Caste differentiation in ants

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science

Most ants have two morphologically differentiated adult castes - queens and workers - each irreversibly specialized for either reproduction or nonreproductive altruism such as foraging, defense and care of maternal brood. Adult gynes (virgin queens) normally have higher body mass, wings and frontal eyes, as well as enlarged ovaries and a sperm storage organ. In contrast, workers are wingless females with smaller body size and degenerated reproductive tracts, usually without a sperm storage organ. In 1910, the American entomologist William Morton Wheeler noted in his monograph Ants that the superorganismal colonies of ants are strikingly analogous to metazoan bodies because queen and workers function as germline and soma at a higher level of bodily organization: the colony-level.

We are very used to the idea that germline cells in an animal body are set aside for their special reproductive roles very shortly after an egg is fertilized and starts to develop into an embryo. In most social insects with distinct queen (colony germline) and worker (colony soma) castes the analogous developmental differentiation happens in the larval stage and can still be hormonally reversed. However, in some ants colony germlines are also determined earlier, in the embryonic (egg) stage, begging the question whether that makes somatization of workers as irreversible as somatization of animal body cells as development proceeds.

A new study from the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen, funded by a Villum Investigator Grant,finds that caste development is remarkably reversible in pharaoh ants, Monomorium pharaonis, a species where caste determination happens in the eggs stage. “We fed 237 pharaoh ant worker larvae with controlled doses of juvenile hormone (JH) analog during the 3rd larval instar, the final stage of larval development”, says Ruyan Li, the lead author of this study. “We found that hormone-treated worker ants developed many gyne-like physical characteristics, such as increased body length, three extra frontal eyes, wings and flight muscles, gyne-like brains; they even developed the gyne-specific sperm storage organ that workers of this species never have”.

However, unlike naturally developed gynes, JH-treated workers never developed ovaries, the reproductive organ that ultimately sets gynes apart from workers, show that the caste-specific JH-sensitivity window does not overlap with the egg-stage. The study also sheds new light on how shifts in developmental-sensitivity for growth hormone may have played a role in the emergence of new castes in other ants, such as soldiers (modified workers) or permanently wingless gynes. “Such novel castes often originate as mosaic phenotypes that recombine gyne- and worker traits, which may become permanent when natural selection rewards a subsequent shift in JH-sensitivity window”, says Guojie Zhang, corresponding author of the study and Professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Adjunct Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

- “The results confirm the strong analogy between how cell differentiation in animal bodies and caste differentiation in ant colonies works. Similar to animal breeders having not yet succeeded in using somatic cells to produce new animals, this study found similar limitations at the higher level of colonial organization in ants”, concludes Professor Koos Boomsma at the University of Copenhagen, a senior coauthor of the study.

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DOI

10.1073/pnas.24069991 

 

3D-printing advance mitigates three defects simultaneously for failure-free metal parts 

University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

image: 

From left: Associate Professor Lianyi Chen and PhD students Jiandong Yuan and Ali Nabaa work on developing beam shaping approaches for defect-lean and high productivity metal additive manufacturing.

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Credit: Joel Hallberg/UW–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have found a way to simultaneously mitigate three types of defects in parts produced using a prominent additive manufacturing technique called laser powder bed fusion. 

Led by Lianyi Chen, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at UW–Madison, the team discovered the mechanisms and identified the processing conditions that can lead to this significant reduction in defects. The researchers detailed their findings in a paper published on November 16, 2024, in the International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture.  

“Previous research has normally focused on reducing one type of defect, but that would require the usage of other techniques to mitigate the remaining types of defects,” Chen says. “Based on the mechanisms we discovered, we developed an approach that can mitigate all the defects — pores, rough surfaces and large spatters — at once. In addition, our approach allows us to produce a part much faster without any quality compromises.” 

Multiple industries, including aerospace, medical and energy, are increasingly interested in using additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to produce metal parts with complex shapes that are difficult or impossible to create using conventional methods. 

But the big challenge is that metal parts created with additive manufacturing have defects — like pores, or “voids,” rough surfaces and large spatters — that significantly compromise the finished part’s reliability and durability. These quality problems prevent 3D-printed parts from being used for critical applications where failure is not an option. 

By providing a path for simultaneously increasing part quality and manufacturing productivity, the UW–Madison team’s advance could lead to widespread industry adoption of laser powder bed fusion. 

Laser powder bed fusion uses a high-energy laser beam to melt and fuse thin layers of metal powder, constructing a part layer by layer from the bottom up. In this research, the UW–Madison team used an innovative ring-shaped laser beam, provided by a leading laser company called nLight, instead of the usual Gaussian-shaped beam. 

The ring-shaped laser beam played a key role in this breakthrough — as did critical “in-situ” experiments, says Jiandong Yuan, the lead author of the paper and a PhD student in Chen’s group. 

To see how the material behaved within the part as it was printing, researchers went to the Advanced Photon Source, an ultra-bright, high-energy synchrotron X-ray user facility at Argonne National Laboratory. Combining high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, the researchers revealed the defect mitigation mechanisms, which involve phenomena that reduce instabilities in the laser powder bed fusion process. 

The researchers also demonstrated that they could use the ring-shaped beam to drill deeper into the material without causing instabilities in the process. This enabled them to print thicker layers, increasing the manufacturing productivity. “Because we understood the underlying mechanisms, we could more quickly identify the right processing conditions to produce high-quality parts using the ring-shaped beam,” says Chen. 

 

Lianyi Chen is the Kuo K. & Cindy F. Wang Associate Professor of mechanical engineering. 

 

Collaborators from UW-Madison include Qilin Guo, Luis Escano, Ali Nabba, Minglei Qu, Junye Huang, Qingyuan Li, Allen Jonathan Román, and Professor Tim Osswald. Samuel Clark and Kamel Fezzaa from Argonne National Laboratory also collaborated on this project. 

 

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. 

# # # 

--Adam Malecek, acmalecek@wisc.ed

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Journal

International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture

Method of Research

Experimental study

 

Engineered additive makes low-cost renewable energy storage a possibility

University of Wisconsin-Madison

MADISON — Solar and wind are quickly transforming the energy landscape — but if we are to realize the full potential of these intermittent, renewable energy sources, we’ll need safe, affordable batteries capable of storing it.

As part of an effort to overcome the long-term energy-storage challenge, University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have invented a water-soluble chemical additive that improves the performance of a type of electrochemical storage called a bromide aqueous flow battery.

“Bromide-based aqueous flow batteries are a promising solution, but there are many messy electrochemical problems with them. That’s why there’s no real successful bromide-based products today,” says Patrick Sullivan who graduated from UW–Madison with a PhD in chemistry in 2023. “Yet, our one additive can solve so many different problems.”

Sullivan, PhD student Gyohun Choi, and Dawei Feng, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UW–Madison, developed the additive. The research was published on October 23, 2024, by the journal Nature.

Currently, giant tractor-trailer-sized lithium-ion battery packs store energy for the grid — but with technical limitations. Lithium batteries have safety concerns due to the potential for fires and explosions and a complicated international supply chain.

Aqueous flow batteries, however, could make grid-scale storage safer and cheaper. In these batteries, positive and negative liquid electrolytes circulate over electrodes that are separated by a membrane. Since the batteries use ions dissolved in a liquid — water — they can be scalable, sustainable and safe.

The most commercially mature flow batteries are based on vanadium ions, which, like lithium, are expensive and hard to source. However, another version of these flow batteries relies on bromide, a cheap, widely available ion that performs similar to vanadium — at least on paper.

In practice, however, tiny bromide ions cause all sorts of problems in flow batteries. They can pass through the membrane that separates the electrodes, and that reduces the battery’s efficiency. Sometimes the ions precipitate out of the electrolyte and form a messy oil that “sinks” to the bottom of the solution. Occasionally, the ions also form toxic bromine gas. These issues hinder practical performance and reliability.

An additive called a complexing agent could help. Choi set out to find an additive that enhances bromide aqueous flow battery performance. The researchers used molecular design to engineer over 500 candidate organic molecules they call “soft-hard zwitterionic trappers.” They synthesized and tested 13 of these representative molecules as potential additives for the bromide batteries.  

The resulting multi-functional additives solve the flow battery’s main problems. It encapsulates the bromide ions while allowing them to remain water-soluble, and since the resulting complex is now larger, they can’t pass through the membrane. The ions are also “phase-stable,” which means they don’t separate out of the water electrolyte or create toxic bromine gas.

Importantly, the additives dramatically improve the flow battery’s performance, increasing the efficiency and longevity of the chemical system. “Our devices with the additive functioned without decay for almost two months compared to ones without it, which typically fail within a day,” says Feng. “This is important because for green energy storage, you want to use it for 10 or 20 years.”

The team plans to continue refining the work. Choi will study the fundamental science behind additives for bromide and iodide flow batteries, while Sullivan, who is CEO of Flux XII — a renewable energy spinoff company he co-founded with Feng — will explore the commercial viability of the additive, which has already been successfully produced in industrial ton-scale reactions.

 

Dawei Feng is the Y. Austin Chang Assistant Professor in materials science and engineering. Other UW–Madison authors include Xiu-Liang Lv, Wenjie Li, Kwanpyung Lee, Haoyu Kong, Sam Gessler, and JR Schmidt.

 

# # #

 

--Jason Daley, jgdaley@wisc.edu

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Journal

Nature

Method of Research

Experimental study

 

New gene drive reverses insecticide resistance in pests… then disappears

The self-eliminating ‘e-Drive’ replaces mutant genes with native genes to reduce pesticide use and protect valuable food crops

University of California - San Diego

 

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The self-eliminating "e-Drive" reverses insecticide resistance.

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Credit: Bier Lab, UC San Diego

Insecticides have been used for centuries to counteract widespread pest damage to valuable food crops. Eventually, over time, beetles, moths, flies and other insects develop genetic mutations that render the insecticide chemicals ineffective.

Escalating resistance by these mutants forces farmers and vector control specialists to ramp up use of poisonous compounds at increasing frequencies and concentrations, posing risks to human health and damage to the environment since most insecticides kill both ecologically important insects as well as pests.

To help counter these problems, researchers recently developed powerful technologies that genetically remove insecticide-resistant variant genes and replace them with genes that are susceptible to pesticides. These gene-drive technologies, based on CRISPR gene editing, have the potential to protect valuable crops and vastly reduce the amount of chemical pesticides required to eliminate pests.

Still, gene-drive systems have come under scrutiny with concerns that once they are released into a population they could continuously spread unchecked.

University of California San Diego geneticists have now developed a solution to this concern. Publishing in the journal Nature Communications, School of Biological Sciences Postdoctoral Scholar Ankush Auradkar and Professor Ethan Bier led the creation of a new genetic system that converts insecticide-resistant forms of mutated insect genes back to their natural, native form. The novel system is designed to spread the original “wild type” version of the gene using the biased inheritance of specific genetic variants known as alleles and then disappear, leaving only a population of insects with the corrected version of the gene.

“We have developed an efficient biological approach to reverse insecticide resistance without creating any other perturbation to the environment,” said Bier, a professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, of the self-eliminating allelic drive, or “e-Drive.” “The e-Drive is programmed to act transiently and then disappear from the population.”

As described in the paper, the researchers created a novel genetic “cassette,” a small group of DNA elements, and inserted it inside fruit flies as a proof-of-concept technology that could be applied to other insects. They developed the e-Drive to target a gene known as the voltage gated sodium ion channel, or vgsc, which is required for proper nervous system functioning.

The e-Drive cassette is designed to spread through CRISPR gene editing and features a guide RNA that binds to a Cas9 DNA protein and makes a cut at the targeted vgsc insecticide resistant gene site. The gene is then switched out for a native copy of the gene that is susceptible to insecticides.

Per the study, when insects carrying the cassette are introduced into a target population, they mate randomly and transmit the e-Drive cassette to their offspring. To maintain control of the e-Drive’s spread, the researchers imposed a fitness check on those carrying the cassette, either through limited viability or fertility. The cassette was inserted on the X-chromosome and reduced the mating success of males, resulting in reduced offspring. The frequency of the cassette in the population eventually declines through each generation until it fully vanishes from the population.

In laboratory experiments all of the offspring were converted to native genes in eight-to-10 generations, which took about six months in flies.

“Because insects carrying the gene cassette are penalized with a severe fitness cost, the element is rapidly eliminated from the population, lasting only as long as it takes to convert 100 percent of the insecticide-resistant forms of the target gene back to wild-type,” said Auradkar.

The researchers note that the self-eliminating nature of the e-Drive means it can be introduced and re-introduced as needed, and as different types of pesticides are used. The researchers are now developing a similar e-Drive system in mosquitoes to help prevent the spread of malaria.

In addition to Auradkar and Bier, the coauthors of the Nature Communications paper included their close collaborators Rodrigo Corder of the Institute of Biomedical Science, University of São Paulo; and John Marshall of the Innovative Genomics Institute, who performed sophisticated mathematical modeling that revealed important hidden features of the e-Drive system, including its ability to efficiently cull a class of individuals in which the drive process did not occur.

In laboratory experiments all of the offspring were converted to native genes in eight-to-10 generations, which took about six months in flies.

Credit

Bier Lab, UC San Diego

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-54210-4 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A self-eliminating allelic-drive reverses insecticide resistance in Drosophila leaving no transgene in the population

Article Publication Date

17-Nov-2024

COI Statement

Ethan Bier has equity interest in two companies he co-founded: Agragene Inc. and Synbal Inc., which may potentially benefit from the research results.

 

One in 20 people in Canada skip doses, don’t fill prescriptions because of cost

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Affordability in Canada affects not just groceries but also medications, with 1 in 20 people unable to take their medications as prescribed because of cost, found new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241024.

Prescription medications are not universally covered under Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial health insurance systems. In 2021, Canadian households paid more than $7.4 billion out of pocket for prescription medications. 

The study, which included a nationally representative sample of more than 223 000 respondents over age 12, was conducted to better understand the burden of prescription costs in Canada. One in 20 (5%) respondents reported cost-related nonadherence, meaning they skip or reduce dosages, delay refilling prescriptions, or do not fill prescriptions at all because of out-of-pocket costs. The authors found that females were 44% more likely to report cost-related problems than males, as were bisexual, pansexual, and questioning individuals (43%).

“Our findings show that intersections of personal, health, and health care system factors affect whether people in Canada skip or cut back on medications because of cost. We saw this pattern in the overall population and in both males and females when looking at them separately,” says Dr. Mary De Vera, a pharmacoepidemiologist and associate professor in medication adherence in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of British Columbia and Arthritis Research Canada, Vancouver, BC.

Race and ethnicity were also associated with prescription affordability, with Indigenous, Latin American, West Asian, Arab, Black, and multiracial people having 20%–67% higher odds of nonadherence. People aged 18–34 years were 9 times more likely to report cost-related nonadherence than adults aged 75 years and older.

People living in Quebec were least affected by prescription costs, as each province has its own drug insurance program.

“The lack of national standards for these programs has led to interprovincial disparities in public drug coverage related to eligibility, premiums, and cost-sharing policies (e.g., deductibles, co-payments, out-of-pocket limits) and has created the need for financing of prescription drugs via private insurance and out-of-pocket costs incurred by patients,” says Nevena Rebić, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto who led the analysis.

Previous studies have been restricted to specific populations or a narrow time frame, whereas this study is more comprehensive and includes data from 5 iterations of the Canadian Community Health Survey from 2015 to 2020. 

The authors suggest that these findings can help inform public drug coverage plans, premium amounts, and other ways to reduce financial barriers to prescription medications in Canada.

In October 2024, Canada took concrete steps to ensure a national pharmacare program, as it became law under Bill C-64.

“As an initial step toward full national pharmacare, it is a laudable achievement,” writes Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, deputy editor, CMAJ, in a related editorial https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.241650. “Yet the legislation is low on substance, high on promises and aspirations, and vulnerable to political change. This leaves people living in Canada mired in uncertainty as to when or whether they will have the guaranteed access to medications and therapies, regardless of ability to pay, that citizens of almost all other countries with a public health care system receive.”

He urges the federal government and people of Canada to ensure that pharmacare is extended in the future.

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Journal

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.241024 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Predictors of cost-related medication nonadherence in Canada: a repeated cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey

Article Publication Date

25-Nov-2024

 

Viking colonizers of Iceland and nearby Faroe Islands had very different origins, study finds

Band of Viking men from all over Scandinavia first settled Faroe Islands show geneticists

Frontiers

 

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The landscape on the Faroe Islands today

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Credit: Eyðfinn Magnussen

The ancient Vikings certainly had the travel bug. Between the late eighth century and approximately 1050 CE, they roamed the Atlantic in their longships all the way to Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, as well as exploring the Mediterranean and continental Eurasia.

Among the places the Vikings are known to have settled were the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands in the North Atlantic. They probably weren’t the first to do so: archaeologists have found evidence that these islands had been inhabited since approximately 300 CE, possibly by Celtic monks or others from the British Isles. But according to the Færeyinga Saga, written around 1200, a Viking chief called Grímur Kamban settled in the Faroe Islands between approximately 872 and 930 CE.

But where in Scandinavia did Grímur and his followers come from?

“Here we provide strong evidence that the Faroe Islands were colonized by a diverse group of male settlers from multiple Scandinavian populations,” said Dr Christopher Tillquist, an associate professor at the University of Louisville in Kentucky and the lead author of a new study in Frontiers in Genetics.

Tillquist’s co-authors were Dr Allison Mann from the University of Wyoming and Dr Eyðfinn Magnussen from the University of the Faroe Islands.

The scientists determined the genotype at 12 ‘short tandem repeat’ (STR) loci on the Y-chromosome of 139 men from the Faroese islands of Borðoy, Streymoy, and Suðuroy. They assigned each man to the most likely haplogroup, each of which has different known distribution across today’s Europe.

The researchers compared the distribution of genotypes to those found in 412 men from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland. This allowed them to reconstruct the source population of the Viking population founders.

Advanced analyses showed that the range of Faroese samples resembled the range of genotypes from broader Scandinavian, whereas the Icelandic genotypes where distinct.

The authors also developed a powerful innovative genetic method, called ‘Mutational Distance from Modal Haplotype’ to analyze variation in SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) within the STRs. This allowed them to reveal a ‘founder effect’ – traces of random loss of diversity during historic colonization by a small number of people – persisting in the genetic make-up of today’s Faroese and Icelandic male populations.

“Scientists have long assumed that the Faroe Islands and Iceland were both settled by similar Norse people. Yet our novel analysis has shown that these islands were founded by men from different gene pools within Scandinavia,” said Tillquist.

“One group, diverse in their Scandinavian origins, established themselves in the Faroe Islands, while another and more genetically divergent band of Vikings colonized Iceland. They have separate genetic signatures that persist to this day.”

“There doesn’t seem to have been any interbreeding afterwards between these two populations, despite their geographic proximity. Our results demonstrate that Viking expansion into the North Atlantic was more complex than previously thought.”

“Each longship that set sail for these distant islands carried not just Vikings, but distinct genetic legacies. We can now trace these separate journeys of conquest and settlement, revealing a more nuanced story of Viking exploration than told by the history books.”

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Journal

Frontiers in Genetics

DOI

10.3389/fgene.2024.1462736 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Genetic evidence points to distinct paternal settlers of the Faroe Islands and Iceland

Article Publication Date

25-Nov-2024

Far-right candidate surprises in elections, sets up run-off with Romania PM

With 98.66 percent of ballots counted, Georgescu was leading with 22.59 percent to Ciolacu's 19.55 percent in the race to take over from President Klaus Iohannis in the largely ceremonial post.


Calin Georgescu, independent candidate for president, after registering his bid in the country's presidential elections, in Bucharest, Romania, Oct. 1, 2024. / Photo: AP Archive


Far-right candidate Calin Georgescu surged unexpectedly in Romania's presidential election, pulling ahead of the pro-European prime minister with more than 98 percent of votes counted Monday and looking all but certain to advance to a runoff.


Exit polls had initially showed centre-left Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with a comfortable lead and put a centre-right candidate in second, suggesting the far-right would be shut out of the run-off next month.


But with 98.66 percent of ballots counted, Georgescu was leading with 22.59 percent to Ciolacu's 19.55 percent in the race to take over from President Klaus Iohannis in the largely ceremonial post.


In the absence of an outright winner in the first round –– scoring more than 50 percent –– the top two candidates go through to a second round on December 8.


Whatever the outcome, "the far right is by far the big winner of this election", political scientist Cristian Pirvulescu told AFP.


Another nationalist candidate, George Simion, is currently running fourth, putting the far-right on track to take about a third of the vote.

High stakes


Ciolacu's Social Democrat party has shaped Romania's politics for more than three decades, and as he voted Sunday he promised stability and a "decent" standard of living.


But with concerns mounting over inflation and the war in neighbouring Ukraine, the far-right appeared to be gaining ground ahead of the vote.


Georgescu surged in recent days with a viral TikTok campaign calling for an end to aid for Ukraine. He has also sounded a sceptical note on Romania's NATO membership.


"Tonight, the Romanian people cried out for peace. And they shouted very loudly, extremely loudly", he said.


Simion had also tapped into voter anger over inflation while promising more affordable housing.


Looking for a new election breakthrough for European far-right parties, he had warned of possible "fraud" and "foreign interference" when voting.


The stakes are high for Romania, which has a 650-kilometre (400-mile) border with Ukraine and has become more important since Russia began its military campaign against its neighbour in 2022.


The Black Sea nation now plays a "vital strategic role" for NATO –– as it is a base for more than 5,000 soldiers –– and the transit of Ukrainian grain, the New Strategy Center think tank said.


Russian 'spies' claim


The campaign was marked by controversy and personal attacks, with Simion facing accusations of meeting with Russian spies –– a claim he has denied.


Ciolacu has been criticised for his use of private jets.


Some observers had tipped Elena Lasconi, mayor of the small town of Campulung and head of a centre-right opposition party, as a surprise package. But she is currently running third.


Pirvulescu, the political scientist, said the far-right's surprise success could have a "contagion effect" in the parliamentary elections slated for December, which could make it difficult to form a coalition.
SOURCE: AFP

LEFT WING SWING

Uruguay elects Yamandu Orsi as its president

Orsi, 57, a former history teacher and two-time mayor from a working-class background, is widely seen as an heir to iconic former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica.


Promising to forge a “new left” in Uruguay, Orsi has proposed tax incentives to lure investment. / Photo: AP

Left-wing candidate Yamandu Orsi was elected president of Uruguay, official results showed, as he prevailed over centre-right rival Alvaro Delgado in a tightly-contested election.

With 94.4 percent of ballots counted, Orsi won 1,123,420 votes compared to Delgado's 1,042,001, the country's Electoral Court said.

Delgado has conceded defeat in the closely-fought poll that saw voters turn away from five years of conservative rule.


"Today the Uruguayans have defined who will hold the presidency of the republic. And I want to send here, with all these actors of the coalition, a big hug and a greeting to Yamandu Orsi," Delgado said in a speech surrounded by his supporters.

Orsi, 57, a former history teacher and two-time mayor from a working-class background, is widely seen as an heir to iconic former President Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former Marxist guerilla.

“He was born from ordinary workers," Mujica said in a closing campaign ad for Orsi. “He represents, precisely, the average type of what Uruguay is.”

Promising to forge a “new left” in Uruguay, Orsi has proposed tax incentives to lure investment and industrial policy to boost Uruguay’s critical agricultural sector.

He has also floated social security reforms that would buck the demographic trend in lowering the retirement age but fall short of a radical overhaul sought by Uruguay's unions.

BAN LANDMINES

UN chief slams land mine threat days after US decision to supply Ukraine

UN chief Antonio Guterres called on the 164 signatories of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty to ‘meet their obligations and ensure compliance to the Convention.’ (AFP)

AFP
November 25, 2024

The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines ‘very important’ to halting Russian attacks


SIEM REAP, Cambodia: The UN Secretary-General on Monday slammed the “renewed threat” of anti-personnel land mines, days after the United States said it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces battling Russia’s invasion.

In remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia to review progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed the work of clearing and destroying land mines across the world.

“But the threat remains. This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons,” he said in the statement.

He called on the 164 signatories — which include Ukraine but not Russia or the United States — to “meet their obligations and ensure compliance to the Convention.”

Guterres’ remarks were delivered by UN Under-Secretary General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.

AFP has contacted her office and a spokesman for Guterres to ask if the remarks were directed specifically at Ukraine.

The Ukrainian team at the conference did not respond to AFP questions about the US land mine supplies.

Washington’s announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel land mines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.

The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks.

The conference is being held in Cambodia, which was left one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world after three decades of civil war from the 1960s.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told the conference his country still needs to clear over 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of contaminated land that is affecting the lives of more than one million people.

Around 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1979, and twice as many have been injured.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday that at least 5,757 people had been casualties of land mines and explosive remnants of war across the world last year, 1,983 of whom were killed.

Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.

COP29: Israel did not 'make the desert bloom'. It stole the land

By platforming Israel again, COP29 has stained its climate credentials. There is no climate justice without the liberation of Palestine, says Nandita Lal.

Nandita Lal
22 Nov, 2024
THE NEW ARAB


By portraying itself as capable of transforming arid landscapes into thriving ecosystems, Israel echoes colonial narratives, writes Nandita Molloy [photo credit: Getty Images]

Instead of tackling the climate crisis or confronting Israel's "environmental catastrophe" in Gaza, the world's governments appear to have spent COP29 in Baku turning a blind eye and a deaf ear, convincing themselves that this widespread destruction isn't happening.

As is now customary, the conference was mired in controversy and hypocrisy before it began. This time around, senior Azerbaijani officials were exposed trying to use the conference as a forum to decide fossil fuel deals, further undermining COP's climate credentials.

Yet, after one year of accelerated genocide in Gaza and occupied Palestine, the display at the Israeli Pavilion sticks out as the most striking and shameful symbol of COP29's collective failings.

 

Related

Azerbaijan greenwashes authoritarianism at COP29

Perspectives

Arzu Geybulla

This is Israel's third pavilion at COP, following appearances at COP28 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and COP29 in Dubai, reflective of the occupation's normalisation with certain Arab states. With 403 delegates, Israel has the seventeenth-largest delegation, just behind its close allies — the United States with 405 and the United Kingdom with 470 delegates. These figures emerge amid reports of numerous world leaders skipping the summit and Papua New Guinea withdrawing.

Expectedly, the Israeli pavilion framed itself around two delusions: "From Desert to Oasis" and "Climate of Innovation". This is not only misleading, but by portraying itself as capable of transforming arid landscapes into thriving ecosystems, Israel echoes colonial narratives — such as the French concept of “pénétration pacifique” in the Sahara — which framed deserts as spaces for control, experimentation, and resource extraction.

How Israel uses COP to launder its image

Perhaps the most well-known myth about Israel's foundation is the idea that it made "the desert bloom."

This industrial-focused narrative overlooks the environmental practices of indigenous Palestinian farmers, effectively erasing both their presence and their sustainable methods of land stewardship.

"The State of Israel cannot tolerate a desert within its borders. Should the state not eliminate the desert, the desert might eliminate the state". David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel in a 1955 paper titled "The Significance of the Negev".

This rhetoric mirrors settler-colonial attitudes seen elsewhere, such as in Australia, where the removal of Indigenous peoples in the 1960s led to ecological degradation, including uncontrolled wildfires.

Similarly, Israel’s framing of the desert as a site for rescue and settlement masks the rich histories and sustainability practices of local populations. In fact, Indigenous knowledge is crucial in the fight against climate change.

The “From Desert to Oasis” theme at COP29 parallels historical European colonial justifications for land control. As early as 1897, Brigadier-General Percy Sykes described deforestation as a critical problem in desiccated regions, arguing that solving it would determine their future.

This framing, like Israel’s, disregards the historical sustainability of local communities and masks ongoing inequalities in resource access under the guise of technological progress.

The Zionist movement, a mix of Jewish nationalism and settler colonialism, has long viewed the desert as a threat to be addressed, as well as an empty, open space for settlement and land tenure. Israel’s presence is also an exercise to justify its “adaptation solutions” to “desertification,” as climate solutions.

Yet, these environmental solutions serve as a tactic to deflect attention and accountability from Israel's ongoing 76-year occupation and the genocide of the Palestinian people — a form of greenwashing eagerly embraced by Western officials and governments as a sign of progress.

In particular, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has praised Israel’s water innovations, highlighting the Kinneret-Negev Conduit, which transports water from the Sea of Galilee to the Negev Desert. In reality, however, this system relies on the exploitation of resources, strains transboundary water-sharing agreements, and exacerbates water scarcity in Jordan.

Israel’s long-standing partnerships with fossil fuel corporations like BP and Chevron further betray its green narrative.

These companies not only supply Israel’s energy needs but also indirectly fuel resource-driven conflicts that disproportionately harm Palestinian communities.

According to Oil Change International, such partnerships undermine COP29’s sustainability goals, raising questions about who truly benefits from these “sustainable” transformations.

This paradox is deepened by the support of Annex II countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, which prioritise military aid to Israel over meaningful climate finance.

Meanwhile, these same nations resist increasing contributions to the Global South. Redirecting funds from military budgets and fossil fuel subsidies could raise up to $5 trillion annually for global climate finance, highlighting the stark inequities at the heart of COP29’s discussions and fuelling further doubt about our collective survival.

Nandita Lal is an independent researcher on climate change and Indigenous People. She stood as an anti-war candidate in the General Election in the UK in July 2024

Follow Nandita on X: @ditalalmolloy

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff, or the author's employer.