It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, July 15, 2021
WAR! WHAT'S IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The cost of the Afghanistan war, in lives and dollars
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
July 12, 2021
The nearly 20-year American combat mission in Afghanistan was the United States’ longest war. Ordinary Americans tended to forget about it, and it received measurably less oversight from Congress than the Vietnam war did. But its death toll is in the many tens of thousands, and generations of Americans to come will be burdened by the cost of paying it off.
As the U.S. commander for Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, relinquished his command in Kabul on Monday, here’s a look at the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, by the numbers.
Much of the data below from Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project. Because the United States between 2003-2011 fought the Afghanistan and Iraq wars simultaneously, and many American troops served tours in both wars, some figures as noted cover both post-9/11 U.S. wars. THE LONGEST WAR:
Percentage of U.S. population born since the 2001 attacks plotted by al-Qaida leaders who were sheltering in Afghanistan: Roughly one out of every four. THE HUMAN COST:
American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
U.S. contractors: MERCENARIES 3,846.
Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
Other allied service members, including other NATO member states’: 1,144.
Afghan civilians: 47,245.
Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
Aid workers: 444.
Journalists: 72. AFGHANISTAN AFTER NEARLY 20 YEARS OF U.S. OCCUPATION:
Percentage drop in infant mortality rate since U.S., Afghan and other allied forces overthrew the Taliban government, which had sought to restrict women and girls to the home: About 50.
Estimated interest payments on that $2 trillion so far (based on a higher-end estimate of interest rates): $925 billion.
Estimated interest costs by 2030: $2 trillion.
Estimated interest costs by 2050: $6.5 trillion. THE WARS END. THE COSTS DON’T:
Amount Bilmes estimates the United States has committed to pay in health care, disability, burial and other costs for roughly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: $1.6 to $1.8 trillion.
Period those costs will peak: after 2048.
UKRAINE Beachgoers Horrified Seeing Woman With Hitler’s Portrait And Swastika Inked On Bum
Nina Siena | Jul 15 2021, Beachgoers enjoying a sunny day at the Black Sea resort in Ukraine were stunned at the sight of a swastika tattoo on a heavily inked bikini-clad woman. The woman was spotted at the beach two days ago with the Nazi symbol on her buttocks as well as a portrait of Hitler on her hand.
Onlookers could not keep themselves from ogling at the unnamed woman with some people having made no effort to conceal their disapproval of the images inked on her body. Jaws dropped as she paced through the scattered beach umbrellas in her blue thong bottom and red bikini top with the swastika clearly in sight on her right buttock.
Anonymous photos of the woman were posted online showcasing not one but two disturbing images that left almost everyone at the resort horrified. On her right hand, a portrait of Adolf Hitler is also clearly visible in the circulating photos.
According to Daily Star, the woman was forced to leave the beach premises not long after she had arrived as a good number of beachgoers made it a point to express how they felt about her tattoos. Some were still reeling and struggling to guess another image that was tattooed right above her crotch as this was covered by her bikini bottom.
Police have not released any statement to comment on the beach incident despite a ruling ordinance in Ukraine against spreading Nazism propaganda or displaying symbols of Nazism. These are considered criminal offenses and anyone caught violating it can be subjected to a maximum punishment of five years in prison.
Offended social media users condemned the woman and her choice of ink, with one quoted saying: ''I don't want to lose hope that she is a fan of Karlsson and that this is just a failed drawing of his propeller.'' Another netizen had no qualms expressing that if the woman had intentions to draw attention to her bum, she definitely succeeded at it.
Nazi type symbols and images are not an uncommon thing requested by people wanting to get inked. In June, a 29-year-old Neo-Nazi from Austria had his testicles tattooed with a swastika. The man claimed he was drunk when he got the ink. After going on all-night bender downing two bottles of whiskey, he urged his brother to ink the swastika on his man-jewels. He was proud of his brother’s work and showed off an image of the tattoo online and even brandished the ink among his army colleagues.
The unidentified Neo-Nazi was later arrested and was also later found in possession of an illegal firearm along with photos of him posing in front of a Nazi memorabilia at the Bunkermuseum Wurzenpass. During his trial at the Klagenfurt District Court in Australia, the man was also said to be known for posting Third Reich propaganda online and indulging himself in Hitler-branded wine.
Representation Image Tattoo ARtist At Work ilovetattoos/Pixabay
Donald Trump Had Sinister Plans After November 2020 Election, New Book Claims
Top generals were reportedly planning to take the informal route if former US President Donald Trump attempted coup after the November 2020 election.
US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, reportedly feared that Trump might attempt a coup or adopt dangerous or illegal methods following the election. To stop him, Milley and other top officials teamed up and discussed informal plans. The claims are made in "I Alone Can Fix It" by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, reported CNN.
According to the book, Milley and the other Joint Chiefs thought of resigning, one-by-one, rather than following Trump's orders that they considered were illegal, dangerous or ill-advised. The authors wrote that it was like "Saturday Night Massacre in reverse."
Trump's final year as the US president is highlighted in the book for which he was interviewed for more than two hours. It also has a behind-the-scenes look at how senior administration staff and his inner circle navigated his unhinged behavior after losing the election.
The book is also about how a top military officer was gearing up for a showdown amid coup attempt fears. Milley apparently spoke to friends, lawmakers and colleagues about it, and the Joint Chiefs chairman felt that he was required to be "on guard" for what might happen.
According to the authors, Milley told his deputies that they may try take the coup route, but they are not going to succeed. "You can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI. We're the guys with the guns."
Leonnig and Rucker wrote that prior to Jan. 6, Milley was concerned about Trump's call to action. Milley reportedly informed his staff that he believed Trump was "stoking unrest," possibly hoping of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call the military.
The authors wrote that Milley saw Trump as "the classic authoritarian leader with nothing to lose."
Before a November pro-Trump "Million MAGA March" to protest the results of the 2020 election, Milley reportedly told aides that he feared it "could be the modern American equivalent of 'brownshirts in the streets.'" He was referring to the pro-Nazi militia that helped in Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
A spokesperson for Trump and the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been reached out for comment, The Hill reported.
"I Alone Can Fix It" will hit the stands on July 20.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a press conference announcing a class action lawsuit against big tech companies at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, New Jersey. Former president Trump held a press conference with executives from the America First Policy Institute to announce a class action lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and their CEOs, claiming that he was wrongfully censored. Since being banned from the social media companies, former president Trump has continued to spread lies about the 2020 election. Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
US top general feared Trump’s election fraud complaint was a ‘Reichstag moment’
By Reis Thebault July 15, 2021 —
Washington: In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing re-election, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidantes whether a coup was forthcoming.
As Trump pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes may attempt to use the military to stay in office, according to a new book titled I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year by Washington Post journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
General Mark Milley listens as president Donald Trump discusses an Iranian air strike, January 8, 2020. CREDIT:BLOOMBERG
Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.
“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Fuhrer.”
A spokesman for Milley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Portions of the book related to Milley - first reported by CNN ahead of the book’s July 20 release - offer a remarkable window into the thinking of America’s highest-ranking military officer, who saw himself as one of the last empowered defenders of democracy during the tense stand-off between the president and election officials.
The episodes in the book are based on interviews with more than 140 people, including senior Trump administration officials, friends and advisers, Leonnig and Rucker write in an author’s note. Most agreed to speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity and the scenes reported were reconstructed based on firsthand accounts and multiple other sources whenever possible.
General Milley is pictured on the right, walking with the president on June 1, 2020, to the photo opp at a church during the Black Lives Matter protests. CREDIT:AP
Milley - who was widely criticised last year for appearing alongside Trump in Lafayette Square after protesters were forcibly cleared from the area - had pledged to use his office to ensure a free and fair election with no military involvement. But he became increasingly concerned in the days following the November contest, making multiple references to the onset of 20th century fascism.
After attending a November 10 security briefing about the “Million MAGA March,” a pro-Trump rally protesting against the election result, Milley said he feared an American equivalent of ”brown shirts in the streets,” alluding to the paramilitary forces that protected Nazi rallies and enabled Hitler’s ascent.
Late that same evening, according to the book, an old friend called Milley to express concerns that those close to Trump were attempting to “overturn the government”.
“You are one of the few guys who are standing between us and some really bad stuff,” the friend told Milley, according to an account relayed to his aides. Milley was shaken, Leonnig and Rucker write, and he called former national security adviser HR McMaster to ask whether a coup was actually imminent. “What the f--- am I dealing with?” Milley asked him.
If someone wanted to seize control, Milley thought, they would need to gain sway over the FBI, the CIA and the Defence Department, where Trump had already installed staunch allies. “They may try, but they’re not going to f---ing succeed,” he told some of his closest deputies, the book reports.
In the weeks that followed, Milley played reassuring soothsayer to a string of concerned members of Congress and administration officials who shared his worries about Trump attempting to use the military to stay in office.
General Mark Milley is said to have received panicked calls from congress representatives after Trump refused to concede. CREDIT:AP
“Everything’s going to be OK,” he told them, according to the book. “We’re going to have a peaceful transfer of power. We’re going to land this plane safely. This is America. It’s strong. The institutions are bending, but it won’t break.”
In December, with rumours circulating that the president was preparing to fire then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and replace her with Trump loyalist Kash Patel, Milley sought to intervene, the book says. He confronted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the annual Army-Navy football game, which Trump and other high-profile guests attended.
“What the hell is going on here?” Milley asked Meadows, according to the book’s account. “What are you guys doing?”
When Meadows responded, “Don’t worry about it,” Milley shot him a warning: “Just be careful.”
A damning new report has exposed major US intelligence and security failures, in the lead up to the January assault on the US Capitol.
After the failed insurrection on January 6, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Milley to ask for his guarantee that Trump would not be able to launch a nuclear strike and start a war.
“This guy’s crazy,” Pelosi said of Trump in what the book reported was mostly a one-way phone call. “He’s dangerous. He’s a maniac.”
Once again, Milley sought to reassure: “Ma’am, I guarantee you that we have checks and balances in the system,” he told Pelosi.
Less than a week later, as military and law enforcement leaders planned for President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Milley said he was determined to avoid a repeat of the siege on the Capitol.
“Everyone in this room, whether you’re a cop, whether you’re a soldier, we’re going to stop these guys to make sure we have a peaceful transfer of power,” he told them. “We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in.”
General Mark Milley salutes new President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021. CREDIT:AP
At Biden’s swearing-in on January 20, Milley was seated behind former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, who asked the general how he was feeling.
“No one has a bigger smile today than I do,” Milley replied. “You can’t see it under my mask, but I do.”
The Washington Post
The mass demonstrations against Bolsonaro and the fight for socialism in Brazil
Demonstrators march on in Paulista Avenue to demand that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resign, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, July 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Nelson Antoine)
Over the past month, Brazil has seen three days of nationwide demonstrations that have brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets against President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration and its criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scale of the demonstrations and the persistence of the protesters express the growing discontent among broad layers of the Brazilian population with the existing social order and point to the urgency of the fight for genuine socialist politics in Brazil.
Alongside similar demonstrations in Paraguay and Colombia in recent months, the protests in Brazil represent the initial development of mass opposition in the streets against the homicidal policies adopted by the ruling classes across the globe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They are part of a global wave of working class radicalization, which has seen strikes in Europe and North America that have confronted previously accepted conditions of exploitation and challenged the domination of corporatist unions.
These events are a vindication of the Marxist prognosis of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), which has analyzed the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic as a trigger event that is provoking a revolutionary response by the working class internationally.
The crimes of Bolsonaro and his accomplices
In Brazil, in addition to the more than half a million lives unnecessarily lost to the coronavirus, the capitalist response to the pandemic has worsened the deplorable conditions of life of the working masses, the already grotesque levels of social inequality and the brutality of bourgeois rule in the country.
The homicidal policy of the Brazilian bourgeoisie found in the figure of fascistic President Bolsonaro is its most radical and virulent expression. Bolsonaro insisted that the pandemic should be faced by the ruling class as a war, demanding the suspension of the social and democratic rights of the working class.
Consistently following the principle that no effort to save lives should be allowed to conflict with profit interests, Bolsonaro repeatedly attacked policies advanced by scientists and public health experts. He has discouraged the wearing of masks and social distancing, promoted drugs—without any scientific basis—as miracle cures for the disease, encouraged the disobedience of “lockdown” decrees and sabotaged the vaccination campaign in the country.
During the pandemic, Bolsonaro has deepened his systematic efforts to install a military dictatorship in Brazil. He brought military officers into every department of his government, entrusted an active duty general with the coordination of his criminal response to the coronavirus and fought to draw the Armed Forces into his government’s “war on lockdowns” policy.
While Bolsonaro has been the most visible protagonist of the attacks against the Brazilian population over the past year, the entire ruling class and its political superstructure are implicated in these barbaric crimes.
The representatives of the different industrial and commercial associations of the Brazilian bourgeoisie even marched alongside the fascistic president to Brazil’s Supreme Court to proclaim “Enough!” and demand the lifting of the meager measures to promote social distancing that were advanced when Brazil had not yet reached 10,000 COVID-19 deaths.
This ruthless order was slavishly obeyed (without even the need for a court order) by all the parties of the bourgeois establishment, from the governors of the Workers Party (PT) to those of the right-wing Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). All of them promoted the general reopening of the economy and schools, indifferent to the devastating consequences.
The bourgeois state channels for social opposition
Fearing that the growth of social opposition will develop into an open struggle of the working class against the capitalist system, Bolsonaro’s rivals within the ruling class are trying to dissipate popular anger by channeling it behind the bourgeois state.
The political forces that called for the recent demonstrations—the PT, its political satellites, and the unions and social movements they control—are actively working to suppress any class content in the political opposition to the Bolsonaro administration.
Their efforts are aimed at creating narrow political limits for the protests, framing them as a form of pressure on the bourgeoisie and its state. According to this political perspective, the action of the masses should serve to legitimatize and lend a democratic or even “progressive” veneer to the reactionary political maneuvers and deals being worked out by capitalist interests behind the backs of the people.
The demonstrations were politically subordinated to the forging of a reactionary alliance between the PT and its allies and the most right-wing forces of the Brazilian political establishment. And their agenda was tied to the work of the COVID Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) and the schedule for congressional votes on calls for the impeachment of Bolsonaro.
The genuine anger of those who joined the protests over the brutal sacrifice of lives to the coronavirus, the attacks against democracy and the mass impoverishment of the Brazilian population under the Bolsonaro government is thus being driven into a political swamp.
The CPI, to which the demonstrations are being subordinated, is turning into a cover-up of the crimes committed by the Brazilian state in the furtherance of the capitalist herd immunity policy. The investigation is being focused on the government’s “corruption” in the purchase of vaccines, which treats Bolsonaro’s “denialism” regarding the pandemic (that is, his refusal to take any action that would interfere with the capitalist economy) as mere window-dressing for his pursuit of private financial interests.
The calls for the impeachment by Bolsonaro’s “opposition” within the state are based on a reactionary defense of the stability of bourgeois rule in Brazil against the threats posed by Bolsonaro’s provocations.
The overthrow of Bolsonaro based upon these bourgeois methods and political perspective has no progressive content. None of the fundamental problems faced by the working class under the current government would be solved.
Such an outcome, on the contrary, would pave the way for the continuation of the policy of criminal neglect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deepening of social inequality under capitalism and the ruling class’s turn to authoritarian forms of government.
The pseudo-left apologists for bourgeois politics
The attempt to legitimize such a reactionary political outcome requires a division of labor between the political forces committed to the defense of capitalism, in which the pseudo-left organizations, reflecting the interests of privileged layers of the middle class, play a central role.
Political parties and groups originating in Stalinism, Pabloism and its Latin American Morenoite variant, as well as in academic identity politics, are all working to provide a left cover for the demoralized bourgeois opposition to Bolsonaro.
The PSOL, which was founded as a purported left-wing alternative to the dirty bourgeois deals that underpinned the PT governments, has become the leading apologist for an open alliance with the right and the far right, painting these forces as progressive sections of the national bourgeoisie.
This grotesque political alliance took shape in the PSOL’s joint filing of a “super” impeachment petition of Bolsonaro together with far-right figures who played dominant roles in the election of the fascistic president in the first place, and then broke with his administration for opportunistic reasons.
In the wake of the signing of this document, PSOL leaders enthusiastically promoted the participation of the right-wing parties in the demonstrations against Bolsonaro. PSOL president Juliano Medeiros attacked any “sectarian voices” that “will say that it is absurd to be on the same platform as the Tucanos [a nickname for the right-wing PSDB],” insisting that “any party that wants the impeachment is welcome.”
The Morenoite faction of the PSOL, Resistência, declared that it was necessary to “invite all sections that claim to be in opposition to the government, even segments of the right, to join the demonstrations for ousting Bolsonaro.” Seeking to justify this dirty policy with pseudo-radical phraseology, the leader of Resistência, Valerio Arcary, opposed the “tactic of a slow attrition [of Bolsonaro]” with the assertion that “unity in action with … the bourgeoisie is essential” and “progressive.”
Few sections of the pseudo-left present their opportunism as openly as Transição Socialista. The group has (justifiably) claimed to have pioneered the policy of joint action with the far right and the bourgeoisie, now advocated by the entire Brazilian pseudo-left. It promoted the reactionary middle-class protests that served as a “popular” cover for the impeachment of PT President Dilma Rousseff.
The TS once again argues in favor of “unity with every sector ... even the liberals,” based on the demoralized claim that “one must be realistic,” and accept that “what is posed as a possibility on the horizon is not a ‘general strike.’” In other words, they shamelessly claim that the working class should not be taken as the subject of historical transformation and, instead, one should adapt oneself to what exists, i.e., capitalism.
The reactionary response of these pseudo-left groups to the profound political crisis gripping the Brazilian ruling class is unmasking them as the bitterest enemies of the working class.
For an independent political movement of the working class!
The Brazilian Socialist Equality Group, in solidarity with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), stands in irreconcilable opposition to the maneuvers of the bourgeoisie and its pseudo-left agents to derail the growing social opposition to Bolsonaro and the entire capitalist system.
We call on the hundreds of thousands of youth and workers who joined the recent protests with the genuine desire to overthrow Bolsonaro’s fascistic government and fight for the social and democratic rights of the Brazilian population to turn to the only social force capable of realizing these demands: the working class mobilized independently based upon its own methods of struggle and political program.
Over the past year, the working class has demonstrated its objectively revolutionary social character by responding with a wave of strikes and militant opposition to the capitalist attacks carried out in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The spread of the coronavirus across Europe and North America provoked a wave of wildcat industrial strikes that forced the ruling class to adopt lockdown policies. In Brazil, a similar wave of wildcat strikes broke out in March 2020 among workers in call centers across the country opposing the deadly risks they faced at their workplaces.
The militant response of Brazilian workers was continued in a series of strikes against unsafe conditions in the workplaces and the assault on living standards by health care workers, bus drivers and other transportation workers, app delivery workers, oil workers at Petrobras, auto workers, workers at meat processing plants and those in other industrial sectors. Dozens of teachers strikes have been and continue to be called against the criminal reopening of schools across Brazil.
All these movements have faced the active opposition of the union federations and local trade unions, which acted consciously to isolate and break the strikes, guaranteeing the operation of the corporations and schools at the expense of the mass death of the workers.
The struggle of the Brazilian working class can advance only through a definitive political break with the PT, its pseudo-leftist satellites and the corporatist unions controlled by them, which represent the police forces of capitalism.
Brazilian workers and youth must appeal not to the supposedly “progressive” sections of the bourgeoisie, but to their fellow workers around the world, who face the same dangers of the uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the massive advance of social inequality and the destruction of democratic forms of government.
With the perspective of unifying the powerful emerging struggles of the global working class and directing them against capitalism, last May Day the ICFI launched a call for the formation of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC).
Brazilian workers should join this initiative, forming rank-and-file committees in every workplace and coordinating their struggles with their colleagues in different industries and across national borders.
As the statement of the ICFI made clear, the IWA-RFC should raise the banner of socialism, orienting the working class toward the seizure of political power, the expropriation of capitalist banks and corporations and the redirection of the vast fortunes accumulated by the financial and corporate oligarchy to meet the social needs of the world’s masses.
Brazilian workers and youth must understand that the uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to threaten millions of lives, the massive growth of social inequality and the systematic destruction of democratic forms of rule are global issues, which have their roots in the insoluble crisis of the world capitalist system.
These threats can only be confronted by unifying the ongoing powerful struggles of the working class internationally in a common fight against capitalism and its outdated system of national states.
This movement must raise the banner of socialism, fighting for the political power of the working class, the expropriation of the banks and corporations and the redirection of the vast wealth accumulated by the bourgeoisie to attend to the broad social interests of the world’s masses.
The fate of this struggle depends upon the construction of a revolutionary party in the Brazilian working class, a section of the ICFI. Over decades, the ICFI has single-handedly defended the socialist and internationalist principles of Marxism betrayed by Social Democracy, Stalinism and Pabloite revisionism.
Today, the gains of this historic struggle are merging with the objective movement of the working class, opening the path for the construction of the Socialist Equality Parties as the leadership of the working class in struggle for the international socialist revolution.
Large Chunk Of Amazon Rainforest Now Emits More Carbon Than It Takes In, Study Finds
I'm a news reporter for Forbes, primarily covering the U.S. South.
TOPLINE
South America's dense Amazon rainforest has long served as one of the planet's primary carbon-absorbing regions, but a new study has found human interference is causing a large part of the rainforest to put out more carbon dioxide than it takes in—making it significantly harder to combat climate change.
Destroyed forests are seen in the Brazilian Amazon. (Photo by Universal Images Group via Getty ... [+]
UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
An area on the eastern side of the Amazon that covers about 20% of the rainforest basin is emitting more carbon than it takes in, according to a study from an international team of researchers that was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The eastern part of the Amazon has been subjected to massive deforestation and burning, due in large part to an expansion of cattle ranching in the region.
Researchers found the greatest increases in emissions came in areas where burning had taken place.
The researchers measured the concentration of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the air over the Amazon in nearly 600 low-altitude flights between 2010 and 2018.
KEY BACKGROUND
The Amazon has long been considered one of the world's primary "carbon sinks" due to the large amounts of carbon dioxide that its trees suck up. Some 123 billion tons of carbon is believed to be stored in the Amazon rainforest, according to NOAA. But the continued high level of human-caused carbon emissions around the world has taken its toll on the Amazon, and the rainforest can no longer keep up. That's caused temperatures to rise there, while rainfall has declined during the region's dry season from August to October. Combined with deforestation, a massive portion of the rainforest is now at risk of turning into savannah and grasslands, which would significantly reduce the region's natural carbon-carrying capacity. A 2020 study published in the journal Nature Communications estimated up to 40% of the Amazon was at risk of becoming savannah.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University published an essay in 2018 warning the Amazon was at a "tipping point," but he told The New York Times reforestation efforts could reverse some of the damage and mitigate future risks. “I don’t think you’ll ever get it back to what it was, but you can certainly improve it,” Lovejoy said.
TANGENT
Rates of deforestation in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon have soared during the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, but Bolsonaro said in April he intends for the country to become carbon neutral by 2050.
Two drug companies fined £260m for swindling NHS over 'life-saving medicines'
For a decade, the firms overcharged the NHS for steroid tablets, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds.
By Ed Clowes, Business reporter Thursday 15 July 2021 09:37, UK
Auden McKenzie paid off its rivals in a bid to discourage them from bringing out their own versions of the drug, the CMA said
Two pharmaceutical companies have been fined more than £260m by the UK’s competition watchdog after the pair colluded to overcharge the NHS for almost a decade.
Drugmakers Auden McKenzie and Accord UK, formerly called Actavis UK, charged the NHS excessively high prices for hydrocortisone tablets, costing the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Hydrocortisone is used to treat inflammation and irritation, often in people whose bodies do not produce enough cortisol.
The two companies hiked the price of a single pack of tablets from 70p in 2008, to £88 in 2016, increasing the cost of the drug by more than 10,000%.
“These were egregious breaches of the law that artificially inflated the costs facing the NHS, reducing the money available for patient care,” the CMA said.
The regulator added that these were “some of the most serious abuses we have uncovered in recent years”, giving the NHS “no choice but to pay huge sums of taxpayers' money for life-saving medicines”.
Auden McKenzie paid off its rivals in a bid to discourage them from bringing out their own versions of the drug, allowing the company to retain a monopoly on production, the CMA said.
“To protect its position as the sole provider of the tablets, and enable it to continue to increase prices, Auden McKenzie also paid off would-be competitors AMCo (now known as Advanz Pharma) and Waymade to stay out of the market,” the watchdog said.
After Auden McKenzie stopped selling the drug, investigators at the CMA found that Actavis UK continued to pay off AMCo after taking over the sale of the medicine in 2015.
UK
The first baby beaver to be born on Exmoor for 400 years
Content editor The first baby beaver to be born on Exmoor for 400 years has been spotted on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset.
The young beaver, known as a kit, has been captured on camera just 18 months after the conservation charity undertook its first licensed enclosed release of two Eurasian beavers in its 125-year history.
Footage from a static camera captured the six-week old kit swimming with its mother, back to the family lodge, while she stopped to nibble a branch.
The beaver kit with its mother. Picture: Jeanette Heard
Jack Siviter, one of the rangers on the Holnicote estate said: “We first had an inkling that our pair of beavers had mated successfully when the male started being a lot more active building and dragging wood and vegetation around the site in late spring.
"The female also changed her usual habits, and stayed out of sight, leaving the male to work alone.
"It was then several weeks until we spotted her again, and this is when our suspicions were confirmed that she had given birth, due to having very visible teats.
“We are particularly pleased for our female, nicknamed Grylls due to her survival instincts, as she didn’t have the easiest start to life being orphaned at an early age.
"As a first time mum she seems to be thriving and it’s great to see her with her new kit.
“The family should now stay together for the next two years before the kit will naturally want to go off to create a new territory of its own.”
The beaver kit with its mother. Picture: Jeanette Heard
A keystone species missing from the British countryside since they were hunted to extinction during the sixteenth century, beavers are playing a new and vital role in watercourse and flood management on the estate and creating an environment that is attracting more wildlife and diversity of species.
As nature’s engineers, they are a natural solution to help tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis.
Since their introduction the beavers have been busy creating a dam complex made from trees, mud, stones and vegetation.
This has helped slow the flow of water through the catchment, creating ponds and new channels to hold more water in the landscape as well as storing and filtering water to help clean it before it flows downstream.
By holding water back beavers can play a role in reducing the impact of floods and droughts both of which are expected to become more frequent with climate change.
The felling of some of the trees has allowed more light to flood into the woodland floor where ground flora such as sanicle and marsh marigold is now lush and green, while also helping with natural woodland succession building in resilience and creating different habitats to attract other wildlife.
This new wet woodland habitat is now a more diverse habitat offering more food and shelter benefiting and attracting a wide range of wildlife including amphibians, bats and insects such as dragonflies, and birds like sparrow hawk, grey wagtail, heron, moorhens and kingfisher. Otters are also now more regular visitors to the site instead of just passing through.
The beavers have also stripped bark from non-native conifers to create deadwood habitats which are good for bats, owls, woodpeckers and invertebrates.
The National Food Strategy says meat consumption needs to be cut by 30 per cent by 2030
People could be encouraged to eat less meat, Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy suggests, write Emily Beament and Lisa Young.
The report warns meat consumption needs to be cut by 30 per cent by 2030 to reduce methane emissions from cattle and sheep that help drive global warming, and to free up land for absorbing carbon and boosting nature.
The report said a tax to drive the shift away from meat was unpopular.
Poorer households would be penalised because it would hike prices more on cheap cuts or mince.
Instead it said the government should invest £50million in supporting the development of alternative proteins such as lab-grown meat or plant-based foods.
It urged the UK to position itself at the front of the new industry of alternative proteins, which it said could easily replace ingredients such as mince or milk powder in lasagne or even the meat in a takeaway sandwich.
Responding to the report, NFU president Minette Batters said: “This food strategy should act as a wake-up call for us all that we need to value the food we eat.
“I agree that we should be supporting everyone to eat more fruit and veg, something our farmers can support by growing more, and there should be more focus on educating our children about valuing and understanding the food they eat and how it has been produced.
“However, it is important that we do not throw meat into one blanket category and that we all make a clear distinction between grass-fed British meat and cheap imports.
“We should be considering British meat in its own category, recognising its sustainability and dense nutritional value.
"After all, scientific and medical communities agree it is a key part of a healthy, balanced diet, chock full of essential vitamins and minerals.
“This strategy says major reform is needed of the food system.
"I would suggest we first look at the actions our government is taking by agreeing to trade deals that welcomes in imported meat in limitless amounts."
The report comes as supermarkets are already increasing and promoting their plant-based options, and meat-free alternatives are becoming more popular.
Government investment in innovation will speed up measures to cut methane emissions, such as adding certain ingredients such as seaweed to feed to reduce the amount of the potent greenhouse gas from meat and dairy, the report said.
However, cutting methane is not enough, as the UK also needs to free up land for absorbing carbon emissions from other hard-to-tackle sectors such as aviation, by restoring forests or peatlands.
The report suggests around 5-8 per cent of the UK’s total farmland would need to be freed from production almost entirely, mainly to plant broadleaf woodland and restore peat bogs, focusing on areas such as uplands which are least productive.
It recommends mapping England’s countryside to see which areas could be chiefly for food production, for carbon storage and nature, or for low intensity wildlife-friendly farming.
This could include reductions in sheep, restoring wild features and introducing hardy cattle – but that requires sufficient long-term government support, the report said, and urged the payments scheme for environmental farming to be guaranteed until 2029 to help farmers plan.
The government should also provide around £500-£700 million a year, around a third of the total scheme, for paying farmers to manage the land to actively store carbon and restore nature, through broadleaf woodland, restored upland peat and species-rich grassland and heath.
, Simon Billing, executive director at Eating Better alliance of groups urging a switch to less and better meat and dairy, said: “As a nation, rebalancing our diets with a lot more veg and less meat, will enable us to eat better meat from the best of British farms with the highest environmental and animal welfare standards.”
Mark Bridgeman, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said: “The strategy highlights the need to properly reward farmers for environmental improvements above and beyond what they already do.”
He urged the Government to understand the role livestock played in environmental management and not to succumb to the “false narrative” that meat is inherently bad.
“It is right to consider alternative ways of farming and different uses for land. Enhanced tree planting and peatland restoration will play an important role in further boosting landowner’s efforts to mitigate climate change and biodiversity decline.
“But any change in land use, particularly to the extent that the strategy recommends, must be driven by the market and positive incentives rather than compulsion – and not come at the expense of the country’s ability to feed itself,” he said.
David Edwards, director of food strategy at WWF, said: “The way we produce our food is key to the UK reaching its net zero and nature restoration targets, so we must bolster funding of nature-friendly farming and set core environmental standards to stop the import of products which rely on the worst farming practices for nature, are already banned in the UK, and which undermine British farmers’ efforts towards more sustainable agriculture.
“We should not waste this golden opportunity to give the British public the affordable, sustainable and healthy food they want and deserve.”
Scaling the walls: Contact visit with Mumia Abu Jamal
In March, supporters all over the world spoke and showed up for beloved political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal when word spread that he would undergo heart surgery while being shackled to his hospital bed and in infrequent, unpredictable contact with loved ones outside. The calls, the rallies, the noise all of us made helped force PADOC prison staff to take Mumia’s heart condition seriously. Taking action saves lives. Here, MOVE’s Pam Africa speaks out in front of Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner’s office on March 12, demanding he free Mumia! – Photo: Emma Lee, WHY
by Noelle Hanrahan
“I am here because people stood right with me. I love the hell out of all of them.” – Mumia Abu-Jamal, SCI Mahanoy, in the visit room with Noelle Hanrahan, P.I., J.D., on May 5, 2021
Pam Africa told me the other day that we need “to put our eyes” on Mumia. When I walked into the visiting booth, Mumia said: “Well, well, well! Way to scale these walls!” He chuckled. “How the hell did you get in here?”
I shrugged and asked: “Since when have walls stopped us?” A hand-to-glass exchange of a high five. Then I said: “I just asked the guard to check for the contact visit that was approved by the Superintendent’s office yesterday, since you have cleared quarantine.” Mumia said, “Okay, let’s start talking and when he comes back, we can move.”
Ten minutes later, the visit continues without the plexiglass barrier when they let Mumia have a contact visit. After an elbow bump and a hug, we sit down at a table in the entirely empty visiting area of SCI Mahanoy.
First, let me say that Mumia looks great. He has energy. He was smiling broadly under his face mask. He was laughing and explaining how he has another chance to live. He sounds just like Tony the Tiger when he roars: “I feel great!”
“I love you all! Thanks for being in my life! I am buoyed and lifted by your love and strength! To freedom!”
I could imagine that having a working heart after months of congestive heart failure would contribute to his feeling ready to tackle his rehabilitation. Heart disease can be reversed, though getting the proper diet and exercise will be a huge challenge in a prison known for lockdowns – and a COVID lockdown that lasted a year.
A long thin scar cuts all the way down his breastbone: The result of a double bypass open heart surgery just days ago. He is a trim 207pounds in a 6-foot-1-inch frame and is now on the path to recovery. He expects to be moved to general population very soon.
Mumia wanted everyone to know that he was aware that the movement made it possible for his condition to be taken seriously and finally accurately diagnosed. Mumia knows that if it were not for the world shining a bright hot spotlight on prison conditions and access to medical care, he fears that he would not have survived.
I always begin the process of leaving the visit with this question for Mumia: “What do you want?” Mumia’s answer: “I want to find a way to win and find a way to get the hell out of here.”
“I love you all! Thanks for being in my life! I am buoyed and lifted by your love and strength! To freedom! Love, Mumia” – Handwritten note on legal pad May 7, 2021, 2 p.m., in the visiting room of SCI Mahanoy.
Write to show your support for Mumia: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Smart Communications/PADOC, Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335 SCI Mahanoy, PO Box 33028, St Petersburg, FL 33733.
Note: “Florida” is not a misprint. Letters to Mumia – and all Pennsylvania prisoners – are sent to the mail contractor in Florida and then scanned and printed and given to him. He will receive these in the infirmary and in his cell. Every prayer and letter matters.
Noelle Hanrahan is a private investigator, director of Prison Radio and producer and co-writer of the feature length documentary “Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary” (2013). She can be reached at info@prisonradio.org.
