DECEMBER 9 AND 10, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


COMEY UNEARTHED THE ACTIONS OF FOUR AMERICANS INCLUDING TRUMP WHO WERE LINKED IN THE RUSSIA ELECTION INTERFERENCE MATTER, AND THEN HE WOULDN’T PROMISE TO KEEP IT UNDER WRAPS WHEN ASKED, CAJOLED, AND DEMANDED. IT SHOWED HE HAS A BACKBONE. DONALD TRUMP DOESN’T LIKE FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE A BACKBONE BECAUSE THEY SEEM "DISLOYAL." IT’S LIKE ON THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW WHEN SHE PIPED UP WITH SOME STATEMENT THAT QUESTIONED HUGH GRANT AND HE SAID, “YOU’VE GOT SPUNK!” SHE STARTS TO PREEN UNDER HIS PRAISE AND HE SAYS, “I HATE SPUNK!”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/12/09/john-kelly-kyler-murray-russia-probe-weekends-biggest-news/2256928002/
Trump implicated by prosecutors in Russia probe
Editors, USA TODAY Published 5:20 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2018

PHOTO – DONALD TRUMP ON WHITE HOUSE LAWN WAVING TO PHOTOGRAPHERS (Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump on Saturday denied directing his former lawyer to pay hush money to two women who claimed they had affairs with him. The denials came a day after federal prosecutors – in recommending prison time for Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer – implicated Trump in a scheme to pay the women in what they called a violation of campaign finance laws. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress, also spoke to prosecutors about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, which sought to influence the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, a transcript released Saturday shows former FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers about four Americans who "had some connection to Mr. Trump during the summer of 2016" and were tied to "the Russian interference effort."

New court filings from special counsel Robert Mueller outline the levels of cooperation from Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. USA TODAY


FIRST TRANSGENDER MALE BOXER WINS IN PRO DEBUT

Patricio Manuel won his professional boxing debut Saturday over journeyman Hugo Aguilar in the 128-pound super featherweight division. But that's not the real story: Manuel also became the first transgender male to compete as a pro boxer in the United States. Now 33, Manuel was a five-time amateur champion who competed as a woman in the 2012 Olympic trials before a shoulder injury ended his bid. But the injury was a blessing in disguise, leading him to medically transition to a male. "I think it needed to happen this way," he said. "I’m just really glad with the way everything played out."

Patricio Manuel, left, posted a unanimous decision victory over Hugo Aguilar in the 128-pound super featherweight division bout Saturday night, Dec. 8, 2018, at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. Manuel became the first transgender male to compete as a pro boxer in the United States.
Patricio Manuel, left, posted a unanimous decision victory over Hugo Aguilar in the 128-pound super featherweight division bout Saturday night, Dec. 8, 2018, at Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. Manuel became the first transgender male to compete as a pro boxer in the United States. (Photo: Brandon Magpantay, Special to The Desert Sun)


JOHN KELLY OUT AS WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF

The man assigned to bring a level of discipline to President Donald Trump’s often chaotic administration, John Kelly, will leave his post as chief of staff after internal tensions spilled into public view, Trump said Saturday. "John Kelly will be leaving toward the end of the year,” the president told reporters as he left the White House for the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. The president was careful not to describe Kelly's exit as a firing. Kelly himself had not commented publicly since reports emerged Friday that he would be leaving soon.

President Donald Trump’s administration continues to see turnover as he announced John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, will be leaving by the end of 2018. USA TODAY


WINTER STORM SLAMS THE NATION

A winter storm bringing havoc to traffic across much of the nation crawled east Sunday, pummeling the Southeast with snow and sleet. Almost 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama early Sunday. Thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed from Texas to the Carolinas. In North Carolina, more than 1,000 flights were cancelled in and out of Charlotte Douglas International Airport alone. Parts of North Carolina could see snow measured in feet rather than inches before the storm finally rolls out to sea, a forecast that compelled Gov. Roy Cooper to declare a state of emergency.


THE BIG BOYS ARE TOO BIG. CAN SOMETHING BE DONE TO LIMIT THEIR POWER AND PRIVACY ISSUES? THIS REPORT DOESN’T COME FROM AMERICA, BUT FROM AUSTRALIA.

https://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/google-facebook-face-data-privacy-crackdown-under-accc-recommendations-20181210-h18xe5
Google, Facebook face crackdown under ACCC recommendations
By Max Mason
Updated 10 Dec 2018 — 12:12 PM,
first published at 8:47 AM

Google and Facebook are facing a privacy crackdown with increased penalties for breaches, sweeping changes to merger laws as well as tougher regulatory oversight over their market power in advertising and the distribution of news.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Digital Platforms Inquiry draft report was released on Monday with a set of 11 recommendations aimed at reducing the market power of Facebook and Google.

"Digital platforms have significantly transformed our lives, the way we communicate with each other and access news and information. We appreciate that many of these changes have been positive for consumers in relation to the way they access news and information and how they interact with each other and with businesses," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

Facebook and Google face a wave of regulation under preliminary recommendations from the ACCC. Bloomberg

"But digital platforms are also unavoidable business partners for many Australian businesses. Google and Facebook perform a critical role in enabling businesses, including online news media businesses, to reach consumers. However, the operation of these platforms' key algorithms determining the order in which content appears is not at all clear."

The ACCC is recommending a new regulatory body be set up to make sure Google and Facebook aren't abusing their market power in digital advertising. The ACCC estimates Facebook and Google have captured 80 per cent of digital advertising growth in the last three years in Australia.

In a typical $100 spent on digital advertising, the ACCC estimates $47 goes to Google, $21 to Facebook and $32 to all other websites.

Among the recommendations, the ACCC wants a regulatory authority to monitor, investigate and report whether Google and Facebook are engaging in discriminatory conduct.

"The relevant digital platforms would need to be obliged to provide information and documents to the regulatory authority on a regular basis, and the regulatory authority would need appropriate investigative powers," the report said.

"The regulatory authority could have the power to investigate complaints, initiate its own investigations, make referrals to other government agencies and to publish reports and make recommendations."

Merger rules
That regulatory authority would also be required to look into the ranking of journalistic content on their platforms.

The ACCC believes there is a risk Facebook and Google could favour their own businesses due to their market power.

"Facebook and Google are vertically integrated businesses and each is likely to have the ability and incentive to favour their own related businesses or businesses with which they have an existing relationship," the report said.

"This could occur without third parties, such as advertisers or online media sites, being aware that it is happening. The ACCC is considering recommending a regulatory authority to monitor and report on these issues."

The ACCC is also recommending changes to merger laws to now include new factors such as whether an acquisition would remove a potential competitor and take into account the amount of data such a transaction would give Google or Facebook.

The consumer watchdog said an overhaul of privacy legislation was needed to help consumers make informed decisions about the huge amounts of data platforms like Google and Facebook collect on them. For most consumers, there is a lack of real understanding of what information is being collected thanks to complicated terms and conditions policies.

"The ACCC proposes to recommend the following amendments to the Privacy Act to better enable consumers to make informed decisions in relation to, and have greater control over, privacy and the collection of personal information," the report says.

Privacy breaches
Under the recommendation, the ACCC wants to introduce an express requirement consumers be notified in a clear, easily accessible, transparent and in plain language if a platform, or a third party via the platform, is collecting their personal data.

It is also advocating for the strengthening of data collecting consent requirements to be opt-in.

"This means that settings that enable data collection must be pre-selected to 'off'. The consent must also be given by an individual or an individual's guardian who has the capacity to understand and communicate their consent," the report says.

The ACCC also wants to up penalties for privacy breaches to be, at a minimum, in line with breaches of Australia Consumer Law, which have a maximum penalty of $10 million.

The watchdog also wants individuals to have direct rights to bring actions against Facebook and Google for privacy breaches.

The preliminary recommendations come seven months after the European Union beefed up its privacy legislation with the General Data Protection Regulation - however the fines are much heftier.

"The preliminary report examines important topics in relation to Australia's changing media and advertising industry and we welcome the opportunity to contribute to the ACCC inquiry," a Google spokeswoman said.

"As we put forward in our submission, we develop innovative products to the benefit of consumers, businesses and the economy, and we work closely with advertisers and publishers across Australia. We will continue to engage with the ACCC between now and the final report next year."

The ACCC's Digital Platforms Inquiry began one year ago and was a result of the government's deal with then federal Senator Nick Xenophon in order to gain his support for changes to media ownership regulation.


THIS ARTICLE OFFERS A LOOK AHEAD TO JANUARY IN THE SENATE ON CLIMATE ISSUES, FOSSIL FUEL USE, AND THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF JOE MANCHIN – A CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRAT FROM WEST VIRGINIA.

https://grist.org/article/bernie-sanders-is-the-reason-why-a-pro-coal-senator-is-about-to-take-over-a-powerful-energy-post/
Senator Joe Manchin at his election day victory party in Charleston, West Virginia.
CLIMATE DESK
Bernie Sanders is the reason why a pro-coal senator is about to take over a powerful energy post
By Rebecca Leber and Dan Spinelli on Dec 8, 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Senator Joe Manchin at his election day victory party in Charleston, West Virginia. Patrick Smith / Getty Images

This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

In a strange twist of fate, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who once fired a shotgun at a climate bill, is expecting to be promoted to a leadership position in a key Senate committee that conducts environmental oversight.

Progressive environmental groups have pressured Minority Leader Charles Schumer (a Democrat from New York) to pick someone, anyone, else to be ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Schumer isn’t the real reason Manchin is next-in-line, though. If filling the position had proceeded through the normal line of succession, it would go to the most senior senator on the committee, and four other senators outrank him. But in the fray of the post-midterms jostling for committee assignments, none of them want the position.

Washington state’s Maria Cantwell, the current top Democrat, has indicated she wants to replace departing Senator Bill Nelson (a Democrat from Florida) as ranking member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation panel. Senators Ron Wyden (a Democrat from Oregon) and Debbie Stabenow (from Michigan) want to keep their ranking slots on the Finance and Agriculture committees respectively.

And then there’s Bernie Sanders, who just organized a climate change town hall at the start of a likely presidential bid. He could be ranking member on a committee that oversees the Energy and Interior departments and debates issues related to public lands, energy infrastructure, and the nation’s electrical grid, but he refuses to move from his post on the powerful Budget Committee, where he can stay focused on economic priorities.

“I am proud of the work I have done on the Budget Committee over the last 12 years,” Sanders said in an emailed statement to Mother Jones. “As Ranking Member I have helped fight for budget and national priorities, which represent the needs of working families and not just the 1 percent. I look forward to continuing the fight in the new session for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.”

Thus far, Sanders hasn’t faced much public pressure to prevent Manchin from getting the post, potentially because the most outspoken groups protesting Manchin have had long standing ties with Sanders going back to his 2016 presidential campaign. Bill McKibben, co-founder of environmental group 350.org, has campaigned for Sanders and spoke at his town hall Monday night. Instead, these groups have done an end run to Schumer and pressured him directly to block Manchin’s promotion.

On Monday, members of the Sunrise Movement, a left-leaning environmental advocacy group, protested outside Schumer’s New York office, calling on him to reject “those who are in the pockets of the fossil fuel CEOs” from overseeing environmental policy. “We’re asking people to do something that’s admittedly difficult but we really want Schumer to step up and do the right thing for his party and these issues,” 350.org policy director Julian Noisecat* said.

Democratic donor Tom Steyer and Washington Governor Jay Inslee, both 2020 presidential hopefuls, have also spoken out against Manchin. Inslee, whose campaign would center in part around climate change, is organizing a petition that lays out the argument: “Look, Joe Manchin has been a champion for affordable health care for every American. He’s been a leader on issues you and I care deeply about. But on climate, he’s simply wrong.”

As a leader on Energy and Natural Resources, Manchin would work with Chair Lisa Murkowksi (a Republican from Alaska) who has not been shy about noticing the impacts of climate change in her home state. Even if global warming itself has not been a primary focus of the committee’s interests of late, that could change next year, when Murkowski has said she expects the committee to lead “a rational conversation” on the topic.

Since 2012, the committee has not held a single hearing fully devoted to climate change, in contrast to 2009 when it held nine in that year alone. Most major climate bills, including cap-and-trade legislation, have gone through either the Finance committee or Environment and Public Works, which considers nominees to the Environmental Protection Agency and convenes hearings on topics like air pollution and toxic waste.

Nonetheless, the Trump administration’s most controversial initiatives, like a draft proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear plants, did not come directly before the Energy panel. But it still dominated the committee’s debate over whether to advance the nomination of Bernard McNamee, an ex-DOE staffer who helped develop the idea, to a position on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Manchin, who has voted in line with Trump’s policies 60.8 percent of the time, originally voted for McNamee’s nomination to advance out of committee, but then switched course and opposed him on the Senate floor. The controversial nominee was ultimately confirmed by one vote.

Coming from West Virginia, Manchin’s close ties to the coal industry are a given. Since his arrival in the Senate eight years ago, Manchin has taken nearly $750,000 in donations from the mining industry and more than $419,000 from oil and gas firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His voting scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters, which assigns a rating based on a lawmaker’s voters for or against environmental legislation, is lower than all other Democratic senators but higher than all but one Republican.

Manchin’s office declined to comment to Mother Jones, and when confronted by reporters at the Capitol this week, he avoided any mention of the controversy. “Come in and talk to me, the door’s open,” he said. “I want to do whatever I can to help my country and my state.”

Progressive freshman lawmakers like incoming New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have expressed concern with West Virginia’s senior senator being granted a leadership role on environmental issues, but some of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have closed ranks around the nominee, downplaying Manchin’s record and the damage he could do to climate priorities. “I think Joe gets and understands we need to move forward on a diverse set of energy needs,” Cantwell told Bloomberg‘s Ari Natter.

“On climate, we’re going to make decisions collectively as a caucus. Nobody in our caucus has a veto over climate policy — whether they’re a ranking member on a committee or not,” Senator Chris Murphy (a Democrat from Connecticut) told Politico.

But activists argue there’s a lot at stake, especially if Democrats were thinking beyond the immediate legislative session.

“It would be an even bigger concern looking ahead if we do take back the senate in 2020 or in the future,” Noisecat says. “I don’t think that anyone who’s looking at the current makeup of Congress right now believes we can get ambitious climate legislation through both chambers of Congress. [But] Manchin is a huge problem if you want to do that in the long term.”


AN OCTOBER STORY ON JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT, ACTIVE ON THE FOSSIL FUELS ISSUE AND ON NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/26/the-real-reason-for-voter-id-laws-to-prevent-native-americans-from-voting
Republicans wanted to suppress the Native American vote. It's working
Julian Brave NoiseCat
Voter fraud barely exists, yet laws are being passed in states such as North Dakota that do nothing but strip the civil rights of indigenous peoples

PHOTOGRAPH -- ‘In the 2018 midterms, Heidi Heitkamp’s re-election strategy – which could determine control of the Senate – relies on the Native American demographic.’ Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Control of the Senate in the 2018 midterms may hang on the fate of Heidi Heitkamp, the right-leaning Democrat from North Dakota. But her victory will be nearly impossible without the votes of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other Native communities across the heavily Republican state. Now, those communities are facing an insidious new threat: voter ID laws designed to strip American Indians of the right to vote.

In 2012, Heitkamp won the race for the US Senate on a razor-thin margin of 3,000 votes. Her path to victory leaned heavily on support from North Dakota’s 46,000 Native Americans, who make up 5.5% of the state population and are a core Democratic constituency across the rural west. In the 2018 midterms, Heitkamp’s re-election strategy – which could determine control of the Senate – relies on this same indigenous demographic.

RELATED: Study after study has shown that Republican hoopla about voter fraud is baseless

The Republican party is well aware of this. Just five months after the 2012 election, the Republican-held North Dakota legislature passed a new voting law without any hearings or debate on the bill’s final text. The law requires North Dakotans to present at a polling station a driver’s license, state ID, tribal ID or other form of identification deemed permissible by the secretary of state in order to exercise their right to vote. In 2015, the state made the law even stricter, prohibiting the use of student, military and expired IDs, limiting the use of absentee ballots without ID and freezing the list of acceptable forms of identification.

These ID requirements present a significant barrier to Native Americans, whose communities have triple the unemployment and poverty rates of the rest of the state and who often lack transportation to travel long distances to obtain a driver’s license or state ID.

And that’s just the beginning. The law only considers identification that includes a residential address to be valid for voting purposes. This requirement disproportionately impacts Native Americans living on reservations, who often use a PO box because they live in rural homes that lack a residential address or are transient, moving from one family or friend’s house to the next.

In January 2016, a group of disenfranchised Native people who could not vote in the 2014 midterm elections filed a lawsuit alleging that the law violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits voting procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. According to the suit, there is not a single site where a state ID can be obtained on a reservation. Expert testimony brought by the plaintiffs suggests almost a quarter of North Dakota’s Native American population does not have valid voter identification – twice the rate of non-Native people.

RELATED: 'They're billin' us for killin' us': activists fight Dakota pipeline's final stretch

A federal district court judge temporarily stopped the law from taking effect. But this September, the eighth circuit court of appeals reversed that ruling. Then, on 9 October, less than a month before the election, the US supreme court declined to hear the case, upholding the lower court’s ruling.

Tribes are now scrambling to issue valid forms of identification so that their citizens can participate in our democracy. On the Turtle Mountain Indian reservation, chairman Jamie Azure signed an executive order providing tribal citizens IDs free of charge. Demand is so high that their machine has overheated and started melting the cards.

Citizens of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation are out knocking on doors to inform their neighbors about the strict new rules, and arranging shuttles to get families to their polling stations. North Dakota has closed polling stations in some rural counties in the western part of the state due to budgetary constraints. The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara offered to subsidize the polling stations their residents rely upon, but were rebuffed.

Now some voters in their community have to drive up to an hour one-way to cast a vote in person – and that’s assuming they have access to a car or can hitch a ride on the shuttle. “It’s incredibly frustrating,” Cesar Alvarez, a Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara citizen and an organizer for the Heitkamp campaign told me. “It’s disenfranchising people here.”

Proponents of the law, such as North Dakota secretary of state Al Jaeger, a Republican, have cited concerns about voter fraud as justification for the bill. But study after study has shown that Republican hoopla about voter fraud is baseless. Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt has tracked US elections from 2000 to 2014 and found just 31 instances of cheating out of over 1bn votes cast. Statistically speaking, Americans cheat at the ballot box about as often as we hit the Mega Millions lotto.

Like the poll tax, literacy test and grandfather clause of the Jim Crow south, the real purpose of voter ID laws like the one now in effect in North Dakota is to plant a white thumb firmly on the political scale. Native Americans and many others across the nation – including African Americans in Texas and Georgia – are staring down the prospect of a post-civil rights era.

Trump’s words have consequences, and he can no longer deny it
Gary Younge

On the Standing Rock reservation, in a community that knows better than any other what’s at stake, young and old are knocking on every single door, helping residents file absentee ballots to ensure voter turnout is high. Standing Rock youth have even decorated a Get Out the Vote bus that will drive from community to community on the reservation, transporting people to the polls.

The irony of this civil rights battle, which requires the literal first peoples of North Dakota to prove their roots are where they have been since time immemorial, is not lost on the indigenous communities leading the fight on the ground.

“We are being denied an inherent and moral right,” Judith LeBlanc, of the Caddo Nation and executive director of the Native Organizers Alliance told me over the phone between canvassing shifts at Standing Rock. “This is our territory, this is our land, and for them to say that we need to have an address in order to vote is an insult at best.”

• Julian Brave NoiseCat is an enrolled member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen in British Columbia


IT’S SAD BUT NOT SURPRISING THAT THE USA, RUSSIA, SAUDI ARABIA AND KUWAIT ARE THE ONLY COUNTRIES WHO HAVE REFUSED TO ACCEPT A SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENT THAT SHOWS THE NEED TO STOP THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS. I HAVEN’T HEARD MUCH COMMENT ABOUT OTHER KINDS OF POLLUTION LATELY, BUT CITIES LIKE FLINT MICHIGAN WHOSE WATER IS UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION STILL EXIST. I HAVE VERY LITTLE HOPE LEFT FOR THE FUTURE OF EARTH AS A HABITABLE PLANET.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46496967
Science & Environment
Climate change: COP24 fails to adopt key scientific report
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, Katowice
8 December 2018

PHOTOGRAPH -- Efforts to find compromise language failed and the text was dropped

Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed.

The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October.

Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" the report.

It was the 2015 climate conference that had commissioned the landmark study.

Final call to halt 'climate catastrophe'
Five things we have learned from the IPCC report
What does 1.5C mean in a warming world?

The report said that the world is now completely off track, heading more towards 3C this century rather than 1.5C.

Keeping to the preferred target would need "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society". If warming was to be kept to 1.5C this century, then emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be reduced by 45% by 2030.

The report, launched in Incheon in South Korea, had an immediate impact winning praise from politicians all over the world.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Climate protestors marching in Katowice outside COP24

But negotiators here ran into serious trouble when Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia and Kuwait objected to the conference "welcoming" the document.

Instead they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would "take note" of the report.

Saudi Arabia had fought until the last minute in Korea to limit the conclusions of the document. Eventually they gave in. But it now seems that they have brought their objections to Poland.

The dispute dragged on as huddles of negotiators met in corners of the plenary session here, trying to agree a compromise wording.

None was forthcoming.

With no consensus, under UN rules the passage of text had to be dropped.

Many countries expressed frustration and disappointment at the outcome.

"It's not about one word or another, it is us being in a position to welcome a report we commissioned in the first place," said Ruenna Haynes from St Kitts and Nevis.

"If there is anything ludicrous about the discussion it's that we can't welcome the report," she said to spontaneous applause.

Scientists and campaigners were also extremely disappointed by the outcome.

"We are really angry and find it atrocious that some countries dismiss the messages and the consequences that we are facing, by not accepting what is unequivocal and not acting upon it," said Yamide Dagnet from the World Resources Institute, and a former climate negotiator for the UK.

Others noted that Saudi Arabia and the US had supported the report when it was launched in October. It appears that the Saudis and the US baulked at the political implications of the UN body putting the IPCC report at its heart.

"Climate science is not a political football," said Camilla Born, from climate think tank E3G.

"All the world's governments - Saudi included - agreed the 1.5C report and we deserve the truth. Saudi can't argue with physics, the climate will keep on changing."

Many delegates are now hoping that ministers, who arrive on Monday, will try and revive efforts to put this key report at the heart of the conference.

"We hope that the rest of the world will rally and we get a decisive response to the report," said Yamide Dagnet.

"I sincerely hope that all countries will fight that we don't leave COP24 having missed a moment of history."


https://unfccc.int/process/bodies/supreme-bodies/conference-of-the-parties-cop
BODIES
Conference of the Parties (COP)

What is the COP?

The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements.

More Background on the COP

A key task for the COP is to review the national communications and emission inventories submitted by Parties. Based on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the measures taken by Parties and the progress made in achieving the ultimate objective of the Convention.

The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995. The COP meets in Bonn, the seat of the secretariat, unless a Party offers to host the session. Just as the COP Presidency rotates among the five recognized UN regions - that is, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and Others – there is a tendency for the venue of the COP to also shift among these groups.


COP24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference
2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from COP24)

Context

After the United States left the Paris Agreement, China has taken a leading role by hosting many of the preparatory meetings in the weeks beforehand.[2] Just prior to the conference the World Meteorological Organization released a report stating that 2017 atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached 405 parts per million (ppm), a level not seen in three to five million years.[3]

Speeches

On 3 December 2018, David Attenborough told delegates at the conference:[4]

Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.

On 4 December 2018, 15 year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg addressed the summit and explained the severity of the problem this way:[5]

What I hope we achieve at this conference is that we realise that we are facing an existential threat. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced. First we have to realise this and then as fast as possible do something to stop the emissions and try to save what we can save.

The same day, the 14th Dalai Lama wrote to the participants of the conference: "Climate change is not a concern of just one or two nations. It is an issue that affects all humanity, and every living being on this earth. This beautiful place is our only home. We have to take serious action now to protect our environment and find constructive solutions to global warming."[6]


WE DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS, APPARENTLY, BUT WE MAY BE HEADED BACK TO MAKING MORE, MORE, MORE NUKES. AND WHAT ABOUT THOSE “TACTICAL” NUKES, WHICH WOULD BE USED ON THE BATTLEFIELD LIKE OTHER WEAPONS? TRUE, THEY DON'T MAKE AS BIG A BOOM, BUT THEY WILL SPREAD NUCLEAR WASTE.

SHOULD I WORRY? I DON’T KNOW, BUT IT’S ALL I CAN DO, SO I’M SURE I WILL. OF COURSE, STREET MARCHES MIGHT HELP, OR SITTING DOWN IN THE FLOOR OUTSIDE SENATORS’ OFFICES. WE DO NEED ATTENTION ON THIS PROBLEM RATHER THAN FAILING TO PUT PRESSURE ON THOSE WHO HAVE SOME SAY IN THE MATTER. LETTING THESE THINGS PASS BY WITHOUT COMMENT IS HOW WE ENDED UP WITH OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46510957
Is nuclear disarmament set to self-destruct?
By Jonathan Marcus
Defence and diplomatic correspondent
DECEMBER 10, 2018 5 hours ago

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES / TASS
Image caption
1989: A Soviet SS-23 missile is destroyed, under the INF treaty

Never has the future of nuclear arms control seemed so uncertain.

At risk is not just the collapse of existing treaties, but a whole manner of interaction between Russia and the United States that has been crucial to maintaining stability over decades.

So what's the immediate problem?

Last week at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Russia out. Moscow, he insisted, had been breaching an important Cold War-era disarmament agreement - the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

This 1987 agreement with the ex-Soviet Union removed a whole category of land-based nuclear missiles: those with ranges of between 500 and 5,500km (310-3,100 miles).

Being small, highly mobile, and located relatively close to their potential targets, they were seen as highly destabilising.

In the late 1970s Soviet Russia deployed the SS-20 missile to threaten targets in Western Europe, causing alarm in many Nato capitals.

The US responded by deploying Cruise and Pershing weapons in a number of European countries. But after the agreement, all these weapons were removed and destroyed.

The Trump administration says that a new Russian missile, designated the 9M729 and known to Nato as the SSC-8, breaches the INF Treaty. Mr Pompeo gave Russian President Vladimir Putin 60 days to return to compliance or the US would also cease to honour its terms.

Russia insists that it is abiding by the agreement, and raises concerns about Washington's adherence to the deal.

So who is right?

The Americans say they have powerful evidence that, over several years, Russia has developed and now fielded a missile that falls within the range that is banned by the INF Treaty.

This by the way is not a new idea raised by the Trump administration. President Barack Obama too was concerned about what the Russians were doing.

Media captionAre we on the cusp of a new nuclear arms race?

The evidence has been put to Washington's Nato allies and they have all backed the US case. Many of them though are privately not happy to see the US itself withdraw from the treaty, preferring that more time be given to try to reach an accord with the Russians.

Moscow has arguments of its own, asserting for example that US anti-ballistic missile interceptors deployed today in Romania, but soon to Poland as well, could potentially fall into the INF agreement's terms if their warheads were changed.

So can the INF Treaty be saved?

Or, to put it another way, does either country really want to maintain the treaty? On the face of it the answer is no.

If indeed Russia is in breach of the agreement, as Nato insists, then it clearly believes that developing a weapon in this category has some strategic value. And there is no hint of Russia backing down.

As far as the Americans and their allies are concerned, the ball is in Moscow's court; the INF Treaty's fate is in its hands.

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But there is a strong sentiment in both the Pentagon and White House that the agreement is out of date. US officials point to China's huge arsenal of intermediate-range nuclear missiles, which it has been able to develop unconstrained by any treaty. In this light, the US sees the INF deal as a brake on its own strategic capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.

Perhaps the Europeans who are most alarmed (and most at risk) by the deployment of new Russian missiles can bring their weight to bear. But if both Washington and Moscow see good reasons for abandoning the treaty, then the other Nato countries are unlikely to pull a renewed INF agreement out of the hat.

Should it be saved?

During the Cold War years, arms control and disarmament agreements played a vital role, and not just in reducing the numbers of nuclear missiles and maintaining stability. They were the central element in the East-West dialogue. This was the domain where Washington and Moscow met across the table as equals.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the INF treaty in December 1987

It continued after the Cold War with the new START treaty, signed during the Obama administration, setting limits on long-range strategic missiles.

If the INF Treaty unravels, then many experts fear for the future of the new START agreement, which expires in February 2021, unless the two parties agree to extend it. Will they even want to, given the state of their relations?

This is the paradox of arms control. Such agreements maybe don't matter so much in times of peace and stability; but when tensions mount they really do.

Shifting global power

The likely demise of the INF Treaty and the fate of the broader arms control edifice it represents is also a sign of the dramatic shift under way in world affairs.

The US concern about China points to this. Maybe the era of bilateral arms control, involving just Washington and Moscow, is coming to an end. China is now a significant nuclear player. Some 10 other countries beyond the US and Russia have fielded intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

The contrary view asserts that yes, the "bilateral era" is ending, but Russia and the US still have by far the largest strategic arsenals and that controlling these remains a good thing in itself. It also sets a benchmark for disarmament which should be extended to include other countries.

But with relations between Russia and the West at a low ebb, with a US president asserting the credo of "America First" and with Russia pursuing its own assertive foreign policy, it is hard to see the INF Treaty or even new START surviving.

Worse, it is hard to see US-Russian relations improving any time soon. The fact that their competition is now only one aspect of a multi-polar battle for strategic and economic dominance makes a world without arms control both more likely and more dangerous.


GOOD STUFF FROM THE BBC

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-39573186/stampeding-buffalo-are-returning-to-canada
Stampeding buffalo are returning to Canada
The massacre of North America's bison in the 1800s paralleled the persecution of the continent's indigenous people.

Since 2012, Parks Canada has been striving to reintroduce the animals, also known as buffalo, to Banff National Park - the oldest park in the country.

In February, more than 50 indigenous tribes bound together to make their return a reality.

Watch as the bison return to the park.

Video by Charlie Northcott

Additional footage from Parks Canada


IS THIS WHAT MARINERS IN THE 1500S OR EARLIER THOUGHT WAS A “SEA SERPENT?” THIS SHOWS THE POWER OF NICHES IN THE SURVIVAL OF LIFE ON EARTH. SO, LET’S PRESERVE THE LIFE-SUPPORTING QUALITY OF THE OCEANS. IF WE ARE SO STUPID AS TO UNLEASH NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST, THE OCEAN MAY BE THE LAST REMAINING SOURCE OF LIFE, AS IT WAS THE FIRST.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-41928537
News From Elsewhere
Portuguese trawler nets 'prehistoric shark'
By News from Elsewhere...
...as found by BBC Monitoring
9 November 2017

PHOTOGRAPH -- SIC NOTICIAS
Image caption -- Nasty big pointy teeth

Portuguese scientists have captured a "shark from the age of the dinosaurs" off the Algarve coast.

Researchers caught the rare frilled shark aboard a trawler, where they were working on a European Union project to "minimise unwanted catches in commercial fishing", Sic Noticias TV reports.

The scientists from the country's Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere dubbed the shark a "living fossil" because remains have been dated back 80 million years, making it one of very few species of such antiquity still around today.

The Institute said the male fish measured 1.5 metres (5ft) in length and was caught at a depth of 700 metres (2,300 ft) in waters off the resort of Portimao.

The shark, which has a long, slim, snake-like body, is "little known in terms of its biology or environment", according to the scientists, because it lives at great depths in the Atlantic and off the coasts of Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

It is rarely caught, and even then examples do not often make it to research laboratories. There is also little footage of the shark in its natural habitat.

Professor Margarida Castro of the University of the Algarve told Sic Noticias that the shark gets its name from the frilled arrangement of its 300 teeth, "which allows it to trap squid, fish and other sharks in sudden lunges".

The reporter dubbed it a "monster of the deep", and it is true that Samuel Garman, the first scientist to study the frilled shark, thought its snake-like movements may have inspired sailors' stories of sea serpents.

Image copyrightSIC NOTICIAS
Image caption
Inspiration for sea serpents?
Reporting by Martin Morgan

Next story: Russian scientists take aim at paranormal TV shows

Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20181009-how-sleep-helps-with-emotional-recovery-and-trauma
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, HAVE A NAP
A single night of sleep – or even a quick kip – helps with crystallising emotional information and with controlling how it makes us feel.
By Christine Ro
9 October 2018

When her daughter was preschool-aged, Rebecca Spencer experienced something familiar to many parents and childminders: the power of a nap. Without it, her daughter would be giddy, grumpy, or both.

Spencer, a neuroscientist focusing on sleep at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wanted to investigate the science behind this anecdotal experience. “The observation of a lot of people is that a napless kid is emotionally dysregulated,” she says. “So that spurred us to ask this question of, ‘Do naps actually do something to process emotions?’”

Research has already shown that, in general, sleep helps us make sense of emotions. Sleep plays a key role in encoding information based on experiences from the day, making sleep critical for preserving memories. And emotional memories are unique because of the way they activate the amygdala, the brain’s emotional core.

“Amygdala activation is what allows your wedding day and the funeral of your parents to be a day better remembered, more than just any other day of work,” Spencer says.

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The amygdala tags these memories as significant, so that during sleep they’re processed for longer and reiterated more than more trivial memories. The upshot is that the memories of emotional significance become easier to retrieve in the future.

Researchers are learning that even a nap can improve how we process emotional experiences

At sleep labs like this one, researchers are learning that even a nap can improve how we process emotional experiences (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)

But by influencing how memories are processed, sleep can also change the power of a memory itself.

“Sleep is particularly good at transforming emotional memory,” says Elaina Bolinger, who specialises in emotion and sleep at the University of Tuebingen.

In one recent study with eight-to-11-year-olds, Bolinger and colleagues showed children both negative and neutral pictures. The children reported their emotional response using stick figures corresponding to how they felt.

Then some of the children slept. Others did not. The researchers monitored their brain physiology via electrodes from the next room. The next morning, the kids saw the same pictures, plus some new ones. And compared to the children who stayed awake, children who slept were better able to control their emotional responses.

Sleep helps children control their emotional responses
Sleep helps children control their emotional responses (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)

For instance, the sleepers had a smaller emotional response in late positive potential (LPP). Bolinger describes the LPP as voltage measured at the back of the brain. This fires up whenever the brain is processing information – and the spikes are especially large when that information is negative emotion. But humans can control the LPP to some extent. As Bolinger puts it, “We are actively trying to change how we feel about something while we’re perceiving it. So we’re saying, ‘OK, I am trying to not respond very strongly right now, I want to push down my emotional response.’”

This research suggests that sleep helps with both crystallising emotional information – and with controlling how it makes us feel. And this effect works quickly.

A lot of the research is pointing in the direction that a single night of sleep is helpful for processing the memory itself, and for emotional regulation in general – Elaina Bolinger

“A lot of the research that’s out there right now is pointing in the direction that a single night of sleep is helpful,” says Bolinger. “It’s helpful for processing the memory itself, and it’s also important for emotional regulation in general.”

But not all sleep is created equal.

Types of sleep

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is associated with emotional memories, and more REM sleep makes people better at assessing others’ emotional intentions and recalling emotional stories. One theory relates to the absence of the stress hormone noradrenaline during REM sleep. Temporarily relieved of this hormone, the brain may use the time to process memories without the stress.

Researchers have found that REM sleep may help us process memories
Researchers have found that REM sleep may help us process memories (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)
Simon Durrant, who heads the Sleep and Cognition Laboratory at the University of Lincoln, explains another aspect. The prefrontal cortex is the most developed part of the brain – the location, Durrant says, of the “human impulse to keep calm and not just react immediately to things”. During wake, this is the part that keeps the amygdala, and thus emotions, in check. During sleep, that connection is reduced. “So, in a sense, it’s taking the brakes off the emotion during REM sleep,” he says.

Scientists have debunked the idea that dreams, which are most emotionally intense during REM sleep, can be meaningfully interpreted. But recent experiences often do turn up in dreams, mainly in the form of emotional content rather than a replay of events. Durrant says that there’s tentative evidence “that what occurs more in dreams is also what is remembered more”.

The process has been investigated by pioneering sleep researcher Rosalind Cartwright. Cartwright’s theory is that during dreams, distressing real-life experiences are integrated with similar memories. Thus, dreamers are better able to contextualise painful new memories against more settled ones, removing the sting.

Dreaming plays a role in integrating emotional experiences
Although dream interpretation has been debunked, it’s thought that dreaming plays a role in integrating emotional experiences (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)
But Spencer believes that non-REM sleep also plays a role. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) is the first phase of sleep that consolidates memories, and is especially good for processing neutral memories. Spencer’s research suggests that the amount of SWS activity during sleep affects how emotional memories are transformed.

Kids are really emotional without naps, and they’re hypersensitive to emotional stimuli – Rebecca Spencer

Naps mostly consist of non-REM sleep – including SWS in longer naps. And a recent paper co-authored by Spencer appears to be the first to show that naps, and not just overnight sleep, contribute to emotional memory processing in children. Without a nap, children showed a bias toward emotional faces. With a nap, they exhibited what Spencer calls the "cool as a cucumber" effect, where they responded similarly to neutral stimuli as to emotional stimuli. In essence, “kids are really emotional without naps, and they’re hypersensitive to emotional stimuli”, she says – because they haven’t consolidated the emotional baggage from earlier that day.

Spencer believes that naps are also helpful for emotional processing in adults, though not to the same extent. An adult has a more mature hippocampus, and thus a stronger ability to hold onto memories. Wake isn’t as damaging.

Even a nap, which doesn’t have REM sleep, helps children regulate their emotions
Even a nap, which doesn’t have REM sleep, helps children regulate their emotions (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)
That’s only up to a point, though. Spencer’s ageing-related research suggests that “you need to more frequently consolidate memories as you get older, because you could have a similar degeneration of hippocampus storage with ageing”.

Interestingly, older adults show a bias towards positive memories while young adults skew negative. That may be because it’s adaptive for children and teenagers to focus on negative experiences, because that contains key information that needs to be learned: from the dangers of fire to the risks of accepting a drink from a stranger. But towards the end of life, people prioritise the positives. They also get less REM sleep – the kind of sleep most likely to entrench negative memories, especially in people with depression.

Therapeutic uses

For individuals without disordered sleep, Bolinger says that the cortical integration function of sleep “gets stronger with time. So that first night of sleep puts you at an advantage for emotional processing down the road."

One study suggests that sleeping within 24 hours of a traumatic experience will make those memories less distressing

Sleep researchers are also looking at the potential of certain facets of sleep, such as lucid dreaming, to treat post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One study suggests that sleeping within 24 hours of a traumatic experience will make those memories less distressing in the subsequent days. For people with anxiety, sleep therapy might help with reminding people that they’ve eliminated their fear.

But while people with typical cognitive patterns need sleep to recover from intense experiences, it may be different for those with depression.

Wake therapy, where people are deliberately deprived of sleep, is spreading as a method of treating depression. It doesn’t work in all cases. But it may be that it jolts the circadian system, which is prone to sluggishness in people with depression.

Sleeplessness in some cases may have a protective effect. Spencer points out that following intense trauma, “the natural biological response in those conditions is that we have insomnia”. This may be an appropriate response to an unusual situation.

So sometimes it can actually be a good thing that REM sleep deprivation harms the brain’s ability to consolidate emotional memories. “There’s good evidence that people who have longer REM sleep tend to be more depressed,” Durrant says. He believes that this is because a subset of people with depression are re-consolidating negative memories during REM sleep.

Although sleep helps some people, others may be better off actually avoiding REM sleep
Although sleep helps some people, others may be better off actually avoiding REM sleep (Credit: Wolfram Scheible/University of Tubingen)
Why does sleeplessness help the emotional state of some people with depression and trauma, but not others? New work by Durrant and colleagues suggests that the difference may come down to genetics. A particular gene, called the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, appears key to memory consolidation during sleep.

People with a specific gene mutation are vulnerable to the frequent, unhelpful circling of negative memories during sleep – for them, it could be helpful to go to sleep early and get up very early

And the new research suggests that people who have a specific mutation of the BDNF gene are vulnerable to the frequent, unhelpful circling of negative memories during sleep. For them, it could be helpful to go to sleep early and get up very early to minimise the amount of REM sleep. For the same reason, Durrant would also recommend an afternoon nap.

“I don't think we’re going to solve this even in my lifetime,” says Spencer of all the potential clinical applications of sleep and wake therapy. But what’s clear is that certain kinds of decision-making improve following sleep, partly because of the way sleep regulates all those swirling feelings.

Bolinger puts it plainly: for the most part, “sleep helps you feel better”.

Ultimately, the best prescription for a broken heart or a clouded mind may be having a kip.

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THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST ARCHAEOLOGY FILMS I’VE WATCHED. IT’S ABOUT A TIMBER CIRCLE USUALLY CALLED "WOODHENGES," THAT HAS BEEN SWAMPED BY THE SEA IN ENGLAND, SO IT IS CALLED “SEAHENGE.” WOODHENGES HAVE BEEN FOUND AT WESSEX WHERE STONEHENGE IS LOCATED AND AT OTHER PLACES. WERE THEY MERELY EASIER THAN HUGE STONES TO ERECT, OR ARE THE TREES “HOLY?” WORSHIP OF TREES IS KNOWN FROM ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIANS, AND THE “TREE OF LIFE” IS A PART OF HEBREW AND CELTIC MYSTICISM. I THINK THAT NEARLY EVERYONE WILL BE INTERESTED IN THIS, EVEN IF THE SUBJECT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AS A WHOLE DOESN’T “TURN THEM ON.” THE BEST OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL GROUPS IS “TIME TEAM,” TO ME, BECAUSE THEY DISCUSS AS THEY DIG, AND MODERN ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXPERIMENT AS THEY MAKE DECISIONS. I USED TO WONDER WHETHER A STONE AX COULD ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING LIKE CUT DOWN A TREE. YES, I’VE SEEN IT DONE. IT’S EASY TO PUT A SHARP CUTTING EDGE ON FLINT, THOUGH IT WILL HAVE TO BE RESHARPENED SEVERAL TIMES AS THE CUTTING PROCEDES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU37d8kUebk
Time Team Special 3 (1999) - The Mystery of Seahenge (Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk)

IF YOU LIKED THAT ONE, WATCH THIS ALSO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ArmpT8Oktk
Time Team Extra 1 (2000) - The Time Team History of Britain