Workers toil under blistering sun in Bangladesh’s tea gardens, once famous for cool weather

Hotter temperatures, meanwhile, threaten not just Bangladesh’s tea workers but the tea plants themselves, say researchers.

Mosabber Hossain,

 Thomson Reuters Foundation
June 13,2023

A tea plantation near Srimangal in Sylhet division. | 

Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Phul Kumari has picked tea in northeastern Bangladesh for three decades, but the 45-year-old says she has never experienced heat and drought like that during this harvest season.

“It’s too hot and I can’t continue working,” she said, as she took a break for water at the tea estate where she labours in Sreemangal, south of the city of Sylhet.

“I feel like I’m standing ... beside the cooker in the kitchen,” she said. “I’ve never seen this situation in my entire life.”

Sreemangal, Bangladesh’s tea capital, traditionally has the highest rainfall in the country and temperatures that, while close to 30 degrees Celsius in the summer, feel milder because of the cooling rain.

But in recent years, as the planet heats up, temperatures have been rising, hitting a sweltering 39 degrees Celsius in Sreemangal in May. Worse still, rainfall that month was half of the usual levels.

That is slashing the region’s tea harvest – which is expected to be halved compared to last year – and driving away the tourists who normally throng to the hilly region to see its rainforests, lakes and picturesque tea gardens.

Around the world, worsening heatwaves fuelled by climate change are proving increasingly costly for businesses and their workers, raising questions about how economies and the people who depend on them will cope, especially as continued fossil fuel use further heats the planet.

Kazi Shamsul Haque, general secretary of the Sreemangal Tourism Service Organisation, said this season even 60% discounts were failing to pull in tourists scared away by the heat and drought, something he called “a great loss for us”.

“Rainy season is the peak time for Sreemangal tourism,” including the 60 resorts in the area, he said. “But this time tourists are not coming.”

“We have heard about climate change many times and now we can see the impact in our area,” he said.

Havoc on workers, harvest

Perhaps hardest hit by the worsening drought and heat, however, are the legions of tea workers in the normally mild region, which was first planted to tea gardens during British colonial rule.

Mini Hazra, a tea picker at Barawura, one of the area’s tea plantations, said she could normally pick 50kg-60 kg of leaves a day, but this year could manage only 15 kg a day before having to stop work, which has affected her income.

“After working in the heat, I feel like my skin is getting burned and I can’t stop it even using water,” she said. The heat left her so tired, she added, that she struggled to get her own household chores done at home after arriving exhausted from work.

She cannot remember tea picking conditions ever being so difficult. “It was not the same before. Due to enough rain we could work easily in the summer,” she said.

Hotter temperatures, meanwhile, threaten not just Bangladesh’s tea workers but the tea plants themselves, researchers say.

Md Abdul Aziz, principal scientific officer at the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute, said tea grows best at temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius, but that plants can typically continue producing sufficient leaves up to about 29 degrees Celsius.

Credt: Khurshid Alam via Pixabay

However, as temperature peaks continue to creep up each year – from 36 degrees Celsius and 37 degrees Celsius in the last two years to 39 degrees Celsius this year – “all the dimensions ... are exceeded,” he said, with production now falling.

Romij Uddin, an agronomy professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University, said higher temperatures are also leading to worsening pest problems, particularly with red spider mites, which damage leaves and require pesticide applications to control.

With tea bushes facing high temperatures, a lack of rain, and pests, “new leaves of tea are not coming,” he said.

Rony Bhowmick, manager of the Sreemangal Clonal tea garden, said the harvest there this time of year is normally 4,500 kg of tea leaves a day – but this year it has fallen to about 2,500 kg, a decline of nearly 45% .

The Bangladesh Tea Board, which oversees production in the country, believes this year’s national harvest will also suffer.

“We are predicting the production will decline due to hot temperatures. For the last few years the temperature has been rising but this year it is worse,” said Muhammad Madhul Kabir Chowdhury, the board’s deputy director for trade.

Because most of Bangladesh’s tea is consumed at home, the fall in production is not expected to affect world markets.

Staying hydrated

Faced with rising heat – a problem likely to worsen in future years as climate-changing emissions continue to rise – tea growers say there is little they can do to adapt beyond ensuring workers are offered more drinking water, rest and rehydration salts.

Tea pickers who once paused only for a drink provided by plantation authorities at noon say they now often carry pots of water with them to try to stay hydrated more frequently as they work in hot conditions.

Kazi Kamrul Hayder, a secondary school student and climate change activist at Sreemangal Government College, said reducing carbon emissions globally – and planting more trees – was the way to “save our area”.

But Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, said that Bangladesh must also do much more now to prepare for and adapt to fast-rising temperatures.

“High temperatures are one of the climate change impacts that Bangladesh is not used to and must learn to cope with urgently,” he said.

“The exact impacts will be unpredictable – but it is certain that unusually high temperatures will become the norm going forward.”

This article first appeared on Context, powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Myanmar's young pro-democracy activists fill up prisons

Justin Higginbottom in Mae Sot

DW

June 13,2023

Thousands of political activists have been imprisoned in Myanmar over the years. The often overcrowded conditions and human rights abuses have now been documented by a museum in neighboring Thailand. DW takes a look.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners works to shed light on human rights abuses using sources in Myanmar

Police in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, came for Min Thwe Thit before dawn on February 1, 2021. He didn't know why they had come — or what was unfolding in the Southeast Asian nation.

Min Thwe Thit has worked in pro-democracy movements since he was 17, eventually becoming a leader in the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.

Now he's 40 years old and wears a T-shirt emblazoned with an image of Che Guevara.

Speaking from a sparse safe house in neighboring Thailand, he recalled that day in 2021 during which his interrogators put a black bag over his head and kept him awake without water for days.

They had brought with them an extensive dossier of his activism, which had landed him two stints in prison.

Eventually he found out what had happened. On the day of his arrest, Myanmar's military had overthrown the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power in a coup.

He was one of the first victims in a new era of brutal political repression.

A former political prisoner from Myanmar points to a picture showing tortuous poses guards forced inmates to perform

A look inside Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison

Over the last two years, Myanmar's ruling junta has locked away, tortured and killed those suspected of challenging their rule.

At least 13,000 political prisoners are currently behind bars in the country, according to the UN.

Although observers say their conditions have never been worse, the repression is familiar to generations of Burmese dissidents.

At a small museum run by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Mae Sot, Thailand, near the Myanmar border, a tour guide calling himself Kyaw Win stands inside a mock jail.

The two-by-two meter cell was made to resemble where he stayed, with three other inmates, for six years.

"Maximum one hour a day we are out of the cell," said Kyaw Win. "So we have a lot of time to spend."

His crime was making political posters as a chemistry student in 1992.
Languishing behind bars

In the sweltering cell there was just a bucket for a toilet. Their food was often a watery vegetable broth and whatever insects made it into the pot. Inmates were packed so tightly in cells, there was hardly room to sleep.

"They said, 'When you are alive, you have to get out of the prison through the main gate — the front gate. If you're dead, your dead body will go through the back gate,'" Kyaw Win said.

A tabletop model of Insein Prison in Yangon shows where Kyaw Win was imprisoned

Colonial British rulers built Insein Prison in the 19th century. Over the years, Myanmar's military filled it with dissidents like Kyaw Win who — despite beatings — eventually made it out through its front gate.

As visitors move clockwise around the modest museum, panels outline the country's history of uprisings and crackdowns.

It starts in 1962, after Myanmar's first coup. When students at Rangoon University protested, authorities bombed their school and killed hundreds.

There's the 1974 student demonstrations and the well-known 1988 uprising. From 1996 and 1998, there are pictures of bloody streets and crumpled bodies. In 2007, Buddhist monks led the so-called Saffron revolution.

"At the time, we had a lack of resources to get the information about the monks and also the people who were arrested in that revolution," Kyaw Win said. He thinks hundreds were detained.

Documenting Myanmar's uprising

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners works to shed light on human rights abuses using sources still in the country.

"We have more cases of people who were tortured to death during the interrogation," said Aung Myo Min, human rights minister for the National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government set up by deposed parliamentarians and civil society groups to oppose the military junta.

The prison food was often a watery vegetable broth and whatever insects made it into the pot

Before the coup, the museum in Mae Sot had only one photo of a prisoner executed by the military. Now there are five. More will come.

There is now a wall in the museum dedicated to the current uprising, replete with photos of burned villages and charred bodies.

"We knew we were fighting in this revolution not only for the future but also for the past," said said Neo, 32, a doctor who fled Myanmar after the coup.

"Seeing the history and reality of these conditions make us sympathize more for our comrades and make us more motivated for our cause. We must free them and we won't let the junta go unpunished."

There are hundreds of pictures of civilians killed by the military. The faces — nearly all young — have gazes fixed across the room at the museum's first display, into the eyes of those university students killed in 1962.

"We protest peacefully against the military regime in every uprising. But they crack down brutally," said Kyaw Win.

He's given this tour many times. It was hard at first, reliving the worst period in his life. But he admits it has also helped him.

"It's also a part of my healing process," he said.

Min Thwe Thit, the student leader picked up on the day of the coup, is handling freedom in his own way. While in prison he promised his fellow inmates to help their families financially if he got out.

He did get out, completing a year-long sentence for what he calls a trumped-up charge. Now he raises money to send to inmate's families — around 100 people per month.

He can't give them much. But he hopes it's enough to keep them afloat — until their loved ones are released or Myanmar is free.

Edited by: Keith Walker

Images: Soe

 

Alaska salmon task force charged with developing science plan

By

 Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon

 -

12 June 2023

Salmon dries on a traditional rack on the beach in the Seward Peninsula village of Teller on Sept. 2, 2021. Salmon is a dietary staple for Indigenous residents of Western Alaska, and poor runs have created hardship. A new Alaska salmon task force mandated by federal law is now appointed and charged with producing a science plan within a year. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Federal and state leaders have appointed 19 experts to a special task force responsible for creating a science plan to better understand Alaska’s salmon, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service announced on Friday. Task force members must address sustainable management and a response to the recent crashes in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

The group was chosen in accordance with the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force Act that passed and was signed into law late last year. The law calls for most members to be appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with Alaska’s governor, and one to be appointed directly by the governor.

Task force members represent subsistence users, the fishing industry, supporting supply-chain businesses and the academic community, NOAA Fisheries said in its statement. According to the law, NOAA, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and U.S. representatives of the Pacific Salmon Commission are represented. The law also requires Indigenous representation on the task force.

“The work of the Alaska Salmon Research Task [Force] is critically important,” Robert Foy, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said in the agency’s statement. “We are grateful to the individuals who have agreed to serve as task force members and share their knowledge and expertise to develop a roadmap of where to go next with research to best understand and respond to the unprecedented changes in Alaska salmon runs.”

Western Alaska communities have endured recent years of record-low or near-record low runs of Chinook and chum salmon, two of Alaska’s five salmon species that are dietary and cultural staples for Indigenous communities.

Salmon are seen migrating in southwestern Alaska’s Togiak National Wildlife Refuge on Dec. 7, 2011. (Photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Bleak conditions continue this year. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game last month announced a full closure of Chinook salmon fishing in the Yukon River, even for subsistence purposes, and the department’s present forecast predicts that runs of all salmon species in the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers will be too low this year to support any commercial harvests.

The task force is responsible for producing a coordinated science plan within a year. It is also responsible for identifying knowledge gaps andin? research needs, setting up a work group to focus specifically on the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers and finding ways to support sustainable salmon management, NOAA Fisheries said.

Federal appointees are Andrew Munro of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Ed Farley of NOAA Fisheries, Bill Templin of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Andy Piston of the Pacific States Salmon Commission.

Subsistence users are represented by members Oscar Evon of the Native Village of Kwigillingok, Jacob Ivanoff of the Native Village of Unalakleet, Karla Jensen of the Native Village of Pedro Bay, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Subsistence Director Caroline Brown and Justin Leon of the Alaska Native American Fish and Wildlife Society.

The fishing industry is represented by Michelle Stratton of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council/Commercial Salmon Fisherman, charter-boat fisherman Mike Flores, Austin Eastbrooks of the At-Sea Processors Association, commercial fisherman Tom Carpenter and Steve Reifenstuhl with the aquaculture industry.

The academic community is represented by Megan McPhee of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Megan Williams of the Ocean Conservancy and UAF, Noelle Yochum of Alaska Pacific University and Katie Howard of Alaska Pacific University and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

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Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on Facebook and Twitter. 

 

Norway Aims to Open Arctic Waters to Deep-Sea Mining

By

 Malte Humpert, High North News

 -

13 June 2023

Polymetallic nodules in the Pacific. (Source: ROV-Team, GEOMAR, CC BY 4.0)

Norway may soon open waters in the Arctic and sub-Arctic to sea floor mining. The growing demand for important minerals, including copper and nickel, may require this new type of mining, the Norwegian government says.

Norway is looking to open an area roughly the size of Germany to deep-sea mining. The proposed area reaches roughly from the latitude of Bodø and the Norwegian Sea to Svalbard in the Barents Sea. The water depth in the proposed area is up to 4,000m deep.

The Norwegian government intends to submit plans to the country’s parliament about the opening in the coming weeks. In related proceedings the International Seabed Authority, operating under the auspices of the United Nations, is also currently working on rules for seafloor mining, with initial regulations expected next month.

The seafloor in Norway’s proposed mining area is rich in polymetallic nodules, containing high concentrations of copper, nickel, cobalt and other sought-after metals. Norway argues that these materials, commonly used in batteries and electric vehicles, are critical to a successful energy transition.

Unknown environmental impact

Norway’s government, including its prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor), state that subsea mining can be conducted without impact on ocean life. Environmentalists, however, caution that the deep seas remain some of the least explored and understood zones of the planet.

This lack of knowledge does not allow for comprehensive assessments of the impact of deep-sea mining, environmentalists say. Removing the metallic nodules from the sea floor could quickly and irreversibly destroy the habitat for known as well as unknown species.

“Such activities are going to happen anyhow.”

Troy Bouffard, ​​Director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at University of Alaska Fairbanks

Earlier this year scientists found more than 5,000 species in the deep seas in the Pacific.

And just last week the European Academy of Sciences warned of the catastrophic consequences of deep sea mining and called for a moratorium on the practice. Rather than exploiting new deposits of key minerals in the world’s oceans, they suggest that improvements in recycling rates and onshore deposits can fill the growing need.

The scientists also warn that mining would release large quantities of sediment disturbing sea floors which took thousands of years to develop.

Need for strategic resources

In addition to potential habitat loss, the government’s proposal will likely also see opposition from Norway’s fishing operators, who rely heavily on the waters surrounding the archipelago.

Apart from the need to balance the demand for critical metals for the energy transition and environmental protection, geopolitical factors are also part of the equation.

Norway’s mining rights to the sea floor around Svalbard arise out of the Svalbard Treaty. Other signatories, including EU countries, the US and most importantly Russia can also lay claim to a portion of the waters surrounding the archipelago.

With expected shortages for minerals like copper and nickel in the coming decades, more countries may begin to look for them in new places, like the Arctic sea floor.

Norway could lead the way

Troy Bouffard is Director of the Center of Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He is a.o. an instructor with the UAF Homeland Security and Emergency Management Program. (Photo: UAF).

Norway could well become one of the first, or possibly the first, country to engage in seafloor mining and demonstrate its feasibility. Supporters of the country’s initiative say that the country’s track-record when it comes to responsibly exploiting natural resources, makes it a good candidate to open the door to this new industry.

“Such activities are going to happen anyhow, and Norway is the right nation to demonstrate how to do it right,” says Troy Bouffard, ​​Director of the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Norway’s nearly-perfect track record with offshore oil production serves as a good example, Bouffard continued.

“Norway employs a performance-based regulatory regime approach, versus prescriptive-based. No other nation uses this approach, largely because it takes effective national labor laws and frameworks to enable it.”

Norway’s leadership role providing resources, training, and education to other nations, including Russia, is also key to shaping the sector. This holds especially true in the Barents Sea, which is “critical to both Norway and Russia.”

“Norway has an excellent oil production record and consistently demonstrates strong Arctic maritime environmental stewardship through a performance-based regulatory regime and is in the best position to show the world how to mine the seabed responsibly,” Bouffard concluded.

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High North News is an independent newspaper published by the High North Center at the Nord University. High North News is not responsible for the content or opinions expressed on external web pages.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for DEEP SEA MINING 

Spiky creature lurking under boulders in dark India forest discovered as new species

Aspen Pflughoeft
Tue, June 13, 2023 

Walking through boulders scattered around the hills of southern India, scientists scanned their surroundings. As dusk fell, they began to notice dozens of “large” creatures emerging from the rocks.

Looking closer at the animals, they made an exciting discovery: a new species.

Researchers set out to explore a southern portion of the Eastern Ghats mountain range, according to a study published May 23 in the journal Vertebrate Zoology. They’d seen reports of an unknown reptile living in the area and set out to find the animal.

Lurking under boulders, the lizards appeared only as the sky darkened, the study said. Researchers captured five animals and soon realized they’d discovered a new gecko species.

The new species was named Hemidactylus pakkamalaiensis, or the Pakkamalai rock gecko, after the hill where it was discovered, researchers said. The “large” gecko reaches about 8 inches in size, with females slightly smaller than males. It has a “dull-brown” coloring with darker brown bands or blotches across its back.

Photos show how well the Pakkamalai rock gecko blends in with the rocks. Spikes run along its sides, giving the lizard a bumpy texture. Its brown eyes appear iridescent and shiny.

Photos show two Pakkamalai rock geckos, or Hemidactylus pakkamalaiensis, perched on boulders.

The Pakkamalai rock gecko is a nocturnal, rock-dwelling lizard, the study said. The gecko inhabits granite boulders in a variety of forested or jungle habitats. It is “locally abundant” with researchers finding 56 Pakkamalai rock geckos in four days.

The new species was previously misidentified and grouped with another gecko species before it had been formally studied, researchers said.

The new gecko species was identified as morphologically and genetically distinct from other related geckos, the study said. Researchers identified it by the glands on its underside, spikes along its sides and scales along its back.

DNA analysis found the new species had between 5.6% and 10.3% genetic divergence from other known species, the study said.

Researchers noted the Pakkamalai hill and the surrounding Gingee Hills are “unique” in providing “a suitable micro-habitat for rock-dwelling geckos.” The surrounding area likely has more gecko species for researchers to discover.

The research team included Surya Narayanan, Peter Christopher, Kothandapani Raman, Nilanjan Mukherjee, Ponmudi Prabhu, Maniezhilan Lenin, Sivangnanaboopathidoss Vimalraj and V. Deepak.

Pakkamalai Hill in Viluppuram, Tamil Nadu, is about 1,400 miles southeast of New Delhi.

Explainer: Russia's plan to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus

By Guy Faulconbridge

June 13, 2023

 A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol, after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine June 9, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo


MOSCOW, June 13 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin in March announced a plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Moscow's first move of such warheads outside Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

What is known about the deployment?

WHAT DID PUTIN SAY?

Putin's nuclear deployment is a message to the West that he will not back down over the Ukraine war.

Putin made the announcement, almost as an afterthought, in an interview with state television Kremlin correspondent Pavel Zarubin that was first posted on Telegram on March 25.

Putin said the trigger for the decision to deploy in Belarus was an announcement by Britain that it would supply depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 13 that the United States is also set to approve depleted uranium tank rounds for Ukraine.

Belarus said the deployment was in answer to the West's "aggressive policy" and that it was aimed at forcing the West's leaders to think before escalating further.

WHAT WEAPONS WILL BE DEPLOYED AND WHERE?

Putin said that "tactical" nuclear weapons - so called as they are designed for battlefield use - would be sent to Belarus but did not say exactly which warheads would be deployed or where.

Putin said Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missiles, which can deliver nuclear warheads, had already been handed over to Belarus. Russian sources say the Iskander has a range of 500 km.

Putin also said 10 Belarusian aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. Belarus said Su-25 aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. The Sukhoi-25 jet has a range of up to 1,000 km, according to Russian sources.

The Federation of American Scientists has said the weapons could be based at Lida air base, just 40 km from the Lithuanian border.

WHEN?

Putin said Russia would finish the construction of a special storage facility in Belarus on July 7-8 and the weapons would be deployed soon afterwards.

Lukashenko has made different comments. He seemed to indicate last month that the weapons were already on the move while on June 13 he said the weapons would be deployed in "several days".

He has also said that there could be "nuclear weapons for everyone" who joined the Russia-Belarus union.

WHO CONTROLS THEM?

Putin said Russia would remain in control of the weapons just as the United States controls its own tactical nuclear weapons deployed in Europe.

The United States has had nuclear weapons deployed in Europe since the 1950s at NATO bases for possible use against the Soviet Union.

Putin has repeatedly raised concerns about the 200 U.S. B61 tactical nuclear warheads deployed at bases in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Turkey.

Those U.S. warheads are kept in vaults at air bases and the United States keeps the Permissive Action Link (PAL) codes used to arm the weapons.

Russia's nuclear weapons are controlled and transported by the 12th Main Directorate of the defence ministry (12th GUMO).

NUCLEAR RISKS?

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States went to enormous lengths to ensure that the Soviet nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were returned to Russia - which inherited the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

By putting nuclear weapons back in Belarus, Putin is showing that the architecture of post-Cold War nuclear arms control is crumbling.

WHAT IS THE US/NATO RESPONSE?

The United States has criticised Putin's nuclear deployment but has said it has no intention of altering its posture on strategic nuclear weapons and also that it has not seen any signs Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

"We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor any indications Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon," the State Department said on March 27. "But candidly, this announcement is one that we condemn."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on April 18 that Putin's move was irresponsible.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Macfie

French entrepreneur prevails in debate hailing China's system

CGTN

A French entrepreneur who has extensively studied China said the country's political system allows its people to enjoy freedom from want and freedom from fear, prevailing in a debate against the "superiority" of the American system.

A recent debate on the comparison between the political systems of China and the West, organized by an American institution, was held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Adrian Zenz, a self-proclaimed anti-China "scholar" who has been heavily promoted by U.S. political circles and Western media, engaged in a 150-minute debate with Arnaud Bertrand, a French entrepreneur and Twitter influencer.

Bertrand, based on his extensive evidence and personal experiences of working and living in China for many years, delivered a comprehensive lecture at the event.

Bertrand made it clear that political systems are incomparable. If it were possible to find one system suitable for all countries in the world, then a superior system would replace others, he said. He believed that China's system is suitable for the Chinese people, as it is a product of China's long and unique history.

Turning to the subject of what freedom truly means, Bertrand cited a famous speech by former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 about the "Four Freedoms," pointing out that Western societies are neglecting two of them: freedom from want and freedom from fear.

He contended that poverty is the antithesis of freedom. When a person lives in extreme poverty, they lose the freedom of choice and become slaves to the hardships of life.

Bertrand noted that 14 percent of the population in France live below the poverty line, and in Paris, hundreds of homeless people can be seen living in tents. In 2021, 20.3 million people in the United States were classified as deeply impoverished, accounting for 6.2 percent of the total population and 48.4 percent of the poor.

"Can we really say that these people are free?" Bertrand questioned. Even the harshest critics of China acknowledge the fact that China has achieved the largest scale of poverty reduction and the fastest speed of poverty alleviation in the world, he said, noting that the total investment made by China in poverty alleviation is equivalent to the amount the United States has spent in the past 20 years on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In terms of the freedom from fear, Bertrand posed a simple question: In the United States, can a person freely walk outside late at night without fear? He pointed out that the probability of becoming a victim of violent crime in America is 70 times higher than in China. He stated, "In my seven years in China, I have never witnessed or been a victim of any crime. It is a very, very safe country. This freedom from fear truly exists."

Bertrand then raised a more profound reflection on collective freedom. He mentioned that former French President Charles de Gaulle once proposed that the greatest freedom should be the sovereignty and independence of a state, which is the prerequisite for all other freedoms.

In this regard, China is undoubtedly the freest country in the world because it is not a vassal state of any country and does not engage in military alliances. Such a high degree of sovereignty allows China to focus on domestic affairs and have free rein over international matters, Bertrand said.

Bertrand compared freedom, stability, and prosperity, demonstrating that China's development not only benefits its own people but also makes positive contributions to global peace and development. In contrast, Adrian Zenz, who participated in a public debate for the first time, repeated the accusations about China that had been debunked multiple times, and failed to articulate the position assigned to him in the debate, which was to advocate for the superiority of the American system.

Offline voting after the debate showed a clear victory for Bertrand.

Japan conducts tests before dumping nuclear-contaminated wastewater into sea amid strong opposition

CGTN

South Korean fishermen stage a rally against the Japanese government's decision to release nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, June 12, 2023. /AP

The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on Monday began testing the newly constructed facilities built to discharge nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea, a plan vehemently opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant tests use fresh water instead of treated water, operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) said.

Plant workers examined pumps and emergency shutdown equipment at the newly constructed seaside facility, which will dilute the radioactive water with large amounts of seawater. The diluted water then enters an undersea tunnel and is released into the ocean about 1 kilometer from the coast.

The undersea tunnel and other key facilities are near completion. TEPCO says the voluntary tests are expected to continue for about two weeks ahead of mandatory pre-operation checks to be conducted by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, possibly in early July.

In April 2021, Japan's government announced plans to gradually release the nuclear wastewater after diluting it to what it says are safe levels. Japanese officials say the water, currently stored in about a thousand tanks at the plant, needs to be removed to prevent accidental leaks in case of an earthquake and make room for the plant's decommissioning.

Strong opposition

The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing communities concerned about safety and damaging their reputation. Nearby countries, including South Korea, China and Pacific Island nations, have also raised safety concerns.

China has repeatedly urged Japan to take the legitimate concerns of all parties seriously and not start dumping the radioactive wastewater into the sea without full consultation and consensus with stakeholders and relevant international organizations.

In South Korea, fishermen staged a rally against the plan to release radioactive water in front of the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday.

Fishing officials in Japan said they remain opposed to the plan when they met Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Saturday when he visited Fukushima and the neighboring prefectures of Ibaraki and Miyagi.

"We stand by our opposition," Tetsu Nozaki, head of the Fukushima prefectural fisheries association, told Nishimura. However, Nozaki said the association supports progress in the plant's decommissioning and hopes to continue the dialogue. "At the moment, our positions remain wide apart."

Nishimura told reporters that he hopes to gain an understanding of fishing communities while working to prevent damaging their reputation. Japan's government has set up a fund to promote Fukushima seafood and provide compensation in case sales fall due to safety concerns.

Japanese officials say the diluted water will be released into the ocean over decades, making it harmless to people and marine life. Japan has sought support from the International Atomic Energy Agency to gain credibility and ensure safety measures meet international standards.

Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to radionuclides is unknown and the release should be delayed.

A massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant's cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and releasing large amounts of radiation. The tanks storing the water are being used to cool the reactor cores and will reach their capacity in early 2024.

(With input from agencies)

 

Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline. Photo Credit: se.ua

Moscow Seeks To Use Ammonia Pipeline Blast To Pressure West On Ukraine – Analysis

 June 14, 2023  0 Comments

By Paul Goble and The Jamestown Foundation

Moscow and Kyiv have been trading barbs over who is to blame for the explosion on the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline on June 5, with the Russian side saying it was the work of Ukrainian “terrorists” and the Ukrainian side saying that it was the result of Russian shelling along the frontlines of Moscow’s

invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that what happened to the pipeline was the result of military action rather than another Russian terrorist attack, such as the destruction of the Kakhovka dam (Pravda.com.ua, June 6; T.me/holodmedia, June 7; T.me/mod_russia_en, June 7; Politnavigator.net, June 8). The preponderance of evidence strongly suggests that Russia is to blame for this attack precisely to put additional pressure on the West to force Kyiv to concede to Moscow’s demands about a much wider range of issues—just as it has done throughout negotiations about the agreements allowing Ukrainian grain to be sold abroad (see EDM September 13, 2022; Mind.ua, May 12).

No ammonia has flowed through the pipeline since the expanded Russian invasion began in February 2022, and, given that Moscow has insisted that the flow must resume if the export of Ukrainian grain is to continue, Russia had everything to gain by attacking the pipeline to use it as leverage, whereas Ukraine had nothing to gain and much to lose. Thus far, this Russian effort has failed; however, the Russian authorities and propaganda outlets are certain to continue to push the Kremlin’s version and demands in the hope of shifting Western public opinion against Ukraine.

While oil and gas pipelines invariably attract more attention, the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline is important for Moscow. The pipeline, completed in 1981, extends from the Russian city of Togliatti to Odesa and two other Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his expanded invasion of Ukraine, it carried some 2.5 million tons of ammonia, a key component for fertilizers, each year and earned Moscow upward of $2.4 billion annually.

But when the Russian attack began, Kyiv suspended the operation of the pipeline, and it has carried no ammonia since. Moscow has tried to compensate by developing port facilities in Novorossiysk, but these have become problematic given the shoreline there and the inability to export ammonia through the Baltic countries—a move that Western sanctions have effectively blocked. Over the past year, the Russian government has sought to link other issues that the West and Ukraine care about to reopen the pipeline. The most important of these links has involved the United Nations–brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allows Ukraine to export its grain harvests.

Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN signed the initial grain agreements on July 22, 2022. They were extended on March 18 for 60 days, according to Moscow, but 120 days, according to Ukraine. That latter deadline will come in mid-July; as that date approaches, the Russian government has taken an ever-harder line, indicating that the attack on the pipeline reflected Russian policy rather than a Ukrainian action that Moscow could be counted on to exploit. For example, five days before the attack, Moscow blocked Ukrainian grain shipping out of the southern ports (Nakanune.ru, June 7). And just before that, the Kremlin signaled that there would be no further extension of the grain deal without a breakthrough on the ammonia pipeline (Mind.ua, May 12).

In its discussions about the grain deal, Moscow has insisted on concessions on various issues not directly related to the transit of grain, including among others, the reopening of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline. And it has attacked Western governments for failing to put pressure on Ukraine on this point. Kyiv for its part has sought to make the grain deal self-standing, though in response to Russian demands, the Ukrainian government did offer last fall to make concessions on the pipeline if Moscow agreed to a “one for one” exchange of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners (1prime.ru, June 12).

The explosions on the ammonia pipeline occurred just days before the latest round of talks about the grain deal this week in Geneva. The talks did not go well, with Moscow’s representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin saying that Russia would not renew the grain agreement unless Kyiv reopened the ammonia pipeline and ensured its security. Vershinin criticized the UN and the West for failing to put pressure on Kyiv to open the pipeline and for not ending its sanctions regime. He also stated that Russia would act strictly according to its own national interests, regardless of the consequences for others (Uspei.com, June 10; Ria.ru, June 10; Ria.ru, June 12). Russian domestic outlets have played up these themes and suggested that what the Kremlin believes Kyiv has done to the pipeline leaves little opportunity for progress (Interaffairs.ru, June 5; Tsargrad.tv, June 10).

Western governments have clearly gotten the message, but there is little indication that they have accepted the Russian version of events or plan to pressure Kyiv to reopen the ammonia pipeline. The British Defense Ministry, for example, bluntly declared that “Russia is likely sabotaging the grain deal to force the reopening of the ammonia pipeline”—language that suggests London, like other Western capitals, will not submit to this latest Russian attempt at blackmail (Twitter/DefenceHQ, June 9).

In this situation, Moscow is doing exactly what it has done in the past: feeding stories to Western media outlets that may lead some in the West to accept its position and put pressure on their governments. However, in the current environment, such efforts may backfire and simply call increased attention to what the Kremlin has been doing in Ukraine.

What is especially worrisome now is that Moscow may attack port facilities in Odesa at the southern end of the ammonia pipeline—not only to undermine Kyiv’s ability to export grain and other products but also to try to show Ukraine and the West that the Kremlin has additional and even more horrific options in these complex negotiations about the extension of the grain deal. Given that Putin’s preferred modus operandi has been to double his bets whenever he feels he has been driven into a corner, this is all too likely a possibility—and one that is rather sensitive for the Ukrainians (Mind.ua, May 12).

If that should happen, the relatively small explosions along the ammonia pipeline near the frontlines in Ukraine last week, especially given Russian truculence and intransigence in Geneva, could become the trigger for a much larger crisis.

This article was published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 20 Issue: 95

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .

China chides US over plan to rejoin UNESCO 6 years after quitting under Trump

The Biden administration has offered to pay off more than US$600 million in contributions it owes to the agency

Beijing says membership is a serious commitment and ‘not like going to a park’


Liu Zhen
13 Jun, 2023

SCMP

The US would rejoin the UN body next month and has agreed to pay its outstanding contributions. Photo: AFP

The United States should not use international organisations as geopolitical playgrounds, Beijing said on Tuesday as it chided Washington over its plans to rejoin the United Nations’ top heritage body.

Unesco director general Audrey Azoulay confirmed on Monday that the US would rejoin the UN body next month and honour the more than US$600 million in financial contributions it owed.

US officials had previously said that the decision to leave Unesco six years ago left a gap for China to expand its influence.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US should be responsible and use its membership to support multilateralism and promote international cooperation.

“The membership of international organisations is a serious matter … it is not like going to a park, where you can enter at ease and leave as you please,” Wang said.

“International organisations must not be used as arenas for geopolitical competition, and the public interests of the international community must not be used as an excuse [for the US] to promote its own interests as the global leader.”

He added that the US had twice withdrawn from Unesco, having a negative impact on the agency, and the US should “effectively fulfil its international obligations as a responsible country”, including paying its long overdue debts to Unesco.

“If the US is sincere in rejoining this time, it should show its sincerity in abiding by international rules and respecting the international rule of law,” he said.

The US first withdrew from Unesco in 1984, with the Ronald Reagan administration claiming the organisation was controlled by the former Soviet Union.

The US rejoined in 2003 but stopped paying its contributions in 2011 after the agency accepted Palestine as a member state.

It lost its voting rights in 2013 and formally quit in 2017 under the administration of US president Donald Trump.

The US was once the biggest financial sponsor of the agency, contributing over 20 per cent of its overall funding. Its withdrawal put Unesco under serious financial strain and the remaining members were called on to bridge the gap.

John Bass, US undersecretary of state for management and resources, said in March that the absence of the United States from Unesco bolstered China, and “undercuts our ability to be as effective in promoting our vision of a free world”.

The Joe Biden administration has submitted a financial plan to Unesco to pay off its US$619 million in arrears in the next few years.

The plan will be put to a vote at a general conference of Unesco’s 193 member states next month. Some member states have requested that an extraordinary session on the US plan be held earlier.