Growth of Black immigrant population projected to outpace growth of U.S. born Black population

Claretta Bellamy - 
NBC News


One in 10 Black people living in the U.S. are immigrants, and the number is only expected to rise, according to new data.

A Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Minnesota found that 4.6 million Black immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2019. That figure grew from about 800,000 in 1980. According to the report, 9.5 million Black immigrants are expected to live in the U.S. by 2060. The Black population represents all those who self-identify as Black.

The analysis also found that the Black immigrant population is projected to outpace the growth of the U.S.-born Black population. This growth is fueled by the influx of individuals migrating from Africa.

In 2000, approximately 560,000 African immigrants resided in the U.S., the report found. By 2019, that number had nearly tripled, to 1.9 million. Between 2010 and 2019, 43 percent of African-born Black immigrants settled in the U.S., which was the highest share compared to other U.S. immigrant groups.

Although the Black immigration population is growing, many still face challenges related to racism, criminalization and deportation. Abraham Paulos, deputy director of policy and communications for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, said his organization focuses on these three challenges while making sure immigrant communities have financial resources, food and clothing.

These resources were greatly needed during the pandemic, as many Black immigrants worked as essential workers in health care. The organization’s efforts also focus on politically educating the Black immigrant community on the struggles related to being a Black person living in the U.S.

“We fight for two things: racial justice and migrant rights,” Paulos said. “We fight for Black people.”

Born in Sudan, Paulos migrated to the U.S. with his family as a youth in the 1980s. He said the challenges Black immigrants face tend to stem from the criminal justice system.

“I’ve had cousins that have gotten deported,” he said. “One cousin just got out of a detention center.”

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Black Alliance for Just Immigration advocates for temporary protected status, which is granted to foreign-born individuals unable to return to their country of origin because of circumstances such as civil war or environmental disasters. According to the National Immigration Forum, the U.S. provides temporary protected status to more than 400,000 foreign nationals from countries including Venezuela, Sudan and Haiti.

Challenges faced by U.S.-born Black Americans are also shared by Black immigrants. According to the Pew Research Center, Black immigrants were less likely than overall immigrants to own their own home, and 14 percent of Black immigrants lived below the poverty line in 2019, which is higher than the poverty rate among the greater U.S. population.

While African immigrants contribute to the growth of the Black immigrant population, the Pew Research Center’s report found that the Caribbean remains the most common region of birth for Black immigrants, with Jamaica and Haiti being the two largest origin countries.

Last year, thousands of Haitian immigrants fled to the U.S from Central and South America to seek asylum. Viral images taken of Haitians revealed harsh treatment by Border Patrol agents, including agents apparently carrying whips. According to The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, the U.S. consistently detained Haitians more than any other nationality in 2020.

Paulos said the situation in Del Rio, Texas, is emblematic of what Black immigrants face.

“By and large, the biggest difference between, sort of, us and other immigrants is, you know, one, we deal with Black America,” Paulos said. “Two is that we feel the full brunt of the force of Department of Homeland Security, the enforcement apparatus.”

While many Black immigrants face these challenges, living in the U.S. also provides opportunities for advancement. The Pew Research Center analysis found that 31 percent of Black immigrants ages 25 and over have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Atonya McClain, an immigration attorney based in Houston, said her clients, who mostly come from Nigeria and the Dominican Republic, journey to the U.S. for reasons relating to safety and greater access to better resources. She said one of her previous clients informed her that during the pandemic, his village in Nigeria only had electricity for one hour each day.

“If you’re here in the United States and you know how well you’re doing,” McClain said, “and you’re talking to your loved ones, you want them to have the same options that you have.”

In addition to advocating for temporary status, Black Alliance for Just Immigration monitors situations of Black immigrants in prison. Paulos said the organization has approximately eight Freedom of Information Act requests filed in multiple detention centers throughout the South. The organization would use that information to help fight for the immigrants’ release.

Paulos also said it’s difficult for Black immigrants to assimilate into the U.S. compared to other groups because of challenges related to having a Black identity. Misconceptions of being invisible and a false narrative of Black immigrants being divided with Black Americans are also misleading, he said.

“I just think that racism is so embedded in this society that if you’re Black, it’s like, you know, all people see is Black,” he said.

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Brazil's Lula says he would tax rich more, change Petrobras fuel price policy



BRASILIA (Reuters) - Former Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is leading early polls ahead of October elections, said on Wednesday he would propose less taxation on the poor and more on the rich if he wins, and reduce fuel prices.

Speaking on radio interviews, Lula said he would propose raising the income tax exemption bracket to five times the minimum monthly wage, or 6,060 reais ($1,160), from 1,903 reais at present.

"This needs to be debated, because the rich pay less tax proportionally," he said on Radio Brasil of Campinas.

He would also back heavier taxes on profits and the adoption of a tax on dividends that does not exist in Brazil.

With fuel prices high at the pump, Lula said he would change the pricing policy of state-controlled oil company Petrobras, which refines products but also imports gasoline.

"We are going to take care of the price of gasoline and diesel," he said, criticizing pricing based on international levels.

Lula said Petrobras' strategy to sell refineries was wrong and the company should be investing more in refining capacity to become self-sufficient instead of paying such high dividends.

"Dollar-based gasoline prices makes no sense. We are going to change that. Petrobras will once again become an exporter of gasoline, diesel and refined products," he told a Pernambuco radio audience in a separate interview on Wednesday.

Lula said it was shameful that millions of Brazilians were going hungry in a country that is the world's third largest food producer and top meat exporter.

"We have to take resources from the richest and give them to the poorest. This is not Communism, this is Christianity," Lula said. "My cause is to see people eat again, study again, smile again."

($1 = 5.2232 reais)

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Richard Chang)

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE

Public employees in Puerto Rico protest over wages, pensions

Thousands of public employees from across Puerto Rico took to the streets Wednesday to demand higher salaries and better pensions.

The demonstration followed a protest by teachers on Friday demanding a temporary increase of $1,000 per month for public educators. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced this week that funds from the U.S. Department of Education would be used to provide the wage boost.

But at a press conference Monday, Pierluisi raised eyebrows when he said being a teacher, firefighter or any other public employee was not an obligation.


© Cristina Corujo/ABC NewsMultiple protesters feel insulted amid 

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi's comments regarding their calling as public employees.

“No one here is forced to be a police officer or a firefighter, but those who decide towards that calling will have to assume that huge responsibility and if for any reason they question if they should continue to do so amid the salary or work conditions, they are not obligated to remain in their role,” said Pierluisi.MORE: Puerto Rico may be nearing the end of bankruptcy. What does this mean?

The comment caused outrage among many public employees and other residents on the island.

“It’s disrespectful,” Spanish teacher Leny Colón told ABC News. Colón traveled to the protest from Coamo, located about 60 miles away from San Juan. She said she attended the protest because she is a teacher, but also supports other public employees.


© Cristina Corujo/ABC NewsThe Spanish teacher Leny Colón 

traveled from the southern area of the island to attend Wednesday's protest.

“We are here because we have a calling but this calling shouldn’t be punished… this is a community fight,” Colón said.

For Carlos Torres, a teacher from San Juan, the government’s comments were “insensible”.

“If we wouldn’t have pressured him and we wouldn’t have marched Friday he wouldn’t have done anything,” Torres told ABC News, referring to a new temporary salary increase that goes into effect on July 1.

“Our team has made the necessary calculations and has consulted the federal government, and we’ve been able to identify ESSER funds to provide incentives for teachers,” Pierluisi announced in a press release Feb. 7.


© Cristina Corujo/ABC NewsCarlos Torres is a teacher in Santurce, Puerto Rico who attended the protest to demand a fair salary and to complain against Gov. Pedro Pierluisi's comments.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) is part of the Education Stabilization budget. Congress allocated $13.2 billion from the $30.7 billion to address the COVID-19 impact on schools across the nation.

Although the raise was praised by many, the wave of negative response from Puerto Ricans in response to the governor's other comments keeps growing -- and the leader says he has nothing to apologize for.MORE: Thousands of Puerto Rico teachers protest for higher wages

“Apologize for what? I did a lot of comments in solidarity with all the claims being made by the people,” Pierluisi said at a press conference on Tuesday.

As for the dispute over salaries, work conditions and retirement plans, many public employees say they will not stop fighting until they see a change.

“Education, safety and health is very important," Colón said. “It’s time to make justice for all Puerto Ricans.”

Peru's leftist government will embrace free market, says new PM

LIMA (Reuters) - The latest prime minister picked by Peru's embattled president, Pedro Castillo, pledged to pursue free-market policies in his first public remarks on Wednesday, a day after a new Cabinet was unveiled that aims for stability in the Andean nation.

Peru's President Pedro Castillo and cabinet members pose for a photograph, in Lima

Speaking at a government news conference, Prime Minister Anibal Torres also emphasized that Castillo's leftist administration will promote a strong government that can prevent monopolies and other concentrations of economic power.

Torres, who previously served as justice minister, was tapped Tuesday night as the president's fourth prime minister since he took office last July.

"Our policy is the free market, free economic enterprise, free business, but with the participation of the state to control monopolies, oligopolies and (other) dominant positions," Torres said, as he was flanked by other ministers.


Peru's President Pedro Castillo and Anibal Torres shake hands

 after Torres was sworn in as Peru's new prime minister, in Lima

The Cabinet re-shuffle took place after the departure of the previous prime minister, who was heavily criticized for allegations of domestic violence, which he had denied.

Torres is seen as a Castillo loyalist and will be tasked with helping advance the president's agenda in a fragmented Congress dominated by conservative opposition parties.

Finance Minister Oscar Graham, a more centrist technocrat who previously worked at the central bank, was kept on in the new Cabinet, which was welcome news for investors and other business-friendly advocates.

"They won't be able to label us communists because we haven't carried out any actions that align with that political ideology," said Torres.

He emphasized that the new Cabinet will seek measures to improve security as well as the South American country's COVID-19 vaccination program, which he pitched as key to economic growth.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Leslie Adler)

'Happy days'?: French communists hope to come in from cold

Armed with its most charismatic leader in decades, France's Communist party aims to return to its glory days in the upcoming presidential election and win back voters who have drifted to the right.

To illustrate its newfound optimism, the Communist Party of France (PCF) has picked the most upbeat slogan in the campaign so far: "Happy Days for France" -- a reference to a French Resistance manifesto during World War II, from which it emerged as France's biggest party.


© Richard BOUHETBringing the communist in from the cold

PCF head Fabien Roussel, 52, is the first Communist candidate in a presidential campaign in 15 years, with the party opting to back hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon in the past two elections instead of fielding a candidate of its own.

The Communists' promise of happiness stands in stark contrast to the doom-laden prophecies of anti-immigration populist Eric Zemmour, who has monopolised much of the media attention in the race so far.

Polls show Roussel, an MP, still languishing in the low single digits, a far cry from the Communists' heyday which they polled over 21 percent in the 1969 elections -- but a new tone is clear.

"Our programme deserves a larger audience," Roussel told AFP at the party's headquarters in Paris.

"We need to talk about happiness and how change is possible, after being told for years by various governments that we need to make more efforts, that we need to tighten our belts," he said.

- 'Change is possible' -

During the Covid crisis, the state's willingness to mobilise huge sums to save the economy showed that "there is plenty of money around", Roussel said.

But instead of "that money going to multinationals", he said, "we want it to be used in the service of the people" -- mostly in the shape of pay rises for low-income professions including nurses and teachers.

True to dogma, Roussel's programme calls for the nationalisation of big banks -- including BNP Paribas, the EU's biggest -- and of energy giants TotalEnergies and Engie.

But he is just as relaxed about backing nuclear power, defending the police force or supporting hunting -- all red rags for other parties on the left.

Roussel's team says their man needs to attract apathetic young voters as well as those on the left who have turned to Melenchon's populism or Marine Le Pen's nationalist far-right RN party.

"Our challenge is to win back those hearts and minds," Ian Brossat, Roussel's campaign manager and a deputy mayor for Paris, told AFP.

- 'Good wine, good meat' -

Roussel, who currently polls at three percent, got the country's attention when he said that French gastronomy consisted of "good wine, good meat and good cheese", sparking an outcry across the left which accused him of disrespect towards vegans and of ignoring multiculturalism.

Analysts said the seemingly off-the-cuff remark is part of an effort to appeal both to the patriotic instincts of far-right voters and to traditional communists who feel no kinship to an urban, progressive left they see as elitist.

His greatest asset is an entrenched grassroots base across France, where the party still counts 600 card-carrying mayors and thousands of other local officials.

The Soviet collapse in the 1990s hastened the decline of the PCF in French national politics, but the party proved more resilient locally, a fact many attribute to the movement's key role in the World War II resistance and postwar social reforms.

"People don't say 'communism', they say 'French Communist Party' with its history in France," Roussel said, calling the party's patriotic grounding "unique".

Hence, Paris city hall never renamed its "Stalingrad" metro station, and there are still plenty of streets, stadiums or cultural centres called "Karl Marx", "Lenin" or "Engels" in the so-called "red belt" around the capital.

- 'People suffered less' -

The annual "Fete de l'Huma", named after the communist newspaper "L'Humanite", is France's biggest festival with hundreds of thousands of visitors for days of concerts and other events.

"There is still a cultural link, a kind of nostalgia for the Communist Party", Frederic Dabi, a political analyst who heads up the Ifop research institute, told AFP.

"Many people accept communists as decent, committed people", he said, even though they also mostly reject communist ideology.

This contrast is obvious in Avion, a small former mining town in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, where the PCF regularly captures over 60 percent of the local vote.

But in national contests, the far-right picks up many of the votes in the region, which mostly backed Marine Le Pen in the 2017 presidential run-off against Macron.

"To be a communist is to be at the heart of people's daily lives," said Avion's mayor, Jean-Marc Tellier.

"I'm concerned with the underpaid worker who gets up every morning to work and can't make ends meet," he told AFP, adding that he hoped communists could now also "reclaim our place on the national scene".

For Jaime Prat-Corona, a 77-year-old party member, such a comeback can't come fast enough.

"Whenever the Communist Party is strong, people suffer less," he told AFP at a recent campaign rally.

jh/js/sjw/cb

Police cannot be allowed to use anti-terror tools against suspects - opinion

By TEHILLA SHWARTZ-ALTSHULER AND  ITAI BRUN

Yesterday 
The Jerusalem Post

Instead of dealing with legislation, we should be changing the paradigm: Enabling the police to use anti-terror technologies is akin to allowing it to use cluster bombs instead of batons. Internal policing should not conduct sweeping searches

The Pegasus affair refuses to go away, and everyone is talking about the need to amend current laws and bring them into the 21st century. This indicates that very soon we will see bills that propose giving a stamp of approval to technologies such as Pegasus so that, heaven forbid, the police do not end up having to use such technology without legal approval. We believe that this is a serious perceptual error. The debate as to how to define the Pegasus software in legislation and when it may or may not be used misses the point entirely.

First, because technology will always be a step ahead of legislation: Today, the issue is Pegasus; tomorrow, it will be some face-recognition program based on CCTV cameras, with the capacity to distinguish sexual orientation, or an AI-based product that enables the police to establish links between ethnic origin and the propensity for committing financial crimes.

Second, because the real issue is the significance of NSO’s system and the purpose for which it was designed, this raises the question of whether it is right to create a legal basis for the inclusion of such a system in the police’s toolbox. This is not to say that legislation is not urgently needed, but that it is essential to change the paradigm.


© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

An aerial view shows the logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group at one of its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel, July 22, 2021.

 (credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

Over the last few days, no one has been able to define precisely what the Pegasus software is. An offensive cyber-tool? Not exactly, because it is not designed to paralyze, block or destroy the target phone’s operating system. A digital surveillance tool? No, as wiretapping already covers this. A cyber collection tool? Too broad. Spyware? Too international. On the NSO Group’s website, it describes itself, using neutral terminology, as providing “cyber intelligence.

The issue is that the world of defense intelligence is fundamentally different from that of police investigations. In the military intelligence and in secret services, intelligence work is conducted in part via sweeping searches, that is, gathering data and information using the broadest possible parameters of anything that can be collected, whether manually or by computer, then using analysis tools on the resulting huge ocean of information. The premise is that everything is permissible, as the context is one of operations against enemies of the state and of national security. No particular reason is required to deploy such collection tools, as this is essentially the role of these intelligence agencies. Police investigations work the other way around: They require some firm lead – a complaint, a journalistic investigation, a particular event – from which they are supposed to start. The police do not collect everything possible on the way. Doing so would exceed the powers granted it by law.

CYBERSPACE HAS created similarities between the information-gathering methods used by intelligence agencies and by police investigations, and they both apply similar tools in similar settings now. The police argument is that these technologies already exist: CCTV cameras are there; the Pegasus software is available, so why should we not use all these to make our work more efficient? The answer should not be that the police do not have the relevant powers in law, but rather that these technologies are fundamentally not designed for use by law enforcement and internal policing agencies.

Thus, the NSO affair is not about using technology instead of human intelligence gathering, nor about the fact that this technology was once used only against Palestinian suspects and is now being used against Israeli citizens. Instead, it relates to a substantial leap that the police is attempting to take – from focused and goal-oriented information collection only when it has substantial leads, to fishing-based collection.

Talking about the use of new technologies – such as the Hawk Eye traffic monitoring system, face-recognition systems, or Pegasus – is merely a neutral way of describing this shift from intelligence methods used by the police until now, to intelligence methods deployed by secret services and militaries. Trying to persuade decision-makers that they must allow the police to use new technologies is like requesting that the police be allowed to use cluster bombs instead of batons; to interrogate criminal suspects with methods used against terror suspects; or to comprehensively collect any information that might be useful in the future for applying pressure or for cross-referencing with other information.

Legislative amendments should take into account not just the technologies themselves, but the substantive issue at stake – not just the question of when they can be used and who will provide oversight, but also the principle that internal policing should not conduct sweeping searches.

Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler is a senior fellow and director of the Democracy in the Information Age program at the Israel Democracy Institute. Brigadier-General (retd.) Itai Brun was head of the Analysis Division of the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate.

Israel PM says it is still unclear if reported police spyware abuses happened


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Wednesday it was still not clear if reported abuses by Israeli police of a powerful spyware had actually happened, and that he believed a high-level inquiry would clarify matters "soon".

The government ramped up scrutiny on police after a newspaper report on Monday which said the Pegasus hacking tool made by Israel's NSO Group had been used without court warrants against 26 high-profile citizens.

The report, in Calcalist business daily, cited no sources. Last month the same newspaper reported past use of Pegasus by police against Israeli citizens, adding domestic turmoil to long-running allegations the tool had been abused by foreign clients of NSO Group.

NSO says all its sales are government-authorised and that it does not itself run Pegasus.

"What was published is grave ... but we still don't know if it really happened," Bennett told reporters, adding that the matter "will be checked from all angles".

"I believe we will get an answer soon," he said.

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Grant McCool)

Restoring community dialogue and resilience: The next COVID-19 emergency

Mélissa Généreux, Associate Professor, Faculty of medicine and health sciences, Université de Sherbrooke 

Gabriel Blouin-Genest, Associate professor, School of applied politics, Scientific codirector, CIDIS (Centre interdisciplinaire de développement international en santé), Université de Sherbrooke 

Mathieu Roy, Professeur associé, Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke -

COVID-19 is not the first health crisis to affect Canada. Previous emergencies, like the Lac-Mégantic train tragedy in 2013, showed the importance of including the affected communities to promote better adherence to preventive measures and build resilient communities. Our research shows this is largely missing for COVID-19, with high costs on society as a whole.

Resilience is the ability of a community to continue to live, function, develop and thrive after a crisis. Key elements of enhancing resilience include maximizing social cohesion, collaboration, empowerment, participation and consideration of local characteristics and issues. This means dialogue with, and inputs from, the affected communities.

There is a major risk of a community becoming “corrosive” if these elements are not appropriately taken into account. Corrosive communities are at risk of division, polarization and psychological impacts such as anxiety and depression. These are the costs Canadians may have to pay for the divisive approach used in response to COVID-19.


© (Blouin-Genest, Généreux, Roy)The corrosive versus therapeutic pathway in crisis response.

Our multidisciplinary research team at the University of Sherbrooke has been using surveys to evaluate and compare the different effects of the COVID-19 pandemic since February 2020. Different waves of national and international surveys confirm our original findings: the psychosocial impact of the pandemic and responses to it are immense.

Unfortunately, the governmental approach is still divisive, using arguments such as the 90 per cent vaccinated are paying for the inaction of the 10 per cent unvaccinated, that some might be subject to more restrictive measures than others, or that vaccine hesitancy is only prompted by conspiracy seekers and non-believers of science, which is contradicted by our data showing that one-third of unvaccinated people do not hold these beliefs.

This “us against them” strategy is amplifying social division and has major psychosocial impacts, including stress and mental health issues. Our data indicates that this strategy has resulted in a significant decrease in trust toward public health authorities and governments.
Pandemic fatigue


© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Governments should act in such a way that people and communities feel that they are seen as legitimate citizens, even when they disagree with the government.

We conducted our most recent survey online from Oct. 1-17, 2021 among 10,368 adults from all regions of Québec and 1,001 adults in the rest of Canada. The results showed half of the adults from across Canada (and, in Québec, nearly two-thirds of young adults) suffer from “pandemic fatigue.”

Pandemic fatigue is a normal and expected response to chronic adversity, but when exacerbated, it can jeopardize not only how we, as communities, respond to the current crisis, as shown by our data, but also how we will react to future ones — a key ingredient in building resilient communities.

Our results showed pandemic fatigue manifests itself through anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, issues affecting 21.9 per cent, 25.6 per cent and 9.4 per cent of Canadians, respectively.

The ‘public’ in public health

There is an urgent need to rebuild a safe public space. The population and its representatives (including opposition parties, citizens’ groups and community leaders) need access to sufficient information to monitor the government’s actions, including real-time and raw COVID-19 data. They need to be able to offer criticism and propose alternative solutions, but also feel accepted despite their different viewpoints on the crisis. We must allow a return of the “public” in public health.

As underlined by the World Health Organization (WHO), governments should act in such a way that citizens and communities can regain some form of power and autonomy in their daily lives. They must feel and perceive that they are seen as legitimate citizens, even when they disagree with the government. This should be guided by five major principles: transparency, consistency, predictability, fairness and co-ordination.


© (Blouin-Genest, Généreux, Roy)

The World Health Organization’s principles favouring compliance.

The most important challenge, we argue, is one of coherence, where citizens’ questions and criticisms must be addressed directly rather than ignored, deemed irrelevant or used against those asking them. This will help increase the “sense of coherence” of affected populations, a key factor in building resilient communities.

We define a sense of coherence as a “psychological resource that helps to understand a stressful event, to give meaning to it, and to manage it.” The higher the sense of coherence is, the better we can face adversity and stressful events.

For example, our data shows that those with a high sense of coherence are three times less likely to experience anxiety and depression. The sense of coherence can be directly affected by the strategies put in place by governments and authorities to respond to crises. Our data suggests that, overall, Canadians’ sense of coherence decreased during the pandemic.

Dialogue with communities

The health emergency Canada still faces should not be underestimated, and as the WHO reiterates, the pandemic is far from over. However, not all policies and measures need to be implemented through “emergency” procedures or justified by the state of emergency, as seen widely in Canada right now. The response to COVID-19 must rely on a stronger democracy, where citizens and communities can express themselves, exchange and reflect and, by doing so, bring back meaning and coherence in their daily lives.

Dialogue with affected communities is still left aside in responses to the pandemic, amplifying skepticism and beliefs in erroneous information. Our research also underlines an increase in political polarization, deepening already existing gaps between communities.


© (Blouin-Genest, Généreux, Roy)

A crisis strategy should not be based on information moving only in one direction.

The spectrum of citizen participation can be quite diverse, but our data suggest that the current COVID-19 strategy based on the information moving only in one direction — in which citizens and communities assume very little responsibility — is a wrong one. The recognition of past mistakes, humility and better community involvement should be the cornerstones of our responses to this crisis, with citizen and community inclusion.

Bringing back dialogues between authorities and communities affected by the pandemic is a real emergency. The long-term health of individuals and communities is at stake.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Canada isn’t responding with foresight when it comes to COVID-19

Politicizing COVID-19 vaccination efforts has fuelled vaccine hesitancy

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Super Bowl Sunday: DHS bulletin warns trucker convoy could cause disruptions

By Geneva Sands,  CNN - Yesterday 

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement across the country that a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates, similar to recent protests in Ottawa, Canada, could soon begin in the US -- with the potential to affect Sunday's Super Bowl in the Los Angeles area and cause other disruptions.

A DHS bulletin issued on Tuesday to state and local officials, obtained by CNN, said the agency "has received reports of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers."

The DHS warning was first reported by Yahoo News.

"The convoy will potentially begin in California as early as mid-February and arrive in Washington, DC, as late as mid-March, potentially impacting the Super Bowl LVI scheduled for 13 February and the State of the Union Address scheduled for 1 March," the bulletin said.

"While there are currently no indications of planned violence, if hundreds of trucks converge in a major metropolitan city, the potential exists to severely disrupt transportation, federal government operations, commercial facilities, and emergency services through gridlock and potential counterprotests," the bulletin continued.

A DHS spokesperson told CNN in a statement that the department "is tracking reports of a potential convoy that may be planning to travel to several U.S. cities. We have not observed specific calls for violence within the United States associated with this convoy, and are working closely with our federal, state, and local partners to continuously assess the threat environment and keep our communities safe."

A federal law enforcement official told CNN that early last week, authorities began seeing calls on a variety of online forums for the events in Ottawa to expand into the US. The official said that law enforcement and security officials guarding the Super Bowl in Inglewood, California, are preparing for any possible disruptions.

For nearly two weeks, Canadian truckers have been protesting a new rule that requires them to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or face a two-week quarantine in their homes after they return across the US-Canadian border. Others have joined to rally against mask mandates, lockdowns, restrictions on gatherings and other Covid-19 preventative efforts in the country.

Tensions stemming from protests have simmered to the point that traffic at key US transit points has ground to a stop and a judge has temporarily banned demonstrators in the nation's capital from using horns.

DHS said it has worked for more than a year to support security measures around the Super Bowl and dedicated more than 500 individuals from the department to assist. The agency says it has also worked with federal, state and local partners to strengthen security around the US Capitol.

President Joe Biden is set to deliver the annual State of the Union address to Congress on March 1.

NZ

Wellington unleashes parking wardens in operation to remove Covid protesters

Tess McClure in Auckland -
The Guardian


New Zealand officialdom is wielding a new frontline force against the Ottawa-inspired anti-vaccine convoy occupying the capital’s inner city: parking wardens.

Since Tuesday, Wellington has faced traffic delays and closed streets, as a collective of anti-vaccine-mandate protesters left cars, vans and buses parked in the capital city in their effort to occupy parliament’s lawn.

By Thursday afternoon, the protesters’ time was up, and the wardens hit the streets, apparently with popular support from the city’s residents.

Related: New Zealand police clash with anti-vaccine protesters at parliament, over 120 arrested

Wellington city council said it had issued about 120 tickets, and was still dishing out fines. Each warden was accompanied by two police officers for their safety. Fines of NZ$40-$60 (£20-£30) apiece were issued for parking in bus stops, on yellow lines, and the broader charge of “inconsiderate parking”. Those who opted to remain and ignore their fines would be towed, a spokesperson said.

The council said it had received demands from frustrated Wellingtonians that they start issuing tickets and an outpouring of support – a rare occurrence for parking wardens, who are not always viewed with universal affection by residents.

The council had been “a heavy amount” of correspondence “from Wellingtonians about the fact that we need to get in there and sock it to these protesters basically”, a spokesperson said.

“The amount of support we’ve had … is very, you know, very unusual for parking wardens – they don’t usually get support for enforcement.”

On social media, some protesters and their affiliates took novel approaches to enforcement efforts – with some advising that if they refused to provide consent to be arrested or issued a ticket, it was not legally binding. Others believed they could issue their own counter-fine of $40,000 to the council for breaching their wishes by putting a ticket on the car.

“Let’s see whether that works for them,” the council spokesperson said. “That’s not our concern. Regardless of whether we have their consent, they will be towed.”

New Zealanders who object to the vaccine make up a small fragment of the overall population – 95% of those aged 12 and over are now vaccinated with two doses. Estimates of the convoy protesters’ numbers have fluctuated as the crowd wanes – from up to 3,000 down to about 1-200.

Is that a nuclear plant? Behind the Beijing Olympics Big Air Shougang stadium

By Lianne Kolirin, Nectar Gan and Tom Booth 

CNN

Winter Olympians are accustomed to performing their awe-inspiring feats against the backdrop of spectacular snow-capped mountains.

But Beijing's Big Air Shougang Olympic venue is drawing attention for its much edgier, urban setting.

Behind the skiers launching themselves off the 60-meter-high (196-foot) ramp are furnaces, tall chimney stacks and cooling towers on the site of a former steel mill that for decades contributed to the Chinese capital's notoriously polluted skies.

The mill, founded in 1919, ceased operations more than 15 years ago, as part of efforts to clear the air in the capital ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

That left a large stretch of prime city center land, ripe for rehabilitation and regeneration, says engineering and design company ARUP, which transformed the site into a bustling hub for tourism and art exhibitions, in 2013 it even played host to an electronic music festival.

The rusty, aging remnants of the mill were never demolished -- not even for the big air jump at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Instead, the old mill has been incorporated into Big Air Shougang's design. One of the cooling towers even bears the logo for the Games.

The jump has captured the attention of social media users, in part for the mountains of fake snow generated to host the event, but also due to intrigue over what these towers are and why they're still standing, right behind the jump.

Some Twitter users wondered if it might be a nuclear plant.

"The Big Air stadium at the Olympics seems to be right next to the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant," a user by the name of @jlove1982 wrote.

Another, @LindsayMpls, wrote: "Feels pretty dystopian to have some kind of nuclear facility as the backdrop for this Big Air skiing event."

The Shougang Big Air is the world's first permanent big air venue for long-term usage. It sits on the bank of the Qunming Lake, on the west side of the cooling towers at 88 meters (288 feet) above sea level, according to architecture firm TeamMinus, which designed the jump.


© Fred Lee/Getty ImagesA view of the big air slope for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at Shougang Industrial Park.

TeamMinus outlined the inspiration behind its design on its website, citing the influence of Chinese flying apsaras, celestial beings which appear in both Buddhist and Hindu cultures.

The Beijing government calls the site a "Green and Eco Demonstration Area," according to ARUP, that could be scaled up in other parts of the country.

While the regeneration project is a good example of how to repurpose aging infrastructure, the mill's closure was not necessarily a "green" decision, as operations -- and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with steelmaking -- were in actual fact moved to another part of the country.


© David Ramos/Getty Images

Nicholas Goepper of Team United States during the Men's Freestyle Skiing

 Freeski Big Air Qualification.

In 2005, the entire production plant, which is owned and operated by state-owned steel company the Shougang Group, relocated to Caofeidian, in the adjoining Hebei Province, according to ARUP.

The decision to move the plant was part of the Beijing government's economic restructuring and pollution control initiatives.

China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases fueling the climate crisis, producing more than a quarter of the world's annual emissions.

The Big Air is not the first element of the Beijing games to raise questions about the games' environmental credentials. The artificial snow being generated for the Games is made using large quantities of water and electricity.

A recent CNN report also showed how the Yanqing venue was built in the former core area of the Songshan National Nature Reserve, a park founded in 1985 to protect its dense forests, alpine meadows and rich biodiversity.

The Beijing Organizing Committee did not respond to CNN's request for comment over whether it was aware the ski center was built inside the former core area of the nature reserve. But in a reply to CNN, the IOC said the development of the Yanqing zone is "transforming the region -- a rural suburb of Beijing -- into a major four-season tourism destination, improving lives and boosting the local economy."

This story has been updated to reflect the events that take place in Shougang.


© Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

New Zealand's Finn Bilous competes during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Big Air Shougang.


© Antonin ThuillierAFP/Getty Images

Britain's Katie Summerhayes competing on Monday.