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The German Bundesliga: Are The Players Worth The Money?

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Does the talent of footballers dictate their market value? Economists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) investigated this question in a new study. They calculated the relationship between the performance and market value of 493 players in the 1st and 2nd divisions of the German Bundesliga for the 2015/16 season.

The study revealed that star players tend to be overvalued, while other players tend to be traded at below market value. In addition to the performance parameters, a club’s reputation also influences the market value of its footballers. The study was recently published in the “Journal of Applied Statistics“.

Many footballers are not only known for their performance on the field, but also for their, at times, exorbitant salaries and transfer fees. Whether their skills justify their high market value has been hotly debated. “Evaluating a footballer’s performance is an extremely complex undertaking. It includes assessing their physical fitness as well as their technique and tactical knowledge of the game. Some of these aspects are difficult to measure objectively,” says economist Dr Thomas Kirschstein from MLU, who conducted the study along with Dr Steffen Liebscher.

Since there are no official, publicly available data on the performance and market value of individual players, the MLU researchers used two other sources in their study. The software company “Electronic Arts” records, analyses and evaluates all players from various international football leagues for the video game series “FIFA”. This includes an evaluation of passing accuracy, ball technique and defence skills. These data are publicly accessible on the “fifaindex.com” website. “Even though it’s only a video game, Electronic Arts has a major stake in simulating the players as near to reality as possible. After all, the goal is to sell as many games as possible, and that only happens if the game is generally accepted by the fans,” explains Kirschstein. The researchers then combined these ratings with data from the “transfermarkt.de” website, where a wealth of other information on footballers is available, including the fees for early transfers and information on market values.

For further analysis, the two scientists developed a robust statistical method that allowed them to establish the relationship between a player’s performance and market value. They created five categories from a total of 28 performance indicators and then calculated the relationship between performance and market value. Goalkeepers and their performance were excluded from the study. The result: there is sometimes a clear gap between the market value and key performance indicators of some players. Star players tended to be overrated. At the same time, some players achieved very good performance records but did not have a particularly high market value. One example is the former national player Sidney Sam, whose market value was estimated at 500,000 euros for that season, but whose performance on “fifaindex.com” was significantly better than the market value suggested. “Our analysis enables us to identify such statistical outliers and investigate the causes of these deviations,” says Kirschstein. In the case of Sidney Sam, his comparatively low market value that season might have been rooted in health and disciplinary issues.

“As with companies, the market value of footballers is not a fixed figure based solely on their performance. In the case of young players, for example, it also provides information about their expected potential,” explains Kirschstein. Commercial aspects also play a major role: For example, players who are particularly successful marketers can be worth a lot of money to a club, despite their comparatively mediocre performance, because they can generate higher marketing revenues, for example by selling fan products.

The researchers stress that the data underlying their study are based on estimates and that their analyses do not paint a fully authentic picture of a player’s performance and market value in the 2015/16 season. However, the method they developed could also be applied to other datasets, such as club-internal data, or other football leagues.


Climate Change And Air Pollution Damaging Health, Causing Millions Of Premature Deaths

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IASA researchers have contributed to a major new report in The Lancet medical journal looking at the effects of climate change on human health, and the implications for society.

The 2018 Report of the research coalition The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change shows that rising temperatures as a result of climate change are already exposing us to an unacceptably high health risk and warns, for the first time, that older people in Europe and the East Mediterranean are particularly vulnerable to extremes of heat, markedly higher than in Africa and SE Asia. The risk in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean stems from aging populations living in cities, with 42% and 43% of over-65s respectively vulnerable to heat. In Africa, 38% are thought to be vulnerable, while in Asia it is 34%.

The report also states that ambient air pollution resulted in several million premature deaths from ambient fine particulate matter globally in 2015, a conclusion from IIASA researchers confirming earlier assessments. Since air pollution and greenhouse gases often share common sources, mitigating climate change constitutes a major opportunity for direct human health benefits.

Leading doctors, academics and policy professionals from 27 organizations have contributed analysis and jointly authored the report. Alongside IIASA, the partners behind the research include the World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), University College London and Tsinghua University, among others.

IIASA researcher Gregor Kiesewetter led a team from the Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases research program that estimated the dangers of air pollution to human health. A new and important finding this year was the global attribution of deaths to source. Kiesewetter and the team found that coal alone accounts for 16% of pollution-related premature deaths, around 460,000, which they state makes phasing out coal-use a “crucial no-regret intervention for public health”.

Kiesewetter and the team used the GAINS Model, developed at IIASA, which calculates the emissions of precursors of particulate matter based on a detailed breakdown of economic sectors and fuels used.

Large contributions to ambient air pollution come from the residential sector, mostly from solid fuels like biomass and coal. Industry, electricity generation, transport, and agriculture are also important contributors. While coal should be a key target for early phase-out in households and electricity generation as it is highly polluting, it is not all that should be done.

“The attribution shows that unfortunately an approach targeting a single sector or fuel won’t solve the problem – air pollution is a multi-faceted issue that needs integrated strategies cutting across many sectors, which will differ from country to country. This is what we typically do with the regional and local GAINS model: giving advice to policymakers on the most efficient approaches to tackle air pollution in their specific settings,” says Kiesewetter.

The report contains a number of other headline findings: –

  • 157m more vulnerable people were subjected to a heatwave in 2017 than in 2000, and 18m more than in 2016.
  • 153bn hours of work were lost in 2017 due to extreme heat as a result of climate change. China alone lost 21bn hours, the equivalent of a year’s work for 1.4% of their working population. India lost 75bn hours, equivalent to 7% of their total working population.
  • Heat greatly exacerbates urban air pollution, with 97% of cities in low- and middle- income countries not meeting WHO air quality guidelines.
  • Heat stress, an early and severe effect of climate change, is commonplace and we, and the health systems we rely on, are ill equipped to cope.
  • Rising temperatures and unseasonable warmth is responsible for cholera and dengue fever spreading, with vectorial capacity for their transmission increasing across many endemic areas.
  • The mean global temperature change to which humans are exposed is more than double the global average change, with temperatures rising 0.8°C versus 0.3°C.

Hugh Montgomery, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change and director of the Institute for Human Health and Performance, University College London says: “Heat stress is hitting hard – particularly amongst the urban elderly, and those with underlying health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes or chronic kidney disease. In high temperatures, outdoor work, especially in agriculture, is hazardous. Areas from Northern England and California, to Australia are seeing savage fires with direct deaths, displacement and loss of housing as well as respiratory impacts from smoke inhalation.”

The report, which looks at 41 separate indicators across a range of themes, says urgent steps are needed to protect people now from the impacts of climate change. In particular, stronger labor regulations are needed to protect workers from extremes of heat and hospitals and the health systems we rely on need to be better equipped for extreme heat so they are able to cope. But the report also stresses that there are limits to adapting to the temperature increases, and if left unabated, climate change and heat will overwhelm even the strongest of systems, so the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is critical.

2018 has been an even hotter year in many parts of the world and the World Weather Attribution Study for northern Europe showed this summer’s heat wave was twice as likely to have happened as a result of man-made climate change. Of the 478 global cities surveyed in the report, 51% expect climate change to seriously compromise their public health infrastructure.

“The world has yet to effectively cut its emissions. The speed of climate change threatens our, and our children’s lives. Following current trends we exhaust our carbon budget required to keep warming below two degrees, by 2032. The health impacts of climate change above this level above this level threaten to overwhelm our emergency and health services,” says Anthony Costello, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown.

Other findings of the report include: a new indicator mapping extremes of precipitation that identifies South America and southeast Asia among the regions most exposed to flood and drought and, on food security, the report points to 30 countries experiencing downward trends in crop yields, reversing a decade-long trend that had previously seen global improvement. Yield potential is estimated to be declining in every region as extremes of weather become more frequent and more extreme.

Noncompliance Thwarts Comprehensive Background Check Policy For Private-Party Firearm Sales

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Of the three states that recently expanded comprehensive background check (CBC) policies to include all gun transfers, including those among private parties, only Delaware showed an overall increase in firearm background checks. Washington and Colorado had no changes, which the study authors say suggests that compliance and enforcement were incomplete.

The study, which posted online in Injury Prevention October 2017 ahead of peer-review and publication in the November 2018 print version, is believed to be the first to assess the association between CBC policy enactment and changes in background-check rates. It was conducted by the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This study was made available online.

Although 35 to 40 percent of all firearm transactions in the U.S. are between private parties, federal law does not require background checks for transactions among private parties. Without a background check, felons, those convicted of domestic violence crimes, and others who are prohibited from purchasing a firearm can avoid screening measures by purchasing firearms from sources other than licensed retailers.

“The overwhelming majority of all firearms used for criminal purposes, some 80 percent, are acquired through private party transactions,” said Alvaro Castillo-Carniglia, lead author of the study and a VPRP postdoctoral research fellow. “By expanding background checks to include private-party transfers, there is a higher chance that these policies will make it harder for felons and other prohibited persons to acquire firearms and commit violent crimes.”

“While it is too soon to measure the effects that comprehensive CBCs have on crime, we expected to see an increase in the number of background checks if states are complying with and enforcing the laws,” he said.

For the study, researchers estimated the difference in the monthly rate of background checks per 100,000 people for handguns, long guns and both types combined using data from January 1999 through December 2016. In Delaware, CBC enactment resulted in a 25 percent increase in background checks for handguns and a 34 percent increase for long guns. Washington and Colorado experienced no overall increase in background checks, though very limited data suggested that they may have experienced modest increases in background checks for private party sales.

In Washington, pro-firearm organizations, gun show organizers and others rallied for noncompliance. In Colorado some county law enforcement officials and retailers reportedly refused to enforce CBC laws and process background checks for private-party transactions. “Unregulated firearm transactions are a public health problem,” Castillo-Carniglia said. “Comprehensive background check policies can play an important role in preventing the negative health and social consequences of violence.”

Other study authors include Rose M. C. Kagawa, Magdalena Cerdá and Garen J. Wintemute at UC Davis, and Daniel W. Webster and Jon S. Vernick at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Guess Who Is Going To Jail? – OpEd

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Kathleen Kane is finally going to jail today. The former Pennsylvania Attorney General was convicted more than two years ago on nine counts. She not only perjured herself, she was found guilty of obstruction of justice and abuse of office.

Why does this matter to the Catholic League? Because she was the one who singled out the Catholic Church—allowing every other religious and secular organization to get off scot free—for a grand jury investigation of the dioceses, all because of one teacher at a Catholic high school in Altoona-Johnstown who molested a minor in the 1990s.

How did Kane find out about the guilty party, Brother Stephen Baker? It was Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak who went public by notifying the authorities immediately upon learning about Baker’s conduct. Instead of congratulating Bartchak for outing one of his own, Kane took the opportunity to scour the state looking for other cases of abuse involving Catholic personnel.

Catholics, I have said repeatedly, are being played. They, and the public more generally, are being set up to believe that somehow the Catholic Church owns this problem. It is because of people like Kane, and her successor, Josh Shapiro, that so many have come to believe the worst about the Catholic Church.

Do Catholics get it? Had Bishop Bartchak acted the way virtually every other religious and secular leader has handled cases of sexual misconduct, namely internally, Kane would never have known about Baker. Which means there would have been no grand jury investigation. That probe never allowed the accused, most of whom were either dead or no longer in ministry, to defend themselves.

As it turns out, Kane abused her office in more ways than one. At least now she can think about what she has done while sitting in jail. Sweet justice.

How Sexual Misconduct Reforms Might Begin In US Dioceses – Analysis

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By Ed Condon

Before it began, many U.S. bishops expected their November general assembly in Baltimore to produce something tangible – a new policy, structure, or system – that would help them reassure Catholics that they were responding to months of sexual abuse scandals breaking across the Church.

But after a last-minute Vatican’s decision to suspend a vote on draft measures until after a Rome meeting of the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences in February, it seems likely that no universal response to the crisis will emerge until at least the second half of 2019.

Some U.S. bishops have told CNA they now realize that if they want to initiate new reforms, they’ll have to do so in their own dioceses, using the ordinary prerogatives of a diocesan bishop.

As they wait for Rome to form its response to the crisis, there are several options available to bishops who are looking to improve diocesan mechanisms for handling clerical misconduct.

And as bishops begin to implement new policies at the diocesan level, their local action might provide useful examples for study and consideration ahead of the February meeting Rome.

The Promoter of Justice

One of the common threads across most proposals for responding to the abuse crisis is the call more independent, lay-led involvement in handling accusations of abuse or sexual misconduct.

Independent lay involvement is seen increasingly as a necessary aspect of transparent and accountable investigations. Bishops have suggested such involvement is the best defense against clericalism, and a defense against any the temptation for bishops to shirk from imposing justice on themselves or clerics they (rightly) view as their spiritual sons.

While U.S. dioceses already have independent lay review boards, concerns have been raised about how such bodies fit within the Church’s structure and canonical processes,.

There is a fine line between independent accountability and “outsourcing” problems. The need to preserve canonical coherence in the handling of accusations is essential to a credible outcome.

One ready-made option for individual bishops to consider is the role of the promoter of justice. This is a position in canon law which functions as something akin to a public prosecutor or district attorney. Every diocese is to have one, and they are supposed to intervene in all cases concerning the public good.

In many dioceses, the promoter of justice is a priest who has to combine the role with other chancery or tribunal duties, leaving an important function as often little more than a name on paper. But this does not have to be the case.

Canon law provides that the promoter of justice can be either cleric or layman, with the only requirements for the role being an “unimpaired reputation,” a doctorate or license in canon law, and a proven “prudence and zeal for justice.”

Some observers have suggested that any diocesan bishop could, if he wished, appoint a lay expert in handling sexual abuse cases as his promoter of justice and empower that office with the independence and resources needed to deliver a truly credible, and canonically coherent response to allegations. This could include the use of experts in the fields of civil criminal law, psychology, and sexual abuse.

While cases of sexual abuse of minors are reserved to Rome, a sufficiently independent and well-resourced local promoter of justice could conduct the preliminary investigation into all accusations of sexual abuse – including against the local bishop – in a way which would be externally credible and canonically sound.

A serious and independent office of promoter of justice, run by a lay expert in canon law, could also help address the current confusion of terms which often clouds the handling of cases. Canonical authorities in Rome and lay experts and civil lawyers in America often mean and understand very different things when using words like “credible” or “substantiated” to talk about accusations.

A well-resourced promoter of justice might also bring a renewed level of canonical formality and rigor to cases involving clerical misconduct with adults. To help this to happen, bishops could make use of another power available to them: they could make local laws.

Enhanced Local Law

While accusations of child sexual abuse have drawn the most attention, most of the allegations facing Archbishop Theodore McCarrick concern alleged sexual behavior with seminarians and priests.

While such behavior, either coercive or consensual, is certainly sinful, many have noted that there is no clear canonical crime with which to charge McCarrick, or other clerics similarly accused.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law contained a comprehensive list of illicit sexual behavior. Clerics who engaged in sexual activity, either with men or women, minors or adults, were subject to a range of penalties up to and including laicization.

The whole code was revised following Vatican Council II, and much of the Church’s long list of canonical crimes was simplified or removed from the new version, promulgated in 1983. Many were left with the impression that the Church was moving away from the idea penal law at all, seeing it as out of step with a modern, more pastoral approach.

However, the bishops charged with reforming the Church’s penal law had an entirely different motivation.

Universal penal law was not downscaled to create a disciplinary vacuum, but in order to clear space for individual bishops to pass local laws best suited to their own circumstances.

It is within the power of every bishop to pass particular canon law for his own diocese. Such legislation could be introduced relatively easily and could address illicit sexual behavior by clerics in the diocese with adults, consensual or otherwise. Such laws could also provide for aggravating factors, like public scandal caused and the abuse of pastoral or hierarchical relationships between parishioners, seminarians, priests, and bishops.

Bishops could also lay out clear and escalating penalties for priests who are unable or unwilling to live chastely. Depending on circumstances, an initial moral lapse by a priest could be met with a lesser punishment, enhanced supervision, and restricted ministry. Those who repeatedly offend could be subjected to increasingly punitive measures, including the possibility that a bishop might ask the Vatican to remove the priest from the clerical state altogether.

Misconduct and Mental Illness

With a clear canonical framework to work from, bishops could also bring a sense consistency and rigor to clerical disciplinary procedures often haphazardly applied.

Very often, the first instinct of a bishop when dealing with a priest who has engaged in sexual misconduct is to send him for psychological assessment and treatment.

While it is true that some priests can find themselves isolated in their ministry and living under enormous pressure, illicit sexual behavior – either with adults or minors – is not itself evidence of a mental disorder.

For years, some canonical experts have said that sending, for example, two priests found engaged in consensual homosexual acts for “a psychological assessment” is a step that begins a process from the presumption of moral irresponsibility, and therefore undermines the Church’s penal law.

The current scandal might lead to a change in that practice.

Some bishops have also found that “medicalizing” canonically criminal behavior can tie their hands at the end of the process. If a priest who has committed a grave sexual offence is sent for treatment, the expectation is that he should be returned to ministry once therapists believe treatment has been effective – even if the bishop has his own doubts about the priest’s moral or personal aptitude for priestly ministry.

But in the wake of the McCarrick scandal and ensuing revelations, bishops may soon move away from the “therapeutic model,” and begin treating acts of grave immorality principally as matters of justice and mercy, punishment and reform. This move, if it happens, would leave them free to account for the damage to victims and to Church community caused by offending clerics, and allow them to make their own prudential judgment about a priest’s future.

Sheikh Hasina: A Portrait Of Power – Analysis

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As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina aims to secure a fourth term in upcoming general elections, cinemas across Bangladesh are running a soft-touch biopic of her life, depicting her rise from martyr’s daughter to “mother of humanity.”

The film portrays her life as entwined with the evolution of her country, from its impoverished, bloody beginnings 47 years ago to its current transition out of least-developed-country status.

“We have crossed many hurdles to reach this position and nobody can ever hold us back again,” Hasina said during a speech marking Armed Forces Day earlier this month.

Hasina, 71, has been praised for economic, health and educational advances in the South Asian country. Her government’s willingness to shelter hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled brutal violence in Myanmar has led some fans to dub her the “mother of humanity.”

But critics say her government has become increasingly autocratic, through laws that stifle freedom of expression, interference in judicial independence, accommodation of growing Islamic fundamentalism and deployment of security forces accused of forced disappearances.

The film, titled “Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale,” tells how she was in Germany when her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of her family members were assassinated in 1975.

She was not allowed to return home to perform last rites for her slain father, the founding leader of Bangladesh.

The Center for Research and Information, a group affiliated with Hasina’s Awami League party, spent five years financing and filming the biopic.

Director Rejaur Rahman Khan Piplu said he wanted to present Hasina as a mother.

“People watched the 70-minute long film and could find Sheikh Hasina as someone very close to their heart,” he told BenarNews.

Piplu said Bangladesh’s leader gave him some motherly advice during filming, and often fed him and his crew at her residence.

Looking at the director’s shoes, the prime minister once remarked, “Piplu, tie your shoe lace, you may stumble and get hurt,” he recalled.

The political opposition dismissed the film as campaign fodder.

“She is a political figure. She has her own perspective of various events of history, of changes of regime, and of different issues of the land. All were shown from a singular [perspective],” said Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior opposition leader, adding, “This is a total violation of electoral rules.”

Faruk Khan, an Awami League official, denied the allegation that the film broke campaign rules, telling reporters that people were buying tickets to watch it.

A politician’s life

Scenes in the film narrate the tumultuous partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, when predominantly Muslim East Bengal was carved out of India to become a detached province of the new nation of Pakistan.

The picture also delves into the language movement of 1952 that pressed for recognition of Bengali as the official language East Pakistan province; the vicious war of independence from Islamabad in 1971; and Bangladesh’s birth in December of that year under her father’s leadership.

Hasina, who was born on Sept. 28, 1947, began to be groomed as a political leader long before her family members were assassinated in ’75, according to a government website.

As a pupil at Eden Girls’ College in Dhaka, she was elected vice president and later became president of the student parliament. Later, at the University of Dhaka, she was an active member of the Awami League’s student wing.

Her career in national politics started in the early 1980s, in London, where she was elected president of the Awami League before she returned home.

From 1983 to 1990, she was placed under house arrest seven times, as a military government cracked down on the opposition, and, in 2007, Hasina was imprisoned by an army-backed caretaker government.

She was elected prime minister in 1998, and again in 2008 and 2014. The opposition, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), boycotted the 2014 election because Hasina’s government refused to let a neutral caretaker administration run the country during the electoral season.

Since entering the political spotlight, Hasina has survived nearly 20 armed and targeted attacks. The first was in Dhaka in 1983 when the army entered the Dhaka University campus and fired bullets and used batons on students. More recently, she survived a grenade attack in 2004.

For many Bangladeshis, Hasina is an unparalleled leader, according to Ataur Rahman, a professor at Dhaka University.

“She had real bad days, but she can overcome all hurdles through her personality and leadership quality,” he told BenarNews.

Hasina should be judged from two angles, political and economic, he suggested.

“Discrimination [and] corruption during her regime was high, but progress was made. Financial stability and construction of the Padma Bridge is a great achievement,” Ataur said, referring to a 6-km bridge across the Padma River slated for completion sometime next year, and touted as an economic lifeline for southern Bangladesh.

Azizul Haque, who works as a driver, said he was happy with the country’s direction under Hasina.

“She listens to us. She has constructed roads and gave allowance to poor and destitute,” he told BenarNews.

Reducing poverty

Earlier this year, Bangladesh celebrated a U.N. declaration that it was beginning the six-year process of moving from the category of least developed country (LDC) to developing county.

To enter that transition, a country’s annual per capita income must be at least U.S. $1,242; it must achieve targets in nutrition, health, school enrollment and literacy; and its economy must demonstrate resilience in the face of risks such as natural disasters and trade instability.

Hasina delivered the news to parliament ahead of the U.N.’s announcement in March.

“The Father of the Nation led the country’s independence. He established Bangladesh as a least developed country. We are going to be upgraded one step,” she declared at the time. “We are going to be a developing country.

However, Hasina last year caused consternation among many Bangladeshis when she made concessions to Hefazat-e-Islami, a conservative Muslim group, amid fears that growing Islamization was eclipsing the secular traditions of Bengali culture.

Meeting with Hefazat leaders at her residence in April 2017, Hasina announced that her government would recognize degrees from thousands of unregulated Qwami madrassas – Islamic boarding schools. She also agreed to changes in public school textbooks to make them more Muslim-friendly, as demanded by Hefazat.

“I follow religious guidelines, but I do not mix politics with religion,” Hasina said in response to criticisms of her actions. “Recognition of the Qwami madrassa certificate will bring jobs to lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of students. There is no politics in it.”

Attacks on secularism

The growing ties to conservative Islam came on the heels of a fierce counter-terrorism campaign, following the worst terror attack in the country’s history, which left 29 dead, including five attackers allied with the so-called Islamic State group, at an upscale café in Dhaka in July 2016.

The attack took place after a series of murders of secular writers and activists convulsed Bangladesh during the previous three years, causing some intellectuals to flee the country or go into hiding.

After the first of these killings, in February 2013, Hasina visited the victim’s family, and described him as a martyr during a speech to parliament. But she later suggested that secular writers themselves were at fault.

“No one in this country has the right to speak in a way that hurts religious sentiment. You won’t practice religion – no problem. But you can’t attack someone else’s religion,” Hasina said following the August 2015 slaying of secular blogger Niladri Chottopaddhya (also known as Niloy Neel). “It won’t be tolerated if someone else’s religious sentiment is hurt.”

Hasina also attracted criticism from free press and free speech advocates over laws passed under her leadership, such as the 2018 Digital Security Act. They say these have stifled a climate for unfettered expression and led to arrests of critics of her government.

S. K. Sinha, a former Supreme Court justice who left the country abruptly in 2017, claimed in a memoir released this year that he was forced to resign after resisting attempts by Hasina to change a key ruling, and after military intelligence officers abducted one of his friends.

International rights groups such as Amnesty International have reported that Bangladesh security forces routinely abduct opposition members, some of whom later turn up dead. More than 80 people vanished in this way in 2017, the London-based group said.

“These are all the same old comments. These are not true. We reject the report,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews at the time. “We take every reported cases of so-called abduction seriously.”

Another human rights controversy that has marked Hasina’s rule is her government’s prosecution of suspected war criminals and pro-Pakistan collaborators from the 1971 war of independence. At least six opposition leaders have been convicted and hanged since Bangladesh established its International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in 2009.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), which had initially supported the ICT, expressed concerns in 2012 about its capacity to deliver restorative justice.

“It is only when both sides are treated as equals, and when codes and laws of professional conduct are strictly adhered to, that victims of atrocities and the wider public can be confident that the justice they have sought for so long is based on a legitimate trial process,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, said at the time.

New North American Trade Pact Signed

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By Steve Herman

The leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada have signed a new North American trade deal, underpinning $1.2 trillion in annual commerce among the three countries.

President Trump is calling the signing of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), following 15 months of frequently acrimonious negotiations, a “very historic day” for a “truly groundbreaking achievement.”

The pact will lock in U.S. market access to Canada and Mexico, expand American exports and includes new measures to ensure fair competition, explained Trump as he stood alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

“The autoworkers are a tremendous beneficiary,” said Trump, adding that the USMCA will help stop automotive jobs from going overseas, and he predicted many such jobs will return to the United States.

The agreement’s intellectual property protection will be “the envy of nations all around the world,” said Trump at the signing on the sidelines of the G-20 leaders’ summit in Buenos Aires on Friday morning.

The USMCA replaces NAFTA, a pact Trump roundly criticized during his 2016 presidential campaign, terming it the worst trade deal in history and blaming it for the loss of American manufacturing jobs since it went into effect in 1994.

“We’ve taken a lot of barbs and a little abuse and we got there,” Trump said thanking Trudeau and Pena Nieto. “It’s great for all of our countries.”

It will be a while, however, before the agreement can take effect as lawmakers from all three countries must approve the USCMA.

“It’s been so well-reviewed I don’t expect to have much of a problem” getting the pact through the U.S. Congress, Trump said at the signing ceremony.

That could prove to be an overly optimistic assessment.

“It’s going to be a very tough sell,” predicts Congressman Bill Pascrell of the state New Jersey, who is one of the top Democrats on the House subcommittee that oversees trade issues.

The opposition Democrats take control of the House in January.

The National Association of Manufacturers is calling for swift approval by U.S. lawmakers.

“With 2 million American jobs dependent on exports to Canada and Mexico, Congress should move expeditiously to review the USMCA before the end of this year. We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to ensure the USMCA is implemented and enforced in a way that empowers manufacturers in America to continue investing in our people and our communities,” the powerful business group said in a statement released shortly after the signing ceremony.

Trump noted the signing in Argentina comes on the last day in office for the Mexican president, who is being succeeded by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, elected five months ago.

“It is really an incredible way to end a presidency,” Trump said to Pena Nieto, promoting applause from the Mexican officials in the audience.

The outgoing Mexican leader hailed the as providing “more and better opportunities to our people,” predicting that “North America will grow stronger and be more prosperous.”

Pena Nieto also said the new agreement provides improved protection of workers’ rights and the environment.

The Canadian prime minister agreed that it will “protect jobs, strengthen the middle class and create new opportunities for businesses.”

Trudeau, speaking in French and English, did not refer to the agreement by the USMCA acronym, instead calling it “the new NAFTA.” He also said, “the task isn’t done, more hard work is ahead.”

His government is officially calling the pact the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Noting this week’s announcement by top North American automaker General Motors to close several factories in Canada and the United States, Trudeau lamented the factory shutdowns “are a heavy blow.”

“Make no mistake, we will stand up for our workers and fight for their families and communities,” added Trudeau.

The signing of the so-called free trade agreement comes at a time when tens of billions of dollars of tariffs remain in place on goods traded among the three countries.

“Tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum are entirely inconsistent with the overall goals of the USMCA,” according to a letter signed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and groups representing auto, chemical, grocery, retail and agricultural interests.

Retaliatory tariffs by Mexico have harmed U.S. dairy and pork farmers.

Mexican negotiators reportedly desire modifications to limit future metal shipments to the United States to 80 percent of current levels, while Canada is resisting quotas in the face of inexpensive steel from China entering the American market.

Argentinians Rally Against G20 Summit In Buenos Aires

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Argentinean activists rallied against the upcoming G20 Summit under the name ‘Summit of the Peoples’ in Buenos Aires on Thursday.

As the world leaders start to arrive in the city, left-wing and anti-G20 organizers of this parallel event hope to discuss an alternative agenda to the G20 Leaders’ summit which kicks off on Friday.

The protesters exhibited banners and flags, displayed art works, and listened to speakers taking turns to address the crowd.

“In the face of the G20 leaders’ meeting taking place in Buenos Aires, we set up workshops, debate forums, artistic interventions and other activities, to repudiate the policies of misery and deaths that the G20 and FMI promote,” said Liliana Daunes, member of ‘Summit of the Peoples.’

Protesters also rallied in front of Argentina’s National Congress carrying a giant ‘Baby Trump’.


FBI Raids Home Of Whistleblower Who Had ‘Dirt’ On Clinton Foundation, Mueller

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More than a dozen FBI agents searched for six hours the house of a contractor who had given Congress and the DOJ documents about the Clinton Foundation and the Uranium One scandal, implicating then-FBI director Robert Mueller.

Sixteen agents showed up at the Maryland home of Dennis Nathan Cain on November 19, the Daily Caller reported this week, citing Cain’s attorney Michael Socarras. They demanded to see the documents Cain had already turned over to the Department of Justice inspector-general and the House and Senate intelligence committee.

“I cannot believe the Bureau informed the federal magistrate who approved the search warrant that they wanted to search the home of an FBI whistleblower to seize the information that he confidentially disclosed to the IG and Congress,” said Socarras. He also objected to the fact that the FBI at no point reached out to him, even though Cain provided the agents with his contact information, calling that “serious misconduct.”

FBI spokesman Dave Fitz confirmed to the Daily Caller that the bureau had conducted “court authorized law enforcement activity,” declining to comment further.

The search warrant, signed by federal magistrate Stephanie A. Gallagher in the US District Court for Baltimore, said that Cain possessed “stolen federal property.”

Cain informed the agents that he was a federally protected whistleblower, but gave them the documents at their insistence, Socarras said. Even so, they searched his house for hours afterward.

What were the agents looking for? According to the Daily Caller, they were after the document suggesting that Robert Mueller – now special counsel in charge of the “Russiagate” probe targeting President Donald Trump, but FBI director back in 2001-2013 – failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct in the case of Uranium One.

The Canadian-based mining company controls over 20 percent of the US uranium supply, and was sold to the Russian conglomerate Rosatom in 2010. The sale needed to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFUS), which was chaired by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Since then, multiple whistleblowers have revealed claims of misconduct, bribery and fraud on part of the people involved in the sale, even suggesting a “pay for play” scheme in which the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in donations in exchange for greenlighting the deal. Republicans have also pointed to Bill Clinton’s $500,000 fee for a speech in Moscow in 2010 as evidence the Clintons were peddling influence for Russian money.

Democrats have dismissed the apparent scandal as a right-wing conspiracy theory, and Clinton herself called the accusations of wrongdoing “baloney.”

In April this year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Utah-based US Attorney John Huber to investigate both the Uranium One probe and the FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. That second probe was the subject of a scathing report in June by the DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, the same official to whom Cain gave the documents as a whistleblower. The status of that investigation is currently unknown.

Former US Attorney Indicts Priests – OpEd

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Whenever someone generalizes from the individual to the collective (of a negative nature)—making sweeping statements indicting an entire class of people—it is rightly condemned. Well, not always. This is certainly true of most races, religions, ethnic groups, and sexual orientations, but it is definitely not true of Catholic priests.

On the November 29 edition of the Fox News show, “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” former U.S. Attorney David Hickton spoke about his experiences at a Pittsburgh suburban Catholic elementary school (he wrote about this subject earlier in the day in USA Today). He said there were members of the basketball team who were abused by the coach.

Hickton didn’t stop by commenting on the offending coach. He said that “I don’t think my experience is that much different than many people who went to Catholic school.”

This is a remarkable statement. Was Hickton abused? No, he says he was not. On what basis does he make such a sweeping generalization? He has never done a study of this issue and cannot point to one that would substantiate his claim. One would think that a man of his stature—he is the director and founder of the University Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security—would choose his words more carefully.

I went to Catholic elementary school and a Catholic high school (a boarding school), and not only was I never abused, I never knew of one boy who was. I would bet anything that my experience is more common than the one Hickton describes.

On what basis do I make such a judgment? The John Jay study on this issue found that between 1950 and 2002, 4 percent of the priests had an accusation made against them, roughly half of which were ever substantiated. Moreover, out of 100,000 active priests during this half- century, 149 priests out of every 750 accounted for more than one-quarter of all the allegations. That’s why most Catholic guys never even heard about sexual abuse growing up—it was a rarity.

A few months ago I talked about this issue with Pittsburgh radio talk-show host John Steigerwald. He admitted on the air that he was the subject of a barrage of criticism for saying that he never heard of any cases of sexual abuse during his years in Catholic schools.

Why would Steigerwald get blasted for saying that? Think about it. Imagine a black person getting blasted for saying he never heard of a crime victim growing up. What kind of person would say that?

Hickton may be sincere in his desire for Church reforms, but he has regrettably contributed to the lousy stereotype that priests labor under these days.

Indian Kashmir Gunbattles Killed 47 People In November

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By Mohammad Amin Pirzada

November marked the bloodiest month to date in 2018 in Indian Kashmir with at least 47 people killed, including 37 militants, as security forces stepped up an offensive in the disputed Himalayan region, police said Friday.

Among the suspected rebels killed was Naveed Jat, 22, a top member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-backed militant group.

“His killing is a major blow to the Pakistani terror group, which has been struggling to revive its base here after its top operatives were neutralized in gunfights in the recent past,” Ravideep Sahi, inspector-general of the Central Reserve of Police Force (CRFP), told BenarNews, referring to Jat.

“It is a major success for the security forces this year,” he said, emphasizing that November was the deadliest month so far this year.

Security forces gunned down Jat, a Pakistani national, along with an aide in Budgam district in Central Kashmir on Wednesday

Authorities alleged that Jat was involved in a series of attacks on security forces, and in the killing of a noted Kashmiri journalist Shujjat Bukhari in June.

“Pakistan is pushing in more militants into Kashmir to intensify terror activities in the region,” Sahi said.

Since the partition of the Indian Sub-Continent in 1947, India and Pakistan have been locked in a territorial dispute over predominantly Muslim Kashmir. A de facto border called the Line of Control divides Kashmir, which is claimed in its entirety by both sides.

An outbreak of insurgency on the Indian side has claimed more than 70,000 lives since the late 1980s. A majority of the fatalities have been civilians.

India, which has deployed about 500,000 soldiers in the territory it controls, accuses Pakistan of arming and training Kashmiri rebel groups, but Pakistan denies the charges.

The spike in gunbattles between security forces and militants this month forced businesses to remain shut for more than a week, causing frustration among store owners.

“I want peace. The shutdowns, which are periodically ordered by the separatists, is ruining my livelihood,” Mushtaq Ahmad, a shopkeeper, told Benar News.

His comments came after separatists forced shops and businesses to shutdown in Shopian district after four militants and a soldier were killed in an attack last week.

No talks until terror stops, minister says

External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj warned that India would not attend the coming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and said New Delhi would not hold a dialogue with Islamabad “until and unless” Pakistan stopped sponsoring terror.

Her remarks came a day after Pakistan said it would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SAARC summit.

“Bilateral talks always say that terror and talks cannot go together. The moment Pakistan stops all terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start,” the PTI news agency quoted her as saying Wednesday.

Army Chief applauds the locals

Meanwhile, Indian Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat credited Kashmir residents for successful operations against militants in the valley, saying they were providing “hard intelligence.”

“Things will be brought into control and are being brought under control, but sustained pressure needs to be maintained,” he said in New Delhi.

The firefights and subsequent closing down of schools have also affected school children.

“Our exams are approaching but we have still more than 40 per cent syllabus to be taught,” said Suhail Ahmad, a senior student from Anantanag district, where six militants were killed on Friday.

“Nobody knows when the shopkeepers are asked by the terrorists to put down the shutters or the schools are asked to shut down,” he told BenarNews, complaining that schools were closed for at least seven days this month.

Most of the recent gunfights took place in south Kashmir, considered a hotbed of militancy, police said. Gunbattles killed 40 people, including 19 militants, in April this year.

In June this year, the United Nations issued its first-ever report on human-rights violations in the region, slamming India and Pakistan for alleged abuses in areas they rule and called for a major investigation into such violations.

In the 49-page report, then-U.N. rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein described “a situation of chronic impunity for violations” committed by security forces from both sides.

Myanmar: More Bible Students Escape Militia

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By John Zaw

A Lahu Baptist leader says four more Bible students forcibly recruited by an ethnic Wa militia in northern Myanmar managed to escape and reached safety several days ago.

Another 17 managed to get to the Lahu Baptist church in Kengtung, of eastern Shan state, in early November.

Reverend Lazarus, general secretary of the Lahu Baptist Convention in Kyaing Tong, said all 21 male students, aged in their late teens, are now being given food and medical support.

The four most recent formerly captive student arrivals had been unable to eat and became weak while escaping through jungle, Rev. Lazarus told ucanews.com.

He said the students told him that they were forced to attend military training by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) including on how to use firearms.

“When they arrived initially, they had some psychological problems,” the reverend said.

“But they are coping with it as they now feel safe taking refuge in the church.”

Rev. Lazarus said 20 female students remain at the headquarters of the Wa ethnic army, which is backed by neighboring China.

He expressed fears for these female students and renewed an earlier call for their release.

The students’ ordeal began in mid-September when they were forcibly recruited as part of a UWSA clampdown on Christianity.

The students were taken from Mong Pawk township where 52 churches have been shut down and three have been destroyed, said the Lahu Baptist Convention. The students’ Bible school was closed.

China is believed to be pressuring the UWSA to conduct the campaign that has included the detaining of pastors.

Lahu Baptist leaders, political parties, cultural and women’s associations sent letters to the UWSA in mid-October and the Myanmar Human Rights Commission (MHRC) Nov. 8, demanding that Lahu Baptist churches be reopened.

However, no replies had been received.

Three Salesians and a diocesan priest, 11 nuns and nine lay teachers were expelled by the UWSA, which grew out of the main communist party in Myanmar.

The UWSA leadership has deemed only churches built between 1989 and 1992 to be legal while banning the construction of new churches, outside clergy and the teaching of religion in schools.

The Wa region is home to ethnic groups including Wa, Kachin, Ta’ang, Lahu, Lisu, Kokang and Shan who observe Christianity, Buddhism, animism, spirit worship and Islam.

Christians comprise around 30 percent of the estimated 450,000 Wa population.

The 30,000-strong UWSA is accused of drug trafficking.

Call For Dialogue And Consensus At G20 Opening – Analysis

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By Frank Kane

The G20 summit of the most powerful countries in the world opened in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires with a call for dialogue and consensus from Mauricio Macri, the president of the country hosting the event.

“The essence of the G20 is to foster dialogue while respecting differences, and we hope to lay the foundations for consensus for the next 10 years,” Macri said.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was among the G20 leaders and was greeted especially warmly by President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Television pictures showed the two statesmen sharing a joke and a warm handshake.

But Macri underlined the challenges facing the gathering, which takes place at a time of increasing tension in political and economic relations between the leading powers.

“Many people look at us and have doubts regarding these summits and what they’re good for. It is our duty to show to the world that today global challenges require global responses,” he said.

He outlined the issues facing the assembled leaders as climate change, sustainable development, food security and international trade, which will be the subject of group and bilateral discussions.

Saudi Arabia shares many of the priorities of the G20 in terms of youth employment, female empowerment and technological transformation.

The 20 government leaders — as well as representatives of other invited nations and international institutions — were welcomed on stage at the Costa Salguero Center, the venue for the 13th G20 summit, on the shores of the Rio De La Plata.

The leaders — 35 men and two women — posed for the “family photograph” traditionally taken at G20 gatherings, before heading to the plenary chamber room for initial round-table discussions, to be followed by a series of one-to-one conversations between leaders in the center’s maze of meeting rooms.

The crown prince chatted with US President Donald Trump during the formalities, and had meetings with Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, where a number of commercial initiatives between the two countries were discussed. President Emmanuel Macron of France had a conversation with the crown prince, French officials said in media reports.

Theresa May, the British prime minister, told journalists that she was planning to meet with the crown prince while in Buenos Aires to discuss the military situation in Yemen as well as other issues.

Saudi Arabia is the only country from the Middle East represented at the G20 gathering, which includes 19 of the largest economies in the world and the EU. The G20 nations account for 85 percent of the world’s economic output and two thirds of its population.

Tough talking is expected at the summit, especially between Trump and Xi Jinping of China, over global trade. There could also be confrontation between the American and Putin over the escalating confrontation in Ukraine, which caused Trump to cancel a planned meeting with Putin.

On climate change, the American president holds different views from many of the other G20 leaders.

The summit was held in tight security conditions, following threats of violent disruption from some groups in Buenos Aires. Armed soldiers in military vehicles manned checkpoints leading to the summit venue and the media center some 5 kilometers away. But there were no serious disturbances reported on the opening day of the summit.

Putin Testing Western Resolve In Ukraine – OpEd

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By Luke Coffey*

Sometimes, to understand the present we must better understand the past. It was the Victorian statesman and British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston who best summed up Russia’s behavior during the Crimean War in 1855.

“The policy and practice of the Russian government has always been to push forward its encroachments as fast and as far as the apathy or want of firmness of other governments would allow it to go, but always to stop and retire when it met with decided resistance and then to wait for the next favorable opportunity,” he said.

Some things never change. On Nov. 24, three Ukrainian navy ships were traveling from one Ukrainian port to another. During their journey, they were intercepted by Russian patrol boats near the Kerch Strait. One Ukrainian ship was rammed and others were shot at. Six Ukrainian sailors were wounded; all 24 are now in Russian custody.

The location of this latest incident was no coincidence. The Kerch Strait is a narrow body of water between Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea, which the vast majority of the international community considers to be part of Ukraine. The strait links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov, and according to a 2003 agreement between Russia and Ukraine, both countries have equal right of passage.

Those who follow events in Ukraine know that the strait has been a potential hotspot for some time. In May, Russia completed construction of a controversial bridge connecting Crimea with the Russian mainland. The bridge was controversial in Russia because of its high price tag of almost $4 billion, at a time when the economy is struggling.

The bridge is controversial in Ukraine because it limits the height of ships now able to safely transit the strait. Large Panamax ships, which as recently as 2016 accounted for almost a quarter of all ships passing through the strait, are now too tall.

In addition to the physical restrictions placed by the bridge, Russia has also been harassing, delaying, and in some cases stopping Ukrainian commercial shipping from using the strait. This is starting to take its toll on the Ukrainian economy. For example, the shipping of steel and iron products through the strait alone accounts for 25 percent of Ukraine’s export revenue. A country already at war, Ukraine cannot afford another economic disruption.

If the location of the confrontation was no coincidence, neither was the timing. Recent developments between the West and Ukraine, combined with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s shaky approval ratings, mean that an incident such as the recent one in the strait was inevitable. In September, the US Coast Guard signed an agreement providing two patrol boats to Ukraine within the next year, angering many in Russia.

A few weeks ago, the UK said it was increasing the number of troops it has in Ukraine to train the military there. The Russian Embassy in London promptly released a statement calling this a “matter of deep concern.” Also, Ukraine’s Parliament recently held its first reading of new constitutional amendments providing for the country’s future membership in the EU and NATO.

On top of this, Putin’s approval ratings are at their lowest since 2012. It is likely that in order to increase his popularity, he ordered some sort of aggressive military action. This approach has worked before. In 2013, Putin’s approval ratings stood at 54 percent; when Russia invaded and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, they jumped to 83 percent.

Ever since Russia occupied Crimea and started a separatist movement in the east of the country, Ukraine has been locked in a struggle for national survival. This latest incident in the Kerch Strait is merely an extension of a war that has been ongoing for almost five years now, and that has cost the lives of more than 10,000 people.

If Russia’s aggression has done anything though, it has solidified support among Ukrainians to link the country’s destiny closely with Europe, not with Moscow. Today, Ukraine represents the idea in Europe that each country has the sovereign ability to determine its own path, with whom it has relations, and how and by whom it is governed.

This is why US President Donald Trump was right to cancel his planned meeting with Putin at the G20 Summit. In addition to canceling the meeting, Trump should use the international spotlight afforded to the G20 as an opportunity to demand the release of the Ukrainian prisoners.

Russia’s latest act of aggression in the Kerch Strait is yet another example of Putin’s imperial mindset. And it is another reminder that he will do as much as he knows he can get away with until someone pushes back.

• Luke Coffey is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Putin Address At BRICS Leaders’ Meeting – Transcript

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Vladimir Putin took part in a meeting of leaders of the BRICS member countries held on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina. Following is a text of his address, as provided by the Kremlin.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, colleagues,

I am pleased that we are meeting again and, like my colleagues, I express my gratitude to the President of South Africa, Mr Ramaphosa, for organising our work and for everything South Africa has done during its chairmanship.

I would like to join in the gratitude addressed to President of Brazil Michel Temer. He supported our organisation, and I can add that he also has done a lot to strengthen Russian-Brazilian relations. We know and remember that. Mr President, we will always be glad to see you in Russia.

Thanks to efficient cooperation between the BRICS members, our strategic partnership has grown stronger and continues to actively develop in the most diverse areas.

It is important that the BRICS members are improving coordination within international organisations and forums. Our meeting today, which is a chance to discuss our positions on the eve of the G20 summit, is a testament to that.

I support much of what my colleagues have said about the difficult situation in global politics, economy, trade and finance. I would also note such risk factors as an increase in global debt, volatility of stock markets and escalating trade disputes.

In general, we cannot help noticing that unfair competition often takes the place of fair and equitable intergovernmental dialogue. The nefarious practice of imposing unilateral sanctions and protectionist measures without regard to the UN Charter, WTO rules and other generally accepted legal norms is spreading.

All of this seriously undermines the atmosphere of cooperation on the global stage and leads to declining business ties and loss of trust between participants of economic relations, distorting the very fabric of the global economy.

The BRICS countries should continue to work together to create a fair and equitable system of international relations. Collective action based on mutual respect and consideration of interests is needed in order to overcome the critical challenges facing the international community.

First of all, this concerns the settlement of numerous regional crises, which are fraught with real danger not only for the countries involved, but for the rest of the world as well. Of particular concern is the situation in the Middle East, namely, the Gaza Strip, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and several other countries and regions.

Unfortunately, the danger posed by international terrorism is not subsiding. Of course, double standards or any compromises are unacceptable when it comes to terrorist groups, not to mention making reckless use of them to achieve geopolitical ends, since flirting with terrorists plays into their hands and emboldens them to commit new bloody atrocities.

Thus, in Syria, where militants continue armed attacks on the government forces, the November 24 attack on residents of the western districts of the city of Aleppo involving the use of toxic chemical agents, presumably chlorine, was a blatant violation of the ceasefire. Dozens of Syrians were affected, including children. Such crimes perpetrated by terrorists should not go unpunished, otherwise they will not stop.

For a long-term stabilisation of the situation in Syria, it is important to promote an actual political settlement process. To this end, Russia is working closely with its partners, Iran and Turkey, within the Astana format. We look forward to the formation and convocation of the constitutional committee in Geneva as soon as possible.

Other priorities include rebuilding the economy and infrastructure in that country and creating conditions for the return of refugees to their homes. I hope that the BRICS countries will join humanitarian aid programmes in that country.

In order to prevent a new round of escalating tensions around the Iranian nuclear programme, we should do our best to maintain the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Progress in resolving the Korean Peninsula crisis is a positive development. However, the categorical demands for unilateral concessions from Pyongyang could lead to a disruption of the agreements reached. Therefore, it is important that the sanctions against this country should gradually be relieved in response to the disarmament steps taken by North Korea.

Naturally, one cannot help being alarmed by the state of affairs in non-proliferation and disarmament. The possible withdrawal by the United States of its obligations under the INF Treaty and its unclear position on extending the Strategic Arms Treaty pose the risk of an uncontrolled arms race.

We presume that the BRICS countries will hold a common position on these critical issues. This will be an important factor in mobilising the efforts of the world community for the sake of international security and stability.

Colleagues,

I would like to note with satisfaction that the BRICS countries have largely coinciding approaches to the key issues on the G20 agenda. Our countries have great economic, innovative, and human potential.

The BRICS countries have already overtaken the G7 in terms of aggregate GDP ($44 trillion) and in purchasing power parity. They can play a more significant role in the global financial system, push for the continuation of the IMF reform and for greater influence in the IMF.

A significant contribution to financial stability has been made by the new development bank, which is now supporting 26 projects in BRICS countries with $6.5 billion in financing. We also expect the bond and national currencies fund of the BRICS countries to become available in 2019, which would allow strengthening financial and investment stability and expanding the interaction of national payment systems.

We are committed to supporting the groundwork for the process of further developing the World Trade Organisation to stabilise it. It is important that trade disputes are settled exclusively through dialogue that all interested countries can join.

We pay special attention to coordinating the BRICS countries’ positions on issues related to energy and climate change. Russia, as a reliable exporter of energy to many countries and regions in the world, intends to continue to actively participate in harmonising global energy markets jointly with other suppliers and consumers of fuel and to provide global energy security.

We welcome the fact that the Paris Agreement on climate has come into effect and believe it to be a reliable international legal instrument for long-term climate regulation. It is critically important to finish drafting the rules to implement it, taking into consideration the views of all stakeholders.

We regard the sustainable development of agriculture as a key topic on the G20 agenda. Russia is a large producer and exporter of agricultural produce, contributing significantly to food security. Over the last 10 years, we supplied over 650,000 tonnes of food and humanitarian aid to more than 110 countries.

We believe it is important that this year agreements on the digital economy and adaptation of the labour market and education systems have been reached within the G20. We express our gratitude to our BRICS partners for supporting the Russian idea of consumer rights’ protection in the digital economy and our initiatives to step up coordinated actions at the UN on internet governance and international information security.

The agenda also includes the important topic of combatting corruption. We are ready to work together, including in line with India’s proposal to pursue fugitive economic criminals. During discussions at the UN, I am counting on the support of BRICS members for the Russian draft international convention on returning stolen assets.

Colleagues, in conclusion I would like to wish success to our Brazilian partners next year, during their chairmanship of BRICS. We will provide all the necessary assistance.

Thank you for your attention.


Marijuana Legalization Is Coming To America’s Heartland – OpEd

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By Paul Armentano

Marijuana legalization was among the big winners in this year’s elections.

In Michigan, voters approved Proposal 1, legalizing the adult use, cultivation, and retail marketing of marijuana. Michigan is the first Midwestern state to legalize adult marijuana use and sales, and it is the tenth state to do so overall.

Marijuana also won big in Missouri and Utah. In both states, voters approved ballot initiatives legalizing medical cannabis access. They are the 32nd and 33rd states to do so.

These victories could be a harbinger of things to come in America’s heartland.

Public support for ending marijuana prohibition is strong in the Middle America. In addition to these ballot measures, several incoming governors in Midwestern states campaigned on platforms that included legalizing or decriminalizing cannabis possession offenses.

For example, Illinois Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker has pledged to move forward with legalization legislation during his first days in office. “In the name of criminal justice reform, consumer safety, and increased state revenue, Illinois needs a governor who is ready to legalize marijuana,” says Pritzker.

His constituents agree. According to a 2018 poll by the Paul Simon Institute at Southern Illinois University, 66 percent of voters support “the legalization of recreational marijuana if it is taxed and regulated like alcohol.”

In Minnesota, Governor-elect Tim Walz made similar campaign promises to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana sales. “We have an opportunity in Minnesota to replace the current failed policy with one that creates tax revenue, grows jobs, builds opportunities for Minnesotans, protects Minnesota kids, and trusts adults to make personal decisions based on their personal freedoms,” he said.

Following Walz’s election, incoming Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman acknowledged that “voters want us to take a look at” legalization. She’s right. According to a statewide Survey USA poll conducted in October, 56 percent of Minnesotans support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana by adults.

In Wisconsin, voters in sixteen separate counties — including Milwaukee County — approved resolutions expressing support for the legalization of cannabis for either medical purposes or for adult use. The results could be a prelude to future statewide reforms. Incoming Governor Tony Evers previously floated the idea of putting the legalization question to a statewide vote, stating, “I would love to have a statewide referendum on this.”

Such a proposal would likely win big in the Badger State, where recent polls show that 64 percent of registered voters say that marijuana should be “legalized for use by adults” and “taxed and regulated like alcohol.”

Even in Texas, long the nation’s leader in marijuana arrests, there are signs of change. Lawmakers in recent days have pre-filed numerous bills to amend the state’s draconian marijuana laws. Among them are measures to facilitate medical cannabis access and to decriminalize adult marijuana possession offenses — the latter of which was recently endorsed by Governor Greg Abbott.

The growing support for marijuana policy reform among the public and politicians alike is further evidence that legalization is no longer strictly a “blue” or “red” issue. Majorities of voters from all ideological persuasions now support ending criminal marijuana prohibition.

The incoming changes to cannabis policy in America’s heartland are a reflection of this new political and cultural reality.

*Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director of NORML — the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He’s the author of The Citizen’s Guide to State-By-State Marijuana Laws (Whitman Press, 2015). Distributed by OtherWords.org.

Ralph Nader: First Step Post-Election, Open Up The Closed, Secretive Congress – OpEd

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Following the mid-term elections, progressive citizen groups have to advance an agenda that makes Congress work for all Americans. The first step, however, is to acknowledge that Capitol Hill has walled itself off from the people, on behalf of corporate autocrats.

Currently, Congress is open for avaricious business, not for productive democracy. Congress itself is a concentrated tyranny of self-privilege, secrecy, repressiveness, and exclusive rules and practices. Congress fails to hold public hearings on many important matters and too often abandons oversight of the executive branch, and shuts out citizens who aren’t campaign donors. (See my new book, How the Rats Re-Formed the Congress at ratsreformcongress.org.)

Having sponsored in the nineteen-seventies the bestselling book ever on Congress – Who Runs Congress, I have a frame of reference for the present, staggering institutional narcissism of the Congress as the most powerful, though smallest, branch of our federal government.

It would have been rare in the sixties and seventies for major legislation to have moved to the floor of the House and the Senate without thorough public hearings with witnesses from a diverse array of citizen groups being given a chance to come and testify.

In the past two years, the Republicans sent the tax escape and health care restriction legislations to the floor, without any public hearings at the Committee level. The “tax bonanza for the corporate and wealthy” passed into law, while the “take away health care for millions of people” bill fortunately lost by one vote in the Senate.

Cong. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent five bills to the House floor, without public hearings, that were meant to usurp the state courts’ traditional jurisdiction and weaken your rights to have your day in court before a trial by jury were you wrongfully injured. This vicious attack by Goodlatte’s corporatists on vulnerable victims was blocked by the Senate Democrats.

U.S. Supreme Court nominees before the Senate used to face days of public hearings with many valuable witnesses. For three decades, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under both Democratic and Republican control have shortened the hearings and markedly cut back on witnesses permitted to testify. Knowledgeable people with adverse information about the nominees were kept from testifying – their requests often not even acknowledged.

The signs of Congressional closeouts are everywhere. Years ago, Congress excluded itself from the great Freedom of Information Act. This arrogance fostered a breeding ground for abusive secrecy, covered up were such conflicts as members of Congress speculating in stocks with their inside information, corruption inquests before House and senate Ethics Committee. Even using taxpayer money to settle credible accusations of sexual assault against sitting lawmakers were all covered up.

The orgy of self-privilege knows few boundaries – being wined and dined and journeyed on fundraising junkets by lobbyists who donate dollars to their campaigns in return for legislated bonanzas or immunities is normal business practice. The Senators and Representatives give themselves generous pensions, health insurance, life insurance, and other goodies while denying or failing to provide tens of millions of people those protective benefits and coverages.

Members of Congress get special favors from an airline industry that gives you the back of its omnipresent, fee imposing hand (except for Southwest Airlines). Our survey of every member of Congress which aimed to publicize the details of these commercially provided privileges was ignored by every member of Congress. (See my “Letter to Congress re: Airline industry influence”). Also, nobody knows what favors the banks give them, while these subsidized firms gouge their customers with outlandish fess, penalties and ludicrously low interest rates on savings.

If you’ve ever wondered why the nearly $5 billion you pay annually to support 535 offices in Congress does not produce supervision of the sprawling wasteful executive branch Departments such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, and State, the FDA and others, it might just be that the corporate donors are in effect paying their recipient solons to look the other way and let their passive Committee staff slumber.

An increasing number of the staff assigned to each member and their well-budgeted Committees are coming from the so-called K Street lobbying business. A little on-the-job experience helps them deliver the goodies to their former corporate employers, before rejoining them for lucrative salaries.

This corruption of the professional Congressional staff motivated Michael Pertschuk, the great chief of staff for Senator Warren Magnuson’s powerful Senate Commerce Committee, to write the recent book titled When the Senate Worked for Us. He chronicled the days in the sixties and seventies, when professional staffers played critical roles in passing consumer, environmental, worker, and other life-saving legislation.

The heavy concentration of power in the top two rulers of the Senate and the House has stripped Committee chairpersons of much of their power to address urgent necessities and diversify and decentralize internal Congressional power and activities.

Then there are the daily irritations. Regular people trying to call members of Congress or Committees find their switchboard increasingly on voice mail during working hours. Substantive letters from constituents are not even acknowledged much less given the respect of a reply. Calls to Senators or Representatives or their top staff are often ignored if you are not a campaign contributor.

These increasing plunges into dictatorial misuses of the sovereign power we have delegated to members of Congress are not universal. There are minorities of good-faith lawmakers objecting, but their power is too little to overcome the Congressional Corporate complex that has seized our Capitol.

As I’ve written many times before, it is not as hard as we think to break the corporate grip on our Congress. Creating a people-driven Congress starts with organizing Congressional Watchdog Groups that represent the broad left/right voter support for long overdue changes and reforms, in every one of the 435 Districts. See my book, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think (especially pp. 144-145), where the civic summons to your Congressional lawmakers is presented for powerful face-to-face series of citizen controlled meetings back home.

Netanyahu’s Predicament: The Era Of Easy Wars Is Over – OpEd

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When Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered his army to carry out a limited operation in the besieged Gaza Strip on November 12, he certainly did not anticipate that his military adventure would destabilize his government and threaten the very survival of his right-wing coalition.

But it did, far more than the multiple police investigations into various corruption cases involving Netanyahu’s family and closest aides.

Thanks to the botched operation in Gaza which led to the killing of seven Palestinians and an Israeli army commander, Netanyahu’s coalition has begun to disintegrate, merely needing a final push for it to collapse completely.

It all began with the resignation of the country’s extremist Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, whoquit his post, two days after the Gaza attack, in protest of the country’s ‘surrender’ to Palestinian Resistance.

The even more extreme, far-right leader, Naftali Bennett, was expected to pounce on the opportunity and follow suit. He did not, in a calculated move aimed at capitalizing on the fact that he had suddenly become the government’s ultimate kingmaker.

Now, Netanyahu’s once stable coalition is hanging by a thread, with the support of only 61 members in the Knesset.

This means that the coalition’s once comfortable majority is now dependent on a single MK. One wrong move and Netanyahu could find himself forced into snap elections, a choice that, at least for now, he dreads.

Netanyahu’s options are growing limited. It seems that the age of striking Gaza with impunity in order to score political points with Israeli voters, is, perhaps, over.

While much political commentary is being dedicated to Netanyahu’s future and the dirty politicking of his right-wing coalition, Israel’s burgeoning problem is bigger than any single individual.

Israel’s ability to win wars and translate its victories to political concessions from Palestinians and Arabs have been greatly hampered, and this fact has little to do with Netanyahu’s supposed ‘weakness’, as his Israeli detractors often claim.

Some Israeli politicians, however, still refuse to accept that the violence paradigm is changing.

Almost every time that Israel has attacked Gaza in the past, Israel’s own politics factored greatly in that decision.

Gaza has been used as a stage where Israel flexed its muscles and displayed the latest of its war technology.

The 2014 war – dubbed ‘Operation Protective Edge’ – was, however, a wakeup call for the over-confident Israeli leaders.

More than 2,300 Palestinians were killed in that war and over 17,000 were wounded, the vast majority of them being civilians.

While that is quite consistent with the Israeli war trajectory, the number of Israeli casualties indicated a changing trend. 66 Israeli soldiers were killed in that war, and only a few civilians, indicating that the Palestinian Resistance has abandoned the randomness of its past tactics and grown bolder and more sophisticated.

Four years since that war, coupled with a particularly harsh stage of the siege – which has been imposed on Gaza since 2007 – did not change the equation. In fact, the fighting that was instigated by the latest Israeli attack further accentuated the fact.

As Israel pounded Gaza with a massive bombing campaign, Gaza fighters filmed a rare attack using anti-tank missiles that targeted an Israeli military bus on the Israeli side of the fence.

Hours later, a truce, facilitated by Egypt, was announced, to the relief of Netanyahu and the jubilation of Palestinians, who marched in their thousands celebrating the end of fighting.

Considering the disproportionate military power and desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza, it makes perfect sense why Palestinians perceived the outcome as a ‘victory’.

Israeli leaders, not only on the Right but the Left as well, attacked Netanyahu, who understood that continued fighting would lead to another major war, with most unpredictable outcomes.

Unlike Lieberman, Bennett, and others, Netanyahu’s political strategy is not only driven by attempting to pacify Israel’s angry public – many of whom protested the Gaza truce in various parts of the country.

The Israeli Prime Minister has a twofold political outlook: laboring to politically divide Gaza from the West Bank, and maintaining a degree of ‘stability’ that would give time and space for American political maneuvering in preparation for Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Deal of the Century.’

Moreover, Israel’s growing challenge in Syria and Lebanon makes a prolonged military operation in Gaza quite dangerous and unsustainable.

But the pressure on the home-front is relentless.

74 percent of the Israeli public is ‘dissatisfied’ with Netanyahu’s performance in the latest round of fighting in Gaza, according to an Israel Television News Company poll released soon after the truce was announced.

Yet Netanyahu has no other option but to commit to the truce in Gaza, which, as per Israeli political logic, means that he must stir trouble elsewhere to send a message of strength and prowess to the disquieted public.

This is precisely why Netanyahu renewed his threats of ethnically cleansing the population of Khan al-Ahmar in the Occupied West Bank.

“It will be demolished very soon,” he declared, in an attempt to move the conversation from Gaza to elsewhere and to regain the confidence of his right-wing constituency.

While Gazans are getting a badly needed respite, however fleeting, Khan al-Ahmar residents will now become the main target for Israel’s political violence and chauvinism.

The question is how long will Israel be able to sustain this violent paradigm and what will it take for the international community to hold Tel Aviv accountable?

As for Palestinians, Gaza has demonstrated that only Resistance, popular or otherwise, works. It is the only language that registers with Israel, who must understand that the age of easy wars is long gone.

Drinking Water Sucked From The Dusty Desert Air

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A simple device that can capture its own weight in water from fresh air and then release that water when warmed by sunlight could provide a secure new source of drinking water in remote arid regions, new research from KAUST suggests.

Globally, Earth’s air contains almost 13 trillion tons of water, a vast renewable reservoir of clean drinking water. Trials of many materials and devices developed to tap this water source have shown each to be either too inefficient, expensive or complex for practical use. A prototype device developed by Peng Wang from the Water Desalination and Reuse Center and his team could finally change that.

At the heart of the device is the cheap, stable, nontoxic salt, calcium chloride. This deliquescent salt has such a high affinity for water that it will absorb so much vapor from the surrounding air that eventually a pool of liquid forms, says Renyuan Li, a Ph.D. student in Wang’s team. “The deliquescent salt can dissolve itself by absorbing moisture from air,” he says.

Calcium chloride has great water-harvesting potential, but the fact it turns from a solid to a salty liquid after absorbing water has been a major hurdle for its use as a water capture device, says Li. “Systems that use liquid sorbents are very complicated,” he says. To overcome the problem, the researchers incorporated the salt into a polymer called a hydrogel, which can hold a large volume of water while remaining a solid. They also added a small amount of carbon nanotubes, 0.42 percent by weight, to ensure the captured water vapor could be released. Carbon nanotubes very efficiently absorb sunlight and convert the captured energy into heat.

The team incorporated 35 grams of this material into a simple prototype device. Left outside overnight, it captured 37 grams of water on a night when the relative humidity was around 60 percent. The following day, after 2.5 hours of natural sunlight irradiation, most of the sorbed water was released and collected inside the device.

“The hydrogel’s most notable aspects are its high performance and low cost,” says Li. If the prototype were scaled up to produce 3 liters of water per day–the minimum water requirement for an adult–the material cost of the adsorbent hydrogel would be as low as half a cent per day.

The next step will be to fine tune the absorbent hydrogel so that it releases harvested water continuously rather than in batches, Wang says.

Why Screen Time Can Disrupt Sleep

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For most, the time spent staring at screens–on computers, phones, iPads–constitutes many hours and can often disrupt sleep. Now, Salk Institute researchers have pinpointed how certain cells in the eye process ambient light and reset our internal clocks, the daily cycles of physiological processes known as the circadian rhythm. When these cells are exposed to artificial light late into the night, our internal clocks can get confused, resulting in a host of health issues.

The results, published in Cell Reports, may help lead to new treatments for migraines, insomnia, jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders, which have been tied to cognitive dysfunction, cancer, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and more.

“We are continuously exposed to artificial light, whether from screen time, spending the day indoors or staying awake late at night,” says Salk Professor Satchin Panda, senior author of the study. “This lifestyle causes disruptions to our circadian rhythms and has deleterious consequences on health.”

The backs of our eyes contain a sensory membrane called the retina, whose innermost layer contains a tiny subpopulation of light-sensitive cells that operate like pixels in a digital camera. When these cells are exposed to ongoing light, a protein called melanopsin continually regenerates within them, signaling levels of ambient light directly to the brain to regulate consciousness, sleep and alertness. Melanopsin plays a pivotal role in synchronizing our internal clock after 10 minutes of illumination and, under bright light, suppresses the hormone melatonin, responsible for regulating sleep.

“Compared to other light-sensing cells in the eye, melanopsin cells respond as long as the light lasts, or even a few seconds longer,” says Ludovic Mure, staff scientist and first author of the paper. “That’s critical, because our circadian clocks are designed to respond only to prolonged illumination.”

In the new work, the Salk researchers used molecular tools to turn on production of melanopsin in retinal cells in mice. They discovered that some of these cells have the ability to sustain light responses when exposed to repeated long pulses of light, while others become desensitized.

Conventional wisdom has held that proteins called arrestins, which stop the activity of certain receptors, should halt cells’ photosensitive response within seconds of lights coming on. The researchers were surprised to find that arrestins are in fact necessary for melanopsin to continue responding to prolonged illumination.

In mice lacking either version of the arrestin protein (beta arrestin 1 and beta arrestin 2), the melanopsin-producing retinal cells failed to sustain their sensitivity to light under prolonged illumination. The reason, it turns out, is that arrestin helps melanopsin regenerate in the retinal cells.

“Our study suggests the two arrestins accomplish regeneration of melanopsin in a peculiar way,” Panda says. “One arrestin does its conventional job of arresting the response, and the other helps the melanopsin protein reload its retinal light-sensing co-factor. When these two steps are done in quick succession, the cell appears to respond continuously to light.”

By better understanding the interactions of melanopsin in the body and how the eyes react to light, Panda hopes to find new targets to counter skewed circadian rhythms due to, for example, artificial illumination. Previously, Panda’s research team discovered that chemicals called opsinamides could block melanopsin’s activity in mice without affecting their vision, offering a potential therapeutic avenue to address hypersensitivity to light experienced by migraine sufferers. Next, the researchers aim to find ways to influence melanopsin to reset the internal clocks and help with insomnia.

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