Why are American women dying in childbirth?
Maternal mortality rates are falling in every industrialised nation - except for the United States.
The United States is not the first place that springs to mind when considering women dying in childbirth. So the fact that two American women die of pregnancy-related causes every day may come as a surprise.
According to the World Bank, The US ranks 50th in maternal mortality globally - falling behind every other industrialised nation. A woman in the US is as likely to suffer a maternal death as a woman in sanctions-hit Iran, and four times as likely as a woman in Germany.
"It is a preventable health issue," said Amnesty International's Rachel Ward. "It isn't something that we're waiting for a cure for. We’re waiting for political will."
What's worse is that US maternal mortality rates may actually be on the rise. Eugene Declercq, of Boston University's School of Public Health, produced a short film named Birth by the numbers, discussing maternal mortality in the US. In a 2013 follow-up report, he noted how mortality rates in other industrialised nations had declined - but in the US, it increased by 30 percent in the first decade of the new millennium.
Another 2013 report, this one by Truven Health Analytics, says the US spends more than any other country on costs associated with maternal healthcare. So why are American mothers still dying of pregnancy related deaths?
The answer is complex and belies simple solutions.
"There is sadly no magic bullet that explains what is behind the high levels of maternal mortality in the United States," Amnesty's Rachel Ward said. "It's a combination of factors that speak to the systemic problems of failing to provide affordable, accessible, quality health services to all women in the United States."
One of these factors is likely the demographics of new mothers in the US.
"Our women are older. Our main maternal age has risen," said Dr Sarah Kilpatrick of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "We have a lot more women in their late 30s and 40s, when you have a higher chance of having other health issues such as cardiac disease." Obesity is also on the rise in the country, which also increases the chances of birthing complications.
Many believe that the US healthcare system is in crisis. The Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 47 million non-elderly US residents had no health insurance in 2012.
Uninsured pregnant women are eligible for Medicaid. But, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, they receive fewer prenatal care services, are more likely to enter pregnancy with health problems, and are more likely to have adverse maternal health outcomes.
It is a preventable health issue. It isn't something that we're waiting for a cure for. We’re waiting for political will.
Poor women and women of colour are by far the hardest hit by this crisis. In 2012, 23 percent of African-American women and 36 percent of Hispanic women had no health insurance.
A 2013 report by the New York Women's Foundation found that black women in New York City had a maternal mortality rate of 79 deaths per 100,000 live births - compared with 10 per 100,000 live births for white women. That means black women in New York have worse maternal mortality rates than women in either Syria or Iraq.
Those numbers reflect a trend also cited in an Amnesty International 2011 follow up to its report, Deadly Delivery, which found that women in low-income areas were twice as likely to die a maternal death than women in high-income areas, and black women were four times as likely as white women to die while giving birth to a child.
Open Arms Perinatal Services in Seattle is one organisation trying to fill the gaps women are slipping through. Open Arms provides doula care, non-medical social and emotional support to low-income mothers.
"When Martin Luther King Jr was born, his mother did not have access to the local hospital because she was black, so we have this history of separating care," Open Arms Executive Director Sheila Capestany told Al Jazeera. "So you build things into your systems that are really hard to undo, and you have to undo them intentionally, you can't just expect they're going to go away."
She believes that these community-based solutions are a crucial part of undoing the historical injustices that continue to resonate today.
Focusing only on access to care obscures a more fundamental problem - whether that care is of a decent quality, even for those who can afford it.
White women, the demographic most likely to have positive birth outcomes, and more likely to have health insurance, still have worse indicators than their counterparts in 24 other industrialised countries.
In the United States, if you define all births as 'potentially dangerous', then you would make the argument that you need a specialist for every birth. That perspective has persisted, and, given that, we've got a problem.
In almost every other industrialised nation, comprehensive maternal healthcare is inexpensive or even free. In Britain, midwives usually visit mothers at home two weeks after birth. In the Netherlands, more than 16 percent of births occur at home under the care of a midwife and are covered by insurance. In France, coverage includes a week's stay in the hospital, during which women also receive training in caring for her newborn.
Most US insurance companies cover only what is considered medically necessary - and that usually means discharging women a day or two after birth with a single post-natal check-up six weeks after delivery. Ward, the managing director of Amnesty International's US programme told Al Jazeera this six weeks is a critical time period.
"Tameka McFarquhar, she was 22, she bled to death in her apartment in New York after giving birth," Ward said of one of the women featured in her research. "She was alone, a home visit could have saved her life."
Any area of neglect represents risks to maternal health, but with the right research and investment applied, such problems present opportunities to those working to reverse the numbers.
"Maternal death is not solved yet, but I think we’re making huge strides to reduce it," said Kilpatrick, the chair of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Cedars-Sinai.
US President Barack Obama's signature healthcare programme, the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have tried to change or repeal a number of times, aims to increase the number of Americans with health insurance. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists believes this could decrease the chances that women may become pregnant while already having potentially life threatening health problems.
One low-cost solution is the increased use of midwives. The majority of births around the world are attended to by midwives. In Britain, that includes 57 percent of births.
Stateside, fewer than eight percent of births are assisted by midwives. Most births are attended to by doctors, part of what makes maternal healthcare in the US so expensive.
"In the United States, if you define all births as 'potentially dangerous', then you would make the argument that you need a specialist for every birth. That perspective has persisted, and, given that, we've got a problem,” said Boston University's Declercq.
The problem is financial but it also may be medical. The rate of caesarean sections in the US is more than 30 percent - more than double the World Health Organisation's recommendation.
Exposing mothers to interventions such as caesarean sections when they are not necessary also exposes them to potential risks, say experts.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recently released guidelines recommending that unnecessary caesarean sections should be reduced.
"In my mind, there is no doubt that our C-section rate is too high in the United States," said Kilpatrick of Cedars-Sinai. "The good news is that it has plateaued. It's been the same for two to three years now."
Amid the variety of medical and governmental changes that are being made, Capestany from Open Arms believes that there is also a basic social change that needs to be made in the way Americans understand childbirth.
"It's not intuitive in the United States that, in fact, childbirth is more than just a medical event. It is a physical event that requires medical attention, social attention, and emotional attention," Capestany told Al Jazeera.
"Until we acknowledge that, we're not going to be able to get the best care."


MOVE Systems: redesigning NYC's 1970s-era food trucks for an eco-friendly future.
Making the less-noxious food cart into an art.
There are 5,000 licensed food carts in New York, and they’re as much of an urban icon as the MTA’s subway signage or the Chrysler building. Too bad they’re killing the planet.
It’s not the food—the grub is OK, if not exactly slimming; it’s the gas generators powering the carts. Most food carts run off a diesel generator that’s designed to run only a few hours. Vendors run them for stretches of up to 14 hours, leading to a high output of greenhouse-gas emissions such as carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and particulate matter. You can see the smoke with the naked eye, but the hard facts are even more frightening: The research and consulting firm Energy Vision found that each cart produces the same amount of nitrous oxide as 186 cars on the road.
A new pilot program between the city and a Queens-based company called MOVE Systems aims to cut down on that pollution by at least 60 percent. For the past year, MOVE has been fine-tuning a new kind of food cart—called the MRV100—that’s powered by a mix of battery-generated electricity and solar energy, instead of dirty gas. The plan calls for getting a fleet of 500 new carts up and running by the summer of 2016, with the first 100 slated to roll out this summer.
For a 40-or-so-year-old design, the typical food cart is actually pretty sturdy and resilient. “The quality is surprisingly good,” says Michael Dubrovsky, a co-founder of Simply Grid, which merged with Mobile Vending Natural Gas a year ago to form MOVE Systems. It’s good enough that MOVE initially planned to retrofit existing food carts with products akin to electric vehicle chargers, rather than manufacturing an entirely new line of carts. Then they took a closer look under the hood to discover that none of these carts has the same design. “Each one is made artisanally in Queens and Brooklyn, at what we call chop shops,” Dubrovsky says. “Each one has different compartments, the plumbing is not up to code, so by the time you rip all that out, all of a sudden you’ve put liability on yourself.” So MOVE had to scrap the magpie carts and start from scratch.
One hundred of the first carts will be funded by MOVE and reserved for disabled veterans, and the remaining 400 will go to vendors who sign up—at no cost to them, because the pilot program will be sponsored. (MOVE says they are still reviewing sponsors and advertisers and have yet to make a selection.) Vendors will still have to shoulder the costs of the compressed natural gas fuel (but not Internet connectivity), but Energy Vision’s report also suggests that running a food cart on grid power could save $5,200 a year in energy charges.


President Trump’s decision Monday to revive plans to freeze federal employee pay in 2020 and to institute a series of cuts to federal employee retirement programs was met with great consternation from stakeholder groups, although the ideas stand little chance of becoming law.
Increasing employee contributions toward federal defined benefit annuity programs by 1 percent per year until those payments reach 50 percent of the total cost.
Eliminating cost of living adjustments for FERS retirees, and reducing CSRS cost of living adjustments by 0.5 percent.
Eliminating the FERS supplement for employees forced to retire before Social Security kicks in at age 62.
Changing annuity calculations for federal workers' retirement to be based on the average of their highest five years of salary, rather than the current highest three years.
Reducing the interest rate of the Thrift Savings Plan’s government securities (G) fund, basing it on the yield of either the three-month or four-week U.S. Treasury bill, rather than a weighted average of all Treasury investments.
The administration will not reveal the precise details of these proposals until next week. But each idea has been floated in some form in both 2017 and 2018, and Congress has not implemented any. The likelihood of any of these proposals being included in a final appropriations bill seems even slimmer now, with Democrats now in control of the House.
Management groups also criticized the White House’s approach to federal employee compensation. Although the Senior Executives Association was less overtly critical in its reaction, SEA President Bill Valdez said that the more positive elements of the fiscal roadmap would be undermined in practice by the decision to disinvest in the workforce.
“Even as the budget proposal suggests that our national and homeland security requires additional staffing in the military and along our borders, the budget reiterates penny-wise and pound-foolish proposals to enact federal pay freezes and benefit and retirement cuts, thus implicitly assuring applicants interested in those posts that working for the federal government would mean enduring instability and ceaseless attacks surrounding even their most basic compensation,” Valdez said.


CHARLOTTE (AP) � Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks defense were too much for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers to overcome.
Wilson threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate with 35 seconds left in the third quarter to help the Seahawks beat the Panthers 16-12 on Sunday.
CHARLOTTE (AP) � Bruce Irvin raced by an offensive lineman and chopped down on Cam Newton�s arm as the quarterback loaded up to throw downfield.
The ball popped free and into the hands of a teammate, capping the latest strong performance by a Seattle Seahawks defense that made life miserable for Newton and the Carolina Panthers.
Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate with 35 seconds left in the third quarter, while the defense kept the Panthers� offense out of the end zone in a 16-12 win Sunday.
Wilson shook off two third-quarter interceptions � including one returned for a touchdown � and outperformed Newton on a struggle-filled day for the Carolina offense, which finished with only 190 yards.
That included forcing Newton into an incompletion on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 3:47 left.
�It wasn�t easy; it might have looked like it was, but it wasn�t easy because of all the stuff they do,� Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. �And they tried all their options and stuff, and we were able to stay in sync with it, so it�s a fantastic job defensively.
Wilson threw for 221 yards, while Marshawn Lynch ran for 85 yards for the Seahawks (3-2) in their first road win.
Newton threw for a career-low 141 yards on 12-for-29 passing and he was sacked four times. He also ran for 42 yards.
�When you know what guys are doing and you still can�t beat them, they�re just good at what they do,� said Newton, last year�s No. 1 overall draft pick .
The Panthers� only touchdown came on Captain Munnerlyn�s 33-yard interception return early in the third quarter.
Carolina started the season with plenty of optimism with the return of Newton to lead a high-scoring offense, but the Panthers (1-4) couldn�t rebound a week after losing 30-28 to the Falcons on Matt Bryant�s field goal with 5 seconds left.
The offense never found a rhythm while Newton was frequently off target, completing just 3 of 15 passes for 40 yards in the first half.
Carolina had two chances to take the lead in the final minutes Sunday only to come away empty each time.
After driving the Panthers to the 1 for the fourth down play, Newton rolled to his right and spotted Ben Hartsock open in the end zone, but he threw a one-hopper on the short pass.
Then, after the Seahawks took an intentional safety, Carolina got the ball back at its own 31 with 54 seconds left and no timeouts. That�s when Irvin, a rookie, stripped Newton for his second sack. Defensive tackle Alan Branch fell on the loose ball to seal the win.
The game marked a homecoming of sorts for Wilson, who first gained acclaim as a quarterback at North Carolina State. He also played minor league baseball in Asheville and Gastonia before returning to college football and finishing up at Wisconsin.
The rookie hadn�t thrown for more than 160 yards in a game until Sunday, but didn�t panic when he threw the two interceptions and bought time with his mobility on several plays.
After Brandon Browner ripped the ball away from DeAngelo Williams and recovered the fumble to give Seattle a short field, Wilson moved the Seahawks to the Carolina 13 then found Tate over the middle. Tate spun off a hit from Thomas Davis around the 4 and into the end zone for the 13-10 lead.
Steven Hauschka added his third field goal to make it 16-10 with about 10� minutes left.
Notes: The Panthers played without three starters; cornerback Chris Gamble, linebacker Jon Beason and offensive lineman due to injuries. ... Newton targeted receiver Steve Smith a season-high 13 times. The previous high was 11 in the opener at Tampa Bay. ... Seattle tight end Zach Miller had three catches for a season-high 59 yards, including a season-long 30-yard catch. ... Seattle�s Sidney Rice had five catches for 67 yards.


If you want to succeed, don’t look back.
skills in drawing and painting, I took notice.
game, is the utter lack of compromise to the vision they are pursuing.
eyes pinned to the end goal and stick with their strategic direction.
sliding on your own pool of sweat.
out your dream, killing your prey?
Do you think that you chose art or that art chose you?
“To tell you the truth, I think that I chose art for the simple fact that my last real corporate job was at Kinko’s.
oh-so-comfortable life. Do it now.


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  SpaceX has launched a used supply ship on a used rocket to the International Space Station.
It’s the second trip to the orbiting lab for this particular Dragon, recycled following a visit two years ago. The Falcon’s first-stage booster also flew before  last summer.


Nike Inc enjoyed big sales in gains in North America and Europe last quarter and benefited from fewer markdowns, helping the maker of sports clothes and shoes report a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit.
Total revenue rose 7.7 percent to $6.97 billion, and global orders for delivery later this year, which the company calls "futures orders," rose 10 percent excluding currency impact, suggesting Nike's hot streak will continue.
Nike shares rose 5.7 percent to $74.35 in after-hours trading. Including those gains, shares are up 13.7 percent since the announcement earlier this month that Nike would join the Dow Jones industrial average.
Nike revenue in North America rose 9 percent, and in Western Europe, where many retailers have struggled with a pullback by consumers, sales grew 8 percent.
The company earned $780 million, or 86 cents a share, in its fiscal first quarter, ended August 31, compared with $567 million, or 63 cents a share, last year. Analysts expected a profit of 78 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Nike's gross margin rose 1.2 points to 44.9 percent of sales, helped by lower cotton costs and fewer markdowns. The company had forecast gross margin to be unchanged.
Futures orders for delivery between this month and January 2014 rose 12 percent in both Europe and North America.
In China, where Nike is grappling with excess inventory and intense competition from price-cutting rivals, sales fell 3 percent, but futures orders rose 2 percent.


Passengers on an ICE travelling from Berlin to Saarbrücken were shocked after windows were shattered by what they believe were bullets.
Police are investigating after windows on the ICE high-speed train were shattered during the journey from the German capital to Saarbrücken in Saarland.
Some passengers said that they believed the train had been shot at by a weapon. This passenger's photos posted on Twitter show the damage to the windows.
No-one was injured in the incident which happened around 10.50pm on Thursday near the city of Ladenburg near Mannheim in Baden-Württemberg.
Another passenger said that it looked like four shots had caused damage.
According to the police in Karlsruhe, there was damage to doors, windows and the outside of the train. The 150 passengers aboard were taken off the train at Mannheim. They were advised they could travel on other trains or be accommodated in hotels for the night.
Police said no objects had entered the interior of the train, only damaging the outside.
Baden-Württemberg police said officers were investigating for "dangerous interference with rail traffic" and have urged any witnesses to come forward.
The train has been sealed off and is currently in Frankfurt. Special police and rail investigators are probing the incident to establish what happened.
So where are the pics?


The amount is part of the N8.8tn tax revenue needed by the government to finance the 2019 budget.
Details of how the revenue would be generated are contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework Tax Revenue Projections for 2019-2021.
The document, which was submitted to the National Assembly by the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler, was obtained on Friday by our correspondent.
In the document, the FIRS said the N8.8tn would be realised through two major tax revenue components. They are oil tax revenue, where N4.3tn would be collected and non-oil tax revenue where the service had proposed to generate N4.5tn for the government.
Further breakdown of the oil tax revenue showed that the entire N4.3tn is expected to come from petroleum profit tax.
For the non oil tax revenue, an analysis of the document shows that N1.7tn is expected to be earned from company income tax, while gas income, capital gains tax and stamp duty are expected to earn N685.63bn, N6.27bn and N17.64bn, respectively for the government.
Also, Value Added Tax is expected to contribute N1.7tn; education tax, N275.39bn; consolidated account, N99.78bn and Nigeria Information Technology Development Fund, N20.01bn.
The FIRS in the document stated that the tax revenue target for 2019 was based on the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the Federal Government.
It said that to boost tax revenue, a lot of initiatives would be implemented with support from the government.
Some of them are the expansion of Tax Identification database to cover federal, states and local government to establish a reliable VAT tax base across the country.
While engaging relevant stakeholders, the service said it would develop and propose tax laws targeted at emerging sectors of the economy such as digital economies.
It said a review of existing tax laws to close the legal loopholes for taxes by adopting a sectoral, rules-based approach would be implemented.
The FIRS also stated that it would develop a strategy for revenue campaigns targeted at the informal sector of the economy, noting that a unified nationwide tax payer database would be developed.
It said a strong incentive programme aimed at encouraging tax payment by Nigerians would be designed.
The incentive, it noted, could involve tying government projects to tax revenue collected.


WHEN predicting which planets beyond Earth could support life, astronomers usually follow the water. Exoplanets with rocky surfaces are declared habitable if they orbit far enough from their star to potentially host oceans.
But as our planetary collection grows, and telescopes for studying them improve, some astrobiologists say it is time to narrow the hunt. Christopher McKay at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California has come up with an expanded “checklist” for habitability, which also considers factors like a planet’s light levels, radiation exposure and atmospheric composition (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1304212111).
Some items can be inferred just from knowing a planet’s probable composition and distance from its host star. Others will require photographing the planets and examining their atmospheres. Spacecraft with those capabilities are now being developed.
“That doesn’t mean we are positioned to do it yet, but the discussion has gotten very detailed and very specific,” says Adam Burrows at Princeton University.
The list may one day pinpoint worlds that can be home to life even if conditions there would kill humans outright. For instance, McKay points to Chlamydomonas nivalis, or watermelon snow, a red-coloured alga that only grows in freezing water. And researchers have grown microbes in the lab at temperatures as high as 122 °C.
Even planets with barely any water could host life, says McKay. Cyanobacteria, for example, live on rocks in the Atacama desert in Chile, which gets only a few days of rain and fog each year.
Any life on another world would need sufficient light or geothermal energy to drive its vital processes. But this may not be a lot – deep-sea plants called red macroalgae can grow while receiving just 1 per cent of the sunlight hitting the ocean’s surface.
And while high levels of ultraviolet radiation may be a worry for complex life, microbes are much hardier. The most extreme example is Deinococcus radiodurans, which can survive in the sort of conditions you might find inside a nuclear reactor.
However, we know of one place that could rewrite McKay’s list. Saturn’s moon Titan has liquids on its surface and an atmosphere. Its seas are filled with methane and ethane, and its atmosphere is a choking haze of nitrogen and methane. That doesn’t seem so hospitable, but Titan has shown evidence of complex molecules that may be building blocks for life.
When this article was first published, it described Chlamydomonas nivalis as a red alga. It is in fact a green alga with a red pigment.


Terrorist attacks using vehicles such as in Barcelona are 'becoming a new reality for Europeans' according to experts.
The latest attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils on Thursday has left at least 14 dead and 100 injured.
Goulet, the French senator, sits on a parliamentary panel tasked with analysing jihadist groups.
She says that one of IS's goals is turning the western world against Muslim minorities in their countries and using anti-Muslim rhetoric is playing into their hands.
Paris, Berlin, Nice, London and Stockholm have already seen extremists drive vehicles into crowds.
Experts say that these such attacks are now a new reality for Europeans.
Following the terror attacks in London, police have ramped up security with extra protection for pedestrians on bridges in the capital.
While following the Manchester attacks, more armed police were put on patrol at events such as Wimbledon, Ascot and international football and rugby matches at Wembley and Twickenham.
However Gallois says citizens' safety cannot be guaranteed 100 percent. Even if security services managed to protect symbolic sites and the most popular areas around cities, nearby streets or neighbourhoods would still be vulnerable, he says.
Both IS and Al-Qaeda have urged their followers to use whatever means at their disposal, including vehicles, as part of a strategy of 'death by a thousand cuts' aimed at destroying the west.
The Radicalization Awareness Network, an EU research body, warned last month that 1,200-3,000 jihadists risked returning to Europe after fighting in Iraq and Syria - out of an estimated 5,000 who joined the terror groups there.


Director Patty Jenkins has revealed details about the upcoming sequel.
If we've learned anything from our era of superhero movies, it's that no one is actually really dead. At the end of Wonder Woman, Chris Pine's Steve Trevor heroically sacrifices himself to save everyone else. It marked the death of some great on-screen chemistry between Pine and Gal Gadot.
But today, director Patty Jenkins has revealed the first details about the upcoming sequel, Wonder Woman 1984. It takes place in, well, 1984, and somehow marks the return of Pine's Steve Trevor. Jenkins tweeted a photo of Pine on set for the film, and he's got a great fit with a Member's Only jacket and a vintage Casio watch. He also looks pretty damn good for being either dead or at least 90 years old. Considering this is a superhero movie there are any number of reasons why Trevor would still be alive.
This sequel has Wonder Woman squaring off against The Cheetah, played by Kristin Wiig. While there have been a few versions of The Cheetah, all the characters have roughly the same powers, which "consists of enhanced strength and speed well beyond that of the most powerful felines, as well as heightened senses of smell and hearing for hunts and night-vision for stealth. Their reflexes and agility are similarly augmented, allowing them superior gymnastic and parkour feats for inhuman mobility. These superhuman traits allow them to challenge Wonder Woman in physical battles. Additionally, their fangs and claws are preternaturally sharp and strong."
Anyway, we'll know for sure when the movie is out on November 1, 2019.
Can 'Wonder Woman' Get a Best Picture Nomination?


This data layer shows post-Delimitation Assembly state Legislative Assembly constituency boundaries and data relating to the 2009 Assembly elections for the State of Maharashtra, India. Includes attribute data on election parties, candidates, voters, and results. Map includes data for 288 constituencies. This layer is part of the Poll Map of India which includes parliamentary constituency boundaries for India, Assembly constituency boundaries for all states, and data relating to the past national elections for each State of India.This data can be used for election analysis, forecasting, and mapping: Enables profiling of individual constituencies, permits historical analysis of the data, and helps predictive estimate of the impact of regional and state-wise electorate swings on the performance of political parties. These data are intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production.


Mattel's Future: Happily Ever After?
Mattel has a plan for the rest of the year, but it seems to be playing a shorter game.
According to its most recent earnings release, Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) seems to have become a victim of its own success. The company reported a 12% drop in revenue from its Barbie brand, while other girls' toys ate up market share. The American Girl and Monster High lines did particularly well, but the cost was high. As the newer lines continue to succeed, the questions around Barbie's future grow.
Monster High is leading the way at Mattel, and analysts now believe that the business may be worth up to $500 million annually. That success has helped steer Mattel toward new opportunities, including a variation on Monster High -- which is a line of monsters in high school -- called Ever After High. The new line is going to hit stores in the second half of the year, and focuses on classic fairytale characters while they're in high school.
When I say "classic fairytale characters," I, of course, mean slightly rebranded Disney (NYSE:DIS) princesses. The list includes Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella-style characters, along with some princes, and Alice-in-Wonderland themed dolls.
The move makes an incredible amount of sense for Mattel, as Disney has had runaway success with its rebranding of the princesses as a separate line. According to analyst studies, the Princess line is generating $3 billion in annual global sales. That's six times what Monster High is pulling in, and highlights the value available in the marketplace. Since Mattel is only spending $10 million to $20 million to develop the spin-off lines , the payback is almost immediate.
The stock suffered a 7% drop yesterday in light of the shortfall from Mattel. Overall, the company managed a 1% increase in global sales, but it had a 25% drop in earnings per share . The long game for Mattel looks increasingly like an ever evolving line of girls' toys. While the company has had success with boys' lines, its real core lies in girls.
On the competitive side, Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) seems to have boys' toys locked down. The company is generating more than twice as much from its boys' toys as it does from girls' toys. That success is resting on the strength of Marvel-branded toys, G.I Joe, and NERF. Mattel is a much larger company, and Hasbro has to be content to simply succeed where it can.
For Mattel, the most interesting thing to come over the next year may be the conflict that arises between Mattel and Disney, if its Ever After brand takes off. Right now, Mattel produces a number of toys with the Disney branding, and it relies on a good relationship with the media company. Disney may start to see some encroachment on its territory, which could lead to a confrontation. But first, Ever After has to succeed.


Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces series is one of my favorite new storylines in science fiction. After a several year hiatus Harry has brought back Ray Lilly, and all the magic in The Twisted Path.
The Twenty Palaces series tells the tale of Ray Lilly, a former convict turned into a magician's decoy, or Wooden Man. It is Lilly's job to distract evil creatures from the deep and dark, while his master Annalise burns them with primal green fire. They keep on saving the world from some pretty nasty demons that have crossed over.
Wooden Men aren't supposed to last more than one mission, but somehow Ray keeps on surviving. The Twenty Palaces Society has taken notice and calls Ray and Annalise to Europe, this does not bode well.
Connolly's Lovecraft-ian/Geiger-style lore and world building is amazing. I have enjoyed all of his novels and novellas, but none have been as anticipated as The Twisted Path. If you are new to this series, I highly recommend starting with Child of Fire, the which was also Harry's debut novel.
Ray and Annalise' return is every bit as exciting as I'd hoped.


Most gardeners think of diascias as low-growing bedding plants suited to a summer container or the front of a sunny border.
However Diascia personata breaks the mould and produces stiff stems that grow 3ft tall. The substantial bright green foliage supports dusky pink flowers and these appear in profusion from early May to November.
Handsome, upright and show-stopping, it first came to my attention when Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter in East Sussex brought it to a Perennial Plant Day at RHS Wisley in June last year.
Having never seen it before I then spotted it two days later on a Hopleys' stand (see details below) and snapped it up.
Although the form I acquired was labelled 'Hopleys', it is the same plant grown at Great Dixter.
Diascias are found on the eastern side of southern Africa. There are 70 species in all and most are annual, but there are a few perennials.
They are members of the Scrophularia or figwort family, together with verbascum and buddleia, although the whole tribe has recently been reclassified.
The common name of diascia is "twinspur" and this refers to two spurs found at the back of the flower. The closely related genera Alonsoa and Nemesia look similar, but have more spurs - often these are longer.
Although diascias flower for months in Britain they have a much shorter flowering season in their native land because they are pollinated by a different species of bee: Bees from the genus Rediviva (native to southern Africa) have extra long forelegs, and this allows them to reach the spurs of the flowers in order to collect a fatty oil produced by the glands.
The legs of the bee soak up the oil, rather like a sponge, and pollen is transferred to the body of the bee during this process. The flowers are then pollinated and fade. Our native bees have shorter legs and so fail to pollinate the flowers.
In the wild, different species of diascia growing together evolve and produce stamens of varying lengths, or in varying positions, so that any pollen deposited sticks to different parts of the bee's body.
This system prevents cross-pollination. But if the necessary species of bee is absent, the flowers are not pollinated, so flower longer.
The late plant breeder and hobbyist, Hector Harrison, of Appleby, in South Humberside, found out about diascia's pollination needs and began hand-pollinating three species about 1978. His first hybrids flowered in the mid-Eighties and he generously gave them to nurseries and enthusiasts.
Harrison hybrids include 'Appleby Apricot', 'Iceberg', 'Salmon Supreme' and 'Lilac Belle'. White, lilac, various pinks and apricot diascias are all available.
Some of these hybrids may be sterile even if they encounter the long-legged bees required for pollination: sterility often occurs when two closely related species hybridise.
Harrison was, however, unaware of the first British-raised diascia. The late John Kelly, once curator at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, applied the pollen from D. cordata to D. barberae. He grew nine seeds and named the best red-pink 'Ruby Field' after a lady who sometimes worked on the nursery.
It is now listed under D. barberae in the RHS Plant Finder so may not even be a hybrid. The diascia gene pool was further expanded when new species were collected in the Seventies for the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.
Diascia personata is a perennial from the Eastern Cape and hardier than the annual forms. It will survive most winters given a sunny position and well-drained soil.
Its hardiness equates roughly to the dahlia in my opinion and "insurance" cuttings should be taken in early summer, in case of a hard winter.
Sometimes another plant, the similarly upright D. rigescens, is mistaken for D. personata and the flowers are a similar colour.
They are, however, significantly different: D. rigescens is shorter, between 1-2ft and the foliage a duller blue-green. It has less stature. I have successfully over wintered both of these, but last winter saw them off.
Diascias are sun-loving plants, but enjoy fertile rather than dry, poor soil. The cushion-forming types can get straggly so cut them back in late April and late August to keep them compact.
Hardiness can be a problem, but many will survive winter in well-drained soil.
Cuttings can be taken between May and September. However, if you want to keep cuttings through the winter take them in the first half of summer so that a good root system is developed.
Look for new growth that has started to harden slightly, preferably without flower buds. Cut off just below the node (the bumpy part where leaves are attached) so that your cutting measures roughly 4in long. Trim the cutting just below the bumpy node and strip any lower leaves.
Plunge into a suitable rooting matter. This could be a mixture of compost and horticultural sand. I prefill small seed trays with damp horticultural sand and plunge cuttings in as I take them. No rooting compost or special equipment is needed.
You can containerise Diascia personata, but it has to be a substantial pot to balance the height of the plant. The ruby-pink flowers are excellent with dark blue agapanthus, purple dahlias or fluffy pennisetums.
At Great Dixter they use D. personata with the green and cream vertically striped grass, Miscanthus sinensis var. condensatus 'Cosmopolitan' to great effect. Graham Gough, of Marchants Plants, also uses it in his grass-led garden and he describes it as "remarkable and lofty".


After the wonderful welcome from Julian Clary's dog Valerie, the first thing you notice about his living room is the chickens. There are lots – pictures on the walls, ornaments, even a chicken cushion. "Yes, there's a slight obsession with chickens," he says, looking around. "It must have happened when I became a rustic person." His favourite is the chicken on the mantelpiece, from his mother Brenda. It's near the sherry decanter, which is from director Neil Bartlett (they worked together on the 1995 adaptation of the play Splendid's).
There are a lot of things Julian's bought with his mother. He wonders if the antique bucket in the corner, which he picked up when they were "talked into" doing a celebrity version of Bargain Hunt, is too rustic. "It certainly wasn't my idea to do the show," he remembers, "but she fancied it. They took us to what they said was an antiques fair, although it looked like a jumble sale to me. Shall we get some flowers to pop in it, or is that too much?"
His house in Ashford, Kent, which dates from the 1500s, is more to his taste, having previously been owned by Noël Coward in the 1920s. "He's always been a great influence. I know my writing is seen as trivial [his latest novel is called Briefs Encountered], but so was Noël's in a way. And the taboos he faced… It's not a gay thing, but I've always felt connected to him, so I decided to imagine his story and his house in my new book." He props a copy on a stool. "It was about time this house paid for its keep!"
The hand-painted lamp, bought from a junk shop during his days as a student in New Cross, London, holds particular memories of his early days doing stand-up comedy. In the autumn he'll be returning to his roots with a new tour, for which he's currently writing two hours' worth of material.
Having had stints on stage with the likes of Joan Collins and Nigel Havers – photographed with him two years ago in panto – he's never lost his enthusiasm. "I was in a double act with my friend Linda to start with," he remembers. "She grew out of it, but I never did!"


The bill has triggered series of protest in Assam, All Assam Students Union and several other organisations have announced fresh agitation against the bill on November 4.
BJP legislator and party spokesperson Numal Momin said that the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 will help in arresting influx of migrants from the neighbouring country.
GUWAHATI: Supporting the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, BJP on Wednesday said that once the bill is implemented not a single non-national even if a Hindu who came to India after December 31, 2014 will be allowed stay in India.
He said, “Unnecessary controversy is created, the proposed legislation once it becomes law will help in curbing illegal influx. Once the bill is passed, not a single person who entered India after December 31, 2014 will be allowed to stay in the country, either a Hindu or a Muslim,” Momin said.
He said that the bill will end the congress politics of vote bank.
Congress is opposing the bill for this is against Assam accord. In 1985 Assam accord was signed following which it was decided that for Assam the date of detection and deportation of foreigner will be March 25, 1971 irrespective of religious affiliation.
Recently BJP Assam unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said, “If a single non-national is found in the state after the bill becomes a legislation, we will go for scrapping the law as it was done in the case of Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal ) IMDT Act in 2005."
BJP’s ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has threatened to quit the alliance if the bill is passed by the parliament. The bill aimed at making minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for applying for Indiancitizenship is under the consideration of Joint parliamentary committee of both the Houses.


The Airline Vikings were playing for the state football championship in 1972 against Neville on a bad night for football in Monroe.
But after the team had gathered itself, head coach Jack Gray called his seniors together.
Gray, who coached the 1967 Airline team to the state title, passed away Thursday and services are set for Saturday at 3 p.m. in Marshall, Texas, where he lived. Visitation is Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Gray’s niece, Becky Gray, is the assistant principal at Parkway and his brother lives in Bossier City. He is survived by his wife, Mimi, and a son, Gary who lives in Farmerville.
Slack said Gray was the kind of coach any teenager would love to have.
“He was caring, loving and gentle, but he always expected the best out of you,” Slack said.
In 1971, Slack said it was well known that Gray, a native of Shelbyville, Texas, went to Marshall to interview for the head coaching job there.
When the Vikings played at Texarkana, Arkansas, as juniors, the team had a huge defensive end named Ronald Johnson, the brother of NFL All-Pro Gary “Big Hands” Johnson.
“Ronald had a forearm that would knock you out and he injured a couple of the Texarkana players. They were the top team in Arkansas and we beat them,” Slack said. “The next year when we play them, they’re out to get Ronald and it started a huge fight at the end of the game, which was never finished. They were chasing Ronald all over the field, so he finally ran to our sideline and picked up one of the downs markers and started swinging it at them.
Gray was originally hired at Airline by John Ropp not long after Airline opened in 1964. He also coached at Ruston High and then later at Marshall, where he was also athletic director and an administrator.
After retirement, Gray and his wife were active in delivering “Meals on Wheels” and working with the Humane Society. He was a member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Marshall, where his service will be held.


In the summer of 1993, I had one of those experiences that stay with me for the rest of my life.
I spent 10 weeks in Europe, beginning with a six-week law-school summer session at Charles University in Prague.
Prague was, as much as any place, the cradle of culture in central Europe, and it was sometimes the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Its ancient center was architecturally and many other ways romantic and gorgeous. Because it was subject only to rather minor bombing, Prague’s charm and beauty were nearly unscathed by World War II.
But 45 years of socialist “compassion” under a Soviet Union puppet regime had turned everything soot gray and ugly before eastern and central Europe was liberated in 1989.
When I arrived, you could walk down the winding cobblestone streets of the Old Town near its famous castle amid five-story ancient residential buildings standing shoulder-to-shoulder against narrow sidewalks on both sides. Buildings that had once been vibrant with color, exquisite in their features and soaring to the sky were now soot-gray dingy, decaying and seemingly drooping in shame.
Then, out of nowhere, came one that was a brilliant pastel lime-green, fully restored and bursting with light and life. Then soot-gray, soot-gray and suddenly another one, bright pink, restored to its original glory. Soot-gray, soot-gray, soot-gray. And another beauty reclaimed in rich mustard yellow.
And then, across the street, amid more weeping soot-gray ghosts, a sight that explained everything: One of the old wrecks with its entire face covered with … scaffolding. The secret of a second Prague Spring was revealed as people liberated from the yoke of coercive collectivism and soaring in restored liberty were scrubbing away the toxic dirt of statist oppression, rebuilding the decorative art that was their heritage, and baptizing it all with lovely color.
It was especially moving because in 1968 I had been an ardent fan of the (first) Prague Spring, led by a Czechoslovakian freedom movement that was brutally crushed in the city’s main square by Soviet tank squads.
This month we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the stunning 1989 collapse of the Soviet and Eastern Block, highlighted by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of Prague and eastern and central Europe.
Growing up in the 1950s with basement bomb shelters, air-raid sirens and duck-and-cover drills in response to threats from that truly Evil Empire created even in children an abiding sense of unease — an understanding that serious threats were afoot in the world. As the Cold War became normalcy, there was vague despair for three more decades at a world locked in continuing tension due to the menace we thought was permanent because its evil controlled the world’s second most powerful nation and others. With all that exacerbated by the rise of Red China, it seemed like a nightmare that would never end.
Then, of a sudden, there was light in the world as the Evil Empire simply crumbled, being unable to keep up with the West’s prosperity brought by the renewed commitment to freedom of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and others. The unimaginable happened: The bad guys simply folded and communism collapsed due to its own “internal contradictions”.
Today, we face domestic challenges from progressivism, socialism’s close cousin. We face serious international challenges from terrorism, much of it ideological or religion-based and some of it just insane. I don’t minimize these challenges. However, whenever I feel daunted by them, I remember the second Prague Spring and the collapse of something even bigger and worse that we thought would never end, and I’m hopeful.
Ron Knecht is an economist, law-school graduate, higher education regent and Nevada controller-elect.


Well, it looks like the Golden State Warriors will just have to make due with four All-Stars on their team and not potentially five.
Portland Trail Blazers' All-Star point guard Damian Lillard was asked on Twitter on Wednesday if he would consider playing for his hometown Warriors someday. The Oakland native a pretty definitive answer.
The Warriors already have Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, forming a big four the likes of which the NBA arguably has never seen. Lillard, 25, signed a five-year, $120 million extension last summer, so he wouldn't be hitting the free-agent market for some time.
But maybe Durant's move to the Bay Area has created a backlash among NBA stars, pushing them to compete against each other instead of join forces. We'll have to wait until next summer to see where the next crop of NBA superstars lands.


SANTA FE SPRINGS – A 17-year-old boy died and two men were wounded but expected to survive after a car-to-car shooting on the 5 Freeway late Wednesday, authorities said.
Coroner’s officials did not release the dead teenager’s name Thursday afternoon, deferring all questions to sheriff’s investigators. Sheriff’s officials also did not identify him.
The three shooting victims had been riding in a minivan. They flagged down an ambulance crew just after 9:40 p.m. at Rosecrans Boulevard and Marquardt Avenue, Lt. Dave Dolson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said.
“The information that we have is that it happened on the freeway,” he said.
The attack was believed to have taken place on a three-quarter-mile stretch of the northbound 5 Freeway, between Carmenita Road and Rosecrans Boulevard, investigators said.
After being wounded, the men exited the freeway at Rosecrans Boulevard and drove east about a mile until they spotted an ambulance and sought help, officials said.
No description of the vehicle that contained the shooter or shooters was available, Dolson said. A motive was not clear.
The teenage victim, who was a passenger in the minivan, was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting at UCI Medical Center in Orange County, officials said.
The two other men who were wounded in the minivan were in their 20s and 30s, Dolson said. They were hospitalized in stable condition.
California Highway Patrol officials shut down all northbound lanes of the freeway during the investigation, CHP Officer Francisco Villalobos said. Traffic was diverted off the freeway at Valley View Avenue.
The left lane of the northbound 5 Freeway was reopened at midnight, he said, and the remaining traffic lanes were opened shortly after 4 a.m.


Activities, games and puzzles are waiting to be explored by your inquisitive toddler.
If you haven’t been to your local library in a while, perhaps it’s time for a visit. Not only can you find there just about any book that you might seek, you will also find magazines, newspapers, books on CD, DVDs, music CDs and so much more.
Libraries have various displays and programs, which may rotate among libraries, pertaining to current events or other local items of interest and each library hosts a variety of speakers on various topics each month. Libraries on occasion host book sales, where participants can find used books at great prices.
Currently at the Incline Village Library, you will find a rock display containing specimens of rocks found in the area. Also at the Incline Village Library, in the “Studio” room, for the next two months is “Grow It!”, an opportunity to try your hand at seed planting and growing with the help of library staff.
The Kings Beach Library offers an online book club. Each month, library staff choose a book. Participants have one month to read the book and post comments online.
This library also hosts technology classes on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Thursday of the month from 3-4 p.m., no reservation required. On the second Thursday, one hour is offered as an open Q-and-A forum, fielding technology questions answered by a tech expert.
For the third Thursday, learn iPhone basics. The fourth Thursday has a changing topic so do check the schedule at placer.ca.gov/departments/library for this and more information.
At the El Dorado County Library in South Lake Tahoe, check out a microscope or explore the difference between igneous and metamorphic rock by checking out one of the Beyond School Center science kits. Some items need to be requested from other branches, which means it will take a day or two to get it at your branch.
In an average year in El Dorado County, volunteers contribute 16,000 hours of service at the library, staff answer 17,000 reference questions, 1,900 programs take place at all of the county’s libraries with 38,000 people attending.
Libraries offer a variety of teen and toddler programs, such as Inventor’s Club, Toddler Story Time and poetry slams. El Dorado County hosts a monthly LEGO block party and also has a variety of family games that patrons can borrow.
Drop into the Zephyr Cove Library, as at all the libraries around the lake, to hook up to Wi-Fi, make photocopies, send faxes or scan documents. Children’s computers are available, ready with learning games and programs.
All the libraries have meeting rooms that can be reserved by the public on a first-come basis. Meeting rooms have tables, chairs, projection equipment and Wi-Fi, a coffee maker, microwave and refrigerator. Some rooms require a minimal fee, others are offered for free.
Wander into your local library to find a quiet nook to work or study, write your first novel, browse the internet, or just relax with a good book. Libraries have comfortable seating, televisions with DVD players, desks and tables.
The staff at your library are excited about the programs they offer and happy to help patrons find whatever they might be looking for, whether it be an enjoyable novel, research material on virtually any topic, or perhaps a specific periodical.
Incline Village Library offers a place for local artists to display their work. In return, the artist is asked to give a scheduled presentation to the public regarding the composing process, what inspires them to create and perhaps to offer tips to other budding artists.
Visit your library to attend a class on memoir writing, get job training or to join courses in learning a language, where you work at your own pace.
For those who enjoy perusing computers for information, all libraries have a vast digital presence. Search your county’s library system to tap into this resource. To take full advantage of online materials, information seekers need to have a valid library card.
To get your library card, you can sign up for one online but you will need to visit your library in person with a valid state-issued ID to get the card and all the benefits the card provides. Truckee/Tahoe residents are welcome to obtain a library card at any or all branches around the lake.
Anyone interested in learning, conducting research or simply reading for pleasure can benefit from a visit to the library. Library hours vary so check your county’s website for complete information and start exploring.
Toree Warfield is an avid nature lover, and writes this column to teach and stimulate interest in the marvels that surround us. Visit saveourplanetearth.com to read columns and to find links to bird song recordings, additional photos and other content.


Ukraine has started siphoning off Russian gas bound for European customers. This follows the cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1, after the two countries’ gas companies failed to agree on a price for 2009.
Gazprom deputy CEO Aleksandr Medvedev is in Prague to inform the EU about the on-going gas conflict with Ukraine, blaming Ukraine for the reduction in supplies.
Gazprom's board has held an emergency meeting in Moscow where they were discussing Ukraine's siphoning of gas.
“Ukraine has cynically announced it's siphoning off gas from the export pipe. Dispatchers in the Balkans say the region is already suffering from Ukarine's actions. Gazprom believes the Balkan states need to use the Energy Charter signed by Ukraine to protect themselves. This charter says no contract disputes should affect supplies provided by a transit country,” stated Gazprom’s Deputy CEO Aleksandr Medvedev.
Earlier on Friday the company’s spokesman Sergey Kuriyanov said that Ukraine is avoiding negotiations with Gazprom. He noted that Ukraine’s Naftogaz has promised to pay $US 1.5 billion by January 11.
“But there will still be an outstanding debt of $US 614 million. Therefore, we plan to increase the transit level of gas through Belarus,” Kupriyanov said.
Ukraine, however, has denied it is siphoning off gas from transit pipes.
Also, according to Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko, Russia has asked the EU parliament to hold a special meeting to discuss the issue of Russian gas transits via Ukraine.
“Gazprom representatives are ready to head to Brussels, and all European countries, to fully inform them about the dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz,” he said.
Earlier Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said that independent auditors are being blocked from checking whether gas supplies to Europe are being hindered.
“We don't have an effective gas delivery contract with Naftogaz now. Naftogaz is currently obstructing the operators of RosUkrEnergo and is not letting them extract the gas from underground facilities which they have,” said Kupriyanov.
There is still no contract signed between the two countries and debts must be paid in full before another can be signed. The Russian energy company has also calculated over $US 600 million in penalties Ukraine owes.
Gazprom’s overall supply reduction amounted to 90 million cubic metres a day, which is roughly Ukraine’s consumption.
Both Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko have appealed to Russia not to cut gas supplies to the country and to continue talks. They've also named the price their country is prepared to pay for the gas: $US 201 per 1,000 cubic metres.
Gazprom, though, wanted a higher price – $US 250 per 1,000 cubic metres – which is almost half the market price. Ukraine turned down this offer. A statement by Gazprom followed that it would now sell gas to Ukraine at the market price of $US 418.
As Europe depends on Russia for about a quarter of its gas supplies, and the fact that 80% of their supplies pass through Ukrainian pipelines, it is watching the ongoing conflict closely.
After Russia had announced a new gas price for Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko said it would be “logical” that transit costs should go up too. The Ukrainian leader said that talks with Russia are to be resumed shortly with the final agreement to be reached by the time of the Orthodox Christmas, January 7.
A Ukrainian delegation has set off on a tour of Europe, which aims at informing the European Union about the gas situation and to provide guarantees that the gas will be transported across Ukraine as normal. Also, Ukraine's president Yushchenko has sent letters to the leaders of eight countries and to the European Commission to explain his reasons of the gas dispute.
Earlier Ukraine had threatened to confiscate Russian gas passing through the country, refusing to guarantee supplies to Europe as Russia promises to stop gas supplies to Ukraine due to debts. Gazprom called Ukraine’s reaction ‘blackmail’.
As Gazprom has vowed to maintain supplies to Europe in full, its gas will be entering Ukraine for the foreseeable future, at least until the Nord or South Stream is opened.
One major pipeline – bringing gas to Ukraine – passes through the town of Kursk, while a larger one – taking gas to Europe – operates in Voronezh (see picture).
Meanwhile, German gas company E.ON Ruhrgas has taken precautions in case supplies of Russian gas are hampered. Its press secretary Helmut Roloff said that the company has agreed on additional gas supplies from Norway in case of emergency. Nevertheless, on Friday, they received all the gas they had ordered.


Finland faces heightened risks from links between radical Islam and terrorism, according to a fresh report by Finland’s security and intelligence police unit Supo. The unit points to the ongoing Syrian conflict as a source of the increased threat.
According to the Supo assessment, in spite of the increased risk of radical Islam fomenting terrorism, Finland is still not a primary target for terrorist organisations.
The security police add that the risk of al-Qaeda-led attacks against Finland or Finns is still low, even though around 40 people have travelled from Finland to Syria to join Islamist groups there.
According to Tuomas Portaankorva of Supo there is an ongoing traffic of fighters between Finland and Syria, with some returning from the war and others going back to Syria after a break in Finland.
"They can take on a more radical world view than before," said Supo head Antti Pelttari.
The evaluation of an increased threat refers to violence that may be perpetrated within local borders without external guidance. Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen says that Finland has around 200 higher-risk individuals.
"We have more of those high risk individuals, they have more contact to extremist ideologies and extremist actions," said Räsänen. "They have been there, received training. That's why this threat level has been raised."
Supo said that there are more people in Finland with links to terrorist organisations. They unit reports increased numbers of people travelling to conflict areas in Syria as well as those who have returned from engaging in war tourism.
According to Supo it has no information about concrete terrorism operations targeting Finland. However the intelligence organization has warned that the operations of networks with links to Syria and the activities of private individuals are unpredictable and difficult to anticipate.


1. Drew Griffin, the CNN investigative correspondent whose reporting made VA health care delays a national news story, told me that the VA ignored questions from reporters at their peril.
His first attempt to reach VA secretary Eric Shinseki - who resigned under pressure on Friday - was way back in November. "Basically, they have tried to shut down our reporting by refusing to talk to us," Griffin said. Here's the rest of the conversation.
"These are performances and if there's no one to perform to, if there's no audience, there's no reason to perform," Cullen said. He said the media should seek ways to "take away part of the stage."
Greenfield said he understood the impulse - "I think it's an effort somehow to take away from these killers what we think they might want" - but called it "ultimately futile because in this day and age, unlike 40 years ago, there are no gatekeepers."
I also talked with Cosmopolitan editor in chief Joanna Coles about the #YesAllWomen hashtag movement.
3. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg - whom Edward Snowden has called an "inspiration" - said Snowden has been an inspiration to him, too.
4. "It's planned with a kind of Normandy-level precision," Mark Leibovich, author of "This Town," said of the roll-out of Hillary Clinton's memoir "Hard Choices."
He said the press should be treating the book roll-out as if it is the start of a Clinton presidential campaign, "because the Clinton people are."
Carl Bernstein, author of "A Woman In Charge," said his "Normandy" reference was spot-on: "The presidential campaign is like a war. It's fought on a huge battlefield with great dangers everywhere and all kinds of strategy required."
5. Bernstein also said this, when I brought up the fact that Clinton will be interviewed by Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Greta Van Susteren in mid-June: "It's not just reach out to people who will need some persuading. It's the publicity that will be generated by the Fox interview and the expectation - by people in the Clinton retinue - that she is going to be able to run some circles around her interviewers. And I suspect - you never know - that that might well be the case."
6. I interviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates (above) about his Atlantic cover story, "The Race for Reparations," and about how racial injustices are covered by the media.
"I think race is covered in a way that we cover most things in the media, and that is that there is a bias towards spectacle," he said.
"Like, when Donald Sterling says something, that means something. When Cliven Bundy, this spectacle, says something, that means something. And this presents great difficulty for those of us who are concerned about the force of racism in American life, because much of it is not spectacle.
He added, "But I think that is the challenger of any storyteller. You have to find some way to bring that to life and get across to people what's actually happening."
Here's the video of our conversation.
Let me know what you thought of the show. See you next Sunday at 11 a.m.!


How it feels when J.K. Rowling gives us more "Harry Potter" information.
J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" universe is enormous. And since closing the book on the main series in 2007, she keeps adding to it. There are spinoff books, movies, and a play in the franchise — many of which reveal new insight about Harry, Ron, Hermione, and other characters from the original series.
The wealth of "Harry Potter" material also means that there's a wealth of behind-the-scenes information that yields new details of how J.K. Rowling thought up the books, how the filmmakers made the movies, and a ton of other information about the "Harry Potter" universe. Rowling even launched Pottermore, which has become a sort of ever-evolving encyclopedia of trivia and back-stories from her world.
It's a lot to keep up with. But for "Harry Potter" fans, all of it is fascinating.
Harry Potter is rich, because his ancestor was a pharmaceutical tycoon.
Harry Potter finding out he's loaded in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
One of the first things Harry does when he finds out he's a wizard way back in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," is visit the Gringotts wizarding bank in Diagon Alley. After all, he'll need some cash to buy school supplies for Hogwarts.
In his vault, he finds out that he has piles and piles of gold galleons. Harry's rich! Way more rich than most of his friends. Why? The books don't really explain. But Rowling addressed the issue on Pottermore.
In the 12th century, Harry's ancestor Linfred of Stinchcombe developed pharmaceutical remedies that were the basis for Skele-gro and Pepperup Potion. He built a business out of it, and the Potter family maintained the fortune for generations. Some time later, Harry's grandfather Fleamont Potter — the son of the "original" Harry Potter — quadrupled the family fortune with hair potion. The hair potion is even advertised in a stray newspaper in "Fantastic Beasts."
Gringotts does exchanges between magical and muggle money.
A Gringotts goblin from "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
As J.K. Rowling pointed out, it's the only way Muggle-born wizards and witches could buy wands, since Ollivanders only takes galleons, knuts, and sickles — not pounds or euros.
There's one character from the books who existed in real life.
An engraved portrait of Nicolas Flamel.
In Rowling's series, Nicolas Flamel is the alchemist who created the Philosopher's Stone, the magical object at the center of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" that can grant a person immortality.
In real life, Flamel was a French scholar and bookseller who lived in the 14th and early 15th centuries. After his death, he got a reputation as an alchemist who secretly achieved immortality. Rowling wrote about the inspiration on Pottermore, where she said Flamel attended the French wizarding school Beauxbatons in her version of his life.
Green gloves were used to make the books fly around in the Hogwarts library.
Emma Watson as Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
For the movies — particularly a scene in "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince"— the books in the Hogwarts library have a knack for organizing themselves on shelves. The secret behind the magic is that green gloves were used. They worked the same way green screen does, and were wiped away in post-production so it looked like the books floated on their own.
There were two Harry Potters.
The Mirror of Erised scene in "Sorcerer's Stone."
"Henry Potter (Harry to his intimates), was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and served on the Wizengamot from 1913 - 1921. Henry caused a minor stir when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who had forbidden the magical community to help Muggles waging the First World War. His outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community was also a strong contributing factor in the family's exclusion from the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight.'"
The original Harry Potter didn't show up in the books, but he lived around the time of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." So don't rule him out for a surprise appearance in the movie series.
The film designers have been hiding a secret character in the movies' fake newspapers.
What does Harry know about the Ginger Witch?
The Fourth Estate is an important part of Rowling's universe. The Daily Prophet covers magic in Britain and The New York Ghost covers the same in the United States.
In almost every "Harry Potter" movie, it was the design firm MinaLima that put together the fake newspaper props for different scenes. They had fun with it. Throughout the series, you can spot stories about "The Ginger Witch." She's a hooligan with a multinational criminal past spanning decades.
"We know now that things do get seen," designer Miraphora Mina told INSIDER. "In the past, we didn't realize how much these would be scrutinized by fans."
Read about all of the Ginger Witch's exploits here.
There's a perfume company that exists in the background of both the "Harry Potter" and "Fantastic Beasts" movies.
Dumbledore in front of a Divine Magic poster in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and a poster for the same brand featured in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
Another one of MinaLima's inventions is the Divine Magic perfume company. We first see it in a poster behind Albus Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" when he meets with Harry at the beginning of the film. In "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," there's a street poster advertising the same brand more than half a century earlier.
Before becoming headmaster, Dumbledore was a Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts.
Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore.
Dumbledore is an academic and something of a magical genius. As his chocolate frog card attests, he's "particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel." So it makes sense that he was a teacher at the wizarding school, not just the administrator.
It was while Dumbledore was a Transfiguration teacher that Tom Riddle — later to become Lord Voldemort — attended Hogwarts. He also taught Newt Scamander, the main character in "Fantastic Beasts," with whom he has a close bond. An issue of the publication "Transfiguration Today" in the movie has an article featuring his work. Jude Law is slated to play Dumbledore in the forthcoming "Fantastic Beasts" movies, which will be about taking down his rival Gellert Grindelwald.
Newt Scamander was a Hufflepuff.
Scamander's scarf gives it away.
Speaking of Newt Scamander and Hogwarts, the character — played in "Fantastic Beasts" by Eddie Redmayne — was sorted into the Hufflepuff house. You might have spotted his canary-and-black scarf throughout the movie, signaling Hufflepuff's colors.
J.K. Rowling wanted "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore" to look like "a trashy airport novel."
The cover of "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore."
"The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore" was a biography written by Rita Skeeter, a gossip columnist hell-bent on destroying his reputation. For the movies, Rowling wanted to reflect the poor, salacious quality of the book. So she told MinaLima to make it overwrought like "a trashy airport novel."
MACUSA president Seraphina Picquery has a big throne that looks like Dumbledore's from Hogwarts.
Her golden throne in "Fantastic Beasts" was intentionally made to be a visual reference to Dumbledore's in Hogwarts's Great Hall.
"There were props designed to connect the film back to the 'Harry Potter' series,"supervising modeller Pierre Bohanna wrote in "Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
Colin Farrell didn't read a single page of "Harry Potter" before reading J.K. Rowling's script for "Fantastic Beasts."
He watched the movies, though.
Farrell told SFX Magazine earlier this year that he was a big fan of the "Harry Potter" movies, but he didn't read any of J.K. Rowling's work before reading her script. He wanted to play the role of auror Percival Graves based on that screenplay alone.
There's a good reason the Horcrux inside Harry wasn't destroyed in "Chamber of Secrets."
Harry getting bitten by the basilisk in "Chamber of Secrets."
For years, "Harry Potter" fans wondered what, exactly, was going on with the portion of Voldemort's soul that was inside Harry. When Voldemort tried and failed to kill Harry himself, he ended up inadvertently leaving a Horcrux inside him.
But if that's the case, why wasn't it destroyed when the Basilisk in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" bit Harry, just as its poison-infused fang destroyed the horcrux that was in Tom Riddle's diary?
"A Horcrux can only be destroyed if its container is damaged beyond repair," Rowling explained. "Harry was healed by Fawkes. Had he died, the Horcrux would indeed have been destroyed."
Many of the spells are derived from Latin roots.
When coming up with magical spells, Rowling clearly worked her studies of Classical language and mythology at the University of Exeter. Many of them are based in the Latin language. "Accio," for example, sounds like "accerso," which means "to summon or fetch." "Wingardium Leviosa," the summoning charm, from from the word "wing" (referring to flight); "ard" (from the Latin "aardus," which can mean "elevated"); and "levi" (which means "to lift").
J.K. Rowling wrote a "Harry Potter" prequel short story — and the original copy was stolen.
In 2008, Rowling hand wrote an 800-page story about James and Sirius Potter noodling around on magical motorcycles and escaping some muggle cops. You can read it here. She auctioned it off for charity, but in April of 2017, that handwritten draft was stolen and it hasn't been found to this day.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore has a specific meaning for each of his names.
Yes, that's his full name.
Rowling is famous for her memorable, magical character names. She's put a lot of thought into them, and a lot of the names refer to some deeper meaning for each character. Dumbledore, as the character with the most names, might be the best example.
"Albus" is Latin for "white," which could be symbolic or just refer to his beard. "Percival" was one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, who went in search for the lost grail. "Wulfric" may be a reference to the 12th-century British figure Wulfric of Haselbury, who was known as a miracle worker. And "Brian" is often thought to be derived from an Old Celtic word that roughly means "noble."
"Dumbledore" is one name that Rowling has discussed explicitly. It's an Old English word for "bumblebee."
"Because Albus Dumbledore is very fond of music, I always imagined him as sort of humming to himself a lot," Rowling said in a 1999 interview.
Some of the food in the movies was real.
One of the highlights of the "Harry Potter" movies and books are the feasts in the Hogwarts Great Hall. Shepherd's pie, Yorkshire pudding, and pumpkin juice seem to be served at every meal. During the epic feast scene in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," many of the dishes were actually cooked up for a more realistic effect. In general, the food was fake and made with resin.
The glass bottles in Snape's potions classroom was filled with really weird stuff.
There's probably gross stuff in there.
The movie's set designer found things like tufts of hair and unwanted guts and bones from local butchers for the potion ingredient vials. The room itself also expanded between movies, making room for more extras in later entries in the series.
Four different owls played Hedwig, Harry's owl, in the movies.
More than 12 rats played Scabbers, Ron's pet rat, four cats played Hermione's pet Crookshanks, and nine Neapolitan Mastiffs played Hagrid's dog, Fang.
Movie producers stood in for the Hogwarts moving portraits.
The portraits that line the walls of Hogwarts castle in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Orlando.
One of the magical castle's features is that it has paintings that move. Some of them had plot significance, like the Fat Lady in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," who was played by comedian Dawn French. Others, though, were played by the movie's producers, who wanted to immortalize themselves in some way on screen.
15,000 glass orbs were made for the Room of Prophecy scene in "Order of the Phoenix." None of them were used.
You can still see the orbs on the Warner Bros. studio tour in London.
In the end, the producers decided to digitize the whole thing and none of the orbs made it to the movies.
The Black family tree wasn't canonized until the "Order of the Phoenix" movie.
The Black family is one of the oldest and most important in the wizarding community. There's Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, who's cousins with Voldemort's right-hand woman, Bellatrix Lestrange, and there's also Regulus Arcturus Black, who tried to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and Phineas Nigellus Black, a former headmaster of Hogwarts.
It's confusing, and the books refer to a big tapestry in 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius's family home, that features a family tree that lays it all out. But the actual content of that tapestry isn't entirely included in the books, so there are some gaps.
For the "Order of the Phoenix" movie, designer Miraphora Mina needed to include the tapestry in one of the scenes. So she called up J.K. Rowling, who mapped out the entire Black family for her. It's only from the movie that we have all of the relationships specified.
It took six months to design the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes scene in "Half-Blood Prince."
A display of packaging from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.
The joke shop — which Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to at the beginning of the movie — is filled with whizzing magical pranks, bubbling potions, and everything from Anti Gravity Hats to Self-propelling Custard Pies. It's a feat of imagination and hard work from Fred and George Weasley, and it all had to be re-created for the movie.
MinaLima made the boxes and labeling for every single item. Everything in the shop had to look like it was manufactured and sold by the Weasley twins, and have a bit of backstory to it.
"It was a bit of a dream, really, to have six months to design a load of crazy packaging," Mina told INSIDER.


The Eagles, after trading LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills, might have found his replacement.
A person with knowledge of the situation, who requested anonymity, told NJ Advance Media that the Eagles have expressed interest in free-agent running back Frank Gore.
That person said a deal with the San Francisco 49ers star could get done as early as Tuesday, the first day free agents can sign with another team.
At this point, teams are not allowed to offer contracts to free agents. It is not clear how much it might cost the Eagles to sign Gore.
Gore, 31, finished last season with 1,106 yards on 255 carries and four touchdowns. One of 13 running backs to gain more than 1,000 yards last season, he ranked 10th among backs in the NFL.
Gore ran behind one of the top offensive lines in the NFL. ProFootball Focus ranked the Niners' as the ninth-best unit in the league last season. The Eagles finished second overall on the list.
His 4.3 yards per carry average was nearly identical to McCoy's 4.2 yards per carry.
Gore had a season high 119 rushing yards and a 55-yard touchdown reception in the 49ers' Week 4 win over Eagles last season.
How much of the workload Gore will get next season remains to be seen. If he joins the team, it's likely he will be the most experienced player on the roster.
The Eagles' need for a running back increased when they traded McCoy last week. They have Chris Polk (who they tendered as an unrestriced free agent), Darren Sproles, Kenjon Barner and Matthew Tucker on the roster.
There were rumblings on Saturday that the team might be interested in New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram, but Ingram re-signed before being able to accept other offers.
The free agency period is expected to be a busy one for the Eagles, who have approximately $46 million in salary-cap space.


GENEVA, Mar 18 2013 (IPS) - The current growth model is not sustainable. Neither the green economy nor alternative sources of energy can prevent global warming. Solutions will come from concerted actions at the local and national levels, from the adoption of instruments and practices borrowed from other disciplines like peacebuilding, and from the move to a “no-waste economy”, according to experts here.
In its milestone report, “The Limits to Growth”, published in 1972, the Club of Rome warned that the human ecological footprint had grown dangerously quickly from 1900 to 1972. Shortly thereafter, the warning proved to be prophetic: by 1986 the human ecological footprint had overshot the carrying capacity of the Earth. At current production and consumption levels, we need 1.5 planets to survive; if everyone lived like a U.S. citizen, we would need five planets.
Land, water and biodiversity continue to decline. Global CO2 emissions are on the rise. The oceans are warming and the sea level is rising continuously. Forest cover has decreased by 300 million hectares since 1990.
In his new book, “The Crisis of Global Sustainability”, presented in Geneva on Mar. 15, Tapio Kanninen, co-director of a project on sustainable global governance at the City University of New York and member of the Club of Rome, warms that we cannot continue with the current model of economic growth whilst limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius.
Technology cannot help us – it would be environmentally damaging and too costly, he says. We cannot move to alternative sources of energy – the present alternatives like solar, nuclear and wind contribute relatively little of global energy needs and they are unlikely to replace fossil fuel completely. In short: humanity has reached a stalemate.
“Many U.N. summits after the (1987) Brundtland Commission have avoided concrete action,” Kanninen said at the book launch Friday.
The recent Rio+20 Earth Summit held in Brazil this past June is just one example of the limitations of these international gatherings. Though thousands of participants had hoped the conference would generate concrete solutions and commitments to reducing global warning, the concluding document made no mention of the 30-billion-dollar fund need to transition to a green economy, nor did it outline a blueprint for sustainable development post 2015.
Most of these summits draw very high-level attendance, but in the end industrialised countries’ national interests dominate the bargaining universe. The global North wants to safeguard its neoliberal economic targets, while the South continues to defend its development goals.
Kanninen advocates for a second review conference of the U.N. charter and a complete paradigm shift.
Kanninen advocates abandoning the old approach of viewing sustainable development as a battlefield and adopting instead instruments from peace-building processes.
Yves Lador, consultant and representative of the U.S.-based Earthjustice at the U.N. in Geneva, told IPS on the sidelines of the book launch that this was an interesting approach.
“Particularly (with regards) to climate change, we need some trust building measures inspired by the disarmament agreements”, through which governments allow outsiders to monitor their progress. He added that cross verification between different independent monitors could bolster the exercise.
“This would be very useful because we don’t know the reality of various countries’ emissions. China, for example, does not make this data readily available. India has problems in data collection, but welcomes outside advice on how to share this data with the public.
He cited growing awareness of the link between climate change and human rights as a salient example of the right to information – namely, the right of the public to know the extent and impacts of climate change and to participate in decision-making.
A circular economy is, by definition, a restorative economy: products should be designed for longer use and materials reused and recycled, which would increase the demand for maintenance and repairs. The concept has been around since the 1970s but it has gained momentum again due to the activities of the U.S.-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation and to “Bankrupting Nature”, a recent report authored by Ander Wijkman and Johan Rockström, co-president of the Club of Rome.
He believes an increase in services like leasing would compensate for the loss of jobs resulting from the decrease in production. Other major companies like Caterpillar have stopped selling huge trucks, and have begun to lease them.


Google Music hasn’t been making a lot of noise lately and is, in some ways, in danger of being overshadowed by other cloud music sites. But the Internet giant has roared back with the addition of a key backup feature for users.
Starting immediately, Google Music users are able to instantly restore their music collection with a single click. That applies to both purchased music and any songs they’ve added from their own library.
It is, of course, a direct response to Apple’s iCloud, which automatically backs up App Store purchases, but also lets users backup music from other sources on their hard drive – for a price.
Google Music’s new features don’t appear to carry any charge – and they’re being targeted at the Android audience, though PC users will able to use them as well. The only catch? Users are restricted to two downloads each via the Web interface.


... as the iPhone chips away at RIM dominance | City A.M.
STANDARD Chartered is replacing the BlackBerry, currently its standard corporate communications device, with the iPhone, a move that could eventually result in thousands of bankers switching to the Apple device for business communication on the go.
Standard Chartered bankers said the London-based lender was giving its corporate BlackBerry users the option of switching to the iPhone, with the company agreeing to continue to pay monthly billing for business-related telephone and data services.
The process of switching email services started about a month ago. It is not yet clear how many of the Asia-focused bank’s 75,000 employees used company-issued BlackBerries or when the switchover could be completed.
Bankers at other financial institutions such as HSBC and Morgan Stanley have so far been restricted to the BlackBerry as the standard device issued by their firms for business communications.


TURLOCK , Calif.--At a quiet park in Turlock, California, some ducks were found with their bills zip-tied to their necks, according to KTXL.
Donnelly Park is a peaceful park in the middle of town. It's popular with families looking to spend some time by the water, under the trees.
The park is also home to several ducks.
But Sunday night, the ducks had something around their necks and Elizabeth Stevens took some pictures.
"I'm pretty sure someone did it to them, just how tight they were and how they were literally cut off as if someone tightened then and then cut it," Stevens said.
The zip ties were wrapped around the duck's neck, pinning its lower beak to its neck, its mouth open. Two of the animals had been bound in that same way.
"I thought it was pretty messed up. I don't understand why people would do that," Turlock resident Tyler White said.
So the group cut the ducks free.
"I couldn't catch them, she's the one who caught them," White said.
The story of the rescue has spread on social media, and while the friends are gratified by the support they've gotten, what's also clear is that it has restored a little of the faith they lost that night.
"So many people just saying 'thank you, you guys are good people.' And honestly, it's pretty heart-warming to know there's people that actually care," Stevens said.


The federal government is accelerating Canada’s transition to a lower-carbon economy, even as conservative politicians in the provinces vow to scuttle key measures that would support that effort.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr endorsed an advisory council report Thursday that spells out an ambitious agenda of increasing energy efficiency, switching off fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country’s oil and gas industry.
The Generation Energy report was produced by an advisory committee appointed by Mr. Carr after he hosted a conference last year on the need for a new Canadian energy strategy. The committee included representatives from the oil and gas industry and the electricity sector, as well as from clean energy and Indigenous organizations.
The panel declared that climate change is a growing danger, and that Canada must be part of a global transition to lower-carbon energy needed to avert the most catastrophic impacts.
However, there is considerable political opposition to the Liberal government’s climate-change approach. Conservative politicians argue that Ottawa and its allies among provincial governments are driving up energy costs for Canadians with carbon taxes while undermining the competitiveness of the domestic oil industry with levies and new regulations.
Doug Ford will be sworn in as Ontario premier on Friday and has already said he will scrap the province’s cap-and-trade system that not only puts a levy on carbon emissions but finances programs to help homeowners and businesses reduce their energy use. Alberta’s United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney says he will move in a similar direction should he win an election scheduled for next spring.
The Generation Energy report is hardly a radical document; the panel’s co-chairs are Merran Smith, president of the advocacy group Clean Energy Canada, and Linda Coady, chief sustainability officer for pipeline and natural gas giant Enbridge Inc.
The report includes no call for Canada to rely solely on renewable energy by a certain date; there is no direct attack on the oil sands industry nor opposition to industry’s plan for three pipeline expansion projects that would increase volumes of Canadian crude to U.S. and offshore markets.
However, it does lay out a daunting challenge for the country’s oil and gas sector, which suffered from the global price collapse of 2014-15 and is recovering far more slowly than some international competitors.
The goal, it said, is for the Canadian oil industry to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions on a per-barrel basis below that of major competitors, while also reducing costs. To get there, the industry will have to make massive investments in new technology and innovation.
That’s a tall order for oil sands companies whose production is among the most carbon intensive in the world, and whose cost structure is high. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers complained recently that climate and other environmental policies are placing an increasing burden on its members that make it difficult to attract investment.
In an interview, Mr. Carr said the Generation Energy panel’s conclusion are consistent with the Liberal government’s approach, which emphasizes action on climate change and providing incentives for Canadians to use less energy and lower-carbon energy, while supporting the traditional fossil fuel sector.
Conservative MP Ed Fast slammed the Liberals for undermining the oil and gas industry as it pursues its environmental agenda. “I find it appalling that the Liberals are taking reckless action that will only speed up the decline of the Canadian economy,” the Conservative environment critic said.