Fly me to the Moon: US, Japan aim for lunar landing

No non-American astronaut has ever landed on the lunar surface 

(AFP/Philip FONG)

Mon, May 23, 2022, 3:28 AM·1 min read

Japan and the United States said Monday they want to put the first Japanese astronaut on the Moon as the allies deepen cooperation on space projects.

No non-American has ever touched down on the lunar surface, and Japan has previously said it hopes to achieve a Moon landing by the end of this decade.

President Joe Biden, after his first face-to-face meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, said the nations will work together in the US-led Artemis programme to send humans to the Moon, and later to Mars.

Biden said he was "excited" about the collaboration, including on the Gateway facility, which will orbit the Moon and provide support for future missions.

"I'm excited (about) the work we'll do together on the Gateway Station around the Moon, and look forward to the first Japanese astronaut joining us on the mission to the lunar surface under the Artemis programme," he said at a joint press conference.

Japan's domestic space programme focuses on satellites and probes, so Japanese astronauts have turned to the US and Russia to travel to the International Space Station.

But space agency JAXA is looking to revitalise its ranks, last year launching its first recruitment of new astronauts in 13 years.

It lifted the requirement that applicants have a science degree and urged women to apply, because all seven of the nation's current astronauts are men.

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Philippines' Marcos in nuclear plant revival talks with S.Korea


The 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was left dormant after the elder Marcos was toppled in 1986

 (AFP/Ted ALJIBE) (Ted ALJIBE)


Mon, May 23, 2022

Philippine president-elect Ferdinand Marcos signalled his determination to adopt nuclear power Monday, holding talks with South Korea's envoy on possibly reviving a mothballed $2.2 billion plant built during his father's dictatorship.

The 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant was left dormant after the elder Marcos was toppled in 1986.

In the run-up to the May 9 presidential election, Marcos Junior spoke about the need for nuclear power to address exorbitant electricity costs in the country.

He left open the possibility of resuscitating his father's failed venture -- an idea he is now pushing ahead of his June 30 inauguration.

Marcos said he met South Korean Ambassador to Manila Kim Inchul on Monday to discuss a proposal on reviving the Bataan plant.

"Can we continue with it or do we need to build a new one? What are the things that we will have to do?" Marcos told a news conference after the meeting.

"So we revived the discussions on it, although they have come before. We will now study their recommendations and their findings, and we will see if we can still apply," he added.

Studies by South Korean and Russian experts showed it was possible to get the plant working again, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi told a Senate hearing in 2020.

But upgrading an ageing facility fitted with outdated analogue technology could take at least four years and cost another $1 billion.

There are also question marks on its design and location.

A monument to the greed and graft of the elder Marcos's era, the plant sits 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Manila, near several volcanoes in a part of the Philippines regularly shaken by earthquakes.

"If we are going to industrialise post-pandemic, we are going to go through rapid industrialisation, then the power sector must be ready for that," Marcos said.

Building a new power plant from scratch would take three to seven years, he added.

Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte issued an executive order earlier this year making nuclear power part of the country's planned energy mix.

The Philippines -- regularly affected by electricity outages -- relies on imported carbon-belching coal for more than half of its power generation.

Supporters of nuclear power say the technology offers a cleaner option to help meet demand.

But critics argue that renewable sources, such as wind and solar, are cheaper and safer to produce in a country hit by earthquakes, typhoons and volcanic eruptions.

cgm-mff/amj/lb

Getting away with murder in Pakistan





Khadija Siddiqi, who was stabbed 23 times and left for dead, says a culture of victim-blaming left survivors feeling like they 'deserved' what happened to them (AFP/Arif ALI)

Emma Clark with Kaneez Fatima in Lahore
Mon, May 23, 2022

When social media star Qandeel Baloch was strangled by her brother for unapologetically challenging Pakistan's attitudes towards women, activists fought for her murder to trigger a new era of justice over so-called "honour" killings.

Her killer's release in February, less than three years into a life sentence, has instead underlined how the country's legal system still allows for men to abuse, rape and murder women with impunity.

In Pakistan, overlapping legal systems riddled with loopholes and a deeply patriarchal society combine to ensure women survivors of violence are unlikely to get justice, activists, lawyers and survivors told AFP.

"The whole process from the moment a crime is committed against a woman to registering it with the police -- and then the court procedure -- is structured in such a way that justice remains elusive," said Nayab Gohar Jan, a prominent rights activist.

"Add to that societal pressures and stigmas, and you can see the odds are clearly stacked against them."

Much of Pakistani society operates under an "honour" code where women can be killed for bringing "shame" on their families by acts such as interacting with men or marrying someone they choose themselves.

More than 470 cases of "honour" killings were reported to police in 2021, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), though many cases go unreported by families who collude with the killers -- often male relatives.

Pakistan ranked 153 out 156 countries on the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap index in 2021, which noted stark disparities in access to justice, education and employment.

- Biased courts -

Baloch both captivated and scandalised Pakistan with her short skirts and provocative dancing on Facebook.

Her murder in 2016 was arguably Pakistan's most high-profile case of an "honour" killing.

Days after killing her, Muhammad Waseem defiantly told journalists that he strangled his sister because of her "intolerable" behaviour.

The government responded to public outrage with new laws against such crimes, including -- crucially -- a ban on victims' families being allowed to pardon relatives or reach out-of-court "blood money" settlements.

Waseem was convicted and sentenced to life in jail, but his lawyers found a loophole.

They successfully argued on appeal that the murder could not be classed as an "honour" killing –- rendering the legal changes inapplicable, and allowing for his mother to pardon him.

That decision is being challenged by the state.

Lawyers and activists blamed patriarchal mindsets within the justice system and a lack of women lawyers and judges for allowing "honour" killing verdicts to be overturned.

Pakistani courts are dominated by men, with less than a fifth of judges and only 12 percent of prosecutors being women, the HRCP says.

Lawyer Nida Usman Chaudhary, who founded a collective for women jurists, said male judges often show bias in their interpretation of the honour killing laws.

"You've had the Supreme Court literally coming up with case law after case law where they developed an entire defence... to give impunity to the person who is accused," she told AFP.

- Victim-blaming -

Khadija Siddiqi, who was stabbed 23 times and left for dead by her ex-boyfriend, said her legal case was "delayed so much that we were actually on the verge of giving up".

Her attacker was convicted of attempted murder, acquitted on appeal, reconvicted, and then freed early for good behaviour.

Like many instances of violence against women, Siddiqi's case was dominated by a culture of victim-blaming, pervasive throughout the police, the courts and the wider community, she told AFP.

Allegations of domestic abuse are often viewed as a family matter, and victims of gender-based crimes are treated with suspicion.

Victim-blaming attitudes go to the very top.

Last year, former prime minister Imran Khan repeatedly linked a rise in sexual assaults to women wearing "very few clothes".

In 2020, a provincial police chief publicly admonished a gang-rape victim for driving at night without a male companion.

"I was made to feel I had done something wrong and I got what I deserved," said Siddiqi.

Social media's power to challenge the indolence of the justice system is growing, but often limited to high-profile cases.

Last year, Noor Mukadam, the daughter of a former ambassador, was kidnapped, raped and beheaded by her boyfriend in Islamabad.

In February, a court sentenced Zahir Jaffer to death, in a trial that was exceptional for its pace, concluding just eight months after his arrest.

The case garnered huge attention, in part because of the brutal nature of the murder and the pair's elite status, but also because her friends were able to mobilise without fear of a backlash.

"We built the pressure... and used (social media) as a tactic," said Shafaq Zaidi, a friend of Mukadam who helped lead the campaign.

Days before Mukadam was killed, at the other end of the country Quratulain Baloch was tortured and murdered, but her case garnered little attention.

Her husband, who denies killing her, was only formally charged in March.

"As the verdict in the Noor Mukadam case was read out, Quratulain's murder trial hadn't even begun. Why has there not been the same urgency here?" bristled Sanaullah Buledi, her brother.

- Local retribution -

In Muslim-majority Pakistan, a British common law-based system uses interpretations of Islamic law, particularly in cases dealing with gender-based violence and family disputes.

In rural areas, women victims often do not get the opportunity for a trial at all.

Justice can be meted out through village councils comprising local elders –- always men –- that operate extrajudicially and often order abuse against women as a means of upholding "honour".

Although supported by many Pakistanis for their swiftness, these tribunals offer no means of appeal.

The country's powerful religious clergy has also been responsible for quashing reform.

Last year, the Council of Islamic Ideology –- a body that previously proposed legislation allowing husbands to "lightly" beat their wives -- struck down a tough new law against gender-based violence.

The appointment of the first female justice to the 17-member Supreme Court earlier this was welcomed as important step in improving the quality of justice for women.

Ayesha Malik was a Lahore High Court judge when she banned an invasive "two-finger virginity test" for rape survivors last year.

Tough new anti-rape laws have also been introduced, though their impact has yet to be seen.

For those who have gone through the system, however, the toll remains high.

"There were times when I would wish the ground would just open up and I'd hide myself there, away from the gaze of the men in court," said Siddiqi, the survivor.

kf-ecl/aha/ser/smw

Airports, public buildings forced to close in Iraq as sandstorms continue

Iraq is witnessing its ninth sandstorm since mid-April, which has forces the closure of airports and public buildings in the country.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
23 May, 2022

Iraqi authorities have also ordered all work in public institutions to temporarily cease, with the exception of health institutions, as the country is faced with more sandstorms [Getty]

Iraq closed airports and public buildings on Monday as another sandstorm - the ninth since mid-April - hit the country, authorities said.

The capital Baghdad was enveloped in a giant dust cloud that left usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted, an AFP correspondent said.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhemi ordered all work to cease temporarily in public institutions, with the exception of health facilities and security agencies.

He cited "poor climatic conditions and the arrival of violent sandstorms" in a statement issued by his office.

Iraq is ranked as one of the five most vulnerable nations to climate change and desertification.

The environment ministry has warned that over the next two decades, Iraq could endure an average of 272 days of sandstorms per year, rising to above 300 by 2050

.

RELATED

Climate change poses water security risks for MENA countries

Environment and Climate

Sabena Siddiqui

Air traffic was suspended Monday at international airports in Baghdad, Erbil and Najaf, according to statements issued by each airport.

The previous two sandstorms killed one person and sent nearly 10,000 people to hospital with respiratory problems.

The Middle East has always been battered by sandstorms, but they have become more frequent and intense in recent years.

The trend has been associated with rising water scarcity, overuse of river water, more dams, overgrazing and deforestation.

Oil-rich Iraq is known in Arabic as the land of the two rivers, in reference to the Tigris and Euphrates.

Iraq's environment ministry has said the weather phenomenon could be addressed by increasing vegetation cover and planting trees that act as windbreaks.

Amnesty: Executions rise after COVID restrictions end

The application of the death penalty rose in 2021, Amnesty International has reported. However, there were signs of a move away from capital punishment in many countries.



Nations executed more people in 2021 than they did in 2022

Executions worldwide rose in 2021 compared to the previous year, Amnesty International revealed Tuesday in its annual report on the death penalty.

The human rights NGO said some states had increased capital punishment in light of relaxed COVID restrictions. However, it also noted that there were signs of continuing moves away from state-sanctioned killing on the whole.

Amnesty's report said moves to end capital punishment had been successful in several countries

Which countries carried out the most executions in 2021?

A total of 579 people were executed in 2021, according to the report. That represents a 20% increase on the previous year, but the figures do not include every execution in every country.

Amnesty cautioned that China, Vietnam and North Korea are known to conduct thousands of executions, but little is known about official numbers in those countries because of state censorship.

"China, North Korea and Vietnam continued to shroud their use of the death penalty behind layers of secrecy, but, as ever, the little we saw is cause for great alarm," said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement.

Of those countries that do report their executions, there were some clear standouts.

Iran executed at least 314 people, up from 246 in 2020, while Saudi Arabia is known to have executed 65 people, more than double its total for 2020.

"After the drop in their execution totals in 2020, Iran and Saudi Arabia once again ramped up their use of the death penalty last year, including by shamelessly violating prohibitions put in place under international human rights law. Their appetite for putting the executioner to work has also shown no sign of abating in the early months of 2022," said Callamard.

Some 42% of Iran's executions were for drug offenses, which Amnesty said was a violation of international law.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has passed a resolution that says countries should reserve capital punishment for the "most serious crimes," meaning intentional killing.

Watch video 01:48 Iran sentences demonstrators to death, triggers online protest

There were also significant increases in executions in Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Belarus, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
Death penalty targets minorities

Amnesty criticized several countries for apparently using capital punishment as a tool of state repression. In Myanmar, nearly 90 people were sentenced to death in what Amnesty described as a targeted campaign against protesters and journalists.

In Iran, 19% of those executed belonged to the Baluch minority, who make up just 5% of the population.

Despite the uptick in executions, Amnesty said the trend away from capital punishment continued in much of the world.

The number executed worldwide, excluding China and other secretive countries, was the second-lowest total since 2010.

Eighteen countries executed people in 2021, the lowest number since Amnesty started keeping records. Sierra Leone and Kazakhstan both passed laws getting rid of capital punishment and in the United States, Virginia became the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty.

Edited by: Rob Turner

DOWNLOADS
Amnesty Death Sentences and Executions 2021 (PDF)

ENVIRONMENT
Climate change made deadly South Asian heat wave '30 times more likely'

The burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas supercharged the heat wave that has scorched India and Pakistan in recent weeks, two separate attribution studies have found.

People have sought refuge in the shade to escape the stifling, and in some cases life-threatening, heat

Climate change has strengthened a heat wave that for several weeks has been scorching the homes of more than 1 billion people.

The blistering heat — reported to have killed at least 90 people across India and Pakistan — would have been 1 degree Celsius cooler and 30 times less likely if people hadn't warmed the planet, according to a study published Monday by scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international group of climate scientists. Last week, an estimate from the UK Meteorological Office said human influence had increased the likelihood of extreme heat a hundredfold.

The analyses underscore the extent to which carbon pollution is already wreaking havoc on society. The heat has sparked forest fires in India, melted glaciers that triggered flash floods in Pakistan and caused blackouts in both countries that have made it even harder for citizens who can afford air conditioning to stay safe. Crop yields have suffered at a time when global hunger is creeping up and wheat supplies have been rocked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Watch video 02:48 Pakistan struggles amid heat wave

"With future global warming, of course, heat waves like this will become more common and hotter," said Krishna Achutarao, an atmospheric scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and co-author of the WWA study.

Crop losses threaten rising hunger

Experts have warned that the effect on crops is particularly worrying.

By last year, a series of crises — conflict, climate, COVID and economy — had already "undermined decades of progress" toward food security, according to a report published last Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization, a United Nations agency that deals with weather. The number of undernourished people had plateaued in the 2010s after having fallen for decades, but is estimated to have risen sharply in 2020.

In addition, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has now disrupted grain exports from two of the world's biggest wheat exporters. Earlier this month, India, the second-largest wheat producer after China, banned exports after heat scorched farms and ravaged crops. An estimated 10% to 30% of its wheat was hit at a time when crops were supposed to ripen the most, said Aditi Kapoor, a risk management expert at the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center and co-author of the WWA study. "[First] the farmers are affected, and then when the prices go up, it's the poor people buying the food who are affected," she said.

India's ban of wheat exports could worsen food security around the world

Burning fossil fuels has made heat waves hotter

When storms and heat waves strike, WWA scientists across the world work at breakneck speeds to model the chance of extreme weather occurring in today's climate. They then compare that data with that of an imaginary world without human influence. The results are published as pre-print studies before they have undergone peer-review, so policymakers and the public can understand the role climate change played while it's still fresh in their minds.

For most weather extremes, the guiding question is whether global warming played a role or not. But with heat waves — all of which have already been made hotter and more likely by climate change — the question is simply by how much.

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, humanity has released vast quantities of sunlight-trapping gases that act like a greenhouse around the Earth. This has raised average temperatures, which brings with it a dramatic intensification of hot extremes. The biggest source of greenhouse gas pollution is burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, as well as razing forests and farming animals that belch methane.

Getting enough water has become a greater struggle for residents, particularly in informal settlements

A study published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science last year found 20 companies were responsible for more than a third of the emissions from fossil fuels and cement production that heated the planet between 1965 and 2018, including the pollution from burning fuels they sold to third parties. The four biggest investor-owned fossil fuel companies — Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell — were responsible for 11% of the emissions.

The companies did not immediately respond to a DW request for comment.

Governments need plans to adapt to heat

People working outdoors during the daytime — like farmers and builders — are the most vulnerable to heat waves, along with elderly people and those with underlying health problems. In 2010, a heat wave in India killed 1,344 people in the western city of Ahmedabad alone. In 2015, a heat wave in Pakistan killed more than 1,000 in the capital, Islamabad.

Since the current heat wave began, an estimated 90 people have died across the two countries, according to WWA. But that figure is likely an undercount. Doctors can calculate the rise in excess mortality months after a disaster, but official statistics rarely capture the full extent of heat-related deaths.

Heat waves can have knock-on effects across the global climate. They can melt glaciers, leading to flash floods like the ones that tore Pakistan and washed away bridges in May. Hotter air also holds more moisture, resulting in heavier rainfall — though other climatic factors can work in the other direction. In the last week, northern Indian states like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were struck by twin catastrophes of heavy rain and heat.

Construction workers are among the most vulnerable to deadly heat waves

To save lives during heat waves, governments can warn residents ahead of the danger, coordinate health care workers to protect the most vulnerable groups and set up cooling centers to provide people with shade and water. In the last five years, 130 cities in India have rolled out heat action plans, according to the WWA. "Definitely, there's a need to scale it up much more," said Kapoorof the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center.

Still, such solutions cannot help indefinitely. Many of those working on farms or building sites cannot afford to stay at home, where it may be cooler. A recent report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summarizing the academic literature on the effects of climate change found that "hard limits to adaptation" have already been reached in some places. More limits will be met as the planet heats up.

People have already heated the planet by about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the start of the Industrial Revolution. World leaders signed an agreement in 2015 to try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Instead, most are pursuing policies that are set to nearly double that upper limit.

If global warming reaches 2 degrees Celsius, the WWA report found, a heat wave such as the recent one to hit India and Pakistan would become between two and 20 times more likely than it is today — and an extra 0.5 to 1.5 Celsius hotter.

"The human body can only get rid of heat up to a certain point," said Achutarao.

RECORD TEMPERATURES HIT INDIA'S FARMERS

Air conditioners and blocks of ice

India is currently experiencing an exceptional heat wave. Rajgarh, a city of 1.5 million people in central India topped out at 46.5 degrees C (116 degrees F) while thermometers in nine other cities also climbed above the 45 degree mark. No wonder that anything to fight the heat is an easy sell on the streets of New Delhi.

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Edited by: Tamsin Walker

SIPRI: From climate to war, world entering a critical era

The world is not ready for an age in which environmental degradation meets increased armed conflict, suggests a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.



Researchers found that armed international conflicts had doubled from 2010 to 2020

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has painted a vast and worrying picture in its latest report, entitled "Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk."

The independent research institute, or SIPRI, which has received worldwide recognition for its annual tracking of international arms exports, warns of a global emergency.

"A compound environmental crisis and a darkening security horizon are feeding each other in dangerous ways," SIPRI's researchers write. Felled forests, melting glaciers and polluted oceans are occurring simultaneously with an rise in the number of conflict-related deaths, arms expenditures and increasing numbers of people at risk of starvation. Pandemics pose further dangers.

Somalia provides an example of such simultaneous emergencies. The East African country is dealing with a two-year drought, poverty and attacks from the terror group al-Shabab.

Similar problems have arisen in Central America. Crop failures linked to climate change have combined with conflict and corruption to trigger a mass exodus toward the United States.

Greenland's ice sheets represent 8% of the world's frozen water — and they are melting faster every year

'Time to act is now'

Lacking a global plan, the world is "stumbling" into these intertwined dangers, according to SIPRI.

"Nature and peace are so closely linked that damaging one damages the other. By the same reasoning, enhancing one enhances the other," SIPRI's director, Dan Smith, told DW. "Action is possible — and the time to act is now."

The report's release coincides with the start of the ninth annual Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development and is SIPRI's wake-up call for politicians and decision-makers. According to SIPRI, many governments have failed to recognize the depths of the crises — or have even actively ignored the issues, allowing them to become worse.

Smith said some governments "would like to act, but they have other priorities that demand time and attention as a matter of urgency, such as the pandemic for the last two years and the war in Ukraine today."

Watch video 05:13 Climate and conflict

The 30 authors of the report, drawn from SIPRI and other institutes, conclude that, though humans overall are financially better off than they used to be, they are also more insecure in many other ways. Over 93 pages, the authors describe the consequences of regional catastrophes and conflicts in an interconnected world.

Extreme weather events caused by climate change and the coronavirus pandemic have threatened global supply chains. Conflicts and crop disasters have made farming unreliable, sending farmers into the global migration flows. Often the countries that farmers are fleeing from are also dealing with high poverty levels and poor governance, according to SIPRI.

SIPRI reports that the number of armed conflicts between countries doubled from 2010 to 2020, to 56. The number of refugees and displaced people around the world also doubled, rising to 82.4 million.

In 2020, there was also an increase in the number of nuclear warheads in the world — after years of decreases. In 2021, the world's military spending exceeded $2 trillion (€1.9 trillion) for the first time.

Unsustainable exploitation continues

The SIPRI paper also explores climate change, pointing out a number of sobering facts: About one in four species face extinction; the number of pollinating insects is rapidly declining; soil quality is deteriorating; and natural resources continue to be exploited at unsustainable levels.

Climate change is also leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. "The pandemic shows us clearly the risks we run when we choose not to prepare," Margot Wallstrom, Sweden's former foreign minister and a former European commissioner for the environment, said in a statement accompanying the report's release.

"As the environmental and security crises get worse, governments need to assess what risks lie ahead, to develop the capacity to deal with them and to make societies more resilient," said Wallstrom, the chair of the panel of international experts who helped guide the project's researchers.

The researchers write that South Korea provides a good example of how to act with foresight. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, South Korea applied lessons learned during the 2002 SARS outbreak.

Over the two years of the pandemic so far, South Korea has mostly managed to keep its national mortality rate to about 10% of that of countries with similar-sized populations. In doing so, South Korea has also avoided many of the economic and societal problems that other countries have dealt with.

Common threats

The SIPRI researchers also offer possible off-ramps for the global crisis, as well as short-term measures. This new era of risk requires new modes of cooperation to address common threats. And, according to the report, decision-making processes everywhere from the United Nations to municipal projects should always involve the people who will most feel the impact.

But is this kind of advice realistic? Given Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the potential for a new Iron Curtain and tensions between China and the West, is the idea of improved international cooperation not just wishful thinking?

"Assuming something is impossible makes it impossible," said Smith. He suggested that self-interest should convince governments to act. Officials know that "the environmental degradation is generating — and will generate — insecurity," he said. And that "can only be addressed by cooperating," he added.

"Since they need security, they need to reverse environmental deterioration," said Smith. "They can do this only by working together, as China and the US recognized in their joint statement on cooperating on climate action at COP26 last November in Glasgow."

As a major economic power, Germany can play a vital role in shaping the necessary change, said Smith. "Germany was the first country to raise the links between climate change and insecurity at the UN Security Council." Now, he said, Germany has the opportunity to "start with an energy transition that doesn't just wean it off Russian fossil fuels, but off fossil fuels altogether."

This article was originally written in German

WORLD WATER CONFLICTS: THE GLOBAL HOT SPOTS

Water conflicts worldwide

Water conflicts have more than doubled over the last 10 years compared to previous decades, research shows. Sometimes the essential resource is at the root of these clashes but more often than not, disputes over water alone will not spark violence. Instead, water can act as an accelerant when mixed together with other problems, such as poverty, inequality and hunger.

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COACHING IS ABUSE

Sport's serious problem with 'sextortion'

The nature of organized sport can "perpetuate the issue of sextortion," according to an international anti-corruption body. High-profile sexual abuse cases in sport have drawn attention but the problems run deep.

The issue of 'sextortion' has often been swept under the carpet in sports

A worryingly high prevalence of "sextortion" within the sport sector has been highlighted in Transparency International's latest report.

A survey of German athletes, one of four countries alongside Romania, Mexico and Zimbabwe focused on by the corruption watchdog, saw slightly more than one in three report they had experienced at least one situation of sexual violence in organized sport.

While recent high-profile cases in sports such as gymnastics and football have underlined the extent of sexual abuse, the issue remains largely under-reported within the industry.

Sextortion — defined as the abuse of power to obtain a sexual benefit, a form of both sexual abuse and corruption — is yet to be widely recognized.

Power dynamics

"What I found striking is the sports sector provides all the conditions needed to be met to perpetuate this issue of sextortion," Marie Chene, Head of Research at Transparency International, told DW.

"The power differentials are huge, there are a lot of children in vulnerable positions, coach and athlete relationships that are very close, emotional and physical because of the nature of sport.

"The relationship has the power to make or break your career in some cases and there is a general governance environment which is very weak. It creates an explosive environment."

Simone Biles was one of a number of US Gymnastics athletes who spoke up about sexual abuse

Due to the relatively new defintion of sextortion, the report relied upon statistics compiled on sexual abuse within sport, which was found to be rife across all sporting disciplines around the globe.

Nevertheless, a key component behind TI's decision to investigate sextortion within the sporting industry was the belief that the sector holds the power to provide a basis of real change.

"We consider the sport sector to have a key role to play in shaping values," Chene explained. "In principle sport is about social justice, it's about fair play and merit.

"If sexual abuse, which is one of the two components of sextortion, is happening in sport it undermines the mission that the sector has. Sport is very visible and if we want to make this issue visible, and have sextortion recognized as a form of corruption, we felt the sport sector could be a good vehicle for that."

Although many of the cases from which statistics were drawn showed both genders were affected by sextortion, the report confirmed that studies consistently proved the perpetrators of sexual abuse to be overwhelmingly men.

Gender disparity

The proportion of male abusers ranged from 96%-100% across various studies. TI criticized what it termed a "hyper-masculine culture." This, coupled with a lack of gender equality for female athletes in terms of pay and visibility, and few women in organizational positions of power, only further propagates the issue.

"Women's sports is not valued as much as men's sport," Chene added. "There is a huge gender pay gap, very little representation of women athletes and women in leadership and governance roles.

"There is this 'old boys network' where old men stay in positions of power for decades have no incentive to change the status quo, so the system perpetuates itself."

Sylvia Schenk, Chair of the Working Group on Sport at Transparency International Germany, explained in a statement: "From China's Peng Shuai whose alleged assault by a senior government official was covered up, to the US' Kylie McKenzie, who no longer has a chance to compete after facing long-term harassment and abuse from her association-assigned coach —  far too many have faced the consequences of a sexist and exploitative system."

The case of Peng Shuai drew international attention

Attempts to change have lacked true oversight with the German Olympic Sports Confederation's (DOSB) adoption of the Munich Declaration for the Protection against Sexualized Violence in Sport in 2010 falling flat.

The declaration's 15 measures include the prevention of sexual violence as a mandatory topic in sport qualifications and the adoption of a code of ethics.

Nine years later, a study showed that fewer than half of the national sport federations included the prevention of sexual abuse in their statutes.

Prevention paramount

It forced the DOSB to introduce a policy which has made public funding for the federations conditional on the adoption of prevention measures.

Equally, inadequate reporting systems for sports organizations also continue to further hamper progress in addressing and preventing sexual abuse.

"To stop enabling abuse, sports organizations and governments must act," Schenk continued in a statement.

"The first line of defence is to prevent abuse before it happens with a transparent culture, strong prevention frameworks, including education on sextortion and other sexual abuse as well as the broader ramifications of sexism.

Act fast

The report included a series of recommendations, and for the first time in relation to sextortion TI put particular emphasis on prevention.

Although many are long-term suggestions, Chene reiterated the urgent need for change to begin swiftly.

"During our research we have heard so many horror stories, so many dreams smashed," she said. "It's not just about the sexual abuse, it also about how reports of the sexual abuse are being received and survivors are being shut up."

Chene added in a statement: "It is time to change the culture of silence and impunity for all forms of abuse in sport.

"Sports organizations, governments and civil society must take abuse seriously and act now to stop sextortion."

Edited by: Matt Pearson

From WWI to Russia's war in Ukraine: Historical lessons

Historian Christopher Clark, author of "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" discusses with DW the complexities of war, and why Putin's behavior does not represent Russia.


World War I developed into a full-blown conflict involving many countries

DW: Your book "Sleepwalkers" caused people to rethink the First World War, and whether it was just Germany starting the war, or whether it was rather many European nations sleepwalking into a massive battle. What was your ultimate conclusion in your work?

Christopher Clark: Well, I think the conclusion of the book about 1914 was that the causes behind this war were complex.

A debate had been underway — which is still not finished — about what brought this war about. That's because the story was so complex.

And so I suppose the book was really making a plea for complexity, to understand how complex these things are. That was the first main point.

And the second argument was that we need to think about not just why wars come about and who's guilty for the outbreak of war. We also need to think about how they come about in order to be able to do better next time.

For example, if you think about the current war in the Ukraine, if we simply decide Mr. Putin is a very bad man and he caused a war and that's the end of it, we will learn nothing from this war.

Clark has a deep understanding of European history

We can learn much more if we think about the whole story of how this situation came about. It wouldn't in any way ease his responsibility for what has happened, which I think is unquestionable. But it would at least enable us to learn how to manage these situations better in the future.

How could we learn from that? What are the parallels between the lead-up to World War I and the current situation?

In some ways it's a lesson. It's interesting because when the [Russian-Ukrainian] conflict began, at least before the war itself actually broke out, I was reminded of the situation before 1914, because I imagined that it might be Putin's plan to send 200,000 men to the border with Ukraine and then to pull them back again, having pressured the West into concessions or Ukraine itself into concessions that didn't work.

On February 24, 2022 the Russians invaded Ukraine

And then it turned out that he was planning a war all along.

So that's not like 1914, because in 1914 there is no single actor who just decides to invade another territory.

It starts in a place nobody expects, down in the Balkans, in Sarajevo, with an assassination. Then there's a complex question, you know: How will the Austrians react? How will the Serbs react to the Austrians' reaction? How will the Germans react to the Austrians' reaction to the Serbs? How will the Russians support Serbia, or not — even though the Russians are not themselves under under attack?

It's immensely complex and every power that gets pulled into this war comes in by virtue of a different logic.

Prelude to World War I: During a visit to Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife died in an assassination attempt

But now we have a much simpler situation. Russia is quite isolated and Putin has taken this decision himself.

Clearly, a lot of the senior people in his system were not aware of this decision until it was actually made. It's very much Putin's war. And he's currently, as far as we know from intelligence reports, actually personally playing a role in the management of this war. He makes decisions even at the level of operations.

So it's quite a different picture really from 1914. It's less complex.

You formulated the First World War as a "modern event." What did you mean by that?

I was thinking in particular of the fact that when I learned about it at school, it seemed like an event from a bygone world — all these gaudy Hapsburg uniforms, complicated rituals at court. It seemed like an oldie.

But then when I began to write this book, I realized that it begins with a motorcade, with a group of motor cars driving through a city. It involved suicide bombers — a modern figure. So it was modern in lots of ways. It wasn't a kind of old-fashioned crisis.

And it seemed to me that the arguments people made for getting involved in this war were arguments that we still hear today. For example, this tendency to play the victim, to see the provocations of the other side, but to be completely blind to the contribution you have yourself made to a crisis, to see your own measures as defensive and the measures of the opponent as offensive. These habits have clearly not died.

Clark's book was published in 2013

What have people learned in the past 100 years — or not?

We've clearly learned to do certain things much better. But whether we've become more intelligent as a political species, as a sort of as homo politicus, that's another question.

I think that's an area where we're very slow learners, and there's a tendency always to sort of fall back on old patterns of behavior.

I do think that the EU is a kind of learned historical lesson. It's the lesson of the two world wars turned into a political order.

So there are examples of lessons which have found an institutional expression and which acquire a sort of durability they might not otherwise have.

But it seems to me that in other respects, if you think about Putin — not just his decision to invade Ukraine, but his whole persona as a leader, you know, riding around shirtless on the back of a horse, all these kind of macho things; these are very atavistic.

Clark finds Putin's self-projection as a leader 'atavastic'

But on the other hand, if you look at how many of the leaders of the European states are women, if you look at how much strategizing about how to manage this aggression is being written by women: It's not the case that we haven't changed.

I think the West is a very different place from what it was and so is Russia. And there are many Russians who want to have no part of this terrible policy of risk and adventurism that Putin has embarked on.

But Putin, unfortunately, for reasons which I think are probably anchored in his biography, is someone who's reaching for atavistic patterns of behavior and self-presentation in a way that suggests we haven't learned.

Do you think then in that regard, are we on the brink of a Third World War?

Well, my first answer is I very much hope not. Like you and like everybody else.

Secondly, I think that Putin knows that this would be a sort of self extinction. He would have to be suicidal to reach for that option.

Are the Russians united behind Putin? Christopher Clark is skeptical

A lot depends on whether he's that irrational and whether his system would do that if he made a decision like that. There's a lot of evidence that the system itself would be robust enough to resist that kind of risk.

So the answer is we don't know, of course.

But if we simply let him do what he wants, then we end up licensing and effectively legitimizing his criminal breach of international law. And if, on the other hand, we overreact and over-respond, we run the risk of escalating the problem further.

But we didn't create this crisis. So the West needs to dose its responses carefully. And I think by and large, it's doing that. The fact that the arguments mainly are in the direction of the West, for responding too slowly, especially the Germans. Why aren't they delivering more, faster? Why isn't more being done for Ukraine? That suggests that we're about right, because there are others saying we're doing too much, that we're provoking

Watch video 04:59 It was time for Europe 'to draw a line': historian Christopher Clark

So you seem confident that the people around Putin could hold him back from pushing the nuclear button?

Well, I think that there's a lot of evidence that Putin is having difficulty with a lot of people in the wider circles of his regime system network. Putin has isolated himself more and more.

So my hope is that if there is a major decision to escalate risk through the deployment, for example, in tactical nuclear weapons, that there would be people who would say, no, we won't do that. And that has happened in the past.

Russia does not speak with one voice. Russia is a complex nation. It's a sophisticated nation. It's part of Europe. Very large numbers of Russians have left the country and are now in other places. They include many members of the intelligentsia and the media and so on. The game isn't over yet and Putin does not speak for all of Russia.

Edited by Elizabeth Grenier.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

California Mayor Resigns Amid Baseball Stadium Deal Scandal

AP / AP NEWS
Mon, May 23, 2022

FILE - Fans line up outside Angel Stadium of Anaheim for an opening day baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago Cubs in Anaheim, Calif., on April 4, 2016. The mayor of the Southern California city of Anaheim is resigning amid a swirling political scandal over the sale of Angel Stadium to the baseball team. Mayor Harry Sidhu is quitting his post effective Tuesday, May 24, 2022, his lawyer, Paul S. Meyer, said in a statement Monday. He said the stadium negotiations were lawful and that Sidhu didn't ask for campaign contributions linked to the deal. 

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File) (Photo: via Associated Press)More



ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The mayor of the Southern California city of Anaheim is resigning amid a swirling political scandal over the sale of Angel Stadium to the baseball team.

Mayor Harry Sidhu is quitting his post effective Tuesday, his lawyer, Paul S. Meyer, said in a statement Monday. He said the stadium negotiations were lawful and that Sidhu didn’t ask for campaign contributions linked to the deal.

“Mayor Harry Sidhu has always, as his foremost priority, acted in the best interests of the City of Anaheim, and he does so today,” Meyer said in a statement.

The resignation comes a week after the Orange County city of 347,000 people said it learned Sidhu was being investigated by federal officials in relation to the stadium deal.

Since then, Sidhu’s colleagues on the city council have called for him to resign and raised questions about whether the stadium sale can move forward. The city is expected to discuss the stadium plan at a meeting Tuesday.

“No one ever wants to see their mayor resign in difficult circumstances like this but we do welcome this resignation,” city spokesman Mike Lyster said. “We will welcome some clarity as part of a larger effort to evaluate the situation we’re in and figure out the best path forward for our city.”

Anaheim has been negotiating the sale of the land around the stadium to the Los Angeles Angels. The team would agree to stay in the city through 2050 and buy the stadium and its surrounding parking lots, where it would build homes, shops and restaurants.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Sidhu is being investigated by federal officials for allegedly giving confidential information to the Angles at least twice during negotiations in the hope of getting a campaign donation.

Sidhu has not been charged with a crime.

The scandal has ballooned in Anaheim since last week when a former chamber of commerce executive was charged by federal officials of lying to a mortgage lender as part of a broader investigation. This weekend, a California Democratic Party official resigned her post after it came to light she was a cooperating witness in the probe, and authorities said they suspected she had paid bribes to public officials.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

State attorney general asks for hold on Angel Stadium land sale amid corruption probe

Bill Shaikin
May 16, 2022·

Fans enter Angels Stadium before the team's season opener against the Houston Astros in April. (Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

Harry Sidhu made it his business and his campaign promise in 2018: I’m the mayor that is going to keep the Angels in Anaheim for decades to come.

In 2022, Sidhu is campaigning for re-election as mayor. The city had agreed to sell Angel Stadium and the surrounding parking lots to the team owner in 2019, but the state housing agency had found the deal in violation of California affordable housing law.

Anaheim could have redone the deal. Instead, the city remained liable for a $96-million fine.

That, according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court, was because Sidhu wanted to see the deal through to solicit a campaign contribution from the Angels.

“We’ll push them at least [to] have a million dollars,” Sidhu said, unaware the FBI had arranged for the conversation to be recorded. “You know, for [an Angels official] to say ‘no’ is bad.”

The Angels official was not identified.

On Monday, the state attorney general asked a court to put the $320 million sale on hold. The court filing explained why: a detailed FBI affidavit showed Sidhu is under investigation for public corruption, and the attorney general said he does not yet know whether the facts uncovered in the investigation could make the sale illegal.

“We will determine what this means for the stadium plan in the days ahead,” Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said in a statement.

Marie Garvey, the spokeswoman for Angels owner Arte Moreno's company, declined to comment on Monday's developments. She also declined to say whether Moreno wished to continue to pursue the project.

"It would be inappropriate to comment at this time," Garvey said.

In the affidavit, there is no evidence of wrongdoing by anyone associated with the Angels and no evidence the proposed solicitation was made.

However, FBI special agent Brian Adkins wrote: “I believe Sidhu illustrated his intent to solicit campaign contributions, in the amount of $1,000,000 … in exchange for performing official acts intended to finalize the stadium sale for the Angels.”

Adkins also wrote that he found probable cause to believe that Sidhu shared confidential information about sale negotiations with the Angels — as the city was negotiating against the team — “with the expectation of receiving a sizeable contribution to his reelection campaign from a prominent Angels representative.”

Adkins also said Sidhu “has attempted to obstruct an Orange County grand jury inquiry into the Angel Stadium deal.” The agent also said he believed there was probable cause that Sidhu “may have engaged in criminal offenses,” including fraud, theft or bribery, making false statements, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu, shown at his home, sought campaign contributions from the Angels, according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court. (Karen Tapia / Los Angeles Times)

The attorney for Sidhu, Paul Meyer, said: “We are making no comment at this time.”

In a statement, Anaheim City Manager Jim Vanderpool said: “We are troubled by this. Throughout this process, Anaheim staff and the City Council have worked in good faith on a proposal that offered benefits for our community.

“What has been shared with us was unknown to the city administration before today, and what is being described falls outside of the city’s process on the stadium.”

Sidhu and the city administration carefully managed the release of stadium-related information to the public. In 2019, when the city extended the Angels’ window to opt out of their stadium lease by one year, the city declined to highlight that it also had reinstated the lease in full, giving the team control of the land through 2038. That meant the city had handcuffed itself in negotiations, since the option of demolishing the stadium in one year and selling the land for half a billion dollars was off the table.

In December 2019, the city announced the sale price at $325 million, later reduced to $320 million. The city said the price could be adjusted for development credits but did not say how much, although The Times reported then that the actual price could be half the announced rate. Nine months later, the city announced the actual cash price: $150 million.

And last month, the city announced a settlement with the state: more affordable housing in the city, but less on the stadium site. It was not until this month that the city disclosed how much less: about 80%.

In March, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that the city had not violated the Brown Act — the state’s open government law — in negotiating the sale. The citizens’ group that filed suit against the city had asked a judge to nullify the sale.

“There is no basis to nullify the decision,” Judge David Hoffer wrote in his ruling.

But, according to Adkins, Sidhu’s actions “may have affected the ruling” because a cooperating witness said Sidhu gave him information about a land appraisal so he could share that information with the Angels. Because that information came from a closed session of the city council, Adkins wrote, “Sidhu’s actions may have violated the Brown Act.”

Adkins said he believed Sidhu “knowingly provided confidential information intended for the sole use of Anaheim and its negotiating team to the Angels … with the intent of concealing his actions from the negotiating team and the public, for the purpose of assisting the Angels and himself at the expense of the city of Anaheim.”

Angels owner Arte Moreno (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

Sidhu, according to the affidavit, met with a witness who was cooperating with the FBI investigation, although the mayor was unaware the person was an FBI source, and coached the witness to lie to the county grand jury about what the two had discussed and when they had discussed it.

The evidence, according to the affidavit, also showed Sidhu pursued an Arizona address to register his helicopter, despite the fact that he lived in Anaheim and based the helicopter out of Chino.

Had he registered the helicopter in California, he would have owed $15,888 in sales tax. Had he registered the helicopter in Arizona, he would have owed a $1,025 vehicle tax.

Adkins said there was no record of Sidhu registering the helicopter in either state.

On Monday afternoon, just before news of the affidavit broke, the city councilman who has been the most vocal opponent of the stadium deal – primarily because of what he considered a rushed and secretive process – said he was interested that the state housing agency had taken a renewed interest in the stadium deal.

The state housing agency told the Los Angeles Times on Friday it objected to the city’s proposed solution to violations of affordable housing law: absolving Moreno of almost all of his commitment to build affordable housing there.

Moreno’s development company would return $96 million in credits from the $320-million sale – so the city could say taxpayers had not paid the $96 million -- but the company had the potential to make more money from the hundreds more units of housing it could sell at market rate.

“What I was most concerned about seems to be playing out,” said councilman Jose Moreno, no relation to the Angels owner.

“At the end of the day, out of this illegal land sale, Arte Moreno and the city of Anaheim’s leadership are continuing to maximize the private profits for Arte Moreno and the private interests of the development site, and not looking out for the public benefits.”

Within two hours, he and everyone else at City Hall had learned the mayor was under investigation for corruption. Sidhu has not been charged with a crime.

This, Jose Moreno said, called for a complete do-over of the stadium deal.

“The news of Mayor Sidhu’s alleged political corruption regarding the Anaheim Stadium deal is both unfortunate and tragic,” Moreno said.

“My hope for the people of Anaheim is that this matter is fully investigated and brought to closure so we can move on developing a more open, transparent and legal land deal that truly benefits the people of Anaheim and puts trust back into our local affairs.”

Times staff writer Adam Elmahrek contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.