Belarus begins trial in absentia of protest leader Tikhanovskaya

Tue, January 17, 2023


The trial in absentia of Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya began in Minsk on Tuesday as strongman president Alexander Lukashenko cracks down on critics who challenged his three-decade rule.

Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory over Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, faces a litany of charges including high treason, "conspiracy to seize power" and creating and leading an extremist organisation.

The 40-year-old activist -- who was forced during mass protests that followed the vote to leave Belarus for neighbouring Lithuania, a European Union country -- has become the face of Belarusian democratic forces.

In an interview with AFP in Davos, Switzerland, Tikhanovskaya described the trial as a "farce" and said she had not been given access to court documents ahead of the proceedings.

"I don't know how long this trial will take place, how many days, but I'm sure they will sentence me to many, many years in jail," she said on Monday.

Tikhanovskaya's political allies -- Maria Moroz, Pavel Latushko, Olga Kovalkova and Sergei Dylevsky -- are also being tried in absentia.

Speaking in Davos on Tuesday, the protest leader said she was not allowed to take part in the hearings or receive a copy of the charge sheet.

She was assigned a lawyer but she could not get in touch with him, she added.

"How is he going to defend me?" Tikhanovskaya asked. "I am sure that has not been part of his plans."

- 'Unprecedented repression'-

Tikhanovskaya was part of a trio of women -- along with Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo -- who spearheaded massive rallies against Lukashenko that broke out across Belarus in 2020.

Tsepkalo now lives in exile, while Kolesnikova refused to leave Belarus and tore up her passport. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2021.

Tikhanovskaya's high-profile trial comes after Belarusian authorities put in the dock a number of other critics, including jailed Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski.

Bialiatski, 60, founded Viasna (Spring), the country's top rights group, and has been in detention since July 2021, along with two of his associates.

The rights campaigners stand accused of smuggling a "large amount of cash" into Belarus to allegedly fund opposition activities, and face between seven and 12 years in prison.

"The political repression by the regime of Lukashenko has reached an unprecedented level," the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.

He said that the politically motivated trials were "aimed at silencing any independent voices and closing all remaining space for democratic debate."

Ahead of the start of Tikhanovskaya's trial, investigators announced new charges against her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, who in 2021 was found guilty of organising riots and inciting social hatred.

He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The charismatic 44-year-old YouTube blogger galvanised Belarusians when he ran for president in 2020 and coined a new insult for long-time incumbent Lukashenko when he called him a "cockroach."

- 'New charges for jailed husband' -

Tikhanovsky was not allowed to run in the election, and his wife ran in his place, claiming victory.

On Monday, the Investigative Committee said Tikhanovsky faced new charges of disobeying prison officials because he allegedly provoked conflicts with cellmates and flouted prison authorities' orders.

Belarus witnessed a historic protest movement denouncing the controversial re-election of Lukashenko, who has been in power for nearly 30 years.

Backed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko unleashed a massive crackdown, throwing critics into prison or forcing them into exile.

The Viasna rights group says there are more than 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus.

On Monday, a Polish-Belarusian journalist went on trial in the western city of Grodno.

Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and a representative of the Polish minority in Belarus, was arrested in March, 2021.

He faces up to 12 years in prison for criticising Lukashenko's regime, if convicted.

bur/gw

In Davos, Ecuadoran activist seeks end to fossil fuel addiction

Issued on: 17/01/2023

Helena Gualinga says she doubts doubts she will see results in forums such as the UN's COP climate talks

 © John Lamparski / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) – Ecuadoran Amazon activist Helena Gualinga has come to the meeting of global elites in the Swiss Alpine village of Davos with a clear message: companies must stop new fossil fuel projects.

Gualinga, 20, has become a spokesperson for her Kichwa Sarayuku indigenous community and its struggle against oil companies in the rainforest.

This week, she joined fellow young climate activists Greta Thunberg of Sweden, Vanessa Nakate of Uganda and Luisa Neubauer of Germany in launching a petition billed as a "cease and desist notice".

The petition demands that energy CEOs "immediately stop opening any new oil, gas, or coal extraction sites".

"We are from different parts of the world but we are fighting for the same purpose," Gualinga told AFP on Tuesday at the annual World Economic Forum.

"It is a call to say 'enough is enough' because we have said it many times. We need urgent action," she said.

The online petition -- which warns that citizens around the world will consider taking legal action to hold companies accountable -- has garnered more than 800,000 signatures since its launch earlier this week.

"We have to leave oil under the earth," Gualinga said.

"The rights of indigenous communities are very important in this regard."

'Can't trust states'

A decade ago, the Sarayaku community won a landmark case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which ruled that the Ecuadoran state had violated their rights to be consulted when oil exploration rights were granted on their land.

"I think this shows the world that such a small community but so well organised can manage to expel a company, can ensure that its rights are respected," Gualinga said.

Despite her efforts on fossil fuels, Gualinga doubts she will see results in forums such as the UN's COP climate talks.

Ecuadorian rights activist Helena Gualingahas become a spokesperon for her indigenous community © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

The last meeting in November, COP27 in Egypt, ended without commitments to phase out fossil fuels.

The next talks will be hosted later this year in the United Arab Emirates, which appointed the head of the national oil company as president of COP28.

"We cannot trust states to reach agreements that really manage to mitigate and stop climate change," Gualinga said.

"We know where this fight is headed. Indigenous peoples have been doing this since the first colonisation," she said, hoping that her community will one day obtain autonomy with territories with clear borders.

© 2023 AFP

A 20-year-old indigenous climate activist says the World Economic Forum is the perfect time for corporations to 'show their commitment' to breaking up with fossil fuels

Freya Graham
Jan 17, 2023

Polluters Out cofounder Helena Gualinga. 

Photo courtesy of Alice Aedy

Helena Gualinga is an Indigenous youth climate advocate from Ecuador.
She cofounded Polluters Out and has previously spoken at the COP15 and COP27 climate conferences.

Gualinga wants to bring Indigenous and youth perspectives to climate conversations at Davos.

Helena Gualinga has a busy week ahead.

The 20-year-old Indigenous youth climate advocate is speaking on several panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, sharing the stage with the likes of John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin.

She's aware that she doesn't fit with the typical Davos attendee: "I'm a young, Indigenous woman in a very middle-aged, male-dominated space," she told Insider.

But Gualinga, who gave several speeches at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt last year, isn't phased by standing alongside major political and business figures. "It's about learning to speak their language and see how our interests intersect," she said.

Indigenous voices at Davos and beyond

Gualinga said that she finds confidence in the knowledge that her attendance, as well as the attendance of other youth advocates, brings new perspectives to gatherings like the World Economic Forum. When Gualinga attended Davos last year, as a youth ambassador for science advocacy group Arctic Base Camp, she was struck by the lack of Indigenous voices at the meeting.

"There are so many decisions that are having an impact on Indigenous communities that are happening," Gualinga told Insider. "When we're talking about climate change and the protection of biodiversity, we cannot exclude Indigenous peoples' rights."

Gualinga has been advocating for Indigenous rights for several years. Born to an Ecuadorian mother and a Finnish father, she is from the Kichwa Sarayaku community, located in the Amazon region of Ecuador. The community has long resisted efforts from oil companies to extract resources from their territories.

"Our worldview is based on something called the 'Kawsak Sacha,' the living forest, where we recognize everything in the forest as a living being," Gualinga said. "And that is crucial to us; that needs to be taken into account.

For Gualinga, it's vital that Indigenous people are a part of the kind of decision-making that happens at Davos. "Meaningful is participation from the beginning to the end. It's not when decisions are already being made. It's not just having a small consultation with Indigenous people," she said.

She added that Indigenous ways of decision-making and governance need to be taken into account "because we have a different worldview, and because we have different experiences in our territories."

Gualinga said: "Many times, we've not had access to these spaces. So we need to create a process that is adapted to our communities."

Gualinga said that the green transition, i.e. the transition across industries to more sustainable practices — which is set to be a major topic at the World Economic Forum this year — is a key example of why collaboration with Indigenous communities is needed. Much of the green transition is about electrification — for instance, switching from gas cars to electric ones. To do this, we need to mine for minerals like lithium and cobalt.

"Most mines that are being planned in the next couple of years are on Indigenous territories," said Gualinga. "We have to look at how this actually impacts our environment and the natural world. Again, how does this impact indigenous peoples' rights?"

According to Gualinga, the areas that Indigenous communities have protected and preserved for hundreds of years are now threatened by the need for a green transition. "I think it's a really difficult battle, I think it's something that we need to recognize that we don't have answers for right now," she said.
Corporations must commit to making a change

At Davos this year, Gualinga wants to see "a real commitment to climate action."

"There's big oil and big mining attending, and I think they really need to commit to phase out from fossil fuels," she said.

"It's not like COP, where they can sign something," Gualinga said. "But I think it's an opportunity for the private sector to show their commitment without the pressure of the binding commitments that governments have."

Gualinga added that taking action on climate is not as easy as making a campaign about sustainability or supporting a handful of small projects.

"I think, unfortunately, we're just seeing more and more and more greenwashing. In one way or another, every company now has had a campaign that is green or sustainable, or, you know, something that makes them look like they care about the planet."

Gualinga said that greenwashing is "just an excuse to not take real climate action."

"It's also our responsibility to call that out and to demand better and more from companies, because they can — they have the tools, they have the information."

Gualinga added that corporations need to face up to their role in contributing to the climate crisis.

"[It is] their responsibility to make sure that the communities that are now being impacted by climate change, but also that have been impacted by their activities, are compensated," she said. "It's a debt that they owe to these people and it's a responsibility that they cannot escape."

Beef relief -- Argentina stops butchers carrying half a cow

Tue, January 17, 2023 


The traditional image of an Argentinian butcher weighed down by half a cow carcass on his back could be consigned to history after a government ruling.

Since coming to power in 2019, the center-left government of President Alberto Fernandez has been determined to end the practice on hygiene and health grounds.

It ruled Monday that the "half-animal" cut can be preserved -- but butchers are no longer allowed to carry it on their back.

A butcher bent double under the huge cut is a well-known scene in beef-mad Argentina, where citizens eat almost 48 kilograms of the meat a year per capita, according to official statistics.


But the "half-animal" can weigh more than 100 kilograms, a crushing load for even the sturdiest butcher.

"The debate is about whether we continue commercializing beef like 150 years ago," Agriculture Secretary Juan Jose Bahillo said recently.

The sector itself was divided over the long-running issue. Some were in favor of modernization and preventing large pieces of meat coming into contact with different surfaces.

But many argued that new rules would benefit major exporters to the detriment of smaller producers without the means to invest in new machinery.

A 2020 law reduced the maximum weight of a beef cut that can be carried by a person to 25 kilograms.

That was amended the next year to 32 kilograms but authorities still wanted to eliminate the half-animal cut. This week, a compromise was found.

The half-animal cut remains, but it must be moved from trucks using a pulley and rail system, the agriculture ministry said.

The new law will be phased in "systematically and progressively," it added.

pbl-ls/lab/fjb/bc/bgs

France attacks plot trial opens: "For the far-right globally, Emmanuel Macron is an ideal target"

Issued on: 17/01/2023 -

06:04
Video by:Genie GODULA

French homegrown far-right militants: 'The new trend in radicalization and terrorism?'

For more on the French trial of a far-right militant plot, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr. Pablo de Orellana, Lecturer in International Relations at King's College London. 

Dr. de Orellana describes French homegrown far-right militants as "perhaps the new trend in radicalization and terrorism.'' And while "remarkably incompetent," he still compares them to "the type of radicalization we saw with the so-called Islamic State."

French far-right plot: 'A microcosm of a pattern that is repeating itself all the way across Europe'

Issued on: 17/01/2023 

10:13  Video by:François PICARD

For more on the French trial of a far-right militant plot, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr. Nicholas Michelsen, Reader in International Relations at King's College London.

Trains, flights cancelled for Thursday strike over French pension reform

Issued on: 17/01/2023 

01:36 Travellers will have a tough time getting around France on Thursday amid a nationwide strike against the government’s pension reform. © Olivier Chassignole, AFP/File picture

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Emerald MAXWELL


Most trains will be cancelled in France on Thursday, with flights also affected and Paris’ subway heavily disrupted, as part of a nationwide strike against the government’s plan to make people work longer before they can retire.

Opinion polls show a vast majority of French oppose the planned reform, which would see the retirement age pushed from 62 to 64, and Thursday will be a test of whether this can transform into a major headache for the government.

Unions have called workers to massively walk out of their job on Jan. 19 and take to the streets across France. The government has said it will stand its ground and called on workers not to paralyse the country.

Only one in three to one in five high-speed TGV lines will be operating, and only one in ten local TER trains, the SNCF train operator said.

International traffic on the Eurostar and Thalys lines is set to be nearly normal, while the Lyria connection with Switzerland will be heavily disrupted and other international train connections will be entirely cancelled.

In Paris, the vast majority of RER commuter trains will be cancelled, while three metro lines will be entirely shut down and many others will be disrupted, the RATP metro operator said.

Meanwhile, one in five flights to and from Paris’ Orly airport are set to be cancelled.

The airport south of Paris, the city’s second-largest, at this stage is the only one in the country where the strikes could lead to disruptions, a spokesperson for the DGAC aviation regulator said.

Seven out of 10 teachers will be on strike in primary schools, the leading union SNUipp-FSU said on Tuesday, while other sectors, from refineries to banks, are also set to be on strike.
France has a decades-long history of attempts to reform its pension system - one of the most generous and costly in Europe - and of protests to try to stop them.

That worked in 1995, when millions took to the street in what were the country’s most disruptive social protests since May 1968. But several other pension reforms have gone through since despite protests.

The legal retirement age will gradually increase to 64 from 62, while the number of years of contributions needed for a full pension will rise faster than previously planned and will be set at 43 years from 2027, according to the government’s plans.

The reform is yet to be adopted in parliament, where President Emmanuel Macron does not have an absolute majority but is hoping to get the votes of the conservative Les Republicains.

(Reuters)

France braces for 'hellish Thursday' as pension strikes loom

Issued on: 17/01/2023 - 

Paris (AFP) – France is to face severe public transport disruptions on Thursday, operators have warned, as workers join a nationwide strike against a widely unpopular pension reform plan.
The suggested changes, still to be debated in parliament, would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increase contributions required for a full pension.

The industrial action across different sectors on Thursday will be the first time in 12 years -- since that age was increased from 60 to 62 -- that all of France's unions are united.

"It'll be a hellish Thursday," Transport Minister Clement Beaune told broadcaster France 2 on Tuesday, urging all those who could to work from home.

Paris public transport operator RATP warned services would be diminished, with three metro lines out of service, and ten others only operating partially.

Services would continue as normal on just two automated lines, though they risked being overcrowded, it said.

Elsewhere in the country, national train operator SNCF said many high-speed trains would be out of action, with just one in five maintaining their journeys in some areas.

Most slow trains between cities would be halted.

Up to 70 percent of nursery and primary school teachers are also expected to refuse to work, the education ministry has said.

Opinion polls show that around two-thirds of French people oppose raising the retirement age, a move that comes amid high inflation and with the country still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

President Emmanuel Macron's last attempt at pension reform in 2019, aborted a year later when Covid-19 hit Europe, prompted the longest strike on the Paris transport network in three decades.

The 45-year-old centrist put the issue at the heart of his successful re-election campaign last year, pointing to forecasts that the system would fall into heavy deficit at the end of the decade.

burs-ah/fb

Nurses in England launch fresh strikes over pay

Tue, 17 January 2023 


Nurses in England began two days of strikes over pay Wednesday, as officials warned of disruption for thousands of patients in the UK's state-run health service.

It comes after nurses held an unprecedented strike last month, joining a wave of industrial action by public sector workers hit by the cost-of-living crisis.

The main nursing union accuses the government of failing to negotiate seriously on improving their pay deal for the current year.


The latest walkout piles further pressure on the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) at a time of peak demand and lengthy waiting lists for treatment.

"It is inevitable industrial action will have an impact on patients," health minister Steve Barclay said Tuesday.

Two days of strikes by nurses in England and Wales in December led to the cancellation of "around 30,000 elective procedures and outpatient appointments", Barclay said.

"Patients will understandably be worried by the prospect of further strike action by nurses," he added.

Yet the plight of medical staff has prompted public sympathy as soaring food prices and energy bills have hit lower-paid workers across the board.

A YouGov poll on Tuesday found 63 percent supported the nurses' strike.

But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said Tuesday that it is not "the right course of action.

"We continue to call unions to step away from the picket lines and continue with discussions."

- 'Olive branch' -

Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents state health care providers in England and Wales, on Wednesday urged ministers to renew pay talks with trade unions.

"Our message to the government is to give the NHS a fighting chance and do all you can to bring an end to this damaging dispute," Taylor said.

This week's nursing strikes could cause 4,500 cancelled operations and 25,000 cancelled outpatient appointments, the NHS Confederation estimated.

Further strikes are planned for February 6 and 7 by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union, which said they will "be at the highest intensity in our history".

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: "My olive branch to governments -- asking them to meet me halfway and begin negotiations -- is still there. They should grab it."

A union representing ambulance workers, GMB, is also expected to announce Wednesday that it will resume strike action.

Ambulance drivers and paramedics this month held their second walkout in two months over pay and conditions.

The GMB union tweeted Tuesday that "government silence on pay gives... no option but to strike".

Barclay said he was keen for dialogue to continue, citing "constructive talks" with unions.

The NHS argues that it has given staff a "fair pay settlement".

Westminster MPs on Monday gave initial backing to controversial legislation that would require some frontline workers to maintain a minimum level of service during strikes.

am/rox

British health care crisis escalates with new nurse strikes


The U.K.’s National Health Service is in freefall as key staff stage walkouts over pay, conditions and underinvestment. But the British government holding the purse strings has so far refused to budge.

DOMINIC GLOVER / January 17, 2023

Nurses demonstrate on a picket line outside the Royal Marsden Hospital in London on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)


(CN) — Nurses in the United Kingdom are set for a fresh two-day strike this week, protesting against low pay and poor conditions as an ongoing crisis in the country’s health care system deepens.

The protest by the Royal College of Nursing, a 107-year-old union engaged in its first-ever series of walkouts, is part of an ongoing dispute between the British government and staff in the U.K.’s National Health Service, or NHS. The standoff comes amid a general collapse of health care provision across Britain, with an estimated 1,000 excess deaths a week being attributed to extensive delays in emergency care and a critical lack of capacity.

Nurses have been joined by doctors, paramedics and other medical professionals in their public condemnation of working conditions and falling standards of patient care, primarily attributed to a staffing crisis. There are currently more than 130,000 vacancies in the NHS – a vacancy rate of almost 10%.

Unions argue the primary reason for poor recruitment and retention of staff is low pay. The starting salary for nurses is below the average U.K. wage of 27,756 pounds ($33,854), while many nurses are frequently forced to work shifts of 16 hours or longer to fill gaps in the service. The high-stress conditions have led to an exodus among hospital staff, as large student debts and the impact of leaving the European Union have been cited as reasons for falling recruitment rates.

The effects of the crisis have thus far been stark. Ambulance waiting times have more than doubled for most calls over the past year, and the service has reached record-long waits for both emergency and non-emergency treatment. A total of 7.2 million people are currently awaiting treatment in England – more than 13% of the nation’s population.

There is also an acute shortage of hospital beds, with patients frequently being treated on floors or left in ambulances for hours on end, further reducing emergency capacity. A record number of hospitals have declared critical incidents over winter, indicating overwhelming pressures on their services.

The health care crisis has come to dominate British politics in recent weeks, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak under intense pressure to meet with representatives of the medical professions. Nurses are seeking a pay rise of 19%, to reverse a decline in real wages since 2010. But Sunak has refused to negotiate with unions, stating that a 5% pay rise offered last year is the only available option, and that any further pay rises will add to inflationary pressures.

However, the government is not in a strong position to take on nursing and health care unions. The ruling Conservative Party is unpopular across the country following a year of economic pain and political instability, and the party is traditionally distrusted when it comes to NHS management. Health care waiting times reached their previous record highs the mid-1990s, towards the tail-end of the last Conservative administration. Sunak has been damaged by the admission that he is a user of private health care rather than the failing public service – a question which he had initially tried to sidestep when interviewed by the BBC.

By contrast, the NHS is widely revered in British society, with nurses among the most trusted workers in the country. Visibly declining standards in the service are a major concern for the general population, with the issue having quickly overtaken economic management in salience. Recent polling by YouGov found that 85% of the public believe the government is managing the NHS poorly, whilst 60% support NHS staff taking industrial action, as worker protests are called in the U.K.

Controversial legislation being pushed through Parliament by the government seeks to introduce minimum service requirements for public services, which would undermine the ability of public health care workers to strike. However, the new law seems more likely to intensify the dispute than resolve it, and it does little to address the underlying causes of rapidly declining patient care.

Among the key reasons for widespread understaffing in the health care system is high demand. An ageing population and backlog of pandemic-era treatment have both added to pressures in the service. But the long-running issue in the U.K. has been a lack of social care provision. In the absence of an effective public or private social care system, hospitals have long been filling up with elderly, disabled and vulnerable patients whose needs would be better met in care homes or other assisted living arrangements. Unable to discharge these patients elsewhere, health care capacity has become increasingly strained.

Social care has proven to be a political headache for the British government over the last decade, with multiple administrations baulking at the cost of reforming the system, and ultimately backing away from doing so. A botched 2017 reform proposal was seen as too politically costly for Theresa May’s government, and the plans were subsequently abandoned. An attempt last year by Boris Johnson’s government to introduce a social care levy into the tax system was similarly reversed after internal opposition.

Sunak now finds himself at the end of the line of failed attempts to stave off a long foreseen crisis, and appears to have little enthusiasm for any new costly interventions in health or social care. Reports of an emerging Cabinet split suggests that Health Secretary Steve Barclay has privately lobbied for more NHS investment, only to be rebuffed by Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Sunak’s weak parliamentary position also gives him little room to maneuver, with his disunited party pulling in two different directions on fiscal policy.

Emphasizing that it is “the politicians who make the decisions,” Royal College of Nursing Chief Secretary Pat Cullen stated that the “route to resolving our pay dispute is through open dialogue, negotiation, honest communication and reasonable debate."

"I remain optimistic that we will soon have meaningful, resolution-focused conversations with government," Cullen said.

Unions are hoping that Sunak’s position on pay is gradually starting to shift under the weight of political pressure, with the Prime Minister last week refusing to rule out an increased pay offer for the first time – though possibly pushed back to the next financial year. But on the broader issue of health and social care investment there is little movement, meaning Britain’s healthcare system looks set to remain critically under-resourced in the medium term, and the NHS is likely to play a major role in the country’s next general election campaign.

Norway archaeologists find 'world's oldest runestone'




Kristel Zilmer, professor of written culture and iconography at the Museum of Cultural History, displays a runestone found at Tyrifjorden, Norway, on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. Archaeologists with the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

 (Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP)

JAN M. OLSEN
Tue, January 17, 2023 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Archaeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world’s oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.”

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press.

Older runes have been found on other items, but not on stone. The earliest runic find is on a bone comb found in Denmark. Zilmer said that maybe the tip of knife or a needle was used to carve the runes.

The runestone was discovered in the fall of 2021 during an excavation of a grave near Tyrifjord, west of Oslo, in a region known for several monumental archaeological finds. Items in the cremation pit — burnt bones and charcoal — indicate that the runes likely were inscribed between A.D. 1 and 250.

“We needed time to analyze and date the runestone,” she said to explain why the finding was first announced on Tuesday.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters (12.2 inches by 12.6 inches), the stone has several types of inscriptions and not all make linguistic sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug” — which could be the name of a woman, a man or a family.

Zilmer called the discovery “the most sensational thing that I, as an academic, have had."

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, dubbed the Svingerud stone after the site where it was found.

“Without doubt, we will obtain valuable knowledge about the early history of runic writing," Zilmer said.

The runestone will be exhibited for a month, starting on Jan. 21, at the Museum of Cultural History, which has Norway’s largest collection of historical artifacts, from the Stone Age to modern times.

Runes are the characters in several Germanic alphabets that were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the adoption of the Latin alphabet. They have been found on stones and different household objects.

Mexico tourist train to require 6,500 military guards

Tue, January 17, 2023 

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The environmental and financial costs of Mexico’s Maya Train tourism project are already massive, but authorities revealed another, unexpected cost of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet project on Tuesday.

The Defense Department said the project will require over 6,500 soldiers and National Guard officers to permanently guard its tracks and stations, out of the country's total 166,000-member combined force.

Even though the railway is still under construction, the troops were already listed as assigned to the duty this week.

In comparison, that is more than double the number of officers assigned to drug eradication nationwide, and more officers than are assigned to all but three of Mexico's 32 states.


The 6,500 number is similar to the 10,000 officers assigned to protect all sensitive government installations nationwide.

It was not immediately clear why so many guards would be needed. A similar number of Guard officers were deployed in the Mexico City subway last week after city authorities expressed fears of sabotage. However, the government hasn’t expressed any public concerns about sabotage on the Maya Train.

The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.

Originally projected to cost around $8 billion, the train line now appears likely to rise to between $11 billion and $15 billion. Because no real feasibility studies were done, it is not clear whether the train will draw enough tourists or recoup its costs.

While some stretches of the train line run over existing tracks or alongside existing roads, other parts are being cut through the jungle, including a controversial stretch that cuts a 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.

Brazil’s New President Faces ‘Scorched Earth Scenario’ Left Behind by Bolsonaro
Joaquim Salles, Grist
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva display a Brazilian flag during the presidential inauguration ceremony at Planalto Palace on January 1, 2023 in Brasilia, Brazil.

It is the tradition of inaugurations in Brazil for the incoming president to ascend the ramp of the Planalto Palace, the country’s equivalent to the West Wing of the White House, and receive the presidential sash from the outgoing head of state. The gesture is meant to symbolize a peaceful transition of power. In the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which took place on January 1, things were a little different. In a final emulation of his political idol Donald Trump, the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, often referred to as the “Trump of the tropics,” was absent. He had flown to Orlando, Florida, two days earlier for an extended vacation.

Instead, Lula used the moment to send a political message. He chose to walk the ramp with a small group of individuals meant to represent those his government will prioritize. Among them was the 90-year-old Indigenous leader Raoni Metukitire, of the Amazonian Kayapó people. Bolsonaro had attacked Raoni in a 2019 United Nations General Assembly speech, accusing him of being a pawn of foreign governments and NGOs that seek to undermine development in the Brazilian Amazon. Raoni’s presence at the Planalto signaled that Indigenous rights and protection of the environment will be high on Lula’s new presidential agenda.

“Our goal is to reach zero deforestation and zero greenhouse gas emissions in our electrical grid,” Lula said in his inaugural address to Congress, adding that Bolsonaro’s government had “destroyed environmental protections.”

The diagnosis is an accurate one. Over four years, Bolsonaro dismantled environmental regulations, much of it through executive action, and gutted federal agencies tasked with enforcing environmental laws. His actions and rhetoric emboldened illegal miners and loggers, who felt they could act with impunity. Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest spiked 60 percent during Bolsonaro’s presidency, the highest relative increase since the beginning of measurements by satellite in 1988.

The preservation of the Amazon is crucial to the climate crisis. The rainforest was once the world’s greatest carbon sink, but because of forest clearing fires and degradation caused by rising temperatures, there are large regions of the Amazon today that emit more carbon than they absorb. The situation could get substantially worse. Studies show that if 20 to 25 percent of the Amazon is deforested, the biome would no longer be able to sustain itself. This would trigger an irreversible process of dieback that could turn the forest into a savannah in a matter of decades. Currently, 15 to 17 percent of the Amazon has already vanished.

Lula served two previous terms as president between 2003 and 2011. During this time, in stark contrast to Bolsonaro’s tenure, deforestation in the Amazon fell by a historic 67 percent. Marina Silva, a well-known environmental activist and politician in Brazil, led this crackdown as Lula’s Minister of the Environment. Silva will once again hold that office, but environmentalists say this time around the government will have to rebuild Brazilian environmental policy virtually from the ground up if it is to achieve comparable results.

The first step will be to reverse many of the changes Bolsonaro enacted though executive action. This process has already begun. On his first day in office, Lula issued a series of decrees that overturned some of Bolsonaro’s most egregious changes to environmental regulations. He reinstated environmental funding programs, restructured key agencies that had been hollowed out, and reestablished the government’s anti-deforestation plan, which had been discontinued by Bolsonaro. But there is much more work to be done.

“It’s a scorched earth scenario,” said Suely Araújo, referring to the environmental regulatory apparatus that Lula inherited from his predecessor. Araújo is a senior specialist in public policy at Observatório do Clima, a coalition of climate-focused civil society organizations. She spent the last months of 2022 working with Lula’s transition team, prepping the first steps in what is expected to be a long process of recovery. “It will take longer to rebuild these institutions than it did to destroy them.”

Early in his administration, Bolsonaro tried to dissolve the Ministry of the Environment entirely, but was unable to do so due to backlash from civil society and Congress. Instead, his administration’s strategy became to weaken the country’ scientific and environmental institutions from within. Describing this process during a ruling about a slew of changes to environmental policy by Bolsonaro’s government, a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice evoked the image of a termite infestation eating away at environmental protection agencies from the inside out.

Shortly after Bolsonaro took office in 2019, Natalie Unterstell, of the watchdog group Política por Inteiro, began monitoring executive actions that had an impact on deforestation and climate change. “They were pressing buttons that sent shocks through the entire system,” she said.

Unterstell began this monitoring effort alone, keeping an updated spreadsheet, but the process soon became overwhelming due to sheer quantity. She enlisted the help of data scientists and developed an algorithm that would scrape the daily government bulletin, pinpointing the decrees that merited closer attention. In four years, Política Por Inteiro identified 2,189 executive acts that are “relevant to climate and socio-environmental policy.”

Many of the early decrees involved institutional reform. Offices and task forces within the executive branch that had climate change or deforestation in the name were simply eliminated. Regulatory agencies were transferred wholesale from the Ministry of the Environment and put under the purview of sectors they were supposed to regulate. The Forestry Service for example, which manages nature reserves, became an agency of the Ministry of Agriculture. The National Water Agency, which regulates water resources and use, was transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development.

Bolsonaro also named loyalists friendly to logging, mining, and agribusiness interests to head key environmental agencies like the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable and Natural Resources, also known as IBAMA, the main agency involved in monitoring and enforcing laws against deforestation.

Three months into his presidency, Bolsonaro issued a decree that froze the Amazon Fund. The fund, which is bankrolled by foreign governments, aims to support Brazil’s efforts to preserve its forest and is a crucial source of financing for IBAMA. The move possibly deprived Brazil of $20 billion in funding for environmental conservation projects, according to a report from the government’s own comptroller.

A critical element of the government’s strategy was to remove civil society and the scientific community from the environmental regulatory process. In 2019, Ricardo Salles, Bolsonaro’s Minister of the Environment, issued orders that restructured the National Environment Council, or CONAMA, a body that makes key decisions relating to environmental policy in Brazil. CONAMA was traditionally composed of a diverse group of stakeholders, including business interests, scientists, NGOs, Indigenous groups, and federal, state, and local representatives. Salles downsized the council and in doing so cut seats belonging to non-business civil society organizations from 11 to 4, giving them less proportional representation.

“They would bring four or five decisions up for a vote at once, and the councils were weakened so they had the opportunity approve whatever they wanted,” said Unterstell.

The system of environmental fines, which was already inefficient before Bolsonaro took office, suffered significant changes. Operations to curb deforestation began to be executed primarily by the military instead of IBAMA, an agency with decades of expertise in combating environmental crimes and the power to fine illegal deforesters. Even though the military reportedly spent $110 million to monitor roads and rivers in the Amazon region — roughly 10 times the yearly budget for IBAMA — deforestation rates skyrocketed. An investigation by the Climate Policy Initiative and World Wildlife Fund showed environmental fines decreased by almost a third during the Bolsonaro administration when compared to 2015 levels. The government also created a convoluted appeals process which in practice ground the entire system to a halt, resulting in fines being paid at an even lower rate than before. From 2019 through 2021, 98 percent of IBAMA fines went unpaid.

“The message was that if you commit environmental crimes you don’t need to worry because the chances that you will be held accountable are minimal,” said Unterstell.

During the pandemic the pace of deregulation accelerated. In a leaked video of a cabinet meeting in 2020, Salles, the country’s then-environment minister, urged his colleagues to use the global crisis as an opportunity. “We need to make an effort while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage, because they are only talking about COVID, and push through and change all the rules and simplify the norms,” he was heard saying in the video.

Among other significant changes to environmental norms was a directive from IBAMA, then-led by pro-industry Bolsonaro supporters, that loosened proof of origin documentation requirements for exported wood (later struck down by the Supreme Federal Court), and a presidential decree that encouraged mining in Indigenous territory. The government was changing regulations as late as December 2022, weeks after Bolsonaro’s loss in the polls, when IBAMA issued a measure that allowed for logging on Indigenous lands as well.

Lula might have gotten started on Day 1 in reversing many of these environmentally harmful policies, but scientists and environmentalists warn that results will take time. It is one thing to commit changes to paper and another to implement them on the ground.

“There are major trends of illegality that need to be reversed and a whole rebuilding process that has to happen. We won’t be seeing 2012 levels of deforestation in six months or a year,” Araújo told Grist, referring to the year with the lowest deforestation rate since records began in 1988. “The government will face a resistance that was not as strong back in 2003.”

Today’s Amazon is a very different place than the one Lula encountered when he began his first term as president. Brazil as a whole is significantly more polarized and much of the Amazon region is led by governors and mayors who align themselves with Bolsonaro. When Lula won the election in October 2022, Bolsonaro supporters blocked roads and highways to protest what they understood, without evidence, to be a stolen election. Many of these protests occurred in the Amazon’s frontiers of deforestation, such as the town of Novo Progresso in the state of Pará. “Bolsonaro created a bellicosity in the population,” Araújo said.

This tension came to high pitch on January 8, when Bolsonaro supporters, bused into the capital Brasília from all over the country, stormed and vandalized Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the presidential offices. Speaking after the events of that day, Lula speculated: “Many who were in Brasília today could have been illegal miners or illegal loggers.”

The Amazon has also become a more violent and lawless place. While homicides in Brazil overall have been declining since 2018, they have been on the rise in the Amazon. If the Brazilian Amazon were a country, it would have the fourth highest homicide rate in the world. Some of this can be attributed to the increasing presence of organized crime groups in the region, who have become involved in illegal mining, logging, and fishing operations and use the region’s waterways as drug trafficking routes. This trend became international news last year with the murders of Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira.

In addition to these challenges, Lula will face fierce opposition in Congress from politicians friendly to agribusiness and mining interests. Having been elected by a thin margin, he has limited political capital to spend. Some are wary that the administration’s commitment to protecting the Amazon will waver over time. Although the rise in deforestation was much more pronounced during the Bolsonaro years, it began under the administration of Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s handpicked successor after he left office in 2010.

Still, it is widely expected that deforestation rates will be declining by the end of Lula’s now third term as President of Brazil. “We can be sure of that,” said Araújo. “All it takes is for environmental protection agencies to be allowed to do their job.”

Gizmodo

France: March, Eiffel Tower display back Iran's activists

 

Mon, January 16, 2023 at 6:16 AM MST·2 min read


In this article:






Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979




PARIS (AP) — Up to 12,000 people marched Monday to the EU Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg in support of Iran’s anti-government protesters while the Eiffel Tower lit the night with the slogan “Woman. Life. Freedom,” which embodies the protest movement spilling beyond Iran.

The Eiffel Tower display also beamed the message, “Stop executions in Iran,” highlighting a demand of protesters.

Both messages pay tribute to Mahsa Amini, whose death in September triggered demonstrations in Iran, along with arrests and executions.

Paris posthumously declared Amani an honorary citizen in October, and Paris City Hall has said that the Eiffel Tower displays Monday were a homage to Amini and to “those who are bravely fighting for their freedom as the (Iranian) regime is continuing executions of protesters.”

The Strasbourg march was organized by Iranians in Europe on the 44th anniversary of the day when Iran’s last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ailing and under growing pressure, left the country forever. The following month, the monarchy collapsed under the fervor of the Islamic revolution that gave Iran its theocracy. Some of the demonstrators Monday carried photos of the former king.

Local media cited police as saying some 12,000 people took part.

“Your silence is violence,” one banner read, reflecting the demand of Iranian protesters abroad to support their message and ensure Tehran hears it.

Protesters want the European Union to take a firmer stance against Iran, declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

The European parliament's plenary session is to debate the EU's response this week to the protests and executions in the Islamic Republic. A non-binding resolution is to be voted on Thursday, which protesters and others see as a chance to put the Revolutionary Guard on the EU's terrorist list.

A letter last week by over 100 MEPs to Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, called on the bloc to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “in its entirety as a terrorist organization.” The IRGC was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2019.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Monday after a meeting with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in The Hague that they both had summoned Iran’s ambassadors in their respective countries to protest executions of protesters and British-Iranian former defense ministry official Ali Reza Akbari.

Hoekstra said the ministers support moves “to go further with EU sanctions against those responsible, all those responsible for these grave human rights violations in Iran.”

Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police. The protests have since become one of the most serious challenges to Iran's leaders.

REACTIONARY MONARCHISTS PROTEST IN PARIS

An activist holds a picture of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a gathering in support to Iran's anti-government protesters, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Strasbourg march comes after over 100 MEPs signed last week a letter calling on the EU to take a firmer stance on Iran. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)