Rise of the zombies? Europe faces insolvency balancing act

IF BANKS ARE ZOMBIES DO WE SHOOT THE BANKERS IN THE HEAD

© Reuters/Axel Schmidt 

FILE PHOTO: The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Germany

By Paul Carrel


BERLIN (Reuters) - Even as the European economy slumps into its deepest recession in modern history, the number of bankruptcies across the continent has fallen sharply as government subsidies and a temporary loosening of insolvency rules keep companies afloat.

During the first half of 2020, countries including Britain, France and Spain saw insolvencies fall by an estimated 20-40%year-on-year, official and private sector data show.

But as the region implements new restrictions to control a fresh rise in COVID-19 infections, the question for governments is whether to preserve jobs at the risk of creating a generation of debt-laden "zombie" firms with no real future.

For now, it seems a risk they believe worth taking.

In Germany, Europe's biggest economy, there was a 6.2% year-on-year drop in insolvency filings in the first half after the government temporarily waived a filing obligation. By contrast, U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings rose 26%, according to legal-services firm Epiq Systems Inc.

Now, Berlin plans to give troubled firms yet more leeway.

Local critics say the first-half fall in insolvencies is proof in itself the state has done more than enough and now risks impeding what economic liberals hail as "creative destruction", the term popularised in the 1940s by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter to describe unviable firms folding to make way for more dynamic newcomers.

But the issue is knowing how to distinguish the zombies – generally defined as companies which would anyway struggle to cover their interest payments – from basically healthy firms that have run into temporary trouble.

Jan-Marco Luczak, legal and consumer spokesman for Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU, said it was "good and right" that the government helped businesses quickly and without red tape.

"But it is also clear that we must not permanently switch off the self-cleaning process of the market," he told Reuters. "Companies that are not healthy and have no economic prospects independently of corona must exit the market."

Germany's Federal Statistics Office confirms the drop in insolvencies was directly facilitated by government measures, including allowing firms to delay filing for bankruptcy until the end of September, now extended to the end of the year.

A new draft reform, which would take effect at the start of 2021, envisages extending the deadline for firms to file for insolvency to six from three weeks while also giving them the opportunity to terminate onerous contracts.

"The company is given a wide margin of manoeuvre in drawing up the restructuring plan, organising the negotiations and conducting the vote on the restructuring plan," the Justice Ministry said of the proposals in a written statement sent to Reuters.

That has raised alarm bells with the IDW Institute of Public Auditors, which is calling on the government to press struggling companies to restructure earlier, rather than when they face a real threat of insolvency.

(Graphic: German insolvencies fall during lockdown - https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/jbyprmmdbve/chart.png)



STRUCTURAL CHANGE

Jens Weidmann, president of Germany's national central bank and a known fiscal hawk, also has concerns.

He acknowledges the "balancing act" involved in countering the pandemic's economic fallout with state support measures but, in a speech this month, highlighted the potential to kick-start what many would see as a long overdue structural change in Germany's economy away from its reliance on the industries of the last century. The auto sector is one such example.

"Digital transformation could get a real boost", he said, giving one example of the creative destruction that pro-market advocates are seeking.

Berenberg Bank economist Holger Schmieding said the government was not yet impeding corporate renewal, but was at risk of doing so.

"In this unusual and unusually deep recession, it makes sense to slow down the process of destruction."

"Over the course of next year, the balance will shift," he added. "Extending the moratorium on insolvency proceedings into next year would be wrong, in my view."

REDUCED PROSPECTS

Credit insurance and debt collection group Atradius estimates a 26% rise in insolvencies globally this year as governments start to phase out support schemes. However it predicts that any increase in the second half will be much lower in Europe than elsewhere.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last week urged governments to review and refocus pandemic support measures as the recovery progresses.

Failure to do so could hinder the recovery by trapping resources in non-productive firms and jobs, reducing prospects for shifting jobs to more productive and higher-paid ones, it said.

In Spain, one of hardest hit European countries both economically and in health terms, some 130 leading economists are urging the government to fine-tune employment protection schemes to avoid non-viable companies being subsidised.

"It is key to avoid problems of incentives that could delay the revival of the economy and the reallocation of workers towards more productive enterprises," they wrote.

Britain is taking a different tack. While it has announced a wage subsidy scheme modelled loosely on Germany's long-running 'Kurzarbeit" short-time work programme, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has made it clear the initiative – a much less costly replacement to furlough measures expiring next month - was not intended to save jobs that were not viable in the long term.

(Additional reporting by Belen Carreno in Madrid; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

One Year After The First Climate Strike, Here’s What Greta Thunberg Has Accomplished


Erin Corbett SEPT 21, 2020

© Provided by Refinery29

Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old Swedish climate activist is back to school after taking a year off to continue campaigning to stop global warming. On this day one year ago, Thunderg led the largest global climate strike in history, as more than 4 million people across 161 different countries went on strike to demand climate action. Students, trade unionists, workers, and labor organizers were among the many who joined the massive walkout, with a message to their governments that together they would not be stopped.

Thunberg’s activism started gaining international attention during the 2018 summer when she launched a weekly climate direct action called “Fridays for Future” or “School Strike for Climate.” Every Friday, Thunberg encouraged students everywhere to skip school and demand their governments take action to save our planet. And the striking has continued for the past year.

So, what has Thunberg been up to the past year? Although the 17-year-old has taken a backseat in the news in recent months due to the chaos of the presidential election, ongoing uprisings for racial justice, the pandemic, and aliens, Thunberg has been very busy. In the last year, she has taken her environmental activism around the globe, to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

During her trip to New York, the young activist delivered a now-famous, passionate speech that put world leaders to shame. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean,” Thunberg said. “Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

In Davos, Thunberg took on U.S. President Donald Trump in a speech to audience members urging world leaders to take steps to fix a problem they created. After all, 100 companies alone are responsible for 71% of global emissions and more than 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from the oil and gas industry.

“You say children shouldn’t worry. You say, ‘Just leave this to us. We will fix this. We promise we won’t let you down. ‘Don’t be so pessimistic,’” she said, directing her ire at Trump, who during an earlier address suggested climate activists should not be pessimistic about the future of our planet.

Greta Thunberg

@GretaThunberg

School strike week 106. Back outside the Swedish Parliament! We will not go away until you #FaceTheClimateEmergency . If you strike, remember to keep social distance and follow COVID-19 restrictions. #climatestrike #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #flattenthecurve

1:04 AM · Aug 28, 2020

Much like the rest of the world, Thunberg has had to adapt to changes in her everyday life due to the global public health crisis we face. As a result, she took her weekly climate strikes to the internet, and organized a digital strike every Friday. Thunberg invited participants to post of photo of themselves striking with their protest signs and the hashtag #ClimateStrikeOnline. In some of her free time, the 17-year-old said she also started “doing some school” after her gap year travels were interrupted. “It doesn’t really count, but just because I love studying so much,” said Thunberg.

Even in the middle of the pandemic, as we all took steps to social distance and stay home whenever possible, Thunberg continues to raise awareness about social issues and hold world leaders accountable. In June when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro criticized stay-at-home measures and shutting down non-essential businesses, Thunberg launched a crowdfunding campaign with Fridays for Future to purchase medical supplies and make telemedicine services accessible to people living in the Amazon rainforest.

But it seems that one year later, the teen continues to organize and boost weekly digital climate strikes, and has moved to start striking in-person again. In August, the climate activist took her socially distanced strike back to the Swedish Parliament, and continued to amplify calls for action. Thunberg along with thousands of journalists, activists, scientists, and professors signed an open letter demanding the European Union and global leaders make a number of changes to slow global warming, including halting investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, enacting climate policies that protect workers, and making ecocide an international crime, among others.

Despite her warnings last year that school strikes have not achieved enough and her admission that it’s just not sustainable, Thunberg remains a force for change and inspiration to youth organizers the world over.


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The Last Months Of A Canadian Who Died Of COVID-19 In ICE Custody

MURDER BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD BE MOST FOUL

KILLED FOR PILL PUSHING LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH

AMERICA IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

PRISON NATION RUN BY PRIVATE JAILS

Samantha Beattie HUFFPOST CANADA 

SEPT 21,2020

© Provided by HuffPost Canada James Hill, in an updated photo, died of COVID-19 in August in an American immigration detention centre.


Months after James Hill was supposed to be released from U.S. prison and reunited with his family in Canada, he died alone of COVID-19 in American immigration custody, hooked up to a ventilator and unable to speak.

The former doctor from Newmarket, Ont. was caught in a torrent of events outside his control — immigration delays, the coronavirus pandemic and irresponsible actions on the part of American officials.

“He thought he was going to be free,” Hill’s daughter Verity told HuffPost Canada from her Toronto home.

“I can’t stop thinking that he was ultimately given a death sentence. It’s injustice on top of injustice.”

Hill was released from prison in April after serving 14 years for illegally distributing Oxycontin to patients at his Louisiana family practice, but was immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With an expired American green card and Canadian passport, Hill, 72, was sent to the for-profit Farmville Detention Center in Virginia to await deportation, scheduled to fly home July 9 — three months after the transfer. HuffPost has pieced together his final months at the facility through interviews, a lawsuit, news stories and public statements.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada The Farmville Detention Center on Aug. 12, 2020 in Farmville, Va. It has seen the worst coronavirus outbreak of any such facility in the United States.


Verity described her father as gentle and understanding, a man who was made an example of by the American justice system during former president George W. Bush’s war on drugs.

The judge and federal prosecutor in the case both said Hill liberally handed out prescriptions for addictive painkillers to his patients, the National Post reported during Hill’s sentencing in 2007.

His criminal defence lawyer, Randal Fish, argued many of Hill’s patients didn’t have health insurance or access to pain specialists and needed help. He was “stunned” at the length of Hill’s sentence.

“I’ve specialized in criminal defence law for close to 27 years now and this has to be, bar none, the most horrible, egregious miscarriage of justice I’ve seen in my life,” he said at the time.

Hill tried to make the most of federal prison, running self-help groups and a horticultural program for other inmates, writing 11 books of poetry, a novel and countless letters to Verity.

But Farmville was like nothing he had experienced before.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada A detainee lays on a dormitory bunk at a detention centre in Lumpkin, Ga. on Nov. 15, 2019.


“My father had lived in four different U.S. prisons. He said Farmville was the worst of any of them,” Verity said, adding Hill called his family regularly from the detention centre to keep them up to date.

“There was no sunlight, no privacy,” she said. “There was a bank of phones against one wall and always a lineup and nobody ever cleaned the phones. It just seems ridiculous.”

This spring, the hundreds of immigrants at Farmville were beginning to panic about the possible spread of COVID-19 — and the lack of resources to protect themselves from it. Hill was no exception. He lived alongside dozens of other men in a poorly ventilated dormitory, sleeping head-to-head in bunk beds and sharing bathrooms, showers and a cafeteria, without consistent access to cleaning supplies or masks.

    

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Detainees talk on the phones at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif. on Aug. 28, 2019.


Meanwhile, protests were erupting across the country as Americans reacted to police killings of Black people, including George Floyd, and demanded an end to systemic racism and discrimination.

In an effort to crack down on largely peaceful demonstrators in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump’s administration went to dangerous lengths to quickly mobilize tactical teams, including ICE officers, the Washington Post reported last week. ICE arranged charter flights for their officers, under the pretense the agency was transferring 74 detainees from half-empty facilities in Florida and Arizona to Farmville — 270 km south of the capital — according to the Post.

“Immigration used people as plane tickets, while disregarding the health and safety of the people on those planes,” said Adina Appelbaum, a program director at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. “It’s really upsetting to hear this behaviour led to so many people getting sick.”


Local ICE officials pushed back on the transfers, said Farmville director Jeff Crawford to the town’s council last month, while addressing officials’ concerns about a reported outbreak at the facility.

Farmville had only experienced a handful of COVID-19 cases that spring and staff worried they wouldn’t have enough space for social distancing if more people arrived.

But headquarters assured them the facilities the detainees were coming from “had no instances of COVID-19,” Crawford said.

“In hindsight, we believe we’ve discovered information that this was not accurate, but that is what we were told at the time.”


Of the new detainees that arrived, 51 tested positive for COVID-19, alleges a lawsuit launched by four men against ICE and Farmville for their “woefully inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Two of the plaintiffs are being held in custody until their immigration hearings. The other two were granted permission by judges to stay in the U.S., but ICE is appealing those decisions.

The virus spread like “wildfire” throughout the facility, says the lawsuit. By mid-July, at least 315 detainees had tested positive — more than 80 per cent of Farmville’s population — and seven were hospitalized.

In total, more than 5,000 people in ICE custody across the U.S. have come into contact with COVID-19. About 20, including Hill, have died so far in 2020.

The disturbing, chaotic conditions Hill described to his family are similar to those alleged in the lawsuit, which has not yet been proven in court.

Hill saw detainees without masks or gloves clean up vomit and feces of those who were sick, but not isolated, Verity said. Hill tried to sleep during the day to avoid interacting with others. He ate as little as possible, not wanting to go to the mess hall because detainees with COVID-19 symptoms were serving food that was expired, undercooked or infested with bugs.

“The way my dad put it, it was not a matter of if he gets COVID, but when,” Verity said.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Detainees gather in a common area at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2019, during a media tour.

The immigrants who filed the lawsuit allege they never saw a doctor and were only ever given Tylenol to treat fevers, body pains, headaches and any difficulty breathing. They were not tested for days after first showing symptoms and three continued to live in the dorms.

One of the detainees, 27-year-old Gerson Amilcar Perez Garcia from Honduras, experienced severe COVID-19 symptoms, including diarrhea, a high fever and shortness of breath, and lost a total of 40 pounds, the lawsuit alleges. He was put in isolation with another sick detainee after six days of symptoms and given limited amounts of Tylenol and Gatorade. Guards checked on him once a day.

One night, Perez Garcia felt like he couldn’t breathe for an hour, the lawsuit says.

“He panicked, and he screamed to the guards for help while banging on the window of his cell. He did this for about 10 minutes when he became so exhausted he had to stop.”

No one responded to his cries.

© Provided by HuffPost Canada A detainee sits in a cell at an immigration detention facility in Tacoma, Wash., on Sept. 10, 2019.


Crawford, Farmville’s director, denied the lawsuit’s allegations while speaking to town councillors in August.

“The notion we did not adequately respond to the COVID-19 situation at the facility is false. The notion that our staff and detainees are ill is false,” Crawford said.

“The assertion that our detainees are not receiving medical care is false. The notion we are not conducting COVID-19 testing or that testing is inadequate is false. The notion our detainees don’t have access to (personal protective equipment) or soap is false.”

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Detainees leave the cafeteria under the watch of guards at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, La., on Sept. 26, 2019.


On July 1, guards shot pepper spray into Hill’s dorm when inmates were too ill to stand up for the daily count, Verity said. Hill told his family he was exposed to the gas and began experiencing shortness of breath two days later.

He was taken to the hospital overnight, then returned to his dorm, Crawford told councillors, denying Hill was ever exposed to pepper spray.

Hill’s breathing issues continued, though, so he was sent to the medical unit for observation.

By July 9, Hill’s symptoms had only worsened, to the point he wasn’t allowed to board his flight home, Verity said. The day after he was supposed to be settling back in Canada, he was finally diagnosed with COVID-19 — his oxygen saturation levels were so low he was transferred to a hospital.

“He didn’t want to go on a ventilator because he wanted to remain cognizant,” said Verity. “But at a certain point he was too breathless to speak and didn’t have a choice.”

© Provided by HuffPost Canada Verity and James Hill in 1986 in Richmond Hill, Ont.


For the next four weeks, she and her family spoke to Hill over the phone, hoping he was listening to their words of encouragement. Verity suffered from extreme anxiety, grinding her teeth until they crumbled, fearful she’d lose not only her father, but the chance to reunite.

In a poem about that time, titled “That Contentious Border,” Verity wrote:

“those days

where I was waiting remain

a tense eternity

“I expected

news of your recovery

you had to prevail

or I’d know nothing certainly

“adrift since

between no fixed points of now and then

you were supposed

to share a quality of light, a shade of green with me

on the stage of our reunion

“why how where is that resolved

into a box that transports the remainders

across that contentious border.”

On the night of Aug. 5, hospital staff told Hill’s family they were going to take him off life support. Verity had one last chance to say goodbye.

“I told him that he’d given me his gift and I would use it to write him a life,” Verity said.

Four months after entering ICE custody, Hill died.

“There is tragic news, which is the death of a detainee,” Crawford said at the town council meeting. “But there’s a lot of good news as well.”

Since July 10, he said they’ve administered more than 700 tests and documented no other detainees or staff with symptoms.

“Yes, we’ve had many positive (tests), but there’s a great difference between testing positive and being sick.”

Watch: A public health crisis in unfolding in ICE detention facilities during the pandemic. Story continues below.


However, a recent inspection done for the lawsuit’s plaintiffs found health care staff at Farmville were not monitoring detainees for ongoing symptoms nor properly screening them for COVID-19. Less than a quarter of the detainees were wearing masks.

ICE said in a statement it is conducting a review into Hill’s death.

Canadian officials are aware of Hill’s death and are in contact with local authorities to gather information, said Global Affairs spokesperson Jason Kung. They are providing assistance to Hill’s family, but can provide no further information citing privacy reasons.

Verity has dealt with her grief by sharing Hill’s story with advocacy groups and media, in the hopes it will create change for the people still detained in Farmville — taking the same stance as her father would.

“He had this attitude that humanity is a collective and we’re all responsible for each other. One person’s difficulties we share,” she said. “He didn’t see a divide between people.”

Shortly after Hill was sentenced in 2007, Verity wrote to him, expressing her anguish.

“How do you manage, now that the things you counted on are fantasies?” Verity asked.

Hill’s response then rings true for Verity now.

“I breathe,” he wrote. “I become this simple act, not an inhabitant of this cell, a server of this sentence, or even a man …. Don’t fight the grief: it will just resurface elsewhere in anger.”

It’s Not Just Hysterectomies: The U.S. Has A Long, Shameful History Of Forced Sterilizations

Britni de la Cretaz
2020-09-18

© Provided by Refinery29 MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2020/01/06: Protesters holding a banner at the silent protest. Members of the activist group Rise And Resist gathered a silent protest inside The Oculus at the World Trade Center, holding protest signs, a banner reading “U.S. Immigration Policy Is A Crime”, photographs of the children who have died in ICE custody, and photographs of the detention camps to object to Border Patrol and ICE treatment of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, calling on the Trump administration to immediately process all asylum seekers. (Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)

As news broke this week that ICE was performing hysterectomies on non-consenting detainees in Georgia, countless people expressed shock and anger at the news, which was brought to light by whistleblower Dawn Wooten, who had been a nurse at the detention center. But, dismaying as this news was, it was hardly surprising: The U.S. has a well-documented, centuries-long history of forcibly sterilizing people, particularly women of color.

From eugenics campaigns a century ago to the current-day hysterectomies being performed in ICE facilities, attacks on the reproductive freedom of marginalized people are baked into the history of the U.S., and include things like denying hysterectomies for trans men who need them for gender-affirming reasons. It’s important to remember, too, that reproductive justice — a term coined by a group Black women — doesn’t just mean access to abortion; it means the freedom to reproduce on your own terms and to be provided the support and access to resources required to do so. But many people over the course of history have not had that choice.

Forced sterilization has been used as a genocidal tactic, one designed to prevent or limit the ability of certain segments of the population from being able to reproduce. “Forced sterilization is a deliberate, systemic, and targeted devaluation of Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, people, and families,” reproductive justice organization If/When/How wrote on Twitter. “[It] is intended to incite terror in Black and Brown and Indigenous communities here and abroad, to foment despair and hopelessness, and to erase the futures of Black, Brown, and Indigenous families everywhere.”

The practice of experimenting with sterilization officially started in the U.S. nearly 100 years ago. The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 encouraged the sexual sterilization of institutionalized people in Virginia in order to improve the “health of the patient and the welfare of society.” In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, the Supreme Court upheld that statute and the decision resulted in 70,000 sterilizations of people deemed “unfit” to reproduce, largely due to mental illness, but also because of physical disability, poverty, or race.

Author Adam Cohen, who wrote the book Imbeciles about the Buck case, draws parallels between the rhetoric that allowed those sterilizations and anti-immigrant narratives pushed today, telling NPR, “I think these instincts to say that we need to stop these other people from ‘polluting us,’ from changing the nature of our country, they’re very real.” In that way, there is a direct line from the Buck case to the hysterectomies perpetrated by ICE.

These practices continued for decades, and in the 1970s, the U.S. government forcibly sterilized as many as 70,000 Native women through the Indian Health Service. An estimated 25 percent of Native women of childbearing age were sterilized by 1976. This assault on the reproductive freedom of Native women was occurring at the same time feminists were celebrating the expansion of women’s right to choose, thanks to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, making clear the disparities of who had the ability to access that freedom and who did not.

This was also a distinction that could be seen when thousands of Mexican women who had come to the U.S. had been forcibly sterilized between the 1920s and 1950s for being deemed “immigrants of an undesirable type.” In the 1960s and 1970s, Mexican women in Los Angeles were deceived into having non-consensual sterilizations in order to receive medical care or have their babies delivered. That case was brought to light when a brave group of Chicano women spoke out and participated in a class-action lawsuit. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, nearly one-third of women in Puerto Rico were sterilized as part of a mass eugenics campaign, something that continues to impact Puerto Rican women and the larger Puerto Rican community today.

In 1973, two Black sisters, Minnie and Marie Relf, were sterilized under the premise of getting birth control shots, and their lawsuit drew national attention to how poor Black women were being targeted by sterilization efforts by the U.S. government. Research by The Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, which is studying the history of sterilization in the United States, shows that sterilization rates for Black women increased as desegregation efforts expanded, evidence of a backlash to integration intended to reassert “white supremacist control and racial hierarchies specifically through the control of Black reproduction and future Black lives,” according to Dr. Alexandra Minna Stern, Professor of American Culture, History, and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, and leader of the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab.

More recently, in 2010, women in California prisons were subjected to sterilization against their will, and in 2015, a Tennessee judge offered probation to a woman in exchange for sterilization. “America is so scared of Black and Brown people ‘taking over,’ that it commits the most horrific atrocities,” Julissa Natzely Arce Raya, author of My (Underground) American Dream, said on Twitter.

With this long and horrifying national history, it’s hard to hold out much hope that things will change, simply because of these most recent allegations. And yet, with so much current movement happening in the fight for racial justice, it’s possible to think there might be action taken. Recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation into the allegations brought forward by Wooten.

“We must close the camps and every detention center across the country. We need to completely rebuild the entire immigration system with the input and leadership of our communities,” the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) said in a statement. “We demand change at every level and in every system to protect and ensure our health, our rights and our dignity.”

A Nurse Reveals ICE Is Performing Hysterectomies

New Details Emerge About The ICE Whistleblower

ICE Is Using COVID-19 To Raid Homes — Again

Nobel laureate refuses local honour over Poland's LGBT 'rift'


16 hrs ago


  

© Provided by The Canadian Press

WARSAW, Poland — Nobel Prize-winning writer Olga Tokarczuk has declined an honorary citizenship from the region of Poland where she lives because she would have had to share the honour with a Roman Catholic bishop who has made hostile comments about the LGBT community.

Tokarczuk said in a tweet Friday that while she appreciated being considered, she “sadly” couldn't accept Lower Silesia’s honorary citizenship. She said that receiving it at the same time as Bishop Ignacy Dec would highlight the “painful rift” in Poland over LGBT rights.

“I do not want to become an object of such actions and an element in this game,” said Tokarczuk, the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in literature and a vocal supporter of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Dec has repeatedly described the LGBT rights movement as a threat to the Catholic Church and to Poland, which is predominantly Catholic.

Local councillors linked to Poland's centrist opposition Civic Coalition party nominated Tokarczuk as a honorary citizen, while members of the right-wing Law and Justice party that governs the country recommended Dec.

Tokarczuk, who lives in the southwestern city of Wroclaw, explained her reasons behind declining the honour.

“Instead of being a joyous celebration of a sense of community, it is a vivid illustration of the painful rift in our society,” she said.

Poland has produced heated debates over LGBT rights in recent months, including after right-wing President Andrzej Duda described the movement as worse than communism as part of his reelection campaign earlier this year.

The Associated Press

GOOD NEWS

William Perry Pendley: Federal judge removes acting Bureau of Land Management director after finding he has served unlawfully for 424 days


By Kyle Feldscher and Andy Rose, CNN
 

© US Department of the Interior

A federal judge on Friday ordered acting Bureau of Land Management Director William Perry Pendley to step aside, blocking him from exercising any more authority after finding that he has served unlawfully for more than 400 days.

Chief District Judge Brian Morris of the US District Court of Montana ruled that Pendley has served unlawfully for 424 days, in response to a lawsuit brought by Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. Morris additionally ruled Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt cannot pick another person to run the Bureau of Land Management as its acting head because that person must be appointed by the President and Senate-confirmed.

The judge gave both sides of the case 10 days to file briefs about which of Pendley's orders must be vacated.

"Pendley has served and continues to serve unlawfully as the Acting BLM Director," Morris wrote in his opinion. "His ascent to Acting BLM Director did not follow any of the permissible paths set forth by the U.S. Constitution or the (Federal Vacancies Reform Act). Pendley has not been nominated by the President and has not been confirmed by the Senate to serve as BLM Director."

He added, "Secretary Bernhardt lacked the authority to appoint Pendley as an Acting BLM Director under the FVRA. Pendley unlawfully took the temporary position beyond the 210-day maximum allowed by the FVRA. Pendley unlawfully served as Acting BLM Director after the President submitted his permanent appointment to the Senate for confirmation -- another violation of the FVRA. And Pendley unlawfully serves as Acting BLM Director today, under color of the Succession Memo."

Pendley was nominated to be the permanent director of the agency in July but the Trump administration withdrew his nomination in September after a series of controversial statements -- including saying that climate change is not real and falsely saying that there was no credible evidence of a hole in the ozone layer -- were made public by CNN's KFile.

The BLM manages 244 million acres of federal lands in the United States -- one out of every 10 acres of land in the country -- along with 30% of the nation's minerals. As acting director of the BLM, Pendley wielded significant authority over the leasing and use of land for mining, recreation, and oil and gas exploration and development along with maintaining environmental protections for federal lands. The agency is currently taking steps to move its headquarters and employees out west.

Last year, Pendley became the fifth person to lead the bureau on a temporary basis after the departure of Director Neil Kornze less than a year into the Trump administration. Bullock filed suit in July challenging Pendley's authority.

Pendley, a conservative activist, commentator and lawyer, was appointed by Bernhardt as acting director in July 2019.

Morris wrote that, by law, the position of Bureau of Land Management director is required to be confirmed by the Senate. The Trump administration argued that Pendley did not officially have the title of acting director, so the requirement does not apply.

"Such arguments prove evasive and undermine the constitutional system of checks and balances," Morris wrote, adding that the administration referred to Pendley publicly as the agency's director.

Interior Department spokesman Conner Swanson told CNN in an email the administration will appeal "immediately."

"This is an outrageous decision that is well outside the bounds of the law," Swanson said.

Bullock, who is challenging GOP Sen. Steve Daines in a competitive Senate race, tweeted, "Today's ruling is a win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our public lands."

'She set the benchmark': trailblazing PNG politician Nahau Rooney dies, aged 75

REST IN POWER

Sadhana Sen and Gynnie Kero THE GUARDIAN

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Facebook
Hardworking, audacious, occasionally controversial, but always vivacious: one of Papua New Guinea’s political pioneers, Nahau Rooney, has been remembered as a trailblazer for PNG women in power following her death on 15 September, aged 75.

In 1977, Rooney was one of just three women elected to PNG’s first post-independence parliament – out of 109 members – where she served as the regional member for the province of Manus.

Rooney drew controversy during her early career when as minister for justice in 1979 she was sentenced by the supreme court to eight months in jail for interfering with the administration of justice over a tax case.

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Then prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, assumed the justice portfolio and overturned the decision immediately.

This early tussle for power between the executive and judiciary – narrowly over whether the judiciary had the right to review deportation decisions, but more broadly an assertion of power by a newly-independent government – led to most of PNG’s foreign judges resigning, and thus brought about the appointment of PNG’s first national judges.

© Provided by The Guardian Nahau Rooney was the first member of parliament for Manus province. Photograph: Tane Sinclair-Taylor/Nature/PA

Somare, PNG’s grand chief, described Rooney as a “wonderful woman”.

“She worked very hard for Papua New Guinea. I feel sorry for the Manus people especially her family. Manus has lost a great leader in Nahau.”

Elizabeth Cox, former UN women Pacific regional director, who has spent decades working with PNG women’s organisations, recalled Rooney as “an energetic member of the early post-independence governments that made genuine efforts to catalyse constitutional promises of equality, participation and a focus on rural development”.

“Sir Michael Somare believed in Nahau. Her female peers were inspired by her and she enjoyed the support of a loving husband, happy to let her shine while he worked hard at home in Manus.

“Nahau leaves us with an important legacy, one that challenges us all to do as much as she did to build a stronger women’s movement in PNG, to get more women into parliament and to make the voices of PNG’s post-independence daughters heard in the region and in the world.”

Rooney was a leading advocate for women to organise and raise their collective voice, a constant presence at conferences and workshops to encourage women’s participation in politics in PNG.

Climate change and its impact on the environment in her province Manus and elsewhere in PNG and the Pacific were among her many passions and worries as was the Manus regional processing centre.

“She was against destructive logging and fishing and, as early as 2001, protested the Australian government moves to make her beloved home a prison for asylum seekers,” Cox said.

PNG’s governor general, Sir Bob Dadae, paid tribute to Rooney as a pioneer.

“As the first female politician of our country soon after our independence, Rooney demonstrated early on to the womenfolk that women too can become politicians and be involved in decision making, a task that is, in our society, traditionally performed by the men,” Dadae said.

“She held various ministerial portfolios during her political career and was not one to hold back from freely expressing her opinion. She set the benchmark for women at a time when women’s role in society was relegated to the home and not in decision making for the nation as a politician and minister of state.

“To the people of Manus, Rooney demonstrated to the rest of the country the potential of what the women of Manus can achieve”, Dadae said.

Rooney was re-elected in 1982, becoming the only female member of that parliament, but lost her seat in 1987.

In the 2000s, retired from politics, her environmental and women’s rights activism continued, while she ran the family’s guest house on Manus Island. She also served as president of the National Council of Women, and on the Council of University of Papua New Guinea, where she had earlier studied social work.

In 2004, she ran, unsuccessfully, for the position of governor-general, which is nominated by a parliamentary vote.

In 2006, Rooney was honoured with the title of the Companion of the Order of the Star of Melanesia.

Rooney’s husband, Australian-born Wes Rooney, pre-deceased her, murdered on her home island of Manus. She is survived by her children, Kevin, Michelle, Poyap, Gabriel, Nawes, Eva, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A life-saving 'game': Bosnia trains world's mine-detecting dogs

AFP

 

© ELVIS BARUKCIC Bosnia has become a key centre for dogs to be trained in mine detection

With her nose in the grass of a Bosnian field, Orna sniffs furiously until she finds her target. She then sits and wags her tail in excitement for the red rubber toy that is her reward.

The exercise is only a game for the two-year-old dog, but the mine-detection skill is saving lives in Bosnia and around the world.

© ELVIS BARUKCIC At the end of the war, some eight percent of Bosnian territory was littered with explosives, now it's believed to be two percent, thanks in part to the dogs' work

The Balkan state, still working to rid its territory of landmines dating back to its 1990s war, has become an important training ground for canines deployed as far afield as Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

  

© ELVIS BARUKCIC Training begins when the puppies are four to six weeks old and lasts up to 18 months

At the end of Bosnia's 1992-95 conflict, some eight percent of its territory was littered with explosives.

Today, experts believe it is down to two percent, thanks in part to the work of the dogs, who have learned the trade at two centres backed by US and Norwegian NGOs.



Orna, a black and brown Belgian Malinois, is undergoing her schooling at the global training centre of the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) in a suburb of Sarajevo.

She is among 40 dogs from the hard-working breed currently in training, while 30 other "veterans" are "enjoying their well-deserved retirement", said Gordana Medunjanin, who works at the centre 

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© ELVIS BARUKCIC All the dogs are the Malinois breed, which is known to be hard-working and adaptable

All the dogs are the Malinois breed, which is known to be "energetic, adaptable and have a great desire for work and cooperation", she said.

The site's graduates are currently taking part in mine clearance programmes in Bosnia, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Cambodia.

-'It's a game'-

Training starts when the puppies are four to six weeks old and lasts up to 18 months, said Orna's trainer Namik Dzanko, 29.

One of the important first tests is to confirm the dog's interest in the rubber toy, known as a cong, that helps motivate their work.

The dogs then start honing their skills by detecting the scent of explosives, hidden at random in tin canisters attached to a merry-go-round.

The dog circles the structure, stops and sits when it sniffs a mine.

Successes are rewarded with some play time with the red toy.

More advanced training continues in the simulation "minefields" outside, where explosives lacking detonators are buried in a 100- square-metre (1,076-square-foot) plot, with zones delineated by yellow tape.

Guided by their trainers, the dogs methodically sniff in straight lines.

When they pick up the scent of the explosive, they "mark" it by sitting quietly and pointing their muzzle at the suspected spot.

At a real minefield, the area would then be inspected by a de-mining expert.

"The dog does not understand that he is looking for a mine and that it is dangerous. For him, it's a game," said Dzanko.

"He finds something and is rewarded with his toy. Through this positive experience, he does a job which saves lives around the world."

The dogs are used mainly to clear suspicious areas around a known minefield, though they can be sent into the "heart" of the area, if the precise locations of the explosives are unknown.

Using dogs for the perimeter helps save time for the de-miners, said Nermin Hadzimujagic, whose US-funded Mine Detection Dog Center in southern Borci has sent pups on missions to places like Afghanistan, Kosovo and Lebanon.

"On a working day, a de-mining expert can inspect an area of 70 to 100 square metres, while a dog can cover up to 1,000," he added.

- 'Like footballers'-

Bosnia's goal is to be mine-free by 2025.

More than 500,000 inhabitants, or 13 percent of the population, still live close to dangerous areas.

Since the end of the war, anti-personnel mines have killed 617 people, including 53 de-miners, according to the Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Center.

No mine-sniffing dogs trained in Bosnia have ever been killed, in the country or in missions abroad.

The dogs are tested twice a year and must perform flawlessly.

"Otherwise, they cannot be used in de-mining anymore", Hadzimujagic, 44, said.

"If the dog misses a mine and someone has an accident tomorrow, we are accomplices," stressed Emir Cukas, a dog trainer in Bosnia's civil defence de-mining unit.

Dogs can work for a dozen years if they are healthy, but a lifelong training is crucial, he said.

"They are like footballers, like all sportsmen. If you train every day, you are good."

rus/ljv/ssm/kjm

We Are Many looks back to an earlier age of anti-war rallies

Chris Knight NP

© Provided by National Post New York protestors have the whole world in their hands in We Are Many.

The anti-war documentary We Are Many is a kind of double throwback. On the one hand, this 2014 British production is only now opening in Canada, six years after it was shot. But the subject matter is older still; the march against the impending Iraq War that took place in more than 600 cities around the world on Feb. 15, 2003.

The fact that the United States, Britain and their allies went ahead with the invasion barely a month later doesn’t dampen the spirits of the protestors and activists interviewed by director Amir Amirani. In fact, they argue that the scale of the protests – the New York Times declared worldwide public opinion a new superpower – helped future demonstrators make greater gains, and may even have kick-started the Arab Spring revolts of the early 2010s.

The film also functions as a reminder of what feels like another age in geopolitics. We see how British Prime Minister Tony Blair ignored advice from his Attorney General that the war might not be legal. And we watch President George W. Bush joking during a correspondents’ dinner in 2004 about his failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Even a decade and a half later, the outrage it stirs is palpable.

The British focus of the doc means that many of the commentators are specific to that country, including author John Le Carré, actor Mark Rylance and filmmaker Ken Loach. There is some footage of the Toronto demonstrations that were part of the 2003 event, although even more startling are the shots of scientists at McMurdo base in Antarctica joining in. One of the antipodal protestors notes that he lost his job over his participation, but adds he wouldn’t change a thing. And as someone else notes, having the protest spread to Antarctica was like hearing that it had reached Mars.

We Are Many opens Sept. 25 at the Nelson B.C. drive-in, the Rio in Vancouver and virtually through the Metro Edmonton, with other locations to follow.

3 stars out of 5

Largest California wildfire threatens marijuana growing area

© Provided by The Canadian Press

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana growing enclave, and authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops even as weather forecasters predict more hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames.

The wildfire called the August Complex is nearing the small communities of Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, about 200 miles (322 kilometres) northwest of Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Law enforcement officers went door to door warning of the encroaching fire danger but could not force residents to evacuate, Trinity County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Nate Trujillo said.

“It’s mainly growers,” Trujillo said. “And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.”

As many as 1,000 people remained in Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, authorities and local residents estimated Thursday.

Numerous studies in recent years have linked bigger U.S. wildfires to global warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, especially because climate change has made California much drier. A drier California means plants are more flammable.

The threatened marijuana growing area is in the Emerald Triangle, a three-county corner of Northern California that by some estimates is the nation’s largest cannabis-producing region.

People familiar with Trinity Pines said the community has up to 40 legal farms, with more than 10 times that number in hidden, illegal growing areas.

Growers are wary of leaving the plants vulnerable to flames or thieves. Each farm has crops worth half a million dollars or more and many are within days or weeks of harvest.

One estimate put the value of the area's legal marijuana crop at about $20 million.

“There (are) millions of dollars, millions and millions of dollars of marijuana out there,” Trujillo said. “Some of those plants are 16 feet (5 metres) tall, and they are all in the budding stages of growth right now.”

Gunfire in the region is common. A recent night brought what locals dubbed the “roll call” of cannabis cultivators shooting rounds from pistols and automatic weapons as warnings to outsiders, said Post Mountain volunteer Fire Chief Astrid Dobo, who also manages legal cannabis farms.

Mike McMillan, spokesman for the federal incident command team managing the northern section of the August Complex, said fire officials plan to deliver a clear message that ”we are not going to die to save people. That is not our job.”

“We are going to knock door to door and tell them once again,” McMillan said. “However, if they choose to stay and if the fire situation becomes, as we say, very dynamic and very dangerous … we are not going to risk our lives.”

A firefighter was killed and another was injured on Aug. 31 while working on the fire. Diana Jones, a volunteer firefighter from Texas, was among 26 people who have died since more than two dozen major wildfires broke out across the state last month.

A memorial service was held Friday for a veteran firefighter, Charles Morton, 39, a squad boss with the Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Crew who died Sept. 17 while battling the El Dorado Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.

“I know that Charlie was a very skilled, in fact extraordinary, firefighter and a fire leader,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen told the gathering at The Rock Church in San Bernardino.

“He committed himself, often for weeks and months on end, to protecting lives, communities and natural resources all around this country in service to fellow Americans.”

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Friday released the identity of another of the 15 people killed in a rampaging forest fire earlier this month. The remains of Linda Longenbach, 71, of Berry Creek, were found on Sept. 10 in a roadway about 10 feet from an ATV, close to the body of a man previously identified as Paul Winer, 68.

A relative told investigators the victims were aware of the fire and chose not to evacuate.

Efforts to extinguish the wildfires have benefitted recently from low winds and normal temperatures along with and moist air flowing inland from the Pacific. But forecasters said that weather pattern will reverse during the weekend as a ridge of high pressure boosts temperatures and generates gusty winds flowing from the interior to the coast.

In northern and central areas of the state the strongest winds were forecast to occur from Saturday night into Sunday morning, followed by another burst Sunday night into Monday.

The Pacific Gas & Electric utility was tracking the forecasts to determine if it would be necessary to shut off power to areas where gusts could damage the company's equipment or hurl debris into lines that can ignite flammable vegetation.

The utility posted a power cut “watch alert” for Saturday evening through Monday morning. If the shutoff happens, about 21,000 customers in portions of northern Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties would lose power, PG&E said.

When heavy winds were predicted earlier this month, PG&E cut power to about 167,000 homes and businesses in central and northern California in a more targeted approach after being criticized last year for acting too broadly when it blacked out 2 million customers to prevent fires.

PG&E equipment has sparked past large wildfires, including the 2018 fire that destroyed much of the Sierra foothills town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

In Southern California, meteorologists anticipate very hot and dry weather conditions with weak to locally moderate Santa Ana winds on Monday.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region announced Friday that it is extending the closure of all nine national forests in California due to concerns including fire conditions and critical limitations on firefighting resources. The closure orders are being re-evaluated daily, the service said.

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Associated Press writer John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The Associated Press