Genomic model suggests population decline in human ancestors

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Between 800,000 and 900,000 years ago, the population of human ancestors crashed, according to a new genomic model by Wangjie Hu and colleagues. They suggest that there were only about 1280 breeding individuals during this transition between the early and middle Pleistocene, and that the population bottleneck lasted for about 117,000 years. The researchers say about 98.7% of the ancestral population was lost at the beginning of the bottleneck. This decline coincided with climate changes that turned glaciations into long-term events, a decrease in marine surface temperatures, and a possible long period of drought in Africa and Eurasia. Hu et al. developed a coalescence model that looks at divergence between gene lineages and can be used to estimate past population size, using it to analyze genomic sequences from 3154 people from 10 African and 40 non-African populations. The ancient “bottleneck was directly found in all 10 African populations, but only a weak signal of the existence of such was detected in all 40 non-African populations,” Hu et al. write. The proposed bottleneck also coincided with the time that many researchers think the last common ancestor of Denisovans, Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens lived, but the bottleneck theory needs to be tested against the archaeological and fossil human evidence, Nick Ashton and Chris Stringer write in a related Perspective. “If, as seems likely, humans were widespread inside and outside of Africa in the period between about 800-900,000 years BP … whatever caused the inferred bottleneck was limited in its effects on the wider non-sapiens lineage populations, or any effects were short-lived,” the Perspective authors add.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq7487 

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic inference of a severe human bottleneck during the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition

Early ancestral bottleneck could’ve spelled the end for modern humans

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

 

IMAGE: THE CORE FORMULA OF OUR NEW INFERENCE METHOD IS SHOWN. THE IMAGE DEPICTS A CLIFF PAINTING, ILLUSTRATING THE POPULATION OF HUMAN ANCESTOR PULL TOGETHER TO SURVIVE THE UNKNOWN DANGER IN THE DARKNESS DURING THE ANCIENT SEVERE BOTTLENECK. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE BY SHANGHAI INSTITUTE OF NUTRITION AND HEALTH, CAS

How a new method of inferring ancient population size revealed a severe bottleneck in the human population which almost wiped out the chance for humanity as we know it today.

An unexplained gap in the African/Eurasian fossil record may now be explained thanks to a team of researchers from China, Italy and the United States. Using a novel method called FitCoal (fast infinitesimal time coalescent process), the researchers were able to accurately determine demographic inferences by using modern-day human genomic sequences from 3,154 individuals. These findings indicate that early human ancestors went through a prolonged, severe bottleneck in which approximately 1,280 breeding individuals were able to sustain a population for about 117,000 years. While this research has illuminated some aspects of early to middle Pleistocene ancestors, there are many more questions to be answered since uncovering this information.

A large amount of genomic sequences were analyzed in this study. However, “the fact that FitCoal can detect the ancient severe bottleneck with even a few sequences represents a breakthrough,” says senior author Yun-Xin Fu, a theoretical population geneticist at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Researchers will publish their findings online in Science on August 31, 2023 (America Eastern Standard Time). The results determined using FitCoal to calculate the likelihood for present-day genome sequences found that early human ancestors experienced extreme loss of life and therefore, loss of genetic diversity.

“The gap in the African and Eurasian fossil records can be explained by this bottleneck in the Early Stone Age as chronologically. It coincides with this proposed time period of significant loss of fossil evidence,” says senior author Giorgio Manzi, an anthropologist at Sapienza University of Rome. Reasons suggested for this downturn in human ancestral population are mostly climatic: glaciation events around this time lead to changes in temperatures, severe droughts, and loss of other species, potentially used as food sources for ancestral humans.

An estimated 65.85% of current genetic diversity may have been lost due to this bottleneck in the early to middle Pleistocene era, and the prolonged period of minimal numbers of breeding individuals threatened humanity as we know it today. However, this bottleneck seems to have contributed to a speciation event where two ancestral chromosomes may have converged to form what is currently known as chromosome 2 in modern humans. With this information, the last common ancestor has potentially been uncovered for the Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans (Homo sapiens).

We all know that once a question is answered, more questions arise.

“The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame the catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck has accelerated the evolution of human brain,” says senior author Yi-Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomics at East China Normal University (ECNU).

Now that there is reason to believe an ancestral struggle occurred between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago, researchers can continue digging to find answers to these questions and reveal how such a small population persisted in assumably tricky and dangerous conditions. The control of fire, as well as the climate shifting to be more hospitable for human life, could have contributed to a later rapid population increase around 813,000 years ago.

“These findings are just the start. Future goals with this knowledge aim to paint a more complete picture of human evolution during this Early to Middle Pleistocene transition period, which will in turn continue to unravel the mystery that is early human ancestry and evolution,” says senior author LI Haipeng, a theoretical population geneticist and computational biologist at Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SINH-CAS).

This research was jointly led by LI Haipeng at SINH-CAS and Yi-Hsuan Pan at ECNU. Their collaborators, Fabio Di Vincenzo at the University of Florence, Giogio Manzi at Sapienza University of Rome, and Yun-Xin Fu at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, have made important contribution to the findings. The research was first-authored by HU Wangjie and HAO Ziqian who used to be students/interns at SINH-CAS and ECNU. They are currently affiliated with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, respectively. DU Pengyuan at SINH-CAS, and CUI Jialong at ECNU also contributed to this research.

The African hominin fossil gap and the estimated time period of chromosome fusion is shown on the right.

CREDIT

Image by Science

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq7487 

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic inference of a severe human bottleneck during the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition

 

Mutation rates in whales are much higher than previously reported

Estimate lowers the pre-exploitation number of North Atlantic humpback whales by 86 percent

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

 

IMAGE: THIS PICTURE SHOWS HOW A SMALL BIOPSY IS COLLECTED, USING A HOLLOW-POINT CROSSBOW DART, FROM A FIN WHALE IN THE GULF OF MAINE. THE FIN WHALE IS ONE OF THE SPECIES INCLUDED IN THE STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES IMAGE COLLECTED UNDER U.S. NMFS ESA/MMPA PERMIT 1632 (PERMIT NUMBER MUST BE INCLUDED IN CREDIT!)

An international team of marine scientists, led by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Center for Coastal Studies in the USA, has studied the DNA of family groups from four different whale species to estimate their mutation rates. The results revealed much higher mutation rates than previously thought, and which are similar to those of smaller mammals such as humans, apes, and dolphins. Using the newly determined rates, the group found that the number of humpback whales in the North Atlantic before whaling was 86 percent lower than earlier studies suggested. The study is the first proof that this method can be used to estimate mutation rates in wild populations and was published in the journal Science on 1 September.

Mutation rate is a key parameter in genetics and genomics, where it is used to determine rates of evolution and adaptation. It is also used to derive the number of whales in the oceans before they were decimated by large-scale commercial whaling. However, estimating the rate at which new mutations appear in whales, or in any wild species, is difficult.

Pedigree method

For a long time, the phylogenetic method was used to measure mutation rates. This method uses fossil data from different species to estimate when they diverged. Subsequently, DNA from those species is compared to infer how many mutations must have occurred since the divergence. ‘However, the fossil record is not that exact. And some mutations may have disappeared over time,’ says Per Palsbøll, Professor of Marine Evolution and Conservation at the University of Groningen. He has studied whales since the late 1980s and is a corresponding author of the Science paper.

A more recent approach is the pedigree method, which uses the genomes of a pair of parents and their offspring to identify new mutations in the offspring. This more direct method relies on very few assumptions and is ideal for comparing mutation rates among different species, such as whales and humans.

Especially in wild species, the challenge is to obtain tissue samples from both parents and their offspring. First author Marcos Suárez-Menéndez: ‘The method has only been used on a handful of animals that are living in the wild, such as a single wolf pair and their cubs. It has also been used to estimate mutation rates in zoo animals, although it is uncertain if this reflects the mutation rates in the wild where the conditions are very different.’ However, the team, comprising scientists from the Netherlands, USA, Greenland, Denmark, Canada, and the UK, were able to use skin biopsy samples collected from whales during a collaboration that has been ongoing for more than thirty years.

Crossbow

Palsbøll collected his first whale biopsy samples amongst icebergs in the waters off West Greenland in 1988. ‘To do this, we had to sail very close to a whale and then fire a dart with a hollow point using a crossbow.’ The dart punches out a sample and bounces back into the water from where it is collected.

Finding both parents of a whale calf is the first step in measuring the mutation rate using the pedigree method. This is where large-scale DNA analyses come in. Suárez-Menéndez analyzed data that were generated by the other first author, Martine Bérubé, from microsatellite markers in DNA. This DNA was extracted from a large archive of whale biopsy samples and used to create a genetic fingerprint of individuals. ‘I sifted through the microsatellite data to find individuals that were related as mother and calf. Next, I looked for possible fathers in the database.’

In this way, he managed to identify 212 putative parent and offspring trios in four different whale species. The DNA of eight trios was then sent off for genome sequencing. After a final paternity check, Suárez-Menéndez and his colleagues estimated the number of new mutations in the calf and the average mutation rate in whales.

Industrial whaling

The results showed that the mutation rates in whales are similar to the rates seen in pedigrees in smaller mammals such as humans, apes, and dolphins. In contrast, earlier estimates in whales using the phylogenetic method were much lower compared to these smaller mammals. Suárez-Menéndez: ‘And just like in humans, most new mutations originate from the father. So, whales are very similar to us in this respect.’

The team also used a slightly different maternal pedigree method to estimate the mutation rates in DNA from mitochondria, the cell’s power plants. This method has so far only been used in penguins. Mitochondria and their DNA are passed on through the maternal line and Suárez-Menéndez took advantage of four decades of sighting data of humpback cow and calf pairs in the Gulf of Maine, directed by senior author Jooke Robbins at the Center for Coastal Studies. ‘Our study revealed that the mutation rate in whale mitochondrial DNA is also much higher than earlier estimates based on the phylogenetic method,’ explains Suárez-Menéndez.

The newly determined, higher mutation rates were used to infer that the number of whales in the North Atlantic before industrial whaling. The result was 86 percent lower than earlier reported estimates based on phylogenetic mutation rates. ‘Our new mutation rates suggested that some 20,000 humpback whales lived in the North Atlantic before commercial whaling, in contrast to the previous estimate of 150,000,’ says Palsbøll. This is important information, not only for the conservation of whales but also for our understanding of the state of the oceans before whaling. Palsbøll: ‘Another conclusion of wide-ranging consequences is that our study shows that it is entirely feasible to estimate the mutation rate in wild animals.’

Cancer

The human-like mutation rates in whales also led the authors to reject one possible cause of Peto's paradox. This is the observation that, at the species level, the incidence of cancer does not appear to correlate with the number of cells in an organism. Whales have a hundred to a thousand times more cells than, for example, humans, so if they have the same cancer rate as humans, they should get cancer very early in life. Several mechanisms have been proposed for protecting these large sea mammals against cancer. One of those is a slower mutation rate as a consequence of whales having much lower metabolic rates. The discovery that this is not the case, implies that other mechanisms are probably at play in whales, such as an increase in the number of copies of the p53 gene which protects against cancer.

Finally, as the study relied on a large number of tissue samples that have been collected over several decades, the Science paper highlights the importance of long-term ecological research projects. Palsbøll: ‘It is difficult to acquire sustained funding for these kinds of long-term ecological studies. However, we wouldn’t have been able to do this research without the sustained commitment and dedication of the many colleagues who recorded all the sightings and collected the samples that our study relied on.’

Reference: Marcos Suárez-Menéndez, Martine Bérubé, Fabrício Furni, Vania E. Rivera-León, Mads-Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Finn Larsen, Richard Sears, Christian Ramp, Britas Klemens Eriksson, Rampal S. Etienne, Jooke Robbins, and Per J. Palsbøll: Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales. Science, 1 September 2023

Nuclear mutation rates were determined through genome sequencing of whale trios (mother, father, and calf). The mutation rate was calculated by counting nucleotide base changes (i.e. mutations) exclusive to the calf and dividing them by the total number of bases. The mitochondrial mutation rate was estimated by analyzing the transmission of mitochondrial heteroplasmy (two distinct mitochondrial genomes within an individual caused by a mutation) and its frequency across hundreds of maternal lineages.

CREDIT

Marcos Suárez-Menéndez, University of Groningen

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf2160 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Wild pedigrees inform mutation rates and historic abundance in baleen whales

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2023

 

Telehealth vs in-clinic medication abortion services

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that telehealth medication abortion services (tele-MAB) facilitates abortion care access for those further from brick-and mortar abortion facilities and, thus, may mitigate the impacts of travel logistics and costs. Additionally, tele-MAB may better meet the needs of those with prior abortion experience, perhaps due to greater familiarity with the abortion process. 

Authors: Anna E. Fiastro, M.P.H., M.E.M., Ph.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.31900)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.31900?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=090123

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

New flaw in Apple devices led to spyware infection, researchers say

APPLE WAS ALWAYS COMPROMISED WANT A SECURE PHONE

GET A BLACKBERRY

Thu, September 7, 2023 

The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., 

REUTERS/Mike Segar/


By Christopher Bing and Zeba Siddiqui

(Reuters) -Researchers at digital watchdog group Citizen Lab said on Thursday they found spyware they linked to Israeli firm NSO that exploited a newly discovered flaw in Apple devices.

While inspecting the Apple device of an employee of a Washington-based civil society group last week, Citizen Lab said it found the flaw had been used to infect the device with NSO's Pegasus spyware, it said in a statement.

"We attribute the exploit to NSO Group's Pegasus spyware with high confidence, based on forensics we have from the target device," said Bill Marczak, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, which is based at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

He said the attacker likely made a mistake during the installation which is how Citizen Lab found the spyware.

Citizen Lab said Apple confirmed to them that using the high security feature "Lockdown Mode" available on Apple devices blocks this particular attack.

"This shows that civil society is once again serving as the early warning system about really sophisticated attacks," said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab.

Citizen Lab did not provide further details on the affected individual or the organization.

The flaw allowed compromise of iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6) without any interaction from the victim, the digital watchdog said. The new update fixes this vulnerability.

Apple issued new updates on its devices after investigating the flaws reported by Citizen Lab. An Apple spokesperson said it had no further comment, while Citizen Lab urged consumers to update their devices.

NSO said in a statement, "We are unable to respond to any allegations that do not include any supporting research."

The Israeli firm has been blacklisted by the U.S. government since 2021 for alleged abuses, including surveillance of government officials and journalists.

Spirit AeroSystems CEO says Boeing, Airbus contracts 'not sustainable'

Thu, September 7, 2023

54th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris

By Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Spirit AeroSystems, a major supplier of parts for jetliners, has asked Boeing and Airbus to absorb more of the financial pain caused by inflation that makes its contracts "not sustainable," Spirit CEO Tom Gentile said on Thursday.


In the first half of the year, Spirit took about $215 million in charges on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A220 and A350 programs, due to wage inflation, parts shortages and greater regulatory scrutiny, he said at an investor conference.

"All of those programs are under pressure," he noted. "And it really is not sustainable for Spirit. So we are having discussions with our customers, with Boeing and Airbus, about these pressures that we're facing and how we address them."

Spirit shares closed down 7.3%.

Spirit executives first alluded to the need to reopen contract negotiations with Boeing and Airbus in August.

Gentile on Thursday pointed to "disappointing" Airbus A220 production rates, noting that only 65 to 70 jets are likely to be made this year instead of the 100 Spirit had expected to build wings and other parts for.

Spirit previously forecast the program would break even or begin to be profitable in 2025 after hitting a monthly production rate of 14 A220s per month.

That timeframe appears to have been delayed "and we need to have that discussion with Airbus," he said, noting similar talks about the A350.

Spirit is also discussing the Dreamliner program with Boeing, Gentile said, as the parts maker has logged $1.4 billion in reach-forward losses and needs relief to ramp up 787 production to Boeing's target of 10 per month by 2026.

"With both Boeing and Airbus, we've been an open book in terms of sharing all of the cost data so they understand and know that we've been working on different opportunities (to cut costs) and have exhausted those," he said.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna and Pratyush Thakur; Editing by Richard Chang)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Wells Fargo $1 Billion Accord Over Fake Accounts Approved

Chris Dolmetsch
Fri, September 8, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co.’s $1 billion settlement of a shareholder lawsuit over unauthorized customer accounts was approved by a federal judge, bringing the total amount the bank has agreed to pay to resolve claims over the scandal to nearly $5 billion.

US District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon authorized the agreement following a hearing in New York Friday, more than three months after the deal was reached, lawyers for investors said in a statement. The approval couldn’t be immediately confirmed in court records.

The deal resolves claims filed in 2020 alleging that former Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan and other bank executives made misleading statements to investors, the media and Congress that presented an overly optimistic picture of the company’s interactions with regulators after a 2016 scandal over the accounts.

Wells Fargo declined to comment on the approval. After the deal was reached in May, the bank said that it resolved a case involving several former executives and a director who had not been with the company for several years.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers said the agreement is one of the six largest securities class-action settlements of the past decade and the 17th largest of all time.

The proceeds of the settlement will go to investors who bought Wells Fargo stock from Feb. 2, 2018, through March 12, 2020. Wells Fargo previously agreed to pay $800 million to settle two lawsuits over the bogus accounts and $3 billion to resolve US investigations.

Investigators found that the company set overly aggressive sales targets that led employees to open millions of fake accounts for customers to meet goals, often by creating false records or misappropriating their identities, generating millions of dollars in fees and interest and damaging some clients’ credit ratings, according to the Justice Department.

Executive Charged

US prosecutors said earlier this month that the company’s former head of retail banking, Carrie L. Tolstedt, the only executive charged with criminal wrongdoing, should spend a year in prison for impeding their probe.


Tolstedt pleaded guilty in May and agreed to a ban on working in the banking industry and to pay a $17 million penalty. She’s scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15.

The case is In Re: Wells Fargo & Co. Securities Litigation, 20-cv-4494, US District Court, Southern District of New York.

(Updates with bank declining to comment and previous comment.)

UNIONS WERE CREATED TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR

Wisconsin sawmill agrees to pay $191K to federal regulators after 16-year-old boy killed on the job
TODD RICHMOND
Updated Fri, September 8, 2023 

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A northern Wisconsin sawmill has agreed to pay nearly $191,000 and stop hiring children under 16 to settle a federal lawsuit labor regulators filed after a teenager was killed on the job this summer and other child employees were hurt in a string of accidents.

Michael Schuls died in July after he became pinned in a wood-stacking machine at Florence Hardwoods. He was trying to clear a jam in the machine in the facility's planing mill when the conveyor belt he was standing on moved and left him pinned, according to Florence County Sheriff's Office reports obtained by The Associated Press through open records requests.

An ensuing U.S. Department of Labor investigation found that three children ages 15 to 16 were hurt at the sawmill between November 2021 and March 2023.

The sawmill also employed nine children between the ages of 14 and 17 to illegally run machines such as saws, the investigation found. Most work in sawmills and logging is prohibited for minors. But children 16 and older can work in Wisconsin plaining mills like the Florence Hardwoods facility where Shuls was pinned. Plaining mills are the final processing sites for lumber.

The investigation also determined that seven child employees between 14 and 17 worked outside legally permitted hours.

The labor department filed a civil lawsuit against Florence Hardwoods on Tuesday, but the agency and the sawmill's attorneys had already reached a consent decree to settle the action in late August. U.S. District Judge William Griesbach approved the deal Wednesday.

According to the agreement, the sawmill will pay the labor department about $191,000. In exchange, the department will lift its so-called hot goods restrictions on the facility, which prohibit the sawmill from selling anything produced using illegal child labor.

The agreement bars Florence Hardwoods from hiring anyone under 16 and requires it to notify the labor department if it hires anyone between the ages of 16 and 18. Employees between those ages must be treated as apprentices or student learners. Federal law severely limits those employees' exposure to dangerous tasks and requires that such work be conducted under the supervision of an experienced worker.

Florence Hardwoods also will be required to place warning stickers on all dangerous equipment and post signs visible from 10 feet away warning people that anyone under 18 isn't allowed in the facility's sawmill and planer mill. The facility also will have to submit to unannounced inspections.

Florence Hardwoods officials released a statement Friday through their attorney, Jodi Arndt Labs, insisting they didn't knowingly or intentionally violate labor laws but saying they will accept the penalties.

“As a small company, employees are like family, and the death of Michael Schuls was devastating,” the statement said. “We are only able to move forward thanks to the love and support of our workforce and the community. Michael will forever be in our hearts and his family in our prayers.”

Schuls' family has in the past declined to comment on allegations of negligence by Florence Hardwoods. A message to a person managing the family's GoFundMe page was not immediately returned Friday, and attempts to reach family members by phone and email weren't successful.

State regulators also launched an investigation into Schuls' death. Messages left Friday with the state Department of Workforce Development inquiring about the status of the probe weren't immediately returned.

Schuls' death comes as lawmakers in several states, including Wisconsin, are embracing legislation to loosen child labor laws. States have passed measures to let children work in more hazardous occupations, for more hours on school nights and in expanded roles. Wisconsin Republicans back a proposal to allow children as young as 14 to serve alcohol in bars and restaurants.

ICYMI

Mexico's Supreme Court upholds abortion rights nationwide, paving way for federal access

Reuters
Updated Wed, September 6, 2023

Mexico's Supreme Court in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal law criminalizing abortion, reaffirming an earlier ruling that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional and allowing the federal healthcare system to provide services.

Mexico's highest court, which consists of 11 justices, declared that criminal penalties for abortion were unconstitutional in 2021, but the ruling only applied to the northern state of Coahuila, where that case originated.

Wednesday's ruling will increase abortion access throughout Mexico, marking a major victory for abortion rights advocates in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

It's also the latest in a wave of reproductive rights advancements across Latin America in recent years. In the United States, meanwhile, the Supreme Court struck down the national right to an abortion in 2022 and nearly half of the 50 states have restricted access dramatically.

"We wouldn't have this ruling if we didn't have the Coahuila one two years ago, but I would say that the one today has more reach, definitely in terms of access to abortion," said Isabel Fulda, deputy director of the Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE), the advocacy group that brought the case.

The court sided with GIRE in a challenge to the federal penal code and declared that the section of the national law that criminalized abortion could no longer take effect.

In a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, the court said it found the abortion section of the federal penal code unconstitutional and that it violated the rights of those who can have children.

The ruling opens the door for the federal healthcare system to start providing abortions, which could become increasingly important as Mexico mulls centralizing healthcare services, abortion rights advocates say.

A representative for the health ministry, which oversees federal health services, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Since the court's decriminalization ruling in 2021, Mexico's 32 states have been slow to repeal their penal codes accordingly. Aguascalientes became the 12th Mexican state to decriminalize abortion last month when the Supreme Court sided with GIRE in a similar challenge to that state's penal code.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Jonathan Oatis)

Argentina Ordered to Pay $16 Billion in US Suit Over YPF

Bob Van Voris, Emily Siegel, Chris Dolmetsch and Jonathan Gilbert
Fri, September 8, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Argentina was ordered to pay at least $8.4 billion in damages and $7.6 billion in interest in a US lawsuit over its 2012 re-nationalization of state oil company YPF SA, a sharp blow as the Latin American country’s financial situation has grown increasingly precarious.

US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan on Friday set a formula for the award to entities backed by litigation funder Burford Capital. The judgment originally stated that the Argentine government had control of YPF from April 2012 but that a prejudgment interest rate of 8% should run from May 2023. The second date was subsequently corrected to May 2012, almost doubling the size of the award to $16 billion.

The Argentine government called the award “unprecedented and erroneous” in a statement and said it would appeal. A challenge will likely delay payment for months or even years but could also complicate the country’s efforts to return to global debt markets.

“This case over the rights of former shareholders of an Argentine company under the Argentine company’s bylaws does not belong in a U.S. court,” the government said.

Burford, which acquired the right to pursue the claims for $16.6 million in 2015, has said it would collect the biggest share of the award. Shares in the firm jumped as much as 28% in US trading to reach their highest level since August 2019.

“I’m pleased to see this extraordinary win and the value it could create for our shareholders once we complete the litigation process and collect from Argentina,” Burford Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bogart said in a statement. “The Ruling is a major milestone for Burford and we continue to see momentum in our overall portfolio and continued demand for our capital and services.”

The judgment offers some vindication for the firm’s business model. Major litigation funders have touted their ability to strategically invest in lawsuits they predict will deliver outsized recoveries, but many have struggled to identify such opportunities.

Argentina on Aug. 14 devalued its peso after running low on US dollars to back the currency. The dire state of the nation’s cash-strapped economy is the central issue in the ongoing presidential election. With dollar reserves at their lowest since 2006, it’s unclear how the next government will be able to pay large maturities to bondholders next year. Argentina also owes tens of billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund.

Read More: Out of Options and Money, Argentina Finally Presses Panic Button

But it was the actions of the Argentine government a decade ago which factored in Preska’s judgment. She already ruled in March that then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s administration failed to fairly compensate shareholders when it took over YPF, the nation’s largest oil company. That left only the amount of damages to be determined during a three-day trial in July.

Argentina had asked the judge to limit the award to less than $5 billion, while the plaintiffs asked for $16 billion.

Argentina seized control of 51% of YPF in 2012 after accusing the majority shareholder, Spanish company Repsol SA, of failing to invest sufficient resources into oil production. At the time, Argentina was already fighting claims by investors led by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management over its 2001 default on $95 billion in sovereign debt, and the YPF takeover further contributed to a perception of the country as an inhospitable place for foreign investment.

Preska found that the by-laws of the company, which had been privatized in the 1990s, required any future re-nationalization to be accompanied by a tender offer at a predetermined price. But when an expropriation came in 2012, Deputy Economy Minister Axel Kicillof called the requirement a “bear trap” that only “fools” would expect Argentina and YPF to honor, according to a court filing.

Read More: Argentina Liable in Multibillion-Dollar Suit Over Oil Takeover

After finding Argentina liable in March, Preska ordered a trial to determine damages based on the date on which the nation took control of YPF and the amount of any prejudgment interest.

Argentina aggressively fought the Burford-backed suit, including an unsuccessful bid to have the US Supreme Court throw out the case.

The case is Petersen Energia Inversora SAU. v. Argentine Republic, 15-cv-02739, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

--With assistance from Scott Squires.

Myanmar's military junta responds to ASEAN's call to end violence

Ryan General
Thu, September 7, 2023 



[Source]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has issued a stern condemnation against Myanmar's military junta for its continued violence during the group’s recent summit held in Jakarta.

A call to end violence: Leaders from the 10-member group urged the junta and all related parties in Myanmar on Tuesday to "de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians, houses, and public facilities, such as schools, hospitals, markets, churches, and monasteries."

The group also expressed grave concerns over the junta’s lack of substantial progress in implementing the Five-Point Consensus, a peace plan aimed at ending the conflict that the military coup started in February 2021. Attacks reportedly escalated that year after the military junta took over Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.

A more assertive approach: The statement, officially titled the “ASEAN Leaders’ Review and Decision on the Implementation of the Five-Point Consensus,” marks the first time the group directly blamed the military for the escalation of violence in Myanmar.

The bloc, which had faced criticism for its perceived soft stance on the junta in the past, has also decided to assign its chairmanship of the ASEAN in 2026 to the Philippines instead of Myanmar.

Domestic affair: In a statement published in its state-run newspaper, Global New Light of Myanmar, Myanmar's foreign ministry responded to ASEAN's condemnation on Wednesday, accusing the group of being "one-sided" and not considering their perspective.

The junta also asserted that Indonesia, the current chair of ASEAN, had consulted them on the draft but still rejected their stance. Myanmar then called for ASEAN member nations to adhere strictly to the group's non-interference principle in the domestic affairs of member countries.