Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Register
Summary
Ukraine accuses Russia of “war crimes” at U.N. session
Kyiv seeks meeting on Russian aggression, WMD
Diplomats boycott Lavrov speeches at U.N. forums
GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) – Russia’s foreign minister told a Geneva disarmament meeting on Tuesday that Ukraine has been seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a “real danger” that needed a Russian response.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday in what it called a special operation to demilitarise and “denazify” the country – a justification dismissed by Kyiv and the West as propaganda.read more
“Today the dangers that (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy’s regime pose for neighbouring countries and international security in general have increased substantially after the authorities set up in Kyiv have embarked upon dangerous games related to plans to…
Russian nuclear submarinessailed off for drills in the Barents Sea and mobile missile launchers roamed snow forests Tuesday in Siberia after PresidentVladimir Putinordered his nation’s nuclear forces put on high alert over tensions with the West over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Northern Fleet said in a statement that several of its nuclear submarines were involved in exercises designed to “train maneuvering in stormy conditions.” It said several warships tasked with protecting northwest Russia’s Kola…
The 2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo is the brand’s first all-electric station wagon, but Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu says its far from a retro ride.
Acargo shipthat was disabled when it caught fire near the Azores almost two weeks ago has sunk in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Felicity Ace caught fire on February 16.(AP)
The Felicity Ace was being towed to land when it began to list to starboard in heavy seas about 250 miles off thePortugueseisland chain and took on water in heavy seas…
The impact crater is the second discovered in China.
(Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.)
A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years.
Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from theNASA Earth Observatory. Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing’an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock strikingEarth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater that month in the journalMeteoritics and Planetary Science.
The Yilan crater measures about 1.15 miles (1.85 kilometers) across and likely formed about…
DURHAM, UK, February 25, 2022 (ENS) –Astronomers from Durham University collaborating with a team of international scientists have mapped more than a quarter of the northern sky using the Low Frequency Array, LOFAR, a pan-European radio telescope. The map reveals a detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million galaxies and a dynamic picture of the Universe, which now has been made public for the first time.
To produce the map, scientists deployed state-of-the-art data processing algorithms on high performance computers all over Europe to process 3,500 hours of observations that occupy eight petabytes of disk space – the equivalent of roughly 20,000 laptops.
Durham University astronomer Dr. Leah Morabito said, “We’ve opened the door to new discoveries with this project, and future work will follow up these…
Following a wave of peace rallies held across the globe this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to diplomatic talks with Russia. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert on Sunday, citing increasingly tightened international…
Fiona HarveyEnvironment correspondentMon 28 Feb 2022 06.00 EST
Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) has said.
Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday.
“The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair…
By YURAS KARMANAU, JIM HEINTZ, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and DASHA LITVINOVA5 minutes ago
1 of 21
People struggle on stairways after a last minute change of the departure platform for a Lviv bound train in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Ukraine’s border with Belarus. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 17-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.
Amid ever-growing international condemnation, Russia found itself increasingly isolated five days into its invasion, while also facing unexpectedly fierce resistance on the ground in Ukraine and economic havoc…
Since banning fur farming in 2001, the U.K. has imported more than $1 billion worth of fur from countries in which foxes, mink, raccoon dogs and other fur-bearing species are trapped for their entire lives in the most barren and restrictive of cages before being gassed or electrocuted. Kristo Muurimaa/Oikeutta Elaimille
Disturbing as it was to learn last week that the British government is wavering on proposed bans on imports of fur and foie gras, it was heartening to see the reaction of a caring public outraged by this news and the firm resistance of politicians determined to see these animal protection laws advance.
Such response is warranted because these two products represent animal cruelty at its absolute worst—unprincipled, unrestrained and indifferent to the misery and suffering. In such moments, public outcry and political resistance are not just measures of the progress we are making in our work. They are also very good measures of human decency.
According to reports, it was one of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet ministers, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who raised the flag of personal choice in defense of the two cruelties, suggesting that it is wrong for government to infringe on consumer freedom. At least two other ministers raised concerns about the bans, as well.
The proposed bans were intended to be part of the upcoming Animals Abroad Bill, framed to address the part the United Kingdom plays in the plight of animals suffering in other countries.
It is disheartening to see any officials at the highest levels of government settle on the argument that we should embrace consumer freedom as a blank check for some of the worst cruelties we could imagine, and some of the most avoidable. We’re talking, after all, about two products that represent the most unnecessary and extravagant consumerism: an ingredient that requires the pitiless force-feeding of ducks to swell their livers grossly, and a non-essential fashion material torn from the backs of wild animals.
We’re also talking, in both instances, about items that are illegal to produce in the U.K. precisely because of their cruelty. On top of that, polling suggests that 79% of the British public supports the foie gras sales ban and some 72% the fur sales ban. In a nation that has already made a clear moral judgment about these products, the consumer freedom argument seems especially feeble and out of touch.
Humane Society International/UK is working with Conservative and other members of Parliament to hold the government accountable to these commitments. HSI/UK launched the #FurFreeBritain campaign in 2017 and, as part of a coalition of likeminded organizations, is leading the campaign to secure a fur sales ban. In September, coalition partners delivered over 1 million petition signatures to the prime minister supporting a fur sales ban, and a host of compassionate celebrities have backed the effort. HSI/UK has also secured written support for a ban from 150 members of Parliament and peers of all political persuasions.
In every healthy society there are limits to personal choice, especially where such choice leads to the unconscionable suffering of others, something that people of all ideological persuasions understand and appreciate. In that regard, the fight over fur and foie gras in the U.K. has a universal relevance. And it certainly doesn’t make sense to accept imports of products that undermine or conflict with domestic animal protection standards. That’s why, in the United States, for example, we don’t allow the import of articles made from dog and cat fur, just as we don’t allow the sale of whale meat.
The argument in Britain is not an academic one. The lives of millions of animals are at stake. Since banning fur farming in 2000, the U.K. has imported over £800 million (more than $1 billion) worth of fur from countries in which foxes, mink, raccoon dogs and other fur-bearing species are trapped for their entire lives in the most barren and restrictive of cages before being gassed or electrocuted. As to foie gras, there may be as much as 200 tons of it imported from continental Europe every year.
We all value freedom of choice, but most of us comprehend that as a right that exists within a balanced framework of social good and common decency, and we understand that there is a limit to what can be justified in its name. When it comes to the practices at issue here—practices that involve the indisputable torment of animals—it’s pretty hard to see Rees-Mogg’s point. Fur and foie gras involve extreme forms of animal cruelty, shunned and stigmatized worldwide, and if the weakness of the arguments marshaled against the proposed bans demonstrate anything, it is that fur and foie gras are, in the end, indefensible.
If you are a U.K. citizen, you can support the HSI campaign right now.
Much like their human counterparts, newborn calves suckle milk from their mothers during the early stages of their lives. But the commercial dairy industry often prevents calves from engaging in this natural behavior, illustrating just one of many reasons why the words ‘natural’ and ‘dairy’ do not go together.
The European Dairy Association (EDA), however, promotes dairy as exactly that: natural. In November 2021, the group shared a factsheet comparing cow milk and plant-based milks. One of the EDA’s major takeaways is that, according to the association, plant milk is less natural than cow’s milk.
The EDA’s portrayal of cow’s milk as natural partly rests on the amount of “processing” that happens during the production process. The group claims that plant milks are more heavily processed than dairy, insinuating that they’re less natural as a result.
But there’s a glaring issue with the factsheet. The EDA leaves out the lifelong processing that cows endure in the dairy industry. In fact, it largely avoids mentioning cows at all.
Natural or not
Self-promotion by the dairy industry isn’t new. The EDA’s comments aren’t surprising either. The plant-based milk market is the dairy industry’s top competitor. and in recent years, it has seen a meteoric rise.
Many people are opting to ditch dairy over ethical concerns, as well as environmental ones. And while it’s doubtful that the EDA’s factsheet will convince them that cow’s milk is more natural than plant milk, they may not be the association’s intended audience.
According to the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), cow’s milk remains a “staple product” of 98 percent of British households. The chart, shared by the EDA’s Twitter account earlier this year, was meant in large part for consumers like them.
But the chart promotes a skewed understanding of the dairy production process. For example, in the chart, EDA cites a step called “pre-treatment.” That phrase is meant to encompass everything cows experience up to the point of lactation. But the multiple ‘steps’ that they go through warrant some attention.
The industry breeds dairy cows and has done so for decades to produce an unnaturally high quantity of milk. They’re often conceived using sexed semen, reproductive technology that gives farmers control over the sex of calves. The industry uses this technology because it relies on female calves, known as heifers, to replenish their dairy herds. Most male calves are sold onwards, into the meat or leather industry.
An artificial existence
When first born, calves need colostrum, antibody-filled milk that mothers produce directly after birth to bolster their calf’s immune system. But in commercial dairies, farmers regularly milk the mothers themselves and then feed this colostrum to calves using a bottle or a stomach tube. As Farmers Weeklyhighlights, farmers see stomach tubing calves as “quick and efficient,” but they are far from natural.
Almost all calves in commercial dairies get a matter of hours with their mothers before separation, according to Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). Separating cows from their calves allows farmers to sell the mother’s milk for human consumption.
However, most people—over two-thirds of the global population—are lactose intolerant. Many struggle to make that connection, in large part because they are missing key information about where their milk comes from.
The high cost of dairy farming
According to Jimmy Goldie, chief technical officer for agricultural supplies firm Carrs Billington speaking at a recent dairy calf health and management event hosted by the AHDB, data shows that as much as 22 percent of heifer calves die after birth and another 11 percent do not complete their first lactation cycle. Death rates vary considerably from farm to farm, but artificial inputs like antibiotics are routinely used to combat health-related issues.
If cows make it to their first artificial insemination, which can happen from around fifteen months old onwards, and it’s successful, they will give birth nine months later. Cows who have had a calf previously—the industry expects three or four births before considering dairy cows ‘spent‘—face an additional step in their processing prior to birthing. Known as “drying off,” this process involves artificially ending their milk production by ceasing milking, changing their diets, and, in many cases, sealing their teats.
Antibiotics are oftenused in this step, too, to address the painful swelling of the udders, known as mastitis, that affects millions of dairy cows every year.
“Hardly natural”
CIWF’s Research and Education Manager Phil Brooke points to other systemic issues in intensive dairy farming, such as over 20 percent of British cows being “being kept indoors all year,” making them liable to lameness. He also told Sentient Mediathat breeding for high milk yields risks emaciation, along with mastitis and lameness, that can, in turn, lead to “infertility and shortened life-span.” This is “hardly natural,” he says.
The EDA didn’t respond to a request for comment about its factsheet. But Brooke characterized “the production process” as an “inconvenient truth” that the association chose “not to mention.”
The EDA further suggests that while plant-based milks may “look” better for the environment, dairy milk may actually “perform” better by comparison if measured by “nutritional value” and not “total mass-produced.” The European Plant-based Foods Association (ENSA) told Sentient Media that this claim “lacks scientific ground,” highlighting a shortage of evidence to substantiate it in the factsheet.
The EDA also argued that the environmental benefits of various plant-based milks aren’t well supported by scientific evidence. This is “clearly bunkum,” says Mark Driscoll, a sustainable food systems consultant and member of the ENSA’s scientific advisory committee. He says that “across all metrics,” cow’s milk has higher environmental impacts than plant-based alternatives. ENSA, meanwhile, states that plant-based foods are “highly valuable” in protecting biodiversity and helping to mitigate climate change.
Brooke was unconvinced by the EDA’s environmental arguments, too. On the contrary, he says that reduced consumption of animal products, including dairy, would be “good for people, animals, and the planet.”
