LISBON CONFERENCE

Tech’s green wave hits choppy waters


By AFP
November 13, 2024

Tech ambitions include producing sustainable jet fuel out of the carbon dioxide in the air - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Daniel Boczarski
Joseph BOYLE

Tech entrepreneurs have spent years selling the dream that we can save the planet without changing our ways, but the current focus of innovation is dividing experts and investors.

The tech industry loves splashy world-saving ideas and spends billions on the hunt for new energy sources, often clashing with calls from activists and experts simply to use less energy.

The Web Summit in Lisbon this week, one of Europe’s biggest tech events, gave top billing to a Californian firm called Twelve that claims to be able to make sustainable jet fuel out of the carbon dioxide in the air.

“In a lot of ways we’re mimicking trees and plants,” Twelve cofounder Etosha Cave told the audience, describing a process that takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and converts it into fuel.

Cave painted a picture of a future where her company’s tech could power long-haul flights and even help exploit mineral wealth on Mars — a utopian vision that has helped her firm raise some $650 million.

The interviewer on stage with Cave told her it “sounds like magic”.

Climate expert Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at the University of Lancaster in the UK, told AFP that world-changing claims about sustainable fuel or new energy sources needed to be viewed sceptically.

“Everyone’s looking for a silver bullet that would mean we wouldn’t have to do anything difficult,” he said.

More broadly, the green wave in tech is entering a tricky period.

While Twelve and other major startups are attracting massive investment, Bloomberg recently reported that funding for climate tech was on track to fall 50 percent this year compared with last year.



– Big losses –



And climate tech has long been subject to the whims of politics and global economic trends.

The current green wave is the second this century.

The first — now called Clean Tech 1.0 — was fostered by US politician Al Gore, whose calls for funding were met with an estimated $25 billion of investments.

The period ended in 2011 after the global financial crisis ended cheap loans and China ramped up its solar panel output, wiping out most US startups and roughly half of investors’ cash.

But those investments were not wasted.

They led to an era of inexpensive solar and wind power and laid the foundations for the electric vehicle revolution.

Clean Tech 2.0 began around 2018 as companies and governments committed to net-zero carbon targets laid out by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

However, the US has re-elected Donald Trump as president with support from many leaders in the tech industry.

Trump — an avowed climate-change denier whose campaigning slogan on fossil fuels was “dig baby dig” — withdrew the US from the agreement in his first term and analysts believe he will do the same again.

And the global fight against climate change is still fraught, with national leaders meeting for the UN’s COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan this week divided on the idea of phasing out fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.



– ‘Severe reservations’ –



All this leaves climate tech in a precarious moment, and startups without world-saving narratives are scrambling to get funding from a smaller pot.

Web Summit hosted dozens of them, hawking everything from blockchain-backed “virtual power plants” to smart widgets for stopping household leaks.

While some experts are cynical about the utility of these “shark tank” style events, Elisabeth Gilmore, a professor of environmental engineering at Carleton University in Canada, said she had no problem with young entrepreneurs making big claims.

“These innovations should be eyebrow-raising,” she told AFP.

She said events like the Web Summit could focus minds, but cautioned that entrepreneurs must look beyond the profit motive and make products that help communities.

Berners-Lee questioned whether some of the most eye-catching ideas could be as good as they sounded.

“If these are real solutions that are ready to go, if they’re as good as they look, they would be scaling up like crazy,” he said.

Sustainable jet fuel, he said, was one of the toughest nuts to crack and would need major breakthroughs in storage and power usage.

Cave conceded on stage that Twelve needed “utility-level” renewables as well as power from the grid for her firm’s plants, though she said it used far less land and energy than biofuels.

More broadly, Berners-Lee questioned whether the search for new power sources should even be an aim for humanity.

“I would have severe reservations about giving humanity an unlimited energy supply beyond carbon — we’re causing enough damage with the energy we’ve already got,” he said.

RENEWABLES CANCEL CULTURE

Alberta bets on natural gas and carbon capture for data centre boom


By Chris Hogg
November 13, 2024


Nate Glubish, Alberta's Minister of Technology and Innovation of Alberta, sits down with Digital Journal's Chris Hogg. - Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

“I’ve talked to all the major players, and they all have a plan on ESG, they all care about their environmental commitments, but they are also realists,” said Alberta’s Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nate Glubish. “They all know you cannot run a data centre on renewables. It is not physically possible.”

In an interview with Digital Journal during Calgary’s Innovation Week, Glubish spoke about Alberta’s ambitious push to attract data centre investments.

The province sees data centres as essential infrastructure for the digital age and is positioning itself to be a global hub, with its unique ability to supply reliable, high-capacity power for these energy-intensive facilities.
Why data centres matter, and why Alberta wants them

Data centres are the backbone of everything we do today. They store everything from company files to social media content, and they handle billions of daily transactions across the world.

The expansion of AI, cloud computing, and streaming services has only intensified demand.

Alberta wants to be a top choice for these projects, seizing an opportunity to diversify its economy and leverage its abundant energy resources.

Alberta’s edge, the minister said, is its vast energy potential and investor-friendly policies.

According to Glubish, the province’s regulatory system allows for faster approvals, especially for “off-grid, behind-the-fence” infrastructure, which is critical for data centres that can’t risk power interruptions.

Off-grid, behind-the-fence infrastructure refers to energy solutions where data centres are powered independently of the public electricity grid. These facilities generate their own power on-site or nearby using dedicated power sources such as natural gas or other localized energy infrastructure.

This setup allows for greater control, reliability, and often quicker regulatory approval since it doesn’t require extensive connection to or dependence on the larger, public energy grid.

Another big selling point for the province is its weather — Alberta’s cooler climate makes it attractive for data centre operations.

Data centres generate intense heat and require constant cooling to maintain optimal operating temperatures, which is one of their largest operational costs. Alberta’s naturally colder weather helps offset some of these cooling demands, reducing energy consumption and operational expenses for companies.

This climate benefit, combined with the province’s competitive energy strategy, makes Alberta an appealing location for data centres seeking both reliability and efficiency in their infrastructure.
Data centres’ constant need for power

Data centres run continuously to support the uninterrupted flow of digital information.

Even brief outages can disrupt financial markets, healthcare records, and cloud services for millions.

For data centres, base load power — the kind that can be relied on at all times — is essential.

While renewable energy is part of Alberta’s plan, it isn’t enough to meet data centres’ immediate demands, Glubish said.

The province’s natural gas resources, coupled with carbon capture, allow Alberta to provide a cleaner, reliable energy source now, Glubish said.

Nuclear power is also an option, and so is coal.

Coal is on its way out in Canada because of its high greenhouse gas emissions, and while nuclear energy offers a much cleaner option, it will take 10 to 15 years to build, Glubish says, noting that many of the big tech companies plan to look at building small modular reactors in the future.

“Natural gas is the only way to get this up at scale, and Alberta’s positioned extraordinarily well to supply significant natural gas-fired power plants,” he said. “The good news is that we also have the world’s leading expertise in carbon capture and utilization and storage. For a fraction of the cost of building nuclear, you can get net-zero natural gas.”
The reality of renewable energy for data centres

Glubish acknowledges Alberta’s dual commitment to data centre growth and environmental stewardship.

While renewable projects are a priority, Glubish is clear: they aren’t currently feasible for data centres at scale.

THIS IS THE USUAL RENEWABLE REJECTION ARGUEMENT THAT IS FALSE

Wind and solar power fluctuate based on weather and time of day, making them insufficient to meet the non-stop energy needs of data centres.

BATTERY STORAGE OF POWER SOLVES THAT


In 2023, the Alberta government temporarily halted approvals for large-scale renewable projects to address concerns related to land use, end-of-life reclamation, and effects on agricultural land. This moratorium was lifted in 2024, but with added regulations to restrict the placement of new projects in certain areas, including agricultural lands.

This land-use debate has become a major consideration in discussions around powering new data centres.

Glubish noted that Alberta’s approach isn’t a rejection of renewables — it’s a prioritization of energy solutions that work right now while keeping future goals in view.

Alberta is courting Big Tech to the province

eStruxture Data Centers, a Canadian company, announced a significant investment in Alberta in October of 2024, indicating it planned to build a 90-megawatt data centre in Rocky View County, just north of Calgary.

This $750 million investment is set to be the largest data centre in Alberta, focusing on AI, cloud technologies, and high-capacity computing.

The Alberta government has also been actively courting U.S. tech firms to establish data centres in the province.

In September 2024, Glubish visited Silicon Valley to promote the province’s advantages, including its cold climate and abundant energy resources.

As data centres multiply globally, Alberta is making a clear statement: it’s ready to support this demand with the energy stability and strategic planning these projects require.
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Sri Lanka president eyes parliament win in snap election


By AFP
November 13, 2024


Thursday's election has failed to generate the level of enthusiasm -- or violence -- seen at previous polls, analysts say

 - Copyright AFP -

Amal JAYASINGHE

Sri Lanka votes Thursday in a second national election in as many months with a deeply divided opposition struggling to recover from a crushing defeat at presidential polls.

The snap parliamentary election was called by the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake — the South Asian island’s first leftist leader — after he won polls on a promise to combat graft and recover the country’s stolen assets.

Dissanayake’s party is widely tipped to sweep Thursday’s parliamentary vote with analysts saying the opposition is in disarray.

The 55-year-old leader is seeking a two-thirds majority in the 225-member legislature to press ahead with reforms after the country’s economic meltdown in 2022, when then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted.

Polls for 17.1 million voters choosing between 8,800 candidates, open at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) on Thursday and close at 4:00 pm, with initial results expected Friday.

Dissanayake’s JVP, or the People’s Liberation Front, is the main constituent of the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition of professionals seeking to form the next government.

The NPP held just three seats in the outgoing assembly.

Dissanayake had been an MP for nearly 25 years and was briefly an agriculture minister, but he distanced himself from traditional politicians accused of leading the country to its worst economic crisis two years ago.

His JVP party led two insurrections in 1971 and 1987, leading to the loss of at least 80,000 lives, but Dissanayake took power peacefully in elections on September 21.



– ‘Foregone conclusion’ –



Despite previous promises to renegotiate a controversial $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout secured by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake has chosen to maintain the agreement with the international lender.

The country’s main private sector lobby, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, is tacitly supporting Dissanayake and expects him to press ahead with reforms.

“Continuing reforms… could encourage both investor confidence and fiscal discipline, setting a foundation for sustainable growth,” CCC Secretary Bhuwanekabahu Perera told AFP ahead of voting.

He said Dissanayake’s approach to governance “may lean toward a balanced socialist-democratic model that acknowledges market realities.”

An IMF delegation is due in Colombo on Thursday to review economic progress before releasing the next tranche of $330 million of the bailout loan.

Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who had campaigned to take part in a coalition government, vowed in his final campaign rally he would “put pressure” on Dissanayake to honour promises of tax cuts.

Poll monitors and analysts note that Thursday’s election had failed to generate the level of enthusiasm — or violence — seen at previous polls.

Political analyst Kusal Perera said there was little campaigning by opposition parties.

“The opposition is dead,” Perera said. “The result of the election is a foregone conclusion.”

Over 60 senior politicians from the previous administration have opted to stay out.

The outgoing parliament was dominated by the party of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa — the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), or the People’s Front — but it has since splintered.

Rajapaksa is not contesting, but his son Namal, a former sports minister, is seeking re-election.

Op-Ed: Failed states, or how to destroy countries with lousy socioeconomics.


By Paul Wallis
November 13, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

Sudanese who have fled fightingt in Sennar state at a displacement camp in the country's east, in July - 

Copyright AFP TAUSEEF MUSTAFA

It would be so easy to define a failed state in political terms. Political terms mean nothing and never have. Let’s stick to the dictionary definitions. The reality of failed states is at foundation level, not political. Failure applies in real terms in real situations. A failed state is dysfunctional and cannot operate as a country.

Let’s skip the rhetoric. The measures of failure are unambiguous. This is a very simple checklist:

Economic failure: Poverty is a true measure of social failure, translated into visible economics. These economics destroy the state. Whatever wealth a nation may have, that wealth isn’t in public hands.

Health: A sick country is a country full of sick people. From that point onward, it’s just a matter of scale. Access to health care, however expensive and ineffectual, is a sort of door prize.

Quality of life: Any gap in quality of life indicates the actual economic condition of any state. A big gap means the society is effectively split.

Education: Lack of education means lack of economic capacity due to lack of skills. The “college divide” is a reflection of the ability to meet skills needs.

Repression: In more extreme cases, repression causes failed states. The USSR, Nazi Germany, and most dictatorships are the simple examples. All repressive states fail, it’s simply a matter of when they fail.

Crime: Healthy societies can manage crime reasonably well. Failing societies usually can’t or are actually run by criminals. These states never survive for long.

Infrastructure: Failure to maintain infrastructure from shipping goods to roads that are safe to drive on, is a fair measure of failure. This includes food, water, energy, and the necessities of life.

Rights: Rights are not “entitlements”, or “privileges”. Rights are supposed to be supported by law and constitutions. They’re your guarantee of personal rights. If those rights no longer exist, you’re definitely in a failed state. Injustice is a hallmark of a failed or failing state.

Priorities: A classic example of a failed state is neglect of critical priorities as above. Do you know of a state with that problem? There is effectively no real governance. Clashing priorities leads to polarization, which leads automatically to failed states. Dumb enough for anyone to understand, you’d think.

After that merry little checklist, here’s the current news about failed states. You notice some of the headlines are highly politicized and equivocal.

The slightly missed message in this familiar cacophony of headlines is that state failures aren’t theoretical. Sudan isn’t a theory, it’s a fact. Nor are the other impoverished nations and peoples around the world. Other states are really more a matter of degrees than definitions.

There are a few interesting examples. The UK has recently started describing itself as a potential Third World country since the Brexit lunacy.

The USA doesn’t know if it is or isn’t a failed state and is either still trying to make up its mind or not interested. Just for the record, you deranged psychotic gerbils, what’s “patriotic” about poverty, homelessness, and population-wide sickness?

The rest of the world generates quite a list of failed states. You’ll note quite a lot of political content in those headlines.

It’s called ducking the issues. Failure of whole countries is discussed much the same way as a not-so-good hairstyle, depending on which country us under discussion.

People?

What do people have to do with it?

Not much, apparently. Not so you’d notice, anyway.

Happy?

Now let me generously donate one further bit of information which is missing from this rhapsody of reality:

None of these were failing states 60 years ago.

The world was in reasonably OK, if not brilliant and certainly not spotless condition back then. Only Africa had the dubious privilege of being sabotaged by the rest of the world’s greed and politics.

Other continents are now enjoying “the African experience” and that’s where those hundreds of millions of immigrants are coming from.

These failures are the products of politics. Everyone knows how useful politics are. They’re the cause of most of human misery since the beginning of recorded history.

Failes states don’t “just happen”. They’re created.

See any issues?

In Colombia, a river’s ‘rights’ swept away by mining and conflict


By AFP
November 13, 2024


The plight of Colombia's Atrato river underscores the challenges facing conservationists in conflict-ridden areas 

- Copyright AFP SAUL LOEB

Lina VANEGAS

In 2016, a Colombian court sent a powerful statement on environmental protection by ruling that a crucial river in the northwestern Choco jungle, which was being decimated by illegal mining, had legal rights.

The landmark decision, which came the same year the government inked an historic peace deal with the FARC guerrillas who controlled much of Choco, compelled the state to protect the Atrato river, the lifeblood of the region.

A new dawn seemed possible in Colombia’s poorest, conflict-scarred department, where dozens of children had died from mercury poisoning due to illegal gold mining in the river.

But eight years later, the Atrato is still dotted with illegal dredging barges that churn up the riverbed in search of gold. New armed groups have filled the void left by FARC fighters. Locals still fear health risks from the river’s turbid waters.

The plight of the Atrato underscores the challenges facing conservationists in conflict-ridden areas.

The Atrato snakes 750 kilometers (460 miles) across Choco, from the Andes and through thick jungle to the Caribbean Sea.

In the near absence of paved roads in the region, the river and its tributaries are the main conduits for the transport of people and goods, as well as being a vital source of food.

“It is like an arterial vein… without it, we would not exist,” Claudia Rondan, a 41-year-old environmental activist from the Embera Indigenous community, told AFP.



– River is ‘sick’ –



Rondan is one of 14 leaders from riverside communities who act as “guardians” of the Atrato, helping to ensure compliance with the 2016 court ruling.

But she feels powerless to revive a waterway she describes as “sick.”

Ramon Cartagena, a 59-year-old environmentalist and guardian near the river’s source in El Carmen de Atrato, is equally despairing.

“There is no life at all in the river,” he said.

“Our parents left us … a translucent, clear river, and today we have an obligation to do the same and I think we are failing.”

The Atrato starts at 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) above sea level in the Western Cordillera, the lowest branch of the Colombian Andes.

At the source, the water is crystal clear and fit for drinking.

But by the time it widens out near Choco’s main city of Quibdo, its fast-flowing, murky waters are laced with mercury, a key ingredient in gold mining that has been blamed for the deaths of dozens of children in the past decade.

Colombia is the country worst affected worldwide by mercury pollution, a UN report found in 2018.

In Quibdo, fishmongers complain they can’t find buyers for their catch, because residents fear being poisoned.

Arnold Rincon, director of the local environmental authority, insists that the river’s mercury levels are safe.

But Jose Marrugo, an expert in mercury pollution at the University of Cordoba, in northern Colombia, said some villagers show signs of “chronic poisoning.”



– Look the other way –



As of mid-September 2024, the military has destroyed 334 illegal mining machines in the Atrato river.

But the dredging continues regardless.

On a visit to the region earlier this year, AFP saw several ramshackle mining rafts on the river.

“People are afraid to report it, everyone remains silent,” Bernardino Mosquera, another of Atrato’s guardians, told AFP.

That includes the river’s custodians. They say they have received death threats for combating illegal mining.

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists, with 361 killed since 2018, the Colombian peace foundation Pares said in a report last month.

The judge who endowed the Atrato with basic rights, Jorge Ivan Palacio, has blamed “a lack of political will” and corruption for the state’s failure to properly implement the ruling.

In a damning indictment, Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office, which oversees the protection of civil and human rights, said there was “no evidence of any kind of progress towards effective conservation” in the region since 2016.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Spain flood epicentre braces for fresh deluge


By AFP
November 13, 2024


A person stands in the middle of a flooded street in Campanillas, near Malaga, on November 13, 2024 

- Copyright AFP SAUL LOEB
Jose Jordan

Spain’s eastern Valencia region braced for more torrential rain on Wednesday, two weeks after the country’s worst floods in generations killed more than 200 people there.

Other parts of Spain also on high alert evacuated thousands of residents and closed schools as another storm lashed the European nation.

National weather agency AEMET issued the highest red alert lasting until midday (1100 GMT) on Thursday for the Valencia coast, with up to 180 millimetres of rain predicted to fall in 12 hours.

Regional authorities in Valencia extended university and school closures, shut day centres and sports facilities and restricted road travel in the worst-affected municipalities to “essential vehicles”.

Officials there have warned sewage systems already clogged with mud could struggle to cope with a fresh storm.

Many people in the destroyed town of Paiporta had barricaded their homes with planks or sandbags to try to protect them from fresh flooding, an AFP journalist saw.

A highly anticipated session of the local parliament where under-fire regional leader Carlos Mazon was due to explain his handling of the disaster was postponed from Thursday to Friday, a spokesman for the institution told AFP.

The October 29 catastrophe killed 223 people, almost all in the Valencia region, and caused enormous material damage expected to soar to tens of billions of euros.

AEMET also announced a red alert for part of the southern Andalusia region, where emergency services said more than 1,000 homes and almost 3,000 residents had been evacuated in and around the city of Malaga.

Footage on social media showed Malaga’s normally bustling commercial centre deserted and cars ploughing through rising water that had submerged roads.

– Malaga ‘paralysed’ –

Ester Espinosa, a 47-year-old resident of Malaga’s Campanillas suburb, told AFP residents were erecting a barricade to fend off the water.

“It hasn’t been exaggerated at all,” added Ida Maria Ledesma Martin, a 39-year-old social educator who said police had warned residents that morning.

School and university closures in Andalusia were extended in Malaga and other municipalities under severe weather warnings for rain on Thursday.

The high-speed lines connecting Madrid to Malaga and Valencia will be suspended until at least midday on Thursday due to the weather alerts, national railway company Renfe said.

Malaga airport cancelled one flight and diverted five others, operator Aena wrote on X, while the local metro was shut.

The start of the Billie Jean King Cup tennis finals between Spain and Poland in the city was also postponed.

“Malaga is paralysed… if there is intense rain in a short period of time, there are no capacities or infrastructure that can cope,” said the Andalusia region’s leader Juanma Moreno.

The storms hitting Spain have resulted from cold air moving over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which allows the hotter, moist air at the surface to rise quickly and produce intense rain clouds.

Scientists warn human-induced climate change is increasing the ferocity, frequency and length of such extreme weather events.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn8zmRMrZN1B_pok40Xl9eY2KAooH6SE-

 

Hunger in G20 host Brazil is Lula’s unfinished fight


By AFP
November 13, 2024

Neide Fernandes's family is among the 40 million Brazilians facing what the United Nations calls 'food insecurity'

 - Copyright AFP SAUL LOEB

Louis GENOT

In Neide Fernandes’s fridge there is no meat, no vegetables, but there are some 20 eggs — “the least expensive” animal protein she can afford.

The 60-year-old former cashier lives with her husband and two adolescent grandchildren in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in a Rio de Janeiro squat.

The building was once a hotel in the city center. Now, naked electric wires run the length of its dark corridors.

“We don’t have the money for three real meals a day,” she said. Her family is among the 40 million Brazilians facing what the United Nations calls “food insecurity.”

Hunger still stalks Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, even if efforts have picked up to halt it.

The issue may seem counterintuitive for an agricultural powerhouse. But the lucrative side of Brazil’s farming sector is soy and sugar exports, and not diet staples such as beans and rice.

Left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made the fight against hunger a centerpiece of his mandate. The progress he has made will buoy his inauguration Monday of a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty” at the G20 summit in Rio.

– ‘Made a difference’ –

Since her husband became jobless eight years ago, Neide Fernandes has benefited from the Bolsa Familia, a welfare program championed by Lula that gives payments to families which ensure their children attend school.

“But with 600 reais (around $100) a month, we get almost nothing at the supermarket,” she said.

In the last presidential election in 2022, Fernandes voted without hesitation for Lula, whose ambitious social programs lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty during his first two mandates, from 2003 to 2010.

Returned to power, Lula brought back the Bolsa Familia. But Fernandes was disappointed more was not done.

“I thought he’d go further, but in the end I don’t really feel that things have gotten better,” she said.

Another Brazilian receiving Bolsa Familia payments, Alia Martins, 36, still backed Lula, whose own rise from poverty through metalworking jobs and trade unionism gave him appeal to the country’s poorer classes.

“We know his history, he also knew hunger, and he has really made a difference,” said Martins, mother of three children and pregnant with a fourth.

Nevertheless, she was lining up for a charity food basket in a Rio neighborhood nestled under a favela.

– Problem ‘far’ from solved –

According to the UN State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the number of Brazilians suffering moderate to severe food insecurity fell from 70.3 million to 39.7 million between the 2020-2022 period to the latest, covering 2021-2023.

The number of those with severe food insecurity dropped 85 percent last year compared to 2022, according to UN figures Lula’s government says it has obtained. That was a reduction from 17.2 million people to 2.5 million.

“We are seeing a sharp drop, but that doesn’t mean that the problem of hunger in Brazil is solved, far from it,” said Rodrigo Afonso, head of the Acao da Cidadania (Citizen Action) charity distributing food baskets.

It was at Acao da Cidadania’s headquarters that Lula in July unveiled his alliance against hunger and poverty initiative.

At that event, tears filled his eyes as he urged action against hunger, which he called “the most degrading of human deprivations, an attack on life, an assault on freedom.”

The alliance seeks to rally countries and international bodies to finance the fight against hunger, and to copy successful initiatives.

For Marcelo Neri, head of the social studies unit of Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank, the Bolsa Familia could be one such example. Another is a Brazilian program providing free school meals.

But Brazil is struggling with those programs’ costs.

Unlike his first two mandates, when a resource boom filled state coffers, Lula is today confronted with budget pressures that he has to juggle against his ambition to lead the fight against hunger.

Lawmakers clash, protesters arrested in wake of Amsterdam violence


By AFP
November 13, 202

Five Maccabi fans were briefly hospitalised after being beaten up following a match with Ajax Amsterdam - Copyright AFP SAUL LOEB

Akshata KAPOOR

Dutch parliamentarians clashed in a heated debate Wednesday as they addressed last week’s attacks on Israeli football fans, while police in Amsterdam arrested pro-Palestinian protesters who again defied a ban on demonstrations in the wake of the violence.

The Netherlands is still dealing with the political fallout from last week’s violence that followed a Maccabi Tel Aviv match against home club Ajax in the capital, when Maccabi supporters were assaulted by men on scooters.

Five Maccabi fans were briefly hospitalised after being beaten up in what Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof termed an incident of “unadulterated anti-Semitism”.

After the match, groups of men on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans in several areas of the city.

Police said the attackers were mobilised by calls on social media to target Jewish people.

Far-right MP Geert Wilders, leader of the biggest party in the coalition government, said the perpetrators of the violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were “all Muslims” and “for the most part Moroccans”.

The anti-Islam Wilders called for the attackers to be prosecuted “for terrorism.”

“For the first time since the Second World War there was a hunt on Jews,” Wilders said, adding, “I am sick of being criticised when I tell the truth.”

But the firebrand MP drew the ire of opposition parties, who accused him of “adding fuel to the fire” and pointing the finger at an entire group.

As the debate was still ongoing hours later, several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered at Amsterdam’s famous Dam Square, wearing Palestinian scarves and chanting slogans.

The demonstration “is really all about our freedom of speech and protecting each other,” protester Sam van Urk, 33, told AFP.

“I don’t believe that even the lowest level of violence is a solution,” added another protester who only identified herself as “Hiba”.

Amsterdam “is tense, it’s a lot for everyone,” she told AFP.

The demonstration went ahead despite a security ban on protests by the city’s mayor which is in place until noon on Thursday.

The demonstrators were dragged off to waiting buses, AFP correspondents saw after they refused to leave the square when told they could protest elsewhere in the city.


– ‘Dividing the country’ –


In parliament, left-wing parties unanimously condemned the violence, calling for dialogue with the Muslim community instead of “dividing the country”.

“I share the condemnation of the violence in Amsterdam and yes, there was indeed anti-Semitic violence,” left-wing opposition leader Frans Timmermans said.

“You are simply stoking the fires while this country has a need for politicians to unite people and find solutions,” Timmermans told Wilders.

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema on Tuesday called the attacks a “poisonous cocktail” of anti-Semitism and hooliganism.

Events ahead of the match heightened tensions, including anti-Arab chants by Maccabi fans, who also set fire to a Palestinian flag on the city’s central square and vandalised a taxi.

After the match, which passed off peacefully, reports emerged of social media calls to attack Jews, Amsterdam police said.

The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarised Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

– ‘Connection under strain ‘ –

A representative of Amsterdam’s Muslim community said its members were feeling a lot of pressure as a result of the aftermath of the attacks.

“We are at a point where our connection as Amsterdammers is under strain,” Achraf El Johari said.

“We don’t dispute that there was indeed talk of Jew hating… but you can’t draw a line back to include a whole group,” he told the AT5 television station.

The Dutch PM indicated that the government would present concrete steps to tackle anti-Semitism on Friday.

Eight people remained in custody over the violence last week and police could not immediately say how many protesters were detained on Wednesday.

Journalist says his detention removed Guatemala’s ‘mask of democracy’

By AFP
November 13, 2024

Journalist Jose Ruben Zamora speaks during an interview with AFP at his home in Guatemala City - Copyright AFP JOHAN ORDONEZ

Edgar Calderon

A prominent Guatemalan journalist and corruption critic, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, says that his time in prison allowed him to strip away his country’s “mask of democracy.”

Jose Ruben Zamora was arrested in July 2022 after his now-shuttered newspaper reported on graft allegations involving the government of former right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei.

The 68-year-old spent more than 800 days behind bars, accused of money laundering and blackmail, before he was freed from prison on October 19.

Today he remains under house arrest awaiting a retrial, and faces another accusation from prosecutors of obstruction of justice.

“You had a klepto-narco dictatorship disguised as a democracy, with an international community eager to feel that it had done enough for Guatemala,” Zamora told AFP in an interview in the courtyard of his home.

“They wanted to see it as a country with democracy, elections, freedom,” he said.

“I had more impact in two years in prison than in 30 years of journalism, because we stripped away the mask of democracy,” he added.

– ‘Sinister metamorphosis’ –

A court allowed the journalist to be moved to house arrest “for human rights reasons,” saying that “the extent of the prison sentence has exceeded the limits.”

Zamora’s sentencing in June 2023 to six years in prison for money laundering was overturned and he is awaiting another trial.

After his arrest, his wife and three children left Guatemala and went to the United States, fearing the same fate.

Zamora said that democracy in Guatemala and other Latin American countries “underwent a sinister metamorphosis.”

“Once every four years we elected a thieving president who co-governs… with state contractors, with state unions, with organized crime, with political and economic monopolies and oligopolies.”

He blames his ordeal on Giammattei, who was accused by rights groups of overseeing a crackdown on anti-graft prosecutors and journalists during his term, which ended in January.

“Ignorance is very dangerous and ignorance with power is extremely dangerous,” Zamora said.

Giammattei was replaced by President Bernardo Arevalo, an underdog anti-corruption campaigner who overcame attempts by the political establishment to block his inauguration.

Zamora said that he never felt ashamed of being in prison.

“I learned to live with humility, with patience, with faith. They didn’t hurt me. I regret the time I missed seeing my children and my grandchildren and my wife, but I felt free inside,” he said.

“I didn’t feel ashamed. I always felt proud.”

Workers stage walkout at US maker of Fallout video game


By AFP
November 13, 2024

Blockbuster video game franchise 'Fallout' inspired a hit television series at Amazon Prime - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Daniel Boczarski

Hundreds of US workers at the video game giant behind Fallout staged a one-day strike Wednesday over outsourcing and remote work policies, their labor union said.

“We are not afraid to do what’s necessary to make sure that Microsoft meets us at the bargaining table over key issues like remote work options and outsourcing,” ZeniMax Workers United said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Today, we are on strike.”

The group, part of the Communication Workers of America (CWA), said that hundreds of ZeniMax employees in Maryland and Texas were on strike through the work day to “tell Microsoft to stop dragging their feet” when it comes to worker demands about job security and improved conditions.

Software giant Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2021, marking a major expansion for its Xbox division that gave it ownership of several best-selling franchises.

ZeniMax is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, publisher of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises.

Microsoft did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Workers at Bethesda Game Studios joined the CWA in July of this year as union organizing gained momentum in the face of grueling work loads and scant job security.

Bethesda Game Studios employees joined “a surge of workers” forming unions in the video game industry, according to the CWA, which lists members at SEGA of America, Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Tender Claws.

UK’s The Guardian stops posting on ‘toxic media platform’ X


By AFP
November 13, 2024

The Guardian said it would no longer post on X, calling it a 'toxic media platform' - Copyright AFP/File Indranil MUKHERJEE

Britain’s The Guardian newspaper announced Wednesday it would no longer post content from its official accounts on Elon Musk’s X, branding it a “toxic media platform” home to “often disturbing content”.

“We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives,” the left-leaning newspaper, which has nearly 11 million followers on X, said in a statement on its website.

It added that its “resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere”.

“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” the statement noted.

“The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”

The paper’s main X handle — @guardian — was still accessible Wednesday but a message on it advised “this account has been archived” while redirecting visitors to its website.

The Guardian noted that X users would still be able to share its articles, and that it would still “occasionally embed content from X” within its articles given “the nature of live news reporting”.

It also said its reporters would still be able to use the site and other social networks on which the paper does not have an account.

“Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work,” The Guardian added.

Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022 and has consistently courted controversy with his use of the platform, particularly during the recent US presidential election.

Musk endorsed Donald Trump and used his personal account boasting nearly 205 million followers to sway voters in favour of the Republican, with a slew of incendiary, misleading posts criticised for cranking up the political temperature.

Trump on Tuesday announced that the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire would lead a so-called Department of Government Efficiency in his incoming administration, alongside the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.