New law stokes tension in Nigeria's blighted oil delta

Issued on: 01/09/2021

A resident stands in oil-polluted land in B-Dere, southern Nigeria 

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP


EJAMAH-EBUBU (Nigeria) (AFP)

Nigerian farmer Nwale Nchimaonwi celebrated when he learnt that an oil law to overhaul the industry and improve the plight of communities living on crude-producing land had passed after two decades wait.

His Niger Delta region has long seethed with discontent as communities face a potent mix of poverty, crude pollution and state neglect despite the wealth pumped from the ground beneath them.

But Nchimaonwi's enthusiasm soon gave way to anger after it emerged that the law demanded oil companies contribute only 3 percent of operating costs to communities, far below the 10 percent they see as fair compensation.

Disappointment with the Petroleum Industry Bill is again testing patience in Nigeria's delta where many lost farming and fishing livelihoods to contamination even as foreign oil giants pumped crude from Africa's largest producer.

"How do you think three percent can clean the spills, provide potable water, roads, hospitals and jobs in the oil communities?, Nchimaonwi, a leader for the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) group, told AFP outside his home in Ejamah-Ebubu.

A decade ago, the Niger Delta was a hotbed of militants who abducted foreign oil workers and raided their installationsto push for more share of the oil wealth.

A truck drives along the path of a high pressure oil pipeline in Ejamah-Ebubu 

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP

OPEC-member Nigeria's output was slashed before a 2009 amnesty finally restored peace.

For communities, the years since were spent waiting for lawsuits against foreign oil companies for environment damages to meander though the courts, but tensions are simmering again.

- Nearly 3,000 spills -

Ejamah and three villages make up the Ogoni community of Ebubu, which recently won a ruling for $111 million (97.3 million euros) in compensation from Shell.

Shell agreed to compensate the community over a 1970 spill that polluted over 225 hectares of their farmlands and fishing waters, though without acknowledging responsibility.

Shell says spills came during Nigeria's 1967-1970 civil war when oil infrastructure was damaged.

Community leader Emmanuel Olako Oluji said the compensation money from Shell could provide for the community and 'put smiles on the faces of the people' 

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP

Acting Ogoni community ruler Emere Emmanuel Olako Oluji told AFP the money was a relief and could provide for the community and "put smiles on the faces of the people."

But other community leaders say the damage is vast.

Ejamah boasts 57 oil wells once operated by Shell before the Anglo-Dutch oil giant was forced to quit in 1993 because of the unrest.

While oil production has ceased, pipelines operated by Shell still traverse the land, creeks and waterways of Ogoniland.

Nigeria's state-run oil company NNPC recently took over the oil wells following a court order but Ogoni leaders vow to resist any resumption of production.

According to industry data, between 1976 and 1991, over two million barrels of oil polluted Ogoniland in 2,976 separate spills.

"Just take a look at this spill," MOSOP's Nchimaonwi said, pointing to large swath of blackened, dried ground left abandoned in the B-Dere area of Ogoniland.

"Saro-Wiwa died fighting for justice for his people," he said, referring to writer, environmental campaigner and MOSOP founder Ken Saro-Wiwa who was hanged along with eight Ogoni activists in 1995 after a trumped up murder charge.

He said frustrations were growing among the youth with few opportunities in the delta.

"Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder," he said.

- Major step -

President Muhammadu Buhari's government hopes the oil law will draw in more investment to Nigeria, whose petroleum industry has long been troubled by corruption, inefficiency, high costs and security concerns.

But officials said it should also provide for the host communities.

"My prayer is that the people would see this as a major step," Godswill Akpabio, the minister in charge of the Niger Delta told reporters.

"People are arguing about percentages, I am not interested in that. We could manage with this percent but the major thing is to use it well."

PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP

Tamaranebi Benjamin, president of Host Communities Organisation, applauded the new law's passage, but said a provision holding communities liable for sabotage in their areas should be removed.

"It's only by expunging the obnoxious provisions that lasting peace can be guaranteed."

For many like cassava farmer Gideo Loole, the law and its 3 percent compensation feels like an insult stirring up anger.

"We cannot farm and fish. Our people are suffering and all the government and oil companies could do is to give us a paltry three percent," he told AFP, brandishing a cutlass to show his anger.

"We are going to mobilise the youth to fight the government and take back our God-given resources."

© 2021 AFP

The Era of Private Space Travel Has Arrived But How Did We Get Here?

Jamie Carter 

We are all astronauts. Step outside after dark and look up at a starry sky, and your mind will take the same journey our ancestors' minds did many thousands of years ago. "Since our primitive ancestors first walked on this planet, we have been both mystified and fascinated by such heavenly bodies as the sun and moon," says Colin Burgess, author of "The Greatest Adventure: A History of Human Space Exploration." "In awe they worshipped the sun, the moon, and the stars, revering them as gods, while trying to make some sense of their purpose." Our ancestors also had a luxury most us have lost — totally clear night skies unspoiled by man-made light.

© Photo Illustration by Mariah Tyler Here's how space tourism went from sci-fi dream to reality.

Related: More space travel and astronomy

From Dreams to Reality

The pivotal moment for space exploration came on July 20, 1969 with Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, but early sci-fi from authors like Jules Verne ignited imaginations long before technology caught up. "Remarkably, in one of his most famous and prescient works, Verne told of three men being launched to the moon from Florida in an aluminium spacecraft fitted with retrorockets and an eventual splashdown in the ocean," says Burgess.

In 1956, "The Forbidden Planet" became the first film to be set entirely on a foreign planet in interstellar space. A year later, the Space Age began when, on October 4, 1957, the USSR put Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, into orbit. Two years later, the U.S. named the Mercury Seven astronauts, and in 1961, the USSR launched Vostok 1 to make Yuri Gagarin the first man in orbit. In retaliation, NASA sent Alan Shepherd up to space for a few minutes the same year.

From the Earth to the Moon and Beyond

Video: What Space Tourists Should Know Before Traveling to Space, According to Astronauts (Travel + Leisure)

By the time the Star Trek television series started in 1966, the Space Age was well underway, and the moon was the target. The movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released a year before that first moon landing, but in the wake of Apollo 11, public interest in space exploration appeared to wane. NASA's budget was slashed, but a rare alignment of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune persuaded the space agency to launch Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 on a tour of the solar system. In 1979, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" used them as the inspiration for a sentient being called "V'Ger" that was seeking its creator.

The Space Shuttle Era

NASA's 1981 Space Shuttle launch rekindled interest in space exploration. In 1983, "The Right Stuff" romanticized the Apollo space program, followed by "Apollo 13" in 1995 and Tom Hanks' magnificent miniseries for HBO, From the Earth to the Moon, in 1998. But, Houston, there was a problem. "The advent of the Space Shuttle gave fresh stimulus to space exploration, but we became inured over the next thirty years to seeing it launch and land," says Burgess. Was the dream over?

The Universe Is Back in Fashion

After the loss of 14 astronauts in accidents in 1986 and 2003 (along with its astronomical cost), the Space Shuttle's demise was inevitable. NASA then had a game-changing idea: Why not cut costs by helping to create a highly competitive private space industry? After a decade of grants and test flights, NASA's Commercial Crew Program finally came to fruition in the summer of 2020 when Elon Musk's SpaceX flew two NASA astronauts to the ISS. Its Falcon 9 reusable rocket — which blasts satellites and spacecraft into orbit and then lands back on the launchpad — has helped reignite the public's interest in space. Musk has been talking about Mars colonies since well before 2015's iconic movie "The Martian" starring Matt Damon.

A New Age

SpaceX is set to go into partnership with NASA to get the first woman and the next man on the moon in 2024. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have both successfully launched into space to kick-start space tourism. "Now we have the spectacle of fabulously wealthy figureheads engaged in a whole new race into space, with a return to the moon and even Mars on their radars," says Burgess. "Without this commercial effort, such things would undoubtedly be decades instead of years away."

As Tom Cruise heads to the International Space Station later this year to film the first movie shot in space, sci-fi and the reality of space exploration are about to come full circle.

NOT TOURISTS BUT WORKERS

Stingray's protruding eyes, mouth aid swimming efficiency


The eyes and protruding mouth of stingrays, like the one pictured at the World Aquarium in St. Louis, help them swim with greater thrust and accelerated cruising, according to a new study. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Stingrays are able to glide so effortlessly through the water thanks in part to their protruding eyes and mouth.

Sea rays, including stingrays and skates, are noted for their streamlined body and flexible pectoral fins. These features offer obvious hydrodynamic benefits, but some scientists assumed their protruding eyes and mouth were hindrances.

In a new study, scientists modeled the effects of these protuberances on a variety of forces, such as pressure and vorticity, that influence propulsion.

Their analysis -- published Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluids -- showed a stingray's protruding eyes and mouth actually help it move through the ocean water more efficiently.

Researchers began by building a model of the stingray's self-propelled flexible plate. They clamped the front end of the plate and programmed it to perform rhythmic, up-and-down oscillations -- the same movement pattern stingrays use to swim.

Next, the researchers added rigid plates to the model to mimic the effects of the stingray's eyes and mouth, comparing the hydrodynamic efficiency of models with and without the added plates.

"Managing random fish swimming and isolating the desired purpose of measurement from numerous factors are difficult," study corresponding author Hyung Jin Sung said in a press release.

"To overcome these limitations, the penalty immersed boundary method was adopted to find the hydrodynamic benefits of the protruding eyes and mouth," said Sung, a researcher at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Data showed both the stingray's eyes and mouth yielded a front-back vortex of flow that increased the negative pressure in front of its body, easing its path through the water.

The eyes and mouth of a stingray help it swim more efficiently, researchers found in a modeling study. Illustration by Qi-an Mao

A side-to-side vortex created by the protuberances also boosted negative pressure above and below the stingray, the researchers said.


According to the model, these pressure shifts provided the stingray with greater thrust and accelerated cruising.

In total, scientists determined the stingray's protruding eyes and mouth boost propulsion efficiency between 10% and 20%.

The insights provided by the modeling effort could be used to design more hydrodynamic autonomous underwater vehicles, according to the researchers.

Owner surrenders pet cougar kept in New York City apartment




Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Animal welfare authorities in New York said a cougar is on its way to Arkansas after being surrendered by an owner who was keeping the 80-pound animal in a Bronx, N.Y., apartment.

The Humane Society of the United States, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York Police Department and the Bronx Zoo worked together to rescue the animal after the owner contacted authorities to say they could no longer care for the 11-month-old cougar.

Investigators said the owner had purchased the cougar as a cub from an out-of-state seller and recently decided to find a new home for the big cat once it started to show signs of aggression.

"Wildlife like cougars are not pets," Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Basil Seggos said in a news release. "While cougars may look cute and cuddly when young, these animals can grow up to be unpredictable and dangerous."

The cougar was taken to the Bronx Zoo temporarily and now is being transported to a new home at the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas.

"This cougar is relatively lucky that her owners recognized a wild cat is not fit to live in an apartment or any domestic environment," aid Kelly Donithan, director of animal disaster response for the Humane Society of the United States.

YOU GOTTA BE VAXXED

Delta Airlines announces 1,500 more flight attendant positions


Delta Airlines is seeking to fill 3,000 flight attendant positions the company announced Tuesday. Photo Courtesy of Delta Airlines

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Delta Airlines will have 3,000 new flights attendants by next summer.

The company announced that in addition to its earlier announcement of 1,500 open flight attendant positions, it seeks 1,500 more flight attendants to join its 2021/2022 class.

Candidates can begin applying now. They must be fully vaccinated, at least 21 years of age, have a high school diploma or GED, and be willing to fly international and domestic routes.

Thousands of employees at Delta and other airlines took early retirement packages during the pandemic at the urging of their employers as they tried to cut labor costs.

Airlines have been struggling to quickly fill positions from ramp workers to flight attendants as travel demands surge.

Staffing woes have led to delayed customer service, flight delays, and flight cancellations. Some airlines have cut their schedules to avoid operational pains.

Last week, Delta said that staff who aren't vaccinated will have to pay $200 more per month for health insurance beginning in November.

Population of Ireland surpasses 5 million for first time in 170 years

The last time Ireland had a population exceeding 5 million was during the 1850s, when the country was still in the grips of a severe famine. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- For the first time since during the Great Famine in Ireland 170 years ago, the country has a population of more than 5 million people, government figures showed Tuesday.

The Central Statistics Office said that the population was estimated to be 5.01 million in April. It's the first time the population has risen past the mark since 1851, when the comparable population was 5.11 million.

Last year, Ireland had the lowest number of natural births since 2000 and an increase in those aged 65 and older.

CSO statistician James Hearty said the data reflects the demographic and social impacts of COVID-19, according to The Guardian.

In the 1840s, the Irish population exceeded 8 million before the Great Famine, known as an Drochshaol in Ireland, killed more than 1 million people and forced millions more to emigrate. The famine lasted between 1845 and 1852.

WHO SEZ VAX THE THIRD WORLD FIRST

Two top FDA vaccine regulators to depart in the fall


Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Two top vaccine regulators at the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to depart this fall as the Biden administration attempts to roll out booster shots for vulnerable Americans next month.

Dr. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's vaccine office, will retire at the end of October, while her deputy, Dr. Philip Krause, will depart in November, according to an email sent to staff by Dr. Peter Marks that was obtained by The New York Times and Politico.

The outlets reported that the pair's departure was brought on by their opposition to the Biden administration's announcement earlier this month that it will make booster shots available to people more than eight months removed from receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine beginning Sept. 20.

Neither Gruber nor Krause reportedly believed there was significant data to justify offering booster shots and viewed the announcement as pressure for the FDA to quickly authorize the additional shots.

Dr. Jeffrey Zients, the White House's COVID-19 response coordinator, hailed the FDA as the regulatory "gold standard" in a Tuesday press briefing.

"As our medical experts laid out, having reviewed all the available data, it is in their clinical judgement that it is time to prepare Americans for a booster shot," Zients said. "We announced our approach in order to stay ahead of the virus, give states and pharmacies time to plan and to be transparent with the American people."

The White House has also stressed that the plan for booster shots was endorsed by the most senior federal health officials, including acting FDA commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.

Woodcock on Tuesday reiterated her support in a memo to vaccine regulators on Tuesday, Politico reported.

"The issues are complex and the days are long, but please know the work you all have done to date and will continue to do in the days, weeks and months ahead, will hopefully one day allow us to fully put COVID-19 behind us and better prepare us for future challenges," she wrote.

Court says Russia failed to examine 2009 death of activist Natalya Estemirova



Flowers are seen with a photo of journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in Moscow, Russia, on August 24, 2009, about a month after she was found dead. File Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate the death of journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova more than a decade ago.

Estemirova was abducted and killed in Chechnya on July 15, 2009. No one has ever been charged in her death.

The court said Tuesday that it found no evidence of Russian state involvement in Estemirova's death and Moscow can't be held responsible.

The ruling noted, however, that authorities' "cynical inaction" led to an intensified assault on human rights.

The judgement also said there were parallels between Estemirova's death and the assassination of human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who reported purported human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Estemirova was a high-profile defender of human rights who investigated disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture during the Chechen conflict between 1999 and 2009. She was often the target of criticism and threats from Chechen authorities.

"The perpetrators of these and other crimes ... have enjoyed complete impunity for their actions," Amnesty International said in a statement after Tuesday's ruling.

The France-based European Court of Human Rights is a court of last resort for rights cases in Russia and Moscow is bound by its rulings.

PRISON NATION USA

Report: San Luis Obispo County Jail violates prisoners' rights


The Department of Justice on Tuesday released a report stating the San Luis Obispo County Jail violated the rights of its prisoners. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The Justice Department said Tuesday that California's San Luis Obispo County Jail has violated the rights of its prisoners by failing to provide them with adequate healthcare, specifically for mental health issues, and subjects them to excessive use of force.

The announcement from the Justice Department came some three years after it opened an investigation into the conditions of the jail in October of 2018 following a series of prisoner deaths at the facility.

In its findings, the department said "there is reasonable cause to believe, based on the totality of the conditions, practices and incidents discovered at the San Luis County Jail" that the facility violates the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.

Specially, the investigators found that the jail fails to provide prisoners with constitutionally adequate medical care and adequate mental healthcare.

It also uses prolonged restrictive measures against prisoners with serious mental illness that places them at substantial risk of serious harm as well as fails to prevent, detect or correct such uses of force.

The county jail also denies equal access to services, programs or activities to prisoners with disabilities, in particular those with mental health disabilities.

"Our Constitution guarantees that all people held in jails and prisons across our country are treated humanely, and that includes providing access to necessary medical and mental healthcare," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "After a comprehensive investigation, we found that San Luis Obispo Jail harms the people it incarcerates by subjecting them to excessive force and by failing to provide adequate medical and mental healthcare."

The jail, located outside the city of San Luis Obispo, which is about 190 miles north of Los Angeles, houses approximately 540 prisoners at any time, a signifiant portion of whom suffer from mental illness.

According to the report, at any given time about 39% of its prisoner population is taking some form of psychotropic medication and the jail estimates that more than 90% of its population have substance abuse issues.

The report said that the jail fails to provide prisoners, many of whom have serious medical needs, with adequate medical assessments and does not evaluate or treat those who request medical attention in a timely manner.

These conditions, it said, subject them to substantial risk of serious harm, and which are exacerbated by inadequate staffing, monitoring and oversight, among other issue.

The investigation, which opened following a series of deaths at the facility, said that between January 2012 and June 2020, 16 prisoners died under its care, including a 36-year-old man who suffered from schizophrenia.

The man, identified only by the initials AA, died after spending 46 consecutive hours strapped to a restraint chair, which followed him being held in isolation for 16 months.

He was placed in the restraint chair on Jan. 20, 2017, after he was observed hitting himself in the face and head, and he remained in that chair naked aside from a blanket until Jan. 22.

"Within 40 minutes after being released from the restraint chair, he died of a pulmonary embolism," which is blood clots that form as a result of a lack of mobility, the report said.

The report states that though the facility discontinued the use of the restraint chair and made other changes prisoners who suffered from mental of physical health issues continued to die at the facility.

The investigators concluded that staff frequently use force against prisoners where force is unnecessary or where the degree of force is greater than what is required while also applying force without first seeking compliance through voluntary means.

"Prisoners who curse at deputies or disobey minor routine instructions -- e.g., to stop yelling or kicking a cell -- are often subjected to force even when the force is unnecessary to ensure safety," it said.

They also found that the jail over relies on restrictive housing to manage prisoners with serious mental illness, which subjects many of them to serious harm, including death.

"The county also inappropriately uses restrictive housing to manage prisoners who have recently attempted suicide or engaged in acts of self-directed violence," the report states. "Prisoners who have been housed in restrictive housing for prolonged periods frequently engage in acts of self-harm."

The department in the report has listed dozens of measures, and that within 49 days after issuing the report, the attorney general may initiate a lawsuit to correct the identified deficiencies, it said.

In a statement Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said it has received the report, but said it fails to take into account the measures it has taken since the investigation began.

"The sheriff's office has worked cooperatively with the Department of Justice over the past three years to investigate deficiencies and determine appropriate improvements to ensure our jail facility is fully compliant with federal law," Sheriff Ian Parkinson said. "We are pleased with our progress so far and will continue to work diligently to provide a safe and secure jail facility."

Virginia Gov. Northam pardons Martinsville Seven



Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (C) consoles the surviving family members of the seven Black men executed in 1951 for the alleged rape of a White woman. The governor pardoned the so-called Martinsville Seven. Photo courtesy of the governor's office

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday posthumously pardoned seven Black men who were executed in 1951 for the alleged rape of a White woman.

He said he granted the pardons because the men were tried by an all-White jury, without due process and executed because they were Black, "and that's not right.

"This is about righting wrongs," Northam said. "We all deserve a criminal justice system that is fair, equal, and gets it right -- no matter who you are or what you look like. I'm grateful to the advocates and families of the Martinsville Seven for their dedication and perseverance. While we can't change the past, I hope today's action brings them some small measure of peace."

Northam announced the pardons during a ceremony in the Patrick Henry Building with surviving family members of the seven men and activists.

The state executed Francis DeSales Grayson, 37; Frank Hairston Jr., 18; Howard Lee Hairston, 18; James Luther Hairston, 20; Joe Henry Hampton, 19; Booker T. Millner, 19; and John Clayton Taylor, 21, by electric chair. In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that the the death penalty can't be used as a punishment for rape.

Northam said the pardons don't address the men's guilt, but rather the lack of due process and the state's history of disproportionately executing Black people.

Virginia became the 23rd state in the nation to ban the death penalty earlier this year after Northam voiced his support for abolition. He signed the new law March 24.

RELATED California Supreme Court overturns murder conviction of death row prisoner

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Northam's pardon was an important and symbolic step toward reconciling that racial disparity in the state's use of the death penalty.

"The sham trials of the Martinsville Seven in front of all-White, all-male juries epitomized the use of the death penalty as a White supremacist instrument of racial oppression and embodied the link between lynching, segregation, and the death penalty," Dunham told UPI. "Everybody knew that the message of the executions wasn't that the guilty would be punished; it was that 'we' (meaning the White establishment) can get any of you (the entire Black community) on any pretext at any time. It was a manifestation of racial terror lynching through the legal system.

"Virginia's abolition of the death penalty was an historic event in ending the legacy of these racial injustices going forward. But the case of the Martinsville Seven is important in another way -- the pardon is a formal apology and an acknowledgment that the lives of the people who were victims of the ultimate racial oppression, their family members' lives, and the lives of everyone in the Black community have value. Their lives matter. And the act of acknowledging this matters, too."