Nausea, red eyes and fatigue: Toxic algae is causing flu-like symptoms along the Mediterranean coast
Estelle Nilsson-JulienEURONEWS
Fri, 23 June 2023
Nausea, red eyes and fatigue: Toxic algae is causing flu-like symptoms along the Mediterranean coast
Since 2021, close to 900 people have been infected by ostreopsis - a form of microscopic algae which was first spotted in the Atlantic Ocean in 2021.
A new report by ANSES, the French National Health Security Agency, warns of the dangers of human contact with the algae and its toxins.
Marc Rappoport, a doctor who lives in Biarritz believes he was contaminated when surfing in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the Basque region.
"I started getting symptoms 45 minutes after entering the water. I had nausea but continued to surf," he tells Euronews Green. "In the afternoon I started feeling achey, my eyes were red and I was extremely tired. It lasted 48 hours and my symptoms were similar to the flu."
Whilst inhaling sea spray remains the most common mode of infection, it can also occur through skin contact and ingestion. Symptoms typically surface within hours of direct or indirect contact with the algae and tend to disappear within a matter of days.
As well as surfers, those who work on beaches - such as lifeguards - are at particular risk of infection. When contacted by Euronews Green, the Basque Committee of Lifeguards stated that they had not yet charted a significant rise in cases of ostreopsis among personnel.
Workers in nearby shops and restaurants also risk airborne exposure, according to the report. "People with respiratory problems" should also be especially vigilant, according to to ANSES spokesperson Carole Castini.
Monitoring algae levels in France and Spain's coastlines
In 2021, multiple beaches in Biarritz, Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Bidart, in the Basque coast were closed off as a preventive measure due to high levels of ostreopsis.
However, monitoring ostreopsis infections proved difficult for health authorities during the pandemic. Symptoms were similar to COVID-19, but authorities have since intensified scientific monitoring of the region's waters.
Maïder Arosteguy, Mayor of Biarritz - a city which attracts thousands of tourists every year - told Euronews Green that closing beaches remains highly unlikely this year.
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"We have more information now than we did in 2021. We also know that if we closed off beaches, we should also close off nearby restaurants and shops because of its presence in the air."
"We were very disappointed with the French National Health Security Agency for not sending us the report before it was publicly released. We must now rush to action but were not warned before of the findings."
Arosteguy added that when ostreopsis levels reach alarming rates they will be catalogued in Kalilo, a weather app which operates in the Basque region.
Surf Rider Europe has been taking samples in order to monitor algae levels - Surf Rider Europe
However, some organisations feel that monitoring by authorities could go further. NGO Surf Rider Europe - which works to preserve ocean's across Europe - has been regularly sampling ostreopsis levels in surfing zones.
"Surfers travel from around the world to surf here, but they don't necessarily listen to warnings about algae but we want to ensure their safety", Marc Valmassoni, Surf Rider Europe spokesperson told Euronews.
Surfers risk particularly high levels of contamination "swimmers will go into the water for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, but a surfer will be in there significantly longer. A surfer will drink on average drink the equivalent of 1 cup of water per surf session."
The NGO has been raising awareness about the dangers of the algae in local surf clubs, as well as in pharmacies and in community hubs.
Plastic pollution is a 'time bomb' warns France's President Macron
Is climate change bringing toxic algae to Europe's coastlines?
Ostreopsis outbreaks mainly occur in summertime, when water temperatures exceed 20 degrees.
The microalgae were first observed in France in 1972, and are now regularly found along the Mediterranean coastlines of France, Italy and Spain.
The toxic variant of ostreopsis is named the 'ovata' strain and originates from tropical waters. Due to a combination of global warming and maritime transport movements, it surfaced in the Mediterranean.
Ostreopsis has a brown-reddish colour but is not usually visible due to its microscopic size. But it can aggregate into floating blooms, as well as give water a metallic taste. Nevertheless, other forms of algae can also merge into blooms in the Atlantic Ocean and be mistaken for ostreopsis.
Activist Diego Caixeta shares insights on the rise of the far-right around the globe
Sarah McKenna Barry
Fri, 23 June 2023
The photo shows Diego Caixeta. It is a close up headshot taken in front of a building with a Pride flag. He is wearing a mustard coloured shirt open over a white tshirt. Hazel Coonagh
As we celebrate Pride Month across this island, we must confront the harsh reality that our community faces a rising tide of disinformation, scapegoating and hate. It’s time again for us to channel our collective pain and anger into action for social justice. As part of the #StrongerTogether initiative in collaboration with the Rowan Trust and the Hope and Courage collective, GCN interviewed Diego Caixeta of the MPOWER programme, who spoke about how Ireland can learn from the rise of the far-right in Brazil if it takes action now.
As Ireland’s growing far-right movement continues to put the lives of refugees, minorities and the LGBTQ+ community at risk, it’s important to contextualise the violence from a global perspective.
One person who is all too familiar with the impact of the far-right movement both here and in his home country of Brazil is Diego Caixeta. Diego has been living in Ireland for the past 13 years, and during that time, he worked for the Gay Men’s Health Service, before joining the MPOWER Programme at HIV Ireland.
Over the past few years, Diego has been following Brazil’s political situation intently while witnessing a similar wave of far-right rhetoric rise in Ireland.
“We had a far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro,” Diego explains. “He was in the same wave as Trump, and stayed in power for four years, causing destruction.”
Bolsonaro’s presidency was defined by his antienvironmental and pro-gun stance. During his time in office, he disseminated misinformation through the promotion of fake news. He rolled back protections for Brazil’s Indigenous peoples. Poverty and hunger increased, while social inequality reached its worst levels since 2012.
Bolsonaro’s anti-LGBTQ+ stance was clear even before he was elected, when he professed that he would be “incapable of loving a homosexual son,” and expressed concern over Brazil becoming a welcoming place for the LGBTQ+ community. Last year, Brazil was the country with the highest rate of murdered trans people for the 14th consecutive year.
Bolsonaro’s election, Diego feels, came as a result of a campaign of manipulation and exploitation, one that encouraged the public to blame minorities for wider problems. It’s a similar mechanism that mobilises the far right around the world.
“It’s always the same,” Diego says. “They take the opportunity of a crisis, and they use a very simple narrative to get people engaged with them. They are democratically elected, but when they are in power they start destabilising democracy, to try to be in power and cause all the destruction that they do.”
Bolsonaro ran for re-election in 2022, but was defeated by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a centre-left candidate. Despite this change in presidency, the right wing parties that sided with Bolsonaro make up half of Brazil’s congress. With this, Diego worries that Bolsonaro’s legacy will continue to jeopardise the lives of Black people, the LGBTQ+ community and Brazil’s Indigenous population.
“The far right have an umbrella of targets,” Diego explains.
Still, he is hopeful for Brazil’s future. “I think there is always hope,” he says. “You have to have hope. There are strong groups trying to push legislation to protect minorities. On the other hand, it’s tricky. Our Congress is very conservative and full of extremism, and we have a big rise in evangelism. It’s very easy to get their narrative across when they use religion as an excuse for what they’re doing.”
In Ireland, Diego has concerns over the escalation of far-right violence we’ve seen this year. “I think the far right hasn’t fully looked into Ireland with the same urgency they did in other countries, but they are around. We’ve seen all the protests against migrants, setting tents on fire, trying to block refugees from going to hotels. I hope that Ireland can start acting now, but you have to act in a very strong way.”
With a number of people becoming radicalised via social media and misinformation, Diego believes greater regulation could make a difference, if executed swiftly.
“Social media is so powerful, but it’s not so well regulated. I know Europe is trying to legislate it, but technology is way faster than legislation,” he says. “Social media platforms are allowing people to say whatever they want to say. I don’t think they understand that what is a crime offline is still a crime online.”
Ireland, Diego Caixeta believes, can look to Brazil to understand how quickly the far right can grow, and its ensuing consequences.
“Here in Ireland, we can predict things and hope the Government takes it seriously. Especially with the situation regarding healthcare and housing. No one can access these things at the moment, so it’s very easy to target minorities and blame them for everything, and that’s how xenophobia and racism rises, and that’s what the far right does.”
This story originally appeared in GCN’s Pride issue 378, as part of an ongoing feature on solidarity that was created in cooperation with the Rowan Trust and the Hope and Courage Collective. You can read this interview with Diego Caixeta and other activists in the full issue here.
Want to be featured in this special campaign? Share a message of solidarity using #StrongerTogether, tagging GCN or email info@gcn.ie.
Only the super wealthy stand to lose money from shutting down fossil fuels, study finds
Charlotte Elton
Fri, 23 June 2023
Scaling down fossil fuels would have hardly any financial impact on the vast majority of people, new research reveals.
Oil and gas companies are the single biggest driver of global heating.
But opponents of the renewable transition often claim that cutting down fossil fuel production will be hugely expensive - and hit ordinary people in the pocket.
New research sends this argument up in smoke. According to a study published in Joule journal this week, the clean transition will have a marginal financial impact on ordinary people.
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Church of England divests from fossil fuels after oil and gas companies fail on climate
In the United States, two-thirds of financial losses from fossil fuel assets would affect the top 10 per cent of wealth holders, with half of that affecting the top 1 per cent.
In contrast, 3.5 per cent of financial losses would affect the poorest half of Americans.
The researchers say that analysis on Europe and the UK showed “similar” results.
“Investing in a [fossil fuel project] is like buying a rotten apple,” co-first author Lucas Chancel said.
“The apple is rotten because of climate change. Who owns these rotten apples? We find that the richest 10 per cent of the population owns the vast majority of these assets.”
What are ‘stranded assets’ and why do they matter in the clean transition?
Opponents of climate action often refer to the risk of ‘stranded’ assets. These are fossil fuel reserves, infrastructure, and technologies that lose their value prematurely as climate-conscious governments reduce subsidies and investors pull out.
By ‘stranding’ polluting assets, the rationale runs, shutting down production could trigger an economic slump, hitting everyday people’s pensions and savings.
The new research suggests that this is not the case.
The clean transition requires ramped up investment in wind and solar power. - Canva
The ‘losers’ of the clean energy transition are the super-wealthy - and what they stand to lose is still just a fraction of their overall wealth.
Rich people tend to have a “diverse portfolio of investments”, so clean transition losses would still make up less than 1 per cent of this group’s net wealth.
Researchers estimate that the entirety of the clean transition losses for the bottom 50 per cent of earners could be compensated for as little as $9 billion in Europe and $12 billion in the US.
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For comparison, governments spent more than €900 billion on fossil fuel subsidies in 2022, the highest figure ever recorded.
"There's this idea that it's the general populace that should be opposed to climate policy that creates stranded assets because their pensions are at risk or their retirement savings or just their savings," says co-author Gregor Semieniuk.
"It's not untrue that some wealth is at risk, but in affluent countries, it's not a reason for government inaction because it would be so cheap for governments to compensate that."
UK's Heathrow airport strikes cancelled after pay deal
Reuters
Fri, 23 June 2023
A British Airways aircraft takes off over terminal 4 at Heathrow Airport near London
LONDON (Reuters) - Heathrow Airport security workers on Friday called off 31 days of strikes planned for this summer, a relief for those travelling through Britain's busiest hub for their summer getaway.
Over 2,000 staff accepted an improved pay offer for a rise of between 15.5% and 17.5% the Unite union said on Friday and industrial action at the airport had been cancelled as a result.
Workers had already staged 18 days of strikes in recent months, and while airport bosses had guided it would be able to keep operations running smoothly despite walkouts over the summer, passengers worried there could be a repeat of last year's chaos.
In 2022, a faster-than-expected rebound in air travel for the peak season coupled with labour shortages caused long delays at several airports across Europe.
Heathrow, which was used by 6.7 million passengers in May, said it was pleased the dispute was over.
"We can now move forward together and focus on delivering an excellent summer for our passengers," a spokesperson said.
Britain continues to face strike action in other sectors. Teachers, railway workers and junior doctors are all due to strike in July.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by William James)
Heathrow Airport security officers dispute ends with new pay deal
Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent
Fri, 23 June 2023
A long-running dispute involving security officers at Heathrow Airport has ended after workers voted to accept an improved pay offer.
More than 2,000 security officers at Heathrow Terminals 3 and 5 and campus security were due to take 31 days of strike action throughout the summer, but talks resumed which Unite said led to an improved pay offer.
The union said workers will receive an increase of between 15.5% and 17.5%.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This was a hard won victory which demonstrates what can be achieved when workers stand together and take action together
“The pay deal at Heathrow is a further demonstration of how Unite’s complete focus on jobs, pay and conditions is having direct benefits for its members.”
The dispute started before Easter, with Unite members taking a total of 18 days of industrial action.
Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King said: “The solidarity and dedication of Unite’s reps and members was fundamental in ensuring Heathrow Airport returned to the negotiating table with an improved offer.”
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We are pleased to confirm Unite members have voted to accept a two-year above-inflation pay deal, ending the current dispute and allowing the strikes to be called off.
“We can now move forward together and focus on delivering an excellent summer for our passengers.”
UK
Private school blasted for 'misleading' figures in pay dispute with teachers
Alex Marsh
Fri, 23 June 2023
NEU and NASUWT members at Mill Hill School have held two days of strikes this week (Image: NEU/NASUWT)
Teachers have taken to the picket line outside a private school as a dispute over pay and working conditions escalates.
Members of the NASUWT and NEU teachers’ unions at Mill Hill School in The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, walked out yesterday and today (June 22 to 23).
The unions have accused the private school, which charges up to £39,810 a year, of slashing paid time off for staff to care for sick children and for key dates of religious observance.
But Mill Hill School Foundation says it is merely implementing a policy that is standard practice “across the education sector”.
READ MORE - Teachers at private Mill Hill School in Barnet set to strike
A spokesperson for the school claimed that union members had demanded a 20.3% pay award, which is something that “could simply not be met” by the foundation.
But teachers and union representatives have disputed this characterisation. One banner on the picket line outside the school yesterday read: “we want respect, not a 20% pay rise”.
Keith Nason, secretary of the Barnet branch of the NEU, said that it was “misleading” for the school to state that the unions demanded a 20% pay rise as its “final position”.
He added that it was merely a “starting point for negotiation”, factoring in the erosion of real pay over the last few years due to inflation.
A document shared with Barnet Times Series shows that in requests sent to the school last week by the NEU and NASUWT, a 5% pay rise in each of the next two years or an 8% pay rise in 2023 was offered.
One mum of a child at the school, who did not wish to be named, said she felt the school was “running roughshod over goodwill”, and was “pitting parents against teachers” by quoting “misleading” figures.
She added: “I just feel that’s very underhand. The teachers will just feel that they’ve been completely thrown under a bus, they’ve been totally misrepresented.
“For me as a parent, I don’t want my child at a school where there’s a fight between the management and the teachers, with a loss of goodwill and low morale, which is very damaging.
“A small increment in fees is preferable in my mind to an overall poor delivery in terms of education.”
The NEU said it believed this was the first local NEU strike in over two decades, highlighting the exceptional nature of the dispute.
READ MORE - Awards for north London NHS staff filling gaps after Covid
A spokesperson for the Mill Hill School Foundation said: “We have continued to meet with union representatives to seek solutions to this dispute to avoid strike action, and we have presented a range of proposals to try to reach an agreement, including on pay.
“Paid leave has not been cut. We have recently put in place a foundation-wide policy that, for the first time, formally sets out how staff can make leave requests for various situations.
“The policy has been put together based on legal advice and HR practice across the education sector and has been designed to be fair across all staff – for instance those who have children and those who do not, and those who do and do not observe religious holidays.
“The policy makes clear that the foundation will consider all reasonable requests, and there is discretion for additional paid leave based on individual circumstances.
“We believe this strike action, however, is unnecessary and counter-productive to the children’s education and wellbeing.”
IRELAND
Cavan/Fermanagh Border-based artist opens major national solo show in Cork
Jessica Campbell
Fri, 23 June 2023
Cavan/Fermanagh Border-based artist Rita Duffy, known for her acerbic political commentary, opens major national solo show in Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
Rita Duffy believes in the power of art to help tackle the seemingly insurmountable global challenges of climate change, inequity and migration.
The veteran Northern Irish artist, who is based on the Fermanagh/Cavan Border, is well known for her acerbic political commentary in works such as ‘The Raft Project’ which replicated 19th century painting The Raft of the Medusa to critique Brexit politics. In this exhibition, she focuses her keen gaze on migration and climate change in a soon-to-be-revealed series of exciting new works that form the backbone of her first solo exhibition in the Crawford Art Gallery.
Rita Duffy. Photo: Johnny Banbury
Duffy’s new triptych of paintings, Epiphany, Belfast to Byzantium and Ornithopter, grapple with the grotesquery of a world of socio-economic divisions against the backdrop of climate change, migration and increasing attempts to use borders as a fortress to protect the affluent .
Referencing post-Trump US politics, the 2021 Kabul airlift and the history of Northern Irish people as settlers in the US Bible Belt, the trilogy is a painful satire of global affairs, painted with a nod to Hieronymus Bosch, Brueghel and Goya.
Rita Duffy, Ornithopter, 2023. © the artist.
Duffy holds a horrifying mirror up to the current state of world affairs, and yet she believes not all is bleak: art and creative thinking are our hope for the future, she says.
“I think art is the thing that is the most hopeful,” Duffy says. “There is a sense of cataclysm all around us, in our movies, our culture. It’s almost like we’re digging ourselves into the negative darkness and that’s where art’s role becomes more and more important.”
An artist known for her Northern Irish roots and her pervasive interest in social justice, she says identifying herself as nationalist in the context of the climate crisis is problematic, even as a large political shift is underway in her native Northern Ireland.
Rita Duffy, Partition, 2023. © the artist.
“I think there’s a phenomenal, unstoppable energy bubbling up in Ireland. Now more than ever, local politics are important as they speak to the global. There is only one issue we need to be urgently addressing and that’s climate change,” she said.
“There’s nothing else on the agenda. We’re coming into a post-nationalist state, because it doesn’t matter what your nationality is or where you’re from. If you don’t have clean water to drink or a safe place to live, waving a flag is not going to make any difference to you.”
Mary McCarthy, Director of Crawford Art Gallery said: "Crawford Art Gallery continues to champion artists practice through these solo presentations as well as through group exhibitions. Duffy’s work is relevant pertinent and visually arresting. We hope our visitors will be inspired and engaged by her rich visual imagery."
Persistent Illusion by Rita Duffy is in the Gibson Galleries at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork City until Sunday, October 8.
UK should make Hong Kong release of Jimmy Lai 'priority': son
Jurgen HECKER
Fri, 23 June 2023
'The clock is ticking' for Jimmy Lai, says his son, Sebastien (Zoulerah NORDDINE)
The son of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon jailed since 2020 in Hong Kong, has called on Britain to step up pressure for his father's release.
Jimmy Lai, a 75-year-old British citizen and founder of the now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily, is awaiting trial for alleged "collusion with foreign forces" -- an offence under a security law Beijing imposed in 2020 to quell dissent in the wake of protests.
In an interview with AFP during a trip to Paris, his son Sebastien Lai said the British government needed to make his father's case "a political priority" in its dealings with China and the Hong Kong authorities over the former British colony.
"So long as you have a person like Jimmy Lai behind bars it can't be business as usual," he said.
In the latest twist in the Jimmy Lai case, a Hong Kong court last month dismissed his challenge of a ruling that banned a British lawyer from representing him, a decision that observers said illustrated Beijing's ability to trump Hong Kong courts despite the city's guarantee of judicial independence from the mainland.
Sebastien Lai, who is 28 and has worked for his family's property development business in Taiwan for the past three years, said Britain owed all its citizens protection, including his father.
"If they don't stand firm in the protection that this citizen is guaranteed, in a place that they do business with, then, to their great shame, what is the point of having a passport? What is the point of being a citizen?" he said.
Jimmy Lai is facing up to life in prison if convicted.
His trial, scheduled for December last year, was pushed to September.
At the start of this year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed that his government would resist any "undermining" of a deal guaranteeing Hong Kong citizens existing rights and freedoms for 50 years after Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997.
But Sebastien Lai said London needed to do more. "I'm not asking for people to break my father out of prison or what not," he said.
"I'm asking the UK to speak out on my father's case, to put pressure on Hong Kong, because every single person in the free world sees this as something unacceptable."
- 'Clock ticking' -
Hong Kong's common law system, inherited from British colonial rule, is distinct from mainland China's. But Sebastien Lai said Hong Kong was now using it to justify its political actions.
"What the Hong Kong government is doing right now is using the UK legal system as a moral laundromat," Sebastien Lai said.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a France-based media freedom body, has helped bring Jimmy Lai's case to global attention, including with a petition signed by 116 media leaders calling for his release.
On RSF's press freedom ranking of 180 states, Hong Kong is now number 140, a drop of 122 spots in 20 years, the organisation said.
Six other Apple Daily employees risk life in prison on the basis of the security law, according to RSF.
Jimmy Lai has been behind bars since December 2020 and has since been sentenced to more than seven years for unauthorised assembly and fraud.
"Under any legal system with a rulebook, he's not guilty," Sebastien Lai said.
"In the end this is about a man who gave up all that he's worked for, all the tangible stuff that he's worked for, for something intangible like liberty," he said.
Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a petition caling for his release.
While campaigning for support in France, Sebastien Lai met with officials at the foreign ministry, Paris city hall and lawmakers from the Senate and National Assembly.
"France understands the struggle of a man who gave everything for liberty," he said, adding that his family had strong ties to France where Jimmy Lai got married.
Sebastien Lai said he last saw his father in August 2020, shortly before leaving Hong Kong. "He's 75. The clock is ticking."
jh/sjw/ach
EU visits Silicon Valley: Thierry Breton puts Twitter under 'stress test' over bloc's new law
Associated Press
Fri, 23 June 2023
A top European Union official is in Silicon Valley to check whether Twitter is ready to comply with the bloc’s tough new digital rulebook, a set of sweeping new standards that the world’s biggest online platforms all must obey in just two months.
European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees digital policy, is the EU's point person working to get tech companies in line for the Digital Services Act, which will force companies to crack down on hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful material on their sites.
It takes effect on August 25 for the biggest tech platforms.
Twitter will respect EU laws to combat disinformation, Elon Musk says
The law, along with new regulations in the pipeline for data and artificial intelligence (AI), has made Brussels a trailblazer in the growing global movement to clamp down on Big Tech.
Breton tweeted about his meeting Thursday at Twitter headquarters to carry out a voluntary "stress test" to prepare for the new rules.
"The company is taking this exercise very seriously," he said, adding he had "constructive dialogue" with owner Elon Musk and new CEO Linda Yaccarino.
The mock exercise tested Twitter's readiness to cope with the DSA's requirements, including protecting children online and detecting and mitigating risks like disinformation, under both normal and extreme situations.
Despite Musk’s claims to the contrary, independent researchers have found misinformation - as well as hate speech - spreading on Twitter since the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company last year.
Musk has reinstated notorious election deniers, overhauled Twitter’s verification system, and gutted much of the staff that had been responsible for moderating posts.
From AI to Twitter: What Elon Musk did and didn't discuss in his appearance at VivaTech in Paris
Last month, Breton warned Twitter that it "can’t hide" from its obligations after the social media site abandoned the bloc's voluntary "code of practice" on online disinformation, which other social media platforms have pledged to support.
Under the EU Digital Services Act, combating disinformation will become a legal requirement.
Musk has said Twitter will comply.
"If laws are passed, Twitter will obey the law," Musk told the France 2 TV channel this week when asked about the DSA.
Meetings with Meta and OpenAI
Breton's agenda on Friday includes discussions about the EU’s digital rules and upcoming artificial intelligence regulations with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company makes the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The DSA is part of a sweeping update to the EU's digital rulebook aimed at forcing tech companies to clean up their platforms and better protect users online.
For European users of big tech platforms, it will be easier to report illegal content like hate speech, and they will get more information on why they have been recommended certain content.
Violations will incur fines worth up to 6 per cent of annual global revenue - amounting to billions of dollars for some tech giants - or even a ban on operating in the EU, with its 450 million consumers.
Breton also is meeting Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the dominant supplier of semiconductors used in AI systems, for talks on the EU's Chips Act to boost the continent's chipmaking industry.
The EU, meanwhile, is putting the final touches on its AI Act, the world's first comprehensive set of rules on the emerging technology that has stirred fascination as well as fears it could violate privacy, upend jobs, infringe on copyright, and more.
Final approval is expected by the end of the year, but it won’t take effect until two years later. Breton has been pitching a voluntary "AI Pact" to help companies get ready for its adoption.
AUSTRALIA
Infosys paid $16m to lobbying firm which Stuart Robert allegedly advised
Tory ShepherdGUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
Fri, 23 June 2023
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Infosys paid $16m to Synergy 360, the company that reportedly sent profits to the trust of a company part-owned by former Coalition MP Stuart Robert, a parliamentary committee has heard.
The Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) is investigating possible “tainted contracts” following allegations that Robert helped lobbying firm Synergy 360 and its client, Infosys, win government contracts.
The Infosys executive vice-president, Andrew Groth, said on Friday that his firm no longer engaged Synergy 360, had not been aware of anything untoward and that Synergy claimed they didn’t have to register as a lobbyist organisation.
Nine newspapers have reported the allegations and that Synergy 360’s co-owners, David Milo and John Margerison, are linked to Robert.
Related: Labor orders investigation into government contracts linked to Stuart Robert
Robert, a close friend of former prime minister Scott Morrison, has denied any wrongdoing. He has previously rejected any “implied imputation” that he had influenced procurement, declaring he had “zero involvement” and that departmental procurement was conducted with the “highest levels of probity”.
Robert announced his retirement from the Gold Coast seat of Fadden in May. A byelection will be held on 15 July.
On Thursday, Shorten said in parliament that in November he had updated the house on reports in Nine newspapers “alleging Mr Stuart Robert used his status as a federal MP to help Canberra lobbying firm Synergy 360 sign up corporate clients with a promise of helping them navigate government bureaucracy and parliament and meet key decision-makers, including Coalition ministers”.
“The initial report detailed how Mr Robert personally intervened in contracts worth $274m awarded to Indian software giant Infosys,” he said.
“Flowing from these disturbing revelations, Services Australia and the NDIS investigated potentially tainted contracts linked to Synergy 360.”
Shorten said a review by former public servant Dr Ian Watt found 19 of 95 procurements “had real deficiencies”.
Since then, he said, the JCPAA heard evidence from Margerison that he had “instructed his accountant to direct Synergy 360 profits derived from commonwealth contracts to a trust to which Mr Robert was a beneficiary”.
Related: Stuart Robert told lobbyist not to donate to Angus Taylor fundraising group as ‘it will be declared and it will hurt you’
Anyone with a direct or indirect financial interest in government contracts cannot sit as a senator or MP under the constitution, Shorten said, adding that it was not clear “if that threshold has been breached”.
Groth told the committee Infosys paid Synergy 360 about $16m over five years for a range of projects. Most of the money was for core work, while 15% was for sales support and 15% was for “success fees”. The company no longer awarded success fees, he said.
He met with Robert 11 times, he said on Friday, and that was because the MP had asked to be kept updated on the progress of a specific project to upgrade the information technology systems at Services Australia while he was the government services minister.
Infosys was selected after a 14-month procurement process, Groth said.
The committee asked him about Shorten stating in parliament that MPs using a public office to “enrich private mates” was corruption, which sparked a debate among MPs about who the accusation was aimed at.
“My response is that at Infosys our code of conduct, dealing with integrity, with transparency, is absolutely core to our business,” Groth said. “That’s the way we operate. I’m not aware of anything that departs from that.”
Guardian Australia contacted Synergy 360 and Robert’s office for comment.
Why some doctors stay in US states with restrictive abortion laws and others leave
Fri, June 23, 2023
Dr. Kylie Cooper chokes up thinking about the patients she left behind in Idaho.
One who often comes to mind is Kayla Smith.
Smith said she chose to end a desperately wanted pregnancy last year after discovering her fetus had potentially deadly heart defects and other problems. But Idaho banned nearly all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, so Smith had to go to Washington state. Cooper felt “deeply saddened” she couldn’t care for her the way she normally would have.
And this is one of the reasons Cooper, a maternal-fetal specialist, moved in April to Minnesota, which has broad abortion rights.
“Obviously it was a very difficult decision for me and my family," she said. But they needed to be “where we felt that reproductive health care was protected and safe.”
Post-Roe, many maternal care doctors in restrictive states face the same stark choice: Stay or go? They must weigh tough questions about medical ethics, their own families and whether they can provide the best care without risking their careers or even winding up in prison. They know a lot is at stake for patients, too, due to current and projected widespread maternal care shortages in the U.S.
Some doctors make a different choice than Cooper. OB-GYN Dr. Alecia Fields moved back to her native Kentucky around the time news first leaked about the Supreme Court’s ruling. She practices in a conservative rural county and can no longer provide abortions part-time in Louisville like she once did.
Fields feels an intense connection to her state and hopes to foster change from within. Plus, she said, “there's a big need for providers in general in terms of reproductive health care.”
Nationally, 44% of counties had low or no access to obstetric providers, according to a 2022 March of Dimes report based on data gathered before the Supreme Court ruling. That figures jump to more than 50% in Kentucky, Idaho and some other states with restrictive abortion laws.
Federal projections show a widening gulf between supply and demand for OB-GYNs nationally through 2035. And among the 24 states that have taken steps to restrict abortion, all but Ohio will see an even bigger need by then, according to The Associated Press' analysis of the federal data.
Abortion restrictions, combined with the challenges of practicing in rural areas, threaten to expand so-called “maternal care deserts," said Dr. Amy Domeyer-Klenske, who chairs the Wisconsin section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
This won't just affect people seeking abortions, said McKay Cunningham, who teaches reproductive rights and constitutional law at the College of Idaho. “It has ramifications that really just affect every woman, every family, that wants to have children.”
STAYING IN KENTUCKY
As the midday sun glistened on Lake Cumberland, Fields knelt down to feed her backyard chickens. She and her husband, who is a stay-at-home dad, bought a house and barn on three acres to raise their two little boys.
That’s how Fields, 36, grew up — shuttling from her parents’ house in Lexington to her grandparents’ house in the country. “You could just run and go anywhere and play anywhere,” she said. “Everybody kind of knew each other, came over for Sunday dinners and it just had a real warm feeling to it.”
At the University of Kentucky and later in medical school, Fields became an advocate for reproductive rights. She served on the board of Medical Students for Choice and learned abortion care during her residency in Rochester, New York. When she worked at a health center in Indianapolis, she drove to Louisville monthly to provide abortions at Planned Parenthood.
Then last spring, she got a job offer from a health center in Somerset, Kentucky. It was a chance to serve a county where nearly 1 in 5 people live in poverty and some drive an hour or two for care.
But Fields said the abortion decision leak brought up “a lot of fears” and made her wonder: “What is this going to mean on the ground? Am I going to be criminalized?”
She decided to risk it.
Now, she tries to provide the best care possible given the limitations. She said her goal is to “create a really safe space that’s very open-ended,” where patients can share whether their pregnancies are planned, how they feel about them and what they want to do. If necessary, she can point them toward information on out-of-state abortion providers and travel funds. She can also prescribe birth control and offer permanent sterilization — something more of her patients are seeking.
And if an emergency puts a mother’s life in danger, abortion is allowed. “The hard thing is, waiting until that moment puts the patient at a lot of risk,” Fields said.
Despite constraints on her practice, patients regularly thank Fields at the clinic or when she bumps into them at Walmart. One expressed her gratitude publicly on Facebook, describing how she hemorrhaged while delivering her baby — and Fields saved them both.
Fields displays her love for Kentucky on her dining room shelves, where she's placed a wooden cutout and colorful picture in the shape of the state, a horse statue and the framed saying “home sweet home.” She envisions staying for a long time and caring for generations of local families.
“I want to be settled,” she said. “To kind of put down roots and build on them.”
LEAVING IDAHO
Cooper, like Fields, wanted to practice where she was needed and “make a huge impact."
She moved to Boise in 2018, and the job proved extremely rewarding. She handled the toughest cases, shepherding some women through loss and helping others welcome healthy babies despite serious pregnancy complications. She made deep connections with patients, families and coworkers.
Her family loved Idaho. She and her husband, also a stay-at-home dad, lived in a great neighborhood and had a group of friends. The kids, 9 and 6, did well in school.
“We just had a good life,” Cooper, 39, said. “We had no plans to leave.”
That changed after Idaho banned abortion. Under state law, doctors who perform the procedure can be charged with a felony and have their medical license revoked.
For some of Cooper’s patients, abortion was the best option and the only way to preserve life and health.
“The idea of not being able to help them the way that I should was just was terrifying,” she said.
She was already having to run some cases by hospital attorneys and feared she might soon be forced to choose between her patients’ welfare and her own. If she went to prison, she realized, her children might go years without a mom. And the family’s income would disappear.
All she and her husband would talk about, she said, “was abortion care and my job and just all the stress of it.”
A new poll by KFF, a nonprofit that does health care research, found 61% of OB-GYNs in states with abortion bans say they are very or somewhat concerned about their own legal risk when making decisions about patient care and whether abortions are necessary.
One of Cooper's colleagues in Idaho also decided to leave, surveyed other maternal care professionals and found dozens more were considering moving out of the state within the next year.
Cooper's family is now settling into a new house in Minnesota. They're still unpacking. They’re figuring out new schedules and looking for new friends. “Basically,” Cooper said, “we’re trying to find what we had in Idaho.”
She said she still worries a lot about her former patients, over which "lots of tears were shed and still are.”
Smith misses Cooper just as much. The doctor cried with her when she chose to end her second pregnancy after realizing halfway through that her fetus likely wouldn’t live. And Cooper helped her cope with the loss of baby Brooks, who lived a few moments after induced labor.
When Smith learned Cooper was leaving, she stopped by her office to thank her for everything and give her flowers and a hug.
“I’m just really sad. She was so kind. She changed our lives,” said Smith, who is also considering moving away. “I don’t blame her for leaving. But it sucks for everyone here.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Laura Ungar, The Associated Press
