Statue of slave kneeling before Lincoln is removed in Boston

A statue of Abraham Lincoln with a freed slave appearing to kneel at his feet — optics that drew objections amid a national reckoning with racial injustice — has been removed from its perch in downtown Boston.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Workers removed the Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Emancipation Group and the Freedman’s Memorial, early Tuesday from a park just off Boston Common where it had stood since 1879.

City officials had agreed in late June to take down the memorial after complaints and a bitter debate over the design. Mayor Marty Walsh acknowledged at the time that the statue made residents and visitors alike “uncomfortable.”

The bronze statue is a copy of a monument that was erected in Washington, D.C., three years earlier. The copy was installed in Boston because the city was home to the statue’s white creator, Thomas Ball.

It was created to celebrate the freeing of slaves in America and was based on Archer Alexander, a Black man who escaped slavery, helped the Union Army and was the last man recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act.

But while some saw the shirtless man rising to his feet while shaking off the broken shackles on his wrists, others perceived him as kneeling before Lincoln, his white emancipator.

Freed Black donors paid for the original in Washington; white politician and circus showman Moses Kimball financed the copy in Boston. The inscription on both reads: “A race set free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labours.”

More than 12,000 people had signed a petition demanding the statue’s removal, and Boston's public arts commission voted unanimously to take it down. The statue was to be placed in storage until the city decides whether to display it in a museum.

“The decision for removal acknowledged the statue’s role in perpetuating harmful prejudices and obscuring the role of Black Americans in shaping the nation’s freedoms,” the commission said in a statement posted on its website.

The memorial had been on Boston’s radar at least since 2018, when it launched a comprehensive review of whether public sculptures, monuments and other artworks reflected the city’s diversity and didn’t offend communities of colour. The arts commission said it was paying extra attention to works with “problematic histories.”

Last summer, protesters vowed to tear down the original statue in Washington, prompting the National Guard to deploy a detachment to guard it.

William J. Kole, The Associated Press

Maine remains only state to fully ban Native American mascots. Why haven't others followed?

Editor's note: Part of a series looking at the debate surrounding some high school mascots as Washington's NFL team and others have announced changes in 2020.

© Michael G. Seamans/Portland Press Herald via AP In this Jan. 15, 2019 photo, Skowhegan Area High School cheerleaders stand beneath a mural of the school's mascot on the wall of the gymnasium in Skowhegan, Maine. The last Maine high school to use an "Indian" nickname is retiring the mascot. The Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54 Board of Directors voted 14-9 Thursday, March 7, 2019, to get rid of the nickname for all schools in the district, ending a years-long debate over the Skowhegan Area High School mascot. (Michael G. Seamans/Portland Press Herald via AP)

Pride and honor; history, too. Those are the reasons – flawed as they may be – people so often threw in the face of Maulian Dana.

And whenever that happened, she remembered something.

From NFL plays to college sports scores, all the top sports news you need to know every day.

It was fall, shortly after 2005. A decades-long debate had often grown combative, but the board of Old Town High School in Old Town, Maine, voted unanimously to eliminate the use of “Indians” as its mascot. They later adopted “Coyotes.”

Less than a mile away from the school sits Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, an islet hugged on all sides by the Penobscot River. That’s where Dana has lived her entire life, alongside her family.

Dana’s little brother was playing a football game against Old Town. It was close, but the Coyotes eventually prevailed. Dana remembers the celebration, helmets tossed skyward, Gatorade coolers drained onto coaches, fans pouring onto the field.

Dana, watching in the stands with her family, turned to them.

Look how proud they are to be Coyotes.

“It’s important to reassure these people that none of that pride in their town, in themselves, in their kids, goes away,” Dana, the Penobscot Nation Tribal Ambassador, told USA TODAY Sports. “But by changing the mascots, they have a chance to have a new start without actually hurting anybody.”

To this day, the problem of Native American themed mascots at schools across the country persists. The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) keeps a database that tracks them and, according to the list that was last updated Dec. 9, there are still 1,916 schools in 1,025 school districts that use such mascots. The database lists five mascots as the most common: “Indians” (799), “Warriors” (417), “Braves” (208), “Chiefs” (181) and “Redskins” (95).

In Maine, this problem has all but vanished. Skowhegan Area High School was the last public school to use a Native American mascot before its board voted in March 2019 to retire the “Indians” mascot. Two months later, a law was enacted that effectively banned the use of such mascots in public schools and colleges.

But Maine is one of 50, prompting an obvious question for the other 49 states: Why hasn’t similarly aggressive legislation been passed to eliminate this issue at public schools across the country?

RELATED: Arizona high school clings to mascot tradition. Here's why.

Some other legislatures have implemented portions of a ban, but Maine remains alone in instituting a full one. For example, the Massachusetts legislature drafted a bill that would instruct the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to initiate regulations barring public schools from using a mascot, team name or logo that refers to or represents Native Americans. That bill has yet to pass.

The state of California passed legislation banning public schools from using “Redskins” as a team name. But like in other instances, in other states, the Racial Mascot Act includes several exceptions. The law that went into effect Jan. 1, 2017 but schools could use uniforms bearing the name if they had been purchased before that date.

Stephen Pevar, a senior staff counsel in the American Civil Liberties Union’s racial justice program, said states enacting similar legislation to Maine's would eradicate this issue “in one-fell swoop” but acknowledged that there were also other ways to make progress.

The alternatives, mainly outreach and advocacy at the local school district level, though, take far longer to produce results. The time and effort required to identify and visit local school boards is monumental. There's also the fact that such efforts can trigger previous traumas for a people who have a lengthy history of them in America.

Furthermore, local school districts are often either unwilling to take on this issue or view it as less important than others facing public schools across the country. Legislation like Maine's effectively takes the decision out of the hands of local school boards.

“Historically, not only have politicians been shy or reluctant to champion Indian issues, many of them have ridden into office because they felt it was politically expedient to criticize or belittle them,” Pevar told USA TODAY Sports. “Still today, it’s not uncommon for politicians to take advantage of and capitalize on anti-Indian sentiment, so it takes a lot of courage for politicians to speak out on these issues.”

© Robert F. Bukaty, AP Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law in 2019 that made Maine the first and only state to fully ban Native American mascots at public schools.

Though the push to get the Maine legislation signed into law had been ongoing for years, the timeframe from bill to law actually came about rather quickly, in large part because of Democratic presence that aligned at the highest levels of state government. On Jan. 2, 2019, after eight years of a divided state government, Gov. Janet T. Mills was sworn in as the first Democratic governor in Maine since 2010. The Democrats also secured control over the state Senate and House of Representatives.

Dana understood she needed to act immediately. She reached out to Rep. Benjamin Collings, who has long been a champion of Indians-rights issues, and Collings invited Dana to address the Democratic caucus. Dana called upon other trial members to speak to other committee members. With the help of Collings, the bill was passed through the committee, then through the House and then through the Senate.

It landed on Mills’ desk and on May 16, 2019, she signed it into law, becoming the first and only state to enact such aggressive legislation.

Dana said constant communication with elected officials, identifying tribal leaders in each state and amplifying their voices are the recipe to similar legislation elsewhere. On the other end, however, receptive politicians are essential, even with this issue becoming a partisan one.

“We need a lot more collaboration,” Collings, who sponsored the bill and is a Democrat, told USA TODAY Sports. “The Democratic Party isn’t perfect. We need to speak out more on these issues. We’re often afraid of how this can impact our elections. We need everyone, Democrats, Republicans – elected officials need to step up and speak out. They can’t condone any of this.

“And it needs to go way beyond rules and laws. It needs to start with education. We need to have these uncomfortable conversations. White people are often afraid to talk about racism and prejudice because they can sometimes feel guilty about it. But until we do, we won’t get meaningful change.”

Dana has identified several other states as potential targets to adopt similar legislation and has scheduled regular conferences with tribal leaders and friends in Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Vermont, among others, as potential next targets.

In early November, Dana had a Zoom coffee appointment with Raven Payment, a native of Skowhegan and alumna of Skowhegan Area High School. Before the Maine legislation passed, it was Payment who put Dana in touch with tribal leaders as Dana sought to generate awareness.

Part Mohawk and part Ojibwe, Payment lived through the stigma of seeing her identity reduced to a caricature at Skowhegan. While she was a student there, she appealed for the mascot to be changed, but she said her efforts never attracted serious consideration.

“It was – how do I put this – disgusting,” she said. “I don’t talk to people I grew up with there now because of that mascot.”

Now Dana is the one assisting Payment, who has lived in Castle Rock, Colorado, a suburb 30 miles south of Denver, for the last 16 years. A member of the non-profit organization, Not Your Mascots, Payment is helping to spread the work of the organization and is using Maine’s legislation as a model to pursue a similar tract in Colorado.

Payment said there are still 12 schools in the state who use Native American themed mascots. She continues to speak at school board meetings, but has focused the majority of her efforts on pursuing legislation in the state.

Payment described the push for legislation as being “in very preliminary stages.” She also added, however, that “many of us were let down and felt misled” by a 2016 study issued by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper that recognized “local control” as the governing authority on these issues, as opposed to state direction.

What complicates this further is that these discussions with lawmakers are often seen as a negotiation within the catalogue of Native American policy issues, like land and water rights, the pursuit of equitable housing and healthcare, voting rights. Using Maine as an example, Payment said a stalemate over water rights issues helped lead to the resolution of the mascot bill in a search for compromise.

“We’ve never had the carrot to dangle to even get Colorado’s elected officials to the negotiating table,” Payment said. “But to be clear, this threatens our sovereignty. If we can’t be taken seriously over an issue like high school sports mascots, it’s really hard when we’re facing larger issues like the Dakota Access Pipeline or getting relief for COVID that isn’t body bags.”

Contributing: Associated Press

AP Interview: Owner confronts Israeli team's racist past

ITS FANS ARE ISLAMOPHOBIC ANTI ARAB ZIONISTS 

USALEM — At the age of 39, Moshe Hogeg has made millions of dollars trading in cryptocurrency, bought one of Israel’s most prominent soccer teams and brought in a wealthy Emirati sheikh as his new co-owner 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Now comes what may be his biggest challenge.

As owner of Beitar Jerusalem, the only major Israeli soccer club never to have signed an Arab player, Hogeg says he is determined to remove the stain of racism from the team and sideline its most rabid anti-Arab fans, all while transforming Beitar into a soccer powerhouse with a diverse lineup.

“The racist image that the club had was one of the key elements that brought me to buy this club,” Hogeg told The Associated Press in an interview at the team’s Jerusalem training facility.

“I saw this problem that reflects bad not only on the club, but also on Israel," he said. “I love football, and I thought it was the opportunity to buy this club and to fix this racist problem. And then I could do something that is bigger than football.”

Beitar, rooted in the same pre-state Zionist movement that inspired the ruling Likud party, is one of the country’s most storied sports franchises and counts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin among its fans. It is seen as a potent symbol of the Israeli working class at the heart of Netanyahu’s nationalist base.

But in recent years, it has drawn negative attention for its refusal to integrate. Israel’s Arab minority makes up roughly 20% of the country’s population, and Arab players star on rival teams and the national squad.

Club officials have in the past said their hands were tied by a hardcore base of fans who wield significant clout over personnel decisions. A small group of fans, known as “La Familia,” have chanted “death to Arabs” and other profanities toward opposing Arab players.

During the team’s 2013 season, a move to bring in two Muslim players from Chechnya badly misfired. La Familia led a boycott that famously left the stadium empty during a home match, several fans were charged with torching the team’s offices, and the club was nearly relegated to the second division as its season fell apart.

Hogeg, a high-tech entrepreneur and cryptocurrency trader, bought Beitar two years ago and said he set out to change its culture from the “very beginning.”

He said he has spoken out against racism and even filed lawsuits accusing fans of damaging the team’s reputation. Last year, Beitar signed Ali Mohamed, a player of Muslim descent from the African country of Niger.

But his biggest move by far was this month’s blockbuster announcement that he had sold a 50% stake in the club to Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. Al Nahyan has pledged to pump $90 million into the team in the coming decade.

Hogeg said he was inspired to look for an Emirati partner after the U.S.-brokered agreement establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in September. He spoke to several potential investors before mutual acquaintances put him in touch with Al Nahyan.

Jewish Israelis have warmly embraced the establishment of ties with Gulf Arabs, despite continued discrimination toward Israel's Arab minority in areas like housing, jobs and government budgets. Hogeg believes that sports can provide an example for others to follow.

“I looked for a partner that will have the same vision of showing the world, showing kids, showing everyone that Muslims and Jews can work together and build beautiful things together,” he said. “And I think football is the best platform for it.”

The bearded Hogeg, wearing a sharp suit and black dress shoes, stood on a soccer field at the practice facility for the interview. He happily dribbled a soccer ball and kicked it into the goal as he discussed his love for the game he still plays recreationally.

Hogeg said he and his partner plan a “carrot and stick” approach, using their expertise and deep pockets to reward the fans with a perennial soccer powerhouse, while simultaneously letting it be known that anyone who objects to their message of coexistence is unwelcome.

“Either you are for the club or you are about something else. If you are about hate and racism, you are not part of us,” he said.

The team is mired at the bottom of the league this year and has few prospects for success. But Hogeg is predicting a quick turnaround next year and expects to contend for the Israeli championship through aggressive player acquisitions. In the longer term, he and his partner plan to invest heavily in young homegrown talent and aim to compete on the European stage.

With Al Nahyan as co-owner, Hogeg said that adding Arab players to the roster is a “non-issue.” He said the team already is trying to recruit an Arab player who competes in Europe, though it is unclear whether his current team will release him.

“We are actively looking for A-class players that can upgrade the level of our team,” he said. “Religion is not a factor by any means.”

Avigail Sharabi, a diehard Beitar supporter who currently appears on a reality TV show, accused Hogeg of abandoning the team's traditions for money.

Sharabi, 54, insisted she was not a racist, but that it was unfathomable to her to have an Arab player wear the team's Jewish candelabra logo and sing the Israeli national anthem yearning for a Jewish homeland.

“He sold everything. He sold our name, our principles, our life, our heart," she said of Hogeg.

Maya Zinshtein, a filmmaker who made an Emmy-winning documentary, “Forever Pure," about the tumultuous 2013 season, called herself a “crazy optimist” and said she believes Hogeg will succeed in changing the team’s culture.

Zinshtein described La Familia as a small but vocal minority that in the past had been allowed to bully the broader fan base. She said much has changed since her documentary came out in 2016, in part because of the embarrassing scenes of racist behaviour. Those changes have only gained steam since Hogeg’s arrival, she said,

“La Familia won’t change. It’s just a question of what is the space they are receiving,” she said. “Most fans are not radical.”

Since Hogeg brought his Emirati partner on board, La Familia members have made some noise on social media. But when they recently tried to protest the deal at a team practice, they were outnumbered by supporters.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Hogeg said. “There’s a group of radical fans that are going to do everything in their power to damage (us). But I’m sure that we will win.”

Josef Federman, The Associated Press

A Hong Kong teenager gets prison for insulting Chinese flag


© Provided by CBS News In this Jan. 1, 2019, photo, pro-independence demonstrator Tony Chung, left, marches during an annual New Year protest in Hong Kong. / Credit: Kin Cheung / AP

A Hong Kong teenager was ordered to spend four months in prison on Tuesday for insulting China's national flag and unlawful assembly as Beijing increasingly targets prominent activists from the financial hub. Tony Chung, a 19-year-old who led a now-disbanded pro-democracy group, was convicted earlier this month for throwing the Chinese flag to the ground during scuffles outside Hong Kong's legislature in May 2019.

VIDEO Hong Kong jails pro-democracy activists

While serving his sentence, Chung will be waiting for trial over a charge of "secession," which could land him life imprisonment according to the draconian national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong on June 30.

Chung was the first public political figure prosecuted under the new security law, which Beijing described as a "sword" to return "order and stability" to the financial hub after seven months of massive, often violent pro-democracy protests last year.

He was sentenced to three months each for insulting the national flag and unlawful assembly, and told to serve four months behind bars.

The teen is also facing separate charges of money laundering and conspiring to publish seditious content.

Chung was arrested by plainclothes police opposite the U.S. consulate in late October and had been remanded in custody since.

Speculation has swirled that the authorities moved on Chung because he was hoping to ask for asylum at the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong.

An increasing number of pro-democracy activists across the political spectrum have fled Hong Kong since Beijing stepped up its crackdown on the city's protests against China's authoritarian rule.

Under the security law, dissenting speech instead of acts can be alleged of vague yet severe offences like "subversion" and "collusion with foreign forces".

The law has also toppled the legal firewall between Hong Kong's internationally recognized common law judiciary and the opaque, Party-controlled justice system in mainland China by allowing extradition of suspects across the border for trial.

Last Sunday, China's state TV CGTN reported that Hong Kong police had put 30 people who are not currently in Hong Kong on its wanted list for suspicion of breaching the national security law, including self-exiled activists Ted Hui and Baggio Leung.

Prominent activists remain in Hong Kong have either been jailed, like Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, or face frequent arrests and multiple charges.

Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul who is also charged with the national security law, has been placed under house arrest and stripped of public speech -- his Twitter account included -- as Hong Kong's High Court granted him bail last week.

The decision, however, provoked serious criticism from China, which threatened to extradite Lai to the mainland for trial.

Apple, Amazon and Tesla supplier accused of using forced labor

According to an investigation by The Washington Postand the Tech Transparency Project, companies including Apple, Amazon and Tesla are sourcing parts from a Chinese supplier that allegedly uses forced Muslim labor. The Tech Transparency Project found documents detailing how Lens Technology uses “thousands of Uyghur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang” in its factories. The Post describes Lens Technology as a long-time, major partner of Apple, with a history going back to the “early days” of iPhone production.

This picture taken on March 12, 2015 shows employees working in the workshop of Lens Technology in Liuyang, central China's Hunan province. Zhou Qunshu, a former factory worker who founded Lens Technology , a company supplying Apple, Samsung and other technological giants with touchscreen glass has become China's richest woman, reports said, with a fortune surpassing 8 billion USD. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP via Getty Images)

“Our research shows that Apple’s use of forced labor in its supply chain goes far beyond what the company has acknowledged,” director of the Tech Transparency Project Katie Paul said to the Post. “Apple claims to take extraordinary measures to monitor its supply chain for such problems, but the evidence we found was openly available on the internet.”

An Apple spokesperson told the publication that the company confirmed Lens Technology “has not received any labor transfers of Uyghur workers from Xinjiang.” The company’s supplier progress report states that Apple conducted 1,142 “assessments” across its entire supply chain in 49 different countries in 2019 to enforce its Supplier Code of Conduct and the Supplier Responsibility Standards, but declined to tell the Post whether Lens was among the companies it audited. In November, Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock told the Post that the company “conducted a detailed investigation with our suppliers in China and found no evidence of forced labor on Apple production lines.”

The issue of forced Uyghur labor in China has gained increased attention this year; Congress introduced a bill earlier this year that would keep goods made with forced labor in the Uyghur region of China from entering the US and that companies would be held responsible for such human rights violations. The bill passed in the House back in September, but since then it was revealed by both The Information and The Washington Post that Apple paid to lobby Congress to essentially water down the bill. Nike and Coca-Cola have reportedly been pushing back against the potential legislation through lobbying, as well. Though it already passed in the House, the Senate has yet to vote on it.

Publicly, Apple has been consistent on its stance around forced labor: CEO Tim Cook testified in a congressional hearing in July, saying that “forced labor is abhorrent. We would not tolerate it in Apple.” Cook also said that the company would terminate any relationships with suppliers that used forced labor — but the Post says that Lens Technology is one of “at least five” companies in Apple’s supply chain that allegedly use forced labor.

This is hardly the first time that Apple has come under fire for its labor practices in China. For much of the last decade, the company dealt with issues arising from poor working conditions at factories throughout China, perhaps most notably at the Foxconn manufacturing facilities. The company appears to have improved things in recent years, but issues still persist, like more recent claims around reports of student workers in factories. Similarly, both Amazon and Tesla have also had their share of claims of labor violations and foreign worker abuse.

Buzzfeed News has been reporting extensively on potential human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China, detailing how the country has built a huge number of prison camps in the last few years as it ramps up a campaign against Muslim minority groups like the Uyghur. Yesterday, the publication revealed that it had found evidence of more than 100 factory buildings right on the site of prison camps where it could force detainees to work. All told, Buzzfeed News estimates that more than one million Muslim minorities have been detained in China since 2016.

China, meanwhile, is working with the European Union on an investment deal that would include provisions that the country would “make continued and sustained efforts” to work on banning forced labor. Given the alleged mass imprisonment and forced labor in the Xinjiang region, though, China clearly has a lot of work to do before its claims of combating the issue can be taken seriously.

Oh No, Nikki Haley Is Upset About “Mainstream” Socialism


It’s almost never a good sign when the word “socialism” is trending on Twitter — especially as we are on the brink of a new year and a new White House administration. This time, (to little surprise) it’s former governor Nikki Haley who unleashed a flurry of takes about socialism when she tweeted her (outraged) thoughts on Monday.

© Provided by Refinery29

“2020 was the year socialism went mainstream. The dangerous ideology, which has failed everywhere it has been tried & ruined countless lives, is on its way to becoming the default economic policy of the Democratic Party. This terrifying trend threatens the future of every American,” Haley wrote.


But just as quickly as Haley’s bad take came, so did backlash for the politician’s empty statement. “Please elaborate on how Medicare and Social Security ruined countless lives, Nikki,” responded Mike Drake, a combat veteran and former worker for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Others responded saying that if socialism was actually mainstream, then everyone in the country would have actually been paid stimulus checks and unemployment more frequently this year. Some even retorted by asking her to elaborate on what would be so awful about everyone having exactly what they needed, to which it appears Haley has no response yet.

But of course, this isn’t the first time that Haley has come after socialists — and surely it won’t be the last. During her speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this year, Haley railed against socialism and how a Biden-Harris administration would bring chaos, in between lying about other things. “A Biden-Harris administration would be much, much worse. Last time, Joe’s boss was Obama… this time, it would be Pelosi, Sanders, and the Squad. Their vision for America is socialism. And we know that socialism has failed everywhere,” Haley said. In addition, she’s also attempted to remain relevant by feuding with democratic socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a league that is very, very much outside of her own.



What is perhaps most obvious here is that Haley’s critique of socialism as mainstream is flawed on many levels. On one hand, she’s clearly using socialism as a scapegoat to try to scare Americans. Specifically, she’s using socialism to increase fear-mongering among and embolden the same people on the right and Trump supporters who have been made to believe socialism is a bad thing — and that socialists are taking over the country and taking away their rights. This fear narrative that’s been created and pushed by Republicans about socialists and antifa (which quite literally just stands for anti-fascists) has produced terrorist groups like the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Bois, and those like Kyle Rittenhouse. And Nikki Haley is simply too smart to not know what she’s doing when she ignites this sort of “Bat Signal” for people on the right who want to restore “law and order” to the country. It’s not ineptitude, and it’s not an accident.

Beyond that, Haley’s assertion that socialism is somehow “mainstream” is simply not the case. Although politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib and other major players have popularized democratic socialism and opened many people’s eyes, there’s still plenty of stigma around socialism as a philosophy and as a political system that could actually work.

Haley could perhaps stand to check the differences between socialism and communism, but obviously no one gifted her any Marx for the holidays. And unfortunately, it seems her trusty fact-checkers, whoever they may be, have checked out of the building.

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Former N.L. prisoner wants guards held accountable in death of Indigenous inmate

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A former inmate of a Newfoundland and Labrador jail says it's outrageous that 10 guards accused in the death of an Indigenous man at the institution got to spend Christmas with their families.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Gordon Wheaton says he was in the special handling unit with Jonathan Henoche at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's for two days in 2018.

Wheaton says he wasn't surprised to hear in 2019 that Henoche had died in an alleged altercation with correctional officers at the jail, nor was he surprised to learn 10 guards had been charged earlier this month in his death.

The guards's names were not made public and the accused were released without a bail hearing, with a date set in February to appear before a judge for the first time.


Video: 10 correctional officers charged in Indigenous inmate’s death (Global News)


Wheaton says abuse is common at the 160-year-old jail and he characterizes the atmosphere there as a fuse box ready to explode.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for a comment and a spokesperson for the union representing corrections officers at the jail said it could not comment at this time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2020.

The Canadian Press

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Trump's crackdown on the US-Mexico border has been a moneymaker for border agents working with traffickers

© Reuters A police officer gives a leaflet with information about COVID-19 to a person entering Mexico in Ciudad Juarez, March 29, 2020. 

President Donald Trump has cracked down on the US-Mexico border throughout his time office, increasing enforcement and putting up new barriers to entry.


But instead of stopping illicit traffic across the border, those tighter restrictions have likely facilitated the corruption that criminal groups rely on to move drugs and people into the US.


Ciudad Juarez, MEXICO - President Donald Trump's crackdown on the US-Mexico border hasn't stopped illicit traffic crossing it or deterred officials who secretly help it across.

Mexican drug cartels have been paying more money to more US agents than ever before in order to move drugs and people across the border, according to documents and sources who spoke to Insider.

The Trump administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to virtually close the border. Trump has built and often bragged about 400 miles of new border wall, installed dozens of surveillance cameras manned by the military, and boosted the number of border agents.

But none of that has had the desired effect: Traffickers have paid millions of dollars to US border agents to keep drugs and people flowing throughout Trump's time in office.

"We pay as much as $10,000 to a migra [Border Patrol officer] only to look the other way while we are using a tunnel to smuggle drugs and to tell us of new trends on surveillance," said a Mexican woman in charge of smuggling operations for a drug cartel in El Paso, Texas.

As Trump tightened surveillance on the border, their costs went up.  

© Matt York/AP Contractors erect a section of 30-foot high border wall along the Colorado River in Yuma, Arizona, September 10, 2019. 

"We used to pay no more than $5,000 to a single agent a month or every two months, but now we are paying twice that every month for a migra to give some information," the woman told Insider.

The cartel operative, who asked not to be identified to avoid retribution, said cartels not only have ties to the Border Patrol but to CBP officers at the international bridges as well.

"Some of them provide us with the shift role so we know who is gonna be working where on that week and plan our shipment. That way we know if one of the agents working [with us] is gonna be on a shift and exactly on which lane number," she said.

In addition to bribes with money, cartels use young girls, according to a Mexican diplomatic source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

"They are bribing CBP officers on ports of entry with girls. The girls start hanging out with them and they convince the officers to let illegal cargo through," the source said.

The cartel operative in El Paso confirmed that was a method to entice border agents.

Border agents "love alcohol and women," she said. "We started inviting some of the agents to party across the border, in a house we have in Juarez [in Mexico], and we set him up. At the beginning the officer working for us started because we were threatening him with showing his pictures with an underage girl to his wife, but later he learned to love money."

© Thomson Reuters A woman in Mexico touches a family member through the border fence between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, after a bi-national Mass in support of migrants, February 15, 2016. 

Stricter controls at the border are directly responsible for an uptick in corruption cases, most of them related to organized crime, according to David Jancsics, a professor at San Diego State University and author of the 2020 report "Corruption on the US-Mexico border."

"Tighter border security may further increase the level of this type of bribery. A trust-based strategic conspiracy between the corrupt partners is already the dominant form of border corruption in the United States," Jancsics said.

Jancsics' report estimates that workers with the Department of Homeland Security accepted $15 million of bribes over a 10-year period.

"By the logic I would say with Trump the corruption must be worse than before, but it's very difficult to say. We only know of people arrested, which are small numbers - the tip of the iceberg," said Jancsics.

During the Obama administration, cases of misconduct among border officers dropped steadily. But since 2017, when Trump took office, cases have reached a five-year high, according to a recent internal Customs and Border Patrol report.

There were 286 total arrests during fiscal year 2018 - 268 CBP employees arrested twice, one employee arrested four times, and one employee arrested five times.

The charges include drug smuggling, bribery, theft, and sharing classified government data, records show.

"As an Agency charged with law enforcement activities, CBP regards any violation of law by its employees as being inconsistent with and contrary to its law enforcement mission," the CBP report states.

During 2020, at least a dozen CBP employees were arrested on suspicion of working directly with criminal organizations at the border, according to media releases.

President Donald Trump with US Customs and Border Protection officers at McAllen International Airport in McAllen, Texas, January 10, 2019. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

In August, a Border Patrol agent in Arizona was arrested on suspicion of trafficking drugs for a Mexican criminal organization. The same month, a US border agent was arrested in Juarez and accused of smuggling 30 rounds of ammunition, a loaded firearm magazine, and a bulletproof vest.

In September, six border agents were arrested on suspicion of stealing cocaine and marijuana from dealers to sell in the US. That month, a CBP officer in Laredo was arrested in connection with four murders and one kidnapping.

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Jenn Budd, a former Border Patrol agent in San Diego, said corruption is part of Border Patrol culture.

"To my knowledge, no other agency is as bad as the Border Patrol in terms of corruption. Since Trump took office he has empowered corrupt agents. They feel Trump is one of them and they can do whatever they want," Budd said.

Budd worked with former border agent Raul Villarreal, who was arrested in Tijuana in October 2008 and convicted four years later of running a human-smuggling ring that brought hundreds of immigrants across the US-Mexico border illegally.

"It still is very common for Border Patrol supervisors to smuggle drugs or people using their own official vehicles. There are agents that have cartel connections before even entering BP," Budd said.

Budd, now a whistleblower about Border Patrol corruption, thinks management is responsible for corruption and abuse inside the agencies.

"I've been advocating in Washington for the Border Patrol and CBP [to] be managed by an external agency. That would be the only way out," Budd told Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider

THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN TO A MENS TEAM
'It's tragic': Swedish women's champions dissolved after title win

The champions of the Swedish women’s league, Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC, have dissolved their senior side and all players have been released from their contracts just over a month after winning a first league title 

.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images

The decision to fold the senior side was made by the board on the 17 December, the day after a 3-0 defeat by Manchester City in the Champions League ensured the Swedish champions exited the last-32 5-1 on aggregate. They told all staff on Tuesday.

Related: The 100 best female footballers in the world 2020

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC will still run teams up to Under-19 level but the investment of Kopparbergs, the brewery and the club’s title sponsor, is being withdrawn.

The chairman of KGFC, which is not attached to a men’s club, Peter Bronsman, is also the CEO of Kopparbergs,and he told Göteborgs-Posten that 17 years after the team was formed, in 2003, there are now numerous clubs in the city (IFK Göteborg, BK Häcken, Öis and Gais) that have begun women’s teams and that they should take the baton.

© Photograph: Alex Livesey/Getty Images Filippa Curmark (right) of Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC during the warm up before they played Manchester City in the Champions League on 16 December.

“My opinion and that of the board is that having a women’s elite team is not compatible with 2021. The big four men’s teams have their own women’s teams. We have done what we promised. We have created a lot of role models and got a lot of [girls] to start playing football.”

He argued that Göteborg is unable to compete with the resources of teams such as Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the two sides to knock the Swedish team out of the Champions League this year and last year, and that that demonstrated the club were no longer able compete in Europe.

The CEO of club sponsor, Prioritet Finans, Nils Wiberg, told fotbollskanalen.se: “First foremost I am very sad for Gothenburg as a city and for all the women here. The team has real value as a symbol for women’s sport in our city. It is tragic – for everyone.”

The team departs having finished seven points clear of 11-time Damallsvenskan champions FC Rosengård and with the best defensive record in the league having only conceded 10 goals across 22 games.

The team’s top-scorer with 12 goals, Pauline Hammarlund, finished with the joint second highest tally in the league while Rebecka Blomqvist was joint seventh in the league with nine goals. They, alongside their teammates, including Norwegian midfielder Vilde Bøe Risa, are now available to sign for other clubs.

A team in the CL just folding like that. How can that happen?Jess Fishlock

“It is like a bolt from a clear blue sky,” Midfielder Elin Rubensson told fotbollskanalen.se. “I didn’t have a clue, no one did. I was really shocked, sad and confused. I didn’t understand anything. I still hope that someone can come in and save the club.”

The head of press for KGFC, Tore Lund, told Sveriges Radio that had the team progressed to the next round the club would likely have continued into the new year.

The Wales midfielder Jess Fishlock said: “A team in the CL just folding like that. How can that happen? A stark reminder of how fragile the women’s game actually is.”

This is not the first time as Swedish team flying high has left the top division. Tyresö FF, then home to Brazilian superstar Marta, Swedish midfielder Caroline Seger and Spain’s Vero Boquete, reached the Champions League final in 2014 before being dissolved one month later with its parent company deeply in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy.

Facebook to shut down Irish holding companies amid disputes over tax payments in Europe

© Provided by Business Insider Facebook logo is seen displayed on a phone screen in photo taken in Poland on November 29, 2020. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Facebook is shutting down its Irish subsidiary following mounting pressure from regulators over the way it pays taxes in the EU. 

The firm's Irish holding company brought in around $30 billion of revenue in 2018 – more than half of the firm's total annual turnover of $56 billion. 

A Facebook spokesperson said the move was 'consistent with recent and upcoming tax law changes' advocated by policymakers around the world. 

Facebook is winding down its Irish holding company in light of wider disputes over the way it pays taxes in the the European Union.

In 2018, the social networking giant's Irish subsidiary paid just $101 million in tax, while recording profits of more than $15 billion.



The subsidiary, Facebook International Holdings I Unlimited Company, also brought in around $30 billion of revenue, accounting for more than half of the firm's total annual turnover of $56 billion.

In a statement to The Times in London, a Facebook spokesperson said the Irish entity "was wound up as part of a change that best aligns with our operating structure." They added: "We believe it is consistent with recent and upcoming tax law changes that policymakers are advocating for around the world."

Big Tech companies face mounting pressure on the continent, where regulators are reevaluating the responsibilities large platforms should have on everything from data-sharing to misinformation.

At the end of last year, Google moved its own intellectual property holdings from Ireland back to the US, after regulators moved to phase out a loophole allowing US companies to delay paying taxes.

The tax strategy was legal and allowed Google to avoid triggering US income taxes, or European withholding taxes on the funds, which represent the bulk of its overseas profits.

Facebook's decision comes just months after the firm launched legal action against Ireland's data regulator, which is also trying to prevent EU user data being sent across to the US.

The firm's lawyer Paul Sreenan told Ireland's High Court the decision could have "devastating consequences" and mean Facebook's core app and Instagram being kicked out of the EU all together.

Business Insider approached Facebook for further comment.

Republican tax cuts are a lie. And our research proves it — just in time for Covid.

Few economic ideas have been as contentious as trickle-down economics. The belief that cutting taxes on the richest members of society boosts the economy became particularly prominent in the 1980s and motivated a series of tax reforms by President Ronald Reagan. The U.S. debate is typically divided along partisan lines, with Republicans claiming that cutting taxes on the rich is the key to wider economic prosperity and Democrats arguing that higher taxes on the affluent could raise revenue and reduce inequality.

This disagreement is not trivial. Over the last 50 years, it has led to substantial differences across administrations in tax policymaking. For instance, the Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 totaled around $1.5 trillion and disproportionally benefited the richest 20 percent of households, according to analysis from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. It was sold as “rocket fuel” for the U.S. economy by President Donald Trump, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confidently stated that “the tax plan will pay for itself with economic growth.”

On the other side of the debate, President-elect Joe Biden has promised sweeping tax reform upon coming into office. He has pledged to raise corporation and capital gains taxes, increase taxes on household incomes above $400,000, and lower thresholds for inheritance and gift taxes. Whether these tax rises on the wealthy are implemented will likely depend on the results of the open Senate races in Georgia, but it’s clear Biden’s approach to taxing the rich will be diametrically opposed to Trump’s.



The academic literature has debated the effectiveness of trickle-down economics for some time. Recently, a growing body of evidence has shown that tax cuts for the rich do little to boost the economy. Reforms such as the Reagan tax cuts in the 1980s did not live up to their economic promises. Instead, decreasing taxes on the rich have gone hand in hand with soaring inequality.

Most of our knowledge on the economic consequences of tax cuts is based on specific countries and reforms. The academic debate has therefore been missing a more comprehensive study that looks at the effects across a broader range of countries and time periods. To address this gap, we constructed a new measure that combines important taxes on the rich including taxes on top incomes, capital and inheritances. We then looked at the economic effects of major tax cuts for the rich in the U.S. and 17 other advanced economies over a 50-year period, from 1965 to 2015.

The results show little evidence of trickle-down effects. We found that major tax cuts for the rich increase income inequality, with all the problems that brings, but do not provide offsetting gains in economic performance. More specifically, the income share of the richest 1 percent of individuals rises by 0.8 percentage points after a major tax cut for the rich. As a comparison, in the U.S. in 2016, the poorest 10 percent of income earners have a total income share of 1.8 percent. In contrast, we find no substantial, statistically significant effects on economic growth or unemployment in the short or medium term.

What do our results mean for tax policymaking in the United States in the post-coronavirus era? They strongly suggest that policymakers at all levels of the U.S. government should not cut taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations as a way to aid the economic recovery from the pandemic. Our research suggests this would deliver few benefits. It might also further damage the public finances.

The surge in government spending to combat the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has sharply deteriorated the government’s balance sheet. The federal deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 was a record $3.1 trillion and federal debt grew to greater than the size of the U.S. economy. And as Biden has proposed $5.4 trillion in new spending in the next decade across areas such as health care, education and housing, substantial tax rises might be needed to bring the federal government deficit and debt down to more sustainable levels.

Our analysis does not directly look at tax increases, because the past 50 years has overwhelmingly been a period of major reductions in taxes on the rich in the U.S. and the other advanced economies. There have simply been few instances of major tax hikes on the rich since 1965. When looking at those small number of cases, however, we do not find a negative effect on economic performance.

Coupled with our central finding that the economic rationale for keeping taxes on the rich low is weak, this suggests that once we are more firmly into the recovery phase from the pandemic, Biden and other governments across the advanced economies should not let worry about harming the economy stop them from raising taxes on the rich. Such reforms could help to ensure the sustainability of the public finances following the Covid-19 crisis

Drainage works unearth Roman baths in heart of Jordan's capital

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Muath Freij

© Reuters/MUHAMMAD HAMED Roman ruins are discovered in downtown Amman

AMMAN (Reuters) - The discovery of the ruins of old Roman baths during the construction of a major drainage system in the heart of Jordan's capital has posed a dilemma: how to preserve the country's ancient past while providing for its modern future?

© Reuters/MUHAMMAD HAMED Roman ruins are discovered in downtown Amman

A government committee set up two weeks ago is expected to decide soon on whether to expand excavations at the site or go ahead with an underground canal that would divert flood water that descends on Amman from the surrounding hills.

Remnants of furnaces are a sign of an elaborate heating system which archaeologists believe is the first such discovery among the remains of the ancient city of Philadelphia on which Amman was built.

© Reuters/MUHAMMAD HAMED Roman ruins are discovered in downtown Amman

"We will balance the needs of the city - to protect it from flooding - to preserving antiquities under the streets," said Yazid Elayan, head of Jordan's Department of Antiquities.

"Amman was one of the biggest Roman cities and it has one of the largest baths ... Wherever one excavates in Amman, antiquities can be found," he told Reuters.

The work on the drainage system has been suspended while the decision is made.

Amman is an old city where many symbols of Roman civilisation are still visible, from the Amphitheatre that seated 6,000 spectators to the Nymphaeum fountains and the Hercules temple on one of Amman's highest hills.

Worsening infrastructure and haphazard urban planning have plagued the sprawling city of four million people built on layers of ancient civilisations spanning the Ammonites, Moabites, Romans, Greeks and the Islamic period.

Municipality officials have already expressed concern that delaying the drainage project could raise water levels in central Amman and again flood it during the winter.

© Reuters/MUHAMMAD HAMED Roman ruins are discovered in downtown Amman

Amman has seen rapid growth in the last few decades as a result of waves of refugees from the Arab-Israel conflicts and regional turmoil that transformed it from a sleepy city to one of the Middle East's largest urban centres.

© Reuters/MUHAMMAD HAMED Roman ruins are discovered in downtown Amman

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Scuba divers find sleeping sharks and sea turtles in mysterious cave

 VIDEO 

The Galapagos Islands are home to incredible animals and diverse life, both above and below the surface of the ocean. Scuba divers come from all over the world to explore the depths and observe animals like whale sharks and other shark species up close. These divers have entered a cave that is 20m (60 feet) below the surface. They turn on their lights and enter, unsure of what to expect. The scuba diver discovers sleeping white tipped reef sharks, a gigantic moray eel, and a large Pacific green turtle, also taking a nap. This seems unusual for sharks to gather and sleep because we were once under the mistaken impression that sharks would not be able to breath unless they are in constant motion to keep water moving over their gills. Most fish possess the ability to pump water through their gills but many sharks are unable to do this. Hammerheads are a good example and it was once believed that they did not sleep since they swam constantly. Sharks that constantly move are able to rest half of their brain at a time, entering a state of reduced consciousness. They are still able to avoid predators or objects as they swim, because half of their brain is awake. These white tipped reef sharks do not need to keep moving and they are able to sleep fully while sheltering on the sandy bottom of caves like this one. The turtle will also sleep for a brief period but it will need to go to the surface for a few breaths of air. As we discover more about this exciting and mysterious realm, we also learn that there is much more that we do not understand. New species and new behaviours are being discovered constantly. As demonstrated by these sharks in this cave, most of the animals in the underwater world will do us no harm if we maintain the appropriate level of caution and respect. It is wise to remember that we are the guests in this beautiful domain.
More from Rumble

December Full Moon 2020: A 'Cold Moon,' the last full moon of the year, rises tonight!

The Full Cold Moon arriving Dec. 29 will be the last full moon of the year, ushering in the winter constellations and notably, three naked-eye planets in the evening sky.

© Provided by Space "Full Cold Moon"

The moon becomes officially full at 10:28 p.m. EST (0328 Dec. 30 GMT), according to NASA's SkyCal site. For New York City observers, the moon will rise Dec. 29 at about 4:12 p.m. and set at 7:52 a.m. local time on the morning of Dec. 30.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the full moon in December is called the Full Cold Moon, and it's pretty clear why, at least if you live in the Northern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes. This particular Cold Moon will rise accompanied by Mars, which will be high in the southern skies just after sunset, as well as Jupiter and Saturn, which will be low in the west coming out of the "great conjunction," which occurred Dec. 21.

Related: Best night sky events of December 2020 (stargazing maps)
Planets to see

The great conjunction was when Jupiter and Saturn approached within one-tenth of a degree of each other on Dec. 21, appearing as a "double star" in the evening sky. The two planets move against the background stars slowly, with Jupiter completing a circuit every 12 years while Saturn takes 29 years to do so. During a conjunction they pass each other in the sky and share the same celestial longitude, but Jupiter takes long enough that this only happens approximately every 20 years in any case. This particular conjunction will be the closest since Galileo's time, the 16th century.

By Dec. 29 the two planets will still be close — about a degree apart, appearing to trail the sun in the southwest. Jupiter will set over New York City at 6:24 p.m. local time, about four minutes after Saturn.

Mars, meanwhile, will be in the constellation Pisces and making its way in to Aries. Mars takes only 687 days to circuit the sun, so it spends approximately two months in each of the constellations of the zodiac — though this can vary a lot because the borders of said constellations do not divide the zodiac into 12 perfectly even pieces. Mars is easily spotted because of its reddish color, apparent even when it has to compete with bright city lights.

Venus, meanwhile, will still be a "morning star" in the constellation Ophiuchus, rising at 5:50 a.m. local time in New York on Dec. 30. Sunrise is not until 7:19 a.m. local time, and the planet will be at 13 degrees altitude by then. Venus is bright enough that it remains visible even as the sky becomes lighter, and a fun challenge is to see how long you can still spot it as sunrise approaches. Mercury, meanwhile, is simply too close to the sun to see — at sunset on Dec. 30 it is only 2 degrees above the horizon and won't be a visible evening star for a few days.
Full moon names

Full moon names are a product of where the people that name them live and the lives they lead. This lunation will be the thirteenth of the year, and one of the names given by the Ojibwe people is Mnidoons Giizis, or "Big Spirit Moon," associated with rites of purification.

In China, the winter lunation that corresponds with the solstice is called Dōngyuè, "Winter Month", while in the Southern Hemisphere the Maori called the December-January lunation Kohi-tātea, " Fruits are now ripe, and man eats of the new food of the season," according to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand — because in the Southern Hemisphere, December is in midsummer.
Amazing Moon Photos from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Earth's Moon Phases, Monthly Lunar Cycles (Infographic)
Moon Phase Mysteries: Some Common Questions Answered

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Scientists discover a new genus and species of snake hiding in plain sight
By Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, CNN 

ANOTHER AMAZING FIND IN THE MUSEUM STORAGE ROOM

© Courtesy Jeff Weinell/The University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum The newly identified Levitonius mirus, also known as Waray dwarf burrowing snake, is native to the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines, an exceptionally biodiverse archipelago that includes at least 112 land snake species.

Sometimes, looking at things we thought we knew with fresh eyes (and new tools) can lead to incredible discoveries.

That's what happened when Jeff Weinell, a graduate research assistant at the University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute, found out that three specimens of snakes preserved in the institute's biodiversity collection, found in field missions between 2006 and 2012 and overlooked up to this point, belonged in a category of their own.

The three snake specimens are the only known members of a new snake genus, called Levitonius, and a new snake species, called Levitonius mirus.

The findings by Weinell and colleagues, based on methods including DNA analysis and CT scans looking at the snakes' bone structure, were published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Copeia.

The newly identified Levitonius mirus, also known as Waray dwarf burrowing snake, is native to the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines, an exceptionally biodiverse archipelago that includes at least 112 land snake species, according to the study.

The snake has among the fewest number of vertebrae of any snake species in the world, according to the study, and has a long and narrow skull relative to its size, Weinell explained in a conversation with CNN. Its scales are highly iridescent, and it is likely that its diet is based on earthworms.

Weinell emphasized the importance of collaboration between US-based scientists and scientists in the Philippines, furthering the understanding of biodiversity in the region.

A serendipitous discovery

Originally, Weinell was interested in learning more about a group of snakes called Pseudorabdion.

"I sequenced DNA from a bunch of specimens of that group, and this one was actually misidentified as belonging to (Pseudorabdion)," Weinell told CNN.

"When I got the DNA results back, at first I thought it was just an error on my part, or contamination from the samples," Weinell said.

Further analysis of the snakes' scales and CT scans illuminating their bone structure revealed that Weinell had stumbled onto something new.

A 'miniaturized' snake

The snake is described as a "miniaturized" genus and species, much smaller than its closest relatives, Weinell said. While Levitonius mirus reaches at most 6.7 inches in length, "the size of a pencil," he said, "the closest relatives could be three to four times larger."

"That has a lot of consequences, like reduction of the number of bones, a sort of simplification of the body," Weinell said.

"Miniaturization hasn't been observed that often, at least in snakes," the KU graduate research assistant said, and this snake represents one of the most extreme cases within the larger clade it belongs in, called Elapoidea. That clade also includes larger and venomous snakes such as cobras and mambas. Weinell said Levitonius mirus is unlikely to be venomous.

An elusive burrower

The three specimens that were examined in the study are the only known ones ever found, and the snake has never been photographed alive, Weinell told CNN.

He tried to accomplish that in 2017, by traveling to the Philippines, but his expedition was unsuccessful.

"There's still good habitat there for them to be there, but they live underground, so it's hard to find them unless you have the perfect conditions that might make them come out above the ground," Weinell explained.


A new genus, too

The findings extend beyond a species, to a whole genus of snakes.

"We described the snake as not only a new species but as a new genus because it is very different morphologically from its closest relative, Oxyrhabdium, and because the amount of genetic divergence between Levitonius and Oxyrhabdium is as high as what is usually observed between different genera," Weinell explained.

Weinell anticipates that more species in the genus will eventually be found in the Philippines, although the fact that these snakes adapted to life underground might complicate the scientists' task.


Naming new things

An especially exciting aspect of this study for Weinell was the ability to name a new genus and a new species.

The snake's common name honors the Waray-waray people who inhabit the area where the specimens were found. The scientific name, Levitonius mirus, honors Alan Leviton, a researcher at the California Academy of Sciences who spent decades studying snakes in the Philippines, and continues to do so to this day.

"He doesn't know, so this will be a surprise," Weinell said, speaking ahead of the findings' publication.

The word mirus, Latin for "extraordinary," speaks to the nature of Weinell's discovery.

"I was looking for something else and we got this, which is even cooler than what I was looking for," he said.


The importance of biodiversity collections

The fact that scientists could identify a new genus and species of snake based on specimens in a collection speaks to the importance of maintaining biodiversity repositories in research institutions and universities, according to study co-author Rafe Brown, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and curator-in-charge of the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.

"In this case, the trained 'expert field biologists' misidentified specimens -- and we did so repeatedly, over years -- failing to recognize the significance of our finds, which were preserved and assumed to be somewhat unremarkable, nondescript juveniles of common snakes," Brown is quoted saying in a release.

"A lot of times the people who are in the field, including myself even, we may not know what we're looking at at the time when we could have made the discovery -- no one can really be the expert in all of it," Weinell said.

Biodiversity collections allow scientists to return to the specimens and continue studying them in new ways.

There is a lot more to be discovered, or rediscovered, especially as technology advances and new data becomes available to the scientists.

"Now that we're getting data from whole genomes of snakes, which is really changing our way of understanding evolution as a whole, really, how we define species is still continuing to change. How that affects things in the future is not yet clear," Weinell said.