Brazil's Bolsonaro fed up with quarantine, to take new virus test

Issued on: 14/07/2020

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who says he is bored staying at home after testing positive for COVID-19, feeds emus outside the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia Sergio LIMA AFP

Brasília (AFP)

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been in quarantine nearly a week after testing positive for the new coronavirus, announced Monday he plans to take another test as he "can't stand" being in isolation.

The result of the test, which is scheduled for Tuesday, "should be out in a few hours, and I will wait quite anxiously because I can't stand this routine of staying at home. It's horrible," Bolsonaro said in a telephone interview with CNN Brazil, from his official residence at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia.

Since the beginning of the crisis, the far-right president has dismissed the seriousness of the epidemic and criticized containment measures ordered by governors in Brazilian states.

During his interview, Bolsonaro said that he feels "very well" and has no fever or problems breathing. He also has not lost his sense of taste, one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19.

"Tomorrow, I don't know if the new test will confirm (the virus), but if everything is fine, I'll go back to work. Of course, if it's the other way around, I'll wait a few more days," said the 65-year-old, adding he hoped to resume his activities within a week at most.

"Otherwise everything is fine. We are working by videoconference all the time and we are doing our best not to let things accumulate," he said.

Brazil is the second-worst hit country in the world, after the United States. As of Monday, 72,833 people had died out of 1.8 million confirmed cases.

During his weekly Facebook Live post last Thursday, Bolsonaro said that after feeling unwell, he had started taking one hydroxychloroquine tablet every day.

The drug, originally tested to fight malaria, has been pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 in many countries -- but its effectiveness has not been formally proven and the issue is deeply dividing the global scientific community.

"I took (hydroxychloroquine) and it worked, and I'm fine, thank God. And let those who criticize it at least offer an alternative," he said during the Facebook Live.

© 2020 AFP

Brazil's displaced indigenous struggle in concrete jungle far from home

Issued on: 14/07/2020 -

Angoho, an indigenous woman of the Pataxo Ha-ha-hae community, wears a face mask at the Vila Vitoria favela on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Brazil DOUGLAS MAGNO AFP

Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (AFP)

Forced to leave her home after last year's Brumadinho dam disaster that killed 270 people, indigenous woman Angoho Pataxo Ha-ha-hae is now fighting the coronavirus sweeping through her community in the concrete jungle of a favela far from her ancestral home.

"Here in the neighborhood there are already 120 cases, if we go on like this more people from our group will be contaminated," said 53-year-old Angoho, panting for breath as she spoke.

The Pataxo Ha-ha-hae people are an 11,000 strong indigenous group from Bahia in northeastern Brazil.

But Angoho and her husband Hayo, the community's chief, are living in a two-room concrete house in Vila Victoria, on the the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil's biggest cities and a world away from their ancestral home.

They were diagnosed with COVID-19 in early July and are trying to fight the disease with a combination of ancient tribal remedies and Western medicine.

Suffering from fever, she coughs a lot and sometimes has trouble breathing. Five other members of her family also have symptoms of COVID-19.

Thirteen families from her village have settled in Vila Vitoria, and others have left for other Brazilian states.

It is her family's third home, having originally been forced our of Bahia.

"In Bahia we were deprived of water on our land because of the eucalyptus farms in the area and we left in search of better living conditions," she said, speaking slowly and haltingly because of her breathing problems.

Together with about 20 other Pataxo Ha-ha-hae families, they traveled more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to settle on the banks of the Paraopeba River in Minas Gerais state.

But on January 25 2019, a massive dam owned by the Vale mining company at Brumadinho collapsed, releasing tonnes of toxic waste into the river, on which the indigenous people depended.

The tragedy killed 270 people and swept away the livelihood of hundreds of others. Earlier this year, Angoho and her family decided to move on for Belo Horizonte.

"We left there because we couldn't take it anymore, the river was dead, we couldn't plant or fish, we were getting sick," said Angoho, who became a prominent critic of the environmental and human tragedy.

Millions of tons of toxic mining waste engulfed houses, farms and waterways, devastating the mineral-rich region in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

- 'Living in peace' -

From the roof of their modest red brick house in the favela, Angoho gazes out over a urban landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see.

She still wears a majestic traditional tribal headdress of black and white feathers and a yellow protective mask that matches the geometric patterns of her body paint.

Some days, her husband is unable to leave his bed with COVID-19. She tries to treat him with traditional remedies, including herbal teas made from ginger, avocado pits, tobacco leaves or rosemary.

Her family is among those receiving compensation from the Vale mining conglomerate, following a court decision in the wake of the disaster. But she says it is not enough and the family has to rely on donations to survive.

"But we don't want to live on donations. We know how to plant, we know how to make crafts. We just want our land back so that we can live in peace," she says.

© 2020 AFP

France raises pay for health care workers by more than €8 billion

Issued on: 13/07/2020 -

French Health Minister Olivier Véran (R), flanked by Prime Minister Jean Castex (L), delivers a speech after signing wage agreements as part of talks aimed at improving working conditions, salaries and patient care in the medical sector at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on July 13, 2020. © Thomas Samson, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The French government and unions signed an agreement Monday giving over eight billion euros in pay rises for health workers, with the prime minister admitting the move was overdue in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the peak of the outbreak in France, people applauded every night health workers who in turn said that such gratitude rang hollow if it was not followed by concrete steps.

The bulk of the package comprises 7.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) for pay increases for nurses and careworkers, who will get an average monthly raise of 183 euros ($208).

There is also 450 million euros ($510 million) for doctors intended to bolster wages for those who solely work in the public sector, a move aimed at luring them from more lucrative private clinics.

"No one can deny that this is a historic moment for our health system," Prime Minister Jean Castex said after a signing ceremony that followed seven weeks of negotiations between government and unions.

"This is first of all recognition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic," he said.

"It is also a way of catching up the delay for each and every one -- including perhaps myself -- has their share of responsibility."

But some unions, including the hardline CGT, refrained from signing the accords, an indication that tensions over the issue may not be over.

The coronavirus epidemic has now killed over 30,000 people in France and while infection rates have fallen markedly, officials remain wary of the risk of a second wave.

(AFP)


France’s health workers march for pay raise as country pays homage virus heroes on Bastille Day


Issued on: 14/07/2020 

The French government approved pay raises to health workers on Monday, but unions say it is not enough. While Bastille Day celebrated these same workers who were on the frontline in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, unions marched in Paris asking for a higher raise, as FRANCE 24’s Chris Moore reports.

Superheroes and skater videos: young LA entertainers lead new activism

 14/07/2020

AJ Lovelace, co-founder of Blac 4 Black lives; Melina Abdullah, civic leader; activist and singer Paris Draper; Ciera Foster, actress and co-founder of Blac 4 Black Lives; Jasmyne Cannick, social justice advocate; and Tyson Suzuki, film editor and founder of "Active Advocate" VALERIE MACON AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

In a town that sells silver-screen fantasies to the world, young Los Angeles entertainers are using their Hollywood talents to inspire and lead a new generation of real-life protesters.

"I tell everybody we're all superheroes, because superheroes are the best of humanity," says Ciera Foster, who plays one in web television series "Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe."

"We're walking, breathing history right now."

When not controlling machines with her mind as an African-American superhero, Foster organizes demonstrations against racism and police brutality through the streets of Los Angeles.

Like many in the entertainment industry, Foster -- a students' rights and justice reform activist for years -- spoke out after witnessing footage of the killing of George Floyd in May.

Many young volunteers create "super-well produced" images of the protests that go viral on social media, including for her Black Leadership Allied Coalition.

Drone footage of more than 20,000 people peacefully marching down Hollywood Boulevard last month spread rapidly around the world, becoming an enduring image of the mass movement.

"We have photographers hanging off bridges and the sides of buildings covering us. They're sending these full-on Sundance Festival pieces... it's amazing," said Foster.

- 'We are the change' -

Tyson Suzuki, a young black film editor from Hawaii, has led daily anti-racism protests to the Los Angeles mayor's doorstep at City Hall since Floyd's death.

"We start protesting but we do it in harmony: 'Eric Garcetti, listen. Eric Garcetti, listen. We are the change. We are the change.'"

His Active Advocate group aims to achieve 100 continuous days of protest, but the thirtysomething leader's activism also goes back many years.

Suzuki began campaigning as a teenager when he realized his editing skills -- honed making skater videos -- could be of use for a campaign against big tobacco.

"I'm not an overnight activist, I am an organizer," he says, noting that many of those who support him also work in entertainment.

"We all work in the creative economy. When you're creating something, you are innately developing a conceived idea, and the idea is driven with passion. Right now, the passion is destroying racism."

For 28-year-old filmmaker AJ Lovelace, that means "doing socially conscious films and plays" as well as using technology and social media to help protesters "find the specific group they align with the most."

"My plan to keep the momentum going is to continue to create content," he says.

- 'A better future' -

The Los Angeles movement against racism does not just emerge from and employ the techniques of Hollywood, but actively targets the movie industry itself.

Jasmyne Cannick, a 42-year-old social justice advocate, says it is no surprise "that young people in entertainment are pushing back" given the racism still rampant in the sector.

"All the people who 'love black people' in Hollywood -- they haven't done a good job, because it's still been allowed to continue all this time," she said.

"I guess it just takes young people to come in basically with the attitude of 'we don't care -- we're going to get this done.'"

For Paris Draper, a 20-year-old singer and activist, her generation's focus on empathy and kindness offer hope for radical change.

"We definitely differ from past generations because we are taking the time to hear each other out," she says.

"I think in this day and age we are all trying to have a better future."

© 2020 AFP

BIGGEST FRENCH UNION OPPOSES MACRON REOPENING FRANCE
 BECAUSE IT CAN'T BE DONE SAFELY

Paradise regained then lost: Med mammals mourn lockdown end

Issued on: 14/07/2020 -

Aquatic creatures such as these common dolphins swimming off the southern French coast benefited from less sound pollution from pleasure craft during lockdown Christophe SIMON AFP

La Ciotat (France) (AFP)

When Europeans retreated into their homes to observe strict stay-at-home rules to contain the coronavirus, dolphins and whales on the Mediterranean coast basked and thrived in a hitherto unknown calm.

But the return of tourists, noisy boats and heavy sea transport with the end of lockdowns in France and other Mediterranean littoral countries has signalled the return of danger and harm caused by human activity for underwater creatures.

Nowhere is this more true then in the crystalline waters outside France's second biggest city of Marseille, a nature reserve important for wildlife but also thronged with day-trippers in the summer season.


"As soon as the pleasure boaters came back, we saw footage that really annoyed us," said Marion Leclerc from the conservationist organisation Souffleurs d'Ecume (Sea Foam Blowers).

In one video, three teenagers jump from a boat close to a finback whale while wearing snorkelling masks, which is dangerous for both animal and human, said Leclerc.

"We're speaking of an animal that weighs 70 tons," she lamented.

"Many forget that the Mediterranean is also a home, where animals rest, feed and reproduce," Leclerc said.

The Mediterranean Sea is home to more than 10,000 species, despite only amounting to 1 percent of the Earth's oceans.

But the sea which separates Africa from Europe draws 25 percent of marine traffic.

Heavy traffic increases the risk of fatal collision with the sea mammals.

"It's the first cause of non-natural mortality for big cetaceans," said Leclerc.

- Reduce speed -

Out of the 87 marine mammals in the world registered by the UN, 21 have been spotted in the Mediterranean. Most of them are considered at risk of extinction.

On a bright summer's morning, a group of fifty striped dolphins splash around an inflatable blue speedboat off La Ciotat bay a short boat ride from Marseille.

"We need to reduce our speed and place ourselves parallel to their trajectory to avoid cutting their path. They come and play if they want to," said Laurene Trudelle, at the helm of the boat belonging to the scientific research group GIS3M.

The lockdown brought maritime traffic to an almost complete standstill, giving dolphins and whales the opportunity to explore areas from which they are normally kept at bay by tourists.

All scientific studies were put on hold in the Mediterranean during lockdown, but marine drone manufacturer Sea Proven got the necessary authorisation and funds from Prince Albert II of Monaco to continue observations in the Pelagos Sanctuary, a marine area protected by Italy, Monaco and France.

- 'Reversible pollution' -

Bioacoustics researchers from a Toulon University team who analysed Sea Proven's data, observed a 30 decibel decrease in noise on the coastal areas as a result of the total lack of pleasure boaters.

And the silence allowed the aquatic creatures to interact in areas between two and six times as large, said researcher Herve Glotin.

"The lockdown period showed that we really are responsible for the noise in the bays and that this pollution is completely reversible," Glotin said.

"When you think that reducing boats' speed by 10 percent in areas highly populated with marine mammals would be enough to significantly decrease sound pollution and the risk of collision" Glotin added.

The Quiet Sea research project also saw the amount of hydrocarbon -– the principal component of petrol –- halve during lockdown.

"It's really good for biodiversity, so indirectly for all of the food chain," said Glotin.

No binding international law obliges ship-owners to preserve marine mammals' natural habitat.

But since 2017, France requires boats that are over 24 metres (78 feet) in the Pelagos Sanctuary to have onboard equipment which detects the animals.

© 2020 AFP

Mystery as Argentine sailors infected with virus after 35 days at sea
Issued on: 14/07/2020

The Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port in Ushuaia after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of COVID-19 EITAN ABRAMOVICH AFP/File
Buenos Aires (AFP)

Argentina is trying to solve a medical mystery after 57 sailors were infected with the coronavirus after 35 days at sea, despite the entire crew testing negative before leaving port.

The Echizen Maru fishing trawler returned to port after some of its crew began exhibiting symptoms typical of COVID-19, the health ministry for the southern Tierra del Fuego province said Monday.

According to the ministry, 57 sailors, out of 61 crew members, were diagnosed with the virus after undergoing a new test.


However, all of the crew members had undergone 14 days of mandatory quarantine at a hotel in the city of Ushuaia. Prior to that, they had negative results, the ministry said in a statement.

Two of the other sailors have tested negative, and two others are awaiting test results, the province's emergency operations committee said.

Two sailors were hospitalized.

"It's hard to establish how this crew was infected, considering that for 35 days, they had no contact with dry land and that supplies were only brought in from the port of Ushuaia," said Alejandra Alfaro, the director of primary health care in Tierra del Fuego.

A team was examining "the chronology of symptoms in the crew to establish the chronology of contagion," she said.

The head of the infectious diseases department at Ushuaia Regional Hospital, Leandro Ballatore, said he believed this is a "case that escapes all description in publications, because an incubation period this long has not been described anywhere."

"We cannot yet explain how the symptoms appeared," said Ballatore.

The crew was placed in isolation on board the ship and returned to the port of Ushuaia.

Argentina exceeded 100,000 total cases on Sunday, and the death toll rose to 1,859. The majority of infections are in the Buenos Aires area.

© 2020 AFP

Denmark's German refugees remember forgotten WWII chapter

Issued on: 14/07/2020 -
   

In a largely forgotten chapter of the dying days of World War II, some 250,000 German refugees were interned in refugee camps across Denmark -- still then occupied by the Nazis -- where they were not made to feel welcome Erik PETERSEN Ritzau Scanpix/AFP

Copenhagen (AFP)

Barbed wire and tunneling beneath it to go and pick flowers outside his refugee camp in Denmark are what Jorg Baden remembers most clearly 75 years on from World War II.

Baden's experience -- a largely forgotten chapter of history -- was one shared by some 250,000 fellow Germans interned in neighbouring Denmark following the conflict.

Between the ages of five and eight, Baden -- now a cheerful German pensioner -- was a refugee in Denmark, after his family and tens of thousands of his compatriots fled Germany as the Red Army advanced towards Berlin.

From February 1945 Denmark, then occupied by the Nazis, was forced to take those refugees, the majority consisting of old people, women and children, as well as wounded soldiers.

Mostly spared the fighting, the Scandinavian nation was Berlin's favoured destination for exiles.

The lion's share of the refugees arrived by boat, some of which were torpedoed by the Allies, across the Baltic Sea. They initially ended up in makeshift camps around the country.

After the May 5 "liberation of Denmark by the Allies, the Danish resistance realised that there were about 250.000 German refugees all over Denmark," accounting for five percent of the population, John Jensen, historian at Varde Museum, told AFP.

Fearing the establishment of a German minority with too much influence, the refugees were gathered up into new larger camps or re-purposed military camps.

- Curtailed Hippocratic oath -

Exhausted from the journey and plagued by various illnesses, many refugees died shortly after arriving.

Some never received medical assistance as the Danish Medical Association recommended that its members should refrain from intervening.

"The common thought was if Danish doctors helped a refugee they were indirectly helping the German war machine," Sine Vinther, historian at Roskilde University, said.

Between 1945 and 1949, when the last refugees left the country, 17,000 died, with 13,000 of those in 1945 alone -- 60 percent of whom were children under the age of five.

According to Vinther that is more than the number of Danes killed during the occupation.

But even after the end of the occupation, Danish doctors remained hesitant to offer help.

"They could not get rid of their enemy image of Germans... Danish doctors failed their oaths in this period of Danish history," Vinther told AFP at the Vestre Kierkegaard cemetery in Copenhagen, where more than 5,000 German refugees were laid to rest.

Jorg Baden was one of the lucky ones to receive help. At five years old he came down with diphtheria, but was hospitalised and treated.

"It was a critical time for many children, but I made it through," the former English and history teacher said.

He recalled his family's hasty escape from Warnemunde in north Germany and the perilous journey across the Baltic to Haderslev in Denmark.

- Not welcome -

At the end of September 1945, they were transferred the Oksbol camp -- which would come to house up to 37,000 people, becoming the de facto sixth largest town in Denmark.

"We were first accommodated in horse stables which was very primitive... we had very little privacy," Baden said.

"But my father was asked to teach mathematics... because of that we were allowed to move to a stone house where we had a room for ourselves, running water and flushing toilets which was a great step forward," Baden, who is now 80, explained.

That was a luxury at the camp which allowed the family to live a "quite unspectacular and normal" life.

The camps were set up on the fringes of Danish society with the authorities aiming to "de-Nazify" the refugees.

"The general idea was to re-educate them to a more democratic way of thinking," Jensen noted.

According to Vinther, the "refugees were almost prisoners."

"Danes were not allowed to interact with German refugees, the German refugees were not allowed to learn Danish or to talk to Danes because they were not supposed to get the feeling that they were wanted," she said.

However, leaving Denmark took longer than expected.

"The Germans wanted to go back but they weren't welcome in the areas they came from, so the Danes had to negotiate with the Allied powers to repatriate them," Jensen explained.

Jorg Baden and his family left Denmark for his father's hometown of Duisburg, where he had found work with the British army, in September 1947.

© 2020 AFP

SUNNI DAESH WAR ON THE SUFI
Malian jihadist on trial at ICC over Timbuktu destruction, crimes against humanity
Issued on: 14/07/2020 

Malian Muslim militant Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud arrives for his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands. He is accused of demolishing Timbuktu's fabled shrines, as well as for rape, torture and sex slavery. AFP - EVA PLEVIER

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The trial of a Malian jihadist accused of demolishing Timbuktu's fabled shrines and unleashing a reign of terror begins at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday.

Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, 42, has been charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, rape and sexual slavery.

The charges cover a period when Islamic fundamentalists exploited an ethnic Tuareg uprising in 2012 to take over cities in Mali's volatile north.

Prosecutors at the tribunal in The Hague will give their opening statement against the man they described in pre-trial hearings as having "terrorised" local residents.

The defence and the legal representatives of alleged victims will deliver their statements at a later date when evidence is presented to the court.


Because of the coronavirus pandemic some participants in the trial will take part remotely, and it was unclear whether Al Hassan would personally be in court.

Jihadists who swept into Timbuktu, dubbed the "Pearl of the Desert", considered the shrines there to be idolatrous and wrecked them with pickaxes and bulldozers.

Built between the fifth and the 12th centuries by Tuareg tribes, Timbuktu has also been dubbed "The City of 333 Saints" who were buried there during the golden age of Islam.

'Essential, undeniable role'

ICC prosecutors said there were "substantial grounds" to convict Al Hassan for "crimes against humanity... torture, rape, sexual slavery (and) other inhumane acts including, inter alia, forced marriages, persecution and war crimes."

"Al Hassan played an essential and undeniable role in the system of persecution established by the armed groups... in Timbuktu," ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said last year.

The jihadist police imposed draconian measures on the city's residents who lived in constant fear of "despicable" violence and repression, prosecutors said.

They cited an example in which a man had his hand amputated after he was accused of petty theft.

Al Hassan is the second Islamist extremist to face trial at the ICC for the destruction of the Timbuktu shrines, following a 2016 landmark ruling at the world's only permanent war crimes court.

In the court's first case to focus on cultural destruction, the ICC judges found Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi guilty of directing attacks on the UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012.

He was sentenced to nine years in jail.

Timbuktu's tombs were rebuilt after the jihadists were thrown out, but the city remains in the grip of insecurity and tourists who once flocked there are no

Arctic spill fuels calls for shakeup at Russia mining giant



Issued on: 14/07/2020 - 10:20Modified: 14/07/2020 - 10:19

  

A massive clean up effort involved trapping floating diesel with booms on crucial water ways to prevent it flowing into fresh water lakes Irina YARINSKAYA AFP/File

Moscow (AFP)

Russian mining giant Norilsk Nickel faced pressure from a key shareholder on Tuesday to overhaul management after disasters including a massive Arctic fuel spill that sparked a state of emergency.

Aluminium producer Rusal, which owns 28 percent in Norilsk Nickel, said it was "seriously concerned" over recent environmental accidents in the Russian Arctic and called for a shakeup in management.

"What is currently happening at Nornickel invites to seriously question the competence of the company's management as well as their suitability to be in charge of running the business," Rusal said in a statement.


It also criticised the management's "collective inertia" that it said was likely to lead to "damaging criticism from the environmental and investment communities".

President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel storage tank at one of Norilsk Nickel's subsidiary plants in the Arctic in late May.

A massive clean up effort involved trapping floating diesel with booms on crucial waterways to prevent it flowing into freshwater lakes.

Putin has said he expected Norilsk Nickel to fully restore the environment.

Rusal said it was calling on Norilsk Nickel to move its headquarters from Moscow to the Arctic city of Norilsk -- the site of several recent environmental accidents including the fuel spill.

In the statement, the aluminium producer appealed to Norilsk Nickel to overhaul "corporate policies towards environmental and safety issues".

Russia's environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor fined a Norilsk Nickel subsidiary 147.8 billion rubles ($2.05 billion) over the spill, but the company is contesting the sum.

© 2020 AFP