ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Two US men freed after 25 years as true crime podcast casts doubt on conviction

New evidence from Proof disputed prosecution’s case that Darrell Lee Clark and Cain Joshua Storey murdered with premeditation

Darrell Lee Clark, left, and Cain Joshua Storey. 

Photograph: Courtesy Georgia Innocence Project


Gloria Oladipo
@gaoladipo

Mon 12 Dec 2022

Two Georgia men were released from prison – and one of them was completely exonerated – after spending more than two decades behind bars, when a true crime podcast revealed new evidence that all but destroyed the case authorities had built against them.

Darrell Lee Clark and his co-defendant Cain Joshua Storey were released from custody last week, after spending more than 25 years imprisoned for the 1996 shooting death of 15-year-old Brian Bowling, a friend of the pair, according to a press release from the Georgia Innocence Project.

New evidence from the true-crime podcast Proof disputed the prosecution’s case that Clark and Storey had murdered Bowling with premeditation.

“You never think something like that is going to happen to you,” said Lee Clark, who thanked the Innocence Project and the podcast for helping secure his release.

“It’s been surreal to say the least,” Storey added. “I believe it’s going to be great. One step at a time.”

Bowling had died after being shot in the head on 18 October 1996.

Right before his death, Bowling had been on the phone with his girlfriend, telling her that he was playing Russian roulette with a gun.

The gun had been brought over by Storey, Bowling’s best friend. Storey had also been in the room with Bowling when the gun was fired.

Cain Joshua Storey with loved ones on his release day.

 Photograph: Courtesy Georgia Innocence Project

Police had initially charged Storey with manslaughter in connection to Bowling’s death, believing the shooting had been unintentional but still illegal. But at the urging of Bowling’s family, police began investigating his death as a murder, which implies much more serious charges.

To build their case, police interviewed a woman who lived near the Bowlings’ house. The woman had claimed that she heard Storey and Clark talk about having planned to murder Bowling during a party, months after the shooting had happened. The woman also said Storey and Clark wanted to kill Bowling because he knew too much about a theft the pair had committed.

Furthermore, police spoke with a person with hearing and speech impairments who was in a different part of the house during the shooting. The person claimed to see Clark running out of the Bowling’s home and through the back yard.

During the trial, prosecutors relied on the testimony of a coroner who said he had a “gut feeling” that the gunshot could not have been self-inflicted in the way it might happen if they were really playing Russian roulette. But the coroner was not a medical doctor, and an autopsy was never conducted on Bowling.

Storey and Clark were convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1998. They were both sentenced to life in prison at the age of 17.

In 2021, podcasters Susan Simpson and Jacinda Davis of Proof began looking into Storey and Clark’s case. The two interviewed the key witnesses who prosecutors relied on to convict Storey and Clark.

They learned that police had actually coerced the woman to falsely state that she had heard Storey and Clark discussing any plans to murder Bowling after police had threatened to take her children away.

Darrell Lee Clark with loved ones on his release day. 

Photograph: Courtesy Georgia Innocence Project

The Proof podcasters also found out the police’s second witness had been misunderstood at the time of the trial and was speaking about an unrelated shooting he had witnessed in 1976. The person had actually never seen any boy outside the Bowling property during the shooting.

“It took us a long time to talk to both of those witnesses,” Davis said to CNN. “The podcast was happening in almost real time as an investigation. When we finally found and were able to talk to those two witnesses, it really solidified that both of these guys had been wrongly convicted.”

In September, Clark’s attorneys filed motions asserting that Clark’s conviction had been based on false evidence and coercion.

Clark was released from Floyd county jail after court officials agreed that his conviction should be completely vacated in light of the new evidence. That finding essentially found him innocent of having committed any crime.

Meanwhile, the murder-related charges on which Storey had been convicted were also dropped against him. But he had previously admitted to bringing Bowling the gun on the night that Bowling told his girlfriend he was playing Russian roulette.

So Storey struck a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a sentence of 10 years he had already served, setting up his immediate release.

RIP COMRADE
Poland’s only cosmonaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, dies aged 81

Hermaszewski circled Earth in the Soyuz 30 spacecraft in 1978 as part of the Soviet Intercosmos programme

Gen Mirosław Hermaszewski (right) is welcomed after he returned from his space flight in 1978, landing in the Soyuz 30 spacecraft near Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. 

Photograph: Tadeusz Zagoździński/PAP/Alamy

AP in Warsaw

Mon 12 Dec 2022 

Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space

Poland’s only cosmonaut, Gen Mirosław Hermaszewski, who circled the Earth in a Soviet spacecraft in 1978, has died. He was 81.

The retired air force pilot’s death on Monday was announced via Twitter by his son-in-law, European Parliament member Ryszard Czarnecki. He later told Polish media outlets that Hermaszewski died at a hospital in Warsaw of complications from a surgery he had undergone in the morning.

“On behalf of the family, I’m confirming the very sad news about the death of Gen Mirosław Hermaszewski,” Czarnecki tweeted, calling him a “great pilot, good husband and father, and much beloved grandfather”.

Hermaszewski became a national hero thanks to his trip to space. For nine days in June and July 1978, he and Soviet cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk circled the Earth in the Soyuz 30 spaceship that docked at the Salyut 6 orbital space station. They went around the globe 126 times.

Hermaszewski (right) with Soviet cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk, with whom he orbited Earth 126 times. Photograph: Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Shutterstock

In an 2018 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Hermaszewski said his biggest fear during the flight was that their spacecraft would be struck by a meteor. His and Klimuk’s senses were sharpened, catching even the smallest sound, he said.

Hermaszewski travelled into space as part of the Soviet Union’s Intercosmos programme, which offered an opportunity to explore space for countries within the then-Eastern bloc under Moscow’s domination or which had ties with the Soviets.

The first person to blast off as part of the programme was Vladimír Remek of then-Czechoslovakia, in March 1978. Hermaszewski followed, while Sigmund Jähn of then-East Germany was the third to fly that year. They had all trained at the Star City space flight preparation facility outside Moscow.

Among other countries that contributed cosmonauts were Hungary, Bulgaria, Cuba, Vietnam, Mongolia, Romania, Syria, Afghanistan and India. France later took part in the programme, sending Jean-Loup Chrétien in 1982.

LET'S RECAP

Fifa accused of failing to adhere to its own human rights commitments

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticise Fifa

Fifa failed to create a fund for injured or killed migrant workers

The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, at a legends event in Doha. 

Photograph: Paul Childs/Reuters


Paul MacInnes
@PaulMac

Mon 12 Dec 2022 

Fifa has been accused of failing to adhere to its own human rights commitments after it chose not to create a remedy fund for migrant workers injured or killed in Qatar.

An umbrella group comprising, among others, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch has spoken out as the World Cup enters its final stages in Doha. It says plans announced by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, to create a legacy fund that “helps people most in need all across the world” falls short of Fifa’s obligations, and undercuts assurances made before the tournament.


Gianni Infantino lauds group stage of the Qatar World Cup as ‘best ever’

It has called on the game’s governing body to change direction and help victims by using some of the $7.5bn (£6.1bn) of revenue generated from taking the World Cup to Qatar to provide compensation.

“Fifa can still do the right thing by channelling the legacy fund towards workers and their families, supporting a genuinely independent workers’ centre and working with Qatar to ensure that every worker can access the compensation that they deserve,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice.

“By changing course, Fifa could make a lasting difference to the lives of the true heroes behind this World Cup. Refusing to do so would be a terrible indictment on its commitment to workers’ rights.”

In 2017 Fifa published its first human rights policy after criticism over the decision to award Qatar the World Cup. At its heart was a commitment to protecting human rights and remedying failures when they occurred, in accordance with the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

To date, however, Fifa has made no express promise to remedy workers hurt or killed during the years of construction leading to the World Cup. A Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund run by the Qatari government claims to have paid out $350m to workers, but public evidence suggests it has so far been used to reimburse workers who have had wages stolen. Fifa’s obligations exist above and beyond any government action.

NGOs and charities, like European Football Associations who hoped to extract some form of legacy commitment, had extensive meetings with Fifa before the tournament and received encouragement only to be blindsided by a series of vague commitments in Infantino’s bizarre speech that launched the tournament last month. Sources suggest there have been no further meetings since that date.

Nick McGeehan, the founding director of FairSquare, another member of the umbrella group, denounced Fifa’s actions. “Instead of ensuring protection of migrant workers who built and delivered the World Cup infrastructure in Qatar, Fifa has benefited from their exploitation and parroted Qatari authorities’ talking points, showing their complicity to all the misleading claims and deflections on abuses of migrant workers,” he said.

“Fifa has tuned out genuine demands for remedy for migrant workers, including from the football industry, and ignored evidence of widespread uncompensated abuses and the inadequacies of the current compensation systems in Qatar.”

Fifa has been approached for comment. It has previously said it would publish details of the finances of the legacy fund once the World Cup has finished “in keeping with previous tournaments”.

UK
Multiple infections could make us much sicker – strep A, RSV and flu are a dangerous mix

The pandemic has changed the seasonal pattern of infectious diseases, and risky, little-understood blends are the result

‘There have been a number of strep A deaths in the UK, 16 of them children.’ 

Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Daniela Ferreira
Mon 12 Dec 2022

Around this time last year, my young daughter caught chickenpox. I thought it was a standard case of a normal childhood illness – we’d manage it by trying to ease the itching and everything would be fine.

Instead, my daughter got worse. She developed a sore throat, then a body rash, and struggled to drink liquids. Again, I thought this was a normal progression of her infection and she would eventually get better. It was only after I started talking to my colleagues that I learned that group A strep cases had been reported among schools in the vicinity. I also found out that chickenpox could lead to increased vulnerability against strep A, particularly among children.



Why are children in the UK at risk of serious strep A infections? – podcast

My daughter was taken to the GP, diagnosed with group A strep, and prescribed antibiotics. She made a full recovery, as most people do. However, as we witness a resurgence of this disease, we know that in rare cases strep A can cause pneumonia and an invasive bacterial infection that can be fatal. There have been a number of deaths in the UK, 16 of them children.

The strep A situation does highlight what is not yet enough studied in scientific research – the relationship between infectious diseases, such as between chickenpox and strep A. We still don’t understand why contracting one disease can make us more vulnerable to get a second one, a not uncommon scenario. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza can have similar links to pneumococcal bacteria, which cause pneumonia. Having a cold caused by one of these viruses makes one more susceptible to pneumonia and generally much sicker. Even less is known about the potential impact of Covid-19 when it inevitably enters the mix, as we go into winter.

One thing is certain, though. Getting infected with bugs such as strep A, RSV, influenza and Covid-19 can weaken the immune system to the point that pneumonia can develop, either caused by these or other bugs. For example, studies have shown that the decline in pneumococcal pneumonia during the pandemic was not due to the disappearance of the pneumococcus that had continued to circulate in the communities, but to a complete decline in certain respiratory viruses. Pneumococcus was still present, without symptoms, in children’s noses – but without a co-infection it couldn’t progress to full-blown pneumonia.

There is an opportunity for scientific research to explore the relationship between respiratory viruses and pneumococcal bacteria, so we are not forced to treat them independently of each other and perhaps could better use the arsenal of vaccines already available, as well as the new ones coming soon. This would help policymakers plan the best defences against such infections and should be an integral part of efforts to build global resilience against future pandemics. Research of this kind is already being carried out at the University of Oxford and other institutions around the world.

Unpicking this relationship between different infections is vital, especially as, post-pandemic, we are seeing shifts in the seasonality of several diseases. The rising numbers of strep A cases is unusual for this time of the year because they typically occur in late spring or early summer, often after chickenpox infections. This is most likely the result of a large infection-naive population – people who have never encountered the infection before – that has developed as a result of us staying mostly indoors during the pandemic.

A shift in seasonality of certain diseases following the pandemic and a sharp increase in other respiratory viruses at this time of the year can also increase vulnerability to strep A. We saw something similar happen in the US and in the UK with RSV, when there was a surge in cases over the spring and autumn last year following the easing of social contact rules. We should typically expect RSV to start peaking over the winter instead.

Another effective way we can mitigate the impact of respiratory diseases is through vaccination. There are already vaccines available for pneumonia, influenza and Covid-19 for instance. Although there aren’t any for RSV or strep A, they are in development and could be an important weapon against such infections in the future. However, it is also possible to build up defences indirectly. A chickenpox vaccine obviously helps recipients develop immunity against the disease, but could also potentially help to stop such infections from progressing into something more serious, such as strep A. The same principle can be applied to influenza, pneumococcus and Covid-19 vaccines.

An already stretched NHS is doing all it can to combat strep A and other respiratory illnesses. Pharmacists are also reporting shortages in antibiotics needed to treat strep A. We should do what we can to help our health system be more resilient through these cold months while also calling for measures to help it weather such pressures in the future, including more backing for scientific research and investment in pandemic preparedness.

Daniela Ferreira is professor of mucosal infection and vaccinology at the University of Oxford and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

WHO chief ‘very concerned’ over COVID situation in China

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appeals for detailed information as China battles a surge of COVID cases.

Published On 21 Dec 2022

China could be struggling to keep a tally of COVID-19 infections as the country experiences a big spike in cases, a senior World Health Organization official has said, amid concerns about a lack of data from the country.

Official figures from China have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done across the country following the recent easing of the strict “zero-COVID” policy.

“In China, what’s been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up,” WHO’s emergencies director Mike Ryan said on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t like to say that China is actively not telling us what’s going on. I think they’re behind the curve.”

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he was “very concerned” about the situation in China.

“WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China,” Tedros told a weekly news conference, appealing for detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.

Vaccines from Germany

The WHO said it was ready to work with China to improve the way the country collects data around critical factors such as hospitalisation and death.

China uses a narrow definition of COVID deaths and reported no new fatalities for Tuesday, even crossing one off of its overall tally since the pandemic began, now at 5,241 – a fraction of the tolls of many much less populous countries.

The National Health Commission said only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths.

Ryan noted that there had been a surge in vaccination rates in the country over the last weeks, adding that it remains to be seen whether enough vaccination can be done in the coming weeks to stave off the effect of an Omicron wave

.

Beds are seen in a fever clinic that was set up in a sports area as coronavirus disease outbreaks continue in Beijing [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

The WHO would encourage work to import vaccines, but also to find arrangements where vaccines can be produced in as many places as possible, Ryan said.

China has nine domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines approved for use, more than any other country, but they have not been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Germany has sent its first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.

“The Chinese government informed Germany today that for the time being German citizens in China may be given the BioNTech vaccines,” he said, adding that “around 20,000 Germans would benefit” from the shipment.

He said that Germany was negotiating to win access for “other so-called expatriates” from other countries.

“In return, Chinese citizens in Europe, in Germany, may receive the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, if they so choose,” Hebestreit said.

It was not immediately clear whether other shipments would follow from Berlin.

THE POST'S VIEW

Opinion

China’s new covid nightmare could become a global catastrophe

By the Editorial Board

December 20, 2022 

China’s “zero covid” policy was unsustainable and abruptly scrapped, but the absence of a coherent fallback strategy threatens a fresh set of nightmares for its population, its economy and the Communist Party leadership. A new crisis could shake the whole world. As the Wuhan outbreak demonstrated three years ago, what begins in China does not necessarily stay there.

President Xi Jinping’s government had imposed draconian requirements for lockdowns, tests and forced quarantines during most of the pandemic. But once lifted on Dec. 7, the measures were followed by little guidance from the top. China’s party-state usually declares that everything is under control. Now, it appears to be quite unsettled. A wave of omicron infections is sweeping Beijing and might soon hit the rest of China. It has triggered panic buying of food and cold remedies. A government known for its rigidity and certitude stopped reporting some daily infections data and deactivated the ubiquitous covid-19 tracking app, adding to the uncertainty. Instead of basking in newfound freedom to go out, many people are scared, hunkering down inside.

China has troubled days ahead. Among those 60 years and older, only about 69 percent have received booster shots, and the uptake is even less among those over 80 years old. They are extremely vulnerable to omicron, and reports from China have indicated that a surge of deaths has already started, with crematoriums working around the clock.

Mathematical models predict 1 million or more deaths early next year. China’s government has announced a plan to accelerate vaccination campaigns for the elderly, who have been hesitant to get the shots. For a long while, China has grossly underreported deaths due to covid and probably will continue to do so

One danger is that China’s outbreak will generate new variants that threaten the rest of the world. It is impossible to predict, but previous variants with a transmission edge have spread rather quickly. Millions of infections in China increase the chances of a new variant rising.

Mr. Xi’s motive for ditching the zero-covid policy was to kick-start a lagging economy, burdened by lockdowns and worker unrest. But the new approach might deal a roundhouse blow to the economy. It is causing widespread disruption to production and supply chains. Should China’s manufacturing slow, the world will feel the pain in the form of shortages and inflation.

China unwisely eschewed the effective mRNA vaccines for less-effective Chinese-made shots. The population has not been widely exposed to omicron, and thus lacks natural immunity. A potential lifeline is an aerosol vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics. It is being offered as a booster, in the form of an inhaled mist taken in through the mouth, after studies show it triggered an immune system response in people who had previously received two shots of a Chinese vaccine. The best strategy is pressing this vaccine and importing millions of mRNA shots, too.

Rare public protests that erupted in late November played a role in Mr. Xi’s decision to dump zero covid. Protesters’ wrath could easily return if the situation deteriorates and people lose more faith.

The Post’s View | About the Editorial Board

Editorials represent the views of The Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the Editorial Board, based in the Opinions section and separate from the newsroom.

Members of the Editorial Board and areas of focus: Opinion Editor David Shipley; Deputy Opinion Editor Karen Tumulty; Associate Opinion Editor Stephen Stromberg (national politics and policy, legal affairs, energy, the environment, health care); Associate Editor Jonathan Capehart (national politics); Lee Hockstader (immigration; issues affecting Virginia and Maryland); David E. Hoffman (global public health); James Hohmann (domestic policy and electoral politics, including the White House, Congress and governors); Charles Lane (foreign affairs, national security, international economics); Heather Long (economics); Associate Editor Ruth Marcus; and Molly Roberts (technology and society).

Waves recorded in B.C. after earthquake rocks California coast

Saanich Peninsula-based recordings key part of worldwide data

VICTORIA NEWS STAFF
Dec. 20, 2022

Earthquake damage is seen at the Humboldt Creamery building in Loleta, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. A strong earthquake shook a rural stretch of northern California early Tuesday, jolting residents awake, cutting off power to 70,000 people, and damaging some buildings and a roadway, officials said. Two injuries were reported.

 (Ruth Schneider/The Times-Standard via AP)

A hearty shake south of the border serves as a good reminder – and information-gathering tool – for coastal B.C. residents, says one seismologist who works on the Saanich Peninsula.

John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with National Resources Canada, tweeted images showing shaking on Vancouver Island when a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck California Tuesday (Dec. 20).

There was no shaking felt in B.C., nor a tsunami expected after the earthquake at 2:34 a.m. near Ferndale, about 345 kilometres northwest of San Francisco, just offshore and about 16 km deep.

RELATED: Magnitude 6.4 earthquake shakes parts of northern California

“It is a really active area,” Cassidy said, noting the region had a similar event, a 6.2, exactly a year ago.

The 2 a.m. quake in California was enough to frighten and cause damage to nearby communities.

Cassidy explained Greater Victoria residents get earthquakes that size off Vancouver Island, but 50 or 100 kilometres off shore – so we feel them but it’s not damaging or frightening.

But what they all are is informative.

Thousands of people reported feeling shaking, of varying degrees, across northern California, southern Oregon and even as far as Seattle. Closer to home, the seismometer in the Institute of Ocean Sciences building in North Saanich recorded the Island’s waves. The sensitive instruments are designed to detect tiny earthquakes that happen every day that no one even feels.

To study earthquakes you need data from different locations, with accurate times and accurate recordings, Cassidy said.

“There is a lot that can be learned from recordings, not just from very close to the earthquake, but 800 to 900 km from the earthquake,” he said.

“One of the things you want to learn is the fault it occurred on, how much it moved, how it moved. Looking at data from all sides and distances you can pin down what happened.”

READ ALSO: Vancouver Island slides west, tremors could signal tectonic shifting

It also serves as a timely reminder the west coast of North America is a very active earthquake zone.

“It’s a good reminder to check the earthquake kits and update the plan and know what to do when shaking begins,” Cassidy said. “Some of the world’s largest earthquakes have occurred here. But it’s been a long time and it’s easy to forget.”

Black Press Media has prepared an emergency guide to help residents be ready. To learn more, click here.

California town grapples with toll of quake on homes, water

By Adam Beam And Amy Taxin

The Associated Press
Wed., Dec. 21, 2022

RIO DELL, Calif. (AP) — Outside the Dollar General, the store manager ticked off the items she had to share with families trying to jumpstart their lives after an earthquake jolted them from their beds and cut off the town’s water and power.

“Batteries or candles?” a worker asked a woman toting a toddler on her hip, and handed the child a plastic candy cane filled with sweets.

Just days before Christmas in Rio Dell, the former lumber town grappled with the aftermath of early Tuesday’s magnitude 6.4 earthquake that injured at least 17 people, shook homes off foundations, damaged water systems and left tens of thousands without electricity, some for more than a day.

By Wednesday afternoon, power was restored to the homes of tens of thousands of residents, and Christmas lights wrapped around trees on the community’s main street came back on. Still, about 2,500 people remained without electricity and most of the town’s 3,500 residents lacked safe drinking water, according to Pacific Gas & Electric and local officials.


Small communities that bore the brunt of a strong earthquake on the coast of far Northern California remain without power and under boil-water advisories. (Dec. 21) (AP video: Adam Beam)

Twenty-six homes were deemed unsafe, leaving an estimated 65 people displaced, most of whom were expected to be staying with family and friends, said Rio Dell City Manager Kyle Knopp. Another 37 homes were damaged, and even those that suffered no physical cracks required intense cleanup inside, where the floors are cluttered by knocked down shelves and broken dishware.

Along this stretch of Northern California’s coast, earthquakes are common, and people talk about them much like the weather. But the one that shook people from their homes was different to many who found themselves tossed violently from their beds and stumbling around in the dark of night in search of safety.

When his house began to shake, Chad Sovereign ran into his 10-year-old son Jaxon’s room, grabbed him, and dove under a door frame. The brick chimney collapsed, pulling the wall with it and leaving a gaping hole in their home.

“It felt like the end of the world,” Sovereign said. “I was telling him I love him. I didn’t say goodbye to him, (but) in my head I was. I was just telling him, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you,’ over and over.”

Sovereign said the family lost water and power after the quake, but luckily they could remain in their home. They filled up their bathtub with whatever water was left before the shutoff and used it to flush the toilets.

The quake was centered in nearby Ferndale, about 210 miles (345 kilometers) northwest of San Francisco and near the Pacific coast. The area is known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s legendary marijuana crop — as well as the Mendocino Triple Junction, a geologic region where three tectonic plates meet.

On Wednesday, the community fire station was turned into a drive-thru hub. Residents pulled up their cars and had water loaded into their trunks, while a local food truck handed out tacos and burritos courtesy of World Central Kitchen. Other volunteers propped up folding tables and gave out apples, peaches, bagels and canned food.

What was once a bustling lumber town with shops in the 1970s is today a small, humble community made up of retirees, commuters and renters. When a nearby mill went bankrupt and a major thoroughfare moved, Rio Dell became a shadow of its former self, residents said. But it remains a place where people know each other and when reeling from disaster they can go to City Hall and seek advice on who can replace their broken windows — and get it, too.

Outside Dollar General, store manager Cassondra Stoner said she was told she could distribute water, batteries and candles but to hold off on other items until they could be inspected — something she couldn’t always do.

“I couldn’t help myself, and I gave somebody one ibuprofen and some baby diapers because I am not going to let a kid go without diapers,” she said.

The Dollar General is the main grocery in Rio Dell, replacing an Old West-themed mini golf course. There’s also a hardware store and a pizza place in a town used to quakes knocking things off shelves and causing damage to business inventory, locals said, but rarely so much to people’s homes and spirits.

“If you complain about one less than a 4-point-something or other, you’re a weenie,” said Sharon Wolff, editor of the Rio Dell Times local news website. ”We see news reports that this place had a 3.6, and it’s like, ‘Oh, please.’ ”

Nearby Ferndale, which draws tourists to its picturesque Victorian Village, also lost power and a key bridge to the community was shut down, but shopkeepers hoped to bounce back quickly once the lights came back on, said Marc Daniels, owner of Mind’s Eye Manufactory and Coffee Lounge.

“We know how bad it could have been,” said Daniels, whose shop occupies a two-story Victorian. “We feel like we sort of dodged a bullet this time.”

About 17 people were reported as suffering injuries. Two people died — an 83-year-old and a 72-year-old — because they couldn’t get timely care for medical emergencies during or just after the quake.

More than half of the 72,000 Humboldt County customers who lost electricity when the quake struck had power restored by evening that day. But some went without it — and water — throughout the night. Boil water advisories were issued for Rio Dell and parts of Fortuna because of damaged water systems. In Rio Dell, portable toilets were set up downtown.

Celia Magdaleno, 67, said she hauled a container of water from her neighbor’s swimming pool back to her home in order to flush the toilet. She said she took rainwater she had captured in a barrel outside and heated it so her husband could bathe before his dialysis appointment.

Having access to water “means a lot,” she said. “It’s a very big blessing for me.”

Nathan Scheinman, 24, said he hunkered down under four blankets but could barely sleep through the cold with the shock of the quake repeating in his mind. He lost gas, water and power, and had to drive to find a usable bathroom. Right now, Scheinman said rather than thinking about the holiday, he is trying to help people who come into the hardware store where he works with whatever he can in their time of need.

“I think in the Christmas spirit I want to be there for people the best way I can,“ he said.

__

Taxin reported from Orange County, Calif. Associated Press writer John Antczak in Los Angeles and photographer Godofredo Vásquez in Rio Dell contributed.

Ottawa urged to act after Taliban shuts women out of higher education

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The federal government has condemned the regime’s move

 as an “outrageous violation” of women's rights

Raffy Boudjikanian · CBC News · Posted: Dec 21, 2022 

Girls walk to their school along a road in Gardez, Paktia province in Afghanistan on September 8, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)

Afghan women and advocacy groups are urging the federal government to do more to support female students in Afghanistan after the Taliban imposed an open-ended ban on women attending universities.

In a letter, Afghanistan's de-facto minister of higher education Neda Mohammad Nadeem has instructed the country's public and private universities to suspend "the education of females until further notice."

Western governments, including the U.S. and Canada, condemned the move within hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Taliban's action "indefensible," adding education is a human right and "essential to Afghanistan's economic growth and stability."

He also warned of unspecified consequences for the regime.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly tweeted that the Taliban was denying women and girls "the prospect of a better life."

"Equal access to education is a right to which every woman and girl is entitled," she wrote. "We condemn this outrageous violation."

But many are looking for something more than words from Ottawa. 

Afghanistan's first female Olympic judo contestant, Friba Rezayee, moved to Canada in 2011. She denounces the lack of similar opportunities for Afghan girls and women under the Taliban regime. ((submitted) )

Friba Rezayee is a former Afghan Olympian who arrived in Canada in 2011; she now helps other female Afghan athletes flee the Taliban through her organization Women Leaders of Tomorrow. She said the government of Canada needs to forge ties with non-governmental organizations in Kabul to support Afghan women.

"Those small grassroots organizations are still working and we are the people who have contacts and people on the ground, to make change, and also reach out to those women and families who are in need," she said. 

Like many western countries, Canada shut down its embassy in Kabul indefinitely after the Taliban completed its military takeover in August 2021.

Ottawa did appoint a senior official for Afghanistan, David Sproule, who has met with Taliban representatives more than a dozen times since. Together with other Global Affairs Canada staff and diplomats from other western countries, he has been pressing the regime on women's rights to education, the fight against terrorism and the need to extend safe passage for Afghans trying to leave the country.

Rezayee said those talks clearly went nowhere.

"The Canadian government has been very nice and patient with the Taliban," she said.

She pointed out that the regime shut girls out of high schools months ago.

"They are taking Afghanistan and Afghan women nearly three decades back," said Habiba Nazari, an applied sciences student at the University of British Columbia.

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Nazari, who lives in Vancouver, fled Afghanistan before the Taliban's takeover — but her six sisters had to stay behind.

Now, she fears her younger sisters will never be able to attend university.

"They are really thinking about this — 'We are not going to school, we don't have any opportunity to attend any school, any program.' And they don't know about their future," she said.

Lauryn Oates works with Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, a non-governmental organization that works to promote literacy and access to education in Afghanistan.

Male university students attend class next to a curtain separating males from females at a university in Kandahar Province on December 21, 2022. (AFP/Getty Images)

Her group is urging Ottawa to fund virtual schooling for girls and women shut out of the education system in Afghanistan, and to provide schooling for those who've moved on to third countries outside Canada. 

"Make sure that girls and women have access to alternative forms of education," she said.

Oates said she fears shutting girls and women out of school is only part of the Taliban's plan.

Her organization pointed to an Afghan newspaper, Hasht-e-Shubh, which published what appeared to be a leaked draft of a Taliban proposal for a new educational curriculum, 

CBC News has not independently verified this publication, but Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan suggested the Taliban wants "a complete ban on images of all living things, mention of music, television, elections, birthdays, radio" and "non-Islam figures such as scientists."

"Access is meaningless if you don't get a true education that actually means something that you can do something in your life with, that you have better life opportunities, better livelihood opportunities with," Oates said.

Asked to offer comment for this story, the federal government did not address the concerns raised by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan but pointed instead to Joly's tweet.

‘My dreams are over.’ Taliban ban on women 

in university sparks private anguish, public 

protests

Female students cried publicly over the move. Some male 

students left their classes in protest, and a few university 

lecturers resigned.

By Marjan Sadat

Staff Reporter

TORONTO STAR
Wed., Dec. 21, 2022

Wurranga Arif, an 18-year-old student of civil engineering, was dressed head to toe according to Taliban rules, to go to her third-semester promotion exam at the largest university in Kabul.

She was on her way when she was told the gates of universities were being closed to female students.

The announcement had come: The Taliban were banning women and girls from university. The news this week is drawing international condemnation as the latest regressive step from a regime that regained power more than a year ago.

For women in Afghanistan, it is devastating.

Arif says that upon hearing the news, she thought that everything in her life was over. She felt that she was in a grave from which there is no return, she told the Star in an interview.

“My dreams are over forever. I think the weight of the sky is on my shoulders, and I am very sad,” Arif said via WhatsApp, speaking in Persian.

“In this situation, Afghanistan could be called a graveyard. My country is heading toward destruction,” Arif said. She still holds out a bit of hope for a reversal of the decision and a chance to go back to university.

It is a decision that will affect thousands of other women in the country.

Female university students cried publicly this week. Some male students left their classes in protest, and a few university lecturers at public and private universities resigned.

Arif asked, “Is it really possible for a country to progress without educating women?” and then answers herself. “Never.”

The Taliban’s decision has been condemned by the United Nations, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Norway, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam — and the U.A.E., an influential country in the Persian Gulf, along with Pakistan were the only three countries that recognized the Taliban regime in the 1990s.

Dr. Davood Moradian, director of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, who relocated to the U.K. after the fall of the Afghan republic last year, said that he was only surprised by those who have been surprised by the Taliban move.

“To their credit, they have been consistent in their determination to have the world’s first gender apartheid. Only their apologist and naive observers chose to ignore this,” Moradian told the Star via WhatsApp from London.

Universities are being closed to women in a country where schools for girls have already been closed by the Taliban, despite repeated requests from the international community to reopen them.

Shaharzad Akbar, the head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission during the Republic era, said the decision of the Taliban to close the gates of universities to women has created a sense of anger in society.

“The new decision of the Taliban once again proved to us how misogynistic the Taliban are,” Akbar said via WhatsApp, from outside the country.

Akbar said that the continuation of the situation will hurt the whole country.

“The situation is getting worse every day. The Islamic world should express its opinion about the situation in Afghanistan and stand by the women of my country, because the decisions of the Taliban on women present a bad and negative image and understanding of Islam to the world.”

Mirwais Balkhi, the minister of education in the previous government of Afghanistan, who currently lives in the U.S., said this decision and others make clear that the Taliban have not changed in any way, in their goals or in their thinking.

“This was the last nail in the hope of women. With this situation, there is no reason for the girls to hope, on the one hand, and for all of us to hope for the reform of the Taliban,” Balkhi told the Star via WhatsApp, speaking in Persian.

Balkhi believes that the Taliban will not be tamed by the language of tolerance. They consider the tolerance of the world to be weakness and failure, he said. He added that this situation emboldens the Taliban and their terrorist associates.

“Afghanistan is moving toward underdevelopment and social, cultural and economic collapse.”

With the takeover by the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, the situation of Afghan women in this country is getting worse day by day. New restrictions against women are announced every few days or weeks.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world whose women are not allowed to go to secondary schools, universities, parks, public women’s bathrooms, and sports clubs, and once again, like the Taliban in the 1990s, they are whipped and stoned in public on different charges.

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Women banned from universities:

Sliding back to the Taliban of the ‘90s

With few internal pressures, the Taliban regime, it seems, can trample on the rights of citizens, particularly women, with impunity. The constraints of the international community in such a situation must be recognised and addressed urgently in multilateral fora.

By: Editorial
December 22, 2022

In the last few weeks alone, in addition to the actions against women citizens, the Taliban has brought back public flogging and executions.

Earlier this month, there was a glimmer of hope from Afghanistan. Against the grain of its policies since resuming power in August 2021, the Taliban regime had allowed girls in 31 out of 34 provinces to appear for their secondary school examinations. Girls had not been allowed to attend school for over a year. But that hope, tragically and predictably, stands belied. Last month, women and girls were banned from parks, swimming pools, gyms and other public spaces. This week, the Taliban has reportedly banned women from universities in Afghanistan. With this latest move, it is undeniable that the country has been plunged back into the regressive, authoritarian, misogynistic rule that was the hallmark of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s. It is also a sign of the limitations of the leverage the international community has to influence the Afghan Taliban.

In the last few weeks alone, in addition to the actions against women citizens, the Taliban has brought back public flogging and executions. These “policy” decisions put paid to the notion that the regime’s desire to escape sanctions and gain international legitimacy post the US withdrawal would force it to maintain at least the veneer of following global norms with respect to human rights. A year later, even those states that had recognised the Taliban in the ’90s — Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan — have not done so this time. The Pakistan security establishment was not-so-subtly jubilant at the return of the Taliban. As the Taliban’s closest ally, it saw the negotiated US withdrawal as a diplomatic and strategic win, in no small part because regime change undermined New Delhi’s position in the country. But that relationship too seems set to sour, as the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has renewed hostilities against the army: Earlier this week, the TTP attacked a counter-terrorism centre and took hostages and on Thursday, the Pakistan army stormed the building, and claims to have killed all the hostage-takers.

The need for international legitimacy, economic logic and even the imperative of maintaining a cordial relationship with its closest “ally” — it seems that the Taliban is relatively immune to these pressures. The West is preoccupied with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the economic and geopolitical crisis that it has engendered. With few internal pressures, the Taliban regime, it seems, can trample on the rights of citizens, particularly women, with impunity. The constraints of the international community in such a situation must be recognised and addressed urgently in multilateral fora.