Sunday, May 10, 2020

Anna Jarvis Was Sorry She Ever Invented Mother’s Day

The woman who devoted herself to the creation of a national holiday to honor overworked, underappreciated mothers later devoted herself to fighting the commercial juggernaut it became. Was Anna Jarvis stubborn and crazy, as many came to believe, or misunderstood?

by Joel Oliphint
BuzzFeed Contributor

Big Stories·May 8, 2015

During the last 10 years of her life, Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mother’s Day, lived with her blind sister, Lillian, in a three-story redbrick house in North Philadelphia. In the late 1930s and early ’40s, a “Warning — Stay Away” sign greeted visitors, and Jarvis answered the door only if a visitor used a secret knock or a certain number of doorbell rings.

Heavy curtains hid a broken window and darkened a Victorian parlor filled with horsehair furniture and clutter from decades of Mother’s Day proclamations, letters, and news clippings. On the wall was a large portrait of her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, surrounded by holly wreaths. In a Reader’s Digest story from 1960, a reporter recounts visiting her on one of the last Mother’s Days in her Philadelphia home: “She told me, with terrible bitterness, that she was sorry she ever started Mother’s Day.”

In her younger days, Jarvis was described as attractive and intelligent. When a doll was to be made in her likeness in 1933, the instructions given from her organization, Mother’s Day Inc., were for a visage that was “fair, with blue eyes and light brown hair.” She stood 5-foot-5 and preferred blue, size 40 costume gowns with an open neck, pearl necklaces, and blue hats atop her untamed hair. In photographs Jarvis conveys confidence, but even early on, there’s a weariness in her eyes.





(AP Photo/File)
Anna Jarvis in 1928


Later in life, the New York Times described Jarvis as “worn and fragile” and “a frail little spinster who resembles Whistler’s Mother.” Newsweek said she “seldom smiled.” In amateur historian Howard Wolfe’s 1962 book Behold Thy Mother, Jarvis’ mother was said to be “the most loving and lovable teacher, with the sweetest voice and pleasing smile we have ever known,” but that Jarvis herself “lacked much of the graciousness with which her mother was most abundantly blessed.”

In late 1943, Jarvis' friends and business associates became aware of her declining health and had her committed to a sanitarium in West Chester, Pennsylvania. (Lillian stayed behind in the house and was found dead a couple of months later.) Wolfe said Jarvis displayed a particular letter on her bedroom wall at the sanitarium. “I am 6 years old and I love my mother very much,” the note read. “I am sending this to you because you started Mother’s Day.” Sewn to the letter was a $1 bill.

Jarvis died in 1948 — blind, emaciated, broke, and surrounded by strangers. She never married and never became a mother herself. “Her last days were embittered almost beyond comprehension,” Wolfe wrote.

Jarvis’ crusade to create a holiday to honor mothers in the early 20th century was only the beginning. As the day grew in popularity, she committed the next 40 years of her life to protecting and defending it from anyone who tried to co-opt Mother’s Day for their own causes and financial gain. Yet her efforts led to her own financial and emotional ruin — and were often portrayed as excessive, gaining her a reputation as an eccentric. Still, Jarvis’ battles with the candy, floral, and greeting card industries anticipated the commercialism that’s now inseparable from modern-day Mother’s Day.


Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed News

On May 28, 1876, Ann Reeves Jarvis was teaching her Sunday school class, which included daughter Anna Jarvis, then 12, about notable mothers in the Bible. She closed the lesson with a prayer: “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it,” Reeves Jarvis prayed.

Anna paid particular attention to the prayer that day. Perhaps it was the first time she realized what a thankless, sacrificial endeavor motherhood could be. As she recalled years later, “This heartrending, agonizing prayer burned its way into my mind and heart so deeply, and it never ceased to burn.”


Courtesy of West Virginia and Regional History Collection
Ann Reeves Jarvis

Anna’s mother spent much of her life championing women’s causes through work clubs that helped improve health and sanitary conditions in West Virginia, including providing assistance to mothers with tuberculosis. After the Civil War, Reeves Jarvis also created a Mothers’ Friendship Day to ease tensions and promote peace among the war-torn republic. She died in 1905, but not before burying eight or nine of her own children (genealogies vary).

According to Anna Jarvis’ brother Claude, “My sister Lillian and myself were standing beside the open grave on the side. As the bishop said, ‘Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,’ Anna broke out in a heartbreaking cry and said, ‘Mother, that prayer made in our little church in Grafton calling for someone, somewhere, sometime to found a memorial to mother’s day — the time and place is here, and the someone is your daughter. And by the grace of God, you shall have your Mother’s Day.’”

Anna Jarvis claimed she went straight from the gravesite to her home in Philadelphia, where she had moved in the 1890s, to start planning for Mother’s Day. Her campaign didn’t begin in earnest until 1907, but over the next few years, Jarvis wrote thousands of letters to any prominent figure who could wield influence: President Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and 1908 presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan, but also Mark Twain and former Postmaster General John Wanamaker. The campaign quickly gained steam, even though some — particularly women — ridiculed her idea, and the Senate initially rejected the Mother’s Day resolution in 1908. Wanamaker was one of the first to jump on board in support of her. “It seems possible if we give our hearts to this loving service, it will become one of the most beautiful days of our lives,” he wrote. Twain’s commendation was printed in newspapers in Philadelphia and New York, and Bryan said he was “heartily in sympathy with the movement.”

On May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day services were held in Grafton at Andrews Church and in Philadelphia, where Jarvis spoke for 70 minutes at the Wanamaker Store Auditorium. The venue seated 5,000, but 15,000 tried to gain admission. Wolfe wrote that Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University, heaped praise on Jarvis after her address. “You are a convincing orator, a brilliant thinker,” he said. “You will be able to obtain what you want. Your Mother’s Day idea will honor you through ages to come.”

Most states held Mother’s Day celebrations over the next few years, and Jarvis, who proved an adept publicist, annually requested official Mother’s Day proclamations from state governors, who implored their citizens to observe the day and wear a white carnation. “Next to the name of God,” Kansas Gov. Walter Stubbs proclaimed, “the sweetest word in the English tongue is ‘mother.’” With virtually the entire United States celebrating Mother’s Day state by state, Woodrow Wilson signed legislation designating the second Sunday in May a national holiday in 1914.

Jarvis declared the white carnation the official flower of Mother’s Day, and she urged sons and daughters to visit their mothers or, at the very least, to write home on Mother’s Day. “Live this day as your mother would have you live it,” Jarvis instructed in her letters. Her vision for the day was domestic — focusing on a mother’s role within the home — and highly sentimental. It was to be celebrated “in honor of the best mother who ever lived — your own.”


Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed News

Founding Mother’s Day and fulfilling her mother’s wish was Jarvis’ crowning achievement, and continued to be her all-consuming, singular purpose in life well after the day was officially established in 1914. It wasn’t enough for her to be the originator of Mother’s Day. Jarvis wanted to own it, and she didn’t want any outside forces corrupting her vision of what the day should be. She incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, copyrighted her own photograph, and trademarked the Mother’s Day Seal with a drawing of a carnation and the words “Mother’s Day” (always singular possessive to distinguish from “Mothers’ Day” impostors), “Second Sunday in May,” and, of course, “Anna Jarvis Founder.”


Courtesy Lancaster Historical Society

Each year Jarvis put together an official Mother’s Day program that included a personal message and suggested music and readings to be used at services and celebrations. All of this required so much time that she quit her job with a life insurance company, where she had been the first female literary and advertising editor, to work on Mother’s Day full-time. She spent the rest of her life promoting her founding vision for the day while also fighting the floral, confectionary, and greeting card industries (“schemers” and “profiteers,” as she called them) who were making money off her holiday.

In 1923, for example, Jarvis crashed the convention of the Associated Retail Confectioners in Philadelphia, accusing them of “gouging the public.” “I want to tell you that you are using a beautiful idea as a means of profiteering,” she told the confectioners, according to a New York Times story. “As the founder of Mother’s Day, I demand that it cease … Mother’s Day was not intended to be a source of commercial profit.”

Nonprofits were also fair game: In 1925, Jarvis was charged with disorderly conduct at a convention of the American War Mothers, which sold carnations to raise funds for servicemen and their families. “It was alleged that Miss Jarvis appeared without invitation at the convention of War Mothers and protested against the adoption of the carnation as the emblem for that organization,” the Times reported.

She even turned on Wanamaker, her biggest champion early on. In one news clipping, a former assistant to Jarvis recounted a story in which Jarvis ordered a salad in the Wanamaker's tea room only to dump it on the floor because it was designated a “Mother’s Day Salad.” In a letter, she accused Wanamaker of trying to crush her movement.

At one time, Jarvis reportedly had 33 Mother’s Day–related lawsuits pending. No one was immune from her stranglehold on the holiday — not even the president’s wife. Eleanor Roosevelt was the honorary chair of the Golden Rule Foundation, which sponsored a fund for needy mothers and their children. Jarvis claimed the organization was trespassing on her cause and commercializing the day, and threatened to sue.

“I think she misunderstands us,” the first lady told the Times in March 1931. “She wanted Mothers’ Day observed. We want it observed, are working for its observance and are really aiding her.”

Early on, Jarvis endorsed boycotts of florists who raised the price of carnations every May. In 1908, she bought 500 carnations for half a penny each; by 1912, they were 15 cents apiece. Jarvis told her cousin in a letter that “the florists are the leaders in causing me so much trouble” — so much trouble that Jarvis eventually rescinded the carnation as the official emblem, replacing it with a Mother’s Day International Association button. “This will do away with profiteering tradesmen and carnation peddlers seeking their own profit through Mother’s Day,” she wrote.

But, of course, the button and lawsuits and protests and boycotts didn’t do away with any of that. Try as she might, Jarvis couldn’t stop Mother’s Day from becoming a cash cow. One stroll through the grocery store in the first two weeks of May proves as much. Last year the National Retail Federation estimated Americans would spend about $20 billion on Mother’s Day gifts; 80% will buy greeting cards, and 66% will buy flowers.


Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed News

One hundred and one years after Mother’s Day became a national holiday, how do we explain Jarvis’ life and legacy? Was she truly the delusional, “frail little spinster” news reports described? Defending a holiday against commercialization is one thing — but why fight, repeatedly, with beloved charities?

No one knows the story of Anna Jarvis better than Katharine Antolini, a professor of history and gender studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She lives about 45 minutes from Grafton, where the church Jarvis and her mother attended is now the International Mother’s Day Shrine: a historic but unassuming redbrick building with a white steeple that sits on Main Street and looks like countless other small-town churches of the era.

“They’re lovely people, but none of them are archivists or historians,” she says of the shrine’s volunteers. “All these great, nearly 100-year-old documents were sitting in a box on the floor in the kitchen. I spent the summer [of 2004] archiving the documents, and there was this one letter. It was seven pages long, typed. [Jarvis] wrote it to her cousin in 1933, and she’s ranting about all these people.”

That letter, along with other documents that had been hidden from historians in a box for decades, piqued Antolini’s interest. What began as an archival reorganization project eventually became Antolini’s dissertation and, later, a book. Antolini doesn’t shy away from Jarvis’ eccentricities, but she also sets out to explain her behavior.

“I think a lot of it was ego-driven — wanting to be ‘Anna Jarvis, founder of Mother’s Day,’” Antolini says. “She would constantly sign letters that way. It was such a big part of her identity and her adult life, so any kind of threat to take that away from her is what terrified her.”


Courtesy of International Mother's Day Shrine

But Jarvis was also an unmarried, childless, opinionated, economically independent woman living in the first half of the 20th century. “Sometimes calling her crazy was a way to dismiss a strong woman who had a vision and a movement and was determined to see it through her way,” Antolini says. “Those are the kind of qualities that you would have respected in a man in the early 20th century — not so much in a woman. To be willing to sue and to stand up to the elites of New York City and challenge Eleanor Roosevelt…in a lot of ways, she was fearless.”

Read through that lens, the media’s constant reference to Jarvis as a spinster becomes a way to frame her as damaged or undesirable and to undermine her accomplishments. Because of Jarvis' notoriety, generating copy about her — good, bad, embellished — was part of the publicity apparatus of the times.

“Everything you read in Time or Newsweek — how much of it really did happen, and how much of it was blown up to make a good story and to make this strong woman seem crazy?” Antolini says. Jarvis fought back against the media’s characterizations of her — in 1938, she sent out a press release saying the way she was depicted in a Time story was defamatory and libelous — yet her own, ongoing Mother’s Day publicity campaign ensured she’d stay in the news.

Even today, it’s difficult to separate mythology from fact. Take one of Jarvis’ best-known quotes, which is cited in nearly every online article about her: “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world.” Neither Antolini nor I came across this quote in documents. It doesn’t sound unlike something Jarvis would say, but the source is unknown, if it exists at all.

By all accounts, Jarvis stayed true to her claim of never profiting financially from the holiday she founded. She was committed to protecting the purity of Mother’s Day, and she believed money sullied that purity. Antolini says Jarvis didn’t trust charities’ allocation of funds, but she especially hated the notion that charitable causes were transforming Mother’s Day into an occasion where mothers were to be pitied more than honored. “You honor them regardless of how rich or how poor or what color or creed,” Antolini says. “That, to me, makes sense. She has some valid complaints about how her day was being used.”

Still, not all of Jarvis’ eccentricities can be chalked up to gender biases of the day. Accusing any charity that borrowed Mother’s Day language of lining its own pockets seems ungracious at best and paranoid at worst. Antolini also wonders about the naïveté of Jarvis’ desire to establish a nationally recognized memorial for mothers while at the same time wanting to keep it pure and protected. “What did she honestly think was going to happen?” Antolini says.


Dave CC BY-NC/via Flickr: crazysanmanhistory

Only one of Jarvis’ siblings, Josiah, had children, and his granddaughter died childless in the 1980s. Howard Wolfe knew the granddaughter and received many of Anna Jarvis’ papers; he painstakingly transcribed nearly 300 pages' worth of correspondence on a typewriter. As Wolfe wrote in 1962, “Her interesting life, her 84 years of consecration and devotion to a cause … will endear the Jarvis name for all future generations.”

It didn’t quite happen that way. While Mother’s Day continues to be celebrated around the world on the second Sunday in May, Anna Jarvis, along with her particular vision of what she deemed a “holy day” rather than a holiday, are mostly forgotten.

“For the day to be popular, she no longer has to be connected to it,” Antolini says. “Now that the child has grown up, you no longer have to associate it with its mother.”



There was a reason Jarvis emphasized writing letters home rather than relying on greeting cards, which have a tendency to simplify a relationship dynamic that, for many, is complicated. Let’s say you’d like to tell your mother in a letter that she’s truly the best mother you could possibly imagine, just as Jarvis intended. Today, it would be difficult to do so without sounding like an overly sentimental Hallmark card. In other words, the commercial corruption of Mother’s Day has rendered cliché our ability to talk about how wonderful a mother is. A sentiment that at one time might have sounded heartfelt and sincere now sounds like a platitude, as your local Target and Walgreens and Walmart have aisles full of greeting cards for sale with that same sentiment, and millions of sons and daughters will purchase those cards — myself included. Just this week, standing in a checkout line with a handful of Mother’s Day cards (sorry, Ms. Jarvis), the cashier sighed. “I feel bad,” she said. “I’ve been scanning all these cards and I haven’t even bought one yet. They’re so expensive!”

Those sappy cards seem harmless, even helpful. But the trickle-down effect of their trite sayings and inflated prices is sneakier than one might imagine. Perhaps Jarvis knew this. It was a losing battle, but maybe she could see the future more clearly than her contemporaries. Maybe she could see that the Hallmarkification of Mother’s Day would actually make it harder, not easier, to communicate a true, deep, and loving appreciation of mothers.


Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed News

The author would like to thank West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Katharine Antolini for her assistance with this piece.





California county says Tesla may not reopen vehicle factory, stifling Musk's plans

Tina Bellon, Nathan Frandino


(Reuters) - Tesla Inc “must not reopen” its vehicle factory in the San Francisco Bay area as local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect, the local county health department said on Friday.


Tesla Inc?s only U.S. vehicle factory is seen in Fremont, California, U.S., during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Nathan Frandino

The comments came after Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, told employees Thursday evening that limited production would restart at the factory in Fremont, Tesla’s only U.S. vehicle factory, on Friday afternoon.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday afternoon said that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen. But Alameda County, where the factory is located, is scheduled to remain shut until the end of May.

A spokeswoman for the Alameda County Public Health Department in a statement referred to the county’s coronavirus lockdown order that only permits essential businesses to reopen.

“Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen,” the spokeswoman said.

Earlier on Friday, Erica Pan, a health officer for the county, said the department has had many discussions with the company and recommended that Tesla wait at least another week to monitor infection rates and discuss safe ways to resume production.


Pan, speaking during a virtual townhall with the mayor of the city of Alameda, called Tesla a “very hot topic.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vehicle manufacturing operations are not allowed to operate regularly, according to the Alameda County order.

Musk has been bluntly criticizing the lockdown and stay-at-home orders, calling them a “serious risk” to U.S. business and tagging them “unconstitutional,” saying they would not hold up before the U.S. Supreme Court if challenged.

Tesla, in an internal mail seen by Reuters, had said that starting Friday, limited operation would resume at the Fremont factory with 30% of normal headcount per shift.

“Our Gigafactories in Nevada and New York have also begun limited operations as approved by their respective states,” the mail said.


However, Musk said employees who feel uncomfortable coming back to work were not obligated to do so.

Tesla had sparred with officials in California in March Tesla over whether it had to halt production at the Fremont factory under lockdown orders that allowed only essential businesses to continue to operate. It ended the stand-off in mid-March and said it would suspend production.

The lockdown order was imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has infected over 3.8 million people globally.


Reporting by Tina Bellon in New York and Nathan Frandino in San Francisco; additional reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler


 Eleven captured for failed maritime 'invasion' of Venezuela
Venezuelan Presidency/AFP/File / Marcelo GarciaA handout picture released by the Venezuelan Presidency shows on May 4, 2020, passports of US citizens arrested by security forces in relation to a failed maritime 'invasion'
Eleven alleged "terrorists" were arrested on Sunday in connection with the failed maritime "invasion" of Venezuela, authorities said, bringing the total captured to more than 40.
"Captured today #10May 2020, another three terrorist mercenaries in Colonia Tovar," about an hour from Caracas, tweeted armed forces chief Admiral Remigio Ceballos.
Hours later, state television reported that military personnel had captured an additional eight "terrorists" in the northern coastal state of Vargas.
The arrests came after another three alleged "mercenaries" were arrested Saturday, according to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"We have been meticulously looking for all those involved and we are going to capture them all," Maduro announced during a television address.
The botched invasion attempt -- which Maduro has compared to the Bay of Pigs incident in 1961 -- saw men landing in early May at Macuto, less than an hour from Caracas. In total, 45 people have been arrested.
Eight attackers were reportedly killed in the incident.
Among the detainees are two former US soldiers, Luke Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, who have been imprisoned and charged with "terrorism, conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and (criminal) association." They could face between 25 to 30 years in prison.
The others implicated in the case are Venezuelans.
The left-wing Maduro government claims the plan was to remove him from power and allow opposition leader Juan Guaido -- recognized as the interim president by the United States and 50 other nations -- to take control.
Maduro has said he believes US President Donald Trump was involved in the operation, with Guaido as his accomplice.
Trump has strongly denied the accusations.
Despite Maduro's accusations against him, Guaido has not been charged with any alleged crimes.
U.S. offers bankrupt refiner $10 million cap on biofuel obligation: filing

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration has offered to place a $10 million cap on Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ biofuel blending obligations, effectively slashing the bankrupt refiner’s regulatory liability by more than 70%, according to a proposed settlement between the two parties dated earlier this week.

The deal is intended to free up more cash for the company to pay off its list of creditors, according to the filing.

It marks the second time the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump has agreed to waive significant portions of PES’s obligations under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, a law that requires refiners to blend biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool or buy credits from those that do.

Under the agreement, PES - which entered into bankruptcy after a catastrophic fire last summer - will have to hand over 161,830,963 biofuel blending credits, called RINs, or pay up to $10 million to meet its obligations, whichever comes first, the filing said. The cost of those credits had previously been estimated at $35 million, according to court documents.

The agreement “can reduce the $35 million RINs Retirement Obligation Reserve to $10 million on the Effective Date, which makes funds available to satisfy the creditors’ claims promptly,” the filing said.

RINs, or Renewable Identification Numbers, are used by oil refiners to show compliance with the RFS and are generated with every gallon of biofuel produced.

Trump’s EPA had previously waived some $350 million in biofuels compliance costs for PES after its initial bankruptcy in 2018. That deal allowed PES to briefly exit bankruptcy before the 2019 fire triggered its latest collapse.

PES blended little to no biofuels itself, which meant it was required to buy credits to comply with the RFS. Before its 2018 bankruptcy, however, the refiner took a large short position in the RIN market by opting to delay its purchases of those credits, and even sold some of the credits it had on hand, ballooning its exposure when it went bust.

The shut 335,000 barrel-per-day Philadelphia refinery site will be sold for $252 million and redeveloped under a plan approved in bankruptcy court earlier this year. The sale ended months of uncertainty over whether the idled plant would be restarted.

Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Paul Simao


For cops who kill, special Supreme Court protection

The U.S. high court’s continual refinement of an obscure legal doctrine has made it harder to hold police accountable when accused of using excessive force.


A REUTERS SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-police-immunity-scotus/

When cops kill, redress is rare - except in famous cases
By LAWRENCE HURLEY and ANDREA JANUTA Filed May 8, 2020
TWO SIDES OF THE STREET: Police and protesters squared off after an officer shot and killed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, fueling national debate about police tactics. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The 2014 shooting death of black teen Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted angry protests and trained a national spotlight on a perceived lack of police accountability for violent encounters with the public.

Since then, the “Black Lives Matter” movement – sparked by the killing of black teen Trayvon Martin by civilian George Zimmerman in Florida in 2012 – has become closely associated with critiques of overly aggressive policing, particularly against black people. Heightened public awareness, enhanced by the increasing prevalence of cellphone video, has kept the issue front and center through a series of incidents that have made national headlines in recent years.
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For cops who kill, special Supreme Court protection



Taking the measure of qualified immunity: How Reuters analyzed the data



Before the court: A united front takes aim at qualified immunity


These high-profile cases – unlike most excessive force lawsuits against police that Reuters reviewed – are outliers, resulting in generous settlement offers and sometimes even criminal charges before police had any recourse to claiming qualified immunity.


Killing of rare river dolphins sparks poaching fears in Bangladesh lockdown

The rare Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India
The rare Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India
The gutted carcass of a freshwater dolphin has been found in a river sanctuary in Bangladesh, officials said Sunday, sparking fears fishermen are taking advantage of the virus lockdown to poach the endangered creatures.
Locals in the southeastern town of Raojan found the remains of the 62-inch (157-centimetre) long Ganges river dolphin on the banks of the Halda River, fishery department official Abdullah al Mamun told AFP.
It had suffered a sharp and deep incision from its neck to tail and layers of its body fat—from which oil is extracted for use in —were missing, he said.
The dolphin is the second to be found dead in the same sanctuary since Bangladesh imposed its lockdown to tackle the coronavirus, said Manzoorul Kibria, coordinator of the Halda River Research Laboratory (HRRL).
Bangladesh prohibits the killing of Ganges dolphins, which are categorised as endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species.
A local official, who asked to remain anonymous, said locals were starting to trawl the Halda river, as understaffed police who usually patrol the region were busy enforcing the lockdown in Raojan.
"They are trying to make a living by catching fish illegally," local forestry department head Yasin Nawaz said, adding that the same nets also often caught dolphins.
Once the creatures are trapped, they prove easy pickings for poachers who sell their fat and oil, Kibria said.
"Many local villagers believe dolphin fat can cure diseases. It fetches a good price."
Kibria added he feared the latest death could be the start of a "killing spree" of the rare creature.
The Ganges river dolphin is found in the river systems of Nepal, Bangladesh and India and has a population of between 1,200 to 1,800, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
They can weigh up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and grow to 2.6 meters (eight feet) long, are known for their long beaks which have 28 sharp teeth on both sides of their jaws.
The Halda river is home to around 170 dolphins, according to HRRL.Oil spill threatens rare Bangladesh dolphin breeding zone
© 2020 AFP
Rise in German virus infections spurs concern

Coronavirus. Credit: European Centers for Disease Control

Germany's coronavirus spread appears to be picking up speed again, official data showed Sunday, just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country could gradually return to normal.
The Robert Koch Institute for public health said Germany's closely watched reproduction rate (R0) had climbed to 1.1, meaning 10 people with COVID-19 infect on average 11 others.

The RKI has warned that for the infection rate to be deemed under control and slowing down, R0 has to stay below one.

As recently as Wednesday, Germany's number stood at 0.65.

But since then the country has reported clusters of new cases at slaughterhouses and at care homes for the elderly.

The RKI cautioned that it was too soon to draw conclusions but said the number of new infections "would need to be watched very closely in the coming days".

The latest data raised alarm after Merkel only on Wednesday declared that Germany had left the "first phase" of the pandemic behind it and federal states announced relaxations of social restrictions.


Most shops and playgrounds have reopened, children are gradually returning to classrooms and states are to varying degrees reopening restaurants, gyms and places of worship.

German local authorities have however agreed to pull an "emergency brake" and reimpose social curbs if the infection rate rises above 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a week.

That has already happened in at least three districts in recent days, according to the RKI.

Football, slaughterhouses
In Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, there has been a spike in cases at a slaughterhouse in the district of Coesfeld, where around 200 of the 1,200 employees have tested positive for the virus.

Many of them are foreign workers from eastern Europe who lived in shared housing.

The regional government has ordered workers at all of the state's slaughterhouses to undergo testing. It has also delayed the loosening of some confinement measures in the district.

An outbreak of COVID-19 at a slaughterhouse in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein has likewise pushed the district of Steinburg over the infection threshold.

In the eastern state of Thuringia, Greiz district has reported a jump in infections among residents and employees of several care homes and a geriatrics hospital.

There were also fresh fears for the planned restart of the Bundesliga football season on May 16 after second-tier Dynamo Dresden were ordered to go into quarantine over two coronavirus cases.

Protests

Despite the rising concerns, some Germans believe the country is not moving fast enough in easing the confinement measures.

Thousand of people took to streets in cities nationwide at the weekend to protest against the remaining restrictions, such as wearing a mask on public transport and limiting social contacts.

Tensions rose at a rally in Berlin on Saturday, where hundreds of protesters chanted "Freedom, Freedom" and some threw bottles at police. Several dozen people were taken into custody.

In Munich, where some 3,000 protesters gathered on Saturday, police criticised participants for not sticking to social distancing rules.

The demos, which have grown larger in recent weeks, have mostly attracted a mix of far-right and far-left sympathisers.

But they are increasingly becoming more mainstream.

A well-known politician from the liberal Free Democrats party (FDP), Thomas Kemmerich, came under fire for joining a protest in Thuringia state that was also attended by members of the far-right AfD party.

Germany's confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 357 to 169,575: RKI

FILE PHOTO: A member of medical personnel refills a disinfectant dispenser as employees of meat marketer "Westfleisch" wait in line to get tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a provisional testing center at the premises of a "Westfleisch" meat factory, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hamm, Germany, May 10, 2020. REUTERS/Leon Kuegeler

BERLIN (Reuters) - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 357 to 169,575, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Monday.

The reported death toll rose by 22 to 7,417, the tally showed.

Reporting by Berlin Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman

Women harder hit than men from coronavirus in Quebec 


women
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Women in the Canadian province of Quebec have been harder hit by the coronavirus than men, according to the province's health services.
Contrary to trends in other countries where men have been most affected, women account for 59.7 percent of the people infected by the virus in Quebec, and 54 percent of the deaths, the Quebec National Institute of Public Health reported over the weekend.
The institute said there were 36,986 confirmed coronavirus cases in the province and 2,786 deaths.
The institute offered no explanation for why women were more affected than men, but a large majority of nurses and caregivers of the elderly are .
The age group most affected by the virus was 30- to 49-year-olds, who accounted for 28 percent of those infected.
People between the ages of 80 and 89 accounted for 40 percent of the deaths, followed by 33.4 percent among people 90 and older.
According to the institute, Quebec has a  rate of 326 per million inhabitants, placing it behind Spain (566), Italy (500) and Britain (465), but ahead of Canada as a whole (124).

© 2020 AFP
With fewer humans to fear, flamingos flock to Albania lagoon

by Hektor Pustina 
MAY 10, 2020
In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

Home confinement rules have upset some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic has allowed flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea.

Local officials and residents say the flamingo population is up to about 3,000 at Narta Lagoon, an important waterfowl habitat that greater flamingos returned to in recent years after a long absence. Bird watchers also have noticed more pelicans, herons and other species this spring at the 28-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) lagoon, which is 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of Tirana, the capital.

"Isn't that beautiful to see fearless flamingos all around?" Dhimiter Konomi, part of a local group that manages commercial fishing in Narta Lagoon, said as the big, long-necked birds stood in the shallow water.

Operations halting at a nearby saltworks and reduced human activity of all types during the pandemic explains why birds are flocking to the lagoon, said Nexhip Hysolokaj, a regional biodiversity expert. Flamingos are "a very delicate species," and not having vehicles or visitors around suits them, he said.

"They have found food and calmness, and that has likely helped them increase the numbers," Hysolokaj said.

In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)
In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos fly in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)
In this Saturday May 2, 2020 photo flamingos gather in Narta Lagoon, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the Albanian capital of Tirana. Home confinement rules have angered and anguished some people in Albania, but humans getting their wings clipped during the coronavirus pandemic is allowing flamingos and other birds to flourish in a coastal lagoon by the Adriatic Sea. (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)

Researchers plan to study the flamingos to see if the coronavirus-induced calm is conducive to establishing the lagoon as a place where they can nest and breed.

Konomi says a lagoon crowded with feathered life is a treasure that could boost tourism.

But Hysolokaj is less keen to attract conventional tourists to the lagoon, which is part of a protected landscape of sand dunes, wetlands, islands and beaches that supports diverse fauna as well as birds. He described it as the "lung" of Vlora, the nearest city.

"There should be a stable but alternative tourism, naturally letting campers come, beaches used, with environmental biking, educational paths and more because it's so close to Vlora," Hysolokaj said.Birds in paradise: Albania's flamingos flourish in virus lockdown

© 2020 The Associated Press.
The role of European policy for improving power plant fuel efficiency

by University of Chicago MAY 9, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists investigates the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the largest international cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions in the world, on power plant fuel efficiency.

In "The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and Fuel Efficiency of Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Germany" author Robert Germeshausen studies German power plants and finds that a reduction in fuel use by fossil fuel power plants due to the introduction of the EU ETS translates into reductions in total annual carbon emissions of about 1.5 to 2 percent within the German power sector.

To put this improvement into context, this decrease in fuel input on average is equivalent to a reduction of around four to six million tons in annual carbon emissions. The results point to the role of actual investment in generation technology to improve fuel efficiency as Germeshausen finds positive effects on large investments in machinery.


The power sector is central to climate protection strategies, including those in Germany, where it accounts for around 40 percent of total annual carbon emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that reducing the carbon intensity of electricity generation (also known as decarbonizing) is a key component of cost-effective mitigation strategies. "Hence, understanding the effects of existing climate policies on the power sector is crucial for the further development of policies to achieve mitigation targets efficiently," writes Germeshausen.

The EU ETS puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions from regulated installations to achieve emission reductions and to provide incentives for investments in low-carbon technologies. Germeshausen utilizes administrative annual plant-level data covering around 85 percent of fossil fuel electricity generation in Germany from 2003 to 2012. Germany's electricity generation fleet consists of a variety of hard coal, lignite, nuclear, and natural gas power plants as well as renewable energy installations.

Germeshausen draws conclusions on the effect of carbon pricing on the optimal input combination in electricity generation and also on fuel efficiency improvements as a measure to reduce carbon emissions in the power sector. He additionally analyzes potential effects on labor efficiency, investments in machinery, and utilization of power plants.

Unlike previous studies on productivity and efficiency effects from policies and regulation in the electricity generation sector, which focus mainly on the effects of deregulation on productivity and efficiency, this study differs with respect to the nature of the influence. 

"Understanding the impacts on regulated entities is crucial for the assessment and the further development of mitigation policies such as emission trading schemes," Germeshausen writes. Given the high variable cost share of fuel in power generation, the introduction of a carbon price may provide carbon intensive power plants with an incentive to improve fuel efficiency.

Germeshausen finds that the ETS negatively impacts the capacity factor, i.e., carbon intensive plants produce less output in relation to their potential output compared to less carbon intensive plants. "Thus, the effect should be interpreted as a positive net effect on fuel efficiency, exceeding a potential negative fuel efficiency effect from decreased utilization of carbon intensive power plants."


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More information: Robert Germeshausen, The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and Fuel Efficiency of Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Germany, Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (2020). DOI: 10.1086/708894

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