PROMOTES RIGHT WING CULTURE WAR ON LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
Vladimir Putin claims ‘paedophilia is normal’ in West in bizarre speech

Thomas Kingsley
Tue, 21 February 2023

Vladimir Putin has claimed paedophilia is normal in the West in a bizarre speech to Russia’s political and military elite.

Mr Putin has said that in the West “even paedophilia is announced as a normal thing”, in a major speech ahead of the first anniversary of the Ukraine invasion.


He said the West recognises same-sex marriage, adding: “That’s fine. They’re adults. They have the right to live their lives. We are always very tolerant about this in Russia.”

But, he said, scripture says marriage is between a man and a woman, and he also cited media reports that the Anglican church was considering gender-neutral terms for God.

In a lengthy speech, Mr Putin vowed to continue with Russia's year-long war in Ukraine and accused the US-led Nato alliance of fanning the flames of the conflict in the mistaken belief that it could defeat Russia.\

Putin makes state of the nation address to parliament year after Ukraine war started (Reuters)

Flanked by four Russian tricolour flags on either side of him, Mr Putin told the audience that Russia would “carefully and consistently resolve the tasks facing us.”

Mr Putin said Russia had done everything it could to avoid war, but that Western-backed Ukraine had been planning to attack Crimea.

The West, Mr Putin said, had let the genie out of the bottle in a host of regions of across the world by sowing chaos and war.

“The people of Ukraine themselves have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, who have actually occupied this country in a political, military, and economic sense,” Mr Putin said.

The Ukraine conflict is by far the biggest bet by a Kremlin chief since at least the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union - and a gamble Western leaders such as US president Joe Biden say he must lose.

Russian forces have suffered three major battlefield reversals since the war began but still control around one fifth of Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of men have been killed, and Mr Putin, 70, now says Russia is locked in an existential battle with an arrogant West which he says wants to carve up Russia and steal its vast natural resources.

A woman holds her child as she watches the televised address by Russian president Vladimir Putin (EPA)

The West and Ukraine reject that narrative, and say Nato expansion eastwards is no justification for what they say is an imperial-style land grab doomed to failure.

It comes as the UN reported that more than 8,000 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, the UN Human Rights Office said on Tuesday.

The new toll represents a significant upward revision from the previous tally of 7,199 killed since the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February, the UN report said. Around 90 per cent of the victims were killed by explosive weapons, it added.

The UN human rights mission in Ukraine, which has dozens of monitors in the country, said it expects the real toll to be “considerably higher” than the official tally since corroboration work is ongoing.

Putin condemns Church of England for considering gender-neutral God


Gabriella Swerling
Tue, February 21, 2023 

Putin's comments come as he addressed the country’s political and military elite in Moscow on Tuesday 

Vladimir Putin has attacked the Church of England for “considering the idea of a gender-neutral God”.

The Russian President’s comments come as he addressed the country’s political and military elite following its year-long war in Ukraine.

Flanked by four Russian tricolour flags on either side during his address, President Putin said of the West: “They distort historical facts, constantly attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, and other traditional religions of our country.

“Look at what they do with their own peoples: the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion, and the abuse of children are declared the norm. And priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages...

“As it became known, the Anglican Church plans to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God... Millions of people in the West understand they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe.”

'Scrap male pronouns He and Him'

His comments come after Church of England bishops revealed that they are to launch a “project on gendered language” referencing God in church services later this year.

Details of the project remain unknown but it comes amid calls from some liberal wings of the Church to scrap the male pronouns, He and Him, as well as reference to Our Father, in favour of either gender neutral or female alternatives.

The plans emerged in written questions submitted to the Liturgical Commission at General Synod, which met earlier this month.

Landmark vote

President Putin’s comments also come following the landmark vote in which the Synod approved blessings for gay and lesbian couples which has divided both the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The main religion in Russia is Orthodox Christianity, with Russian Orthodoxy being the most widely professed faith across the nation. The denomination has 194 dioceses within the country and its primate, or leader, is known as Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

Its current incumbent is Patriarch Kirill, who has backed President Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine on spiritual and ideological grounds, and who has also previously told Russian soldiers that death in Ukraine will absolve them of all sins.

The Church of England has been contacted for comment regarding President Putin’s remarks.

I went stargazing in Europe’s largest dark sky park. This is why it’s worth a visit
Euronews Travel journalist Hannah Brown 

 - Copyright Hannah Brown / Euronews Travel

By Hannah Brown • Updated: 22/02/2023

I grew up in the countryside, but as a kid you never really appreciate the beauty of your surroundings.

And as an adult I’ve spent so much time living in big cities I forgot how incredible a starry sky can be. Light pollution doesn’t make for good stargazing.

But did you know, the largest gold-tier dark sky park in Europe is in the North of England? It’s also the fourth largest in the world.

I went to the Twice Brewed Inn in the Northumberland National Park to experience its new planetarium and to see the stars there for myself.

Why is Northumberland so good for stargazing?

On the Bortle dark sky scale, where one is black and nine is a bright city sky, Northumberland International Dark Sky Park is somewhere between two and three. This means there’s lots to see, including the Milky Way.

My evening was led by Wil Cheung, a stargazer, photographer and self described aurora chaser. His enthusiasm and knowledge was both impressive and infectious.

Stargazer Wil Cheung leads the events at the Twice Brewed Inn

Stargazing@TwiceBrewedInn

After an introductory talk where we learnt about what we can see in this area, the science behind it and how to get the timing right, Wil led us into the new purpose-built planetarium at Twice Brewed.

The dome is filled with bean bags and deck chairs for visitors to get comfy and enjoy the experience. There’senough space for 45 people inside, but they tend to limit group sizes to 30 to make it a more intimate and enjoyable viewing.

Though Wil’s weather tracking and predicting skills are second to none, if the conditions are unfavourable to see the stars outside, visitors can explore the night sky inside the immersive planetarium instead.

From solar flares to Aurora Borealis: Best shots from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards

Sky full of stars: Where are the best places for stargazing in Europe?

Can I see the northern lights in Northumberland?

If you’re interested in seeing the stars, you’re probably dying to see the northern lights too. And you don’t necessarily need to fly all the way to Iceland to fulfil this dream.

As a basic rule of thumb, the further north you go, the better the display. But it’s not always quite that simple when choosing a place to go aurora chasing, says Wil.

You need to think about what light pollution might be on the horizon looking north. So even if you travel all the way up Scotland but are just south of Inverness, the city glow will spoil any chance you’ve got of seeing the northern lights.

The impressive starry sky above the Twice Brewed Inn

The Twice Brewed Inn is situated in the south of the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park which means you’ve got miles and miles of dark skies to the north to see the aurora borealis.

It’s also the perfect time to go aurora-chasing. The sun is on an 11 year cycle, due to renew in 2024, and with this cycle come solar flares which cause incredible aurora displays.

From now for the next three years, there are going to be lots of occasions to spot the northern lights.
Why are stargazers the unexpected winners of the cost of living crisis?
When is the best time to go stargazing?

Many of us think winter is the best time of year to go stargazing because of the long nights. But that isn’t necessarily true.

“Depending on the season, you see different objects,” explains Wil.

“During the summer months, there are lots of things in the skies like the summer triangle and Scorpio - it’s a really awesome constellation to look at and you can’t see it during winter.”

If you want to see the stars in summer, you’ll need to stay up a bit later as the skies around Twice Brewed stay light until late into the evening due to its latitude.

Stars are becoming ‘invisible’ to the human eye at an alarming rate, scientists warn

Flight-free travel: The best places in Europe to see the Northern Lights by train

Why should I go stargazing at Twice Brewed Inn?

I had a lovely evening stargazing with Wil at Twice Brewed. The night sky really is an incredible sight to see. I also learnt there are 400 billion galaxies in the visible universe, so I’m not going to run out of things to see any time soon.

The inn has around 20 telescopes for visitors to use, meaning I only had to share mine with one other person, which really made the experience.

The sky and its visibility can change very quickly with fast-moving clouds but with Wil’s deft ability to line up your scope, everyone was able to see everything.

Hannah Brown was a guest of Stargazing at Twice Brewed Inn.

Watch the video above to see more of my stargazing experience.

GEN Z

Cambridge University students vote for completely vegan menus

Nadeem Badshah and agency
Tue, 21 February 2023 

Photograph: Pajor Pawel/Shutterstock

Students at the University of Cambridge have voted to support a transition to a solely vegan menu across its catering services.

The Cambridge students’ union voted on Monday to hold talks about removing all animal products from its cafes and canteens with the university’s catering services.

However, the move does not guarantee that Cambridge’s catering services will go fully vegan, as that power lies with the university. It also does not apply to the university’s 31 colleges, although the campaign said it provided “an extremely strong mandate for colleges to begin transitioning to 100% plant-based menus”.

The group’s motion, which calls for the change in response to “climate and biodiversity crises”, was backed by 72% of non-abstaining student representatives who voted after a four-week consultation process. It comes after lobbying from Cambridge’s Plant-Based Universities campaign, which is supported by Animal Rebellion.

William Smith, 24, from the Cambridge branch of the Plant-Based Universities campaign, said: “It’s great that Cambridge students’ union has passed our motion to work with the university to implement a just and sustainable plant-based catering system.

“By removing animal products from its menus, the university could significantly reduce its environmental impact and showcase to the world its commitment to sustainability.

“The university catering services has already made important strides, for example in 2016 when it removed beef and lamb from all its menus. We look forward to working with them on the next necessary steps.”

The Plant-Based Universities campaign is a nationwide initiative of students who are pushing for their universities and student unions to adopt fully plant-based catering, and has offshoots at more than 40 institutions.

A University of Cambridge spokesperson said: “The University of Cambridge removed ruminant meat from the menu in all university catering Service cafes in 2016 and has a sustainable food policy which also seeks to actively promote plant-based options, remove unsustainable fish from the menu and reduce food waste. We always welcome suggestions from students and staff.

WAR IS ECOCIDE

The ‘silent victim’: Ukraine counts war’s cost for nature

Wheat plantations burnt after Russian airstrikes in Donetsk oblast. 

Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images
A year of war in UkraineUkraine

Investigations are under way in the hope this is the first conflict in which a full reckoning is made of environmental crimesRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updates
Please support our independent reporting today, from as little as £1/$1. It only takes a minute, and it makes a huge difference to what we do.

Jonathan Watts 

Global environment editor

THE GUARDIAN

Mon 20 Feb 2023 

Toxic smoke, contaminated rivers, poisoned soil, trees reduced to charred stumps, nature reserves pocked with craters: the environmental toll from Russia’s war with Ukraine, which has been detailed in a new map, might once have been considered incalculable.

But extensive investigations by Ukrainian scientists, conservationists, bureaucrats and lawyers are now under way to ensure this is the first conflict in which a full reckoning is made of environmental crimes, so the aggressor can be held to account for a compensation claim that currently stands at more than $50bn (£42bn).


The environment ministry has set up a hotline for citizens to report cases of Russian “ecocide”, which so far number 2,303, and issues weekly updates of the tally. The latest edition estimates that in the past year:

Ukraine has had to absorb or neutralise the impact of 320,104 explosive devices.


Almost one-third of the country (174,000 sq km) remains potentially dangerous.


Debris includes 230,000 tonnes of scrap metal from 3,000 destroyed Russian tanks and other military equipment.


A hundred and sixty nature reserves, 16 wetlands and two biospheres are under threat of destruction.


A “large” number of mines in the Black Sea threaten shipping and marine animals.


Six hundred species of animals and 880 species of plants are under threat of extinction.


A third of Ukrainian land is uncultivated or unavailable for agriculture.


Up to 40% of arable land is not available for cultivation

Altogether the losses from land, water and air pollution amounted to $51.4bn, estimated Oleksandr Stavniychuk, the deputy head of the department of environmental control and methodology, at a recent workshop in Kyiv.

In part, this is effective wartime propaganda. At a time of heightened climate sensibilities, the Ukrainian government knows it can win hearts and minds by reminding the outside world that it is an environmentally conscious, food-producing, forward-thinking democracy that has been defiled by a fossil-fuel dictatorship that pays as little respect to nature as it does to the sovereignty of its neighbours.

But the implications of opening this new environmental-legal front are further reaching. It is also part of a broader and very modern battle that aims to tap scientific research, information technology, communication strategies and groundbreaking lawsuits in a way that puts a higher value on nature than most nations have recognised until now.

It is almost certainly the most detailed tally of wartime environmental destruction ever undertaken. During the Vietnam war, there was an outcry over the use of Agent Orange defoliants. In the Gulf war, considerable attention was focused on the burning of oil wells. But there has been nothing with the same range and ambition as the hotchpotch assessments now under way by civil society, universities and the government.

Those involved in this collective intelligence operation would not normally be classified as combatants, but much of their work requires considerable courage.

The gutted remains of a car in front of damaged trees following a battle between Russia and Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of Chernihiv in April 2022. 

Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP


Kateryna Polyanska is a young landscape ecologist who travels the country, taking samples from bomb craters and photographs of environmental damage in national parks. This requires trips close to conflict zones and areas that have not yet been cleared of unexploded ordnance. The dangers are very real. On one trip, she came across a fox that had been killed by a mine. On another, she could hear the sound of nearby shelling. But she feels the risk is worth taking.

“Last year, I started doing this investigation by computer using only satellite images, but I decided I needed to see it with my own eyes,” she said. “War is not just about direct impacts, it is also the destruction of our nature and environment.”

At first, she was afraid to enter the craters, some of which are more than 3 metres deep. But after she had done 20, she jokes that she became a crater connoisseur.

The samples are sent back to a laboratory where they are tested for toxic chemicals, such as white phosphorus. This is necessary to decide how to rehabilitate the land and whether to advise local people to avoid potentially contaminated streams.

The environmental cost of the war in Ukraine

Hotspots among the thousands of ecological crimes reported since Russia’s invasion

Black Sea

200 mile

Guardian graphic. Source: Greenpeace

Some areas, she said, were charred, while others looked like moon landscapes. Among the most shocking environmental destruction was the bombing of ancient chalk slopes, a unique ecosystem in the Holy Mountain national park. “When you see craters there, you know it will never recover. The chalk slopes were formed over 100m years and then destroyed in one year of war.”

The worst damage is not always visible. “It is not just the explosive material, it is rocket fuel and shrapnel and wire … All these little tiny pieces of pollution have a huge impact on nature. You can’t imagine the scale of the impact.”

Most of her work focuses on assessing damage and potential hazards for people and nature. But rehabilitation and recompense play a part too.

Polyanska works for the Environmental People Law organisation, which brings together scientists and lawyers. They – like other civil society and government bodies in Ukraine – are building legal cases against Russia in the international criminal court under article eight of the Rome statute, which covers ecological crimes. In addition, the Geneva convention forbids “methods or means of warfare that are intended to cause or may be expected to cause widespread, lasting and severe damage to the natural environment”.

Some legal scholars and environmentalists hope Ukraine can push international law a step further by securing recognition of “ecocide” for crimes against the living natural world. This term, popularised by the British environmental lawyer Polly Higgins, has not yet been defined in international law, but Ukraine is one of several former Soviet bloc countries that have passed ecocide legislation. This is already being used. The prosecutor general’s office is processing 11 criminal proceedings under article 441 on ecocide of the criminal code of Ukraine. In November the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the G20 summit that the recognition of ecocide and the protection of the environment were among 10 key proposals in the Ukrainian formula for peace.

Independent of the government, conservation groups have mobilised and repurposed themselves to gather evidence. Ukraine’s biggest environmental NGO, Ecoaction has collated reports of more than 840 incidents and collaborated with Greenpeace to plot them on an interactive “environmental damage map”. Using satellite images, they have measured and highlighted the biggest physical impacts.

Among them are the attacks on industrial centres such as Odesa, Donetsk and Lviv, which released billowing clouds of benzopyrene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and other toxic chemicals. War has also sparked vast forest fires, particularly in the Luhansk oblast, where 17,000 hectares of forest have been charred.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. 

Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Of greatest concern, for humans at least, is Europe’s biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia, which has suffered fires, damage to power lines and now faces a threat to its cooling system from the low water levels in the Kakhovka reservoir which is controlled by Russia. Both sides have caused damage to water systems, but Russia was the initial aggressor and has gone much further in targeting industrial facilities and residential areas.

Yuliia Ovchynnykova, a Ukrainian MP who serves on a parliamentary environment committee, has launched an appeal for international recognition of Russia’s environmental crimes, which led to the Council of Europe adopting documents on ecocide. She is looking for more support from overseas lawmakers.

She says more than 2m hectares of forest have been destroyed, wrecking ecosystems and putting at risk rare endemic species such as pearl cornflowers, which can be found only on sandy steppes on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, or the bare tree, which is grows in a narrow area of the Stone Graves reserve in Donetsk. The war, she said, had made people realise the value of nature in a new way. As well as providing ecosystem services such as fresh water, clean air and fertile soil, Ovchynnykova said the country had a greater appreciation of the security benefits of places such as the Polissia – Europe’s largest holdout of wild nature – which is a natural protective barrier of hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of forests, swamps, floodplains, lakes and wet meadows. Similarly, when Russian troops attacked Kyiv early in the war, the detonation of a dam on the Irpin River created a swamp barrier against their advance.

Other impacts are indirect. In both countries, industry and agriculture lobbyists are using the crisis to push for looser protections for nature and open up more land for development. Manufacturing of missiles and other weapons causes pollution and emits carbon dioxide, as do the explosions and fire they ignite. The war is so far responsible for 33m tonnes of CO2 and postwar reconstruction is estimated to generate another 48.7m tonnes.


The sanctions war against Russia: a year of playing cat and mouse

This belies the oft-stated idea that nature benefits from humanity’s misfortune. That may have been true in the past in isolated no-go areas – wildlife has flourished in the heavily-mined demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, and – until the Ukraine war started – the contamination zone around the site of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. But there is no such upside in a hot conflict. Even Chornobyl’s former sanctuary status has been eroded. Russian troops dug trenches in the locale, raising concerns that they might have unearthed radioactive soil.

Most abuses of nature go unreported in the media. “Nature is suffering. The environment is the silent victim of the war,” said Olena Maslyukivska, an environmental economist. As a member of a working group to calculate compensation, she is trying to address this and believes a restoration tax should be levied on Russian oil or Russian oligarchs as part of any peace deal.

Kateryna Polyanska collects a soil sample from a bomb crater.

 Photograph: Misha Lubarsky/The Observer

For now though, the fighting, burning and polluting continue, as does the effort to measure the horror. The researcher Polyanska plans to get back on the road in spring, after the winter snows have thawed. When the war is finally over, she hopes reconstruction can be used to improve as well as restore Ukraine. “I hope we can do things in a more ecological way. We need more green technology in industrial centres and perhaps there are some dams that we shouldn’t rebuild. We need deep scientific study.”

Other campaigners are also looking forwards. Denys Tsutsaiev of Greenpeace said Ukraine needed mechanisms and resources for nature restoration: “It’s an essential part of improving the health of people who suffer from the war and getting back to normal life.”

Dead fish, chemical smells and headaches: The fallout from Ohio’s toxic train disaster

Angela Symons
Tue, 21 February 2023 


Almost three weeks after a freight train carrying hazardous materials was derailed in Ohio, USA, residents are reticent about safety in their hometown.

The catastrophe, which occurred on 3 February near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, sparked a massive fire.

Those living in the vicinity were evacuated and schools in the area were closed as fears of an explosion grew. A controlled burn was carried out to prevent this, releasing a cloud of toxic fumes.

Although residents have now been told they can return home safely, concerns remain over possible drinking water contamination, long term impacts, and reports of dead animals.

How did the Ohio train derailment unfold?

The train, operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad, was travelling from Illinois to Pennsylvania. At around 9pm on 3 February, it is thought to have derailed due to a mechanical problem with a wheel bearing caused by overheating.

It has since emerged that the train had broken down just two days earlier, reports the Independent.

Questions have been raised as to whether the crew of just two rail workers and one trainee was adequate to monitor such a large train. No one was injured in the incident.

Of the train’s 150 freight cars, 20 were carrying hazardous materials. Around 50 cars were involved in the accident, including 10 of those carrying toxic materials.

If left to explode, these materials would have caused a “deadly dispersion of shrapnel and toxic fumes”, Ohio governor Mike Dewine said in a news briefing on 6 February.

“We had to weigh different risks with no great choices,” he continued before announcing that a controlled burn of the toxic chemicals would be carried out to prevent a more dangerous explosion.

The disaster happened in East Palestine, Ohio, a town of around 4,700 people about 80 km northwest of Pittsburgh.

Nearly 2,000 residents living within a one-by-two mile (1.6 by 3.2 km) radius were told they were in “imminent danger” and were ordered to leave immediately. But one resident told Reuters news agency their home already smelled like chemicals.

The contents of the railcars was drained into trenches where it was burned, with the fire going out on 8 February.

What hazardous materials was the train carrying?

Five of the derailed cars were carrying pressurised vinyl chloride, a highly flammable and carcinogenic gas. It is produced industrially to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer, as well as primary liver cancer, brain and lung cancers, lymphoma, and leukaemia.

Space race: Rocket launches can damage the ozone layer, researchers find

From magnets to lawsuits, here’s how we can fix the forever chemicals problem

The controlled burn also released hydrogen chloride and phosgene. Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing problems. It was used as a chemical weapon during World War I.

Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate and isobutylene were also reportedly found by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the derailed train.

Contact with ethylhexyl acrylate, a carcinogen, can cause burning and irritation of the skin and eyes. Breathing it in can irritate the nose and throat and cause coughing and shortness of breath.

These chemicals have been released into the air, soil and surface waters surrounding the accident - including the Ohio River.

Is it safe for Ohio residents to return home?

On 8 February, air monitoring carried out by the EPA showed it was safe for residents to return home.

As of 14 February, the EPA had conducted air quality tests in almost 400 homes, and did not detect vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride.

The EPA is also monitoring surface and groundwater locally for contamination.

On 17 February, the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, Jon Husted, tweeted a video of himself drinking water from the tap with local fire chief Keith Drabick, police chief James Brown, and Mayor Trent Conaway. The caption reads: "The water is safe and they are working around the clock to keep it that way."

However, concerns persist over whether the air and water is truly safe.



Residents have reported persistent odours, coughs and headaches. One local couple and their toddler have been diagnosed with respiratory infections, reports US TV network NewsNation.

Ohio’s health director assured residents on 14 February that even low levels of contaminants that aren’t considered hazardous can create lingering odours or symptoms such as headaches.

But some say they worry about long term effects of even low-grade exposure to contaminants from the site.

On 21 February, the Ohio Department of Health will open a clinic in East Palestine where residents can have their health concerns checked.

Despite local reports of sick or dead animals, the Ohio Department of Agriculture hasn’t received any official reports about livestock or pet illnesses or deaths directly related to the incident. However, it said autopsies and lab work would be required to make such a determination.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates the spill affected more than 11.2 km of streams and killed some 3,500 small fish, but officials have said drinking water in the area has remained protected.

Who will pay for the damages?

Rail operator Norfolk Southern has been informed by the EPA that it may be liable for the cleanup costs.

The company is creating a $1 million (€937,000) charitable fund to help the local community while remediation work, including removing spilled contaminants from the ground and streams and monitoring air quality, continues.

However, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday that Norfolk Southern had mismanaged the disaster from the outset and that its actions hampered the response from local and state agencies.

He also said the company had been unwilling to look at alternatives to intentionally releasing and burning the five cars filled with vinyl chloride.

“Prioritising an accelerated and arbitrary timeline to reopen the rail line injected unnecessary risk and created confusion,” Shapiro said in a letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw.

Some local residents are filing class action lawsuits against Norfolk Southern, claiming lost income due to evacuations and exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.

Renowned lawyer Erin Brokovich has been outspoken about the incident, urging the Biden administration to “step up” its response to the matter and demanding accountability.



How has the incident affected the Ohio River?

Over five million people rely on the Ohio River for drinking water, and claims have spread on social media that this could have been contaminated by the incident.

In response, some water companies have shut off their intakes or increased treatment processes as a precaution.

State and local agencies are conducting sampling throughout the Ohio River. The EPA says contaminant amounts found so far don't pose a risk for drinking water and the plume is continuing to be diluted as it moves further along.

However, at a press conference, Ohio health officials advised residents using private wells near the derailment to use bottled water.

Researchers discover mysterious source of 'heartbeat-like' radio bursts in a solar fare

by Jesse Jenkins, New Jersey Institute of Technology

 FEBRUARY 22, 2023

An illustration showing EOVSA capturing a pulsating radio burst from a solar flare. 

Credit: Sijie Yu of NJIT/CSTR; Yuankun Kou of NJU; NASA SDO/AIA

A solar radio burst with a signal pattern, akin to that of a heartbeat, has been pinpointed in the Sun's atmosphere, according to a new study.

In findings published in the journal Nature Communications, an international team of researchers has reported uncovering the source location of a radio signal coming from within a C-class solar flare more than 5,000 kilometers above the Sun's surface.

Researchers say the study's findings could help scientists better understand the physical processes behind the energy release of solar flares—the solar system's most powerful explosions.

"The discovery is unexpected," said Sijie Yu, the study's corresponding author and astronomer affiliated with NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research. "This beating pattern is important for understanding how energy is released and is dissipated in the Sun's atmosphere during these incredibly powerful explosions on the Sun. However, the origin of these repetitive patterns, also called quasi-periodic pulsations, has long been a mystery and a source of debate among solar physicists."

Solar radio bursts are intense bursts of radio waves from the Sun, which are often associated with solar flares and have been known to feature signals with repeating patterns.

The team was able to uncover the source of these pattern signals after studying microwave observations of a solar flare event on July 13, 2017, captured by NJIT's radio telescope called the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA), which is located at Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO), near Big Pine, Calif.

EOVSA routinely observes the Sun in a wide range of microwave frequencies over 1 to 18 gigahertz (GHz) and is sensitive to radio radiation emitted by high-energy electrons in the Sun's atmosphere, which are energized in solar flares.

From EOVSA's observations of the flare, the team revealed radio bursts featuring a signal pattern repeating every 10-20 seconds, "like a heartbeat", according to study leading author Yuankun Kou, a Ph.D. student at Nanjing University (NJU).

The team identified a strong quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP) signal at the base of the electric current sheet stretching more than 25,000 kilometers through the eruption's core flaring region where opposing magnetic field lines approach each other, break and reconnect, generating intense energy powering the flare.

But surprisingly, Kou says they discovered a second heartbeat in the flare.

"The repeating patterns are not uncommon for solar radio bursts," Kou said. "But interestingly, there is a secondary source we did not expect located along the stretched current sheet that pulses in a similar fashion as the main QPP source."

"The signals likely originate from quasi-repetitive magnetic reconnections at the flare current sheet," added Yu. "This is the first time a quasi-periodic radio signal located at the reconnection region has been detected. This detection can help us to determine which of the two sources caused the other one."

Using the unique microwave imaging capabilities of EOVSA, the team was able to measure the energy spectrum of electrons at the two radio sources in this event.

"EOVSA's spectral imaging gave us new spatially and temporally resolved diagnostics of the flare's nonthermal electrons. … We found the distribution of high-energy electrons in the main QPP source vary in phase with that of the secondary QPP source in the electronic current sheet," said Bin Chen, associate professor of physics at NJIT and co-author of the paper. "This is a strong indication that the two QPPs sources are closely related."

Continuing their investigation, the team members combined 2.5D numerical modeling of the solar flare, led by the other corresponding author of the paper and professor of astronomy Xin Cheng at NJU, with observations of soft X-ray emission from the solar flares observed by NOAA's GOES satellite, which measures the soft X-ray fluxes from the Sun's atmosphere in two different energy bands.

"We wanted to know how the periodicity occurs in the current sheet", said Cheng. "What is the physical process driving the periodicity and how is it related to the formation of the QPPs?"

The team's analysis showed there are magnetic islands, or bubble-like structures that form in the current sheet, quasi-periodically moving toward the flaring region.

"The appearance of magnetic islands within the long-stretched current sheet plays a key role in tweaking the energy release rate during this eruption," explained Cheng. "Such a quasi-periodic energy release process leads to a repeating production of high-energy electrons, manifesting as QPPs in the microwave and soft X-ray wavelengths."

Ultimately, Yu says the study's findings cast fresh light on an important phenomenon underlying the reconnection process that drives these explosive events.

"We've finally pinpointed the origin of QPPs in solar flares as a result of periodic reconnection in the flare current sheet. … This study prompts a reexamination of the interpretations of previously reported QPP events and their implications on solar flares."

Additional co-authors of the paper include NJU researchers Yulei Wang and Mingde Ding, as well as Eduard P. Kontar at the University of Glasgow. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.

More information: Yuankun Kou et al, Microwave imaging of quasi-periodic pulsations at flare current sheet, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35377-0

Journal information: Nature Communication

Provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology Microwave imaging of quasi-periodic pulsations at flare current sheet

Narwhals' climate-vulnerable winter feeding crucial for survival: study

by Linnea Pedersen

Narwhals' preference for cold water makes them sensitive to climate change.

Narwhals are likely more dependent on fat reserves and abundant prey in climate-threatened winter habitats than previously thought, researchers said Wednesday, warning of severe risks posed by global warming.

Scientists studying the long-horned marine mammals in the fjords off the eastern coast of Greenland during the summer found narwhals were largely unsuccessful in capturing prey.

"(This) suggests that they could actually rely on the wintering grounds to build up sufficient body reserves and energy stores to sustain year-round activities," said Philippine Chambault of the University of California Santa Cruz, co-author of the study published in the journal Biology Letters.

Researchers believe most narwhals spend their winters feasting off fish and squid under sea ice off the coast of Greenland, but Chambault said this cold-water habitat may essentially "disappear" because of climate change, with expected increases in ocean temperatures driving ice melt and potentially causing prey to relocate.

While the exact causes of the low summer feeding rate are not yet clear, researchers said it could be due to a decline or relocation of squid and cod, lower energy needs, or even because they are picky eaters.

Normally narwhal eating habits are hard to track because they dive deep, up to one kilometer (3,000 feet) and stay in the open water.

The researchers were able to study the foraging behaviors of 14 narwhals using so-called stomach temperature pills that could detect when the whales swallowed cold prey and icy water.

They also used acoustic tags tuned to the sound waves or "buzzes" emitted when narwhals narrow-in on their prey.

'Little flexibility'

More than two-thirds of the hunting dives recorded over roughly 1,000 hours were deemed unsuccessful due to the presence of buzzes without an accompanying stomach temperature drop, said the study.

The researchers said the small sample size and limits to the detection capabilities of the equipment meant the feeding rates could be underestimated.

But they also worked with local indigenous Inuit communities to test their findings.

Inuit hunters examined the stomach contents of the narwhals caught during summer hunting season, confirming that the whales' stomachs were in fact "pretty empty", Chambault told AFP.

Diet limitation is just one factor complicating the species' survival.

Their preference for cold water and a strong tendency to remain within or near where they were born mean they are particularly sensitive to climate change.

This means they might "show very little flexibility to changing habitats," Chambault said.

More information: Philippine Chambault et al, Extremely low seasonal prey capture efficiency in a deep-diving whale, the narwhal, Biology Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0423

Journal information: Biology Letters

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Lima: US authorizes extradition to Peru of ex-president Toledo

Tue, February 21, 2023 


The United States has authorized the extradition of former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo, who served from 2001 to 2006, to face charges of corruption in his home country, Peru's prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

"We have been informed that the US State Department authorized the extradition of Alejandro Toledo Manrique for the crimes of collusion and money laundering," the prosecutor's office said on Twitter.

Formally known as the Public Ministry, it said it was coordinating with "national and foreign" authorities for "the upcoming execution of his extradition."

"There is no fixed term, but fine-tuning the work between the two countries, we hope it will not take more than eight weeks," Alfredo Rebaza, a senior prosecutor at the extraditions office of the Peruvian Public Ministry, told local RPP radio.

A resident of the United States, Toledo was arrested in July 2019 on charges of corruption in Peru and has since been under US house arrest.

Lima accuses him of having received tens of millions of dollars from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for public works contracts.

Toledo, 76, studied at Stanford University and has resided in the United States since the end of his presidency, with brief breaks in 2011 and 2016 when he ran for a second term, but was defeated on both occasions.

Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 20 years and six months. They also sought the extradition of his wife, 69-year-old anthropologist Eliane Karp, who is cited in one of the corruption cases.

Toledo has admitted that Odebrecht paid at least $34 million and that he received part of that money, but claims he is innocent of the charges and says that a late businessman, Josef Maiman, was in charge of the business dealings, according to Peruvian media.

- Sprawling scandal -

Odebrecht is at the heart of a sprawling scandal in which the construction giant paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes throughout the continent to secure huge public works contracts.

According to the US Department of Justice, Odebrecht paid a total of $788 million in a dozen different Latin American countries over more than a decade.

The company has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru between 2005 and 2014.

As of late Tuesday, US officials had yet to publicly announce an authorization of Toledo's extradition.

The former president is one in a long list of former Peruvian presidents either facing legal proceedings or already convicted on corruption charges.

They include Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), Ollanta Humala (2011-2016), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020) and most recently Pedro Castillo (2021-2022).

A sixth, Alan Garcia, committed suicide in 2019 before being arrested for suspected corruption.

Since Castillo was impeached and arrested last December after trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree, the country has been convulsed by deadly protests.

Protesters have been demanding that his successor and former vice president, Dina Boluarte, step down and new elections be held.

Former Mexican minister convicted in US of drug trafficking

01:35  Former Mexican security secretary Genaro Garcia Luna sits in Brooklyn federal court on drug trafficking charges during jury selection in New York, US, January 17, 2023. © Jane Rosenberg, Reuters

Text by: NEWS WIRES|

Video by: Olivia BIZOT

Issued on: 22/02/2023 

A former Mexican presidential cabinet member was convicted in the US on Tuesday of taking massive bribes to protect the violent drug cartels he was tasked with combating.

Under tight security, an anonymous New York federal court jury deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict in the drug trafficking case against ex-Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna.

He is the highest-ranking current or former Mexican official ever to be tried in the United States.

“García Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,” Brooklyn-based US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

García Luna, who denied the allegations, headed Mexico’s federal police and was later the country's top public safety official from 2006 to 2012. His lawyers said the charges were based on lies from criminals who wanted to punish his drug-fighting efforts and to get sentencing breaks for themselves by helping prosecutors.

He showed no apparent reaction on hearing the verdict. His lawyer, César de Castro, said that the defense planned to appeal and that the case lacked “credible and reliable evidence.”

"The government was forced to settle for a case built on the backs of some of the most notorious and ruthless criminals to have testified in this courthouse,” de Castro said outside court.

García Luna, 54, was convicted on charges that include engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. He faces at least 20 years and as much as life in prison at his sentencing, set for June 27.

The case had political ramifications on both sides of the border.

Current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has railed throughout the trial against ex-President Felipe Calderón’s administration for, at a minimum, putting García Luna in charge of Mexico’s security. López Obrador spokesperson Jesús Ramírez tweeted after the verdict that “justice has come” to a Calderón ally and that “the crimes committed against our people will never be forgotten.”

García Luna's work also introduced him to high-level American politicians and other officials, who considered him a key cartel-fighting partner as Washington embarked on a $1.6 billion push to beef up Mexican law enforcement and stem the flow of drugs.

The Americans weren’t accused of wrongdoing, and although suspicions long swirled around García Luna, the trial didn’t delve into the extent of US officials’ knowledge about them before his 2019 arrest.

López Obrador has, however, pointedly suggesting that Washington investigate its own law enforcement and intelligence officials who worked with García Luna during Calderón’s administration.

A roster of ex-smugglers and former Mexican officials testified that García Luna took millions of dollars in cartel cash, met with major traffickers in settings ranging from a country house to a car wash and kept law enforcement at bay.

He was “the best investment they had,” said Serigo "El Grande" Villareal Barragan, a former federal police officer who worked for cartels on the side and later as his main job.

He and other witnesses said that on García Luna’s watch, police tipped off traffickers about upcoming raids, ensured that cocain could pass freely through the country, colluded with cartels to raid rivals, and did other favors. One ex-smuggler said García Luna shared a document that reflected US law enforcement's information about a huge cocaine shipment that was seized in Mexico around 2007.

One ex-smuggler, Óscar “El Lobo” Nava Valencia, said he personally heard García Luna and a then-top police official say they would “stand with us” during a meeting with notorious Sinaloa cocaine cartel kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman’s associates amid a cartel civil war. That sit-down alone cost the drug gang $3 million, Nava Valencia said.

García Luna didn’t testify at the trial, although his wife took the stand in an apparent effort to portray their assets in Mexico as legitimately acquired and upper-middle-class, but not lavish. The couple moved to Miami in 2012, when the Mexican administration changed and he became a consultant on security issues.

The trial was peppered with glimpses of such narco-extravagances as a private zoo with a lion, a hippo, white tigers and more. Jurors heard about tons of cocaine moving through Latin America in shipping containers, go-fast boats, private jets, planes, trains and even submarines.

And there were horrific reminders of the extraordinary violence those drugs fueled.

Witnesses described cartel killings and kidnappings, allegedly including an abduction of García Luna himself. There was testimony about police officers being slaughtered and drug-world rivals being dismembered, skinned and dangled from bridges as cartel factions fought each other while buying police protection.

Testimony also aired a secondhand claim that Calderón, the former president, sought to shield Guzmán against a major rival; Calderón called the allegation "absurd" and “an absolute lie.

García Luna was arrested after allegations of his alleged graft emerged at Guzman’s high-profile trial about four years ago in the same New York courthouse.

The former lawman also faces various Mexican arrest warrants and charges relating to government technology contracts, prison contracting and the bungled US "Fast and Furious" investigation into suspicions that guns were illegally making their way from the US to Mexican drug cartels. The Mexican government has also filed a civil suit against García Luna and his alleged associates and businesses in Florida, seeking to recover $700 million that Mexico claims he garnered through corruption.

Anticorruption activists gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate Tuesday's verdict.

“My country is a grave. It’s now a cemetery ... thanks to the corruption,” said Carmen Paes, who blamed drug lords in her native Mexico for the disappearance of a nephew decades ago.

(AP)

Architect of Mexico's drug war convicted in US of trafficking

Issued on: 21/02/2023 -

New York (AFP) – A once-powerful Mexican government minister was convicted by a US jury Tuesday of aiding the very drug smuggling he was tasked with cracking down on.

Genaro Garcia Luna, public security minister under Felipe Calderon's presidency from 2006 to 2012, was found guilty on all five counts following a high-profile trial in New York.

The month-long proceedings shone a spotlight on the corruption of the highest ranking Mexican government figure ever to face trial in the United States.

It also opened a window on the vast resources of the Sinaloa Cartel under Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is now serving a life sentence in a US penitentiary.

Garcia Luna was convicted of receiving vast sums of money to allow the cartel to smuggle tons of cocaine.

He sat impassively in Brooklyn federal court as the guilty verdicts were read out, his wife and two children looking on.

He is due to be sentenced on June 27 and faces a mandatory minimum term of 20 years imprisonment and a maximum of life behind bars.

"Garcia Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels," said US prosecutor Breon Peace, welcoming the verdict.

A spokesperson for the current Mexican government, which has accused Garcia Luna of stealing more than $200 million of public funds and has demanded his extradition, said in a tweet that "justice has arrived."

Prosecutors argued that Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, was the cartel's "partner in crime."

That included during his time as the architect of then-president Calderon's crackdown on Mexico's drug gangs between 2006 and 2012.

But instead of stopping the smuggling, Garcia Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel to allow safe passage of narcotics shipments.

Calderon late Tuesday sought to distance himself from his convicted former minister, saying in a tweet that he "never negotiated or made pacts with criminals."

"I fought all those who threaten Mexico, including, of course, the so-called Cartel of the Pacific," Calderon said, using an alias for the Sinaloa Cartel.
FBI equivalent

US government attorneys said Garcia Luna tipped off traffickers about law enforcement operations, targeted rival cartel members for arrest and placed other corrupt officials in positions of power.

The five charges ranged from cocaine trafficking conspiracy to making false statements.

"We are extremely disappointed in today's verdict," said defense attorney Cesar de Castro, who now has 45 days to appeal.

Garcia Luna served as chief of the Mexican equivalent of the FBI from 2001 until 2006, when he was elevated to become secretary of public security, essentially running the federal police force and most counterdrug operations.

Nine of the 26 witnesses who testified against Garcia Luna are accused drug traffickers extradited from Mexico and collaborating with US prosecutors in exchange for possible leniency in their own trials.

They included former several high-level cartel bosses, including Jesus "Rey" Zambada, Sergio Villarreal Barragan and Oscar "Lobo" Valencia.

They claimed to have paid millions of dollars to Garcia Luna collectively, and through Arturo Beltran Leyva, who ran his own drug cartel and served as a go-between with Garcia Luna, known as a "supercop," in exchange for protection.

Garcia Luna, a mechanical engineer by trade, was detained in Texas in December 2019. He declined to testify on his own behalf.

The world's biggest narcotics organization at one time, the Sinaloa Cartel moved multi-ton loads of cocaine each month from producing countries in the Andean region up through Mexico and on to streets in Europe and North America.

© 2023 AFP

Wetter storms, deforestation: Manila faces worsening floods

by Mikhail FLORES

In Manila, low-lying areas are often inundated with water when storms lash the Sierra Madre mountain range.

From her house in a Manila suburb, Rowena Jimenez can't see the bare mountains around the built-up city. But she feels the impact of deforestation every time her living room floods.

Slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging, open-pit mining and development fueled by population growth have stripped the once-densely forested Philippines of much of its trees.

In Manila, where more than 13 million people live, low-lying areas are often inundated when storms lash the Sierra Madre mountain range, which lies east of the city and acts as a barrier to severe weather.

But without enough trees to help absorb the rain, huge volumes of water run off the slopes and into waterways that flow into the metropolis, turning neighbourhoods into disease-infested swamps.

Jimenez, 49, has lost count of the number of times the Marikina river has broken its banks and flooded the ground floor of her family's two-bedroom concrete house, a few blocks from the water's edge.

"There is always fear that it will happen again," said Jimenez, who lives with her husband, youngest daughter, sister, nephew and mother.

"Your heart sinks because you realise the things you worked so hard to buy will be destroyed again."

Jimenez blames environmental "abuses" upstream in the nearby Upper Marikina River Basin—a catchment spanning roughly 26,000 hectares (64,500 acres) in the southern foothills of the Sierra Madre.

Rowena Jimenez has lost count of the number of times the Marikina river has broken its banks and flooded her family's house.

Only 2.1 percent of the watershed was covered by dense "closed forest" in 2015, according to a World Bank report.

Runoff from the mountains drains into the basin, which is critical for regulating water flow into Manila.

It was declared a "protected landscape" in 2011 by then-president Benigno Aquino, under a law aimed at ensuring "biological diversity and sustainable development".

That was two years after Typhoon Ketsana, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy, had submerged 80 percent of the city and killed hundreds of people.

But by then, many of the trees in the catchment had been cleared to make way for public roads, parking lots, private resorts, and residential subdivisions.

Jimenez still shudders at the memory of the water reaching 23 feet (seven metres) high and forcing her family to huddle together on the roof of their house.

"We didn't salvage anything but ourselves," she said.

Rowena Jimenez shows the height of the flooding inside her home.


Wetter storms

The combination of development in the catchment and wetter storms caused by climate change have exacerbated flooding in Manila, said Rex Cruz, a watershed management expert at the University of the Philippines.

"The surface of the Marikina watershed has been modified into something that is not able to absorb a lot of rainwater," he said. This also leads to water shortages in the dry season.

Cruz said the situation will worsen if "business as usual prevails" in the country, which is ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change.

Official data show "closed forest" cover in the archipelago—which has a total land area of 30 million hectares—declined from 2.56 million hectares in 2003 to 1.93 million in 2010.

It rose to 2.22 million hectares in 2020.

Protecting existing forests and replanting others are made difficult by corruption and sometimes violent conflict over land ownership and usage.

Watchdog Global Witness ranks the Philippines as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmentalists, with 19 killed in 2021 and 270 slain in the decade preceding it.

The Masungi Georeserve Foundation has spent years trying to reforest about 3,000 hectares in the upper Marikina basin.

The Masungi Georeserve Foundation has spent years trying to reforest about 3,000 hectares in the upper Marikina basin, which is less than 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Manila.

But there are disputes over whether the land should be conserved or developed.

Some people want to use it for quarrying, burning wood for charcoal, building resorts, or growing crops.

The Bureau of Corrections wants to put its headquarters there.

Masungi forest ranger Kuhkan Maas, 32, has been abused and even shot for trying to protect the land, where he has planted thousands of trees in the past decade.

He refuses to be intimidated.

"My dream is to see all the trees we planted flourish and to see the land that used to be barren become a lush forest," said Maas, still bearing the scar from where a bullet punctured his neck in 2021.

Masungi forest ranger Kuhkan Maas has been abused and even shot for trying to protect the land, where he has planted thousands of trees in the past decade.

'Wicked problem'

Without a land use policy and integrated environment laws to govern the competing uses of resources, it has been difficult to develop sustainably, said lawyer Tony La Vina, describing it as a "wicked problem".

Manila resident Jimenez said her family's house never flooded in the 1980s when she recalls the Marikina river being "pristine" and surrounded by farms, trees and a handful of families.

But as more and more land was developed for the growing population, their house began to flood in the following decade.

Since then, Jimenez said the family home is inundated once or twice a year, sometimes more.

The slightest drizzle sends her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease, into a panic.

"She'll pack things, put them in a plastic bag and nag us to start packing," said Jimenez.

"It's sad to know that the only memory she has left is the rain and flooding."

© 2023 AFP


Explore furtherSix people killed in Philippine typhoon