J&J looks at job cuts despite weathering inflation impact

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted better than expected third-quarter earnings 


 The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York

Tue, October 18, 2022 
By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted better than expected third-quarter earnings on strong demand for its cancer drug Darzalex, but said it may still cut some jobs as it contends with inflationary pressure and challenges created by the strong dollar.

J&J Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said the U.S. healthcare conglomerate is looking at "right sizing" itself, particularly as it moves from being a three-segment business to a two segment business through the spinoff of its consumer unit.

That business, which will be called Kenvue and hold many of the company's best known brands like Band-Aid bandages and Tylenol, is set to be spun out late next year.

J&J said it was not immune to the affects of inflation on its business and the impact of a strong dollar, despite "healthcare being more resilient" than most industries. A stronger dollar will reduce 2023 adjusted earnings by between 40 cents and 45 cents, the company said.

"We are looking at making sure that our resources are deployed on those projects, those initiatives, those services that really add the most value for our business," Wolk told Reuters.

Johnson & Johnson shares were marginally down in early trading at $166.29, reversing from their premarket gains.

The share move was mainly due to macroeconomic and currency concerns which are not unique to J&J, said Edward Jones analyst John Boylan.

The company expects some inflationary pressures to ease next year, but warned higher costs of inventory manufactured in 2022 could weigh on 2023 profit.

Total sales rose 1.9% to $23.79 billion in the third quarter, topping estimates of $23.34 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Excluding items, J&J earned $2.55 per share, beating Wall Street estimates by 8 cents.

Sales of cancer drug Darzalex jumped nearly 30% to $2.05 billion in the quarter.

The medical devices unit reported a 2.1% rise in sales to $6.78 billion on demand for contact lenses and wound-closure products.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra, Raghav Mahobe and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bill Berkrot)

#BDS

Pro-Palestinian Berkeley Law Students Have Free Speech Rights, Too


Dylan Saba
Tue, October 18, 2022 

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty

It must be a day ending in “y”, because free speech is once again at issue on the University of California-Berkeley campus.

A recent campaign by Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP), a student group supporting Palestinian liberation, asking other progressive student groups to pledge not to host speakers that support Israeli apartheid has provoked a wave of condemnation and disinformation.

I Was Canceled for Criticizing Israel

Berkeley Law’s Dean Erwin Chemerinsky publicly condemned the campaign in a statement, strongly implying it ran afoul of free speech and anti-discrimination principles. Chancellor Carol Christ, too, condemned the campaign, suggesting that excluding speakers with particular views on Israel would endanger the safety and security of Jewish community members. Following these statements, a Democratic member of Congress and a long list of Israel lobby organizations and professors piled on. And to add to the absurdity, an article in Jewish Journal falsely alleged that the campus was creating “Jewish free zones” by permitting the adoption of the pledge.


But this is nonsense: student organizations can determine for themselves which speakers align with their politics; they cannot be compelled to invite any speaker. Campus groups organized around issue areas, from antiracism to reproductive rights, host speakers and events in order to advance a particular political perspective. Just as these groups are under no obligation to host white supremacists or people who oppose a woman’s right to an abortion, no student group is constitutionally obligated to host pro-Zionist speakers.

And the pledge has nothing to do with Judaism; it is about student groups with shared progressive values agreeing not to host speakers who don't share those values, namely, by supporting Israel's policies of land theft, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. It does not discriminate on the basis of religion at all: Hosting a non-Jewish Zionist (for example, a Christian or Hindu) would violate the pledge, whereas hosting a Jewish anti-Zionist would not. Tellingly, no one in the status quo seems to have a problem with the fact that Hillel, an organization that purports to be a center for all Jewish life, maintains standards of partnership that prohibit it from hosting anti-Zionist speakers.

This egregious double standard demonstrates that what is at stake is not just freedom of expression. It is the content of what is being expressed, namely a political commitment to Palestinian liberation and a steadfast opposition to apartheid, that has provoked this backlash.

Bill Maher Refuses to Ask Netanyahu About Corruption Charges, Wonders If Israel Will ‘Retaliate’ Against Kanye

This double standard is nothing new. At Palestine Legal, we regularly encounter the suppression of pro-Palestine expression from university administrations, often at the urging of Israel advocacy organizations and even the Israeli government itself.

And the playbook is consistent: 1) reframe the issue to exclusively center Jewish students, erasing both Palestinian perspectives on campus and the impact that U.S. support for Israeli apartheid has for Palestinians living under occupation; 2) falsely conflate opposition to Israeli apartheid with antisemitism; and 3) take punitive measure against students organizing for justice. We’ve responded to over a thousand of such cases, and the repression keeps coming.

The students’ campaign comes at a time of increased scrutiny on Israel. Recent reports from some of the world’s most respected human rights organizations have confirmed what Palestinians like myself have been saying for decades: Israel is an apartheid regime.

Following a report from B’tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, that concluded as much in early 2021, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued comprehensive reports on Israeli apartheid.

There Are No ‘Jewish-Free’ Zones on the UC-Berkeley Campus

This should come as no surprise for anyone paying attention to news from the region. Since the beginning of 2021, Israel has conducted another horrific bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, which it has kept under blockade since 2007, in which they targeted residential buildings and killed scores of Palestinian civilians; continued settlement expansion in the West Bank; assassinated the iconic Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh; imprisoned hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom are children, without charges or trial in its controversial practice of administrative detention; all while maintaining its illegal and deadly occupation of Palestinian land.

It is against this backdrop that LSJP has encouraged fellow student groups to pledge not to host speakers who support apartheid. By condemning this activism, university administrators are stating loud and clear that opposition to Israeli apartheid is not welcome on campus.

For myself, as an alumnus of the law school and social justice advocate who is both Palestinian and a Jewish American, I am proud that these students are taking a bold stand against injustice and building solidarity across axes of oppression along the way. I just received my alumni magazine with a cover page promoting "how [Berkeley Law is] fighting for our rights and working to advance justice, freedom, and equality at home and around the world."

Does that extend to Palestinians—or is there an exception for us?

REFUGEES, AMNESTY SEEKERS
More than 100 migrants stranded near Puerto Rico await help

DÁNICA COTO
Tue, October 18, 2022 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal authorities on Tuesday said they were trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation.

The nationality of the migrants awaiting help on Mona Island wasn’t immediately known, although officials believe the majority are Haitian, said Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico.

It wasn't immediately clear if anyone in their group drowned before authorities were notified of the situation. Quiñones said authorities are still interviewing the migrants.

In the group are 60 women, 38 men and five children ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old, according to Anaís Rodríguez, secretary of Puerto Rico's Natural Resources Department. She noted that three of the women are pregnant, adding that the group overall is in good health.

Mona Island is located in the treacherous waters between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and has long been a dropping off point for human smugglers promising to ferry Haitian and Dominican migrants to the U.S. territory aboard rickety boats. Dozens of them have died in recent months in an attempt to flee their countries amid a spike in poverty and violence.

In late July, authorities rescued 68 Haitian migrants dropped off in waters surrounding Mona Island. At least five others drowned.

“The conditions in Mona are inhospitable,” Quiñones said. “Smugglers do not have any regards for the safety of people they’re transporting. They basically pile them up in a boat."

From October 2021 to March, 571 Haitians and 252 people from the Dominican Republic were detained in waters around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Of the Haitians, 348 landed on Puerto Rico’s uninhabited Mona Island and were rescued.

The migrants are taken to Puerto Rico for processing, where some request asylum given the increasingly chaotic situation in Haiti, where fuel and water supplies are dwindling amid a cholera outbreak as a powerful gang blocks access to a key fuel terminal for more than a month. Haitian leaders have requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M WELFARE FRAUD

Director: Mississippi does not track welfare program results

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Tue, October 18, 2022 

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's scandal-plagued welfare program turns away most applicants for cash assistance, and it has not been tracking whether its programs fulfill the goal of lifting people out of poverty in one of the poorest states in the nation, lawmakers were told Tuesday.

Robert G. “Bob” Anderson said that when he became director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services in March 2020, he found the agency had “output numbers" to track spending.

“But we didn’t have a lot of outcome information," Anderson said. “We were not tracking outcomes as an agency.”

In response to questions from Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez, Anderson said Human Services is looking at data to define whether programs are effective, but he did not say when a program to track outcomes will be in place.

Anderson spoke at the state Capitol during a hearing held by the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses.

Democratic leaders said they convened because Republicans, who control the two chambers, have not held hearings on a multimillion-dollar welfare misspending scandal that has ensnared several prominent figures, including retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

“We cannot help but to recognize that Mississippi has two hands — one hand that is basically taking aid from the poor and another hand that is basically giving it to the wealthy,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville. “And Mississippi needs to do a better job.”

Anderson said about 90% of people who apply for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Mississippi don’t receive it, either because their applications are denied or because they abandon their applications. He said Human Services is considering using “navigators” to help applicants.

Brandy Nichols of Jackson told lawmakers that she has four children — an 8-year-old, 5-year-old twins and a 4-year-old. She has worked several different jobs, including as a cashier and a housekeeper.

She said she never expected to need government aid, but TANF helped her pay for groceries, cleaning supplies, clothing and unexpected expenses such as emergency car repairs. She said she has already used the five-year limit on payments under the program.

“I can no longer receive TANF,” Nichols said. “But my children’s most expensive years are ahead.”

Anderson is a former assistant U.S. attorney, and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves nominated him to lead Human Services just weeks after one of the agency's former directors, John Davis, was arrested on allegations of misspending millions of dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the United States.

Davis was chosen by Reeves' predecessor, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. Davis recently pleaded guilty to state and federal charges tied to some of the misspending.

As Human Services director, Davis had direct control of federal funds that prosecutors said were improperly used on expenses such as drug rehab for a former professional wrestler and first-class airfare for Davis.

Court documents also show that under Davis, $5 million from TANF was spent on a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi — a project that Favre pushed at the school, where his daughter was playing the sport.

Favre has repaid $1.1 million he received for speaking fees to help pay for the volleyball facility. The money came from the Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit group that spent TANF dollars with Human Services' approval. State Auditor Shad White said Favre still owes $228,000 in interest.

Favre is not facing criminal charges but is one of 38 defendants in a civil lawsuit that seeks to recover misspent welfare money. Favre, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member, said last week that he has been “ unjustly smeared in the media” in coverage over the welfare spending.

Johnson said the Mississippi Legislature needs to eliminate hurdles for welfare applicants, including a drug screening requirement in state law. Adults applying for TANF must complete a questionnaire about drug use. If the answers show a “reasonable likelihood” of a substance use disorder, the applicant must take a drug test.

The Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce poverty, said Mississippi received 11,407 TANF applications in 2017. After the questionnaire, 464 applicants were given drug tests, and six of those tests found drug use.

Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy director of policy for CLASP, told lawmakers Tuesday that another Washington-based advocacy organization, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that for every 100 families with children living in poverty in Mississippi, 71 families received cash assistance through a welfare program in 1979. By 1995-96, aid was going to 39 families per 100 living in poverty. By 2019-20, Mississippi's aid number was down to four families per 100 living in poverty — tied for last in the U.S.

“The share of people who are getting cash assistance compared to the extensive need is just astonishing,” Lower-Basch said.

More than 80% of US waterways contaminated by ‘forever chemicals’



Tom Perkins

THE GUARDIAN
Tue, October 18, 2022 

Most of America’s waterways are likely contaminated by toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, a new study conducted by US water keepers finds.

The Waterkeeper Alliance analysis found detectable PFAS levels in 95 out of 114, or 83%, of waterways tested across 34 states and the District of Columbia, and frequently at levels that exceed federal and state limits.

Related: US firms exploiting Trump-era loophole over toxic ‘forever chemicals’

“The results clearly show widespread PFAS contamination across the country and demonstrate that existing laws and regulations are inadequate for protecting us,” said Marc Yaggi, CEO of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit network that represents local “water keepers” who monitor watersheds throughout the country for pollution.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 12,000 chemicals often used to make products resist water, stain and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, and are linked to cancer, liver problems, thyroid issues, birth defects, kidney disease, decreased immunity and other serious health problems.

Previous analyses have used municipal utility data to estimate that the chemicals are contaminating drinking water for over 200 million people, while another study found widespread contamination of groundwater drawn by private and municipal wells.

Lax regulation allows industrial users to discharge the chemicals into the environment largely unchecked, though some states and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are taking steps to begin tracking them. Landfills, airports, military bases, paper mills and wastewater treatment plants are among common sources.

Related: Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ detected in commonly used insecticides in US, study finds

The new study checked a range of surface waters, including canals, creeks and rivers. It found PFAS in 29 out of 34 states, and the 19 waterways in which it didn’t detect the compounds ran through largely undeveloped regions.

The study detected two of the most studied and dangerous compounds, PFOS and PFOA, at 70% of testing sites – more than any other of the 33 compounds it found.

The EPA lowered its health advisory limit for PFOA and PFOS to .004 parts per trillion (ppt) and .02 ppt, respectively, effectively finding that no level of exposure is safe. PFOS was detected in Maryland’s Piscataway Creek, a tributary that feeds into the Potomac River just south of Washington DC, at a level exceeding 1,300 ppt. The reading is nearly 70,000 times the EPA’s advisory level.

Regulators and utilities have been slow to address PFAS contamination in part because of costs. The EPA has proposed designating PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances, which could force industry to fund cleanups for those compounds, but not the other 33 found in the study, or thousands more that exist. That will leave it up to taxpayers to cover those cleanup costs.

“In other words, the public is going to be subsidizing the industrial polluters,” Yaggi said.

‘Forever chemicals’ taint rivers across SC; drinking water threatened

Sammy Fretwell
Tue, October 18, 2022 

Toxic “forever chemicals’’ that are suspected of increasing cancer risks, causing liver damage and triggering kidney problems for those exposed to them are showing up in rivers and creeks that residents of South Carolina and other states rely on for drinking water.

A report released Tuesday by the national Waterkeeper Alliance identified the chemicals in at least six of the state’s river basins, including the Saluda-Congaree near Columbia, the Savannah near Augusta, the Catawba south of Charlotte and the Cooper near Charleston. Chemicals also were found in the Black-Sampit river system near Georgetown and the Waccamaw River watershed west of Myrtle Beach.

Data show that two of the most common chemicals exceeded a federal health advisory limit in every river or creek tested in South Carolina, according to the Waterkeeper Alliance study, billed as the first nationwide look of its kind about forever chemical pollution.

The Saluda River below the Lake Murray dam also registered one type of toxic forever chemical found at only two other places in the country.

Nationally, more than 80 percent of the 114 waterways sampled for the Waterkeeper Alliance report had at least one type of forever chemical in the water, the national report said. The chemicals were found in measurable concentrations in 29 states, the report found.

While much still needs to be learned about the effects of forever chemicals on public health, laboratory studies on animals have linked exposure to some of the most common forever chemicals to health problems in the animals. Cancer is among the risks as is damage to the liver and kidneys. The question is how much exposure does it take to get sick.

Tuesday’s report verifies data collected recently by state regulators in South Carolina. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control also found the contaminants in rivers across the state. The agency has not publicly released the data, but provided a snapshot of its survey of forever chemicals in water to a group of industries and environmental groups this past Friday.

DHEC also has previously found low levels in more than three dozen drinking water systems that get water from rivers or lakes.

Forever chemicals are also known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a class of compounds used to repel water on clothing, coat non-stick frying pans, and fight fires at military bases. Considered important to the manufacture of an array of products, PFAS have been used in the United States since the 1940s.

The lower Saluda River near Columbia

The aptly named chemicals, largely unregulated by states and the federal government, pose a threat because they do not break down easily in the environment. They have become of increasing concern across the country as more is learned about their abundance and toxic effects.

“This data unequivocally demonstrates that this dangerous PFAS pollution is widespread in surface waters across the country, and that existing laws and regulations have been inadequate to protect public health and the environment from this under-appreciated threat,’’ the Waterkeeper Alliance report said.

Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler and Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus said they are not surprised that forever chemicals were found in rivers. Stangler and Bonitatibus were among riverkeepers collecting samples for the analysis.

Stangler said the primary known threat is to drinking water. On the Saluda River, for instance, the sites where he found forever chemicals in water are upstream of large drinking water plants in Cayce and West Columbia.

“It is not something the average person who goes off a rope swing or goes tubing in the Saluda needs to worry about,’’ Stangler said. “The real general concern, I think, is ‘How much of this are you putting in your body by drinking it, or potentially consuming it in food, like fish.’’

Specific waterways tainted by PFAS include the Saluda, Catawba, Sampit and Savannah Rivers, as well as Bushy Park Reservoir near Charleston and Steritt Swamp near Conway. The study said 100 percent of the 11 samples taken in South Carolina registered PFAS.

Bonitatibus said action is necessary to prevent threats like the one that occurred in eastern North Carolina’s Cape Fear River.

A manufacturer of forever chemicals for years released the material into the river, fouling drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people. The facility has been sued over the discharges and fined heavily by regulators in North Carolina.

“What happened on the Cape Fear is an absolute tragedy,’ Bonitatibus said. “As we move forward we need to make sure we are identifying sources and removing them quickly.’’

Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus stands along the river separating Georgia and South Carolina.

Some places around the country had higher levels of PFAS than South Carolina. Georgia, which shares the Savannah with South Carolina, had higher levels of PFAS concentrations. North Carolina, where some rivers run into South Carolina, also registered higher levels, the report found.

Two of the most common types of PFAS of concern – PFOA and PFOS – have been discontinued in the United States, but many related compounds are still being manufactured and used. PFOA and PFOS remain a threat to the environment.

In South Carolina, riverkeepers who worked on the Waterkeeper Alliance study found multiple places where PFOA and PFOS showed up at higher levels than the recently established federal health advisory standard.

The new health advisory level is between 0 and 1 part per trillion. Test results by riverkeepers found PFOS levels of 6.4 parts per trillion at one spot on the lower Saluda and 4.8 parts per trillion at another spot on the river, according to the Waterkeeper Alliance data.

DHEC’s data showed even higher levels of PFOA and PFOS on the Congaree, just downstream from the Saluda. Two readings topped 9 parts per trillion for PFOS, while results for PFOA exceeded 7 parts per trillion, according to a presentation DHEC gave to industry and environmental groups last week.

One type of PFAS, commonly called GenX, also was found in the lower Saluda River, according to test results from the Waterkeeper Alliance. The Saluda River was one of three rivers in the country where waterkeepers found GenX. The others were the Cape Fear in North Carolina and Tar Creek in Oklahoma, the report said.

GenX was developed to replace the toxic PFOA, but was later discovered to also be harmful to health.

“The surprise to me is that we saw GenX show up at all,’’ Stangler said.

Discharges of PFAS, including PFOS, PFOA and GenX, commonly are associated with textile plants, paper mills, landfills and military bases, one of which has polluted private drinking water wells in Sumter County. Textile mills, found throughout South Carolina, are a particular concern.

The Environmental Working Group says as many as 1,500 textile mills across the country could be releasing PFAS responsible for polluting drinking water.

On the Saluda, PFAS were found below Shaw Industries in Irmo and an abandoned site. Efforts to reach a spokesperson for Shaw were not successful Tuesday.

Finding PFAS in rivers is of concern to utilities that rely on the rivers to supply drinking water to the public.

Birds perch on a rock visible from Boyd Island, a new park at the confluence of the Broad and Saluda Rivers on Thursday March 24, 2022.

Clint Shealy, an assistant Columbia city manager who oversees the city’s drinking water utility, said the city has previously found PFAS in water coming into the plant and finished water that leaves the plant.

The big question, however, is how harmful microscopic levels of PFAS can be, he said.

The federal government recently sharply lowered the health advisory limit for the two most commonly known forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, from 70 parts per trillion to near zero.

But that standard is only an advisory limit, meaning the city’s drinking water remains in compliance with federal laws, he said.

The government is now weighing whether to establish an enforceable limit on how much of some PFAS materials should be allowed in drinking water. One question is whether the enforceable drinking water limit will be as low as the new advisory limit.

“A part per trillion is one drop of water in an Olympic sized swimming pool, roughly,’’ Shealy said. “So we went from 70 drops to a tiny fraction of one drop being within the health advisory level. That’s a real challenge for all utilities.’’

If the city had to treat the water for PFAS — which it does not currently — it could cost millions of dollars. That’s why it is important to find out where the pollution is coming from and stop it, he said.

“The way to combat this is to eliminate or minimize the compounds getting into our rivers,’’ he said. “Source water control is by far the best for our rivers and anything that might uptake those chemicals, like aquatic wildlife, but that also makes a positive impact on our drinking water. ‘’

Not Just a Big Fish, but Perhaps

the Biggest Bony Fish Ever

Annie Roth

Tue, October 18, 2022 

Researchers with a giant sunfish at the marina in Horta in Portugal's Azores archipelago in December 2021. (Atlantic Naturalist via The New York Times)

It was easy for scientists to have doubts when they were told that the carcass of a colossal fish had been found floating just off the coast of Faial Island in Portugal’s Azores archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean in December 2021. People do tend to exaggerate when it comes to the size of fish, after all. However, their skepticism lifted the moment they laid eyes on the fish. It was the biggest bony fish they had ever seen. In fact, it might have been the biggest anyone had ever seen.

Weighing just over 6,000 pounds, which is around the weight of a Chevrolet Suburban, and stretching more than 10 feet in length, the scientists say the supersize southern sunfish, a species of mola, was the heaviest bony fish ever recorded.

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More than 90% of fish have bony skeletons and thus fall into the category of bony fish. This sets them apart from sharks, rays and some fish that have cartilaginous skeletons. Although no bony fish has ever come close to reaching the size of a whale shark, the largest cartilaginous fish, the size of the sunfish found in the Azores is impressive.

“It’s pretty rare to find big fish these days due to overfishing and habitat degradation,” said Kory Evans, a fish ecologist at Rice University who was not involved in the discovery of the SUV-size sunfish.

The last bony fish recorded anywhere near that size was a female of the same species caught in Japan in 1996 that weighed around 5,070 pounds and measured roughly 8.9 feet across.

The massive southern sunfish found in the Azores is “not an abnormal individual whose extreme size is due to a genetic mutation,” said José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, a marine biologist with Atlantic Naturalist and co-author of a study published this month in Journal of Fish Biology that documented the specimen. “This species can get to this size. We just finally managed to weigh and measure one. There are more of these monsters out there.”

Aside from their size, molas are known for their clumsy swimming style. Unlike most fish, molas use their dorsal and anal fins to propel their huge, hulking bodies through the water, which they do slowly and haphazardly. The open-ocean fish are often seen floating on their sides at the sea’s surface, which scientists think is to warm up or to make it easy for seabirds to make a meal of the parasites on their skin.

After local fishermen and boaters found the southern sunfish floating near the Azores, a group of scientists from the research nonprofit Atlantic Naturalist and the local marine wildlife authorities towed its body into Horta Harbor and hoisted it onto land using a forklift.

Gomes-Pereira and his colleagues spent several hours measuring the length, weight and stomach contents of the fish. The mola’s nearly 8-inch thick skin made the dissection particularly tricky. And because the fish was too large for any local museum to preserve, it was buried on a nearby hillside.

The scientists weren’t able to determine the exact age of the fish, but Gomes-Pereira believes the creature was at least two decades old. Estimates suggest that is around the limit of their life span, but no one really knows how long these animals can live.

This particular fish’s life may have been cut short. While examining the fish, Gomes-Pereira noticed a large contusion on the side of the animal’s head. That could be a sign that the fish was hit by a boat. The scientists believe the boaters in the Azores need to slow down and be more mindful of their effect on ocean wildlife.

At the same time, Gomes-Pereira hopes that the discovery of this fish shows people that the ocean is still healthy enough to support the largest animals on the planet, as well as inspire them to do more to protect it. “It’s a warning for us in terms of the need for further conservation measures,” he said.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

ETHIOPIA'S WAR OF AGGRESSION

Eritrea Goes for Broke in Ethiopian Civil War to Crush Old Foe



Simon Marks
Mon, October 17, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Eritrea is intensifying its involvement in neighboring Ethiopia’s civil war, hampering efforts to end fighting that’s destabilized the entire Horn of Africa for almost two years.

The conflict has pitted Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal troops against forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which rules the northern Tigray region. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki backed Abiy from the onset of the hostilities and recently embarked on a nationwide, forced conscription campaign to shore up his army with a view to crushing the TPLF, a long-standing foe, according to people familiar with the developments, including diplomats, civil-rights activists, analysts and recruits’ relatives.

The TPLF accuses Eritrea of staging attacks in Tigray since fighting flared in August, five months after a truce was declared. Last week, the governments of Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and US condemned “the escalating involvement of Eritrean military forces in northern Ethiopia.”

Eritrea continues to shell towns and villages across northern Tigray and thousands of the new conscripts, including women and the elderly, have been deployed to the battle front-lines, according to rights activists Meron Estefanos, who is based in Uganda, and Asia Abdulkadir, who is based in Kenya.

Peace talks brokered by the African Union that were scheduled to begin in South Africa on Oct. 8 have been delayed indefinitely. One likely reason is that Eritrea is pushing for an outright victory in the conflict, according to Harry Verhoeven, a professor and Eritrea expert at Columbia University, and three diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media.

Yemane Ghebremeskel, Eritrea’s information minister, and Billene Seyoum, Abiy’s spokeswoman, didn’t respond to emailed questions on Eritrea’s role in Tigray or answer calls seeking comment.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for Isaias, a rebel commander who led his nation to independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s and has presided over a one-party state ever since. Besides finally vanquishing the TPLF, a military conquest would help consolidate his power in the region, open up trade with Ethiopia and further cement his already close ties with Abiy.

“A peaceful settlement between the TPLF and Abiy is a threat to Isaias,” Abdulkadir said. “I don’t think it’s in his interests for this conflict to end. This is pure survival for him.”

Former Allies

Animosity between Eritrea and the TPLF, which effectively ruled Ethiopia from 1991 until 2018 when it was sidelined by Abiy, dates back decades. While Isaias and the Tigrayans once fought side by side to overthrow Ethiopia’s communist Derg regime, relations soured after Eritrea gained independence in 1993 and sought to assert its sovereignty.

The two nations then fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 that claimed tens of thousands of lives. That conflict didn’t officially end until 2018, when Abiy took over as prime minister and signed a peace accord with Isaias -- a detente that earned the Ethiopian leader the Nobel Prize.

Eritrea, which has been dubbed the North Korea of Africa, is an international pariah. Isaias’s administration has been criticized by civil rights groups for its practice of jailing politicians, activists and journalists in solitary confinement, and it has been subjected to international sanctions and an arms embargo.

‘Extraordinary Risks’

In recent months, Eritrea has shut all international schools and closed its border with Sudan -- a move aimed at preventing Isaias’s opponents from infiltrating the country, according to the diplomats who’ve been briefed on the development. The president has also ordered all those who were previously exempted from military service to undergo new medical testing, they said.

“This is a man who is profoundly comfortable with taking extraordinary risks,” Verhoeven said. “One of his great strengths is that he is willing to go where nobody else is willing to go and put up with an extraordinary degree of discomfort: international isolation, sanctions, hostile neighbors on his doorstep and anger from the US and other members in the Security Council.”

Eritrea’s military operations are largely funded using the proceeds of business owned by the Red Sea Corp., it’s secretive sovereign fund. Isaias has aided Saudi Arabia in its the fight against the Houthis in Yemen, and been implicated by a group of United Nations experts in lending its support to al-Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabaab, which has been trying to topple Somalia’s government since 2006.

While the US and other Western governments have urged Eritrea to immediately withdraw from Tigray, Isaias is unlikely to heed their call. Abdulkadir, the Kenya-based activist, said Isaias is loath to take orders from anyone and considers Western powers fickle and grossly inconsistent in the application of their policies.

“War is the way for Isaias to stay involved in Ethiopia’s politics” and peace is simply not an option as long as the TPLF are still around, she said.

Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Civilian bloodbath warning as offensive escalates

Mary Harper - Africa editor, BBC World Service News
Mon, October 17, 2022 

The civil war that began in November 2020 has devastated the Tigray region and left people cut off from aid and food supplies

Diplomats are warning of a civilian bloodbath in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray if rebels are pushed out of towns by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops.

Tigray residents say food and medical supplies are running out as a massive offensive on the region intensifies.

Cities are being carpet bombed, says Tedros Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization chief, who is from Tigray.

Civilians are being killed and those wounded cannot be saved because of a siege, he says.

Tigray has been under a blockade for 17 months and fighting has surged since a five-month humanitarian truce collapsed in August. An estimated one million people are at risk of starvation.

'A military drone is flying over my city as I write'

The African Union (AU) has joined the chorus of international voices calling for an end to hostilities and a recommitment to peace talks.

On Friday, an aid worker from the International Rescue Committee was killed while delivering emergency food to women and children in the town of Shire, which has come under ferocious bombardment.

The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed horror at the violence in Shire, often directed at civilians.

Camps for the millions of people displaced by the fighting are also coming under attack, according to Samantha Power, the head of the US's development agency.

If Ethiopian and Eritrean troops took control of them during the current offensive there was "significant risk of further assaults and killings being perpetrated against civilians", the US Aid chief said.

"The staggering human cost of this conflict should shock the world's conscience," she added.

A resident of Tigray's main city of Mekelle told the BBC there was almost no food in the city.

He said small amounts of the staple grain, teff, were being sold - at more than three times last year's price.

Drones are flying overhead constantly, terrifying the population.

He said growing numbers of women were offering to join the rebel forces in the face of the relentless onslaught of Ethiopian and Eritrean troops.

It reflects a growing desperation amongst the Tigrayans who fear they will be crushed in the coming weeks.

So deep is the hatred between the two sides it seems almost inevitable that those who lose will be punished ruthlessly.

Kjetil Tronvoll, a professor in conflict studies at the Oslo New University College in Norway, says World War One tactics are being used by Ethiopia's and Eritrea's infantry forces who are pushing "massive human waves" on Tigrayan defensive lines.

The analyst tweeted that in his opinion the world's biggest ongoing armed conflict was currently not Russia's attack on Ukraine, but the Ethiopian and Eritrean operation against Tigray.

He suggested that up to one million soldiers were engaged in the offensive.

"The carnage is horrendous. Likely as many as 100,000 have been slaughtered over the last weeks," he tweeted.

Ethiopia and Eritrea blame Tigray's TPLF group for starting the conflict in November 2020. WHICH IS BULLSHIT

More on the Tigray crisis:

Eritreans hunted down as military call-up intensifies


My patients are doomed to die in Tigray blockade


Why the war in Ethiopia has reignited


Ethiopia's Tigray war - and how it erupted

Ethiopian army captures city from Tigray forces -sources

Mon, October 17, 2022 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopian government forces and their allies on Monday captured Shire, one of the biggest cities in the northern region of Tigray, from regional forces they have been battling on and off since late 2020, two diplomatic and humanitarian sources said.

The violence in Tigray, which has spilled over into neighbouring regions and drawn in the Eritrean military, has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions and left hundreds of thousands now facing possible famine.

The conflict stems from grievances rooted in periods of Ethiopia's turbulent past when particular regional power blocs held sway over the country as a whole, and in tensions over the balance of power between the regions and the central state.

Shire is about 140 km (90 miles) northwest of Tigray's regional capital Mekelle and hosts tens of thousands of people displaced from other areas by the conflict.

Just as news of Shire's capture was breaking, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres was calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Tigray and a return to peace talks sponsored by the African Union.

Guterres told reporters the United Nations was ready to support the bloc in every possible way to end the Ethiopian people's "nightmare".

The European Union said the joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces should stop immediately and the Eritreans should withdraw from Ethiopian territory. It also urged Tigray forces to refrain from any further military operations.

Spokespersons for the Ethiopian government and army, for the Eritrean government and for the Tigray forces did not respond to requests for comment on events in Shire.

In a post on Twitter, the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry referred to "areas liberated and controlled" by the national army, saying the government was ready to ensure humanitarian access and ensure the safety of humanitarian workers. It did not specify which areas it was referring to.

An aid worker from the International Rescue Committee was among three people killed during an air strike on Shire on Friday.

On Sunday, Samantha Power, head of U.S. development agency USAID, said there was a significant risk of attacks on civilians if the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies took control of camps sheltering displaced civilians.

In September, a U.N. human rights commission said it had reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes had been committed by forces from both sides of the conflict, which have all denied perpetrating abuses.

Earlier on Monday, the Ethiopian government said it aimed to seize airports and other infrastructure currently under the control of the Tigray forces, even as it stated it was committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict through peace talks.

The Tigray authorities said on Sunday their forces would abide by an immediate truce and said a "humanitarian catastrophe" was unfolding.

Both sides blame each other for breaking a ceasefire in August that had lasted since March.

Peace talks proposed for earlier this month in South Africa were delayed with no new date announced.

Western and African diplomats said they were concerned that the fighting in Tigray would further delay the start of any substantive talks. They also said the involvement of Eritrean troops was a major issue and it was unclear if the Ethiopian government had any control over its ally's forces.

(Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Estelle Shirbon,; Editing by James Macharia Chege and Angus MacSwan)

UN chief: war in Ethiopia's Tigray must end, Eritrea exit


EDITH M. LEDERER
Mon, October 17, 2022 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief on Monday demanded an immediate end to hostilities in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and withdrawal of Eritrean forces fighting alongside the government, saying “violence and destruction have reached alarming levels” and “civilians are paying a horrific price.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that “there is no military solution” to the nearly two-year conflict between Tigrayan forces and the federal government, warning that “the situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control.”

He called for an urgent resumption of talks between the two sides and said, “The United Nations is ready to support the African Union in every possible way to end this nightmare for the Ethiopian people.”

The warring parties had said they were ready to participate in AU-led talks which were due to take place in South Africa earlier this month, but they were postponed because of logistical and technical issues.

AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “grave concern” in a statement Sunday over the fighting and called for an “immediate, unconditional cease-fire and the resumption of humanitarian services.”

He urged the parties “to recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa by a high-level team led by the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa and supported by the international community.”

Guterres told reporters that Ethiopia’s “social fabric is being ripped apart,” saying innocent people are being killed every day in indiscriminate attacks, including in residential areas, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes since hostilities resumed in August, many for the second time.

“We are also hearing disturbing accounts of sexual violence and other acts of brutality against women, children and men,” the U.N. chief said.

Months of political tensions between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray leaders who once dominated the government exploded into war in November 2020.

Following some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict, Ethiopian soldiers fled the Tigrayan capital Mekele in June 2021 and the government declared a national state of emergency with sweeping powers. A drone-assisted government military offensive halted the Tigrayans’ approach to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and last December the Tigrayans retreated back to Tigray.

A cease-fire that began in March and allowed much-needed aid to enter Tigray ended with a resumption of fighting in August.

Even before hostilities resumed, secretary-general Guterres said 13 million people needed food and other assistance in Tigray and the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.

Since fighting resumed, he said, “Deliveries of aid into Tigray have been suspended for more than seven weeks, and assistance to Amhara and Afar has also been disrupted.”

Guterres urged all parties to facilitate the delivery of aid to all civilians in need.

In response to the worsening conflict, the three African members of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council -- Kenya, Gabon and Ghana -- have called for an emergency closed meeting on Ethiopia and briefings by the AU and the U.N. humanitarian office, diplomats said. A date has not yet been announced.

Guterres said he believes the fighting, which started out as an internal conflict, now has an international dimension with Eritrean forces inside Ethiopia and “a delicate situation on the border with Sudan, so this is something that needs to be seriously considered by all entities, including the Security Council.”

2020 wildfire season in California wiped away 16 years of climate gains

Ben Adler

·Senior Editor

Tue, October 18, 2022 

The wildfires that have scorched the West in recent years are not just a consequence of climate change, they also are an increasingly sizable driver of the problem, according to a new study.

The research paper, published Monday in the journal Environmental Pollution, finds that California’s wildfires in 2020 caused twice the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that the state successfully cut between 2003 and 2019. In other words, 2020’s wildfire season, which set a record for the number of acres burned in the state, essentially wiped out 16 years of progress California had made on climate change through efforts such as replacing fossil fuels with clean energy.

A firefighter works the scene as flames push toward homes during the Creek Fire in Madera County, Calif., on Sept. 7, 2020. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)

Since wood is full of stored carbon dioxide — the most prevalent greenhouse gas — it is emitted when the wood burns. As average temperatures have grown warmer, California and other Western states have experienced more heat waves and droughts, which are risk factors for wildfires. Currently, a 22-year megadrought is parching the West, forcing water authorities in parts of California to institute water usage limits for residents. The state is also experiencing intensified heat waves.

Consequently, wildfires have become more prevalent. Eighteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California’s history have occurred since 2000. The eight largest have all been since 2017, five of them in 2020 alone. The biggest fire in state history, the August Complex Fire in 2020, burned more than 1 million acres of land.

In total, more than 9,000 wildfires devastated the Golden State in 2020, sending smoke all the way to the East Coast. More than 4.3 million acres burned, 30 people died and economic losses topped $19 billion.

Firefighters set backfires to prevent wildfire from spreading into a residential area at the Blue Ridge Fire in Chino, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2020. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Now, we also know how much emissions were created by all that burning wood, and they accounted for 30% of California’s total emissions, making wildfires the second-largest source of emissions in the state, after transportation.

“To the great credit of California’s policy-makers and residents, from 2003 to 2019, California’s GHG emissions declined by 65 million metric tons of pollutants, a 13 percent drop that was largely driven by reductions from the electric power generation sector,” Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA and an author of the study, said in a statement accompanying the report. “Essentially, the positive impact of all that hard work over almost two decades is at risk of being swept aside by the smoke produced in a single year of record-breaking wildfires.”

Carbon emissions are not the only kind of pollution that wildfires create. The smoke and particulate pollution clog the air, and they can make breathing difficult and harmful to human health.

In June, an analysis in the annual Air Quality Life Index found wildfire smoke was so bad in 2020 that it temporarily reversed the gains in air quality from decades of federal and state regulation in California. The entire state was exposed to dangerously high levels of particulate matter, and nationally, 29 of the 30 counties rated as having the worst particulate pollution that year were found in California. Half the counties in the state had the worst air pollution recorded since satellite measurements began in 1998.

Firefighters set a backfire to try to contain the Blue Ridge Fire in Chino Hills on Oct. 27, 2020. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Donelda Moberg, who suffers from emphysema and lives in California’s San Joaquin Valley, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year that she avoided going outside as much as possible for weeks on end in 2020 because of the wildfire smoke.

“The sky was a clay color, and it made the sun a funny color — it didn’t look normal,” Moberg told the newspaper. “You could always tell whether it was safe to go out or not by just looking at the way the sun shined.”

Researchers from Stanford University estimated that the 2020 wildfires led to 1,200 to 3,000 premature deaths among Americans 65 and older.

UK

‘Huge victory for reproductive rights’: MPs approve ‘buffer zones’ outside abortion clinics

Maya Oppenheim
Tue, October 18, 2022 

MPs in the Commons voted 297 to 110 in support of an amendment to the Public Order Bill which provides so-called buffer zones 

MPs have voted in favour of nationwide “buffer zones” outside abortion clinics in England and Wales in a major win for abortion providers.

A “buffer zone” stops anti-abortion protesters or any other types of demonstrators standing outside the clinic or hospital or in the near vicinity.

MPs in the Commons voted 297 to 110 in support of an amendment to the Public Order Bill, which legislates for buffer zones. MPs were given a free vote on the issue due to it being a matter of conscience.

Clare Murphy, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK’s leading abortion provider, said it was “delighted” politicians had voted to “protect women, protect healthcare staff, and establish buffer zones”.

BPAS has campaigned “tirelessly” for nearly 10 years to eradicate “anti-abortion clinic harassment”, she added.

These groups attempt to deter or prevent women from accessing abortion care by displaying graphic images of foetuses, calling women ‘murderers’, and hanging baby clothing around clinic entrances, causing women significant distress.
Clare Murphy

Ms Murphy said: “Every year, around 100,000 women are treated by a clinic or hospital for an abortion that is targeted by anti-abortion protests.

“These groups attempt to deter or prevent women from accessing abortion care by displaying graphic images of foetuses, calling women ‘murderers’, and hanging baby clothing around clinic entrances, causing women significant distress.

“Today’s vote will bring an end to this activity. This was truly a cross-party amendment, with support from across the house.”

The new measure implements exclusion areas around abortion clinics and hospitals – making it an offence to impede or harass women using the services or staff delivering them.

Offenders could be hit with up to six months in prison for a first offence or as long as two years if they perpetrate additional crimes, with the “buffer zone” covering 150 metres from an abortion clinic.

Louise McCudden, of MSI Reproductive Choices’ UK, a leading abortion provider, said the vote constituted “a huge victory for reproductive rights”.

Women will “finally be able to access the healthcare to which they are legally entitled free from intimidation and harassment”, she said.

Ms McCudden added: “For decades, our teams around the country have been forced to witness the cruel tactics of anti-abortion groups who have had a free pass to harass people attending our clinics, invade their space and attempt to block their right to healthcare.”

She noted the “landmark decision” means “at long last”, all will “have the right to access vital reproductive healthcare with safety, dignity, and privacy, no matter where in the country they happen to live”.

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow and outspoken campaigner for abortion rights, said: “With evidence hundreds of thousands of women every year are hassled it’s right we have a national solution for a national problem.

“It’s for them we have acted so that they can access an abortion without having to run the gauntlet of protestors to seek healthcare.

“Ministers need to act swiftly to ensure that this change is implemented and guidance published to ensure that every woman is able to enjoy the protections which have been won today.”

Local councils were already able to introduce “buffer zones” under legislation rolled out in 2014 – with Ealing Council in west London introducing the UK’s first one around an abortion clinic in 2018.

Dr Edward Morris, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the move would help to remove the stigma, guilt and shame “that anti-choice organisations try to impose on women accessing this essential health service”.

Women's Rights Campaigners Celebrate As MPs Back Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones

MPs vote in favour or proposals that would make it an offence to target women who are seeking a termination or providing the medical service.

Alexandra Rogers
18/10/2022

Labour MP Stella Creasy said the vote on Tuesday was a "victory"

 for campaigners "who have fought for years for these vital protections".
OLLIE MILLINGTON VIA GETTY IMAGES

Campaigners have hailed a move that could see anti-harassment buffer zones created around abortion clinics in England and Wales.

MPs voted in favour of an amendment to the government’s Public Order Bill that would make it a criminal offence for anti-abortion campaigners to interfere, intimidate or harass women who are seeking a termination or providing the medical service

The proposals, which were pushed by a cross-party group of MPs, passed by 297 votes to 110 — a majority of 187.

In a lengthy parliamentary debate, a number of MPs spoke in support of the 150-metre buffer zones while other raised concerns that they would hinder the right to free speech.

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who proposed the amendment, said women “in their “droves are asking for this protection” and that there needed to be an end to the “postcode lottery of protection”.

Addressing MPs who opposed the amendment on free speech grounds, Creasy said: “New clause 11 does not stop free speech on abortion, it does not stop people protesting.

“As somebody who has been regularly subjected to protests, it’d do nothing to stop the protests that I have experienced from many of the people who are involved in this.

“It simply says that you shouldn’t have a right to do that in the face of somebody — and very often these people are right up in front of people — at a point when they have made a decision.”

Caroline Nokes, the Conservative chair of the women and equalities committee, also backed the proposals, arguing that “progress has been too slow” in protecting women from street harassment.

She was supported by former justice minister Victoria Atkins, who said she agreed with the amendment.

“These are fundamental healthcare services that we provide rightly, lawfully, in the 21st century. So we must surely enable women to get the services as they need them, when they need them, so that they get the right help and advice that they need.”

The debate comes after warnings from campaigners that women are being targeted by anti-abortion protestors and bombarded with distressing leaflets and materials.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which welcomed the amendment’s passing, said there had been reports of leaflets being handed to women telling them that “rape is easier to get over than abortion”.

It also raised concerns that leaflets advertising so-called abortion reversal pills had been given to women despite the fact that there is “no reputable evidence” that the progesterone in the pills can “reverse” an abortion.

But Conservative MP Fiona Bruce said she believed exclusion zones had “grave implications” for “freedom of thought, conscience, speech, belief and assembly”.

She acknowledged harassment and intimidation around abortion clinics had to be “addressed”, but said there were already existing laws and “there have been relatively few if any reports of this”.

The DUP’s Carla Lockhart agreed, arguing that the amendment was “simply unnecessary” and that demonstrators offered women “alternatives” to abortion.

The Public Order Bill still has to undergo scrutiny in the House of Lords before it becomes law.

Speaking after the amendment passed, Creasy said: “Today’s vote is a victory for campaigners like Sister Supporter, women and MPs across parliament, especially Rupa Huq MP, who have fought for years for these vital protections.

“With evidence hundreds of thousands of women every year are hassled it’s right we have a national solution for a national problem.

“It’s for them we have acted so that they can access an abortion without having to run the gauntlet of protestors to seek healthcare.

“Ministers need to act swiftly to ensure that this change is implemented and guidance published to ensure that every woman is able to enjoy the protections which have been won today.”

Last week it was reported that a buffer zone was being placed around a clinic in Dorset to deter anti-abortion campaigners harassing service users and staff.

Breaching the buffer zone could result in a fixed penalty notice of £100 or a conviction at a magistrates court, the Guardian reported.

UK Tories Cave to Allow Free Vote on Abortion Clinic Protests



Kitty Donaldson
Tue, October 18, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government caved in to demands from MPs in her own Conservative Party to allow for a free vote on buffer zones to exclude protests around abortion clinics, a sign her party managers are keen to avoid clashes with mutinous backbenchers.

The House of Commons is set to vote on Tuesday on a cross-party amendment to the government’s Public Order Bill that would make it a criminal offense to harass, obstruct or interfere with any woman or member of staff arriving at an abortion clinic. Protesters found guilty of breaching the 150-meter (492-foot) zone would face up to six months in jail.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman had asked Conservative MPs to block the protective ring around abortion clinics, according to an MP familiar with the government plans. But following pressure from backbench Members of Parliament, Tories will now be allowed to vote with their conscience, they said. Home Office minister Jeremy Quin confirmed the climbdown. The opposition Labour Party supports the zones.

The reversal is a fresh sign of how weak Truss’s administration is, despite enjoying a majority in Parliament of about 70 seats. Party managers are trying to avoid exposing the levels of division within the party as the premier fights for her political future following the dismantling over the past week of her entire economic strategy. Some of the pressure had come from the One Nation Caucus, which Truss addressed Monday night to try to shore up support.

A spokesperson for Braverman did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A Home Office spokesman declined to comment on the Conservative Party’s internal management.

The amendment is being debated because protesters have tried to discourage women from seeking abortions by displaying images of dismembered fetuses, filming women and staff members, sprinkling holy water, signing hymns and reciting prayers. Critics of the proposal argue the zones interfere with the right to free speech.