In Jerusalem’s contested Old City, shrinking Armenian community fears displacement after land deal

By ISABEL DEBRE

June 6,2023   

Members of the Armenian community protest a contentious deal that stands to displace residents and hand over a large section of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, Friday, May 19, 2023. Fallout from the 99-year lease of 25% of Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter has forced the highest authority of the Armenian church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest to flee to southern California. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

JERUSALEM (AP) — A real estate deal in Jerusalem’s Old City, at the epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor.

The 99-year lease of some 25% of the Old City’s Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.

“If they sell this place, they sell my heart,” Garo Nalbandian, an 80-year-old photojournalist, said of the Ottoman-era barracks where he has lived for five decades among a dwindling community of Armenians. Their ancestors came to Jerusalem over 1,500 years ago and then after 1915, when Ottoman Turks killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in what’s widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Alarm over the lease spread in April, following a surprise visit by Israeli land surveyors. Word got around that an Australian-Israeli investor, whose company sign appeared on the site, planned to transform the parking lot and limestone fortress of Armenian apartments and shops into an ultra-luxury hotel.

As anger, confusion and fears of possible evictions mounted, the Armenian patriarchate — the body managing the community’s civil and religious affairs — acknowledged that the church had signed away the patch of land. The Armenian patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, alleged that a now-defrocked priest bore full responsibility for the “fraudulent and deceitful” deal that the patriarch said took place without his full knowledge.

The admission inflamed passions in the Armenian Quarter, where activists decried the deal as a threat to the community’s longtime presence in Jerusalem. Jordan, with its historic ties to Jerusalem’s Christian sites, said it feared for the “future of the holy city.”

Palestinian officials accused Manougian of helping Israel in a decades-long battle between Israel and the Palestinians over a city that both sides claim as their capital. For Palestinians, such struggles over real estate are the centerpiece of the decades-old conflict, emblematic of what they see as a wider Israeli effort to remove them from strategic areas in east Jerusalem.

“From a Palestinian point of view, this is treason. From a peace activist point of view, this undermines possible solutions to the conflict,” said Dimitri Diliani, president of the National Christian Coalition of the Holy Land.

In a dramatic move, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II suspended recognition of Manougian, the patriarch who has served for the past decade in what is normally a lifelong position. That renders him unable to sign contracts, make transactions and make decisions in the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

The priest who coordinated the deal, Baret Yeretsian, was deposed, assaulted by a mob of angry young Armenians and whisked away by Israeli police before seeking refuge in Southern California. Manougian has barricaded himself in the Armenian convent, unwilling or unable to be seen publicly, according to residents.

“This quarter is everything to me. It’s the only place we have for Armenians to gather in the Holy Land,” said 22-year-old community leader Hagop Djernazian. “We have to fight for it.”

The quarter is home to some 2,000 Armenians with the same status as Palestinians in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem — residents but not citizens, effectively stateless. Israel annexed east Jerusalem, where the Old City is located, after capturing it in 1967, a move not recognized internationally.

For the past month — most recently last Friday — protesters have formed a human chain around the quarter and gathered under Manougian’s window, shouting “traitor” and demanding that he come clean about who has leased the land and how.

While the Armenian church has refused to disclose details about the sale, Yeretsian identified the investor as Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman. As the church’s real estate manager, Yeretsian said he was acting at the request of the patriarch.

There is very little information available about Rothman, who also has used the last name Rubinstein, according to a 2016 Cyprus regulatory decision fining him for falsifying his academic background.

His LinkedIn page describes him as chairman of a hotel company called Xana Capital. Records show the firm — formed in the United Arab Emirates — was registered in Israel in July 2021. Weeks later, a dozen Armenian priests raised the first alarm about a property deal being struck without their consent.

A sign recently popped up marking the Armenian parking lot as the property of Xana Capital.

Rothman, who is based in London, declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. “I never get interviewed by the press. I’m a private person,” he said before hanging up.

The self-exiled priest, Yeretsian, said that Rothman plans to develop a high-end resort in the Armenian Quarter. The project, he added, would be managed by the One&Only hotel company based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020. The deal appears to be one of the most high-profile — and controversial — to come out of the business ties that were forged under the U.S-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

 

Community leader Hagop Djernazian poses for a portrait on the edge of a parking lot that is part of a contentious lease deal in the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. "This quarter is everything to me. It's the only place we have for Armenians to gather in the Holy Land," he says. "We have to fight for it." (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)

 

A general view of a parking lot that is part of a contentious deal in the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. The 99-year lease of some 25% of Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City ramparts. (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)

Garo Nalbandian, an 80-year-old photojournalist, center, listens to a speaker during an Armenian community protest of a contentious deal that stands to displace him and other residents and cede some 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, Friday, May 19, 2023. "If they sell this place, they sell my heart," he said of the Ottoman-era barracks where he has lived for five decades among a dwindling community of Armenians. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment, citing the political sensitivity.

Kerzner International, owner of One&Only Resorts, also declined to comment. The Dubai-based company said only that it is “always exploring opportunities to grow its portfolio of ultra-luxury resorts.”

Renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie told the AP that Rothman would fund the project and that he would design it. Construction, he said, would start following excavations at the parking lot. It is unclear whether residents will be evicted, but the patriarchate has promised to assist any residents who are displaced.

The saga reflects the struggle over politics and real estate that has bedeviled the Holy Land for centuries.

Jewish investors in Israel and abroad long have sought to buy east Jerusalem properties. The Armenian Quarter is desirable because it abuts the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray.

Their goal is to expand the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem, cementing Israeli control of the part of the city claimed by Palestinians as their capital.

Scandals involving land sales to Jewish settlers have previously embroiled the Greek Orthodox Church, the custodian of many Christian sites in the region.

Two decades ago, the Greek Church sold two Palestinian-run hotels in the Old City to foreign companies acting as fronts for a Jewish settler group. The secretive deals led to the downfall of the Greek patriarch and prompted international uproar.

Yeretsian, in California, dismissed fears of an Israeli settler take-over of the Armenian Quarter as “propaganda” based solely on Rothman’s Jewish identity.

“The intention was never to Judaize the place,” he said, claiming that Rothman has no political agenda. He insisted that the Armenian patriarch was fully engaged in the long-running negotiations and personally signed off on the contract.

“I did my job faithfully in the best interest of the patriarchate,” he said, declining to offer further details about the lease that he said expires after a century. The patriarchate declined to say what it would do with the money from the deal.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem’s Armenians — long ruled by foreign powers, displaced by wars and squeezed between Israelis and Palestinians — are filled with nagging dread.

“Our lands were acquired inch by inch with blood and sweat,” said 26-year-old resident Setrag Balian. “With one signature, they were given away.”

Author Haruki Murakami says pandemic, war in Ukraine create walls that divide people

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

June 6,2023

 Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami poses for media during a press conference on the university's new international house of literature, The Haruki Murakami Library, opening at the Waseda University in Tokyo, on Sept. 22, 2021. In a speech released Wednesday, June 7, 2023, Murakami says walls are increasingly built and dividing people and countries as fear and skepticism flourish following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese writer Haruki Murakami says walls are increasingly built and dividing people and countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic fueled fear and skepticism.

“With feelings of suspicion replacing mutual trust, walls are continually being erected around us,” Murakami said in late April at Wellesley College. That speech, “Writing Fiction in the Time of Pandemic and War,” was released Wednesday in The Shincho Monthly literary magazine published by Shinchosha Co.

“Everybody seems to be confronted with a choice — to hide behind the walls, preserving safety and the status quo or, knowing the risks, to emerge beyond the walls in search of a freer value system,” he said.

Like the protagonist in his new novel.

“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” was released in April in Japan and an English translation is expected in 2024. The protagonist, as Murakami described, faces a tough choice between two worlds: an isolated walled city of tranquility with no desire or suffering, and the real world beyond the walls filled with pain and desire and contradictions.

The novel is based on a story he wrote for a magazine soon after becoming a novelist but was never published in book form. He said he knew it had important ideas and put it aside because he wanted to rewrite it.

Some 40 years later, he discovered “this tale fits perfectly with the age we live in now.”

Murakami started rewriting the book in March 2020, soon after COVID-19 began spreading around the world, and finished it two years later, as the war in Ukraine passed its one-year mark.

“The two big events combined and changed the world in dramatic ways,” he said.

The sense of safety that came with a common belief in globalism and mutual economic and cultural dependency “crumbled with Russia’s sudden invasion of Ukraine,” Murakami said, spreading fear of similar invasions elsewhere. Many countries, including his home Japan, have since bolstered their military preparedness and budgets.

As the war continues without an end in sight, so do the high walls being built around people, between countries and individuals, Murakami said. “It seems to me that the psychic condition — if someone isn’t your ally, he is your enemy — continues to spread.”

“Can our trust in each other once more overcome our suspicions? Can wisdom conquer fear? The answers to these questions are entrusted to our hands. And rather than an instant answer, we are being required to undergo a deep investigation that will take time,” Murakami said.

He says that, while there’s not much a novelist can do, “I sincerely hope that novels and stories can lend their power to such an investigation. It’s something that we novelists dearly hope for.”

Murakami has made other efforts to encourage people to think, combat fear or tear down walls. He hosted the radio show “Music to put an end to war” a month after Russia’ invaded Ukraine. His Japanese translation of “The Last Flower,” a 1939 parable of war and peace by American humorist and former New Yorker cartoonist James Thurber, will be released later this month from Poplar Sha.

Did the protagonist stay inside the walls? “Please try reading the book yourselves,” Murakami said.

Small-brained ancient human cousins may have buried their dead, according to a surprising study

By MADDIE BURAKOFF

June 5, 2023

In this photo provided by National Geographic, researchers lay out fossils of Homo naledi at the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2014. The new species of human relative was discovered by a team led by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand deep inside a cave located outside Johannesburg. In research released on Monday, June 5, 2023, scientists say they've found evidence that the ancient human cousin buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, actions previously tied only to bigger-brained species. 

(Robert Clark/National Geographic via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — An ancient human cousin may have buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, surprising findings for a creature with a small brain.

Fossil remains of the species — named Homo naledi — were uncovered in underground caves in South Africa a decade ago. Now, researchers say they’ve found evidence that the species was capable of complex behavior that so far has only been seen in those with bigger brains.

“We are facing a remarkable discovery here” for a species with brains one-third the size of humans, said anthropologist Lee Berger, who led the research funded by the National Geographic Society, where he now works.

Berger and colleagues describe their findings in studies posted online Monday. The research has not been peer-reviewed yet and some outside scientists think more evidence is needed to challenge what we know about how humans evolved their complex thinking.

“There’s still a lot to uncover,” said Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program who was not involved in the research.

H. naledi is a pretty new addition to the family tree of hominins, which includes our direct ancestors and other extinct relatives who walked on two legs. Berger and his team announced the species in 2015, after a tip from local spelunkers led them to the Rising Star cave system near Johannesburg where they uncovered fossils from at least 15 individuals who lived around 300,000 years ago.

These creatures had some traits in common with modern humans, like legs made for walking upright and hands that could work with objects, said University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist John Hawks, a member of the research team. But other features looked more ancient, including their small brains.

In recent years, team members have ventured back into the caves, a tricky descent through tight underground spaces. What’s down there shows the species in a new light, they reported.

One of the new studies describes what researchers say were intentional burial sites. The team uncovered fossil remains of adults and children in shallow holes in the ground, their bodies in a fetal position.

Another study describes a series of marks carved into the cave walls, including geometric patterns and cross-hatched lines.

“This is something that takes a lot of time and effort to do,” said Berger, who led the initial research while at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

All of this behavior would be surprising for a creature whose brain was closer in size to an ape’s than a human’s, experts said.

 Researcher Lee Berger holds a reconstruction of the skull of Homo naledi at Magaliesburg, South Africa, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. In research released on Monday, June 5, 2023, scientists say they've found evidence that the ancient human cousin buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, actions previously tied only to bigger-brained species. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

In this photo provided by National Geographic, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Lee Berger's daughter, Megan, and underground exploration team member Rick Hunter navigate the narrow chutes leading to the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star Cave in South Africa in 2014, where fossil elements belonging to Homo naledi, a new species of human relative, were discovered. In research released on Monday, June 5, 2023, scientists say they've found evidence that the ancient human cousin buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, actions previously tied only to bigger-brained species. (Robert Clark/National Geographic via AP)

Decades ago, we thought Homo sapiens were the only ones who could figure out how to use fire, bury their dead or create art, said Chris Stringer, a human evolution expert at London’s Natural History Museum who was not involved in the research.

Since then, we’ve learned that other groups like Neanderthals also lived complex lives. But those species still had big brains — unlike H. naledi, whose burials would raise further questions about human evolution, Stringer said.

Scientists haven’t yet been able to identify how old the engravings are. So Potts said the current evidence can’t say for sure whether H. naledi was truly the one to create the symbols, or if some other creature — maybe even H. sapiens — made its way down there at some point.

For study author Agustin Fuentes, an anthropologist at Princeton University, the H. naledi evidence takes the focus off brain size.

“Big brains are still important,” Fuentes said. “They just don’t explain what we thought they explained.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Fossil finding and cliff walking are highlights of a hike along England’s Jurassic Coast

By STEVE WARTENBERG

June 6, 2023

Lauren Finkle, left, and Bob Finkle walk along the cliffs just west of Branscombe, in southern England, along the famous 630-mile South West Coast Path, on April 25, 2023. (Steve Wartenberg via AP)

We were only a mile into our four-day, 32-mile hike from Lyme Regis to Exmouth along the beautiful Jurassic Coast of southern England. Beneath us were the fossilized remains of sea creatures and birds dating back 150 million or more years. We were immersed in forest, with cliffs to the right, the English Channel to the left.

“Where are you headed?” asked a hiker, who came up behind us at a brisk pace and stopped to chat.

“Beer today, eventually Exmouth,” I answered. (Beer is an actual town, as well as an end-of-the-day goal.) “You?”

“Minehead,” he answered with a hint of pride.

“Minehead!”

I knew enough about the famous 630-mile South West Coast Path, on which we were hiking just a small section, to know that the end of the trail in Minehead was 540 miles away. This was one serious hiker.

“I have 30 days and I plan on going about 20 miles a day, maybe a little more,” said the hiker, who had started at the other terminus, in Poole Harbor.

Suddenly, our planned four days and 32 miles along the East Devon Coast didn’t seem so daunting.

Then again, hiking is all relative, and our trek seemed just right for our group of four: my wife, Susan, and my sister and her husband, Lauren and Bob Finkle.

“I just love being up at the top of the cliffs, looking out to the sea,” Lauren said. Bob added that he enjoyed looking along the coast and seeing the stratifications in the steep cliffs.

Highlights for travelers along the trail:

A statue of Mary Anning appears in Lyme Regis, southern England.

 (Steve Wartenberg via AP)

FINDING FOSSILS

Lyme Regis was the home of Mary Anning (1799-1847), who helped create the science of paleontology. Anning found the first complete plesiosaur (a long-necked marine reptile) and one of the first complete ichthyosaurs (a dolphin-like reptile). She also found hundreds of fossils of ammonites and belemnites (squid-like sea creatures).

Ammonites, top, and belemnites found on a fossil hunt tour in East Lyme in southern England. (Susan Cunningham via AP)

According to the Lyme Regis Museum, until she and other pioneering paleontologists unearthed and studied their finds, many people believed fossils were “creatures that had been left out of Noah’s Ark, or the remains of animals that were still alive in distant parts of the world.”

The museum hosts fossil-hunting tours. With the help of our guides — experts at cracking open the appropriate rocks with their hammers — we found a few ammonites and belemnites.

“For the rest of the hike, I kept thinking about how they were under us,” said Susan. “The earth is so old and we’re just here for a brief moment of time.”

WALKING THE CLIFFS

Because we’re only here for a brief moment in time, relatively speaking, hiking along part of the South West Coast Path is highly recommended. The section we walked is comprised of stone beaches below, undercliffs and actual cliffs. The undercliffs are formed by what the Brits call landslips and Americans call landslides. In some sections, the landslips were so immense that forests have formed on them.

Our hike to Beer was mostly through undercliffs and forests.

People walk between the beach and cliffs along the South West Coast Path, in southern England. (Steve Wartenberg via AP)

Day Two was our longest: 10 miles to Sidmouth. Many of the towns along the coast end with “mouth.” The “mouth” is where the river empties into the sea, carving away, over millions of years, the stratifications and ravines we climbed up and down. The River Sid runs through Sidmouth; the River Exe through Exmouth.

A HIKER’S HIGH

We unanimously agreed that walking along the clifftops was our favorite part of the hike. There’s something magical, and meditative, as you stand there, a bit out of breath from the climb, taking in the scenery. The cliffs and coast stretch for miles, past where we’d hiked and beyond where we were headed. Then they fade into the fog, clouds and sea.

Getting to the top of one, said Lauren, results in “a hiker’s high.”

The sea was always to our left, and to our right were often vast fields and pastures. Occasionally, we walked along or through small herds of grazing cows, or a field of bright-yellow rapeseed.

Day Three was 7 miles to Budleigh Salterton, and included some of the best and longest sections atop the cliffs.

Lauren Finkle, left, and Bob Finkle walk during a rainy day hike near Exmouth, southern England. (Steve Wartenberg via AP)

DRYING OFF AFTER THE RAIN

Upon every British hike some rain must fall. Luckily for us, it fell only on the last day of our late-April hike.

Our Day Four trek to Exmouth was an all-day rainfest. Once you’re wet, you’re wet, and there’s nothing to do but slog onward with a wet upper lip and enjoy the foggy, wet and slippery climbs up and down the cliffs.

A bit of clothing advice: Wear layers that you can take off as you exert yourself.

We trudged on until we reached and crossed the Exe River, and headed into town and our bed and breakfast lodge to dry off and sip a hot cup of tea.

Susan and I were content with our four-day hike along the Jurassic Coast; Lauren and Bob were smitten. They hope return to do the whole trail.

One practical tip about guides:

On our first United Kingdon hike, the 102-miles Cotswold Way back in 2005, Susan and I carried everything on our backs. Never again, we declared, and ever since, we’ve hired Contours Hiking. They’re one of numerous companies that will move your bags and book your rooms (mostly bed-and-breakfast-type places).

A woman hikes near Salcombe Regis, part of the 630-mile South West Coast Path in southern England. (Steve Wartenberg via AP)

It’s worth every pound. I’m not getting any younger and neither is my back. Plus, it’s hard to reserve rooms on your own in the coastal towns and inland villages along the most popular hiking routes in the U.K.; tour companies gobble up the limited number of rooms.

Some other companies that provide this service include Macs Adventures, Backroads and Inntravel.

According to Contours, a little more than half their customers live in the United Kingdom, and 20 percent are from the United States.

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For more AP travel stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/travel.

Former ByteDance executive says Chinese Communist Party tracked Hong Kong protesters via data

By ZEN SOO

June 6, 2023

This file photo, shows the icon for TikTok . A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns popular short-video app TikTok says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.

(AP Photo/File)

HONG KONG (AP) — A former executive at ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns the popular short-video app TikTok, says in a legal filing that some members of the ruling Communist Party used data held by the company to identify and locate protesters in Hong Kong.

Yintao Yu, formerly head of engineering for ByteDance in the U.S., says those same people had access to U.S. user data, an accusation that the company denies.

Yu, who worked for the company in 2018, made the allegations in a recent filing for a wrongful dismissal case filed in May in the San Francisco Superior Court. In the documents submitted to the court he said ByteDance had a “superuser” credential — also known as a god credential — that enabled a special committee of Chinese Communist Party members stationed at the company to view all data collected by ByteDance including those of U.S. users.

The credential acted as a “backdoor to any barrier ByteDance had supposedly installed to protect data from the C.C.P’s surveillance,” the filing says.

Hong Kong is a semi-autonomous region in China with its own government. In recent years, following mass protests in 2014 and 2019, the former British colony has come under more far reaching control by Beijing.

Yu said he saw the god credential being used to keep tabs on Hong Kong protesters and civil rights activists by monitoring their locations and devices, their network information, SIM card identifications, IP addresses and communications.

ByteDance said in a statement that Yu’s accusations were “baseless.”

“It’s curious that Mr. Yu has never raised these allegations in the five years since his employment for Flipagram was terminated in July 2018,” the company said, referring to an app that ByteDance later shut down for business reasons. “His actions are clearly intended to garner media attention.

“We plan to vigorously oppose what we believe are baseless claims and allegations in this complaint,” ByteDance said.

Charles Jung, Yu’s lawyer and a partner at the law firm Nassiri & Jung, said Yu chose to raise the allegations because he was “disturbed to hear the recent Congressional testimony of TikTok’s CEO” when Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean, vehemently denied Chinese authorities had access to user data.

“Telling the truth openly in court is risky, but social change requires the courage to tell the truth,” Jung said. “It’s important to him that public policy be based on accurate information, so he’s determined to tell his story.”

TikTok is under intense scrutiny in the U.S. and worldwide over how it handles data and whether it poses a national security risk. Some American lawmakers have expressed concern that TikTok’s ties to ByteDance means the data it holds is subject to Chinese law.

They also contend that the app, which has over 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. and more than a billion users worldwide, could be used to expand China’s influence.

During the combative March House hearing, lawmakers from both parties grilled Chew over his company’s alleged ties to Beijing, data security and harmful content on the app. Chew repeatedly denied TikTok shares user data or has any ties with Chinese authorities.

To allay such concerns, TikTok has said that it would work with Oracle to store all U.S. data within the country.

In an earlier court filing, Yu accused ByteDance of serving as a “propaganda tool” for the Chinese Communist Party by promoting nationalistic content and demoting content that does not serve the party’s aims. He also said that ByteDance was responsive to the Communist Party’s requests to share information.

Yu also accused ByteDance of scraping content from competitors and users to repost on its sites to exaggerate key engagement metrics. He says he was fired for sharing his concerns about “wrongful conduct” he saw with others in the company.

In mainland China, ByteDance operates Douyin, which is targeted at the domestic market. TikTok is its global app that is available in most other countries. It was also available in Hong Kong until TikTok pulled out of the market in 2020 following the imposition of a sweeping national security law.

Anyone who tries to open TikTok from within Hong Kong will see a message that reads “We regret to inform you that we have discontinued operating TikTok in Hong Kong.”

Bottomless supply? Concerns of limited Canadian hydropower as U.S. seeks to decarbonize grid

By SUSAN HAIGH and WILSON RING

June 6,2023

1 of 6
 dam generates power along the Manicouagan River north of Baie-Comeau, Quebec. Importing more of Canada's historically abundant hydroelectricity is seen by some as a key component to making the U.S. electric grid carbon-free by 2035, as well as improving energy reliability and cost for American consumers. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Policymakers seeking to make the U.S. electric grid less reliant on fossil fuels have long looked north to Canada and its abundant surplus of hydropower, advocating for new transmission lines to bring more of that cheap, clean electricity south.

But with demand for green energy growing north of the border, too, there are new concerns that Canada’s hydro supply isn’t as bottomless as it once seemed.

A study published in May by the Montreal Economic Institute predicted that Quebec, now home to one of the world’s largest hydroelectric systems, will over the next decade fall short of the generating capacity needed to meet increasing demand for power in the province.

Some New England lawmakers are questioning the wisdom of plans to construct new transmission lines across their states, despite Canadian energy giant Hydro-Québec’s insistence it can still meet its energy obligations.

“They have their own energy needs,” Maine state Sen. Nicole Grohoski said of the Canadians. The Democrat said it is “overly optimistic” for policymakers to rely on Canadian hydropower. “There are industrial users up there that are already having issues and they’re not interested in investing in Quebec because they’re worried about power supply.”

Over decades, Hydro-Québec, which is owned by the Province of Quebec, has built a series of hydro-electric facilities, most in the northern reaches of the province. The dams’ construction and the subsequent flooding of areas behind them has drawn protests from indigenous groups and environmentalists on both sides of the border.

But in the process Hydro-Québec has become the largest producer of renewable energy in North America. It produces nearly half of all Canadian hydropower as well as a smaller number of wind and other renewable projects.

The capacity to generate electricity left the utility with extra power to sell in the energy-hungry U.S. There are already a number of transmission lines that carry power from Canada to the United States and more on the drawing board.

A line from the border down Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to New York City is under construction. Authorities in Maine just gave approval to resume construction of a separate line from the border to Massachusetts.

There are also pending proposals for lines to reach southern New England through Vermont and New Hampshire.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has been rallying his fellow New England governors to seek federal funding for transmission line projects. The push comes as billions of dollars are available for electric transmission line projects under President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law.

“We’ve got to speed things up when it comes to reliability and reserves and more carbon-free power,” Lamont said.

But Quebec is on its own quest to reduce use of planet-warming fuels. The province is hoping to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, while demand for hydropower is predicted to grow 14% over the next decade.

“No province now is in a position where they see huge surpluses of electricity that would be available for exports,” said Pierre-Oliver Pineau, an expert on Canadian energy policy and professor at HEC Montréal, the University of Montreal business school.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Maine who oppose the proposed 145-mile (233-kilometer) New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line recently asked the governor of Massachusetts to review whether Hydro-Québec can still meet its energy obligations.

They also sent a letter to Quebec Premier François Legault questioning whether there will be enough electricity to power both that line and the Champlain-Hudson Power Express line, which is currently under construction. That line is intended to provide New York City with 20% of its power needs.

The Maine lawmakers said they worry new dams might need to be built, a process that could take years.

“Many people in New England have lived with a myth that Quebec has so much power that it doesn’t know what to do with it all,” the legislators said in a joint statement.

Local news has reported Jean-Hugues Lafleur, Hydro-Québec’s financial officer, said during an analyst call last month that the company could meet the energy demand when it signed the contract in 2018 and that “we still have enough energy to supply the New England region.”

Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said hydropower is just one piece of the puzzle and that the New England states are also working together to decarbonize the electric system through other means, including offshore wind.

Hydro-Québec, meanwhile, has also expressed interest in transmission lines capable of moving power in both directions. Developers of the proposed 1,000-megawatt transmission line known as New England Clean Power Link, which would run from Quebec to southern New England through Vermont, are working to modify its approval to turn it into a bi-directional line.

“This modification would allow the line to be used as originally intended to move hydropower from Canada to New England, while also allowing the line to move loads such as off-shore wind generation from New England to Canada for storage and later use, which could materially help winter reliability in the region,” said June Tierney, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service.

Last month, the state of New Hampshire highlighted a new entrant into the northeast transmission mix by announcing plans for a 211-mile, 1,200-megawatt power line that would enter the United States at Canaan, Vermont, and follow a buried route south. If built, the $2 billion proposal would also be a bi-directional line.

“This project is also not dependent solely on hydropower — it would have the ability to deliver other forms of clean energy being generated in Canada — such as wind and solar power — to New England,” said a statement from the utility National Grid, which is proposing the line.

Kerrick Johnson, chief innovation and communication officer for the Vermont Electric Power Cooperative, which manages the state’s electric transmission system, said there’s a transformation underway of the electric production and distribution system across the world and including the Northeastern United States and eastern Canada.

“This is a new chapter in the shared-energy history of North America,” he said.

___

Ring reported from Stowe, VT.

Chesapeake Bay report cites environmental justice disparities

By BRIAN WITTE

June 6, 2023

 A small boat travels along the Honga River near the Chesapeake Bay, as the sky lights up at sunrise in Fishing Creek, Md. A report on the Chesapeake Bay released Tuesday, June 6, 2023, found strong disparities between communities in different parts of the bay's watershed in terms of health, economics and social justice concerns, presenting the challenges of improving the health of the nation's largest estuary in a larger context.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A report on the Chesapeake Bay released Tuesday found strong disparities between communities in different parts of the bay’s watershed in terms of health, economics and social justice concerns.

The findings show a larger context for the challenges of improving the health of the nation’s largest estuary, since this was the first time an integrated environmental justice index was included in the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s evaluation. The index considers social factors such as poverty, race, ethnicity, and preexisting health conditions.

While UMCES has considered elements in recent years like walkability and income disparities in communities, this year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added a new integrated environmental justice index that adds a health component that UMCES had not considered before. That includes data at census levels from more than 4,000 reporting regions in the watershed.

The health of the bay is a reflection of what’s happening across its six-state watershed, which includes Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Tuesday’s report indicates that urban and rural areas face greater challenges than suburban areas under the environmental justice index, which includes social vulnerability, environmental burdens — such as air and water quality — and health vulnerability, such as underlying conditions like asthma or diabetes.

Rural parts of the bay’s watershed like the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia face greater challenges, said Bill Dennison, vice president for science application at UMCES.

“What’s really apparent here is that to have a healthy ecosystem you have to have a healthy community. If you don’t have a healthy community, the net result is the bay is going to feel the effect,” Dennison said. “The inequities we’re seeing at the economic, social, level are being manifested as well into the health of the bay.”

Similar to last year, UMCES gave the overall health of the bay a “C” grade in its report card. However, the center noted the bay has been showing significantly improving trends overall.

Still, the center’s president, Peter Goodwin, said there’s work to be done in order to reduce nutrient pollution. Although having more “nutrients” in the water might sound like a good thing, in this case, it’s actually pollution like nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural and urban runoff. The pollution acts like fertilizer and causes excessive growth of algae, which produces toxins that can sicken swimmers and harm fish.

“We need to pick up the pace of restoration so that we can hit our nutrient reduction targets in the future and ensure our resilience to climate change,” said Peter Goodwin, president of the UMCES.

It’s widely believed that states in the watershed won’t make a 2025 deadline to significantly cut nutrients that flow into the bay.

The overall bay health score has increased by six points in the past two years, according to the report.

Of seven indicators, there were improvements in water clarity, nitrogen, phosphorus, and aquatic grasses.

At a news conference announcing the report card, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen described bay restoration efforts as like “trying to run up an escalator that’s going down.”

“We have to establish new, ambitious targets, and we need to hold ourselves accountable to get there,” Van Hollen, a Democrat, said.

Reward offered for information on who killed endangered Hawaiian monk seal

June 6, 2023
HONOLULU (AP) — U.S. authorities on Tuesday offered a $5,000 reward for information on who killed a Hawaiian monk seal after one of the critically endangered animals was found dead on Oahu this year.

The female seal known as Malama was found dead on March 12 at Ohikilolo, a spot between Keaau Beach Park and Makua Valley, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release.

A post-mortem investigation found the cause of death to be “blunt force trauma.” National experts on marine mammal radiology and forensics concluded the animal was intentionally killed, the release said.

Last year, Malama was treated for malnutrition at the Marine Mammal Center’s Hawaiian monk seal hospital on the Big Island. She was released in January, after which she was in good condition and displaying normal seal behavior.

The Hawaiian monk seal is one of the most endangered seal species in the world. About 1,570 of the animals are in the wild. About 1,200 seals live in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which are a string of atolls largely uninhabited by people. An additional 400 live in the main Hawaiian Islands, where Honolulu and other cities are located. They are found nowhere else.

In 2021, a Hawaiian monk seal was found fatally shot on Molokai Island. It was the third intentional killing of a monk seal on the rural island in 2021 and the seventh in 10 years, according to NOAA.

Just keep swimming: SoCal study shows sharks, humans can share ocean peacefully

By STEFANIE DAZIO

June 6, 2023


LOS ANGELES (AP) — You’re gonna need a bigger ... drone.

That’s right, “Jaws” fans. Researchers at California State University, Long Beach-based Shark Lab used drones to study juvenile white sharks along the Southern California coastline and how close they swim to humans in the water.

Turns out, it’s pretty close. Almost within the bite radius.

Still, it’s safe. There were no reported shark bites in any of the 26 beaches surveyed between January 2019 and March 2021, according to the Shark Lab.

The juvenile white sharks mostly grouped together in two locations — in southern Santa Barbara County and central San Diego County — the researchers discovered through roughly 1,500 drone flights over the two years. Adult white sharks are generally solitary animals.

In those two spots, the juvenile sharks swam near humans on 97% of the days surveyed, the researchers wrote in a paper published Friday. The sharks often swam within 50 yards (45.72 meters) of the wave breaks — closest to surfers and stand-up paddle boarders.

“Most of the time water users didn’t even know the sharks were there, but we could easily see them from the air,” said Patrick Rex, a Cal State Long Beach graduate student who led the study.

The researchers confirmed that surfers, swimmers and sharks can coexist peacefully but “we never expected to see so many encounters every day with no incidents” of bites, said Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor and the Shark Lab’s director.

“It’s not just about sharks, it’s about people,” Lowe said. “This study may change people’s perception of the risk sharks pose to people that share the ocean with them.”

So just keep swimming.

Spain registers hottest spring temperatures on record


 A woman holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun during a hot sunny day in Madrid, Spain, on. Spain registered its hottest spring on record this year, and its second driest ever, the state meteorological agency said Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

MADRID (AP) — Spain registered its hottest spring on record this year, and its second driest ever, the state meteorological agency said Wednesday.

Rubén Del Campo, spokesman for the Aemet weather agency, said the latest data showed a continuation of the extremely high temperatures the country suffered in 2022, which was the hottest year ever recorded in Spain.

The spring heat was accompanied by a scarcity of rain that will exacerbate Spain’s long-term drought, despite some rainfall over the last month. Spain’s Ecological Transition Ministry reported Tuesday that the country’s reservoirs are at 47.4% of their capacity, consolidating a downward trend.

Del Campo noted knock-on effects for the Mediterranean country’s ecosystem. “Surface water temperatures recorded in 2022 were the highest since at least 1940,” he told a press conference, warning that the phenomenon endangered marine life and its ability to reproduce.

The situation inland was also made much more precarious. “These high temperatures have repercussions on both human health and ecosystems in terms of increased likelihood of forest fires,” the spokesman added.

Del Campo also issued predictions for the summer ahead, which he said would likely be “extremely hot,” though with a probability of some rainstorms. The Aemet spokesman said it was not clear that the El Niño weather phenomenon would contribute to the expected high temperatures in Spain. El Niño is a cyclical warming of the world’s oceans and weather, which is forecast to return later this year.

The Spanish government announced 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) worth of drought response measures last month, including funding for urban water reuse and further aid for struggling farmers.

Spain is Europe’s leading producer and exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables. The country requested emergency funds from the European Union in April given the dire prognosis for this year’s crops.