Friday, January 31, 2025

Policy briefs present approach for understanding prison violence

Project addresses its scale, sources and consequences

University of California - Irvine

Prison violence remains a significant yet underreported issue in the U.S. criminal justice system, leading to unsafe conditions for both incarcerated persons and staff. To address this pressing problem, a team of researchers has conducted a study aimed at understanding prison violence to develop strategies for reducing and preventing it in correctional facilities nationwide.

The researchers present their work in two recently released policy briefs — “The Dark Figure of Prison Violence: A Multi-Strategy Approach to Uncovering the Prevalence of Prison Violence” and “Sources and Consequences of Prison Violence: Key Findings and Recommendations from the Prison Violence Consortium.”

“Our work aims to shift the paradigm in how prison violence is understood, addressed and, most critically, prevented,” the authors note. “By providing a nuanced, data-driven perspective on this complex issue, we hope to catalyze meaningful changes in policy and practice. The ultimate goal is not just to reduce violence within correctional facilities, but to contribute to a more just, humane and effective criminal justice system overall.”

The work comes from the Prison Violence Consortium, a project made possible by funding from Arnold Ventures. The goal was to conduct a comprehensive review into the nature, causes and effects of prison violence. Led by Nancy Rodriguez, UC Irvine professor of criminology, law and society, the research team includes correctional experts H. Daniel Butler of Iowa State University, Natasha A. Frost of Northeastern University, Melinda Tasca of University of Texas at El Paso and Jillian J. Turanovic of University of Colorado Boulder.

Consortium members include the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry; Colorado Department of Corrections; Massachusetts Department of Corrections; Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction; Oregon Department of Corrections; Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Among their findings:

The vast majority of guilty violent infractions can be attributed to a small minority of incarcerated individuals.
Most violence (71 percent) occurred between incarcerated persons, while 29 percent was directed at staff, according to violent incident reports.
Physical injuries were reported in 42 percent of assaultive or fighting incidents between incarcerated persons and 21 percent of staff assault incidents.
Most interviewed incarcerated persons said violence changed how they “do time,” leading to social withdrawal, hypervigilance, distrust, and vulnerability.
Staff reported frequent threats and physical acts of violence and poor mental health.

The researchers present several recommendations, including:

creating a uniform definition of prison violence,
implementing an “injury” tool to document violence-related injuries, and
using a detailed, dynamic risk assessment to identify high-risk individuals.

Additionally, they recommend providing evidence-based treatment programs, expanding staff training and enhancing mental health resources and support to address prison violence effectively.

Now, as Rodriguez described, the Prison Violence Consortium is expanding to include additional state prison systems and working with existing partners to design state-specific solutions.

“Our work illustrates how independent researchers and government can work in meaningful partnerships to co-develop solutions for complex problems,” Rodriguez explained on Episode 10 of the Pracademically Speaking, a podcast of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ Bureau of Planning, Research & Statistics.

By implementing the Consortium’s recommendations and building on its work, she said, state correctional systems can work toward developing reliable metrics of violence, understanding and addressing institutional mechanisms that hinder accurate violence reporting, and pursuing interventions that will significantly reduce the harm experienced by incarcerated persons and staff.

Method of Research

Observational study

‘Altar tent’ discovery puts Islamic art at the heart of medieval Christianity

University of Cambridge

image:
Dr Federica Gigante examining the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy
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Credit: Federica Gigante

A 13th-century fresco rediscovered in Ferrara, Italy, provides unique evidence of medieval churches using Islamic tents to conceal their high altars. The 700-year-old fresco is thought to be the only surviving image of its kind, offering precious evidence of a little-known Christian practice.

The partially-visible fresco, identified by Cambridge University historian Dr Federica Gigante, almost certainly depicts a real tent, now lost, which the artist may have seen in the same church. The brightly coloured original tent, covered in jewels, could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a trophy seized from the battlefield.

Gigante’s research, published today in The Burlington Magazine, also suggests that a high-profile figure such as Pope Innocent IV – who gifted several precious textiles to the Benedictine convent church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, where the fresco was painted – may have given such a tent.

“At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that this could be an Islamic tent,” said Dr Gigante. “I quickly dismissed the idea and only went back to it years later with more experience and a braver attitude to research. We probably won’t find another such surviving image. I haven’t stopped looking but my guess is that it is fairly unique.”

The fresco provides crucial evidence of a medieval church using Islamic tents in key Christian practices, including mass, the study suggests.

“Islamic textiles were associated with the Holy Land from where pilgrims and crusaders brought back the most precious such Islamic textiles,” Gigante said. “They thought there existed artistic continuity from the time of Christ so their use in a Christian context was more than justified. Christians in medieval Europe admired Islamic art without fully realising it.”

While it is well known that Islamic textiles were present in late medieval European churches, surviving fragments are usually found wrapped around relics or in the burials of important people. Depictions of Islamic textiles survive, in traces, on some church walls in Italy as well as in Italian paintings of the late medieval period. But images of Islamic tents from the Western Islamic world, such as Spain, are extremely rare and this might be the only detailed, full-size depiction to be identified.

The fresco was painted between the late 13th and early 14th centuries to represent a canopy placed over the high altar. The artist transformed the apse into a tent comprising a blue and golden drapery wrapped around the three walls and topped by a double-tier bejewelled conical canopy of the type found throughout the Islamic world.

“The artist put a lot of effort into making the textile appear life-like,” Gigante said.

The background was a blue sky covered in stars and birds, giving the impression of a tent erected out in the open. In the early 15th century, the fresco was partly painted over with scenes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. This later fresco has captured the attention of art historians who have overlooked the sections of older fresco. Gigante identified the depiction of Islamic textiles when she visited the church ten years ago but it took further research to prove that the fresco represents an Islamic tent.

Depiction of a real tent used as altar-curtains

Gigante argues that the fresco depicts an Islamic tent which actually existed and that at some point in the 13th century, may even have been physically present in the convent church, providing a direct reference point for the artist.

It is already known that medieval churches used precious textile hangings to conceal the altar from view either permanently, during Mass or for specific liturgical periods. And when studying the fresco, Gigante noticed that it depicts the corner of a veil, painted as if drawn in front of the altar. Gigante, therefore, believes that the real tent was adapted to serve as a ‘tetravela’, altar-curtains.

“If the real tent was only erected in the church on certain occasions, the fresco could have served as a visual reminder of its splendour when it was not in place,” Gigante said. “The interplay between painted and actual textiles can be found throughout Europe and the Islamic world in the late medieval period.”

Gigante’s study notes that the walls of the apse are studded with nails and brackets, and that they could have served as structural supports for a hanging textile.

Gigante points to the fresco’s ‘extraordinarily precise details’ as further evidence that it depicts a real tent. The fabric shown in the fresco features blue eight-pointed star motifs inscribed in roundels, the centre of which was originally picked out in gold leaf, exactly like the golden fabrics used for such precious Islamic tents. A band with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions runs along the edge of both the top and bottom border. The textile also features white contours to emphasise contrasting colours reflecting a trend in 13th-century Andalusi silk design.

The structure, design and colour scheme of the tent closely resemble the few surviving depictions of Andalusi tents, including in the 13th-century manuscript, the Cantigas de Santa Maria. They also match one of the few potential surviving Andalusi tent fragments, the ‘Fermo chasuble’, which is said to have belonged to St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Gigante also compares the jewels depicted in the fresco with a rare surviving jewelled textile made by Arab craftsmen, the mantle of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154), which was embroidered with gold and applied with pearls, gemstones and cloisonné enamel.

Spoils of war

In the 13th century, it was common for banners and other spoils of war to be displayed around church altars in Europe.

“Tents, especially Islamic royal tents were among the most prized gifts in diplomatic exchanges, the most prominent royal insignia on campsites and the most sought-after spoils on battlefields,” Gigante said.

“Tents made their way into Europe as booty. During anti-Muslim expeditions, it was common to pay mercenaries in textiles and a tent was the ultimate prize. The fresco matches descriptions of royal Islamic tents which were seized during the wars of Christian expansion into al-Andalus in the 13th century.”

Gift from a Pope?

From the 9th century, Popes often donated Tetravela (altar-curtains) to churches and papal records reveal that by 1255, Pope Innocent IV had sent ‘draperies of the finest silk and gold fabrics’ to the convent of S. Antonio in Polesine.

“We can’t be certain but it is possible that a person of high-profile such as Pope Innocent IV gifted the tent,” Gigante says.

An Andalusi tent taken from the campsite of the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nāsir was sent to Pope Innocent III after 1212 meaning that there was an Islamic tent in St Peter’s Basilica at some point prior to the painting of the fresco.

Gigante suggests that the tent could also have been part of a diplomatic gift made to the powerful Este family which brokered alliances between the Guelfs and Ghibellins, factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor respectively. The convent was founded in 1249 by Beatrice II d’Este.

“Many people don’t realize how extraordinarily advanced and admired Islamic culture was in the medieval period,” Gigante said.

Last year, Dr Gigante identified the Verona Astrolabe, an eleventh-century Islamic astrolabe bearing both Arabic and Hebrew inscriptions.

Federica Gigante is a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of History and the Hanna Kiel Fellow at I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

Reference

F. Gigante, ‘An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara’, The Burlington Magazine (2025)

The right-hand wall of the apse in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy.

Upper section of the 13th-century fresco showing the tent textile hanging around the walls of the apse, with eight-pointed star motifs and with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions above. Part of the later fresco, added in the 15th century, visible on the right.

Folds of textile with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions in the lower border of the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy.

Dr Federica Gigante in front of the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy

Credit

Federica Gigante

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara

Article Publication Date

1-Feb-2025

South Korea watchdog to question DeepSeek over user data

By AFP
January 31, 2025

South Korean along with France, Australia and Italy have raised questions about DeepSeek's handling of personal data - Copyright AFP -

South Korea will ask Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to clarify how it manages users’ personal information, its data watchdog said Friday, joining a number of countries seeking answers.

DeepSeek launched its R1 chatbot this month, claiming it matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the investment.

The news sparked a rout in tech titans — Nvidia dived 17 percent Monday — and raised questions about the hundreds of billions of dollars invested in AI in recent years.

But countries now including South Korea, France, Australia and Italy have questions about DeepSeek’s data practices.

“We intend to submit our request in writing as early as Friday to obtain information about how DeepSeek handles personal data,” an official from South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission told AFP, without giving further details.

-‘Be very careful’-

Italy launched an investigation this week into the R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users’ data.

The Italian Data Protection Agency is asking what information is used to train DeepSeek’s AI system and, if the data is scraped from the internet, how users are informed about the processing of their data.

French watchdog CNIL also said it would question DeepSeek about its chatbot “to better understand the way it works and the risks regarding data protection”.

On Tuesday, Australia’s science minister Ed Husic raised privacy concerns over the company’s AI service and urged users to think carefully before downloading it.

“There are a lot of questions that will need to be answered in time on quality, consumer preferences, data and privacy management,” Husic told national broadcaster ABC.

“I would be very careful about that. These type of issues need to be weighed up carefully,” he added.

Investors have been spooked by the arrival of DeepSeek’s chatbot, sparking a rout in high-flying tech titans – Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

The Italian watchdog in December fined OpenAI 15 million euros ($15.6 million) over the use of personal data by its popular ChatGPT chatbot, but the US tech firm said it would appeal.

Italy also temporarily blocked ChatGPT over privacy concerns in March 2023, becoming the first Western country to take such action.

DeepSeek has said it used less-advanced H800 chips — permitted for sale to China until 2023 under US export controls — to power its large learning model.

South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are key suppliers of advanced chips used in AI servers.

Worries about the impact of DeepSeek battered stocks in Seoul as the market reopened after an extended break Friday.

Samsung fell more than two percent, while SK hynix plunged almost 12 percent at one point.

But several industry leaders have welcomed DeepSeek’s arrival and the injection of competition, while analysts have flagged the benefits of the shake-up.

Indonesia deforestation rose again in 2024: NGO

By AFP
January 31, 2025

Indonesia has one of the world's highest rates of deforestation

- Copyright AURIGA NUSANTARA/AFP Handout

Deforestation in Indonesia rose again last year, a local environmental NGO said Friday based on satellite image analysis and fieldwork.

Indonesia has one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation, with key drivers including timber plantations, palm oil cultivation and, increasingly, the mining of critical minerals.

Its rainforests are some of the world’s most biodiverse and provide critical habitats for threatened and endangered species, and are key carbon sinks.

The report from NGO Auriga Nusantara said 261,575 hectares of primary and secondary forests across Indonesia were lost in 2024, over four thousand more than the previous year.

It is the third year running that deforestation has increased, the group said, with the vast majority of losses taking place in areas opened for development by the government.

“It is worrying, as it shows the increase of legal deforestation,” said Auriga Nusantara’s chair Timer Manurung.

He called for “urgent” protection of forest in Kalimantan, where the highest losses were recorded as the country’s new capital is built, and in Sulawesi.

The report comes as Indonesian environmentalists raise alarm over government plans to convert millions of hectares of forests for food and energy use.

President Prabowo Subianto, who assumed office in October, has pledged to boost food and energy self-sufficiency, including by expanding bio-based fuels to lower fuel imports.

Environmental groups warn the plans would spell disaster for the country’s forests.

“We ask President Prabowo to issue a presidential regulation to protect all remaining natural forest,” Timer told AFP.

The report is based on satellite imagery, which was analysed to confirm deforestation, and followed up with field visits to areas representing tens of thousands of hectares of forest loss, Auriga Nusantara said.

While deforestation occurred in all of Indonesia’s provinces except the region around Jakarta, the biggest losses were seen in Kalimantan.

One driver in the region has been the designation of an area for the new capital, the report said.

Two regional governments in the area have proposed opening up hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest to potential development, the group warned.

Most deforestation however was driven by commodities, including timber, mining and palm oil.

Officials at Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government has previously disputed deforestation claims made by environmentalists, and said estimates overstate forest loss by miscounting changes in plantations as deforestation.

Auriga Nusantara said its count excluded loss in timber plantations and plantation forest, but does cover both primary forests and regenerated “secondary” forest.

The report also sounds the alarm on deforestation for biomass production, which has seen forest levelled to plant quick-growing species that will provide wood biomass.

Indonesia is keen to boost domestic use of biomass energy and export, particularly to Japan and South Korea.

The group said about 42 million hectares of Indonesia’s natural forests are unprotected by law, including millions of hectares already inside concessions.

While the amount of forest loss has risen in recent years, it is still down sharply from a peak around 2016.

Japan sinkhole grows to almost Olympic pool length

By AFP
January 31, 2025

A worker controls the traffic as rescue operations continue for a truck driver after his vehicle plunged into a sinkhole in Yashio - Copyright AFP Philip FONG

Emergency workers in Japan began building a ramp Friday to try and reach a 74-year-old truck driver who has not been heard from since his vehicle was swallowed by a sinkhole this week.

The cavity has expanded to 40 metres (130 feet) across, almost the length of an Olympic swimming pool, since opening up in a city just north of Tokyo on Tuesday morning, officials said.

The growing hole could be the result of corroded sewage pipes, according to authorities in Yashio.

“It is an extremely dangerous condition,” local fire chief Tetsuji Sato told reporters on Thursday at the traffic intersection where dozens of rescuers have been working around the clock.

“We are planning to construct a slope (to access the hole) from a safer spot so that we will be able to send heavy equipment,” he said.

He added that groundwater was leaking inside and that the hole was “continuing to cave in”.

No communication has been had with the driver since around midday Tuesday, with soil and other debris now covering the cabin of his lorry in Yashio.

– Eroding walls –

The punctured pipes “potentially allowed the surrounding soil to flow in and the space under the ground to hollow out”, Daisuke Tsutsui, a Saitama prefectural official, told AFP on Thursday.

Authorities hoped to complete the 30-metre slope on Friday, but a local official said it may take several days.

The operation has been aggravated by the inner walls of the hole — now around 10 metres (30 feet) deep — continuing to erode, preventing rescue workers from staying inside it for long.

Initially, the hole was around five metres in diameter but it has since combined with a much larger cavity that opened during the rescue operation on Tuesday night.

As the sinkhole has expanded, heavy chunks of asphalt have occasionally fallen in, preventing rescue workers from going near the chasm.

This has also made it dangerous to place heavy machinery nearby.

The 1.2 million people living in the area have been asked to cut back on showers and laundry to prevent leaking sewage from making the operation even more difficult.

“Using toilets is difficult to refrain from, but we are asking to use less water as much as possible,” an official told AFP.

Some sewage water in the area was collected and released to a nearby river to reduce the runoff into the hole.

“It feels rather abnormal that the search is taking this long. I wonder if he could’ve been saved much sooner,” Takuya Koroku, a local factory worker, told AFP on Thursday.

“I’m scared to go nearby,” the 51-year-old added.

Green energy projects adding to Sami people’s climate woes: Amnesty

By AFP
January 31, 2025

A herd of reindeer head to their winter pastures, near Reinfjord in northern Norway

- Copyright AFP CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Climate change and efforts to curb it by moving away from fossil fuels are both threatening the rights and livelihood of Sami indigenous people in the Arctic, Amnesty International said Friday.

There are about 100,000 Samis — considered Europe’s last indigenous population — many of whom live from traditional reindeer herding, which requires vast open spaces.

But the expansion of infrastructure for renewable energy production and mineral extraction is hindering their ancestral ways of living, said the report, which Amnesty International drafted in partnership with the non-governmental Sami Council.

“Climate change threatens the culture and existence of the Sami indigenous people in two ways,” it said.

“Firstly, through direct environmental impacts such as changing weather conditions and ecosystems, and secondly, through the increasing number of energy projects and resource extraction… in the name of ‘green’ development and ‘clean’ energy transition.”

The Samis and their migratory herds are spread across the vast open spaces of Arctic Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

The report — entitled “Just transition or ‘green colonialism’?” — takes the example of the Fosen wind farms in Norway, where 151 turbines were installed on what opponents said was traditional reindeer habitat.

Norway’s Supreme Court later ruled that the construction of the turbines was illegal, since it had no valid licences, and that it was violating Sami people’s rights as granted by the United Nations.

– Warming Arctic –

The case triggered a vast mobilisation of environmental and Sami activists, who demanded the turbines be demolished.

It ended with a financial settlement with herders.

The report highlighted other conflicts surrounding mine projects in the Swedish village of Ronnbac, and in Kasivarsi, Finland — both of which threatened reindeer herding, it said.

Amnesty and the Sami Council urged authorities in Nordic countries to increase consultations with Sami populations and seek their agreement before granting any new infrastructure projects that could infringe on their rights.

These disputes add to the direct effects of climate change, which in the Arctic manifest themselves three or four times faster than elsewhere in the world.

Among other challenges, temperatures are rising, with “frequent temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit)”.

If rain falls on existing snow, it freezes and forms an ice crust over the surface, meaning reindeer cannot reach lichen, their main food source.

Early ice melting means river crossings are not covered by sufficiently solid ice or are flooded, making herding and reindeer migration perilous or even impossible.

Op-Ed: Now, the global chaos – Tariffs, pettiness and tantrums and a CCC credit rating.

By Paul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 31, 2025

US President Donald Trump has reiterated that he plans to impose fresh tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, alongside China

- Copyright AFP/File ROBERTO SCHMIDT

The Great Epidemiologist and the Servile Dwarves are now economists. Putting tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners would get you thrown out of day one economics. These tariffs go into force tomorrow.

It’s also godawful diplomacy. Canada, Mexico, and China can obtain pretty much anything anywhere else. They don’t have to put up with it and there’s every chance they won’t.

25% is a lot. It hits margins. It hits the net value of trade. It’s not worth it for the sellers if demand shrinks due to increased costs to customers. 25% shrinkage in demand can destroy trade.

The BRICS initiative is perhaps worse. The US dollar is the default international currency. It’s easy to convert any currency into any other currency.

Sending the message that America doesn’t understand basic trade anymore is at best a dubious situation. Tariffs will force American importers to pay more for their imports.

The theory of producing in the US doesn’t survive a second’s scrutiny. Your big TV is going to be made by some guy in a tree in Idaho? No, it isn’t.

“Made in the USA” would take years to happen, if ever, and more likely never. Most American manufacturers shifted offshore 30 years ago. That might be a bit recent for Republican policymakers to have noticed. Anything after 1940 seems beyond them.

Worse is the naivete. It’s bizarre.

Tariffs are regulations. Trump’s donors and supporters are experts at dodging regulations. They don’t even pay taxes if they can help it. Also experts are smugglers, and opportunists who can get those US goods elsewhere or simply copy them. The only beneficiaries will be the black market and organized crime.

Blocking computer chips is arguably dumber. Obstructing sales of one generation of chips means nothing. They’ll be obsolete by the time they get on the market and duly swiped long before that.

What is the point?

The Republicans were anti-global from day one, despite the huge amounts of money the US made dealing with China. Like the UK, they’re heavily weighted to the financial markets, not the real economy.

The UK destroyed itself with the Brexit idiocy and an unholy does of hyper-conservatism at its most pig-ignorant. A lot of very dodgy numbers were the excuse, while Brexiteers simply went and got European passports for themselves and their families. A huge black market has meanwhile sprung up in the UK since.

Check out this rather patient article on fxstreet.com for lousy logic. The other lucky winner in this lottery of lunacy is the EU. They’ll pay tariffs, too.

It simply won’t be worth doing business with the US. As America’s wealth in property melts down like the LA fires, real capital is likely to evaporate. Domestic prices are totally out of control. American private debt is well over 200% of GDP.

You’re looking at a CCC credit rating for the US. Interest rates will go through the roof in any bad, let alone worst-case, scenario. That will make borrowing much more expensive. The US will be a bad risk, a global deadbeat. Worse than Russia, because the US holds so much capital.

It’s like 1929 all over again, but much, much dumber.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Swiss court convicts Trafigura of corruption in Angola

By AFP
January 31, 2025

A Trafigura company statement expressed disappointment at the ruling and said it was reviewing judgment - Copyright AFP CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Nathalie OLOF-ORS

A Swiss court convicted Trafigura and three people linked to the commodities trading firm of corruption in Angola, in what campaigners hailed Friday as a “historic” first in Switzerland.

A Trafigura statement expressed disappointment at the ruling and said it was reviewing judgment. The lawyer for one former director with the company said he would appeal his conviction.

The group, which is particularly active in oil trading, was fined 3 million Swiss francs ($3.2 million) for failing to properly monitor the activities of its intermediaries, the federal court said Friday.

Michael Wainwright, Trafigura’s former operational director, was sentenced to 32 months, of which he must serve 12 months in prison.

Prison terms were also handed down to a person who served as an intermediary for the payment of bribes, and to a former agent of an Angolan state company.

A statement from Trafigura said: “We are disappointed by today’s decision in Switzerland concerning Trafigura Beheer BV and are reviewing the matter.

“Trafigura has invested significant resources in strengthening its compliance programme over a number of years.”

Wainwright’s lawyer, Daniel Kinzer, told AFP: “Mike Wainwright was convicted on the basis of very general assumptions, without taking into account elements which demonstrate that he was not involved.”

Wainwright “maintains that he did not order or facilitate any payment for corrupt purposes and intends to prove it before the Court of Appeal,” he added.

– Legal ‘first’ –

The case concerns the payment of bribes to a former executive of an Angolan state-owned distribution company in exchange for ship chartering and bunkering contracts. Swiss federal prosecutors referred it to the court in Bellinzona, in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, in 2023.

Contacted by AFP, the office of the federal prosecutors said they were “satisfied” by the verdict.

“This is the first conviction by a court in Switzerland of a company for acts of corruption of foreign public officials,” the office said.

It was “a strong signal of the determination to fight against all forms of transnational corruption”, it added.

Anti-corruption campaigners Public Eye welcomed the convictions.

“This is the first time in Swiss history that a trading company has been convicted of corruption in a public trial,” it said.

It added: “The verdict is a warning to the entire commodities industry, as Swiss justice seems increasingly determined to trace the chain of responsibility.”

In March 2024, Trafigura, based in Singapore but with a significant presence in Geneva, agreed to plead guilty in the United States and pay $127 million over allegations of corruption in Brazil.

Switzerland is home to some 900 commodities trading firms, located primarily in Geneva and Lugano.

Founded in 1993, Trafigura employs 13,000 people worldwide and made a net profit of almost $2.8 billion in its 2023/2024 fiscal year ending September 30.

Thailand orders stubble burning crackdown as pollution spikes

By AFP
January 31, 2025

High air pollution levels in Bangkok. - © AFP Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

The Thai government has ordered a crackdown on farmers flouting a ban on crop burning, as pollution in Bangkok spiked on Friday a week after toxic air forced hundreds of schools to close.

Smoke from farmers burning crop stubble combines with vehicle and factory emissions to send air pollution in Bangkok and other cities soaring in the early months of the year.

On Friday morning, the sprawling Thai capital was seventh on the list of the world’s most polluted cities run by air monitoring company IQAir.

The level of PM2.5 pollutants — cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs — hit 86 micrograms per cubic metre, according to IQAir.

A reading above 15 in a 24-hour period is considered unhealthy by the World Health Organization (WHO).

High levels of PM2.5 were also recorded Friday in the northern cities of Chiang Mai and Udon Thani.

Burning crop stubble sends air pollution in Thailand soaring in the early months of the year – Copyright AFP/File PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL

The government on Thursday ordered provincial authorities to enforce a ban on burning crop stubble, requiring them to report how many farmers they have arrested for breaching the rule.

“In every province, if you allow crop burning or fail to implement preventive measures, you will be punished,” the Thai government said in a statement on Thursday.

More than 1.1 million pollution-protection masks have been distributed around the kingdom, and the health ministry is to monitor vulnerable groups, including children and pregnant women.

The government has also told drivers to ensure their vehicles comply with emissions limits.

Pollution is expected to spike between Friday and Wednesday as cool, stable weather conditions hamper the dispersal of pollutants.

Last week, Bangkok authorities closed more than 350 schools as pollution soared, but no such order was given Friday.

The city’s Skytrain, metro, light rail system and bus services have been free to use all week in a bid to reduce emissions from vehicles.

Air pollution has closed schools across other parts of Asia recently, including in Pakistan and India.

Nearly two million students around New Delhi were told to stay home in November after authorities ordered schools shut because of worsening air pollution.

$16.3M boost for University of Guelph to drive agri-food innovation

By Jennifer Kervin
January 31, 2025

Photo by Getty Images on Unsplash

The University of Guelph is helping to lead a national effort to reshape Canada’s agri-food sector with nearly $16.3 million in new funding.

The Sustainable Food Systems for Canada (SF4C) platform, developed with institutions across the country, aims to bring lab-based food innovations to market and equip entrepreneurs with skills to tackle some of the sector’s biggest challenges.

This funding, awarded as part of a package of Lab to Market grants over five years, was announced by the Honourable Terry Duguid, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, on behalf of the Hon. François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry.
Building a national agri-food network

The goal of SF4C is to establish Canada’s first nationally networked entrepreneurial platform, said Rene Van Acker, interim president and vice-chancellor at U of G. The initiative will be dedicated to connecting agri-food researchers and innovators with industry, government, and community stakeholders.

“Through training, mentorship, and networking, SF4C ensures a continuous pipeline of talent to drive Canada’s economic security and productivity in a changing world,” said Van Acker.

Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute, and Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, co-chair the initiative.

“Current methods of food production are insufficient to meet increasing global demand and to mitigate the effects of climate change,” Fraser said.

“At the heart of SF4C is a philosophy to nurture business-minded research and develop a Canadian base of educated innovators who will bring as many solutions as possible to the market.”

By bringing together experts in agriculture, veterinary medicine, Indigenous organizations, and startups, the co-chairs aim to form one of the world’s largest food innovation networks.

“As we face a changing climate and challenging global political situations, it is more important than ever to grow our domestic food system,” said Newman. “SF4C is a national step forward in agricultural innovation.”
Programs designed to build innovation capacity

SF4C will launch three core programs:A national training platform to develop entrepreneurial skills.
A mentorship and concierge service to connect innovators with additional resources.
Activities, events, and workshops to reduce barriers to learning and business growth.

“Now is the moment for Canada to embrace the agricultural sector as a pathway to sustainable and productive growth on a scale that cannot be achieved by any single institution,” Fraser and Newman said in a joint statement.

The initiative includes collaboration with 13 post-secondary institutions across Canada.
National partnerships and perspectives

SF4C’s emphasis on collaboration extends to addressing food security and climate challenges.

“Climate change is impacting Canada’s rural, remote, and Indigenous communities at an alarming rate,” said Janet Dean, executive director of the Territorial Agrifood Association.

“A national network like SF4C is vital to fostering the innovation necessary for food security and sovereignty for all Canadians as it empowers our communities to harness our local resources.”

While collaboration is an important piece of the puzzle, education plays a key role in turning agri-food innovation into real-world solutions, said Amy Proulx from Niagara College.

She added that Canadian colleges take a “unique approach to learning,” involving competency-based education and microcredentials for workforce-ready training.

“Innovation is a skill, and therefore it’s something we can teach and learn,” said Proulx. “Microcredentials are a practical way to meet these learning needs, by making learning accessible through both formal education and non-traditional learning.”
Strengthening Canada’s food systems

As a leading institution in this initiative, U of G is leveraging its expertise to build a unified voice for agri-food innovation in Canada.

“This funding is a testament to the University of Guelph’s expertise in catalyzing partnerships within and beyond this critical sector,” said Shayan Sharif, interim vice president of research and innovation.

With its broad reach and collaborative focus, SF4C aims to position Canada as a global leader in agri-food innovation, ensuring a resilient and sustainable food system for generations to come.

Read more here.

Written By Jennifer Kervin
Jennifer Kervin is a Digital Journal staff writer and editor based in Toronto.

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