The road to change goes through rural America — if Democrats would only travel it

D. Earl Stephens
September 29, 2024 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - JUNE 06: Dolly Parton speaks onstage during Kicking Off CMA Fest: A Special Conversation With Dolly Parton Hosted By Rachel Smith at Music City Center on June 06, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage)


Crime is down in America. The stock market is up.

Inflation is down in America. The U.S. economy is up — the envy of the free world, in fact.

Unemployment is down in America. Wages are up.

Democrats want to protect women’s rights. Republicans want to attack them.

Democrats want clean air and water. Republicans believe these things are optional.

Democrats once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure bill is finally fixing our roads, bridges and information highway. Republicans are coasting along, taking credit for its success despite voting repeatedly against it.

Democrats lowered the prices of prescription drugs and voted to increase veterans’ benefits. Republicans fought hard against those things.

Democrats joined Republicans in enacting the strongest border protection bill in American history … so Republicans smacked themselves on their rock-hard foreheads and decided they were against that, too.

I reckon I could go on for 20 minutes carrying on like this, but that would only serve to drive you away from boredom at a time we have never needed each other more, my friends. You know how much good Democrats have done for America, so let me sharpen my point but quick and tell you that sadly, tens of millions of other Americans don’t.


Too damn many people in this country live in information silos where facts float straight up and disappear into all that hot air.

Thanks in large part to the most dangerous, anti-American propaganda machine in United States history, too many of our fellow citizens receive the filth that passes for news in their homes through the rusty sewer pipe of Fox “News.”

The real fact is, none of this stink we find ourselves in these days would be possible without this endless, 24/7 stream of right-wing slop. Rupert Murdoch’s gang of irresponsible on-air blowhards have poisoned an entire generation of adults with their terrible lies and blatantly racist gaslighting. Worse, Murdoch and his family knows full well their station’s future lies with dealing their dope to our children, so we can expect more of the same for decades.


Our attention-starved corporate media hasn’t been much better, catastrophically failing to honestly report on the most significant story in more than 160 years: The Republicans’ relentless attack on America, and our ability to choose who represents us with our sacred vote. Democracy is hanging by a thread, and you’re lucky if you hear about that at all from our meandering press, which is far more interested in keeping things close.

There’s a horse race to run, and billions of dollars to stuff in their overflowing pockets.

Instead of framing the stakes and sounding the alarms at a blast about the anti-Democratic fires that are burning through the countryside, our halls of Congress and right up to our nation’s highest court, they write stories asking why more people just aren’t much worried about it.


Instead of reporting that the economy is actually chugging along at pretty brisk pace, they’ll run cheap, reactionary nonsense that seriously asks out loud why more people just don’t seem to know it ...

One political party answers to a two-bit phony, a felon and an America-attacking woman-abuser, who is telling us he will finish America off for good if God forbid he is elected.

The other party answers to the people.


What-in-the-hell is so damn hard about reporting that as the fact it most certainly is?

With five weeks and change left until D-Day in November, I say Democrats need to do everything they can to take their message everywhere. And if that sounds too obvious and overly intuitive, then ask yourself why they’re not.

Understand, I’m not bagging them here, and actually think they are running many strong races across the board, but I also think they need to stop conceding to all this silliness from what passes for the national media in this country, and go hard into every town, city, and suburb across this country — whether they are tucked into Wisconsin or West Virginia; North Carolina or South Carolina; or Michigan or Montana.


We need to visit them where they live and tell them all the good things America and her Democrats have been doing for them, while they’ve been tuning out the truth and into the dark places like Fox.

“Things are actually pretty good in this country, dude. Here’s why …”

Imagine Harris/Walz campaign stops in Iowa or Missouri ... Arkansas and Alabama. A couple of those states have voted Democratic in national elections semi-recently, and they could stand to hear the truth. Democratic policies are inclusive, not exclusive. They would play well in Red America, even if much of Red America doesn’t know it.


Do I expect Harris to carry any of these states in November? No I don’t, but I’d sure like them to hear what she had to say to them. I bet they’d like her. One thing all these damn polls have showed consistently is that the more people see and hear from our vice president, the more they’d support her.

There’s minds to be changed, folks, and you do that by giving them the real thing.

And what about the blue dots on the ground in these states who have been working their tails off outside the shine of the spotlight to protect America? They are in every state in our country doing the good and important work. Our next president could do real wonders by showing up in these places and showing out. The seeds have been planted by these Democratic activists in rural America, who are making real differences in their communities by running hard in local races, and doing important things like protecting women’s rights and our environment.


They might not be in one of these exclusive battleground states, but they are fighting every bit as hard.

I say give ‘em a hug from on high. Show ‘em the love they have earned. Plant the seeds … watch an orchard grow.

I bet even the clueless national media would sniff out a good story in all that …


[sigh]

I’ll stop right here for a second, pull off to the side of this column, and concede I am doing some heavy-duty dreaming right now. Politics is a machine, and the information I’m spitting out right now just won’t compute with but 38 days to the election. There’s never enough time or dollars when you’re running hard to save America.

So let’s end this weekend walk on some middle ground, shall we?

On Thursday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced it will be throwing millions of dollars into the Senate races in Florida and Texas. This isn’t the wild expansion of the electoral map I was talking about above, but it does portend strength, and tells you Democrats think they have a real shot in these two states.

I don’t know much about Democrat Colin Allred in Texas, but we all know plenty about Ted Cruz, who is a completely terrible man, and has polluted our Senate long enough.

Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner once had this to say about Cruz: “I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life than Ted Cruz."

Cruz can be beat, and the Democratic Machine is laying money on it.

In Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is giving the revolting Rick Scott a run for all his family money in that Senate race. I do know something about her. Our paths crossed a few times during her time as Congresswoman in the Sunshine State.

She is whip-smart, a tireless worker, and has inroads to the Latino community in Florida. I am predicting right here and now that she will beat Scott, who is almost as unlikeable as Cruz.

If nothing else, Democrats have put Republicans on notice by making them defend their weak positions in states that only a few months ago seemed like a sure thing for them.

It looks like that will be the end of the Democrats’ expansion this election cycle, and maybe the American way right now is through those battleground states. But our future depends on expanding the map.

The party that can do that will be that future.

I’m not wrong about this, my friends ...


D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.

Outrage as Dems name and shame companies prioritizing exec pay over taxes

Jake Johnson, 

Common Dreams
September 29, 2024 

Tennis - U.S. Open - Flushing Meadows, New York, United States - September 8, 2024 Elon Musk is seen during the final match between Italy's Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz of the U.S. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

A group of congressional Democrats and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday highlighted dozens of profitable U.S. corporations that have paid their executives more than they've paid in federal income taxes in recent years, a problem that the lawmakers attributed in large part to former President Donald Trump's massive tax-cut package that Republicans are working to extend.

"In the first five years following the 2017 giveaway, 35 companies raked in $277 billion in domestic profits and paid their executives $9.5 billion—more than they paid in federal income taxes," the lawmakers noted in letters to each of the companies, pointing to recent research by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness.

"Next year, Congress will decide what to do with these corporate giveaways. Republicans have promised to go even further if elected and cut the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 15%," the lawmakers continued. "This additional tax giveaway would provide Fortune 100 corporations as a whole with another $50 billion each year, more than all current K-12 federal education spending."

"The windfall from TCJA to big businesses, executives, and wealthy shareholders is unmistakable."

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) in the Senate and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) in the House led the letters to the 35 companies, a list that includes high-profile names such as Netflix, Ford, and Tesla, whose CEO is the richest man in the world.

"Tesla is among the most dramatic examples of this phenomenon—big, profitable corporations that have actually been paying their top executives more than they pay the government in federal income taxes," the lawmakers wrote. "According to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, in the period between 2018 and 2022, Tesla raked in $4.4 billion in profits and did not pay a single dollar in federal income tax."

During that same period, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk received "the largest pay package ever recorded for a company's CEO," the lawmakers observed.

The other companies that have paid their top executives more than they've paid in federal taxes in recent years are T-Mobile, AIG, NextEra, Darden, MetLife, Duke Energy, First Energy, DISH, Principal Financial, American Electrical Power, Kinder Morgan, Dominion, Oneok, Williams, Xcel Energy, NRG Energy, Salesforce, DTE Energy, Ameren, Sempra Energy, U.S. Steel, Entergy, AmerisourceBergen, PPL, CMS Energy, Evergy, Voya Financial, Atmos Energy, Alliant Energy, Match Group, UGI, and Agilent Tech.


The lawmakers demanded that the companies' CEOs answer several questions, including how much the corporations would have paid in federal taxes had the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) not been enacted and how much they've spent on lobbying to keep the Republican law intact.

"The windfall from TCJA to big businesses, executives, and wealthy shareholders is unmistakable," the letters read. "A recent analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that 342 companies paid an average effective income tax rate of just 14.1% during the five years after TCJA passed, almost a third less than the 21% statutory rate. The gains do not 'trickle down'—90% of workers saw no earnings increase, while executives making $989,000 per year or more got an average raise of $50,000."

The letters were released days after the Economic Policy Institutereleased an analysis showing that CEO pay has soared by 1,085% since 1978 while the pay of typical U.S. workers has grown by just 24%.


The 2017 Trump-GOP tax law led major companies to splurge on stock buybacks, a major gift to corporate executives whose annual compensation packages consist largely of stock.

"President [Joe] Biden and Democrats in Congress are committed to making corporations pay their fair share," the lawmakers wrote in their letters. "In the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, we passed the first corporate tax increase in 30 years with the 15% corporate minimum tax. Though significant, raising $222 billion from billion-dollar corporations, it is not enough on its own to undo the corporate tax giveaways signed into law by President Trump and ensure that corporations pay their fair share."

"Next year," they added, "Congress has an opportunity to take bigger strides in reforming our tax code—to raise the corporate rate, close loopholes, and hold big businesses to the same standards as everyday working Americans who pay their fair share."

ECOCIDE

Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute

AFP
September 27, 2024

Aerial view of the port in Duress, Albania, the departure point for 102 containers allegedly carrying toxic waste bound for Thailand -

 Copyright POOL/AFP/File Franck ROBICHON

Briseida Mema with Camille Bouissou in Belgrade

Amid the scorching heat at the Albanian port of Durres, 102 containers set sail for Thailand in early July, sparking a high-seas drama that highlighted the perils of the global waste trade.

According to official papers reviewed by AFP, the containers were filled with waste material that was set to be processed and destroyed far from Europe’s shores.

But weeks later, the containers are still adrift in the Mediterranean, following a months-long back-and-forth over what exactly was being shipped and whether it was legal.

Enormous amounts of waste are regularly sent to developing countries — part of a global industry that sees Western nations outsourcing its treatment to Asia and Africa.

The practise has long been denounced by environmental organisations.

Despite the criticism, the waste management trade continues to be a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The handling of illicit material alone generates between nine billion and 11 billion euros each year, according to the Financial Action Task Force, a leading watchdog tracking illegal trade.

The World Bank estimates that approximately two billion tonnes of waste are produced annually across the globe — expected to reach 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050.

Within those mountains of waste, regulators have deemed a certain portion hazardous.

These include substances that can be harmful to human health or the environment due to their chemical reactivity or toxicity levels.

To better regulate the industry, the Basel Convention — signed in 1989 by 53 countries — prohibits members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from sending waste to non-member states.

But Albania, which is not a member of the Paris-based economic forum, is free to ship waste abroad.

– Industrial odyssey –

The material stowed away in the 102 containers originated from the Turkish-owned Kurum International steel plant in central Albania’s Elbasan, according to Albanian media reports.

The waste was first purchased by the Albanian company Sokolaj, which then sold the material to its subsidiary in Croatia, GS Minerals, with the cargo set to be offloaded in Thailand for processing.

According to documents seen by AFP, Sokolaj labelled the waste as “iron oxide” — a substance that is not prohibited for shipment or considered hazardous.

An analysis of the substance on the containers was conducted by a Croatian laboratory based in Zagreb, according to Sokolaj.

When contacted by AFP, the laboratory refused to comment, saying the “information can only be given to clients”.

Sokolaj itself has not responded to questions on what is in the containers. The company and its Croatian subsidiary both refused AFP’s requests for comment.

The containers then departed for the Italian port of Trieste, where they were loaded onto two cargo ships operated by global shipping giant Maersk — the Campton and the Candor.

As the ships cruised along the African coastline, an organisation specialising in tracking toxic waste, the Basel Action Network (BAN), contacted Maersk.

A whistleblower had called the network’s hotline to report that the containers were carrying not just iron oxide, but also toxic waste.

BAN asked Maersk to stop the ships when they were near the South African coast, according to its president, Jim Puckett.

The ships did not respond and turned off their transponders as they set sail for Singapore, according to BAN.

BAN then tipped off the Thai authorities, who refused to allow the containers entry.

“The government refused to import more than 800 tonnes of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) from Albania,” said the Thai Department of Industrial Works in a statement.

EAFD is a hazardous byproduct produced during the making of steel.

Penchome Saetang, an environmental activist working with the Thai government, said the tip led to the country’s refusal.

“After receiving information from NGOs, the government suspected it could be EAFD,” Saetang told AFP.

Following the notice from the Thai government, Maersk told AFP it handed off the containers to the shipping company MSC in Singapore to return the containers to Albania.

“Maersk Campton and Maersk Candor were carrying those suspected containers on behalf of another shipping line. None of these containers have been declared to contain hazardous waste,” Maersk told AFP.

“Had they been declared to contain hazardous waste, Maersk would have declined to carry them.”

MSC declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

– Back to Europe –

In late August, the 102 containers onboard two ships set sail back to Europe.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has defended the shipments and lashed out at critics — yet refused to allow the containers to return to the country’s ports.

“Nothing proves that this waste is toxic,” he told a recent parliamentary session.

“Even if they were hazardous products, their transport is neither prohibited in Albania nor worldwide,” added Rama, saying the accusations were based on “malicious suspicions”.

BAN fired back in an open letter to the Albanian government, saying containers carrying hazardous materials cannot be shipped without the written consent of the exporter, transit countries and authorities at the final destination.

“None of these countries have given their consent and, therefore, if it turns out that the containers contain hazardous waste, the shipments constitute ‘illegal trafficking’ under Article 9 of the Basel Convention,” BAN said.

In Albania, prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident in cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office and international partners, according to an official statement.

As of Thursday morning, the 102 containers are still at sea, with the cargo on one ship off the coast of Italy and another near Egypt.

“There is a chance we could be wrong,” Puckett from BAN said about the material in question.

“But I doubt it.”

bme-tak-cbo-ljv/ds/jhb

US returns to Iran latest batch of ancient clay tablets

GOP WILL LOSE THEIR TINY MINDS


AFP
September 27, 2024

Achaemenid-era clay tablets returned from the United States and on display at Iran's National Museum in Tehran on October 2, 2019 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

The United States has returned to Iran more than 1,000 clay tablets dating from the Achaemenid-era, official media said, reporting the sixth such handover of its kind.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Thursday evening that the tablets, 1,100 in all, were returned with President Masoud Pezeshkian who had attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Found at the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Persian Achaemenid Empire which ruled from the 6th to 4th centuries BC in southern Iran, the repatriated tablets reflect how the ancient society was organised and its economy managed.

The tablets constitute records of “the rituals and the way of life of our ancestors”, said Ali Darabi, vice-minister of cultural heritage, cited by IRNA.

The tablets were returned to Iran by the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.

A large portion of the tablets were returned in three batches between 1948 and 2004 before the rest were blocked by legal action until 2018.

More than 3,500 tablets were repatriated in September, 2023.

“The American side undertook to return the rest,” Darabi said, cited by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

At least 3,661 killed this year in Haiti violence: UN

 AFP
September 27, 2024

Haiti has plunged into virtual anarchy

 - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY
Robin MILLARD

More than 3,600 people have been killed this year in the “senseless” gang violence ravaging Haiti, the United Nations said on Friday.

The Western Hemisphere’s poorest country has plunged into virtual anarchy, with gangs taking over the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the security and health systems collapsing.

About 600,000 people were displaced in the first six months of 2024 and 1,280 were injured in gang violence, including 295 women and 63 children, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said in a report.

In that period, at least 893 individuals, including 25 children, were kidnapped and held for ransom by criminal groups, who are vying for power in a vacuum left by a political crisis and weak state authority.

“Latest figures documented by the UN Human Rights Office indicate that at least 3,661 people have been killed since January this year, maintaining the high levels of violence seen in 2023,” the rights office said.

“No more lives should be lost to this senseless criminality,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The OHCHR urged the Haitian authorities and the international community to do more to protect people on the Caribbean island.

It said the gangs had changed their modus operandi this year.

While some victims were struck by random gunfire, others were executed in broad daylight for allegedly informing the authorities or opposing gang activities.

– Fear and subjugation –

“Some of those victims had their bodies mutilated with machetes and then burned.

“Gangs filmed the scenes and shared them widely on social media to instil fear and control the population,” the report said.

The report said gangs had continued to use sexual violence “to punish, spread fear and subjugate populations”.

It said that at least 860 people were killed and 393 injured during police operations and patrols across Port-au-Prince, including at least 36 children, in what could constitute use of unnecessary and disproportionate force.

The gangs have also recruited large numbers of children into their ranks, it added.

An estimated 1.6 million people in Haiti face emergency-level food insecurity.

In October 2023, the UN Security Council gave the green light to send a multinational stabilisation force, led by Kenya, to assist the Haitian police.

Kenyan President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly on Thursday his country would complete the deployment of the 2,500-strong Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) by January.

– ‘Wreaking havoc’ –

An advance contingent of approximately 430 MSS personnel has been deployed so far in Haiti.

Besides Kenyans, it includes around 20 soldiers from Jamaica and Belize.

Ruto said Kenya and other African and Caribbean countries were ready to deploy but were being hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics and funding.

Turk said the stabilisation force needed more equipment and personnel.

“I welcome recent positive steps, such as the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council, the new transitional government and the deployment of the first contingents of the MSS,” he said.

“It is clear, however, that the mission needs adequate and sufficient equipment and personnel to counter the criminal gangs effectively and sustainably, and stop them spreading further and wreaking havoc on people’s lives.”

Turk urged the Haitian authorities to reform the police and other state institutions crippled by endemic corruption, including the judiciary.

He said the international community should comprehensively implement the arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze imposed by the UN Security Council, to stem gang violence.

Review: The science of how bugs shape human culture

By Dr. Tim Sandle
September 27, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Butterfly on a leaf. — © Image by Tim Sandle

Insects are essential for the health of the planet and humans are more reliant upon the activities of insects than might appear. This is not only in relation to pollinators.

Insects are also embedded in cultural practices, manifest in art and form part of our societal relations. How deep does this go? The answer is very, as a fascinating new book points out.

Imagine this scene: you are sitting in an intricately carved chair, rocking back and forth to the rhythm of music from a bygone era. Your clothes are comfortable and colourful, your hair is perfectly in place, and there are oil paintings and textiles on the walls. Wood furniture, trim, and floors glimmer with a waxen sheen. Everything around you is composed of or inspired by bugs.

In a new popular science text, renowned entomologist Barrett Klein, PhD examines this phenomenon of how humans and insects relate on a cultural level in The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture (Timber Press | Hachette; Oct 15, 2024).

The central theme is that our world would look very different if we did not have insects. This is not only because they are pollinators but because they inspire so many aspects of our culture.Bee on a flower. Image by Tim Sandle.

Across the pages Klein investigates mysteries of sleep in societies of insects, creates entomo-art, and is ever on the search for curious connections that bind our lives with our six-legged allies.

Klein is well-placed to write the book. He studied entomology at Cornell University and the University of Arizona, fabricated natural history exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, worked with honeybees for his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, and spearheaded the Pupating Lab at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

For many years, Klein has celebrated biodiversity and the intersection of science and art and believes fully that embracing the beauty of insects can transform our lives and our world.

“The spellbinding diversity of insects is complemented by a diversity of humans and cultures,” Klein says, resulting in boundless inspiration and innovation.

The Insect Epiphany explores the ways we use insects’ bodies (for silk, pigments, food, medicine), how we try to recreate them (for flight technology, architecture, social structures), and how we mimic them (for fighting, yoga, music, fashion).

Throughout the book, the enormous impact insects have had on our civilization is highlighted by over 100 images: from ancient etchings to avant-garde art, from bug-based meals to haute couture fashion, and other interesting topics.

Butterly on a plant. Image by Tim Sandle.

“We can revel in knowing we are deeply connected to our multifarious and multifaceted neighbors. We can choose to celebrate insects, knowing that without them we would sacrifice significant aspects of our heritage, our humanity, and much of life as we know it.,” Klein says.

Celebrating the myriad ways insects have inspired many aspects of what makes us human, the book is a deeply insightful, utterly captivating, and surprisingly delightful love letter to bugs.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Why South America is burning


By AFP
September 27, 2024

A helicopter sprays water over a bushfire on a hill in Quito on September 25, 2024 - Copyright AFP Galo Paguay
Juan Sebastian Serrano with AFP offices in South America

A record wave of wildfires, fueled by severe drought linked to climate change and deforestation, is causing havoc across South America.

The blazes have killed at least 30 people, left cities shrouded in toxic smoke and caused millions of dollars in economic losses.

This fire season is “completely different” from the one that ravaged forests in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia in 2019, according to Brazilian environmentalist Erika Berenguer, a researcher at Oxford University.

At the time, rain helped douse the fires, which in Brazil were chiefly started by farmers taking advantage of lax legislation under then far-right president Jair Bolsonaro to clear land for crops and ranching.

This year, the continent is in the throes of a severe drought. The Amazon basin, usually one of the wettest places on Earth, is experiencing the worst fires in nearly two decades, according to the EU’s Copernicus observatory.

Berenguer blamed climate change for making the Amazon “highly flammable.”

– How bad are the fires? –

Between January 1 and September 26, more than 400,000 fires were recorded across South America, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

“In nine months we have already surpassed the number of outbreaks recorded in all of 2023,” Berenguer noted.

In Brazil, the flames have consumed 40.2 million hectares (99 million acres) of vegetation this year, far above the average of 31 million hectares in each of the last 10 years, according to Copernicus.

A dozen firefighters have died on duty, according to local media.

In Ecuador, the mayor of the capital Quito declared this week the Andean city was “under attack” from 27 fires which forced the evacuation of over 100 families before being brought under control.

Ecuador had declared an emergency in several provinces, as has Peru, where 21 people have been killed by fires since July. Most were small-scale farmers.

Several fires are also blazing in Argentina and in Colombia, at opposite ends of the continent.

– What’s causing the fires? –

Experts and national authorities point to a combination of combustible factors, chiefly droughts aggravated by climate change and slash-and-burn agriculture.

“It’s a clear example of climate change. If anyone thought it didn’t exist, well look, here it is,” said Ecuadoran Environment Minister Ines Manzano.

In Peru and Bolivia, some of the fires are believed to have been started by farmers burning land to make it more fertile for planting, a traditional practice in the Andean countries that is tolerated by the authorities.

In the Brazilian Amazon, fires lit by both subsistence farmers and the agribusiness industry to clear forest for cattle or crops were fanned by the worst drought in the country’s recent history.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has pledged to put a stop to illegal Amazon deforestation by 2030, considers most of the fires to be “criminal” in origin.

In some places, the fires are started by arsonists.

One person has been arrested in Quito and dozens in Argentina and Brazil on suspicion of maliciously starting fires.

– How are people affected? –

The fires have dramatically reduced air quality in several cities.

Sao Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, was ranked the most polluted city in the world in early September, according to Swiss company IQAir.

A large part of Brazil remains shrouded in acrid smoke that wafted as far south as Montevideo and Buenos Aires earlier this month, causing a phenomenon known as “black rain.”

Inhabitants of many of Brazilian cities are experiencing respiratory problems and other symptoms such as stinging eyes.

In Bolivia, health authorities have recommended people wear face masks because of the poor air quality.

The region’s economies are also feeling the burn. Losses in the Brazilian agricultural sector amounted to $2.7 billion between June and August, principally sugarcane harvests.

In Ecuador, nearly 45,000 farm animals have died after more than two months without rain.

– What are governments doing? –


Thousands of firefighters and soldiers have been deployed across the continent to tackle the blazes.

“Everyone wants to hire thousands of firefighters, buy aircraft, etc, etc. That’s fine but it’s too little, too late,” Berenguer said.

“We need to prevent fires, because once they become big they are very difficult to fight,” she said, advocating for tougher measures against deforestation and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

burs-jss/cb/mlr/acb

Oxford Vaccine Group: 30 years battling ‘deadly six’ diseases with major art installation


By Dr. Tim Sandle
September 27, 2024

DIGITAL JOURNAL


The installation consists of six, three-dimensional sculptures woven in English willow. By Angela Palmer (with permission)

To promote scientific education, a major art installation featuring dramatically upscaled bacteria, viruses and a parasite will be unveiled on 26 September at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History.

The aim is to celebrate 30 years of vaccine development at the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) tackling some of the world’s most deadly diseases.

The event is called The Deadly Six: Oxford’s Battle with the Microbial World and it has been designed by acclaimed Scottish artist Angela Palmer. The event will be opened by leading scientists like Prof. Sir Andrew Pollard and Prof. Teresa Lambe OBE together with the creative artist, Angela Palmer.

Read more: Promoting clean energy through art

The Oxford Vaccine Group which was established in 1994, and set out to provide scientific research into the development and implementation of vaccines, in particular diseases for which there were at the time no effective vaccines.

The installation consists of six, three-dimensional sculptures woven in English willow, representing different diseases for which OVG has developed a vaccine: pneumonia, meningitis, typhoid, COVID, malaria and Ebola. Five of these will be suspended in the central room of the Museum, within the How Evolution Works gallery, with the sixth – a 2.4m long representation of Ebola weighing 75kg – lying at floor level.

“For 30 years, OVG has been working at the forefront of vaccine research in the fight against these diseases and many others, saving millions of lives, and helping people of all ages live longer, happier and healthier lives,” Professor Pollard explains “and it is really exciting to see Angela bring this to life in her artwork.”

Palmer, whose sculptures are in museums worldwide, previously created a glass sculpture of the original Wuhan coronavirus particle sphere at 8 million times its size, which was unveiled at the Museum of Natural History and is now on display in London’s Science Museum.

“I had originally planned to use the same technique” explains Palmer, “However apart from the coronavirus, none of these have been modelled in 3D.”

“I was battling to find an alternative concept” she continues, “and came across a collection of strange, three-dimensional shapes woven in straw while on holiday. One particularly reminded me of the meningitis bacteria form, and it struck that I could explore creating the entire installation in willow.”

“Willow was immediately appealing to me” Palmer adds “It is a native British tree and is imbued with medical associations dating back some 3,500 years.”

Palmer then tracked down two of the foremost weavers in the UK, Jenny Crisp and Issy Wilkes to collaborate on the project. Supported by a further renowned willow weaver in Mel Bastier, the sculptures were then created, formed from the artist’s drawings and files of scientific illustrations, testing the potential capabilities of willow to its limits.

Sound will also feature within the installation, with a speaker inserted into the sculpture representing the malaria parasite. This plays the sinister but familiar high-pitched ‘whine’ of one of the most lethal mosquitoes in the world (the sound of Anopheles Funestus will be played on a loop, pausing 10 seconds every minute to symbolise the fact that today a child under the age of 5 dies of malaria every 60 seconds).

The installation has been partly funded by the University of Oxford’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) division and will be open to members of the public from 26 September 2024 to 5 January 2025.

Abortion rights worldwide: a snapshot


By AFP
September 28, 2024

A rally for abortion rights outside the US Supreme Court in June 2024

 - Copyright AFP Simon Wohlfahrt

Olivier THIBAULT

Despite being liberalised in scores of countries over recent decades, women’s access to abortion remains a precarious right globally with numerous countries restricting the procedure or outlawing it altogether.

Traditional Catholic bastions such as Ireland and Mexico have lifted bans in recent years, but the United States has abolished nationwide access and some states maintain total bans.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) advocacy group, only 34 percent of women of reproductive age live in countries where abortion is available on demand. It says backstreet abortions lead to 39,000 deaths per year.

On International Safe Abortion Day, here is a summary of rules on the procedure in various countries:



– Easing access –



Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have changed their laws to facilitate access to abortion.

In March 2024, France became the first country to enshrine the right in its constitution.

In September 2023, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled to decriminalise abortion, bringing it in line with Argentina, which legalised it in 2020, plus Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay.

Ireland, a longtime bastion of Catholicism, legalised abortion in 2018 following a resounding yes vote in a referendum that overturned a constitutional ban.

Northern Ireland decriminalised it in 2019 — the last part of the United Kingdom to do so — as did South Korea.

New Zealand, Thailand and the west African state of Benin have since followed suit. The leadership of Sierra Leone has also approved its decriminalisation.

– Clamping down –

Abortion remains banned in around 20 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, according to the CRR.

El Salvador adopted a total ban in 1998 — even applying to cases where the woman’s or foetus’s life is in danger — with prison sentences of up to eight years.

Honduras hardened its total ban in 2021 by writing it into its constitution.

In Argentina, President Javier Milei, while running for office in 2023, promised to hold a referendum on banning abortion.

In Europe, only Andorra and the Vatican have total bans. Malta allows abortion only in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the foetus has no chance of survival.

Poland’s constitutional court sparked protests in 2020 after ruling against abortion in cases where the foetus is malformed.

Abortion in the staunchly Catholic country is only permitted in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger. Recent efforts to liberalise the law there have failed.

Hungary tightened its abortion law in 2022, obliging women contemplating the procedure to observe the foetus’s “vital functions” such as the heartbeat.

In Brazil and Chile, abortion is only allowed in case of rape, risk to the mother and serious malformation of the foetus.

Proposals have been made in Brazil to apply jail terms of up to 20 years for aborting after 22 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape.

– US U-turn –

In 2022, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court of the United States overturned the landmark 1973 “Roe v Wade” decision that had enshrined a woman’s right to a termination for half a century.

The court ruled that individual states can permit or restrict the procedure themselves.

Some 20 states, mainly in the south and centre, have since decreed bans or heavy restrictions on abortion.

States on the eastern and west coast have, by contrast, expanded access to terminations.

 Nepal shuts schools as floods and landslides kill more than 120

The death toll from flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains in Nepal has reached at least 129, with dozens of people still missing, officials said Sunday, warning that the toll was expected to rise further as reports come in from villages across the mountainous country.


Issued on: 29/09/2024 - 

Bagmati River is seen flooded due to heavy rains in an aerial view of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, on September 28, 2024. 

© Gopen Rai, AP

Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed 129 people, with 62 missing, officials said on Sunday.

The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Kathmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.

Authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair.

"We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days," Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the education ministry, told Reuters.

Some parts of the capital reported rain of up to 322.2 mm (12.7 inches), pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2 m (7 ft) past the danger mark, experts said.

But there were some signs of respite on Sunday morning, with the rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital.

"There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rains are unlikely," he said.

Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Kathmandu.

Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighbouring India close to Nepal.

Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

"I’ve never before seen flooding on this scale in Kathmandu," said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the centre.

In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to "urgently" step up investment in, and plans for, infrastructure, such as underground stormwater and sewage systems, both of the "grey", or engineered kind, and "green", or nature-based type.

The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanisation efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retention, and encroachment on the Bagmati river, it added.

The level in the Koshi river in Nepal's southeast has started to fall, however, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region's top bureaucrat.

The river, which brings deadly floods to India's eastern state of Bihar nearly every year, had been running above the danger mark at a level nearly three times normal, he said.

(Reuters)

Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom


By AFP
September 29, 2024


Kathmandu is ground zero of an incipient transport revolution set to see the clapped out cars that clog its traffic-snarled streets make way for emissions-free alternatives - Copyright AFP Prakash MATHEMA
Anup OJHA

Taxi driver Surendra Parajuli’s decision to buy an electric cab would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when chronic power cuts left Nepalis unable to light their homes at night.

But a dam-building spree has led to dirt-cheap energy prices in a landlocked Himalayan republic otherwise entirely dependent on fossil fuel imports, meaning the switch has put more money in his pocket.

“It has meant huge savings for me,” Parajuli, the proud new owner of a battery-powered and Chinese-made BYD Atto 3, told AFP in the capital Kathmandu.

“It gives 300 kilometres (186 miles) in a single charge and costs me a tenth of what petrol does. And it’s environmentally friendly.”

Kathmandu is ground zero of an incipient transport revolution set to see the clapped out cars that clog its traffic-snarled streets make way for emissions-free alternatives.

More than 40,000 electric vehicles are on the roads around the mountainous country, according to official estimates — a small fraction of the 6.2 million motor vehicles currently in service.

But demand is insatiable: more than a quarter of those vehicles were imported in the 12 months to July, a near-threefold increase from the previous year.

Neighbouring China, now the dominant player in electric vehicles globally, is supplying nearly 70 percent of the market.

“EVs are genuinely suitable for Nepalis,” Yajya Raj Bhatt, a prospective buyer at an electric vehicle motor show, told AFP.

“Before, we had to rely on petrol cars, but now we can drive independently.”



– ‘Great potential’ –



More than four in five Nepalis did not have access to electricity at the turn of the century, according to the International Energy Agency.

But rapid investment in dams, which generate 99 percent of Nepal’s baseload power, has transformed the energy grid since.

Hydropower output has increased fourfold in the past eight years, according to government figures, while 95 percent of the population now has access to electricity.

The country has already signed deals to export surplus power to coal-dependent India and has its sights set on future revenues by raising its current 3,200 megawatts of installed power generation capacity to 30,000 megawatts over the next decade.

Making electricity universal, and universally cheap, has the potential to jumpstart an economy that has historically depended on remittances from Nepalis working abroad.

Kulman Ghising of the Nepal Electricity Authority told AFP that the benefits have already been felt by setting the favourable conditions for widespread electric vehicle adoption.

Nepal is entirely dependent on imports from India to meet its fossil fuel needs, imposing additional costs on motorists, but Ghising said curbs on demand had saved the country around $224 million.

“The EVs have great potential for us,” he added. “EVs in India and Bangladesh need to depend on coal, but in Nepal, it’s fully green energy,” he said.

Road transport accounts for just over five percent of greenhouse gas emissions and has fuelled a worsening air pollution crisis.

Kathmandu was this year listed as one of the world’s most polluted cities for several days in April.

Experts say that getting more petrol-powered vehicles off the road will be a major step towards alleviating that problem.

Electric vehicles are subject to much lower import duties, and the government expects them to help Nepal reach its ambitious aim of becoming a net-zero greenhouse gas emitter by 2045.

Its plan aims to have electric vehicles account for 90 percent of all private vehicle purchases by the end of the decade.

– ‘Immediate problems’ –

But not everyone is convinced that the advent of Nepal’s electric vehicle boom portends an environmentally friendly future.

Nepal’s ambitious hydropower plans are contentious, with campaigners warning that the construction of new dams risk damaging sensitive ecological areas.

The government this year approved a new policy allowing the construction of dams that could impact previously protected areas, including forests, nature reserves and tiger habitats

Hydropower projects also face the risk of damage from floods and landslides common in the country, both of which are increasing in frequency and severity because of climate change.

Campaigners also say the government, in its rush to embrace electric vehicles, has neglected to make proper plans for managing the sizeable electronic waste burden.

EV lithium-ion batteries contain materials that are hazardous to humans and the environment, and their disposal is costly.

“The government does not seem far-sighted on this issue, it is just concerned with solving only immediate problems,” Nabin Bikash Maharjan of recycling enterprise Blue Waste to Value told AFP.

“It is high time for the government to prioritise it. Otherwise it will create additional pollution.”