4/20
World Cannabis Day: A brief cultural history of hemp

Whether the Chinese emperor, the prophet Moses or the US founding fathers: the hemp plant has been part of people's everyday lives for millennia — and not just as an intoxicant.



Hemp is making a comeback after decades in the wilderness

What does the Gutenberg Bible have in common with the American Declaration of Independence? Or a tapestry from the Viking age with Christopher Columbus' ship? And what connects the nomadic Scythians described by Greek historian Herodotus with the anointing ritual of the prophet Moses?

The answer to all these questions is very simple: hemp.

For thousands of years, the hemp plant has been part of daily life in diverse cultures around the world. Not only the mother plant of various narcotics, it has been used to make paper or textiles, and for medicinal purposes.

Some value it so highly, that April 20 has been deemed "World Cannabis Day."

As Germany plans to legalize cannabis, it is high time to dispel the myths surrounding the herb and take a look at its rich cultural history.
The origins of hemp

Researchers agree that hemp originally came from Asia, with archaeological excavations in Japan, for example, showing the plant may have been harvested there for at least 10,000 years.

While prehistoric hemp remains have also been found in India, Thailand and Malaysia, discoveries in what is now China prove that people in the region produced textiles from hemp fibers from around 4,000 BC at the latest.

One of the earliest written records of hemp being used as a medicine comes from ancient China, a knowledge attributed to the mythical emperor Shennong and his book "Ben Cao Jing."

Revered in China as a founding figure and father of agriculture: Emperor Shennong recommended drinking cannabis tea

Said to have been compiled from oral traditions between about 200 BC and 220 AD, the book describes the medicinal and spiritual properties of hemp.

Not only does the herb allow communication with spirits, it also relaxes the body — though one risks seeing the devil if they take too much.
Was God talking about cannabis?

It is likely that nomadic trading peoples then exported the hemp plant to the West.

In 5th century BC, Greek historian Herodotus described the Scythian people who lived on the Eurasian edge of the western world, and where hemp also grew. Herodotus described burials where the Scythians would gather in a tent, throw hemp seeds onto red hot stones and then purify themselves in the steam bath.

"The Scythians rejoice in the sweat bath and howl with delight," Herodotus wrote. Incidentally, the Latin word cannabis is borrowed from the Scythian language.

Language is an important guide to the early history of cannabis. The ancient Chinese employed extra characters for male and female hemp plants respectively carrying the seeds and the fruits, proving the intensive preoccupation with the plant — and its importance in everyday life.

Cannabis also may have been part of the holy anointing oil that God instructs the prophet Moses to produce in the Old Testament.

In addition to cinnamon, myrrh or olive oil, "kaneh bosm" was to be used. Anthropologist Sula Benet theorized that this Hebrew word was later mistranslated into Greek. So instead of calamus or spice cane, as labelled in the German standard translation of the Bible, it actually meant cannabis.

In 2020, researchers found evidence to back the theory: on the altar of the Jewish temple at Tel Arad in Israel, they found cannabis containing the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which produces an intoxicating effect when smoked or ingested.

CALIFORNIA'S 'WEED NUNS' ON A MISSION TO HEAL WITH CANNABIS

Joint-smoking nuns

Based near the town of Merced in California's Central Valley, which produces over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States, the Sisters of the Valley grow and harvest their own plants - cannabis plants.

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Basis for Europe's dominance

In Europe, hemp's narcotic properties hardly played a role in its early use. The abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) describes hemp seeds in her work "Naturkunde" (Nature Studies) primarily as being digestible.

At that time, hemp was mainly in demand for textiles, shipping, or paper production.

In 1909, during the renovation of a Swedish church, five roughly 3,000-year-old tapestries from the Viking era were rediscovered, some of which had been made from hemp. Fine clothing used as burial objects were also made of hemp fibers.

Ancient hemp clothing was also crucial to letterpress printing. Johannes Gutenberg's revolutionary printing press churned out Gutenberg Bibles printed on paper made from clothing rags and hemp fibers.

This was a blessing for posterity: Hemp paper is more durable than paper made from vegetable pulp commonly used today, and the precious Bibles were more resistant to time.

The first two drafts of the American Declaration of Independence were also recorded on hemp paper. For the final copy, however, the Founding Fathers opted for parchment made from animal skin.


The Gutenberg Bible triggered a media revolution in Europe

What's more, Christopher Columbus' fleet of ships typically relied on sails, nets and ropes made of hemp, partly since it does not rot or go moldy when damp.
Dawn of the hemp era?

Hemp's importance for textile production was later superseded by cotton and petroleum-based synthetic fibers.

With the expansion of motorized shipping, easier-to-process raw materials such as cotton could be imported in bulk and at cheaper costs, and the hemp industry shrank over the long term. By the mid-20th century, even ropes and sails were no longer made from hemp but synthetic fibers.

Hemp's demise happened with the active support of Harry Anslinger, who as head of the top US Drug Enforcement Administration promoted the demonization of cannabis for over 30 years. The oil industry rejoiced, but the war on hemp failed in the long run.

Not only are increasing numbers of countries worldwide legalizing the use of cannabis, but companies are also betting on hemp.

Beyond the booming medical marijuana business, the plant is seen as a means to reduce carbon emissions when used to replace high-carbon fossil fuel products.

Rediscovering and developing such non-petroleum-based technologies may not be the sole cure-all, but hemp could at least be a building block to a more sustainable economy. As history shows, it has worked before.

CANNABIS: OPEN TO CULTURAL INTERPRETATION

Mythical plant

This is the hemp plant of legend. Intoxicating cannabis can be obtained from certain varieties, so its cultivation is strictly regulated in Germany. Unlike 200 years ago, hemp plants in the country are completely out of the public eye, paving the way for myths generated from the camps of supporters and opponents alike.

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This article was translated from German. It is an updated version of an article originally published on January 31, 2022.

Nicaragua bans 25 NGOs critical of government


The Permanent Commission for Human Rights has been documenting government repression of 2018 protesters 

(AFP/OSWALDO RIVAS) 


Wed, April 20, 2022

Nicaragua's parliament on Wednesday banned 25 NGOs critical of the government, including a human rights commission that documented state repression of a mass 2018 demonstration.

At least 355 people died in the heavy-handed response by security services to the 2018 demonstrations, according to rights organizations, while tens of thousands fled into exile.

"The decree cancelling the legal entities" of the 25 NGOs "is approved" said parliament vice-president Arling Alonso following a vote in the legislature dominated by the ruling party.

The decree was passed with 74 votes for, none against and 15 abstentions.

The interior ministry said the NGOs "have broken the laws that regulate non-profit organizations," having refused to register as foreign agents and inform authorities when receiving funding from abroad.

Created in 1991, the Permanent Human Rights Commission (CPDH) had documented state repression against protesters.

"There have been 45 years of permanent struggle, in which we have identified ourselves with the most vulnerable, the most mistreated," said CPDH director Mario Carmona on Tuesday.

Carmona claimed that the interior ministry refused to receive their financial reports.

Nicaragua has convicted around 40 opposition figures since the middle of last year, including seven presidential hopefuls planning to stand against President Daniel Ortega in last November's election.

Without any credible opposition to stand against him, former guerrilla Ortega, 76, won a fourth successive term in an election branded a "farce" by many in the international community.

More than 165 civil organizations have been banned by the government since the 2018 protests.

Ortega's government accuses his opponents of trying to overthrow him with the help of Washington.

bm/mav/gm/bc/st

Michigan state senator hits back at GOP colleague accusing her of 'grooming' kids

Christopher Wilson

·Senior Writer

Wed, April 20, 2022, 

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow pushed back in a viral speech against the growing trend of Republicans labeling their Democratic opponents as groomers and pedophiles.

McMorrow responded Tuesday morning to accusations made in a fundraising email by Republican state Sen. Lana Theis that her Democratic colleague wanted to “groom and sexualize kindergarteners.”

“I didn’t expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd District had, overnight, accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself,” McMorrow said at the beginning of her remarks. “So I sat on it for a while wondering: Why me? And then I realized: Because I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can’t claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say no.”

Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow. (Senate TV via Twitter)

Republicans have attempted to position themselves as the party of parental rights, with state legislatures across the country introducing a series of bills targeting the LGBTQ community, with those opposing the legislation being labeled as “groomers.” They’ve also targeted books that discuss race and gender while attempting to make it illegal for parents to seek gender-affirming care for transgender children. Prominent right-wing media figures have focused on anti-LGBTQ attacks in recent weeks.

“So then what?” continued McMorrow. “Then you dehumanize and marginalize me. You say that I’m one of them. You say she’s a groomer, she supports pedophilia, she wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they’re white.”

McMorrow’s speech has been viewed over 9 million times in the less than 24 hours since she posted it to her Twitter account. During her comments, she talked about growing up being active in the church, working with her mother at a soup kitchen and the civil rights work of Father Ted Hesburgh, the former president of her alma mater, Notre Dame.

“I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing ‘Christian’ in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people,” McMorrow said, emphasizing that she is a white, straight, Christian, suburban mom and that those promoting the attacks were using it to deflect from the fact that they weren’t working on the real issues.

“I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen,” concluded McMorrow, who was first elected in 2018 and is on the ballot again this November. “So I want to be very clear right now: Call me whatever you want. I hope you brought in a few dollars. I hope it made you sleep good last night. I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.”

Theis’s rhetoric against McMorrow in the fundraising email sent out on Monday read, “These are the people we are up against. Progressive social media trolls like Senator Malloy McMorrow (D-Snowflake) who are outraged they can’t teach can’t groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.” She added that “enlightened elites” believe parents “must surrender to the wisdom of teacher unions, trans-activists, and the education bureaucracy.”

Theis targeted McMorrow and other Democrats in the Senate after they walked out of a session last Wednesday due to the content of Theis’s invocation, which the legislators took as a precursor to action against LGBTQ educators.

“Dear Lord, across the country we’re seeing in the news that our children are under attack. That there are forces that desire things for them other than what their parents would have them see and hear and know. Dear Lord, I pray for your guidance in this chamber to protect the most vulnerable among us,” said Theis, who is chair of the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee.

Michigan state Sen. Lana Theis in 2019. (David Eggert/AP)

“The ‘forces’ are, of course, public school teachers, and the ‘things’ are the LGBTQ community,” tweeted Democratic state Sen. Dayna Polehanki. “To pervert the Senate Invocation in this way is beyond the pale.”

“Without sharing or repeating closed-minded harmful words from a sitting Senator under the guise of a ‘prayer,’ to every child in Michigan — you are perfect and welcome and loved for being exactly who you are,” added McMorrow on Twitter.

A number of GOP senators used the confirmation hearings of new Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to label her as soft on child pornography offenders, despite repeated analyses showing that Jackson’s rulings were within the mainstream of her fellow judges. When three Republican senators said they would vote to confirm Jackson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called them “pro-pedophile.” The following day, she referred to Democrats as the “party of pedophiles.”

Greene’s comments and the general trend toward accusations of pedophilia echo the QAnon conspiracy theory, supported by Greene in the past, which alleges that former President Donald Trump was working to take down a powerful cabal of child traffickers typically portrayed as the Democratic elite. Believers in the debunked theory frequently allege that their political opponents support pedophiles. Those pushing the accusations have a large audience, as a recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that 16% of Americans believed that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., addresses Trump supporters in Commerce, Ga., on March 26. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

McMorrow’s direct response is a contrast to what the national Democratic strategy has been to the increase of Republicans claiming they are a party of “pedophiles” and “groomers.” Vice News spoke to a number of prominent House Democrats last week about Greene’s comments.

“I don’t even really pay attention to anything she says because she has nothing rational to say. It seems to me to be a ridiculous allegation,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a member of House Democratic leadership. “We’re focused right now on getting things done for everyday Americans: lowering costs, addressing gas prices and inflation. They can continue to peddle lies and conspiracy theories.”

“I see polling that shows that that outrageous characterization is landing with some folks,” Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., told the outlet. “But you also don't really want to give oxygen to the land of misfit toys, which is where this is coming [from].”

Britain's Johnson faces calls to apologise for India massacre



Bhuvan BAGGA
Wed, April 20, 2022

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces calls to apologise for a colonial-era massacre when he visits the Indian state of Gujarat Thursday, 100 years after as many as 1,200 people were killed protesting against imperial rule.

Last month saw the centenary of the Pal-Dadhvav massacre, when Indian historians say around 2,000 tribal people led by social reformer Motilal Tejawat gathered to protest against exploitation, forced labour and high taxes.

According to the Gujarat state government, British Major HG Sutton ordered his troops to open fire.

"Like a battlefield, the entire area was filled with corpses," it said. Two wells, it added, were "overflowing with bodies".

The state's official float at this year's annual Republic Day parade depicted the killings as the "untold story of bravery and sacrifice of the tribals", it said in a statement that put the death toll at 1,200.

Johnson -- who has been assailed by controversy over Downing Street parties during the coronavirus pandemic -- lands in the state's largest city, Ahmedabad, on Thursday at the start of a two-day visit to India.

"It was the British rule at the time when these killings happened so, if the British PM is coming here, he must apologise," Tejawat's grandson Mahendra told AFP.

"My grandfather was only running a campaign for the poor, harmless and illiterate tribals," added the 77-year-old.

"He must express regret if he feels what happened to the defenceless tribals was wrong."

- 'Killer government' -

Portraits of Johnson lined the streets of New Delhi ahead of his visit.

But relations between Britain and India have long been coloured by the legacies of colonial rule -- when London saw the world's second-most populous nation as the jewel in the crown of its empire but hundreds of millions of Indians chafed under its authority.

The Hindu nationalist government of Johnson's host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, regularly emphasises the independence struggle as a vital component of India's national identity.

It has built giant statues of key independence leaders, and created a museum to one of them in Delhi's world heritage-listed Red Fort.

Modi is himself a former chief minister of Gujarat, under whose tenure a memorial was built to the massacre victims.

But Arun Vaghela, head of Gujarat University's history department, has little expectation the British prime minister would address the issue.

He has carried out field research at the site and said even 20 years ago residents were still finding old bullets lodged in trees and skeletons in deep wells, into which people had jumped to try and escape.

"The British records only show 40 to 50 deaths -- but when does any killer government, British or otherwise, ever truly reveal and acknowledge the number of people it has killed?"

Media reports say some of the protesters were armed and may have fired first, and that British authorities put the number of dead at 22.

According to Vaghela's figures, the toll is greater than the far better known Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, when between 379 and 1,000 people were killed, which overshadowed a state visit by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to India in 1997.

But the Gujarat incident barely figures in India's independence narrative, and the victims' tribal status may have condemned them to a historical footnote.

Tribal people are outside Hinduism's caste system and many are still deeply poverty-stricken, living on the margins of society.

"Tribals are at the bottom of Indian social pyramid," said Vaghela. "Had something like that happened anywhere else, it would have been highlighted by the mainstream press and politicians for a long time."

And for some, the time has come to move on.

Veteran journalist Vishnu Pandya, author of a Gujarati-language book on revolutionary places in the state, has collected many oral accounts of the killings from the tribal community, where he says the incident is detailed in multiple folk songs.

"The British PM who is coming here wasn't even born at the time and he wouldn't know anything about the incident," he said.

"What is done is done, it's history and we need to look ahead."

bb/slb/dva/je

Cannabis '420' festival brings scent of freedom - and dollars - to Denver





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People dance and smoke during the Mile High 420 Festival in Denver, Colorado on April 20, 2022 (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON)

Laurent BANGUET
Wed, April 20, 2022

Tens of thousands of cannabis enthusiasts gathered in Denver on Wednesday to celebrate the ever-widening US legalization of recreational weed with plumes of pungent smoke, music... and a few grumblings about commercialization.

April 20 has become the national holiday for pot in the United States, as the date corresponds with the "420" slang name for marijuana.

In particular, Colorado's capital has become a magnet for enthusiasts, since the western US state became the country's first to vote to legalize recreational cannabis a decade ago.

They gathered for festivities on Wednesday afternoon in a park overlooked by the windows of the local Capitol building, where protests to push for decriminalization of marijuana sparked up in the 1990s.

Among the first to arrive at the Mile High 420 Festival -- billed as the world's largest free gathering of its kind -- was Michael Farwell, proudly carrying a giant oversized joint measuring around 15 inches (40 cm) long, thick as a chair leg.

"It's the biggest joint I've ever smoked -- or I'm about to smoke!" said the 25-year-old.

"It's like a six ounce joint, six-and-a-half-ounce joint... I don't know," he added, estimating the blunt had cost around $800 and took more than an hour to roll with the help of two friends.

Farwell made the pilgrimage from the East Coast state of Delaware, where cannabis is currently allowed only for medical use.

"It's my favorite day of the year. It's better than Christmas!" he said.

A cloud rises over people smoking pot as the clock strikes 4:20 pm 

during the Mile High 420 Festival in Denver, Colorado on April 20, 2022 

- Green gold and greenbacks -

Since Colorado green-lighted recreational cannabis, eighteen of the 50 US states, plus the capital Washington, have followed suit.

But it remains illegal at a federal level. And even in Colorado, the law technically still prohibits the smoking of marijuana in public places.

Still, festival attendees know that in reality they have little to fear from authorities, and made no effort to hide their favorite pastime.

Legal cannabis sales last year in Colorado -- a state of fewer than six million people -- reached $2.2 billion 

It is a long way from the more clandestine origins of this day, said Miguel Lopez, a pro-legalization activist and co-founder of the "420 Festival."

Back in 1995, activists gathered for "smoke-ins" in protest at the capitol, but had to watch out for police intervention or risk arrest.

Much has changed since then, and legalization went into effect in Colorado in 2014.

But Lopez complained that the festival and the wider legalized marijuana industry have taken a highly commercial turn.

"The message was strong about, you know, we want to legalize, but not at the discretion of legislators who want to just make money," he said.

The veteran activist pointed out that legal cannabis sales last year in Colorado -- a state of fewer than six million people -- reached $2.2 billion.

With that translating to $423 million in tax revenue in the state's coffers, in addition to indirect benefits such as tourism, it is little surprise that local officials now support the "420" movement.

"The grassroots didn't want it this way. The industry wants it. It's really overregulated, it's overtaxed," said Lopez.

"It really hasn't really freed up people, but it's just made another opportunity for people to come and profit, like oil and gas."

Lopez, a previous organizer of the festival, was recently ousted by a chain of specialty cannabis stores that have partially rebranded the event.

Since Colorado green-lighted recreational cannabis, eighteen of the 50 US states, plus the capital Washington, have followed suit 

- 'Freedom' -

Still, for Tammy Herndon, this day in the park with a joint in her mouth has a taste of freedom.

She lives in the conservative state of Georgia, where cannabis -- even for medical purposes -- remains illegal.

Hendon, 54, suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, a painful condition that some studies have shown can be relieved by cannabis.

A former Navy veteran, she travelled almost 2,000 miles to attend the festival.

"It was on my bucket list of things to do," she said.

"Georgia is Bible Belt, so there's no chance you'll ever be able to have the freedom to smoke there."

"I'm a disabled veteran. I'm retired from the Navy. If I like to smoke a joint and relax, I should be able to celebrate that."

ban/amz/bfm

PHOTOS AFP/Patrick T. FALLON

BASTURDS

Australia Says Will Not Challenge Julian Assange Extradition After UK Court Formally Issues Order


News18 - 1h ago

Australia will not challenge Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States and has confidence in the British judicial system, a senior government minister said Thursday.

A British court issued a formal order Wednesday for the Australian national to be extradited to the United States, where he would face trial for the publication of a trove of secret files relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

“We have confidence in the independence and integrity of the British justice system,” Australian Senator Simon Birmingham told the national broadcaster ABC Thursday.

Australia’s government was not arguing against the extradition, he said.

“This is a process that will be able to continue to work through that system,” said Birmingham, who is Australia’s finance minister.

Following the British court’s order, Assange’s lawyers have until May 18 to make submissions to Britain’s interior minister Priti Patel, with whom the final decision about his extradition rests.

Birmingham noted that Assange’s right of appeal remained — he can seek appeal to the High Court — and said Australia would continue to provide consular assistance to its jailed citizen.

A coalition of 25 human rights groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders — has challenged Assange’s extradition saying it poses a “grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad”.

The Australian has been fighting to avoid extradition for more than a decade, dramatically taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges.

He has been held in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 for skipping bail on the Swedish charges, which were dropped in 2020.

WEEP  O' PALESTINE
Orphaned Palestinians mourn unarmed mother shot by Israeli soldier


Houria Sabatien, whose daughter Ghada was shot by an Israeli soldier on April 10, mourns with her grandchild


Jamila and her brother Omar were also orphaned 

Omar displays a picture of his mother on a phone 


Houria wants the orphans to grow up without hatred in their hearts, despite the killing of their mother 
Orphaned Palestinians mourn unarmed mother shot by Israeli soldier

Houria with her grandchildren (L to R) Moustafa, Jamila, Omar and Mohammed

 PHOTOS AFP/HAZEM BADER

Guillaume Lavallée
Wed, 20 April 2022,

When Ghada Sabatien set out to visit her uncle in a village near Bethlehem, she was not expecting to be caught up in the spike in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the unarmed 45-year-old, who was partially sighted and understood little Hebrew, bled to death in the street after "mistakenly" being shot by an Israeli soldier.

She leaves behind six orphans.

The West Bank village of Husan is usually a quiet backwater, despite being close to a major crossing into Israel.

The shops have signs in both Arabic and Hebrew, and even Israeli settlers regularly stop there to buy groceries, with few tensions.

At the entrance to the village, Israeli soldiers sit guard on a concrete island that serves as a checkpoint.

On April 10, Ghada set out to visit her uncle, wearing a hijab and long gown.

On the way back, the walk took her past the makeshift checkpoint.

As she approached, a soldier fired warning shots and shouted.

Ghada has "eye problems", her family said, adding that she did not speak Hebrew as she had spent years abroad.

In footage caught by a Palestinian TV crew that happened to be filming nearby, she appeared to panic.

But she kept walking. The soldier opened fire at her legs, and she fell to the floor.

It took several minutes for an ambulance to arrive. By the time she reached a hospital in the nearby town of Beit Jala, she had lost catastrophic amounts of blood.

She died in the hospital.

-'She cannot be replaced'-

Ghada was not wearing an explosive vest or carrying any kind of weapon.

Her family have been in shock and anger ever since she was killed.

"My sister went there and asked a soldier in Hebrew: 'Did she do anything wrong?'," Ghada's mother Houria Sabatien, 69, told AFP.

"He answered: 'No'. 'So why did you shoot at her?' she asked. The soldier said: 'Sorry'."

Around her sat her grandchildren, four of Ghada's orphans: Omar, Jamila, Mohammed and Moustafa, their eyes glued to the floor.

"They've become orphans. And me, I'm old, I'm afraid for them when they go out, I'm afraid for them because of the army," Houria said.

"I would like to feed them and show them life. But I'm afraid for their future."

Moustafa, 15, is struggling to comprehend the tragedy.

"When I lost my mother, it was as if life no longer had any meaning. She was the one who woke us up in the morning, she was the one who welcomed us back from school, she was the one who took care of us," he said.

"She was everything, she cannot be replaced."

He reminisced about Ghada's delicious maqloubeh, a Palestinian dish of rice and meat, and how she would help with his mathematics homework.

"She made me understand straight away," he said.

-'Mistake'-

Born into a family of scientists, Ghada Sabatien graduated with a degree in mathematics at Bethlehem University and spent 15 years in Jordan, where she was a teacher.

After her husband died four years ago, Ghada returned to Husan with the children.

She prepared meals, helped with homework, read the Koran, visited extended family members, and occasionally gave private lessons.

"She was an independent, peaceful, educated woman who was not interested in politics at all," says Rafat, her brother.

He said he had received an apology from the Israeli army for their "mistake".

AFP approached the army for comment on Ghada's killing.

It said she had run "suspiciously" towards the checkpoint and that soldiers had fired at her legs.

"The suspect received initial medical treatment by IDF soldiers at the scene," it said.

"The circumstances of the case are being reviewed."

The tragedy sparked anger, both among Palestinians and overseas.

In a rare move, Washington's envoy to the Palestinians, George Noll, called the family to express his condolences.

The Husan area saw a spike in night-time protests. One young man, Qusay Hamamra, was killed by Israeli forces after throwing a Molotov cocktail at them.

But Houria said she would teach Ghada's children a different path.

"If we want to fight against Israel, we must do it through education, culture (...) we cannot stay in hatred," she said.

"If I love Ghada, I must teach this to her children."

gl/par/jsa/dwo

CARBON CAPTURE IS GREENWASHING

Companies used carbon credits created in oil extraction projects

Process to tap inaccessible deposits employs captured carbon, enabled offsets.

CAMILLA HODGSON,

 FINANCIAL TIMES

- 4/18/2022

The sun sets beyond an oil pumping unit, also known as a pumping jack, at a drilling site operated by Tatneft OAO near Almetyevsk, Russia.
Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Daimler Trucks, eBay, and a US energy company were among the recent buyers of carbon offsets created by projects that involved injecting carbon dioxide underground in order to extract more oil.

Three US-based extraction projects were eligible to generate credits because their processes involved the capture of CO2. But this was used as a way to extract fresh oil that would otherwise have been inaccessible, a procedure known as “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR).

The offsetting rules that the credits were created under ignored the emissions associated with the extracted oil.

Nearly 3 million credits from the three projects, which cannot generate new offsets following a rule change, have been used by buyers to compensate for carbon emissions. Each offset is supposed to represent a ton of carbon that has been permanently avoided or removed from the atmosphere.

“Offsetting emissions with these credits is complete nonsense,” said Gilles Dufrasne, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch. “If the captured carbon enables an increase in oil extraction, then obviously this must be part of the calculation and would likely negate any supposed climate benefits.”

Stuart Haszeldine, professor of carbon capture and storage (CCS) at Edinburgh University, said that in the US it had “never been accepted that the extra oil produced [by the EOR process] has a carbon footprint.”

Offsets are very widely used by companies to mitigate their carbon emissions. They are generated by environmental projects such as tree-planting, with money from the sale of the credits used for funding.

Between 2000 and 2008, under now-defunct offsetting rules, the three US EOR projects generated a combined 12.4 million offsets. Although the schemes can no longer generate new credits, companies can still buy those created before the change.

One of the three schemes was developed by US oil and gas company Merit Energy and the offsets seller Blue Source. The project used carbon that had been captured from an ExxonMobil facility for oil extraction.

In March, DJR Operating, another US oil and gas group, used 150,000 offsets from the Merit project. Canadian power generator TransAlta also used 376,000 of these credits in 2015, while eBay bought 1,700 between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the American Carbon Registry.

Ebay said it “did not include [the offsets] in our carbon neutrality achievement for 2021.” TransAlta declined to comment, and DJR did not respond.

Customers of third-party offsets seller Terrapass, including Daimler Trucks, have used 73,000 credits from the three legacy schemes since 2020.

Terrapass said its customers had “supported dozens of renewable energy and greenhouse gas destruction projects.” Daimler Trucks said the credits had conformed to the “strict protocols” governing offsets when generated.

In April, a landmark UN report on climate change said it would be essential to remove carbon from the atmosphere to limit warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels. Experts stressed that CCS should be used by sectors such as cement and steelmaking, where absolute emissions are unlikely ever to reach zero.

Proponents of EOR say the process provides a market for captured carbon emissions and will help accelerate the development of carbon capture technology.

Merit Energy and Blue Source did not respond to requests for comment.

THE REALITY IS THAT CCS IS NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN IT IS GOING TO BE USED TO FRACK OLD DRY WELLS SUCH AS IN THE BAKAN SHIELD IN SASKATCHEWAN
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CCS

 

Third dust storm in two weeks sweeps through Iraq


© AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

AFP

Iraq was hit Wednesday by its third heavy dust storm in two weeks, temporarily grounding flights at Baghdad and Najaf airports, as the weather phenomenon grows increasingly frequent.

The air in Baghdad was thick with a heavy sheet of grey and orange dust, while the state news agency INA cited the meteorological office as saying the latest storm was expected to lift on Thursday.

Flights were suspended at Baghdad International Airport due to poor visibility.

The airport serving the Shiite holy city of Najaf to the south also released a statement announcing flights were grounded.

Two dust storms struck the country earlier in April, leaving dozens hospitalised with respiratory problems and temporarily grounding flights at a number of airports.

"The dust is affecting the whole country but particularly central and southern regions," Amer al-Jabri, an official at Iraq's meteorological office, told AFP.

"Iraq is facing climatic upheaval and is suffering from a lack of rain, desertification and the absence of green belts" around cities, he said.

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20-percent drop in water resources by 2050 due to climate change.

In early April, environment ministry official Issa al-Fayad had warned that Iraq could face "272 days of dust" a year in coming decades, according to the state news agency INA.

The ministry said the weather phenomenon could be confronted by "increasing vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks".

Related video: Dust storm hits the Iraqi capital of Baghdad (AFP)

Ramos-Horta wins East Timor presidential election: officials


Jose Ramos-Horta has won East Timor's presidential election in a landslide 

(AFP/VALENTINO DARIEL SOUSA)


Wed, April 20, 2022, 

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta scored a landslide victory in East Timor's presidential election, according to preliminary results published Wednesday by the election secretariat.

The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09 percent, against incumbent Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres' 242,440, or 37.91 percent, the secretariat's website showed after all ballots were counted.

"The count of the district, national and regional vote has been completed", said Acilino Manuel Branco, general director of the election secretariat.

The election results still need to be validated by the country's electoral commission.

The victory gives Ramos-Horta his second term in office. He served as president of Southeast Asia's youngest country from 2007 to 2012 and was also the country's first prime minister.

"The elections were competitive, and the campaign was largely peaceful," EU observer Domenec Ruiz Devesa said Wednesday, adding the counting process had been assessed "positively".

Ramos-Horta will be inaugurated on May 20 -- the 20th anniversary of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, which occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years.

He had pledged to use his five-year term to break a longstanding deadlock between the two main political parties.

The election could trigger a period of uncertainty, as Ramos-Horta has previously indicated he might dissolve the parliament if he won the election.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called Ramos-Horta on Wednesday to convey "the warmest congratulations on the election as President of the Republic of Timor-Leste", according to a press release from the presidency.

Nearly 860,000 people in the tiny nation of 1.3 million were eligible to vote, and more than 75 percent of voters turned up to cast their ballots in the second round.

- Re-match -

This week's vote was a rematch of the 2007 presidential poll that also saw Ramos-Horta win handily, with 69 percent of the votes.

Ramos-Horta said he came out of retirement to run once more because he believed the outgoing president had violated the constitution.

Ramos-Horta was dominant in the election's March 19 first round, winning 46 percent of votes versus Guterres' 22 percent, but failed to secure the needed majority.

The Nobel laureate benefited from the backing of Xanana Gusmao, the country's first president and current leader of the National Congress of the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT), often a kingmaker in East Timor.

Ramos-Horta was awarded a Nobel prize for peace in 1996 for his efforts in facilitating conflict resolution in the country. In 2008, he survived an assassination attempt.

The new president faces the daunting task of lifting the country out of poverty.

East Timor is still reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the World Bank has said that 42 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

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