WASHINGTON — The United States has repatriated and charged the last Americans believed to be detained in Syria and accused of supporting the Islamic State, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The move could give the Trump administration a stronger hand in its efforts to persuade other nations to repatriate and, when appropriate, prosecute citizens who traveled to the Middle East to support the group.
The Justice Department said that the four repatriated Americans were among about 2,000 men from dozens of countries who were imprisoned in northern Syria and caught for years in legal and political limbo. The four were captured and detained last spring by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
“This is a significant moment in what has been a yearslong effort to bring back the individuals who left the U.S. to fight with ISIS,” John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in an interview. “Each country should take responsibility for the people who left their countries.”
Two of the suspects, Emraan Ali and Jihad Ali, a father and son, made their initial appearance in federal court in Miami on Wednesday. Emraan Ali traveled to Syria in March 2015 with his family, including his son, and received military and religious training from the Islamic State, the government said in court documents. Mr. Ali and his son were accused of providing, trying to provide and conspiring to provide material support to the group. They were captured in 2019 during one of the Islamic State’s final battles to maintain its territory in Syria, the Justice Department said.
Two other suspects, Abdelhamid Al-Madioum and Lirim Sylejmani, were charged two weeks ago in federal courts in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., with supporting the militant group, efforts that began in 2015, according to court documents.
Though both the Obama and the Trump administrations decided to repatriate and try American detainees, other countries have been reluctant to bring back terrorism suspects because of political and legal hurdles.
But members of the Syrian Democratic Forces are unlikely to be able to detain the rest of the prisoners long-term, particularly as the civil war in Syria continues under President Bashar al-Assad. The Treasury Department on Wednesday also imposed sanctions on nearly 20 people and entities, including the governor of the Central Bank of Syria, in an attempt to restrict funding to Mr. Assad and his government.
Should those international prisoners be released with no plan to charge them or reintegrate them into society, they could pose a terrorist threat.
“We are demonstrating to our international partners that it is not a long-term solution to leave their people imprisoned in Syria,” said John Brown, the F.B.I.’s executive assistant director for national security.
Mr. Brown said that the United States had offered other nations, especially in Western Europe, evidence and intelligence to help them bring charges against the prisoners as well as assistance in drafting legislation to overcome legal hurdles to repatriate their citizens.
The charges against the four American suspects are also the latest example of the Justice Department using the civilian court system to prosecute terrorism cases as the military commissions system at the wartime prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has foundered.
The debate over the use of civilian courts that persisted during the Obama administration has receded as prosecutors repeatedly secured convictions on terrorism charges and judges imposed lengthy sentences on them.
“We’ve done hundreds of terrorism cases in U.S. civilian court since 9/11, and very successfully so,” Mr. Demers said. He said that prosecutors also protected classified information in bringing their cases, putting to rest fears among some in the intelligence community that trials would expose sensitive information and diminish the government’s ability to fight terrorism.
“The system has worked,” Mr. Demers said. “It is something we will continue to use in this administration.”
In all, the United States has repatriated 27 Americans from Syria and Iraq, 10 of whom were criminally charged. The other 17 are the family members of Islamic State suspects or minors who were not charged with crimes.
Mr. Demers said that other Islamic State suspects who have been charged who were not in detention facilities and may also be brought back to the United States to face trial.
Mr. Brown said that the Islamic State was still active and no longer had to entice recruits to travel for indoctrination and military training. Long before its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq collapsed, the group had begun using social media to recruit members and inspire others to act on their own to conduct terrorist attacks.
People joke about asking horses, “Why the long face?” We should redirect this question to hammerhead sharks. Their famous head extensions, called cephalofoils, can measure three feet from eye to eye. And scientists are still trying to nail down exactly what purposes they serve.
A study published in Scientific Reports explored how the sharks’ strangely shaped craniums affect how they swim. Although the cephalofoil helped with manoeuvrability it did not seem to generate lift. In fact, it added a lot of drag – so much that some hammerheads may need to use roughly 10 times as much force as other sharks just to get through the water, says Glenn R Parsons, a biological oceanographer and shark specialist at the University of Mississippi and one of the new paper’s authors.
There are some benefits to having a hammer for a head. Most experts agree that the widely-spaced eyes, nostrils and electroreceptors enabled by the cephalofoil’s shape allow the hunters to better pinpoint their prey. The heads can also serve as weapons – biologists have observed a female great hammerhead use her noggin to bludgeon a stingray.
But you have to wonder what it’s like to swim around with that thing.
To investigate, Parsons and his colleagues turned to computational fluid dynamics. There are at least eight hammerhead species. The researchers included all eight species in their study, laser-scanning the heads of preserved museum specimens to “capture the physical shape in minute detail,” Parsons says. Each digitised head was then placed in a virtual underwater environment, allowing the researchers to measure water pressure, drag and flow. They then did the same for a few shark species with more typical pointy heads.
When a hammerhead’s cephalofoil was level – as is typical when they are swimming – it did not generate lift, the researchers found.
But as soon as the cephalofoil was tilted up or down, the force quickly came into play, enabling a rapid ascent or descent. This helps to explain why hammerheads are “much more manoeuvrable than a typical shark,” says Parsons, who thinks the skill may help them snap up food from the seafloor.
– Cara Giaimo
Panurgus banksianus, also known as the large shaggy bee(iStock)
Meet a bee with a very big brain
Panurgus banksianus, the large shaggy bee, lives alone, burrowed into sandy grasslands across Europe. The large shaggy bee also has a very large brain.
Just like mammals or birds, insect species of the same size may have different endowments inside their heads. Researchers have discovered some factors linked to brain size in back-boned animals.
But in insects, the drivers of brain size have been more of a mystery. In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists scrutinised hundreds of bee brains for patterns. Bees with specialised diets seem to have larger brains, while social behaviour appears unrelated to brain size. That means when it comes to insects, the rules that have guided brain evolution in other animals may not apply.
“Most bee brains are smaller than a grain of rice,” says Elizabeth Tibbetts, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the research. But, she says, “bees manage surprisingly complex behaviour with tiny brains”, making the evolution of bee brains an especially interesting subject.
Ferran Sayol, an evolutionary biologist at UCL, and his co-authors studied those tiny brains from 395 female bees belonging to 93 species from across the United States, Spain and the Netherlands. Researchers beheaded each insect and used forceps to remove its brain.
One pattern that emerged was a connection between brain size and how long each bee generation lasted. Bees that only go through one generation each year have larger brains, relative to their body size, than bees with multiple generations a year.
Looking at the bees’ diets revealed a more surprising tendency.
In birds, “we know that species that have a broader diet tend to have bigger brains,” Sayol says. The challenge of finding and consuming a wide variety of foods may demand a large brain. However, Sayol says, “We found the opposite in bees.” The biggest brains were in dietary specialists, such as the aster-loving large shaggy bee.
Sayol speculates that a broad diet might be less of a challenge for bees than it is for birds, because all bees feed on flowers. A bee with a broad diet can fly into a field and drink the first nectar it finds. But a bee with a specialised diet may have to spot its preferred bloom, with its specific colour and fragrance, among a whole field of similar flowers – a task that might require more brain.
Larger brains have also been linked to social behaviour in primates and other mammals. But scientists found no connection between brain size and whether a bee lived in hives like honeybees or was a loner like our big-brained aster-eater.
– Elizabeth Preston
The earliest evidence of a Viking expedition comes from a burial site dated to around 750AD in Salme, Estonia(CC/Public Domain)
The Vikings were more complicated than you might think
Public fascination with the Vikings runs high these days, with several current television series available for bloody binge-watching. But the Vikings have never really gone out of fashion, whether as pure entertainment or because of their real historical importance.
Periodically, scholars remind the public that the people we call Vikings did not think of themselves as a group and were largely, but not universally, from the geographic area we now call Scandinavia. The Viking Age, from roughly 750 to 1050, included brutal raids, extensive trading and commerce and probably a majority of people who stayed home on the farm.
Now, one of the most sweeping genetic surveys of ancient DNA ever done has broadly reinforced the current historical and archaeological understanding of the Vikings, but also offers some surprises about their travels and uncovers some poignant personal stories. Ninety researchers, led by Eske Willerslev, an ancient DNA specialist from the University of Copenhagen, reported in the journal Nature on their analysis of the genomes of 443 ancient humans from Europe and Greenland.
Based on DNA analysis and comparison to modern populations, they found that people genetically similar to modern Danes and Norwegians generally headed west in their raids and trading, while “Swedish-like” people mostly headed east. The findings are based on graves of raiders or traders in England, Ireland, Estonia and elsewhere.
However, they found that this was only a general pattern. Sometimes Swedish-like groups headed west, and the others headed east.
They also found considerable genetic variation in the ancient remains, indicating migration of southern Europeans, before the Viking Age, to the area of Denmark, which undermines any idea of a single Nordic genetic identity.
The earliest evidence of a Viking expedition comes from a burial site dated to around 750AD in Salme, Estonia, where two Viking ships were buried; seven men in one, 34 in another, with weapons, provisions, dogs and birds of prey. No one knows whether this was a raid, or a diplomatic or trading expedition gone wrong, but the men appear to have been killed violently and buried as warriors.
The DNA analysis showed that four of the men were brothers and they were related to a fifth man, perhaps an uncle. One of the report’s authors, Neil Price, an archaeologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, says: “We kind of suspected that you go raiding with your family, but it shows that they really did.”
– James Gorman
Companies are looking for ways to use fungus as an alternative to leather (Bolt Threads)
That mushroom motorcycle jacket will never go out of style
There are traditionally two ways to make a leather jacket. One involves a cow, and takes years. Another involves synthetic fabric, and requires plastic. But there’s a third option: thick sheets of woven fungus, grown over a couple of weeks on anything from sawdust to agricultural waste.
“It feels a bit and smells a bit like mushroom, still, but it looks like a piece of old leather jacket,” says Alexander Bismarck, a materials scientist at the University of Vienna.
Over the last decade, companies in the United States, Indonesia and Korea have touted fungal leather as an ethical and environmentally sustainable replacement for both cow skin and plastic. Previously, there wasn’t much research to support their claims. But a study published by Bismarck and his colleagues in Nature Sustainability finds that fungal leathers stack up quite well when it comes to versatility and sustainability.
Wearing fungal leather doesn’t mean wearing a mushroom motorcycle jacket. Instead, it’s made from a mat of mycelium, the underlying threadlike root networks from which fruiting bodies pop up after a rain. These mycelial mats grow easily on just about any organic material.
Beginning in the 1950s, inventors began to file patents based around fungal mats as a material for paper, wound dressings and a range of other products, but they never fully caught on, says Mitchell Jones, lead author and materials scientist from the Vienna University of Technology.
But in the last decade, companies like MycoWorks and Bolt Threads have begun manufacturing and selling fungal leather products.
“With leather, you’re limited to the skin that an animal produces over its life, whereas mycelial mats can be grown to specifications,” says Sophia Wang, co-founder of MycoWorks.
Bismarck says the potential for custom materials is huge because different kinds of fungus have different properties, such as toughness and water resistance, and there are potentially millions of species to choose from.
Fungal leather is also potentially more sustainable than other leather sources. The tanning process is energy-intensive and produces quite a bit of sludge waste – and the production of synthetic leather requires plastic, which involves oil. “You’re getting a biological organism to do all of your manufacturing for you, so there’s no real energy requirement,” Jones says.
“It doesn’t require light. And once you’ve got this material, you can process it according to quite simple chemical treatments compared to what you would normally do for leather tanning.”
– Asher Elbein
You wouldn’t want to eat this accidentally…(Getty)
Sometimes food fights back
Peering through a microscope in 2016, Dania Albini gazed at an algae-eating water flea. Its gut appeared full and green with all the ingested teeny-tiny Chlorella vulgaris algae. But she also observed bright green blobs of this phytoplankton in an unexpected place: the herbivore’s brood pouch.
“I was really surprised to see them there,” says Albini, an aquatic ecologist then at Swansea University in Wales.
As the colonisation continued, the algae enveloped the tiny creature’s eggs, killing some eggs and resulting in fewer newborns, according to a study led by Albini and published in Royal Society Open Science. With the algae still alive, the researchers suspect that Chlorella deploy an offence strategy as opposed to a typical defence to protect themselves from herbivory.
“You don’t expect a food to attack a predator in this way,” Albini says. “You expect it from a parasite, but not food. It’s fascinating.”
Phytoplankton are typically single-celled photosynthetic organisms that form the foundation of aquatic food chains. Among them are microalgae like Chlorella vulgaris that float on surfaces of ponds and lakes, making them easy meals for widespread zooplankton like Daphnia magna. To keep grazers at bay, some microalgae form spines, release toxins or aggregate to a size that’s larger than a predator can swallow.
But sometimes, Chlorella make their way inside a grazer’s body – not in the belly as food, but into the chamber housing the zooplankton’s offspring. Water circulates through this brood chamber and supplies oxygen and nutrients to the young, and seems to pull in some algal cells. While in this chamber, the researchers found during lab experiments mimicking some natural conditions, the algae were alive and able to double in abundance.
When algae managed to colonise a brood chamber, the zooplankton barely produced any viable eggs. Kam Tang, a plankton ecologist also at Swansea and co-author of the study, reckons that the “biological glue” that Chlorella cells produce helped them stick to each other and possibly to the brood chamber and the eggs, smothering most of the zooplankton’s next generation.
Why do Chlorella engage in this harmful intrusion? The researchers suggest that this offence strategy might protect algae cells from being grazed upon and trigger a reduction in zooplankton populations in lakes in the long run.
But what remains unknown is whether the live Chlorella inside Daphnia brood chambers actually make their way out into the water or remain trapped?
“There is no reason to assume that this is beneficial for the algae,” says Dieter Ebert, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who wasn’t involved in the study. “They have no chance to get out.”
…The tower of the Institute for the Works of Religion, often referred to as the Vatican bank, is pictured in this 2019 photo file photo. European financial crime evaluators from Moneyval began a regularly scheduled visit to the Vatican Sept. 30. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, thanked experts from Moneyval — the Council of Europe‘s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism — for helping the Holy See in its efforts to ensure transparency and international cooperation in its financial dealings.
The cardinal welcomed the experts to the Vatican Sept. 30 as they began a regularly scheduled, two-week visit.
In the Vatican, he said, there is underway “a progressive implementation of systems that allow a greater control of financial flows that could be exposed to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing,” which is why “the interventions and recommendations of the Moneyval evaluators are a resource that we treasure.”
The Vatican is unusual among the Moneyval members since its economic activity is not “aimed at creating wealth and well-being” for a nation, the cardinal said, according to Vatican News. “The funds managed by the Holy See and Vatican City State are primarily intended for works of religion or charity.”
“Precisely because of the priority destination of the funds,” Cardinal Parolin said, “it is necessary that the ethical dimension of investments be given special attention.”
Announcing the visit, the Vatican press office had said, “The scope of this phase of evaluations is to assess the effectiveness of the legislative and institutional measures adopted by the jurisdictions in recent years for the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.”
According to the Moneyval website, the program is designed to “assess its members’ compliance with all relevant international standards in the legal, financial and law enforcement sectors through a peer review process of mutual evaluations, including assessment of effectiveness of the implemented measures in practice” and to “formulate recommendations on ways to improve the effectiveness of domestic regimes to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and states’ capacities to co-operate internationally in these areas.”
Moneyval made its first on-site visits to the Vatican late in 2011 and early in 2012; the Moneyval report praised efforts under then-Pope Benedict XVI to enact tighter financial regulations and legislation but urged further reforms and the strengthening of offices meant to investigate and eventually prosecute financial crimes.
Moneyval’s third and most recent report on the Vatican, published in late 2017, praised continuing legal reforms under Pope Francis but again expressed concern that the Vatican City State court had yet to prosecute anyone for a financial crime, even if the Vatican’s own Financial Information Authority said it had flagged accounts at the Vatican bank for investigation into suspected “fraud, serious tax evasion, misappropriation and corruption.”
Asylum seekers – The group included families with children with special health needs, and more than 50 unaccompanied children, most of whom had been transferred to the Greek mainland after multiple fires destroyed the Moria reception and identification center, located on the island of Lesvos, three weeks ago.
“We feel grateful for the people that helped us in Greece and we’ll never forget them. We don’t speak German, but we’ll try hard to learn the language. My brothers live in Germany and I’m excited that I’ll see them again after such a long time”, said Lina Hussein from Syria, who travelled with her husband and two sons.
The Hussein family flew to Germany on the 16th flight organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in cooperation with the Greek government through the Special Secretary for the Protection of Unaccompanied Children, and in close collaboration with the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
Since the Moria fires, the UN agencies have worked together with the European Commission – the executive branch of the European Union (EU) – and the Greek authorities, to move 724 unaccompanied children from the islands to the mainland in anticipation of their relocation to other European states.
They said the relocation initiative, which started last April, has proven to be a workable act of responsibility sharing.
“This milestone is a remarkable testament that cooperation among partners can change the lives of children and other vulnerable people for the better”, said Ola Henrikson, IOM Regional Director.
“Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, relocation flights are happening almost every week. We hope this momentum is sustained and expanded, with more European States participating soon.”
Help during hardship
The UN partners were also encouraged that other EU Member States have welcomed additional asylum seekers and recognized refugees from Greece at a time of heightened hardship.
A total of 1,066 asylum seekers have been relocated from Greece to Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, so far this year.
“Following many calls for enhanced responsibility-sharing in Europe and the particular need to relocate unaccompanied children and other vulnerable people from Greece, we are very pleased to see this taking concrete shape and gradually expanding”, said Pascale Moreau, UNHCR Director for Europe.
“We are grateful to the countries concerned and hope that more countries follow this positive example and demonstrate their solidarity with Greece.”
The right to be safe
Currently, there are nearly 4,400 unaccompanied and separated children in Greece in urgent need of lasting solutions, such as expedited registration, family reunion and relocation.
Over 1,000 are exposed to severe risks, including exploitation and violence, and precarious conditions in urban centres, the UN agencies warned.
“The relocations of unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable children continue to be an important part of protecting the rights of refugee and migrant children”, said Afshan Khan, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, and Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe.
“These children, many of whom have fled abject poverty and conflict, have the right to be safe and develop to their full potential.”
On September 30, President of the European Council Charles Michel made a phone call to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
European Council President Charles Michel expressed his concern over the outbreak of military operations on the line of contact, underlining the need for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Highlighting the situation over the ongoing military provocation committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan on September 27, President Ilham Aliyev noted that 14 Azerbaijani civilians as well as servicemen were killed as a result of heavy artillery fire opened by the Armenian side on the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces and residential settlements along the line of contact. President Ilham Aliyev said that the Azerbaijani Army was conducting a counter-offensive in response. “The Armenian leadership is deliberately violating the negotiation process,” the Azerbaijani President noted. “The Armenian prime minister’s statement “Nagorno-Karabakh is Armenia” deals a serious blow to the negotiation process, while his statement “Azerbaijan should negotiate with Nagorno-Karabakh” is an attempt to change the format of the negotiations, which is also unacceptable, as stated by the leadership of the Minsk Group as well.”
The head of state emphasized that Armenia was conducting a policy of illegal settlement of foreign citizens in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which is a gross violation of international law, and a war crime under the Geneva Convention. President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that the Armenian Prime Minister had decided to set up military units consisting of tens of thousands of volunteers even before the military clashes broke out on September 27, which meant that Armenia was preparing for another aggression.
The head of state noted that the political and military leadership of Armenia bore responsibility for further development of events in the wake of the military provocation of Armenia.
Listen to older people’s ‘suggestions and ideas’ for more inclusive societies, urges UN chief
“Older people must be a priority in our efforts to overcome COVID 19”, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message for the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons, celebrated annually on 1 October.
He shone a light on the need to examine how the pandemic might change how we address age and ageing in our societies, stressing that more opportunities and increased access to health, pensions and social protection for older persons were “crucial”.
In releasing his policy guidance on making the lives of older persons better, back in May, the top UN official pointed out the overall coronavirus fatality rate is higher for them. Because of this greater impact, he maintained that policy interventions must be targeted towards raising more awareness of their special needs.
This year’s observance falls as the world is also marking the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, which Mr Guterres pointed out, “highlights the vital role of health and social workers, such as nurses and midwives”, in responding to the pandemic.
Against the backdrop that women constitute the majority of these professionals – many of whom are older persons – he upheld that “the people who devote their lives to our care, and to the care of older persons, mothers and children…deserve far greater support”.
Elderly potential
He said it was important to make concerted efforts across the designated Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020 2030, to improve the lives of older persons, their families and communities.
“The potential of older persons is a powerful basis for sustainable development”, he flagged. “More than ever, we must listen to their voices, suggestions and ideas to build more inclusive and age friendly societies”.
‘Invisible’ people
Meanwhile, Claudia Mahler, the UN independent expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, flagged that the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified existing violations of elderly rights.
“Existing inequalities that older persons face in terms of access to health, employment and livelihood are exacerbated”, she said, and yet, “they are chronically invisible”.
Ms. Mahler said that information about older persons is “at best fragmented, at worst, non-existent” in most countries, which is why it’s imperative to shed light on structural and systematic ways in which they are being left behind.
“Data is a prerequisite for informed and successful public policy making” to close existing gaps, highlight older persons’ contributions to society, illustrate their diversity and change perceptions of later life – “especially for it to be more than an inevitable stage of deficit and decline”, she said.
Prioritize older people
The independent UN expert also called for older persons to be prioritized throughout the recovery phase of COVID-19 and beyond.
“It is essential to ensure the income security of older persons, in particular older women”, she said, highlighting that “universal old age pensions and adequate entitlement levels” are necessary for “inclusive long-term recovery”.
Moreover, socioeconomic relief measures and safety nets must be adopted immediately.
In the absence of a dedicated internationally-agreed legal framework, Ms. Mahler spelled out: “We must ensure that responses to this crisis specifically identify and prioritize older persons…during the pandemic response and recovery phases”.
The concept of soil carbon sequestration, a cornerstone of regenerative farming, is regaining strength as a key measure in both climate mitigation and adaptation.
The potential of “carbon farming” to sequester CO2 emissions while regenerating degraded agricultural soil has been viewed positively by EU lawmakers in the attempt to scale up the EU’s ambition for obtaining climate neutrality by 2050.
In order to do so, the Commission proposed to increase the 2030 target for emission reduction from 40% to 55% and vowed that all legislation will be revised to make it fit for purpose.
Crops are natural carbon “sinks” for carbon dioxide, removing the equivalent of around 51 billion tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year and storing them in the topsoil.
Agricultural soils in the EU contain around 14 billion tonnes of carbon in the topsoil, which is considerably more than the 4.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted annually by all the EU’s 27 countries.
At the same time, carbon sequestration has the effect of restoring organic matter in cropland soils, a regenerative ‘gift’ that can boost soil fertility biologically.
And as a regenerative practice, ‘carbon farming’ has been included among the main Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) of the eco-scheme, the new green architecture in the EU’s post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
In particular, GAEC 2 aims to protect carbon-rich soils such as wetland and peatland, considered among the most effective carbon sinks.
According to the CAP reform proposal, GAEC 2 will be applied to all eligible agricultural land but member states will have to precisely identify peatland and wetland areas by establishing specific cartography at land parcel level.
Furthermore, rewetting techniques to remedy past degradation of drained peatlands, paludiculture or other agricultural practices resulting in carbon sequestration in these areas could be financially supported with additional CAP payments via eco-schemes and rural development interventions.
However, this new push on carbon sinks is seen by some as a smokescreen for the overall ambition on climate targets.
Environmental campaign groups have denounced the Commission’s plan to include soil carbon sequestration in the climate target, saying this was “an accounting trick” to meet the 2030 goals.
“Relying on forests to reach climate targets sends the wrong signal that it’s OK to keep polluting because the land will absorb it,” said Sam van den Plas, policy director at Carbon Market Watch, an environmental NGO.
In Europe, forests are currently a net carbon sink because they take in more carbon dioxide than they emit. Globally, oceans and forests are the two biggest carbon sinks.
Carbon market taboo
The plan to store more carbon on European farmlands and forests should be pursued through a “robust carbon removal certification scheme,” the recent update of the European Commission’s Climate Law reads
However, the increase of the GHG reduction target to at least 55%, would keep the agricultural and land-use sector outside the bloc’s carbon market – the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) – the Commission has informed.
The EU executive only plans to overhaul several pieces of legislation by June 2021, such as the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry regulation (LULUCF) and the Effort Sharing regulation.
European farmers have so far been prevented from participating in carbon markets, which would allow them to get paid for storing carbon in their farmlands by trading greenhouse gases.
In order to overcome the carbon markets taboo, the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee (COMAGRI), included proposals for a soil carbon sequestration scheme supported by establishing a separate trading scheme for negative emissions in its opinion on the Climate Law.
The importance of removals or negative emissions is paramount as currently removals and emission reductions are treated equally in carbon markets.
However, a ton of carbon removed from the atmosphere ought to be priced differently from a ton of carbon that is not emitted into the atmosphere, say EU lawmakers.
“From a political point of view, I believe the Commission should explore the possibility of establishing a separate trading scheme for negative emissions,” said Asger Christensen, the liberal MEP who drafted the opinion.
“That is an important message in our opinion, because it might generate substantial climate finance and benefit climate, environment, and biodiversity.”
Farmers and foresters need to be “directly incentivised” to put in practice carbon-capture crops and other measures intended to reduce net greenhouse gases (GHG), according to an update of the European Commission’s Climate Law.
Surgeons performing surgery - Photo by Павел Сорокин
Georgia : WHO and European Union support COVID-19 training for medical personnel in Georgia to improve health system readiness
One hundred and forty health workers from across Georgia – frontline responders to the pandemic – received specialized training to effectively respond to COVID-19 cases while ensuring their own safety and preventing further transmission.
Ambulance doctors, nurses and emergency vehicle drivers learned standard operating procedures for preventing and controlling infection during the transportation of patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. The Emergency Situations Coordination and Urgent Assistance Center conducted the trainings within the framework of the Solidarity for Health initiative implemented by WHO and funded by the European Union (EU).
Additionally, a special protocol was developed for mitigating the risk of infection among health workers exposed to COVID-19.
“Patients may not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, increasing the risk of infection for medical personnel, especially frontline responders. This is why I keep reminding my staff to always use personal protective equipment, so that medical personnel do not further the spread of the virus,” says Ilya Besalashvili, Ambulance Manager from Kaspi. “We found this training extremely useful – it gave us good insight into how doctors, nurses and drivers should operate to guarantee our safety as well as that of our families, patients, and their family members.”
Cascaded training for a well prepared health system
The trained health workers will in turn share information with their colleagues – over 7000 medical specialists, village doctors, ambulance teams and resuscitators.
“When COVID-19 broke out and the information on the virus was poor, the infection spread through the ambulance teams so quickly that we had to close services in some regions. It was a real nightmare,” says Vasil Davitashvili, Instructor at the Training Center for Coordination of Action in Emergencies and Emergency Aid. “Today we have good knowledge and necessary personal protective equipment. These trainings ensure better prevention and increase our self-confidence.”
“During this post-crisis period, when the epidemiological situation is relatively stable in Georgia, all efforts should be directed to ensure that the health system is well prepared in case of additional needs in the near future,” says Silviu Domente, WHO Representative to Georgia.
EU funding: from COVID-19 response to building resilient health systems
The first phase of the joint WHO–EU Solidarity for Health initiative focused on the COVID-19 response. It included the delivery of more than 1.5 million items of personal protective equipment for frontline health and laboratory workers, a study to gain insights into COVID-19-related behaviours in the general population, and support to strengthen national capacities for enhanced surveillance and infection prevention and control.
This assistance is part of a wider package of EU support for Georgia of over 400 million euros (almost 1.5 billion Georgian lari), which includes support for vulnerable groups and economic recovery. In total, the EU has committed over 15 billion euros globally to support partner countries to combat COVID-19.
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A new bill has been signed into law in California that bans two dozen toxic chemicals from being used in cosmetics.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2762 on Wednesday. The legislation will ban a total of hazardous ingredients from being put in products by 2025.
Those same chemicals have already been banned by the European Union, but California is the first state to also adopt a ban.
@CAgovernor Gavin Newsom signed my AB 2762 today! This landmark bill, the Toxic Free Cosmetics Act, will ban cosmetics in California that contain 24 toxic chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and hormone disruption. .https://t.co/ve15r8akpI
“Children, communities of color and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to these ingredients, which are not actively regulated by the federal government,” said Newsom in a statement about the signing.
The bill was authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance).
All the chemicals banned by the bill are known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and hormone disruption.
“The science is clear on the harmful nature of these chemicals and AB 2762 will provide Californians with the same consumer protections already provided in the European Union,” said Asem. Muratsuchi in a statement.
Another piece of legislation signed by Gov. Newsom now requires companies to disclose possibly harmful ingredients being used in personal care products.
Leading developer Kleindienst Group said its master-planned second home and tourism island destination, The Heart of Europe, being developed just 4 km off the off the coast of Dubai at an investment of $5 billion, will be the world’s first ‘Zero’ discharge tourism project.
The project, that has sustainability at its core, is being developed within the World Islands - a cluster of 300 man-made islands off Jumeirah district - that was aimed to create a new paradisiacal destination with boutique hotels, residential and hospitality properties to attract international tourists, investors seeking a second home and UAE residents looking for a new staycation experience.
The Heart of Europe is being developed on six of those islands – bringing the best of European culture, heritage and experience in Dubai.
The destination will offer year-round European cultural festivities – as many as 51 annual festivals – to bring the best of European flavour in Dubai. The restaurants and cafes will serve organic and authentic European cuisine. The destination will showcase the incredible wealth and resources of an unsoiled paradise and is set to become a ‘natural, cultural, human’ destination.
Kleindienst Group said a series of micro-jungles, vertical hanging gardens, rainy street offering cool shower during the hot summer season, solar power, re-creation of coral reefs and expansion of marine habitat, solar-powered hotel suites that are backed with a ‘Zero discharge policy’ – are some of the key features that will set the Heart of Europe apart from all other tourism projects in the world.
A new sustainable and architectural wonder, The Heart of Europe will also house a vertical hanging garden comprising 100,000 green plants.
The green living walls will add to the hotel biodiversity as it will attract bees, butterflies and birds whilst keeping the building cooler and reducing the hotels’ overall carbon footprint, it added.
The top developer pointed out that on completion, it will be a car-free, noise-free and pollution-free destination.
“Zero discharge was almost impossible on an island tourism destination and unthinkable a few years ago. However, it is becoming a reality now, thanks to the development of environmental engineering and technology. We are now able to achieve zero discharge at the Heart of Europe,” remarked Chairman Josef Kleindienst.
“Once completed, it will be the world’s first sustainable island tourism destination with a ‘Zero’ discharge policy. This means, there will be no discharge into the sea waters!”
The latest wonder in the modern age, Heart of Europe, once completed, will become a treasure trove and a ‘must visit’ destination for world travellers - especially those who care about environment and sustainability, he added.
The project, which was initiated around 2008, came out of age and evolved through increased regulations – both environmental and engineering – to make projects more sustainable.
"When we purchased the islands, the guidelines were simple – to build world-class touristic assets – to attract tourists to Dubai. Since then, the authorities have strengthened the engineering guidelines that will make projects environmental sustainability," explained Kleindienst.
"As a developer, we have gone extra miles to make sure we not only fulfil those sustainability regulations, but exceed them. For example, our civil structures are built to last more than 100 years, although the regulation is for a 50-year building life," he noted.
"So, we have exceeded our environmental and sustainability requirements as a project developer. Moreover, all our projects are green and will be surrounded by sustainable landscape, vegetation, micro-jungles that are watered through underground piping system to maximise the utilisation of the water resources. The abundance of trees and plants in the micro-jungles will attract seasonal birds and become home to butterflies," he added.
The Heart of Europe that will host nearly 4,000 accommodation units spread across 15 hotels, 10 Beach Palaces on its Sweden Island, 32 luxury villas on Germany Island, 141 Floating Seahorse Villas, and host between 8,000 to 15,000 people including staff at its peak, will not discharge any waste into the sea – a remarkable feat that defies convention.
Construction of the Heart of Europe’s Phase I which includes the development of nearly 600 units across 5 key projects including 8 Sweden Beach Palaces, 32 luxury villas on the Germany Island, Honeymoon Island – home to The Floating Seahorse, Portofino family hotel with over 170 family suites, and over 370 deluxe suites in the Côte d’Azur resort on the Main Europe Island.
The Phase I is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2020 and handover processes will start upon getting necessary permission from the authorities, depending on the Covid-19 pandemic situation. In order to add to the attractions and make the project more sustainable and more ‘European’, the project introduces some unique features.<strong>-TradeArabia News Service</strong>
