SILICA IS USED AS FRACKING SAND

An Alberta miner's proposal to drill 7,200 wells near Winnipeg has rural residents on edge

Sio Silica wants to pump pure sand from aquifer that serves as drinking-water source for tens of thousands

Bartley Kives · 

CBC News · 

Posted: May 31, 2023 

Josh and Georgina Mustard, seen with their youngest child, Callie, hope Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission does not approve Sio Silica's proposal to extract sand from below the surface of southeastern Manitoba. (Gary Solilak/CBC)

An Alberta mining company wants to drill thousands of wells in southeastern Manitoba to remove millions of tonnes of sand in an aquifer that serves as the source of drinking water for tens of thousands of people.

Calgary-based Sio Silica is seeking provincial environmental approval to drill up to 7,200 wells to the east and southeast of Winnipeg over 24 years and extract up to 33 million tonnes of ultra-pure silica sand from about 50 metres below the surface.

The mining company says its proposal will inject billions of dollars into the Manitoba economy by tapping into a Canadian supply of a highly sought after raw material required for the production of solar panels, new batteries and semiconductors.

Hundreds of residents of southeastern Manitoba, however, fear the potential contamination of their drinking water by a mining process that's never been tried on this scale anywhere on Earth.

The commodity coveted by Sio Silica is ultrapure crystalline quartz, which is 99.85 per cent free of contaminants such as boron, thorium, uranium and other elements that diminish the industrial value of silica.

The sand below the surface of southeastern Manitoba is 99.85 per cent pure silica. 

(Gary Solilak/CBC)

"That sand is not easily obtainable around the world. The deposit in Manitoba is probably the largest high-purity, scalable deposit in the world," said Brent Bullen, Sio Silica's chief operating officer, during a visit to Winnipeg earlier in May.

A veteran mining industry executive who's worked in Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Russia, Germany and Poland, Bullen said Sio Silica originally came to Manitoba in search of "frac sand" for use in horizontal oil drilling.
Sand producer shifts from oilpatch drilling to solar manufacturing with new facility in Manitoba

The company changed tack, he said, when it realized a vast quantity of critical minerals lies within a geological formation called the Winnipeg Sandstone Aquifer.
Seeking to drill 300 wells a year

Sio Silica proceeded to buy up subsurface mineral claims, mostly in an arc of land east of Winnipeg, where the sandstone aquifer is close enough to the surface to be reached by drilling conventional 16-inch-wide wells — yet still far enough below ground, the company claims, to prevent the surface from collapsing after sand is sucked out below.

The areas in yellow demarcate Sio Silica's subsurface mineral claims in southern Manitoba, according to documents filed with Manitoba's Clean Environment Commission. (CBC News Graphics)

In documents filed with the Clean Environment Commission (CEC), Manitoba's environmental regulator, Sio Silica intends to drill about 300 wells a year in Manitoba.

By injecting air into the pipe, sand would be extracted from each well for five to seven days. Outside the well, a slurry of sand and water would be piped to a processing facility planned for a former patch of forest south of Vivian, Man., in the Rural Municipality of Springfield, about 50 kilometres due east of Portage & Main.

Sio Silica's plan calls for the sand to be purified further at the processing plant and then shipped by rail to customers. Excess water would be cleaned and piped back underground.

WATCH | How the mining process would work:


How the mining would work
1 day ago
Duration0:32

How Sio Silica hopes to extract sand from below the surface of southeastern Manitoba.

Bullen calls the process "sustainable mining" and insists it will have no noticeable effect on the environment, unlike surface mining for lower-grade silica, which can leave scars behind on the surface and beaches bereft of sand.

Experts in geology, hydrology and water chemistry hired by the CEC are less enthused.
Manitoba orders public hearing on proposed silica sand mine in RM of Springfield

In reports prepared for the commission, they raise concerns about changes to water quality that may result from thousands of new wells that would puncture a relatively impermeable layer of shale, a crumbly sedimentary rock, on the way down into the sandstone aquifer.

Those additional wells, they say, will cause water from the Winnipeg Sandstone Aquifer to mingle with water above the shale, where the Red River Carbonate Aquifer has a different water chemistry.

"There will certainly be an exchange of groundwaters between the aquifers. There will be an irreversible change where mixing of these two aquifers will occur," a trio of engineers with the consulting firm KGS wrote in a report for the CEC.

'A precautionary approach is important'

The consultants also argued Sio Silica has only modelled subsurface water flows, without demonstrating them in the field, using a larger cluster of test wells.

Other consultants hired by the environmental regulator raised concerns about potential leaks of polyacrylamide, a chemical that would be used in the processing facility.

They also flagged what they considered a reluctance on the part of Sio Silica to consider the effects of improperly built or capped wells, as well as a failure to model how thousands of additional wells may interact with future residential or industrial development in southeastern Manitoba.

"Since groundwater is the main source of potable water for thousands of Manitobans, a precautionary approach is important," wrote Louis-Charles Boutin, an engineering consultant with Matrix Solutions, in a report for the Clean Environment Commission.

WATCH | What silica mining critics fear:

What silica mining critics fear
1 day ago
Duration0:31 What critics fear could happen if silica mining in southeastern Manitoba is approved.

Some Manitobans who draw their drinking water from the same aquifers are even more skeptical of Sio Silica's plans.

"This science has never been tried," said Bradley Simmons, an aircraft maintenance engineer who lives on 60 hectares of mostly wooded land a few kilometres west of Sio Silica's proposed processing facility.

"Getting approved for 25 years seems like a long time, and for something that has never been done before. Why couldn't we just do a couple years for trial purposes, test the well water and see what happens underneath us?"

Brad Simmons is in the process of rewilding 60 hectares of former agricultural land several kilometres west of the proposed silica-processing facility. He's concerned about groundwater contamination. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Simmons is one of several hundred Manitobans who registered opposition to Sio Silica's proposal during Clean Environment Commission hearings that took place in Anola, Beausejour and Steinbach in February and March.
Concerns mount in southeast Manitoba over proposed silica sand mining project near Vivian

Many are members of Our Line in the Sand, an organized opposition group that formed in 2020, after some property owners were told they could not subdivide their land because of mineral claims below.
'This project shouldn't even be considered'

Our Line in the Sand president Tangi Bell said it's shameful that successive NDP and Progressive Conservative governments shepherded the mining proposal along without notifying residents.

"Ethically, this project shouldn't even be considered. It is taking place directly in the only freshwater drinking source for southeast Manitoba," said Bell on her acreage, which sits a few kilometres northwest of the proposed silica-processing site.

"We should know better at this point in our lives to sacrifice, and they're asking us to sacrifice this water for decarbonization plans."

Tangi Bell is the president of Our Line in the Sand, a group that began organizing in 2020 against Sio Silica's mining proposal. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Greg Nesbitt, Manitoba's natural resources minister, declined to comment on the Sio Silica proposal while it remains before the Clean Environment Commission.

Bob Lagasse, the Progressive Conservative MLA for Dawson Trail, which encompasses the Vivian area, said he will abide by whatever the commission decides.

"When this project came across my desk at the beginning, I had already started pushing behind the scenes to have this go to the Clean Environment Commission, because it hasn't been done," said Lagasse in a phone interview.

"It's an unknown, right? So leave it to the experts to decide, and we'll have to look at their determination."

Patrick Therrien, the mayor of Springfield, called the deliberations volatile. Some residents with environmental concerns clashed with proponents of economic development, which includes a proposal by German company RTC to build a solar-panel manufacturing plant in Manitoba if Sio Silica's plans are approved.

"There's going to be people that are not happy with either decision that comes out from the CEC, and we just have to be prepared one way or the other," said Therrien.

'Once it's gone, it's gone'

The concerns are not just environmental. Georgina and Josh Mustard, who live with their eight children on 47 hectares of land immediately to the west of Sio Silica's proposed processing facility, are uneasy about the prospect of an industrial plant opening up in what used to be a relatively pristine forest.

"If this goes through, it's obviously going to affect us first, but it's going to affect thousands and thousands of people," Georgina Mustard said at a picnic table outside her home earlier in May.

"We bought this place to secure for our family and our kids and if this goes through and things go wrong, then what? Then we have to leave? We have to uproot everything we know?"

Josh Mustard, who has worked on oil and gas projects across Canada, said he's seen the effects of industrial spills first hand.

He also said he doesn't believe Sio Silica's claims about sustainability or the protection of groundwater.

"There's no replacing it. Like, once it's gone, it's gone. That's the problem with mining: you're removing a resource," he said.

"We have open silica here in Manitoba. So why aren't we chasing that, without disturbing aquifers and groundwater and residential areas?"

Bullen said he sat through the Clean Environment Commission hearings and listened to testimony from residents. He said some were victims of what he called misinformation about the possibility of earth collapsing around his company's proposed wells or wells being drilled without the consent of property owners.

No expert hired by the commission is concerned about collapses, he said. Sio Silica will only drill where property owners allow the activity, he added.

UGLY ILL FITTING SPORTS COAT

Brent Bullen, Sio Silica's chief operating officer, said the silica deposit below the surface of southeastern Manitoba is the largest high-quality deposit of its kind in the world. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

"It's fear: Fear of change, fear of the unknown," Bullen said. "When we went through the hearing, we watched a lot of emotion and we just had to listen to the emotion."
Company says it's using existing technology

Bullen said he's confident his company's consultants have laid out a case for the safety of the mining proposal, which he described as more proven and less experimental than opponents claim.

"What we've done is we've taken existing technologies and we've just applied them in a different manner," he said. "My argument is we've patented an application in a process of an existing technology and we just happen to be the first to patent it."

As for people who fear contamination of their wells, Bullen said there are already 20,000 holes drilled into the aquifer, which is greater than the number of wells Sio Silica would ever drill.

A test well near the proposed Sio Silica processing site is seen near a tarped mound of extracted silica. (Bartley Kives/CBC)

This argument does not cut it for Josh Mustard.

"Yeah, we're tapped into it, but we're not sucking sand out, doing mass destruction," he said.

If the Clean Environment Commission approves Sio Silica's proposal, Tangi Bell said Our Line in the Sand would launch a judicial review. But that would require fundraising, she said.

Sio Silica, meanwhile, has already sunk about $40 million into its Manitoba mining proposal.

The Clean Environment Commission must issue a decision about Sio Silica's plan by June 22.

Residents raise concerns over silica mining
Duration3:51

An Alberta mining company wants to drill thousands of wells east of Winnipeg. It wants to extract ultra-pure and highly valuable silica sand. The mining company says this could be worth billions for Manitoba but some rural residents fear sand mines will compromise their only source of drinking water.

In B.C., Alberta and around the world, forcing drug users into treatment is a violent policy

Story by Lyana Patrick, Assistant Professor of Indigenous Health, Simon Fraser University, 

Tyson Singh Kelsall, PhD student, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 

 Alya Govorchin, MSc Candidate, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University • 

THE CONVERSATION

May 25, 2023

A man waits to enter a supervised consumption site at a health centre in Calgary, Alta., in August 2021.© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Intervention without human rights goes by many names — involuntary institutionalization, compulsory drug treatment, “coerced care,” forced abstinence or a combination of all of those terms.

Involuntary treatment in the Global South has been labelled inhumane by rights-based organizations, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS and Human Rights Watch.

But after years of housing unaffordability, an increasingly poisonous drug supply and inaccessible voluntary mental health supports, mainstream political parties in Canada — including Alberta’s United Conservative Party (UCP) as the May 29 provincial election approaches — are seemingly toying with the idea of making the people most affected by inequality and poverty simply disappear via involuntary institutionalization.

The British Columbia NDP under David Eby, as well as Kevin Falcon’s B.C. United Party, have floated the idea of expanding forced institutionalization to include aspects of substance use.

In Alberta, Danielle Smith’s UCP has also proposed apprehending those with, in her words, “severe drug addiction.”

Increased risk of overdose

Pivot Legal Society, Eby’s former employer and a human rights organization, has responded with a statement condemning the practice. It was endorsed by 16 other community organizations.

The evidence shows that forced treatment leads to increased risk of death and deprives survivors of autonomy, while no positive benefits have been established. The discretionary power to forcibly institutionalize people also causes harm and erodes trust in health-care services on a systemic level.

From Mexico to Sweden, Vancouver and England, involuntary treatment has been found to increase risk of overdose and shows no significant impact on substance use patterns.

Studies on involuntary treatment for psychiatric reasons also show negative outcomes. Not only is forced institutionalization deeply traumatic, it’s associated with longer stays in hospital, increased hospital readmission rates and a greater likelihood of dying by suicide upon discharge.



Supporters attend a Calgary rally after a lawsuit was filed against the Alberta government, alleging that its rules governing supervised drug-use sites will have life and death impacts in August 2021.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Lowered tolerance

Being discharged after involuntary drug treatment has long been linked to overdose risk, even before the drug supply was as poisonous and unpredictable as it is now.

Data from the United States shows that from 2010 until 2017, all inpatient forms of substance use treatment, even those that included prescribed alternatives, increased the risk of overdose upon discharge.

The association between forced treatment and overdose has been made clear in studies of both existing pathways of involuntary institutionalization in B.C.: the criminal justice system and public health mechanisms.

These overdoses are trending away from being predominantly non-fatal to being deadly due to the toxicity of the supply. People are being discharged into the same living conditions with lowered tolerance

Related video: Alberta election: UCP vows to allow mandatory drug treatment (Global News)

An employee of Get Your Drugs Tested uses an infra-red spectrometer to test drug samples in Vancouver in 2022. An animal tranquilizer called Xylazine had been making its way into the drug supply and was linked to a growing number of deaths in Ontario.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jimmy Jeong

Settler colonial violence continues

In B.C., young people cannot be involuntarily institutionalized for substance use alone. But reports suggest it is occurring through misuse of the province’s Mental Health Act.

The B.C. NDP proposed involuntarily institutionalizing youth who experience overdoses in 2020, but dropped the idea after intense scrutiny from advocates with lived experience of forced detention, drug policy experts and academics.

Involuntary psychiatric detentions among youth, however, are at an all-time high in the province.

According to B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, more than 2,500 children, some as young as 10 years old, were hospitalized against their will in 2018. That’s a 162 per cent increase since 2008.

As with most punitive and carceral policies in Canada, the province’s Mental Health Act is used disproportionately against Indigenous people in British Columbia, including children — a disturbing continuation of the violence against Indigenous children that Canada is founded upon.

The B.C. Ministry of Health has acknowledged the over-representation of Indigenous children involuntarily detained in the province, though it says it’s not aware of the extent because provinces aren’t required to record patient ethnicity.


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau places a pair of children’s shoes as he takes part in ceremonies for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Sept. 30, 2022.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Relying on involuntary treatment

Involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations under the B.C. Mental Health Act for those older than 14 also increased to 23,531 from 14,195 from 2008 until 2018 in the province.

The liberal use of forced interventions is in part due to B.C.’s abysmal voluntary mental health service landscape characterized by lengthy wait times, high access fees, capacity shortages and a lack of culturally appropriate services. This creates barriers for people seeking timely support.

Relying on a system designed to criminalize drug use, while temporarily stabilizing people via involuntary mental health treatment, risks causing further harm, trauma and death.

Forced institutionalization is weaponized against drug users already; 18.8 per cent of apprehended people in B.C. had a primary diagnosis of substance use disorder. Likewise, 10 per cent of involuntarily hospitalized youth were labelled as having the disorder from 2013 to 2018.

Read more: As an Indigenous doctor, I see the legacy of residential schools and ongoing racism in today's health care

Moral panics

Expanding forced treatment in Canada and elsewhere stems from the same moral panics that drove earlier drug prohibition regimes imposed through colonial power.

Instead of locking people up against their will, governments should intervene in the poisoned drug supply and turn to other more humane methods, including compassion clubs for drug users as advocated by drug user groups and front-line workers.

Provinces should collaborate with municipalities and health boards to expand life-saving and life-affirming safe use sites, and all levels of government must urgently prioritize solutions to the housing crisis.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Democracy itself is on the ballot in Alberta’s upcoming election

Decriminalizing hard drugs in B.C. will help reduce the stigma of substance abuse

THERE IS NO PLANET 'B'

Earth is 'really quite sick now' and in danger zone in nearly all ecological ways, study says


Earth is 'really quite sick now' and in danger zone in nearly all ecological ways, study says© Provided by The Canadian Press

Earth has pushed past seven out of eight scientifically established safety limits and into “the danger zone,” not just for an overheating planet that's losing its natural areas, but for well-being of people living on it, according to a new study.

The study looks not just at guardrails for the planetary ecosystem but for the first time it includes measures of “justice,” which is mostly about preventing harm for countries, ethnicities and genders.

The study by the international scientist group Earth Commission published in Wednesday’s journal Nature looks at climate, air pollution, phosphorus and nitrogen contamination of water from fertilizer overuse, groundwater supplies, fresh surface water, the unbuilt natural environment and the overall natural and human-built environment. Only air pollution wasn’t quite at the danger point globally.

Air pollution is dangerous at local and regional levels, while climate was beyond the harmful levels for humans in groups but not quite past the safety guideline for the planet as a system, the study from the Swedish group said.

The study found “hotspots” of problem areas throughout Eastern Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and much of Brazil, Mexico, China and some of the U.S. West — much of it from climate change. About two-thirds of Earth don’t meet the criteria for freshwater safety, scientists said as an example.

“We are in a danger zone for most of the Earth system boundaries,” said study co-author Kristie Ebi, a professor of climate and public health at the University of Washington.

If planet Earth just got an annual check-up, similar to a person's physical, “our doctor would say that the Earth is really quite sick right now and it is sick in terms of many different areas or systems and this sickness is also affecting the people living on Earth,” Earth Commission co-chair Joyeeta Gupta, a professor of environment at the University of Amsterdam, said at a press conference.

It’s not a terminal diagnosis. The planet can recover if it changes, including its use of coal, oil and natural gas and the way it treats the land and water, the scientists said.

But “we are moving in the wrong direction on basically all of these,” said study lead author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

“This is a compelling and provocative paper – scientifically sound in methodology and important for identifying the dimensions in which the planet is nearing the edge of boundaries that would launch us into irreversible states,” Indy Burke, dean of the Yale School of the Environment said in an email. She wasn’t part of the study.

The team of about 40 scientists created quantifiable boundaries for each environmental category, both for what’s safe for the planet and for the point at which it becomes harmful for groups of people, which the researchers termed a justice issue.

Related video: Earth Has Reached Ecological 'Danger Zone,' Study Warns 

(Money Talks News)  Duration 1:30   View on Watch

WIONEarth's health failing in seven out of eight key measures

2:03

Dailymotion  New Study Finds Nearly Half of All Climate Zones to Shift by 2100

1:17

Rockstrom said he thinks of those points as setting up “a safety fence’’ outside of which the risks become higher, but not necessarily fatal.

Rockstrom and other scientists have attempted in the past this type of holistic measuring of Earth’s various interlocking ecosystems. The big difference in this attempt is that scientists also looked at local and regional levels and they added the element of justice.

The justice part includes fairness between young and old generations, different nations and even different species. Frequently, it applies to conditions that harm people more than the planet.

An example of that is climate change.

The report uses the same boundary of 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times that international leaders agreed upon in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The world has so far warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit), so it hasn’t crossed that safety fence, Rockstrom and Gupta said, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t being hurt.

“What we are trying to show through our paper is that event at 1 degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) there is a huge amount of damage taking place,” Gupta said, pointing to tens of millions of people exposed to extreme hot temperatures.

The planetary safety guardrail of 1.5 degrees hasn’t been breached, but the “just” boundary where people are hurt of 1 degree has been.

“Sustainability and justice are inseparable,” said Stanford environmental studies chief Chris Field, who wasn’t part of the research. He said he would want even more stringent boundaries. “Unsafe conditions do not need to cover a large fraction of Earth’s area to be unacceptable, especially if the unsafe conditions are concentrated in and near poor and vulnerable communities.”

Another outside expert, Dr. Lynn Goldman, an environment health professor and dean of George Washington University’s public health school, said the study was “kind of bold,” but she wasn’t optimistic that it would result in much action.

___

Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press 

May 31,2023

1.5C of warming is too hot for a just world: study

In 2009 scientists identified nine "planetary boundaries" in the Earth system 

- Copyright AFP/File Robyn Beck

Marlowe HOOD

By AFP
Published May 31, 2023

Curbing global heating at 1.5 degrees Celsius will avert runaway climate change but not mass suffering in developing nations, a consortium of 50 researchers warned Wednesday.

Some 200 million people in poorer regions will be exposed to unliveable heat, and half a billion will face the destructive ravages of rising seas even if the world meets the more optimistic Paris target of a 1.5C cap, they reported in a major study.

If exposing large swathes of humanity to “significant harm is to be avoided, the just boundary should be set at or below 1C,” the scientists said.

The Earth’s average surface temperature has already risen 1.2C.

These are sobering conclusions because greenhouse gas emissions remain at record levels, and current policies are on track to see 2.7C of warming by century’s end.

We are “putting the stability and resilience of the entire planet at risk,” said Johan Rockstrom, lead author of the new study.

The scientists say atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide must also be cut by a sixth, with the world’s richest one percent emitting twice as much as the poorest 50 percent, the study noted.

Rockstrom is among the originators of the concept of “planetary boundaries” — red lines that must not be crossed.

In 2009 he and colleagues identified nine such boundaries and said we had already stepped outside the safe zone of three: planet-warming gases in the air, accelerating species extinction, and an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus in the environment (mostly from fertiliser).

Today we have breached three more: deforestation, overuse of fresh water, and the omnipresence of synthetic chemicals, including plastics.

– ‘Scientific backbone’ –

Outdoor particle pollution, which shortens more than four million lives every year, could be added this year to the list of our transgressions, and ocean acidification may not be far behind.

“The Earth system is in danger — many tipping elements are about to cross their tipping points,” said co-author Dahe Qin, director of the Chinese Academy of Science’s influential Academic Committee.

The Greenland ice sheet, large swathes of permafrost and the Amazon forest, for example, are approaching points of no return beyond which they will, respectively, lift oceans by metres, release billions of tonnes of CO2 and methane and turn tropical forests to savannah.

Only the restoration of the life-protecting ozone layer — the ninth boundary — is clearly moving in the right direction.

Rockstrom, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and colleagues applied the same yardsticks to measure the limits for a “just” world in which human exposure to harm is minimised.

Besides climate change, they found the tolerable threshold of ambient particle pollution — especially across Asia — must also be lowered compared to the original planetary boundaries schema.

“Justice is a necessity for humanity to live within planetary limits,” said co-author Joyeeta Gupta, a professor at the University of Amsterdam. “We cannot have a safe planet without justice.”

The scientists have proposed the new thresholds as the “scientific backbone” of evolving sustainability standards for government and business.

The study, published in Nature, was supported by the Global Commons Alliance, a coalition of more than 70 research and policy centres, including the World Economic Forum, The Nature Conservancy and Future Earth.

“Nothing less than a just global transformation across all Earth system boundaries is required to ensure human well-being,” the authors concluded.

“Such transformations must be systemic across energy, food, urban and other sectors, addressing the economic, technological, political and other drivers of Earth system change, and ensure access for the poor through reductions and reallocation of resource use.”

CRISPR CRITTERS
Researchers link death in gene-editing study to a virus used to deliver the treatment, not CRISPR

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 



The lone volunteer in a gene-editing study targeting a rare form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy likely died after having a reaction to the virus that delivered the therapy in his body, researchers concluded in an early study.

Terry Horgan, 27, of Montour Falls, New York, died last year during one of the first tests of a gene-editing treatment designed for one person. Some scientists wondered if the gene-editing tool CRISPR played a part in his death. The tool has transformed genetic research, sparked the development of dozens of experimental drugs, and won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020.

But researchers said the virus — one used to carry treatment into the body because it doesn't usually make people sick — combined with his condition, triggered the problems that ultimately killed him.

Horgan appears to have had a more severe immune reaction "than others receiving similar or slightly higher doses” of the virus, the authors wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Horgan was enrolled in an early-stage safety trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It was sponsored by Cure Rare Disease, a Connecticut-based nonprofit founded by his brother, Rich, to try and save him from the muscle-wasting disease caused by a mutation in the gene needed to produce a protein called dystrophin.

In a statement, Rich Horgan thanked the research team led by the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Yale University for a “thorough, comprehensive” investigation that provided valuable insights. He added, “On a personal note, this study is another important step toward honoring Terry’s legacy and his commitment, as well as our entire family’s, to the rare disease community.”

Related video: Scribe Inks CRISPR Gene-Editing Deal with Prevail (Bloomberg)
Duration 3:09  View on Watch

The therapy Horgan got aimed to use CRISPR to increase a form of the dystrophin protein. The process began with suppressing Horgan's immune system to prepare his body for the therapy, which was delivered by IV with “a high dose" of what's known as an adeno-associated viral vector, or AAV, according to Cure Rare Disease.


But Horgan soon began experiencing problems, went into cardiac arrest six days after the treatment and died two days later from organ failure and brain damage. Because of the timing of symptoms, and the fact researchers could find little of a gene-editing enzyme in his body, they concluded that the therapy hadn't been activated yet.

This isn’t the first time viral vectors have been implicated in a gene therapy trial death. In a major setback for the field, 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger died in 1999 during a study aimed at combatting his rare metabolic disease. Scientists later learned that his immune system overreacted to the virus used to carry the treatment. The virus used in Horgan's trial is considered safer but it is not without problems.

“People have been trying to make safer vectors … but they still remain challenging,” said Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University who was not involved in the study but has followed the case closely. “We don’t really understand why some people run into trouble and others don’t. We don’t know whether it’s their underlying disease, some co-morbidity, or some strange immunology.”

Rich Horgan said they plan to submit the study to a peer-reviewed journal. Meanwhile, Cure Rare Disease said it will use alternative viruses for the other treatments it is trying to develop.

Dr. Terence Flotte, dean of the UMass medical school and senior author of the study, said he hopes it leads “to further research into how to identify subsets of patients who might be prone to severe, unexpected reactions like this.”

___

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

Laura Ungar, The Associated Press

My grandfather hid the emotional toll of World War II from his family for decades

ALCOHOLISM RATES ROSE WITH THE RETURN OF WWII AND KOREA WAR VETS

Story by Chloe Melas • Yesterday - CNN

For decades after returning home from World War II, my grandfather did not talk about his wartime experiences.

Frank Murphy flew 21 perilous missions as a navigator of a B-17 for the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, nicknamed “the Bloody Hundredth.” The day his plane was shot down in 1943, two of the men in his crew died, and my grandfather considered himself lucky to have parachuted out of his burning aircraft and be captured by the Nazis.


My grandfather hid the emotional toll of World War II from his family for decades© Provided by CNNFrank Murphy, the grandfather of CNN's Chloe Melas, after he was captured and taken a prisoner of war by the Nazis in 1943. - Courtesy Murphy Collection

For the next 18 months, he would endure deplorable conditions as a German prisoner of war, take part in a harrowing death march in subzero temperatures and by the time US Gen. George S. Patton’s troops liberated him, he had lost over 50 pounds and was riddled with dysentery, pneumonia and lice.

Everyone could see the physical toll of war on his body, but we didn’t know about his invisible wounds.

That is until 2001, more than 50 years after returning home, when my grandfather wrote a memoir, “Luck of the Draw: My Story of the Air War in Europe,” for our family. He originally self-published the book for our family but as I got older, I felt his story needed to reach a wider audience. After several years of gathering his original materials and photographs, I partnered with St. Martin’s Press to release the book in February and it is now a New York Times bestseller.

In his book, he wrote, “I often wonder why Providence allowed me to survive when so many others did not.”

My mother and his other three children said that their dad never spoke about the war during their childhood. It wasn’t until my mom read his book that she truly knew what he had gone through.

Even my grandmother Ann, his wife of 50 years, told me that she did not even know that her soon-to-be-husband had been a prisoner of war until right before they were married.

What is PTSD?

Researching my grandfather’s time during the war, I’ve often wondered if he had post-traumatic stress disorder. I may never know whether he had PTSD or not — but in the 78 years since World War II ended, it’s so vital that the national conversation around this important topic is moving forward.


My grandfather hid the emotional toll of World War II from his family for decades© Provided by CNNFrank Murphy was shot down on his 21st mission while flying over Munster, Germany. Two of the men on his crew died that day. - Courtesy Murphy Collection

It’s had different names throughout history. After World War I, it was “shell shock”; post-World War II it was known as “combat fatigue,” and after Vietnam it was called “post-Vietnam syndrome.” In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association officially recognized it as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Post-traumatic stress disorder “is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being,” according to the American Psychiatric Association’s website. “Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying.”

Do veterans have a brain injury?

Now professionals such as psychologist Shauna Springer and psychiatrist Frank Ochberg are advocating calling it post-traumatic brain injury.

“I refer to it as an injury because I’ve seen that there’s a biological component to being exposed to trauma as well as a psychological component that has always been with us,” Springer, chief psychologist at the Stella Center, told me. “And now I think we’re on the cusp of evolving the term further.”

Post-traumatic brain injury has always existed, Springer said, and people are finally talking about it.

“It’s kind of like saying that because the divorce rate was so much lower in previous generations that everybody had these great marriages,” she said, “but actually that was a factor of how much stigma there was about divorce and how dependent women were financially at that time without their own career options.”

Forty percent of medical discharges during WWII were for psychiatric conditions, most for combat stress, according to the National World War II Museum In New Orleans.

Veterans keep quiet about trauma

But veterans didn’t always mention their trauma when they came home from the war.

“When your grandfather and my grandfather served in World War II, they didn’t talk about it,” Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told me.

“They came home and too often, you know, their therapy was drinking,” he said. “There was a generation of folks who had tremendous trauma and pain, and that overflowed into their families in ways that we still can’t even quantify.”


My grandfather was in the infamous Stalag Luft III prison camp, where “The Great Escape” took place. In his memoir, he writes about going to bed hungry, freezing and terrified of never knowing when the war would end.

“A prisoner of war experiences real-time feelings of helplessness and you’re on-your-own that cannot be imagined unless you have been there,” my grandpa relates in “Luck of the Draw.”



Inside Stalag 7A where Frank Murphy was a prisoner of war during WWII

. - Courtesy Murphy Collection

“It is difficult to put into words the sense of powerlessness and vulnerability one experiences when standing completely defenseless before a formidable armed wartime enemy of your country, knowing that the entire might of the United States is of no benefit to you.”

I have his book to remind me, but it’s hard to imagine what else he must have gone through, and the struggles he went through alone, once he was back home.

How are veterans today?

With so many US troops fighting abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 20 years, the problems my grandpa faced haven’t gone away.

About 16 veterans commit suicide each day in the United States, according to a report by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Asked for comment by CNN, the VA did not specify how many of those suicides were related to post-traumatic stress.

I became active in the fight for our veterans when I joined the board of directors for the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force near Savannah, Georgia, in 2015 in honor of my grandfather’s service.

I found allies in the cause when I joined the board, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Perry, who has been a vocal supporter of our nation’s veterans, was a pilot in the Air Force before entering politics and eventually becoming the US secretary of energy. His father, like my grandfather, served in the Eighth Air during WWII.

“My instinct here is warriors are very proud, and showing weakness in any form has historically been frowned upon,” he told me.

Perry’s attention to the emotional toll of war became heightened when he met Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. Luttrell had just returned home from a harrowing experience participating in Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan in 2005. (It went on to become a best-selling book and a 2013 film starring Mark Wahlberg called “Lone Survivor.”) Perry and his wife took Luttrell into their home and got him the psychological support he needed.


Chloe Melas is shown with her grandparents, Ann and Frank Murphy, in Atlanta in1989. (Courtesy Melas Family Collection) - Courtesy Melas Family Collection

Do psychedelic-assisted therapies help?

At same time, Perry was introduced to Amber and Marcus Capone, a couple who had started an organization called Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, which provides resources, research and advocacy for US military veterans seeking treatment with psychedelic-assisted therapies.

They started the group after Marcus Capone returned home from multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and was having suicidal thoughts.

“He didn’t understand why he couldn’t get better,” Amber Capone said. “He was trying so hard. I just thought of our kids and them living the rest of their lives without a father and how this would impact generations to come, and I just thought, I can’t stop fighting for him.”

Six years later, VETS says it has provided funding for more than 700 veterans to get access to psychedelic treatments at centers outside the country due to issues with legalization.

This is one of the reasons Perry has devoted years to supporting veterans and bipartisan legislation for psychedelic therapy for veterans.

“I know this whole concept, Rick Perry’s name and psychedelics in the same sentence, five years ago I would’ve kind of looked at you and said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Perry told me. “But I know kids that were really sick that are now about as close to normal as you can get.”

The legalization of psychedelic treatments varies in the United States. Only a handful of states such as New York, California and Arizona have active legislation proposed to decriminalize plant-based hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” and dimethyltryptamine, which is found in some plants used to brew ayahuasca.

While Oregon and Colorado are the only two US states to have decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms for those over 21, other states such as Texas and Maryland are conducting clinical trials with MDMA and ibogaine for those suffering from issues such as PTSD and depression.

Dr. David Rabin, a neuroscientist and board-certified psychiatrist, has been studying the effects of chronic stress on mental and physical health for nearly 20 years.

“We know that hugs feel good. We know that music makes us feel good if we like listening to our favorite songs, right? That is intuitive, but we don’t necessarily remember to breathe when we’re stressed out,” Rabin said.

“Psychedelic medicine is interesting because it works when it’s used properly,” he said. “It works as a therapy amplifier because it molecularly seems to do something in the brain that amplifies the neural pathways of safety that are set up by the therapeutic environment.”

Springer cofounded the Stella Center, a network of clinics that offer ketamine infusion therapy and dual sympathetic reset for those suffering from post-traumatic stress. Dual sympathetic reset is a procedure involving a local anesthetic injected next to a mass of sympathetic nerves in the neck called the stellate ganglion to help regulate an overactive sympathetic nervous system, according to Stella’s website.

“For some, it’s medication; for some, it’s a service dog,” said Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “And I think everybody’s got to figure out what their right prescription is to meet their unique situation.”

Another individual bringing resources to veterans and their families is ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff.

While reporting in the field in Iraq in 2006, Woodruff had a near-death experience that changed the course of his life. An improvised explosive device struck him and his cameraman, and Woodruff was subsequently kept in a medically induced coma for 36 days.

During his recovery, he and his wife, Lee Woodruff, were inspired to launch their nonprofit, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, after getting to know veterans who were dealing with the impact of hidden injuries such as traumatic brain injuries.

“I would say almost every American wants to do something for veterans who served, but many don’t really know exactly where that support should go because it’s very complicated,” Bob Woodruff said. “We just kind of help people who want to do something, find the right direction to help people.”

To date, the foundation says it’s invested over $124 million in these programs and has given over 585 grants to veterans and their families

As for the future, Perry said it’s about continuing the conversation.

“I think mental health is the most undiagnosed and unknown malady that we have in modern society, potentially,” he said. “It was there all along.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how long Bob Woodruff was in a medically induced coma and misstated the term “dual sympathetic reset.”

SEE

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WWI

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SHELL+SHOCK

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BATTLE+FATIGUE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for LSD 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PSYCHEDELIC 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PSYCHEDELIC SASKATCHEWAN 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MAGIC MUSHROOMS 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M UP IN SMOKE
Big Tobacco faces big EU counterfeit problem

Contraband tobacco seized during raid in Seville© Thomson Reuters


Story by By Richa Naidu, Emma Pinedo and Emilio Parodi • Yesterday 

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police raided three clandestine tobacco factories early this year, seizing nearly 40 million euros ($44 million) worth of tobacco leaf and illicit cigarettes.

At one, in the northern town of Alfaro, they found 10 Ukrainian workers, five of them war refugees, who'd been put to work with no contracts and scant pay, police said. They worked all day for and lived at the factory, forbidden from leaving.

This operation is one of dozens across the EU that regional policing and anti-fraud agencies say have driven seizures of illicit cigarettes to record levels.

Crime groups, which have traditionally mainly sourced fake tobacco products from outside the EU, are increasingly setting up production facilities in western Europe to be closer to higher-priced markets, according to Reuters interviews with half a dozen specialists in the field, including enforcement officials, tobacco executives and industry analysts.



Contraband tobacco seized during raid in Seville© Thomson Reuters

The trend was revved up by the travel shutdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, which choked supplies from outside the bloc, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) said. It may have been further accelerated by the war in Ukraine, which for years has been a production hub and transit route for illicit tobacco, OLAF added.



Contraband tobacco seized during raid in Seville© Thomson Reuters

As well as the human cost, counterfeiting is a financial thorn in the side of the world's biggest tobacco companies at a time when they're facing a global decline in smoking that's spurred large investments in alternative products like vapes.

"Criminal gangs have switched from importing counterfeit products into Europe to establishing illicit manufacturing facilities within EU borders," said Cyrille Olive, British American Tobacco's (BAT) regional head of anti-illicit trade.

BAT - one of tobacco's global giants with Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco and Philip Morris International - has seen increased counterfeiting since last year in France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark and the Czech Republic, Olive added.

Some campaigners have accused Big Tobacco of overstating the size of the illicit market to help lobby against higher taxes - something the companies deny. Nonetheless, the latest data shows seizures of illicit cigarettes are increasing.

A record 531 million illicit cigarettes were impounded across the EU last year, a rise of 43% from the roughly 370 million seized in 2020, according to data from OLAF. About 60% of the cigarettes were from illicit production in the bloc while the rest were smuggled in.



Contraband tobacco seized during raid in Seville© Thomson Reuters

Europol told Reuters that last year would also likely set a record for the number of illegal cigarette factories that were reported shut down by national police forces, although the full-year data isn't yet available.

TOBACCO INVESTIGATORS

The industry has responded by hiring investigators to research illicit operations and share intelligence with European authorities, executives at Japan Tobacco, BAT and Imperial Brands told Reuters.

The three tobacco majors declined to put a figure on the financial hit from the illicit trade. Japan Tobacco has, though, spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" gathering information on the counterfeiters which it then passes on to European authorities like OLAF, according to Vincent Byrne, head of the company's anti-illicit trade operations.

"We have a dedicated function within the company to try and protect our assets, protect our brands, and combat illegal trade," said Byrne, a former detective who investigated organised crime in Ireland.

BAT and Imperial Brands said they also had intelligence operations.

Philip Morris International declined to comment for this article.

PACK: LESS THAN A EURO TO MAKE

Counterfeiters typically replicate popular cigarette brands, which include Japan Tobacco's Winston, Philip Morris' Marlboro, British America's Dunhill and Imperial Brands' Nobel.

A packet of 20 cigarettes costs less than a euro to make, said Byrne, but trades at several times that, depending on the marketplace.

Supplies from China and other parts of Asia - which used to be the biggest sources of counterfeit cigarettes that ended up in the EU - shrank during COVID-19 lockdowns, spurring increasing production in Europe itself, according to Alex McDonald, head of group security at Imperial Brands.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine may have quickened that trend, said Ernesto Bianchi, OLAF's director of revenue and international operations, investigations and strategy, adding that the agency was "analysing how the fraudsters may have reconfigured their routes".

Ukraine had been a hub for the manufacturing of illicit tobacco and a supply route for illicit and counterfeit cigarettes made in Russia and Belarus, activities that may have been disrupted by the war, Imperial Brands' McDonald said.

Some counterfeiters are luring and coercing Ukrainian refugees to be workers.

An illegal tobacco factory was dismantled last month in Roda de Ter, 80 km from Barcelona, Spanish police said on Thursday. Officers seized 11,400 kilos of tobacco and 7,360 packets of cigarettes. Six Ukrainians were found working there.

In Italy, officials said in April last year they had found about 82 tonnes of counterfeit cigarettes inside a factory in the industrial area of the country's ​​Pomezia municipality.

Investigators said they found Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian workers doing gruelling shifts in an unsafe environment where walled-up windows stopped fumes escaping.

"A good many workers from Ukraine have been found in these illegal factories," Japan Tobacco's Byrne said about counterfeiting operations across the EU.

"They're collected in a van at an airport, blacked out windows, driven around and swapped into another van," Byrne, said recounting a particular incident.

"Eventually they're delivered to the factory. Mobile phones are taken from them. Essentially, it's a form of modern-day slavery."

($1 = 0.9310 euros)

(Reporting by Richa Naidu in London, Emma Pinedo in Madrid and Emilio Parodi in Milan; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Pravin Char)

Op-Ed: Wagner Group recruiting on social media? What about high-risk liabilities?


By Paul Wallis
Published May 31, 2023

The Ukrainian army has insisted it is still fighting for control of the city of Bakhmut 

Russia’s not-very-charming Wagner Group seems determined to keep generating ambiguous headlines. The latest news about the group includes this not-overly-well-covered bit of information about it recruiting on social media.

It’s not really all that surprising, but it is indicative of the state of Wagner to some extent. You’d think that a privileged mercenary group with connections to the top could at least “borrow” people if it needs them.

The current ads on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere are said to be asking for medics, psychologists, and drone operators. Structurally, this means Wagner is effectively repopulating its services troops. How do you run out of psychologists, of all things? Wear and tear?

Wagner Group withdrew rather suddenly from Bakhmut after announcing “victory” in capturing the town. Unconfirmed and uninformative commentary from the group itself suggests it may have taken up to 20,000 casualties in the process. That’s quite an admission.

That’s a lot of casualties, too. Publicly available information isn’t too reliable, but the strength of Wagner on Wikipedia is listed as “6,000 to 8,000”. …And they took 20,000 casualties?

It’s unlikely the entire force was actually wiped out two or three times despite a lot of obvious turnover. The group remained actively in combat for months. If this number is anything like accurate, they must have been simply feeding in their well-publicized recruits over the entire period.

This overall situation raises more than a few questions:

Expecting social media to spot an innocuous job ad and instantly connect it to Wagner is unreasonable. If they do spot it, what can they do about it?

It’s unclear if Wagner is specifically sanctioned. Some individuals are, but what about the group?

If they are, do social media platforms automatically remove the ads on that basis? If not, why not?

They’re advertising in multiple languages, being a multinational group. What are these jurisdictions supposed to do about it?

Why would Wagner be so visible, virtually advertising their weaknesses? Seems unlikely.

Social media famously doesn’t want to get involved in anything. Realistically, what can social media do about ads from innocuous third parties acting for Wagner?

Social media seems a bit clumsy as a recruiting option, particularly outside Russia. Why do it this way? Bait for foreign intelligence services, perhaps?

Can a nation hold a social media platform legally liable for recruiting war criminals? That could happen, given the depth of the issue in Ukraine.

Far more seriously as though it wasn’t serious enough – This is unlikely to be a one-off problem for social media. A “Craigslist for Atrocities” leaves a lot to be desired. Some sort of default rule needs to be in place.

Something like “No mass murderers allowed” in the Terms of Service would help. Or “Advertising for participants in crimes against humanity not permitted”, maybe?

This could well come back to bite the big platforms in particular. Take a good look in the mirror, social media. …Or a court just might.

_________________________________________________________

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

In Moldova, Europe bids to show Putin united front

Summit host President Maia Sandu wants -- as do Ukraine and Georgia -- to begin formal EU membership negotiations this year - 

Copyright AFP Daniel MIHAILESCU

BY Dave CLARK, Daniel ARONSSOHN

AFP
Published May 31, 2023

European leaders meet Thursday at a summit held on one of the most vulnerable points on the continent’s strategic frontline, in a show of diplomatic force designed to pressure Moscow.

The European Political Community (EPC), which groups 27 EU members with 40 of their allies and excludes Russia and Belarus, chose Ukraine’s tiny neighbour Moldova for its second summit.

Less than an hour’s drive from a Russian-backed breakaway Moldovan region and not much further from war-torn Ukraine, they will try to send a message to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

First and foremost, holding the summit outside Chisinau shows solidarity with Moldova in the face of Russian destabilisation operations and support for its EU membership bid.

It is also an opportunity for European states — whether EU members, recent leaver Britain or candidates for future membership like Ukraine — to work together on regional crises.

“We must also think of a wider Europe,” France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who first promoted the EPC, told reporters in Bratislava on the eve of the summit.

“We must think of our Europe not simply from a security point of view within the framework of NATO and not simply within the framework of the European Union.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s travel plans are never announced in advance, for security reasons in the wake of Russia’s invasion of his country.

– ‘Security guarantees’ –

But if he takes up his invitation to the EPC, he will be seeking not just solidarity but progress on Ukraine’s parallel bids to join NATO and the European Union.

The Moldova summit also came as NATO ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met to discuss the agenda of the alliance’s next summit.

The NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 will debate how formal a promise to give Kyiv on how and when to join the alliance, but in the interim Europe is keen to show support.

Macron acknowledged that Ukraine’s forces battling Russian invaders in the east and south of their country are “protecting Europe”.

And he said the allies should find a way to offer “tangible and credible security guarantees to Ukraine” while the eventual questions of EU and NATO membership are pending.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose country left the European Union but remains in NATO, said, “Putin’s utter contempt of other countries’ sovereignty” showed the need for unity.

“We cannot address these problems without Europe’s governments and institutions working closely together,” he said.

NATO member Turkey’s newly re-elected leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing his formal inauguration at home and is not expected at the meeting, diplomats said.

With up to 47 heads of state and government invited, not much time has been set aside for a general group discussion, but diplomats hope side meetings will deal with practical issues.

Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz will convene a meeting between foes Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.

Yerevan and Baku have fought for decades over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, but have both been invited to the EPC as Washington and Brussels push for a peace deal.

Another long-standing European conflict, the standoff between Serbia and Kosovo will be on the agenda, with leaders from Pristina and Belgrade under pressure to dial down tensions.

– ‘Big progress’ –

Finally, for Moldova itself, the summit will mark a crucial step on its route from being a former Soviet republic part-occupied by Russian “peacekeepers” towards a European future.

Summit host President Maia Sandu wants — as do Ukraine and Georgia — to begin formal EU membership negotiations this year, to “save our democracy” from Russian interference.

She received powerful backing on the eve of the summit from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who hailed Moldova’s “big progress” in EU-requested reforms.

“Moldova is at the heart of Europe. Moldova is Europe. And today and tomorrow, the whole of Europe is Moldova,” von der Leyen said.

dc-burs/giv/mca

COMMODITY FETISH

Whisky lifts spirits of inflation-hit investors

By AFP
Published May 30, 2023

Whisky is surging in popularity as an investment due to high inflation -

 Copyright AFP Charly TRIBALLEAU

The smell of ageing whisky, known as the angel’s share, wafts across from 9,000 oak barrels stored from floor to ceiling in two vast warehouses at Scotland’s historic Annandale Distillery.

“Annandale has seen a huge boom over the last few years,” the facility’s general manager David Ashton-Hyde told AFP as workers milled around the site to check the vast casks for leakages.

Whisky is toasted by some industry experts who describe it as liquid gold, yet others call for caution owing to scams.

The spirit is surging in popularity as inflation stays stubbornly high, with many investors keen to diversify assets to safeguard their cash.

– Alternative investment –

“Whisky has always been an asset class which has performed,” said Benjamin Lancaster, a founder of VCL Vintners, which specialises in marketing casks.

Annandale, in the Scottish borders, sells its whisky both directly to customers worldwide and also via two specialist investment firms, one of which is London-based VCL.

The global whisky market hit $87 billion (81 billion euros) last year, according to drinks market research firm IWSR, which forecasts it will top $100 billion before the end of the decade.

The sector has been boosted by some record announcements in recent years, including the sale last year of one cask of single malt whisky for £16 million.

It was sold by Ardbeg Distillery, which is owned by luxury goods group LVMH, on the western isle of Islay.

The market for rare bottles of whisky has meanwhile taken off in the past decade, with annual price increases of 20 percent on average, according to Bordeaux Index.

“Alternative investments appear to be luring in more people, partly through frustration with returns from the stock markets, which have been hit with waves of volatility as inflation has soared,” noted Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

– Big risk –

“Figures showing dramatic increases in price are often specific to a type of rare-bottled whisky,” Streeter added.

“If you aren’t an expert and haven’t done your homework, there is a big risk that you could be duped out of hard-earned savings.”

Ashton-Hyde conceded that “the world of whisky investment is sometimes a bit murky”.

He told AFP that worried investors want assurance their casks are safely stored.

Whereas investors can keep their bottles at home, UK-produced casks of whisky must be stored in the region where the spirit was made.

Individuals can purchase a 200-litre cask from Annandale, starting at £3,000 ($3,730) for newly-produced whisky from the distillery founded in 1836.

It was later operated by Johnnie Walker and Sons, before closing for almost a century until its reopening in 2014.

According to Ashton-Hyde, the price of most of its casks doubles in value within five years, while trebling over a decade.

– Limited supply –

“The main attraction of aged whisky as an investment is that supply is limited,” said Tommy Keeling, head of IWSR.

“Most products were created decades ago.”

IWSR forecasts the whisky industry will hit $105 billion by 2027, driven largely by Scotch whisky but also by growth in Japanese and US offerings.

Keeling pointed to increasing investment demand especially in China, but also in India which has “a big whisky-drinking tradition”.

He added that “the pandemic also played a role” as consumers had time to look into investing.

According to consultants Knight Frank, investment in rare bottles of whisky have been more profitable over the past decade compared with high-end cars, fine wines and luxury watches.

But their progress is seen slowing, with such bottles rising only three percent in value last year, far below inflation levels around the world.

As for casks, a good annual return would be 8-12 percent, according to Lancaster at VCL Vintners, enough to attract a wide spectrum of investors.

Customer enquiries at VCL have meanwhile jumped over the past year.

As for Annandale, Ashton-Hyde said it was focused on a quality product.

“Annandale as a distillery doesn’t offer returns on investment,” he insisted.

“That’s not our business. We’re in the business of making a wonderful spirit.”