It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
Palestinian Authority pay's partial wages amid protests over rise in food prices
FILE PHOTO: Palestinians protest against rising of prices in the West Bank
Tue, June 7, 2022 By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority announced on Tuesday it would pay partial salaries to most of its employees after Israel transferred some revenues it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf, Palestinian officials said.
A week into June, the Palestinian Finance Ministry said employees will receive 80% of their salaries on Tuesday. It has been unable to pay full wages since November, blaming Israel's withholding of tax revenues and weaker international donations.
The salary cut coincided with public discontent over an acute hike in prices of essential food items that prompted people in the southern city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take to the streets in protest.
"The Finance Ministry is making enormous efforts to compel the occupation authorities to transfer our money so we can make salaries available," Amjad Ghanim, Secretary-General of the Palestinian cabinet, told Reuters by phone from Ramallah.
He said lower levels of international assistance had also reduced the funding available.
Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara estimated that Israel has been withholding $500 million of tax revenues. He recently said Israel was deducting 100 million shekels ($30 million) every month.
Under a 2018 law, Israel calculates each year how much it believes the Palestinian Authority has paid in stipends to militants and deducts that amount from the taxes it has collected on the Palestinians' behalf.
Israel calls stipends for militants and their families a "pay for slay" policy that encourages violence. Palestinians hail their jailed brethren as heroes in a struggle for an independent state and believe their families are deserving of support.
Palestinian tax revenues, which Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf each month, stand at around 900 million shekels ($271 million).
The Palestinian Authority employs 150,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At the end of 2021, its budget stood at $330 million while spending was $300 million.
On Monday, Human Rights advocates said police forces, deployed in large numbers a day ago, arrested 11 protesters for several hours before freeing them late last night.
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, already exempted wheat from tax rises introduced in February. Protesters have demanded that tax exemptions be extended to other basic staples.
As the war in Ukraine has sent commodity prices surging, the cost of basic food items like flour, sugar and cooking oil has gone up by as much as 30% since March, according to merchants and protesters. Official figures put the increase at between 15 and 18%.
(Additional reporting Ali Sawafta,; Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ed Osmond)
TRUTH BE TOLD Report: 'Perpetual' Israeli occupation at root of violence - A Palestinian home sits in a valley, next to the east Jerusalem Jewish Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, May 12, 2022. Investigators commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council said Tuesday, June 7, 2022, that tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are underpinned by a feeling that Israel has embarked on a “perpetual occupation” of Palestinian areas with no intention of ending it. The findings came Tuesday in the first report by a Commission of Inquiry, set up last year following an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
JAMEY KEATEN Tue, June 7, 2022
GENEVA (AP) — Investigators commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body say tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are underpinned by Israel's “perpetual occupation” of Palestinian areas with no apparent intention of ending it.
The findings came Tuesday in the first report by a Commission of Inquiry, headed by a three-person team of human rights experts. It was set up last year by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council following an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The U.N. human rights office says the war killed at least 261 people – including 67 children – in Gaza, and 14 people, including two children, in Israel.
The commission, headed by former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, is the first to have an “ongoing” mandate from the U.N. rights body. Critics allege that permanent scrutiny testifies to an anti-Israel bias in the 47-member-state council and other U.N. bodies. Proponents say the commission is needed to keep tabs on persistent injustices faced by Palestinians under decades of Israeli rule.
The report largely recaps efforts by U.N. investigators over the years to grapple with the causes of Mideast violence and the authors acknowledged it was in part a “review” of previous U.N. findings.
“What has become a situation of perpetual occupation was cited by Palestinian and Israeli stakeholders to the commission as the one common issue” that amounts to the “underlying root cause” of recurrent tensions, instability and protracted conflict, the authors wrote. They said “impunity” for perpetrators of violence was feeding resentment among Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Israel’s government, which opposed the creation of the commission, refused to grant its members access to Israel or Palestinian territories, and testimonies from Palestinians and Israelis were collected from Geneva and Jordan.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the report as “part and parcel of the witch hunt carried out by the Human Rights Council against Israel.”
It called the report biased and one-sided and accused the commission members of ignoring Palestinian violence, incitement and antisemitism. “The Commission members, who claim to be objective, were only appointed to their roles because of their public and well-known anti-Israel stances, in direct opposition to the rules set out by the United Nations,” it said.
The report's authors cited “credible” evidence that “convincingly indicates that Israel has no intention of ending the occupation” and has plans to ensure complete control of Palestinian areas. Israel’s government, it added, has been “acting to alter the demography through the maintenance of a repressive environment for Palestinians and a favorable environment for Israeli settlers.”
They also voiced criticism of Palestinian leaders, saying the Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous areas in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, frequently refers to the occupation as a justification for its own human rights violations. It also points to the occupation as the core reason for failure to hold legislative and presidential elections, the authors said. The PA is widely criticized for corruption and intolerance for dissent.
- Israeli police officers detain a Palestinian during a protest supporting Palestinian families who are under threat of eviction from their longtime homes by Jewish settlers in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, Dec. 17, 2021. Investigators commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council said Tuesday, June 7, 2022, that tensions between Palestinians and Israelis are underpinned by a feeling that Israel has embarked on a “perpetual occupation” of Palestinian areas with no intention of ending it. The findings came in the first report by a Commission of Inquiry, set up last year following an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)
Despite the criticism, the Palestinian Authority welcomed the report. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the report found “beyond any doubt, that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and discrimination against Palestinians are the root causes behind the recurrent tensions, instability and prolongation of conflict in the region.”
As for Hamas authorities in Gaza, the commission said they show little commitment toward upholding human rights and little adherence to international law. Since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has shown little tolerance for political dissent and been accused of torturing opponents.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the 1967 Mideast war.
It has annexed east Jerusalem and claims the area — home to the city’s most important holy sites — as part of its capital. It considers the West Bank to be “disputed” territory and has built scores of Jewish settlements there. Over 700,000 Israeli settlers now live in the two areas.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority seeks the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza for an independent state. The international community overwhelmingly considers all three areas to be occupied by Israel.
Rights groups have accused both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes during last year's fighting. Israel vehemently denies the allegations, accusing Hamas of endangering civilians by using residential areas for cover during military operations.
___
Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
The EU's 3 biggest shipping countries have doubled Russian oil shipments since the invasion of Ukraine, and it's undermining attempts to hurt Putin
Huileng Tan Tue, June 7, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Firms in Greece, Cyprus, and Malta have shipped more Russian oil since the Ukraine war started.
Freight rates for oil tankers have tripled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
The rise in Russian oil shipments undermines intensifying sanctions against the country.
Shipping companies in the European Union's three largest maritime nations of Greece, Cyprus, and Malta have doubled the quantity of Russian oil they transport since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, The Independent reported on Monday.
Shipping companies and vessels linked to the three countries moved an average of 58 million barrels of Russian oil in the month of May, the UK media outlet reported, citing an analysis from Global Witness, a non-government organization. That's almost double the 31 million barrels they collectively transported in February. The three countries have the largest shipping fleet in the EU, according to Reuters.
The jump in the transportation of Russian crude came on the back of a tripling in oil tanker freight rates since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24 — and it's undermining EU sanctions against Russia.
"Ships linked to Greece, Cyprus and Malta are making a mockery of the EU effort to sanction Putin's war machine, keeping cash flowing to Russia as the country's armed forces continue to pummel Ukraine," Louis Goddard, a senior data investigations adviser at Global Witness, told The Independent.
The NGO's report follows findings by London's Sunday Times that Greek shipping companies are taking part in "ship-to-ship" transfers of Russian oil to mask the transportation of the fuel. Data reviewed by the Sunday Times pointed to an increase in such movements, which involves a Russian ship unloading oil to another vessel from a neutral party, the outlet reported on Sunday.
There is no suggestion that the companies and ships involved in transporting Russian oil are breaching sanctions, The Independent and Sunday Times reported.
Last Monday, the EU agreed on a Russian oil ban that stands to cut about 90% of Russian oil imports to the bloc by the end of the year. That was after the EU reportedly scrapped plans to stop EU-owned ships from transporting Russian oil to countries outside the region, such as China and India.
However, the EU and the UK are planning to deter the practice by not allowing ships carrying Russian oil to take out insurance — which is crucial for the shipping industry, the Financial Times reported last week.
Global Witness did not immediately respond to Insider's request for the report, which was sent outside regular business hours.
Correction 6/7/2022: This post has been corrected to reflect changes to the amount of oil moved by Greece, Cyprus and Malta collectively in May and February.
US-backed Syrian Kurds to turn to Damascus if Turkey attacks
FILE - Turkish tanks and troops are deployed near the Syrian town of Manbij, Syria, Oct. 15, 2019. Hardly a day passes in northern Syria without Kurdish fighters and opposition gunmen backed by Turkey exchanging gunfire and shelling and concerns are rising that the situation will only get worse in the coming weeks with Ankara threatening to launch a new major operation along its southern border. (Ugur Can/DHA via AP, File) BASSEM MROUE Tue, June 7, 2022,
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria said Tuesday that they will turn to the government in Damascus for support should Turkey go ahead with its threat to launch a new incursion into the war-torn country.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, said after a meeting of its command that its priority is to reduce tension near the border with Turkey but also prepare for a long fight if Ankara carries out its threat.
The announcement appears to be a message directed at the United States and meant to elicit pressure from Washington on Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to put aside his offensive plans.
Erdogan has repeatedly said over the past weeks that he’s planning a major military operation to create a 30-kilometer (19 mile) deep buffer zone inside Syria along Turkey's border, through a cross-border incursion against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters — an attempt that failed in 2019.
Analysts have said Erdogan is taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to push his own goals in Syria — even using Turkey’s ability as a NATO member to veto alliance membership by Finland and Sweden as potential leverage.
On the ground, the situation has been tense with near daily exchanges of fire and shelling between the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters on one side and Turkish forces and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition gunmen on the other.
The Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters have been preparing for weeks to take part in the expected operation against Syrian Kurdish-led forces, seeking to expand their area of influence inside Syria.
On the other hand, relations between the Kurdish-led fighters who control large parts of northern and eastern Syria — including the towns of Tel Rifaat and Manbij that Erdogan has named as possible targets — with the Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have been mostly frosty over the past years.
But faced with Erdogan's threat, Syrian Kurdish fighters may want those ties to thaw.
“The meeting confirmed the readiness of (SDF) forces to coordinate with forces of the Damascus government to confront any possible Turkish incursion and to protect Syrian territories against occupation,” the statement said and added that a “possible Turkish invasion will affect the stability and unity of Syria’s territories.”
The statement did not elaborate on what such a coordination entailed — and whether an alliance with Assad's government in Damascus would translate into joint forces on the ground. Syrian Kurdish officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Since 2016, Turkey has launched three major operations inside Syria, targeting Syria’s main Kurdish militia — the People’s Protection Units or YPG — which Turkey considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The PKK has for decades waged an insurgency within Turkey against the government in Ankara.
The YPG, a backbone of the SDF, has led the fight against the militants of the extremist Islamic State group and has been a proven top U.S. ally in Syria.
TO SERVE & PROTECT WHO
Uvalde Mom Who Saved Her Children Says She's Being Threatened By Law Enforcement Candace McDuffie Tue, June 7, 2022 Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher (AP)
The brave Uvalde mom who rescued her two sons from Robb Elementary School during the devastating shooting that killed 19 students and 2 adults is speaking up about being threatened by law enforcement.
Angeli Rose Gomez told CBS News that she was informed that if she continues to talk to media about her fearless actions, she would be charged with a probation violation for obstruction of justice.
Gomez did not identify the member of law enforcement who called her. As soon as she heard that there was an active shooter at Robb Elementary, she drove around “100 miles per hour,” she told CBS News, to save her children.
“Right away, as I parked, a US Marshal started coming toward my car, saying that I wasn’t allowed to be parked there,” she explained. “And he said, ‘Well, we’re gonna have to arrest you because you’re being very uncooperative.’
Gomez then criticized how officers were responding to the situation. “Y’all are standing with snipers and y’all are far away, I got to go in there,” Gomez stated. Shortly after, she was “immediately placed in cuffs.” As soon as the handcuffs were removed, she immediately jumped a fence and sprinted into the school.
Gomez also explained that officers were more aggressive with parents than with the active shooter. Eventually, she received a call from a judge commending her actions, which made her feel more comfortable to speak up about what happened. Gomez became teary-eyed when discussing how the decision police made to stall cost innocent children their lives.
“They could have saved many more lives,” Gómez said. “They could have gone into the classroom, and maybe two or three would have been gone, but they could have saved the whole, more, the whole class. They could have done something — gone through the window, sniped him through the window. Something, but nothing was being done.”
US wins case to seize Russian superyacht in Fiji, sails away
NICK PERRY
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The United States won a legal battle on Tuesday to seize a Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji and wasted no time in taking command of the $325 million vessel and sailing it away from the South Pacific nation.
The court ruling represented a significant victory for the U.S. as it encounters obstacles in its attempts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. While those efforts are welcomed by many who oppose the war in Ukraine, some actions have tested the limits of American jurisdiction abroad.
In Fiji, the nation's Supreme Court lifted a stay order which had prevented the U.S. from seizing the superyacht Amadea.
Chief Justice Kamal Kumar ruled that based on the evidence, the chances of defense lawyers mounting an appeal that the top court would hear were “nil to very slim.”
Kumar said he accepted arguments that keeping the superyacht berthed in Fiji at Lautoka harbor was “costing the Fijian government dearly.”
“The fact that U.S. authorities have undertaken to pay costs incurred by the Fijian government is totally irrelevant,” the judge found. He said the Amadea "sailed into Fiji waters without any permit and most probably to evade prosecution by the United States of America.”
The U.S. removed the motorized vessel within an hour or two of the court's ruling, possibly to ensure the yacht didn't get entangled in any further legal action.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
In early May, the Justice Department issued a statement saying the Amadea had been seized in Fiji, but that turned out to be premature after lawyers appealed.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the U.S. intended to take the Amadea, which the FBI has linked to the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
Fiji Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde said unresolved questions of money laundering and the ownership of the Amadea need to be decided in the U.S.
“The decision acknowledges Fiji’s commitment to respecting international mutual assistance requests and Fiji’s international obligations," Pryde said.
In court documents, the FBI linked the Amadea to the Kerimov family through their alleged use of code names while aboard and the purchase of items such as a pizza oven and a spa bed. The ship became a target of Task Force KleptoCapture, launched in March to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs to put pressure on Russia to end the war.
The 106-meter (348-foot) -long vessel, about the length of a football field, features a live lobster tank, a hand-painted piano, a swimming pool and a large helipad.
Lawyer Feizal Haniff, who represented paper owner Millemarin Investments, had argued the owner was another wealthy Russian who, unlike Kerimov, doesn’t face sanctions.
The U.S. acknowledged that paperwork appeared to show Eduard Khudainatov was the owner but said he was also the paper owner of a second and even larger superyacht, the Scheherazade, which has been linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S. questioned whether Khudainatov could really afford two superyachts worth a total of more than $1 billion.
“The fact that Khudainatov is being held out as the owner of two of the largest superyachts on record, both linked to sanctioned individuals, suggests that Khudainatov is being used as a clean, unsanctioned straw owner to conceal the true beneficial owners,” the FBI wrote in a court affidavit.
Court documents say the Amadea switched off its transponder soon after Russia invaded Ukraine and sailed from the Caribbean through the Panama Canal to Mexico, arriving with over $100,000 in cash. It then sailed thousands of miles (kilometers) across the Pacific Ocean to Fiji.
The Justice Department said it didn’t believe paperwork showing the Amadea was next headed to the Philippines, arguing it was really destined for Vladivostok or elsewhere in Russia.
The department said it found a text message on a crew member’s phone saying, “We’re not going to Russia” followed by a “shush” emoji.
The U.S. said Kerimov secretly bought the Cayman Island-flagged Amadea last year through various shell companies. The FBI said a search warrant in Fiji turned up emails showing that Kerimov’s children were aboard the ship this year and that the crew used code names — G0 for Kerimov, G1 for his wife, G2 for his daughter and so on.
Kerimov made a fortune investing in Russian gold producer Polyus, with Forbes magazine putting his net worth at $14.5 billion. The U.S. first sanctioned him in 2018 after he was detained in France and accused of money laundering there, sometimes arriving with suitcases stuffed with 20 million euros.
Khudainatov is the former chairman and chief executive of Rosneft, the state-controlled Russian oil and gas company.
Exclusion of countries from Americas Summit a 'mistake,' says Chilean president
Canada's PM Trudeau greets Chile's President Boric in Ottawa
Mon, June 6, 2022
OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Biden administration's decision to exclude Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba from the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week was a "mistake," Chilean President Gabriel Boric said on Monday.
The U.S. decision, announced earlier on Monday, was taken due to concerns about human rights and a lack of democracy in the three nations, according to a senior official in the administration of President Joe Biden.
Talking to reporters in Ottawa, Boric said the U.S. move was "reinforcing the position that these other countries take in their own countries. We think it's an error, a mistake, and we're going to say that during the summit."
Boric, a leftist and former student protest leader who took power in March, was speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the two signed a memorandum to coordinate efforts to advance gender equality and empower women. Boric is scheduled to head to the summit after his Canada visit.
Boric's comment was the latest rebuke from a Latin American leader, highlighting how some are pursuing an increasingly independent foreign policy from Washington.
Earlier, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would not attend the summit because not all countries from the region were invited.
Trudeau did not say whether or not he disagreed with the exclusion, but said Canada looked forward to participating fully in the summit.
"It's extremely important that we have an opportunity to engage with our fellow hemispheric partners, some like-minded, some less like-minded, but talking about important issues that our people have in common," he said.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Plugging old oil and gas wells is
helping the climate and creating
new green jobs
Carey L. Biron Tue, June 7, 2022
Curtis Shuck of the Well Done Foundation places a fitting in an old gas well pipe during preparations for plugging in Cleveland, Ohio last month.
This article was originally published by Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — For years, the smell of gas wafting through the grounds of the Franciscan Village senior housing facility in Cleveland was a joke among its residents, although they did not realize where the odor was coming from. A few months ago they found out.
An old gas well left unused since the 1950s had broken its clay plug, and methane and other chemical compounds were seeping out, just a few dozen feet from the three apartment buildings making up the 176-unit independent living facility.
“There were a couple of chairs back there, and I’d just sit around and read or listen to the birds, and it was beautiful. And all of a sudden, you’d go, ‘Oh my god, I’ve got to leave,’” said Susie Black, a resident for nearly eight years, recalling the nasty smell.
This year, construction at the facility uncovered the leaking well — and prompted quick action. Curtis Shuck, chairman of the nonprofit Well Done Foundation that has been plugging the well, pointed to two nearby buildings, both just 30 feet away.
He was squatting under a large rig that would be used to drill out the culprit: a shallow hole with an old, 6-inch metal pipe going down perhaps as far as 2,700 feet — no one was sure, he said.
For the first time, the U.S. government is giving such old wells major attention in an effort to curb environmental pollution, reduce climate-heating emissions of methane, and create green jobs.
In November, it allocated $4.7 billion to tackle the problem of the orphan wells nationally.
This month officials released final guidance on how states could start applying for the money. Already 26 states — almost every one with documented orphan wells — have indicated they intend to apply for the grants, according to the Interior Department.
There are tens of thousands of old wells on federal lands nationwide, and at least another 130,000 on state and private lands, according to department official Steven H. Feldgus.
A map indicates the location of an old gas well amid a cluster of buildings including an assisted living facility, a church and a school in Cleveland, Ohio.
But, he told a congressional hearing last month, "the actual number is probably much higher".
The full number is unknown because for decades energy companies were not required to maintain or even record where their capped wells were located.
Adam Peltz, a senior attorney with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), said there could be up to a million in total across the country.
Government officials, green groups, oil service workers and others are now expecting a stampede of action throughout the coming decade, with implications for local economies, groundwater contamination and climate change.
A federal program to plug a half-million wells could create as many as 120,000 specialized oil and gas industry jobs, according to 2020 research from Columbia University and Resources for the Future, a think-tank.
The Well Done Foundation has already been doing this work for a few years, pioneering a funding approach that uses carbon credits linked to curbing the wells’ methane emissions.
That morning, it had received its plugging permit for the Cleveland site — a process that would probably take a small crew a week or two.
Shuck, who set up the foundation in 2019 after three decades in the oil and gas industry, wrapped a large bag around the top of the pipe and timed how long it took to quickly inflate with escaping gases.
“This one is averaging about 5,000 cubic feet per day — a lot of impact to the environment,” he explained.
Back to the future in Pennsylvania
Oil and gas development in the United States began in the mid-19th century in Pennsylvania, noted Peltz of the EDF, and since then about 4 million wells have been drilled.
Operators have long been required to plug wells once finished, but “the system hasn’t worked right", he added.
Most of the new federal money will now go to the known backlog of orphan wells, but some will also help track down lost wells using drones, landowner reports and more, said Peltz, who helped write the new legislation.
“These wells are everywhere, in every kind of urban, suburban and rural setting. Around 9 million people live within a mile of these documented orphaned wells,” he said.
Other funds will seek to bolster preparations for plugging the 1 million wells still active today, up to three-quarters of which are already producing low volumes, Peltz said.
Energy production is today one of the largest drivers of changing land use in the United States, said Matthew D. Moran, a biology professor at Hendrix College.
Most oil and gas wells are on private land, so companies typically lease the rights to drill, and after the wells run out, the rights revert to the owner, he said.
“In many cases, an abandoned pad might be an acre in size, and nothing is going on. It’s an abandoned piece of land, and restoring it costs money,” he explained.
Last year he and other researchers estimated it would cost about $7 billion to restore 430,000 well sites on 800,000 hectares nationally — but found the financial benefits of doing so would be about three times higher.
Factoring in harder-to-quantify effects such as rising property values and attractiveness would yield even more — altogether adding up to probably five or six times the cost, the team estimated.
“We think that’s pretty concrete and direct to the economies in these places,” Moran said. “We consider this an investment.”
'We un-drill them'
Back in Cleveland, Keith Moore was getting ready to do what his family has done for decades: drill oil and gas wells.
He has not drilled any new wells since 2014, however, with changing economics making small-scale operations unprofitable, he said.
Instead, for years, he and his crews have been doing the complicated work of plugging old wells.
“We un-drill them, that’s the best way to describe what we do,” he said, standing next to his equipment at the Franciscan Village site.
There was no formal record of the well here, said Donnald J. Heckelmoser Jr., chief executive of LSC Service Corporation, which manages the property.
“We always knew something was there, but never knew it was an orphan well,” Heckelmoser said.
Its discovery halted the construction of a new atrium that will cover the landscaped yard area, but with the capping underway, Heckelmoser felt the project was getting back on track.
As someone who oversees multiple properties and seeks to develop more affordable housing in the Cleveland area, he now knows what to do should the situation arise again.
“There’s a solution, and luckily we were able to find that,” he said.
After drilling out the well to its full depth, the hole is filled with concrete, which can take a few days to weeks, said Moore, who will do 15 to 20 such projects this year.
He recalled plugging wells in some crazy places, including a highway and a school gymnasium.
“If you took a shotgun and shot a map, that’s how many wells are left to be capped,” he said. "They’re anywhere and everywhere.”
Three abortion activists strip to underwear in protest during Joel Osteen church service
Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY
Three abortion activists stripped down to their underwear in protest to interrupt a Sunday service at pastor Joel Osteen's Texas megachurch.
After Osteen had finished leading a prayer and congregants began to sit down, the women stood up and began chanting, "my body, my (expletive choice)." Two of the women removed their dresses, with one shouting, "Overturn Roe, hell no!"
The video footage of the protest quickly went viral over Twitter and the 11 a.m. service's live stream has since been taken down.
The activists, a trio from Texas Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, were wearing white sports bras with green hand prints on them to symbolize the color representing the pro-choice movement. Security promptly escorted the three women out of the church as many congregants began to cheer at their dismissal.
The women said they opted to protest in Osteen's megachurch, which draws upwards of 50,000 people regularly, arguing that anti-abortion protesters show up in their safe spaces – doctors' offices and clinics – to make them feel uncomfortable.
"I know it seems very outrageous to do it in a church in a private space," activist Julianne D'Eredita told local Houston television station KPRC 2 of the protest, which continued outside the Lakewood Church afterwards. "However, the people who are enforcing these laws have no qualms coming up to women in private spaces such as doctors' offices and medical clinics to harass them and call them murderers.
"Joel Osteen has an international audience and silence is violence when it comes to things like these. We have a very unprecedented and very short amount of time to garner the attention that we need to get millions of people on the streets, millions of people doing actions like we were today."
"My body, my f—ing choice," one activist with Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights is heard shouting in the church as she took off her dress, leaving her wearing only underwear, according to a video posted to social media on Sunday.
"Overturn Roe, hell no," another activist screams as she removes her clothing. A total of three women took part in the protest by stripping down to their underwear on Sunday in the church and shouting, according to Chron.
The women were escorted out of the church, allowing Osteen to continue preaching, which garnered cheers and applause from churchgoers.
Joel Osteen, the pastor of Lakewood Church, stands with his wife, Victoria Osteen, as he conducts a service at his church as the city starts the process of rebuilding after severe flooding during Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Getty Images
Outside, however, the activists continued their protest and were joined by other supporters, according to the outlet.
The activists are part of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, which has condemned the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. v. Wade following a leaked draft decision last month.
"I know it seems very outrageous to do it in a church in a private space," activist Julianne D'Eredita told KPRC 2 of the protest. "However, the people that are enforcing these laws have no qualms coming up to women in private spaces such as doctors' offices and medical clinics to harass them and call them murderers."
The video of the disruption has since gained thousands of views. A representative for Osteen’s Lakewood Church did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
A long line of cars wait to get into the Lakewood church which was designated as a shelter for Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston, Texas August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking REUTERS/Rick Wilking
"Joel Osteen has an international audience and silence is violence when it comes to things like these," D'Eredita added. "We have a very unprecedented and very short amount of time to garner the attention that we need to get millions of people on the streets, millions of people doing actions like we were today."
IMAGE: A RED PAINT SAMPLE TAKEN FROM A 1,000-YEAR-OLD MASK EXCAVATED FROM A SICÁN TOMB IN PERU CONTAINS HUMAN BLOOD AND BIRD EGG PROTEINS, IN ADDITION TO A RED PIGMENT.view more
CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM JOURNAL OF PROTEOME RESEARCH 2021, DOI: 10.1021/ACS.JPROTEOME.1C00472
Thirty years ago, archeologists excavated the tomb of an elite 40–50-year-old man from the Sicán culture of Peru, a society that predated the Incas. The man’s seated, upside-down skeleton was painted bright red, as was the gold mask covering his detached skull. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research have analyzed the paint, finding that, in addition to a red pigment, it contains human blood and bird egg proteins.
The Sicán was a prominent culture that existed from the ninth to 14th centuries along the northern coast of modern Peru. During the Middle Sicán Period (about 900–1,100 A.D.), metallurgists produced a dazzling array of gold objects, many of which were buried in tombs of the elite class. In the early 1990s, a team of archaeologists and conservators led by Izumi Shimada excavated a tomb where an elite man’s seated skeleton was painted red and placed upside down at the center of the chamber. The skeletons of two young women were arranged nearby in birthing and midwifing poses, and two crouching children’s skeletons were placed at a higher level. Among the many gold artifacts found in the tomb was a red-painted gold mask, which covered the face of the man’s detached skull. At the time, scientists identified the red pigment in the paint as cinnabar, but Luciana de Costa Carvalho, James McCullagh and colleagues wondered what the Sicán people had used in the paint mix as a binding material, which had kept the paint layer attached to the metal surface of the mask for 1,000 years.
To find out, the researchers analyzed a small sample of the mask’s red paint. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy revealed that the sample contained proteins, so the team conducted a proteomic analysis using tandem mass spectrometry. They identified six proteins from human blood in the red paint, including serum albumin and immunoglobulin G (a type of human serum antibody). Other proteins, such as ovalbumin, came from egg whites. Because the proteins were highly degraded, the researchers couldn’t identify the exact species of bird’s egg used to make the paint, but a likely candidate is the Muscovy duck. The identification of human blood proteins supports the hypothesis that the arrangement of the skeletons was related to a desired “rebirth” of the deceased Sicán leader, with the blood-containing paint that coated the man’s skeleton and face mask potentially symbolizing his “life force,” the researchers say.
The authors do not acknowledge any funding sources.
The abstract that accompanies this article is available here.
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