Cows fed hemp produced milk with THC, acted buzzed: Study

Story by Postmedia News • Sunday, 11/20/22

A cow takes a close up during the Canadian Dairy XPO on April 4, 2019 in Stratford

.© Provided by Toronto Sun

Dairy cows fed industrial hemp produced milk that had detectable levels of THC, the intoxicating ingredient in marijuana, says a German study.

The cows fed THC — delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol– also displayed signs of behavioural changes including yawning, salivating more than usual and moving unsteadily on their hoofs, according to the study, published last week in the journal Nature Food.

The study of Holstein cows in Berlin was peer-reviewed and is said to be one of the first major looks into how industrial hemp can be used as a supplement in animal feed.

Hemp goes under the common name Cannabis sativa. Industrial hemp plants are different from marijuana, which is cultivated for its high concentrations of THC.

In the U.S., under the Farm Bill of 2018, industrial hemp is not listed as a controlled substance as long as it contains no more than 0.3% THC. That’s led to a surge in cannabidiol or CBD products.

Some believe that hemp could be a good source of animal food if it gets approved because its seeds are high in protein. It also could be used as a stress reducer for cows when they are being transported.

The German study found no effect on the cows when given the entire hemp plant. Only when they received the parts of the hemp plant with high THC concentrations did the behavioural effects show, the study found.
The animals also ate less and produced less milk, according to the study.

Japanese interior minister resigns in third resignation of Kishida government in less than a month

Story by Daniel Stewart • Sunday, Nov 29,2022

Japan's Interior Minister Minoru Terada resigned Sunday over a bribery scandal in what is the third resignation of an official in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government in less than four weeks.

Japanese Minister of the Interior, Minoru Terada - RODRIGO REYES MARIN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO© Provided by News 360

"I have just submitted (my) resignation to the prime minister," the minister said Sunday, blaming his resignation on "political problems" that could not "become an obstacle."

'Shukan Bunshun' magazine reported that Terada paid around 40,000 yen (280 euros) as a reward to six local assembly members in his constituency in Hiroshima prefecture for their support in his election campaign in October last year. Such payments are prohibited by the election law for public office.

The minister had also admitted to parliament that his local support group had listed a deceased person as treasurer in its annual political fundraising report.

Related video: Japan's Kishida battered by resignations: Kishida's cabinet approval rating slips below 30%

Duration 5:56

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Terada, a close associate of Kishida who served as a special adviser before taking the cabinet post, has insisted that he was not responsible for the documents, as the support group is headed by someone else, Japan's official Kyodo news agency reports.

Kishida, according to the media outlet, plans to appoint fellow Liberal Democratic Party deputy and former foreign minister Takeaki Matsumoto as Terada's successor, according to a source close to the prime minister. The announcement will be official this Monday morning.

Last October 24, the Minister of Economic Revitalization, Daishiro Yamagiwa, resigned because of his ties with the Unification Church, now a target of criticism after the assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denounced the relations between the organization and Japanese politicians.

More recently, Kishida dismissed then Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi on November 11 after frivolous comments on the death penalty.

Approval of the Japanese prime minister's government is at rock bottom with only 33 percent approval, according to the latest survey by Japanese public television NHK, the lowest since he was elected prime minister in October 2021.

It is the fourth consecutive month of falling approval for Kishida's cabinet and the 33 percent figure is down 5 points from the previous month. In contrast, the rate of disapproval of the Kishida government's work has risen three points to 46 percent.

Canada's Lundin Mining to fill in giant mystery Chile sinkhole

Story by By Fabian Cambero • Thursday, 11/18/22

A sinkhole is exposed close to Tierra Amarilla town, in Copiapo

© Thomson Reuters

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Canada's Lundin Mining is planning to fill in a giant mystery sinkhole near its copper mine in Chile, an ambitious plan that will also see it attempt to pump out water that has seeped into the mine, a senior company executive told Reuters on Thursday.

The huge 36-metre-diameter sinkhole that opened up in late July in the Tierra Amarilla commune, around 665 kilometers (413 miles) north of capital Santiago, drew widespread global attention and saw charges by authorities against Lundin.

Studies to determine the causes of the sinkhole are already in "decisive stages" and a "technical body is already receiving all the information to be able to draw conclusions," Luis Sanchez, president of a local unit of Lundin, told Reuters.

The executive said that regardless of the outcome the firm planned to fill the hole using material such as sand and rocks with the same characteristics as a river bed, as well as fully sealing the affected part of the mine.

Sanchez declined to predict the amount of material that would be needed or the total cost, though he said the firm had already spent some $10 million resolving the issue.

The executive said that from 300-330 liters per second of water that had been leaking into the mine initially, the level has dropped to 10-30 liters per second due to sealing work.

"We are observing a positive development in the recovery of the levels in the aquifer and this means that we can look positively at this solution and we can say that we are not facing irreparable damage, as some authorities have indicated," Sanchez said.

The program will also try to pump 1.3 million cubic meters of water that remains in the lower levels of the reservoir to other industrial users in the area in exchange for them stopping extracting those resources from the aquifer, Sanchez said.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Canada used to have one of the best doctor ratios in the world. What happened?

AUSTERITY IN THE NINETIES KILLED MEDED

Story by Special to National Post • Thursday,Nov. 17,2022

Canada is still grappling with an acute crisis in our hospitals stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic while the slow-moving quagmire caused by the country's aging population threatens to become a larger disaster.© Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Canada’s health-care system is under siege. The country is still grappling with an acute crisis in our hospitals stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic while the slow-moving quagmire caused by the country’s aging population threatens to become a larger disaster. Can our system handle it? This joint five-part series produced by the National Post and The Hub looks deep into the world of Canadian health care, not just to identify problems, but to offer solutions for the future.

Efe Türker received his third dose of the COVID vaccine in February and quickly realized he was in for a rougher bout of side effects than he endured from his first two shots.

Türker developed a fever in the evening that got progressively more severe until he fell into a fitful sleep. At 5 a.m., he woke up, shivering in a pool of his own sweat. When he went to wash his face, Türker lost consciousness and collapsed in his apartment, banging his head on the floor as he went down. His dog found him lying there a few minutes later, and was able to wake him up.

Head trauma can result in anything from an uncomfortable bruise, an excruciating concussion or a deadly brain hemorrhage. But Türker did not seek serious medical attention, or even a checkup. Not worth the trouble, from his perspective.

“There’s absolutely no way you see a doctor at any logical time in Victoria, be it a general practitioner, or anything,” says Türker. “I have never seen a doctor since I arrived in Victoria.”

Medical Meltdown

A shortage of practitioners, and laborious wait times, are not a new problem in Canada, but they are especially acute in Greater Victoria, where news reports of walk-in clinics closing down have become a frequent occurrence. Walk-in clinics in the Victoria-proper neighbourhoods of James Bay , Cook Street , as well as the nearby municipalities of Colwood and View Royal , have closed, leaving as many as 3,000 more people per closure without a go-to medical facility.

An estimated quarter of Greater Victoria’s nearly 400,000 residents did not have a family doctor in February. In April, the wait times to see a doctor at a walk-in were the highest in Canada, at 161 minutes .

The story is beginning to look the same across the country. In Hamilton , the city’s hospitals are short 675 workers, in Toronto , paramedics are practising “hallway medicine” in the ERs and in Airdrie , just outside Calgary, staffing shortages are keeping the urgent care centre closed overnight for at least the next eight weekends. Local news broadcasts across the country are packed with stories about wait times, staffing shortages and the frustration these problems are causing Canadians.



Patients wait in hallways due to an at-capacity emergency room during the pandemic at the Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.

Victoria is no longer a cautionary tale, but a microcosm of the rest of the country. Especially frustrating is that Canada once had one of the highest ratios of physicians to population in the developed world.

Canada’s universal, taxpayer-funded, health-care system remains a pillar of national pride, but when compared to the country’s peers in Western Europe, it now ranks near the bottom of the pack. The favourite solution of the federal government and provincial premiers has been to boost funding, but it has created an expensive system that consistently underperforms in delivering quality health care when compared to similar countries.

The Commonwealth Fund’s 2021 report comparing the health-care systems of 11 developed countries, put Canada in 10th place, just ahead of the United States. Canada placed 10th in equity and health-care outcomes, 9th in access to care, 7th in administrative efficiency, and 4th in care processes.

According to the World Health Organization’s pre-pandemic rankings of global health systems in 2015, Canada ranked 30th out of 190 countries. France is ranked number one, while the United States comes in at 37, making Canada out as a lubber, rather than a leader, in providing health care for its citizens among its peers.

According to a 2015 Commonwealth Fund Report , 38 percent of Canadians felt the system worked well, 51 per cent wanted fundamental change, and 10 per cent believed it needed to be totally rebuilt. It would be quaint to still believe nearly 40 per cent of Canadians feel the system worked well in 2022.

As waiting times continue to lengthen , and the number of doctors plummets in many of the country’s leading cities, both the health-care system, and its cherished status among Canadians, is waning.

Shortages

Camille Currie is the organizer and founder of BC Healthcare Matters , a grassroots advocacy group that emerged as a result of the province’s medical shortages. Currie says doctors in B.C. face several unique challenges when compared to the rest of the country.

“We have the highest cost of living in Canada,” said Currie in an email. “Our family doctors can’t afford to stay in business here while making the lowest median salary in the country, while 30-50 percent of their pay goes to overhead costs, which are higher here than anywhere else due to our cost of living.”

In 2019, B.C. doctors were described by the CBC as being paid the third-least after their counterparts in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Victoria is annually ranked as one of Canada’s most expensive cities in the country, with higher costs for everyday needs like groceries and energy . High commercial rents are driving long standing businesses out of the city’s downtown.

Currie says the province continues to fund urgent primary care centres, but they are being used as walk-in clinics due to the shortages.

“The people using these facilities are citizens without family doctors and without access to walk-in clinics,” says Currie. “The B.C. government has wasted millions of dollars on these facilities, and still claims they are also the answer to our family doctor crisis.”

In February, the provincial government committed $57 million for 10 more urgent and primary care centres in the province by 2025, increasing the total number in the province to 50. Just six will be on Vancouver Island.

“Overhead is higher than anywhere else, doctors can only bill the government for $31 per patient, the lowest in the country,” says Currie. “Doctors can only see a maximum of 50 patients a day and can’t bill for countless tasks that use up their time, like checking labs, writing referrals, doing full physical exams.”

Currie also says that while there is demand, the supply of doctors is insufficient to meet it, and B.C. cannot attract more physicians without change. In October, the B.C. government announced a plan to raise the salaries of doctors in the province by over $100,000 per year, which some doctors labelled a “seismic shift.”
The big fix: Canada’s health system is melting down. Is ‘liberalized’ care the answer?
Kelly McParland: How alarmism keeps health care in crisis

Federal and provincial politicians in Canada often respond to surges of complaints regarding health care by promising to funnel millions or billions of dollars to the provinces to help alleviate the shortages. Currie says this does not solve the issue.

“Our problem isn’t a federal funding issue, our problem is an effective use of health care funds,” says Currie. “Alberta has a similar health ministry budget as B.C., so how are they able to provide for all their citizens and we aren’t?”

For many Albertans, however, the situation is not optimal either. Alberta’s residents have complained about their own long wait times, and many have opted for out-of-province treatment.

B.C. continues to place highly in provincial health-care rankings , largely due to the overall health of the population. However, that could change, especially as the population of Canada continues to age , and current trends continue.

Shirley Bond is the B.C. Liberal MLA for Prince-George Valemount, and once served as the minister of health during her party’s 16 years in government from 2001 to 2017. With the B.C. NDP now governing the province, Bond is the health care critic, and is aware of the pressures facing walk-in clinics, such as the costs of overhead.

Regarding federal funding, she says it continues to play an important role in improving B.C. health care, especially in the province’s more rural regions. Her riding of Prince George-Valemount, located almost 800 kilometres away from Vancouver, is serviced by the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia and lacks many vital facilities.

“It is a regional centre, and we have no cardiac care,” says Bond. “We need enhanced surgery, surgical capacity, we need significant investment in my community.”

Nonetheless, Bond acknowledges the need to re-examine the health-care system in B.C.

“We do need additional resources, and we also need to look at how we utilize those resources and are there ways that we need to consider a more innovative approach,” says Bond. “We certainly need to have more dialogue with the people who actually can operate the system, they’re the experts.”

Credentialing

Bond says she is looking at the Ontario government’s recently announced plans to revamp the province’s health-care system, which includes additional training spots for nurses , and removing barriers for foreign-trained medical professionals to begin practising.

Ontario’s plan for credentialing foreign doctors has been slow and controversial , but Bill Tholl says the provinces can provide templates for each other when formulating policy, due to Canada’s decentralized health-care system.

“Historically, one of the big upsides of having a decentralized system is we learned from one province to another,” says Tholl. “It’s kind of a natural experiment, in fact, our national Medicare program might be referred to as kind of a provincial experiment in my home province of Saskatchewan.”

Tholl is one of Canada’s leading health-care policy analysts, an author, and has served on numerous health care-related committees and organizations.

“I’d say the fundamentals are still pretty darn good, but the rest of the world is changing and we’re not keeping up,” says Tholl, regarding Canada’s medical delivery. “We really haven’t taken up the challenges of change very well in the Canadian health-care system.”

Tholl says many of the problems with Canadian health care can be traced back to the 1990s. Following the 1980s, Canada was racked with fiscal chaos, chronic budget deficits and inflation. It prompted a major policy shift towards balanced budgets and getting government spending under control.

Tholl says the federal government prioritized costs over care as part of its program of austerity and fiscal rebalancing, resulting in a reduction of enrolments in medical and nursing schools, by respective rates of 15 per cent and 50 per cent.

“I know it sounds odd to say, but we’re still recovering from that shock to the system,” says Tholl.

Tholl says that while the federal government subsidizes both undergraduate and residency training programs, they remain below their pre-1990s ratios, keeping not only the number of homegrown surgeons and family doctors capped, but also residency training spots.

When asked why the federal government would not simply increase the number of spots to generate more medical professionals, Tholl says the pandemic may spur those changes.

“I think they’re realizing just how much the pendulum swung too far in terms of constraining physician supply and nursing supply,” says Tholl. “God only knows the pandemic has shown just how fragile….how we were operating beyond the capacity limits of the currently available doctors and nurses.”

Even if changes were to be made, Tholl says it could take anywhere from six to 12 years for new professionals, such as cardiac surgeons, to enter the system.



Nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapist prepare to intubate a COVID-19 patient as Omicron puts pressure on Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 20, 2022.

Tholl cites the “South African Solution” as a way to help alleviate health-care shortages in the short term. It’s a policy developed by Saskatchewan’s government to enable the province to effectively lure South African doctors, who undergo similar training to their Canadian counterparts and push them into the province’s medical workforce. In 2016, more than half of Saskatchewan’s doctors had been trained outside Canada, with most coming from South Africa, Nigeria, and India.

Immigrant doctors would be a welcome addition to Canada’s medical workforce in 2022, as many medical professionals across Canada are retiring due to burnout from the pandemic, lessening the already short supply.

“You’re seeing a lot of concern in the health-care sector about the ‘Great Resignation,’ that those that can’t afford it, those that have had enough,” says Tholl.

Tholl mentions the Ontario government is resorting to awarding thousands of dollars in individual bonuses to nurses to remain on the job. The purpose is to stave off resignations and retirements as a short-term fix until nursing schools can begin producing more graduates to replace the retiring ones.

However, Tholl points out that medical school is still an expensive and a highly competitive process.

“It’s always been competitive, but I suspect it’s more competitive now than it’s ever been,” says Tholl.

Tholl explains that the competition continues past medical school, and affects how graduates can obtain residency training spots. The already-subsidized cost of medical school cost $17,000 CAD per year on average in 2021, and nearly $30,000 per year in Ontario.

Tholl says that once students graduate, often with significant debt, they go into specializations that pay more than a general practitioner, such as becoming a dermatologist. While dermatology may be a huge help for acne-ridden teenagers, they do not surgically repair injured knees or perform heart transplants.

Federal funding

“If you got in a car and drove yourself from St. John’s, Newfoundland, all the way to Victoria, British Columbia, you would find yourself in 10 very different provinces with 10 different realities,” says Nadeem Esmail, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. “The decentralization of health care and giving the provinces the ability to determine health-care policy allows them to tailor their system to their provincial realities.”

Like Tholl, Esmail says the decentralized approach could allow the provinces to individually experiment with different health-care policies being undertaken around the world, if only the federal government would give more autonomy to the provinces.

“The involvement of the federal government is in fact, holding the provinces back from setting optimal health-care policy or ideal health-care policy for the population,” says Esmail.

Esmail says the Canada Health Act is limiting policy innovation because it governs what provinces can and cannot do in terms of health-care policy in return for federal health transfer payments. He says that the provinces are dominated by government-run monopolistic hospitals, and a health-care system that precludes any cost-sharing of user fees.

“We’re not able to encourage more informed decision-making among those who can afford it,” says Esmail. “We’ve trapped ourselves in this very ineffective set of health-care policies as a result of federal interference and provincial policy making.”

One common practice of federal and provincial governments when addressing health care is to pledge further funding, especially during election seasons. Like Camille Currie, Esmail does not consider federal funding to be the problem, or the solution.

In March, Ottawa announced an additional $2 billion would be delivered to the provinces to help alleviate pandemic-related medical backlogs. This is on top of the $4.5 billion that was already given to the provinces during the pandemic to assist in handling the crisis.

Bill Tholl says it can’t always be known if the provinces are actually spending the transfers on health care as intended. The federal government and the premiers are currently locked in a dispute over future transfers, with Ottawa demanding guarantees it be spent on healthcare.

“It’s literally a transfer from a federal banking account that goes across the street to a series of provincial accounts,” says Tholl. “With no accountability attached to those funds, they become general revenue for the provinces, indistinguishable from all the taxes that the provinces raised.”

Tholl says the transfer payments not only perpetuate problems in the health-care system, but also widened interprovincial disparities in aspects like waiting times, and the ability to attract doctors.

“I think we have to focus on what is important here, and that is delivering the best possible universal access health-care system to the population,” says Esmail. “In that regard, allowing the provinces to experiment, allowing the provinces to learn from one another, to try policies that have been successful elsewhere has incredible power.”

Esmail says that Canadians want a comprehensive, affordable and universal health-care system, but the way it has been structured ties the provinces to a system that monopolizes the delivery of both medical treatment and health-care insurance.

“This disallows cost-sharing for universally accessible services, which is unfortunate because those are the very policies employed by 100 per cent of the developed world’s most effective, highest-performing universal access health-care systems,” says Esmail.

Esmail advises understanding what countries like Australia , France , Germany , or Japan have done, all of whom deliver high quality, but faster health care at lower costs than in Canada, while allowing for cost-sharing between public and out-of-pocket spending.

In France, for example, state-run health care remains the backbone of medical delivery, while the smaller private options help to alleviate the pressure of costs and backlogs.

“It’s private alternatives to the publicly funded health-care system, or to the government-run health-care system,” says Esmail. “Allowing that project competition in encouraging more informed decision making through cost sharing creates a better universal access health-care system for everyone.”

Private alternatives

Efe Türker says going back to Turkey would be a preferable option if he needs medical attention, rather than stewing on waiting lists in Victoria, or seeking private treatment elsewhere.

“It is easier, simpler, and in most cases cheaper, for me to literally buy a ticket, fly across the world to my home country, to see a doctor and get free treatment and fly back,” says Türker.

One of Türker’s friends has made the trip back to Turkey after being injured, and received both treatment and physiotherapy before his scheduled appointment in Canada. When Türker is sick and needs medical advice, he calls his uncle, who is a practising physician in Turkey.

“It would get diagnosed from an 11-hour time zone away,” says Türker. “This shouldn’t be the case for anyone.”

The solution may be found by a nationwide imitation of a successful provincial health-care policy innovations, which was the genesis of Canada’s universal system in the first place. Whether the new solution is re-funding medical and nursing schools, nationalizing the South African Solution or expanding access to private alternatives, boosting provincial autonomy on health-care policy, or all of those combined, the headlines across the country show that Canadians need solutions fast.

“At the end of the day, provinces are too busy shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, implementing small adjustments here and there without recognizing, or at least while deliberately avoiding, the larger picture for political reasons,” says Esmail.

SPACE RACE 3.0 
India to launch country's first privately developed rocket, Vikram S

Space sector in India is largely led by the government but private participation was opened in 2020 to enable the Indian space program to remain cost competitive

Taniya Dutta
Nov 17, 2022

India is all set to launch its first privately developed rocket into space, which many believe will open new avenues and herald a new era for start-ups in the country’s space sector.

Skyroot Aerospace, a space start-up in Hyderabad, will launch the Vikram S on November 18.

The rocket will carry three payloads — two Indian and one foreign ― on a sub-orbital mission, a trajectory that does not complete the Earth's orbit.

READ MORE
India to launch 75 payloads developed by schoolgirls into orbit

In rocket science jargon, a payload can differ depending on the rocket's mission, but in civilian space missions, it is normally a suite of different sensors that monitor factors such as temperature, humidity and radiation levels.

Vikram S will be launched from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s launchpad at Sriharikota, a barrier island in southern Andhra Pradesh, in an event overseen by the country's Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh.

The rocket will help validate the technology in Skyroot’s Vikram series of space launch vehicles, Skyroot co-founder Naga Bharath Daka said.
The Vikram series

The Skyroot Vikram series is named after Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of India's space programme.

Skyroot Aerospace, which is developing three variants of the Vikram rocket, has named the maiden mission Prarambh, meaning “the beginning” in Hindi.



The three-stage rocket will have a sub-orbital flight to demonstrate the technological advances being made by the private sector in the country.

It will carry the three payloads to an altitude of 120 kilometres above Earth's surface to cross the Karman line at an altitude of 100km ― the point between the Earth's atmosphere and space.

The rocket was unveiled last week by S Somanath, the chairman of ISRO, the national space agency of India. It was scheduled to be launched on November 15 but was delayed due to weather conditions.

It has been given clearance for technical launch by In-Spacee, the regulator for private space industry investors and technology developers.

The space sector in India is largely led by the government.

Despite being among a handful of spacefaring nations in the world, India accounts for about 2 per cent of the space economy, according to government figures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2020 opened the sector to allow private sector participation and enable the Indian space program to stay cost competitive in the global space market, and thus create more jobs in the space sector.

ISRO has signed agreements with more than 40 companies to assist them with space technology and build processes from the ground up.

Skyroot Aerospace, established in 2018, has more than 200 team members, and became India's first private space technology company after it signed an agreement with ISRO for sharing facilities and expertise last year.

"Vikram S is our technology demonstrator launch vehicle. We have a fleet of launch vehicles on series and this is specifically designed to demonstrate our technology for the other rockets, like Vikram 1," Sireesh Pallikonda, business development lead at Skyroot Aerospace, told The National.

“This will open access to space, so far it was just the government that was launching, but now it will be a new horizon for companies to have access to space. With participation of more companies and private participation we can generate more revenues and also there is a lot of talent and it will give opportunities to fulfil ambitions of those who want to work in rocketry,” he said.
Payload

The 545m rocket will carry three satellites from Space Kidz India, a Chennai-based aerospace start-up, N-Space Tech India and Armenia's Bazoomq.


At 25 seconds after lift-off and at an altitude of 17.9km, the rocket’s engine will burn out, ejecting its payload at an altitude of 81.5km.

“FunSAT is a 2.5kg mass with 80 payloads built by students from the US, Indonesia, Singapore and India. These are middle school students who are patiently and with absolute excitement waiting to see their satellite go up,” Srimathy Kesan, the founder and chief executive of Space Kidz India, told The National. “The entire process took eight to nine months to complete.”

Updated: November 17, 2022

Isro scientists work on the orbiter vehicle of Chandrayaan-2. EPA-EFE

Cuba bets on specialty coffee to boost industry

Author: AFP

|Update: 19.11.2022 

Farmer Jesus Chaviano displays his coffee beans at his plantation in Jibacoa, Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

In the lush, fertile mountains of Cuba, farmer Jesus Chaviano dreams of adding his arabica beans to a list of specialty coffees the country hopes will lift an industry in decline.

It's harvest time on Chaviano's eight-hectare (20-acre) plantation in the central Guamuaya mountain range, and his 42,000 coffee plants burst with ripe reddish fruit in the shadow of avocado and banana trees.

At 800 meters (2,600 feet) altitude, conditions are ideal for the eight varieties of high-quality arabica coffee beans he planted with his "own hands."


While Cuba has been growing coffee for almost 300 years, it has never produced the specialty coffees beloved worldwide for their unique flavor profiles that come from careful cultivation in a specific terroir.

View of the Escambray Mountains in central Cuba, where specialty coffee crops are cultivated in Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

In the past two decades, the appeal of high-end coffee has soared, and so has its price on the international market.

"I think that needs to be the path we take: going after specialty coffees. Not large quantities... small batches that we can sell well," said Chaviano, 46.

As the island catches on to the appeal of high-end coffee, the first five specialty coffees will be unveiled in December at the first-ever Cuba-Cafe producers fair, which is being held in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

A variety of Cuban specialty coffees are displayed at a coffee improvement center in Jibacoa, Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

The name and origins of the chosen coffees are being kept secret.

"We are taking the first concrete steps to add value to this coffee," said Ramon Ramos, the scientific director of Cuba's National Institute for Agroforestry Research. He added that "with the same production, the same yield, it will be sold at a much higher price."

-'It's the future'-

Coffee farmer Jesus Chaviano washes beans at his farm in Jibacoa, Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

According to Ramos, the price for 1,000 kilograms of commercial coffee varies between $4,000 and $5,000. Meanwhile, a kilogram of specialty coffee can sell for "up to $10,000."

According to the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) a coffee must score above 80 points on a 100-point scale to reach the required standard, after being evaluated by "a certified coffee taster."

The final score will influence the price at which it is sold.

"It's the future," says Chaviano, who built his house in the middle of his plantation, in the style of the French colonists who fled Haiti in the 18th century and brought the culture of coffee cultivation to Cuba.

In 1960, Cuba produced more than 60,000 tonnes of coffee. Last year, this figure stood at only 11,500 tonnes, less than half of what is consumed locally.

Farmer Jesus Chaviano stands amid his coffee bushes at his plantation in Jibacoa, Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

According to official figures, only 1,365 tonnes were exported.

Experts say climate change -- drastically reducing coffee-growing areas worldwide -- is partly to blame for the drop in production.

In Cuba, the emigration of plantation workers has also impacted the industry.

"Why did the country once produce a lot of coffee, but now it can't produce coffee?" asked Chaviano.

"I'm focused on doing it right and demonstrating that it's possible to produce coffee, and quality coffee," but "you have to put your heart into it," he added.

In 2021, his yield was one tonne of coffee per hectare, four times the national average.

- 'We can do it'-

A technician shows an in vitro plant grown at a coffee improvement center in Jibacoa, Villa Clara province, Cuba / © AFP

Some 25 kilometers from his farm, researchers at the Jibacoa Agroforestry Research Station, have been tasked with training and providing technology to producers to improve their yields.

Director Ciro Sanchez, said the goal is to produce 30,000 tonnes of coffee by 2030.

To achieve this, the aim is to recover some plantations in areas affected by climate change, by planting more resistant varieties of coffee. Sanchez also wants to prioritize the growth of "high-quality arabica" in mountainous areas.

Chaviano is optimistic that one day his coffee will be one of the feted specialty brands being exported from Cuba.

"We can do it. We just need to work!" he said.

Why EU can't count on Turkey to protect asylum seekers


Published in:EUobserver
Bill Frelick
Director, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division

HRW


Click to expand Image
Turkish security forces detain a group of migrants in Van Province, near Turkey’s border with Iran. August 21, 2021. © 2022 AP Photo/Emrah Gürel

The world owes thanks to Turkey for hosting the world's largest number of refugees, more than 3.9 million. It may seem counterintuitive to say that EU members shouldn't consider Turkey a "safe third country" for refugees and asylum seekers, but it isn't.

Safe third country designations enable countries to summarily reject asylum seekers on their territories on the presumption the country they travelled through, or some other country, can be trusted to examine their refugee claims and protect qualifying refugees from being forced to return to places where their lives would be at risk.

In June 2021, Greece declared Turkey to be a safe third country for asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan, and a few other countries.

When a Syrian or Afghan asylum seeker appears to have entered from Turkey, Greece now places that person's refugee claim in an accelerated procedure without considering the substance of their claim.

There are multiple reasons Turkey cannot be considered a safe third country.

Lack of access to asylum procedures is one. The likelihood of a fair hearing for those who do get access is another. Turkey's accession to the 1951 Refugee Convention also includes a geographical limitation whereby it only fully recognises as refugees people fleeing persecution in Europe.

But the main reason is that Turkey does not respect the principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits the return of refugees to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened.

Greece actually has no legal way of readmitting rejected asylum seekers to Turkey. Although a much-heralded migration deal with Turkey was announced by the European Council in March 2016. Ankara has not been willing to readmit rejected asylum seekers from Greece since at least March 2020, despite 6 billion euros from the EU to seal the deal.

So Greece continues its unlawful practice of pushing asylum seekers and migrants arriving at its borders, back to Turkey.

Victims' testimonies

Victims have told us that this often involves stripping and beating them, then dumping them in the seasonally frigid waters of the Evros River.

Turkey is doing the same thing on its southern and eastern borders.

This year, Turkey's interior ministry reported 238,448 "irregular migrants whose entrance to our country has been prevented" as of 20 October.

A 20-year-old medical student from Ghazni, Afghanistan, whom I met in Istanbul, told me about his encounter with Turkish border authorities shortly after he crossed into Turkey from Iran in December 2021.

Turkish border guards started shooting. His group of 150 was corralled: "Two soldiers held down my hands and feet. Then the commander beat me on my knees with a metal stick. He did this to all the single men…then they forced us back across the border to Iran at a time and place where there were no Iranian border guards."

The safe third country concept is embedded in the EU's Asylum Procedures Directive. It says another country can only be considered safe if "the possibility exists to request refugee status and, if found to be a refugee, to receive protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention."

But many Afghans inside Turkey are routinely prevented from accessing any procedure to assess their claims for international protection and many are being deported to Afghanistan with little to no examination of their refugee claims.

This happened to a 16-year-old boy I talked with from Herat, Afghanistan who said his father was killed by the Taliban. "The day before I was deported, a guard at the Edirne Removal Center told me I had to sign a deportation paper. I refused to sign it. He hit me on my arm with a metal police baton."

The next day, the boy said, another official took his hand and forced his fingerprint on the paper.

"No one ever asked if I was afraid to go back to Afghanistan. On the paper was written that my return was voluntary, but I cried a lot and begged them not to deport me." He was deported on 17 May.

Turkey deported 44,768 Afghan nationals in the first eight months of 2022, a 150-percent increase from the first eight months of 2021, before the Taliban takeover.

Whether or not formalised readmissions from the EU to Turkey are implemented, asylum seekers who apply for asylum in Greece or other EU countries should not be denied the chance to make refugee claims on the false premise that Turkey will allow them to register, examine their claims, and provide effective protection to those who need it.

Probe of Baltimore archdiocese identifies 158 priests, over 600 victims

4 DAYS AGO

US state of Maryland investigation identifies scores of Roman Catholic priests accused of sexually and physically abusing and torturing hundreds of victims over the past 80 years

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"Once again, the church has lied about the number of abusive priests," says David Lorenz of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. (AP)

An investigation by Maryland's attorney general has identified 158 Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore accused of sexually and physically abusing more than 600 victims over the past 80 years, according to court records.

Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that his office completed a 463-page report on the investigation on Thursday, which began in 2019.

He filed a motion in Baltimore Circuit Court to make the report public. Court permission is required because the report contains information from grand jury subpoenas. It's unclear when the court will make a decision.

"For decades, survivors reported sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests and for decades the Church covered up the abuse rather than holding the abusers accountable and protecting its congregations," according to the court filing. "The Archdiocese of Baltimore was no exception."

The report, titled "Clergy Abuse in Maryland," identifies 115 priests who were prosecuted for sex abuse and/or identified publicly by the archdiocese as having been "credibly accused" of sexual abuse. It also includes an additional 43 priests accused of sexual abuse but not identified publicly by the archdiocese, the court filing said.

"The Report summarises the sexual abuse and physical torture perpetrated by all 158 priests and the Archdiocese's response to that abuse," the court filing said.

In a letter released on Thursday evening, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore apologised "to the victim-survivors who were harmed by a minister of the Church and who were harmed by those who failed to protect them, who failed to respond to them with care and compassion and who failed to hold abusers accountable for their sinful and criminal behaviour."

"Upon reading today's motion, we feel renewed shame, deep remorse and heartfelt sympathy, most especially to those who suffered from the actions of representatives of the very Church entrusted with their spiritual and physical well-being," Lori wrote

'There are hundreds more'

David Lorenz, the Maryland leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, described the news of the report and numbers of victims as "absolutely horrendous."

"Once again, the church has lied about the number of abusive priests," Lorenz said in a statement. "Many parishes were dumping grounds for predators, some housed almost ten. It is very clear that nobody was safe. Sadly, it is no different than any diocese or secular report in the country."

While the court filing noted that more than 600 victims were identified, it also said "there are almost certainly hundreds more, as the Department of Justice's Annual Crime Victimization Report has demonstrated that most incidents of sexual assault go unreported."

Both boys and girls were abused, according to the court filing, with ages ranging from preschool through young adulthood.

"Although no parish was safe, some congregations and schools were assigned multiple abusive priests, and a few had more than one sexually abusive priest at the same time," the court filing said. "One congregation was assigned eleven sexually abusive priests over 40 years."

The sexual abuse was so pervasive, the court filing said, that victims were sometimes reporting sexual abuse to priests who were perpetrators themselves.

The investigation also revealed that the archdiocese failed to report many allegations of sexual abuse, conduct adequate investigations of alleged abuse, remove abusers from the ministry or restrict their access to children.

"Instead, it went to great lengths to keep the abuse secret," the court filing said. "While the Archdiocese reported a large number of allegations to police, especially in later years, for decades it worked to ensure that the perpetrators would not face justice."

Forty-three priests not identified, prosecuted

In the court filing, Frosh argues that "publicly airing the transgressions of the Church is critical to holding people and institutions accountable and improving the way sexual abuse allegations are handled going forward."

"More importantly, it is vital to protecting children and the entire community," the filing said.

The court filing also noted that of the 43 priests that have not been publicly identified or prosecuted, 30 have died.

"For those priests that have died, this additional secrecy interest is less compelling," the filing said.

The attorney general's office redacted all identifying information for the 13 living church officials who have been accused of sexual abuse but who have not been listed as credibly accused by the archdiocese and who have not been prosecuted.

In 2019, Frosh launched a criminal investigation of child sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and other employees of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Hundreds of thousands of documents dating back to the 1940s were produced in response to grand jury subpoenas.

As part of its investigation, the attorney general’s office created an email address and telephone hotline for people to report information. Over 300 hundred people contacted the office, and investigators interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.

More than 300 'predator' priests abused children in Pennsylvania – report

READ MORE: Canadian Cardinal Ouellet accused of sexual assault

READ MORE: Over 600 minors 'abused' by clerics in German diocese

 

Mourners hit streets as Iran protests take bloody turn

Agencies Published November 18, 2022

PARIS: Hundreds of mourners poured onto the streets of an Iranian city on Thursday, defying a lethal crackdown on protests over Mahsa Amini’s death that shows signs of turning even bloodier. Iran’s foreign minister and media raised the spectre of civil war.

This week’s protests coincide with the third anniversary of “Bloody Aban” — or Bloody November — when hundreds were killed in a crackdown on street violence that erupted over a shock overnight decision to hike fuel prices.

Security forces on Thursday killed one protester in Bukan and two in Sanandaj, where mourners were paying tribute to “four victims of the popular resistance” 40 days after they were slain, the Oslo-based Hengaw rights group said.

The state news agency IRNA later confirmed that police colonel Hassan Youssefi was killed after being stabbed repeatedly in Sanandaj, about 200 kilometres west of the capital Tehran. People had thronged the streets even as the sound of gunfire was heard in a video published by Hengaw.

Two Basij members stabbed to death in Mashhad, two shot dead in Isfahan

IRNA said “rioters” had damaged and burned public property in Bukan, including setting fire to the municipality building. It added that police later dispersed them.

Mashhad riots

Separately, two Basij members were stabbed to death and three others injured as they sought to intervene to prevent “rioters” from threatening shopkeepers in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the news agency said.

“Death to the dictator,” protesters chanted in another online video as they marched down a street in Sanandaj filled with bonfires, directing their fury at Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The tradition in Iran of holding a “chehelom” mourning ceremony 40 days after a death has fuelled the demonstrations that have become the regime’s biggest challenge from the street in decades.

Elsewhere, Hengaw accused the security forces of killing at least 10 people within a 24-hour period up until late Wednesday at protests in several cities.

Isfahan killings

In a separate attack hours later in Iran’s third city Isfahan, two assailants on a motorcycle shot dead two members of the Basij paramilitary force and wounded another two, Fars news agency said.

IRNA later reported a police colonel who was injured Wednesday in Isfahan died of his wounds on Thursday in hospital.

Another police colonel was stabbed to death in Sanandaj, IRNA said.

In the southwestern city of Izeh, “a terrorist group took advantage of a gathering of protesters” to shoot dead seven people — including a 45-year-old woman, two children aged nine and 13, IRNA said. Three police officers and two Basij members were wounded, a security official told state TV.

But a family member of the nine-year-old boy killed on Wednesday, identified as Kian Pirfalak, accused security forces of carrying out the attack. The accusation came in a tweet shared by US-funded Radio Farda.

‘Civil war’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abollahian accused Israel and its allies of plotting a “civil war in” the Islamic republic.

But, he tweeted, they “must know that Iran is not Libya or Sudan” and that the “wisdom of our people has thwarted their plan”.

Fars news agency, which is close to the authorities, said the attacks show “that those who want to dismantle the country have entered into the armed action phase”.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2022

Nepal Election 2022: Why Have The Maoists Failed To Deliver In Nepal?

The expectations raised by the Maoist revolution have failed to deliver good governance to the long-suffering people of Nepal. Personal ambitions have led to divisions within the rank and file. A look at the Left in Nepal.

Nepali Maoists supporters dance and wave flags during a victory celebration

 | Getty Images

Seema Guha
UPDATED: 22 NOV 2022

May 28, 2008, was a day to remember. Joyous crowds poured out onto the streets of the capital Kathmandu and other cities as well as the villages to greet the announcement in Parliament that the monarchy was abolished. The unpopular King Gyanendra was given 15 days to leave the royal palace. There was euphoria in the air as people looked forward to a better future with palace intrigues dead and buried. Hope was in the air.

After a gruelling decade of armed conflict (1996-2006), the Maoists finally succeeded in getting rid of the last king of the Shah dynasty that had ruled Nepal for over 200 years.

Two years earlier in 2006, the Maoists signed a peace agreement with the government and promised to renounce violence, lay down their arms and join the democratic process. That agreement led to the end of the armed confrontation between the Maoist rebels and government troops that had ravaged the country. Nepalese politics was poised to take a new turn. Expectations were high from the Maoists, with many believing that they were in a position to deliver a clean and efficient government far removed from the squabbling traditional politicians that played the power game to perfection.

The Maoists put Nepal on track to become a modern democracy with people’s representatives right down to the local level. The new Republican Constitution unveiled in 2015, was contested by tribal groups and the Indian-origin Madeshis who felt that they had been given a raw deal. Overall, however, there were many positives in the new Constitution, with the devolution of power to the provinces.

However, people were in for disappointment. Though the revolution succeeded in getting rid of the monarchy, the Maoists failed to deliver on governance. Instead, there was infighting, splits, and instability, when Nepal was in dire need of a government that worked to recover from 10 years of civil strife.

Earlier in 2015, Maoists helped KP Sharma Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPM-UML) to become prime minister. But this was short-lived. The Maoists withdrew support and formed a government under Pushpa Kamal Dahal commonly known as Prachanda. That too did not last and the Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba became PM. Oli once again became PM in 2017 after the Communist Party of Nepal Maoist Centre, and the CPM-UML stitched up a solid pre-poll alliance. The unified Nepal Communist Party won a resounding victory with a two-thirds majority in parliament. But that did not last for a full term either. People realised that the Maoists were no different from the rest of the pack when it came to power politics.
Why have the Communists failed to deliver good governance in Nepal?

"The Left across the world have failed to deliver, and Nepal is no exception. The world has changed dramatically in the last few decades and the Left everywhere has been unable to cope with the transformation brought in by new technology and people’s rising expectations,’’ says Baburam Bhattarai, one of the prominent leaders of the Maoist insurrection together with Prachanda that brought the Nepal government to its knees. He is bang on. The old-style textbook Communism has not been able to deal with the sweeping changes that the world has undergone in the last couple of decades. He said that sustainable development, and environmental concerns, highlighted by climate change, are now major issues, and mass movements are springing up around these vital problems. Somehow the traditional Left has not been able to deliver on these concerns, according to Bhattarai. The Left needs to adapt to change.

"The Left has to change its strategy. The traditional kind of mobilisation no longer resonates with the masses. We need to adapt to the ground situation and opt for a Left which is more socialist and democratic. Liberal, progressive democracy is suited to the changing times," said Bhattarai. Having broken away from his former comrade in arms, he has his own party the Socialist Party of Nepal shaped to tackle the problems of today’s world. He is part of Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress alliance.

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"I am very proud that we succeeded in getting rid of the monarchy and making Nepal a Republic. But we failed in delivering a just economic, social, and cultural agenda to the people. Having opted for parliamentary democracy, we are facing the accompanying challenges. In a parliamentary democracy, capturing power and remaining in power is primary. Morality is forgotten as bickering happens sometimes for personal ambition, occasionally on ideological grounds. Splits follow and weaken the Left.’’

Yet, the Left continues to be popular among ordinary citizens despite various factions. Unlike in India where the Left has little impact on national politics, Nepal’s Communists are the movers and shakers of the nation’s political life. The two alliances fighting for power are led by Khadga Prasad Oli of the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, the current prime minister. The Deuba camp has left partners like Pushpa Kamal Dahal, as well as Prachanda’s former comrade in arms, Baburam Bhattarai. So, whichever alliance finally wins the elections, the Left representative will continue to be strong.

"Nepali politics has done okay if you consider the fact that democracy survives despite heart-stopping challenges such as the royal palace massacre, the Maoist insurgency, the 2015 blockade, and deep schisms within society,’’ says Kanak Mani Dixit, a journalist and civil liberties activist based in Kathmandu. "Today, Nepal has a federal structure and elected local governments. However, politics has failed to deliver in the sense that people remain poor while the politicians prosper, running a kleptocracy in cahoots with dalals and dons.’’

He was particularly scathing about prime minister Deuba and Prachanda who are today in an opportunistic alliance. "The Nepali Congress of Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML of Khadga Prasad Oli have become less connected to the people, but the most opportunistic and unprincipled politician of Nepal is Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda). The CPN-UML did a failed party unification with him, and Sher Bahadur Deuba has bounded over ideological differences to have a pre-election alliance with the very man who conducted selected killings of the Nepali Congress cadre during the conflict years. This is the level of unprincipled politics we are seeing in Nepal, and the weakening of Dahal and his Maoist cohort through the elections would be the best thing that could happen to Nepal. But that may be asking for too much."

The Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) was founded in 1949 with the aim of establishing a new people’s democracy. Class struggle, armed revolution, land reforms, and the dictatorship of the proletariat were part of the agenda. Abolishing the monarchy was always central of the Communists. The Naxalbari uprising of 1967 was a major event at that time. And Oli as a young man wanted to emulate Kanu Sanyal’s experiment in north Bengal, which was ruthlessly crushed by the Indian state. Various splits in the CPN ensured that Oli broke away.

For the ordinary people of Nepal, it does not matter which alliance gets to rule. What is needed is governance. It is time for the Left to change with the times or perish.