Saudi PhD student sentenced to 34 years in prison for following and retweeting activists

Sinéad Baker
Wed, August 17, 2022

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.Bernd von Jutrczenka/Getty Images

A Saudi PhD student was given 34 years in prison for following and retweeting dissidents.

She was accused of aiding people who want to harm national security by following them, per The Guardian.

Rights groups say this is the longest sentence for an activist and could signal greater crackdowns to come.

A Saudi Arabian PhD student was sentenced to 34 years in prison for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter, The Guardian reported, citing translated court documents.

Salma al-Shehab, 34, was studying at Leeds University in the UK and went home to Saudi Arabia for a vacation in December 2020 when she was questioned by authorities, arrested, and put on trial, The Guardian reported.

Al-Shehab, who is married with two children, was first sentenced to three years for using a website to "cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security," The Guardian reported.

But on Monday she was sentenced to more time by an appeals court over the Twitter accounts she followed and retweeted, the report said.

She was given a total 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban, The Guardian reported.

The Washington Post also reported the sentence, as did the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and the US-based nonprofit Freedom Initiative.

The translated court documents seen by The Guardian said al-Shehab was accused of "assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilize civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts."

According to The Guardian, she had retweeted Saudi dissidents who called for political prisoners held in Saudi Arabia to be released. The Post reported that she also advocated for women's right to drive, a policy that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allowed in 2018, though activists were still imprisoned.

The Guardian noted that al-Shehab did not have a large online following — she reportedly had around 2,500 followers — and was not known for being an activist, with many of her tweets being about her children.

She may be able to appeal, The Guardian said.

Twitter declined to comment on al-Shehab's the case to The Guardian. Saudi Arabia's government holds a significant investment in Twitter, The Guardian noted.

Both the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and Freedom Initiative said al-Shehab's sentence was the longest prison sentence given to an activist, and could signal more crackdowns on dissent.

Human-rights groups say Saudi Arabia frequently arrests people who voice disagreements with the government — sometimes years after they made any public criticisms.

This included the arrest of dozens of people when Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, became crown prince in 2017. He has since been considered the kingdom's de facto ruler.

Two senior Saudi were arrested in 2020 for not supporting him, sources close to the royal family told the Associated Press at the time. MBS has also imprisoned many high-profile political figures whom he considered to be a threat to his grip on power.

Saudi doctoral student gets 34 years in prison for tweets


In this frame grab from Saudi state television footage, doctoral student and women's rights advocate Salma al-Shehab speaks to a journalist at the Riyadh International Book Fair in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in March 2014. A Saudi court has sentenced al-Shehab to 34 years in prison for spreading "rumors" on Twitter and retweeting dissidents, according to court documents obtained Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, a decision that has drawn growing global condemnation. 

(Saudi state television via AP) 

ISABEL DEBRE
Thu, August 18, 2022 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi court has sentenced a doctoral student to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, according to court documents obtained Thursday, a decision that has drawn growing global condemnation.

Activists and lawyers consider the sentence against Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two and a researcher at Leeds University in Britain, shocking even by Saudi standards of justice.

So far unacknowledged by the kingdom, the ruling comes amid Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's crackdown on dissent even as his rule granted women the right to drive and other new freedoms in the ultraconservative Islamic nation.

Al-Shehab was detained during a family vacation on Jan. 15, 2021, just days before she planned to return to the United Kingdom, according to the Freedom Initiative, a Washington-based human rights group.

Al-Shehab told judges she had been held for over 285 days in solitary confinement before her case was even referred to court, the legal documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

The Freedom Initiative describes al-Shehab as a member of Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim minority, which has long complained of systematic discrimination in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia has boasted to the world that they are improving women’s rights and creating legal reform, but there is no question with this abhorrent sentence that the situation is only getting worse," said Bethany al-Haidari, the group's Saudi case manager.

Leading human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Thursday slammed al-Shehab's trial as “grossly unfair” and her sentence as “cruel and unlawful.”

Since rising to power in 2017, Prince Mohammed has accelerated efforts to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil with massive tourism projects — most recently plans to create the world’s longest buildings that would stretch for more than 100 miles in the desert. But he has also faced criticism over his arrests of those who fail to fall in line, including dissidents and activists but also princes and businessmen.

Judges accused al-Shehab of “disturbing public order” and “destabilizing the social fabric" — claims stemming solely from her social media activity, according to an official charge sheet. They alleged al-Shehab followed and retweeted dissident accounts on Twitter and “transmitted false rumors.”

The specialized criminal court handed down the unusually harsh 34-year sentence under Saudi counterterrorism and cybercrime laws, to be followed by a 34-year travel ban. The decision came earlier this month as al-Shehab appealed her initial sentence of six years.

“The (six-year) prison sentence imposed on the defendant was minor in view of her crimes,” a state prosecutor told the appeals court. “I'm calling to amend the sentence in light of her support for those who are trying to cause disorder and destabilize society, as shown by her following and retweeting (Twitter) accounts."

The Saudi government in Riyadh, as well as its embassies in Washington and London, did not respond to a request for comment.

Leeds University confirmed that al-Shehab was in her final year of doctoral studies at the medical school.

“We are deeply concerned to learn of this recent development in Salma’s case and we are seeking advice on whether there is anything we can do to support her," the university said.

Al-Shehab's sentencing also drew the attention of Washington, where the State Department said Wednesday it was “studying the case.”

“Exercising freedom of expression to advocate for the rights of women should not be criminalized, it should never be criminalized,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed concern on Twitter Thursday that the kingdom targeted al-Shehab “for her peaceful activism in solidarity w/political prisoners," as well as for her Shiite identity.

Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to the oil-rich kingdom and held talks with Prince Mohammed in which he said he raised human rights concerns. Their meeting — and much-criticized fist-bump — marked a sharp turn-around from Biden's earlier vow to make the kingdom a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

During her appeal, al-Shehab said the harsh judgement was tantamount to the “destruction of me, my family, my future, and the future of my children.” She has two young boys, aged 4 and 6.

She told judges she had no idea that simply retweeting posts “out of curiosity and to observe others' viewpoints," from a personal account with no more than 2,000 followers, constituted terrorism.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Saudi mother handed 34-year jail sentence for using Twitter

James Rothwell
Wed, August 17, 2022

Salma Al-Shehab was handed a 34-year sentence and a 34-year travel ban for Twitter activism

A Leeds university student and mother-of-two in Saudi Arabia has been sent to jail for 34 years for Twitter activism, in what is believed to be the longest-ever prison sentence given to a critic of the kingdom.

Salma Al-Shehab, a PhD student, was on holiday in Saudi Arabia in January 2021 when she was arrested on sedition charges for having a Twitter account and for retweeting critics of the Saudi leadership to her fewer than 3,000 followers.

The mother-of-two was initially sentenced to six years in prison sometime last year. But this week she was handed a new 34-year sentence and a 34-year travel ban, as part of what human rights groups said was the most draconian sentence they had seen in cases involving critics of Saudi Arabia.

According to a translation of the court records, which were seen by the Guardian, the new charges include “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by re-tweeting their tweets.

Human rights groups have warned that Saudi Arabia is embarking on a grim new phase in its crackdown on women.

Sentence part of crackdown on female critics

The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights warned that the ruling "sets a dangerous precedent for women activists and human rights defenders". It also warned that the kingdom was pushing ahead with "grave violations against women activists without any hesitation".

"The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights considers that the sentence issued against Salma Al-Shehab is unprecedented and dangerous, as it is the longest prison sentence issued against female or male activists and might be a step towards further escalation against them," the human rights group added.

Ms Shehab's arrest appears to be linked to a widening crackdown by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on female critics, with officials using Twitter activity as evidence to secure convictions.

Ms Shehab, 34, had a relatively small and unassuming presence on social media, with only around 2,500 Twitter followers and just 159 followers on Instagram.

She occasionally retweeted statements by Saudi dissidents living abroad and appears to have supported the plight of Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi feminist activist who was imprisoned and allegedly tortured by Saudi authorities.

Speaking to the Guardian, an acquaintance of Ms Shehab described her as a well-educated and avid reader who came to the UK in 2018 or 2019 to study her phD at Leeds University.
Calls for President Biden to secure her release

She reportedly went back to Saudi Arabia for a holiday in December 2020 and had intended to bring her husband and two children back to Britain before she was arrested. An editorial in the Washington Post has called on President Joe Biden to secure her release and allow her family to return to Britain.

In her appeal, Ms Shehab denied the charges of sedition and accusations of being a security risk. She pointed out that she had a small following online and that her social media posts were peaceful and included posts about her children. She is said to have been held in solitary confinement for 284 days.

Her last post on Twitter was on January 13 2021, a retweet of a classic Arabic song about missing the company of a loved one. Another tweet called for "freedom to the prisoners of conscience and to every oppressed person in the world".

Lina al-Hathloul, the sister of Loujain and a member of the London-based human rights group ALQST, told the Washington Post that the sentence included an order to close Ms Shehab's Twitter account.

The rights group was working to prevent Twitter from closing the account, or at least ensure Twitter realises the request to close it came from Saudi authorities and not Ms Shehab herself, she said.

According to Saudi human rights activists, at least one pro-Saudi "troll account" has boasted of reporting Ms Shehab to the authorities using an app for tracking crime.

The three-decade sentence was handed down just a few weeks after President Biden visited Saudi Arabia to discuss oil production amid the global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Critics say that controversial visit has legitimised the Crown Prince, who became a global pariah in 2018 after he allegedly ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi commentator. The Crown Prince strongly denies he ordered the murder, which Saudi Arabia blamed on rogue agents.

The Telegraph approached Saudi authorities for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The Guardian said Twitter declined to comment on the case or respond to questions about whether Saudi Arabia has any influence over the company. Twitter did not immediately respond when contacted by the Telegraph.

Carbon capture is incredibly expensive — and makes a difference only at the edges

© Climeworks

Kevin Trenberth - Wednesday, Aug 17,2022
THE CONVERSATION

When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels.

There are many proposals for removing carbon dioxide, but most make differences only at the edges, and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to increase relentlessly, even through the pandemic.

I’ve been working on climate change for over four decades. Let’s take a minute to come to grips with some of the rhetoric around climate change and clear the air, so to speak.What’s causing climate change?

As has been well established now for several decades, the global climate is changing, and that change is caused by human activities.

When fossil fuels are burned for energy or used in transportation, they release carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas that is the main cause of global heating. Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for centuries. As more carbon dioxide is added, its increasing concentration acts like a blanket, trapping energy near Earth’s surface that would otherwise escape into space.

When the amount of energy arriving from the sun exceeds the amount of energy radiating back into space, the climate heats up. Some of that energy increases temperatures, and some increases evaporation and fuels storms and rains.

Because of these changes in atmospheric composition, the planet has warmed by an estimated 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 F) since about 1880 and is well on the way to 1.5 C (2.7 F), which was highlighted as a goal not to be crossed if possible by the Paris Agreement. With the global heating and gradual increases in temperature have come increases in all kinds of weather and climate extremes, from flooding to drought and heat waves, that cause huge damage, disruption and loss of life.

Studies shows that global carbon dioxide emissions will need to reach net-zero carbon emissions by midcentury to have a chance of limiting warming to even 2 C (3.6 F).

Currently, the main source of carbon dioxide is China. But accumulated emissions matter most, and the United States leads, closely followed by Europe, China and others.What works to slow climate change?

Modern society needs energy, but it does not have to be from fossil fuels.

Studies show that the most effective way to address the climate change problem is to decarbonize the economies of the world’s nations. This means sharply increasing use of renewable energy – solar and wind cost less than new fossil fuel plants in much of the world today – and the use of electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, this changeover to renewables has been slow, due in large part to the the huge and expensive infrastructure related to fossil fuels, along with the vast amount of dollars that can buy influence with politicians.What doesn’t work?

Instead of drastically cutting emissions, companies and politicians have grasped at alternatives. These include geoengineering; carbon capture and storage, including “direct air capture”; and planting trees. The new U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, for example, invests heavily in carbon capture technology, in addition to providing tax incentives for expanding renewable energy.

Here’s the issue:

Geoengineering often means “solar radiation management,” which aims to emulate a volcano and add particulates to the stratosphere to reflect incoming solar radiation back to space and produce a cooling. It might partially work, but it could have concerning side effects.

The global warming problem is not sunshine, but rather that infrared radiation emitted from Earth is being trapped by greenhouse gases. Between the incoming solar and outgoing radiation is the whole weather and climate system and the hydrological cycle. Sudden changes in these particles or poor distribution could have dramatic effects.

The last major volcanic eruption, of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, sent enough sulfur dioxide and particulates into the stratosphere that it produced modest cooling, but it also caused a loss of precipitation over land. It cooled the land more than the ocean so that monsoon rains moved offshore, and longer term it slowed the water cycle.

Carbon capture and storage has been researched and tried for well over a decade but has sizable costs. Only about a dozen industrial plants in the U.S. currently capture their carbon emissions, and most of it is used to enhance drilling for oil.

Direct air capture – technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air – is being developed in several places. It uses a lot of energy, though, and while that could potentially be dealt with by using renewable energy, it’s still energy intensive.

Planting trees is often embraced as a solution for offsetting corporate greenhouse gas emissions. Trees and vegetation take up carbon dioxide though photosynthesis and produce wood and other plant material. It’s relatively cheap.

But trees aren’t permanent. Leaves, twigs and dead trees decay. Forests burn. Recent studies show that the risks to trees from stress, wildfires, drought and insects as temperatures rise will also be larger than expected.How much does all this cost?

Scientists have been measuring carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, since 1958 and elsewhere. The average annual increase in carbon dioxide concentration has accelerated, from about 1 part per million volume per year in the 1960s to 1.5 in the 1990s, to 2.5 in recent years since 2010.

This relentless increase, through the pandemic and in spite of efforts in many countries to cut emissions, shows how enormous the problem is.

Usually carbon removal is discussed in terms of mass, measured in megatons – millions of metric tons – of carbon dioxide per year, not in parts per million of volume. The mass of the atmosphere is about 5.5×10¹⁵ metric tons, but as carbon dioxide (molecular weight 42) is heavier than air (molecular weight about 29), 1 part per million volume of carbon dioxide is about 7.8 billion metric tons.

According to the World Resources Institute, the range of costs for direct air capture vary between US$250 and $600 per metric ton of carbon dioxide removed today, depending on the technology, energy source and scale of deployment. Even if costs fell to $100 per metric ton, the cost of reducing the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide by 1 part per million is around $780 billion.

The cost to remove 1 part per million by volume using trees could be as much as $390 billion.

Keep in mind that the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has risen from about 280 parts per million before the industrial era to around 420 today, and it is currently rising at more than 2 parts per million per year.

Tree restoration on one-third to two-thirds of suitable acres is estimated to be able to remove about 7.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050 without displacing agricultural land, by WRI’s calculations. That would be more than any other pathway. This might sound like a lot, but 7 gigatons of carbon dioxide is 7 billion metric tons, and so this is less than 1 part per million by volume. The cost is estimated to be up to $50 per metric ton. So even with trees, the cost to remove 1 part per million by volume could be as much as $390 billion.

Geoengineering is also expensive.

So for hundreds of billions of dollars, the best prospect with these strategies is a tiny dent of 1 part per million volume in the carbon dioxide concentration.

This arithmetic highlights the tremendous need to cut emissions. There is no viable workaround.

Kevin Trenberth is a Distinguished Scholar, NCAR and affiliated faculty member at the University of Auckland. This was first published by The Conversation–“How not to solve the climate change problem“.

Phillips 66 Makes Offer to Acquire DCP Midstream in $7.2 Billion Cash Deal

Published: August 18, 2022 |


Houston oil giant Phillips 66 is offering to buy the common shares of Denver-based DCP Midstream and consolidate ownership of the natural gas processing and pipeline business that it jointly owns today.

DCP Midstream, currently Colorado’s largest oil and gas employer, would be merged into a Phillips 66 subsidiary and no longer be a standalone joint venture.

Phillips 66 offered $34.75 late Wednesday for each outstanding common unit in DCP Midstream it doesn’t own already.

The offer coincided with a restructuring that increased Phillip 66’s ownership of the DCP Midstream parent company, which is a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Canada-based pipeline giant Enbridge, and handed management of the joint venture to Phillips 66.

“We are growing our integrated [natural gas liquids] business to further strengthen our competitive position, while driving operational and commercial synergies. DCP is a valued business in our portfolio and enhances our existing value chain from wellhead to market, creating a platform for future NGL growth,” said Mark Lashier, president and CEO of Phillips 66, in a statement.

Phillips 66 owns 56.5 percent of DCP Midstream common units today after the restructuring. There were 208.4 million units of DCP Midstream as of July 29, and the offer valued the units at $7.2 billion.

It isn’t clear what the transaction would mean for DCP Midstream in Denver, where it’s the local oil and gas industry’s biggest employer.

The business is one of the largest U.S. transporters and processors of natural gas and associated liquids, operating pipelines and 35 natural gas processing plants across nine states.

Its systems gather and transport natural gas products from oil companies’ wells, processing natural gas for distribution into regional pipelines and separating out liquids — products such as propane and liquids used in plastics production — and selling them for refining.

DCP Midstream is headquartered in the south Denver suburbs and has a technology and operations office downtown. About 1,800 people work for the company nationally.

It’s a key handler of natural gas and pipelines in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, the oil-rich region north and east of the Denver metro area where the bulk of Colorado crude oil is produced.

DCP Midstream also is a major gas processor and handler of natural gas liquids in the Permian Basin region of West Texas, the largest oil-producing area in the country.

The company generated $3.8 billion in second-quarter revenue from its two lines of business, logistics and marketing of natural gas liquids and the gathering and processing of natural gas.

DCP Midstream predicted earlier this year that oil and gas companies in its two strongest regions, the Denver-Julesburg Basin of northeast Colorado and Texas’ Permian Basin, would increase oil and gas production volumes by 2 percent to 5 percent in 2022.

Phillips 66’s restructuring of the DCP Midstream joint venture saw the oil giant pay $400 million cash and swap most of its interest in Gray Oak Pipeline, a large new pipeline system in Texas, to Enbridge in exchange for upping Phillips 66’s economic interest in DCP Midstream to 43 percent and assuming oversight and management of the joint venture.
Recommended

The move reduced Phillips 66’s interest in Gray Oak Pipeline from 42 percent to just over 6 percent, while Enbridge’s stake in the DCP Midstream joint venture was reduced by more than half and it now holds a 13.2 percent stake in DCP Midstream.

Phillips 66 opened the Gray Oak Pipeline in 2020, saying it was planned to transport 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The system connects Texas’ Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford oilfields to the state’s major Gulf Coast refinery hubs.

Source: Denver Business Journal

Biden admin says about 20 models will still qualify for EV tax credits



Rebecca Bellan
Tue, August 16, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday, says that if automakers want their electric vehicles to be eligible for tax credits, they'll need to have final assembly in North America. The law, which takes effect immediately, ends credits for about 70% of the 72 models that were previously eligible, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

About 20 model year 2022 and early model year 2023 vehicles will still make the cut for EV tax credits of up to $7,500 through the end of the year under the new legislation. Any manufacturer that does not assemble vehicles in North America or has reached their cap of 200,000 EV credits will not be eligible for the freshly named Clean Vehicle Credit this year. That leaves the following models still eligible:
Electric vehicles from model year 2022 eligible for Clean Vehicle Credit

Audi Q5


BMW 3-series Plug-In and BMW X5


Chrysler Pacifica PHEV


Ford F Series; Ford Mustang Mach E; Ford Transit Van


Jeep Grand Cherokee PHEV


Jeep Wrangler PHEV


Lincoln Aviator PHEV and Lincoln Corsair Plug-in


Lucid Air


Nissan Leaf


Rivian EDV; Rivian R1S; Rivian R1T


Volvo S60

Electric vehicles from model year 2023 eligible for Clean Vehicle Credit

BMW 3-series Plug-In


Mercedes EQS


Nissan Leaf
EVs that have used up their tax credits

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV; 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EV; 2023 Bolt EV


2022 GMC Hummer Pickup and SUV


2022 Tesla Models 3, S, X and Y


2023 Cadillac Lyriq

More details

The law's signing means that EVs sold by Toyota, Hyundai, Porsche, Kia and others will no longer be eligible for the tax credit. However, if a customer has made a non-refundable deposit or down payment of 5% of the total contact price before Biden signed the law, they can still qualify. Many automakers had been urging customers to finalize deals and put down deposits in order squeeze in a few more tax credits.

Additional provisions are expected to go into effect January 1, 2023. For example, there will be new restrictions on battery and mineral sourcing, as well as price and income caps. The start of the year will also reset the clock for General Motors and Tesla to be eligible once again for EV tax credits.

By 2024, buyers will be able to transfer their credits to dealers when purchasing the vehicles to reduce the sale price.

The U.S. Department of Energy noted that some manufacturers produce vehicles in multiple locations. The build location can be confirmed by referring to a vehicle's Vehicle Identification Number by using the VIN decoder tool.


Winners, losers abound as Inflation Reduction Act becomes law

Japan auto lobby says it is concerned about new U.S. law on EV credits


U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks after touring the General Motors 'Factory ZERO' electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit

Wed, August 17, 2022 

TOKYO (Reuters) - A major Japanese auto lobby said it was concerned about a new U.S. law that restricts tax credits for electric vehicles to those assembled in North America.

The Biden administration said on Tuesday about 20 models still qualify for tax credits of up to $7,500. Credits end immediately for about 70% of the 72 models that were previously eligible, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade group.

New restrictions on battery and mineral sourcing and price and income caps take effect on Jan. 1 that will make all or nearly all EVs ineligible, the auto group added.

Some major Asian automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co do not currently manufacture electric vehicles in the United States.

"We will keep a close watch on future developments and will consult and consider how to respond to them in cooperation with the government," a Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association spokesperson said.

Toyota referred inquiries to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which said the auto industry will continue to work with the U.S. government to promote EV tax credits.

Hyundai declined to comment.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

The return of 'rasputitsa' and what it means for Russia's war in Ukraine

Niamh Cavanagh

·Producer

Wed, August 17, 2022 

For centuries, Russia has depended on its harsh winter weather to help turn back invaders. But as summer turns to fall in Ukraine, it might be Russian forces who find themselves on the losing side of the “rasputitsa” — the wet, muddy period caused by melting snow in the spring and heavy rains in autumn.

The rasputitsa, also known as “General Mud” or “Marshal Mud,” is well-known to military historians. During Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, French soldiers were unable to effectively retreat on muddy rural roads. More than a century later, during World War II, Adolf Hitler’s tanks and trucks sputtered in waist-deep mud while attempting to advance to Moscow. Jason Lyall, a professor of government at Dartmouth, said toward the beginning of the invasion that rasputitsa is one of the “the Four Horsemen of the Ukrainian Army,” alongside portable anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles.

Ukrainian Military Forces conduct live-fire exercises near Kharkiv, on Feb. 10, 2022. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)

When the Kremlin began its brutal invasion in February, the issue of how rasputitsa would affect the invading Russian army’s battle plans was a hot topic. Alyssa Demus, a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corp., told Yahoo News in March that the Russian military could find navigating Ukrainian roads more challenging than they had anticipated.

“They’re either dirt roads, or they’re incredibly potholed,” Demus said about Ukraine’s roads. “It’s important to remind people that when we’re talking about moving heavy infrastructure or heavy machinery over these sorts of long distances, a tank could destroy a well-built western road depending on its weight, tread and other factors.”

And plenty of pictures circulated on social media of abandoned Russian tanks in the six months of the invasion. According to the open source intelligence organization Oryx, 315 tanks have been abandoned so far — although, in some cases, the cause of their abandonment remains unknown.

But what about when rasputitsa arrives in the fall? Yahoo News spoke with military strategist and retired Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan and analysts at Janes, a defense intelligence provider, about the looming threat of rasputita’s arrival.

Soldiers of the Donetsk People's Republic target enemy positions near Krasnohorivka, Ukraine. (Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“I don't think it will have the same impact in the autumn as it would in the spring,” Ryan said. “Having looked at the climate there, it appears — particularly in Ukraine, where spring [sees] melting snow — it has a larger impact than, say, in autumn. I don’t think it’s as likely in the autumn, as it might have been in the spring.”

A Janes analyst told Yahoo News that fall weather would likely “slow down the pace of the war” but they agreed that it would not have the same “dramatic effect it did last spring.”

“Right now, the Russians and Ukrainians are likely competing for territory in the belief that any ground they take before the end of summer will be safe from recapture throughout the winter as the war bogs down further,” the Janes analyst said.

“Once autumn arrives, life for infantry will get harder, last-mile resupply will become more difficult in the more rural fronts and artillery will find it harder to move around to employ ‘shoot and scoot’ tactics. This will make the use of artillery more dangerous for both sides.”

A Ukrainian soldier stands on a damaged Russian tank on the outskirts of the village of Nova Basan. (Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

With regard to vehicles becoming stuck, analysts said that both Ukrainian and Russian forces will be more wary about driving vehicles off-road and choose to stay still rather than risk losing vehicles to the mud.

But with just weeks to go before the fall, is either side preparing for rasputitsa? Ryan says they must be, as they have “been fighting and operating here for hundreds and hundreds of years.”

“Before trucks, there were horse-drawn carts and horses and people and they all have a problem with mud,” he added, “It doesn't mean it’s easy, but they have ways of dealing with it.”

Putin Calls in ‘Organized Crime Syndicate’ to Shake Up Failing Army in Ukraine


Allison Quinn
Thu, August 18, 2022 

AFP via Getty

Nearly six months into Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine, it appears Vladimir Putin has pinned his hopes for claiming victory on a self-described “organized crime syndicate” that is now trawling prisons for cold-blooded killers and deploying mercenaries to straighten out fed-up troops.

That’s according to several explosive new reports out Thursday by the independent Russian investigative news outlets iStories and The Insider, both of which uncovered disturbing new details about the notorious Wagner Group’s alleged role in the war.

After myriad reports in recent weeks that Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has been personally touring Russian prisons and promising inmates full amnesty if they fight for Wagner in Ukraine, a staffer at a high-security penal colony in the Tula region has revealed the real reason behind the desperate recruiting drive.

Identified only as Ivan, the staffer told The Insider that Prighozhin had visited personally on July 24 and told inmates the regular Russian military was “weakening” and “cannot cope” with the war.

Prighozin said he’d been given an order by President Putin “to use all possible resources” to win the war, Ivan was quoted saying.

“He called his organization an organized crime group and talked a lot about the advantage of participating in war through them. Honestly, I thought it was a surrealistic dream. A man who had a Hero of Russia star pinned to his T-shirt, was telling us loud and clear about what was going on in our country. That gangsters are really in power and they don’t give a fuck about any human rights organizations like Gulagu.net or the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers,” he said.

“I’m not afraid to say, we’re an organized crime group that helps the Russian army,” another inmate, Alexei, quoted Prighozin as saying.

Sergei, an inmate at a penal colony in Bryansk, was quoted telling the outlet he’d desperately tried to join Wagner but was ultimately rejected and had come to realize that was a good thing.

Russia’s Panicked Confession: This Is What Scares Us Most

The recruiters, he’d said, had announced they were looking for inmates convicted of murder, to be sure that they’d be prepared to kill again.

“Out of 400 people they took 150. I passed all of the tests, I passed the commission, but at the last stage FSB officers came, and they rejected me because of my tattoos, I had a swastika tattoo. I think they were accepting those who had nothing to lose, but I was unlucky,” he was quoted saying.

He went on to say that, after talking to more people outside of prison about the war, he’d learned no one was getting paid the compensation they were promised and that it was all really just a “meat grinder.”

“On TV they show one thing, but in reality everything is probably different,” he said.

Human rights groups and inmates alike have both also expressed concerns that the Wagner recruiting drive that has so far been voluntary may soon become forced. A friend of an inmate in Plavsk interviewed by Mediazona earlier this month said Wagner representatives had told prisoners they’d be back for another visit in two or three months if they “run out” of inmates from the first wave of recruitment.

So far, according to the independent outlet Verstka, which has also closely covered the alleged Wagner recruiting drive, the mercenary group has recruited more than 1,000 inmates at 17 different penal colonies throughout Russia.

Long accused by Western officials and investigative journalists of financing Wagner, Prigozhin has denied having any links to the paramilitary force, a shadowy group that has left a long trail of war crimes allegations in its wake in Ukraine, Syria and the Central African Republic.

Wagner has also been deployed to crack down on regular Russian troops trying to ditch the war, according to soldiers interviewed by iStories.

Family members of Russian soldiers and some soldiers themselves say Wagner mercenaries have been guarding makeshift camps in the occupied Luhansk region where troops who try to leave the war are being held against their will in basements.

Dmitry, the father of a soldier who wound up at such a camp in Bryanka, told iStories his son became alarmed after arriving and noticing the set up.

“In Bryanka, they were first told that [military] posts had been set up because they were guarding against all sorts of [Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups]. And then they saw that all the posts were deployed inside the camp. Roughly speaking, the firing zone was inward,” he said.

Dmitry said his son was repeatedly beaten for refusing to go back to the front—and was at one point dragged off to face execution.

“They said, ‘Lie down on the ground so your brains don’t splatter everywhere, and count to ten,’” he recalled. After he refused to do so, they bashed him over the head, he said.

Sergei, a Russian soldier who said he also wound up at the camp after telling the military command he wanted out of the war, told iStories he’d seen captives snatched up and taken in an “unknown direction” by men he identified as Wagner fighters, one of whom wound up dead on his way to the front line, supposedly from shelling.

He said troops at the camp, including himself, first went through questioning by commanders and “psychologists” who tried to convince them to join Wagner, but if that didn’t work, they’d be handed over to Wagner mercenaries.

“They really beat guys there with truncheons in basements… They say: ‘We will kill you, nothing will happen to us for it. Nobody knows you’re here,’” he said.

Sergei, who eventually made it back to Russia and has filed a complaint with military prosecutors, along with several other troops, said he’d come to realize the camps had all been set up with one goal in mind: forcing troops into Wagner.

Of the second camp he said he was held at in Luhansk, he said: “We found out that this place was called a ‘center for psychological support for military personnel,’ but in reality it was just recruitment for Wagner.”

He and other soldiers who escaped say they are now disgusted by the Russian leadership they once swore allegiance to—and that disillusionment set in almost immediately after many of them arrived in Ukraine and realized what was really happening there.

“Do you understand that we’re really the fascists?” Sergei recalled telling a fellow soldier. “He said, ‘I was scared to say the same thing to you, I thought you’d shoot me. Yes, we’re the fascists, and I realize that.”

Remains of house-cat-sized dinosaur with spikes, powerful bite discovered in Argentina



Saleen Martin
Wed, August 17, 2022

Researchers in Argentina have discovered remains of a tiny, herbivorous dinosaur with protective spikes, suggesting the group it belongs to lived in a much wider area than originally thought.

The dinosaur was part of the Cretaceous period, the last era of the dinosaurs, and lived between 97 million and 94 million years ago.

The dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, belongs to a species called the thyreophoran – herbivorous animals, four-footed dinosaurs with bones along their necks to their tails, said Facundo Riguetti, a paleontologist at the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation-Maimónides University and National Council of Scientific and Technical Research.

The findings were published in this month in the scientific journal Scienti Reports.

"Jakapil is the first basal thyreophoran of its kind found in South America," said Riguetti, one of the paper's authors. "Until recent years, thyreophoran findings were rare in the southern hemisphere."

Earlier thyreophorans, also called basal thyreophorans, mostly lived in North America, Europe, Asia and likely Africa, he said.

What did the dinosaur look like?

The remains found belonged to a subadult Jakapil – not a young individual, but not a fully-grown adult either. The team examined its bones under a microscope and said tissue showed a decrease in the growth rate, which doesn't happen with juveniles, Riguetti said.

The dinosaur weighed about as much as a house cat, or about 8 to 15 pounds, and its teeth were leaf-shaped, similar to those of Scelidosaurus or ankylosaurs, he said.

It's likely that Jakapil walked upright, had a beak and was capable of delivering a pretty strong bite, although not as strong as some other dinosaurs such as ornithopods or ceratopsians, Riguetti said.

Also significant about Jakapil?

This is the first time a basal thyreophoran has a predentary bone, or a beak in the front of the lower jaw. It also has "reduced arms," both in length and in robustness, he said.

He said new search efforts in South America and Africa could lead to similar discoveries.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757 – and loves all things horror, witches, Christmas, and food. Follow her on Twitter at @Saleen_Martin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thyreophoran dinosaur Jakapil kaniukura found in Argentina

Video: Fossils of bus-sized 'Dragon of Death' flying reptile unearthed in Argentina

Millions in East Africa face starvation due to drought

Ben Adler

·Senior Editor

Thu, August 18, 2022 

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that millions of people in East Africa face the threat of starvation. Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that drought, climate change, rising prices and an ongoing civil war in northern Ethiopia are all contributing to worsening food insecurity.

Over 50 million people in East Africa will face acute food insecurity this year, a study from late July by the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization found. Roughly 7 million children are suffering from malnourishment and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, hundreds of thousands are leaving their homes in search of food or livelihoods. Affected countries include Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. 

A child displaced by drought walks past the rotting carcasses of goats that died from hunger and thirst, on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia. (Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“The current food security situation across the Horn of Africa is dire after four consecutive rainy seasons have failed, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years, or since the beginning of the satellite era,” Chimimba David Phiri of the Food and Agriculture Organization said in the report.

The warnings have been gradually building for months, as the situation worsens. In June, David Nash, a physical geographer at the University of Brighton, reported for the Conversation that “large areas of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are currently in the grip of a severe drought.”

The Horn of Africa has two rainy seasons per year, but the last four have been unusually dry. In some regions of Somalia, it has not rained in two years, according to Reuters.

“This meteorological drought has resulted in a loss of soil moisture, caused waterways to dry up, and led to the death of millions of livestock,” Brighton reported. “Forecasts suggest that the September to December rainy season could also fail. This would set the stage for an unprecedented five-season drought.”

Climate change increases the risk of drought because warmer air causes more evaporation and throws off the natural water cycle.

A soldier stands in front of the dried up Jubba River near the Ethiopian border. (Sally Hayden/Sopa Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Climate change and La Niña have caused an unprecedented multi-season drought [in East Africa], punctuated by one of the worst March-to-May rainy seasons in 70 years,” the U.N. News Service reported last month.

The drought has had a devastating effect on crop yields and on livestock populations. In Somalia, vegetable and grain production is expected to drop by about 80% this year.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has stalled grain exports for both countries, has also had a cascading effect for countries that relied on the crop. According to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a U.S-based think tank, “Somalia is entirely dependent on Ukraine (70 percent) and Russia (30 percent) for wheat imports.

Although Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement to ensure grain exports are would resume from ports on the Black Sea, Russia subsequently bombed a port in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and has placed mines on trade routes.

The Russia-Ukraine war also comes on top of ongoing violent conflicts in East Africa that can impede food production and distribution.

The Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab controls over 20% of Somalia. Attacks by al-Shabab have increased since the Trump administration withdrew U.S. troops from the country in December 2020. The Biden administration redeployed 500 soldiers to Somalia earlier this year.

A Somali soldier stands guard next to the site where al-Shebab militants carried out a suicide attack against a military intelligence base in Mogadishu, June 21, 2015. (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images)

And in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the government military, ethnic militias and soldiers from Eritrea are fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a political party that the Ethiopian government considers a terrorist organization.

Droughts and the resulting famines can themselves also create political instability and violent conflict. Various uprisings, including the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Tunisia and the civil war in Syria, have been linked in part to drought and climate-change-related food shortages.

In July, the U.S. Agency for International Development committed to spending $1.2 billion on food aid for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The U.N., however, says that more funds are needed. And experts argue that the international community must help countries in the region access longer-term solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change such as drought-resistant technologies and water preservation strategies.

Scientists Strapped Cameras to Navy Dolphins and Captured Something Terrifying

Maddie Bender
Wed, August 17, 2022

At the risk of awarding the title prematurely, we think we’ve found the weirdest study published in 2022. Scientists strapped GoPro cameras to the bodies of six dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy, and recorded them hunting for food and consuming their prey in grisly detail. According to the study, there was a purpose behind this potential invasion of dolphin privacy; namely, to learn more about how the mammals hunted and ate.

Scientists have previously made two competing assumptions about how dolphins ate. They engaged in either ram feeding, in which the predators swim faster than their prey and clasp the fish in their jaws as they overtake them; or suction feeding, in which predators move their tongues and expand their throats to create negative pressure and slurp up prey. The authors of the study, which was published on Wednesday in the journal PLoS ONE, set out to determine which method dolphins actually used.

“[S]ound and video together have never been used before to observe the behavior of dolphins and of the live fish they capture and consume,” they wrote in the study.

Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty

And, of course, there’s the fact that these dolphins were trained by the U.S. Navy. The Marine Mammal Program as it’s called today has existed in some form since before 1960, when Navy researchers attempted to improve torpedo design by studying dolphins. Since then, they have spent millions of dollars annually to foster and train bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions. According to the program’s website, these animals “have excellent low light vision and underwater directional hearing that allow them to detect and track undersea targets, even in dark or murky waters”—and unlike human divers, they don’t suffer from the bends.

Ridgway et al.

Still, the existence of a Navy program to train dolphins to identify targets like deep-sea mines does not explain why this study was conducted. And because Sam Ridgway, the lead author of the research and a founder of the Marine Mammal Program, passed away earlier this year, it does not seem like we will ever know the answer to this pressing question. We must instead hew to the text of the study itself, which is helpfully written like dolphin fan fiction. Here is a passage explaining what the GoPro footage of the three dolphins hunting looked and sounded like:

“Squeals continued as the dolphin seized, manipulated and swallowed the prey. If fish escaped, the dolphin continued the chase and sonar clicks were heard less often than the continuous terminal buzz and squeal. During captures, the dolphins’ lips flared to reveal nearly all of the teeth. The throat expanded outward. Fish continued escape swimming even as they entered the dolphins’ mouth, yet the dolphin appeared to suck the fish right down.”— Ridgway et al.

The angle of the cameras’ present a view of dolphin side eye that we have never before seen, nor care to see again. Up close, it is clear that these are not idyllic Lisa Frank dolphins; these are terrifying, nightmare-inducing Roman dolphins that seem to crave the thrill of the chase. The study, which is the Marine Mammal Program’s 330th peer-reviewed article, details how “it became apparent” when the dolphins had identified their next target: The animals picked up speed, as observed by an increase in the sound of the water as they whooshed through, and their heartbeats became audible in the recordings.

It is important to remember that there was a scientific purpose to this pseudo-horror movie footage. The researchers found that for the most part, the dolphins engaged in suction feeding, not ram feeding. “We were surprised by the ability of all of our dolphins to open their upper and lower lips” to suck in food, they wrote.

Ridgway et al.

But wait! The GoPros also captured a dolphin eating sea snakes, which has never before been observed: “It is notable that on one day, dolphin Z preyed on 8 yellow bellied sea snakes. The dolphin clicked as it approached the snake and then sucked it in with a bit more head jerking as the flopping snake tail disappeared and the dolphin made a long squeal.”

You’re welcome.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Videos from dolphins with GoPros strapped to their sides reveal they hunt venomous sea snakes and emit eerie 'victory squeals'


Videos from dolphins with GoPros strapped to their sides reveal they hunt venomous sea snakes and emit eerie 'victory squeals'

Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Thu, August 18, 2022


A dolphin with a camera attached to the left side of her harness.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

Dolphins with GoPro cameras on them captured incredible up-close footage of their hunting habits.

The videos surprised scientists, as the dolphins used suction to feed and ate venomous sea snakes.

Watch the dolphins' point of view and hear their sonar clicks and victory squeals as they hunt.

Video footage from GoPro cameras strapped to a pair of Navy-trained bottlenose dolphins reveals the ocean animals' hunting habits up close for the first time.

Scientists at the National Marine Mammal Foundation fixed the dolphins with their cameras and set them loose in the San Diego Bay. They captured hours of video and sounds that reveal a few secrets of dolphin life.

Step-by-step view of a Navy dolphin using suction to capture, rotate, and swallow a fish in the Pacific Ocean.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

It turns out that the animals use suction to feed, swallow venomous sea snakes, and squeal in victory after a successful hunt.

One video, below, shows the dolphin's face as it tracks a fish, grabs it, and swims a victory lap. It's not just the footage that's incredible. The dolphin's creaky and echoing calls are equally revealing. The dolphins emitted sonar clicks as they searched for prey. As they approached a fish, the clicks sped up to become a buzz, punctuated with a squeal as they caught and swallowed their meal.

from  Vimeo.

The research was led by Sam Ridgway, a prominent marine-mammal scientist who earned nicknames like "Dolphin Doctor" and "the father of marine mammal medicine," before he died in his San Diego home in July.

Sam Ridgway was known as the father of marine-mammal science.

US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

Ridgway helped found the US Navy's Marine Mammal Program more than 60 years ago. That's the program that trained the dolphins in this study. He also founded and led the National Marine Mammal Foundation, the nonprofit behind the new paper. He dedicated his entire career to understanding the behavior, physiology, and health of ocean mammals — especially bottlenose dolphins.

These videos are one of his final research efforts. For the first time, Ridgway and his team captured up-close video and sound of dolphins hunting and eating live fish. A paper about the footage was published in PLOS ONE on Wednesday.

"Dr. Ridgway was very proud of these findings and was ecstatic to know that this culmination was going to be published in PLOS ONE," Brittany Jones, a scientist at the National Marine Mammal Foundation who worked with the study authors while they completed their paper, told Insider in an email.

"He was always eager and excited to review the video and audio of these fish-capture sessions and recently spoke of his appreciation and admiration for [co-authors] Dianna Samuelson Dibble, Mark Baird, the amazing animals, and the animal care staff that made this research possible," Jones said.
One dolphin's diet included venomous sea snakes

Shocking to the researchers, one dolphin ate eight venomous sea snakes — a behavior never observed before in dolphins.

The video below shows one of those sea-snake meals. After catching the snake, the dolphin jerks its head and emits a high-pitched "victory squeal."

from  Vimeo.

Did you catch that? It went quickly.

A sea snake (indicated with pink arrow), moments before it is captured and eaten by a Navy dolphin.US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

That's a yellow-bellied sea snake, and it's highly venomous. Scientists assumed that's why they'd only observed dolphins playing with snakes and releasing them, not consuming them — especially not consuming eight of them.

Ridgway and his co-authors couldn't believe their eyes at first. They searched for other fish that might look like a sea snake on camera, but they found no other explanation.

"I've read that other large vertebrates rarely prey on the yellow-bellied sea snake. There are reports of leopard seals eating and then regurgitating them. This snake does have the potential to cause neurotoxicity after ingestion and its venom is considered fairly dangerous," Dr. Barb Linnehan, director of medicine at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, said in a statement emailed to Insider.

The dolphin showed no signs of illness after its sea-snake meals, the researchers reported.

"Perhaps because the snakes ingested were thought to be juveniles, they had a lower amount of venom present," Linnehan said.

Dolphins appear to be suction feeders

The sea-snake footage is also revealing because the dolphin caught its prey in the open ocean, indicating that it used suction to capture and swallow its food. Researchers previously assumed that bottlenose dolphins use a technique called ram feeding, where they capture prey simply by clamping their jaws around it.

Images from a dolphin's camera show its eye closely tracking the fish it's catching (left) and its lips curled and throat expanded after it's caught the fish (right).

US Navy/National Marine Mammal Foundation

In the videos from the dolphin with a camera on its side, however, the researchers could see the dolphin's lips opening, tongue withdrawing, and throat expanding. They think all these subtle movements increase the space in the dolphins' mouths and create negative pressure for suction.

"With years of experience in feeding dolphins, we had not noticed this lip motion," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Rather than seizing fish in a 'claptrap' of the toothy beak, dolphins appeared to mostly suck in fish."