We continue to risk our lives defending Colombia’s rivers and wetlands

© Oscar Castaño/Amnesty International

NEWS
December 1, 2023
By Yuly Andrea Velásquez Briceño

Rivers and wetlands have always held great significance for me. They are a source of livelihood and economic and emotional wellbeing for many communities in Santander and elsewhere in Colombia. And, given the current climate crisis, they have taken on an even more vital importance for the entire planet. Yet defending our rivers and wetlands – and the environment in general – from corruption and pollution means risking our lives.

I grew up in a large, loving family. We lived opposite Barrancabermeja, on the banks of the Magdalena River, in an old wooden house with zinc sheets for a roof. In 1990 my grandparents taught me how to care for the river because we depended on it for drinking water and for catching fish to eat. I used to see huge fish three times my size up close, like catfish and tilefish, as well as crabs, goldfish, herring, barracuda and corocoro.

As a child, I used to help sell bowls of fish to our neighbours to help cover our needs. I had a happy childhood and would wash away any sadness by bathing in the river, where we all also learned to swim and paddle a canoe.

At that time, however, violence was never far away. In 1999 my five-year-old brother was killed by a stray bullet fired by guerrillas. Two years later, paramilitaries killed my stepfather.

© Oscar Castaño/Amnesty International

In 2003, when I was still a teenager, I moved to another village to establish my own family household. We also lived on the banks of the Magdalena River and relied on fishing to feed my two young children. But I saw no future for my kids there, so I returned to Barrancabermeja to study environmental engineering.

After graduating in 2014, a good friend asked me to help a group of fishermen who were looking for a leader to support them, as local fish numbers were in decline and pollution was on the rise, destroying what little they had to survive on. Having a soft spot for this area of work, I agreed to work with them for free and so we founded the fishermen’s association Guardians of the Water, Flora and Fauna (ASOGEAFF by its initials in Spanish), made up of 39 older men and me, the only woman.

It was so sad to see how worried they were by the high levels of pollution and violence in the area. We came up with different strategies to draw the attention of the local authorities but nothing worked. They weren’t interested in listening to the fishermen’s problems or needs.

We often receive death threats signed by the armed groups that operate in the area. We know these are not empty threats.

In 2017 we started working as a team with other fishermen’s organizations and thus the idea of forming the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander (FEDEPESAN) was born, with the aim of collectively seeking solutions to our problems.

We noticed cases of corruption in the contracts of the companies that were polluting our rivers but we didn’t know what to do about this or who could help us legally. We complained through the media but it fell on deaf ears, so in 2019 I hired a lawyer who could teach me how to monitor these contracts.

Since then, we’ve made public complaints and held strikes and protests against all acts of corruption and pollution, and we’ve seen the cruelty and disinterest of state institutions.

© Oscar Castaño/Amnesty International

In retaliation for defending our wetlands, rivers, wildlife and the environment, my companions and I have suffered countless attacks, threats and the theft of our tools, such as motors and canoes. On 20 January 2021, unidentified aggressors fired shots outside my house. My children and I hid while we called the police but our attackers left before the officers arrived.

We often receive death threats signed by the armed groups that operate in the area. We know these are not empty threats. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for those of us who protect land, territory and the environment, with at least 60 murders last year alone.

Our work isn’t easy but thanks to the Regional Corporation for the Defense of Human Rights (Credhos) and the international organizations that accompany us in the field and raise the profile of our work, we’re no longer alone. We’ve achieved recognition as guardians of our bodies of water and the strength of Colombia’s riverine communities has been restored.

But our work is not finished. We dream of protection for our rivers and wetlands so they can continue to provide food and a healthy environment for future generations. The Colombian government has a historic opportunity to ensure that we can continue our work without fear and to be at the forefront of change in the world’s most dangerous region for the defense of the environment. Governments must listen to environmental defenders and take account of their demands. We have much to contribute in terms of addressing the climate crisis. The COP28 is a good opportunity for states to show they truly value our work.

Yuly Andrea Velásquez Briceño is president of the Federation of Artisanal, Environmental and Tourist Fishermen of the Department of Santander (FEDEPESAN).

Geert Wilders’ election victory: The left must concern itself with being a real opposition

Perspectives
Alex de Jong
01 Dec, 2023

Victory of Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party shows how mainstream Islamophobia & anti-migrant views are in The Netherlands. Left wing parties must now focus on building real opposition, not conceding on policies for power, argues Alex de Jong.

Far-right political leader Geert Wilders was convicted of inciting hatred against Moroccans when he called them "scum" at an election rally in 2016

Last week, Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV) won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the Dutch national elections. The political figure is known internationally for his radical Islamophobia, and demands for, among other thing, the closing of all mosques in The Netherlands.

Crucial his victory is the radicalisation of former supporters of the mainstream conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of incumbent prime minister, Mark Rutte. As Dutch news satire website De Speld explained, VVD’s new leader Dilan Yesilgöz had run an excellent campaign, but for Wilders.

Rutte had triggered the fall of his own coalition-government by demanding further restrictions on refugee-rights that were unacceptable for part of his coalition. The VVD hoped the elections would be dominated by migration, and not by other urgent issues such as the country’s housing crisis and the rising cost of living. During the campaign, Yesilgöz exaggerated the supposed ease with which refugees enter the Netherlands. The main beneficiary of this tactic ended up being the PVV, the political force that for a decade-and-half built its political profile on hostility towards migrants.


''An error made by parts of the Dutch left is that anti-racism and migrants' rights are considered secondary to social-economic issues. However, as the recent election dramatically showed, these are incredibly decisive issues in Dutch politics.''

The VVD lost 10 seats, leaving them with 24. Of the new PVV voters, one out of four previously voted VVD.

Like many of his voters, Wilders is a product of the right-wing establishment. In the early nineties he worked for the VVD and in 1998 he represented the party in parliament. He also wrote speeches for the future European Commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, a pioneer in ‘clash of civilisations’ rhetoric regarding the West and Muslim societies in Dutch politics.

Wilders eventually left the VVD in 2004, partly because they would not categorically oppose Turkey joining the European Union.

Since founding the PVV in 2006, Wilders gathered a loyal base; almost 80% of those who voted for him in the previous national elections, did so again last month. Whilst the PVV largely rallied support as an opposition to Rutte, it is important to highlight that Wilders is not a political newcomer. Voters showed up for a seasoned politician who for years has remained consistent in his main policies. His popularity therefore shows how mainstream Islamophobia has become in The Netherlands.

Dutch pro-Israel politicians contribute to Islamophobia
Unfiltered
Ibtissam Abaâziz & Rahma Bavelaar

Indeed, the PVV’s manifesto presented the racist and authoritarian positions that characterise the party. Pledges ranged from the petty revoking of the government’s apologies for the role played by the Dutch state in slavery, to the deportation of criminals with a double nationality, to the deployment of the army against ‘street scum’, and the closing of borders for refugees and preventive arrests of ‘jihadist sympathisers’. Particularly drastic was Wilders’ long-standing insistence on ‘no Islamic schools, Qurans and mosques’.

However, it is not only racist and xenophobic politics that has attracted voters to the PVV. Wilders was originally an explicit supporter of neoliberal economic policies but for the past decade, his party increasingly posed as defenders of welfare. The PVV programme contained seemingly progressive positions, such as raising the minimum wage, lowering healthcare costs and returning the retirement age from 67 to 65. Though such rhetoric is contradicted by the party’s actions.

In his book Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me (2012), Wilders described the role of the PVV as supporting the austerity plans of Rutte’s first cabinet in return for measures to 'restrict immigration, roll back crime, counter cultural relativism, and insist on the integration of immigrants'. In parliament, the PVV introduced a proposal to make collective bargaining agreements no longer binding, and supported further restricting access to social security.

Not to mention, today the PVV seeks to form a government with the VVD – the party that for the last decade headed the government’s implementation of neoliberal measures that they claim to oppose.

Whilst a substantial part of Wilders' voters are certainly committed to far-right politics, part of his appeal is that he has been able to pose as an opposition force to an establishment that included the left-wing parties like the Labour Party.

In an attempt to present itself as a legitimate party that could govern, Labour entered a coalition headed by Rutte back in 2012 after they had won close to 25% of votes. They remained despte the deeply unpopular harsh austerity measures that were implemented, and even ran a former minister in the government as the candidate for a joint Labour/Greens ticket.

The result was a modest advance for these parties, mostly through votes coming from the centre and other left-wing parties, but it hardly attracted new voters. In the elections last month Labour/Greens won 25 seats, and became the second largest party, but finished far behind Wilders.

In France, freedom of speech flouted and repressed
Unfiltered
Laurent Bonnefoy

Another error made by parts of the Dutch left is that anti-racism and migrants rights are considered secondary to social-economic issues. However, as the recent election dramatically showed, these are incredibly decisive issues in Dutch politics.

When Wilders’ electoral victory was announced, hastily organised protests took place in some cities. A coalition of progressive groups called a national demonstration in defence of civil liberties, freedom of religion and human rights. Such protests are of course not only important, but urgent because they make visible the opposition to Wilders’ agenda and show solidarity with groups that are threatened, especially Muslims. After all, the case of Giorgia Meloni's Italy shows what can happen when the far-right is in power; it may moderate some of its rhetoric, but it will not abandon its authoritarian and nativist project.

But protests in themselves are not enough. For years, Wilders pressured the mainstream from the right, pulling voters to his side. The Dutch left can learn something from this; instead of pandering the right, it needs to pressure them. As for rebuilding the left that can effectively pressure the centre and win new supporters, this will need to be a long term project. What is needed now more than ever is a left that sees itself not as a government-in-waiting but as an opposition force.

Alex de Jong is co-director of the International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) in Amsterdam, Netherlands and editor of the Dutch socialist website Grenzeloos.org
Follow him on Twitter (X): @AlexdeJongIIRE

Mexico to Increase Minimum Wage by 20% in Election Year

Daily minimum wage for Mexican workers will grow to 249 pesos

AMLO has been boosting the minimum salary to help consumption

By Max de Haldevang
December 1, 2023 

Mexico will increase the minimum wage by 20% starting on Jan. 1, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Friday, pressing on with a popular policy among his working class base ahead of June’s presidential election.

The hike will mean the minimum salary has doubled in real terms since the start of Lopez Obrador’s term in late 2018. Mexican workers’ daily minimum wage will be 249 pesos ($14.40), or 7,508 pesos per month, the president said at his daily press conference.

“This is historic,” AMLO, as the president is known, said. “We will fulfill what we offered at the beginning of our government.”

Mexico has been boosting the minimum wage, which is set by an agreement between the government, unions and company representatives, by double digits in Lopez Obrador’s five years in power.

The move “highlights the electoral cycle that we are currently in and how popular these policies can be,” Rodolfo Ramos, a strategist at Bradesco BBI, wrote in a note. “For future years, minimum wage policy will depend to a great extent on the outcome of the election, but regardless of who wins, we expect to continue to see large real increases to the minimum wage.”

The policy has helped sustain local demand but at the same time is a factor that complicates the central bank’s task of bringing inflation down to its 3% target, plus-minus one percentage point. The country posted 4.3% inflation in the first half of November, compared to the same period a year earlier, up from 4.25% in late October.

“This could reinforce the high persistence we have seen in core inflation, putting a limit on how much this could keep falling next year,” said Jessica Roldan, chief economist at Finamex Casa de Bolsa, referring to a closely watched inflation metric that strips out volatile prices like fuel. “We estimate that will end up very close to 4% at the end of 2024.”

Read More: Banxico Chief Sees Chance of Rate Cut in Early 2024 Amid Split

Mexico will hold presidential elections in 2024 in a race that has his party’s candidate Claudia Sheinbaum as frontrunner. The president is not allowed to run for reelection after finishing a single six-year term.

MODI'S SECRET POLICE

US prosecutors say plots to assassinate Sikh leaders were part of a campaign of planned killings

The attack plans were foiled, prosecutors said, because the hitman was actually an undercover U.S. agent.
Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is pictured in his office on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/ Ted Shaffrey)

December 1, 2023
By  Larry Neumeister

NEW YORK (AP) — A foiled plot to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York, just days after another activist’s killing, was meant to precede a string of other politically motivated murders in the United States and Canada, according to U.S. prosecutors.

In electronic communications and audio and video calls secretly recorded or obtained by U.S. law enforcement, organizers of the plot talked last spring about plans to kill someone in California and at least three other people in Canada, in addition to the victim in New York, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The goal was to kill at least four people in the two countries by June 29, and then more after that, prosecutors contend.

After Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh activist who had been exiled from India, was shot and killed outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia, on June 18, one of the men charged with orchestrating the planned assassinations told a person he had hired as a hitman that he should act urgently to kill another activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

“We have so many targets,” Nikhil Gupta said in a recorded audio call, according to the indictment. “We have so many targets. But the good news is this, the good news is this: Now no need to wait.”

He urged the hitman to act quickly because Pannun, a U.S. citizen living in New York, would likely be more cautious after Nijjar’s slaying.

“We got the go-ahead to go anytime, even today, tomorrow — as early as possible,” he told a go-between as he instructed the hitman to kill Pannun even if there were other people with him. “Put everyone down,” he said, according to the indictment.

The attack plans were foiled, prosecutors said, because the hitman was actually an undercover U.S. agent.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan announced charges Wednesday against Gupta, and said in court papers that the plot to kill Pannun was directed by an official in the Indian government. That government official was not charged in the indictment or identified by name, but the court filing described him as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence.

Indian officials have denied any complicity in Nijjar’s slaying. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Wednesday that the Indian government had set up a high-level inquiry after U.S. authorities raised concerns about the plot to kill Pannun.

Court filings revealed that even before Nijjar’s killing in Canada, U.S. law enforcement officials had become aware of a plot against activists who were advocating for the secession from India of the northern Punjab state, where Sikhs are a majority.

U.S. officials said they began investigating when Gupta, in his search for a hitman, contacted a narcotics trafficker who turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

Over the ensuing weeks, the pair communicated by phone, video and text messages, eventually looping in their hired assassin — the undercover agent.

The Indian government official told Gupta that he had a target in New York and a target in California, the indictment said. They ultimately settled on a $100,000 price and by June 3, Gupta was urging his criminal contact in America to “finish him brother, finish him, don’t take too much time …. push these guys, push these guys … finish the job.”

During a June 9 call, Gupta told the narcotics trafficker that the murder of Pannun would change the hitman’s life because “we will give more bigger job more, more job every month, every month 2-3 job,” according to the indictment.

It was unclear from the indictment whether U.S. authorities had learned anything about the specific plan to kill Nijjar before his ambush on June 18.

The indictment portrayed Gupta as boasting that he and his associates in India were behind both the Canadian and New York assassination plots. He allegedly told the Drug Enforcement Administration informant on June 12 that there was a “big target” in Canada and on June 16 told him: “We are doing their job, brother. We are doing their New York (and) Canada (job),” referring to individuals directing the plots from India.

After Nijjar was killed, Gupta told the informant that Nijjar was the target he had mentioned as the potential Canadian “job” and added: “We didn’t give to (the undercover agent) this job, so some other guy did this job … in Canada.”

On June 30, Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of the United States after arriving there on a trip from India. Federal authorities have not said when he might be brought to the United States to face murder-for-hire and conspiracy charges. It was unclear who would provide legal representation if he arrives in the U.S.

Pannun told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that he will continue his work.

“They will kill me. But I don’t fear the death,” he said.

He mocked India’s claim that it is conducting its own investigation into the assassination plots.

“The only thing, I think, (the) Indian government is going to investigate (is) why their hitman could not kill one person. That’s what they will be investigating,” he said.

Pannun said he rejects the Indian government’s decision to label him a terrorist.

“We are the one who are fighting India’s violence with the words. We are the one who are fighting India’s bullets with the ballot,” he said. “They are giving money, hundreds of thousands, to kill me. Let the world decide who is terrorist and who is not a terrorist.”

Some international affairs experts told the AP that it was unlikely the incidents would seriously damage the relationship between the U.S. and India.

”In most cases, if Washington accuses a foreign government of staging an assassination on its soil, U.S. relations with that government would plunge into deep crisis,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centre’s South Asia institute. “But the relationship with India is a special case. Trust and goodwill are baked into the relationship, thanks to rapidly expanding cooperation and increasingly convergent interests.”

Derek Grossman, Indo-Pacific analyst at the Rand Corp., said the Biden administration has demonstrated that it is prioritizing the need to leverage India as part of its strategy to counter Chinese power.

“I think publicizing the details of the thwarted plot will have very little, if any, impact on the deepening U.S.-India strategic partnership,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Krutika Pathi in New Delhi and Ted Shaffrey in New York contributed to this report.

Alleged Plot to Kill Sikh Separatist Highlights Thorn in India’s Side

The charges are rooted in a decades-old dispute over the demand by some Sikhs for a sovereign state known as Khalistan carved out of northern India.

Members of the Sikh community protesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in Washington in 2020.

Credit...Drew Angerer/Getty Images


By Sameer Yasir
Reporting from New Delhi
Dec. 1, 2023

The federal indictment this week of an Indian national in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme targeting a Sikh separatist in New York threatens to damage ties between the United States and India just as the Biden administration has been courting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

The charges are rooted in a decades-old dispute: the demand by some Sikhs for a sovereign state known as Khalistan carved out of northern India, which the Modi government opposes.

In addition to directing the unsuccessful plot in New York, the federal indictment said, an Indian government official organized the killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada who was fatally shot in June by masked gunmen outside a temple in Vancouver.

The idea of Khalistan is rooted in Sikhism, a religion with 26 million followers around the world, of which about 23 million live in the state of Punjab in northern India. Sikhs make up less than 2 percent of India’s population of 1.4 billion.

India has outlawed the Khalistani independence movement, and it has only limited support inside Punjab. But it remains a rallying cry among the roughly 3 million members of the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada, Australia and Britain.

The Khalistan movement

Sikhism was founded in the 15th century in Punjab, and in 1699 an influential leader of the faith at the time, Guru Gobind Singh, espoused the idea of Sikh rule. He also gave it a political vision, casting Sikh self-rule as a remedy for decades of misrule under Muslims and corruption among Sikh leaders.

The Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of Sikhism, in Amritsar, India, where in 1984 hundreds were killed in a raid ordered by India’s prime minister, Indira Gandhi, to arrest insurgents hiding there.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

After the Indian subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines in 1947, some Sikh leaders tried to establish a Punjabi-speaking Sikh state, leading to friction between Sikh groups and the Indian government, which was then led by Jawaharlal Nehru.

That effort never came to pass, but the dream of Khalistan survived. In the 1970s and 1980s, it gained traction among Sikhs in Punjab and the worldwide Sikh diaspora. The movement eventually inspired an armed insurgency that lasted for more than a decade. India responded with force, using torture, illegal detentions and extrajudicial killings to suppress the movement.

In June 1984, India’s prime minister at the time, Indira Gandhi, ordered troops to storm the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of Sikhism, in Amritsar, to arrest insurgents hiding there. Hundreds were killed in that raid.

Among those who died during the raid was Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a leader of the armed rebellion, who many historians say was initially supported by Mrs. Gandhi’s government, which used him as a vehicle to split the Sikh movement.

In October 1984, Ms. Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards, a killing that prompted a wave of violence that left thousands dead, and included looting and arson against Sikh homes and businesses.

In 1985, separatists linked to the Sikh diaspora bombed an Air India flight, en route to London from Toronto, killing more than 300 people.

Across northern India, from the mountains of Kashmir to the plains of Punjab, people still paste stickers of Mr. Bhindranwale on cars, motorcycles and the front gates of homes as a symbol of Sikh resistance.

But by the early 1990s the insurgency had largely been crushed in Punjab, with hundreds of rebels arrested, killed or driven underground. Hope for a more inclusive future for Sikhs took hold and, between 2004 and 2014, India had its first, and only, Sikh prime minister, Manmohan Singh.

How did Khalistan become an issue among the Sikh diaspora?

During and after the Sikh insurgency, the growing diaspora started demanding accountability for human rights violations committed by Indian forces in Punjab.

A large number of those Sikhs who left India during the separatist violence, or in the years immediately after it, carried wounds that fueled their advocacy for a Khalistani state. But political observers said those activists, while often turning out for protests against India, have largely remained unorganized.

Protesting outside India’s consulate in Toronto in September.

Credit...Carlos Osorio/Reuters

While blessed with some of the country’s richest agricultural land, Punjab has long struggled with unemployment and drug abuse. Young men often force older relatives to sell land to underwrite their emigration. And once they move overseas, their social interactions are often limited to socializing with other Sikhs during visits to temples.

Sikhs waving Khalistani flags have become a familiar sight outside Indian consulates. At one point a dentist in London, Jagjit Singh Chauhan, even declared himself president of a “Republic of Khalistan.”

Alarmed by the protests, India has responded by demanding that countries, including Canada, take action against Sikh activists, whom New Delhi considers a “threat” to its sovereignty.

Is the Punjab independence movement a threat to India?

Political leaders in Punjab say the Sikh independence movement there has been practically nonexistent for decades. But the Indian government has recently been sounding the alarm and arrested a separatist leader early this year, fearful that a resurgence in India could provoke violence there.

Praying at a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Punjab, a majority-Sikh state in India

.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

There have been sporadic incidents of violence inside Punjab, including bombings and killings of religious leaders, but the police there have linked the violence to gang rivalry that sometimes transcends borders.

In recent years, New Delhi has also accused Sikh separatists in Canada of vandalizing Hindu temples and, in one instance, attacking the offices of the Indian High Commission during a protest in March.

India’s relations with Canada were already strained before the June killing of the Canadian Sikh leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who supported independence for Khalistan. New Delhi has accused Canada of harboring separatist militants linked to the Khalistan movement.

India’s government has repeatedly asserted that any failure by foreign governments to tackle Sikh separatism would be an obstacle to good relations with that country.

Sameer Yasir is a reporter based in New Delhi. He joined The Times in 2020. More about Sameer Yasir

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SIKH ASSASSINATION 

The easiest way to get people back to the office? Free childcare

AMANDA KAVANGH | THIS COLUMN WAS CREATED BY JOBBIO
Fri, 1 December 2023 



Childcare is currently so expensive that parents are dropping out of the workforce.

According to the most recent stats from the Census Bureau, the mean amount spent on childcare in the seven days prior to the research was $325.39.

Multiply this by 52 and you get $16,920 as a mean annual sum, while for those with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, the mean sum was higher at $377.77, which adds up to $19,644 annually.


The stats drill down further to look at the mean amount spent on childcare compared to household income.

While those earning less than $25,000 spent on average $296 in the previous seven days on childcare, this figure remains around the same right up to the $100,000-$149,999 pay bracket.

Clearly lower income households are feeling the most squeeze, with the lowest bracket spending 62% of their salary on childcare.

Comparatively, workers in the $50,000-$74,999 band pay 28% to 19%, the $75,000-$99,999 cohort pay 22% to 15%, and the $100,000-$149,999 group pay 14% to 10%.

Childcare costs cited increase after these groupings. For households with an income of $150,000-$199,999, costs for the last seven days was $335 (between 8% to 12% of annual salary), and this rises to $467 for households earning $200,000 and above (12% of annual salary).

Meanwhile, according to a national representative survey of 2,091 U.S. adults, 48% of parents of children under five-years old would consider being a stay-at-home parent if childcare accounted for a quarter of their salary.

Regulator says stranger entered hospital, treated a patient, took a document ... then vanished

Scottish health group to tweak security checks, access authorization to avoid a repeat

Paul Kunert
Fri 1 Dec 2023 


NHS Fife is on the wrong end of a stern ticking off by Britain's data regulator after it made a howling privacy error that aided an as yet unknown person who had entered a hospital ward only to walk off with data on 14 patients.

The "reprimand" [PDF] by the Information Commissioner's Office is related to an alleged breach that took place at the one of the sites that NHS Fife is responsible for.

Due to a "lack of checks and formal processes" the unauthorized individual who was not employed by the health service was "handed" a document containing the personal data of 14 patients, and even helped administer care to one, the ICO investigation found.

The non-staff member subsequently walked off-site with the document and has yet to be found. Despite the hospital operating closed circuit television cameras, the wall socket powering the system had been turned off by a member of staff, so police are unable to name the person or find the missing document.

The ICO told NHS Fife that its security measures were insufficient for personal data retention and low staff training rates hadn't helped. The ICO says NHS Fife broke Article 5 of the UK GDPR.

A newly installed system for documents and updated identification processes are among the fixes. As such, the regulator reckons that under the circumstances and given the remedial action already taken, a reprimand of the territorial health board was the best course of action.

Natasha Longson, ICO head of investigations at the ICO, said:

"Patient data is highly sensitive information that must be handled with the appropriate security. When accessing healthcare and other vital services, people need to trust that their data is secure and only available to authorised individuals.

"Every healthcare organisation should look at this case as a lesson learned and consider their own policies when it comes to security checks and authorised access. We are pleased to see that NHS Fife has introduced new measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future."

The ICO has dished out reprimands to numerous public sector bodies in recent years, including to NHS Lanarkshire when staff were swapping photos and patients' personal info via WhatsApp, or Surrey Police and Sussex Police for using a calling app to record phone conversations as well as to illegally retain that data.

Rather than fining public sector institutions for incompetence or a lack of training, the ICO offers advisory services to prevent repeat instances. ®

UK

Norovirus hospital admissions are over 100% higher than last year

According to new figures from NHS England the number of people being admitted to hospital with severe cases of norovirus are 179% higher than this time last year. 

Health chiefs have warned that the cold weather could increase the number of people going into hospital with a seasonal virus as they have unveiled that more people have been admitted with a winter illness as well as norovirus this year. 

Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director said: ‘We all know somebody who has had some kind of nasty winter virus in the last few weeks.

‘Today’s data shows this is starting to trickle through to hospital admissions, with a much higher volume of norovirus cases compared to last year, and the continued impact of infections like flue and RSV in children on hospital capacity – all likely to be exacerbated by this week’s cold weather.’

According to NHS data, around 351 adult hospital beds were occupied every day last week by patients with norovirus or norovirus-like symptoms. These include feeling or being sick, diarrhoea, a high temperature and/or a headache. The number of beds occupied last week was almost three times the average of 126 for the equivalent week in 2022.

Expressing major concern, Powis also said: ‘It is clear that, even before we enter December, the demand on hospitals and staff is high, with more than 1,200 extra patients in hospital compared to last year, and we know that is likely to grow considerably before Christmas.’

Research from the NHS was published as part of the first weekly snapshot of how NHS hospitals in England are performing this winter. Overall, one in four patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals last week waiting around 30 minutes to be passed on to A&E teams.

However, on a positive note, around 160 flu patients were in hospital beds in England each day last week, which is below the average 520 from this time last year.

Image: Fusion Medical Animation

 

Drought Data Shows “An Unprecedented Emergency On A Planetary Scale”

December 1, 2023 United Nations

Farms surrounded by arid lands in Kangirega Village, Turkana County, on 23rd March 2022.

Recent drought-related data based on research in the past two years and compiled by the UN point to “an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale, where the massive impacts of human-induced droughts are only starting to unfold.”

According to the report, ‘Global Drought Snapshot,’ launched by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at the outset of COP28 climate talks in the UAE, few if any hazard claims more lives, causes more economic loss and affects more sectors of societies than drought.

UNCCD is one of three Conventions originated at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The other two address climate change (UNFCCC) and biodiversity (UN CBD).

Says UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw: “Unlike other disasters that attract media attention, droughts happen silently, often going unnoticed and failing to provoke an immediate public and political response. This silent devastation perpetuates a cycle of neglect, leaving affected populations to bear the burden in isolation.”

“The Global Drought Snapshot report speaks volumes about the urgency of this crisis and building global resilience to it.  With the frequency and severity of drought events increasing, as reservoir levels dwindle and crop yields decline, as we continue to lose biological diversity and famines spread, transformational change is needed.”

“We hope this publication serves as a wake-up call.”

Drought data, selected highlights:

• 15–20%: Population of China facing more frequent moderate-to-severe droughts within this century (Yin et al., 2022)
• 80%: Expected increase in drought intensity in China by 2100 (Yin et al., 2022)
• 23 million: people deemed severely food insecure across the Horn of Africa in December 2022 (WFP, 2023)
• 5%: Area of the contiguous United States suffering severe to extreme drought (Palmer Drought Index) in May, 2023 (NOAA, 2023)
• 78: Years since drought conditions were as severe as they were in the La Plata basin of Brazil–Argentina in 2022, reducing crop production and affecting global crop markets (WMO, 2023a)
• 630,000 km2 (roughly the combined area of Italy and Poland): Extent of Europe impacted by drought in 2022 as it experienced its hottest summer and second warmest year on record, almost four times the average 167,000 km2 impacted between 2000 and 2022 (EEA, 2023)
• 500: years since Europe last experienced a drought as bad as in 2022 (World Economic Forum, 2022)
• 170 million: people expected to experience extreme drought if average global temperatures rise 3°C above pre-industrial levels, 50 million more than expected if  warming is limited to 1.5°C (IPCC, 2022)

Agriculture and forests

• 70%: Cereal crops damaged by drought in the Mediterranean, 2016–2018

• 33%: loss of grazing land in South Africa due to drought (‌Ruwanza et al., 2022)
• Double or triple: Expected forest losses in the Mediterranean region under 3°C warming compared to current risk (Rossi et al., 2023)

• 5: Consecutive rainfall season failures in the Horn of Africa, causing the region’s worst drought in 40 years (with Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia particularly hard hit), contributing to reduced agricultural productivity, food insecurity and high food prices (WMO, 2023).
• 73,000 km2: average area of EU cropland (or ~5%) impacted by drought, 2000-2022, contributing to crop failures (EEA, 2023)
• $70 billion: Africa’s drought-related economic losses in the past 50 years (WMO, 2022).
• 44%: Expected drop in Argentina’s soybean production in 2023 relative to the last five years, the lowest harvest since 1988/89, contributing to an estimated 3% drop in Argentina’s GDP for 2023 (EU Science Hub, 2023)

Water conditions

• 75%: Reduction of cargo capacity of some vessels on the Rhine due to low river levels in 2022, leading to severe delays to shipping arrivals and departures (World Economic Forum, 2022)
• 5 million: People in southern China affected by record-low water levels in the Yangtze River due to drought and prolonged heat (WMO, 2023a)
• 2,000: backlog of barges on the Mississippi River in late 2022 due to low water levels, causing $20 billion in supply chain disruptions and other economic damage (World Economic Forum, 2022)
• 2–5 times: Acceleration of long-term rates of groundwater-level decline and water-quality degradation in California’s Central Valley basins over the past 30 years due to drought-induced pumpage (Levy et al., 2021)

Social dimensions 

• 85%: People affected by droughts who live in low- or middle-income countries (World Bank, 2023)
• 15 times: Greater likelihood of being killed by floods, droughts and storms in highly vulnerable regions relative to regions with very low vulnerability, 2010 to 2020 (IPCC, 2023)
• 1.2 million: people in the Central American Dry Corridor needing food aid after five years of drought, heatwaves and unpredictable rainfall (UNEP, 2022)

Remedies

• Up to 25%: CO2 emissions that could be offset by nature-based solutions including land restoration (Pan et al., 2023)
• Almost 100%: Reduction in the conversion of global forests and natural land for agriculture if just half of animal products such as pork, chicken, beef and milk consumed today were replaced with sustainable alternatives (Carbon Brief, 2023)
• 20 to 50%: Potential reduction in water waste if conventional sprinkler systems were replaced by micro-irrigation (drip irrigation), which delivers water directly to plant roots (STEM Writer, 2022).
• 20%: EU’s land and sea areas to be made subject to restoration measures by 2030, with measures in place for all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050 (European Council, 2023)
• $2 billion: investment by AFR100 in African organizations, businesses and government-led projects, announced this year with further anticipated investments of $15 billion to foster the restoration of 20 million hectares of land by 2026, generating an estimated $135 billion in benefits to around 40 million people. (Hess, 2021)
• 6: Riparian countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo) participating in the Volta basin Flood and Drought management project, the first large-scale, transboundary implementation of Integrated Flood and Drought Management strategies, including an End-to-End Early Warning System for Flood Forecasting and Drought Prediction (Deltares, 2023)
• ~45%: global disaster-related losses that were insured in 2020, up from 40% in 1980-2018. However, disaster insurance cover remains very low in many developing countries (UNDRR, 2022)
• 50 km: the resolution of the water distribution maps thanks to a recently-developed method of combining satellite measurements with high-resolution meteorological data, an major improvement from the previous 300 kilometers resolution (Gerdener et al., 2023)

The report was unveiled at a high-level event with the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) in Dubai (webcast at www.youtube.com/@THEUNCCD, 16:00 Dubai time / 12:00 GMT.  It is part of UNCCD’s series of Land and Drought Dialogues at COP28: https://bit.ly/3Gh7GZd).

Launched by the leaders of Spain and Senegal at COP27, IDRA is the first global coalition creating political momentum and mobilizing financial and technical resources for a drought-resilient future. Australia, Colombia, Italy and the Union of Comoros, together with the Commonwealth Secretariat and other major international organizations, are being announced at COP28 as IDRA’s latest members, bringing the Alliance’s total membership to 34 countries and 28 entities.

Additional highlights from the report:

Several findings in this report highlight land restoration, sustainable land management and nature positive agricultural practices as critical aspects of building global drought resilience. By adopting nature-positive farming techniques, such as drought-resistant crops, efficient irrigation methods, no-till and other soil conservation practices, farmers can reduce the impact of drought on their crops and incomes.

Efficient water management is another key component of global drought resilience. This includes investing in sustainable water supply systems, conservation measures and the promotion of water-efficient technologies.

Disaster preparedness and early warning systems are also essential for global drought resilience. Investing in meteorological monitoring, data collection and risk assessment tools can help respond quickly to drought emergencies and minimize impacts.  Building global drought resilience requires international cooperation, knowledge sharing as well as environmental and social justice.

“Several countries already experience climate-change-induced famine,” says the report.

“Forced migration surges globally; violent water conflicts are on the rise; the ecological base that enables all life on earth is eroding more quickly than at any time in known human history.”

“We have no alternative to moving forward in a way that respects the planet’s boundaries and the interdependencies of all forms of life. We need to reach binding global agreements for proactive measures that are to be taken by nations to curtail the spells of drought.”

“The less space the developed human world occupies, the more natural hydrological cycles will stay intact. Restoring, rebuilding and revitalizing all those landscapes that we degraded and destroyed is the imperative of our time. Urban intensification, active family planning, and curbing rapid population growth are

 

One Of The Largest Magnetic Storms In History Quantified: Aurorae Covered Much Of The Night Sky From The Tropics To The Polar Regions

November 30, 2023 Nagoya University

A Japanese auroral drawing showing an observation at Okazaki on 4 February 1872, as reproduced with courtesy of Shounji Temple (contrast enhanced)

In early November of this year, aurora borealis were observed at surprisingly low latitudes, as far south as Italy and Texas. Such phenomena indicate the impacts of a solar coronal mass ejection on the Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere. Far more dramatic than this recent light show was, it was nothing compared to a huge solar storm in February 872. The resulting auroral display from that event ringed the globe and produced auroras observed in sites as close to the equator as Bombay and Khartoum. An international team consisting of scientists from nine counties has now published a detailed study of this historically important event, tracing its solar origin and widespread terrestrial impacts. Telegraph communications were widely disrupted by this storm, but in today’s technologically dependent society, such a storm would disrupt power grids and satellite communications. Their findings confirm that such extreme storms are more common than previously thought.

In the modern world, we are increasingly dependent on technological infrastructure such as power grids, communication systems, and satellites. However, this dependency makes us increasingly vulnerable to the effects of large geomagnetic storms. “The longer the power supply could be cut off, the more society, especially those living in urban areas, will struggle to cope,” Designated Assistant Professor Hayakawa, the lead author of the study, explains. Such storms could be big enough to knock out the power grid, communication systems, airplanes, and satellites in the worst case. “Could we maintain our life without such infrastructure?” Hayakawa comments: “Well, let us just say that it would be extremely challenging.”

Such extreme storms are rare. In recent studies, two such storms stand out: the Carrington storm in September 1859 and the New York Railroad storm in May 1921. The new study suggests that another storm, the Chapman-Silverman storm in February 1872, should also be considered as one of these extreme events. At the time, the storm was big enough to affect the technological infrastructure even in the tropics. Telegraph communications on the submarine cable in the Indian Ocean between Bombay (Mumbai) and Aden were disrupted for hours. Similar disturbances were reported on the land line between Cairo and Khartoum.

The multidisciplinary team, consisting of 22 scientists, was led by Nagoya University in Japan (Hisashi Hayakawa), the US National Solar Observatory (Edward Cliver), and the Royal Observatory of Belgium (Frédéric Clette). The 22 researchers used historical records and modern techniques to assess the Chapman-Silverman storm from its solar origin to its terrestrial impacts. For the solar origin, the group turned to largely forgotten sunspot records from historical archives, especially Belgian and Italian records. For terrestrial impacts, they used geomagnetic field measurements recorded in places as diverse as Bombay (Mumbai), Tiflis (Tbilisi), and Greenwich to assess temporal evolution and storm intensity. They also examined hundreds of accounts of visual aurora in different languages caused by the storm.

One of the more interesting aspects of the 1872 storm was that it likely originated in a medium-sized, but complex, sunspot group near the solar disk centre as confirmed by analyses of solar records from Belgium and Italy. These findings suggest that even a medium-sized sunspot group triggered one of the most extreme magnetic storms in history.

Hayakawa and his colleagues extended their investigations of the historical aurorae by combing through records in libraries, archives, and observatories around the world. They identified more than 700 auroral records that indicated that the night sky was illuminated by magnificent auroral displays from the polar regions to the tropics (down to ≈ 20° in latitude in both hemispheres).

“Our findings confirm the Chapman-Silverman storm in February 1872 as one of the most extreme geomagnetic storms in recent history. Its size rivalled those of the Carrington storm in September 1859 and the NY Railroad storm in May 1921,” Hayakawa said. “This means that we now know that the world has seen at least three geomagnetic superstorms in the last two centuries. Space weather events that could cause such a major impact represent a risk that cannot be discounted.”

Hayakawa said: “Such extreme events are rare. On the one hand, we are fortunate to have missed such superstorms in the modern time. On the other hand, the occurrence of three such superstorms in 6 decades shows that the threat to modern society is real. Therefore, the preservation and analysis of historical records is important to assess, understand, and mitigate the impact of such events.”

Recent auroral displays have been observed from northern Greece and the northern US. Currently, the Sun is approaching the maximum of Solar Cycle 25, predicted to occur in 2025, and we may expect enhanced auroral activity in the coming years.