Aybak: About 35 miners were trapped under the rubble of a coal mine in Afghanistan’s Samangan province, local officials said on Sunday, December 15. The provincial health director, Sayed Usman Hamidi, counted 35 miners under the debris, saying rescue teams and health personnel have been dispatched to the area to rescue the trapped miners, Xinhua news agency reported. “Preliminary reports indicate that several miners were busy in a coal mine in the Dara-i-Sufi Payin district of Samangan province yesterday, but part of the mine caved in, and resultantly several miners were trapped under rubble,” a statement from the provincial police office released on Sunday said. The statement further said that police personnel, local officials, and villagers have rushed to the site to rescue trapped miners from under the debris. The operations are being continued to rescue workers trapped under the debris but none have been freed yet, according to local Taliban officials. The incident occurred around 6 p.m. Saturday, according to the Bakhtar News Agency. Earlier this week, two workers died from gas exposure at a coal mine in Bamiyan province’s Khwaja Ganj village. In February 2002, at least 10 miners lost their lives after being trapped underground when a coal mine collapsed in Afghanistan. In 2019, at least 30 people were killed in the collapse of a gold mine in Afghanistan, officials said. The collapse occurred in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province. Afghanistan houses vast resources of minerals, but many of the mines are old and poorly maintained. Afghanistan’s mining sector has seen frequent fatal accidents, often attributed to inadequate safety measures and a lack of proper equipment.
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None32 Pieces Of Home Decor That Are As Cute As They Are UsefulThe Healey administration took “a movement in the right direction” with its new family shelter system reforms, a key senator said Monday as he predicted a “robust conversation” among lawmakers when the administration seeks more money for the program. With an eye towards wrestling costs back down to the neighborhood of $350 million to $400 million, Gov. Maura Healey’s office announced Friday that the state plans to further shorten the length of stay in traditional shelter sites and phase out the use of hotels and motels in the emergency assistance program. The changes stem from the broad recommendations of the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs, which was tasked by lawmakers with curbing the surging costs to the system caused by an influx of migrant families to Massachusetts over the last two years. “As the services were initially provided, it was not sustainable long-term but we had to deal with the crisis at hand. So I’m glad that the administration is recognizing that we’ve got to put some parameters around how we provide these services,” Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues told the News Service. Rodrigues is “hopeful” that the administration’s goal of reducing shelter costs down to about $400 million from roughly $1 billion this year and last is a realistic one, but hasn’t had much discussion about whether the steps announced Friday are enough to accomplish that goal. “I think it’s definitely a start, it’s a movement in the right direction. You know, the Legislature hasn’t had its say yet. I’m assuming that the administration will be coming back for a supplemental appropriation for the EA system, and when they do, it’s going to be part of a robust conversation,” he said. The Legislature has taken a mostly hands-off approach to the migrant influx that stressed the emergency assistance shelter system and pushed Healey to declare a state of emergency more than a year ago. Lawmakers have instead opted to give the administration enough money to run the system for months at a time, but have left the sometimes-controversial policy specifics largely to the executive branch. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said Friday the administration wants to “dramatically reduce” the use of hotels and motels “as fast as we possibly can” from the 56 currently operating as emergency shelters. The administration thinks that, combined with other reforms like shortening the allowed length of a family’s shelter stay, can bring the cost of the system back down closer to its historic average. “I mean traditionally EA shelter prior to our arrival was somewhere between $335-$350 million,” Driscoll said. “We’d love to obviously get back in that $350 to $400 million range, just taking into account, you know, traditional cost escalation through inflation and whatnot.” New demand for shelter has declined as well, with 15 to 18 families now seeking shelter each day compared to 40 families in late summer 2023, Healey’s office said last week. The Healey administration has said it plans to file a supplemental budget seeking additional funding for the EA shelter system for the rest of fiscal 2025. Administration and Finance Secretary Matt Gorzkowicz recently said the system will likely run out of funds in January, and that Healey’s team would be requesting more than $400 million. Rodrigues suggested that request will come in the new year, after the new Legislature has been sworn in. “Nothing like that will happen in an informal session. That will have to wait, and traditionally, the governor would file a supplemental budget at the same time, more or less, when he or she files House 1, their operating budget,” he said, referring to the fiscal 2026 budget due from Healey by Jan. 22. For fiscal 2025, lawmakers have so far approved a combined half-billion dollars between direct appropriations and available one-time funds, but the administration’s latest report to lawmakers estimated that total fiscal 2025 shelter costs will actually be $1.018 billion, necessitating the coming supplemental spending. The Senate budget chief will influence the state’s approach to family shelter funding in fiscal 2026. “Last year, it was brand new to us. We didn’t know really what to expect. This year, as we have more experience with it and we can probably better forecast what the expenses would be, maybe it would be the time to bake in the full cost in the operating budget,” Rodrigues said. “But that’s something that we’ll have a conversation about.”
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The Miller Beach Tourism Bureau has installed maps around the lakefront Miller section of Gary highlighting local merchants, including at the new South Shore Line Station. It also established the visitmillerbeachgary.com website with a directory of local businesses and detailed guide to the Indiana Dunes National Park, Lake Michigan and other attractions. It is further launching a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook that showcases the area's natural beauty and role as the western gateway to the Indiana Dunes. Small businesses owners came together to form the Miller Beach Tourism Bureau group, which landed grant funding from the Knight Foundation and Legacy Foundation to promote Miller Beach as an ecotourism destination. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts The graphic designer Brianna Schwab designed the Miller Beach business district map sign, which has been installed on Lake Street and the South Shore Miller Park. A new highway exit sign also was added on Dunes Highway. New wayfinding signs were put in to guide visitors to Marquette Park and the newly reopened Douglas Nature Center, which is part of the Indiana Dunes National Park and a trailhead for the Miller Woods. Brochures, a detailed downtown map and tear sheets were distributed to local businesses to help guide people to businesses like Indie Indie Bang Bang, Tiny's Coffee Bar and the Miller School Shops & Spaces. "We are so very grateful to NICTD for fabricating and installing this sign," said Peggy Blackwell, President of the Miller Beach Tourism Bureau. "Miller Beach is a hyperconnected destination. In just 50 minutes from Millennium Station in downtown Chicago, visitors can disembark with a bike and ride to Lake Michigan in just 20 minutes. Along the way, they’ll find charming restaurants, unique shops, and key points of the Indiana Dunes National Park, including the Douglas Nature Center. This sign will help guide visitors from the train station to all of these amazing places." For more information, visit visitmillerbeachgary.com .VANCOUVER - A Federal Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a “deeply religious” British Columbia health executive who said he was wrongfully denied employment insurance after being fired three years ago for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Darold Sturgeon was fired as executive director of medical affairs for Interior Health in November 2021 after refusing to get the vaccine based on his Christian beliefs. He applied for employment insurance benefits but was denied due to being fired for “misconduct,” with appeals to two levels of the Social Security Tribunal also failing, leading him to seek a judicial review in Federal Court in August 2023. The ruling says Sturgeon believed the tribunal should have examined his assertion under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that the term “misconduct” did not apply to his case “because he was exercising his freedom of religion.” Justice William Pentney says “recent, abundant and unanimous case law” defined a specific and narrow role for the tribunal’s appeal divisions, focusing on an employee’s conduct, and not justification for and employer’s policies or compliance with the Charter. The ruling says Sturgeon’s appeal fell “outside the mandate” of the tribunal and he could have challenged Interior Health’s mandatory vaccine police “through other avenues.” It said these included advancing a Charter claim, lodging a wrongful dismissal suit or labour grievance, or complaining to the British Columbia Human Rights Commission. The office of the British Columbia Human Rights Commissioner separately clarified that such a complaint would have to be lodged with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. “The point is, there were other avenues available to pursue the Charter question; this decision does not cut off the only avenue of relief,” the court’s ruling says. It added of Sturgeon, who represented himself, that “no one has doubted that he acted based on his understanding of his religious obligations,” and that he had “ably advanced his arguments.” “However, despite his sincere and thoughtful arguments, the binding jurisprudence requires that I find against him,” the ruling says. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024.
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This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Author: Elizabeth Steyn, Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary The debate around deep seabed mining has been gaining attention as concerns mount about its potential impacts on ocean ecosystems. The ocean is host to countless species yet to be discovered, some of which could hold the key to breakthroughs in medicine. The impacts of deep seabed mining on ocean biodiversity are still uncertain. At worst, we face losing species without ever knowing them. For instance, one type of mining targets hydrothermal mounds, which are known to be unique ecosystems filled with extremophiles — sea life that has adapted to extreme conditions of heat and toxicity to thrive. It has long been known, then, that deep seabed mining is potentially bad news for ocean life. But deep seabed mining proponents use the language of “necessary sacrifice” to argue that the energy transition “will require trade-offs” for access to the necessary metals. This juxtaposition of biodiversity and the energy transition is a half-truth. While the climate and biodiversity crises are intertwined, we should beware of pitting one against the other. Yet this is exactly what proponents of deep seabed mining are doing. Into this fray come two recent studies published by Planet Tracker, a non-profit think tank focused on sustainable finance. In Race to the Bottom, Planet Tracker concludes that countries would receive minimal financial benefits from deep seabed mining. Mining for Trouble cautions that deep seabed mining would entail huge losses for mining economies. Before delving into the economics of deep seabed mining, it would be useful to understand where the demand is coming from. Energy transition 101 The basic building blocks of the energy transition are critical minerals. These are also known as critical energy transition minerals or critical raw materials. Battery metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese are particularly important, as they are used to power electric vehicles. With electric vehicle adoption expected to surge by 2040, demand for battery metals is projected to rise dramatically, which will likely lead to an increase in mining. According to the International Energy Agency, clean energy technology minerals are set to triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040 in a net-zero energy scenario. But the accessible ores of many metals have already been mined. As a result, land-based mining is becoming more technically complex, geographically remote or complicated for other reasons. ‘Battery in a rock’ On the abyssal plains of the deep seabed, there are billions of tons of polymetalic nodules — metal-dense nodes containing nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese. Deep seabed mining organization The Metals Company has dubbed them “a battery in a rock” and plans to begin mining operations in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean in June 2025. To date, issues raised about deep seabed mining mostly concern the lack of a governing regulatory framework, as well as uncertainties about its environmental, ecological and biodiversity impacts. Economic and social risk estimates have mainly focused on impacts to coastal communities who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. The recent Planet Tracker studies change this by highlighting the economic impacts of deep seabed mining. Economic impacts of deep seabed mining Deep seabed mining presents a number of financial challenges. One concern is the potential impact on metal prices. Flooding the metals markets with ocean-mined metals would likely drive down the price of the metals, which would impact the financial viability of the land-based mines that are currently producing them. There are also doubts about the demand for these metals in the quantities predicted. Battery technology is advancing rapidly, with alternatives like lithium iron phosphate batteries — used in 40 per cent of electric vehicles sold in 2023 — eliminating the need for cobalt and nickel. Emerging sodium-ion batteries are set to remove the need for copper. The financial benefits to the International Seabed Authority — an international organization that regulates mining in most of the world’s oceans — would also be marginal. Projections estimate that annual royalties distributed among member countries to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) would range from US$42,000 to US$7.35 million. This amount reflects both deep seabed mining corporate income tax and royalties. In comparison, mining economies would lose more than US$560 billion annually in export earnings. This discrepancy arises because deep seabed minerals don’t belong to any jurisdiction and thus cannot be similarly taxed. Regulatory hurdles To obtain exploration licences for deep seabed mining, UNCLOS requires member states to sponsor a mining operator. While sponsoring states can impose royalties on operators, some arrangements, such as those involving The Metals Company and Nauru, are part of agreements that include no corporate income tax. This, Planet Tracker cautions, can give rise to a “race to the bottom” where member states vie to give operators the most favourable terms. Sponsoring states also face financial risks and can find themselves liable for large amounts when they can least afford it. Papua New Guinea, for example, was left to cover AU$157 million when Nautilus Minerals collapsed. Finally, the financial viability of deep seabed mining itself is questionable. Even if profitable, the environmental remediation costs for deep seabed mining could exceed the value of any metals mined — and the damage may not even be reversible. These financial and ecological concerns paint a bleak picture. Our oceans fulfil an important planetary role, both in terms of climate and in terms of biodiversity. Should we really disturb this balance with deep seabed mining when the numbers don’t even add up? ___ Elizabeth Steyn previously received funding from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She is affiliated with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) and the Natural Resources Law Teachers Institute (NRLTI). She is a board member of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law (CIRL), a Fellow of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies (CMSS) and an International Committee Member of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (FNREL). ___ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/deep-seabed-mining-bad-for-biodiversity-and-terrible-for-the-economy-243893 Advertisement Advertisement
Image Small Image Body Thanks to Bradford Clark who teaches at George Washington Law School and has a home here, we were able to connect with another constitutional scholar and media favorite, Professor Jonathan Turley. Turley has agreed to speak at a U.S. Constitution Scholarship Foundation event at Walker’s Landing Monday, Dec. 2. His presentation will cover our present political climate and his recent bestselling book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in the Age of Rage.” In addition to being a professor at the George Washington University Law School, Turley has written articles for the New York Times , The Washington Post , USA Today, and the Wall St. Journal . He also is a featured guest on Sunday talk shows like Meet the Press , ABC This Week , Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday . He has worked closely with many of the networks’ most famous reporters from Tim Russert and Dan Rather to Britt Hume. Since the 1990s, he has served as a legal analyst for NBC News, CBS News, and BBC, and is currently a legal analyst for Fox News. He has covered stories that ranged from the Clinton impeachment to Trump’s impeachments, and the recent Presidential elections. Many of us on the island are extremely impressed by Turley who, unlike many of today’s political commentators, comes across as not only very knowledgeable, but also very thoughtful. Turley grew up in Chicago. His dad was an international architect who was an associate of famed modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Roh. His mom was a social worker and activist, who was the former president of the Jane Addams Hull House. In the late 1970s, Turley served as an Illinois Democrat House Leadership Page. He went to the University of Chicago for his BA and then attended Northwestern Law School where he served as Executive Articles Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review. After law school, Turley worked as an intern with the general counsel’s office of the National Security Agency. His interests have been to teach, practice, write, and be a commentator. Before joining George Washington Law School, he taught at Tulane Law School. At George Washington University Law School, he teaches torts, criminal procedure, and Constitutional Law. He also happens to be the youngest individual to receive an academic chair in the school’s history. He is best known for his writing and commentary in the media and his views and actions have impacted both sides of the aisle. He called for the criminal prosecution of George W. Bush administration officials for war crimes, which included torture. On the other side, in December 2019, Turley testified before the House Judiciary Committee arguing against a Trump impeachment, arguing that the evidence did not meet the standard definitions of those crimes and that the charges against Trump represented lowering of impeachment standards to “fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of anger.” While he condemned Trump’s speech before the riots at the Capitol, he argued, instead of impeachment, for a bipartisan, bicameral vote of censure to condemn Trump’s words and actions leading up to the riot. While he declined to represent Trump, he did speak in his favor to Republican Senators before the first and second impeachment trials. Turley is very concerned about political reporting and commentary today. He is worried that most commentators and reporters have become advocates of specific positions rather than subscribing to objectivity. In addition, he believes our major universities and law schools have become far too biased, with less than 10% of professors being conservative, which he believes prevents students from getting a balanced view of our laws and the U.S. Constitution. Amelia Island resident Howard Pines has more than 30 years of experience as CEO, chairman and founder of BeamPines, a premier firm in the executive coaching business. He also co-founded the BeamPines/Middlesex University master’s Program in Executive Coaching. Before that, he served as senior vice president of human resources for a Fortune 100 corporation. He is the author of "The Case for Wasting Time and Other Management Heresies."
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City's winless run extended to six games Tuesday after Feyenoord fought back from three goals down to draw 3-3 in the Champions League. After five-straight losses in all competitions, City looked to be cruising to victory after going three up inside 50 minutes at the Etihad Stadium. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get the latest sports news delivered right to your inbox six days a week.HUAWEI FreeBuds Pro 4: HUAWEI SOUND Elevating TWS Flagship Experience to New Heights
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