Australian establishment in cover up mode over former PM’s secret ministerial positions

Oscar Grenfell@Oscar_Grenfell

WSWS.ORG

In the days since it was revealed that former Prime Minister Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to five key ministerial portfolios in 2020 and 2021, the Australian political and media establishment has desperately sought to cover up the political significance of the measures, which amounted to nothing less than the preparations for a prime ministerial dictatorship.

Governor-General Hurley with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, 10 April 2021 (Image: Facebook / Governor-General of Australia)

The official press is almost universally presenting the ministerial scandal as an expression of the personal proclivities and psychology of Morrison as an individual. His ministerial self-appointments are being depicted as an unnecessary excess.

Morrison himself defiantly posted Facebook memes late last week, trying to make a joke out of the affair. Senior Labor politicians have trotted out glib one-liners about Morrison and his government being “incompetent” and “unable to do their job.”

The aim is to bury any discussion of the relationship between the ministerial appointments and a broader turn to authoritarian measures by the entire political establishment during the pandemic. This included the bipartisan proclamation of an extra-constitutional “National Cabinet,” in March 2020, to manage the pandemic response in secrecy and by decree.

Equally obscured is the connection between this dictatorial turn and the policies pursued by all of the country’s governments, Liberal-National and Labor alike, which are all part of the “National Cabinet.”

The anti-democratic forms went hand in hand with the pandemic response, based on bailing out the major banks and corporations, inflicting sweeping attacks on the jobs, conditions and social rights of the working class, and undermining public health at every turn, to ensure full profit-making activities continued.

The positions to which Morrison appointed himself comprised the key levers of state power. In March 2020, Morrison was made a second health and finance minister. This was when the federal government, and the state administrations were preoccupied with stymieing public health measures that would impact on profit, and ensuring the fortunes of the corporations and the ultra-wealthy, amid a major financial crisis.

Morrison assumed the sweeping powers under conditions of major fears within the ruling elite of a social explosion, triggered by mass queues at unemployment offices and anger over official policies allowing the spread of the virus. As Morrison stated last week: “The prospect of civil disruption, extensive fatalities and economic collapse was real.”

The WSWS warned at the time that the anti-democratic measures used at the outset of the pandemic, provided a precedent for further attacks on civil liberties. In April 2021, Morrison appointed himself minister over the super-portfolio of industry, science, energy and resources. In May that year, he became a secret head of the Home Affairs ministry. Modelled on the US Department of Homeland and Security, it controls all the country’s federal intelligence and policing agencies. The same month, Morrison became a secret Treasurer, jointly controlling all government spending.

A key component of the official cover-up is the assertion that Morrison acted alone, or close to it. Liberal MPs, who have never opposed a single attack on democratic rights, have claimed they were kept in the dark over the ministerial appointments.

But information continues to drip out, indicating that Morrison’s appointments were a political conspiracy inevitably involving a wide array of co-conspirators.

The two senior Liberal MPs who are acknowledged to have known of the appointments from the outset, then Attorney-General Christian Porter and Health Minister Greg Hunt, facilitated them without objection.

Last week, former National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce admitted being aware in 2021 of Morrison’s assumption of the resources portfolio. National Party MP and the then resources minister Keith Pitt admitted that Morrison had told him that he would take joint charge of the portfolio. Pitt said that either he or Morrison informed Michael McCormack, who was National Party leader in early 2021.

Governor-General David Hurley signed off on all the ministerial appointments. Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, together with every senior political figure in the country, has rushed to defend Hurley, insisting that he was little more than an innocent bystander. Hurley claimed he was unaware Morrison would keep the appointments a secret, despite no announcements ever being made.

The clear aim is to protect the governor-generalship, a linchpin position in the capitalist state, which, under the anti-democratic 1901 Constitution is the representative of the British Queen, as Australia’s head of state. The governor-general wields vast powers, including to dismiss governments, as occurred in the 1975 Canberra Coup.

The cover-up of Hurley’s role was undermined by an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report this morning, noting that the governor-general maintains a public diary online. It includes Hurley’s meetings with government ministers, including phone calls and private discussions.

Ministerial appointments are listed for 2020 and 2021 but Morrison’s accession to the five ministries is not mentioned anywhere. Those appointments are similarly covered up in the past two annual reports of the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, a supposedly independent government body, despite all other ministerial appointments being listed.

This morning, the Australian and the Saturday Paper both revealed that Morrison’s assumption of the health portfolio was reported, at the time, to the national security committee of cabinet. That committee includes the government’s top cabinet ministers, as well as the military and intelligence chiefs, blowing out of the water their claims of being kept in the dark.

The Murdoch media itself knew of Morrison’s appointments all along, but kept them secret from the public until now. Morrison contemporaneously informed Australian political journalists Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers as they worked on the just-released book, entitled Plagued.

In other words, Morrison’s moves, which amounted to a creeping internal coup, were an open secret throughout the political and media establishment.

Obvious questions arise. What discussions were held about Morrison’s appointments with the British monarchy and the American intelligence agencies, both of which play the most active role in Australian politics? What was the role of Australian state and government agencies?

How is it that National Party leaders were aware of at least one of the appointments, but current Liberal Party leader and then Defence Minister Peter Dutton supposedly was not? If the appointments were being widely discussed in political and journalistic circles, how could Albanese and other Labor Party leaders not be aware?

All these issues are being buried, as are the broader political issues raised by the affair. A column this morning by the Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly absurdly attributed these developments to an “ego trip” by Morrison as an individual, which had “undermined democratic principle, public trust and cabinet government.”

Kelly continued: “Morrison engaged in an unprecedented, secret and unacceptable use of prime ministerial power that must not be repeated but an activity where no harm was done to any member of the public.”

Whom does Kelly think he is kidding? Morrison, with the backing of sections of the government and the state apparatus, secretly assumed vast powers, laying the groundwork for dictatorial and emergency forms of rule. The extent to which these powers were used remains unknown, with the only evidence currently in the public arena consisting of Morrison’s self-serving assertion that he used them once as resources minister.

While Morrison was secretly the finance minister, the government engineered one of the largest transfers of wealth to the corporate and financial elite in history. The health portfolio, which he also controlled, was a key lever, together with the bipartisan National Cabinet, in the rejection of a COVID elimination strategy and, in December 2021, the open adoption of “let it rip” policies that have claimed more than 11,000 lives this year and caused some nine million infections.

The fear of mass social opposition, which underlay Morrison’s ministerial grab and the formation of the National Cabinet, is also the driving force behind the current coverup and the spate of articles, such as Kelly’s, downplaying what has occurred. In today’s column, Kelly accused Albanese of “political overkill” and warned that if he released the documents by which the governor-general installed Morrison into the five ministries, “this saga will likely take another, damaging twist.”

There is real concern in the ruling class that any further exposure of the inner workings of the capitalist state apparatus, behind the fig leaf of parliamentary rule, will deepen the public disaffection and hostility shown in the May federal election, when the combined vote for the two main parties of capitalist rule—Labor and the Liberal-National Coalition—fell to an historic low.

This attempted cover up, encompassing Labor, the trade unions and the entire political establishment, is itself a warning to the working class. The ruling elite and all its political representatives are increasingly jettisoning democratic forms of rule amid an unprecedented global crisis of capitalism, the catastrophe of the pandemic, war and the mounting social and political struggles of the working class.

Chinese factories flock to Mexico, crossing US border to avoid tariffs

Nikkei
-August 17, 2022 

The industrial park is just a few hours from the US border, making it an attractive export hub. 

(AP pic)

MONTERREY: A towering red and silver gate marks the entrance to Hofusan Industrial Park, located in the middle of the desert in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the US border. Construction is in full swing at the sprawling site as trucks and cranes whiz around.

The estimated US$1.2 billion project broke ground in 2017, a joint effort among Chinese companies Holley Group and Futong Group along with their Mexican partner. Twenty Chinese businesses intend to establish operations there, 10 of which have begun production on site. The project also will include restaurants, hotels and housing.

The site is not alone. Chinese direct investment in Mexico reached a record high in 2021, as more manufacturers set up shop across the border from the US to circumvent tariffs imposed under the Trump administration.

Companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong invested US$606.3 million in Mexico during 2021, up 76% from the year before and the highest figure since tracking began in 1999, the Mexican Secretariat of Economy reports. This made China the ninth-largest investor in Mexico, just behind South Korea.
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Much of this money targets northern regions near the US border. Eighteen deals were announced in Nuevo Leon last year, compared with seven in 2020 and just one or two a year between 2015 and 2018, the state government says.

Mexico has drawn investment from 1,289 Chinese companies as of 2022. China has become Mexico’s second-largest import partner after the US, according to the secretariat of the economy.

The value of exports from China to Mexico was US$101 billion in 2021, up 50% from five years ago and approaching half of what the US exports to Mexico. The value of exports from Mexico to the US totalled US$398.9 billion, up 30% from five years ago, though the extent to which Chinese firms contributed is unknown.

The trend stems from the US-China trade war. Then-president Donald Trump’s administration imposed additional tariffs of up to 25% on a wide variety of Chinese goods beginning in July 2018. China retaliated by raising tariffs on American goods more than five times to an average of 19.3%, according to the US-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Many of the Chinese companies investing in Mexico are appliance and furniture makers. The US in 2018 slapped an additional 10% tariff on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products – including refrigerators, air conditioners and furniture – and raised it to 25% in 2019.

“It was not common for us to help Chinese companies,” said Hector Tijerina, executive director at Invest Monterrey, which promotes investment in Nuevo Leon. “But after the tariffs were imposed by the US government to China in 2018, a lot of Chinese companies started to knock on the door.”

Chinese appliance maker Hisense is investing US$260 million to build a Mexican plant for exports headed to the US, with plans to mass-produce refrigerators there by the end of the year. Hong Kong furniture maker Man Wah Holdings is building a US$300 million plant, while Zhejiang-based Kuka Furniture was reported in March to be expanding its capacity in Mexico.

“We want to avoid international trade barriers,” said Zoy Home Furnishing, a sofa maker that established a new plant in Nuevo Leon this April.

Ningbo Daye Garden Industry, which counts the US as a top market for its lawn mowers, said this month it will build a factory in Nuevo Leon “in response to future trade risks”.

Mexico is an attractive manufacturing base for Chinese companies because of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The trade deal, which took effect in 2020, lets businesses in Mexico export goods to the US tariff-free if they meet requirements such as using a certain percentage of parts made in North America.

“Hisense Monterrey is, technically speaking, a Mexican legal entity, and it has all the benefits under the free trade agreement,” said Samuel Pena, vice president at Hisense’s Mexico unit.

Labour costs are another factor. The US federal minimum wage is US$7.25 an hour, and many states have higher floors. In contrast, the general minimum wage in Mexico is around 170 pesos (US$8.55) per day, or around 260 pesos closer to the border.

More Chinese companies are expanding abroad as wages rise at home. Nearshoring, or producing goods close to their target market, has gained popularity as well amid global supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19. Over 70 Chinese companies are considering their first investments in Monterrey, more than from any other country except the US, according to Invest Monterrey.

Mexico traditionally has prioritised ties with the US, its largest trade partner. But current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador stresses Mexico’s sovereignty and has not cooperated with Washington on sanctions against Russia or tensions with China, making Mexico a friendlier environment for Chinese businesses.

Lopez Obrador takes a more protectionist approach regarding natural resources, such as with a law enacted in April that nationalises lithium mining. But this poses relatively little risks to manufacturers, which make up the bulk of Chinese businesses investing in Mexico.

US president Joe Biden is considering lowering the Trump-era tariffs on China in response to inflation. His administration has already waived the duties on certain products through the end of the year to ease pressure on businesses. But Washington and Beijing also face growing tensions over US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan.

Female veterans criticize gender disparities in VA medical system

Julie Tsirkin and Douglas Forte
Fri, August 19, 2022 

HOUSTON — Navy veteran Tana Plescher said she was shocked by what a doctor told her when she sought care for a panic attack at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Texas.

“You’re a woman; I don’t know what to do with you,” she said he remarked.

The state’s restrictive abortion laws spotlight existing gender disparities within the VA medical system, according to former military women who shared their personal experiences during a listening tour held by Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health.

The VA does not provide any abortion services, even initial consultations, to women seeking more information about terminating their pregnancies. Unlike the Department of Defense, which provides abortions on military bases in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life is at risk, the largest population of female veterans nationwide are left without options in Texas.

“We spent our whole career assimilating into a male world. And that doesn’t end when we get out,” veteran Amber Davila, 37, said outside of the session in Austin, Texas. “Why should we have to assimilate into male health care? We are biologically different.”

Amber Davila. (Amber Davila)

Before the birth of her daughter, Davila said she had multiple miscarriages that required a dilation and curettage procedure to remove abnormal tissue from her uterus. The procedure, and other surgeries used to treat pregnancy complications, may now be illegal under Texas abortion laws.

In 2016, Davila went to a San Antonio VA clinic with severe pain in her stomach and back. Although San Antonio is known as “Military City, USA” for its large concentration of military bases, the clinic at the time had just one gynecologist and a single ultrasound machine, she said.

“The service that I received was naproxen and toughen up,” Davila said, referring to the anti-inflammatory drug. She said a procedure she underwent to treat her uterine fibroids failed, but instead of taking her concerns seriously, the doctors sent her for a colonoscopy.

“An entirely unnecessary treatment, just wasting time with my pain,” she said.

Fast-forward to this year, and Davila said she had had enough. She sought care from a gynecologist outside of the VA, paying out of pocket for an emergency hysterectomy.

“I suffered for four years with cyclical pain. I had no choice. The only treatment was to remove my uterus, and my cervix,” Davila said, emotionally recounting her experience. “So I have one child, and I don’t have the opportunity to have other children.”

Davila is now chief communications officer for The Pink Berets, an organization founded by veteran Stephanie Gattas to help women who served in the military deal with issues such as sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lucy Del Gaudio, chief operations officer for the organization, was raped in the early 1990s while in active-duty service, she said.

Lucy Del Gaudio served in the U.S. Army. (U.S. Army)

“My eldest is a product of my assault,” she told Brownley in a room filled with women of all ages, many of whom recounted similar experiences.

One in four women report being sexually harassed on military bases, and most of them don’t speak up about their experiences in fear of retaliation, according to a 2021 study by the Rand Corp. research organization.

Del Gaudio said she, and not her abuser, was discharged when she became pregnant and deemed unfit to serve by her superiors. She lost her military benefits, experiencing homelessness while her mental health deteriorated.

“It took a long time to find myself,” she said in an interview. When she finally realized she needed help, Del Gaudio turned to the VA but found their facilities for women inadequate, especially compared to the care men received.

“We raised our right hand, so we should get the services that we rightly deserve,” she said. “And that’s all we expect — we want to get the services that our male counterparts get when they go to the VA.”

Democratic lawmakers say the VA can expand services to include abortion care under existing law. Last month, senators on the Armed Services Committee pressed the agency to “take immediate administrative action to offer abortions and all abortion-related services to veterans and eligible dependents.”

Angela Shinn, who served as an Army officer, asked Brownley at the Austin session, “Why is the VA not doing any women’s health care for abortion? Why is that not happening?”

The VA denied multiple requests for comment but said in a statement that an estimated 300,000 women veterans of childbearing age rely on the agency for health care, including contraception, fertility care and maternity care.

“We will continue to make sure they have timely access to the full suite of reproductive care,” the VA said.

Women are the fastest-growing cohort in the veteran community, but some are concerned abortion restrictions could impact recruitment, which is at a low point across all branches of the military.

“This is fuel to the fire,” said Plescher, lead outreach coordinator for Grace After Fire, a female veterans group based in Houston. “We stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder when we served. There wasn’t a problem. I was the most visible service member, and I’m the most invisible veteran. Why? Why is that?”

Commentary: Texas has always been tough on women. It's worse now.


Joyce Winslow
Sun, August 21, 2022 

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers any nation’s abortion law that excludes rape a form of torture because it denies victims closure and healing. Texas now exerts that torture on women, its 61 percent male legislature blind to the astonishing number of rapes here. You might expect a high-population state to have more rapes, but when figured per 100,000 citizens, Texas still ranks high with 13,000 forcible rapes in 2020, according to the Texas Department of Safety. Most victims were white, college-educated women whose trust of a so-called friend or acquaintance was brutally betrayed.

A 2015 deep dive report by the Statewide Sexual Assault Prevalence Study found that women waited many days to report the crime to police because they thought “nothing would happen to the rapist. ” They were right. In 2019, even after rape laws were tightened, just half of reported cases were prosecuted and only half of those resulted in jail time. Police figure only ten percent of rapes gets reported.

That puts into stark perspective Governor Greg Abbott’s claim to “work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them.” How will he find the bad guys if women rightly figure it’s futile to name them? How do any of us believe Abbott’s promise of “aggression” after 376 police loitered 77 minutes in Uvalde while children were being slaughtered?

Texas' heinous abortion law is but one of many sexist laws echoing through state history. In 1870 the state legislature raised the legal age of sexual consent from 7 to 10 -- long after 32 other states set the bar at 16. Current Romeo and Juliet Laws still protect a 17-year-old boy who impregnates a girl three years younger. It’s on her to prove she did not say “yes.”

Texas legislators have also turned a blind eye to domestic violence. The Sexual Assault Study noted that an unwanted pregnancy keeps an abused woman in place, dependent on her husband’s livelihood to support the child. Abortion had provided an exit ramp. That escape route now gone, the grit is just grittier.

Think children of rape grow up happy? The NIH found that a third of them commit suicide before they turn 12; they too became victims of abuse.

This kind of tragedy has a price tag-- $340 annually for every Texan shouldering rising health care costs for rape victims.These victims often suffer long-term depression and many of their babies are born with syphilis. In 2015 the annual health care expenditure for Texas rape victims topped $42.8 million. How much higher will that figure go with the strictest abortion law in the country?

And how many women will suffer gravely from the latest salvo fired by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton? He challenges the federal Health and Human Services (HHS) directive that requires hospitals provide abortions in medical emergencies like pre-eclampsia. Eclampsia killed Lady Sybil Branson on the fictitious TV series Downton Abbey, but that cause of death remains a threat in real life, often preventable by abortion. Paxton hyperventilates that the HHS directive “would transform every emergency room into a walk-in abortion clinic.” If he prevails in federal court, some babies Paxton would keep in severely damaged wombs will grow up without their mothers; physicians who might have saved them had to stand down.

A 1918 law decreed all Texans could vote except “idiots, imbeciles, aliens, the insane, and women." Come November women need to take the reins and vote out Abbott and his ilk. That alone could lift Texas by its bootstraps.

Winslow served as a spokesperson for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the George W. Bush administration.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Commentary: Texas has always been tough on women. It's worse now.

Navajo Nation communities clean up after heavy flooding washes out roads, damages homes

Arlyssa D. Becenti,
Arizona Republic
Fri, August 19, 2022

Residents of several Navajo Nation communities are cleaning up after heavy rains flooded homes in what chapter officials say are some of the worst conditions they've seen in years.

Powerful storms hit the community of Sheep Springs, New Mexico, which sits in the foothills of the Chuska Mountains. Unlike the Chuskas, Sheep Springs isn’t covered with trees or greenery, but is mostly dry, with little vegetation, and covered with sand and brown hills.

Sheep Springs chapter president Brian Yazzie said although the community has experienced flooding before, it's not been at the severity they had seen in recent weeks. The extent of the flooding in the area was captured in a video, taken by a community member and shared on social media, that shows flowing water covering a large part of the astonished family’s property and rising halfway up to their horse trailer.

“We’ve had smaller floods, but we never come across anything like this,” said Yazzie. “We are fortunate we didn't lose anyone in the community, that is the most important thing. Everyone was accounted for.”

He said there have been 15 families affected by the flood in a community with a little less than 1,000 in population. The chapter has received donations from different entities, and has distributed water and food to families in the area.

"This flooding did a lot of damage," said Yazzie. "Its something you don't really expect. Previous flooding we'd get water washing out the road or come near some residents, but this one actually went through a couple of houses. We weren't prepared for something like this. It has opened up our eyes at the chapter to better prepare for something like this."

On Aug. 1, the Navajo Nation Commission on Emergency Management declared a state of emergency due to flooding caused by the monsoon rains. The declaration allows local chapters to access additional resources to help mitigate the effects of heavy rainfall. Emergency Management officials strongly recommend that all Navajo Nation entities implement their emergency response plans and funding.

Tribal leaders visited Sheep Springs the day after the flooding. President Jonathan Nez said the tribe has seen heavy rain throughout the past few weeks and officials are working to make sure everyone is safe, stressing that the priority is the health and well-being of residents.

Nez said they visited the family who posted the video of the flood and he said they were in good spirits. Officials brought food and water and said the family’s home didn’t wash out, but they found damage to the bottom of their trailer. Items belonging to the family were damaged or washed away, but they told Nez were thankful no one was hurt.

Nez said they will have to re-evaluate the flood plain of the area where several other families live

“Sheep Springs had a significant amount of rain,” said Nez. “We had a heavy downpour, hail, the water that came out of the mountains went into the lower areas of the Navajo Nation and that includes Arizona and New Mexico.”

Navajo Nation: Family of murdered Navajo woman want justice in her death

Although prayers for rain to end the drought on the Navajo Nation have been made, the rain is creating a lot of road damage and property damage, said Nez. He said that in Chilchinbito, a community near Kayenta, the Navajo Department of Emergency Management had to rescue an elderly couple who were stranded on an impassable road.

“Our message has been to be prepared for the heavy rains,” said Nez. “Throughout the week, we are going to be seeing more rain. We are letting everyone know to prepare. If you don’t need to travel don’t go out.”

Delivering wood to elders throughout the Navajo Nation has been nearly impossible because roads have been washed out due to the flooding, according to Loren Anthony from the volunteer group Chizh for Cheii.

He said the new truck the organization got to haul wood in has been stuck in the mud numerous times and now the check engine light is on. Getting stuck in the mud is becoming a day-to-day norm for people who live miles off the main road and whose roads to their homes aren’t paved, which is most Navajo citizens.

“It’s only exposed more problems we have on Navajo Nation,” said Anthony. “There’s a lot of rural Navajos in these areas that need assistance. We have zero preparedness on Navajo Nation. Zero emergency management preparedness for anyone. There’s no education. No training. We are handing out PPEs like crazy. Cover your face, making these announcements, but when it comes to everyday life on Navajo how do you prepare yourself for something like this?”

Chinle, with about 3,500 in population and one of the largest communities on the Navajo Nation, has also experienced some intense difficulties during the monsoon flooding this month, according to Shawna Claw, Chinle chapter vice president and Chinle Unified School District board member.

“Recently during the monsoon, we have had flooding that has displaced families within our school district,” said Claw, referring to teachers' homes that had been hit by flooding earlier this month. “We had families moving at midnight. A lot of our families had to be put into hotel arrangements for the weekend. A lot of the families are moved out to the vacant housing.”

Arizona weather: Storm damage, power outages close schools, roads

Roads in the community have been affected, making it challenging not just for regular cars but for school buses. Claw said AmeriCorps volunteers are helping with calls they are receiving from communities dealing with flooding.

Earlier this year, a restored and improved 2-mile berm along the west side of the Chinle wash was completed. The project's primary purpose is to help prevent flooding in the local residential areas, which have experienced significant water damage in the past from monsoon rains and spring runoff from the Chuska Mountains.

Like Sheep Springs, the severity of the flooding in Chinle has been caught on video and posted on social media, where it has become widely viewed. In one video, a red four-door pickup truck is seen stuck in mud and water after driving through the flooded wash near Canyon de Chelly. Claw said the vehicle doesn't belong to any local resident and said the video is disappointing and reflects badly of the community.

“Those types of things are hard to take in especially when it paints a derogatory picture for our community,” said Claw of the truck. “That vehicle was not a community resident, or a chapter vehicle, it was actually a conservation group under the National Park Service doing trail work. I think people can be educated with that. When people see those precautions of not going into the water, I think people need to take that seriously.”

She said in all her years living in Chinle, this year's monsoon has brought flooding that have risen the highest within the washes and moved more swiftly. She said climate change that the Navajo Nation is experiencing plays a large factor in what is happening.

“Navajo Nation really needs to open their eyes in being better prepared for climate changes,” said Claw. “It’s real. It’s an actual event that is happening. We need to educate our community members. We need a better emergency response plan to be implemented across the Navajo Nation.”

Despite the flooding bringing challenges into communities, Yazzie and Claw both said they have gotten assistance from other community officials who have offered their help.

"Navajo Nation is expansive but we have a great network of K'é (kinship) happening," said Claw. "Where people feel comfortable to ask for help and in return we are trying our best to help others too."

Weather warnings remain in effect for the Navajo Nation this week due to periods of intense rainfall. If chapters need assistance with response efforts, they can email the Navajo Nation Division of Community Development at MonsoonRelief@NavajoChapters.org.

Arlyssa D. Becenti covers Indigenous affairs for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send ideas and tips to arlyssa.becenti@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @ABecenti.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Navajo Nation communities try to clean up from damaging floods

New Zealand faces 'big task' in recovering from heavy rains, floods


 New Zealand's South Island endures severe flooding


Sat, August 20, 2022 

(Reuters) - New Zealand retained a state of emergency in parts of its flood-battered South Island on Sunday as authorities weighed damage in the region hardest hit by four days of torrential rain.

Last week's rains in northern and central areas forced more than 500 people from their homes, making some uninhabitable.

The South Island city of Nelson has been worst affected, but towns in the North Island have also been cut off by floods that swamped roads and homes.

Authorities in the region around Nelson said there had been no serious weather incidents or evacuations overnight, however.

"We are working as quickly as we can to get people home safely," emergency management officials said, adding that while they had looked at about half the affected properties, detailed inspections could need days, depending on the weather.

"We have a big task, and inspecting for land instability is more complex than for flooding."

While the extreme weather has eased, warnings against heavy rain stay in western Tasman and Fiordland on the South Island, forecaster Metservice said on its website.

A state of emergency continues in the regions of Marlborough, West Coast and Nelson-Tasman, national emergency officials have said.

"Listen to local authorities and follow any instructions to evacuate," the agency said on its website https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/. "If you feel unsafe, you should self-evacuate."

On Saturday, Kieran McAnulty, the emergency management minister, thanked rescuers but added that recovery would be a "long and difficult" process.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Europe's energy crisis gets 8 out of 10 on a scale of scariness, Rystad Energy analyst says. Here are 4 countries central to the crunch.


Zahra Tayeb
Sun, August 21, 2022

Europe's energy supply crisis could tip the region into deep recession.

(Photo by Armin Weigel/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Europe's energy crisis is "scary," Rystad analyst Fabian Ronningen told Insider.


He awarded the crisis eight out of ten on a scale of scariness.


Here are four countries central to Europe's supply crunch.

Europe's energy crisis is "scary" and problems are piling up to worsen it further, according to Fabian Ronningen, a senior analyst at Rystad Energy.

"From one to ten, I would probably give it eight," Ronningen told Insider of the scale of the crisis. "I think that's how bad it is at the moment. Scary is a good way to describe it."

Europe's energy crisis, kick-started by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and deepened by Western sanctions, has left Germany, France, and others fretting over supply shortages this winter.

In apparent retaliation against sanctions, Russia has slashed the flow of natural-gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 20%, sending prices soaring. Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom has said European natural-gas prices could climb by another 60% this winter as exports to the region fall further.

Dutch wholesale natural-gas prices, the European benchmark, skyrocketed to a record high of nearly 335 euros, or $341, per megawatt hour in the spring of 2022, per Reuters. Since then, prices have fallen back to about 225 euros per megawatt hour — still a jump of about 300% since the start of 2022.

Making matters worse are a build-up of energy-related problems in Norway, France, Germany, and Russia. "Over the last few weeks, you're getting that increasing feeling of, 'how bad can it get?'," Ronningen said.

Insider delved into the issues of these four countries that appear to be exacerbating Europe's energy supply crunch.

Norway

Photo by Carsten Rehder/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Norway, which sources almost all its electricity from hydropower, has said it plans to cut electricity exports after a dry spring.

The country is among Europe's top exporters of electricity, sending about a fifth of its output to neighbouring countries.

After a period of dry weather in Europe, low water levels in southern Norway's hydroelectric reservoirs have forced the government to act to preserve domestic supply.

Terje Aasland, Norway's oil and energy minister, said recently the government would prioritize refilling its hydroelectric reservoirs over exporting electricity to Europe.

"This is a really big issue," Rystad's Ronningen said.

Germany

helt2/Getty Images

Record-breaking heatwaves in Germany have prompted water levels to fall drastically along the River Rhine, a crucial artery for flows of goods across Europe. Indeed, rivers across central Europe are at "unusually low" levels and are continuing to fall, according to Germany's Federal Institute of Hydrology.

The low water levels have impacted the movement of coal to two power stations in Germany – one in Mannheim and another in Karlsruhe.

After Russia slashed natural-gas flows to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Germany and others actioned plans to fire up idle coal-power plants to ease the supply squeeze.

Coal will be critical to Europe's energy supplies this winter if Russia completely terminates natural-gas supply to the region.

France

Cooling towers of the Civaux nuclear power plant in 2016.

Guillaume Souvant/AFP/Getty Images

France, which derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy, is the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to its low cost of generation, according to the World Nuclear Association. But France is having to import more electricity as it struggles with outages at its nuclear facilities: half are down, which is pushing up prices.

French nuclear power stations have been permitted to break environmental rules so they can continue operating to keep the country's electricity generation stable — and save natural-gas for winter.

The French Nuclear Safety Authority authorized a temporary waiver to allow five plants to dispense more than their permitted amount of hot water into rivers. In normal times, under French environment rules, nuclear power plants must reduce or stop output when nearby river temperatures rise beyond a point at which they may harm the environment.

Ronningen told Insider that despite EDF, Europe's biggest nuclear power operator, saying it thinks generation will rise going into winter, there's still a lot of uncertainty.

"To me, it seems the market participants have difficulty believing that fully, because the prices for French power in the winter are so much higher than German prices," Ronningen said.

Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin.ATTA KENARE/Getty Images

At the crux of Europe's energy crisis is Russia.

European Union sanctions on Moscow that seek to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of 2022 appear to have prompted retaliation from the Kremlin. Early in July, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom slashed natural-gas flows to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 20%, having earlier cut flows to 40% of capacity.

Europe is Moscow's biggest customer for natural-gas and crimped supplies have sent prices soaring. There are fears Russia could tip Europe into a deep recession if it chokes off supply altogether.

Rystad's Ronningen said: "One thing for sure is it's going to be a very, very high-priced winter for European consumers because there's still so many uncertainties on what can happen."

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A biotech company wants to take human DNA and create artificial embryos that could be used to harvest organs for medical transplants

Hannah Getahun
Sat, August 20, 2022 

Getty Images

An Israeli firm wants to replicate a successful mouse embryo experiment with human cells.


The company, Renewal Bio, wants to use the technology to make "humanity younger and healthier."


The use of synthetic human embryos has sparked ethical concerns among the scientific community.

A biotechnology company based in Israel wants to replicate a recent experiment that successfully created an artificial mouse embryo from stem cells — only this time with human cells.

Scientists at Weizmann's Molecular Genetics Department grew "synthetic mouse embryos" in a jar without the use of sperm, eggs, or a womb, according to a paper published in the journal Cell on August 1. It was the first time the process had been successfully completed, Insider's Marianne Guenot reported.

The replica embryos could not develop into fully-formed mice and were therefore not "real," Jacob Hanna, who led the experiment, told the Guardian. However, scientists observed the synthetic embryos having a beating heart, blood circulation, the start of a brain, a neural tube, and an intestinal tract.

Hanna told MIT Technology Review after the success of the mouse experiment he is working to replicate the results with human cells, including his own.

"The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter — we tried to emulate what it does," Hanna said in a statement.

Other experts say it will take significantly more research before synthetic human embryos are within reach.

Renewal Bio, the Israel-based company founded by Hanna, wants to use this science for organ tissue transplants that could solve infertility, genetic diseases, and issues related to old age.

For example, the MIT Technology Review reported that blood cells from the embryo could potentially be used to help boost immunocompromised systems.

Renewal Bio believes some of the world's most pressing problems are "declining birth rates and fast aging populations," according to the company website.

"To solve these complex and compounding issues, Renewal Bio aims to make humanity younger and healthier by leveraging the power of the new stem cell technology," the website reads.

Omri Amirav-Drory, the acting CEO of Renewal Bio, told the MIT Technology Review that the company did not want to "overpromise" or scare people with the potential technology, but that Hanna's experiment was "amazing."

The use of human embryo clones for research has frequently raised ethical concerns within the scientific community, including the potential that synthetic embryos may experience pain or sentience, according to a 2017 paper published in the journal eLife.

Hanna told the MIT Technology Review that he could potentially get around these ethical concerns by creating synthetic human embryos with "no lungs, no heart, or no brain."

Western fires outpace California effort to fill inmate crews

California Inmate Firefighters

Ventura Training Center cadets, Anthony Barajas, left, and Javon Wright, who were formerly-incarcerated firefighters, attend a media demonstration day at the Ventura Training Center (VTC) during an open house media demonstration Thursday, July 14, 2022, in Camarillo, Calif. California has a first-in-the nation law and a $30 million training program both aimed at trying to help former inmate firefighters turn pro after they are released from prison. The 18-month program is run by Cal Fire, the California Conservation Corps, the state corrections department and the nonprofit Anti-Recidivism Coalition at the Ventura Training Center northwest of Los Angeles. 

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)More

DON THOMPSON
Sun, August 21, 2022 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As wildfires rage across California each year, exhausted firefighters call for reinforcements from wherever they can get them — even as far as Australia.

Yet one homegrown resource is rarely used: thousands of experienced firefighters who earned their chops in prison. Two state programs designed to get more former inmate firefighters hired professionally have barely made a dent, according to an Associated Press review, with one $30 million effort netting jobs for just over 100 firefighters, little more than one-third of the inmates enrolled.

Clad in distinctive orange uniforms, inmate crews protect multimillion-dollar homes for a few dollars a day by cutting brush and trees with chainsaws and scraping the earth to create barriers they hope will stop flames.

Once freed from prison, however, the former inmates have trouble getting hired professionally because of their criminal records, despite a first-in-the-nation, 18-month-old law designed to ease their way and a 4-year-old training program that cost taxpayers at least $180,000 per graduate.

“It’s absolutely an untapped pool of talent," said Genevieve Rimer, who works with former inmates trying to clear their records. “Thousands of people are coming back from California’s fire camps annually. They have already been trained. They have a desire to go and put their lives on the line in order to ensure public safety.”

California is hardly alone in needing seasoned smoke eaters, but the nation's most populous state faces different challenges than other more sparsely settled Western regions. A wildfire that nearly leveled the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise nearly four years ago, for instance, was the nation’s deadliest wildfire in nearly a century, killing 85 people.

The U.S. Forest Service is short about 1,200 firefighters, 500 of them in California, and the Interior Department is down about 450 firefighters, 150 of them in California, said two of the state's top elected officials, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, in a recent letter to Biden administration officials.

Other Western states are grappling with the issue. Nevada is considering a program like Arizona’s “Phoenix Crew,” which started in 2017 and provides mostly former inmate firefighters a pipeline to firefighting jobs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California legislation in 2020, allowing former inmates to seek to withdraw guilty pleas or overturn convictions. A judge can then dismiss the charges. Former inmates convicted of murder, kidnapping, arson, escape and sex offenses are excluded.

Since the law took effect, the nonprofit Forestry & Fire Recruitment Program, started by two former inmate firefighters, has worked with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to help former inmates clear their records and get hired.

Yet they have only been able to file 34 petitions, and just 12 had records expunged during what the program warns “can be a long and drawn out process.”

Ashleigh Dennis is one of at least three attorneys filing expungement petitions through the Oakland-based advocacy group Root & Rebound. She has similarly been able to file just 23 requests, with 14 granted.

Among other hurdles, applicants must show a judge evidence they have been rehabilitated, and the expungement only applies to crimes they were incarcerated for while working in firefighting crews. Many people have unrelated convictions that must be separately expunged.

It's been a learning curve to educate judges about the law and get the corrections department to speed up certifying to the court that inmates have served as firefighters, said Dennis and one of her clients, Phi Le. He petitioned the court in October and his record was expunged in January.

Da’Ton Harris Jr.'s record was finally cleared in August, about 18 months after starting the process.

“I’m out here, a public servant, risking my life every day to try and better my community," said Harris. “I don’t think it was a smooth transaction at all.”

Despite his record, Harris obtained firefighting jobs with the U.S. Forest Service, the state's firefighting agency Cal Fire, and the Forestry & Fire Recruitment Program.

But like Le, his advancement was limited because his criminal record made him ineligible for an Emergency Medical Technician certification, an obstacle that disappeared with the expungement. Outside of temporary federal and state firefighting agency jobs, most fire departments require applicants to be licensed EMTs — a certification the state bans certain felons from obtaining because the job comes with access to narcotics and sharp objects.

Rimer, the Forestry & Fire Recruitment Program's director of supportive services, said California should automatically expunge records of eligible former inmates, much as it does for those convicted of antiquated marijuana crimes. And it should include their entire criminal record, she said.

“I think it spearheaded opportunity for people, but I don’t think it’s good enough,” she said of the expungement law.

The law's author, Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Reyes, a Democrat from San Bernardino, has been struggling ever since to learn how many former inmates it has helped. She said many former inmates have contacted her office to praise “the life-changing impact of the legislation.”

The corrections department informs eligible inmates about the law but doesn't track expungements, said department spokeswoman Tessa Outhyse. Cal Fire, the court system and the state Department of Justice also couldn't say how many have had their records expunged.

In another effort, California in 2018 created a training program to help former inmates get hired professionally.

The 18-month program is run by Cal Fire, the California Conservation Corps, the state corrections department and the nonprofit Anti-Recidivism Coalition at the Ventura Training Center northwest of Los Angeles. Conservation corps members also are eligible. Former inmates convicted of arson or sex offenses are excluded.

Participants spend six months on life skills and firefighter training and the next year fighting or preventing fires and doing other community service, for which they are paid $1,905 a month. The center has four fire crews with 60 participants.

In four years the program has cost over $29.5 million but has just 106 graduates.

Nearly all found a professional job: 98 are with Cal Fire and three are with other agencies including the Orange County Fire Authority and the U.S. Forest Service, according to corrections officials. Cal Fire provided slightly different figures.

But they're the fortunate ones among the 277 who have participated since the program's inception. Another 111 participants, or 40%, left before completing the program, said Outhyse.

Climate change is making wildfires more frequent and destructive, so the shortage comes at a time when demand for wildfire crews is going up.

And the state is turning more to professional wildland firefighters, largely because inmate crews are less available after voters shortened criminal sentences and officials released thousands of lower-level inmates early to prevent coronavirus infections.

This August about 1,670 inmates are in fire camps, including staff like cooks and laundry workers, down about 40% from August 2019. The corrections department was budgeted for 152 crews this year, but fielded just 51, each with about 15-18 firefighters.

With fewer inmate crews, California is turning more to other agencies. The conservation corps is responsible for filling 30 crews, Cal Fire 26 and the California National Guard 14.

The state also is creating what officials called the first all-hazards fire engine strike team operated by a state National Guard. The fire engines can respond both to wildfires and urban blazes.

“We’ve recognized for a few years now that due to early release, due to COVID, a number of other reasons, we have to do something,” said Battalion Chief Issac Sanchez, a Cal Fire spokesman.

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Gabe Stern contributed to this story from Reno, Nevada. Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Stern on Twitter @gabestern326.

STRYCHNINE;HAPPENING FOR FIFTY YEARS

Rat poison is just one of the potentially dangerous substances likely to be mixed into illicit drugs


C. Michael White, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut
Sun, August 21, 2022 

THE CONVERSATION

Impurities are often added to recreational drugs to mask poor quality. 

Sebastian Leesch/EyeEm via Getty Images

Over 150 people in Illinois started bleeding uncontrollably after using synthetic cannabis-based products – including fake marijuana, Spice and K2 – that contained the rat poison brodifacoum in March and April 2018. By the end of July 2021, these banned products were still being sold in 10 states and the District of Columbia, resulting in hundreds of severe bleeds and several deaths.

Illicit drug use was responsible for an estimated 166,613 deaths worldwide in 2017 due to overdose. The increased risk of disease and injury associated with illicit drug use caused an additional estimated 585,348 premature deaths. And it’s impossible to tease out whether people were harmed by the drugs themselves or by the myriad impurities added to them.

I am a clinical pharmacologist and guest editor for a special supplement in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology on commonly abused substances. I also surveyed the research in 2021 on what’s known about illicit drug adulteration. The research is clear: Adding impurities to, or adulterating, illicit drugs is a longstanding and widespread practice with harmful consequences.

You seldom get what you pay for

Drugmakers include other ingredients for a few reasons, whether to cut costs by bulking up their product with cheaper nonactive ingredients or to achieve particular effects by adding other drugs to mask poor product quality or imitate the desired effect of the drug itself.

Prior to the 2000s, drugs including cocaine and heroin were being “cut,” or diluted, with inactive ingredients like sugars to enlarge supply and increase profits. Since then, buyers of cocaine and heroin products frequently receive a cocktail of adulterants that mimic the product’s intended effects or mask side effects due to poor quality.

For example, the active ingredient of ecstasy, MDMA, is what produces the product’s intended effects. However, a 2004 study assessing ecstasy tablets from drug seizures at raves found that 20% of the products contained no MDMA, and dosage varied widely in products that did. Cheaper and more dangerous stimulants and psychedelics like synthetic bath salts and LSD are frequently swapped for MDMA without alerting the buyer.

Some drugs are so adulterated that they contain little to none of the active ingredient that buyers seek. 

Drugs added to intensify effects

Over 70% of cocaine products contain levamisole, a drug for worm infections that increases the intensity and duration of stimulant effects. It was banned in the U.S. in 1999 because it suppresses red and white blood cell production and increases the risk of life-threatening infections and anemia. These side effects are seen at doses over 150 milligrams, and 35% of seized cocaine products in the U.S. exceed that level.

Other additives are commonly added to cocaine to intensify effects. Aminorex, a stimulant and appetite suppressant, was withdrawn by the FDA in 1972 after it caused a number of pulmonary hypertension cases that resulted in heart failure and death. Similarly, caffeine is frequently added to intensify the adrenaline rush. While safe when taken alone in lower doses, higher doses of caffeine in combination with other stimulants can induce seizures and heart rhythm problems.

For heroin, veterinary anesthetic xylazine is commonly added to intensify its relaxing effect. And fentanyl is increasingly being used as a substitute. Because fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, a smaller amount of total product can produce similar effects. But adding even just a slightly larger amount of fentanyl than expected can easily result in an overdose.
Covering up adulteration and poor manufacturing quality

Manufacturers also add impurities to compensate for lost effects due to adulteration. Anesthetics like lidocaine and benzocaine are added to adulterated products to reproduce the tingling sensation on the gums or tongue that drug dealers look for to assess cocaine quality. While these anesthetics are FDA approved, they can cause seizures and heart rhythm problems with the wrong dose.

A similar technique is used for heroin. Manufacturers commonly add malaria drug quinine to mimic heroin’s bitter taste and the initial drop in blood pressure when it’s administered.

Adulterants may be added to mimic the expected effects of a particular drug. KatarzynaBialasiewicz/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Poor heroin production also creates a lot of impurities that can cause severe chills and pain at the injection site. To get around these side effects, manufacturers frequently add antihistamines like Benadryl and pain relievers like Tylenol. The pain reliever metamizole, which was recalled in 1977 for health risks, is sometimes used instead of Tylenol.

The double-edged sword of field testing

Adulterants can lead to dangerous side effects. But because additives aren’t disclosed to the buyer and most of them have been banned by the FDA, clinicians might not recognize or even suspect that an adulterant is the cause of a patient’s symptoms.

While consumer-based methods to test for drug impurities may help, they aren’t foolproof. Volunteers at music festivals in the 2010s offered MDMA purity testing so attendees could decide whether they wanted to use the drugs they had. If they were injured, attendees could alert emergency personnel about potential adulterants they were exposed to. Unfortunately, over 40% of the adulterated samples were missed by those field testing kits and discovered days later only with sophisticated laboratory equipment.

With illicit drugs, the difference between what you believe you are buying and what is actually in the product can be the difference between life and death. If you are suffering from drug addiction, resources are available to help you manage your addiction and achieve sobriety.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. Like this article? subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: C. Michael White, University of Connecticut.

Read more:

Why synthetic marijuana is so risky

Most US drug arrests involve a gram or less

5 drugs that changed the world (and what went wrong)