#ENDFURFARMING
Oregon mink farm has COVID-19 outbreak after advocates warned of danger in state

Tracy Loew
Salem Statesman Journal

SALEM, Ore. – An Oregon mink farm has reported an outbreak of COVID-19 among animals and workers.

Oregon Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Andrea Cantu-Schomus declined to say which county the farm is in or how many workers have tested positive, citing federal health privacy rules. The farm has about 12,000 animals, she said.

Outbreaks in farmed mink have been reported in several U.S. states and countries. Earlier this month Denmark announced it would kill all 17 million of the mink raised there after confirmation that 12 people had been infected with a mutated strain of COVID-19 that had spread from mink to humans. That strain has not been found elsewhere.

Oregon has the nation’s fourth-largest farmed mink industry, after Wisconsin, Utah and Michigan. All three of those other states have had outbreaks on mink farms.


The Oregon farmer reported mink with symptoms to ODA on Nov. 19, Cantu-Schomus said.

ODA took samples from 10 of the sick mink, and all came back positive for SARS-CoV-2, the animal virus linked to COVID-19 in humans. Cantu-Schomus was unable to say how many mink were sick, but said the 10 were a sample of the population.

Nov. 25:Dead minks infected with a mutated form of COVID-19 rise from graves after mass culling


Nov. 5:Denmark to slaughter 15M farmed minks over coronavirus fears

On Nov. 23, ODA placed the farm under quarantine, meaning no animals or animal products can leave the farm. 

On the same date, the Oregon Health Authority asked all workers on the farm to self-isolate, Cantu-Schomus said. 

State and national environmental groups have been raising alarm about possible infections Oregon’s mink industry, the Statesman Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, previously reported.

"This was so foreseeable," said Lori Ann Burd, with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups urging Oregon to take action. "We'll certainly be following up with the agency to demand answers and to find out what they're doing to mitigate this outbreak and public health risk."

In letters to Gov. Kate Brown and state agencies, the groups asked for immediate inspections of Oregon’s mink farms, as well as quarantines and a phased buy-out of the industry.

At that time, state officials said they did not intend to take any of the groups’ recommendations. Oregon's state veterinarian has been communicating with mink farmers about the outbreaks, Cantu-Schomus has said.

“We have been engaged with the Oregon mink industry for some time, providing information on biosecurity to prevent the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 and were ready to respond,” State Veterinarian Ryan Scholz said in a written statement Friday.

“The farmer did the right thing by self-reporting symptoms very early and he is now cooperating with us and the Oregon Health Authority in taking care of his animals and staff,” Scholz said. “So far, we have no reports of mink mortalities linked to the virus but that could change as the virus progresses.”

In Wisconsin, about 3,400 farmed mink have died over the past month after contracting the virus. And in Utah, about 10,000 mink have died since August.

In addition to Denmark and the United States, COVID-19 infections have been reported in farmed mink in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Italy and Greece, according to the World Health Organization.


All of the mink in the Oregon outbreak appear to have recovered, Cantu-Schomus said. ODA will test the mink 7-10 days after symptoms resolve, and, if necessary, continue testing every 14 days until no more infected mink are found.

The sample size will be significantly larger and will ensure with a 95% confidence level that if the virus was present it would be detected, she said.

"It is suspected that infected workers introduced SARS-CoV-2 to mink on the farm, and the virus then began to spread among the mink," Cantu-Schomus said.

ODA is working with OHA, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control to investigate transmission dynamics among mink, other animals around the farm, and people, she said.

Last week, ODA officials said they had no plans to do inspections or test mink unless symptoms were reported. Cantu-Schomus was unable to say Friday whether that is still the case.

Michael Whelan is executive director of Medford-based Fur Commission USA, a national nonprofit representing mink farmers.

He said the group is offering free COVID-19 testing to farm operators and employees.

"All we can do is just keep reminding the farmers that this is serious and they have to screen all people that get anywhere near the mink," Whelan said.

Cantu-Schomus was unable to say how many farmed mink there are in Oregon.

"There is no evidence that animals, including mink, are playing a significant role in the spread of COVID-19 to people," she said. "Currently in the U.S., there is no evidence of mink-to-human spread. However, investigations are ongoing."

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=mink

The U.K. Only Hurts Itself by Slashing Aid Budget

Mihir Sharma
Sat, November 28, 2020

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The most enthusiastic campaigners for Britain’s exit from the European Union insisted that Brexit’s end result would be a “Global Britain” — a country set free to forge alliances, agreements and trading pacts across the world. More than four years on, we still have no clear idea what a Global Britain would actually look like. No enthusiastic new trading partners have been discovered. Rather than rushing to remedy the situation, Boris Johnson’s government now seems intent on shredding what remains of the United Kingdom’s global image.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced plans to slash about four billion pounds from the country’s development assistance budget. This would lower spending below a threshold — 0.7% of the country’s GDP — that has survived political handovers, a recession and austerity. One government minister has already resigned, former prime ministers have decried the move and MPs are in revolt. While Sunak says he hopes the cuts will be temporary, no expiry date has been set — and many within Johnson’s party are convinced that the foreign aid budget is still too big.

The stricken economy is just an excuse. Johnson has had Britain’s overseas development establishment in his sights for some time. The spending cuts were preceded by institutional changes that eliminated the cabinet position associated with the international development department, which now falls under the foreign office. Johnson himself has written in the past that British development assistance is too “austere and purist” in its approach. (With that well-known Johnsonian consistency, he accused it in the same column of tolerating corruption.)

I’m not going to argue with those who say that development assistance should be incorporated into a strategy that prioritizes the giver’s national interests. Like it or not, such selfish considerations are always going to be part of any national development agency’s calculations.

But I am astounded that even a Johnson-led government could imagine that, in 2020, development assistance represents wasted money. It is, in fact, a vital source of international reach and power. China has used its own money like a bludgeon, creating a web of dependence and debt across the continents. Meanwhile, U.S., British, and Japanese efforts still dwarf China’s in many ways. As long as they remain sufficiently “austere and purist,” they will be preferred by several countries as having fewer strings attached.

Indeed, development assistance is literally the only geo-political field in which Brexiting Britain can stand toe-to-toe with the U.S. or the EU. This is not the 19th century; we in the Indo-Pacific expect to see French warships in our waters, not British. For India, and most other countries in this neighborhood, multiple other trading relationships are more important than that with the U.K. We worry about investment flows from Japan or the Gulf. People would rather study in Australia or migrate to Canada.

Only in the world of development does Britain remain globally relevant. When it comes to augmenting state capacity, pioneering new development paradigms and a host of other influential issues, what Whitehall says matters a great deal. Britain is not now and never will again be a superpower in any other way.

It is this — Britain’s only calling card to the world — that Johnson wants to throw away. Does the move reflect a failure to appreciate the degree to which development assistance augments the U.K.’s soft power? Or a disdain for the wonky do-gooders of the development establishment? Or simple ideological discomfort with the notion of British money “leaving” its shores?

All of the above, I expect. It’s also more evidence that empire nostalgia is the true guiding spirit of the Brexiteers’ movement. While Johnson is cutting development financing by four billion pounds, he is raising defense spending by the same amount for the next four years. (I told you: It’s not about the recession.) It’s gunboats, not grants, that Johnson thinks will endear his global Britain to the world.

Pound for pound, that money would do more for the U.K.’s place in the world if spent on development financing rather than guns and tanks. The 19th century fantasies of Johnson and his followers will cost Britain influence and friends for decades to come.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of “Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Far-right extremists explode in anger at Pope Francis


Published on November 28, 2020 By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

Pope Francis kisses a child during the Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on Thanksgiving, Pope Francis defended some of the social distancing restrictions that have been enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — applauding governments that have been “acting decisively to protect health and to save lives” by “imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.” And some right-wingers have responded by slamming the Pope as a “socialist” or a “communist.”

The Pope explains, “Most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak. Yet some groups protested, refusing to keep their distance, marching against travel restrictions — as if measures that governments must impose for the good of their people constitute some kind of political assault on autonomy or personal freedom! Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals. It means having a regard for all citizens and seeking to respond effectively to the needs of the least fortunate.”

According to The Pope, “If we are to come out of this crisis less selfish than when we went in, we have to let ourselves be touched by others’ pain.” And practicing social distancing, he writes, is one way to look after the wellbeing of others.”

Some on the far right have been furious:

The Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast noted how unhinged the responses from the far right have been:

And others have been rising to the Pope’s defense:

Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller becomes first woman to play in a Power 5 college football game

THERE GOES ANOTHER GLASS CEILING 

CNNWire Saturday, November 28, 2020 

Vanderbilt place kicker Sarah Fuller warms up before the start of an NCAA college football game against Missouri Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020, in Columbia, Mo. 

(AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)


NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Vanderbilt University's Sarah Fuller made college football history Saturday when she became the first woman to play in the Power 5 Conference with a kickoff against the University of Missouri.

Fuller took the opening kickoff in the third quarter. The low kick sailed 30 yards before Missouri's Mason Pack downed it at his team's 35-yard line.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you have witnessed history," Vanderbilt Football tweeted with a video of Fuller being congratulated on the sideline after the kick.

CHANGING THE GAME 👏
Sarah Fuller just became the first woman to play in a Power 5 college football game. @SECNetwork pic.twitter.com/Qq3U6jtica— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 28, 2020

She became the first woman to officially take the field during a football game in a Southeastern Conference and Power 5 Conference game, according to the Vanderbilt athletics' website.

The Power 5 is made up of the biggest athletic conferences, including the SEC, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference and Pac-12 Conference.

"I think it's amazing and incredible. But I'm also trying to separate that because I know this is a job I need to do and I want to help the team out and I want to do the best that I can," Fuller told the school before the game. "Placing that historical aspect aside just helps me focus in on what I need to do. I don't want to let them down in any way."

Fuller is a goalkeeper for the Vanderbilt women's soccer team. Her opportunity came because many of Vanderbilt's specialists are in quarantine due to Covid-19, according to the school and ESPN. Head football coach Derek Mason told ESPN Fuller "is an option for us."

"She's got a strong leg. We'll see what that yields," Mason told the sports network. "We'll figure out what that looks like on Saturday."

Fuller plans to wear the message "Play Like A Girl" on the back of her helmet Saturday to encourage other young women, according to Vanderbilt.

Two other women have also played in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) contests, Vanderbilt says. Katie Hnida did it first when she kicked two extra points for the University of New Mexico against Texas State in 2003. Then came April Goss, who kicked an extra point for Kent State during their 2015 game.

Female kicker makes college American football breakthrough

Published on November 28, 2020 By Agence France-Presse

Vanderbilt University kicker Sarah Fuller (Twitter).

Vanderbilt University kicker Sarah Fuller made collegiate American football history Saturday as the first woman to play in a “Power Five” contest in the Commodores’ 41-0 loss to Missouri.

Fuller, goalkeeper for the school’s Southeastern Conference champion women’s soccer squad, was given the chance to play on the gridiron after Covid-19 testing left Vanderbilt without a kicker.

“I was really excited to step out on the field and do my thing,” Fuller said.

Because Vanderbilt’s offensive unit sputtered, her contribution was limited to a single play — the second-half kickoff. She punched the ball to the Missouri 35-yard line, a tricky low offering compared to the usual deeper kicks, where the Tigers fell upon it.

Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said she executed the kick exactly as planned.

Fuller, whose helmet had the message “Play like a girl” on the back, felt the breakthrough moment, as the first woman to play for a major college football program, although other women have kicked previously for college teams at lower levels.

Tomorrow I will be wearing “Play Like a Girl” on the back of my helmet. @iplaylikeagirl is nonprofit that encourages girls to play sports and get exposure to STEM opportunities. Check them out! #playlikeagirl https://t.co/2inXh5PM2V pic.twitter.com/W7lF9dXkUR
— Sarah Fuller (@SarahFuller_27) November 27, 2020

“Honestly, it’s just so exciting,” Fuller said. “The fact that I can represent the little girls out there who wanted to do this — or thought about playing football or any sport, really — and it encourages them to be able to step out and do something big like this, it’s so awesome.”

Fuller had a 7-2 record for the Commodores women’s soccer squad and was pleased to send a message to young girls who might emulate her example in whatever field they might choose.

“I just want to tell all the girls out there — you can do anything you set your mind to,” Fuller said. “You really can. If you have that mentality all the way through, you can do big things.”


HISTORY MADE @VandyFootball’s Sarah Fuller is the first woman in college football history to play in a Power 5 game. pic.twitter.com/zhSaLqa3Bg
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 28, 2020

Anti-vax groups online are helping to radicalize the QAnon movement

Published on November 28, 2020
By Meaghan Ellis, AlterNet- Commentary

The conspiracy originally took root in the United States but has spread to Europe Joseph Prezioso AFP

The alliance between anti-vaxxers and QAnon followers is rapidly increasing as they continue their efforts to spread massive amounts of disturbing misinformation amid the pandemic. One glaring example centers around one incident that occurred last week.

Facebook opted to nix a massive anti-vaccination propaganda group with more than 200,000 members last week. However, the group was not shut down for the dangerous public health misinformation its members posted, but rather, the disturbing promotion of QAnon, reports Huffington Post.

On Monday, Larry Cook, the founder of the “Stop Mandatory Vaccination” movement took to Facebook in his final Facebook Live video before the group was removed to warn that vaccines were a plot “to literally enslave every human on the planet,” In the video, Cook also included the QAnon hashtag #WWG1WGA in the upper left corner and the QAnon logo in the upper right corner.

“The purpose of vaccination is to literally slaughter the population and dumb everyone down and render them helpless,” Cook said. “It is a global plan to literally enslave every human on the planet.”

As he spoke, comments poured in from viewers who expressed gratitude for the “truth” and “awakening” he shared in his video. Like Cook, other anti-vaxxers including David Wolfe along with Ty and Charlene Bollinger have all begun to expose their large followings to the QAnon rhetoric.

Laura Muhl, one of Instagram’s most popular anti-vax influencers has also shared relatively dangerous claim insisting the government “engineered” many of the problems currently plaguing the United States. In a meme, she criticized the media with a comparison of covering up the so-called “rigged election” to an attempt to cover up “the truth about vaccines.”

“The virus is engineered. The pandemic is engineered. The second wave is engineered. The need for a vaccine is engineered,” said the mother of five.

Now, the anti-vaccination pushback and in misinformation rapidly circulating on social media has accelerated with groups joining forces with QAnon. The result is accelerating the effort to discredit science and the integrity of public health.

Lame-Duck Trump Makes Legal Moves to Fire Federal Employees in Possible Attempt to Sabotage Biden Admin

JERRY LAMBE Nov 28th, 2020



As President Donald Trump’s tenure in the oval office winds down, his administration is apparently looking to leave a lasting effect on federal civil service employment. The administration is seeking to remove legal protections for 88 percent of the federal workforce and ultimately make it much easier for career employees to be fired, several news outlets reported this week. At least one congressional Democrat said the move appears calculated to undermine the incoming Biden administration.

The effort to destabilize tens of thousands of federal jobs stems from an executive order signed by the president late last month. The Office of Management and Budget is reportedly moving swiftly to ensure that it’s implemented before Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.

Under the order, political appointees in the White House sent every federal agency a list of positions that should be reclassified as “Schedule F” roles, meaning the employees could be terminated for a number of reasons including poor performance or failing to carry out the administration’s stated priorities. The deadline for the reclassification is Jan. 19, one day prior to inauguration.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) on Friday said that Trump put the order in motion—believing he would win a second term—in order to oust Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading virologist and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, over his refusal to tow the administration’s line regarding the resurgent coronavirus pandemic. However, as it’s become increasingly clear that President-elect Joe Biden will take office in January, Beyer said Trump’s plan is likely geared towards sabotaging the new administration by embedding political loyalists into previously protected positions.

“But once it became clear Trump lost the election, a new goal came into view: sabotaging President-elect Biden. Sometime in the last week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) produced a memo which reclassified **88%** of its workers as Schedule F,” Beyer wrote. “Trump now believes he can fire nearly everyone at OMB at will. More agencies are likely to follow OMB in reclassifying portions of their workforces as Schedule F soon. Trump likely hopes to replace swathes of the career federal workforce with loyalists.”


Trump now believes he can fire nearly everyone at OMB at will. More agencies are likely to follow OMB in reclassifying portions of their workforces as Schedule F soon. Trump likely hopes to replace swathes of the career federal workforce with loyalists. 8/ https://t.co/puCK6CVNZf
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) November 27, 2020


Ronald Sanders, one of the administration’s top civil service advisors, resigned in protest last month over the directive, saying it was “nothing more than a smoke screen for what is clearly an attempt to require the political loyalty of those who advise the President, or failing that, to enable their removal with little if any due process.”

“I simply cannot be part of an Administration that seeks . . . to replace apolitical expertise with political obeisance. Career Federal employees are legally and duty-bound to be nonpartisan; they take an oath to preserve and protect our Constitution and the rule of law . . . not to be loyal to a particular President or Administration,” Sanders wrote in his letter of resignation.

House Democrats are attempting to block the order from taking effect, with 24 committee chairs on Wednesday signing onto a letter demanding a “full accounting of political appointees who have already been hired into career positions or are being considered for such conversions.”

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

THIRD WORLD USA
Hunger like they’ve never seen it before’: US food banks struggle as 1 in 6 families with children don’t have enough to eat

Published on November 28, 2020 By Common Dreams

AFP / Frederic J. BROWN People line up at a food bank in Los Angeles

One in six U.S. families with children don’t have enough to eat this holiday season, a national emergency exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and the unemployment crisis it has generated. Over the past several days, remarkable reporting in the Washington Post and National Geographic, among other outlets, has explored this alarming trend.

“It’s been hard to survive. Money is low. No jobs. Hard to find work.”
—Randy Young, Houston

According to Feeding America, the largest hunger relief organization in the U.S., more than 50 million people will experience food insecurity by the end of the year. Among U.S. children, the figure rises to one in four. The group, which runs a network of some 200 food banks across the nation, says it distributed over half a billion meals last month alone, a 52% increase from an average pre-pandemic month.

The latest U.S. Census Bureau pandemic survey, published earlier this month, found that fewer than half of U.S. households with children were “very confident” they could afford to provide enough food for their families in the next month.

By the end of this year, more than 50 million people could experience food insecurity, according to @FeedingAmerica, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization https://t.co/t6Vc9d0x5T
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) November 26, 2020

As is so often the case when it comes to matters of economic inequality, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by the hunger crisis. Among the 25 U.S. counties experiencing the worst food insecurity, only four have majority white populations, all of them in rural Kentucky. Census Bureau data reveals that fully 27% of Black and 23% of Latinx households with children reported not having enough to eat over the past week—compared with just 12% of white families.

“This is a story about racial and ethnic disparities—both food insecurity and the story of coronavirus,” Emily Engelhard, managing director of Feeding America’s research unit, told National Geographic. “The populations and geographies that started in the most disadvantageous state of food insecurity are the ones that are getting hit the hardest” during the pandemic.


This is the reality we’re dealing with now. Nearly 26 million Americans say they didn’t have enough to eat in the past week.
No one should be too poor to buy food for Thanksgiving. https://t.co/QyhTN4MwLp
— Barbara Lee (@BLeeForCongress) November 25, 2020

“People are seeing hunger like they’ve never seen it before,” Trisha Cunningham, president of the North Texas Food Bank—where cars lined up for miles and people slept in their vehicles waiting for Thanksgiving food boxes—told National Geographic. On November 14, its busiest day on record, North Texas Food Bank provided groceries—including 7,000 whole turkeys—to more than 25,000 people.

In northeastern Ohio, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank planned to distribute 12,000 meals, a 5,000-meal increase from a year ago.

“We’re now seeing families who had an emergency fund but it’s gone and they’re at the end of their rope,” Kristin Warzocha, president of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, told the Guardian. “We’re going to be doing this for a really long time, and that’s frankly terrifying given the impact hunger has on physical health, learning and development for children, and parents’ stress.”

In Texas’ second-largest city, the San Antonio Food Bank distributes eight semi-trucks full of food every day, but still was forced to resort to rationing due to soaring need.

“Covid-19 has taken so much, people’s jobs, their loved ones, and now we’re just trying to stop it from taking Thanksgiving,” San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper told CNBC. “Pre-pandemic we were feeding around 60,000 people a week, and now we’re seeing around 120,000… and most of those are new to the food bank. They’ve never had to ask for help before.”

Indeed, among the thousands of cars that lined up starting in the pre-dawn hours for free Thanksgiving meals at Houston’s NRG Stadium last weekend, there were more than a few luxury makes.

“I was just telling my mom, ‘You look at people pulling up in Mercedes and stuff, come on,'” Randy Young, a recently laid-off cook at the stadium who was waiting in line with his elderly mother, told the Post. “If a person driving a Mercedes is in need of food, you know it’s bad.”

“It’s been hard to survive,” Young said. “Money is low. No jobs. Hard to find work.”

Loudoun County, Virginia is per capita the wealthiest county in the nation, with a median household income of just under $140,000. Yet the Post reports Loudoun Hunger Relief recently handed out meals to 887 households in one recent week, a 300% increase from pre-pandemic activity.

“We are continuing to see people who have never used our services before,” Jennifer Montgomery, Loudoun Hunger Relief’s executive director, told the Post.

In the nation’s largest city, Food Bank for NYC president Leslie Gordon told France 24 that “even before the pandemic, there were 1.5 million residents here across the five boroughs who didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from or what it would be, and that’s escalated considerably to nearly two million of our neighbors.”


“Across the country demand has not let up, and food banks do everything they can to make sure families have food on the table for Thanksgiving,” Zuani Villareal, a spokesperson for Feeding America told the Guardian. “There’s no end in sight, but we can’t be the only solution.”

Celia Call, CEO of Feeding Texas, stressed to the Post that “without sustained aid at the federal level, we’ll be hard-pressed to keep up” with demand. “We’re just bracing for the worst,” she added.

Several progressive lawmakers tweeted the Post article over the past two days. One of them, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), said that “Congress has the power to address this crisis,” and asked, “Why aren’t we doing it?”

We’re facing an unprecedented hunger crisis in America. 26 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans, are going hungry. In the richest nation in the world, that’s unconscionable.

Congress has the power to address this crisis. Why aren’t we doing it?https://t.co/us7aikA1h9
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) November 27, 2020

We actively work to end hunger around the world, but still haven’t gotten serious about ending it here in America. Eradicating hunger should be a priority.
When I came to America 25yrs ago, it was shocking to see people line up to get food & it still is. https://t.co/OETr7eWpTc
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 27, 2020

Cuban police quell protest and detain young artists and academics on hunger strike

11/28/2020

STR/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

MIAMI — While Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday night, in Havana Cuban police forcefully ended a hunger strike by young artists, academics, journalists and activists protesting government repression.

The protesters are members of the Movimiento San Isidro, a loose collective advocating for freedom of expression on the communist island. Several of them, including artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, started a hunger strike last week to protest the imprisonment of rapper Daniel Solis, who was accused of contempt and sentenced to eight months.

On Thursday night, police and what appeared to be military officials wearing medical gowns broke the door to Alcántara’s dilapidated house in the rundown neighborhood of San Isidro and detained a dozen protesters, according to videos posted in social media and the accounts of some of the activists who were freed Friday morning.

“Agents of the dictatorship broke into our headquarters … took them away, and we do not know their whereabouts. We fear for their safety,” the Movimiento San Isidro tweeted on Thursday night.

The Facebook account of Razones de Cuba, a website linked to the state security agency, posted an edited video briefly showing some of the activists’ detention. The footage quickly cut to images of a government-organized repudiation act nearby where people could be heard screaming and chanting “Fidel.”

Previously, an article by a former intelligence agent who is now a journalist for the Communist Party newspaper Granma claimed without evidence that the San Isidro Movement was “orchestrated by Washington and Miami” to subvert the revolution.

On its website, Razones de Cuba published a quasi-official note explaining that authorities were forced to “extract” the people from the house because they were not following regulations to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In particular, the report blames journalist Carlos Manuel Alvarez, who had traveled from Mexico to cover the protest and allegedly break the health protocol by staying with the protesters.

“I’m on a hunger strike. They pushed me and took my phone. What doctor seizes your phone?” Anamely Ramos, one of the protesters, can be heard yelling as she is being detained, the video published by Reasons for Cuba shows. “This is arbitrary, and you all know it.”

In a video posted later on Facebook, Ramos, a doctoral student at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico and a former University of the Arts professor in Havana, said she was taken to a police station and then taken back to her house. Alcántara, who has become known for his daring public performances and has been detained several times, was not allowed to return to his house in San Isidro, she said.

“If they do this with us — we who have visibility in Cuba and abroad — what will not happen with Denis Solis? Think of all the people who are political prisoners right now and about whom we know nothing. What about those people?” said Ramos on the video.

Shortly after posting the video, Ramos was again detained, independent journalist Maykel González Vivero confirmed to the Miami Herald. In another video showing her second detention, she is seeing walking out of the house and immediately being arrested by two Ministry of Interior agents.

“They cannot continue to violate the rights of people like this, with impunity, without absolutely nothing happening, and then start inventing lies to justify those illegalities,” Ramos said shortly before being detained again. “I refuse to live in such a country.”

According to González Vivero, before being arrested Ramos told him she would continue the hunger strike. The journalist, who runs the LGBTQ-focused website Tremenda Nota

González Vivero told the Miami Herald that Alcántara was arrested again because he insisted on returning to his house. “Right now they are dispersed around the city; we have to wait to see how all this ends,” he said.

Attempts to communicate with Alcántara were unsuccessful. González Vivero said the government confiscated the cellphones of the protesters.

The arrests ended what has been a week of harassment and intimidation by state security forces that surrounded the house with the excuse of an alleged COVID-19 outbreak and prevented any visitors, including U.S. diplomats, from checking on the health of the activists.

The whole showdown unfolded on social media, where the protesters documented the harassment by police and neighbors cooperating with state security agents. With the acknowledgment of the police, whose agents stood a few yards away, a neighbor threw glass bottles at Alcántara’s house and hit him on the head, Alcántara said in a video where he is seen with bruises and blood on his forehead. The video shows how someone was trying to destroy the house door from the outside.

During the arrests, the government temporarily blocked social media platforms such as Facebook, according to reports by activists and independent journalists. This week, the government also blocked access to several news outlets including el Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald.

Under Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, state security agencies have grown more aggressive, harassing and arresting dissidents, journalists and activists, regardless of broader political considerations. The latest wave of repression, this time against young artists, musicians, academics and activists, will make it harder for the incoming Joe Biden administration to ease sanctions against the Cuban government and the military to pursue the engagement policies promoted by the Obama administration.

“We urge the Cuban regime to cease harassment of San Isidro Movement protesters and to release musician Denis Solís, who was unjustly sentenced to eight months in prison,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter. “Freedom of expression is a human right. The United States stands with Cuba’s people.”

The Movimiento San Isidro has become a challenge for the embattled Díaz-Canel government, which is confronting a severe economic crisis and increasing discontent among the population. While it has gotten support from other dissidents, the Movimiento San Isidro is not linked to the traditional opposition, and the fact that its members are young artists or professionals who are social media savvy has won them a larger audience.

Cuban government Decree 349, which legalizes censorship and has been enforced since December 2018, galvanized independent young Cuban artists and activists who started using visual arts, performances, music and poetry to oppose government policies. Alcántara made headlines last year when he was arrested for wearing a Cuban flag

In March last year, he was arrested when he was on his way to another public performance and was told he would be put on trial. After several Cuban artists and intellectuals, international organizations and foreign governments publicly condemned the arbitrary arrest, the government eventually released him.

After stifling criticism by sending dissident intellectuals to prison or exile and declaring that all cultural production should be within the limits imposed by the revolution, Fidel Castro actively used artists, writers and musicians to sustain his revolution.

But in recent years, that support has faded, and even established artists have criticized the government’s policies.

Cuban singer Haydeé Milanés, the daughter of singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés, who was once a prominent cultural icon of the revolution, sharply criticized how Cuban authorities responded to the plea of the Movimiento San Isidro.

“They have violently removed all the people who have been in the San Isidro headquarters for several days, several on hunger strike. Peaceful people. We have asked for dialogue. Is this the way out that they have found?” she said on Twitter. “I feel shame and horror.”

———
©2020 Miami Herald

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/11/cuba-sees-rare-protest-over-freedom-of.html

TikTok’s epic rise and stumble
A timeline of the app's growing popularity in the United States amid increasing government scrutiny

Rita Liao, Catherine Shu/ •November 26, 2020

Image Credits: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images / Getty Images


TikTok’s rise in the West is unprecedented for any Chinese tech company, and so is the amount of attention it has attracted from politicians worldwide. Below is a timeline of how TikTok grew from what some considered another “copycat” short video app to global dominance and eventually became a target of the U.S. government.
2012-2017: The emergence of TikTok

These years were a period of fast growth for ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company behind TikTok. Originally launched in China as Douyin, the video-sharing app quickly was wildly successful in its domestic market before setting its sights on the rest of the world.
2012

Zhang Yiming, a 29-year-old serial engineer, establishes ByteDance in Beijing.

2014

Chinese product designer Alex Zhu launches Musical.ly.
2016

ByteDance launches Douyin, which is regarded by many as a Musical.ly clone. It launches Douyin’s overseas version TikTok later that year.
2017-2019: TikTok takes off in the United States

TikTok merges with Musical.ly and and launches in the U.S., where it quickly becomes popular, the first social media app from a Chinese tech company to achieve that level of success there. But at the same time, its ownership leads to questions about national security and censorship, against the backdrop of the U.S.-China tariff wars and increased scrutiny of Chinese tech companies (including Huawei and ZTE) under the Trump administration.


2017
November

ByteDance buys Musical.ly for $800 million to $1 billion. (link)
2018
August

TikTok merges with Musical.ly and becomes available in the U.S. (link)
October

TikTok surpasses Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube in downloads. (link)
November

Facebook launches TikTok rival Lasso. (link)
2019
February

TikTok reaches one billion installs on the App Store and Google Play. (link)

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission fines TikTok $5.7 million over violation of children’s privacy law. (link)
May

TikTok tops the App Store for the fifth quarter in a row. (link)
September

TikTok is found censoring topics considered sensitive by the Beijing government. (link)
October

TikTok bans political ads (link) but does not appear to take action on hashtags related to American politics. (link)

TikTok taps corporate law firm K&L Gates for advice on content moderation in the U.S. (link)

U.S. lawmakers ask intelligence chief Joseph Maguire to investigate if TikTok poses a threat to national security. (link)

TikTok says it has never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and would not do so if asked. (link)
November

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reportedly opens a national security probe into TikTok. (link)

Instagram launches TikTok rival Reels. (link)

TikTok apologizes for removing a viral video about abuses against Uighurs. (link)
December

The U.S. Navy reportedly bans TikTok. (link)
The first half of 2020: Growth amid government scrutiny

The app is now a mainstay of online culture in America, especially among Generation Z, and its user base has grown even wider as people seek diversions during the COVID-19 pandemic. But TikTok faces an escalating series of government actions, creating confusion about its future in America.



A man wearing a shirt promoting TikTok is seen at an Apple store in Beijing on Friday, July 17, 2020. Image Credits: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan


2020
January

Revived Dubsmash grows into TikTok’s imminent rival. (link)
March

TikTok lets outside experts examine its moderation practices at its “transparency center.” (link)

Senators introduce a bill to restrict the use of TikTok on government devices. (link)

TikTok brings in outside experts to craft content policies. (link)
April

TikTok introduces parental controls. (link)

TikTok tops two billion downloads. (link)
June

TikTok discloses how its content recommendation system works. (link)

YouTube launches TikTok rival. (link)
July

Facebook shuts down TikTok rival Lasso. (link)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. is looking to ban TikTok. (link)

TikTok announced a $200 million fund for U.S. creators. (link)

Trump told reporters he will use executive power to ban TikTok. (link)
The second half of 2020: TikTok versus the U.S. government

After weeks of speculation, Trump signs an executive order in August against ByteDance. ByteDance begins seeking American buyers for TikTok, but the company also fights the executive order in court. A group of TikTok creators also file a lawsuit challenging the order. The last few months of 2020 become a relentless, and often confusing, flurry of events and new developments for TikTok observers, with no end in sight.
August

Reports say ByteDance agrees to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations and Microsoft will take over. (link)

Trump signals opposition to the ByteDance-Microsoft deal. (link)

Microsoft announces discussions about the TikTok purchase will complete no later than September 15. (link)

Trump shifts tone and says he expects a cut from the TikTok sale. (link)

TikTok broadens fact-checking partnerships ahead of the U.S. election. (link)

August 7: In the most significant escalation of tensions between the U.S. government and TikTok, Trump signs an executive order banning “transactions” with ByteDance in 45 days, or on September 20. (link). TikTok says the order was “issued without any due process” and would risk “undermining global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment to the rule of law.” (link)

August 9: TikTok reportedly plans to challenge the Trump administration ban. (link)

Oracle is also reportedly bidding for the TikTok sale. (link)

August 24: TikTok and ByteDance file their first lawsuit in federal court against the executive order, naming President Trump, Secretary of State Wilbur Ross and the U.S. Department of Commerce as defendants. The suit seeks to prevent the government from banning TikTok. Filed in U.S. District Court Central District of California (case number 2:20-cv-7672), it claims Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional. (link)

TikTok reaches 100 million users in the U.S. (link)

August 27: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigns after 100 days. (link)



Kevin Mayer. Image Credits: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Walmart says it has expressed interest in teaming up with Microsoft to bid for TikTok. (link)

August 28: China’s revised export laws could block TikTok’s divestment. (link)
September

China says it would rather see TikTok shuttered than sold to an American firm. (link)

September 13: Oracle confirms it is part of a proposal submitted by ByteDance to the Treasury Department in which Oracle will serve as the “trusted technology provider.” (link)

September 18: The Commerce Department publishes regulations against TikTok that will take effect in two phases. The app will no longer be distributed in U.S. app stores as of September 20, but it gets an extension on how it operates until November 12. After that, however, it will no longer be able to use internet hosting services in the U.S., rendering it inaccessible. (link)

On the same day as the Commerce Department’s announcement, two separate lawsuits are filed against Trump’s executive order against TikTok. One is filed by ByteDance, while the other is by three TikTok creators.

The one filed by TikTok and ByteDance is in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (case number 20-cv-02658), naming President Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and the Commerce Department as defendants. It is very similar to the suit ByteDance previously filed in California. TikTok and ByteDance’s lawyers argue that Trump’s executive order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the right to free speech, and due process and takings clauses.

The other lawsuit, filed by TikTok creators Douglas Marland, Cosette Rinab and Alec Chambers, also names the president, Ross and the Department of Commerce as defendants. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (case number 2:20-cv-04597), argues that Trump’s executive order “violates the first and fifth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and exceeds the President’s statutory authority.”

September 19: One day before the September 20 deadline that would have forced Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, the Commerce Department extends it by a week to September 27. This is reportedly to give ByteDance, Oracle and Walmart time to finalize their deal.

On the same day, Marland, Rinab and Chambers, the three TikTok creators, file their first motion for a preliminary injunction against Trump’s executive order. They argue that the executive order violates freedom of speech and deprives them of “protected liberty and property interests without due process,” because if a ban goes into effect, it would prevent them from making income from TikTok-related activities, like promotional and branding work.

September 20: After filing the D.C. District Court lawsuit against Trump’s executive order, TikTok and ByteDance formally withdraw their similar pending suit in the U.S. District Court of Central District of California.

September 21: ByteDance and Oracle confirm the deal but send conflicting statements over TikTok’s new ownership. TikTok is valued at an estimated $60 billion. (link)

September 22: China’s state newspaper says China won’t approve the TikTok sale, labeling it “extortion.” (link)

September 23: TikTok and ByteDance ask the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to grant a preliminary injunction against the executive order, arguing that the September 27 ban removing TikTok from app stores will “inflict direct, immediate, and irreparable harm on Plaintiffs during the pendency of this case.” (link)

September 26: U.S. District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone denies Marland, Rinab and Chambers’ motion for a preliminary injunction against the executive order, writing that the three did not demonstrate “they will suffer immediate, irreparable harm if users and prospective users cannot download or update” TikTok after September 27, since they will still be able to use the app.

September 27: Just hours before the TikTok ban was set to go into effect, U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols grants ByteDance’s request for a preliminary injunction while the court considers whether the app poses a risk to national security. (link)

September 29: TikTok launches a U.S. election guide in the app. (link)
October



WASHINGTON, D.C.—AUGUST 07: In this photo illustration, comedian Sarah Cooper’s page is displayed on the TikTok app. Image Credits: Drew Angerer/Getty Images


Snapchat launches a TikTok rival. (link)

TikTok says it’s enforcing actions against hate speech. (link)

TikTok partners with Shopify on social commerce. (link)

October 13: After failing to win their first request for a preliminary injunction, TikTok creators Marland, Rinab and Chambers file a second one. This time, their request focuses on the Commerce Department’s November 12 deadline, which they say will make it impossible for users to access or post content on TikTok if it goes into effect.

October 30: U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone grants TikTok creators Marland, Chambers and Rinab’s second request for a preliminary injunction against the TikTok ban. (link)
November

November 7: After five days of waiting for vote counts, Joe Biden is declared the president-elect by CNN, followed by the AP, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox News. With Biden set to be sworn in as president on January 20, the future of Trump’s executive order against TikTok becomes even more uncertain.

November 10: ByteDance asks the federal appeals court to vacate the U.S. government’s divestiture order that would force it to sell the app’s American operations by November 12. Filed as part of the lawsuit in D.C. District Court, ByteDance said it asked the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States for an extension, but hadn’t been granted one yet. (link)

November 12: This is the day that the Commerce Department’s ban on transactions with ByteDance, including providing internet hosting services to TikTok (which would stop the app from being able to operate in the U.S.), was set to go into effect. But instead the case becomes more convoluted as the U.S. government sends mixed messages about TikTok’s future.

The Commerce Department says it will abide by the preliminary injunction granted on October 30 by Judge Beetlestone, pending further legal developments. But, around the same time, the Justice Department files an appeal against Beetlestone’s ruling. Then Judge Nichols sets new deadlines (December 14 and 28) in the D.C. District Court lawsuit (the one filed by ByteDance against the Trump administration) for both sides to file motions and other new documents in the case. (link)

November 25: The Trump administration grants ByteDance a seven-day extension of the divestiture order. The deadline for ByteDance to finalize a sale of TikTok is now December 4.

This timeline will be updated as developments occur.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/26/tiktok-timeline/

Direct air capture: Giant machines that can suck CO2 out of the atmosphere could help control pollution levels

This month, the Government pledged £1bn to the creation of four industrial carbon capture clusters, which will trap emissions from industry


By Madeleine Cuff
November 28, 2020

Technicians inspect the direct air capture system at the Carbon Engineering Ltd. pilot facility in Canada (Photo: James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty)


From the rocky outcrops of Iceland to the to the sunny plains of Texas, engineers are building giant machines to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. It sounds like science fiction, but the companies behind this technology insist it could be a secret weapon in the fight against climate change.

The world has dithered for too long over the task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and scientists agree global climate targets are slipping out of reach. To keep warming below 1.5°C – the “safe” climate threshold – and maintain the perks of modern life, the world will have to work out a way to remove between 100 and 1,000 gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere during this century, experts say.

“In all the analysis which maintain anything like our present lifestyle, we will end up doing 10-20 per cent of negative emissions,” Professor Stuart Haszeldine, an expert in carbon capture technologies at the University of Edinburgh, tells i. “The only way we can avoid that is if we stop flying, don’t have motorcars, the remaining vehicles are all public transport and electric, and we only eat meat once a week, if that. You can avoid this, but it means quite large lifestyle changes for all of the population.”


Trees absorb CO2, but there isn’t enough land on the planet to create a carbon sink the size humanity needs. So while we need to plant trees and protect the world’s remaining forests to tackle climate change, we will also need technology to help us remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.

Enter direct air capture (DAC). It is an offshoot of carbon capture and storage, whereby pollution from factories and power plants is trapped and stored underground. DAC takes that one step further, focusing on pulling the gas directly from the air. That is a tougher ask, because CO2 in our air is at much lower concentrations than in the flue gases of a power plant. But if DAC technology can scale, it could give humankind the power to control global pollution levels.

There are signs a breakthrough might be close. Swiss firm Climeworks has built a handful of DAC plants across Europe. Orca, under construction in Iceland, will be the world’s biggest facility when it opens next year, capable of removing four million tons of CO2 every year. Canadian rival Carbon Engineering, meanwhile, is building a plant that could suck away a million tons a year.

At Carbon Engineering’s plants, the extracted CO2 is bound to other molecules to create calcium carbonate (Photo: James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty)

How it works

Both Climeworks and Carbon Engineering use chemical reactions to bind CO2 molecules, drawing them away from the other gases that make up our air. The CO2 can then be pumped underground for storage or used with hydrogen to make low-carbon fuels.

In the UK, the captured CO2 is most likely to be pumped into spent oil and natural gas fields in the North Sea. There is little need to worry about it escaping once it has been stored, says Professor Haszeldine. “We know how to do this,” he says. “We know what the engineering is. And most importantly we know how to behave and remediate this if something does go a bit wrong.”

Climeworks is partnering with Icelandic start-up Carbfix to store its CO2 safely in basalt rock. “Even if you have an earthquake or a volcanic eruption, it cannot come out again,” says Christoph Beuttler from Climeworks.

Climeworks is storing its captured CO2 in basalt rock

 (Photo: Climeworks)

Who foots the bill?

It is still early stages for DAC – there are only 15 plants in North America and Europe – and the tech remains very expensive. Costs should come down, however, as efficiency improves. Climeworks thinks it can reduce the cost of extracting a ton of carbon dioxide from $1,000 to $100 within a decade.

But DAC is never going to be a cheap option. “The fact is, it is going to be easier to decarbonise a lot of industrial processes than it is to build an entire sector from a standing start,” says Dr Mark Workman, a carbon storage expert at Imperial College London.

There is also fierce debate over who will pay for it. Most experts think governments will have to force the creation of a new market. That could be in the form of a subsidy regime, or with legislation to force fossil-fuel producers to arrange for storage.

A hike in VAT to pay for the pollution caused by goods and services has also been mooted, placing the cost on a public who, Dr Workman argues, are not prepared for the scale of such a challenge. “We are going to remove an invisible gas and store it in invisible storage sites. And we are going to be taking vast quantities of public money – tens, if not hundreds of billions of pounds,” he says. “There really does need to be a much broader social dialogue about this.”

DAC will be a crucial tool for fighting climate change. Most scientists agree we can’t keep temperatures under 1.5C without it. But it will not be a silver bullet for our planetary problems, not least because we don’t yet know how to pay the bill. 

Climeworks is building its biggest site yet in Iceland

(Photo: Climeworks)

Can DAC reverse climate change?

Scientists are split on whether DAC machines can help to reverse climate change. Just getting to net-zero will be a daunting task, requiring this tiny industry with early-stage technology to grow bigger than the entire oil and gas sector in just three decades. To enter net negative emissions would be an even greater financial and technical challenge.

The world’s waters could pose another hurdle. Oceans absorb huge amounts of CO2 pollution. Taking CO2 out of the atmosphere may prompt oceans to release some of their own stores back into the air. It means that for every step forward engineers take in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, this “ocean rebound” effect could force them half a step back.

The Direct Air Capture industry will need to grow at least as big as the current oil and gas sector if the world is to meet its climate targets 

(Photo: James MacDonald/Bloomberg/Getty)

Direct Air Capture in the UK

The Government is hoping the UK’s vast network of empty oil and gas fields under the seabed will turn us into a global leader in carbon storage. Last week it promised £1bn towards the creation of four industrial carbon capture clusters, that will see emissions from heavy industry trapped and piped out to sea for storage.

In St Fergus on the East Coast of Scotland, Pale Blue Dot Energy wants to build not only a CCS hub for Scotland, but the UK’s first Direct Air Capture system to boot. It has teamed up with Canadian firm Carbon Engineering to get a direct capture site up and running by 2026, managing director Paul Allen tells i.

“When you’re going on holiday to Tenerife or Turkey or wherever, how do you capture the emissions that come out of your RyanAir or Easyjet flight? It’s difficult to do,” he says. “Those are the types of customers that will be able to make use of the Direct Air Capture system.”

But Pale Blue Dot Energy might face a race against time if it wants to be the UK’s first DAC plant. Climeworks tells i the Government’s funding announcement last week means it is now considering an expansion into the UK.