Another reason to avoid rodents: NYC's rats found infected with virus that causes COVID

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Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
Fri, March 10, 2023 

There are supposedly as many rats as people in New York City (hold the jokes, please) and some of them carry variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study published this week.

It's not entirely clear how the rats contracted SARS-CoV-2 or whether they pose a particular danger to human health.

But theoretically, the fact that they can catch the virus from people means they can pass it back, according to researchers. This would be a particular concern if, say, they incubated a highly contagious vaccine-resistant variant.

Other animals have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus from people, including deer, otters, ferrets, hamsters, gorillas, cats, dogs, lions and tigers. Millions of farm-raised mink were killed early in the pandemic to prevent them from infecting people.

There's no evidence that any of these sparked an outbreak in people, but the possibility for transmission is there, particularly among animals that come in close contact with people.

Urban wildlife "is a reservoir from which we can anticipate further infection of humans," said W. Ian Lipkin, a researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "It's going to be going in both directions."

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What this study found

After rats in Hong Kong and Belgium were suspected of carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus, federal researchers teamed up with several academics to study Norway rats, which make up most of the wild rat populations in New York City.

Between Sept. 13 and Nov. 16, 2021, when the delta variant was circulating among New York's human residents, researchers collected 79 rats from three sites in Brooklyn.

Fifteen of the rats, about 19%, showed evidence of infection with SARS-CoV-2, according to the study, published Thursday in mBio. Two of those were infected at the time of study, though they didn't show any obvious symptoms, according to Xiu-Feng "Henry" Wan, a pathogen expert at the University of Missouri, who helped lead the study.

Researchers then took Sprague Dawley rats and infected them in the lab with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, showing they could be infected by the alpha, delta and omicron variants. Those variants also mutated, possibly to make it easier for the virus to replicate, Wan said via email.

It's not clear whether the virus continues to circulate among New York City rats or is now being passed among rats rather than from human to animal.

"Our sampling was limited," said co-author Dr. Thomas DeLiberto, assistant director for the National Wildlife Research Center, noting that they have funding for another round of testing. "Further study is needed to address these critical questions."
Rodents and disease

This isn't the first time rodents in New York have been shown to harbor pathogens.

In 2015, city rats were shown to be carrying fleas that could theoretically become infected with and transmit the plague. (An outbreak of bubonic plague carried by such fleas killed one-third of Europeans in 1347. Now, plague is treated with antibiotics.)

And in 2018, mice living in New York apartment building basements were found to carry disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bugs and never-before-seen viruses.

Lipkin, who was involved in both earlier studies but not the new one, said he's not at all surprised city rats would be infected with SARS-CoV-2.

But there's no evidence that any human illnesses can be blamed on the rodents, he said. "When we did our studies of rats and mice in NYC, we were unable to say more than that both carried antibiotic resistant strains of human bacterial pathogens."

Lipkin said he's more concerned about mice than rats because they come into closer contact with people, living in apartment building walls often scurrying into inhabited spaces. "We have a more intimate relationship with mice," he said.

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How did the rats get SARS-CoV-2?

It's not clear how the rats became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Public health officials have said the virus is unlikely to be transmitted among people outdoors except in tightly packed crowds and that keeping a safe distance indoors helps prevent infection.

Presumably, people with COVID-19 didn't get within 6 feet of a rat indoors.

The study suggests they didn't catch it from sewage.

"No evidence has shown that SARS-CoV-2 viruses in sewage water are infectious," the study says, "suggesting that sewage rats may have been exposed to the virus through airborne transmission, e.g., overlapping living spaces with humans or indirect transmission from unknown fomites, e.g., contaminated human food waste."

People aren't known to pass the virus through food and Lipkin said the precise route is unknowable.

The U.S. government is running research projects to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus behaves in animals, how it moves between animals and people and "what we and our public health partners can do to interrupt the chain of transmission," DeLiberto said.

Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York City rats found infected with COVID virus, study finds

Why too many young men love Andrew Tate – and why we need to understand that, not dismiss it

Sasha Mistlin
Thu, 9 March 2023 

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

I have a teenage cousin who loves Andrew Tate. This became an issue recently when he posted one of his videos in the family WhatsApp group and I was dispatched by my mum to “have a chat” with him. I think I was supposed to tell him off, but to be honest – I understand why he is drawn to Tate. My cousin is a good kid who’s working hard to better himself, just as I was at his age.

On the surface, Tate preaches hard work, determination and “no excuses”: values my cousin probably sees as parallel to the philosophy of our Nigerian immigrant family. “He’s funny,” my cousin said, when I asked him why he watches Tate’s videos. “And his view of success is very binary – either you want it or you don’t.”

Tate’s views may appeal to teenagers, but he is currently detained, awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking. He denies all allegations, and has pledged $100m (£85m) to start a charity in his will for men faced with false accusations.

Tate was banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being raped. He has also said he would not allow his partner to go on a girls’ holiday because: “it’s disrespectful”. The 36-year-old’s predilection for young women may be the creepiest facet of his persona; he says he mainly dates 19-year-olds because he can: “make an imprint” on them. When I asked my cousin if he thought Tate was a misogynist, he replied he “wasn’t sure” – even though Tate describes himself as one .

My cousin is far from the only young man enthralled by him. Videos tagged #AndrewTate on TikTok have been viewed more than 12.7bn times. This matters. I’m 25 and other than sport and Love Island, I haven’t watched television in a decade. If you are my age or younger, Tate’s videos are as mainstream as the six o’clock news. Tate may have styled himself as a cult preacher, but he is anything but fringe.

Imagine you are a young man and your first time encountering Tate is not in a newspaper article like this, but rather a YouTube video titled “FIX YOUR MIND – Motivational Speech”. In the video, Tate dishes out harsh truths about money, success and endeavour. It is easy to see how it could inspire someone feeling powerless or confused about their place in the world: “You’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt,” he says. “If you’re 5ft 2in you need to become strong, and rich, and charismatic. If you’re 6ft 4in, you need to become rich, strong, well-connected. It’s the same game.” It is this messaging – the subtler, motivational stuff – that has given him such a following. If Tateism has a message, it’s about male emancipation.

While the technology that delivers Tate’s views might be new, much of his persona is a throwback to older ideas of masculinity. Tate is TikTok’s Tony Montana: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” Women appear in the background of his videos wearing very little and saying even less. There are fast cars being driven irresponsibly. We like to think the lads’ mags that peddled all this in the 90s and 00s went out of business because the world became a more enlightened place; but they went out of business because the audience went online.

The difference with Tate is that the women are not solely there for titillation. They are both direct objects of his misogyny, and their behaviour is used by Tate as justification for that misogyny. Comparing gender roles to chess, he says: “The king moves one square at a time and the queen can just zip across the board. So you’re partying in Miami – you see all these chicks on a boat. For the man to get on that boat, he has to move one square at a time: he has to get a good job, he has to get his credit right, he has to go through all this shit, stage by stage … a chick, what does she need? Lip fillers? Boom. Zip. That’s the difference between the king and the queen.”

Reprehensible it may be, but Tate’s baseless misogyny and “me-first, get-yours” narcissism is alluring to young men at a time when mainstream culture is telling them to check their privilege for reasons they don’t fully understand.

I hope it’s not too late for my cousin and that his flirtation with Tate’s toxic message is just a phase – a part of growing up that I worry is inevitable these days. That’s why a new framework for online safety is needed, one that recognises that the harmful content comes looking for you now via your social media algorithm and the “bad” looks just the same as the “good” on a TikTok feed.

We can’t afford to be English about this sort of thing. My friends and I didn’t get any proper education about sex, consent or relationships until we were 13, by which time we had learned it all from internet porn and lads’ mags. Teachers and parents have to be proactive about telling boys what mutually respectful sex is before they’re exposed to something else all together.

My cousin’s had a tough time recently, riven with personal and professional insecurity, amped up by a pandemic and a recession. In that context, I understand Tate’s appeal – an alternative lifestyle guru, saying get yours, before someone else takes it.

What makes me saddest is that it’s taken someone like Tate to bring us together. Sometimes all young men need is each other. Unfortunately, I was too busy “getting mine” to have a few chats with my cousin about what, and who, he was getting into.

Sasha Mistlin is a commissioning editor on Guardian Saturday

UK to import high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork in trade deals

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu, 9 March 2023 

Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Post-Brexit trade deals with Canada and Mexico will include imports of high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork, the Guardian can reveal.

There are fears there could be a Conservative party revolt, with the former environment secretary George Eustice raising concerns over low welfare standards for pigs in Canada, and an influential group of Tory MPs and peers gearing up to oppose the deals.

The deals also go against the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which wrote to the farming minister, Mark Spencer, after he refused to rule out Mexican beef imports. The committee said the UK’s carbon targets could be “compromised by a decision to allow the importation of meat with a higher carbon footprint than our own”.

In Canada there are more than 7,400 pig farms, and animal charities in the country say pigs there face castration, ear notching, tail docking and teeth trimming. Sows are kept for long periods in stalls that do not give them room to turn around, a practice banned in the UK. Pigs are also often left to live on cold, damp, slatted floors with no room for comfortable bedding or straw, the campaigners say.

Those involved in the deal have consulted Eustice, who previously criticised the Australia trade deal, in the hope he will not make similar remarks.

He said: “I am hearing that the volumes on beef are low, and that in return they have also got some dairy access which makes it a more reciprocal and balanced agreement. So looks like [the business and trade secretary] Kemi [Badenoch] has taken a tougher line than her predecessors. Pork could be more contentious, mainly because of lower welfare standards in Canada, but we will see.”

Tory MPs in the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) are likely to raise concerns in parliament.

The group, which includes the former environment secretary Theresa Villiers and the MPs Dominic Raab, Henry Smith and the foreign minister and peer Zac Goldsmith, has opposed the trade deals.

Lorraine Platt, a campaigner who is co-founder of CAWF, said: “We are concerned by the prospect of a trade deal involving the importation of meat from Canada and Mexico. Many low-welfare practices such as the use of barren battery cages, sow stalls and hormone-fed beef are still used in Canada.

“Meanwhile Mexico’s animal welfare laws are considerably lower than our own – with little to no specific safeguards for the rearing of pigs, cattle or chickens. We urge the government to send a strong message abroad and stand firm in commitments not to compromise our animal welfare standards in future trade deals.”

Animal welfare charities have raised concerns, including over hormone-fed meat. James West, a senior policy manager at Compassion in World Farming, said: “The majority of Mexican pigs are raised in intensive conditions and the use of sow stalls, which have been illegal in the UK since 1999, are permitted.

“Furthermore, ractopamine, a growth promoter used in pigs that is banned in the UK, is also allowed in Mexico. Similarly, Canada, which permits the use of hormones in farming, has previously expressed its objection to the UK’s ban on hormone-fed beef.”

Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, warned it would not accept any further imports of beef after trade deals with Australia and New Zealand were accused of undercutting livestock farmers.

She said: “From Mexico our lines are pretty tough on this having given away so much on beef to Australia and New Zealand. We want the government to take a very, very firm line on further imports of beef.

“Environmental impacts are why beef was a sensitive sector, both in New Zealand and in Australia, and now in Mexico. And we want them now to really show that they are keeping their promises of not undermining farmers and trade deals. We don’t want to see further imports of beef.”

A government spokesperson said: “Negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are ongoing. The government has always been clear that we will not compromise the UK’s high food safety and animal welfare standards in trade negotiations. Our accession to CPTPP will be on terms that are right for UK companies, consumers and farmers.”

Spain's powerful feminist movement split over trans and rape laws

Laura Llach
Thu, 9 March 2023 



Just half an hour separated the start of two big feminist rallies which took place in Madrid this week. On one side, the 8M Commission. On the other, the Madrid Feminist Movement.

This was the second consecutive year that the protests for International Women's Day had split, but this time round the divisions were deeper.

The strength of the Spanish feminist movement has been weakened by internal wrangling.

Myriam Rodríguez, a journalist from Madrid, had been debating with her friends which rally the would go to: last year she chose to boycott both of them.

“I didn't go to any of them because I had a feeling of sadness and pain due to the lack of understanding shown by certain feminist groups", she told Euronews, adding that she was not the only one among her group of friends who made this decision.

This year, Rodríguez did attend, and decided to march with the largest crowd, the one brought together by the 8M Commission -- which has organised the event since 1977 -- supporting new trans rights legislation and against the reform of the rape law.

Their march gathered 17,000 protesters, according to the government delegation, while other years the number rose to 120,000.

“I think it is the one that advocates plurality in feminism without trying to stand out as the only voice", Rodríguez explains.

The Spanish ministers also joined the main rally, which supported the political stance of Unidas Podemos, the minority party in the government coalition with the Socialist Party.

Members of the opposition, attended the alternative demonstration, along with 10,000 people.

Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero, center, Spain's Secretary of State for equality and against gender violence Angela Rodriguez, right, and other members of Podemos.

 - Bernat Armangue/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

Why is there a divide?

The marches in Spain for International Women's Day reached its peak as a global reference in 2018, when a successfully organised nationwide strike consolidated its position amongst Europe's most feminist countries.

But ever since, divisions have emerged in the movement over two new pieces of legislation: the ‘transgender law’ and the so-called ‘only yes means yes’.

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The debate over the new 'transgender law'

Two years ago, a group of women left the commission and decided to organise their own demonstration on Women's Day", Arantxa López, spokesperson for the 8M Commission, told Euronews.

Arguing the new 'transgender law' would mean an “erasure of women”, the Madrid Feminist Movement decided to split from the general 8M Commission.

While López and her organisation support the law and gender self-determination, which allows a person to change their name and gender on their identity papers by means of a simple administrative declaration, Madrid's Feminist Movement is strongly against it.

"The transgender law allows any man to identify himself as a woman and use spaces reserved for women. Safe spaces such as changing rooms and bathrooms," says Sonia Gómez, spokesperson for Confluence Feminist Movement, one of the associations inside the new organisation.

"Self-determination is the only case where a person says they feel one way and the law listens to them; in what other scenario can someone change their legal situation with just a simple declaration? Any rapist can self-determine and go to women's prison, as has just happened in Scotland”, adds Gomez.

To try to avoid this from happening, the transgender law establishes that the crime will be judged on the basis of the person's legal sex at the time it was committed.

However, Gómez says that when they tried to discuss their disagreements, there was no room for dialogue, which is why they decided to leave the movement.

For López and the 8M Commission this discourse should not be valid. "This was one of our red lines, we are not going to accept any hate speech against transgender people, nor are we going to question the rights of any person in general," she says.

"There is no framework in which to debate, because you cannot debate against hate speech. Everything that has been generated around the transgender law is based on hoaxes, it is a trivialisation of the process. I know first-hand how difficult it is," López adds.

However, this is year the division has run deeper due to another law which was aimed at protecting women by increasing years in jail for rape convictions, but has caused the contrary.

Protesters attend an International Women's Day demonstration in Madrid, Wednesday, March 8 

- Bernat Armangue/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

What is the controversy with the new rape law?

Since last autumn the feminist movement has become even more polarised, after the Spanish Congress passed the "only yes means yes" reform. It was the Ministry of Equality's flagship piece of legislation.

This new law was made to give more importance to the role of consent. In order to do this, it merged the meaning of ‘assault’ and ‘abuse’ into the same offence. They ended up establishing the maximum limit for assaults with the minimum for abuse.

What was meant to be stricter than the previous code in place, instead has resulted in reduced jail sentences for 721 sex offenders and 74 have been released from prison since its signing last October 2022, according to data published by the General Council of the Judiciary.

This is why, this year, the march led by the Madrid Feminist Movement carried banners asking for the resignation of Irene Montero, Spain's Minister of Equality.

For Gómez, who represents the Madrid Feminist Movement, the laws “are not well made" and are fragmenting the movement in Spain. “This law in particular has some good points, but in general it is not well done and jurists have already warned that it would get sexual offenders out of jail".

Many voices have called for a change in the law, however the 8M Commission, organiser of the historical march, doesn't believe in its reform.

Podemos and the Ministry of Equality also defend its original text and have voted against a reform promoted by its partner in government, the Socialist Party. This week the law was passed in Congress.

"We believe that the Ministry of Equality has not passed any law that helps women and the minister, Irene Montero, does not want to hear organisations that do not agree 100% with her proposals", says Gómez.

“They believe they are the owners of feminism and they don't listen to anyone else," she adds.

The division is more complex than being in support or against the transgender law or Montero's policies. These are only the tipping factors that have caused the divided image of feminism and, even though the split movement is still a minority, their voice is growing stronger.

UK

No-one with concern for fellow humans should back migration Bill – Sturgeon

Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
Thu, 9 March 2023

Nicola Sturgeon
5th First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party

No-one who has concern for their fellow human beings should back the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week outlined plans to prevent anyone who comes to the UK through illegal means from staying in the country.

The move was immediately denounced by politicians within and outside the UK, with the UN’s refugee agency claiming it amounts to an effective “asylum ban”.

On Thursday, outgoing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon weighed into the controversy, saying the Scottish Government would “never support” such a Bill.

During First Minister’s Questions, she said: “Let’s be clear – the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill sets out a clear intention to remove the right to seek refugee protection in the United Kingdom, it is utterly shameful and immoral.

“All of us, without exception, should be appalled that the Home Secretary should introduce such a Bill, a Bill that she knows doesn’t comply with the Human Rights Act, a Bill which adds to the damage already inflicted on the UK’s reputation as a place of refuge, the UK’s credibility with international partners and the ability to meet responsibilities under the refugee convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.



“It is a Bill that this Government does not support, will never support, and nobody who has any concern for our fellow human beings should ever support such an appalling piece of draft legislation.”

The First Minister also hit out at the opposition, adding: “I can still remember a day when Labour would have opposed it tooth and nail in principle and not in the mealy-mouthed way that it has been doing.”

Why are migrants in small boats a heated issue in the UK?
 

Suella Braverman




Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, second center, speaks with members of the Home Office contracted staff, while looking at a lifevest and rubber dinghy, during a visit to a Home Office joint control room in Dover, Kent, England, Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)

JILL LAWLESS
Wed, March 8, 2023 

LONDON (AP) — The message to asylum-seekers from British Home Secretary Suella Braverman was stark. “If you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed.”

The government hopes that decisive — and divisive — measure will stop tens of thousands of migrants reaching Britain in boats across the English Channel.

Behind the tough talk, however, lie a host of legal, practical and ethical questions. Condemned by rights groups and queried by legal experts, the Illegal Migration Bill is the latest in a long line of British government efforts to control unauthorized migration.

IS THIS A NEW PROBLEM?

The issue is neither new nor unique to the U.K. War, famine, poverty and political repression have put millions on the move around the globe. Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than European nations including Italy, Germany and France — nine per 100,000 people in 2021, compared to a European Union average of 16 per 100,000.

But for decades, thousands of migrants have traveled to northern France each year in hopes of reaching the U.K. Many are drawn by family ties, the English language or the belief it’s easy to find work in the U.K.

After the Eurotunnel connecting France and England under the Channel opened in 1994, refugees and migrants congregated in Calais, the nearest French city, in hopes of stowing away on vehicles heading to Britain. They gathered in crowded makeshift camps, including a sprawling, violent settlement dubbed “The Jungle.”

Neither repeated sweeps to shut down the camps nor increased security patrols stopped the flow of people.

WHY ARE PEOPLE NOW CROSSING BY BOAT?

When the COVID-19 pandemic all but halted rail, air and ship travel and disrupted freight transport in 2020, people-smugglers began to put migrants into inflatable dinghies and other small boats. In 2018, only 300 people reached Britain that way. The number rose to 8,500 in 2020, 28,000 in 2021 and 45,000 in 2022.

Dozens have died in the frigid channel, including 27 people in a single sinking in November 2021.

The new arrivals are much more visible than those arriving by air or as truck stowaways. Groups of migrants arrive almost daily on beaches or in lifeboats along England’s southern coast, sending the asylum issue up the news and political agenda.

WHO IS IN THE BOATS?

The British government says many of those making the journey are economic migrants rather than refugees, and points to an upswing last year in arrivals from Albania, a European country that the U.K. considers safe.

The other main countries of origin last year were Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Of those whose applications have been processed, a large majority were granted asylum in the U.K.

HOW HAS THE U.K. GOVERNMENT RESPONDED?

Britain’s Conservative Party, in power since 2010, has brought in a series of measures aimed at deterring the channel crossings.

The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt smuggling gangs — all of which have had only a limited impact.

Last year Britain announced a deal with Rwanda to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be heard and, if successful, they would stay. The policy was condemned by human rights groups an is mired in legal challenges. No one has yet been sent to Rwanda.

The 2022 Nationality and Borders Act barred people from claiming asylum in Britain if they had passed through a safe country such as France. But in practice it has made little difference, since people fleeing war and persecution can’t be sent home, and no countries — other than Rwanda and Albania — have agreed to take deportees.

This week Britain unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill, its toughest measure yet, which calls for people arriving by unauthorized routes to be detained, deported to their homeland or “a safe third country” and banned from ever reentering the U.K.

WILL IT WORK?

The United Nations refugee agency says the bill amounts to an “asylum ban” and is a clear breach of the U.N. refugee convention. The U.K. government acknowledges the bill may break Britain’s international human rights commitments, and says it expects legal challenges.

Sunder Katwala, head of the identity and immigration think-tank British Future, said in a blog post that “the pledge to detain and remove all people who cross the Channel has no prospect of being honored in the next two years.” He said that apart from legal issues, the government “doesn’t have enough detention places; and it cannot deport everyone when it doesn’t have agreements with other countries to do so safely.”

The British government says the country’s asylum system has been “overwhelmed” by the small-boat arrivals. But critics blame a bureaucratic and cumbersome asylum system, exacerbated by the pandemic, that has amassed a backlog of 160,000 applications.

Brexit has also played a role: it has made it harder for Britain to send migrants to other European countries and has cut off U.K. access to some EU-wide information databases.

The government has vowed to push the bill into law, saying the British public wants to see tough action. “Stopping the boats is not just my priority, it is the people’s priority,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday.

Evidence suggests the public’s view is mixed. A desire to control immigration was a huge factor behind the U.K.’s 2016 vote to pull out of the European Union. But overall immigration rose, rather than fell, after Brexit, hitting a record high of more than 500,000 in the year to June 2022. Britain also took in a record number of refugees last year, including 160,000 from Ukraine and 150,000 from Hong Kong.

At the same time, polls suggest immigration is no longer a top issue for many voters. Jonathan Portes, senior fellow at the think-tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, said there has been a “sustained shift towards more positive attitudes towards migration” since Brexit.

As for asylum-seekers, he said Britons want the country to be “relatively generous towards genuine refugees. But how that is defined is highly contested.” ___

Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

EU relaxes subsidy rules to prevent green tech companies from relocating to the United States

Jorge Liboreiro
Thu, 9 March 2023 


The European Commission has made good on its promise to further relax the EU's long-standing rules on national subsidies to prevent green tech companies from relocating to the United States and retain the bloc's ability to compete on a global scale.

The rules were already under an extraordinary state of relaxation due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis, an amendment that allowed member states to pump public money more easily into struggling companies and vulnerable households.

But the approval last summer of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a massive programme of state aid promoted by US President Joe Biden, has pushed the Commission into further prolonging the crisis framework and even expanding its scope to shield homegrown companies needed to fight climate change.

Over the next ten years, the IRA will dole out up to $369 billion in tax credits and direct rebates to help firms scale up the production of green, cutting-edge technology – but only if these products are predominantly manufactured in North America.

Brussels considers this provision to be discriminatory, unfair and illegal, and fears the allure of the generous American bill will trigger an industrial exodus across the Atlantic Ocean, dealing a fatal blow to the EU's long-term competitiveness

With this in mind, the Commission has adapted the state aid rules to simplify the approval of subsidies into six key areas – batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers (an apparatus required to obtain green hydrogen) and carbon capture technology –, as well as for the production of the components and raw materials needed to manufacture them.

The new procedures will allow greater margins for member states to inject public money – in the form of grants, loans or tax credits – with the goal of sustaining the development of these green tech products, which are indispensable to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

In cases where the risk of relocation is high, countries will be able to match the subsidies offered by a non-European government, such as the US, and retain the company within EU borders. Alternatively, countries will be able to compensate for the funding gap the company estimates to have.

This option, known as "matching aid," is considered the most innovative element of the relaxed rules and raises the possibility of a subsidy race between EU and non-EU countries at the expense of taxpayers.

The Commission admits this scenario is likely and has proposed several "safeguards" to guarantee the "matching aid" does not spiral out of control, such as compelling the aid to be granted in less developed areas or mandating the project to be located in at least three member states.

The company that benefits from the "matching aid" will do so on condition that it will not relocate outside the EU for the next five years, or three years for SMEs.

The new rules will apply until the end of 2025 but disbursements could continue afterwards.

Although not mentioned by name, the safeguards appear to be designed to avoid Germany and France from further amassing subsidies for their national industries.

The two countries accounted for 77% of the €672 billion in approved programmes across 2022, a stunning stat that led other countries to urge the Commission to exercise extra caution before further relaxing state aid rules.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner in charge of overseeing competition policy, has insisted the amended rules will be "proportionate, targeted and temporary."

But in early February, when she first previewed the changes, Vestager warned that using money from taxpayers to benefit hand-picked companies "only makes sense if the society as a whole benefits."

"Using state aid to establish mass production and to match foreign subsidies is something new," Vestager said back then. "And it is not innocent."

Iran: unions and civil rights groups demand democracy and social justice

Simin Fadaee, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Manchester

The Conversation
Thu, 9 March 2023 

Women, life, freedom: protests against the oppression of Iranian women in Iran in Ottowa, Canada, September 2022. Taymaz Valley/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Forty-four years after Iranians rose up against their hated monarch in February 1979, a group of 20 organisations engaged in long-term social and economic struggles – including labour unions, teachers, women’s groups and youth and student movements – issued an ultimatum to the government of the Islamic Republic.

The Charter of Minimum Demands of Independent Trade Union and Civil Organisations of Iran contains 12 demands concerning social justice, democracy and political reform. The charter is a protest:
against misogyny and gender-based discrimination, economic instability, the modern enslavement of the workforce, poverty, distress, class violence, and nationalist, centralist, and religious oppression. It is a revolution against any form of tyranny, whether it be under the pretext of religion or not; any form of tyranny that has been inflicted upon us, the majority of the people of Iran.

This charter represents the first organised and collective demand from within Iran since the explosion of unrest on Iranian streets after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police in September 2022.

The push for transformation inside Iran stands in stark contrast to the attempts of some exiled Iranians who want to reimpose the pre-1979 monarchy.

The revolutionary movement that overthrew Mohammad Reza Shah, the last monarch of Iran, was a broad-based coalition of mostly urban working- and middle-class people. Supporters of the revolution were united by their opposition to the monarchy, but they were motivated by a range of ideologies: socialism, communism, liberalism, secularism, Islamism and nationalism.

These groups were also unified by their fierce opposition to Iran’s foreign policy that left it subordinate to the west. Deeply etched in Iranians’ collective memory is the fact that the monarchy had been reinstalled in 1953 after a coup d’etat against the democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. The coup had been orchestrated by the US and UK, who backed Mohammad Reza Shah throughout his brutal and oppressive reign, in return for control of Iran’s oil industry.

By the 1970s, brutal state oppression was accompanied by increasing inequality. Poor living and working conditions provoked unrest that was met with further repression and Iran’s jails overflowed with political prisoners.

In January 1979, Mohammad Reza Shah and his family were forced into exile by a broad-based revolutionary coalition. But the unity that succeeded in ousting the hated regime proved to be shortlived and the theocratic Islamic Republic was established under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

But a large segment of Iranian society that had supported the revolution staunchly opposed the Islamic Republic from the beginning. This opposition has remained firm to the present day and is represented in huge numbers in the street protests that have rocked Iran since the death of Amini.

Amini, a Kurdish Iranian, was visiting relatives in Tehran when she was arrested by the morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Her death, after reportedly being brutally beaten while in custody, provoked outrage across the country.

Read more: Iran: hijab protests reflect society-wide anger at regime which trashes rule of law and human rights

In the protests that followed, many young women and men have been killed by security forces. Now the Islamic Republic faces the most serious challenge in its 44-year existence.

During the 1979 revolution, the hijab became a symbol of resistance to the Pahlavi monarchy and its commitment to “modernise” – in other words, westernise – Iranian society. Many women wore the headscarf as a protest against the imposition of western norms.

After the Islamic Republic took power the dress code for women became stricter. A month after the revolution – on March 8 1979, women launched massive demonstrations across Iran against what they saw as patriarchal oppression on the part of the new Islamic regime. However, the hijab became obligatory in 1983, by which time Iran was at war with Iraq.

So the hijab symbolises Iranian women’s struggle against control by both the monarchy and the theocracy. The killing of Amini in September 2022 was the trigger for the current wave of protests, but they are a manifestation of long-lasting repressive gender relations. It is opposition to deeply rooted patriarchal relations that brought women and girls onto the streets in their hundreds of thousands across almost every city and town.

While women led the demonstrations, many men offered support. The slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”, which places women at the centre of the struggle, also calls for transformative changes in the economy (“life”) and politics (“freedom”). Like in 1979, the current protests enjoy support from diverse social groups. For many, this wave of demonstrations represents continuity with the 1979 revolution, and an opportunity to achieve the objectives that were undermined by the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

Progressive revolution

The 44th anniversary of the 1979 revolution marked a significant moment for which many Iranians have been longing. The new charter calls for “an end to the formation of any kind of power from above and to start a social, progressive, and human revolution for the liberation of peoples from any form of tyranny, discrimination, colonisation, oppression, and dictatorship”.

The demands are broad-ranging. They include the freedom of all political prisoners, freedom of belief and expression, equality between men and women and improved wages and conditions for all workers. They demand the free participation of people in democracy through local and national councils and the redistribution of wealth and resources.

The charter provides the first draft of a vision for a new Iran. Its proclamation on the anniversary of the 1979 revolution makes a historical connection to that struggle and its anti-imperialist and anti-dictatorial sentiments. The demands put forward demonstrate that Iranians have a clear vision for their future. And it shows that it is time for the reactionary forces outside Iran to accept that Iranian people can indeed alter their society from within.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Economic growth doesn't have to mean 'more' – consuming 'better' will also protect the planet

Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University

THE CONVERSATION
Thu, 9 March 2023

Nattapol_Sritongcom/Shutterstock

Around 30 years ago, many developed countries started a process of absolute decoupling of their emissions of CO₂ and energy use from economic growth. This means keeping emissions stable, or better yet, shrinking them, while still growing the economy.

As a result, GDP is now much higher than it was in 1990 in the UK, France, Germany and the US, but CO2 emissions are lower. This is not just because of the deindustrialisation of the west: emissions decrease even if we include our imports from countries like China.

This trend may be too little too late to avoid the worst consequences of climate change and the destruction of wildlife. But it is a testimony of perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about economics: that growth is a measure of how much an economy produces, rather than an imperfect account of the value of this production.

Emissions versus GDP

Fighting climate change requires a radical transformation of the economy to use less energy and resources. This means it could cause economic growth by making us consume “better”, not more. Putting a monetary value on protecting the Earth means people will pay the true cost of their consumption.
“Better” consumption of goods and services

The things we buy typically become more valuable if the perceived quality of a product increases. And research shows that consumers are willing to pay more if they believe a brand is more valuable, for example, because it is more ethical or environmentally friendly. This is the case for low-carbon energy sources, fairtrade chocolate, organic and local products – and it’s even more the case for people that care about how others see them. So if this means replacing a £1.89 pack of beef burgers with £12 bean and mushroom patties, economic growth will certainly be good for the planet.

The same can be said for the services people spend money on. In fact, as the economy becomes more dependent on services than products, this part of our consumption is even more important to “green”.

This is because much of today’s economic growth is not about measuring the value of the objects we buy. Two-thirds of the world’s GDP is constituted of services, and those are increasingly provided from our own homes as we work remotely. The environmental cost is then almost entirely composed of the energy needed to make the internet work – and there is a way to make that greener.

Sci-fi authors and futurists of the 1960s correctly predicted that we would live in a world of wireless communications, flat-screen TVs and sophisticated kitchen appliances, while fewer foresaw that younger generations would celebrate the return of sleeper trains in Europe. They would probably also be surprised at how many people find love via their phone, using online dating services. The fact that Match.com is worth more than car companies Mitsubishi and Mazda combined shows how our economy is changing towards consumption of services rather than traditional goods.

This does not mean that free markets and technology alone can save the world from climate change. Government intervention is also needed. In fact, one of the oldest and most accepted ideas in economics is the principle that consumers should not only pay for the cost of producing what they buy, but also for its cost to society. This means taxing pollution, the destruction of wildlife, unhealthy food, traffic congestion and the depletion of natural resources, rather than raising the same amount by taxing income.

This could also be a source of economic growth. Research shows taxing pollution generates a “double dividend”: it restores fair competition between polluting and non-polluting products, and it generates tax revenue to invest for everyone’s benefit. If the prohibitive cost of pollution and limited natural resources forces us to innovate, we can actually create value instead of destroying it.
Green policies as the future of growth

In this kind of world, sustained growth for the next century would mean the phasing out of fossil fuels and increased energy efficiency, and largely replacing meat production with plant and lab-based alternatives. But also more value created by services, addressing wellbeing, and creating cleaner air and water, healthier food and safer cities.

Indeed, 15-minute cities are more of an economist’s dream than a socialist utopia. Charging for the true cost of car use by heavily taxing noise and air pollution is textbook introductory economics. Reallocating public land towards humans and public transport saves time for everyone. On the other hand, adding roads simply creates more congestion, while public transport gets more efficient as more people use it. Less time spent in a car means more time for work and leisure.

And when it comes to artificial intelligence, just like machines and robots in the past, it will not kill jobs but give us more time and money to spend on leisure. This is economic growth.

New technology often frees up people’s time. Olena Yakobchuk / Shutterstock

The real challenge for growth is not defying the laws of physics with technology that magically allows us to produce more with the same or fewer resources. It is the ability of our societies to tax polluting activities and regulate the use of land and natural resources, while still being able to redistribute wealth. This is the ability to do better with less.

We also need to work out how to correctly account for everything we value. What is counted under GDP figures has already started to change over time to include things not directly measured by traditional markets.

Read more: Beyond GDP: changing how we measure progress is key to tackling a world in crisis – three leading experts

Making the case for the preservation of nature means being able to put a number on it: taxing social costs but also recording the value of the use of our parks, forests and mountains. If those who care about protecting the environment do not fight to put the highest possible number on nature because they find the idea of valuing it in monetary terms repugnant, someone who does not care will do it.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

PISSING OFF THE SWISS
St Bernard’s originated in London and not the Alps, new book claims

Blathnaid Corless
Thu, 9 March 2023 

St Bernard - swisshippo

They are as synonymous with Switzerland as Toblerone and yodelling.

But St Bernards as we know them today originated in London, not the Swiss Alps, according to a new book.

The earliest records of the world’s most famous rescue dog come from monks at a hospice at the St Bernard Pass in the Swiss Alps in 1707 and it has long been assumed that the breed started here.


The rescue work of the monks’ dogs came to prominence in the early 19th century through stories of the heroism of a mountain dog called Barry - who was said to have saved between 40 and 100 lives.

Inspired by such tales, John Cumming Macdona, an English clergyman who founded the Kennel Club, imported dogs from the Alps that were allegedly Barry’s descendants. But unlike Barry - a short-haired mongrel - these were large, brown, long-coated dogs.

Prof Michael Worboys, a historian from the University of Manchester, now claims in his new book, Doggy People, The Victorians Who Made the Modern Dog, that the breed recognised today was influenced by a fictional scene created by a Victorian animal painter at his studio in St John’s Wood, London.

Edwin Landseer - Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Edwin Landseer’s rescue scene of two Alpine Mastiffs in 1820 - inspired by stories of Barry - prompted Mr Macdona to recreate the majestic breed from the painting even though they bore no resemblance to the real-life dog.

The colourful and friendly canines he bred soon became a sensation at Victorian dog shows, with over half of St Bernards in the first Kennel Club Studbook in 1874 from Macdona’s kennel. His own dog, Tell, also became a canine celebrity.

However, these long-haired, gentle giants looked nothing like the monks’ original working dogs.

“It’s fascinating that Macdona’s St Bernards, due to their size, weight and long coats, were ever thought to have been good working dogs in snowy mountains,” Prof Worboys said.

“The newly invented St. Bernards were bred for show, not work; form trumped function. Macdona was a founder member of the Kennel Club, whose shows fostered the increase in the number, standardisation and beautification of breeds.

“Though defined by their form, the new breeds were also given backstories, and St Bernards had a good one that celebrated Victorian values,” he added.

After he died, Barry was taxidermied and placed in the Natural History Museum in Bern.

Barry

But after visitors complained that he looked “wrong” and nothing like the modern St Bernard, the museum remodelled him to make him taller with a more noble appearance.

Landseer’s painting also popularised the false idea that St Bernards carried a barrel of brandy on their collar, and the museum added this feature to Barry to make him more appealing.

Ciara Farrell, the Library and Collections manager for Crufts, said that while the St Bernard is not a direct descendant of the dogs in the Alps, the evidence is “too tenuous” for it to be re-registered as a native British breed.

“The modern St Bernard is descended from - but not a direct descendant - of the dogs that the monks would have had at the Hospice of St Bernard in the Western Alps,” she said.

She added: “I wouldn’t say that it was invented from scratch in the 19th century - it definitely shares ancestry with those original Swiss dogs - but some other dogs have been bred along the way as well to try and recreate the St Bernard as they knew it. And you can see from the pictures that they've ended up with a heavier dog than the one known from the Alps.”

On Friday, St Bernards will be competing in Crufts which is taking place from March 9 to 12 in the NEC in Birmingham.

Charles Cruft, who founded the show in 1886, was reportedly an admirer of the breed, making them a logo of his early shows.

Overbreeding since the Victorian period has led to Saint Bernards being placed on the Kennel Club’s Category 3 list: breeds considered to be more susceptible to developing specific health conditions associated with exaggerated conformation.

It shares this category with eight other breeds including the German Shepherd, Bulldog and Pug.

Penny Forrest, who is representing the English Saint Bernard Club at Crufts, said: “St Bernards are a Category 3 breed for showing because of previous health issues they’ve had. They used to have really heavy, wrinkly heads. We had an issue with the eyes at one point because of that - they literally couldn’t see through their own faces.”

She told The Telegraph it has taken generations of breeding to eradicate some of the extreme genetic problems.

“Because they’re a giant breed we did have a problem with hips at one point, but that’s much better now.

“Where they started to introduce new lines, we lost a lot of the height in the breed. They’re now breeding the height back.”

‘Really basic stuff’: Crufts showcases ‘good citizens’ scheme as dog attacks rise

Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent
Thu, 9 March 2023 

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

At the Good Citizen Dog Training ring at Crufts, a number of dog owners are trying to distract their pets with colourful balls, outdoor toys and, in once case, an inflatable paddling pool.

The dogs, however, stay put. From the large dalmatian to the miniature pinscher, all have been trained to Kennel Club silver award standard, and (mostly) engage only when told to by their owners.

Their display is followed by a “Safe and Sound demonstration”, reminding people how to approach dogs in the street they don’t know – ask the owner’s permission, let the dog smell the back of your hand first and then slowly progress to gentle strokes.

After a spate of serious dog attacks in recent months, the Kennel Club is more keen than ever to promote the educational benefits of Crufts, which opened at the Birmingham NEC on Thursday.

“Crufts is really about dog ownership – the interaction between people and dogs, and dogs living in our society,” said Bill Lambert, a Kennel Club spokesperson. “We can’t talk about all the good things about dogs without recognising the responsibility that comes with them. And a lot of this is really basic stuff that anyone can do.”

A BBC investigation this week revealed the number of dog attacks recorded by police in England and Wales had risen by more than a third in the past five years, with nearly 22,000 cases of out-of-control dogs causing injury in 2022.

This year alone has brought the death of a four-year-old girl in Milton Keynes, who was attacked by a dog in her back garden, and Natasha Johnston, who was killed by the dogs she was walking in a Surrey park.

“Although some numbers may be inflated because of better reporting, we certainly seem to have seen an increase in these major incidents over recent months,” said Lambert, adding that the sharp rise in dog ownership during lockdown could be behind the increase.

An American cocker spaniel parades before the judges at Crufts. Photograph: Katja Ogrin/Getty Images

“It seems likely that we have quite a lot of untrained, poorly socialised dogs out there that could possibly lead to an increase in incidents, and of course we have a lot of inexperienced new dog-owners too. So it’s almost a perfect storm.”

This year Crufts has a four-day programme for its Good Citizen training ring, covering how to train and socialise a dog to ensure they develop a steady temperament, and are calm “good citizens” in different environments.

Dog owners are also helping to spread awareness. On Friday, Courtney Goodey, 27, is competing at the event with her Australian shepherd dog, Mr Bixby. She has trained him to go into youth groups and teach children how to interact with dogs. He can, on command, demonstrate the behaviour of dogs when they don’t feel comfortable or safe and may be more likely to bite, such as backing away and lowering his tail.

“It’s just making them aware of things to look out for because, unfortunately, some parents don’t seem to actually do much with their own kids around dogs, especially if they don’t have them at home,” said Goodey, who is a trained dog behaviourist and former school sports coach. “Some parents don’t know what signs to look for in their dog, and they think sitting the child on top of the dog is cute for a photo.”

She teaches children not to go running up to dogs in the street to hug them.

“You do, unfortunately, see quite a lot of dogs outside now that aren’t maybe as well-behaved,” Goodey said. “I think people maybe aren’t doing the research behind the breeds, or just going for the bigger the better. It’s a shame there have been so many incidents, because dogs are such a nice thing to be around.”

US firm bids to stop contested DR Congo oil auction

Emmet Livingstone
Thu, 9 March 2023 


A US investment firm has proposed to stop a controversial oil auction in DR Congo's rainforests, bidding to exploit carbon credits instead of drilling in the environmentally sensitive areas.

In July, the Democratic Republic of Congo opened bidding for 27 oil blocks, arguing that exploiting its fossil resources was an economic imperative for the impoverished central African country.

But some of the blocks overlap with protected areas in the basin of the Congo River -- a huge carbon sink and rainforest haven second in size only to the Amazon.

Green groups have warned of dire consequences should the oil industry move in.

The danger is considered particularly acute in the central Congo Basin peatlands, which researchers estimate store around 30 billion tonnes of carbon.

Worldwide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for 2021 stood at about 37 billion tonnes, according to Global Carbon Project, a monitor.

Investment firm EQX Biome has filed a bid for the 27 oil blocks, setting out an alternative business case to extraction, designed to protect the forest.

The New York-based company is proposing to spend $400m in conservation projects, which would then generate $6 billion over 20 years through the sale of carbon credits, according to CEO Matthias Pitkowitz.

Planting trees or protecting tropical rainforests have become popular tools for companies to offset CO2 emissions or burnish their green credentials.

Companies can buy carbon credits, from certified conservation projects, that represent the volume of CO2 prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere. One credit typically represents one tonne of C02.

A condition of EQX Biome's bid is that the government call off oil drilling in all 27 blocks.

Pitkowitz argues that the proposal makes better economic sense than oil, with the potential to create thousands of local jobs and generate taxable revenue.

"$6 billion instead of oil drilling," he told AFP. "This isn't dreamland".

The $6bn-revenue figure is based on estimates about the success of the conservation projects, which would then would generate carbon credits, Pitkowitz explained.

He declined to comment on whether EQX Biome, founded in 2022, had secured funding for its proposed $400m investment.

The DRC's hydrocarbons ministry did not respond to questions.

- Contested credits -

Proponents argue that carbon credits are a viable mechanism to avoid deforestation.

But critics warn that forests do not store carbon permanently -- trees release carbon back into the atmosphere when they die -- and that some companies may use credits to cover for increased emissions.

A recent scandal over the alleged ineffectiveness of projects certified by leading carbon-credit provider Verra has also cast a shadow over the industry.

A lax regulatory environment in the DRC, one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries, has also triggered skepticism about efforts to use carbon credits to protect its vast tracts of remote forest.

“Their plan is very ambitious,” said a Western diplomat following environmental issues in the DRC, explaining that EQX Biome had little direct experience in the country, or in the carbon-credits market.

But the diplomat said that it was important to explore credits as a tool to fight deforestation despite criticisms of the relatively new mechanism.

It is unclear which other firms have submitted bids for the 27 oil blocks.

Companies have until October to submit bids on some of the blocks, according to the hydrocarbons ministry.

In the DRC's Cuvette Centrale region -- one of the most sensitive areas comprising forests and peatlands -- bidding ends in July and August.

Hydrocarbons Minister Didier Budimbu has previously indicated that he is open to bids to carbon-credit groups.

Thomas Annicq, CEO of carbon-credits firm Oneshot.earth, said that his company expressed an interest bidding but the Congolese government never responded to a request for further information.

"I felt like they didn't take it seriously," he said, adding that carbon credits have more to offer longterm than fossil fuels.

The value of the voluntary carbon market -- where firms can purchase carbon credits from conservation projects -- reached about $2 billion in 2021, according to Boston Consulting Group. It is expected to rise to $10-40 billion by 2030.

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