Environmental activism: What does the win against the Montana state signal for the next steps?


By Dr. Tim Sandle
September 3, 2023

The world is far off track to meet its climate targets - Copyright AFP Ed JONES

In the first ruling of its kind in the U.S., a Montana state court has decided in favour of young people who alleged the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting the use of fossil fuels. The landmark decision is the first of its kind to go to trial in the US and has nationwide implications, according to The Guardian.

Maya van Rossum (environmental activist, attorney, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Founder of the national Green Amendments For The Generations movement) has outlined the national implications for this crucial victory to Digital Journal.

van Rossum considers the constitutional importance of the ruling, noting “This ruling is the first time that a court is directly interpreting the constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment as including the right to a safe climate.”

The narrative continues, considering the democratic elements: “The oil and gas industry, and their friends in Montana’s government, are now on notice that the people of Montana have the higher power of the constitution to help them ensure protection of their climate. It is no longer simply the prerogative of the state legislature to determine whether or not the environment and climate will be protected – it is not an entitlement of the people to ensure the government protects their environment.”

van Rossum also considers the legacy that the ruling presents in terms of future climate related actions: “Quite simply, in Montana, the people now have a powerful legal tool to take on government officials who are failing in their moral, political, and now constitutional duty to protect the environment, the climate and the health and safety of present and future generations.”

Returning to the implications of the ruling, van Rossum finds: “This decision instils an obligation on all Montana government to not only prohibit activities that will violate the constitutional right to a safe climate, but also instils an affirmative obligation to protect those rights. And the decision makes clear that when oil and gas operations advanced by the Montana government will irreparably harm the health and safety of present and future generations, the people have the highest legal authority available in the state to help protect them – their state constitution.”

The result is pivotal and may cause other activists in other states to pursue similar claims. van Rossum’s assessment is: “This is not the first time constitutional environmental rights language has been used to defeat state legislation that advances and increases fossil fuel extraction, but it is the first time it has done so based primarily on the climate changing ramifications of the legislation. It is also the first time that a constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment has been determined to include the right to a safe climate.”

Considering future legislation further, van Rossum assesses: “Montana is 1 of only 3 states that currently recognize a RIGHT of all people in their state to a clean, safe and healthy environment in the form of a constitutional Green Amendment. A Green Amendment is a Bill of Rights/Declaration of Rights provision that recognizes and protects the rights of all people to clean water and air, a stable climate, and healthy environment, and places those rights on par with other fundamental rights such as speech, religion, property.”

Considering where such actions may arise from next, van Rossum predicts: “This ruling informs how similar constitutional language in Pennsylvania and New York’s constitutions should be interpreted. It will also support the advancement of similar language in a growing number of states considering constitutional Green Amendments for addressing the climate crisis, as well as other significant and growing environmental and environmental justice concerns.” There remains more to do, however, and van Rossum has the following note of caution for the environmental movement: “While this ruling solidified the interpretation of a clean and healthful environment to include climate, it should also support efforts in the 15 other states considering Green Amendment proposals to be explicit in the inclusion of climate rights, in order to avoid the need for lengthy and detailed evidence demonstrating that the climate crisis is harming the essential aspects of the environment critical for healthy lives.”

Canada shut its borders to asylum-seekers but they keep coming

Though they left for reasons ranging from domestic violence to war, the common draw for all was Canada’s reputation for protecting human rights and providing refuge.

By Karen Graham
September 3, 2023

Emigrants hoping to get asylum in Canada unload a taxi at the end of Roxham Road in Champlain, NY. 

Source - Daniel Case, (CC BY-SA 3.0)

In March, the US and Canada struck a deal to stem the flow of asylum seekers entering from the U.S. It worked – for a short time.

CTV News Canada reported that U.S. President Joe Biden and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced changes to the 20-year-old Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) on Friday, March 24, 2023.

Biden and Trudeau – in signing the agreement – closed a loophole that had existed since the act was signed in 2002. Since 2017, asylum-seekers, knowing they would be turned back at the official borders tried to avoid the legal checkpoints. That was the loophole.

Fast-forward five months later and the overall number of people filing refugee claims in Canada has risen instead of falling. Many now come by air, while others sneak across the border and hide until they can apply for asylum without fear of being sent back, people working with migrants told Reuters.

Last year alone, nearly 40,000 asylum seekers entered Canada via unofficial crossings, twice as many as in 2017, – mostly into Quebec via a dirt path off Roxham Road in New York, prompting the province to complain it could not handle the arrivals.

“The basic reality is that closing a border doesn’t do anything to solve the need for protection,” said Shauna Labman, an associate professor and acting director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Winnipeg.

At least part of the reason for the latest influx is that Canada is among a shrinking group of countries seen as offering safe harbor while pressures of war, climate change, and human rights violations force a greater number to flee, some migrant experts say, according to US News.

The European Union, for example, recently introduced an asylum-seeker pact allowing nations to send back some migrants. Britain’s government is pushing forward on a law making it easier to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, while U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has introduced a rule making it harder for migrants to receive asylum if they cross U.S. borders illegally.

Reuters spoke with 10 people seeking refugee status who recently arrived in Toronto, Canada’s largest city. They came from Sudan, Uganda and Mexico, among other places. All arrived by plane, with valid visas in hand. Some filed refugee claims days or weeks after their arrival.

Though they left for reasons ranging from domestic violence to war, the common draw for all was Canada’s reputation for protecting human rights and providing refuge.

Invasive species a growing and costly threat, key report to find


By AFP
September 3, 2023

The invasive blue crab is a particularly aggressive species threatening local shellfish and fish in the delta where the River Po reaches the Adriatic sea -

 Copyright AFP/File Piero CRUCIATTI

Invasive species that destroy forests, ravage crops and cause extinctions are a major and growing threat worldwide, a landmark UN-backed assessment is poised to report.

From water hyacinth choking Lake Victoria in East Africa, to rats and brown snakes wiping out bird species in the Pacific, to mosquitoes exposing new regions to Zika, yellow fever, dengue and other diseases, tens of thousand of aliens species have taken root — often literally — far from their place of origin.

The science advisory panel for the UN Convention on Biodiversity, known by its acronym IPBES, will release on Monday the most comprehensive assessment of so-called “alien species” ever assembled.

Humans are to blame when non-native species wind up on the other side of the world, whether by accident or on purpose.

Scientists point to the pervasive spread of these species as hard evidence that rapid expansion of human activity has so radically altered natural systems as to tip Earth into a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, or the “era of humans”.

Some invasive species are accidental arrivals, hitching rides in the ballast water of cargo ships, the containers in their holds, or in a tourist’s suitcase.

Others were introduced deliberately.

The hyacinth which at one point covered 90 percent of Lake Victoria — crippling transport and fishing, smothering aquatic life, blocking hydroelectric dam intake, and breeding mosquitoes — is thought to have been introduced by Belgian colonial officials in Rwanda as an ornamental garden flower before making its way down the Kagera River in the 1980s.

The Everglades wetlands preserve in Florida is teeming with the destructive offspring of erstwhile pets and house plants, from five-metre (16-foot) Burmese pythons and walking catfish to Old World climbing fern and Brazilian pepper.

Invasive species are a significant cause of extinctions, along with habitat loss, global warming, pollution and direct exploitation for food or body parts.

Small islands with endemic species not found anywhere else on Earth are especially vulnerable.

Rats, snakes and mosquitoes transported by Western explorers or, later, tourists have wiped out dozens of bird species in the last two centuries.

The deadly fire that reduced the Hawaiian town of Lahaina to ashes last month was fuelled in part by bone-dry guinea, molasses and buffel grasses — imported as livestock feed — that have spread across abandoned sugar plantations.

A global treaty to protect biodiversity hammered out in the Canadian city of Montreal last December sets a target of reducing the rate at which invasive alien species spread by 50 percent compared to current levels.

Violence, lack of aid foster despair among DR Congo displaced

The UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination says that of $2.25 billion required to help them, only $747 million was available as of August 16.


By AFP
September 3, 2023

Justine is among 40,000 displaced persons taking refuge in Komanda, Ituri 

- Copyright AFP GLODY MURHABAZI

Glody MURHABAZI

Peace seems out of reach and aid is in short supply. In camps for displaced people in DR Congo’s war-torn eastern province of Ituri, despair is growing on the back of violent horrors experienced amid a feeling of abandonment.

“I had six children, three were hacked to death by machete by ADF” rebels, said Henriette Lofaku, 60, who has taken refuge in the town of Komanda, 75 kilometres (45 miles) from provincial capital Bunia.

The Islamist ADF, affiliated to the Islamic State group, has been wreaking havoc since the 1990s in the north of the country’s neighbouring province of North Kivu but has in recent years spread its tentacles to Ituri.

They compete with a shoal of local militia to outdo each other in barbarity — one such group being Codeco (Cooperative for the Development of Congo), which is accused of killing at least 15 people last month in a fishing camp.

Lofaku and her family lived in Walense-Vokutu, a village on the border between the two provinces. One evening in April 2021, the ADF attacked.

“We fled and abandoned everything… They burned everything,” she recalled.

Like her, Justine had tears in her eyes as she recounted the death of her sister, killed with her son with the family on the run.

“Bombs were exploding everywhere,” she said, sitting outside her clay-walled shack.

The locality of Komanda, a destination for those fleeing the violence, hosts around 40,000 displaced people who, according to the local humanitarian community, get by with very little assistance.

“We are suffering hugely. Under these tarpaulins, we have no medicine, no food, nothing. The authorities have to know that we exist!” said Christine Dida, a mother of eight, who fled Djugu territory three years ago.

Bahati Letakamba, who has nine children, has also spent three years in Komanda.

“We have to make do and work in native fields to live,” he said, gesturing to a little cassava flour left over to feed his family.

– Critical situation –

“The situation for the displaced is really critical,” said Serge Mahunga from the NGO group Solidarites Internationales active in Komanda.

In Bunia, another displacement camp set up in the town in 2019 is home to more than 14,000 whose already worrying situation has been getting even worse given an ongoing spate of attacks on several nearby villages.

UN estimates say there are around 1.7 million people displaced in Ituri.

“That represents 40 percent of the population of the province. It’s a truly shocking figure,” Bruno Lemarquis, coordinator for UN humanitarian agencies in the DRC after a visit to Komanda.

“This humanitarian crisis has been going on for 25 years in the DRC. It’s one of the world’s most serious, most complex and longest — but also most neglected,” Lemarquis told AFP.

Clashes between different militia between 1999 and 2003 left thousands dead in Ituri and, after a decade of calm, the unrest resumed in 2017.

Over the past year, humanitarian needs have risen still further “owing to new conflicts or the resurgence of others”, according to Lemarquis, such as the M23 rebellion in North Kivu.

Soldiers moved out from neighbouring provinces, including Ituri, to intervene there and this created a “security vacuum that other armed groups rushed into,” said Lemarquis.

Displaced people criticise the government for not coming to their aid.

Provincial governor General Johnny Luboya N’kashama has said the state has “limited resources” and is doing what it can.

Lemarquis said humanitarian groups are doing all they can but that their response plan is “for the time being less than 30 percent funded”, leading him to call on the international community to mobilise.

Overall, the DRC has more than six million internally displaced people, mainly concentrated in Ituri, North and South Kivu.

The UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination says that of $2.25 billion required to help them, only $747 million was available as of August 16.

HUMAN'S ARE THE WORSE DANGER
EU chief warns wolf packs 'real danger' in Europe 

SPECIESISM

By AFP

September 4, 2023

A wolf  photographed in Kuhmo in northeastern Finland - 

Copyright Lehtikuva/AFP/File Jussi Nukari

Dave CLARK

Brussels launched a review Monday of laws protecting wolves from hunters and farmers, as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen argued that packs threaten livestock and perhaps even people.

Wolves were once hunted to near extinction in Europe, but in the 1950s countries began granting them protected status. Now populations are growing in several regions.

"The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans," von der Leyen said.

The president of the European Commission has personal experience of the alleged threat posed by wolves.

In September last year, a wolf crept into a paddock on the family's rural property in northern Germany and killed her beloved elderly pony Dolly.

Conservationists, however, have hailed the return of healthier wolf populations to Europe's mountains and forests, seeing the large predator as part of the natural food chain.

Under the EU Habitat Directive, first adopted in 1992, the wolf enjoys protected status.

But local and national exceptions to the law are possible, and von der Leyen urged "authorities to take action where necessary", adding: "Indeed, current EU legislation already enables them to do so."

Her statement urged local communities, scientists and officials to submit data on wolf numbers and their impact to a European Commission email address by September 22.

Using this information, the commission will then decide how to modify wolf protection laws "to introduce, where necessary, further flexibility".

The European Commission's announcement received angry comments from animal lovers on social media, many pointing out there have been no fatal attacks on humans by wolves in Europe for decades.

– 'Brave and clear' –

But major European member state governments are thinking along the same lines as Brussels — as are some political parties keen to court rural voters angered by environmental protection laws.

German environment minister Steffi Lemke plans to put forward proposals to make it easier to shoot wolves that have attacked livestock.

"The shooting of wolves after their attacks must be made possible more swiftly and unbureaucratically," Lemke told Welt daily, adding that she will present her plans at the end of September.

"It is a tragedy for every livestock farmer and a great burden for those affected when dozens of sheep that have been ripped apart are lying on the pasture," said the Green Party politician.

French agriculture minister Marc Fesneau thanked von der Leyen for taking a "brave and clear" stance on the issue, urging European authorities to "advance with pragmatism".

While the rules had been introduced to protect an endangered species, he said, "now it is the farmers and their business that are in danger".

DC/FG

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned Monday of the "real danger" of wolf packs in the European Union, announcing a possible revision of the protection status for the animal.

"The concentration of wolf packs in some European regions has become a real danger to livestock and, potentially, to humans," the German official said in a statement.

For the Commission, "the return of wolves to parts of the EU where they have been absent for a long time leads to increasing conflicts with local farming and hunting communities, especially when measures to prevent attacks on livestock are not fully implemented".

The Commission calls on "local communities, scientists and all interested parties to submit, by 22 September, updated data on wolf populations and their impacts".

The question of the number of wolves present in different European countries is at the heart of lively debates – and a real battle of figures – between breeders and environmental protection associations.

"On the basis of the data collected, the Commission will decide on a proposal to amend, where appropriate, the protection status of wolves in the EU and to update the legal framework, in order to introduce, where necessary, more flexibility, in the light of the evolution of this species," the EU executive added, adding that this would "complement the current possibilities offered by EU legislation".

Under the EU's 1992 Habitats Directive, most wolf populations in Europe enjoy strict protection, with derogation possibilities. This regime implements the requirements of the Berne International Convention.

"I call on local and national authorities to take appropriate action. Indeed, current EU legislation already allows them to do so," von der Leyen said.

Ms von der Leyen herself had a bad experience with the wolf: in September 2022, one of them broke into an enclosure on her von der Leyen family's property in northern Germany and killed her old pony, Dolly.

EU reviews wolf's protected status, Germany considers culls

Wolves are currently highly protected under both German and EU law. 

Populations have grown rapidly over the last decade, with farmers pointing to the threat the EU's 19,000 wolves pose to livestock.

Wolves were systematically eradicated in much of Western Europe and only returned to Germany two decades ago after migrating westward from Poland.

 Jonas Ekstromer/STF/picture alliance

The European Commission on Monday launched a study in order to review the protected conservation status of wolves in the EU.

Wolves are currently highly protected under both German and EU law.

There are 1,200 wolves in Germany, according to official figures from 2021-2022. Experts estimate there are up to 19,000 wolves in countries across the EU, with numbers having grown by 25% over the last decade.

Wolves had long been extinct in much of Western Europe after having been systematically eradicated, and only returned to Germany two decades ago after migrating westward from Poland.

While environmental activists and others have lauded the increase in wolf populations as an example of successful conservation and oppose new culls, farmers have complained of the threat the predators pose to livestock.



Wolves 'real danger for livestock, humans' — von der Leyen

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that wolf numbers have "become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans” in some parts of Europe.

She urged "local and national authorities to take action where necessary," adding that current laws already allow for this possibility.

"Where there is a clear danger, local authorities are allowed to permit hunting," she said. "I think this is an absolute right."

The commission has asked scientists, local communities and other interested parties to submit data on wolf populations and their impacts by September 22.

Von der Leyen's own pet pony was killed by a wolf last year in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony, an incident which was widely reported on in German media.

Meanwhile, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke of the Greens said she supports rules that make it easier to shoot wolves to protect livestock.

"Shooting wolves after they have killed has to happen faster and with less bureaucracy," she told the Die Welt daily on Monday.

"When dozens of sheep are killed and lie dead on the meadow, it is a tragedy for every livestock farmer and a very great burden for those affected," she said.

"[Farmers] need more support and security," the minister stressed.

Lemke aims to present new plans by the end of September. However, these could be difficult to implement due to the fact that wolf management corresponds to powers held by the state governments.

Farmers, conservationists disagree on wolf control measures

The head of the German Farmers' Association, Bernhard Krüsken, called Lemke's propsal a "smokescreen" in comments to the German Press Agency (dpa).

He said that that farmers want "real wolf management" and for the species' protected status to be removed, which would then allow culls.

However, German environmental groups have argued against hunting wolves.

"For the number of grazing animals killed, it is not the number of wolves that is decisive, but the number of unprotected grazing herds," Uwe Friedel, wolf expert at the BUND conservation group said.

Marie Neuwald, wolf and grazing specialist at the Nabu conservation group, asserted that even smaller numbers of wolves could pose a threat to livestock.

"Hunting does not lead to wolves keeping more distance to grazing animals," she said. Instead, she advocated for financial support for farmers to implement herd protection measures.

sdi/jcg (dpa, AP)

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WOLF HUNT 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WOLF 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WOLVES 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BAN WOLF HUNTING 

104 SCHOOLS CLOSED

UK’s Sunak denies inaction over schools concrete crisis

ByAFP
September 4, 2023

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak denied cutting funding for refurbishing schools - Copyright Lehtikuva/AFP/File Jussi Nukari

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday rejected claims that he cut a school refurbishment programme, despite knowing about the risks of crumbly concrete used in their construction.

As many as 104 schools and colleges built with Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) have been ordered not to reopen buildings and classrooms this week because of the risk of collapse.

The directive from the Department for Education came just as the start of the new term in England, sending teachers scrabbling to find alternative spaces to teach thousands of pupils.

But Sunak denied a claim from a former top official at the ministry that Sunak shelved a request for funding to rebuild more schools when he was finance minister.

Senior civil servant at the DfE, Jonathan Slater, said up to 400 schools a year needed to be replaced by the department but it only got funding for 100.

In 2021, when Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer, money was only made available for 50, he told BBC radio.

Sunak told reporters Slater was “completely and utterly wrong”, insisting that the number was in line with policy over the previous decade.

He also played down the extent of the problem from the cheap, lightweight form of concrete, which was widely used in construction from the 1950s until the mid-1990s.

Concerns about the shelf-life of the material grew in 2018 when a roof collapsed without warning at a primary school in southeast England.

Sunak said 95 percent of the total of about 22,000 English schools were unaffected by the issue, he said.

But that could mean hundreds more schools could be affected — while fears are growing that other public buildings built during the same period such as hospitals and courts could also be affected.

The crumbly concrete crisis is the latest headache to hit Sunak’s Conservative government, which is hoping to extend its 13 years in office at a general election expected next year.

Political opponents berated ministers for failing to plan for the issue, and for cutting funding to replace RAAC in the worst-affected schools.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan apologised meanwhile for saying she had “done a fucking good job” tackling the problem and that “everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing”.

The comments were caught on camera after a television interview on the subject.

She said the remarks were “off the cuff” and her language was “choice” and “unnecessary”.

WAR IS RAPE

Eritrean troops ‘committed war crimes’ in Ethiopia after peace deal: Amnesty

By AFP
Published  September 4, 2023

Eritrean soldiers have been accused of murder, rape and looting during the two-year war which displaced hundreds of thousands of people - Copyright AFP Julie JAMMOT

Eritrean troops allied with Ethiopia’s government “committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” in Tigray, raping, enslaving and executing civilians for months after the signing of a peace agreement, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

Dubbed the “North Korea” of Africa, Eritrea was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after sending troops into Tigray in support of Ethiopia’s federal forces, with its soldiers accused of murder, rape and looting during the two-year war.

The deal inked in November 2022 between Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the region.

But Eritrea was not a party to the agreement and its troops continue to be present in border areas, according to residents.

Amnesty interviewed 49 people in May and June in the border districts of Mariam Shewito and Kokob Tsibah, corroborating their testimonies with satellite imagery as well as the accounts of social workers, medical experts and government officials.

“Despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, atrocities against civilians in Tigray continued with Eritrean soldiers subjecting women to horrific abuse including rape, gang rape and sexual enslavement, while civilian men were extrajudicially executed,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa director.

“The serious violations documented in this report amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity,” the rights watchdog said.

Some women were raped inside an Eritrean military camp while others were attacked and kept prisoner in their own homes.

A single mother of three told Amnesty she was repeatedly raped for three months and held in a military camp with 14 other women.

“They kept taking turns raping me,” she said, adding that the soldiers also deprived their victims of food and water.

Another woman, aged 37, said she was beaten and raped for nearly three months by soldiers inside her own home.

“They told me, ‘Whether you shout or not, no one is going to come and rescue you.’ And then they raped me.”

– ‘Executing civilians’ –

Amnesty also documented the execution of 24 civilians, including one woman, between November 2022 and January 2023, citing interviews with survivors, eyewitnesses, victims’ families and local officials.

The Eritrean and Ethiopian authorities did not respond to Amnesty’s preliminary findings, the rights group said, urging both governments to investigate the allegations.

Amnesty called on the UN’s Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia next week.

In its first report published last September the commission said it had found evidence of widespread violations by all sides and accused Ethiopia and Eritrea of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Amnesty also urged the African Union’s rights commission to “rescind its decision” to scrap an investigation into atrocities in Tigray without publishing a report on its findings or recommendations.

Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected international efforts to investigate abuses connected with the war in Tigray and warned that any probes could undermine the progress of the AU-brokered peace agreement.

During a rare press conference in Kenya earlier this year, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki dismissed accusations of rights abuses by Eritrean troops in Tigray as “fantasy”.

Despite the peace deal, media access to Tigray remains restricted and it is impossible to independently verify the situation on the ground.

GLOBAL CONFLICT

More than 100 injured as Eritrean refugees clash in Tel Aviv

Dozens of protesters and police officers were injured during a clash in Tel Aviv on Saturday as authorities attempted to disperse a protest involving asylum seekers from Eritrea living in the country. 

Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE

Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Dozens of protesters and police officers were injured during street clashes in Tel Aviv on Saturday involving Eritreans living in Israel who support and oppose the East African country's governing regime.

At least 30 officers were among those hurt during the confrontations between police in riot gear and hundreds of asylum seekers from Eritrea, Israel's emergency medical services reported.

Of the 157 injuries, at least 13 were considered serious, including some gunshot wounds.

Israeli police confirmed they had made at least 39 arrests Saturday, with more expected.

Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Center declared a mass-casualty event but officials have not confirmed any deaths from the event in the city with a population of around 500,000 people.

Hundreds of Eritreans seeking asylum converged on its embassy in Israel for a pro-government rally organized by the nation's government and clashes quickly ensued after anti-government Eritrean protesters arrived at the scene.

As the violence escalated, Israeli riot police and mounted units moved in and an "illegal gathering" was declared, allowing police to use force to disperse the crowd.

More than 25,000 refugees from the country currently live in Israel, according to international aid organization ASSAF.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991 and the country has been ruled by President Isaias Afwerki since that time. Many Eritreans have left the country to avoid forced labor and military conscription imposed by the dictatorial regime.

Israeli PM calls for removal of unauthorized immigrants after riot

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a special ministerial team meeting Sunday to discuss actions to take following Saturday's Tel Aviv riot involving hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees.

 Photo by Haim Zach/Israeli Government Press Office/UPI

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the deportation of immigrants illegally living in Israel after more than two dozen police were injured responding to a riot involving Eritreans seeking asylum in the Middle Eastern country.

Netanyahu made the remarks Sunday in a statement following a special ministerial team meeting held a day after more than 150 people were injured, including 30 police officers, in violence that erupted during a protest involving hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers.

Officials declared the incident a mass-casualty event, which was the result of clashes that erupted outside the Eritrean Embassy in southern Tel Aviv between pro-government and anti-government factions.

Hundreds of Eritreans had convened on the embassy for a rally held by Asmara in celebration the country's independence and were confronted by anti-government protesters.

Netanyahu said in his statement that they are seeking "strong steps against the rioters" including their immediate expulsion, but that they will also construct a plan for the removal of all people who have illegally entered Israel.

"I would also like this forum to prepare a complete and updated plan to repatriate all of the remaining illegal infiltrators from the state of Israel," he said. "This is the purpose of our meeting today."

Netanyahu said Israel is dealing with "massive illegal infiltration" of Africans that constitutes "a tangible threat to the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."

He said they have employed measures, including the erection of a wall on the southern border, which he said has "stopped the infiltration completely," but the problem remains of the "several tens of thousands of illegal infiltrators" who entered the country prior to its construction.

Some 12,000, he said, had been repatriated but that the Supreme Court rejected a series of other measures to remove more.

"Now there remains the serious problem of the illegal infiltrators in southern Tel Aviv and other places, but what happened yesterday crossed a red line," he said. "This disturbance, the bloodshed, these are things that we cannot tolerate."

He also questioned why those who support the Eritrean government would be in Israel in the first place, stating "they certainly cannot claim refugee status."

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1991, and has since been ruled by the totalitarian regime of President Isaias Afwerki. The U.S. State Department said in its 2022 human rights report on Eritrea that the country suffers from "significant human rights issues," including forced disappearances, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punished by the government.

The ASSAF aid organization for refugees in Israel states there are about 33,000 African refugees and asylum seekers who have fled to Israel from atrocities and persecution in their native counties.

In a statement, ASSAF accused the Israeli government of knowing about the potential for violence on Saturday but did nothing to stop it and were simply "waiting for a match to ignite the wild campaign of incitement against the community of Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees in Israel."

It continued that it would be better for lawmakers to not draw conclusions from such "a charged event" and to try and understand how it happened.

"Instead, the government proposes the use of anti-democratic practices such as administrative arrests, thereby paving the way for another fatal violation of their human rights, and tries to train public opinion for additional legislative initiatives that will worsen their situation here and lead in practice to systematic persecution and harassment," it said on X, the social media platform formally called Twitter.

THERE WERE RIOTS IN EDMONTON, TORONTO AND VANCOUVER, CANADA BETWEEN ERITREANS AND ETHIOPIANS IN AUGUST

Op-Ed: Growing food in space — Good idea, but who understands it on Earth?


By Paul Wallis
September 4, 2023

International Space Station. — Photo: NASA / AFP

Growing food in space has been a major thing for decades. It’s critical science. It’s also a very good idea, generating very valuable information. It’s also been creating some very high-yield crops for food production.

China has been deeply involved in this field for decades. The results are particularly encouraging thanks to the selective targeting of important crops like rice, corn, and similar staples. That said, there are a lot of issues that aren’t translating into production on Earth. There are also a few fundamental problems with space production.

The problems on Earth are simple enough in one way. Developing new crops and inserting them into a cumbersome old-style environment could be an own goal. The new food may be great, but food distribution isn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky commercial and logistics scenario.

To get the best out of the new crops, using up huge areas of valuable land with “whatever” nutrients definitely isn’t the best option. Lab-grown species have this problem more or less constantly at the inception stage. The first GMO potatoes planted in the wild simply died. These new high-yield crops are tough, but their priority value is as viable commercial food. Mistakes can be expensive and time-consuming.

Time is one thing the world’s food supply may not have. Water crises are now routine worldwide. Any use of water needs to be as efficient as possible. This means that the new crops need to hit the ground running in commercial and nutritional terms.

The short answer is vertical farming, sky farms, etc. This is not a “choice”. It’s inevitable. Old-style farming cannot defend itself against the climate and massive water shortages. That’s the classic no-brainer that nobody’s been mentioning so far. This will eventually be called the Second Agricultural Revolution. The last one was about 10,000 years ago.

There’s another much less obvious issue with physically growing crops in space, which is another proposal by the UAE, “orbiting greenhouse” satellites. The idea has a few economic issues, too, notably the cost of distribution, but this is trickier.

Rising sea levels and violent flooding are already putting tens of millions of lives at risk in Bangladesh, but they bring another problem that threatens the entire nation: Water-logged land and high salinity in streams and soil are killing crops 

– Copyright AFP/File Kazuhiro NOGI

The science says that DNA modification by exposure to radiation created these new crops. …So, what happens if the actual crops are themselves irradiated and mutate again? It’s a genetic piece of string that could lasso the whole idea of growing food in space and hang it. You’d have to monitor the crops for genetic issues and prove they were safe.

It’s also perhaps too obvious to point out that radiation shielding in space has been on the To Do list for far too long. Anyone would think it was a philosophical problem from the sheer lack of activity dealing with it.

This may yet even be required on Earth if superheated air generates any problems with plants receiving solar radiation. (That’s speculation, but foreseeable problems are at least easier to express.) The ozone hole hasn’t yet gone away, by the way. That’s a lot of UV if it expands.

Space bred crops will work, and work well. The real blunders are likely to be on the ground. This needs to be done well, or it’s “O Brave New World with such fools in it” again.

British sharply divided over support for monarchy, poll says

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- As the first anniversary of the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II approaches this week, a new poll finds a sharp generational divide in support for the monarchy.

According to a YouGov opinion poll, released Monday, only 30% of those between the ages of 18 and 24-years-old -- often referred to as Gen Z -- believe the monarchy is "good for Britain." That is a 50% drop in a decade and compares in stark contrast to a 77% monarchy approval rating for those over the age of 65.

Queen Elizabeth, who was the longest-serving monarch in British history, died one year ago this Friday at the age of 96. Nearly one year after her death and one year into King Charles' reign, the survey found that 62% over all generations would like to see the monarchy continue.

"Sooner rather than later we'll see support for the monarchy fall below 50%," Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchy campaign Republic, warned.

The poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people in Britain, shows a "general trend of falling support, and that younger people will not be won back to the monarchist cause," Smith added.

While Historian Ed Owens believes Prince William has the potential to turn things around with his appeal across all age groups, he blames student debt, stagnant wages and unaffordable housing for the growing "disenchantment" among younger generations.

"The system doesn't seem to be working for them, so why should they celebrate an institution that seems to be at the heart of that system?" Owens queried.

While 53% believe the royal family is a "good value for the money," that number drops to 34% for Gen Z and rises to 75% for those 65 and older.

Most of those surveyed believe King Charles's first year on the throne was a success, with 59% overall saying he was "personally doing a good job."

Prince William, Princess Anne and Catherine, Princess of Wales, remain the most popular members of the royal family with between 72% and 74% of Britons holding a favorable view of them, according to the poll.

Prince Andrew has the least support with only 6% holding a positive view of him. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are also at the bottom of the list with 31% and 24% respectively.

As Prince Harry and Meghan's approval ratings show a generational divide in the opposite direction, with older age groups disapproving more, Prince William and Kate's highly positive views cut across all generations.