THE LAW IS AN ASS DEPT.

Judge ends trial of 3 accused after Hillsborough disaster

SALFORD, England (AP) — A judge ended the trial of two retired police officers and a lawyer accused of altering police statements following the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster, ruling Wednesday that there was no case to answer.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Lawyers for the two former officers — Donald Denton and Alan Foster — and Peter Metcalf, who was an attorney for the force in 1989, applied to have the case against them dismissed after four weeks of evidence.

It had been alleged the three people were involved in a process of amending officers’ statements to minimize the blame on South Yorkshire Police following the disaster at the FA Cup semifinal match that left 96 Liverpool fans dead. They were each accused of two counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.

The trial judge, Justice William Davis, said the amended statements were intended for a public inquiry into safety at sports grounds that began in 1990 and that was not a course of public justice which could be perverted.

The judge said there was no case fit for consideration by the jury based on any of the six counts in the indictment.

Prosecutors said they would not be appealing against the ruling.

“What has been heard here in this court will have been surprising to many,” said Sue Hemming, director of legal services at the Crown Prosecution Service. “That a publicly funded authority can lawfully withhold information from a public inquiry charged with finding out why 96 people died at a football match, in order to ensure that it never happened again — or that a solicitor can advise such a withholding, without sanction of any sort, may be a matter which should be subject to scrutiny.”

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has been heavily involved in the campaign for justice for Hillsborough victims, posted on Twitter: “To have a case of this magnitude ruled out on a technicality beggars belief.”

Metcalf, a police attorney, was charged with allegedly suggesting changes to officers’ statements. Denton, a former chief superintendent, was accused of overseeing the changes to the statements and Foster, a former detective chief inspector, was accused of being central to the process.

Sir Norman Bettison, a chief inspector in 1989 who went on to become chief constable of two other police forces, was charged with misconduct in a public office as part of the investigation into the disaster but the charges against him were dropped in 2018.

The match commander on the day of the disaster, David Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017. He was cleared in 2019 at a retrial after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.

The tragedy at the stadium in Sheffield unfolded when more than 2,000 Liverpool soccer fans flooded into a standing-room section behind a goal, when the 54,000-capacity stadium was nearly full for the match against Nottingham Forest. The victims were smashed against metal anti-riot fences or trampled underfoot. Many suffocated in the crush.

The original inquest recorded verdicts of accidental death. But the families challenged that ruling and pressed for a new inquiry. They succeeded in getting the verdicts overturned by the High Court in 2012 after the far-reaching probe that examined previously secret documents found wrongdoing and mistakes by authorities.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The Associated Press

Stinkweed to false flax: oilseeds race to reap biofuel bonanza

By Karl Plume and Rod Nickel 

© Reuters/KARL PLUME

 Bottles of covercress seeds and oil are seen at an Illinois

 State University laboratory in Normal

ARENZVILLE, Illinois (Reuters) - A disparate group met in an Illinois field on a windy spring morning to study a crop some call stinkweed.


Botanists, businessmen, farmers and federal lawmakers, they all gathered to peer at the waist-high plant usually considered a pest and uprooted on sight because of its foul odor, toxicity and the grim taste it leaves in the milk of grazing cattle.

This was a new version created by gene-editing, though. The compound that made it stinky and poisonous in large doses was suppressed, leaving an oilseed crop that its backers say could help the world transition to a lower-carbon economy via biofuels, as well as meet growing demand for livestock feed.

The group of about 25 people came to survey one of the first large-scale plantings of covercress, the genetically tweaked version of stinkweed, or pennycress.

It is among a handful of crops that could provide alternatives to the world's most widely used oilseeds, soybeans and canola, crushed to produce oil used in cooking and biofuels, plus high-protein meal for pigs and chickens.

"How often is a brand new oilseed introduced?" Brian Engel, director of biofuels at agribusiness giant Bunge Ltd, told Reuters after visiting the field in Arenzville.

"We're going to do everything we can to get that seed crushed and get the oil and meal into the marketplace."

Supplies of soybeans and canola are dwindling rapidly, with not enough produced to keep up with global demand for food and feed products, let alone greener fuels like renewable diesel. Prices have rocketed, contributing to food inflation around the world.

The new candidates, which include carinata and camelina - known as false flax - also represent potential "cover crops", off-season sources of revenue for farmers to help insulate them from market downturns.

"The solution to this feedstock problem is going to come from a whole lot of sources," said Jerry Steiner, executive board chairman at startup CoverCress Inc, which is selling the edited stinkweed and has raised $22 million in funding, including from big players like Bayer AG and Bunge.

The company expects plantings of up to 1,000 acres this fall, swelling up to 3 million acres by 2030, saying gene-editing is more accepted by consumers than genetic modification, which introduces new genes.

LOW-CARBON ECONOMY

But it's early days for the new players.

While demand for oilseeds is rising, it is tough for niche crops to break through as they must meet tough regulatory standards, for biofuels in particular, and be produced at scale to be commercially viable. Scaling up production can take years, requiring financial commitment and risk for both the developers and the farmers who grow the new crops.

Yet the companies behind covercress and carinata spy an opportunity as governments from Canada and California to Europe impose mandates to reduce the carbon-intensity of fuel in an effort to meet stringent climate goals.

Crops like covercress are particularly appealing because they soak up carbon dioxide in the off-season, when fields would otherwise be fallow.

This new reality is putting pressure on refiners to produce fuel from crops instead of fossil fuels and, as a consequence, biofuel demand is forecast to grow exponentially in coming years as more renewable diesel production capacity comes online.

A soaring global appetite for animal feed and vegetable oil has already whittled down stockpiles of soybeans and canola. Farmers say they can't significantly expand plantings because they must rotate crops to keep soils healthy.

Global supplies of soybeans, by far the world's most widely used oilseed, are set to hit a five-year low of 86.5 million tonnes by September, while demand is expected to reach a record high, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Demand from soybean processors that crush it into oil and meal has swelled 45% over the past decade, while production has grown just 37%.

In the United States, demand for soybean oil could outstrip production by up to 8 billion pounds annually within two years if just half the announced refinery expansion projects are completed, according to BMO Capital Markets.

A consequent surge in prices for soybeans and canola has helped drive the United Nation's broader food price index to its highest level since 2014, stinging developing countries.

'IT IS A RARE CROP'

This year, for the first time, Argentine farmer Horacio Merialdo plans to sow carinata, a towering plant crowned with yellow flowers, another new oilseed hoping to make it big.

Merialdo said he would plant carinata in the off-season from growing soybeans, and its deep roots would carve channels that allow rain to seep deep into the soil, and stop weeds flourishing, benefiting the later soybean crops.

He is using seeds supplied by Nuseed, part of Australian agrichemical company Nufarm Ltd, which launched commercial sales last year of carinata in Argentina.

Those plantings are currently less than 100,000 hectares, but the company expects them to double within two years and rise exponentially in subsequent years as it expands production to the United States, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"We experienced the industry repeatedly asking us to go faster, so we've ramped up those plans," said Alex Clayton, Nuseed's business development lead for carinata.

Yet the perils of plowing his own, experimental furrow are not lost on Merialdo.

"The prospects are good but the risk is that it is a rare crop, with a single price maker and a single buyer," said Merialdo, who farms in the Pampas grain-belt town of Suipacha, in Buenos Aires province. "So there is less certainty."

'I CAN'T PRODUCE ENOUGH'

Nuseed currently sells all carinata production to Saipol, France's largest biodiesel producer.

Saipol itself is also working on developing new crops, such as the flowering oilseed camelina, to produce biodiesel alongside the fuel it makes largely from rapeseed, a close cousin of canola, said CEO Christophe Beaunoir.

Unlike some new oilseeds like covercress, which have not previously been cultivated, farmers already grow camelina in small quantities for use in fish rations and in health products for dogs and horses.

Smart Earth Seeds, a Canadian seed developer and producer of camelina oil, said the crop was now catching the demand wave lifting soybean and canola prices, more than tripling the company's sales this year.

"I just can't produce enough," CEO Jack Grushcow said.

REFINERS: CAUTIOUS INTEREST

Yet it is a long road for new hopefuls.

"The trick will be whether we can get enough farmers to be interested and comfortable," CoverCress CEO Mike DeCamp said.

Whole seeds will be sold as poultry feed, with crushing into oil and meal expected to begin in 2025, he added.

Niche crops' use in biofuels is so far limited. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was reviewing one fuel facility's request for approval of carinata as a credit-generating feedstock under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Camelina is already approved.

With production of such oilseeds currently small, refiners are cautious about building plants that rely on them.

Covenant Energy will produce renewable diesel from canola at its planned Saskatchewan refinery, but the facility will also be able to use carinata and camelina, CEO Josh Gustafson said.

Joel MacLeod, CEO of Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure, is planning to produce 3,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel and renewable hydrogen in total at its refinery in Prince George, British Columbia.

"On camelina and carinata, we definitely have an interest," he said. "But we can't have massive swings in our blend, month over month."

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Karl Plume in Arenzville, Illinois; additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Pravin Char)

HPV vaccine shows success in gay, bisexual men

MONASH UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

A study by Monash University and Alfred Health found a 70 per cent reduction in one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) in gay and bisexual men after the implementation of the school-based HPV vaccination program.

The HYPER2 study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and led by Associate Professor Eric Chow, found there was a significant reduction in all four vaccine-preventable genotypes in gay/bisexual men aged 16-20 years following the introduction of the vaccine for boys in 2013.

Australia is one of the first and few countries that have both boys and girls vaccination programs for HPV. The vaccine covers four genotypes: 6/11/16/18. Genotypes 6/11 cause about 90 per cent of the genital wart cases and genotypes 16/18 cause about 70 per cent of cervical and anal cancers.

This is the first study to show that the implementation of the gender-neutral program can reduce high-risk anal HPV and potentially reduce the incidence of anal cancer in gay and bisexual men.

This repeated cross-sectional study recruited 400 gay and bisexual men with a median age of 19 years from sexual health clinics and the community in Melbourne.

The results are compared with the HYPER1 group of 200 gay/bisexual men pre-vaccination in 2010-2012 and the HYPER2 group of 200 gay/bisexual men post-vaccination in 2017-2018.

It showed a reduction in anal quadrivalent genotypes from 28 per cent down to 7.3 per cent and penile quadrivalent genotypes also lower in the post-vaccination group 6.1 per cent compared to 11.9 per cent.

Anal cancer incidence has increased globally among men over the last three decades. It is overrepresented among gay and bisexual men, particularly those living with HIV.

A meta-analysis estimated the incidence of anal cancer to be 45.9 per 100,000 among HIV-positive MSM. Results from the HYPER2 study suggest that male vaccination may lead to a potential reduction in anal cancer among gay and bisexual men in Australia, which is similar to the reduction in cervical cancer among Australian women after the HPV vaccination program launched in 2007.

"Australia has a very successful HPV vaccination program for both boys and girls with high vaccine coverage," Associate Professor Chow said.

"The vaccine is effective in reducing HPV-related diseases and showing some promising evidence that this may lead to a reduction in HPV-related cancer in the future."

###

Read the full paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases titled: Prevalence of human papillomavirus in young men who have sex with men after the implementation of gender-neutral HPV vaccination: a repeated cross-sectional study

DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30687-3

The HPV Vaccine Now Targets the Strains That Are Most Common in Black and Latina Women

Gabrielle Perry 

Editor's Note: We at POPSUGAR recognize that people of many genders and identities, including but not limited to women, may or may not have female sex organs, such as a cervix or vagina. This particular story includes language from experts, government agencies, and studies that generally refer to people with female sex organs as women.

© Pexels / RF._.studio The HPV Vaccine Now Targets the Strains That Are Most Common in Black and Latina Women

It's been roughly two decades since the US launched a nationwide vaccination effort against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that increases the likelihood of developing certain cancers. While the campaign is widely viewed as a success, it has led only to a stagnant reduction in infection rates in the Black and Latinx communities - and not just because, historically, these communities have been more likely to express vaccine hesitancy. The first two vaccines created to slow HPV transmission did not address the strains of the virus that are most common in women who researchers identify as Black or Hispanic, the demographic that is also most likely to be diagnosed with HPV-associated diseases, including cervical cancer.

Young millennials like myself and older members of Gen Z may recall getting Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2, the first vaccines that were developed to curb the spread of HPV. Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 were administered to young people and children as young as 9 years old, and required a two- or three-dose regimen, depending on the person's age at the time of their first dose. However, despite the success of these vaccines following their rollout in 2006, the Black and Latinx communities have continued to experience disproportionate levels of HPV-associated cancers. Thus, the creation of the Gardasil-9 vaccine - the latest HPV vaccine that expands protection against multiple strains of high-risk HPV - is essential in addressing this disparity.

Gardasil-9 is now the primary HPV vaccine in the US and has proven to be nearly 100 percent effective at preventing HPV-associated diseases, especially when administered early in life. But what does this mean for those who were already vaccinated, or are perhaps considering it for the first time? Here's what you need to know to protect yourself and those you care about most.

How Is Gardasil-9 Different From Previous HPV Vaccines?

First, let's talk about the basics. Though most HPV infections resolve on their own within two years of transmission, nearly 80 million Americans are currently living with the virus, with 14 million HPV infections occurring annually. The 37 known strains of HPV are divided into "high-risk" and "low-risk" categories. Low-risk strains are known to carry a lower risk of a person who contracts HPV later being diagnosed with HPV-associated cancers, and their symptoms are typically milder in nature. In contrast, high-risk strains present the highest risk of causing cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, and other types of cancers. Overall, 14 of the 37 strains of HPV are considered high-risk strains, with strains 16 and 18 causing 70 percent of cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.

Despite the Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 vaccines being responsible for massive decreases in HPV and HPV-associated cancers, more recent studies have shown that not all Americans benefited equally. A 2013 study conducted by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine found that white people tend to primarily contract HPV strains 16, 18, 33, 39, and 59, while Black participants in the study carried strains 31, 35, 45, 56, 58, 66, and 68. Moreover, a study published in 2015 by the American Association For Cancer Research found that some of the same strains that affected Black women at higher rates were even more common in Hispanic women living along the Texas-Mexico border.

The original Gardasil, a quadrivalent vaccine, was designed to prevent HPV strains 6, 11, 16, and 18; Cervarix, a bivalent vaccine, only targeted strains 16 and 18. By contrast, Gardasil-9 protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 - widening the net for the communities that are most at risk for HPV-associated cancers.

"I think the original vaccines not covering more high-grade strains is not necessarily a failure of medicine or research. I think it's just a function of how science and discovery go," Ukachi Emeruwa, MD, MPH, an ob-gyn and clinical fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, told POPSUGAR. "Medications and vaccinations should change - not because they were unsafe when they came out, but because we make them available as soon as we find something helpful and then change them to make them even better every time we can."
Who Should Get the Gardasil-9 Vaccine?

Gardasil-9 is recommended for young people ages 11 to 26, as well as adults up to age 45 who, after discussing their risk factors with their doctor, decide that they could benefit from being vaccinated. However, Chinedu Nwabuobi, MD, an ob-gyn at a large health system in Columbus, OH, explained that people who have already received the required doses of the Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2 vaccines are not advised to undergo an additional course with Gardasil-9. I, personally, chose to get the Gardasil-9 vaccine recently at 28 years old, because I never completed my third dose of the HPV vaccine after receiving my first at age 11. I was informed by my own doctor that there's no specific amount of time that needs to pass before you begin your course of Gardasil-9 should you choose to do so.

If you're unvaccinated and still skeptical or hesitant to add the vaccine to your to-do list, know that there are benefits beyond cancer prevention (which is a massive one). "HPV is also associated with genital warts," Dr. Nwabuobi told POPSUGAR. "In addition, management of abnormal pap smears - which may be attributed to high-risk HPV - may include a procedure called a cone biopsy. During this procedure, a portion of your cervix that contains abnormal cells is removed surgically," which may increase your risk for premature delivery if you decide to have a baby later on. "As a maternal-fetal medicine doctor, I deal with preterm birth issues frequently, and prevention of this condition is very paramount whenever possible," Dr. Nwabuobi explained.
How Else Can These Racial Disparities Be Addressed?

Experts generally agree that more work needs to be done to ensure equitable healthcare and public health education for those who are most affected by HPV. The fact that such disparities exist suggests that preventive strategies - including identification of and treatment for precancerous lesions - aren't reaching the Black and Latinx communities the way they should, Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Until we can get to a point in which the way we share knowledge, build trust, and distribute interventions is equitable, I don't see us making a dent in that disparity."

As we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination efforts are futile when a population isn't properly informed about the vaccine and granted equitable access to it. "Ultimately, I think the first step in closing the gaps is for healthcare providers to engage women of color through education and unbiased counseling," Dr. Nwabuobi said, adding that the government can also address these disparities by engaging communities of color with awareness campaigns focused on cervical cancer and by expanding healthcare coverage. It's well-documented within public health research that Black and Latina women are least likely to have health insurance coverage and access to healthcare - and by extension, preventative treatments - due to issues like poverty and systemic and medical racism.

"I think the future of women's health is understanding and respecting that medicine and health do not operate in a vacuum," Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Access to care and infrastructure that promotes healthy behavior, policy, financial resources, discrimination, racism, cultural competency, historical context - all of these and more directly impact any intervention or treatment that we develop. It's not all genetics and biology the way we used to or would want to believe." She continued: "If we want to mend and close the gaps in healthcare, our research and care have to start to investigate women's health through this more holistic lens."

Though a major overhaul is needed within the medical and public health communities, the development of the Gardasil-9 vaccine to specifically address the HPV strains that are most prevalent in Black and Latina women is indicative of an era of healthcare dedicated to addressing both bodily and societal ills.

While that work continues, you should do everything you can to reduce your risk. "Other than getting the HPV vaccine, the best way to lower your chance of getting HPV is to use latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex," Dr. Nwabuobi said, noting that you should also get routine cervical cancer screenings, starting at age 21. In the battle against HPV, it's important to arm yourself with every resource available.

Is Jeff Bezos serious about fighting the climate crisis and how will his $10bn Earth Fund be spent?

World’s richest man putting aside almost one-fifth of his colossal Amazon fortune to support environmental initiatives but has nevertheless attracted criticism

Joe Sommerlad@JoeSommerlad

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of online retail behemoth Amazon, announced the establishment of the Bezos Earth Fund on 17 February 2020, a new philanthropic initiative that would see him hand out $10bn in donations to environmental groups to address the climate crisis.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.

“This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs – any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world. We can save earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organisations, and individuals.”

Mr Bezos said that the $10 billion being put forward was “to start”, implying that the fund might be replenished in future, and, since making the announcement, the richest man on earth’s net worth has ballooned by $64 billion in a year to $177 billion, according to Forbes, the result of the home shopping boom inspired by national lockdowns around the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Given Amazon’s ongoing dominance of global retail, almost single-handedly killing off the traditional high street over the course of its rise and rise, it is hoped that more will be forthcoming when the original amount is spent, which is expected to have come to pass by 2030.
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Mr Bezos announced the first tranche of funding on 16 November, gifting a total of $791 million (about eight per cent of the total) to 16 green groups, the majority “legacy” organisations with a proven track-record like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy.

Those four are understood to have received $100 million each, with the most revealing choice being the first.

The NRDC was until recently led by Gina McCarthy, now serving as the first White House national climate advisor under President Joe Biden, suggesting Mr Bezos is backing political policy-making clout over grassroots technological innovation, at least initially

That approach comes in contrast to Amazon’s own $2 billion climate fund (distinct from Mr Bezos’s personal project) backing initiatives to get more electric vehicles on the road and capturing carbon dioxide emissions or Microsoft investing $1 billion over four years in speculative technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Among the other recipients of Bezos Earth Fund cash are some newer startups like the NDN Collective and the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice and research groups like the Rocky Mountain Institute and World Resources Institute.

The remainder is comprised of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, the ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, the Eden Reforestation Projects, the Energy Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Solutions Project.

“I’ve spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who’ve made it their life’s work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world,” Mr Bezos said in another Instagram post announcing the grantees.

“I’m inspired by what they’re doing, and excited to help them scale.”

As to how the money might be invested, the Environmental Defense Fund – to give one example – told The Verge that the majority of its grant will go towards launching a satellite in 2022 to monitor global methane emissions and building a platform to make that data publicly available.

But Mr Bezos’s gesture has not passed without significant criticism, not least because the amount – though still a remarkable sum and more than welcome when just two per cent of philanthropy goes towards climate causes every year – accounts for just 17.7 per cent of his estimated personal fortune.

“A reminder that Jeff Bezos has made over $48 billion during the pandemic while over 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment,” the Sunrise Movement tweeted on 28 September, before the final extent of his haul from goods sales during the pandemic became known.

“Imagine if he actually had to pay taxes and what that money could help fund.”

The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) has also been highly critical along similar lines.

“He has an opportunity to do so much with the funds that he has provided out there, although I would still consider it chump change compared to the wealth that he has accumulated off the backs of our people,” said Gabriela Mendez, a community organiser with the nonprofit.

The CCAEJ has also attacked Amazon’s own environmental record in southern California where many of its warehouses are located and where there is a significant air pollution problem, which the group has blamed in part on the company’s bustling delivery trucks, calling on it to switch to zero-emissions vehicles (and improve worker conditions while they are at it).

Taking a similarly hardline is the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), which responded to the fund by saying: “No amount of greenwashing will absolve Jeff Bezos or Amazon of the harm they have inflicted on frontline communities and workers, or our planet.
Jeff Bezos
(AFP/Getty)

“If the Earth Fund wants to purport to save the planet, they should send funds directly to grassroots communities who are the least responsible and hardest hit by climate disaster and the kinds of rapacious business practices Bezos engages in.”

In December, the CJA appealed to the beneficiaries of his donations to redirect 10 to 25 per cent of the capital into a pooled fund to be redistributed at a community level.

To appease transparency concerns about the Bezos Earth Fund, the retail magnate announced on 9 March that Dr Andrew Steer, former head of the World Resources Institute, would be serving as its CEO and president.

“The Earth Fund will invest in scientists, NGOs, activists, and the private sector to help drive new technologies, investments, policy change and behaviour,” Dr Steer subsequently wrote on Twitter.

“We will emphasise social justice, as climate change disproportionately hurts poor and marginalised communities.”

CANADA

Over 100 arrests so far at B.C. protests against old-growth logging: RCMP


LAKE COWICHAN, B.C. — Police say 55 people were arrested Tuesday as they enforced a British Columbia court injunction ordering the removal of blockades aimed at preventing old-growth logging on southwestern Vancouver Island.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The RCMP say the protesters who gathered along a forest service road west of Lake Cowichan were given a chance to leave or face arrest, and nine of those taken into custody had been arrested in previous days.

The Mounties say more than 100 people have been arrested since enforcement of the court injunction began last week to allow workers with the Teal-Jones Group to resume logging in that area and in the Fairy Creek watershed to the south, near Port Renfrew.

Sgt. Chris Manseau says police enforcement was initially planned for just one location Tuesday at a camp near Port Renfrew, but some officers were redeployed as protesters gathered along the McClure forest service road.

He says in a statement that arrests were expected to continue there Wednesday.

Activists say very little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C. and Fairy Creek is the last unprotected, intact old-growth valley on southern Vancouver Island.

Teal-Jones has said it plans to harvest about 20 hectares at the north ridge of the 1,200-hectare watershed out of 200 available for harvest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

Ongoing arrests of old growth defenders ignite questions about injunctions

Fourteen people were arrested on Saturday at Caycuse Camp, police say, in one of eight blockades in Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territories. Those present say the day’s arrests amplified concern about the legality of methods used by RCMP officers who are enforcing a court-ordered injunction meant to restrict opposition to logging.

While people have been protesting logging of old growth in what has become widely known as the “Fairy Creek Blockades” since last summer, events escalated after police started enforcing the injunction won by Surrey-based logging company Teal-Jones.

“There were families, Elders, youth, and everyone in between there,” reports xʷ is xʷ čaa, also known as Katie George-Jim, in an Instagram Live video she posted on her account the day following the arrests.

George-Jim was aggressively arrested on Thursday, May 20 and charged with assaulting a police officer and obstructing justice.

She has been vocal about her inherent rights and responsibilities to protect her ancestral lands, while amplifying her uncle Bill Jones’ claims about false authority in who’s green-lighting logging agreements with the Pacheedaht Nation.

While Frank Queesto Jones and Chief Councillor Jeff Jones have been documented for speaking out against the logging protests, Bill Jones has publicly criticized their authority to speak on behalf of his community, calling a public letter released by the men intentionally “contradictory and confusing,” according to a media release statement.

More than 100 people had gathered outside the Caycuse Camp Saturday morning, where police had drawn a line using yellow tape, and parked their vehicles, blocking access to the main site where at least one “tree-sitter” remains installed in an old growth tree, according to sources.

Defenders walked past the line and gathered around the RCMP vehicles, George-Jim says.

“People sat around the RCMP vehicles, sharing love, talking about why we’re all there,” she says. “We were able to start a fire for fish and other traditional foods. There was another fire under the road for the youth and children, set up by an auntie.”

Teal-Jones is the owner of a forest tenure granted by the province of B.C. called Tree Farm Licence 46 (TFL 46), located on Vancouver Island, north of Port Renfrew, north of the San Juan River, southwest of Cowichan Lake.

It is bounded on the south-west in part by Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and is 59,432 hectares in size.

On April 1, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven granted Teal-Jones an injunction banning roadblocks “and other conduct intended to obstruct Teal’s logging activities and the related activities of its contractors.”

“The protesters have serious and passionate concerns about the environment. There is no doubt that climate change is real, and poses a grave threat to humanity’s future … But as I have said, the effect of old growth forest logging on climate change and biodiversity is not before me, and is not for me to say,” Verhoeven stated.

After supporters crossed the temporary exclusion zone line on Saturday around noon, they sat around the RCMP vehicles that were parked, cooking fish and wild meats, says George-Jim. Several hours later, the group got word that more RCMP vehicles were on the way to the site.

IndigiNews spoke with three people who were also present at the event: Elder Rose Henry (who was taken from her Tla’amin Nation community during the Sixties Scoop and has been standing with Indigenous sovereignty movements for years), Ojisto Henhawke from the Mohawk Nation, and Asiyah Robinson.

When the group got word several hours later that more police were on the way, kids were escorted to cars for safety, Henhawke says.

According to multiple witnesses, police showed up, parked their vehicles, formed a line, and started marching towards the group, ushering people back behind the exclusion zone, while also threatening to make — and actually making — arrests.

Witnesses shared concerns about the RCMP officers’ conduct — alleging that they moved the temporary exclusion zone parameters after establishing them, and targeted Indigenous and racialized people, taking them into custody first and letting them out last.

“The rule was that you wouldn’t be arrested if you were external to the exclusion zone,” Robinson tells IndigiNews at the Fairy Creek headquarters the day after the May 22 arrests. “We realized that they had moved this arbitrary line, because they were threatening everybody with arrest.”

One of the first people to get arrested was an Indigenous youth, Robinson says, adding that he was standing next to her when he was grabbed by his arms and legs and carried into a police vehicle.

“I got so frustrated, I got so angry, because there was absolutely no reason,” Robinson says. “We were walking, we were following, we weren’t harassing anyone, and they put their hands on me.”

Officers ushered Robinson back with others, asking about her well-being, while also putting her in an uncomfortable position, she says.

As Robinson and others were pushed back by police and separated from the others, she says officers physically put their hands on her shoulders to usher her back, and asked her “Are you okay little one?” and told her to “Watch out for your friends’ toes.”

But it didn’t come across as genuine concern to her, she says, as what police were saying and doing didn’t align.

“Do not be the reason that I do not have space, that I have high anxiety, and then ask me if I’m okay,” Robinson says. “The road was clear at that point. It was a power move. It had to do with control and abuse of power.”

Robinson says she’d never been approached by so many police and it brought up a lot of feelings around “military police powers who abuse power.”

“It circles back to land. Everything is about the land and all of us are fighting for that, and they understand that and that’s why they’re trying to take it,” she says. “They understand it’s our connection, they understand it’s how we relate to each other, that it’s our family and our food source.”

Robinson says that night, feeling frustrated and terrified, she gathered with a group of supporters outside the Lake Cowichan police detachment to wait for the arrestees to be released.

Aya Clappis, a Nuu-chah-nulth and Somali land defender, posted a live update on Instagram which shows people greeting and embracing people as they’re released from custody.

“Where are the Indigenous youth?” George-Jim can be heard calling out in the video.

“Why were the Indigenous people separated from the white people?”

As documented in the Instagram live video, Indigenous and racialized youth were some of the last to be released.

Claims about the shifting exclusion zone, the targeted arrests and the intimidation tactics used by police were all put to Sgt. Chris Manseau, a spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP.

“I have been told that all 14 that were arrested were inside the temporary access control area, contrary to the court-ordered injunction. I do not believe that any were outside of it,” writes Manseau in an email to IndigiNews on May 25.

“As for the timing of the arrests and releases, those are based purely on circumstances at the time (location, behaviour, etc.),” he says. “I hope that by being open with the media, and inviting them daily to observe the enforcement, they can show what is truly occurring to the public.”

The RCMP’s openness with the media was called into question last week by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).

In a statement, the CAJ calls out the RCMP for continuing “to block, detain and harass journalists as they try to cover the enforcement of injunctions,” and “respectfully calling on courts to limit the powers of the RCMP, and other police agencies, when issuing injunctions.”

All 14 people arrested at the Caycuse site were released without charge, police say.

According to a CBC report, six people were also arrested on May 22 at another blockade called “Waterfall Camp” and two people known as “tree sitters” were taken down by police, according to Manseau.

On May 24, the B.C. RCMP reported that since they began enforcing the injunction, officers have arrested 53 individuals — 46 for breaching the injunction (civil contempt of court) and 7 for obstruction.

Yesterday, police continued to enforce the injunction and attempt to dismantle the blockades, according to independent photographer Mike Graeme, who has been reporting on the ground for weeks.

IndigiNews will be on the ground following the story as it unfolds.

Emilee Gilpin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Discourse

#NODEATHPENALTY

Michigan man exonerated of murder after 32 years in prison

DETROIT (AP) — A man was exonerated Wednesday after 32 years in prison when authorities agreed that he was wrongly convicted of a fatal stabbing in suburban Detroit based on faulty evidence, including a bite mark on the victim.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

For years, Gilbert Poole Jr. had challenged his first-degree murder conviction with expertise from the Innocence Project at WMU-Cooley Law School.

An Oakland County judge dismissed the conviction at the request of the Michigan attorney general's office, clearing the way a few hours later for Poole's release from a prison in Jackson.

“I spent decades learning, reading, studying law, but none of that was working for me,” Poole, 56, said in court. “It wasn’t until I surrendered to a higher power and God stepped in and sent me a band of angels to look past the rules and regulations and looked to see who was standing in the furnace. I was standing in the furnace. I didn’t belong here."

Poole was convicted in the fatal stabbing of Robert Mejia, whose body was found in a Pontiac field.

Poole’s girlfriend told police that he had confessed to her that he met Mejia in a bar and later killed him during a violent robbery attempt. A dentist linked Poole to a bite mark on the victim.

Poole repeatedly denied any role. In 2015, the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered DNA testing of biological material gathered by police in 1988. There was evidence of type A blood at the scene, which didn’t match Mejia’s or Poole’s blood.

“Someone else fought with Robert Mejia in the woods that early morning and someone else killed him,” Assistant Attorney General Robyn Frankel told the judge.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said the county prosecutor’s office, which handled the case in 1988-89, had no objection to vacating Poole’s conviction.

Bite mark evidence “has been widely debunked. It's not reliable anymore,” Nessel said. “Then you have here not just that but the advent of very reliable types of testing such as DNA.”

Poole's lawyer, Marla Mitchell-Cichon of the law school's Innocence Project, said an exoneration seemed out of reach at times.

“But we are thrilled that the truth has finally been established,” she said.

Nessel said Poole will be eligible for a variety of post-prison services, including housing assistance. She didn't address whether he would qualify for $1.6 million under Michigan's wrongful conviction compensation program.

The law grants $50,000 for each year spent in prison if someone is exonerated, typically because of new evidence.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez

Ed White, The Associated Press

It’s All Coming Together for Floating Wind Turbines

Everything’s coming up floating wind turbines. On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced plans to open up the waters off California to wind energy, signalling that the new technology is going to emerge.

© Photo: Jeff J Mitchell (Getty Images) A general view of The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre located in Aberdeen Bay on September 7, 2018 in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Dharna Noor 

“Today’s announcement reflects months of active engagement and dedication between partners who are committed to advancing a clean energy future,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

The proposal allows developers to site commercial-scale offshore wind farms in two locations, one in Morro Bay off central California and another off the coast of Humboldt near the state’s northern coast. Together, the administration said the locations could generate enough electricity to power 1.6 million homes. Remarkably, the scheme received support from the military, which uses California’s coast for testing and operations and has previously dismissed such plans. But though it cleared that major barrier, erecting offshore wind farms in the Pacific could also come with physical difficulties.

Globally, most offshore wind has been constructed in shallow waters where turbines can be attached to the seafloor with concrete or steel. But the underwater topography along the West Coast drops off more quickly, which rules out anchored wind towers. So developers will have to come up with new ways to harness the power of the wind there.

Enter floating wind turbines, which are tethered with cables instead of stiff pilings. To stop them from drifting too far away, chains and weights can be added to anchors which can latch onto the ocean floor. In Wednesday’s announcement, the White House said “new floating offshore wind technology will be deployed in offshore California waters.”

This technology can allow developers to access faster and more consistent wind energy than their more fixed counterparts. It could also increase the world’s capacity to generate wind power since only an estimated 40% of offshore wind resources can be captured with fixed-bottom turbines.

This technology is relatively new. The world’s first floating wind farm started producing power in late 2017 off the coast of Scotland. Since then, roughly 20 more have been brought to fruition, but none are in the U.S. or operating at a commercial scale. Developers in Maine are currently pushing to bring a floating wind farm online, but it’s been a real uphill battle, so California might end up being the first in the nation to deploy this technology.

“While interest from the global industry will be unprecedented, West Coast development requires American ingenuity and innovation in next generation technologies that will create opportunities for engineering firms and skilled labor,” Liz Burdock, president and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said in an emailed statement.

Developers are ready for the floating turbine future. In fact, several have already shown their interest in the region. A coalition including Magellan Wind and Orsted North America is gunning to construct turbines in California waters. And Trident Winds and EnBW North America have proposed a 1,000-megawatt floating farm near Morro Bay, though the companies have encountered opposition from the fishing industry, similar to what’s played out in Maine.

This week during a summit hosted by the Department of Energy, General Electric also announced that its researchers are working on a concept for a 12-megawatt floating farm. If the firm’s models and simulations pan out to provide proof of concept for the project, it may move forward with partners to build a prototype.

The floating wind market is expected to take off in the coming years, and the Biden administration wants to help it along. In a Tuesday statement, the White House said the Department of Energy “has invested more than $100 million in researching, developing, and demonstrating floating offshore wind technology.”

Once the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officially sets aside the areas off the California coast for development and conducts an environmental analysis, the agency plans to auction off leases for the area to developers in mid-2022. If this new technology becomes a reality in the U.S., it could mean California becomes one of the largest global generators of wind power, and bring the U.S. closer to the Biden administration’s goal of reaching 100% no-carbon electricity by 2035.

Antarctic seals are helping scientists learn more about melting glaciers

By Rebecca Cairns, CNN 

Known as the Earth's "thermostat," Antarctica plays a vital role in regulating the planet's complex climate system.

© Courtesy Guilherme A. Bortolotto The team sedate the seal with a blow dart and glue a smartphone-sized device to the fur on the back of its head. When the seal comes to the surface for air, the device transmits the information via satellite.

Scientists are investigating how environmental changes in Antarctica will impact the rest of the world, but the continent's remote location and hostile climate, with winter temperatures that plummet to well below -100°F, make it an incredibly challenging environment for humans.

That's why a team from the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, enlisted the help of some of Antarctica's permanent residents: seals.

The furry, aquatic mammals thrive year-round in the freezing climate and can dive up to 3,000 feet below the water's surface says Lars Boehme, an oceanographer and one of the project's leaders.

© Courtesy James Kirkham Antarctica, the world's fifth largest continent, is home to millions of seals and seabirds.

By fitting the seals with sensors, the researchers gain insight into the seals habits and ecology, while also gathering data from inaccessible parts of the ocean.

Scientists around the world are now drawing on this data to learn more about the Antarctic environment and how it could impact climate change.

Animal assistants

Researchers have been tagging seals since 2004 to gather environmental information from around Antarctica. However, little was known about the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica, where two of the continent's fastest melting glaciers -- Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier -- are located. So in 2014, Boehme led a team to tag seals there.

While six seal species live in Antarctica, only Weddell and southern elephant seals dive into the deeper layers of the ocean -- the main reason these species were chosen for data collection, says Boehme. The seals are hunted by orcas and other seals in the water, but have no land predators, so the scientists can approach them easily. "They're not running away," says Boehme.

© Courtesy James Kirkham Between 1992 and 2017, Antarctica lost around 2.7 trillion tons of ice. West Antarctica, where Pine Glacier and Thwaites Glacier are located, has been particularly badly affected.

The team members sedate the seals with a blow dart and glue a smartphone-sized sensor to the fur on the backs of their heads. The process doesn't hurt the animals or impact their social lives, says Boehme. Seals molt annually, so the device falls off after a year.

Boehme says the team are careful to minimize their interactions with the seals. Tagging up to 14 seals per trip in 2014, 2019, and 2020, the team have got the process down to just 10 minutes per seal he says, and are working to reduce the size of the devices.

Read: Emails from the edge -- Svalbard's polar bears are sending messages to scientists

As the seals swim through the ocean, the device collects information about the depth, temperature, and salinity of the water at different locations. When the seals come to the surface for air, the "data profiles" are transmitted via satellite.

When the project started in 2014, Boehme says there was less than 1,000 data profiles available for the Amundsen Sea area. Now, with the help of the seals, the team has more than 20,000 data points from thousands of locations around Antarctica.

This information is compiled by Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole (MOEP), an international consortium that runs a giant online database. The data is incorporated into daily reports by weather forecasting organizations such as the UK's Met Office and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and is being analyzed by scientists from multiple disciplines.

In hot water

Yixi Zheng, who is undertaking a PhD in environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia, in the UK, has used data collected by seals in the Amundsen Sea in 2014 to investigate melting at Pine Island Glacier.

© Courtesy Lars Boehme The project run by the Seal Mammal Research Unit at St. Andrews University tags Weddell and southern elephant seals.

Previously, it was thought that the "meltwater" that flows out beneath the ice shelf at around 1,470 feet (450 meters) below the surface stays there, in the deep twilight zone of the ocean.

But Zheng's study, published in March this year, found that some meltwater actually rises to the upper sunlight zone of the ocean, around 650 feet (200 meters) below the surface. The meltwater has a unique "fingerprint" that makes it easily traceable in the surrounding seawater, says Zheng: it is nearly 3°C warmer than the water around it and contains less salt.

Moving from the lower to upper zone of the ocean, this warm meltwater causes the surface water's temperature to rise, which leads to more sea ice at the surface melting. The meltwater forms relatively warm lagoons, called polynyas.

While melting ice contributes to rising sea levels, the polynyays do have some environmental benefits, says Zheng.

Rich in nutrients and minerals from the land, the meltwater promotes growth of algae, which absorbs CO2 and attracts tiny creatures like krill, that form the basis the ocean food chain.

Zheng says the exact size and numbers of polynyas is difficult to pin down, but that permanent polynyas are forming in front of Pine Island Glacier, where this data was collected.

Related: Blue Nature Alliance aims to restore 7 million square miles of ocean in five years

Pine Island Glacier, where this data was collected, is one of the fastest melting ice shelves in the region and could be a major contributor to global sea levels rising. Zheng's discoveries about glacial meltwater rising suggest that the rising meltwater could be exacerbating the melting of surface sheet ice. However, Zheng says that more study is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn about its impact of melting at Pine Island Glacier and the climate at large.

Precise predictions

Antarctica boasts 90% of the world's ice and 80% of the planet's freshwater. But since the 1950s, temperatures in Antarctica have increased by 3°C and in February 2020 the continent logged its highest temperature since records began. The rising temperatures are causing rapid ice loss: between 1992 and 2017, the continent lost around 2.7 trillion tons of ice at an accelerating rate.

Scientists know melting ice will have a knock-on effect on the global environment -- but there's a lot of debate and uncertainty about what that will look like. For example, sea levels are expected to rise in the next century due to melting ice in the polar region and sea water expanding as it gets warmer, but estimates range between one to eight feet, depending on the levels of future greenhouse gas emissions.

Using seals to collect data and analyzing it, as Zheng has, can help narrow those predictions, and give scientists a clearer idea of what we're up against, Boehme tells CNN.

"For me, that's the exciting bit: when Yixi started to talk about what she found, then we begin to better understand these processes that might impact the melting of these glaciers," he says.

Undocumented and unvaccinated yet still essential

Dana McLaughlin and Paul Spiegel, opinion contributors 

When the COVID-19 pandemic first swept through the U.S., the public learned of a new labor category: essential workers. These are people who work in low-wage high visibility positions in health care facilities, educational institutions, food production facilities, even grocery stores.

© Getty Images Undocumented and unvaccinated yet still essential

But what we did not learn was that over 5.5 million of the workers in essential industries in the U.S.- one out of every 20 - are undocumented immigrants. And these people - so vital in how our country made it through the pandemic's first year - face difficult if not insurmountable hurdles in getting vaccinated.

Undocumented immigrants have faced immense risks, burdens and obstacles during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S.'s distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine - which has fostered confusion, contributed to vaccine hesitancy and perpetuated health inequities - has not helped. As states continue to accelerate the rollout of vaccines, undocumented immigrants of all races and ethnicities are being systematically overlooked.

If the Biden administration and state governments are committed to reaching herd immunity in the U.S. population by the end of 2021, undocumented individuals must have equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

In February 2021, the Biden administration joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to call for all individuals in the United States and its territories to receive the COVID-19 vaccine irrespective of their legal status. The Biden administration instructed vaccination sites across the country to ensure undocumented migrants are able to receive COVID-19 vaccines, calling their inclusion in vaccine distribution a moral and public health imperative.

Each state, however, sets their own requirements regarding who can be vaccinated and what identification they must show - and enforcement of these regulations vary considerably. Instances of undocumented immigrants being denied access to vaccines in Florida and elsewhere contradicts the Biden administration's promise. We examined the current COVID-19 vaccination plans for the 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that 31 states (62 percent) require individuals to demonstrate that they are either a resident or a worker in the state where they are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Six states require individuals to be residents of the state.

As states continue to require government issued IDs and fail to communicate which documents will be required for undocumented immigrants to receive the vaccine, undocumented immigrants will continue to lag behind.

Tellingly, while the majority of undocumented workers are found in the construction, grocery and food services and agricultural industries, 25 percent of the state COVID-19 vaccination distribution plans have failed to prioritize workers in these industries. Similarly, while individuals who are detained in U.S. prisons and jails have been prioritized in 71 percent of state vaccine plans, immigration detention facilities are absent in all but two state vaccine prioritization plans.

Even in the states where workers in these industries were included in vaccine priority groups, residency requirements, fear of legal repercussions, and uncertainties about what documents must be provided to demonstrate eligibility have continued to hamper vaccinations.

The U.S. must do a better job of prioritizing. The inclusion of undocumented immigrants is fundamental to the overall success of the U.S.'s vaccination effort and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. States leaders must work with immigrant community leaders and organizations and meet their needs. If the 13 million undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the U.S. continue to be excluded and left behind in the vaccination efforts, immigrant communities will continue to bear a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

As states across the country open up access to vaccines to the wider adult population, each state must make a renewed effort to explicitly state what types of identification are necessary to demonstrate eligibility. The CDC should reinforce the Biden administration's commitments by mandating that states cannot require undocumented immigrants to demonstrate citizenship or residency in order to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The pandemic has taught us that our health is inextricably linked to the health of all of our neighbors. Prioritizing undocumented and detained immigrant communities' access to the COVID-19 vaccine should be a priority for state and federal governments alike. Immigrants in detention facilities and undocumented workers in industries such as construction, agriculture and food services should have a spot at the front of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine. Until these essential members of our communities and country are protected from this virus and provided with the resources they need to stay healthy, no state or community will be able to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dana McLaughlin, MPH, is a global health associate at the United Nations Foundation and a research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Humanitarian Health.

Paul Spiegel, MD, MPH, is a professor of the practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health