ZIONIST ETHNIC CLEANSING

Israeli police kill Palestinian in east Jerusalem raid

The incident came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus outside Jerusalem's Old City

Author of the article:

Associated Press

Publishing date:

Aug 15, 2022  •  

Sister of Palestinian Mohammed al-Shaham, 21, killed during an Israeli home raid, carries her brother's bloodied shirt as she mourns with his mother (2nd L) and other women at their family home in Kafr Aqab town, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, on August 15, 2022. PHOTO BY ABBAS MOMANI /AFP via Getty Images

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JERUSALEM — Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man on Monday, claiming he had attempted to stab officers during a raid in east Jerusalem.

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The officers were conducting a search for illegal weapons in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, police said. When officers approached the home, the man, armed with a knife, tried to stab them, police alleged. They fired on the suspect and he was later pronounced dead, police said.

Ibrahim al-Shaham, the man’s father, told journalists that troops pounded on the door of their house at 3:30 a.m. and then used explosives to blow up the door to the home. Al-Shaham said police fired three bullets, one hitting his son, Mohammed, 21, in the head. Al-Shaham said his son was left bleeding on the floor of the house as police searched the apartment.

He denied that his son attempted to stab the officers, and said that the police found no weapons in the home.

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Human rights groups have accused Israeli security forces of frequently using excessive force against Palestinians, without being investigated or held accountable.

The incident came a day after a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus outside Jerusalem’s Old City, wounding eight, among them U.S. citizens

The U.S. State Department condemned the Jerusalem attack late on Sunday, and said at least five of the victims were American citizens. “We remain in close contact with our Israeli partners and stand firmly with them in the face of this attack,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

The Jerusalem violence followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that was reached last week ended three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza that saw at least 49 Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, killed.

A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Afghan opposition ‘very weak’ despite mounting public anger against Taliban

One year after the fall of Kabul, many of the opposition commanders famous for their stand in Panjshir Valley remain exiled in Tajikistan. Analysts paint a picture of a weakened armed resistance against the Taliban and an Afghan population that increasingly abhors the Islamic fundamentalist group – but is too exhausted to oppose it.

© Ali Khara, Reuters

Tom WHEELDON - 13h ago

When Afghanistan captured the world’s attention shortly after the Taliban’s precipitous takeover on August 15, 2021, the media focused on the Panjshir Valley – where late Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud held off both the Soviets in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s. As the Taliban closed in, the lionised commander’s son, Ahmad Massoud, vowed to fight the Taliban from Panjshir once again.

But by September, Massoud had fled to neighbouring Tajikistan along with other resistance commanders after the Taliban claimed victory in Panjshir. The apparent plan was to use Tajikistan as a staging ground to take on the Taliban. At the time, analysts lamented that it was a “non-viable prospect”.

Since then, the few journalists with access to Panjshir have reported on resistance attacks on Taliban positions. Washington Post journalists who visited Panjshir wrote in June that “residents say assaults on Taliban positions are a regular occurrence and dozens of civilians have been killed, with some civilians imprisoned in sweeping arrests”.
Resistance in the mountains

This situation makes a stark contrast to the state of play in Panjshir under Ahmad Shad Massoud – when the valley was the one holdout against the Taliban during its first reign over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

“It’s substantially different this time around,” said Omar Sadr, formerly an assistant professor of politics at the American University of Afghanistan, now a senior research scholar at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Panjshir is occupied,” Sadr went on. “At least Ahmad Shah Massoud could maintain a stronghold from which to resist the Taliban. Now the resistance is in the mountains; they don’t control the villages or the highways. That makes the task much more difficult in terms of the supply chains needed for fighting; it impacts upon the quality of the resistance.”

Looking at Afghanistan as a whole, the opposition is “very weak”, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Security, Strategy and Technology. “In fact, it has turned out to be more feeble than many analysts expected.”

The opposition has struggled to mobilise tribal support as well as to mount any significant operations,” Felbab-Brown continued. “There was quite a bit of expectation that this spring they would engage in attacks – but the Taliban has been able to effectively neuter them.”

In this already difficult context, it was a strategic error for Ahmad Massoud and other resistance commanders to base themselves across the border, Sadr suggested. “The high-level leadership is in Tajikistan while the mid-level fighters are in Panjshir. Ahmad Massoud is a political leader, not much of a military leader – and it would have been much better if he and other senior figures could have joined the troops on the ground. It would have increased their legitimacy and boosted morale.”
‘More radical and more repressive’

When the Taliban seized Kabul last year they tried to present themselves as a reformed, more moderate successor to the outfit that brutally ruled Afghanistan two decades ago.

But the Islamic fundamentalists soon revealed that the “Taliban 2.0” they promised was nothing but a propaganda tool. In doing so, they alienated swaths of Afghan society and ensured that vehement anti-Taliban sentiment is by no means confined to the Panjshir Valley, according to Sadr.

“You can see this Taliban 2.0 business is not true – look at the way they’ve put in place political and economic discrimination of non-Pashtuns. They’ve banned girls’ education. They carry out extrajudicial killings,” Sadr said.

“Everybody wanted to finally end the conflict, so the Taliban had the chance to adopt a pathway to a political settlement that could have persuaded communities to accept them,” he continued.

“But the Taliban are fundamentalists – they’ve never believed in peace settlements. They’ve only become more radical and more repressive. So people feel misled.”
‘The Afghan people are very, very tired’

Nevertheless, there is a difference between feeling antipathy towards the Taliban regime and taking up arms against it.

An uprising against the Taliban would renew a chain of wars lasting two generations. Conflict has wracked Afghanistan since the USSR invaded in 1979 to prop up their puppet communist government. At least 1.8 million Afghans were killed before the Soviets pulled out in 1989.

Civil war broke out in Afghanistan upon the USSR’s withdrawal, leading to the downfall of Soviet-backed president Mohammad Najibullah in 1992. Four years of renewed civil war followed as mujahideen factions battled for power. The Taliban’s ascent to power, starting in 1996, sparked five years of resistance from Ahmad Shah Massoud’s Northern Alliance. Following Massoud’s death on September 9, 2001, and the September 11 attacks two days later, Afghanistan subsequently became the locus of the longest war in US history.

“Although they’re suffering under intensifying Taliban repression and the terrible economic situation, the Afghan people are just tired of war,” Felbab-Brown said. “Very, very tired.”

Afghanistan’s northeastern provinces provided the backbone of its army between 2004 and 2021. The Northern Alliance also drew on these regions in its fight against the Taliban in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

But after that recent history of gruelling campaigns against the Taliban, renewed fighting is an unattractive prospect for many people in northeastern Afghanistan, Sadr said. “Look at Baghlan province, Badakhshan province – they contributed the highest number of soldiers to the republic’s army and they suffered the highest casualties. Every day there were corpses going back."

“It’s been more than forty years of war,” he went on. “This could be the third generation constantly giving sacrifices. So there are plenty of people saying, 'Irrespective of the type of government, maybe we should just accept it'.”
Pakistan will ‘never’ topple the Taliban

Throughout four decades of conflict, outside actors have used Afghanistan as a venue to project power by supporting proxies. Most significantly, Afghanistan’s neighbour Pakistan was the Taliban’s longstanding patron – keen to ensure the defeat of the US-backed republic in Kabul, which Islamabad deemed too close to its arch-nemesis India.

Yet the Taliban has long been close to the jihadi group Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP or simply the Pakistani Taliban), which wants to overthrow the Pakistani state.

Sections of the Pakistani security apparatus are aware that backing the Taliban risked blowback. The Taliban and the TTP are “two faces of the same coin”, Pakistani Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI boss Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed acknowledged at an off-the-record briefing in July 2021.

That admission was vindicated in February 2022 when the TTP claimed an attack from across the Afghan border that left five Pakistani soldiers dead. In this context, Islamabad entered into peace talks with the TTP over recent months – held in Kabul, mediated by the Taliban. So far, little progress appears to have been made.

“Pakistan expected the Taliban to help it strike a political deal with the TTP so that the TTP wouldn’t threaten the Pakistani government, and that plan has already failed,” noted Weeda Mehran, co-director of Exeter University’s Centre for Advanced International Studies. A huge concern for the Pakistani authorities is that the Taliban have been giving Afghan passports to TTP members.

Clearly, some elements of the Taliban are “acting more and more independently of Pakistan”, Mehran continued. In light of these factors, she said, Pakistan is “revising its approach to the Taliban”.

However, Pakistan’s disappointment with the Taliban does not mean support for the opposition. So Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban resistance cannot look to Islamabad for the foreign support it needs for any chance of success, many analysts say.

“Pakistan’s end goal is never going to be to topple the Taliban government,” Sadr said. “At the very most, Pakistan will make it more difficult for the Taliban to rule. Like other countries in the region such as China, Pakistan sees the Taliban as anti-US – and, of course, it doesn’t see the Taliban as an Indian ally like it did the republic. So even if Pakistan turns against the Taliban, it’s not going to support the insurgency.”

 

Afghanistan: Over half the population lives in poverty

The hardline Islamist Taliban marked a year in power on August 15 with small scale celebrations as the country struggles with rising poverty, drought and malnutrition that has left over half its population of about 40 million dependent on humanitarian aid to survive. France 24 journalist Hafiz Miakhel tells us more.

Greek phone-hacking scandal: investigative media's key role


Hélène COLLIOPOULOU
Mon, August 15, 2022 


Investigative journalism has emerged as a powerful force during Greece's phone-hacking scandal, rocking a government that tries to "control" the media landscape, experts say.

The long-rumbling "Predatorgate" affair reignited at the end of July when Nikos Androulakis, leader of the opposition Socialists, told journalists about the attempted surveillance of his mobile phone via spyware Predator, having filed a legal complaint.

The spyware can hack into a target's phone and access messages and conversations.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged last week that the intelligence service's surveillance had been "politically unacceptable", claiming he had not been informed.

He was speaking three days after two key members of his conservative government resigned over the matter.

Earlier this year two Greek journalists launched legal action, saying they had fallen prey to similar attacks on their phones.

Months-long probes by Greek investigative media have played a crucial part in shedding light on the phone-hacking.

Eliza Triantafyllou, a journalist with the Inside Story website, began investigating the case in January after the publication of two reports by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab and Meta (Facebook) referring to a new spyware, Predator, with clients and targets in Greece.

"These reports went unnoticed by the (mainstream) Greek media at the time, though they revealed that the Greek government had probably bought Predator," she wrote in a recent article.

Last April, Inside Story published "the first confirmed case of Predator use in 2021 against a European citizen" -- Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis, who specialises in reporting on corruption.

Online investigative news site Reporters United followed up by reporting that the journalist's phone was monitored by the Greek intelligence service, EYP, in 2020.

Stories first published online by investigative journalists are now making headlines in Greek newspapers.

The country's media landscape is marked by the connivance of traditional media groups with public authorities in line with political and financial interests.

The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) non-profit gives Greece the lowest press freedom rank in Europe.

RSF and the Media Freedom Rapid Response NGO have said the ruling party is "obsessed with controlling the message" and "minimising critical and dissenting voices".

But investigative outlets are "a hope for freedom of expression" in Greece, according to Katerina Batzeli, a member of the Pasok-Kinal central committee, former minister and MEP.

"These innovative media have taken risks and done an extraordinary job" she said.

Greek investigative media, including Inside Story, Solomon and Reporters United, have been on the rise in recent years, using subscriptions to promote "independent and analytical information".

With disinformation rife, "investigative media dare to control the power", said media analyst Georges Tzogopoulos.

He said investigative sites had played a "key role" and called for support through crowdfunding.

hec/chv/thm/lcm/cdw

 

Academy apologizes to indigenous star for historic Oscars abuse

Issued on: 15/08/2022 -

Sacheen Littlefeather (L), who is Apache and Yauqui, was heckled at the 1973 Academy Awards while explaining why an absent Brando could not accept his best actor Oscar VALERIE MACON GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Los Angeles (AFP) – Nearly 50 years after she was booed off the Oscars stage for declining Marlon Brando's award on his behalf in protest at the film industry's treatment of Native Americans, Sacheen Littlefeather has received an apology from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group said Monday.

Littlefeather, who is Apache and Yauqui, was heckled at the 1973 Academy Awards while explaining why an absent Brando could not accept his best actor Oscar for "The Godfather."

Brando had asked Littlefeather to decline the award for him in an act of protest against the treatment of Native Americans by the film industry.

She later said veteran Western star John Wayne had to be restrained from physically assaulting her by security guards, in an incident that has since drawn comparisons with Will Smith's infamous attack on Chris Rock at this year's ceremony.

"The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified," said the apology letter sent in June from then-Academy president David Rubin.

"The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.#photo1

"For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration."

The Academy released the letter as it announced that Littlefeather has been invited to speak at its recently opened film museum in Los Angeles next month.

The museum, which opened last September, has pledged to confront the Oscars' "problematic history" including racism. One display already tackles the harassment of Littlefeather.

"Regarding the Academy's apology to me, we Indians are very patient people -- it's only been 50 years!" Littlefeather said in a statement.

"We need to keep our sense of humor about this at all times. It's our method of survival," said Littlefeather, describing the upcoming event as "a dream come true."

"It is profoundly heartening to see how much has changed since I did not accept the Academy Award 50 years ago. I am so proud of each and every person who will appear on stage," she added.

The Academy has moved to confront accusations of a lack of racial diversity in recent years.

In 2019, "Last of the Mohicans" star Wes Studi became the first Native American actor to receive an Oscar, with an honorary Academy Award recognizing his career.

The upcoming event with Littlefeather, dubbed a "very special program of conversation, reflection, healing, and celebration," will take place September 17.

© 2022 AFP

Putin has Turned Lenin’s Slogan on Its Head: Now, it's Peace to the Palaces and War on the Huts, Russians Say

Paul Goble

Monday, August 15, 2022

 – Putin has come up with another political innovation: he’s reversed Lenin’s slogan and declared peace on the palaces and war on the huts, Russians say, adding that he has also change the government policy of carrots and sticks: Now, it beats with sticks and then takes away the carrots.

            This is the latest in a collection of new jokes and anecdotes assembled by Moscow journalist Tatyana Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/43468/-). Among the best of the rest are the following:

·       Serious Russian officials say that in Ukraine, “everything is going according to plan,” even though they have no idea what the plan is; but they and the deep people are convinced that the bloodshed there is an almost sacred sacrifice, pleasing to Christ, Allah and Buddha given that the Russian prophet Ramzan Kadyrov has said so.

·       Moscow has another reason to ban Wikipedia. It reveals that one American who criticizes the US and praises Moscow is in the pay of the Russian government. No one should be allowed to find that out, at least not in Russia.

·       Russia denies shooting missiles at Odesa but says that two of the four fired hit port facilities. If Russia didn’t fire them, then Ukraine must have; and that raises the critical question: how come Russia hasn’t defeated a country that seems committed to shooting at itself?

·       Under Russian law, the Orthodox church can take a building away from a school or a museum if it once used it even 100 years ago; but the Russian people can’t take away from an oligarch factories he illegally stole just 20 years ago.

·       Moscow keeps adding to the list of unfriendly countries because it is simpler to do that than to invade them and besides some of them are where wealthy Russians hide their wealth.

TWELVE DAYS LATER RETRIEVAL NO LONGER RESCUE

Mexico: More flooding complicates effort to rescue trapped miners

Several hundred rescuers are trying to save 10 workers trapped for days after a coal mine collapsed in northern Mexico.

Concepcion Cruz, a relative of one of the miners trapped in a coal mine in Mexico's Coahuila state, crosses a current of water extracted from the mine on August 15, 2022

 [Daniel Becerril/Reuters]

Published On 15 Aug 2022

Renewed flooding has complicated efforts to rescue 10 miners trapped for more than a week in a coal mine in Mexico’s northern Coahuila state, authorities said.

A sudden jump in water levels at El Pinabete mine on Monday deepened the despair of relatives, who are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the operation.

The water in the shaft that rescuers hope to enter was around 38 metres (125 feet) deep on Monday, compared with 1.3 metres (4.2 feet) early on Sunday, Civil Defence National Coordinator Laura Velazquez said.

A rescue team was preparing to descend into one of the mine shafts on Sunday when the water flooded back, Velazquez said during a government news conference.

(Al Jazeera)

“This sudden entry forced us to stop the whole entry plan,” Velazquez told reporters, adding that a video camera lowered into the shaft revealed debris of pipes and cables floating in the “extremely murky water”.

Engineers now plan to seal off the Pinabete and Conchas Norte mines from one another while continuing to pump water out of Pinabete, she said.

The miners became confined underground at the Pinabete mine in Sabinas, in Coahuila state, on August 3 when their excavation work led a tunnel wall to collapse and unleashed flooding.

Five miners managed to escape following the initial incident, but there have been no signs of life from the others.

Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in the rescue efforts. “We’re not going to stop working to rescue the miners,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.

But relatives of the missing workers over the weekend voiced growing desperation and distrust in the handling of the rescue operation. They also called for the mine owners to be held responsible.

“This is a crime that cannot go unpunished,” Magdalena Montelongo told reporters, adding that the miners had to work in “very bad conditions”.

Maria Guadalupe Cabriales, the sister of trapped miner Margarito Cabriales, said outside the mine that the delays in the rescue effort had worn down her optimism.

“They’re going to take longer to get my brother out,” she told the Reuters news agency. “What hope do we have left?”

A soldier stands guard in the area of the collapsed coal mine, in Sabinas, Coahuila state, Mexico [Daniel Becerril/Reuters]

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Mexico prepares new plan for trapped miners after setback

A picture of trapped Mexican miner Jaime Montelongo is seen on an altar in Agujita, Coahuila.

A rescuer works with a hose at a flooded mine in northern Mexico where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week.

 (Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)

16 Aug 2022

AGUJITA: Mexican authorities announced on Monday (Aug 15) a plan to seal leaks into a coal mine where 10 workers have been trapped for more than a week, after renewed flooding dealt a major setback to rescue efforts.

A sudden jump in water levels in the El Pinabete mine in the northern state of Coahuila deepened the despair of relatives, who are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the operation.

The water in the shaft that rescuers hope to enter was around 38 metres deep on Monday, compared with 1.3 metres early on Sunday, civil defense national coordinator Laura Velazquez said.

The current level is even higher than in the initial aftermath of the Aug 3 accident, despite non-stop efforts to pump out water, according to figures given by the government.

The new strategy is intended to prevent more water from entering El Pinabete from the much bigger, abandoned Conchas Norte mine nearby, Velazquez said.

The plan is to drill 20 holes 60 metres deep into the Conchas Norte mine and inject cement into them to seal the leaks, Velazquez said.

Authorities believe the workers accidentally pierced a hole in a wall between the two mines, causing El Pinabete to flood.

"We're not going to stop working to rescue the miners," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters.

Five miners managed to escape following the initial accident, but there have been no signs of life from the others.

Several hundred rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in the rescue efforts.

The focus so far has been on pumping water out of El Pinabete and removing wood and other debris from the vertical shafts so rescuers can enter the main tunnels.

On Friday authorities had said they were finally in a position to begin searching the mine, but those hopes soon faded.

Over the weekend, relatives of the missing workers voiced growing desperation and distrust in the handling of the rescue operation.

They also called for the mine owners to be held responsible.

"This is a crime that cannot go unpunished," Magdalena Montelongo told reporters, adding that the miners had to work in "very bad conditions".

Accidents are common in Coahuila, Mexico's main coal-producing region.

The worst was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.

Worried about a warming world, thousands of Germans reject using LNG — including Canada's

Kenny Sharpe - Yesterday - CBC

They rappelled down the side of Germany's iconic Elbphilharmonie building. Blocked a German liquefied natural gas site. And thousands of residents from across Europe filled the streets of Hamburg, Germany, in what has been a weeklong protest calling for a more sustainable society.

At the heart of their movement is this warning: liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not the solution to the energy crisis magnified by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As Russian military aggression in Ukraine reaches the six-month mark, governments and energy industry lobbyists, including Canada's, are floating the idea that adding LNG capacity could help circumvent Europe's reliance on Russia's oil and gas supply. But there's backlash to the idea, with one demonstrator in Hamburg suggesting that to invest more in LNG would be "climate suicide," exacerbating already high levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

"In general there's the idea that Europe needs LNG to stay warm in the winter and this is really a lie," Toni Lux told CBC News from the site of a protest camp set up this week in northwest Hamburg.


© Kenny Sharpe/CBC

A few thousand people are camped at the System Change Camp, a festival-like gathering that was set up in a park northwest of Hamburg’s centre in August 2022. Many are climate activists, calling for less reliance on liquified natural gas.
'A crime against climate'

Lux is with the German climate activist group Ende Gelände, who along with 40 other groups, came together to create the System Change Camp. Since Monday, an estimated 6,000 people from across Europe have joined in the festival-like atmosphere, tenting, working and sharing ideas in Hamburg's Altona Volkspark.

Many of those ideas have focused on alternatives to expanding LNG reliance, which the German government is considering in response to the energy crisis sweeping Europe.

But Lux said energy policy needs to stay fixed on transitioning to renewable sources, saying more terminals would be "a crime against climate and against people."


© Kenny Sharpe/CBC

Toni Lux is part of the German activist group Ende Gelände, one of dozens of groups that came together for this week’s demonstrations about finding energy alternatives.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, sanctions imposed by Europe and the West sparked retaliation from the Kremlin in the shipment of energy supplies. Germany, in particular, has been hard hit as it relies heavily on Russian gas pumped through the Nord Stream Pipeline, which has been reduced to about 20 per cent of its usual supply since July 27. (The Kremlin has blamed the reduction on technical issues, saying that Western sanctions affected its ability to get turbines from Canada and perform other maintenance on the pipeline.)

Regardless, as energy prices around the world shoot upward, companies and governments — including Canada — are considering more LNG development as a possible solution.

As Germany's co-ordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation, Michael Link has previously visited Ottawa promoting the need for more LNG and other trade between his country and Canada. Link said that while he understands it takes years to build infrastructure for LNG terminals, the need is urgent.

"I'm not speaking only about Germany," he said in an interview with CBC News Network's Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos. "Italy, the Netherlands, a lot of us in the European Union really are in bitter need of safe democratic energy suppliers. And I think that would be good news for Canada too … because I see Germany and Canada and the European Union as a whole as ideal partners."

Could Canada ramp up LNG exports?


In June, Reuters reported that German government officials, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are interested in Canada's export potential for LNG, suggesting Scholz and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on the sidelines at a G7 summit.

At the same time, the news agency reported that federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has spoken with Canadian LNG companies with established infrastructure about whether they could increase exports to meet the demand from Europe.

In an update to CBC News, Spanish company Repsol said it's exploring ways to increase export capacity at its facility in New Brunswick.

"The company will look at any and all business that enhances or creates value at Saint John LNG, including the potential to add liquefaction capabilities to the existing facility, Repsol spokesperson Mike Blackier said.

Other Canadian oil and gas suppliers also say they're eager to expand further into Europe, with GNL Quebec saying it could help "Europe to diversify its energy sources."

Alberta-based Pieridae Energy has proposed a multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship natural gas from Western Canada to Nova Scotia, where it could then be sent across the Atlantic.


© Kenny Sharpe/CBC

Hamburg’s Landungsbrücken region at dusk. Popular with tourists it is adjacent to where this week’s anti-LNG street march took place. Off in the distance are multiple cranes making up the city’s important export/import port infrastructure.

And though Germany is a world leader in decreasing its energy consumption, it's saying it needs more liquefied natural gas thanks to the shifting geopolitical landscape in Europe, said Pierre-Olivier Pineau, professor at Montreal's HEC business school.

The world should listen, he said.

But he notes that Canada's oil and gas sector wants guarantees before investing in new infrastructure to boost export capacity. And he's not certain that will happen.

"I've never heard Germany saying ... 'We are willing to sign a purchase contract for the next 20 years,' so that it secures all the financial aspects of the project," he said.
What expansion would look like in Germany

For LNG terminal expansion in Germany, there are proposals for growth at multiple spaces between now and 2030, mainly in the north of the country in regions that include Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, according to a report from Reuters.

On Saturday, police clashed with protesters as they attempted to block some bridges and rail lines. A small group of demonstrators broke from the crowd and managed to block Hamburg's Kattwyk Bridge, stopping rail traffic.

On Friday, several Ende Gelände activists were reported to have blocked an LNG site near Wilhelmshaven.

And earlier a fertilizer facility in Brunsbüttel was the site of another blockade.

Protests climaxed in the street march of thousands, all people calling on the country — and Europe — to find an alternative to LNG to address the energy crisis.

Charly Dietz, who also took part in the demonstrations, said Hamburg was chosen because of its importance as a major port city in trade in and out of Europe.

"I think for Germany, Hamburg will be one of the critical points for the future in terms of energy transition," Dietz said.

"We really feel like on a bigger scale together we can really move forward, push this capitalistic system to fail and build up society in solidarity to have a good life for everyone."

The German government says Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Canada for a three-day trip starting next Sunday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Scholz will be joined by Germany's economy and climate minister, Robert Habeck, and make stops in Montreal and Toronto. They'll also visit Stephenville on Newfoundland's west coast, where a potential new hydrogen agreement is expected to be signed.

Environmental groups raise concerns about proposed Calgary-to-Banff passenger train


CALGARY — Conservation advocates and experts are concerned a proposal for a Calgary-to-Banff passenger train is chugging along without addressing some key environmental issues in and around the national park.

Liricon Capital Inc., the lead private-sector proponent, is touting it as a hydrogen-powered transportation solution with lower greenhouse gas emissions than driving.

The company says it has received support from municipalities and the tourism industry, but the Alberta government has told the Globe and Mail it won't invest in the $1.5-billion train as it stands because the financial risks are too high.

Environmental organizations — including Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Yellowstone to Yukon and Bow Valley Naturalists — and some scientists say the proposal also has environmental risks.

"This is one of the most important conservation landscapes in North America," Tony Clevenger, a senior wildlife research scientist with the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University, said from Banff, Alta. "It also happens to be one of the busiest in terms of transportation infrastructure.

"The thought of this new rail line, which would be really close to the existing rail line, is really troublesome — not just in the park, but outside the park on provincial lands and Stoney Nakoda (First Nations) as well."

Concerns include wildlife deaths along the rail line — particularly grizzly bears, which have been hit and killed on the existing track — and the fragmentation of wildlife habitat in Alberta's already busy Bow Valley.

Josh Welsh, Alberta program manager for Yellowstone to Yukon, said passenger rail to Banff isn't a bad idea.

"We see it as a means to potentially provide a sustainable transportation vision that could work for wildlife, people and the planet," he said.

But, he added, there's not enough information or collaboration to know whether it works for wildlife.

"The Bow Valley is already being squeezed by development."

A recent report by the Canmore, Alta.-based organization found the mountain town's footprint has grown five times in 50 years. It focused on grizzly bears because "if you take care of grizzlies, you take care of a lot of other things."

The report found bears have lost about 85 per cent of their original habitat in the Bow Valley.


"So, when you talk about another piece of linear infrastructure, which a train line is … we are talking about cutting up the habitat, disconnecting wildlife," he said.

Devon Earl, conservation specialist with Alberta Wilderness Association, said the Calgary-based organization has similar concerns.

"We don't think there has been adequate assessment of how wildlife will be impacted," she said.

She also questions whether a train would actually reduce cars on the highway, saying bus service may be more cost-effective.

Liricon has said Parks Canada needs to consider raising the entry fee to Banff National Park for private passenger vehicles and expanding bus and shuttle service between park attractions.

Parks Canada said in a statement that its first priority is to protect the ecological integrity in national parks, but it's "not currently reviewing a proposal for passenger rail in Banff National Park." Any review, it added, would look at policy and legislation, including the Impact Assessment Act and park priorities.

Jan Watrous, managing partner with Liricon, said a study shows the train could carry about 11 million passengers annually and reduce highway traffic.

"The fact that the passenger train will be a zero-emission hydrogen train and significantly reduce vehicle traffic … means human and wildlife mortality on the highways will be dramatically reduced," she said. "The specifics of the hydrogen solution and wildlife mitigations will be determined through consultation."

The company has said it's considering using technology such as lighting or sound to warn animals about approaching trains and reduce wildlife deaths on the tracks.

Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a biologist with the University of Alberta, said she spoke to Liricon about that idea, which came out of some research she led.

Although early tests show it can be effective for some wildlife, she said "there's a lot of untested terrain in a warning-based system."

St. Clair said there could also be challenges with wildlife crossing structures that go over or under the tracks.

Clevenger, who specializes in wildlife crossings, said he's heard the company was looking at underpasses to align with those under the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park.

"That's very simplistic and completely unfeasible," he said. "You can't put in an underpass on the new rail line without putting an underpass on the (Canadian Pacific Railway) main line. You'd have to do both."

Clevenger said the measure would reduce already-compromised wildlife habitat.

A passenger train, he added, could end up increasing overall traffic to the national park.

"It's a landscape that is just overflowing with people," he said. "I don't think they can manage it."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2022

Colette Derworiz, The Canadian Press

Bees, bunnies and bleats: Edmonton Urban Farm celebrates Alberta Open Farm Days

Hamdi Issawi -  Edmonton Journal


A herd of hungry, bleating goats kicked off the tenth annual Alberta Open Farm Days at Edmonton’s Urban Farm Saturday morning.

People watch as goats arrive at the Edmonton Urban Farm on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. The goats were there to help eat up some of the weeds in a utility access area.

Near the northwest corner of 113 Avenue and 79 street, a couple dozen people stood along a wire-mesh fence on the west side of the farm to watch the ungulates charge out of their trailer and feed on an alley overgrown with weeds.

Established a year after the inaugural Alberta Open Farm Days in 2013, the two-acre urban farm celebrated it’s ninth year participating in the event, which aims to expose Albertans to the province’s agriculture industry by offering a “backstage pass” to more than 120 farms that have opened their doors to the public.

Caitlin Petit dropped in with her niece and three nephews to learn about plants and farming practices — but mainly to interact with the animals on site, including a few cuddly bunnies.

“The goats led me here,” she said over the sound of bleats blaring from the alley. “They had me convinced I was going to enjoy this experience.”

Edmonton Urban Farm’s diverse program for the event included talks about worms and fruit trees as well as a tour of the grounds, which hosts honeybees and about 120 different food plants, said organizers with Explore Edmonton, the group that manages the farm

Jessie Radies, Explore Edmonton’s director of strategic programs and initiatives, said the event helps Albertans connect or reconnect with an industry that plays an important part in the province.

“You can see the vegetables, you can see the fruits, you can see the bees that are making the honey,” she said. “It’s really important that we rebuild that connection, so that people have an understanding of where their food comes from, how it gets to their plate and what we grow and make here.”

The farm’s operations generally follow the growing season, giving about 300 farmers access to the space in late-April before hosting programs and events through to Thanksgiving, Radies said. The site sees about 6,000 to 7,000 people per year for field trips, day camps, seniors groups and the like.

While minding her young niece ambling about planters near the goats, Petit said the animals on site may have been the highlight for her younger relatives this year, but the exposure might spark an appreciation for agriculture that will blossom with time.

With her own interest in gardening, Petit added, the experience Saturday helped her realize that she wants to start growing her own food.

But more than that, she was just happy to see the greenery, forget about technology for a while and reconnect with the natural world.

“Sometimes we are so caught up in our phones,” she said. “Coming outside, soaking up the sun and seeing the plants is just a reminder to go outside and be with nature.”

Those who missed the event Saturday can still visit Edmonton Urban Farm on Saturdays during drop-in hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Oct. 8.

hissawi@postmedia.com
@hamdiissawi

'Catastrophic failure': 21,000 fish die at California university research center

Orlando Mayorquin, USA TODAY - 

Roughly 21,000 fish died at a northern California university’s aquatic research center overnight last week, according to a university statement.

© UC DavisAn undated photo of green sturgeon at the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture at UC Davis.

“The loss appears to be due to chlorine exposure, to which fish are especially sensitive,” the statement from University California Davis read. Among the dead fish were green and white sturgeon as well as the endangered Chinook salmon.

They were being used to research “bioenergetics and environmental stressors” on different species, according to the statement, which said it would launch an investigation into how the center’s “process failed."

“We share the grief of the faculty, staff and students who worked to care for, study and conserve these animals,” the statement read. “We commit to understanding what happened and making changes to the facility so that we can ensure that this does not happen again.”

Investigation opened after 21,000 fish died at UC Davis Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture
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Chlorine is used as a decontaminant and is often found in tap water. That is why using tap water in fish tanks is not recommended without the use of a dechlorinator, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture.

The university believes that there was a failure in an external decontamination system that caused the chlorinated water to back up in the fish tanks, Andy Fell, a university spokesperson, told USA TODAY.

“These were currently, basically, all the fish they maintained in those outdoor tanks so this was a total loss for the center,” Fell said. “It was really a devastating thing to happen.”

None of the various other aquatic research facilities at UC Davis were affected by the situation, the university said in its statement. But it planned to assess the risk at some facilities that have potential for similar chlorine exposure.

The fish died at UC Davis’ Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture where research aimed at protecting the state’s aquatic resources is conducted, according to the center’s website.

About 100 fish survived, according to Fell, and the university is providing mental health resources to the center’s staff.