Posts falsely linking AstraZeneca Covid vaccine to mpox resurface after recent surge

• Published on August 31, 2024 at 19:12
•  3 min read 
• By Ana PRIETO, AFP Brazil, AFP Argentina, AFP Greece 
• Translation and adaptation Ara Eugenio

Copyright © AFP 2017-2024. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.

AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine does not contain mpox, contrary to posts shared worldwide that have falsely linked the jab to the recent surge in cases of the viral disease. The posts have misrepresented the AstraZeneca vaccine's chimpanzee adenovirus component, which according to scientists is an "entirely different" virus from mpox and had been weakened so it does not cause disease in humans.

"Do not believe in MPOX," read part of a Tagalog-language Facebook post on August 26, 2024. It included an image showing a list of ingredients for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, with "chimpanzee adenovirus" vector highlighted.

"THE ASTRA ZENECA JAB CONTAINED MONKEY POX. WAKE UP VAXXERS!" said text overlaid to the image.

Image

Screenshot of the false post taken August 26, 2024

Formerly known as monkeypox, mpox is a viral disease transmitted from animals to humans that can also be passed from human to human, causing fever, muscle pain and skin lesions.

Its resurgence and the detection in Central Africa of a new strain, dubbed Clade 1b, prompted the World Health Organization to declare its highest international alert level on August 14 (archived link).

Similar posts linking the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to mpox have also been shared by other social media users in the Philippines as well as in Australia, South Korea, the United States and Brazil.

AFP has previously debunked a similar false claim that had circulated in 2022.

The claim "appears to stem from the idea that chimpanzees are broadly referred to as monkeys, but this is a very ignorant rumour with no basis in fact", Professor Yoo Jin-hong, an epidemiologist at the Catholic University of Korea, told AFP at the time (archived link).

The disease was earlier given the name monkeypox because it was first discovered in a group of macaques in 1958 that were being studied for research purposes but scientists say rodents are the most likely natural reservoir.

The first human case was reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, long predating Covid vaccines (archived link).

'Biologically impossible'

Jose Luiz Modena, a virology professor at Brazil's State University of Campinas, told AFP on August 21, 2024 that mpox and the chimpanzee adenovirus used in the AstraZeneca vaccine have "entirely different origins, evolutionary histories, viral particle complexities, and replication mechanisms".

It is therefore "biologically impossible" for the said vaccine to cause mpox, he said.

Giliane Trindade, a microbiology professor and researcher at Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais, separately told AFP the chimpanzee adenovirus component in the AstraZeneca vaccine could not mutate into the virus that causes mpox.

"Mutations do not transform one virus into another. Mutations can lead to differences within the same virus, but not transform it into another already existing virus on the planet," he said on August 19.

Moreover, the vaccine's adenovirus component does not cause disease in humans, according to Oxford University which co-developed the jab (archived link). 

"It has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans," the vaccine's information page said.

The modified adenovirus is used as a vaccine vector to transport genetic instructions to the body to trigger the production of a spike protein similar to that of the virus that causes Covid-19. This then prompts an immune response so the body can fight a real infection.

Covid-19 vaccines are frequently targeted by misinformation, despite health authorities saying that billions of people worldwide have been safely vaccinated against the disease.

AFP has also debunked false claims swirling around mpox.

Collapse after collapse - why Lagos buildings keep crashing down

Mansur Abubakar
BBC News, Lagos

01/08/2024

Getty Images
Local people were pictured searching for survivors in the wreckage of a building that collapsed in Lagos in 2022

A building has collapsed in Nigeria’s megacity, Lagos, once every two weeks on average so far this year.

Whereas the commercial cost can be calculated, a figure can never be put on the value of the lives lost underneath the rubble.

The gaps among the buildings, replaced by piles of debris, represent a failure of governance as well as giving rise to allegations of contractors trying to cut corners to save money.

There are regulations, there are maintenance schedules, there are inspectors – but the system does not work.

Those responsible are never held to account, and so nothing ever changes.

Lagos, dubbed by one expert who spoke to the BBC as " the building-collapse capital of Nigeria", has seen at least 90 buildings falling down in the last 12 years, leaving more than 350 people dead, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

One of the most notorious incidents was in 2021.

Sunday Femi was just metres away, in the upmarket suburb of Ikoyi, when a 21-storey block of luxury flats under construction collapsed, killing 42 people.Ikoyi collapse: Anger and frustration grow

After the loud crashing sound, he was engulfed in dust.

“Like many, I rushed inside trying to see if I could help some of the people trapped. Sadly I knew some of those who died and I think about it every day,” he says, reflecting on what happened nearly three years ago.

Getty Images
Hundreds gathered to find out the fate of loved ones after a high-rise block under construction collapsed in 2021


The drinks seller had been speaking to some of the construction workers moments before they entered the building site.

He still works nearby and the chatter among the locals often turns to those events and the possible cause.

Metal sheeting protects the site from prying eyes but mounds of broken concrete can still be seen through the gaps in the gate.

Knocking on the entrance to the ill-fated compound, two fierce-looking security guards opened up and said they had instructions not to allow anybody into the premises except state government officials.

Just as the place is sealed to the public so is the official investigation into the collapse – it has been sitting with the state governor since he received it in 2022.

A list of recommendations has reportedly been drawn up by a panel of experts following the investigation but that also has not been made public.

The BBC has repeatedly asked the Lagos state authorities to see the recommendations, and the report into the Ikoyi building collapse, but neither has been made available.

The coroner, however, has had her say and in 2022 she did not hold back.

In a damning judgment on the deaths, Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, attributed the building collapse to the irresponsibility and negligence of the government agencies that were supposed to approve and supervise the plans and construction.

Lagos’s population is booming and is now estimated to stand at more than 20 million.

As the city grows so does the demand for housing and commercial property, and it can sometimes feel like a giant building site with construction going on everywhere.

Before work can begin, plans need to be approved by Lagos state’s Physical Planning Permit Agency. Then inspectors from the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) are supposed to look at the site as well as check the progress at every stage of construction.

And the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should make sure that only suitable building material gets to the market.

But on many occasions the procedures are not followed.

Getty Images
Demonstrations have been held to encourage builders to follow the law


Inside the LASBCA’s offices everything appears calm - there is no sense of the urgency of the problems or challenges it faces.

Spokesperson Olusegun Olaoye acknowledges the criticism but dismisses allegations that officials have been bribed to issue fake certificates and rather blames a lack of resources.

“At the moment we have about 300 building inspectors and supervisors but we are looking to add to that,” he says.

Experts agree that more supervisors are needed.

Muhammad Danmarya, architect and construction expert, says they should number in their thousands.

“Three hundred is just not right for a state like Lagos. Each local government area should have at least 100 inspectors and supervisors and Lagos has 57 of those areas,” he argues.

“There’s always construction going on everywhere you look, so it’s important that inspection and supervision is going on all the time.”

In the absence of that regime across the state, some less scrupulous companies are getting away with violating building codes, using sub-standard materials and employing poorly trained workers – three of the reasons cited for the high frequency of collapses.

“They just come here to pick us up any time they have a job for us and pay us after we are done,” says labourer Habu Isah, who has worked on construction sites for years.

“I have never undergone any training, I just learned everything on the job.”

But even if violations are identified in the wake of a collapse, the state’s building agency does not take any legal action.

“To my knowledge there haven’t been any prosecutions in the past as far as building collapses in Lagos are concerned,” LASBCA’s Mr Olaoye admits.

“I know the statistics are worrying but there are ongoing efforts to halt the trend.”


Twenty people died after a primary school collapsed in Lagos in March 2019


Alleged political influence is a barrier to pursuing prosecutions.

“If you are connected to people in power, even if you are the culprit in a building collapse case nothing will happen to you,” says a Lagos state politician, who talked to the BBC on the condition of anonymity.

“We’ve seen it so many times, some of the high-profile cases have to do with structures of highly placed people and they are still roaming around freely.

“In Nigeria when you are rich and connected you can avoid problems easily.”

With 19 building collapses already recorded so far this year by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, the final total is likely to be the highest in the past decade.

But lessons may still go unlearnt.

The head of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria recently said that the country lacked the capacity to properly investigate what is going on.

“We don’t have the expertise, the equipment, and the resources to do so,” said Prof Sadiq Abubakar.

In the meantime, construction workers and others will carry on paying with their lives.

Additional reporting by Andrew Gift

 

US book publishers sue Florida Department of Education over library restrictions

Daniel Kim | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA

AUGUST 31, 2024 

Six major book publishers Friday sued the Florida Department of Education, challenging a 2023 state law used to restrict books in school libraries.

The six book publishers filed the lawsuit along with the Authors Guild, several prominent authors, two students and two parents. The plaintiffs are suing on the basis that the state law is overbroad and violates the freedom of expression protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The plaintiffs stated that this freedom includes the right for authors and publishers to communicate ideas to students and students’ rights to receive those ideas without undue government interference.

The law, HB 1069, came into effect on July 1, 2023, and significantly expanded the state’s ability to prohibit literature if it contained sexual content. The new bill added a provision that allows the state to ban content that “depicts or describes sexual conduct” without needing to consider the literary, artistic or cultural value of the work as a whole. It also expanded procedural barriers by requiring schools to remove a book within five days of a parent’s objection to a book and to remain unavailable until the objection was resolved.

The need to consider the value of the book as a whole, or its literary, scientific or political value, is part of the obscenity test outlined in the 1973 US Supreme Court case Miller v California. The Court found that where work is not considered obscene, it is constitutionally protected expression under the First Amendment. The plaintiffs on Friday argued that the state’s overbroad censorship of works that have sexual content ignores the standard set in Miller.

Explaining their challenge, CEO of the Authors Guild Mary Rasenberger stated:

Book bans censor authors’ voices, negating and silencing their lived experience and stories, these bans have a chilling effect on what authors write about, and they damage authors’ reputations by creating the false notion that there is something unseemly about their books. Yet, these same books have edified young people for decades, expanding worlds and fostering self-esteem and empathy for others. We all lose out when authors’ truths are censored.

This Florida lawsuit is not the first constitutional challenge raised against state education departments for censorship. Across the US, litigation has commenced against sexual content bans in Iowa, Texas, and Arkansas with varying outcomes. In recent months, Alabama and Idaho legislatures have passed similar legislation that restricts books based on sexual content, with challenges from civil rights groups expected.

After coming into effect, the Florida law has allowed the state to ban works such as the Diary of Anne Frank, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House Five in school libraries.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HOWL 

BANGLADESH

'The howls were terrifying': Imprisoned in the notorious 'House of Mirrors'

Ethirajan Anbarasan
BBC News

01/08/2024

EPA
Michael Chakma was snatched from a street and disappeared into a secret prison in 2019


The man who walked out into the rain in Dhaka hadn’t seen the sun in more than five years.

Even on a cloudy day, his eyes struggled to adjust after half a decade locked in a dimly lit room, where his days had been spent listening to the whirr of industrial fans and the screams of the tortured.

Standing on the street, he struggled to remember his sister’s telephone number.

More than 200km away, that same sister was reading about the men emerging from a reported detention facility in Bangladesh’s infamous military intelligence headquarters, known as Aynaghor, or “House of Mirrors”.

They were men who had allegedly been “disappeared” under the increasingly autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina - largely critics of the government who were there one day, and gone the next.

But Sheikh Hasina had now fled the country, unseated by student-led protests, and these men were being released.

In a remote corner of Bangladesh, the young woman staring at her computer wondered if her brother - whose funeral they had held just two years ago, after every avenue to uncover his whereabouts proved fruitless - might be among them?

Getty Images
Relatives of the disappeared - like these ones - have been campaigning for years to uncover where their loved ones are


The day Michael Chakma was forcefully bundled into a car and blindfolded by a group of burly men in April 2019 in Dhaka, he thought it was the end.

He had come to authorities’ attention after years of campaigning for the rights of the people of Bangladesh’s south-eastern Chittagong Hill region – a Buddhist group which makes up just 2% of Bangladesh’s 170m-strong, mostly Muslim population.

He had, according to rights group Amnesty International, been staunchly vocal against abuses committed by the military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and has campaigned for an end to military rule in the region.

A day after he was abducted, he was thrown into a cell inside the House of Mirrors, a building hidden inside the compound the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) used in the capital Dhaka.

It was here they gathered local and foreign intelligence, but it would become known as somewhere far more sinister.

The small cell he was kept in, he said, had no windows and no sunlight, only two roaring exhaust fans.

After a while “you lose the sense of time and day”, he recalls.

“I used to hear the cries of other prisoners, though I could not see them, their howling was terrifying."

The cries, as he would come to know himself, came from his fellow inmates - many of whom were also being interrogated.

“They would tie me to a chair and rotate it very fast. Often, they threatened to electrocute me. They asked why I was criticising Ms Hasina,” Mr Chakma says.


'They beat me for six months without talking'

Bangladesh jails activists for documenting killings

Outside the detention facility, for Minti Chakma the shock of her brother's disappearance was being replaced with panic.

“We went to several police stations to enquire, but they said they had no information on him and he was not in their custody,” she recalls. “Months passed and we started getting panicky. My father was also getting unwell.”

A massive campaign was launched to find Michael, and Minti filed a writ petition in the High Court in 2020.

Nothing brought any answers.

“The whole family went through a lot of trauma and agony. It was terrible not knowing the whereabouts of my brother,” she says.

Then in August 2020, Michael’s father died during Covid. Some 18 months later, the family decided that Michael must have died as well.

“We gave up hope,” Minti says, simply. “So as per our Buddhist tradition we decided to do hold his funeral so that the soul can be freed from his body. With a heavy heart we did that. We all cried a lot.”

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Sheikh Hasina, who fled Dhaka by military helicopter on 5 August, had been in power since 2009



Rights groups in Bangladesh say they have documented about 600 cases of alleged enforced disappearances since 2009, the year Sheikh Hasina was elected.

In the years that followed, Sheikh Hasina’s government would be accused of targeting their critics and dissenters in an attempt to stifle any dissent which posed a threat to their rule - an accusation she and the government always denied.

Some of the so-called disappeared were eventually released or produced in court, others were found dead. Human Rights Watch says nearly 100 people remain missing.

Rumours of secret prisons run by various Bangladeshi security agencies circulated among families and friends. Minti watched videos detailing the disappearances, praying her brother was in custody somewhere.

But the existence of such a facility in the capital was only revealed following an investigation by Netra News in May 2022.

The report found it was inside the Dhaka military encampment, right in the heart of the city. It also managed to get hold of first-hand accounts from inside the building - many of which tally with Michael’s description of being held in a cell without sunlight.

The descriptions also echo those of Maroof Zaman, a former Bangladeshi ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, who was first detained in the House of Mirrors in December 2017.

Sardar Ronie
Former diplomat Maroof Zaman was fearful of the repercussions of speaking out



His interview with the BBC is one of the few times he has spoken of his 15-month ordeal: as part of his release, he agreed with officials not to speak publicly.

Like others who have spoken of what happened behind the complex’s walls, he was fearful of what might happen if he did. The detainee who spoke openly to Netra News in 2022 only did so because he was no longer in Bangladesh.

Maroof Zaman has only felt safe to speak out since Sheikh Hasina fled – and her government collapsed - on 5 August.

He describes how he too was held in a room without sunlight, while two noisy exhaust fans drowned out any sound coming from outside.

The focus of his interrogations were on the articles he had written alleging corruption at the heart of government. Why, the men wanted to know, was he writing articles alleging “unequal agreements” signed with India by Ms Hasina, that favoured Delhi.

“For the first four-and-a-half months, it was like a death zone,” he says. “I was constantly beaten, kicked and threatened at gunpoint. It was unbearable, I thought only death will free me from this torture.”

But unlike Michael, he was moved to a different building.

“For the first time in months I heard the sound of the birds. Oh, it was so good, I cannot describe that feeling,” Maroof recounted.

He was eventually released following a campaign by his daughters and supporters in late March 2019 – a month before Michael found himself thrown into a cell.

Getty Images
The relatives of some of the nearly 100 people who remain missing gathered at a rally in Dhaka recently

Few believe that enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings could have been carried out without the knowledge of the top leadership.

But while people like Mr Chakma were languishing in secret jails for years, Ms Hasina, her ministers and her international affairs advisor Gowher Rizvi were flatly rejecting allegations of abductions.

Ms Hasina’s son, Sajeed Wazed Joy, has continued to reject the allegations, instead turning the blame on “some of our law enforcement leadership [who] acted beyond the law”.

“I absolutely agree that it’s completely illegal. I believe that those orders did not come from the top. I had no knowledge of this. I am shocked to hear it myself,” he told the BBC.

There are those who raise their eyebrows at the denial.

Alongside Michael, far higher profile people emerged from the House of Mirrors - retired brigadier Abdullahi Aman Azmi and barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem. Both had spent about eight years in secret incarceration.

What is clear is that the re-emergence of people like the politicians, and Michael, shows “the urgency for the new authorities in Bangladesh to order and ensure that the security forces to disclose all places of detention and account for those who have been missing”, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights office in Geneva.

Bangladesh’s interim government agreed: earlier this week, it established a five-member commission to investigate cases of enforced disappearances by security agencies during Ms Hasina’s rule since 2009.

And those who have survived the ordeal want justice.

“We want the perpetrators to be punished. All the victims and their families should be compensated,” Maroof Zaman said.

What sparked the protests that toppled Bangladesh's PM?

'Free again': An uncertain Bangladesh emerges from Sheikh Hasina's grip

Back on the street outside the House of Mirrors - just two days after Sheikh Hasina fled to India - Michael was struggling to decide what to do. He had only been told about his release 15 minutes before. It was a lot to take in.

“I forgot the last two digits of my sister’s phone number,” he says. “I struggled a lot to remember that, but I couldn’t. Then I called a relative who informed them.”

But Minti already knew: she had seen the news on Facebook.

“I was ecstatic,” she recalls through tears two weeks later. “Next day, he called me, I saw him on that video phone call after five years. We were all crying. I couldn’t recognise him.”

Last week, she saw him in person for the first time in five years: weaker, traumatised - but alive.

“His voice sounds different,” she says.

Michael, meanwhile, is dealing with the long term health implications of being held in the dark for so long.

“I cannot look at contacts or phone numbers properly, it’s a blurred vision. I am getting treatment, and the doctor is giving me spectacles.”

More than that, there is coming to terms with what he has missed. He was told of his father’s death a few days after his release.

And yet, amid the pain, he is hopeful - even happy.

“It’s more than a new lease of life, a resurrection. It feels like I was dead and have come back to life again. I cannot describe this feeling.”Additional reporting by Moazzem Hussain, BBC

International Law

Cultivating a Culture of Peace, UN Observance to International Peace Day

Despite the global call to peace, some world and state actors view peace through different lenses.

ByDr. Reyron Leones del Rosario
September 1, 2024

Photo by Meizhi Lang on Unsplash

Despite the global call to peace, some world and state actors view peace through different lenses. The varieties of perspectives significantly impact the global order; some result in conflicts and violence. The United Nations General Assembly established the International Day of Peace in 1981. Two decades later, the General Assembly, unanimously voted to designate the Day in 2001 as a period of non-violence and cease-fire across the world.

Every September 21st, the United Nations commemorates the International Day of Peace. This year’s spotlight, is geared to “cultivating a culture of peace.” This is a moment to pause and remind ourselves of our purpose. The fast-changing landscapes of political and economic ideologies contribute to inequalities and inequities around the world. With many different views mixed with variations of ideologies, there is a need to promote open dialogue so diplomacy can resolve differences.

There is a need to plant the seeds for non-violence, justice, and hope, according to UN Secretary General António Guterres. “This year marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Program of Action on a Culture of Peace.”

A dynamic participatory process promotes active dialogue to resolve conflicts through mutual understanding and cooperation based on the declaration of the United Nations. “In a world with rising geopolitical tensions and protracted conflicts, there has never been a better time to remember how the UN General Assembly came together in 1999 to lay out the values needed for a culture of peace. These include: respect for life, human rights, and fundamental freedoms; the promotion of non-violence through education, dialogue, and cooperation; commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts; and adherence to freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, cultural diversity, dialogue, and understanding at all levels of society and among nations.”

Theda Skocpol asserted that social revolutions, in the case of domestic affairs, are structural social changes accompanied by class uprisings, including political and class structure. The corners of the world remind us that peace is possible. The International Peace Diplomacy Corps, Inc. (IPDCI) promotes peace through education awareness campaigns. Through its various learning concepts on public administration, peace education, diplomacy, and international relations, among others, it allows learners from all over the world to access the very basic concept of peace. Peace is a subject common to everyone but misruled by some leaders. This educational platform of the IPDCI contributes to the greater aspirations of the United Nations for global peace, security, and order.

As we commemorate the Day of Peace, the United Nations reminds us of its global relevance and that its existence never wavers the threat to humanity. On a personal note, relationships among nations are more than political boundaries. It is not about popularity or publicity. I witnessed how the international relations can serve as an avenue in fostering economic alliance. Building economic ties would mean security. Stronger political relations, between nations, through foreign and commercial investments, will certainly enhance economic cooperation.

Peace, is expanded to economic ties, allowing people to foster business relations. Peace can also be equated on the economic equation of a nation. Given the good standing would mean a satisfaction and fulfillment the limited resources as well with the wants and needs of the cititzens. When things are not favorable, instability, mass protests, and other public expressions impacts the state of the nation.

Let me end by saying that on December 11, 2006, Koffi Annan delivered his final speech as United Nations Secretary General at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence. Annan shared five lessons that will certainly impact international peace. These pointers are as follows: 1) collective responsibility; (2) global solidarity; (3) the rule of law; (4) mutual accountability; (5) and multilateralism. He further articulated, “My friends, our challenge today is not to save Western civilization—or Eastern civilization, for that matter. All civilization is at stake, and we can save it only if all peoples join together in the task.”

Dr. Reyron Leones del Rosario

Dr. Rey Runtgen Martin “Reyron” Leones del Rosario is a Filipino peace diplomacy and innovation leadership advocate. He is also a business entrepreneur, publicist, author and educator. He serves as the Chairman of the International Peace Diplomacy Corps, Inc., and President of the Philippine Innovation Entrepreneurship Mission, Inc. His research interests revolve around peace development, leadership innovation, foreign relations, democracy, human rights, migration, and artificial intelligence.

EU imports from Russia drop to record lows but signs of sanctions circumvention persist


By Thomas Moller-Nielsen | Euractiv
Aug 28, 2024


Shutterstock/Darunrat Wongsuvan
 Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>>


While EU imports from Russia slid to record lows in the second quarter of 2024, signs persist that Brussels’ sanctions on Moscow are being circumvented via trade with third countries.

Data published by the EU’s official statistics office on Wednesday (28 August) showed that the bloc’s imports from its eastern neighbour slid 16% from the first to the second quarter of 2024.

In June, the total value of imported goods dropped to €2.47 billion—the lowest monthly amount since Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics office, began collecting data in January 2002.

This followed April and May, which saw the second and third lowest recorded monthly imports, at €2.66 billion and €2.89 billion, respectively.

Exports registered a similarly steep decrease, dropping 9.5% in the second quarter to reach €2.43 billion in June, the lowest amount since January 2003 and the third-lowest ever recorded.

EU imports from Russia fell dramatically in the immediate aftermath of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but have declined at a more gradual pace since the second quarter of 2023.

Exports, meanwhile, experienced a steep – albeit less dramatic – decline following Russia’s invasion but have fallen at a similarly steady rate since the middle of 2022.

Philipp Lausberg, analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC), told Euractiv that one likely reason for the trade quasi-stabilisation is that the more recent rounds of Brussels’ 14 packages of sanctions against Moscow have placed much less emphasis on banning the purchase of specific goods, such as oil and coal.

“The last two sanctions package […] focussed more on enforcement and preventing circumvention,” he said. “So I think it makes sense that we’ve reached a low that is more-or-less constant.”

Alexander Kolyandr, non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPS), suggested that another potential reason for the trade “equilibrium” is the relative stabilisation in commodities prices – especially energy prices – since the beginning of 2023.

“Russia is selling LNG [liquefied natural gas], there is no way for Russia to increase [supply], Europe doesn’t want to decrease [purchases of] whatever is coming from Russia – and so the bottom line figure basically depends on the market price of the commodities,” he told Euractiv.
Circumvention trend persists, but costs to Kremlin may be ‘significant’

The Eurostat data comes amid persistent concerns over sanctions circumvention, with trade between European countries and those in Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East experiencing a steep increase since February 2022.

Kolyandr noted that, from 2021 to 2023, EU exports to Uzbekistan almost doubled from (€2.30 billion to €4.35 billion), sales of goods to Armenia nearly tripled (€757 million to €2.16 billion), and exports to Kyrgyzstan rose more than tenfold (€263 million to €2.73 billion).

“Russia has been proven to be able to circumvent sanctions by trading with third countries,” the analyst said, adding that non-former-Soviet countries such as China and Turkey could also represent key circumvention routes.

Lausberg, meanwhile, said that, although circumvention remains a major problem, “If Russia has to sell via a third country, that third country makes some cash with it that Russia loses.”

“And when Russia buys stuff like high-technology [products] and electronics, it’s more expensive than it used to be,” he added.
Russian economy overheated

Meanwhile, the two analysts noted that the EU and Russia seem to have embarked on diverging economic trajectories, with the latter enjoying much healthier economic growth – though that is not necessarily good news for the Eastern country.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Russia’s economy is expected to grow three times faster than the EU economy this year (3.2% vs 1.1%) after expanding six times more last year (3.6% vs 0.6%).

The country’s manufacturing sector has also experienced a significant boom since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict, while Europe’s industrial sector remains mired in stagnation or decline.

Lausberg, however, noted that Russia’s strong economic performance is the result of a “rebound” from its steep economic slump in 2022, in no small part thanks to hefty increases in military expenditures – which he said have not only “distorted” the country’s economy but do not represent “an investment in the long run.”

He also pointed out that Russia is still grappling with severe economic problems, including profound labour shortages and elevated prices for high-tech imports.

“In the long [term], you can’t really run an economy with high-cost imports of technology [or] if you don’t have a labour force that can actually deliver what you want to produce,” the analyst said.

Kolyandr also noted the Russian economy continues to show signs of “overheating” (a process whereby supply falls short of meeting heightened demand, generating strong inflationary pressures).

He said virtually every economic metric corroborates the trend, with unemployment currently hovering at about half its historical average and real salaries rising more than two times faster than the country’s GDP.

Echoing what he previously argued about the country’s recent economic patterns, Kolyandr added, “In my view, the Russian economy is mortgaging its future.”

[Edited by Anna Brunetti/Alice Taylor-Braçe]

German company to build world’s largest heat pump in Helsinki


By Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | Euractiv
Aug 28, 2024

Helsinki's district heating will soon be powered by a high-powered heat pump produced by a German company. [Shutterstock/Yingna Cai]
 Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>>

The large air-water heat pump to be supplied by Germany will help put the Finnish capital on track to achieve its 2030 climate neutrality goal.

Finland is betting on extremely large heat pumps to warm urban homes. From 2026, the utility company Helen Oy will use the world’s largest air-to-water heat pump to decarbonise its district heating power plant in Helsinki.

“We are very proud to support Helen in achieving climate neutrality in Helsinki,” said Uwe Lauber, CEO of German firm MAN Energy Solutions, in a statement. His company will supply the 33 MW heat pump that will use air from its surroundings to generate usable heat.

The refrigerant used within the heat pump is CO2 which, if it leaks into the atmosphere, is still significantly more climate-friendly than other alternatives currently being phased out by the EU.

In addition, the device will be combined with two massive 50 MW boilers, which will supply heat even in temperatures as low as -20 °C and save 56 tonnes of CO2 per year, according to the company.

There were initial concerns that Helsinki’s push for ‘climate-neutral’ heat might rely on wood-burning, a practice harmful to forests and human lungs.

After all, Finland is one of the EU’s most enthusiastic burners of wood. Up to 20% of detached homes in the country rely on wood for heat, and even 90% of new buildings come with a wood-burning stove.

However, a 2021 contest for the best clean heating solution for the city ruled out biomass as a solution and put fears to rest.

Finland is also one of the EU’s forerunners in adopting smaller heat pumps in individual homes – almost 1.5 million devices have been installed in a country of just under 6 million inhabitants.

 

Turkey ready to discuss pulling troop from Syria

TEHRAN, Sep. 01 (MNA) – Turkey is ready to discuss the withdrawal of its troops from Syria, but specific terms haven’t been agreed yet, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The Turks are ready for this, but specific parameters haven’t been agreed yet. We are talking about the return of refugees, about the measures necessary to suppress the terrorist threat, which will make the presence of the Turkish contingents unnecessary. All this is in the works," the minister said in an interview with RT television.

He said that according to the Syrian government a clear decision about the process for the eventual withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria is necessary for the normalization of relations with Istanbul.

MNA/PR

PALESTINE HAS THE RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE

Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank



Israeli soldiers take position during heavy clashes on the fourth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 31 August 2024. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 20 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli military operations started on 28 August 2024 in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem, Jenin and Tubas. The Israeli army said that it's conducting a large-scale 'counter-terrorism operation' in several areas. [EPA-EFE/ALAA BADARNEH]

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Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday (31 August) as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.

Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.

The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.

At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.

The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.

The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.

Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.

In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.

In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.

The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.

Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.

Hamas praised what it called a “double heroic operation” in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was “a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue”.

The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.

Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.

Amid the gunfire, armoured bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have ploughed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.

Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank – under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war – and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.

Israeli army blocks water supply to Jenin public hospital

The Israeli army blocked water trucks from reaching Jenin Government Hospital, potentially disrupting kidney dialysis services for patients, Anadolu Agency reports.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces stopped water tankers from the Jenin Civil Defense from reaching the hospital.

Dargham Zakarneh, director of the Jenin Civil Defense Center, said Israeli soldiers stationed at the hospital’s gate blocked the water delivery.

Highlighting that the hospital’s kidney dialysis department requires a daily 100 cubic meters of water to operate, he warned that blocking the trucks would bring dialysis services to a halt.