The investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the US elections and the supposed use of social media by Moscow to sway public opinion is just a “witch hunt,” former US Congressman Ron Paul told RT.

The people who promote this witch hunt do not care about what [the former US presidential candidate] Hillary [Clinton] was doing and they are very biased against the Trump campaign,” Paul said, adding that he believes that the “real problem” lies precisely in this bias.

He also said that the Washington lawmakers involved in Russia-bashing close their eyes to repeated meddling by the US in the internal affairs and electoral processes in many other countries.

“I would like our government to talk about our involvement in campaigns, most recently in Ukraine, [where] we participated in a coup,” the former senator said.

“So far, they have not shown me the ad that was pro-Trump and was paid for by the Russian government,” the politician said, referring to the fact that, after 10 months of investigating, the US authorities still failed to find any solid evidence of collusion with Moscow by Donald Trump or his campaign team.

The anti-Russian hysteria was stirred up in the US to draw people’s attention away from real problems, Paul said, adding that he is more concerned about a crisis in US relations with Russia as well as US actions in Syria.

He also denounced the anti-Russian campaign as “fearmongering.”

The politician said the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” that Russia allegedly spent on social media ads to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election are just “a small amount of money in comparison to the billions that are usually spent on the campaigns.” He added that control over the media eventually plays a more important role than money.

Trump infuriated US media outlets because he switched to Twitter, breaking their information monopoly in the process as well as the ability to portray anyone, who does not play into the hands of the establishment, as someone who has to be stopped, Paul said.

Turning to the accusations leveled against RT by some US officials, Paul said “CNN [also] has access to other countries and they do things similar to [what RT does], and they are involved in other countries [public life].”

“That is what happens when the empires feel that they are challenged,” the politician pointed out, adding that the authorities in the US are “very determined to control the information.”

Paul (R-Texas) served in the US House of Representatives for over 20 years, and ran three times for the GOP’s presidential nomination, most recently in 2012.

By Menekse Tokyay

Turkey opened its largest overseas military training camp on Saturday on a 400-hectare seafront site in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

The $50 million camp, which has been under construction since March 2015, was inaugurated by Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and Gen. Hulusi Akar, Turkey’s military chief of staff. About 200 Turkish soldiers will train 10,000 troops from the Somali Army, in squads of 1,500 at a time.

“Somalia needs the help of professional trainers such as Turkey’s, and there is a close relationship between the two countries, so this could be hugely beneficial to Somalia and a morale booster for the Somali people,” Abdirashid Hashi, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies in Mogadishu, told Arab News. “It also strengthens the Turkish government’s presence and influence in Somalia.”

Ibrahim Nassir, an Africa expert at ANKASAM, a think tank in Ankara, said the camp was a concrete reflection of Turkey’s historical responsibilities in the region since Ottoman times. “The insecurity of Somalia has a spill-over effect on the general instability in the region. Therefore, with the restructuring of the Somali National Army, Turkey will contribute to the regional security,” he said.

“I don’t see any security risk for Turkish military officers who will be stationed there. Security conditions have improved in the capital, and Turkey also has a good image there. It has constantly been offering help in capacity building, and does not have a colonialist footstep in the country.”

Turkey also has experience in providing military training to officers of some African Union countries, including Somalia, in their fight against the terrorist group Al-Shabab.

Nassir also underlined the long experience of the Turkish military in counter-terrorism efforts against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Daesh.

Pinar Akpinar, a scholar at the Conflict Resolution and Mediation Stream of the Istanbul Policy Center, said establishing a military camp in Somalia was a way for Turkey to secure a long-term role thereby balancing soft and hard power capabilities, and was part of a broader policy of establishing a military stronghold in the Gulf of Aden.

“This is a trend among regional powers due to the diminishing US interest in the region and their aspirations to increase their leverage in the region by undertaking security provider roles,” she told Arab News.

However, the training camp was not without its risks, she said. “Somalia is a post-conflict country that still faces problems with Al-Shabab, and regional authorities such as Somaliland that are seeking their independence from Somalia, or with neighbors such as Ethiopia or Eritrea. They could see a militarily stronger Somali government as a threat.”

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has created the most functional flexible transistor in the world — and with it, a fast, simple and inexpensive fabrication process that’s easily scalable to the commercial level.

It’s an advance that could open the door to an increasingly interconnected world, enabling manufacturers to add “smart,” wireless capabilities to any number of large or small products or objects — like wearable sensors and computers for people and animals — that curve, bend, stretch and move.

Transistors are ubiquitous building blocks of modern electronics. The UW-Madison group’s advance is a twist on a two-decade-old industry standard: a BiCMOS (bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor) thin-film transistor, which combines two very different technologies — and speed, high current and low power dissipation in the form of heat and wasted energy — all on one surface.

As a result, these “mixed-signal” devices (with both analog and digital capabilities) deliver both brains and brawn and are the chip of choice for many of today’s portable electronic devices, including cellphones.

“The industry standard is very good,” said Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma, the Lynn H. Matthias Professor and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in electrical and computer engineering at UW-Madison. “Now we can do the same things with our transistor — but it can bend.”

Ma is a world leader in high-frequency flexible electronics. He and his collaborators described their advance in the inaugural issue of the journal Flexible Electronics, published Sept. 27.

Making traditional BiCMOS flexible electronics is difficult, in part because the process takes several months and requires a multitude of delicate, high-temperature steps. Even a minor variation in temperature at any point could ruin all of the previous steps.

Ma and his collaborators fabricated their flexible electronics on a single-crystal silicon nanomembrane on a single bendable piece of plastic. The secret to their success is their unique process, which eliminates many steps and slashes both the time and cost of fabricating the transistors.

“In industry, they need to finish these in three months,” he said. “We finished it in a week.”

He says his group’s much simpler high-temperature process can scale to industry-level production right away.

“The key is that parameters are important,” he said. “One high-temperature step fixes everything — like glue. Now, we have more powerful mixed-signal tools. Basically, the idea is for flexible electronics to expand with this. The platform is getting bigger.”

Currently, winter has still a firm grip on Antarctica. At this time of the year, the Weddell Sea usually is covered with a thick layer of sea ice. In spite of the icy temperatures in the region, satellite images depict a large ice-free area in the middle of the ice cover. The area of the hole in the ice is larger than The Netherlands and it fascinates climate and polar researchers worldwide. Scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are closely monitoring the developments.

“For us this ice-free area is an important new data point which we can use to validate our climate models. Its occurrence after several decades also confirms our previous calculations,” said Dr. Torge Martin, meteorologist and climate modeler in the GEOMAR Research Division “Oceans Circulation and Climate Dynamics”.

Polar researchers refer to a large ice-free area in otherwise frozen seas with the Russian word “polynya”. In the Arctic and Antarctic, polynyas occur regularly, but typically in coastal regions. They play an important role in the formation of new sea ice and deep water. In the open ocean, however, polynyas are rare. The so-called Weddell Polynya only once has been observed during the satellite era, namely in the mid-1970s.

“At that time the scientific community had just launched the first satellites that provided images of the sea-ice cover from space. On-site measurements in the Southern Ocean still require enormous efforts, so they are quite limited,” said Dr. Martin.

Nevertheless, the Weddell Polynya is reasonably well understood.

“The Southern Ocean is strongly stratified. A very cold but relatively fresh water layer covers a much warmer and saltier water mass, thus acting as an insulating layer,” explained Prof. Dr. Mojib Latif, head of the Research Division at GEOMAR. Under certain conditions, the warm water of the lower layer can reach the surface and melt the ice. “This is like opening a pressure relief valve – the ocean then releases a surplus of heat to the atmosphere for several consecutive winters until the heat reservoir is exhausted,” added Professor Latif.

Yet two major questions remain: how often does the polynya occur and does climate change influence this process?

“If there are hardly any observations, computer models help to simulate the interactions between the ocean, the atmosphere and the sea ice,” explained Dr. Annika Reintges, first author of the most recent study by the Kiel group about this topic. The models apply fundamental physical laws to simulate climate. Real data such as the bathymetry and actual climate observations used as a starting point provide a framework in which the models run.

However, data uncertainties lead to a range of results.

“Therefore, we are always trying to compare the simulations with real phenomena to improve the models. Unfortunately, many data series are too short to evaluate the simulated climate variability with periods of several decades. We therefore also compare the models with each other,” said Dr. Reintges.

US-American scientists have calculated that the Weddell Polynya would probably not occur again because of climate change. Higher precipitation levels in the region and melting ice would decouple the surface from the deeper water layers. However, in several studies applying the “Kiel Climate Model” and other computer models, the research group in Kiel described the polynya as part of long-term natural variability, which would occur again sooner or later.

“The fact that now a large, ice-free area can be observed in the Weddell Sea confirms our theory and gives us another data point for further model studies,” said Dr. Martin.

In general, the climate scientists at GEOMAR, like many colleagues around the world, are keen to differentiate natural climate variability from manmade changes.

“Global warming is not a linear process and happens on top of internal variability inherent to the climate system. The better we understand these natural processes, the better we can identify the anthropogenic impact on the climate system,” said Professor Latif.

5,000 years ago, the Yamnaya culture migrated into Europe from the Caspian steppe. In addition to innovations such as the wagon and dairy production, they brought a new language – Indo-European – that replaced most local languages the following millennia. But local cultures also influenced the new language, particularly in southern Scandinavia, where Neolithic farmers made lasting contributions to Indo-European vocabulary before their own language went extinct, new research shows.

Most historical linguists agree that words such as ‘wheel’, ‘wagon’, ‘horse’, ‘sheep’, ‘cow’, ‘milk’ and ‘wool’ can be attributed to the Yamnaya people who migrated into Europe from the Caspian steppe 5,000 years ago. The nomadic and pastoral Yamnayans introduced their material culture to the local peoples through a new language known as Proto-Indo-European, from which most European languages descend.

However, not all words in the European languages are of Proto-Indo-European origin, linguists say; there are words for flora and fauna, which must have been incorporated into Indo-European from local cultures. But where could such cultural exchange have taken place? According to a new study published in American Journal of Archaeology by archaeologist Rune Iversen and linguist Guus Kroonen from the University of Copenhagen, southern Scandinavia 2,800 BC provides an ideal setting for such an exchange:

“The archaeological evidence tells us that between 2,800 and 2,600 BC two very different cultures co-existed in southern Scandinavia: there was the local, Neolithic culture known as the Funnel Beaker Culture with its characteristic funnel-shaped ceramics and collective burial practices and the new Single Grave Culture influenced by the Yamnaya culture. The Funnel Beaker Culture was eventually superseded by the Single Grave Culture, but the transition took hundreds of years in the eastern part of southern Scandinavia, and the two cultures must have influenced each other during this time, “said archaeologist Rune Iversen, who has specialised in this particular transitional period.

Peas, beans, turnips and shrimps

Historical linguist Guus Kroonen points to a number of words for local flora and fauna and important plant domesticates that the incoming speakers of Indo-European could not have brought with them to southern Scandinavia.

“There is a cluster of words in European languages such as Danish, English, and German – the Germanic languages – which stand out because they do not conform to the established sound changes of Indo-European vocabulary. It is words like sturgeon, shrimp, pea, bean and turnip that cannot be reconstructed to the Proto-Indo-European ancestor,” Guus Kroonen explained, adding, that “This tells us that these words must have entered Indo-European after it had spread from the Caspian steppe to the various parts of Europe. In other words: the new Single Grave Culture is likely to have adopted much farming and hunting terminology from the local Funnel Beaker Culture that inhabited southern Scandinavia and Denmark till around 2,600 BC. When Indo-European in Northern Europe developed into Proto-Germanic, the terminology for local flora and fauna was preserved, which is why we know and can study the terms today.”

Guus Kroonen said that this farming terminology may be vestiges of a now extinct language spoken by the people who initially brought farming to Europe from Anatolia 9,000-6,000 years ago.

Neuropsychologists of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum let video gamers compete against non-gamers in a learning competition. During the test, the video gamers performed significantly better and showed an increased brain activity in the brain areas that are relevant for learning. Prof Dr Boris Suchan, Sabrina Schenk and Robert Lech report their findings in the journal Behavioural Brain Research.

The weather prediction task

The research team studied 17 volunteers who – according to their own statement – played action-based games on the computer or a console for more than 15 hours a week. The control group consisted of 17 volunteers who didn’t play video games on a regular basis. Both teams did the so-called weather prediction task, a well-established test to investigate the learning of probabilities. The researchers simultaneously recorded the brain activity of the participants via magnetic resonance imaging.

The participants were shown a combination of three cue cards with different symbols. They should estimate whether the card combination predicted sun or rain and got a feedback if their choice was right or wrong right away. The volunteers gradually learned, on the basis of the feedback, which card combination stands for which weather prediction. The combinations were thereby linked to higher or lower probabilities for sun and rain. After completing the task, the study participants filled out a questionnaire to sample their acquired knowledge about the cue card combinations.

Video gamers better with high uncertainties

The gamers were notably better in combining the cue cards with the weather predictions than the control group. They fared even better with cue card combinations that had a high uncertainty such as a combination that predicted 60 percent rain and 40 percent sunshine.

The analysis of the questionnaire revealed that the gamers had acquired more knowledge about the meaning of the card combinations than the control group.

“Our study shows that gamers are better in analyzing a situation quickly, to generate new knowledge and to categorise facts – especially in situations with high uncertainties,” said first author Sabrina Schenk.

This kind of learning is linked to an increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that plays a key role in learning and memory.

“We think that playing video games trains certain brain regions like the hippocampus,” said Schenk. “That is not only important for young people, but also for older people; this is because changes in the hippocampus can lead to a decrease in memory performance. Maybe we can treat that with video games in the future.”

Federal disaster relief policy denies repair and reconstruction assistance to houses of worship – and that needs to change, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders have said.

“Firefighters don’t refuse to put out a fire because the fire is at a synagogue. The police don’t refuse to investigate a break-in because burglars targeted a church. And FEMA should not refuse houses of worship the same aid that it offers other non-profits,” Catholic and Jewish leaders wrote in USA Today.

“If a house of worship meets all the criteria for aid, it should be eligible to receive that aid on par with everyone else. Regardless of how FEMA treats us, however, we will still be present in our communities,” they continued. “We will feed the hungry, care for the orphan and elder, shelter the homeless, and welcome the immigrant.”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami joined Rabbi Barry Gelman of United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston and Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton Synagogue in writing the Sept. 27 opinion piece objecting to the policy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They advocated the passage of the Federal Disaster Assistance Nonprofit Fairness Act of 2017. Similar legislation passed the House of Representatives in 2013 by a vote of 354-72. The Senate failed to support it, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a backgrounder on the legislation.

Under FEMA policy and the Stafford Act, nonprofits that are open to the public such as museums, libraries, community centers, and homeless shelters are eligible for federal aid for structural repairs if they are damaged in disasters. However, churches, synagogues, and mosques are not.

Proposed legislation to change this policy has the backing of Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, and Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts, who chairs the bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

After a natural disaster, houses of worship are denied federal disaster relief funds despite their often “irreplaceable role in the recovery of a community,” the two bishops said in Sept. 27 letters to the House and Senate.

“Discrimination that treats houses of worship as ineligible for federal assistance in the wake of a natural disaster, beyond being a legal violation, hurts the very communities most affected by the indiscriminate force of nature,” they said.

The proposed legislation “recognizes the right of religious institutions to receive public financial aid in the context of a broad program administered on the basis of religion-neutral criteria.”

In USA Today, the Catholic and Jewish leaders pointed to the newly famous chainsaw-wielding nun, Sister Margaret Ann, who helped cleared debris in Florida after Hurricane Irma. They also noted the work that staff and congregants of the United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston did in rescuing people from their homes and bringing them to safe shelter.

“Sister Margaret and the congregants of UOS are emblematic of the role that houses of worship and religious communities play in helping our communities clean up after natural disasters,” the Catholic and Jewish leaders said. “We don’t wait for the local or federal government to step in. We just start helping those in need.”

“But when we are in need ourselves after a disaster, the federal government tells us we cannot receive aid because we’re religious,” they added.

United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston was flooded by the hurricane and is mostly unusable for the Jewish High Holidays.

FEMA policy has excluded houses of worship from eligibility “simply because these institutions are religious,” charged the religious leaders. Noting that Congress does not require such a policy, they said the ban on funding is “simply FEMA’s misguided and unfair internal policy.”

Some churches damaged in Hurricane Katrina of 2005 or Hurricane George in 1998 faced major hurdles in rebuilding due to lack of FEMA funds.

Archbishop Lori and Bishop Rozanski added: “by refusing aid to the very entities so engaged in helping others, FEMA’s policy by extension also hurts the broader community.”

Backers of the legislation include the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, several Orthodox and Conservative Jewish groups, the Council of Churches of the City of New York, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Becket Law.

The Catholic bishops’ backgrounder said that the June 2017, U.S. Supreme Court decision Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer held that it is unconstitutional to discriminate against churches in a generally available government grant program.

The backgrounder cited precedents such as disaster relief grants to churches damaged in the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City federal building, grants under the Department of Homeland Security Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and grants to repair and maintain historically significant buildings like Boston’s Old North Church and the California Missions.

When Germany headed to the polls on 24 September, there was little doubt that Merkel was poised for a comeback. As the election results began to pour in, it was clear that this was far from the victory Merkel had hoped for.

By Nidhi Razdan

Did Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s doors to migrants cost her heavily in the German election? That is the key question at the heart of the debate and discussion around the polls held on last Sunday, which saw the dramatic entry of the far right into the Bundestag or the German Parliament.

When Germany headed to the polls on 24 September, there was little doubt that Merkel was poised for a comeback. There was no real opposition to the Chancellor in the months leading up to the election, as she kept her campaign focused on the positives — the state of the economy, low unemployment and social stability. It was described as boring election by many, but has turned into one of the most intriguing outcomes we have seen.

As the election results began to pour in, it was clear that this was far from the victory Merkel had hoped for. The dramatic rise of the far right AfD (Alternative for Germany) has come as a warning that Germany may be taking a dangerous turn to the right. The AfD’s rhetoric is strongly anti-Muslim and anti-migrant, taking on a more shrill tone over the years since it was founded in 2013. The AfD had campaign posters with messages like “Burqas? We like bikinis”. The party also believes Germany should stop atoning for the past. Many have compared the AfD to the Nazis.

The party, only five years old, emerged from nowhere, entering the German parliament for the very first time with 13% of the vote share and more than 90 seats in the 709 member house. It is now Germany’s third largest party. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union suffered it’s worst performance since 1949 with 246 seats, down 65 seats from the last election in 2013. Proving that this was a rather unconvincing win for “Mutti” or “Mummy”.

It is particularly worrying, given that with it’s historic background, Germany has infact resisted the rise of the ultra right for decades, even while we saw it’s rise in Europe. Understandably, the German media’s entire discourse currently is focused on the fallout of this landmark election.

The country’s leading TV network, DW, writes: “The far-right AfD will be the third-largest party in the Bundestag. This will have no immediate effect on policy per se, but will alter the political tone. In a nutshell: Things are about to get a lot nastier.”

DW goes on to quote one of the country’s leading academics, Oskar Niedermayer, who says: “The spectrum of positions represented in the AfD cannot be summed up by one word. I call them a nationalist-conservative party with increasing connections to right–wing extremism.”

Since 2015, Angela Merkel has allowed over 1.3 million refugees to enter Germany, coming from countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq. She had said this was the country’s “humanitarian duty”.

There were clearly those who backed Merkel’s move as a humanitarian one but as Der Spiegal writes, “[H]er refugee policies nevertheless polarised people like (her) few other previous political decisions. Now that anger is sweeping into the Bundestag in the form of the AfD.”

It is fairly evident now that this election saw a huge swathe of voters who were angered by Merkel’s migration policy, and much like the Brexit vote in the UK, lashed out at the establishment. That is precisely the focus of the German media which is trying to understand the AfD’s agenda and it’s appeal. DW says it is the “fear of and hostility toward those considered foreigners.”

A piece in the Welt says that Merkel is being roundly blamed for everything.“Merkel was the main contributor to the strengthening of the AfD, is the tenor of the criticism,” writes Richard Herzinger. “Comparisons of the Merkel regiment with dictatorial regimes.. are no longer confined to radical circles, but now belong to the repertoire as serious commentators and mainstream politicians,” he writes, going on to say that “to turn Merkel into a scapegoat is evidence of an inverse authority of authority, and directs comfortably from the disturbing fact that no political force, no intellectual enlightener, no civil society initiative has so far provided a conclusive answer on how to halt the rise of legal nationalists.”

Der Spiegal writes: “For Merkel, who decided to run for a fourth term as chancellor last November, the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) rise is no less than a debacle. With her choice to run, she decided to follow in the footsteps of Helmut Kohl, who governed the country for sixteen years. Now the obvious question is whether Merkel made the same mistake that Kohl made in 1994 when he decided to try to carry on as chancellor? At the time, any shrewd member of the CDU knew that Kohl had fallen behind the times. But no one dared rebel against the elder politician. Is history now repeating itself? Merkel’s campaign laid bare all the problems with her as a person and with the way she leads. Merkel long seemed to hover above everything as a kind of nonpartisan chancellor — which helps explain why many Germans didn’t have any strong feelings about her. But that has changed fundamentally since the refugee crisis.”

A column in Der Spiegal sums up the German mood. “It is the arrogance of the power that led the CDU so far down, not the wrong program or the wrong Internet strategy. Arrogance is more difficult to correct than a faulty programme.”

Former English footballer Michael Owen believes that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is starting to prove his doubters wrong by stepping up his form for Manchester United, The Sport Review reports.

The Armenia international made something of a slow start to life at Old Trafford following his transfer to the club from Borussia Dortmund last summer.

However, his form in the second half of last season improved as he helped Manchester United to win both the League Cup and Europa League.

“We did know from having watched him at Dortmund that he is an exceptional player. Now he’s starting to show it,” Owen said recently.

“He was great at the end of last season and he has continued that now. He looks much sharper.”

Manchester United return to Premier League action on Saturday afternoon when they take on Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils are currently second in the table but level on points with leaders Manchester City after six games of the new campaign.

Spain’s Ministry of the Treasury and Public Function has published on its website the State budget execution figures for August, equivalent to 1.84% of GDP stated in national accounting terms, a drop of 32.6% year-on year.

The consolidated deficit of the Central Government, regional governments, and Social Security system has also been published for the period January-July, which amounts to 2.31% of GDP, excluding financial aid.

Finally, the budget execution figures for local authorities for the second quarter of 2017 have been published, showing a surplus of 1.87 billion euros to June, an increase of 60.3% on the same period of last year.

In the period January-August, the State posted a deficit of 21.5 billion euros, equivalent to 1.84% of GDP, 1.01 points lower than for the same period of last year, when the deficit stood at 2.85% of GDP. This is the result of a 5% year-on-year increase in revenue and a 3.6% drop in expenditure in the period January-August.

The State’s primary deficit, which excludes interest expense, stood at 0.32% of GDP, with a drop of 71% to August.

At month-end August, non-financial State revenue totalled 113.07 billion euros, compared with the 107.71 billion recorded in the same period of 2016.

Revenue from taxes and social contributions amounted to 103.19 billion euros, up by 6.7% on the same period of last year. Current taxes on income and property increased significantly by 11.5% to 36.95 billion euros, mainly due to increased revenue from the first advance payment of corporate income tax on the back of the regulatory changes introduced in 2016.

Personal income tax accruals were up by 2.2% to 20.64 billion euros, partly offset by the effect of the final tax settlement for 2015, paid out in July, which resulted in higher payments to the regional governments (640 million euros) compared with the settlement for 2014.

Taxes on production and imports are up by 4.8% to 61.2 billion euros, largely due to the performance of VAT revenue, up by 5.8% to month-end August on the same period of last year.

Among the poorer performing items was property income, down by 11.6% due to a 584-million euro drop in Bank of Spain profits, partly offset by an increase in dividends from Enaire in the amount of 292 million euros, compared with the figure of 207 million in 2016.

Non-financial State expenditure to August is down by 3.6% year-on-year to 134.58 billion euros.

(EurActiv) — European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said it would take “miracles” for Brexit divorce talks to make enough progress by the end of October to move on to trade negotiations.

“By the end of October we will not have sufficient progress,” Juncker said as he arrived for an EU summit in Tallinn. “I’m saying there will be no sufficient progress from now until October unless miracles will happen.”

EU leaders are set to decide at a summit on 19-20 October whether there has been “sufficient progress” on the divorce to start discussing the future relationship including a trade deal, as Britain has demanded.

But British Prime Minister Theresa May insisted there had been “very good progress” on the rights of EU expatriates, following a major Brexit speech she gave in Florence, Italy, last week.

“In my Florence speech I set out very clearly how we could ensure that the rights of those EU citizens were guaranteed in the UK,” May told reporters.

“That has been part of the negotiations that we’ve had, very good progress has been made, that was made clear by the statements made by David Davis and Michel Barnier made yesterday,” she said.

EU negotiator Barnier and his British counterpart Davis wrapped up a fourth round of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on Thursday saying there had been progress following May’s speech, but with Barnier saying it could take “months” to move to trade discussions.

The EU has insisted on progress in three key divorce issues: Britain’s exit bill, the fate of Northern Ireland, and the rights of three million EU citizens living in Britain and a million Britons living in Europe.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said there was a “better vibe and a better mood” coming from the talks, but cautioned they were “not at the point where we can get onto the future relationship”.

“It’s still very evident there’s more work to be done,” Varadkar said.

By Amita Batra*

The Indo-Pacific economic space continues to be open to reconfiguration, triggered as it has been by the US withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) earlier this year. There have since been many conjectures on how the region may see a China-led economic order, particularly so as the Japanese attempts for a TPP revival have not yielded any concrete positive outcomes so far. Alternatively, Japan-India relations, that have been in the forefront with Prime Minister Abe’s visit to India earlier this month, are being considered as a possible counter balancing force in the region. It is therefore relevant and worthwhile to examine the relative placement of China and Japan in India’s economic relations and discuss India’s options in the larger regional economic context.

First, while China is India’s top trading partner, Japan is not even among the top ten trading partners for India, and has not been so for almost a decade. In 2016-17, India’s trade with China was US$ 71 billion as against US$ 13 billion with Japan. Interestingly, while India incurs a trade deficit with both countries, it is the deficit with China that attracts attention, even though the deficit with both countries, as a share of total bilateral trade, is almost equal at 70 per cent. With Japan, India has a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that was signed in 2011. After six years of its implementation, growth in bilateral trade with Japan has been insignificant and in fact the rate of growth of exports registered a significant decline in 2016-17. In contrast, even without a preferential trading arrangement, India’s exports to China have seen a positive growth over the last year.

Importantly, in the pharmaceutical sector, Japan has been insistent on quality and regulatory standards, particularly in respect of pharmaceutical goods which is a major export category for India not just in bilateral but in global trade too. Although China also imposes trade barriers for Indian pharmaceutical exports, a significant difference is to be noted with regard to their membership of regional trade formulations – Japan is a member of both the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the now in-suspension TPP; China, like India, is a member only of the RCEP and not of the TPP. Japan has been very keen to revive the TPP with or without US membership.

A consequence of this differential membership is that Japan, in the spirit of TPP trade rules, seeks higher and World Trade Organisation (WTO)-plus standards in its bilateral trade transactions that would be very hard for India to comply with presently and in the near future. In fact, given that the RCEP is an ASEAN-centred pan-Asian trade arrangement with greater flexibility on trade-related issues, and that India has a differential trade liberalisation offer for its FTA and non-FTA trade partners (including China), it may be in India’s interest to work towards an accelerated finalisation of its negotiation process and to see it emerge as the predominant trade initiative in the region.

Second, growth in global trade for over a decade prior to the global financial crisis was led by trade concentration in regional production networks. Among these, China was the hub of the East Asian production networks, specialising in parts and components trade. In the last five years or so and significantly from 2011-2014, global trade has slowed down, and in 2015 global trade contracted by 10 per cent. For East Asia, the rate of decline in imports has been greater than that in exports. To a large extent this change in trade pattern reflects the consolidation and shortening of global value chains. For China and other regional economies the value chains are getting centred domestically As the East Asian regional integration process deepens, India has the opportunity to strengthen trade with China and ASEAN through the RCEP, and thereby realise its ‘Act East’ Policy. Increased trade liberalisation under the RCEP will allow for India’s integration in regional value chains. The process will involve production up-gradation, manufacturing sector growth, employment and skill enhancement – all the objectives already embodied in the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Lastly, if the RCEP does not gain momentum it is possible that China may like to push for the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP), which draws its membership from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). China proposed a roadmap towards FTAAP at the 2014 APEC summit meeting with the support and commitment of APEC members. India has not been successful, so far, in securing membership of the APEC. Strengthening India’s relations with Japan could help in this regard. However, irrespective of Japanese support, India will have to expedite implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the WTO, including the more difficult regulatory and institutional reforms, as the trade facilitation action plans of the APEC have been among its more successful programmes.

It may therefore be in India’s best interest to contribute to an early finalisation of the RCEP negotiations, consolidate its participation in the East Asian regional value chains as also further its export growth with China. The alternatives may be both long drawn out and harder to implement for India.

*Amita Batra
Professor of Economics, Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU

By Allyson Rimmer*

Outer space has been called the last frontier, but could it become the battleground of the future? Warfare in space seems difficult to imagine outside works of science fiction, but the concept and advantages of weapons in space have been under serious deliberation by global powers in the recent past. Though the international community in years past has made great strides in addressing and eliminating the nuclear threat emanating from outer space, additional threats have yet to be addressed.

As it stands now there exists an international consensus banning the placement of strategic Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in outer space and on celestial bodies. As a result, the idea of a space-based defence strategy, made famous by US President Ronald Reagan in his 1983 televised appeal to Congress, has largely lost traction in the ballistic missile realm due to international restrictions placed on this activity. Thanks the international community’s forward thinking, a widely embraced status quo concerning humankind’s moral role in space and space exploration is more or less accepted and upheld in the Outer Space Treaty. Global initiatives such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the Prevention of an Arms Race in Space (PAROS) have also been established to further global efforts in protecting the area that lies beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

One remaining loophole, however, is that conventional weapons are not banned in space by any international treaty, and the US, and consequently, China would like it to remain this way. If international law is not adjusted to specify the exclusion of conventional weapons in outer space, the global community leaves the development of a conventional space race wide open, making the cosmos a possible setting for conflict in the near future.

As space defence modernises to include external and internal threats to orbiting technology in the forms of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs), Anti-Satellite Weapons (ASATs), and cyber attacks, fear of any adversarial exploitation of such vulnerabilities has led to increased mistrust between the US and China. This has, ironically, left conventional space attacks legally conductible under current international law. Scepticism of Chinese intentions on the part of the US however, is not entirely unfounded.

In 2007, China launched a missile that destroyed one of its own weather satellites in low-earth orbit; an escalatory mission under the guise of Chinese ‘scientific exploration’. The US took this as an aggressive display of China’s space-based defence capabilities and retaliated with its own demonstration in 2008 by destroying a US reconnaissance satellite. Since these incidents, the US and China have been unwilling to tie their hands in anyway, thus rejecting treaties that would not allow them to respond in kind to attacks of this nature – an attitude that both sides claim is a rejection based exclusively on defence-based concerns. The vetoing of propositions that have included language for removing conventional space-based threats, such as the Russian and Chinese-led campaign at the 2008 Conference on Disarmament, has been a disappointing and consistent result thus far.

However, outer space does not just belong to China and the US. As the world continues to progress technologically, pursuits in space have become a wider global enterprise. It is a frontier in which any entity can stake a claim and as of now, the public and private sector amicably share this orbital space with 1,100 active satellites in orbit belonging to over fifty different countries. This arrangement has improved convenience in many people’s lives due to the incredible abilities of the technology utilising this medium. Satellites, both public and privately operated, are becoming increasingly populous.

Satellite innovation has propelled humans forward light years in many ways, but mankind’s increasing dependency on technology renders states extremely vulnerable. This is why the focus of efforts to prevent a space-based conventional catastrophe should largely be concerned with eliminating the legality of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) and Anti-Satellite Weapons (ASATs) – attractive technologies due to their low risk and potentially high rewards. In addition to the advantages of DEWs and ASATs, missiles, ‘Rods from God’ (kinetic bombardment), and any other weapon – conventional or not – when launched from space will reach the intended target almost immediately, allowing near real-time retaliation or instigation. This makes space deployment far more effective than earth-based launches.

Space-based weapons like these can be utilised in several ways. Scientists and engineers have developed artillery that Group Captain Pa Patil, author of Weaponisation of Space, An Inevitable Reality and Plausible Fallout, has placed into four categories : Earth-to-space, space-to-Earth, space-to-space, and Earth-to-Earth. Logically, these names are designated based on where the weapon is fired from and where its target is located. But regardless of the particular positioning in a given scenario, all could lead to political as well as physically destructive consequences.

DEWs, a rapidly modernising laser technology termed the ‘microwave weapon’, have the ability of “adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare…[which] depends…on using the electromagnetic spectrum” to interfere with the intended target. DEWs are relatively inexpensive, making them the cost-friendly future of conventional combat. This potential heightens the perceived threat of DEWs to targets in space as well as on Earth. Essentially, Group Captain Pa Patil explains that the use of a DEW system in space “would be akin to a radar system, wherein the radar beam continuously illuminates a target and tracks it. A Directed Energy beam…will illuminate the target albeit with the beam intensity in excess of hundreds of Megawatts.” This means high energy waves could be used to disrupt or destroy their intended targets depending on the weapon user’s intent.

Another advantage of DEWs for space use is that the lasers are not only inexpensive, they can also carry out attacks with stealth and almost perfect accuracy. The versatility of DEWs gives them potential applicability as space-to-Earth weapons, Earth-to-space weapons, and space-to-space weapons. DEWs could be launched from Earth or space to attack a target in space, such as an enemy satellite, or they could be stationed in space to hit a target on Earth with surgical precision in near real-time. There are myriad ossibilities for this grade of weaponry – that is, if they are allowed to be in space or utilised on targets in space in the first place. Strengthening international treaties to ensure this threat remains out of the cosmos is crucial: it is the only way to prevent, or more realistically, legally condemn conventional acts of war above the atmosphere.

ASATs are another unfortunate reality. As mentioned previously, China and the US demonstrated the potential consequences of using ASATs by striking down some of their own. One outcome of these demonstrations is the resulting space junk that remains after the target has been hit. The Secure World Foundation found that leftover material from the 2007 Chinese anti-satellite strike “created a cloud of more than 3,000 pieces of space debris, the largest ever tracked, and much of it will remain in orbit for decades, posing a significant collision threat to other space objects in Low Earth Orbit.”

In addition to eliminating a targeted satellite’s functionality, the remnants of the destroyed satellite threaten to create additional harm to unintentional targets, which furthers the destruction caused by ASATs in space. Using missiles to attack enemy satellites, or even one’s own, has long-lasting, impending consequences on the objects orbiting alongside the remaining debris. Thus, ASATs have immediate as well as long-term capabilities for destruction in space, the latter of which is uncontrollable. In order to prevent intentional and unintentional damage to satellites and other technology in low-Earth orbit, ASATs must be illicit under international law.

Every day the imminent threat and possible outcome of a space-based attack by either state or non-state actors becomes graver. In a worst case scenario, strategic weapons fired successfully at enemy satellites can harm the targeted state’s security by impairing its defences, severely disrupting vital communication capabilities, and ensuring further upheaval. The potential catastrophe resulting from conventional attacks on space technology is thus significant. The disastrous effects of such a strike, alongside the space-based advantages of having missiles reach their targets on the ground faster, makes space weaponry an intriguing pursuit for those looking to innovate their military strategy.

This is why omitting a clause that bans all weapons, WMD or otherwise, from entering outer space is a reckless oversight that presents significant dangers. China and the US have their reasons to boycott restrictive language in international treaties concerning outer space. But choosing to embrace those treaties could be the only way to curb the threats of such a strike that each state fears. As leaders in the international community, it is the duty of the US and China to foster policy that fortifies international as well as interorbital peace – two realms undoubtedly intertwined. Thus, conventional warfare as it stands today is a possible reality for the cosmos. The international community has no choice but to embrace the goals of the Outer Space Treaty and expand its scope to explicitly eliminate conventional weapons deployment or conventional targeting of objects in the Earth’s orbit. Otherwise, mankind’s future pursuits in the last frontier – space – could change from exploratory to exploitative.

*Allyson Rimmer
Research Intern, NSP, IPCS

Some studies have shown that pupils from single-sex schools outperform their counterparts at mixed-gender schools. This column attempts to disentangle the causal effects by exploiting a government policy in South Korea that led to some single-sex schools converting to co-ed one grade at a time. Academic performance fell for boys when their schools became co-ed even if their class remained single-sex, but performance only fell among girls whose classes became mixed. These results suggest different mechanisms for the effects of mixed-gender schools on boys’ and girls’ academic performance.

By Christian Dustmann, Hyejin Ku and Do Won Kwak*

In recent years, single-sex education has attracted much policy interest as a potential tool for promoting pupils’ academic achievements and closing various types of gender gap. Proponents of single-sex education argue that the single-sex environment is beneficial to academic achievements for reasons such as students avoiding the attraction of the opposite sex, and being less likely to suffer from gender stereotypes. On the other hand, advocates of mixed education argue that boys in co-ed schools perform better as they are surrounded by female peers who are better behaved, and who perform better academically. Moreover, for both boys and girls, the mixed-gender environment is argued to be more conducive to the development of social skills, better preparing them for the ‘real world.’

A key question, therefore, is whether or not a single-sex environment improves pupils’ achievements and whether the effects are common for both genders. To make progress on this, one needs to estimate the causal effect of pupils’ exposure to single-sex versus mixed-gender peers. Estimating this effect is challenging, most importantly because the endogenous processes that sort students into schools.

Research questions and design

We address this very question in a recent paper (Dustmann et al. 2017). We build on Park et al. (2013) who use an assignment policy in Seoul, South Korea, where students were randomly allocated to academic high schools within districts. These authors show, using data for a single cross-section (for the year 1999), that boys (girls) who were randomly assigned to all-boys (all-girls) schools outperform their counterparts at co-ed schools. However, the existing single-sex and co-ed schools in Seoul may differ not just in their pupil gender type but also in various observable and unobservable inputs that can affect student achievement. Therefore, even if pupils are randomly allocated to a single-sex versus a co-ed school, any differences in pupils’ outcomes between schools could be due to pupil gender type (the direct effect of pupil gender composition), or other observable and unobservable differences in school inputs (school effects). In turn, the direct effect of pupil gender composition could be due to exposure to mixed-gender peers at the school level, or at the classroom level. For policymakers who are considering creating a new single-sex school or a single-sex classroom, the key question is whether there are any direct benefits to being exposed to a single-sex versus mixed-gender learning environment on either the school or classroom level.

Total effect of single-sex versus co-ed schools

We identify three distinct parameters, using administrative data on the national college entrance exam, taken by South Korean 12th graders in 1996-2009. To address the sorting problem, we use – similar to Park et al. (2013), though based on multiple years of data – the random assignment of pupils to schools within school districts at each cohort. This allows us to address our first question:

• What is the total effect of attendance at a single-sex (versus a co-ed) school on pupils’ attainment?

While causal, this shows the combination of the direct effect (driven by pupil gender composition) and the school effect (driven by other differences between single-sex and co-ed schools).

We find robust evidence that pupils in single-sex schools outperform their counterparts in co-ed schools, by 5–10% of a standard deviation for boys and 4–7% for girls, with similar estimates across subjects (which include Korean, English, and maths). This is consistent with the findings reported in Park et al. (2013). While these effects measure the causal effects of attending a single-sex (versus co-ed) school on test scores in Seoul, this total effect is specific to that context, as it combines the direct effect of exposure to single-sex versus mixed-gender peers and context-specific differences in school inputs between single-sex and co-ed schools. Therefore, this parameter is of interest to students and parents in Seoul, but not generalisable to other settings.

Direct effect

To isolate the direct effect, we exploit the fact that some of the existing single-sex schools in Seoul converted to the co-ed type in the 1990s and 2000s due to a government policy that favoured co-education. This allows us to eliminate the effect of unobserved, time-invariant (and observed time-variant) school characteristics. That is, we can address the question:

• What is the direct effect of exposure to a single-sex (versus co-ed) environment on both school and classroom levels?

Here, we exploit school type changes (in conjunction with the random school assignment), and compare cohorts that were exposed to either a single-sex or co-ed environment at both the school and classroom levels. We find that the conversion of school type from single-sex to co-ed leads to worse academic outcomes for both boys and girls, conditional on school fixed effects, suggesting that the combined effects of school- and classroom-level exposure to a single-sex (versus mixed-gender) environment are likely positive.

Classroom versus school-level exposure

Finally, we make use of the fact that academic high schools in South Korea consist of three grades (grades 10, 11, and 12) and that the school-type conversion was conducted at the cohort level. Specifically, the first cohort admitted under the co-ed regime was exposed to mixed-gender peers at the classroom and school levels for three years. The preceding cohort, while not exposed to mixed-gender peers at the classroom level, were exposed to a school-level co-ed environment (and any school-wide changes due to the switch) for the last two of their three years of high school. To the extent that school-level exposure to the newly-co-ed environment affect these two cohorts similarly, the difference in attainment between the two cohorts (and the corresponding difference in non-switching schools) allows us to answer our final question:

• What is the effect of classroom-level exposure alone to single-sex (versus mixed-gender) peers?’

We make use of the multi-grade nature of South Korean high schools, and the cohort-level conversion of pupil gender type. We find that class-level exposure to same-sex (versus mixed-gender) peers has a significant positive effect on the attainment of girls. Specifically, as we exogenously change the share of girls in the same cohort from 100% to around 50%, the achievement of girls in languages decreases by 8–15% of a standard deviation in the score distribution. For boys, however, the benefits of having same-sex (versus mixed-gender) peers in their cohort are small and statistically insignificant. In light of our findings about the direct effect above, this finding suggests that the presence of girls in the same school (even if not in the same cohort) distracts boys from academic pursuits. Girls on the other hand are less prone to such distraction effects, but suffer disadvantage when exposed to boys at the classroom level.

Summary and discussion

The main finding of our work is that the combined effect of school- and classroom level exposure to same-sex versus mixed-gender peers (what we phrased above as the direct effect) is likely positive for both boys and girls. However, the underlying mechanisms are different. For boys, the disadvantage of co-ed schooling is largely due to exposure to a school-level co-ed environment. For girls, however, it is classroom-level exposure to mixed-gender (versus same-sex) peers that explains the disadvantage from co-ed schooling.

While teenage boys may be more likely to be distracted than girls by a mixed-gender school environment (Coleman 1961, Hill 2015), girls may suffer more because of, for instance, an increase in disruptive behaviour (as discussed by Figlio 2007), or a diversion of the teacher’s attention to weaker students (as suggested by Lavy et al. 2012).

*About the authors:
Christian Dustmann, Professor of Economics, University College London and Director of the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration

Hyejin Ku, Research Associate, University College London

Do Won Kwak, Assistant Professor, Korea University

References:
Coleman, J S (1961), The Adolescent Society, New York: FreePress.

Dustmann, C, H Ku and D W Kwak (2017), “Why are single-sex schools successful?”, CEPR, Discussion paper no DP12101.

Hill, A J (2015), “The girl next door: The effect of opposite gender friends on high school achievement”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 7(3): 147-177.

Figlio, D N (2007), “Boys named Sue: Disruptive children and their peers”, Education Finance and Policy 2(4): 376-394.

Lavy, V, M D Paserman and A Schlosser (2012), “Inside the black box of ability peer effects: Evidence from variation in the proportion of low achievers in the classroom”, Economic Journal 122(559): 208-237.

Park, H, J R Behrman and J Choi (2013), “Causal effects of single-sex schools on college entrance exams and college attendance: Random assignment in Seoul high schools”, Demography 50: 447–469.

(RFE/RL) — Polling stations in the Spanish region of Catalonia are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. on October 1 for an independence referendum that national authorities in Madrid have called “illegal” and vowed to block.

Spanish officials on September 30 ordered police to seal off schools in the region that have been set up as voting stations and have given separatists until 6 a.m. to leave those they have already occupied.

Many referendum supporters have been holding out at the schools, playing games with their children and bedding down in sleeping bags in an effort to keep the sites open until voting starts.

The proposed referendum has raised tensions in the Catalan region, which includes the city of Barcelona, and throughout the rest of Spain since Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont on September 10 declared “everything ready” for the referendum.

In defiance of central authorities, the regional government secretly created ballots, formed electoral rolls, organized polling stations, and made other moves to prepare for the referendum.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis on September 30 said the referendum was unconstitutional and that referendums have become “the instrument of choice of dictators” and are counter to the “goals and ideals” of the European Union.

“What they are pushing is not democracy. It is a mockery of democracy, a travesty of democracy,” Dastis told The Associated Press.

Some 5.3 million people are eligible to vote, but many who oppose independence have said they will not take part in the referendum.

A day before the scheduled vote, pro-unity demonstrators waving Spanish flags marched in several cities, including Barcelona, to voice opposition to the independence vote.

Many, standing in the rain, chanted, “Catalonia is Spain!” and “We are also Catalans!”

In Madrid, thousands of antireferendum marchers rallied in the central Plaza de Cibeles in front of the capital’s town hall, chanting, “I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!”

Polls indicate a minority of around 40 percent of the region’s total 7.5 million Catalans support independence, although a majority of residents in the region want the referendum to be carried out nevertheless

The world’s first internet war is raging in Spain ahead of Sunday’s Catalan independence referendum, according to Julian Assange.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Assange outlined how hundreds of websites have been censored by Spanish authorities, who have also suspended the use of 29 Catalan government apps relating to the referendum and occupied telecoms buildings.

The official referendum website was just one of hundreds to be blocked. On September 20, Spain’s Guardia Civil raided the offices of the .cat domain registry in downtown Barcelona, seizing computers and arresting the registry’s IT manager.

The registry was established to provide an online space for Catalan language and culture and has over 100,000 active domain names. The raid came just days after the Spanish government ordered the registry take down all .cat domains used for the referendum.

On Friday, following a court ruling, Google blocked a Catalan government app that allowed users to check their polling stations. The following day police entered the headquarters of the Catalan government’s Telecommunications and IT Center, known as CTTI.

Undeterred, Catalan authorities have issued instructions advising citizens to use proxies to circumvent restrictions put in place by internet service providers such as Movistar and Vodafone. Pirate bay co-founder, Peter Sunde, offered his assistance to the Catalan people and government via Twitter.

Many prominent internet activists and academics, including Edward Snowden and Noam Chomsky, have rallied to the Catalan cause in recent days.

Assange has been a vocal supporter of the Catalan independence referendum, tweeting that the fate of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his government “hangs in the balance over Catalonia.”

“What is happening in Catalonia in the most significant Western conflict between people and state since the fall of the Berlin wall,” Assange tweeted Saturday.

Despite the Spanish government’s crackdown, Catalan separatists are determined to hold the referendum. Activists have occupied dozens of schools, intended to be used as polling stations, to stop police from shutting them down.

On September 6, Catalonia’s Parliament passed a bill paving the way for an independence referendum to be held on October 1. The Spanish government, however, insists the proposed referendum is illegal.

By Jim Garamone

Puerto Rico’s governor said the commonwealth and federal team combating Hurricane Maria’s devastation is working smoothly and every resource he has asked for is either on the island or on the way.

The governor praised the federal response led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and supported by the Defense Department.

Around 10,000 people are in government shelters, he said, although that is down from 15,000 a week ago.

“We had 500 shelters, but now that is consolidated to 150,” Rossello said. “We have 11 regional staging areas throughout Puerto Rico that have been receiving food and water.”

He noted that Puerto Rico’s road system is being cleared and deliveries are being made directly to municipalities now. There are still some communities, he added, where the hurricane’s devastation has made travel difficult.

Improving Communications

And, the number of communications antennas in operation has doubled from yesterday, Rossello said. FEMA and DoD are leading this effort.

“We have 100 percent of land-line telephones working now,” Rossello said, “although we still don’t have the robust telecom network — we’re only at 33 percent.”

Airports and seaports are receiving shipments, said Rossello, noting Puerto Rico’s main airport is receiving 35 flights an hour and that traffic is expected to double within a week.

Opening Hospitals

Commonwealth medical experts have teamed with federal officials to examine hospitals and other medical facilities, the governor said. Part of the effort, he said, is to ensure the facilities have the fuel needed to power the generators supplying electricity. Fifty-one of the island’s 69 hospitals are open.

The improving hospital situation also points to progress on restoring the electrical grid, Rossello said, as nine hospitals now are working on external power.

Also, the hospital ship USNS Comfort is en route to Puerto Rico, the governor said.

Law enforcement officials and fire fighters from New York have arrived and they will work with Puerto Rican National Guardsmen around the island, Rossello said. Resources are also arriving from Kentucky, Alabama and Florida.

Power Generation

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with local officials on power generation, water purification and sewage disposal since the storm hit, the governor said.

Much needs to be done on the island as it enters the recovery phase of operations, said John Rabin, the acting FEMA regional administrator.

“Everybody here is in support of our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico,” Rabin said. “Our cooperation and collaboration with the entire federal family — the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy — all that is on display on the effort that we are going through every day to provide the support and response and recovery to Puerto Rico.”

By Kenneth Szabo

“Green mountains and clear water are as good as mountains of gold and silver,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping as he underscored his country’s commitment to becoming an “ecological civilization” at the 2016 UN climate change conference in Marrakech. Fine words. But should we believe them?

After years of being known as one of the dirtiest countries on the planet, China is now making a concerted effort to re-brand itself as a proponent of green energy. This forms part of a wider, multi-channel effort to boost its global soft power that encompasses everything from building new language institutes to trying to head major UN bodies. However, whether this is a legitimate strategy or just good PR is a question Beijing still struggles to answer convincingly.

Undoubtedly, China is making some positive changes. The country has been catching up with its counterparts by planning new national parks. Aimed at protecting areas of outstanding beauty and preventing environmental damage from construction, mining, and pollution, the parks are due to open in 2020. This is also the deadline China has set for ploughing $361 billion into renewable power sources. The Chinese government hopes that in just three years, these sources will account for half of new electricity generation in the country.

So far, so good. But scratch beneath the surface, and there are indications “Green China” is actually just a veneer disguising a less palatable reality.

China is still the world’s largest producer of “black” aluminum. In 2016, coal still powered 88% of production. Pollutants released by aluminum production and other shady practices are among the many reasons that China’s inland waters are so befouled. According to Greenpeace China, 80% of shallow ground water wells are polluted.

Continuing with the aquatic theme, China – having depleted its own marine stock through unsustainable fishing methods, like trawling – is taking steps to improve its fishing stock through a summer moratorium on fishing in the South China Sea. While they allow their own marine life to recover, Chinese fishermen are now marauding through foreign waters, exploiting the coasts of some of the poorest countries in Africa.

These environmental projects – many of them undertaken for appearance’s sake – are a main component of China’s global soft power campaign, which encompasses the environment but also the arts, culture, literature, and more. The campaign started a decade ago, when the Communist Party declared a new objective to invest in its soft power as a complement to its rapidly growing economic and geopolitical clout. It’s estimated Beijing spends some $10 billion per year on the campaign, one of the most generous state-sponsored public diplomacy projects in the world. That money has been building quite a few new cultural centers.

Many of China’s investments in global prestige are aimed at boosting China’s presence – and its influence – within key multilateral institutions. One major opportunity to do so will take place at UNESCO over the next several weeks, where the Chinese government has been pushing for its candidate, Qian Tang, to become the next director general. For a country that has previously shown open disdain for the UN and its core norms – not least environmental protection and human rights – this indeed seems to be a sea change.

However, just as with many of China’s new “green” projects, Tang’s campaign is simply another component of Beijing’s drive to boost its international standing. When it comes to UNESCO, China has become adept at using the organization to its own advantage, having secured 52 World Heritage-ranked sites that stand to earn millions, if not billions, in new tourist revenues.

There is more than just China’s international reputation at stake here. UNESCO has been mired in a financial crisis since 2011, when the US cut off roughly 22% of its budget over the organization’s acceptance of the Palestinian Authority as a full member. UNESCO has also been rocked by internal political scandals. These include not only persistent divisions over the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Israel most recently slamming UNESCO’s decision to recognize the old city of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage site. They also extend to recent allegations that the husband of current Director General Irina Bokova was involved in the vast money laundering scandal known as the “Azerbaijani Laundromat.”

Given all this, the organization needs to select its next leader with caution. Unfortunately, there’s little sign Tang would be the right person to oversee an agency with so many flagship environmental and scientific programs, let alone the one to mend its internal divisions. And most of the other candidates are hardly better. France’s candidate, Audrey Azoulay, has been accused of demonstrating overtly pro-Israel bias, raising questions about her ability to help the organization rise above its current impasse. Qatar’s horse in the race, Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, has been accused of endorsing anti-Semitic works by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and would be arguably worse.

Perhaps the only candidate that enjoys positive relations with both Israel and the Arab world – and could bridge the current divide – is Moushira Khattab, who can point to extensive experience as a diplomat and as Egypt’s representative at UN headquarters in New York as well as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Vienna. Her candidacy leans on a track record of pushing progressive reforms in defense of women’s rights in Egypt; Khattab has, for example, been a leading advocate against the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Given the challenges UNESCO currently faces to its core missions in the Arab world, a candidate from the region could speak and act with greater inherent legitimacy – but that will not alter China’s incentives to pursue Tang’s candidacy.

None of this is to say that China’s soft power campaign is entirely self-serving. Numerous aspects of its environmental program and its support for Chinese language programs are undeniably positive. Yet China still has a ways to go. Given UNESCO’s own internal difficulties, allowing Beijing to lead the organization would be a bridge too far.

This article was published by Modern Diplomacy

A new RAND report proposes that despite their differences, Russia, China and the United States should act jointly to head off a little-recognized security threat — the proliferation of hypersonic missiles beyond the three nations.

The spread of this new class of weapons would increase the chance of strategic (missile-based) wars and would jeopardize nations small and large — including the three nations that now have the technology, according to the study, which is the first-ever detailed examination of the issue.

Hypersonic missiles — including both hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles — are a new class of threat because they are capable both of maneuvering and of flying faster than 5,000 kilometers per hour, more than five-times faster than traditional cruise missiles. These features allow such missiles to penetrate most missile defenses and compress the timelines for a response by a nation under attack.

Hypersonic missiles are being developed by the United States, Russia and China. Their further proliferation could result in other powers setting their forces on hair-trigger states of readiness, according to researchers. And such proliferation could enable other powers to more credibly threaten attacks on major powers.

The diffusion of hypersonic technology is underway in Europe, Japan, Australia and India, with many nations beginning to explore such technology. Proliferation could cross multiple borders if hypersonic technology is offered on world markets, leaving little time available to prevent proliferation.

“Hypersonic missile proliferation would increase the chances of strategic war,” said Richard Speier, lead author of the report and a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. “It would give nations an incentive to become trigger-happy.”

According to researchers, there is probably less than a decade available to substantially hinder the potential proliferation of hypersonic missiles and associated technologies.

The report recommends that the United States, Russia and China agree not to export to other nations complete hypersonic missile systems or their major components. In addition, the broader international community should establish controls on a wider range of hypersonic missile hardware and technology.

Premature babies that need ventilation to support their breathing often suffer from a condition known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, partner in the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), have now discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a key role in the development of the disease. The study has been published in ‘EMBO Molecular Medicine’.

The lungs are one of the last organs to undergo full maturation in a baby’s body. Children that are born very prematurely do not have fully developed lungs, and are therefore more susceptible to associated complications. The most common of these is a chronic lung disease known as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), which mainly occurs when the (immature) newborns require mechanical ventilation or oxygen supplementation.* The disease is characterized by a lack of fully developed alveoli and small blood vessels that support them. This leads to an increase in oxygen demand and makes breathing more difficult, effects which can be clinically measured.

“To date, there has been very little understanding of what exactly causes BPD,” said Dr. Prajakta Oak, scientist at the Comprehensive Pneumology Center and Institute of Lung Biology and Disease (ILBD) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. “Alongside damage caused by mechanical ventilation and oxygen toxicity**, characteristic inflammatory processes and the functional and structural immaturity of the lungs are considered to underlie the disease,” the lead author of the current study explains.

The starting point for the research was a genetic association study involving a total of 1,061 neonates, 492 of whom had been diagnosed with BPD. It revealed that certain mutations in the gene for PDGFR-α (platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha) significantly increased the risk of developing the disease. That stands to reason, as the cells in the lung tissue that produce PDGFR-α are involved in the formation of the alveoli and in the development of lung structure. The scientists were also able to confirm these genetic anomalies in cells isolated from the lungs of affected children and to link them to lowered production of this molecule and respective functional consequences.

“In a model system that has only been established at a few locations worldwide, we were then able to show that lowered production of PDGFR-α combined with mechanical ventilation led to the typical symptoms of BPD,” explained research team leader Dr. Anne Hilgendorff from the ILBD. “These included lower blood vessel density and defective septation in the lung as well as a higher rate of apoptosis.”

The researchers associated these findings with a lower production in VEGF-A (vascular endothelial growth factor A), an important vascular growth factor. However, the researchers succeeded in decreasing the symptoms in the experimental model of the disease by artificially increasing signal transmission via PDGFR-α.

In further experiments, the researchers also demonstrated that the TGF-ß (transforming growth factor beta) signaling molecule plays a role in the development of BPD by decreasing production of PDGFR-α. The scientists presume that the messenger substance TGF-ß is released particularly frequently due to injury to the lung caused during mechanical ventilation.

“For the first time, we show in an experimental model and in cells of premature patients that there is a link between BPD and the decreased production of a key growth factor, namely PDGFR-α,” Dr. Hilgendorff said, putting the results into context. BPD may be genetically determined, but it can also be caused or worsened by effects of the inflammatory process. “Next we would like to examine even more closely whether we can target interventions into this signaling pathway and thus open up the way for potential therapies.”

Notes:
* Although mechanical ventilation is often vital, it can damage the lungs and cause inflammation, resulting in the chronic lung disease bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), which is also known as neonatal chronic lung disease (nCLD). The symptoms of this disease can persist into adulthood, thereby increasing the risk of an earlier reduction in lung capacity or the development of chronic lung diseases in later life such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Source: European Lung Foundation: Preterm birth and the lungs (PDF).

** Breathing molecular oxygen at increased partial pressures can result in harmful effects, so called oxygen toxicity.