AUSTRALIA

AUSTERITY CREATED CRISIS

NSW inquiry into ambulance ramping told patients 'dying unnecessarily'

SAME AS IN CANADA

By Housnia Shams

abc.net.au
ABC-TODAY

The NSW inquiry has heard that hospitals in Western Sydney are operating at 100 per cent.

(AAP: Bianca De Marchi)

Patients are "dying unnecessarily" while waiting in hospital emergency departments in what one doctor has called "third world" conditions, a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Key points:

Doctors have told the NSW inquiry that hospitals in Western Sydney are running at 100 per cent capacity

The inquiry has been told ambulance ramping is not a rare occurrence in NSW

More testimonies are expected over the two days of the inquiry

The upper house inquiry is examining why ambulances are becoming stuck at hospitals, unable to offload their patients, and how emergency departments are coping.

Western Sydney-based emergency medicine staff specialist, James Tadros, told the inquiry that doctors felt they were "failing the needs of patients on a daily basis".

"We work in an environment that we don't see as conducive to good medical care," he said.

"These people we serve bear the brunt of our failing system."

The inquiry heard that most hospitals, particularly in Western Sydney, are operating at 100 per cent capacity.

James Tadros has told the inquiry doctors felt they were failing patients.

(ABC News)

Dr Tadros recalled an incident in which an 88-year-old patient with kidney failure was waiting to be seen for several hours.

"I found her [in the waiting room] laying down across three chairs and some bystanders were helping her daughter to slowly move her around because she was so weak," he said.


"This is basically third world."

When asked by Labor's Rose Jackson if patients waiting in emergency departments were "dying unnecessarily" because of a lack of adequate care, Dr Tadros replied, "Yes...you do see patients who deteriorate while waiting to be seen."

The inquiry heard the increased pressure on frontline staff was leading to high rates of burnout, with many opting to leave the workforce.

"The frontline staff have become completely numb to it," Setthy Ung from the South Western Sydney Local Health District said.

"They've learnt to adapt, to live on the knife's edge."

Paramedics say they have been calling for more staff and funding for the past decade.(Supplied: Australian Paramedics' Association NSW)

Earlier, the paramedics union accused the NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard of being "out of touch", after he suggested ambulance ramping was "rare" in the state.

Mr Hazzard told a budget estimates hearing in March that ambulance ramping which "causes major grief in other states" is "actually very rare in New South Wales".

Vice President of the Australian Paramedics Association NSW, Scott Beaton, told the inquiry the comments were inaccurate.

"I laughed to be perfectly honest," Mr Beaton said.

"It was just a statement to show the Minister [Hazzard] or his advisors are out of touch with what's happening in the hospitals."

Clare Skinner, president of the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, acknowledged that while NSW "does well compared to other states", ambulance ramping was "not rare, it's common".

She said overcrowding in emergency departments and "access block" — where patients who have been treated in an emergency department are unable to access hospital beds in a timely manner — was now the "new normal".

"It has now become a permanent state of being in emergency departments in NSW," Dr Skinner said.

What's causing long hospital wait times?

Adding more beds won't fix emergency department pressures. Neither will one-size-fits-all processes. But improving patient flow and addressing staff shortages might.

Read more

Dr Skinner noted that the issue was "not a COVID phenomenon" and was present for decades before the pandemic.

"It's fair to say that COVID was the straw that broke the camel's back," she said.

"This is a global phenomenon which been growing for decades due to underinvestment, under-resourcing and poor coordination of community-based care."

She suggested that solutions focus on improving capacity at hospital wards and boosting investment in community-based care to allow for earlier discharge into primary care.

Dr Skinner said there was a "crisis" in emergency department staffing.

"I often wonder what it takes for our emergency department workforce to break," she said.

"We keep pulling that extra bit out of the tank ... but the kettle feels dry at the moment."

The inquiry will run for two days.

Nordic criminal justice: How does it differ from Australia and does it work?

ABC RN /
By Nick Baker and Annabelle Quince for Rear Vision

At an open prison in Mariestad, Sweden, inmates work at the attached farm.

(Getty Images: Jonathan Nackstrand)

When John Pratt visited one of Sweden's "open prisons" outside the capital Stockholm, he was shocked at what he saw.

"There was a carpark for the inmates and they commuted to Stockholm during the day for work," he tells ABC RN's Rear Vision.

"If they were going to be back late at night, they would phone the prison and a meal would be left out for them when they got back."

Pratt, an emeritus professor from the Institute of Criminology at the Victoria University of Wellington, says it was all "difficult to digest … but that's how it works".

Open prisons can be found across the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, and are just one element of criminal justice systems that are very different to Australia.

There, it's generally accepted that punishment and rehabilitation go hand in hand, and that prisoners, no matter what their crime, have certain rights.

And it appears to be working — these countries have some of the lowest crime rates and lowest rates of recidivism in the world.

So what are these Nordic countries doing differently and what can Australia learn from them?

Keeping people out of prisons

Baz Dreisinger is a professor and executive director of the Incarceration Nations Network. She has an in-depth knowledge of criminal justice systems across the world.

Dreisinger says first up, these Nordic countries have excellent social services, which have important flow-on effects.

"Because of strong social services, crime is less likely to occur," she says.

But when crime does occur, these countries work hard to keep people out of the prison system.

"People don't automatically get sent to prisons as a knee-jerk, immediate response … there's very strong mediation programs that are capable of diverting people out of the system to begin with," Dreisinger says.

Across Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, the prison population is about 17,000. This compares to about 42,000 in Australia and more than 2 million in the US.

Inside the Halden maximum-security prison in Norway.

(Reuters: Trond A Isaksen)

These countries also have very different attitudes around sending children to prison — they very rarely do it.

As Dreisinger says: "Sending a young person to detention is the absolute, complete last resort … It [only] happens in extreme circumstances".

In Norway, for example, the age of criminal responsibility is 15 years old. But even then, there's only a handful of under-18s behind bars.

"There are just a few inmates in Norway under the age of 18. They have committed serious crimes," says Jan-Erik Sandlie, the deputy director general in the Norwegian Directorate of Correctional Services.

"At the moment, I think it's two or three under-18s in Norwegian prisons."

It's a different story in Australia.

Here, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old. And according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, on an average night in 2021, there were 819 young people between the age of 10 and 17 years in youth detention.
Shorter sentences

People who do end up in Nordic prisons can spend a much shorter period there than offenders in other countries.

The maximum term in the Norwegian criminal justice system, for example, is 21 years.

"They have provisions for indefinite sentences as well. But these are very, very rarely used. And as far as I'm aware, there's only a handful of prisoners serving those sentences," Pratt says.

One of these prisoners is Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right terrorist who murdered 77 people in 2011.

Mass killer & NAZI Anders Behring Breivik attends his trial where he requested release on parole earlier this year.

(Reuters)

Of the Breivik case, Dreisinger says: "If there are scenarios where someone is clearly a great danger to society, and needs to be deprived of liberty for extensive periods of time, that person will be held".

"It's not as if the system there is naive, in terms of not recognising that there are some people, if you place them in the world, that will cause extreme harm. It's just that that's not the starting point for the Norwegian system."
What are the prisons like?

So, when it comes to the bricks and mortar, and what happens inside, just how different are the prisons?

In Australia, prisons are often removed from communities, but in these Nordic countries, they can be found in the middle of towns and cities.

"So if you go to prison, it's highly likely … your family will be able to see you with relative ease," Pratt says.

Then there's the distinction between "open" prisons and "closed" prisons.

WE HAD ONE OF THESE IN CANADA  (ONLY ONE!) VERY SUCCESSFUL

IT GOT SHUT BY THE HARPER TORY GOVT. TO SAVE MONEY 

Inmate houses on Rodjan farm, an open prison that also functions as a farm in Sweden.(Getty Images: Jonathan Nackstrand)

Peter Scharff Smith, a professor in the sociology of law at the University of Oslo, says open prisons are a big part of the systems, especially in Norway and Denmark.

"In open prisons, it's not very difficult to escape if you wanted to. But the reason that people don't escape is if they get caught, they wind up at a closed prison with a longer sentence."

Conversely, Dreisinger points out: "You can increasingly move yourself toward more freedom, more openness … as your sentence goes on".

Pratt recalls another open prison he visited in Finland.

"[The inmates] were making some quite sophisticated looking speedboats and they were getting good wages. But they would have to pay a sum from those wages for their board and keep in the prison, as if they were renting their cell," he says.

"They would [also] have to donate money from the wages to pay off fines or to compensate the victims and they would save the rest of the money."

Crucially, Pratt says: "They weren't totally shut out of society, as we tend to treat prisoners here".

Guiding principles

Many of the characteristics of Nordic prisons that set them so far apart from other countries are because of a certain set of principles.

The first is what's known as the principle of "normality".

Dreisinger says the idea is that "life inside prisons ought to resemble life outside as closely as possible".

"So that means wearing your own clothes, cooking in communal kitchens, having a fair amount of mobility in different spaces, having a cell that isn't really a cell but more of a dorm, and then very, very critically, receiving the same services that you would receive as if you were on the outside."

PRISON KITCHEN, WAIT IS THAT A KNIFE, YEP THAT'S A KNIFE

Prisoners are able to cook their own meals, so they have access to a kitchen like this one in a Swedish high-security prison.(Getty Images: Jonathan Nackstrand)

Next up, the principle of "reintegration" or "progression".

"There's a tremendous emphasis from day one on what's going to happen when you leave the system — when you come out, when you go home," Dreisinger says.

And finally, there's the principle of "dynamic security" or "relational security".

"There's a very different relationship between the officers and the incarcerated individuals," Dreisinger says.

"Correctional officers act as guides, as educators. They have a relationship with the people who are incarcerated and are working together with them, to move them to a better place in life and opportunities when they come out."

In short: Incarceration is all about rehabilitation.
Less likely to return when released

Whatever your thoughts on these systems, one thing is clear: The rate of recidivism is much lower than in other countries.


"When people come out of prison, their likelihood of going back in is low. It hovers somewhere around 20 per cent. And that is compared to 60-something per cent in most of the rest of the world. So there's a significant difference," Dreisinger says.

In Australia, 53 per cent of released prisoners return to corrective services within two years.

Dreisinger credits lower rates of recidivism to how the reintegration process is handled.

"The very fact of moving down in security levels as your sentence goes on — moving to an open prison, where you're permitted to come and go, is critical to the reintegration process, because it means you are already reintegrating," she says.

The pre-trial period

But these systems are not all as rosy as they seem.

Experts point out that before a person is convicted — so while in custody and waiting for their day in court — they actually have fewer rights than those in other countries.

"Before you're sentenced in Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden and Denmark, it's a very, very different matter. The state allows itself to restrict the rights of pre-trial detainees in ways which are not possible in England, for example," Scharff Smith says.

For example in Denmark, during pre-trial, you're not allowed to use the phone and there are very strict restrictions around visitors.

"Pre-trial is a huge chunk of the prison population. If you look at Denmark, it's more than 30 per cent [of those in prison]," Scharff Smith says.

"A lot of things that go on in the remand system have nothing to do with penal exceptionalism. It does not live up to the principle of normalisation."
Systems under threat?

While there is local support for these systems, there has also been growing opposition in recent years.

"We've seen 'tough on crime' policies becoming more and more popular," Scharff Smith says.

He says this is particularly acute in Denmark where "it's been a competition of who can be the toughest".

"And ironically, it's created a crisis in the Danish prison system, because prison officers are quitting."

He says, "in my mind, these politicians, they've attacked the heart of the Danish prison service or the principle of normalisation, and as a result, the prison system is currently in a severe crisis".

Lessons for Australia

So can Australia learn any lessons from these very different systems? Should we adopt any of these measures?

"It's hard to say, because we're talking about differences that have evolved over something like 200 years," Pratt says.

"[But] I think one of the things that has struck me most is the importance of having informed debates about crime and punishment issues."

The hallway of a prison in the ACT.(ABC News: Alkira Reinfrank)

Pratt cites how during a Norwegian election in 2009, one of the pre-election debates was held in a prison, with an audience of prisoners and officers.

"That's the kind of importance they place on giving all sections of society an opportunity to speak on such occasions, and making sure that the political debate doesn't just end up as a shouting match," he says.

"Imagine yourself being in prison. Imagine how you would like to be treated. Let's start treating prisoners like that. That would be a starting point for reform."

More stories from Rear Vision:

Secret cures, bioweapons and racism: The centuries-old history of medical conspiracy theories
The lavish Grand Tours of history — and how they shaped the way we travel today
What this critically endangered bird tells us about Australia's failing environment protection laws
The rise of yoga in the West

LGBTQ2 HUMAN RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS RITES

AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Australian Rules-Essendon CEO quits after one day in the job over church links

Yesterday 

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Andrew Thorburn resigned as chief executive of Australian Football League club Essendon a day after his appointment following an immediate backlash over his links to a church that expressed opposition to homosexuality and abortion.


NAB Group CEO Andrew Thorburn poses for a photocall outside their office in Sydney

© Reuters/EDGAR SU

Thorburn, chairman of the Christian 'City on a Hill' church, quit his Essendon role on Tuesday, with the Melbourne-based club saying the church's views contradicted their own.

Essendon cited a 2013 article published by the church that urged people with "same-sex attraction" to seek help from senior Christians to "survive these temptations".

"We acted immediately to clarify the publicly espoused views on the organisation’s official website, which are in direct contradiction to our values as a club,” Essendon President Dave Barham said in a statement.

"The board made clear that, despite these not being views that Andrew Thorburn has expressed personally and that were also made prior to him taking up his role as chairman, he couldn’t continue to serve in his dual roles" at the club and the church.

Related video: Essendon CEO quits over church controversy

Duration 3:19 View on Watch

"The board respects Andrew's decision."

Thorburn, a former chief executive of National Australia Bank, one of the country's biggest banks, said in a statement that it was clear to him his faith was "not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many".

"As it happens, I do sometimes disagree with things I hear in church - but I believe strongly in the right of people to say them, especially when taken in context," he said.

"Reducing complex matters to a sentence is dangerous. Australia has a long tradition of diversity and religious freedom, and that must include preserving space for religious people to be able to express their religious beliefs."

Thorburn's resignation was announced after Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews criticised Essendon for the appointment.

"Those views are absolutely appalling. I don’t support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry. It is just wrong," he told reporters.

The "Purple Bombers", an Essendon fan group advocating diversity and inclusion, also opposed Thorburn's appointment.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Former Essendon chair Paul Little says AFL club is making 'too many' mistakes, following Andrew Thorburn resignation

By Ashleigh Barraclough and Judd Boa

Andrew Thorburn resigned as Essendon CEO after being issued an ultimatum by the club.(AAP: Ellen Smith)

Andrew Thorburn has called for religious tolerance and freedom of thought after a club ultimatum that saw him resigning as Essendon chief executive, just a day after his appointment.

Key points:A former Essendon chair says the club is letting down supporters
He says the club made a mistake in not doing enough research during the recruitment stage

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner says Mr Thorburn's employment conflicted with the Bombers' stated values

Andrew Thorburn resigned his position as Essendon CEO on Tuesday after it was revealed he was the chair of a church that had articles on its website which were critical of abortion and said practising homosexuality was a sin.

Essendon issued a statement saying the views expressed by the City on a Hill church conflicted with the club's values and that Mr Thorburn had been issued with an ultimatum.

In a statement, Mr Thorburn said he had received hundreds of messages of support and said his dismissal had raised fears of religious discrimination among his supporters.

"It is troubling that faith or association with a church, mosque, synagogue or temple could render a person immediately unsuited to holding a particular role," Mr Thorburn said.

"That is a dangerous idea, one that will only reduce tolerance for others and diversity of thought and participation in our community and workplaces."

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan confirmed he had spoken to Mr Thorburn after his resignation and has defended his character.

"He is — in my experience — a first class person, I regard him as a friend. He's got great values," Mr McLachlan said.

Mr McLachlan reiterated that everyone was entitled to their own beliefs, even when they clashed with the beliefs of others.

"At times, those beliefs can intersect with the values and culture of entities and, when you've been asked to lead one that seems to be at odds with the beliefs of another entity you're chairing, I think Andrew had to make a decision," Mr McLachlan said.

"To be honest with you, that he went with his faith doesn't surprise me because he's a person of great conviction."

Former Bombers chair criticises hiring process

Paul Little, who was chair of the Bombers from 2013 to 2015, told ABC Radio Melbourne he empathised with disappointed Essendon supporters and was "feeling their pain".

"The mistakes that are being made — there are just too many, quite frankly," he said.

"We all want, as supporters and members, we want a professional Essendon Football Club that is well run and well managed."

He said it appeared to be a miss that the club did not find the views expressed by Mr Thorburn's church during the recruitment process.


"That information was out there, it was easily accessible," he said.

"When you're the head of a football club, you can't afford to have contentious issues out there — they need to be dealt with."
Paul Little says Essendon should have done a better job at uncovering any "contentious issues" during Andrew Thorburn's recruitment.(Supplied: Patrick Herve)

The City on a Hill church had posts on its website which condemned abortion as "murder".

"Whereas today we look back at sadness and disgust over concentration camps, future generations will look back with sadness at the legal murder of hundreds of thousands of human beings every day through medicine and in the name of freedom," the website stated.

"Lust is a sin, sex outside of marriage is a sin, practising homosexuality is a sin, but same-sex attraction is not a sin," another post said.
Employment lawyer highlights conflicting rights

Josh Bornstein, an employment lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, told ABC Radio Melbourne Mr Thorburn might have been unlawfully discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of his religion.

"We have a conflict between rights to religious belief and religious activity, which are recognised under statute, and we also have rights to be free from homophobic vilification," he said.

Mr Bornstein said for Essendon, it was also an issue of brand management.


"These matters are dealt with in a rush, in a panic, and with brand management at the heart of the exercise," he said.
 

Josh Bornstein says Essendon is dealing with the issue in a panic.(ABC News: Sean Warren)

Ro Allen, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, told ABC Radio Melbourne under the law, people have the right to religious belief.

But they said Mr Thorburn's employment conflicted with Essendon's stated values about being "the most inclusive club".

"It's definitely a values conflict to employ someone who's not just a passive member of a church [but on the board]," they said.


"They've actively worked against LGBTI people.

"Every time this is in the media, it does hurt a lot of people."

The commissioner stressed not all Christians held the views expressed by the City on a Hill church.

While they cannot comment on individual cases, they said Mr Thorburn's exit from Essendon may not constitute unlawful discrimination given he chose to resign.

Ro Allen says Andrew Thorburn chose to resign, so his case may not constitute unlawful discrimination.(ABC News: Zalika Rizmal)

Essendon president David Barham said in a statement yesterday that the issue was with Mr Thorburn's position as the church's chair.

"The board made clear that, despite these not being views that Andrew Thorburn has expressed personally and that were also made prior to him taking up his role as chairman, he couldn't continue to serve in his dual roles at the Essendon Football Club and as chairman of City on the Hill," Mr Barham said.
Anglican Archbishop defends Mr Thorburn

Mr Thorburn's City on a Hill church is a part of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.

Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier has defended the ousted chief executive.

"In 2016, I joined the Archbishop of Canterbury and other international Anglican leaders in agreeing a statement that rejected homophobia and affirmed that 'God's love for every human being is the same, regardless of their sexuality, and that the church should never by its actions give any other impression'," he said.

"I have seen nothing in Andrew Thorburn's reported comments that contradict this position.


"It would be unfortunate if people of faith are sidelined from participation in professional and public life on account of personal religious belief."

Jason Tuazon-McCheyne, the founder of Essendon's LGBT support group the Purple Bombers, told Radio National Mr Thorburn's positions with the church and the Bombers were incongruous.

"You can't chair an organisation that actively campaigns and has values that are contradictory to the organisation that you want to be CEO of — it doesn't work," he said.

Jason Tuazon-McCheyne says he feels safe because of the club's decision.(ABC RN: Jeremy Story Carter)

Mr Tuazon-McCheyne said despite the initial failure in due diligence, he was "proud of the club" for making a quick decision to stand by its stated values of diversity and inclusion by issuing Mr Thorburn an ultimatum.

"They actually do believe their values, and I'm proud of that," he said.

"I can go to the footy as a gay man with his husband and son and be safe at the footy."

MASTRIANO VS UNIV OF NB

A controversy-courting U.S. politician causes stir on Canadian university campus

Alexander Panetta - CBC - TODAY

One of the most controversial politicians in the United States is causing a stir far north of the campaign trail: at a Canadian university that once granted him a doctorate.

Students at the University of New Brunswick are pushing their university for details about its role in granting Doug Mastriano the crowning academic achievement on his CV in 2013.

A UNB associate professor listed on Doug Mastriano's doctoral dissertation describes it as atrocious academic work and says he can't understand why the paper includes his name.

"This dissertation has bothered me for nine years," Jeffrey Brown told CBC News in an interview.

"[Mastriano] was awarded a PhD on very shaky grounds."

The famous alumnus is now running for governor of Pennsylvania in next month's midterm elections on a hard-right platform with potentially major implications, far beyond his state.
Election denier could gain power over elections

Election denialism is what made Mastriano nationally famous.

The state lawmaker tried overturning the 2020 election on behalf of Donald Trump; he was at the Capitol as the riot began there on Jan. 6, 2021 and even helped transport protesters to Washington.

Now he's the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania. The polls show him trailing. But if he happens to win, he would gain new power over national elections.

The Pennsylvania governor will appoint the chief election administrator and also judges who would hear election cases in the critical swing state.


Mastriano tried overturning the 2020 election for Donald Trump. It made him a celebrity on the right. And he won a Republican gubernatorial nomination for this fall's midterm elections.© Mary Altaffer/AP

Up in New Brunswick, Brown's objections to Mastriano go way back, long predating his political career.

That old dispute within the university has now resurfaced publicly as Mastriano runs for an important office.

Prof describes work as dishonest, sloppy, fanatical

Mastriano's campaign used his doctorate in fending off a recent political controversy. When a photo surfaced showing Mastriano wearing a Confederate uniform at a 2014 educational event, an adviser dismissed it as a smear job against a historian, pointing to his academic credentials.

Brown was on the examining board for Mastriano's dissertation.



Mastriano's campaign has used his PhD to deflect criticism — including when Reuters reported in August on this 2014 photo showing Mastriano, left, wearing a Confederate uniform at a 2014 educational event.© Army War College via Reuters

Mastriano's work was dishonest, sloppy, tinged with religious zealotry, and indifferent to facts that contradicted his claims, said Brown, a scholar of U.S. history at UNB and a U.S.-Canada dual citizen.

He expressed alarm when the university granted the PhD and has provided CBC News with emails he sent colleagues at the time.

Brown lamented that the same traits he denounced back then are materializing in Mastriano's public life: namely the fanaticism and indifference to facts.

"The prospect of Doug Mastriano having any power, anywhere, is horrifying," said Brown, who met and worked with Mastriano on several revisions to his dissertation.

Eventually, Brown bowed out of the project. Or so he thought.

Thesis subject: a Christian soldier

Mastriano's dissertation involved a legendary American soldier, one of the most highly decorated of the last century.

Alvin York was a deeply religious Army sergeant who described being touched by God before a First World War battle where he killed 25 Germans.



A statue of Alvin York at the Tennessee legislature. Other scholars accuse Mastriano of corner-cutting and dishonesty.© Mark Humphrey/AP

His life story inspired a Gary Cooper movie. Mastriano has a long-running project to spread his story to younger generations, with a website, a doctoral dissertation and then a book.

Yet Mastriano's project was dogged by scrutiny from the start.

Even before he arrived in New Brunswick, Mastriano, then an Army intelligence officer, made news in 2008 for his work to pinpoint the location of York's heroics on a French battlefield.

Other scholars and a French bureaucrat accused him of sloppy research methods, misidentifying the battle location, ignoring contradictory details, digging without a permit and ruining an archeological site.

Mastriano dismissed his detractors as jealous and maintained his certainty he'd found the true battle site.

The archeological controversy was the initial reason Brown, the New Brunswick professor, voiced concern with the project.

Nobody examining Mastriano's work had any archeological expertise, so, he asked, how were they supposed to scrutinize a paper filled with archeological claims, claims being vigorously disputed?

The list of concerns grew with time.



Mastriano's academic work is dedicated to reviving the memory of York, a legendary First World War soldier inspired by his religious faith.© The Associated Press

One was the quality of the writing: Brown said it took multiple revisions to correct basic grammar, style and punctuation problems on almost every page.


A cursory read of the finished paper still turns up basic errors: a colonel's name repeatedly misspelled, an Italian military award misspelled in the introduction, and the wrong release year (1940) for the 1941 Gary Cooper movie.

There were more substantive complaints.

He said Mastriano offered opinions without facts or attribution to support them, an approach Brown called non-academic.

'That's what God wanted'

In a dramatic example of that, Brown said, Mastriano would make matter-of-fact claims even when referring to heavenly phenomena.

In one example, on Page 260, Mastriano writes: "The idea that York survived the carnage because of Divine Intervention also speaks of a miracle."

Brown said that approach just isn't scholarly.

"It wasn't so much, 'Sergeant York reported that,' or, 'York believed that,' as it was, 'God talked to York,'" Brown said in an interview.

"That's where Mastriano wanted to go with it: that this guy was literally directed by God to begin fighting people. That would be righteous. That's what God wanted."



A Mastriano rally last month at the Pennsylvania state capitol included prayers and an unfurling of a gigantic American flag.© Alexander Panetta/CBC

Faith is central to Mastriano's life, and to his gubernatorial campaign.

He's said journalists who appear to mock his faith will be barred from covering his campaign events and has bristled at being described as a "Christian nationalist."

In the past, he's explained how the Alvin York story fits into his faith.

In a 2019 speech, he espoused York as an alternative to the pacifist, turn-the-other-cheek philosophy within Christianity, as evidence the faithful can be warriors.

Prayer is a regular part of his campaign events. It was a recurring theme in speeches at a rally last month at the Pennsylvania legislature.

"Lord, you told us to pray for our enemies," one speaker said, in a prayer to open the rally.

"We pray that they would lose."

The critics amass

Criticism of Mastriano's scholarly work goes back years and spans several countries.

In Oklahoma, a teacher and history PhD candidate wrote last year to the UNB warning that Mastriano's work was rife with academic fraud.

James Gregory, who first encountered Mastriano's work in his published book, says he's since found over 150 problems with the thesis.

It's rampant with fake footnotes, he says, meaning the paper often makes a claim, cites a footnote to back it up, then, when you actually go check the source mentioned in the footnote, it says something else.

He showed CBC News some examples.

For instance, Mastriano's paper says a journalist first took an interest in York's story because of its religious aspect; a footnote then cites a telegram the journalist, Canadian George Pattullo, sent on Jan. 30, 1919. But Gregory tracked down the telegram and there's nothing about religion, just Pattullo's travel plans and a request for battlefield data.

"His dissertation is just filled with these issues," Gregory said. "He's making it up."

"It's academic fraud."

Gregory insists he has no political axe to grind. He says he's a registered Republican, in Oklahoma, and doesn't care who the governor of Pennsylvania is.

His gripe, he says, is strictly academic. And somewhat personal. That's because Gregory has also written about York; he cited Mastriano in his work and now he's feeling deceived.

"It's tainted," Gregory said.

"He was wrong. Therefore my article was wrong. And everyone in the future who cites Mastriano's work, now, their work is tainted.

"It's not just that he's changing history by lying and making things up. He's also ruining everyone else's work that trusts him."

Gregory said he actually had a cordial relationship with Mastriano, exchanging messages online about their shared scholarly interest in York.

Then, suddenly, Gregory says, when he started spotting details that contradicted Mastriano's work, the politician cut off contact and blocked him on Facebook.

UNB students concerned, frustrated

Some students in New Brunswick started worrying about reputational taint after the Associated Press first reported on the controversy at their school.

A headline in a Fredericton newspaper cuts to the heart of their concern, asking: "Will employers question the value of UNB PhDs?"

A dozen Master's and PhD students gathered last month to discuss plans to press the university for details about Mastriano's degree.

The students plan to release a letter soon.

"A lot of us vented our frustrations at this.… This reflects on our academic training," said Richard Yeomans, a PhD candidate in the history department.

"This man's credentials are unearned.… It's very clear a vanity degree was granted to him."

Mastriano's thesis supervisor, Marc Milner, a history professor and honourary colonel in the Air Force, did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Multiple efforts to reach current and retired staff at the university, including the communications office, received no response.

Mastriano, meanwhile, did not respond to requests for comment via phone calls to his three state legislative offices and emails to his legislative and campaign staff.

The professor, Brown, has a theory about what happened.



Mastriano is the underdog in the race. He's behind in polling and fundraising. National Republicans aren't helping him. Organizers of his recent rally at the Pennsylvania legislature said they were disappointed when only a few dozen people turned out.© Alexander Panetta/CBC News

The school, he says, has a good relationship with the military, and let Mastriano through to avoid disrupting that.

He sent CBC News printouts of email exchanges from 2012 and 2013 laying out his myriad concerns, including one final note.

In that note, Brown told Milner that, from what he understood, regardless of his complaints, Mastriano would get his degree anyway.

Brown wrote: "I know that I will regret it if I allow my signature to stand on this dissertation."

He says Milner responded that his services were no longer needed because the three-member examining committee already had enough people.

Brown backed away, after having spent months on the project.

But he just got a surprise.

The university finally released Mastriano's thesis over the summer, amid external pressure after a years-long delay in making it public.

Brown's name is still there, listed on the examining board.

GEMOLOGY/GEOLOGY/CONFLICT DIAMONDS

Ukraine accuses Russia of pushing for change to Kimberley Process, amid call for 'conflict diamonds' label

Ukraine has accused Russia of pushing to promote its ally as chair of the Kimberley Process.

 (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov)

Ukraine has accused Moscow of trying to protect Russian gems from being branded "conflict diamonds" by pushing its ally Belarus to the top of an international diamond certification body.

Key points:Ukraine says Russia is protecting its interests by pushing for Belarus to become chairman of the Kimberley Process
That body aims to prevent the flow of diamonds that are used to finance wars against governments
Belarus says it is prepared to uphold the Kimberley Process's "unity and authority"

Some members of the Kimberley Process (KP) — an international scheme implemented in 2003, consisting of a coalition of governments, industry and civil society that certifies diamonds — have called for diamonds from Russia, the world's top producer by volume, to be labelled "conflict diamonds".

Aiming to prevent the flow of conflict diamonds, the KP usually makes the declaration about rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflicts aimed at undermining legitimate governments.

These gems are also known as "blood diamonds", a term coined because of the lives lost during such conflicts.

Belarus has applied to be the KP's vice chair in 2023 and chair in 2024, according to a letter dated September 19.

The KP makes decisions by consensus, so the rift over Russia risks paralysing it.

"Russia is pushing Belarus to become chair, so that Russia's interests can be better pursued and protected within the KP," Ukraine's Kimberley Process representative, Vladimir Tatarintsev, said in an email on Tuesday.

Belarus did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Russia has said it condemns attempts to "politicise" the KP.

The KP has the power to ban diamond exports from certain countries, as it did in 2013 when rebels seized power in the Central African Republic.

In its bid, Belarus said it was prepared to uphold the KP's "unity and authority".

Belarus — which has never before been KP chair — supported Russia in quashing a proposal to discuss the invasion of Ukraine at a KP meeting in June.

Chairman Jacob Thamage of Botswana, to whom the bid was addressed, did not respond to a request for comment.

The United Arab Emirates — the world's top rough diamond trading centre — also submitted a written bid for the 2024 chairmanship.

It has not imposed sanctions on Russia, seeking to maintain what it calls a "neutral position" on the war in Ukraine.

Mr Tatarintsev said Ukraine had no objection to UAE's nomination, but added that it was "unlikely that anyone will be able to unite the Kimberley Process".
Current and past conflict diamonds

According to estimates from the KP and the United Nations, the only current case of rebel forces controlling diamond-producing areas is in Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa and that constitutes less than 0.1 per cent of the world's production.

Previously, Sierra Leone, Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have suffered from conflicts that have been partly funded by diamonds.

The KP allows for the wealth created by diamonds to contribute to peace and prosperity in these countries, rather than conflict.

With 81 member countries, the scheme means that 99.8 per cent of retail diamonds come from conflict-free zones.

In Sierra Leone, legal exports have increased 100-fold since the end of the war in 2002, according to the KP.

Reuters/ABC

Belgium paralyzed by train strike

Trade unions protest for higher salaries, more staff to run service

Agnes Szucs |05.10.2022

 An empty railway is seen after transportation services are partly cancelled due to token strike held against to government's austerity policy in Brussels, Belgium on October 10, 2017.

 ( Dursun Aydemir - Anadolu Agency )

BRUSSELS

Railway transport is heavily disrupted on Wednesday in Belgium as trade unions protest for more funding for the sector.

Belgian railway unions hold a 24-hour strike to pressure the government to adapt their budget to the rising living costs and to ease the shortage of personnel.

“The government has big plans for the SNCB (National Railway Company of Belgium) but it needs sufficient means to accomplish,” Pierre Lejeune, the president of the CGSP railway trade union told the public broadcaster RTBF.

He explained that 3,500 scheduled trains are canceled every month and 15% of these decisions are taken because there are not enough staff members to run the service.

Railway service is currently on a complete halt in the southern Namur and Luxemburg provinces, while only two in every five intercity and one in four local trains are running because of the strike.

The protest officially started at 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday to end at the same time on Wednesday.

UK

Cash-strapped drivers 'denied 10p cut in petrol prices' as retailers hiked profit margins

Drivers hit by the cost of living crisis are being denied an extra 10 pence cut in dropping petrol prices because retailers are hiking profit margins, according to new analysis


Fuel prices could have fallen further, according to RAC data 

By Tim Hanlon

News Reporter

5 Oct 2022

Drivers could have received a further 10p cut in petrol prices after a drop in the wholesale cost of fuel but were denied due to major retailers hiking profit margins, new analysis shows.

Many Brits are battling a cost of living crisis where they are struggling to make ends meet due to inflation causing everyday goods to rise in price while energy bills have gone through the roof.

And fresh data reveals that they have also been prevented a saving in fuel costs due to retailers increasing their profits by "10p more than normal" a litre.

The RAC said the average price of a litre of the fuel in the UK fell by nearly 7p to 162.9p in September as oil prices plummeted.

This was the sixth biggest monthly drop in average petrol prices since 2000 but the cut should have been deeper, the motoring services company claimed.

Drivers could be saving a further 10p a litre, analysis shows 

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “Drivers really should have seen a far bigger drop as the wholesale price of delivered petrol was around 120p for the whole month.

“This means forecourts across the country should have been displaying prices around 152p given the long-term margin on unleaded is 7p a litre.

“In stark contrast to this, RAC Fuel Watch data has shown margins to be around 17p a litre – a huge 10p more than normal.”

Supermarkets normally charge around 3.5p per litre less than the UK average but are currently only around 1.5p cheaper.

Mr Williams noted that Morrisons is offering discounted fuel for customers who spend a certain amount of money in store.

This is a type of promotion which “tends only to be seen when supermarkets are benefitting from lower wholesale prices”, he explained.

The wholesale cost of fuel has tumbled since highs in July 

He urged drivers to “shop around for the best deals” rather than “simply assuming” supermarkets are the cheapest fuel retailers because they have been in the past.

The average price of a litre of diesel fell by 3.5p to 180.2p last month.

Fuel prices are at their lowest prices since May 16, with a fall in wholesale costs due to a drop in oil prices.

The highest average fuel prices for the year so far were recorded on July 4, when petrol went up to 191.6p per litre and diesel was 199.2p per litre.

Since then, the cost of filling up a typical 55-litre family petrol car has been cut by more than £14, while refuelling diesel models costs nearly £10 less.

Lewis Corey: The Decline of American Capitalism (8. The Fall in the Rate of Profit) (marxists.org)

The Falling Rate of Profit (marxists.org)

Falling Rate of Profit. The rate of profit is r = s / (c + v)… | by 太阳鱼 | Medium

The falling rate of profit and the long depression | socialist.ca

https://www.socialist.ca/node/3226

2017-01-10 · As the rate of profit falls it reduces the total profit. When profit rates are low and returns on investment are low, and capitalists cease to invest in productive capital (the manufacture of goods and services that people use). As Roberts shows in his study of the three big modern depression periods, capitalists will turn to investing heavily ...

An introduction to Marxian economics 2: the rate of profit

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/publications/an-introduction-to...

The rate of profit measures the return on invested capital over a given period and is usually expressed as a percentage. So, if a capital investment of £ 100,000 turns over in a year and the profit is £20,000 then the rate of profit 

The Theory of the Falling Rate of Profit - New Left Review

https://newleftreview.org/I/84/geoff-hodgson-the-theory-of-the-falling...

The similarity between the bourgeois concept of capital and the crude ‘embodied labour’ conception is reflected in the similarity between the falling rate of profit theory and the neoclassical growth model. The neoclassical economist R. M. Solow published his Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth 29 in 1956.

Falling Rate of Profit: Falsifiable or not? | SpringerLink

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-07808-8_7

2022-07-21 · 1 Introduction. This chapter aims to evaluate some aspects of Alfred Saad-Filho’s interpretation of Marxian value theory (Saad-Filho, 2002, 2018 ), focusing on its implication on the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (LTRPF). Saad-Filho’s understanding of value theory essentially advanced the logic of Ben Fine, who ...

 ABC News' Linsey Davis spoke with Kevin Hazzard about his new book "American Sirens" and the group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics.

Detained US citizen Namazi allowed to leave Iran


Detained US citizen and former UNICEF official Baquer Namazi has been allowed to leave Iran. (Twitter)

AFP, Washington
Published: 05 October ,2022: 09:31 AM GSTUpdated: 05 October ,2022: 09:56 AM GST

Detained US citizen Baquer Namazi has been allowed to leave Iran and his son has been granted furlough from prison, the State Department said Wednesday, confirming their release.

Namazi, a former UNICEF official, was detained in February 2016 when the 85-year-old went to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.

The United States has been pressing for the release of these two men and two other Americans amid efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major Western powers.

“Wrongfully detained US citizen Baquer Namazi has been permitted to depart Iran, and his son Siamak, also wrongfully detained, has been granted furlough from prison,” a State Department spokesperson told AFP.

It added that the older Namazi “was unjustly detained in Iran and then not permitted to leave the county after serving his sentence, despite his repeated requirement for urgent medical attention.”

“We understand that the lifting of the travel ban and his son’s furlough were related to his medical requirement.”

The United Nations said last week that the pair had been allowed to leave Iran, after an appeal from its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Both were convicted of espionage in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Baquer Namazi was released on medical leave in 2018 and had been serving his sentence under house arrest.

At least two other American citizens are currently held in Iran.

Businessman Emad Sharqi was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for espionage, and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who is also a British national, was arrested in 2018 and released on bail in July.

A drive to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal resumed in late November last year, after talks were suspended in June as Iran elected ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi.

The 2015 deal -- agreed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

But the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 under president Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin rolling back on its commitments.

On Sunday, the United States rejected Iranian reports that Tehran’s release of US citizens would lead to the unfreezing of Iranian funds abroad.

“With the finalization of negotiations between Iran and the United States to release the prisoners of both countries, $7 billion of Iran’s blocked resources will be released,” the state news agency IRNA said.

But the State Department dismissed any such link as “categorically false.”

Billions of dollars in Iranian funds have been frozen in a number of countries -- notably China, South Korea and Japan -- since the US reimposed sanctions.

Iranian-American, 85, held in Tehran for six years leaves Iran


By Parisa Hafezi, Arshad Mohammed

DUBAI (Reuters) - Baquer Namazi, an 85-year-old Iranian American who was jailed in Iran on spying charges that the United States called baseless, arrived in Muscat on Wednesday after Iran allowed him to leave for medical treatment, an Omani government office said on Twitter.

Earlier, a lawyer for the Namazi family, Jared Genser, said Namazi was on his way to Muscat “after more than 6.5 years of illegal detention in Iran”, referring to the time Namazi was jailed as well as when he was out of prison but effectively barred from leaving Iran.

“After a brief transit, he will travel on to Abu Dhabi and then undergo a carotid endarterectomy at the Cleveland Clinic (there) to clear out a severe blockage to his left internal carotid artery (ICA), which puts him at very high risk for a stroke,” Genser added in a statement.

His departure from Iran was first reported by Iran’s state media, publishing a video showing him boarding a private plane accompanied by a man in Omani national dress, but it did not say where he was headed.

The video showed him struggling to climb the stairs to board the plane, on which the light blue insignia of the Royal Air Force of Oman could be seen.

Namazi, a former official with the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, holds U.S. and Iranian citizenship and was one of four Iranian Americans, including his son Siamak, detained in Iran in recent years or barred from leaving the country

Namazi was convicted in 2016 of “collaboration with a hostile government” and jailed for 10 years. Iranian authorities released him on medical grounds in 2018 and closed his case in 2020, commuting his sentence to time served.

However, they had effectively barred him from leaving until Saturday, when the United Nations said he would be allowed to leave for medical treatment.

His son Siamak, 51, who was also convicted of “collaboration with a hostile government” in 2016, was released from Tehran’s Evin prison Saturday on a one-week, renewable furlough after nearly seven years in detention.

The U.S. government has described the charges against both as baseless.

In the statement released by the family’s lawyer, Babak Namazi, Baquer Namazi’s son, voiced gratitude for his father’s departure from Iran but sorrow at his brother Siamak’s inability to leave the country.

“While getting my father out of Iran is incredibly important, today is also bittersweet. My brother Siamak as well as Americans Emad (Shargi) and Morad Tahbaz remain detained in Iran and our nightmare will not be over until our entire family (and) the other Americans are reunited with their families,” he said.

The other U.S. citizens detained in Iran include environmentalist Tahbaz, 67, who also has British nationality, and businessman Shargi, 58.

“Today is a good day for the Namazi family, but the work is far from over. We now need the United States and Iran to act expeditiously to reach an agreement that will finally bring all of the American hostages home,” Genser, the family’s lawyer, said, adding that Baquer Namazi will immediately go to the hospital upon his arrival in Abu Dhabi.

It was not immediately clear why Iran had allowed Baquer Namazi to leave the country and Siamak Namazi to be furloughed from prison.

Iranian Americans, whose U.S. citizenship is not recognized by Tehran, are often pawns between the two nations, now at odds over whether to revive a fraying 2015 pact under which Iran limited its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

Iran is also grappling with the biggest show of opposition to its clerical authorities since 2019 with dozens of people killed in unrest across the country ignited by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman.

Hong Kong 'Rick and Morty' fans spot protest codes in new episode

Issued on: 05/10/2022 - 

The animated characters Rick and Morty present onstage at the 70th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2018 

Hong Kong (AFP) – Eagle-eyed Hong Kong fans of the adult cartoon sitcom "Rick and Morty" have spotted oblique references to the city's democracy movement in the latest episode of the cult sci-fi show.

"Final DeSmithation", the fifth episode of the sixth season, aired on Sunday and featured a characteristically chaotic storyline involving an imprisoned alien making fortune cookies.

Towards the climax a series of numbers and letters flash up on the screen that, to the uninitiated, might look random.

But the codes -- GFHG19SDGM, 721DLLM and 19HK831 -- were quickly seized on by Hong Kongers who spotted and explained their significance this week on Reddit and the local forum LIHKG.

The first is widely used as shorthand for the Cantonese protest chant "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" -- a slogan that has since been declared illegal in the Chinese financial hub.

The other two reference significant dates in the 2019 pro-democracy protest movement -- namely a July 21 attack on protesters by government supporters, and police beating democracy supporters inside a subway station on August 31.

DLLM is also internet shorthand for the most popular curse in Hong Kong -- an insult to the recipient's mother -- which was frequently shouted by police and protesters at each other.

"Thank you to the producers of Rick and Morty," wrote one user under a post on LIHKG that had received nearly 5,000 upvotes.

Others fretted the episode might get removed in Hong Kong, which has embraced greater censorship since the 2019 protests.

"If this receives exposure and the company kowtows, someone might lose their job," one user wrote.

Created by Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim, "Rick and Morty" has become a cult hit.

The show centres around a selfish, alcoholic grandfather who takes his grandson on bizarre interdimensional adventures.

It is distributed internationally by Warner Brothers and is currently viewable in Hong Kong on HBO Go.

AFP contacted both Adult Swim and Warner Brothers for comment but did not receive a reply.

Hong Kong's 2019 democracy protests raged for months but were eventually quelled, and China has responded with a widespread crackdown that has transformed the once-outspoken city.

Censorship laws have been strengthened, with multiple films and documentaries failing to get clearance although the city does not currently have the same level of restrictions as the Chinese mainland.

© 2022 AFP