If Biden is to Keep From Losing the Election He Needs to Stop the Middle East War

BY NICK LICATA

 FEBRUARY 15, 2024
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair

Democrats must realize that despite keeping our troops out of Gaza, the longer the Israeli-Hamas War continues, the more the public will see the Israeli-Hamas War as President Joe Biden’s War. Even though the U.S. is only one of ten governments that support Israel in the war against Hamas, we are by far the most significant foreign funder of Israel’s military.

Under President Barack Obama, we established a ten-year commitment to provide $3.8 billion annually for Israel’s military and missile defense systems. Both Democrats and Republicans immediately wanted to send additional billions more to Israel after October 7.

Biden requested at least $14.3 billion in further military assistance to Israel. House Republicans countered by wanting to provide Israel with $17 billion without any funds allocated to Ukraine. Both bills failed to pass the House.

Not only did both parties quickly jump to support Israel, but an October 11th poll showed two-thirds of Americans also supported Israel.

Still, support for Israel started splintering. According to data collected by an academic project, the Crowd Counting Consortium, within ten days of October 7, there were 180,000 demonstrators, with roughly 270 events in solidarity with Israel and 200 in support of Palestine.

As Israel started bombing civilian housing and hospitals in Gaza to flush out Hamas fighters, the United Nations reported that 1.9 million Gazans had been internally displaced, with more than 1 million of them lacking a safe and secure home.

Consequently, the polls saw younger voters between 18 and 34, who are generally Democratic voters, disapproving of Biden’s handling of the war by an estimated 70%.
With Biden still refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire in the war, angry protestors started showing up at his campaign rallies.

In January, anti-war protestors interrupted more than a dozen times while Biden tried to address democratic voters in Virginia. The next day, he was repeatedly interrupted again at his endorsement rally held by the United Auto Workers.

Worse yet for Biden, he began to feel the squeeze from both sides of the political spectrum. The left was attacking Biden for not cutting military aid to Israel as their army was creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The right was demanding that he directly retaliate against Iran’s proxy paramilitary groups. They were attacking U.S. troops in the Middle East to punish America for not calling a halt to Israel’s Gaza invasion.

Biden’s troubles began when he abandoned his usually cautious diplomatic approach to conducting foreign affairs and gave a pass to Israel to bombard and then invade Gaza. Biden called Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu on October 7,saying his support for Israel is “rock solid” and America stood “ready to offer all appropriate means of support.”

Previously, he criticized Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Believing that Netanyahu was trying to gut Israel’s independent judiciary to favor Israel’s fundamentalist factions, Biden had dodged meeting with Netanyahu for months.

More importantly, Biden’s administration warned Netanyahu that their plans to expand their settlements in the West Bank by 13,000 new housing units undermined the viability of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Then he
blamed the right-wing members of Netanyahu’s cabinet for justifying Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.

Netanyahu ignored these comments and announced that his government opposed any two-state solution that Biden and most past administrations had endorsed.

With Netanyahu’s right-wing party in complete control of Israel’s war plans, Biden has disappointed many American liberals, youth, and minorities. They see him as enabling Israel’s invasion and subsequent destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and the deaths of over 10,000 children.

Offering Netanyahu’s administration unqualified support has checked his ability or willingness to restrain Israel’s massive military response. Netanyahu ignores any restraint or concerns about civilian casualties voiced by Biden.

Unable to influence Israel, Biden has appeared as an ineffective and weak leader to his supporters, the American public, and world leaders. And one that he is too old to continue as president.  A characterization that conforms perfectly to Trump’s campaign message.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s National Security Minister, Ben Gvir, leader of Jewish Power, a far-right political party, belittles Biden. In a Wall Street Journal interview, Gvir accused the Biden administration of benefitting Hamas more than Israel.

Gvir said, “Instead of giving us his full backing, [President Joe] Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel, which goes to Hamas; if Trump were in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”

Netanyahu seems to share Gvir’s view when he says, “As a sovereign state fighting for its existence and future, we will make our decisions by ourselves.” Note that Netanyahu’s administration would fall without Jewish Power’s support as a coalition member in the government.

Netanyahu is counting on Republicans to push Biden to hit Iran and the military groups it funds, referred to as Iran’s Axis of Resistance, which surround Israel. Israel expects that the U.S. attacking these groups should diminish their ability to harm Israel directly.

Iran claims that they don’t control their proxy militaries, and Middle East analysts acknowledge that Iran does not necessarily have complete control over their actions. However, Iran helped create some, like Hezbollah, and provides arms to all of them. In addition, some are closely linked to Iran ‘s Revolutionary Guards, which have an estimated 125,000-strong military, making it the Middle East’s largest Muslim army.

What began as Biden supporting Israel’s self-defense is transforming into a regional warfare between the U.S. and Iran-backed hardline fundamentalist armed groups. Looming on the horizon is a direct exchange of firepower between Iran and the U.S.

Iran and its allied para-military groups not only oppose Israel’s existence but, more immediately, the current stationing of our 30,000 troops in this Muslim-controlled region. After October 7, Iran’s proxies moved from scattered confrontations to direct attacks on our troops and warships.

In early January, Yemen’s Houthi militants fired several powerful Russian anti-ship missiles at U.S. destroyers in the Red Sea. Fortunately, they were destroyed before hitting the ships. Given that since Oct. 7, there have been 160 drone attacks against American soldiers and allies in the Middle East, American soldier fatalities would seem to be inevitable.

As a result, a paramilitary group attacked a remote U.S. military outpost on January 28 in northeastern Jordan, killing three army reservists and injuring at least 34 others.

The media widely and wrongly declared that these three deaths marked the first time U.S. soldiers have died as a direct result of an armed attack by an Iran-backed paramilitary group.

Republican leaders demanded retribution. Senator Lindsey Graham said, “I am calling on the Biden Administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran.” Graham told Fox News that the Biden should blow up their oil fields and Revolutionary Guard headquarters in Iran to deter its future aggression toward our troops.

The most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, said: “We must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its proxies by striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership.”

Partisanship made Graham and Wicker forget that during President Ronald Reagan’s Administration, 241 American soldiers were killed in Lebanon in October 1983 by Hezbollah, founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

At that time, Republicans refrained from advising Reagan to take the provocative actions that Senators Graham and Wicker now want Biden to embrace. Nevertheless, Biden is blamed for skirting military reprisals as cuddling Iran, ignoring that a direct attack on Iran would likely lead our current ground troops into combat.

Trump recognizes that Biden has only a narrow path to exert a peaceful solution. Like Richard Nixon, who campaigned and won against Hubert Humphry in 1968, Trump can present himself as the only candidate who can end the war favorably for the US and Israel.

Using Nixon as a role model, he also will not present a plan because he doesn’t need one. He need only accuse Biden of making mistakes and boast that he would not make them as a president.

Biden faces an uphill battle to win a second term. He must get Democrats to accept that he is being fair to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. And convince independents that he can keep our nation out of war.

To win back fallen-away Democrats to win the presidency, he needs to seriously pressure Netanyahu’s administration to abandon their unrealistic goal of permanently eliminating Hamas.

Israel’s strategy of eradicating fundamentalist militant groups failed miserably when Israel invaded Lebanon in October 1982 to destroy the PLO. The year after PLO was kicked out of the country, Hezbollah took control over southern Lebanon.

Israel killing thousands of innocent Gaza residents is only going to lead to future wars with the survivors of this war. And it could drag the U.S. deeper into the Middle East quagmire of fighting on multiple fronts in a guerilla type of warfare.

Biden can learn from the past presidents who have supported Israel as a nation-state in the Middle East but who had a firm and fair hand in avoiding an unlimited commitment to actions that do not directly serve our interests.

President Harry S. Truman conferred recognition on the State of Israel after it declared independence in May 1948, but he didn’t provide military assistance to Israel. A situation now that is unthinkable by both Democrats and Republican Parties.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was able to force Israel to return the Sinai to Egypt after Israel captured it in a war between them due to Egypt blockading a key Israel seaport.

In November 1966, when the Israelis attacked the West Bank, President Lyndon B. Johnson had the U.S. vote for a United Nations Resolution condemning Israel’s action. He then sent an emergency airlift of military equipment to Jordan. The message to Israel was that the U.S. was not going to let Israel determine our foreign policy.

President Jimmy Carter brokered the 1978 Camp David Accords after he sequestered Egypt’s President and Israel’s Prime Minister at Camp David for two weeks to reach an agreement ending three decades of intermittent war between them.
President Ronald Reagan approved Israel invading Lebanon in 1982 to destroy the PLO for attacking northern Israel. Reagan’s pyrrhic victory cost between 17,000 and 40,000 Palestinian and Lebanese lives. The day after Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah killed over two hundred U.S. Marines, Reagan said that our soldiers “must stay there until the situation is under control.”
In February 1983, he said, “If we’re to be secure in our homes and in the world, we must stand together against those who threaten us.” Just three days later, Reagan ordered Marines to pull out of Lebanon, with a complete withdrawal achieved in three weeks. Israel continues to exist, along with Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite Reagan removing all U.S. military from that country.
Past presidents had to make hard decisions on what was best for the U.S. over that of any ally, including Israel. Successful experiences show they can support a secure Israel rather than an aggressive one. That is a lesson that Biden must learn from former presidents.

Biden belatedly took a small step by sanctioning non-American West Bank Israeli settlers from terrorizing their Palestinian neighbors. However, it was a gesture lost in the massive media coverage of thousands of innocent children killed by Israel bombing their homes in search of Hamas.

Biden can achieve his goal of America defending Israel’s right to exist and working with Palestinians to create a democratic, self-ruled state. To do so, he should take advice from Netanyahu: make decisions that are best for your nation and not just for your allies.

As a democratic society, we benefit by promoting the welfare of other societies and not contributing to their destruction, which will generate more violent conflicts for future generations. Biden should articulate that principle in his campaign and with his actions as president. Thus, he can force Trump to say how he intends to end the Israeli–Hamas war and not perpetuate U.S. involvement in Middle East wars.

Nick Licata is author of Becoming A Citizen Activist, and has served 5 terms on the Seattle City Council, named progressive municipal official of the year by The Nation, and is founding board chair of Local Progress, a national network of 1,000 progressive municipal officials.

 

22 Arab nations at UN demand immediate ceasefire in Gaza

• 15 Feb 2024

Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated a draft resolution.

Twenty-two Arab countries at the United Nations are urging the UN Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and unhindered humanitarian assistance, and to prevent any transfer of Palestinians out of the territory.

The Arab Group chair this month, Tunisia’s UN Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, told UN reporters on Wednesday that some 1.5 million Palestinians who sought safety in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah face a "catastrophic scenario” if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with a potential evacuation of civilians and military offensive in the area bordering Egypt.

Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated a draft resolution about two weeks ago demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access, apart from rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, which has been the subject of intense discussions.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week that the resolution could jeopardise "sensitive negotiations” aimed at achieving a pause in the Israel-Hamas war and release of some hostages taken during Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said on Wednesday that there is "massive support” for the resolution and Arab diplomats have had "very frank discussions” with the US ambassador, trying to get American support.

"We believe that it is high time now for the Security Council to decide on a humanitarian ceasefire resolution after 131 days,” he said. "The space is narrowing for those who are continuing to ask for more time.”

Some Arab countries were pushing for a vote on the Algerian draft this week, but several Arab and council diplomats said a vote is now likely early next week, giving more time for negotiations with the US to avoid a veto. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions have been private.

Associated Press

Champion of change: How a Tanzanian youth activist is rallying for gender equality in her community

The Chaguo Langu Haki Yangu: My Choice, My Rights programme, supported by UNFPA and funded by Finland, offers young people the opportunity to become leaders on gender equality in their communities. © UNFPA Tanzania/Warren Bright

UNFPA

15 February 2024


MASANGA, United Republic of Tanzania – “If only we had a community free from gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy, child marriage and female genital mutilation, then all girls would be able to achieve their dreams,” Tanzanian teenager Bhoke* told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

Bhoke lives with her mother and two siblings in the village of Masanga, in the Mara region of the United Republic of Tanzania. At just 18 years old, she has witnessed first-hand how gender inequality and the violence it drives rob women and girls of opportunities and stifle their potential. “I have seen many girls drop out of school because of female genital mutilation, child marriage and teenage pregnancy. It hurt me so much,” she said.

Female genital mutilation has become rarer in the country, but about 8 per cent of women and girls aged 15 to 49 are still subjected to it; in 2019, nearly a third of Tanzanian girls were married as children and almost a quarter became mothers before their 18th birthdays. Meanwhile in 2022, almost four in ten women reported that their current or most recent partner physically, sexually or emotionally abused them.

Bhoke decided she wanted to change things. Her goal began to take shape in 2022 when she met Bernard Chacha*, a young volunteer working with an organization aimed at empowering young people with information about their right to live free from gender-based violence and discrimination. Bhoke decided to join.

The Chaguo Langu Haki Yangu: My Choice, My Rights programme, funded by Finland and supported by UNFPA, offered her the opportunity to become a leader on gender equality in her community. “The programme taught me about girls’ rights and how to stand up for mine, and that gender-based violence is a violation of human rights. It also helps me make safe decisions about my sexual health,” she said.

Community leaders like Bhoke are working hard to change the trajectory of girls’ lives in Mara to help end gender-based violence in all its forms, including female genital mutilation, by 2030. © UNFPA Tanzania/Warren Bright


Spreading the word

It wasn’t long before Bhoke began thinking about how to share the knowledge she’d gained through the programme with students at her own school.

In November 2022, she organized a school outreach campaign together with Mr.Chacha to promote the global annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. They conducted a two-day training session at Bhoke’s school, reaching 150 students with educational resources on preventing gender-related harms. Following that success, Bhoke founded a weekly club so she and her schoolmates could continue learning about and advocating for gender equality in their own lives.

Bhoke has now become a community leader in her own right, earning the trust of her fellow students who turn to her for advice on dealing with gender-based violence and seeking support.

After speaking to Bhoke about the sexual abuse she had been subjected to by a family member at home, Tomondo*, a fellow student, felt able to report the incident.

“I informed Tomondo about her rights, and built her confidence to report her case to the police,” she explained. “She agreed to report her abuser, who was arrested. Now the case is in the hands of the local government authorities.”

Equality for all

Despite great strides to address challenges faced by the country’s women and girls, female genital mutilation, intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy remain daily realities for thousands of girls like those from Bhoke’s community. In Mara, one of the poorest regions, rates of female genital mutilation are three times as high as the national average and half of all women over the age of 15 have experienced some form of physical violence.

Community leaders like Bhoke are working hard to change the trajectory of girls’ lives in Mara, and their advocacy – together with investments in programmes like Chaguo Langu Haki Yangu – have had tangible successes. Between 2015 and 2022, the region’s rates for intimate partner violence dropped from 78 per cent to 66 per cent, while the prevalence of female genital mutilation and adolescent pregnancy also declined.

Bhoke is determined that addressing gender-based violence one step at a time will help all girls to fulfill their dreams, and one day hopes to become a doctor to continue to protect their right to live healthy, safe lives free from violence.

“Things will change if girls learn about rights and choices and how to say no. It will enable us to empower young women and adolescent girls, including those with disabilities, to claim their rights to be protected from any form of violence and harmful practices.”

*Names changed for privacy and protection.

Mining, batteries manufacturing: The hidden costs of the green transition to workers’ health

The European Union needs critical raw materials for its transition to a world of wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars. But extracting and processing these materials is a dirty business that can be harmful to health. By exposing lithium-battery workers to industrial toxins, is the EU poisoning the Green Deal?

Published on 15 February 2024 at 09:00
Arthur Neslen - HesaMag (Brussels)
 

Alex Falcó Chang | Cartoon Movement

Anton (not his real name) was overjoyed when he got a job as an operator at the SK Innovations (SKI) car battery plant in Komárom, Hungary, in 2020. "I was happy because the money was good, especially for that region." The gigafactory had just opened and, at the height of the Covid pandemic, the work was light. Within six months though, Anton had left the company after a urine test showed that he had levels of nickel three times above the safety limits.

Nickel accumulation has been linked to lung fibrosis, kidney and cardiovascular diseases, and cancer of the respiratory tract. There is also a high incidence of nasal and lung cancer among workers exposed to the material. "I have kids and I want to raise those kids," explains Anton.

More : Lucas Chancel: ‘Those who are most affected are those who pollute the least’

As the continent ramps up its critical raw materials (CRM) industry in the face of a climate crisis nearing existential proportions, Anton’s experience could soon be replicated across Europe. CRMs such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite are crucial for the clean energy technologies needed to stave off climate breakdown – from wind turbines to electric car batteries. But their supply chains are currently limited and scarcities are expected in the next decade.

As a result, new EU legislation in the form of the Critical Raw Materials Act proposes that by 2030, 10% of Europe’s CRM extraction, 40% of its processing and 15% of its recycling be done domestically – to ease dependence on third countries, many of which have poor human rights and environmental records.

Hungary will benefit more than most from this. By 2031, it is expected to be the second biggest producer of car batteries – and the single biggest producer of "tier 1" batteries, which can be used in Europe – according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), a market analyst. BMI has stated that this is partly because Hungary offers cheaper labour and land costs than western Europe.

EV’s revolution health costs are yet to be calculated

Meanwhile, the health costs of the electric car revolution are yet to be calculated. According to the European Environment Agency, Europe has 23% of the world’s new cancer cases, despite only making up 6% of the world’s population, in part because of "chronic exposure to some pharmaceuticals, pollutants and other occupational and environmental carcinogens." And yet according to recent reports, under industry pressure the European Commission appears to be retreating from plans to ban hazardous chemicals. Plans to more strictly regulate substances such as lithium could be the next under review.

In fact, according to BMI, the Hungarian government gave SKI a 209 million euro subsidy to build another battery plant in Iváncsa. There, 300 workers who had been denied protective equipment went on strike in June 2023 after an outbreak of vomiting, diarrhoea and rashes, according to some reports of the wildcat action. According to others, the issue of unpaid wages was a deciding factor. Many trade unions say that it is not always possible to identify illnesses caused by cocktails of CRMs with chemicals, and that a lack of regulatory vigilance has added to the problem.

The critical raw materials that Anton was working with – nickel, cobalt and manganese – accumulated into "a thick layer of dust" that settled all over the factory. "Everyone in the plant knew that there was a dust problem because they had to clean it all the time and use vacuum cleaners on the electronic devices," he says. "But we were only given Covid medical masks and rubber gloves for protection. I knew someone whose nickel levels were five times higher than normal, but in the Hungarian system – which is corrupt – no one cares about a few dead workers. The whole system is structured in favour of these companies."

‘Every time you attack workers rights, support for the Green Deal in particular – and climate policies in general – goes down’. 

– Marc Botenga, Left Party MEP

"No occupational exposure limit for lithium has been established, beyond existing safe work practices," says Glen Mpufane, the mining director for the IndustriAll Global Union. "The same goes for cobalt and it may well be that, given the latent exposure of workers to their toxicity and cancer risks, somewhere down the line, workers will face the consequences, as they did with silicosis and black lung cancer in coal mines."

In Hungary, where unions expect employment in the CRM sector to rocket from around 7,000 now to as many as 40,000 within a decade, the setup has been exacerbated by a lack of regulatory enforcement. Unions say that it would take 160 years for the current health and safety inspectorate to visit every company. Balazs Babel, the vice president of Hungary’s metalworkers union Vasas says: "We need better protection for workers. That’s for sure. This is a very, very dangerous field of work. Where there is a suspicion of exposure to dangerous materials, then workers should be provided with ventilation and all the protective gear they need."

During SKI’s safety training session in Komárom, Anton says that he asked the company’s health representative about the safety of one of the chemicals he was working with: N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP). "They said: 'It’s not dangerous at all. You can even drink it and you wouldn’t have any problem'", he remembers. However, NMP, which is suspected of being reprotoxic, had been added to the EU’s restricted substances list two years before. SKI did not respond to a request for comment.

Battery plants boom

Europe’s expansion of a domestic CRM industry will not be limited to Hungary. For the world to hit net zero targets by 2050, cobalt and neodymium demand may rise by 150%, copper and nickel by 50-70%, and graphite and lithium by 600-700%, according to the International Energy Agency. Where electric batteries are concerned, Germany is expected to become Europe’s largest producer, followed by Hungary, Poland, France and Sweden.

Peter Froven, an official for Sweden’s IF Metall union said that while his country’s gigafactories only employed a few thousand workers at present, they were ‘popping up like mushrooms’ and by 2030 their workforce could multiply by a factor of ten. "We have fears that they're building so fast that they're basically burning out the workforce," he says. "I mean, you’ve got production one day, you're stopping the next, and you're also learning how to do the new processes safely while you're doing it."

"Building a battery requires the cleanest area you can find. It has to be completely dust-free. And if you're simultaneously constructing the building around this area, then of course you'll have problems with missed deadlines because there's leakage of dust into the batteries. There's also a very fast pace, which means mistakes are easier to make. We’ve had chemical leaks, quite bad cuts, chemical skin burns, things like that.’ After workers at one plant were sprayed with chemical slurry used to fill up batteries, IF Metall faced the inevitable problem of trying to identify which substances had been in it. ‘It’s like the Coca Cola recipe," Froven jokes.
‘Mining remains one of the world’s most hazardous occupations. This is one of the industries with the most extreme accidents, lots of chronic disease, and illness. These things still happen in Europe’. – Sophie Grenad, adviser to IndustriAll

Such incidents have stoked calls for the European Commission to tighten regulatory oversight of substances used in the CRM sector. Occupational exposure limits for hazardous materials are set at EU level and transposed by EU members, but national implementation often leaves much to be desired. Sophie Grenade, an adviser to IndustriAll, says that social partner agreements such as Nepsi – which was established between unions and employers to counter silica exposure – were helping to improve the situation on the ground. Partly funded by the EU, Nepsi is considered complementary to binding occupational exposure limits.

However, campaigners such as Friend of the Earth Europe say that an industry that spends 21 million euros a year on lobbying in Europe, and has held on average two meetings a week with EU policymakers since 2014, creates its own gravity, dragging down legal protections for workers and the public alike.

Lithium labelling

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has recommended a "reprotoxic" classification for lithium, obliging greater regulatory protections for workers. But it is unclear whether the Commission will over-ride this for the greater good of a smooth and profitable roll-out of electric vehicles. The Commission has asked ECHA to launch another public consultation on the question and will not give any information about timing nor on the grounds it could use to over-rule ECHA.

Responding to a request for comment, an EU official who declined to be identified told HesaMag: "The Commission is committed to better protect[ing] human health and the environment, as part of an ambitious approach to tackle pollution from all sources and move to a toxic-free environment. In this sense, the Critical Raw Materials Act takes these concerns very seriously and puts in place a framework that will ensure that such environmental concerns are well assessed."

Other substances such as nickel and cobalt have been labelled by ECHA as suspected reprotoxins and carcinogens, but as Vasas vice president Babel puts it: "It’s not enough that we have laws, we need enforcement of these laws." This is reaffirmed by IndustriAll’s Grenade: ‘We need regulation and strong standards that are absolutely binding and not just “narrative”’.

Buried treasure?

The issue goes deeper than new battery plants. Europe’s CRM Act will speed up the permitting process for mining, processing, refining and recycling infrastructure, which may be assigned an ‘over-riding public interest,’ according to the proposed legislation. Environmentalists often point out that the health costs of coal mining eclipse those from substances like lithium by an order of magnitude, but there is a caveat: there is a vast difference between the scale of these sectors, and their available data.

The continent has some noteworthy reserves of CRMs, albeit far less than its coal. While Europe has an estimated 79 billion metric tonnes of coal reserves, it has only around 1.3 million tonnes of cobalt reserves, mostly in the Balkans and Turkey, and is thought to contain around 7% of the world’s 98 million tonnes of lithium reserves, in countries such as Portugal, Czechia and Germany. The continent also has significant graphite deposits in Scandinavia, and mined 243,000 tonnes of nickel in 2021.

Extracting these resources can be done in various ways. Lithium, for example, can be mined in open pits or pumped up from underground geothermal reserves in a briny liquid that must be treated to remove it. Sophie Grenade points out that whether it is coal, nickel or some other material being mined, despite industry’s efforts mining "remains one of the world’s most hazardous occupations. This is one of the industries with the most extreme accidents, lots of chronic disease, and illness. These things still happen in Europe. We know that the extraction of lithium and cobalt may cause problems. When it comes to sustainable mining or the responsible use of raw materials, lithium is very corrosive, so there are risks there for explosions. Cobalt is reprotoxic and may cause cancer so we absolutely need strong safeguards for workers, collective rights and occupational exposure limits in line with scientific data." Grenade want to see these written into the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act to ensure that "the clean tech race does not lead to deregulation."

Community protests

Where the dissent of communities and workers is ignored, the results can be explosive. A 2.2 billion euro lithium mine in Serbia planned by Rio Tinto was cancelled in 2022 after mass protests by local people concerned about environmental pollution and water contamination, even though the mine could reportedly have provided 90% of Europe’s lithium needs. Community demonstrations in Portugal – including a new protest camp launched in August 2023 against what would be Europe’s largest open pit lithium mine in Boticas – underline the obstacles facing any expansion of Europe’s CRM industry.

According to Cecilia Mattea, the batteries and supply chain policy manager for Transport and Environment, a campaigning NGO and think tank, the EU’s mining laws are inadequate and in need of reform: "The EU’s mining laws are so outdated that in Spain for example, mine tailing is allowed to sit much closer to the local community than in China or Brazil. It’s simply not acceptable. We should review the EU’s mining laws."
More : The social and environmental costs of European fashion made in Tunisia

Some policymakers fear that even raising these sorts of issues is likely to stir a backlash against electric vehicles which are, after all, powered by the renewable energy the planet needs to avoid catastrophe. But trade unions have countered that ignoring the needs of workers creates the constituency for a backlash by leaving left-behind communities with a sense of grievance that is vulnerable to manipulation. Asked whether workers were still supporting the clean energy transition, Babel answers honestly: "I’m not sure if workers really care that much."

"Every time you attack workers rights, support for the Green Deal in particular – and climate policies in general – goes down," says Left Party MEP Marc Botenga. "Where workers have real health and safety concerns and communities have real concerns about their drinking water it will obviously and very clearly weaken support for climate policies." His colleague, the Left Party MEP Cornelia Ernst, adds: "The Green Deal needs social majorities and these come about when people's living and working conditions improve. A green deal without the workers is not possible."

N. Korea sold illegal gambling websites to S. Korean cybercrime ring

South Korean intelligence named the North Korean “Gyonghung Information Technology Exchange Company” as the group behind the websites

By Laura Geigenberger
- February 15, 2024


A North Korean organization under the Workers’ Party has reportedly created thousands of illegal online gambling websites in cooperation with an unidentified South Korean cybercrime ring, the ROK’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told Yonhap news agency on Wednesday. The investigation appears to be ongoing.

In the process, the North Korean organization allegedly received KPW 6.5 million (USD 5,000) for each created gambling website and KPW 4 million (USD 3,000) per month to maintain them. In addition, the NIS suspects that the organization received another KPW 1.8 million to 6.5 million (USD 2,000 to 5,000) when the website achieved a high number of users. The transfers in foreign currency were made both via Chinese bank accounts and global online payment services such as PayPal. It is estimated that each member of the organization transferred around KPW 650,000 (USD 500) per month to North Korea.

The South Korean clients resold the gambling websites to third parties, the NIS revealed, allegedly earning several trillion won in the process. To facilitate the transactions between China and the ROK, the South Korean cybercrime ring also apparently provided domestic servers that enabled the North Korean IT specialists to hack into several foreign companies. In addition, the websites and servers were reportedly used to steal personal data, conversations, and identifying information of around 1,110 users by the criminal organizations either disguising their nationality or using phishing techniques such as malicious codes on their websites.

“This is the first time that concrete evidence has been disclosed to the public that North Korea is deeply involved in cyber gambling, which has recently become a serious social problem in South Korea,” the NIS stated. The agency now estimates that “thousands” more North Korean organizations are currently developing cyber gambling schemes and selling them abroad to generate foreign currency for the regime. It is assumed that most of them have settled in China illegally.

The group worked in China in direct violation of U.N. sanctions

In the recently uncovered cybercrime case, the NIS named the North Korean “Gyonghung Information Technology Exchange Company” as the group behind the websites. The 15-member group under the command of Kim Kwang-myeong, a former member of the DPRK’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, is based in the Chinese city of Dandong near the North Korean border. It is believed to be subordinate to the so-called “Room 39” of the Workers’ Party, a secret North Korean party organization designated to preserve the leadership’s foreign currency reserves.

According to the National Intelligence Service, the North Korean IT operatives were staying in the dormitory of a garment factory called “Golden Phoenix Clothing Co., Ltd.” in Dandong, which is owned and operated by a businessman in North Korea. “The North Korean IT organizations, which were established to raise dollars, are mixing with North Korean workers in the region to illegally earn foreign exchange,” the NIS alleges.

In doing so, the regime is in direct violation of the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council’s resolution 2397. Back in 2017, the Council prohibited the regime from stationing workers abroad and instructed all member states to expel North Korean citizens by the end of 2019.

Nevertheless, the BBC estimates that around 100,000 North Koreans were stationed abroad in 2023, mostly in factories and on construction sites in north-eastern China which are operated by the North Korean government. It is estimated they have earned Pyongyang USD 740 million between 2017 and 2023. The number of IT personnel working illegally abroad and/or as employees for international companies under false identities, however, is currently unknown.

The DPRK relies on hacking, virtual assets, and foreign currency to fund its weapons programs

Both the South Korean and U.S. governments as well as the United Nations have repeatedly voiced their suspicions that thousands of North Koreans around the world are working under false identities to earn foreign currency for the DPRK. “They are everywhere, from Asia to Africa, and sometimes even employed by U.S. companies,” said Jung H. Pak, deputy U.S. special representative for the DPRK at the U.S. State Department, at a Korean-American symposium in California on May 24, 2023.

Furthermore, North Korea-linked hacks have been on the rise over the past few years, with cyber-espionage groups such as Kimsuky and Lazarus Group utilizing various malicious tactics to acquire large amounts of crypto assets. The DPRK relies on financial fraud, money laundering, and cybercrime to fund its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. In doing so, it is violating several resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The White House and the U.N. have also repeatedly claimed that half of North Korea’s weapons development might be funded by cyberattacks and cryptocurrency theft.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, North Korea has gained about 1.7 trillion KPW (USD 1.2 billion) in virtual assets worldwide since 2017 through cybercrime such as hacking, information theft, and digital extortion methods. Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform, further reported a new record of 20 North Korean hacking incidents last year. The total value of the stolen virtual assets amounted to approximately KPW 1.3 trillion (USD 1 billion) – a significant decrease, however, compared to the record sum of KPW 2.3 trillion (USD 1.7 billion) in 2022.

Edited by Robert Lauler.

Thailand becomes world’s 3rd-largest chicken exporter

Thailand exported over 100,000 tonnes of chicken worth over 100 billion BTH (2.7 billion USD) last year, making the country the world’s third-largest exporter behind Brazil and the US.

VNA Tuesday, February 13, 2024 
https://link.gov.vn/vBE94ExM

Illustrative photo (Photo: nationthailand.com)

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand exported over 100,000 tonnes of chicken worth over 100 billion THB (2.7 billion USD) last year, making the country the world’s third-largest exporter behind Brazil and the US.

Chaweewan Kampa, President of the Poultry Promotion Association of Thailand, said Thailand’s 2023 ranking was an improvement from 4th place in 2022.

According to Chaweewan, the Thai government had export promotion measures, and quick decisions to extend the import of soybean meal under a World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal for another year, which helped solve the problem of rising price and shortage of animal feed.

The deal under the WTO’s regulations allows the import of soybean meal at 2% tariff instead of the normal rate of 119%. It also allows import of corn for animal feed at 20% tariff instead of 70% for up to 54,700 tonnes.

However, she pointed out that Thailand was still at a disadvantage due to higher production cost compared to competitors.

Both Brazil and the US are one of the world’s biggest production bases of soybean and corn for animal feed, while Thailand is struggling to meet the domestic needs, she said.

She urged the hai government to consider expanding the term under the WTO deal, especially the import quota limit, to help chicken farmers reduce cost and make Thailand’s product more competitive in the global market.

Meanwhile, Sitthiphan Thanakiatpinyo, President of the Swine Raisers Association of Thailand, said that cost for animal feed is the biggest cost for farmers, and urged the government to prioritise this issue./.

Thailand plans to triple farmers’ incomes

Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has sought approval for the upcoming fiscal budget of 411 billion THB (11.4 billion USD), more than three times higher than the previous budget, aiming to triple incomes of farmers within the next four years.

VNA Thursday, February 15, 2024 
https://link.gov.vn/BFrhXsDQ

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has sought approval for the upcoming fiscal budget of 411 billion THB (11.4 billion USD), more than three times higher than the previous budget, aiming to triple incomes of farmers within the next four years.

Chantanon Wannakejohn, Secretary-General to the Office of Agricultural Economics, said on February 14 that the ministry is seeking this amount for its short-, medium- and long-term plans to increase farmers' incomes as they are the largest group of workers in the country.

According to Chantanon, the short-term plan will require 81.6 billion THB, which will be used to promote agro-tourism activities, find new markets, deal with fishery problems, solve debt issues, and tackle haze pollution.

It will also be utilised to set up plans responding to the environmental crisis, promote carbon neutrality, and curb meat smuggling, he added.

Chantanon said that an additional 1.4 billion THB will be needed for the medium-term plan, which is designed to introduce advanced farming technologies, such as precision farming systems.

For the management of free-trade agreement discussions with international partners, supporting new environmentally and economically-suitable crop plantations, and aiding the processing of crops, an extra 26.5 billion THB will be required, he noted.

A budget of 301.9 billion THB will be needed for the long-term plan to be allocated for improving water management and crop production and upgrading land titles for farmers.

Chantanon said this year's fiscal budget of 120.6 billion THB will be announced in the Royal Gazette by April while the fiscal budget for 2025 will be forwarded to the Budget Bureau and the cabinet for consideration./.