Pain patients and healthcare providers want CDC opioid guideline revoked

Survey finds 9 out of 10 patients believe their pain levels and quality of life have grown worse under 2016 CDC guideline

PAIN NEWS NETWORK

Research News

 

The CDC's opioid prescribing guideline has failed to reduce addiction and overdoses, significantly worsened the quality of pain care in the United States and should be revoked, according to a large new survey of patients and healthcare providers by Pain News Network, an independent, non-profit news organization.

Nearly 4,200 patients and providers participated in the online survey, which was conducted as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepares to update and possibly expand its 2016 guideline, which discourages doctors from prescribing opioid pain medication.

Most survey respondents - nearly 75% -- believe the guideline should be withdrawn or revoked. Less than one in four (23%) believe changes can be made to make its recommendations more effective.

Although voluntary and only intended for primary care physicians, the guideline has become the standard of care for pain management in the U.S., with many doctors, insurers, pharmacies and regulators adopting its recommendations as policy. The goal of the guideline was to "improve the safety and effectiveness of pain treatment" and reduce the risk of opioid addiction and overdose.

But survey respondents overwhelmingly believe the CDC has failed to achieve its goals. Nearly 97% said the guideline has not improved the quality of pain care, and 92% believe it has not reduced opioid addiction and overdoses.

Opioid prescriptions were declining before the CDC guideline was released and now stand at their lowest level in 20 years. Most overdoses in the U.S. involve illicit fentanyl and other street drugs, not prescription opioids, yet many patients have been cut off from opioids or had their doses reduced.

"They have done immeasurable damage to chronic intractable pain patients all across America. There have been suicides, people have lost their jobs and their entire quality of life because of them," one patient said.

"In 40 years as a pain specialist, I have never seen patients with pain so mistreated, abandoned and unable to access pain treatment as a direct result of the CDC guidelines," a doctor wrote.

"Due to inadequate pain control many chronic pain patients, including myself, attempted suicide to get relief of intolerable pain. I wish I had succeeded," another patient wrote.

Other survey findings:

• 59% of patients were taken off opioids or tapered to a lower dose against their wishes

• 42% had trouble getting an opioid prescription filled at a pharmacy

• 36% were unable to find a doctor to treat their pain

• 29% were abandoned or discharged by a doctor

• 27% had a doctor who stopped prescribing opioids

• 35% have considered or attempted suicide due to poorly treat pain

• 10% have obtained prescription opioids from family, friends or the black market

• 9% have used illegal drugs for pain relief

"This is the fourth survey we've done on the CDC guideline. Each year the findings grow more disturbing, with patients desperate for pain relief or simply giving up on life," said Pat Anson, founder and editor of Pain News Network. "Nine out of ten patients say their pain levels and quality of life have grown worse since the guideline came out. Many of their stories are heartbreaking. Pain patients are the unrecognized victims of the opioid crisis and are being blamed for something they did not cause."

The CDC is currently in the process of updating and possibly expanding the guideline to include recommendations for treating short-term acute pain, migraine and other pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and low back pain. A draft version of the updated guideline is not expected until late this year.

(The survey was conducted online and through social media from March 15 to April 17. A total of 4,185 people in the United States participated, including 3,926 who identified themselves as chronic, acute or intractable pain patients; 92 doctors or healthcare providers; and 167 people who said they were a caretaker, spouse, loved one or friend of a patient. To see the full survey results, click here.)

###

Russian prosecutors order Navalny group to suspend activities


Issued on: 26/04/2021 - 

Navalny, Russia's best known opposition politician, is serving two-and-a-half years in a penal colony on charges he says are politically motivated. © Odd Andersen, AFP file photo

Russian prosecutors on Monday ordered jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and its regional network to suspend all activities, pending a court ruling on whether to label it an extremist group.

A Moscow court on Monday began a preliminary hearing into designating FBK and its regional offices as "extremist" after prosecutors requested they be added to a list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations run by Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee.

"The activities of Navalny's offices and FBK were immediately suspended," FBK's director Ivan Zhdanov wrote on Twitter on Monday, attaching screenshots of a prosecutor's decision.

The Moscow City Court confirmed that the activities of the group's regional network were suspended, but clarified that prosecutors had the power to make the decision and that a final court ruling on designating the group as extremist was still due.

A positive court ruling would give authorities the legal power to hand down jail terms to activists and freeze the groups' bank accounts, essentially forcing them to stop campaigning for Russia's highest-profile opposition figure.


In a statement on its Telegram channel, Navalny's office in Moscow said the group will already "no longer be able to work" as usual.

"It would be too dangerous for our employees and for our supporters," it said.

The team promised that it will continue to fight against corruption, the ruling United Russia party and President Vladimir Putin "in a personal capacity".

"It will not be easy to fight, but we will win absolutely, because there are many of us and we are strong," the group added.

Prosecutors on Friday said they had requested the extremism label for FBK and its regional offices because they are "engaged in creating conditions for the destabilisation of the social and socio-political situation."

Prosecutors also accused the organisations of creating conditions for "changing the foundations of the constitutional order" and called their activities "undesirable".

Russia's list of extremist organisations currently consists of 33 including the Islamic State (IS) group, al Qaeda and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

The groups are banned from operating in Russia and participating in their activities can result in lengthy prison terms.

Navalny, Russia's best known opposition politician, is serving two-and-a-half years in a penal colony on old fraud charges he says are politically motivated.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Biden’s Armenian Genocide Declaration Is a Message to Turkey

If Turkey wants to be treated as an ally, it has to start acting like one.

by SHAY KHATIRI
APRIL 26, 2021 

THE BULWARK

Armenians march from the Turkish Ambassador's Residence to the Turkish Embassy on the 106th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide during a protest in Washington, DC on April 24, 2021. - President Joe Biden's recognition of the Armenian genocide was met Saturday by tempered satisfaction from the nation's US diaspora, with some saying the words need to result in more pressure against Turkey. Marchers gathered in Los Angeles, home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the world, to mark the day with Armenian flags and calls for accountability. (Photo by Samuel Corum / AFP) (Photo by SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images)

Over the weekend, President Biden recognized the World War I-era Armenian genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, the precursor to modern Turkey. Previous administrations had avoided the topic because Turkey is a treaty ally of the United States as a member of NATO. Biden’s recognition signals a new era of U.S.-Turkey relations.

Though recognizing the genocide is a formal declaration with only symbolic value, Turkish nationalists have long fought against it (including through government-funded online trolls), while Armenians have fought for international acknowledgement of the crimes perpetrated against them. While most of the world’s advanced democracies have recognized the genocide, the United States was slow to join them because of Turkey’s value as an ally. Armenia, a former Soviet republic, has enjoyed closer relations with Russian than the free world since independence.

This is beginning to change. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the head of the Turkish government for 20 years. Once a secular and “imperfect democracy,” Turkey is now an Islamist autocracy. Erdoğan’s government has been increasingly cozying up with U.S. adversaries such as Iran and the Taliban. It even supported the Islamic State on its border with Syria, as much for ideological affinity as battlefield advantage, while targeting the United States’s Kurdish allies there. Turkey is warming its tepid relations with Russia, a historical adversary. In 2020, Turkey completed the purchase of the Russian S-400 anti-air missile system, which could potentially expose U.S. military secrets to Russia, over strenuous American objections. Consequently, the United States imposed sanctions on Turkey and kicked it out of the F-35 fighter program.

The Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations all tried to repair the relationship, and all failed because Erdoğan is simply not interested. He holds the United States in contempt, which became most visible (and, for America, most humiliating) when, in 2017, his bodyguards attacked and beat up peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., as the Turkish strongman was about to meet Trump—and got away with it. It symbolized U.S.-Turkey relations: Turkey does what it wants, the U.S. suffered what it thought it must.

By formally recognizing the Armenian genocide, the Biden administration seems to be rebalancing the relationship, which shouldn’t be a surprise. In 2018, Biden’s current assistant for national security affairs, Jake Sullivan, co-authored an op-ed with the former American ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman, arguing that the United States should stop treating Turkey as an unconditional ally. Rather, the authors wrote, the relations should become more “transactional.”

Most commentators portray the Middle East and the Caucasus as a set of coalitions—a pro-U.S. coalition, a Russian coalition, an Islamic Republic coalition, etc. In reality, the region is a circular firing squad. The United States’s efforts to remake the Middle East as it remade Europe and much of East Asia after World War II have failed. Now, Iran, Turkey, and Russia are all trying to restore their lost empires, while other states are pushing back. With the United States’s self-imposeddiminishing influence in the region, this is going to get worse. And so will America’s relationship with Turkey.

Going forward, as the Biden administration considers what it wants to do with Turkey, it needs to keep in mind that relations with Turkey have disproportionate ramifications for our interests in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. Turkey remains an important country to U.S. interests. It is a member of NATO with access to information we cannot afford for Putin to have. But we also cannot afford to keep ignoring Turkey’s actions against U.S. interests.

Turkey has been strengthening ties with the Taliban, and, this week, Erdoğan is scheduled to meet with a top Taliban leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. It has helped Iran to evade sanctions. It has attacked U.S. allies in Syria. It has jeopardized NATO. It has committed war crimes against civilians. And yet the United States has treated it like any other unconditional ally.

The previous administrations weren’t stupid, but they were risk-averse and cautious. A transactional relationship with Turkey requires a strong will and a tolerance for risks. A more transactional relationship is a big risk—but worth taking.

As long as Erdoğan remains in power, relations will get worse. If Turkey were behaving resoponsibly, whether or not to recognize the Aremnian genocide would remain a more nuanced and diffuclt question. But as long as relations are bound to get worse, we might as well acknowledge what actually happened.

Shay Khatiri
Shay Khatiri is a graduate student of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He grew up in Iran and left the country in 2011. He is currently seeking political asylum in the United States. Follow him @ShayKhatiri.

INDIA NEWS

How Biden admin changed stance on supply of

 vaccine raw materials to India

The United States had in February invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the power to control the distribution of products, to curb the export of raw materials critical for vaccine production.(Representational photo)

The announcement by Joe Biden comes close on the heels of the United States agreeing to provide India with raw materials needed for producing the Covishield vaccine and supply equipment such as ventilators and oxygen generation gear to support the country’s response to a massive surge in Covid-19 cases.

By Avik Roy, New Delhi

PUBLISHED ON APR 26, 2021 02:13 PM IST

US President Joe Biden on Monday took to Twitter to say that his administration is determined for India to tide over the crisis of coronavirus as the country has been witnessing more than 300,000 daily cases of infection for the fifth straight day. His administration has assured India to supply raw materials required by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) to ramp up the production of Covishield vaccines.

Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need,” Biden posted from the official Twitter handle of the POTUS.

Inside the battle to save the most endangered river in the country

When you are in the Snake River, you can be in two states -- Idaho and Oregon -- at once.

You can find yourself in magical places that are sacred to the Nez Perce Tribe, surrounded by ancient petroglyphs. 

In some areas, the water plunges so deep beneath the canyon rim that it outdoes the Grand Canyon by nearly 2,000 feet.



Play Video
Snake River among most endangered rivers in US


To say it simply, it’s majestic. And like many rivers in the United States, it's in peril.

The Snake River is the most endangered river in the United States in 2021, according to American Rivers, which has put out a list every year for 36 years.MORE: Earth Day 2021: Why reforestation is a crucial part of saving the environment

At the center of the issue is salmon, which "have never been closer to extinction than they are today,” said Amy Souers Kober, vice president for communications at conservation group American Rivers.

© Ted S. Warren/AP, FILE FILE -The Lower Granite Dam spills into the Snake River in Whitman County, WA in this May 2019 photo. Congressman Simpson (R-ID) is proposing to breach this and 3 other dams to help fish migration

Many see it as a crisis, and one that can be solved -- but while salmon are at the heart of the problem, it goes even deeper than that.

The salmon

In the 1880s, it was estimated that between 25,000 and 35,000 sockeye would make the 900-mile journey up the river and back to Idaho to spawn each year.

In 1992, a single, solitary sockeye was able to make the trip, according to National Geographic. He was known as Lonesome Larry.

The salmon population has since rebounded, but not to levels anywhere near what the Snake River previously saw.MORE: Government refusal to protect wolverines sparks lawsuit from conservation groups

“I’m raising children in this region. And I would like more than anything for my children to see these fish returned in solid numbers,” Mark Deming, a local Idaho fisherman and director of marketing at Northwest River Supplies, said. "When people don’t come to fish, then the cash registers aren’t ringing, and that’s had a pretty big economic impact."

Fishing generates more than $5 billion annually in the Pacific Northwest, supporting more than 36,000 jobs, according to American Rivers.

Salmon are vital to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and essential to the livelihood of more than 130 other forms of wildlife, according to biologists.

© ABC News Tom Kammerzell owns Maple K. Farms in Whitman County, WA. He fears breaching the dams would cut his wheat profits entirely because they would become too expensive to ship in other ways

They are also a crucial part of the Nez Perce culture. The Nez Perce story states that the salmon gave of himself so that the Nimiipuu could thrive. In return, they would protect the land. The tribe, which has inhabited the area for centuries, is said to have saved explorers Lewis and Clark from freezing and starving to death.

“Salmon is more than a resource to us ... [it] signifies our creation, our life and our continued life on this land,” Nakia Williamson, director of the Nez Perce Tribe culture resources program, said.

The tribe has had to resort to using hatcheries and transplanting salmon to keep the population growing.MORE: Sustainable crop, timber production can reduce extinction of species by 40%: Study

Salmon have been dying at a rapid rate over the last 10 years. If that continues, nearly 80% of salmon populations could come mostly from hatcheries by 2025, "and some even before that,” said Jay Hesse, the Nez Perce Tribe department of fisheries resource management research division director.

The dams

The Nez Perce Tribe says the four dams located on the lower part of the Snake River are impeding the salmon’s migration route.

“What these dams do is make it more difficult for fish to reach their spawning grounds," Deming said. "So when you’re thinking about climate change, you have to think about getting these fish up to high elevation, cold, clear mountain streams where they can spawn."

In years past, wildlife officials have created “fish passages'' at the lower four dams, and conservation groups say that is helping. Still, salmon continue dying on that journey, and few survive getting through the dams to the ocean in the first place.

“A trip that took approximately two days before the dams were constructed now takes 10 to 30 days, during which 50% of the juvenile spring/summer chinook and 45% of the juvenile steelhead typically die,” Hesse said.

Climate change is making this all the more urgent. The river and the pools behind the Lower Snake dams are heating up, creating lethal conditions for salmon. Removing those dams would “create the refuge that salmon need in a warming world,” Kober said.

As things are now, the dams are vital to the region. They provide enough power to keep the lights on in 800,000 homes in an efficient -- and what some say is an environmentally friendly -- way

.

© ABC News Mark Deming, a local fisherman in Idaho, says the fish we see today coming back from the ocean returning to these rivers is a tiny fraction of what it once was.

That calm, glassy water also makes it easy and cost effective to ship goods. The Snake River winds through 5 million acres of farmland in Southeast Washington alone, and 10% of the entire country’s wheat crop is sent on a barge down the Snake River.

“We are feeding the world ... are you going to put human lives over fish?" asked Tom Kammerzell, a 5th generation farmer who lives in Whitman County, the largest wheat producing county in the United States. "It’s not an either or, there’s a way of doing it together and having both, but you have to look at all of the pieces.”

Kammerzell estimates he would lose all his profits if the dams were breached and he was forced to ship by rail or truck, which he argues is not just more costly but could be worse for the climate as well.MORE: Fire danger in Southwest as summer warmth on the way for Northeast

Todd Myers, who sits on the board of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council, said removing the dams would be “foolish and costly,” adding that the fall chinook salmon runs on the Snake River are actually nearing recovery in Washington, and the steelhead are recovering as well. He notes that the spring chinook are in crisis, but so are many other salmon runs across the Pacific Northwest.

“I think it’s ironic to single out the Snake, it’s one of very few places where (the salmon) are doing well,” Myers said.

He didn't disagree that help is needed, but he emphasized that help is needed everywhere and removing the dams would contribute to an already problematic energy shortfall.

“Destroying the dams would be like removing every wind turbine and solar panel in Washington state," he argued. "Destroying that much CO2-free electricity and increasing the possibility of Texas-style blackouts is an enormous risk."
A proposed solution

Currently, Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson wants to have $33.5 billion from President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan earmarked to save the Snake River. His plan includes removing the earthen part of the dams to clear the waterways, replacing the energy produced at the dams and upgrading transportation and irrigation services the dams provide, hoping to make the communities the river serves, like the farmers, whole until they can supplement shipping methods.

“By creating this fund up front, the Northwest delegation, governors, tribes and stakeholders could then write legislation over the next year that will end the lawsuits, solve very difficult and complex issues and bring certainty and security for now and future generations,” Simpson told ABC News.

© Emily Nuchols/Under Solen Media Shannon Wheeler, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, says the salmon are integral to his tribe and "if the salmon are gone, that's the way we go too.”

But that kind of additional spending in one place is viewed as “irresponsible” by many, including Myers.

“Washington state [already] spends about $100 million annually on salmon recovery," he said. "The federal government provides about $40 million a year on top of that.”MORE: Whitest white paint could help fight climate change

Myers added that a vast majority of the salmon declines are in the “marine environment." Warmer ocean waters have salmon struggling across the region, a much larger problem that needs to be addressed.

Salmon have been in the world's waters for an estimated 4 to 6 million years. To see the numbers diminish and possibly disappear because of human intervention is something people on both sides of this issue agree must be addressed. But the argument over exactly how and exactly how quickly remains.

“Through science, technology and experience, we should be able to correct those things to help them, and so we're here to speak for them,” Shannon Wheeler, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe, said. “If the salmon are gone, that's the way we go, too.”

ABC NEWS 4/26/2021

DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND; COPS

Why gun control efforts should go beyond mass shootings, advocates say

A spate of mass shootings in recent months has once again trained the spotlight on how to prevent those tragedies, which garner national headlines and the attention of lawmakers and activists alike.

But data from the Gun Violence Archive shows that they account for a small fraction of the tens of thousands of deaths from gun violence in the U.S. each year.

Now, some are questioning whether gun control efforts are too focused on mass shootings rather than smaller-scale, but more prevalent, deaths and suicides by gun.

Mass shootings like the 2012 Sandy Hook, which claimed 26 lives, the 2018 Parkland massacre and others scarred the nation and led to efforts to ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and bump stocks, but have faced challenges in getting passed into law.

In March, the House passed a bipartisan bill for universal background checks for gun sales. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has promised to hold a vote on the legislation. But the odds of it passing are slim because of Senate rules that require 60 votes.

Advocates say President Joe Biden’s executive actions, announced earlier this month in the wake of the Atlanta and Colorado shootings this year, could help combat less prominent acts of gun violence, but they are limited initiatives because they're not legislative proposals.

© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE

Biden's actions included a proposed rule to regulate the sale of so-called “ghost guns” and ask the Department of Justice to publish model "red flag" legislation -- which allows police or family members to petition a court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person if deemed mentally unfit or potentially a harm to themselves or others -- for states within 60 days. They also called for investments in evidence-based community violence intervention to end gun violence in communities experiencing spikes in homicides, and a new annual report on firearms trafficking, which hasn't been done since 2000.

Rob Pincus, the co-founder of the Center for Gun Rights and Responsibility, a group that works with gun owners and advocates for safe gun use, said magazine capacity limits and assault weapon bans “don’t address the issues of suicide, negligence, or specific targeted homicides" and should focus more on homicide and suicide by firearm.

“How many bullets is enough to kill yourself? It's one. So there is no magazine capacity ban that's going to have any impact whatsoever on [a majority] of the firearms involved deaths,” Pincus told ABC News.

Mass shootings a fraction of gun deaths

Gun violence has surged in recent years -- even as the coronavirus pandemic shut down public gatherings.

2020 saw the highest level of gun violence deaths in 20 years, according to firearm death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2020, 43,551 gun violence deaths were reported, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent database that has collected gun violence incidents from law enforcement agencies, media and the government since 2013.

Of those, 19,395 deaths were homicides, murders, unintentional deaths or instances of defensive gun use and 24,000 were suicides. A fraction, however -- 610 deaths -- were from mass shootings, which the Gun Violence Archive defines as a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed. Not all mass shootings are public events that make national news.

© ABC News / Gun Violence Archive.org Illustration

In 2019, the Gun Violence Archive reported nearly 40,000 deaths involving guns, more than 15,000 from homicides, murders, unintentional deaths or defensive gun use, over 24,000 from suicides and 417 from mass shootings.

“The reality is that mass shootings, though, represent about 4% of all gun deaths,” Kris Brown, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told ABC News. “It's not to be any one thing that solves an epidemic that claims 40,000 lives and leaves 80,000 injured [a year].” Those numbers are five-year averages Brady established based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) annual gun fatality data.

Focus on mental health

Brown said Indiana has a "red flag" law and if it was used, it could have prevented the Indianapolis Fedex facility shooting on April 15 that left 8 dead. Last year the gunman's mother told police she was worried about his behavior after he purchased a gun and allegedly threatened police suicide. Police could have alerted a court and petitioned an order to remove his firearm.

“It's just heartbreaking that an extreme risk law was not thought of there, because it's exactly those kinds of situations that can save lives,” Brown said.

© Jeff Dean/AFP via Getty Images Crime scene investigators walk through the parking lot at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, April 16, 2021.

Pincus said focusing on gun owner’s mental health is key in curbing such shootings as well as suicides, which account for a majority of gun deaths in the U.S. each year.

“Indianapolis is such an unfortunate example of where the "red flag" system fails,” he said. “He never got mental health attention. He never got over whatever suicidal impulse and rage he had," he said.

Pincus said "red flag laws" don't offer the mental health support gun owners may need and suggested mental health professionals should be able to work with their clients on a cooperative basis to have them placed on a list to prohibit them from purchasing firearms.

“What we're really talking about is mental health practitioners having a mechanism to work with gun owners in clinical situations, during counseling or therapy and say, 'Would you agree, this is a time when your mom can hold your gun or put [the guns] in storage for a time. This is a temporary state. But we're also going to put you into the National Instant Check system on a prohibited list to prevent a tragedy from happening while you're in this condition,'” he said.

Violence intervention and access control

Advocates say safe storage and addressing mental health is key, as about 60% of gun deaths are from suicide according to a Department of Justice survey from 2010 -- a trend advocates say has persisted over the years.

Another key way to end gun violence is investment into community violence intervention programs that send case workers to victims of gun violence, work in hospitals with victims, and those recently released from prison.

"The gun violence that we see that plays out on a regular basis in this country is overwhelmingly not mass shootings. It's suicides with firearms and interpersonal gun violence," that disproportionately effects urban communities of color, Robin Lloyd, the managing director of Giffords, a gun control advocacy group, told ABC News.

“A huge proportion of the people who are shot end up later on becoming potential perpetrators,” Brown said. A 2002 U.S. Department of Justice report found juveniles who are victims of violence are more likely to commit gun violence offenses.

Pincus stressed the greatest way to tackle gun homicides and suicides is training and prevention of unauthorized access

.

© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILE Ghost guns that were secured by the DC Metropolitan Police Department are displayed during a press conference held by Mayor Muriel Bowser who announced a new legislation to ban the import of ghost gun kits and parts in Washington, Feb. 28, 2020.

“When we focus on access control, we focus on secured storage, we focus on making sure people around the gun in the household are educated in its use,” he said.

Advocates also called for greater awareness campaigns focused on responsible gun use, safe storage, mental health and suicide prevention similar to campaigns urging the public to wear seat belts in cars and to stop smoking.

“It's public awareness, education, and social pressure," Pincus said.

Calls for a national standard

At the federal level, gun reform activists are pushing for universal background checks to stop not just mass shootings, but all forms of gun violence.

“The background check loophole is basically the fact that you can buy a firearm in this country legally without getting a background check. That happens at gun shows, it happens via the internet, it just happens because two people can meet in a parking lot. No questions asked," Lloyd said.

"Because there's a patchwork of laws in this country, it makes [gun guidelines] inconsistent. Illinois, for example, even though the state has stronger gun laws, because its [neighbors] Indiana, Wisconsin and others don't, guns are very easily trafficked from those states into Illinois. And that puts Illinois communities at risk," she added.

A reason Congress has been slow to act on gun reform is the Senate filibuster, a rule that requires 60 Senators to agree to vote on a bill.

Jared Carter, a constitutional law expert from Vermont Law School, explained ultimately little is likely to change with gun reform when it comes to passing legislation.

“I think the likelihood of anything controversial, and we know that gun rights Second Amendment issues are some of the most controversial, are not going to pass if you need to get 60 votes in the Senate,” Carter told ABC News. “As long as the filibuster is still in existence, nothing of significance is going to pass.”

“It has not helped America that this issue has become politicized. A bullet is not political. It will hit you indiscriminately,” Brown said.

Frustrated Canada presses White House to keep Great Lakes oil pipeline open

By David Ljunggren, Nia Williams and Laura Sanicola 
4/25/2021

© Reuters/CARLOS OSORIO FILE PHOTO: 

Border city's industry under threat with looming pipeline closure

OTTAWA/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canada is pushing on several diplomatic fronts against the U.S. state of Michigan's efforts to close a cross-border oil pipeline, the second such dispute since Joe Biden became U.S. president in January, complicating the governments' efforts to work together to lower carbon emissions.

The conflict over the aging but key pipeline highlights the disruptions caused by a global shift away from fossil fuels. Both governments are working to accelerate the energy transition, but their oil industries are interdependent, so a policy shift in one country can affect energy supply, and the political balance, in the other.

The United States imports more crude from Canada than any other nation, at about 3.7 million barrels per day, or about 80%of Canada's crude output.

Ottawa's strategy, according to four sources familiar with the government's thinking, is to repeatedly raise the issue of Enbridge Inc's Line 5 with numerous U.S. counterparts - including Biden - to get them to pressure Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to keep the pipeline open.

Last November, Michigan ordered Line 5 to shut by May 13, citing the environmental risk of a possible leak in the four-mile (6-km) stretch of the 540,000-bpd line passing under the Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes.

The White House has shown no sign of responding to Canadian entreaties, so Ottawa is considering more drastic options, including a threat to invoke an obscure bilateral treaty to keep Line 5 operating or intervene in the legal dispute currently playing out in U.S. courts.

Line 5, which flows crude oil and refined products from Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario, via Michigan, has been in operation for nearly 70 years, but officials in Michigan are increasingly alarmed by its advanced age.

The line has never leaked into the straits but there have been at least eight other spills since 1980, according to U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration data.

The imbroglio over Line 5 comes just three months after Biden angered the Canadian oil and gas industry by cancelling a permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project on his first day in office.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government reluctantly accepted that decision, even though it killed thousands of construction jobs and further soured Ottawa's relationship with the main energy-producing province of Alberta.

Ottawa has resolved to fight publicly to keep Line 5 open, which - unlike Keystone - is already operating and a vital link in Enbridge's export network that ships the vast majority of crude from Canada's western oil patch to the United States.

DOZENS OF MEETINGS

Canadian government officials are frustrated by how much time they are spending on the matter, the sources said.

Canada has discussed the pipeline's fate in dozens of bilateral meetings, including 23 virtual meetings between lawmakers and U.S. members of Congress, according to a spokesman for Canada's Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan.

"Clearly Line 5 is an important issue for the government of Canada ... at the same time we need to be advancing on a cooperative basis the work we're doing on climate action," Canada Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters earlier this month.

Wilkinson raised the pipeline on Feb. 24 during a meeting with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry. Trudeau also raised Line 5 with Biden when the two met in February to discuss making global warming a joint priority. The Canadian prime minister attended a U.S. international climate summit hosted by Biden last week.

Neither Kerry nor the White House responded to a request for comment.

Calgary-based Enbridge has refused to shut the pipeline, arguing the governor's order needs to be backed by a judge. The case is being heard in U.S. federal court and the two parties started mediation on April 16.

Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy said a negotiated solution would be in the best interests of all parties.

Trudeau's administration is mulling whether to take part in the legal challenge by filing an amicus, or "friend of the court" brief, which would explicitly lay out their reasons for backing Enbridge, said a source directly familiar with the matter.

Ottawa is also considering invoking the never-before-used 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty, designed to stop U.S. or Canadian public officials from impeding the flow of oil in transit.

"The federal government continues to have a role to play, and we appreciate what they've done to date," Enbridge's Duffy said.

SPINAL CORD

Line 5 is key to fuel supply for the Great Lakes region on both sides of the border, helping supply an area with a population of more than 40 million people.

Environmental campaigners have long been concerned Line 5 could leak into the straits. Whitmer, a Biden ally, made shutting it a key promise in her 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

Wilkinson, after meeting with Kerry, told reporters that "the issue in Michigan is the governor."

Canada's Ambassador Kirsten Hillman and Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna have both met separately with Whitmer, but she has not changed her stance.

A spokeswoman for Whitmer told Reuters that the governor stands behind her decision to close the pipeline.

Enbridge said shutting Line 5 would cause fuel shortages and gas price spikes, and require 15,000 trucks and 800 rail cars a day to replace deliveries to Ontario. Michigan would also need truck transport to account for lost propane delivery, while refineries in Ohio and Michigan would need to secure supply from other suppliers.

Scott Archer, business agent with Local 663 Pipefitters Union in Sarnia, home to three of Ontario's refineries, described Line 5 as the "spinal cord of Ontario's infrastructure" in testimony to Canadian lawmakers.

"Shutting down Line 5 will in effect kill my hometown... and many more places like it in Canada and the U.S.," he said.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Laura Sanicola in New York; additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Turkmenistan, declares national holiday to celebrate dog breed

The Alabays, used by herders are among the world’s largest dogs

April 26, 2021 

A man dressed in a national costume, center, pets his border guard 

shepherd dog Alabai during Dog Day celebration in Ashgabat | AP

Turkmenistan, a Central Asian nation has created a new national holiday to honour its native dog breed the Alabai. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s son on Sunday observed the holiday by judging a competition alongside Deputy Prime Minister Rasit Meredow. 

Berdymukhamedov established the state holiday to encourage people to venerate the huge dog breed as a source of national pride. Last year a six-metre high gilded statue of an Alabay dog was installed at a busy traffic circle in the capital, Ashgabat. The holiday falls on the same day the native Akhal-teke horse, known for its speed and endurance is celebrated. 

The Alabays can weigh up to 80 kilos when fully grown and are among the world’s largest dogs. They were traditionally used by herders.

Crowds gathered at Ashgabat, clapped and cheered as the animals were judged on their appearance and agility. The top prize went to a dog that belongs to the country's border force, a Guardian report reads. Since being elected, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has gifted several leaders with horses or dogs, including one to Russian President Vladimir Putin, 2012. A video of mistreatment of the puppy gifted to Putin went viral in 2017 and drew criticism from around the world. President Berdymukhamedov has also written a book about the breed.

France's Total Evacuates Staff, Announces Force Majeure on LNG Project in Mozambique

France's Total Evacuates Staff, Announces Force Majeure on LNG Project in Mozambique

© Sputnik / Alexey Filippov

BUSINESS

10:05 GMT 26.04.2021Get short URL

 

Subscribe

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - French oil company Total on Monday declared force majeure and the evacuation of all personnel from the Afungi Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique over terrorism-related security concerns.

"Considering the evolution of the security situation in the north of the Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, Total confirms the withdrawal of all Mozambique LNG project personnel from the Afungi site. This situation leads Total, as operator of Mozambique LNG project, to declare force majeure", the firm said in a statement.

It also expressed solidarity with the country's government and people and hope that the security and stability in the area would be restored.

Reports on the evacuation of Total's personnel occurred in early April following the halt of operations on the site in late March over the Islamist seizure on the Palma city, also located in the Cabo Deldago province.

Experts believed that the suspension of work on the project could seriously affect Mozambique's future positions in the world LNG market. The country ranks 14th in the world in terms of natural gas reserves.

Last month, the Daesh* terrorist group took over Palma after several days of hostilities, killing an unknown number of people and displacing some 14,000 others. On 2 April, the police of Mozambique told Sputnik that there were no militants in the town any longer.

Mozambique LNG is projected to be the first onshore project in Mozambique. It includes the development of the Golfinho and Atum fields and the construction of a two-line liquefaction plant with a total capacity of 12.9 million tonnes of LNG per annum and an expansion potential of up to 43 million tonnes.

The start of production is scheduled for 2024. Total is the operator of the project with a 26.5 percent share. The cost of the project is estimated at $20 billion, the investment decision regarding it was made in 2019.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other states

‘Dawn is coming’ for Canada amid worst public health crisis in a century: WHO adviser

Rachel Gilmore

4/25/2021

© THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Lars Hagberg A person wears a surgical mask to protect them from COVID-19 while walking by a sign advising not to gather during the ongoing pandemic in Kingston on Friday, April 16, 2021.

As Canada endures the third wave of COVID-19, a virus that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives within our borders, a World Health Organization adviser has a message for Canadians: “dawn is coming.”

Dr. Peter Singer's comments come on the heels of soaring COVID-19 case counts in Canada, which peaked at over 9,000 cases daily in mid-April. Ontario in particular has faced a crushing third wave, with record-breaking daily cases and ICUs stretched to their limits.

“It's the darkness before dawn. There's really no question that the situation in Canada is very tough. And many, many people are suffering,” Singer, special advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization, told The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson in an interview.

“This pandemic generally is the worst global public health crisis in one hundred years. So…it is a period of difficulty, but the dawn is coming.”

Canada’s vaccine rollout has been in a race against the emergence of faster spreading and harder-hitting variants of concern, which are rapidly becoming the dominant form of the virus among new cases in Canada. While over 11 million vaccines had been administered in Canada, public health official shared in a Friday briefing that national disease and severity indicators have also increased considerably over the past month.

Video: 75% of Canadians need 1st COVID-19 vaccine for less restrictions in summer, Tam says

However, they also had a spark of good news to share with Canadians.

“In recent days, following the implementation of restrictions in heavily impacted areas of Canada, the national Rt has finally dipped below one,” Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said on Friday.

“This means that for the first time in many weeks, the epidemic has dropped out of a growth pattern.”

And as more Canadians get vaccinated, Tam said the projections indicate Canada could start to reopen as early as mid-July — depending on many variables, including variants, vaccine take up, and adherence to public health measures.

News like this shows a light at the end of the tunnel, according to Singer.

“The vaccines…rolling out, combined with public health measures, means that this pandemic will end,” said Singer.

“That's the key thing, I think, for people to keep in mind…to make sure they maintain the public health measures, the masking, the physical distancing, avoiding poorly ventilated indoor spaces.”

Video: Canada braces for more hospitalizations as COVID-19 cases surge

But no matter what Canada does here at home, Singer said, there is a much bigger question mark that could impact the real end-date of the pandemic.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO has fought day and night to end it. And the defining issue, really, for 2021 is vaccine equity,” he said.

Read more: Vaccine passports gain traction, but experts warn of ‘huge moral crisis in equity’

The vaccine distribution has been “very inequitable” so far, according to Singer. Of the vaccines distributed around the world to date, 83 per cent of them have gone to either high income or upper middle income countries.

Until COVID-19 is under control in every country, new variants will continue to emerge, he warned, threatening the progress being made in the countries who have been able to inch towards reopening.

“No one is going to get out of this until everyone gets out of it,” Singer said.

“That’s actually how to make Canadians safe as well, is to ensure that the fire is not raging in any country. Because if it’s raging anywhere, it’s going to be throwing off embers everywhere.”