Four Years Embedded With the Alt-Right

DOCUMENTARY FILM "WHITE NOISE"
Daniel Lombroso 12/6/2020

© The Atlantic

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of our content partner and do not represent the views of Microsoft News or MSN

White nationalists have always been able to find one another in America, but the recent resurgence of the white-nationalist movement—and the extent to which its ideas have seeped into the mainstream alongside Donald Trump’s political ascent—is stunning.

In November 2016, I captured footage of Trump supporters throwing Nazi salutes in celebration of his presidential victory, a moment that became an explosive story in the days that followed, and set the tone for the Trump presidency. In the nearly four years since then, I have focused all of my journalistic energy on the “alt-right,” documenting the figures leading a swelling, and splintering, movement that centers around racism and hate. I saw far-right rhetoric rising on college campuses and in mainstream American politics, and white nationalists reaching millions online. I found my way into the heart of the movement, witnessing violent protests and wild parties, and sitting in the rooms where populist and racist ideologies were refined and weaponized. Through it all, I wanted to understand: What made white-power ideology so intoxicating, especially among my generation?

This question is deeply personal. Both of my grandmothers are Holocaust survivors. My father’s mother, Shulamit Lombroso, fled Nuremberg in 1939 with the Kindertransport, a rescue effort that saved 10,000 German Jews. She left with only one photo album, never to see her parents again. My mother’s mother, Nina Gottlieb, spent World War II hiding in Poland, losing her sister to the war. Six million Jews, two-thirds of Europe’s total, were killed at the hands of Nazism, an ideology consumed by a belief in the supremacy of whiteness. What began with inflamed rhetoric and scapegoating soon turned into industrialized slaughter.

© Provided by The Atlantic Shulamit Lombroso, second from left , in Nuremberg with her parents and her sister, who soon perished (Courtesy of Daniel Lombroso)Meaningful journalism begins with bearing witness. Over four years, I visited 12 states and five countries, and spent hundreds of hours with conspiracy theorists, far-right influencers, and politicians sympathetic to white nationalism. My goal was to understand the movement’s most prominent extremists—those who already had followings in the millions and were shaping the public conversation.

The result is The Atlantic’s first-ever feature-length documentary, White Noise, which focuses on the lives of three far-right figures: Mike Cernovich, a conspiracy theorist and a sex blogger turned media entrepreneur; Lauren Southern, an anti-feminist, anti-immigration YouTube star; and Richard Spencer, a white-power ideologue.

Progressives like to believe that racism is an opiate of the ignorant. But the alt-right’s leaders are educated and wealthy, groomed at some of America’s most prestigious institutions. The more time I spent documenting the movement, the more ubiquitous I realized it was. I bumped into one subject dancing in Bushwick with his Asian girlfriend, and another walking around DuPont Circle hitting a vape. Their racism is woven into the fabric of New York, Washington, D.C., and Paris, just as much as Birmingham, Alabama, or Little Rock, Arkansas.

© Thomson Reuters Supporters prepare to depart a Proud Boys rally in Portland, Oregon, U.S., August 17, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

During a visit to Richard Spencer’s apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, I began to understand how the alt-right works. Evan McLaren, a lawyer, wrote master plans on a whiteboard. A band of college kids poured whiskey for Spencer, adjusted his gold-framed Napoleon painting, and discussed the coming “Identitarian” revolution. Spencer offered a sense of historical purpose to his bored, middle-class followers. In his telling, they weren’t just “white Americans,” but descendants of the Greeks and Romans. “Myths are more powerful than rationality,” Spencer told me. “We make life worth living.”

© Thomson Reuters A member of the Proud Boys gestures to counter protesters as the ultra-conservative group Turning Point USA holds a campus talk at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

White Noise is about the seductive power of extremism. Hatred feels good. But the fix is fleeting. As the film progresses, the subjects reveal the contradictions at the heart of their world. Southern advocates for traditional gender roles, but resents the misogyny and sexism of her peers. Cernovich warns that “diversity is code for white genocide,” but has an Iranian wife and biracial kids. Spencer swears he’ll lead the white-nationalist revolution—until it’s more comfortable for him to move home to live with his wealthy mother in Montana. For so many who feel lost or alone, these avatars of hate offer a promise: Follow us, and life will be better.

White Noise shows how empty that promise is.

© Provided by The Atlantic Left : Richard Spencer in 2018 as he fell from grace within the alt-right. Right : Lauren Southern describes dealing with sexism and misogyny.

Toward the end of my reporting, my family traveled to Kielce, Poland, with my sole surviving grandmother, Nina Gottlieb, to retrace her steps fleeing the Nazis. “They had signs: Jews and dogs are not allowed,” she told us, as we gathered near her childhood home. My grandmother spent the war hiding under a Polish Catholic name, Janina Wiśniewski, until she was eventually resettled by HIAS, the Jewish refugee resettlement organization targeted by the white nationalist who murdered 11 people as they worshipped at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. “We’re all born innocent babies. What happens to us?” my grandmother asked.

© ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2017, file photo, white nationalist Richard Spencer speaks at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla. Spencer's wife has accused him of physically, verbally and emotionally abusing her throughout their eight-year marriage. Spencer told The Associated Press on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018, that he is "not an abusive person" and said his wife was "never in a dangerous situation." (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File) 

Walking through one of Poland’s decaying Jewish cemeteries, I reflected on my grandmother’s question. White nationalists aren’t dumb, or poor. They’re scared of losing power. By 2045, white Americans will become a minority in the United States. This demographic change isn’t a conspiracy—what those in the alt-right call “white genocide”—but a choice. Millions have decided that they want an inclusive society with equality and justice for everyone. As protesters march to fight structural racism against African Americans, it is clear how much work is left to be done. To defeat hate movements as widespread and damaging as white nationalism, we must understand why people are drawn to them in the first place, and what they’re willing to give up in order to belong.

Editor’s Note: The Atlantic’s film, White Noise, premieres on June 20 at the AFI Docs documentary film festival. Tickets are available on AFI’s website.

'Finally' say activists as Swiss same-sex marriage bill advance

© Reuters/DENIS BALIBOUSE A rainbow flag is pictured on the window at Vogay in Lausanne

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's lower house of parliament approved draft legislation on Thursday to let same-sex couples marry in a country that has lagged other parts of western Europe in gay rights.

Despite opposition from conservatives, legislators also voted to let lesbian couples use sperm donations to conceive children. The legislation will now move to the upper house for a final vote.

"By 132 votes to 52, with 13 abstentions, the National Council says YES to #Ehefüralle with real equality!" rights group Pink Cross wrote on Twitter, using a hashtag meaning "marriage for all".

© Reuters/Denis Balibouse FILE PHOTO: Marmier and Bugnon walk in their garden in Lausanne

Campaigners said the change had been a long time coming. Switzerland passed a law specifically protecting lesbian, gay and bisexual people from discrimination only in February.

"Finally, it was about time for this basic human right!" wrote one Twitter user, using the name you_can_call_me_flower.

The draft law is moving through parliament 13 years after civil partnerships became legal in Switzerland, helped in part by progressive parties' electoral gains in October that shifted parliament more to the left 

.

© Reuters/Denis Balibouse FILE PHOTO: A poster is picture on a wall at Vogay in Lausanne

A survey commissioned by Pink Cross in February showed more than 80% of Swiss support same-sex marriage.

However, the country's political institutions have tended to be more conservative than the general public, and the upper house is typically more cautious about social change.

"In the future, marriage should be open to all opposite- and same-sex couples, that is the core of the proposal," Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told the debate.

"The Federal Council (the government) welcomes the fact that this will eliminate today's unequal treatment," he added.
Click here https://www.openlynews.com/i/?id=76a38722-856c-475c-be31-30b54b45ed68 for a Thomson Reuters Foundation Factbox on gay marriage around the world.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

USA
As insurance companies take over pension plans, are your payments at risk?

LONG READ
Gretchen Morgenson and Lisa Cavazuti
14/6/2020

© Provided by NBC News

How safe is your pension? As COVID-19 shutdowns hobble the U.S. economy, the question has taken on more urgency.

While risks associated with underfunded pensions for state and local government employees have been known for years, a new concern has arisen, pension rights advocates say. It centers on the growing trend of insurance companies taking over pensions for employees of private companies.

“This is what we’ve worried about — when companies sell off their pension plans,” said Karen Friedman, policy director at the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit focusing on workers’ retirement security. “Is it safe to transfer money out of pension plans insured by the [government-backed] Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to insurance companies where the protections for consumers are scant?”

Pension obligations are costly and companies have been eager to jettison them in recent years. Insurers have been happy to take on their assets — such deals have totaled $110 billion since early 2015.

But pensions taken over by private insurers are not protected from default by the government-backed PBGC, which protects the pensions of most private company employees. In addition, insurers are regulated by the states, not the federal government, and some are now affiliated with private equity firms, whose focus is often on short-term profits which can conflict with insurers' long-term obligations.

Insurance company Athene Holding, a relative newcomer to the arena, has vaulted to the number-two position in pension buyouts. Created in 2009, Athene is affiliated with Apollo Global Management, the publicly traded private equity giant co-founded by billionaire Leon Black. Athene, whose stock trades publicly, is Apollo’s biggest investment. Apollo has $330 billion in assets under management, with over $100 billion related to Athene, its filings show. The insurer pays significant fees to Apollo each year — Athene's investment management fees to Apollo accounted for 27 percent of Apollo's total such fees in 2019.

Athene has acquired $12 billion in corporate pension obligations recently, including those of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dana Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. Today, roughly 178,000 people rely on Athene for pension benefits, the company says. The entity taking most of the obligations is Athene Annuity & Life Co.

Athene Holding has performed well, but in the first quarter of 2020, it reported a $1.1 billion loss, in part reflecting financial market turmoil. Some $300 million of that loss came from Athene’s 7 percent stake in Apollo.

Financial markets have recovered since March 31, shoring up Athene’s Apollo holding.

Still, the loss raises questions about risks in Athene’s investments.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Board published a paper in February warning of risks among a handful of insurers that are structured like Athene. The study, which cited Athene as an example, concluded, “Life insurers have become more vulnerable to an aggregate shock to the corporate sector.”

© Michael Nagle Trading On The Floor Of The NYSE As U.S. Stocks Extend Gains While Crude Oil Advances (Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)

Joseph M. Belth, professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana University and a longtime authority on the industry, told NBC News that he thinks private equity firms like Apollo are not well-suited to partner with insurance companies.

“I think private equity firms are in it for the quick buck and that is what troubles me,” Belth said. “Policyholders are pawns in the hands of people like Black.”

Asked to respond, Joanna Rose, a spokeswoman for Apollo and Black said in a statement that Athene’s and Apollo’s interests are closely aligned. “Athene was founded with long-term capital from blue-chip insurance investors, not from a private equity fund,” she said. "Athene does not invest in Apollo’s flagship PE funds, nor does it lend to Apollo’s PE portfolio companies."

Athene's spokeswoman, Karen Lynn, said in a statement: "Athene strongly disagrees with various characterizations of our business asserted in this article. We are highly rated, disciplined and financially strong as one of the best-capitalized businesses in the financial sector."

8.6 million Americans

About 8.6 million Americans over 65 are receiving pension payments from a private company plan, and millions more who are still working are paying into private plans. Most of those plans are insured through the government-backed Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. PBGC says it protects around 40 million workers in 23,400 pension plans.

When a company defaults on its pension obligations, PBGC pays the pension, in most cases. Some 84 percent of participants in private company plans taken over by the PBGC received all their vested benefits, a 2019 study showed. The remaining 16 percent saw their benefits fall by an average 24 percent. As of 2019, PBGC has assumed the pension obligations of almost 5,000 plans and more than 900,000 retirees.

When private insurance companies take over pension plans, they typically offer participants a group annuity that pays the same amount as the private plan. An annuity is an insurance contract that can provide lifetime monthly income. The U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees enforcement of pension rules, has not objected to these takeovers.

However, those pensions are no longer backed by the PBGC. They are backed by the insurers, which must be disclosed when the transfer takes place.

Insurers are not regulated by the federal government. That task falls to each state in which the companies do business.

Athene Holding is based in Bermuda, while its unit Athene Annuity & Life Co. is in Iowa. In April, the New York insurance overseer accused Athene Holding of failing to register its pension takeover business there. Athene Holding paid $45 million to settle the matter, neither admitting nor denying the allegations.

State insurance regulators require insurers to file annual reports detailing their investment portfolios and the assets they have to cover policyholders’ claims. The key figure — surplus — is the difference between an insurer’s assets and liabilities. The bigger the cushion, the better.

Athene Annuity & Life, the insurer backing most of the pension obligations, has $54 billion in assets, filings show. And a $1.2 billion surplus — which is roughly $1 billion above the level at which the regulator overseeing the company would have to move in to protect policyholders.

If an insurance company gets into trouble, its assets are sold to pay policyholders' claims. If insufficient, policyholders must rely on state guaranty funds financed voluntarily by other insurers. Unlike the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has a pre-funded insurance pool protecting depositors against bank failures, state guaranty funds raise money only after a failure occurs.

States impose limits on how much policyholders can receive in a failure. In Alabama, Colorado and Iowa for example, the most annuity holders can receive is $250,000.

When Athene Annuity & Life takes over a pension, it receives assets backing those obligations from the company that formerly ran it. Athene sends 80 percent of those assets and liabilities to an affiliated reinsurer in Bermuda, the company’s filings say, and keeps the remaining 20 percent in U.S. entities.

Thomas Gober, a certified fraud examiner in Virginia who analyzes insurance companies and has worked as a consultant to and witness for the U.S. Department of Justice, questioned Athene’s heavy reliance on related companies to reinsure or backstop its policyholder obligations.

© Courtesy Thomas Gober Thomas Gober, CFE. (Courtesy Thomas Gober)

“A strong group of independent, well-capitalized reinsurers can strengthen an insurer’s financial backbone,” said Gober.

In a typical reinsurance or coinsurance arrangement, an insurer will pay an unrelated company to provide a backstop to cover the initial insurer’s obligations if necessary. Under such an arrangement, the initial and secondary insurers share profits and losses based on a preset ratio.

Athene Annuity & Life’s most recent regulatory filings show 95 percent of its reinsurance and coinsurance deals were with affiliates — $54 billion of $57 billion. This defeats the purpose of a backstop, Gober said. New York Life Insurance Co., which carries the highest ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's, has zero reinsurance or coinsurance deals with affiliates.

One affiliated reinsurer is Athene Re USA IV, which provided a $1.4 billion backstop to Athene Annuity & Life as of 2019. The reinsurer’s risk-based capital falls well below mandatory levels, under National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ rules, filings show. That’s because one of the assets it uses to compute its capital — letters of credit for $137 million — is not admitted per the NAIC. Its rules don’t allow letters of credit as assets because they represent the risk of a bank, not the insurance company, said David Provost, deputy commissioner of the captive insurance division of the Vermont department of regulation.

Vermont regulators, where Athene Re is domiciled, did allow the letters of credit to be included as an asset. “We are making a regulatory judgment that this is acceptable,” said Provost. He did not disclose the identity of the banks backing them.

Karen Lynn, a spokeswoman for Athene, said its Bermuda-based reinsurers are strong and have capital “consistent with a AA-rated company.” (An AA rating is considered high quality; AAA is the highest.)

But outsiders can't analyze the reinsurers' books because Bermuda doesn't require extensive public disclosures. Athene’s annual Bermuda filings consist of 5 pages and few details, versus the Iowa subsidiary’s over 1,000-page annual state filing. And policyholders can typically collect only from the insurer that wrote their policies, which is why the $1.2 billion in surplus held by Athene Annuity & Life Co. should be the focus, according to Gober.

© Demetrius Freeman Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Invest Summit (Demetrius Freeman / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)

Policyholders who are unfortunate enough to get caught up in an insurance company failure face another challenge: litigation can drag on for decades. In January 2020, for example, a federal appeals court ruled on a case involving money owed on an annuity written by Executive Life. That company failed in 1991.

After Executive Life collapsed, many of the insurer’s assets were picked up at significant discounts by Black’s firm, Apollo.
‘Special and symbiotic’

The relationship between Apollo and Athene, the subsidiary that backs pensions, is “special and symbiotic,” Black told investors in March.

For Apollo, the arrangement is lucrative. Over the past three years, Athene has paid Apollo $1.1 billion in management fees.

For Thomas Gober, however, the relationship between the companies is problematic. There is nothing illegal about Athene's practices, but Gober sees problems with the company's relatively thin surplus, the quality of Athene’s investments, and the habit of Athene of investing in Apollo-related entities. Apollo owns 35 percent of Athene, and Athene owns seven percent of Apollo.

The Federal Reserve researchers also expressed concerns, concluding that private-equity backed insurers may test the ability “of the insurance industry, and the financial system more broadly” to withstand “direct and indirect shocks to the corporate sector."

The Athene spokeswoman said the Fed report did not provide "comprehensive insight into how we manage our business. We have maintained, and will continue to maintain, very strong liquidity within our diversified investment portfolio, and we take great care to invest behind predictable, surrender charge protected, long-dated policyholder obligations."

In a corporate pension buyout, a company, say Bristol-Myers, hands its pension assets and obligations over to Athene. To meet these obligations, insurers typically invest policyholders’ money in corporate bonds, government obligations, and mortgages.

When an insurance company sells a policy or annuity, it agrees to pay the holder a set amount under certain circumstances. To meet these obligations, insurers typically invest policyholders’ money in corporate bonds, government obligations, and mortgages.

With Apollo guiding Athene’s portfolio, the insurer has invested heavily in Apollo-related entities, regulatory filings show. Athene Annuity & Life holds $4.1 billion in stocks, bonds and mortgage loans of its "parent, subsidiaries and affiliates," up from $172 million in 2015.

Compared with the insurer’s surplus of $1.2 billion, this is a troubling concentration of assets, said Gober.

“That’s too many eggs in one basket and an affiliated basket,” he said. “If the insurer gets into trouble, the question would be whether the affiliates’ bonds would be collectible because the affiliates are so dependent upon the insurer for revenues.”

By comparison, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corp. has total assets of $54 billion and surplus of $6.4 billion — roughly the same assets as Athene but five times the surplus. Its investments in parent, subsidiaries and affiliates total just $231 million.

NBC News asked Lynn, the Athene spokeswoman, how its policyholders can be sure these investments are good for them and not just good for Apollo affiliates. Because Apollo owns 35 percent of Athene, she said it is "completely aligned with all Athene stakeholders to find the highest quality risk-return assets for Athene’s balance sheet as possible." She also said Athene's investment in Apollo shares would not be used to pay insurance policyholders’ claims, including pension benefits.

Bill Wheeler, Athene's president, said in a statement: "The premise of your story contains the assertion that an affiliation with Apollo means more risk. This is clearly untrue." Moreover, all of its pension takeovers "have been vetted and selected by plan fiduciaries and committees whose sole responsibility is to consider the interest of participants and beneficiaries."

Asked how Athene shareholders and policyholders can assess whether amounts paid in investment management fees to Apollo are fair, Lynn said Athene’s relationship with Apollo has fueled the insurer’s high performance in recent years.

To manage the conflicts of interest arising from Athene’s ties to Apollo, Lynn said the company’s board has a committee that approves the deals. The transactions are also vetted by disinterested directors at Athene, with both groups advised by independent legal and financial advisers.

The conflicts committee “is comprised solely of directors who are independent of Apollo,” she said.

But the Athene proxy filings show all three conflicts committee members are or were directors of Apollo affiliates, including Apollo Residential Mortgage Inc., Apollo Tactical Income Fund and Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc.

Asked about these affiliations, Lynn said Athene’s governance practices adhere to requirements set out by the New York Stock Exchange, where its shares trade. Athene declined to make the directors available.

While corporate bonds dominate Athene’s investments, it is also a big buyer of commercial mortgages and securities that bundle debt together, known as collateralized loan obligations. The company also holds securities backed by aircraft leases, retailers, oil companies, car rental companies and hotels, all hurt by COVID-19 closures.

Gober studied thousands of pages in regulatory filings of Athene’s major subsidiaries comparing risks in their investments with the cushion the companies have to pay policyholder claims — the surplus.

“The biggest problem with the investment portfolio is it is high risk and illiquid,” Gober told NBC News. “Given how thin their surplus margins are, it’s relevant to compare how much more they have in risky stuff.”

Lynn disputed the view that the company’s policyholders face risks. “There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that any of our subsidiaries are inadequately capitalized,” she said, “when considering the strength and accessibility of capital across our consolidated business. Athene has more than $12 billion of consolidated statutory capital supporting $112 billion of policyholder reserves, reflecting a ratio which is meaningfully higher than other A+ and AA- rated insurers, as well as other fixed annuity providers."

The quality of Athene’s investments raises questions as well, said Gober. Its most recent filings show more than one-quarter of the securities it intends to sell before they mature were either nonrated or rated below investment grade by agencies such as Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s.

Asked whether policyholders should be concerned about these holdings, Athene says it prefers to use the ratings method put forward by NAIC. Under this system, only 5.7 percent of the securities are rated below investment grade, its filings say.

Athene’s filings also warn that “many of our invested assets are relatively illiquid,” meaning potentially difficult to sell. The company relies on Apollo for risk management support, its filings say.

Historian Charles King wins Francis Parkman Prize
Charles King's “Gods of the Upper Air,” a group biography on such groundbreaking anthropologists as Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and Zora Neale Hurston, has received a prominent history award. 

12/6/2020

© Provided by The Canadian Press

NEW YORK — Charles King's “Gods of the Upper Air,” a group biography on such groundbreaking anthropologists as Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and Zora Neale Hurston, has received a prominent history award. Frances Fitzgerald won the first-ever Tony Horwitz Prize, established after the celebrated historian and journalist died last year.

Also Tuesday, Robert Colby's “The Continuance of an Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South" was given the Allan Nevins Prize for outstanding doctoral dissertation.

The awards were announced by the Society of American Historians, based at Columbia University.

King's book won the Francis Parkman Prize, named for the 19th century historian and awarded for literary and scholarly achievement. Previous recipients include Robert A. Caro, David W. Blight and Eric Foner.

Fitzgerald, best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War book “Fire In the Lake,” was given the Horwitz Prize for “an author whose work in American history holds wide appeal and enduring public significance.” Horwitz was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Wall Street Journal who also wrote for The New Yorker. His books included “Confederates in the Attic” and “Spying on the South.” He is also a former president of the historians society.

___

This story was first published on June 9, 2020. It was updated on June 10, 2020, to correct the publication where the late Tony Horwitz won a Pulitzer Prize. He won the prize while with the Wall Street Journal, not The New Yorker.

The Associated Press

USSA
US government spy planes monitored George Floyd protests

By Pete Muntean and Gregory Wallace, CNN
2 days ago






5 SLIDES © adsbexchange.com
A RC-26B flew this path over Las Vegas on June 2 and 3. Map courtesy of adsbexchange.com.

5 SLIDES © Courtesy of United States Air Force

Thermal imaging devices are typically mounted on RC-26B planes, like this one, according to US military documents.

A small Cessna Citation jet flying straight into Washington's highly restricted airspace would typically be met with fighter jets on its wing. But when one flew over the nation's capital on June 1 and circled the White House 20 times, it was hardly an accident.

The plane was only one of several aircraft -- both piloted and unpiloted -- that CNN has been able to track flying over protests in Washington, Minneapolis and Las Vegas. Government watchdogs fear the planes were used to track protesters and perhaps capture cell phone data.

The government's use of surveillance planes to watch over those protesting the police killing of George Floyd has captured the attention of nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress who want to know whether the planes -- typically equipped with live video cameras and heat sensors -- were used for "surveilling of Americans engaged in peaceful protests."

In a June 9 letter to the heads of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the National Guard, lawmakers demanded an end to the practice "immediately and permanently" and called the use of aircraft above protests a "deep and profound" breach of Americans' First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The letter points to a trio of government aircraft flown over protest cities. CNN has independently verified that the flights took place, using publicly available flight path data from websites such as ADS-B Exchange. The site is known as "the world's largest source of unfiltered flight data."

The FBI has not specifically confirmed or denied the use of aircraft to surveil protests. But in a statement to CNN when asked about the flights, the FBI said it has been "focused on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity."

ADS-B Exchange data shows an RC-26B -- a twin-engine turboprop typically used by the FBI and the National Guard for drug interdiction -- over Washington and Las Vegas. A National Guard fact sheet says the same type of plane is normally outfitted for thermal imaging and "can be used both day and night to monitor illegal activity."

An RC-26B did at least 50 circles above Washington for nearly four hours on the evening of June 2nd, the city's fourth straight night of protests. A similar flight occurred over Washington the following night. Data shows a different RC-26B flew over Las Vegas as protests took place there on June 2 and June 3.

Of the flights over Washington, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted, "I have questions," adding that this was the "first time I can find that this aircraft, normally used for war zones/disasters/narcotics, has been used to gather intel at a protest."

The letter also says that the FBI may have flown a Cessna Citation jet "equipped with 'dirtboxes,' equipment that can collect cell phone location data," over Washington.

ADS-B Exchange data shows the same type of aircraft departed from Manassas Regional Airport in northern Virginia at 11:11 p.m. on June 1, hours after police forcibly cleared peaceful protesters from in front of the White House.

The jet climbed to an altitude of 17,000 feet and did at least 20, eight-mile-wide, counterclockwise circles centered on the White House before landing at back at Manassas after 1:30 a.m.

Data shows that the same plane took off from Manassas around the same time on the next two nights as well as June 6, flying a nearly repeat flight path over Washington.

The National Guard confirmed to Murphy that an RC-26B surveillance aircraft, operated by the West Virginia Air National Guard, was involved in responding to protests in the DC area but that such flights have since been suspended, according to a Senate staffer with direct knowledge of the situation.

"The national guard confirmed that it was air national guard and that it was an aircraft out of Lester, West Virginia. But the Department of Defense has not given any more information," the staffer told CNN, adding that the directive to hcalt these flights was made after lawmakers raised questions. Early appearances of surveillance flights began as early as May 29 when flight data shows a US Customs and Border Protection MQ-9 Predator B making a hexagonal pattern at 22,000 feet above Minneapolis where Floyd was killed days earlier.

In a letter to Congress, the Department of Homeland Security said that the unpiloted drone "was preparing to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners in Minneapolis," but when "no longer needed for operational awareness" returned to base in North Dakota. The letter did not say which agency initially requested the flights.

Customs and Border Protection has been using the remotely piloted Predator B since 2005, agency documents show, "to safely conduct missions in areas that are difficult to access or otherwise too high-risk for manned aircraft or CBP ground personnel."

Agency fact sheets say the aircraft can record video to "document suspect activities for evidentiary use." An armed, United States Air Force version of the Predator B, known as a Reaper, was used to shoot the Hellfire missiles that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani on January 3.

"The use of aerial surveillance is deeply disturbing, especially as we're seeing so much misconduct against protesters across the country," said Jake Laperruque, senior council with the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group.

"Aerial surveillance can be used to identify and track individuals in a number of ways, so it's certainly improper to deploy this powerful surveillance tools to monitor protesters," he said. "Even if abuse isn't occurring, the mere risk could significantly chill free speech."

Witnesses with a background in identifying aircraft types spotted other airplanes circling overhead Washington on protest nights -- what appeared to be a Cessna Caravan and Cessna 182.

The single-engine private airplanes are typically banned from loitering in the highly restricted airspace over Washington, but CNN was not able to track the aircraft using flight path databases. Those who routinely monitor flight path data tell CNN it is possible that the flights had special FAA approval to operate with their transponders turned off, making tracking more difficult. Light general aviation aircraft typically cannot operate in the Washington, DC, Flight Restricted Zone without a transponder.

It was not just high-altitude flights taking place over protest cities. The District of Columbia National Guard said it is reviewing its own use of helicopters over the demonstrations, including "an investigation into a June 1 low-flying maneuver conducted by one of our rotary aviation assets." That helicopter blew debris around protesters who remained on the street after a city-imposed curfew.

Bolsonaro supporter destroys Brazil beach memorial for 40,000 coronavirus victims

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro 12/6/2020
© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

A supporter of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has desecrated a beachside memorial to Covid-19 victims as the country’s coronavirus death toll rose above 40,000.

Activists from civil society group Rio de Paz dug 100 symbolic shallow graves on Copacabana beach before dawn on Thursday to represent the Brazilian lives lost.


At least 40,276 people have now died, according to a coalition of news outlets which has been compiling an independent tally since Brazil’s health ministry was accused of seeking to conceal the full figures last week.

© Provided by The Guardian Activists dig 100 mock graves on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 11 June 2020. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images
But the NGO’s founder, Antônio Carlos Costa, said Bolsonaristas began haranging activists as they stood beside the mock cemetery.

Soon after a man was filmed knocking down the wooden crosses protesters had placed in the sand near a banner reading: “Brazil, land of graves”.

“They feel such rage – and I think they’re reproducing the behaviour of the person occupying the highest position in the land,” Costa said of his group’s assailants.

Among those watching the vandalism was a grieving father who campaigners said had lost his 25-year-old son to Covid-19. The man re-erected the crosses and shouted: “Respect the pain of others.”

Costa said he felt anger at the profoundly disrespectful act – the first such attack he had experienced in 13 years protesting against politicians from across the political spectrum.

But he said that most of all he felt pity for the man, and other hardcore Bolsonaristas, who were “so blinded by ideological passion that they had closed their eyes to reality”.

© Provided by The Guardian A man knocks over one of 100 crosses. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images

Polls show millions have turned on Bolsonaro over his internationally condemned handling of coronavirus, which he has dismissed as “a little flu”. But the rightwing populist maintains a solid support base of about 30%.

“Bolsonaro’s mistakes are not so subtle that only the most perceptive people are able to detect them. It’s all so clear,” said Costa, a Presbyterian church leader. “So how is it that some people cannot see this?”

Costa said Brazil was experiencing “the worst crisis in its history”.

Related: 'Enormous disparities': coronavirus death rates expose Brazil's deep racial inequalities

“Thousands have died. Families are in mourning. People are unemployed. At a moment like this you might expect the president of the republic to offer words of hope, to show compassion, to behave soberly and signal a way forwards. Instead, we see him joining anti-democratic protests, telling journalists to shut up, riding horses, driving jet-skis [and] organizing barbecues.”

As he smashed the symbolic cemetery, the Bolsonarista branded activists leftist terrorists.

Costa said the memorial had nothing to do with left or right. “What moves us is a commitment to life. They use this discourse to delegitimize anti-Bolsonaro protesters – as if only those on the left were capable of noticing this government’s insane and anti-democratic acts.”

A better future: How to defund and reimagine policing

Michelle Stewart, Associate Professor of Gender, Religion and Critical Studies; Academic Director of the Community Research Unit, University of Regina
12/6/2020
 

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Taylor There are currently at least four major calls to defund police forces in Canada. Here, hundreds of people participate in a Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building in Regina on June 2, 2020.
On May 25, social media erupted with the image of a Black man once again whispering “I can’t breathe” while under the knee of a white police officer for eight minutes and forty six seconds. George Floyd’s death sparked horror, outrage — and familiarity.

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin looked directly into the camera lens as he demonstrated to the world the full weight of white supremacy and the its impunity. Now that impunity is being challenged in the streets and in city halls in a call to defund, disband and rethink policing as we know it.

Disbanding is complex and does not mean eliminating police. Just as the call to “defund police” does not mean taking all money away from police. Each of these calls requires action and action is what we are seeing.

Minneapolis city council committed to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. City council president Lisa Bender said:


“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe … Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.” [The plan is to] “end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.”

It does not mean the end of policing but rather an end to the Minneapolis Police in its current configuration. This has been done in California and New Jersey, with cities disbanding police departments and replacing them with new forces that cover entire counties.

There are currently at least four major calls to defund police forces in Canada including in Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Regina.
A brief history of defunding police

What does it mean to defund the police?

For some, defunding means a total cut to budget and getting rid of police. This can be classified as an abolitionist movement. As U.S. sociologist Alex Vitale explains in his book, The End of Policing, many of those movements can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s to the Black Panthers and others.

© (Koshu Kunii/Unsplash) A protestor carries a sign calling for the Minneapolis Police Department to be defunded.
Their call for community safety was later taken up by others focused on prison abolition including Angela Davis. The call to abolish state violence and policing in exchange for direct democracy and mutual aid is the foundation of anarchism.

But for many others, the call to defund police is about defunding parts of policing. With that in mind, here are some places to rethink policing and police funding.
Move police out of schools

Kindergarten to Grade 12 students across North America have become accustomed to having police present at school through programming like school liaison officer, school resource officer or DARE programs (drug awareness). According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 1.7 million children in the U.S. attend a school with police present but without access to counsellors.

© (ACLU) The school-to-prison pipeline refers to education and public safety policies that push students into the criminal legal system.

Police presence has been tied to the school-to-prison pipeline. It can negatively affect the experience of students, as schools have incrementally and increasingly taken on prison-like practices at the expense of student learning.

Following in the footsteps of University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis Public Schools, many places should consider moving police out of educational spaces.
The rise of the war cop

In the U.S., the militarization of police is directly tied to a sweeping set of reforms passed in the 1990s that led to a rise in war tactics against communities. This included a rise in programs that allowed police departments to receive war supplies.

This trend was then followed in Canada as arsenals and tactics have been used against Indigenous land and water defenders. Also, military tactics and SWAT response are often at the heart of new police practices during the execution of warrants.

Read more: Rise of the SWAT team: Routine police work in Canada is now militarized

In Louisville, Ky., a no-knock warrant led to the death of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician. She was killed by police who raided her home in early March.

A review of police budgets allows for insight into how local law enforcement position themselves to residents. For example, in Regina, Sask., municipal police were tired of “borrowing” a tank from the RCMP so they sought the funds to buy their own. While there was resistance, this purchase was eventually approved.

Demilitarizing police comes first with taking away the arsenals they have acquired and then no longer funding the requests to enhance their arsenals.
Budgets

In cities across North America, questions are being asked about how much money is spent on policing. In some bigger cities that amount could be as low as 25 per cent or upwards of 40 per cent of an entire city budget.

In Canada, policing is paid for through a combination of federal, territorial and local budget lines. In nearly all cities, the municipal police budgets are handled through city hall.

A review of most city budgets will demonstrate that policing takes up much of the budget line. Most years, police request an increase to account for ongoing changes to operating costs. What if this year and in the years to come, people said no to an increase and redirected those funds to community initiatives instead?

This is change that is doable. It would allow for much-needed funding to be redirected to community organizations.
A better future

We are seeing a reckoning as street protests continue and charges are being laid against the officers involved. We are also seeing a transformation in how people think about policing.

Assumptions about the role of police are being challenged and dismantled. Included in the critique is an intersectional lens and the ongoing role of white supremacy in racialized policing practices and policing Black lives.

People are rethinking policing and what it means for all members of our communities to be supported and safe. In other words: another world is possible when we defund and reimagine policing as we know it.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Michelle Stewart receives funding to support her research and community-based projects from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as Public Safety Canada for projects focused on criminal justice reform with attention to reconciliation in the justice system. She works for the University of Regina. Her comments are her own but are grounded in evidence and lived experiences that honour the ongoing impact of systemic racism, broken treaties, and settler colonialism.

CANADA/NFLD  

How a controversial St. John's statue was actually propaganda for a Portuguese dictatorship
Andrew Hawthorn CBC 14/6/2020

As statues of slavers and historic figures of dubious morality are toppled around the world, many in Newfoundland and Labrador have been eyeing the statue of Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real.

One of the most prominent statues in St. John's, it stands near the Confederation Building on Prince Philip Drive.

Erected in 1965, the statue — according to a plaque at the site —not so much to celebrate Corte-Real himself as to recognize the connection between the province and Portugal, through their mutual fishing of the Grand Banks.

The statue has been notorious for years. In contemporary accounts, Corte-Real was said to have abducted around 57 Indigenous people on his 1501 arrival in Newfoundland or Labrador to sell as slaves.

That is enough for many to want the statue removed.

However, according to York University professor Gilberto Fernandes, the history of the statue is even more controversial than critics suspect.
A victory for dictatorship

While the story of Gaspar Corte-Real goes back to 1501, the story of his statue is rooted in a more modern era, when Portugal was seeking influence and respect on the international stage.

In the 1960s, Portugal was still engaged with colonial wars in Africa and was under intense pressure from the United Nations because it was one of the last remaining European dictatorships.

"The Canadian federal government was one of the few NATO allies that at this point were still quite vocal against Portugal's empire, calling for its gradual granting of independence to its colonies," Fernandes said in an interview.

One push of the propaganda wing of Portugal's right-wing regime, the Estado Novo, was to clear up their image by promoting the Corte-Real brothers — Gaspar and Miguel — as important founding figures in the colonization of North America, thus making Portugal a more legitimate player in Canadian and American identity.

During an official visit in 1963, the Portuguese ambassador suggested a Corte-Real statue to celebrate the connection between that country and Newfoundland. Premier Joseph Smallwood enthusiastically received the proposal.

The piece was sculpted by Martins Correia, an artist frequently used by the Estado Novo office of propaganda.

"Smallwood … promised to place it in front of the new legislative building in St. John's and surround it with Portuguese soil and proclaim an annual Portugal day in the province," said Fernandes.

Smallwood even invited dictator António Salazar to attend the unveiling.

Fernandes said that at the time, Canada was being critical of Salazar's policies, which were seen as a kind of late-20th century fascism.

"For Portugal, this was a tremendous victory, to have this official formal proclamation," he said.

© The Associated Press Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar used statues as a way of extending influence international. This statue of him, seen in a 2015 file image, faces a wall in a courtyard of the national library in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Mozambique got rid of many statues, street names and other symbols of colonial rule after independence from Portugal in 1975.
But Portugal had competition for the spot with another authoritarian regime: Spain's Francisco Franco.

"Spain and Portugal were at this sort of a heritage race to extract the most political gain …There were a number of European nations who were claiming historic rights to continue to fish within Canada's expanding territorial waters," said Fernandes.

"I think it's a good example of how history has been leveraged and used for political gains."
History that didn't happen

In reality, the Corte-Reals had very little impact on North America, if they even ever got here at all.

"The supposed discovery of Newfoundland or Labrador by Corte-Real is largely a myth," said Fernandes. "I mean there's very little evidence that there was a case, without even getting into the whole point of they didn't discover anything of course because indigenous peoples have been here for millennia."

What is certain — according to contemporary letters of Venetian ambassador to Portugal Pietro Pasqualigo — is that around 57 men, women, and children were taken from wherever it was the Corte-Reals managed to reach and sold into slavery.

Critics of the statue point out that there are now several other monuments, including a recently restored gravesite, better represent the province's connection with the Portuguese White Fleet and its fishers.

As far as taking it down, Fernandes said context is key.

"I think people who condemn or criticize the tearing down of statues tend to see it somewhat as an equivalent of burning books, and it really isn't."

"Books are where information is stored, they produce knowledge… statues are symbols. They are decisions that we make around what past we wish to remember and celebrate publicly and officially."

"I don't know if Corte-Real meets the threshold of historical villainy that would warrant for him to be brought down, but if anything by and large it's celebrating a history that most likely didn't happen."

U.S. is 'trouble maker' in China-Canada relationship, Chinese envoy to Canada says

By Steve Scherer CBC 12/6/2020

© Reuters/Blair Gable FILE PHOTO: China's new ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu speaks during a news conference for a small group of reporters at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa
OTTAWA - The United States is using the case of a senior Chinese telecoms executive who was arrested in Vancouver on a U.S. warrant 18 months ago to create friction between China andana Cda, China's envoy to Canada said on Thursday.

"The U.S. has been taking advantage of Canada, and the U.S. is the trouble maker of China-Canada relations," the Chinese envoy to Ottawa, Cong Peiwu, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Huawei Technologies Co's Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese citizen and daughter of Huawei's billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested on a bank fraud warrant issued by U.S. authorities. Meng says she is innocent.

Asked whether he thought Canada's judiciary was independent, Cong pointed to comments U.S. President Donald Trump made in December 2018, which he said showed the Meng case was "a political incident rather than a simple judicial case."

In that interview (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump/trump-says-would-intervene-in-arrest-of-chinese-executive-idUSKBN1OB01P), Trump said he would intervene with the U.S. Justice Department in the Meng case if it would help secure a trade deal with Beijing.

© Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier FILE PHOTO: Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver
"We believe that actually this is a grave political incident plotted by the United States to bring down Chinese hi-tech companies," the ambassador said.

Cong did not say whether China would retaliate for a Canadian court's decision last month, which will prolong Meng's legal battle to avoid extradition.

Shortly after Meng's arrest, Beijing detained two Canadians on national security charges and halted imports of canola seed.

When asked about the Meng case, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has emphasized the country's judiciary is independent, while calling for the release of the two Canadians, businessman Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat.

The Chinese envoy said the two detained Canadians were "in good health," but consular visits were still suspended due to coronavirus restrictions and "will be resumed when the situation gets better."

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Canadian scientist sent deadly viruses to Wuhan lab months before RCMP asked to investigate

OF COURSE THEY DID, SAME CANADIAN LAB WAS ROBBED OF ANTHRAX A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK BY A CHINESE SCIENTIST WHO SEDUCED HER BOSS AT THE LAB

THEN ESCAPED TO CHINA WHEN THEY WERE BUSTED

Karen Pauls
14/6/2020

© CBC Xiangguo Qiu, her biologist husband and her students have not returned to work at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, after being escorted out in July 2019. The RCMP is still investigating a possible 'policy breach' reported by the Public Health Agency…

Newly-released access to information documents reveal details about a shipment of deadly pathogens last year from Canada's National Microbiology Lab to China — confirming for the first time who sent them, what exactly was shipped, and where it went.

CBC News had already reported about the shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses but there's now confirmation one of the scientists escorted from the lab in Winnipeg amid an RCMP investigation last July was responsible for exporting the pathogens to the Wuhan Institute of Virology four months earlier.

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng and her students from China were removed from Canada's only level-4 lab on over what's described as a possible "policy breach." The Public Health Agency of Canada had asked the RCMP to get involved several months earlier.

The virus shipments are not related to the outbreak of COVID-19 or research into the pandemic, Canadian officials said.


PHAC said the shipment and the Qiu's eviction from the lab are not connected.

"The administrative investigation is not related to the shipment of virus samples to China," Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada wrote in an email.

"In response to a request from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for viral samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sent samples for the purpose of scientific research in 2019."
'It is alarming'

However, experts are concerned.

"It is suspicious. It is alarming. It is potentially life-threatening," said Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa.

"We have a researcher who was removed by the RCMP from the highest security laboratory that Canada has for reasons that government is unwilling to disclose. The intelligence remains secret. But what we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximize the genetic diversity and maximize what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments. And that has links to the Chinese military."


Gain of function experiments are when a natural pathogen is taken into the lab, made to mutate, and then assessed to see if it has become more deadly or infectious.

Most countries, including Canada, don't do these kinds of experiments — because they're considered too dangerous, Attaran said.

"The Wuhan lab does them and we have now supplied them with Ebola and Nipah viruses. It does not take a genius to understand that this is an unwise decision," he said.

"I am extremely unhappy to see that the Canadian government shared that genetic material."

© CBC Dr. Xiangguo Qiu accepting an award at the Governor General's Innovation Awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall in 2018. Qiu is a prominent virologist who helped develop ZMapp, a treatment for the deadly Ebola virus which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2014-2016.

Attaran pointed to an Ebola study first published in December 2018, three months after Qiu began the process of exporting the viruses to China. The study involved researchers from the NML and University of Manitoba.

The lead author, Hualei Wang, is involved with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, a Chinese military medical research institute in Beijing.

All of this has led to conspiracy theories linking the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, Canada's microbiology lab, and the lab in Wuhan.

The RCMP and PHAC have consistently denied any connections between the pandemic and the virus shipments. There is no evidence linking this shipment to the spread of the coronavirus. Ebola is a filovirus and Henipa is a paramyxovirus; no coronavirus samples were sent.

© CBC Amir Attaran, professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa, is concerned about the shipment of dangerous viruses sent from Canada's only level-4 lab to China.

The ATIP documents identify for the first time exactly what was shipped to China.

The list includes two vials each of 15 strains of virus (about 15 ml):
Ebola Makona (three different varieties)
Mayinga.
Kikwit.
Ivory Coast.
Bundibugyo.
Sudan Boniface.
Sudan Gulu.
MA-Ebov.
GP-Ebov.
GP-Sudan.
Hendra.
Nipah Malaysia.
Nipah Bangladesh.

PHAC said the National Microbiology Lab routinely shares samples with other public public health labs.

The transfers follow strict protocols, including requirements under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act (HPTA), the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, the Canadian Biosafety Standard, and standard operating procedures of the NML.

CBC News has not been provided with some of the paperwork involved with the transfer, which was redacted under sections of the Access to Information Act dealing with international affairs, national security and other issues.
Confusion, concern over shipment

The ATIP documents provide details about the months leading up to the shipment — including confusion over how to package the deadly viruses — the lack of decontamination of the package before it was sent, and concerns expressed by the NML's director-general Matthew Gilmour in Winnipeg, and his superiors in Ottawa.

They wanted to know where the package was going, what was in it, and whether it had the proper paperwork.

In one email, Gilmour said Material Transfer Agreements would be required, "not generic 'guarantees' on the storage and usage."

He also asked David Safronetz, chief of special pathogens: "Good to know that you trust this group. How did we get connected with them?"

Safronetz replied: "They are requesting material from us due to collaboration with Dr. Qiu."

© Karen Pauls/CBC News CBC News received hundreds of pages of documents through an Access to Information request, detailing a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses sent from the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, to the Wuhan virology lab in China.

Meanwhile, it appears the NML's shipper initially planned to send the viruses in inappropriate packaging and only changed it when the clients in China flagged the problem.

"The only reason the correct packaging was used is because the Chinese wrote to them and said, 'Aren't you making a mistake here?' If that had not happened, the scientists would have placed on an Air Canada flight, several of them actually, a deadly virus incorrectly packaged. That nearly happened," Attaran said.

The package was routed from Winnipeg to Toronto and then to Beijing on a commercial Air Canada flight on Mar. 31, 2019.

The next day, the recipients replied that the package had arrived safely.

"We would like to express our sincere gratitude to you all for your continuous support, especially Dr. Qiu and Anders! Thanks a lot!! Looking forward to our further cooperation in the future," said the heavily-redacted email, which does not provide the name of the sender.

Nearly one year after the expulsion of Qiu, Cheng, and her students from the NML, there are still no updates on the case from the RCMP or PHAC.

At the time, Public Health Agency spokesperson Morrissette said the department was taking steps to resolve this case as quickly as possible.

On Thursday, he said the investigation has not yet concluded.

"Administrative investigations are impartial, thorough and in-depth. They are also procedurally fair and respect the rights of individuals," he said.

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said he welcomes scientific collaboration and exchanges with China, "but there has to be a framework of rules in place" and Canada's intellectual property must be protected.

Houlden, a former diplomat, has many unanswered questions about this particular shipment.

© Terry Reith/CBC Gordon Houlden, the director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, says there are many good reasons to share biological samples between labs, but any transfers must follow proper protocols.

A vacuum of information is always a problem, especially in a situation of heightened tension with China over the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada, the seemingly retaliatory arrest of two Canadian men in China and questions over the origins of the coronavirus, he said.

"There's also a danger if you don't provide information that people will jump always to the worst conclusion," Houlden said.

Current NML head Matthew Gilmour was not made available for an interview. He is leaving as of July to work for the U.K.-based Quadram Institute Bioscience. His medical adviser, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, will take over until a permanent replacement can be found.

Qiu could also not be reached for a comment.