Largest US public power company launches new nuclear program


The largest public power company in the U.S. is launching a program to develop and fund new small modular nuclear reactors as part of its strategy to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The board for the Tennessee Valley Authority on Thursday authorized the program to assess moving forward with new nuclear technology, with up to $200 million to be spent for the first phase. The TVA wants the technology to be available to help power the grid in the 2030s if it proves cost-effective and necessary, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves. The board met at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The federally owned utility provides electricity to seven states. It has the first U.S. permit for a suitable site for small modular reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, at the Clinch River Nuclear Site. By 2050, it hopes to hit its goal of net-zero emissions, which means the amount of greenhouse gases produced is no more than the amount removed from the atmosphere.

“Our objective isn’t to build one nuclear plant,” TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash said in an interview. “Our objective is to reach net zero carbon, to support economy-wide decarbonization, and to do it at a price and a level of reliability that people can count on. And this is a part of doing that.”

A recent Associated Press survey of the energy policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia found that a strong majority — about two-thirds — say nuclear, in one fashion or another, will help take the place of fossil fuels. Roughly one-third of the states and the District of Columbia have no plans to incorporate nuclear power in their green energy goals, instead leaning heavily on renewables to try to stave off the worst effects of a warming planet.

The split over nuclear power in U.S. states mirrors a similar debate unfolding in Europe, where countries including Germany are phasing out their reactors while others, such as France, are sticking with the technology or planning to build more plants. The head of the U.N. nuclear agency said in November that he sees atomic power playing a key role in balancing climate concerns and the world’s energy needs.

Lyash said the TVA can reduce carbon emissions by about 80% using solar and wind power, existing nuclear plants and hydroelectric dams, and by reducing demand through energy efficiency efforts, without sacrificing reliable, resilient, low-cost power.

But the smaller nuclear reactors that companies are developing now are crucial to getting the rest of the way and increasing electricity production, along with other new technologies, he added. The utility now operates three nuclear plants — the nation’s third largest nuclear fleet — to supply more than 40% of the region's energy.

Lyash told the board Thursday that for the Clinch River site, the TVA is focused on GE Hitachi's design for a small modular reactor that uses light water like all U.S. commercial reactors. The TVA is also collaborating with Kairos Power to build a test reactor, a demonstration project that wouldn't be for commercial use, in Oak Ridge.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has cautioned that nuclear technology still comes with significant risks that other low-carbon energy sources don’t, including the danger of accidents or targeted attacks for both the radioactive waste and the reactors, and the unresolved question of how to store hazardous nuclear waste.

Grant Smith, a senior energy policy adviser at the Environmental Working Group, said small reactors are going to be a “total financial debacle” because the cost of nuclear power never comes down, with costs and risks shifted to ratepayers.

“You really don’t need them," he said in an interview. "Why keep dumping money into a technology that has been a financial disaster from the beginning?”

The TVA had plans decades ago to build 17 large reactors at seven sites. The utility sank more than $8 billion in the 1970s and 1980s into 10 nuclear reactors that were canceled before they were finished — scrapping most of what then was the nation’s most costly and ambitious nuclear program.

Lyash said they're now taking a far more conservative approach: They're not launching into a program to build multiple reactors on multiple sites because they've learned many lessons over 50 years. If one reactor can't be planned and built on schedule and on budget, they won't scale up, he added.

The initial funding will be used for the design, licensing and project development to potentially build GE Hitachi's reactor.

State-regulated utilities could face skepticism over the potential cost to customers of nuclear reactors, though. Two more-traditional large nuclear reactors being built in Georgia have more than doubled in overall cost, to more than $28 billion. Similar reactors that were under construction in South Carolina were scrapped, driving a utility to be sold in distress and resulting in a criminal conviction of the former CEO for fraud.

The NRC has approved just one of the new, small modular reactor designs: from an Oregon company called NuScale Power, in August 2020. Several other companies are planning to apply for their designs. That includes a project by Bill Gates’ company, TerraPower, in Wyoming, the nation’s largest coal-producing state.

____

Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press

Catholic Bishops Indigenous Reconciliation Fund names its Board Of Directors


(ANNews) – On January 28, 2022 it was announced by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) that the organization would be creating a new registered charity to advance healing and reconciliation initiatives.

The Indigenous Reconciliation Fund will be operated by a six-member board of directors, which includes Wilton Littlechild, a former commissioner on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).

Other Indigenous people part of the board include: Giselle Marion, born and raised in Behchokǫ̀, NT; and Rosella Kinoshameg, an Odawa/Ojibway woman from the Wikwemikong unceded First Nation Territory.

Natale Gallo, Claude Bédard and Barbara Dowding are also members of the corporation.

“The Bishops of Canada are fully committed to addressing the historical and ongoing trauma caused by the residential school system,” said Bishop Raymond Poisson, President of the CCCB. “In moving forward with our collective financial commitment, we will continue to be guided by the experience and wisdom of Indigenous peoples across the country”.

The CCCB has said that they will accept contributions granted to this end by the 73 dioceses across the country in order to fulfill the $30 million commitment made by the Canadian Bishops in September.

Furthermore, the organization has said that the fund will publish annual reports and will be subject to an audit by an independent accounting firm each year. Any administrative costs will be on top of the $30 million being raised and will not be deducted from the principal amount.

On top of that, the CCCB said that they will also establish Regional and/or Diocesan Granting Committees in order to identify projects that further the fund’s priorities, review applications and request funds to support such projects.

While specific disbursement guidelines will be informed by additional input from Indigenous partners, the CCCB intends to contribute to the following priorities:

Healing and reconciliation for communities and families;

Culture and language revitalization;

Education and community building; and

Dialogues for promoting Indigenous spirituality and culture.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend residential schools: boarding schools funded by the Canadian government and run by Catholic Church institutions that aimed to assimilate indigenous youth into Euro-Canadian culture.

Overall, some 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children were forced to attend these schools between the 1870s and 1997.

The resulting trauma caused by the schools led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007 and a formal public apology by (then) Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008.

Additionally, a seven-year inquiry by the TRC that concluded in 2015 determined that over 4,000 children died while attending these schools, many due to abuse, negligence, or disease.

Littlechild, former Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, and a residential school survivor said that in addition to physical and sexual abuse, as a form of denigration they called him #65. In an interview that aired on “Sixty Minutes” he told Anderson Cooper, “They didn’t kill my spirit. So, I’m still Cree. I’m still who I am. I’m not 65. My name is Mahigan Pimoteyw. So, they didn’t kill my spirit.”

Jacob Cardinal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News

Schizophrenia's origins in the brain may have been found - study

By AARON REICH - 
by The Jerusalem Post  



Schizophrenia is one of the most infamous mental illnesses around, affecting around 20 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO,) and with a wide range of symptoms such as hallucinations, memory loss, paranoia and more. But exactly how it forms has never been exactly understood by experts

But a new study may have changed that, pinpointing where in the brain it likely originates.

Published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Nature Communications, the study identified these locations by focusing on a specific protein that was associated with schizophrenia. Based on its location, it shows where in the brain the mental illness comes from, which can pave the way to a greater understanding of the psychiatric disorder and could lead to improved treatment in the future.
What is schizophrenia? What are its symptoms?

Schizophrenia is a mental illness, a psychiatric disorder that can cause a wide range of different symptoms.


Mental health [illustrative] (credit: PIXABAY)

It is chiefly characterized by psychotic episodes when someone loses touch with reality in a variety of ways. The condition also can cause altered perceptions such as hallucinations, hearing voices that aren't there and other sensory distortions. It can also cause delusions, which can mean severe and irrational paranoia or other beliefs unsupported by any facts and can also cause disorganized speaking and thinking.

The effects on the brain can also lead to memory and information processing issues, trouble making decisions and paying attention. It can also manifest in severe social withdrawal and functionality, less ability to feel pleasure and a flat effect, which is defined as not using facial expressions or tone of voice to convey expressions.
How do you get schizophrenia?

There are a number of things experts have deduced about this, which have been documented by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH).

For one thing, though it is possible for symptoms to manifest at a young age, typically schizophrenia only begins to show in adolescence.

Theories exist that environmental influence can play a role, like stressful surroundings, viruses, nutritional problems before birth and living in poverty.

What we do know is that the condition seems to be, to an extent, hereditary and genetic. However, being in the same family as someone who has schizophrenia does not mean you for sure will. Exactly how this genetic process works is not fully understood, and it is not yet possible to test it with genetic information.
So where does it come from in the brain?

That's where the new study comes in.

Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences focused on a specific protein known as synapse-associated protein 97, also known as SAP97.

This protein itself is rather mysterious, and scientists know it exists but don't really understand what it does or where it does it. In fact, prior studies on SAP97 have brought back conflicting data.

What was determined over the course of many different studies over the years was that SAP97 plays some kind of role in schizophrenia. More specifically, an association between schizophrenia and when SAP97 isn't able to properly function and do whatever it is supposed to do.

This exact link has been highlighted in different ways. One study noted a gene encoded in SAP97, DLG1, was identified as a possible hub of schizophrenia-related activity. Mutations in SAP97 were also spotted in schizophrenia patients, and mutations resulting in losing a DLG1 allele were noted to cause one to be 40 times more likely to develop schizophrenia.
Why does this happen?

Scientists could never quite determine that. While it seemed certain that SAP97 and its gene DLG1 played a role in schizophrenia when they were not able to function properly, the fact that no one understood what SAP97 does in the first place has made it frustratingly difficult to actually understand this process at all.

Making this even more confusing is that SAP97 is at the very least known to be what is known as a Membrane-Associated Guanylate Kinase (MAGUK) protein. This would mean that it should be regulating glutamatergic signaling between neurons in the brain and influence the creation and storage of memories. However, it has never been shown doing this at all.
The study

So if SAP97 isn't present where it should be, where is it?

To find this out, the researchers in the new study decided to look elsewhere.

SAP97 was not in any of the parts of the brain it would traditionally be present in. So with that in mind, the researchers looked at a place that was instead linked, in theory, to schizophrenia.

That location is the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that controls contextual episodic memory, which is the conscious recollection of life experiences. Essentially, this is where you would remember what happened when it happened and where it happened.

And as mentioned earlier, this type of memory is often distorted and altered in schizophrenia, which could mean that the dentate gyrus, which controls this type of memory, would be altered in someone with schizophrenia.

And if SAP97 is linked to this, then maybe, the mysterious protein could be found there as well.

So the scientists got to work. They examined the brains of rats with damaged SAP97 and looked at the dentate gyrus for changes.

And they found them.

When SAP97 function is reduced, the neurons in the dentate gyrus had extreme spikes in glutamatergic signaling. This type of spike produces severe alterations in contextual episodic memory, a classic symptom of schizophrenia.

Since SAP97 was inhibited, the implication is that the mysterious protein's job is to regulate glutamatergic signaling in the dentate gyrus.

This is a major breakthrough in identifying the role and location of this protein in the brain and indicating where schizophrenia symptoms may emerge.

And the researchers hope to build on this, launching further studies to look for other areas of the brain where SAP97 may be active, and try to find if other mutations linked to schizophrenia may cause similar glutamatergic signaling increases as it does in the dentate gyrus.

Consequently, knowing more about this condition can lead to better treatment options.

Currently, the most common treatment for schizophrenia is antipsychotic medication alongside therapy and social support. However, these medications can have a host of side effects that can be very disruptive to daily life, which has led people to stop taking them. However, that can be extremely dangerous and may make symptoms worsen. Further, medications don't always work for everyone, or fully treat all symptoms. Some even need to use other drugs like clozapine, though that can have serious side effects and regular blood testing is needed, which can be difficult – though a recent innovation by Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev hopes to change that.

More effective treatment can make life better for millions of people with schizophrenia around the world.

University researcher Vanessa Gray defends the land and her actions

Vanessa Gray — University of Toronto researcher, member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Indigenous land protector — sees herself as an educator. But in the eyes of the Canadian justice system, she is a criminal.

She has been arrested twice in her work as a land protector, and she says she interacts with law enforcement and security guards often. Still, the threat of police and criminalization is worth it for Gray — and for a reason. She grew up adjacent to Ontario’s Chemical Valley, which houses over 40 per cent of Canada’s petrochemical industry (that’s over 60 plants in a 25-kilometre radius).

“I know first-hand what environmental racism feels like, smells like, and how it emotionally sits on my shoulders every day,” Gray told Canada’s National Observer.

Gray says these days she is often in court, sometimes in class-action lawsuits, other times as a defendant in a criminal case.

In 2015, she was arrested for locking herself to a valve in a demonstration against the Line 9 pipeline that carries crude oil from Sarnia, Ont., to Quebec. All charges against her were dropped two years later.

In 2019, Gray was assaulted at a Liberal climate rally after disrupting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s speech. She was detained by police after the incident; the man who threw her to the ground wasn’t.

In December 2021, police arrived at her apartment lobby and Gray discovered there was a warrant out for her arrest over her alleged involvement in a solidarity action supporting land protectors on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory, who were the subject of a high-profile RCMP raid the month before.

Gray has been charged with three counts of mischief under $5,000, interference with property, causing disturbance, loitering, unlawful assembly, trespassing and failure to give the right of way. The case is currently before the court.

When Gray turned herself in, she was with friends and family. She defiantly wore a ribbon skirt to declare her connection to the land and her role in protecting it, which has made her a target.

Gray’s lawyer told her what was going to happen once she turned herself in, but the reality, she says, was different. She alleges Canadian Pacific Railway police handcuffed her behind her back while they brought her from Division 11 in downtown Toronto to CP police headquarters in Scarborough.

You've spoken before about a pattern of law enforcement seeking to silence Indigenous land defenders and suppress Indigenous organizing. Can you talk about the tactic of persistent criminalization when it comes to Indigenous land defenders?

It’s hard for me to understand how this criminalization persists when we all know what colonization did and continues to do to our communities. I’ve done a lot of research on police violence, I have seen it, and my recent arrest was not the first time I experienced it. Even now, I overestimate the police’s quickness to resort to violence. Like other Indigenous women, I am afraid of the police. But the moment we start second-guessing our actions is when the fear of police stops us from protecting our communities. But we just have to remember who we are as Indigenous peoples. We are going to get a lot of pushback from that, but that’s when we know we’re doing something right: when Canada sees us as a threat. So I will not see myself as a criminal, just as my grandpa didn’t see himself as a criminal when he was taken to residential school.

There is a documented history of police surveillance of Indigenous land defenders. Vancouver Observer investigated this type of police scrutiny as far back as 2013; the book Policing Indigenous Movements does the same. Is police surveillance ever on your mind?

Of course. I think about how much funding gets sunk into police budgets and how much the RCMP continues to surveil Indigenous land protectors across Canada. For many years, the OPP (Ontario Police Service) called me, texted me, and reached out to me asking me to go for coffee or lunch because they just want to know what’s going on, and I didn’t even realize it was illegal or unjust for them to behave that way. The hardest part about the surveillance — besides the police harassing me or showing up unannounced with no paperwork to explain their presence — is that being surveilled and criminalized impacts the people I care about most in the world, like my nephews. But then I remember that I’m doing this for them; I want them to be able to live on their territories unafraid and unsurveilled.

How do you find balance despite everything? What keeps you going? I know that I’m supported by ancestors and by my community. I also find relief in researching colonial and police violence in Canada. I work as a researcher at an Indigenous-led lab at the University of Toronto where I work on issues that directly affect the health of the lands in my home community, Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Through my work, I hope that the communities impacted by the harms of the oil industry and police can find the strength, solidarity and tools to help the next generation resist policing and industrial violence.

Matteo Cimellaro / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer, Canada's National Observer

I'm a UPS driver. I'm paid well and like the solitude, but management still makes me want to quit most days.

insider@insider.com (Jenny Powers) -

© Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesA UPS truck in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Robert Alexander/Getty Images

Insider recently spoke to a longtime UPS driver about their job. They requested anonymity to protect it.

The driver said the job has its perks — solitude, pay, and sometimes scenic routes — but can also be unpredictable.

This is their story, as told to writer Jenny Powers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with a longtime UPS driver. They spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their job, but their employment has been verified by Insider. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

As a UPS delivery driver for many years, I've experienced everything from the good and the bad to the downright ugly.

The delivery job itself is an ideal fit for me because I tend to be a loner

With the exception of the 20 minutes in the morning when I'm inside the building to pick up my truck filled to the brim with packages, I'm on my own all day without any supervisors or co-workers, and that's how I prefer it.

Seniority, which is solely based on your start date, is literally everything to drivers. As a member of the Teamster's union and a full-time driver averaging a 50-hour workweek, I gained enough seniority last year to bid on and win a dedicated route, which is a pretty big deal.

I have the same route, vehicle, and truck loader every day

Having the same route every day — instead of picking up routes as they're available — makes a major difference as far as quality of life goes.

A route only becomes available when a driver retires, gets fired or transitions to the tractor-trailer division, so they're hard to come by. When one does open up, management posts a physical notice outlining all the route details and it stays posted in the office for two weeks.

During that time, drivers are able to bid on the route by adding their name and seniority date to the list. The person with the most seniority automatically wins.

After two weeks, the driver with the most seniority is offered that particular route which they have the right to accept or deny. If they turn it down, it goes to the next person in line in terms of seniority. If they accept and they already have a dedicated route, then their route opens up and bids are taken on that route. At times, it's like a domino effect and can affect multiple drivers and routes.

Bidding on a route is a huge decision. If you bid on one and accept it and wind up hating it, you could be stuck on it for years. I even declined some routes before finally bidding on the one I have.

Like most UPS drivers, I was a 'cover' driver before I locked in a regular route

Being a cover driver meant I would show up for my shift and pretty much be at the mercy of management, who would assign me a different route and truck every single day. It's kind of an unnerving experience, because it's like starting from scratch each morning and working out of someone else's workspace.

My route involves a lot more driving than actual delivering, which suits me just fine because I enjoy driving. On average, I drive around 125 miles a day and deliver 225 or more packages.

Most days, I brown-bag it and spend my lunch hour eating inside my truck. But since my route takes me along the Atlantic Ocean during the warmer months, I pack my swim trunks and hit the beach, which is a great way to break up an otherwise monotonous workday. It's one of the primary reasons I wanted this route in the first place.
But even with a regular route, there's no telling when your workday will end

Until you get to work, you don't have any idea how many stops you'll have or what traffic conditions will be like.

Every morning when I leave the house, my wife asks what time I'll be home. All I can do is shrug my shoulders because it's definitely not a 9-to-5 job. Some days you can get everything done in nine hours; other times it can take 14 hours. That kind of inconsistency makes it difficult to have a life outside of work, especially when you have a family like I do.

For the most part, I enjoy my work and get paid well

It's an hourly position with overtime kicking in after eight hours on the job. We get paid time off, medical benefits, and a pension, which one day I hope to be able to retire on. But when it comes to management, I'm pretty bitter.

For example, despite our contract stipulating that we are entitled to sick and personal days — as well as bereavement time — trying to take it is a whole other story.

I've been grilled and made to feel guilty about taking off the very time I earn, and I'm not the only one who has experienced this. There's always pushback because if there aren't enough drivers, it means a supervisor or manager would have to cover the route, which is the absolute last thing they want to do.

If it wasn't for the union, this job wouldn't be worth it

While the day-to-day hassles can be frustrating, there's way more serious stuff. For example, our local union recently won a class-action suit against UPS. The lawsuit centered on UPS routinely deducting money from 6,000 employee paychecks without their consent and donating the funds to the United Way to pad the company's charitable giving.

We won a $1.3 million settlement in the lawsuit, and UPS agreed to refund the money along with a 40% penalty.

There's been a lot of talk in the news about unfair practices and treatment of Amazon and FedEx drivers, and I speak from personal experience when I say UPS is no better. Somehow, they just do a better job keeping it under wraps. Although it's years away, every day I countdown how many I have left until I can get the hell out.

Drivers are the reason UPS is able to run, and sometimes our bosses forget that. We show up every day to deliver packages and make people happy — well, most people.

For some spouses, they see us pulling up their driveway and their mind immediately starts racing to try and calculate how much whatever is in the box is going to cost them.

Ian McDonald, Founding Member of Foreigner and King Crimson, Dies at 75

Chris Willman - Yesterday 

Variety
© Courtesy Kayos Productions



Ian McDonald, a multi-instrumentalist who was part of the founding lineups of the art-rock group King Crimson in the late 1960s and the more commercial Foreigner in the mid-’70s, died Wednesday at age 75. No cause of death was immediately given but a spokesperson said he “passed away peacefully” surrounded by family at his home in New York City.

Among the hits he played on were such platinum Foreigner radio staples as “Hot Blooded,” “Cold as Ice,” “Feels Like the First Time” and “Double Vision.”
More from Variety

Bill Rieflin, Drummer for King Crimson, Ministry, R.E.M., Dies at 59

“I’m quite proud of the fact that the two bands I was a founding member of, King Crimson and Foreigner, are still out there playing,” McDonald said in a 2020 interview with Sound & Vision, even though he had little interest in reunions or rejoining the current iterations of those groups. McDonald, original Foreigner singer Lou Gramm and some other original members did come back together to play some 40th anniversary shows commemorating the 40th anniversary of that band’s 1977 debut.

With King Crimson, McDonald played keyboard and woodwinds, and added guitar to his performing repertoire when he was part of the startup lineup for Foreigner’s first three albums. “Because I didn’t play guitar at all on the ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’ album, sometimes, people are surprised that I do play guitar,” he told Sound & Vision. “Songs like ‘The Court of the Crimson King’ and ‘I Talk to the Wind’ were actually composed on guitar, but I don’t have a guitar credit on the album since I didn’t play guitar on the album.”

McDonald only stayed with King Crimson for one album, the group’s 1969 debut “In the Court of the Crimson King,” but was considered instrumental in establishing the prog-rock sound that still had iterations of the band surviving a half-century later.

“I used to have regrets about that, and that I should have stayed at least through the second album,” McDonald said about leaving the group in a 2019 interview with thelosangelesbeat.com. “But now I don’t regret it because had I stayed, things would have turned out very differently for me up until this moment… I’m very happy with the way things have played out since then.” Of the band’s serious image, McDonald said, “It was fun! It was done with a tremendous amount of humor. The image of King Crimson is sort of this monstrous band, but it was so much fun! We were just having a laugh.”

Talking about that debut album’s endurance, he said, “Without sounding conceited… in one sense it doesn’t surprise me because one thing I tried to do as the main producer was be very careful to have every moment be able to be listened to hundreds of times, so that hopefully the album would withstand the test of time. Here we are 50 years later, and people are still talking about it.”

McDonald also served as a session musician, appearing on T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” in between his Crimson and Foreigner stints, among other recordings.

In recent years, McDonald had played with the straight-ahead New York rock band Honey West, with frontman Ted Zurkowski.

McDonald is survived by his son, Maxwell McDonald.

Black History Month should be time for celebration, reflection: organizers

Black History Month doesn’t have to be just a time to reflect upon trailblazers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for racial justice and equity, it should be a time to celebrate people young and old who are still fighting the fight and achieving significant milestones, according to Phiona Durrant, founder of the Aurora Black Community (ABC) Association.

This was a message Ms. Durrant delivered alongside colleagues from the Aurora Black Caucus and the Town’s Anti-Black Racism and Anti-Racism Task Force at Town Hall last Tuesday to mark the start of Black History Month and the raising of the Pan-African flag outside the municipal offices.

“We know there is oppression involved [in Black History] but that does not define who we are,” she said. “Black is awesome, Black is beautiful, courageous, intelligent. We are authors, presidents, teachers, lawyers, house cleaners (and I love to clean a good house!), we’re everything! So, today, when we celebrate Black History month, I hope you don’t remember just the ones who were killed; just remember we’re excellent [and] we’re filled with potential.

“No matter what you’re fighting for, someone is going to stand against it. ‘What’s the difference between raising this flag and everything else? What will change? The flag will be raised, everybody will get their photos, and we will go back to our beds, roll over, and nothing happens.’ I am telling you what will change. What will change is you finding the courage to speak up. I don’t care if you’re White – don’t tell me you’re White so you can’t speak – this flag is not just raised for Black people. Jean Augustine (the first Black Canadian woman to serve in Federal Cabinet) says, ‘Black history is Canadian history, not only Black people.’ When you make excuses, for your colour, for why you don’t speak and show up, I forgive you.”

Dozens of people from all different backgrounds attended last week’s ceremony, including MP Leah Taylor Roy, MPP Michael Parsa, Mayor Tom Mrakas, and Councillors Wendy Gaertner, John Gallo, Rachel Gilliland, Sandra Humfryes, Harold Kim, and Michael Thompson.

Taking her chance to speak up, Taylor Roy said that as proud as Canadians are of their history, “there are things about our history we’re not as proud of.”

“I think acknowledging that and moving forward to make sure that those things don’t happen again, that we really fight hard to ensure there is no more discrimination, that we all work together, and that those of us who are allies realize that the work that has to be done is not for the Black community alone – it is for all of us,” she said.

Added Parsa: “All forms of racial injustice and inequality should never be tolerated anywhere. This should be the focus of not just the month of February but every single day of the year. I encourage all of you to reflect and learn about the contributions Black Ontarians have and continue to have in our Province. We must all find ways to contribute and make our communities free from racism, inequality and discrimination.”

Stories of contributions made by everyday Black Ontarians were shared by Mark Lewis, Chair of the Town’s Anti-Black Racism and Anti-Racism Task Force. He shared poignant stories of the pioneers in his own family, including his educator father, mother, and grandfather.

“Black History Month is a time to reflect upon and celebrate the accomplishments of our ancestors,” said Lewis. “While we push forward and build upon their legacy, it is important to recognize not only the pioneers in our struggles to achieve equality in society but our hometown heroes.”

His grandfather was a teacher and principal in The Grenadines prior to coming to Canada. His father followed in his footsteps as a high school teacher after achieving his Engineering degree from McGill University.

“An engineering degree from McGill carries a lot of clout in this country, but for a Black man in the sixties, it did not guarantee employability due to racism,” he shared. “It was at this point my dad followed in their footsteps and taught in the North York Board of Education for two years before going back to school to earn a Masters Degree in Education from Queen’s University.

“His hard work, coupled with the drive of my hard-working mother, who was a middle school English teacher and librarian in East York, one of the most diverse and low-income neighbourhoods in the GTA – their work afforded my sister and I the privilege of growing up in Markham in the 80s, a town at the time not unlike Aurora, about to experience exponential growth and struggle.

“I am proud to be an Aurora resident. I am also proud of the struggles of my parents that shaped my development. It is important for us to take time and reflect upon the legacies of our forefathers and mothers. As Nelson Mandela once elegantly stated, ‘The history of struggle is rich with the stories of heroes and heroines. Some of them leaders, some of them followers, all of them deserve to be remembered.’”

For Milton Hart, head of the Aurora Black Caucus, these leaders include Durrant as well as Jerisha Grant-Hall, Chair of the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association.

“These women are doing a fantastic job and will go down as part of Canadian history,” said Hart. “It should be Black History Year. It should also be a situation where Black history is woven into our curriculum. It should be woven into every facet of our media. There is a very simple truth I want to convey here: Black history is indeed Canadian history. Yes, we can talk about racism. We should indeed talk about the atrocities of the past. But we cannot forget Viola Desmond. We should talk about societal ills, but we can’t forget about someone like Garrett Morgan, whose work gave us the three-light stoplight. We can talk about the atrocities of the past, but we should never forget Lewis Latimer, whose work gave us the electric bulb.

“I’m here because some folks, White, Black, people from every race decided not to settle. I am here because people from ever race decided to stand up so that I could run. They decided to sit so I could move around. Let’s learn from Black history in order to bring honour to the stalwarts on whose shoulders we stand on. Indeed, we stand on the shoulders of giants. Indeed, we stand on the shoulders of people who just wouldn’t settle, people who resisted. Every single civil rights movement that we have come to know only gained traction because people from every single race decided to stand up.”

Brock Weir, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Auroran

SEE 

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BLACK HISTORY MONTH 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BLACK HISTORY 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T STATE

Failed coup puts spotlight back on Guinea-Bissau's role in cocaine trade


By Aaron Ross

BISSAU (Reuters) - In October, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo told French radio that drug trafficking and corruption were over in Guinea-Bissau, a country that has struggled to shake off its reputation as a "narco state" of West Africa.


© Reuters/AARON ROSSA view of the government palace in the capital city of Bissau

Those words rang hollow a few months later. Fierce gunfire interrupted a cabinet meeting Embalo was presiding over, and within hours of the deadly Feb. 1 attack he described it as a failed coup attempt possibly linked to the drugs trade.


© Reuters/AARON ROSSA RPG is stuck in a tree after last week coup attempt in the capital Bissau

At a news conference on Thursday, Embalo said three soldiers who were arrested by U.S. drug authorities in a 2013 sting operation and pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking had been detained in connection with the attack.

Embalo said he personally saw two - Captain Tchamy Yala and Lieutenant Papis Djeme - during the assault and that ex-navy commander Bubo Na Tchuto was coordinating the coup attempt from navy headquarters.

"When the shots were being fired in the Government Palace, Bubo was at the navy headquarters ... and I heard the assailants say we are going to call him to send us reinforcements.

"Bubo was arrested in uniform - someone who is not on active duty ... That shows the intention," Embalo said.

Reuters has not been able to reach the three men for comment.

Embalo suggested the attack, in which the government said seven security personnel defending the president, three government workers and one assailant were killed, was retaliation for his efforts to crack down on drug trafficking.

"When I committed to this fight against corruption and narco-trafficking, I think that I signed my death warrant," he said.

But some politicians and regional analysts have questioned this, saying drug smuggling has persisted under Embalo's watch and the attack was more likely related to trafficking groups and their political backers competing for the spoils.

"I think it's a conflict between all the factions that participate in the government or some of the factions," said Manuel dos Santos, a senior member of the main opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde.

"And it is probably related to drug trafficking."

The president's uncle Mussa Embalo, until recently an adviser, said Embalo had shaken up the leadership of the navy and judicial police to better combat drug trafficking.

"There are successes and setbacks. We need (the) assistance of our international partners," he told Reuters.

COCAINE HUB

Most people in the capital believe the intense, five-hour gun battle was, in one way or another, tied to narcotics.

It is an indication that, despite false dawns in recent years, Guinea-Bissau remains vulnerable to instability that some top officials blame on the illicit trade.

Embalo said at the news conference that many military officers and politicians continue to be involved in the drugs trade.

Asked how he reconciled that position with his remarks in October that trafficking was no longer a problem, he did not directly answer.

Defence Minister Sandji Fati declined to be interviewed for this article. An armed forces spokesman did not respond to questions on whether officers were involved in the cocaine trade.

The country of two million people emerged as a major cocaine trafficking hub in the 2000s, according to experts.

Guinea-Bissau's location on West Africa's Atlantic coast and lax law enforcement made it attractive to cartels, they said.

By sending their product first to Guinea-Bissau or neighbouring countries and then on a separate ship or plane to Europe or the United States, they could avoid scrutiny typically reserved for cargoes originating in South America.

There were no major cocaine busts in West Africa from 2014 to 2018, leading some to question whether the region had fallen out of favour with traffickers or managed to clean up its act.

But a spate of record seizures in 2019 from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal and Cape Verde put paid to those hopes, and some experts believe the region's current role is substantial at a time of record global cocaine production.

"Guinea-Bissau is one of the rapidly rising West African countries used as a point of transit for drug trafficking on the route to Europe," the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's regional representative for West and Central Africa, Amado Philip de Andrés, told Reuters.

While he noted some positive developments in recent years, most of which pre-dated Embalo, he said more needed to be done.

"There are still grounds for improvement in Guinea-Bissau, particularly in terms of bringing perpetrators to justice."

For Guinea-Bissau, the repercussions from the trade are serious.

Residents of Bissau, which has experienced around a dozen coups or attempted coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, said in the wake of the Feb. 1 bloodshed that they could not recall an incident of such intense violence.

When Reuters reporters visited the Government Palace three days after the attack, hundreds of shell casings lay strewn on the ground near dried pools of blood, and bullet holes pockmarked all four sides of the main building.

An unexploded rocket-propelled grenade was wedged between the branches of a palm tree. Another was lodged in a wall.

Witnesses in the neighbourhood said ministers had fled the compound on foot into the dirt roads behind the compound, seeking refuge in surrounding buildings.

Embalo said he hid in a side office for five hours with his justice minister and two guards.

"I said: 'we stay here but you leave the door open ... because when the door is open, people think that there is no one inside.'"

TACKLING THE PROBLEM

Two law enforcement sources said that they detected an uptick in activity related to cocaine smuggling in Guinea-Bissau throughout 2020, the year that Embalo took office.

A Western diplomat said he thought Embalo was sincere about wanting to crack down on trafficking but that he was constrained by the military's influence.

Embalo, a former army general, has refused to hand over former armed forces chief Antonio Indjai to U.S. authorities, who last year offered up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. Indjai was indicted in U.S. court in 2013 on narcotics trafficking charges.

Indjai denies the allegations, and Embalo said he is prevented by national law from extraditing a Guinea-Bissau citizen.

The two men appeared in a photograph at the presidency that was published in local news reports and shared on social media shortly after Embalo's inauguration in February 2020.

Musso Embalo, the uncle, said the photo with Indjai and other senior officers was taken to show the support of the Balanta, Guinea-Bissau's largest ethnic group, for Embalo, who is Fulani.

Indjai is Balanta and the group dominates Guinea-Bissau's military.

The government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about the photo or the government's actions on drug trafficking.

The president's account of seeing Yala and Djeme during the attack is consistent with a leaked army report that said the two soldiers were at the scene.

The president said there had been a number of other arrests but declined to say how many, pending the outcome of an official investigation.

Na Tchuto, Yala and Djeme were detained in 2013 by U.S. authorities on a luxury yacht after offering to import narcotics into the United States on behalf of informants they thought were South American traffickers.

The three men pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a U.S. court and were later released after serving their sentences.

The case cemented Guinea-Bissau's reputation as a stopover of choice for Latin American drugs en route to Europe and the United States. Even before that, Guinea-Bissau had been described as a "narco state" by the United Nations.

President João Bernardo Vieira was assassinated by soldiers in 2009, a killing widely believed to have been connected to trafficking networks. In 2012, army officers eyeing control of the drug trade seized power in the so-called "cocaine coup".

(Additional reporting by Alberto Dabo in Bissau, Nate Raymond in New York and David Lewis in Nairobi; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Alexandra Zavis)

UN science report to sound deafening alarm on climate

AFP - 8h ago

Nearly 200 nations kick off a virtual meeting Monday to finalise what promises to be a harrowing scientific overview of accelerating climate impacts that will highlight the urgent need to cut emissions -- and prepare for the challenges ahead.

The world is already feeling the effects of global warming, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels, with last year seeing a cascade of deadly floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents.

The upcoming update from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set to outline in stark detail what the best available science tells us are the impacts of the changing climate -- past, present and future.

During a two-week gathering, diplomats and scientists will vet, line-by-line, an all-important Summary for Policymakers, boiling down an underlying report thousands of pages long.

An early draft of the IPCC review seen by AFP in 2021 makes clear the extent to which devastating climate impacts are a here-and-now reality.

In some cases this means that adapting to intolerably hot days, flash flooding and storm surges has become a matter of life and death.

"Even if we find solutions for reducing carbon emissions, we will still need solutions to help us adapt," said Alexandre Magnan, a researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris and a co-author of the report, without commenting on the report's findings.

Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, crippling health impacts from disease and heat, water shortages -- all will accelerate in the coming decades even if the carbon emissions that drive global warming are drawn down, the report is likely to find.

"This is a real moment of reckoning," said Rachel Cleetus, Climate and energy policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"This not just more scientific projections about the future," she told AFP. "This is about extreme events and slow-onset disasters that people are experience right now."

- Planning ahead -

The report comes three months after pledges at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to halt deforestation, curb methane emissions, phase down coal-fired power and boost financial aid to developing countries.

IPCC assessments are divided into three sections, each with its own volunteer "working group" of hundreds of scientists.

In August 2021, the first instalment on physical science found that global heating is virtually certain to pass 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), probably within a decade.

That is the heating limit envisioned in the Paris Agreement, beyond which impacts become more severe.

This second report on impacts and adaptation, due for release after the two-week meeting, is likely to underscore that vulnerability to extreme weather events -- even when they are made worse by global warming -- can be reduced by better planning.

This is not only true in the developing world, noted Imperial College professor Friederike Otto, pointing to massive flooding in Germany last year that killed scores and caused billions in damage.

"Even without global warming there would have been a huge rainfall event in a densely populated geography where the rivers flood very easily," said Otto, a pioneer in the science of quantifying the extent to which climate change makes extreme weather events more likely or intense.

- Hard choices -

The latest report will also likely zero in on how climate change is widening already yawning gaps in inequality, both between regions and within nations.

This means that the people least responsible for climate change are the ones suffering the most from its impacts.

Not only is this unjust, experts and advocates say, it is a barrier to tackling the problem.

"I do not think there are pathways to sustainable development that do not substantively address equity issues," said Clark University professor Edward Clark, a lead author of one of the reports chapters.

Earth's surface has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 19th century.

The 2015 Paris deal calls for capping global warming at "well below" 2C, and ideally the more ambitious limit of 1.5C.

This report is sure to reinforce that goal.

"There are limits -- for ecosystems and human systems -- to adaptation," said Cleetus. "We cannot adjust to runaway climate change."

Indeed, the report will probably emphasise more than ever before dangerous "tipping points", invisible temperature trip wires in the climate system for irreversible and potentially catastrophic change.

Some of them -- such as the melting of permafrost housing twice as much carbon as in the atmosphere -- could fuel global warming all on their own.

At the same time, scientists are only just beginning to get a handle on so-called cascading and compound impacts -- how Greenland's melting ice sheet, for example, affects ocean currents across the globe.

"There is a finite set of choices we can make that would move us productively into the future," said Carr. "Every day we wait and delay, some of those choices get harder or go away."

mh/klm/spm

Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge reports higher profit as transport volumes rise

(Reuters) -Enbridge Inc reported a 3.7% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as a recovery in fuel demand boosted the Canadian pipeline operator's transportation volumes.

Pipeline operators have benefited from a pick-up in volumes with energy prices trading at multi-year highs on a sustained recovery in fuel demand from the pandemic-driven lows.

Enbridge said it transported 3.01 million barrels per day (bpd) on its Mainline system in the fourth quarter, compared with 2.65 million bpd a year earlier.

The Calgary-based company's earnings rose to C$1.84 billion ($1.45 billion), or 91 Canadian cents per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from C$1.78 billion, or 88 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.

($1 = 1.2724 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru;Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

Canadian oil barrels head out of the U.S. Gulf in record numbers

By Stephanie Kelly and Nia Williams - Yesterday 

NEW YORK/CALGARY (Reuters) - Canadian oil companies exported a record amount of crude out of the U.S. Gulf Coast at the end of 2021, a trend that should continue in coming months, as tight international oil markets are in need of the nation's heavy, sour crude.

These barrels are hitting the Gulf thanks to new pipeline connections and expansions that just came online last year, and are meeting surging global demand that has pushed oil prices to seven-year highs. Major producers, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, are struggling to raise output, along with traditional providers of heavy crude like Venezuela and Mexico.

By contrast, Canada's oil sands production is at a record 3.5 million barrels a day. Most of that is exported to use in the United States, but a growing number of barrels are transiting the country to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it is then re-exported.

In 2021, Canadian exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast averaged more than 180,000 bpd, reaching nearly 300,000 bpd in December, a record, according to Matt Smith, Kpler's lead oil analyst for the Americas. That's up from roughly 70,000 bpd in 2019 and 2020. The accelerated pace is expected to continue in 2022.

Those barrels are primarily going to big importers India, China and South Korea - in part to offset for the loss of Venezuelan barrels, which is under U.S. sanctions and dealing with years of underinvestment.

Canadian producers have benefited from changes in pipeline infrastructure that make it easier to ship to the Gulf Coast, the largest U.S. export hub, where more than 3 million barrels ship out every day.

The Capline Pipeline, whose owners include Plains All American Pipeline and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, reversed flows in 2021, sending more oil from Patoka, Illinois, to terminals in St. James, Louisiana.

In October, Enbridge Inc doubled the capacity of its Line 3 pipeline, which carries oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to the U.S. Midwest.

The demand is helping support prices in Alberta, where benchmark Canadian heavy crude is currently trading around C$13.50 a barrel, said Tudor Pickering Holt analyst Matt Murphy.

"As we get more exposure to global markets that's backing up into western Canada," Murphy said. "The industry as a whole benefits."

Companies benefiting from increased Gulf exports are those that have dedicated capacity on pipelines carrying Canadian crude, including MEG Energy, Cenovus Energy and to a lesser extent Suncor Energy, Murphy said. MEG expects to sell about two-thirds of its estimated 2022 production of 95,000 bpd, into the Gulf Coast.

GRAPHIC: Canadian oil exports from the U.S. Gulf 

https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-OIL/CANADA-EXPORTS/akveznyjapr

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York and Nia Williams in Calgary, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)