Germany will pay Namibia $1.3bn as it formally recognizes colonial-era genocide


BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 29: Namibian tribal chiefs and guests attend a ceremony at Frenzosische Dom in Berlin held for the victims of Namibian genocide, on August 29, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Germany on Wednesday handed over the remains of some 20 Herero and Nama people murdered in the early 20th century by German colonial troops in Namibia. (Photo by Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

More than 100 years after the crimes committed by the German colonial power in what is now Namibia, Germany has formally recognized the atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups as genocide.

Germany will support Namibia and the descendants of the victims with €1.1 billion for reconstruction and development and ask for forgiveness for the "crimes of German colonial rule," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Friday.

"Our goal was and is to find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and in particular the atrocities in the period from 1904 to 1908, without sparing or glossing over them. We will now also officially call these events what they were from today's perspective: a genocide," Maas said.

The Namibian government saw the formal acceptance of the atrocities as genocide as a key step in the process of reconciliation and reparation, Namibian presidential press secretary Alfredo Hengari told CNN on Friday.

"These are very positive developments in light of a very long process that has been accelerated over the past five years. People will never forget this genocide; they live with it. And this is an important process in terms of healing those wounds," he said.
A bloody conflict

German troops killed up to 80,000 of Herero and Nama people in the southern African country between 1904 and 1908 in response to an anti-colonial uprising, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

According to historians, the bloody conflict happened when the Herero indigenous people revolted against colonial troops over land seizures. Germany, which today gives development aid to Namibia, offered its first formal apology for the conflict in 2004.

Both countries had been in talks since 2015 to negotiate compensation for the massacre by German colonial forces. Maas said in his statement that representatives of the Herero and Nama communities were "closely involved" in the negotiations on the Namibian side.

"The crimes of German colonial rule have long burdened relations with Namibia. There can be no closing of the book on the past. However, the recognition of guilt and our request for apology is an important step towards coming to terms with the crimes and shaping the future together," Maas said.

German media is reporting that an official request for forgiveness will be made by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in the Namibian parliament.

"A decision on a possible trip by the Federal President will be made after the governments have reached a formal agreement and in close consultation with the Namibian side," a spokesperson at the office of the Federal President told CNN.

The announcement comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron publicly acknowledged France's "overwhelming responsibility" in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and said only the survivors could give "the gift of forgiveness."

In 1994, around 800,000 mainly ethnic Tutsis were killed by Hutu militias supported by the Rwandan government. France has been accused of failing to prevent the genocide and of supporting the Hutu regime, even after the massacres had started.


© Jürgen Bätz/picture alliance/Getty ImagesA memorial to the genocide of the Herero and Nama (1904-1907) committed by German colonial troops in the Namibian capital Windhoek. The inscription translates: "Your blood nourishes our freedom."

Germany's colonial-era massacre of Namibia's indigenous tribes


© GIANLUIGI GUERCIA

Schoolgirls in Windhoek walk past a memorial to victims of Germany's colonial-era massacre in Namibia

Germany on Friday took a historic step by acknowledging that the massacre of Namibia's indigenous Herero and Nama peoples by colonial-era troops was an act of genocide.

Here is background into the event, which some historians describe as the first genocide of the 20th century:

- Rebellion -

Germany ruled what was then called German South West Africa as a colony from 1884 to 1915.

Angered by German settlers stealing their women, land and cattle in their remote desert territory, the Herero tribe launched a revolt in January 1904. Its warriors killed 123 German civilians over several days.


© Thorsten EBERDING Namibia

The smaller Nama tribe joined the uprising in 1905.

- Extermination order -

The Germans responded ruthlessly, defeating the Herero in a decisive battle at Waterberg, northwest of the capital city of Windhoek, on August 11, 1904.

With German troops in pursuit, some 80,000 people fled towards Botswana, including women and children, across what is now called the Kalahari Desert -- one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet. Only 15,000 survived.

In October 1904 German General Lothar von Trotha, under the direct command of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin, signed a notorious "extermination order" against the Herero.

"Within the German boundaries, every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without livestock, will be shot dead," he said.

Survivors were sent to concentration camps, decades before those in which Jews, dissidents and gays perished during the Nazi period.

An estimated 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people were killed from 1904 to 1908.

From 40 percent at the start of the 20th century, the Herero now only make up seven percent of the Namibian population.

- Bones for 'experiments' -

Hundreds of Herero and Nama were beheaded after their deaths and their skulls handed to researchers in Berlin for since-discredited "scientific" experiments framed to prove the racial superiority of whites over blacks.

In 1924 a German museum sold some of the bones to an American collector, who donated them to New York's Museum of Natural History.

In 2008 Namibia's ambassador in Berlin demanded that the bones be returned, saying it was a question of reclaiming "our dignity".

Germany has since 2011 formally handed back dozens of the skulls, many of which were stored at universities and clinics.

- Recognition and reparations -

Germany long refused to take the blame for the episode, only accepting responsibility on the 100th anniversary of the massacres in 2004, when a government minister said the "atrocities... would today be called genocide".

Berlin also repeatedly refused to pay reparations to descendants of the Nama and Herero victims.

Negotiations between the two countries to reach an agreement that combined an official apology and development aid began in 2015.

In 2018 Germany returned bones of members of the two tribes, with junior foreign minister Michelle Muentefering asking for "forgiveness from the bottom of my heart".

On Friday, as it recognised it had committed genocide, Berlin also promised financial support worth more than one billion euros to aid projects in the African nation.

The sum will be paid over 30 years, according to sources close to the negotiations, and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Herero and Nama.

ang/eab/fec/ri

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M #BIGPHARMA

Exclusive: U.S. opens criminal probe into alleged lapses at Eli Lilly plant - sources


© Reuters/Mike Blake

 Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of their offices in San Diego

By Marisa Taylor, Mike Spector and Dan Levine

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Eli Lilly and Co focused on alleged manufacturing irregularities and records tampering at a factory in Branchburg, New Jersey, that produces the pharmaceutical giant's COVID-19 therapy and other drugs, three people familiar with the matter said.

The probe represents a significant escalation of the government scrutiny on Lilly. The pharmaceutical company, one of the world's largest, has been under examination for more than a year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over alleged manufacturing and records violations at the Branchburg factory.

Reuters questioned Lilly about the criminal inquiry on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, the company disclosed in a securities filing that it had received a subpoena from the Justice Department in May seeking documents related to the Branchburg factory.

The company did not disclose anything more about the nature or focus of the investigation and said it was cooperating fully in the matter.

Lilly said it had previously engaged external counsel to conduct an independent investigation of certain allegations relating to the Branchburg plant. The company submitted the same information Thursday to Reuters in response to the news agency’s questions.

"Lilly is deeply committed to manufacturing high-quality medicines for patients who need them, and the safety and quality of our products is our highest priority," the company said.

The Justice Department inquiry follows a Reuters report in March that a Lilly human resources officer alleged she had been forced out of her job

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-elililly-special-report/special-report-insider-alleges-eli-lilly-blocked-her-efforts-to-sound-alarms-about-u-s-drug-factory-idUSKBN2B31K5 

at the factory after undertaking internal investigations of employee complaints about manufacturing lapses, falsified or destroyed records and staff shortages.

In April, employees accused a factory executive of altering FDA-required documents in order to downplay problems, according to an unsigned internal complaint reviewed by Reuters

 https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/exclusive-lilly-hit-by-staff-accusations-fda-scrutiny-covid-drug-factories-2021-05-05/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter.

The company previously told Reuters that none of the issues flagged by FDA inspectors affected the quality of medicines released to doctors and patients. Lilly also has denied retaliating against any employees.

The Justice Department inquiry, which involves U.S. prosecutors and other officials in New Jersey and Washington, began in recent weeks, the three people said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is participating in the probe, they said.

A spokesman for the New Jersey U.S. attorney's office declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Justice Department and FDA representatives in Washington had no immediate comment on the probe. The FBI declined to comment.

The investigation is in its earliest stages, the three people told Reuters, and the Justice Department has not accused Lilly or any of its employees of wrongdoing. The department could ultimately pursue criminal charges, seek civil sanctions or close the probe without taking action.

Investigators have not zeroed in on specific legal violations that could form the backbone of a case, one of the sources said.

Steven Lynn, a former head of the FDA's Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality, said the federal government rarely seeks criminal charges stemming from manufacturing violations unless those lapses are extremely serious and the company does little to fix them.

“This is a big deal,” Lynn said of the Justice Department decision to launch a criminal probe of Lilly, echoing three industry and regulatory experts interviewed by Reuters.

‘OFFICIAL ACTION INDICATED’

In November 2019, FDA inspectors arrived at the Branchburg plant for an inspection and found that quality control data had been deleted and not appropriately audited, Reuters has reported. The plant produced blockbuster diabetes drug Trulicity as well as several cancer medications.

Federal documents show the FDA cited the problems in March 2020 as “Official Action Indicated,” or OAI, which is its most serious category of violation. If not addressed, an OAI can lead to a prohibition on the sale of drugs from a facility, regulatory experts say. The FDA has not taken further public action.

Inspectors returned in July and found several more problems. Among them: Batches of drugs had been discarded because of manufacturing mistakes and quality control problems were not being properly investigated by the company to prevent recurrence.

In response to a Reuters open records request, the FDA in May released two Lilly memos responding to the problems that the agency’s inspectors found in New Jersey. Lilly told the FDA it takes the agency’s findings “very seriously” and understands “the criticality of data integrity across the entirety of our operations,” a September 2020 Lilly memo said.

The FDA declined to release additional records about the New Jersey plant, saying it is “information compiled for law enforcement purposes” and disclosure could interfere with such proceedings.

In October, the Trump administration ordered $375 million worth of Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody therapy bamlanivimab, which is manufactured in Branchburg. Shortly afterward, the FDA authorized the drug’s use on an emergency basis to help curb the pandemic. Bamlanivimab is now combined with a second Lilly drug, called etesevimab, to treat COVID-19.

A condition of the emergency authorization was that an outside auditor inspect batches of bamlanivimab to ensure they met FDA standards. Lilly and the FDA have not responded to questions from Reuters about whether this requirement was met.

Reuters reported in March that a former Lilly human resources officer, Amrit Mula, had identified internally some of the same violations later documented by the FDA. Mula was forced out of the company in early 2019 after Lilly executives sought to downplay her findings, according to a letter demanding compensation for damages that her attorneys sent to the company in December 2019. The attorneys argued the company retaliated against Mula for raising legitimate concerns as part of her job.

In April, a group of Lilly employees in New Jersey asserted in an internal complaint that a top quality executive at the Branchburg factory, Lydia Wible, rewrote findings by Lilly technical experts to make the conclusions appear more favorable to the company. Wible did not respond to a request for comment sent Wednesday.

Lilly confirmed the existence of the internal complaint about Wible to Reuters, and said it had referred the matter for investigation to an outside party. It did not name that entity.

An internal Lilly response to the employee complaint, reviewed by Reuters, shows that the company hired the Washington-based law firm Covington & Burling LLP to investigate the matter.

Gerald Masoudi, a Covington partner who once served as FDA’s chief counsel, is collecting information from employees, the document shows. He did not respond to questions from Reuters.

(Marisa Taylor reported from Washington, D.C.; Mike Spector reported from New York; Dan Levine reported from San Francisco. Editing by Michele Gershberg and Julie Marquis)

UN alarmed at soldiers detaining displaced from Tigray camps


© Reuters/BAZ RATNERFILE PHOTO: Tsehaye school, which was turned into a shelter for displaced people in the town of Shire, Tigray region

GENEVA (Reuters) -The United Nations refugee agency voiced deep concern on Friday at reports of soldiers taking hundreds of people away from displacement camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this week, saying such sites should be a safe haven.

Three aid workers and a doctor told Reuters this week that Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers forcibly detained more than 500 young men and women from four camps for displaced people in the town of Shire in the northern region on Monday night.

"We reiterate our call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians including the forcibly displaced. It is crucial that all parties to the conflict recognise the civilian and humanitarian character of the displacement sites," Babar Baloch, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a Geneva news briefing.

Some had been released after UNHCR raised the matter with Ethiopian authorities, he said, providing no figure.

"The situation is traumatic and distressing not only for the relatives of the missing but for all the displaced communities residing in Shire," he added.

It was not immediately clear where the remaining youth were being detained, he added.

Thousands of people have been killed since the conflict erupted, 2 million have been forced from their homes and 91% of the population of nearly 6 million are in need of aid, according to the latest report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge; Editing by William Maclean)

Explainer: How will China's latest oil probe affect the world's biggest crude importer?


© Reuters/Damir SagoljA logo of Sinochem is seen outside an office building of Sinochem in Beijing

By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - This year China's government has been gradually ramping up scrutiny of its sprawling oil industry, reinforcing its authority with new taxes on refined products while investigating crude imports by state energy giants and independent refiners.

Last Tuesday, the country's top economic planning agency gave five state-owned companies just two days to report on their historic use of imported oil, part of a broader effort by the world's largest oil importer to control inbound shipments as domestic supplies swell.

HOW IMPORTANT IS CHINA IN GLOBAL OIL MARKETS?

China is the world's largest crude oil importer and the No. 2 consumer after the United States. China's crude imports surged 7.3% in 2020 - the only major market where oil demand grew during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strong economic growth, new refining capacity and changes in fuel taxes could spur crude imports 7.2%, or 775,000 barrels per day, higher this year, said Seng Yick Tee, SIA Energy analyst.

(Graphic: China’s record crude oil imports have surpassed domestic needs & generated rising fuel exports: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/jznvnwdllpl/ChinaCrudeimportsvsFuelExports.png)

But the country's refining sector is saddled with overcapacity and excess fuel supplies which Beijing is keen to tackle. Authorities also aim to clamp down on tax evasion, as well as the blending and sale of fuels that do not meet emission standards.

Guangdong province, China's top oil-consuming region, led the probe into illicit trades of blending fuels in February and detained several people in connection with the investigation.

WHAT IS THE CRUDE IMPORT INVESTIGATION ABOUT?

Beijing is looking into whether Sinopec Group, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Sinochem Group, ChemChina, and China North Industries Group - which together make up more than 60% of China's total imports - have resold oil to other companies in the country. Also under examination is whether their imports have been processed at refineries under a tolling scheme that reduces the companies' tax burden.

The information request is part of a broader probe the Beijing began early this year into a growing domestic fuel surplus and lost tax revenues, partly because of unchecked flows of imported crude oil to refiners that are outside the country's official quota system.

It follows a separate inspection by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)in April of independent refiners in the eastern province of Shandong that had pledged to close ageing, inefficient facilities in return for winning import quotas.

(GRAPHIC: Change in China crude runs by refiner in 2020: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xlbpgkrjxpq/ChinaCrudeRunsByrefinerin2020.png)

That inspection also covered usage of import quotas. Several independent plants in Shandong were found to have sold quotas to other refiners who not qualified to process imported crude.

WHAT IS THE QUOTA SYSTEM?

China has since late 2015 allowed more than 40 independent refiners to process imported crude under a quota system. But smaller plants have been found by the government to be sourcing additional crude oil, and other feedstocks such as diluted bitumen, beyond quota limits, leading to a domestic fuel glut.

Beijing to start levy hefty taxes on imports of light cycle oil (LCO), mixed aromatics and diluted bitumen from June 12, a move that is expected to curb fuel imports and improve local refiners' domestic sales and profits.

HOW WILL THESE PROBES IMPACT OIL MARKETS?

China is expected to release a second batch of crude import quotas in the coming months, and these probes may prompt Beijing to reduce allocated volumes to independent companies.

While this could curb independent buyers' appetite for more supplies, the state-run firms, which are not subject to quota management, are expected to lead the purchases.

In December last year, China issued the first batch of crude import quotas for non-state companies at 122.59 million tonnes in 2021, up 18% from the first round for 2020.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Shu Zhang; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

Headwinds: Offshore wind will take time to carry factory jobs to U.S.


© Reuters/Stephane MaheFILE PHOTO: A technician stands near a section of an offshore wind turbine during a visit at the General Electric offshore wind turbine plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne

By Isla Binnie, Susanna Twidale and Nichola Groom

(Reuters) - When U.S. President Joe Biden's administration approved the country’s first major offshore wind farm this month, it billed the move as the start of a new clean energy industry that by the end of the decade will create over 75,000 U.S. jobs.

Industry executives and analysts do not contest that claim, but they make a clarification: For the first several years at least, most of the manufacturing jobs stemming from the U.S. offshore wind industry will be in Europe.

Offshore wind project developers plan to ship massive blades, towers and other components for at least the initial wave of U.S. projects from factories in France, Spain and elsewhere before potentially opening up manufacturing plants on U.S. shores, according to Reuters interviews with executives from three of the world’s leading wind turbine makers.

That is because suppliers need to see a deep pipeline of approved U.S. projects, along with a clear set of regulatory incentives like federal and state tax breaks, before committing to siting and building new American factories, they say – a process that could take years.

"For the first projects, it's probably necessary" to ship across the Atlantic, said Martin Gerhardt, head of offshore wind product management at Siemens Gamesa, the global offshore wind market leader in a comment typical of the group.

That underscores an uncomfortable truth for the Biden administration as it seeks to show political opponents that a transition away from fossil fuels to fight climate change can be good for the economy: many of the clean energy jobs he aims to create to offset losses in drilling and mining may not materialize until well after his time in the White House ends.

The administration has unveiled a goal to install 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power capacity in U.S. waters by 2030 – roughly the amount that already exists in Europe’s two-decade old industry – a plan that it estimates will create 77,000 U.S.-based jobs while combating global climate change.

More than 2,000 turbines will be needed to meet the 30-GW target, according to Shashi Barla, an analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. But U.S.-based factories probably will not materialize until 2024 or 2025, he said.

After that, Barla said he expects the U.S. supply chain to develop rapidly and to make around 70% of major components for the industry by 2030.

A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A FACTORY IN EVERY STATE

This month, Washington took a big step toward its goal of launching the offshore wind industry by approving the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, jointly owned by Avangrid Inc and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

That project, the first major offshore wind farm to get federal approval in the United States after more than a decade of stops and starts, is expected to produce enough electricity to power 400,000 homes in New England by 2023.

Vineyard Wind alone will create 3,600 U.S. jobs, according to company officials, though most of the project’s components will be manufactured in Europe due to the lack of an existing domestic supply chain.

U.S. company General Electric's renewable division, GE Renewable Energy, will supply Vineyard Wind with 62 turbines. The major parts for those turbines, which are twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, including rotor blades and gear boxes, will be made in its factories in France.

Iberdrola, Avangrid’s Spanish parent company, says the contract to make the turbine foundations, meanwhile, will create around 400 jobs at the Windar Renovables factory in Spain.

Several other U.S. offshore wind project proposals have also been preparing orders from companies like GE and Siemens Gamesa, but they are awaiting federal regulatory approval before moving forward.

The manufacturers told Reuters they need those orders to become solid and reliable before contemplating investments in a U.S.-based supply chain for offshore wind.

Opening a factory is costly and time-consuming: they require permits and large amounts of space near the coast, said Christy Guthman, GE Renewables commercial leader of U.S. offshore.

"We definitely want to maximize our local content wherever possible, but we need to have that sustained volume year over year to look at potential investments in the U.S," Guthman said.

Developers also need to navigate complex state-level demands on the industry, as governors compete to ensure that any future factories supplying the offshore wind industry are built within their borders.

New Jersey, for example, has asked bidders on its offshore wind supply contracts to specify how they will help the state become an industry hub, while a recent New York solicitation said investments that create sustainable in-state jobs would be given preference.

"We cannot have a factory in every state, that is not economic," Siemens Gamesa Chief Executive Andreas Nauen said in an interview.

Nauen’s company is still deliberating over whether to open a specialized facility on the East Coast to service a proposed project for Dominion Energy in Virginia, having been named preferred supplier back in January 2020.

Siemens Gamesa, GE and Vestas already produce parts for smaller, onshore turbines in the United States, but locations including landlocked Kansas, Iowa, North Dakota and Colorado put them too far from the windy coasts to be of much use for larger offshore pieces.

Orsted and Equinor, meanwhile, have said they plan to open manufacturing for some parts to service U.S. offshore projects they have proposed, though many major parts would likely still be derived from established plants in Europe.

POLITICAL TURBULENCE

Suppliers have reason to be cautious. Clean energy expansion in the United States relies heavily on political will – which can shift from administration to administration.

Federal incentives for renewable energy projects have expired or experienced eleventh-hour extensions in Congress multiple times over the last decade. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, meanwhile, had cancelled Vineyard Wind's permit application during his term, throwing the entire industry into doubt until Biden revived the process.

That turbulence resounded in the supply chain. Vineyard Wind initially chose Vestas as its turbine supplier in 2018, but that contract expired as federal permitting dragged on.

The Biden White House has said it is aware that suppliers need airtight commitments to make investments in local manufacturing, and points out the administration has pledged $3 billion in public financing for offshore wind and transmission developers and component suppliers. It will also fund $230 million of port infrastructure projects to help encourage the industry.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, meanwhile, has imposed tariffs on imported wind towers from certain countries including Spain. While the move came at the request of two domestic producers of towers for the U.S. onshore wind industry, the tariffs would apply to offshore towers as well, increasing the economic incentive to open U.S. factories.

"We know that we need to create greater certainty for offshore wind projects," U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Amanda Lefton said on a call with reporters on May 11.

Lefton has also acknowledged that competing state demands could be an obstacle for the industry.

"There's been this healthy competition among states for who is the most aggressive," Lefton said in an interview with Reuters. "But we stand to gain a lot more now by... rowing in the same direction on establishing the supply chain here."

(Reporting by Isla Binnie in Madrid, Nichola Groom in Los Angeles, Susanna Twidale in London; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Marguerita Choy)

Europe's ports will need $7.9 billion of investment to support offshore wind expansion, report says

Anmar Frangoul 

As countries attempt to reduce emissions and move away from fossil fuels, offshore wind looks set to play a key role.

This expansion will, according to a report published on Thursday, will require substantial investment in European ports.


© Provided by CNBC

This photo shows wind turbine parts at a port in Ostend, Belgium.

European ports will require new infrastructure and significant investment over the next few years to cope with the growth of the region's offshore wind sector, according to a new report from industry body WindEurope.

In its report, published on Thursday, the Brussels-based organization said Europe's ports would have to invest 6.5 billion euros (around $7.9 billion) by 2030 in order "to support the expansion of offshore wind."

In a statement accompanying the report's publication, WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson described ports as being "essential for offshore wind."

"They're a vital part of the supply and logistics chain that's needed for the installation, assembly, operation and maintenance of offshore wind farms," he added. "We can't expand offshore without also expanding and upgrading Europe's port infrastructure."

As countries attempt to reduce emissions and move away from fossil fuels, offshore wind looks set to play a key role. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has previously said it wants offshore wind capacity to hit at least 60 gigawatts by 2030 and 300 GW by the middle of the century.

The U.K., which left the EU at the end of January 2020, wants its offshore wind capacity to reach 40 GW by 2030. According to WindEurope's report: "Government commitments across Europe add up to 111 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030."

Alongside this expansion of capacity, the physical size of turbines is also set to grow. GE Renewable Energy's Haliade X turbine, for example, will have a tip-height of 260 meters (853 feet), 107-meter long blades and a 220-meter rotor. Elsewhere, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is working on the SG 14-222 DD, which will boast 108 meter blades and a rotor diameter of 222 meters.

WindEurope's report addressed this new reality and the effect it could have in relation to ports and infrastructure. "Upgraded or entirely new facilities are needed to host larger turbines and a larger market," it said.

"They will need to cater for operating and maintaining of a larger fleet (including training facilities), for upcoming decommissioning projects and to host new manufacturing centres for bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind," it added.

Further to this, ports would need to "expand their land, reinforce quays, enhance their deep-sea harbours and carry out other civil works."

WindEurope called upon the European Commission to put together what it described as "a clear strategy for port development." In addition, it said the Commission needed to "recognise the high societal value of investing in ports."
Port projects

The importance of ports was illustrated by a number of announcements this week. On Thursday, Norwegian energy major Equinor said it had acquired a site at the Polish port of Łeba.

The firm — better known for its production of oil and gas — said the site would be used as an "operations and maintenance … base" for offshore wind developments located in the Polish Baltic Sea.

A few days earlier, port operator Forth Ports announced plans for a "renewable energy hub" at the Port of Leith in Scotland. The proposed hub, which would be backed by £40 million ($56.76 million) of private investment, is slated to cover 175 acres if built.

According to those behind the project, it would offer a "riverside marine berth capable of accommodating the world's largest offshore wind installation vessels."

In a statement, Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond listed a number of factors that he believed made the project an attractive one.

He said: "Leith's proximity to the North Sea, which is set to become home to many more offshore wind developments, coupled with the natural deep waters of the Firth of Forth, makes this an ideal location to support not only those developments already planned, but the pipeline of projects that are sure to follow."

Scientists drill deepest hole ever and extract samples of Earth's core

Duration: 00:50 

Scientists aboard the Kaimei research vessel have just drilled the deepest hole by the Japan Trench. The research team extracted samples of Earth's core to study earthquakes.

Canada probes forced labour claims in Malaysian palm oil, glove-making industries


© Reuters/LIM HUEY TENG

A worker unloads palm oil fruit bunches at a factory in Tanjung Karang

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Canada is investigating allegations of forced labour in Malaysia's palm oil and glove manufacturing industries, the government said on Friday.

Malaysian firms, which includes some of the world's biggest palm oil and rubber glove producers, have faced increasing scrutiny in recent years over reports of labour abuses.

Employment and Social Development Canada told Reuters in an email that its Labour Programme was "actively researching a number of forced labour allegations in different countries and sectors, including palm oil and glove manufacturing in Malaysia."

It declined to provide further details or name specific companies being probed.

Malaysia's human resources ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the last year, the United States has banned imports from three Malaysian firms on suspicions of forced labour.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has said it found forced labour indicators such as excessive hours, abusive living and working conditions, debt bondage, intimidation, physical and sexual violence, and retention of identity documents at these companies.

The sanctioned companies include Top Glove, the world’s biggest latex glove maker, and the two of the world’s top palm oil producers, Sime Darby Plantation and FGV Holdings.

Top Glove said in April it has resolved all indicators of forced labour found at its factories.

Sime Darby has said it is committed to combating forced labour and has robust policies to protect workers' rights.

FGV has said it has taken concrete steps in recent years to demonstrate commitment to respect human rights and uphold labour standards.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Ed Davies)

FREEDOM OF RELIGION FOR CHRISTIANS
Lawsuit: Only Christians could apply for jail chaplain job


COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Applicants for a chaplain's job at a Maryland county jail had to sign a statement affirming that they are Christians, a Muslim man claims Thursday in a federal lawsuit accusing the county and a contractor of religious discrimination.

Lawyers from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, sued Prince George's County on behalf of Edrees Bridges, who has been a volunteer chaplain at a county jail in Upper Marlboro since 2018.

Bridges, 49, learned in April that the county was hiring a paid chaplain. He asked for an application but couldn't complete it because all applicants were required to sign a “Statement of Applicant’s Christian Faith” that would force him to abandon his religious beliefs as a Muslim, his lawsuit says.

Prison Ministry of America, which also is named as a defendant in the suit, has a contract with the county to provide religious services to jail inmates. The statement on its job application says Prison Ministry of America employees are “committed to a lifestyle of Christianity and agree with our statement of faith.”

It also asks applicants to affirm that they “believe in one God, Creator and Lord of the Universe," that “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was conceived by the Holy Spirit" and that “the Bible is God’s authoritative and inspired Word.”

The lawsuit says that kind of religious test is illegal under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from establishing a state religion. It also claims the statement violates Bridges' religious freedom rights.

Bridges said he was shocked and saddened to learn that his Muslim faith would exclude him from the applicant pool.

“I have always encountered people that have been open to that diversity of ideas, diversity of thought,” he said in an interview Thursday. “As a chaplain, one of the core ingredients to being a chaplain is to be there for all.”

Prison Ministry of America Executive Director Mark Maciel said non-Christians aren't disqualified from applying. The nonprofit already has Muslims who work as chaplains under its umbrella, he added.

“We don't exclude anybody," Maciel said.

Spokespeople for Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks didn't immediately respond to an email or phone call seeking comment.

Bridges is an assistant imam at the Ali Khan Islamic Center in Maryland. He has a master's degree in divinity with a concentration in Islamic chaplaincy from the Claremont School of Theology in California and is pursuing his doctorate in ministry from the same school.

Prison Ministry of America is a nonprofit based in Paramount, California. CAIR attorney Gadeir Abbas, one of Bridges’ lawyers, said he doesn’t know if Prison Ministry of America includes the same statement on applications for jobs in other jurisdictions.

“But if it’s going on in (Prince George’s) County, I bet they’re doing it in other places as well,” he added. “At Prison Ministry of America, their objective is to is to bring Christianity to the folks who are incarcerated.”

Bridges says he told Maciel during a telephone call last month that he was interested in applying for the chaplain’s position. Maciel emailed him a copy of an application and a job description.

Maciel said he told Bridges on May 3 that they were conducting interviews if he was interested in the job. Maciel said Bridges never told him he is Muslim.

“It didn’t matter. And I didn’t even ask him,” Maciel said.

The lawsuit asks the federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, to rule that limiting the applicants to Christians is illegal and to block the county from using the “Statement of Applicant’s Christian Faith” in the jail's job application process. Bridges also is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

Bridges doubts he would apply for the job if he does prevail in his lawsuit.

“I don’t think so at all because I really don’t have a lot of faith in whether or not I will be accepted,” he said.

Michael Kunzelman, The Associated Press

WATER IS LIFE
EPA restoring state and tribal power to protect waterways

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest reversal of a Trump-era policy, the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency is restoring a rule that grants states and Native American tribes authority to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams and other waterways.

A provision of the Clean Water Act gives states and tribes power to block federal projects that could harm lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands within their borders. But the Trump administration curtailed that review power after complaints from Republican members of Congress and the fossil fuel industry that state officials had used the permitting process to stop new energy projects.

The Trump administration said its actions would advance then-President Donald Trump’s goal to fast-track energy projects such as oil and natural gas pipelines.

Washington state blocked construction of a coal export terminal in 2017, saying there were too many major harmful effects including air pollution, rail safety and vehicle traffic, while New York regulators stopped a natural gas pipeline, saying it failed to meet standards to protect streams, wetlands and other water resources.

In a statement to The Associated Press, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the nation has “serious water challenges to address,'' adding that he “will not hesitate to correct decisions that weakened the authority of states and tribes to protect their waters.''

Regan vowed to work with state, tribal and local officials to protect clean water while encouraging “sustainable economic development and vibrant communities.''

The Trump-era rule will remain in place while the EPA develops a revised rule, Regan said, but the agency “will continue listening to states and tribes about their concerns ... to help address these near-term challenges.''

Regan called restoration of the Section 401 provision an important step to reaffirm the authority of states and tribes to regulate projects that affect water quality within their borders. Under the provision, a federal agency may not issue a license or permit to conduct any activity that may result in any discharge into navigable waters unless the affected state or tribe certifies that the discharge is in compliance with the Clean Water Act and state law, or waives certification.

A spokesperson for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, whose state was targeted by the Trump administration rule, said Inslee was "pleased the Biden-Harris administration recognizes that states have the expertise to uphold water quality standards and is reconsidering the Trump administration’s politically-motivated, flawed rule.''

The spokesperson, Tara Lee, said Washington state “will work to help shape a final rule that protects the health of our communities and environment.'' In the meantime, the state encourages the EPA to issue interim guidance that will allow states, tribes and federal agencies to work together “to fully protect our nation’s waters,'' she said.

Environmental groups also hailed the move to restore state and tribal authority.

The action should allow states and tribes to “protect their waters from potentially damaging federally permitted projects like dams, mines and pipelines,” said Jim Murphy of the National Wildlife Federation. He urged the EPA to “take the next logical step and move swiftly to repeal" a Trump-era rule on clean water that Murphy said “has stripped thousands of waters of Clean Water Act protections.''

The water rule — sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS — addresses federal jurisdiction over streams and wetlands and has been a point of contention for decades. Regan has pledged to issue a new rule that protects water quality while not overly burdening small farmers.

___

Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report.

Matthew Daly, The Associated Pr