Nestlé investigated after admitting its mineral water underwent ‘purification’


Henry Samuel
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Nestlé Waters factory at Contrexeville in northeastern France - JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP

French prosecutors are investigating Nestlé after the Swiss food giant admitted to treating water for its top brands, including Perrier and Vittel, that supposedly comes straight from springs.

Mineral water is 100 times more expensive than tap water but is supposed to be “purer”, “healthier” and “better for you”.

But the investigation came after a government probe, reported on by Le Monde and Radio France, found that almost one in three mineral water brands in France undergo purification treatment supposed to be used only on tap water.


For years, bottlers have used illegal purification techniques for water labelled as “spring” and “natural mineral”, according to the joint investigation.

The French government has been aware of this since 2021 and in response, quietly eased regulations, it alleged.

The probe came after a complaint made by France’s regional health agencies, said Frédéric Nahon, a prosecutor.

Investigations “are still in progress, in particular to establish whether the label ‘natural’ mineral water is misleading or not,” he told AFP. Regional newspaper Vosges Matin said the investigation had been opened in January 2023.

Nestlé Waters said this week that it had passed some waters, such as Perrier and Vittel, through ultraviolet light and active carbon filters “to guarantee food safety”.

Nestlé said it “lost track of the importance of conforming to regulations” but that all the brands concerned now fulfilled French requirements.

Nestlé Waters said it had passed some waters such as Perrier through purification treatment ‘to guarantee food safety’ - BALINT PORNECZI/BLOOMBERG

French law – based on a European Union directive – prohibits the disinfection of mineral water, which is supposed to be of naturally high quality before bottling. Tap water, by contrast, is disinfected before being classed as drinkable.

Nestlé said there had been “changes in the environment around its sources, which can sometimes make it difficult to maintain stability of vital characteristics” in the water – namely the absence of pollution and mineral composition.

Since stopping the treatments, Nestlé has paused production at some wells in the Vosges department of eastern France because of their “sensitivity to climate hazards”, forcing it to slash production of Hepar and Contrex mineral waters.

In the report submitted to the government in July 2022, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) estimated that 30 per cent of French brands resort to non-compliant treatments. However, it added there was “no doubt” that figure “underestimates the phenomenon and that all mineral bottlers are concerned”.
‘Microbiological risks’

A government source told AFP: “No health risk linked to the quality of bottled water has so far been identified.”

But “it would not be prudent to conclude that health risks are completely under control, especially microbiological risks”, according to a passage from the IGAS report cited by Radio France.

Nestlé did not immediately make clear when it stopped treating water sold under the Perrier, Vittel, Hepar and Contrex brands.

Ingrid Kragl, information director of Food Watch, an NGO, told France Inter it would file a legal complaint for fraud.

“How is it that the French government, according to the investigation, was aware of this and that these products were marketed even though they were in breach of the regulations?,” she asked.

Britain plans ‘robocop’ force to protect nuclear sites with paint bombs


Jonathan Leake
Thu, 1 February 2024 

High-security nuclear site Sellafield contains more than 100 tonnes of plutonium - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Europe

Britain’s nuclear sites could soon be protected by a “robocop” style police force made up of AI-powered drones equipped with paint bombs and smoke guns.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which runs high-security nuclear sites such as Sellafield and Dounreay, wants to build a robotic police force to cut costs and boost security across sites containing radioactive waste.

It has offered £1.5m to security and defence companies for initial designs of a robotic defence system, with a view to commissioning a fully-fledged version in the future.


The NDA’s document for the project says that a key aim is to cut labour costs by reducing the number of armed police.

Currently, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary employs nearly 1,600 people, with its cost bill rising to £130m in 2022/23 – up from £110m in 2018.

The procurement document said: “The NDA covers 17 nuclear sites, 1,000 hectares of land and over 800 buildings. We are interested in innovative ways to ensure our sites remain safe and secure in a resource-constrained environment.”

A spokesman for the NDA confirmed the “roboforce” plans, claiming that police officers will be able to control the technology without being exposed to danger.

“They will be able to override the system, or investigate and deal with intruders from a control room,” the spokesman said.

A robotic dog, Spot, is already in use at Sellafield to detect radioactive waste

Security is a key issue for the NDA.

Its Sellafield site, the largest, contains more than 100 tonnes of plutonium and 81,000 cubic metres of high-level waste.

Such waste will remain toxic for centuries, meaning the NDA will face a growing security bill until the waste can be buried.

This has forced the Government agency to consider novel alternatives to human security.

Its procurement document said: “Security systems should consider devices that can be deployed from mobile platforms to deter or delay threat actors. This will buy time for responders and potentially aid any post-incident investigation.”

The systems could include drones or vehicles equipped to blast intruders with white noise, disorientate them with smoke or even target them with paint bombs.

The NDA also wants its roboforce to carry 360-degree cameras containing facial recognition technology that can spot abnormal behaviour.

Andrew Gray, the NDA’s innovation delivery manager, said: “Keeping our sites safe and secure is absolutely critical to delivering our mission in line with our regulatory obligations.

“We are continually seeking cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions to enable us to overcome the challenges we face in nuclear decommissioning, and deliver effectively and efficiently for the public.”

‘Certainly intimidation’: Louisiana sues EPA for emails of journalists and ‘Cancer Alley’ residents

Oliver Laughland for the Guardian and Delaney Nolan for the Intercept
Fri, 2 February 2024 

The Louisiana state capitol in Baton Rouge.Photograph: Stephen Smith/AP

Louisiana’s far-right government has quietly obtained hundreds of pages of communications between the Environmental Protection Agency and journalists, legal advocates and community groups focused on environmental justice. The rare use of public records law to target citizens is a new escalation in the state’s battle with the EPA over its examination of alleged civil rights violations in the heavily polluted region known as “Cancer Alley”.

Louisiana sued the EPA on 19 December, alleging that the federal agency had failed to properly respond to the state’s sprawling Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request sent by former state attorney general Jeff Landry.

Court filings note that the public records case is related to another, ongoing lawsuit brought against the EPA by Landry, a staunch advocate for the oil and gas industry who now serves as Louisiana’s governor. Shortly after Landry’s suit was filed, the EPA dropped its investigation into the Louisiana department of environmental quality’s permitting practices, which advocates say disproportionately impact Black residents in Cancer Alley.


News that the state has sought to obtain such an array of communications as part of its efforts prompted allegations of intimidation from many of the Black residents who were targeted. It has also raised press freedom concerns for media organizations included in the request, described by FOIA experts as extremely unusual.

“The Louisiana attorney general’s office protects industry more than they protect the people,” said Sharon Lavigne, a resident of St James parish who has long fought industrial proliferation in her community, and whose emails were targeted in the request. “Maybe that’s why they got all of these emails, just to see what we’re doing and to see how they can stop us.”

Landry filed the request on 29 June 2023, just one day after the EPA announced it was dropping its Cancer Alley civil rights investigation.

The request seeks all records since March 2021 regarding “environmental justice in Louisiana, the Industrial Corridor in Louisiana”, and “the area called Cancer Alley”. It lists six advocates by name, all of whom are Black, as well as the organizations Rise St James, The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and several other community and law groups who have represented Cancer Alley residents.

Due to the expansive nature of the request, the EPA said it would take more than a year to locate and provide all the records. Louisiana then sued to compel the agency to move more quickly.

The Louisiana attorney general’s office declined to answer questions from the Guardian and the Intercept over why it had requested such information, but filings in its FOIA lawsuit accuse the EPA of “prodigiously leaking information to the press” and allowing environmental advocacy groups to hold undue influence on decisions.

An environmental law group said the AG’s accusations of external influence were hypocritical, noting that Landry’s office previously hired petrochemical lawyers to represent the state in its negotiations with the EPA. Those same lawyers were simultaneously representing one of the companies at the center of the EPA’s civil rights investigation, the Taiwanese petrochemical giant Formosa.

Landry’s request specifically seeks records containing mention of Formosa, as well as the Japanese firm Denka. Both companies are at the heart of ongoing campaigns and litigation in the region. Lavigne’s group, Rise St James, has been instrumental in thus far stopping Formosa from building a massive, multibillion dollar plastics plant in their parish. A Louisiana appeals court recently reinstated Formosa’s air permits, overturning a 2022 ruling.

The request also asks for emails with national and local media including MSNBC, the Washington Post and the Advocate, specifying nine journalists by name.

The co-author of this article, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland, was one of the named journalists. “We are deeply concerned by what appears to be an attempt to intimidate journalists and interfere with their ability to report on alarming matters of environmental injustice – in particular, the dangerous toxicity of air in predominantly Black areas of Louisiana,” said Guardian US general counsel Kai Falkenberg.

“FOIA is an essential tool for informing the public on the workings of government, but in this case, we’re concerned that the state of Louisiana is abusing that law to prevent reporters from engaging in newsgathering on matters of public interest to readers in Louisiana and around the world.”

The EPA declined to answer questions from the Guardian and the Intercept, citing litigation, but it provided the 940 pages of documents already handed to the Louisiana justice department. Further releases are scheduled for 2 February.

The documents, many of which were heavily redacted, contain typical requests for comment from several journalists, internal EPA discussions over drafting and scheduling, and EPA exchanges with environmental lawyers and nonprofits, including a list of the attendees at a meeting of leading Cancer Alley advocates.

•••

Public records law in the US dictates that, with certain exemptions, communications by or with local, state and federal employees must be made available to the public. The law is intended to preserve government transparency.

David Cuillier, director of the Freedom of Information Project, said that requests for communications between the government and citizens – including journalists – are not uncommon. But those requests are typically made by other journalists, law groups, or members of the public – not state governments.

“It’s totally weird and rare for a government agency to request, one, records from another agency, and, two, all the communications about these advocates and citizens and journalists,” Cuillier said.

Bill Quigley, long-time director of Loyola University’s law clinic, also noted that “it is not at all common for states to sue the federal government over FOIA disputes”.

In a previous survey, Cuillier and his colleague found that only about 2% of public records requests are made by another government agency. Cuillier argued it would be in the best interests of Louisiana’s department of justice to be transparent over the FOIA’s purpose. Otherwise, he said, it gives the appearance that the state is “spying on political opponents”.

An environmental group likewise said that the requests, while lawful, would have a chilling effect on local advocates’ efforts – including those not specifically named by the request. The group, which asked not to be named, suggested the records request is an attempt to shift the narrative, framing the EPA as suspect, rather than polluters themselves.

Robert Taylor, an 83-year-old lifelong resident of St John parish who leads an advocacy organization in Cancer Alley, one of the most polluted communities in the US, said it was “frightening” and “horrible” to know the state government had targeted his emails.

“It’s certainly intimidation. What other reason could there be for it?” Taylor said.

Louisiana’s lawsuit against the EPA’s Cancer Alley investigation is continuing and expected to advance to the supreme court. In a recent hearing, Judge James D Cain, appointed by former president Donald Trump, rejected the EPA’s motion to dismiss and appears ready to side with Louisiana, citing “the whims of the EPA and its overarching mandate”. Cain, who is also presiding over Louisiana’s FOIA lawsuit, issued a ruling on 23 January temporarily blocking the EPA from enforcing some aspects of civil rights law in Louisiana.

Troy Carter, Louisiana’s lone Democrat in Congress whose district includes the Cancer Alley region, urged the state government to drop both lawsuits against the EPA and its pursuit of records.

“This would remove any need for these citizens’ private conversations with the government to be disclosed,” Carter said. “The first amendment protects the right to free speech. The government should not have any appearance of targeting private individuals in a manner that could inhibit freedom.”

This article was published in partnership with the Intercept

UK
Tory donor’s oil and gas company given North Sea licence after £150,000 fine

Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu, 1 February 2024 

Just Stop Oil campaigners protesting against the offshore licensing bill in Parliament Square in January.Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

An oil and gas company owned by a major Tory donor, which has been fined for illegal flaring, has been awarded a licence to drill for fossil fuels by the government.

This week, the government granted the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea. One of the licences was given to EnQuest Heather, a subsidiary of EnQuest.

Campaigners have criticised ministers for rewarding “reckless and polluting behaviour”, pointing out that EnQuest was fined £150,000 in 2022 by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for flaring an excess 262 tonnes of gas on the Magnus field between 30 November and 1 December 2021, despite knowing that it did not have the necessary consent in place.

The campaigners also point out that since 2013, the EnQuest chief executive, Amjad Bseisu, has donated £480,721.40 to the Conservative party in cash and in kind.

The recent round of North Sea licences has been controversial. The government argues that producing more oil there will “bolster energy security, reducing the UK’s reliance on imports from hostile foreign regimes such as Russia”, and that it is part of a “pragmatic” approach to the transition to net zero. The North Sea Transition Authority argues that the licenses “will help to ensure job security and provide benefits to the local and wider economy”.

It said: “The round is a key part of the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA) drive to support the oil and gas industry, which currently contributes around three-quarters of domestic energy needs and, according to official forecasts, will continue to do so even as demand is reduced.”

But the Climate Change Committee and other energy experts have warned that no new oil and gas licences should be given if climate catastrophe is to be averted. The Labour party has pledged that it would not grant any new oil and gas licences if in power.

Flaring is a controversial process as it burns excess fossil fuels, so is unnecessarily polluting. It is a cheap method of disposing of the associated gas that comes from oil production, and is banned by countries including Norway but allowed in certain circumstances by the UK.

The Good Law Project’s legal director, Emma Dearnaley, said: “The government’s backing of a North Sea oil and gas extravaganza to help corporations and a wealthy few make huge profits instead of investing in cheaper and greener energy sources will come at huge cost to our environment and our economy. Do ministers think this a price worth paying just to keep their party donors happy?”

Greenpeace UK’s senior climate campaigner, Philip Evans, said: “You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Tory party might have an agenda when dishing out these new oil and gas licences. And since more oil and gas will only intensify the climate crisis, destroy lives and livelihoods around the world, and won’t even lower bills or make the UK more energy secure, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the government maybe doesn’t have our best interests at heart. But when those who are awarded the licences have a track record of reckless and polluting behaviour like breaching flaring rules all while bankrolling the Conservative government, of course eyebrows are going to be raised.”

There are other methods to deal with excess natural gas, for example by capturing it so it is not wastefully burned, polluting the atmosphere for no reason.

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “EnQuest and the other companies that have been granted new exploration licences are betting that the world will fail to tackle climate change and that the demand for fossil fuels will stay high.

“Successful global climate policy would mean demand will fall and the international market prices for oil and gas will drop. The relatively high operating costs in the North Sea mean that oil and gas production is unprofitable when market prices are low.

“That is why these operators need British consumers to continue to pay high prices for oil and gas, and why they prefer to vent and flare natural gas rather than make additional investments in the infrastructure to capture it instead. It is the economics of an industry that is awash with customers’ money and finds it difficult to abandon inefficient, wasteful and polluting practices.”

EnQuest and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have been contacted for comment.

MDMA 'outperforms' expectations in trial as medicine for PTSD

BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Mon, 29 January 2024 

MDMA could soon be used as a medicine, researchers say (Getty)

MDMA is better known as the dancefloor hallucinogen Ecstasy, but it may have important uses as a medicine, a new study has shown.

The research found that - when paired with therapy - MDMA significantly outperformed therapy alone when it came to dealing with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

The difference was particularly stark when it came to people dealing with traumas from early childhood, which are especially hard to deal with through therapy.


The researchers said: "MDMA may be particularly effective for enhancing treatment efficacy by improving a range of problems with self-experience that are associated with treatment resistance."

In particular, the drug may be able to help patients who have been traumatised during childhood confront their issues and deal with problems such as alexithymia - an inability to recognise emotions.

The study found people who took MDMA responded better to therapy. (Getty)

The researchers added: "Even though the MDMA-assisted therapy experimental sessions often occurred in relative silence as participants focus largely on their inner experience, MDMA-assisted therapy was associated with a significant improvement in emotional self-awareness and loss of alexithymia.

"This suggests that MDMA-assisted therapy can facilitate accessing painful memories and experiences that under ordinary conditions are too overwhelming and terrifying to confront, even in the presence of trained therapists."
Recommended reading

Scientists may have found how LSD treats mental illness (Daily Beast)


LSD might be good for us (Esquire)


Here's what LSD does inside your brain (Yahoo News)

How did the study work?

Speaking to Vox, researcher Bessel Van derk Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, Brain Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, said he was initially reluctant to include people with childhood trauma in the study.

In the end, the study, which aims to legitimise the use of MDMA-assisted therapy, included 84% people with early childhood trauma.

The subjects were split into two groups, one of which had therapy, and one which had 36 hours of MDMA-assisted therapy.

Van der Kolk said: "We had the best outcome data here with MDMA that I’ve ever seen for any study."
Can psychedelic drugs really treat illnesses?

Research has shown that certain psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin (the ingredient in magic mushrooms) and MDMA can have an impact on problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

On LSD, the picture is less clear.

A small trial in 2018, funded by the Beckley Foundation and led by the 'first lady of LSD', Amanda Feilding, the Countess of Wemyss and March, saw 20 volunteers take the drug and fill in psychological questionnaires.

Feilding said: "I took it in the 1960s when it was legal and it improved my wellbeing."

A systematic review of studies into LSD in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2020 found that the drug was a "potential therapeutic agent", with the strongest evidence around using LSD to treat alcoholism.
Will MDMA really be legal a medicine?

In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration awarded the drug 'breakthrough status', so it could be fast-tracked as a potential treatment.

MDMA is often illegally sold on the street. (Getty)

Studies have shown that patients with PTSD – where it's difficult to deal with painful memories – can overcome their traumas, long-term, with the aid of MDMA.

Several successful trials have shown the drug's potential with PTSD, and some believe approval could come this year.

Anglican leader calls UK Rwanda migrants plan 'damaging'

Peter HUTCHISON
Mon, 29 January 2024 

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the government's Rwanda bill leads Britain down "a damaging path" (JUSTIN TALLIS)

The leader of the world's Anglicans on Monday warned that the UK government's plan to send migrants to Rwanda was leading the nation down a "damaging path", as he waded into the highly charged political issue.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the controversial plan of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government would "outsource our legal and moral responsibilities for refugees and asylum seekers".

He made the comments during a debate in parliament's unelected upper chamber the House of Lords, which is scrutinising the government's Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.


"With this bill, the government is continuing to seek good objectives in the wrong way, leading the nation down a damaging path," said Welby, who is the highest-ranking cleric in the Church of England, the mother church of global Anglicanism.

The legislation aims to combat irregular immigration by deporting asylum seekers to the east African country.

Sunak has put the plan at the centre of his pledge to "stop the boats" of migrants crossing the Channel from northern France in flimsy and ill-suited vessels.

The bill is his answer to a UK Supreme Court ruling late last year that deporting asylum seekers to Kigali is illegal under international law.

If passed, the legislation would compel judges to treat Rwanda as a safe third country.

It would also give UK ministers powers to disregard sections of international and British human rights legislation.

Welby, one of 26 senior Church of England bishops and archbishops who sit as the Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, said the bill was damaging for asylum seekers in need of protection and safe legal routes.

He added that it was also damaging for Britain's "reputation" in relation to international law.

"Worst of all, it is damaging for our nation's unity in a time when the greatest issues of war, peace, defence and security need us to be united," the archbishop said.

- Selective -

Welby said the legislation offers "only ad hoc one-off approaches" and that Britain "can as a nation do better than this bill".

He warned that Britain might face 10 times the number of migrants in the coming decades and called for a "wider strategy" for refugee policy, involving international co-operation.

"This bill continues, wherever it does it, to outsource our legal and moral responsibilities for refugees and asylum seekers, with other countries far poorer already supporting multitudes more than we are now and to cut back on our aid," Welby added.

Sunak, who faces a general election later this year that he is widely predicted to lose, has urged the House of Lords to pass the plan.

He claimed it was the "will of the people" after the legislation cleared the elected House of Commons earlier this month.

But peers, which include former senior judges, have expressed deep unease, particularly about the scheme's calls to ignore international human rights and refugee law.

Welby said that "pick-and-choose approach" to international law "undermines" the UK's standing in the world.

The legislation is expected to pass the second reading stage on Monday but peers may vote for amendments at the crucial third reading later.

Last week, the Lords voted to delay ratification of a related treaty with Rwanda.

pdh/phz/rox

New anti-Ukraine disinfo campaign aims to bog down Western media


Théo MARIE-COURTOIS
Mon, 29 January 2024 

This online disinformation campaign blamed on Russia involves not just the spreading of anti-Ukrainian fake news but also challenges Western media outlets to verify it (SEBASTIEN BOZON)

A message on X asked a major French channel to verify what seemed to be a Deutsche Welle report about a Ukrainian artist who "sawed down the Eiffel Tower."

"I see these kind of stories every day. Official media don't talk about them, what should I believe?" "Kathe" asked BFMTV on December 4.

But this was no innocent question, this was part of an online disinformation campaign blamed on Russia that involves not just the spreading of anti-Ukrainian false news, but also challenges Western media outlets to verify it.


It first appeared in September, and is a "vast enterprise of diversion" targeting journalists, experts say.

It is seemingly part of Russia's war on Ukraine, almost two years on since Moscow launched an invasion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The "Antibot4Navalny" collective that tracks inauthentic Russian-language accounts on X, formerly Twitter, has christened this new disinformation campaign, operation "Matryoshka", after the Russian stacking dolls that are placed one inside another.

In the space of a few hours, "Kathe" had also contacted dozens of other major French media such as Paris Match, FranceInfo, Le Figaro and Le Parisien.

The X account then remained inactive for two weeks before publishing a picture of graffiti, purportedly from Los Angeles and depicting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as a homeless person begging.

Subsequently, another X user asked various media to verify it.

The "Antibot4Navalny" collective trackers provided information that allowed AFP to identify scores of accounts that were also asking media to verify false stories.

The accounts AFP identified mostly appeared to have been dormant and then pirated.

These accounts posted frequently, sometimes as often as once per minute, in a tell-tale sign of false behaviour.

AFP analysis found that accounts requesting media to verify false news subsequently re-published them soon afterwards.

- 'Diversion for fact-checkers' -

Posts that are part of this campaign always target Ukrainians and attempt to foster the idea that Europe and the United States are weary of Kyiv.

Examples include thefts from the Paris catacombs by a Ukrainian, military aid misappropriated by Ukraine, doctored or fake graffiti of Zelensky, false adverts on New York's Times Square.

Most of these images were first posted by Russian users, generally on the Telegram social media platform and news blogs, according to AFP research.

This campaign followed in the wake of another in recent months called "Doppelganger", which consisted of posting anti-Ukraine fake images that impersonated Western media.

French Intelligence services attributed that to Russia, experts told AFP.

David Chavalarias, director of the French scientific research centre CNRS, said this campaign is about "diversion for fact-checkers" in order to keep them "occupied on crude subjects (that are) difficult to verify".

This campaign can also give visibility to false information, said Chavalarias.

"The goal seems to be to capture the attention of fact-checkers in order to interfere with their work," said researcher Julien Nocetti, who specialises in cyber issues.

He added that the objective also seemed to be to generate more long-term effects on the narrative of the war by testing the ability of certain content to go viral.

The Russians are learning "and there is a type of agility in testing different methods," he added.

A French security source told AFP that Russia is "looking for visibility, they want us to talk about them, for better or for worse".

- 'Battle of narratives' -

The same bots that took part in the "Doppleganger" campaign also shared anti-Ukrainian posts as part of the "Matryoshka" operation.

A December 2023 report by Insikt Group, the threat research division of US cybersecurity company Recorded Future, indicated that the "Doppleganger" campaign was still highly active on social media, using at least 800 bots dedicated to promoting fake news impersonating Ukrainian media.

According to German press last week, Germany has uncovered a vast "pro-Russian disinformation campaign" using thousands of fake X accounts to publish anti-Ukraine content alongside the visuals of German media.

"Ukraine continues to be the country most often targeted by information manipulation -- not by accident," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last week during a press conference about disinformation and foreign interference.

"We are engaging on a 'battle of narratives'," he added. "Security is no longer just a matter of weaponry... It is a matter of information.:

jma-tmc/jc/lpt/dth/bc/jm

Spanish Catholics denounce ‘offensive’ Jesus poster

Our Foreign Staff
Mon, 29 January 2024 

The image was scorned on social media for being 'effeminate'

 - ALVARO LEFLET/AFP

A poster of Jesus to promote Easter week in Seville has drawn a backlash from Spanish ultra-conservatives, who denounced it as “effeminate” and “offensive” to Roman Catholics.

Designed by Seville artist Salustiano Garcia, the image shows Jesus after his resurrection, standing semi-naked in front of a blood-red background, with the lower part of his body covered by a white cloth.

It shows “the radiant side of Holy Week” in the “purest style of this prestigious painter”, said the Council of Brotherhoods and Guilds, which organises the main Easter week events in the Andalusian city.


In a social media backlash, however, many denounced the poster as “sexualised”.

“It’s absolutely shameful and an aberration,” wrote the ultra-conservative Catholic IPSE, which fosters “respect for Christian symbols” and is active in opposing abortion.
‘Not in the spirit of Holy Week’

The image portrayed Jesus as “effeminate” and “camp”, it said, demanding a public apology from the artist for a poster that was not in the spirit of Holy Week.

Javier Navarro of the far-Right Vox party, joined the chorus of disapproval, saying the poster “sought to provoke” and did not advance the aim of “encouraging the faithful to participate in Holy Week in Seville” in remarks on X, formerly Twitter.

Garcia told the Right-wing ABC newspaper that his portrayal of Jesus, which was based on an image of his son, was “gentle, elegant and beautiful” and created with “deep respect”.

Spanish artist Salustiano Garcia poses for a photograph next to his painting - CRISTINA QUICLER

“To see sexuality in my image of Christ, you must be mad,” he said, insisting there was “nothing” in his painting that “has not already been represented in artworks dating back hundreds of years”.

‘Homophobia and hatred’

Juan Espadas, leader of Spain’s ruling Socialist party in the Andalusia region, came to the defence of the artwork, denouncing the “expressions of homophobia and hatred” that it had caused, and saying it combined the region’s “tradition and modernity”.

Holy Week celebrations, which recall the death and resurrection of Christ, are important in Catholic Spain, notably in Seville, which is seen as the centre of such festivities.

Spain legalised homosexuality in 1976, three years after Franco’s dictatorship ended, and is one of the world’s most open countries with respect to LGBTQ rights, permitting same-sex marriage and allowing gay couples to adopt since 2005.

James Webb Space Telescope images show 19 nearby spiral galaxies in detail

Nina Massey, PA Science Correspondent
Mon, 29 January 2024

A treasure trove of images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showcases 19 spiral galaxies in never-before-seen detail.

The new set of pictures show stars, gas, and dust on the smallest scales observed.

Researchers are studying the images to uncover the origins and evolution of the intricate structures.

Following each of the galaxy’s clearly defined arms – which are brimming with stars – to their centres may reveal old star clusters and maybe even active supermassive black holes.

Webb’s image of NGC 1087(Nasa/Esa/CSA/STScI/J Lee [STScI]/T Williams[Oxford]/R Chandar [UToledo]/PHANGS Team/PA)


The newly released images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) programme, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide.

Webb’s near-infrared camera (NirCam) captured millions of stars which sparkle in blue tones in the images.Some are spread throughout the spiral arms but others are clumped tightly together in star clusters.

The telescope’s mid-infrared instrument (Miri) data highlights glowing dust and also spotlights stars that have not yet fully formed; they are still encased in the gas and dust that feed their growth, like bright red seeds at the tips of dusty peaks.

Astronomers were amazed to discover the images also show large, spherical shells in the gas and dust which may have been created by exploded stars.

Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope launched into space and is an international partnership between Nasa, the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Murder, drugs, violent loyalty – inside Japan’s feared yakuza

Jake Kerridge
Mon, 29 January 2024 

Yakuza members show off their tattoos at a Shinto festival in Tokyo - Jiangang Wang

The American journalist Jake Adelstein has spent decades in Japan exposing the secrets of organised crime gangs. Anybody who has read his 2009 book Tokyo Vice, or seen the 2022 HBO television series based on it, won’t be surprised to know that there are people after his blood.

Prior to Tokyo Vice coming out, Adelstein thought it would be prudent to hire a bodyguard, and he asked Makoto Saigo, a retired yakuza – the term for a member of one of the crime syndicates that used to dominate Japan – to take on the job. Saigo agreed, on one condition: that Adelstein write his biography. “I want my [baby] son to know who I was and what I did [and] I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see him grow up.”

The Last Yakuza is the resulting book, although some of the biographical details have been merged with those of other yakuza to protect the identity of the man Adelstein calls “Saigo”. Only Adelstein knows how much of a composite Saigo is: he certainly emerges from these pages as a bizarre mixture of erratic, honourable, tough and hapless.


Born around 1960, Saigo was a large youth who “towered over his classmates like a bear among deer” at school. He “became a yakuza… because he didn’t like strait-laced Japanese society”. There was also the matter of his taste for upmarket sex-workers, which left him with debts of 60 million yen (then around $60,000) when he was barely out of his teens. Only joining the Inagawa-kai, the third-most powerful yakuza group in Japan, protected him from the loan-sharks.

Saigo’s career was chequered. A spell as a methamphetamine addict saw him convicted of possession in the early 1980s, and landed him in one of Japan’s hellish prisons. “You lost your human rights the second you walked in here” was the greeting he received from the guards. It also nearly saw him expelled from the Inagawa-kai; but he redeemed himself sufficiently after his release from prison to become leader of an Inagawa-kai subset of 150 men.

Jake Adelstein, author of The Last Yakuza

Saigo’s dodgy schemes could be ingenious. When he wanted to secure a loan without collateral, he ordered his men to turn up at a local bank, each bringing a cat: they proceeded to tease the cats, the noise driving all the customers away, until the manager agreed to Saigo’s demands. At heart, though, Saigo was a softie, and when the bank manager lost his job as a result, Saigo gave him five million yen. (He had also insisted that any yakuza who hurt one of the cats would be docked a day’s pay.)

In Saigo’s heyday, the yakuza saw themselves as part of the community: they demanded protection payments from local businesses, but as they were effective in seeing off petty criminals, they were thought to be worth the money. Different Yakuza gangs fought each other, but their code forbade them from harming ordinary people, and they didn’t indulge in the vulgar American gangster habit of carrying guns. Saigo was content, if he was attacked, to see off his enemies with whatever came to hand, such as (in one instance) a “For Sale” sign. Anti-yakuza laws were passed, but the police didn’t see much point in enforcing them.

Adelstein shows how much these gangs depended on rituals and hierarchies as much as any other sector of Japanese society. Once, Saigo was obliged to cut off his own little finger to satisfy a debt owed by one of his men: Adelstein makes this solemn deed into one of the book’s excellent comic set-pieces, as he describes Saigo hopelessly hacking at his pinkie, rejecting his wife’s offer of a sticking plaster with a cartoon frog on it, and then visiting the creditor and chucking the mangled lump of gristle into his coffee.

The Last Yakuza is set in the Japanese underworld - Greg Nicod

As well as telling Saigo’s story, Adelstein gives us a potted history of the yakuza, and how they survived by keeping politicians in their pockets. He’s unimpressed with the latter: “I’ve come to feel that the only difference between Japan’s [ruling] Liberal Democratic Party and the yakuza [is that] some of the yakuza have a code of ethics”. He’s a serial info-dumper: when Saigo gets a tattoo, Adelstein launches into half a dozen pages’ worth of the history of Japanese tattooing. But what he tells us is always interesting, whether or not it’s pertinent, and he always keeps the human story of Saigo’s triumphs and travails in focus, however large his canvas becomes. His deadpan prose proves well-suited not just to the story’s comic aspects, but also its pathos.

Even when Saigo was young, he already seemed old-fashioned in his devotion to the old yakuza codes – apart from the bit that forbade drug use. The generations that came after him, from the early 1990s on, were greedier, more reckless, more trigger-happy. The police began to enforce the laws that forbade people from paying the yakuza protection: unable to bring in funds, Saigo was expelled from the Inagawa-kai. Yet the yakuza habit proved more difficult to shake off than the drug addiction, and the end of the book finds Saigo, to Adelstein’s dismay, seeking a way to return to his old life.

Adelstein makes the appropriate tut-tutting noises when he writes about the harm that the yakuza have caused over the years, and insists that he doesn’t want to romanticise them. Even so, the main effect of The Last Yakuza is to make one nostalgic for a time when criminals had standards of decency. One comes away from it finding Saigo not just sympathetic, but even lovable.

The Last Yakuza is published by Corsair at £25. To order your copy for £19.99, call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books