthy enclave — known as a summer home for the liberal elite — had become the epicenter of the biggest story in the country. Roughly 24 hours earlier, nearly 50 migrants, most of them Venezuelan, were flown to the Massachusetts island under the promise of better care while they await legal immigration proceedings. With no other options once they arrived, St. Andrews Episcopal took them in.

It was a stunt designed to ratchet up the conflict between conservative states like Texas and Florida and the Biden Administration over national immigration policy, and one that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a sneering bully with no shame and presidential aspirations — smugly took credit for.

“States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” DeSantis communications director Taryn M. Fenske explained in a statement.

Sadistic? By every connotation of the word — right down to the alleged details, which according to Self just happen to include Tacoma, roughly 3,000 miles away.

As Bianca Padró Ocasio of the Miami Herald reported, Self continued, describing in detail the deception and dirty tricks that she said the migrants were subjected to as part of DeSantis’ blatant theater — all of it seemingly produced with frothing FOX News viewers in mind. The migrants were loaded onto two planes and flown to a tiny island that wasn’t expecting them, and, according to Self, were also given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, a tactic that could jeopardize the migrants’ chances of winning their immigration cases and staying in the country.

Self told reporters that at least one person was given a mailing address of a Tacoma homeless shelter, saying that some migrants provided with a fake address were instructed to quickly check in with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office nearest to it.

“There is no other reason to list as someone’s mailing address a homeless shelter in Tacoma, Washington when they ship him to Massachusetts. It is sickeningly cruel throwing obstacles in the way of people fleeing violence and oppression, some of whom walked through 10 countries in the hopes of finding safety,” Self said.

The absurdity and inhumanity came through loud and clear in Self’s voice. From where the attorney was standing, Tacoma, Washington surely felt like a world away. That seems like the point.

But here’s the thing: Even without all the details Self provided on Thursday — and even if, by some stretch of the imagination, there’s slightly more nuance to the story — the confirmed facts of what DeSantis has readily copped to are damning enough, no matter where you stand on national immigration policy.

The dictionary describes an act that’s sadistic as one that takes “pleasure in the infliction of pain, punishment, or humiliation on others,” and there’s no better way to put into words what DeSantis has done.

The truth is unmistakable, even here in Tacoma — so far away.

Minnesota physician PAC backs Gov. Walz for reelection in unconventional move

Julia Shapero

Sat, September 17, 2022

The Minnesota Medical Association’s PAC endorsed Gov. Tim Walz (D) in his campaign for reelection, in an unconventional move for the organization.

“In his four years leading Minnesota, Gov. Walz has demonstrated alignment with our core values of respect, honesty, and support for science and public health,” MEDPAC Chairman Will Nicholson said in a press release on Tuesday.

The endorsement represents a unique move for the PAC, which does not typically endorse candidates in state races, according to the Minnesota Medical Association.

“The ongoing global pandemic and other critical healthcare issues are at stake this year and that compelled the organization to support a candidate who would best advocate for the health of Minnesotans,” Nicholson added.

Nicholson cited Walz’s policies on COVID-19, reproductive health care and gun control in the PAC’s endorsement of the governor.

The PAC endorsed Walz over Republican nominee and fellow doctor Scott Jensen.

Jensen has said he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and previously compared COVID-19 restrictions to those instituted during the rise of the Nazis in Germany, according to MPR News.

He also previously asserted that he supports an abortion ban in Minnesota without exceptions for rape and incest unless the mother’s life is in danger. However, he has since backtracked on that stance, saying he supports exceptions for victims of rape and incest as well, according to CNN.

Doctors group lines up behind Walz in Minnesota governor’s race, not  Dr. Scott Jensen

Dave Orrick, Pioneer Press Fri, September 16, 2022

In the race for Minnesota governor this week, the non-doctor candidate — Gov. Tim Walz — got a boost from doctors over his opponent, Dr. Scott Jensen.

Why? In addition to Walz, a Democrat, earning praise from doctors for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, Jensen, a former Republican state senator and Minnesota Family Physician of the Year, has eroded goodwill among some of his peers for his dubious stances surrounding COVID-19, according to interviews with several doctors — some of whom have supported Democratic causes in the past.

“Sometimes you have to make a stand,” said Dr. Peter Bornstein, an infectious disease doctor with Allina Health who said he has voted for candidates from both parties over the years but has generally tried to stay out of public political discourse.

Through a spokesman, Jensen declined to comment for this story. As a candidate, his identity as a family doctor has remained central to his message.

On Friday, his campaign released a TV ad touting his experience as a doctor. Wearing a white lab coat, Jensen says to the camera, “As a family doctor for more than 40 years, I have been a trusted voice for my patients.” The ad closes with the tagline “Heal Minnesota.”

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION BACKS WALZ

The most eye-opening endorsement of Walz over Jensen came from the Minnesota Medical Association’s political arm, MEDPAC, which represents more than 11,000 physicians and physicians-in-training across the state and had a previous record of endorsing Jensen.

The group has endorsed both Democrats and Republicans in selected legislative races over the years, including three Republicans and eight Democrats this year. But the group rarely endorses candidates in statewide races, and when it has, it’s been mixed, endorsing Democrat Mark Dayton in 2014, Independence Party candidate Tom Horner in 2010 and Republican Tim Pawlenty in 2002.

In 2016, the same year Jensen was named the Minnesota Family Physician of the Year by the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, MEDPAC endorsed Jensen as he sought an open seat in the Minnesota Senate representing the Chaska area.

Dr. Will Nicholson, a hospitalist with M Health Fairview and chair of MEDPAC’s board of directors, announced the group’s endorsement of Walz in a letter Tuesday. In it, Nicholson said Walz “used science- and evidence-based actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and strongly advocates for widespread vaccination.”

The letter never mentions Jensen, and in an interview, Nicholson declined to criticize Jensen, emphasizing that “negative campaigning goes against our core values as physicians. … We’re physicians, and we don’t talk a lot about the medicines we’re not using or the medicines that don’t work.”

DOCTORS SPEAK OUT

A few frontline local doctors have publicly criticized Jensen throughout the pandemic, as he has attempted to cast skepticism on the death count, endorsed unproven treatments and stoked doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness, but many remained silent.

Bornstein, who has made three donations to Democratic campaigns or causes since 2004, said he felt the situation changed when Jensen became the Republican nominee.

Adding to his unease with Jensen was when Jensen recently defended his statements equating mask mandates and other COVID restrictions to the rise of authoritarianism in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, said Bornstein, who is Jewish and treated COVID patients during the pandemic.

“There’s a difference between public health skepticism and political opportunism,” he said at a news conference Friday.

PARTISAN OVERTONES AND ABORTION

The venue of Bornstein’s comments was a news conference organized by Protect Our Care, a Democrat-aligned advocacy group. The event featured numerous doctors from various disciplines, including prominent leaders like Dr. Penny Wheeler, who retired last year as CEO of Allina. Wheeler, like some of the other doctors present, has a public record of supporting Democrats — a fact seized upon by Jensen defenders.

They also noted that COVID wasn’t the only reason cited by doctors endorsing Walz. Jensen’s opposition to abortion hangs over the discussion as well.

MEDPAC’s endorsement of Walz states he “works to protect the patient-physician relationship and patient access to care, especially reproductive healthcare.” Abortion rights doesn’t appear to be a litmus test for candidates, however; some of the legislative candidates the group is endorsing this year describe themselves as pro-life.

In response to Friday’s event by the left-aligned Protect Our Care, Nick Majerus, communications director for the Republican party of Minnesota, released the following statement:

“Democrats want this election to be about abortion because they are desperate to distract from their failed records. Abortion is not on the ballot in November — it is protected in Minnesota by a supreme court case, Doe V. Gomez, and there is nothing the next legislature or governor can do to restrict abortion access here. Our Republican candidates are focused on the real issues impacting Minnesota families like rising inflation and a stagnating economy, fighting the Democrats’ crime wave, and improving educational outcomes while empowering parents.”

Jensen’s position on abortion has shifted since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion once hallowed in Roe v. Wade. After previously saying he would seek to ban abortions in Minnesota and didn’t support any exceptions for rape, last month he said he did support such exceptions.

Top Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva condemns Ukraine war

Laurence Peter - BBC News
Sun, September 18, 2022 

Alla Pugacheva, 22 Mar 11

One of Russia's most popular singers, Alla Pugacheva, has called on the Russian authorities to declare her a "foreign agent", in solidarity with her strongly anti-war husband Maxim Galkin.

A showbiz star too, he was labelled a "foreign agent" on Friday after condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine.

On social media Pugacheva called her husband "a true incorruptible Russian patriot, who wants... an end to our lads dying for illusory aims".

She has been a big star for decades.

She said the Kremlin's "illusory aims" in Ukraine "make our country a pariah and the lives of our citizens extremely difficult".

Galkin, a comedian, TV presenter and singer, wanted "prosperity for his motherland, peace, free speech", she added.


President Putin greeted Alla Pugacheva in the Kremlin in December 2014

The label "foreign agent" has been applied by the Russian government to various media organisations, campaign groups and individuals openly critical of Kremlin policies.

Megastar speaks out

Analysis box by Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor

Alla Pugacheva has been a musical megastar here for decades. First, in the Soviet Union, where she began her career in the 1960s; then, after the fall of the USSR, in Russia.

She is a hugely popular and well-respected artist, which makes her public comments about Russia's offensive in Ukraine big news.

Her assertion that "our lads are dying for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and the lives of our citizens extremely difficult" is likely to infuriate the Kremlin.

It remains to be seen whether it will have any effect on Russian public opinion over what the Kremlin still calls its "special military operation".

Pugacheva and Galkin went to Israel in late March, a month after the Russian invasion, and Pugacheva returned to Russia late last month with her children.

In early September President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Galkin: "our paths have clearly diverged - he has made very bad statements".

Galkin condemned Russian troops' alleged atrocities and said there could be no justification for the Ukraine invasion.

Pugacheva, whose pop stardom dates back to Soviet times, has met Mr Putin on several occasions.

New Hampshire's GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc is breaking federal law by not disclosing his personal finances

Madison Hall

Sat, September 17, 2022 

New Hampshire Republican US Senate nominee Don Bolduc gestures as he is introduced during a debate on September 7, 2022, in Henniker, New Hampshire.AP Photo/Mary Schwalm

• Republican congressional nominee Don Bolduc hasn't filed a mandatory personal financial disclosure for 2022.

• Bolduc won New Hampshire's Republican primary on Tuesday and faces Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.

• Bolduc's disclosure from 2021 indicated he held no individual stocks and had no debt.

Don Bolduc, an Army veteran and one-time election denier who is also New Hampshire's Republican Senate nominee, is flouting a federal conflict-of-interest and transparency law by failing to submit details about his own finances in 2022, an Insider review of congressional financial filings indicates.

Bolduc, who won in New Hampshire's GOP Senate primary on September 13, will face off against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November. Bolduc, who last submitted a candidate financial disclosure in 2021, has yet to file one for the 2022 calendar year, meaning voters cannot review details about Bolduc's most up-to-date income, investments, employment, and debts.

Bolduc should have submitted his latest disclosure by May 15, according to guidance from the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics. A congressional candidate could face an investigation or fine if they fail to file a statement, though officials rarely pursue such investigations.

Bolduc's campaign did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

What Bolduc's 2021 disclosure reveals

Bolduc's amended candidate disclosure from 2021 shows that, at the time, Bolduc had no apparent liabilities and debts. The Republican nominee and his spouse reported investments in several mutual funds, but no investments in any individual stocks or bonds.

The disclosure notes that Bolduc made $65,000 in 2021 from his employment with New England College as an associate professor. He also reported being a board member or advisor in several nonprofit organizations.

 

Former election denier

Prior to winning the Republican nomination for US Senate in New Hampshire, Bolduc vociferously told supporters that he believed the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

"I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by my letter," Bolduc said at a debate. "I'm not switching horses, baby."

On Thursday, two days after securing the GOP nomination, Bolduc switched his tune in an appearance on Fox News.

"I've done a lot of research on this and I've spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party, and I have come to the conclusion — and I want to be definitive on this — the election was not stolen," he said on television adding that, "elections have consequences, and, unfortunately, President Biden is the legitimate president of this country."

A halted push to ban congressional stock trading

Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project has found 72 members of Congress in violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 with late or missing financial disclosures.

"Conflicted Congress" also found numerous examples of conflicts of interest, where lawmakers' official duties intersected with the personal investments. A report this week from the New York Times counted 97 members of Congress who either personally, or through family members, "bought or sold financial assets over a three-year span in industries that could be affected by their legislative committee work."

Following the initial publication of "Conflicted Congress" in December, lawmakers began to debate in earnest whether to ban themselves and their spouses from buying, selling, or holding individual stocks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi originally opposed the idea, but later acquiesced after members of Congress from both sides of the aisle sharply criticized her stance.

Members of a House Democratic group working on a draft of the proposed ban initially suggested that a vote on the bill would occur in September. That may yet happen in the House, but Insider reported Thursday that the Senate does not plan to take up a stock-trade ban bill until November at the earliest.

"I'm looking forward to getting this across the finish line, but it's not going to happen before the election," Rep. Jeff Merkley told Insider's Bryan Metzger on Thursday.

Minnesota governor rolls out plan to fight climate change


Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022, rolls out a framework for fighting climate change that shows his proposed direction on the environment if he wins a second term, a sweeping plan that would slash carbon emissions and speed the switchover to electric vehicles. Walz announced the package at a research facility of the company Ecolab in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Eagan, Minn., one week before early voting starts in an election in which control of the governor's office and both houses of the divided Legislature are at stake. 

(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski) 


STEVE KARNOWSKI
Fri, September 16, 2022 

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tim Walz on Friday rolled out a framework for fighting climate change that shows his proposed direction on the environment if he wins a second term, a sweeping plan that would slash carbon emissions and speed the switchover to electric vehicles.

Walz announced the package just a week before early voting starts. Control of the governor’s office and both houses of the divided Legislature are at stake in the election, and Walz has been battered by Republicans for tying Minnesota’s vehicle emissions standards to California’s tough rules. He said he unveiled his plan so close to the election only because it took a long time to complete, but also that campaign season is a good time to “foster conversations” about policy directions.

“This issue will transcend whoever's elected. This issue is not going away. It needs to be addressed,” Walz said.

“The urgency is here," he continued. "We're moving forward on this. And I think it lets us set up a stark contrast.”

It was a change in direction for a campaign that has for weeks focused on Democrats energizing their base with warnings about threats from the GOP to abortion rights and Republican accusations of Democratic inaction on rising crime and inflation.

The 69-page plan details six broad goals: clean transportation; climate-smart natural and working lands; resilient communities; clean energy and efficient buildings; healthy lives and communities; and a clean economy. Each category contained long, detailed lists of proposals.

Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said the Walz administration can implement some of the proposals on its own, while others would require approval and funding from the next Legislature, and still others could be achieved through partnerships with local governments, businesses and farmers.

The plan includes a goal of increasing the share of electric cars on Minnesota roads to 20% by 2030 from the current 1%, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, and achieving a zero net carbon emissions goal by 2050.

Minnesota is one of 17 states that have tied their vehicle emission standards to California's tough rules rather than the looser federal regulations. Those states now face tough decisions about whether to follow California's new, strictest-in-the-nation initiative to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035 or revert to the federal standards.

Kessler told reporters that the Walz administration currently has no plans to adopt the California rules, which would require a lengthy new rulemaking process. But she didn't rule it out either, a commitment that Republican lawmakers and the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association have been seeking.

"This is too important and too pricey of an issue to let the Governor keep Minnesotans in the dark.” GOP state Rep. Chris Swedzinski of Ghent, said in a statement.

Kessler said the administration is focused instead on its existing plans for expanding availability of electric vehicles under the state's current “Clean Cars” rule and will decide on next steps later.

“It's premature to try to ask us what are you going to do in three days when we haven't decided what we're going to do tomorrow,” Kessler said.

Walz made the announcement at a research center for Ecolab, a Fortune 500 company that provides cleaning, sanitizing and water and energy management solutions.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen criticized the governor's plan for not once mentioning nuclear power as a potential source of low-carbon electricity.

“However, Governor Walz’s report does mention the words ‘equity’ or ‘equitable’ 40 times," Jensen said in a statement "While equality is something we should all strive for, it’s clear that this is a political document meant to shore up his base before an election, rather than a serious solution for Minnesota’s energy problems.”

Jensen has proposed a slate of ideas to reduce energy costs, including scrapping the governor’s Clean Cars plan.

“It is really important for Minnesota to have a governor who understands the threat that climate change presents to Minnesota, for this generation and future generations,” said Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park. She added that Walz's plan will build on the climate change provisions of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

“Climate has always been on the forefront of what Democrats are fighting for,” Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen, of Edina, said.

Maggots key to crisis-time fertilizer for Ugandan farmers






Organic FertilizerFounder Tommie Hooft van Huijsduijnen, right, talks to worker Godfrey Sali, left, in the rearing warehouse for larvae of the black soldier fly, at Marula Proteen Ltd in Kampala, Uganda Friday, Sept. 2, 2022. Uganda is a regional food basket but the war in Ukraine has caused fertilizer prices to double or triple, causing some who have warned about dependence on synthetic fertilizer to see larvae farming as an exemplary effort toward sustainable organic farming. 

AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda

RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Sun, September 18, 2022

KAYUNGA, Uganda (AP) — Moses Wamugango peered into the plastic vats where maggots wriggled in decomposing filth, the enviable project of a neighbor who spoke of the fertilizer problem he had been able to solve.

The maggots are the larvae of the black soldier fly, an insect whose digestive system effectively turns food waste into organic fertilizer. Farmers normally would despise them if they weren't so valuable.

“I want the maggots too," Wamugango said. The agriculture officials who distribute the vats for free took his name two weeks ago and said they would give him four to start. "I am still waiting. The last time they came, they didn't reach my place. That's the problem I have right now."

Uganda is a regional food basket, but rising commodity prices blamed on Russia's war in Ukraine are hurting farmers. Fertilizer prices have doubled or tripled, with some popular products hard to find on the market, according to the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership, a nonprofit that supports agriculture across the continent.


Most food produced in sub-Saharan Africa comes from smallholder farmers who deploy family labor. Agriculture experts want governments and outside benefactors to support them more, including via subsidies.

Some who have warned for years about depending too much on synthetic fertilizer see larvae farming as an exemplary effort toward sustainably organic farming. They hope the program can be ramped up one farmer at a time. Larvae farming programs exist in other countries, including Nigeria and neighboring Kenya, where parts of the country are suffering from drought.

In this Ugandan farming district not far from the capital, Kampala, hundreds of smallholder farmers have embraced the farming of the short-lived but fertile insect.

The number of farmers signing up swelled as the price of synthetic fertilizer rose, presenting many with the challenge of how to look after demanding plants such as coffee. From just two participants in January 2021, the number now stands at more than 1,300 larvae farmers.

The arrangement is mutually beneficial. The groups supplying farmers with young larvae and vats, waste management company Marula Proteen and agricultural exporter Enimiro, are assured a steady supply of larvae for their continuous breeding efforts. Farmers are guaranteed a three-fold cash profit over the 14 days they raise larvae on food waste, with the remaining mix of larvae poo and compost left to nourish their gardens.

“I used to be afraid of maggots,” said farmer Joseph Wagudoma, the owner of eight vats received in February. “When I would hear that someone is farming maggots, I would say, ‘How can someone rear maggots?’”

His fear dissipated when he saw an early recruit freely dipping his hands into a vat.

Wagudoma now makes about $10 every fortnightly harvest, enough to buy groceries and even put some money aside. His chickens no longer stray too far, lingering under the suspended vats to catch larvae slipping through. He regularly pours the watery compost around the coffee and vanilla plants he believes are looking increasingly healthy.

“The sun burned people's plants and they died. But for me, the fertilizer I have keeps my soil cold and nice," said the father of six. "My coffee plants now give flowers more beautiful than in the past. What is good I have found in maggots. I get some cash and I get fertilizer as well.”

In Kayunga district, the headquarters of a widening larvae farming program in central Uganda, an early challenge was overcoming farmers' skepticism about the viability of maggots. Now, agricultural extension workers face overwhelming interest from farmers, said Muhammad Magezi of Enimiro.

“Now many of them even come to our hub, come to the gates, to ask for the larvae,” he said. The target of enrolling 2,000 farmers in Kayunga is within reach, and a similar project in western Uganda is underway.

The larvae farming program is “a real solution” to hunger, heavy dependence on imported fertilizer and climate change, said Ruchi Tripathi of the London-based group VSO, which supports farming communities around the world.

“We can no longer continue producing by destroying our soils,” she said. “How much can you exploit the soils and how long do you think it’s going to continue?”

The growing popularity of the larvae farming program means there's hope for transitioning away from synthetic fertilizer in some African countries, she said.

African cities would do well to have plants like one in Kampala that takes only a fraction of tons of daily waste to feed its larvae breeding hub, said Tommie Hooft van Huijsduinen of the Marula Proteen group supporting out-growers in Kayunga.

With the price of synthetic fertilizer now discouragingly high for some farmers, he said, his plant has more orders than it's able to supply. At $11 per 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag, his product is four times less expensive than synthetic fertilizer on the market — and in demand among commercial coffee farmers who are gauging its performance.

“What we've seen is that before (the war in Ukraine) we were looking for customers and we were convincing them to come and try it out," he said. Now that has changed: "I wish I had more fertilizer.”

China values UN relationship despite human rights criticism






A security guard watches from a tower around a detention facility in Yarkent County in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on March 21, 2021. As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva. 

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)More

KEN MORITSUGU and JAMEY KEATEN
Sat, September 17, 2022 

BEIJING (AP) — As world leaders gather in New York at the annual U.N. General Assembly, rising superpower China is also focusing on another United Nations body that is meeting across the Atlantic Ocean in Geneva.

Chinese diplomats are speaking out and lobbying others at an ongoing session of the Human Rights Council to thwart a possible call for further scrutiny of what it calls its anti-extremism campaign in Xinjiang, following a United Nations report on abuses against Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups in the western China border region.

The concurrent meetings illustrate China's divided approach to the United Nations and its growing global influence. Beijing looks to the U.N., where it can count on support from countries it has befriended and in many cases assisted financially, as a counterweight to U.S.-led blocs such as the Group of Seven, which have grown increasingly hostile toward China.

“China sees the U.N. as an important forum that it can use to further its strategic interests and goals, and to reform the global order,” said Helena Legarda from the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin.

While holding up the United Nations as a model of multilateralism, China rejects criticism or decisions that the ruling Communist Party sees as counter to its interests. Its diplomats struck back at the report published last month by the U.N. human rights office raising concerns about possible “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang — vowing to suspend cooperation with the office and blasting what it described as a Western plot to undermine China's rise.

China had pushed hard to block the report on Xinjiang, delaying its release for more than a year. In the end, the information did come out — but just minutes before embattled U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet left office.

Like the United States, China feels a certain freedom to ignore U.N. institutions when it wants: The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in 2018, accusing it of anti-Israel bias. The Biden administration jumped back in this year, and has made a priority of defending Israel in the 47-member-state body.

Also like the United States, China leverages its influence to get its way — effectively stymieing an investigation by the U.N.'s World Health Organization into whether China was the birthplace of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ken Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to redefine what human rights are, in part by casting economic development as a key criterion. China, Roth said, “more than any government in the past, is trying to undermine the U.N. human rights system” — by pressuring U.N. officials, retaliating against witnesses and trying to bribe governments.

"One of their top priorities right now — maybe after Taiwan — is to avoid condemnation by the Human Rights Council,” Roth said. The self-governing island of Taiwan is claimed by China as its sovereign territory, an issue that the Beijing government is vociferous about internationally.

Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University in China, said advocating for the U.N.’s role in maintaining the international order doesn’t mean that China agrees with every U.N. body, citing the COVID-19 origins study and the recent Xinjiang report.

“When the U.N high commissioner for human rights issues such a report, in the eyes of China, it is the same as all organizations in the world, no matter official or private, that defames China,” Shi said.

But China doesn't want its pique toward the rights office, which falls under U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to spill over to its deepening relationship with other parts of the world body that deal with refugees, climate, the internet, satellites, world hunger, atomic weapons, energy and much more.

China wields power as one of the five veto-holding members of the Security Council, helping it build relationships with the United States and others who needed China's support for past resolutions on Iran and North Korea.

That influence has diminished somewhat with the overall deterioration of U.S.-China ties, Shi said. Subsequently, both China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-backed resolution in May to impose new sanctions on North Korea.

Under Xi, who came to power 10 years ago, China has expanded its U.N. involvement from primarily international development early on to political, peace and security issues, Legarda said.

She noted how China has had its concepts and language worked into U.N. resolutions and used the U.N. system to promote a “Global Development Initiative” proposed by Xi in a video address to last year's General Assembly.

“This is a reflection of China’s more assertive and ambitious foreign policy under Xi,” Legarda said.

China has stepped into a diplomatic void created by a lack of U.S. leadership, said Daniel Warner, a Geneva-based political analyst. Former President Donald Trump shunned many international institutions, Warner said, and successor Joe Biden has been preoccupied with domestic issues.

Chinese hold the top jobs at three of the U.N.’s 18 specialized agencies: the Food and Agricultural Organization, the Industrial Development Organization and the International Telecommunications Union, where the United States has put up a candidate to succeed outgoing chief Houlin Zhao. A Chinese official headed the International Civil Aviation Organization until last year.

For China, it's a matter of prestige as well as influence, Warner said.

“The United States and the Western countries were very much involved in the initial United Nations,” he said. “China doesn’t want to have that kind of leadership. They’re not talking about liberal values, but they want to make sure that their interests are defended in the U.N. system.”

Chinese diplomats spearheaded a joint statement — which it said was backed by 30 countries including Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — that blasted “disinformation” behind the U.N. report on Xinjiang and the “erroneous conclusions” drawn in it. And China's ambassador in Geneva said Beijing could no longer cooperate with the human rights office — without specifying how.

Sarah Brooks, a China expert at the International Society for Human Rights advocacy group in Geneva, said China could hold up its funding for the office — which lately has come in at $800,000 a year, far less than Western countries that give tens of millions.

Still, Brooks said it would be a “huge blow” if funding from China were to stop, in part because many countries appreciate and support the causes that Beijing helps pay for.

“The optics of it are really damaging,” she said. “You have a country that says, ‘Hi, I want to be responsible, but I’m so thin-skinned … I’m still going to lash out at the organization that drafted it.’”

___

Keaten reported from Geneva. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

In a first, EU moves to cut money for Hungary over damaging democracy

EU leaders hold summit on Russian oil sanctions, in Brussels

Sun, September 18, 2022 

By Gabriela Baczynska and Gergely Szakacs

BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The European Union executive recommended on Sunday suspending some 7.5 billion euros in funding for Hungary over corruption, the first such case in the 27-nation bloc under a new sanction meant to better protect the rule of law.

The EU introduced the new financial sanction two years ago precisely in response to what it says amounts to the undermining of democracy in Poland and Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban subdued courts, media, NGOs and academia, as well as restricting the rights of migrants, gays and women during more than a decade in power.

"It's about breaches of the rule of law compromising the use and management of EU funds," said EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn. "We cannot conclude that the EU budget is sufficiently protected."

He highlighted systemic irregularities in Hungary's public procurement laws, insufficient safeguards against conflicts of interest, weaknesses in effective prosecution and shortcomings in other anti-graft measures.

Hahn said the Commission was recommending the suspension of about a third of cohesion funds envisaged for Hungary from the bloc's shared budget for 2021-27 worth a total of 1.1 trillion euros.

The 7.5 billion euros in question amounts to 5% of the country's estimated 2022 GDP. EU countries now have up to three months to decide on the proposal.

Hahn said Hungary's latest promise to address EU criticisms was a significant step in the right direction but must still be translated into new laws and practical actions before the bloc would be reassured.

Development Minister Tibor Navracsics, in charge of negotiations with the EU, said Hungary would meet all 17 of its commitments made to the European Commission to stave off the loss of any EU funding.

"Hungary did not make commitments to befuddle the Commission," Navracsics told a news conference. "We have made commitments that we know can be implemented ... therefore, we will not be facing a loss of funds."

CORRUPTION

Orban's government proposed creating a new anti-graft agency in recent weeks as Budapest came under pressure to secure money for the ailing economy and forint, the worst-performing currency in the EU's east.

Orban, who calls himself a "freedom fighter" against the world view of the liberal West, denies that Hungary - an ex-communist country of some 10 million people - is any more corrupt than others in the EU.

Navracsics said Orban's government would submit laws to parliament on Friday to establish a new independent anti-graft authority to monitor the public procurement of EU funds, with the body to be launched by the second half of November.

Hungary has also pledged to implement several other anti-corruption safeguards, including tighter rules on conflicts of interest, extending the scope of financial statements and broadening the power of judges to pursue suspected corruption.

Navracsics expressed hope that the Commission would be reassured by the implementation of the reforms and withdraw its proposed sanctions against Hungary by Nov. 19.

The Commission is already blocking some 6 billion euros in funds envisaged for Hungary in a separate COVID economic recovery stimulus over the same corruption concerns.

Reuters documented in 2018 how Orban channels EU development funds to his friends and family, a practice human rights organisations say has immensely enriched his inner circle and allowed the 59-year-old to entrench himself in power.

Hungary had irregularities in nearly 4% of EU funds spending in 2015-2019, according to the bloc's anti-fraud body OLAF, by far the worst result among the 27 EU countries.

Orban has also rubbed many in the bloc up the wrong way by cultivating continued close ties with President Vladimir Putin and threatening to deny EU unity needed to impose and preserve sanctions on Russia for waging war against Ukraine.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/hungary-orban-balaton

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by David Evans)

Hungary faces reckoning with EU that could cost it billions
 

JUSTIN SPIKE
Sat, September 17, 2022

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — After his headline performance at Hungary's Sziget Festival last month, pop star Justin Bieber held a grandiose party for his staff in a luxurious countryside setting — a 19th century castle owned by the son-in-law of the country's prime minister.

The castle, to the critics of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is emblematic of the corruption, nepotism and largesse of which the populist leader and his government have been accused for years — the kinds of behavior which now threaten to cost Hungary billions in European Union funding.

Standing beside the iron gates of Schossberger Castle this week, an independent Hungarian lawmaker who has made a name for himself as an anti-corruption crusader snapped pictures of the structure and its expansive manicured grounds.

A former member of Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, Akos Hadhazy left the nationalist-populist party in 2013 after becoming aware of what he describes as a clientelistic system of unchecked corruption taking shape in the Central European nation.


“When Fidesz came to power, I saw more and more that a very serious organization was beginning to develop throughout the country, whose main task was to steal as much of the European Union’s money as possible,” Hadhazy told The Associated Press.

Now, Orban is facing a reckoning with the EU, which appears set to impose financial penalties on his government over corruption concerns and alleged rule-of-law violations that could cost Budapest billions and cripple its already ailing economy.

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, has for nearly a decade accused Orban of dismantling democratic institutions, taking control of the media and infringing on minority rights. Orban, who has been in office since 2010, denies the accusations.

The longstanding conflict could culminate Sunday when the commission is expected to announce a funding cut for Hungary, one of the 27-nation EU's largest net beneficiaries, if the country does not change course.

Peter Kreko, director of the Budapest-based think tank Political Capital, said the EU appeared to be hardening its stance against Orban after previous disciplinary measures failed to bring Europe's longest-serving leader into compliance with its values.

“EU institutions learn slowly, but they learn. More and more people in the Commission and in the European Union know about the negotiation deception tactics of Hungary, as well as about the nature of the Hungarian political regime,” Kreko said.

While it is not clear how much money Hungary stands to lose, funds cut from its 22 billion-euro (dollar) share of the EU’s 2021-27 budget could affect around 70% of funding from some programs, according to an internal July document by Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

Many of the potential cuts are related to public procurements — purchases by the state of goods and services or for the execution of projects using EU funds.

According to Hadhazy, improper processes for awarding of such contracts have allowed Orban's government to channel large sums of EU money into the businesses of politically connected insiders.

“Huge fortunes were made from such things, and they are essentially the source of this astonishing luxury mansion behind us,” Hadhazy said of the castle in the town of Tura. “The system is about having its tentacles ... in the highest levels of government.”

EU commissioner Hahn's memo also pointed to irregularities in public procurements in Hungary and to "an increase of the odds of winning of politically connected companies.”

Hadhazy, who has investigated and documented hundreds of cases of alleged corruption, borrowed a car from his mother to visit several places this week where he suspects EU funds were misused.

One was the site of a planned server farm near Budapest where the government said it would store the state’s most important data. Receiving more than $50 million in EU funding, construction of the facility — awarded to a company owned by a childhood friend of Orban who is Hungary's richest man — began in 2016, and completion was set for the following year.

But when Hadhazy visited the site on Wednesday, only a concrete skeleton stood where the server park was planned — a sign, he said, that the funds may have been misused.

“The whole process is a charade,” Hadhazy said of Hungary's public procurement process, which ordinarily should involve competition between several bidding companies. “It’s decided at the very beginning who can win, and it’s decided who will do the work at the end.”

He pointed to a case involving Istvan Tiborcz, the owner of the castle in Tura who is married to Orban’s daughter. The European Anti-Fraud Office found serious irregularities in the awarding of funds to a company he owned.

As a result of the office's investigation, the EU demanded the return of more than 40 million euros (dollars). The sum was ultimately footed by Hungarian taxpayers, not Tiborcz’s company, and an investigation into the case by Hungarian authorities was dropped for lack of evidence of a crime.

Tiborcz was Hungary’s 36th wealthiest person this year, according to an analysis by Forbes Hungary.

Orban's government recently made conciliatory efforts to unlock nearly 6 billion euros (dollars) in pandemic recovery funds that the EU withheld over corruption concerns, and to head off further cuts to Hungary's portion of the EU budget.

Earlier this month, the Hungarian government pledged to set up its own anti-corruption agency. It has reportedly prepared additional legislation aimed at increasing transparency in public procurements.

But the European Commission faces pressure from EU lawmakers to fully enforce rules on corruption and rule of law requirements. In a resolution passed Thursday with an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament said the Hungarian government had become “a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” that could no longer be considered a democracy.

Hungary’s Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. Speaking in Serbia on Friday, Orban dismissed the resolution as a “joke” and maintained that his government's conservative credentials were the reason for the EU's tough stance.

Kreko, the analyst, said it was doubtful Orban's government was serious about changing its ways.

“I would say that the engine of the Orban regime is nepotistic corruption,” he said. “So I think we can be rather skeptical about that how much the government really wants to step up against corruption, which is part of the nature of the regime.”

In 2021, Hungary’s government opted out of joining the European Public Prosecutors Office — an independent EU body tasked with combating crimes affecting the financial interests of the bloc. It argued that joining would amount to a loss of national sovereignty.

But Hadhazy said that unless Orban’s government agrees to join the office, there will be no real guarantee that graft reforms will be able to achieve any meaningful results.

“I say that if the EU gives Hungary one eurocent without us having joined the EU prosecutor’s office, then the EU really is as stupid as Orban says it is,” he said.

Hungary Corruption

Independent lawmaker Akos Hadhazy, who has made a name for himself in Hungary as an anti-corruption crusader, snaps pictures at the site of a planned, but never finished government server farm to store the state's important data in God, Hungary, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The construction received nearly $40 million in EU funding in 2016, but was never finished, which Hadhazy says a clear sign of the missuse of EU funds. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban is facing a reckoning with the EU, which appears set to impose financial penalties on Hungary over corruption concerns and alleged rule-of-law violations that could cost Budapest billions and cripple its already ailing economy.

 (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi)