CANADA  
Human rights museum criticized, employees say work environment racist

12/6/2020

© Provided by The Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — The Canadian Museum for Human Rights will conduct an external review following social media posts alleging a racist and discriminatory work environment.

"We recognize we have both a responsibility and an obligation to listen and learn from those who have shared their experiences," John Young, the museum's president, said Thursday.

"We take them very seriously and acknowledge their frustration. It's apparent in the messaging they shared."

The Winnipeg museum posted images of a Justice for Black Lives rally in the city last Friday on its Facebook page. People who say they are current and former employees began responding that it was hypocritical because of racism they faced working at the museum.

One person said she worked at the museum for four years and experienced the most racism she'd ever seen in her life.

Other people online shared stories about Black or Indigenous employees being used by management to show diversity to donors. They also spoke about some visitors to the museum being racist and employees having no support.

Young responded in a post online, saying it's not enough for the museum to make statements opposing racism.

"We must identify shortcomings and blind spots, both within ourselves as individuals and within the museum, and take concrete steps to improve," he said.

Young said the museum will reach out to staff and volunteers who are Black, Indigenous and people of colour to listen to their experiences and concerns.

The museum will also hire an external organization to do an audit of its workplace practices and policies. Young said changes cannot just come from the top and the museum will work with employees to improve.

"There are very high expectations for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights."

Some people posting online said they are skeptical of the museum's response. Some also called for a review of Black content at the museum.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union that represents staff at the museum, said these issues have been raised with management since 2018.

Marianne Hladun, executive vice-president for the Prairie region, said in a news release Thursday that museum management rejected proposals to have anti-harassment training for all staff.

"It is not enough for any institution, never mind a museum dedicated to human rights, to make statements opposing racism while continuing to allow a toxic culture that harasses people of colour and makes them feel worthless."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2020

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

Court: Michigan Great Lakes tunnel deal constitutional

© Provided by The Canadian Press

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that legislators did not violate the state constitution by allowing construction of an oil pipeline tunnel beneath a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, clearing the way for the project to proceed unless another court intervenes.

A three-judge panel affirmed a ruling last November by the Michigan Court of Claims, which upheld a law authorizing a deal between former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian pipeline company Enbridge.

They had negotiated a plan to drill the tunnel through bedrock beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lakes Michigan and Huron and divides Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.

It would house a pipeline that would replace a four-mile-long (six-kilometre-long) underwater segment of Enbridge's Line 5, which carries crude oil and natural gas liquids used in propane between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario.

Lawmakers approved the agreement during a lame-duck session in December 2018 over objections that the measure was drafted sloppily and rushed to enactment before Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who criticized the deal, took over for Snyder the following month.

“The handout to Enbridge allowed the company to avoid the normal vetting process of a project of this magnitude — cutting out public comment and input,” said Beth Wallace, conservation partnerships manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office.
Snyder and Republican legislators said the deal was struck after years of public discussion.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, issued an opinion in March 2019 that the authorizing bill was unconstitutional because its provisions far exceeded what its title specified.

Enbridge requested a ruling from the Court of Claims, where Judge Michael Kelly found that lawmakers had adequately followed the constitutional requirement to express a bill's "general purpose or object” in its title.

Appeals judges Thomas Cameron, Mark Boonstra and Anica Letica — all appointed by Snyder — agreed.

“We conclude that the title ... does not address objects so diverse that they have no necessary connection,” they said in a written opinion Thursday.

The ruling was a victory for Enbridge, which says it plans to finish the tunnel by 2024.

“We look forward to working with the state to make a safe pipeline even safer,” spokesman Ryan Duffy said. “We are investing $500 million in the tunnel’s construction – thereby further protecting the waters of the Great Lakes and everyone who uses them.”

Whitmer's office is reviewing the decision, spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said.

Nessel will ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take the case, spokeswoman Courtney Covington said.

“While we are disappointed by the Court of Appeals' decision, we stand by our position that (the law) is unconstitutional,” she said.

The constitution's provision about titles is intended to prevent deception about what bills would do.

The disputed measure's title was lengthy, authorizing state boards to acquire and operate the planned tunnel and perform numerous other duties. Even so, Nessel argued that the bill went well beyond what the title indicated.

But the appeals judges found that “neither the legislators nor the public were deprived of fair notice" of the contents.

Nessel is pursuing a separate lawsuit that seeks to shut down Line 5 — long a goal of environmentalists who say a rupture could devastate waters and shorelines in a sensitive area home to endangered species and prized by tourists.

The 67-year-old underwater segment consists of two pipes that carry a combined 23 million gallons (87 million litres) daily. Enbridge says the lines are inspected regularly and are in good condition. But protective outer coating has worn away in some spots and erosion has required the installation of steel braces. A barge and tugboat anchor struck the pipes in 2018.

“This daily threat must end regardless if any oil tunnel is ever constructed,” said Sean McBrearty, campaign co-ordinator for the group Oil & Water Don’t Mix.

John Flesher, The Associated Press

The City That Actually Got Rid of the Police


By Katherine Landergan
13/6/2020

CAMDEN, N.J.— It was the moment that America needed.

Days after George Floyd died at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, a different scene was playing out in what was once the most dangerous city in the United States.

Joseph D. Wysocki was marching in the streets of Camden alongside residents in “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts. He found the organizer of the protest: Yolanda Deaver. Wysocki introduced himself and asked if he could join her. Absolutely, she said, and the two started marching together, holding up a sign reading STANDING IN SOLIDARITY. And then they posed for a now-viral photo.

“I’d seen her do the peace symbol, you know, it's not something I ever do. But I really thought it was appropriate,” he said. “I think everybody wanted peace.”

Wysocki wasn’t just any 50-year-old white man. He was the chief of Camden police. And as protests erupted across the country, this moment—Wysocki and the protester with their banner, peace signs and clenched fists held high—gave Americans reason to think its widening social fractures really could be healed.

© April Saul via AP AP20153061124713.jpg
Thank you Yolanda Deaver for organizing and leading Camden's peaceful protest over the weekend. Your leadership and example, alongside @CamdenCountyPD Chief Joe Wysocki, continues to send positive waves throughout our nation. https://t.co/dOgfzZvyg1— Donald Norcross (@DonNorcross4NJ) June 3, 2020

Behind that image is a years-long story of how Camden officials transformed policing in a city where the murder rate was once on par with Honduras. The police were despised by residents for being ineffective at best and corrupt at worst. Today, violent crime in the city has decreased, and police officers are a regular presence at community block parties.

As a movement grows in American cities and suburbs to overhaul police departments and confront their long records of racially unjust, violent enforcement, Camden is one rare—and complicated—success story, a city that really did manage to overhaul its police force and change how it operated. And it took a move as radical and controversial as what some activists are calling for today: Camden really did abolish its police department.

And then the city set about rebuilding the police force with an entirely new one under county control, using the opportunity to increase the number of cops on the streets and push through a number of now-heralded progressive police reforms. And with time, the changes started to stick in a department that just years earlier seemed unfixable.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Camden County Metro police officers in 2014.

Over the past two weeks, Camden has become an example of reform that works—cited in articles, tweets and on network shows as an example of what can go right. And it’s true that the reforms produced real change in the statistics: The excessive use of force rates plummeted. The homicide rate decreased. And new incentives laid the groundwork for a completely new understanding of what it meant to be a good cop.


“You had to change the underlying principles of the way police officers were being trained and taught, and the culture in the department,” said former Governor Chris Christie, who supported the changes in Camden. “The most effective way to do that was to start over.”

The reforms carry lessons for what it takes to transform the police in any city. They ultimately amounted to nothing less than a reboot of the culture of policing in Camden, changing the way every beat cop in the city did his or her job. And they also required enough political will at the top—all the way to the governor—to survive opposition from police unions and some residents. The case of Camden shows that if there’s enough motivation to blow it all up and start over from both the top and the bottom, reforming a police force is achievable.

But nothing is as simple as it sounds in a tweet. While largely a success story, the overhaul was by no means a clear win for social-justice progressives who are driving the police-reform debate nationally. The Camden police reform was—and remains—politically divisive. In part that was because union contracts were thrown out, leaving many on the force earning a lower salary and with fewer benefits. And it required very strange bedfellows to succeed—an all-powerful Democratic machine, a Republican governor, conservative budget-cutters and progressive police thinkers, all aligned to break an established department and start over.

© Spencer Platt/Getty Images, AP Photo/Mel Evans Empty homes and a downtown shopping area in Camden in 2012.

In 2010, Camden hit rock bottom. In 2010, Camden hit rock bottom. The city, population 77,000, was widely considered one of the most dangerous in America. A depopulated former manufacturing center across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, and the home of the first condensed Campbell’s soup plant, the city had more than 3,000 abandoned buildings. Almost 40 percent of residents lived below the poverty line. At one point, the city had 175 open-air drug markets, and 80 percent of drug arrests were of non-residents, suggesting that out-of-towners were making a stop in Camden just to buy and sell.

Violent crime had been high in the city for decades, but it was about to get worse, because the police department was broke. In 2010, Camden, faced with a $14 million budget deficit, laid off half of its police force. Arrests in 2011 fell to almost half of what they had been just two years earlier, and burglaries increased by 65 percent. The murder rate skyrocketed. Eventually, residents largely gave up on calling police for minor crimes.

On top of that, the police department had a reputation for bad cops. Of the 37 excessive use of force complaints levied in 2011, not one had been “sustained,” or clearly proven or disproven, which raised serious red flags about accountability with the executive director of the ACLU in New Jersey at the time. In 2010, five officers in the department were charged with evidence planting, fabrication and perjury. Later, state and federal courts would go on to overturn the convictions of 88 people who had been arrested and charged by those officers.

The idea for dissolving the Camden police force came amid the backdrop of a push by both Governor Chris Christie and Democratic state lawmakers to regionalize city and town services in a new era of government austerity. State Sen. Don Norcross, Camden County Freeholder Lou Cappelli and Mayor Dana Redd started promoting the idea of dissolving the Camden police force and creating a new county-led force to replace it. The plan also had the support of George Norcross, an insurance executive and Democratic powerbroker in southern New Jersey (and brother of Don), and Christie.© AP Photo/Mel Evans Top: Camden Mayor Dana Redd. Bottom left: State Sen. Donald Norcross. Bottom right: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

A state statute was already on the books allowing counties to create police departments that towns then have the choice to opt into. But the plan would also involve busting a union: The city force had already been unionized, but the new county one would not be unionized, at least at first. The plan, as a result, was met with opposition from the police union. But the state of crime in Camden, coupled with the complete lack of money, dulled Democratic resistance to the proposal overall. “There’s no alternative, there’s no Plan B,” the Democratic City Council president, Frank Moran, told the New York Times in 2012. “It’s the only option we have.”

Without the restrictions of the union, proponents argued, more cops could be put on the streets of Camden, and hopefully, the city’s deadly spiral could finally be stopped.

Not everyone agreed with the changes. A group of Camden residents who saw this as high-handed intervention submitted a petition to stop the disbandment with the goal of placing the issue on the ballot in 2012. Redd and Moran filed a complaint against the residents on the grounds that the petition amounted to an unlawful restraint of legislative power.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Top: In this March 3, 2011 file photograph, off-duty and retired police officers and firefighters fill a street outside the Statehouse, in Trenton, N.J., during a rally to protest staff cuts and promote public safety. Bottom: A small group of former Camden police officers complain to a new Camden County police officer as he tries to stop them from attending a ceremony for the new police force in May 2013.

The case would work its way through New Jersey courts while the city went ahead with the changes.

In May 2013, the Camden City Council approved resolutions that eliminated the city police department and established a new one under county control. The remaining city cops were all laid off and had to reapply to work with the county, under far less generous nonunion contracts.

In a strange legal coda to the whole drama, the case filed by the Camden residents to save their local police department worked its way through New Jersey courts and ultimately ended up in front of the state’s Supreme Court, which ruled 6-0 in favor of the residents in 2015. But it was too late: The Camden County police force had been around for four years, and by most accounts, was already a success. In this case, politics had moved faster than the courts and, legally or not, the Camden city police force was long gone.

Those who championed the disbandment of the department say the upheaval was critical to the department’s ultimate success. Scott Thomson, the Camden police chief at the time, had locked horns with the police union for years over contracts and virtually “any type” of managerial decision, he says.

“I was able to do in three days what would normally take me three years to do,” he said. “All of the barriers were removed. I was now driving on a paved road.”

The most obvious change was that the Camden police was now bigger: By cutting salaries, the county was able to hire more officers, increasing the size of the department from 250 to 400 and putting the number of Camden police officers close to what it was before the 2010 budget cuts.

But the more important changes went beyond the size of the roster. Thomson, who had been appointed chief in 2008 and oversaw the department through the transition, also used the changes as a way to implement a number of progressive policies. The challenge, he said, was reframing how officers viewed their roles. No longer would officers be the “arbitrary decider of what’s right and wrong,” he said, but rather consider themselves as “a facilitator and a convener.”

© AP Photo/Mel Evans Chief Scott Thomson in 2014.

In practice, this meant prioritizing resident complaints. According to Thomson, when someone was spoken to in a disrespectful way, that investigation was handled swiftly.

The internal metric system for rating an officer’s performance was also overhauled—no longer were officers rewarded for the number of tickets they had written, or how many arrests they had made. Thomson says his highest priority was working to integrate officers into the fabric of the community.

“I don’t want you to write tickets, I don’t want you to lock anybody up. I’m dropping you off on this corner that has crime rates greater than that of Juárez, Mexico, and for the next 12 hours I don’t want you to make an arrest unless it’s for an extremely vile offense,” Thomson recalls telling his officers. “Don’t call us—we’re not coming back to get you until the end of your shift, so if you got to go to the bathroom, you need to make a friend out here. You want to get something to eat? You better find who the good cook is.”

Sean Brown, a business owner and native Camden resident, says he had complicated feelings about the department. While he supports the end result, the transition from the city-led to county-led force was “quick” and “harsh,” and he said he saw good people lose their jobs. But he says he now feels safer in his city than ever before, in part because police actively check in with him on the status of his neighborhood.

“Every couple of months I get a call from an officer, who just asks me how is everything going in my neighborhood? Do I feel safe? Is there anything I want to tell them?” he said. “Things are demonstrably different.”

© Andrew Burton/Getty Images A man walks his dog on August 20, 2013 in the Whitman Park neighborhood of Camden, New Jersey.

Police officers can now be seen hosting block parties, flipping burgers and competing in games alongside kids in the neighborhoods.

Another community-focused initiative is Camden’s “scoop-and-go” policy, a mandate that requires officers to drive gunshot victims to a hospital if waiting for an ambulance would cause a delay. The policy, modeled on a longstanding one in Philadelphia, was put into effect after the outrage over the Ferguson police department’s handling of Michael Brown’s body after a police officer shot him in 2014. The officers left him lying for four hours on a Ferguson street after the shooting before his body was taken to a morgue.

The changes were not without hurdles. In the first year of the new department, for instance, the number of excessive force complaints by police spiked dramatically. But the department implemented a series of reforms to reduce conflict between officers and residents.

Camden was chosen as one of seven cities by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a reform think tank in Washington, DC, to develop its signature de-escalation training, according to executive director Chuck Wexler.

Camden soon had proof on video that the training worked in real life.

Clips from surveillance and body cam footage in November 2015, which have since spread across YouTube, particularly in police-reform circles, show a man walking into a fried chicken shop in Camden, knife in hand. He leaves the shop, thrashing the knife in the air, and is encircled by a group of officers. They walk with the man for several minutes, asking him to “drop it, drop the knife.” They attempt to tase the man, and fail, but are ultimately are able to tackle him.

“Eighteen months before that we would have shot and killed that guy, two steps out of the store,” said Thomson, the former police chief.

Last year, the department implemented a use-of-force guidebook developed with New York University’s Policing Project, which has gotten the seal of approval from both the ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police. The rules clearly outline when deadly force can be used. Officers are required to intervene if they see another officer violating the rules, and the department can fire any officer who doesn’t follow them. According to the department, complaints of excessive use of force have dropped from 30 to 60 a year in the first years of the county force to less than five today.

© AP Photo/Mel Evans President Barack Obama speaks at the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Camden, NJ.

When former President Barack Obama the city back in 2015, he held up Camden’s police department as a model for police reform. He called Camden a “symbol of promise for the nation,” praising the improved relations between officers and residents.

“This city is on to something,” he said before a crowd of hundreds.

But there are critics who think the reforms have not gone far enough.

There are concerns that the department’s force does not reflect the community—the department is just ever so slightly majority-minority. Camden is 93 percent minority—mostly (50.3 percent) Hispanic, with a large (42.4 percent) African American population, according to the most recent census figures. But the police department is nearly half white.

Camden police officials agree that things need to change, but say they can only do so much within the current civil service requirements. Those rules require lists of eligible officers to include individuals from all over the state, including from the whiter, wealthier northern parts, thus making the overall talent pool less demographically representative of cities like Camden.


I wrote out some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change––and pulled together some resources to help young activists sustain the momentum by channeling their energy into concrete action. https://t.co/jEczrOeFdv— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 1, 2020

Critics also say the department has been less than transparent. In particular, they point to Camden’s failure so far to post any data online after entering into a federal partnership under the Obama administration to track and improve policing. Camden was one of 21 cities selected for the federal program, and it’s the only one that hasn’t posted any data yet.

There is also high turnover in the police department, according to several people interviewed for this article. “It’s hard to say that things are changing when you’re having a revolving door of officers coming in,” said Kevin Barfield, president of the Camden County NAACP chapter. “And a lot of them are young. A lot of them are not really familiar with the community with which they serve.”

On Sunday, a group of activists gathered in Camden to give voice to these concerns, and let the public know that they hadn’t gotten the full picture a week earlier. Hundreds of protesters walked the streets of the city in the midday June sun, ending their march on the steps of the Chief J. Scott Thomson police department building.

“President Obama tweeted out Camden has been the poster child for reform across the country,” activist Ayinde Merrill yelled to the crowd.

“Say no,” he told a crowd of hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters.

“No!” the crowd responded in chorus.

© April Saul via AP Lt. Zack James of the Camden County Metro Police Department marches along with demonstrators in Camden, N.J., on May 30.

The tone of this gathering was markedly different from the one a week earlier. The participants in this protest spoke about the “crooked cops” and felt the viral photo was merely a feel-good photo op. As Merrill stood on the steps of the building, he called out for Police Chief Wysocki to stand beside him.

“We are going to hold everyone accountable, we have to stop being scared of authority figures and really hold them accountable,” Merrill said, wearing a loose noose around his neck.

He then presented the chief a list of demands, including working to help officers eliminate racial bias in policing, the creation of an independent civilian review board and recruiting a more diverse force.

But what came next suggests why even the toughest critics feel like there is more hope in Camden than there is in other cities.

“We are going to give credit where credit is due. They said they are already starting to work on things we listed,” Merrill said as he removed the rope from his neck. “Today we are loosening this noose and taking it off.”

Rattlesnakes on a plain: How cars, pollution and suburbia threaten these mysterious creatures

Doyle Potenteau
13/6/2020

© Submitted A rattlesnake in the South Okanagan. According to a professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, rattlesnakes are threatened in B.C., and many populations are declining at alarming rates.

Just like the hordes of mountain bikers, hikers and trail runners that migrate from their comfortable couches to more open spaces in spring, western rattlesnakes are also on the move, emerging from deep winter dens to their summer foraging grounds.

For years, our research group at Thompson Rivers University has been investigating population trends and movements of the world's most northerly populations of rattlesnakes, found in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.

The western rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus) is one of three species of rattlesnake found in Canada, and the only one in B.C., although they also live as far south as Baja, Calif.
Snakes are particularly interesting in Canada because their active season -- warm temperatures that allow them to go about their lives -- is far shorter than it is for their relatives to the south.

The harsh Canadian winters limit the places where a rattlesnake can hole up and wait out the snow. This historically led to dozens of snakes of all different species using communal dens, but this phenomenon is becoming increasingly rare.

Rattlesnakes are threatened in B.C., and many populations are declining at alarming rates. Although the idea of being rid of snakes may be inviting to some, it will surely have cascading consequences for already threatened grassland ecosystems.

For example, rattlesnakes are key players in grassland food chains, acting as mid-level predators that control rodent populations and serve as a food source for larger predators like the endangered North American badger.
What can you learn from following rattlesnakes?

Rattlesnakes often make substantial migrations from their winter dens to their summer habitat, sometimes several kilometres. The dens are often in secluded areas, yet snakes can encounter a number of dangers on their path.

Perhaps the biggest threat to snakes in Canada is roads, where even low traffic back-roads can have catastrophic impacts on otherwise healthy snake populations.

Road mortality is a leading cause of the decline for snakes in B.C. One study found the population was being reduced by 6.6 per cent per year, which would lead to a 97 per cent decrease in the population in just 40 years.

Snakes are also threatened by pollution, human persecution and steady habitat degradation and fragmentation. When their habitat overlaps with human landscapes, such as vineyards, orchards, golf courses, campgrounds or hiking trails, they tend to be of poorer body condition than snakes that inhabit relatively natural environments.

Historically a large number of the rattlesnakes in B.C. were found in the Okanagan Valley, a region that is experiencing one of the fastest rates of urban and agricultural growth in Canada.

Unfortunately, this means snake habitat isn't about to improve. Still, the animals persist in select pockets of quality habitat.
Beware the 'danger noodle'

Despite their iconic buzzing rattle, the warning display for which these animals are named, rattlesnakes are notoriously difficult to find. This is because the rattle that tips off unsuspecting hikers to the presence of a “danger noodle” is really the last-ditch effort to scare off intruders before the animals resort to biting.

Rattlesnakes rely heavily on their mottled camouflage to hide among rocks and bushes to avoid detection completely -- and they are quite good at it.

Their skill at hide-and-seek means it is incredibly difficult for scientists to estimate their population numbers. How can you count something you can't see?

Because rattlesnakes are so difficult to count, there has only been one comprehensive study of a rattlesnake population in B.C., which dates back to 1985, when graduate J. Malcolm Macartney studied a population on a private cattle ranch.

In an effort to determine how rattlesnake populations have changed over the past 35 years, we have been scrambling up cliff faces in search of the same rattlesnake dens that Macartney surveyed decades ago.

These steep cliff faces, dotted with towering ponderosa pines, give way to lush grassland meadows fringed by azure lake waters. Although the location has not changed, the landscape certainly has

READ MORE: Growing concern over rattlesnake habitats in south Okanagan

In 1986, just one year after Macartney wrapped up his rattlesnake population study, half of the area was fenced off and established as a provincial park dedicated to recreation.

This creates a unique natural experiment where half of the rattlesnake population has remained on an active cattle ranch closed to the public, and the other half within one of the busiest parks in the area seeing nearly 250,000 visitors per summer.
Keeping snakes for years to come

Although we may still be several months away from fully understanding the trends of this rattlesnake population, we have learned much about how these animals interact with the land, and those who share it with them.

Are rattlesnakes that dwell on landscapes largely devoid of humans more likely to be larger and more abundant than snakes in areas with high levels of human visitation? We are currently analyzing our data to answer this very question.

Rattlesnakes living in areas where humans seldom visit also appear more likely to rattle at passersby. Snakes that regularly encounter people are 10 times less likely to rattle than those living in areas undisturbed by humans.

Although this work is very preliminary, it suggests that rattlesnakes are altering their behaviour according to the presence of humans in their foraging grounds. Perhaps they are learning that they don't necessarily need to waste precious energy with exuberant warnings.

Understanding exactly why these animals are declining and shifting their behaviour is a much more complicated issue, but it brings to attention the delicate balance between conservation and recreation. If we hope to keep rattlesnakes around, we will have to adjust how we interact with the limited amount of habitat available to them.

So, if you plan to spend some time in B.C.'s beautiful grasslands, remember to stay snake awake!

-- Karl Larsen is a professor in the department of natural resource sciences at Thompson Rivers University.

-- Marcus Atkins has a master’s degree in science and is a student studying environmental science at Thompson Rivers University.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The original article can be viewed here.

Plight of the pangolin: Once coveted, now feared because of coronavirus


Margaret Evans CBC

14/6/2020

© Isaac Kasmani/AFP via Getty Images 

A white-bellied pangolin which was rescued from local animal traffickers is seen at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) office in Kampala, Uganda, on April 9.
Veterinarian Mark Ofua walks through rows of cages housing barking dogs and stray cats in the animal shelter he set up in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, about five years ago.

The ease with which the animals submit to his ministrations makes it clear it is a place of trust, a sanctuary for lost souls in the animal kingdom.

Many Nigerians, struggling with the challenges of the coronavirus, are no longer able to afford or keep pets.

But the shelter isn't just for domestic animals. Increasingly, Ofua finds himself rescuing wild animals, including one of the world's most endangered: the pangolin.

One, in particular, has clearly captured his heart: a baby he rescued from a bush meat market when it was just a week old. He named the pangolin Juba.

"Now, I know buying these animals off them is wrong, because it kind of promotes the trade," he said in a Skype interview. "But imagine if Juba was not rescued."

Juba is now about five months old, still fed from a bottle. But Ofua is also encouraging him to forage for ants and termites before he releases him back into the wild.
Pangolins blamed for coronavirus outbreak

He's named after a character in the film Gladiator, because he's armoured like one, Ofua said.

Pangolins are mammals that look like anteaters but are covered in scales made of keratin.

But those chain-mail coats haven't been enough to protect them from a voracious illegal wildlife trade that sees their meat sold as a delicacy in Asian markets overseas, and their scales sold for alleged medicinal cures.

"In the last couple of years the demand for pangolin has skyrocketed," said Ofua. "It has left the traditional role for bush meat and medicine. It has now moved on to the scales."

WATCH | Veterinarian plays with pangolin

Juba is a white-bellied tree pangolin native to Nigeria. There are eight species across Africa and Asia and all are either vulnerable or critically endangered.
Negative attention could protect pangolins

Nigeria has become a world hub when it comes to trafficking them.

The UN's Wildlife Crime Report for 2020 found that almost 60 per cent of seized pangolin scales came from Nigeria in 2018, compared to 20 per cent in 2015.

Professor Olajumoke Morenikeji of the University of Ibadan said it's "absolutely ridiculous."

"[There is ] so much illiteracy when it comes to environmental laws, wildlife trade and so forth," she said.

Morenikeji is also the president of the Pangolin Conservation Guild of Nigeria. Her advocacy work has earned her the nickname Madame Pangolin but she doesn't mind if it gets people talking about them.

She also said that the negative press the pangolin received in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic — and speculation that it might have had a role in its jump to humans — could help them survive. People are asking her if they should stay away from them.

"We now know that most likely it is not from the pangolin. It might be from the bats or whatever," Morenikeji said. "But we know from history that there are instances we have had diseases jump from wildlife to man."

"I have more people listening to what I have to say about the situation," she said. "And I tell them it's not just the pangolin. There's the problem of zoonotics if you do not leave wild animals in the wild and you bring them into the system."

Early investigations into the source of the coronavirus outbreak focused on a market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were traded.

But there are as yet no firm conclusions and a zoonotic source has yet to be identified.

WATCH | Coronavirus: Where did it come from?

In a move that many conservationists hope will be permanent, China banned the consumption and trading of wildlife in February, after the outbreak began.

Beijing also recently afforded the pangolin its highest protection status and banned pangolin scales from being used in traditional medicines.

Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya, CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation, an international wildlife conservation organization, calls it a huge step.

"We are so happy this is happening," he said in a Skype interview from Kenya.

"And you know we are not going to relent. We would like to see this also happening with rhino horns because they really have no medicinal properties."
Poachers capitalize on COVID-19 outbreak

It's a potential ray of hope for the pangolin, but Sebunya said that in general, COVID-19 has been a tragedy for conservation efforts.

"Actually, what we are seeing is a spike in poaching across the continent," he said. "Because the tourism industry collapsed overnight and funding went to zero for conservation."

Sebunya said tourism accounts for more than 80 per cent of conservation money directed toward most of the national park services across Africa.

"And so [anti-poaching] patrols are less," he said.

© Ellen Mauro/CBC Bumi Hills Conservation Manager Mark Brightman says criminal poaching syndicates are taking advantage of the COVID-19 lockdown in Zimbabwe to increase their operations.
Kruger National Park in South Africa might be an outlier, having reported a "significant decline" in rhino poaching since its lockdown in April.

It has a well equipped anti-poaching unit, including helicopters and a canine team.

But it's a very different picture in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

© Ellen Mauro/CBC News Conservation Manager Mark Brightman says the number of elephants in the Bumi Hills region dropped from 15,000 to 3,500 in recent years. Ninety per cent of the decline has been attributed to poaching.

"We still have the criminal [poaching] syndicates that are operating, said Mark Brightman, conservation manager with the Bumi Hills Anti Poaching Unit along Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe.

"They haven't shut down the tools. In fact, they're taking advantage of the situation."

The Bumi Hills rangers are still operating as a deterrent for now, but two elephants were recently poached just outside their area. And Zimbabweans who used to rely on tourism for work are feeling even more economic pain in the face of the lockdown than normal.

"People have got to feed themselves," said Brightman. He said there's been an increase in the number of people snaring animals to put meat on the table for their families.

"We're not really concerned with that. It's the commercial poaching and the priority is elephant poaching and the bush meat trade that we cannot let get out of hand once more."
'We'll have to do what is right by him'

The COVID-19 pandemic offers the world an opportunity for a reset, to have a global conversation about biodiversity and management of natural resources, according to Sebunya.

"People have seen what happens when we mismanage nature," he said.

"COVID-20 might come from my country. And it will shut down Toronto. So this responsibility is global responsibility. And we need more support. There has been a decrease in support to conservation in Africa."

© AFP via Getty Images Last week, in a move applauded by conservation groups, China banned the use of pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicines and elevated the pangolin’s protection status to the highest level.

Back in the port city of Lagos, Ofua is walking the stray dogs twice a day and feeding baby civets along with Juba. He's bracing himself for the day he'll say goodbye to the young pangolin before releasing it back into the bush.

"I pray every day for grace to be able to let him go when it's time. I just want to make sure he's able to fend for himself properly."

Ofua is working on building a kind of enclosed pangolin shelter where they can take first steps before finally being returned to the wild.

Juba will be the first to try it.

"It's going to be difficult but we'll have to do what is right by him," he said. "I try to let people see the connection between us and these animals. Conservation is not something we should do for fun or for pleasure or for sentiment. It's something we actually need to do deliberately to save mankind."

'His brain is injured': Lawyer says of 75-year-old man shoved by Buffalo police

CATHOLIC WORKER PEACE ACTIVIST
Elisha Fieldstadt
13/6/2020

© Mike Desmond/WBFO via AP In this image from video provided by WBFO, a Buffalo police officer appears to shove a man who walked up to police Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. Video from WBFO shows the man appearing to hit his head on the pavement, with blood leaking out as officers walk past to clear Niagara Square. Buffalo police initially said in a statement that a person “was injured when he tripped & fell,” WIVB-TV reported, but Capt. Jeff Rinaldo later told the TV station that an internal affairs investigation was opened. Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood suspended two officers late Thursday, the mayor’s statement said.The 75-year-old man who was shoved to the ground by police at a protest in Buffalo, New York, suffered a brain injury and is facing "a new normal," his lawyer said Thursday.

The video of social justice activist Martin Gugino being pushed at a protest on June 4 outside City Hall became one of the most-viewed examples of police violence related to nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Gugino has been hospitalised since the incident, which led to charges of second-degree assault and suspension without pay for Buffalo officers Robert McCabe, 32, and Aaron Torgalski, 39. Both officers have pleaded not guilty.


On Thursday, Gugino's lawyer, Kelly V. Zarcone, said she had spoken with him, and he was feeling better and "starting physical therapy today which is definitely a step in the right direction."

But, Zarcone said, "As heartbreaking as it is, his brain is injured and he is well aware of that now."

For that reason, she said, he wasn't interested in doing media interviews at this point, but he "feels encouraged and uplifted by the outpouring of support which he has received from so many people all over the globe."

"It helps," Zarcone said. "He is looking forward to healing and determining what his 'new normal' might look like."

Zarcone added that Gugino was "a soft-spoken but thoughtful and principled man."

Friends told Religion News Service that Gugino is a devout Catholic and retired computer programmer who has long worked to advocate for the poor, disenfranchised and on behalf of Black Lives Matter.

On June 4, he was at a protest in Buffalo when he approached a large group of officers in tactical gear before saying something, video shows.

The officers yell for him to move back before one or two appear to push him before he falls backward, slams his head and then lay bleeding and motionless on the ground.

One of the officers appears to lean over and say something to Gugino on the ground before another officer pulls him back and they march past him.

The incident occurred shortly after the city's curfew of 8 p.m. on Thursday, NBC affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo reported. Buffalo police initially said the man tripped and fell, but video revealed the reality.

After the suspension of the two officers, but prior to their being charged, 57 members of the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response team quit that unit in solidarity with their colleagues.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the officers' actions on the day after the incident.

Cuomo said he spoke with Gugino and that the incident "disturbs our basic sense of decency and humanity."

"Why, why? Why was that necessary?" the governor said. "Where was the threat? Older gentleman, where was the threat? Then you just walk by the person when you see blood coming from his head?"

Fears for right whales rise after Trump reopens area to commercial fishing
Mia Urquhart
12/6/2020

Environmental groups are condemning U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to allow commercial fishing in a previously closed area in the North Atlantic. 

Last Friday, Trump signed a proclamation that rolls back protections in a 13,000-square-kilometre area off of Cape Cod. The area, known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, is located along the migratory path of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Groups, many of which have spent years pushing for the protections, worry that opening the area to fishing will put right whales at even greater risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

The New England Aquarium was quick to denounce the move.
Kelly Kryc, the director of marine conservation policy and leadership, said the aquarium is "disappointed and devastated" by the decision.

Kryc, who has led the aquarium's advocacy for the protected zone for years, said all kinds of species have been spotted in the area, including the right whale.

"It is a critically important area for all sorts of marine mammals and dolphins, different types of species of dolphins."

All of those species are at greater risk if commercial fishing resumes, she said. — that is a risk to North Atlantic right whales and other whales and dolphins that might be in the area."

The marine monument, the first of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean, was created by former president Barack Obama in 2016.

More than twice the size of Prince Edward Island, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument includes two distinct areas, one that features three canyons and one that contains four seamounts, or underwater mountains.

The area contains fragile marine ecosystems, including important deep sea corals, endangered whales and sea turtles, other marine mammals and numerous fish species, according to NOAA Fisheries, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce.

"The Trump administration once again has chosen a moment of national vulnerability to take aim at the environment, this time by rolling back protections of the only marine national monument in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean," Vikki Spruill, the CEO and president of the New England Aquarium, said in a news release.
The statement from the aquarium said aerial surveys revealed an "extraordinary diversity of animals" in the area.

"During those flights, our scientists have observed pods of dolphins 1,000 strong feeding on the rich abundance of squid at the surface. Most recently, two blue whales were spotted there for the first time."

There are only about 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and fewer than 100 breeding females.

© Michael Dwyer/CP/AP In this March 28, 2018, photo, a North Atlantic right whale feeds on the surface of Cape Cod Bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass.

Researchers were excited to see a boon in calves this season with 10 new whales observed in U.S. water, but Fisheries and Oceans Canada said one is presumed dead.

Last month, a days-old calf was spotted with injuries from a vessel strike.

Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement are the leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales.

Since 2017, 29 whales — not counting the calf presumed dead — have died in Canadian waters.

GRIEF IN PARADISE
Hawaii grapples with Great Depression-level unemployment as tourism plummets





A surfer walks on a sparsely populated Waikiki beach in Honolulu, June 5, 2020.

Peter Yee has been furloughed from his job at a rental car company since late March, and now says he spends up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week answering questions and sharing advice in the Facebook group, "Hawaii Unemployment Updates and Support Group."

In just a matter of weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the economy of the picturesque town of Kahului on the island of Maui where Yee lives.

"Driving through the main little areas was like a ghost town," Yee told ABC News.

The unemployment rate in Kahului skyrocketed to 35% in April -- nearly 10% higher than the national unemployment rate at the peak of the Great Depression -- and the highest of any metropolitan area in the U.S., according to the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As COVID-19 decimated tourism and the planes stopped coming in, job losses on the island piled up with unprecedented furor. In March, Kahului had some of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation at 2.2%.

In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 on the islands, Hawaii’s government acted fast -- imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all visitors. While the move was lauded by many and proved effective in preventing major outbreaks of the respiratory disease on the islands, the impact to tourism, Hawaii’s biggest industry, proved quick and severe.

"I knew that was a kiss of death," Yee said of the quarantine. "I'm not saying I'm against it, but I knew that there would be virtually zero visitors and zero business for my industry."
'You go from 30,000 airline passengers per day to a few hundred'

Carl Bonham, the executive director and a professor at the Economic Research Organization at University of Hawaii, told ABC News that the most recent data puts Hawaii's unemployment rate at 22.3% in April, but because these surveys were conducted early that month before many of the job losses, some economists estimate it's 30% or more.

"The range of unemployment estimates will vary dramatically," Bonham said. "The bottom line is it’s bad, a lot of the data is problematic right now because of sort of changes in what it means to be in the labor force."

The closest comparison in living memory is after 9/11 when air travel took a major hit, according to Bonham, but he said "this is completely different."

"After 9/11 there were literally zero planes in the air," he said. "That was a very different situation in that we had a shutdown of tourism for a short period of time, but we didn’t shut down the rest of the economy."

Roughly 25% of the jobs in Hawaii are connected to tourism, which has almost entirely vanished, according to Bonham.

"Because we rely completely on air travel, when you shut down tourism with a 14-day quarantine and you go from 30,000 airline passengers per day to a few hundred, that’s a very different situation from a place that may still be getting some visitors by car,” he said.

The community of Kahului saw the largest over-the-year unemployment rate increase in April, shooting up more 32.5% points, according to the BLS’s most recent data. As the travel industry was hit hard by the pandemic, fellow tourist hubs Las Vegas, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw the second and third highest increases in over-the-year unemployment rates.

Bonham said due to high cost of living and a lack of jobs, they are forecasting an exodus from Hawaii within the next few years.
An unemployment 'nightmare'

Yee said he first joined the Facebook unemployment support group in early April when there were around 800 members, but said, "we accumulated 10,000 more members in 30 days."

It now has more than 14,000 members, all of whom have been vetted by admins to make sure they aren't scammers.

As a moderator, Yee said he is in the group every day trying to help people who post questions or share their stories -- many of which highlight dire realities of what Great Depression-era unemployment in America looks like.

"What else was I going to do during lockdown?" Yee said. "I was helping out every day, seven days a week, eight to 15 hours a day, and I still do that."

MORE: Another 1.5 million workers file jobless claims

He said he constantly replies to people reminding them of a temporary eviction moratorium, what food stamp programs are available, and mostly serving as a source of support as frustration and anger mounts towards the state’s unemployment insurance program.

Many members in the Facebook group say they have waited over six weeks to receive any benefits at all, according to Yee.

In the first week of June, the state's Department of Labor announced the sudden leave of its director, Scott Murakami. His office, which did not respond to ABC News' interview requests, said he and other workers had been receiving death threats.

Yee said it took more than four weeks between the time he submitted his unemployment claim to the time he received any unemployment insurance from the state.

Simon Kaufman, a stand-up comedian and radio DJ from Hilo, Hawaii, said he waited nine weeks before he saw any money after filing his unemployment claim.

Moreover, he said they didn’t calculate a majority of his income into his check, instead basing it off of a part-time holiday job he had waiting tables.

"I don’t know what’s going on," he said. "I’m not a waiter, they’re paying me on the side gig I did."

Kaufman said he has been surviving on savings and even tried "intermittent fasting."

Phone lines to the state’s unemployment insurance office have been almost entirely clogged up since the last week of March, Yee and Kaufman said.

"I've only gotten through once, since March," Yee said, calling the situation a "nightmare."

"If you've got no money for six, eight weeks living paycheck to paycheck, it would be a good assumption to say that half those claimants are in a very dire situation," he said. "But I knew that at that point six, eight weeks, it would be food lines, which came actually earlier."

The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced earlier this week -- nearly three months into the crisis -- that it has finally made it through a majority of the claims.

"Eighty-eight percent (88%) of the valid unemployment insurance claims that have come in since the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown have been processed and paid out by the DLIR," the department's deputy director Anne Perreira-Eustaquio, said in a statement on June 10. "We sincerely appreciate people’s patience and wanted the public to know the scope of the remaining issues as well as the scope of the incredible progress made."

Hawaii Gov. David Ige's office did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment Friday.

Despite the dire economic situation, Bonham told ABC News that Hawaii's actions in response to the health crisis have been notably effective.

"We’re probably the safest state in the country right now in terms of health outcomes and controlling the virus," he said.
'Something we've never seen in Hawaii, ever': Up to 4-hour lines at food banks

Ron Mizutani, the president and CEO of the Hawaii Foodbank, told ABC News there has been a 260% increase in the amount of food the nonprofit distributed in the month of May compared to the same month last year.

"This unprecedented to say the least,” Mizutani told ABC News. “We always see the face of hungry during crises, during hurricanes, tsunamis, during the government shutdown, but this is something we’ve never seen in Hawaii ever.”

“We have also had some serious issues with unemployment checks being distributed so that’s contributed to needs in a way that we haven’t anticipated,” he added.

Mizutani said according to their simple questionnaires, 80% of families who came to pick up food during the month of May say they have had somebody in their household furloughed or unemployed because of COVID-19, but only 5% have said they were receiving government assistance.

"They are willing to stand in line in their vehicles for three to four hours to receive much-needed food," he said, saying lines have been as long as 4,000 people.

Prior to the pandemic, Mizutani said they usually distributed 800,000 to 1 million pounds of food to those in need each month. In May, he said they distributed more than 3.75 million pounds of food.

"You don’t budget for that, nor can you anticipate those kinds of needs," he said.

"We survive on donations," he added. "Donations have also come to a screeching halt."

Mizutani said he is worried about how they will be able to keep up with the demand, which he expects to continue for months into the future.

"It takes a long time for food to get here to the island and we like other food banks are standing in line with the rest of the country," he said. "We made orders two weeks ago that won’t arrive until August, September, that’s the kind of wait time that we have before we receive food from mainland distributors."

A self-described "local boy," Mizutani said he has deep respect for those who come to receive food.

"They’re not quick to raise their hand when it comes to hunger," he said of many in his community. "It takes courage to wait in line for hours for something they would never thought they would have to do."

While empty beaches and recovering coral reefs have been a bright spot for some locals, Mizutani said "we need people back badly."

"This is not normal, I don’t like to use the word the 'new normal' because there is nothing normal about this at all," he said. "We live in a very special place here and while a lot of families are hurting, we are seeing a lot of our Aloha spirit."

"The world was not prepared for COVID-19, but I truly believe that COVID-19 was not prepared for Hawaii and our spirit," he added. "We are a resilient state and we are rising."

Rio cartels go from running drugs to pushing medication
By Nick Paton Walsh, Jo Shelley, Robert Fortuna and William Bonnett, CNN

© Jo Shelley/CNN 

Young dealers, not state medical personnel, are the ones encouraging measures against coronavirus in the favela.
Coronavirus rages on the edges of Rio de Janeiro -- in the hills and slums run by drug gangs, where police dare not go unless on an armed raid.

Absent of help from the state -- President Jair Bolsonaro has pledged to crush criminals "like cockroaches" -- the gangs have stepped up. Where before they peddled narcotics with the rule of the gun, now they also push curfews, social distancing and food handouts for the neediest.

"We fear the virus, not Bolsonaro," said Ronaldo, a gang member who, like most people interviewed, either requested anonymity or gave a false name. "We can't count exactly how many have already died. The hospitals kill more than if you stay home and take care of yourself."

A drug gang granted CNN access one of Rio's poorest and most socially isolated communities, to illustrate how it has dealt with Covid-19. It's an area inaccessible to state healthcare. Alcohol gel, medication and cash handouts are all part of a system that gang members were eager to display, with Brazil now the country with the second highest number of coronavirus infections behind the United States, and where cases are still doubling every two weeks.
Four young men climb off their motorbikes and begin to lift large plastic bags from the back of a pickup truck. The first package of groceries goes to a manicurist who has been out of work for four months. The second goes to a street vendor.

"Things are getting very difficult," said the street vendor, who requested anonymity. She says she is trying to set up a stall in the community, but there is nobody to buy her products.

"I'm trying at least," she said. "Kids and lots of people are getting sick. The food they're giving us helps a lot."

She says her father-in-law died in April from Covid-19. He seemed stable, she adds, until he was transferred to hospital, where he died within the day.

"Until now we didn't get a full report on what happened, except that it was Covid-19," she said. "It took two weeks for him to be buried."

She says that her uncle is now sick and hospitalized, having caught the virus while at his supermarket job.

Medical help is available in the community, and hospitalizations are rare.

"Doctors from the community are helping the sick people voluntarily," Ronaldo said. "The people who have money can get assistance. The ones who haven't just can't."

The local community sometimes chips in to pay for burials, says Ronaldo.

"The isolation was going well here but now even the President himself -- in his own words -- is disregarding it," Ronaldo said. "But we can't ease it. We've seen a lot of death. We know it's not a small thing."

As he spoke, two teenagers played pool nearby. Many here violate the social-distancing rules, like they do on the wealthier coast below.

"It's complicated to enforce quarantine on people," Ronaldo said.

These drug dealers -- young and armed with old semi-automatic rifles, short-barreled M4s and, in Ronaldo's case, a Glock pistol adapted into a rifle -- have become as knowledgeable about Covid-19 as they are about narcotics.

When asked if they would accept any of the two million doses of hydroxychloroquine that the United States has agreed to send Brazil -- despite the drug being ruled ineffective against Covid-19, and perhaps dangerous by the World Health Organization -- Ronaldo replies:

"I don't think hydroxychloroquine helps. It's BS. Everything that comes to Brazil from abroad has already been contaminated."

The streets seem busy for curfew. Bars are closed, however, and business has adapted to the pandemic.

Neia, a hairdresser before the pandemic, has turned to making masks. She sells them through her front window, which allows her to stay inside. They're free for children, and three face masks cost 10 reals (about US$1.75) for adults. But Neia says that drug dealers give her 15 reals.

"I am more afraid of the virus than anything else here," she said. "An elderly man who lives there (next to her home) died. People in general are respecting isolation."

Crime has often cut this community off from the rest of Rio. Police regularly raid the area, as part of Bolsonaro's crackdown on favelas. He has said that a policeman who does not kill is not a real policeman. And the resulting uptick in deadly operations has led to outcry from human rights advocates.

The most recent raid near this favela occurred ten days ago and left at least seven dead. The signs another raid may be on its way are everywhere: a big rock blocks a road, the sound of firecrackers from a rooftop -- a warning that a lookout has seen something strange, and the police may be coming again.

Nearly everyone we spoke to had a story of death or infection from coronavirus. Daniel, who runs a street food stall, told stories of deaths he had heard of as he prepared pastels.

"Today there was a girl who lives nearby who died," he said, adding a friend of his with diabetes and a heart condition also died suddenly at home. The street he lives on has seen two deaths, he says.

"There's less movement in the streets," Daniel said. "I wash my hands here all the time. I use hand gel, masks and clean the stall a lot."

The dealers have barred restaurants from putting tables out, he says.

"The virus is in control here," Daniel said. "Even the dealers are afraid. It's not possible to control everybody."

The motorcycles whizz back and forth, some carrying gunmen, others ferrying teenage girls out for the night. The streets buzz with activity. At times it feels like a world before lockdowns.

But locals say it's fairly empty. Bars, they say, would normally hum with music and drug dealing would be more prevalent.

Areas like these will be an enduring concern to healthcare workers as the pandemic grows. The state will know little about how the virus has spread in these communities. Residents here may live apart from wealthier Rio neighborhoods, but many work there, nonetheless, and may spread the virus.

Firecrackers suddenly crackle again, and a lookout fears the police are on their way.

Aid groups 'alarmed' by little US coronavirus assistance

© Provided by The Canadian Press

JOHANNESBURG — More than two dozen international aid groups have told the U.S. government they are “increasingly alarmed” that “little to no U.S. humanitarian assistance has reached those on the front lines” of the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of new cases picks up speed in some of the world’s most fragile regions.

The letter obtained by The Associated Press and signed by groups including Save the Children, CARE USA, World Vision and others says that “in spite of months of promising conversations with USAID field staff, few organizations have received an executed award for COVID-19 humanitarian assistance.”

It calls the delays “devastating” and says the window is closing for the U.S. to help mitigate the worst impacts of the pandemic around the world.

The letter to U.S. Agency for International Development acting administrator John Barsa is dated June 4 — the same day that other USAID officials were touting the U.S. government’s “global leadership” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To date, we have committed more than $1 billion to benefit the global COVID response,” Kenneth Staley, the leader of the USAID COVID-19 task force, told reporters covering Africa. The funds are typically provided to aid groups as well as private contractors and United Nations agencies.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

But much of that aid has been tied up in “uncharacteristic delays” nearly three months after the passage of the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, the letter from aid groups says.

“The long delays in COVID-19 awards — and as a result, U.S. response to a dynamic global emergency — stands in stark contrast to our experience in crises where (the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance) is known to turn around funding in a matter of weeks, if not days,” the letter says.

The letter makes clear the aid problem is a global one, pointing out the exponential rise in cases in Pakistan, and saying “the time to move is now.”

“The U.S. has basically been missing in action on the global front, which is very heartbreaking for me to see,” a director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance during the Obama administration, Jeremy Konyndyk, said Thursday during a Center for Strategic and International Studies discussion. “What we have is kind of a vacuum and a lot of chaos on the international level.”

Acting USAID spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala told AP that the more than $1 billion includes $218 million in humanitarian aid through the International Disaster Assistance account — nearly $100 million of that authorized as awards. Aid groups can begin spending the rest of it via “essentially a promissory note from USAID." Some of that amount, however, can also go to U.N. agencies. 

 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“We are in unprecedented times right now, with a rapidly evolving situation on the ground in almost every country,” she said.

For months while promoting U.S. coronavirus assistance, U.S. officials have not given details on the number of crucial items — such as ventilators and testing kits — delivered to countries in Africa, where such equipment has been in short supply for months. And the need is growing.

Cases on the African continent are accelerating, the World Health Organization warned Thursday, saying it took 98 days to reach 100,000 cases and just 18 to reach 200,000. The total number of confirmed is now above 218,000 with more than 5,000 deaths.

Just 3 million tests for the virus have been conducted across Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people, far short of the goal of 13 million. “One of the biggest challenges we face in the response continues to be the availability of supplies,” WHO Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti told reporters on Thursday.

Another growing problem is infected health workers - nearly 5,000 in the 47-country WHO Africa region — amid shortages of protective gear.

U.S. President Donald Trump in recent weeks has spoken of deliveries of ventilators to African countries, saying 1,000 of the machines were being sent to Nigeria alone. But Nigeria’s government said none has arrived.

In fact, just 50 ventilators have arrived in Africa from the U.S. government, all of them going to South Africa in recent days. That country has about a quarter of Africa's virus cases.

A State Department official on Thursday said the U.S. has pledged ventilator assistance to Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda as well. The U.S. is supplying ventilators as soon as the domestic supply chain and vendors can produce and deliver them, the official said.

Some African officials have expressed open dismay or signalled quiet frustration over the U.S. response. Some have called for a “Made in Africa” push to reduce reliance on imports, amid efforts to create homemade ventilators and repurpose factories.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been quick to praise assistance from the Jack Ma Foundation and others for deliveries of ventilators, testing kits and other badly needed items.

But asked about just how many of those items the U.S. has delivered, Africa CDC chief John Nkengasong on Thursday said that “unfortunately, I cannot give you a number ... It has been a challenging time for many countries to fight their own pandemic.”

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Ben Fox in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Cara Anna, The Associated Press