'We don't eat lithium': Latin America longs for benefits of metal boon

Global demand has exploded for lithium – the "white gold" found in huge quantities in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. But in Latin America's "lithium triangle," there are growing concerns about the impact on regional groundwater sources and doubts about whether the benefits of a metal bonanza will truly local communities near plants, many of whom live in poverty.

The turquoise glimmer of open-air pools contrasts sharply with the dazzling white of salt flats in Latin America's "lithium triangle," where hope resides for a better life fuelled by a metal bonanza.

A key component of batteries used in electric cars, demand has exploded for lithium – the "white gold" found in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile in quantities larger than anywhere else in the world.

And as the world seeks to move away from fossil fuels, lithium production – and prices – have skyrocketed, as have the expectations of communities near lithium plants, many of whom live in poverty.

But there are growing concerns about the impact on groundwater sources in regions already prone to extended droughts, with recent evidence of tree and flamingo die-offs.

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And there are scant signs to date of benefits trickling down.

"We don't eat lithium, nor batteries. We do drink water," said Verónica Chávez, 48, president of the Santuario de Tres Pozos Indigenous community near the town of Salinas Grandes in Argentina's lithium heartland.

A poster that meets visitors to Salinas Grandes reads: "No to lithium, yes to water and life."

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Lithium extraction requires millions of litres of water per plant per day.

Unlike in Australia – the world's top lithium producer that extracts the metal from rock – in South America it is derived from salares, or salt flats, where saltwater containing the metal is brought from underground briny lakes to the surface to evaporate.

Soaring prices

About 56 percent of the world's 89 million tons of identified lithium resources are found in the South American triangle, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The world average price rose from US$5,700 per ton in November 2020 to US$60,500 in September this year.

Chile hosts the westernmost corner of the lithium triangle in its Atacama desert, which contributed 26 percent of global production in 2021, according to the USGS, in second place behind Australia with 55 percent.

In the brown, rocky Salar de Atacama, trucks zigzag between pools where the brine, a mixture of water and salts, slowly evaporates before being taken to a chemical plant to separate the lithium from the liquid.

"It is by far the best salt flat in the world," Juan Carlos Guajardo, director of the Plusmining consultancy firm, told AFP.

The country started lithium extraction in 1984 and has been a leader in the field partly because of low rainfall levels and high solar radiation that speeds up the evaporation process.

But Chilean law has made it difficult for companies to gain concessions from the government since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet declared the metal a "strategic resource" for its potential use in nuclear bombs.

Only two companies have permits to exploit the metal – Chile's SQM and American Albemarle, which pay up to 40 percent of their sales in tax, as well as millions of dollars to nearby communities.

Reacting to the boom, leftist President Gabriel Boric has promised to create a national lithium company, but without excluding private participation.

Dead flamingos

In the first quarter of this year, lithium's contribution to Chile’s public coffers surpassed its mainstay metal, copper, for the first time, according to government records.

Faced with the boom, leftist President Gabriel Boric has promised to create a national lithium company, but without excluding private participation.

Yet, the environmental costs are starting to stack up, and locals fear there is worse to come. This year, a study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences found a link between lithium mining and a decline in two flamingo species in the Salar de Atacama.

"The development of technologies to slow climate change has been identified as a global imperative. Nonetheless, such 'green' technologies can potentially have negative impacts on biodiversity," said the study.

In 2013, an inspection at the SQM site –– which reported using nearly 400,000 litres of water per hour in 2022 –– found that a third of carob trees in the area had died. A later study pointed to water scarcity as a possible cause.

"We want to know, for sure, what has been the real impact of the extraction of groundwater," said Claudia Pérez, 49, a resident of the nearby San Pedro river valley.

She was not against lithium, said Pérez, provided there are measures to "minimise the negative impact on people."

'Leave us alone'

Across the Andes in Argentina, the salt lakes of Jujuy host the world's second-largest lithium resources along with the neighbouring provinces of Salta and Catamarca.

With few restrictions on extraction and a low tax of only three percent, Argentina has become the world's fourth-biggest lithium producer from two mines: US-based firm Livent has had one going since the 1990s and the other, more recently, is a state partnership with Australian and Japanese firms.

With dozens of new projects in the works with the involvement of US, Chinese, French, South Korean and local companies, crisis-hit Argentina has said it hopes to exceed Chilean production by 2030.

According to Roberto Salvarezza, president of state-owned YPF-Litio and YPF-Tec firms, production could increase fivefold by 2025.

Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales even invited US tycoon Elon Musk, via Twitter back in April, to invest in the province when the Tesla boss complained about the high price of lithium.

But not everyone is sold on the idea.

"It is not, as they say, that they [lithium companies] are going to save the planet... Rather it is us who have to give our lives to save the planet," said Chávez, of Santuario de Tres Pozos in Jujuy Province.

In 2019, local inhabitants expelled two mining companies that wanted to establish themselves in the area.

A few metres away, Bárbara Quipildor, 47, makes empanadas in a small shack made of salt.

"I want them to leave us alone, in peace. I don't want the lithium, even though I know there is a lot of money," she says. “My concern is the future of my children's children."

Will locals benefit?

About 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Jujuy, the Salar of Uyuni in Bolivia holds more lithium than anywhere else –– a quarter of global resources, according to the USGS.

It is in Potosí, a region rich in silver and tin that for centuries drove the economy of the Spanish empire. But today, more than half of the residents in the region are poor.

At the beginning of his term in office, Bolivia’s former leftist president Evo Morales (2006-2019) nationalised hydrocarbons and other resources, including lithium, vowing that his country would set the metal’s global price,

Morales has called on the rest of the region to follow his example. In Mexico, lithium was nationalised last April.

In Río Grande, a small town near the Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) lithium plant, Morales' plans were met with excitement.

In 2014 Donny Ali, a lawyer now aged 34, opened a hotel with the expectation of an economic boom. He called it Hotel Lithium.

"Our communities are forgotten. We were expecting major industrial technological development and more than anything, better living conditions," he told AFP, sitting on a sofa in a hotel with no guests. "It didn't happen."

Today, Bolivia still does not produce the metal on an industrial scale.

Hoping to boost the struggling lithium sector, the government opened it up to private hands in 2018, though domestic legislation has not yet denationalised the resource, and no private extraction has yet begun.

"Some think that Bolivia will 'miss the boat' on lithium," said Juan Carlos Zuleta, a lithium specialist and economist who briefly headed YLB in 2020. "I don’t think that’s going to happen."

The real question, he said, is: when the boat comes, "will lithium extraction benefit Bolivians?"

‘The next China’

Last year, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington attributed "unfavourable investment climates and more challenging geographic conditions" as the reasons for why Argentina and Bolivia lag behind Chile in tapping their vast lithium resources.

Despite the differences, all three countries are now looking towards battery manufacturing – possibly even building electric cars – as a way to turn the natural lithium bounty into a modern-day industrial revolution.

Argentina is closer to batteries, with a state-run pilot plant scheduled to begin operations in December.

"South America has all the raw materials needed to produce batteries and electric vehicles," explained Zuleta.

"There is a concrete possibility for Latin America to become the next China," said the expert.

In the meantime, the Hotel Lithium remains empty and the communities of the salt flats are on the warpath for water.

by Martín Silva, AFP

ARGENTINA 

Kelly 'Raquel' Olmos: ‘Constructing an institutional leadership has always been a very big challenge for Peronism’

New Labour Minister Kelly 'Raquel' Olmos on Argentina’s labour movement, employment rights, collective bargaining, and Alberto Fernández’s re-election hopes.

JORGE FONTEVECCHIA
Cofundador de Editorial Perfil - CEO de Perfil Network.

Raquel ‘Kelly’ Olmos, Argentina’s brand-new Labour minister and a fundamental Peronist cadre, trusts in being able to build bridges between all the branches of the movement.

Olmos, 69, is laying her bets on dialogue and clear ground rules “to favour a process permitting us to grow in unity.”

Minister, thank you very much for granting us your first long interview, exposing yourself at a time when the Labour Ministry is in the centre of discussion. I’ll start with a cyclical question about the tension surrounding the wage bargaining with the teamsters, which finally ended up with a 107 percent hike, above your own government’s inflation forecast of 95 percent for this year.

What happens is that the 107 percent covers a period of 16 months. If taken since it was last updated from May to May, the wage bargaining agreement is for an 85 percent annual increase plus a one-off bonus of 100,000 pesos, which will be paid in four instalments.

So finally similar to inflation ...

Exactly.

Your predecessor had a singular record for Argentina of almost three years in the Ministry without major labour conflicts. How do you imagine the just over a year remaining in the Alberto Fernández Presidency working out?

I imagine collective wage bargaining with strong and important dynamics, obviously due to the high inflation. But these dynamics are truly producing very positive results since the sectors of both workers and businessmen are reaching agreement. There might be some more or less tense situations and even conflict during the negotiations. That’s OK but the most important thing is how they are finally resolved. I believe in effect that the mechanism of resolution strengthens the democratic process because things are properly resolved.

We are undergoing a more complex situation than during the three previous Peronist governments under Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, yet there was more conflict beforehand than now. To what do you attribute that?

On the one hand, conflicts in general have to do with the possibility of improving wages because when jobs are lacking, there tends to be less conflict. In that event there is some kind of social explosion afterwards, but the struggle for wages is much more active when closer to full employment, which is a general characteristic of all societies.

Here we have a particular situation – firstly, we received an inheritance of a whole bunch of restrictions from the Mauricio Macri presidency, which had no pandemic nor war to worry about but nevertheless handed over to us a government conditioned by a severe crisis on its external front, somewhat camouflaged by the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, but wages lost over 20 percent of their purchasing-power on average. On coming to office Alberto Fernández immediately tried to tone up demand via a generalised wage increase, the Tarjeta Alimentar food stamps and a pension increase, but just when we were entering into a process of recovery, the pandemic came along. During the pandemic, when job protection was the most important thing, the state even financed wages with a moratorium, the IFE emergency family assistance and transfer mechanisms for informal sectors. All the work went on trying to reduce the damage from the need for isolation ahead of the existence of vaccines.

Afterwards we pushed a very vigorous process of economic recovery. We might recall that many economists said that we were going to take four or five years to recover the losses from the pandemic, and we managed to recover in only one year. The reality is that we burned up a very high level of reserves, gambling on the success of demonstrating the vigour of the Argentine productive system in being able to recover so quickly. [This year] 2022 was thus always going to be the year for accumulating reserves, also according to our pact with the IMF, because we all know that the crises on the external front are what destabilise Argentina so it became very important to strengthen our foreign currency reserves. Neither had we foreseen war with the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory, which had an enormous impact on food and, above all, fuel prices, which signified an imbalance in our foreign trade with over US$5 billion which had been earmarked for boosting our reserves going on the purchase of energy. But we succeeded in avoiding any shortages in the access to energy, either from the viewpoint of the citizenry or the productive system. Now we are making an effort. All this creates tensions and imbalances which express themselves in an inflationary process which the world has not known for four decades. In Argentina, with an impact of those characteristics, amplified by our structural inflation, we now have to work hard on stabilisation, and that is the effort of our entire government with restrictions which do not affect growth nor our capacity for job creation.



In that context, I repeat the question: how did [former Labour minister Claudio] Moroni manage to avoid major conflicts, apart from the tyre workers, making that all the more striking?

By working hard to maintain and open up collective wage bargaining, the negotiations between workers and management, which are truly exemplary. You have to be present to see how they have reached a culture of dialogue and agreement, projecting a very virtuous model. When we are so used to ferocious criticisms of Argentina every day, I realise that we have very important democratic reserves.



Does the capacity to resolve, for example, a conflict like the teamsters – originally asking for an annual increase of 137 percent yet settling for 107 percent but over 16 months but 85 percent annually plus a bonus of 100,000 pesos placing them around four percent ahead for the year, along with the approval of a budget exempting the travel expenses of truck-drivers from income tax – does all this mean that you have finally found the way around inflation?

Yes, with rational and objective work and above all with our leaders practised in dialogue, both businessmen and workers. The truth is that Argentina has an exemplary labour movement. The countries with weakened labour movements have deteriorated as democracies. We have many deficits and pending issues but we can display a vigorous labour movement, which also corresponds to a business world often not given the visibility it deserves. Because in the construction of public opinion there often appear some big businessmen who hardly represent businessmen as a whole who work daily side by side with workers to reach agreements.



Consulting you as an economist, help me to understand the job problems in Argentina in recent years. We come from the same generation, so we can both remember 1974 as the last year when Argentina had four percent poverty, a per capita income comparable to Australia or Canada and seven million in private-sector registered employment. Nearly 50 years later today they are still seven million with double the 1974 population. What is your macro-economic analysis of this situation?

The international context has changed fundamentally. You are quite right to highlight the year 1974. It should be remembered that this was the period of the oil crisis, rupturing the dynamics of the International Labour Organisation when we were developing an import substitution which dynamised the Argentine productive system, as you have very well described. The 1974 oil crisis fundamentally impoverished Europe, which was the most affected. At that time Europe was our leading importer with our main export beef. Our annual exports were then, if I remember correctly, around US$500 million. As from that winter beef became a luxury in Europe and Argentine exports plunged while a high level of imports was required because, thanks to the programme of stabilisation of (then-economy minister José Ber) Gelbard, Argentina had an extremely high level of economic activity and, in consequence, needed to import many inputs and capital goods. That triggered an external crisis which ended up in the Rodrigazo price instability, which served as the excuse for a coup d’état, which also wanted to make Peronism and the entire popular and national movement disappear in a holocaust of over 30,000 comrades. They established or installed Argentina within a system of speculative flight capital, a process of clearly speculative indebtedness which the Peronist government had not wanted to adopt.

You will recall that it was the tablita exchange rate sliding scale of [junta Economy Minister José] Martínez de Hoz, where the differential between an exchange rate known in advance and very high interest rates favoured a tremendous process of going into debt very similar to what happened recently with the Mauricio Macri administration. Thereafter, the debt is nationalised while the hard currency thus acquired is transformed into the creation of external assets or capital flight, as it is more vulgarly known. That knocked the structure out of the Argentine productive system, deepening what Marcelo Diamand has called the imbalanced economic structure. Today we must revert that situation by strongly modifying the inheritance of the productive matrix remaining from that period and incorporating dynamic new sectors for the international market in order for the access to hard currency not to be concentrated in the farm export sector, as it is now. In that sense we must again boost the competitive capacity of our industrial sector, promoting and adding value to the mining and lithium sectors and the knowledge economy, which is the focus of our government.



Minister, the military dictatorship lasted seven years and we have had 50 years of neo-decadence. Isn’t there something more to it?

Yes, the strong imbalance between how quickly things can be destroyed and how long it takes to rebuild them. It also has to do with the institutional system. For example, in the first government of [Juan Domingo] Perón, the electoral system was governed by the Sáenz Peña law whereby the winner took two-thirds of the seats even if ahead by only vote – in consequence, a system slanted towards governability. We have currently evolved towards a much more representative system, which has its virtues but has weakened the system’s ability to respond to governance issues. This is not just limited to Argentina, it’s pretty general, expressed today in the discontent of majorities with ineffective systems...



The limited capacity the governments have to transform?

Exactly. A system more geared to representation than governance reproduces the status quo or at least that’s what we see to be happening.



I obviously share the idea that things are destroyed much faster than they are constructed but aren’t there other more structural motives to explain the number of people without access to a registered job in the private sector, as well as the number in the underground or “popular” economy or the self-employed? For example, the structure of globalisation, in which it is impossible for developing countries to compete with the likes of China?

Yes, I think that the development of China had characteristics which affected us because their competition was initially far more based on cheap labour than technological development – that has gone varying since.



Are we entering a positive cycle because its level of development no longer hinges on cheap labour while food and other inputs begin to be bought?

Thanks to their having generated a positive social mobility, they need food of better quality like what we could supply. That’s why the challenge is not to sell animal feed but those proteins which can go directly to supermarket shelves in the form of food with added value. The pandemic has also had a huge impact in modifying the chain …


Via globalisation.

Within the global system of production, and I believe there’s going to be a...

A return to a closer supply chain.

More regional and continental, which should be observed very closely.


In an interview within this same series the current PRO chair Patricia Bullrich said that at the IDEA business symposium she heard several trade unionists say that labour reform was necessary. Obviously what kind of labour reform would then need to be discussed but what is your view as to the need for labour reform and if so, what kind?

Any system for organising labour can always be perfected and should adapt itself to the dynamics of the context. In my view the system should be updated via collective bargaining agreements. We have seen, for example, a virtuous circle at Toyota, which has permitted not only Toyota but also the entire sector to become an important exporter with a far more national composition in car manufacture. But I don’t agree with the proposals expressed by Macri in his latest book, which is heading towards a society without rights. I don’t believe that is good.

When you speak with leaders of the “popular economy” who propose the idea of permanent self-employment, they tell you that it is necessary to register the enormous number of people who cannot be employed via the traditional system of companies as formally self-employed. What is your opinion regarding self-employment as a cycle, a crutch within a process of development or something which should be permanent?

I hope it’s a process of transition because self-employment confers fewer rights than formal employment. It seems to me an effort which must be made. In fact, in Argentina today formal employment is growing at an annual rate of six percent, which is very vigorous and very good and we have to make an enormous effort to make informal employment and self-employment a transit route towards formal employment, with rights.

Let me take advantage of all your experience as a Peronist cadre beyond the Labour Ministry. How do you see Peronism today and the internal differences within what we might call pan-Peronism?

Constructing institutional leadership has always been a very big challenge for Peronism and we’re seeing how we can face up to that difficulty today.

To what do you attribute that customary difficulty of Peronism?

That’s because we have a culture which has always been very associated with personal leadership and we need to make the transition towards a more institutional construction but it’s proving difficult for us.

You were named as a minister along with two other women and the whole press commented that it was the sole decision of the president without consulting the other two important Frente de Todos leaders, namely Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Sergio Massa. When the president named you, did you at any point ask yourself whether it was important to have the approval of the vice-president and the economy minister?

Sincerely, no. The president proposed me for a Cabinet post and I accepted. I’ve been trained over 50 years to take on challenges committed to the doctrine in which I believe and with the political vision in which I participate – I wasn’t going to abandon the battlefield in the moment in which they summoned me to take on that responsibility.

The biggest responsibility of all those you’ve had.

Sincerely. Now, of course, I want my running of the Ministry to be approved as much by the president, who is undoubtedly the one primarily responsible for government policies, as by the remaining members of Frente de Todos. On both sides I feel myself to be very committed, both in emotional and political terms.

Do you think Alberto Fernández will be among those running in the PASO primaries?

Yes, beyond doubt he could be an option for next year. We need to boost his administration and empower the presidential figure politically while favouring and permitting comrades with legitimate interests to express them and participate. It seems to me that is what is called for.

And so how would you imagine that amalgam then?

By agreeing on the ground rules. That is what you see in collective bargaining – when there is clarity as to the ground rules and a methodology accepted by all sides, you get results.

So would collective bargaining be the ground rules in that sense?

In collective bargaining there are ground rules which have been incorporated, accepted and matured by both sides. In the case of politics we also have to agree on ground rules to favour a process which permits us to grow in unity.


Production: Melody Acosta Rizza and Sol Bacigalupo.

RED JOE

Joe Manchin Blasts Joe Biden Days Before Midterm: 'Divorced From Reality'

Manchin And Biden Always Had 'Friendly Relationship': 'It's Never Personal'

BY FATMA KHALED ON 11/5/22 

Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, criticized President Joe Biden over his comments about closing coal plants across the country, calling them "divorced from reality" just a few days before the midterm elections.

During a speech in California on Friday, the president said that coal plants cost too much money and that his administration will "be shutting these plants down all across America" and have "wind and solar" energy instead.

"No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it, even if they have all the coal guaranteed for the rest of their existence of the plant," the president added. "So it's going to become a wind generation."

Manchin, whose state is one of the largest coal producers in the country, blasted the president in a statement on his website on Saturday.

Above, Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, is seen on September 22 in Washington, D.C. Manchin criticized President Joe Biden over his comments about closing coal plants across the country, calling them "divorced from reality" just a few days before the midterm elections.PHOTO BY KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES

"President Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs," Manchin said. "Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure."


The senator's remarks come during a busy weekend for Biden and Democrats who are trying to gain support from voters for Tuesday's midterm elections. Biden is rallying in Pennsylvania on Saturday and Florida on Sunday while Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make a stop in Illinois on Sunday.

"It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day. Politicizing our nation's energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people," Manchin said in his statement.

The West Virginia senator also said that Biden "never" mentioned shutting down coal plants to him and added that "being cavalier about the loss of coal jobs for men and women in West Virginia and across the country who literally put their lives on the line to help build and power this country is offensive and disgusting."

Trump Says Joe Manchin 'off the Rails,' Should Have Joined GOP 'Long Ago'

Manchin concluded his statement by saying that Biden owes workers at coal plants an "immediate and public" apology, and that the president should learn that his words have consequences.

During a podcast in July, the senator said that even though he thinks Biden is "a good person," he disagrees with the president over his "lack" of energy policy and his handling of record-high inflation.

Meanwhile, Manchin said in July during a podcast that even though he thinks Biden is "a good person," he disagrees with the president over his "lack" of energy policy and his handling of record-high inflation.

Manchin has been repeatedly criticized by members of his own party for not supporting some of the issues on his party's agenda such as the rules of the filibuster, which Democrats want to change so that Republicans can't use it to block Democratic bills in an evenly divided Senate.

Killing journalists: Qatar expresses ‘deep concern’ over impunity

Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli sniper in May but no one has been held accountable.

Deputy foreign minister Lolwah al-Khater underscored the need to work on protecting journalists, especially those who report from conflict zones [File: Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency]

By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 5 Nov 2022

Qatar has demanded accountability for the killing of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a conference on the safety of journalists, saying “hold Israel accountable”.

Assistant foreign minister Lolwah al-Khater addressed participants in Vienna, Austria on Friday, expressing “deep concern at the persistence of impunity for violations and crimes committed against journalists”.

KEEP READING

Abu Akleh killing: 100 days on, family still fighting for justice

Joint investigation finds Abu Akleh’s killing ‘deliberate’

Shireen Abu Akleh’s family submits complaint to ICC

Israel says ‘high possibility’ its army killed Shireen Abu Akleh

“The murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh highlights the fact that protection and prevention methods are only effective when combined with prosecution mechanisms,” al-Khater said.

On May 11, the Palestinian-American television correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic arrived in Jenin in the occupied West Bank to report on a raid by Israeli forces on a refugee camp while wearing a protective vest, clearly marked with “PRESS”.

Abu Akleh, 51, was standing with other journalists when she was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper.



“Shireen dedicated her life working to shed light on the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people, she was one of over 45 journalists killed by Israeli forces since 2000,” al-Khater said.

She underscored the need to work on protecting journalists, especially those who report from conflict zones, and “no exceptions are made when we hold those responsible accountable”.

During her speech, al-Khater also shared words from the Abu Akleh family.

“Shireen was targeted while fulfilling her professional duty as a journalist working on covering events and reporting them to the world. She sacrificed her life, and this is another reason that the international community must confront and hold Israel accountable, no matter what,” she quoted a family member as saying.

The conference on November 3 and 4 in Austria’s capital marked the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists and the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

In September, Israel said there was a “high possibility” that Abu Akleh was “accidentally hit” by Israeli army fire, but added it would not launch a criminal investigation.

Numerous detailed investigations, including by the United Nations, found Abu Akleh was shot by an Israeli soldier.

Her family has accused Israel of trying to “obscure the truth and avoid responsibility for killing Shireen Abu Akleh”.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/11/shireen-abu-akleh-qatar-demands.html

'This is an attempt to prevent abortion at any cost': the US anti-abortion extremists targeting Britain

Claire Cohen - Yesterday 

It is 8.30 on an autumnal Wednesday morning, and a group of people are standing on a grass verge outside Bournemouth’s abortion clinic. One middle-aged man holds up rosary beads. A silver-haired woman is carrying a placard which reads ‘Pregnant? Need Help?’ and is accompanied by a phone number. They have gathered to protest against abortion as part of a six-week ‘vigil’ organised by Texas-based group 40 Days For Life.


Anti-abortion demonstrators hold placards in a pro-life protest in Parliament Square, London, last month - Alastair Grant/AP© Alastair Grant/AP

The group holds internationally-coordinated demonstrations around the world, twice a year - but this is the first since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade in June, after which a dozen US states banned abortion in almost all circumstances.

And, since the demonstration began in September, anti-abortion protesters have gathered in more than a dozen other cities across Britain, including Leeds, Reading, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Cardiff, Liverpool, Southampton and Brighton - hundreds of volunteers operating a rota system to ensure a round-the-clock presence.

"We have seen an increase in protests outside clinics since Roe was overturned. It feels like they've been emboldened. As though they think this is their time," says Katherine O’Brien at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), the UK’s largest abortion provider.

Supporters of 40 Days for Life now stand accused of using US-style tactics to harass women as they enter clinics, including encouraging them to take so-called ‘abortion reversal pills’. These contain high levels of progesterone to, it is claimed, counter the effects of the medically approved abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Also known as 'telemedicine' or 'pills by post', these were widely adopted during the pandemic, so women could manage their own abortions - within the first ten weeks of pregnancy - at home.



Protesters in favour of abortion rights at the US Embassy in London in June this year following the US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade - Vudi Xhymshiti/Anadolu© Provided by The Telegraph

On August 30 this year, the telemedicine system became permanent in England and Wales, meaning that it now tends to be the most vulnerable who attend clinics in person: under-16s, women experiencing abuse, or those who have had a diagnosis of foetal anomaly in a wanted pregnancy. It is they who have to run the gauntlet of the protestors standing outside.

There have been fresh concerns that this so-called ‘reversal’ treatment may be offered at a new ‘crisis pregnancy centre’ which opened last month in Edinburgh and is funded by US group Stanton Healthcare, founded by US Christian activist Brandi Swindell and which has links to anti-abortion organisations. Its website promises to give women ‘alternatives to abortion’ but a spokesperson tells me that “there are no plans to offer abortion pill reversal”.

On its website, 40 Days for Life falsely states that ‘one in ten [women] experience immediate complications (many of them life-threatening) after taking the abortion pill.’ Yet NHS guidance makes it clear that just 1 in 1,000 abortions will have serious complications, such as heavy bleeding, while 70 in 1,000 may need a secondary, usually minor, procedure. This summer, the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists debunked the effectiveness of so-called ‘reversal pills’, saying that there is “no reputable evidence” they work. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has warned that given improperly, progesterone can cause damage to the nervous, cardiovascular and endocrine systems. A 2020 medical trial was ended after several patients experienced serious haemorrhaging.

In an email, 40 Days for Life founder Shawn Carney - a 40-year-old Texan and father of eight - tells me that it is an “absurd claim that volunteers are handing out unregulated pills, when in fact, volunteers are simply providing information for alternatives to abortion and giving women a choice if they want other options.”

He claims that since he started the group in 2004, it has ‘saved’ 22,031 lives in 64 countries and persuaded 242 abortion workers to quit their jobs.

Granted charitable status last year, Stanton Healthcare already has a ‘crisis centre’ in Belfast which opened in 2015 and has previously been accused, by an undercover reporter, of wrongly telling women that abortion causes breast cancer (accusations it has denied).

It does offer free ultrasound scans, in an echo of the tactics I witnessed when visiting an abortion clinic in the US state of Missouri in 2019, where protestors in official-looking hi vis jackets outside the clinic would persuade women to instead visit their ‘crisis center’ - stationed down the road in a bus - for a free ultrasound scan in an attempt to persuade them to continue with their pregnancy. Pro-choice charities are concerned that, in the UK, this could amount to “reproductive coercion”.

“It is incredibly worrying that anti-abortion groups are peddling a medication that carries two significant risks,” says O’Brien. “Firstly, there is absolutely no evidence that this non-treatment works in terms of preventing miscarriage or, as they would describe it, ‘reversing an abortion’. Secondly, there is also a very real risk of haemorrhage from using these medications.

“This is an attempt to prevent abortion at any cost – including a woman’s health and wellbeing. That protesters might be encouraging women to take potentially harmful medications is yet more evidence of the growing need for buffer zones.”

On October 18 MPs voted by 297 to 110 in favour of an amendment to the Government's Public Order Bill, which would introduce national buffer zones and make it a criminal offence punishable by up to six months in prison to harass, obstruct or interfere with any woman attending an abortion clinic or any member of staff.

It still has several stages to clear before becoming law, including going through the Lords.

Jessica Bone of Sister Supporter, a British advocacy group that campaigns for buffer zones, points out that to achieve this nation-wide “going to be hard work, given everything else that’s going on in the political sphere”.

Parliamentary documents previously revealed that US-funded anti-abortion group The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children had written letters in the hopes of influencing Parliament to drop the amendment.

In Scotland, a buffer-zone battle has also broken out. Nicola Sturgeon recently backed the development of a bill - also supported by the British Medical Association and Royal College of GPs - to introduce them for all clinics in the country. 40 Days For Life has said that it would be prepared to help mount a legal challenge to Scottish buffer zones, prompting Sturgeon to respond: "Am I surprised that they want to try and export that to other countries and to stir up the same sort of opposition to women's rights? No, I am not. But I am pretty determined that I will do everything I can to resist it.”



40 Days for Life protesters outside a Marie Stopes clinic in London, in 2010 -

 Susannah Ireland/REX/Shutterstock© Provided by The Telegraph

Meanwhile, campaigners and abortion care workers emphasise that such measures are needed more than ever. 40 Days For Life may claim that its supporters are engaged in “peaceful protest” including prayer, singing and fasting, but since the current demonstrations began on September 28, clinics around Britain have experienced what many describe as “harassment”.

“It does feel like something is shifting,” says O’Brien. “Protestors are turning up at clinics where we haven’t seen them before and being increasingly aggressive: standing outside the doors, directly approaching women with leaflets containing medically inaccurate information,” says O’Brien. “We've had baby booties lined up in bushes. And they pray so loudly that you can hear them in the consultation rooms. It’s incredibly distressing. The women we’re treating can come in close to panic attacks, in tears and really frightened.”

The current rhetoric of anti-abortion groups is keen to link the US and UK. On September 3, Carney flew to London ahead of the vigils to join a ‘March for Life’ and deliver a speech to a crowd of cheering supporters. “Greetings from a post-Roe United States of America!” he yelled. “We were able to overturn the law. If we can do it, you can do it.”

O’Brien confirms that US anti-abortion groups are actively recruiting in the UK, including younger members. “It’s mainly through churches and religious networks,” she says. “Sometimes churches will organise marches to the local abortion clinic, so they can have a vigil outside with the congregation. That increases numbers significantly.”

While the global trend edges towards decriminalisation, in Britain abortion remains illegal outside the 23 weeks and 6 day limit, and without the consent of two doctors. Two women in England are currently facing life sentences for ending their pregnancies outside these parameters. And while the Northern Ireland ban was overturned in 2019, the abortion service has yet to be commissioned - meaning 161 women travelled to England and Wales for terminations last year.

There are voices of dissent within the Government. Following the overturning of Roe, Conservative MP Danny Kruger said he didn’t agree that women had “an absolute right to bodily autonomy.” Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said that he would favour halving the time limit in the UK to 12 weeks, Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has voted against abortion rights and Jacob Rees-Mogg has said abortion is never justifiable, even in cases of rape.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has abstained on all major votes linked to abortion rights since becoming an MP in 2015 - including last month's buffer zone amendment - only casting a pro-abortion vote in April 2021, voting in favour of giving the Northern Ireland secretary powers to commission abortion services there.

Katherine O’Brien thinks we can’t afford to be complacent.

“We are a pro-choice country, but there's a growing number of extremists targeting women and the Government's inaction reinforces the idea that what they're doing is morally and socially acceptable.

“We can see that this is the direction of travel, so we in Britain have to stop and think 'Is this where we want to go?’"

LIKE UCP SMITH IN ALBERTA

Italy‘s New Government Changes Covid Measures

Italy’s anti-Covid policy has been one of the most consistent in Europe. The new Meloni government puts an end to this with the vaccination requirement for doctors and nurses to be abolished – but that’s not all.

New Health Minister Orazio Schillaci is in a hurry to reverse Italy’s anti-Covid policy. Already today, in the first cabinet meeting after the vote of confidence, the Meloni government wants to decide to abolish the obligation to vaccinate doctors and nurses.

Giorgia Meloni had announced in her government statement that her cabinet would “under no circumstances” continue what she considered too hard a line of the Draghi government in the fight against Covid.

Meloni and her ministers are moving in a dangerous direction, warns microbiologist Andrea Crisanti, one of the best-known corona experts in Italy during the pandemic and senator for the opposition Democrats since the election: “What Meloni says is proof that the memory is obvious vacation.”

Crisanti criticizes that she had forgotten “that Lombardy, in particular, has contributed dramatically to the high number of deaths and infections in the pandemic”.

Cancelling the vaccination requirement for medical staff is only part of the measures planned by the Italian government. In future, the current Covid numbers will no longer be announced daily but only once a week.

At the weekend, Finance and Economics Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti issued a temporary amnesty for those who refuse to vaccinate.

The Meloni government has stopped punishing those who refuse to vaccinate. Formally, the fines (each over 100 euros) are only suspended until June 30 next year – but this allowed the government to order the measure immediately.

Climate activists block private jets at Amsterdam’s main airport


Passengers inside Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. (AFP)

Reuters
Published: 05 November ,2022:

Hundreds of environmental activists wearing white overalls stormed an area holding private jets at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and stopped aircraft from leaving for hours by sitting in front of their wheels on Saturday.

Military police moved in and were seen taking dozens of the protesters away in buses. More than 100 activists were arrested, national broadcaster NOS reported.

The protest was part of a day of demonstrations in and around the air hub organized by Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion in the build-up to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt.

No delays to commercial flights were reported.

“We want fewer flights, more trains and a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and private jets,” Greenpeace Netherlands campaign leader Dewi Zloch said.

The environmental group says Schiphol is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, emitting 12 billion kilograms annually.

Hundreds of other demonstrators in and around the airport’s main hall carried signs saying “Restrict Aviation” and “More Trains.”

Responding to the protest, Schiphol said it aims to become an emissions-free airport by 2030 and supports targets for the aviation industry to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Military police tasked with airport security said in a statement they had “made a number of detentions of persons who were on airport property without being allowed.”

The Dutch government announced plans in June for a cap on annual passengers at the airport at 440,000, around 11 percent below 2019 levels, citing air pollution and climate concerns.

Transportation Minister Mark Harbers told parliament last month his office could not control growing private jet traffic, and the government is considering whether to include the issue in its climate policy.

Greece’s spyware scandal expands further

Some 33 people have been found to have traces of the illegal spyware Predator on their devices, including several members of the Cabinet, according to a newspaper report.

It is not clear whether all the people allegedly targeted 

have indeed clicked on the malicious link | Image via iStock

BY NEKTARIA STAMOULI
NOVEMBER 5, 2022 

ATHENS — Greece’s ever-expanding spyware scandal got another twist on Saturday with the publication of a long list of names of state officials, journalists and businesspeople targeted with malicious software.

According to Greek newspaper Documento, some 33 people have been found to have traces of the illegal spyware Predator on their devices, including several members of the Cabinet of the conservative New Democracy government and members of their families, politicians in the main opposition Syriza party, journalists and businesspeople mainly from the media sector.

It is not clear whether all the people allegedly targeted have indeed clicked on the malicious link, effectively having their devices to be eventually infected. Most of the officials contacted by the newspaper said they were not aware that they were targeted or wouldn’t comment.

Among the people on the list are the finance minister, the foreign minister, two ex-ministers of civil protection, the development minister, the labor minister and the tourism minister, along with their spouses, as well as already known targets like the opposition Pasok leader Nikos Androulakis and journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

In a statement late Saturday, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said the report is “overwhelming in narratives while the evidence is absent,” added though that the report “needs to be thoroughly investigated by the authorities and especially by the Greek Justice, even though there is no documentation of the publication.”

“It is unthinkable and dangerous to suggest that the prime minister was tapping the foreign minister,” an official close to the foreign minister said, adding that Greece is constantly taking measures to secure the communications of the foreign minister, as many inside and outside of Greece would like to hear the conversations.

Greece’s eavesdropping scandal started to unfold in the summer when Androulakis discovered an attempted Predator wiretap on his phone. In August, the government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged Androulakis had been under state surveillance (though not with Predator) — a move he called legal but wrong.

Since then, the saga has morphed into an espionage thriller that has involved spyware being planted on the phones of an ever-expanding network of politicians and journalists. Athens denies having ever used or purchased the illegal spyware.

A report in the Greek newspaper “Ta Nea” last weekend said that two ministers of the conservative government have been under surveillance “who seem to have had less-than-good relations with the prime minister’s associates.”

“Documento is set to publish a long list of persons targeted with Predator. Buckle up,” tweeted MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, who is the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee investigating the use of spyware in the EU. “Government ministers. Hello EU Commission are we paying attention? Another case of EU institutions being directly affected by spyware.”

“These are crucial times for democracy and justice,” the Syriza party said in a statement. “What a guilty PM now claims is of little importance. What matters is whether the judiciary finally rises to the occasion and whether the political system ultimately protects its basic dignity and democracy.”

The PEGA Committee completed its mission in Athens on Friday, but as ‘t Veld said, the group left “with perhaps more questions than we had when we arrived.”

At the same time, she noted in a press conference on Friday in Athens that everything suggests that circles within the Greek government were using the spyware.

“There are still 100 pieces missing, but you can see the image,” in ‘t Veld said. “Everything is pointing in the direction of people within government circles.”

“Do we have rock solid proof? No, we don’t because we don’t have the necessary information. If the authorities decide to declassify the information, then we would have that. We have to work on the basis of what we have,” in ‘t Veld said in Athens. “There is always the assumption of innocence, but that doesn’t mean we should be deaf and blind.”

She also said it is worrying that no material has been confiscated by the companies selling the spyware in Greece.

The chair of the PEGA Committee, Jeroen Lenaers, called on Athens to thoroughly investigate the allegations of abuse of surveillance. He added that the governments of Cyprus and Greece have made an effort to actively cooperate with the committee, responding to its questions and sharing their proposals for reforms that could bolster the fundamental rights of the citizens.

In the meantime, another report by the independent investigative website “Inside Story” said that in the days before the PEGA Committee’s arrival in Athens, an FBI team from the U.S. was in the Greek capital to investigate how far the illegal surveillance software has spread and who trafficked it.

The Greek administration had no knowledge of the visit, a government official said.

“The government will proceed with the universal ban on the purchase [of spyware], a move that will make Greece the first country in Europe to ban the circulation of malicious software in its territory,” Oikonomou said in the statement.

On Friday though, in ‘t Veld pointed to the fact that the use of this spyware is already illegal in Greece, so it would be more important to focus on the implementation of the legal framework.

With Greece heading to elections by next summer, in ‘t Veld underlined the need for the issue to be fully clarified before then.

“National elections are also European elections, so they have to be free and fair,” she said. “Any shadow has to be lifted before the elections.”

 

250 Metres of Nord Stream Destroyed

Metre-deep craters and a debris field on the seabed: An investigation by the operating company reveals for the first time the full extent of the damage to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. It is therefore destroyed over a length of 250 metres.

A good five weeks after leaks were discovered on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the Baltic Sea, the operator’s first investigation report is available. According to Nord Stream AG, a tube of the double strand was destroyed over a length of around 250 metres.

In a section in Swedish waters, three to five-meter-deep craters were discovered on the seabed. The craters are about 248 meters apart. Nord Stream AG announced that the section of line 1 of the pipeline in between had been destroyed. Debris from the line was distributed within a radius of at least 250 metres. The data would be further examined.

Last week, Nord Stream AG announced investigations in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Therefore, approval from the authorities was lacking for assessing the damage in the Danish EEZ. A special vessel was sent to one of the spots in Swedish waters where leaks were suspected.

At the end of September, four leaks in the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 were discovered after explosions near the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, two of them in the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Both double strands run from Russia to Lubmin in north-eastern Germany. Russia had pumped gas from Siberia to Germany and other European countries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline until the delivery stopped.

Both Denmark and Sweden concluded that explosions caused the leaks at the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. So far, it is unclear who might be behind it, and the EU and NATO, among others, assume sabotage.

IRONIC SINCE HINDUTVA IS ARYANISM
At UN, India votes in favor of Russian resolution on 'Combating glorification of Nazism'

ANI
6th November 2022

New York [US], November 5 (ANI): India at United Nations voted in favour of Russia's draft resolution on "Combating glorification of Nazism."Amid the spirited debate, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a draft resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism by a recorded vote of 105 in favour to 52 against, with 15 abstentions.

The representative of India said that the concept of Indigenous Peoples is not applicable in the country's context, adding that it joins consensus on the resolution with this understanding.

The committee approved eight draft resolutions, including Texts on Indigenous Peoples' Rights, Privacy in Digital Age, Condemning Glorification Of Nazism.

The draft resolutions covered a range of human rights issues, from the right to literacy and protection of children from sexual exploitation to matters of crime prevention and criminal justice as well as efforts to combat the glorification of Nazism.

The draft resolution had the Assembly express deep concern about glorifying the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including erecting monuments and holding public demonstrations in glorifying the Nazi past.

Russian Federation's delegate voiced concern over an increase in racist and xenophobic rhetoric, calls to deport migrants and refugees, Islamophobia, Afrophobia and antisemitism, the UN said in its release.

Several delegates took to the floor to express concerns over Moscow's attempt to exploit the pretext of combating neo-Nazism to justify its brutal war against Ukraine, with Ukraine's delegate asserting that the draft has nothing in common with the genuine fight against Nazism and neo-Nazism.

Echoing his concerns, the United Kingdom's delegate stressed that the resolution is part of Moscow's attempt to justify its aggression against Ukraine by furthering lies and distorting history.

The United States' delegate called the resolution "a cynical attempt" of Moscow to further its geopolitical aims by invoking the Holocaust and Second World War. In the same vein, Australia's delegate called Moscow's weaponization of the Holocaust and Nazism unacceptable.

Meanwhile, several delegates disassociated from the amendment, which notes with alarm that the Russian Federation seeks to justify its territorial aggression against Ukraine on the purported basis of eliminating neo-Nazism. Rejecting the amendment, as it politicizes the issue of elimination of racism while introducing a narrow, country-specific approach, the delegate of the Russian Federation said that "this is a thematic resolution, not a country-resolution". (ANI)