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)
Argentina's Milei criticizes 'Leviathan' UN, pledges 'agenda of freedom'
Nicolás Misculin Tue, September 24, 2024 World leaders take part in the 79th annual U.N. General Assembly high-level debate
By Nicolás Misculin
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Argentina's brash libertarian President Javier Milei, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, criticized the organization as a "Leviathan" monster, rejected its 'Pact for the Future' and pledged instead an "agenda of freedom."
In a fiery speech where he also said the UN had become "powerless" in its key role to help prevent conflicts, Milei attacked the body's future pact adopted on Sunday calling it "socialist" and said the UN's remit had become "distorted".
"It has become a multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live," the right-wing economist and former pundit said, a reference to the giant mythological sea serpent.
"The same always happens with the ideas of the left. They design a model according to what human beings should do, and when things turn out differently, they repress, restrict and curtail their freedom."
Milei, who clashes regularly with political opponents, is battling to restore economic stability in Argentina after years of crises, with tough austerity measures that are helping to turn around a deep fiscal deficit, but aggravating a recession.
Before he decided to run for president, the former TV "shock jock" commentator even attacked Pope Francis, calling him a "son-of-a-bitch preaching communism". The two, however, have sought to mend ties since Milei took office in December.
(Reporting by Nicolas Misculin and Lucila Sigal in Buenos Aires; Writing by Adam Jourdan)
AMERIKA
Judge lets over 8,000 Catholic employers deny worker protections for abortion and fertility care
JACK DURA and STEVE KARNOWSKI Tue, September 24, 2024 FILE - The William L. Guy Federal Building is seen in Bismarck, N.D., April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge is allowing more than 8,000 Catholic employers nationwide to reject government regulations that protect workers seeking abortions and fertility care.
In a sharply worded order, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor, of Bismarck, North Dakota, granted a preliminary injunction Monday, ruling that the Catholic Benefits Association and the Diocese of Bismarck were likely to succeed in proving that a final rule adopted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April violated their freedom of religion. The regulations are meant to enforce the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
The judge also barred the EEOC from forcing the diocese and association to comply with harassment regulations meant to safeguard workers, writing "in a manner that would require them to speak or communicate in favor of abortion, fertility treatments, or gender transition when such is contrary to the Catholic faith.” The ruling targeted transgender employees who would be restricted from expressing parts of their gender identities.
“It is a precarious time for people of religious faith in America. It has been described as a post-Christian age,” Traynor wrote. “One indication of this dire assessment may be the repeated illegal and unconstitutional administrative actions against one of the founding principles of our country, the free exercise of religion.”
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act passed with widespread bipartisan support in December 2022. It was widely considered a victory for women who are low-wage workers and have routinely been denied accommodations for everything from time off for medical appointments to the ability to sit or stand on the job. But controversy ensued when the EEOC adopted an expansive view of conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth that required accommodations, including for abortion, fertility treatment and birth control. While the rule includes an exemption for religious employers, it says determinations must be made on a case-by-case basis.
But the judge, who was appointed in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, said the rule “forces members to choose between expressing sincerely held beliefs and compliance," and would cause “irreparable” harm.
Martin Nussbaum, lead attorney for the association, on Tuesday called the judge's ruling a win that “respects the religious conscience of sincere Catholic employers.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
Attorneys for the federal government had argued against an injunction, saying the plaintiffs’ case was “highly speculative” because they hadn’t identified any enforcement actions or employees who had sought accommodations that were denied. They also said the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge the regulations, and can't show they will likely succeed in the lawsuit. The judge rejected those arguments, saying “It should not take a legal challenge for the Agency to stop violating the Constitutional rights of Americans.”
In vitro fertilization became a major political flashpoint earlier this year, when the Alabama Supreme Court issued an opinion in a wrongful death case equating frozen embryos with children. Major IVF providers paused operations in the state until the Republican-controlled state government adopted a law offering some legal protections.
Last month, Trump said that if he wins a second term, he would make IVF treatment free, but did not detail how he would fund his plan or precisely how it would work. This month, Republicans blocked legislation to establish a nationwide right to IVF, fueling criticism from Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This particular case is part of this much broader attack on women’s rights and reproductive freedom,” said Inimai Chettiar, president of legal advocacy group A Better Balance, which spearheaded a decades-long campaign for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Neither the act nor the EEOC regulations require employers to pay for either abortions or IVF — just to allow workers to take time off for them, she said. “It’s not creating this onerous requirement on them.”
The Diocese of Bismarck and the Catholic Benefits Association filed the lawsuit in July. The association, which provides health and other benefits via Catholic employers, counts 85 dioceses and archdioceses among its members, which total over 1,380 employers plus 7,100 parishes nationwide, according to the complaint. Those members also include religious orders, schools, charities, colleges and hospitals, along with Catholic-owned businesses. The association says it covers 162,000 employees enrolled in member health plans.
Traynor has strong affiliations with Catholic and conservative groups. He was a board member of the North Dakota Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic bishops, according to a Senate Judiciary Committee judicial nominee questionnaire. He also listed his membership in two conservative law groups, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and the St. Thomas More Society of North Dakota. In March, he blocked the government from enforcing key federal laws and related regulations to require a Christian employers' organization to provide insurance coverage for gender-transition surgeries, counseling and other care.
Monday's decision followed a ruling in July by a federal judge in Louisiana, who granted a preliminary injunction in two similar lawsuits brought by the Louisiana and Mississippi attorneys general, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic University and two dioceses. The cases differ because the North Dakota lawsuit also explicitly challenged protections for fertility treatments, not just abortion, said Leila Abolfazli, director of national abortion strategy for the National Women’s Law Center.
In practice, Abolfazli said, if a worker is denied time off for fertility care, “that could be the difference between becoming pregnant or not.” While the ruling only applies to the Catholic groups, she explained that it’s one of several lawsuits that threaten to “bit by bit undermine the law overall.”
Sharita Gruberg, vice president for economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families, said she's worried about a “broader chilling effect” from this ruling and other decisions that could inhibit pregnant workers from feeling empowered to exercise their rights under the act.
“Religion is not a license to discriminate,” said Gillian Thomas, senior staff attorney for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. She said the ruling “marks a dangerous new low in the weaponization of religion against civil rights."
___
Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski reported from Minneapolis. Also contributing to this story were AP writers Alexandra Olson in New York, Claire Savage in Chicago and Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Scientists grow ‘lost tree’ mentioned in Bible using mysterious 1,000-year-old seed
Vishwam Sankaran Tue 24 September 2024
The resin of a tree grown from an ancient seed found in a desert cave near Jerusalem could be the source of a medicinal balm mentioned in the Bible, a new study has found.
The strange seed, about 2cm long, was discovered in a Judean Desert cave in the late 1980s, and dated to between 993AD and 1202AD. After years of attempting to grow the plant, researchers have identified the sapling nicknamed “Sheba”.
DNA analysis has revealed that the tree belongs to a unique species of the Commiphora family, which is distributed across Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula and known for its aromatic gum resins.
Researchers suspected the “Sheba” tree to be a candidate for the “Judean Balsam” or “Balm of Judea”, which was cultivated exclusively in the desert region of southern Levant during Biblical times.
The Judean Balsam has been extensively described in the literature from Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine and Post-Classical periods between the 4th century BC and the 8th century AD.
Leaves of ‘Sheba’ tree showing fine hairs (Guy Eisner/Communications Biology)
The tree’s resin, called ”tsori” in Biblical texts, was highly prized in the ancient world and exported throughout the Roman Empire. Previous research suggested it was used as perfume, incense, medicine for cataract as well as for embalming and as an antidote to poisons.
In spite of its value, the Judean Balsam seems to have disappeared from the Levant region by the 9th century.
The new DNA study has indicated that the “Sheba” tree was likely used during Biblical times as rootstock onto which the legendary perfume tree Judean balsam was grown.
“Grafting may also explain why Commiphora seeds have not been identified from excavation sites,” researchers said.
They found that the sapling’s leaves have biologically active compounds with anti-inflammatory properties.
Mature ‘Sheba’ tree of 12 years (Guy Eisner/Communication Biology)
“’Sheba’, an unknown Commiphora species with a unique genetic fingerprint, may represent an extinct taxon once native to this region whose resin ‘tsori‘ mentioned in Biblical texts was valuable, associated with healing but not described as fragrant,” researchers said.
The sapling has not yet produced flowers and fruit, which researchers hope would help them compare the tree better with modern-day relative species.
They speculate the environment where it now grows may not be conducive to its flowering and reproduction.
“Despite these limitations, the germination of an ancient Commiphora seed from the Judean Desert shows evidence for the first time of its presence in this region about 1,000 years ago and possible identification with a native tree or shrub whose valuable resin ‘tsori‘ was associated with medicinal use in the Bible,” researchers said.
The latest research also sheds light on the importance of resurrecting species of likely significance to ancient cultures, they said.
UK
LABOUR IS NOT A GREEN PARTY
Tanya Plibersek approves three coalmine expansions in move criticised as ‘the opposite of climate action’
Graham Readfearn Tue 24 September 2024 Environment minister Tanya Plibersek says the coalmine approvals are ‘not new projects’ and the emissions from them would be considered under the safeguard mechanism.Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, approved three coalmine expansions on Tuesday in a step described by conservationists as reckless and “the opposite of climate action”.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the three projects, all in New South Wales, would generate more than 1.3bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in their lifetime.
The approvals come after conservationists, independent MPs and senators have been negotiating with the government over its delayed reforms to environment laws, including calls for the climate impacts of projects to be considered as part of federal assessments.
Plibersek approved Whitehaven Coal’s plan to extend underground mining for 13 more years until 2044 at its Narrabri mine; Mach Energy’s mine at Mount Pleasant was extended until 2048; and Yancoal’s Ravensworth mine was extended to 2032.
At least two of the mines, Narrabri and Mount Pleasant, will target thermal coal for export and burning in power stations.
She said the mines were “not new projects” and the emissions from them would be considered under the government’s safeguard mechanism designed to cap and reduce emissions from major polluting sites.
The decision to approve the projects angered climate and environment groups.
“This decision is the opposite of climate action,” Gavan McFadzean, the climate program manager at ACF, said.
“It is grossly irresponsible to be approving coalmines when global scientists and the International Energy Agency have repeated calls for no new coal and gas projects if we have any chance of having a safe climate,” he said.
“The Albanese government came to office promising to be champions for climate action and it continues to disappoint.”
He said the approvals were “not a good look” for the government that was due to host a global “nature positive summit” next month.
Rod Campbell, the research director at the progressive Australia Institute, said the “approvals are inconsistent with Australia’s climate goals and reinforces our country’s reputation as one of the world’s major fossil fuel exporters”.
Carmel Flint, of the Lock the Gate Alliance, said the government “has revealed its reckless disregard for the extinction of Australian wildlife and the effects of catastrophic climate change on all Australians”.
“We are shocked that a government that came to power promising to halt extinction and act on climate change has sunk so low,” she said.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said the decision to approve the projects was “a betrayal of everyone who voted for climate action” and said Labor had now approved 26 new coal and gas projects since being elected.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, claimed the government was “deliberately and proactively approving climate wrecking coal mines” under national environment laws “they know are broken”.
“It’s wrong and irresponsible,” she said.
ENGLAND
Junk food ads to be banned on buses and Metro as mayors back Jamie Oliver campaign
Daniel Holland Tue 24 September 2024 Junk food ads to be banned on buses and Metro as mayors back Jamie Oliver campaign (Image: Newsquest)
Junk food adverts will be banned on bus and Metro services in the North East, in an effort to help youngsters who are “bombarded” by unhealthy products driving childhood obesity.
Kim McGuinness is among nine UK mayors to have today committed to backing Jamie Oliver’s ‘AdEnough’ campaign to crack down on outdoor junk food advertising, having previously pledged to so when challenged by the TV chef during the North East mayoral election campaign earlier this year.
The move will mean that unhealthy food promotions will be banned on the Tyne and Wear Metro and on local bus services, once the mayor’s plans to take control of buses away from private operators are finalised.
Such a ban is already in force on tubes and buses in London and will now be replicated by mayors in eight other areas – also including Greater Manchester, Liverpool, and North Yorkshire.
Mr Oliver called the public health initiative a “much-needed and vital step towards creating healthier, happier communities”.
According to a recent Newcastle City Council report, 11% of reception-age children and 26% of those in year six in the North East are classed as obese.
Ms McGuinness said: “By working together, we send a clear message to junk food companies – and align with broader national efforts to restrict junk food advertising – that the days of targeting children and young people with predatory advertising for products that harm their health are over. Enough is enough.”
Mr Oliver added: “It’s so brilliant to see the mayors stepping up, committing to this bold initiative and banning junk-food ads in their public spaces. It’s a much-needed and vital step towards creating healthier, happier communities across the UK, where our kids aren’t constantly bombarded with unhealthy messaging around food.
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"Of course, there’s still a long way to go, but this is a great start.” Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, said the number of junk food ads seen on billboards and bus stops was “not fair, and it’s affecting our health”.
She added: “Children exposed to junk food adverts are more likely to choose unhealthy foods. This evidence-based policy is an important move to reduce the risk of diet-related diseases like obesity and Type 2 diabetes in young people.”
Minke whale sightings hit record highs amid calls for research into 'mystery'
Mark McDougall Tue 24 September 2024 A minke whale (Image: Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust)
A new report has revealed 2023 had the highest sighting rates and numbers of minke whales ever recorded in the Hebrides - but it also saw the lowest known numbers for basking sharks.
The report by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust was published by NatureScot and presents findings collected during the Trust’s marine research expeditions onboard its research vessel Silurian over the past three years, together with sighting rates and numbers for minke whales and basking sharks from the 20 years the programme has been running.
The latest findings suggest changes in sighting rates, as well as a possible association between the two highly-mobile and long-lived species. When sighting rates for basking sharks are high, they are low for minke whales and vice versa.
It remains unknown why this happens and the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust is calling for more work to analyse the trends as well as investigation into potential causes such as climate change.
Dr Lauren Harny-Mills, the science and conservation manager for the trust, believes it highlights the importance of monitoring the species – particularly in the face of climate emergencies.
Sightings of Basking Sharks have been much lower (Image: Rob Pickering)
She said: “Scotland’s west coast seas are a global hotspot for cetaceans and basking sharks. Our findings highlight the importance of long-term monitoring of these species and the threats facing them.
“In the face of the nature and climate emergencies, gaining new insights and understanding into what is happening in Scotland’s seas is vital, so we can better protect these remarkable animals and this world-class region of marine biodiversity.”
Scotland’s west coast seas are internationally important for whales, dolphins and harbour porpoise – collectively known as cetaceans – and the globally endangered basking shark.
Since 2002, the Isle of Mull-based trust has been monitoring marine life by running expeditions, with members of the public joining its research vessel to survey Hebridean seas.
Sighting rates of minke whale rose to 1.57 per 100 kilometres last year, with numbers reaching a record 167.
In contrast, rates of basking shark fell to 0.07 sightings per 100 kilometres in 2022 and 2023. That is the lowest ever recorded by the trust since monitoring began with just seven basking sharks recorded in each summer.
Scotland’s seas become home to minke whales when they migrates to the west of the country each summer to feed in the rich waters. Despite the encouraging increase in sightings, rates fluctuate over time and there are serious issues affecting the vulnerable species.
Human activities, climate change, entanglement, pollution, underwater noise and habitat degradation are all putting marine life at risk, according to the Trust who say ongoing, long-term research is crucial to understanding the impacts and how best to protect and restore biodiversity.
Rona Sinclair, Marine Mobile Species Monitoring Advisor at NatureScot, said: “This valuable research is allowing us to track how whales and basking sharks are faring over the long-term in the Hebrides. Without collaboration with organisations like the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, it would be much more difficult to assess the health of these species, why changes are happening, and what’s necessary for future research and conservation, including within Marine Protected Areas.
“The decrease in basking shark sightings is worrying, and there could be many reasons for this, likely linked to availability of their food, zooplankton. However, they may also still be there at depth and just not visible. Continued collaboration with researchers is vital, helping us to know how these giant beasts – the world’s second largest fish – are faring, so we can respond appropriately.”
The new report, ‘Hebridean Cetacean Research Programme 2021-24’, documents data gathered during the Trust’s research expeditions carried out from April 2021-March 2024 on Silurian.
During this time, 49 surveys covered a total of 22,645 km, with 10 species of mammal recorded in more than 3,000 sightings. Almost 300 volunteers conducted visual surveys and monitoring with underwater microphones, and identified individual animals through photography.
A path towards freedom: the new route to Europe for desperate Chinese migrants
Amy Hawkins, senior China correspondent, in Bihać
The Guardian Tue 24 September 2024 Chinese people are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU
Illustration: Adam Parata/The Guardian
In a sleepy Bosnian town, barely five miles from the border with the European Union, a crumbling old water tower is falling into ruin. Inside, piles of rubbish, used cigarette butts and a portable wood-fired stove offer glimpses into the daily life of the people who briefly called the building home. Glued on to the walls is another clue: on pieces of A4 paper, the same message is printed out, again and again: “If you would like to travel to Europe (Italy, Germany, France, etc) we can help you. Please add this number on WhatsApp”. The message is printed in the languages of often desperate people: Somali, Nepali, Turkish, the list goes on. The last translation on the list indicates a newcomer to this unlucky club. It is written in Chinese.
Bihać water tower was once used to replenish steam trains travelling across the former Yugoslavia. Now it provides shelter to a different kind of person on the move: migrants making the perilous journey through the Balkans, with the hope of crossing into Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s neighbour in the EU.
Zhang* arrived in Bosnia in April with two young children in tow. The journey he describes as walking “towards the path of freedom” started months earlier in Langfang, a city in north China’s Hebei province. So far it has taken them through four countries, cost thousands of pounds, led to run-ins with the aggressive Croatian border police, and has paused, for now, in a temporary reception centre for migrants on the outskirts of Sarajevo.
The camp, which is home to more than 200 people, is specifically for families, vulnerable people and unaccompanied minors. As well as the rows of dormitories set among the rolling Balkan hills, there is a playground with children skipping rope and an education centre. But it is a lonely life. It’s rare to meet another Chinese speaker. To pass the time, Zhang occasionally helps out in the canteen.
“Staying here is not a very good option,” Zhang says, as his son and daughter chase after each other in the courtyard. But “if I go back to China, what awaits me is either being sent to a mental hospital or a prison.”
The fear of what the future held for him and his children propelled the 39-year-old from Shandong province on a journey so difficult and dangerous that many struggle to understand why someone from China would embark on it. Most of Zhang’s new neighbours come from war-torn countries in the Middle East. Until recently, Zhang had a stable job working for a private company in the world’s second-biggest economy, earning an above average salary. But the political environment in China left him feeling that he had no choice other than to leave.
In September, the Guardian travelled to Bosnia to meet some of the Chinese migrants attempting the dangerous Balkan route, to reveal the personal and political factors behind the new migrant population on the frontier of Europe.
‘No one wants to leave his country if they are safe’
Zhang is one of a small but growing number of Chinese people who are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU by whatever means necessary.
He and his children were apprehended four times as they tried to cross into Europe. Armed with little more than some vague tips he’d seen on the messaging app Telegram, and the map on his smartphone, he headed to various towns on the Bosnia-Croatia border to try his luck. But every time they were caught. Most recently, he tried to cross into Metković, a small town in the south of Croatia where the border is fortified mainly by a small ridge of forested mountains. But after camping overnight in the wilderness with sinister-looking brown snakes, the family were caught once again by the notoriously tough Croatian border police, and hauled back into Bosnia.
“Going into other countries in this way is not very honourable for me, to be honest,” Zhang says. “We know that there are many countries where people hate people like us … but no one wants to leave his country if they are safe”. He says he only made the journey because of his family. “My children are very young,” Zhang says, referring to his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter. “I couldn’t explain to them what’s really happening. I just told the children that I wanted to give them a better life … they have no future [in China] at all”.
In 2022, of the more than 14,000 people caught trying to illegally cross Bosnia’s borders, two were Chinese. In 2023, that number had increased to 148. The majority of them were caught trying to cross into Croatia, according to the border police of Bosnia. They said that more than 70 Chinese people were apprehended in the first half of this year.
And under a bilateral agreement, the Croatia can deport people without the right to remain in the EU country back to Bosnia. In 2021, three Chinese people were admitted to Bosnia and Herzegovina in this way. In 2023, it was 260.
In recent years, the surging numbers of Chinese people trying to cross into the US via the treacherous southern border has become a political talking point in Washington, with US authorities deporting more than 100 migrants on a charter flight earlier this year and working with neighbouring countries to try to deter further arrivals.
David Stroup, a lecturer of Chinese politics at the University of Manchester, says that the rapid expansion of China’s surveillance state during the pandemic combined with a gloomy economic outlook were some of the driving forces for this new wave of Chinese migrants.
“The lockdowns created a sense that ordinary people who were just living their lives could somehow find themselves under heavy observation of the state or subjected to long arbitrary periods of lockdown and confinement,” Stroup said.
Part of the reason that Bosnia is an attractive staging post for Chinese migrants, is that like its neighbour Serbia, it offers visa-free travel. Aleksandra Kovačević, spokesperson for Bosnia’s Service for Foreigner’s Affairs, a government department, said that Chinese people were “gaining statistical significance as persons who increasingly violate migration regulations of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. She said that along with Turkish citizens, Chinese people were trying to use legal entry into Bosnia as a way to “illegally continue their journey to the countries of western Europe”.
But why?
Zhang’s ‘first awakening’
Zhang’s winding path to Bosnia started more than a decade ago. In 2012, thousands of people across China participated in anti-Japanese protests, triggered by an escalation in the dispute between China and Japan over contested islets in the East China Sea. But Zhang publicly questioned the official narrative that the archipelago was an undisputed part of Chinese territory. He was arrested and accused of inciting the subversion of state power. “That was my first awakening,” he says.
Many ordinary Chinese occasionally feel the rough end of the government’s tight control over public speech. Most learn to keep their head down and, begrudgingly or not, quietly navigate the invisible red lines that dictate what can be freely talked about. But Zhang couldn’t bear it.
Over the years, rumours about his political views rippled throughout his community. A teacher at his son’s school accused Zhang of being unpatriotic, in front of the whole class. He and his wife quarrelled and ultimately separated, in part because she “couldn’t stand that kind of gossip”.
Things truly came to a head in the pandemic, three years in which “the government locked people up in their homes like animals”. In November 2022, a fire in an apartment building in Urumqi, a city in far west China, killed 10 people, with many blaming strict public health controls for preventing the victims from escaping. Anger spread online and in the streets, as hundreds of people in cities across China participated in the first mass anti-government protests since Xi Jinping came to power. Zhang was one of them. In the following days, several of his friends were arrested. Zhang thinks that the only reason he was spared was because he didn’t bring his phone with him, making it harder for the police to trace his movements. But the disappearance of his friends convinced him that he had to leave.
“China’s control over speech is getting tighter and tighter. They don’t allow people to talk about political parties, and no matter if the government is doing a good or bad job, they don’t allow people to talk about it. It is limiting people’s freedom of speech tremendously, and that’s the most important thing I can’t accept,” Zhang says. “The economy is secondary”.
Since China’s zero-Covid regime was abruptly lifted, shortly after the 2022 protests, hordes of people have been leaving the country. Some are fed up with the political repression, which has spread far and wide under the current regime. Others feel hopeless about the economy, which has struggled to recover since the pandemic, with high youth unemployment rates and stagnant wages. For many, the bargain between the party and the people, that living standards will continue to improve so long as you keep your head down, no longer holds water. So scores of people are finding ways out through the cracks.
Some are using student or work visas to relocate to places where they can live and talk more freely, with new diaspora communities emerging in cities such as Bangkok, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. But others, often lower middle class people who don’t have the funds or the qualifications to emigrate by official means, are choosing more dangerous escape routes. The phenomenon has become so widely discussed online that it has it’s own buzzword: runxue, or run philosophy, a coded term for emigration. Exact numbers are hard to come by as many people do not formally register their intention to leave, especially if they are planning on entering another country illegally. But in 2023, there were 137,143 asylum seekers from China, according to the UN’s refugee agency. That is more than five times the number registered a decade earlier, when Xi’s rule had just started.
One potential pathway is the deadly Darién Gap, part of the migrant corridor that connects south and Central America with the southern border of the United States. Better known for attracting desperate Latin Americans, in recent years the number of Chinese people making that journey has surged. In the six months to April 2024, 24,367 Chinese nationals were apprehended by the US border police at the border with Mexico. That is more than the number of Chinese people who were apprehended in the whole of the previous financial year. In March alone, the number of times that the US border police encountered Chinese nationals increased by 8,500% compared with March 2021.
The Darién Gap route has been popular among Chinese migrants in part because they could start the journey in Ecuador, which allowed Chinese people to visit visa-free. In June, Ecuador suspended the visa waiver agreement, citing a “worrying increase” in arrivals from China.
Immigration officials describe the flow of migrants as being like a living organism. Its size swells and morphs, but it rarely shrinks. So when one door closes, the people on the move don’t stop moving, they just find another window.
For Zhang, the door to America, his first choice, closed when he was already en route. He had booked tickets to Ecuador via Singapore and Madrid early in the new year. But in Singapore the family was blocked from boarding the Spain-bound flight, with airline staff saying that the Spanish authorities had refused them entry. He was stranded, with no plan B. It was a kindly Czech couple who found him crying in the airport who suggested he try Europe, he says. So he booked a flight to Belgrade.
His hope is to find a way to northern Europe, where there is freedom of speech and employment opportunities. Other Chinese people have had the same idea. In the first eight months of this year, there were 569 new asylum applications from Chinese nationals in Germany, more than double the total number for 2022. In the Netherlands, 409 Chinese people applied for asylum last year, up from 151 the year before.
Some staff at the migrant reception centres gently encourage people to apply for asylum in Bosnia rather than continuing on into Europe.
But with high unemployment and a byzantine application process, most people would rather keep moving. Jing* a Chinese man living at another migrant centre near Sarajevo, tried to enter across the border into Croatia “six or seven times”. Now he has applied for asylum in Bosnia, “but I don’t think anything will come of it,” he says. He fled China after completing an eight-month prison sentence for anti-government comments he posted on X. Now he has run out of money and luck.
In the corner of a cemetery on the outskirts of Bihać, another unlikely journey from China to Bosnia has ended. Kai Zhu is buried here. Little is known about him, other than his year of birth, 1964, and the fact that he had expressed an intention to apply for asylum in Bosnia. Staff at the migrant reception centre where he died say that he had mental as well as physical health problems, and that his only acquaintance was another Chinese man in the camp, who soon moved on.
On 31 August, Asim Karabegović, a volunteer with SOS Balkanroute, an NGO, buried him in a corner of Humci cemetery that since 2019 has been reserved for migrants who have died on the EU’s doorstep. In the distance behind the rows of tombstones, the mountains that mark the border with Croatia form an imposing horizon. Karabegović says that the lonely traveller is the first Chinese person he has buried. His wooden tombstone reads only, “Kai Zhu, 1964 – 2024”.
Additional research by Chi-hui Lin and Džemal Ćatić
*Names have been changed
WAR IS ECOCIDE French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II Marine LEDOUX Tue 24 September 2024
Gerardmer is a beauty spot with a dark secret
(Olivier MORIN/AFP/AFP)
The apparently pristine Gerardmer lake in the Vosges mountains of eastern France conceals a bleak legacy of 20th-century conflict -- dozens of tonnes of unexploded ordnance from the two world wars.
The lake 660 metres (2,170 feet) above sea level is a popular summer bathing spot and is sometimes also tapped for drinking water for the picturesque local town.
Gerardmer's mayor Stessy Speissmann-Mozas started asking questions about the water safety after the Odysseus 3.1 environmental group said samples taken from the lake showed high levels of TNT explosive, as well as metals like iron, titanium and lead.
The group said it found artillery shells in the mud at the bottom of the lake. Some were "gutted, allowing the explosive they contained to escape", Odysseus 3.1's founder Lionel Rard said in a documentary broadcast by the France 5 channel in May.
Samples sent to a German lab showed TNT levels among "the highest ever measured by that team", as well as metal concentrations above legal limits.
- 'Stick all this in the lake' -
The mayor has said the government should pay for a more detailled study of the risks from the munitions that were initially dumped in Gerardmer by the French army. As a theatre of multiple conflicts over the past century and more, France is particularly afflicted by unexploded ordnance.
Most dates back to the world wars but shells are still found from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, noted Charlotte Nihart of Robin des Bois (Robin Hood), an association that has charted unexploded bombs across France.
Unexploded ordnance is involved in around 10 deaths nationwide every year.
During the wars, retreating armies would dump munitions in lakes to stop enemy forces getting them, Nihart said.
In Gerardmer, disposal drives started in 1977 after a man was burned by a phosphorous shell. They continued through to 1994, removing explosives up to 10 metres below the lake surface.
"They took out 120 tonnes of munitions, made up of almost 100,000 individual pieces of different types from 1914-18 and 1939-45," said Pierre Imbert, an assistant to the mayor and former local fire chief and diver.
Disposal teams brought each explosive to the surface, where they could remove the detonator.
"Then they went and blew it up at the end of the lake," Imbert recalled.
Photos he has kept from the disposal campaigns show everything from "handmade grenades from World War I, more recent things from World War II, and even a little axe".
Officials called a halt to the ordnance disposal due to the difficulty of working further from the shore and deeper under the mud of the lake bed, the regional authority told Robin des Bois.
The region estimated that around 70 tonnes remain at the bottom of Gerardmer.
"There's no way of evaluating the quantity of munitions still sunk in the mud" up to 30 metres below the surface, Imbert said.
- 'Decontaminate everything' -
Since 1945, some of the munitions have moved around in the lake currents.
The state should "decontaminate everything around the edge" of the lake, said Aurelie Mathieu, head of the Vosges region's AKM eco-tourism association.
But the regional authority is refusing to act on the sole basis of the Odysseus 3.1 analysis.
"Neither the ARS (regional health agency) nor Anses (national health and safety agency) were involved in this investigation and we have no details of the methods used to collect and analyse samples," it told AFP.
Samples were taken by state agencies in February and analysed by "several French and German labs", it added.
"Initial results confirmed the conclusions of previous campaigns -- no concerning levels were detected" in the lake water, the regional authority said.
"No health risk has been identified" either for drinking the water or for swimming in it, it added.
One company has put in a bid to map the ordnance still lying at the bottom of the lake.
It would cost "almost 300,000 euros ($334,000)", mayor Speissman-Mozas said.
He is interested in the offer, as long as the national government pays.
"It's the French army who put all these munitions here," he reasoned.
mlx/tgb/sjw/gil
New ghost shark species with unusually long nose discovered in deep seas off New Zealand
Eva Corlett in Wellington Tue 24 September 2024
The new species of ghost shark was discovered in the Chathams Rise, roughly 750km east of New Zealand’s coast. Photograph: NIWA
A new species of ghost shark, with an unusually long nose and a whip-like tail, has been discovered in the inky depths of New Zealand waters.
Scientists at New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospherics (Niwa) initially believed the creature was part of an existing species found around the world, but further investigation revealed it was new, genetically distinct, species.
The newly described Australasian narrow-nosed spookfish is only found in New Zealand and Australian waters.
Ghost sharks – also known as chimaeras and spookfish - are a group of cartilaginous fish closely related to sharks and rays. They have smooth skin, beak-like teeth and feed off crustaceans such as shrimp and molluscs. They are sometimes referred to as the ocean’s butterflies for the way they glide through the water with their large pectoral fins.
The mysterious fish are typically found at great ocean depths – up to 2,600 metres - and little is known about their biology or the threats they face.
“Ghost sharks are incredibly under-studied, there is a lot we don’t know about them,” said Dr Brit Finucci, a fisheries scientist at Niwa who helped discover the new species.
“Chimaeras are quite cryptic in nature – they can be hard to find in the deep ocean … and they generally don’t get the same attention sharks do, when it comes to research.”
The new ghost shark was found in the Chathams Rise, roughly 750km east of New Zealand’s coast. It is distinctive for its very elongated snout that can make up half of its entire body length and has likely evolved to aid its hunt for prey. The chocolate-brown fish can grow up to a metre long, has large milky-coloured eyes and a serrated dorsal fin to deter predators.
Roughly 55 species of ghost shark have been discovered globally, with about 12 of those found in New Zealand and South Pacific waters.
Scientists suspected it was a new species based off of its morphology – how it looks – but further genetic research was needed to confirm the theory. Discovering that it was indeed a distinct species was an exciting moment for Finucci.
“It’s really neat to be able to contribute to science,” she said. “Understanding the animal itself can feed into further research and whether they need conservation management.”
In a touching homage to her grandmother, Finucci gave the ghost shark the scientific name Harriotta avia: Harriotta being her grandmother’s name, and avia meaning grandmother in Latin.
“I also liked the idea that … sharks and ghost sharks are the old, ancient, relatives of fish, and I was naming the animal after an ancient relative of mine.”
ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY
There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the US. That's the most in decades
SEAN MURPHY Updated Tue 24 September 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Death row inmates in five states are scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.
The first execution was carried out on Friday in South Carolina. Two more death row inmates, in Missouri and Texas, were pronounced dead Tuesday evening following executions. If the two remaining scheduled executions, in Alabama and Oklahoma, are carried out this week, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.
If this week’s remaining executions are completed, the United States will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, said Robin Maher, the center’s executive director.
“Two on a single day is unusual, and four on two days in the same week is also very unusual,” Maher said.
Here are some things to know about executions set this week across the country.
How did 5 executions get set for a 1-week span?
Experts say five executions being scheduled within one week is simply an anomaly that resulted from courts or elected officials in individual states setting dates around the same time after inmates exhausted their appeals.
“I'm not aware of any reason other than coincidence,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska with expertise in the death penalty and lethal injection.
The first of the five executions took place on Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death for the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. It was South Carolina's first execution in 13 years, an unintended delay caused by the inability of state prison officials to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections. To carry out executions, the state switched from a three-drug method to a new protocol of using a single sedative, pentobarbital.
Missouri
In Missouri on Tuesday evening, Marcellus Williams was put to death by lethal injection for the 1998 stabbing death of a woman in the St. Louis suburb of University City. Williams’ attorneys argued on Monday that the state Supreme Court should halt his execution over alleged procedural errors in jury selection and the prosecution’s alleged mishandling of the murder weapon. But the state’s high court rejected those arguments, and Gov. Mike Parson denied Williams’ clemency request, paving the way for his execution to proceed.
Texas
Also on Tuesday, Texas death row inmate Travis Mullis was executed by lethal injection. Mullis, a man with a long history of mental illness who has repeatedly sought to waive his right to appeal his death sentence, was sentenced to death for killing his 3-month-old son in January 2008. In a letter submitted to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote in February that he had no desire to challenge his case any further and stated that “his punishment fit the crime.” The 38-year-old is the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.
Alabama
Alabama is preparing to carry out the nation’s second execution ever using nitrogen gas on Thursday, after becoming the first state to use the new procedure in January. Alan Miller is set to die by the process in which a mask is placed over the inmate’s head that forces the inmate to inhale pure nitrogen. Miller, who was given a reprieve in 2022 after his execution was called off when officials were unable to connect an intravenous line, was sentenced to die after being convicted of killing three men during back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.
Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, Emmanuel Littlejohn is set to receive a lethal injection on Thursday after being sentenced to die for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery. Littlejohn has admitted to his role in the robbery, but claims he did not fire the fatal shot. The state's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last month to recommend Gov. Kevin Stitt spare Littlejohn's life, but the governor has yet to make a clemency decision.
