Amazon photos show ‘illegal’ burning of rainforest amid record deforestation levels

Greenpeace blames huge surge in deforestation on Brazilian government’s ‘anti-environmental agenda’Greenpeace activists in Brazil have captured shocking images of fires burning in the Amazon rainforest.

There is currently a government ban on fires in states including Mato Grosso — a large state in western central Brazil — where the photographs were taken between 7 and 10 July.

Despite the ban, there are 4,437 hotspots in Mato Grosso and the state has had the highest number of fires this year — representing almost half (49.5 per cent) of all the fires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2020.

Greenpeace said the “illegal” destruction has been needlessly exacerbated by right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s “anti-environmental agenda”.

“These images, along with the record deforestation rates this year, are the intended outcome of Bolsonaro’s long term strategy for the Amazon,” claimed Romulo Batista, Greenpeace Brazil Amazon campaigner.

 

images reveal spread of Amazon fires ahead of dry season

“His government has been dismantling environmental protection laws and kneecapping the power of the environmental protection agencies since Bolsonaro took office, going as far as using the Covid-19 pandemic as a smokescreen to further enable deforestation, logging and mining in the Amazon.”

He added: “This administration is doing nothing but putting the climate and more lives at risk, especially those of indigenous peoples.”

Fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 20 per cent in June, reaching a 13-year-high for the month according to government data, and scientists have warned the region is on track for a repeat of last year’s devastating blazes.

A fire burns in the rainforest next to a freshly deforested area in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso state, Brazil (Christian Braga / Greenpeace)

Meanwhile health experts also fear smoke from fires during the dry season is worsening respiratory problems due to air pollution and complicating tackling vast numbers of coronavirus cases. More than 76,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Brazil and the country has seen more than 2 million cases overall.

In June, Brazil’s government space research agency, INPE, detected 2,248 fires in the Amazon rainforest, up from 1,880 in June 2019.

Greenpeace said large fires in the Amazon rainforest “do not occur naturally, but are deliberately set by farmers or land grabbers to expand the land used for cattle ranching and industrial agriculture production”.

Mr Bolsonaro has been criticised for dismantling forest protections that had helped a record reduction in deforestation between 2004 and 2012. Deforestation in the Amazon has soared in recent years, reaching an 11-year high in 2019.

Indigenous peoples, already dealing with the risks of Covid-19, are believed to be at considerably higher risk due to the fires, which, as they intensify, mean greater quantities of air pollution are affecting the region.
Read more

UK consumption ‘fuelling Amazon fires’

Mr Bolsonaro’s response to the fires “has been performative and ineffective”, Greenpeace said and cited moves such as deploying the army in costly and unsuccessful operations to fight deforestation, as well as the announcement of his “insufficient” 120-day-long “fires moratorium”.

Mr Batista said: “As Bolsonaro’s 2019 fire moratorium already showed, banning fires alone doesn’t work. Protecting the capacity to monitor and stop environmental destruction and to enforce the law — which Bolsonaro continues to systematically dismantle — is essential. Those calling for action of the Brazilian government cannot fool themselves and think that Bolsonaro’s sloppy PR moves will have any meaningful impacts.”
Hotspot next to a deforested area in Nova Maringá, Mato Grosso state (Christian Braga / Greenpeace)

International demand for goods including soy, timber, paper, beef and leather are among the key drivers of land clearances in the Amazon.

Last week, data from the WWF and the RSPB revealed the extent of the UK’s demand for goods linked to the destruction.

Brazil represents 13.9 per cent of the total UK overseas land footprint, meaning we currently rely on an average of more than 800,000 hectares of land — much of which was once rainforest — to supply our demand for agricultural products. This is equivalent to five times the size of Greater London.

Satellite images reveal spread of Amazon fires amid fears over deforestation in looming dry season

'This is just the beginning. Over the next few months, unless we see strong intervention, fires will be likely to increase... worsening the climate crisis globally' said Greenpeace

Louise Boyle New York @Friday 3 July 2020

Aerial images of fires in Amazon rainforest with the red dots representing fire hotspots in June 2020 ( INPE/Brazilian National Institute for Space Research )

Satellite images of Brazil's Amazon rainforest in June show thousands of fires raging as dry season approaches, with conservationists warning that the region could be on track for a repeat of last year’s devastating blazes.

Brazil’s government space research agency, INPE, detected 2,248 fires in the Amazon rainforest last month, a 20 per cent increase from the 1,880 fires in June 2019. It was the worst June for fires in more than a decade, according to government data.

Health experts also expressed concern that smoke from the fires could lead to respiratory problems in the population and complicate tackling Brazil's vast number of coronavirus cases. More than 60,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Brazil and 1.4million have been infected, the World Health Organisation reported.

Chief of indigenous Amazon tribe dies with coronavirus

Anna Jones, Greenpeace UK Head of Forests, said: “These fires are no accident. Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, has done nothing to discourage ranchers and land grabbers to stop deforesting the Amazon. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, deforestation has soared and now we are seeing fires deliberately lit to clear that land for industrial agriculture.

“This is just the beginning. Over the next few months, unless we see strong intervention, fires will be likely to increase and engulf vast areas of forest, endangering the lives of Indigenous Peoples, wildlife and worsening the climate crisis globally."

June 2020 averaged around 75 fires per day in the Amazon, compared with an average of nearly 1,000 blazes a day when fires peaked in August 2019.

“It’s a bad sign, but what really is going to count is what happens from now on,” Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research, told Reuters.

Deforestation is up 34 per cent in the first five months of the year from a year ago, preliminary INPE data shows.

A fire burning in Porto Velho, Brazil, one of the world's oldest and most diverse tropical ecosystems and one of the most endangered on the planet (Michael Dantas/WWF/PA Wire)

Each year the Amazon absorbs around 2bn tonnes of carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, playing a crucial role in mitigating the growing climate crisis. Carlos Nobre, a University of Sao Paulo climate scientist, told AP that the Amazon acts as a “sink” - draining heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere.

Some 40bn tonnes of CO2 are emitted globally each year. Fires in the Amazon pose a double threat: not only do they destroy the forests needed to absorb carbon but the blazes spew millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Wildfires are sparked in the Amazon by land-grabbers who slash and burn through the forest to make way for cattle and crops. Mr Bolsonaro has been criticised for dismantling forest protections that had helped a record reduction in deforestation between 2004 and 2012. Deforestation in the Amazon has soared in recent years, reaching an 11-year high in 2019.

Watch more

Brazil becomes second country to pass 1 million Covid-19 cases

Mr Bolsonaro has called for more farming and mining in protected areas of the Amazon. He deployed the armed forces to protect the Amazon in May as he did in August last year. Despite that initiative, deforestation rose 12 per cent in May from a year earlier and increased in June.

“When the dry season arrives in the Amazon, these felled trees will become fuel for burning. This was the main ingredient of the 2019 fire season, a story that can repeat itself in 2020 if nothing is done to prevent it," said Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), a non-governmental organisation.

Communities in the Amazon are bracing for the smoke that blankets the region during the fire season, typically at a peak from August to November.

Guilherme Pivoto, an infectologist in Amazonas state, told Reuters that worsening air quality could impact coronavirus patients. The state, in the northern region of the Amazon rainforest, has been one of Brazil's hardest-hit by the pandemic.

“Those that contract Covid have a higher chance of an interaction between the pollution and Covid-19, causing drawn-out cases with more symptoms,” Mr Pivoto said.

The number of coronavirus cases in Brazil is second only to the US. However, health experts believe the actual number of cases in Brazil could be up to seven times higher than the official statistics. Johns Hopkins University said the country is performing an average of 14 tests per 100,000 people per day, as much as 20 times less than what is needed to track the virus.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Nelson Mandela Day: The books to read about the inspirational figure
'Education is the most powerful weapon', so learn about his life and legacy from these tomes

SAME DAY AS AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS PASSES ON

( The Independent )

Nelson Mandela is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and one of the great moral and political leaders of our time.

Dedicating his life to fighting against racial oppression in South Africa, and across our global community, Mandela’s courage and compassion continues to inspire those around the world today.

For this very reason, his legacy is marked annually on his birthday (18 July) – a day coined Mandela Day.

Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2009, it marks and celebrates Mandela's lifelong dedication and service as a humanitarian, across conflict resolution, race relations, human rights, and gender equality, as well as his attempts to uplift poor and underdeveloped communities.

Following his call to “make the world a better place”, Mandela Day encourages us to pay tribute, take action and inspire change. And is a crucial reminder of the importance of social equality and justice for all. Issues that are as pertinent today, as they were when he was fighting for change.

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His early career was spent working as a lawyer in Johannesburg, and in 1944 he became a member of the African National Congress (ANC) party, where he organised peaceful and non-violent protests to end the Apartheid – a political and social system of institutionalised racial segregation in South Africa, which lasted from 1948 to 1991.

The government pre-empted further action and arrested Mandela along with 155 other activists, and in 1962 he was imprisoned for 27 years for his resistance to the regime.

He spent 18 years incarcerated on Robben Island where the conditions were unimaginable. He was verbally and physically harassed by prison wardens, faced deep isolation, and rarely allowed visits from his family, including his wife. He was also forced to carry out heavy labour in the island's lime quarry, which caused irreparable damage to his sight from the blinding glare of the sun.

Despite this, he remained unbroken, viewing the ordeal he experienced as the making of him. Something he writes poignantly about in the books you're about to discover.

During his imprisonment, he became a mystery man, the missing leader that many members of the South African community desperately wanted. And when he finally walked free, three decades later, the people needed to hear his voice louder than ever.

After he was released, Mandela did not stop freedom fighting. He was the president of the ANC party, and led the nation out of the apartheid, changing the country to its very core and serving as South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999.

He was the first president to take power following a fully representative democratic election, and over the course of his five-year tenure, he and his government worked to transform a nation segregated by centuries of colonialism into a democracy.

In retirement, he continued to dedicate his life to championing justice on a global scale; asking and inspiring younger generations to continue his work by making the world a better place for all.

Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon”, so to honour Mandela Day, we’ve compiled a round-up of books that will help you learn about his life, legacy, and continued dedication to humanity. In the face of adversity, his life really is an incredible tale.

From children's novels to autobiographies, devour these and prepare to be inspired

REVIEWS HERE https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/books/nelson-mandela-book-long-walk-to-freedom-childrens-autobiography-biography-a9622346.html

Taking off? Icelandair says pilots will take over cabin crew roles( Getty Images )

Union says the airline’s ‘position and attitude in the matter is a disgrace’

Simon Calder Travel Correspondent

From Monday, every crew member on every Icelandair flight will be a pilot.

The Icelandic national airline been negotiating with the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association (Flugfreyjufelag Islands/FFI) for months over new contracts in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In June, the two sides signed a five-year agreement that, according to Icelandair, involved “increasing productivity and flexibility”.

The carrier has made similar deals with the pilots’ and engineers’ unions. But 10 days ago, cabin crew voted against the proposals by a majority of 73:27.

Icelandair now says negotiations have broken down: “It has now become evident that a mutually agreed conclusion will not be reached.”

As a result, it has decided to “permanently terminate the employment of its current cabin crew members and permanently discontinue the employment relationship between the parties”.

The airline says it has been “exploring other options regarding safety and service onboard its aircraft”.

From 20 July pilots who are currently not required for flying duties will be assigned “responsibility for safety on board”.

Passengers are warned: “Services will continue to be at a minimum, as it has since the impact of Covid-19 started.”

Icelandair is now seeking new cabin crew, and is reported to be in talks with staff who lost their jobs when Wow Air collapsed in 2018.

The cabin crew union said a strike would begin at once.

The FFI chairperson, Guolaug Liney Johannsdottir, said: “Icelandair's position and attitude in the matter is a disgrace and I have faith that the public does not take such contempt for employees silently and silently,”

“Icelandair’s position puts FFI in the precarious position of having to start preparations for immediate and extensive strike action.”

Other airlines, including easyJet, have from time to time employed pilots as cabin crew, particularly during economic downturns when flights have been cut back.

Icelandair is currently flying from its hub at Keflavik airport near Reykjavik to Amsterdam, Boston, Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Hamburg, but not to the UK.

'Let's go!': Trump snaps when pushed on false claim about Biden and police

Donald Trump testily lashed out at Chris Wallace after the Fox News Sunday host, during an interview to air this weekend, called out the president's false statement that Joe Biden wants to defund all police departments, our Washington bureau chief John T Bennett reports.

"Let's go!" the president said forcefully, appearing to look at off-camera staff and give an order for someone to retrieve a Democratic document he had just misquoted.

"Get me the charter, please," a clearly agitated Mr Trump said. At the end of the brief-but-testy exchange, Mr Wallace looks bemused as he simply says, "Alright..."

At issue in a 46-second clip posted online by Fox is a policy pact the former vice president and Senator Bernie Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator who was his final primary foe, released recently. Mr Trump falsely claims in the brief snippet of the interview that Mr Biden and Mr Sanders said in that document they want to "defund" and "abolish" police departments.



Trump snaps when pushed on false claim about Biden and police

Donald Trump reacted angrily after Fox News host Chris Wallace called him out on false claims that his presidential rival Joe Biden is calling to defund the police in a policy pact with Bernie Sanders, shouting off-screen, presumably to an aide: “Let’s go! Get me the charter, please.”
The interview, which will be broadcast in full on Sunday, came as Portland’s mayor demanded that the president remove militarised federal agents from the city after reports of officers snatching residents in unmarked cars. Mayor Ted Wheeler accused Mr Trump of using the military presence to bolster his sagging poll numbers.


The president was also accused of “furthering racial entrenchment” by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, which denounced his “abhorrent” threat to repeal an Obama-era initiative requiring local governments to address historic patterns of racial segregation. “Your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise,” Mr Trump said, claiming communities would “go to hell”.

Trump accused of 'furthering racial entrenchment'

Donald Trump's pledge to roll back an Obama-era regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs has drawn criticism from fair housing advocates, who label it a blatant attempt to play racist politics and appeal to white voters in the final weeks before the election.

Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to repeal a 2015 initiative that requires local governments to address historic patterns of racial segregation. On Thursday, he said the regulation "will totally destroy the beautiful suburbs" and demolish property values by forcing low-income housing construction in suburban areas.

"Your home will go down in value and crime rates will rapidly rise," he said. "People have worked all their lives to get into a community, and now they're going to watch it go to hell. Not going to happen, not while I'm here."

Housing advocates have suggested such rhetoric is both historically familiar and particularly incendiary as America grapples with a national reckoning over entrenched racial iniquities.

"He's flatly saying that property values will go down and crime will increase if black people move into your neighbourhoods," said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. "It's especially abhorrent for Trump to be furthering racial entrenchment of segregated communities at this moment in our history."

AP

#WW3.0  UPDATED 
Idle Threat? Azerbaijan's Hint At Missile Strike On Armenian Nuclear Plant Increases Tensions

July 17, 2020 By Andy Heil
RFE/RL's Armenian Service

The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant outside Yerevan (file photo)

Azerbaijan dramatically escalated tensions amid its border battle with Armenia this week with an implicit threat to bomb the region's only nuclear power plant and unleash "great catastrophe" on Armenians.

The July 16 warning drew outrage from Yerevan and deepened concerns that the worst violence in four years between Azerbaijan and Armenia, who are technically still in a war begun in the late 1980s, could quickly spiral out of control.

At least 16 Azerbaijanis and Armenians have died in the fighting near a northern section of their internationally recognized border that has included heavy artillery, tank, and drone attacks since it began on July 12.

Yerevan and Baku routinely threaten and accuse the other of provocations that have killed dozens of people in recent years, many of them civilians, with neither side willing to back down publicly for fear of being viewed as weak in the more than 30-year-long standoff.

'It Was Horrible': Villagers Caught Up In Armenian-Azerbaijani Border Clashes
VIDEO AT THE END.

The strategic or tactical aim of either side in contributing to this week's violence is unclear.

But the reframing of the current flareup to include a missile attack on a Soviet-built nuclear plant -- a move that could massively increase the death toll and set off a Chernobyl-like fallout in the region and beyond -- took many people by surprise.

"The Armenian side must not forget that our army's state-of-the-art missile systems allow us to strike the Metsamor nuclear plant with precision, which could lead to a great catastrophe for Armenia," Vagif Dargahli, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman, said on July 16, hours after hostilities had resumed following a one-day lull.

There was speculation that the Armenian side had first hinted it might somehow strike a civilian target – such as the Mingachevir Dam -- but there was no evidence of any official making such a threat, according to RFE/RL's Armenian Service.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry quickly condemned Dargahli’s remarks as a "manifestation of state terrorism” that "reflects Azerbaijan’s genocidal intentions."

Photo Gallery:
Lives Upended: The Deadly Armenian-Azerbaijani Cross-Border Conflict In Images

Armenians are particularly attuned to the import of references to genocide in light of the mass killing of around 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in the World War I-era by Ottoman Turks.

“With such statements, Azerbaijan’s leadership acts as a menace to all the peoples of the region, including its own people,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

There are some 3 million people living in Armenia.

The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant lies just a few kilometers from cities with tens of thousands of people and 35 kilometers from the Armenian capital, Yerevan, and its 1 million inhabitants.

The plant supplies more than one-third of the country's energy needs.

Memories are fresh in the minds of Armenians and other former Soviet citizens of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 in what is now Ukraine.

When the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse in the late 1980s, Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted in conflict over a heavily ethnically Armenian region of the Azerbaijani Soviet republic called Nagorno-Karabakh.

The full-scale fighting that began in 1992 is estimated to have killed around 30,000 people – many in brutal ethnic cleansing -- and uprooted hundreds of thousands more.

The most intense fighting ended with a cease-fire in 1994 that left ethnic Armenians in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions and failed to bring a permanent settlement.



For more than a decade, occasional skirmishes have broken out near the Line Of Contact marking de facto borders.

But this week's fighting is the biggest outbreak of violence since 2016 and, unusually, has been centered far from a disputed border. It has thus far been limited to a small region.

"The mention of possible strikes on Metsamor is indeed alarming," Laurence Broers, Caucasus program director at Chatham House in London, told RFE/RL. "However, given that any such outcome would be a catastrophe for the whole region and beyond, I'm not sure that this should be taken literally."

Broers added: "Rather, it may be a way to attract attention to what is seen widely as a weak point in Armenia’s political economy: a nuclear plant that is aging and by some assessments obsolete to the point of danger."

The United States, the European Union, and Russia have all urged restraint and "de-escalation" from Yerevan and Baku.

The South Caucasus region is strategic for its hydrocarbon deposits and key oil and gas pipelines between the former Soviet Union and Southeastern Europe.

"Bringing Metsamor into the mediascape around this week's clashes...is a surefire way to attract global attention to an obscure conflict that is too often dismissed as 'frozen.'"
-- Laurence Broers, Chatham House


Azerbaijan is especially rich in oil and gas reserves that provide vital hard currency to its authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev, and his government.

"There is a case for decommissioning the station [at Metsamor], but Armenia needs it as the country does not have many other energy options," said Broers. "Bringing Metsamor into the mediascape around this week's clashes reminds the world of these issues and fits an Azerbaijani narrative that Armenia is a source of threat and instability to the South Caucasus. It is also a surefire way to attract global attention to an obscure conflict that is too often dismissed as 'frozen.'"

Aliyev publicly warned a week ago that he was tiring of the stalled international efforts to help bring a permanent peace to the region.

Four days into the current burst of violence, Aliyev replaced his longtime foreign minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, after saying the previous day that Mammadyarov had been "passive" in handling the crisis.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said in its statement that Baku's Metsamor threat "indicates the level of desperation and the crisis of mind of the political-military leadership of Azerbaijan."

Yerevan called it "a flagrant violation of the International Humanitarian Law in general and the First Additional Protocol to Geneva Conventions in particular."

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovannisian told journalists that "our officials, politicians, and diplomats are raising this issue with relevant [international] bodies."

Energy-rich Azerbaijan has been devoting huge amounts of its budget to its military in the past decade, far outspending its economically smaller neighbor.

Emil Sanamyan, a blogger and fellow at the University of Southern California's Dornsife Institute of Armenian Studies, said Baku's threat involved its possession of a missile system it purchased from Israel.

"Just to be clear: With this statement issued yesterday, [the] Azerbaijani Defense Ministry is threatening to use the LORA surface-to-surface missile it bought from Israel…to attack Armenia's nuclear power plant to cause a leak of radiation."

Just to be clear: with this statement issued yesterday, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry is threatening to use the LORA surface-to-surface missile it bought from Israel @ILAerospaceIAI to attack Armenia's nuclear power plant to cause a leak of radiation - LORA is the only system in.. pic.twitter.com/mZPv6nsyg8— Emil Sanamyan (@emil_sanamyan) July 25, 2018


He added that use of the specter of such an attack was not new.

Sanamyan said Azerbaijan made a similar threat when it "acquired the LORA missile system from Israel" in 2018.

Senior military officials from NATO member and staunch Baku ally Turkey met with their Azerbaijani counterparts on July 16.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar emerged vowing that Armenia would "definitely pay" for what it described as Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan.

“The pain of the Azerbaijani Turk is our pain," an Azerbaijani news site quoted Akar as saying.

The same day, Yerevan called Turkey "a security threat for Armenia and the region," adding that "broad regional and international cooperation is needed to counter it."

The OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France but also including Turkey -- has existed since 1992 to encourage a framework for lasting peace and security between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

But it has not convened a summit bringing together the Armenian and Azerbaijani heads of state in three years.

A Russian deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko, reportedly called on all mediating countries to adhere to "balance" with respect to the current crisis.


Andy Heil is a senior correspondent in RFE/RL's Central Newsroom in Prague.

#WW3.0  
Azerbaijan Threatens Missile Attack On Armenian Nuclear Plant

WAIT WHAT ABOUT THE FALLOUT

AND I AM NOT TALKING BAD PRESS

Armenia - A general view of the Metsamor nuclear plant, 20 May 2013.

Azerbaijan threatened on Thursday to launch missile attacks on Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear plant amid continuing deadly clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“The Armenian side must not forget that state-of-the-art missile systems of our army allow us to strike the Metsamor nuclear plant with precision, which could lead to a great catastrophe for Armenia,” said Vagif Dargahli, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman.

According to Azerbaijani news agencies, Dargahli responded to what he described as Armenian threats to attack a large reservoir in central Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Dargahli’s remarks as a “manifestation of state terrorism” that "reflects Azerbaijan’s genocidal intentions.”

“With such statements, Azerbaijan’s leadership poses a threat to all peoples of the region, including its own people,” it said in a statement.

An Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, also condemned Baku's threat, saying that it amounts to a “concrete crime.” “I am very glad that our officials, politicians and diplomats are raising this issue with relevant [international] bodies,” he told journalists.

Hovannisian suggested that the threat came in response to statements made by “various private individuals” in Armenia. “There have been no official statements by Armenian military authorities about hitting such civilian, strategic or non-strategic facilities [of Azerbaijan,]” he stressed.

The Soviet-built nuclear plant located 35 kilometers west of Yerevan generates roughly 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. Baku’s threat to destroy it came hours after fierce fighting resumed on a volatile section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

At least 16 soldiers from both sides have been killed and dozens of others wounded there since Sunday. The two sides blame each other for the worst escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since 2016. 


YES  THAT KIM KARDASHIAN SHE IS ARMENIAN AFTER ALL 
Kim Kardashian is using her massive influence on social media to shine a light on the latest flare up in fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia. 

On Thursday, the 39-year-old reality star-turned-justice warrior informed her 179 million Instagram followers that Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense threatened to bomb her father's ancestral homeland. 

'Despite an ongoing global pandemic, Azerbaijan has violated the UN's appeal for global ceasefire by unprovoked attacks against the Republic of Armenia,' she wrote on her Instagram Story.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8532531/Kim-Kardashian-urges-international-community-intervene-Azerbaijans-attack-Armenia.html

Thousands Protest Russian Governor’s Arrest as Crackdown Deepens

Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Thousands of people marched through the streets of the Russian far east city of Khabarovsk, local media reported on Saturday, in a second week of protests over the arrest of the region’s popular governor, amid a deepening crackdown on opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

Demonstrators carried slogans demanding the release of Khabarovsk Governor Sergey Furgal, according to footage posted on social media. The independent Ekho Moskvy radio estimated about 20,000 people joined the protest.

About 1,000 people also protested in the Far East city of Vladivostok chanting “We are with you Khabarovsk,” according to the local vl.ru news site.

Police detained Furgal earlier this month on allegations he organized several murders in 2004-2005, and flew him to Moscow. He denies the accusations. Furgal, from the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, defeated the ruling party candidate in 2018 elections and won local support for his moves to limit officials’ privileges.

His detention has sparked unprecedented unrest in the city, adding to a rise in general dissatisfaction at Moscow’s rule in the remote far east and Putin’s long-term grip on power.

The governor’s prosecution comes amid a series of moves by security forces against opponents of Putin since he won a crushing endorsement of his right to extend his rule until 2036 in a constitutional vote July 1 that observers said was marred by irregularities.

“The hardliners are gaining more weight,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who’s often critical of the authorities.

Police on Friday searched the office and home of opposition leader Alexey Navalny and barred him from leaving Moscow as part of their investigation into his alleged slander of a World War II veteran who publicly backed the constitutional changes.

Protesters Detained

Navalny didn’t campaign actively against the referendum on amending Russia’s constitution, focusing instead on regional elections due in September. He accused the authorities of using the case to prevent him from traveling around Russia in the run-up to the polls.

On July 15, police detained almost 150 people who gathered in Moscow’s central Pushkin Square to protest at the constitutional shake-up, which allows Putin, 67, to stand for two more six-year terms when his current mandate expires in 2024.

In power since 2000, Putin has seen his popularity slump to a record low amid a steep economic recession sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and a plunge in the price of oil, Russia’s main export earner.

Protests have also erupted over the prosecution of a prominent former military affairs journalist, Ivan Safronov, who was detained on treason charges this month after being accused of passing state secrets to Czech intelligence. Safronov denies the charges.

The security clampdown has also swept up supporters of self-exiled Putin critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former billionaire oligarch who funds civil society projects in Russia. Law enforcement officers have raided homes and offices of employees of Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia foundation and MBK Media.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

'The Kremlin Is Shocked': Moscow Scrambles For A Response As Protests Rock Russia's Far East

July 17, 2020 Matthew Luxmoore
RADIO FREE EUROPE

Protesters hold a banner reading "I'm/We're Furgal" as they attend a mass rally in support of Governor Sergei Furgal in Khabarovsk on July 16.

MOSCOW -- In September 2018, residents of Khabarovsk Krai, a Russian region bordering China, voted overwhelmingly for a governor not allied with the ruling party. Sergei Furgal, a former scrap-metal trader, won the election on a wave of discontent over falling wages and a hugely unpopular pension reform that raised the retirement age by five years.

Routing incumbent Vyacheslav Shport by winning nearly 70 percent in a runoff vote, Furgal celebrated a victory that dealt a humiliating defeat to a candidate endorsed by President Vladimir Putin and caused heads to turn in Moscow.

Some said that by challenging Shport, Furgal broke a promise he had made to the Kremlin: that he refrain from campaigning and accept a position in Shport’s cabinet instead. Once in office, he faced a dogged state TV campaign to blacken his name, and the kind of backstage jockeying for his ouster that may eventually have led to his downfall.

The Kremlin is shocked. No one knows how to react.”
-- Political analyst Abbas Galyamov

“They crossed a red line," a source in Putin’s administration told the Vedomosti newspaper at the time, in reference to the deceptively named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), a nationalist outfit usually loyal to the Kremlin, which fielded Furgal in the election. "They've turned into the [real] opposition -- and may now share its fate."

A week ago, those warnings appeared to come true. Less than two years into his term, Furgal was arrested and whisked off on July 10 to Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail, where he awaits trial on charges of organizing the murders of two businessmen and the attempted murder of another in 2004-05. He has pleaded not guilty, and supporters have questioned why the charges took 15 years to surface.

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United Russia's Revenge? Far Eastern Governor's Arrest Raises Suspicions

The following day, cities across Khabarovsk Krai were rocked by the largest protests witnessed in the region since the Soviet collapse in 1991, with an estimated 30,000 people marching through the streets of the regional capital, Khabarovsk, and demanding Furgal’s release. The protests have continued daily and featured anti-Putin slogans, leaving Moscow scrambling to gauge the right response.

 

Sergei Furgal

The situation was “emotionally very resonant,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on July 14, warning that protests could aid the spread of the coronavirus. And Russian state TV has been conspicuously tight-lipped about the Khabarovsk rallies, which have provoked smaller protest events in other parts of the country’s Far East.

“The Kremlin is shocked,” said Abbas Galyamov, a political analyst based in Moscow. “No one knows how to react.”

In The East

It’s Moscow that is traditionally viewed as Russia’s bastion of opposition sentiment, not the distant, industrial Far East. Regions on the country’s sprawling eastern flank are often reliant on central subsidies, and grudgingly accustomed to getting the short end of the stick. But mass protests there are rare, with grievances aired more commonly in private than on the streets.

But this time may be different, analysts say.

A June 25-July 1 vote that cemented a set of controversial changes to Russia’s constitution, including one enabling Putin to seek two more six-year terms as president, has contributed to a sense that people’s political choices are being ignored. The arrest of a popular governor has served as a catalyst for an expression of that sentiment in the form of protest rallies.

Furgal is seen on a screen during a court hearing in Moscow on July 16.

“This is not a protest city, like Moscow or St. Petersburg,” Zyoma Kulikov, one of the protesters in Khabarovsk, told RFE/RL. “But I’ll keep coming here until Furgal is brought back and given an open, jury trial here in Khabarovsk.”

Crowd size in Khabavorsk has dwindled since the record turnout on July 11, with several hundred people protesting outside the regional administration each evening. But Sergei, a local builder who declined to give his last name because he feared repercussions for speaking out, said the mood was combative ahead of a major rally planned for July 18.

“We’re doing everything for Moscow to hear us, for Putin to hear us,” he said. “They say there are fewer and fewer of us each day, but this weekend, people will come in droves.”

Last summer, crowds numbering in the tens of thousands protested in Moscow over the exclusion of independent candidates from elections to the city council. The police reacted with a show of force and a subsequent campaign of legal prosecutions in which several people were sentenced to prison on charges they denied or said were substantially overblown.

This week, on July 15, a smaller rally in Moscow against the amendment that could extend Putin’s rule featured chants of “Khabarovsk, we’re with you!” and banners displaying Furgal’s name. Some 140 protesters were detained in a sometimes violent police clampdown shortly after the main event ended.

Moscow Police Detain Nearly 150 At Protests Against Constitutional Change

But as protests in Khabarovsk continued, there have been few signs of a similarly forceful response by the authorities. Instead, the rallies appear to have baffled a local law enforcement mechanism unused to handling anything of the sort.

Kremlin 'Flummoxed'

“The protest reached such a scale that the authorities are flummoxed,” said Galyamov. “That’s why law enforcement is acting with such restraint. It’s unclear how people will react to arrests. They may be like a red rag to a bull.”

Few predict the protests will spark a revolution that topples Putin’s two-decade rule. But after years of falling real wages and minimal support from the state during a pandemic that continues to sicken thousands of Russians each day, some analysts say that Khabarovsk is a harbinger of more unrest to come.

“Furgal’s trajectory tells us much more about tectonic processes at work in Russian politics and society than anything specifically to do with him,” Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, wrote in a recent column. “You worry less about not having so loud a political voice when times are good, but recent years have not been that.”

Galeotti argues the protests are another symbol of the gradual “decline of Putinism.” For residents of Khabarovsk, demonstrations are a release valve for anger over economic stagnation, job losses, and a widespread sense that their voices just aren’t being heard.

“It is not that this will bring Putin down so much as that it becomes a symbol of the ossification and alienation of Late Putinism,” he wrote.

With reporting from Khabarovsk by Yekaterina Khasina of the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL’s Russian Service

Matthew Luxmoore is a Moscow-based correspondent for RFE/RL.

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CANADA
Feds extend wage subsidy to Dec. 19; ease loss requirement

We have to transition from subsidy-based economy to growth-based one: Perrin Beatty

TELL THAT TO ALL THE INDUSTRIES WE SUBSIDIZE INCLUDING OIL AND GAS, BIG AUTO, ETC

CANADA IS THE IDEAL STATE CAPITALIST ECONOMY 

7:20
We have to transition from subsidy-based economy to growth-based ...
Up Next

THIS REIT AND OTHERS (REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS)

IN CANADA OWN APARTMENT BUILDINGS, MANY HAVE REFUSED TO 

STOP COLLECTING RENT, ONE OF THESE CREEPS WAS INTERVIEWED

AND TOLD BNN THAT RENTERS THAT PROTEST AND CALL RENT STRIKES

ARE PRIVILEGED AND SPOILED AND HE HAD NO INTENTION OF FREEZING RENTS

DURING THIS PANDEMIC, OR ANY TIME, THAT IS WHY PROPERTY IS THEFT, WHEREAS IF WE SOCIALIZED HIS BUILDINGS EVERY PERSON WOULD OWN THEIR APARTMENT, AND THAT FORM OF PROPERTY IS LIBERTY!

9:22
'Somehow we've got to get people working again': Dream Office REI...

HOW TO INCENTIVIZE WORK: INCREASE THE MINIMUM WAGE TO $15 AN HOUR

A LIVING WAGE IS $25 AN HOUR IN CANADA, THESE WHINERS HAVE NOT INCREASED WAGES OR BENEFITS FOR THEIR WORKERS, SO THEY WANT THEM TO COME BACK FOR LESS, WOULD YOU WORK FOR LESS? SHOULD YOU? OF COURSE NOT THESE BASTARDS PROVE THEY ARE WAGE THIEVES

6:36
Ottawa needs to phase out CERB and incentivize work: Canadian Tax...




OTTAWA - Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the Liberals are easing eligibility rules for the government's emergency wage subsidy and changing the amounts businesses can receive.

The government had been under pressure to make the subsidy more accessible, specifically by loosening the requirement of a 30 per cent drop in revenues, so more companies under that cut-off can qualify.

Speaking in Toronto, Morneau says the rules will be changed so amounts paid out will be proportional to revenue declines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program is the heart of the Liberals' promise to help Canadians get back to work, even if has to be at a slower pace, as the pandemic wanes.

Morneau's fiscal update last week boosted the budget for the program to $82.3 billion from $45 billion in a sign of impending changes and an extension beyond this summer.

Morneau says the program will now end Dec. 19.

He's hoping the extension will give companies confidence to rehire workers, knowing what the rules are and that the program will be around for longer.

The most recent federal figures for the program show the government has given almost $20.4 billion in payroll help to about 262,200 companies.

The government's proposed changes to the wage subsidy are part of a bill that will be debated next week when the House of Commons sits, including a one-time disability payment and extensions to some court deadlines that were both in a bill that failed to pass the Commons in June.

Speaking in Ottawa on Friday afternoon, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said the bill will widen the number of recipients from those receiving a disability tax credit to include those receiving Canada Pension Plan disability payments or supports from Veterans Affairs Canada.

Each would receive a $600 one-time, tax-free payment, she said.

The legislation proposes offering the payment to anyone who applies for the disability tax credit within 60 days of Parliament approving the bill.

“This financial support matters. Canadians with disabilities can have confidence that we will bring this project past the finish line,” said Qualtrough, who has responsibility for disability issues.

UK

Scientists pour cold water on PM’s ‘open by Christmas’ vow

A former chief scientific adviser, said that it could prove difficult with respiratory illnesses tending to flourish in the colder weather

by Henry Goodwin July 18, 2020

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask, talks with a paramedic during a visit to the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Boris Johnson may struggle to deliver his vision of a “significant return to normality” in time for Christmas, leading scientists have warned.

The Prime Minister signalled another significant easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions in England on Friday, relaxing work-from-home guidance and paving the way for theatres and sports stadiums to reopen.

At a No 10 press conference, he said it was his “strong and sincere hope” that ministers would be able to review the remaining restrictions from November onwards “possibly in time for Christmas”.

However scientists quickly poured cold water on the Prime Minister’s statement.

Sir Mark Walport, a former chief scientific adviser, said that it could prove difficult to achieve such significant relaxation with respiratory illnesses tending to flourish in the colder weather.

He said that while the disease was declining, there were still between 3,000 and 11,000 new cases a day in England.

“It is going to be difficult. We know that winter is when respiratory viruses thrive so it is going to be tough,” he told BBC2’s Newsnight.

“The Prime Minister said ‘Hope for the best, plan for the worst’. Of course what we need to do as far as possible is prevent the worst.”

‘Very complex time’

His comments echoed the chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty who warned measures such as hand-washing, isolation and household quarantine would be needed for a “prolonged period”.

Giving evidence to the Lords Science and Technology Committee on Friday, he said: “It has not gone away. So, all of those need to continue for a long period of time.”

The Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance – who had previously warned against easing the work-from-home guidance – told the committee that the winter would be a “very complex time” with people going down with other illnesses which were not Covid-19.

In his address, the Prime Minister said it will be up to employers in England to discuss with workers whether it is safe to return from August 1.

From that date, also most remaining leisure centres will reopen and indoor performances with live audiences can resume if pilots are successful, while trials will begin for sports stadiums to reopen from October.

Mr Johnson – who also immediately scrapped the advice to avoid public transport – said Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty had taken part in a Cabinet discussion before the relaxation was announced

However he said that ultimately “decisions are taken by the elected politicians”.

It means that from next month, wedding receptions for up to 30 people can resume, and bowling lanes, skating rinks, casinos and beauticians can reopen as long as they have measures in place to reduce Covid-19 transmission.

Pilots to reopen sports stadiums will include the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield from July 31 and the Glorious Goodwood horse racing festival from August 1.
New local powers

In an attempt to prevent another nationwide shutdown, Mr Johnson said local authorities in England will have new powers from Saturday to close specific premises, shut outdoor spaces and cancel events.

Ministers will also be able to close entire sectors or types of premises in an area and issue “stay at home” orders, Mr Johnson said.

He also set out his plans to prepare the NHS for a potential second spike in Covid-19 cases coinciding with the flu season this winter, saying the nation must be “hoping for the best, but planning for the worst”.

An extra £3 billion funding for the NHS in England, and extra cash for the devolved nations, will allow Nightingale hospitals to remain open and for private hospital capacity to be used until the end of March.

UK coronavirus outcome has not been good, chief scientific adviser says

Sir Patrick Vallance told the Science and Technology Committee Covid-19 is likely to be around for a number of years.

by Joe Mellor July 16, 2020


Steve Parsons/PA Wire

The coronavirus outcome in the UK “has not been good”, the Government’s chief scientific adviser has told MPs.

Sir Patrick Vallance said there will be many factors that determine how well a country responds to the Covid-19 outbreak.

He also told the Science and Technology Committee that the virus is likely to be around for a number of years.
When asked about the UK’s response to the pandemic, Sir Patrick said: “As (chief medical officer Professor) Chris Whitty has said before, it’s very difficult to know where we stand at the moment.

“It’s clear that the outcome has not been good in the UK, I think you can be absolutely clear about that.

“It is clear you can see a band of countries that have done less well in the temperate zone.

Many factors

“Countries that are very well connected internationally, countries that have got population structures of a certain type


“There are many factors that are going to play in this as we look and say, ‘what is it that makes some countries having done worse than others?’, and there will be decisions made that will turn out not to have been the right decisions at the time.”


Sir Patrick had previously said 20,000 deaths would be a “good result” in the pandemic, but the latest figures show the UK has seen the deaths rise to more than double that.

He said that one lesson to learn from the pandemic was the “importance” of data flows.

He added: “It would have been absolutely preferable to have much greater testing capacity early on.

“But it’s not just testing, it’s basic information flows around patients in hospitals, around rates of admission, around rates of movement. Those sorts of things are important parts of this as well.” 

 

(PA Graphics)

The committee also heard that what most people refer to when they discuss a second wave of the virus, is actually a re-emergence of the first wave which has been suppressed.

Sir Patrick said that if there is an increase in cases in the winter: “You could argue that is the tail end of the first wave still.

“And I think it is quite probable that we will see this virus coming back in different waves over a number of years.”
Lockdown

He also told MPs about the risks of lockdown, and that it was “crucially important” that the indirect impact of the lockdown on people’s health was fully understood.

(PA Graphics)

He said: “I think the chief medical officer has been pretty clear about this, and that is the way this should be looked at… overall excess deaths.

“If you look at overall excess deaths then you’re looking at the integrated effect of the virus itself with all the other reasons people may have suffered as a result of this.

“We do need to understand the impact of that and it’s very clear that lockdown itself carries risks, and those risks are to both physical health and mental health.”