Monday, November 30, 2020

Thai protesters flood streets with rubber ducks as a symbol of resistance as fears of a coup grow

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Thailand is no stranger to coups. There have been 13 since a 1932 revolution established a constitutional monarchy, VOA News added.

Army Chief Narongphan Jittkaewtae has rejected coup rumors and said chances were "less than zero," The Guardian added.

The call for the monarchy to be reformed has been the most controversial since it is considered untouchable and a cornerstone of Thailand's national identity, according to the Press Association.

Protestors believe that King Maha Vajiralongkorn holds too much power and has recently made it the main campaigning point despite a possible 15 years in prison, the Press Association added.

The royal institution is led by an army whose actions are endorsed by the ever-powerful royal palace, according to VOA News.

Prime Minister Chan-O-Cha who came to power during the country's last coup in 2014 has played down prospects of being overthrown and a change in martial law, The Guardian added.

Thai pro-democracy protesters rally outside army base

BANGKOK — Thailand’s indefatigable pro-democracy activists took to Bangkok's streets again Sunday, this time to protest the army as they push forward with their campaign for sweeping reforms, including to the nation's monarchy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Around 800 protesters marched to the base of the 11th Infantry Regiment, which is closely associated with the country’s royal palace. Their number grew to well over 1,000 as they settled in for speeches by protest leaders.

An advance group of protesters had already pulled away two decrepit buses that had been used to block the entrance to the base and removed strands of razor wire. A large contingent of riot police, several rows deep, stood their ground in front of the gate but no violence was reported by the end of the rally.

The protesters believe that the army undermines democracy in Thailand, and that King Maha Vajiralongkorn wields too much power and influence in what is supposed to be a democratic constitutional monarchy.

The student-led protesters for months now have been demanding reforms to make the monarchy more accountable, even though criticism of the institution has long been considered taboo and comments judged defamatory of the king and key royals are punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

“People should be able to criticize the king. People should be able to inspect what he does. In this way, people will respect and love him more,” said activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who served seven years in prison for defaming the monarchy and is facing criminal charges in connection with this year’s protests.

The protesters also want Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his government to step down and the constitution to be amended to make it more democratic.

As the army chief in 2014, Prayuth led a coup ousting an elected government. His military junta oversaw the rewriting of the constitution, which shifted power from elected politicians to unelected bodies, and he was returned to power after elections held under the new rules last year.

Prayuth faces a legal challenge on Wednesday, when the constitutional Court is to rule on whether he illegally stayed in army housing after he retired from the military at the end of September 2014. If found guilty, he could be forced out of the prime minister's post. Protest leader Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak urged the crowd to rally outside the court on the day of the verdict.

The site of Sunday's protest was symbolic for several reasons.

Last year, the 11th Infantry Regiment was shifted from the army’s chain of command and made part of the Royal Security Command, answerable directly to the king. The action was one of several denounced by protesters as an example of the palace taking powers that should not be allowed under constitutional rule.

Although it was a bloodless army revolt in 1932 that ended the absolute monarchy and installed constitutional rule, the military and the palace have been closely allied for decades. By promoting and defending the royal institution, the army lays claim to being the protector of the nation, while the palace can count on the army to put down any threats to its position of privilege.

There have been 20 military coups since 1932, the most recent ones in 2006 and 2014. Because it is based in Bangkok, the 11th Infantry Regiment has been a key player in coups, or opposing them, according to the prevailing political climate.

While most coups are bloodless, the army has not hesitated to use force to crush threats to the established order.

In 2010, more than 90 people were killed and almost 2,000 injured during nine weeks of protests that saw part of central Bangkok occupied by protesters who were eventually cleared out by the army. Prayuth, then a senior army general, was involved in the crackdown.

In announcing plans for Sunday’s protest, a group from Bangkok’s Thammasat University explained on Twitter that the regiment was targeted “because this unit suppressed people in 2010 and it was the main force for the previous coups.”

Near the end of the rally, protesters threw red paint in the direction of the army base — some splattering on shields held by the police — to symbolize the 2010 bloodshed.

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Associated Press journalist Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul contributed to this report.

Grant Peck, The Associated Press NOV 30/2020

Scientists: Here's how to fight back against anti-maskers, climate deniers and anti-vaxxers

“If we cannot talk about sex, then we cannot talk about good sex,” proclaimed gynecologist Jennifer Gunter on a trailer for Jensplaining, her show on female reproductive health. Gunter is an example of a scientist using non-traditional platforms to communicate research.

© (Shutterstock) Teaching researchers and scientists communication skills — including social media proficiency — will help inform the public about new discoveries and research.

The shift to online science communication from conventional news platforms has been going on for a while. There is a need for credible and accurate science reporting because the miscommunication of science in the media is causing lasting damage to the public’s understanding of science.

Misinformation has consequences, as seen during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Ignoring public health advice to wear masks and physically distance has cost thousands of lives and livelihoods in countries such as the United States, Brazil and Russia. Yet, resources in science journalism are dwindling. Budget cuts have slashed the number of journalists in conventional news outlets; this often affects specialized reporters like science journalists.

We need to equip scientists with science journalism skills. At Concordia University, the Projected Futures science journalism summer school is training graduate science students on journalism in various media such print, TV and radio. In fall 2021, a minor in science journalism will be an option for science undergrads. The Concordia School of Graduate Studies has also initiated a Public Scholars program, where a cohort of 10 Concordia doctoral candidates each year is trained to communicate their research to the public.

This withdrawal of conventional news outlets from conducting science journalism and the increasing role of universities and scientists doing so introduce new challenges. Through Projected Futures, we conducted interviews and research to examine the future of science communication.
Academic publishing is flawed

Because there are fewer science journalists in conventional news outlets, the public is less able to access the scientific information they need to make informed decisions. This is further exacerbated by the flaws of the existing academic publishing model.

Currently, scientists communicate their research via private publishing groups. Due to paywalls, this research is very hard to access by the taxpayers who fund that research. Meanwhile, research funded by industry is freely accessible to the public via the publication of patents

Open access is often discussed as a way to ease public access to scientific findings. However, some publishing groups lobby against possible open access government regulation.

But scientists are fighting back. Psychologist Tal Yarkoni, who has been an outspoken critic of the academic publishing model, and other researchers are boycotting journals that engage in this lobbying. In January 2019, the entire editorial board at Elsevier’s Journal of Infometrics resigned in protest of commercial control of scholarly work.

Academic institutions are joining the resistance against for-profit publishing models. In June 2020, the libraries of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ended negotiations with the Elsevier publishing group as a result of a new policy making MIT’s research publicly accessible.
Challenges of communicating science

When it comes to communicating research, there is an inherent conflict of interest between scientists and the universities that employ them.

That’s not to say that universities have sinister intentions. Universities are heavily invested in enhancing their reputations, which is closely tied to their success in raising funds through student recruitment, government grants and philanthropic endowments.

Universities view science communication as a fundraising activity, directed at funding sources, rather than the general public. It’s important that university communication engages in knowledge translation with the intention of informing public debate, instead of viewing scientific communication as a potential fundraising tool.
Futures of storytelling

Universities should equip scientists with the knowledge-translation skills necessary to communicate their own science critically and credibly. And an emphasis on science journalism skills and training can help academic communicators apply a critical eye to their work. This builds credibility and engages the public audience, moving away from the cycle of hyped scientific findings.

Universities should also find a way to engage students in scientific communication. For example, there should be funding for internships for communications students, where those hired can manage Twitter accounts and blogs for research labs, update websites and write research publications in a more compelling, accessible and critical way. Such internships would be a way to apply what these students learn in their science journalism training without further burdening already overworked scientists.

The importance of credible science journalism goes well beyond addressing the immediate COVID-19 crisis. Credible science journalism remains critical to fight the anti-vaccine movement and the climate crisis with evidence-based urgent action.

Universities and scientists must recognize the necessity of equipping the next generation with science journalism skills, and adapt their training and professional development accordingly.

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

Keroles Riad, PhD student in the individualized program, Concordia University,

Cristina Sanza, Digital Journalism Instructor, Concordia Science Journalism Project Team Manager, Concordia University

and Nancy Hamdy, MSc candidate studying Physiology and Neuroscience, University of Toronto

Keroles Riad receives a PGS-D scholarship from NSERC.

Cristina Sanza works at Concordia University.

Nancy Hamdy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Brightly burning meteor seen across wide areas of Japan

TOKYO — A brightly burning meteor was seen plunging from the sky in wide areas of Japan, capturing attention on television and social media.

Provided by The Canadian Press

The meteor glowed strongly as it rapidly descended through the Earth's atmosphere on Sunday.

Many people in western Japan reported on social media seeing the rare sight.

NHK public television said its cameras in the central prefectures of Aichi, Mie and elsewhere captured the fireball in the southern sky.

A camera at Nagoya port showed the meteor shining as brightly as a full moon as it neared the Earth, the Asahi newspaper reported.

Some experts said small fragments of the meteorite might have reached the ground.

The Associated Press

In ancient Italian monastery, monks defend a dying tradition
By Angelo Amante and Philip Pullella

Italy's last Basilian monks of the Greek rite

GROTTAFERRATA, Italy (Reuters) - In an ancient monastery behind huge medieval battlements in a hilltop town just south of Rome, 10 monks are striving to keep alive a 1,600-year-old spiritual tradition against increasing odds.

Aged between 23 and 89, they are among Italy's last remaining Byzantine-rite Basilian monks - adherents of an order founded by St. Basil in 356 in present-day Turkey who still follow his ascetic regimen of prayer and work.

Brother Claudio Corsaro, 27, abandoned a promising career as an opera singer to become a monk. The only singing he does now is in the chapel.

"I was only six years old when I felt the Lord for the first time but I fully realised my vocation many years later, when I had already started my singing career," he said while walking between olive trees in the monastery compound.

Corsaro and his confreres dress in the habit of Orthodox churchmen, including flowing black robes and the traditional flat-topped round hat.

Basilian monk St Nilus founded the Grottaferrata abbey in 1004, 50 years before the Great Schism of 1054 split Eastern and Western Christianity.

At the time, the Grottaferrata monks chose to remain faithful to the pope in Rome rather than switch allegiance to the newly established Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople, now Istanbul.

However, to this day they worship in the Eastern, Byzantine rite, including saying the Divine Liturgy, their version of the Mass, in ancient Greek. Catholics in the West say the Mass in local languages and occasionally in Latin.

The daily regimen starts at 5:30 a.m. with individual prayer and communal worship. Then there is work in the vegetable garden and olive groves, painting icons, study, and house chores. Lunch is followed by rest, vespers, more work, more prayer and then early to bed.

Most of the monks have connections to tiny ethnic Greek or Albanian communities in southern Italy populated by descendants of early settlers from the East.

They are the last monks of the Italo-Albanian tradition to follow the Rule of St. Basil.

Brother Filippo Pecoraro, 23, was raised in an Italo-Albanian family in Sicily and is from the Arbereshe people who fled Ottoman invasions of the Balkans between the 14th and 18th centuries.

"I grew up in an environment very close to the Church and this life choice was inside me," Pecoraro said.

The young blood has not stopped the order's numbers from shrinking significantly. In the middle of the last century the abbey was home to around 80 monks.

Nonetheless, Corsaro is steadfast in his belief that preserving the ancient tradition is his sacred calling.

"I feel like someone the Lord has chosen among the few to continue this responsibility and I thank God for the grace he has given me to carry out this task," he said.

(Philip Pullella reported from Rome; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Uproar in France over proposed limits on filming police

PARIS — French activists fear that a proposed new security law will deprive them of a potent weapon against abuse — cellphone videos of police activity — threatening their efforts to document possible cases of police brutality, especially in impoverished immigrant neighbourhoods.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government is pushing a new security bill that makes it illegal to publish images of police officers with intent to cause them harm, amid other measures. Critics fear the new law could hurt press freedoms and make it more difficult for all citizens to report on police brutality.

“I was lucky enough to have videos that protect me,” said Michel Zecler, a Black music producer who was beaten up recently by several French police officers. Videos first published Thursday by French website Loopsider have been seen by over 14 million viewers, resulting in widespread outrage over police actions.

Two of the officers are in jail while they are investigated while two others, also under investigation, are out on bail.

The draft bill, still being debated in parliament, has prompted protests across the country called by press freedom advocates and civil rights campaigners. Tens of thousands of people marched Saturday in Paris to reject the measure, including families and friends of people killed by police.

“For decades, descendants of post-colonial immigration and residents in populous neighbourhoods have denounced police brutality,” Sihame Assbague, an anti-racism activist, told The Associated Press.

Videos by the public have helped to show a wider audience that there is a “systemic problem with French police forces, who are abusing, punching, beating, mutilating, killing,” she said.

Activists say the bill may have an even greater impact on people other than journalists, especially those of immigrant origin living in neighbourhoods where relationships with the police have long been tense. Images posted online have been key to denouncing cases of officers’ misconduct and racism in recent years, they argue.

Assbague expressed fears that, under the proposed law, those who post videos of police abuses online may be put on trial, where they would face up to a year in jail and a 45,000-euro ($53,000) fine.

“I tend to believe that a young Arab man from a poor suburb who posts a video of police brutality in his neighbourhood will be more at risk of being found guilty than a journalist who did a video during a protest,” she said.

Amal Bentounsi's brother, Amine, was shot in the back and killed by a police officer in 2012. The officer was sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence. Along with other families of victims, in March she launched a mobile phone app called Emergency-Police Violence to record abuses and bring cases to court.

“Some police officers already have a sense of impunity. ... The only solution now is to make videos,” she told the AP. The app has been downloaded more than 50,000 times.

“If we want to improve public confidence in the police, it does not go through hiding the truth,” she added.

The proposed law is partly a response to demands from police unions, who say it will provide greater protection for officers.

Abdoulaye Kante, a Black police officer with 20 years of experience in Paris and its suburbs, is both a supporter of the proposed law and strongly condemns police brutality and violence against officers.

“What people don’t understand is that some individuals are using videos to put the faces of our (police) colleagues on social media so that they are identified, so that they are threatened or to incite hatred,” he said.

“The law doesn’t ban journalists or citizens from filming police in action ... It bans these images from being used to harm, physically or psychologically,” he argued. “The lives of officers are important.”

A “tiny fraction of the population feeds rage and hatred” against police, Jean-Michel Fauvergue, a former head of elite police forces and a lawmaker in Macron's party who co-authored the bill, said in the National Assembly. “We need to find a solution."

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has acknowledged that “the intent (to harm) is something that is difficult to define."

In an effort to quell criticism, lawmakers from Macron's party announced Monday they would rewrite the criticized article of the bill, which will be debated by the Senate early next year.

Activists consider the draft law just the latest of several security measures to extend police powers at the expense of civil liberties. A statement signed by over 30 groups of families and friends of victims of police abuses said since 2005, “all security laws adopted have constantly expanded the legal field allowing police impunity.”

Riots in 2005 exposed France’s long-running problems between police and youths in public housing projects with large immigrant populations.

In recent years, numerous security laws have been passed following attacks by extremists.

Critics noted a hardening of police tactics during protests or while arresting individuals. Hundreds of complaints have been filed against officers during the yellow vest movement against economic injustice, which erupted in 2018 and saw weekends of violent clashes.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said out of 3 million police operations per year in France, some 9,500 end up on a government website that denounces abuses, which represents 0.3%.

France’s human rights ombudsman, Claire Hedon, is among the most prominent critics of the proposed law, which she said involves “significant risks of undermining fundamental rights.”

“Our democracy is hit when the population does not trust its police anymore,” she told the National Assembly.

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AP writer John Leicester contributed from Le Pecq, France.

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Follow all AP stories on racism and police brutality at https://apnews.com/Racialinjustice

Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press

Get on with promised gun-control measures, advocates urge Trudeau government

OTTAWA — Advocates of stricter gun control are urging the Trudeau government to get on with promised reforms, saying they are months overdue

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair has pledged new measures, including a buyback of recently outlawed firearms, stricter storage provisions and steps to control handguns.

Heidi Rathjen, coordinator of the group PolySeSouvient, told an online news conference today that several months later there are no signs of progress on legislation.

Rathjen was joined in the virtual session by victims of mass shootings who want to see government action.

The federal government outlawed a wide range of firearms by cabinet order in May, saying the guns were designed for the battlefield, not hunting or sport shooting.

The measures have met with stiff criticism from some firearms owners and the federal Conservatives, who question the value of the ban.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2020.

Indonesian president says brutal Sulawesi slayings beyond humanity

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday condemned the brutal murder of four villagers by suspected Islamist militants as "beyond the limits of humanity", as the military chief prepared to deploy special forces to join the hunt for the killers.

© Reuters/WILLY KURNIAWAN Indonesian President Joko Widodo gestures during an interview with Reuters at the presidential palace in Jakarta

In a video address, the president said the attack on Friday in a region riven by bloody, sectarian conflict in the past was designed to drive a wedge among the population in the world's biggest majority-Muslim nation.

"That gross act had the purpose of provoking and terrorising the people. They wanted to destroy the unity and brotherhood of our people," he said.

"We need to stay united in the fight against terrorism."

Those killed in the Sigi region of central Sulawesi on Friday all were Christians, a church group and human rights activists said. The government has made no mention of their religion.

One of the victims was beheaded and the other three had their throats slit, according to National police spokesman Awi Setiyono.

Their homes and place of worship were set ablaze, he said, but reiterated the murders were not about religion.

Authorities believe the militant Islamist group, Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT), perpetrated the attack. There was no claim of responsibility.

Central Sulawesi was a flashpoint of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which resulted in hundreds of deaths.

More than 100 military and police have been deployed to the area since Friday's killings and military chief, Hadi Tjahjanto, said special forces would be mobilised.

"I'm sure the MIT who perpetrated this crime on innocent residents will soon be captured," he said.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters that eleven farmers had been killed in the same area this year.

Separately on Monday, Indonesian police announced they had arrested suspected bomb-maker Upik Lawanga, from the militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah.

Lawanga is suspected of making a bomb that killed more than 20 people in 2005 at a market in Poso, also central Sulawesi.

(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Stanley Widianto; Writing and additional reporting by Kate Lamb; Editing by Martin Petty)

Canada to Trump: You can't take our prescription drugs

Canada is putting the kibosh on President Donald Trump's efforts to lower drug prices by importing medications from our northern neighbor.

© Photo Illustration: Shutterstock/CNN

Canadian health minister Patty Hajdu on Friday announced new measures to protect the country's drug supply from bulk importations that could worsen drug shortages. It bars the distribution of certain drugs outside of Canada if that would cause or worsen a shortage.

"Our health care system is a symbol of our national identity and we are committed to defending it," Hajdu said. "The actions we are taking today will help protect Canadians' access to the medication they rely on."

Importing drugs from abroad, particularly Canada, is a centerpiece in Trump's plan to reduce prices, a key priority of his campaign and first term. After the President issued an executive order in July that pushed to allow such importations, the Department of Health and Human Services issued in a final rule in late September establishing a path for states and certain other entities to set up drug importation programs.

President-elect Joe Biden has also expressed interest in allowing consumers to import drugs from other countries as along as the federal government deems them safe.

Last week, Florida became the first state to submit an importation proposal to the federal agency to create such a program under the newly issued rule. The plan calls for initially importing several classes of drugs, including maintenance medications to help those with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS. Several other states, including Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico and Maine, have also passed laws to pursue federal approval for importation.

In response to the growing momentum, a trio of pharmaceutical industry groups last week filed a court challenge to importation, saying the effort would jeopardize Americans' health and fail to reduce prices.

"The final rule fails to overcome the well-documented safety concerns regarding importation expressed for nearly two decades by previous HHS secretaries across party lines or to make any showing that the proposal would result in any—let alone significant—cost savings to American consumers," said James Stansel, general counsel at PhRMA, the main industry lobbying group.

Health policy experts have also questioned the effectiveness of importing drugs from Canada -- where an independent body established by Parliament ensures that brand-name drug prices are not excessive. Even HHS Secretary Alex Azar called it a "gimmick" in 2018, before changing his tune.

In announcing the measures last week, Canada's Health Ministry said it has repeatedly stated that the US rule would not do much to reduce prices in America since Canada represents only 2% of global pharmaceutical sales, while the US accounts for 44% of sales.

The Canadian Pharmacists Association has warned that the nation already suffers from drug shortages, which have grown worse during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, days before then-Democratic presidential primary contender Bernie Sanders went north with diabetes patients seeking cheaper insulin, a coalition of 15 Canadian medical professional and patient groups pressed the government to protect the country's pharmaceutical supply.

Though it has only weeks left in office, the Trump administration has recently pushed through several measures aimed at lowering drug prices. Earlier this month, it unveiled two controversial rules that immediately sparked legal threats from the pharmaceutical industry.

One will have Medicare pay the same price for certain expensive prescription drugs as other developed nations, a "most-favored-nation price."

The other will effectively ban drug makers from providing rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and insurers -- a radical change in the way many drugs are priced and paid for in Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, drug companies will be encouraged to pass the discounts directly to patients at the pharmacy counter.

The administration had backed away from issuing this rule last year after it was found to raise costs for senior citizens and the federal government.

Mysterious silver monolith disappears from Utah desert

SALT LAKE CITY — A mysterious silver monolith that was placed in the Utah desert has disappeared less than 10 days after it was spotted by wildlife biologists performing a helicopter survey of bighorn sheep, federal officials and witnesses said.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the ‘monolith’ has been removed from Bureau of Land Management public lands by an unknown party,” on Nov. 27, BLM spokesperson Kimberly Finch said in a statement. The agency did not remove the structure, she said.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said biologists spotted the monolith on Nov. 18, a report that garnered international attention. It was about 11 feet (3.4 metres) tall with sides that appeared to be made of stainless steel.

While Utah officials did not say specifically where the monolith was located, people soon found it on satellite images dating back to 2016 and determined its GPS co-ordinates, prompting people to hike into the area.

Reporters with The Salt Lake Tribune hiked to the spot on Saturday and confirmed that it was gone.

Spencer Owen of Salt Lake City said he saw the monolith Friday afternoon and camped in the region overnight, but as he hiked to the area again on Saturday people passing him on the trail warned him it was gone, the Tribune reported. When he arrived at the spot, all that was left was a triangular piece of metal covering a triangular-shaped hole in the rocks.

“I was really bummed,” said Owen, who posted a video on his Instagram. “It was so pretty and shiny. I wanted to go see it again.”

Riccardo Marino and his girlfriend Sierra Van Meter were travelling from Colorado to California on Friday and decided to stop and see the object after finding the GPS co-ordinates online.

“This was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we couldn't miss out,” Marino told KUTV.

On the way, they passed a long-bed truck with a large object in the back and he said he joked “oh look, there's the Utah monolith right there,” he said.

When they arrived at the spot, it was gone.

Steve Adams said he left Helper, in central Utah, at 7 a.m. Saturday to drive to the area. When he arrived and asked someone for directions he was told the tower was gone. He and some friends made the hike anyway.

“It was pretty disappointing,” he told the Tribune. “We were really excited to go down and have an adventure to see it. It feels like it was everybody’s and then it was nobody’s. It’s gone.”

Riccardo Marino

The Associated Press

Mystery Utah monolith vanishes after visitors trash the secret site

We were not worthy

© Kelsea Dockham/Canyon State Overland via AP In this Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020, photo provided by Kelsea Dockham, rocks mark the location where a metal monolith once stood in the ground in a remote area of red rock in Spanish Valley, Utah south of Moab near Canyonlands National Park.

The mysterious metal monolith found in Utah earlier this month has vanished, after sparking alien conspiracy theories and attracting hordes of messy internet pilgrims to its remote location in the desert.

The monolith disappeared sometime on Friday night during the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The paper sent a reporter to visit the site on Saturday, but the object was gone when he arrived.

The only sign of its presence was a triangular cut left in the rock and a triangular metal slab that likely served as the object's base.

"It's gone," hiker Spencer Owen said in a video posted on his Instagram over the weekend, after the monolith had been removed.

The three-sided, 3.4-metre-tall object became a viral sensation in mid-November when state biologists announced they'd spotted it from a helicopter while counting bighorn sheep in southern Utah. Officials shared photos and videos of the puzzling object, but they withheld its location amid concerns that people might go looking for it.

Internet users figured out the location within a week, and soon the site was overrun with visitors eager to examine the object — and to capture a piece of its viral fame.

Visitors revealed that the object likely wasn't built by aliens, unless those aliens were getting their supplies from a hardware store. The object was a hollow structure made from three sheets of metal, which had been riveted together and embedded in a slot carved into the rock.

Archived satellite footage shows it had been in place since at least 2016, though its exact purpose remains unknown. The prevailing theory is that it was an art project, although no one has come forward to claim it as their work.

The Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) confirmed on Sunday that the object had been removed, but the organization did not know who took it away or why.

The BLM had urged people to stay away from the object, citing concerns that visitors would make a mess of the site or get lost on the way.

Video: Mysterious metal monolith discovered in Utah desert

The government organization seemed almost relieved by the development, after monolith-hunters swarmed the area and made a mess of the natural environment around it. The BLM says the site did not have the parking spaces or restrooms necessary to accommodate the sudden influx of people.

"Visitors who flocked to the site parked on vegetation and left behind human waste as evidence of their visit," the BLM said in a statement.

The BLM's Monticello field office says the monolith was a nice distraction from the 2020 news cycle, but it has also been a headache for officials charged with caring for public lands in Utah.

"It was installed without authorization on public lands and the site is in a remote area without service for the large number of people who now want to see it," Amber Denton Johnson, field manager for Monticello, said in a BLM statement. "Whenever you visit public lands please follow Leave No Trace principles and federal and local laws and guidance."

Read more: Famous alien-hunting telescope shut down to avoid ‘catastrophic failure’

Several hikers showed up at the site over the weekend to find nothing but the hole where the monolith once stood.

Hikers Riccardo Marino and Sierra Van Meter say they were among the first to discover that the object had disappeared. They arrived at the site around 11 p.m. and found nothing but a note in the sand reading: "Bye b----."

Someone appeared to have urinated on the site, the couple told local station KUTV.

Marino says they saw a suspicious truck on their way to see the monolith.

"We had passed a truck, a long bed truck, early 200s light-coloured truck with a large object on the back," he told the station. "I joked out loud, like, 'Oh, look, there's the Utah monolith right there,'" he recalled.

It's unclear whether the object was removed by its maker or taken away by someone else.

The monolith's designer and its true purpose have been a mystery since it was first discovered on Nov. 18.

The mystery has only deepened with this latest development, as two new questions remain unanswered: Where is the monolith now, and who — or what — took it?

—With files from The Associated Press

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What’s underneath the #monolith

Spencer Owen on Instagram: “What’s underneath the #monolith”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/?utm_source=ig_embed

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Turns out the mystery monolith is actually just an insanely creative piece of metal art. Bravo to whoever or whatever did this 👏🏼👏🏼😉 #utah #utahmonolith #utahisrad

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