It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Path to prosperity for planet and people if Earth’s critical resources are better shared: report
Australian National University
Earth will only remain able to provide even a basic standard of living for everyone in the future if economic systems and technologies are dramatically transformed and critical resources are more fairly used, managed and shared, according to an international research team including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU).
The report, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, outlines how cities and businesses have the power to play a crucial role and become the “stewards” of critical Earth systems by demonstrating how they can reduce their environmental impact on the planet. The report summarises key findings of phase one of Earth Commission, founded in 2019 with a team of 18 globally esteemed interdisciplinary scholars as commissioners, involving more than 40 researchers in various working groups.
The report builds on the Safe and Just Earth System Boundaries report published in Nature last year, which found that most of the vital limits within which people and the planet can thrive have been surpassed.
One of three lead authors, Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai, from ANU, who led the working group on Translation, said that companies and cities have the means to act and drastically transform and reduce pressure on the planet.
“Companies and cities have a huge potential to make a difference, especially if they work towards the same goal, which is to ensure the planet can provide for everyone long-term,” she said.
“They are more nimble and flexible than states, and can reduce their pressure on the planet by setting science-based targets in line with our findings.”
Professor Stuart Bunn, from Griffith University, co-led one of the working groups, which focused on the boundaries of freshwater and nutrient pollution.
The report found the planet’s ability to provide and protect is being stretched past its limits, although it remains possible for humans to escape poverty and harm caused by Earth’s system change, if urgent action is taken.
It found the only way to provide for everyone and ensure societies, businesses and economies thrive without destabilising the planet is to reduce inequalities in how critical Earth system resources, such as freshwater and nutrients, are accessed and used, and how responsibilities, such as reducing carbon emission, are shared, alongside economic and technological transformation.
By 2050, unless urgent transformations are made, the researchers argue that Earth’s climate will deteriorate to the point where there will be no “safe and just space” left.
That means that even if everyone on the planet only had access to the resources necessary for a basic standard of living in 2050, the Earth would still be outside the climate boundary.
The researchers say earth systems face the risk of crossing dangerous tipping points, which would cause further significant harm to people around the world unless energy, food and urban systems are urgently transformed.
The paper outlines a series of recommendations to ensure Earth’s climate remains within this so-called “safe and just space”.
• Firstly, a well-coordinated, intentional effort between policymakers, businesses, civil society and communities can push for changes in how we run the economy and find new policies and funding mechanisms that can address inequality whilst reducing pressure on nature and climate.
• Secondly, fundamental to the transformation is more efficient and effective management, sharing and usage of resources at every level of society including addressing the excessconsumption of some communities, which limits access to basic resources for those whoneed them the most.
• Thirdly, investment in sustainable and affordable technologies is essential to help us use fewer resources and to reopen the safe and just space for all, particularly where there is little or no space left.
The report has been published in The Lancet Planetary Health. It is co-authored by more than 60 leading natural and social scientists from across the globe.
Journal
The Lancet Planetary Health
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Path to prosperity for planet and people if Earth’s critical resources are better shared: report
Article Publication Date
11-Sep-2024
Ozone pollution reduces tropical forest growth
University of Exeter
image:
Dr Alexander Cheesman tending seedlings at the TropOz research facility established by Exeter and James Cook universities
But ozone at ground level – formed by the combination of pollutants from human activities in the presence of sunlight – interferes with plants’ ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Ozone is also harmful to human health.
The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, calculates that ground-level ozone reduces new yearly growth in tropical forests by 5.1% on average.
The effect is stronger in some regions – with Asia’s tropical forests losing 10.9% of new growth.
Tropical forests are vital “carbon sinks” – capturing and storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise stay in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
“Tropical forests play a crucial role in mopping up our carbon dioxide emissions,” said co-lead author Dr Alexander Cheesman, of James Cook University and the University of Exeter.
“Our study shows that air pollution can jeopardise this critical ecosystem service.
“We estimate that ozone has prevented the capture of 290 million tonnes of carbon per year since 2000. The resulting cumulative loss equates to a 17% reduction in carbon removal by tropical forests so far this century.”
The researchers ran experiments to measure the ozone susceptibility of various tropical tree species, then incorporated the results into a computer model of global vegetation.
Urbanisation, industrialisation, burning fossil fuels and fires have led to an increase in “precursor” molecules – such as nitrogen oxides – that form ozone.
“Ozone concentrations across the tropics are projected to rise further due to increased precursor emissions and altered atmospheric chemistry in a warming world,” said co-lead author Dr Flossie Brown, a recent graduate of the University of Exeter.
“We found that areas of current and future forest restoration – areas critical for the mitigation of climate change – are disproportionately affected by this elevated ozone.
“It is clear that air quality will continue to play an important but often overlooked part in the way forests absorb and store carbon.”
Professor Stephen Sitch, from the University of Exeter, added: “Embracing a future with greater environmental protection would lead to reduced ground-level ozone, thus improved air quality and the additional benefit of enhanced carbon uptake in tropical forests.”
The paper is entitled: “Reduced productivity and carbon drawdown of tropical forests from ground-level ozone exposure.”
Leaf of tropical tree species Homalanthus novoguineensis after exposure to ozone
The canopy of a tropical rainforest at James Cook University’s Daintree Rainforest Observatory in north Queensland Australia.
A nuclear reactor, shut down in 1989 and maintained by scientists from the Vinca Nuclear Institute in Belgrade, serves as a reminder of the former Yugoslavia's nuclear ambitions. Facing an energy crisis and the EU's demand to close coal plants by 2050, Serbia is debating lifting a ban on building nuclear plants
'Historic': Bad weather slashes wine harvest in France's Jura
Domblans (France) (AFP) – Heavy rainfall, hail and mildew have destroyed most of the wine harvest in eastern France's Jura region for this year, leaving winegrowers struggling.
Issued on: 12/09/2024 -
It has been a tough year for the French wine industry
The Jura, nestled between the famous Burgundy wine region and Switzerland, is one of France's oldest wine-growing areas, featuring some 200 vineyards spread over 2,000 hectares.
Their unusual elevation and the region's cool climate give a distinctive flavour to its wines some of which are famous, notably the white wine known as "Vin Jaune" (yellow wine).
But this year is delivering a bitter taste for winegrowers as the Jura -- the smallest of France's 17 major wine-growing regions -- is headed for a spectacular drop of 71 percent in this year's wine production volume, according to a government estimate.
There are dark clouds over the French wine industry
The main culprit is a period of frost in April that destroyed many of the budding vines.
"The vines had already grown shoots of three or four centimetres (1.1-1.2 inches)," said Benoit Sermier, 33, a winegrower in the Jura. "Those leaves were very thin and fragile, and sub-zero temperatures destroyed them, costing us 60 percent of the harvest." 'Particularly unfavourable'
Although this year's harvest is expected to be of high quality, a lack in quantity is putting winegrowers in a precarious position, as frost in previous years has not allowed them to build up enough wine stock for lean times, said Sermier, who heads a local wine cooperative.
Winegrowers were also hit hard by incessant rain in July, which forced them to reapply protective vine treatments "every three or four days", said Patrick Rolet, who grows organic wine and owns cattle. "I don't think any winegrower remembers having ever seen this much rainfall," he said.
The quality of 2024 wines is expected to be good, but the quantity is not
The persistent humidity also facilitated the spread of mildew, a fungus that can devastate entire vineyards.
"Compared with the past 25 years, our losses are historic," said Olivier Badoureaux, director of the Jura winegrowers committee.
France's overall wine volumes are headed for a fall of almost a fifth this year because of the unfavourable weather, France's agriculture ministry said last week.
Overall wine production is now estimated to drop by 18 percent to 39.3 million hectolitres.
A little over a month ago before wine harvesting began, the ministry had still targeted up to 43 million hectolitres.
But "particularly unfavourable" weather forced the revision, as the extent of damage done by frost, hail and also mildew became clearer. 'Humid conditions'
The Charente region, in the southwest of France, is looking at a 35 percent drop in wine production this year, the biggest fall in terms of volume of any French region.
This, said the agriculture ministry, was due to "a smaller number of grape bunches" and "insufficient flowering because of humid conditions".
The Jura region has been especially badly affected
Losses in the Val de Loire and Burgundy-Beaujolais regions are also expected to come in above average.
Champagne production, meanwhile, is likely to drop by 16 percent, but will remain some eight percent above its average over the past five years.
The impact of bad weather is being compounded by winegrowers' decision over recent years to reduce the size of vineyards in response to falling wine consumption in France, especially of red wine.
Vitis vinifera and muscadines: Grape breeders seek the best of both grapes
$7M USDA-NIFA-SCRI grant supports effort to improve grape disease resistance, quality
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
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Margaret Worthington, left, and Renee Threlfall with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture are co-directors of a national project supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to crossbreed muscadines and Vitis vinifera grapes for shared desirable traits. Worthington is associate professor of horticulture and director of the Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program. Threlfall is associate professor of enology and viticulture in the food science department.
Credit: U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Paden Johnson
By John Lovett
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Muscadines may be the folksy American of the grape world, but they have many qualities like disease resistance and unique flavors that are desired in the more popular Vitis vinifera (bunch grapes) species.
Likewise, Vitis vinifera — the species that most people eat as table grapes and drink in wine — has many characteristics desirable for muscadines, like thinner skin, a crispier texture and seedlessness. Successfully combining traits from these two species of grapes is a challenge due to differing numbers of base chromosomes.
With support from a $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a 32-person team from across the nation is working to bring these two species of grapes together and improve this high-valued fruit crop. In 2022, there were nearly 1 million acres of grape-bearing land in the United States producing grapes for fresh and processing markets worth $6.5 billion.
“Through the Grapevine: Developing Vitis x Muscadinia Wide Hybrids for Enhanced Disease Resistance and Quality” unites scientists from 12 institutions. Research and extension efforts will be integrated through collaborations with industry partners including 14 advisory board members and 38 stakeholders. The four-year Specialty Crop Research Initiative project is part of a recently announced $70.4 million USDA-NIFA investment to support specialty crop production research across the country.
Dubbed VxM (Vitis x Muscadinia) for short, the project is co-directed by Renee Threlfall and Margaret Worthington with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The other project team members are from the University of California-Davis, Clemson University, Cornell University, Florida A&M University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M University, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
A decade in the making
“This project has been a decade in the works, waiting for the right project partners to form this team,” said Threlfall, associate professor of enology and viticulture in the food science department. “A lot of planning and collaboration made this opportunity a success. Our goal is the introduction of disease-resistant cultivars with enhanced fruit quality leading to a more resilient U.S. grape industry.”
In addition to building relationships with project partners across the country over the past decade, Threlfall said a key person making the project possible is Worthington, associate professor of horticulture and director of the Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program for the experiment station.
Worthington, a North Carolina native, is an unapologetic muscadine fan, having grown up in a family and community that regarded them as “highly valued” and a treat at harvest. Unlike most of the country, muscadines were available at her local grocery store. Worthington said she wants to tame this special native grape to make it more appealing for grape growers and consumers.
Breeding efforts between Vitis and Muscadinia to create wide hybrids have already begun in Europe and the United States, Threlfall noted, resulting in new grape cultivars. Some have attributes of Vitis, some of Muscadinia, but many cultivars have attributes of both.
New table grape varieties like Candy Hearts™ and Cotton Candy™ show that consumers are excited about new bold flavors for fruit, Worthington noted. But the genetics for disease resistance are lacking in Vitis grapes, and there is still work needed to make muscadines more appealing to a broader consumer base.
Muscadines can grow much larger than Vitis species, sometimes as big as golf balls, and they are grown commercially in the Southeast for fresh-market and processing into wines, juices and jellies. As compared to Vitis species, Muscadines tend to have thick skins, a different texture, distinct fruity-floral flavors, and berries containing large seeds. They also have 20 chromosomes, one more than bunch grapes, so breeding between these two subgenres can be complicated, Worthington noted.
“It’s like crossing a horse and a donkey … you get a mule that is highly sterile,” Worthington said. “When you cross muscadines with bunch grapes you get more grapes and can back breed with the goal of having a disease-resistant bunch grape or a muscadine with improved traits.”
Six objectives
The project has six objective-based teams focused on genetics, breeding, pathology, quality, marketing and production. Threlfall leads the team focused on quality, and Worthington leads the breeding team.The goal is to develop new grape hybrids combining the best attributes of muscadines and bunch grapes, Worthington said.
Marker-assisted breeding will be used as part of the project and helps speed up the traditional grape breeding and plant selection process. Scientists can examine a plant’s genetic markers to identify favorable traits in the plants before time-consuming efforts of field testing.
Qi Sun, research scientist and co-director of the bioinformatics facility at Cornell University, leads the genetics team for VxM and noted the level of difficulty for this project.
“Breeding hybrids is a common practice in crop improvement, but not always easy due to the difficulty in producing fertile progenies,” Sun said. “This project gives us a unique opportunity to systematically study the genetics of the muscadine and European grape hybrids, to have a better understanding of the biological barriers for crossing between these two different grapes and how to overcome them.”
“We’re trying to provide the grape breeders more genetic markers to do their jobs, especially for breeding, genetics and pathology,” Threlfall added. “The quality element for new grapes is mostly about flavor and texture, and the marketing element is about what growers and consumers perceive. It’s like if you were inventing a new fruit, you have to ask a consumer, ‘Would you try it?’”
Melinda Knuth, assistant professor at North Carolina State University, is the marketing team lead. With the fresh-market muscadine grape industry largely localized in the Southeast, this team seeks to find out what it would take to gain national interest in new grape varieties and other key factors related to cost, logistics and consumer demand.
“The marketing and economic team members will be answering these questions through appraising the supply chain, seeking input from growers, evaluating the introduction success of similar product types and gauging consumer demand,” Knuth said.
Disease-tolerant traits that can be valuable to the broader U.S. grape and wine industry are desired due to challenging climates in grape-growing regions, evolving pathogens and shifting consumer markets, Threlfall said.
Lance Cadle-Davidson, research plant pathologist for the USDA-ARS, leads the pathology team for VxM and explained the importance of continued research in disease resistance.
“Bunch grapes are susceptible to many diseases that muscadines resist naturally,” Cadle-Davidson said. “In fact, the two most widely used resistance genes in breeding new bunch grape cultivars come from muscadines, from a cross hybridization made in 1917.”
In contrast, he said, this project aims to provide grape and muscadine breeders with 10 disease-resistance genes in just four years, targeting powdery mildew, downy mildew, black rot and grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3.
Broadening horizons
Mark Hoffmann, associate professor and extension specialist with North Carolina State University, leads the production team and hopes the results will open new areas for grape production.
“Hybrid grapes have a large potential, especially in areas in which traditional grape production is difficult and not cost-effective,” Hoffman said. “This project allows us to evaluate germplasm as well as muscadine and hybrid cultivars across a large region of the southern United States and bring the potential of those cultivars closer to the grower.”
University of Arkansas System faculty members Amanda McWhirt, associate professor and extension fruit specialist with the Division of Agriculture, and Scott Lafontaine, assistant professor and flavor chemist with the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, are also working on VxM. McWhirt is on the eight-person production team led by Hoffmann and Lafontaine is among the six-person quality team led by Threlfall.
The work is supported by the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, project award no. 2024-51181-43236, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Mention of product names by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture does not imply endorsement.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
Muscadines, seen growing at the Fruit Research Station in Clarksville, are a species of native grape that resists many diseases and pests which can impact Vitis vinifera, the species that most people eat as table grapes and drink in wine.
Muscadines, seen growing at the Fruit Research Station in Clarksville, Arkansas, are a species of native grape that resists many diseases and pests which can impact Vitis vinifera, the species that most people eat as table grapes and drink in wine.
Credit
U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Paden Johnson
Will directly electing judges help Mexico fight corruption in its justice system?
Mexico’s outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has used his party's overwhelming democratic mandate to pass a series of reforms that will make the country the first in the world to elect almost all of its judges by popular vote. It’s a reform that the left-wing leader has championed as a crucial step to curtail the widespread corruption in Mexico’s judiciary – but some are worried it may leave the newly elected judges open to pressure from the country's powerful drug cartels, or even usher in a return to de facto one-party rule.
Mexico is about to become the first country in the world where people will have the power to elect almost every judge in the country, from local magistrates to the justices of the Supreme Court. The sweeping judicial reform narrowly passed through Mexico’s upper house on Wednesday morning after protesters stormed the Senate in a desperate effort to stop lawmakers voting, forcing them to continue the count in a separate building.
The outcome of the vote was not a given. Although the ruling party held the two-thirds supermajority necessary to pass the reform package in the lower-house, they were one vote short in the Senate. A last-minute defection from the conservative opposition finally gave them the numbers they needed – the proposal passed just after midnight.
Outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, widely known by his initials AMLO, hailed the reform’s passage as “an example to the world”.
"It's very important to end corruption and impunity. We will make great progress when it is the people of Mexico who freely elect the judges, the magistrates, the justices," the leftist leader told a press conference the morning after.
"Judges, with honourable exceptions ... are at the service of a predatory minority that has dedicated itself to plundering the country," he said.
The president on Thursday announced that the legislation had been validated by a majority of Mexico’s 32 state congresses – a formality, considering the president’s party has comfortable majorities across much of the country. Once it's published in the government's official gazette, the reform will come into effect and a new justice system will start to take place.
The more than 1,600 federal judges currently serving will resign, with the majority being replaced in elections in June next year. State legislatures will have 180 days to pass similar legislation for their own court systems, putting another 5,000 or so state judges and magistrates up for election alongside the remaining federal positions in 2027.
Candidates will have to have a law degree, a high academic average, a minimum of five years’ professional experience – though not necessarily as judges – and a series of references. These requirements will be vetted by technical committees from both branches of Congress.
The changes don’t stop there. The Supreme Court will be reduced from 11 to nine, and their term limits reduced. A five-person Tribunal for Judicial Discipline will also be elected, with broad powers to investigate and even impeach judges – another means, proponents say, of making the nation’s law courts more responsive to the people’s will rather than private patronage.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, said that AMLO’s criticisms of corruption within the judicial system were well founded.
“The need to tackle corruption in the Mexican judiciary is very real,” he said. “The country's legal system disproportionately favours the affluent and the well connected. It is overburdened and slow. This is true at all levels, which is why impunity is widespread in Mexico.”
AMLO has long characterised Mexico’s rampant corruption as being inextricably linked to the country’s neo-liberal turn in the final years of the 20th century, in which waves of privatisation and outsourcing allowed politically connected private enterprises to siphon off swathes of public money and sharply reduced state capacity to carry out social programmes.
The president has portrayed his six years in office as a bitter struggle to throw off this legacy, and to this end he has sharply raised the minimum wage, strengthened labour unions and overseen vast direct cash transfers to the country’s poor. More controversially, he has imposed a programme of what he calls “republican austerity” to root out rampant cronyism in the state administration and leaned heavily on the nation’s armed forces to oversee state infrastructure projects.
These sweeping measures have led to a significant drop in the number of Mexicans living in poverty – just under nine million people were lifted from poverty between 2020 and 2022, according to the official multidimensional poverty rate. They have also made the outgoing president immensely popular: in the June general elections, his National Regeneration Movement (Morena) won a crushing supermajority in the lower-house Chamber of Deputies and fell one vote short of the same in the Senate. AMLO’s hand-picked successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, was elected with just shy of 60 percent of the popular vote.
Now, as his final act before stepping down at the end of the month, AMLO has used this mandate to push through some of the most sweeping judicial reforms yet seen in the 21st century.
William A. Booth, lecturer in Latin American history at University College London, said that painting members of Mexico’s judiciary as aiders and abettors of a rapacious economic elite likely resonated with the ruling party’s supporters.
“One of the reasons this has come about and been possible is there is a very clear overlap between parts of the judiciary and Mexico’s political and economic elite,” he said. “There is a lot of corruption, there are a lot of favours done to business – and I think this does explain why US and Canadian businesses have reacted so strongly to this.”
It must be said that the response from Mexico’s largest trade partners has not been a warm one. In the days leading up to the vote, US ambassador Ken Salazar said the reform was a “major risk” to Mexico’s democracy – and one that could put the two country’s close economic relationship in jeopardy, especially with the USMCA free trade agreement up for review in 2026. Speaking to reporters, the ambassador even raised the prospect that the new system would prove easy pickings for Mexico’s powerful organised crime groups, breaking investor confidence in the country.
"Direct elections would also make it easier for cartels and other bad actors to take advantage of politically motivated and inexperienced judges," he said.
Ramon I. Centeno, lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Public Administration of the University of Sonora, Mexico, said that it was only natural that international investors were worried about their bottom line.
“The main concern for Mexican citizens is not what do American companies think or fear, the main problem here … is that we need more justice,” he said. “We need a better justice system, not because of what foreign investors want, but because here we have a large problem of violence that started in 2006, we have a lot of people that have died and no one has been held accountable – there are thousands and thousands of people who disappeared and no one is taking care of that, no one is being held accountable.” 'Little evidence elected judges are less corrupt'
Despite the widespread consensus that Mexico’s justice system was rife with graft, though, not everyone is convinced that AMLO’s reforms will actually address the root problem.
“While the Mexican judiciary is in dire need of reform, it is not clear that the popular election of judges is the best way to address its shortcomings,” Flores-Macias said. “There is little evidence from international experiences that elected judges are less corrupt or less prone to serve special interests than non-elected ones.”
While the US and Switzerland both allow direct elections for local judges, Bolivia made headlines in 2009 by becoming the first country to elect the nation’s top judges by popular vote. It has not been an unmitigated success – following opposition calls to boycott the elections, the shortlists put forward by the ruling Movement to Socialism party have found themselves elected with little real popular support.
As for the ever-present threat of cartel corruption in the courts, Flores-Macias said, it was hard to see how this reform on its own would keep judges free from temptation.
“Corruption in the Mexican judiciary is widespread, and it is naive to think that judges aren't already on the payroll of organised crime,” he said. “The election of judges is unlikely to change this, as organised crime co-opts elected officials across branches and levels of government.”
One-party rule?
For other critics, though, the reforms are not merely insufficient, but a threat to the very idea of an independent judiciary. Centeno said that the elections would almost inevitably lead to a justice system dominated by judges favoured by the powerful ruling party.
“In principle, there wouldn’t be any problem with the election of judges,” he said. “But what needs to be taken into account in the case of Mexico is that there is only one electoral machine that can run great campaigns in order to get people elected, and that’s the current party governing Mexico, which is Morena.”
Centeno said he believed that the reform was more motivated by AMLO’s increasingly acrimonious relationship with the Supreme Court than an authentic attempt to tackle judicial corruption. The outgoing president has repeatedly clashed with the Supreme Court over some of his landmark policies, including proposed staffing cuts to Mexico’s independent electoral commission and an attempt to place the civilian-run – though largely military – National Guard under direct military control. Both were struck down as unconstitutional.
“This reform to have judges elected will basically mean that those that are aligned with the Morena party are the only ones who will win,” he said. “Which means Morena will control every institution.”
Flores-Macias said that the fight against corruption in the justice system would likely go on long past the first elected judges took office.
“Strict anti-corruption mechanisms are crucial for a well-functioning judiciary regardless of whether judges are elected or not, as well as the protection of judges who might face retaliation for their rulings,” he said.
Centeno said that corrupt judges were only one part of what was standing between the Mexican people and access to justice.
“The problem is at the bottom, the people in charge of the judicial system that everyday Mexicans actually see when they seek justice,” he said. “We need more personnel, and more well-prepared personnel.”
He said that without better training and funding for police and prosecutors, cases would be dead in the water before they ever made it to the newly elected judges.
“What commonly happens here is that a policeman arrests someone, but he doesn’t actually know how to proceed step by step,” he said. “So when they take someone, maybe taken in flagrante, they take that person to the judge – the judge sees that the protocol wasn’t followed and that person arrested is released free again. The great problems of the judicial system are at the micro level, not the macro one.”
Noel Gallagher's 'Brit Pop' guitars go under hammer
London (AFP) – A guitar belonging to Noel Gallagher that featured on the cover of Oasis's debut single "Supersonic" fetched £132,000 ($172,000) at a London auction on Thursday.
The Epiphone Les Paul Standard guitar was sold well above its £80,000 estimate, the Sotheby's auction house said.
"It's a fitting tribute to celebrate, not only the 30th anniversary of "Definitely Maybe", but also the recent announcement of the long-awaited Oasis reunion," said Sotheby's head of popular culture Katherine Schofield, referring to Oasis's debut studio album.
"It has been brilliant to offer these important Oasis guitars from the beginning of the Brit Pop era," she said.
A second guitar played on stage by Gallagher, an Epiphone EA-250, circa 1972-74, sold for £48,000.
A third instrument, a 1980 Gibson Flying V Guitar previously owned by Johnny Marr of the Smiths and used by Gallagher in the recording of Oasis's 1994 track "Cigarettes and Alcohol", sold for £36,000.
Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher announced this month that they had ended their infamous 15-year feud and were reuniting for a tour starting next year.
Formed in Manchester, northwest England, in 1991, Oasis is credited with helping create the Britpop era of that decade.
The band was behind hit songs including "Wonderwall", "Don't Look Back In Anger" and "Champagne Supernova".
The Manchester group was also notorious for public fights between Liam and Noel.
While PSG welcomed the LFP’s offer to mediate on Wednesday, the offer was refused by the France skipper.
French media reported the 25-year-old, who had a fallout with the club last year after refusing to sign a contract extension, is seeking around €55 million ($60.73 million).
“Having heard the arguments of the parties yesterday, the Commission repeatedly insisted upon mediation between Paris Saint-Germain and the player to find a compromise in light of PSG’s favourable arguments,” the club told Reuters.
“This mediation process has been refused by the player, contrary to the Commission’s recommendation.
“...in light of the limitations of the Commission’s legal scope to take a complete decision on this matter, the matter must now be contested in another legal forum, to which Paris St Germain is delighted to present all the facts over the coming months and year.”
“As a matter of law and fact, the player has made clear, repeated public and private commitments that must be respected, having been afforded unprecedented benefits by the club over seven years in Paris,” PSG added.
“The club looks forward to these being upheld in the proper forum, if the player seeks to pursue this incomprehensibly reputationally damaging matter further, in due course.”
(Reuters) PSG refuse League order to pay Mbappe disputed €55 million
Paris (AFP) – Paris Saint-Germain refused Thursday to pay departed striker Kylian Mbappe a disputed 55 million euros ($60.6m) despite a French league (LFP) order to do so earlier in the day.
The LFP oversees all matters concerning the top two tiers of football in France, but PSG said they would seek a legal ruling elsewhere.
The 25-year-old striker says PSG owe him 55 million euros in wages and bonuses, but the Parisians say Mbappe agreed to waive the money in August 2023.
On Thursday, the LFP commission told PSG to pay, reportedly within a week, sparking a response from the Qatari-backed club.
"Given the limits of the Commission's legal scope to make a full decision on this matter, the case must now be pursued before another court."
"PSG will look forward to presenting all the facts over the coming months and year."
Lawyers representing the two parties met early on Wednesday after Mbappe, who joined Real Madrid this summer, had referred his case to the LFP's legal committee.
Boeing faces potential strike as Seattle workers vote New York (AFP) – Boeing workers began voting early Thursday on a new contract that the embattled aviation giant hopes is rich enough to avert a strike at two factories, adding to the company's woes.
Issued on: 12/09/2024 -
The union's roughly 33,000 Seattle-area workers are casting separate votes on whether to accept the contract and whether to strike, with the polls scheduled to close Thursday evening.
A strike could begin after midnight Friday.
Led by new CEO Kelly Ortberg, the embattled aviation giant had hoped a 25-percent wage hike over four years and a commitment to invest in the Puget Sound region would avert a costly strike.
But while the preliminary contract won an endorsement from leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751, the response from much of the rank-and-file has been harsh.
Workers had sought a 40-percent wage hike and critics have said the 25 percent figure is inflated because the new deal also eliminates an annual company bonus.
Other points of contention include the deal's failure to restore a pension and a Boeing pledge to build its next plane in the Seattle region that critics view as "hollow."
TV reports in the Seattle region have featured footage of line workers marching in solidarity against the deal.
"Bad Deal," reads a flier that has been posted to social media.
Ortberg implored workers Wednesday to not strike and "sacrifice" future progress over "frustrations of the past."
"For Boeing, it is no secret that our business is in a difficult period, in part due to our own mistakes in the past," Ortberg said.
"Working together, I know that we can get back on track, but a strike would put our shared recovery in jeopardy, further eroding trust with our customers and hurting our ability to determine our future together."
A strike would shutter Boeing production assembly plants for the 737 MAX and 777, further delaying the company's turnaround efforts.
"We have achieved everything we could in bargaining, short of a strike," IAM President Jon Holden said in a message to workers.
"We recommended acceptance because we can't guarantee we can achieve more in a strike," Holden said. "But that is your decision to make and is a decision that we will protect and support, no matter what."
If the contract fails to win a majority but a strike vote also falls short, the contract offer is accepted by default, according to IAM rules.
In an interview with the Seattle Times published Monday, Holden said, "Right now, I think it will be voted down, and our members will vote to strike." Advantage: labor?
Boeing has been under renewed scrutiny since a January incident in which a fuselage panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX plane mid-flight, necessitating an emergency landing.
That revived questions about safety and quality control after the company had seemingly made progress following deadly MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The aerospace giant in March announced a management shakeup that included the exit of Dave Calhoun as CEO. It has also slowed production on the MAX as it beefs up quality control.#photo1
Ortberg, who took the helm on August 8, has pledged a "reset" on labor relations as part of a turnaround.
The IAM talks come on the heels of a more assertive labor movement as embodied by strikes at Detroit's "Big Three" automakers and John Deere, and a near-strike at UPS that was resolved with a last-minute deal with the Teamsters.
"The power balance has shifted in favor of workers," said Cornell University labor relations expert Harry Katz, who noted that Boeing's position has been weakened by "turmoil and management problems."
Travis Gettys September 12, 2024 Marianne Williamson (MSNBC)
Former long-shot presidential candidate Marianne Williamson expressed her belief in a conspiracy theory spread by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance about Haitian immigrants.
The self-help author and would-be Democratic challenger suspended her campaign in July after Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the ticket with President Joe Biden's withdrawal, but she placed credence in the GOP ticket's claims that immigrants are stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
"Continuing to dump on Trump because of the 'eating cats' issue will create blowback on Nov. 5," Williamson posted on X. "Haitian voodoo is in fact real, and to dismiss the story out-of-hand rather than listen to the citizens of Springfield, Ohio confirms in the minds of many voters the stereotype of Democrats as smug elite jerks who think they’re too smart to listen to anyone outside their own silo."
Local police and the city manager have both offered statements this week debunking claims about the Springfield's immigrant population that appear to have originated two weeks ago with a white supremacist group leader who spoke at a city council meeting.
Drake Berentz, who signed up for public comment using a fake name that's an anagram for a racial slur, was removed from a city council meeting Aug. 27 after making outlandish claims about the city's 10,000 to 15,000 immigrants from Haiti who have legally relocated to the central Ohio city of around 60,000 people.
Vance, who is also a U.S. senator representing the state, passed off those claims this week on social media and Trump repeated them, even after local officials said there's no evidence they're true, during his debate with Kamala Harris — exactly two weeks after the hate group leader made them before city council.
Williamson expressed support during her campaign for legal pathways for immigrants and lamented the hate and vitriol that endanger them.
"Immigrants are not our enemies," her campaign website reads. "This is so important to remember today as immigrants are often viciously scapegoated. Scapegoating immigrants, particularly Mexicans and Central Americans, is a deliberate dehumanization technique. Dehumanizing others has always been the required first step leading toward history’s collective atrocities. This is not the first time dehumanization has reared its head in our nation, and we must stand up against it now as other generations stood up against it in their time."
Trump has been associating immigrants with the fictional cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lector, and his claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets appears to be rooted in both historic disgust about immigrant foods and hysteria over rare instances of human sacrifices by practitioners of voodoo, which is a syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism.
