Yale Law School, from which Brett Kavanaugh got his law degree, issued a statement about him with glowing quotes from professors attesting to his impeccable legal credentials.

Perhaps the Yale Law faculty deemed his credentials impeccable because he graduated from Yale Law School. Then again, Clarence Thomas also graduated from Yale Law School (as, in full disclosure, did I).

The reason Kavanaugh should not be confirmed has nothing to do with his legal credentials. It’s the blatantly partisan process used by Trump and Senate Republicans to put him on the Supreme Court.

The framers of the Constitution understood that Americans would disagree about all manner of things, often passionately.

Which is why they came up with a Constitution that’s largely a process for managing our disagreements, so that the losers in any given dispute feel they’ve been treated fairly. That way, we all feel bound by the results.

I don’t need to point out to you that we have deep disagreements these days. We’re in one of the most bitter, divisive, partisan eras in living memory.

So it’s not enough that a prospective Supreme Court justice have impeccable legal credentials. The person must also be chosen impeccably, so that the public trusts he or she will fairly and impartially interpret the Constitution.

Process matters, now so more than ever.

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, it will be due to a process that has violated all prevailing norms for how someone should be chosen to be a Supreme Court justice.

Let us count the ways.

First, Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the Senate – who wouldn’t recognize a fair process if it fell on him – refused for eight months even to allow the Senate to vote on Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court. That itself was unprecedented.

Then last year, on a strict party-line vote, Senate Republicans invoked what had been known as the “nuclear option,” lowering the threshold for ending debate on a Supreme Court nomination to fifty-one votes from sixty, in order to win Senate approval for Trump’s first nominee, Neil Gorsuch.

Now McConnell is rushing the vote on Kavanaugh with almost no opportunity for Democrats to participate.

The Trump administration has asserted executive privilege to shield 100,000 page of Kavanaugh’s White House records from release – an assertion so broad that senators can’t even read behind closed doors documents that might shed light on issues the public might reasonably consider important, such as whether Kavanaugh endorsed the Bush administration’s infamous torture memos.

And rather than rely on the National Archives for documents relating to Kavanaugh’s record, Republicans are having political partisans sift through them – which a National Archives official describes as “something that has never happened before.”

Meanwhile, Trump himself is an unindicted co-conspirator in a government criminal case concerning campaign finance violations in the 2016 election. He is also under government investigation for possibly obstructing justice, and for colluding with a foreign power to intrude in the 2016 election on his behalf.

But Senate Republicans are unwilling to delay a vote on Kavanaugh until these cases are resolved.

Some of the issues at stake in these cases are likely to come before Kavanaugh if he joins the Court, yet Kavanaugh refuses to agree to recuse himself from deciding on them.

Finally, many of the jobs Kavanaugh held over the last quarter century required not scholarly legal credentials but, rather, a willingness to act as legal hatchet-man in some of the most divisive issues the nation faced over those years.

Kavanaugh helped devise the strategy to impeach Bill Clinton, and went on to help George W. Bush wage war in Iraq.

Given all this, can America trust that Kavanaugh will fairly and impartially decide the meaning of the Constitution? Obviously not.

The reason McConnell and Republicans are steamrolling his confirmation, and why Trump nominated him in the first place, is because they know for certain he won’t.

Put aside all the “impeccable credential” rubbish and you find a fiercely partisan conservative who will further tip the court’s balance along partisan lines.

Senate deliberation over him is a charade. Everybody on the inside knows what’s going on here. And almost everyone watching from the sidelines does, too.

All of which is especially damaging to the Supreme Court and to the nation at this intensely fractious point in history.

When a sitting president spews venom daily, and when Congress has become a cauldron of bitter partisanship, American needs a Supreme Court that can be trusted to fairly manage our national disagreements. The Constitution demands no less.

Tragically, Brett Kavanaugh will further divide us. For this reason alone, he shouldn’t be confirmed.

An Indian Catholic nun who claims a bishop raped her has accused the Vatican and senior church officials of inaction and silence despite her repeated complaints.

In a fresh complaint addressed to India’s apostolic nuncio Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro on Sept. 8, the nun said she first complained to the church in June 2017 that she had been raped by Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.

A year later in her June 28 police complaint, she accused Bishop Mulakkal, patron of her diocesan congregation Missionaries of Jesus, of raping her 13 times from 2014-16 at her convent when he visited Kerala from his diocese in Punjab state.

Bishop Mulakkal claims the accusations are baseless and aim to deflate the disciplinary action he had initiated against the nun for her violation of religious vows including disobedience and sexual relations with a man.

Her first complaint was to her parish priest and the local Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of Palai, where her convent is based in Kerala. She has since sent complaints to several Indian bishops connected with the congregation including the nuncio and Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church based in Kerala.

However, she did not see any action initiated against Bishop Mulakkal and did not even get a response from the nuncio, she said.

After waiting a month, she sent letters of complaint to Pope Francis, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the prefects of the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. She got no response other than the delivery note of the courier company, the nun said.

“The church authorities turned a blind eye towards my plea for justice and truth … We had no other option than to approach police in our search for justice and for our safety,” her latest letter said, adding that Bishop Mulakkal had harassed several nuns and forced at least 20 to leave in the past five years.

More than two months after police began to investigate the case, “Bishop Franco is functioning freely with all his privileges … The silence and inaction on the part of the authorities of the Catholic Church in India is adding to the impunity that he enjoys before the law of the land,” the nun said.

“Will the church authority, who stand to protect Bishop Franco and safeguard the dignity of the church by hiding his wickedness, be able to give back what I have lost?” she asked.

The nun also explained why she had allowed herself to be abused repeatedly. “I had tremendous fear and shame to bring this out into the open. I feared suppression of the congregation and threats to my family members,” she said.

She said many women and nuns suffer clerical abuse. Silence and inaction on the part of church officials to stem clerical abuse will have a “very adverse effect” on women and result in the church losing its credibility, she said.

She wanted the church to initiate an inquiry into her allegations while suspending the bishop from his office. She claimed the bishop is using the church’s money and his political clout to scuttle the investigation.

“We feel the Catholic Church is having concern only for bishops and priests. We would like to know if there is any provision in canon law for justice for sisters and women,” her complaint noted.

By Anian Christoph Wimmer

A study commissioned by the German bishops’ conference reports the sexual abuse of thousands of children in that country over a period of 70 years. The report was scheduled to be released later this month, but was leaked Wednesday to German media.

The report was commissioned by the German bishops’ conference and scheduled to be presented on Sept. 25 at the autumn plenary session of the German bishops, as CNA Deutsch reported.

Its methodology is substantially different from that of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.

The study documents sexual offenses against “3677 predominantly male minors” between 1946 and 2014, Der Spiegel reported

“1670 clerics are accused of the deeds,” the German magazine reported, saying researchers had “examined and evaluated more than 38,000 personnel and other files from 27 German dioceses.”

Der Spiegel reported that in many cases evidence was found by researchers to have have been “destroyed or manipulated.”

“We are aware of the extent of sexual abuse that is proven by the results of the study. It is oppressive and shameful for us,” Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier said in a statement Wednesday. The bishop is Commissioner for Questions of Sexual Abuse in the Church and for Questions of the Protection of Children and Minors of the German bishops’ conference.

“Four years ago we commissioned the study and we bishops in particular are facing up to the results. The first step will be the Assembly in Fulda.”

Ackermann also criticized the leak of the study documenting the abuse of minors by priests and religious in Germany in the years 1946 to 2014.

In a statement from the German bishops’ conference, Ackermann said: “I regret that the study, which has remained confidential so far, and is the result of four years of research on the subject of ‘Sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, deacons and male religious in the area of the German Bishops’ Conference’ was published today.”

“Especially with regard to those affected by sexual abuse, the irresponsible advance publication of the study is a severe blow,” said Ackermann.

“This is all the more exasperating since not even the members of the German Bishops’ Conference so far know the entire study,” he added.

According to the German bishops’ conference, the aim of the study, in which all 27 dioceses of Germany took part, was “to obtain more clarity and transparency about this dark side in our church, not only for the sake of those affected, but also in order to be able to see the misdemeanours for ourselves and do everything possible to ensure that they do not repeat themselves.”

“We are concerned about a responsible and professional approach to the problem. I am convinced that the study is a comprehensive and careful survey that offers figures and analyses from which we will continue to learn. This also applies to the findings that provide a deeper insight into the actions of perpetrators and the behaviour of church leaders over the past decades. Once again, I stress that the study is a measure that we owe not only to the Church, but first and foremost to those affected,” Ackermann said.

Russia has had many kinds of people at the top of its political pyramid, Vladimir Pastukhov says; but rarely has it had some who have risen to the top without a revolution who are “so uncouth” as now in the case of Viktor Zolotov, the commander of Russia’s National Guard who has challenged opposition leader Aleksey Navalny to a duel.

“When a powerful favorite, the first gendarme of the Empire, threatens his opponent,” the London-based Russian historian and commentator says, “this is dangerous” because no one has any doubts that he has “unlimited possibilities in a state where law does not operate” (mbk.sobchakprotivvseh.ru/sences/viktor-zolotov-kak-zerkalo/).

“But when [this man] proposes to fight his opponent in public so as to reduce him with his own hands to mush, this is already not dangerous but rather funny and sad,” Pastukhov continues. Everyone needs to remember that “what is permitted a military officer is not permitted to a gendarme.” Zolotov, the historian says, is not General Rokhlin.

Because there has been much talk of dueling in Russia lately, however, some around Zolotov apparently became convinced that he should issue this challenge. But they didn’t think it through and couldn’t imagine how Russians and Navalny would react to such a challenge and such a threat – and how it would affect their views of the powers that be.

When Usmanov made his dismissive comments about Navalny, that was one thing. “Here however is something else – a fatal inadequacy, a lack of correspondence with the times, a falling out of the cultural space. Zolotov’s declaration broke through not so much a political or legal bottom as a cultural one.”

Indeed, Pastukhov continues, “it has become an indicator of the completion of the process of the de-civilization of Russia, and therefore it must be considered in the first instance precisely as a cultural and not as a political or legal phenomenon.”

Zolotov, the historian says, “is among the group of leaders who are the first to successfully complete this process themselves, at the very least with regard to themselves. He isn’t capable of sensing the border between wildness and culture.” His appeal to the officer’s code of honor only highlights this fact.

“In reality,” Pastukhov continues, Zolotov “is guided by an entirely different code, the law of the pack. His reaction is the reaction of a caveman, direct and primitive … It is thus strange that he didn’t propose eating the heart of his enemy at the end of the fight.” That would have been consistent.

In Zolotov’s mental world, “physically dealing with opponents directly is normal,” and all the work of humankind to move beyond that over the centuries is something he is not familiar with. In his caveman-like naivete, he is not frightening but funny” – and that carries with it problems for him and for his fellow members of the pack.

Frightening are the people who killed Nemtsov, Politkovskaya and Estemirova without any publicity. Frightening too are those who torture defenseless people in jails And frightening are Zolotov’s subordinates who “have ceased to distinguish men from women, children from adults” and suppress everyone at protests.

Here we are speaking about something else, Pastukhov says, “about complete cultural disorientation, about the loss of criteria which allow people to make distinctions between between what can be said aloud and what can be remarked about only after the microphone is turned off.”

“Zolotov,” Pastukhov argues, “is a distorted mirror of the state of Russian culture today,” a reflection of the fact that “the cult of the fist flourishes and that he who has the biggest fist in the land becomes its chief shaman.”

But Zolotov’s actions do have a political meaning: On the one hand, they are causing the Russian people to laugh at their leaders, a development that is always corrosive of the power leaders have. And on the other, they are making Navalny more popular, something Zolotov certainly wouldn’t have wanted to do but now cannot fail to do anything else.

In an indication of what the Kremlin’s move toward the economic regionalization may in fact look like, Aeroflot has announced that it plans to establish four hubs outside of Moscow and to begin flights between and among them and not only via Moscow’s Sheremetyevo as is currently the case.

According to a report in Vedomosti, the four will include St. Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnoyarsk, and a city in the Urals, most likely either Yekaterinburg or Chelyabinsk (vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2018/09/10/780500-aeroflot-haba and thebell.io/aeroflot-potratit-sotni-millionov-dollarov-na-sozdanie-habov-v-regionah/).

The project will cost hundreds of millions of US dollars, the company says; and it will take some years to be completed. But if the Russian “hub” system works as the American one does, it will fundamentally change the relations of other regional cities among themselves and between them and Moscow.

On the one hand, flights to more distant parts of Russia, including Moscow, will under this system go through these hub cities rather than as now going to Moscow and then on to the destinations. That will make these hubs vastly more important than the other cities outside of Moscow.

And on the other, it will mean that people in the regions will look to their regional hub city rather than to Moscow for their transportation needs. That shift in orientation regarding transportation is likely to affect the mental maps people have, reducing the centrality of Moscow and increasing the importance of regions and regional hub cities.

Because the economic and potentially political consequences of this change are so great, the cities of Yekaterinbug and Chelyabinsk are now locked in an intense competition to be Aeroflot’s regional hub in the Urals. The winning city will gain in stature, and the loser is certain to fade (ura.news/articles/1036276172).

People who have long-term raised blood pressure have an increased risk of aortic valve disease (AVD) – problems with the valve that controls how blood is pumped from the left ventricle of the heart out into the main artery, the aorta.

In a study of 5.4 million adults in the UK, published in the European Heart Journal, researchers found that above a systolic blood pressure of 115 mmHg, every additional 20 mmHg was associated with a 41% higher risk of aortic stenosis (AS) and a 38% higher risk of aortic regurgitation (AR) later in life. Compared to people who had a systolic blood pressure of 120 mmHg or lower, those with systolic blood pressure of 161 mmHg or higher had more than twice the risk of being diagnosed with AS and were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with AR during follow-up.

The findings suggest that controlling blood pressure, even at levels below the threshold currently defined for hypertension of 140/90 mmHg, may be a way to prevent these conditions [3]. “These findings collectively suggest that AS and AR might be partially preventable with potential implications on clinical practice guidelines for prevention of cardiovascular disease in general and valvular heart disease and hypertension in particular,” write the authors of the EHJ paper.

AS is a condition in which the valve that opens and closes when blood is pumped out of the left ventricle becomes narrowed and stiff due to calcium building up. When this happens, the valve fails to work effectively, making it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. AR occurs when the valve doesn’t close properly, allowing some blood to leak back into the left ventricle.

During an average follow-up time of more than nine years, 20,680 (0.38%) of the 5.4 million patients in the study were diagnosed with AS alone and 6440 (0.12%) were diagnosed with AR alone. The average age at the time of diagnosis was 64 years and 57 years for AS and AR respectively.

Researchers, led by Kazem Rahimi, deputy director and associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at The George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford, UK, analysed data from electronic health records for the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink from January 1990 to December 2015. The CPRD database contains anonymised patient data from 674 general practices in the UK. The patients included in this analysis were aged between 30 and 90 years, and none had any known heart or blood vessel diseases at the time of their earliest blood pressure measurement.

An average of nearly seven blood pressure measurements per patient were taken during the study period, which helped to estimate the patient’s actual blood pressure better. The ability to collect data over a long period of time, combined with the large number of patients, makes this the first study substantial enough to investigate the link between blood pressure and aortic valve disease and how it changes with age and with different blood pressure levels.

Professor Rahimi said: “The study shows that serious valvular heart diseases that are common at old age are not simply due to aging. Long-term exposure to higher blood pressure is a strong and potentially modifiable risk factor for aortic stenosis and regurgitation at every level of typical blood pressure, not only in those who are classified as having hypertension. Blood pressure should be considered as a major risk factor for aortic valve disease, much in the same way as we think of elevated blood pressure as a risk factor for atherosclerotic disease. The study suggests that the associations are causal, but this requires further confirmation.”

Previous research has suggested that the mechanism involved in the link between blood pressure and AVD could be that higher blood pressure can cause cell damage leading to a loss of elasticity in the aorta and stiffening of the aortic valve.

Limitations of the study include the possibility that raised blood pressure may be an indication of an underlying problem with arterial stiffness that is caused by something else. To investigate this further, the researchers are carrying out a study that uses genetic indicators for higher blood pressure that are not affected by environmental factors. Another limitation is the use of data from a general practice registry, which might be prone to errors in measuring blood pressure, other factors that might affect the results, and patient outcomes.

In an editorial [4] to accompany the research paper, Dr Stefano Masi from the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Università di Pisa, Italy, and Dr Alberto Giannoni from the Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio, Pisa, who were not involved with the research, write that the study “provides the first solid evidence supporting the need for a radical shift in the approach to AVD. Indeed, over the last few years, the research on valvular heart disease has been focused on improving treatment rather than prevention strategies…..Thus, the findings provided by Rahimi et al might be considered the first step towards a change in the management of AVD and likely to influence future clinical trials and guidelines. Current European guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension do not consider AVDs as manifestations of heart damage related to hypertension and, consequently, do not suggest accurate assessment of aortic valve function and structure in patients with arterial hypertension. Also, they might stimulate new lines of research, particularly imaging studies, with the scope of identifying early alterations of the aortic valve in patients with hypertension that might be highly predictive of future AVD”.

The proportion of people living with AS is estimated to be around 0.4% of the population in the USA, although the prevalence increases with age; in the US, 0.02% of 18-44-year-olds have AS, but 2.8% of people aged 75 and over are diagnosed with it. For AR the corresponding prevalence in these age groups is estimated to be 0.2% and 2% respectively, and the prevalence for AS and AR is similar in Europe. The number of people diagnosed with severe aortic valve disease has grown steadily in recent years and is expected to continue with the aging of populations.

By Hadi Azmi

People’s Justice Party (PKR) leader Anwar Ibrahim is expected to return to politics officially after a lawmaker vacated his seat on Wednesday, triggering a by-election to make way for Malaysia’s “prime minister in waiting.”

Anwar, who was released from prison on May 16 after receiving a royal pardon on sodomy convictions, will seek election to the parliamentary seat serving Port Dickson, south of Kuala Lumpur, and is expected to take over eventually as prime minister from Mahathir Mohamad. No date has been set for the by-election.

Former Navy Adm. Danyal Balagopal, who was elected to the seat for the first time in May, cited difficulties adapting to a political life after four decades of military service. He made the announcement during a press conference at PKR headquarters attended by party Secretary-General Saifuddin Nasution and Vice President Rafizi Ramli.

“Anwar agreed and is prepared to contest in Port Dickson. I am confident Anwar will win and become a member of parliament, and Malaysia’s eighth prime minister,” Danyal said.

Also on Wednesday, parliament’s upper house, which is controlled by the opposition Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, stalled the new government’s efforts to repeal the Anti-Fake News Act that was passed during the lead-up to the May 9 general election, when Barisan ruled the country.

Port Dickson will be the first seat contested by Anwar other than his hometown seat of Permatang Pauh in Penang state that he held for six terms, beginning in 1982. He rose to deputy prime minister but was forced from office after a falling-out with then-Prime Minister Mahathir when both were members of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party of the then-ruling Barisan bloc.

Anwar and Mahathir realigned last year, forming the Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance that upset UMNO’s Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to wrest control of the government. Mahathir, 93, is expected to relinquish the prime minister’s office to Anwar in two years.

Anwar is credited with serving as PKR’s de facto leader and managing the election campaign from behind bars even though he did not hold an official post with the party. His return to office is essential for the succession plan because the constitution requires that the prime minister be an MP.

Speaking on behalf of Anwar, who was in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Saifuddin told reporters that PKR officials spoke to leaders of the other Pakatan member parties and they agreed to support the candidate.

“They have assured us of their full cooperation to ensure Anwar’s victory,” he said.

He also said that Anwar would not accept a government leadership post if elected, but would focus on parliamentary reforms.

“As an MP, Anwar who is also part of the PH presidential council, can play a more effective role in helping the government,” Saifuddin said.

In an interview with CNBC that was published before Danyal announced his resignation, Anwar said that a parliamentary seat would have to be vacated before he could run for office as an MP.

“That should happen very soon,” Anwar, 71, told the network.

“If I win, God willing, I will focus on parliamentary reform,” he said.

However, PKR Housing Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin pointed out that the party’s leadership did not follow the proper channels in selecting the candidate.

“Every decision made by the party needs to be done through the committee so that a consensus can be achieved that is in line with the spirit of reformation and democracy,” she said.

In response to the announcement about Anwar’s reentry to the political fray, BN official Khairy Jamaluddin posted a tweet suggesting that his coalition field a local candidate to face Anwar.

“It will prove to be difficult for BN to win, but still, a local face will put up a better fight,” he said.

Anwar has a strong chance of winning the election, no matter who runs against him, according to Wong Chin Huat, a political analyst with the Penang Institute.

“Most Malaysians would want to have an MP who is the future prime minister,” he told BenarNews.

“Anwar’s challenge is to show his statesmanship as the next prime minister without being seen as in a hurry and undermining Mahathir’s leadership,” Wong said.

Senate roadblock

Meanwhile, parliament’s upper house, also known as the senate, delayed the Anti-Fake News Act repeal in a party-line vote. Senate President S. A. Vigneswaran announced that 28 BN and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) senators voted against repealing the act, while 21 Pakatan senators voted for the repeal and three abstained.

Despite the change in power, the senate, whose members are political appointees, is controlled by those loyal to the previous government.

In August, the lower house voted to repeal the act.

Under the constitution, bills rejected by the Senate must be returned to the lower house for approval again before being presented to the senate for a second time. The senate then has 30 days to approve the bill, after which, regardless of the decision, it is presented to the king for his royal assent and gazetted as law.

The king can opt to not give royal assent to a bill, forcing it to be sent back to both houses to be voted again and returned for his approval. If he still does not approve the bill, it automatically is gazetted as law after 30 days.

About 61 percent of the world’s 356 turtle species are threatened or already extinct, and the decline could have ecological consequences. These findings are according to a new paper in Bioscience synthesizing the global status of turtles and their ecological roles by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, University of California, Davis, and the University of Georgia.

“Our purpose is to inform the public of the many critical ecological roles turtles perform on a global scale and bring awareness to the plight of these emblematic animals whose ancestors walked with the dinosaurs,” said the study’s senior author, Whit Gibbons, professor emeritus at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology.

“These modern descendants of an ancient lineage are touchstones for how human influences are causing the decline of so much of the world’s wildlife. Our hope is that everyone will be encouraged to engage in concerted efforts to conserve their well-earned legacy as part of our natural habitats,” Gibbons said.

“Turtles contribute to the health of many environments, including desert, wetland, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and declines may lead to negative effects on other species, including humans, that may not be immediately apparent,” said USGS scientist and lead author of the study Jeffrey Lovich.

On the list of most threatened

Turtles are now among the most threatened group of animals on Earth, more so than birds, mammals, fish or amphibians. These iconic animals outlived the dinosaurs and have roamed the Earth for more than 200 million years. Reasons for the dire situation of turtles worldwide include habitat destruction, over-exploitation for pets and food, disease and climate change.

Scientists synthesized existing published studies to bring attention to the plight of turtles and identify what may be lost from an ecological perspective as they continue to decline and disappear. This paper provides the first major review of the various functional roles that large populations and diverse communities of turtles provide from an ecological perspective. This includes maintaining healthy food webs, dispersing seeds and creating habitats necessary for other species.

Impact on the ecosystem

Turtles can be major players in ecosystem food webs because they can be herbivores, omnivores and carnivores. They range from specialists, or feeding on one to a few food sources, to generalists, feeding on a wide range of items. Their diverse feeding habits allow them to influence the structure of other communities in their habitat.

Some turtle species occur in dense numbers that can yield hundreds of pounds of turtles per acre, making them ecologically important by virtue of their mass alone. Such large masses of turtles equates to large amounts of potential food for organisms that feed on turtles or their eggs.

Turtles can be important in dispersing the seeds of dozens of plant species. Some turtle species may even be the primary seed dispersal agents for specific plants. Not all seeds are destroyed by the digestive tract. In fact, there are specific seeds that exhibit higher rates of germination after being eaten and passed.

Habitats for other species

Some turtles, like Agassiz’s desert tortoise in the American Southwest and the gopher tortoise in the American Southeast, dig large burrows creating habitat for other species. For example, the gopher tortoise can dig burrows over 30 feet long. The mounds of soil near the entrance of the burrows can create new habitat for some plant species, increasing overall plant diversity near burrow entrances. The burrows are used by hundreds of other species including spiders, insects, snakes, amphibians, other reptiles, rabbits, foxes and even bobcats.

“The ecological importance of turtles, especially freshwater turtles, is underappreciated, and they are generally understudied by ecologists,” says Josh Ennen, research scientist at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. “The alarming rate of turtle disappearance could profoundly affect how ecosystems function and the structure of biological communities around the globe.”

“We must take the time to understand turtles, their natural history, and their importance to the environment, or risk losing them to a new reality where they don’t exist,” said UC Davis scientist Mickey Agha. “Referred to as a shifting baseline, people born into a world without large numbers of long-lived reptiles, such as turtles, may accept that as the new norm.”

New evidence from the Maya city of Copan, in Honduras, reveals that ancient Mesoamericans routinely captured and traded wild animals for symbolic and ritual purposes, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nawa Sugiyama from George Mason University, Virginia, USA, and colleagues.

Ancient Mesoamerican cultures used wild animals such as puma and jaguar for many purposes, including in symbolic displays of status and power, as subjects of ritual sacrifice, and as resources for processing into venison or craft products. Evidence of wild animal use in ancient Mesoamerica dates back to the Teotihuacan culture in what is now central Mexico (A.D. 1-550). Archaeological findings of indigenous Mesoamerican animal management strategies have traditionally been underemphasized, due to the paucity of large domesticated game in the New World in comparison to the devastating impact of European livestock introduced in the 1500s. In this study, the research team analyzed archaeological samples of wild animals excavated from five ritual sites in the Maya city of Copan (A.D. 426-822), in Honduras.

The team performed stable isotope analyses on bone and teeth from puma, jaguar and other unidentified felids along with deer, owl, spoonbill, and crocodile, to determine the diet and geographical origin of the animals. Some of the felid specimens tested, including puma and jaguar, had high levels of C4 intake indicative of an anthropogenic diet despite the absence of indicators of captive breeding. Oxygen isotope levels in deer and felid specimens suggest that some animals and derived craft products (e.g. pelts) used in ritual practices originated in distant regions of the Copan Valley.

These findings confirm previous research showing that Mesoamerican cultures kept wild animals in captivity for ritual purposes and reveal that animal trade networks across ancient Mesoamerica were more extensive than previously thought.

Sugiyama summarizes: “Encoded into the bones of jaguars and pumas at the Maya site of Copan was evidence of both captivity and of expansive trade networks trading ritualized carnivores across the dynamic Mesoamerican landscape.”

An old joke says if you want to know if a politician is lying, see if their lips are moving. New research shows that people can predict something about a politician’s honesty just by looking at them, but it’s not the lips they’re noticing.

A series of studies conducted by Caltech researchers show that when people are shown photos of politicians they’re not familiar with, they can make better-than-chance judgments about whether those politicians have been convicted of corruption. People can make these judgments even without knowing anything about the politicians or their careers. And one thing they seem to be picking up on is how wide the politicians’ faces are.

The individual people making these judgments do only very slightly better than if they were making a random guess (although the difference is statistically significant). However, the judgments become much more accurate when they are combined across a group of people.

Face wideness–technically, the facial width-to-height ratio–has been shown in previous research to be correlated with aggressive behavior in men. That is, men with wider faces have a greater tendency to be aggressive and threatening toward others than do men with thinner faces. Studies have also shown that wide-faced men are perceived by others to be more threatening than men with thinner faces.

The new Caltech study is the first to show that observers have a knack for picking out corrupt politicians based on just a portrait and that observers perceive politicians with wider faces as more corruptible.

“It might be difficult to understand why you can look at others’ faces and tell something about them,” said Chujun Lin, study co-author and Caltech graduate student. “But there is no doubt that people form first impressions from faces all the time. For example, on dating sites people often reject potential matches based on pictures without reading the profile.”

However, it’s important to note that the researchers are not claiming that politicians who look corruptible are inherently more corrupt than those who look honest. Their research shows a connection between facial appearance and corruption, but, they say, there could be many explanations. One possibility is that if a face conveys a sense of dishonesty, the politician might be offered bribes more often. Another possibility is that corruptible-looking politicians are not any more corruptible than honest-looking politicians, but because of their looks they are more often suspected of, investigated for, and convicted of corruption.

“If a jury is deciding whether or not a politician is guilty, having a corruptible-looking face might create a negative impression, which might influence the jury’s decision,” said Lin, who adds that the “clean” politicians used in the study might not actually be clean. “Maybe they just haven’t been caught.”

The study, which appears in the journal Psychological Science, consisted of four parts.

Part 1: The researchers collected pictures of 72 politicians who held office at the state or federal level. Half had been convicted of corruption and half had clean records. For consistency, all of the politicians included were male and Caucasian. All of the photos were black-and-white; cropped to the same size; and featured a frontal, smiling portrait. The images were presented randomly to 100 volunteers, who were asked to rate each politician on how corruptible, dishonest, selfish, trustworthy, and generous they looked.

An analysis of the data collected showed that the volunteers as a group were able to correctly differentiate the corrupt politicians from the clean politicians nearly 70 percent of the time based on their faces alone.

Part 2: The second part of the study replicated part 1, but used photos of 80 politicians elected to state and local offices in California. Half had violated the California Political Reform Act–a law that regulates campaign finance, lobbying, and politicians’ conflicts of interest–and half had clean records. As before, the data showed that the volunteers could correctly differentiate the corrupt politicians from the clean politicians nearly 70 percent of the time.

Part 3: The third part of the study used the images from part 1, but asked the volunteers to judge the politicians on a new set of criteria: corruptibility, aggressiveness, masculinity, competence, and ambitiousness. The data from this study showed that only corruptibility-related trait inferences (inferences of corruptibility, dishonesty, selfishness, aggressiveness, generosity, and trustworthiness) differentiated corrupt politicians from the clean politicians. Inferences of competence, ambitiousness, or masculinity did not predict the politicians’ records.

Part 4a: In the fourth section of the study, the researchers examined which of the politicians’ facial structures the volunteers associated with dishonesty and corruption. The faces were characterized by eight measures that described things like distance between the eyes, size of the cheekbones, nose length, and face width. By comparing the data from those measures against the judgments made by the volunteers and the records of corruption convictions, the researchers found that politicians with higher facial-width ratios were more likely to be perceived as corruptible.

Part 4b: To double check that face width was truly the characteristic driving negative perceptions about a given politician, the researchers gathered photos of 150 politicians and digitally manipulated each into a wide-faced version and a narrow-faced version. The 450 resulting photos, including the 150 unaltered originals, were shown to 100 participants who were asked, as in the previous studies, to rate each image according to how corruptible the politician seemed. And again, face width made the difference. The volunteers judged the wide-faced versions of the politicians to be more corruptible than their thin-faced counterparts.

“These findings raise many interesting questions for future research,” said Lin. “For example, what is the underlying causal mechanism of the correlation between perceived corruptibility and politicians’ records found in our study? Are politicians who look more corruptible more likely to be suspected, investigated, and even convicted?”

The findings might make a person wonder why corrupt politicians get elected in the first place if people can tell they’re corrupt just by looking at them. Co-author Ralph Adolphs (PhD ’92), Bren Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology, and director and Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair of the Caltech Brain Imaging Center, says that a lot more than just a face goes into how you feel about a person.

“In the real world, you’re not just seeing a photo of a politician. You’re seeing them talk and move,” said Adolphs, who is also on the leadership team of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience. “Their face might make a first impression on you, but there are other factors that can come in and override that.”

Before conducting this study, Lin researched how politicians’ facial characteristics relate to their success in elections across different cultures. She plans to continue her research on the judgments people make based on facial structures. Her next study asks volunteers to judge people from all walks of life on 100 different characteristics such as helpfulness, meanness, and healthiness, based on their faces.

Jon Snow (played by Kit Harington) has a tough a year ahead of him as he has now partnered up with Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in “Game of Thrones”, Express says.

But with a war on its way, Jon and Dany may find themselves in a bad way, leaving their lives in danger.

Kit has now spoken out about the finale of the series, and warned fans that it may not be as conclusive as expected.

Speaking to MTV News he said: “I think a TV series that’s spanned eight, nine years is an incredibly difficult thing to end.

“I think not everyone’s going to be happy, you know, and you can’t please everyone.”

But with many fans eager for their favourite character to make it through the final season, it will be difficult for everyone to be satisfied.

However things may end up being more brutal than initially expected, as Kit went on to mention the finales of other shows.

He mused: “My favourite TV shows are Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and The Wire – and they all ended in a way that didn’t satisfy you.”

But could this be a subtle hint to how the HBO show will end?

The Sopranos famously ended with a stark cut to black after a long final series – could this be in store for the last episode of the fantasy epic?

Similarly, “Breaking Bad” ended in a harrowing way, as the show’s protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is last seen laying on the floor after being shot – however it was unconfirmed whether he would survive or not.

With Jon’s new allegiance and relationship with Dany blossoming, he may be left in a tough situation in the final season.

As Dany is eager to take over all of Westeros she may find herself in a situation which will leave her taking on the rest of the Starks in Winterfell.

But Jon may not see eye-to-eye with this decision, and could find himself on the attack against his new beau.

Kit’s hint follows a fan theory that Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) may have already sealed her fate.

New research has found a way to identify extremists, such as those associated with the terrorist group ISIS, by monitoring their social media accounts, and can identify them even before they post threatening content.

The research, “Finding Extremists in Online Social Networks,” which was recently published in the INFORMS journal Operations Research, was conducted by Tauhid Zaman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lieutenant Colonel Christopher E. Marks, U.S. Army; and Jytte Klausen of Brandeis University

The number and size of online extremist groups using social networks to harass users, recruit new members, and incite violence is rapidly increasing. While social media platforms are working to combat this (in 2016, Twitter reported it had shut down 360,000 ISIS accounts) they traditionally rely heavily on users’ reports to identify these accounts.

In addition, once an account has been suspended, there is little that can be done to prevent a user from opening up a new account, or multiple accounts.

“Social media has become a powerful platform for extremist groups, ranging from ISIS to white nationalist “alt-right” groups,” said Zaman. “These groups use social networks to spread hateful propaganda and incite violence and terror attacks, making them a threat to the general public.”

Identifying extremists before they pose a threat online

The researchers collected Twitter data from approximately 5,000 “seed” users who were either known ISIS members or who were connected to many known ISIS members as friends or followers. They obtained their names through news stories, blogs, and reports released by law enforcement agencies and think tanks.

In addition to reviewing the content of 4.8 million tweets from these users’ timelines (including text, links, hash tags, and mentions), they also tracked account suspensions, as well as any suspensions of their friends and followers accounts.

For the purpose of this study, the researchers focused on the account networks forged by known ISIS and Al Qaeda sympathizers and known foreign fighters and content that had been flagged by Twitter as terrorist in nature.

Using statistical modeling of extremist behavior with optimized search policies and actual ISIS user data, the researchers developed a method to predict new extremist users, identify if more than one account belongs to the same user, as well as predict network connections of suspended extremist users who start a new account.

In addition, by tracking and comparing data on screen names, user name, profile images and banner images, the researchers were also able to identify 70 percent of additional Twitter profiles held by extremist users, with only a 2 percent incidence of misclassifying profiles.

“We created a new set of operational capabilities to deal with the threat posed by online extremists in social networks,” said Marks. “We are able to predict who is an extremist before they post any content, and then able to predict where they will re-enter the network after they are suspended. In short, we can automatically figure out who is an extremist and keep them of the social network.”

While the study was conducted using data from accounts belonging to ISIS extremists on Twitter, their methodology can be applied to any extremist group and any social network.

“Users that engage in some form of online extremism or harassment will have very similar behavioral characteristics in social networks,” said Klausen. “They will connect to a specific set of users which form their extremist group. They will create new accounts which will resemble their old accounts after being suspended, and when the return to the social network following a suspension, there is a high probability they will reconnect with certain former friends.”

The Government of Japan has decided to extend a grant assistance of nearly US$ 1.25 million (Rs. 1.94 billion) to expedite the Sri Lankan government’s humanitarian demining efforts in the war-battered North with the aim of transforming Sri Lanka into a land mine free country.

The grant assistance from Japan aims to accelerate the Sri Lankan government’s program to be free of land mines by 2020 and the relevant agreement for the grant assistance was signed on Tuesday at the Japanese Embassy in Colombo.

The Government of Japan will provide a total sum of US$1,249,997 as grant aid to the two non-governmental organizations involved in the mine clearing operations SKAVITA Humanitarian Assistance and Relief Project (SHARP) and Mines Advisory Group (MAG) to implement the mine clearing operations.

The Grant Contract was signed between Ambassador of Japan Kenichi Suganuma, and Lt Col (Retd) V.S.M. Sarath Jayawardhene, Programme Manager of SHARP and Technical Operations Manager of MAG Rovinan Fernandez.The project will provide US$624,997 for MAG and US$625,000 to SHARP organization.

The project will further strengthen the de-mining program that has been implemented by the Sri Lankan government to allow internally displaced persons to resettle and begin their livelihood programs. Japan has been a major donor supporting mine clearance in Sri Lanka to accelerate the return and resettlement of Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) and to facilitate recommencement of agriculture and other livelihood activities of returnees. Since 2003, the Government of Japan has provided a sum of US$33 million for demining activities in the North and the East under its Grant Assistance schemes.

Expressing his views, Japanese ambassador to Sri Lanka Kenichi Suganuma pointed out that this project will enable the establishment of mine free areas in the country to enable internally displaced persons to resettle and Japan hopes to contribute to the efforts of the Sri Lanka Government’s resettlement program. In addition, the assistance will be provided to Sri Lanka to strengthen the program undertaken by the Government to ensure that the North is safe from land mines, Ambassador Suganuma said adding that another 25 square kilometers of land is remaining to be cleared.

Commenting on the provision of this grant, SHARP’s Program Manager Lt Col (Retd) V.S.M. Sarath Jayawardene said, “For the third successive year, the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka has come forward to provide funds through the GGP for SHARP to carry out demining clearance work in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.Appreciating the third Japanese grant SHARP Program Manager said the organization hopes to continue their services efficiently and fruitfully to the maximum.

Meanwhile, Director of Technical Operations of the Mines Advisory Group appreciated the assistance from Japan, which supports demining activities throughout the world including Sri Lanka and during the last four years with Japan’s partnership the group was able to remove over 10,000 landmines.He pointed out that around 44,000 mines have been removed 36 square kilometers of land in Sri Lanka since 2009.

The shocking fall of the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional government in the recent general election was not only historic but also game-changing. As Malaysians usher in a new era, three evolving scenarios are worth watching.

By Yang Razali Kassim*

Twenty days after he was elected to the country’s highest office for the second time, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made an official visit to Indonesia. By the standards of Southeast Asian diplomacy, that was fast. He received a red-carpet welcome from Indonesian President Joko Widodo, 40 years his junior and a political neophyte compared to the Malaysian nonagenarian.

During his visit, Mahathir made a geopolitically significant proposition: Malaysia and Indonesia should join forces to oppose pressure from Europe on the global palm oil industry. As the world’s top producers, the two Southeast Asian neighbours dominate the global palm oil market. “Our palm oil is threatened by Europe and we need to oppose them together,” he said at a joint press conference with President Joko (also known as Jokowi). Within weeks, the Malaysian and Indonesian foreign ministers met to follow up on a plan to counter the European Union’s move to phase out the use of biofuel in transport fuels.

Making History

Fifteen years after stepping down from the job, Prime Minister Mahathir is back with a bang. During his first tenure as premier from 1981 to 2003, he was known for his combative style. Now, Southeast Asia and the world will be hearing more from the outspoken Malaysian leader, age notwithstanding.

The return of Mahathir at 93, long past when most leaders decide to call it a day, is almost surreal. It is also catapulting him to the status of a political legend in Malaysian politics. In so doing, he scored many firsts. No former prime minister had ever made a comeback to dethrone his preferred successor. The sacking of Najib Razak at the ballot box on 9 May 2018 also meant that Mahathir is now the world’s oldest prime minister, and still very much a man in a hurry.

Another first: never before had Malaysia gone through regime change thrown up by a peaceful “people’s uprising” at the ballot box. What made this all possible was the stunning political reconciliation between Mahathir and his fiercest nemesis: With his surprising support for the jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim, and Anwar’s reciprocal backing for Mahathir, their remarkable burying of the hatchet led to the opposition’s startling electoral victory.

The ruling juggernaut, the UMNO-led coalition, had never been defeated since independence in 1957. The coalition finally lost power at the hands of the country’s most potent political duo: Mahathir-Anwar. In the aftermath, at least three evolving scenarios are worth watching:

Scenario 1: A New Order?

If the newly-elected Pakatan Harapan (PH, Alliance of Hope) coalition government can last at least two terms, we will see a different political order take hold. The people’s rejection of the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and UMNO is a new phenomenon in Malaysian politics. Increasingly, the emerging narrative is that of a “New Malaysia”.

What this New Malaysia is, however, has yet to be clearly defined, as it seems to mean different things to different people. The popular view is that it is simply the antithesis of the old era; anything that was bad about the old must not be part of New Malaysia. Even Mahathir himself has called for a break from the past: “The New Malaysia should even be an improvement on the period during which I was prime minister for 22 years.” The government should “have to go back to democracy and the rule of law and respect the wishes of the people,” he said.

Two wishes in particular: First is cleaning up the mess of corruption left behind by the Najib administration. Reformism will be the order of the day, possibly leading eventually to some form of systemic change. Ironically, Mahathir, who was known as an autocrat, has become the “New Reformer,” embracing Anwar Ibrahim’s battle-cry of Reformasi.

Second, Mahathir and his team will be under pressure to prove that the new government can fulfill the people’s expectations. The previously disparate alliance will have to demonstrate that it will not be a photocopy of the old regime.

Scenario 2: Existential Crisis

All that said, the power vehicle the PH alliance overthrew is not to be trifled with. At the core of the dethroned BN coalition is UMNO, the linchpin party that won independence from the British. Once thought to be invincible, BN disintegrated as soon as it lost power. Several partners deserted it, leaving only three original component parties, the pillar of which is UMNO.

UMNO itself is facing an existential crisis. It is under threat of being deregistered for failing to hold internal party elections, in breach of political regulations. Should it be struck off, this will not be the first time after surviving one in 1987, ironically when Mahathir was its president; but the political impact of a replay will be far-reaching, as the party, though out of power, still symbolises the aspirations of the majority ethnic group.

In this battle for survival, UMNO is going through an internal debate over direction and its own identity. The future of UMNO now depends very much on how far the younger generation will succeed in taking over the leadership and charting a new course. Nevertheless, the introspective search for a new identity for UMNO is unprecedented, reflecting the country’s new terrain.

The course taken by UMNO will partly be influenced, if not defined, by the broader political landscape now dominated by the Mahathir-Anwar leadership 2.0. Collectively, the deadly duo has come to symbolise a political ethos around “post-identity”. If PH succeeds, Malaysian politics may increasingly move away from primordial attachments towards a common centre, where greater acceptance and tolerance of each other will be the new norm. How far this will go will also depend on how effective the pushback is from a tentative UMNO alliance with the Islamist opposition PAS.

Scenario 3: Beyond the Border

The political shifts do not stop at Malaysia’s border. As one of the most developed economies in Southeast Asia, the country’s political dynamics – especially those that affect its stability and security – will be of importance to its neighbours in the region and beyond.

Nothing underscores this better than Prime Minister Mahathir’s wooing of Indonesian President Jokowi for a partnership to stave off European pressures on their palm oil industry. With neighbouring Singapore, Mahathir also created some ripples when he threw a spanner in the works of a joint high-speed rail project signed by the Najib government, though this has been deferred for now. Mahathir also suggested renegotiating the long-standing supply of water from Malaysia’s Johor state, a strategic resource for Singapore.

Mahathir’s biggest challenge is, however, further afield, in Beijing. China is at the heart of some financially troubling megaprojects initiated by Najib. Mahathir has taken issue with the Asian giant for financing these projects, which were placed under investigation in Kuala Lumpur following the defeat of the BN administration.

Mahathir himself travelled to Beijing in August to re-negotiate with Chinese leaders the China-funded projects in Malaysia, part of a larger goal to cut down on the massive national debt inherited from the previous government.

At the end of his trip, Mahathir announced at a press conference in Beijing that Malaysia would now cancel the frozen projects – only to tone it down later to “defer” them instead — a decision he said Chinese leaders had “agreed” on. “We do not want a situation where there is a new version of colonialism,” said Mahathir after his meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

What is equally troubling Mahathir is the Chinese model of economic collaboration. At issue is Beijing’s preference for extending loans with high interest rates rather than investing directly in the projects, and for payments to Chinese contractors based on timelines rather than project deliveries.

Another is the Chinese propensity to use their own resources, workforce and expertise for the projects, instead of relying on local firms and creating jobs domestically. This model that some call Beijing’s “debt trap diplomacy” has also been questioned in several countries in Asia and Africa for the problems and social tension they generate.

Mahathir, however, is striking a careful balance in resolving the mountain of debt left behind by his predecessor. Important to him also is preserving good relations with a rising economic superpower that is a significant market for Malaysian products. “We do not blame the Chinese government because their companies signed an agreement or several agreements with Malaysian companies under the auspices of the government of the day,” Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told The Straits Times.

Unlike in the past, the political earthquake in Malaysia this time is clearly reverberating beyond Malaysia’s border. Before he finally calls it a day ̶ again ̶ expect Mahathir to make more waves as he brings his assertive persona to the international stage, perhaps even to the United Nations. It’s in his DNA.

*Yang Razali Kassim is Senior Fellow with the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. An earlier version of this first appeared in the Liechtenstein-based geopolitical website gisreportsonline.com. This is part of an RSIS series on Malaysia’s 14th General Election and its Aftermath.

Global warming could lead to the extinction of up to 10% of frog and toad species endemic to Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest biome within about the next 50 years. The temperature and precipitation regimes predicted to occur between 2050 and 2070 will be lethal for species that are less well adapted to climate variation and inhabit certain areas of the Atlantic Rainforest.

This is one of the findings of a study that analyzes the present and future distribution of anurans (tailless amphibians, i.e., frogs and toads) in Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado (savanna) biomes in the context of climate change due to continuous global warming.

A paper on the study has been published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. The first author is herpetologist Tiago da Silveira Vasconcelos, a researcher at São Paulo State University’s School of Sciences (FC-UNESP) in Bauru, Brazil.

At present, 550 anuran species are known to inhabit the Atlantic Rainforest (80% of them endemic), and 209 are known to be present in the Cerrado. After removing species with fewer than five occurrence records, Vasconcelos worked with spatial distribution data for 350 species in the Atlantic Rainforest and 155 species in the Cerrado.

“In this manner, we were able to identify the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado areas with the highest levels of anuran species richness and with unique species composition,” Vasconcelos said. “Having identified these areas, we evaluated the anuran communities in current and future climate scenarios in order to determine which areas offered a favorable climate for each of the 505 species analyzed and whether the areas would expand or contract by 2050 and 2070 owing to global warming.”

The investigator had the support of the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP through its Research Program on Global Climate Change .

“The first expected impact of climate change on anuran amphibians in the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado is the extinction of 42 species due to the complete loss of the areas with favorable climate conditions between 2050 and 2070,” Vasconcelos said.

From the 42 species likely to be extinct, 37 of them are Atlantic Rainforest species (10.6% of the total) and five are Cerrado species. Of these 42 species, only five are currently considered endangered by Brazil’s Environment Ministry.

Methodology

The spatial distribution data for 350 Atlantic Rainforest species and 155 Cerrado species were analyzed in terms of two community ecology metrics: alpha diversity, defined as local species richness within a specific habitat or ecosystem, and beta diversity, a measure of structural heterogeneity based on the extent to which species composition varies as a function of distance.

According to Vasconcelos, the next step was to generate ecological niche models based on the climate characteristics favorable to each species, using four algorithms: generalized linear models, boosted regression trees, random forests, and support vector machines.

The algorithms generated maps of the Atlantic Rainforest and Cerrado areas in which each species can survive thanks to their similar climates. They were then calibrated with future climate scenarios based on projections available from the WorldClim global climate database.

“In projecting future climate change conditions for 2050 and 2070, we used two carbon gas emission scenarios – one more optimistic with less global warming and the other more pessimistic and warmer. We also used three different atmosphere-ocean global circulation models,” explained the FAPESP-supported researcher. The scenarios and models are from the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“For each of the 505 species analyzed, we generated 24 distribution maps [four algorithms x two carbon emission scenarios x three global circulation models]. That’s 12,000 maps all told,” he said.

The 24 distribution maps for each species were then used to generate a consensus map and a species presence-absence matrix to determine the forecast occurrence of each species in 2050 and 2070.

Homogenization of amphibians in the Cerrado

The highest levels of anuran species richness in the Atlantic Rainforest are currently found in the southeastern part of the biome, in Espírito Santo, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and São Paulo State. Inland areas have lower levels of anuran species richness.

Although the results of the FAPESP-funded study point to species loss throughout the biome, even the higher rates of loss in its southeastern portion will not prevent this specific region from remaining the richest in anuran amphibians.

On the other hand, there will be species loss throughout the Cerrado but also biodiversity gains in some regions.

“The results of our research show expansion of the areas with favorable climate conditions for anuran amphibians. Rising temperatures will lead to the expansion of Cerrado areas in a northern and northwestern direction, occupying what is now Amazon forest,” Vasconcelos said. “The savannization of Amazon forest areas will open up new areas for occupation by amphibians from the Cerrado.”

In the Cerrado, climate change will not affect the area with the highest level of anuran species richness, which is on the southern edge of the biome, but a considerable loss of species is predicted in the western and southwestern portions of the biome adjacent to the low-lying Pantanal wetlands. On the other hand, species richness may increase in Tocantins, northern Minas Gerais and western Bahia.

“The future climate change scenarios suggest there may be homogenization of anuran species throughout the Cerrado. In other words, the areas occupied by more generalist species that have adapted to different habitats and can tolerate wider temperature and humidity variations are expected to expand,” Vasconcelos said.

By Paulo Victor Chagas

Leaders of the Workers’ Party (PT) confirmed early on Tuesday afternoon (11) the nomination of Fernando Haddad, onetime minister and former São Paulo mayor, to take the place of ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the presidential race this year.

Lula has been incarcerated in a Federal Police prison unit in the south city of Curitiba since April, after being convicted for corruption and money laundering by an appellate court.

The former leader had his request for candidacy rejected by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

The replacement was a unanimous decision made in a party summit meeting. Deputy José Guimarães, of the PT, attended the event and said that former Federal Deputy Manuela d’Ávila, of Brazil’s Communist Party (PCdoB) will be confirmed as running mate. D’Ávila gave up running for president herself after her party decided to back the PT.

The Superior Electoral Court said the PT should unveil a name to replace Lula’s in its presidential ticket until today, otherwise the party could no longer be allowed to take part in the elections.

Propaganda

The electoral authorities also ruled that the PT should remove any content made public with Lula appearing as candidate. The ticket may be invalidated in case of non-compliance.

A “Letter to the Brazilian people” is expected to be written by Lula and made public today. In the text, the former president is likely to express his support for Haddad and say the latter represents him as his successor.

By Lisa Vives

There are two sides to every coin and two widely opposing views on China’s offer of generous loans and grants to African countries announced at the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Forum in Beijing.

At the conference, with representatives from 53 of 54 African countries, sky-high numbers were bandied about. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced $60 billion in funds for eight initiatives over the next three years, in areas ranging from industrial promotion, infrastructure construction and scholarships for young Africans.

Such a financial package has many high-profile defenders on the continent, including the head of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina.

“A lot of people get nervous about China but I am not. I think China is Africa’s friend,” he told the BBC.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed the view of a “new colonialism” taking hold in Africa while Rwandan President Paul Kagame called talk of “debt traps” as attempts to discourage African-Chinese interactions.

But several African economists, media pundits and civil society see red flags ahead. “The time has come for African leaders to critically interrogate their relationship with China,” an editorial in Kenya’s Daily Nation said September 3.

“What are the benefits in this relationship? Is China unfairly exploiting Africa like the others before it?”

“This debt acquired from China comes with huge business opportunities for Chinese companies, particularly construction companies that have turned the whole of Africa into a construction site for rails, roads, electricity dams, stadia, commercial buildings and so on,” said Kampala-based economist Ramathan Ggoobi, speaking to the BBC.

In Uganda, a 21-year mining concession to the Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Company produced only 92 job slots so far and the threat of displacement of 12,000 residents from 14 villages.

In Zambia, the government was forced to refute published reports of the possible Chinese takeover of Kenneth Kaunda International Airport and the power utility ZESCO for unpaid debts.

It is increasingly common in countries like Angola, Mozambique or Ghana, which benefit from Chinese loans for infrastructure, to see Chinese trucks and workers who would otherwise be unemployed in China now working in Africa on Chinese projects.

“If African countries are not careful, the debt they have to China is going to be the equivalent or even more than the debt that they have to industrialized countries and to the World Bank,” said William Gumede, University of the Witwatersrand professor and chair of the Democracy Works Foundation in South Africa.

The next Summit will be organized by Senegal in 2021.

By Hannah Brockhaus

Pope Francis has called for all the presidents of the Catholic bishops’ conferences of the world to meet at the Vatican in February to discuss the issue of sexual abuse of minors.

A statement from the pope’s cardinal advisory board Sept. 12 said, “The Holy Father Francis, hearing the Council of Cardinals, decided to convene a meeting with the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences of the Catholic Church on the theme of ‘protection of minors.’”

The summit will take place at the Vatican Feb. 21-24, 2019.

In a press briefing Wednesday, Holy See spokesperson Paloma García Ovejero, said the February meeting would be on the “prevention of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.”

According to the website GCatholic, there are 114 Conferences of Bishops and 21 eastern-rite Patriarchal Synods, Councils of Churches, and Assemblies of Ordinaries.

The announcement followed a three-day session of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals, commonly called the “C9,” which he created in 2013 to advise him regarding the governance and reform of the Roman Curia.

A major task of the nine cardinals has been revising the 1988 apostolic constitution, Pastor bonus, which regulates the government of the Roman Curia.

In their latest session Sept. 10-12, the Council made final adjustments to the draft of the new constitution, tentatively titled Praedicate evangelium, before turning it over to Pope Francis. It will still undergo a stylistic revision and review of the canonical elements before being published, the Vatican said.

Three members of the C9 were not present during the September meetings: Cardinal George Pell, who has been in Australia since summer 2017 undergoing a trial; and Cardinals Francisco Javier Errázuriz and Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya.

America is a country in which dollars count far more than voters do, and that’s what all of the data shows. And that’s a dictatorship by the richest.

This kind of country, this kind of country, and this kind of country, get this kind of President. And the rulers blame it on the public, instead of on the billionaires, the actual rulers themselves (the behind-the-scenes rulers). These rulers selected the politicians and offered those to the public to select from in ‘elections’ — and they then blame the public for the choices that the public make, from amongst these bad final options that the aristocracy has provided to them.

Billionaires despise the public, and have no intention of allowing the public to have better leaders than this — but they allow the public to have only leaders who serve their bosses, namely, those billionaires themselves.

Any teacher who says otherwise is simply contradicting the data. The data are clear on this: America is a dictatorship by the few richest under 1%, over the many more than 99%, who are commonly called “the public.” It’s an aristocracy, and it’s run like one. The public’s loyalty to this dictatorship — to this aristocracy or rule-by-the-richest — is retained by the deceit of calling the public “citizens,” instead of “subjects” (like in the bad ‘good old days’), but the reality now is that they’re subjects, not citizens.

Citizens exist only in an authentic democracy. Subjects are merely the people against whom the aristocracy’s laws are imposed. Subjects are not citizens. The aristocracy’s media spin them as being “citizens” in a “democracy.” Almost all of the public are fooled by that lie.

Like former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said of today’s America (with such honesty so that none of the major ‘news’ media reported it):

“Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members. So, now we’ve just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody that is already in Congress has a great deal more to sell.”

When a foreign government is a dictatorship by the aristocracy, it’s called an “oligarchy,” but when one’s own nation is, the term that’s supposed to be used is instead an “aristocracy”; and so Carter was here referring to his own country in the way that only foreign aristocratic dictatorships are supposed to be referred-to. That terminological usage might have added to the shock-value, but none of the major (i.e., none of the aristocratically controlled) media reported his statement, in any case.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010.

The United States has planned five stages or steps for “standardizing Iran’s behavior” or in better words, implementing its “regime change” plan. They include: 1. mounting economic and livelihood pressure on Iranian society, 2. casting doubt on honesty of senior Iranian officials among people, 3. creating a people-government binary, 4. spreading despair and fear about future among people, and most importantly, 5. proposing unconditional negotiations with the Iranian government to incite people’s sentiments and make the Iranian society inclined toward new talks with the United States. Washington believes that the four first stages have been completed and accepting proposed direct talks with the US would amount to completion of the fifth phase. After that, standardization of Iran’s behavior and regime change plan will follow. These five steps, as defined by the United States, can be analyzed as follow

1. Intensification of sanctions: This has been a regular policy used by the United States to deal blows to the Islamic establishment and create dissatisfaction among Iranian people. This has been also the most unchanging US policy, which has been meant to alter the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the past four decades. Clear evidence to this issue included Washington’s insistence on using this tool following the conclusion of Iran’s nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in addition to passing and implementing of the law that prohibits entry into Iran for citizens from 38 countries, and the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) under former U.S. president, Barack Obama. Other steps taken in this regard were implementation of the CAATSA sanctions act as well as imposition of 90- and 120-day sanctions on Iran under the incumbent US President Donald Trump in addition to scores of similar measures taken in parallel with the offer of new talks to the Iranian side.

2. Casting doubt on the honesty of senior Iranian officials among people and convincing them that decisions made by government are based on individual choices and not beneficial to all: In line with this policy, Americans have been leveling economic accusations against Iranian officials to cause people to doubt and be pessimistic about large-scale decisions of the government, both inside and outside the country. They have also pretended to be sympathetic toward Iranian people on many occasions: a) by Barack Obama at the United Nations, who lauded history of Iranian people and noted that chanting “death to America” would not create jobs, nor make Iran safer; b) by former US secretary of state, John Kerry, who said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that Iranians were educated people and sanctions would not stop their progress; c) by Kerry’s successor, Mike Pompeo, who said the United States supported the forgotten voice of Iranian people; and d) by Donald Trump who told Iranian nation that they will see America’s support in due time. In the latest instance, Pompeo made remarks to a gathering of anti-Iran Mojahedeen Khalq Organization in which he tried to convince Iranians that the Islamic establishment did not care about their economic problems and leveled many charges against high-ranking Iranian officials without producing any proof.

3. The certain outcome of the aforesaid two propositions, if they are implemented accurately and succeed, would be “creating the binary of people-government.” This means that people would see their interests and priorities in conflict with priorities of officials and reach the conclusion that many senior officials do not consider people’s priorities as theirs and are busy with economic and financial corruption! Spreading false news and rumors by foreign Persian-speaking news outlets and some media affiliated with a special political current inside the country shows that they have made creating this binary their main goal.

4. Instilling despair and fear in people about the future: This would be an objective achievement of the people-government binary. When the society has experienced economic pressure resulting from sanctions and inefficiency of statesmen, and when its mind is faced with a great number of false accusations against the country’s officials, it will naturally see its interests to be at odds with those of the government in the general sense of the word. Therefore, it will lose hope in efficiency of the Islamic establishment due to inability of the government and parliament to solve problems and will have no motivation to deal with the enemy’s plots. Such a sense of self-degradation and disappointment about the future of the establishment could be the most lethal poison for any country.

5. Proposing unconditional negotiations with the Iranian government to incite people’s sentiments and increase tendency of Iranian society toward new negotiations: This is the fifth step for standardization of Iran’s behavior and implementing the regime change plan. This is why Donald Trump recently offered unconditional negotiations to the Iranian side. It is noteworthy that he did this at a time that his country has left the JCPOA without paying a price and is now trying to incite the public sentiments to mount pressure on the Iranian government and start a new round of negotiations on Iran’s missile program and regional influence. This means that the new US offer of talks without any conditions is just a new trap to incite the Iranian society to counter the Islamic establishment. In fact, Trump and the US government believe that now is a good time to incite Iranian society by offering unconditional negotiations. They believe that Iranian society is at its wit’s end due to the most difficult of economic conditions it is facing and, therefore, it blames the whole Islamic establishment for inefficiency of various officials and political groups, thus losing hope in the future of the establishment. Therefore, the society believes that negotiating with the United States is the sole way to get out of the current dire straits that the country is going through. This is why some voices inside the country, which welcome Trump’s proposal, are playing within the puzzle designed by Trump, assuming that they are not hand in glove with the enemy.