Storm Darragh Drives Barge Aground off Normandy

Courtesy Premar Manche

Published Dec 10, 2024 10:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

Despite multiple attempts to connect an emergency tow, a runaway barge has gone aground on the picturesque beaches of Sotteville-sur-Mer, France. It was one of many marine casualties stemming from Storm Darragh, which swept over the British Isles and the coastline of northern France last weekend. 

On Friday evening, the 120-meter deck barge AMT Challenger broke away from the oceangoing tug Boka Glacier at a position east of the Isle of Wight, on the north side of the English Channel. The barge drifted with the wind, and it entered French waters at about 2300 hours. 

On Saturday, the shipowner contracted with two salvage tugs - Abeille Horizon and the Princess - to attempt to connect an emergency tow. In sustained winds of 40 knots, conditions were too rough for the operation and their efforts were not successful - even after a French Navy helicopter flew a four-man salvage team onto the barge to assist. 

Courtesy Premar Manche

By Sunday morning the barge was just six nautical miles off the coast of the Seine-Maritime region, near St. Valery-en-Caux. At about 1300, French SAR coordinators determined that a grounding was imminent and informed local municipalities to take precautions, including setting up a cordon to keep bystanders at a distance. The barge went aground shortly after on a sandy beach near Sotteville-sur-Mer. 

Upon grounding, the deck barge was immediately ballasted down using its own pumps in order to prevent further movement. It poses little hazard to the marine environment, according to the Maritime Prefecture of La Manche and the North Sea (Premar Manche). No pollution or hull breaches have been reported.

"At this stage the risk is very low, because there is a very small quantity of marine diesel on board. The rescue plan will define the means to be implemented. Currently, three tugs are positioned offshore to ensure that the barge does not move," Rouen sub-prefect Audrey Baconnais-Rosez told local outlet BFM. 

As of Monday, the weather was still too rough to begin to make salvage arrangements or begin a close inspection, according to local media. In the meantime, Dieppe's public prosecutor has launched a judicial investigation into the casualty. 

Local authorities have called on the curious public to stay back from the grounded barge and avoid hazards, including the risk of attempting to observe the site from nearby cliffs. In March, a mother and a child of three both perished in a fall from the steep cliffs above the same beach. 

Dutch Freighter Goes Aground off Denmark

Amadeus Gold, seen here under her former name, Union Gold (file image courtesy Hafen Hamburg / Dietmar Hasenpusch)

Published Dec 10, 2024 8:05 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

[Brief] A Dutch cargo ship has gone aground in the shallow waters of the Odense Fjord, at the north end of the island of Funen, and work is under way to refloat it. 

In the early hours of Monday morning, the freighter Amadeus Gold was under way on a voyage from Rotterdam to Odense when it ran aground near the main terminal, just north of the port. The route is narrow and the waters on either side are shallow, according to local outlet Maritime Danmark. 

Three vessels were dispatched to assist, the tugs Svitzer Idun and Tybring, and the pollution control ship Marie Miljo. as of Tuesday evening, the Amadeus Gold was still holding the same position in the fjord.   

Amadeus Gold is a 2010-built coastal freighter of 2,500 dwt, owned and managed by a firm in the Netherlands. Her recent inspection record shows one detention and a cumulative 15 deficiencies, including ISM Code issues, oil record book issues, an expired wreck-removal liability certificate, and a missing certificate for pollution coverage.

French Rescue Tug Saves Tanker From Grounding off Brittany

Abeille Bourbon prepares to establish a tow with the Larus (Premar Atlantique)

Published Dec 9, 2024 10:55 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

On Saturday night, French emergency responders saved a disabled product tanker from drifting aground off the coast of Brittany. 

The casualty began in early November, when the tanker Larus had a technical problem while transiting off the island of Oissant. It diverted to the Bay of Saint-Brieuc to await a commercial tug, planning to transit under tow to a yard in Estonia for repairs. However, the oceangoing tug was delayed because of approaching heavy weather - Storm Durragh, which was causing disruption for maritime interests across the British Isles and Western Europe. Without a tug, Larus remained at anchor in the exposed bay as the storm approached. 

At about 1650 hours on Saturday, as weather conditions deteriorated, Larus called the French rescue coordination center at Corsen. The crew reported that the anchor was dragging in strong winds and seas, and the tanker was slowly drifting towards the shore. 

The French Navy's Atlantic Maritime Prefecture (Premar Atlantique) quickly decided to dispatch the rescue tug Abeille Bourbon, which was located about 100 nautical miles west at Port du Stiff, Oessant. The prefecture also called for assistance from a tug at the Port of St.-Malo, which was much closer to the scene. However, the local tug had to turn back because of the rough weather conditions. 

At about 2345 hours, Abeille Bourbon was on scene, and the crew set to work to pass a tow to the disabled tanker. The effort was not successful, and after an hour, the maritime prefecture decided to dispatch its own response team to board the tanker and help make arrangements. A French Navy helicopter flew the intervention team out to the tanker and lowered them safely on deck, and by 0430 on Sunday morning, they had successfully established a tow. 

Once connected, Abeille Bourbon began the slow process of towing Larus into a port of refuge at Brest. The 13 members of Larus' crew remained aboard, but a helicopter was kept on standby in case assistance or evacuation was needed during the tow. As of Monday, the tanker was safely anchored in Brest's harbor. 

Bulker That Escaped Mariupol Collides With Freighter

Tsarevna (file image courtesy Naviborn)

Published Dec 8, 2024 10:02 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

A bulker that weathered the Russian occupation of Mariupol has collided with a Turkish freighter in the Kattegat, according to flag state officials. 

The Bulgarian-managed Tzarevna ("Princess") was under way between Jutland and Sweden on Thursday night, bound for St. Petersburg. At about 2230 hours, it was in collision with the Erdogan Bey, a 50,000 dwt Turkish freighter. No injuries or pollution were reported, and an investigation into the cause of the casualty is under way, led by Danish authorities.

The Tzarevna's operator told Bulgarian industry outlet maritime.bg that little damage occurred in the collision; however, a Danish Armed Forces spokesperson reported that Tsarevna's bow had been holed. The ship has gone to anchor just off Aarhus.

In March 2022, Tzarevna was caught in the port of Mariupol when Russian forces took the town, and she and her crew were held by Russian-aligned separatists. At the time, Italian shipowner Fratelli Cosulich told local media that the Russian-backed Donetsk Republic forces had made an offer to buy the ship, but "at a ridiculous value" that amounted to "blackmail." At the time, managing director Augusto Cosulich told Il Giornale that "the news is that the Russians are taking everything, ship and cargo." 

The vessel was released in November 2022 and departed, though the crew reportedly had to offload their 15,000-tonne cargo of Ukrainian steel before sailing. 

Transylvania’s last Saxons revive its stunning ghost villages

DURING THE 14TH CENTURY MANY WERE IMPALED BY THE RULER; PRINCE VLAD DRACUL

By AFP
December 10, 2024

The Transylvanian village of Cincsor lies at the foot of Romania's Carpathian mountains - Copyright AFP AAREF WATAD
Blaise GAUQUELIN

Carmen Schuster was a young woman when she left the Transylvanian village of Cincsor in Romania for West Germany in search of a better life 40 years ago.

After returning to Romania for work many years later, she was overcome by the urge to stay, attempting to save the centuries-old Saxon community she once called home.

Schuster is a member of the dwindling ethnic German minority, descendants of Saxons and others who were recruited by the Hungarian kings to settle in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.

“We had to save the school, which was in ruins,” Schuster, who is now in her 60s, told AFP.

Together with her husband Michael Lisske, she has been carefully restoring the historical heart of Cincsor for more than a decade — including its former Saxon school — and transforming the buildings into guesthouses.

“Other buildings have also been restored and the village once again revolves around its Protestant church,” which still holds services for its seven remaining parishioners, Schuster said.

Britain’s King Charles III — who claims descent from a notorious 15th-century Transylvanian prince known as Vlad the Impaler — also owns a number of properties nearby, renting out some to tourists.



– ‘Belated victory’ –



Before World War II, Romania boasted a Saxon population of up to 300,000. Today, there are only about 10,000, much of the population having emigrated in the 1970s and the 1980s to escape persecution by the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaucescu.

Transylvania’s abandoned Saxon villages were gradually repopulated by Romanians, who often had no connection to the region’s 800-year-old history.

But the unique atmosphere of these historic villages at the foot of the Carpathian mountains never fully faded, with many of their fortress-like churches listed as UNESCO world heritage sites.

“In the 15th century, they fortified their churches so they could serve as a refuge for the inhabitants in the event of an attack,” said 71-year-old Lisske.

“The Hungarians had promised the Saxons freedom in exchange for bringing them here, so they had no royal protection,” the former history teacher said.

For Schuster, preserving the Saxon heritage symbolises a “belated victory” over the “inhumane and contemptuous” treatment during Ceaucescu’s communist rule that “did everything to erase it”.



– Idea ‘catching on’ –



Schuster’s year-round guesthouses have become the village’s main employer, she said, boosting tourism in a region heavily dependent on agriculture and farming.

Ramona Amariei is one of 15 locals who found work there as a chambermaid and waitress and seamstress during the off-season.

“There is no discrimination,” said Amariei, who has Roma roots, and feels proud to be part of the “family”. “Mrs Schuster is trying to integrate pretty much all types of people.”

Adrian Boscu, a cook, said he is committed to putting a modern twist on “old Saxon recipes” to revive them, incorporating local produce as much as he can.

The guesthouse business has been booming, with the tower in a church now being converted into a bedroom, and the idea is spreading.

“I think that’s catching on,” said Schuster, with nearby villages also restoring their centuries-old heritage to revitalise the local economy. “There are lots of people who have interesting projects.”

The house next door has also been renovated. Its Romanian owner, Nicolas Mioque, returned from France after 57 years.

Schuster and her husband “have breathed new life into this village,” he said, noting that Cincsor without the guesthouses would be “sad”.

INTERNECINE FUED BETWEEN THE 1%

Rich, Connected, brainy, athletic: the suspect in US insurance CEO’s slaying


By AFP
December 9, 2024


This handout image released by the New York Police Department (NYPD) via X (formerly Twitter) on December 7, 2024, shows the person of interest wanted for questioning in connection to the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson - Copyright NYPD/AFP -
Issam AHMED

The suspect in the high-profile killing of a health insurance CEO that has gripped the United States graduated from an Ivy League university, reportedly hails from a wealthy family, and wrote social media posts brimming with cerebral musings.

Luigi Mangione, 26, was thrust into the spotlight Monday after police revealed his identity as their person of interest, crediting his arrest to a tip from a McDonald’s worker.

He has been connected by police to the fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in broad daylight, in a case that has laid bare deep frustrations and anger with the nation’s privatized medical system.

News of his capture triggered an explosion of online activity, with Mangione quickly amassing new followers on social media as citizen sleuths and US media try to understand who he is.

While some lauded him as a hero and lamented his arrest, others analyzed his intellectual takes in search of ideological clues.

A photo on one of his social media accounts includes an X-ray of an apparently injured spine, though no explicit political affiliation has emerged.

Meanwhile, memes and jokes proliferated, many riffing on his first name and comparing him to the “Mario Bros.” character Luigi, sometimes depicted in AI-altered images wielding a gun or holding a Big Mac.

“Godspeed. Please know that we all hear you,” wrote one user on Facebook. “I want to donate to your defense fund,” added another.

According to Mangione’s LinkedIn profile, he is employed as a data engineer at TrueCar, a California-based online auto marketplace.

A company spokesperson told AFP Mangione “has not been an employee of our company since 2023.”

Although he had been living in Hawaii ahead of the killing, he originally hails from Towson, Maryland, near Baltimore. He comes from a prominent and wealthy Italian-American family, according to the Baltimore Banner.

The family owns local businesses, including the Hayfields Country Club, per the club’s website.



– Standout student –



A standout student, Mangione graduated at the top of his high school class in 2016. In an interview with his local paper at the time, he praised his teachers for fostering a passion for learning beyond grades and encouraging intellectual curiosity.

He went on to attend the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, where he completed both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science by 2020, according to a university spokesperson.

While at Penn, Mangione co-led a group of 60 undergraduates who collaborated on video game projects, as noted in a now-deleted university webpage, archived on the Wayback Machine.

On Instagram, where his following has skyrocketed from hundreds to tens of thousands, Mangione shared snapshots of his travels in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He also posted shirtless photos flaunting a six-pack and appeared in celebratory posts with fellow members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

However, it is on X (formerly Twitter) that users have scoured Mangione’s posts for potential motives. His header photo — an X-ray of a spine with bolts — remains cryptic, with no public explanation.

Finding a coherent political ideology has also proved elusive.

Mangione has linked approvingly to posts criticizing secularism as a harmful consequence of Christianity’s decline.

In April, he wrote, “Horror vacui (nature abhors a vacuum).” The following month, he posted an essay he wrote in high school titled “How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome.”

In another post from April, he speculated that Japan’s low birthrate stems from societal disconnection, adding that “fleshlights” and other vaginal-replica sex toys should be bannnym

French actor outraged as director denies child abuse in court


By AFP
December 10, 2024


French actor Adele Haenel has quit cinema over the French film industry turning a blind eye to sexual abuse - Copyright AFP ALAIN JOCARD

Marie Dhumieres

A French prosecutor Tuesday demanded a filmmaker be put under house arrest for two years over sexually assaulting an actor when she was a child, after his accuser stormed out of the landmark trial over him denying the abuse.

Adele Haenel, 35, has accused filmmaker Christophe Ruggia, 59, of assaulting her in the early 2000s when she was between 12 and 14 and he was in his late 30s, allegations he has called “pure lies”.

The trial since Monday come as France’s film industry is rocked by allegations of sexual abuse.

Haenel, who starred in 2019 drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” before quitting cinema, was the first prominent actor to accuse the French film industry of turning a blind eye to the ill treatment.

The prosecutor on Tuesday requested two years detention with an electronic bracelet plus a three-year suspended sentence against the director.

Ruggia directed Haenel in the 2002 movie “The Devils”, a tale of an incestuous relationship between a boy and his autistic sister. It was her first film role.

The film contains sex scenes between the children and close-ups of Haenel’s naked body.

Investigators said before the trial that members of the film crew had told them of their “unease” with Ruggia’s behaviour on set.

Between 2001 and 2004, after shooting the film, the teenager went to see Ruggia nearly every Saturday.

During these visits, she has accused him of caressing her thighs and touching her genitals and breasts.

“He chose to sexually assault her. He had his whole conscience as a man — as an adult — to behave otherwise,” prosecutor Camille Poch said.

She asked that Ruggia also be listed as a sex offender.



– ‘It’s grooming’ –



But Ruggia has rejected these claims.

He told the court earlier on Tuesday that he had in fact sought to protect Haenel from mockery in school over the sex scenes in “The Devils”.

This caused her to be outraged.

“Would you just shut up?” she shouted, banging her hands on the table in front of her.

Haenel marched out and only returned half an hour later with her lawyer, refusing to look at Ruggia.

In 2019, Haenel went public about the assaults, stunning the French film industry, which had been slower than Hollywood to react to the #MeToo movement.

Haenel on Tuesday described “normality that shifted by degrees” into abuse.

“Who was there to say, ‘It’s not your fault. It’s grooming. It’s violence’?” she said.

“You can’t abuse children like that. There are consequences. No one helped that child,” she said, speaking of her younger self.



– ‘Unfortunate gesture’ –



Ruggia’s former partner Mona Achache, 43, told the court about the filmmaker confessing to a single “unfortunate gesture” on one of the Saturday visits.

She said Ruggia told her he had been “madly in love” with the young actress.

“He told me they were watching a film on the sofa, she had rested her head on his lap, and his hand moved onto her breast,” she said.

“It was a version of the story that highlighted his virtue in removing his hand.”

The filmmaker had also said something to his sister.

“I got the impression he felt guilty,” Veronique Ruggia said.

In 2020, Haenel stormed out of the industry’s Cesars award ceremony in protest against a prize awarded to veteran director Roman Polanski, who is wanted in the United States for statutory rape.

Last year, she quit cinema over what she called the French film industry turning a blind eye towards sexual abusers.

Several other allegations have rocked the film sector over the past few years.

Cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in March accused of sexually assaulting two women. He denies the accusations.

Actor Judith Godreche said this year two French directors — Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon — had both sexually abused her when she was a teenager. Both deny the charges.

Nearly 200 dead in Haiti massacre as voodoo community reportedly targeted


By AFP
December 9, 2024

Police forces take part in an operation against powerful gangs in the city center near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince on July 9, 2024 - Copyright AFP Clarens SIFFROY

Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning an “abject massacre” of “unbearable cruelty.”

The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, according to civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD).

“He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and voodoo practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of sending a bad spell on his son,” a statement from the Haiti-based group said.

UN rights commissioner Volker Turk said that at least 184 people were killed in the weekend violence.

Calling the bloody episode an “act of barbarity, of unbearable cruelty,” the office of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime said his government “condemns in the strongest terms the abject massacre.”

“This monstrous crime constitutes a direct attack on humanity and the republican order,” it added.

Both the CPD and UN said that the massacre took place in the capital’s western coastal neighborhood of Cite Soleil.

Reached by telephone by AFP, a resident confirmed the brutal attacks and indicated that his 76-year-old father was among the victims.

“The bandits set fire to his body. The family cannot even organize a burial for him since we were unable to recover the body,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity so as not to compromise the safety of other relatives still in the area.

“I also fear for their lives,” he said. “I will try to get them out this Monday.”



– Taken to be ‘executed’ –



“The gang’s soldiers were responsible for identifying victims in their homes to take them to the chief’s stronghold to be executed,” the CPD said.

Haiti has suffered from decades of instability but the situation escalated in February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in the capital Port-au-Prince to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.

Gangs now control 80 percent of the city. Despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the United States and UN, violence has continued to soar.

Turk told reporters in Geneva that the latest killings “bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people.”

The CPD said that most of the victims of violence waged on Friday and Saturday were over 60, but that some young people who tried to rescue others were also among the casualties.

“Reliable sources within the community report that more than a hundred people were massacred, their bodies mutilated and burned in the street,” it said.

More than 700,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, half of them children, according to October figures from the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

Voodoo was brought to Haiti by African slaves and is a mainstay of the country’s culture. It was banned during French colonial rule and only recognized as an official religion by the Haitian government in 2003.

While it incorporates elements of other religious beliefs, including Catholicism, voodoo has been historically attacked by other religions.

- - - - 

FOR MORE ON THE ORIGINS OF VOODOO / ZOMBIE MYTH AND IMPERIALISM

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Google announces quantum computing chip breakthrough


By AFP
December 9, 2024

Google says the Willow chip has it confidently on a path to the kind of quantum computing that could tackle seemingly insurmountable real-world problems - Copyright GOOGLE/AFP HO

Google on Monday showed off a new quantum computing chip that it said was a major breakthrough that could bring practical quantum computing closer to reality.

A custom chip called “Willow” does in minutes what it would take leading supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete, according to Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven.

“Written out, there is a 1 with 25 zeros,” Neven said of the time span while briefing journalists. “A mind-boggling number.”

Neven’s team of about 300 people at Google is on a mission to build quantum computing capable of handling otherwise unsolvable problems like safe fusion power and stopping climate change.

“We see Willow as an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design and more,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on X.

A quantum computer that can tackle these challenges is still years away, but Willow marks a significant step in that direction, according to Neven and members of his team.

While still in its early stages, scientists believe that superfast quantum computing will eventually be able to power innovation in a range of fields.

Quantum research is seen as a critical field and both the United States and China have been investing heavily in the area, while Washington has also placed restrictions on the export of the sensitive technology.

Olivier Ezratty, an independent expert in quantum technologies, told AFP in October that private and public investment in the field has totaled around $20 billion worldwide over the past five years.

Regular computers function in binary fashion: they carry out tasks using tiny fragments of data known as bits that are only ever either expressed as 1 or 0.

But fragments of data on a quantum computer, known as qubits, can be both 1 and 0 at the same time — allowing them to crunch an enormous number of potential outcomes simultaneously.

Crucially, Google’s chip demonstrated the ability to reduce computational errors exponentially as it scales up — a feat that has eluded researchers for nearly 30 years.

The breakthrough in error correction, published in leading science journal Nature, showed that adding more qubits to the system actually reduced errors rather than increasing them — a fundamental requirement for building practical quantum computers.

Error correction is the “end game” in quantum computing and Google is “confidently progressing” along the path, according to Google director of quantum hardware Julian Kelly.

Georgia protests enter 13th night as EU threatens ‘measures’


By AFP
December 10, 2024

Demonstrators rallied for the 13th consecutive day against the government's decision to shelve Georgia's push to join the EU - Copyright AFP Giorgi ARJEVANIDZE

Umberto BACCHI

Pro-Europe protests showed no sign of abating Tuesday, with thousands taking to the streets as the European Union warned it could punish Tbilisi for its crackdown on demonstrators.

Waving EU and Georgian flags and loudly blowing horns and whistles, demonstrators rallied outside parliament for the 13th consecutive day against the government’s decision to shelve its push to join the EU after disputed elections.

“Every day after work we are coming here,” said Sofia Japaridze, 40, an air industry worker.

“All of Georgia, every city, every village, everybody wants (to join) the EU, we don’t want to go back to USSR,” she said.

The Caucasus nation has been mired in turmoil since the ruling Georgian Dream party — accused of moving the country towards Russia — claimed victory in the October 26 parliamentary polls.

The pro-Western opposition has dismissed the vote as rigged, while tens of thousands have protested against alleged electoral fraud.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze’s shock decision on November 28 to suspend Georgia’s talks to join the EU triggered a fresh wave of demonstrations, which were met with a tough police response.

The crackdown has triggered outrage at home and mounting international condemnation.

On Tuesday, the EU said the bloc’s foreign ministers will discuss “additional measures” against Georgia’s authorities next week after what Brussels called “credible concerns” of torture against demonstrators.

“The persistent democratic backslide and the recent repressive means used by Georgian authorities have consequences for our bilateral relations,” a statement said.



– ‘Planned escalation’ –



The United States, Britain, France and Germany have also voiced indignation at the handling of the protests.

Critics accuse Georgian Dream of creeping authoritarianism.

Security forces have fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse previous demonstrations and arrested more than 400 people since the second wave of unrest began.

Police have raided opposition party offices, and on Saturday dozens of unidentified masked men brutally assaulted opposition figures and journalists near the protest venue.

The State Security Service said Tuesday it expected more trouble ahead of December 14, when Georgian Dream lawmakers are to elect a loyalist to succeed pro-Western President Salome Zurabishvili.

Without providing any evidence, it said violent groups aiming to stop the vote were planning to “escalate” their actions, cause “the deaths of two or three people” and blame the government in a bid at fuelling further protests.

Zurabishvili — who has vowed not to step down until the parliamentary polls are re-run — denounced the agency’s statement as an attempt to “psychologically terrorise people”, according to the Interpress news agency.



– ‘Burning passion’ –



Authorities have been at pains to project an air of normality.

Kobakhidze has repeatedly said police averted an attempted revolution by what he has described as “liberal fascist” opposition groups — in language similar to how the Kremlin refers to dissenters in Russia.

He has shrugged off the demonstrations as insubstantial.

A giant Christmas tree has been set up outside parliament — the main protest venue.

On Monday the city deployed dozens of cleaners and street sweepers to tidy up the area as soon as the demonstrations ended.

But protesters, young and old, have continued to demand a fresh vote and a return to European integration.

On Tuesday, Roland Kalandadze, 25, said he did not think the protests would peter out as they approached a third week.

“There is still fuel and burning passion to it, because there are already a lot of people who suffered, who were put in jail. That motivates us more,” he said.

He expressed the hope the government will be gone “before the new year”.

The previous night demonstrators set alight a coffin containing an effigy of billionaire former premier Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely believed to be pulling the strings of power.

Critics of Georgian Dream are enraged by what they call its betrayal of the country’s bid for EU membership, enshrined in the constitution and supported by some four-fifths of the population.

The party, in power for more than a decade, has advanced controversial legislation in recent years, targeting civil society and independent media and curbing LGBTQ rights.

Brussels has warned that such policies are incompatible with EU membership, while domestic detractors accuse the government of copying Russia’s playbook.

New York appeals dismissed PepsiCo plastic pollution suit

By AFP
December 10, 2024

New York accuses PepsiCo of harming the public and failing to warn consumers of the health and environmental threats posed by its packaging - Copyright AFP/File Allison ROBBERT

New York state this week appealed the dismissal of a pollution lawsuit against soda giant PepsiCo, accusing its single-use plastic packaging of posing a scourge on waterways and public health.

Just over a month ago a state Supreme Court justice threw out the case, saying that allegations were “speculative” and that individual consumers, not the company, were responsible for litter.

In a notice to the court’s appellate division dated Monday but made public Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said the judge who dismissed the case had “erroneously applied the law and facts.”

The appeal comes amid a major blow in the fight to curb plastic pollution after nations negotiating a global treaty to limit plastic waste failed to reach a deal earlier this month.

In her original complaint, James accused the soda company, which is headquartered in New York and is among the world’s top contributors of plastic waste, of harming the public and failing to warn consumers of the health and environmental threats posed by its packaging.

She also alleged the company had misled the public about the effectiveness of recycling of its products and its efforts in combatting plastic pollution.

The lawsuit pointed out that plastics “cause wide-ranging harms to the public and New York State,” highlighting the presence of microplastics in both humans and fish.

A survey by James’ office found that PepsiCo’s plastic packaging was by far the greatest source of Buffalo River plastic pollution, three times as abundant as the next contributor, McDonald’s.

PepsiCo did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. It welcomed the judge’s original decision.

Rival soda maker Coca-Cola, also one of the largest contributors to global plastic pollution, drastically lowered its environmental goals this month, effectively scrapping a pledge to reach 25 percent reusable packaging by 2030, and pushing back dates and amounts for recycling goals, among other reductions.

The United States and China are the world’s largest producers of plastic.

President’s push to scrap gold mining ban causes outcry in El Salvador


By AFP
December 9, 2024

An artisanal miner holds ore extracted from the abandoned San Sebastian mine in Santa Rosa de Lima, La Union department, El Salvador, on December 5, 2024

 - Copyright AFP Daniela RODRIGUEZ

Carlos Mario MARQUEZ

El Salvador’s gang-busting strongman President Nayib Bukele has set out on a new mission: to kickstart his country’s sputtering economy by inviting back the mining companies that were barred seven years ago.

El Salvador was the first country in the world to ban the mining of metals in 2017, warning of the harmful effects of the chemicals used in mining, like cyanide and mercury.

The move by Bukele’s predecessor, former left-wing rebel Salvador Sanchez Ceren, reflected the growing rejection of mining by rural communities in central America, devastated by the industry’s adverse health and environmental effects.

Costa Rica and Honduras have both banned open-pit mining and Panama declared a moratorium on new mining concessions last year after mass protests over plans for a huge copper mine.

But on November 27, the populist Bukele signaled he wanted to change course.

In a series of posts on the social network X he claimed that El Salvador, a country of 6.6 million people, had “potentially” the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world.

“God placed a gigantic treasure underneath our feet,” he wrote, arguing that the mining ban was “absurd.”

Bukele cited a study — written by unknown authors and which he did not publish — that he said showed that mining a mere 4 percent of the country’s gold deposits would bring in $131 billion, “equivalent to 380 percent of GDP.”

“If we make responsible use of our natural resources, we can change the economy of El Salvador overnight,” he added a few days later.



– ‘Huge risk’ –



Since El Salvador dollarized its remittances-reliant economy in 2001, it has registered annual growth of between just 2 and 3.5 percent.

Twenty-seven percent of Salvadorans live in poverty, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and 70 percent of the workforce operates in the informal sector.

Bukele, in power since 2019, took a huge gamble by investing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money in bitcoin and making the cryptocurrency legal tender in 2021 — the first country in the world to do so.

But most Salvadorans have shunned the cryptocurrency. Additionally, the country’s adoption of bitcoin hampered Bukele’s talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $1.3 billion loan.

He now appears to be pinning his hopes for a recovery on mining.

But he faces a stiff challenge from environmentalists who have won several victories over mining companies.

“It’s one thing to put a mine in the Atacama Desert (in Chile) and another thing to open an open-pit mine in Chalatenango,” said Pedro Cabezas, leader of the Central American Alliance Against Mining.

Chalatenango is a community north of the capital San Salvador that successfully opposed a gold mine project in 2006.

Antonio Pacheco, of the Association of Economic and Social Development NGO, which has pioneered the fight against mining, said that Bukele’s proposal to mine areas along the mighty Lempa River, which supplies water for San Salvador, represented a “tremendous risk” to residents.

– ‘Generate employment’ –

In the former gold mining town of Santa Rosa de Lima, where US miner Commerce Group had its environmental licence revoked in 2006 over river pollution, Bukele’s plan elicited a mixed response.

“I think that this could cause the area to prosper… it would generate employment,” Ruben Delgado, a 55-year-old construction worker, told AFP.

Jose Torres, a 72-year-old artisanal miner who extracts gold nuggets from disused mining tunnels by hand, said he feared losing his income to multinationals.

The nearby San Sebastian River was contaminated by industrial mining, and remains polluted to this day as artisanal mining continues.

Economist Carlos Acevedo, former president of the Central Bank of El Salvador, commented that the “spectacular” figures presented by Bukele created the impression that El Salvador “is sitting on a gold mine.”

He said that the 50 million ounces of gold touted by Bukele as a fraction of the country’s reserves could pay off El Salvador’s external debt — which accounts for 85 percent of GDP — four times over.

But he added that there was “no recipe for generating growth from one day to the next” and that any boon for El Salvador would depend on how much royalties mining companies paid.

ELDORADO

El Salvador sitting on $3 trillion worth of unmined gold, president says

Staff Writer | December 10, 2024 |

Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, the 81st president of El Salvador. Credit: Casa Presidencial, Wikimedia Commons

El Salvador, which became the first country in the world to ban metals mining, could be losing out economy-changing wealth due to its massive unearthed gold deposits, says its President Nayib Bukele.


In a speech earlier this week, Bukele said that the Central American nation is sitting on unmined gold worth as much as $3 trillion, which is roughly over 8,800% of its current GDP. “We’ve also found gallium, tantalum, tin and many other materials needed for the 4th and 5th industrial revolution,” Bukele said.

This lost value, Bukele said, could be used to help clean up El Salvador’s rivers. According to government data, about 95% of the rivers in El Salvador are contaminated, and Bukele argues that the focus should be on cleaning up those rivers, instead of preventing further pollution by banning mineral extraction.

His predecessor, former left-wing rebel Salvador Sanchez Ceren, imposed the mining ban in 2017 following pressure from rural communities who had expressed concerns about harmful chemicals like cyanide and mercury used in mining practices.

Now, Bukele, the first President not elected as a candidate of one of El Salvador’s two major political parties since 1989, has set out to revoke this ban. Through his official X account, he has been repeatedly pointing to the massive economic benefits of the nation’s natural resources.

Prior to his recent speech, Bukele made a series of posts highlighting El Salvador’s gold potential, including an uncited study which showed the country has “potentially” the largest gold deposits per square kilometer in the world.



“God placed a gigantic treasure underneath our feet,” he wrote on X, adding that the mining ban was “absurd.”

Bukele went on to say that mining just 4% of the country’s gold deposits would bring in $131 billion, equivalent to 380% of its GDP.

“If we make responsible use of our natural resources, we can change the economy of El Salvador overnight,” he wrote a few days later.

However, as his predecessor and other Central American nations have recently found out, any pro-mining proposal would be met with strong opposition.

“It’s one thing to put a mine in the Atacama Desert (in Chile) and another thing to open an open-pit mine in Chalatenango,” Pedro Cabezas, leader of the Central American Alliance Against Mining, told AFP this week.

A potential lift of the mining ban would not be the first radical change under Bukele’s leadership. In 2021, he passed a law that made bitcoin legal tender, making El Salvador the first nation to do so.

Italian prosecutor says Meta owes more than 887 mn euros in VAT


By AFP
December 9, 2024


An Italian prosecutor argues that Meta's use of personal data amounts to a commercial transaction

 Mike Coppola

A Milan prosecutor on Monday said that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, owes more than 887 million euros in value added taxes on estimated revenue it generated in Italy between 2015 and 2021.

Signing up for Facebook and Instagram is theoretically free, but users must accept access to their usage data and personal information, which the prosecutor described as a “synallagmatic contract” in which each side has obligations towards the other.

In Meta’s case, these transactions have “commercial purposes” that justify taxation, even if no actual money changes hands, Milan prosecutor Marcello Viola said in a statement.

The prosecutor said that he suspected the “legal representatives” of Meta’s Ireland-based platform of failing to declare a total of four billion euros ($4.23bn) in income over the period to evade VAT.

It estimated the VAT due at 887.6 million euros. A judge now must decide whether to pursue the case.

Meta told AFP that “we strongly disagree with the idea that providing access to online platforms to users should be charged with VAT.”

It said that the company has “cooperated fully with the authorities on our obligations under EU and local law and we will continue to do so. We take our tax obligations seriously and pay all tax required in each of the countries where we operate.”

The prosecution noted that other Italian public authorities had also come to the conclusion that Meta’s services were not free, including the competition watchdog in 2018, the administrative court of Lazio in 2020 and the Council of State in 2021