| | 08/April/24
| | Amnesty International: Dow’s failure to offer remedy for Bhopal disaster has created a “sacrifice zone” The failure of the US-based chemical company Dow to provide remedy to victims of a deadly gas leak from a pesticide plant in India that resulted in the deaths of more than 22,000 people has created a “sacrifice zone” in which 500,000 more continue to suffer, Amnesty International has said in a new report published on 28 March ahead of the 40th anniversary of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters. Issued before Dow’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders on 11 April, Bhopal: 40 years of Injustice, shows that the human rights-based case for justice and reparations for Bhopal survivors has never been stronger. Amnesty International is calling on companies and states to consider withholding business from Dow unless it recognises its human rights responsibilities and takes meaningful and rapid action to redress these harms. The report also highlights how the US government, through sometimes covert lobbying, pressured the Indian government to allow American nationals to escape criminal justice, and assisted in efforts to frustrate and delay extradition efforts and the serving of court summonses on Dow. Envirotec Scientist who gene-edited babies is back in lab and "proud" of past work despite jailing A Chinese scientist who was imprisoned for his role in creating the world’s first genetically edited babies, Lulu and Nana, says he has returned to his laboratory to work on the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other genetic diseases. He Jiankui said he had resumed research on human embryo genome editing, despite the controversy over the ethics of artificially rewriting genes, which some critics predicted would lead to demand for “designer babies”. He said, “We will use discarded human embryos and comply with both domestic and international rules." He added that he had no plans to produce more genome-edited babies. Previously, He had used the CRISPR/Cas gene-editing tool to rewrite DNA in embryos. He has continued to defend his work, despite widespread criticism, saying he was “proud” of having created Lulu and Nana. A third girl was born in 2019 as a result of similar experiments. The Guardian Ghana: Farmers, aggregators 'fight' government over approval of commercialisation of 14 GMO foods A few hours after the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) called on the government to address pressing issues within Ghana’s agricultural sector rather than pushing for the commercialisation of GM products, the Commercial and Small-Scale Farmers and Aggregators in the northern region are up in arms against the government’s decision to approve the commercialisation in Ghana of some 14 GMO foods comprising eight maize and six soybean variants. The CEO of Agrofredina and executive member of the aggregators association in the Northern Region Fedrick Saah explained that there are more pressing issues such as efficiency in the agriculture industry in Ghana rather than commercialising and promoting GM products. He said the reason why there is low output in the country is that “the government is not looking at the inputs that we need as farmers, when they are not looking at water availability, transport, roads to farming communities, our irrigation system has not improved, and they are not looking at the land issues including land preparation, fertility among others. These are the real problems of the agricultural sector in this country for years.” Ghana Web Gates Foundation's work is less about solving poverty and more about promoting Bill Gates Tim Schwab, author of the book, The Bill Gates Problem, said in a TV broadcast, "I think that on net the Gates Foundation is doing more harm than good. I think the single biggest beneficiary of the Gates Foundation is Bill Gates himself: through the tax benefits he collects, the public applause, the awards, the political power, the influence". He says the Gates Foundation is less about drawing attention to the global poor than about drawing attention to Bill Gates as a kind of saviour for the global poor. AGRA Watch on X @agrawatch We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible by readers’ donations. Please support our work with a one-off or regular donation. Thank you! __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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