Social media users fear misinformation will impact 2024 election

ByDr. Tim Sandle

DIGITAL JOURNAL
March 20, 2024

Social media's X. — © AFP Daniel LEAL

As the U.S. considers a TikTok ban, do people want social media platforms regulated? A new poll indicates this is likely to be a “yes.” At least this is the case in the U.S., for Media.com polled more than 1,000 people in the U.S. and found that a little over half (51 percent) say social media companies should face more regulation, with 62 percent calling for legal accountability for misinformation. Media.com is a profile-based network which was started to help combat misinformation.

The survey was based on a poll taken of 1,005 respondents who lived across the U.S. and who were 18 or older. Each person was a social media user and had used one or more social media platforms completed the survey.

Additionally, 55 percent singled out Facebook as doing the poorest job of curbing misinformation (plus fake news), followed closely by TikTok and X/Twitter at 44 percent each. Respondents were also inclined to hold social media companies accountable for misinformation and hate speech.

When asked what changes social networks should make to address the challenge of misinformation, 57 percent of respondents said fact-checking all content. Moreover, 55 percent supported identity verification for all profiles to eliminate bots; and 42 percent favoured an automatic ban for those who spread false information.

Another area is with the forthcoming U.S. presidential election (a contest that looks likely to be a rematch between Biden and Trump). The study finds that 70 percent of social media users are moderately to extremely concerned that misinformation will impact the contest.

The worry about misinformation is often directed towards other people, since a majority of respondents (63 percent) said they feel confident in their ability to spot misinformation on social media.

Does this cognizance translate into practice? This is less certain since, when asked, some 60 percent said they had shared information they later found to be false. Moreover, when asked how misinformation impacts our lives, 68 percent of respondents said it causes confusion, 64 percent believe it undermines trust, and 60 percent feel it influences public opinion.

“Misinformation and fake profiles are eating away at trust and confidence which is critical to a functional society” said James Mawhinney, the CEO and Founder of the Media.com network says in a statement provided to Digital Journal.

Mawhinney adds: “These survey results show there is a very real concern about the impact of misinformation. It is particularly concerning considering the amount of time we spend consuming content from unverified sources.”

Op-Ed: Alien necrophiliacs prefer conspiracy theorists — Denial of Sentience plague

By Paul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL
March 18, 2024

Image courtesy Pexels

We can forget about denial-of-service attacks. Conspiracies are denial of sentience. QAnon is gone, but any babble is faithfully turned into a fact by publication.

It’s taken this many years since 2016, but the conspiracy cretins have got distribution at last. The banal financially incentivized TikTok conspiracy theories are just appetizers.

If you search “conspiracy” on Google, there is literally no end to the stories. There doesn’t seem to be a bottom to the page.

The long-term effects of conspiracy theories are becoming apparent. It’s been normalized. You can accuse anyone of anything, and some fool will believe it. A couple of years ago a butterfly sanctuary was shut down for staff safety by far-right conspiracy theories. There is no possibility of innocence in conspiracy theories. Even the butterflies were guilty.

According to TIME magazine, conspiracy theories are useful for feeling good about yourself. During American election years, they’re worse. Since 2008, it’s got much worse.

Typically, the media are playing up how effective this utter drivel is in political terms. According to The New York Times claims of censorship have prevented stopping lies about election rigging, etc. Elon Musk’s X has added fuel by allowing previously blocked posts. X is now lower than Snapchat in user numbers, but it contributes to the fluff online.

The other fountain of reason, FOX News, has surprisingly few viewers, (according to Statista viewership is 1,899,000 out of a population of 340 million presumably not including subsidiaries) but a very high profile. FOX, despite losing most of its right-wing luminaries, maintains its flagship status for the right.

Fortunately for every moron on the planet, AI and bots have taken up the slack in the sacred cause of useless spam posts. Politics as we know it can continue in the knowledge that AI trolls can do the hard work.

Conspiracy theories have a basic structure:

They must relate to a person or subject in the public eye.

They must contain simply targeted accusations of illegality, immorality, etc.

They must have attention-getting value to whoever pays for them, preferably political and related to other conspiracy theories.

They must include baseless information and more nouns and adjectives than verbs.

The distribution network must include a targeted population of information skanks who like getting sued.

Expressions of horror and outrage by people with pseudo-religious affiliations should fill the comments threads.

Therefore:

Alien Corrupt Democrat Pervert Necrophiliacs in Sexual Orgy at Congress church service

“They stole my solid gold picture of Saint Donald, says heartbroken white middle-aged statistic.”

It has everything. It has credibility. It has recognizable trigger words. It even has the ridiculous bot-style capitalizations. The format alone will get instant acceptance from publishers who refuse to admit that words might have meanings.

Wanna buy some ignorance? You’re in luck.

________________________________________________________

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

WRITTEN BYPaul Wallis
Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia

Afghan girls and women cling to glitchy, lonesome online learning


By AFP
March 20, 2024

Boys and men returned to classes with the start of the Afghan new year but girls and women will be left behind again by a Taliban government education blockade 

- Copyright AFP/File OMER ABRAR

Aysha Safi and Susannah Walden

Sequestered at home in a remote Afghan town, 18-year-old Shekiba often roams the house hunting for the patchy internet signal that is her last link to an education.

Shekiba has turned to online learning since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and shut her out of classrooms, signing up for live economics lectures she squints at on a pocket-sized phone screen.

She hopes to save for a laptop but is forced to buy expensive mobile data packages that still don’t guarantee a signal in the town of Ishkashim perched high in mountainous Badakhshan province.

“If there were no internet issues, it would be much easier,” she told AFP by phone. “But it’s better to carry on, instead of sitting and doing nothing.”

“I just hope to study, to succeed, to progress. If one person progresses in a family, the whole family progresses, as well as the whole society.”

Boys and men returned to classes with the start of the Afghan new year, but girls and women will be left behind again by a Taliban government education blockade that is part of a raft of restrictions the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid”.

While online alternatives have sprung up, a dearth of computers and internet, as well as the isolation of learning via screen, makes them a poor substitute for in-person learning, students and teachers say.

Many of those alternatives also cannot provide diplomas, which offer a promise that qualifications will be acknowledged.

– ‘No perspective of future’ –

It’s unclear exactly how many girls and women are involved in online learning, but two higher education platforms report Afghans registering or applying in the tens of thousands since the Taliban takeover.

Begum Academy, an online platform with some 8,500 free videos in Dari and Pashto covering the Afghan secondary school curriculum, launched in December 2023 and quickly had more than 3,000 users.

Director Hamida Aman said parents are grateful but it’s hard for girls to stay driven.

“It’s difficult to get motivated when everything is closed to you and there’s no perspective of future,” she told AFP from France, where she is based.

“These girls cannot have certificates, or they cannot have the ambition to go to the university or to have any job later.”

Education for girls and women was a key aim of the US-backed government but gains were largely limited to cities, with only 23 percent of girls aged 13 to 18 in school nationwide, according to the International Crisis Group.

The think tank said that figure dropped to 13 percent after the Taliban government issued its edicts barring female education in 2022.

Zainab was soon to start high school when it came into effect and was twice rebuffed by an online school that was at capacity before she finally secured a place.

“Before taking online classes, we were idle at home. We were worried. We used to sleep most of the time, which made us depressed,” said Zainab, who asked not to use her full name for fear of reprisal.

Online classes “keep us busy”, she told AFP, but they “cannot replace schools”.

Twenty-two-year-old Ruhila teaches English classes online while trying to continue her university education, also virtually, and says the teaching helps her spirits.

“The only thing that gives me energy in the current situation is teaching these girls,” she said.

“But when you accept that it’s going to be online forever then you lose enthusiasm and you don’t put in the same effort,” she said. “Mentally, online classes are very tough. They are stressful, and boring.”

Taliban authorities have insisted since girls were barred from secondary school that they are working on establishing a system that aligns with their interpretation of Islamic law.


– Poor internet, few computers –


Widespread virtual schooling during the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated it was “at best, a rather partial substitute for in-person instruction”, a UNESCO report found.

Afghan students face the burden of trying to log on in a country where the internet is often down — or painfully slow — and where electricity outages are common.

Less than a quarter of the population uses the internet, according to online insights company DataReportal. With stark poverty rates in Afghanistan, computers are also a luxury many cannot afford.

Some 90 percent of Begum Academy students use their phones to learn, according to Aman.

But even more than those frustrations, 18-year-old Aisha misses the social aspect of school.

“Online classes cannot be as effective as physical classes where we meet our peers and our teachers and exchange our ideas,” she said.

“Online courses can only give us a hope,” she added. “But we can never say, ‘I have studied online so I have graduated from school.'”

US: China-based Canadian accused of stealing Tesla secrets

A Canadian resident of China has been arrested in the US for allegedly pilfering technology from a US-based EV company that appears to be Tesla.

Two men have been accused of starting a business in China by stealing trade secrets from electric car manufacturer Tesla and conspiring to sell them to undercover law enforcement officers, US federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

A 58-year-old Canadian citizen who lives in Ningbo, China, was arrested in New York's Long Island, where he had traveled for a meeting with undercover agents whom he had believed were businesspeople, prosecutors said.

According to media reports, the second business partner remains at large.
Why was the man arrested?

The man along with his partner built their business using trade secrets belonging to "a leading US-based electric vehicle company," prosecutors said.

The prosecutors did not name the US-based company, but said it had acquired a Canada-based manufacturer of battery assembly lines in 2019 and both men are former employees of the Canadian company. Tesla then was the sole owner of the technology.

The description also matches Tesla's 2019 purchase of Hibar Systems, a battery manufacturing company in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

The charge of conspiracy to transmit trade secrets carries up to 10 years in prison in the US in case of a conviction.

"The defendants set up a company in China, blatantly stole trade secrets from an American company that are important to manufacturing electric vehicles, and which cost many millions of dollars in research and development, and sold products developed with the stolen trade secrets," Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement with Justice Department and FBI officials.

Israelis, Palestinians team up in Germany to aid Gaza

Sarah Judith Hofmann in Berlin

DW

March 17, 2024

In Germany, a unique Israeli-Palestinian initiative is sending aid to Gaza, focusing on immediate needs such as sanitation and shelter. They say acting from afar eases their anxiety about the war's devastating effects.

Tom Kellner, Seba Abu Daqa, Gali Blay and Elisha Baskin (from left) recently met in Berlin

 Slieman Halabi

The toilet cubicles measure just 1 square meter (about 11 square feet), sealed with plastic sheeting attached to simple wooden slats. They provide a tiny amount of privacy in the former village of Al-Mawasi, a place where thousands of displaced people have now crowded together. Though Israeli army may refer to it as a "safe zone," the site lacks the corresponding infrastructure.

The Clean Shelter project has provided toilet cubicles like these in the Al-Mawasi refugee camp in Gaza

"My family, my parents are in Al-Mawasi. I asked them: What do people need most? And they said: toilets, showers, tents. So when Tom asked me if she could help, I said yes," said Seba Abu Daqa, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip.

Tom Kellner is a Jewish Israeli from Haifa. Both live in Germany: Abu Daqa in Munich, Kellner in Berlin. The two would likely never have met in Israel or Gaza. But in Germany, they have teamed up to appeal for donations from friends, acquaintances and relatives in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Germany and beyond.

Abu Daqa used her networks in Gaza to organize materials and the construction of sanitary facilities and tents. It was clear from the outset that they would only be able to work with what was already available in the enclave, with even large aid organizations unable to deliver materials due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli military.

Since their Clean Shelter project began in January, 28 toilets, some with showers, have been set up, as well as 30 tents, each of which can accommodate 10 people. One toilet costs between €200 and €500 ($220 and $550)

Feeling isolated in Europe

The two women met through a dialogue project for Israelis and Palestinians living in Europe. After meeting online regularly for weeks, they recently convened in-person for the first time at a joint workshop in Berlin. The dialogue group was initiated by Slieman Halabi, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who holds a doctorate in social psychology and, like Abu Daqa, now lives in Munich.

"We live in Europe and feel very lonely, especially now that there is a war," said Halabi.

Halabi was trained as a facilitator in the village of Neve Shalom, or Wahat al-Salam, which translates to "oasis of peace" in Hebrew and Arabic, respectively. Located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the aim of the village's School for Peace is to facilitate encounters between Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinian Slieman Halabi (left) recently met with Gali Blay, a Jewish-Israeli participant of the workshop, and others in Berlin

Image: Sarah Hofmann/DW

"It's a learning experience. It's not seeking an immediate solution to the conflict, but we believe to find a solution people really need to understand each others' perspectives and not act separately without knowing the underpinning mechanisms that lead people to act in certain ways regarding the conflict," said Halabi.

Palestinians from Gaza, Syria and the occupied West Bank also took part in the School for Peace's first dialogue group outside of Israel and met with Jewish Israelis. This was only possible because they all now live in Europe.

The idea to create a group of "exiled Israelis and Palestinians" had been on Halabi's mind for a long time when he scheduled the first online event for October 8, 2023. The 17 participants had no idea they would experience that first meeting in a state of shock after hundreds of terrorists from Hamas and other militant Islamist groups broke through Israel's border fortifications on October 7, killing 1,160 people and taking around 250 hostages, most of them civilians, including many women and children.

Halabi remembers watching the news that day. "I couldn't do anything but sit there and watch this and go crazy," he said.

'We need to talk — now more than ever'

Many of those who had received an invitation to the meeting asked whether it ought to be canceled. But Halabi didn't want to do that, under any circumstances. "I told them: Please come. We need to talk—now more than ever," he said. All 17 participants showed up for the video call the next day.

Among them was Gali Blay, who created the website for the Clean Shelter project. Her cousin's family lived in Be'eri, one of the kibbutzim communities where the terrorists committed the worst atrocities.

The Israeli army launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip soon after the October 7 attacks

Image: Israel Defense Forces/REUTERS

"At the time, I didn't even realize the extent of it. I was just in shock. Everyone was in shock," she told DW. Blay later learned that some of her relatives had been murdered. And yet, she also thought about the people of Gaza. "My biggest fear was that I knew the reaction would be very hard and innocent people would be affected," she said.

Shortly after October 7, the Israeli military launched heavy airstrikes on Gaza, followed by a ground offensive and a far-reaching closure of the coastal strip. According to the Hamas-led Health Ministry, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the offensive. The widespread destruction and displacement of the population has led to a humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations warning that famine is imminent for many.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Israeli hostages are still being held by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, US and other countries. The chances of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians could not be more fraught.

'This situation cannot go on forever'

"At the start of each new group, we decide on common rules about how we want to talk to each other," said Halabi. Nobody wants to be insulted or hurt, he added. The most important rule is that everyone listens to each other. "Some Palestinians asked, for example: What is going on inside an Israeli soldier who is bombing Gaza?"

Such sensitive topics evoke strong emotions. Both Halabi and Blay said there were plenty of tears during the meeting in Berlin, but there were also hugs.

"It felt like living in a different reality, a world full of love and respect for each other," said Blay. In Europe, and especially in Germany, the dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "toxic," she added, describing how people immediately label each other. And, in her opinion as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, the accusation of antisemitism is dished out far too lightly. "It's not the kind of discourse we do in our groups," she said.

Tom Kellner (standing right) shared a hug with another participant at the workshop in Berlin

Image: Slieman Halabi

Since October 7, it has been clearer than ever that something has to shift for Israelis and Palestinians. "We want to have a change. This situation cannot go on forever," said Halabi. "There is a lot of fear and defense mechanisms that people have because of beliefs that are so deep-rooted from childhood, from their memories, from their education. They are socialized to fear and to hate the other side. But I've seen people changing. I've seen people in groups coming out totally different."

The aim of the group is to encourage people to get involved and become activists to bring about grassroots change. Seba Abu Daqa, Tom Kellner and Gali Blay have all become more active as a result. Clean Shelter's sanitary facilities don't just offer privacy, but will also potentially save lives. Aid organizations have warned of the potential for disease outbreaks caused by a lack of hygiene and clean water in Gaza.

Tents from Clean Shelter were partly built with UNICEF tarps that were already available in Gaza

Image: Clean Shelter

The group does not know how long the tents and toilet cubicles they provide will stand, as the Israeli military has announced a ground offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. It remains unclear what this could mean for Al-Mawasi.

"I'm worried all the time, anxious all the time, every call that I get from Gaza," said Abu Dada. "The only thing that keeps me alive is to do something and that it's not about waiting anymore. And that it's us who do something and not just others who define what is happening."

This article was originally written in German.

Escaping to Thailand: Fleeing military service in Myanmar

Julian Küng in Thailand

DW

March 17, 2024

The quiet villages along the Thailand-Myanmar border become escape routes for Myanmar's youth dodging the draft. Julian Küng reports from the border region.

This footbridge in the village of Wale connects Thailand and Myanmar

In the village of Wale, Thailand and Myanmar are connected by a small wooden bridge. The narrow river that flows beneath it constitutes the border. The villages on the two banks share the same name, and their lives are closely entwined. Locals carry rice and vegetables back and forth across the little footbridge; children splash and play in the water below. The Thai border guard in the observation post is paying far more attention to his cellphone than to the flow of commuters.

The majority of people who cross here are from the local villages. In recent weeks, however, an unusually large number of young people from other parts of Myanmar have been crossing the border in this quiet village.

"I can spot them straight away by their big rucksacks," said Tungsa, as she plays dominoes outside her general store on the Myanmar side of the river.
'If they make it here, they're safe'

These young people are fleeing conscription into Myanmar's military. Thousands are seeking to go abroad before mandatory military service comes into effect in April, for men between 18 and 35 years old and women aged 18 to 27. Anyone who doesn't go into hiding risks being ordered, as a soldier, to commit war crimes. And refusing to do military service is punishable by several years in jail.

Tungsa lives in the village of Wale in Myanmar, just across the border from Thailand

"If they make it here, they're safe," said Tungsa. That's because the Myanmar side of Wale is controlled by the Karen National Union. It's one of the ethnic militias that are fighting the Myanmar army inside the country on several fronts. The military junta has suffered some bitter defeats in recent months.

The United States Institute of Peace estimates that the Myanmar army has just 130,000 soldiers at most, and that only about half are combat-ready. Observers believe the impending obligatory conscription is a desperate attempt to forcibly augment their greatly reduced troop numbers. And so more and more young people trying to escape conscription are now thronging into neighboring Thailand.

Thousands try to flee Myanmar over prospective draft law  02:29

In the past few weeks, hundreds have been arrested by patrolling border police. Human rights activists report that, depending on the policeman or arresting authority, they may be detained, sent back over the border, or, on occasion, released on payment of a bribe.
Porous 'green border' allows many to cross

However, most refugees from Myanmar make it into Thailand undetected, either by sneaking across the porous, virtually unguarded jungle border, or by mingling with regular commuters. At the Ban Mun Ru Chai river border to the west of Wale, the Thai guard post isn't even staffed. A couple of goats who have taken up residence watch the many people crossing the river to the Thai side.

Goats are 'holding the fort' on the Thai side of the Ban Mun Ru Chai border region

The Thai government seems to have been wholly unprepared for the situation in Myanmar, said security expert Panitan Wattanayagorn, a professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He assumes that fighting between the military junta and resistance groups will intensify over the coming months, and that forced conscription will continue to drive people across the border into Thailand. On the TV channel Thai PBS, Wattanayagorn warned that Bangkok urgently needs to put measures in place to deal with the impending influx of refugees from Myanmar.

The Thai foreign minister has announced plans to establish a humanitarian security zone along the western border, providing refugees with food and medical assistance. However, authorities have not given any information about where exactly the protected zone would be located, or when it would be established.

Many people cross the river in the Ban Mun Ru Chao border region unchallenged

Meanwhile, only random checks are being carried out along the 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) border between Myanmar and Thailand. "I check people on a random basis," said the border guard in Wale. Last week, he arrested six people trying to escape conscription. But "sometimes I just let them through," he admited, fixing his attention on his plate of rice as three people from Myanmar scuttled unchallenged over the bridge.
Thailand needs cheap workers from Myanmar

People in Wale don't seem to fear an influx of refugees. "Just let them all in," said Pattanew, a motorcycle taxi driver who is at the waiting area near the border bridge. He transports day laborers on the back of his moped; they work for very little money, tending Thai fields and cleaning houses. "Without the migrant workers from Myanmar, we would have a lot of issues," he said. "They're very hardworking; they tolerate the sun and rain and don't complain."

Most of his passengers work in the surrounding border region. The new refugees, on the other hand, mostly travel on to big cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai or the migrant quarter of Samut Sakhon, where they find places to stay among their fellow countrymen.

'Let them all in,' said taxi driver Pattanew

It's estimated there are between 2 and 3 million people from Myanmar living in Thailand. No one knows the exact number, as many are in the country illegally. One of them, a man in his early 20s, asked to be referred to by the pseudonym "Mao Uh." He's afraid that otherwise, he may be detected by the authorities' radar.

Hoping for a work permit

It has been almost a month since he left his family in Ayeyarwady, west of Yangon, and set out for Thailand. The journey was a nerve-wracking one. Every time he passed through one of the junta's checkpoints, he ran the risk of being detected and arrested. "I was very lucky," he said. Eventually he made it across the "green border" in the countryside, into Thailand.

Since then, he has been holed up in a Bangkok suburb, in a stuffy room that he seldom leaves. He's worried about his sister back home. Like him, she faces being called up for military service.

"We've already agreed that she'll follow as soon as I have work here," said Mao. Ideally, he would like to work in the security sector as a guard, protecting people. But essentially he's prepared to do any work, "no matter what, no matter where."

Mao Uh fled conscription in Myanmar. Here, he holds up three fingers to symbolize his resistance to the regime

Mao is hoping for a so-called worker amnesty from the Thai authorities. Four times a year, illegal migrants can apply for an amnesty that will allow them to work in the country legally for a certain period of time. However, labor lawyers are critical of the procedure; they say it's too complicated and susceptible to corruption, which is why many refugees from Myanmar simply work illegally.
Thai authorities 'turning a blind eye'

According to the International Labor Organization, the invisible migrant workers from Myanmar already contribute up to 6.6% of Thailand's GDP. Sompong Srakaew from the Labor Rights Promotion Network is convinced the influx of workers from the neighboring country will further support the economy. "It's good for the Thai economy, because employers need cheap workers to remain competitive," he said.

Srakaew, who advocates for migrant rights, estimates more than 10,000 people fleeing conscription have already crossed the border, with more coming every day. "It seems that the Thai authorities are turning a blind eye, and allowing many to enter the country unofficially," he said.

Images: Julian Küng

This article was originally written in German.

Underpaid and overworked: Myanmar migrants in Thailand  08:55

 

Nitazenes: The street drugs stronger than heroin, fentanyl

Zulfikar Abbany

DW

A class of drugs called nitazenes — developed in the 1950s but never approved for medical use — is causing deaths on US and UK streets. What you need to know

Just when communities were starting to understand the lethal effects of fentanyl and oxycodone abuse, yet another painkiller opioid has emerged from the pharmaceutical archives as a deadly street drug.

Commonly known as nitazenes, 2-Benzyl Benzimidazole opioids are said to be up to 500 times more potent than heroin, making people more prone to addiction.

Drug and health agencies in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, and the US are reporting a rise in the number of overdoses and fatalities linked to nitazenes.

There are indications that while authorities clamp down on fentanyl, and heroin cultivation in Afghanistan slows under the Taliban, nitazenes are being mixed into other substances, including heroin and fentanyl — and even cannabis.
What are nitazenes?

A class of more than 20 synthetic chemical compounds, nitazenes were originally developed in the 1950s as opioid analgesics — painkillers. But they were never approved for use in human or veterinary medicine. Synthetic drugs like nitazenes and fentanyl are not grown naturally or cultivated in the environment like heroin or cannabis, but manufactured artificially by humans using chemicals.

They started to surface as illicit substances around 2019 in the UK, US and the Baltic states, although some reports suggest a number of drug deaths in Russia in 1998 were linked to nitazenes as well.

They are psychoactive drugs, which, according to a World Health Organization definition, means they "affect mental processes, including perception, consciousness, cognition or mood and emotions."

Not all psychoactive substances are addictive, but nitazenes are said to be far more potent than their natural "analogs" — drugs like morphine and heroin — and, as a result, experts say they are more likely to produce a dependency.

Nitazenes are controlled substances, which means they are generally classified as dangerous and illegal narcotics.

When sold in powdered form, nitazenes have a yellow, brown or off-white color. The US Drug Enforcement Administration says nitazenes are also being pressed into pills and "falsely marketed as pharmaceutical medication (like Dilaudid 'M-8' tablets and oxycodone 'M30' tablets."

The effects are similar to other opioids, such as euphoria, sedation, and a kind of wake-sleep consciousness, but also respiratory depression and even arrest — you stop breathing.

Why is the risk of overdose so high?

In an open letter to the journal Lancet Public Health in February 2024, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) wrote that nitazenes "have been increasingly identified in post-mortem analyses of drug-related [deaths] since 2022."

There is some evidence that nitazenes are being mixed with other illicit drugs to lower the cost of their production.

Adam Holland of the University of Bristol's School of Psychological Science commented — also in Lancet Public Health — that nitazenes were detected in substances sold as other opioids, benzodiazepines, and cannabis products.

"This means many consumers are using nitazenes inadvertently, unaware of the risks they face," wrote Holland.

And part of that risk is that people cannot judge how to dose the drugs they are taking — because they simply don't know what they are taking.

This is borne out in statistics out of the UK, for instance, where in the six months to December 2023 more than 50 people died after using nitazenes.
How addictive are nitazenes?

It is difficult to put a concrete figure on the addictiveness of illicit substances, including nitazenes — it is rarely the drug alone that determines its level of addictiveness.

There's a range of biological, psychological and social factors that influence substance use disorders, including addiction, and how they affect an individual.

Instead, pharmacologists refer to a drug's potency.

How potent are nitazenes compared to other opioids?

A 2022 report by the UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) cited a review of "early studies" in which scientists gave 2-benzyl benzimidazole compounds, including isotonitazene — known as ISO on North American streets — and etonitazene, to mice.

Those studies indicated that isotonitazene was 500 times stronger than morphine and etonitazene was 1,000 times stronger than morphine.
What are the most common types of nitazenes?

The AMCD report ranked the following nitazenes from most to least potent:Etonitazene
Isotonitazene
Protonitazene
Metonitazene
Butonitazene
Etodesnitazene
Flunitazene
Metodesnitazene
What do nitazenes do in the body?

Nitazenes interact with various opioid receptors in the brain and nervous system.

One of these types of receptors was described by a UK government advice paper as "a principal mediator" in the brain that affects positive, therapeutic functions, such as pain relief, and the brain's reward, causing a sense of euphoria.

But a 2022 review of the function of another one of the receptors noted that "both therapeutic and unwanted effects of opioid drugs were exerted through their binding" to the receptors. Those unwanted effects included addiction, dependency, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Sources:

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA): "New psychoactive substances" in the European Drug Report 2023: https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report/2023/new-psychoactive-substances_en

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (UK, 2022): "Advice on 2-benzyl benzimidazole and piperidine benzimidazolone opioids" — updated December 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acmd-advice-on-2-benzyl-benzimidazole-and-piperidine-benzimidazolone-opioids/acmd-advice-on-2-benzyl-benzimidazole-and-piperidine-benzimidazolone-opioids-accessible-version#pharmacology

Zhang JJ, Song CG, Dai JM, Li L, Yang XM, Chen ZN. "Mechanism of opioid addiction and its intervention therapy: Focusing on the reward circuitry and mu-opioid receptor" in MedComm, June 2022: https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.148

Pergolizzi J Jr, Raffa R, LeQuang JAK, Breve F, Varrassi G. "Old Drugs and New Challenges: A Narrative Review of Nitazenes" in Cureus, June 2023: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.40736

Schüller M, Lucic I, Øiestad ÅML, Pedersen-Bjergaard S, Øiestad EL. "High-throughput quantification of emerging "nitazene" benzimidazole opioid analogs by microextraction and UHPLC-MS-MS" in Journal of Analytical Toxicology, September 2023: https://doi.org/10.1093/jat/bkad071

Zulfikar Abbany Senior editor fascinated by space, AI and the mind, and how science touches people

Crack and fentanyl abuse on the rise in Germany

Oliver Pieper

DW 

March 17, 2024

Germany is facing an alarming rise in crack cocaine and fentanyl abuse, with nearly 2,000 drug-related deaths reported in 2022. Experts are calling for comprehensive strategies to address the crisis.

In Germany, crack has become so widespread, it has put drug abuse problems on a new scale

Andre Penner/AP/picture alliance

Crack, the street name given to a solid form of cocaine, is quickly becoming a serious problem in Germany.

Its looks harmless enough, like light-colored rock candy, which is why users call it "white" or "stones." When heated to 96 degrees Celsius (205 degrees Fahrenheit), it crackles, hence the name. The mixture of cocaine, baking soda and water delivers a "kick" in less than 10 seconds, faster than any other drug.

Crack is extremely addictive and can be devastating for those who use it.

"Crack is smokable cocaine that delivers a kick. When used on consecutive days, it can produce psychotic states," said social worker Michael Harbaum.

Harbaum, a trained social worker, has been working with addicts for decades. But, he said, crack has changed everythingImage: Privat

Harbaum has worked at the Düsseldorfer Drogenhilfe (Dusseldorf Drugs Help Center) in western Germany for the last 20 years. His first job there was running the drug consumption room, where illicit drugs can be used under the supervision of trained staff.

He now manages the center and has seen the number of people using crack in the drug consumption room skyrocket from a few hundred in 2017 to more than 31,000 in 2023.

"Crack has a very powerful effect. It acts very fast, but it also wears off very fast. So, people feel a pressure to consume it again very quickly," said Harbaum.

"This is a very dangerous situation. Just imagine the substance being consumed every half hour. That leaves barely any recovery time –– no time to eat or care for hygiene."
Drug-related fatalities steadily rising

Germany saw almost 2,000 drug-related deaths in 2022, the highest number in two decades. The main cause was either heroin or other long-term drug abuse. Fatalities from cocaine and crack overdoses rose to more than 400.

Addiction researcher Daniel Deimel has been working to develop new courses of action to deal with the consumption of crack.

"Crack has been problematic in large cities like Frankfurt, Hamburg and Hanover for around 20 years," he told DW. "But it has been spreading in western Germany since 2016 in major cities, but also in German states like Saarland, because Europe is being flooded with high-purity cocaine.

"The drug market is growing because Colombian cocaine production has been growing substantially. The market and producers have diversified," he added.

Cocaine is increasingly entering Europe via seaports, such as in Antwerp in Belgium, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and the German port of Hamburg.

EU ports join forces to fight drug smuggling

02:27 Deimel believes demand will remain high.

"We are living in a high-performance society. Cocaine is now used by many middle-class people — its use has been normalized to some degree. It has shed its cliched image of the 1980s and 1990s as a drug of the rich, of artists and media professionals."

Deimel studied the drug scene in the city of Cologne last year and found that almost all cocaine users had smoked crack at some point. Many of them were homeless. Many users reported massive psychological problems, including paranoia, in connection with crack consumption.

The biggest problem is that crack has no antidote, said Deimel.

"Well-developed addiction medicine interventions already exist for heroin, such as methadone, which is used as a substitution-assisted treatment. But no drug has yet proven effective against crack addiction. We really need more research on this. We also need a 24/7 emergency help center," he said.

Germany seeks coordinated action against cocaine trafficking

02:35 Unlike heroin, crack has no antidote

Harbaum's team in Dusseldorf recently opened a new accommodation facility for up to 11 addicted people at the city's central train station. It has social workers and security staff, as well as lockable single rooms.

Experts say more facilities like this are urgently needed, because in addition to crack, the next wave of highly dangerous drugs in the form of synthetic opioids like fentanyl is already arriving.

Fentanyl is a painkiller for people who are dying, or suffering from cancer, and is being mixed with heroin. A six-month test project in 17 drug consumption rooms in Germany, carried out by the German AIDS Association, showed that 3.6% of heroin samples provided contained traces of fentanyl.

"Synthetic opioids are entering the market and mixed with heroin,"said Deimel. "The problem is that these substances are substantially more potent and more lethal. With fentanyl, 2 mg is enough –– that's the size of the tip of a pencil."

Fentanyl, America's silent killer   07:06

Burkhard Blienert, commissioner for addiction and drug issues, believes there should be more low-threshold services to reach users.

"In addition to drug consumption rooms, there could also be drug-checking, rapid tests in drug consumption rooms, low-threshold substitution offers, and laypeople should know naloxone," he told DW.

Naloxone is a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids. It is injected and restores breathing after an opioid overdose.

A range of effective measures have been tried and tested in Europe, he pointed out, but they aren't necessarily available where they are needed.

"Given the truly dangerous developments with crack and synthetic opiates, we can't afford to keep debating whether drug consumption rooms and drug-checking should be offered or not," he said.

This article was originally written in German.

Drug dealing and smuggling in Berlin  42:35

Oliver Pieper Reporter on German politics and society, as well as South American affairs.

DRC: Why it's hard to make cobalt mining more transparent

Jonas Gerding in Kolwezi, Congo

DW

Child labor and collapsing tunnels in DR Congo's cobalt mines are bringing electric cars and other vehicles into disrepute. But the push for transparency along the country's cobalt supply chain is met with resistance.

Making Congo's cobalt mining less exploitative is a difficult task

Mining engineer Pierre Amani Kangenda peers into the mouth of a narrow shaft that plunges straight down to the belly of a cobalt mine.

He can't quite make out the silhouettes of the young men whose job is to heave 20-kilogram (44-pound) sacks of dirt rich in cobalt and copper composite up the mine wall to the surface. But he can see their headlamps in the darkness.

The men use pickaxes and shovels to dig for cobalt in this small-scale mine known as UCK Drain on the outskirts of Kolwezi in the DRC's southern copper belt, where great amounts of cobalt are mined.

"As soon as they reach the vein of ore, they start extracting the raw materials," says Kangenda who is decked out in a high-visibility vest as he conducts his daily patrol of the site which has 59 shafts.

"When they reach a depth of 30 meters (98 feet), they stop and look for another place to dig. That's what the rules [on this site] say."

Elsewhere, shafts can sink as deep as 100 meters, depending on local regulations.

The dangerous business of cobalt mining in Congo is increasingly gaining international attention

Large informal mining sector

The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for some two-thirds of the world's cobalt, dwarfing the output of its closest competitors, Australia and Russia. Around 15-20% of Congo's cobalt supply is dug up by artisanal miners like those working here at UCK Drain.

Tunneling deep into the red dirt is hard and dangerous work. However, it's somewhat safer here than at other artisanal mines in the country.

Pierre Amani Kangenda is resonsible for monitoring mine safety for the Better Mining program

That's because Kangenda, who works as a monitor and trainer for RCS Global, a consultancy with a focus on supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing, is there to make sure standards are being upheld.

"I check what problems there are. Are there children on site? Is there violence and rape?" he tells DW.

The tunnels must be secured and closed down if cracks appear, Kangenda explains, and corrugated iron roofs over the shafts are erected to protect them from rain. Pregnant women and military personnel aren't allowed on the site.

"If there are incidents, we report them to our partners. We try to correct them so that the supply chain is internationally acceptable," Kangenda explains.
Saving the reputation of e-mobility

Kangenda documents everything he observes on his patrols into a computer program. The mine is one of eight that are part of RCS's Better Mining program, which aims to continuously monitor and support the improvement of conditions on and around artisanal and small-scale mine sites.

Partner companies along the supply chain can view the data logged in the program and react to it. This is important as the demand for cobalt continues to skyrocket.

Cobalt is a key component of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electronic devices and electric vehicles (EVs). But reports of dangerous working conditions and child labor in Congo's informal mines have sparked an outcry over what has been referred to as "blood cobalt" in recent years.

This is forcing EV manufacturers, who market themselves as sustainable, to look for ways to source 'clean cobalt' untainted by abusive labor practices. This is proving a difficult undertaking.

Stopping child labor in all forms

Because of the monitoring of this mine, it's relatively easy to ban children from working in the tunnels or even from entering the actual mining site.

But it's more difficult to stop children selling the raw ore they find by sifting through rock scraps on-site to the Chinese middlemen who control the majority of the trading depots.

"We try to explain to the depot owners that they are not allowed to buy the raw materials brought to them by children," says Kangenda. "That is the condition we impose on them."

Better Mining has also launched information campaigns in the surrounding schools and churches to try to keep children away from the mine site.

"We are thinking about how we can cordon off the site," says Alain Mpalanga, the deputy head of the Somikas' cooperative, which organizes UCK miners.

"If we manage to do that, including the depots and the bistro area, then children will no longer have access."

The persistent issue of collapsing tunnels

Somikas earns 10% for every kilogram of copper and cobalt mined on the UCK Drain site, explains Mpalanga as he sits in his cramped office at the site entrance.

He oversees as many as 5,000 miners, who work on the site. They aren't formally employed. Rather, they work together to excavate a tunnel and pool their earnings.

Asked about RCS Global, Mpalanga says: "We work in symbiosis."

But the issue of death hangs over the mine's operations:

"There have been many deaths [from cobalt mining] since raw materials started being traded on a large scale," he tells DW. "But we have been able to put an end to the series of constantly collapsing tunnels because we now have technical experts and engineers."

That doesn't mean there are no more fatalities from collapsed tunnels. Rather, fewer people die when walls cave in, Mpalanga admits.

"We've never had more than five fatalities in one accident," he says, compared to incidents that have killed dozens at once.

Perfectly clean supply chain not yet possible

Better Mining isn't a certificate for a flawless supply chain. Rather, it's goal is to enable companies at the end of the supply chain comply with corporate due diligence obligations abroad, such as is now required by German law, says Lucien Bahimba, a compliancy expert and RCS Global's regional coordinator.

"This is a continuous effort in which people come to understand that within perhaps a month or a year they have to abandon behaviors that they have been doing for five or ten years. It's not always easy," he says from his air-conditioned office in Kolwezi.

Bahimba points to his laptop screen, which shows the mines that are being monitoring. Each mine has a rating, and the program displays individual grievances as well as corrective measures that are pending as well as those that have already been implemented.

Companies at the end of the supply chain can also see this information. RCS Global has listed the car manufacturers Volvo, Ford and General Motors on its homepage as partners.

Sacks of ore are transported to the traders who buy the raw material

Sources mixed at the middlemen

Back at the mine, people push bicycles heavily laden with dusty sacks of ore up a hill to a row of wooden shacks spraypainted with the names of Chinese buyers. Inside these trading depots, the ore is broken up, assessed for purity and weighed.

A truck stands idle as workers load it with raw material to be taken to a plant for processing. This is a critical point in the supply chain.

"Our work is limited to providing information about the mines that we monitor," says Bahimba from RCS Global.

The problem, he says, is that the processors source their raw materials from several mines, and there simply is no knowing what the conditions are like at each one of them.

"The ore is mixed up," he says. "And that's still a bit of a concern in the copper and cobalt sector."

That means that Better Mining, and other similar transparency programs, can't stop raw materials obtained from problematic sources from entering the supply chain yet.

For this to happen, such programs would have to cover Congo's cobalt mines on a large scale and be backed up by actionable laws.

"That would actually be the ideal," Bahima says.

Once the ore is trucked off for further processing, it can be mixed with material from other mines with less transparency

This article was originally written in German

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson

Images: Jonas Gerding/DW

UK dispute over deportations to Rwanda heats up

The British House of Commons is once again about to negotiate the controversial Rwanda bill, which is intended to enable deportations to Africa regardless of asylum-seekers' origin.


Birgit Maass in London

DW

03/17/2024

Sunak, seen here meeting with border guards at London's Gatwick Airport, has urged lawmakers to pass his deportation bill quickly

Carlos Jasso/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

When it comes to refugees, 91-year-old Alfred Dubs is easily enraged. The British government's plan to send refugees to Rwanda is "shameful" and damages the United Kingdom's reputation, he said.

Dubs knows what it feels like to leave one's family and home behind, as he himself traveled on the Kindertransport from Prague to London at the age of 6 to escape the Holocaust. Today, he sits as a life peer in the House of Lords for the opposition Labour Party and campaigns on behalf of refugees.

Lord Alfred Dubs was a refugee himself as a child during World War II

Christoph Meyer/dpa/picture alliance

So far, the Lords have refused to pass the "Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill." One reason is that it violates international law. But Dubs predicts they will ultimately give in since the Conservatives also make up the largest group in the House of Lords and the will to fight among the older Lords is waning.
Courts previously blocked the plan

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made it a priority to "stop the boats." Almost 30,000 refugees came across the English Channel last year, mostly in small rubber dinghies. They, and all the other refugees who have reached the country "irregularly" since the beginning of 2022, could soon face deportation to Rwanda. Regardless of their origin, they will be shipped to the East African country and forced to submit their asylum applications there instead of in the UK.

Sunak took to a border patrol boat to promote his deportation bill

mage: Yui Mok/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

Two years ago, Boris Johnson's government became the first to charter a plane to take a small group of refugees to Kigali, despite fierce protests from many human rights organizations. The European Court of Human Rights put a stop to Johnson's plans at the last minute.

The UK has already transferred £140 million ($178 million, €163.5 million) to Rwanda, but so far no refugees have actually been sent. The British Supreme Court initially declared the plan illegal, ruling that Rwanda is not a safe third country. The government has since rectified this via a new agreement in which the Rwandan state has promised not deport to anyone to their country of origin.

Sunak has argued that accommodating refugees in British hotels costs £6 million a day and hopes the Rwandan deportations will have a deterrent effect. If the bill doesn't pass, more people will die making the dangerous crossing, the minister responsible, Andrew Sharpe, warned his colleagues in the House of Lords. The Lords should not oppose the "will of the people," Sunak has said in a bid to win support for his tough asylum policy.

Critics like these protesters from Amnesty International have said the bill will have serious consequences for human rights

Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/picture alliance

Deterrent effect unclear

Opinions differ as to whether the bill would even have an affect on refugee numbers. Jacqueline McKenzie is a human rights lawyer in London, representing, among others, an Iraqi who was already shackled in a bus on the tarmac to be deported to Rwanda before the European Court of Justice prevented it with its urgent ruling.

It was a traumatic experience for him, McKenzie said. He has since proven that he was a victim of human trafficking and is now legally allowed to stay in the UK.

McKenzie doesn't believe that the bill will have a deterrent effect. "We've been talking about Rwanda for years, and people are still coming," she said.

Nikolai Posner isn't convinced either. He works for the French refugee organization Utopia 56 in the northern French port city of Calais, where many migrants embark on their risky journey. When the plan first became known two years ago, there were fewer crossings at first. That is, "until the smugglers decreased the price," as they could well do again. Like many who work in refugee aid, he is calling for more safe and legal migration routes.

Sunak has argued that housing migrants like these men at the controversial Napier Barracks in Kent is too expensive

Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

Many who make the dangerous journey from France to the southern English coast have family in the UK. And most of them are indeed entitled to asylum because they come from countries like Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, where war and persecution mean that the vast majority of applications have been accepted so far.

Even if the law is passed in the next few days, it remains unclear when the first flights to Rwanda will depart. Civil servants' associations have called for renewed legal clarification, as they believe the new regulations continue to violate international law. Lawyer McKenzie has also predicted that the legal dispute will continue.

Migrants often attempt to cross the English Channel in small boats like these

Image: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance
Sunak set on swift implementation

However, the prime minister seems determined to deport the first refugees as quickly as possible. He has made the issue of migration a top priority and aims to have the first planes take off for Kigali within days.

It's a repellant thought for Alfred Dubs. After all, he said, the UK is one of the founding members of the European Court of Justice and a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Refugees. The fact that his home country, which took him in so generously as a child, is now setting an "appalling example" is something he will continue to fight as best he can, he said.

This article was originally written in German.

Brazil's Bolsonaro indicted over fake COVID certificate

Former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of tampering with a public health database to make it seem as if he was vaccinated. Bolsonaro has frequently downplayed the severity of COVID-19.

Bolsonaro espoused beliefs against the LGBTQ movement and abortion during his presidency, and had attempted to position Brazil closer to the US on foreign affairs

Brazil's Federal Police on Tuesday indicted former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination records.
Police: Bolsonaro wanted to 'cheat current health restrictions'

The indictment said Bolsonaro tampered with a public health database to make it look as if he and several others in his circle were vaccinated.

Police detective Fabio Alvarez Shor signed off on the indictment, saying Bolsonaro and several others wanted to use fake COVID-19vaccination records to "cheat current health restrictions."

"The investigation found several false insertions between November 2021 and December 2022, and also many actions of using fraudulent documents," Shor explained.

Despite his departure from office, Bolsonaro still has a fervent following from Brazilian conservatives and the country's burgeoning evangelical Christian movement

Bolsonaro had expressed opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine while also downplaying the health impacts of the virus and the severity of the pandemic.

It's now up to Brazil's prosecutor-general to decide whether to file charges against Bolsonaro at the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro's attorney, Fabio Wajngarten, decried the police allegations as "absurd."

"While he served as president, [Bolsonaro] was completely exempt from presenting any type of certificate on his trips," Wajngarten said, while condemning "political persecution" towards the former Brazilian leader.

Lula returns to a divided Brazil


It was the first indictment against the former Brazilian leader as more charges could potentially be brought on other issues as well.

The former president is currently being investigated over a possible military coup plot to stay in power after he was defeated by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the 2022 election.

On January 8, 2023, a mob of Bolsonaro supporters stormed buildings representing the three branches of government in the capital of Brasilia, several days after Lula's inauguration. Although their attempt to reinstall Bolsonaro's government failed, the event left a mark on Brazil's democracy and revealed the risks of polarization in South America's most populous country.

Bolsonaro also faces a probe over money he received from selling luxury watches he was gifted from Saudi Arabia during his time in office.

wd/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP)

Fossil fuel majors miss the mark on climate targets

Martin Kuebler

DW

Despite corporate messaging touting a low-carbon future, many of the world's top oil and gas companies are failing to meet global climate goals. And they're making plans to expand.


The burning of fossil fuels is heating the planet, yet major oil and gas companies aren't holding back

Haidar Mohammed Ali/AFP/Getty Images


Nearly a decade on from the historic 2015 Paris Agreement, oil and gas companies are nowhere near meeting targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) — a goal that itself is becoming increasingly unlikely.

That's the assessment of the latest report from Carbon Tracker, a London-based think tank that monitors how financial markets and investments can affect climate change. The evaluation compared 25 of the world's largest oil and gas companies, including BP, TotalEnergies, PetroChina and Saudi Aramco.

"Companies worldwide are publicly stating they are supportive of the goals of the Paris Agreement and claim to be part of the solution in accelerating the energy transition," said Maeve O'Connor, an oil and gas analyst at Carbon Tracker and author of the report.

"Unfortunately, however, we see that none are currently aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement," added O'Connor.

BP ranked highest in Carbon Tracker's report, but that doesn't mean it's doing everything right

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

The report aims to hold companies to account, and influence climate action by making investors aware of the risks of continued reliance on fossil fuels, the burning of which is the largest contributor to planetary heating.
BP best of a bad bunch

After analyzing public data, Carbon Tracker judged each oil and gas company in five key areas: investment plans, recently approved projects, production plans, emissions targets and executive remuneration policies, which may be used to reward CEOs to boost production.

The company to come off best in the ranking was British oil giant BP, though its barely passing grade of D isn't anything to write home about. And a more detailed analysis by Carbon Tracker pointed out that BP "is still exploring for new reserves across six continents and planning a significant increase in its [liquefied natural gas] portfolio."


Among the major oil and gas companies analyzed by Carbon Tracker, BP was still the only one aiming to cut its production by 2030. Three other European companies — Spain's Repsol, Equinor in Norway and UK-based Shell — have committed to keeping production volumes flat. Chesapeake Energy, based in the US, was set to drop production in 2024 but its longer term strategy remains unclear.

Most companies evaluated by Carbon Tracker, however, were still planning to expand their fossil fuel production in the next decade. At the extreme end, American multinational ConocoPhillips is aiming to increase production by 47% over the next five to eight years, compared with its 2022 output.

These expansion plans appear to be at odds with prevailing energy trends. In its World Energy Outlook published last year, the International Energy Agency projected that demand for fossil fuels would begin to decrease in the near future.

"The momentum behind clean energy transitions is now sufficient for global demand for coal, oil and natural gas to all reach a high point before 2030," said the IEA report. That opens up the risk of oversupply and that these major companies may have to abandon some of their expansion plans.

"Companies must be aware of how the switch from fossil fuels to clean technologies might impact their bottom lines," said Mike Coffin, Carbon Tracker's lead expert on oil, gas and mining, in September. "They continue to put investors at risk by failing to plan for production cuts as the energy transition gathers pace."

Only one company 'potentially' aligned with Paris goals

Four of the five highest scoring companies were based in Europe. The bottom of the table was dominated by firms in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and, predominantly, the United States.

Accordingly, these companies scored very poorly when ranked against the emissions targets set out in the Paris Agreement. Only one company — Italy's ENI — had targets that Carbon Tracker said were "potentially" aligned with the Paris goals. That means it's aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 across the entire life cycle of its fuel, from the operation of oil and gas plants to the fumes released when the fuel is eventually burned in cars and industrial processes.

In its 2023 analysis, the International Energy Agency said most companies were still focused only on reducing emissions from the production, transport and processing of oil and gas, which account for around 15% of total energy-related greenhouse gas emissions at source.

"Only a fraction of these commitments matches the pace of decline seen in the [2050 net-zero emissions] scenario and most plan to use offsets to achieve their targets," said the report — meaning they plan to fund emission reduction projects elsewhere, rather than focus on reducing their own emissions.

Faye Holder, who investigates oil companies' claims for global NGO Influence Map, told DW's Planet A that fossil fuel companies aren't changing at the rate needed to keep up with the world's transforming energy demands.

"They're also lobbying against policies that would force that change, or bring it about quicker," she said. "At the same time, promoting this very public narrative that they are doing all they can."

Carbon Tracker said fossil fuel companies need to get ready for the inevitable shift away from oil and gas. This will reduce their exposure to investment risk — and benefit the planet.

"The energy transition is already underway, thanks to an initial push from policy action and a boost from technological innovation," said the report. "But it needs to accelerate further still to allow us to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and minimize temperature overshoot."

Edited by: Jennifer Collins