China, Philippines suspend beef imports from Canada after BSE case

SHOOT, SHOVEL, SHUT UP; RALPH KLEIN

Mon, January 10, 2022
By Rod Nickel

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - China and the Philippines have suspended imports of Canadian beef due to Canada's detection in December of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a spokesperson for Canada's agriculture department said on Monday.

The moves follow an import suspension by South Korea last month, after Canada reported its first BSE case in six years.

China is the world's biggest importer of beef and veal, and Canada's third-biggest export market, according to the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA). China took similar action against Brazil after that country confirmed BSE cases, before restoring imports in December after a three-month interruption.

BSE is a fatal disease of the nervous system in cattle.

Canada, the eighth largest beef and veal exporter, reported the BSE case in December in an 8-1/2-year-old beef cow in the province of Alberta.

Canada's latest case is atypical - meaning it is a form of BSE that can occur naturally in older cattle - as opposed to classical BSE, caused by an animal eating contaminated feed.

The three countries to suspend Canadian imports are seeking more information about the case, said Dennis Laycraft, the CCA's executive vice-president.

The disruption has not had any noticeable impact on Canadian prices, he said.

"We expect these (suspensions) to be short in duration," Laycraft said. "We've been able to manage through it."

The cow was euthanized on the farm and did not enter the food or animal feed chain, according to the Canadian government.

The first confirmed Canadian case of BSE, a classical form, was detected in 2003, resulting in some 40 export markets closing. Many have long since reopened.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Chris Reese)

P.O.CHINA
Taiwan, Canada to start talks on investment agreement



Canada's Minister of International Trade Ng speaks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

Taiwan's chief trade negotiator John Deng 

Mon, January 10, 2022

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan and Canada have agreed to start talks on an investment protection agreement, both governments said on Monday, part of the Chinese-claimed island's efforts to boost ties with fellow democracies in the face of growing pressure from Beijing.

Taiwan has been angling for trade deals with what it views as like-minded partners such as the United States and the European Union.

While a member of the World Trade Organization, Taiwan's only has free trade agreements with two major economies, Singapore and New Zealand, and China has pressured countries not to engage directly with the government in Taipei.

Taiwan's cabinet said chief trade negotiator John Deng had met virtually with Canada's International Trade Minister, Mary Ng, and the two agreed to start "exploratory discussions" on a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Arrangement, or FIPA.

The cabinet statement said the move was "an important milestone" in strengthening economic and trade relations.

The Canadian government, which like most countries has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, said in its statement that Ng "highlighted Taiwan is a key trade and investment partner as Canada broadens its trade links and deepens its economic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region".

The direct meeting between the two government ministers could anger China, which has stepped up efforts to isolate Taiwan as Beijing asserts its sovereignty claims.

China views democratically-governed Taiwan as part of its territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a view Taiwan's government strongly rejects.

Canada is also a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, which both Taiwan and China have applied to join.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

The double life of Munich’s ‘good German’ – and would-be Hitler killer – Adam von Trott zu Solz

Tom Fordy
Mon, January 10, 2022

In Munich, Jannis Niewöhner plays a character based on Nazi opposer Adam von Trott zu Solz - Frederic Batier / NETFLIX

On June 7, 1939, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain met with a German diplomat named Adam von Trott zu Solz – a young, intelligent idealist and Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Sent by the German Foreign Office, Trott came to England on a double mission. Officially, to sound out British attitudes towards the Hitler-led Germany – eight months after appeasement at the Munich Agreement, three months before the declaration of war. Unofficially, Trott was attempting to lobby British officials into taking a firmer stance.

The plan had been thought up by Ernst von Weizsäcker, a naval officer turned diplomat, and others in the German Foreign Office. If Britain removed its guarantee to Poland, which promised to take action if the Nazis invaded, the Poles might reassess their situation and relinquish disputed territories back to German rule; in return, Germany might relinquish its grip over Czechoslovakia while retaining the Sudetenland. The aim was also to buy time for dissidents within the German military, who had been ready to depose Hitler back in 1938.

Trott, through his friendship with Lord and Lady Astor, spent a weekend at the Cliveden estate and first presented the idea, dressed up as diplomatic political chitchat, at a dinner attended by Lord Lothian, Sir Thomas Inskip, and Lord Halifax. Another attendee, William Douglas Home, called Trott “as passionate an anti-Nazi as he was patriot”.

It was through Lord Halifax that Trott managed to meet with Chamberlain just days later. As far as Chamberlain was concerned, Germany should make the effort to improve relations. “It was for Herr Hitler to undo the mischief he had done,” said Chamberlain. The prime minister would rather go to war than see another nation destroyed by the Nazis. Trott told friends that Chamberlain was polite but “ice cold”. Chamberlain, he said, “seemed a bit tired” and hadn’t quite grasped Trott’s point.

The meeting is the basis for a key scene in the new Netflix film, Munich: The Edge of War, based on a novel by Robert Harris. In a fictionalised account of the Munich Agreement, which reframes Chamberlain’s appeasement, Trott is the inspiration for one of the main characters, Paul von Hartmann (Jannis Niewöhner) – a German who is at first emboldened by the rise of Hitler and restoration of German pride. He learns the truth about Hitler’s intentions and conspires with an English diplomat to bring the Nazis down.


The real Adam von Trott opposed Nazism from the start, though, as a central figure in the German resistance, he has been accused – like other conservative opponents to the Nazis – of sharing the ambitions for German power and territories. He was also suspected of being a Nazi spy – the result of leading a double life.

Five years after his meeting with Chamberlain, Adam von Trott was dead, hanged for his role in the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler – commonly known as Operation Valkyrie. Trott is one of five Germans named on the war memorial at Balliol College, Oxford.

Adam von Trott was born on August 9, 1909. His father was the Prussian Minister of Culture and Education and his mother came from an aristocratic Silesian family. She was also a descendent of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States.

Trott studied at Munich University and the University of Göttingen, and in 1929 spent Hilary term at Mansfield College, Oxford. He became friends with AL Rowse, the historian and author. Rowse professed a platonic admiration and attraction. He described Trott in his book, All Souls and Appeasement: “[An] immensely lofty forehead, deep-violet eyes, nobility and sadness in the expression even when young, infinitely sensitive and understanding.”

A rift later developed between them over Trott’s belief in the work of German philosopher, Hegel. Trott, said Rowse, was “deeply German”. The friendship between the pair is the loose inspiration for the central Anglo-German relationship in Munich: The Edge of War – Chamberlain’s secretary, Hugh (George MacKay) and German Foreign Ministry translator, Paul.

George MacKay as Hugh Legat, Jannis Niewöhner as Paul Hartman 

(based on Adam von Trott) in Munich: Edge of War - Netflix

Trott returned to Germany to study law, then became one of the first Germans since the Great War to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He returned to Oxford in 1931, this time at Balliol College, where he read Modern Greats: Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He made influential friends, including David Astor, son of Lord and Lady Astor of Cliveden set, and later the editor of The Observer.

“My great aunt, Shiela Grant Duff, knew him very well at Oxford,” says David Boyle, historian and author of Munich 1938. “She wrote to him often. They were even engaged at one stage.” They later fell out. The fear of war “froze all hearts” wrote Duff in a 1982 memoir about their relationship, The Parting of Ways.

Another friend, Charles Collins, recalled Trott’s reaction to learning that Hitler had ascended to German Chancellor in January 1933: “He knew at once that a terrible disaster had befallen his country; it was a future in which a bitter struggle would be needed to achieve even the smallest result; that many of his friends and acquaintances were at once in personal danger.” David Astor recalled that Trott’s demeanour was “gloom” – that he feared Hitler would make Germany hated again, as it had been during WWI.

Unlike other German students at Oxford, Trott spoke out against Nazism and argued with others. Friends didn’t understand how he could be opposed to Hitler and be a firm German nationalist at once. “Instead of going to America, like he thought he might, he ended up going back to Germany,” says David Boyle. “He came to believe that Hitler had to be stopped.” He knew that covert resistance was the only way. He would only join the Nazi party unless forced to do so for the greater good. But he admitted that returning to Germany had caused a “damaging distrust” among his Oxford pals.

Adam von Trott in July 1944, the month Trott planned to assassinate Hitler

Back in Germany, he trained as an Assessor in Law and – according to David Astor – “quietly sought allies in Germany able and willing to attempt political opposition. He reached the conclusion that no political action was yet possible.” He was awarded a Rhodes Trust grant in 1937 – personally signed off by Lord Lothian – and visited the US and China. An enthusiastic Sinophile, Trott hoped that ancient wisdom and spirituality from the Far East could answer the Western world’s problems.

Trott called into German embassies to avoid potential suspicion that he was a British intelligence agent. “This, however, was taken by watchful British Intelligence officers as conclusive evidence that he was working for the Nazis, a view they never changed,” wrote Astor.

While in China he met General Alexander von Falkenhausen, who later supported the plot against Hitler. One account, detailed by historian Hsi-Huey Liang, says that Trott suggested to Falkenhausen that he should shoot Hitler during an inspection tour of Czech underground bunkers in October 1938.

“Falkenhausen, however, refused, calling it an act incompatible with soldierly honour,” wrote Liang. Giles MacDonogh’s book on Trott, A Good German, describes a different version: that one of the young soldiers made the suggestion, to which Falkenhausen said he’d prefer to give Hitler two minutes to decide: be shot or commit suicide.

Trott felt the effects of the deteriorating Anglo-German relations when he returned to England. He found “a severe frostiness which I have not met with before”. He first made contact with the German Foreign Office – the Auswärtiges Amt – through Walther Hewel, a diplomat and personal friend of the Führer’s. According to Giles MacDonogh, Hewel had “the reputation of being civilised by Nazi standards”. Trott was offered a position as secretary.

Also there was Ernst von Weizsäcker, a non-Nazi member of the Auswärtiges Amt. As described by MacDonogh, Weizsäcker attempted to prevent the impending war by scrambling Hitler’s instructions and advising foreign diplomats on how best to deal with him.

Adam von Trott being sentenced to death at the

 Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) in August 1944 - Alamy

In 1939, Trott made several trips back to England to lobby British officials and his friends – which included his meeting with the Astors and Chamberlain while on his double mission for both the Auswärtiges Amt and resistance.

Back in Germany he prepared a report of the proposals and reception – a Nazi-fied account that was intended for the eyes of top Party members. Hitler only saw a shortened version of it. Some Brits saw him as an appeaser. “I think the feeling about him was suspicion at the time,” says David Boyle. “They didn’t understand why they were willing to denounce their own government.”

He revealed his double mission to one college friend, Maurice Bowra, who asked what would become of recently claimed territories, such as the Sudetenland. Trott explained they’d need to keep the support of right-wing Germans. Bowra decided that Trott was “really on the side of the Nazis” and showed him the door.

Trott went to the US on a similar mission. Bowra wrote to an influential friend in Washington, warning him about Trott. Just as in Britain, the trip started well but descended into failure and suspicion. Trott found himself being followed by the FBI. “From his clash with Bowra, if not before, Trott was surrounded by whisperings alleging him to be a ‘spy’ or a ‘Nazi agent,’” wrote German historian Joachim Fest. “He himself seemed to encourage these reproaches.”

In 1940 Trott married Clarita Tiefenbacher, whom he’d first met in China. Shorty after getting married he officially entered the Foreign Service, and joined the Party – the best means of battling the Nazis. He even wore the Nazi badge in the office. He was constantly under suspicion in Germany, too.

Trott became a prominent member of the Kreisau Circle, a group of intellectuals, aristocrats, Christians, and socialists who opposed Nazis. Trott was key in maintaining contact between resistance groups. Using his position in the foreign office as a cover, he travelled regularly to Sweden, Switzerland, and Italy – he tried to make connections between the Allies and resistance, passed messages, and liaised with anti-Nazis on both the left and the right. The efforts took their toll – he became gaunt, broken, and physically depleted. He confessed to one friend that he was “bitterly disappointed, shattered even” by the futility of their efforts.

“The British government didn’t really play ball,” says David Boyle. “They started insisting at that stage on unconditional surrender. Von Trott was let down by the British.”

There were multiple attempts on Hitler’s life, though the best-known effort occured on July 20, 1944, when Claus von Stauffenberg hid a bomb in a briefcase and took into to a conference at the Wolf’s Lair HQ.

Munich; Edge of War rehabilitates the reputation of Neville Chamberlain and his role in the Munich Agreement - Universal Images Group Editorial

In the days before, Trott had attended meetings, some at Stauffenberg’s apartment, to lay out the plan of action. Trott offered advice on how to make peace with the West after Hitler was dead. He wrote a letter to his wife, which she partly destroyed but memorised. He wrote: “The reason I have written to you so little in the last few days is not that I have too little but too much to tell you. During the next weeks and perhaps for longer, you may not hear from me at all.”

The plot failed. The briefcase was moved and a table leg shielded Hitler from the blast. He escaped with tattered trousers. Trott was arrested five days later. In the meantime, he’d refused offers to escape the country so that he wouldn’t endanger his wife and two daughters.

What he didn’t know is that his two daughters had been seized by the Nazis as part of the repercussions – aged just two and nine months, they were sent away and their names changed.

The Gestapo actually knew very little about Trott. The main evidence against him was his friendship with Stauffenberg. There were suggestions to keep him alive, as his knowledge might be useful. Hitler threw a tantrum at the suggestion. Trott was executed on August 26 – hanged from an iron hook on Hitler’s orders. “Terrible to think how he came by his end,” wrote AL Rowse. “That head upon a butcher’s meat-hook in Plotzensee prison.”

The British later estimated that almost 5,000 were executed in response to the July 20 plot. Lord Elton, who was chairman Rhodes trustees, wrote a letter after Trott’s execution, describing how he’d previously heard that Trott had “thrown in his lot with the Nazis” but later learned he’d be playing a double game all along.

“He was a charming man of distinguished family,” wrote Lord Elton, “and his latter history seems to make it certain that he was on the right side, though at one time it seemed a little dubious.”

Munich: The Edge of War in on Netflix from January 21

Small rural co-op planned to provide power to new Ford plant. Then KU came knocking.

Austin Horn
Mon, January 10, 2022

Before the grand announcement on the Capitol steps heralding the state’s largest-ever private investment, $5.8 billion by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovations for plants in Hardin County, two companies fought over who would get to call the occupants its customers.

Kentucky Utilities (KU), the state’s largest power company, occupies roughly 20% of the electric service boundary on the 1,551-acre site that will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles near Glendale. The much smaller, not-for-profit Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative (RECC) has the remaining 1,200 acres according to maps provided by the Cabinet for Economic Development. Both Nolin and KU claimed that they should provide electric service to what could become one of the state’s largest electric service loads.

KU won the argument.

The companies agreed to a settlement that would make the company, which along with its sister company Louisville Gas & Electric serves well over a million customers, the sole provider of electricity to the site according to a joint settlement agreement filed to the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC).

Nolin RECC would get 800 acres of largely undeveloped nearby land and an amount of money redacted from the agreement in exchange if the PSC approves.

The PSC is responsible for regulating the state’s utilities and protecting their customers, and any modification to service territories needs their stamp of approval.

How that agreement was reached, despite Nolin RECC territory currently taking up a vast majority of the site, is unclear. The settlement hints that part of the incentive for Nolin to hand over its territory was “to avoid protracted and costly litigation” had it dug its feet in.

Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resources Council said that it’s hard to know if the deal is fair to Nolin without knowing how much money KU gave the co-op in exchange for the valuable service territory.

“Unless you’re a party to this case, you’re not going to know, and even then you couldn’t share that knowledge due to the confidentiality request unless it is denied by the commission,” Fitzgerald said. “… It’s impossible to look at what is publicly available and determine whether those customers are benefiting from this deal or not.”
Why is this happening?

The governor’s office has not responded to questions about whether it was involved in the swap, instead deferring to a spokesman for the Energy and Environment Cabinet who only gave a brief overview of the case’s timeline. He added that the two utilities have filed a petition for the PSC to approve the agreement by Feb. 1.

KU, for its part, said that its existing relationship with Ford played a role. Ford has a truck plant and an assembly plant in Louisville, which are located within the service boundary of its sister company Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E).

“Given our current relationship with Ford as an LG&E customer, it made sense to expand that relationship to include Kentucky Utilities,” KU spokesperson Chris Whelan wrote in an email to the Herald-Leader.

KU deferred to the governor’s office and Ford on questions regarding Beshear’s involvement in the swap and if Ford had a preference for either KU or Nolin.

A Ford North America media representative has yet to respond to a request for comment.

President & COO of Elizabethtown/Hardin County Industrial Foundation Rick Games didn’t offer comment on the deal, saying it was “above his paygrade.”

Neither Nolin RECC or East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), of which it is a member, offered comment. EKPC is a not-for-profit organization owned by 16 smaller co-ops like Nolin around the state. EKPC generates and transmits power to its owner/members, which distribute, and in total provides power to 1.1 million people. It has access to the PJM Interconnection, one of the largest energy markets in the world. In a publicly-available revenue report from 2019, the Winchester-based company posted more than $887 million in revenue.

KU/LG&E, by contrast, are for-profit and control generation, transmission and distribution of power. They’re owned by Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp, a publicly traded company worth more than $22.7 billion.

According to Yahoo Finance, KU/LG&E serves just under a million electric customers across Kentucky and 332,000 natural gas customers in the Louisville area.

EKPC’s 16 members cover much more total territory than KU, but serve less dense places that are harder to reach. Many of its co-ops were formed under the Rural Electrification Act, a New Deal program that provided massive federal loans to such entities to power rural America.

EKPC was actively advertising the site on its own channels, creating a webpage featuring drone footage, renderings and other information to do with the site on its dataispower.org. The company produced similar pages for other industrial sites across the state, including another in Hardin County.

The settlement agreement states that the cost estimate for removal of EKPC’s and Nolin RECC’s facilities on site, including a transmission line, is around $4 million.

One of three commissioners on the PSC, Marianne Butler, has not participated in discussions or deliberations on the case, according to PSC documents. Butler is a former manager of community initiatives at KU/LG&E and also served on the Louisville Metro Council for 12 years.

Above is a map detailing the boundaries for the Glendale megasite.

A map detailing the current electric service territory for the Glendale site; current Kentucky Utilities territory is marked in yellow while the rest is Nolin RECC territory.
PSC asking questions

In a “data request” filed last week, the PSC asked for information concerning the logistics of the service to the incoming twin battery plants and the impact of that service to ratepayers as well as data backing any projections made in the settlement agreement.

The PSC asks for estimates concerning cost of service to the site for both KU and Nolin RECC.

It also asks for explanation, documents and studies that led them to the determination of the redacted settlement money that KU is paying Nolin in exchange for the megasite land.

Responses to the PSC’s data request are due Wednesday and were not submitted by late Monday morning, according to the PSC.

Former Xinjiang official takes charge of Hong Kong garrison


 Chinese soldiers based in Hong Kong demonstrate their skill at the Shek Kong barracks of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison during an open day to celebrate the upcoming 21st anniversary of the city's return to Chinese sovereignty from British rule in Hong Kong on June 30, 2018. China's military says the former head of internal security in the Xinjiang region will lead the People's Liberation Army's garrison in Hong Kong, in the latest in a series of moves aimed at bringing the semiautonomous city under Beijing's tight control. 

AP Photo/Kin Cheung

Mon, January 10, 2022

BEIJING (AP) — China’s military says the former head of internal security in the Xinjiang region will lead the People’s Liberation Army’s garrison in Hong Kong, in the latest of a series of moves aimed at bringing the semiautonomous city under Beijing’s tight control.

A brief report on the Defense Ministry’s website Monday said Maj. Gen. Peng Jingtang’s appointment had been signed by president, Communist Party leader and PLA commander Xi Jinping.

It said Peng had pledged to “perform defense duties in accordance with the law, resolutely defend national sovereignty, security and development interests, and firmly safeguard Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”

Peng met Monday morning with Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who told him her government would work with the garrison to “jointly safeguard the sovereignty, security and development interests of the nation and help maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong," according to a government news release.

The move follows China’s stamping out of political opposition and curtailing free speech in the city, a former British colony that was promised it would keep its civil liberties and independent legal system intact for 50 years following the handover to Chinese control in 1997.

China imposed a sweeping National Security Law on Hong Kong following anti-government protests in 2019, resulting in the imprisonment, intimidation and exile of most opposition voices. Independent media outlets have been raided and forced into closure through seizure of assets or threats of prosecution.

Candidates considered insufficiently loyal to Beijing were barred from running in elections for the local Legislative Council.

From 2018, Peng commanded the paramilitary People's Armed Police force in Xinjiang, where China has detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other members of Muslim minority groups in political reeducation camps. The vast region remains enveloped in a security blanket that controls most aspects of the lives of its Muslim residents.

The U.S. and others have labeled the campaign as genocide, while China says all participants in what it describes as a push for job training and de-radicalization have now graduated.

Viewpoint: Oklahoma is stronger with tribal partnerships

Phil G. Busey Sr.
Sun, January 9, 2022

The September opening of First Americans Museum (FAM) became a reality after over a decade in the making because of widespread community, tribal, government and business efforts. This museum is long overdue in honoring the legacies of our Native American brethren. Soon after FAM’s grand opening, the Chickasaw Nation announced plans to build a $300 million resort next door to the iconic facility.

Achieving these impactful drivers for our city and state has made a statement of preservation, dedication and resilience on the national level. These successes also highlight the great achievements of our tribal nations — coming from virtual elimination a little over 100 years ago to becoming equivalents of Fortune 1,000 companies today that have reshaped our state’s economy and culture for the better.

Our tribes have a significant place in our history and are necessary business and community partners. Oklahoma, with only 4 million people, is a small state considering over 7 million live in the Dallas metroplex alone. Regardless of ethnicity, we must work together for economic advancement. The 39 federally recognized tribes are rural Oklahoma and influence our educational, infrastructure and economic growth statewide.

Our First Americans represent a unique legacy and ingrained part of this country. For over 400 years, tribes initially welcomed our pilgrims and settlers. Encroachment, broken treaties, forced removals, disease and war reduced our tribes to mere remnants of themselves — including my people, the Cherokee and Delaware (Lenape). Tragedies imposed on them — including losses of lands, families, wealth and rights — diminished tribal influence. By the 20th century, First Americans could not vote, government policies were aimed at eliminating tribal governments all together. That meant destruction of cultures, as well. Despite these injustices, tribes survived and have persevered.

Few know the game of football evolved at a Native American boarding school. In spirit and play, the first real “All-American” football team was the 1912 Native American team of Carlisle Indian Industrial School. As told in “The Real All Americans” by Sally Jenkins, these students were ripped from their tribes and forbidden to be “Indian.” Their coach, Pop Warner, became a pioneer in American sports. With players smaller in size, he used speed and innovated formations like the forward pass and other techniques that were precursors to today’s game. Players included Jim Thorpe. Despite stigmas and discrimination, this team beat the best of the best, gaining respect of athletes on opposing teams. They proved they were as good as their Ivy League counterparts. However, it still took decades to gain equality and over 100 years for FAM to open.

Oklahoma is Indian Territory — by treaty to belong to the First Americans’ forever. That lasted 50 years. This was their land, and we cannot separate our combined heritages.

Today, Oklahoma is much stronger because of our tribal nations rising like phoenixes from the darkness of exclusion. They now give back at all levels to our people.

First Americans are equal to the task. They keep their commitments. Can we? Our government, and we as a people, must embrace them and respect them as part of our stories.

It is with gratitude and acceptance we are called to link arms with our fellow First Americans. Our image outside our borders depends on projecting the valuable blended cultures that set us apart from other states. Our future depends on establishing viable partnerships for advancement of all Oklahomans and Americans.

Phil G. Busey Sr. is chairman and CEO of DRG and The Busey Group of Cos.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Viewpoint: Tribal partnerships make Oklahoma stronger

Plane hit by train after crashing on train tracks in California

Sun, January 9, 2022, 

(Reuters) - Police in Los Angeles, California, pulled the pilot from a crash-landed Cessna seconds before the aircraft was hit by a train on Sunday, sending debris flying in all directions. 

  Dramatic video obtained by Reuters shows several officers freeing the man from the downed plane, which had crashed shortly after takeoff in the Pacoima neighborhood, according to local media. The officers and pilot are just a few feet away from the tracks when the passing train destroys the plane. 

  "The plane had a failed takeoff and landed on the train tracks at a popular intersection," said Luis Jimenez, the 21-year-old music composer who filmed the video. "Just seconds before impact police officers saved the pilot, and a piece of debris almost hit me." 

  The pilot was treated for cuts and bruises and is in a stable condition, according to local media. No one on the train was injured, local media reported. 

  Video footage posted on Twitter by the Los Angeles Police Department showed bodycam footage of officers pulling the bleeding pilot from the plane. 

  The department applauded its officers, saying in the tweet they had "displayed heroism and quick action by saving the life of a pilot who made an emergency landing on the railroad tracks." 

  (Reporting by Yi Shu Ng; Writing by Karishma Singh; Editing by Gerry Doyle) 

JESUIT VS THE INQUISITION
Pope moves to reorganize Vatican doctrine office


Pope Francis delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

NICOLE WINFIELD
Mon, January 10, 2022

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis took the first step Monday to reorganize the Vatican’s powerful doctrine office, removing the No. 2 official widely believed responsible for a controversial document barring blessings for same-sex couples because God “cannot bless sin.”

Francis named Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, currently the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, bishop of the Italian diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla. The move amounts to a demotion since Morandi currently has the title of archbishop, yet is heading to a small diocese, not an archdiocese.

The Vatican said Morandi would nevertheless retain the title of archbishop “ad personam.”

AKA THE INQUISITION
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or CDF, is one of the most important Vatican offices, interpreting doctrine for the universal Catholic Church, sanctioning dissenters and handling cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors. Morandi joined the CDF as an under-secretary in 2015 and was promoted to secretary, or the No. 2, in 2017.

He was widely seen as being behind the March 2021 document that outraged the gay community, which Francis has made pains to welcome into the church fold.

The document declared that the Catholic Church won’t bless same-sex unions because God “cannot bless sin.” The document said Francis had been informed of the document and “gave his assent” to its publication, but Francis was apparently taken by surprise by its impact.

Francis has since made several gestures of outreach to the gay Catholic community and their advocates, including a recent letter congratulating an American nun once sanctioned by the CDF, Sister Jeannine Gramick, on her 50 years of LGBTQ ministry.

The CDF is currently headed by the Jesuit Cardinal Luis Ladaria, but he is expected to retire relatively soon since he turns 78 in April, three years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops.

Aside from Morandi, there are two “additional secretaries” in the CDF, including the American Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, who also is due to retire soon since he turns 79 in July. The other is Archbishop Charles Scicluna, but he has a full-time job as archbishop of Malta.

The impending retirements and transfer of Morandi thus suggests some management changes at the office, though they probably won’t be announced until Francis releases the blueprint of his reform of the Vatican’s overall bureaucracy, expected sometime this year.

MY FAVOURITE BOURBON

What sets Maker’s Mark apart from 95 percent of bourbons? 

Wheat. 

Can it be improved?

Janet Patton
Mon, January 10, 2022, 

Maker’s Mark is doing a deep dive into the grain that makes its Kentucky bourbon special, the wheat.

Bourbon makers long have experimented with almost everything that goes into making Kentucky’s signature drink, from the barrels to the oak trees, from the corn to the weather.

Despite that, the process at Maker’s Mark has varied little.

“Seventy years we’ve been here making the same whisky,” said Jane Bowie, director of innovation for the distillery.

But big experiments are going on underneath that could result in new kinds of wheat one day, if they can unlock the secrets of flavor in the grain.

The entry gate to Star Hill Farm is adjacent to a small wheat field for all visitors to see. The larger wheat fields are on the other side of the road.

University of Kentucky wheat expert David Van Sanford has been breeding and testing different varieties of wheat across the commonwealth, including at Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, where the bourbon makers are hoping to unlock the secrets of flavor in the grain.

For the five years, the Kentucky distillery that is the biggest seller of “wheated” bourbon in the world has been working with University of Kentucky agriculture professor David Van Sanford to evaluate different strains of wheat.

Maker’s Mark asked for his help figuring out what different flavors wheat can contribute to their bourbon, which is one of the relative few made with wheat rather than rye as the secondary grain (the main grain being corn).

Buffalo Trace, which makes Weller and Pappy Van Winkle, and Heaven Hill also make wheated bourbons. But Maker’s Mark Distillery president Rob Samuels still estimates that more than 95 percent of bourbon is made with rye instead of wheat.

They began planting different varieties on 1,000-acre Star Hill Farm in Loretto or neighboring farms.

“What we’re doing is providing samples from those plots and Maker’s Mark is doing sensory evaluation, choosing which varieties to grow to ultimately affect the flavor,” said Van Sanford, who is an expert in wheat breeding and genetics.

Wheat has generally been seen as a more bland grain, something to soften the dominant corn. But now that is being questioned.

“We all have this preconception that its softer and rounder that maybe it’s not going to bring that much to the table but it really seems to,” Van Sanford said.

Planting wheat in October 2020 at Maker’s Mark, next to the still house, for a spring/summer harvest in 2021.

A dusting of snow covered the wheat field on Christmas Day 2020, taken from a time-lapse camera.

“You’d be shocked,” Bowie said. She’s nosed wheat varieties that have fall spice characteristics “like a pumpkin chai latte” as well as versions that have that classic Play-doh scent.

“You have to wonder how that translates. All I do all day is study where flavor comes from,” Bowie said. “There’s an ag side and a manufacturing piece. For so long the focus (in distilling) has been on the manufacturing … we’re obsessed with process. The move in the last 15 years has been on the ag side. These are the ingredients. We want to understand our ingredients.”

Working with Bowie and Samuels, Van Sanford has been testing about 30 varieties. The criteria: Unique flavor, quality yield and must grow well in Kentucky.

“We’ve found some that we really like,” Van Sanford said.

A small research combine harvested wheat in the Maker’s Mark’s small experimental field that grew 28 varieties of wheat in June 2021.

David Van Sanford collected wheat harvested from the experimental plot at Maker’s Mark, which is one of the few bourbons to use wheat as a secondary grain. Maker’s Mark is the fourth biggest selling American whiskey brand in the world.

Bowie, who is also master of maturation, said they began questioning where the flavor comes from in the wheat. Is it variety? soil? farming practices?

“The answer is yes, all,” she said. “It’s a Pandora’s box.”

The distillery had been watching the movement in the baking industry to reverse decades of farming practices, credited with saving millions from starvation, that had turned wheat into the commodity it is today.

Wheat harvested at Maker’s Mark in June will be evaluated and compared for flavor. Modern wheat varieties were created to feed the world but characteristics that impact taste may have been lost along the way. Maker’s Mark is hoping to unlock and enhance those.

Maker’s Mark chief operating officer Rob Samuels spoke during the news conference.

Samuels said that until the Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution, wheat “was always grown locally. What he was able to accomplish through cross breeding was a shelf-stable wheat variety that could be sent all over the word. But in the process a lot of flavor was lost.”

Today, even though Maker’s Mark is made from locally grown wheat, it is pretty much all one kind, the Pembroke variety of soft red winter wheat developed by the University of Kentucky. And not much like what would have been grown 70 years ago.

“It’s Wonder Bread,” Samuels said. “And we’re flipping that on its head.”

Maker’s Mark Distillery president Rob Samuels, the third generation to produce the bourbon, said that they hope to develop a Maker’s Mark wheat variety that will produce better whisky and be commercially viable and sustainable for Kentucky farmers.

Maker’s Mark is the fourth biggest selling American whiskey, and the biggest selling wheated bourbon, in the world.

Looking out his window from his office at the distillery, Samuels said he can see fields where different varieties of modern wheat have been planted. The results from past harvests have been used to bake loaves of bread to evaluate the resulting flavors.

They also are evaluating what happens to the wheat flavors after it goes through the distillation process and aging. And that can take years. Decades even.

But Samuels has big hopes.

“We believe we will achieve unique varietals of wheat that push flavor boundaries. That’s the big dream, to have a Maker’s Mark varietal of red winter wheat,” he said. “We’re going to begin to take this research beyond the farm in the not too distant future.”

They also are hoping to prove that farming practices impact flavor, he said.

“Flavor and sustainable farming go together and we want to prove it,” Samuels said. “That’s a really important part of this vision, to use the profile of the Maker’s Mark brand to do good in the community, well beyond even Kentucky.”

Norway tells conscripts to return underwear after service

Mon, January 10, 2022

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Conscripts in Norway have been ordered to return their underwear, bras and socks after the end of their military service so that the next group of recruits can use them.

The Norwegian military said Monday that it is struggling with dwindling supplies, in part due to the pandemic.

The Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization said because of “a challenging stockpile situation, this move is necessary as it provides the Armed Forces with greater garment volumes available for new soldiers starting their initial service.”

Its press spokesman Hans Meisingset said that with “proper checks and cleaning, the reuse of garments is considered an adequate and sound practice.”

Until recently, the roughly 8,000 young men and women who every year do their military service returned their outer clothing but were allowed to leave barracks with the underwear and socks they were issued.

Military service is mandatory for both men and women in Norway and lasts between 12 and 19 months.

Meisingset said the pandemic was not the only reason why the stock of garments is low for some items. It also depends on finance, contracts and other issues.

NATO-member Norway's national defense magazine, Forsvarets Forum, reported that it was not the first time that the Armed Forces had struggled with such shortcomings, with a union spokesman saying it “has been a recurring problem” for years. In June 2020, a third of the soldiers' clothing and equipment was missing.

“A year ago, we looked at exactly the same shortcomings in close-fitting clothing that we see now, and earlier this autumn, the largest and smallest sizes of footwear were missing,” Eirik Sjoehelle Eiksund was quoted as saying. adding that he believed it was due to errors in the system around ordering and delivery.