THIRD WORLD USA

Some Covid-19 Survivors Grapple With Large Medical Bills

While the federal government and the health-care industry have worked to help Americans avoid costs associated with Covid-19 testing, some patients can be subject to high out-of-pocket costs for treatment, long after leaving the hospital. Photo: Krystle Bodine and Drew Harris

Belarus police detain dozens as crowds chant against Lukashenko


By Andrei Makhovsky
4 hrs ago

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

By Andrei Makhovsky  

  

© Reuters/STRINGER Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian security forces detained dozens of protesters on Saturday as crowds rallied in central Minsk accusing President Alexander Lukashenko of rigging last month's election.  

© Reuters/STRINGER Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

One group of women chanted "Our president is Sveta!" - referring to opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who they say won the vote - before riot police dragged many of them into vans. Other protesters were arrested nearby.

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, has been rocked by mass street protests since Lukashenko's claim of a landslide victory in an Aug. 9 vote.

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

He has denied rigging the election and dismissed opposition accusations of mass arrests and abuses as a Western smear campaign.

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

On Saturday, video on social media showed police detaining Nina Baginskaya, a 73-year-old who has become a central figure of the protest movement after scuffling with police last month.  

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

The footage showed a masked riot police officer ripping a red and white flag out of Baginskaya's hands before dragging her into a van. 

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

Protesters have used the flag that Belarus adopted after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, before Lukashenko restored the Soviet version four years later. 

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

Lukashenko, a 66-year-old former collective farm manager, was sworn in for a sixth term on Wednesday in a ceremony held without warning, prompting thousands to take the streets of the capital.

  

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

(Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; editing by Jason Neely and Andrew Heavens) 

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk 

© Reuters/TUT.BY Belarusian opposition supporters hold a rally in Minsk

Serbia commemorates daring World War Two airlift mission with monument

   

© Reuters/Branko Filipovic Serbia inaugurates monument to allied airlift operation during World War Two

PRANJANI, Serbia (Reuters) - A monument shaped like a military transport plane was unveiled on a Serbian hillside on Saturday, commemorating the rescue of hundreds of allied pilots who were shot down by German forces during World War Two

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© Reuters/Branko Filipovic Serbia inaugurates monument to allied airlift operation during World War Two

About 500 airmen, mostly Americans, were brought to the village of Pranjani during 1944 to be airlifted back to base in Bari, Italy, in the bold mission behind enemy lines - known as Operation Halyard.

U.S. diplomats and senior Serbian officials raised their countries' flags at the site in central Serbia during Saturday's inauguration ceremony.

For more than 50 years, during Communism, the operation was not officially acknowledged or taught in schools because it received local support from royalist troops led by convicted Nazi collaborator Draza Mihajlovic.

© Reuters/Branko Filipovic Serbia inaugurates monument to allied airlift operation during World War Two

Radoljub Jankovic, a local resident who was 14 at the time of the airlifts, recounted his memories of the operation in a speech at the ceremony.

"I still hear the noise of the engines of the American planes in the air," he said, presenting a bottle of home-made traditional plum brandy to the U.S. ambassador to Serbia and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

© Reuters/Branko Filipovic Serbia inaugurates monument to allied airlift operation during World War Two

"I will make sure to drink this bottle of traditional Serbian brandy with President (Donald) Trump when he visits Serbia so he feels how American soldiers enjoyed it 76 years ago," Vucic said.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Helen Popper)

CANADA

Supreme Court agrees to hear case involving fine for massive maple syrup heist
  

© Provided by The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear a case involving the fine imposed on one of the ringleaders of a massive maple syrup heist.

Richard Vallieres was found guilty of fraud, trafficking in stolen goods and theft after more than 9,500 barrels of maple syrup, valued at $18 million, were stolen from a Quebec warehouse in 2011 and 2012.

Vallieres was initially ordered to pay $10 million in fines and compensation within 10 years because the stolen goods couldn't be recovered.

The Quebec Court of Appeal later ruled that was excessive and lowered the fine to $1 million.

Quebec prosecutors appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which today agreed to hear the case.

More than 20 people were arrested in connection with the theft, and searches were conducted in Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario and the United States.

Three people, including Vallieres, were found guilty. Vallieres was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017 but his sentence was to be extended if the fine wasn't paid.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2020

———

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press

Hundreds sit on Brooklyn Bridge in Breonna Taylor protest

CBSNews 

Protests continued for another night on Friday in New York – and around the country – over a grand jury's decision not to charge Louisville, Kentucky, police officers in Breonna Taylor's death.

Hundreds marched through Brooklyn from the Barclays Center to the Brooklyn Bridge, where they sat and refused to move for over an hour, CBS New York reports.

Demonstrators are angry and exhausted over the grand jury's decision.

"This is extremely traumatizing," said protester Sophie Michel. "I have been out here since June, almost every day on the streets, marching for my Black life to show people that I matter, that it could be me, it could be him, it could be him, it could be any Black face that you see in this crowd."

"America at large will not stand by and allow a Black woman to be murdered and have no consequences," protester Kimberly Bernard said. 

Friday's rally was in solidarity with protests in Louisville, where even larger demonstrations are planned for the weekend. The city's police chief is urging armed militia to stay away. 

"Many of them say they are coming to help us. Let me be clear: that is not help we need. That is not help we want," said Rob Schroeder, interim police chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Taylor, an EMT, was killed in March in a botched drug raid by Louisville Metro Police, in which officers entered her home with a no-knock warrant and fired off more than 30 rounds, hitting her multiple times. 

    

© CBS New York brooklyn.png

A grand jury indicted one officer in relation to shooting into her neighbor's apartment — but no officers were charged for their role in Taylor's death. The decision was announced on Wednesday.

In Kentucky on Friday, a crowd surrounded Breonna Taylor's family at a press conference. Her aunt, Bianca Austin, wore Taylor's emergency medical technician jacket while reading a message from Taylor's mother, who was too distraught to speak.

"I was reassured Wednesday of why I have no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law that are not made to protect us Black and brown people," Austin said. 

Protests took place on Friday in cities from Oakland to Boston.

What Happened At Protests Across The Country Demanding Justice For Breonna Taylor

Britni de la Cretaz 

© Provided by Refinery29

After Wednesday’s announcement that none of the officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor would be charged with her murder, people took to the streets across the country to express their anger and demand justice for Taylor’s death.

For many, it was reinforcement that the United States justice system is only designed to grant justice to some people and not all. Only one of the three officers who fired their weapons into Taylor’s apartment the night of her death was charged at all. Former officer Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into the apartment of Taylor’s neighbors. Officers Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove have not been charged and are still employed by the Louisville Police Department.

The immediate response following the announcement was for protesters to chant and begin marching, and several other major cities followed Louisville into the streets. In New York City, Portland, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., among other cities, people marched and chanted with the same demand: justice.

Protestors marching across the Williamsburg bridge right now

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But as the masses continue to demand justice, law enforcement is already striking back. In Louisville, police arrested over 100 people related to the protests. A state of emergency had been announced prior to the charges being handed down, and police were waiting for protestors with tanks and chemical weapons, and drew their guns on the crowd.

“It’s a special kind of cruelty that more protestors in Louisville tonight will be charged than men who murdered Breonna Taylor,” tweeted writer Roxane Gay.

Protesters in Atlanta had chemical weapons deployed on them, and in Portland, Oregon, the protests were declared a “riot.” “I just couldn’t understand how a [grand] jury can come to that conclusion when she was just a sleeping civilian,” a protestor told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m hoping this gets a little attention and hoping the officers get their justice because they took an innocent life. Police officers shouldn’t escalate situations as fast as they do.”

“This indictment is another clear and egregious reminder that the criminal-legal system in Louisville — and in this country — does not value Black people or see us as deserving of protection from those who’ve taken an oath to ‘protect and serve,’” the Movement For Black Lives said in a statement. “This decision, which was handed down 41 days before the most critical election in U.S. modern history, is intended to enable state-sanctioned violence against all Black communities and to obstruct people from asserting their first amendment right to protest.”

You can donate to protestors at the Louisville Community Bail Fund.

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Kentucky's only Black female legislator arrested in Breonna Taylor protest

WHILE THE BLACK AG HID WITH HIS FOP

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE BUDDIES

By Elizabeth Joseph, CNN

© Darron Cummings/AP State Rep. Attica Scott speaks during a news conference, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. Breonna Taylor's family attorney Ben Crump is calling for the Kentucky attorney general to release the transcripts from the grand jury that decided not to charge any of the officers involved in the Black woman's death. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Kentucky state Rep. Attica Scott, the state's only Black female legislator, was among 24 people arrested Thursday by the Louisville Metro Police Department during Breonna Taylor protests, the Democratic lawmaker confirmed to CNN after her release from custody Friday morning.

Scott -- who in August had pre-filed legislation to end the use of no-knock warrants in Kentucky, known as "Breonna's Law" -- and her 19-year-old daughter Ashanti were charged with unlawful assembly, failure to disperse, and rioting, police records show.

"I'm very traumatized," Scott said. She says she's innocent of all charges and was peacefully seeking authorized sanctuary at a church before the curfew time.

According to police, a group of protestors began "causing damage" in downtown Louisville -- including breaking windows of a restaurant and tossing a flare into a library -- before the county-wide 9 p.m. curfew kicked in.

"Protestors made their way to the First Unitarian Church at 809 S 4th Street. People gathered on the property of the church, which allowed them to stay there as the curfew had expired," a police department statement said.

Scott says she was arrested at 8:58 p.m., two minutes before the curfew started, as she and other protesters crossed the street to seek sanctuary at the church.

"How could I have been breaking curfew before curfew even began?" she asked.

The curfew, enacted by Mayor Greg Fischer on Wednesday ahead of the announcement by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on a grand jury decision in the Taylor case, doesn't apply to those commuting to houses of worship.

"In Breonna's name, neither I or my teenage daughter who was arrested with me tried to burn down a library that our people need," Scott said at a press conference earlier Friday morning. "Those are some ridiculous charges that are levied against us."

Scott recorded video of herself walking to the First Unitarian Church of Louisville, showing police officers and police vans on street corners as they walked past a library on their way towards the church.

Five minutes into the video, Scott and fellow demonstrators were blocked by a group of police in the street between them and the church.

"Where do you want us to go?" the video shows Scott yelling out to police, some in riot gear. Three minutes later an officer approaches Scott.  

© Bryan Woolston/AP/FILE Kentucky Democratic State Representative Attica Scott speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Capitol in Frankfort, Ky., Wednesday, March 2, 2020.

"Ma'am is your phone recording?" the officer said.

"Yes, it is," she replies.

"You might want to turn it off so it doesn't get broke, OK? Turn it off and put it in your pocket, okay? Alright, go ahead and turn it off and put it in your pocket, I'm trying to be as nice as I can," the officer says before the video cuts off.  

  

© John Minchillo/AP A protester wears a gas mask outside The First Unitarian church, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, LMPD Chief Robert Schroeder explained an "unlawful assembly" was declared because members of a protest group had started damaging property.

"Even though this was prior to curfew, it means people must disperse," he said.


"An extra responsibility" to fight for justice

Scott beat a 34-year incumbent in 2016 to become the first Black woman in nearly 20 years to serve in Kentucky's legislature. She says she's a certified anti-racism trainer and has a background in community organizing and civic engagement.

"That's who I am at core, so it's natural," she says about protesting, but the 48-year-old says she had never been arrested before Thursday night.

"I actively tried never to be in that position," she said. When asked if she regrets getting arrested with her daughter Thursday night, she said, "Absolutely not."

Thursday wasn't the first time Scott and Ashanti, a McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville, protested together.

Scott said the two came out May 29, when outcry over the shooting reached a boiling point. Gunfire erupted during protests in Louisville and audio was released of Taylor's boyfriend's call to 911 the night she was killed.

"That's when I decided to dedicate my everything to seek justice for her, and with Breonna's mother," Scott said.

On Wednesday it was announced the grand jury would not indict any LMPD officers for the death of Breonna Taylor. Instead, one officer who allegedly fired shots into her apartment was indicted on first-degree wanton endangerment charges, because some of the shots went into a neighboring apartment.

"I was, I am heartbroken, disappointed but not surprised," she said when asked about the Jefferson County grand jury's decision. "It's just very clear justice was not served for Breonna Taylor, her family and the community."

"The real heartbreaking thing is my daughter said, 'Mom, I wanted to be an EMT to help people and see things on the ground level but now I don't know that's the case, because being an EMT didn't save Breonna Taylor."

Scott plans to continue protesting.

"I'm a mom, I've communicated with Tamika Palmer, Breonna's mother, and I have the responsibility as a woman, a Black woman, a mother, to keep the fight going," she said.

Scott spoke with CNN before joining Taylor's family, their attorneys and social activists in a news conference that called for the attorney general to release documents related to his office's investigation into the case.

"This is just the beginning of our work moving from protest to politics," she told CNN.

© Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Demonstrators raise their fists as they gather on the steps of the Louisville Metro Hall on September 24, 2020. 

 

© Louisville Metro Police Department Police mugshot of Kentucky state Rep. Attica Scott, who was arrested by the Louisville Metro Police Department during Breonna Taylor protests.

AMERIKKKA

How prosecutors are abusing anti-riot laws to punish peaceful protesters

Nick Robinson

© Provided by NBC News

During the Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville Thursday night, Attica Scott, the only Black female state representative in Kentucky, was among a handful of people arrested for felony first degree rioting. A library in Scott’s district had a window broken and a flare thrown inside at the demonstration, though no major damage was done. Scott, an outspoken proponent of racial justice and police reform who authored Breonna’s law to end no-knock warrants statewide, said it was “ridiculous” and “absurd” that she is being accused of trying to burn down a library she has consistently fought to fund.

If someone damages property or injures another person, they can always be prosecuted for those crimes. However, the increasingly aggressive use of anti-riot acts against protesters, such as Scott, is a startling and dangerous development. The ongoing nationwide demonstrations for racial justice are reportedly the largest protest movement ever in U.S. history and, despite some well-publicized incidents of violence, the overwhelming majority of these demonstrations have been peaceful. Yet authorities have been using overly broad anti-riot statutes to arrest nonviolent and violent protesters alike. The power given by these acts urgently needs to be curbed.

U.S. anti-riot statutes trace their origin to English law, where rioting was vaguely defined as a group that engaged in “tumultuous” conduct that threatened the “public peace.” Today, anti-riot acts vary considerably by state. Some require actual violence to bring charges under them, while others just require those in a group engage in still unclearly defined “tumultuous” conduct that might cause “public alarm.”

The expansive language of these statutes makes them an ideal tool for a government that wants to target demonstrators. Consider protesters that hold similar signs or wear similar clothing. If a handful engage in vandalism, like breaking a window, police and prosecutors can potentially arrest and prosecute the entire group under some states’ anti-riot acts.

This is not a hypothetical. During a demonstration in Washington, D.C., on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, some protesters engaged in vandalism. The Justice Department charged about 200 protesters with violating the District’s anti-riot act. Prosecutors didn’t present evidence that individual protesters committed any crime themselves. Yet a Washington Superior Court judge held the demonstrators could be found guilty of “conspiracy” to riot or “aiding and abetting” a riot — which carried penalties of up to 60 years in prison — because the protesters wore similar colored clothing that allegedly made it easier for those who committed vandalism to blend back into the crowd. The Justice Department was ultimately unable to secure a single conviction from a jury, but not after the defendants suffered substantial costs.

More recently, Trump has pushed to respond to the ongoing protests for racial justice with calls for law and order and, specifically, a vow to crack down on “anti-American riots.” Attorney General William Barr has called “rioting” by antifa “domestic terrorism” and triggered the use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces. And in a memorandum issued earlier this month, Trump directed federal agencies to find ways to withhold federal funding from states and cities he claims are not doing enough to combat rioting. Trump has warned that his administration would put down “very quickly” any “riots” on election night if protesters came out to contest the validity of his re-election.

Many localities have seemed happy to follow Trump’s lead. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott this week announced legislation that would increase penalties for those who participate in a “riot,” require those arrested to stay in jail until they could see a court officer and make it a new felony offense to “aid and abet riots with funds and organization assistance.”

Yet this provides police broad discretion that can easily be abused. Three Dallas women sued the city’s police department in June for wrongful arrest under the state’s relatively subjective definition of rioting after police swept them and other protesters up using tear gas and rubber bullets. Texas law defines a riot as seven or more people who engage in conduct that “creates an immediate danger of damage to property or injury to persons.” The women claimed that they were peacefully protesting and police simply did not like their Black Lives Matter signs.

Compounding the problem, many anti-riot acts also have broad incitement provisions that can also be abused by prosecutors. Earlier this year, a St. Louis activist was charged for incitement to riot by the Justice Department seemingly on the basis of a Facebook post in which he merely encouraged others to join a demonstration the next evening that he described as a “red action” — an organizing term that indicates protesters might be violently confronted by the police or arrested.

Recognizing the danger of overbroad language against incitement, in August a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals based in Richmond, Virginia, unanimously struck out language from the federal anti-riot act that makes it illegal to “encourage” or “promote” a riot (neither word is defined). The panel found that the federal anti-riot act violated the First Amendment right to free speech by criminalizing what it called “protected advocacy.” Confronted with similar concerns, a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles struck down the entire federal anti-riot act in June 2019.

There have been objections to anti-riot laws going back at least as far as the 1960s, when civil rights leaders criticized them for giving law enforcement too much discretion. These two recent federal court rulings affirm concerns about their overbreadth, and the Supreme Court may ultimately have to decide their precise constitutional limits.

The U.S.’s outdated and poorly framed anti-riot acts add confusion and the potential for politicization into an already volatile political situation. They too often create a subjective legal standard that allows police to selectively engage in mass arrests of protesters and allows prosecutors to harass demonstrators with serious criminal charges. State and federal lawmakers should work to either remove these unnecessary acts from the books altogether, or at least better target them to align with our constitutional values.

NBA analyst Jalen Rose shouts Breonna Taylor message before ESPN cuts to break

ESPN analyst Jalen Rose waited until just before a commercial break to deliver the bluntest of his reactions to Wednesday's Kentucky grand jury decision not to indict any of the Louisville cops involved in the killing of Black woman Breonna Taylor with homicide charges.

Rose shouted a refrain familiar to members of the Black Lives Matter movement: "It would also be a great day to arrest the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor." His comment came during coverage of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals between the Heat and Celtics.

Taylor was shot to death by three officers in March after they rammed into her apartment without knocking. They carried a drug-related warrant for her ex-boyfriend, but he was not at the residence and there were no drugs found. Taylor's then-boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired his gun once at the police when they entered, thinking them to be intruders, and struck an officer in the leg. The cops returned fire with a barrage of bullets that killed Taylor and pierced through walls and into a neighboring apartment.


One of the officers, Brett Hankison, was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for his alleged indiscriminate fire, but the other two cops did not receive any charges from the grand jury announcement. Hankison was released from jail after paying off his $15,000 bail.

Taylor's death was one of several that prompted nationwide protests against police brutality this summer and strengthened a Black Lives Matter activist movement working to increase justice while curbing systemic racism in the U.S. The police killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd in late-May also played a primary role in pushing people to protest.

Police force against Black people has prompted demonstrations on many occasions in recent decades, but few unified stretches of outrage have been as sustained or powerful as the current moment.

Anticipating backlash to the Kentucky grand jury decision regarding the officers who entered Taylor's apartment, Louisville officials announced a curfew through at least Friday. On Wednesday night, however, protesters did not heed that instruction.

NBA athletes have been particularly outspoken about social justice issues this summer, reflecting on their own experiences with law enforcement and empathizing with the stories of others. Many of them feel Black people in the U.S. have long been mistreated by police and are advocating for reforms, such as an end to the no-knock warrant that played a part in Taylor's death.

As a result, Rose was among a series of current and former players dismayed by the choice not to charge anyone involved in the killing of Taylor with homicide.

His method of conveying his message was as strong as any seen in the NBA community on Wednesday — and an unusual remark for a network that has at times attempted to swerve from sensitive political issues.

Annual Lennon tribute, in 40th year, goes online

© Provided by The Canadian Press

NEW YORK — Like many other events, an annual John Lennon tribute concert that takes place in his adopted city of New York on his Oct. 9 birthday has been forced online because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There was no way it was being cancelled, not on what would have been Lennon's 80th birthday, not on the tribute's 40th year.

“The idea of not celebrating John, of stopping after 39 years, never crossed my mind,” said Joe Raiola, the tribute's producer and artistic director of the Theatre Within organization.

Raiola had booked the Town Hall venue for this year's show. With the pandemic forcing it to stream for free from 7 p.m. to midnight Eastern time on the LennonTribute.org website, the event could get more exposure than ever.

Taped performances by Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Natalie Merchant, Rosanne Cash, Jorma Kaukonen, Shelby Lynne, Taj Mahal, Marc Cohn, Joan Osborne and others will be included — many from past shows but some new.

Without ticket sales, organizers will ask for contributions for programs that benefit people affected by cancer. Theatre Within and Gilda's Club offer free workshops such as songwriting, art and meditation to cancer patients and survivors and to children who have lost parents to the disease.

Raiola and other friends began their informal tribute to Lennon in 1981, less than a year after the former Beatle was shot to death.

It stayed small, at least until 24 years in, when Lennon's widow Yoko Ono read a story about the tribute in the New York Daily News and called Raiola to say, in effect, what are you doing?

Learning more about it, she offered support, and said in a statement issued Thursday that “this is such a wonderful way to honour John and the values he stood for.”

Cash, a fellow New Yorker who was honoured with the John Lennon Real Love Award in 2018, has performed the former Beatle's songs “I'm Only Sleeping” and “Look at Me” at a past tribute.

“It's one of those things that you don't often see where the same people show up every year,” Cash said in an interview. “They're devoted to it. It's not just because of John, it's out of respect for what they're doing and the community they've created.”

Raiola believes Lennon's impact was “seismic” and that the ideals he believed in didn't die with him.

“Peace, love, gender equality and social justice — that stuff never gets old,” he said.

David Bauder, The Associated Press

Orcas knock into sailboats, force Spain to limit yachting

© Provided by The Canadian Press

BARCELONA, Spain — Spain has temporarily prohibited yachting across 100 kilometres (62 miles) of its northwestern coast after orca whales apparently got carried away while playing and damaged several sailboats.

Spain’s transport ministry issued the week-long prohibition for sailboats under 15 metres (49 feet) long starting Tuesday. It said the area covered by the ban meant to protect both boats and maritime mammals and could be extended to “follow the migration routes” of the whales.

Boats can leave port to go into the open sea between the capes of the Prioriño Grande and la Punta de Estaca de Bares, but they must not remain near the coast off the country’s northwestern tip.

The ministry said the first reported incident occurred Aug. 19. Since then, it said an unspecified number of sailboats have been damaged by orcas, with some needing assistance from Spain’s maritime rescue service after their rudders were wrecked.

Biologist Bruno Díaz of the local Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute said the orcas were most likely just playing a bit too rough.

He said orcas, like other cetaceans such as dolphins, like to swim alongside boats. Running into hulls is rare, but he believed it was likely done by “immature teenage” orcas getting rowdy.

“We will never be in the mind of that individual animal, but based on experience, we think that there is absolutely nothing (threatening about their behaviour). We are not their natural prey,” Díaz told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. “They are having fun. And maybe these orcas have fun causing damage.”

Orcas are particularly attracted by sail boats due to their size, the waves they make, and the lack of pollution they produce compared to fishing boats, Díaz said. This stretch of water where the Iberian Peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean is both rife with tuna for them to hunt and on their migration route.

Spanish television has shown footage taken by sailors of groups of orcas swimming extremely close to their boats. No injuries have been reported so far.

Even so, the close encounters have put a scare in some sailors and hurt their pocketbooks with repairs that were needed.

British sailor Mark Smith told Spanish state broadcaster TVE that he was “a little” frightened “because they were very big and we couldn’t stop them” from banging into his boat.

Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press