Trans Mountain project costs 'reasonably and justifiably incurred:' Crown corporation

The Canadian Press

The company building the Trans Mountain pipeline has submitted evidence to support its claim that oil companies must pay more in tolls in light of the pipeline project's mounting costs.

Trans Mountain Corp. says in a new regulatory filing that the increased costs of the pipeline expansion project were "reasonably and justifiably incurred."

The Crown corporation has successfully applied for permission to charge oil shippers higher tolls once the pipeline expansion is operational, but only on an interim basis until the Canada Energy Regulator makes a final decision.

Trans Mountain Corp. wants to charge oil companies a benchmark toll that is nearly twice the amount of a 2017 estimate, as it seeks to recoup some of the pipeline expansion project's spiralling capital costs.

The pipeline project, which is more than 97 per cent complete, has gone from a 2017 construction cost estimate of $7.4 billion to a most recent estimate of $30.9 billion.

Trans Mountain Corp. said in written evidence submitted Friday to the regulator that the project was affected by "extraordinary" factors including evolving compliance requirements, Indigenous accommodations, stakeholder engagement and compensation requirements, extreme weather and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2023

Trans Mountain warns regulator of potential 

'catastrophic' two-year pipeline delay

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press 

The company building the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is warning the project's completion could be delayed by two years if the Canada Energy Regulator does not allow a previously rejected request for a pipeline variance.

In a regulatory filing Thursday, Trans Mountain Corp. said such a delay would be "catastrophic" for the pipeline project, which is currently more than 97 per cent complete. It said a delay of that length would result in billions of dollars of losses for the company, which is a Crown corporation.

"These outcomes would not be in the public interest," the filing states.

The development is just the latest in a series of hurdles Trans Mountain Corp. has faced as it races against the clock to finish its massive pipeline construction project.

The Trans Mountain pipeline is Canada's only oil pipeline to the west coast, and its expansion will boost the pipeline's capacity to 890,000 barrels per day from 300,000 bpd currently. 

The project's completion, which had been expected in early 2024, is eagerly awaited by this country's energy industry, which will benefit from improved access to export markets. 

The pipeline expansion is also expected to reduce the Western Canada Select differential, which is a term for the discount Canadian oil companies typically take on their product in part due to lack of export capacity.

But the pipeline project has run into construction difficulties in its home stretch. Trans Mountain Corp. has already had to alter the route slightly near Kamloops, B.C. due to difficulty drilling a tunnel.

The newest challenges are related to hard rock conditions. In October, the Crown corporation asked the regulator to allow it to use a different diameter, wall thickness and coating for a 2.3 kilometre stretch of pipeline to make construction easier, but the regulator denied that request earlier this month.

Now, Trans Mountain says it has reason to believe that proceeding with the current construction plan through complex hard rock conditions could compromise a borehole and result in the failure of drilling equipment. 

It is once again requesting that it be allowed to alter the type of pipe used, saying the risks of continuing are "more serious and acute than previously understood."

In an email Friday, Canada Energy Regulator spokeswoman Ruth Anne Beck said a decision-making process and timeline for Trans Mountain's latest request is still being determined.

Trans Mountain has asked the regulator to make a decision before Jan. 9 in order to prevent unnecessary delays.

The federal government purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2018 in an effort to get the expansion project over the finish line after it was scuttled by previous owner Kinder Morgan Canada.

The project's costs have spiralled through the course of construction from an original estimate of $5.4 billion to the most recent estimate of $30.9 billion.

Trans Mountain Corp. has said that if the pipeline doesn't begin shipping oil in early 2024 as expected, it will incur lost revenues to the effect of approximately $200 million per each month of delay.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2023.

UK painter’s pop art highlights ‘silencing’ of Hong Kong youth

By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

Martin Lever's collection shows figures with mouths zipped shut or covered with masks

 - Copyright POOL/AFP Franck ROBICHON

Helen ROWE

For two decades, British artist Martin Lever took his inspiration from Asia and his adopted home of Hong Kong.

Lever, 54, who spent most of his life in Hong Kong before deciding to leave in 2022 in the wake of a sweeping national security law introduced by Beijing, specialised in landscapes, portraits and abstract works

But after years of non-political work, he says he has been compelled to try to “capture the situation in Hong Kong through my art”.

In an exhibition that his is aware risks him being banned from ever returning to the city he loves, he has used a playful pop art aesthetic to highlight what he says is the silencing of Hong Kong youth.

Taking inspiration from the late US graffiti artist Keith Haring, his collection shows figures with mouths zipped shut or covered with masks.

Key Hong Kong sights and locations are featured in the works “essentially to just symbolise that this law was starting to creep into every aspect of Hong Kong life in different ways”, he told AFP.

Following the introduction of the national security law in 2020, Lever has now swapped the buzz of Hong Kong for the calm of rural Yorkshire in northern England.

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong — which enjoys greater freedoms compared to mainland China — once had a vibrant civil society.

But the new law, designed to quell dissent in the financial hub, has had far-reaching consequences.

“I’ve never really lived through anything, from a historical perspective, of the enormity that was I was witnessing in Hong Kong — the sort of disintegration of the One Country Two Systems… and 50 years of autonomy,” he said.

Until now there has been nothing particularly political about his art.

But the artist, who previously worked in advertising, said that like many living in Hong Kong, he had become increasingly alarmed that the Chinese government appeared to have “a long list of people it doesn’t like, who’ve been critical”.

Three years after the law was enacted, activists say Hong Kong’s police have stepped up surveillance — pre-emptively discouraging rallies before applications are filed, paying home visits in the lead-up to days seen as politically sensitive and summoning organisers for warning chats.

– Freedom of expression –

Jimmy Lai, a 75-year-old British citizen and founder of the now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily, has been behind bars since 2020 ahead of his trial for alleged “collusion with foreign forces”, which starts on Monday.

“It started one by one, going after various sectors of society — Jimmy Lai and the Apple Daily being one very prominent figure who’d been critical of China — and starting to ban certain books, slogans and songs,” Lever said.

“It was just very surreal and I think I found myself just becoming angrier and angrier at what I saw.”

He said he had been disturbed that young people were not being allowed the freedoms he had enjoyed.

“I grew up in Hong Kong where freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of creativity was taken for granted.

“That afforded me many opportunities that I’m very thankful for. To see those same freedoms being slowly taken away from primarily young Hong Kongers… makes me very sad.”

After 44 years in Hong Kong, Lever and his family decided to leave Hong Kong in 2022 for a combination of reasons, including the political situation.

He said the problem with the national security law was that it was so ambiguous it led to self-censorship.

“People don’t know what is okay and what isn’t. So as creative person, you have to worry.”

Creating the collection had been “cathartic” after the decision to leave, he said, but that there was a danger now of being singled out by the Chinese authorities.

“It’s a risk I’m prepared to take because if I get banned from Hong Kong for doing some paintings, then it kind of underlines the whole reason for it,” he said

“I just feel in my heart it’s something I’d really need to do.”

Silent Protest at London’s Crypt Gallery runs until Sunday. Proceeds from any sales will be donated to 

Greek museum hands over reins to women artists


By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

'Women artists are still under-represented in most aspects of the art world,' said Katerina Gregos - Copyright POOL/AFP Franck ROBICHON
Marina RAFENBERG

A Greek art museum this week handed over its halls exclusively to women artists, in a pioneering exhibition titled “What if women ruled the world?”

“For 10 months, the entire museum will be in the hands of women artists,” Katerina Gregos, artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST), told AFP.

The museum’s permanent exhibitions have been reorganised to highlight the work of 25 women artists, with another 15 temporary displays to follow.

Among the painters, sculptors, photographers and others are Syrian-American contemporary artist Diana Al-Hadid, French visual artist Annette Messager, Iranian-American painter Tala Madani, Greek-Belgian contemporary artist Danai Anesiadou and English visual artist Cornelia Parker.

Until now, just 37 percent of artists represented in the museum’s permanent exhibition were women, Gregos said.

The selected works address themes including stereotypes of female beauty, violence against women, inequality, consumerism, and poverty disproportionately affecting women.

“Women artists are still under-represented in most aspects of the art world,” said Gregos, who took over the post of artistic director in 2021.

“We wanted to reverse the trend and see what a museum would look like if, instead of a few token pieces, works by women artists made up the majority,” she said.

– ‘Systematically marginalised’ –

Among the 18 top museums in the United States, 87 percent of works were created by men, according to the Washington-based National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Similar statistics are not available for Greece.

Several artists in the exhibition will be Greek, with Gregos stressing that women often have difficulty gaining recognition in a traditionally patriarchal country that has long languished outside the international art market mainstream.

“Especially in a country like Greece, where there has never been an organised feminist movement in the visual arts and where women artists have been systematically marginalised for decades, this initiative is an important message and, compensation for a major inequality”, she said.

At the beginning of the permanent exhibition, a frieze traces the progress of women’s rights in Greece.

Women became eligible to vote only in 1953, and marriage dowries were officially abolished only in 1983.

“Most wars and destruction are orchestrated mainly by men,” Gregos said.

“If women were in charge, perhaps there would be less violence, more compromise, more fairness. It wouldn’t be a perfect world but it would certainly be different.”

Housed in a 19th-century brewery complex, the museum’s full galleries opened in 2021.

Business AI and intelligent automation will be the buzz phrases for 2024

By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published December 15, 2023

Teachers at a workshop on ChatGPT bot in Geneva - Copyright AFP Aaref WATAD

According to Ugo Orsi, Chief Customer Officer at Digitate, the business world can expect two impactful things to occur during the course of 2024. The first of these is that businesses will make sense of GenAI in AIOps. The second are involves enterprises finally being able to quantify the return of investment in the area of intelligent automation.

GenAI in AIOps

As generative AI continues to gain momentum in mainstream business, business can expect to see a ‘levelling out’ in 2024. According to Orsi, this will come “as enterprises begin to adopt standards and deploy GenAI in applications that make business sense as they pair it with AIOps.”

Generative AI (GenAI) is a type of Artificial Intelligence that can create a wide variety of data, such as images, videos, audio, text, and 3D models.

So how does this differ from current processes? Orsi spells this out: “Conversational AI will drive customer-facing elements such as customer support, directing inquiries, managing UX interfaces, and the initial vetting of customers.”

In outlining the benefits, Orsi continues: “GenAI will be used to provide personalized support to IT users, such as by answering their questions and troubleshooting problems. Beyond that, GenAI will support improved anomaly detection and prediction, automated remediation, which can free up IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks, and enhanced decision-making, providing insights that help IT leaders make better decisions about resource allocation, capacity planning, and other critical areas.”

Enterprises quantifying the ROI of intelligent automation

With the second area of innovation, Orsi foresees that intelligent automation (IA), as a powerful tool that can be used to improve IT operations and reduce costs, will become more widely used.

Intelligent automation involves the use of automation technologies – artificial intelligence (AI), business process management (BPM), and robotic process automation (RPA).

In terms of the reasons why, Orsi finds: “A well-designed IA solution will boost customer satisfaction, operating cost decreases, attrition and turnover for IT staff decreases. However, it can be difficult to quantify the value of IA projects, which can make it challenging to get buy-in from executives.”

In terms of the benefits to be realised, Orsi says: “As enterprises deploy IA, tangible measures of ROI are required that are meaningful to key decision makers.”

And in terms of the coming year, he predicts: “In 2024, enterprises will need to adopt a model for designing IA transformation projects that are more likely to succeed. A “black box” approach to IA transformation will not work. Instead, a more Agile approach that is based on Sagas, Epics, and Sprints is recommended.”

In terms of where business can turn, Orsi puts forward: “Powerful AI-based solutions for IT operations such as Digitate’s ignio can be used to predict incidents, offer ways to prevent them, and even suggest improvements to the technical design/architecture to optimize operations, transparently, making ROI easier to showcase.”

The path to machines thinking more like us will ‘accelerate in 2024’


By Dr. Tim Sandle
Published December 15, 2023

Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses our growing scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of conventional computers 

- Copyright AFP/File LUCA SOLA

Collaborative learning and conversational intelligence will be among the most important AI developments for 2024, according to Dr. Maitreya Natu, Chief Data Scientist at Digitate.

Natu sets out why Collaborative Learning (CL) and Conversational Intelligence (CI) are poised to revolutionize AIOps in 2024. This is based on the abilities of these technologies to: “Usher in a transformative era for the application of AI and machine learning in IT operations. By facilitating collaborative learning and natural interactions with humans, these advancements will drive increased autonomy, predictive capabilities, and enhanced human-AI collaboration, reshaping the landscape of AI-powered IT operations.”

The reference to AIOps refers to an initialism first coined by Gartner. Here, AIOps represents “artificial intelligence for IT operations”. This is defined as the application of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, such as natural language processing and machine learning models, to automate and streamline operational workflows.

Of particular interest is natural language processing, as a branch of computer science concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words in much the same way human beings can.

In terms of the operational specifics, Natu spells out: “CL breaks down silos between AI models, allowing continuous learning and improvement through interactions with other AI systems, humans, and real-world data.”

The advantages of this approach “fosters more comprehensive and accurate AI-driven decision-making by sharing knowledge, insights, and experiences”, Natu observes.

Expanding this further, Natu finds: “CI empowers AI systems to engage in human-like conversations, bridging the communication gap between humans and AI. CI-enabled AIOps platforms enable IT professionals to interact with AI systems using plain language, democratizing AI accessibility and fostering trust in AI-powered decision-making.”

Both CI and CL are descriptors normally applied to humans interacting with each other. In the context of algorithms, the same processes used by humans are attempted to be replicated by machines. The aim is to deliver innovation and development, especially in the case of conversational intelligence, which seeks to recreate the intelligence hardwired into every human being, a process that enables us to navigate successfully with others.

In terms of how these factors come together, Natu sess the advantages as: “The convergence of CL and CI will bring about transformative changes in AIOps in key areas such as real-time anomaly detection and prediction, automated incident resolution, personalized knowledge management, and explainable AI for informed decision-making.”

New Zealand store pulls kiwi chew toys after conservation backlash

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Kiwis are under threat in New Zealand, where dogs are the among the main predators of the native flightless birds in the wild 

- Copyright AFP/File 

Marty MELVILLE

A New Zealand chain store has pulled festive kiwi-shaped canine chew toys from sale, after backlash from conservationists trying to save the endangered bird.

There are fewer than 70,000 kiwis left in New Zealand, according to official figures, and dogs are one of the main killers of adult birds in the wild.

Hardware chain Mitre 10 has agreed to stop selling the Christmas-themed kiwi chew toys — complete with red Santa hats — after complaints from conservationists.

“We’re really fighting hard to keep kiwi safe from a number of pests and predators out there and one of which can be a roaming dog or a feral dog,” Save the Kiwi chief executive Michelle Impey told AFP on Friday.

“To promote that it’s okay for a dog to have a kiwi in its mouth isn’t the right message we want to be sending to dog owners,” she added. “It’s the optics of it.”

The national kiwi population has been declining by around two percent each year. AFP has approached Mitre 10 for comment.

Autonomous auto venture Cruise cuts 24% of staff


By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Activists from SafeStreetRebel shown in July placing a cone on a self-driving Cruise robotaxi to disable it in San Francisco - Copyright AFP/File Mandel NGAN

US autonomous driving venture Cruise announced Thursday it will eliminate roughly a quarter of its workforce as it slows commercialization to address safety issues.

The company, a subsidiary of General Motors, notified 24 percent of its workers — or about 900 people — that they would lose their positions following a recent pause after a highly publicized incident in California.

President Mo Elshenawy said Cruise aims to resume operations in one market “and enhance our safety standards and processes before we scale,” according to a message to employees.

“This is very different from our prior plans to expand into more than a dozen new cities in 2024,” said Elshenawy, who has moved up in the company following the November departure of co-founder Kyle Vogt.

GM’s Cruise operation has been on hold since October 27 when it suspended of operations after California halted testing of the robotaxis.

The venture has been under scrutiny after a self-driving car operated by Cruise ran over a woman who had first been knocked in front of it by a hit-and-run driver in San Francisco.

The company has ordered independent reviews of the incident and the safety and technology, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra told Wall Street analysts on November 29.

Barra said the company would be “very deliberate” with the operation. Company officials also disclosed that they planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars less in 2024 on Cruise compared with 2023.

The push-back of commercialization means Cruise didn’t need as many support employees in some cities or in light of a company restructuring, Elshenawy said in the message.

The employees targeted for cuts were “largely outside of engineering, although some tech positions are impacted also,” he added.

Historic Vatican fraud trial to deliver its verdict

By AFP
Published December 16, 2023

Becciu is the most senior Catholic clergyman to face justice in the Vatican City State - Copyright POOL/AFP Franck ROBICHON

Clément MELKI, Alice RITCHIE

A Vatican court delivers its verdict on Saturday in a historic trial focused on an opaque London property deal, with a once-powerful cardinal among 10 defendants facing jail for alleged financial crimes.

Angelo Becciu, 75, a former advisor to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, is the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court.

He and nine other defendants, including financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees, are facing a string of accusations, from fraud, embezzlement and money laundering to extortion, corruption and abuse of office.

They all deny the charges.

At the heart of the trial is the 350-million-euro ($380-million) purchase of a luxury property in London, as part of an investment that began in 2014 and ended up costing the Vatican tens of millions of euros (dollars).

The trial, which began in July 2021, has shone a light on the Holy See’s murky finances, which Pope Francis has sought to clean up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013.

It is also a test of his reforms.

Just weeks before the trial, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the power to try cardinals and bishops, where previously they were judged by a court presided over by cardinals.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi has requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu, and between almost four and 13 years for the others.

Becciu has always strongly protested his innocence, denouncing the accusations against him as “totally unfounded” and insisting he never took a cent.

For its part, the Holy See views itself as “an offended party” and has asked through Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the court to “punish all crimes”.

Four Vatican entities are civil parties. They have requested compensation from the defendants, including 177 million euros for moral and reputational damage.

– Charitable causes –

The panel of three lay judges met on Saturday morning, before retiring ahead of the verdict on Saturday afternoon.

Court president Giuseppe Pignatone read out a note of thanks to those involved, acknowledging the “complexity” of the case.

Since the trial opened, there have been more than 80 hearings in the dedicated room within the Vatican Museums, where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.

The process has been mired by procedural wrangling, with defence lawyers complaining about a lack of access to key evidence.

Becciu, a globe-trotting former Vatican diplomat, has been a near constant presence in the courtroom.

He was number two in the Secretariat of State, the Vatican department that works most closely with the pope, from 2011 to 2018.

He was moved to lead the department that deals with the creation of saints, before abruptly resigning in September 2020, after being informed of an investigation against him.

Initially, he told the trial, this was about a probe into 125,000 euros of Vatican money he donated to a charity in his native Sardinia, which prosecutors claim benefitted his brother, who ran the organisation.

But he was later drawn into investigations into the purchase and sale of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue — resulting in losses that, according to the Vatican, dipped into resources intended for charitable causes.

When the trial opened, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight and double-dealing by both outside consultants and insiders.

Among the defendants are two brokers involved in the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, as well as Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican investment manager, and former Vatican employee Fabrizio Tirabassi.

Becciu is also accused over payments made to a Sardinian woman, Cecilia Marogna — who is also on trial — which he claims were to help negotiate the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.

Coal use hits record in 2023, Earth’s hottest year

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

A lignite-fired power station operated by German energy giant RWE in Germany - Copyright AFP/File -

Isabel MALSANG

Global consumption of coal reached an all-time high in 2023, the IEA energy watchdog said Friday, as Earth experienced its hottest recorded year.

The International Energy Agency reported that nations would burn even more coal this year than in 2022, the previous record for consumption of the key source of planet-warming gases.

Scientists say greenhouse gases will need to be cut almost in half this decade to meet the world’s targets of limiting global heating and avoiding catastrophic impacts on the Earth’s climate.

The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said earlier in December that 2023 will be the hottest on record after November became the sixth record-breaking month in a row.

The IEA said, nevertheless, that after peaking this year, worldwide coal consumption was expected to start declining in 2024, as renewable power generation from solar and wind continues to expand.

Its latest forecasts were published two days after the conclusion of the United Nations climate negotiations (COP28) in Dubai -– where nearly 200 countries reached a deal that the world should be “transitioning away from fossil fuels” to limit global warming.

It was the first time in the 28-year history of the annual climate negotiations that all fossil fuels were mentioned in an accord.

The disruption in the Earth’s climate has contributed to an increase in the intensity and frequency of storms, droughts and lethal wildfires around the world.

– Asia powering coal use –

The IEA said consumption of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, rose by 1.4 percent in 2023 to a record 8.5 billion tonnes, as increases in China, India and Indonesia outweighed sharply falling demand in Europe and the United States, the IEA said.

“We expect to see a trend emerging of declining worldwide coal demand, starting in 2024,” the Paris-based energy watchdog said, as renewable power generation from solar and wind continues to expand.

The appetite for coal is strongest in Asia, it said. Consumption in China alone grew by 220 million tonnes or 4.9 percent in 2023, while in India it grew eight percent and in Indonesia by 11 percent.

Elsewhere, coal use fell 23 percent or by 107 million tonnes in Europe, while in the United States it dropped 95 million tonnes or by 21 percent, largely due to weakening industrial activity and an ongoing shift away from coal-fired generation towards renewables.

The IEA said it was difficult to forecast demand in Russia, currently the fourth-largest coal consumer, because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and forecasts for Ukraine were equally uncertain.

While the IEA predicted a decline in coal in power stations, it said its use in heavy industries like cement production was expected to continue at high levels.

Paradoxically, the high demand for coal in Indonesia’s mining sector stems from its booming industry in extracting and refining nickel for use in electric car batteries.

China remains the world’s largest user of coal, responsible for half (54 percent) of all coal burned worldwide.

– Europe champions renewables –

More than 60 percent of coal burned in China is used to generate electricity and the country continues to build coal-fired power stations.

This year alone, the country has approved new projects totalling 52 gigawatts of new electricity-generating capacity.

The IEA nevertheless expects coal consumption in China to start declining, unless heatwaves and very cold spells lead to higher demand on its power plants.

Burning coal to generate electricity would decline in China to 2.8 billion tonnes, a drop of 175 million, over the period 2024-26.

In its place, the main demand for coal would come from India, at least as far as 2026, the IEA said.

In the European Union, an expansion of renewable energies, which generate very little greenhouse gas emissions, is curbing demand for coal.

In Germany, the use of ignite- and coal-powered power stations is expected to tail off significantly by 2025, the watchdog forecast, as solar and wind farms come on stream.

High time: Dutch savour legal pot trial

By AFP
Published December 14, 2023

A great misconception abroad is that weed is already legal in the Netherlands

Julie CAPELLE

Cannabis smokers in two Dutch cities will be able to light up legally for the first time Friday, as authorities roll out a trial decriminalising the production and supply of weed.

A great misconception abroad is that dope is already legal in the Netherlands — home to the world-famous coffee shops (which actually sell pot) and seen as a huge draw for cannabis smokers.

But in fact, the drug exists in a legal grey area, which the government hopes to stub out with the four-year trial starting in Breda and Tilburg and expanding to other parts of the country.

The consumption of small quantities of cannabis is technically illegal but police choose not to enforce the law as part of a so-called “tolerance” policy in place since the 1970s.

However, the production of cannabis and supply to coffee shops is both illegal and not tolerated, meaning producers and coffee shop owners have to operate in the shadows.

This has led to gangs getting involved, with a related rise in petty crime and anti-social behaviour that local officials hope to stop with the legal pot experiment.

Production will be limited to a handful of farms, whose cannabis will be closely monitored before supply to coffee shops.

Consumers are guaranteed a high-quality product, whereas before it was impossible to know where the cannabis came from — or whether it had been altered.

The level of THC and CBD, the active ingredients of cannabis, will also be measured, so users will know how strong their joint is.

The Dutch move comes amid a general trend of decriminalising the use of cannabis.

Neighbouring Germany has approved a law legalising the purchase and possession of cannabis for recreational use. Adults can have up to 25 grammes and grow up to three plants.

The drug is available in some pharmacies in Switzerland, which is also flirting with decriminalising its recreational use.

Adult recreational use of Cannabis is already legal in about 20 American states.

During the Dutch experiment, independent researchers will monitor the trial with a view to eventual decriminalisation.

One unknown hanging over this policy — and indeed all policies — is the Geert Wilders factor, after the far-right leader won elections last month.

His PVV Freedom Party wants to scrap the “tolerance” policy for good, close coffee shops, and push for a “drug-free Netherlands.”

They were placed bottom of the parties to vote for in the last election by “cannabis-kieswijzer.nl”, a website that ranks political parties by their cannabis-friendly policies.

PHOTO - Copyright AFP MAHMUD HAMS

Black truffle production booms in Spain

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Jose Soriano left his job as a forest ranger to cultivate truffles full-time 

- Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE

Valentin BONTEMPS

When Jose Soriano was a child, the hills near the village of Sarrion in Spain’s remote and sparsely populated eastern province of Teruel were mostly uncultivated, covered in brush and rocks.

Now they are home to rows of oak trees, where large quantities of black truffles — one of the most exclusive and expensive delicacies on the planet — grow underground, nestled in their roots.

“Here everything revolves around truffles,” said Soriano, who owns 30 hectares (74 acres) of land near Sarrion, which is home to some 1,200 people.

This athletic 38-year-old left his forest ranger job a few years ago to dedicate himself full time to cultivating black truffles, which grow among the roots of trees planted two decades ago by his father-in-law.

“It was complicated doing both things at the same time,” said Soriano as he petted his dog, Pista. “In the end you earn more with truffles.”

The setter has been trained to hunt for the underground fungi, which look like knobbly balls of damp mud and offer a unique taste when added to dishes.

Production of “tuber melanosporum”, the scientific name for black truffles, has soared in recent years in Spain, which is now the world’s leading producer of the delicacy.

Often called “black diamonds”, the truffles can fetch up to 1,500 euros ($1,600) per kilogramme.

“The land here is very poor. Not much grows. But paradoxically this type of terrain appeals to the truffle,” Daniel Brito, head of the Teruel Association of Truffle Growers, said of the province’s limestone terrain.

– ‘It’s a lifeline’ –

Spain produced around 120 tonnes of black truffles in 2022.

That is four times more than the 30 tonnes harvested in Italy and three times the 40 tonnes produced in France, which until recently was the world’s top producer.

And roughly 80 percent of Spain’s black truffles come from the area around Sarrion, which has 8,000 hectares of black truffle cultivation, making it the world’s biggest source.

The village holds an annual fair dedicated to black truffles, which Brito said were exported from the region to the “whole world”.

Extensive irrigation is behind this success, he said, along with the widespread use of controlled mycorrhisation — a technique that creates a symbiotic association between the truffle fungus and the root of the tree.

The truffles extract sugar and water from their host tree’s roots and in return feed soil nutrients back into the tree.

Under the right conditions this allows “for a much bigger crop” of black truffles, Brito said.

For villages in the area, which like much of the Spanish interior have struggled with a shrinking population as people move to urban areas in search of more opportunity, the boom in truffle production has been something of a miracle.

“For those who want to stay here, it’s a lifeline,” said Sarrion’s 32-year-old mayor, Estefania Donate.

– ‘A lot of work’ –

Before the truffle boom began in the 2000s, the village was losing its younger inhabitants due to a lack of jobs and prospects.

Now the population is inching up, with the village school experiencing a jump in enrolment.

“There is very little unemployment here… It’s more housing that we’re short of,” Donate said.

“The truffle brings life… We even attract a few tourists,” she added.

The success of the truffle sector remains fragile, though.

Truffles can not go for long without water and “love the cold”, so changing weather patterns — with warmer winters and less rain — are “worrying”, Brito said.

“We have managed to stabilise production thanks to irrigation,” he added.

Truffle cultivation “requires a lot of work and investment” because trees only begin to produce them after 10 years and, like all fungi, truffles are “unpredictable”.

Lafarge faces civil suit in US led by Yazidi Nobel laureate

By AFP
Published December 15, 2023

Attorney Amal Clooney (L), co-Founder is part of a legal team representing Nadia Murad (R)and some 430 Yazidi Americans in a suit against French company Lafarge

 - Copyright AFP/File TIMOTHY A. CLARY

Some 430 Americans of Yazidi background and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad accused French conglomerate Lafarge of supporting brutal attacks on the population through a conspiracy with the Islamic State, according to a complaint reviewed Friday by AFP.

The civil suit, filed in a New York court by attorneys that include human rights lawyer Amal Clooney references a $778 million US Department of Justice fine and guilty criminal plea in October 2022 by Lafarge, which was acquired by Swiss company Holcim in 2015.

Yazidi plaintiffs asked the court to find Lafarge liable for violations of the US Anti-Terrorism Act and assess compensatory damages, plus attorneys fees.

Lafarge considers the matter “a legacy issue, which Lafarge SA is managing responsibly, a Lafarge spokesperson said.

The lawsuit recounts horrors inflicted by ISIS in a 2014 siege in which thousands of Yazidis were murdered and kidnapped, causing hundreds and thousands to flee and subjecting remaining Yazidi women to sales as sex slaves — a fate that befell Murad, who won the Nobel Prize in 2018.

The Kurdish-speaking Yazidis are an ethno-religious minority found mainly in Iraq that has over time absorbed elements of Islam and Christianity. Jihadists view the population as heretics.

The Yazidis suit points to $6 million in payments from Lafarge to ISIS in 2013 and 2014 to purchase raw materials from a Lafarge cement plant in Syria that continued to operate during the Syrian Civil War.

The plaintiffs’ complaint also references some $80.5 million that US prosecutors found benefited participants in the conspiracy, including ISIS and Lafarge.

“The money and cement defendants supplied ISIS went directly to ISIS’s operations at precisely the time it was committing acts of international terrorism, including the slaughter of innocent people such as the Yazidis,” the complaint said.

Plaintiffs in the case “are Yazidis who are US citizens,” according to the complaint.

“Many of them were, or had relatives who were, translators for the US. Army and served the United States. They are farmers, schoolteachers, housewives, and small business owners whose lives were upended on that fateful day in August 2014.”

Lafarge also faces a case in France dating to 2018 over charges of complicity in crimes against humanity.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YEZEDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAZEDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YAZIDI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YEZIDI