'Cannabis burned during worship' by ancient Israelites - study

29 May 2020

GETTY IMAGES Cannabis residue was found on an altar at the temple in Arad

Ancient Israelites burned cannabis as part of their religious rituals, an archaeological study has found.

A well-preserved substance found in a 2,700-year-old temple in Tel Arad has been identified as cannabis, including its psychoactive compound THC.

Researchers concluded that cannabis may have been burned in order to induce a high among worshippers.

This is the first evidence of psychotropic drugs being used in early Jewish worship, Israeli media report.

The temple was first discovered in the Negev desert, about 95km (59 miles) south of Tel Aviv, in the 1960s.

In the latest study, published in Tel Aviv University's archaeological journal, archaeologists say two limestone altars had been buried within the shrine.

Thanks in part to the dry climate, and to the burial, the remains of burnt offerings were preserved on top of these altars.GETTY IMAGES

It's believed cannabis was burned to induce a psychoactive effect in worshippers

Frankincense was found on one altar, which was unsurprising because of its prominence in holy texts, the study's authors told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

However, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) - all compounds found in cannabis - were found on the second altar.

The study adds that the findings in Tel Arad suggest that cannabis also played a role in worship at the Temple of Jerusalem.


This is because at the time the shrine in Arad was part of a hilltop fortress at the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Judah, and is said to match a scaled-down version of Biblical descriptions of the First Temple in Jerusalem.

The remains of the temple in Jerusalem are now inaccessible to archaeologists, so instead they study Arad and other similar shrines to help them understand worship at the larger temple.

NEWS RELEASE 28-MAY-2020

New research reveals Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Biblical Arad

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

   

IMAGE: FRONT VIEW OF THE SHRINE AT ARAD, REBUILT IN THE ISRAEL MUSEUM. THE TOP?DOWN VIEW OF THE ALTARS: ON WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BLACK RESIDUE OF CANNABIS AND FRANKINCENSE... view more 

CREDIT: (COLLECTION OF THE ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY, PHOTO © THE ISRAEL MUSEUM, BY LAURA LACHMAN.

Analysis of the material on two Iron Age altars discovered at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of a shrine at Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley, Israel, were found to contain Cannabis and Frankincense, according to new article in the journal, Tel Aviv.

Past excavations revealed two superimposed fortresses, dated to the 9th to early 6th centuries BCE, which guarded the southern border of biblical Judah. Highly important Iron Age finds were unearthed, including a well-preserved shrine that was dated to ca. 750-715 BCE.

Two limestone altars (the smaller altar is 40 cm high and about 20 × 20 cm at the top; the larger is about 50 cm high and 30 × 30 cm at the top) were found lying at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of the shrine.

Evidently, they had played an important role in the cult practices of the shrine. An unidentified black solidified organic material was preserved on the altars' surfaces. Past analysis of these materials failed to identify their content and this dark material was recently submitted to organic residue analysis by modern methods.

The study reveals that on the smaller altar cannabis had been mixed with animal dung to facilitate heating, while the larger altar contained traces of frankincense that was mixed with animal fat to promote evaporation.

These unique findings shed new light on cult practices in biblical Judah, suggesting cannabis was used here as a deliberate psychoactive, to stimulate ecstasy as part of cultic ceremonies.

Lead author Eran Arie from The Israel Museum in Jerusalem commented, "This is the first time that cannabis has been identified in the Ancient Near East; Its use in the shrine must have played a central role in the cultic rituals performed there."

Frankincense comes from Arabia. Therefore, the presence of frankincense at Arad indicates the participation of Judah in the south Arabian trade even before the patronage and encouragement of the Assyrian empire. Arad provides the earliest evidence for frankincense in a clear cultic context. Frankincense is mentioned as a component of the incense that was burned in the Temple of Jerusalem for its pleasant aroma.

The "fortress mound" of Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley in southern Israel was excavated over 50 years ago under the direction of the late TAU Professor Yohanan Aharoni.

###

For an interview, please contact:

Eran Arie, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Email: eranar@imj.org.il

Or

Dvory Namdar, Volcani Center of Agricultural Research
Email: dvoran@volcani.agri.gov.il

For a copy of the paper, visit: https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/embargoed-releases/

For any other enquiries, please contact:

Krystina Sihdu, Press & Media Relations Executive
Email: newsroom@taylorandfrancis.com
Follow us on Twitter: @tandfnewsroom

The article will be freely available once the embargo has lifted via the following link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03344355.2020.1732046

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Taylor & Francis Group partners with researchers, scholarly societies, universities and libraries worldwide to bring knowledge to life. As one of the world's leading publishers of scholarly journals, books, ebooks and reference works our content spans all areas of Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Science, Technology and Medicine.

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In pictures: Protest clashes in Minneapolis

George Floyd death: Minneapolis clashes run into third night 

French nonprofit warns 'COVID waste' could harm the environment

Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, is a nonprofit group that cleans the waters of France’s Mediterranean coast. In addition to the usual waste they find, they’re now picking up masks and gloves.

The World
May 29, 2020
Producer Lucy Martirosyan
Masks and gloves found in the Mediterranean Sea by members of Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, in mid-May, just after France lifted some of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Credit:Courtesy of Operation Clean Sea


As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions start to ease in France, more people are hitting the beaches in the south — and they’re leaving behind litter.

In addition to the usual fast-food wrappers, plastic bottles and cigarette butts littered across the Côte D’Azur, beach-goers may now find the waste of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, a group of marine divers of the French nonprofit group, Opération Mer Propre (Operation Clean Sea), discovered single-use masks and latex gloves in the waters of Antibes, a beach town on the Mediterranean Sea coast.

Related: Shutdowns have led to cleaner air quality. Is it sustainable?

The group, which routinely clears litter from bodies of water in France, was granted access to beaches to restart cleaning as soon as confinement measures started relaxing in France on May 11, said Joko Peltier, one of the cofounders.

The team found five masks and four pairs of gloves last Saturday. The next day, eight masks and six pairs of gloves.

“But the moment lockdown restrictions started easing up [in Antibes], and the waste was thrown on the ground, it all ended up in the sea the next day.”Joko Peltier, cofounder, Operation Clean Sea

“It’s not a lot,” Peltier told The World in French. “But the moment lockdown restrictions started easing up [in Antibes], and the waste was thrown on the ground, it all ended up in the sea the next day.”

In a Facebook video shared nearly 5,000 times, Laurent Lombard, another cofounder of OMP, scuba dives into the bed of the French Mediterranean, picking up tossed gloves and surgical masks. It looks like an eerie caution against this “future pollution of COVID waste,” as Peltier calls it.

Éric Pauget, a member of parliament who represents the region, agrees. He wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron urging the interior minister to issue fines of 300 euros, or about $332, to those who litter their protective equipment in public places. Used, thrown away masks are not only an environmental risk, he wrote, but a health concern during the pandemic.

“The presence of the virus potentially contaminates the surface of these thrown away masks,” Pauget wrote. “This presents a serious health threat to public cleaners and to children who could accidentally touch them. In addition, the friable polypropylene nanoparticles making up these masks that protect humans risk a lasting effect on our ecosystems and their biodiversity.”



Joko Peltier, cofounder of France's Operation Clean Sea, shows a toothbrush he found underwater while clearing litter.
Credit: Courtesy of Operation Clean Sea

On April 1, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said the government ordered over 1 billion single-use masks from China to meet the needs of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe unveiled plans Thursday to further lift confinement measures across the country. Starting June 2, beaches, parks and lakes will open to all. Parks and gardens will also open, but meetings of groups of more than 10 people will still be prohibited.

“The results are good regarding the health plan … Good, but not sufficiently good for everything to return to normal,” Philippe said, addressing the nation.

Meanwhile, Peltier says that people should keep raising awareness and educating themselves on the impacts of waste — and now, “COVID waste” — on the sea and the environment.

“We have to pay attention,” Peltier said. “This is the health of our children and our future.”

What private companies could mean for NASA space exploration

The World
May 28, 2020
By The World staff
Producer Ariel Oseran





Stormy weather thwarted a landmark moment for private rocket company SpaceX andNASA on Wednesday, forcing launch directors in Florida to postpone what would have been the first flight of US astronauts into orbit from American soil in nine years.

The countdown, made especially suspenseful by shifting weather conditions, was halted just 16 minutes and 54 seconds before the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had been due to launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on a 19-hour ride to the International Space Station.

From 2015: Why the SpaceX rocket landing is great for NASA

Hurley, 53, and Behnken, 49, had been strapped into their seats for a little over two hours before the launch was called off. Technicians in black suits and face masks then escorted the two astronauts back down the 265-foot-tall launch tower for the return trip to their quarantine-holding facility. SpaceX will make a second attempt on Saturday afternoon to launch the astronauts aboard its newly designed Dragon Crew capsule.

The astronauts were to have blasted off from the same launch pad used in 2011 by NASA's final space shuttle flight, which was piloted by Hurley. Since then, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

For Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla, the first manned SpaceX launch represents another milestone for the reusable rockets his company pioneered to make space flight less costly. SpaceX, founded by Musk in 2002, and formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, has never previously flown humans into orbit, only cargo.

Margaret Weitekamp, head of the space history department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, spoke with The World's Marco Werman about the future of US space flight.

Marco Werman: What do you make of this shift to privately-owned spacecraft?


Margaret Weitekamp: It is a really exciting new way of ordering the relationship between NASA and private companies. We know that the Apollo missions — those spacecraft were built by private companies. This is a new kind of relationship where NASA is not just asking for a private company to make it but to actually fly it.

From 2011: SpaceX rocket launch marks the beginning of the private era in space

Are there problems with decentralizing it that way?


I think that what they are looking forward to is being able to have different companies approaching the same kind of problem. And so the hope really is that by having SpaceX have its solution and Boeing have its solution, then you have an increased number of ways that you can support the International Space Station, which is still being supported by international partners.

Since 2011, US astronauts have been hitching rides to space with Russia. Most agree it's been a pretty fruitful partnership between the two superpowers. How do you see the shift to private American companies affecting the US-Russian space collaboration?


Being able to add private companies providing not only cargo but crew service to the International Space Station removes, at some level, the overreliance on the vagaries of geopolitics. And it also then — I think NASA is hoping — opens up their options in terms of turning their attention to exploration, going back to the moon, perhaps onto Mars, and also then being able to put the focus on international collaborations in terms of planetary science and astronomy.

From 2015: 'Welcome back, baby.' SpaceX rocket lands safely back on Earth.

So finally, this historic flight — it's slated to happen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. What special precautions were taken to ensure the safety and health of the astronauts and crews? And do you think they should have delayed for a few months or even a year to lessen the odds that the virus would not end up onboard the International Space Station?


I know that they have stepped up the crew isolation in anticipation of the launch and additional precautions were taken about trying to make sure that there was no transmission of the virus to the International Space Station. I think the biggest loss is how many of us would have certainly made a trip to Florida to make sure that we were able to see this historic launch in person will instead be collectively having the experience of watching it online or on TV.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Reuters contributed reporting.


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Taylor Swift says Trump 'stoking fires of white supremacy'

Issued on: 29/05/2020

Pop icon Taylor Swift told US President Donald Trump:

 "We will vote you out in November" 

ANGELA WEISS AFP/File



New York (AFP)

Pop icon Taylor Swift hit out at Donald Trump on Friday after the US president suggested law enforcement might shoot protesters angry over the killing of a black man by Minneapolis police.

"After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?" Swift wrote on Twitter, where she has 86 million followers.

She cited Trump's controversial tweet in which he said, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," before threatening: "We will vote you out in November. @realdonaldtrump."


Trump sparked controversy with a late-night tweet on violent anti-police protests in Minneapolis, when he called protesters "THUGS" and warned of military intervention.

Twitter took the unprecedented step of hiding the tweet because it violated the platform's rules against "glorifying violence."

Hundreds of troops were deployed to the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Friday after a third night of rioting over police brutality against African Americans.

The demonstrators are outraged over the videotaped death of George Floyd, 46, while handcuffed on the ground and in custody of Minneapolis police on Monday.

He died after an officer kneeled on his neck for more than five minutes.

In the past few years Swift has opened up about politics after initially struggling to control her own voice as an artist who found massive fame at a young age.

She endorsed Democratic candidates in Tennessee in 2018 and has criticized Trump previously.

© 2020 AFP

Nissan to shut factory in Barcelona, thousands of workers affected

Issued on: 28/05/2020

Nissan workers protest the news outside the carmaker’s plant in Barcelona, Spain, May 28, 2020. © Lluís Gené, AFP
Text by:NEWS WIRES

Japanese carmaker Nissan has decided to shut its factory in Barcelona where 3,000 people are employed after four decades of operations, the Spanish government said on Thursday.

The decision came despite government efforts to keep the plant open, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told the national radio station.

“We regret this decision by Nissan to leave not just Spain but Europe... to concentrate its business in Asia, despite the enormous efforts by the government to keep the business going,” she said.

Spain is one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus fallout, a context that particularly stoked anger among workers at the Barcelona plant.

‘Shameful’
“It’s shameful that a multinational company like this one would drop us in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said 54-year old Jordi Carbonell who has been with Nissan for 32 years.

Carbonell said he had felt “cheated” by management in recent years. “No production site is profitable without a sufficient production volume and here they just let it die,” he said.

Spain’s car industry is the European Union’s second-biggest after that of Germany, accounting for 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

With Brexit, the Barcelona site became Nissan’s main one in the European Union. The Japanese company runs a bigger production facility in Sunderland in Britain.

In addition to 3,000 direct jobs, some 22,000 more depend indirectly on the site, according to unions.

The industry ministry confirmed to AFP that Nissan’s chief executive had informed it of plans to stop operations at the Barcelona site, which groups several production facilities.

‘Safeguard employment’

Production there had already ground to a halt at the start of the month when some staff went on strike demanding an investment strategy for the site after plans were announced to cut 20 percent of the workforce.

Foreign Minister Gonzalez Laya said “all kinds of help” had been proposed to Nissan in the run-up to Thursday’s decision and that the government would “not throw in the towel”.

The head of Nissan’s European operations, Gianluca de Ficchy, said “all that support was taken into account in order to have an overall economic equation going forward”.

Nevertheless, “we’ve reached the conclusion that the overall economic equation for the plant was not sustainable going forward,” he added.

But Gonzalez Laya said Spain would “explore all solutions, because our concern is to safeguard employment”.

She did not rule out the possibility of finding a buyer for the plant.

Economy Minister Nadia Calvino meanwhile said the government had invited Nissan to start talks “to see how this process could be managed”, to no avail.

The Madrid government has argued that the cost of closing Nissan’s Barcelona operation, which it put at more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion), was higher than the investment needed to keep it going.

Some workers at the Barcelona site blamed Nissan’s alliance with French carmaker Renault, concluded in 1999, which union representative Pedro Ayllon said had made Nissan “a secondary partner” in Europe.

“Since then we have been given the production of vehicles with low production numbers, the ones that the others didn’t want to make elsewhere,” he said.

Nissan’s Barcelona plant currently makes mostly SUVs and pickup trucks, as well as electric minivans.

‘Broken promises’

Its capacity is around 200,000 units per year, but that had been reduced by a third even before the coronavirus pandemic.


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A decade ago, when the site was already in difficulty following the global financial crisis, it was kept going partly in exchange for wage cuts for staff.

“Workers make sacrifices in return for broken promises,” said Ayllon.

Juan Sanchez, a 45-year-old worker in the paint shop whose partner also works at the plant, said the virus context made it particularly hard for the couple, parents of two daughters, to soon be out of a job.

“With COVID-19 we can’t find another job, not while there are so many job cuts in other companies,” he said.

(AFP)

Doctor, is it serious? French healthcare pushed to the brink by Covid-19

#France is in the grip of a #pandemic, with a #medical sector more and more angry over its status. An average #nurse takes home less than €2,000 a month and French health workers are among the lowest paid in the OECD countries. On Monday, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe promised that they would soon get pay increases as part of an overhaul of France's hospital system. Will it be enough? Mark Owen and his panel of guests examine the problems and the issues facing the doctors, nurses and carers who are on the frontline fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.  Subscribe to France 24 now: http://f24.my/youtubeEN FRANCE 24 live news stream: all the latest news 24/7 http://f24.my/YTliveEN

Covid-19: How the meat industry became a global health liability

Issued on: 24/05/2020

Butchers work in the Hasenheide slaughterhouse in Fuerstenfeldbruck, Germany, January 28, 2019. © Michaela Rehle, Reuters
Text by:Colin KINNIBURGH
From South Dakota to Brazil to Germany, meat processing workers around the world have been among the hardest hit by Covid-19. Will the pandemic force us to rethink our food system?

It started in South Dakota. On March 25, even as some of the biggest US cities were just going into lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19, a worker at a pork processing plant in the city of Sioux Falls (pop. 181,000) tested positive for the virus. Some at the plant suspected it wasn’t the first case.

Smithfield, the company operating the facility and largest pork producer in the world, quickly confirmed the March 25 case but said it would continue operations as usual. Three weeks later, the Sioux Falls plant had become the United States’ largest Covid-19 hotspot, with 644 of its 3,700 employees infected. More than half of all the cases in South Dakota could be traced back to the plant.

But it didn’t stop there. From Mississippi to Washington, Texas to Nebraska, one state after another reported outbreaks in beef, pork and poultry plants. Most had lockdown orders in place; a few, like South Dakota, did not, but it made little difference for meatpacking workers, who were considered “essential” and therefore still expected to show up for work.

As of May 22, according to the Food & Environment Reporting Network, more than 17,000 US meatpacking workers at 220 facilities have caught the virus, and 66 have died.

Many of these workers also brought the virus home to their families and communities, fuelling the spread of Covid-19. According to unions and employees themselves, they were given little choice. With wages averaging around $15 an hour at facilities like the Sioux Falls Smithfield plant, many workers live pay check to pay check, and would not be eligible for unemployment benefits if they quit.

Moreover, Smithfield workers say they were given incentives to keep working even if they were sick, including a $500 “responsibility bonus” promised to those who finished all of their shifts in April. (The company says all of its hourly workers were eligible for the bonus, including those “who miss[ed] work due to Covid-19 exposure or diagnosis”.)

Workers also say they were provided with insufficient protective equipment, despite union representatives raising concerns about Covid-19 contamination as early as the beginning of March, according to the BBC.

The risks faced by these workers highlight the profound inequalities cutting across the Covid-19 crisis not just in the United States, but worldwide. From Iowa to India, low-wage, often migrant workers have borne the brunt of both the deadly virus and the economic toll of lockdowns.

Meat processing plants illustrate this trend in particularly stark terms. Over the last month, the kinds of Covid-19 clusters first seen at facilities in the US Midwest and South have cropped up in Brazil, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

At a single Cargill beef processing plant in the Canadian province of Alberta, 949 of about 2,000 employees were infected with the virus and two died. In Canada as in the United States, meatpacking plants are staffed primarily by immigrants and in many cases refugees. Many have fled wars and other threats in countries ranging from Ethiopia to El Salvador to Vietnam, and some speak little English.

In Germany and France, slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants were among the first Covid-19 clusters to emerge as lockdown measures began to ease in early May. Germany’s meat industry, too, is heavily dependent on migrant labour: according to unions, about 80% of employees are temporary workers, mostly from Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries in Eastern and Southern Europe.

Workers ‘as expendable as the things they’re slaughtering’

Why, then, has the meat industry been so hard hit by Covid-19?

“The one-word answer is monopoly,” says Raj Patel, a research professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin and expert on the global food system. “Across the world, the meat industry has been tending towards just a few large players.”

Patel points to a 2016 report by the United States Department of Agriculture showing that the four largest meatpacking companies “account for nearly 70 percent of the value of all US livestock purchased for slaughter, compared to just 26 percent in 1980".

In other major meat-producing countries, too, the industry is highly concentrated: for example, a 2011 study by the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism found that in France, Germany and the UK, the top five beef and poultry producers accounted for a large majority of their respective markets.

Patel says the Covid-19 outbreaks seen in so many meat processing plants are an “object lesson” in what happens when industries consolidate, “which is that in order to survive, everyone else has had to follow the kinds of practices that the largest players have adopted”.

“Those practices in the meat industry are around people and machines being very close to one another,” he continues. “So the carcasses fly through the line very quickly.”

The faster animal carcasses move along the production line, the closer together workers need to be, putting them at high risk of infection from airborne virus particles. Some experts have suggested that the cold, humid, enclosed conditions in meat facilities could also be a factor, though this remains unconfirmed.

Patel says that, while worker safety protocols and “line speeds” may vary from country to country, the standards set by the largest companies are increasingly becoming the global norm.

Furthermore, he says, working conditions in the meat industry can be substandard even in countries like France and Germany, where workers in other industries benefit from above-average labour rights.

“Actually, German poultry line speeds are much faster than in the United States,” he says. Moreover, the German meat industry relies heavily on subcontracting, with third-party companies responsible for hiring foreign workers on temporary contracts and in some cases lodging them in cramped dorms. Critics say these practices allowed the heavily immigrant workforce to be exploited, while shielding larger companies from accountability.

In such environments, Patel says, “workers are considered as expendable as the things that they’re slaughtering” — even in countries like Germany, which have otherwise largely kept Covid-19 in check.

“It is in the sites where expendable life is to be found that you see the worst effects of industrial monopoly concentration in the meat industry,” Patel adds.

Calls for a more sustainable food system

As the Covid-19 pandemic has put the meat industry in the international spotlight, some have proposed a simple solution: eat less meat. Patel agrees that a drastic reduction in meat consumption is key to “any sustainable future” for the food system, both for workers and the environment, but says calls to simply go vegetarian or vegan are only a “partial answer” to the problems the pandemic has highlighted.

He emphasises the need to listen to demands from food workers themselves when charting the transition to a more sustainable food system.

In some cases, that might in fact mean boycotting meat. In the US, a coalition led by Latino workers in Iowa — one of the states where the meat industry has been hardest hit by Covid-19 — issued a call for a nationwide “Meatless May” to protest against “unforgivable” conditions in meatpacking facilities.

Another US labour advocacy group, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, has issued a list of five steps that citizens can take to support at-risk workers, including putting pressure on both corporations and elected officials to guarantee sick pay, health care, the right to organize and other protections.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a more modest list of recommendations: screen workers for symptoms; increase space between workers (notably by reducing the “rate of animal processing”); enhance cleaning and disinfection; and provide multilingual education and training.

Under popular pressure following the recent outbreaks, the German government has gone further, announcing reforms to the industry including €30,000 fines for health and safety violations and a ban on subcontracting, effective in January 2021.

In France, the Confédération Paysanne farmers’ union has called for a return to smaller-scale, local meat production. In a statement this week, the group said: “The re-localisation of (meat) processing is one of the necessary steps towards a more resilient system.”

The European Commission has echoed some of these proposals in its Farm to Fork Strategy, also published this week as part of its roadmap for the continent-wide Green Deal announced in January. The Commission says it plans to promote “shorter supply chains” in order “to enhance resilience of regional and local food systems”.


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The Farm to Fork Strategy also calls explicitly for reducing consumption of meat: “Moving to a more plant-based diet with less red and processed meat and with more fruits and vegetables will reduce not only risks of life-threatening diseases, but also the environmental impact of the food system.”

Patel says that these are all important steps, but stresses that there are no easy fixes, and that improving conditions in the food industry will also ultimately mean paying more for food.

“Small-scale farming is part of it, but so is well-paid migrant labour, and so are dignified wages for everyone,” so that food produced under fair conditions is affordable to all, he says. He says workers in the meat industry deserve a “just transition” to a more sustainable system, as has been proposed for those working in fossil fuels.

Patel adds that this is a rare opportunity to begin that transition.

“This is a moment to pivot,” he says. “If ever you wanted a time where sustainable food systems were imaginable, where you had the labour force ready to engage in sustained transformation… now is the moment to do it.”

UBI
Spain's government pushes through basic income guarantee to fight poverty


Issued on: 29/05/2020

Volunteers prepare rations of donated food ahead of a distribution to people in need at the Santa Anna church in Barcelona on May 15, 2020. © Joseph Lago, AFP

Text by:FRANCE 24Follow

The Spanish government approved on Friday the creation of a minimum income worth 462 euros ($514) a month for the poorest, Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias told a news conference, in a scheme that targets some 2.5 million people
Under the decree approved at a cabinet meeting, the Socialist-led government would pay the monthly stipend and top up existing revenue for people earning less so that they get at least that minimum amount every month, Iglesias told reporters.

The minimum income would increase with the number of family members to a total of up to 1,015 euros per month. The new programme aims to reach 850,000 households or 2.5 million people and would cost the government about 3 billion euros a year.

The plan to install a basic income was a pre-electoral promise, but it was accelerated due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Spain is one of Europe's hardest hit countries, with more than 27,000 deaths and nearly 238,000 confirmed cases of the virus. It also has one of the highest unemployment rates on the continent.

Close to a million jobs were lost in March alone when the lockdown began and the Bank of Spain has forecast the economy will contract by up to 12% this year.

GOOD NEWS
Canada bans cruise ship visits until October
LATER FOR THE HIGH ARCTIC

Issued on: 29/05/2020

The 'Caribbean Princess' cruise ship in Colon, Panama, on May 28, 2020: such vessels will be banned from Canadian waters until October because of the coronavirus pandemic Ivan PISARENKO AFP

Ottawa (AFP)

The Canadian government on Friday extended by three months a ban on cruise ships entering Canadian waters because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The ban, which began in April and will now run to October, has been tightened to include passenger boats and other vessels with more than 100 passengers and crew, the ministry of transport said in a statement. The original ban was on vessels with a capacity of 500 or more people.

The move will deal a blow to several Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Quebec and Montreal, where the cruise industry makes an important economic contribution.

In 2019, Canada was visited by 140 cruise ships from a dozen countries with some two million tourists on board, according to the ministry.

Small boats for short excursions, such as whale watching, will however be allowed to resume their activities starting on July 1, in line with permission by provincial and local authorities.

Nevertheless, the movement of vessels with a capacity of more than 12 people will be banned from Arctic coastal water until October 31.

These rules do not apply to small craft used by local communities for transport or fishing.

Ferries, deemed essential services, will be allowed to continue operating but will have to implement safety measures to curb the spread of the disease.

Anyone caught violating the ban faces a fine of Can$5,000 ($3,600) per day for individuals and Can$25,000 for businesses.

© 2020 AFP

Trump says US 'terminating' relationship with WHO
Issued on: 29/05/2020

US President Donald Trump has severed ties with the World Health Organization 

Washington (AFP)

President Donald Trump said Friday he was severing US ties with the World Health Organization, which he says failed to do enough to combat the initial spread of the novel coronavirus.

Trump first suspended funding to the UN agency a month ago, accusing it of mismanaging its handling of the global pandemic.

Then 10 days ago, he accused the Geneva-based WHO of being a "puppet" of China, and said the funding freeze would become permanent unless it made "substantive improvements".


"Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization," Trump told reporters.

The Republican leader said the US would be redirecting funds previously allocated to the WHO "to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs."

"The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency," Trump said.

Beijing has furiously denied the US allegations that it played down the threat when the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

It says Washington is trying to shirk its responsibilities to the WHO and shift blame for its own uneven virus response.

The United States was the largest contributor to the WHO budget, providing at least $400 million in funding last year.

Earlier this week, the UN health agency launched a new independently-run foundation for private donations, which the organization hopes will give it greater control to direct philanthropic and public donations towards pressing problems such as the coronavirus crisis.

The vast majority of the WHO's budget is in voluntary contributions, which go straight from countries and other donors to their chosen destination.

The WHO therefore only has control over the spending of countries' "assessed contributions" from member states, which are calculated on their wealth and population.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the creation of the new foundation was not related to Trump's threat.

"It has nothing to do with the recent funding issues," he said Wednesday, detailing that greater financial flexibility had been among his long-term reform plans since taking over the organization in July 2017.

© 2020 AFP

The World Health Organization and 30 countries led by Costa Rica have launched an initiative aimed at making diagnostics, drugs and vaccines for the new coronavirus available for anybody who wants it.

"Vaccines, tests, diagnostics, treatments and other key tools in the coronavirus response must be made universally available as global public goods," Costa Rica's President Carlos Alvarado said.

Dubbed the "Technology Access Pool," the initiative is intended to encourage countries to freely share genetic sequences of the virus and to license any potential treatment or vaccine through the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool. 

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, science has been the heart of the WHO's effort to suppress transmission and save lives," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

DW/AFP

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Gurlitt trove: Research on Nazi-looted art ends

The investigation concludes with few definite answers: Only 14 out of the 1,500 artworks found in Cornelius Gurlitt's possession have been formally identified as Nazi-looted art. What else has been achieved?

Watch video  https://p.dw.com/p/3cuDC
Research into rightful owners of art in Gurlitt trove ends

It was presumably the most spectacular art find of the postwar period. And it happened by accident. In 2012, the public prosecutor's office searched the home of an 80-year-old man in Munich, suspecting him of tax evasion. Cornelius Gurlitt had been previously found carrying €9,000 ($9,900) traveling across the Swiss border by train. That led authorities to further investigate and finally search his apartment.

Around 1,500 works of art were found there, and even more were hidden at another one of Gurlitt's properties in Salzburg. Among the paintings seized by the authorities were masterpieces by Monet, Picasso, Liebermann, Beckmann and Matisse.

A reclusive art lover

Cornelius Gurlitt, who died of heart disease in 2014, was the son of the Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was in charge of acquiring artworks for Adolf Hitler's planned museum.

The find, which became known as the Gurlitt Trove, had everything to become a media thriller, and Cornelius Gurlitt was depicted by the tabloid press as a "mysterious art collector" who avoided people and even secretly smuggled a Monet drawing into the hospital in his suitcase in 2014.


Gurlitt kept many of the works in this metal drawer

The reclusive art lover was the guardian of his father's collection. He occasionally sold works for a living, but never added more to the collection. Books, films and plays portraying the cranky old man's story have been made.

For many, the name Gurlitt stands for Nazi art theft — but is that really the case?

Extensive research into provenance of works

A task force was initially set up for the investigation. In 2016, the newly created German Lost Art Foundation (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste) in Magdeburg took over the research, which has now ended.

The final report, however, offers sobering results: Only 14 works by artists such as Max Liebermann, Henri Matisse, Thomas Couture or Adolph von Menzel have so far been officially identified as looted art, 13 of which could be returned to the heirs of their rightful owners.


'Two Riders on a Beach' by Max Liebermann was returned to the heirs of the rightful Jewish owner

Of the more than 1,500 works of art in the trove, around 300 were cleared early in the investigation, as they were found to have been owned or commissioned by members of the Gurlitt family before the Nazis took power.

The remaining artworks were then examined over several years to determine if they came into the possession of the Gurlitt family legally or through art theft. Was the Nazi art dealer benefiting from the persecution and expropriation of Jewish collectors? And how can that be determined today, almost 80 years after the fact?

A large, international team of researchers

"We did everything we could. To my knowledge, there has never been provenance research of this extent in the past," Gilbert Lupfer, director of the German Lost Art Foundation told DW. "In my opinion," adds the art history expert, "there wasn't anything more that could have been done. A greater deployment of experts, scientists and funding would hardly be conceivable."

The 14 formally identified works make up only a small number of the entire collection, admits Lupfer, but beyond the numbers, he says that "every single case that has been clarified is a contribution to what could be called historical justice. I am happy about every piece that we have been able to identify and return."

1,000 works of art in the gray zone

Provenance research is painstaking, meticulous work, which requires determining exactly where and from whom Gurlitt bought or stole a painting. It must also be proven that exactly that artwork was owned by a persecuted family of collectors.

Every single detail was analyzed by the researchers. In one case for example, a small hole in Thomas Couture's Portrait de jeune femme assise helped them. Through infrared light examination, it was determined that the painting had been restored exactly at that point, as previously described by the wife of French Resistance politician Georges Mandel.

However, the origin of many works — around 1,000 — remains uncertain. "There is a large gray zone," admits Lupfer. The results of the investigation not only reflect the possibilities of research, but also its limits: "Many questions remain unanswered since there are not many sources of information left, nearly a century later."

The art trove now belongs to the Museum of Fine Arts Bern, to which Cornelius Gurlitt had surprisingly bequeathed his collection before his death.

The Bern Museum accepted to take on the controversial collection after weighing up the legal ramifications and moral implications it implied

Nazi art theft in France

The research also brought new insights into how the art market and art theft worked in occupied France, as the investigation also looked into Hildebrandt Gurlitt's business practices while he was based in Paris as one of the main buyers of the "Special Order Linz" for Hitler's planned "Führer Museum."

It was found that the art dealer had developed a "whole range of legal and illegal methods," says Lupfer. "Hildebrand Gurlitt tried to cover his tracks — not only when it came to Jewish property, but also from a tax perspective." For example, he falsified receipts or cheated on his French business partners. These concealed methods make it even more difficult to determine the origin of the artworks.

Through the investigation, transnational research between Germany and France has been taken to a new level, notes Lupfer.

Altogether, the Gurlitt Trove has also made it possible to develop more resources for provenance research of Nazi-looted art. The creation of the German Lost Art Foundation four years ago is part of that process.

Meticulous research: Gurlitt's annotations on the back of paintings were deciphered

More questions to be answered

Now that the Gurlitt investigation has been closed, what's next?

There are more than enough research assignments for the German Lost Art Foundation, for example at museums or libraries. However, many German museums aren't in a rush to have the provenance of the works that entered their collection during or after World War II determined.

Another issue that certainly needs to be looked into is the role of the art market in the Gurlitt case: "Of course, people in the art trade knew that the son of the old Hildebrand still had very interesting pieces," Lupfer told German press agency dpa. Works were received and auctioned from time to time, he adds, and no one felt the need to report them.

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Nazi-looted art: 4 further works from Gurlitt collection identified

Authorities have identified four additional works from the Gurlitt collection as having been looted from a Jewish family during World War II. The drawings will be returned to descendants of the original owners. (10.09.2018)

Watercolor stolen by Nazis returned to original museum

Another piece of the infamous Gurlitt trove is being returned to its original home. An early 20th-century work by German expressionist Christian Rohlfs is headed back to the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg in Halle. (04.12.2019)

Nazi-looted art: Restitution process a 'permanent task'

Works of art that were stolen or confiscated by the Nazis from museums and Jewish collectors are starting to be returned to the heirs of the former owners. However the process is destined to drag on for years to come. (22.01.2020)

Unanswered questions abound after death of 'art hermit' Gurlitt

The man who attracted the attention of the world with a uniquely controversial art collection is no more. But the name Cornelius Gurlitt is sure to crop up in the headlines in the months to come. (07.05.2014)

'Origin unknown': the Gurlitt Exhibition in Jerusalem

Gurlitt art trove works that were once 'Nazi treasure' are being exhibited for the first time in Israel, including much so-called "degenerate" art. Visitors have the chance to explore long-hidden Jewish family histories. (26.09.2019)

Gurlitt find: 'Degenerate' and Nazi-stolen art exhibitions in Bern and Bonn

While the Bern exhibition focuses on "degenerate art," the Bonn show includes mainly Nazi-looted artworks or those of questionable provenance. The works from Cornelius Gurlitt's estate have caused ownership controversy. (02.11.2017)

German task force finds five Nazi-looted works in Gurlitt trove

As they released their final report, the task force in charge of the Nazi-era Gurlitt art stash claimed they needed more time. Jewish groups have already decried the snail's pace of the investigation. (14.01.2016)

Gurlitt: An art world thriller

In November 2013, a huge collection of lost art works were discovered in the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt. One year later, new chapters are being written in the Gurlitt thriller. (24.11.2014)

Gurlitt collection shown in Bern

The exhibition "Gurlitt Inventory. Denerate Art" opened in November 2017, with the Bern Art Museum revealing, for the first time, works discovered in the Gurlitt private collection in Munich. Here are a few. (02.11.2017) 

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

Research into rightful owners of art in Gurlitt trove ends

Date 28.05.2020
Author Nadine Wojcik (eg)
Homepage DW News -
Related Subjects Cornelius Gurlitt, Museum
Keywords Gurlitt, arts, Nazi-looted art, museum

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cuDC

Citizenship law: Is India using COVID-19 emergency to arrest protesters?

Indian police have arrested two student activists, who in February participated in mass demonstrations against a controversial citizenship act. Activists say the law discriminates against the country's Muslim minority.


Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, who are part of the Pinjra Tod women's rights initiative, were arrested by police on May 23. The court, however, granted them bail, rejecting a police request for the women’s detention.

The judge noted that Kalita and Narwal only participated in demonstrations; they did not commit any acts of violence.

But they were re-arrested a day after their release. A special investigation team booked them under charges of murder, attempted murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy.

Read more: Protesters in India object to facial recognition expansion

The Pinjra Tod group condemned the arrest, saying the crackdown on student activists poses a big challenge. "However, we’ll continue to fight for equality and dignity," it added.

Protesters have risen up across India in opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was introduced by the country's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The bill was passed by Indian parliament in December, 2019.

The CAA would provide a fast-track to Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many consider the CAA to be discriminatory against Muslims.

Scores of people have died in violence surrounding the protests. Since February, police have arrested hundreds of protesters, including liberal students, who are the forefront of the anti-CAA campaign.

"The government is misusing its power, especially during the lockdown to contain the coronavirus spread in the country," Shabnam Hashmi, an activist, told DW.

Watch video Indian citizenship law brings protestors to the streets https://p.dw.com/p/3cuei

Spate of arrests

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected accusations that his government's new citizenship law was anti-Muslim.

Protesters are concerned that the new law threatens India's secular constitution and Indian-Muslim citizenship.

Modi says the opposition parties are distorting the facts about the citizenship act to weaken his government. The premier singled out the Congress party for conspiring "to push not only New Delhi but other parts of the country into a fear psychosis.''

Despite the premier’s claims, police continue to arrest anti-CAA activists.

"Many of the cases [against anti-CAA protesters] are still under investigation. We can’t comment on them," a police official told DW.

On May 1, some 300 teachers, researchers and journalists across India released a statement against these arrests.

On Wednesday, over 500 activists, professionals and well-known citizens issued a statement condemning the arrests of Kalita and Narwal by Delhi Police. "We object to the criminalization of the right to protest. It is unconstitutional and deprives citizens of their right to free expression and criticism," the statement said.

Read more: Indian diaspora in Germany deplores 'fascist' citizenship act

'Travesty of justice'

Activists say the government is using the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to arrests protesters. Last week, police arrested Asif Iqbal Tanha, a graduate student, under UAPA.

UAPA allows investigative agencies to proscribe individuals as terrorists and empowers security officials to probe cases. A person charged under the act can be jailed for up to seven years.

"What we are witnessing is a complete travesty of justice. The criminal justice system is being used to discredit the biggest non-violent protest for the protection of the country’s constitution," Yogendra Yadav, a political activist, told DW.

Activists say the timing of the latest crackdown against anti-CAA activists is worrisome because the country is currently battling against the surge in COVID-19 cases. Most of the country is under a partial lockdown, which has restricted people’s movement. For those who have been arrested recently, it is almost impossible to get legal aid due to coronavirus restrictions.

Read more: India bans citizenship bill protests — as it happened



INDIA'S NEW CITIZENSHIP LAW IGNITES RELIGIOUS TENSIONS
Shutdown in parts of India
The Indian government suspended internet services and tightened security on Friday in several parts of the country, including the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The government is expecting another wave of violent protests against the controversial new Citizenship Amendment Act, which was enacted on December 11. PHOTOS 12345678


Date 28.05.2020
Author Murali Krishnan (New Delhi)
Related Subjects Asia, India, Coronavirus
Keywords Asia, India, Citizenship Amendment Act, protests, coronavirus

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3cuei