GOOD RIDDANCE CIA FRONT

Venezuela opposition vote to remove Guaido's interim government


 Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido speaks during an interview in Caracas


Thu, December 22, 2022 at 3:11 PM MST·2 min read

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuela's political opposition to the ruling Socialists voted on Thursday by a wide margin to remove the interim government led by Juan Guaido, as they seek a united front ahead of presidential elections tentatively scheduled for 2024.

The motion was backed by three of four major opposition groups but rejected by Guaido's Popular Will and must pass through another consultation scheduled next week before it is finalized.

The other three major parties - Justice First, Democratic Action and A New Era - have for weeks been drafting a plan to create a board of directors to manage Venezuela's assets held abroad, especially U.S.-based refiner and fuel retailer Citgo, as a way to dislodge Guaido.

Acting as congress chief and interim president following Nicolas Maduro's disputed re-election as president in May 2018, Guaido in 2019 appointed the board of Citgo, a subsidiary of state oil firm PDVSA.

While mostly powerless at home where Maduro's government exercises control over nearly all institutions, including security forces, Guaido's interim government has supervised the foreign assets and runs many embassies.

Thursday's opposition motion passed in a virtual Zoom session with 72 votes in favor, 23 against and nine abstentions.

If approved next week, opposition lawmakers will then choose five representatives for the board of directors that will head assets held abroad, and Guaido's interim presidency, along with his government, will be removed.

Central to the debate is Citgo and the government's most important foreign asset.

A majority stake in the company was used as collateral for a bond on which PDVSA defaulted, but is being protected from creditors by a U.S. license that expires in January. Opposition groups hope this will be renewed.

Venezuela owes more than $60 billion to creditors for defaulted bonds and company nationalizations carried out under then-president Hugo Chavez.

Some U.S. courts have granted creditors permission to negotiate the sale of Venezuelan assets, but many remain protected by the U.S. government.

Guaido has been the face of Venezuela's opposition abroad since he declared himself interim president in 2019. But due mostly to the opposition's failure to remove Maduro from power, Guaido has fallen from favor.

Talks between the opposition and Maduro's government hosted by Mexico ended earlier this month with no further negotiations scheduled. At a late November meeting in the Mexican capital, both sides signed a deal to create a United Nations-run fund to combat the country's humanitarian crisis.

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Mayela Armas; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Grant McCool)

Venezuela’s Guaido Set to Lose Leadership Post After Failing to Unseat Maduro



Nicolle Yapur and Andreina Itriago Acosta
Wed, December 21, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Almost four years after bursting onto the scene and gaining the recognition of more than 50 countries as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, Juan Guaido is set to be sidelined by opposition allies after failing to unseat President Nicolas Maduro.

Almost 70 lawmakers from Justice First, A New Era and Democratic Action, three of Venezuela’s four main opposition parties, say they have enough votes to ditch Guaido as their leader and create a five-member commission to take over his executive powers, representatives for the group said Wednesday.

The commission would be in charge of managing expenses and the country’s assets abroad, which are controlled by the opposition. The National Assembly, in charge of the group, would remain in place but only to debate on issues related to these resources while the interim government and most of its entities will be eliminated.

“We can’t continue with a strategy that has shown no results,” lawmaker Alfonso Marquina told reporters while presenting the proposal during a press conference in Caracas surrounded by representatives of other parties.

If lawmakers succeed in a vote to end his mandate, they will open the door to legitimize “the dictator,” Guaido said in a video on his Twitter account.

“This is not about Juan Guaido. The discussion isn’t about whether I have one role or another. It’s about defending the institution that gives possibilities to achieve change and defend democracy.” His interim government has been “useful” in delegitimizing the dictatorship, providing health aid to the people and protecting assets, he said.

The opposition’s move comes after Guaido failed in his strategy to remove Maduro by creating a parallel government with the support of international allies, following general elections in 2018 that were widely deemed fraudulent. While dozens of nations backed Guaido at first, now only a handful of governments, including the US, continue to recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

Maduro, who has begun to make international trips again and is lobbying for sanctions relief, is preparing for a possible presidential election in 2024. The opposition plans to hold primaries to get behind a single candidate to challenge him and are using talks with outside observers to try to secure guarantees for the future vote.

Guaido is only supported by his former party Popular Will and smaller allies. A definitive vote on the proposals is scheduled for next week, as the current charter expires Dec. 31

FREAK OUT OVER TRANS RIGHTS

UK

Rishi Sunak says Government could block Nicola Sturgeon’s gender Bill

Dominic Penna
Fri, December 23, 2022

Rishi Sunak - Joe Giddens/Reuters

Rishi Sunak has said it is “completely reasonable” for the Government to consider blocking Nicola Sturgeon’s overhaul of transgender laws.

Scots as young as 16 will be allowed to change their legal gender by signing a declaration after the SNP passed a new Bill on Thursday.

But the law could be vetoed after Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, warned that the Government was willing to employ powers never used before to stop it receiving Royal Assent.

Under Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act, Westminster can ban Scottish legislation if it thinks it has an “adverse effect” on laws over which the UK Parliament has ultimate jurisdiction.


On Friday, Mr Sunak told Sky News: “Lots of people have got concerns about this new Bill in Scotland, about the impact it will have on women’s and children’s safety.

“So I think it is completely reasonable for the UK Government to have a look at it, understand what the consequences are for women and children’s safety in the rest of the UK, and then decide on what the appropriate course of action is.”

Mr Sunak took a stand against “self-ID” policies during his Tory leadership campaign in the summer as he vowed to ensure the Equality Act was clear that sex meant biological sex.

On the campaign trail, he told Tory activists: “It is because we are not captured by identity politics that we can take on and stand up to this woke nonsense that wants to cancel our history, our values, and can’t even say what a woman is.”

His comments came after Kemi Badenoch, the International Trade Secretary, warned that the Gender Recognition Bill would impact the functioning of the Equality Act across the country.

Ms Badenoch added that the Government was “looking at provisions that can prompt reconsideration and allow MSPs to address these issues”.

Senior Whitehall figures fear the new Scottish laws, which make it significantly easier for someone to officially change their legal gender than in the rest of the UK, will put single-sex spaces such as prisons and changing rooms in jeopardy across the country.

There have been warnings it could lead to so-called “trans tourism”, whereby a transgender woman could travel to Scotland to legally change gender and then use the official status to access female-only spaces south of the border.

Being a woman is not a ‘costume or a feeling’, Nicola Sturgeon warned

Daniel Sanderson
Wed, December 21, 2022 

Ash Regan - Lesley Martin/PA Wire

Nicola Sturgeon has been warned by one of her former ministers that being a woman is not a “costume or a feeling” as MSPs were poised to approve her radical transgender reforms on Thursday.

At Holyrood, even vocal opponents of the gender self-identification system, which will allow Scots aged 16 and over to change their legally-recognised sex by signing a declaration, acknowledged it was almost certain to pass.

However, the First Minister was subjected to scathing criticism from prominent members within her own party, who warned her they would continue to fight against the plans.

They also raised the prospect of a court challenge, with the UK government potentially stepping in due to legal confusion caused by cross-border divergence which could lead to a trans woman being legally female in Scotland but male once they cross the border.


It is understood that the UK Government is unlikely to recognise Scottish Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) as it does not believe in a self-identification model.

Feminist groups hinted that they were also prepared to take the Scottish Government to court in a bid to overturn the controversial system, should the UK Government decline to step in.

Sturgeon - Colin Fisher / Alamy Live News

The SNP and Green coalition government at Holyrood has been determined to push the law, one of the most controversial in Holyrood’s history, through parliament this week despite widespread public opposition to the measures.

In a second marathon session in two days, MSPs sat late into the night and delayed a final vote and debate on the legislation until Thursday afternoon.

Even before the final vote, opponents of the law vowed to fight against the self-ID system, which they claim will put the rights and safety of women and girls at risk.

Ash Regan, an SNP politician who stood down as a minister to oppose the plan, told the rally outside Holyrood that being a woman was “not a costume, it’s not a feeling” but a “material reality grounded in biology”.

Speaking later in the Holyrood chamber, she told MSPs they must vote against the law if they believed there was any risk at all that it would put women or girls at greater risk.

She added that the Bill would introduce “a hierarchy of rights where women’s rights are being demoted”.

“If you have any doubt, any doubt at all that it will make women and girls less safe, then you cannot vote for it,” she urged her colleagues.

Joanna Cherry KC, the SNP MP who also spoke at the rally against the proposals, launched a series of thinly-veiled attacks on Ms Sturgeon.

She said that “better lawyers than I am” believed there were “legal issues” with the Bill and pledged: “We will win this fight”.

“Those of us who have worked with the survivors of sexual or violent abuse know that some predatory men will take advantage of this to get access to vulnerable women,” Ms Cherry said.

“The women’s movement has been rejuvenated. Women have made common causes across party lines.

“With that cross-party support, we’re going to fight on against this Bill, we’re going to continue to stand up against the bullies who’ve tried to silence us.

“This ideology may have captured powerful people in our country, but it’s not captured everyone. Public opinion is on our side.”

gender reform bill - Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Meanwhile, Michael Foran, a lecturer in public law at the University of Glasgow, speculated that the UK Government could step in to block the law from coming into force.

He said there was a “distinct possibility” that conditions allowing British ministers to issue what is known as a Section 35 order, a never before used provision which allows them to block Holyrood laws, would be met.

Shona Robison, the SNP minister in charge of the legislation, has repeatedly claimed that the self-ID system will not make any difference to women’s safety.

She has said that it will remain lawful for service providers to exclude trans people from certain areas or activities, even if they held a GRC, as long as certain legal conditions are met.

However, a series of amendments designed to make it explicitly clear that single-sex spaces would be protected were voted down on Wednesday night, after being opposed by Ms Sturgeon’s administration.

MSPs have also rejected proposals to block convicted sex offenders from taking advantage of the new regime to self-declare their own legal sex.

Keir Starmer: Pro-trans laws are needed across UK

Hayley Dixon
Fri, December 23, 202

Sir Keir Starmer - Labour Party/PA Wire

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to change the law to allow trans people to self-declare their gender, The Telegraph can reveal in the wake of anger over similar moves in Scotland.

The Labour leader has said he will “update” the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) if elected, despite warnings that doing so would impact women’s rights and could enable predatory men to access single-sex spaces.

Sir Keir’s commitment could mean legislation in the UK mirrors changes passed by the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, which allow people as young as 16 to change their legal gender by signing a declaration.

Ministers in Westminster have threatened to block the SNP’s changes, a move described as “completely reasonable” by Rishi Sunak on Friday.

Labour MSPs were whipped to vote in favour of the Gender Recognition Bill, but that prompted a split in the party as some refused to support the change.

Now The Telegraph can reveal that Sir Keir has promised the LGBT community he would take similar action in England and Wales if elected.

In a message to Pink News for Pride last year, he said his priority was “forming the next government so we can introduce legislation and change society so that, whoever you are, you can lead a happy and fulfilled life. We are committed to updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people”.

Sir Keir has remained silent on the controversy in Scotland and has so far refused to comment on whether he would back plans to veto the Bill in Westminster.

Asked by The Telegraph about the leader’s comments to Pink News, Labour confirmed that he stood by plans to reform the GRA.

A party spokesman said: “All political parties agree that the process needs modernising. A future Labour government will consult on what that looks like, while upholding the Equality Act and maintaining single-sex spaces.

“Labour has a strong and proud record of standing up for women’s rights. Our commitment to them is unrelenting.”

Trans rights have become a key electoral battleground in the US and are expected to be similarly important in the UK at the next general election.

On Friday, campaigners accused Labour of silencing women’s concerns and said the proposed change would create “huge dangers” for some of society’s most vulnerable.

Under current law, an individual must be over 18, have medical proof that they have gender dysphoria, have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years and have had the change signed off by a panel.

Sir Keir has not given any details of his plans, but the changes in Scotland allow people to apply for a birth certificate with their new gender without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Heather Binning, a founder of the Women’s Rights Network, said: “They are pushing policies like this through with no real debate, and what Keir Starmer is allowing to be pushed through is nothing short of criminal.

“There are huge dangers to women and children from a system of self-identification. It astonishes me that critical thinking has been put on hold. In the end, politicians who support this change will be shamed.

“Every single politician, particularly party leaders like Keir Starmer, should be looking at the anger that this has created in Scotland and should be asking themselves whether it is right to make these changes with such strong opposition.”

The changes in Scotland were criticised by Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who had warned that they could be abused by predatory men and that any law change in the UK would have global consequences.

Ms Alsalem said she was “disappointed” by the vote, adding that Scotland had had “the opportunity to set an example on how to address and resolve the tension between rights and manage risks in an effective manner” but its parliament “decided to bypass that opportunity”.

On Friday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: “Our view was that the existing legal framework provided the correct balance that best protected everyone.”

Kemi Badenoch, the minister for women and equalities, warned that the Scottish changes would impact the functioning of the Equality Act across the country and said the Government was “looking at provisions that can prompt reconsideration and allow MSPs to address these issues”.

Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, said on Thursday that the Government was considering invoking Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act to block the law change.

The measure, which has never been used before, allows for Scottish legislation to be blocked by Westminster if it is considered to have an “adverse effect” on laws over which the UK parliament has ultimate jurisdiction. It would be likely to spark yet another bitter constitutional stand-off between London and Edinburgh.

On Friday, Mr Sunak said: “Lots of people have got concerns about this new Bill in Scotland, about the impact it will have on women’s and children’s safety.

“So I think it is completely reasonable for the UK Government to have a look at it, understand what the consequences are for women’s and children’s safety in the rest of the UK and then decide on what the appropriate course of action is.”

Ms Binning, whose group is running a “Respect My Sex if You Want My X” campaign along with Sex Matters and Women Uniting, said Labour’s refusal to listen to concerns meant many women on the Left now felt “politically homeless”.

Labour has not given any details of how it would protect single-sex spaces at the same time as allowing people to choose their legal gender.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO-CAPITALI$M; FTX

Everything we know about Nishad Singh, the 27-year-old former FTX exec who had an 8% stake in the crypto exchange

Morgan Chittum

Sat, December 24, 2022 

NurPhoto/Getty Images

• Nishad Singh was FTX's Director of Engineering and had a 7.8% stake in the crypto exchange.

• The 27-year-old has been out of the public eye even as other top execs make headlines for their role in FTX's collapse.

• Singh received a $543 million loan from Alameda Research, per bankruptcy filings.

Since FTX's downfall last month, one of the firm's key executives, Nishad Singh, has remained out of the public eye even as other top figures have ended up in the crosshairs of investigations into the exchange.

Singh was FTX's director of engineering, and had a 7.8% stake in the company.

FTX filed for bankruptcy protection last month, and investigations and charges against top executives at the firm are related to the misuse of customer funds by the firm's affiliate trading arm, Alameda Research.

"FTX Group's collapse appears to stem from the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals," John Ray, FTX's new chief executive officer said during bankruptcy proceedings.

While most of the attention in the media has been paid to Bankman-Fried, there were other executive involved in what prosecutors have called "one of the biggest financial frauds in American History," including Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang. Both have pleaded guilty to charges they defrauded investors and are cooperating with prosecutors.

Singh was reportedly one of few people who had knew that FTX was misusing customer funds, along with Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Wang.

Singh's nearly 8% stake, which also included FTX subsidiary FTX.US, was worth about $572 million in March of this year. He previously received a $543 million loan from Alameda as well, according to bankruptcy filings.

"Gary is scared, Nishad is ashamed and guilty," Bankman-Fried told a Vox reporter after the firm filed for bankruptcy. "It hit [Nishad] hard."

Singh was a high school friend of Bankman-Fried's brother, Gabe. The former executive worked for a time as an engineer at Facebook (now Meta) before Bankman-Fried recruited him for Alameda, according to Singh's LinkedIn page, which has been taken down.

"In addition to building out much of our technological infrastructure and managing most of our dev team, his treatment of employees has earned him sole membership in our Slack group 'Kings of Kindness,'" Bankman-Fried previously wrote in a blog post.

Singh was likely one of the five coworkers that Bankman-Fried referenced as a billionaire, Bloomberg reported, citing an interview with the disgraced founder from earlier this year. In 2012, Singh also set the world record for fastest 100-mile run by a 16 year old, according local newspaper The Mercury News.

A year after Singh became FTX's director of engineering, he became a steady donor for the Democratic Party. He gave $8 million to federal campaigns of Democratic candidates in the 2022 election cycle, according to nonprofit OpenSecrets.

"Currently, I'm sort of lucky that I can get fulfilled in many ways at this job - one of which is doing something that's probably pretty good from an effective altruist perspective," Singh previously said in a podcast.

Singh could not be reached for comment.

On Thursday, Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bail and was sent to live in his parents' California home as he awaits trial.

Sam Bankman-Fried's law professor parents have stuck close by their son through the fallout from FTX's collapse. Here's what we know about them.

Grace Dean
Fri, December 23, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried and his mother, Barbara Fried.

Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman are the parents of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried.


Fried and Bankman have stuck close by their son's side through the fallout from FTX's collapse.


Here's what we know about them.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cofounder and former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, is moving back in with his parents.

Reuters

Bankman-Fried, who faces multiple fraud charges tied to the spectacular collapse of FTX, was released on $250 million bail Thursday, shortly after he landed in the US after being extradited from the Bahamas.

As part of his bail terms, Bankman-Fried, who also cofounded crypto trading firm Alameda Research, is required to stay at his parents' home while he awaits trial.

His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, live in a multimillion-dollar home in Stanford, in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to news reports and state records.

Zillow estimates the value of the five-bedroom home at about $4 million, while Redfin's estimate is $3.1 million.

Bankman-Fried's parents have stuck close by their son since he was arrested in the Bahamas.

Tom Williams/Getty Images

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12. The next day, his parents attended his court hearing in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, where he was denied bail. They later visited the prison where their son was being held.

The Wall Street Journal reported the couple as telling friends that they expected their son's legal bills to wipe them out financially.

So what do we know about Joseph Bankman?

Stanford University.RuslanKaln/Getty Images

Bankman is a professor of law at Stanford University. He's described in his biography on Stanford's website as a "leading scholar in the field of tax law."

He's also a clinical psychologist, having earned an degree in the field from Palo Alto University. New York Magazine reported that he's offered lunchtime sessions to first-year Stanford law students on cognitive behavioral therapy and managing anxiety.

A spokesperson for Bankman told The Wall Street Journal that Bankman was a paid FTX employee for 11 months, in which time he worked on charitable projects, and was not involved in running the company.

Bankman helped FTX recruit its first lawyers, joined FTX executives in meetings on Capitol Hill, and advised his son as he prepared to testify before the House Financial Services Committee, The New York Times reported. Bankman regularly flew to the Bahamas, per The Times.

The Times also reported that Bankman organized an FTX event at Miami Heat's FTX Arena in March, where local high school students pitched business ideas to a panel of judges.

A tax-policy class that Bankman was set to teach in the winter quarter was canceled, and The Journal reported that he'd postponed the course to the spring. A reading group he was set to lead has also been canceled, according to Stanford's course catalog.

What about Barbara Fried?

Michael M. Santiago / Staff/ Getty Images

Barbara Fried worked as a professor of law at Stanford until she retired from teaching in September. Her scholarly interests were "at the intersection of law, economics, and philosophy," according to her biography on the university's website.

The New York Times reported that Fried and her husband were popular faculty members at Stanford and regularly hosted dinners for colleagues.

Fried writes short stories and poems. She also penned a biography of the economist and lawyer Robert Hale and worked as a review editor for the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs.

Fried graduated from Harvard University in 1983, per her Stanford biography. Her first job after graduating was as a law clerk to US circuit judge J. Edward Lumbard of the Court of Appeals. She went on to practice as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Fried joined Stanford as an assistant professor in 1987 and went on to win multiple awards for excellence in teaching. She also had stints as a visiting professor at New York University Law School, her biography says.

Fried cofounded Mind the Gap, a Democratic super-PAC, from which she resigned in November 2022, The Times reported.

Bankman-Fried's parents may have helped shape his interest in effective altruism.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Prior to FTX's collapse, Bankman-Fried was a poster boy for effective altruism, a movement in which followers commit to doing the most good for the largest number of people using science, evidence, and reason.

Will MacAskill, an academic at Oxford University and a central force behind effective altruism, is said to have introduced Bankman-Fried to the movement. However, Bankman-Fried's parents appear to have had some hand in shaping his philosophical outlook.

An article published on the website of Sequoia Capital, the venture capital firm, said Bankman and Fried raised their son on utilitarian beliefs, including family discussions about how to do the greatest good for the largest number of people.

Both have an academic interest in corporate ethics, and his mother has written a review of a book by Peter Singer, seen by many as the originator of the effective altruism movement.

Bankman and Fried have been tied to an FTX-linked luxury property in the Bahamas.

Barbara Fried.David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

Bankman and Fried aren't named as defendants in the lawsuits filed by US regulators and federal prosecutors against FTX and their son. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused their son of misappropriating FTX customers funds to purchase Bahamian real estate for various people, including his parents.

Reuters reported in November that Bankman and Fried were listed as signatories for a $16.4 million home in a gated community in the Bahamas, which was described in property records as a vacation home.

A spokesperson for Bankman and Fried told Reuters they'd tried to return the property deeds to FTX before the company entered bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried said last month that he didn't know the details of the property purchase.

Bankman-Fried has praised his parents for the support he's received since FTX collapsed.

Bankman-Fried said at The New York Times DealBook Summit that his parents "bore no responsibility" for FTX's downfall.

"Anyone close to me, including my parents and employees and coworkers, who fought with the company to push forward, they were hurt by this," he said."I feel really grateful for the support my parents are still giving me throughout all of this."

Huileng Tan contributed to this article.

AI may help predict opioid use disorder: University of Alberta research

Artificial intelligence could be used by clinicians and policy makers to predict opioid use disorder, new research from the University of Alberta shows.

Story by Anna Junker •  Edmonton Journal

Opioid use disorder occurs when patients’ regular use of opioids is more than wanted or intended, leading to harms such as addiction, overdose and death.

By analyzing administrative health data — created every time a patient interacts with the heath-care system by visiting a doctor, or filling a prescription, for example — the team of researchers created and tested a machine learning model.

They say it reliably predicts the risk of developing opioid use disorder and could help lead to early detection and intervention.

In 2018, some 12.7 per cent of Canadians reported using opioid pain relief medications in the previous year, and among those, 9.6 per cent engaged in some form of problematic use. Between January 2016 and June 2022, there have been a total of 32,632 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada.

In Alberta, as of August, there had been 976 opioid-related deaths this year.

According to the researchers, about one in four opioid users will develop opioid use disorder, and eight to 12 per cent of those prescribed opioids for chronic pain will develop the disorder.

New health hub with overdose prevention site proposed in Old Strathcona

“Most of those people have interacted with the health system before their diagnosis, and that provides us with data that could allow us to predict and potentially prevent some of the cases,” said principal investigator Bo Cao, Canada Research Chair in Computational Psychiatry and associate professor of psychiatry in a news release.

The machine learning model analyzed health data from nearly 700,000 patients in Alberta who received opioid prescriptions between 2014 and 2018, cross-referencing 62 factors such as the number of doctor and emergency room visits, diagnoses, and sociodemographic information.

Researchers found the top risk factors for opioid use disorder included frequency of opioid use, high dosage, and a history of other substance use disorders.

The model predicted high-risk patients with an accuracy of 86 per cent when it was validated against a new sample of 316,000 patients from 2019.

According to the study, the findings suggest early detection of opioid use disorder is possible with a data-driven approach and may provide timely clinical intervention and policy changes to help curb the current crisis.

“It’s important that the model’s prediction of whether someone will develop opioid use disorder is interpreted as a risk instead of a label,” said first author Yang Liu, a post-doctoral fellow in psychiatry, in the release.

“It is information to put into the hands of clinicians, who are actually making the diagnosis.”

Cao said the next stage of testing for the model will be in a clinical setting, involving clinicians and people with lived experience with the disorder.

ajunker@postmedia.com

THE ORIGINAL THEORY OF THE MINORITY REPORT

Cesare Lombroso - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Cesare_Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian criminologist, phrenologist, physician, and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology.

Opinion: Big win for biodiversity overshadowed by World Cup

Andrew Deutz
Commentary
December 20, 2022

As Argentina grabbed the headlines for winning the FIFA World Cup, global leaders struck a historic deal to halt species extinction, writes Andrew Deutz of The Nature Conservancy.

Global leaders scored a historic win for nature, writes Andrew Deutz from environmental organization The Nature Conservancy

Image: Christina Muschi/REUTERS

Heading to another major United Nations environmental conference so soon after the climate equivalent had ended in Egypt felt rushed, even for someone who's been in the fray since the first climate summit in Berlin in 1995.

This time the stakes were even higher. Could the world deliver a 10-year global framework to halt and reverse alarming, human-induced biodiversity declines and give nature its own historic "Paris moment?"

Ahead of the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal, we at The Nature Conservancy compiled a scorecard of what we felt needed to be reflected in the Global Biodiversity Framework to create that moment.

The goals included a '30x30' pledge to protect 30% of the Earth and prevent mass extinction, plugging a $700 billion (€659 billion) annual gap in global biodiversity funding, reducing or repurposing $500 billion in harmful subsidies for activities like unsustainable farming practices and ensuring recognition of the rights and ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples.

Talks go into extra time, but score major goal for biodiversity

Andrew Deutz of The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy

I'm delighted that after much hard work and hand-wringing by negotiators and civil society advocates, we reached a deal at 4 a.m. on Monday. The goals set before Montreal for a successful framework were nearly uniformly met. In an unusual dynamic, they improved over the last day of negotiations instead of being watered down.

As a conservation finance aficionado, who has devoted a lot of writing to funding problems, it was especially gratifying to see momentum build behind new biodiversity financing initiatives in countries as diverse as Canada, Mongolia and Gabon, together with the buzz we saw around debt-for-nature swaps at the climate conference in November.

But perhaps the most transformative of the measures agreed in Montreal will be a commitment by countries to ensure large companies and financial institutions measure and report on their nature-related "risks, dependencies and impacts." Businesses will have to reduce the harm they do to wildlife over time.

That's a powerful signal to the markets of the urgent need to recalibrate business models and investment strategies to fit a global economy evolving toward a nature-positive and carbon neutral future.
Messi takes the praise the biodiversity World Cup should have received

Perhaps if the Montreal deal hadn't followed so closely after the most exciting final in FIFA World Cup history, we'd be seeing levels of celebration closer to what followed in the wake of the Paris climate accord.

But now the real work starts. None of this progress will count for anything unless what was agreed makes it into national policy. The framework needs to become, like climate, a priority across government rather than something that ends up siloed in environment ministries.

VIDEO Historic biodiversity deal reached at UN summit
01:59

The now defunct 2010 Aichi biodiversity targets had ambition but lacked a realistic finance plan and an accountability mechanism. This time we have all three. But we only have until the end of this decade to halt and reverse the dramatic loss of biodiversity — Earth's life support system. The race to save nature is every bit as urgent as the climate crisis, and the two crises are inextricably linked.

Speaking on behalf of all those who were in the room in the early hours of Monday — I think we can allow ourselves the hope that the new Global Biodiversity Framework proves a historic turning point in humanity's relationship with the natural world.

Andrew Deutz led the delegation for The Nature Conservancy at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. TNC is a global environmental organization based in the United States.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

Analysis-U.N. nature deal can help wildlife as long as countries deliver




 A Saiga female cares for her two calves in an undated photograph in Kazakhstan

Thu, December 22, 2022 
By Gloria Dickie

MONTREAL (Reuters) - A new conservation deal adopted this week at the U.N. summit in Montreal puts the world on a strong track to halt the rapid decline in nature - but only if wealthy nations deliver enough funding and all countries prioritize conservation.

Goals set out in the agreement, known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, include halting species extinctions, conserving 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030, and mobilizing $200 billion per year for conservation.

Conservationists praised the deal's ambition, saying it amounted to a Paris Agreement for nature in setting out 23 specific targets against which countries can measure their progress.

"This is equivalent to the 1.5 degrees Celsius global goal for climate," said Marco Lambertini, director-general of World Wildlife Fund International.

Just setting the targets took four years of negotiations, culminating in this month's "COP15" summit in Montreal, during which countries weighed nature considerations against other pressures like economic development and industry competition.

At stake is nothing short of the survival of hundreds of thousands of species, with the U.N. saying there are now about 1 million threatened with extinction.

But delivering on the 23 targets will be much harder, conservation experts told Reuters, requiring strong political will and a willingness to sacrifice some of the world's most prime real estate to nature.

"What really matters is how these goals and targets are translated into national plans," said Nick Isaac, a macroecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

For developing countries, it will also depend on getting much-needed funding to incentivize conservation and pay for its costs.

"The key will be on developed countries delivering early on finance commitments," a negotiator from a Latin American country said.

POSSIBLE ROADBLOCKS

While the deal includes the ambitious target of protecting 30% of land and seas by 2030, the results will depend on which areas are chosen for conservation - and what exactly counts as protection.

Neither is strictly defined in the agreement, leaving it up to countries to decide how ambitious they will be.

Scientists and conservation groups have urged countries to protect species-rich land and sea areas. The trouble is, these are the same areas that most people prefer to live and work - with temperate weather and plenty of water and greenery available.

"The choice of which regions to protect … must be based on the best available data and methodology," said Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. "Otherwise, there is a big risk that the cheapest areas are protected rather than those that matter most for biodiversity."

What countries consider as protected also matters, experts say.

During the talks, delegates discussed whether protected areas should be entirely off-limits to human settlement and development, or if some resource extraction should be allowed if managed sustainably. The deal left the question unsettled.

Some countries have already started carving out areas to protect.

China has made nearly a third of its land off-limits to development. Canada, one of the world's largest nations, is expanding protected land and marine areas in the Arctic.

Later this month, the U.S. Congress is expected to pass legislation to deliver $1.4 billion in annual funding to U.S. states for conservation.

SHOW US THE MONEY

Throughout the two-week COP15 summit, ministers repeatedly insisted that any conservation ambition must be matched by cash.

Funding from developed countries ultimately came in significantly below the $100 billion per year that was asked for. Instead, the deal included a promise to allocate $200 billion per year by 2030 from the public and private sectors - including $30 billion from wealthy nations.

Without that money, poorer nations warned they would be unable to guarantee protection for nature within their borders.

"Safeguarding the Amazon, the Congo Basin Forests, peatlands, mangroves and reefs globally will require some major increases in funding," said Brian O'Donnell, executive director of non-profit Campaign for Nature.

"Political leaders are just beginning to recognize how big a priority biodiversity should be on their agendas, and in their budgets," he said.

At COP15, the three biggest rainforest nations - Brazil, Congo and Indonesia - worked together in the final hours to reach consensus on the deal. The three just last month had announced a new partnership to cooperate on forest preservation.

"Such an alliance holds great potential," said Anders Haug Larsen of Rainforest Foundation Norway. "With the agreement giving priority to the most biodiversity-rich areas, implicitly rainforest protection will be at the core of its implementation."

(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Additional reporting by Allison Lampert and Isla Binnie; Editing by Katy Daigle and Deepa Babington)

Opinion: Historic verdict in one of the last Nazi trials

Luisa von Richthofen
Commentary
December 20, 2022

Irmgard F. has been sentenced for her job as a secretary in the Stutthof concentration camp. Luisa von Richthofen, who followed the trial for DW, sees justice despite the lenient sentence.

Irmgard F., now 97, was underage when she worked in the Stutthof concentration camp

Christian Charisius/dpa/picture alliance

It was not quite business as usual in the otherwise quite average northern German town of Itzehoe. On Tuesday at shortly after 10 a.m., the verdict was passed in one of the last Nazi trials. Irmgard F., aged 97, was given a two-year suspended sentence. She was charged with accessory to murder in thousands of cases.

When she was young and underage, Ms. F. was a typist at the Stutthof concentration camp near the city of Gdansk, which was then part of Nazi Germany. As a secretary to the camp commander, she aided and abetted Nazi Germany's killing machinery. Now, she has to answer for that. For me, it's a historic verdict.

One of the last trials of its kind

First of all, it is because with Ms. F., one of the last links of a long chain of perpetrators and accomplices of the mass murder of European Jews was on trial. It is also the first such trial of a civilian employee of a concentration camp — that is, a non-SS member. The German judiciary is finally showing clearly that anyone and everyone who participated in the running of the concentration camp system during the Nazi era must answer for it one day.

'

Justice has been served,' says DW's Luisa von RichthofenImage: privat

Secondly, more has become known about Stutthof as a result of the verdict. Such proceedings always entail extensive investigations. In the 14 months since the trial began, the files have grown significantly.

Fourteen witnesses testified, eight of them were Stutthof survivors. Some told their stories to the public for the first time. None of this is legal paper-pushing. They are important historical testimonies and findings.

What it means for the survivors

Thirdly, this trial might have a healing effect in particular for the victims and their families. Here, before a German court, their suffering and their terrible experiences in the camp are recognized, something some of them have had to wait for all their lives. They told me about the distress and the self-doubt that haunted them for years, until they were no longer sure whether the horrors of the camps were not a bad dream. That has now come to an end. Fortunately.

Finally, there is perhaps hope that this message is a global wake-up call and a warning. And that the perpetrators of Bucha (Ukraine), Mai Kadra (Ethiopia) and Aleppo (Syria) can no longer move around the world with such impunity.

Many questions remain unanswered

Talking to people, I repeatedly sensed doubts that I, too, have had up to a certain point. Questions arise: Why only now, after 78 years? Why did this late inquiry into Irmgard F. take four years? What makes a fringe figure like her, an old woman, a symbol of the murderous system? Why drag an old woman into the glare of the international public while an actual perpetrator, like her boss, camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe, got out of prison after three years? Like many other Nazi criminals, he then lived an untroubled life in postwar Germany.

These questions can and must be asked. All in all, I feel justice has been served with this albeit fairly lenient verdict. And that in itself, despite all doubts, is a ray of hope in these dark days.

Will a Nazi poet's Christmas carol remain in book of hymns?

A Christmas carol by a Nazi poet loyal to the regime is still in the Protestant hymnal. Now, there is a discussion about removing the song by Hermann Claudius in the next edition.



Philipp Jedicke
December 22, 2022

Christianity and its customs were a thorn in the side of the National Socialists. After all, it was not Jesus Christ who was to be celebrated as the savior, but the "Führer" Adolf Hitler. Germans were supposed to place their faith and hope in him alone during the Christmas season. The Nazi regime made every effort to replace the Christian Christmas ideal with a nationally oriented, National Socialist Christmas cult.

In that crusade, Christmas carols also became the focus of the Nazis. All connections between the Christian faith and Judaism were to be obliterated. During the Nazi era, even the lyrics of popular Christmas carols were rewritten. Jewish names such as Jesse or Isaiah disappeared from "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" ("A Rose Has Burst Into Bloom," also known as "Behold a Rose of Judah") — standard repertoire on Christmas Eve — and entire lines were completely replaced. Songs like "Tochter Zion, freue dich" ("Daughter of Zion, Rejoice!") and "Zu Bethlehem geboren" ("In Bethlehem is Born") were banned altogether.

New Christmas carols during the Nazi era

Entirely new Christmas carols were also composed during the Nazi era, including the strongly propagated song "Hohe Nacht der klaren Sterne" ("Behold the Bright Stars on the Holy Night"). This continued to be sung in the post-war period by performers such as the German Schlager singer Heino.

The originally Christian content of the Swiss carol "Es ist für uns eine Zeit angekommen" ("Unto Us a Night Has Come") has since been almost entirely forgotten — in contrast to the Nazi-era re-phrasing, which describes a winter hike.

Among the newly written Christmas carols during the Nazi era was the piece "Wisst ihr noch, wie es geschehen" ("Do You Remember How It Happened") by poet Hermann Claudius (1878-1980), who was loyal to the regime.

He wrote the song in 1939. It is still in the Protestant hymnal today and, because of its simple but beautiful melody, is still sung with pleasure at Christmas time in numerous congregations. In contrast to many other Christmas carols from the Nazi era, which were full of pomposity and pathos, the lyrics of the song are rather nondescript.

Problematic author, unproblematic text

In fact, musicologist Udo Wennemuth noted in the book "Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch," a handbook addressing the Protestant hymnal, that the lyrics to "Wisst ihr noch, wie es geschehen" were written at the suggestion of a Christian publisher who did not want to support the "liturgical erosion" of Christmas.

In his career, however, Hermann Claudius also wrote lines such as "Herrgott, steh dem Führer bei, dass sein Werk das Deine sei" or "Lord God, help the Führer that his work may be Yours."

What is Germany's favorite Christmas song? The answer to that depends on whom you ask. According to the music-streaming service Spotify, the queen of the Yuletide season is demurely attired American songstress Mariah Carey. Her 1994 hit "All I Want For Christmas is You" tops the list of most-played 

Even after the end of the Nazi dictatorship, the song "Wisst ihr noch, wie es geschehen" was not called into question, said Christa Kirschbaum, music director of the Hesse-Nassau regional church. That is why she finds it inappropriate to continue singing the piece in church services.

Ansgar Franz, professor at the department of practical theology at the University of Mainz, sees things differently, saying that it is not the song that is historically charged "but the author."

Here, he says, a distinction should be made: "The song does not represent the Nazi view of Christmas." Franz says there are no incriminated songs in the Christian hymnals, "but possibly authors who lacked the necessary distance to the regime during the period of National Socialism."
Re-examining the hymnal

During an interview with DW, Franz said, "In the Christian hymnals, there is not a single 'incriminated' song," meaning a song that spreads racist, xenophobic content, even if it is indirect or not immediately apparent. Franz also says he is unsure about examining every author's history before approving a hymn.

"But now to investigate every song considered 'good' to see if the author was politically and theologically correct? Does that make sense? How far should this go?" he asks. "I am very much in favor of thoroughly examining the songs, but how far should an examination of the authors go?"

Experts from Germany and Austria are currently working on a revision of the Protestant hymnal, which was introduced in the 1990s. Christa Kirschbaum is also a member of the commission that is deciding on its content. It is still unclear whether the Christmas carol from 1939 will be published there again, says Kirschbaum.

SOCCER CHINA

China's football focus switches to women

John Duerden

With the 2023 World Cup approaching, China recently unveiled a long-term plan for women's football. A similar plan for the men has yet to bear fruit, but the women's game might have a better opportunity to succeed.

When China started investing heavily in football in the early 2010s, there was an expectation that the men's team would be at the 2022 World Cup. That plan failed dismally, and the domestic game also has major issues with many professional clubs struggling financially.

It is not surprising then that the country's women are increasingly becoming the focus of football fans, and now they aren't alone. On October 24, the Chinese Football Association (CFA), the ministries of education and finance as well as the General Administration of Sport of China released details of a plan designed to take the women's game to the very top level.

The timing of the announcement is also noteworthy, coming just two days after the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party during which Xi Jinping, who is known to be a fan of the beautiful game, secured an unprecedented third term as president.

"The plan, as issued by the central government rather than the sports-governing body only, is important in itself as is the timing," Beijing-based sports consultant Bi Yuan, told DW.

The plan outlines seven areas of focus that include better youth training, more qualified coaches and an improved national team. Ultimately, the goal is to win the right to host the 2031 World Cup and to raise the trophy as world champions four years later.

 

China's plan to make the men's program world class didn't go as well as had been hoped

Image: Li Jianan/Xinhua/picture alliance

Financial woes hamper Super League

It is reminiscent of a plan put forward for the men in 2016, which had the goal of being one of the best in Asia by 2030 and a global power by 2050. This was made at the height of spending in China. In the winter transfer window of 2017, Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs spent €392 million ($411 million) on players, more than any other league in the world.

Since then, however, a number of the companies owning clubs have run into major financial problems. The spending has stopped and the big stars have gone home, with clubs such as Jiangsu FC, owned by retail giant Suning, going out of business in 2021 when they were reigning CSL champions. At the same time, the national team does not seem to have improved, despite investments that were also made at the grassroots level.

Tom Byer, a renowned Japan-based American youth development coach was involved with that plan and worked as an advisor with the Ministry of Education in China and the State General Administration of Sports in rolling the program out to thousands of schools across the country. He told DW that Beiing's recent pivot to the women's game is a "no-brainer" given the way the men have been "underperforming."

While the men were struggling in qualifying for the men's 2022 World Cup, the women won the Asian Cup in dramatic fashion in February, coming back from 2-0 down to defeat South Korea 3-2 in the final.

While the men once again, missed out on the biggest tournament of all, the women are preparing for the 2023 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Tough climb towards 1990s success

That journey to the top is shorter for the women, who reached the 1999 World Cup final, than the men.

"There are many countries between China and the top of the men's world game but that is not the case when it comes to the women," Ivanhoe Li, CEO of Fangze Sports, a Beijing-based sports marketing company, told DW.

"The CFA is putting more effort into the women's team as there is a better chance to reap rewards. This has been understood since the women's team won titles in the 1990s. In China, women usually win way more medals in sport than men."

This century however, the women have fallen down the global pecking order and getting back to the top will not be quick or simple.

"The women's game has become much more competitive and the Europeans are starting to dominate," said Byer, adding that this development was always likely to be a game-changer.

"They have taken a giant leap forward because they are football cultures and European women are marinated in a football culture surrounded by men constantly talking about football systems, tactics, formations."

Off the pitch too, it remains to be seen whether the authorities in Beijing will manage to stay the course in supporting the women, something that appears to enjoy much public support. In 2021, a post on social media site Weibo calling for women to receive the same financial backing as the men received 110 million times views.

 

Having led China to the Asian Cup, Shui Qingxia's women are in a tough World Cup group

Javed Dar/Xinhua/IMAGO

"Their (the authorities') influence is limited given Chinese football's current situation," said sports consultant Bi. The economic slowdown in the country also won't help.

"There is still no off ramp from the "zero-COVID" policy, which has led to the relocation of the 2023 Asian Cup and the postponement of the 2022 Asian Games that were supposed to be held in Hangzhou," he noted. And all this was before the mass protests against the lockdown rules, which broke out in China in November.

 
Concrete goal for the 2023 World Cup

However, a good showing at the 2023 World Cup could go some way towards kickstarting China's new plan to make strides in the women's game. It will also be the first marker along the path to the 2035 World Cup China is aiming to win. The stated aim is for the women to make it to the last eight of the 32-team tournament down under.

China's group includes European champions England, as well as Denmark and the winner of a playoff series between Senegal, Chile and Haiti.

"The group is not easy," said head coach Shui Qingxia.

"The playoff winners will be tough and Denmark is strong, while England is the European champion. We will try our best and will do everything we can to prepare well and make the country proud. We know we have a lot of work to do and that starts now."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

Pinocchio's director del Toro fears for Mexican cinema despite Hollywood success

The Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences announced that next year's Ariel Awards – the country's equivalent of the Oscars – have been postponed until further notice due to a "serious financial crisis".


(Screen grab: Netflix/Pinocchio)

24 Dec 2022 

Despite his international success, including a new adaptation of the classic puppet tale Pinocchio, Oscar-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro fears that his country's cinema industry is facing "systematic destruction".

Del Toro's animated version of Pinocchio, in which an elderly woodcarver and his living puppet find themselves in 1930s fascist Italy, was the most watched film on streaming platform Netflix in the week of Dec 12 to 18.

Its debut on Dec 9 came a week before the release of Bardo, an autobiographical tale of a journalist-filmmaker returning home after years in Los Angeles, by fellow Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

Mexican actors have also enjoyed recent success in Hollywood, including Tenoch Huerta, the rising star of the sequel to Black Panther, the first major Black superhero movie.

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro holds a wooden puppet as he arrives for the premiere of Pinocchio during the 2022 American Film Institute Festival in Hollywood. (Photo: AFP/Aude Guerrucci/File)

Del Toro, Inarritu and Alfonso Cuaron represent a golden generation of Mexican filmmakers who have won the best director trophy at the Oscars five times since 2013.

Del Toro's fantasy romance The Shape Of Water earned Best Picture and Best Director at the 2018 Oscars.

The following year Cuaron scooped three golden statuettes for Roma – an intimate black-and-white movie about a family in turmoil in 1970s Mexico City.

"BRUTAL" DESTRUCTION

But in stark contrast to the international acclaim for the trio, dubbed The Three Amigos, del Toro has now warned that the country's film industry is facing "unprecedented" challenges.

"The systematic destruction of Mexican cinema and its institutions – which took decades to build – has been brutal," he tweeted recently.

A man is seen next to photographs of actors from the golden age of Mexican cinema at the Churubusco studios in Mexico City. (Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)


Del Toro highlighted an announcement by the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences that next year's Ariel Awards – the country's equivalent of the Oscars – were postponed until further notice due to a "serious financial crisis".

The organisation said it regretted that "the support of public resources has decreased considerably in recent years.

"The state, which was the motor and support of the academy for a long time, has renounced its responsibility as the main promoter and disseminator of culture in general and of cinema in particular," it added.

Del Toro even offered to pay for the Ariel statuettes out of his own pocket.

"He's a generous colleague, an artist who is always aware of what is happening not only with Mexican cinematography but with the arts in general in the country," said Academy president Leticia Huijara.

She would, however, prefer an agreement with the state.

In the meantime, the Ariels have been postponed, Huijara confirmed to AFP.

PROMOTING INDIGENOUS FILM

Maria Novaro, the general manager of the Mexican Film Institute (Imcine), a government agency, thinks the warnings are exaggerated.

"Del Toro says that there is no more Mexican cinema in the year when there have never been so many productions," she said, hailing a "record" 256 films in 2021.

"And 56 per cent received support from public money. Imcine devotes 900 million pesos (S$63 million) a year to financing Mexican cinema," said Novaro.

"It's good that Netflix produces a lot of content in Mexico. But it does not replace what Imcine does," she added.

The president of the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, Leticia Huijara, says that the country's equivalent of the Oscars has been postponed. 

(Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)

Mexican cinema enjoyed a golden age between the 1930s and 1950s, featuring movie stars such as Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendariz.

But the industry went through a quiet period before enjoying a revival, helped in recent years by the success of The Three Amigos.

Mexican cinema has now become decentralised and diversified, according to Novaro, mirroring President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's priorities to help impoverished and Indigenous Mexicans.

Since 2019, there has been a programme to encourage Indigenous and Afro-descendant cinema, with 56 such films in production, Novaro said.

"Films are starting to come out that tell about migration from the perspective of Indigenous migrants themselves," she added.

Source: AFP/bk