Unique tree-climbing lions roar again in Uganda (Op-Ed)




By Louisa Kiggwe 

Illegal wildlife trade is just one of the threats plaguing the lions and their cubs.

Just six months has passed since the killing and mutilation of six lions in the Ishasha sector of Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP).

If you were to visit the park, you would see these so-called Ishasha lions lazing around in the myriad branches of towering fig trees. This group is one of only two populations of lions known to climb trees, making the majestic beasts fascinating subjects for study and a popular tourist attraction. Sadly, however, these lions face numerous threats, including habitat loss, snaring, human-wildlife conflict, illegal wildlife trade and the trafficking of lion body parts.


Because of these threats, the Ishasha lion population includes just 69 individuals; with increasing threats to these endearing fauna, tourism revenues — which make up close to 8% of Uganda's gross domestic product (at least before the COVID-19 pandemic) — are also threatened. To provide the protections, the global Red List of threatened species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has labeled this population as "vulnerable" to extinction; Uganda's national list places them in the "critically endangered" category.

The lshasha lions recently graced the country with several cubs that now require our collective effort to protect so they may grow into adults. Luckily for the cubs, six other males — including Sultan and Sula (the fathers of the cubs), Jacob (a snare survivor), and three adolescent brothers — are ready to protect and groom them, according to Bazil Alidria, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Carnivore Officer who monitors the lion pride regularly.


Six-month-old cubs in the northern sector of Ishasha, Uganda. (Image credit: ©Peter Lindsey/Wildlife Conservation Network)

Unfortunately, knowledge about lion population dynamics and threats in Uganda remains limited. In 2005 and 2008, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) conducted monitoring efforts for lions in the Queen Elizabeth park and Uganda's Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP), respectively, using Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled collars.

This work was built upon research previously conducted by Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Veterinary Doctor Margaret Driciru (2001) and Ludwig Siefert of the Uganda Carnivore Program. While monitoring the lions, WCS also removed snares from the parks that threaten this iconic species and worked to reduce human-lion conflict by building carnivore-proof pens to prevent lions from attacking livestock and inviting retaliatory killings by angry herders.

In 2010, a survey of three national parks engaged in lion conservation — Queen Elizabeth NP, Murchison Falls NP and Kidepo Valley NP — conducted by WCS reported the estimated lion population there to be 408 individuals.

Although it has been 10 years since the last census, lion sightings during monitoring work by WCS, the Uganda Carnivore Program (UCP) and UWA in the Queen Elizabeth park, suggest that the lion population trend is relatively stable, according to Simon Nampindo, WCS Uganda country director. A 2021 study commissioned by WCS indicated that the greatest threat to lions today is human-induced mortality, including retaliation for the killing of livestock, exacerbated by Ugandan beliefs that parts of these lions have medicinal value and customary beliefs that lion body parts should be kept in homes and shops as a source of power and wealth.

Nampindo notes that the 2021 study on the triggers and motivations for lion killings in QENP revealed an increased demand for lion body parts by community members, traditional healers, business people, religious leaders, poachers and cattle keepers in Uganda, requiring a more comprehensive approach to stop this crime.

The lions also face a multifaceted challenge for survival driven by climate change. The loss of suitable habitat for both prey and predators attributed to climate change and variability favoring the growth and spread of invasive species in most of Uganda's national parks, have triggered lions and elephants to move outside the parks into the communities. This exodus has resulted in livestock predation and crop damage, hence escalating the human-wildlife conflict around these protected areas.

WCS has called upon private sector companies, local governments, conservation organizations, individuals and development partners to join hands to address these threats before our natural heritage is lost.

Despite the numerous challenges, we take heart in the resilience of the lshasha lions. WCS has long-term commitments to its strongholds and landscapes and uses science to inform conservation and build solid partnerships and collaborations while inspiring people to love nature.

Together with Uganda Wildlife Authority, the private sector and other devoted conservation organizations, we will continue to monitor lion populations and remove wire snares and traps to save the lion populations and ensure that the tourism sector thrives.

Originally published on Live Science.

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IN TRIBUTE TO URI GELLER
Thousands of starlings form 'bent spoon' swarm over Israel


By Brandon Specktor

published about 6 hours ago

Starlings travel in large, chaotic flocks called murmurations. Sometimes, they paint the sky with all-too familiar shapes.

A swarm of starlings over Israel form a trippy 'bent spoon' in the sky.

 (Image credit: Albert Keshet)

For a brief moment in Israel last week, an enormous black shape resembling a twisted teaspoon darkened the sky.

This was not the work of a spoon-bending telepath, but arguably something much cooler: tens of thousands of migrating starlings, swooping and swarming through the sky together in a type of collectively steered flock called a murmuration.

Albert Keshet, a wildlife photographer based in Israel, saw the stunning scene after spending more than five hours recording starlings in the northern Jordan Valley during the last week of 2021. At one point, he saw an entire flock of several thousand starlings take flight, dance through the sky and form an unmistakable spoon shape.

"They held it for a few seconds, then the shape changed to a bent spoon," Keshet told the BBC. A few seconds later, the flock had morphed again — then again, and then again. (You can watch a video showing off the flock's most impressive patterns on Keshet's YouTube page.)

Starlings are migratory birds that appear over the arid cliffs of Israel every winter, when their typical European haunts become too frosty. A single flock, or murmuration, can contain more than a million individual starlings, Live Science previously reported.

How does a flock so big remain so cohesive amidst their swirling aerial acrobatic routines? According to a study published in 2013 in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, each bird gets its bearings by monitoring the behavior of just six or seven other birds flying nearby. This focus on close neighbors strikes a balance between group cohesion and individual uncertainty, making it possible for a flock of 100,000 birds to suddenly swarm into, say, a spoon shape, then break ranks and regroup in an entirely different pattern moments later.

Impressed? Uri Geller — the Israeli entertainer best known for trying to bend spoons telepathically — certainly was. Geller shared Keshet's spoony murmuration photo on Instagram and, according to the BBC, put framed prints of the flock in his recently opened museum in Jaffa, Israel.

Sex shops offer evangelicals in Brazil a taste of heaven

Issued on: 05/01/2022 
Brazil 2022 © France 24
Video by: Juliette MONTILLY

Sometimes, she disguises her merchandise as medication. Others, as a bakery delivery… Whatever the packaging, Andrea dos Anjos knows discretion is key when #Brazil's emerging #evangelical #sexshops send erotic products to their clients.

Dog praised for rescuing injured hiker in Croatia


After his owner slipped and fell 150 meters (nearly 500 feet) on Mount Velebit, an Alaskan malamute called North kept him warm for 13 hours until help arrived.


The Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS) praised an Alaskan malamute for rescuing his human, writing on Twitter that "friendship and love between man and dog knows no boundaries."

North, as the dog is called, and his owner were hiking on Mount Velebit on New Years' Day, at a height of about 1,700 meters (5,600 feet). Both man and dog slipped and fell some 150 meters (500 feet).

The incident left the hiker with a badly hurt leg, but the dog remained uninjured. North kept his master warm with his body heat for 13 hours until rescuers arrived.

"North was uninjured, but his friend, the young mountaineer was less fortunate," the rescuers said.

The emergency service said the overnight operation was particularly difficult because of snow, ice and broken tree boughs that blocked access to the spot. A team of 27 people took part in the rescue, reaching the pair around midnight and handing over the hiker to medics at 8:00 the next morning.

The dog "curled beside him and warmed him with his body," HGSS wrote on Twitter. "His loyalty didn't stop even when the rescuers came, he was one of us, guarding his man for 13 hours.''

They added that "this example could teach us all how to care about each other.''

AP material contributed to this report.

Editor: Darko Janjevic

‘Follow me’: Dog finds help, leads cops to owner’s car crash

LEBANON, N.H. (AP) — A German shepherd named Tinsley, first thought to be a lost dog, successfully led New Hampshire state police to the site of its owner’s rollover crash.

Both the vehicle’s occupants were seriously hurt, but thanks to Tinsley’s dogged efforts they quickly received medical assistance once officers discovered the truck, which went off the road near a Vermont interstate junction, WMUR-TV reported Tuesday.

“The dog was trying to show them something,” said Lt. Daniel Baldassarre of the New Hampshire State Police. “He kept trying to get away from them but didn’t run away totally.

“It was kind of, ‘Follow me. Follow me.’ And they did that and you know, to their surprise to see the guardrail damaged and to look down to where the dog is looking at, it’s just, they were almost in disbelief,” he said.

A New Hampshire state trooper and police from the nearby city of Lebanon responded to the crash site late Monday, just across the state line in Vermont.

There were no further details on the condition of those injured in the single-vehicle crash.

‘Mudi’? Try a toy: American Kennel Club adds 2 dog breeds

By JENNIFER PELTZ

A black Mudi, a Hungarian species of shepherd dogs, helps to drive a herd of 120 buffaloes from its summer pasture to its winter habitat on the premises of the Kiskunsag National Park, Budapest, Hungary, Jan. 25, 2017. The American Kennel Club announced that the Mudi and Russian Toy have received full recognition, and are eligible to compete in the Herding Group and Toy Group, respectively. These additions bring the number of AKC-recognized breeds to 199.(Sandor Ujvari/MTI via AP, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — An athletic Hungarian farm dog and a tiny pet of bygone Russian aristocrats are the latest breeds in the American Kennel Club’s purebred lineup.

The club announced Tuesday that it’s recognizing the Russian toy and the mudi. That means they’re eligible to compete for best in show at many U.S. dog shows, including the AKC’s big annual championship and the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club show.

The mudi (whose American fans pronounce its name like “moody,” although the vowel sound in Hungarian is closer to the “u” in “pudding”) descended from long lines of Hungarian sheepdogs before a museum director took an interest in the breed and gave it a name around 1930. Fans say the medium-size, shaggy dogs are vigorous, versatile and hardworking, able to herd sheep, hunt boars, snag rats and compete in canine sports such as agility and dock diving.

“They’re very perceptive, and they have a subtle quality” and are very trainable, but they need things to do, said Kim Seiter, an Oak Ridge, New Jersey, dog agility trainer who has four of them. “They’re not for the inactive person.”

The dogs — the proper plural is “mudik” — were featured on postage stamps in their homeland in 2004, as were some other Hungarian breeds.


The Russian toy (American Kennel Club via AP)

The Russian toy developed from small English terriers that gained the fancy of Russian elites by the early 1700s. The diminutive dogs — supposed to weigh no more than 6.5 pounds (2.7 kg) — have a leggy silhouette, perky expression and lively demeanor, breeders say.

“They’re extremely affectionate” with their owners but can be reserved with strangers and need to meet plenty of new people as pups, says Nona Dietrich of Minnetonka, Minnesota, a breeder and member of the Russian Toy Club of America. “And they’re funny. They have quite an attitude.”

The AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry. It recognizes 199 breeds, including the two newcomers, and acts as a governing body for many dog shows.

Recognition requirements include having at least 300 dogs of the breed spread around at least 20 states and promulgating a breed standard that specifies ideal features, from temperament to toes. Many popular hybrid or “designer” breeds, such as Labradoodles and puggles, aren’t recognized, but it’s possible they could be someday if breeders decide to pursue it.

Some animal rights and welfare advocates deplore dog breeding and the market for purebreds, saying they spur puppy mills and strand adoptable pets in shelters.

The AKC says breeding can be done responsibly and preserves somewhat predictable characteristics that help people find and commit to the right dog for them.

Tiger bites off keeper's hand at Japan safari park: Kyodo

Wed, 5 January 2022

A Bengal tiger similar to the one which attacked three keepers at a safari park in Japan

 (AFP/RASHIDE FRIAS)

A tiger bit off a keeper's hand and attacked two other people at a safari park near Tokyo, Japanese media reported Wednesday.

The tiger, a 10-year-old male Bengal who was around two metres (6.5 feet) in length and weighed 150 kilograms (330 pounds), attacked as the three keepers were preparing for the day at the Nasu Safari Park in Tochigi prefecture around 8.30 am, Kyodo news agency reported.

The park's operator said the tiger was not in its fenced enclosure as expected.

Instead the keepers came across it in a corridor leading to an exhibition area, and it attacked, according to the report.

The keeper who lost her hand, a woman in her 20s, was transported by medical helicopter to hospital, Kyodo said.

Kyodo said a second woman was bitten in several places and a man was injured in the back of his head. They were also taken to hospital.

Kyodo reported that keepers did not check that the fence to the tiger's cage was closed on Tuesday, after it had been led back inside once the exhibition was over.

The park closed for the day and police are reportedly investigating.

The Nasu Safari Park offers tours on specialized buses and for customers in their own cars to see its collection of around 700 animals including giraffes and elephants.

The park has had safety incidents before, including keepers being attacked by lions in 1997 and in 2000, according to Kyodo.

bur-st/dw

HINDU NATIONALISM IS ANTIMUSLIM

Islamophobia in India: Humiliation of Muslims has become 'a part of the political landscape'

Jan 5, 2022
FRANCE 24 English

Indian police have made arrests and launched an investigation into an online app that shared pictures of scores of prominent Muslim women for a fake online auction in a case of apparent hatred toward the minority community. And this comes right on the heels of a police probe investigating influential Hindu religious leaders calling for violence and even ethnic cleansing: "the arming of Hindus against Muslims, the need to teach them lessons." Dr. Subir Sinha, Senior Lecturer at SOAS University of London, joins France 24 to discuss how deeply entrenched Islamophobia has become in the cultural and political fabric of Indian society. He asserts that Islamophobic acts are now occurring in India with "a sickening regularity." These latest incidents are simply a reflection of "targeted communally charged harassment and misogyny that has just been rampant for the past few years."

Sex abuse trial starts for Guatemalan ex-paramilitaries


Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu was present 

for the trial opening (AFP/Johan ORDONEZ)

Wed, January 5, 2022,

A trial started in Guatemala Wednesday for five former paramilitary soldiers accused of sexually abusing 36 indigenous Mayan women some 40 years ago during the country's civil war.

The five are former members of Guatemala's Civil Self-Defense Patrols (PAC) blamed for several atrocities during the 1960-1996 war in which an estimated 200,000 people were killed or disappeared.

They will take part via videoconference from the Mariscal Zavala jail where they are being detained for crimes committed between 1981 and 1985 around the town of Rabinal, north of the capital Guatemala City.

The population of Rabinal was particularly hard hit by the war. A mass grave with the bodies of more than 3,000 people was discovered in the area.

Thirty-six women have come forward in the last decade with accusations of sexual violence committed against them during that time.

The identities of most of the women are being withheld for their own security, said their lawyer Lucia Xiloj.

Some have already given recorded evidence to investigators, which will be played in court.

Only five of the victims have opted to be present for the trial before Judge Jazmin Barrios in the Supreme Court of Justice.

According to Xiloj, many Mayan women "were raped after the (forced) disappearance of their husbands" by paramilitaries and soldiers.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu told reporters at the court that Guatemala had failed to "fulfill its obligation to defend these sisters who were raped, tortured, humiliated and subjected to (sexual) slavery during so many years of armed conflict."

A United Nations truth commission documented 669 massacres committed during Guatemala's civil war, of which 93 percent were attributed to government forces.

ec/mlr/st

4 acquitted in toppling of British slave trader statue



 Protesters throw a statue of Edward Colston into the Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally, Bristol, England, June 7, 2020. Four anti-racism demonstrators were cleared Wednesday Jan. 5, 2022, of criminal damage in the toppling of a statue of a 17th century slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest in southwestern England 18 months ago.

 (Ben Birchall/PA via AP, File)


LONDON (AP) — Four anti-racism demonstrators were cleared Wednesday of criminal damage in the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader during a Black Lives Matter protest in southwestern England.

Protesters used ropes to pull down the bronze statue of Edward Colston and dump it in Bristol’s harbor on June 7, 2020. The demonstration and toppling were part of a worldwide reckoning with racism and slavery sparked by the death of a Black American man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Loud cheers rang out from a packed public gallery at Bristol Crown Court as a jury acquitted Rhian Graham, 30, Milo Ponsford, 26, and Sage Willoughby, 22, and Jake Skuse, 33.

“This is a victory for Bristol, this is a victory for racial equality and it’s a victory for anybody who wants to be on the right side of history,” Willoughby said.

Graham, Ponsford and Willoughby were caught on closed-circuit television passing the ropes around the statue that were used to pull it down, while Skuse was accused of orchestrating a plan to roll it into the harbor.

All four had admitted their involvement but denied their actions were criminal, claiming the statue itself had been a hate crime against the people of Bristol.

They laughed with relief as the verdicts were read out and hugged the many supporters that were waiting outside of court when they were released.

The four had gotten got high profile help with their case. Elusive street artist Banksy designed a limited edition T-shirt, pledging the funds raised to their cause.

“The truth is that the defendants should never have been prosecuted,” Raj Chada, who represented Skuse, said in a statement following the verdict.

“It is shameful that Bristol City Council did not take down the statue of slaver Edward Colston that had caused such offence to people in Bristol, and equally shameful that they then supported the prosecution of these defendants,” Chada added.

Colston was a 17th-century trader who made a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas on Bristol-based ships. His money funded schools and charities in Bristol, 120 miles (195 kilometers) southwest of London.

Bristol authorities fished the Colston statue out of the harbor and it was later put on display in a museum in the city, along with placards from the Black Lives Matter demonstration.

___

Follow all AP stories about racial injustice at https://apnews.com/hub/Racialinjustice

Man whose arrest led to ‘separate but equal’ is pardoned

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

1 of 4

Gov. John Bel Edwards pardons Homer Plessy during the Posthumous Pardoning Ceremony for Homer Plessy at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022. Louisiana’s governor on Wednesday posthumously pardoned Plessy, the Black man whose arrest for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in 1892 led to the Supreme Court ruling that cemented “separate but equal” into U.S. law for half a century. (Sophia Germer/The Advocate via AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor on Wednesday posthumously pardoned Homer Plessy, the Black man whose arrest for refusing to leave a whites-only railroad car in 1892 led to the Supreme Court ruling that cemented “separate but equal” into U.S. law for half a century.

The state Board of Pardons last year recommended the pardon for Plessy, who boarded the rail car as a member of a small civil rights group hoping to overturn a state law segregating trains. Instead, the protest led to the 1896 ruling known as Plessy v. Ferguson, which solidified whites-only spaces in public accommodations such as transportation, hotels and schools for decades.

At a ceremony held near the spot near where Plessy was arrested, Gov. John Bel Edwards said he was “beyond grateful” to help restore Plessy’s “legacy of the rightness of his cause … undefiled by the wrongness of his conviction.”

Keith Plessy, whose great-great-grandfather was Plessy’s cousin, called the event “truly a blessed day for our ancestors … and for children not yet born.”

Since the pardon board vote in November, “I’ve had the feeling that my feet are not touching the ground because my ancestors are carrying me,” he said.

Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote in the 7-1 decision: “Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences.”

Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only dissenting voice, writing that he believed the ruling “will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case” — an 1857 decision that said no Black person who had been enslaved or was descended from a slave could ever become a U.S. citizen.

The ceremony began with cellist Kate Dillingham — a descendant of the dissenting justice — playing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” while the audience sang along.

The Plessy v. Ferguson ruling allowing racial segregation across American life stood as the law of the land until the Supreme Court unanimously overruled it in 1954, in Brown v. the Board of Education. Both cases argued that segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment’s right to equal protection.

The Brown decision led to widespread public school desegregation and the eventual stripping away of Jim Crow laws that discriminated against Black Americans.

Plessy was a member of the Citizens Committee, a New Orleans group trying to overcome laws that rolled back post-Civil War advances in equality.

The 30-year-old shoemaker lacked the business, political and educational accomplishments of most of the other members, Keith Weldon Medley wrote in the book ”We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson.” But his light skin — court papers described him as someone whose “one eighth African blood” was “not discernable” — positioned him for the train car protest.

“His one attribute was being white enough to gain access to the train and black enough to be arrested for doing so,” Medley wrote.

Eight months after the ruling in his case, Plessy pleaded guilty and was fined $25 at a time when 25 cents would buy a pound of round steak and 10 pounds of potatoes.

Keith Plessy said donations collected by the committee paid the fine and other legal costs. But Plessy returned to obscurity, and never returned to shoemaking.

He worked alternately as a laborer, warehouse worker and clerk before becoming a collector for the Black-owned People’s Life Insurance Company, Medley wrote. He died in 1925 with the conviction on his record.

Relatives of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, became friends decades later and formed a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education.

Also present at the pardon ceremony were descendants of the Citizens Committee and descendants of the local judge.

The purpose of the pardon “is not to erase what happened 125 years ago but to acknowledge the wrong that was done,” said Phoebe Ferguson, the judge’s great-great-granddaughter.

Other recent efforts have acknowledged Plessy’s role in history, including a 2018 vote by the New Orleans City Council to rename a section of the street where he tried to board the train in his honor.

The governor’s office described this as the first pardon under Louisiana’s 2006 Avery Alexander Act, which allows pardons for people convicted under laws that were intended to discriminate.

Former state Sen. Edwin Murray said he originally wrote the act to automatically pardon anyone convicted of breaking a law written to encode discrimination. He said he made it optional after people arrested for civil rights protests told him they considered the arrests a badge of honor.

Louisiana Governor to pardon Plessy, of ‘separate but equal’ ruling


Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson, descendants of the principals in the Plessy V. Ferguson court case, pose for a photograph in front of a historical marker in New Orleans, on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. Homer Plessy, the namesake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling, is being considered for a posthumous pardon. The Creole man of color died with a conviction still on his record for refusing to leave a whites-only train car in New Orleans in 1892.

 (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)


JANET McCONNAUGHEY
Tue, January 4, 2022,

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s governor is slated to posthumously pardon Homer Plessy on Wednesday, more than a century after the Black man was arrested in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow a Jim Crow law creating “whites-only” train cars.

The Plessy v Ferguson case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ushered in a half-century of laws calling for “separate but equal” accommodations that kept Black people in segregated schools, housing, theaters and other venues.

Gov. John Bel Edwards scheduled the pardon ceremony for a spot near where Plessy was arrested in 1892 for breaking a Louisiana law requiring Black people to ride in cars that the law described as “equal but separate” from those for white customers. The date is close to the 125th anniversary of Plessy’s guilty plea in New Orleans.

Relatives of both Plessy and the judge who convicted him are slated to be at the ceremony.

It spotlights New Orleans as the cradle of the civil rights movement, said Keith Plessy, whose great-great-grandfather was Plessy's cousin — Homer Plessy had no children.

"Hopefully, this will give some relief to generations who have suffered under discriminatory laws," said Phoebe Ferguson, the judge's great-great-granddaughter.

The state Board of Pardons recommended the pardon on Nov. 12 for Plessy, who was a 30-year-old shoemaker when he boarded the train car as a member of a small civil rights group hoping to overturn the law.

Instead, the 1896 ruling solidified whites-only spaces in public accommodations until a later Supreme Court unanimously overturned it in Brown v Board of Education in 1954. Both cases argued that segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment's right to equal protection.

In Plessy, Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote for the 7-1 majority: “Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences.”

Justice John Harlan, the dissenter, wrote that he believed the ruling “will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case."

That 1857 decision said no Black person who had been enslaved or was descended from a slave could ever become a U.S. citizen. It was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments, passed in 1865 and 1866.

Plessy lacked the business, political and educational accomplishments of most other members of the group trying to strike down the segregation law, Keith Weldon Medley wrote in the book ”We As Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson.” But his light skin — court papers described him as someone whose “one eighth African blood” was “not discernable” — positioned him for the train car protest.

“His one attribute was being white enough to gain access to the train and black enough to be arrested for doing so,” Medley wrote.

Five blocks of the street where he was arrested, renamed Homer Plessy Way in 2018, runs through the campus of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. The ceremony was scheduled at the campus, outdoors for COVID-19 safety.

Eight months after the ruling in his case, Plessy pleaded guilty on Jan. 11, 1897. He was fined $25 at a time when 25 cents would buy a pound of round steak and 10 pounds of potatoes. He died in 1925 with the conviction on his record.

Relatives of Plessy and John Howard Ferguson, the judge who oversaw his case in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, became friends decades later and formed a nonprofit that advocates for civil rights education.

Other recent efforts have acknowledged Plessy’s role in history, including a 2018 vote by the New Orleans City Council to rename a section of the street where he tried to board the train in his honor.

CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

Evergrande, Already $310 Billion in Debt, Told to Blow Up Chinese Resort Due to Problems

BY ERIN BRADY ON 1/4/22 

A Chinese real estate developer is being ordered to demolish one of its largest complexes.

Evergrande Group was ordered to demolish a 39-building resort complex on Ocean Flower Island, an artificial archipelago off the coast of Danzhou. The developer did not release an explanation as to why the complex is being demolished, although Danzhou's government claimed that the complex violated urban planning law.

In 2021, Beijing began tightening restrictions on developers. The move was touted as one that would help rein in corporate debt and was implemented as part of the Chinese government's ongoing priority to reduce financial risk.


The Ocean Flower Island demolition is the newest headache that Evergrande has faced over the past few years. It has the dubious distinction of being the most indebted developer in the entire global real estate industry with around $310 billion in debt.

It is not immediately clear how much more debt the company will accumulate due to the demolition on Ocean Flower Island, nor has a timeline for the demolition been announced. Evergrande's buildings are the only ones being demolished on the island.

Evergrande Group was ordered to demolish a 39-building resort complex on Ocean Flower Island, an artificial archipelago off the coast of Danzhou, China. Above, Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen, southeastern China, on September 14, 2021.

PHOTO BY NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Evergrande's struggle to comply with tighter official restrictions on use of borrowed money by China's real estate industry have prompted fears of a possible default and financial crisis. Chinese regulators have tried to reassure investors that any potential impact on financial markets can be contained.

Economists say Beijing can keep Chinese lending markets functioning normally in the event of an Evergrande default, which looks increasingly likely. However, they say Chinese leaders want to avoid sending the wrong signal by arranging a bailout at a time when they are trying to force companies to reduce surging debt levels.

Evergrande asked Monday for trading of its shares in Hong Kong to be suspended. Trading resumed following Tuesday's announcement, gaining 7.6 percent.

Evergrande warned last month it might run out of cash to keep up with debt payments and other obligations.

The company says it has 2.3 trillion yuan ($350 billion) in assets and 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion in debt), but it has struggled to sell assets fast enough to keep up payments to bondholders. Construction of some projects was temporarily suspended after contractors complained they weren't being paid.

Tuesday's announcement said buyers in 20210 signed contracts to purchase property worth a total of 442 billion yuan ($70 billion).

The government will organize demolition if the company fails to act.

The Hainan government ordered an investigation last year of Ocean Flower Island, a complex of hotels, an amusement park and other facilities, according to news reports. They said some building permissions were revoked and fines of 215 million yuan ($34 million) were imposed for planning and construction violations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Evergrande Group's $310 billion debt will grow due to the company being ordered to demolish a 39-building complex. Above, a worker pushes a cart in front of a sign showing Evergrande's China operation at a housing complex owned by the property developer in Beijing on December 8, 2021.

PHOTO BY NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Check out the man-made island where Evergrande was ordered to tear down 39 buildings

Grace Kay
Tue, January 4, 2022

Getty


Evergrande was ordered to demolish 39 buildings on its man-made island.


The embattled real estate developer has poured nearly $13 billion into its Ocean Flower Island.


Take a look at the flower-shaped archipelago that has everything from theme parks to hot springs.

Evergrande, an embattled Chinese real estate developer, confirmed on Tuesday that it was ordered to tear down 39 buildings on its man-made island in China's southern Hainan province, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Chinese authorities in the province have given the company 10 days to demolish the buildings, according to a notice that was obtained by The Journal and dated December 30. The developer has 60 days to file a potential appeal. The South China Morning Post cited media reports on Monday that an illegally obtained permit had been revoked by the provincial government which required the buildings to be dismantled.

An Evergrande spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment and Insider could not reach Hainan provincial authorities for comment.

Over the past 12 years, Evergrande has invested nearly $13 billion into the artificial archipelago or group of islands known as "Ocean Flower Island," The Journal reported. The potential demolition of its 39 buildings on the island represents one of many setbacks that the world's most indebted developer has faced over the past year. Evergrande is currently struggling to repay over $300 billion in liabilities.

The cluster of man-made islands were designed to emulate the shape of a peony and made up of three flower-shaped islets. The center of the cluster was constructed as a major business and tourism hub.

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The project was over a decade in the making and opened in late 2020 as the world's largest man-made tourism island, spanning 1,980 acres. The Ocean Flower development is the largest project since Dubai opened its man-made archipelago, Palm Island, in 2009

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The Ocean Flower project encompasses houses and hotels, as well as business and tourist opportunities, including a roughly 1.1 million square foot convention center built to resemble giant blooming peonies.

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Ocean Flower Island, also known as "Haihua" in Chinese, has attracted over 5.5 million tourists since it opened, according to China's stateside publication, South China Morning Post. Last month, local Chinese government said the development was harming the marine environment, including causing mass damage to coral reefs.

The center of the archipelago has 28 major business hubs.

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The complex offers an array of museums, as well as several amusement parks, including a fairy-tale world and water park.

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It also has several more relaxing options for tourists, including a botanical garden and hot springs.

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While many of the tourist and business options are located at the center of the archipelago, housing makes up the outskirts of the structure. According to a 2019 construction plan from the Danzhou government that was obtained by South China Morning Post the maximum total population of the three islands was estimated at over 200,000.

The stateside publication reported that Evergrande told residents of the island where 60,567 apartments had been delivered to buyers that the demolition will not impact residential structures.