Amazon Indigenous are leaving rainforest for cities, and finding urban poverty

 

Scores of Indigenous families have left their territory in the Javari Valley, for the impoverished city of Atalaia do Norte, some in pursuit of a better education and drawn by a federal benefit that can ensnare them in the city.

(AP Photo/Edmar Barros, File)

FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Mon, July 3, 2023 

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — In 1976, Binan Tuku ventured to meet a Brazilian government's expedition on the banks of the Itui River in a remote area of the western Amazon rainforest. After some initial suspicion, he and his father accepted machetes and soap in what was the beginning of the Matis tribe's contact with the non-Indigenous world.

Nearly 50 years later, Tuku's own son Tumi is trying to carve out a living in the impoverished city of Atalaia do Norte. Instead of the traditional blowgun, Tumi held a pastry bag in his hands while working in a bakery, and his face bore none of the tattoos or piercings characteristic of the Matis.

“In the village, the quality of education is not as good as in the city,” said Tumi, 24, who hopes to go to college to study medicine or journalism. “I want to engage with non-Indigenous people, learn from the challenges I face, and perhaps one day return to my village to share my understanding of how the city functions with the elders.”

Thousands of Indigenous like Tumi are migrating to cities like Atalaia do Norte, some in pursuit of a better education and some drawn by a federal welfare benefit that can ensnare them in urban poverty. Their exodus is leaving villages to wither and raising concern that the world’s largest tropical rainforest — crucial to stemming the worst of climate change — will be left without its most effective guardians.
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About half of the 6,200 Indigenous people in the Javari Valley now live in urban centers, according to estimates by anthropologist Almério Alves Wadick. The Matis, one of several Indigenous peoples in the region, say almost half their 600 people now live in that city.

That number is likely to grow, said Binin Matis, who leads the Matis Indigenous Association and takes the name of his people as his surname. Binin Matis said he fears the loss of his people's language and their exposure to drugs.

“In the village, there are few people; it’s the older leaders. The youngsters are in the city,” he said. “No young Matis knows how to make a blowgun, an arrow. When the students go to the village for vacation, they don’t want to learn from the elders. They want to play soccer, have fun, and do things of the white man.”

Bushe Matis, president of Univaja, the main association for Indigenous peoples in the Javari Valley, worries that the migration will lead to cuts in health and education programs and the potential revocation of Indigenous territories that might then be opened for mining and drilling.

The Amazon came under heavy pressure under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who favored development. His single term saw a surge in illegal mining and deforestation hit a 15-year high.

Univaja recently established its own surveillance team to guard against illegal fishermen, miners and loggers — a duty previously carried out by the villages. The initiative is crucial to protect isolated Indigenous who could be imperiled by something as simple as flu carried by invaders, Bushe said.

Such tension appears to be behind last year’s killings of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips. Pereira was in the Javari Valley assisting the creation of Univaja's surveillance system. Four fishermen and a businessman are under arrest in the killings.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has sought to lessen pressure on the Amazon since defeating Bolsonaro in last year's election. He established a Ministry of Indigenous Affairs in part to safeguard Indigenous communities. A crucial part of that is improving education, a significant challenge in remote areas of the Amazon.

Indigenous families also face hostility from non-Indigenous residents who see them as competition for limited resources, especially fish.

“The Indians come here, the government doesn’t give them food, and they fish on our side,” said fisherman Antonio Alves, 46. “When one of us mistreats someone, it’s for our survival.”

The Indigenous migration is being driven in part by a federal program created 20 years ago in Lula's first term. The Bolsa Familia program was launched to provide cash to families if they immunize their children and keep them in school. Tens of thousands of Indigenous families started frequenting cities to withdraw the benefit from state bank branches.

There were dire consequences.

Indigenous people unaccustomed to handling money sometimes pay more than they should for long boat trips or have their debit cards illegally retained by unscrupulous merchants as collateral for installment or credit purchases. In the city, they stay in precarious conditions, vulnerable to alcohol and disease. Often, the Bolsa Familia payout isn't enough to get them back home.

“They conclude that it’s better to stay in the city, receiving this amount and putting it towards studying since there isn’t even a complete primary education in the village,” said Wadick, the anthropologist. Indigenous leaders say village schools are in shambles from poor maintenance and lack of oversight by governments. Many Indigenous teachers have been spending long periods in the city, neglecting their work.

But the money isn't enough to cover life in the city, either. The minimum payment is $125 per month, plus small additions for pregnant women and for children depending on age. Indigenous people often compete against each other for poorly paying jobs like collecting garbage or sweeping streets. Many endure hunger.

“We need clothing, to eat every day, to pay for electricity, and water bills. If all of that were free, we could sustain ourselves with $125,” said Tumi, who recently left the bakery to work for Univaja.

The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples is seeking to rework parts of the program so Indigenous peoples don't have to travel as often to collect payment. Proposals include extending the withdrawal period for the money and flexible payment dates.

Another major ministry goal is to improve education in Indigenous territories to reduce the incentive to leave. That's a daunting task with high costs for huge, remote and impoverished areas.

Nelly Marubo, an anthropologist who is Indigenous, said her ideal is culturally adapted village schools where students have access to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge without needing to be in the city. But she was shocked by what she found when, after a five-year absence, she recently visited her native region deep in the Javari Valley to film a documentary about her life.

“I always have in my mind lots of children and young people, but unfortunately, this time the visit was very sad," she said. "I found an abandoned village with only four elderly women.”

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Unraveling the Mind of the Consumer

WHEN WE EARN WE ARE WORKERS, WHEN WE SPEND WE ARE CONSUMERS

Vicki M. Young

Sourcing Journal
Mon, July 3, 2023 


One size does not fit all.

Data from Deloitte Service LP’s global consumer tracker indicates that the consumer is transforming to a complex mosaic of unique needs, wants and preferences.


An aging population, declining birth rates and increased diversity are contributing to the transformation of the consumer base. And these changes could present adaptation challenges for a retail industry that’s been “built for mass production, distribution and marketing,” according to Lupine Skelly, research leader for the retail, wholesale and distribution sector at Deloitte’s Consumer Industry Center.

The tracker surveys U.S. consumers every month and people in 23 countries every other month. Currently, there are indications that many consumers believe the worst economic uncertainty could be in the rearview mirror. But inflation remains top of mind, with 75 percent of global consumers concerned about rising prices, Skelly said.

Once consumers realized that inflation was going to be here for a while, discretionary spending took a nosedive as people focused on building up their savings and spending only on necessities.

“What’s encouraging today is that the [data] is indicating some stability in the last few months,” Skelly said, noting that discretionary spend is catching up. Even so, inflation is impacting how consumers spend their money.

Skelly noted that in September 2021, 56 percent of global respondents said they purchased sustainable goods. That number fell to 46 percent as inflation hung around. Even sentiment on climate change has seen a decline, with 68 percent now indicating that climate change is an emergency versus 72 percent last September.

“This tells us that people associate sustainable goods as being more expensive, and people are really having to do right by their wallet rather than what’s right for the planet,” Skelly said. “One way to look at this is that when push comes to shove, sustainability kind of goes out the window. I think you can also spin a story that despite record inflation, we still have four in 10 say that they’re prioritizing sustainable purchases.”

The tracker also found that despite the strain of inflationary pressures, consumers are figuring out ways to splurge on themselves. Seventy-seven percent of global consumers spend on some kind of indulgence in the past month. That amount is even higher—closer to 80 percent—across the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Australia. The trend is “pervasive across income groups and generations,” Skelly said, noting that the median spend is $32. Food and beverage is the most common treat, followed by apparel and footwear.

In addition, men and women splurge at about the same rate, but “globally, men spend almost 40 percent more on items compared to women when they splurge,” she said. Millennial men spend $20 more than their female counterparts.

Skelly pointed to “interesting opportunities for retailers who can tap into this need to treat ourselves to escape our economic realities.”

She noted that not all countries experienced strong inflation, although in the U.S., the consumer was hit pretty hard and hasn’t quite recovered.

Last year U.S. consumers burned through their savings at a rapid clip, and in December focused on saving money while cutting back on across-the-board spending. “Since February, U.S. consumers are having to make more trade offs and economize more to be able to purchase the groceries they need,” Skelly said, adding that one-third are purchasing lower-cost needs. In addition, private-label purchases rose 3 percent last month.

This summer, leisure and travel is taking a bigger share of wallet, which Skelly said could be good news for apparel and footwear spend. Of the respondents who plan to spend on travel, 69 percent said they were likely to spend on clothing and footwear, versus just 42 percent of those who didn’t plan to travel. “Leisure travelers tend to spend almost four times more than those not planning vacations. That’s averaging $169,” she said.

Data shows that the top 1 percent of Americans is wealthier than the entire U.S. middle class, while 30 percent of the nation’s wealth is held by 0.25 percent of U.S. households. In addition, the back-to-school market is shrinking, mostly because there are fewer students enrolled in schools thanks to falling birth rates.

And with more people spending at least part of their time working from home, consumers have also shifted how they do their shopping and where they eat as they move to digital from physical. “While we were stuck at home during the pandemic, many people were spending a lot of time online or trying to explore new technologies and looking for ways to entertain themselves,” Skelly said, concluding that as many of these behaviors and preferences stick, those producing goods are now competing with the increasing “threat” from digital enticements.

ICYMI

Man denies making request cited in landmark Supreme Court LGBTQ case

Supreme Court rules in favor of Christian designer in gay wedding website case

Zach Schonfeld
Mon, July 3, 2023 

As website designer Lorie Smith battled Colorado’s public accommodation law, she claimed that one day after filing her lawsuit, a man requested she design a website for his upcoming same-sex marriage.

But the man, identified in the request as “Stewart,” says he has been married to a woman for more than a decade and never submitted the inquiry.

The Supreme Court on Friday handed Smith a victory in her pre-enforcement lawsuit, ruling along ideological lines that Colorado could not compel the evangelical Christian to design same-sex wedding websites if she expanded her business to offer them for opposite-sex couples. The ruling was one of a handful of landmark cases the court considered this term – one that struck a significant blow to LGBTQ rights.”

The justices’ opinions made no reference to the supposed request, and Smith only briefly mentioned it in filings at the Supreme Court.

But the development has raised new scrutiny of Smith and her conservative lawyers’ years-long effort to claw back LGBTQ+ protections, as they had cited the request on multiple occasions in the lower courts while asserting that she had authority to challenge Colorado’s law.

“I’m just really disappointed in the ongoing and sustained attacks on the LGBTQ community in this country, and I’m also disappointed and concerned about the lack of rigor that’s been shown by the lawyers in this case,” said Stewart, who agreed to be interviewed by The Hill on the condition that his last name not be used.

“There’s some evidence there which is easily refutable and easily proven to be incorrect and has been in the case filings for the last five plus years,” he continued. “So it’s concerning that that could make it all the way to the Supreme Court without anybody checking.”

Two Democratic-appointed judges and one Republican-appointed judge on a lower appeals court panel all agreed that Smith had authority to bring her lawsuit regardless of the request.

The lower court went on to uphold Colorado’s law as constitutional in a divided ruling, leading Smith to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The high court’s justices did not weigh in on the legal standing issue, as they only agreed to hear Smith’s free speech claims. The court’s six conservatives sided with the web designer Friday, dealing a significant blow to LGBTQ protections in one of the biggest cases of the term.

Stewart said he only learned of his purported connection to the case when contacted last week by The New Republic, which first reported the man’s denial.

He confirmed the email and phone number listed on the supposed request belonged to him, but he said he has been married to a woman for more than a decade.

Like Smith, Stewart also runs a website and graphic design company. The request listed the sender’s IP address, which corresponds to the San Francisco area, where Stewart lives.

“I did not submit the request. I don’t know who did. I don’t know what their motivations would be,” said Stewart.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Christian legal organization that represented Smith, said in a statement that the designer doesn’t do background checks on incoming requests to determine if they are genuine, and that it doesn’t impact the outcome because her lawsuit was a pre-enforcement challenge.

“Whether Lorie received a legitimate request or whether someone lied to her is irrelevant,” the group said. “No one should have to wait to be punished by the government to challenge an unjust law. Moreover, Lorie has received other wedding requests and has been unable to respond to any request because that put her at risk of punishment for violating Colorado’s unjust law.”

Friday’s win was the latest and most significant development of ADF’s years-long fight against Colorado’s law, which prevents businesses that serve the public from discriminating on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation.

The group also represented cake baker Jack Phillips, whom Colorado investigated more than a decade ago when he refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, in violation of the law.

Phillips also brought his challenge to the Supreme Court in 2018, but the justices disposed of it on narrower grounds, ruling that the investigation had impermissibly shown hostility toward Phillips’s religious beliefs.

ADF had filed Smith’s pre-enforcement challenge to Colorado’s law roughly two years prior to that decision.

The designer had not yet offered wedding websites, but her lawsuit said she wanted to expand her business, 303 Creative, because she “believes that God is calling her to promote and celebrate His design for marriage.”

The purported request was sent to Smith’s company one day after she filed her lawsuit in September 2016, according to court filings.

“My wedding. My name is Stewart and my fiancee is Mike. We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website,” the request read.

Smith cited the supposed request as part of her argument that she had authority to sue, saying she faced a credible threat of enforcement.

Colorado contended that she had no legal standing and that the supposed request was irrelevant because it was sent after the lawsuit began. The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with Smith on the standing issue, but its reasoning did not depend on the request.

“Assuming Appellants offer wedding-related services to the public as they say they will, there is no reason to then conclude that Appellants will fail to attract customers. Nor is there reason to conclude that only customers celebrating opposite-sex marriages will request Appellants’ services. In short, we find nothing ‘imaginary or speculative’ about Appellants’ apprehensions that they may violate CADA if they offer wedding-based services in the manner that they intend,” wrote the two judges, who were appointed in the Clinton era.

At a Friday news conference following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) said he didn’t know any details about the man’s denial of sending the request.

“Our position in this case has been there is no website development happening, there is no business operating,” he said. “This was a made-up case without the benefit of any real facts or customers. The Supreme Court in our view should never have decided this case or address the merits without any basis in reality.”

The Hill.

Watsco, U.S. air conditioner leader, aims to keep people cool without warming the planet

Nicolás Rivero
Sun, July 2, 2023

On a hot June morning in Doral, the temperature is already in the upper 80s and a line of colorful trucks and vans has bellied up to a warehouse loading dock for Watsco, the leading South Florida distributor of air conditioners and heat pumps.

Inside the 89,000-square-foot warehouse, thousands of air conditioners and parts are stacked to the 30-foot ceiling. On a busy summer day, a crew of 10 workers might load more than 500 of the cooling machines into contractors’ trucks, destined for homes, skyscrapers, hospitals and office buildings around region.

This warehouse is part of a nationwide push to clean up the air and cut carbon emissions to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. That’s because decades of federal regulation have pushed HVAC manufacturers to use less polluting refrigerants and make more efficient machines that run on less energy.

Now, almost any time contractors replace an old air conditioner with a new one, they cut a significant chunk out of a home’s carbon emissions.

“I’ve been doing this for 11 years,” said Fernando Villacis, warehouse manager for this Watsco Gemaire location. “This industry has changed a lot.”

The Doral warehouse is one of more than 670 air conditioner and heat pump distribution locations for Gemaire’s Miami parent company, Watsco, the biggest HVAC distributor in the United States. One out of every five air conditioners and heaters sold in the nation comes from Watsco. To be sure, the company is on a mission to make those heating and cooling systems more efficient.

Chris Mejia uses a forklift to move commercial air conditioning units into the Watsco Gemaire warehouse in Doral, on June 30, 2023.

Roughly half of an average U.S. home’s energy goes toward heating and air conditioning, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That number fluctuates with the weather, but it means that, on average, half of your gas and electric bill — and at least half of your home’s carbon emissions — comes from your heater or air conditioner.

Last year, Watsco sold more than 510,000 high-efficiency air conditioners and heat pumps, which the company defines as any heating or cooling system that goes beyond the minimum efficiency standards required by the federal government. Those systems use less energy than the older units they replace, which means that over time, they put less carbon into the atmosphere.

Watsco estimated the high-efficiency heating and cooling systems it sold between January 2020 and May 2023 will prevent 17 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere over the course of their 18-year lifespan. That’s like taking 200,000 cars off the road for every year these heaters and air conditioners operate.

“You can stop eating meat. You can drive an electric vehicle,” said Marisol Gomez-Melzi, Watsco’s director of sustainability. “But one of the most significant things you can do to cut your carbon footprint is getting a unit that is working efficiently to heat and cool your home.”

From Hialeah to Fortune 500 firm

Watsco started as a small air conditioner parts manufacturer in Hialeah in 1956, just as air conditioning was beginning to become common in Florida and, a few years later, across the U.S.

Over the decades, the company aggressively bought up other air conditioner manufacturers and distributors. Eventually, it ditched the manufacturing side of its business to focus on selling air conditioners and heaters made by other companies. By 1999, Watsco was the biggest HVAC distributor in the U.S. Earlier this year, it joined the ranks of the Fortune 500, a list of the biggest publicly owned companies in the U.S. by revenue. The company’s 2022 revenue was $7.3 billion, a nearly 16% jump from $6.3 billion the prior year.

When your A/C breaks down, you probably won’t call Watsco — but you might buy one of its products without realizing it. Watsco is the parent company of eight separate HVAC distributors, which each operate under their own brand name and even compete against each other in some areas. Those distributors sell air conditioners to contractors, who install the systems for homeowners and businesses.

Watsco, headquartered in a sleek office building in Coconut Grove, works with more than 100,000 contractors in 42 states, as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada. In addition to selling air conditioners and heat pumps, Watsco also has a tech startup arm, Watsco Ventures, which develops tools to help contractors manage their businesses and market air conditioners and heaters to customers.

For instance, Watsco developed an app called On Call Air that helps customers compare their options for air conditioners and heat pumps, with information about each unit’s efficiency and the expected cost to run it.

Marisol Gomez-Melzi, Watsco’s director of sustainability, took her current role after three years working as marketing director for Watsco Ventures, the company’s technology arm.

“We found that two-thirds of the equipment sold through the platform is high-efficiency because you’re giving the customer much more information,” Gomez-Melzi said.

“If we can influence contractors and provide these tools that make it easier to sell this type of [high-efficiency] equipment, we can lead the transition to the decarbonization of the industry.”

Efficiency standards improve

There’s one number that will tell you how efficient your air conditioner or heat pump is: the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) rating from the U.S. Department of Energy.

When Watsco executive vice president Paul Johnston got into the HVAC industry in 1984, no one was selling particularly efficient air conditioners. “We had a 6 SEER model and an 8 SEER model,” he recalled. But in 1992, the Energy Department started enforcing a minimum energy efficiency standard for the industry.

“The government came out and said hey, the minimum is going to be 10 SEER, and we all cried and moaned and said we couldn’t do it,” Johnston said. “And of course we were able to do it.”

Since then, the Energy Department has raised the standard every few years — including this year, when a new, higher efficiency floor took effect on Jan. 1. Now, all new air conditioners and heat pumps in southern states must have at least a 15 SEER rating. In the northern part of the country, where air conditioners get less use, the minimum efficiency for A/C is 14 SEER.

Earlier this year, the Energy Department also updated its methods for testing efficiency and switched over to a new rating system, dubbed SEER2. The 15 SEER minimum efficiency in southern states is equivalent to a 14.3 SEER2 rating under the new system.

“Each time, we’re incrementally changing to find a way to make the technology work to meet the minimum efficiency of the government,” Johnston said. “And each time that happened, what we saw was that the whole industry would compress around that minimum efficiency.”

Newer A/C units also use newer types of refrigerants that are less damaging to the ozone layer and the climate. Before it was banned in the 1990s, the most common form of freon, dubbed R-12, was a greenhouse gas 10,900 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Since then, the industry has moved to refrigerants that are less harmful by comparison, like R-32, which is a greenhouse gas that is 675 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

“It’s the combination of improved efficiency plus reducing the impact of the refrigerant that I think is the big story,” Johnston said.

A lifetime effect

When Watsco sells a new air conditioner, it tends to replace a unit that’s more than a decade old, which means it probably lags current efficiency standards and might use older, more harmful refrigerants.

Similarly, Watsco sells electric heat pumps, which can heat buildings more efficiently than gas furnaces — and without burning fossil fuels directly — when the temperature is above freezing. Heat pumps run on electricity, which usually comes at least in part from power plants that burn fossil fuels. But as wind and solar power gradually replace coal- and gas-burning power plants, the electricity that powers heat pumps becomes cleaner over time.

In other words, every time Watsco sells a new heat pump or air conditioner, it tends to lower a building’s carbon emissions. While a new HVAC system can make a difference, it won’t wipe out a homeowner’s energy bill or slash their emissions down to zero by itself, said Steve Samenski, director of building performance for the green building consulting firm The Spinnaker Group, a division of SOCOTEC.

“If you replace 10-year-old technology with new technology that meets the energy code, then you’re definitely doing better,” Samenski said. “A homeowner can probably expect a 10% to 20% improvement if all else is the same.”

Manager Fernando Villacis walks through the Watsco Gemaire warehouse in Doral, on June 30, 2023.

The minimum SEER rating from 2006 to 2011 was 13 SEER, which means a lot of A/Cs being replaced right now are probably at that level. If you replace a 13 SEER system with a system at today’s minimum 15 SEER, you’d lower your electricity spending on air conditioning by about 13%, or roughly $150 a year for a 2,000 square foot house, according to utility FPL.

But if you sprang for a more efficient model — say, an 18 SEER A/C — you might cut your electricity spending on cooling by about 28%, or roughly $310 a year. But you’d probably also be spending a significant amount more to buy the unit, perhaps an additional $2,000 or higher, Gemaire’s Villacis said.

These changes are slow and incremental. Although Watsco sells more than half a million high-efficiency air conditioners and heat pumps a year, there are more than 100 million homes in the U.S. alone. It will take decades to slowly replace older units with highly efficient models. But bit by bit, the company is chipping away at the problem.

“In air conditioning, the average unit has a 12- to 14-year life. A gas furnace has a 25- to 30-year life. So if I make a change today, to see that final impact, I have to wait a generation,” Johnston said.

This climate report is funded by Florida International University, the Knight Foundation and the David and Christina Martin Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all content.”

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Mozambique 'tuna bond' case against Credit Suisse can proceed, UK judge rules

Kirstin Ridley
Mon, July 3, 2023 


By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) -Mozambique's blockbuster lawsuit against Credit Suisse and others over the $2 billion "tuna bond" scandal can proceed to trial, a London judge ruled on Monday, despite complaints that the African nation has failed to fully disclose documents.

High Court Judge Robin Knowles said it was not just, proportionate or necessary to strike out the complex case, which encompasses 11 sets of proceedings, three months before a London trial scheduled to start on Oct. 2.

But he warned: "At trial, all alternatives, including to strike out and in whole or in part, remain available."

The tuna bond or "hidden debt" case has triggered litigation from Maputo to New York, but the London case is due to establish whether one of the world's poorest countries can revoke a sovereign guarantee on a loan it alleges was corruptly procured, and secure compensation for other alleged wrongdoing.

The case dates back to 2013 and three deals between state-owned Mozambican companies and shipbuilder Privinvest - funded in part by loans and bonds from Credit Suisse and backed by undisclosed Mozambican government guarantees - ostensibly to develop the fishing industry and for maritime security.

But hundreds of millions of dollars went missing and, when the state loan guarantees became public in 2016, donors such as the International Monetary Fund halted support, triggering a currency collapse and debt crisis.

The judge first raised the prospect of a strike-out in March, when he ordered Mozambique to ensure access to relevant documents in state offices such as the Office of President and SISE, the state security service.

Credit Suisse, UAE-Lebanese Privinvest and others argue that a lack of "adequate" disclosure jeopardised a fair trial.

Under English litigation rules, each party has to disclose documents on which they rely for their case, those that might damage their own case and those that support the case of others.

A spokesperson for Credit Suisse said the bank "continues to defend itself". Privinvest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Mozambique's Attorney General's Office said: "In rulings of this kind, pronouncements are always issued after a through analysis so we will respond in due course."


The latest judgment comes as Credit Suisse's new parent, UBS, grapples with integrating its cross-town peer - and its inherited legacy - after an emergency rescue in March.

Lawyers for Mozambique have argued that state secrecy prevents some documents from being disclosed but urged the judge to consider that the case concerned "what is said to be an international fraud and corruption of public officials on a massive scale".

Credit Suisse agreed to pay about $475 million to British and U.S. authorities in 2021 to resolve bribery and fraud charges and has pledged to forgive $200 million of Mozambican debt. It has said three former bankers, who pleaded guilty in the U.S. to handling kickbacks, hid their conduct from the bank.

Privinvest has said it delivered on its obligations under the shipping contracts and any payments it made were legal under Mozambican law.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Additional reporting by Rachel Savage, Sam Tobin and Manuel Mucari in Maputo, Editing by Conor Humphries and Mark Potter)

Scientists discover concerning possible reason that seals are losing their fur — the findings may have horrible implications



Jeremiah Budin
Mon, July 3, 2023

The overheating of our planet affects living things everywhere, including seals. Scientists have found that seals are losing their fur, probably as a result of rising temperatures.

Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a professor at the University of Queretaro in Mexico, conducted a study of 13 Guadalupe fur seals in the San Benito archipelago off the west coast of Mexico between 2017 and 2018.

She and her team found that nine of the 13 seals showed visible signs of alopecia (the scientific term for hair loss) and that all 13 of the seals had unusually brittle hair.

“Structural changes, although less severe, were detected even in samples collected from fur seals that appeared to have normal fur,” she said. “This suggests that the changes are gradual and this alopecia only appears after the fur has undergone extensive structural damage.”

After ruling out other factors, Acevedo-Whitehouse and her team concluded that the hair loss was likely a result of nutritional deficiencies caused by rising sea surface temperatures.

Average sea surface temperatures have been rising steadily for the past century and are at an all-time high. Studies have found that, in warmer conditions, seals feed on a different and less nutritious variety of squid than they usually eat, as their preferred prey begins to disappear. This, according to Acevedo-Whitehouse, probably accounts for the hair loss.

While other seals rely on heavy layers of blubber to keep warm, fur seals do not have these thick layers of fat and rely instead on their thick fur layers for insulation. Losing that fur would pose a clear and obvious danger to fur seals’ ability to continue to survive in the wild.

This is another likely example of the far-reaching consequences of overheating our planet with air pollution and planet-warming gas emissions.

Though all aspects of life are threatened, marine life is particularly damaged by changes to our planet’s climate. And since that damage often happens out of sight of humans, it goes unremarked upon too often. Recently, nearly 200 countries in the United Nations came together to sign a “High Seas Treaty” to protect oceans and their biodiversity.

Chinese hospital ship to visit Pacific to boost 'responsible' image


Chinese hospital ship to visit Pacific to boost 'responsible' image

Reuters
Sun, July 2, 2023 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is sending a military-run hospital ship to the Pacific to where it will call in at Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and East Timor at a time of growing competition with the United States and its allies for influence in the region.

The 14,300 metric ton "Peace Ark", which is bigger than a typical Chinese destroyer, will offer medical aid to Chinese citizens and residents of the countries it visits on its ninth humanitarian "Harmony Mission", the defence ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.

"It is to present our image as a responsible big country", navy spokesperson Liu Wensheng said in a statement.

The ship, painted white with red crosses on its sides, was commissioned in 2008 and has sailed to more than 40 countries.

China has been building ties in the Pacific in recent years to the consternation of the United States and allies Australia and New Zealand, that have long seen the region as their sphere of influence.

China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year and hopes to build similar ties with other Pacific countries. Its foreign minister has said relations with the Solomon Islands can serve as a model.

The United States has pledged to triple funding for the region and it opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands in February after a 30-year absence. It is also planning an embassy in Vanuatu.

In May, the U.S. opened an embassy in Tonga and signed a defence pact with Papua New Guinea.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Capitalism as we know it has failed. Not even the Tories can defend it

Nick Timothy
Sun, July 2, 2023 

Canary Wharf

Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary, once explained why he thought inequality had risen. “One of the reasons,” he said, “is that people are being treated closer to the way that they’re supposed to be treated.”

That story is recounted in Hell to Pay, a brilliant new book by Michael Lind about how the suppression of wages is driving economic, social and political crises in America. The idea that we are paid what we deserve – and that the decline in mid-skilled, mid-paid jobs simply reflects the high-tech, globalised economy in which we live – derives from free market theory. But it is, Lind argues, utter nonsense.

In Britain, like in America, the labour market has bifurcated because of political choices and corporate behaviour. Businesses have reduced employment costs by offshoring production to countries with lower labour standards and wages, or by using immigration to import cheaper workers. They have replaced full-time employees with rights and pensions with part-time contractors and gig economy workers. The post-war militancy and overreach of trade unions, and the restrictive laws that followed, has given employers monopsony power: that is, the ability to lower the price of labour because of their relative power over workers.

At the heart of all these changes is a model of globalisation that has caused the economic elites of the West to get richer, and which has allowed millions of people in Asia to escape poverty, but which has also relentlessly and systematically damaged the interests of the Western working – and increasingly middle – class.

Our model of globalisation was not, as Tony Blair put it, as inevitable as summer giving way to autumn. Trade agreements were struck, international institutions created, and when the likes of China broke the rules, dumped goods, stole industrial secrets, and used the system the West had created against us, reality was ignored. In as much as anybody noticed the effects on British workers, the reaction was to subsidise low pay, through tax credits, or – better, but not enough – increase it through minimum wages.

Regardless of the model of globalisation, there always remained choices for domestic policies. We can see this, for example, in how the breakdown between improvements in productivity and increases in pay have differed from country to country. In the US, it is longstanding and chronic. In Britain, more recent yet acute. In Denmark and Sweden, recent and mild.

A recent academic study showed that, contrary to popular perception, Britain and America have tax systems more progressive than in Europe – based on the difference between the taxes paid by the top decile to the bottom half of earners – and redistribute a greater proportion of national income to the bottom half. The reason Europe is less unequal than Britain and America is that wages themselves are more equal.

But wages are not the only way in which capitalism is in crisis. In Britain, everything seems to be in the red: we have a trade deficit, a budget deficit, and a house-building deficit. Personal debt stands at around 130 per cent of household income. The only surplus we seem to run is in net migration: millions have been added to our population in recent years, and 606,000 in the last year alone. Since the financial crash, we have had anaemic growth and stagnant pay. Stuck in a rut of low investment, poor productivity and low pay, we earn no more in real terms, on average, than we did in 2005.

Globalisation is part of the story, but so too is the quality of British economic policy. George Osborne used to describe himself as a strict fiscal conservative but a “monetary policy radical”. But while a fiscal correction was necessary after the financial crash, austerity went too far and for too long. According to Andy Haldane, former chief economist at the Bank of England, “this ruptured growth and was self-defeating for debt”.

Radical monetary policy poisoned the well, inflating asset prices, keeping zombie companies alive, discouraging bank lending to businesses and slowing the circulation of money through the economy. The government and the country became addicted to cheap credit, and left us exposed now the music has finally stopped. It was regressive, hurting households with less, helping those with more, and making it harder for young people to get on to the property ladder. And it caused an orgy of financial restructuring, through share buybacks and leveraged debt.

This is part of the shameful story of the water companies – regulated monopolies that have racked up £65 billion in debt, even as they paid executives multi-million pound remuneration packages and their foreign owners large dividends, all while failing to modernise our creaking infrastructure.

As with the energy companies, this is not just a symptom of monetary policy, but a failure of regulation – which encourages systematic over-reward for investors.

We know capitalism, untempered, can be rapacious: brilliant, innovative and wealth-creating, but also exploitative and careless about the externalities of doing business. Think for example of those tech firms that profit from and care little about the algorithms that send inappropriate content to children. Our economic pain is sometimes caused by a failure to regulate – but when we do regulate we often get it horribly wrong.

From the absurd complexity of the planning system to the failure of pension regulations that drives our savings away from British equities, we have built an economic model that rewards the wealthy not the many, the incumbent not the challenger, the bureaucrat not the entrepreneur, the rentier not the risk-taker, the financier not the maker and the old and not the young. We are serfs to debt, trapped by low pay and bloated assets.

Conservatives should accept that to criticise capitalism is not to succumb to socialism, but turning a blind eye to the failures and excesses of capitalism – especially the crony capitalism we have brought on ourselves – makes defeat to Left-wing parties more likely.

It is often said that those without capital will not support capitalism, but if what we have today is capitalism, it should be up to conservatives to change it – and not just defend the indefensible.

Climate change spells 'terrifying' future: UN rights chief

AFP
Mon, July 3, 2023 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said addressing climate change was a human rights issue (Fabrice COFFRINI)

Climate change threatens to deliver a "truly terrifying" dystopian future of hunger and suffering, the United Nations' human rights chief warned Monday.

Volker Turk slammed world leaders for only thinking of the short term while dealing with the climate crisis.

Turk told a UN Human Rights Council debate on the right to food that extreme weather events were wiping out crops, herds and ecosystems, making it impossible for communities to rebuild and support themselves.

"More than 828 million people faced hunger in 2021. And climate change is projected to place up to 80 million more people at risk of hunger by the middle of this century," said Turk.

"Our environment is burning. It's melting. It's flooding. It's depleting. It's drying. It's dying," he said, evoking a "dystopian future".

"Addressing climate change is a human rights issue... there is still time to act. But that time is now," he said.

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius above average levels measured between 1850 and 1900 -- and 1.5C if possible. The global mean temperature in 2022 was 1.15C above the 1850-1900 average.

On current policy trends, the planet will be 2.8C warmer by the end of the century, according to the UN's IPCC climate science advisory panel.

"We must not deliver this future of hunger and suffering to our children, and their children. And we don't have to," Volk said.

"We, the generation with the most powerful technological tools in history, have the capacity to change it."

Turk said world leaders "perform the choreography of deciding to act and promising to act and then get stuck in the short term".

He called for an end to "senseless subsidies" of the fossil fuel industry, and said the Dubai COP28 climate summit in November and December needed to be the "decisive game-changer that we so badly need".

Turk urged the world to "shun the green-washers" as well as those who cast doubt on climate science, driven by their own greed.

The Human Rights Council's 53rd session runs until July 14.

rjm/ach

Farmers hope recent rains will ease Iowa's drought, now in the longest stretch in 23 years
2

Donnelle Eller, Des Moines Register
Mon, July 3, 2023 

With drought conditions deepening across Iowa, Clark Whitaker welcomed the half-inch of rain that fell on his crops and pasture in southwest Iowa last Thursday.

Getting rain this year has been the “luck of the draw,” said Whitaker, who farms about 1,100 acres with his son, Will, growing corn, soybeans and alfalfa that he uses to help feed his cattle, pigs and sheep.

“It’s been very spotty, hit and miss,” said the 67-year-old, who hoped more rain through the weekend would help revive pastures that had burned up, with only 2 inches since May.

Iowa has experienced drought for 155 weeks, the longest stretch since the U.S. Drought Monitor began in 2000, says Iowa Climatologist Justin Glisan. Here, corn grows in front of a poorly-growing hayfield due to drought on Tuesday, August 2, 2022, at Rehder Farms outside Hawarden, Iowa.

Across Iowa, drought conditions are nearing a third year, the longest stretch since the U.S. Drought Monitor began 23 years ago, said Justin Glisan, the state climatologist. Some portion of Iowa has experienced drought conditions over the past 155 weeks, beating the 2011-12 drought that lasted 151 weeks, Glisan said.

The U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday showed almost all of Iowa experiencing abnormally dry or drought conditions. Nearly 90% of Iowa was gripped in drought, with about 45% of the state suffering either severe or extreme drought, including southeast Iowa, where Whitaker farms.

Even with recent showers, and scattered storms over the July 4th weekend, the state is unlikely to escape the drought anytime soon, Glisan said.

Recent rain — and signals that Iowa farmers will see more precipitation in July — will help, Glisan said. But “we will need several months, if not more than a year, to really get enough precipitation to chip away at the long-term deficit” in Iowa, he said.

Glisan said May and June are typically Iowa’s wettest months of the year, but the months as of last week had received only 62% of the normal rainfall, Glisan said. Southeastern Iowa has received less than half its normal rainfall, he said.

May was the 21st driest May in 151 years of record-keeping in Iowa, Glisan said, and June could rank the same, depending on rainfall totals through the weekend.

The reason: A blocking high-pressure system has stymied east-west flow across Iowa, preventing normal rainfall from the Gulf of Mexico, Glisan said.

“In July, we expect to see the pattern shift toward a more active storm track and wetter weather possibilities,” he said.

That’s good news for Iowa farmers. July is a critical time for the state’s corn crop, which will begin tasseling, part of the pollination process that’s a big factor in determining yields.


“We need a lot of rain in July to keep us going,” said Aaron Saeugling, an Iowa State University Extension agronomist in southwest Iowa.

“Soybeans appreciate a good drink, too, but August is much more critical for soybeans, reproduction-wise,” Saeugling said.

Nearly 90% of Iowa is in moderate to extreme drought, the U.S. Monitor showed Thursday. Iowa has experience some level of drought for the past 155 weeks, the longest stretch since the Drought Monitor began in 2000, the state climatologist says.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop report shows Iowa's crops have deteriorated: 56% of Iowa’s corn was considered good to excellent, dropping 16 percentage points from the first week in June, and 48% of the state’s soybeans are good to excellent, dropping 22 percentage points.

The rain "was a short-term blessing, but farmers still face a long-term challenge to get enough moisture" for their crops, Saeugling said.

Clarabell Probasco, an ISU Extension agronomist in southeast Iowa, said crops have shown signs of stress: Corn leaves curl tight to prevent moisture loss and soybeans are yellow.

Additionally, the week’s thunderstorms also have brought strong winds along with rain for southern Iowa farmers, knocking over corn plants, Probasco and Saeugling said. Farmers will need some time to determine whether the corn can recover.

The drought probably means some farmers are unlikely to see record yields this year.

“It’s taken top-line yields off the table,” she said, adding that the lack of rain has been especially difficult for cattle and other livestock producers that graze their animals on pastures.

Some farmers are hauling water to their herds and are worried they won’t get a second or third cutting of alfalfa to help feed their herds throughout the winter.

Whitaker said he has enough water for his cow and calf herd. Without some rain to help his pastures, he will need to feed his grazing cows, a move that typically wouldn’t happen until August or September. That will dip into the reserves that he puts away for winter.

“It’s ugly on the grass situation right now,” he said.

Still, Whitaker said his crops look “surprisingly good,” thanks to some timely rains and improving seed genetics. They'll get better with more precipitation.

"Nobody cares if it rains on our parade" this July 4th, he said.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa's drought is the longest the state has seen in 23 years, beating 2011-12