Pandemic eviction crisis leads to greater tenant protections

By MICHAEL CASEY and BEN FINLEY

Regina Howard poses for a photo in Southfield, Mich., Friday, July 30, 2021. Lakeshore Legal Aid successfully helped Howard receive $24,550 in federal funds to pay for 15 months of rent. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — In a mostly empty conference room at a Virginia cultural arts center, Tara Simmons was looking for someone who might help her stave off eviction.

Simmons, a 44-year-old home health aide who lives with her two children and two grandchildren, was only a month behind on her rent. But that didn’t stop her landlord from ordering her out of the house by Saturday, when the federal eviction moratorium ended.

Already enduring health problems, Simmons said she feared she would be out on the street.

“I’ve been in my house for four years now. And two months before my lease was up, I get an email saying that they weren’t renewing my lease,” said Simmons of Newport News, Virginia. “That’s it. No explanation why or whatever.”

“I’ve been trying to find somewhere to move since I got that. I still haven’t been able to find a way to move because of the economy. ... This pandemic is hard.”

As a state lawmaker made a few remarks and others grabbed free lunch, Simmons connected with attorneys from the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia. They advised her that her landlord needed a court order to get her out. She was safe for now.

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The Virginia event in late July is part of a growing national movement — bolstered by tens of billions of dollars in federal rental assistance — to find ways to keep millions of at-risk tenants hurt by the coronavirus pandemic in their homes.

The push has the potential to reshape a system long skewed in favor of landlords that has resulted in about 3.7 million evictions a year — about seven every minute — according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Many are Black and Latino families.

“This is an opportunity not to go back to normal, because for so many renters around the country, normal is broken,” Matthew Desmond, author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on evictions and the principal investigator at the Eviction Lab, told a White House conference on the issue.

“This is a chance to reinvent how we adjudicate and address the eviction crisis in a way ... that works for tenants and property owners better than the status quo, in a way that clearly invests in homes and families and communities, with the recognition that without stable shelter, everything else falls apart.”

Housing advocates have mostly attacked the problem from two directions.

Some teamed up with lawmakers and court administrators to launch programs to resolve eviction cases before they reach the courts. Others focused on state and local tenant protection legislation, including sealing eviction records and ensuring tenants get lawyers. Having an eviction record can make it impossible to find a new apartment, while the right to counsel evens the playing field, since most landlords, but not tenants, come to court with a lawyer.

Many of the ideas have been around for years. But the scope of the eviction crisis during the pandemic, the historic amount of federal rental assistance available and the eviction moratorium changed the calculus. Politicians from areas that rarely see evictions were hearing from anxious constituents and craved a solution. Landlords were more willing to participate in the programs because evicting tenants became a challenge.

“The pandemic, at least here in Baltimore, has created a sense of urgency around creating some forms of tenant protection,” said Carisa Hatfield, a housing attorney for the Homeless Persons Representation Project, noting Baltimore passed a bill last year guaranteeing tenants the right to counsel and the state adopted a similar measure this year. The city also temporarily barred rent increases during the pandemic and banned late fees.

“The politicians saw the same urgency we did,” she said. “It afforded the opportunity to have a conversation with politicians about the very real problems around evictions, the very real implications for families around being evicted.”

In Colorado, state Sen. Julie Gonzales said the widespread eviction threat encouraged legislators to pass several bills this year, including a grace period for late fees and limits on what fees can be imposed. Tenants also can withhold payment for problems like utilities being shut off or mold, and present that as a defense in court. Another bill that passed gives evicted tenants 10 days, rather than 48 hours, to find new housing.

“We realized that it wasn’t just an urban thing, that rural Coloradans, mountain towns were struggling with people unable to pay their rent,” Gonzales said.

According to the Urban Institute, 47 state and local programs nationwide now offer some mix of legal help, a housing counselor and mediation between landlord and tenant.

Some, like Texas, Michigan and Massachusetts, offer statewide programs, while others, including Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Pinellas County, Florida, launched their own initiatives. Even states not usually associated with evictions, like New Hampshire and Montana, offer programs.

In Philadelphia, the City Council passed a series of bills last year that include requiring landlords to participate in a city eviction diversion program if the tenant was affected by the pandemic. Then in April, the courts mandated that landlords attend the program before filing an eviction.

“This is a fundamentally important change to the way Philadelphia approaches evictions,” said Rachel Garland, managing attorney at the housing unit of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia.

“Rental assistance and diversion prioritizes the economic health of landlords and complete health and well-being of tenants in a way that resolves situations so landlords get paid, issues get resolved and tenants are able to stay in their homes,” she said.

“Even though it was created in response to the pandemic, its importance will long outlive the pandemic and will hopefully become a permanent fixture in Philadelphia.”

A pilot mediation program in two New Hampshire cities this year was driven in part by concerns that courts would be inundated by eviction cases. The program’s success has the court requesting $750,000 from the state to expand mediation efforts statewide.

“If we can get parties together and either get the case resolved or get them to this emergency funding, I’m saying it’s a win-win-win,” said David King, the administrative judge of New Hampshire Circuit Court, which handles landlord-tenant matters.

“It’s a win for the landlord, who gets paid. It’s a win for the tenant, who gets to stay, and, selfishly, it’s a win for the courts because that is one less case we have to process.”

The right to counsel, too, has spread.

John Pollock, coordinator for the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel in Baltimore, said Washington state, Connecticut and Maryland have passed right-to-counsel laws. Ten cities have approved measures, including Seattle, Cleveland and Louisville. Milwaukee County set aside money to provide low-income tenants with lawyers.

So far, the initiatives are proving successful.

Some 75% of the 1,788 tenants participating in a Philadelphia program have remained housed, according to the city. In New York, 86% of tenants who had lawyers were able to remain in their homes. Cleveland, which saw legal representation increase from 2% to 19% after the law went into effect last year, said all tenants who wanted rental help have gotten it and 93% who wanted to avert evictions were successful.

A program in Michigan last year resulted in 97% of tenants remaining housed, according to a study from the University of Michigan, the state and Legal Services of South Michigan.

Among them is Regina Howard, a 53-year-old disabled veteran from Southfield who faced eviction last year from the $1,600-a-month house she shares with her husband and grandson. She turned to the state’s eviction diversion program, where she was connected with free legal services. From there, Lakeshore Legal Aid helped her get $24,550 in federal funds to pay for 15 months of rent.

“I was feeling hopeless that there was no help out there. Now I feel better,” Howard said. “You could tell they really wanted to help.”

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Casey reported from Boston.

MTV marks 40th anniversary with a new ‘Moon Person’ design

In this Aug. 20, 2018, file photo, an MTV statue appears on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York. MTV is marking its 40th anniversary with a relaunch of its iconic image of an astronaut on the moon, with an MTV flag planted nearby. On Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021 the video channel unveiled a large scale “Moon Person" during a ceremony at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

MTV is marking its 40th anniversary with a relaunch of its iconic image of an astronaut on the moon, with an MTV flag planted nearby.

On Sunday, the media network unveiled a large scale “Moon Person” during a ceremony at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The new design was inspired by a Moon Person image created this year by Kehinde Wiley, who painted the portrait of former President Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. In an interview this week with The Associated Press, MTV Entertainment President and CEO Chris McCarthy said that the image of space travel fit well with the spirit of its young audience.

“This is our third generation that we’re reinventing for. Gen Z is by far one of the most interesting, incredibly creative and optimistic generations,” he said. “And so we thought, “Let’s go back to the origins and do it with NASA, but really do it about the next frontier, which represents generation Z and really represents a beautiful moon person that Kehinde built and where we’re going to be heading next.’

NASA footage of the historic Apollo 11 landing in 1969, with the MTV flag added to the mix, were the first images to appear on MTV back on August 1, 1981, and the first video was the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.” MTV vastly expanded the power of visual images in the music industry and has since broadly expanded its reach, broadcasting worldwide and adding such influential channels and programs as VH1, Comedy Central and the early reality show “The Real World.”




After fans, reviewers, music industry leaders and such artists as David Bowie criticized the channel for airing videos of virtually only white performers in its first years, MTV began playing more Michael Jackson and other Black artists who proved highly popular. The hip-hop program “Yo! MTV Raps,” which debuted in the U.S. in 1988, was lauded for highlighting a subculture which eventually became mass culture.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say that we made mistakes along the way. One of the bigger mistakes in the early years was not playing enough diverse music,” McCarthy said. “So we certainly have had our bumps in the road and made some mistakes. But the nice thing that I’ve always learned at MTV is we have no problem owning our mistakes, quickly correcting them and trying to do the right thing and always follow where the audience is going.”

MTV now has a vast presence on social media, with more than 700 million followers of MTV Entertainment.

“We launched as a video channel on what was the new medium of the time in 1981, which, hard to believe, that was cable,” McCarthy said. “I think the fun and interesting thing about MTV ... is to constantly have to blow yourself up and forget everything you knew in order for us to recreate a brand new entity for each generation.”

  

North Korea showed ICBM launch in brief video, report says

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un (C-R) has pledged to build a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. File Photo by KCNA/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- North Korea released video footage of an intercontinental ballistic missile launch but the image may have been manipulated, according to a South Korean press report.

Display of North Korean missile capability comes as barges that handle North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missiles are returning to the center of activity.


Pyongyang's Korea Central Television recently aired a program showing the takeoff of the Hwasong-15, a long-range missile. The brief segment was included in a report on a concert for military officials, Yonhap reported Monday.

North Korean state media on Friday showed the missile being launched while producing a plume of exhaust. A road-mobile launcher used in transporting the weapon is not visible in the video, according to Yonhap.

The Kim Jong Un regime launched the Hwasong-15 on Nov. 29, 2017. North Korea used a road-mobile launcher at the time to transport the missile to a launch pad. The footage released Friday may have not shown the same weapon deployed in 2017, and if the Hwasong-15 was tested after 2017, it likely would have been detected in the South, according to Yonhap.

Pyongyang also may not have the capability to launch ICBMs from a road-mobile launcher, which would enable the regime to fire faster and launch a surprise attack, reducing reaction time.

In November 2019, South Korea's Defense Intelligence Agency said that the North likely did not have the ability launch ICBMs from transporter erector launchers.

North Korea reopened a communication hotline with the South last week, but Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong on Sunday warned Seoul against "premature, hasty judgment" about a potential inter-Korean summit. Kim also pressed Seoul to suspend joint exercises with the United States

Satellite imagery shows North Korea has not stopped preparing barges used in submarine-launched ballistic missile preparations.

Analyst Peter Makowsky said in an analysis on 38 North that activity around test barges "appears to have been for either maintenance or a possible refitting to prepare the barges for handling a new generation of submarine-launched ballistic missiles."

WOKE OLYMPICS

At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound
By SALLY HO

1 of 6


TOKYO (AP) — A surfer jumping in to translate for the rival who’d just beaten him. High-jumping friends agreeing to share a gold medal rather than move to a tiebreaker. Two runners falling in a tangle of legs, then helping each other to the finish line.

In an extraordinary Olympic Games where mental health has been front and center, acts of kindness are everywhere. The world’s most competitive athletes have been captured showing gentleness and warmth to one another — celebrating, pep-talking, wiping away one another’s tears of disappointment.

Kanoa Igarashi of Japan was disappointed when he lost to Brazilian Italo Ferreira in their sport’s Olympic debut.

Not only did he blow his shot at gold on the beach he grew up surfing, he was also being taunted online by racist Brazilian trolls.

The Japanese-American surfer could have stewed in silence, but he instead deployed his knowledge of Portuguese, helping to translate a press conference question for Ferreira on the world stage.

The crowd giggled hearing the cross-rival translation and an official thanked the silver medalist for the assist.

“Yes, thank you, Kanoa,” said a beaming Ferreira, who is learning English.

Days later, at the Olympic Stadium, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar found themselves in a situation they’d talked about but never experienced — they were tied.

Both high jumpers were perfect until the bar was set to the Olympic-record height of 2.39 meters (7 feet, 10 inches). Each missed three times.

o, Gianmarco Tamberi, of Italy, embraces fellow gold medalist Mutaz Barshim, of Qatar,. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

They could have gone to a jump-off, but instead decided to share the gold.

“I know for a fact that for the performance I did, I deserve that gold. He did the same thing, so I know he deserved that gold,” Barshim said. “This is beyond sport. This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”

After they decided, Tamberi slapped Barshim’s hand and jumped into his arms.

“Sharing with a friend is even more beautiful,” Tamberi said. “It was just magical.”

Earlier, on the same track, runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nijel Amos of Botswana got tangled and fell during the 800-meter semifinals. Rather than get angry, they helped each other to their feet, put their arms around each other and finished together.

Many top athletes come to know each other personally from their time on the road, which can feel long, concentrated, and intense — marked by career moments that may be the best or worst of their lives.

Those feelings have often been amplified at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games, where there is an unmistakable yearning for normalcy and, perhaps, a newfound appreciation for seeing familiar faces.

Restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have meant Olympians can’t mingle the way they normally do.

After a hard-fought, three-set victory in the beach volleyball round-robin final on Saturday at Shiokaze Park, Brazilian Rebecca Cavalcanti playfully poured a bottle of water on American Kelly Claes’ back as she did postgame interviews.

The U.S. team had just defeated Brazil but the winners laughed it off, explaining that they’re friends.

“I’m excited when quarantine’s done so we can sit at the same table and go to dinner with them. But it’s kind of hard in a bubble because we have to be away,” said Sarah Sponcil, Claes’ teammate.

For fellow American Carissa Moore, the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions brought her closer with the other surfers.

The reigning world champion said she typically travels to surfing competitions with her husband and father. But all fans were banned this year, and Moore admitted she struggled without their reassuring presence in the initial days of the Games.

Moore had flown to Japan with the U.S. team 10 days before the first heat, and soon adjusted to living in a home with the other surfers, including Caroline Marks, whom Moore considered the woman to beat.

Moore said she didn’t know Marks well before the Tokyo Games but on the night she was crowned the winner and Marks came in fourth, her rival was the first to greet her.

“Having the USA Surf team with me, it’s been such a beautiful experience to bond with them,” Moore said. “I feel like I have a whole another family after the last two weeks.”

After the punishing women’s triathlon last week in Tokyo, Norwegian Lotte Miller, who placed 24th, took a moment to give a pep talk to Belgium’s Claire Michel, who was inconsolable and slumped on the ground, sobbing.

Michel had come in last, 15 minutes behind winner Flora Duffy of Bermuda — but at least she finished. Fifty-four athletes started the race but 20 were either lapped or dropped out.

“You’re a (expletive) fighter,” Miller told Michel. “This is Olympic spirit, and you’ve got it 100%.”

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Associated Press reporters Pat Graham, Jimmy Golen and Jim Vertuno contributed.

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Follow Sally Ho on Twitter at http://twitter.com/_sallyho

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Democrats increase pressure on party leadership to act on eviction moratorium as White House shifts focus to federal aid

By Devan Cole and Kevin Liptak, CNN 


Congressional Democrats are increasing pressure on their party's leadership to act on the now-expired federal eviction moratorium as the White House shifts its focus to unspent housing assistance after the order ended and left millions of renters in limbo.

BOSTON - MARCH 14: People and students from Worker's Circle of Boston and members of City Life Vida Urbana protest to rally support behind house bill HD3030, which seeks to stop evictions during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on March 14, 2021. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The eviction issue has exposed a major and rare disconnect between President Joe Biden and his party on Capitol Hill that appeared no closer to resolution Sunday night nearly a day after the eviction moratorium expired. Each side privately accused the other of misreading the situation, but the resulting agony for tenants facing potential removal from their homes amounted to a serious failure in governance.

House Democratic leaders on Sunday night pressured the Biden administration to renew the eviction moratorium, calling the action "a moral imperative to keep people from being put out on the street which also contributes to the public health emergency," according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip James Clyburn and Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark. But, as CNN has previously reported, the White House's legal team no longer believes the administration has the authority to renew the moratorium after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in a June opinion that he was only upholding the last extension because it would expire on July 31.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier Sunday pointed to members of her own party when asked who was to blame for not extending the nationwide order.

"There was, frankly, a handful of conservative Democrats in the House that threatened to get on planes rather than hold this vote (on extending the moratorium). And we have to really just call a spade a spade. We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority," the progressive New York congresswoman told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," adding that the Biden administration is partially to blame as the White House "waited until the day before the House adjourned to release a statement asking on Congress to extend the moratorium."

The comments from Ocasio-Cortez came hours after Pelosi sought to blame Republicans for allowing the moratorium to expire, with the California Democrat saying in a tweet late Saturday that in "an act of pure cruelty, Republicans blocked this measure -- leaving children and families out on the streets."

While the GOP blocked passing an extension of the legislation by unanimous consent on Friday, Democrats -- heeding a last-minute call from Biden to extend the freeze -- didn't have the votes in their own caucus to pass the bill either. As a result, the order put in place by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last fall to help stop the spread of Covid-19 expired, and officials are now scrambling to fix the issue, which could affect the estimated 11.4 million adult renters who are behind on rent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Money left unspent

Now, the expiration of the nationwide freeze on evictions has led to new urgency within the administration to distribute billions in unspent housing assistance dollars that was approved by Congress earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Sunday. Top House Democrats on Sunday night also called for the unused rental relief funds to be spent.

"The real issue here is how to get money out to renters who, through no fault of their own, are behind on their rent, to help landlords keep those renters in their home, which is a win-win," Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, said on "Fox News Sunday."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg similarly said the unspent money needs to be tapped into, telling ABC News that "we need to get this emergency assistance out to people so they can stay in their homes."

Some White House officials made a late-stage push last week to reexamine the legal potential for Biden to extend the moratorium, but were told by administration lawyers it wasn't possible, according to people familiar with the deliberations. But administration lawyers and other senior advisers were clear that challenging a Supreme Court ruling from June would put them on shaky legal ground, and risk the potential of a more harmful ruling limiting the administration's ability to enact other emergency public health rules.

Gene Sperling, who is responsible for implementing the pandemic relief efforts, has pushed for months to get the housing assistance to tenants and landlords, but so far only a small percentage of the $47 billion program has been disbursed.

Over the course of the past few weeks, Sperling worked with Treasury Department officials to make getting the aid out easier, including attempts to coordinate with state governments and making the application process easier. But federal officials said they met resistance from some state governments, who they said had been unhelpful in getting the money to renters.

"All that money is there. The states have the tools, the localities have the tools and there's no excuse, they need to move the money to the renters and the landlords immediately," Deese said, adding the administration was providing technical assistance to help the money flow more quickly.


Democrats protest

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told Tapper in a separate interview on Sunday that he would support extending the moratorium to distribute the already allocated funds.

"Let's fix that and make sure that we're able to use the money for the purpose it was appropriated for," he said.

But first House Democrats would need to return to Capitol Hill to advance a provision for Senate consideration.

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush is among some members of her party urging lawmakers to return to Washington to take action on the issue. Hours before the eviction moratorium deadline on Saturday, the Missouri congresswoman and a growing number of lawmakers and her supporters remained on the US Capitol steps, where Bush had slept overnight in an effort to appeal to her colleagues to extend the moratorium.

"How can we go vacation? No, we need to come back here," she told told CNN's Jessica Dean on "Newsroom" Saturday.

Bush, who had been unhoused and evicted before she joined Congress, said Saturday that she had been in communication with House leadership but hadn't received any assurances that an extension would be passed.

Ocasio-Cortez similarly urged her colleagues to return to Washington to act on the order, telling Tapper on Sunday: "The fact of the matter is that the problem is here, the House should reconvene and call this vote and extend the moratorium."

"One out of every six renters at risk of being kicked out of their home is worth coming back (for) ... We cannot leave town without doing our job," she said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Allianz cooperating as DOJ probes Structured Alpha Funds


FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice has begun an investigation relating to Allianz Global Investors' Structured Alpha Funds, following litigation pending in U.S. courts on the matter, German insurer Allianz said on Sunday.

© Reuters/Charles Platiau

 The logo of insurer Allianz SE is seen on the company building in Puteaux at the financial and business district of La Defense near Paris

Pension funds for truck drivers, teachers and subway workers have lodged lawsuits in the United States against Allianz Global Investors, one of the world’s top asset managers, for failing to safeguard their investments during financial market instability during the coronavirus pandemic.


Market panic around the virus resulted in billions of dollars in losses last year, hitting many investors, but no other top-tier asset manager is facing such a large number of lawsuits in the United States connected to the turbulence.

Allianz said that its Allianz Global Investors unit has received a voluntary request for documents and information from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and that Allianz is fully cooperating with the DOJ as well as with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Allianz' management has reassessed the matter and come to the conclusion that there is a relevant risk that the Structured Alpha Funds issue could materially impact future financial results of Allianz, it added.

For now, it was not feasible to reliably estimate the amount of any possible resolution including potential fines and no provision has been recognised at the current stage, the insurer said.

The U.S. lawsuits allege that Allianz Global Investors, in its Structured Alpha family of funds, strayed from a strategy of using options to protect against a short-term financial market crash.

Last year, Allianz was forced to shut two private hedge funds after severe losses, prompting the wave of litigation which the company has said is "legally and factually flawed".

Together, the various suits filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York claim investors lost a total of around $4 billion.

(Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Susan Fenton)

India's stray dogs are being locked out by a US ban on adoptions

By Anagha Subhash Nair, CNN 


When Jill Trail first met Pihu, a frail 6-week old puppy, in India she knew she needed her care. Living on the streets, Pihu had suffered spinal injuries and infections so bad that both hind legs had to be amputated.

© Kannan Animal Welfare Pihu in her wheelchair.

There was one problem: Trail lived in the United States.

She decided that didn't matter. So, last year she worked with non-government organizations to bring the puppy to the US and ultimately adopted her. Today, Pihu is a healthy, wheelchair-bound puppy with a loving home.

"People say to me all the time, 'God bless you for taking a dog like that,'" says Trail. "But I'm the lucky one. There's no sacrifice on my part. Pihu is just so inspirational and packed with personality."

But since July 14 this year, similar rescue tales are no longer possible. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a temporary suspension, with no set duration, on importing dogs from over 100 countries -- including India.

The CDC says the ban is necessary to reduce the risk of rabies following a spate of falsified rabies vaccination certificates. But the move is a problem for charities across India like Kannan Animal Welfare (KAW), which often helps find overseas homes for India's stray dogs -- including Pihu.

It can be hard to find a suitable home for stray dogs in India. Many are physically and mentally disabled after suffering trauma and abuse and need a carer committed to their rehabilitation.

KAW's founder, Vandana Anchalia, says in India stray dogs are perceived to be dirty, unattractive and difficult to train -- and most Indians prefer to adopt pedigrees.

NGOs worry the restrictions could mean fewer dogs make it to safety -- and many more will be left languishing on India's streets.

Sending dogs abroad

Anchalia founded KAW in 2015 after learning more about the cruelties faced by India's estimated 60 million street dogs.

KAW was started as a rehabilitation center for stray dogs that were offered for local adoption after treatment. Soon, Anchalia and her team discovered that these dogs, many of whom were physically disfigured or disabled, had a better chance of finding a home abroad

.

© Ashley Nicole Patterson Jill Trail with her dog, Pihu, a double amputee whom KAW rescued from the streets.

In the past six years, KAW has sent about 115 rescued street dogs to the US, in partnership with US-based NGOs Operation Paws for Homes and Twenty Paws Rescue. These US-based organizations determine which dogs are the right fit, then KAW sends the dogs by cargo or with a flight volunteer to the shelters, where they are adopted.

"We have to (send dogs abroad) to maintain (lower) numbers at the shelter ... if we don't ... we can't admit new dogs. We can't overcrowd our shelter," says Anchalia.

Peedu's People, an NGO registered in Texas and Punjab, has sent close to 90 dogs with special needs to the US over the past five years. Most dogs are included in its "street foster" program where dogs are vaccinated, sterilized and monitored by a resident who feeds them

.

© Kannan Animal Welfare An employee at KAW interacts with rescued strays at the KAW shelter.

When dogs are injured too badly to survive independently on the streets, Peedu's People tries to rehome them abroad -- something they can't do under the new CDC rules.

The organization already has a "backlog of puppies who need to go overseas, because they have no chance of surviving on the roads in India," says founder Inder Sandhu.

Deb Jarrett, founder of Dharamsala Animal Rescue (DAR), based in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, says it costs around $3,000 to send a dog to the US for adoption, paid for by the charity or the adopter.

Sandhu says the ubiquity of these street dogs had desensitized many Indians to their plight.

"It's easy for people in the US to find a dog, but they connect to the story of an Indian dog," he says. "It's not that Indians are not compassionate, it's just that we've seen so much of it that there's an apathy we have towards these animals."


The difficulty of adopting a street dog

Life on the street comes with health risks -- and that's exactly what US authorities are worried about.

Abi T. Vanak, an ecologist at India-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) says in addition to human-related dangers, such as being run over by a car or abuse, these dogs are at risk of catching many diseases, including canine distemper, worms, mange and scabies.

 Dharamsala Animal Rescue A stray dog afflicted with maggot wounds, rescued from the streets by Dharamsala Animal Rescue.

Dave Daigle, associate director for communication from CDC's Center for Global Health, says the temporary ban is due to a 50% increase in the number of dogs denied entry into the United States in 2020, compared to previous years. A significant number of these entry denials were for dogs with falsified rabies vaccination certificates, which "puts the US at risk of importing a dog that is not adequately protected against rabies."

© The Voice of Stray Dogs Rakesh Shukla at the VOSD sanctuary with a few of his dogs.

That comes with a huge potential price tag for the US. Daigle estimates that for each rabid dog imported, it could cost over half a million US dollars to contain the spread of canine rabies among the public.

Rabies is spread by dog bites and causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. The disease kills around 20,000 people in India each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), accounting for 36% of all global rabies deaths.

The WHO says a number of rabies cases go unreported, so the figures could be higher.

DAR's Jarrett says misinformation surrounding rabies, especially in rural parts of India, makes it difficult to contain the disease. She has come across a plethora of "cures" for dog bites, ranging from "applying turmeric and chilli on the bite to drinking holy water to performing a few good deeds."

Under the new rules, some dogs are allowed into the US -- but not for adoption or the transfer of ownership. Owners must apply for a permit, and individuals can only import three dogs at a time. Dogs must be microchipped and have a rabies test a minimum of 30 days after being vaccinated against rabies, and 90 days before their arrival to the US.


What is India doing at home?

With a temporary ban on sending dogs to India, addressing the country's street dog problem needs to happen at home.

After two people requested police protection for feeding stray dogs because they were being threatened by other locals for doing so, the Delhi High Court ruled on July 1 that street dogs have a right to be fed -- and that citizens have a right to feed them.

Some animal lovers welcomed the ruling, as it would prevent dogs from starving. Others expressed concern that feeding these dogs could encourage them to gather at food sources, where they could become territorial and aggressive.

Anchalia believes that while the High Court ruling was a step in the right direction, it is also important for citizens to take responsibility for the dogs they feed.

"People may feel good about feeding many dogs, but if the dog population is increasing, and puppies are just dying on the street, it is not a solution," she says. "The way to help is to feed the dog, vaccinate it and sterilize it."

The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), set up by the Indian government as an advisory body, has undertaken animal birth control (ABC) programs to sterilize street dogs, as well as campaigns to vaccinate dogs against rabies. There are no official statistics on the number of dogs that have been sterilized as part of ABC, and the AWBI did not respond to requests for comment.

But Vanak says current programs don't match up to the scale of the stray dog problem in India. He believes a more permanent solution would be to redirect the resources invested in ABC programs to expanding animal shelters for dogs.

"Dogs on the streets have very poor welfare outcomes. Proper welfare of animals, especially domestic animals, is best guaranteed under human supervision or under human care," he says.

Voice of Stray Dogs (VOSD) is an animal welfare organization that has rehabilitated over 8,000 stray dogs since its inauguration in 2013. Its crown jewel is a dog sanctuary in Bangalore that is home to over 800 dogs.

"It may not make sense financially, but it makes sense to me, and it always makes sense to us (VOSD)," says Rakesh Shukla, founder of VOSD, about taking in dogs with severe physical injuries. "We have a clear policy of not saying no to any dog, and we will never refuse a dog and we will never put down a dog because we don't have enough space or money."

Vanak, however, believes that India needs fewer quick fixes and more systemic solutions.

"The dog problem requires a reimagination of our relationship with dogs," he says. "You need better education for people to take good care of their dogs, and to view them as a valuable part of the landscape."

Prior to the onset of Covid-19, DAR ran an education program in schools in Dharamsala, where children were taught how to be kind to street dogs and avoid conflict with them.

Anchalia believes the ban on the export of Indian dogs to the US may be the push needed to help change Indian attitudes and encourage local adoptions. She says the slow-paced life associated with the Covid-19 lockdown in India has opened people's eyes to the rampancy of animal cruelty and the problems associated with stray dogs.

Anchalia believes this newfound awareness, coupled with measures to change the younger generation's perception of free-roaming dogs, may offer some redemption for India's neglected canines.

"The bigger responsibility lies on us," she says. "The solution lies in all of us coming together and working for these dogs."

PROPERTY IS THEFT

New Zealand housing crisis sparks human rights inquiry

HOUSING IS A RIGHT

By Praveen Menon 9 hrs ago

© Reuters/PRAVEEN MENON FILE PHOTO:

 A view of personal items of a homeless person living on the sides of busy streets in Wellington

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand's housing crisis is having a "punishing impact" on marginalised communities and leaving many people homeless, the human rights commission said on Monday as it launched an inquiry into the country's red-hot property market.

A raft of cooling measures enforced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern earlier this year has had no impact on runaway house prices in New Zealand, as investors cashed in on historically low interest rates and cheap access to capital under the government's pandemic-inspired stimulus spending.

Property prices in New Zealand have soared by the most among OECD nations, rising about 30% in just the past 12 months.

"The housing crisis in Aotearoa is also a human rights crisis encompassing homeownership, market renting, state housing and homelessness," New Zealand's Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt said in a statement using the country's indigenous Maori name.

"It is having a punishing impact especially on the most marginalised in our communities," he said.

New Zealand's pandemic-inspired policies have translated into cheaper mortgages, allowing affluent "kiwis" to upsize their homes and build up portfolios of rental investment properties, fuelling a further surge in house prices.

The nearly 30% year-on-year increase, on top of a 90% rise in the preceding decade, has locked out first home buyers and low income earners.

"The right to a decent home, although binding on New Zealand in international law, is almost invisible and unknown in Aotearoa,” he said.

The median house price in the biggest city Auckland has increased by 25% to NZ$1,150,000 ($801,320) in June this year from NZ$920,000 last year.

UNDER PRESSURE

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Leilani Farha, said in her report in June that consecutive governments have failed to ensure that the housing market meets the needs of the people.

Soaring prices and rents have forced families into emergency housing like motels, with about 23,000 individuals and families waiting for public housing.

Under pressure Ardern launched a raft of measures this year to tax investors and discourage speculators, but these have had only a marginal impact.

The rising inequality inflamed by the housing crisis is arguably the biggest political challenge facing Ardern's centre-left Labour-led government. The 41-year-old's popularity soared with her response to the pandemic that kept nationwide cases to barely 2,500 and led to an emphatic election win last year.

But her support has been slipping with the latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll on Sunday showing Labour's support fell to 43%, down almost 10 points since the last poll in May, while the main opposition National Party's support inched up to almost 29%.

Ardern defended her government's record on housing saying it was pulling every lever to ensure everyone gets a warm, dry home.

“When I look at the record of what we’ve done, 8,000 houses to date, 18,000 on the cards. We are scaling up as quickly as we can," Ardern told state broadcaster TVNZ in a interview after the inquiry was announced.

($1 = 1.4351 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Michael Perry)

Rare summer waterspout potential spins up on the Great Lakes

Nathan Howes

1/8/2021

While waterspouts are a common sight on the Great Lakes in the fall, a considerable threat for them is unfolding on Sunday.

The setup for waterspouts Sunday is particularly suited over lakes Huron and Erie, thanks to an upper-level low pulling in ample amounts of cold air aloft. The framework is seen more often in the fall and is not that typical during the summer months.

SEE ALSO: New world record smashes previous record, 232 waterspouts over the Great Lakes

© Provided by The Weather Network

Mark Robinson, Storm Hunter and meteorologist at The Weather Network, said when there is relatively warm lakes and cold air aloft, these ingredients can facilitate the development of cumulus clouds “quite quickly.”

Combined with the right amount of surface shear and wind, these conditions can become conducive for waterspout development.

“That normally happens in the fall. We don’t normally get this cold air aloft at this time of the year. So we’re just a little bit early, and that’s what making this event kind of interesting,” said Robinson.

The International Centre for Waterspout Research (ICWR) released its forecast, noting that waterspouts can be associated with any shower or thunderstorm Sunday. It highlighted the potential is greatest on southern Lake Huron and eastern Lake Erie. It has already confirmed more than 40 waterspouts/funnels from Sunday morning, with photos posted by users on social media.

There are waterspout watches in effect for southern Lake Huron, and eastern and western Lake Erie.

A waterspout is a non-supercell tornado that forms beneath a rapidly growing cumulus cloud. While 'spouts usually dissipate over the water, they may occasionally come ashore as a weak landspout tornado. When that occurs, a tornado warning is normally issued for the area

.

© Provided by The Weather Network

 Provided you're at a safe distance from them, they're usually harmless.

Thumbnail courtesy of Matt Shiffler Photography, taken on Lake Erie, near downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

B.C. proclaims Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day to mark official end of slavery in (BRITISH)  Canada

© THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/Graham Hughes 

People walk by a Black Lives Matter mural in Montreal, Saturday, June 13, 2020.

British Columbia officially recognized Emancipation Day for the first time on Sunday.

The province has proclaimed the day on Aug. 1, to mark the date in 1834 that slavery was abolished across Canada and the British Empire.

Read more: Hundreds march in Vancouver to mark the day slaves were freed in Canada

“The Black community has been part of British Columbia since April 1858, when more than 800 members of the community came to traditional territories of the First Nations and the Métis fleeing brutality and exploitation," Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism Initiatives Rachna Singh said in a statement.

“Yet the experience of Black British Columbians continues to be marginalized, their histories and contributions to this province little known or celebrated. This proclamation reaffirms our commitment to recognize the historical and present wrongs of exclusion, segregation, displacement, surveillance and over-incarceration that Black communities have experienced. We must and can do better."

Read more: March held in Fredericton to mark first-ever Emancipation Day

In March, the federal government unanimously passed a vote to designate Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day.

It comes amid a reinvigorated civil rights movement, that gained momentum in the wake of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minnesota police officer.

Last year, hundreds of people marched through downtown Vancouver to mark Emancipation Day.

That same day, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart proclaimed Aug. 1 to be Emancipation Day in the city.

MARX ON SLAVERY

AUGUST 1,  1833 BRITISH EMANCIPATION ACT

As we continue to celebrate the three hundred anniversary of the ending of the British Slave Trade I came across this;

The theory of Marxism is based on the material development of the forces of production as the moving force of historical progress. The transition from one system to another is not decided subjectively, but is rooted in the needs of production itself. It is on this basis and this basis only that the superstructure is erected: of state, ideology, art, science. It is true that the superstructure has an important secondary effect on production and even within certain limits, as Engels explained, develops its own independent movement. But in the last analysis, the development of production is decisive.

Marx explained the historical justification for capitalism, depite the horrors of the industrial revolution, despite the slavery of the blacks in Africa, despite child labour in the factories, the wars of conquest throughout the globe - by the fact that it was a necessary stage in the development of the forces of production. Marx showed that without slavery, not only ancient slavery, but slavery in the epoch of the early development of capitalism, the modern development of production would have been impossible. Without that the material basis for communism could never have been prepared. In Poverty of Philosophy Marx wrote:

"Direct slavery is just as much the pivot of bourgeois industry as machinery, credits, etc. Without slavery you have no cotton; without cotton you have no modern industry. It is slavery that has given the colonies their value; it is the colonies that have created world trade, and it is world trade that is the precondition of large-scale industry. Thus slavery is an economic category of the greatest importance.

"Without slavery North America, the most progressive of countries, would be transformed into a patriarchal country. Wipe out North America from the map of the world, and you will have anarchy - the complete decay of modern commerce and civilisation."

Since this was true of the development of capitalism in America why are conservatives 'shocked' when it occurred in state capitalist economies of Russia and China. While such slavery is not apparent in Cuba, which is why it remains a farm based economy.

Kravachenko, in his book, “I Chose Freedom,” vividly describes the conditions of the Russian workers, whom he divides into two groups: (i) the workers who remain nominally free and are under the same compulsions as in a capitalist economy, only their standard of living is relatively lower, and, with a ruling class on their backs living in greater comparative luxury then their British or American equivalents; (ii) a slave army of 10 to 15 million who are destined to meet a slow and gruesome death, many because they have fought this criminal regime on behalf of their class. These conditions of abject misery, exploitation and degradation are called by some Socialism.

These crude forms of exploitation are the economic consequences of Soviet isolation and its inevitable subordination to the economic laws of surrounding World Capitalism. But, due to the low productivity of the Russian worker, Russian Capitalism had to take a far more ruthless form than its Western European counterparts: it had to remain in the hands of the State – world conditions did not permit anything else other than State Capitalism.

Even Lenin acknowledged that State Capitalism existed within the framework of the Workers’ State since the theory of value, which is the theory of the world market continues to operate. Only if the worker intervenes in the process of production through workers’ control could effective blows be delivered at the theory of value.

Marx based his analysis on the activity of men engaged in the process of labour, so, when he came to deal with Capitalism his principal criticism lay in the fact that man’s labours were not fulfilling their proper purpose, the advancement of man, but were alienated and used for exactly the opposite purpose – the increased subjugation of man, which, in turn, led to the increased rebelliousness of man.

“Modern industry,” says Marx, “compels society under penalty of death to replace the detail worker of today crippled by lifelong repetition of one and the same trivial operation, and thus reduced to a mere fragment of man, by the fully developed individual, fit for a variety of labours, and to whom different social functions he performs are but so many modes of giving free scope to his own natural and acquired powers.” (Marx, Capital I, p. 534.)