ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

California inmate on death row for 33 years must either be released or retried due to prosecutorial misconduct

Stephanie Becker, CNN
Fri, August 2, 2024 

A convicted murderer who has been on California’s death row for 33 years must either be released or retried after a federal judge on Thursday approved the state attorney general’s request to do so because of prosecutorial misconduct in jury selection decades ago.

The judge’s ruling, at the request of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, gives the Alameda County prosecutor’s office 60 days to retry 71-year-old Curtis Lee Ervin or let him go free. Ervin was found guilty of a 1986 murder-for-hire.

It is the latest development in the ongoing review of dozens of death penalty cases that current Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price says shows prosecutors deliberately excluded Black and Jewish prospective jurors. Price told CNN it is a practice that started in the 1980s and ran through the early 2000s.


On Friday Price’s office told CNN in an email there was no information on plans on how to proceed with Ervin’s case. Bonta conceded the Alameda prosecutors in the Ervin case illegally excluded Black jurors. Alameda County now must make a decision by September 30.

In 1991 jurors found Ervin guilty of murder in the death of Carlene McDonald, the 43-year-old ex-wife of Ervin’s co-defendant, Robert McDonald. McDonald was also found guilty and died in prison. CNN has attempted to reach out to family members of the victim.

Ervin’s lawyer, Pamala Sayasane, said her client is “overjoyed and in disbelief. He’s been incarcerated for 38 years. He’s grateful to everyone who helped him. I’m in a daze, as is my client.”

Sayasane said the state attorney general’s concession “is rarely made. It’s a big thing and it’s going to have ramifications for others on death row.”

CNN has reached out to Bonta’s office for comment.

In a still picture taken from a video, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price speaks during a press conference on June 26 in Oakland, California, about review of dozens of death penalty cases. - KGO

Sayasane told CNN all six potential Black women were excused from serving on the jury. Three male Black potential jurors were excused, although one Black male was seated and another was an alternate, Sayasane said. Excluding potential jurors based on sex, race or ethnicity is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. These are known as Batson violations.

Last year Price initiated an investigation into potential prosecutorial misconduct during jury selection in the case of Ernest Dykes, who was found guilty in 1993 of shooting a 9-year-old. Last month, she announced plans for the resentencing of Dykes and one other death row inmate for Batson violations. She also suggested some of the death penalty prosecutors may have acted criminally.

In her interview with CNN, Price said a current prosecution team uncovered boxes with notes showing previous deputy district attorneys had intentionally excluded Black and Jewish jurors.

“The markings by the prosecutor next to the names of Black jurors were affirmative evidence of the prosecution’s fixation with the jurors’ race,” said Brian Pomerantz, an attorney who is lead counsel for three of the cases being reviewed and is involved in the settlement of dozens of the other cases.

“All of these people deserve to have either a new trial or a resolution of their current case that rectifies the injustice … of the unconstitutional trials that they had,” Pomerantz said.

Prosecuting a crime again almost four decades old “would be almost impossible to retry,” according to defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, whose high-profile clients have included Phil Spector, Casey Anthony and Aaron Hernandez.

“Witnesses have died so you’d have to rely on transcripts,” which she said is “tough for a jury to sit through.” Baden said another difficulty is “new prosecutors don’t want to sully their reputation” by losing a controversial case.

In April the Alameda County DA’s office shared some of the notes written during jury selection by prosecutors in the Dykes case. Those notes showed a bias against potential Jewish and Black jurors, according to the DA’s office.

CNN previously shared images of the notes and others given to CNN by Pomerantz. “Must go” was written next to the name of a Black man; another juror had the word “Jewish” underlined on their questionnaire. Farther down, a handwritten note reads: “I liked him better than any other Jew. But no way.” Dykes will be resentenced on August 13 and is expected to be released early next year after decades in prison.

Price, who took office as the county district attorney last year and is currently facing a recall, has said she believes racial profiling of jurors was potentially widespread and well-known in the department under her predecessors. Studies have also found patterns of racial bias in jury selection from California and Washington to Connecticut and New York, as well as the Deep South.

Price has said her office is engaged in settlement negotiations between lawyers representing inmates on death row whose cases are under review and the California Attorney General’s Office.

WWIII

Legal complexities add to Beijing's South China Sea disputes with its neighbours

South China Morning Post
Fri, Aug 2, 2024

Tensions are mounting in the South China Sea - a hotly contested and globally significant waterway that's become a flashpoint for conflict. In the third instalment of a four-part series we look at some of the claimants' legal efforts to support their case.

In recent weeks, two of the countries with competing territorial claims in the South China Sea have asked the United Nations to recognise that the outer limits of their boundaries should extend beyond 200 nautical miles (370km).

Vietnam's proposal in July to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) followed a similar submission the previous month by the Philippines. Both could bring added complexity to the tensions surrounding the disputed waterway.

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Hanoi and Manila are each seeking formal recognition that they have an extended continental shelf (ECS) into a contested part of the South China Sea which is subject to multiple claims - including from both parties, as well as Beijing.

The latest requests bring the total ECS submissions in the South China Sea to five, with the first dating back as far as 2009. None have been resolved and the outer limits outlined in the proposals frequently overlap.

Success would grant the submitting states exclusive sovereign rights to the natural resources of their continental shelves. But to complicate matters further, the CLCS will not review submissions that are embroiled in land or maritime territorial disputes.


While there is a strong possibility that the submissions may not be actively reviewed by the CLCS, Chinese experts are keeping a keen eye on the potential repercussions they could have on Beijing's claims in the waters.

According to an associate professor in Guangzhou who specialises in the South China Sea and asked to remain anonymous, the number of ECS submissions related to the waterway could continue to grow and Beijing should not overlook them.

"Staking claims to ECS is poised to deepen the intricacies of the already complex dispute. Each nation involved is keen to innovate strategies to bolster its maritime claims, with the ECS claim to emerge as a key tactic," he said.

"This approach could potentially open up a new front for verbal skirmishes among the claimant countries."

The area within 200 nautical miles of a state's coastline is generally recognised as its exclusive economic zone, with the waters beyond designated as the high seas.

However, if a state has a continental shelf that extends beyond 200 nautical miles of its coastline, the CLCS is the only viable channel to establish sovereign rights over the area.

The 21-member body, established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) includes experts on geology, geophysics and hydrography, who consider geophysical and bathymetric information presented by claimants.

However, the CLCS "is purely a scientific body, not a legal body", explained Chen Chen-ju, associate professor of National Chengchi University's College of Law in Taiwan.

"The roles of its members differ from those in courts or arbitration tribunals. Hence, the commission is not tasked with dispute settlement," she said.

The CLCS reviews the submitted material and determines whether it meets the requirements laid out in the convention, before making its recommendations - which countries can choose not to follow or make a revised submission, but that will become binding if accepted.

"Although the legal term is a 'recommendation', it comes with legally binding effect, which means that the outer limits will become a fixed boundary separating seabed areas within national jurisdictions and the international seabed areas, which are reserved for the common heritage of humanity," Chen said.

The Philippines' claims have so far been rejected by China, Vietnam and Malaysia and other states are likely to reject the Vietnamese claim, potentially stalling the progress of both submissions.

According to maritime experts, considerations of the unilateral submissions from the Philippines and Vietnam are likely to be deferred by the CLCS, which has yet to review more than 40 claims accumulated internationally since 2001.

Liu Dan, a research fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's KoGuan School of Law, said that even an uncontested ECS submission usually took years to consider because "the caseload is piling up for the commission to review".

But coastal states were entitled to file submissions and it was worth doing, because of the potential benefits of obtaining maritime entitlements from a legally recognised continental shelf, she said.

"Filing a claim poses no risk to the Philippines, as the worst-case scenario is that the claim might not be considered by the commission. However, it could help attract support from other countries, helping to reinforce its footing in the South China Sea."


Chen said Manila's ECS submission could be interpreted as a continuation and practical application of its South China Sea lawfare - which culminated in a 2016 arbitration ruling in its favour, a result Beijing has not accepted.

According to Chen, "by inheriting the results of the arbitration finding and proposing that the seabed surrounding features [in the Spratly Islands] is within part of its ECS, Manila is leveraging the arbitration to further advocate its South China Sea claims".

An image provided by the Philippines' armed forces of an encounter between the Chinese coastguard and a Philippine resupply mission at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on June 17. Photo: AP alt=An image provided by the Philippines' armed forces of an encounter between the Chinese coastguard and a Philippine resupply mission at the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea on June 17. Photo: AP>

In the anonymous Guangzhou academic's view, the invocation of the ECS represents a strategic move from Manila to effectively challenge Beijing, "compelling it to stretch its resources in response".

"Such an approach of extending its continental shelf is a coordinated move together with the arbitration ruling to further cause harm to Beijing's stance," she said.

Expert opinion diverged on Hanoi's impetus for following Manila's lead and seeking recognition of its own extended continental shelf, and whether the claimants were coordinating their submissions to the CLCS.

Isaac Kardon, senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Vietnam and the Philippines might demonstrate a certain level of coordination, or at least convergence of interests in their latest actions.

"There appears to be some coordination between them, or at least shared sympathies and momentum towards making clear, legal claims that contradict and counteract China's opaque claims," he said.

The associate professor in Guangzhou contended that Vietnam's submission was likely to have been approved by President To Lam to score domestic political support by increasing his country's posture in the dispute.


China and Vietnam have competing claims in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters alt=China and Vietnam have competing claims in the South China Sea. Photo: Reuters>

Ding Duo, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Law and Policy at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said Vietnam's submission was "clearly a countermeasure" to the Philippines' ECS claims.

"The Philippines' submission is notably extensive and stretches westward, encroaching significantly into the area Vietnam recognises as its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf boundaries," he said.

But Ding noted that the timing was opportune for Hanoi and it had its "nuanced calculations".

"The Philippines' current maritime provocations have significantly dominated China's attention and energy. Consequently, should Vietnam lodge a similar claim now, it is less likely to become the main focus of attention," he said.

"This strategic timing means Vietnam can assert its claims without becoming a main target of China's, [as opposed to] if it were to proceed alone at a different time, which might spotlight Vietnam undesirably."

According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Liu, the latest ECS claims could lead to a "spillover effect", encouraging other claimant states to make similar moves.

The enduring negative impact of the 2016 arbitration case, coupled with the repercussions of such ECS claims in the region, could pose a serious threat to Beijing's claims, she said.

"[These factors] could potentially encourage other claimants to overlook China's legal assertions in the South China Sea, opting to partition and gradually encroach upon the waters through ECS claims or bilateral or multilateral boundary agreements."

Liu was referring to the 2009 maritime boundary agreement between Brunei and Malaysia, as well as the 2003 continental shelf delimitation agreement between Indonesia and Vietnam.

In late 2022, Hanoi and Jakarta also successfully finalised long-running negotiations to delineate the borders of their exclusive economic zones in the region.

Strategically, China could not afford to disregard the ECS claims, even though the possibility they would be reviewed by the CLCS might be minimal, Liu said.

"China should attach great importance to such submissions. They are essentially tests to determine its stance and resolve amid the ongoing and intense disputes in the South China Sea."

Experts noted that China had yet to publish its baselines in the broader South China Sea region, a necessary step before the breadth of a maritime territory can be measured under UNCLOS.

Beijing has only specified a set of base points in the Gulf of Tonkin, the northwestern portion of the South China Sea where Beijing and Hanoi signed a delineation agreement in 2000.

Beijing has also not clarified the legal meaning of its vast nine-dash line, which encompasses up to 90 per cent of the disputed waters, stretching about 2,000km (1,240 miles) from the Chinese mainland to within just a few hundred kilometres of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Ding noted that baseline information was a prerequisite for the CLCS to make a determination. China's lack of defined baselines would present a legal and technical challenge when it tried to submit its own ECS claims, he said.

According to Chen, Beijing could hit a bottleneck in its narrative if it advances ECS claims in the southern part of the South China Sea. It may become difficult to reconcile such submissions with the established stance of its nine-dash line, she said.

Beijing may opt out of submitting its own ECS proposals in the Spratly Islands, avoiding the need to clarify the legal justification of the nine-dash line and preserve the flexibility of its interpretation, Chen said.

Ding said another calculation that Beijing may be making in not actively seeking the validation of an ECS lies in the fact that such submissions are not conducive to solving maritime disagreements among the claimant states.

"China's primary priority is to tackle issues of territorial sovereignty and manage conflicts effectively," he said. "Ultimately, the path to resolving the disputes will necessitate a return to the negotiation table and claimant states engaging in thorough consultations."


Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

YOUTH IN REVOLT

Scuffles at Nigeria protest against worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation

Alexis Caraco
Fri, 2 August 2024

Scuffles at Nigeria protest against worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation


Nigerian police fired tear gas at protesters in Abuja on Thursday as demonstrations broke out across Nigeria against the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Protesters carrying placards, bells and Nigerian flags were met with a heavy security presence on the streets of the capital, with police firing tear gas to disperse the crowds.

In Abuja, where a court granted an order late Wednesday to restrict the protest to a stadium, police repeatedly fired salvos of tear gas at protesters gathered in a district with mainly government offices.


Nigeria’s public officials, frequently accused of corruption, are among the best paid in Africa, a stark contrast in a country that, despite being one of the continent’s top oil producers, also has some of the world’s poorest and hungriest people.

Roads were blocked in parts of the country by either protesters carrying banners or armed security forces who were deployed overnight.

Nigeria anti-hardship protests turn deadly as police fire shots, tear gas

RFI
Fri, 2 August 2024 at 2:40 am GMT-6·1-min read




At least 13 protesters have been killed during mass protests in Nigeria over the country's economic crisis, a rights group claimed Friday. Nigeria's police chief defended the security forces, saying they had acted professionally.

Security forces fired gunshots and used tear gas to quell mass protests across Nigeria on Thursday, as thousands of mainly young people rallied against the country's worst cost-of-living crisis for years.

Authorities confirmed four people were killed by a bomb and hundreds arrested.

Kaduna state police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said on Thursday that the police had fired tear gas at protesters but had not used live ammunition.

Two people were killed in northern Niger state where protesters clashed with security forces after blocking a major road the local Daily Trust newspaper reported.

Amnesty International’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said that it independently verified the 13 deaths that were reported by witnesses, families of the victims and lawyers.

In a statement released on Friday, police chief Kayode Egbetokun said his officers had not violated the “fundamental rights” of any of the protesters.
Increasing hardship

Protesters began demonstrating on Thursday in Abuja, the commercial capital Lagos and several other cities over economic reforms that have led to rampant inflation and inflicted increasing hardship on ordinary Nigerians.

The "day of rage" saw youths demonstrating in the city of Maiduguri, the hotbed of a militant insurgency in the northeast of the country, in the face of a heavy security presence.


Rights group says security forces have killed 9 as Nigeria protests over hardship enter a second day

CHINEDU ASADU

Updated Fri, 2 August 2024 said Friday, while authorities said a police officer was killed and several others injured. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigerian security forces clashed with protesters during mass demonstrations over the country's economic crisis, leaving at least nine people dead, a rights group said Friday. One police officer was killed as the military threatened to intervene to quell any violence.

Meanwhile, four people were killed and 34 injured Thursday when a bomb went off in a crowd of protesters in the conflict-hit northeastern state of Borno, authorities said.

Police continued to fire tear gas at protesters in various locations, including the capital of Abuja, as they regrouped on Friday.

The military will also intervene if the looting and destruction of public properties witnessed on Thursday continued, Nigeria’s defense chief Gen. Christopher Musa said. “We will not fold our arms and allow this country to be destroyed,” Musa told reporters in Abuja.

More than 400 protesters had been arrested as of Friday, the Nigerian police said. Curfews were imposed in five northern states after the looting of government and public properties, but protesters defied the curfews in some places, resulting in arrests and clashes with police.

National police chief Kayode Egbetokun said Thursday night that the police are on red alert and may seek the help of the military.

Amnesty International’s Nigeria director Isa Sanusi said in an interview that the group independently verified deaths that were reported by witnesses, families of the victims, and lawyers.

The protests were mainly over food shortages and accusations of misgovernment and corruption in Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria’s public officials are among the best paid in Africa, a stark contrast in a country that has some of the world’s poorest and hungriest people despite being one of the continent’s top oil producers.

The cost-of-living crisis — the worst in a generation — is fueled by surging inflation that is at a 28-year high and the government’s economic policies that have pushed the local currency to record low against the dollar.

Carrying placards, bells, tree branches and Nigeria’s green-and-white flag, the mostly young protesters chanted songs as they listed their demands, including the reinstatement of gas and electricity subsidies that were canceled as part of an economic reform effort.

Violence and looting were concentrated in Nigeria's northern states, which are among the hardest hit by hunger and insecurity. Dozens of protesters were seen running with looted goods including furniture and gallons of cooking oil.

Egbetokun, the police chief, said officers “aimed at ensuring peaceful conduct." But, he added “regrettably, events in some major cities today showed that what was being instigated was mass uprising and looting, not protest.”

The police chief’s claim was disputed by rights groups and activists. “Our findings so far show that security personnel at the locations where lives were lost deliberately used tactics designed to kill,” Sanusi said.

Authorities feared the protests, which have been gathering momentum on social media, could be a replay of the deadly 2020 demonstrations against police brutality in this West African nation, or as a wave of violence similar to last month’s chaotic tax hike protests in Kenya.

However, the threats that emerged as the protests turned violent in some places did “not require that level of response” from police officers, said Anietie Ewang, a Nigerian researcher with Human Rights Watch.

Protesters Defy Nigeria’s Bid to Avoid Kenya-Style Dissent

Anthony Osae-Brown
Thu, 1 August 2024 at 8:45 am GMT-6·2-min read


Protesters Defy Nigeria’s Bid to Avoid Kenya-Style Dissent

(Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis worsened as protests mushroomed across the nation, resulting in the deaths of at least six people and belying President Bola Tinubu’s attempt to avoid a Kenya-style imbroglio.

Security operatives killed people in a town in the north-central Niger state and a number of others were injured, the Daily Trust reported. A 24-hour curfew was declared in Borno state in the north east after an explosion killed 16 people on Wednesday, the newspaper said.

Organizers of the demonstrations — whose social-media campaigning methods are similar to those that were recently used to mobilize protesters in Kenya — oppose government policies that have driven inflation to a near three-decade high. There’s a risk that the unrest could deter Tinubu’s administration from continuing to implement its economic-reform program, which in turn may crimp its efforts to attract foreign capital inflows into a country where 40% of its more than 200 million people live in extreme poverty.

Small groups of demonstrators took to the streets of Lagos and the capital, Abuja, on Thursday. Police fired tear gas in Abuja in a bid to disperse the crowds.

While bank workers reported for duty, some lenders closed their doors to customers to forestall potential attacks. Those that did open in Lagos were largely empty, as were the city’s usually bustling streets.

There were also pockets of protests in Kano, where a government-owned property was looted, and Katsina in the north, and Port Harcourt in the southwest, according to local media reports.

Protests that erupted in Kenya in mid-June culminated in hundreds of people storming parliament and forced the government to abandon measures aimed at raising more than $2 billion of revenue needed to plug the East African nation’s budget shortfall. At least 61 people have died.

Nigeria has experienced its own deadly protests in the past: at least 56 people were killed in rallies against police brutality in 2020, according to Amnesty International. The popular Lekki Tollgate in the wealthy Victoria Island area — where some protesters were killed in 2020 — was largely empty on Thursday amid a heavy police deployment.

The government has repeatedly tried to defuse calls for the nationwide protest, with Tinubu warning last week that “we do not want to turn Nigeria to Sudan.” Thousands of people have died and millions of others have been displaced since a civil war began in Sudan in April last year.

The Lagos State Police Command said on Wednesday that it safely neutralized an improvised explosive device in the city, while warning residents to be careful of suspicious objects and report them.

Sign up here for the twice-weekly Next Africa newsletter

--With assistance from Emele Onu, Arijit Ghosh and Mike Cohen.

People protest against the economic hardship on the street in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday, Aug 2, 2024. At least nine people were killed by security forces as protesters clashed with police during mass demonstrations over the country's economic crisis, a rights group

Sick sea lions stranded on California coast as experts fear algae poisoning

Abené Clayton and agencies
Fri, 2 August 2024 


A beached sea lion exhibiting signs of domoic acid poisoning.Photograph: Olga Houtsma/AP

Sea lions are stranding themselves on a long stretch of the California coast in what experts say could be a sign of widespread poisoning by a harmful algae bloom this summer.

The Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (Cimwi) said that since 26 July, it had been inundated by daily reports of sick sea lions along the shoreline in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

The marine mammals are suffering from domoic acid, a neurotoxin that affects the brain and heart, the institute said in a statement. The poisoning event is largely affecting adult female California sea lions, it said.

Samuel Dover, the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit, said that his team of 150 people – mostly volunteers – were in the first week of domoic acid season and had rescued 23 animals so far. Coastal Vandenberg space force base released photos of sea lions being rescued from one of its beaches this week.

“In a typical no-domoic-acid-day, you may get 2-3 calls, but during domoic acid, you’re getting 100 calls,” said Dover, who is also a veterinarian. “We’re kind of getting used to it – not in a good way, mind you – but we know where to utilize our resources without stretching ourselves too thin.”

On Friday, Cimwi received over 100 calls and performed 20 rescues. But even with these interventions, more than half of the sea lions the group encountered died before they can get treatment or make it back into the water.

“It’s depressing,” Dover adds. “You go out there knowing what you can and cannot do because you have an animal having an active seizure and its chance of survival is slim to none.”

Staff with the group have been responding to calls along the 155 miles of coastline the group covers, Cimwi said in a press release.

“Rising ocean temperatures and excess nutrients are fueling these blooms, producing toxins that enter the food chain through small fish,” Vandenberg space force said in an Instagram caption that accompanied photos of a stranded sea lion being treated by wildlife officials.

“Local efforts, including monitoring and rescue initiatives, are in place to mitigate the impact.”

Outbreaks of domoic acid poisoning are common along the California coast and have caused several mass sickening events in recent years. The neurotoxin is produced by a microscopic alga that works its way up the food chain by accumulating in smaller marine animals, such as crustaceans, fish and squid, and then gets transferred to larger animals such as sea lions, dolphins and birds. People can also get sickened.

The symptoms for affected animals can include disorientation, head weaving, foaming at the mouth and seizures. Some sea lions get through the worst of domoic acid poisoning in one to three days and return to the water on their own, according to CIMWI. Those who need further care are taken to a rehabilitative facility where they are given treatments like anti-seizure medication and fed fish that do not carry the toxin.

Last June saw an especially severe outbreak, with marine mammal rescue workers receiving dozens of calls a day about sickened animals.

While such events are naturally occurring, scientists have said that domoic acid outbreaks seems to be increasing in their severity, and are exploring the links to warming ocean temperatures.

“I’ve been studying domoic acid for 30 years and I have a feeling it’s getting worse based on the records we continue to break,” the executive director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, Clarissa Anderson, told the Guardian in an interview last year.

“Last year had the highest recorded levels of domoic acid in animal tissue we’ve ever seen.”

As these outbreaks increase in frequency from every two to three years to becoming an annual occurrence, Dover wants to see more municipalities put money behind groups such as Cimwi who work to keep the beaches safe from sick sea lions and work to get the animals the help they need.

“These animals are tripping, I guarantee you,” Dover said. “This is a public safety issue and there are a lot of times we feel like we’re not getting resources.”

‘The obnoxious one’: new book by Trump’s nephew exposes a sordid past

Lloyd Green
Sun, 4 August 2024 

Fred Trump III’s book All in the Family.Composite: Gallery Books, Guardian Design


All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way is a 352-page portrait of Trumpian dysfunction. With an assist from Ellis Henican, Chris Christie’s go-to co-author and a Fox News commentator, Fred Trump III delivers a well-paced and engrossing read.

The author is the son of the late Fred Trump Jr and a nephew of Donald Trump. Trump III thinks his uncle is a jerk, vindictive and terrified of losing, but also someone who struggles with accepting responsibility. The buck always stops elsewhere.

“In my family that sometimes seems like the cast of a 1950s sitcom, my uncle Donald had a role of his own,” Fred III writes. “He was the obnoxious one.”


No surprise there.

“Many of his adult traits – his determination, his short fuse – first displayed themselves in his childhood.”

Over time, they festered.

“I can’t sum up his early days in a single slogan, but I think I can do it two: ‘I wanna do what I wanna do’ and also ‘That’s not fair.’”

Think of Trump’s reaction when he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, or was beaten by Ted Cruz in the 2016 Iowa caucus. You get the picture. If Trump fails to win, the system must be rigged.

Fred Trump III is a successful New York real estate executive, with a career forged outside the Trump Organization. With Lisa, his wife, he campaigns for rights for disabled people. William Trump, their son, suffers from a lifelong neurological disability, which his father describes in poignant detail.

When Donald Trump was a teenager, he was banished to military school. There, he rose through the ranks of cadets. “He was a stickler for everything,” Fred informs us. “When he performed inspections, he showed no mercy.”

On the other hand, “thrust into such a high leadership position, the hard-charging senior … suddenly forgot how to lead”. Past is prelude. Fast-forward to the outbreak of Covid-19, in 2020. As president, Trump repeatedly told governors the burden of caring for the sick fell on their shoulders first.

Martin O’Malley, a Democrat and a former governor of Maryland, called it the “Darwinian approach to federalism”. Trump also argued that more Covid testing “creates more cases”.

At the time, one administration insider confided to the Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.”

Fred Trump III’s father was the black sheep of the family. He drank too much and died too soon. After his death, paterfamilias Fred C Trump in effect cut Fred Trump III and his sister, Mary Trump, out of his will – at the urging of Donald and his surviving siblings.

William’s condition meant non-stop care and a mound of bills. Trump III now delivers a robust “thank you” to “William’s amazing angels”, his caregivers, along with his medical professionals and others. For a time, Donald Trump was the one family member who helped meet the cost of William’s care. Eventually, he grew reluctant.

“Donald took a second as if he was thinking about the whole situation,” Fred writes. “‘I don’t know,’ he finally said, letting out a sigh. ‘He doesn’t recognise you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.’”

Trump III describes his own reaction: “Wait! What did he just say? That my son doesn’t recognize me? That I should just let him die?

“Did he really just say that? That I should let my son die … so I could move down to Florida?

“Really?”

All this from a president who brags of being “the most pro-life president in American history”.

Then there’s race. Once upon a time, Steve Bannon pondered whether Trump, his former campaign and White House boss, was a racist. “He had not heard Trump use the N-word but could easily imagine him doing so,” Michael Wolff wrote in Siege, his second Trump tell-all.

Now, with fewer than 100 days until election day, Fred Trump III delivers his answer. In a fit of rage, he says, the N-word cascaded from Trump’s mouth.

In the early 1970s, someone left two gashes in the roof of Trump’s white Cadillac convertible.

“Donald was pissed,” Fred remembers. “Boy, was he pissed.”

“‘Niggers,’ I recall him saying disgustedly. ‘Look what the niggers did.’”

When the Guardian broke news of this passage, the Trump campaign issued a blanket denial.

“Completely fabricated, and total fake news of the highest order”, said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson. “Anyone who knows President Trump knows he would never use such language, and false stories like this have been thoroughly debunked.” Tell that to Bannon and Wolff.

For his part, Bannon has compared Trump’s infamous escalator ride to announce his candidacy to Triumph of the Will, the Nazi propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl, according to Insurgency: How Republicans Lost Their Party and Got Everything They Ever Wanted, by Jeremy Peters, a New York Times reporter.

Mary Trump would probably be similarly unimpressed by the Trump campaign’s denial. In 2020, she published Too Much and Never Enough, a bestseller about her family and her uncle. Speaking during her book tour, she said her uncle was “clearly racist”.

Fred Trump III says he never voted for his uncle. Rather, he cast ballots for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. “Did I want the supreme court to reverse abortion rights by overturning Roe v Wade? No.”

Fred also considers Stormy Daniels’ liaison with Donald Trump, the source of his 34 convictions, arising from hush-money payments. Now, with Trump squaring off against Kamala Harris, the primordial forces of race and sex will occupy center stage in the election campaign.

“America isn’t close to finished with the Trumps,” Trump III writes. “And neither, it seems, am I.”

All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way is published in the US by Simon & Schuster

Two Russian ex-prisoners from East-West swap want to return home

THAT WAS QUICK

Reuters
Sun, 4 August 2024 



Two Russian ex-prisoners from East-West swap want to return home
Russian dissidents Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Andrei Pivovarov hold a press conference after being freed, in Bonn

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - Two of the Russian dissidents who were freed from prison and arrived in Germany as part of last week's major East-West prisoner swap say they are already thinking about returning to Russia, but vow to continue political activism even from abroad.

The swap saw eight Russians, including a convicted murderer, returned home from Western countries in exchange for 16 prisoners freed from Russian and Belarusian jails, many of them Russian dissidents alongside Americans like Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

“As people who were actually deported, who were kicked out of the country, we all have a great desire to return,” dissident Andrei Pivovarov told Reuters in an interview in Bonn on Saturday.

"I definitely want to be in Russia. I am a Russian politician and that is very important to me," Pivovarov said. "It is clear that they (the Russian authorities) will not allow us to return, although we want to."

Ilya Yashin, an opposition activist imprisoned in 2022 for criticising President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, also expressed his desire to return home.

"I am truly pained by my expulsion from Russia, despite all the gratitude I feel towards those who wished me well and saved me," Yashin told Reuters. "But I sincerely say that my place is in Russia ... I have dedicated my life to my country."

Yashin said he was happy to see his family and friends for the first time in a long while. But on the other hand, he said it was "a hard pill to swallow".

"It’s very difficult for me emotionally because I understand that I was set free at the price of setting free an assassin, a person who actually committed a bloody crime," Yashin said.

This referred to Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of the 2019 murder of a former Chechen militant in Berlin, who was among those freed.

"I said it a number of times that I did not want to be part of any exchange lists," Yashin said. "The Kremlin representatives gladly included my name because for them my exchange essentially means expulsion," he added.

He said he planned to continue with what he called the anti-war education of Russians, and helping Russian political prisoners.

Pivovarov also said he wanted to continue with his opposition activities from outside of Russia.

"Coordinating anything from inside is impossible," Pivovarov said. "I’m not planning to step aside," he added.

(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Erol Dogrudogan; Writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Media exposure has forced the government’s hand on Centrepay. The contrast with robodebt could not be more stark

Christopher Knaus and Lorena Allam
Fri, 2 August 2024 
THE GUARDIAN UIK

Labor deserves credit for acting on Centrepay in contrast to the robodebt scandal when Centrelink and the Coalition refused to even countenance the criticism.

Composite: Guardian Design

In the months since the government announced it would overhaul its controversial Centrepay debit system, one thing has become abundantly clear.

Many already knew it was failing.

Those working with those using the government-run debit system, particularly those in remote parts of the country, knew Centrepay was capable of facilitating shocking financial exploitation of the nation’s most vulnerable.

Regulators and watchdogs knew. Financial advocates and community lawyers knew.

There was no shortage of voices screaming into the tin ear of government.

Related: Consumer watchdog urges crackdown on businesses using Centrepay to cause financial harm

The corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, has directly warned Services Australia that predatory businesses, many of whom had become Asic investigation targets, were continuing to use Centrepay to exploit welfare recipients.

The consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has been hearing complaints “for many years” via its Consumer Consultative Committee regarding “the conduct of some Centrepay businesses and the ability of Services Australia to manage poor conduct”.

The Australian Energy Regulator even launched a major prosecution of energy giant AGL over its use of Centrepay to continue taking welfare money from hundreds of customers who had departed as customers years earlier. Even that failed to prompt further audits of AGL’s use of the system. The company is defending the case, saying it cannot be held to have unlawfully overcharged the welfare recipients because it never directly asked for the payments.

It wasn’t until Guardian Australia exposed shocking Centrepay-enabled financial exploitation that the government finally announced its intention for “fundamental” reform. The government said it had been conducting “priority work” on Centrepay reform behind the scenes earlier, but nothing concrete was announced until months after Guardian Australia’s investigation was published.

The situation poses a difficult question about the formulation and improvement of public policy in this country.

Why does it take a concerted media effort to force government to act on something it has long known was a problem?

Centrepay was established in 1998 under the Howard government as a voluntary bill-paying service for people receiving Centrelink payments to make automatic deductions for essentials like rent and utilities.

It currently has more than 620,000 users. A large percentage of them are receiving disability support payments. Almost a third are Aboriginal people, predominantly women, from remote areas, receiving jobseeker or parenting payments.


Over time Centrepay has expanded to include a range of businesses and services.


There are now more than 15,000 companies approved to access Centrepay, which facilitated 23.7 million transactions last year worth $2.7bn. Each transaction incurs a 99c fee, paid to the government by businesses using the system.

Over the past decade, consumer advocates have raised concerns that several of the businesses registered to access Centrepay may be causing financial harm to vulnerable customers.


The corporate regulator is investigating dozens of companies. At least four that it has already penalised remain on the system.


In May 2024, the government announced a full review of the system to increase compliance, transparency and strengthen auditing processes.


Services Australia, which operates the system, says it is working towards improving delivery.

In 2022-23, contracts ended for 12 Centrepay businesses due to non-compliance.

Let’s take a step back. Many readers would not have heard of Centrepay before the Guardian’s investigation in February.

But it is not some fringe system.

Centrepay is used widely. About 600,000 welfare recipients are currently using it to make payments to 15,000 businesses.

The system was designed with good intent. It was created as a budgeting tool, allowing welfare recipients to ensure they can pay for their essentials – rent, energy bills and healthcare costs – before their payments are chewed up by other living costs.

In practice, it operates in a similar way to direct debit.

The critical difference is that the system takes money directly from a person’s welfare payment before it hits their bank account.

The money goes straight from the government’s coffers to the business.

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If implemented as intended, it remains sensible policy and a useful tool.

Centrepay is not operating as intended.

The problems are glaring and numerous. The rules around the system’s use remain completely inadequate.

Businesses are allowed, for example, to take 100% of a person’s welfare payment.

Even the more sensible rules governing Centrepay use are not being widely enforced.

In 2022-23, Services Australia investigated just 4% of businesses on Centrepay for compliance. From that small pool, staggering rates of non-compliance were found.

About 42% of the 382 government-approved businesses were found to be breaching the rules.

Some non-compliance is minor. Some is shocking.

Guardian Australia has identified three major energy retailers – AGL, Ergon Energy and Origin – who are accused of using Centrepay to continue taking money from the welfare payments of departed customers.

Origin alone has been accused of wrongly taking $2.5m from the welfare payments of nearly 3,000 ex-customers. AGL is accused of taking $700,000 from the welfare payments of about 575 vulnerable Australians after they ceased being AGL customers, an average of $1,233 from each individual’s welfare payments.

AGL denied it had authority to control deductions via Centrepay but said it took immediate steps to “remediate the issue” once it became aware of overpayments. Origin said it “proactively reported these issues to Services Australia”. Ergon said it had “robust” billing processes in place and quickly acts to refund any overpayments.

But the problems go beyond alleged non-compliance by companies that have a legitimate claim to be on Centrepay. The government is allowing businesses access to Centrepay that, clearly, should not have been allowed anywhere near the system.

Related: ‘I had no access’: ex-residents of controversial rehab centre say welfare payments were taken against their wishes

Earlier this year, the Guardian spoke with residents at an extreme Christian drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre named Esther House who said they felt forced to sign up to Centrepay.

Centrepay allowed the service to prop itself up with a guaranteed source of income, straight from the government, while it allegedly conducted gay conversion practices, exorcisms and forced baptisms, and subjected residents to psychological and emotional abuse.

In remote Indigenous communities, the Guardian has revealed how Centrepay allowed a rent-to-buy business to charge a single mother of five $6,500 for a TV worth $1,400.

The revelations should shock the public. But they shouldn’t shock government.

Financial advocates and community legal centres have been airing similar complaints for years. Louise Pratt, a Labor senator, has unflinchingly pursued Centrepay’s failings for years.

Yet it was only in May, after Guardian Australia’s pursuit of the matter, that the government announced a reform process.

Services Australia now appears to be genuinely engaging in a thorough consultation process, which includes meeting with affected welfare recipients and listening to stakeholders, to properly inform future Centrepay reforms.

The government deserves credit for acting, even belatedly.

Anyone paying attention will see obvious parallels to robodebt.

But there is a key difference apparent only to close observers of both scandals.

Related: Centrepay scandal: Labor to reform debit scheme to combat ‘predatory behaviour’

When Guardian Australia first revealed the deep flaws with robodebt and its unfettered reliance on income averaging in late 2016, the reporting was met with steadfast obstinance and denial.

The then leaders of Centrelink and their Coalition portfolio ministers refused to even countenance the criticism.

They rubbished media reporting and leaked against critics.

It took years to force the government to confront the obvious problems with the system.

When asked how the culture at Services Australia had changed recently, the new chief executive, David Hazlehurst, pointed to his agency’s handling of the Centrepay criticism.

“We’ve really adopted a very open approach to engaging with stakeholders on that,” he told Senate estimates in June. “We’re not seeking to come up with all the answers and polish them within an inch of or lives and then consult. We’re actually seeking to engage with people early.”

“Early” may seem a stretch to many who have been complaining about Centrepay for years.

But, at this early stage at least, the stark contrast between its handling of this and robodebt offers some hope of improvement.

Let’s hope the optimism is not misplaced.

 

​​​​​​​Incidence of heart attacks and strokes was lower after COVID-19 vaccination, finds study of 46 million adults

Health Data Research UK

A new study, published today in Nature Communications and involving nearly the whole adult population of England, has found that the incidence of heart attacks and strokes was lower after COVID-19 vaccination than before or without vaccination.

Research led by the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Edinburgh and enabled by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Data Science Centre at Health Data Research UK analysed de-identified health records from 46 million adults in England between 8 December 2020 and 23 January 2022. Data scientists compared the incidence of cardiovascular diseases after vaccination with the incidence before or without vaccination, during the first two years of the vaccination programme.

The study showed that the incidence of arterial thromboses, such as heart attacks and strokes, was up to 10% lower in the 13 to 24 weeks after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Following a second dose, the incidence was up to 27% lower after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and up to 20% lower after the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine. The incidence of common venous thrombotic events – mainly pulmonary embolism and lower limb deep venous thrombosis – followed a similar pattern.

Co-first author Dr Samantha Ip, Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, said: “We studied COVID-19 vaccines and cardiovascular disease in nearly 46 million adults in England and found a lower incidence of common cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, following each vaccination than before or without vaccination. This research further supports the large body of evidence on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, which has been shown to provide protection against severe COVID-19 and saved millions of lives worldwide.”

Previous research found that the incidence of rare cardiovascular complications is higher after some COVID-19 vaccines. For example, incidences of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported following mRNA-based vaccines such as the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine, and vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia following adenovirus-based vaccines such as the AstraZeneca vaccine. This study supports these findings, but importantly it did not identify new adverse cardiovascular conditions associated with COVID-19 vaccination and offers further reassurance that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks.

The incidence of cardiovascular disease is higher after COVID-19, especially in severe cases. This may explain why the incidence of heart attacks and strokes is lower in vaccinated people compared with unvaccinated people, but further explanations are beyond the scope of this study.

Professor William Whiteley, Associate Director at the BHF Data Science Centre and Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: “The COVID-19 vaccination programme rollout began strongly in the UK, with over 90% of the population over the age of 12 vaccinated with at least one dose by January 2022.

“This England-wide study offers patients reassurance of the cardiovascular safety of first, second and booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. It demonstrates that the benefits of second and booster doses, with fewer common cardiovascular events include heart attacks and strokes after vaccination, outweigh the very rare cardiovascular complications.”

The research team used de-identified linked data from GP practices, hospital admissions and death records, which were analysed in a secure data environment provided by NHS England.

Co-last author Dr Venexia Walker, Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, said: “Given the critical role of COVID-19 vaccines in protecting people from COVID-19, it is important we continue to study the benefits and risks associated with them. The availability of population-wide data has allowed us to study different combinations of COVID-19 vaccines and to consider rare cardiovascular complications. This would not have been possible without the very large data that we are privileged to access and our close cross-institution collaborations.”

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-49634-x 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Cohort study of cardiovascular safety of different COVID-19 vaccination doses among 46 million adults in England

Article Publication Date

31-Jul-2024

Researchers pioneer new approach to enhance all-solid-state lithium batteries

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

 

image: 

Schematic illustration of cathode microstructure evolution during charging. (a) Conventional heterogeneous composite cathode and (b) the proposed homogeneous cathode with efficient mixed conduction.

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Credit: Image by QIBEBT

Researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from leading international institutions, have introduced an innovative cathode homogenization strategy for all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASLBs).

This new approach, detailed in their recent publication in Nature Energy on July 31, significantly improves the cycle life and energy density of ASLBs, representing an important advancement in energy storage technology.

Current ASLBs face challenges due to heterogeneous composite cathodes, which require electrochemically inactive additives to enhance conduction. These additives, while necessary, reduce the batteries' energy density and cycle life due to their incompatibility with the layered oxide cathodes, which undergo substantial volume changes during operation.

Researchers have developed a solution: a cathode homogenization strategy utilizing a zero-strain material, Li1.75Ti2(Ge0.25P0.75S3.8Se0.2)3 (LTG0.25PSSe0.2). This material exhibits excellent mixed ionic and electronic conductivity, ensuring efficient charge transport throughout the (dis)charge process without the need for additional conductive additives.

The LTG0.25PSSe0.2 material shows impressive performance metrics, including a specific capacity of 250 mAh g–1 and minimal volume change of just 1.2%. A homogeneous cathode made entirely of LTG0.25PSSe0.2 enables room-temperature ASLBs to achieve over 20,000 cycles of stable operation and a high energy density of 390 Wh kg−1 at the cell level.

“Our cathode homogenization strategy challenges the conventional heterogeneous cathode design,” said Dr. CUI Longfei, co-first author of the study from Solid Energy System Technology Center (SERGY) at QIBEBT. “By eliminating the need for inactive additives, we enhance energy density and extend the battery's cycle life.”

“This approach is a game-changer for ASLBs,” remarked Dr. ZHANG Shu, co-first author of the study from SERGY. “The combination of high energy density and extended cycle life opens up new possibilities for the future of energy storage.”

Prof. JU jiangwei, co-corresponding author of the study from SERGY, added, “The material's stability and performance metrics are impressive, making it a strong candidate for commercial applications in electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems.”

This advancement is supported by extensive testing and theoretical calculations. These analyses confirm the electrochemical and mechanical stability of the homogeneous cathodes, showing no adverse chemical reactions or significant resistance increases after prolonged cycling.

Beyond ASLBs, other battery types, including solid-state sodium batteries, lithium-ion batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and fuel cells, also face challenges with heterogeneous electrodes. These systems often suffer from mechanochemical and electrochemical incompatibilities, creating significant bottlenecks and degrading overall battery performance.

“The commercialization potential for high-energy-density ASLBs is now more achievable,” added Prof. CUI Guanglei, head of SERGY. “Our universal strategy for designing multifunctional homogeneous cathodes can overcome the energy, power, and lifespan barriers in energy storage, paving the way for real-world applications.”

By addressing key challenges in ASLBs, this strategy sets a foundation for future innovations in energy storage technology. The team plans to further explore the scalability of the LTG0.25PSSe0.2 material and its integration into practical battery systems.

This work represents a significant milestone in battery technology and offers a promising outlook for future advancements. The team’s innovative approach is expected to influence future research and development in the field of energy storage, providing a strong foundation for the next generation of high-performance batteries.

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Journal

Nature Energy

DOI

10.1038/s41560-024-01596-6 

Article Title

A cathode homogenization strategy for enabling long-cycle-life all-solid-state lithium batteries

Article Publication Date

31-Jul-2024