RALPH KLEIN'S BIOGRAPHER

Don Martin: Being Jason Kenney is the worst job in politics today


POLITICS | Opinion
Don MartinContributor
@DonMartinCTV Contact

Published Wednesday, May 5, 2021

VIDEO
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces on May 4, 202 new restrictions amid a third COVID-19 wave.


OTTAWA -- As former Alberta premier Ralph Klein used to say, the secret to being a successful politician is to figure out which way the parade is going and jump in front of it.

So spare some pity for current Premier Jason Kenney as he tries to straddle two marching bands of public opinion, which are on a nasty collision course over his handling of the pandemic.

In short, Kenney is failing spectacularly in every direction he’s turned – and the result has been the fastest infection surge anywhere in North America coupled with Canada’s loudest public revolt against overdue restrictions to curb the outbreak.

It’s a uniquely tricky business bordering on mission impossible to govern Alberta even in good times, where voters are happiest with the least amount of government in their lives.

As one rural MLA noted many years ago, “My folks think that painting a yellow stripe down the middle of the highway is too much government interference.”

But mix an oil industry meltdown with enterprise-killing lockdowns and hospitals near the breaking point and you create the perfect storm of angry opposition.

Closing down businesses, schools and rodeos has sparked outrage and defiance in rural areas, where COVID-19 is not spreading as quickly.

But by heeding the cries of the United Conservative Party’s rural base to go slow on restrictions, the Kenney government has infuriated cities where soaring third-wave infection rates are swamping intensive care units.

COVID-19 tracker: Compare Canada's provinces to American states

Kenney’s challenge has been complicated by an internal revolt of his own MLAs, some still smarting from the absorption of the Wild Rose Party to create the United Progress Conservatives, who have taken a very public stand against restrictions they deem excessive.

During a long news conference on Wednesday, a weary-eyed Kenney shrugged off the internal dissent as merely a welcome exercise in democratic debate.

Sorry, but attacking public health measures designed to save lives is not up for debate and Kenney really needs to send a no-nonsense signal this is not tolerated with a mutineer expulsion or two.

I digress.

The point is that, in just the last few weeks, Premier Kenney has simultaneously infuriated the entire province, divided his own party and created the continent’s worst health care crisis. That’s quite the dubious accomplishment.

And it will get worse when the three weeks of enhanced restrictions end at the precise moment Kenney projects the hospital system will buckle if case counts continue to soar. In other words, the lockdown will be extended.

All this has, not surprisingly, cratered his party and personal popularity in the polls.

THQ pollster Marc Henry’s latest tracking has Kenney’s approval ratings in a freefall to levels rarely seen in true-blue Alberta amid clear signs of an NDP government on the comeback.

“If the current hastened decline in support for Kenney and his government continues on this trajectory through the summer and into the fall, his position as the leader of a party inching toward an election in 2023 could be untenable," Henry told me Wednesday.

There is personal blame for this mess to be shouldered by Kenney.

Whispers from informed sources say he mostly listens to himself or a small band of senior staff on pandemic and other policies to the exclusion of experts and his own MLAs.

And by flicking the switch on and off lockdowns, being slow to act when there should’ve been forceful action and tolerating backstabbing from his own side of the legislature, Kenney often gives the appearance of a hesitant gopher trapped on the TransCanada Highway.


Now, to be fair, credit Alberta for moving in the right direction on multiple pandemic fronts.

The new restrictions match most other hard-hit provinces and should, if the public respects them, reverse the spike.

The vaccination push in places like meatpacking plants make perfect, if not overdue, sense.

And being the first province to open up vaccination to anyone over the age of 12 beginning Monday is a bold step toward getting back to a new normal.

For most premiers, the pandemic has proven to be a soul-destroying exercise which was unimaginable when they applied for the job. There’s no precedent. There’s no playbook. And every hopeful sign of a way out gets sideswiped by the next wave.

But for the usually-cagey Jason Kenney, trying to juggle a rural base of support with an urban outbreak of infection has been particularly toxic.

The only parade he seems to be leading is straight into the jaws of electoral defeat.

That’s the bottom line.

KENNEY THE GREAT BEAST OF THE PANDEMIC
COVID-19: Alberta reports 2,271 new active cases, 666 people in hospital Wednesday

Jeff Labine 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

MAY 5,2021

© Provided by Edmonton Journal The coronavirus COVID-19

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Alberta surpassed 2,000 again Wednesday as the province reported its second-highest single-day case count to date

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Alberta recorded 2,271 new cases, bringing the total number of active cases to a new record high of 24,156. The province has been dealing with a surge in cases since last month, resulting in Premier Jason Kenney announcing on Tuesday some of the strongest measures the government has taken to date

Kenney said during a news conference Wednesday that the measures were necessary to stop the spike of the third wave and ease the burden on the health-care system.

“We must act to bend the curve down one last time,” he said. “The good news is that we have vaccines on our side. They’re already working wonders and they’re finally arriving in larger volumes and larger doses.”  BENDING THE CURVE HAS NOT WORKED FOR THE PAST YEAR, KENNEY IS AFRAID TO LOCK DOWN THE PROVINCE BECAUSE OF HIS UCP MEMBERS 

Alberta currently has the highest active per-capita rate in Canada at 534 per 100,000.

Kenney’s statement comes as the province reports 666 people in hospital, with 146 of those in intensive care. Three additional deaths raise the death toll to 2,102. There were 903 new variant cases of concern reported on Wednesday.

Variants make up less than 60 per cent of all cases.

More than 20,000 Albertans were tested on Tuesday and approximately 174,000 have recovered from the virus.

The province has administered more than 1.6 million doses, resulting in 31.1 per cent of the population receiving at least one dose. On Wednesday, the province announced Albertans born in 1991 or earlier will be eligible for a vaccine starting next week. Bookings are being staggered to avoid overwhelming the system.

On Tuesday, the province confirmed an Alberta woman in her 50s died from what is known as vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a statement that the risks of dying or suffering other severe outcomes from COVID-19 remain far greater than the risk following an AstraZeneca vaccine inoculation.

“The Alberta case marks the second VITT case and only death related to VITT out of more than 253,000 doses of AstraZeneca or CoviSHIELD/AstraZeneca that have been administered in Alberta to date,” she said.

Meanwhile, Edmonton Public Schools reported on Wednesday single cases at Steinhauer, Elizabeth Finch, Princeton, Lymburn, McArthur, Mount Royal, Richard Secord and three cases at Baturyn.

Edmonton Catholic Schools reported single cases at St. Vladimir, St. Bonaventure, St. Richard, St. Catherine, St. Oscar Romero and two cases at Anne Fitzger

US WAIVES PATENT PROTECTION ON VACCINE

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government's position, amid World Trade Organization talks about a possible temporary waiver of its protections that would allow more manufacturers to produce the life-saving vaccines.

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines," Tai said in a statement.

She cautioned that it would take time to reach the required global “consensus” to waive the protections under WTO rules, and U.S. officials said it would not have an immediate effect on the global supply of COVID-19 shots.

Tai's announcement came hours after WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke to a closed-door meeting of ambassadors from developing and developed countries that have been wrangling over the issue, but agree on the need for wider access to COVID-19 treatments.

The WTO’s General Council took up the issue of a temporary waiver for intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and other tools, which South Africa and India first proposed in October. The idea has gained support among some progressive lawmakers in the West.

More than 100 countries have come out in support of the proposal, and a group of 110 members of Congress — all fellow Democrats of Biden — sent him a letter last month that called on him to support the waiver.

Opponents — especially from industry — say a waiver would be no panacea. They insist that production of coronavirus vaccines is complex and can’t be ramped up by easing intellectual property. They also say lifting protections could hurt future innovation.

Stephen Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the U.S. decision “will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines.”

Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, chief executive of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization trade group, said in a statement that the decision will undermine incentives to develop vaccines and treatments for future pandemics.

“Handing needy countries a recipe book without the ingredients, safeguards, and sizable workforce needed will not help people waiting for the vaccine," she said.

Pfizer declined to comment on Biden’s announcement, as did Johnson & Johnson, which developed a one-dose vaccine meant to ease vaccination campaigns in poor and rural areas. Moderna and AstraZeneca didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The companies have made some efforts to provide vaccine doses to poor countries at prices well below what they’re charging wealthy nations.

For instance, Johnson & Johnson agreed last week to provide up to 220 million doses of its vaccine to the African Union’s 55 member states, starting in this year’s third quarter, and agreed in December to provide up to 500 million vaccines through 2022 for low-income countries via Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.

Shares of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — huge companies with many lucrative products — fell less than 1% on the news. But Moderna, whose vaccine is the company’s only product, fell 6.2% in late-afternoon trading before gaining back two-thirds of a per cent in after-hours trading.

It remained unclear how some countries in Europe, which have influential pharmaceutical industries and had previously shared U.S. reservations about the waiver, would respond.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said a panel on intellectual property at the trade body was expected to take up the waiver proposal again at a “tentative” meeting later this month, before a formal meeting June 8-9. That means any final deal could be weeks away at best.

Authors of the proposal have been revising it in hopes of making it more palatable.

Okonjo-Iweala, in remarks posted on the WTO website, said it was “incumbent on us to move quickly to put the revised text on the table, but also to begin and undertake text-based negotiations.”

“I am firmly convinced that once we can sit down with an actual text in front of us, we shall find a pragmatic way forward” that is “acceptable to all sides,” she said.

Co-sponsors of the idea were shuttling between different diplomatic missions to make their case, according to a Geneva trade official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. A deadlock persists, and opposing sides remain far apart, the official said.

The argument, part of a long-running debate about intellectual property protections, centres on lifting patents, copyrights and protections for industrial design and confidential information to help expand the production and deployment of vaccines during supply shortages. The aim is to suspend the rules for several years, just long enough to beat down the pandemic.

The issue has become more pressing with a surge in cases in India, the world’s second-most populous country and a key producer of vaccines — including one for COVID-19 that relies on technology from Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca.

Michael Yee, a Jefferies Group biotech analyst, wrote to investors that the key access issues for developing countries aren’t patents or price, but an inadequate supply of the materials needed and the know-how to produce the vaccines and keep quality high — which one of Johnson & Johnson’s contract manufacturers in the U.S. failed to do, ruining millions of doses.

“Manufacturing supplies, raw materials, vials, stoppers, and other key materials are in limited supply for 2021,” and may still be next year and beyond, Yee wrote. That’s partly because it takes time to make all those components, and Moderna and Pfizer have commitments to buy them “from major suppliers in huge bulk over the foreseeable future.”

He added that Pfizer previously sought authorization to sell its vaccine to India, which rejected its application and asked that additional studies be run. The U.S., European Union and many other countries have given that emergency authorization.

Proponents, including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, note that such waivers are part of the WTO toolbox and insist there’s no better time to use them than during the once-in-a-century pandemic that has taken 3.2 million lives, infected more than 437 million people and devastated economies, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“This is a monumental moment in the fight against COVID-19," Tedros said in Wednesday statement. He said the U.S. commitment "to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of American leadership to address global health challenges.”

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Keaten reported from Geneva. AP Medical Writer Linda A. Johnson contributed from Fairless Hills, Pa.

Jamey Keaten And Zeke Miller, The Associated Press

CULT OF PERSONALITY
The GOP's devotion to Trump threatens to destroy American democracy

With its cultish devotion to Donald Trump, the majority of the Republican Party is choosing a wannabe-autocrat over the political system that made the United States the world's most powerful nation and its dominant democracy

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN 

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges people as he gets in his SUV outside Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 9, 2021. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

The ex-President is showing that he doesn't have to be in the Oval Office to damage faith in US elections and to trash truth, as his movement based on lies and personal homage takes an increasingly firm grip of the Republican Party. The widespread mistrust he continues to foster in the fairness of the US political system among millions of voters poses grave risks to democracy itself.


Trump, using his bond with the conservative grassroots, has effectively made fealty to his false claims of a fraudulent election last year the price of entry for any Republican candidate in any race. Under his influence, one of America's two great political parties has effectively shed its belief in democracy -- a dereliction that is massively significant for the country's future.

As he seeks personal revenge, Trump is also mobilizing to try to destroy the political viability of any GOP office holders who tell the truth about the Capitol insurrection he inspired like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

He is celebrating the boos that Sen. Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, received from activists in Utah over the weekend, after voting to convict Trump over his abuses of power in two separate impeachment trials.

The former President retains an extraordinary ability to dictate the beliefs of his followers and the orthodoxy of the GOP on a daily basis.

"The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!" Trump decreed in a statement Monday, literally reversing the facts about last November's free and fair election that he lost.

Cheney may well be sacrificing her own political career as one of the few GOP lawmakers with the guts to speak truth about Trump's anti-democratic attacks. A new effort is underway among the ex-President's acolytes in Congress to strip her of her No. 3 position in the House only three months after she comfortably retained it in a secret ballot election. Cheney's ability to fight off a pro-Trump primary opponent in her home state of Wyoming is questionable. Her transgression is to simply keep pointing out the truth: that last year's election wasn't stolen by President Joe Biden.

CNN reported Monday that Cheney said at a behind-closed-doors conference in Georgia that Trump's behavior was a "poison in the bloodstream of our democracy." She added: "We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, on Tuesday appeared to open the way for a new vote on Cheney's leadership position, saying that she was no longer capable of representing the party's strategy in the run-up to the midterm elections. That strategy, of course, is closely aligned with Trump's.

"I have heard from members, concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message," McCarthy said on Fox News.


Trump's power grows out of office

Trump is answering one question that was often asked in his dark last days in office -- would he be as powerful in private life as he was with the trappings of presidential office? If anything the former President wields even more control of his party now than he did over the last five years , a fact made more remarkable by the social media silence enforced by bans from major social media platforms.

And there are very clear signs that Trump's assault on American democracy is working. In a CNN poll released last week, only 23% of Republican voters believed that Biden legitimately won sufficient votes to win the election last year. This follows a Quinnipiac poll in February that showed that 76% of Republicans believe that there was widespread fraud in the election.

Court after court threw out Trump's spurious claims of election fraud after his defeat to Biden. There is no evidence that he was unfairly deprived of office. In fact, the only person who tried to steal the election was Trump, with his bid to disrupt Congress certifying the results by inciting a crowd of supporters that mobbed the Capitol, sending lawmakers fleeing.

Trump's manufactured crisis of legitimacy will effectively taint the midterm polls in 2022, which the former President is trying to use to tighten his stamp on the party. And even if Trump doesn't try to reclaim the White House in 2024, his pernicious influence will mean that the idea that the last election was stolen will remain a false article of faith for Republicans going forward.

A flurry of recent developments prove Trump's power in the GOP and his undiminished threat to trust in the electoral system, and show that the fight for American democracy merely entered a new phase when he left office.

A slew of Republican state legislatures have passed laws making it more difficult for Democrats, and especially Black voters, to cast ballots. They often cite voter mistrust in the electoral system as a rationale for those changes. But the chief cause of that mistrust is the relentless campaign by Trump to discredit the election he lost, both before and after voters went to the polls.

In another sign of Trump's malign influence, the state Senate in Arizona is conducting a sham recount of votes in crucial Maricopa County that helped Biden win the state, despite repeated statements and rulings by electoral officials and courts that the President's narrow victory was genuine.

Republican officials who once had the courage to condemn Trump's insurrectionist rhetoric are now seeking to ingratiate themselves with his supporters -- especially those who may run for President in future, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and ex-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. McCarthy, who at first said Trump bore responsibility for the January 6 riot, quickly visited the former President at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is anchoring his effort to win back the House for Republicans next year on the former President and his movement.

Any idea that the GOP will shed its fealty to Trump was exposed as a pipe dream by the poor showing of Marine veteran Michael Wood, who ran in a special election for a House seat in Texas at the weekend on an anti-Trump platform and lost badly in a jungle primary with only 3% or the vote.

"There is a sickness in our party that must be acknowledged and addressed," Wood wrote in a message to voters after his defeat.

"We are too much a cult of personality and a vehicle for the grievances of Donald Trump. We are too comfortable with conspiracy theories."

The former President sent out a statement claiming credit for the showing of Susan Wright, the wife of Rep. Ron Wright who died from Covid-19, after she moved into a run-off for the seat following the ex-President's endorsement.


Trump sketches a new alternate reality for his followers

The secret of Trump's appeal from the start of his presidential campaign in 2015 was that he channeled the distrust many conservatives felt towards the Washington establishment and the political system itself. He gave people a kind of permission to believe in what they felt viscerally rather than facts and truth. His attempt to destroy trust in the electoral system is creating another false reality with a built-in belief system that is deeply attractive to his voters. The fact that none of it is true does not detract from the power of his appeal.

But it is still extraordinary that the Republican Party, which in recent memory styled itself as the guardian of democracy and boasted about winning the Cold War against tyranny, could transform in this manner.

"It is just mind boggling to me that Republicans could be this way," said Dave Millage, who was forced to resign his post as chair of the Scott County, Iowa, Republican Party after backing Trump's impeachment over the Capitol insurrection. Millage slammed his fellow Republicans for "worshipping at the altar of Trump" during an appearance on CNN's "Newsroom" on Monday.

"He was attacking American democracy itself. Yet they are standing by him. It just astounds me."

The electoral impact of Trump's dominance over his party will be tested next year as Republicans have a historically good chance of overhauling the thin Democratic majority in the House, since new Presidents often get a rebuke. Since most mid-terms, especially House races, are heavily influenced by base turnout, the GOP may profit from Trump's continuing ability to inspire the party's most loyal voters.

But it is less clear that a slate of pro-Trump, Capitol insurrection denialists will help Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's bid to reclaim control of the Senate -- or that this message carried by Trump or anyone else is a winning one in 2024.

After all, the former President managed to lose control of the House, the Senate and the White House with an approach that electrified the GOP base but alienated many suburban voters and those horrified with his handling of the pandemic.

Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who paid with his political career for being an early critic of Trump's presidency, warned that his party was making a huge mistake by not shaping a more compelling appeal to a wider group of voters.

"With the Democratic Party moving more progressive, there is plenty of room there," Flake told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Monday. "And we could do well in the midterms but not if we continue this craziness of questioning the last election and going after those who aren't completely devoted to the former President."

OBAMA WHITE HOUSE 3.0

Samantha Power takes the helm at USAID touting its role in fighting pandemics

By Jennifer Hansler and Nicole Gaouette, CNN 

Samantha Power was sworn in as the new head of the US Agency for International Development on Monday, taking the helm as the Biden administration is faced with humanitarian crises around the globe and the ongoing threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

© CNN samantha power un russia

Power, who becomes the latest member of the Obama administration to join President Joe Biden's team, said that throughout her career as a journalist and then diplomat traveling to places such as Yemen, Syria and Nigeria, she has seen the "USAID effect" in action as the agency "saves and improves lives, engenders goodwill, boosts America's standing in the world and inspires others to cooperate with us."


In her first remarks to staff at the agency that oversees America's international development and humanitarian efforts, Power offered perspective and encouragement as the agency faces a pandemic made more threatening by the rise of new variants, recalling how the US helped defeat Ebola a decade ago.

Describing what might become a blueprint for US global outreach on the Covid pandemic, Power described how Washington worked to create a unified effort against the highly virulent Ebola virus. "Because America led -- because USAID led -- the United States was able to rally a coalition of 60 countries to contribute on the ground and secure 134 cosponsors for a resolution at the UN Security Council declaring the epidemic a 'threat to international peace and security' -- the largest number ever for any Security Council resolution in UN history," she said.

'Inextricably linked'

She made little specific reference to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 3 million worldwide and is ravaging India, but noted that "with the world battling a different plague, Americans see what you all have long understood: that this country's fate is inextricably linked with the rest of the world's."

"In fact, as you well know, the world's most pressing challenges cast a large shadow over our own lives here at home. A long-simmering crisis of poverty and violence in Central America that sends people in desperation to our southern border," she said. "A rapidly changing climate that sends fiercer storms to our shores and inflicts on our communities droughts, deep freezes and wildfires. Authoritarian regimes growing bolder, strengthening their hands by exploiting vulnerabilities in our democracies."

"The truth is: None of these challenges is distinct. They all feed into and feed off of each other," Power said.

Her remarks offered strong praise for the workforce at USAID.

"It is your dedication that has sustained broad bipartisan support for USAID's budget and priorities in the face of fierce political pressure," she said in what appeared to be a subtle dig at the Trump administration, which maligned and distrusted career government officials.

"You have my profound gratitude for your service, and you have my commitment and the commitment of President Biden that we will spend the next four years empowering you, ushering in changes that give you the flexibility and trust that you deserve, allowing you to take the risks that this moment in history demands," Power said.

Power was confirmed last week in a bipartisan vote. She was ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday morning, joined by her husband, Cass Sunstein, her children Declan and Rían, and stepfather Edmund Bourke.

SpaceX finally nails the landing of the rocket that will take humans to the moon

Nicole Mortillaro 

© SpaceX via The Associated Press In this image from video made available by SpaceX, a Starship test vehicle sits on the ground after returning from a flight test in Boca Chica, Texas on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

SpaceX's Starship, the rocket that CEO Elon Musk hopes will take people to the moon and eventually Mars, completed a test on Wednesday that marked the first time it successfully launched and landed.

The rocket, designated SN15, lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:27 p.m. local time. It reached an altitude of 10 kilometres before beginning its descent in the "belly flop" configuration. Then it fired its thrusters, flipped itself in the upright position, extended its landing legs and touched down softly.

"The Starship has landed," said John Insprucker, a SpaceX web commentator.

A fire at the base of the rocket burned for several minutes after touchdown, but automated water cannons deployed appeared to put out the blaze.

Video: SpaceX launches Starlink satellites into orbit (The Canadian Press)

The four previous tests of the 50-metre Starship launched successfully but ended in spectacular explosions, or "rapid unscheduled disassemblies," as Musk refers to them.

The closest Starship came to a successful landing was SN10, when it touched down and blew up roughly eight minutes later due to a methane leak.

The last test, SN11, exploded before landing through thick fog.

However, there have been modifications to Starship, including to its Raptor engines, as Musk noted shortly after the loss of SN11.

"SN15 rolls to launch pad in a few days. It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine. Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days," he tweeted.

This is just one-half of the rocket that needs to be tested. The Super Heavy, which will have the BN (Booster Number) designation ahead of its number, still needs to be completed and tested before the two are paired together for a complete test of the Starship rocket system. It is currently being built in the facility's high bay, though Musk has said that it will not actually fly.

The next launch will be of SN16. It's estimated that SN20 will be the first orbital test.

ARACHNOPHOBIA TRIGGER, OOPS
New spider species identified in the Florida Everglades

By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN 

An elusive spider related to the tarantula just joined the ranks of recognized spiders.

© From Zoo Miami Meet the Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider, who was recently identified in Florida.

The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider lives in the Florida Everglades and it's a rare breed. It has only been spotted a handful of times since the 1920s and only recently did the clever arachnid get its name for the habitat it lives in, according to Rebecca Godwin, an assistant professor of biology at Piedmont University.


These spiders likely only live in the pine rockland habitat of southern Florida, which is "highly threatened," Godwin told CNN. Their homeland of pines growing on limestone outcrops has slowly been destroyed by mankind.

"Development, urbanization, land clearing, anything that destroys the topsoil could potentially wipe out whole populations and especially for a spider that occurs in such a small range of really threatened habitat, you kind of risk losing the species all together," Godwin said.

The spider is one of 33 new species from the Americas to be added to the genus Ummidia, which are trapdoor spiders. Godwin and Jason E. Bond, an entomology professor from University of California, Davis, co-authored the study, published in April in the journal ZooKeys.

"The fact that a new species like this could be found in a fragment of endangered forest in the middle of the city underscores the importance of preserving these ecosystems before we lose not only what we know, but also what is still to be discovered," Frank Ridgley, Zoo Miami Conservation & Veterinary Services Manager, said in a news release.

Finding and collecting enough examples of the spider has been tricky.

A zookeeper checking reptile research traps at Zoo Miami snapped a photo of the large-bodied spider in 2012 and two years later, another one was found. The mysterious spider didn't match any species on record, the zoo said in a press release.

The zoo sent the data to Godwin, who has been studying trapdoor spiders for almost a decade. The previous samples she had from museums were from the 1920s and 1950s, she said.

"It was really exciting for me," Godwin said. "Even only having one to two specimens, I was already pretty sure it was a new species."

The characteristics of the male trapdoor spiders are what help identify the species, she said. The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider is a black and about one to 1.5 inches across, including the legs. The males have an opalescent abdomen, she said.

"If one were to call spiders beautiful, I find it a very gorgeous looking spider," Godwin said.

No females of this species have yet to be found, Godwin said. Other females in the trapdoor spider group usually have a front end that looks like patent leather, she added.

Trapdoor spiders are related to tarantulas. They tend to be smaller, less hairy, their fangs point a different way and they share some physical features with their tarantula cousins, Godwin said.

Even though large spiders can freak people out, Godwin said these trapdoor spiders are not coming to get you. The spiders live in such a small area and they burrow into the ground, living in it for most of its life. Some female spiders of this group can live to be more than 20 years old.

While they are venomous -- most spiders are -- the venom of the Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider is not "medically important," Godwin said. Translation: The venom isn't dangerous to humans.

Research on the venom could yield interesting applications to humans, according to Ridgley.

"Venoms of related species have been found to contain compounds with potential use as pain medications and cancer treatments," Ridgley said.

When Godwin talks about her work with spiders, she said she typically hears how many spiders a person has smashed that week.

"I feel like working on spiders, you spend a lot of your time just fighting bad press," Godwin said. "It's an uphill battle to point out these are helping organisms, if anything. They don't carry any diseases to give to humans, they are not aggressive and literally live underground."

Trapdoor spiders are known for creating a door to their burrow and staying underground, Godwin said. They stick out their legs and grab small bugs scampering by without having to leave their bunker. When in danger, they shut their silk-spun door and ward off intruders.

The Pine Rockland Trapdoor Spider and other previously "unknown diversity" are what fascinate Godwin the most about our planet. She wants to keep studying spiders like this one, who lives in a habitat "in peril," before that's lost, she said.

"I'm continually blown away about how little we know about what is out there living on the planet with us," Godwin said. "There are so many species getting lost, going extinct before we even knew they ever existed."

Japanese Town Got Covid-19 Money So They Built A Giant Squid Statue

Brian Ashcraft 

The town of Noto in Ishikawa received millions of yen due to the impact of covid-19. The money was part of a rural revitalization project to help the countryside in the wake of the virus

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© Screenshot: TheTonarinopoti@YouTube

According to Yahoo! News Japan, local governments such as Noto’s would decide how to spend the money, such as infection countermeasures or money to help closed businesses.

Noto is known for squid, and around 25 million yen ($228,181) of the funds were set aside for a huge squid monument to entice tourists to visit the area once the pandemic is over.

The pandemic is not over. Some of the country’s most metropolitan areas, including Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, are currently under a state of emergency, with covid-19 cases hitting record numbers

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© Screenshot: TheTonarinopoti@YouTube

The giant squid is 29.5 feet across, 13 feet high, and over 42 feet long. FNN reports that the total cost of the project was 27 million yen ($246,544).

As Chunichi News adds, there have been questions among locals over whether this was necessary or even an effective way to do PR for Noto.

The individual in charge did claim that the funds didn’t need to have a direct relationship to covid-19 and that the town was taking a long, post-pandemic view with the project.

After a watershed moment of violence, Asian Americans begin to speak out
By Natasha Chen 

The first time I felt someone making assumptions based on my ethnicity, I was no older than 7, standing outside my ballet class in Foster City, California. A woman asked me a question about the dance studio, and I hesitated because I was sometimes shy when speaking to strangers.

© Alex Wong/Getty Images Activists march toward Chinatown in Washington, DC after the "DC Rally for Collective Safety - Protect Asian/AAPI Communities," on March 21, 2021.

"Oh, do you not speak English?" she asked.

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I lived in a multigenerational household for the first few years, where only Mandarin was spoken. I didn't learn to speak English until I was in preschool.

But this woman wouldn't have known that. She questioned my language skills because I look Asian, and therefore foreign. If a White girl had paused due to shyness, the woman wouldn't have asked her the same question.

Small interactions like this gave me hints that people like me were looked at as not entirely belonging here. The same assumption was at the root of a more hostile interaction in May 2020, when, in the midst of our Covid-19 coverage, a person yelled at me to go back to my "f***ing country" and blamed me for the coronavirus.

'An awakening'

These moments are common among the AAPI community. And they are shared among many other immigrant cultures.

Our parents raised us to ignore the aggressions. Our task was to excel in school, and to be respected and recognized through our work and our behavior. In some ways, we perpetuated the myth of the "model minority."

At the same time, I felt supported and validated in my community, where being Asian American was normalized, as the population at that time was approaching one-third Asian. Being proud of my culture came naturally in that setting. I learned to read and write Mandarin at Saturday Chinese school, learned Chinese and Taiwanese history and shared our culture -- and a lot of our food -- with our non-Asian friends. I even wrote about my family heritage for an essay contest in 6th grade.

But as a child, I don't remember hearing the term "activism" as it relates to Asian Americans. Speaking out against injustices was something done only in dire circumstances. Being the squeaky wheel would not help us be accepted and embraced by the mainstream.

But over the past few years, younger generations of Asian Americans seem to have shed some of these notions of traditional propriety or habits. Even older generations and immigrants have been thrust into this uncomfortable space of visible anti-Asian hate, culminating in the Atlanta spa killings on March 16.

"It's an awakening moment for Asian Americans to stand strong," Pastor Byeong Cheol Han, of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, told me. "Stand up and raise our voice. And participate in [the] social justice movement. Many Asian Americans tend to avoid those kind of things. It's not our business, we're just focusing on our survival, but this is an awakening for us."

© Megan Varner/Getty Images Flowers and signs adorn Gold Spa on March 18, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia.

In his Korean speech to the crowd in front of Gold Spa, the only English words I picked up were "I can't breathe" and "Martin Luther King Jr." He was referencing not just the plight of Asian Americans but of all people of color.

The "awakening" he described is the result of years of staying quiet, and even occasionally meeting resistance from members of our own community who believe that highlighting one's victimhood can be cause for embarrassment.

The pattern of anti-Asian aggression also barely got a mention in many American history books. Some of us, for example, had to search for information on the Chinese Exclusion Act, the 1882 law that prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers, Japanese American internment camps and the story of Chinese American Vincent Chin, beaten to death in 1982 by two White men.

© Natasha Chen/CNN Pastor Byeong Cheol Han, of the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.


Cries for help

But in the past year, anti-Asian hate has become so prevalent that it has leapt off the pages of books and into our everyday consciousness.

The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate began tracking incidents of racism and discrimination on March 19, 2020. Since then, the coalition has received at least 3,795 firsthand complaints, with at least 503 anti-Asian hate incidents reported in January and February of 2021.

The combination of escalating rhetoric about Asian people during the pandemic, and the creation of a reporting outlet, has raised the visibility of a long-existing problem. The awareness of anti-Asian hate is finally permeating the mainstream.

And if 2020 was a continuous trickle of individual assaults, the Atlanta spa killings were a watershed moment -- six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

"It finally made it something that was hard to ignore," said Dr. Carol Pak-Teng, an emergency room physician who has built a community for AAPI physicians and raised money after the shootings. "Like I think a lot of Asian Americans kind of at least heard a little bit about the spike in violence...it opened up an opportunity to say like, 'Oh my God. Yeah. Like this is really happening.' And now ending in a mass shooting, which is really...just hard to ignore anymore, and that we needed to just actually do real, upfront work to highlight the unfortunate truth that we were living."

Michael Lai, CEO of Asian Feed, a news and lifestyle publication, told CNN that his team heard many cries for help in the month leading up to the Atlanta killings. As elderly people were beaten and attacked in San Francisco and New York, he said it was almost as if they saw more coming.

"One of the silver linings is that now Asians are almost, you know, ok to speak. I think that was something that was key in all of this ... incidents have gone unreported, especially in the past, but I think now Asians are almost finding their voice," he said.

This activism may still be uncomfortable for many immigrant families that have focused on pure survival for so long, but whose silence shouldn't be mistaken for apathy.

So whether we're adults making sense of tragedy, or children who are simply shy, this is a moment to find our voice.

And it's ok to speak.

© Courtesy Chen Family Natasha Chen celebrates her 5th birthday alongside her parents.

Vancouver lawyer and model battle anti-Asian hate with the practical and the poetic

Zahra Premji 

CBC.CA

© Carl Ostberg and James Mulleder/CBC News Strangers to one another, but acutely aware of the suffering the Asian community has faced recently, both Carlyle Chan and Steven Ngo are finding ways to protect their communities.

Confronted with attacks against Asians in the media and in their own lives, two Vancouver men say they're fighting anti-Asian hate crimes on their own terms.

Lyle Chan, 32, and Steven Ngo, 35, say they're exhausted at being ignored as their community faces hate, racial slurs and incidents where people have been spat on, punched or thrown to the ground.

Both men have separately found ways to help B.C.'s Asian community as it reels from a surge in reported anti-Asian hate crimes — rising from a dozen incidents in 2019 to 98 in 2020, according to Vancouver police.

"There's people every single day now that [are] getting attacked.... Something needs to be done now," said Ngo, a Vancouver lawyer who has created more accessible hate-crime reporting forms for the community.

© James Mulleder/CBC News Ngo says his intent is to not question the police but to help them navigate the best ways to support the Asian community.

An online survey done by the Chinese Canadian National Council's Toronto chapter found that more than 1,000 self-reported incidents of anti-Asian racism have occurred nationwide since the start of the pandemic.

The analysis, which confirmed incidents in every province, found 44 per cent of all cases were reported in B.C.

'This is a clear barrier to justice here'

Ngo came face to face with hate earlier this month when someone hurled racist slurs at him and then proceeded to throw garbage at him.

"I was ... stunned and realized it could happen to anybody. Not just the elderly and those who don't know how to speak English," Ngo says.

That was his turning point.

He tried to report the crime on the Vancouver Police Department website but found the form was only available in simplified and traditional Chinese — not English.

"East Asian doesn't mean Chinese. It also means Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, those who are born here as well," he said.

Vancouver Police Department Const. Tania Visintin says the "online forms were created as an option for a very specific segment of our population that was targeted by hate crimes last year."

She says VPD is reviewing its process for hate-crime reporting. But says the best way to report a crime is to call 911 or the non-emergency line.

"Our workforce speaks more than 50 languages.... We can usually find someone to speak to a complainant in their preferred language," Visintin said.

© Ben Nelms/CBC Racist graffiti is covered up by duct tape on the lions at the Millennium Gate in Chinatown in May 2020.

On Friday, B.C.'s Ministry of the Attorney General announced plans to develop a hotline for racist incidents in response to the increased number of incidents. Information collected from the hotline will be used to develop anti-racism initiatives, including legislation that will pave the way for race-based data collection.

"The data collected from the hotline will be used to support future anti-racism initiatives, including legislation that will pave the way for race-based data collection. By identifying areas of increased racist incidents through the hotline, government can use the data to inform future actions to combat racism."

Ngo says while he is grateful for the support, he believes more needs to be done.

He has created his own website to report hate crimes for members of the Asian community who speak various languages.

"The website is not meant to replace the VPD website at all, but it's meant to really stop the bleeding," Ngo said.
'Took that pain and transformed it'

For Vancouver-based model Carlyle Chan, seeing Asian women killed in Atlanta in March was his turning point.

"I haven't ever felt like that before.... I took that pain and transformed it into something positive and something powerful,"

He fundraised throughout April, using his strong social media presence on Instagram and other platforms, to tee up Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May. The money is slated for groups that support the Asian community and other people of colour.

He also kept the conversation going online to give victims a sense of comfort.

"You are seen and heard. You matter. You don't have to be subordinate, or submissive or quiet, just because that's the way it was," Chan said.

On top of his fundraiser, he dabbled in his poetic side with a poem called Asian is Human that he posted in restaurants, parkades and apartment buildings.

"Even if you aren't an Asian person, you read it. It's kind of humanizing who we are," Chan said.

Both Chan and Ngo say, exhausted or not, they'll continue to advocate for their communities, using their drive, social media presence and voices to make change.

"I am super exhausted... [But] closed mouths don't get fed. If you don't ask [for help] then it can't happen," Chan said.