Day: September 14, 2023

Italy is considering whether to leave the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar global trade and infrastructure program, by the end of the year. The dilemma comes amid geopolitical pressures from Western allies and domestic disappointment that the program has not delivered the economic benefits that the country hoped for.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke to reporters after meeting the Chinese delegation at last week’s G20 summit in New Delhi.

“There are European nations which in recent years haven’t been part of the Belt and Road but have been able to forge more favorable relations [with China] than we have sometimes managed,” Meloni said. “The issue is how to guarantee a partnership that is beneficial for both sides, leaving aside the decision that we will take on the BRI.”

BRI benefits?

Italy signed on to China’s BRI in 2019, the only member of the Group of 7 most advanced economies — including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — to do so. But Italy has not received the expected economic benefits, Filippo Boni, a lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University in England, told VOA.

“From the Italian side, the idea was to both try and boost its exports but also to make a political move towards Brussels, as a signal that Italy was able to sign successful deals with third countries independently from the European Union,” Boni said, adding that Meloni is seeking to make a clear break with previous [Italian] governments by forging new relationships with China and the EU.

“There is a growing realization that the memorandum of understanding that was signed with China in March 2019 did not really bring the benefits that were expected,” he said. “Trade balance is still heavily tilted in China’s favor, and Italian exports to China did not pick up, did not see the increase that those who wanted [the BRI] were envisaging and hoping for.”

Geopolitics

There are also geopolitical reasons for Italy rethinking its membership in China’s BRI, said Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

“There’s come to be a certain diplomatic stigma attached to it, partly because the whole of the West is rethinking its relationship with China,” Scazzieri told VOA. “And Italy being the only G7 country having signed up to the Belt and Road makes it, on the other hand, look like it’s trying to get closer to Beijing.”

Italy’s Western allies are reducing their reliance on some Chinese imports and restricting the sale of technologies such as advanced semiconductors to Beijing.

In recent years, Italy’s government has blocked the sale of some of its biggest companies to Chinese firms, such as the tire maker Pirelli, under its so-called Golden Power rules.

“It’s really a clear signal the government in Rome is sending to its partners in the European Union, and Washington most importantly, about Italy’s position on the international chess board,” Boni said.

China’s response

Questioned about Italy’s potential departure from the BRI this week, China’s Foreign Ministry insisted the program brings benefits to its members.

“The Belt and Road Initiative has attracted more than 150 countries and a wide range of partners in various fields over the past 10 years and has brought tangible benefits to the people of all countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. “It is in the interests of all participating countries to further tap the potential of cooperation.”

Italy is choosing its language carefully and said it wants to boost trade with Beijing outside the BRI, Scazzieri said.

“The fear of Beijing reacting in a negative way has been precisely why Meloni has been quite careful about how to go about extracting Italy from BRI,” he said.

Italy already has a strategic partnership with China, an agreement Beijing has signed with many countries aimed at fostering economic and cultural ties. It’s likely Rome will seek to amend that document in the hope of replacing its BRI membership with a looser relationship.

“Given the centrality that ‘strategic partnerships’ have in China’s foreign policy — as of the end of last year, there were 110 strategic partnerships that China signed with countries globally — I think it might be a good way out of the Belt and Road Initiative for both countries to say, ‘We’re still engaged in bilateral cooperation,’ ” Boni said.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Zimbabwe’s government is continuing with oil drilling near the border with Mozambique and Zambia, despite opposition from activists who warn that fossil fuel exploration will damage the environment. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mbire. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.

(NewsNation) — A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed drug overdoses caused by fentanyl mixed with stimulants rose significantly between 2011 and 2021.

The agency examined data for overdoses involving cocaine and psychostimulants, a category that includes methamphetamine and closely related drugs.

They found overdoses involving cocaine increased nearly five times between 2011 and 2021. While non-opioid-related cocaine deaths also increased, it was at a much slower rate than overdoses involving cocaine mixed with opioids.

Overdose deaths from cocaine alone increased 2.1 times during the time period, while the number of deaths from cocaine mixed with opioids in 2021 was 7.4 times that of deaths in 2011.

Between 2011 and 2016, deaths involving psychostimulants alone were higher than deaths from those drugs mixed with opioids. Between 2017 and 2021, however, psychostimulants mixed with opioids accounted for more overdose deaths than psychostimulants alone.

Public health officials have warned of the dangers of fentanyl being mixed with other drugs, often without the consumer being aware as law enforcement continues efforts to track down on drug trafficking in the U.S.

Heads of state participating in 5th Consultative Meeting viewed EXPO Central Asia 2023 exhibition in Dushanbe [PHOTOS]

When the trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was released on Thursday, social media users noticed that Mera, played by Amber Heard, appears for about two seconds toward the end. This movie is Heard’s first acting project since the infamous 2022 defamation trial that thrust her and her ex-husband Johnny Depp into the public eye and subjected Heard, in particular, to intense vitriol online. During the trial, Heard testified that Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics, “didn’t want to include [her]” in Aquaman 2 and that her role had been reduced significantly from the original script. According to Variety, reports began to circulate that Heard only appeared in “about 10 minutes” of the sequel, and the trailer has brought renewed speculation that those rumors might be true.

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The new trailer reacquaints viewers with Arthur Curry, a.k.a. Aquaman (Jason Momoa). In this installment, Aquaman and his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) join forces to fight Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who threatens to “kill Aquaman and everything he holds dear.” The sequel, set to arrive in theaters five years after the first movie, has been long anticipated by DC fans following pandemic-related delays. But onlookers who followed the trial have also been curious about Heard’s role given her comments and the ensuing speculation. Many have been picking up on the hints gleaned from the new trailer in comments across social media.

“Wow, a whole 3 seconds of Amber Heard,” one X user commented under DC’s official post with the new trailer. “You guys are cowards.” Another X user wrote, “I didn’t even see her. Must’ve blinked.” On YouTube, the comments are largely positive, with a few stray mentions of Heard (or the lack thereof). “No sign of Amber Heard except for a quick blink and you’ll miss it scene, but that can mean anything,” someone wrote.

All questions about Heard and her involvement in the movie—along with rumors of cameos from Ben Affleck (who played Batman for the DCU) and Michael Keaton (who recently had a role in The Flash) and extensive reshoots—fell on director James Wan. In a Sept. 13 interview with Entertainment Weekly, he addressed the speculation surrounding Heard’s allegedly reduced role. Wan told the publication that the second movie was always supposed to be about Arthur’s relationship with his brother. “The first ‘Aquaman’ was Arthur and Mera’s journey,” Wan told Entertainment Weekly, “The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm. So, the first was a romance action-adventure movie, the second one is a bromance action-adventure movie. We’ll leave it at that.”

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom may be the last movie in this version of the DC Extended Universe as the new co-CEOs, James Gunn and Peter Safran, set out to revamp the brand with new actors and movies. The two have not explicitly stated where Momoa’s Aquaman falls in their new universe, but Gunn recently stated that the character from their latest release, Blue Beetle, will have a place in the DCU moving forward. It’s still to be seen where Momoa, Heard, and the others stand.

Much was made of the deal struck by international negotiators at the G20 summit in New Delhi last weekend, which included a heartening proposal for the countries to triple their renewable energy capacity by 2030. But that commitment lacked corresponding strong promises to phase out fossil fuels, a crucial necessity according to the U.N.’s global stocktake report on the world’s progress in fighting climate change. And buried in the leaders’ declaration, was one old goal, a ghost of climate summits past, which casts doubt on the ability of world politicians to put politics aside in the name of emissions cuts: to “phase out and rationalize, over the medium term, inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption.”

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That goal, to stop using public funds to tip the scales in favor of fossil fuels, is the no-brainer of no-brainers in fighting climate change: if we want to eliminate fossil fuels, a good first step would be to stop using taxpayer dollars to pull them out of the ground. The goal to begin phasing them out, with hefty caveats (notice we apparently only want to eliminate “inefficient” carbon subsidies) was first adopted by the G20 all the way back in 2009, and they’ve been punting the issue ever since.

In some sense it’s shocking the extent to which countries whose leaders talk a big game on climate, the U.S. not exempted, still financially support them. In fact, the U.S. is one of the biggest culprits, especially considering that with its relative wealth it could afford to offset the effect of cutting subsidies on energy prices for poorer citizens. Petro-states like Saudi Arabia and Russia are also among the worst offenders, spending huge amounts subsidizing fossil fuels compared to the size of their economies. And rather than falling in recent months, global fossil fuel subsidies actually nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The likely reason for that was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the corresponding shockwaves that the outbreak of war sent through the global energy system. That event does a good deal to illustrate why we’re still stuck forking over money to oil and gas extractors. Geostrategically, it pays for countries to keep onshore oil and gas extractors merrily pumping away, so no one can cut off your country’s supply. And cheap energy, as leaders in autocratic regimes like Iran would tell you, is just good politics. Cut subsidies in a way that hurts everyday working folk, and you might end up with riots in the street, as in Angola earlier this summer. 

Those dilemmas are no excuse for inaction, though. The New Delhi declaration said that leaders would “increase our efforts to implement the commitment [on subsidies] made in 2009.” Lacking was anything saying what those efforts might entail. For leaders, tough calls like phasing out subsidies can usually wait until the next year, or the next election cycle. Better yet, the next politician in power can deal with that headache. Putting it off worked just fine for the politicians over the past 14 years. It’s just the rest of us who have paid the price.

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When a severely-injured woman and an unhurt young girl are discovered in a German forest following a hit-and-run, a dark web of secrets surrounding their identities begins to unravel.

Based on Romy Hausman’s international best-selling novel of the same name, Dear Child (or Liebes Kind in its original German) explores the connection between the pair’s harrowing escape from captivity and a 13-year-old missing persons case. The gripping six-part miniseries, adapted for the screen in German, interweaves investigators’ desperate present-day search to solve the multiple mysteries at play with flashbacks to the years the woman (Kim Riedle), young girl (Naila Schuberth), and a young boy (Sammy Schrein) spent locked in a windowless house at the mercy of their male captor.

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Since it began streaming on Netflix on September 7, Dear Child has garnered an 86% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned the No. 1 spot on FlixPatrol’s list of the most popular Netflix shows globally. Some viewers have even taken to social media to encourage others to start watching the show, with one X user calling it “one of the best binges I’ve had in years” and another describing it as “a must-watch if you’re into psychological thrillers [and] murder mysteries.”

The show opens with a chilling scene in which the woman and two children are joyfully playing a game before hearing the telltale signs of the man arriving home. The three rush to stand in front of the door with their open hands held out to show they’re not hiding anything. After the man inspects the children’s hands, he gives them each a snack bar to eat. But when he looks at the hands of the woman, who is shaking in fear, there’s a strange mark imprinted on her palm that he seems to disapprove of. “You shouldn’t cry in front of the children, Lena,” he ominously tells her. “You know the rules.”

However, it’s quickly established that the question of who Lena actually is is one of the series’ central puzzles. As the series progresses and delves into the trauma at its center, the truth about Lena’s past and her relationship to the two children is slowly revealed. It’s a story that combines elements reminiscent of a variety of renowned thrillers, from 2014‘s Gone Girl to 2015’s Room (both of which were also adapted from novels), but with its own unsettling twists and turns.

Read More: The 14 Most Anticipated Horror Movies of Fall 2023

“These are all damaged characters: people who are severely scarred by a crime and deal with it very differently,” co-writer and co-director Julian Pörksen told Netflix’s Die Woche. “The perpetrator is often the focus of such series and is glorified as a mysterious, dark force. That’s not the case with us. And there is a main character who is extraordinary in every way. A girl who has a special view of the world, a special way of speaking, thinking and experiencing.”

Dear Child is especially interested in exploring the internal pain that stems from traumatic experiences, according to co-producer Friederich Oetker. “I found the motif of the inner and outer prison particularly interesting: Even if you manage to escape, you take your inner prison with you,” he told Netflix. “You have to free yourself from it.”

BOSTON (AP) — Boston firefighter Daniel Ranahan had heard about colleagues getting cancer but he was stunned when doctors discovered a tumor in his chest.

He was only 30 and had been in the Boston Fire Department less than a decade. But as he investigated his diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October 2020 and sought successful treatment, he learned he and others wore gear that contained the toxic industrial compound PFAS.

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“You always hear about the dangers. You just never think it’s going be you,” said Ranahan, who stopped working due to the cancer and is among thousands of firefighters nationwide who sued PFAS manufacturers and companies that make firefighting gear and foam, seeking damages for their exposure.

“These guys put this on day in and day out to protect neighborhoods and wherever they are working,” he said. The Associated Press was not given access to his doctors due to the ongoing litigation, making it difficult to independently verify his claims.

The multi-layered coats and pants worn by firefighters have become the latest battleground over PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. It’s found in everything from food packaging to clothing and is associated with health problems including several types of cancer. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time proposed limits on the chemicals in drinking water.

The news that PFAS compounds are in their gear — primarily meant to repel water and contaminants like oil and prevent moisture-related burns — is worrisome to firefighters.

The International Association of Fire Fighters or IAFF says that cancer has replaced heart disease as the biggest cause of line-of duty deaths. Firefighters have been shown to be at higher risk than the general population of getting several types of cancer.

Firefighters are exposed to a laundry list of carcinogens coming from fires burning hotter and faster than ever before — often due to increased petroleum products in homes. But as they learn more about PFAS, firefighters have grown suspicious that their personal protective equipment or PPE is sickening them.

“We had no idea that the gear that we were putting on every day was essentially loaded with PFAS,” said IAFF General President Edward Kelly, who was elected in 2021 on a campaign in part to address dangers of PFAS in gear.

Sam Dillon, president of Boston Firefighters, Local 718, said the union had to act.

“When we break it down, the problem to us becomes very simple,” he said. “There is proven science that PFAS is a known carcinogen. There is also proven science that PFAS is in protective gear that firefighters wear. So when its brought to our attention that there is a known carcinogen in the protective ensemble that our members wear, it is grave concern to the union and it’s our job to address that issue.”

One defendant in the lawsuits, 3M Co., said in a statement that it “manufactures a variety of personal protective equipment products that meet nationally recognized standards to help protect first responders facing high-hazard environments.” Last year, the company announced it would stop manufacturing PFAS by the end of 2025 and would work to discontinue using the chemicals in its products.

Another defendant, W. L. Gore & Associates, says the PFAS compound PTFE used in its clothing is nontoxic and safe.

“Based on the body of available and reliable science, Gore concludes its firefighting products are not the cause of cancers impacting firefighters, who by the nature of their important work are sometimes exposed to cancer-causing chemicals from fires,” said company spokesperson Amy Calhoun.

The American Chemistry Council said in a statement that “PFAS-based materials are the only viable options for some key equipment that meet the vital performance properties required for firefighting gear.”

Heightened concerns about gear

The PFAS has been in the gear for decades. But the wife of retired Worcester, Massachusetts fire lieutenant Paul Cotter who had cancer raised concerns about PFAS in gear in 2016. Until then, many firefighters had not heard of PFAS or did not know it was in their gear.

Gear makers told Diane Cotter there were only trace amounts of PFAS and it was safe. “I was attacked by firefighters when discussing the idea that chemicals in the gear could be causing cancer,” she said.

Cotter sent patches of gear to Graham Peaslee, a University of Notre Dame professor who studies PFAS, for testing.

“It was loaded with PFAS. That was the first eye opening moment that there may be more than just trace amounts,” said Peaslee, who also found the chemicals on gloves and in firehouse dust.

“They come off and they pose risks,” he said.

Courtney Carignan, an exposure scientist and epidemiologist at Michigan State University, said she found PFAS at twice the levels of the general population in the blood of more than half of the 18 firefighters she tested in Nantucket and Fall River, Massachusetts. She also found PFAS in gear was transferred to the skin of firefighters.

But Carignan is still investigating how much the gear contributed to increased levels of PFAS in the blood and whether PFAS exposure may be causing or contributing to cancer.

“Even though we know PFAS is in the gear, we still don’t know how much exposure that is,” she said.

Firefighters take action

The revelation of PFAS in the gear sparked a campaign by firefighters to find safer alternatives and to hold companies responsible.

Lawsuits on behalf of firefighters argue they were exposed to significant PFAS levels and companies knew the gear contained PFAS and that it can cause serious health problems. The suits also allege companies misrepresented their products as safe.

The IAFF, which represents more than 340,000 U.S. and Canadian firefighters, decided in 2021 to no longer accept sponsorships or advertising from the chemical industry and to oppose PFAS in turnout gear. A Congressional bill introduced in July would accelerate the search for safer alternatives and support firefighter training to reduce exposure from existing gear.

Seven states including Washington, New Hampshire and New York passed bills requiring companies to disclose PFAS in their gear, according to Safer States, a coalition of environmental health groups. Several more states introduced or enacted bills this year that provide funds to purchase PFAS-free gear or prohibit manufacture or sale of gear containing the chemicals, according to Emily Sampson, an environment policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

No easy fix

For most fire departments, there is no easy fix. Replacing gear is expensive — one set can cost upwards of $4,000 — and finding alternatives has proven challenging. Some companies are promoting a PFAS-free outer layer but that doesn’t solve the problem because the other two layers still contain PFAS, the IAFF said.

Among the hurdles, according to a IAFF lawsuit filed in March, is that the National Fire Protection Association or NFPA standard for gear can only be met with PFAS-infused material. The suit accuses the NFPA of working with several gear makers to maintain that requirement. It seeks damages and an end to the standard.

Chris Dubay, NFPA vice president and chief engineer, said in a statement that the standard “does not specify or require the use of any particular materials, chemicals or treatments for that gear.” He said the group has no “special agreements or relationships with any company or organization” in development of standards.

“The manufacturers who are producing this gear owe it to the fire service to come up with an alternative,” Brockton Fire Chief Brian Nardelli, who has heard of companies promoting gear with less PFAS but is reluctant to buy it for his 231-member department without more proof.

Instead, his department tries to limit firefighter exposure to gear that’s been integral to firefighter identity. They would take it everywhere, including charity events. Now, Brockton discourages firefighters from wearing turnout gear in living quarters and encourages them to wash it after fires. It’s stored on trucks and is only to be worn for serious calls like fires and car accidents.

“Guys have seen everyone who has gotten cancer, guys dying from cancer,” said William Hill, the president of the Brockton Fire Fighters Local 144 who was successfully treated for testicular cancer. “Being told that PFAS is in the gear, guys don’t want to take the chance of being overexposed.”

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