Urban environmental exposures drive increased breast cancer incidence

Analysis of breast cancer incidence and stages shows differences between urban and rural rates based on environmental quality and disease stage

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

DURHAM, N.C. – A Duke Health analysis of breast cancer in North Carolina showed that the state’s urban counties had higher overall incidences of disease than rural counties, especially at early stages upon diagnosis.

 

The findings, appearing in the journal Scientific Reports, serve as a national template for assessing the impact of poor environmental quality across different stages of breast cancer, which is marked by highly diverse origins and mechanisms for spreading. North Carolina serves as a good model; it has a diverse population of 10 million spread over 100 rural and urban counties with varying environmental conditions.

 

“Individual environmental contaminants have long been associated with breast cancer, but we have limited understanding of how multiple exposures simultaneously affect this disease,” said senior author Gayathri Devi, Ph.D., a professor in Duke’s departments of Surgery and Pathology and Program Director of the Duke Consortium for Inflammatory Breast Cancer at the Duke Cancer Institute.

 

“Our study explored the incidence of breast cancer within the context of the Environmental Quality Index (EQI) – a county-by-county assessment of air, water, land, built environment, as well as the sociodemographic environment,” Devi said. “This type of data analysis allows for a high-level look at broader environmental factors and health outcomes.”

 

Devi and colleagues -- including lead author Larisa M. Gearhart-Serna, who steered the research as a Ph.D. candidate at Duke – analyzed the EQI data alongside breast cancer incidence rates from the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry. The team further evaluated the different breast cancer stages – in situ and localized (early stages), regional and distant (later stages) -- stratified by rural–urban status.

 

“In an earlier study, we assessed how environmental conditions impact the risk of a breast cancer patient having later stage invasive disease compared to non-invasive carcinoma in-situ,” Gearhart-Serna said. “This is a continuation of that work to determine whether

environmental quality and an urban environment are related to the development of more advanced tumors in a community and, if so, what stages.”

 

In counties with poor overall environmental quality compared to those with good environmental quality, total breast cancer incidence was higher by 10.82 cases per 100,000 persons. This association was most pronounced for localized breast cancer.  

 

The researchers also found that community level effects of environmental exposures -- notably in those counties with poor land quality, especially in the urban setting -- were associated with higher rates of total breast cancer incidence. The land EQI includes exposures from sources such as pesticides, and toxic releases from industrial, agricultural and animal facilities.

 

Breast cancer incidence rates were also higher for later stage disease and total breast cancer among counties with higher populations of Black residents. This is relevant as global incidence of aggressive breast cancers is higher in Black women.

 

The analysis found that higher mammography screening rates were associated with lower regional breast cancer incidence rates, which is relevant because improved screening is thought to decrease diagnoses of later-stage disease.

 

“Our analyses indicate significant associations between environmental quality and breast cancer incidence, which differ by breast cancer stage and urbanicity, identifying a critical need to assess cumulative environmental exposures in the context of cancer stage,” Gearhart-Serna said. “This has the potential to develop measures to reduce disease incidence in vulnerable communities.”

 

The research is a result of a long-standing collaboration between Duke’s School of Medicine and Nicholas School of the Environment. 

 

In addition to Gearhart-Serna and Devi, study authors include Brittany A. Mills, Hillary Hsu,

Oluwadamilola M. Fayanju, and Kate Hoffman.

 

The study received funding support in part from the National Institutes of Health (P30-CA014236: the National Cancer Institute (3P20CA202925-04S2); and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32-ESO21432-05).  

 

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

 

Improved air quality could enhance natural carbon sequestration by plants

Plants capture more carbon on the weekends when industrial production is decreased, and fewer people commute

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE

Washington, DC—Reducing pollution from aerosol particles would improve air quality. It could also increase the amount of sunlight accessible to plants—enhancing their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change.

New work from a Carnegie-led team including Liyin He, Lorenzo Rosa, and Joe Berry used satellites to measure both photosynthetic activity and aerosol pollution in Europe, demonstrating that plants capture more carbon on the weekends when industrial production is decreased, and fewer people commute.

Their findings are published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Plants have a special ability, called photossynthesis, by which they convert the Sun’s energy into chemical energy. To accomplish this, they take in carbon dioxide from the air and fix it into carbohydrates and fats.

This everyday process is a huge help in the fight against climate change caused by human activity. Plants pull some of our carbon pollution out of the atmosphere and retain it as a biological matter, preventing it from contributing to global warming.

“However, this can be diminished by poor air quality caused by aerosols, tiny particles that are spewed into the atmosphere when we commute and burn fossil fuels or wood,” He explained. “They have negative effects on air quality, which impacts human health. They can also scatter or absorb sunlight, which would affect a plant similarly to being stuck in the shade.”

Previous work has shown that aerosol pollution can suppress agricultural crop yields by as much as 20 percent.

The research team—which included David Lobell and Yuan Wang of Stanford University; Yi Yin, Yitong Yao, and Christian Frankenberg of Caltech; and Russell Doughty of the University of Oklahoma—used the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite to make measurements of photosynthetic activity in Europe.

Because one step of the photosynthetic process releases fluorescence, it can be seen from space and measured by satellites—a game-changing research method that Berry and Frankenberg played a central role in developing about a decade ago, along with collaborators from Caltech.  

The researchers correlated their photosynthesis findings with aerosol measurements taken by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite and used modeling to understand the relationship.

“We focused on Europe due to an established pattern of human activity throughout the week as compared to other regions,” Rosa said. “Additionally, many European ecosystems are already experiencing negative effects from climate change and European countries have set ambitious goals for cutting carbon pollution.”

Their work showed a weekly cycle of photosynthetic activity, which peaked on the weekend and diminished during the week, the exact inverse of the patterns of aerosol pollution. They also found a similar pattern during COVID-19 lockdowns when people were sheltering at home instead of commuting.

If particulate pollution could be curtailed throughout the week, maintaining weekend levels of photosynthetic activity all the time, it would remove between 40 and 60 megatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and trapping it in biological matter. It would also increase agricultural productivity without increasing the amount of land used for growing crops.

“These findings have major policy implications for European governments who are working on a variety of systems to capture about 500 megatons per year of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it,” Rosa concluded. “Our work shows that improving air quality could also help meet climate goals.”

This work is part of Rosa’s overall research program, which aims to understand the agricultural challenges posed by climate change and assess various ways to improve agricultural sustainability. Rosa joined Carnegie in 2022 as a Staff Associate—a prestigious program designed to give early career scientists the freedom and independence to pursue bold and unconventional research. Since then, his efforts have included analyses of irrigation strategies, soil moisture-retention techniques, and water storage needs, as well as evaluating solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of fertilizer production and achieve net-zero emissions in agriculture.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Nov-2023

 

‘Woman the hunter’: Studies aim to correct history

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

 

IMAGE: 

CARA OCOBOCK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND DIRECTOR OF THE HUMAN ENERGETICS LABORATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

When Cara Ocobock was a young child, she often wondered at the images in movies, books, comics and cartoons portraying prehistoric men and women as such: “man the hunter” with spear in hand, accompanied by “woman the gatherer” with a baby strapped to her back and a basket of crop seeds in hand.

“This was what everyone was used to seeing,” Ocobock said. “This was the assumption that we’ve all just had in our minds and that was carried through in our museums of natural history.”

Many years later, Ocobock, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and director of the Human Energetics Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, found herself as a human biologist studying physiology and prehistoric evidence and discovering that many of these conceptions about early women and men weren’t quite accurate. The accepted reconstruction of human evolution assumed males were biologically superior, but that interpretation wasn’t telling the whole story.

Relying on both physiological and archaeological evidence, Ocobock and her research partner, Sarah Lacy, an anthropologist with expertise in biological archaeology at the University of Delaware, recently published two studies simultaneously in the journal American Anthropologist. Their joint research, coming from these two angles, found that not only did prehistoric women engage in the practice of hunting, but their female anatomy and biology would have made them intrinsically better suited for it.

Of her and her co-author’s dual-pronged research, which was the cover story for the November issue of Scientific American, Ocobock said, “Rather than viewing it as a way of erasing or rewriting history, our studies are trying to correct the history that erased women from it.”

Female physiology and estrogen, the ‘unsung hero of life’

In their physiological study, the two researchers explained that prehistoric females were quite capable of performing the arduous physical task of hunting prey and were likely able to hunt successfully over prolonged periods of time. From a metabolic standpoint, Ocobock explained, the female body is better suited for endurance activity, “which would have been critical in early hunting because they would have had to run the animals down into exhaustion before actually going in for the kill.”

Two huge contributors to that enhanced metabolism are hormones — in this case, estrogen and adiponectin, which are typically present in higher quantities in female bodies than in male. These two hormones play a critical role in enabling the female body to modulate glucose and fat, a function that is key in athletic performance.

Estrogen, in particular, helps regulate fat metabolism by encouraging the body to use its stored fat for energy before using up its carbohydrate stores. “Since fat contains more calories than carbs do, it’s a longer, slower burn,” Ocobock explained, “which means that the same sustained energy can keep you going longer and can delay fatigue.”

Estrogen also protects the body’s cells from damage during heat exposure due to extreme physical activity. “Estrogen is really the unsung hero of life, in my mind,” Ocobock said. “It is so important for cardiovascular and metabolic health, brain development and injury recovery.”

Adiponectin also amplifies fat metabolism while sparing carbohydrate and/or protein metabolism, allowing the body to stay the course during extended periods, especially over great distances. In this way, adiponectin is able to protect the muscles from breaking down and keeps them in better condition for sustained exercise, Ocobock explained.

The female body structure itself is another element Ocobock and Lacy found to be of advantage in terms of endurance and effectiveness for prehistoric hunters. “With the typically wider hip structure of the female, they are able to rotate their hips, lengthening their steps,” Ocobock detailed. “The longer steps you can take, the ‘cheaper’ they are metabolically, and the farther you can get, faster.

“When you look at human physiology this way, you can think of women as the marathon runners versus men as the powerlifters.”

Archaeology tells more of the story of ‘woman the hunter’

Several archaeological findings indicate prehistoric women not only shared in the resulting injuries of the dangerous business of close-contact hunting, but that it was an activity held in high esteem and valued by them. “We have constructed Neandertal hunting as an up-close-and-personal style of hunting,” Ocobock said, “meaning that hunters would often have to get up underneath their prey in order to kill them. As such, we find that both males and females have the same resulting injuries when we look at their fossil records.”

Ocobock described those traumatic injuries as being similar to those received by modern-day rodeo clowns — injuries to the head and chest where they were kicked by the animal, or to the limbs where they were bitten or received a fracture. “We find these patterns and rates of wear and tear equally in both women and men,” she said. “So they were both participating in ambush-style hunting of large game animals.”

Second, Ocobock said, there is evidence of early female hunters in the Holocene period in Peru where females were buried with hunting weapons. “You don’t often get buried with something unless it was important to you or was something that you used frequently in your life.

“Furthermore, we have no reason to believe that prehistoric women abandoned their hunting while pregnant, breastfeeding or carrying children,” Ocobock added, “nor do we see in the deep past any indication that a strict sexual division of labor existed.”

The bottom line, Ocobock noted, was that “hunting belonged to everyone, not just to males,” especially in prehistoric societies where survival was an all-hands-on-deck activity. “There weren’t enough people living in groups to be specialized in different tasks. Everyone had to be a generalist to survive.”

Fighting bias

“This revelation is especially important in the current political moment of our society where sex and gender are in a spotlight,” Ocobock said. “And I want people to be able to change these ideas of female physical inferiority that have been around for so long.”

When talking about reconstructing the past in order to better understand it — and to conduct “good science” — Ocobock said scientists have to be extremely careful about how modern-day bias can seep into one’s interpretations of the past. She cautioned that researchers have to be aware of their own biases and make sure they are asking the proper questions so the questions don’t lead them down the road of looking for what it is they want to see.

“We have to change the biases we bring to the table, or at least to give pause before we assign those biases. And in a broader sense, you cannot outrightly assume somebody’s abilities based on whatever sex or gender you have assigned by looking at them,” Ocobock concluded 

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JOURNAL

American Anthropologist

DOI

10.1111/aman.13915 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Woman the hunter: The physiological evidence

 

High temperatures may have caused over 70,000 excess deaths in Europe in 2022

New study develops theoretical framework to re-evaluate initial estimates of mortality attributable to record summer temperatures in 2022

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BARCELONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH (ISGLOBAL)

The burden of heat-related mortality during the summer of 2022 in Europe may have exceeded 70,000 deaths according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a research centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation. The authors of the study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, revised upwards initial estimates of the mortality associated with record temperatures in 2022 on the European continent.

In an earlier study, published in Nature Medicine, the same team used epidemiological models applied to weekly temperature and mortality data in 823 regions in 35 European countries and estimated the number of heat-related premature deaths in 2022 to be 62,862. In that study, the authors acknowledged that the use of weekly data would be expected to underestimate heat-related mortality, and pointed out that daily time-series data are required to accurately estimate the impact of high temperatures on mortality.

The objective of the new study was to develop a theoretical framework capable of quantifying the errors arising from the use of aggregated data, such as weekly and monthly temperature and mortality time-series. Models based on temporally aggregated data are useful because aggregated data are available in real-time from institutions such as Eurostat, facilitating quantification of the health hazard within a few days of its emergence. To develop a theoretical framework, the research team aggregated daily temperatures and mortality records from 147 regions in 16 European countries. They then analysed and compared the estimates of heat- and cold-related mortality by different levels of aggregation: daily, weekly, 2-weekly and monthly.

Analysis revealed differences in epidemiological estimates according to the time scale of aggregation. In particular, it was found that weekly, 2-weekly and monthly models underestimated the effects of heat and cold as compared to the daily model, and that the degree of underestimation increased with the length of the aggregation period. Specifically, for the period 1998-2004, the daily model estimated an annual cold and heat-related mortality of 290,104 and 39,434 premature deaths, respectively, while the weekly model underestimated these numbers by 8.56% and 21.56%, respectively.

“It is important to note that the differences were very small during periods of extreme cold and heat, such as the summer of 2003, when the underestimation by the weekly data model was only 4.62%,” explains Joan Ballester Claramunt, the ISGlobal researcher who leads the European Research Council’s EARLY-ADAPT project.

The team used this theoretical framework to revise the mortality burden attributed to the record temperatures experienced in 2022 in their earlier study. According to the calculations made using the new methodological approach, that study underestimated the heat-related mortality by 10.28%, which would mean that the actual heat-related mortality burden in 2022, estimated using the daily data model, was 70,066 deaths, and not 62,862 deaths as originally estimated.

Using weekly data to analyse the effects of temperatures in the short term

“In general, we do not find models based on monthly aggregated data useful for estimating the short-term effects of ambient temperatures,” explains Ballester. “However, models based on weekly data do offer sufficient precision in mortality estimates to be useful in real-time practice in epidemiological surveillance and to inform public policies such as, for example, the activation of emergency plans for reducing the impact of heat waves and cold spells.”

It is an advantage in this area of research to be able to use weekly data since investigators often encounter bureaucratic obstacles that make it difficult or impossible to design large-scale epidemiological studies based on daily data. According to Ballester, when daily data is not available, the use of weekly data, which are easily accessible for Europe in real time, is a solution that can offer “a good approximation of the estimates obtained using the daily data model”.

 

Reference
Ballester J, van Daalen KR, Chen Z, Achebak H, Antó JM, Basagaña X, Robine JM, Herrmann FR, Tonne C, Semenza JC, Lowe R. The effect of temporal data aggregation to assess the impact of changing temperatures in Europe: an epidemiological modelling study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. Nov 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100779

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

DOI

10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100779 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The effect of temporal data aggregation to assess the impact of changing temperatures in Europe: an epidemiological modelling study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Nov-2023

A PREDETERMINED OUTCOME

Manning tells Conservative MPs his COVID-19 panel report could help defeat the Liberals

Alberta NDP said Manning's letter shows the panel's review of Alberta legislation was never intended to be an exercise in the public interest.

CBC
Mon, November 20, 2023 

Former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning led Alberta's COVID-19 review panel, making recommendations about better responding to future public emergencies. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The chair of a panel that produced a taxpayer-funded $2-million report on Alberta's COVID-19 response suggested Conservative MPs use his findings as a political cudgel in the next federal election.

Former Reform Party Leader Preston Manning last week released more than 90 recommendations he said would improve the Alberta government's response to future public emergencies.

On Monday, Calgary Liberal MP George Chahal posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a copy of an email Manning appears to have sent to 20 Alberta MPs on Nov. 15 to share his findings.

"If the response of the Liberal/NDP coalition to the 2020-2-23 COVID crisis should become an election issue in 2024, there may be some material in this report that could be used by the CPC [Conservative Party of Canada] to say 'What should have been done to cope with the COVID crisis and what should be done to cope with future public emergencies,'" Manning's email reads.

"Some of its content may also be useful in attacking the record of the Liberal/NDP coalition in this area."

Manning's letter also says Alberta MLAs could use the support of their federal counterparts when promoting and implementing recommendations from his panel's report.

A spokesperson for Manning confirmed on Monday that Manning sent the email.

"The Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel was a non-partisan panel tasked with providing advice to the Government of Alberta to improve Alberta's response to future public health emergencies," Manning said in an emailed statement to CBC News.

"After our work was completed, I reached out to politicians from my personal email encouraging them to review our recommendations."

Manning, who was critical of many governments' responses to COVID-19 and the effects public health restrictions had on individual freedoms, was paid $253,000 by the Alberta government for his role in chairing the six-member panel.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks about healthcare reforms during a news conference in Edmonton on Wednesday November 8, 2023. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she understands why Manning would want to share his panel's findings with federal politicians. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she sees nothing wrong with Manning sending the work to like-minded contacts from his personal email address. 

"There's good information in that report," Smith said, adding she wasn't surprised he wanted to share it with decision makers in other levels of government. 

THE FEDERAL CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT THE GOVERNMENT

Smith said the panel members acted independently of her United Conservative Party government.

Opposition says email reveals panel's purpose

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Manning's letter shows the panel's review of Alberta legislation was never intended to be an exercise in the public interest.

"This was not an objective, measured person who warranted the appointment he received to do the important work that I think many Albertans are disappointed we didn't see from him," Notley said of Manning.

The Opposition leader said many recommendations in the report, if adopted, could see a government consider options unsupported by evidence and put Albertans' safety at risk.

"It's a continuation of a pattern of Danielle Smith's belief that taxpayers dollars are there for her to do partisan political campaigning with."

Review recommendations

In its report released publicly last Wednesday, the Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel recommended the government amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to strengthen individual freedoms when a public emergency is declared.

Panel members also recommended tasking the Alberta Emergency Management Agency leading government response to public emergencies, taking direction from the premier and cabinet.

Currently, the Public Health Act tasks the chief medical officer of health (CMOH) with leading the response to public health emergencies.

The government has already tabled a bill that would give politicians, not the CMOH, the final say on any public health measures in an emergency.

The panel also recommended rejecting provincewide school closures as an option during emergencies, with rare exceptions.

On Monday, the premier said her cabinet and caucus are still reviewing the report and its recommendations.

She pointed to the panel's recommendations that politicians have more say, such as MLAs debating a decision to declare an emergency, and cabinet oversight of emergency orders.

"They suggest making some changes along that vein so don't be surprised that we'll be going in that direction," Smith said.

People living in tents at Halifax's Grand Parade being encouraged to leave


CBC
Mon, November 20, 2023

Halifax Grand Parade is no longer a designated site for tents, but the municipality says it won't force anyone to leave. (Preston Mulligan/CBC - image credit)

People living in tents outside Halifax city hall at Grand Parade are being encouraged to move elsewhere because of safety concerns.

"In reviewing our winter operations for the upcoming snow season it was determined that there was, unfortunately, no way we could continue to have Grand Parade as a designated site and safely have folks shelter there," Ryan Nearing, a spokesperson for the Halifax Regional Municipality, told CBC News in an interview on Monday.

"It's just not enough room when we're doing our snow-clearing operations."

Nearing said the decision was made last week. Although people have been living in tents at Grand Parade for months, it was only made a designated site for tents a month ago. That meant the municipality provided access to services like water, a place to use the bathroom and garbage pickup.

Nearing said there is no deadline to leave and if someone decides to stay, they'll be allowed to stay.

"This isn't an eviction, this isn't a forced removal, we're just letting those folks know that for their own safety it is in their best interest to look at other alternative locations," he said. "Municipal staff will be working with those who are currently sheltering there to make sure they're aware of those options."

People will be allowed to stay

People who decide they want to stay during the winter will be able to stay put.

Staff with the downtown Halifax navigator outreach program say they helped six people move out of the Grand Parade encampment this past weekend and into a shelter.

David Vintock said he's been living at Grand Parade for a couple of months. He said it's unclear among people living there what municipal officials are planning to do.

"Last Friday they took our port-a-potty. We made a stink. They put it back. We're hearing they want us out of here due to snow removal or whatever," Vintock said. "But there's nowhere else for us to go ... they're going to have to arrest me. They're literally going to have to lock me up because I'm not moving."

There are 10 designated outdoor sheltering sites in HRM:

Barrington Street Greenway, 12 tents.


Beaufort Park, 4 tents.


Cobequid Ball Diamond, 12 tents.


Geary Street, 4 tents.


Green Road Park, 8 tents.


Lower Flinn Park, 4 tents.


Martins Park, 4 tents.


Saunders Park, 8 tents.


University Avenue, 6 tents.


Victoria Park, 12 tents.

Nearing said there will be a tree-lighting ceremony at Grand Parade, but the concert portion will be at Peace and Friendship Park. The reason for that, he said, is because the Saltwire Parade of Lights — which had to be postponed from last weekend to because of rainy weather — is now also scheduled for Nov. 25, "so that the Parade of Lights will end at Grand Parade where the tree lighting will take place."

Meanwhile the municipality said an announcement will be made soon on whether it will host its annual New Years Eve event at Grand Parade.

India grants bail to Kashmir Walla editor Fahad Shah

Mark Sappenfield
Mon, November 20, 2023 
Christian Science Monitor

After more than 21 months in jail, Fahad Shah, the Monitor’s correspondent in Kashmir, India, has been granted bail. He is expected to be released this week.

Mr. Shah, founder and editor of The Kashmir Walla newspaper, was imprisoned for publishing “anti-national content.” What he and his colleagues at The Kashmir Walla actually did was to report widely and honestly about events in Kashmir, where journalists operate in an increasingly oppressive and hostile atmosphere.

Throughout his imprisonment under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), he was repeatedly granted bail, only to be charged with a new offense and denied release. The challenges for Mr. Shah were considerable: He struggled with health challenges and isolation, and the paper he cherished has closed in the face of profound financial and professional pressure. The major charges under the UAPA have been dropped, but he will have to stand trial for three lesser charges.

The granting of bail is a crucial first step to ensuring that the rule of law prevails. We – and Mr. Shah’s colleagues – extend our great appreciation to the many readers who supported him financially and prayerfully. We also salute not only Mr. Shah but also the young staff members of The Kashmir Walla, who have stood up for journalistic integrity and commitment to their colleague despite enormous hardship.

We will report the full story of Mr. Shah’s detention and release very soon.

N.S. First Nations to exercise right to moderate livelihood during upcoming lobster season

CBC
Mon, November 20, 2023 

Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs says the moderate livelihood share of the overall fishery is a pittance. (Danielle Soper - image credit)

For the third consecutive year, four First Nations in southwestern Nova Scotia will exercise their treaty right to fish for a moderate living when Canada's most lucrative lobster fishery opens next week.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced Monday that it has again issued an interim authorization to Wasoqopa'q (Acadia), Annapolis Valley, Bear River and Glooscap First Nations.

The "understanding" between DFO and the groups authorizes an overall number of 5,250 traps distributed across Lobster Fishing Areas (LFA) 33 and 34 which run from Halifax to Digby and LFA 35 in the upper Bay of Fundy, where there is a limit of 1,000 traps.

"Reconciliation is a key priority of the Government of Canada, and an important part of that commitment is to uphold the First Nations' treaty right to fish," federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement.

The department says the authorization is not an increase in the overall size of the fishery since traps allocated to the First Nations are from traps removed or retired from the commercial fishery and "banked."

Bands fishing within commercial season

DFO insists that moderate livelihood fishing must occur during commercial seasons — a limitation that some Mi'kmaq do not accept.

The right to earn a moderate living was recognized — but not defined — by the Supreme Court of Canada more than 20 years ago in the Marshall cases.

The court also ruled Canada has the right to regulate moderate livelihood fisheries for conservation and other reasons.

Since the Marshall decisions Canada has spent $530 million for licences, vessels and gear, and training in order to increase and diversify First Nations' participation in the commercial fisheries and pursue moderate livelihoods.

By 2020 in Nova Scotia, First Nations held 684 commercial fishing licences across many species.

Canadian authority still routinely challenged

The Sipekne'katik First Nation has regularly challenged Ottawa's power to regulate moderate livelihood fishing for lobster and elvers, the baby eels worth $5,000 a kilogram.

Once again this summer Sipekne'katik members openly defied DFO by catching lobsters in St Marys Bay inside LFA 34 when the commercial season was closed.

And once again it led to arrests and seizures by Fishery officers.

Assembly of Mi'kmaw Chiefs argue for more

Meanwhile, eight chiefs belonging to the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs wrote to DFO officials in September arguing the department must greatly increase approvals for moderate livelihood fishing to deliver on the court-recognized right.

"We acknowledge the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) as having a role in the realization of our TRP [Treaty Right Protected] Rights and appreciate the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue," the chiefs said.

N.S. First Nations to exercise right to moderate livelihood during upcoming lobster season


CBC
Mon, November 20, 2023 at 5:58 p.m. MST·3 min read





Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs says the moderate livelihood share of the overall fishery is a pittance. (Danielle Soper - image credit)

For the third consecutive year, four First Nations in southwestern Nova Scotia will exercise their treaty right to fish for a moderate living when Canada's most lucrative lobster fishery opens next week.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced Monday that it has again issued an interim authorization to Wasoqopa'q (Acadia), Annapolis Valley, Bear River and Glooscap First Nations.

The "understanding" between DFO and the groups authorizes an overall number of 5,250 traps distributed across Lobster Fishing Areas (LFA) 33 and 34 which run from Halifax to Digby and LFA 35 in the upper Bay of Fundy, where there is a limit of 1,000 traps.

"Reconciliation is a key priority of the Government of Canada, and an important part of that commitment is to uphold the First Nations' treaty right to fish," federal Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement.

The department says the authorization is not an increase in the overall size of the fishery since traps allocated to the First Nations are from traps removed or retired from the commercial fishery and "banked."

Bands fishing within commercial season

DFO insists that moderate livelihood fishing must occur during commercial seasons — a limitation that some Mi'kmaq do not accept.

The right to earn a moderate living was recognized — but not defined — by the Supreme Court of Canada more than 20 years ago in the Marshall cases.

The court also ruled Canada has the right to regulate moderate livelihood fisheries for conservation and other reasons.

Since the Marshall decisions Canada has spent $530 million for licences, vessels and gear, and training in order to increase and diversify First Nations' participation in the commercial fisheries and pursue moderate livelihoods.

By 2020 in Nova Scotia, First Nations held 684 commercial fishing licences across many species.

Canadian authority still routinely challenged

The Sipekne'katik First Nation has regularly challenged Ottawa's power to regulate moderate livelihood fishing for lobster and elvers, the baby eels worth $5,000 a kilogram.

Once again this summer Sipekne'katik members openly defied DFO by catching lobsters in St Marys Bay inside LFA 34 when the commercial season was closed.

And once again it led to arrests and seizures by Fishery officers.

Assembly of Mi'kmaw Chiefs argue for more

Meanwhile, eight chiefs belonging to the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Chiefs wrote to DFO officials in September arguing the department must greatly increase approvals for moderate livelihood fishing to deliver on the court-recognized right.

"We acknowledge the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) as having a role in the realization of our TRP [Treaty Right Protected] Rights and appreciate the opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue," the chiefs said.

The assembly says the moderate livelihood share of the overall fishery is a pittance, adding that 10,954 traps fished throughout the gulf and Maritimes regions by Indigenous harvesters amounted to less than one per cent of the commercial fishery.

The chiefs said Indigenous harvesters landed 193,273 pounds of lobster between July 2022 and October 2023 compared to the commercial fleet during record high landings of 168 million pounds in 2016.

They say the level of Indigenous moderate livelihood fishing is unacceptably low.

"The systemic limitations placed on our TRP fishery cannot be justified," the letter states.

The assembly says the moderate livelihood share of the overall fishery is a pittance, adding that 10,954 traps fished throughout the gulf and Maritimes regions by Indigenous harvesters amounted to less than one per cent of the commercial fishery.

The chiefs said Indigenous harvesters landed 193,273 pounds of lobster between July 2022 and October 2023 compared to the commercial fleet during record high landings of 168 million pounds in 2016.

They say the level of Indigenous moderate livelihood fishing is unacceptably low.

"The systemic limitations placed on our TRP fishery cannot be justified," the letter states.

The US government stole Lakota land. Her Jewish family benefited.


Hannah Fish
Mon, November 20, 2023

It is ironic that author Rebecca Clarren’s Jewish ancestors, driven from Russia by brutal pogroms, ended up settling in the American West on land taken from Native Americans by violent force. As she sets out to examine in “The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance,” her family benefited from policies that encouraged hundreds of thousands of people of European ancestry to move west and claim Native American land.

Clarren has reported extensively on the American West. Her book grew from a desire to understand, and possibly redress, the role her family played – directly and indirectly – in the denial of land rights to Native Americans. She took to heart advice from Abby Abinanti, chief justice of the Yurok Tribal Court and a former judge for the California State Superior Court. Judge Abinanti advised her to look into what Jewish tradition teaches about repairing harm. Clarren writes, “She told me that, if I was lucky, eventually some Lakota might trust me enough to share their own cultural concepts of contrition, for how to make something right after you’ve done a wrong.” The judge told her, “Every culture has experience with being wrong, with finding a way forward.”

The book delves into the author’s wrestling with history, acknowledging harm, and seeking a path toward healing.

Clarren grew up hearing stories of how her relatives found new opportunities in the West at the turn of the 20th century. Like many immigrants at the time, they received 160 acres from the government, property they could keep if they could turn the wild prairie into farmland. The author writes, “Only after years of reporting in Indigenous communities did it dawn on me” that the acreage her ancestors were given, and which they expanded over time, had been home to members of the Lakota tribe for thousands of years.

Clarren began asking questions about what happened to the Lakota people before her family arrived. She researched firsthand Native American accounts of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, in which U.S. Army troops killed several hundred mostly unarmed Lakota men, women, and children. She interviewed present-day residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, who attested to generations of harm that continues to affect their lives.

Clarren’s discoveries illustrate a repeating pattern of loss and tragedy for the Indigenous communities, in the face of President Andrew Jackson’s official declaration in 1834 that the prairie land west of the Missouri River would be “Permanent Indian Frontier.” For example, in 1877, a gold-laden landscape called He Sapa – known today as the Black Hills – was taken as U.S. property by means of an untranslated, convoluted treaty. The treaty was signed by the Lakota under coercion, which included threats of cannon fire and the withholding of food rations. When members of the tribe protested the illegal nature of the agreement, they were told by Indian Office bureaucrats that they “couldn’t pursue a claim of wrongdoing without Congress passing a law allowing such action.” In the 1920s, the mountains that are sacred to the Lakota community were carved with the faces of four U.S. presidents and became Mount Rushmore.

The Lakota people have long argued that the land was confiscated illegally and should be restored to them. In the 1920s, lawyers for the tribe filed suit, and in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government owed the tribe $104 million for taking the land. But the Lakota rejected the settlement on the grounds that the land was never for sale. (The money was put into a trust, and the tribe has not touched it, on the grounds that acceptance would legitimize the government’s theft.) The tribe continues to call for the return of the territory. The legal battle for the Black Hills continues, one of the longest-running legal battles in American history.

Clarren’s book concludes with possible roads for healing. She points out that the practice of public truth-telling that appears in Jewish tradition is similar to Lakota customs. It’s a way of calling forth accountability and initiating repair.

Clarren’s research has now blossomed into a grassroots effort with the Indian Land Tenure Foundation to help Indigenous nations buy back their lands. In looking to the future, she writes that although “to wait for federal leadership on this issue is to delay justice indefinitely,” there’s hope that “Congress could be spurred to action if enough citizens lead by example.”

Related stories
When $1 billion isn’t enough. Why the Sioux won’t put a price on land.

Beyond ‘Trail of Tears’: Tracing Indigenous land dispossession in US

The Explainer What are land acknowledgments, and how do they help Indigenous peoples?

BREAKING NEWS

Pro-Palestinian protesters begin blockade of CN rail line in downtown Winnipeg

CBC
Mon, November 20, 2023 

4 PM MST

A group of about 20 protesters who started blocking the CN rail line near The Forks in Winnipeg on Monday afternoon say they're doing so in support of Palestinians. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC - image credit)

About 20 protesters have begun to block the Canadian National Railway line in downtown Winnipeg on Monday in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

A small group of protesters were seen standing on the CN rail line near Main Street and York avenue at the Forks on Monday afternoon, with a larger group on the street below.

The protesters were carrying Palestinian flags as well as signs that say "ceasefire now" and "Palestine will never die."

"We're calling for a ceasefire," protester Dasha Plett told CBC News.

Plett says the group targeted the rail line because CN has business ties to one of Israel's largest shipping companies, ZIM.

"CN is very vital for them to access the North American market and they are an Israeli company," she said.

A CN spokesperson told CBC News that the company is aware of the situation and is monitoring it.

Plett says the protesters blocking the Winnipeg rail line are 'answering the call of Palestinian organizations to disrupt politicians, businesses, organizations and infrastructure' which support Israel.

Plett says the protesters blocking the Winnipeg rail line are 'answering the call of Palestinian organizations to disrupt politicians, businesses, organizations and infrastructure' which support Israel. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

About 240 hostages were taken during a deadly cross-border rampage into Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory to wipe out the Islamist movement after several inconclusive wars since 2007.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians including several Canadians, were killed in the Hamas assault, according to Israeli tallies, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history. Since then, Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,500 children, by unrelenting Israeli bombardment.

Plett says the blockade of the CN rail line in Winnipeg is "answering the call of Palestinian organizations to disrupt politicians, businesses, organizations and infrastructure" which support Israel.

CBC News observed two police officers speaking with members of the rail line protest shortly after speaking to Plett on Monday afternoon.

CBC News observed two police officers speaking with members of the rail line protest shortly after speaking to Plett on Monday afternoon. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

Winnipeg police have been notified, said Plett, but the group is "staying put." She would not comment on how long the group plans to stay.

"We're making a charter rights argument that we can be here because of public assembly, and that that's a higher form of the law than the ones that they're threatening us with."

CBC News observed two police officers speaking with members of the rail line protest shortly after speaking to Plett on Monday afternoon. Winnipeg police have not yet responded to a request for comment.