REST IN POWER

Lilly Ledbetter, equal wages activist who inspired Fair Pay Act, dies at 86


 Lilly Ledbetter, women's equality leader and namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, speaks at the Democratic National Convention at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 4, 2012. Ledbetter died Saturday at the age of 86. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Lilly Ledbetter, who championed women's rights and equal pay, has died at the age of 86.

Ledbetter, who was the inspiration for the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday night of respiratory failure in Alabama, her family announced Sunday in a statement.
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"Lilly Ledbetter passed away peacefully last night at the age of 86. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones. Our mother lived an extraordinary life," according to the statement.

Ledbetter, a 19-year employee of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., sued the tire giant in 1999 for gender-based pay discrimination after she discovered substantial pay disparities between her salary and that of her male counterparts who performed the same work.

"I took a job that had normally been considered a man's job. I don't agree with that term," Ledbetter told Forbes in an interview in 2019. "It's a job. Whether it's a man, African American, Latino, heavy, skinny, whatever. If they're the best qualified for that job, they should get it and they should get the money to go with it."
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Ledbetter initially won her case and was awarded $3.8 million in backpay and damages in 2003, before the decision was overturned upon Goodyear's appeal.

The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 against Ledbetter, stating she failed to file her complaint within the 180 days of the pay decision by Goodyear.

Legislation in her name was introduced in Congress during George W. Bush's presidency in 2008. That bill was defeated, but was reintroduced in January 2009 after Barack Obama became president. The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate.

The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first bill Obama signed into law after becoming president, modified the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to give employees more time to challenge pay discrimination. The law allows for the 180-day statute of limitations for filing equal-pay lawsuits to reset with each new paycheck.

On Monday, Obama praised Ledbetter's legacy.

"Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law -- my first as president," Obama wrote in a post on X.

"Lilly did what so many Americans before her have done: setting her sights high for herself and even higher for her children and grandchildren."

Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work. But this grandmother from Alabama kept on fighting until the day I signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law - my first as president.... pic.twitter.com/Z4ZxsDbIU5— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 14, 2024

President Joe Biden called Ledbetter a "fearless leader" in her fight for equal pay and sent his "condolences to Lilly's family and all of the women she empowered."

"Her fight began on the factory floor and reached the Supreme Court and Congress, and she never stopped fighting for all Americans to be paid what they deserve," Biden wrote Monday in a statement released by the White House.

"Because of Lilly's tireless efforts, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act -- a critical step forward in the fight to close the gender and racial wage gaps -- became the first bill signed in the Obama-Biden administration," Biden said. "It was an honor to stand with Lilly as the bill that bears her name was made law."

Citing murder of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, Biden says 'no place for hate in America'


Oct. 14, 2024 

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President Joe Biden marked one year since the killing of six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in Illinois on Monday, by calling for "steps that honor Wadee's memory and reaffirm that there is no place for hate in America, including hatred of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims."

 Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo


Oct. 14 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden marked one year since the killing of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi in Illinois on Monday by highlighting ongoing work to "fight hatred and violence against Muslim and Arab communities."

"On October 14th, one year ago today, 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, a bright and cheerful American Muslim boy of Palestinian descent, was brutally killed in his family's home in Plainfield, Ill.," Biden said in a statement. "The attacker also repeatedly stabbed and seriously wounded Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen, resulting in murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges in Illinois."

"On this day, let us all take steps that honor Wadee's memory and reaffirm together that there is no place for hate in America, including hatred of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims," Biden added.

On Monday, the White House highlighted the Biden administration's "forthcoming National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Hatred Against Arabs in the United States," as well as its ongoing efforts to fight hate.

Since 2021, the Department of Justice has awarded more than $100 million in grants to law enforcement and civil rights groups to address hate crimes, while also working to transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System to improve how reported crime is measured, according to the White House.

"In May 2021, I signed into law the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which includes the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act, to enhance hate crime data collection and provide community-centered solutions to assist hate crime victims and their communities," Biden added.

The DOJ has also created a website to raise awareness about resources to deal with threats against Muslim, Arab, Palestinian and Jewish communities in the United States.

The Department of Labor sent a letter to American Job Centers, reminding them of the legal requirements to ban discrimination based on religion or ethnicity. Also, schools and campuses have received fact sheets on fighting harassment from the Justice Department and the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also elevated hate crimes and criminal civil rights violations to its highest-level national threat priority, which has increased the resources for hate crimes a focus for all of the Bureau's field offices," Biden added, as he promised, "My administration will continue to spare no effort in countering hate in all its forms."

Amnesty International calls for Biden to free Leonard Peltier

POLITICAL PRISONER OF THE 70'S INDIAN WARS

Renewed calls for Peltier's freedom arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day.


Amnesty International's call arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day with the global human rights watchdog again urging the outgoing Democratic president to affix his name granting clemency to the decades-long jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier (seen in FBI's 1976 Ten Most Wanted poster), who turned 80 last month. 

File photo courtesy of FBI/UPI

Oct. 14, 2024 

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Amnesty International on Monday renewed calls for President Joe Biden to grant clemency to jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who many say is America's longest-serving political prisoner.

The call by Amnesty arrived on Indigenous Peoples' Day with the international human rights watchdog once more urging the outgoing Democratic president to commute the sentence of the decades-long jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who turned 80 last month on Sept. 12, and release him.



Peltier, who was a member of the indigenous American Indian Movement, had been convicted in 1975 of allegedly murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a territory of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota, in a trial many say was riddled with fraud. Peltier has since maintained his innocence.

Peltier has been jailed for nearly 50 years despite legitimate and ongoing concern over the fairness of his trial decades ago, Amnesty and many others have long since argued.

Joining with Amnesty in its plea for Biden to show mercy has been American tribal nations and its leaders, members of both chambers of Congress including the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ex-FBI agents, noted Nobel Peace Prize winners and former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, the very same federal prosecutor who handled Peltier's conviction and later appeals.

In early July, Peltier was denied his most recent parole request after a previous rejection in 2009.

But on Saturday in an open letter to Biden, liberal activist Michael Moore wrote that among 13 actions he feels Biden should take in the few remaining months of his "lame duck" presidency through Jan. 20 is to give Peltier his freedom.

"Mr. President, Leonard Peltier is two years younger than you," Moore opened his letter.

Moore's letter went on to state how Peltier was allegedly "pursued and surveilled by the FBI because of his political engagement. The evidence at his trial included conveniently altered details and a key witness who was coerced into testifying," Moore says. And many agree with his sentiments.

Currently housed in a Florida maximum security prison in regular lockdown, Peltier reportedly requires a walker to move and is blind in one eye from a previous stroke.

But Moore's is only one in a long line of other influential names, which he pointed out included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of Congress such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as actor Robert Redford, the Dali Lama and the late leaders Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela.

Amnesty International has long been part of the Peltier case. Officials observers to Peltier's 1977 trial were sent by Amnesty and, "along with its millions of members and supporters around the globe," has been campaigning on Peltier's behalf for his release.

Peltier in 2004 asked a judge to release certain files that he believed would grant a new trial, contending that he was framed by the U.S. government and would be exonerated if those documents could be publicly released.

In September, an official with Amnesty's U.S. arm went so far as to say the possible grant of presidential clemency for Peltier "could be one step to help mend the fractured relationship" and deep-seated generational mistrust the Native American population has for the U.S. government and "would forever be part of Biden's legacy," among other historical achievements.

"No one should be imprisoned after a trial riddled with uncertainty about its fairness," Justin Mazzola, a researcher with Amnesty International USA, said last month.

"Keeping an 80-year-old man with various health issues locked behind bars for the rest of his life doesn't serve justice," Mazzola wrote. "We hope that President Biden finds it in his heart to release Leonard Peltier as a matter of humanity, mercy, and human rights."

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee's Resolutions Committee in 2022 had unanimously approved a resolution imploring Biden to consider clemency for Peltier.

According to Amnesty, following a review of requests by the White House Counsel's Office and the U.S. Department of Justice, the president had committed to grant clemency and commutation of sentences on a rolling basis rather than do so at the end of Biden's term in January as historically had been the case by prior Oval Office occupants.

But pushback to Biden on that may come from within. The FBI Agents Association "strongly opposed" Peltier's release as Peltier has since maintained his innocence.

In July when Peltier was last denied parole, FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared to write-off any suggestion that Peltier should be granted his freedom despite widespread calls to do so and evidence suggesting alleged FBI impropriety.

Peltier "has been afforded his rights and due process time and again, and repeatedly, the weight of the evidence has supported his conviction and his life sentence," Wray said at the time praising the Parole Commission's decision to deny Peltier's freedom.

Because of Peltier's age and the next parole hearing not until 2039, July's recent parole denial means its likely Peltier will remain incarcerated until his death unless Biden acts before his White House exit following November's presidential election.

SPACE/COSMOS

NASA launches Europa Clipper mission to reach Jupiter moon by 2030

Oct. 14, 2024 / 

NASA's SpaceX Europa mission lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Monday.

 Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- NASA's $5 billion Europa Clipper spacecraft successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center on top of a SpaceX Super Heavy rocket Monday morning, beginning a six-year trek to Jupiter's icy moon.

After a one-day delay, the rocket took off shortly in the afternoon with no problems. The rocket's second-stage booster then performed a final burn in space to jettison the Europa Clipper to its trajectory.

"Leaving our water world, to explore another," NASA said on Monday, commenting on the spacecraft's 1.8-billion-mile ride" to explore the mysteries of Europa, Jupiter's ocean moon."

The Kennedy Space Center said the exploration will better help scientists understand how life started on Earth as well as if the moon is hospitable for life itself.

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The probe took off at 12:06 p.m., EDT from Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and is expected to reach the moon, Europa, in April 2030.

Researchers believe Europa has one of the highest probabilities for life because of what they believe is water under miles of thick ice. In past missions, scientists have seen water plumes break through the surface.

New instruments on the Europa Clipper will help scientists better understand if Europa is habitable.

The mission was originally set to blast off on Sunday, but the impact of Hurricane Milton led NASA and SpaceX to delay the launch until Monday. The extra day gave the space agency and SpaceX to give the rocket one good once-over after the hurricane passed.

"One of the things we have done, working really closely with our NASA Launch Services Program team, is looking at what hardware on the vehicle was set, was suspect, was needed to be evaluated as part of this issue and make sure that it had its necessary checks and validation as needed," said Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA Science Missions for SpaceX, according to SpaceFlightNow.com.

Texas poised to execute autistic man for 'shaken baby' death

There have been 19 executions in the United States this year

Washington (AFP) – Barring a successful last-minute appeal, the US state of Texas will execute an autistic man this week whose murder conviction was based on what his lawyers say was a misdiagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome."

Issued on: 15/10/2024 
Robert Roberson is scheduled to be executed in Texas on October 17, 2024 © Ilana Panich-Linsman / Innocence Project/AFP/File
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Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Thursday for the February 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki.

Roberson's case has drawn the attention of the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions, best-selling American novelist John Grisham, Texas lawmakers and medical experts.

Also among those seeking to halt Roberson's execution is the man who put him behind bars -- Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine.

"Knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man," Wharton said at a recent press conference organized by Roberson's supporters. "The system failed Robert."

Grisham, author of the legal thrillers "The Firm" and "A Time to Kill," also appeared at the event and said cases such as Roberson's "keep me awake at night."

"When you get into wrongful convictions, you realize how many innocent people are in prison," said Grisham, a former attorney.

"What's amazing about Robert's case is that there was no crime," added Grisham, a member of the board of the Innocence Project, which has helped free more than 250 innocent people from US prisons since it was founded in 1992.

Roberson's lawyers say the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where his chronically ill daughter died, was erroneous and the cause of death was in fact pneumonia, aggravated when doctors prescribed a wrong medication.

Wharton, the former detective who is now a Methodist minister, said the conclusion by a hospital doctor that the toddler had died after being violently shaken "led the investigation from that point forward, to the exclusion of all other possibilities."
'Roundly debunked'

According to his lawyers, Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a conviction of shaken baby syndrome, which the American Academy of Pediatrics now classifies as abusive head trauma.

Novelist John Grisham, seen here in France in April 2024, is a former attorney who has been active in cases of wrongful conviction 

© OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP

"In the two decades that have passed since Mr Roberson's trial, evidence-based science has roundly debunked the version of the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis that was put before his jury," said Kate Judson of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences.

More than 30 parents and caregivers in 18 US states have been exonerated after being wrongfully convicted using "unscientific" shaken baby testimony, Judson said.

Roberson's attorney, Gretchen Sween, said his autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, was also not taken into account and contributed to his arrest and conviction.

During the medical crisis involving his daughter, Roberson "shut down, and his external lack of affect was judged as a lack of caring," Sween said.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday denied an emergency motion to stay Roberson's execution and order a new trial.

Another appeal is to be heard by a different state court on Tuesday, and lawyers for Roberson have also asked Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency.

Citing the "voluminous new scientific evidence" that casts doubt on Roberson's guilt, a bipartisan group of 86 Texas state lawmakers has also urged the parole board and the governor to grant clemency.

There have been 19 executions in the United States this year including the September 24 execution in the midwestern state of Missouri of Marcellus Williams, whose case was also championed by the Innocence Project amid doubts about his guilt.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others -- Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee -- have moratoriums in place.

© 2024 AFP

Small town India's DIY film industry comes to London

'Mollywood' films are made on a shoestring budget and often spoof Bollywood or Hollywood classics

London (AFP) – The bright lights of the British capital are a world away from Malegaon, a down-at-heel textile town in the backwaters of Maharashtra state in western India.

Issued on: 15/10/2024 - 

Malegaon, in western India, has a thriving budget film industry 

© Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP

But the two have come together at this year's London Film Festival, where the remarkable story of Malegaon's unlikely film industry success has had its European premiere.

"Superboys of Malegaon", by director and producer Reema Kagti, follows the true story of Shaikh Nasir and his friends and their no-budget parodies of Bollywood and Hollywood classics such as "Sholay" and "Superman".

With DIY filmmaking techniques, amateur actors and the unique flavour of local dialect and comedy, his works became instant local hits.

They then gained international recognition with the release of a 2008 documentary of their work, "Supermen of Malegaon".

Malegaon's links to the giant Hindi-language film industry, though, are not so distant. By a twist of fate, co-producer Zoya Akhtar's father Javed Akhtar wrote "Sholay", which inspired Nasir's passion for filmmaking.

"It's a very, very big story from a very small town in India", Akhtar told AFP in an interview. "It tells you how connected you are, especially with cinema."

"Nasir's influences and my influences are very similar", added Kagti.

"So it was really like a privilege to be able to give a hat tip to so many people, so many actors, so much of the Indian film industry."
'Dream factory'

"Superboys" is an ode to the determination of Nasir, played by Adarsh Gourav, who featured in the Oscar-nominated film adaptation of Aravind Adiga's 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel "The White Tiger".

In Malegaon, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) from India's entertainment capital Mumbai, video parlours -- small picture houses -- are a haven for labourers keen to escape the daily slog of industrial weaving looms.
Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar's new film 'Superboys of Malegaon' charts the industry's success © SUJIT JAISWAL / AFP

Nasir's films offer comedic respite and a chance to see their town portrayed on the big screen, said Kagti.

"Every person who was part of that film has been immortalised and has been made into a hero of sorts, and it's given them a reason to not just exist but to celebrate life," added Gourav.

With no budget and little experience beyond his love for films and gigs as a wedding videographer, Nasir has to improvise and use homespun techniques to make movies.

While filming the Superman spoof, the hero dresses in comical red shorts with drawstrings dangling out, flying with the help of wacky green-screen contraptions while Nasir films tracking shots by balancing on the back of a truck hurtling down a bumpy road.
Global audience

"Superboys" touches upon everything from poverty to love, never straying far from Nasir's unwavering belief in the power of a camera -- and some imagination -- to turn the mundane into something extraordinary.

"The story is so universal that we feel there is a global audience," said executive producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

'Mollywood' films are made on a shoestring budget and often spoof Bollywood or Hollywood classics © Indranil MUKHERJEE / AFP

The film has already been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival and with its screening in London, Sidhwani hopes it will attract audiences beyond the Indian diaspora.

Nasir's homemade local films succeeded in creating a place in India's sometimes impenetrable film industry for Malegaon.

Akhtar said it is a lesson for everyone, particularly in a world of smartphones, where everyone can be a film-maker.

"People who watch this film will realise that they don't need to wait for a big break... They can just take that step," she added.

Today, "Mollywood" as it is sometimes called, lives on, with some actors from the original films continuing in Nasir's footsteps, sharing their DIY creations on platforms such as YouTube.

"That industry is now a part of Indian cinema's history", said Akhtar.

In "Superboys", the writer of the spoofs, Farogh, tells Nasir: "You told our stories, in our own voices... You gave us dreamers a place in history."

"In the history of Indian cinema, you've added a page for Malegaon."

© 2024 AFP

Cuban president leads pro-Palestinian march in Havana

Havana (AFP) – Thousands of Cubans, led by President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other leaders of the communist-run island, marched in Havana on Monday to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.


Issued on: 15/10/2024 

The demonstrators, who included some 250 Palestinian medical students living in Cuba, carried a large banner that read 'Long live free Palestine' © YAMIL LAGE / AFP

The demonstrators, including some 250 Palestinian medical students living in Cuba, carried a large banner that read "Long live free Palestine," while the president and his allies wore traditional keffiyeh scarves.

"We are here to support the just claim of the Palestinian people, for their sovereignty, their freedom (...) and against the genocidal crusade that Israel practices towards the Palestinian people," Michel Marino, a 20-year-old international relations student, told AFP.

The march had been due to take place on the anniversary of the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, but it was postponed due to Hurricane Milton, which lashed Cuba and Florida last week.

The October 7 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza, resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures. That number includes hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed 42,289 people, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

A woman holds a Palestinian flag as people march along Havana's waterfront during a pro-Palestinian rally © YAMIL LAGE / AFP

"For a whole year our Gaza has not had a single day of calm, not a single day of peace and our people in the West Bank suffer daily aggression while the world remains paralyzed and unable to stop this tragedy," said Mohammed Suwan, a Palestinian student, as he addressed the participants.

In June, the Caribbean island joined a lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military campaign in Gaza.

© 2024 AFP

Reoxygenating oceans: startups lead the way in Baltic Sea

Paris (AFP) – European scientists have teamed up with two startups in a pioneering experiment to tackle one of the major problems facing sea life -- the depletion of oxygen in the ocean, causing the disappearance of fish and marine biodiversity.


Issued on: 15/10/2024 - 

The Baltic Sea borders nine northern European countries including Sweden, Finland and Poland, NORWAY AND RUSSIA

 © Alessandro RAMPAZZO / AFP/File

Ocean deoxygenation is one of the issues on the agenda at the UN COP summit on biodiversity, opening on October 21 in Columbia.

Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden, the French industrial company Lhyfe, and a Finnish startup Flexens are working on a pilot experiment to reoxygenate the Baltic Sea by producing hydrogen at sea.

The BOxHy project is seeking an overall solution to the asphyxiation that threatens a sea bordering nine northern European countries.

The oxygen dissolved in the oceans is essential to sustaining sea life as underwater organisms have no chance of surviving without it, scientists say.

"But for more than 50 years, its concentrations have been decreasing," said Christophe Rabouille, a scientist at France's CNRS scientific research centre.

The loss of oxygen has two main causes, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The warming of oceans due to climate change is one -- warmer oceans contain less oxygen, while organisms require more oxygen in hotter waters.

The other is eutrophication, the process in which fertiliser runoff, sewage, animal waste, aqua culture and the deposits of nitrogen from burning fossil fuels creates excessive algae blooms.

When this seaweed decomposes it produces vast amounts of CO2, removing oxygen from the water.

'Ecological desert'

An overabundance of seaweed in the Baltic Sea has contributed to the depletion of oxygen © Alessandro RAMPAZZO / AFP/File

The central Baltic, a semi-enclosed sea bordered by agricultural and industrial countries, "is one of the largest dead spots in the world... basically an ecological desert," Alf Norkko from the University of Helsinki told AFP.

The aim of BOxHy, which has received support from the UN as part of a 10-year programme on sustainable ocean development, is to study the feasibility of injecting gaseous oxygen at depth, a technique used in certain freshwater lakes in North America.

"Restoring oxygen conditions in deep waters through long-term additions would have many positive effects on the Baltic Sea ecosystem," such as expanding the habitat for cod breeding, said Jakob Walve from Stockholm University and associated with the project.
The long game

A wind turbine farm in the Baltic Sea, north-east of Rugen Island in Germany 

© FRED TANNEAU / AFP/File

Flexens, the Finnish startup involved in the project, has identified three possible zones for oxygen reinjection, but much remains to be done. Oxygen has to be produced cleanly, and on site.

This is where the French startup Lhyfe comes in, specialising in the separation of hydrogen and oxygen molecules from water using an electric current.

The company has developed a first-of-its kind offshore hydrogen production unit using desalinated seawater in a year-long experiment in the western French region of Le Croisic.

Until now, the oxygen produced by Lhyfe has been released into the atmosphere. But in the Baltic Sea, it would be injected into the water.

The project is still in the planning stage -- how the injection would be done, how much, and at what rate all need to be decided, as well as how to measure the subsequent impact on fauna and flora.

The second phase of BOxHy involves running a pilot project, expected to last five to six years and scheduled to start in 2025, according Szilvia Haide of Flexens who is coordinating it.

The aim of the pilot is to work out the method of injecting oxygen and to study the impact on the environment and biodiversity.

According to calculations by Matthieu Guesne, Lhyfe's CEO, around 30 offshore platforms on the Baltic would be necessary to completely reoxygenate it.

"It is not a miracle solution, it is a very long-term project," Guesne told AFP, estimating a duration of 20 to 30 years.

It will also depend on the agricultural industry and its use of fertilisers.

Ethiopia's 'korale' recyclers turn waste into money

Addis Ababa (AFP) – With a tattered bag on his back, Dereje Enigdamekonen trawled the endless alleyways of the Merkato market in Addis Ababa, calling for the Ethiopian capital's abundant scrap.


Issued on: 15/10/2024 -

Ezedin Muste, 23, is one of thousands of waste collectors known in Amharic as 'korale'

 © Michele Spatari / AFP

"Korale, korale," he shouted at regular intervals.

It's a made-up word in Amharic that is now used for the thousands of collectors, almost all men, who hunt out everything from used jerry cans and electrical equipment to shoes, shovels and any other unwanted bric-a-brac.

These objects are then either restored, stripped for spare parts, or transformed into something new -- giving new life to what would otherwise be polluting litter.

Piles of plastic are resold in the historic Merkato district in Addis Ababa © Michele Spatari / AFP

Dereje, 45, has been doing this work for a year, rain or shine, saying he buys "everything that can be reused".

For a kilogramme of collected metal, he can get about 40 birr ($0.30) and for jerry cans, depending on the size, between three and 25 birr.

"Waste can be transformed into money," he said with a smile.

After wandering for hours, the korales converged on an area of Merkato called Minalesh Tera, which translates from Amharic as "What do you have?".

Here, the narrow alleys of Merkato, one of Africa's largest open-air markets, are lined with tiny tin-shack shops as far as the eye can see.

The recyclers sell their daily finds to middlemen like Tesfaye Getahun, who was in the middle of dismantling a huge printer.

With heavy blows of a mallet, he isolated the motherboard and some aluminium parts.

The collectors hunt out everything from used jerry cans and electrical equipment to shoes, shovels and any other unwanted bric-a-brac © Michele Spatari / AFP

Whether it is computers or old televisions, Tesfaye said he recycles everything.

"They aren't used anymore, and if left like that, they can cause environmental pollution. But if they are disassembled and sold for parts, it helps prevent pollution," he said.

Addis Ababa produces about 400,000 tonnes of waste annually, according to 2020 figures from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), of which only 70 percent is picked up by the official waste management system.
'Help the environment'

The collected waste objects are either restored, stripped for spare parts, or transformed into something new © Michele Spatari / AFP

Tamirat Dejene was almost lost among piles of jerry cans in his shop.

The 21-year-old, who has been collecting plastic for four years, said he earns between 500 and 1,000 birr ($4 to $8.50) a day.

That can be a godsend in a country where more than a third of its 120 million people live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Workers make mops in a street near the Merkato district of Addis Ababa

© Michele Spatari / AFP

"We earn our living and we also help the environment because these items are not biodegradable," said Tamirat.

"It is also beneficial for Addis Ababa: if this waste were not collected, the city's landfills would overflow. So we earn our living while providing a solution," he added.

The objects made in Minalesh Tera are then sold in shops in the capital and all over the country.

Some go even further.

Addis Ababa produces some 400,000 tonnes of waste annually, according to 2020 figures from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 

© Michele Spatari / AFP

Biruk Shimeles, 31, buys scrap metal to make aluminium charcoal stoves which he sells in Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia.

"This work protects the community from waste by transforming it into a business opportunity," said Biruk.

© 2024 AFP

FRANKFURT BOOKFAIR

Italy row, AI in focus at world's biggest book fair

Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – An eclectic range of topics will be in focus at the world's biggest book fair this week, from a row over an Italian mafia author to growing interest in wacky literary subgenres and AI in publishing.


Issued on: 15/10/2024 -

A host of big-name authors and many other figures from publishing are attending the Frankfurt book fair 

© Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

The Frankfurt book fair, which officially kicks off Wednesday, brings together authors, publishers and other industry players over five days in the western German city.

Big names include Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari, best known for "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind", American writer Anne Applebaum and British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak.

But the run-up has been marred by a row in Italy, this year's "guest of honour", an annual tradition intended to shine a spotlight on a partner country's literary scene.

Fury erupted after the initial official selection put forward by the Italians did not include Roberto Saviano, author of mafia bestseller "Gomorrah" who was convicted and fined last year for defaming far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Following the move, Saviano lashed out on social media at what he branded the "most ignorant government in the history of Italy". In the end he is coming to the fair anyway, but at the invitation of his German publisher.

Controversy has surrounded Italy being 'guest of honour' at this year's fair © Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

Critics say it is further evidence of a worsening climate for freedom of expression in Italy, with 41 authors writing an open letter in response that complained of "increasingly suffocating political interference in cultural spaces".

The Italian Publishers Association insisted that it would never allow any kind of "outside interference" in the programme, called "Roots in the future".

The fair is no stranger to controversy -- last year several publishers from Muslim-majority countries withdrew in protest at organisers' strong support for Israel following Hamas's October 7 attacks that triggered the Gaza war.

Fair director Juergen Boos insisted it was right to maintain Italy as guest of honour, despite the controversy.

"I think to showcase what's happening in Italy's culture right now, in Italy's politics, it is very important," he told AFP.

'Romantasy' and robot writers

There is much more going on besides the controversy surrounding Italy -- the world's biggest publishing trade event will this year welcome about 1,000 authors and other speakers at some 650 events on 15 stages.

A large area will be dedicated to "new adult" literature, which encompasses a weird and outlandish range of sub-genres beloved of younger readers, such as "Romantasy" and "Dark College".

These genres have been rapidly growing in popularity, often boosted by exposure through social media trend BookTok on the TikTok platform, where authors promote their work and readers post reviews.

Artificial intelligence will also be a major topic, with talks and panel discussions dedicated to the subject, as fears mount in the industry about poor-quality, computer-written books flooding the market and potential opyright violations.

Leading authors, including John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, have in recent times taken legal action against OpenAI, alleging the company unlawfully used their works to train its popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.

A huge range of literature will feature at the Frankfurt book fair 

© Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

Still it's not all doom and gloom. There are hopes that AI can improve efficiency for publishers and also that it could be beneficial in some areas, such as scientific and research publishing.

"On the one side it's beneficial for the workflows in the publishing houses," said Boos. "On the other hand, regarding copyright, it's a big mess."

An annual highlight is the awarding of the prestigious "Peace of the German Book Trade", which will this year go to Applebaum, an American-Polish journalist and historian whose latest book "Autocracy Inc." examines the growing links between authoritarian states.

© 2024 AFP

Belgian pathologist and literary star gives 'voice to the dead'

Blegny (Belgium) (AFP) – Forensic pathologist Philippe Boxho likes to ask people "why shouldn't we laugh about death?". But gallows humour is just one of the ingredients that the surprise literary sensation brings to his macabre line of storytelling.

Issued on: 15/10/2024 - 

Philippe Boxho has worked on hundreds of bodies -- bringing to light homicide cases that would otherwise have remained undetected © Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

In 33 years as a medical examiner in Belgium's eastern Liege region, Boxho has performed hundreds of autopsies -- his attention to detail bringing to light homicide cases that would otherwise have remained undetected.

Boxho has become a surprise star of the book world in Belgium and France, distilling his unusual line of work into taut collections of short stories, each one 15 pages or less.

Anchored in real life, the writing is unflinching and darkly-humorous, but the 59-year-old Boxho also seeks to impart some of his passion for a little-known, but crucial, profession.

The enthusiasm is palpable as the pathologist described the "excitement of being there at the start of an investigation", of pulling on his sturdy dishwashing gloves and white coveralls to begin working.

It's a way, he said of his work, "to give voice to the dead one last time".

Boxho's observations have revealed the most unusual of circumstances for a person's demise -- like the 60-something woman who had her throat slashed by her son's pitbull terrier, that she had exceptionally gone to feed.

Another time he established how a farmer was trapped by a bull he did not see surge from the stable shadows. Multiple fractures to the torso and limbs showed how the hapless victim was crushed by a beast weighing in at 1.2 tonnes.

The idea of writing came to Boxho in 2021, triggered by the success of a post by Belgian channel RTBF, in which he recounted three striking anecdotes.

Encouraged, he decided to set down in writing more of the stories pulled from his more than three decades in forensics -- which until then had been shared only with students at the medical school where he teaches.

Published almost back-to-back, Philippe Boxho's three books have together sold some 740,000 copies © Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

It was an instant hit: published almost back-to-back, his three books have together sold some 740,000 copies, including almost 200,000 for the latest one released in late August, whose title translates as "Looking death in the face".

"It's extraordinary for a work of non-fiction," said a spokesperson for Kennes, a small Belgian publisher that was struggling to make ends meet until it struck gold with Boxho.

In France, his latest book is among the season's non-fiction bestsellers, with talks underway on an English edition of his work

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'I respect the body'

At a book-signing event at a former mining site in Blegny, near Liege, Boxho drew a full house of enthusiasts.

"It's fascinating to hear him talk because he's passionate about what he does," said Marie Lou Collard, a political science student who was among the readers in the audience.

She came across Boxho via his videos posted on TikTok and YouTube, and sought out his essays to find out more.

In all of Boxho's real-life stories, dating back sometimes decades, the identities have been changed in keeping with medical confidentiality rules.

"I respect the body I have in front of me," Boxho explained to AFP. "It belongs to a person I don't know."

"What I laugh about is death and the ways that people die," he said. "It's a bit cynical, but that's the way I am. If you don't like it, don't read my books."

Many of his cases have involved women killed by their partners. Sometimes it is a parent killed by a child -- or almost killed, as in one extraordinary case Boxho shared with the crowd in Blegny.

Late one night, a woman entered her father's bedroom with a revolver, intent on murdering him. She fired the entire barrel at him, and left him for dead.

But the autopsy later showed the suspected murder victim was already dead when she shot him -- of a brain hemorrhage that occurred just moments earlier -- and the daughter was cleared as a result.

"Criminal law requires certainties," said Boxho, who argued that defending his profession, whose numbers have dwindled dramatically in recent years in Belgium, is also a way of ensuring better justice for all.

© 2024 AFP