Top UN court to rule on S. Africa Gaza ceasefire bid

The Hague (AFP) – The top United Nations court on Friday will rule on a plea by South Africa to order a halt to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, with Pretoria accusing Israel of "genocide".


Issued on: 24/05/2024 

The ICJ's rulings are binding but it has no way to enforce them 

© Nick Gammon / AFP

Pretoria has urged the International Court of Justice to order an "immediate" stop to Israel's campaign, including in the southern area of Rafah, and facilitate access of humanitarian aid.

Israel wants the court to toss out the request, arguing an enforced ceasefire would allow Hamas fighters to regroup and make it impossible to recover hostages taken in their October 7 assault.

In a highly-charged ruling in January, the court ordered Israel to do everything in its power to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.

South Africa argues that the recent Israeli operation in Rafah changed the situation on the ground and should compel the court to issue fresh emergency orders.

The ICJ rules in disputes between countries. Its orders are legally binding but it has no means to enforce them directly. The court has, for example, ordered Russia to halt its invasion of Ukraine to no avail.

South Africa has accused Israel of Genocide

 © Nick Gammon / AFP

Judges could agree to South Africa's request, reject it out of hand or even issue a completely separate set of orders.

The ICJ's ruling comes hot on the heels of a landmark request by the International Criminal Court's lead prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders.

Prosecutor Karim Khan alleges that senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, plus top Hamas officials, are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the October 7 attack and the war in Gaza.
'Limited and localised'

In public hearings at the ICJ last week, South Africa's ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela alleged that "Israel's genocide has continued apace and has just reached a new and horrific stage".

"Although the present application was triggered by the unfolding situation in Rafah, Israel's genocidal onslaught across Gaza has intensified over the past few days, also warranting the attention of this Court," he said.

South Africa charges the only way to enable humanitarian aid in to ease the crisis in Gaza is a full halt to Israel's military operations.

It wants the court to issue emergency orders -- "provisional measures" in court jargon -- while it weighs the broader South African case that Israel is breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Israel counters that South Africa's case is an "obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention" and the picture Pretoria paints to the court is "completely divorced from the facts and circumstances".

Israel says the case makes a 'mockery' of the UN Genocide Convention 

© Nick Gammon / AFP

"It makes a mockery of the heinous charge of genocide," said top Israel lawyer Gilam Noam at hearings.

"Calling something a genocide, again and again, does not make it genocide. Repeating a lie does not make it true," he added.

Noam described Rafah as a "focal point for ongoing terrorist activity" and said that operations there were "limited and localised", with no harm meant to civilians.
Bloodiest ever Gaza war

Israel pressed ahead with the assault on Rafah, the last city in Gaza to be entered by its ground troops, in defiance of global opposition, including from top ally the United States.

Washington voiced concerns that about 1.4 million Palestinians trapped in the city would be caught in the line of fire.

Israel has since ordered mass evacuations from the city, and the UN says more than 800,000 people have fled.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The devastation in Rafah has been widespread © Eyad BABA / AFP

Militants also took 252 hostages, 124 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israel has also imposed a siege that has deprived Gaza's 2.4 million people of most clean water, food, medicines and fuel.

© 2024 AFP

Mines, unexploded ordnance a daily menace for Afghanistan's children

Ghazni (Afghanistan) (AFP) – The black mushroom cloud had barely faded in Ghazni province before kids clustered around the edge of the crater created by the mine, one of the devices that kills a child every other day in Afghanistan.


Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

Children gather around a crater after Afghan deminers from the Halo Trust detonated an anti-tank mine in Ghazni province © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
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Afghans have been able to return to fields, schools and roads since the Taliban authorities ended their insurgency and ousted the Western-backed government in 2021.

But with new freedom of movement comes the danger of remnants left behind after 40 years of successive conflicts.

Nearly 900 people were killed or wounded by leftover munitions from January 2023 to April this year alone, most of them children, according to UN figures.

The anti-tank mine had been 100 metres from Qach Qala village, south of the provincial capital Ghazni, since the Soviet invasion from 1979 to 1989.

Deminers from the British organisation Halo Trust cautiously unearthed then detonated it, the explosion echoing three kilometres (nearly two miles) around.

But before it was set off, a Taliban member roared up to the deminers on his motorcycle.

"Give me that mine!" he demanded. "I'll keep it safe at home. We can use it later when Afghanistan is occupied again."

Afghan deminers from the Halo Trust clear anti-tank mines in Qala Khail village, Ghazni province © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

The mine couldn't be "so dangerous since it hadn't exploded all these years", he insisted, before being pushed back by the deminers.

The Taliban government "is very supportive of demining in this country and wants to conduct clearance as far as it possibly can", said Nick Pond, head of the Mine Action Section of UNAMA, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.

Demining began in Afghanistan as early as 1988 but, over decades of wars, the country has been re-infested with mines and ordnance.

"It is almost impossible at the moment to predict what the scale of current contamination is," Pond told AFP.

Eighty-two percent of those killed or wounded by the remnant weapons since January 2023 were children, with half of cases involving children playing.

The village of Nokordak, nestled in a bucolic valley, lost two children in late April.

Surrounded by her small children, Shawoo told of how her 14-year-old son Javid was killed by unexploded ordnance.

An Afghan teacher from the Halo Trust educates children about the risks of unexploded ordnance © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

"He threw a stone at it. He hit it once, then a second time. The third time, the device exploded."

The boy died almost instantly.

The same explosion killed Javid's friend Sakhi Dad, also 14.

"People said there were explosive ordnances around, but nothing like this had ever happened in the village before," said Sakhi Dad's 18-year-old brother, Mohammad Zakir, a lost look in his eyes.

"No one had come to the village to warn the children of the danger."
'Lack of funds'

In PatanaySayed (2R) was still in bandages as he told AFP about the explosion in April that killed his younger brother © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

"Three, four times I pulled it from his hands. I was shouting at him but he kicked me and hit it on a rock," Sayed told AFP.

These kinds of accidents are all too common, said their father Siraj Ahmad.

Tomorrow, "someone else's son could be killed or handicapped for the rest of their life", he said.

Zabto Mayar, Halo's explosive ordnance disposal officer, said "lack of funds" was a major challenge their work.

So deminers work painstakingly plot by plot, depending on donations.

"The mine action workforce was once 15,500 people around 2011. It is currently 3,000," said Pond.

Other global conflicts have pulled funding away, while Afghanistan has also seen donors pull back after the Taliban takeover, their government unrecognised by any other country.
Mistaken for gold

But Mohammad Hassan, headmaster of a small school in the Deh Qazi hamlet, is still counting on the deminers.

An anti-tank mine is detonated in Afghanistan, a country infested with mines and unexploded ordnance © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

"Even the schoolyard is dangerous for the children because it is not cleared of mines," he said.

"We can't even plant trees here. If we dig, if we bring a tractor or machines to work here, it is really dangerous," he said.

Children in a classroom listened to a lesson aimed at preventing such accidents, the wall plastered with charts of mines or ordnance of all shapes and colours.

"Six months ago on a walk with my friends, we saw a rocket and we immediately told the village elders and they informed the deminers," said 12-year-old Jamil Hasan.

Mines and ordnance can look like playthings to children, said Pond.

The Soviet-era butterfly mine (PFM-1), for example, with its winged shape, "is very attractive to pick up", he said.

Children are also drawn to the "beautiful and modern colours" used in munitions, said Halo unit commander Sayed Hassan Mayar.

Shawoo told AFP her son Javid was killed by unexploded ordnance when he threw a stone at it © Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

Some colours are also deceiving, such as golden-topped ammunition that can look like precious metal to people hunting for scrap to sell in the impoverished country.

"The children usually think it might be gold, and they hit it with a stone or a hammer to take the top part," Pond said.

Danger from remnants of war is also omnipresent for deminers. Halo lost two of their number in early May.

"Sometimes when I go defusing mines, I call my family and tell them I love them, just in case anything happens," said Zabto Mayar.

© 2024 AFP

El Nino not responsible for East Africa floods: scientists

Nairobi (AFP) – The El Nino weather pattern did not have "any influence" on widespread flooding that killed hundreds in East Africa this year, an expert group of scientists said Friday.


Issued on: 24/05/2024 -

A woman wades through floodwaters in Garissa, Kenya earlier this month © LUIS TATO / AFP

Torrential rainfall in Kenya, Tanzania and neighbouring nations killed more than 500 people, displacing hundreds of thousands as the deluge swept away homes and swamped roads during the March to May monsoon season.

The region was hit by floods late last year as well, with researchers saying that the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) -- a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between western and eastern areas of the ocean -- contributed to the heavy rainfall.

This year's rains were believed to have been exacerbated by El Nino -- a climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat that leads to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.

But a study published by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group on Friday found that "researchers did not find any evidence that El Nino or the Indian Ocean Dipole had any influence" on this year's extreme rainfall.

The network of scientists has developed peer-reviewed methods for quickly establishing the potential role of global warming in specific extreme weather events.

Scientists examined weather data and climate models to compare how rainfall patterns have changed between now and the pre-industrial era as they sought to measure the impact of climate change on the monsoon.

"The extreme rainfall that led to destructive floods in Kenya, Tanzania and other parts of East Africa is becoming more intense, with climate change as one of the drivers," researchers said.

"The best estimate is that climate change made the event twice as likely and five percent more intense," they said, adding a caveat that the findings also had to take "a large mathematical uncertainty" into account.

The study covered the "maximum 30-day rainfall" during this year's monsoon season, with researchers pointing out that "heavy rainfall will continue to increase in the region with further warming".

Improve infrastructure

The study urged governments in the region to improve infrastructure and protect ecosystems to save lives and help citizens cope with the heightened risk of climate disasters, especially in densely populated urban areas.

East Africa and the Horn of Africa are among the regions most vulnerable to climate change -- even though the continent's contribution to global carbon emissions is a fraction of the total.

Over 300 people died in rains and floods in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia late last year, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades that left millions of people hungry.

A WWA study on last year's floods in East Africa called for the urgent phasing out of fossil fuels and reduction of emissions globally.

© 2024 AFP

Health experts raise concerns over technology related injuries


By Dr. Tim Sandle
May 22, 2024

Image: — © AFP

In the UK, around 63 percent of people aged 75 to 84 had musculoskeletal issues in 2023, the highest rate among different age brackets. As people age, the likelihood of having these conditions increases.

Is this a tendency a reflection of today’s hyper-connected world? The digital age brings unparalleled convenience and connectivity but at a potential cost to physical health.

In the UK, the average person now spends more than 24 hours a week online, with a considerable portion of this time on smartphones and computers. This surge in digital activity is contributing to a host of physical ailments, commonly referred to as “tech-related health issues.”

Common Health Problems Include:Text Neck: Neck pain due to frequent bending over smartphones.
Wrist and Thumb Pain: Often associated with excessive texting or gaming.
Digital Eye Strain: Symptoms include dryness, irritation, and difficulty focusing.
Posture Problems: Long hours in front of a computer can lead to slouching and other posture-related issues, resulting in back and shoulder pain.

Notably, these conditions were less prevalent in previous decades, underscoring digital gadgets’ profound impact on our health.

Josh Gordon, a Geonode technology expert has told Digital Journal: “We’re seeing a marked increase in chronic pain associated with digital device usage. It’s imperative to adapt our habits and environments to mitigate these health risks”.

Gordon recommends the following strategies to reduce health risks:Ergonomic Adjustments: Setting up a workspace that promotes good posture can significantly lower the risk of pain. This includes appropriate chair height, adequate equipment spacing, and proper monitor alignment.
Regular Breaks: Implement the 20-20-20 rule, which suggests taking a 20-second break from the screen every 20 minutes and looking at something 20 feet away.
Physical Activity: Integrating physical exercise into one’s routine helps offset the physical inactivity associated with extended screen time.

The rise in remote working and digital leisure activities means more people than ever are glued to their devices. Recognizing the symptoms of tech-related health issues early can lead to better outcomes.

Gordon suggests: “Regular check-ins on physical health conditions can make a world of difference. Awareness and proactive management are key.”

His ideas for prevention are:Set up a daily routine that includes stretching or yoga exercises specifically targeting the neck, back, and wrists.
Consider the use of ergonomic devices like keyboards, mouse pads with wrist support, and standing desks.
Prioritize eye health by adjusting screen brightness, using blue light filters, and ensuring regular eye examinations.

Colombia declares ‘protected archeological area’ around treasure-laden shipwreck

AFP
May 22, 2024

A screen grab of a video released by the Colombian Presidency of the wrecked Spanish galleon San Jose - Copyright Colombian Presidency/AFP -

Colombia on Wednesday declared a “protected archeological area” around the spot where a Spanish galleon sank off its Caribbean coast more than three centuries ago laden with gold, silver and emeralds.

The designation, said the culture ministry, “guarantees the protection of heritage” through the ship’s “long-term preservation and the development of research, conservation and valuation activities.”

The San Jose was owned by the Spanish crown when it was sunk by the British navy near Cartagena in 1708. Only a handful of its 600-strong crew survived.

The galleon had been heading back from the New World to the court of King Philip V of Spain, bearing chests of emeralds and some 200 tons of gold coins.

Before Colombia announced the discovery in 2015, the ship had long been sought by adventurers.

The value of its bounty has been estimated to run into the billions of dollars.

Culture Minister Juan David Correa insisted Wednesday: “This is not a treasure, we do not treat it as such.”

He announced the area’s new designation at an event launching the first “non-intrusive” phase of a scientific exploration of the wreck.

Spain had laid claim to the ship and its contents under a UN convention Colombia is not party to, while Indigenous Qhara Qhara Bolivians claim the riches were stolen from them.

But the government of President Gustavo Petro has insisted on raising the wreck for purposes of science and culture.

Spanish and Qhara Qhara delegations were present at Wednesday’s event.

The wreck is also claimed by US-based salvage company Sea Search Armada — which insists it found it first more than 40 years ago and has taken Colombia to the UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration, seeking $10 billion dollars.

Flower or power? Campaigners fear lithium mine could kill rare plant

AFP
May 22, 2024

A Tiehm's buckwheat plant starts to bud in its native habitat in the Silver Peak Range in Esmeralda County, Nevada beside Rhyolite Ridge, the site of a proposed lithium mine - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Romain FONSEGRIVES

Delicate pink buds sway in the desert breeze, pregnant with yellow pompoms whose explosion will carpet the dusty corner of Nevada that is the only place on Earth where they exist.

Under their roots lie vast reserves of lithium, vital for the rechargeable electric car batteries that will reduce planet-heating pollution.

But campaigners fear the extraction of the precious metal could destroy the flower’s tiny habitat.

“This mine is going to cause extinction,” says Patrick Donnelly, an environmentalist who works at the Center for Biological Diversity, a non-governmental organization.

“They somehow claim that they’re not harming the (plant). But can you imagine if someone built an open-pit mine 200 feet from your house? Wouldn’t that affect your life profoundly?”

The plant in question is Tiehm’s buckwheat.

There are only around 20,000 known specimens, growing in a few very specific places on a total surface area equivalent to around five soccer fields.

In 2022, the wildflower was classified as endangered by US federal authorities, with mining cited as a major threat to its survival.

The plant and the lithium reserve on which it grows embody one of the key challenges and contradictions of the global climate struggle: how much damage can we inflict on the natural world as we seek to halt or reverse the problems we have already created?

– ‘Coexist’ –

Bernard Rowe, boss of Australian miner Ioneer, which holds the mineral rights to the area, says the lithium produced at Rhyolite Ridge “will be sufficient to provide batteries for about 370,000 vehicles” a year.

“We’ll do that year-on-year for 26 years,” he said.

Those nearly 10 million vehicles will go a long way towards meeting the goal President Joe Biden has set of cutting down the nation’s fleet of gas-guzzlers as a way to slash US production of planet-warming pollutants.

So-called zero-emission cars make up around 7.5 percent of new vehicle sales in the United States today — more than double the percentage just a few years earlier.

In California, the figure is more than 20 percent.

And while expansion in the sector has slowed, the category remains the fastest-growing, according to Kelley Blue Book.

And it’s not only in the United States: Global demand for lithium will increase five to seven times by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

The difficulty for US manufacturers is that much of the world’s lithium supply is dominated by strategic rival China, as well as Australia and Chile.

“The United States has very, very little domestic production,” said Rowe.

“So it’s important to develop a domestic supply chain to allow for that energy transition, and Rhyolite Ridge will be an integral part of that.”

Ioneer’s plans show that over the years the mine is in operation — it is projected to start producing lithium in late 2027 — around a fifth of the plant’s habitat will be directly affected.

But the company, which has spent $2.5 million researching the plant, says mining will not affect its survival; it is already growing well in greenhouses and biologists think it can be replanted.

“We’re very confident that the mine and Tiehm’s buckwheat can coexist,” Rowe said.

– ‘Greenwashing’ –

Donnelly counters that Ioneer is “basically greenwashing extinction.”

“They’re saying. ‘We’re going to save this plant,’ when actually they are going to send it to its doom,” he said.

Under the company’s plans, the strip mine will use hundreds of trucks, which Donnelly says will raise clouds of dust that will affect photosynthesis and harm the insects that pollinate the plants.

Ioneer says it has already planned mitigation methods, like dust curtains, and keeping the roads wet.

Still, Donnelly says, why not just move the mine? But Rowe counters that it’s not as simple as just digging somewhere else.

Ioneer has invested $170 million since 2016 to demonstrate the feasibility of this site, which it believes is one of the best around.

“Many of these other deposits haven’t had that amount of work, so they’re not viable alternatives to a project like this,” he said.

The US Department of Energy has offered Ioneer a $700 million loan for the project, if the Bureau of Land Management signs off on an operating permit.

Donnelly insists the issue is not just the future of one obscure wildflower, but rather just one example of large-scale biodiversity loss that is threatening millions of plants and animals.

“If we solve the climate crisis, but we drive everything extinct while we do it, we’re still going to lose our world,” he said.

UN to vote on declaring Srebrenica genocide memorial day


AFP
May 23, 2024


A memorial wall at the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial cemetery commemorates the July 11, 1995 massacre - Copyright AFP ELVIS BARUKCIC
Amelie Bottollier-Depois with Mina Pejakovic in Belgrade

The UN General Assembly will vote Thursday on establishing an annual day of remembrance for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, despite furious opposition from Bosnian Serbs and Serbia.

The resolution written by Germany and Rwanda — countries synonymous with 20th century genocides — would make July 11 International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.

Serbia’s government says an attempt is underway to blame Serbians in general and President Aleksandar Vucic said he would be at the United Nations to “fight with all my strength and heart” in opposition to the initiative.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric promised to “protect our country and our people from a long-term stigma.”

Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica — a UN-protected enclave at the time — on July 11, 1995, a few months before the end of Bosnia’s bloody civil war, which saw approximately 100,000 people killed.

In the following days, Bosnian Serb forces killed around 8,000 Muslim men and teenagers — a crime described as a genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice.

The incident is considered the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II.

In addition to establishing the memorial day, the draft resolution condemns “any denial” of the genocide and urges UN member countries to “preserve the established facts.”

In a letter from Germany and Rwanda to the rest of the United Nations, the vote was described as a “crucial opportunity to unite in honoring the victims and acknowledging the pivotal role played by international courts.”

– Threat to peace, security –

However, there has been a furious response from Serbia and the Bosnian Serb leadership.

In an attempt to defuse tensions, the authors of the draft resolution added — at Montenegro’s request — that culpability for the genocide is “individualized and cannot be attributed to any ethnic, religious or other group or community as a whole.”

That has not been enough for Belgrade.

In a letter sent Sunday to all UN delegations, Serbian charge d’affaires Sasa Mart warned that raising “historically sensitive topics serves only to deepen division and may bring additional instability to the Balkans.”

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, called the draft text “provocative” and a “threat to peace and security.”

According to Nebenzia, the resolution seeks to “erase” what he called the “shameful evidence” of NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1995 and 1999 by “pinning all the blame on the Serbs.”

Milorad Dodik, political leader in the Bosnian Serb entity — where thousands of people demonstrated this April against the draft resolution — said the Srebrenica genocide had been a “sham.”

The European Union has responded strongly, with foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano saying “there cannot be any denial” and “anyone trying to put it in doubt has no place in Europe.”

For relatives of the victims of the genocide, the UN debate is an important moment in their quest for peace.

“Those who led their people into this position (of genocide denial) must accept the truth, so that we can all find peace and move on with our lives,” said Kada Hotic, 79-year-old co-director of an association of Srebrenica mothers, who lost her son, husband and two brothers.

The resolution is “of the highest importance for spreading the truth,” said Denis Becirovic, the Bosnian member of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s tripartite presidency.

Finland’s wizards making food out of thin air

AFP
May 23, 2024

Lab-grown meat, eggs and milk have made headlines in recent years

 - Copyright AFP/File Alex Wroblewski

Anna KORKMAN

At a factory in Finland, the “farmers of the future” are making a new food protein by feeding a microbe air and electricity, proving that protein can be produced without traditional agriculture.

Livestock farming is one of the main culprits in greenhouse gas emissions, the primary cause of global warming.

Cellular agriculture, where food or nutrients are grown from cell cultures, is increasingly seen as a green alternative to animal agriculture.

Lab-grown meat, eggs and milk have made headlines in recent years, with scientists using animal cell cultures — a process some have criticised as unnatural, highly processed, energy-consuming and costly.

But at Solar Foods’ recently opened factory outside Helsinki, scientists are using new technology to grow protein out of cells using air and electricity.

By feeding a microbe with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and some minerals, and powering the process with electricity from renewable sources, the company has managed to create a protein-rich powder that can be used as a milk and egg substitute.

“We can source our main feedstock for the microbe from the air,” Solar Foods chief executive Pasi Vainikka told AFP, as he gave a tour of the company’s new facilities near Helsinki.

“We have started the production of the world’s most sustainable protein.”

Founded by Vainikka and Juha-Pekka Pitkanen in 2017, Solar Foods launched the “world’s first factory growing food out of thin air” in April.

“Much of the animal-like protein of today can actually be produced through cellular agriculture and we can let agricultural land re-wild and thereby build carbon stock,” Vainikka said, referring to the process whereby forests and soil absorb and store carbon.

One kilo of the new protein, dubbed “solein”, emits 130 times less greenhouse gases than the same amount of protein produced by beef production in the European Union, a 2021 scientific study claimed.

Vainikka navigates his way through the factory’s laboratory and into the control room, where a dozen people at computer screens monitor the production process.

“These are our future farmers,” Vainikka said.

– Part of the solution –

Transforming food production and consumption is at the heart of combating the climate crisis and preventing biodiversity loss, according to Emilia Nordlund, head of industrial biotechnology and food research at the VTT Technical Research Centre.

Yet current projections show the consumption of meat is expected to increase in coming years.

“Industrial food production, especially livestock production, is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gas emissions (and) the biggest cause of biodiversity loss, eutrophication and freshwater usage,” she said.

New food production technologies can help cut emissions and “decentralise and diversify food production”, Nordlund said.

“However, at the same time, we must improve the existing food production methods to make them more sustainable and resilient,” she added.

Fermentation technology used to produce different nutrients, such as proteins, has been around for decades.

But the field has expanded significantly in recent years with new technological solutions and research projects emerging worldwide.

– Slow progess –

Some of the most active start-up hubs focusing on cellular agriculture are in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Israel, Nordlund said.

“We are in a crucial phase as we will see which start-ups will survive,” she said, adding that stalling bureaucracy was slowing cellular agriculture’s take-off in the EU.

Dressed in protective gear to prevent bacteria contamination in the factory, Vainikka showed off a giant steel tank in a shiny production hall.

“This is a fermenter holding 20,000 litres,” he said, explaining that the microbe multiplies inside the tank as it gets fed the greenhouse gas.

Liquid containing the microbes is continuously extracted from the tank to be processed into the yellowish protein-rich powder with a flavour described as “nutty” and “creamy”.

“The fermenter produces the same amount of protein per day as 300 milking cows or 50,000 laying hens,” Vainikka said.

That equals “five million meals’ worth of protein per year”.

For now, the main purpose of the small Finnish plant employing around 40 people is to “prove that the technology scales”, so it can attract the necessary investments pending European regulatory approval.

While the protein has been cleared for sale in Singapore where some restaurants have used it to make ice cream, it is still awaiting classification as a food product in the EU and the United States.

To have any real impact, the aim is to “build an industrial plant 100 times the size of this one”, Vainikka said.

\

WiFi, drones and sharp blades on Japan’s whaling mothership

END WHALING FOR WHALE SUSHI

AFP
May 23, 2024

A crew member shows a large knife for cutting up whales on Japan's new whaling mothership, the Kangei Maru - Copyright AFP Yuichi YAMAZAKI
Simon STURDEE, Harumi OZAWA

In whale-motif jacket, shirt and tie plus a whale-shaped hat, Hideki Tokoro shows off Japan’s new whaling “mothership”, the Kangei Maru — slicing blades, butchery deck, freezers and all.

“(Whales) eat up marine creatures that should feed other fish. They also compete against humans,” said Tokoro, the president of whaling firm Kyodo Senpaku, touting an industry argument long rejected by conservationists.

“So we need to cull some whales and keep the balance of the ecosystem… It’s our job, our mission, to protect the rich ocean for the future,” he added while speaking with reporters invited to tour the Kangei Maru after it had docked in Tokyo.

The 9,300-tonne vessel set off this week from western Japan, bigger, better and more modern than its recently retired predecessor, with individual cabins for crew members, WiFi and drones to spot its quarry.

The whales will be harpooned by a smaller vessel and then brought, dead, to the Kangei Maru where a powerful winch can haul carcasses weighing up to 70 tonnes up a ramp and onto a lower deck around 40 metres (130 feet) long.

Once inside workers will butcher the whales using 30-centimetre (foot-long) blades attached to wooden staffs, discarding around half the animals’ total weight as waste.

“Be careful, they are very sharp,” Tokoro said, as a crew member unwrapped one such steel blade to show off.

The rest of the whale is processed, packaged and stored in 40 freezer containers, each with a capacity of 15 tonnes, ready to be transported around Japan once the ship returns to port.


– ‘Scientific’ –


Activists aggressively pursued the Kangei Maru’s predecessor when prior to 2019 Japan hunted whales in the Antarctic and North Pacific for “scientific” purposes.

That year Japan quit the International Whaling Commission and nowadays conducts commercial whaling, but only in its own waters, and on what it calls a sustainable scale.

Japan has a quota this year of around 350 Bryde’s, minke and sei whales, species which the government says are “abundant”.

The Bryde’s and common minke are listed as being of “least concern” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List, but globally the sei is “endangered”.

Japan also wants to resume hunting fin whales, the world’s second-biggest animal after the blue whale. Fin whales are listed as “vulnerable” by the IUCN.

Tokyo argues that eating whale is part of Japanese culture and an issue of “food security” in the resource-poor country which imports large amounts of animal meat.

But consumption of whale has fallen to around 1,000 or 2,000 tonnes per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.

“Japan has advanced bogus arguments about food security to justify its whaling for decades, even as its public has turned up its nose to whale meat,” said Patrick Ramage from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Conservationists have also long refuted Japan’s arguments that whales compete with humans for marine resources, saying that in fact the mammals improve the health of the ocean and therefore fish stocks.

Also they “have a unique role to play in global carbon dioxide capture and storage, acting like giant swimming tropical rainforests absorbing harmful CO2”, said Nicola Beynon from the Humane Society International Australia.

EU hits Oreo maker Mondelez with 337.5 mn euro antitrust fine

AFP
May 23, 2024

Aside from Oreo, Mondelez also owns Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz crackers and Tuc salty biscuits - Copyright AFP Yuichi YAMAZAKI

The EU on Thursday slapped a 337.5 million euro ($366 million) fine on Mondelez, the US confectioner behind major brands including Toblerone and Oreo, for forcing consumers to pay more by restricting cross-border sales.

Mondelez, formerly called Kraft, is one of the world’s largest producers of chocolate, biscuits and coffee, with revenue of $36 billion last year.

The EU fined Mondelez “because they have been restricting the cross border trade of chocolate, biscuits and coffee products within the European Union,” the EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said.

“This harmed consumers, who ended up paying more for chocolate, biscuits and coffee,” she told reporters in Brussels.

“This case is about price of groceries. It’s a key concern to European citizens and even more obvious in times of very high inflation, where many are in a cost-of-living crisis,” she added.

The penalty is the EU’s ninth-largest antitrust fine and comes at a time when food costs are a major concern for European households.

Businesses have come under scrutiny for posting higher profits despite soaring inflation following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but that has since slowed down.

The free movement of goods is one of the key pillars of the EU’s single market.

Mondelez brands also include Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz crackers and Tuc salty biscuits as well as chocolate brands Cadbury, Cote d’Or and Milka.

The EU’s probe dates back to January 2021 but the suspicions had led the bloc’s investigators to carry out raids in Mondelez offices across Europe in November 2019.

The European Commission, the EU’s powerful antitrust regulator, said Mondelez “abused its dominant position” in breach of the bloc’s rules by restricting sales to other EU countries with lower prices.

For example, the commission accused Mondelez of withdrawing chocolate bars in the Netherlands to prevent their resale in Belgium where they were sold at higher prices.


– ‘Isolated incidents’ –


The EU said Mondelez limited traders’ ability to resell products and ordered them to apply higher prices for exports compared to domestic sales between 2012 and 2019.

According to the commission, between 2015 and 2019, Mondelez also refused to supply a trader in Germany to avoid the resale of chocolate in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Romania, “where prices were higher”.

Vestager said within the EU, prices for the same product can vary significantly, by 10 to 40 percent depending on the country.

The issue is of grave concern to EU leaders.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in a weekend letter to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, urged the EU to take on multinationals and railed against different costs for branded essential consumer goods across member states.

Vestager stressed the importance of traders’ ability to buy goods in other countries where they are cheaper.

“It increases competition, lowers prices and increases consumer choice,” she added.

Mondelez responded by saying the fine related to “historical, isolated incidents, most of which ceased or were remedied well in advance of the commission’s investigation”.

“Many of these incidents were related to business dealings with brokers, which are typically conducted via sporadic and often one-off sales and a limited number of small-scale distributors developing new business in EU markets in which Mondelez is not present or doesn’t market the respective product,” it added in a statement.

The giant last year put aside 300 million euros in anticipation of the fine.

“No further measures to finance the fine will be necessary,” it said.