USW president lauds bill's focus on building North American production

By Erwin Seba - Yesterday 

Union boss sees chance to halt oil-sector job losses in Biden climate, tax plan

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - United Steelworkers union (USW) International President Thomas Conway said on Monday the U.S. climate, tax and health bill will create new opportunities for U.S. companies and union members.

The U.S. Senate approved the Biden administration's $430 billion bill on Sunday and it will go to a Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives where it is expected to pass.

Conway told Reuters in an interview the USW plans to add 30 new organizers to increase the union's presence in old-line steel, oil and other industries and to expand into industries the bill is designed to encourage such as electric cars, wind-power, solar and biofuels.

The Inflation Reduction Act, as the bill is called, will offer opportunities for union workers, Conway said, and provide businesses a long-term horizon to invest in new technologies.

Conway spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of the Steelworkers' constitutional convention in Las Vegas, which runs through Thursday. The USW will add new organizers to develop recruiting campaigns in existing and new industries, he said.

"I'm going to let the work decide the size of it, as opportunities present themselves. We're going to look at regions, we're going to look at industries," he said declining to break out the split between the old and new.

The bill includes incentives for companies that include union workers, but the overwhelming focus is on boosting U.S. production and employment, he said.

"There is a focus on buy American, buy North American" products, Conway said. "If they write buy American legislation in there, a requirement like that, the opportunity for some of this stuff will naturally fall to unionized shops, particularly in the mining sectors."

The USW represents 850,000 workers in metals, mining, pulp and paper, chemicals, energy producing, health care, education and other service industries.

"We need copper, we need nickel. We're going to need lithium and cobalt. Whatever we can discover here, I think you'll find that employs union miners," he said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

How dangerous is the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant?

The UN has called for international inspectors to be given access to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, after it was shelled at the weekend. But how dangerous is the situation and what is likely to happen next?

Why is the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant important?

The plant, built in the Soviet era, is the largest nuclear reactor in Europe. Its six pressurised water reactors (of which at least two are currently operating) are important to Kyiv as they can produce power for up to 4m homes.

Situated on the south bank of the Dnieper river at Enerhodar, south west of the city of Zaporizhzhia itself, the plant occupies an extremely important strategic position both for Russian and Ukrainian forces, who have been contesting control of the site since early in the war.

The presence of the water cooled reactors, as well as a spent fuel storage facility, on the large and sprawling site has led Russia to use it as a so called “sheltered” artillery park, using the facilities to fire on Ukrainian positions in the belief that Ukraine would not fire back and risk a nuclear accident.

Related: Attack on Ukraine nuclear plant ‘suicidal’, says UN chief as he urges access to site

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has accused the Russians of using the plant as a “nuclear shield” saying: “Of course the Ukrainians cannot fire back lest there be a terrible accident involving the nuclear plant.” That has allowed Russia to target areas like the city of Nikopol across the river which has come under heavy shelling in recent weeks.

Why is there renewed concern?

Related video: Gravitas: Ukraine war: Warnings of a nuclear emergency

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There are two issues fuelling a deepening anxiety over the situation at the plant, which is under Russian control but uses Ukrainian staff. International nuclear safety officials have become concerned over the lack of spare parts, access for routine maintenance of the reactors and lack of contact with staff all of which have been disrupted by the ongoing conflict.

A second issue is grad missile fire around the plant at the weekend, with Russians and Ukrainians pointing the finger over responsibility. According to Energoatom – the Ukrainian nuclear authority – the impacts were close to the spent fuel storage area with the operator claiming Russian troops “aimed specifically” at the containers despite the presence of Russian troops at the site.

However, it is worth noting that Ukrainian officials at times have somewhat overstated claims about nuclear risks posed by the conflict both at Chornobyl and Zaporizhzhia – so for now it is not clear how dangerous this weekend’s incident was in and of itself.

While Ukraine’s objective – to see the plant treated as a demilitarised area – is an entirely prudent call it would also serve a military objective by denying Russian forces the use of a plant from which they can shell with relative impunity.

A final dimension is a claim by Ukrainian intelligence – reported in Ukrainian media outlets – that Russia has mined facilities, quoting the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence troops of the Russian armed forces, Maj Gen Valery Vasiliev, who now commands the Zaporizhzhia garrison, saying: “There will be either Russian land or a scorched desert.”

However, a major and deliberate detonation in Zaporizhzhia would threaten southern Russia as well as Ukraine with nuclear contamination, so it is important to distinguish between “nuclear blackmail” and a serious threat that would have repercussions for Russia itself.
So how dangerous is shelling around the plant?

The reactors are designed to withstand substantial impact – think of a civilian airliner crashing into them – protected with steel and reinforced concrete as well as fire protection systems, although a strike from a substantial missile might be more problematic.

The buildings housing the spent fuel, however, are not built with a similar level of protection, meaning that a release of spent fuel material is probably a greater risk from fighting than a catastrophic breach of a reactor, although more limited.

The reality is that the ongoing situation at the plant in terms of safety operations is probably the most serious issue, as a deteriorating safety regime caused by the conflict has been exacerbated by a risk of a strike.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, described the ongoing crisis of safety oversight as a dire threat to public health and the environment in Ukraine, and far beyond its borders, describing the situation as “completely out of control.”

“You have a catalogue of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility,” he said. While Grossi has suggested a mission to the plant, ironically Ukraine has been blocking the initiative, with Energoatom arguing as recently as June that any visit would legitimise Russia’s presence there.

Kevin Smith Slams Warner Bros. for Axing ‘Batgirl’ but Still Releasing ‘The Flash’: ‘That Is Baffling’

Zack Sharf - VARIETY

© Getty Images/Warner. BrosKevin Smith Slams Warner Bros. for Axing ‘Batgirl’ but Still Releasing ‘The Flash’: ‘That Is Baffling’


Kevin Smith spoke out against Warner Bros.’ axing of “Batgirl” during the latest episode of his “Hollywood Babble-On” YouTube show. The filmmaker called it “an incredible bad look” for the studio to drop the rare comic book tentpole to be headlined by a Latina actor, especially when Warner Bros. is still moving forward on the release of its Ezra Miller-led tentpole “The Flash.”

“It’s an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina ‘Batgirl’ movie,” Smith said. “I don’t give a shit if the movie was absolute fucking dog shit – I guarantee you that it wasn’t. The two directors [Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi] who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel,’ and it was a wonderful fucking show and they had more money to do ‘Batgirl’ than they had to do an episode of ‘Ms. Marvel’ and stuff.”

How 'Batgirl' Axing and James Franco's Castro Casting Highlight Hollywood's Persistent Erasure of Latinos (Column)

'Batgirl,' David Zaslav and the End of Streaming Evangelism in Hollywood (Column)

Warner Bros. announced Aug. 2 that it would not be releasing the $90 million “Batgirl” in theaters or on its HBO Max streamer, despite the movie being fully shot and in post-production. Studio executives said the reason for shelving “Batgirl” was because it did not have a blockbuster scale for theaters (the film was originally conceived for HBO Max), but Variety reported that a tax write off was also one of the driving forces behind the decision. The only way Warner Bros. can write the film off is if it does not get a release in any capacity.

Early reports claimed that “Batgirl” test screenings were a disaster and that the film was “irredeemable,” but Smith has a hard time buying into those rumors. He said he doubts the film is “absolute fucking dog shit,” and he noted that even if the movie did not look the greatest, well neither does the handful of DC series that air on The CW.

“I love all the CW shows, but the CW shows show their budgetary constraints,” Smith said. “They said ‘Batgirl’ looked too cheap because it was a $90 million movie. How do you make a cheap-looking $90 million movie? If it looked slightly better than an episode of ‘Arrow’ then why couldn’t we see that?”

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said last week during the company’s Q2 earnings call that “The Flash” is still hearing for a theatrical release. The film’s star, Ezra Miller, has been at the center of numerous controversies in recent months regarding alleged abusive behavior. These allegations include choking an Icelandic woman in a bar and harassing another woman in her home in Berlin. In addition, the actor has been arrested twice in Hawaii this year, once for disorderly conduct and harassment and another time for second-degree assault.

“That is the baffling thing,” Smith said. “I don’t give a shit how bad the ‘Batgirl’ movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around. In ‘The Flash’ movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.”

Aaron Rodgers details experiences with psychedelic drug ayahuasca: 'It's unlocked a lot of my heart'

Aaron Rodgers had himself a unique offseason. The reigning NFL MVP inked the biggest contract in the league, underwent a 12-day Panchakarma cleanse and dressed like Nicolas Cage in Con Air ahead of the first day of Packers training camp.

© Provided by Sporting NewsAaron Rodgers details experiences with psychedelic drug ayahuasca: 'It's unlocked a lot of my heart'

Nestled in between those events, Rodgers revealed that he went on an "ayahuasca journey" this summer, traveling to Peru to ingest the plant-based psychedelic.

In a recent appearance on the "Aubrey Marcus Podcast", Rodgers compared his experience with the drug to "feeling 100 different on my body, of love and forgiveness for myself, and gratitude for this life."

MORE: What is ayahuasca? (YAGE)

He offered a few more details of his trip when talking to NBC Sports' Peter King:

We sat three different nights with the medicine. I came in with an intention of doing a lot of healing of other relationships and bringing in certain people to have conversations with. Most of the work was around myself and figuring out what unconditional love of myself looks like of myself. In doing that, allowing me to understand how to unconditionally love other people but first realizing it’s gotta start with myself. I’ve got to be a little more gentle with myself and compassionate and forgiving because I’ve had some negative voices, negative self-talk, for a long time. A lot of healing went on.

Related video: Aaron Rodgers says psychedelic drug led to best season of his career
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Rodgers explained that he used the substance as a vehicle to discover himself and what makes him tick. For the four-time MVP winner, the trip was a successful one, allowing him to come to grips with some of the strife in his personal life — mainly in regards to relationships with others and himself.

I think it’s unlocked a lot of my heart. Being able to fully give my heart to my teammates, my loved ones, relationships because I can fully embrace unconditionally myself. ... When you figure out a better way to love yourself, I think you can love people better because you’re not casting the same judgment you cast on yourself on other people. I’m really thankful for that.

Poetic stuff from Rodgers, truly. The 38-year-old acknowledged that he still had a lot of work to do to reconcile relationships with those he had backed away from years ago. However, he feels he has the tools to make sense of the wave of emotions that crash into each other amid the day-to-day churn the NFL schedule.

MORE: Where Rodgers ranks among the NFL's top quarterbacks for 2022

Rodgers also noted that the experience, in conjunction with therapy and meditation, helped him fall back in love with football all over again. Rodgers never didn't love the game. But he wasn't certain if he was "in love" with football.

Now, he knows.

I think I just football in love with it a little bit deeper. Again, I think a lot of that is due to the work that I’ve done on myself. It hasn’t all been just the ayahuasca journey. It’s been therapy. It’s been meditation. It’s been changing habits that weren’t giving me any type of joy. Eating better. Taking care of myself a little bit better. Being more gentle with myself. All those things have allowed me to look at each day with a little more joy.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAGE 

'You are not a refugee.' Roma refugees fleeing war in Ukraine say they are suffering discrimination and prejudice

Ivana Kottasová - Yesterday

Luiza Baloh left her home in Dnipro, central Ukraine, in March. Fleeing the constant sound of explosions, she and her five children came to the Czech Republic hoping to find refuge.

Instead, they found themselves behind a barbed wire fence in a repurposed immigration detention center that was, she says, dirty and full of strangers, some of whom were aggressive towards her and her children.

Baloh, a Roma woman, was shipped off to the prison-like facility alongside other mostly Roma families, while tens of thousands of other Ukrainian refugees found places to stay in private homes and dormitories in the Czech Republic.

“It was like a prison. It was bad. I was afraid there, there were so many people, many scary people,” she told CNN.

Hers is a common story, according to NGOs and activists.

“Roma refugees are automatically placed into non-standard accommodation,” says Patrik Priesol, head of the Ukraine program at Romodrom, a Czech NGO focused on Roma rights and advocacy. “It is very saddening and I am not afraid to say it amounts to institutional racism and segregation.”

The Czech Republic has received more than 400,000 refugees from Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full scale invasion of the country in late February. The Czech government has passed an EU-wide law that allows refugees fleeing Ukraine to apply for temporary protection status, access health care and start working in the bloc.

In a statement emailed to CNN, the country’s police headquarters said ethnicity does not play a role in the application process.

“We are not considering ethnicity of the applicants, only their citizenship,” a spokesperson for the Czech Police headquarters told CNN in a statement.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has sparked a huge wave of solidarity across Europe, with governments and individuals rushing to offer help to those fleeing the conflict. The UN believes more than 6.3 million Ukrainians have fled their country, although some have since returned.

But the crisis has also exposed an ugly truth: That in many places, Roma people are simply not welcome.

CNN visited shelters and spoke to a number of refugees, social workers and activists in the Czech Republic, Romania and Moldova. In all three countries, the problems Roma refugees face are uncannily similar.

Roma refugees from Ukraine are routinely accused of not being Ukrainian; they are segregated in low quality accommodation. According to several NGOs, many are given misleading information about their rights; and issues that are easily solved when faced by others who’ve fled Ukraine – such as missing passport stamps – are often used as a reason for them to be turned away.

Reports by rights groups from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary suggest such discrimination is common across eastern Europe.

Romanian Roma rights campaigner Nicu Dumitru told CNN the refugee crisis had shone a light on the kind of hostility Roma people still face in Europe.

Nicu Dumitru speaks to a resident at one of the shelters housing predominantly Roma refugees in Bucharest on Saturday, July 16. 

“Being discriminatory against Black people or gay people is becoming less acceptable in Europe, or at least people restrain themselves from doing this in public. That’s not the case with Roma, which is probably the last group of people that is still fine to discriminate against in Europe,” he told CNN.

Roma communities have faced persecution and discrimination in Europe ever since they first came to the continent from India hundreds of years ago, and were persecuted during the Holocaust.

Roughly 90% live below the poverty line, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Human Rights.

Dumitru works for Aresel, a Bucharest-based Roma civic education initiative that turned its focus to refugees fleeing Ukraine earlier this year after receiving multiple reports of discrimination.

He said one watershed moment for the organization came in April when a large group of Roma refugees complained about being denied humanitarian meals at a help point in Bucharest. “They were kicked out because they were ‘too many’ and ‘too loud’ and people would say, ‘You’re not Ukrainian, you’re Roma, go away,’” Dumitru said.

ADRA, the group distributing the meals, told CNN the incident, which was caught on camera, had been “taken out of context and led to the idea of discrimination and intolerance against Roma people.” It said the Roma group had been turned away because it was made up mostly of men but was in an area reserved for mothers and children, and added it has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind. “The group left the room at the announcement of another person, unaffiliated with ADRA,” the ADRA response said, adding that other Roma groups from Ukraine were in the center.

The Bucharest Municipal Emergency Coordination Center told CNN it is providing humanitarian aid “without discrimination” and added it “has not received any reports of discrimination in the provision of aid.”

Across the border in Moldova, Roma mediator and journalist Elena Sirbu said she, too, was horrified when she saw what was happening in one of the refugee centers in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.


Elena Sirbu said she witnessed blatant discrimination against Roma people fleeing the conflict. -

Sirbu said she was originally asked by the authorities to help “handle” the situation but instead became an advocate for Roma refugees after witnessing the discrimination first-hand.

“When I saw the ignorance and the attitude … these people ran away from the war, they come here, it was cold outside, some of the children had no winter shoes, and they asked for a cup of tea or [diapers], and the Moldovan authorities told them to go away, accusing them of not being refugees, and saying ‘we want normal people,’” she told CNN. “And this was happening in front of me. How do you think I should act?”

The Moldovan government’s Crisis Management Center (CUGC), which is responsible for the shelters, said the shelters are required to “comply with the principle of non-discrimination in all stages of service provision and promote and respect human rights, regardless of race, skin color, nationality, ethnicity.”

The CUGC “constantly consults with Roma refugees regarding their specific needs,” it told CNN, and “imposes measures to combat discriminatory attitudes towards refugees, especially the Roma group.”
No home to go back to


Luiza Baloh and her five children ended up in a refugee camp that houses almost exclusively Roma families. - 

Like many Roma refugees, Luiza Baloh and her kids, who range in age from nine months to 11 years, have fallen through the cracks in the system.

She told CNN the Czech detention center which she and her children were sent to was so scary that she decided to leave. The family ended up camping at the main train station in Prague alongside hundreds of others, mostly Roma refugees. She was told by authorities that she was no longer eligible for help, because she had “rejected” the accommodation she had been offered.

Priesol said this was a common scenario and that poor communication was often to blame. “Some of these people are functionally illiterate, they are in a post-traumatic situation, and they are offered a place in a detention facility that is temporarily turned into an accommodation facility, and they are told ‘this prison here is your home now,’” he said.

“They don’t understand the serious consequences of their decision to decline the offer,” he added.

Baloh eventually ended up in one of two makeshift refugee camps in the suburbs of Prague which have since been merged into one.

Camp officials say it’s a place to which authorities send people they say aren’t eligible for assistance. The Czech government said people who do not receive temporary protection status can stay for a few days and then leave the country.

Conditions at the camp, which CNN was granted access to by the authorities in charge, were basic: Large military-style tents surround a plaza that is partially shaded by gazebos. There are portable toilets and mobile shower units and meals are served three times a day. Most of the residents are Roma and many come from some of the poorest areas of Ukraine.

Nikol Hladikova, the social worker in charge of the camp, is the head of the humanitarian department at Prague’s Social Services Center, a municipal agency. She has been involved in the refugee crisis response since the beginning and corroborated Baloh’s account of conditions in the detention facilities.

“My first visit to one of them, we came with a bus full of refugees and I turned the bus back because the situation there was absolutely horrendous,” she told CNN. “There was dirt and excrement everywhere, there was no kettle to boil water and we had a one-month-old baby with us.”

Hladikova said conditions at the facility had improved after she and her colleagues raised concerns about them.

Segregation ‘is not intentional’, authorities say


Lida Kalyshinko says the facilities in the Chisinau refugee shelter are not suitable for her disabled granddaughter. -

Lida Kalyshinko fled her home in the Odesa region, near the Ukraine-Moldova border, with her family after the war broke out. She, her daughter and two granddaughters have spent the last three months in an abandoned university building in Chisinau that has been turned into a refugee shelter.

The building houses more than 100 refugees, almost all of them Roma. The few that are not Roma are mostly citizens of central and western Asian post-Soviet countries, including Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.

A single drinking water tap serves the entire building and discarded furniture clutters the dark corridors where small children roam. At the time of CNN’s visit in mid-July, several Covid-19 cases had been reported among the residents.

Standing outside the large, grey building, Kalyshinko pointed to a mobile shower unit provided by UNICEF. The facility was of little use to her granddaughter, who uses a wheelchair, she said. “She has only taken a shower four times since coming here, because it’s so difficult to get her there, there are so many steps and the showers can’t be used by disabled people.”

The Moldovan government’s Crisis Management Center (CUGC), which is responsible for the shelter, told CNN it was trying to make conditions there better, working to bring a hot water supply into the building. Once that is done, shower facilities will be set up on each floor, it said.

In a written response to questions from CNN, the CUGC denied intentionally segregating Roma refugees in the shelter, saying that they had been placed there to avoid breaking up “large families of ethnic Roma, who could not be separated in different placement centers” at a time when large numbers of refugees were coming into the country.


Ala Valentinovna Saviena prepares meals in the shelter in Chisinau.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe and as such has limited capacity to deal with the refugee crisis. More than 550,000 people have crossed from Ukraine into the nation of 2.6 million since the beginning of the war. The vast majority have already left for other, wealthier European countries, but around 88,000 remain according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

Ala Valentinovna Saviena says she too would like to leave Moldova. The 49-year-old told CNN she left her hometown, Odesa, in late February hoping to join relatives in Germany. But her 19-year-old son doesn’t have a passport or other form of ID, which makes a trip to a European Union country extremely difficult.

Moldova, which is not part of the EU, changed its entry requirements for undocumented people fleeing Ukraine after the war started, but those who want to continue on into the EU face more bureaucracy.

It’s a common issue faced by Ukrainian Roma. “We have 5,000 Roma refugees staying in Moldova and a lot of them don’t have documents, maybe 30%,” Sirbu said. “We tried to work with the [Ukrainian] embassy but it’s not possible to get new documents there,” she said.

Ukrainian authorities have set up special help points near the border where people can request new documents, but a trip across the border and back is out of reach for many who’ve already fled.

The added complication in Saviena’s son’s case is his age: As a man over the age of 18, he may not be allowed to leave Ukraine again if he returns. The rule requiring most men age 18 to 60 to remain in Ukraine to defend the country was not tightly enforced at the beginning of the war but is now. Saviena said her son was allowed to leave Ukraine by walking through a humanitarian corridor.

Activists said Ukrainian Roma wanting to come to Europe are also victims of intentional misinformation, including misleading guidance about the documents they need.

“They talk on Facebook and there’s a lot of disinformation – so if it says you cannot go to Romania without a biometric passport, they believe it and they don’t come even if it’s not true,” Lucian Gheorghiu, Dumitru’s colleague at Aresel, told CNN.
Lengthy bureaucracy

But even those who do have the correct documents aren’t guaranteed a warm welcome. Roma refugees across Europe have been subjected to lengthy background checks that are supposed to determine whether they are eligible for protection, according to reports from several activist groups.

Vit Rakusan, the Czech Interior Minister, said in May that such checks were necessary because of “mostly Roma refugees” who held Hungarian as well as Ukrainian citizenship and were coming to the Czech Republic to exploit the benefits system.

Veronika Dvorska from Iniciativa Hlavak, a volunteer group that helps refugees arriving at the main train station in Prague, said the vetting process can take as long as 10 days.

“We’d send people to the registration center and they would come back to us after being told they needed to be checked. In our experience, these were mostly, if not exclusively, Roma refugees,” she told CNN. “I have no reports of non-minority refugees ever coming back.”

At the height of the crisis in May, as many as 500 people were sheltering at the train station waiting for the checks, according to Dvorska.

The Czech government framed the dual citizenship of Roma refugees as a major issue, even sending a special diplomatic letter to the Hungarian government, according to a statement by the Ministry of Interior.

But there is very little evidence that it was ever a widespread problem. The Czech Ministry of the Interior told CNN the police had conducted 7,100 checks and found 335 instances of people holding dual citizenship. It said there were 201 people with Hungarian citizenship and 66 with Polish citizenship. The rest held citizenships of number of other EU countries.

But Hladikova and Priesol point out that many of the Ukrainian Roma who also hold Hungarian passports were given Hungarian citizenship as part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s controversial decade-long policy of handing out passports to ethnic Hungarians living abroad.

“We all criticized Orban’s regime for this, we all protested against it, we knew that it put people into a legal trap and now we are using it to our advantage. It’s a pinnacle of hypocrisy,” Priesol said.

The Czech government also announced in a statement in May that, in order to crack down on people “who are not running away from the war,” it would reject anyone who did not have an EU entry stamp in their passport.

Dvorska and Priesol each said the rule only seemed to be applied to Roma refugees; others who don’t have the stamp are offered other ways of showing that they were living in Ukraine when the war broke out, they said.

Separately, the Czech government said it would not accept applications for temporary protection status, an EU measure, from people who have applied for protection in a different EU country – even if they have since canceled their status there.

The European Commission dismissed both of these statements, saying they were not in line with European law. Responding to questions from CNN, the Commission said EU member states cannot deny the status to people who don’t currently have protection status in another EU state and said “the existence or non-existence of an entry stamp is not relevant” in the process.

Asked about the discrepancy between the EU guidance and the Czech approach, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry reiterated that under the Czech laws, people who have canceled their protection status in another EU country were not eligible for it in the Czech Republic.

Priesol said the seemingly arbitrary rules are all part of the Czech government’s strategy to deter people from applying for a visa. “The authorities are creating hurdles in the process on purpose and this atmosphere is creating a very uncomfortable environment,” he said.

The Czech interior ministry said the applications are handled by “experienced police officers who are able to detect irregularities during interviews.”

“But it’s a reflection of the mood in society and the unwillingness to integrate Roma people – anti-Roma sentiment is so high in the Czech Republic that there is very little opposition to this treatment of people,” Priesol added.
First time in school


Children play in a refugee camp in Prague. Second from left is Nikol Hladikova, the social worker responsible for the camp's operations. 

Baloh told CNN that, like several dozen others in the Prague camp, she would like to stay in the Czech Republic long term, since she doesn’t have a home to go back to.

“I would like my children to go to school. I’d like to work. I had a job in Ukraine, I was a cleaner in a restaurant,” she told CNN.

Hladikova said her department was trying to find longer term accommodation for those people who would like to stay and integrate into the Czech society. It’s a process that takes time and a lot of patience – most of the camp’s residents can’t read or write and cultural differences persist.

“I have known some of these families since April and I can see how much improvement they’ve made and it’s unbelievable. Especially the children, they are like sponges, they absorb new things so quickly … but this is not something [outsiders] can see,” she said.

“Unfortunately, there are many people who don’t even get here. They are stopped at the train station and they are sent back to Ukraine,” Hladikova added, saying some of her Roma clients have been turned away from official registration centers and help points.

Hladikova is adamant that her job is to help people like Baloh who want to stay and integrate – even if other authorities want the family to leave the country as soon as possible.

“We have different goals and a different style. I am here to take care of my clients, help them as much as I can. But for the state, it’s expensive, they don’t want to do this, it’s been going on for a long time,” she said.

Her friendly, no-nonsense attitude makes Hladikova extremely popular in the camp she runs. When CNN visited, the children kept coming over to give her a hug; later, as a water fight broke out in the scorching midday heat, she laughed and let the kids spray her with water.

Balokhyna’s eldest daughter, 11-year-old Hanna, told CNN she had never been to school before coming to Prague. Now she goes almost every day.

During an improvised math class in one of the tents that day, she was wrestling with the question of 72 + 9. Shifting eight rows of colorful beads to one side, she got stuck for a moment, nervously gazing at one of the volunteer teachers.

Then, with a little help, she figured out the answer, everyone around her smiling as she whispered: “81.”

Ana Sârbu contributed reporting.

PHOTOS - Ivana Kottasova/CNN

LIVE Betelgeuse Supernova Explosion IS HAPPENING! James Webb Telescope

Started streaming on Jul 17, 2022
Airz

Watch live here IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING EVERYONE!!! Watch it live here! Like Betelgeuse in Orion Antares could go supernova at any time. The system was predicted in 2022 producing a luminous red nova for the first time in 10,000 years! #live

NASA Films 'Dirty Snowball' Comet Plunging Into Sun

NASA has captured images of a comet disintegrating as it passed too close to the sun.

 Artist's illustration of a comet. 

NASA has captured imagery of a comet disintegrating as it passed too close to the sun.

Instruments onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)—a spacecraft jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency—observed the comet heading toward our star on August 6.

One day later, more images captured by SOHO showed the comet disappearing as it flew too close to the sun.

"The dirty snowball evaporated," spaceweather.com reported in an alert.

Comets are objects that consist of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the sun. The nuclei of these objects can reach tens of miles across, although many are much smaller.

As comets approach closer to the sun, they are blasted with increasing quantities of radiation. This causes the comet to heat up, leading to a release of gas and dust, which creates a temporary atmosphere known as a coma that forms around the nucleus of the object. Comet comas can be significantly larger than the Earth.

In addition, comets also form two tails as they approach closer to the sun—the gas tail and the dust tail, which can measure million of miles in length.

The gas tail appears due to the effect of the solar wind—charged particles emitted by the sun—on electrically charged gas particles released by the comet. Meanwhile, interactions between photons—particles of light—emitted by the sun, the solar wind, and vaporized dust in the comet's coma lead to the formation of the dust tail.

Comets are leftovers from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. According to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, more than 4,000 comets have been discovered to date, although this likely represents only a tiny fraction of the ones that actually exist in the Solar System.

Some comets pass very close to the sun, and various terms can be used describe these objects, according to one study published in 2017.

"Sunskirters" are defined as comets that pass within 33 solar radii of the sun's center in the study. Meanwhile, "sungrazers" pass even closer, coming within around three solar radii. And finally, "sundivers" are those that actually intersect with the sun's photosphere—the lowest layer of the star's atmosphere.

According to spaceweather.com, the comet that recently disintegrated as it passed too close to the sun was almost certainly part of the Kreutz family of comets.

This group of comets, named after the 19th-century German astronomer who studied them, Heinrich Kreutz, are thought to have originated from the breakup of a single, giant comet hundreds of years ago.

Fragments of this huge object orbit the sun, and frequently pass close to our star, with many evaporating and disintegrating.

William Booed at a Time Where 'Privilege Has Never Been Less Fashionable'
James Crawford-Smith - Saturday

Prince William is being viewed as a "symbol of the establishment" which has led to a series of incidents that have seen him booed during two high-profile sporting events, according to a discussion on a new episode of Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast.

Chief royal correspondent Jack Royston and royal commentator Kristen Meinzer discussed criticism faced by the prince during the UEFA Women's Euros championship soccer final in Britain last month, with the royal's perception by young people being cited as a potential hurdle for him to overcome moving forward.

Discussing the women's soccer final at which William presented the trophy at Wembley Stadium in his capacity as president of the Football Association (FA), Royston discussed a viral video showing William being booed by spectators at a British pub.

"A pub in Sheffield booed [William] when he came on screen," he explained. "I was messaging with one of the people who was in the pub at the time who said basically it was an anti-establishment feeling and that Prince William basically is seen as a symbol of the establishment."

Royston then went on to suggest that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would also be similarly booed as an "establishment" figure but added: "obviously from William's point of view he probably wouldn't really want to be lumped in with divisive figures like Boris."

This is not the first time this year that William has been booed by sports fans. In May during the FA Cup soccer final between Chelsea F.C. and Liverpool F.C. the prince was audibly booed and jeered by fans as his presence was announced over loudspeakers. The booing also continued through Britain's national anthem; God Save The Queen.

This incident provoked widespread discussions with Liverpool fans being identified as those who mainly contributed to the booing leading to their condemnation by public figures, including the prime minister, who said via a spokesperson: "It was a great shame that as we are marking 150 years of the FA Cup, an event that brings people together, that a small minority chose to act in that way."

"So this is the second time in several months that this has happened to William," Royston told Meinzer, "posing a question for William: how seriously does he have to take this? Is this going to be a big recurring problem for him or can he just shrug it off?"

"The particular fan that I spoke to said 'we're going through a cost of living crisis, people are struggling to pay their bills'...and they kind of saw William as a privileged aristocrat who doesn't have the problems that they have," he continued, offering that the fan suggested William was intruding on a celebration which offered a distraction from these issues.


© Jonathan Moscrop/Getty ImagesPrince William gave women's England football captain Leah Williamson a congratulatory hug after the team's win at the UEFA Women's Euros 2022. 

July 31, 2022. Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images

In contrast to this point of view, many praised William for his appearance at the match which after England's team nicknamed the "Lionesses" won 2-1 over Germany, he gave the players a hug before presenting the trophy.

"We should offer a bit of balance to that because obviously, not everybody felt this way about William and some people were very happy to have him there—some of the players were clearly very pleased to get a hug off the Duke of Cambridge," Royston said.

One of these players was team captain Leah Williamson who met with the prince in June when he visited the team in training.

When asked about her hug from William on the England football YouTube channel, Williamson said: "I think I went to shake his hand and he said, 'Leah, bring it in' and I said, 'Thank you sir,'"

She continued to say "I'm a big fan of the royal family so it means a lot," when told that Queen Elizabeth II had also sent a message of congratulations.


Newsweek's "The Royal Report" podcast discussed whether young people view Prince William as an "establishment" figure and whether the royal should look to change this in the future. Photographed at the State Opening of Parliament, May 10, 2022. 

ALASTAIR GRANT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Royston however, suggested that the incidents could be representative of a change in how the royals are being generally viewed by young people.

"The interesting thing is that young people are starting to see the monarchy slightly differently and they're starting to see William slightly differently," he said.

"This was quite a young crowd in this pub. So, we will have to see I think whether this becomes a long-term problem that grows and grows or whether it's something William can shrug off.

"I think that this particular moment in history is a time when privilege has never been less fashionable. So I personally think William should try to think about whether there's something he can do to address this issue."

To Meinzer, the solution could be simpler in that William should take a step back at national events where the monarchy is not the intended focus.

"Just know when you should be the center of attention and when you shouldn't be the center of attention," she told Royston.

"Just sit in the stands and clap along with everybody else, cheer for your team, congratulate them online, maybe after the event quietly visit them in the locker room and shake their hands or something, you know. You don't have to go right out there on all the TV cameras and be front and center."

Exclusive: Stellantis Mexico unit okays independent union; U.S. trade probe to end

By Daina Beth Solomon



Workers gather outside the Teksid Hierro de Mexico plant in Ciudad Frontera, Mexico in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on July 20, 2022. Alfonso Torres/Handout via REUTERS

MEXICO CITY, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A Mexican unit of carmaker Stellantis expects to resolve a complaint from Washington in several days, it said after it agreed to recognize an independent union, a move workers attributed to U.S. pressure under a recent trade pact.

Stellantis-owned (STLA.MI) Teksid Hierro de Mexico said the complaint, which alleged rights abuses at an auto parts plant in the northern border state of Coahuila, was set to close without going to a dispute panel.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is negotiating a remediation plan with Mexico's government on the matter under the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and will provide more information in the coming days, a USTR spokesman said in response to questions from Reuters.

Since 2014, workers at the plant have accused Teksid of colluding with powerful union CTM to block their election of an independent union, The Miners, and closing the USMCA case will mark the end of one of Mexico's longest-running labor conflicts.

In recent weeks, Teksid has recognized The Miners as the rightful union and agreed to re-hire, with back-pay, 36 workers who said they had been fired in retaliation for supporting the independent labor group.

The unit of the Italian-French carmaker would become the fourth company to resolve a USMCA complaint since the first case at a General Motors Co plant in Mexico's Guanajuato state last year.

"We have shown compliance with the points related to the complaint," Teksid told Reuters on Friday, referring to its plant of 1,500 employees that makes iron castings for heavy vehicles.

U.S. labor authorities filed a USMCA complaint over alleged rights abuses on June 6, asking Mexican officials to investigate. read more

On July 11, Teksid and The Miners reached their deal.

The swift action after eight years of conflict illustrated how the Trump-era USMCA has helped Mexican workers oust long-established company-friendly unions in favor of independent groups. Still, the scattershot victories have left Mexico's dominant unions, criticized as too cozy with management, ensconced in most factories.

When asked about the U.S. complaint, Stellantis has said it supports collective bargaining rights and will follow local laws. Mexico's economy and labor ministries did not immediately reply to questions about the U.S. complaint.

Wearing a blue helmet and fresh uniform, Alfonso Torres, 45, took his old spot in the factory on July 21, eight years after being fired.

As time dragged on and other factories refused to hire him, Torres camped outside the plant to demand back the job he began in 1998. Back at work, he said his younger co-workers reminded him the fight for a better union was worth it.

"Do you think we can leave them a salary like the one CTM left?" he asked. "We want something fair."

Torres makes 374 pesos ($18) per day - roughly in line with hourly starting wages for U.S. Stellantis workers.

The USMCA aims to reduce the vast wage gap between U.S. and Mexican workers, and recent raises achieved by independent unions at General Motors and Panasonic after USMCA complaints show it is hitting some of its targets.

Still, wages elsewhere have been largely stagnant even with inflation soaring, and experts say local autoworkers lack the kind of mass leverage that the United Auto Workers has long provided at Detroit carmakers.

Imelda Jimenez, a fired Teksid worker who is now The Miners' political affairs secretary, said the union will soon demand raises yet was on guard to see how Teksid would act without U.S. scrutiny.

The plant could have had tariffs applied on exports if found to be in violation of the USMCA, which has tougher labor rules than the earlier NAFTA.

"They never acted this way before," Jimenez said.

Bolivia's 'Death Road' once haunted drivers. Now it's a wildlife haven


LOS YUNGAS, Bolivia, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Bolivia's decision to open an alternate route to its historic 'Death Road' - a serpentine dirt path across the towering Andes hills known for its deadly cliffs - has led to a resurgence of wildlife in the area, according to an environmental group.

The route was once a key road frequented by heavy trucks connecting Bolivia's capital La Paz to the country's Amazon rainforest. But its deadliness earned it the nickame the 'Death Road.' Between 1999 and 2003 hundreds of Bolivians died trying to navigate it.

By 2007, Bolivia opened an alternate route, leaving the original road as mostly an attraction for cyclists. That not only saved lives but also helped nature, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

"The fauna, when this road was still functioning, it was being affected by the pollution that vehicles generated, the noise and dust," said Maria Viscarra, a biologist who participated in the study.

A competitor runs during the Bolivia Sky Race on the "Death Road" from Yolosa to Chuspipata, near La Paz, Bolivia, July 29, 2018. REUTERS/David Mercado

The WCS set up 35 camera traps along the route and found 16 species of mammals and 94 species of wild birds.

"Today, heavy haul trucks don't go through this road anymore. Biodiversity has come back to the area and you can see birds like hummingbirds, toucans, parrots," said Guido Ayala, a biologist with the WCS.

While the road is no longer used by many drivers, the route is still dotted with crosses, a way to memorialize those who died on its path.

"It is so nice that we have a place close to the (capital) La Paz, some 50 minutes away, where one can come and see nature in a beautiful way," Ayala added.

Lula's lead narrows to single-digit in Brazil race, poll says
Reuters

Brazil's former president and presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gestures during a campaign event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 5, 2022. 

REUTERS/Suamy Beydoun

BRASILIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's lead over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has narrowed to 7 percentage points ahead of the October election, according to a new poll published on Monday.

The leftist leader has the support of 41% of voters against 34% for his far-right adversary, compared to 44% and 31% respectively last month, the BTG/FSB telephone poll said.

Lula's lead has dropped steadily to 7 points from 13 last month and 14 in May, the poll said.

Other polls show Lula's strong lead slipping but maintaining a double-digit advantage: Datafolha saw his advantage at 18-points and a Genial/Quaest poll last week said his lead had fallen to 12 points from 14 points. read more

Lula would still win a second-round runoff against Bolsonaro by 51% to 39% if the vote were today, a 12-point lead that has narrowed from 18 points last month, the BTG/FSB poll said.

Bolsonaro has stepped up social welfare spending, with pay-out of increased monthly stipends to low-income families starting on Tuesday, and he has worked to reduce fuel costs that have spurred inflation, the major complaint from voters.

His negative numbers have come down, with 44% of those surveyed seeing his government as bad or terrible, down from 50% in early June, while 53% say they would never vote for him, compared to 59% in June, the new poll said. Lula's rejection rate has risen marginally to 45% of voters, it said.

The survey by pollster FSB commissioned by investment bank BTG Pactual polled 2,000 people between Aug. 5 and 7 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points up or down.

U.S. fuel retailers rail against green aviation fuel tax credit
By Laura Sanicola

An ethanol plant with its giant corn silos next to a cornfield in 

Windsor, Colorado July 7, 2006

NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) - U.S. fuel retailers are fighting the inclusion of a tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Democrats' $430 billion spending bill, arguing SAF is more carbon intense and less efficient than renewable diesel.

Lawmakers are offering a $1.25-$1.75 per gallon SAF credit depending on the feedstock used, as part of a tax and climate bill that aims to lower U.S. carbon emissions by about 40% by 2030 and cut the federal budget deficit by $300 billion.

The bill is expected to pass the Senate and move to the House with the SAF credit included next week. Democrats control the House and approval with the credit is expected.

Fuel retailers fear the credit would shift vegetable oil and other renewable feedstocks to aviation, leaving less of it for fuel producers that make renewable diesel.

The National Association of Truckstop Operators (NATSO) and SIGMA, a fuel marketers association, are urging lawmakers to oppose the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 unless it provides tax parity between the biodiesel tax credit (BTC) and proposed SAF tax credit.

A 2021 study from LMC International, an agricultural marketing consultancy, found that SAF production is less efficient at reducing carbon emissions than renewable diesel as more feedstock is required per gallon of output.

"SAF cannot compete with other renewable fuels on an environmental basis," said David Fialkov, executive vice president of government affairs at NATSO.

Other environmental advocates have argued that all biofuels that divert lipid-based feedstocks such as animal fats and waste cooking oils from existing markets present significant sustainability concerns.

"Increasing the global supply of vegetable oils, directly or indirectly, necessarily comes at the cost of forests and other natural lands," according to researchers at the International Council on Clean Transportation in an August briefing.

Airlines have told investors they will increasingly use sustainable aviation fuel made from vegetable oil and other low-carbon feedstocks in an attempt to decarbonize air travel. Due to poor economics, the fuel only represents 0.5% of today's jet fuel pool.

Aviation accounts for 3% of the world's carbon emissions, and is considered one of the toughest areas to cut emissions due to a lack of alternative technologies.

But the White House has vowed to lower aviation emissions by 20% by 2030, with a goal of boosting SAF production to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030, and to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand of about 35 billion gallons a year by 2050.

United States returns to Cambodia 30 antiquities looted from historic sites




Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department delivers remarks as he stands with seized items during an announcement of the repatriation and return to Cambodia of 30 Cambodian antiquities sold to U.S. collectors and institutions by Douglas Latchford and seized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., August 8, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) - The United States will return to Cambodia 30 looted antiquities, including bronze and stone statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities carved more than 1,000 years ago, U.S. officials said on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country's archaeological sites -including Koh Ker, a capital of the ancient Khmer empire - suffered widespread looting in civil conflicts between the 1960s and 1990s. Cambodia's government has since sought to repatriate stolen antiquities sold on the international market.

Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said the items being returned were sold to Western buyers by Douglas Latchford, a Bangkok dealer who created fake documents to conceal that the items had been looted and smuggled.

Williams said the antiquities, including a 10th century sandstone statue depicting the Hindu god of war Skanda riding on a peacock, were voluntarily relinquished by U.S. museums and private collectors after his office filed civil forfeiture claims.

"These statues and artifacts ... are of extraordinary cultural value to the Cambodian people," Williams said at a ceremony in Manhattan announcing the return of the antiquities.

U.S. prosecutors in 2019 charged Latchford, a dual citizen of Thailand and the United States, with wire fraud and smuggling over the alleged looting. He died in Thailand in 2020.

The antiquities will be displayed at the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's U.S. ambassador Keo Chhea told Reuters at the ceremony.

In 2014, federal prosecutors returned the Duryodhana, a looted 10th-century sandstone sculpture, to Cambodia after settling with auction house Sotheby's Inc, which had acquired it.

Last year, the Manhattan district attorney's office returned 27 looted antiquities to Cambodia.

New Colombian tax bill aims at oil exports to fund social spending

By Nelson Bocanegra and Carlos Vargas
August 8, 2022

Colombia's incoming Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Bogota, Colombia, August 2, 2022. REUTERS/Vannessa Jimenez

BOGOTA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Colombia's new leftist government on Monday formally proposed a tax reform bill to lawmakers which would raise some 25 trillion pesos ($5.76 billion) in 2023, equivalent to some 1.72% of gross domestic product, in an effort to increase revenue for anti-poverty programs.

Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo said the bill would eventually add some $11.53 billion annually to government coffers, with revenue gradually climbing as the legislation comes into force.

The funds, raised by levying more charges on high-earning individuals and exports of coal and oil, will be directed toward an ambitious agenda of social programs -- including anti-hunger efforts, free public universities, and aid for elderly people without pensions.

"We're seeking to contribute to equality and social justice with a more progressive tax system and also to assign the corresponding resources to government social programs and consolidate the fiscal adjustment that is clearly incomplete," Ocampo told journalists.

"Although there have been advances this year the fiscal deficit remains considerable."

The reform seeks to levy higher taxes on people who earn more than 10 million pesos (some $2,300) monthly - about 2% of Colombia's population. It would instate a permanent wealth tax, and charge a duty on earnings from the sale of shares in companies listed on the stock exchange.

The reform would also levy a 10% tax on exports of coal, oil and gold on income earned when each commodity exceeds a certain price threshold, Ocampo said

The threshold for oil would be $48 per barrel, while coal exports would see the duty levied when prices exceed $87 per tonne. The threshold for gold shipments would be $400 per troy ounce.

The payment of royalties by commodity companies would no longer be deductible from their income tax payments under the bill, Ocampo added.

Oil and coal are the country's top exports and source of royalties. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has promised to bar all new oil development and move the country away from coal production.

The country's mining association said it would comment on the proposal later this week, while the head of the private oil producers' association said it would analyze the bill.

Petro's promises worry some in the market, but Ocampo - a long-time official - has made efforts to assuage those fears, telling Reuters in an interview last week that he will "not do crazy things or allow crazy things." read more

The reform would also tax sugary drinks, highly-processed foods and single-use plastics.

The bill should be presented with an urgency request by the ministry to facilitate its quick passage, said Senate President Roy Barreras, a member of Petro's coalition.

($1 = 4,337.28 Colombian pesos)

Sierra Leone passes new laws to boost landowners' rights

By Umaru Fofana

FREETOWN, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's parliament on Monday passed two laws that lawyers say will help boost the rights of rural landowners and women against land grabs by big mining and agribusiness firms.

The West African country has a history of sometimes deadly conflict between local communities and foreign companies that have cleared huge tracts of land for palm oil and sugarcane plantations in recent years.

Locals have complained of environmental damage, losing their livelihoods and not being fairly compensated for their land. Under the current system, landowners get an annual rent of $2.5 per acre, which was determined by the state.

The Customary Land Rights Act and the Land Commission Act, both enacted on Monday, empower local landowners to negotiate the value of their land with investors and prevent it being leased out without their express consent.

Campaigners and locals praised the move, while one palm oil company executive said it would spell the end of investment.

"To our knowledge there is not a legal regime anywhere, in either hemisphere that grants such robust rights to communities facing harm," said Eleanor Thompson of Namati, an international legal advocacy group.

A director of SOCFIN , the biggest agribusiness company in Sierra Leone, called it a "dream of NGOs".

"Certainly it will block any investment... It makes things very expensive and we are all prone to enormous blackmail by various communities," Gerben Haringsma added.

The Luxembourg-based company has invested more than $150 million in palm oil farming in Sierra Leone. It has also frequently clashed with local landowners.

Lands Minister Turad Senessie said the new laws would encourage investment by ensuring peace and order.

"This is a win-win situation for both business and Sierra Leoneans including rural landowners," he told Reuters.

One of the laws will also end a colonial-era provision that bars descendants of freed slaves from owning land outside the capital, Freetown.

Analysis: Climate change, scarcity chip away at degrowth taboo

By Federica Urso and Mark John
August 8, 2022

Smoke billows after a wild fire, in Leiria, Portugal July 13, 2022. 

REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes/File Photo

Summary

Fifty years since advent of degrowth theory

Long shunned, receives new attention

Climate change focuses debate on cutting consumption

Aug 8 (Reuters) - Degrowth - the idea that a finite planet cannot sustain ever-increasing consumption - is about the closest you can get to a heresy in economics, where growth is widely held as the best route to prosperity.

But, as climate change accelerates and supply chain disruptions offer rich-world consumers an unaccustomed taste of scarcity, the theory is becoming less taboo and some have started to ponder what a degrowth world might look like.

After the U.N. climate science agency this year called for cuts in consumer demand - a core degrowth premise - the think tank that runs the Davos forum published a degrowth primer in June and the issue has even begun to crop up in investment notes.

"It is a provocative term," Aniket Shah, Global Head of ESG and Sustainability Strategy at Jefferies said of the New York-based bank's June 13 note on the "Degrowth Opportunity".

"But it's not about going to a low-income country saying 'You can't grow anymore'," he said. "It's saying: We need to look at the entire system and see how do we over time decrease total consumption and production in aggregate."

First coined in its French guise "décroissance" in 1972, the theory gained backers after the "Limits To Growth" report in the same year described a computer simulation by MIT scientists of a world destabilised by growing material consumption.

Controversial from the start, that simulation has been attacked as flawed by some and applauded by others as uncannily prescient in its prediction of accelerating planetary stress.

In recent decades, the world's economy has grown faster than the carbon emissions it generates. But this partial decoupling has been nowhere near enough to halt or reverse those emissions, allowing them to drive global warming further.

In April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that outright cuts to consumer demand were needed to reduce carbon emissions, a shift from a previous focus on the promise of sustainable fuel technology.

Reuters Graphics

The IPCC's biodiversity counterpart IPBES last month included degrowth among a number of alternative economic models with insights that could help to arrest environmental degradation.

"In the plenary, even the word 'degrowth' wasn't challenged. That's very interesting," IPBES report co-chair Unai Pascual told Reuters of conclusions that won approval from 139 member countries, including China, India, Russia and the United States.

The article on degrowth published in June by Davos-organiser the World Economic Forum hinted at degrowth impacts, suggesting "it might mean people in rich countries changing their diets, living in smaller houses and driving and travelling less".

GUNG-HO ON GROWTH

For Jefferies' Shah, it is such behavioural changes that could inspire a degrowth-aligned investment portfolio.

"Would Zoom for example ever want to be called a degrowth stock? I doubt it. But I can certainly see how a world that uses more web-conferencing ... means less travel, which is a very high-carbon-intensive way of transportation," said Shah.

It is easy to see how other products and services, such as mobility- and fashion-sharing, technologies that allow a transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy, or even just bicycles, could find a place in a hypothetical degrowth fund.

But how far ESG funds and the companies in which they invest are ready to align with degrowth is open to question given how the theory explicitly prioritises societal, environmental and other non-financial values over profit-making.

"Degrowth is really about true sustainability," Jennifer Wilkins, a researcher on emerging business sustainability issues whose work was featured in the Jefferies note, told Reuters.

"It's about delivering what is needed in terms of meeting human needs, within planetary boundaries. And current ESG investors don't really understand planetary boundaries," she said, adding their focus remained "what impacts the business".

That perhaps is not surprising.

Some countries have tried to measure economic outcomes differently - the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan famously devised a "gross national happiness" index and Japan is looking into developing a "green GDP" measurement.

But still, economic policy and markets overwhelmingly run on the dual track of increasing consumption and production.

Tim Jackson, an economist who has long critiqued that model, said the current debate on growth was "very, very confused", with different strands of thought vying for supremacy.

He pointed to the UK Conservative Party leadership contest - a race that will decide who replaces Boris Johnson as prime minister - as an example of what he called a "gung-ho" focus on economic growth as an unchallenged priority.

On the other hand, he said, more ecologically-minded politicians across Europe and beyond were receptive in private to arguments around limits to growth but "want to find other ways to talk about it that don't scare the horses".

Jackson, author of the 2009 book "Prosperity Without Growth", said the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and this year's Western sanctions on Russia had both challenged consumption with other priorities, namely health safety or geopolitical goals.

At the same time, some countries - for a variety of reasons ranging from demographic ageing to trade protectionism or lack of reform - could enter something akin to a "post-growth" state where their economies show little if any expansion.

That is a fate Japan has experienced with its "lost decades" and which some analysts see as a risk for Germany unless it quickly revamps its decades-old export-led economic model and shores up its vulnerability to energy shocks.

"Particularly in the advanced economies we are moving into a situation where to all intents and purposes, we're pretty much not looking at continued growth already," said Jackson.

"If we haven't got an economics that will deal with that .. then we've got very little chance of managing it successfully."

Additional reporting by Gloria Dickie and Vincent Flasseur in London; Kantaro Komiya and Daniel Leussink in Tokyo; editing by Barbara Lewis

Ukrainian risks her life to rescue wild animals from war
By HANNA ARHIROVA

yesterday

1 of 8

Natalia Popova, 50, pets a lion at her animal shelter in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Popova, in cooperation with the animal protection organisation UA Animals, has already saved more than 300 animals from the war, 200 of them were sent abroad, and 100 found a home in most western regions of Ukraine, which are considered to be safer. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — Natalia Popova has found a new purpose in life: Rescuing wild animals and pets from the devastation wrought by the war in Ukraine.

“They are my life,” says the 50-year-old, stroking a light-furred lioness like a kitten. From inside an enclosure, the animal rejoices at the attention, lying on her back and stretching her paws up toward her caretaker.

Popova, in cooperation with the animal protection group UA Animals, has already saved more than 300 animals from the war; 200 of them went abroad and 100 found new homes in western Ukraine, which is considered safer. Many of them were wild animals who were kept as pets at private homes before their owners fled Russian shelling and missiles.

Popova’s shelter in the Kyiv region village of Chubynske now houses 133 animals. It’s a broad menagerie, including 13 lions, a leopard, a tiger, three deer, wolves, foxes, raccoons and roe deer, as well as domesticated animals like horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats and birds.

The animals awaiting evacuation to Poland were rescued from hot spots such as eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, which see daily bombardments and active fighting. The Ukrainian soldiers who let Popova know when animals near the front lines need help joke that she has many lives, like a cat.

“No one wants to go there. Everyone is afraid. I am also scared, but I go anyway,” she said.

Often she is trembling in the car on her way to rescue another wild animal.

“I feel very sorry for them. I can imagine the stress animals are under because of the war, and no one can help them,” Popova said.

In most cases, she knows nothing about the animals she rescues, neither their names and ages nor their owners.

“Animals don’t introduce themselves when they come to us,” she joked.

For the first months of the war, Popova drove to war hot spots alone, but a couple from UA Animals recently offered to transport and help her.

“Our record is an evacuation in 16 minutes, when we saved a lion between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk,” Popova said. An economist by education with no formal veterinary experience, she administered anesthesia on the lion because the animal had to be put to sleep before it could be transported.

Popova says she has always been very attached to animals. In kindergarten, she built houses for worms and talked to birds. In 1999, she opened the first private horse club in Ukraine. But it wasn’t until four years ago that she saved her first lion.

An organization against slaughterhouses approached her with a request for help saving a lion with a broken spine. She did not know how she could help because her expertise was in horses. But when she saw a photo of the big cat, Popova could not resist.

She built an enclosure and took in the lion the next morning, paying the owner. Later, Popova created a social media page titled “Help the Lioness,” and people began to write asking for help saving other wild animals.

Yana, the first lioness she rescued, has become a family member since she could not find a new home due to a disability. Popova took care of her until she died two weeks ago.

The shelter is just a temporary stop for the animals. Popova rehabilitates them and then looks for new homes for them. She feels a special connection with each big cat, but says she does not mind letting them go.

“I love them, and I understand that I do not have the resources to provide them with the comfortable life they deserve,” says Popova.

At first, she bankrolled the shelter with her own funds from the horse business. But since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the horse business has not been profitable. With more than $14,000 a month needed to keep animals healthy and fed, she has turned to borrowing, and seen her debt grow to $200,000.

She gets some money from UA Animals and from donations, but worries about how to keep everything together have kept her up at night.

“But I will still borrow money, go to hot spots and save animals. I can’t say no to them,” she said.

Popova sends all her animals to the Poznań Zoo in Poland, which helps her evacuate them and find them new homes. Some animals have already been transported to Spain, France and South Africa. Her next project is sending 12 lions to Poland this week.

With no end to the fighting in sight, Popova knows she will still be needed.

“My mission in this war is to save wild animals,” she says.

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Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

Not so fast: California’s last nuke plant might run longer

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

yesterday

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The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, south of Los Osos, Calif., is viewed Sept. 20, 2005. California's last operating nuclear power plant could get a second lease on life. Owner Pacific Gas & Electric decided six years ago to close the twin-domed power plant by 2025. But Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was involved in the agreement to close the reactors, has prompted PG&E to consider seeking a longer lifespan for the plant. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File)


LOS ANGELES (AP) — An aggressive push toward renewable energy has run headlong into anxiety over keeping the lights on in California, where the largest utility is considering whether to try to extend the lifespan of the state’s last operating nuclear power plant.

California is the birthplace of the modern environmental movement that for decades has had a fraught relationship with nuclear power, which doesn’t produce carbon pollution like fossil fuels but leaves behind waste that can remain dangerously radioactive for centuries.

Now environmentalists find themselves at odds with someone they usually see as an ally: Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a green energy advocate who supported the 2016 agreement calling for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant to close by 2025 but now is a leading voice to consider a longer operating run.

Newsom often is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate and an attorney for a consumer advocacy group that routinely challenges plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric in rate cases believes “national political ambitions” are at play.

The push to keep Diablo Canyon running “is clearly coming from the governor’s office,” said Matthew Freedman of The Utility Reform Network. Newsom “is mindful that problems with electric system reliability can become a political liability and he is determined to take all possible actions to avoid any possibility that the lights go out in California.”

Newsom certainly wants to avoid a repeat of August 2020, when a record heat wave caused a surge in power use for air conditioning that overtaxed the electrical grid. There were two consecutive nights of rolling blackouts affecting hundreds of thousands of residential and business customers.

In a statement, Newsom communications director Erin Mellon didn’t address the question of politics but said the governor is focused on maintaining reliable energy for households and businesses while accelerating state efforts to meet his aggressive goals for reducing carbon pollution. He continues to support shuttering Diablo Canyon “in the long term.”

The debate over the plant comes as the long-struggling nuclear industry sees climate change as a reason for optimism. President Joe Biden has embraced nuclear power generation as part of his strategy to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.

Nuclear power provides roughly one-fifth of the electricity in the country, though generation produced by the industry has dropped since 2010. Saving a plant in green energy-friendly California would carry symbolic weight but the window to make an abrupt turnaround appears narrow.

PG&E CEO Patricia “Patti” Poppe told investors in a call last month that state legislation would have to be enacted by September to open the way for PG&E to reverse course. She said the utility faced “a real sense of urgency” because other steps would be required to keep the plant running, including ordering more reactor fuel and storage casks for housing spent fuel that remains highly radioactive.

Extending the plant’s operating life “is not an easy option,” Poppe said. “The permitting and relicensing of the facility is complex and so there’s a lot of hurdles to be overcome.”

The plant on the coast midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco produces 9% of the electricity for California’s nearly 40 million residents. The state earlier set aside up to $75 million to extend operation of older power plants scheduled to close, but it’s not yet clear whether taxpayers might be covering part of the bill — and, if so, how much — to keep Diablo running.

The Newsom administration has been pushing to expand clean energy, as the state aims to cut emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. California installed more clean energy capacity in 2021 than in any other year in state history, administration officials say, but they warn reliability remains in question as temperatures rise amid climate change.

For Diablo Canyon, the issue is whether the Newsom administration, in concert with investor-owned PG&E, can find a way to unspool the 2016 closure agreement agreed to by environmentalists, plant worker unions and the utility. The decision to close the plant also was endorsed by California utility regulators, the Legislature and then-Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

Plant workers now support keeping the reactors open for an extended run while anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists have rejoined a battle they thought was settled six years ago.

“It only makes sense keeping Diablo open,” said Marc D. Joseph, an attorney for the Coalition of California Utility Employees, which represents plant workers. “There is no one involved who wants to see carbon emissions in California go up.”

Critics question if it’s feasible — or even legal — for the utility to break the agreement.

“I don’t know how to unwind it, and I don’t think it should be unwound,” said Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that negotiated and signed the pact.

Friends of the Earth, another signatory of the deal, would oppose any effort to extend the reactors’ operating span. “None of the conditions have changed to pull back on that agreement,” said the group’s president, Erich Pica.

There’s also concern about the aging plant’s safety. Construction at Diablo Canyon began in the 1960s and critics say potential shaking from nearby earthquake faults not recognized when the design was first approved — one nearby fault was not discovered until 2008 — could damage equipment and release radiation.

Lifting the agreement would place “huge numbers of people at great, great risk. That’s what’s at stake here,” said Daniel Hirsch, retired director of the program on environmental and nuclear policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a longtime critic of nuclear plant safety.

PG&E, which has long said the plant is seismically safe, hasn’t said much about whether it will push to extend operations beyond 2025. It is assessing that possibility while continuing to plan for closing and dismantling the plant “unless those actions are superseded by new state policies,” PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn said in a statement.

PG&E is considering applying for a share of $6 billion in federal funding the Biden administration established to rescue nuclear plants at risk of closing. The utility announced the move after Newsom suggested a longer operating run would help the state deal with potential future electricity shortages.

The Energy Department recently recast rules at the request of the Newsom administration that could open the way for an application from Diablo Canyon. But some environmentalists question if those changes conflict with the federal law that provided the funds.

As part of the closure deal, the state granted PG&E a short-term lease for submerged ocean water intake and discharge structures through 2025, which also would have to be extended to keep the plant operating.

Factors cited in the lease agreement echo language in the closing pact, including that the utility would not seek an extended operating license and PG&E was expected to use that period through 2025 to develop a portfolio of greenhouse gas-free renewables and efficiencies to replace Diablo Canyon’s power.

PG&E said in a statement it has met its replacement power requirements to date.

PG&E’s decision to close Diablo Canyon came at a time of rapid change in the energy landscape.

With heavily Democratic California prioritizing renewables to meet future power demand, the utility predicted there would reduced need for power from large plants like Diablo Canyon after 2025. There was even the risk of too much power generation.

Rather than too much power, state officials have warned of possible electricity shortages this summer as a warming climate creates more demand for power, wildfires sometimes incinerate power lines and a long-running drought has reduced hydropower. An emerging tariff dispute — involving products assembled in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia using parts and components from China — has delayed solar and storage projects, administration officials say.

But environmentalists argue that a nuclear plant — generating large amounts of power continuously — is not a solution to fill occasional gaps, such as when solar dips after the sun sets.

Reliable electricity “is not a 24/7 problem,” said Cavanagh, of the NRDC. “The last thing you want to solve a problem like that is a giant machine that has to operate 24/7 in order to be economic.