March 15 is World Sleep Day

Hundreds in Mexico City take a ‘mass nap’ to commemorate World Sleep Day

Mexico was listed as the most overworked country in the world

By Megan Janetsky The Associated Press
Posted March 16, 2024 

Those walking through the milling streets of downtown Mexico City on Friday were greeted with a strange and sleepy sight.

Lolling with bright blue yoga mats, sleeping masks and travel pillows, hundreds of Mexicans laid sprawled out on the ground at the base of the city’s iconic Monument to the Revolution to take a nap. Dubbed the “mass siesta,” the event was in commemoration of World Sleep Day.

It was also meant to be a protest to push for sleep to be considered an essential part of health and wellness.

Some participants wrapped themselves in bright orange blankets, while others prepped their phones to play soothing music as they slept.

Lolling with bright blue mats, sleeping masks and travel pillows, people lie sprawled out at the base of the iconic Monument to the Revolution to take a nap, in Mexico City, Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Among the nappers was 52-year-old mariachi musician Manuel Magaña, who was popping in earbuds next to his wife, and 9-year-old daughter, who fell asleep holding hands. Magaña heard about the event on the news while he was looking for something fun to do with his granddaughter.

He said the idea struck a chord with him because as a mariachi he would work long and irregular hours, often going to bed as the sun would come up.
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“As a musician I work at night, and I rarely sleep well during the day. Sometimes we forget to eat, sometimes all we get is a little nap,” he said.

The event was organized by the Center for Sleep and Neurosciences and the Mexican Society for the Investigation of Medicine and Sleep (SOMIMS).

As participants began to drift to sleep, organizers on stage chanted and lead participants through the meditation. They also listed off tips for helping people fall asleep, like getting plenty of natural light during the day and turning their phone off at night.

Oscar Sánchez Escandón, a director of the event and president of SOMIMS, said the event was meant to highlight “sleep inequality” around the world.

“We live in a society that is full of economic, social and political commitments, where everything matters other than rest. That can have a strong impact on health,” he said.


Nearly half of Mexicans are reported to have trouble sleeping, according to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico

Mexico was listed as the most overworked country in the world by a 2019 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report, which compared working hours among dozens of countries across the planet.

Last year, Mexico’s congress debated a proposed reform to officially lower the weekly work hours from 48 – the average for many Latin American nations – to 40, standard for much of the world. The initiative was put forward by Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, but the debate got kicked back to 2024.

Gabriela Filio, a 49-year-old nurse, brought along her 25-year-old daughter with the hopes that Mexico’s younger generations would push for a better work balance.

“We are in a country where the paychecks often don’t add up. Sometimes we have to work two jobs, but we also need to make sure to care for our sleep quality,” Filio said, stretching out to take a quick rest.

Collective siesta in Mexico City aims to promote the right to sleep

AFP
Sat, 16 March 2024 

In one of Mexico City's busiest neighborhoods on Friday, about 200 people took a collective nap in the middle of the street to celebrate World Sleep Day.

Lying in the heat on synthetic mats, their necks resting on pillows and their eyes covered by masks, participants tuned out the chaos of Mexico's capital as part of what organizers described as "a peaceful demonstration for the right to sleep."

"The idea is that sleeping well, or having this event attract attention, can help launch new public policies" to promote rest, said Guadalupe Teran, a doctor with the Center for Sleep and Neuroscience, which organized the event with the Mexican government.

"We have long working days, but there are no spaces at workplaces to guarantee the time for a siesta," she said.

Thanks to a guided meditation session, some nap participants sank into a deep sleep while others at least managed to relax for a moment.

"Sleeping and resting well is very good for mindfulness. I need to do it more, but I think this dynamic is very cool, it encourages rest," said Alexia Gonzalez, a 24-year-old psychotherapist from the central state of Morelos, who was visiting the capital.

Another napper, retiree Victor Sanchez from southern Mexico City, said he was interested in professional advice on how to get a good night's sleep.

"It's a bit far, but I had to come because it's important to me," the 64-year-old said.

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Senegal's Sonko takes election campaign to the south

AFP
Sat, 16 March 2024 

In this article:
Ousmane Sonko
Senegal tax inspector and tax justice advocate

Senegal's charismatic opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and his coalition's presidential candidate flew to the south of the country Saturday, pressing on with their election campaign less than two weeks before the vote.

Former prime minister Amadou Ba meanwhile, the presidential camp's candidate in the election, denounced Sonko's "slanderous" attack on him the previous evening.

Sonko and his ally Bassirou Diomaye Faye were greeted by hundreds of supporters after they flew into the coastal resort of Cap Skiring in the Casamance region.

Sonko has endorsed Faye as his coalition's candidate for the March 24 election after he was barred from running himself.

The two political allies travelled from the airport in a black 4x4 vehicle with tinted windows, as the crowd shouted: "Diomaye, president!"

Faye wearing a traditional white boubou, or flowing wide-sleeved robe, was the first to appeared, followed by Sonko in a pale green shirt and cap.

Both raised their hands to salute the crowd of mainly young people.

- Sonko will 'bring change' -

"We are going to win in the first round, I'm sure of it," one supporter, 26-year-old Malang Sane told AFP, echoing the prediction made by Sonko the previous night in Dakar.

"We have come to welcome our leader (Sonko) who has just got out of prison and is going to bring change," 29-year-old teacher Ibou Diatta told AFP.

"Senegal is like a new car that hasn't been used -- and Ousmane Sonko is going to get it running," he added.

Faye sat up front and Sonko behind him as their convoy headed to the Casamance regional capital of Ziguinchor, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) away.

Sonko once served as mayor there and this region is his political stronghold.

The two men were only released late on Thursday evening, to the acclaim of hundreds of their supporters in Dakar.

Sonko was jailed at the end of last July on a string of charges, including provoking insurrection, conspiracy with terrorist groups and endangering state security.

Faye was imprisoned in April 2023, charged with contempt of court, defamation and acts likely to compromise public peace after posting a message critical of the justice system.

Sonko had been vocal in denouncing what he says is government corruption and maintains there was a conspiracy to keep him out of the 2024 election.

But he says he is fully behind the less charismatic and less popular Diomaye Faye.

Senegal's top opposition leader vows to help win March 24 election

Senegal opposition leader Sonko vows to help ally win March 24 election • FRANCE 24 English

- Ba denounces opposition -

Former prime minister Amadou Ba, who stepped down from his post to campaign for the presidency under the banner of Macky Sall's party, denounced comments by Sonko at a Dakar news conference on Friday.

"If he is elected, he will be the president of foreign countries," Sonko had said of Ba, accusing him of having covered up corruption.

A statement from Sonko's team said Ba had "devoted an entire press conference to tasteless defamation and slander".

Ba is currently campaigning in the north of the country.

President Sall himself has already served two terms and is not running again. His mandage as president runs out on April 2.

It was he who proposed the amnesty law that allowed for the release of Sonko and Diomaye Faye, in a bid to ease political tensions.

But it was his last-minute decision in February to defer the presidential vote due later that month and try and push it back to December that sparked the latest crisis.

His decision sparked clashes that left four dead.

The Constitutional Council stepped in, forcing him to reset the date to March 24.

For some analysts, oppposition figures such as Sonko and Faye have emerged stronger from their long political struggle with Sall's administration.

mrb-amt/jj/rox

UK

Pharmacy First could free up 30m GP appointments annually, data show


Laura Donnelly
Sat, 16 March 2024 

Pharmacists could free up 30 million GP appointments a year - sturti/iStockphoto

One in three of the patient consultations under the Pharmacy First scheme to treat common illnesses are happening at evenings and weekends, new figures show.

The statistics from major high-street pharmacies show thousands of patients turning to them for help when GPs are usually closed.

A month ago the NHS launched the scheme, which means people can consult pharmacists about seven common conditions, including sore throats, earache and urinary tract infections, instead of having to make an appointment with a doctor.

Now data from the first four weeks in operation show 29 per cent of consultations are taking place at evenings and weekends.

The figures from the Company Chemists’ Association, which includes ASDA, Boots, Morrisons, Superdrug and Tesco, show 50,000 consultations so far. Amongst the seven conditions, sore throat has seen the highest proportion of consultations (31 per cent), closely followed by uncomplicated urinary tract infections (27 per cent), earache (16 per cent) and sinusitis (14 per cent).

The organisation said take up so far suggests that the scheme has the potential to free up 10 million GP appointments by next winter.

Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA said: “Our members delivered nearly 50,000 NHS Pharmacy First consultations in the first month, which is an incredible achievement when you consider the tremendous workload and funding pressures they are all currently under.

“Patients are accessing the service across the entire week, including outside of typical work hours and at weekends. The level and nature of uptake demonstrates the need for this service.”
Worsening access

It follows warnings of worsening access to GPs, with four-week waits at a record high.

The last GP Patient Survey found two two-thirds of patients rarely or never get to see their preferred doctor, while one in six patients did not get an appointment at all the last time they tried.

Family doctors have previously been told to ensure some appointments are available on Saturdays, in an attempt to improve access.

However, the British Medical Association opposed the contract, which said patients should be able to access a weekend appointment, though not necessarily at their own practice.

Private GPs offering appointments have reported a surge in demand in recent years, with some charging extra at evenings and weekends.

Mr Harrison said pharmacies could do a lot more to improve patient access to healthcare, and relieve pressures on GPs, but needed more funding to do so.

Projections suggest that with more funding, the Pharmacy First scheme could free up 30 million GP appointments annually – the equivalent of a month’s work.

Mr Harrison said: “Pharmacies can do a whole lot more to stop the 8am GP ‘scramble’ that many patients continue to experience, but this will only be possible if policymakers fund Pharmacy First beyond 2025 and address historic underfunding of other core pharmacy services.

“Unless the underlying chronic underfunding of pharmacy is addressed, local pharmacies will continue to close, making it harder for patients to obtain the medicines they need.”

‘The wait is too long’: the refugees left in PNG after a decade in Australia’s offshore detention


Ben Doherty
Sat, 16 March 2024

Nurul Chawdury with his family in Port Moresby, waiting for resettlement in New Zealand.Photograph: Godfree Kaptigau/The Guardian

“I still hope for a bright future, I still hope to go to a country where I can be free, I still hope for a good life for my family.”

After a decade, Nurul Chawdury still has hope. As he reasons, it’s all he can hold on to.

More than a decade after being forcibly removed to Papua New Guinea by Australia, Chawdury is still there, one of the last remaining cohort who make up the unhappy ragged tail of Australia’s illegal offshore detention regime in that country.


Chawdury arrived in Australia by boat in 2013, fleeing the violence of partisan politics in his native Bangladesh. His membership of a political party made his life unsafe and he sought sanctuary in the first refugee convention country he reached.

But Chawdury spent just days in Australia before he was exiled to detention on Manus Island. He was told it would be temporary, a stopgap while his claim was assessed and a resettlement place found.

“We were told we would be there only for a short time. But we had an interview and then we just wait … we wait one year, one-and-a-half year, and still no answer,’ Chawdury says.

“We were imprisoned. My mental state was horrible – it was beyond description – and physically there were no doctors, no medical treatment. If we were ill, we were just ill, there was no help for us.”

Chawdury’s claim for refugee protection was swiftly recognised. Australia was legally obliged to protect him. Despite this, Chawdury would spend more than six years on Manus before being moved to Lorengau, then to Port Moresby.

Related: Refugees in PNG told they will be evicted next week after Australian-sponsored housing bills not paid

Chawdury has watched fellow refugees die through murder, medical neglect or suicide, or abandon their protection claims to take their chances in a dangerous homeland. Others have left for new lives in Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand.

But he still waits.
‘Some days we eat, some days we don’t’

In 2020, assured his resettlement was proceeding, he was joined by his family from Bangladesh, his wife and a daughter whom he had known only as a baby. Another child followed.

“When they first came, I was very happy to see my family, but they couldn’t go anywhere and we have just been waiting since that time. Nothing has changed.”

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Chawdury landed a job at a supermarket – work that gave him purpose and a place in his community, and that allowed him to provide for his young family. But that ended suddenly in January when riots erupted across Port Moresby.


Chawdury has the CCTV footage of rioters forcing opening the security doors to his shop before flooding in, stripping the shelves bare and destroying the building. He was caught in the middle of the mob, powerless to stop it.

“Every time I close my eyes, I see them attacking me, I think I am surrounded by them, every time I close my eyes,” he says.

A life on the fringes has retreated further.

His daughter is not able to attend school – she does not have the right documents, he says, and cannot obtain them – and she needs medical attention that she is rarely able to obtain. Often, they have been turned away from hospital.

His wife suffered a miscarriage at three months but was refused hospital treatment despite what Chawdury says was excruciating pain, until he begged a senior official to assist.

Chawdury says his family does not feel safe.

“In Port Moresby, my family went out twice and twice they were attacked, their bags were snatched.

“So my family just stays in the room all day, every day. I go out … but they never do. They just stay.”

Without work, and with the Australian money that was supposed to support refugees exhausted, Chawdury’s family’s existence is increasingly precarious.

“Things are very bad at the moment, it is very hard. Some days we eat, some days we don’t eat,” he says.

Related: ‘Unjust and cruel’ lack of clarity still hangs over 64 refugees exiled in PNG

“Because immigration has cut off all services, we have nothing besides this place to stay … we have no money for food or for transportation … and then there is no medical help for my family: if a person gets sick in the family, they will not treat them.

“In the meantime, if the landlord comes and gives us eviction notice again … we will be on the streets.”
Secret deal with PNG

Since the Manus Island detention centre was ruled unlawful by the PNG supreme court in 2016, Australia has tried to push legal responsibility for the remaining refugees and asylum seekers on to PNG.

In December 2021, the Morrison government signed a secret deal with PNG to fund the welfare and support of those sent offshore by Australia.

The Albanese government has refused to reveal its detail: a freedom of information request was denied because the information “could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the Australian government’s international relations”. The money – however much it was – came from Australia’s $303m irregular maritime arrival “offshore management” budget.

A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson says: “The department does not have any role in the ongoing management of, or service delivery arrangements for, individuals remaining in PNG.”

The spokesperson says it is the responsibility of the PNG government to “independently manage individuals remaining in PNG on a permanent or temporary pathway”.

“Individuals in PNG have resettlement pathways, including the United States, New Zealand and Canada, or permanent settlement in PNG.”

The department refuses to say how many of the nearly 1,400 people Australia sent to PNG remain there.

Guardian Australia understands there are 52, as well as a number of their wives and partners, and 28 children. Four want to stay in PNG, three are within the “process” of moving to the US, 19 to New Zealand and seven to Canada. But nearly two dozen have no “pathway” to resettlement.

Australia’s claim that those remaining are the responsibility of the PNG government is not supported by international law.

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has repeatedly told Australia it “remains jointly responsible” with PNG for their treatment and welfare.

Madeline Gleeson, a senior research fellow at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales Sydney, says secrecy around the terms of Australia’s agreement with PNG makes it hard to determine the legality of Australia withdrawing care from the men left there. But she says the original agreement – the basis on which the men were sent to PNG – required commitments from both countries about resettlement.

“Australia cannot simply ‘contract out’ of its obligations by paying another country to do what it should be doing itself, particularly given it was well aware of the limitations of PNG’s refugee settlement capacity when it made the secret agreement,” Gleeson says.

Australia maintains it paid the PNG government all the required money to manage the refugee cohort during the 2021-22 financial year, to allow PNG to manage its budget over subsequent years.

But the money ran out months ago, and Australia has consistently said it will not pay any more.

Last year a whistleblower from within PNG’s immigration authority alleged the Australian-sponsored program to care for refugees exiled to PNG had been riven by corruption, fraud and nepotism, and that all the money “has been depleted or gone missing”.

The PNG government announced an investigation and the then chief migration officer, Stanis Hulahau, said the allegations were “false” and without evidence. He said Australia should pay further money because the rate of resettlement to third countries had been slowed by Covid. Hulahau has since resigned.
‘Climate of violence and fear’

Heidi Abdel-Raouf, a spokesperson for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, says refugees in PNG have frequently experienced discrimination, violence and theft, but now their situation was even worse.

“Since the recent deaths, riots and shootings in Port Moresby, the climate of violence and fear has grown more severe,” she says.

Many are suffering “severe anxiety, depression, PTSD, psychosis and self-harm”.

“For some the risk of suicide is chronically high and unpredictable,” Abdel-Raouf says.

“A small group are acutely mentally unwell and unable to care for themselves or consent to receive support of any kind. Without electricity, food and medical care they are terrified, paranoid, frail, living in squalor and unable to communicate coherently.”

Abdel-Raouf says Australia could not “continue to abdicate responsibility for this cohort” and should evacuate all those who want to leave.

Chawdury was interviewed for resettlement in New Zealand months ago but has heard nothing since.

“I’m still hopeful for resettlement in a safe country, I have to hope, for my family,” he says.

“But the wait is too long, and each day is too hard. I want to request Australia not to make us suffer any more in this place, to take us away from this place so that this suffering could stop.”

AUSTRALIA

Shock losses to LNP and Greens in Queensland elections sound warning for Labor ahead of October poll


Andrew Messenger and Ben Smee
Sat, 16 March 2024 

The Liberal National party’s candidate, Darren Zanow (centre), is seen with voters at a pre-polling booth before the Ipswich West byelection.Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Queensland’s Labor government has taken a huge hit in two byelections, seeming likely to lose the once-safe seat of Ipswich West and suffering a huge swing in Inala, previously held by the former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Queensland’s governing party also bled votes to the left in Saturday’s local government elections, with the Greens registering their best-ever result.

On Sunday, the premier, Steven Miles, said the result was “clearly very bad”.

“I was expecting a bad result and they’re even worse than that,” Miles told reporters.

“I’m not sugar coating here. This is the voters from Inala and Ipswich sending us a message that they want to see us deliver more for them. Clearly they wanted to send us a message that we work harder, particularly on cost of living and community safety.”

Brisbane-based federal Labor minister Anika Wells told Sky News there was “clearly a lot for us to work on” ahead of a state election in October and a federal election due next year.

Labor appears to have lost nearly half its primary vote – 30% – in its safest seat, Inala. If the result holds, it would be a worse result than the Liberal National party government of Campbell Newman experienced in two disastrous byelections before its defeat at a general election in 2015.

Labor appeared to have suffered a 17.7% two-party-preferred swing in Ipswich West, according to early counting.

The LNP candidate in Ipswich West, Darren Zanow, a retired former concrete business owner, campaigned on a platform of cracking down on youth crime.

Related: Queensland Labor vulnerable on two fronts as Greens target Brisbane’s commuter belt

Members of the LNP were confident of taking the seat on Saturday night, although not yet declaring victory.

The state will hold a general election in October. If repeated, Saturday’s result would mean an end to the 10-year Labor government and give the state’s conservative party its third government since 1989.

The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, said that the electorate had sent the government a message. “It is clear that tonight we have created history.

“The results in the seats give comfort to people who are looking for a better way. Who are looking to be listened to, who are looking for an end to the youth crime crisis, the housing crisis, the cost-of-living crisis and the health crisis.

The byelections were the first electoral test for the new Labor leader, Steven Miles, who replaced Palaszczuk as premier in December. Her resignation in Inala sparked the byelection there.
Council elections

Labor’s woes may be compounded by the continued advance of the Green party, to their left.

Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has held on at the head of Australia’s biggest council and has retained a majority of council wards, which are elected separately.

Just one LNP electorate, Paddington Ward, appears most likely to have fallen to the Greens. Several others are in doubt.

The Greens, who campaigned with the slogan “the system needs a shake-up”, replaced Labor as the second party in a number of inner-city wards.

The lord mayor candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan failed to beat Labor into second place, with just 20.7% to 26.3% at close of counting.

“We are getting much closer to the point where Brisbane is not a two-party city,” the state MP Michael Berkman told ABC radio.

The Labor backbencher Mark Bailey said the advance of the minor party wasn’t coming at the expense of the major party, because they weren’t losing wards to the Greens. “The Greens have got one more out of 26, we have five,” he said.

The state held 76 council elections on Saturday, with one local government ballot delayed a week due to bad weather.

Due to low staffing at the state’s electoral commission, people queued for more than an hour in many Brisbane booths, despite turnout being lower than that at the height of the pandemic in March 2020.

Some voters were turned away from booths due to local government boundary issues; some reportedly after waiting in line for lengthy periods. 150,594 voters weren’t issued a ballot at all, due to uncontested elections.

Counting had yet to begin for many positions on Saturday night.

The alleged murderer Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden looked to have failed in his bid for reelection to the Gold Coast council, trailing in third place.

The controversial former LNP MP Andrew Laming also fell short in his bid to become the mayor of Redland City, south of Brisbane.

The Labor-aligned Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, looked to have lost to challenger Troy Thompson.

The Gold Coast’s mayor, Tom Tate, was comfortably reelected.

Review to find whether protesters can be banned from projecting images onto Parliament


Will Hazell
Sat, 16 March 2024 

Pro-Palestinian protesters beamed slogans onto Parliament last month - Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu

The Attorney General has asked officials to conduct a review of existing laws to clarify whether protesters can be banned from projecting images onto Parliament, The Telegraph can reveal.

Victoria Prentis has asked civil servants to carry out a “sweep” of current legislation after pro-Palestinian protesters beamed the slogan “from the river to the sea” onto the building last month.

The phrase refers to the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, has said it can be understood “as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world”.


Last month, police stood by as protesters beamed the slogan onto the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben.

When the Metropolitan Police was challenged the following day about the decision not to intervene, a spokesman said: “While there are scenarios where chanting or using these words could be unlawful depending on the specific location or context, its use in a wider public protest setting, such as last night, is not a criminal offence.”

Protesters beamed the slogan onto Parliament's Elizabeth Tower last month

The response drew a backlash, with Chris Philp, the policing minister, telling MPs: “There were a number of bases on which the police could have acted to prevent that projection. Big Ben is not a canvas for political campaigning, particularly where the slogans are deeply offensive in nature, and that is a view I have made very clear to the commissioner.”

The incident prompted a review of the wider issue of projecting images onto Parliament and other public buildings.

A source close to the Attorney General and Robert Courts, the Solicitor General, said: “They’re very concerned about this incident and think it is outrageous. They’ve ordered a full 360 of all laws to make sure we have the proper tools to deal with it.”

The Telegraph understands that the suggestion to carry out the review came up in a round table discussion held by Rishi Sunak with police chiefs and the Crown Prosecution Service last month.

The House of Commons authorities have previously said that planning laws require permission to be granted by both the Speaker and Westminster City Council before any projection onto parliamentary buildings is allowed.

The Telegraph understands that one avenue the Government is exploring is whether certain projections onto heritage sites breach planning laws because they compromise the legally protected character and appearance of the sites.

Sir Michael Ellis, a former attorney general, said last month that police could have used the 1986 Public Order Act to intervene. The legislation refers to the use of “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” with “intent to cause… harassment, alarm or distress”.

He said: “The police could also have reasonably feared a breach of the peace, ordered the removal of the projection machine, and, if there was non-compliance, arrested the individual for obstructing a constable under the Police Act 1996.”

The Home Office was contacted for comment.

UK

BUSTING BABIES AT GAZA PROTEST

Police confiscate prop babies as protest held outside Israeli defence firm's factory

Daniel Hordon
Sat, 16 March 2024 

Pro-Palestine protestors descend on Israeli defence firm's North East base (Image: NNP)

Pro-Palestine protestors descended on the North East base of an Israeli defence firm on Saturday morning.

Demonstrators held up prop babies which were removed by police at the scene.

They were protesting outside the factory of defence firm Rafael on Scotswood Road in Newcastle, near Scotswood bridge.

The Northern Echo: Demonstrators flew flags and held up prop babies.


Demonstrators flew flags and held up prop babies. (Image: NNP)

Rafael is an Israeli firm, majority owned by the state. It acquired Newcastle-based Pearson Engineering to take over the site in September 2022.

One protestor held a sign reading “Shut down Rafael”.

The Northern Echo: A sign reads Shut down Rafael.

A sign reads Shut down Rafael. (Image: NNP)

Others painted their hands blood red.

The Northern Echo: A protestor paints her hands red.

A protestor paints her hands red. (Image: NNP)

Northumbria Police has been contacted for comment.

It comes as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas are expected to restart in the coming days.

Talks stalled before the start of Ramadan earlier this week.

The Northern Echo: Protestors on Saturday (March 16) morning.

Protestors on Saturday (March 16) morning. (Image: NNP)

It had been hoped a six-week truce could have be secured for the Muslim holy month but Hamas refused any deal that would not lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.

In recent days, however, both sides have made moves aimed at getting the talks, which never fully broke off, back on track.

The Northern Echo:

Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them, the Associated Press reports.

But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected calls for a permanent ceasefire, insisting it must first fulfil its stated goal of “annihilating Hamas”.

The Northern Echo:

Get more from The Northern Echo with a digital subscription. Get access for 4 months for just £4, or get 40% off an annual subscription with our latest offer. Click here.

On Friday Netanyahu said he had approved plans for a military assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and Hamas’s last main stronghold.

But Rafah is now home to more than 1 million people including thousands who fled there when Israel began attacking Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and left another 250 hostage in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu’s office said the Rafah operation would involve the evacuation of the civilian population, but did not give details or a timetable.

Brain chips: the Sydney researchers ‘miles ahead’ of Elon Musk’s Neuralink


Tory Shepherd
Sat, 16 March 2024

Australian neuroscience advances are hugely promising for people who otherwise cannot communicate or interact with the world, but there are concerns over regulation and access.

Illustration: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design

Brain-computer interface technology is at the core of movies such as Ready Player One, The Matrix and Avatar. But outside the realm of science fiction, BCI is being used on Earth to help paralysed people communicate, to study dreams and to control robots.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk announced in January – to much fanfare – that his neurotechnology company Neuralink had implanted a computer chip into a human for the first time. In February, he announced that the patient was able to control a computer mouse with their thoughts.

Neuralink’s aim is noble: to help people who otherwise can’t communicate and interact with the environment. But details are scant. The project immediately sounded alarm bells about brain privacy, the risk of hacking and other things that could go wrong.

Related: Elon Musk says Neuralink has implanted its first brain chip in human

Dr Steve Kassem, a senior research fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia, says “tonnes of grains of salt” should be taken with the Neuralink news. It is not the first company to do a neural implant, he says. In fact, Australia is a “hotspot” for related neurological research.

Do patients dream of electric sheep?

A University of Technology Sydney project that has received millions in funding from the defence department is currently in the third phase of demonstrating how soldiers can use their brain signals to control a robot dog.

“We were successful [demonstrating] that a solder can use their brain to issue a command to assign the dog to reach a destination totally hands-free … so they can use their hands for other purposes,” Prof Lin, the director of the UTS Computational Intelligence and BCI Centre, says.

The soldier uses assisted reality glasses with a special graphene interface to issue brain signal commands to send the robotic dog to different places. Lin says they are working on making the technology multi-user, faster and able to control other vehicles such as drones.

Meanwhile, Sydney company Neurode has created a headset to help people with ADHD by monitoring their brain and delivering electronic pulses to address changes. Another UTS team is working on the DreamMachine, which aims to reconstruct dreams from brain signals. It uses artificial intelligence and electroencephalogram data to generate images from the subconscious.

And then there are the implants.

Good signal

Synchron started at the University of Melbourne and is now also based in New York. It uses a mesh inserted into the brain’s blood vessels that allows patients to use the internet, sending a signal that operates a bit like Bluetooth. People can shop online, email and communicate using the technology to control a computer.



Synchron has implanted the mesh in a number of patients and is monitoring them, including one in Australia. Patient P4, who has motor neurone disease, has the mesh implanted a few years ago.

“I believe he’s had over 200 sessions,” Gil Rind, Sychron’s senior director of advanced technology, says. “He is still going strong with the implants and has been working very closely with us.

“He’s been able to use his computer through the system … As the disease has progressed it’s really challenging to use physical buttons.

“This has provided him with an alternative method of being able to interact with his computer – for online banking, communication with his carer, [with] loved ones.”

Dr Christina Maher at Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre says Synchron’s technology is “miles ahead” of Elon Musk’s and is more sophisticated and safer because it does not require open brain surgery. The researchers have also published more than 25 articles, she says.

“With Neuralink, we don’t know much about it.

“My understanding is that a big priority for them is to test the efficacy and safety of their surgical robots … so they’re a lot more about the robotic side of things, which makes sense from a commercial perspective.”

The need for regulation

Amid the hype and promise of neurotechnology, though, are concerns about who will be able to access the helpful technologies and how they will be protected.

Maher says it is a matter of balancing the need for innovation with proper regulation, while allowing access for those people who really need it. She says the “disparity between the haves and have-nots” is being discussed in Australia and globally.

Related: The big idea: should we all be putting chips in our brains?

“When brain-computer interfaces become more common, it’s going to really segregate people into those who can afford it and those who can’t,” she says.

Rind says Synchron is focused on those who have the most to gain, such as people with quadriplegia. “We would like to expand that out as far as we can – we hope we can reach larger markets and help more people in need,” he says.

A personal, pivotal moment for him was seeing the faces of the clinicians, team and family of the first patient to successfully receive the implant, he says.

On Neuralink, Kassem warns there will always be dangers when technology is developed by a company that exists to make profit. “A mobile phone plan for your brain is not what we want,” he says.

“And what about if this is hacked? There is always a risk if it’s not a closed system.”

More likely than that, though, is that Neuralink will use people’s data.

“Just like every single app on your phone and on your computer, Neuralink will monitor as much as it can. Everything it possibly could,” Kassem says.

“It will be stored somewhere.”

Protecting brain data

Maher says hacking will remain a risk if devices are linked to the internet, and agrees that data is a big problem. She says much of our social media, biometric and other data is already out there, but that brain data is different.

“While [BCI companies] are subject to the same data privacy laws … the difference is in a lot of people’s minds is that brain data is quite private, it’s your private thoughts.

“The big picture here is that once we start recording a lot of brain data, there’ll be an absolute megaton of data out there,” she says.

Kassem says despite concerns over privacy, interacting with the brain holds exciting possibilities.

“We need to remember how powerful and significant the brain is … everything you are now, everything you have been, and everything you will be is just your brain, nothing else,” he says.

There are trillions of neural connections in the brain, leading to “boundless opportunities”, he says, quoting the US physicist Emerson Pugh. “If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.”

UK
Tories plan to amend Equality Act to protect single-sex spaces

Edward Malnick
Sat, 16 March 2024 

Rishi Sunak pledged in leadership contest that he would 'ensure that the Equality Act is clear that sex means biological sex' - STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP

The Conservatives are preparing to revive Rishi Sunak’s leadership pledge to overhaul New Labour’s equality laws, in an effort to protect single-sex spaces and women’s sports.

Senior government figures are considering a manifesto commitment to amend the Equality Act, which the Prime Minister previously said had become a “trojan horse” for “woke nonsense”.

The commitment would include an amendment to the 2010 Equality Act, passed while Gordon Brown was prime minister, “to make it unambiguously clear that sex means biological sex,” said a source familiar with the discussions. Such a move would “remove the current vagueness which is exploited to undermine women’s rights, security and competition in sport”.

It would mean sex being defined by someone’s biological sex rather than their affirmed, or “acquired” gender, making it easier to bar those born as men from women-only spaces and female sporting events.

It could also include a wider review of the legislation, which Mr Sunak said during his 2022 leadership campaign was used to “engage in social engineering to which no one has given consent.”

Senior Tories see the issue as a potentially major dividing line with Labour in the election campaign expected later this year. However it is also a source of tension within the Conservative Party. During the 2022 leadership contest Penny Mordaunt, now the Leader of the Commons, came under fire for previously stating that “trans men are men, trans women are women”.

On Friday, Liz Truss, the former prime minister, and Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, accused Labour MPs of using arcane parliamentary procedure to block a Private Member’s Bill drawn up by Ms Truss to ban puberty blockers, protect single-sex spaces and prevent teachers from helping a child change gender.

But Labour MPs talked so long in a debate about separate legislation earlier in the day that there was no time left to debate Ms Truss’s Bill. It is now unlikely that there will be an opportunity for Parliament to debate her Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill.

Liz Truss's Private Member's Bill would ban puberty blockers, protect single-sex spaces and prevent teachers from helping a child change gender

Last week, in an interview with The Telegraph, Baroness Falkner of Margravine, who chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), called for the Equality Act to be updated to clarify the balance between trans and women’s rights. Currently the country is reliant on court rulings, sometimes by “activist judges”, to clarify the law, she said. In the latest case, the Supreme Court has been asked to rule on whether the Scottish Government was right to include trans women in its official definition of women.

Lady Falkner said: “There are easier ways to do things and I think sometimes Parliament does have to assert its own primacy in terms of the legislation that it has passed.”

The intervention came after Mrs Badenoch wrote to the EHRC last year, asking for advice on changing the wording of the Equality Act to specify that it protects “biological sex” rather than “sex”.

The EHRC, which is responsible for policing the legislation, said that such a change would “bring legal clarity” in eight areas, including sports and single-sex areas.

Currently, the equalities legislation states that people can be protected on the basis of their “sex”, but some have since interpreted this to mean the gender someone identifies as rather than their biological sex.

It has caused confusion over whether transgender women can be barred from participating in women’s sports or entering female-only spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms and rape refuges.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission 

- PAUL GROVER FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Ms Truss had said that her Bill – which was due to receive its second reading on Friday – would ensure that single-sex spaces like school toilets remain “sacrosanct” for girls and women.

After the time for debate effectively timed out, Mrs Badenoch tweeted: “Just now Labour MPs prevented debate on a new law to prevent children and single sex spaces. Instead they used parliamentary time to discuss ferret name choices.

“Keir Starmer is terrified of debate on safeguarding and his MPs actively work to ignore the concerns of constituents.”

Ministers are said to want to wait until the resolution of the Supreme Court case before acting themselves. But discussions are now being held about including a pledge to amend the Equality Act in the Conservatives’ general election manifesto, including the extent to which such a pledge could include defining sex as biological sex.

Government sources said Mrs Badenoch was among those who recognised that “if we can’t do it in this Parliament it is something that many MPs want to see in our next manifesto”.
‘Clarity to all laws’

During the summer 2022 leadership contest, Mr Sunak’s pledged that he would “ensure that the Equality Act is clear that sex means biological sex” and “apply the same clarity to all laws that refer to mothers and fathers, or to pregnancy and sex discrimination, or which protect people’s bodily privacy and dignity, such as when being searched by the police”.

Mr Sunak said at the time: “Too often, existing legislation is used to engage in social engineering to which no one has given consent. The worst offender in this regard is the 2010 Equality Act, conceived in the dog days of the last Labour government.

“It has been a Trojan horse that has allowed every kind of woke nonsense to permeate public life. It must stop. My government would review the Act to ensure we keep legitimate protections while stopping mission creep.

“Our laws must protect free speech, block biological men from competing in women’s sport and ensure that children are allowed to be children.”

In December, Mrs Badenoch told Ms Truss: “I certainly support any effort to clarify the law, and we should start from first principles. No child is born in the wrong body, and no child should be put on a pathway towards irreversible medical transition. I am also conscious that it will take time to amend law, and I am therefore focusing on what will work for now.”

South Africa Starts Process of Allowing Private Rail Network Use

Transnet releases network statement, setting rules for use

Poor rail maintenance has created burden on country’s roads

Antony Sguazzin, Bloomberg News

The process of getting private trains onto its tracks will start in the second half of the year.

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa’s state logistics company has begun the process of allowing private companies to use its vast rail network by publishing a document detailing how it envisages the process will work. 

The draft network statement will be gazetted in a few days time for public consultation before being finalized in Transnet SOC Ltd.’s next financial year, which begins April 1, the company said in a statement late Friday. 

The process of getting private trains onto its tracks will start in the second half of the year, the company said. 

While Transnet’s 21,232 kilometer (13,193 miles) network accounts for about 85% of Africa’s rail tracks, poor maintenance and mismanagement has seen the amount of goods and commodities such as coal and iron ore transported plunge to about 150 million tons from 226 million tons over the last five years. Thats driven companies to resort to using trucks, damaging the country’s roads.

It is “a critical milestone in the rail reform process,” Transnet said. “Rules, time limits, timelines, procedures, services, charging principles, and terms and conditions governing the use of the railway infrastructure by train operating companies” is laid out in the document, Transnet added. 

The document is part of a broad plan spearheaded by the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to fix the country’s struggling ports and rail system, largely by boosting private participation in what have been state monopolies up until now. 

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