PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

BAE sales boosted as world moves to war footing

Howard Mustoe
Mon, 13 November 2023

BAE landed a £3.9bn contract for Aukus attack submarines earlier this year - PA

Orders for submarines and fighting vehicles have boosted sales at BAE Systems to £30bn so far this year, the company has said.

Demand for military equipment has jumped as the world moves on to a war footing, with conflict both in the Middle East and Ukraine.

BAE’s bookings so far this year include £3.9bn towards the next phase of the Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered attack submarines, which are being developed jointly with the US and Australia.


The US has also ordered more Bradley armoured vehicles from BAE and European customers including the Czech Republic have bought hundreds of CV90 fighting vehicles.

Analysts at Barclays led by Charlotte Keyworth said they expected the British defence company to book £34bn of business by the end of the year. The company maintained its outlook for sales and profit for the year.

Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems chief executive, said: “We are delivering another year of good sales and earnings growth, together with strong cash flow generation.

“Order flow on new and existing programmes, renewals on incumbent positions and progress with our opportunity pipeline remains strong. These underpin our confidence and visibility for good top line growth in the coming years.”

Defence companies have reaped billions of pounds of sales from countries seeking to rearm in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

BAE made a record £37bn in sales last year as governments around the world invested in defence capabilities to guard against a newly bellicose Moscow.

The company recently won about £1.4bn of work from Britain’s £4bn deal with Poland to supply air defence missiles and systems. Poland will buy the armaments from MBDA, the missile company BAE partly owns with Italy’s Leonardo and Airbus.

However, this deal is not captured in the figures released on Monday since the order will probably be booked next year.

In April, the Ministry of Defence awarded BAE £656m for the next stage of development of Tempest, the warplane which will replace the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon fighter from 2035.

Britain has partnered with Italy and Japan to develop the Tempest fighter jet - BAE

The jet is being developed with Italy and Japan. Saudi Arabia and Germany are also potential candidates to join the programme.

However, progress is being threatened by Berlin’s insistence on blocking a Saudi order for 48 Typhoon jets. Olaf Scholz has blocked the deal in the wake of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi airstrikes on Yemen.

Typhoons are partly constructed in the UK and Berlin’s block puts jobs at risk, since construction of the next generation of fighter jets will not start until the 2030s.

BAE has 98,000 workers around the world, adding 5,000 staff so far this year.

As well as making its own equipment, BAE supplies parts for other defence companies. It supplies up to 15pc of parts needed for the F-35 fighter jets, which are made by Lockheed Martin and supplied to the US, UK and Israel.

Its work on Israeli warplanes made it the target of protests in recent weeks by pro-Palestinian groups.

Nations start negotiations over global plastics treaty


Nick Perry
Mon, 13 November 2023 

Some developing nations are concerned about rules that might place too great a burden on their economies (CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

Nations grappling with the plastic "suffocating" nature and leaching into food and the human body began fresh negotiations on Monday toward a UN treaty to tackle the growing problem.

Some 175 countries agreed last year to conclude by 2024 a binding agreement to combat the plastic pollution littering oceans, mountain tops, and even blood and breast milk.

Negotiators have met twice already but the week-long talks in Kenya are the first to consider the concrete details of the treaty, and tensions have emerged over what it should contain.


At the opening of the high-stakes talks at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, nations were urged to find common ground for the sake of the planet.

"Nature is suffocating, gasping for breath. All ecosystems... are under threat from plastic pollution," said Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, executive secretary of the treaty negotiating committee.

"We hold in our hands the power to correct this destructive course."

Ahead of the talks, 60 so-called "high ambition" nations called for binding rules to reduce the use and production of plastic, which is made from fossil fuels, a measure supported by many environment groups.

It is one of the many options proposed in a treaty draft published in September that is driving the deliberations in Nairobi.

More than 2,000 delegates are attending, including representatives from oil and gas companies, environment lobbies and civil society groups.

- Divergent views -

The gathering comes just before crucial climate talks in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates later this month that are set to be dominated by debates over the future of fossil fuels.

Countries with large petrochemical industries have generally preferred to focus on recycling and better waste management rather than the caps on new plastic or product bans demanded by some parties to the talks.

UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said nations agreed to develop a treaty that dealt with the entire life cycle of plastics -- from production at their source, to their design and use, to final disposal.

"We cannot recycle our way out of this mess," she told AFP on the sidelines of the talks.

Environment groups attending in Nairobi accused a so-called "low ambition coalition" of largely oil-producing nations including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain of aligning to frustrate the talks.

"We have seen these countries move actively... to prevent these negotiations from beginning, to prevent them from moving to substance, and to slow down those discussions," Carroll Muffett from the Center for International Environmental Law told reporters.

- 'Existential threat' -

The International Council of Chemical Associations, a global industry body, said the treaty "should be focused on ending plastic pollution, not plastic production".

"We support a legally binding agreement that accelerates circularity where new plastics are made from used plastics," the council, which counts Dow and ExxonMobil among its members, told AFP on Monday.

Plastic production has doubled in 20 years and in 2019, a total of 460 million tonnes was manufactured, according to the OECD.

Despite growing awareness of the problem, current trends suggest that production could triple by 2060 without action.

Around two-thirds of plastic waste is discarded after being used only once or a few times, and less than 10 percent is recycled, with millions of tonnes dumped in the environment or improperly burned.

"This kind of polluting our environment is unacceptable and is essentially an existential threat to life, to humanity and everything in between," Kenyan President William Ruto said at the plenary opening.

The Nairobi meeting is the third of five sessions in a fast-tracked process aiming to conclude negotiations next year so the treaty can be adopted by mid-2025.

Campaigners say delegates in Nairobi must make considerable headway to remain on course and warned against time-consuming debates over procedural matters that caused friction at the last talks in Paris in June.

np/amu/cw

Poland's pro-EU bloc bags speaker post in key parliament vote

AFP
Mon, 13 November 2023

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the country's 'independence' was at stake (Wojtek Radwanski)

Poland's pro-EU parties scored a first win in the new parliament Monday after general elections in October with their candidate elected speaker of the lower house, the country's second most important post.

Szymon Holownia won the vote widely seen as a litmus test for three parties bidding to form a government and oust the conservative and populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

"After this vote, no one can doubt that there is a majority in this parliament ready to take power," said Holownia, a former TV host who launched his own centrist party.

He got 265 votes against 193 for the PiS candidate Elzbieta Witek in the 460-seat house.

The parliament speaker's post is the number two position in the country as per the constitution. The speaker replaces the president in case of death.

In the Senate, the pro-EU parties' candidate Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska was also elected as president.

The first parliament session after the election comes as both the opposition and governing populists bid to take power.

The PiS fell short of a ruling majority despite finishing first in the election -- but was given the first shot at forming the government by conservative President Andrzej Duda.

In his opening speech to parliament, Duda declared his "readiness" to cooperate with new lawmakers as he praised his PiS allies for the "eight good years" they had spent in power.

Duda had earlier said he would ask current Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to form a government, a task analysts say he has no chance of fulfilling.

Morawiecki formally resigned on Monday but in a eurosceptic speech to lawmakers, he sought to win over support from the opposition, claiming Polish "sovereignty" and "independence" were at stake.

At an official nomination ceremony on Monday evening, Duda entrusted the task of forming a new government to Morawiecki, saying he was "convinced" that he would find the majority he needed.

Three pro-EU parties led by ex-prime minister and former European Council president Donald Tusk won enough votes for a majority and are gearing up to form a government, though they first will have to wait for PiS's efforts to fail.

"This is an unprecedented situation in more than 30 years of the history of democratic Poland," said Stanislaw Mocek, a sociologist and president of the Collegium Civitas university in Warsaw.

PiS holds 194 seats in the lower chamber, compared to 248 seats for the pro-EU opposition.

- 'Destined to fail' -

PiS has said it will "do everything" to be able to form a new government within the constitutionally allocated 14 days.

It will then have to pass a vote of confidence within 14 days.

"This mission is destined to fail," Mocek said, adding that PiS was just "playing for time" to receive additional financing, put their people in key posts and "ensure a soft landing" when it goes into the opposition.

Jaroslaw Kuisz, a political analyst, said PiS could simply "wait" for its next chance and "sow discord between allies" in the pro-EU coalition likely to form the next government.

The leaders of the pro-EU parties -- including one co-headed by Holownia -- signed a formal coalition agreement on Friday to serve as a "roadmap" for the alliance once it comes to power.

"We really wanted Polish women and men... to see that we are ready to take responsibility for our homeland and for the coming years," Tusk said.

Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, a co-leader of the bloc's Left party, said "the most important thing now is to make Poland tolerant, open, law-abiding, responsible", calling for Warsaw to have a "strong place" within the European Union.

The agreement presents the coalition's position on key issues like the economic and environmental management of the country, rebuilding good relations with the EU, reforming state media, separation of Church and State, and abortion.

If Morawiecki fails to form a government, the next candidate would be nominated by the parliament.

Analysts estimate that the current opposition would only be able to take power from mid-December.

bur-amj/ach/acc/rox

‘Huge leap forward’ as world’s first vaccine for chikungunya virus is approved


Sarah Newey
Mon, 13 November 2023

The disease, similar to dengue and Zika, is spread by the same mosquito - Joao Paulo Burini/Moment RF

The world’s first vaccine for chikungunya virus has been approved by the United States, a “huge leap forward” for efforts to combat the debilitating mosquito-borne disease.

The US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) have given the green light to a single-dose shot developed by the European firm Valneva, for use in those aged 18 and older who are at heightened risk of contracting the dengue-like virus.

“[The] approval addresses an unmet medical need and is an important advancement in the prevention of a potentially debilitating disease with limited treatment options,” said Prof Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.


Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, Sir Jeremy Farrar, added that the milestone was “very important”.

Chikungunya – which comes from a word meaning “to become contorted” in the Kimakonde language spoken in parts of east Africa – was first detected in Tanzania in 1952, and triggered the first documented outbreaks in cities in Thailand and India some 15 years later.

Symptoms of chikungunya include fever, severe joint pain and swelling, headaches, fatigue and a rash - Eraxion/Stockphoto

The disease has similar symptoms to dengue and Zika – including fever, severe joint pain and swelling, headaches, fatigue and a rash – and is spread by the same mosquito, complicating diagnosis. It is rarely fatal – of about 440,000 cases reported as of September, 350 people died – yet there are currently no treatments to specifically target the pathogen.

The US FDA describes chikungunya an “emerging global health threat” because, although the risk remains highest in subtropical regions, it is increasingly spreading. This is a result of viral adaptations, which make it easier for mosquitoes to spread the infection, and warming temperatures, allowing these insects to thrive in new territories.

The Valneva vaccine, known as Ixchiq, is the first chikungunya vaccine to gain regulatory approval, after it was found to induce antibody levels that could neutralise the virus in 98.9 per cent of participants for 28 days post-vaccination.

On Monday, the company unveiled additional results that showed similar results in 12-18 year olds.

‘Designed specifically’ for affordability

Yet the FDA has asked Valneva to conduct a post-marketing study to assess the risk of severe chikungunya-like adverse reactions following administration of Ixchiq, after 1.6 per cent of participants who received the vaccine had severe chikungunya-like adverse reactions.

It is not yet clear how many doses of Ixchiq – which is also under review by the European Medicines Agency – are already available, nor how quickly it will be released on the market in America. Valneva has not yet responded to the Telegraph’s questions.

But in a blog post, Dr Richard Hatchett – chief executive of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, which part-funded the development of Ixchiq – said the vaccine had been “designed specifically” to allow it to be manufactured and affordable in low- and middle-income countries.

He added that, because it is a single-dose vaccine, it is also “well-suited for use in outbreak responses and in low-resource settings” – although it may take some time to go through the regulatory process in endemic countries like Brazil, where 219,000 cases have been reported this year.

“[Approval] is a huge leap forward in the fight against this debilitating disease,” said Dr Hatchett. “The next step is even more important: making this vaccine accessible to those living in endemic countries who are most at risk from the disease.”

OOPS

SNP admits it overestimated Scotland's offshore wind capacity


Simon Johnson
Mon, 13 November 2023 

The largest wind turbine farm in the UK, Black Law wind farm, near Carluke, in Scotland - Construction Photography/Avalon

SNP ministers have quietly downgraded their claim that Scotland has a quarter of Europe’s offshore wind potential to just seven per cent, in a major blow to their economic case for independence.

Neil Gray, the Scottish energy secretary, wrote to a Holyrood committee with the revised estimate after SNP ministers were forced to admit that the 25 per cent figure they had used for years was false.

Emails disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act showed Mr Gray wanted to bury the update, with his officials writing that he was “not sure we need to draw attention to the issue with a letter to committee”.

His civil servants told him that was not possible as the Scottish Government had committed to informing parliament when a new figure had been calculated.

But they agreed to hush up the seven per cent estimate, saying: “No proactive communications are recommended.” This meant that no press release was issued or announcement made when he wrote to Holyrood’s net zero and energy committee in September.

The SNP had used the 25 per cent figure since 2010 and it was a keystone of the party’s economic case for independence. It was included in the Scottish Government’s white paper on separation, published before the 2014 referendum.

But a freedom of information request by think tank These Islands disclosed that servants had concerns about its accuracy more than three years ago, with officials stating in Oct 2020 that it had “proved very difficult to source”.
Official warning

Internal Scottish Government correspondence showed an official warned that it had “never, to my knowledge, been properly sourced”.

In January 2021, another civil servant warned that “we did recycle those figures quite robotically without really checking them”.

These Islands discovered that the 25 per cent figure was calculated by combining statistics from two old reports, one of which used a definition of Europe that included only 11 countries and was based on information from 1993.

But Angus Robertson, the SNP’s constitution secretary, was among the SNP ministers who persisted in using the figure and it was included in the Scottish Government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation, which was published in March last year.

Ian Blackford, the SNP’s then Westminster leader, and other nationalist MPs repeated the claim again during a Commons debate on Scottish independence a year ago. The SNP’s Scottish Green coalition colleagues also tweeted it.

Responding to the updated estimate, Liam Kerr, a Scottish Tory MSP, said: “The SNP have been caught out yet again playing fast and loose with Scotland’s offshore energy potential.

“Ministers must be open and honest about giving accurate figures – secrecy and cover-up does the renewables sector no favours. This is yet another example of a government that thinks it can get away with anything.”
Overstating share

Sam Taylor, who runs These Islands, said: “For over a decade, the Scottish Government was overstating Scotland’s share of Europe’s offshore wind potential by a factor of about four times.”

In his letter to Sir Edward Mountain, the committee’s convener, Mr Gray noted that the Scottish Government had committed to revise the 25 per cent figure.

An accompanying annex said Scotland’s installed offshore wind capacity was more than 2GW, 16 per cent of the UK total. It said this was around seven per cent of Europe’s capacity and three per cent of world capacity.

It said that the Scottish Government wants to grow offshore wind capacity to 11GW by 2030, which it said would equate to around 10 per cent of the EU target for the same date.

But Mr Taylor said this was also misleading as it excluded capacity in the rest of the UK. If the latter was included, Scotland’s 2030 share would fall to 6.8 per cent.

Mr Taylor noted that this calculation also omitted capacity in Norway, which is not in the EU, which would “push Scotland’s share of a genuinely European total down towards six per cent”.

The Scottish Government was approached for comment.

RIP

Activist Joan Jara, widow of murdered singer, dead at 96

AFP
Mon, 13 November 2023 at 10:09 am GMT-7·2-min read

Joan Jara (R) was the widow of murdered folksinger Victor Jara (.)

British-born human rights activist Joan Jara, the widow of Chilean folksinger Victor Jara murdered by dictatorship agents in 1973, has died aged 96, the foundation she created announced.

"Our beloved Joan Jara passed away" on Sunday, the Victor Jara Foundation said on social media. A memorial service will be held in Santiago Monday.

Born Joan Turner, Jara went into exile with her two daughters after her husband's murder in 1973, returning to Chile in the mid-1980s to fight for truth, justice and human rights.


Also a decorated dancer, she denounced the dictatorship and its violations, seeking justice for her husband's death. She received Chilean citizenship in 2009.

Victor Jara, 40, was arrested the day after the September 11, 1973 CIA-backed coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as dictator.

Jara's body was found days later, riddled with 44 bullets. He had been held, along with around 5,000 other political prisoners, in a sports stadium where he was interrogated, tortured and then killed.

In 2016, Joan Jara told the US-based civil trial of Pedro Pablo Barrientos Nunez, charged with torturing and killing her husband, how his death "changed my life, and the life of my daughters, forever."

She recalled finding Jara's lifeless, mangled and bloodied body in a morgue.

Barrientos, who the court found liable for the murder, was arrested in Florida last month and is expected to be extradited to Chile where he has been wanted since 2013.

Weeks before his arrest, Chile's Supreme Court sentenced seven retired military officers to up to 25 years in prison for Jara's kidnapping and murder.

One of Chile's most beloved folk singers, Jara became an icon for those who suffered human rights violations under Pinochet, and inspired artists internationally including U2, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

cm/arm/mlr/caw

UK

SAME OLD AUSTERITY

Treasury to save £4bn with disability benefits overhaul CUTS

Tim Wallace
Mon, 13 November 2023

Hunt

Welfare reforms aimed at encouraging more people into work could save as much as £4bn in a boost for Jeremy Hunt as he prepares for the Autumn Statement.

Under proposals currently under consultation that are likely to be confirmed in the Chancellor’s fiscal update next week, it will become harder for people to claim disability benefits and more new claimants will be required to show they are trying to find a job.

The changes to the Work Capability Assessment may leave some recipients on universal credit alone, rather than receiving an additional £390 per month.

The changes are expected to save the Government as much as £4bn over four years, in a development first reported by the BBC.

The savings would come at a vital time for the Chancellor, as he plans his Autumn Statement against a backdrop of extremely tight public finances.

Mr Hunt has promised to do more to encourage people into work rather than staying on benefits. 2.6 million people of working age are currently classed as economically inactive – neither in work, nor looking for work – citing long-term sickness as the cause.

CLASSIC CONSERVATIVE LOGIC; 

THEY ARE SLACKERS

KICK THEM OFF THE DOLE PUT 'EM TO WORK

It is feared that this is holding back the economy, which is struggling to grow as employers labour to fill almost 1 million vacancies.

The Department for Work and Pensions opened a consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment in September, which ran until the end of October.

When setting out its proposed reforms, the Department for Work and Pensions said: “Being in suitable work is good for people’s physical and mental health, wellbeing, and financial security. However, too many disabled people and people with health conditions are stuck on incapacity benefits, without the support they need to access work.”

It argued that guidelines set out a decade ago are no longer suitable at a time when more jobs can be performed flexibly and a larger share of the population can work from home, making it easier for people in poor health to find employment.

It is understood that the aim is to apply the changes to new claimants as the scheme is phased in, rather than those already in receipt of the cash.

A spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said the consultation responses are still being assessed, so reports of a final decision on Work Capability Assessments are “purely speculation”.

The spokesman said: “The structural reforms set out in the Health and Disability White Paper, which will improve the experience of the benefits system for disabled people, will be rolled out gradually from 2026 and transitional protection will ensure nobody experiences a financial loss as a result of moving onto the new system.”

Forests could absorb much more carbon, but does it matter?



Sara HUSSEIN
Mon, 13 November 2023

A new study finds forests could absorb vastly more carbon with better protection (MAURO PIMENTEL)

Protecting forests globally could vastly increase the amount of carbon they sequester, a new study finds, but given our current emissions track, does it really matter?

For Thomas Crowther, an author of the assessment, the answer is a resounding yes.

"I absolutely see this study as a cause for hope," the professor at ETH Zurich said.


"I hope that people will see the real potential and value that nature can bring to the climate change topic."

But for others, calculating the hypothetical carbon storage potential of global forests is more an academic exercise than a useful framework for forest management.

"I am a forester by trade, so I really like to see trees grow," said Martin Lukac, professor of ecosystem science at University of Reading.

However, he considers forest carbon potential calculations like these "dangerous," warning they "distract from the main challenge and offer false hope."

Crowther has been here before: in 2019 he produced a study on how many trees the Earth could support, where to plant them and how much carbon they could store.

"Forest restoration is the best climate change solution available today," he argued.

That work caused a firestorm of criticism, with experts unpicking everything from its modelling to the claim that reforestation was the "best" solution available.

Nodding to the furore, Crowther and his colleagues have now vastly expanded their data set and used new modelling approaches for the study published Monday in the journal Nature.

They use ground-sourced surveys and data from three models based on high-resolution satellite imagery.

The modelling approach is "as good as it currently gets," acknowledged Lukac, who was not involved in the work.

- 'Achieve climate targets' -

The study estimates forests are storing 328 gigatons of carbon less than they would if untouched by human destruction.

Estimates of the world's remaining carbon "budget" to keep warming below the 1.5C range from around 250-500 gigatons.

Much of the forest potential -- 139 gigatons -- could be captured by just leaving existing forests to reach full maturity, the study says.

Another 87 gigatons could be regained by reconnecting fragmented forests.

The remainder is in areas used for agriculture, pasture or urban infrastructure, which the authors acknowledge is unlikely to be reversed.

Still, they say their findings present a massive opportunity.

"Forest conservation, restoration and sustainable management can help achieve climate targets by mitigating emissions and enhancing carbon sequestration," the study says.

Modelling and mapping the world's forests is a tricky business.

There's the scale of the problem, but also the complexity of what constitutes a forest.

Trees, of course, but the carbon storage potential of a woodland or jungle is also in its soil and the organic matter littering the forest floor.

- Trees versus emissions? -

Ground-level surveys can offer granular data, but are difficult to extrapolate.

And satellite imagery covers large swathes of land, but can be confounded by something as simple as the weather, said Nicolas Younes, research fellow at the Australian National University.

"Most of the places where there is potential for carbon storage are tropical countries... these are places where there is persistent cloud cover, therefore satellite imagery is very hard to validate," he told AFP.

Younes, an expert on forest remote sensing, warns the complexity of the study's datasets and modelling risks introducing errors, though the resulting estimates remain "very valuable".

"It will not show us the exact truth for every pixel on Earth, but it is useful."

One objection to quantifying forest carbon potential is that conditions are far from static, with accelerating climate change, forest fires and pest vulnerability all playing a role.

And, for Lukac, whatever potential forests have is irrelevant to the urgency of cutting emissions.

The study's estimated 328 gigatons "would be wiped (out) in 30 years by current emissions," he said.

Crowther, who advises a project to plant a trillion trees globally, rejects an either-or between forest protection and emissions reduction.

"We urgently need both," he said.

sah/mtp

Dominica to create world's first sperm whale reserve

Issam AHMED
Mon, 13 November 2023 

Sperm whales are the largest toothed predators on the planet, living in matrilineal societies with distinct cultures and dialects 

(VALERY HACHE)

Dominica is set to create the world's first sperm whale reserve, designating a swath of ocean where large ships and commercial fishing are restricted and visitors can swim alongside the gentle marine giants.

The Caribbean nation said it hoped the new protected zone of 300 square miles (nearly 800 square kilometers) off its western coast -- roughly the size of the island itself -- would boost valuable tourism revenue but also help sequester more carbon in the deep sea, an often overlooked benefit of whale conservation.

"The 200 or so sperm whales that call our sea home are prized citizens of Dominica," said Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in a statement Monday. "Dominica is honored to establish the first Sperm Whale Reserve on our planet."

Sperm whales are the largest toothed predators on Earth, living in matrilineal societies with distinct cultures and dialects.

Growing up to 50 feet (16 meters) long, they are found across the globe, from Iceland to New Zealand. But they have a particular affinity for the majestic blue waters off Dominica, which provide critical feeding and nursing grounds.

Marine biologist Shane Gero told AFP he began studying the Dominica whales in 2005, with his research showing the population was experiencing a decline as a result of ship strikes and unintentional entanglements in fishing gear as well as plastic pollution.

"We're losing individual animals and the families that researchers and the operators who do whale watching here know very well," he said. Individuals live up to 90 years, and the Dominican whales communicate in a specific series of clicks thought to convey: "I'm from Dominica, are you?"

Several Dominican whales have been given names, such as "Can Opener," "Fingers" and "Hope," and remember certain tour operators they've come to know.

- Ecotourism and climate benefits -

The reserve's boundaries were defined based on studies of where the roughly 50 whale families find food and shelter, though a corridor will be carved out to allow ships to dock at Roseau, the island's capital and largest city, Francine Baron, CEO of the Climate Resilience Execution Agency for Dominica told AFP.

Success or failure will hinge on stringent regulations and implementation. A law required to operationalize the reserve should be passed by Dominica's parliament "within weeks," said Baron, a former foreign minister, promising there would be "legislative teeth."

Vessels 60 feet or longer would likely be prohibited, while small-scale, artisinal fishing would be allowed to continue.

Kristen Rechberger, CEO of Dynamic Planets which is advising the government, told AFP the idea would be to do something akin to the mountain gorilla tourism program of Rwanda, where foreign visitors pay $1,500 to hike a whole day then spend an hour with the primates.

Conserving sperm whales also carries climate benefits that derive from their feces.

Sperm whales dive to hunt squid, then return to the surface where they breathe, rest and defecate. Their nutrient-rich feces foster plankton blooms which capture carbon dioxide from seawater. When the plankton dies it becomes a carbon sink, helping mitigate impacts of climate change.

Assuming 250 whales in Dominica's waters, each year they lock up to 4200 metric tons of carbon, equivalent to keeping 5,000 cars off the road -- significant for a small island nation, said Enric Sala, founder of nonprofit Pristine Seas which is also advising Dominica.

"So the whales are part of the climate resilience plan of Dominica," he said. "Whale poop, who would have thought?"

ia/mlm

UK

‘Russian roulette’ maternity units risk lives of mothers and babies, say midwives

Rosie Taylor
Mon, 13 November 2023

Midwives said that they were given so many patients to care for they often did not have enough time to complete basic care tasks 

- JGI/TOM GRILL/TETRA IMAGES RF

The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk in a maternity culture so toxic that it feels like a “game of Russian roulette”, midwives have warned.

A report by front-line staff has described “endemic” bullying and “dangerously low” staffing levels, which meant that women in labour were treated as if they were “on a conveyor belt”.

Maternity units “often” had less than half the number of staff needed to operate safely and unqualified students were left to look after multiple women on postnatal or labour wards.

Midwives said that they were given so many patients to care for they often did not have enough time to complete basic care tasks, such as giving women painkillers or properly sterilising equipment – putting patients at risk of infection.

The report by the #Saynotobullyinginmidwifery campaign group – a team of leading midwives and midwifery academics – featured the experiences of hundreds of midwives who are currently working in or have recently left NHS services.

Many of those who contributed had witnessed babies harmed as a result of their “unfathomable” working conditions, describing a “toxic culture” in maternity services.

One said that working in maternity units in the UK was like “playing a warped game of Russian roulette and just praying the tragedy doesn’t occur on your shift or with a person you’ve been caring for after you’ve gone off shift”.

‘Things have got so much worse’

In her foreword to the report, Mavis Kirkham, emeritus professor of midwifery at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “Twenty years ago [it was] reported how midwives were leaving midwifery because they could not give the care they wished to give. Things have got so much worse.”

She warned that “care has been squeezed out in the interests of efficiency” and that the service was “run on a conveyor belt model” which was “so inappropriate”.

The report’s authors blamed chronic staff shortages, as well as pressures on midwives from senior management to discharge mothers and babies as quickly as possible to free up beds.

It follows a call from bereaved parents for a statutory public inquiry into England’s maternity services.

The request, made by the Maternity Safety Alliance, followed a number of high-profile reports that revealed poor care and toxic cultures in maternity services at individual NHS trusts, including the Ockenden Review into Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and the Kirkup Report into East Kent Maternity Services.

The latest report, published on Monday, featured similar stories from across the country.

A newly qualified midwife told how she had been left alone on her first shift to deliver the baby of a woman with multiple high-risk health problems.

The baby died hours after it was born.

‘Poor organisational culture identified’

Another described the “utter hell” of pressing the emergency bell when they noticed problems with a baby’s heart rate during labour, only for it to go unanswered.

One said that she never had enough time to care properly for women and babies so prioritised the tasks most likely to prevent harm “because at least when you hand over [to staff on the next shift] you can tell them that nobody died”.

One midwife cited in the report said that midwives working in her hospital were given 10 high-risk women and 10 babies to care for on each shift.

“That’s 37 minutes to give each individual everything they need … It’s unfathomable,” they said.

The report told how midwives who raised the alarm with senior staff about unsafe conditions were often bullied or threatened, with many leaving their jobs as a result.

Its authors said that workplace pressures meant there was an “endemic” bullying culture towards newly qualified staff in particular, with managers “colluding in, and sometimes leading, this ethos”.

A spokesman for the Royal College of Midwives said: “Poor organisational culture has been identified as a key factor in recent investigations and reports on maternity safety. We know that maternity staff who feel supported and valued provide better care and when there is a positive working culture the quality of the care improves.”

A spokesman for NHS England said: “The NHS is committed to working closely with local trusts and partners to make necessary improvements so that we provide the best possible services for women, babies and their families and it is completely unacceptable for any member of staff to feel silenced or unable to speak about issues affecting them.”

Stone Age babies received better parenting, study suggests

Sarah Knapton
Mon, 13 November 2023 

Modern-day parenting is less effective than the Stone Age equivalent

Modern parents take on much more of the childcare responsibilities themselves than their Stone Age ancestors, but this leads to less effective parenting, a new study suggests.

Anthropologists at Cambridge University studied Mbendjele BaYaka, a semi-nomadic tribe who live today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to find out how traditional societies care for their youngsters.

They found that children were often looked after by more than 10 members of the group, who would respond to more than half a baby’s bouts of crying.

Communal parenting allowed children to receive an average of nine hours of close contact with older members of the tribe, which gave mothers time to work and rest.

The team speculated that sharing of parenting helped to prevent abuse, while allowing children to become better parents themselves.

“For more than 95 per cent of our evolutionary history, we lived as hunter-gatherers,” said lead author Dr Nikhil Chaudhary.

“Therefore, contemporary hunter-gatherer societies [like Mbendjele BaYaka] can offer clues as to whether there are certain child-rearing systems to which infants, and their mothers, may be psychologically adapted.

“As a society, from policymakers to employers to health care services, we need to work together to ensure mothers and children receive the support and care they need to thrive.”

DR Congo study

The DR Congo study showed that, at any one time, the ratio of caregivers to children was greater than five to one, much more than in modern homes or nurseries.

And researchers speculated that children may be “evolutionarily primed” to expect exceptionally high levels of physical contact and care, as well as personal attention from several caregivers in addition to their biological parents.

The team concluded that throughout human history and prehistory, parents had never been under the pressure they are now in terms of lack of support.

“Support for mothers also has numerous benefits for children such as reducing the risk of neglect and abuse, buffering against family adversity, and improving maternal wellbeing which in turn enhances maternal care,” said child psychiatrist, Dr Annie Swanepoel, of Elysium Healthcare.

The study also found it was common for older children and adolescents to be heavily involved in caring for infants, further supporting mothers and giving these young carers valuable experience, boosting their confidence and lowering anxiety about becoming parents themselves.

The research was published in the journal Developmental Psychology.