ALMO END FEMICIDE 

Hundreds join violence against women protest in Mexico

Thu, November 4, 2021

Protesters held up crosses with names of the victims

Hundreds of people holding up crosses bearing the names of murdered women have marched in Mexico City to draw attention to rising cases of femicide.

The "Day of Dead Women" protest was held the day after Mexico's traditional Day of the Dead celebrations.

Femicide, or the intentional murder of women because of their gender, is increasingly a cause for concern.

At least 975 women were killed in Mexico in 2020, and 762 deaths happened from January to September this year.

Human rights group Amnesty International says investigations of the cases are often flawed because evidence is lost and a gender perspective is not applied correctly, making it "easier for these crimes to go unpunished".

Chanting "We are your voice," demonstrators used megaphones to read out the names of murdered women. They also carried photographs and banners with images of some of the victims.

A photo is pictured on a cross as relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

Relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

"Each cross is a case, a pain," Consuelo Martínez, mother of Victoria Pamela, who was killed by her partner, told Efe news agency. "We really want the authorities to act... We seek justice and truth for each of the dead [woman]."

The march was highly emotional, with some of the mothers crying and hugging one another.

"We're here for the same fight: our murdered daughters," said Nayeli Aquino, mother of Naela Daniela, who was killed in 2019 and whose case remains unsolved.

Cintia Ramírez, whose niece Dulce Lilián was murdered by her husband in 2019, said the protesters wanted the authorities to do more to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The main demand is to urge the government to listen to us, to arrest people who are at large and for justice to be done. They aren't going to bring our dead back but at least they can give us some peace and tranquillity," she said.

Relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

Earlier, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the government had opened 73 offices around the country to help female victims of violence.

Emergency calls related to violence against women in Mexico rose more than 30% last year, as Covid-19 lockdowns kept families stuck at home, according to Reuters news agency.

SEALS
‘Very chunky’ shark is seen off the East Coast and experts are doing a double take



Mark Price
Thu, November 4, 2021, 10:34 AM·2 min read

Great white sharks have been known to weigh 6,600 pounds, so a “fat” shark might be tough to define.

Still, a group of researchers hinted that might be the case with a shark photo shared Nov. 3 on Facebook.

It shows a great white shark with a tummy that is .... well, bloated, to put it politely.

“There are some sharks that make our data team stop and take a double-take,” the Massachusetts-based Atlantic White Shark Conservancy conservancy wrote.

“One of our data team members was analyzing GoPro footage, they came across this very chunky, male, white shark.”

You know it has to be bad when shark experts are the ones pointing fingers.

The team apparently pondered the image and concluded the shark “recently ate due to the size of its stomach.“

Sharks aren’t known to chew their food. It’s more like ripping and swallowing, so it could be assumed the meal involved something big — like a dead whale.

The post has gotten hundreds of reactions in the past day, including some people who wondered if it was a female and she was pregnant.

“Why you gotta fat-shame him,” Brad Karger asked.

“He’s not fat he’s just big ... cartilaged?” Tom Duquette Jr. said.

“Sharks gotta eat,” Maria Spina wrote.

The location where the photo was taken wasn’t revealed, and the researchers did not give a size estimate on the predator. The photo was taken in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

This is the season when great white sharks are known to travel from the North Atlantic in warmer waters off southern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

OCEARCH, which tags and tracks white sharks, has discovered some will travel from Canada as far away as the mouth of the Mississippi. The nonprofit has been searching for the spot where they mate and believes it may be off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

There are some sharks that make our data team stop and take a double-take. One of our data team members was analyzing GoPro footage, they came across this very chunky, male, white shark. Our data team can assume that the shark recently ate due to the size of its stomach.

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 Surfing teen gets upstaged when shark bursts from wave off SC and starts spinning 

BY MARK PRICE AUGUST 09, 2021

 A Tennessee teen practicing his surfing technique got upstaged by a shark last week, when the rambunctious predator burst from the ocean a few feet away and began a series of Olympic-style spins. It happened Friday off North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to the teen’s mother, Kaci Allen. She identified the surfer as her 15-year-old son, Ethan, whom she calls “E.” Her video shows Ethan’s surf board crossed over the shark a split second before it jumped from the water. “I didn’t even realize we’d captured the shark jumping up right after he pulled his feet up on the board!” Kaci Allen posted on Facebook.

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/south-carolina/article253364768.html#storylink=cpy

'Beyond unacceptable': Bernie Sanders slams Democrats' $1.75 trillion spending package after analysis said it would cut taxes for the rich

Tom Porter

Wed, November 3, 2021

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown at a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Win McNamee/Getty Images

• Sen. Bernie Sanders described a new proposal for Democrats' spending bill as "beyond unacceptable."

• An analysis found a repeal of a cap on certain tax deductions would greatly benefit the wealthiest.

• The $1.75 trillion bill has been mired in the Senate amid disputes among Democrats.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday said it would be "beyond unacceptable" for Democrats to add a provision to their massive social-spending bill that one analysis found could end up delivering a huge tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.

Insider and other outlets reported on Tuesday that the new provision was being touted for the stalled $1.75 trillion plan.

The new addition would repeal the $10,000 cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, a move that has long been championed by some Democratic lawmakers, who believe the Trump-era law unfairly affected people in high-tax blue states like New Jersey and California.

It had a particular impact on people with properties in more than one state, who were unable to deduct large state tax obligations from their federal tax bill.

But an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected that a repeal of the cap could end up costing the federal government far more than any proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and would result in a $30 billion net direct tax cut for the wealthiest 5% of Americans.

"That is beyond unacceptable. I will not support more tax breaks for billionaires," Sanders tweeted Tuesday, linking to a CNN report on the analysis.

"Democrats campaigned and won on an agenda that demands that the very wealthy finally pay their fair share, not one that gives them more tax breaks," Sanders said in a statement. "I am open to a compromise approach which protects the middle class in high-tax states."

"I will not support more tax breaks for billionaires," he added.

Democrats' large bill, which is focused on social programs and climate initiatives, has been mired for weeks in Congress amid disputes between among Democrats over its scale and how it should be funded. The Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate that means the objections of a single lawmaker to any measure must be accommodated to pass the bill.

Sanders has signaled he is open to revising but not repealing the SALT code.

"There are middle-class families in states where property taxes are very high that are paying a whole lot in state and local taxes. And I think we have to support them," Sanders said during an interview with MSNBC in June.

AOC calls out Democratic holdouts trying to limit benefits like paid leave in Biden's agenda: They 'literally have to imagine what normal life is like'

Ayelet Sheffey

Thu, November 4, 2021,

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (L) (D-NY). Win McNamee/Getty Images

• AOC called out lawmakers for suggesting limits to who would get benefits like paid leave.

• She said many people making decisions "literally have to imagine what normal life is like."

• Manchin has suggested having workers pay in to a paid leave program Pelosi just added back into Democrats' plan.

Thanks to opposition from centrist holdouts Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Democrats' initial $3.5 trillion social-spending proposal has gotten scaled down to $1.75 trillion, with many progressive priorities, like free community college, left behind.

Democrats are still negotiating with those two lawmakers, given they have yet to sign off on their party's economic agenda. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had enough.

On her Instagram story on Wednesday, she posted a photo of herself walking own the Capitol steps. She described her facial expression as her "f- a means test for PARENTAL LEAVE and matter of fact please STOP trying to make a mountain of paperwork and hoops to jump through so people can access basic things face." 

She added that there are "so many people making decisions who literally have to imagine what normal life is like... because they've never had to choose between paying for rent and medicine or papers etc."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced on Wednesday that four weeks of paid family and medical leave is back in Democrats' bill after being originally nixed from Biden's framework. But Manchin made clear he was not on board with the proposal, telling Insider he believed workers should "absolutely" be paying into a paid leave program.

"I think it should be participation. I always felt that. I think that basically employer and employees should participate," he said, adding that both states and countries have used that models."It seems to work very well and does not put a burden on anybody," Manchin said. 

As Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported, Manchin is backing what amounts to a payroll tax that's levied on both employers and workers to fund the benefit. Biden initially sought 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave as part of his spending package, funded with no payroll taxes levied on workers, but the $500 billion measure was nixed after Manchin objected to its price tag.

Democrats are hoping to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and their Build Back Better (BBB) agenda before Thanksgiving, but it's unclear if they can accomplish that given Manchin's firm stance that he needs more time to analyze the budgetary impacts of the Democrats' legislation.

This is not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has taken to Instagram to express frustration with centrist stalling of the progressive agenda. Last week, she called on Americans to "bring the heat on Biden" to cancel student debt now that the BBB agenda is "slashed."

"He doesn't need Manchin's permission for that and now that his agenda is thinly sliced he needs to step up his executive action game and show his commitment to deliver for people," she said. 

DRILL BABY DRILL

Manchin rejects Democrats' approach to climate change and China, calls for more drilling to stay competitive

Andrew Miller
Thu, November 4, 2021

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin rejected the way his party has approached climate change and China amid the gridlock over President Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan.

"Well, let me tell you the things that we can agree on," Manchin explained on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Thursday when pressed about his hesitancy to sign off on the Democrats' massive spending plan being debated in the Senate. "That we have agreed on. Child care, we agreed on child care. We've agreed on pre-K three and four. We agreed on in-home services. We agree basically on the climate bill that basically uses technology not just eliminating certain fuels, but technology to use them cleaner so the world will use them cleaner because the world is using more fossil than ever before."

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks to reporters in the Senate subway at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. November 3, 2021.

 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Manchin then turned the conversation to China explaining that the country has 3,000 coal fire plants compared to 500 in the United States.

"My environmental friends will make you believe...that the 500 are polluting the whole world," Manchin said. "They’re just not being accurate."

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in Beijing, capital of China, July 1, 2021. 

(Photo by Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty Images) Ju Peng/Xinhua via Getty ImagesMore

Manchin’s pushback against the environmental wing in his party comes the day after he spoke to Fox News’ Bret Baier on "Special Report," called for more drilling, and disagreed with President Biden blaming OPEC for the high gas prices plaguing the nation.

"I say that we can basically do more for ourself," Manchin said. "We've been energy independent for the first time in 67 years. Why can't we do more? Why can't we produce more? We've got plenty of natural gas. My state beautiful state of West Virginia has an ocean of natural gas under it. If they will just let us build a pipeline we can get the product to market."

U.S. President Joe Biden checks his watch during an event on global supply chain resilience through the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and recovery, on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Rome, Italy October 31, 2021. 

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Manchin added, "And why don't we do more drilling and why don't we do more basically production in the United States? I'm not depending on OPEC. I'm not depending on other countries for my energy anymore. We know how to do it. We have the technology. We should be relying on ourselves."

Baier asked Manchin, "So is the president wrong on that?"

"I have a difference of opinion," Manchin answered.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

The FBI is reportedly investigating a Chicago hospital that gave ineligible Trump Tower employees COVID-19 vaccines meant for communities of color

Kenneth Niemeyer

Thu, November 4, 2021

Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago. John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images

• The FBI is investigating a hospital that wrongly provided COVID-19 vaccines to Trump Tower employees, Block Club Chicago reported.

• The vaccines were provided to the ineligible workers under a program meant to help communities of color.

• Federal subpoenas say that 107 vaccines were provided over a two-day period, according to WLS.

The FBI is investigating a Chicago hospital that gave COVID-19 vaccines to ineligible Trump International Hotel & Tower employees through a program meant to immunize communities of color, according to Block Club Chicago.

Dr. Anosh Amhed, the former COO and CFO of Loretto Hospital, stepped down from his position in March after reports that he provided vaccines to employees at Chicago's Trump Tower, where he reportedly owned a $2 million condo.

A federal grand jury issued subpoenas to the Illinois Department of Health in May and September, Block Club Chicago reported. The first subpoena indicated that there was an "official criminal investigation" into vaccines Loretto gave out over a two-day period in March, according to the report.

A spokesperson for the FBI Chicago office said in an email to Insider that Department of Justice policy "prohibits the FBI from commenting on the existence or nonexistence of an investigation."

According to local news outlet WLS, the May subpoena sought information on 107 people that got immunized at the hospital on March 10 and 11. The names of the people who got the shots were redacted.

The hospital's CEO, George Miller, said in March that he authorized 72 people to be vaccinated at Trump Tower on March 10 and 11, who were mostly employees there that lived on Chicago's West Side, WLS reported.

In a memo obtained by CNN, Miller said the hospital was "under the impression that restaurant and other frontline hospitality industry workers were considered 'essential' under the city of Chicago's 1b eligibility requirements."

Trump Tower was not located in one of the zip codes eligible to receive vaccines through the Protect Chicago Plus program meant to help hard-hit communities, and its employees were not eligible because of their employment status.

Loretto Hospital and Trump International Hotel & Tower did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

According to Block Club Chicago, Amhed said he had vaccinated Eric Trump during a March 10 vaccination event. Ahmed took a photo with Eric Trump that he texted to his friends, telling them that he vaccinated the former president's son, who he called a "cool guy."

Ahmed later said he was only joking about vaccinating Trump, the outlet reported.

"Eric Trump happened to be in the building but we did not vaccinate him," Ahmed said in a statement shared through a spokesperson to Block Club Chicago.

Climate change: Yellen calls for 'wholesale transformation of our carbon intensive economies'

Akiko Fujita

·Anchor/Reporter

Wed, November 3, 2021

GLASGOW — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a "wholesale transformation" of carbon intensive economies at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow on Wednesday, urging the private sector to capitalize on an opportunity to help developing nations transition to a carbon free economy.

"Rising to this challenge will require the wholesale transformation of our carbon-intensive economies," Yellen stated in prepared remarks. "It’s a global transition for which we have an estimated price tag: some have put the global figure between $100 and $150 trillion over the next three decades. At the same time, addressing climate change is the greatest economic opportunity of our time."

Yahoo Finance and Yahoo News will be reporting from COP26, which is set to begin on October 31 and last until November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. Check out the coverage here.

Yellen specifically pledged U.S. support for Climate Investment Funds (CIF), a multilateral climate finance mechanism to help the poorest countries most affected by climate change, build out climate resilience, and shift to a future free of fossil fuels.

“Through an innovative leveraging structure, this initiative will help attract significant new private climate finance and provide $500 million per year for the Clean Technology Funds’ programming, including the new Accelerating Coal Transition investment Program,” Yellen stated.

Financing for developing countries have increasingly become a contentious point of larger climate discussions, with a $100 billion pledge by the world’s advanced economies yet to be paid out more than five years after it was initially promised.

Developing countries argue they are being unfairly tasked to pay for a climate crisis largely caused by emissions spewed by the world’s richest countries, while the poorest nations have been hit the hardest by extreme weather brought on by climate change.

On Tuesday, Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry admitted $100 billion would not be enough given that the climate crisis is intensifying and time is running out to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal climate scientists have said would avert a catastrophe.

“$100 billion doesn't do it, folks," Kerry said. "It's trillions of dollars that are needed. And the only way we will get this done is if trillions of dollars are forthcoming."

President Biden has already announced a U.S. commitment to quadruple international climate finance by 2024, to more than $11 billion. The private sector is expected to pick up the bulk of the investments, because of the sheer scale and cost of the effort needed to sunset coal powered plants and invest in renewable energy, among other measures.

Yellen stated the private sector stands "ready to supply the financing" to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. Some of the world’s largest multinational companies, including Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT), as well as asset managers have made the trip to Glasgow to seek investment opportunities in the green transition. 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference with Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe at Government buildings in Dublin, Ireland, November 1, 2021. (REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

However, commercial banks have been slow to line up capital for projects. While Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Bank of America (BAC) have committed to shifting its investments to businesses that reduce carbon emissions, major banks from India, China, Japan, and Australia haven’t followed.

Yellen, who mentioned "investments that will be profitable in sustainable investments" to Congressional testimony last month, asserted in her COP26 remarks that "it is simply cost effective to go green."

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, chaired by Yellen, released a report last month laying out actions needed to build resilience in the financial system from the risk of climate change, including enhanced climate-related disclosures.

“CEOs representing trillions in assets are here to show their commitment," Yellen stated. "Financial institutions with collective assets under management of nearly $100 trillion have come together under The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ. If these ambitions are realized, those portfolios will be carbon-neutral by 2050 and significantly reduce emissions by 2030."

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @AkikoFujita

Vaccine mandates are working in US,

 but are still divisive

Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 08:24


Workers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and their supporters protest on November 1, 2021 at JPL in Pasadena, California against a government mandate requiring federal employees to received the Covid-19 vaccine Robyn Beck AFP/File

Los Angeles (AFP) – When vaccine mandates were announced in the United States, there were dire warnings they would cause mass layoffs or walkouts. But they didn't. In fact, figures show they are working.

There are pockets of resistance to rules requiring employees be protected against Covid-19, notably among police and firefighters, but they have nudged more people towards getting the jab.

"Mandates, so far, seem to be the most effective thing we have to overcome the vaccine hesitancy," Bradley Pollock, professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of California at Davis, told the Sacramento Bee last month. "It's more than good; it's very good."

Around 58 percent of the total US population was fully vaccinated as of early November, up from half in August as mandates began to be announced.

President Joe Biden on Thursday set a January 4 deadline for employees in large companies to be fully vaccinated -- a rule the administration says will affect more than two-thirds of the country's workforce.

"Vaccination is the single best pathway out of this pandemic," he said.

"Businesses have more power than ever before to accelerate our path out of this pandemic, save lives, and protect our economic recovery."
Private sector

The government rules follow mandates announced by several major employers -- to impressive effect.

They included United Airlines, which told its 67,000 US-based staff to get the jab or face termination.

By Thursday, 2,000 had sought medical or religious exemptions and all but a handful of the rest had complied.

Tyson Foods, one of the biggest meatpacking companies in the world announced in early August that all of its 120,000 staff would need to be vaccinated.

Around 96 percent of its staff have now fallen into line, the New York Times reported.

The US military, which has told all serving personnel they must be jabbed -- or face consequences -- reports take-up is above 95 percent in all services.

On the whole, workers like the mandate and want to be vaccinated, with the AFL-CIO, the umbrella grouping for unions, calling it "a step in the right direction."
Deep space

But there are notable pockets of resistance, usually couched in terms of an objection to the mandate, rather than to the vaccine per se -- even if the two attitudes often go hand-in-hand.


People gather to protest vaccine mandates for city workers at City Hall Park on November 03, 2021 in New York City Michael M. Santiago GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

That vein of skepticism is particularly thick in police departments, despite the toll the virus has taken on them.

Covid-19 has claimed more than 260 police officers' lives this year -- five times the number shot dead, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks deaths in the line of duty.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said this week that just 43 percent of his officers had been jabbed, and called on his bosses to suspend a rule that could see unvaccinated staff fired.

"Sadly," he said, the executive order is "actually disrupting our ability to provide public safety services."

In Chicago, several thousand police officers face being placed on unpaid leave after refusing to disclose their vaccine status.

New York City's police officers make up around half of the city employees who have applied for religious or medical exemptions.

No major religion has barred followers from taking a vaccine scientists say is safe and effective.

While hesitancy is concentrated in the more conservative-leaning professions, there is skepticism across society.

Caleb Macy, who helps build the antennas for NASA's Deep Space Network arrays was this week among dozens of staff demonstrating at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Like other federal employees, he faces the possibility of losing his job if he has neither a religious exemption nor full vaccination by December 8.

But he says that's something he is prepared for.

"I can assure you I will never get this vaccination. Because once you tell me that I have to... I draw the line at that point. It's no longer a choice when it's forced," he told AFP.

He acknowledged, however, that he would not get what he called an "experimental" vaccine under any circumstances.
Not 'your mom'

Holdouts are getting succor from right-wing politicians, who have declared mandates everything from "overreach" to "dictatorship."

Despite reams of scientific evidence about their safety and efficacy, vaccines and other anti-pandemic measures like masks continue to rile Republicans, as the latest rallying cry in the US culture wars.

Jeremy Boreing, founder and chief executive of right-wing outlet The Daily Wire said his company would not be enforcing the mandate, and would be challenging it in court.

"Joe Biden isn't your mom. The government isn't your mom and your employer sure as hell isn't your mom.

"We've already retained legal counsel and we're prepared to go to battle with this administration to put an end to their unconstitutional bullshit."

© 2021 AFP

Myanmar jade traders squeezed between junta and rebels

Myanmar is the world's biggest source of jade, with massive demand in China a key driver of the industry 

STR AFP

Issued on: 05/11/2021 -

Mandalay (Myanmar) (AFP) – Myanmar jade traders are running from junta troops and dodging rebel attacks to sell dwindling volumes of the green gemstone, as the billion-dollar industry loses its shine months on from the coup.

The Southeast Asian country has been mired in chaos since the February putsch, with the military trying to crush widespread democracy protests and the economy in crisis.

Fighting around the Hpakant jade mine in northern Kachin state -- the largest in the world -- has squeezed digging already hampered by the pandemic, cutting supplies of one of the country's most lucrative exports.

Myanmar is the world's biggest source of jade, with the industry largely driven by insatiable demand for the translucent gem from neighbouring China.

Most stones pass through the second city of Mandalay, home to the 23-metre (75-feet) high Kyauksein Pagoda, a Buddhist shrine built using thousands of kilograms of the precious stone.

Now the complex is quiet, with just a handful of worshippers praying at its gleaming turquoise and red dome.

"Business is not good at all," said one jade trader, who spent months trying to sell his stones on Mandalay's roadsides as the pandemic and unrest closed its main jade market.

"Sometimes, people panic when soldiers come patrolling, and they run ... If one person runs, others start running. Then soldiers fire warning shots to control the situation."
'Your lives are in danger'

Two days later the market re-opened and authorities began collecting fees again -- one of the many levied on the gem that finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between armed ethnic groups and the military.

It is "nearly impossible" to purchase Myanmar jade without providing money to the military and its allies, according to watchdog Global Witness.

With widespread and often violent resistance against the generals -- who regularly appear in public sporting rings set with high-quality jade -- working with the stone has taken on a new danger.

"If you continue doing your trading business... We strongly warn that your lives are in danger," read one notice posted by Generation Z Power, a local dissident group, days before the market re-opened.



Unrest in Myanmar since the coup has led to the closure of some jade markets, while traders are in constant fear of attacks from anti-military groups 

STR AFP

A bomb exploded near the market a week after the traders returned and while there were no casualties the same group promised to set off more if people continue trading there.

Despite the threats, the market is regaining some of its former bustle.

Sitting at a small camp table examining a fist-sized rock with a flashlight, one man talks into a smartphone in Mandarin.

Beijing has shuttered its border with Myanmar because of the pandemic and sporadic fighting along the frontier, but demand is still huge -- and Chinese buyers are using the unrest to drive a hard bargain.

"Because of Covid and the political situation, they are giving very low price," said one 62-year-old dealer who did not want to give his name.

"But we have no choice. We need them for the market. If they do not buy or if we do not sell, we have no place to rely on for this business," he added.
Fear of next blast

"The price is going down," said Myo Min Zaw, who also spent his months outside the market traipsing around hotels frequented by Chinese buyers in search of a sale.

"A stone worth 10 lakh ($550) only sells for around 5 lakh nowadays."

Before the coup, 70 to 90 percent of all jade mined in Hpakant was smuggled to China without ever entering the formal system in Myanmar, according to Global Witness.

Cash made from selling jade helped finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between armed ethnic groups and the military

 STR AFP

Since the putsch, and with fighting flaring around the mines, figures from the shadowy world are even harder to come by, says Hanna Hindstrom, senior campaigner for Myanmar at the group.

"We've heard that prices in China have risen as demand is high and supply reduced," she said -- increasing competition between the rebel groups and military-aligned militia who stock the emporiums with high-quality jade.

For Thandar, who runs a small jade bead workshop across the river from Mandalay, selling her modest wares to local customers has just got more dangerous.

"We worry if we have to go to the market," she told AFP.

"We all are afraid of when the blast will come... We cannot avoid going there because of our living."

A second blast hit the market on Thursday, killing a police officer, local media reported, and sending traders fleeing.

The same day authorities announced that any shop in the complex that failed to re-open by November 5 would be "temporarily seized".

"We are stuck in the middle," said Aung Aung, using a pseudonym.

"The market said they will take the shops if owners do not open. People's Defence Forces have asked us not to do business in the market."

© 2021 AFP

COP26 braces for youth protests after vague emissions pledges

Issued on: 05/11/2021 

Demonstrations are expected across the Scottish city to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of country pledges and the climate emergency already swamping countries the world over 

ANDY BUCHANAN AFP/File

Glasgow (AFP) – Thousands of youth activists were preparing to descend on Glasgow on Friday to protest against what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders at the COP26 climate summit.

Demonstrations are expected across the Scottish city to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Organisers of the Fridays for Future global strike movement said they expected large crowds at the planned three-hour protest during COP26 "Youth Day", which will be attended by high-profile campaigners Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate.

"This UN Climate Summit, we're once again seeing world leaders saying big words and big promises," said Mitze Joelle Tan, a climate justice activist from the Philippines.

"We need drastic carbon dioxide emission cuts, reparations from the Global North to the Global South to use for adaptation and to manage loss and damages, and we need to put an end to the fossil fuel industry."

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The UN-led process requires countries to commit to ever-increasing emissions cuts, and enjoins richer, historical emitters to help developing countries fund their energy transformations and deal with climate impacts.

Countries issued two additional pledges on Thursday to reduce their fossil fuel consumption.

Twenty nations including major financiers the United States and Canada promised to end overseas fossil fuel funding by the end of 2022.

And over 40 countries pledged to phase out coal -- the most polluting fossil fuel -- although details were vague and a timeline for doing so not disclosed.

Thunberg was unimpressed, tweeting: "This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival."

- 'Take responsibility' -

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating.

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their climate promises.

"On Monday, I stood in front of world leaders in Glasgow and asked them to open their hearts to the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis," said Kenyan activist Elizabeth Wathuti, who addressed the conference's opening plenary.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg will be in Glasgow for the Friday's for Future demo 

Adrian DENNIS AFP

"I asked them to take their historic responsibility seriously and to take serious action here. So far they haven't."

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, puts Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN.

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by our heating climate.

"We are tired of fighting against the current 'normal -- the 'normal' we have is unviable, unsustainable and not enough," said Kenyan activist Kevin Mtai.

© 2021 AFP

'It kills me inside': Activists sound alarm on climate anxiety

Issued on: 05/11/2021

Climate activist Dominique Palmer (R) deals with her anxiety by campaigning

 Tolga Akmen AFP

Hong Kong (AFP) – From Bangladesh to Britain to Nigeria, many young campaigners on the frontlines of the global fight for climate justice now face a new problem: the impact the crisis is having on their mental health.

As thousands of delegates converged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to discuss ways to tackle the environmental emergency, AFP interviewed three youth activists around the world who spoke candidly of their experience of climate anxiety.

In Bangladesh, ranked seventh for countries most affected by extreme weather, activist Sohanur Rahman said he feels overwhelmed with concern over what he sees as a lack of political will to stop the destruction.

"(The) climate crisis is to me a mental stress, trauma and nightmare," says the 24-year-old, who now lives in the town of Barisal and who remembers a 2007 super cyclone that killed thousands of people in the South Asian nation.

"It kills me inside," he says softly, adding that he fears for his parents who live in the village of Nathullabad that was levelled by the cyclone.

'Environmental doom'

The American Psychological Association has described climate or eco-anxiety as a "chronic fear of environmental doom".

As with other forms of anxiety, living with it long-term can impair people's daily ability to function, while exacerbating underlying mental health issues.

Climate campaigner Sohanur Rahman remembers the 2007 super cyclone that killed thousands of people across Bangladesh 

Munir UZ ZAMAN AFP

Researchers have warned children and young people are particularly vulnerable, as they contemplate a future mired with scorching heatwaves, devastating floods and storms, and rising seas.

A recent report led by researchers at the University of Bath in Britain, surveying 10,000 young people in 10 countries, found that 77 percent viewed the future as frightening because of climate change.

Around half of the respondents told researchers their fears over environmental change were affecting their daily lives.

Fear, anxiety, anger

Speaking to AFP in London, activist Dominique Palmer said: "I'm looking at the future, and what we face in the future, and there is a lot of fear and anxiety. And there is anger.

"Young people, myself included, feel betrayed by world leaders," the 22-year-old said at a climate protest ahead of the COP26 summit.

AFP

To deal with her anxiety, she campaigns.

"Sometimes it can feel quite hopeless until I am back and organising with my community," she said.

In Johannesburg, clinical psychologist Garret Barnwell showed sympathy and understanding for the young people facing difficult emotions over the crisis.

"It's a reality that children are facing this changing world. They're experiencing fear, anger, hopelessness, helplessness," Barnwell said.

The pressures of climate change also amplify pre-existing social injustices, he said, so younger generations are not only concerned about the environment but also, for example, healthcare access.

Yet despite this, when young people articulate their fears to adults such as teachers, often they find their feels are "invalidated", Barnwell added.

He welcomed the growing global awareness of climate anxiety, adding that while therapy can be helpful ultimately what is needed was political action.
'We bear the burden'

But in the eyes of many young activists, that concrete action is lacking.

At the COP26 summit, dozens of countries this week joined a United States and European Union pledge to cut methane emissions.

The initiative, which experts say could have a powerful short-term impact on global heating, followed an agreement by 100 nations to end deforestation by 2030.



Researchers have warned children and young people are particularly vulnerable to climate anxiety 

Tolga Akmen AFP

But a simmering diplomatic spat between the United States, China and Russia over their climate action ambitions showed the fragile nature of the talks.

"The previous COP, COP25, really sort of brought out this eco-anxiety I felt," said eco-feminist Jennifer Uchendu, 29, in Lagos.

She said she believed climate anxiety was especially an issue for younger people growing up in nations disproportionately affected by climate change.

"We bear the burden of climate change, even though we contributed the least to it," she said, a frown creasing her face.

Uchendu said that rather than bury her fears, she tries to accept them as valid.

"It's OK to feel overwhelmed," she said.

"It's OK to be afraid, scared and even anxious in the face of something so big and so overwhelming."

burs-rbu/ser

© 2021 AFP