EXPLAINER: Where do US opioid trials, settlements stand?
By GEOFF MULVIHILL

Signs are displayed at a tent during a health event on June 26, 2021, in Charleston, W.Va. The effort to hold drug companies, pharmacies and distributors accountable for their role in the opioid crisis has led to a whirlwind of legal activity around the United States. New legal settlements are being reached practically every week to provide governments money to fight the crisis, and in some cases funds for medicines to reverse overdoses or to help with treatment. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)

The effort to hold drug companies, pharmacies and distributors accountable for their role in the opioid crisis has led to a whirlwind of legal activity around the U.S. that can be difficult keep tabs on.

Three trials are underway now, in Florida, West Virginia and Washington state. New legal settlements are being reached practically every week to provide governments money to fight the crisis and in some cases funds for medicines to reverse overdoses or to help with treatment. More settlements are likely on the way.

More than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities in state and federal courts over the toll of opioids. Most allege the industry created a public nuisance in a crisis that has been linked to the deaths of 500,000 Americans over the past two decades.

Collectively, businesses have faced settlements, judgements and civil and criminal penalties totaling more than $47 billion in the last 15 years. The three main entities targeted are the companies that manufactured and sold the pills; the businesses that distributed them; and the pharmacies that dispensed them.

An overview of the litigation and settlements involving the various companies:

PURDUE PHARMA

Purdue is the maker of OxyContin, an extended-release version of oxycodone that packed higher doses into pills. The drug, released in 1996, became a heavily marketed blockbuster drug — and is associated closely with the epidemic’s first wave.

Like other opioids, it was promoted not just for post-surgery and cancer pain but for chronic pain — an area where doctors previously were reluctant to prescribe such powerful drugs.

Faced with thousands of lawsuits, the company went into bankruptcy protection in 2019 to help reach a settlement.

A deal is now in place, but it’s not final.

It calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to give up their stakes, making way for it to become a new entity — to be known as Knoa Pharma — with profits funding the fight against the opioid crisis. Additionally, family members are to pay $5.5 billion to $6 billion over time, with a portion of the money going to individual victims.

Earlier this year, three members of the family attended an online hearing in which parents described losing children to addictions that started with OxyContin, and people recovering from addictions described their journeys.

As part of the exchange, Sackler family members would get protection from lawsuits over opioids.

For the settlement to be finalized, a higher court must overturn a judge’s ruling that threw out an earlier version of the deal. A hearing on that is scheduled for April 29 before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

In the meantime, activists and some members of the U.S. Senate are asking the Justice Department to consider charges against family members.

OTHER DRUGMAKERS

In a major court victory for drugmakers last year, a California judge ruled against some local governments in their case against pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Endo International and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

Some of those drugmakers — Johnson & Johnson, Allergan and Teva — are now on trial in West Virginia.

But companies have largely been settling suits.

Mallinckrodt, which was a leading producer of generic oxycodone, also used bankruptcy court to reach a settlement, agreeing to a $1.6 billion nationwide deal in 2020.

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $5 billion nationwide settlement. It was announced alongside a separate settlement involving the three biggest drug wholesalers. The company’s Janssen subsidiary stopped selling its fentanyl patches and pain pills in the U.S. in 2020. J&J was also the first drugmaker to be held liable for the opioid crisis in a trial, though the Oklahoma state Supreme Court later overturned the ruling.

Endo made the opioid Opana, which was eventually removed from the market. The company has been reaching individual settlements with states. Deals since last year with Florida, New York, Texas, West Virginia and some district attorneys in Tennessee have totaled well over $200 million.

Late last year, a New York jury found Teva partly responsible for the state’s opioid crisis through its marketing of the fentanyl drugs Actiq and Fentora. Most of the other companies the state and two counties sued settled before or during a trial last year. A separate trial is to be held to determine damages.

Since the New York trial, Teva has reached settlements with Texas, Florida and Rhode Island totaling more than $250 million. It will also provide drugs to reverse overdoses and treat addictions.

Allergan, now a subsidiary of AbbVie, has been settling suits involving the extended-release morphine pill Kadian. It reached one major settlement with New York last year. Since then, it has been part of the multi-company settlements in Florida and Rhode Island.

Executives from drugmaker Insys were convicted in 2019 of bribing doctors across the U.S. to prescribe their sublingual fentanyl spray Subsys. Company founder John Kapoor was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in federal prison.

The company also paid $225 million to resolve federal investigations into allegations that it paid kickbacks and used other illegal marketing tactics.

DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES

The three big national companies — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — finalized their settlement, worth a total of $21 billion over 18 years, in February.

The deal, combined with Johnson & Johnson’s, is expected to be the single biggest settlement between companies in the drug industry and governments.

The total amounts include separate settlements covering all federally recognized Native American tribes.

With settlement money starting to flow to state and local governments, officials are figuring out how to prioritize it. The funds are arriving at a precarious time: The number of U.S. overdose deaths from all drugs topped 100,000 in a 12-month period for the first time last year. The majority of those deaths are from opioids — and particularly illicit synthetic versions including fentanyl.

Unlike the tobacco settlements of the 1990s, there are safeguards intended to steer most of the opioid settlement funds to addressing the crisis. Public health experts have ideas for how to do that, but the decisions are up to government officials.

The distribution companies also went to trial last year in West Virginia. A judge has not yet ruled.

Closing arguments in Washington state’s trial against the distributors are expected this week.

PHARMACIES

Pharmacy chains have been sued less often than companies that make or distribute opioids. In one groundbreaking case, a federal jury in Ohio last year found CVS, Walgreens and Walmart recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in Lake and Trumbull counties.

Late last month, CVS settled in Florida. That left Walgreens to go to trial Monday.

CONSULTING COMPANY

Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company also reached deals last year with the states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories for advising businesses on how to sell more prescription opioids amid the overdose crisis. Those settlements totaled more than $600 million.

A group of U.S. senators is pushing for a federal investigation, saying there were conflicts when the company consulted on opioid-related issues both for companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
Efforts to make protective medical gear in US falling flat

By DAVID A. LIEB

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Jim Schmersahl, owner of Halcyon Shades, poses in a "clean room" used in making N-95 masks at the company's production facility Friday, March 18, 2022, in University City, Mo. Halcyon is small company that normally makes window shades, but when the pandemic hit, its sales plummeted. Halcyon applied for the state grants to make PPE as a way to try to keep its employees at work and keep the company afloat. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)


UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S., sales of window coverings at Halcyon Shades quickly went dark. So the suburban St. Louis business did what hundreds of other small manufacturers did: It pivoted to make protective supplies, with help from an $870,000 government grant.

But things haven’t worked out as planned. The company quit making face shields because it wasn’t profitable. It still hasn’t sold a single N95 mask because of struggles to get equipment, materials and regulatory approval.

“So far, it has been a net drain of funds and resources and energy,” Halcyon Shades owner Jim Schmersahl said.

Many companies that began producing personal protective equipment with patriotic optimism have scaled back, shut down or given up, according to an Associated Press analysis based on numerous interviews with manufacturers. Some already have sold equipment they bought with state government grants.

As COVID-19 was stressing hospitals and shuttering businesses in 2020, elected officials touted the need to boost U.S. production of protective gear: “All this stuff should be made in the United States and not in China,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in remarks echoed by others.

Yet many manufacturers who answered the call have faced logistical hurdles, regulatory rejections, slumping demand and fierce competition from foreign suppliers. On April 1, Florida-based American Surgical Mask Co. became one of the latest to close.

“I’m just done with the fight,” CEO Matt Brandman told the AP.

After the initial scramble for PPE subsided, many industry newcomers faced difficulty selling products. Government agencies sometimes wanted huge quantities at tough-to-meet deadlines. Hospital systems tended to contract with established suppliers. Retail sales waned after every virus surge.

“At the end of the day, when everybody said they wanted American-made, nobody’s buying, not even the state,” said Tony Blogumas, vice president of Green Resources Consulting, a rural Missouri firm that received an $800,000 state grant but has sold only a few thousand masks. “We’re kind of upset about the whole situation.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson also is disappointed. His administration divided $20 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds among 48 businesses for the production of masks, gowns, sanitizer and other supplies. Parson hoped to seed a permanent field of manufacturers.

“I’m still a firm believer in that — that we need to be making PPE here in this state,” Parson said. “Unfortunately, a lot of entities went right back to where they were getting it before.”

The onset of the pandemic revealed that the U.S. was highly dependent on foreign countries for protective gear. When China limited exports because of its own battle against COVID-19, U.S. stockpiles plummeted. Prices skyrocketed as federal officials, governors and health care systems competed for supplies.

Though federal stockpiles have been replenished, shriveling domestic production has raised concerns that state governments, medical facilities and others could again get stuck scrambling for gear during a future pandemic.

The AP identified more than $125 million in grants to spur production of pandemic supplies made to over 300 business in 10 states — Alabama, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Ohio. It’s possible that grants were awarded in additional states, but there is no central clearinghouse to track them.

In November 2020, Alabama awarded one of the single largest grants — nearly $10.6 million from federal pandemic relief funds — to HomTex Inc. The company was to equip a new Selma facility to make 250 million surgical masks and 45 million N95 masks annually. The plant returned $1.8 million of the state grant and has yet to make anything due to a lack of customers.

“I can’t produce product that I can’t sell,” HomTex President Jeremy Wootten said.

Other companies also had trouble living up to political hype.

In October 2020, New York announced eight grants that then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, now the governor, said were “a model for how we build back better for the post-pandemic future.” Those included $800,000 for newly formed Altor Safety and $1 million for startup firm NYPPE.

But NYPPE’s equipment wasn’t ready until February 2021, by which time the market had changed, President Connor Knapp said.

So Knapp tapped the brakes on his plans. NYPPE still hasn’t sold any N95 masks because it lacks regulatory approval. It just recently scaled up production of surgical masks, after obtaining a U.S. Food and Drug Administration certification that came with its purchase of Altor Safety.

Some PPE manufacturers point to federal regulations as part of the reason for their struggles. Three-ply masks need FDA approval to be marketed for medical use — an important designation for building a long-term customer base.

That process can be time-consuming. Facing delays, Angstrom Manufacturing in Missouri ended up buying another business that already had FDA approval, President Chris Carron said. By then, it was fall 2021 — a year after it received a state grant.

Angstrom Manufacturing president Chris Carron poses for a photo with machinery the company uses to make surgical masks Wednesday, March 23, 2022, in Ste. Genevieve, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Companies need approval from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to market products as N95 respirators, which filter at least 95% of airborne particles.

During the first two years of the pandemic, NIOSH approved 30 new manufacturers — more than seven times the typical number during a similar pre-pandemic period, according to agency data. Some applications remain pending, while numerous others were denied.

Halcyon Shades’ N95 certification was rejected in October because its samples didn’t have head straps attached. While the company works on another application, its equipment sits idle inside the clear plastic-sheet walls of a “clean room” specially built to shield materials from airborne contaminants. Partially finished masks remain paused on a conveyor belt, waiting to be deposited into a cardboard box.

Without federal approval, “we’re just dead in the water,” said Schmersahl, the company owner.

Progress reports filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development show that nearly all its PPE grant recipients faced challenges by July 2021, especially with sales.

Jim Schmersahl, owner of Halcyon Shades, poses with a machine used to make N-95 masks Friday, March 18, 2022, in University City, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Patriot Medical Devices, which received $750,000 from Missouri, hired nearly 100 people as it cranked out millions of masks during a COVID-19 surge in late 2020 and early 2021, CEO Rick Needham said. Fewer than 10 employees remain.

“We felt it was our patriotic duty to do something to help solve the problem,” Needham said. But, he added, “It’s frankly a little bit of a dysfunctional business model at this point.”

Ohio awarded $20.8 million to 73 businesses to manufacture pandemic-related supplies, according to state data. Of 60 businesses that complied with a recent reporting deadline, more than one-third no longer produced PPE by the end of 2021.

Cleveland Veteran Business Solutions, which received a $500,000 grant to get into the PPE business, made about 5 million surgical masks beginning in August 2020. It ultimately halted production in the face of cheaper imports and sold its machines this year, co-founder Taner Eren said.

“It was surprising and disappointing strategically that there wasn’t support for a local PPE manufacturing industry,” Eren said.

The business was among several dozen that banded together to form the American Mask Manufacturer’s Association with the goal of sustaining the industry. The group’s membership has dwindled as more and more go out of business.

Association organizers say the industry has reached a critical point. They want the federal government to treat PPE manufacturers like the nation’s defense industry — entering into long-term contracts to perpetually replenish a stockpile for future pandemics or emergencies.

“If the federal government doesn’t come in and help support the U.S. manufacturing base, it’s almost certainly going to go back to China, and we’ll be just as vulnerable as we were in early 2020 and 2019,” said Brent Dillie, the association chairman and co-founder of Premium-PPE, a Virginia manufacturer started during the pandemic that has shed about two-thirds of its roughly 300 employees.

Infrastructure legislation signed by President Joe Biden took a step toward bolstering domestic suppliers. Effective in February, it required new contracts for PPE purchased by the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to run for at least two years and be awarded to U.S. producers — unless there’s not sufficient quantity and quality at market prices.

The health and veterans departments said they haven’t bought anything yet. Homeland Security hasn’t answered the AP’s questions. Documents show the government solicited bids due Dec. 6 for up to 381 million U.S.-made surgical masks over three years for its stockpile. No deal has been announced.

Other documents show the government is looking to contract with three major suppliers — 3M, Moldex, and Owens & Minor — for a total of $115 million in U.S-made N95 masks over three years. A justification document says noncompetitive contracts are necessary to preserve capacity for future coronavirus surges or emergencies.

The Biden administration also formed a task force of experts from federal agencies, health care providers, PPE manufacturers and distributors to develop a national strategy for ensuring a “resilient public health supply chain.” Its work is expected to extend for years.

Some manufacturers said they can’t wait long for a federal life preserver.

Dentec Safety Specialists is wrapping up a contract to supply 125,000 rubber reusable respirators and 500,000 filtration cartridges from its Kansas facility for the national stockpile, said President Claudio Dente. It needs more orders soon to prevent layoffs, he said.

“I thought that COVID would really change the mindset of the people, the governments and manufacturing,” Dente said. But he added: “The general marketplace is reverting back to their old ways -- meaning looking to buy product from China.”

National Urban League finds State of Black America is grim

A girl in a stroller plays with a squirt gun as a woman pushes her past a Black Lives Matter mural in the Shaw neighborhood in Washington, Monday, July 13, 2020. The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)


ATLANTA (AP) — The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy.

While Black people have made economic and health gains, they’ve slipped farther behind whites in education, social justice and civic engagement since this index was launched in 2005. A compendium of average outcomes by race in many aspects of life, it shows just how hard it is for people of color to overcome systemic racism, the civil rights organization says.

“These numbers change so little and so slowly. What it tells me is that this institutional disparity based on race seems to be built into American society,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said in an interview.

The index shows not only that median household income for Black people, at $43,862, is 37% less than that of white people, at $69,823. Black people also are less likely to benefit from home ownership, the engine of generational wealth in America. Census data shows Black couples are more than twice as likely as whites to be denied a mortgage or a home improvement loan, which leads to just 59% of the median home equity white households have, and just 13% of their wealth.

“In that area of wealth, we’ve seen almost no change, none, since the civil rights days,” Morial said. “The wealth disparity has gotten wider.”

Among dozens of health measures, one stands out: Life expectancy has declined slightly for African Americans, so a Black child born today can expect to live to 74.7, four years less than a white baby. And lifelong inequities loom: Black women are 59% more likely to die as a result of bearing a child, and 31% more likely to die of breast cancer. Black men are 52% more likely to die of prostate cancer.

Overdoses afflict the races about equally, while white people are 55% more likely to drink themselves to death through cirrhosis or chronic liver disease. Among people 15-24, white people are more than twice as likely to commit suicide, while Black men are nine times more likely to die by homicide.

Educational gaps abound: Black and white preschoolers are roughly equally prepared, but the classrooms they enter are starkly different. Schools with more minority students are more likely to have inexperienced, less trained and even uncertified teachers. Fewer of these students are enrolled in the STEM classes that can lead to higher-paying jobs. Black students are less likely to graduate college.

The index uses U.S. Justice Department statistics to chart social justice differences, noting that Black people have been more than twice as likely as white people to experience threats or uses of force during police encounters, and three times more likely to be jailed if arrested. In 2020, they were 93% more likely to be victims of hate crime.

Measuring civic engagement, the index cites 2020 Census data showing that white people are about 5% more likely to be registered and to actually vote than Black people.

Morial chose to release the report in Atlanta, where a concentration of historically Black colleges have long represented high achievement among African Americans, in part because its survey shows a declining faith among young people that voting can make a difference. The Urban League is responding by launching a “Reclaim Your Vote” campaign.

“Georgia is ground zero for voter suppression. The legislature’s actions after Jan. 6 have been sweeping in their aggressiveness to suppress the vote,” Morial said. “We’ve got to remain resolute, to push back against this. We cannot give in. We cannot give up.”

Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies

By GEOFFREY KAVITI, CHINEDU ASADU and PAUL WISEMAN

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Farmers offload livestock manure from a truck, that will be used to fertilize crops due to the increased cost of fertilizer that they say they now can't afford to purchase, in Kiambu, near Nairobi, in Kenya Thursday, March 31, 2022. Russia's war in Ukraine has pushed up fertilizer prices that were already high, made scarce supplies rarer still and squeezed farmers, especially those in the developing world struggling to make a living. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)


KIAMBU COUNTY, Kenya (AP) — Monica Kariuki is about ready to give up on farming. What is driving her off her 10 acres of land outside Nairobi isn’t bad weather, pests or blight — the traditional agricultural curses — but fertilizer: It costs too much.

Despite thousands of miles separating her from the battlefields of Ukraine, Kariuki and her cabbage, corn and spinach farm are indirect victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The war has pushed up the price of natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and has led to severe sanctions against Russia, a major exporter of fertilizer.

Kariuki used to spend 20,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $175, to fertilize her entire farm. Now, she would need to spend five times as much. Continuing to work the land, she said, would yield nothing but losses.

“I cannot continue with the farming business. I am quitting farming to try something else,” she said.

Higher fertilizer prices are making the world’s food supply more expensive and less abundant, as farmers skimp on nutrients for their crops and get lower yields. While the ripples will be felt by grocery shoppers in wealthy countries, the squeeze on food supplies will land hardest on families in poorer countries. It could hardly come at a worse time: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last week that its world food-price index in March reached the highest level since it started in 1990.

The fertilizer crunch threatens to further limit worldwide food supplies, already constrained by the disruption of crucial grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia. The loss of those affordable supplies of wheat, barley and other grains raises the prospect of food shortages and political instability in Middle Eastern, African and some Asian countries where millions rely on subsidized bread and cheap noodles.


“Food prices will skyrocket because farmers will have to make profit, so what happens to consumers?” said Uche Anyanwu, an agricultural expert at the University of Nigeria.

The aid group Action Aid warns that families in the Horn of Africa are already being driven “to the brink of survival.”

The U.N. says Russia is the world’s No. 1 exporter of nitrogen fertilizer and No. 2 in phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Its ally Belarus, also contending with Western sanctions, is another major fertilizer producer.

Many developing countries — including Mongolia, Honduras, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico and Guatemala — rely on Russia for at least a fifth of their imports.

The conflict also has driven up the already-exorbitant price of natural gas, used to make nitrogen fertilizer. The result: European energy prices so high that some fertilizer companies “have closed their businesses and stopped operating their plants,” said David Laborde, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

For corn and cabbage farmer Jackson Koeth, 55, of Eldoret in western Kenya, the conflict in Ukraine was distant and puzzling until he had to decide whether to go ahead with the planting season. Fertilizer prices had doubled from last year.

Koeth said he decided to keep planting but only on half the acreage of years past. Yet he doubts he can make a profit with fertilizer so costly.

Greek farmer Dimitris Filis, who grows olives, oranges and lemons, said “you have to search to find” ammonia nitrate and that the cost of fertilizing a 10-hectare (25-acre) olive grove has doubled to 560 euros ($310). While selling his wares at an Athens farm market, he said most farmers plan to skip fertilizing their olive and orange groves this year.

“Many people will not use fertilizers at all, and this as a result, lowers the quality of the production and the production itself, and slowly, slowly at one point, they won’t be able to farm their land because there will be no income,” Filis said.

In China, the price of potash — potassium-rich salt used as fertilizer — is up 86% from a year earlier. Nitrogen fertilizer prices have climbed 39% and phosphorus fertilizer is up 10%.

In the eastern Chinese city of Tai’an, the manager of a 35-family cooperative that raises wheat and corn said fertilizer prices have jumped 40% since the start of the year.

“We can hardly make any money,” said the manager, who would give only his surname, Zhao.

Terry Farms, which grows produce on 2,100 acres largely in Ventura, California, has seen prices of some fertilizer formulations double; others are up 20%. Shifting fertilizers is risky, vice president William Terry said, because cheaper versions might not give “the crop what it needs as a food source.″

As the growing season approaches in Maine, potato farmers are grappling with a 70% to 100% increase in fertilizer prices from last year, depending on the blend.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty expensive crop, no matter what you’re putting in the ground, from fertilizer to fuel, labor, electrical and everything else,” said Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board.

In Prudentopolis, a town in Brazil’s Parana state, farmer Edimilson Rickli showed off a warehouse that would normally be packed with fertilizer bags but has only enough to last a few more weeks. He’s worried that, with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of letting up, he’ll have to go without fertilizer when he plants wheat, barley and oats next month.

“The question is: Where Brazil is going to buy more fertilizer from?” he said. “We have to find other markets.″

Other countries are hoping to help fill the gaps. Nigeria, for example, opened Africa’s largest fertilizer factory last month, and the $2.5 billion plant has already shipped fertilizer to the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.

India, meanwhile, is seeking more fertilizer imports from Israel, Oman, Canada and Saudi Arabia to make up for lost shipments from Russia and Belarus.

“If the supply shortage gets worse, we will produce less,” said Kishor Rungta of the nonprofit Fertiliser Association of India. “That’s why we need to look for options to get more fertilizers in the country.”

Agricultural firms are providing support for farmers, especially in Africa where poverty often limits access to vital farm inputs. In Kenya, Apollo Agriculture is helping farmers get fertilizer and access to finance.

“Some farmers are skipping the planting season and others are going into some other ventures such as buying goats to cope,” said Benjamin Njenga, co-founder of the firm. “So these support services go a long way for them.”

Governments are helping, too. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it was issuing $250 million in grants to support U.S. fertilizer production. The Swiss government has released part of its nitrogen fertilizer reserves.

Still, there’s no easy answer to the double whammy of higher fertilizer prices and limited supplies. The next 12 to 18 months, food researcher LaBorde said, “will be difficult.″

The market already was “super, super tight” before the war, said Kathy Mathers of the Fertilizer Institute trade group.

“Unfortunately, in many cases, growers are just happy to get fertilizer at all,” she said.

___

Asadu reported from Lagos, Nigeria, and Wiseman from Washington. Contributing to this story were: Tatiana Pollastri in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Debora Alvares in Brasilia, Brazil; Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi; Lefteris Pitarakis in Athens; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Joe McDonald and Yu Bing in Beijing; Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont; Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota; Kathia Martínez in Panama City; Christoph Noelting in Frankfurt; Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Tarik El-Barakah in Rabat, Morocco; Tassanee Vejpongsa and Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok; Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem; Edie Lederer at the United Nations; and Aya Batrawy in Dubai.

From art to advertising: The history of the poster

Even in ancient times, merchants listed their goods on stone plaques to attract customers. Centuries later, the first advertising posters were unveiled, as a new exhibition shows.


A man looking at the famous US army recruitment sign in Michigan, in 1940

Uncle Sam's intense gaze is inescapable in an image where his outstretched index finger conveys a clear message: "I Want You for the U.S. Army."

The 1917 poster reminded young men of their patriotic duty to fight for the homeland in World War I. Designed by New Yorker James Montgomery Flagg, who is said to have modeled Uncle Sam on his own face, the US Army also advertised with this poster during World War II — and still does to this day. The cult ad is world-famous.

So it's no coincidence that the Museum Folkwang in Essen in western Germany picked "We Want You!" as the title for its current exhibition on the history of posters, presenting designs derived from cartoons, illustrations and historical photographs from the 18th century up to present-day — along with perspectives for the future.

After all, according to curator Rene Grohnert, posters will always exist — even when they take on a digital form. He strongly believes in the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."


A United Colors of Benetton advertisement from 1989 was the work of Italian photographer and art director, Oliviero Toscani

Ancient stone tablet origins

The ancestors of the poster were stone tablets on which ancient Egyptians scratched symbols.

The Romans put up wooden plaques with public notices in busy squares, and in the Middle Ages poster-like notices would hang on market squares or in front of churches.

But the modern poster first appeared in the mid-15th century, with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg.

Then around 1796, Bavarian musician and playwright Alois Senefelder invented lithography, a vital technology for modern poster design and a precursor to modern offset printing.

Inspired on a rainy day when observing how the image a leaf was outlined on a piece of limestone, the process he created allowed the reproduction of a drawn motif on a stone slab to be transferred onto paper.

From then on, Senefelder's invention enabled the mass reproduction of posters for everything from event promotion to politics.

German printer Ernst Litfass invented advertising columns in 1854

Poster artists in demand

Early poster design was initially managed by printers and lithographers. But they were unable to meet the growing quality demands of customers, leading an increasing number of artists to be hired to design posters as well.

French artist Jules Cheret became known as the father of the modern poster. He founded his own lithography workshop in 1866 and created around 1,200 posters in 40 years.

Equally well known was Cheret's compatriot, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who wrote poster history with his artworks for the famous Parisian variety shows at the Moulin Rouge. He spent almost every evening capturing the energy of the extravagant nightlife in the Montmartre theater in his drawings.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (l) redefined lithography and poster art in works advertising Paris' Moulin Rouge night club

In Germany, Art Nouveau motifs became popular around the turn of the century. One of the most famous posters of the era was one designed by Alfons Mucha for the play "Gismonda," starring then world-famous actress Sarah Bernhardt. All the publicly displayed copies of the poster were quickly stolen by art lovers.
The poster as advertising

Posters with elaborate designs by artists are still created for museums and theaters today but the focus of posters since the 1920s has been advertisement, with the brand and the product replacing lavish ornamentation, notes curator Rene Grohnert.

Throughout the 20th century, the poster kept evolving, with advertising influenced by the art movements of its time, from Bauhaus style to Art Deco.

10 ESSENTIAL FACTS ABOUT BAUHAUS
It started as an actual school
In 1919, Walter Gropius became the director of a new institution, the Staatliches Bauhaus, also simply known as the Bauhaus, which merged the former Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art. Even though Gropius was an architect and the term Bauhaus literally translates as "construction house," the school of design did not have an architecture department until 1927.
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Some played with psychedelic motifs during the 1960s counterculture; others became even more provocative in the 1980s, advertising with AIDS patients.

But posters were not only designed to advertise goods but also political messages: The Nazis used them for propaganda purposes, as did the communist regimes of the Eastern bloc. The youth of the 1960s (and later generations) hung posters of the revolutionary Che Guevara on their walls. Other famous posters of the time spoke out against against nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War, pollution and overpopulation.

Mass media then changed the entire approach of advertising, with television bringing product advertising directly into people's living rooms.

The poster, however, remained. "It was then less to provide information than to remind people of something they had previously seen," says Grohnert.

Posters can still be seen on advertising pillars, invented back in 1854, though today these relics have been updated and now rotate in the 21st century with the posters illuminated from behind.

But the future looks different, says Grohnert. "The poster has been integrated into an overall concept," he says, noting how at a bus or train stop an illuminated advertising poster can be combined with information and "roof greening" to create "a piece of street furniture."

In the age of digitalization, the poster is far from old hat.

The poster exhibition "We Want You!" runs at the Folkwang Museum Essen until August 28, 2022.

ELECTION POSTERS: GERMAN POLITICS OVER THE YEARS
The 1940s — Reconstruction
After the Second World War, Germany lay in ruins. Many things had to be rebuilt — including the political party landscape. When the first Bundestag or Parliament was formed in 1949, none of the parties could secure a third of the public votes. Coalitions had to be formed. The issues, however, were similar: reconstruction, economic integration, and the desire for a united Germany.
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This article was translated from the German.

Indonesia: Thousands of students protest rumored election delay

President Joko Widodo had promised not to delay elections in order to hold on to power, but many say his statements don't convince. Monday's protests echoed those that ousted President Suharto in 1998.

Protesters stormed the parliament, demanding that the 2024 election dates be kept intact

Thousands of students in major cities across  Indonesia on Monday protested a rise in food prices and a possible extension of President Joko Widodo's term in office.

Wearing neon jackets and raising megaphones, the students rallied in South Sulawesi, West Java and the capital, Jakarta, following rumors that President Widodo could shift 2024 general elections in an attempt to hold on to power.

That would be against the country's two-term limit. Widodo is currently in the final years of a second term, before the next election, in 2024.

Students in Indonesia have previously led massive protests to ensure a democracy

Demonstrators chanted about protecting Indonesia's democracy and limiting soaring fuel and food prices.

''We demand that the lawmakers do not betray the country's constitution by amending it,'' one protest coordinator, identified as Kaharuddin, told The Associated Press. ''We want them to listen to people's aspirations.''

Police fired tear gas and water cannon at the protesters. 

Jakarta police said a university lecturer who was participating in the protest sustained "grave" injuries after a "nonstudent" group battered
and stomped on him. Six officers who tried to help the lecturer were also injured, according to police.

Avoiding a repeat of strongman rule

Monday's protests echoed those from almost two decades ago, when student-led demonstrations toppled the regime of President Suharto, who led for decades with an iron fist. He was ousted in 1998.

Widodo has high approval ratings, but many reject an illegal extension of his tenure

Unlike Suharto, Widodo has maintained some popularity, according to recent polls.

But "Jokowi," as the president is also known, has been heavily criticized for not speaking out strongly against rumors of a possible postponement of elections set for February 2024.

Powerful political figures, including two ministers, who publicly backed a delayed election have fueled rising tensions.

Widodo himself has publicly spoken out against the idea. He told his cabinet last week to focus on addressing the country's economic woes, stressing that "nobody should bring up a (presidential) term extension or election delay anymore.”

But there is still strong skepticism regarding the president's intentions.

Influential politicians publicly supported a postponement of the 2024 elections

Crowds of demonstrators storming the parliament building at Monday's protests said halting elections would threaten the country's democracy.

Indonesian police fired tear gas and deployed water cannons on the protesters. Reporters say rocks were thrown into the complex after nonstudent demonstrators joined the rally.

Lawmakers addressed the students, vowing to keep election dates intact.

sl/fb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Egypt: Jailed pro-democracy activist receives UK citizenship

Alaa Abdel-Fattah's family hopes that his UK citizenship can secure his release from prison. The activist has spent much of the past decade behind bars, along with many other Egyptian political prisoners.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah is one of Egypt's most prominent activists

The Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who rose to prominence during the 2011 revolution, has been given British citizenship, his family said on Monday.

Abdel-Fattah has been in prison for three and a half years and the move is seen as a means to pressure the Egyptian government to grant his release.

The activist began a hunger strike at the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to protest the conditions in which he is being held.

"For two and a half years, he has been kept in a cell without sunlight, with no books, no exercise. His visitations have been cut to one family member, for 20 minutes a month, through glass, with not a moment of privacy or contact," his sisters said in a statement.

Who is Alaa Abdel-Fatah?

Abdel-Fattah has spent much of the past 10 years in prison. He had also been arrested under former President Hosni Mubarak — who was overthrown in the 2011 revolution — and Mohammed Morsi, who briefly served as president before he was ousted in 2013.

In December, the activist was sentenced to five years in prison after a court convicted him of spreading false news. Separate charges accuse the 40-year-old of misusing social media and being a member of a terrorist group.

Abdel-Fattah's family say he is being held in inhumane conditions in Cairo's Tora prison

His family and Egyptian lawyers said in 2021 that Abdel-Fattah had been tortured inside Cairo's Tora prison.

"This is a British citizen detained unlawfully, in appalling conditions, simply for exercising his basic rights to peaceful expression and association,'' Daniel Furner, one of the family lawyers, told the AP news agency.

Hope for release

Abdel-Fattah obtained British citizenship through his mother, Laila Soueif, who was born in London. She is also a professor of mathematics at Cairo University.

His sisters, Mona and Sanaa, were also given UK citizenship. They said in a statement that their brother has requested to speak with the family's lawyers in the UK "so that they can take all possible legal measures regarding not only the violations he has been subjected to, but all the crimes against humanity he has witnessed during his imprisonment."

The Egyptian government under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has released several political prisoners with dual citizenship in recent years after agreeing to give up their Egyptian citizenship.

But rights groups say about 60,000 political prisoners remain locked up in Egypt.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Wanted Wirecard executive Jan Marsalak reportedly hiding in Moscow

Ex-Wirecard manager Jan Marsalek could be living in Moscow, according to a German daily. Russia's secret service reportedly informed German authorities of his whereabouts in 2021.



Marsalek may live in Moscow, where he reportedly has ties to "paramilitary mercenaries"

The wanted ex-Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek went into hiding in Moscow and may still be living there today, according to a report shared Monday by the German daily Bild.

Marsalek moved into a "gated community" in Moscow "under the care" of the FSB, the Russian secret service, and could still live there today, the paper reported. Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is said to have known about his whereabouts since early 2021.

The international police organization Interpol is currently seeking Maralek's arrest for his role as an executive at Wirecard. The disgraced financial services company collapsed in a shocking fraud scandal in 2020.

More dirty dealings

In Moscow, Marsalek was involved in dealing the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine and had connections to paramilitary mercenary forces, Bild reported.

In 2021, the FSB reportedly contacted their counterparts in Berlin to ask "if a meeting with Marsalek should take place." But the question went "unanswered," according to the report. The German government was also "informed" of the situation.

The Bavarian prosecution authorities, who are tasked with investigating those responsible for the company, which was based near Munich, were apparently not informed of the offer. They were instead given a vague reference to a building near a "long chaussee in Moscow" as Marsalek's possible hideout.

'Unparalleled' scandal

The former Wirecard board member went into hiding in 2020. He is wanted on an international arrest warrant for commercial fraud charges amounting to billions, among other financial and economic offenses. The main hearing against former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun, who was charged with fraud by German authorities earlier this year, is scheduled to begin at Munich Regional Court in the fall. Marsalek is considered to be Braun's right-hand man.

Once boasting a market capitalization of over €24 billion ($27 billion) — more than Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank — at its peak in 2018, the formerly DAX-listed payment processor collapsed in June 2020 after admitting that €1.9 billion it had listed as assets likely didn't exist.

It was an "unparallelled" scandal in Germany's history, according to the then finance minister, Olaf Scholz, who is now chancellor.

Edited by: Hardy Graupner

Opinion: Germany needs a new business model

Germany's economic success is based largely on inflows of cheap energy. But the Ukraine war has put a sudden end to this. The rapid decarbonization of Europe's largest economy could be the solution, says Henrik Böhme.

Has Germany's business model run aground?

The first victim of war is the truth they say, and Russia's aggression against Ukraine has proven this once more. At the same time, war can also reveal truths that normally would remain hidden and undiscussed.

One tough truth about the German economy was laid bare by Martin Brudermüller in an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently. The head of the world's biggest chemical corporation, German-based BASF, said it was an undeniable fact that "Russian gas is the foundation of German industry's global competitiveness." When asked if Germany wasn't fueling Putin's war with its energy imports from Russia, he said a ban on those imports "will destroy the well-being of Germans."

What Brudermüller described as "a mainstay of Germany's economic strength," has been an essential part of the country's business model and has secured its place as one of the largest exporting nations in the world. The successful business models built by German companies over the past 20 years or so included importing energy below market prices and using it to develop competitive products.

DW business editor Henrik Böhme

Russia, China and the forces of globalization

In more recent years, China has also contributed significantly to the success story after German corporate heads jumped on the Chinese economic juggernaut much earlier than their rivals elsewhere in the world. By doing so, they were able to secure not only large segments of the Chinese market but at the same time access to China's rare earths and other valuable minerals, too. Small wonder that the German auto giant Volkswagen (VW), for example, currently sells about 40% of its annual production in China.

What's also come in handy for Germany was the worldwide drive for national economies to open themselves up to international competition under the banner of globalization. "Made in Germany" couldn't but shine in a global, free-market environment.

Cheap Russian energy and China's huge markets, coupled with liberalized trade and a strong domestic industry, was the perfect setting for the German economy to race ahead. The results are a massive foreign trade surplus, with exports far surpassing imports, and at the same time, precarious dependencies on Russia and China.

But what has long been a straight road to success for German businesses has suddenly turned into a slippery slope because of the brutal war in Ukraine. The COVID-19 pandemic already came as a sort of harbinger for what many believe is "the end of globalization."

Business leaders are beginning to think seriously about disentangling supply chains that have proven too complex in times of a global pandemic. In Germany, the absence of medical mask production opened the eyes of politicians and the public alike to the fact that essential infrastructure has been completely outsourced to other parts of the world.

"Reshoring" is likely to become the buzzword for the post-COVID era although bringing production home may prove a tall order for most industrialized countries.

'Bipolar' economic world order?

Now, the Ukraine war has added a new spin to the deglobalization story in Germany, heightening the national sense of urgency for the country to wean itself off Russian energy imports, in order not to fuel Putin's aggression any longer.

Newly emerging on the horizon, too, is the question of how to deal with China which is apparently choosing to back the Kremlin. Mind you, this is not happening out of a sudden love for Putin in Beijing, but a shrewd awareness on the part of the Chinese president that huge amounts of Russian energy and raw materials are suddenly up for grabs. What unites Putin and Xi, though, is their joint hatred for Western values such as democracy, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. 

So, is the world again splitting up into two antagonistic blocks, or as German economist Gabriel Felbermayr put it, are we witnessing "the end of 30 glorious years of globalization"? Are we headed for a world in which Europe and the United States will be leading the West, while Russia, China, and likely India, which is undecided yet, are joining forces in the Far East?

Will the multipolar world of globalization come tumbling down and make way for a new East-West standoff?

Such a 'bipolar world' would severely undermine the German business model, and there'd be need for a new one. What may help in this is German businesses' undeniable ability to adapt to the vagaries of economic life. Focusing on the opportunities opening up from the much-needed energy transformation and the decarbonization of German industry could pave the way toward the future. 

To begin with, Germany must finally get serious about becoming energy-self-sufficient because electricity from renewable sources and hydrogen could provide a competitive advantage.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck wants Germany to have carbon-free electricity within the next 13 years and has declared power generation from solar, wind and biomass to be of "overwhelming public interest." If achieved, it would be a huge leap forward and enable German industry to continue producing at competitive prices, while safeguarding the well-being of Germany in the future.

This opinion piece was first published in German. 

Russian nickel, palladium, 

chromium exports a headache 

for Germany

Russian gas and oil are by far the most significant exports Moscow sells to Germany. Yet other important raw materials are also under the spotlight because of the war in Ukraine.

Russian nickel is important to the German economy

Almost all the debate surrounding Germany's economic ties with Russia since the invasion of Ukraine has focused on gas and oil. With good reason — Germany buys more Russian oil and gas than any other European country, making energy Russia's most lucrative import to Germany by far.

However, many German companies rely on a steady supply of other Russian exports, particularly raw materials such as nickel, palladium, copper and chromium.

Nickel is used in stainless steelmaking but is also an important component for lithium-ion batteries which are needed to power electric cars. Palladium is also vital for carmakers, as it is a critical component in the production of catalytic converters, which clean exhaust fumes in petrol and hybrid vehicles.

In 2020, Russia was Germany's biggest provider of raw nickel, accounting for 39% of the country's supply according to the MIT Observatory of Economic Complexity, a trade tracker.

It also provided around 25% of German imports of palladium, and between 15% and 20% of the heavy metals chromium and cadmium, which have a range of industrial uses. Russia also accounted for 11% of Germany's refined copper imports in 2020, 10.9% of its platinum and 8.5% of its iron ore.

Nickel and Daimler

A recent study by the German Economic Institute (IW), a Cologne-based think-tank, identified several raw materials imported from Russia which would be difficult to replace for Germany. "New trade relations with alternative export nations for these raw materials are essential," the institute said in a statement.

Nickel is important for making lithium-ion batteries for electric cars

Nickel is particularly important to consider. Germany's second-biggest import partner for raw nickel in 2020 was the Netherlands at 29%. But Russia is the market leader, supplying around 20% of the world's purest form of the metal, known as class 1 nickel.

High grade nickel has been in increasingly short supply for a few years now. The boom in electric vehicle production around the world — which needs high-grade nickel for batteries — has seen demand surge.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently tweeted about the lack of nickel. "Nickel is the biggest challenge for high-volume, long-range batteries!" he wrote in July 2020. "Australia & Canada are doing pretty well. US nickel production is objectively very lame. Indonesia is great!"

Class 1 nickel prices had already doubled over the last two years but Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted fears that Moscow could impose an export ban.  A trading frenzy in early March saw prices hit record highs, with the London Metal Exchange even suspending trading for a period, the first time it had taken such action in 37 years. Nickel prices have gone up 400% in 2022 alone.

Volkswagen — which has effectively staked its future on rapidly becoming an EV power — recently announced that it had struck an agreement with the Chinese companies Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Group for a joint venture to secure raw cobalt and nickel supply in Indonesia, one of the world's biggest producers.

Export bans, import bans

However, uncertainty over Russian raw materials will continue to stalk the market. Some analysts have predicted that the nickel crisis alone will add at least $1,000 (€919) to the costs of a new electric car for consumers.

The VDA, the trade body for German carmakers, says the war in Ukraine will lead to further disruption of vehicle production in Germany. "In the long term, the car industry is facing shortages and higher prices of raw materials," it said in a statement.

Not only carmakers are affected. In 2018, German chemicals giant BASF joined forces with Russia's Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest producer of refined nickel, for a deal which would see the Russian company supply BASF's new battery materials production facility in Finland with nickel and cobalt. Such deals are now being heavily scrutinized.

Norilsk is one of Russia's nickel-mining centers

Although Moscow did not put materials such as nickel on the export ban list it released in March, there remains a chance that sanctions either from Moscow or Brussels will end the flow of such raw materials to Europe.

On Friday, the EU announced import bans on several Russian products including coal, caviar, wood, rubber, cement and vodka. However, nickel and other commodities exported in high volume to countries such as Germany were left off the list.

Small potatoes compared to energy

Even if the sale of Russian nickel to Europe is not legally prohibited, the overwhelming pressure on German companies to cut business ties with Russia continues to mount in practically every sector.

Yet while myriad economic and business links between Germany and Russia die away and will continue to do so in the face of the outrage over what is happening in Ukraine, almost every scenario is dwarfed in significance by the possible consequences of an embargo on Russian oil and gas.

Many experts and business leaders have argued that Germany's economic prosperity of recent decades has largely been built on the cheap supply of Russian energy.

Ultimately, other German-Russian economic links are dwarfed by the energy question

BASF head Martin Brudermüller told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that a sudden ban on Russian oil or gas could lead to an economic crisis as bad as any in Germany since World War II, and that his company would have to stop production if natural gas supplies fell to less than half the current usage.

Some disagree with such strong assessments. A study by the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, said ending supply immediately would be "manageable."

The fact that something as stringent as an outright ban on Russian energy is being seriously debated does make one thing clear for any German business with ties to Russia, regardless of their nature: Nothing is off limits, regardless of how economically "critical" it may be.

Edited by: Hardy Graupner