University of Adelaide built a robot spider to scan Australia’s Naracoorte Caves




Igor Bonifacic
·Contributing Writer

ENDGADGET
Tue, November 2, 2021, 4:48 PM·1 min read

In the southeast of South Australia lie the Naracoorte Caves. The national park is an UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its stalactites, stalagmites and prehistoric fossils. Recently, a group of students from the University of Adelaide built a robot to complete a 3D scan of the site. The project, called CaveX, saw the group create 15 iterations of the model you see above before they settled on a final design. They went with a robot that walks on a set of six legs out of a fear that one with treads or wheels would damage the surface of the caves. The design also allowed it to traverse uneven terrain with a variety of different gaits.

CaveX scan

As for the 3D scans, the hope is that they’ll lead to new discoveries at the site. "We're looking at the cave surface to find new cave entrances which will hopefully lead to new fossil deposits," Craig Williams, one of the PhD students who worked on the project, told ABC Australia. "That will help us enhance the range of knowledge on the fossils that are here." The team that worked on the project hopes a new generation of engineering students will continue to work on the robot. One day, they'd like to see it take advantage of technologies like computer vision AI to make it better at its job.

Sunny but isolated, Cyprus toils to boost green energy

"We have 340 sunny days per year"

Anais Llobet
Mon, 1 November 2021

Solar panels cover the roof of a house in the village of Kalavasos, in front of a mosque minaret, but Cyprus is still struggling to increase its use of renewable power (AFP/Emily IRVING-SWIFT)

The 1,478 megawatt Vasilikos power station runs on imported diesel and heavy fuel, BUNKER OIL

placing Cyprus among the worst EU nations for its use of fossil fuels in producing energy (AFP/Emily IRVING-SWIFT)

In 2019 just 13.8 percent of Cyprus's power came from solar and wind energy, including the Alexigros wind farm, pictured, near the southern coastal city of Larnaca (AFP/Roy ISSA)


Sunny but isolated, Cyprus toils to boost green energy
Melissa Ahearn sits at the entrance of the A-frame dwelling which she lives in and built with her partner to run exclusively on solar energy (AFP/Emily IRVING-SWIFT)


"We have 340 sunny days per year," Georgia Mouskou said, as sunlight streamed through her windows. "But we're still not betting on renewable energies in Cyprus."

Faced with her skyrocketing electricity bill, Mouskou says she wants to "rent a plot" to install solar panels.

Like Mouskou, rising energy costs and environmental concerns have caused residents of the east Mediterranean island to see solar power as an obvious option.


In the past year, the number of solar panels increased by 16 percent, according to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC).

But Cyprus is still struggling to increase its use of renewable power.

In 2019, just 13.8 percent of its energy came from solar and wind energy, well below the 19.7 percent European average, according to Eurostat figures.

Cyprus hopes to boost its share of renewable energy to 23 percent by 2030 as part of its National Energy and Climate Plan.

- Heavy polluter -

But a shift to green power faces many hurdles.

"The problem is renewable energies are unpredictable," said Markos Asprou, an electricity specialist at the University of Cyprus' KIOS research centre. "In case of shortfall, you need to be able to act."

Cyprus, which lies some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the Greek mainland, its nearest EU neighbour, does not have a nearby national power network that can at present bail them out in an emergency.

In 2011, the island's main Vasilikos power plant on the island's southern coast was damaged by a massive explosion on a nearby naval base.

For weeks, Cyprus suffered frequent power cuts.

Vasilikos, a 1,478 megawatt oil-powered station using imported diesel and heavy fuel, covers nearly two-thirds of Cyprus' needs, placing it among the worst EU nations for its use of fossil fuels in producing energy.

In the control room of the plant, co-director George Moniatis points to an empty column on his screen indicating the absence of wind energy.

"What do we do if there's no wind?" he said. "It's very difficult. We can only rely on ourselves."

To overcome its isolation, Cyprus has struck the costly EuroAsia Interconnector deal to link the electricity grid of Cyprus with Israel and Greece.

In October Cyprus also signed a deal with Greece and Egypt to transfer electricity through lines connecting the three countries.

Covid-19 times aside, the island of 800,000 inhabitants must also grapple with, on average, some four million tourists annually, concentrated in the hotter summer months.

Energy needs on the island surge from 300 megawatts in the spring to 1,200 megawatts in the sweltering summer heat, Moniatis said.

- 'Switching lifestyles' -

But renewable energy doesn't offer the adaptability to meet these needs, he added. Methods for storing renewable energy do exist but they are complicated and costly.

"People want to sleep with their AC (air conditioner) on, but you don't have solar energy during the night," Moniatis continued.

But relying on fossil fuels has hit the pockets of consumers.

A kilowatt-hour cost 16.97 cents at the end of 2020, but soared to 21.78 cents in August, according to the EAC.

"With this bill, I got completely caught off guard," Mouskou complained. "It affected our budget for the next few months."

Despite her support for green energy, Mouskou says she cannot at present afford the cost of switching to solar panels.

"Even with state aid, it is impractical for us," she said.

But some in Cyprus have found green energy is possible, seeing it as the future.

At Chirokitia, close to the giant power station, Melissa Ahearn has been living off the grid with her partner for almost a year using solar panels.

"When it comes down to switching to this new lifestyle, you realise you don't need anything," the former forex broker said. "Four light bulbs, a phone charger and the computer battery, that's all."

all/awa/jsa/pjm/jkb

SCAT, YOU NASTY CROWS

Country diary: How crows make the rowan trees grow

Mark Cocker
Mon, 1 November 2021, 


The rowan trees opposite my office are now devoid of either leaf or fruit, but from August until recently they have been centres of intense activity for jackdaws, rooks, carrion crows and even magpies. The birds crowded the tops or chased each other through the foliage while they feasted daily on the red fruits. I had never previously noticed the connection between rowan berries and corvids.

These observations, in turn, helped me to understand an older puzzle, because on the slopes along the high moorland edge, the ground had been sown with 30 young rowans. I’d previously credited this habitat creation to another tree-planting group, the thrushes. In their wonderful book Birds and Berries, Barbara and David Snow suggest that blackbirds were the chief consumers and propagators of rowans in their Hertfordshire study area. Here, however, it’s a far less beloved black bird that is the creative force.

A third piece in the ecological jigsaw was a fragment of Aberdeenshire dialect once recounted to me by a farmer near Turiff. Saplings that spring up mysteriously in that area are known as “craa-sown”. Now I understand it.

Once you are attuned to the rowan-planting efforts of these often despised black creatures, you realise how much we owe them. It turns out that hawthorns are equally popular with members of the crow family, and often the only native trees growing in the infertile soils of the High Peak are these two fruit-bearing bushes. The other name for rowan is mountain ash, and of all trees it is the one most tolerant of high, wind-swept places. It is the crows that we should thank partly for the colour, complexity and texture in parts of our upland landscape. Without them some areas of Derbyshire would almost certainly have no trees at all.

If there had previously been doubt about who had sown the 30 young rowans, I am rather more certain about who chopped them down. Last spring it appears someone from a nearby driven-grouse moor took a chainsaw to them and felled the lot. I’m now putting my money on crows as the truer custodians of this landscape.

• Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary

Why tackling deforestation is so important for slowing climate change

Tom Pugh
Mon, 1 November 2021

Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock

Humanity injects an almost incomprehensible 42 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere every year. The majority of this comes from burning fossil fuels, but a substantial portion, about 16%, arises from how we use the land. Most of these land-use emissions are caused by deforestation, particularly in the tropics.

In order to slow climate change, the global community needs to reduce this 42 billion tons of emissions to net zero, a situation where any remaining emissions are balanced by uptake elsewhere. A tonne of CO₂ has the same impact on the climate whether it comes from fossil fuels or forest loss, so halting deforestation is a necessary part of tackling climate change.

As part of its push for a deal at COP26, the UK government is expected to announce a plan to “halt and reverse” global deforestation by 2030. Just how much would this help limit global warming?

To understand this, we have to understand the concept of carbon budgets. The 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to prevent the global average temperature rising more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The amount of warming is tightly linked to the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere. This means that there is a fixed amount, or budget, of CO₂ that the world can emit without exceeding this target.

This budget is tight. Limiting future emissions of CO₂ to 460 billion tonnes, counting from the beginning of this year, will give a 50:50 chance of warming staying below 1.5°C. If emissions continue at 2019 levels, the budget will be exhausted in only 11 years, by 2032. So to have a decent chance of meeting the goal set in Paris, deep cuts in emissions are needed, declining towards net zero globally by about 2050.

Watch: COP26 pledge to end deforestation by 2030: Landmark deal or rerun of past failures?

Deforestation and the carbon budget

Many countries, including the UK, are aiming for net zero in 2050. But there are several benefits from pushing harder to stop deforestation by 2030. First, land-use emissions are large. At their current rate, emissions from land-use change would consume 15% of the global budget over the next decade alone. Every tonne of carbon lost from forests reduces leeway in decarbonising the rest of the world economy.

Read more: Climate crisis: what can trees really do for us?

Second, halting deforestation does not immediately halt all the emissions from past forest loss. A large portion of these are only released in the decades after the chainsaws fall silent, as carbon continues to be lost from the soil. An earlier halt to deforestation will allow these delayed emissions to get closer to zero before 2050, leaving less to balance elsewhere.

Third, the world’s forests are more than a store of carbon which needs protecting – they are also actively taking it up. By our recent estimate, forests are removing about 20% of the emissions that people put into the atmosphere each year. This happens because trees can grow faster with more CO₂ and because many forests today are filled with trees which are relatively young and vigorous, gobbling up the emissions which were released when older trees were cut down in the past.

Watch: Climate change: Household banks have invested billions in firms involved in deforestation, report claims



Climate change: Household banks have invested billions in firms involved in deforestation, report claims

Household banks and asset managers have invested tens of billions of pounds financing businesses involved with deforestation, according to a new report.

Calculations for the global carbon budget are made assuming that this uptake continues, but every bit of forest lost is an area no longer contributing to that uptake. In the tropics, the total area of forest lost since 1990 is nearly two million square kilometres, an area the size of Mexico. In some areas, such as the Amazon, these losses are at risk of pushing past tipping points, beyond which whole regions of forest switch from taking up carbon to releasing it.

What about the “reversing” component of the plan? This is less clear cut. The loss of complex and biodiverse old-growth forest cannot be reversed within the lifetimes of people alive today. But increasing the total area of young forest, if done properly, can help reach net zero by temporarily balancing limited emissions from industries where low-carbon alternatives are still some way off, such as aviation.

Reforestation is a tool for tackling climate change which does not rely on unproven technology, yet it can only ever be a temporary stopgap. The area of land that could be reforested is finite and limited by competing demands, such as food production or the growth of biofuels.

Allowing forests to naturally regenerate is often better than tree planting.

Bob Pool/Shutterstock

The science is clear: failing to rapidly reduce deforestation will make the enormous challenge of limiting climate change to 1.5° even tougher – perhaps impossible. The faster the world can do this, the more of the carbon budget will be available elsewhere.

That is not to suggest that halting, or even reversing, deforestation will be plain sailing – far from it. It must be done in a sustainable and equitable manner. The vast majority of forest loss is occurring in poor countries of the global south, at magnitudes ranging from the industrial-scale clearing of major agrobusinesses to the minor depletions of subsistence farmers. The livelihoods of many rural communities are intertwined with the forest – they must be genuine partners in efforts to protect them.

Decoupling local economies from deforestation without harming the people living there may prove as challenging as cutting emissions from the rest of the world economy. Halting deforestation has advantages that stretch well beyond the climate, including protecting biodiversity and securing clean water. Nonetheless, world leaders must not think of it as a quick or easy fix, or that it allows them to be less ambitious elsewhere.

COP26 the world's biggest climate talks

This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.

Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. More.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Tom Pugh receives funding from the European Research Council, through the TreeMort project, and the European Forest Institute.

Zero deforestation commitment: Empty promises or a workable plan?

A pledge to end deforestation by 2030 is the first headline agreement from COP26. But environmentalists say the world's forests will not be saved by a political declaration alone.


Greenpeace activists paint the word 'crime' on a barge at the site of an illegal logging operation in Brazil

More than 100 countries have pledged to end deforestation by 2030 to combat global heating at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. But environmentalists, skeptical of the commitment, say more needs to be done to end the so-called "chainsaw massacre" of the world's forests.

The deal commits 105 signatory states to work to together to halt and reverse forest loss, while "delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation."

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) — which advocates for improved forest management — told DW that it was pleased to see the number of countries involved, covering 85% of the planet's forests. Crucially, the deal includes Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia — home to most of the world's wildlife-rich tropical forests as well as to most of its deforestation.

The agreement is important because deforestation is one of the most significant drivers of climate change after fossil fuel combustion. But with the failures of previous international forest protection agreements firmly in their minds, environmental organizations say the agreement lacks specifics.

"Fundamentally, the world's forests will not be saved by a political declaration," FSC told DW, "unless it is followed up by specific political and financial initiatives to make forest protection and sustainable forest management economically attractive solutions for the people who depend on the forests for their income and livelihood."
But what about the money?

Funding will play a key part in the success of the agreement. It's is currently backed up by €16 billion ($19 billion), one-third of which will come from private sector investors and asset managers, including Aviva, Schroders and AXA.

But groups such as the Rainforest Alliance, an intergovernmental organization that represents up to 50 forested tropical countries in climate negotiations, say an additional $100 billion a year over the next decade could be required to bolster the agreement.

"Forests, for developing nations, are a resource. And unfortunately, still, trees are worth more dead than alive. Governments are able to issue a concession to cut down trees for timber to sell back to the West or to develop commercial agriculture," the coalition's managing director for media and communications, Mark Grundy, told DW in Glasgow.

That robs the earth of crucial carbon sinks and leads to forms of land use that generate even more emissions, but "brings monies into the government's coffers," said Grundy.

"If we're going to stop that, then financing for the carbon of those forests needs to be of high-enough value to offset that concession."
Why the focus on Indigenous communities?

The countries with the greatest loss of primary forest are Brazil — by a very long way — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Peru. Some 12 million hectares of tree cover in the tropics was lost in 2020 alone. And a third of that occurred in important humid tropical primary forests, resulting in carbon emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of 570 million cars, according to data from the World Resources Institute, a global research non-profit.

These forests are also home to Indigenous groups – and the agreement has placed a strong emphasis on such communities as "guardians" of the forest.

A recent UN report found that deforestation rates are up to 50% lower in territories occupied by Indigenous groups and stated that one of the best ways to tackle the problem is to recognize their rights.

Indigenous rights activists have welcomed the move.

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), which promotes indigenous rights, told DW that despite accounting for just 6% of the world's population, Indigenous peoples protect nearly a quarter of the global land surface, including areas of significant biodiversity.

"(The agreement) explicitly recognizes the rights of Indigenous peoples, which is significant, especially when you look at the list of signatory governments," Stefan Thorsell, Climate Advisor for the IWGIA, said.

But Thorsell added that the declaration didn't specifically reference territorial or tenure rights for Indigenous communities, as they face being ejected from their land to make way for logging and other activities.

"Without legal recognition of their territories, Indigenous peoples struggle even more in defending their forests and other vital ecosystems," said Thorsell.

Rights safeguarding Survival International, which advocates for the survival of tribal people, voiced concern that conservation efforts can lead to abuses of Indigenous groups.

Fiore Longo, head of Survival's Decolonize Conservation campaign, said forest offset projects enable those in the Global North to continue polluting while Indigenous lands are taken for afforestation offset projects. Such schemes allow individuals or companies to invest in environment projects to neutralize the emissions they create.

"The same goes for the private sector 'investment,' which we believe will largely be for the purchase of carbon offsets, so will do nothing to reduce emissions or help stop climate change," said Longo.

Indigenous groups in Brazil protesting a bill they say would limit the recognition of reservation lands during the summer of 2021

Didn't we agree to this before in 2014?

A lot of this will sound familiar, with a very similar agreement being struck in 2014. At that time, 40 countries signed up to the New York Declaration on Forests, which pledged to half deforestation by 2020 and end it by 2030. That was largely unsuccessful, but proponents do hope this time will be different.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the greater focus on private sector financing in 2021 will help with implementation.

"Many corporations are even more powerful than these developing countries. So we need all hands on deck. We need alignment, we need philanthropies, we need private capital. We need financial institutions to step up," Josefina Brana Varela, WWF's Vice President and Deputy Lead for forests told DW in Glasgow.

Another key difference is the much broader commitment to the deal, with key forest nations such as Brazil signing on this time. The FSC say the number of countries backing the deal is probably it's "strongest point," given that it includes the most important forest countries as well as the developed countries needed to financially support the efforts.

Taliban in Afghan provinces enforce ‘far harsher rules’ against women than advised by Kabul leaders


Maya Oppenheim
Mon, 1 November 2021,

Researchers say Ministry of Vice and Virtue is in building where Ministry of Women’s Affairs was located until the Taliban recently got rid of the department (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Members of the Taliban ruling Afghanistan’s provinces are using a manual with far stricter and more abusive rules against women than the policies outlined by the Taliban leaders based in Kabul, a leading human rights organisation warned.

Human Rights Watch said the manual was established by the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue – a government department which was a “notorious symbol of abuse”, especially against women and girls, when the Taliban previously ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Researchers said the Ministry of Vice and Virtue is in the building where the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was located, until the Taliban recently got rid of the department.


The Taliban swept to power in mid-August as the US and other Western troops withdrew. The last time the hardline Islamist group ruled the country women were barred from working, girls were blocked from going to school, and women had to be chaperoned by a male relative if they wanted to leave the house. While there were reports gay men had been stoned to death in formal executions.

“It barred women from educating girls in home-based schools, from working, and from begging,” researchers said of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue during the Taliban’s previous rule in the 1990s.

“It enforced draconian restrictions on women and men through public beatings and detention. Ministry officials beat women publicly for dress deemed ‘immodest’; showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being accompanied by a close male relative. The officials beat men for trimming their beards.”

While the current manual predominantly lays out rules against “vice”, it also includes stringent rules on the behaviour of women and girls.

“It instructs religious leaders to teach people about which male family members can act as a mahram (a chaperone) for women and older girls and states that women ‘shall be commanded to put on a veil when faced with non-mahram,’” campaigners at Human Rights Watch said. “Another provision states: ‘Women shall be prohibited from not wearing hijab and veil in public and against non-mahrams’.”

The Taliban issued the manual back in 2020 before publishing an amended version in February 2021 when it was beginning to oversee increasing parts of Afghanistan. The manual has been used by the ministry in several provinces since the Taliban seized Kabul in August, Human Rights Watch said.

Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at the charity, said: “The Taliban have tried to reassure the world that they respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls. But the rules instructing their officials are a patchwork of abusive policies enforcing gender and LGBT discrimination, and harsh repression of autonomy and free expression.

“The Taliban’s world view and abusive practices have been relatively consistent, as this manual demonstrates. Countries that spent the last 20 years promoting human rights in Afghanistan need to negotiate with the Taliban to try to end worsening rights violations, including against women and girls.”

While secondary schools have reopened for boys in Afghanistan, they are still shut for the overwhelming majority of girls.

Ms Barr said: “Women are banned from most employment; the Taliban government added insult to injury by saying women in their employ could keep their jobs only if they were in a role a man cannot fill - such as being an attendant in a women’s toilet.

“Women are mostly out of university, and due to new restrictions, it is unclear when and how they can return. Many female teachers have been dismissed. The policy of requiring a mahram, a male family member as chaperone, to accompany any woman leaving her home, is not in place according to a Kabul official but Taliban members on the street are still sometimes enforcing it, as well as harassing women about their clothing.”

The Taliban has “systematically” shut shelters for women and girls escaping violent and abusive partners, she said, adding that women’s sports have also been prohibited.

Human Rights Watch warned the Taliban routinely ignores the human rights safeguards which the manual establishes – explaining the handbook bars sex outside of marriage, adultery, and same-sex relations. The manual is also said to ban parties, cinemas, gambling, as well as “inappropriate use of tape cassettes, dish antenna, computer and mobile.”

“The Taliban also condone abusive responses to so-called ‘vice’,” the charity added. “The manual sets out five stages for people to respond to prohibited acts, beginning with educating the person and graduating to guidance, then prohibiting the vice in ‘an aggressive, angry and scary manner,’ prohibiting the action ‘physically,’ and finally reporting it to the district manager for action.”

Afghanistan is currently grappling with a humanitarian crisis as well as being on the precipice of economic catastrophe. Thousands, including women, LGBT+ people and officials with connections to the former administration, desperately tried to escape the country after the Taliban seized power, yet many did not manage to board flights fleeing Afghanistan.

‘The Taliban has a kill list’ for the Afghan LGBT community, NGO says


Tue, 2 November 2021


Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan at the end of August the persecution of the country’s LGBT+ community has ramped up, forcing many to live in hiding, fearing for their lives. “We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’,” said the head of the Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian NGO helping under-threat Afghans to flee into exile.

The situation for the LGBT+ community in Afghanistan has never been easy. Same-sex relations have always been taboo in the Muslim-majority country, where – even under the former Western-backed government – non-heterosexual relations were illegal and could lead to up to two years in prison.

But since the Taliban came to power after the US military withdrawal on August 30, the situation has deteriorated rapidly. Although the militant group has not yet officially said how it plans to deal with acts of homosexuality, reports are increasingly suggesting that the Taliban is applying a strict interpretation of Sharia law, under which same-sex relations may be punishable by death.

“This is a really scary time to be in Afghanistan,” Executive Director Kimahli Powell of Rainbow Railroad, the only international LGBT+ organisation on the ground in Afghanistan, told FRANCE 24 in a telephone interview.

“We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’ circulating, identifying LBTQI+ persons.”

According to Powell, the Taliban most likely profited from the power vacuum that took place in the days and weeks leading up to the US withdrawal deadline to draw up these “kill lists” by paying close attention to the names of people that foreign rights groups were trying to evacuate. “After the fall of Kabul, there was a lot of information sharing,” he said, noting that the people who never made it aboard any of the departing flights were instead left vulnerable, with their identities exposed.

Powell also said the Taliban seem to have complemented these lists through active persecution, by means of “entrapment” and data leaks.

“[Some] individuals who have reached out to us have told us about how they’ve received a mystery email from someone claiming to be connected with Rainbow Railroad asking for their information and passport. That’s how we know the information has been leaked.”

Spike in requests for help

Rainbow Railroad was founded in 2006 with the aim of helping at-risk LGBT+ people around the world flee violence and persecution in their homelands. In 2017, the group shot to worldwide fame after helping more than a hundred people escape persecution during the deadly anti-gay purge in Chechnya. In the past few months, however, most of its efforts has been focused on Afghanistan, where it is helping threatened members of the local LGBT+ community find temporary refuge in safe houses, after which it tries to bring them “by land or by air” to permanent safety abroad.

“I can guarantee you already right now, that the number of requests we will receive this year will spike,” Powell said, noting that for Afghanistan alone, the group has already fielded 700 requests this year and identified at least 200 more people “in need of immediate evacuation”. The group usually receives a global total of 4,000 help requests per year.

In August, just prior to the US troop departure, Rainbow Railroad helped dozens of at-risk LGBT Afghans to safety via the military airlift. Last Friday, the NGO helped bring another 29 people into Britain via a second airlift.

“There are private citizens [in Afghanistan] that have been keen to help. But as far as LGBTQ organisations go, it's really just us there. But it has allowed us to form partnerships with non-LGBTQI+ groups who have also been getting people out,” he said.

Passport burned

Powell described a recent incident in which Rainbow Railroad was actively working to bring a threatened individual to safety, but who was then suddenly subjected to a Taliban raid. “People entered the house without any sort of uniform, and while ransacking the place they discovered information that made them suspect the person was part of the [LGBT+] community. Then they took their phone, through which they confirmed the person was a part of the community and proceeded to physically assault and humiliate the individual. Then they found their passport and burned it.”

“The person is still there, and our job to try to get them to safety is now infinitely harder,” he said.

Turned in by family members

Powell described the current climate in Afghanistan as “lawless”, saying the general uncertainty and unpredictability of what Taliban rule entails for the population as a whole has even led to some people turning in family members for suspected LGBT+ activity.

“As I said, this is really scary times, and people are trying to curry favour with the Taliban,” he said. “I think everyone's trying to navigate that environment, and so if they (the Taliban) have identified LGBTQ+ people as a target, there's an incentive to turn them in.”

Powell said that this has left members of Afghanistan’s LGBT+ community even more vulnerable and isolated, since they can’t even count on the support and protection of their families. In the meantime, he said, they don’t have much choice but to hide.

“This has been the most complicated mission that we've done, and continues to be so."

AFP

The Taliban has a sinister ‘kill list’ for Afghanistan’s LGBT+ community, charity boss says


Patrick Kelleher

PINK NEWS UK
Tue, 2 November 2021

The Taliban has compiled “a kill list” of LGBT+ Afghans, according to the executive director of a charity helping queer people flee the country.

Human rights groups have been expressing significant concern for Afghanistan’s embattled LGBT+ community ever since the Taliban seized power in August. The extremist militant group holds a strict view of Sharia law, and anecdotal evidence suggests that queer people are already feeling the brunt of the Taliban’s power.

Kimahli Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, told France 24 that it is “a really scary time” for LGBT+ people in Afghanistan as many could be targeted by the Taliban.


“We now know for sure the Taliban has a ‘kill list’ circulating, identifying LGBTQI+ persons,” Powell said.

According to Powell, the Taliban likely compiled its list by paying close attention to the people international groups were trying to evacuate.

“After the fall of Kabul, there was a lot of information sharing,” Powell said. The result was that many of those who were on evacuation lists who didn’t make it out of the country found themselves in vulnerable positions.

The Taliban likely completed its “kill list” through data leaks and “entrapment”, Powell added. He said people have received “mystery” emails from people pretending to be connected to Rainbow Railroad “asking for their information and passport”.

“That’s how we know the information has been leaked,” Powell said.
One LGBT+ person had their passport burned by the Taliban

Rainbow Railroad, an organisation dedicated to evacuating LGBT+ people from dangerous territories, has already received 700 requests from queer people who are hoping to flee Afghanistan. They have identified at least 200 additional people who need to flee.

Tragically, one of the people Rainbow Railroad was working to bring to safety had their home raided by the Taliban. Members of the extremist group discovered through the raid that the person was LGBT+, leading to a vicious beating. They also burned the person’s passport, meaning they cannot get out of the country.

Some LGBT+ people have even been turned in to the Taliban by their family members, Powell said.

“I think everyone’s trying to navigate that environment, and so if they (the Taliban) have identified LGBTQ+ people as a target, there’s an incentive to turn them in,” he said.

Rainbow Railroad and other LGBT+ groups are still working on getting as many queer people out of the country as they can.

Last week, the group won praise when it brought 29 LGBT+ Afghans to safety in the UK through a government initiative.

However, there are many more LGBT+ people stuck in Afghanistan who are still trying to get out. One gay man named Sohil told PinkNews that he was burned by a Taliban member when he went to a government office in a bid to get a passport.

“We don’t know if we will be alive tomorrow or not,” he said. “I think the whole world doesn’t think about that. I think our own LGBT+ community doesn’t think about that.

“In two months, no one contacted me… I had a hope that our LGBT+ community will help us but day by day, I am losing my hope,” he said.

One gay man told the i in August that his boyfriend was killed by the Taliban after they were discovered in a restaurant together.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Boy Soldiers, Boy Brides 

Brandon Lee's sister says actors need gun safety training



Issued on: 02/11/2021 - 

Shannon Lee said gun safety training could be a matter of life or death for those working in the film industry Robyn Beck AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

Actors who use firearms on Hollywood sets should have to be trained in safety protocols, Shannon Lee, whose brother, Brandon Lee, was killed in an accidental shooting on a movie set, said Monday.

Lee, the daughter of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, said such training could be a matter of life or death for those working in the film industry.

"I think that mandatory gun safety training (should be required) for the actor so that they can check the guns themselves and know how to use them appropriately," Lee told AFP during the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles.

"And so that they can keep others safe," she added.

Lee said she finds the current gun safety situation "frustrating," referencing the tragic accident last month when Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Hutchins was killed during the filming of "Rust" when Baldwin fired a gun he had been told by the film's assistant director was "cold" -- meaning it did not have a live round in the chamber.

The assistant director, Dave Halls, has since told detectives that he did not fully check the gun before declaring it safe.

"It shouldn't happen again," said Lee, whose brother Brandon was killed at age 28 while filming "The Crow" in 1993.

Lee said she never spoke with Michael Massee, who fired the gun that killed her brother and who died of cancer in 2016.

"I felt sorry for Michael Massee, I felt really sorry because it is a horrible thing to cause someone else to die. And I also feel sorry for Alec Baldwin," she said.

She advised Baldwin to look after himself after such a traumatic incident, and to not feel pressured to talk to the press.

"It's really tough what he's going through, he has to take care of himself," she said.

The 63-year-old actor broke his silence about the incident on Saturday, telling reporters he had been advised by police not to talk about the ongoing investigation.

He called it a "one in a trillion" accident.

© 2021 AFP

Top Indian brands baulk after threats by Hindu hardliners


Top Indian brands baulk after threats by Hindu hardlinersClothing brand Manyavar had to roll back its campaign after one of its ads featuring Bollywood A-lister Alia Bhatt appeared to question a traditional wedding ritual

 (AFP/Money SHARMA)

Abhaya SRIVASTAVA
Tue, November 2, 2021, 

India's biggest festive season is in full swing but top brands are under pressure from right-wing hardliners accusing them of hurting Hindu sentiments.

Critics say an atmosphere of growing religious intolerance and fear since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 is behind the rise in social media vitriol and physical attacks on minority groups.

Clothes and furniture retailer FabIndia and wellness firm Dabur had to pull adverts in the busy shopping period ahead of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights later this week.

Household name FabIndia triggered a storm of abuse online for using an Urdu term, "Jash-e-Rivaaz" ("celebration of tradition"), to describe its latest festive collection.

Urdu is one of India's 22 official languages but uses a Persian-Arabic script and is considered a "Muslim language". While Urdu originated in India, which is home to nearly 200 million Muslims, it is also the national language of bitter rival Pakistan.

Many devout Hindus believe it should not be used for their rituals and festivals.

Others were outraged that women featured in the advert were not wearing a bindi, a decorative design with religious significance often adorned by Hindu women on their foreheads. Soon, the hashtag #NoBindiNoBusiness began to trend on Twitter.

Tejasvi Surya, a parliamentarian from Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), tweeted that FabIndia "must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures".

FabIndia insisted the collection was not for Diwali and said it has "always stood for the celebration of India with its myriad traditions in all hues."

Dabur's advert courted controversy by showing two women in a same-sex partnership celebrating "Karwa Chauth" -- a festival in which married Hindu women pray and fast for the longevity of their husbands.

After Dabur pulled the ad following intense pressure online, Twitter user Milind Risbud, whose bio calls for the global supremacy of Hinduism, wrote: "That's the power of United Hindus! Well done Hindus!"

- 'Obscene and objectionable' -

Designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, whose creations are popular with top Indian celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra Jonas, was next.

Mukherjee's promotional campaign featured seductive close-up images of women -- and men -- wearing a traditional mangalsutra necklace usually reserved for married women.

Narottam Mishra, the home minister in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, called it "objectionable and obscene" and threatened to have Mukherjee arrested.

His Sabyasachi label pulled the ad late Sunday, saying it was "deeply saddened that it has instead offended a section of our society."

But it added: "In the context of making heritage and culture a dynamic conversation, the Mangalsutra campaign aimed to talk about inclusivity and empowerment."

Clothing brand Manyavar too had to roll back its campaign after one of its ads featuring Bollywood A-lister Alia Bhatt appeared to question a traditional wedding ritual.

The latest incidents come after jewellery brand Tanishq, owned by the Tata conglomerate, was last year forced to withdraw an advert showing an interfaith couple at a baby shower organised for the Hindu bride by her Muslim in-laws.

The brand was accused of glorifying "love jihad" -- a term coined by nationalist extremists to accuse Muslim men of seducing Hindu women and forcing them to convert -- a flashpoint issue in the officially secular country.

The brand faced a backlash on social media and a store manager in Modi's home state of Gujarat was forced to write an apology note by men who stormed into his shop.

- 50 threats a day -

Activists say since Modi took power, minority groups have become increasingly marginalized, something the government denies.

A spate of incidents have been taken place in the real world and not just on social media, including attacks on Muslims and lower-caste Hindus for cow slaughter, or vandalism of churches.

Even entertainers have felt the heat with three shows in Mumbai featuring comedian Munawar Faruqui cancelled last week after Hindu right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal threatened to burn down the venues.

Faruqui, who was arrested in January in a case accusing him of insulting Hindu gods and goddesses, told NDTV in an interview Monday that he gets "50 threat calls daily".

Last month, Bajrang Dal members ransacked the set of web-series "Ashram" in Madhya Pradesh and threw ink on producer-director Prakash Jha, accusing him of showing Hindus in a wrong light.

"Because of the silence at the top both in the government and the party, people at the lower end, the rank and file, feel they can flex their muscles and indulge in such ruffian behaviour," political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao told AFP.

"The pendulum is swinging towards right-wing attitudes which has become sort of legitimate because of the right-wing government."

abh/stu/ssy

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM,

Blizzard's first female leader, Jen Oneal, steps down amid ongoing gender discrimination suit




Jessica Conditt
·Senior Editor

ENDGADGET
Tue, November 2, 2021

Jen Oneal has stepped down from her role as co-leader of Blizzard, leaving Mike Ybarra as the head of the studio known for making Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Diablo. Oneal will temporarily transition to a new position, but will leave Activision Blizzard (fine, and King) at the end of the year.

Activision Blizzard is facing a handful of lawsuits and investigations into reports of sexual harassment, gropings, and systemic gender discrimination at the studio, stemming from the leadership down. Oneal and Ybarra took over as co-leaders of Blizzard in August after president J. Allen Brack was named in the original California lawsuit, leading to his dismissal. Oneal was the first woman in a president role since Activision's founding in 1979.

Oneal published an open letter to the Blizzard community, reading in part as follows:

I have made the decision to step away from co-leading Blizzard Entertainment and will transition to a new position before departing ABK at the end of the year. Effective immediately, Mike Ybarra will lead Blizzard. I am doing this not because I am without hope for Blizzard, quite the opposite — I’m inspired by the passion of everyone here, working towards meaningful, lasting change with their whole hearts. This energy has inspired me to step out and explore how I can do more to have games and diversity intersect, and hopefully make a broader industry impact that will benefit Blizzard (and other studios) as well. While I am not totally sure what form that will take, I am excited to embark on a new journey to find out.

After months of pressure from employees, shareholders and government agencies, Activision Blizzard ended its policy of forced arbitration in cases of sexual harassment and discrimination, and implemented a zero-tolerance approach to harassment at the studio. The original California lawsuit is ongoing.

Blizzard announced two big delays alongside news of Oneal's departure: Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, neither of which was given a release window

Activision loses Blizzard 

co-leader, delays launch of 'Overwatch', 'Diablo'

Tue, November 2, 2021, 2:08 PM·

(Reuters) - Activision Blizzard Inc co-leader Jen Oneal on Tuesday decided to step down from her role, giving full control to Mike Ybarra and the videogame publisher put off the launch of two much-awaited titles, sending its shares down 10%.

Ybarra said the delay in the rollout of "Overwatch 2" and "Diablo IV" was due to the leadership change, but did not give a new timeline for their launch, while the company forecast an underwhelming adjusted sales in the holiday quarter.

Oneal and Ybarra took the helm three months ago after Allen Brack stepped down as president, a week after the company was sued for workplace harassment and pay discrimination.

Following this, the company last month fired more than 20 employees, with 20 more facing other forms of disciplinary action.

The owner of "Call of Duty" and "Candy Crush" franchises also created an $18 million fund to compensate and make amends to eligible claimants, while Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said he would take a large paycut.

In a letter to the company's gaming community, Oneal said she will leave at the end of the year to focus more on diversity in the gaming industry, which will "hopefully make a broader industry impact that will benefit Blizzard" and other studios.

With her exit, the company now has three female executives in the 13-member leadership team.

Meanwhile, as pandemic-related curbs eased, Activision's total monthly active users in the third quarter remained unchanged at 390 million from a year earlier, indicating signs of slowing demand for games.

The company, which faces competition from rivals Electronic Arts Inc and Take-Two, said in-game net bookings were same as the third quarter of 2020.

Its adjusted sales for the third quarter was $1.88 billion, in line with Wall Street expectations.

The company said it expects fourth-quarter adjusted sales to be $2.78 billion. Analysts were expecting it to be $2.93 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

‘Ordinary people suffer most’: China farms face climate woes

By CHRISTINA LARSON and EMILY WANG FUJIYAMA

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A farmer talks about the impact of recent floods as she grabs the stubs of corn plants that were washed away in Huangtugang village in central China's Henan province on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. The flooding disaster in July is the worst that older farmers can remember in 40 years – but it is also a preview of the kind of extreme conditions the country is likely to face as the planet warms up, and weather patterns farmers depend upon are increasingly destabilized. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

JIAOZUO, China (AP) — Wang Yuetang’s sneakers sink into the mud of what was once his thriving corn and peanut farm as he surveys the damage done by an unstable climate.

Three months after torrential rains flooded much of central China’s Henan province, stretches of the country’s flat agricultural heartland are still submerged in several inches of water. It’s one of the many calamities around the world that are giving urgency to the U.N. climate summit underway in Glasgow, Scotland.

”There is nothing this year. It’s all gone,” Wang said. “Farmers on the lowland basically have no harvest, nothing.” He lost his summer crop to floods, and in late October the ground was still too wet to plant the next season’s crop, winter wheat.

On other nearby farms, shriveled beanstalks and rotted cabbage heads bob in the dank water, buzzing with flies. Some of the corn ears can be salvaged, but because the husks are moldy, they can be sold only as animal feed, bringing lower prices.

The flooding disaster is the worst that farmers in Henan like Wang can remember in 40 years — but it is also a preview of the kind of extreme conditions the country is likely to face as the planet warms and the weather patterns growers depend upon are increasingly destabilized.

“As the atmosphere warms up, air can hold more moisture, so when storms occur, they can rain out more extreme precipitation,” said Richard Seager, a climate scientist at Columbia University. “Chances are extremely likely that human-induced climate change caused the extreme flooding you saw this summer in places like China and Europe.”

China, the most populous country in the world, with 1.4 billion people, is now the planet’s largest contributor to climate change, responsible for around 28% of carbon dioxide emissions that warm the Earth, though the United States is the biggest polluter historically.

As world leaders take part this week in the climate summit, China is being criticized for not setting a more ambitious timeline for phasing out fossil fuels.

President Xi Jinping, who has not left China since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and will not be attending the summit but sent a veteran negotiator, has said the country’s carbon emissions will level off before 2030. Critics say that’s not soon enough.

Chinese government projections paint a worrying vision of the future: rising sea levels threatening major coastal cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and melting glaciers and permafrost imperiling western China’s water supply and grand infrastructure projects such as the railroads across the Tibetan plateau.

Top government scientists also predict an increase in droughts, heat waves and extreme rainfall across China that could threaten harvests and endanger reservoirs and dams, including Three Gorges Dam.

Meanwhile, China’s people are already suffering the brunt of climate change. And in a common pattern around the world, those who have contributed least to the warming and have the fewest resources to adapt often feel the pain most acutely.

In late July, Chinese news broadcasts carried startling footage of torrential rains swamping Henan’s provincial capital, Zhengzhou — at one point, 8 inches (20 centimeters) fell in a single hour — with cars swept away, subways flooded and people struggling through waist-deep water. More than 300 people died as the megacity turned into an accidental Venice, its highways transformed into muddy canals.

Even after the most dramatic storms ceased, the water continued to pool in much of the surrounding countryside, a flat and fertile region.

Here the economy depends on corn, wheat and vegetables, and other regions of China depend on Henan for food. The local government reported that nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of farmland were flooded — an area about the size of Connecticut — with damage totaling $18 billion.

“All I could do at the time was to watch the heavens cry, cry and cry every day,” said Wang, the peanut farmer.

A limited number of rudimentary pumps were shared among farmers in Henan. Soft plastic tubes were stretched across fields to drain water, but they periodically burst, sending farmers running to patch holes.

A 58-year-old farmer who gave only her last name, Song, said everything she owned was submerged by the floods — her home, furniture, fields, farming equipment.

“Nothing was harvested. This year, the common people have been suffering all year long,” she said. “Ordinary people suffer most.”

“We have been working so hard, breaking our backs … without even a penny back, my heart aches,” said Hou Beibei, a farmer whose simple vegetable greenhouses — plastic tarps covering plots of eggplant, garlic and celery — remain flooded, her hard work washed away.

She is worried about her two young children. “The tuition fees of the children and the living expenses of the whole family rely on this land,” she said.

The summer also saw another climate-linked natural disaster in China. In July, the hottest month on Earth in 142 years of record-keeping, according to U.S. weather experts, a vast and toxic blue-green algae bloom spanning 675 square miles (1,748 square kilometers) engulfed coastal waters off the prosperous city of Qingdao, threatening navigation, fishing and tourism. State broadcasts carried footage of people using dump trucks to remove the mounds of algae.

Another threat to China’s coastal provinces is sea level rise. Government records show that coastal water levels have already risen around 4.8 inches (122 millimeters) between 1980 and 2017 and project that within the next 30 years, waters could rise an additional 2.8 to 6.3 inches (70 to 160 millimeters).

Because China’s coastal areas are largely flat, “a slight rise in the sea level will aggravate the flooding of a large area of land,” erasing expensive waterfront properties and critical habitats, a government report projects.

“I think these impacts are triggering a national awakening. I think people are increasingly asking, ‘Why have extreme weather events like this happened? What are the root causes?’” said Li Shuo, a climate policy expert at Greenpeace East Asia in Beijing.

“I think this is bringing the Chinese policymakers and the general public to a realization that we are indeed in a climate emergency.”

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AP researcher Chen Si contributed research from Shanghai.

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Follow Christina Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.