Independent agency probing CSIS following claim that operative smuggled teenage girls into Syria

Story by Ashley Burke • Yesterday CBC

An independent government agency is reviewing how Canada's spy agency handles human sources after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in August to follow up on claims that a CSIS operative smuggled three British teenagers into Syria in 2015.

The three teens — Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 — left east London for Syria in 2015. Sultana and Abase are believed to be dead. Begum is at a detention camp in northeastern Syria.

The National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA) has confirmed that it agreed to undertake a review of the case in response to a written request in September from Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

The Prime Minister's Office said Trudeau asked Mendicino to look into the matter.

NSIRA said the review is looking into how the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) handles "human source operations" and is "following up on earlier … studies related to how risks are managed and the minister is informed."

Mendicino also asked for the review to probe CSIS's risk assessment process to ensure the agency is following the law and "upholding the values Canadians expect," according to his office.

The review is taking place as Begum's appeal of former U.K. home secretary Sajid Javid's decision to revoke her citizenship plays out in hearings in Britain this week — putting the spotlight back on CSIS's alleged involvement in the case.

CBC News attended the hearing when Begum's legal team argued the U.K. has failed to investigate whether authorities did enough to prevent the minor from being trafficked to Syria when she was 15 years old for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Begum was married while a minor to an ISIS fighter and went on to have three children who died young, according to media reports.

Her legal team said in its written argument that an investigation should have looked at whether adequate steps were taken by "U.K. authorities to liaise with the intelligence/security services of the U.K.'s allies operating in Turkey (including Canada and their agent Mohammed al-Rashed)."

Testifying behind a curtain to conceal his identity, an MI5 agent told the court that Begum, now 23, was an intelligent student in high school who "knew what she was doing" when she travelled to Syria to join ISIS in 2015 and didn't express regret or remorse during media interviews in 2019.

MI5 maintains that Begum poses a national security risk.

Trudeau defended CSIS in August, saying that "the fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and to be creative in their approaches." He said he would follow up on claims connected to U.K.-based writer Richard Kerbaj's book The Secret History of the Five Eyes.

The book claims Mohammed al-Rashed, a Syrian-born CSIS operative who was also working for ISIS, smuggled the teenagers into northern Syria.

The book also said it was only after CSIS learned al-Rashed had been arrested in Turkey — and the case would go public as a result — that two CSIS officers travelled to London to reveal the agency's involvement in the case to local police investigating the teens' disappearance.

Kerbaj's book claims the meeting was for "self-serving purposes" and that CSIS "hoped the police force's investigation would not force CSIS to be questioned or be held accountable."

When asked about the allegations, CSIS told CBC News in a statement that it cannot comment on "investigations, methodologies or activities in order to maintain the operations and to protect the safety and security of Canadians."

Oversight regime not in place at time of allegations

The Prime Minister's Office told CBC News on Tuesday that "CSIS must abide by Canadian law and is subject to rigorous review by oversight bodies." But the PMO also said that "any activities that occurred prior to 2017 would not have benefited from this oversight regime."

That year, roughly two years after Begum travelled to Syria, the government introduced the National Security Act, which led to the introduction of an intelligence commissioner to oversee the spy agency's sensitive activities, Mendicino's office said.

The Globe and Mail has reported that al-Rashed broke a CSIS rule that bans paid agents from engaging in illegal activity, including human trafficking.

Steven Blaney, the Conservative public safety minister at the time, wasn't aware of the operation and did not approve it, the Globe and Mail reported.

Former senior CSIS intelligence officer Huda Mukbil calls CSIS's alleged handling of Begum's case "shameful."

"The buck stops at trafficking minors," said Mukbil, who worked for CSIS for 15 years, including a stint as a CSIS agent in the U.K. from 2005 to 2006. "The moment that the source was aware these were minors … he had every obligation to ensure they are not trafficked into that territory."

She's now calling on the U.K. to reinstate Begum's citizenship and said Canada must launch a public inquiry into CSIS's handling of the case.

"We need to ensure this doesn't happen again," said Mukbil, who left CSIS in 2017, was part of a discrimination lawsuit against the agency and ran in the last federal election for the NDP.

Joshua Baker, an investigative journalist at the BBC, has travelled to the detention camp multiple times to speak directly with Begum for his podcast I'm Not a Monster.

Baker said Begum told him she had no idea that the man who smuggled her from Turkey to Syria in 2015 was an asset for Canadian intelligence.

"But what she has said is that she feels it would have been impossible for her, and indeed others like her, to reach Syria without the help of smugglers like Mohammed al-Rashed," he said.



CCTV footage issued by the Metropolitan Police in London shows Abase, left, Sultana, center, and Begum going through Gatwick airport to catch a flight to Turkey on Feb 17, 2015.© Metropolitan Police/The Associated Press

Baker said he obtained documents that show al-Rashed was part of a network moving men, women and children to Syria for ISIS long before Begum left the U.K. Two CSIS handlers at the embassy in Jordan were dealing with al-Rashed, but it's "difficult to know" if CSIS knew he was going to transport the teenage girls to Syria, said Baker.

The Globe and Mail reported that two sources said CSIS learned about the teens' whereabouts four days after they crossed the Turkish border and informed British intelligence within 48 hours.

Maya Foa is the executive director of London-based Reprieve, a non-profit association of international human rights lawyers and investigators. She said Canadian and U.K. authorities failed the teens.

"This is classic trafficking, grooming, and we did fail," said Foa. "The British authorities failed and the Canadian authorities who were involved through the double agent failed. This is a 15-year-old."

Foa said she has been travelling to northeastern Syria for three years, interviewing women and families in detention camps. She met again with Begum last month, she said.

"I know from my conversations with Shamima Begum that she wishes her school and others had behaved differently around that time," she said.

Has al-Rashed asked for asylum?

One of Begum's friends at school had already travelled to Syria before Begum left the country, according to written arguments from her legal team. Police spoke to Begum at school and gave her a letter to share with her parents, the document said.

But that letter was never delivered, nor did police inform Begum's parents that their daughter might be at risk because her friend had already travelled to Syria, Begum's legal team argues.

Al-Rashed was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and jailed for smuggling and terrorism offences. He was released from a Turkish jail in August, sources told the Globe and Mail and Britain's Daily Telegraph.

CBC News asked Mendicino's office if al-Rashed is in Canada and if the minister signed off on a request for political asylum. Mendicino's office said "it would be inappropriate to comment on specific cases."

Kerbaj's book claims al-Rashed applied for political asylum in Canada in the past — and that's how CSIS first became aware of him and brought him on as an operative.

Fish ‘capable of killing 30 people' and 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide hits UK shores

Story by Charles Harrison • Yesterday 

An incredibly dangerous fish full of poison and capable of killing 30 people was discovered on a British beach. Loaded up with poison that can be up to 1,200 times more deadly than cyanide, the killer fish was found on a beach in Cornwall by a visiting marine animal investigator. Constance Morris was on a family holiday to Newquay when she discovered the dangerous creature.

Her work took her to Towan Beach, where she spotted something unusual. She approached a fish being pecked at by seagulls, and soon realised it was not any ordinary swimmer.

The oceanic puffer is loaded up with tetrodotoxin, an extremely deadly poison. It carries enough to kill 30 adult humans within its skin and flesh - and there is no antidote for it.

Experts state the fish are a rarity on British shores, with even Constance, who collects specimens for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, didn't clock it.


Cornwall beach sees puffer fish 'capable of killing 30 people'© Constance Morris/Pen News

Luckily Ms Morris was wearing gloves when she discovered the creature.

She said: "While waiting for all the family to gather, I was just looking out over the beach when I noticed some black back gulls having a peck at a fish. I record dead marine animals for the trust's Marine Strandings Network and couldn't not go down to see what it was.

"As I walked up to the fish I instantly knew it was an unusual find."

She added: "It's been identified by a few people as a Lagocephalus lagocephalus, the oceanic pufferfish, which can be highly toxic.


Beautiful Towan beach in Newquay , Cornwall© Getty

"So it's advised you leave them alone and certainly don't touch. I didn't know what this fish was, but I've found odd fish before and know these animals can be important and of interest to scientists.

"So, being ever ready to scoop something unpleasant off the beach, I bagged it up and put it in my backpack. I am just lucky I carry a kit with me at all times for just this sort of thing."

She added: "Good job I keep marigolds in my kit."

Tetrodotoxin poisoning causes numbness and paralysis which spreads throughout the body - eventually leading to death by respiratory failure.


Selective focus on eyes and head of puffer fish. (Lagocephalus sceleratus, silver-cheeked toadfish, or Sennin-fugu is an extremely poisonous marine bo© Getty

Ms Morris said the fish was roughly 12 inches long, with a flabby white underside and a stubby face. It has just four teeth - two at the top, two at the bottom - which resemble a beak, and is used to crack open hard-shelled clams, mussels, and shellfish.

The fish's biological name, "lagocephalus lagocephalus", literally translates to "rabbit head."

Matt Slater, a marine conservation officer the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said he only had a handful of records of the oceanic puffer apparing.

He said: "It is definitely Lagocephalus lagocephalus - the Atlantic oceanic puffer. They can produce toxic slime so they're best to handle with gloves."

Despite the high toxicity of the fish, Pufferfish is a delicacy called fugu in Japan. However, only licensed chefs who have undergone three years of training can prepare Pufferfish meat.

Texas 'Anti-Woke' Bank Goes Bust In 3 Months

Story by Mary Papenfuss • Yesterday 

HUFFPOST
‎

Abank startup backed by billionaire Donald Trumpsupporter Peter Thiel and pitched as “anti woke” for “pro-freedom” Americans is closing up shop after less than three months.

The bank, GloriFi, burned through $50 million in investment money, laid off most of its staff on Monday, and informed workers it was shutting down, The Wall Street Journal was the first to report. Hoped-for funding to keep the operation running fell through last Friday.

“We will be closing all accounts opened to date,” GloriFi’s website informed consumers. Checking accounts were being shut down Friday, and savings accounts on Dec. 6.

GloriFi had been touted as an alternative conservative banking system for consumers who find Wall Street too liberal.

Entrepreneur and major GOP donor Toby Neugebauer and business partner Nick Ayers — the chief of staff for former Vice President Mike Pence — said that a huge market of plumbers, electricians and police officers were fed up with big banks that didn’t share their values, according to a Journal profile of the operation earlier this year.

GloriFi offered bank accounts and credit cards, and planned to provide mortgages and insurance while also touting capitalism, family, law enforcement and the freedom to “love of God and country,” according to the Journal.

Neugebauer also pitched plans to offer gun owners discounts on home insurance, credit cards made of shell casing material, and assistance paying legal bills if customers shot someone in self-defense, Rolling Stone reported.

Right-wing commentator Candace Owens was the spokesperson for the brand.

Besides Thiel, the operation also lured investors including former Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loefflerand Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
But within months, GloriFi has missed launch dates, blaming faulty technology and vendor problems, and investors’ money was nearly gone, according to news reports.

The “financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories took their toll,” said a statement on the company’s website.

HIERARCHY IS A PARASITE

Wolves emboldened by parasite more likely to lead pack: study

Story by AFP • 

Wolves infected with a common parasite are far more likely to become the leader of their pack, according to a new study, suggesting that the brain-dwelling intruder emboldens its host to take more risks.


Leader of the pack? A parasite may make grey wolves in Yellowstone National Park take more risks, research suggests© -

The single-celled parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, only sexually reproduces in cats but can infect all warm-blooded animals.

Between 30-50 percent of people worldwide are estimated to be infected with the parasite, which remains for life as dormant tissue cysts. However people with a healthy immune system rarely have any symptoms.

While some studies have reported an association between people having the parasite in their brain and increased risk-taking, other research has disputed these findings and no definitive link has been proven.

The new study, published in the journal Communications Biology on Thursday, took advantage of 26 years' worth of data on grey wolves living in the Yellowstone National Park in the United States to investigate how the parasite could affect their behaviour.

The researchers from the Yellowstone Wolf Project analysed the blood samples of nearly 230 wolves and 62 cougars -- the big cats are known spreaders of the parasite.

They found that infected wolves were more likely to foray deeper into cougar territory than uninfected wolves.

Infected wolves were also 11 times more likely to leave their pack than wolves without the parasite, the study said, indicating a higher rate of risk-taking.

And an infected wolf is up to 46 times more likely to become pack leader, the researchers estimated, adding that the role is normally won by more aggressive animals.

Study co-author Kira Cassidy told AFP that while "being bolder is not necessarily a bad thing," it can "lower survival for the most bold animals as they might make decisions that put them in danger more often."

"Wolves do not have the survival space to take too many more risks than they already do."

Cassidy said it was only the second study on T. gondii's effect on a wild animal, after research last year found increased boldness in infected hyena cubs made them more likely to get closer to -- and killed by -- lions in Kenya.

Laboratory research has also found that rodents with the parasite lose their instinctual fear of cats -- driving them into the hands of the only host where T. gondii can reproduce.

William Sullivan, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Indiana University School of Medicine who has been studying T.gondii for more than 25 years, called the wolf paper "a rare gem".

However he warned that such an observational study could not show causation.

"A wolf that is a born risk-taker may simply be more likely to venture into cougar territory and contract Toxoplasma," he said.

But "if the findings are correct, they suggest we may be underestimating the impact Toxoplasma has on ecosystems around the world," he added.

- What about humans? -

"That's the million-dollar question," Sullivan said, adding that "no one knows for sure and the literature is mixed".

Ajai Vyas, a T. gondii expert at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, warned against inferring that infection could increase risk-taking in people.

"There is a lot about human behaviour that is different from other animals," he told AFP.

People often get infected by T. gondii from eating undercooked meat -- or via their pet cat, particularly when cleaning out their litter boxes.

In some cases, especially in people with weakened immune systems, T. gondii can lead to toxoplasmosis, a disease that can cause brain and eye damage.

A Mind-Controlling Parasite Is Making Yellowstone Wolves Foolhardy

Story by Maddie Bender • The Daily Beast

Yesterday 

When a common parasite infects wolves, it changes their behavior and turns them into risk-taking animals that could help them become leaders of their pack—or get them killed. A new study published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology found that a wolf infected by Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled parasite that invades warm-blooded animals, was over 46 times more likely to take over its pack’s leadership than an uninfected wolf, thanks to the parasite’s ability to induce more risk-taking behavior.


Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty

“We focus so much on vertebrate dynamics—wolves and elk, and how they affect each other—and for a long time, it seems like we have generally ignored the fact that parasites might play a role in those relationships,” Connor Meyer, an ecology researcher at the University of Montana and the lead author of the new study, told The Daily Beast. “With something like Toxo, it seems like we should be giving parasites a little more credit.”

Host behavior modification—the buttoned-up, scientific way of saying “mind control”—is a common yet devious tactic that infectious diseases have evolved over time. Just look at “zombie ants,” which either describes ants infected with a fungus that takes over their brains; or a parasitic worm that causes ants to walk up blades of grass and lock their jaws, increasing the chance that a cow consumes them. Elsewhere in nature, parasitic worms can also zombify snails and cause their eye stalks to take on the appearance of maggots, which predacious birds find appealing.

Behavior modification that causes a host to be eaten by a predator usually means that the underlying parasite infects multiple host species as part of its full life cycle, and the same is true for Toxoplasma. The parasite can infect many different species, including humans—which is why pregnant women are advised to keep from scooping their cat’s litter. Some research suggests toxoplasmosis might modify our behavior by causing hormones like dopamine and testosterone to increase, but the only known host that allows it to sexually reproduce is the feline family that includes domestic cats—which means having a pet cat does raise the odds you might have Toxoplasma swimming around in your body. And once the parasite’s there, it might stick around for a lifetime, though people rarely display symptoms following the acute phase of infection.

But the spikes in dopamine and testosterone caused by Toxoplasma are especially important to pay attention to in other intermediate host species, since they can induce a phenomenon that scientists really call “fatal attraction.” Toxoplasma-infected animals like rats and hyenas become bolder around felines, increasing the odds that they’ll be eaten and the parasite can reproduce.

In other words, it would seem the parasite is trying to put its intermediate host in more dangerous positions where it's likely to be snatched up by a potential true host.

At Yellowstone National Park, it was a mystery how Toxoplasma was spreading to wolves, since they must ingest a form of the parasite called an oocyst, spread from a cat, to be infected. That is, until Meyer made the connection that a species of big cat roams the park: cougars. He and his co-authors believe that one aspect of wolves’ relationship to these cougars might look a lot like a dog’s household relationship to a cat.

“Some dogs really like raiding the litter box if you don’t get to it fast enough,” he said. “We would expect that wolves are very similar where when they come across cougar scat on the landscape, they very well might eat it and become infected that way.”

For the study, Meyer and his team tested blood samples from 62 different cougars and 229 wolves that lived in Yellowstone between 1995 and 2020. The highest proportions of infected wolves occurred in areas with high cougar overlap, in line with Meyer’s predictions.

Wolves’ infection statuses were also charted alongside their observed behavior, such as becoming leader of a pack or leaving the pack.

The team found that Toxoplasma-infected wolves were more likely to become leaders of their pack and on average left the pack earlier than uninfected wolves—an apparent contradiction that could be interpreted as the parasite increasing risk-taking and aggressive behaviors across the board, Meyer said.

But host behavior modification isn’t all bad. There’s a key advantage to the wolves of becoming pack leaders: “leaders become breeders” is the adage when it comes to the dominant male and female in a pack, Meyer said. Even though the wolves most likely cannot pass the parasite to their offspring, they may teach the pack to engage in riskier behaviors and spend more time near cougars, causing other members to pick up the infection.

Researching this wacky example of mind control may have lasting implications when it comes to monitoring the careful balance of Yellowstone’s ecosystem. The reintroduction of wolves to the park is “one of the greatest conservation success stories in North America,” Meyer said, and understanding infected wolves’ behavior can inform further conservation of the animals. A tiny parasite that can influence an entire ecosystem—now that’s proof that size doesn’t matter.

 

India’s Supreme Court considers legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide

India's Supreme Court has agreed to consider a petition to legalize same-sex marriage across the country by taking advantage of the benefits offered by the interfaith marriage law, the declaration of privacy as a fundamental right and the decriminalization of same-sex relationships in 2018.

Pride Parade in Kolkata (India) - 

All these laws have been evoked by a homosexual couple to raise their case before the country's Supreme Court, whose magistrates, the petitioners recall, have already expressed on more than one occasion that members of the LGBTQ+ community have the same fundamental and constitutional rights as other citizens.

However, the legal framework regulating the institution of marriage in India does not allow for the marriage of members of the LGBTQ+ community, in what the petitioners consider a violation of the national Constitution.

The two petitioners have been a couple for 17 years and are raising two children together, but the inability to legalize their relationship in marriage has rendered them unable to maintain any kind of legal relationship with their children, reports NDTV.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court, D.Y. Chandrachud, known for his openness towards the LGBTQ+ community, has so far given the Indian government four weeks to take an official position on the petition before proceeding further.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has already opposed legal recognition of same-sex marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act in a separate case. According to government lawyers, any permission for same-sex marriages would go against the cultural values of Indian society.

In 2018, however, the Government avoided ruling on the decriminalization of sexual relations and left the decision to the Supreme Court, which has been increasingly receptive to hearing such cases.

For example, earlier this year, a group of judges, including Chandrachud, ruled that non-traditional families are entitled to protection. The ruling, while not specifically aimed at the LGBTQ community, created a space for these households to receive benefits under social welfare legislation.

OPINION - One in five Brits is neither in work nor looking for work—it’s chronic

Opinion by Anna van Praagh •

EVENING STANDARD-BUSINESS

The word “permacrisis” has been added to the dictionary as a term that defines 2022 and now, to top it all, we’re officially in a recession. The bizarrely good news is, however, that unemployment, at 3.6 per cent, is at its lowest level for nearly half a century and experts predict that unlike the recession in the Eighties when unemployment soared to double digits, this time it won’t exceed five per cent.


anna-van-praagh.jpg© Matt Writtle

But even this isn’t really good news. In fact, this low unemployment figure actually hides something deeply troubling. One in five Britons aged 16 to 64 now describes themselves as neither in work or looking for work. More than five million of us are completely economically inactive and claiming out-of-work benefits.

Even more worryingly, this figure is constantly rising. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast a rise of 13.4 per cent in health and disability spending by 2026, which will cost the Government £7.5 billion.

The OBR said that the increase in the number and length of claims could be driven by mental illness and long Covid. A backlog of seven million people waiting for NHS treatments is certainly unhelpful. But is there something more concerning at play about people simply checking out of life, preferring never to leave the house since the pandemic? I was struck by a recent study published by French centre-Left think-tank the Jean-Jaures Foundation, which revealed a similar malaise.

French people, according to the authors, particularly the young, are struggling to find the energy to leave the house, for work or for pleasure, and can’t even be bothered to go to restaurants or the cinema. A poll they conducted found that 45 per cent of those surveyed “regularly cannot be bothered to go out”.

Respondents were asked whether certain words inspired positive or negative sentiments. “‘Rest”’ was viewed more positively than “‘effort”’ or “‘work”’ and “‘bed”’ more than “‘career”’. Back in the UK, you might think it’s mainly over-50s dropping out of the workforce, but ONS analysis showed the biggest increase in inactivity from long-term sickness was among younger people, with a staggering 42 per cent rise in the 25-34 age group and 29 per cent for the 16 to 24-year-olds.

In 2023, it’s predicted that the UK will be the only big economy in which employment is lower than before the pandemic because of all these people who have left the labour market. As they are so young, the ramifications could last for decades.

It’s bad for productivity, disastrous for the welfare budget, and this workless life isn’t even making anyone happier — use of anti-depressants has never been higher, up 22 per cent since 2015.

It’s terrible to read of so many people checking out of their own lives and all that wasted talent. Of all the lasting impacts of the pandemic, I find this one to be the saddest.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for RIGHT TO BE LAZY 

I’m gripped by Jamie Fiore Higgins memoir Bully Market

I am gripped by Bully Market, the memoir by Jamie Fiore Higgins, about the toxic boys’ club of Goldman Sachs and am cheering her from the sidelines for improving workplace culture for women.

A friend of mine, who is very senior at a so-called Magic Circle law firm, says her colleagues can’t bear the “woke” new intake who set boundaries at work and won’t tolerate certain toxic male behaviour, while she is full of admiration for them.

When I started my career I often came into the office to find a male colleague engrossed in porn — I wouldn’t have dreamt of mentioning it to anyone. When male colleagues asked me to pose naked straddling a chair, Christine Keeler-style, for the paper I actually did it.

My generation was taught to be grateful to have jobs that men wanted. If a male colleague made a pass you just removed their hand and — with a smile — told them to f*** off.

This generation wants to move the needle. I salute them.

ES IS A RIGHT WING UK TABLOID

Voices: Why are politicians unwilling to acknowledge the truth about migration?

Opinion by Jonathan Portes • Yesterday 

Today’s immigration figures show the highest levels of net migration since records began, at about half a million over the year to June. Overwhelmingly, this reflects rising inflows from outside the EU. Unsurprisingly, this has already generated some hysterical reactions from the usual suspects. However, given trends in visas over the period analysed, it’s not a great surprise.


LIBYA-MIGRANTS© AFP via Getty Images

Record immigration is driven by special factors, not least the reopening of travel and the economy post-pandemic, and inflows from Ukraine (and to some extent Hong Kong). Moreover, the ONS has also changed its mind about what happened during the pandemic, revising down its provisional estimates by several hundred thousand.

So, today’s statistics are not as dramatic as they look. Over the three years to June 2022, net migration averaged about 250,000 annually, of which a bit over 200,000 was from outside the EU. This is not that different from the general post-referendum trend.

Nevertheless, the statistics do confirm my earlier analysis that predicted that the new, post-Brexit system would result in a reorientation of UK migration patterns from the EU to the rest of the world, with workers and students from South Asia and Africa substituting those from the EU.

But the public debate about what this means for the UK economy and labour market is confusing and contradictory, to say the least. Some in the government – including the home secretary – appear to believe that the new system is far too liberal, and was “created to increase” work-related migration.

Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, is particularly exercised that too many people are coming from “poor countries”. Meanwhile, there is a clear consensus among business groups that the new system, and in particular the end of free movement, is leading to labour shortages, which are inhibiting growth.

In fact, the data suggests both are wrong (or right). There are indeed “labour shortages” in some sectors that were heavily dependent on EU-origin workers, especially accommodation and hospitality. But work-related migration flows overall have not declined: there has been a sharp increase in those coming to work under the new health and care visa, more than offsetting falls in EU migration; while other sectors such as ICT and professional and business services have seen more modest rises.

This readjustment, from EU to non-EU migrants is broadly what the new system was designed to achieve: it’s a feature, not a bug. Indeed, in sharp contrast to trade, where it is almost universally acknowledged that Brexit has, as predicted, damaged the UK’s economic performance, the UK’s post-Brexit migration is delivering more or less what Vote Leave promised (even if not necessarily what all Brexit voters wanted). As the Office of Budget Responsibility has pointedly observed, immigration is about the only area where policy is contributing to higher economic growth.

Politicians seem to be unwilling to acknowledge this. Indeed, when asked directly about labour shortages, the prime minister waffled hopelessly about small boats, while Keir Starmer seems to believe that businesses prefer skilled workers from abroad and simultaneously depend on “low pay and cheap labour”. But the longer-term impacts on the UK economy of this shift will be profound.

Will the shift towards higher-skilled occupations and sectors help increase (as intended, and as most economists would expect) not just the size of the economy, but GDP per capita and productivity? Or will the UK, stuck in a post-Brexit low growth rut, become less attractive to the “brightest and best”; who of course have other options?

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

Meanwhile, how will other sectors adjust – by reducing employment and output, or by increasing productivity through investment and training, and perhaps increasing wages? So far, at least, there’s little sign of the latter. Not only are real wages falling for almost everybody, but pay in the most affected sectors doesn’t appear to have performed any better. As economists have long argued, the idea that ending free movement would magically boost the wages of low-paid workers was never very realistic.

Nevertheless, amid the general doom and gloom over the UK economy, the figures are good news. The end of free movement doesn’t mean the UK is closed to migrants; it’s just open in a different way. The long-term effects will be profound.

Jonathan Portes is professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London and author of ‘What Do We Know and What Should We Do About Immigration?’

UK

Compostable bags can’t be composted, minister admits

Story by Samuel Webb • Yesterday

Colombia Japan Pet Beetles

© Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

A minister has admitted that most plastic bags and packaging labelled ‘compostable’ can’t actually be composted.

Green peer Natalie Bennett pressed Lord Benyon, a minister for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, on whether this type of plastic is a green “con”.

Lord Benyon told peers: "Compostable plastics must be treated in industrial composting facilities to be broken down and, when processed incorrectly, can be a source of microplastics and contaminate recycling streams.”

Lord Benyon added the government’s focus would be on “reducing unnecessary consumption”, and creating a circular economy, reports the Mirror.

Baroness Bennett said: “The government talks about reducing single-use plastics, but Brits only have to look around them to see masses of the stuff in shops and cafes - and all too often, littering our streets.”

Related video: Shoppers told to throw plastic bags in the bin after recycling program suspended
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She also said most people would be shocked to learn they can’t compost the majority of compostable-branded plastic and called the compostable plastic debacle “just one more area of Tory policy chaos.”

Friends of the Earth campaigner, Camilla Zerr, said: “These are encouraging words from the minister. The focus should be on reducing plastic in the first place, not false solutions like compostable plastic.

“Replacing one single-use material by another doesn’t tackle the systemic problems of the overproduction and overconsumption of single-use products.

“The government now needs to match its words with action by doing far more to cut the amount of plastic waste produced in the first place and developing comprehensive policies that encourage widespread reuse and refill.”

According to the Big Compost Experiment, compostable plastics are a subset of biodegradable plastics that are designed to break down under controlled environmental conditions into water, biomass, and gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

But most plastics marketed as compostable are anything but, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research from the University College London’s Plastic Waste Innovation Hub.

Prof Mark Miodownik, an author of the paper, said: “The bottom line is that home compostable plastics don’t work.”

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JUST SAY NO, JOE
Joe Biden Could 'Follow Trump's Lead' and Ignore Republican House Subpoena

Story by Darragh Roche • Yesterday 

President Joe Biden may soon be facing a subpoena from the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives as the GOP has pledged to launch investigations into his administration.


U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on developing infrastructure jobs in the East Room of the White House on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden could soon be facing a subpoena from the Republican-led House of Representatives.© Oliver Contreras/Getty Images

Republicans will control key committees once the new Congress meets on January 3 and they will have the power to seek documents and compel testimony, and political scientists have told Newsweek thatBiden will likely be a target.

A subpoena could be issued to the president as part of a probe of his son, Hunter Biden, and his foreign business dealings. Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans accused Biden of lying about his involvement in his son's business affairs in a 31-page interim report last week.

Biden has always denied playing a role in Hunter Biden's business dealings, but Oversight Republicans made clear their investigation was about the president, alleging he "has misused his public positions to further his family's financial interests."

Experts on U.S. politics told Newsweek that Biden could potentially ignore a subpoena and cited the example set by former President Donald Trump.

Ignoring a Subpoena

Republicans are likely to try and tie Hunter Biden's business affairs to his father as part of any investigation into the matter, but the president may have a case for ignoring any subpoena, according to David A. Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University.

"You can't just subpoena and expect compliance because you have decided that something stinks: for it to be remotely likely to work, politically or in getting the president to comply, there would need to be something to back it up," Bateman told Newsweek.

"The president could ignore the subpoena, and unless there was some threat of judicial action or Democrats were defecting then he probably would ignore it," he said.

Bateman added that judicial action and Democratic defections would require "a pretty compelling case" that Hunter Biden had done something wrong, but also "that the wrong he has done substantively implicates the president."

Following Trump's Lead

Former President Trump may provide an example of how Biden could deal with GOP probes, though it's not clear if the administration will embrace his tactics.

The House Select Committee investigating January 6, 2021, accused Trump earlier this month of defying a subpoena they'd issued to him that required him to sit for a deposition on or about November 14 and to provide documents.

The former president has sued to avoid giving testimony or providing documents to the committee, which may also be an option open to Biden.

"The big question generally is whether Biden will cooperate with Republican-led investigations," Thomas Gift, founding director of University College London's Centre on U.S. Politics, told Newsweek.

"Trump repeatedly shattered norms of executive transparency by refusing to hand over documents, to offer testimony, and to comply with subpoenas in the course of investigations into his own conduct," he said.

"With that new standard established, it's unclear whether the White House will revert to the status quo ante by working with Congress to provide relevant information - or whether it will follow Trump's lead by stymieing probes at every turn. My guess is that we'll see a bit of both," Gift added.

Paul Quirk, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Newsweek: "Attempting to quash the subpoena will look like Trump-style stonewalling initially, but not for long if the attempt succeeds and the courts deliver a rebuke to the investigators."

"Biden may want to evaluate the legal and constitutional rationale for the subpoena carefully, and if it is strong, testify; but if it is weak, challenge it," he said.

Embarrassing Moments

If President Biden does receive a subpoena from Republicans and chooses to testify, that would carry risks of its own.

"Biden will have a difficult decision whether to comply with the subpoena or go to court and attempt to quash it," Quirk said.

"Even if the investigation turns up no credible evidence of wrongdoing, the president's appearance before an investigating committee would likely produce some embarrassing moments for both him and his son," he said.

"The Republicans would take the opportunity to hurl insults and make scurrilous accusations, directly to the president's face," Quirk went on.

Quirk said that in the absence of major revelations "the investigation will probably play poorly with moderates, swing voters, and mainstream media, and may backfire against the Republicans."

"But even if so, Biden's image will suffer some inevitable harm," he said.

Serious Evidence

Republicans may risk an unfavorable contrast between their probe of the Bidens and ongoing investigations of former President Trump, while Biden could make things more difficult for the GOP by fighting any subpoena.

"The president does have a short-term interest in public officials complying with congressional subpoenas - but even that is pretty thin," Bateman told Newsweek.

"After all, Biden has no say over whether Trump is subpoenaed by the House, the Senate, or even really the Department of Justice," he said. "He has an interest in making sure that justice is done, but that's delegated to the attorney general and now the special counsel, who can do it as well as Congress -and since the judiciary has weakened Congress' own authority, maybe they can do it even better."

"Last, and most important, the sitting president would have a very easy case to make for ignoring a subpoena: Hunter Biden is just a private individual, not even a Billy Carter in the grand scheme of things," Bateman went on.

Billy Carter was the younger brother of former President Jimmy Carter, whose relationship with the government of Libya was subject to a Senate hearing that some in the pressed dubbed "Billygate."

"Absent some serious evidence of impropriety on the president's part, subpoenaing him would look like a clear effort to make political gain," Bateman said.

"By contrast, the investigation into Donald Trump is an investigation into a former public official for whom credible evidence of wrongdoing was widespread. Republicans could try to pretend this is hypocrisy, but that wouldn't be a serious or good faith argument," he said.

Something Hellish Might Lurk Under One of Jupiter’s Moons

Story by David Axe • Yesterday 

There are more than 200 moons in the solar system, but none quite like Io, the third largest of Jupiter’s 80 moons. Io is really, really volcanic. In fact, it’s peppered with so many hundreds of powerful active volcanoes that there must be something unusual beneath its crust.


Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images© Provided by The Daily Beast

That something could be a thick moonwide layer of molten rock—or a “subsurface magma ocean,” according to a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal on Nov. 16 from Yoshinori Miyazaki and David Stevenson, planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology.

That possible super-hot sea of melted rock—which is unique in the solar system—could harbor secrets, weird mechanisms for forming moons and planets, and even recipes for exotic alien life. Only further scrutiny of the 2,200-mile-diameter moon will tell.

Miyazaki and Stevenson aren’t the first scientists to make an educated guess at what lies beneath Io’s potentially 20-mile-thick rocky crust. It’s been the subject of heated debate for years. But their new peer-reviewed study of the moon’s mantle might be the most thorough yet.


A volcanic explosion on Io, Jupiter's third largest moon, as captured by NASA's New Horizon spacecraft. 

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona© Provided by The Daily Beast

To peer beneath Io’s surface, Miyazaki and Stevenson revisited reams of data from NASA’s Galileo probe, which orbited Jupiter for eight years starting in 1995. Initial analysis of the probe’s magnetic data led to a loose consensus that Io’s mantle—the layer under the moon’s crust—includes a 30-mile thick top layer that should be “molten or partially molten,” according to NASA.

Compare this to Earth’s own mantle, as well as the mantles of every other planetary body in the solar system, which are mostly solid and consist largely of ice or superheated rocks. Broadly speaking, planetary scientists reading the Galileo data assumed Io either has an underground magma ocean or a kind of sponge-like rocky outer mantle soaked in magma.

A fresh look at the data led Miyazaki and Stevenson concludes it’s the molten sea. They based their conclusion on estimates of the mantle’s temperature via analysis of Io’s volcanoes, which can spew magma hundreds of miles into the moon’s sulfur dioxide atmosphere. The top of the mantle might register as hot as 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

That’s hot. But not hot enough to sustain a spongy interior. The analysis is complicated, but it boils down to this: Like a pot of gravy on a stovetop, Io would need a lot of heat to stay consistently spongy in its upper mantle. Without enough heat, the gravy—er, the spongy rock—would separate: rock on bottom, magma on top.

Miyazaki and Stevenson crunched the numbers, calculating the heat from Io’s core as well as the effects of its weird, highly-elliptical orbit, which sloshes the mantle, spreads heat around, and keeps Io from ever permanently cooling.

They concluded that the gravy would separate. “The amount of internal heating is insufficient to maintain a high degree of melting,” they wrote. Hence what they believe could be a topmost magma ocean.

Luckily, we’ll know more soon. NASA’s Juno probe, which arrived around Jupiter in 2016, is scheduled to take readings of Io in 2023 and 2024—specifically measuring the “Love number,” a gauge of a planet’s rigidity or lack thereof. “If a large Love number is found, we can say with more certainty that a magma ocean exists beneath Io’s surface,” Miyazaki told The Daily Beast.

We already knew Io is weird. It’s possible it’s even weirder—and that weirdness could have implications across the space sciences. “I don’t think it greatly changes understanding of planetary formation, but it does change how we view the internal structure and thermal evolution of tidally heated bodies like Io,” David Grinspoon, a senior scientist with the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute, told The Daily Beast.


Io and Europa, Jupiter's two largest moons, captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft. 

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko© Provided by The Daily Beast

Lurking in the academic shadows are the astrobiologists. The experts in how and where life could evolve in the universe. If there’s extraterrestrial life out there somewhere and it looks like Earth life, we should expect to find it—or evidence of its extinction—on planets and moons that have, or had, Earthlike environments. Mars. Venus. A moon of Saturn called Enceladus.

But volcanoes with their extreme transfers of energy are widely considered key components of a living ecosystem. So planets and moons with lots of volcanoes are great places to look for E.T. In theory, that should include Io.

However, Io might have too many volcanoes. So if there’s life evolving there, it’s probably very strange life that really likes heat. “Lava tubes could be creating a condition favorable for microbes,” Miyazaki said.

The question, for astrobiologists, is whether a magma ocean would create more or fewer lava tubes than a magma sponge. “I don’t have an explicit answer,” Miyazaki said. “But it’s interesting to think about such implications.”

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at the Technical University Berlin, has long advocated a thorough search for life on Io. A magma ocean would only spoil that search if it were really close to the surface. A nice thick crust should insulate the outermost regions of the planet from scouring heat, and preserve the potential for evolution. “There seems to be quite a bit of crust,” Schulze-Makuch told The Daily Beast.

If anything, the possibility of a magma ocean on Io just underscores how interesting and exciting the moon is—and why it should be a top target for future space probes, Schulze-Makuch said. “Io is a unique kind of moon, very dynamic, and we should not dismiss it altogether.”