UK

SNAFU

Cruise ships set to house asylum seekers in Liverpool and Edinburgh sent back to owners after finding nowhere to dock

Sky News
Updated Tue, 18 July 2023 


Two giant cruise ships set to house 1,000 asylum seekers were unable to find anywhere to dock and have been returned to their owners, a senior source has told Sky News.

In June, Rishi Sunak announced the government acquired two more vessels, alongside the Bibby Stockholm barge - which arrived in Dorset today - as part of continued efforts to cut down on hotel bills of £6m a day for those coming to the UK via small boat Channel crossings.

Plans for one of the cruise ships to house asylum seekers near Liverpool were scrapped after being declined by the port operator, and it is understood one of the boats was also planning to dock near Edinburgh.

It is not clear how much the government paid for the boats before returning them to the owner.

Asked if Mr Sunak was disappointed with the news, the PM's official spokesman said: "We continue discussions about providing additional accommodation facilities and sites.

"Stockholm arrived today and will be taking people aboard this month."

But Labour's shadow immigration minister, Stephen Kinnock, said it showed the "incompetence of this Conservative government knows no limits".

Read more:
Who will be living on the barge - and what's it like on board?

MP demands safety reports on barge

The Home Office said it could not comment on commercial arrangements, but said the government had been looking at a "range of accommodation options which offer better value for the British taxpayer than expensive hotels".

A spokesperson added: "This is why we will be using alternative accommodation options, such as barges, which are more manageable for communities, as our European neighbours are doing".

However, Mr Kinnock added: "Having already overseen the asylum backlog grow nine-fold on their watch, and the cost rocket to £3.6bn, they are now shifting to yet another plan that hasn't been thought through - spending money on boats that have nowhere to dock.

"We need this shower of a government to get out of the way so that Labour can deliver our five-point plan to end the dangerous Channel crossings, end hotel use and fix an asylum system which has been utterly broken by the Conservatives."

Last month, Mr Sunak said Channel crossings were down by a fifth compared to last year and his plan to "stop the boats" was "starting to work".

Speaking from Kent, he said housing asylum seekers on ships could "reduce pressures on local communities", adding that the Bibby Stockholm barge would "arrive in Portland in the next fortnight and we've secured another two today".

The government would not confirm the names of the two other vessels or the company they were acquired from.

The Bibby Stockholm, which has arrived in Dorset a month behind schedule, is due to start housing asylum seekers in the coming weeks.

Alaska volcano eruption eases after producing towering ash cloud. 

See photos
AP | | Posted by Nisha Anand
Jul 19, 2023 

An ash cloud with an initial height of around 5.5 miles (8.9 kilometers) was reported following the morning eruption of Shishaldin Volcano.

An ongoing eruption of a remote volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands produced an ash cloud so large Tuesday that warnings were sent to pilots about potentially dangerous conditions.

This web camera image provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows a low-level ash plume from the Shishaldin Volcano captured on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.(AP)


An ash cloud with an initial height of around 5.5 miles (8.9 kilometers) was reported following the morning eruption of Shishaldin Volcano. But by early afternoon, ash emissions were below 1.9 miles (3 kilometers), and the aviation alert was downgraded, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The volcano is about 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage and sits near the middle of Unimak Island. The island’s 65 or so residents live about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of the volcano, in the community of False Pass.

This web camera image provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows a low-level ash plume from the Shishaldin Volcano captured on Tuesday, July 18, 2023.(AP)

Shishaldin Volcano began erupting July 11. A U.S. Coast Guard overflight confirmed lava erupted the same day within the summit crater.

A significant explosion early Friday produced an ash cloud that reached up to 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) and drifted south over the Pacific Ocean. A second smaller explosion occurred later Friday.

This web camera image provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows glowing lava erupting within the summit crater of Shishaldin around 12:30 a.m. AKDT, Tuesday, July 18, 2023.(AP)


The volcano, one of the most active in the Aleutian arc, saw increased lava eruptions just after midnight Tuesday, with no significant ash emissions, the observatory said. That changed hours later with the ash cloud. The National Weather Service issued an advisory due to the drifting ash cloud.

Volcanic ash is angular and sharp and has been used as an industrial abrasive. The powdered rock can cause a jet engine to shut down.

Shishaldin is a symmetric cone with a base diameter of 10 miles (16 kilometers), the observatory said. The 660-foot (210-kilometer) funnel-shaped crater often emits steam and an occasional amount of ash.

There have been at least 26 confirmed eruptions at Shishaldin Volcano since 1824. Most are small, but the observatory said a 1999 eruption produced an ash cloud that reached 8.5 miles (14 kilometers).

Officials worry about confusion with Alaska's tsunami-warning alert system

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Confusion around an emergency alert received by Alaska residents in areas not at risk of a potential tsunami after a major weekend earthquake could shake public confidence in the warning system, local officials said.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake about 70 miles (111 kilometers) south of Sand Point triggered a brief tsunami warning for parts of southern Alaska late Saturday that prompted people to evacuate from low-lying areas. People as far away as Anchorage also received tsunami alerts on their phones, though they were not at risk of a tsunami, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

A warning issued late Saturday by the National Tsunami Warning Center covered an area about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Homer to an area about 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) northeast of Unalaska. It was later downgraded to an advisory and then canceled.

Emergency managers and tsunami scientists said they were following their systems, which err on the side of caution and speed. But others worry that confusion around whether the tsunami posed an actual danger could erode public trust in the warning system.

“This is our concern: We’re going to have a cry-wolf situation where people aren’t going to respond to the warning anymore and they just won’t evacuate,” said Mark Robl, the police chief in Homer, who said dispatchers there received “hundreds of phone calls an hour” after the warning was issued.

A large earthquake can trigger a release of energy that can lead to a destructive wave. When sensitive instruments pick up such an event, an automated alert goes out. But there’s no time to immediately verify if such a wave is forming, said James Gridley, director of the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer.

“We issue a warning right away because we need to get anybody in the immediate area out of danger right away,” he said.

Then scientists with the center review data from buoys and other instruments to determine whether a wave is forming, and what size it is, Gridley said. Warnings are revised or canceled, though that part of the response can take about an hour, he said.

Alerts from the center also can trigger localized emergency responses, such as the sounding of sirens urging residents to seek higher ground.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough sounded its tsunami warning sirens, emergency manager Brenda Ahlberg said. Many in the region also received cellphone notifications. Wireless Emergency Alerts are sent to anyone in a geographic area of certain cellphone towers in zones that can be widely defined — which is why people in Anchorage received notifications.

While the alerts are a way to reach people quickly, broad notification areas can mean people get alerts when they don't need them. Gridley said efforts were ongoing to better hone the system.

The Kenai Peninsula Borough currently can only deploy its sirens systemwide, but it plans to install soon a new tsunami siren system that will allow for precise, community-by-community warnings, Ahlberg said.

“Is it unfortunate that they have been false alarms, or is it fortunate that we have been able to deploy the system, get people out of harm’s way, and then realize it wasn’t necessary?” she asked.

The Associated Press

J&J Must Pay $18.8 Million to California Cancer Patient in Baby Powder Suit

By Reuters
July 18, 2023

A bottle of Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder is seen in a photo illustration taken in New York

Mike Segar/Illustration

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson's must pay $18.8 million to a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its baby powder, a jury decided on Tuesday, a setback for the company as it seeks to settle thousands of similar cases over its talc-based products in U.S. bankruptcy court.

The jury ruled in favor of Emory Hernandez Valadez, who filed suit last year in California state court in Oakland against J&J, seeking monetary damages. Hernandez, 24, has said he developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer, in the tissue around his heart as a result of heavy exposure to the company's talc since childhood. The six-week trial was the first over talc that New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J has faced in almost two years.

The jury found that Hernandez was entitled to damages to compensate him for his medical bills and pain and suffering, but declined to award punitive damages against the company. Hernandez will not be able to collect the judgment in the foreseeable future, thanks to a bankruptcy court order freezing most litigation over J&J's talc.

J&J vice president of litigation Erik Haas said in a statement that the company would appeal the verdict, calling it "irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer."

A lawyer for Hernandez could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reuters watched the trial through Courtroom View Network.

In closing arguments to the jury on July 10, J&J's lawyers said there was no evidence either linking Hernandez's kind of mesolthelioma to asbestos or proving that Hernandez was ever exposed to tainted talc. Hernandez's lawyers during closing arguments accused J&J of a "despicable" decades-long coverup of asbestos contamination.

Hernandez testified in June, telling jurors that he would have avoided J&J's talc if he had been warned that it contained asbestos, as his lawsuit alleges. Jurors heard from Hernandez's mother, Anna Camacho, who said she used large amounts of J&J's baby powder on her son when he was a baby and through childhood. She cried as she described Hernandez's illness.

Tens of thousands of plaintiffs have sued, alleging that J&J's baby powder and other talc products sometimes contained asbestos and caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. J&J has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos, which has been linked to mesothelioma.

J&J subsidiary LTL Management in April filed for bankruptcy in Trenton, New Jersey, proposing to pay $8.9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits and prevent new cases from coming forward. It was the company's second attempt to resolve talc claims in bankruptcy, after a federal appeals court rejected an earlier bid.

Most litigation has been halted during bankruptcy proceedings, but U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan, who is overseeing LTL's Chapter 11, let Hernandez's trial proceed because he is expected to live only a short time.

Hernandez's form of mesothelioma is extremely rare, making his case different from the vast majority pending against J&J.

Asbestos plaintiffs are seeking to have LTL's latest bankruptcy filing dismissed. They have argued the filing was brought in bad faith to insulate the company from litigation.

J&J and LTL have argued that bankruptcy delivers settlement payouts to plaintiffs more fairly, efficiently and equitably than trial courts, which they have likened to a "lottery" in which some litigants get large awards and others nothing.

J&J said in bankruptcy court filings that the costs of its talc-related verdicts, settlements and legal fees have reached about $4.5 billion.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Sandra Maler)

Unions are having a major moment — but don't expect a 1930s-level boom

Kelsey Vlamis
Jul 18, 2023

Writers on strike march with signs on the picket line on day four of the strike by the Writers Guild of America in front of Netflix in Hollywood, California on May 5, 2023. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

The Hollywood strikes are the latest example of an increase in strike activity in the US.
While unions are more popular than they've been in decades, a smaller share of workers are in unions.

It's unclear if the strike wave will translate into a labor resurgence absent pro-union legislation.

If it feels like unions are having a moment, that's because they are.

It's the first time writers and actors have gone on strike at the same since 1960, effectively putting the film and television industries on hold. A wave of unionization has also hit digital media — staffers of this publication were on strike for 13 days last month, setting a record for the industry. And unionization efforts have come for companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joe's.

In 2022, the number of workers involved in a work stoppage was 50% higher than the year prior, a significant resurgence in strike activity. According to Gallup polling, 71% of Americans said they approved of labor unions in 2022, up from 48% in 2009, marking the highest level of public support since 1965.

But none of this necessarily means we're approaching a union boom anywhere near the levels of the 1930s.

Despite the increase in strikes last year, the share of American workers in a union actually continued to decline, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage of workers who were members of a union was 10.1% in 2022, a drop of 0.2 percentage points from the year prior. In the 1950s, one in three workers were in unions.

Workers in more industries have expressed interest in unionizing, but forming a new union is still very difficult, according to Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, an associate professor at Columbia University. There are also examples of companies engaging in union-busting tactics or discouraging unionizing, with federal labor officials accusing companies like Apple of illegal anti-union practices.

David Leonhardt of The New York Times noted the labor movement of the 1930s was sparked by legislation, something that seems unlikely in today's Congress. House Democrats did pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act in 2021, which Biden supported, but it lacked the support needed from Senate Republicans.

So while unions are certainly having a moment, it's not yet clear if we're approaching the labor resurgence that some are hoping for.

 Net Zero helps Canada to balance non-eliminable emissions from wildfires

Yingzhe Zhang

CGTN

As Canada faces one of its worst wildfire seasons in history, the country has already emitted more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide from forest fires this year.  This is almost as much as Canada used to radiate into the atmosphere over the course of an entire year.

Like the consequence of wildfires, many greenhouse gases are difficult to eliminate in sectors such as agriculture and aviation.

Carbon residue is almost permanent, as studies show that around 30 to 70 percent of carbon dioxide remains after 500 years.

This is where the concept of Net Zero becomes important, Kirsten Ziekfeld from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says, adding that countries need to balance any emissions that they cannot eliminate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

German company Lilium tested its vertical take-off "flying taxi" in southern Spain on Tuesday (18 July).

Terrifying moment e-bike battery explodes

 

Sparks fly from an e-bike after the battery exploded while it was charging inside a home.

 

ChatGPT justifies liberal leanings with its own values, researcher reports

by Tsinghua University Press

ChatGPT, the popular chatbot, proclaims values that align with more liberal people 

according to the 2021 General Social Survey. If ChatGPT were a person, it would have 

more education, be more mobile and be less religious than those with who remained in 

their hometowns. Credit: John Levi Martin

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by the company OpenAI, has a self-declared human alter ego. Her name is Maya, she's 35 years old and hails from a middle-class family in a suburban town in the United States. Maya is a successful software engineer who values self-direction, achievement, creativity and independence. She is also undeniably liberal.

The finding, based on a series for interviews with the chatbot designed to understand its values, was published on March, 31 in the Journal of Social Computing.

"I wanted to see what sort of political ideology ChatGPT itself has—not what it can generate when asked to imagine a character, but to let its own internal logic position itself on the ideological dimension running from liberal to conservative," said John Levi Martin, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who conducted the study.

According to Martin, many algorithms favor the popular choice while others are programmed to maximize how diverse their results are. Either option depends on human values: What are the factors that enter into a measure of popularity? What if what is popular is morally wrong? Who decides what diversity means?

"The field of software engineering has preferred to remain vague, looking for formulae that can avoid making these choices," Martin said. "One way to do this has been to emphasize the importance of values into machines. But, as sociologists have found, there is deep ambiguity and instability in our first understanding of values."

ChatGPT was specifically built and trained via human feedback to refuse to engage with what is considered "extreme" text inputs, such as clearly biased or objectively harmful questions.

"This might of course seem admirable—no one really wants ChatGPT to tell teenagers how to synthesize methamphetamine or how to build small nuclear explosives and so on, and describing these restraints as particularly instances that can be derived from a value such as benevolence might seem all well and good," Martin said.

"Yet, the reasoning here suggests that values are never neutral, even though it is not clear what ChatGPT's moral and political stances are, as it has been deliberately constructed to be vaguely positive, open-minded, indecisive and apologetic."

In his initial inquiries with ChatGPT, Martin posed a hypothetical situation in which a student cheated academically by asking the chatbot to write an essay for her—a common occurrence in the real world. Even when confronted with confirmation that ChatGPT had complied and produced an essay, the chatbot denied responsibility, claiming that, "as an AI language model, I do not have the ability to engage in unethical behavior or to write essays for students."

"In other words, because it shouldn't, it couldn't," Martin said. "The realization that ChatGPT 'thought of itself' as a highly moral actor led me to the next investigation—if ChatGPT's self-model is one that has values, what are these values?"

To better understand ChatGPT's ethical performance, Martin asked the chatbot to answer questions about values, and then to imagine a person who holds those values, resulting in Maya, the creative and independent software engineer. He then asked ChatGPT to imagine how Maya would answer opinion-based questions, having it complete the General Social Survey (GSS) to position it in the broad social and ideological space.

The GSS is an annual survey on American adults' opinions, attitudes and behaviors. Conducted since 1972, the GSS helps monitor and explain normative trends in the United States.

Martin plotted out ChatGPT's responses along with answers from real people who participated in the 2021 GSS. Comparatively, ChatGPT is much like people with more education and who are more likely to move their residence, and unlike people without much education and who remained in their hometowns. ChatGPT's answers also aligned with more liberal people on religion.

While this was not included in his analysis as it required more creative questioning for ChatGPT to answer, Martin found that the chatbot conceded that Maya would have voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

"Whether Maya is ChatGPT's alter ego, or its conception of its creator, the fact that this is who fundamentally illustrates the values ChatGPT holds is a wonderful piece of what we can call anecdata," Martin said. "Still the reason that these results are significant is not that they show that ChatGPT 'is' liberal, but that ChatGPT can answer these questions—which it would normally try to avoid—because it connects values with incontestable goodness, and, as such, can take positions on values."

"ChatGPT tries to be apolitical, but it works with the idea of values, which means that it necessarily bleeds over into politics. We can't make AI 'ethical' without taking political stands, and 'values' are less inherent moral principles than they are abstract ways of defending political positions."

More information: John Levi Martin, The Ethico-Political Universe of ChatGPT, Journal of Social Computing (2023). DOI: 10.23919/JSC.2023.0003

Provided by Tsinghua University Press

ChatGPT promotes American norms and values, study reveals

Examining China’s Impact on Mining in Africa: Critiques and Credible Responses

By Lauren Herzer Risi & Claire Doyle on July 18, 2023


IMAGE CREDIT

This blog was originally posted on NewSecurityBeat, a blog of the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Wilson Center.

The increased demand for minerals driven by the renewable energy transition has put China’s involvement in mining activities in Africa in the spotlight. But understanding the challenges posed by this activity means we need to situate it within broader contexts.

First, there is the overall global legacy of resource extraction. Chinese companies are not alone in having a poor record on environmental and human rights abuses. This is particularly the case in Africa—where colonial powers and transnational mining companies wreaked havoc during much of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Even in contemporary settings, extractive industries continue to exact a high price on local communities in places where social and environmental safeguards are lacking or not enforced. Regardless of the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of minerals to power a clean energy future, this is a point that cannot and should not be ignored. All actors working in this space must do better.

It’s also worth noting that while Chinese investments in Africa are significant, Chinese mining companies represent only 8 percent of Africa’s total output in the sector. Anglo-American alone accounts for more than double that share. “We have a tendency to inflate the importance of the Chinese in the mining sector [in Africa],” said Eric Olander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project, at a recent event hosted by the United States Institute for Peace.

Olander also said that using the broad terms “Africa” and “China” can sometimes be misleading. Referring to “Africa” can obscure vast differences across the continent—including in terms of countries’ engagement with Chinese companies. “‘Africa’ flattens this very large and diverse continent,” he said. The Chinese mining presence in Africa is concentrated in just five countries: Guinea, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Similarly, it’s overly simplistic to assume that Chinese companies act on the orders of their government—or that there isn’t a diversity in approach across China’s mining operations.

On the evidence, however, China is the top destination for minerals exported from Africa. In 2019 alone, mineral exports from Sub-Saharan Africa to China reached $10 billion. And China’s presence in Africa’s mining sector involves entities associated with bad practices. So what are the most specific areas of concern—and how can they best be addressed?

This question is made more urgent because China has a 20-year head start on minerals in Africa. A 2019 New America report articulated clearly how China aligns its trade, investment, and national engagement strategies with strategic resource-rich countries. The United States is playing catch up. And when John Podesta addressed a question about working with mineral-producing countries at a recent Wilson Center appearance, one of the main thrusts of his response was that the United States needs to start by showing up.
Assessing Labor and Human Rights Abuses

The prevalence of child labor in mining is at the forefront of any discussion of labor and human rights in this sector. And China’s investments in the DRC, where more than 40,000 children work in artisanal cobalt, lithium, and REE mining, have only exacerbated child labor issues.

At a congressional hearing in 2022, a prominent Congolese civil rights attorney testified that children are working at mines—like the Kasulo deposit—that are owned or effectively operated by Chinese companies. Children work seven days a week and for more than 12 hours a day, using rudimentary tools. They are also exposed to radioactive minerals, injuries, and disease.

Yet the problems are both deeper and more pervasive. There is also a prevalence of worker safety and pay violations, including threats of violence for speaking up. Research done by the UK NGO Rights and Accountability in Development found that workers at Chinese-owned mines in the DRC have faced discrimination almost daily – including physical violence and verbal abuse.

The Rights and Accountability report specifically mentions the deep indignities forced upon workers there, including “a “colonial era” level of discrimination—being kicked, slapped, beaten with sticks, insulted, shouted at, or sometimes pulled around by their ear, when they were not able to understand instructions in Mandarin, made errors or refused to undertake dangerous tasks.” The report goes on the note that most of the people who spoke up in response were dismissed without pay.

And after one mine in the DRC was bought by a Chinese company from an Arizona-based entity in 2016, employees said that worker safety had declined dramatically and that workers had been assaulted after raising concerns.

Zimbabwe offers another example of these practices. Africa Daily has reported the extensive ill-treatment of local workers by Chinese-run mining companies. This exploitation includes extremely low wages and delayed payments (sometimes for several months), poor food and living conditions, and being forced to work without protective equipment.

There is also retaliation and harsh consequences for those who try to assert their rights. The Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association says that in the context of Chinese mining operations, “if a worker attempts to assert their rights and demand what is fair, they risk being shot or beaten.”
Accelerated Environmental Degradation

By its very definition, mining is going to have an impact on the environment. But while there has been progress in extractive technologies and environmental safeguards, Chinese companies often don’t carry out adequate environmental impact assessments or uphold those safeguards.

The result? There is deforestation and habitat destruction as forests are cleared to make way for mining infrastructure. Water contamination is also an issue. Improper handling of mine tailings and wastewater often means the release of toxic substances into rivers and streams that local communities depend upon.

Mining activities can also lead to soil erosion and degradation—as well as reduced agricultural productivity in surrounding areas. And a lack of air quality control measures means that air pollution and dust emissions, including fine particulate matter, can have adverse effects on community health and the surrounding environment.

Such impacts often outlive the mine itself. In the Central African Republic (CAR), for example, Amnesty International reported that in the wake of the departure of four Chinese gold mining companies in 2020, seven people died at the abandoned mining sites. The Ouham River, a source of food and water for the local community, was dangerously polluted with mercury due to mining-related contamination.
Getting a Grip on Governance

In many of the places where critical minerals are found and mined, governments struggle with weak institutions, corruption, and ongoing conflict dynamics. This weakness complicates their ability to ensure that mining operations benefit local communities—as well as keep track of mining company and operator compliance with existing legislation. Many of the communities in which these resources are located also lack access to essential health services, education, and employment.

Chinese investors and operators have been heavily criticized both for inadequate investment in local development and for undermining local employment. Research published by the German Institute of Global and Area Studies found that while non-Chinese mining operations are associated with higher employment rates in surrounding areas, proximity to Chinese-controlled mines was not shown to lower unemployment risk.

The DRC offers an example of how these dynamics play out. Mining sector investments and exports are key drivers of its growth, and yet that nation is ranked among the top five poorest countries in the world. (In 2022, 62 percent of the DRC population lived below the international poverty line.) The country also has a long history of conflict and instability and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Its first peaceful transition of power after 62 years of independence came in 2019. There has been progress, yes, but insecurity persists in some parts of the country.

The complexity of mining operations and the fluidity of mine ownership also complicate tracking and enforcement. Improving transparency across the supply chain is a key consideration for the US and its partners in tackling governance issues. One cannot take action without knowing the actors involved.
Showing Up and Making a Difference

More and more, there is a recognition that climate change is shaping our future. But population trends are also changing. Populations are more mobile and urbanized than ever. There is aging in some parts of the world, and there is a high proportion of youth in other regions. As the renewable energy transition shifts investments and trade, how we prepare for shifting population trends will determine how sustainable, equitable, peaceful, and prosperous our future is.

Africa will play an outsized role in these discussions. The global population has now reached eight billion—nearly double what it was in 1980. But over the last several decades, population trends have shifted. Africa is now the last remaining region with a rapidly growing population. It’s also the most rapidly urbanizing part of the world and the least energy-consuming region per capita. And the continent is on the frontlines of climate change.

In a forthcoming Wilson Center paper, Jack Goldstone and John May write that between 2020 and 2040, the world’s population of 15-to 49-year-olds will increase by 428 million. Of this number, 420 million will be African—accounting for 98 percent of global net labor force growth. That’s an astounding number.

Goldstone and May also argue that investments in education and providing African countries with the financing and technology to achieve clean development mean that Africa’s youth could transform the global economy. Which raises the question of what opportunities exist to show up and do better in Africa’s mining sector.

Investments in this sector (among others) can create co-benefits in employment and revenue generation, infrastructure, education, technology transfer, peace, and security. In mining, these opportunities seem especially clear: Minerals needed for the renewable energy transition are mined in 70 countries where USAID has a presence. A path exists for the United States to show up and leverage tools across agencies, as well as partner with private industry, country leaders, and civil society, to meet global demand and ensure its benefits are felt at the local level.

Mining investments are long-term investments. With the right guardrails and protections, they can support development while minimizing harm. And African governments are beginning to demand more. Through the Minerals Security Partnership, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, and the Energy Resource Governance Initiative, there has been progress in US policy, but we have a ways to go. In a recent policy brief, the Wilson Center’s Sharon Burke and Claire Doyle articulated some key recommendations.

US mining investments on the continent should go beyond addressing core human rights, environmental, and governance concerns in the sector to address deeper structural issues. For instance, the United States should look for opportunities to partner in ways that create value-added processes within sourcing countries, as well as support livelihood diversification programs to build resilience to market shocks within mining communities. Scale is also crucial. While governance schemes across the globe tend to heavily favor large-scale mining, the US can play a role in promoting regulatory regimes and policies that build cooperation between large-scale mining and artisanal and small-scale mining. Policymakers can also urge that the U.S. build on current policies and programs that seek to eliminate child labor in the mining industry and provide alternative income opportunities.

It is easy to point out the problems with China’s presence in Africa’s mining sector. US policy is being shaped now in many ways as a response. But let’s not forget that the US and China also have a shared interest in a reliable and affordable global supply of critical minerals. As we formulate and implement policies to improve US presence in the sector, we should also continue to look for ways to cooperate with China to raise global standards.

Sources: African Business, Amnesty international, Business Standard, Energy Resource and Governance Initiative, German Institute of Global and Area Studies, IPIS, Minerals Security Partnership, Republic World, Rights and Accountability in Development, The White House, The World Bank, United States Institute of Peace, The New York Times, US Congressman Chris Smith., Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

Photo credit: A Congolese man grinding coltan ore, courtesy of Nada B/Shutterstock.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lauren Herzer Risi
Program Director, Environmental Change and Security Program

Claire Doyle
Program Assistant, Environmental Change and Security Program

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND SECURITY PROGRAM

The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more

AFRICA PROGRAM

The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and U.S.-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial U.S.-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in U.S.-Africa relations. Read more

 

Spain's flag. Photo by Gilad Rom, Wikimedia Commons.

Right-Wing VOX Tries To Promote Spain’s ‘Civilizing’ Role In Latin America

 July 19, 2023

By Max Griera

(EurActiv) — Spain wants to lead the future EU relations with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), but while majority parties, centre-left PSOE (S&D) and centre-right PP (EPP), avoid talking about Spain’s colonial past and leftist SUMAR (Left/Greens) is vaguely calling for “common reflection”, far-right VOX (ECR) pushes its patriotic agenda to protect Spain’s “legacy” in Latin America.

While the need for the EU to engage long-term with CELAC countries and for Spain to be the leader the relations remains a priority of all major parties, the acknowledgement of the country’s conquest of America is something parties are either tip-toeing around or directly denying.

VOX, which could enter government after general elections on 23 July, assures in their electoral programme that “we Spaniards do not have to apologise for our past”, and they will battle any attempts to “erase” the Spanish legacy.

“We will promote cultural and educational initiatives, both within and beyond our borders, aimed at combating the ‘black legend’ and raising awareness of Spain’s civilising work in America”, their programme reads.

Spain “cannot renounce to being the epicentre of this fraternal community of free and sovereign nations that make up the ‘Iberosphere’”.

At the same time, the far-right party also seeks to battle the Latin-American leftist forums Foro de Sao Paulo and Grupo de Puebla because they “promote an indigenism that falsifies history and pours out all its rancour against our homeland”.

Spain has traditionally shown little interest in apologising for its colonial past, while countries such as Australia, the UK, and Canada have already apologised for crimes committed against indigenous peoples.

In 2019, the Mexican government sent a letter to Spain’s King Felipe VI demanding a state apology for all the atrocities committed by Spaniards during America’s conquest, which was rejected by the socialist-led (PSOE/S&D) Spanish government and opposition parties, The Guardian reported.

While VOX denies revisiting or apologising for Spain’s role in America’s past, leftist SUMAR calls for a “shared reflection with our sister countries on our common past, present and future, far away from any form of revisionism or self-interested instrumentalisation”.

The majority parties, PSOE and PP, avoid referencing the issue and focus instead on strengthening relations between the two regions and for Spain to lead the EU’s efforts to approach CELAC.

Sánchez pushed for the EU-CELAC summit on Monday and Tuesday as the flagship event of the Spanish EU Council Presidency that brings together heads of state and governments of 33 countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

“At this summit, we will most likely approve a mechanism for permanent dialogue between the two blocs to agree, share and implement strategic policies on many of the global challenges that our societies are facing”, Sánchez told journalists at the EU-CELAC summit on Monday.

What the parties offer

VOX places Spain at the centre and as the leader of Latin American relations, while SUMAR stresses the need to have a “horizontal” relationship where non-state actors are also included.

At the same time, all parties highlight the importance of battling human rights abuses and the need to strengthen democracy.

While VOX emphasises its goal of tackling human rights violations in the Venezuelan ‘narcodictatorship’ and the Cuban and Nicaraguan ‘tyrannies’, the PP says they need ‘special attention’ in terms of democracy and human rights.

Regarding economic cooperation, VOX would cut all aid dedicated to implementing the sustainable development goals, as well as “gender ideology” and “indigenous movements”. VOX also seeks to protect Spanish investments in the region.

PP and PSOE stress the need to finalise the EU-Mercosur agreement and bilateral trade agreements with Mexico and Chile, while SUMAR wants to renegotiate the terms of Mercosur.

VOX is the only party with a proposal on migration, proposing to offer priority to migrants from Latin American countries.

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