Saturday, July 18, 2020

The Land of Little Rain by Mary Austin (1868–1934)



Most mountains in the United States are named for European male geologists, surveyors, and military officers who measured, climbed, and claimed them. There is a rare exception in the southern Sierras of California, a mountain that stands 13,057 feet tall. It is Mount Mary Austin, named after maverick ethnographer and feminist, activist and mystic, speaker and writer Mary Hunter Austin. Austin’s debut book, The Land of Little Rain (1903), is a collection of 14 vivid and meditative essays detailing the landscape and diverse inhabitants of the Owens River Valley before it was drained of water for the city of Los Angeles — a conflict known as the California water wars made famous in the classic film Chinatown. Austin’s early defense of Spanish Americans and Native Americans and their right to their land and livelihoods set her apart from other Western writers who saw these people as impediments to “progress.”
Further reading: Earth Horizon (1932), Austin's autobiography; Beyond Borders: The Selected Essays of Mary Austin (1996).
The land of little rain
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
AUTOGRAPHED
Publication date 1903
Topics Natural history -- California, California -- Description and travel
Publisher Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributor University of California Libraries
Language English
The land of little rain.--Water trails of the Ceriso.--The scavengers.--The pocket hunter.--Shoshone land.--Jimville, a Bret Harte town.--My neighbor's field.--The Mesa trail.--The basket maker.--The streets of the mountains.--Water borders.--Other water borders.--Nurslings of the sky.--The little town of the grape vines
ANOTHER VERSION ALSO SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR


THE FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN PLAY

The basket woman, a book of fanciful tales for children
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934; Riverside Press (Cambridge, Mass.)
Publication date 1904
Publisher Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Collection cdl; americana
Digitizing sponsor MSN
Contributor University of California Libraries
Language English
The basket woman. First story.--The basket woman. Second story.--The stream that ran away.--The coyotte-spirit and the weaving woman.--The cheerful glacier.--The merry-go-round.--The Christmas tree.--The fire bringer.--The crooked fir.--The sugar pine.--The golden fortune.--The white-barked pine.--Naýang Wité, the first rabbit drive.--Mahala Joe

 Bookplate of Pearl Chase

 Author's autograph copy

SHE HAD A BROAD SCOPE OF WRITINGS

 HER OWN VARIETY OF SPIRITUALITY AND MYSTICISM
BASED ON NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN TRADITIONS
Christ in Italy; being the adventures of a maverick among masterpieces
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/christinitalybe00austgoog/mode/2up
Publication date 1912
Publisher New York, Duffield & company
Collection americana
Digitizing sponsor Google
Book from the collections of University of California
Language English
The California earthquake of 1906
by Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931, ed; Branner, John Casper, 1850-1922; Derleth, Charles; Gilbert, Grove Karl, 1843-1918; Taber, Stephen, b. 1882; Omori, Fusakichi, 1868-1923; Fairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman), b. 1860; Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/californiaearthq00jord/mode/2up
Publication date 1907
Topics San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906, Fires, Buildings
Publisher San Francisco, A.M. Robertson
Collection library_of_congress; americana
Digitizing sponsor The Library of Congress
Contributor The Library of Congress
Language English
Partly reprinted from various periodicals

 The earthquake rift of April, 1906. By D.S. Jordan.--Geology and the earthquake. By J.C. Branner.--The destructive extent of the California earthquake of 1906; its effect upon structures and structural materials, within the earthquake belt. By C. Derleth, jr.--The investigation of the California earthquake of 1906. By G.K. Gilbert.--Local effects of the California earthquake of 1906. By S. Taber.--Preliminary note on the course of the California earthquake of 1906. By F. Omori.--The great earthquake rift of California. By H.W. Fairbanks.--The temblor: a personal narration. By M. Austin

HER AGNOSTIC THEOSOPHICAL APPROACH
TO LOVE


THE YOUNG WOMAN CITIZEN


A VERY MODERNIST NOVEL


 AUTOBIOGRAPHY


Earth horizon : autobiography
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/earthhorizonauto1932aust
Publication date 1932
Topics Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934, Authors, American
Publisher New York : Literary Guild
Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks; americana
Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive
Contributor Internet Archive
Language English
The saga of Polly McAdams -- 'The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts' -- El Camino Real -- The land of little rain -- The land of journey's ending






 SOCIAL JUSTICE REFORM


What the Mexican conference really means. Its represents desires of the people, deprived of human rights, to re-establish themselves in the scheme of social evolution
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/whatmexicanconfe00aust/page/n23/mode/2upPublication date 1915
Publisher New York, Latin-American News Association
Collection library_of_congress; americana
Digitizing sponsor The Library of Congress
Contributor The Library of Congress
Language English
From "New York times magazine."

BORROWABLE BIOGRAPHIES
 
https://archive.org/details/maryhunteraustin00pear/mode/2up
Mary Hunter Austin
by Pearce, T. M. (Thomas Matthews), 1902-
Publication date 1966
Topics Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
Publisher New York, Twayne Publishers

Mary Austin by Esther F. Lanigan
https://archive.org/details/maryaustinsongof00lani
Publication date 1997
Topics Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934, Women and literature -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 20th century, Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography, Western stories -- History and criticism, West (U.S.) in literature
Publisher University of Arizona Press


A Mary Austin reader
by Austin, Mary, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/maryaustinreader0000aust
Publication date 1996
Topics Indians of North America -- Literary collections, Indians of North America, West (U.S.) -- Literary collections, United States, West
Publisher Tucson : University of Arizona Press
Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks
Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation
Contributor Internet Archive
Language English
Title (alternate script) None
Author (alternate script) None
viii, 271 pages : 24 cm

"Best remembered for The Land of Little Rain (1903), which established her as a unique voice of the American West, Mary Austin was the author of nearly thirty books and hundreds of short works. Her essays, novels, plays, short stories, poems, and articles draw upon her impressions of the indigenous peoples and terrains of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Throughout her work, glimmers of her idiosyncratic feminism appear; not until long after her death in 1934 did she come to be celebrated for her feminist perspective."--BOOK JACKET. "This anthology of Austin's stories, articles, and excerpts from her books represents the broad range of her writing over a career spanning four decades and helps illuminate the life and work of this major American writer. Each chapter focuses on a specific genre and includes an introduction by editor Esther Lanigan, herself an Austin biographer."--Jacket

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-271)

Introduction -- "One hundred miles on horseback" -- Selections from The Land of Little Rain -- Selections from The Flock -- Short stories -- Articles and essays -- Selections from Cactus Thorn -- Selections from Starry Adventure -- Selection from The Land of Journey's Ending -- Poetry -- Excerpts from Taos Pueblo -- Selections from Earth Horizon


  BORROWABLE

The American rhythm : studies and reëxpressions of Amerindian songs
by Austin, Mary Hunter, 1868-1934
https://archive.org/details/americanrhythmst0000aust
Publication date 1970
Topics Indians of North America -- Poetry, Rhythm
Publisher New York : Cooper Square Publishers
Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; trent_university; internetarchivebooks
Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation
Contributor Internet Archive
Language English




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Oversight gap leaves Pentagon unsure if Afghan drone project has helped, IG

The effectiveness of the catapult-launched ScanEagle surveillance drone program given to the Afghanistan military cannot be measured because of oversight flaws, an Inspector General's report says. Photo courtesy of Insitu


 July 17 (UPI) -- An oversight failure left the Pentagon unable to judge if a $174 million Afghan surveillance drone project is effective, an inspector general's report says.

 Released on Friday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, the report notes that at least $174 million was spent between 2015 and 2019 to supply Afghanistan's security forces with ScanEagle remotely piloted aircraft.

 It adds, though, that the Defense Department is unable to determine if the project is effective, if the Afghan forces can sustain it or what the immediate and long-term impacts of the investment.

 "SIGAR found that Naval Air Systems Command [NAVAIR] -- responsible for overseeing the ScanEagle contracts, and [drone manufacturer and Boeing subsidiary] Insitu -- is unable to determine the extent to which Insitu met the terms of the contracts because NAVAIR did not meet U.S. government requirements for conducting contract oversight," the report says.

 RELATED Aid groups warn of Afghan troop surge

 It adds that NAVAIR did not designate a Contracting Officer's Representative for all of the ScanEagle contracts, it did not provide an in-country sponsor in Afghanistan responsible for validating contract requirements and kept inadequate contract records, all in violation of Defense Department guidelines.

 The 47-page report concludes that whatever benefit the drones offer the Afghan forces is not quantifiable, and that their use has offered few gains in fighting Taliban forces in the country.

 The catapult-launched Scan Eagle drone has a 10-foot wingspan, a 60-mile range and can transmit images taken by surveillance cameras. The drones met requirements for long-term, undetected missions across the country, and be tailored to specific needs for reconnaissance, according to the report.

 RELATED Outside View: Afganistan report

 The report notes that the Afghan National Army "will require continued U.S. government and technical support to sustain the ScanEagle program."

 The Defense Department has spent nearly $47.5 billion on equipment and programs for the Afghan military since 2005, according to the report.

 The report also said that the Afghan military was unable to account for 27 of the 87 soldiers certified to operate the ScanEagle system, and of the 60 Afghan troops assigned to operate the drones, 17, on average, were typically absent due to "sickness, annual leave or unknown reasons."
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Corporate America calls for mandatory face coverings in businesses

KILL YOUR CUSTOMERS AND STAFF 
AND YOU KILL YOUR PROFITS

he Business Roundtable encouraged all businesses to adopt a face covering mandate. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

July 17 (UPI) -- A Washington, D.C.,-based association of major CEOs on Friday called for the mandatory use of face coverings in businesses to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

The Business Roundtable stopped short of urging a federal order, but encouraged every U.S. company to require the use of face masks or coverings by employees and customers.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing face coverings to help protect people from getting COVID-19.
"One of the most effective things we can all do to protect public health and the economy is to wear face coverings in public settings, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain," the Business Roundtable said in a statement.
"Business Roundtable applauds the many companies that are protecting their employees and customers by mandating the use of face coverings indoors consistent with CDC guidelines. We encourage every company to adopt this practice and hope that all Americans will adopt the use of face coverings to protect their families, friends, neighbors, and our economy."
The non-profit organization previously signed a letter with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supporting a national mask standard.
Business Roundtable counts among its members Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Gap CEO Sonia Syngal, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.

Walmart announced earlier this week that starting Monday all shoppers in the United States must wear a face covering to minimize spread of the virus.
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Pentagon issues two contracts under DPA Title III to sustain workforces



Rolls-Royce ship propulsion facilities in Mississippi, and fuel tank bladder builder Amfuel will share $36.9 million in Defense Department contracts, announced on Friday, under the Defense Production Act Title II program. Photo courtesy of Rolls-Royce

July 17 (UPI) -- Two Defense Department contracts totaling $36.9 million, to sustain the U.S. industrial base under Defense Production Act Title III, were announced Friday.

Arkansas-based Amfuel secured a $14.9 million contract to expand production of fuel bladders and auxiliary systems for U.S. military aircraft, and Rolls-Royce will build ship propellers in its Pascagoula, Miss., ship propulsion facility under a $22 million agreement.

The contracts in each case are meant to "retain critical workforce capabilities throughout the disruption caused by COVID-19, and to restore some jobs lost because of the pandemic," the Pentagon said in a statement. It added that the Defense Department remains closely partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Health and Human Services, providing "almost $2.9 billion in life-saving medical services, supplies and equipment to service members and federal agencies in the nation's whole-of-government approach to the coronavirus pandemic."

The DPA Title III program is one of three active authorities in the Defense Production Act, first signed into law in 1950 and last renewed in 2018. The program provides the president broad authority and flexibility, through economic incentives, to ensure availability of essential domestic industrial resources to support national defense and homeland security requirements.
RELATED Pentagon removes official in charge of executing Defense Production Act

Funding for the contracts comes from the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill signed into law in March to help alleviate economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Defense Department has been involved in dealing with the virus since April, with a $133 million project to make 39 million N95 masks, regarded as a critical resource, for hospital personnel in 90 days. The Pentagon also awarded $5.2 billion in contracts in April for various aspects of COVID-19 response, including a $5 billion omnibus contract to nine contractors for supplies and construction of alternate care centers in Bronx, N.Y., and East Orange, N.J.
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Judge orders Trump administration to accept new DACA applications


The new order comes one month after the Supreme Court said the Trump administration's efforts to terminate DACA were arbitrary and capricious. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

July 17 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to accept new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on Friday.

Since President Donald Trump began his efforts to terminate the program in 2017, the U.S. government hasn't accepted new applications. The administration has allowed existing DACA recipients -- undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children -- to continue to receive the protections.

Last month, though, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump's attempts to terminate DACA was arbitrary and capricious, and unconstitutional.

District Judge Paul Grimm on Friday said the Trump administration must enforce DACA according to its status before the efforts to terminate it.

RELATED Judge extends deadline for U.S. to release migrant children

CASA, the organization that sued to enforce DACA fully, welcomed the ruling.

"This DACA decision reaffirms what we already knew and what SCOTUS already said: the Trump admin's ... heartless attempt to terminate the DACA program was illegal and they must immediately begin accepting new DACA applications," the organization said on Twitter.

President Barack Obama started the DACA program with an executive order in 2012 in an effort to provide temporary relief from deportation for children brought to the United States by undocumented parents. It also allows them to work and go to school in the United States without risk of being sent to their country of birth.




Trump sought to end the program in favor of allowing Congress to pass its own immigration reform, which failed.

DOCUMENT











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RELATED Trump rescinds policy forcing foreign students to attend in-person classes


RELATED ICE: Convicted Hezbollah financier has returned to Lebanon
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BILLY BARR'S GESTAPO 
Oregon to sue federal agencies over response to Portland protests

July 18 (UPI) -- Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said Saturday that the state will sue federal law enforcement agencies over their response to Black Lives Matter protests in Portland.

Rosenblum announced in a Twitter post that the lawsuit would be filed specifically in response to federal officers allegedly seizing and detaining residents without probable cause and excessive force. The agencies named included U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Protection Service.

Nightly protests against police violence have attracted hundreds to sometimes thousands in Portland for more than six weeks in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.

Since at least Tuesday, federal officers have been using unmarked vehicles to grab protesters off the streets and detain them with little explanation of why they are being arrested in an apparent escalation of federal force, witnesses told Oregon Public Broadcasting reported


"I share the concerns of our state and local leaders -- and our Oregon U.S. senators and certain congressional representatives -- that the current escalation of fear and violence in downtown Portland is being driven by federal law enforcement tactics that are entirely unnecessary and out of character with the Oregon way," Rosenblum said in a statement.

"These tactics must stop. They not only make it impossible for people to assert their First Amendment rights to protest peacefully. They also create a more volatile situation on our streets."

Last week police shot a Portland protester in the head with an impact munition causing serious injuries, OregonLive reported.

Rosenblum announced a state criminal investigation with the Multnomah County District Attorney into the injury. She blamed the incident on a federal police officer.

"The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening. If this can happen in Portland, it can happen anywhere," Rosenblum said.

Tensions between the city of Portland and federal agencies heated up after Acting Secretary Chad Wolf of the Department of Homeland Security arrived downtown on Thursday afternoon, KOIN reported. Federal officers deployed tear gas outside the federal courthouse after protesters stood their ground late Thursday night when they were told to disperse. By the end of the night, 20 people were arrested.

CBP said it arrested "violent anarchists" over the past several weeks, accusing them of damaging and destroying federal property.

CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan tweeted that his agency "will continue to arrest the violent criminals that are destroying federal property and injuring our agents/officers in Portland."

"CBP will restore and maintain law and order."

Two separate marches were scheduled that night, one a "fight for Black Lives," by the PNW Youth Liberation Front against "the rise of fascism and hate in America," according to Radical Guide website. The other a "March for Black Education," which according to the PDX Black Lives Matter Events was to bring awareness to the lack of black representation in Portland Public Schools and the treatment of Black, Indigenous, and people of color students and faculty.

The total number of arrests since federal officers came to Portland has not been disclosed.

Last week federal officers arrested a protester for vandalizing a federal courthouse. According to a series of Portland police tweets, federal officers also arrested two other people for unlawfully pointing lasers into federal officers' eyes and another person for breaking a hole in the door of the federal courthouse with a hammer and striking one of the federal officers who responded to the scene in the head and shoulder with a hammer.


“Flat-Out Unconstitutional”: Federal Officers In Unmarked Vans Are Snatching People Off The Streets In Portland

“They're snatching people and asking questions later," said one resident.

Craig SilvermanBuzzFeed News Reporter


Last updated on July 17, 2020

@KohzKah / Twitter / Via Twitter: @KohzKah

Protesters in Portland, Oregon, say federal officers deployed by President Donald Trump are increasing tensions and violating civil rights by roaming the streets in unmarked vans and detaining people without probable cause.

Videos and witness accounts detail how armed officers outfitted in camouflage and lacking identifying information on their uniforms are snatching people off the street. One viral video shared on July 15 shows two men in fatigues exiting an unmarked van, grabbing a person by their arms, and escorting them to a vehicle. The officers remained silent as bystanders asked who they were and what they were doing.


The Sparrow Project@sparrowmedia
Militarized Federal Agents from a patchwork of outside agencies have begun policing Portland (in rented minivans vans) without the explicit approval of the mayor, the state, or local municipalities. This is what that looks like in practice:04:22 PM - 15 Jul 2020
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The identity of the person detained in that video is unknown, but Portland resident Mark Pettibone told Oregon Public Broadcasting he was detained on July 15 by a group of federal officers. He said they grabbed him off the street for no reason, placed him in an unmarked van, and used his hat to cover his eyes while he was transported to a federal courthouse.

“I just happened to be wearing black on a sidewalk in downtown Portland at the time,” Pettibone said. “And that apparently is grounds for detaining me.”

Juniper Simonis, a quantitative ecologist who volunteers as a medic at protests, told BuzzFeed News that federal officers forcibly took them into custody and separated them from their service dog for using chalk on the sidewalk in front of a federal building on July 10. Simonis said they were sprayed with OC gas, a form of pepper spray, at close range.

“They jumped me and assaulted me without any legal or verbal communication to me about being under arrest, or telling me to stop,” said Simonis, a trans woman who uses "they"/"them" pronouns. “They're snatching people and asking questions later.”

On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon sued the Department of Homeland Security and US Marshals Service in what it said was "one "many [lawsuits] the ACLU will be filing against federal authorities in Portland for their unconstitutional attacks on people protesting the police killing of George Floyd."

The ACLU added DHS and US Marshals Service to a lawsuit that had already been filed against local law enforcement agencies, where a federal judge had already issued an order blocking local officials from dispersing, arresting, or using force against reporters and legal observers until Oct. 30.

"What is happening in Portland is an unconstitutional nightmare," Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project said in a statement. "The ACLU will not let the government respond to protests against police brutality with still more brutality."

The ACLU's motion filed Friday looks to add the federal agencies to the judge's order.

Although the motion specifically mentions federal agents' actions against journalists and legal observers, and does not mention arrests of protesters, it is the first attempt to legally block federal agents' actions on the ground in Portland.

Juniper Simonis is arrested.

A task force — including officers from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US Marshals Service — was deployed to Portland in early July after Trump issued an executive order about protecting national landmarks. But rather than remaining on federal property to protect statues and memorials, federal officers have at times engaged peaceful protesters and citizens with “less lethal” munitions and have been documented driving around and detaining people on city streets.

“Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping,” Jann Carson, interim executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, said in a statement. “The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown called the deployment of federal officers a “blatant abuse of power.” The use of federal officers has also been condemned by the mayor of Portland, both of Oregon’s US senators, the Portland Police Bureau, and the local sheriff.

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, along with two other members of Congress, sent a letter to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Attorney General Bill Barr requesting information about the deployment and a July 11 incident when a member of the US Marshals Service hit a peaceful protester in the head with an impact munition, fracturing his skull and requiring surgery.

“A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police,” Wyden tweeted. “Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media.”

On Friday, the US attorney in Oregon called on the DHS's Office of the Inspector General to look into reports that protesters were detained without probable cause.

Wolf arrived in Portland this week amid the criticism.

“The city of Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city,” he said in a DHS news release on Thursday. “Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.”

DHS released a list of 90 examples of what it called “lawless destruction and violence” in Portland dating back to May 29. Roughly a quarter of the incidents listed involved vandalism, graffiti, or trespassing. Eleven of the listed incidents resulted in arrests. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that federal officials have so far charged 13 people related to the protests.

In response to criticism that federal officers in Portland are not identifying themselves, Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, tweeted, “You will not see names on their uniforms b/c these same violent criminals use this information to target them & their families, putting both at risk.” Law enforcement officers are generally not required by law to identify themselves, according to Lawfare.

Benjamin Haas, the advocacy counsel at Human Rights First and a former Army intelligence officer, told BuzzFeed News the deployment of militarized federal officers in a US city is alarming.

“These law enforcement officers look more like the special operations forces I supported as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan than civilian police who are supposed to serve and protect American communities,” Haas said.

He added that the federal officers in Portland are “blurring the line between the military and law enforcement, [which] is unhealthy for democracy and American communities.”

After being grabbed off the street and brought to a federal courthouse, Pettibone said he was released without charges after he kept asking for a lawyer. DHS has not commented publicly on Pettibone’s arrest.

Simonis said they were also brought to the Portland federal courthouse after being arrested in front of the Edith Green–Wendell Wyatt Federal Building. After Simonis said they were detained for roughly eight hours and denied a phone call or access to a lawyer, they were released and issued two federal tickets for petty offenses.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the arrest of Simonis.

Simonis said it’s possible other people are being detained and kept for longer periods without the ability to contact a lawyer.

“We know that there are people getting snatched off the streets, but we only know the stories of the people who have made it out,” they said.


Craig Silverman is a media editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto.
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Coronavirus crisis could lead to wildlife ranger jobs being cut and a 'poaching pandemic', warn leading conservationists
We are protecting wildlife at risk from poachers due to the conservation funding crisis caused by COVID-19. Help is desperately needed to support wildlife rangers, local communities and law enforcement personnel to prevent wildlife crime. Donate to help Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade HERE

Emma Ledger
2 days ago

Beverly Joubert

Covid-19 risks creating a funding crisis that could lead to wildlife ranger jobs being cut and a ‘poaching pandemic’, leading conservationists have told The Independent.

Many conservation organisations have seen revenue plummet as a result of the economic crisis caused by the virus.

With few government support schemes available, a reduction in ranger numbers would risk more animals been killed, fuelling the illegal trade in wildlife.



The Covid-19 conservation crisis has shown the urgency of The Independent’s Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign, which seeks an international effort to clamp down on illegal trade of wild animals

Dereck and Beverly Joubert, the founders of Great Plains Conservation, told The Independent that “the situation is unravelling” and “we need rangers now more than ever”.

“There were about 40,000 rangers across Africa before Covid-19,” Dereck said. “But reports suggest that this figure will be cut by between 40-50 per cent.

“Without rangers we risk returning to the high poaching levels that many countries suffered decades ago.”

In response, they have set up an emergency intervention called Project Ranger to identify areas most urgently in need.

They will work with local, on-the-ground partners to support rangers and anti-poaching personnel to keep animals safe if critical gaps in the anti-poaching operations emerge in Africa’s protected areas.

Project Ranger is an emergency intervention to protect frontline staff set up by Dereck and Beverly Joubert

This week The Independent revealed the potential scale of the conservation crisis caused by the pandemic as tourism revenues plummet, which in turn risks impacting on the livelihoods of hundreds of rangers.

It shows the urgency of our Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign, which was launched by The Independent's largest shareholder Evgeny Lebedev to call for an international effort to clamp down on the illegal trade of wild animals, which remains one of the greatest threats to future biodiversity.

Funds raised will to pay for vital wildlife protection projects implemented by the campaign’s partner charity Space for Giants. This will work to help stop the poaching and illegal trafficking of animals.

Guy Disney, Frontline Protection Technical Advisor for Space for Giants, said: “The illegal wildlife trade operates across national borders, so to disrupt it most effectively, our approach is to work with organisations that also collaborate across borders to allow threats to wildlife minimised.”

Targeted patrols have helped contribute to a drop in elephant poaching of 90% where Space for Giants operates in Kenya. However such successes rely on pre-Covid levels of ranger protection - if not more.

At the start of April, 10 of the 35 anti-poaching personnel who protect Tanzania’s Enduimet Wildlife Management Area were told they were out of a job.

Safeguarding the 450-square mile area for the remaining workers means harder work, with extra distances to patrol each day. New restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid and to keep them safe - such as time-consuming hygiene measures - have made their jobs harder.

National governments and conservation NGOs have worked throughout the crisis to maintain deploying wildlife rangers and surveillance teams across Africa.
Wildlife hotspots devoid of the usual level of surveillance would allow both subsistence poachers and criminal networks to encroach on land that might ordinarily be avoided, killing even more animals and flooding the wildlife trade market.

Sport Beattie, Founder and CEO of Game Rangers International, trains and manages more than 100 rangers in Zambia. He said “Conservationists across the continent are extremely concerned that wildlife crime could potentially spread as fast as the virus, if left unchecked. None of us knows what the future looks like.”

More than 1,000 rangers have died in the line of duty in the past decade, testament to the threat faced in their struggle against the illegal wildlife trade.

Kaddu Sebunya, CEO of African Wildlife Foundation, said that as incidences of poaching increase so too does the risk to rangers. He said: “We're hearing about more clashes between poachers and security officers, which have resulted in deaths.”

MORE ABOUT:
STOP THE WILDLIFE TRADE | COVID-19 | CORONAVIRUS | RANGERS | STOP THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE


Coronavirus, and the economic havoc it has wreaked, is causing a global conservation crisis


We are protecting wildlife at risk from poachers due to the conservation funding crisis caused by Covid-19. Help is desperately needed to support wildlife rangers, local communities and law enforcement personnel to prevent wildlife crime. Donate to help Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade HERE

Evgeny Lebedev @mrevgenylebedev
3 days ago

A few years ago, I had the honour of meeting the world’s most eligible bachelor. Sudan was a hulking great rhinoceros, protected by the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. I remember stroking the gentle giant, struggling with the fact that this was the last male northern white rhino on the planet. Two years ago he died, thus making this subspecies extinct.

As Covid-19 wreaks havoc on public health and the world economy, a new conservation crisis has gone unnoticed. Since March of this year, it is feared that 10 per cent of Botswana’s rhinos lie dead.

Niger has uncovered a “massacre” of gazelles in a nature reserve. And Uganda is seeing an unprecedented rise in snare traps, designed to trap large mammals like rhinos and elephants.
In Asia, the problem is equally grave. India has seen a doubling of leopard poaching. Nepalese musk deer are threatened, and wildlife ecosystems across South Asia are coming under new stresses.

Watch more
Can social media be weaponised against the illegal wildlife trade?

In Russia, wildfires are raging across the Siberian tundra, destroying acres of animal habitat. The long-running battle to save the Amur leopard – of which there remains an adult population of just 90 individuals, according to WWF – is a particular source of concern for me during this crisis.

Ignore it as we may, the human and natural worlds are intimately linked. This coronavirus-induced conservation crisis stems from the global economic crash caused by the virus, the effects of which we will likely experience for many years. On the ground, a collapse in tourism threatens to enfeeble the ability of national parks and local conservation groups to protect wildlife. A fall in funding for NGOs has left them worrying how to support the vital work of rangers and national park sites.

Just last week, the head of one world-renowned wildlife NGO admitted to me in private that his organisation’s funding was in tatters, and its conservation and research work across the world may not be able to continue.

The coronavirus has forced governments in Africa and South Asia particularly to refocus their attention, not on long-term environmental and ecological targets, but on immediate welfare programmes for their people. In Africa especially, governments commendably enforced strict lockdowns that have so far spared the continent the brunt of the coronavirus crisis – but this has caused major economic damage to what in many cases were already among the world’s weakest economies.

The bottom line is that people are suffering, many are falling back into poverty and many more are hungry. Illegal poaching, deforestation and the taking of animal parts are shooting up – of this much we are certain.
Watch more
Banning wildlife markets will help protect us from the next pandemic

What we cannot currently know is the extent of the damage. Many of these areas, in sub-Saharan Africa particularly, are out of bounds and inaccessible during this time. We need to have experts on the ground to assess the damage and help those at risk of absolute poverty to secure their livelihoods.

When I launched our Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign in The Independent and Evening Standard, we knew that the natural world was under threat. We did not know the extent of the damage. This is only now becoming clear.

That is why our campaign is so urgent. Through zoonotic transfer via a pangolin, the coronavirus emerged from the illegal wildlife trade, as did Sars and countless other diseases. We are campaigning alongside the conservation charity Space for Giants to gather the resources to protect wildlife. And we want our campaign to play a part in showing readers why this issue is among the most serious crises facing humanity at present.

After Covid-19, we can no longer pretend that what happens in the natural world is cordoned off from our world, or our lives. I hope you, the readers, will join us in this fight to prevent more species following the fate of Sudan. Our campaign to end the illegal wildlife trade aims to protect nature, but in doing so we are also protecting our own future.

Evgeny Lebedev is a shareholder of The Independent and the Evening Standard
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KAPITALISM IS TOXIC 
Orange 'acid streams' filmed flowing near abandoned mine in Russia

Incident comes just weeks after Kremlin announces states of emergency over massive fuel leak

Tom Embury-Dennis  JULY 18,2020

Orange-coloured rivers fan out over forested landscape near village of Lyovikha in the Urals ( Getty Images )

Footage has emerged of streams running orange near a disused copper-sulphide mine in Russia's Ural mountain range.

Drone footage uploaded by an Instagram travel blogger last week shows a landscape scarred by the apparent wastewater near the village of Lyovikha in western Siberia.


Russian prosecutors said they are inspecting a facility that is supposed to treat acid runoff from the abandoned mine, according to AFP.

"Since 2004, a copper pyrite mine has been abandoned there. It turned out to be flooded and now acidic rivers flow from there," the blogger, Sergey Zamkadniy, wrote on Instagram.

The waste was meant to be kept inside ponds and treated, but heavy rains have caused them to overflow.


NOT UNLIKE THE GOLD MINE IN THE USA THE EPA FLOODED AND ALLOWED TOXINS TO POLLUTE A MAJOR RIVERWAY....JUST SAYING....
Russia responds to coronavirus vaccine hacking claims

After a local environmentalist reported the issue to authorities last year, he claimed he was told the company tasked with tackling the run-off had inadequate funds to buy enough lime to neutralise the acid.

A spokeswoman for local prosecutors said experts would take samples from the area to find out if treatment of the "acidic water" was in line with the rules.

The probe comes just weeks after the Kremlin was forced to announce a state of emergency in Siberia after a massive fuel leak left two rivers with a bloody red tinge.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of diesel is understood to have leaked from a local power plant, affecting more than 1000,000 sq metres of land in the region.
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Lockdown hasn’t stopped Milton Keynes’ delivery robots

From dispatching food, to ferrying medicine, these mini machines are becoming a vital service amid the pandemic, write Cade Metz and Erin Griffith

Wednesday 3 June 2020

The sudden usefulness of the robots to people staying in their homes is a tantalising hint of what the machines could one day accomplish ( Getty )

If any place was prepared for quarantine, it was Milton Keynes. Two years before the pandemic, a startup called Starship Technologies deployed a fleet of rolling delivery robots in the small city about 50 miles northwest of London.

The squat six-wheeled robots shuttle groceries and dinner orders to homes and offices. As the coronavirus spread, Starship shifted the fleet even further into grocery deliveries. Locals like Emma Maslin can buy from the corner store with no human contact.

“There’s no social interaction with a robot,” Maslin says.

The sudden usefulness of the robots to people staying in their homes is a tantalising hint of what the machines can one day accomplish – at least under ideal conditions. Milton Keynes, with a population of 270,000 and a vast network of bicycle paths, is perfectly suited to rolling robots. Demand has been so high in recent weeks that some residents have spent days trying to schedule a delivery.

In recent years, companies from Silicon Valley to Somerville, Massachusetts, have poured billions of dollars into the development of everything from self-driving cars to warehouse robots. The technology is rapidly improving. Robots can help with deliveries, transportation, recycling, manufacturing.

Watch more

Amazon rolls out new delivery robot called Scout

But even simple tasks like robotic delivery still face technical and logistical hurdles. The robots in Milton Keynes, for example, can carry no more than two bags of groceries.

“You can’t do a big shop,” Maslin says. “They aren’t delivering from the superstores.”

A pandemic may add to demand but does not change what you can deploy, says Elliot Katz, who helps run Phantom Auto, a start-up that helps companies remotely control autonomous vehicles when they encounter situations they cannot navigate on their own.

“There is a limit to what a delivery bot can bring to a human,” Katz says. “But you have to start somewhere.”

Industry veterans know this well. Gabe Sibley, an engineer and a professor who previously worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, started Zippy for sidewalk deliveries in 2017. But the San Francisco company quickly ran into challenges. The robots can move only at the pace of walking, around 1mph. That severely limits the delivery area, particularly for hot food, Sibley says.

The company never deployed any robots, selling in 2018.

“In this country, where we designed our cities around the car, the solution to sidewalk delivery is to use the roads,” Sibley says.

Founded in 2014 and backed by more than $80m (£63m), Starship Technologies is based in San Francisco. It has deployed most of its robots on college campuses around the US. Equipped with cameras, radar and other sensors, they navigate by matching their surroundings to digital maps built by the company in each location.


Currently, machines are not able to hold much (Reuters)

The company chose Milton Keynes for a wider deployment in part because the robots can navigate it with relative ease. Built after the Second World War, the city was carefully planned, with most streets laid out in a grid and bicycle and pedestrian paths, called “redways”, running beside them.

When the Starship robots first arrived in Milton Keynes, Liss Page thought they were cute but pointless. “The first time I met one, it was stuck on the curb outside my house,” she says.

Then, in early April, she opened a letter from the NHS advising her not to leave the house because her asthma and other conditions made her particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. In the weeks that followed, the robots provided a much-needed connection to the outside world.

It just seemed like a vanity project before. The pandemic has given them a platform to launch a real business

Smaller deliveries suit Page because she lives alone. A vegan, she can order nut milk and margarine straight to her door. But like the grocery vans that deliver larger orders across the city, the Starship robots are ultimately limited by what is on the shelves.

“You pad out the order with things you don’t really need to make the delivery charge worthwhile,” Page says. “With the last delivery, all I got were the things I didn’t really need.”

Residents like Page set deliveries through a smartphone app. They typically pay £1 for each delivery, but in Milton Keynes, Starship has raised the price to as much as £2 during the busiest times in an effort to spread demand across the day.


The robots deliver groceries to doctors, nurses and other employees of the NHS for free. They even join the Thursday night tribute to the NHS, blinking their headlights as residents clap and cheer from their doorsteps. The fleet of 80 robots will soon expand to 100.
There is the potential for the robots to become a viable business (Getty)

Though this may be the most extensive deployment of delivery robots in the world, others have popped up in recent years. In Christiansburg, Virginia, Paul and Susie Sensmeier can arrange drugstore and bakery deliveries via flying drone. Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has been offering drone deliveries in the area since the fall.

They can order penne pasta, marinara sauce and toilet paper. But they can’t order prescription medicines via Wing – the drones are stocked at a Wing warehouse, not at a drugstore – and like the robots in Milton Keynes, the drones can carry only so much.


“I can only get two muffins or two croissants,” Susie Sensmeier, 81, says.

Companies like Wing and Starship hope they can expand these services and refine their skills. Now there is new impetus.

“Overnight, delivery has gone from a convenience to a vital service,” says Starship’s chief executive, Lex Bayer. “Our fleets are driving nonstop, 14 hours a day.”

In Milton Keynes, Starship has gradually expanded the reach of its service, doubling its fleet and teaming up with several new grocery stores. It recently started at a service in Chevy Chase, Maryland, not far from Washington.


Page, a business analyst who has lived in Milton Keynes for more than 25 years, believes the service can become a viable business.

“It just seemed like a vanity project before,” she says. “The pandemic has given them a platform to launch a real business.”

Companies have poured billions into the sector (Reuters)

But as much as the pandemic has lifted startups like Starship, it has also hurt them. Many of the college campuses where Starship deployed its robots have shut down. Though the company has worked to shift those robots to nearby locations, it has been forced to lay off employees and contractors. Janel Steinberg, a company spokesperson, says the cuts were “primarily about rebalancing our workforce to adapt to the demand in different locations”.

Read more
Delivery robot bursts in flames after ‘human error’
Domino’s set to introduce pizza delivery robots in New Zealand

Nuro, a startup in Silicon Valley, has long promised larger robots that can drive on public roads. But it has not yet deployed these robots, and like most self-driving car companies, Nuro has been forced to curtail its testing. Rather than making deliveries, its robots are shuttling supplies across an old basketball stadium in Sacramento that has been converted into a temporary hospital.

Sidewalk robots and flying drones also require human help. Starship and similar companies must monitor the progress of each robot from afar, and if anything goes wrong, remote operators take over. With social distancing, that has become more difficult. Remote operators who once worked in call centres have moved into their homes.

Katz’s company, Phantom Auto, is now helping companies make the transition. “This is a very, very difficult problem to solve,” Katz says. “We are in the autonomy-doesn’t-quite-work-yet business.”

© The New York Times




AMAZON ROLLS OUT NEW DELIVERY ROBOT CALLED SCOUT


An Amazon employee will accompany the autonomous machines at first to ensure they can safely navigate around pedestrians and pets

Anthony Cuthbertson

Thursday 24 January 2019

Amazon has launched a new robot delivery service in the US using a six wheeled machine that is "the size of a small cooler".

The Amazon Scout uses self-driving technology to navigate through neighbourhoods to deliver packages to Amazon Prime customers, though its initial roll out is limited.

The first deliveries are taking place in Snohomish County, just to the north of Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Deliveries will be limited to daylight hours between Monday and Friday amd only six of the Scout delivery robots will be deployed at first.

Each will also be accompanied by an Amazon employee to ensure they can safely navigate around any pedestrians or pets it might come across.

Inside the Amazon Fulfilment Centres
Show all 15



YOU CAN CALL THEM WHAT YOU WANT BUT THEY ARE
STILL WAREHOUSES.

Sean Scott, vice president of Amazon Scout, said the Scout robot will be part of a growing number of delivery solutions for the online retail giant.

"We are happy to welcome Amazon Scout to our growing suite of innovative delivery solutions for customers and look forward to taking the learnings from this first neighborhood so Amazon Scout can, over time, provide even more sustainability and convenience to customer deliveries," Mr Scott said.

Snohomish County executive Dave Somers added: “We are delighted to welcome Amazon Scout into our community. Similar to Amazon, we are always looking for new ways to better deliver service to our residents.”

The Scout robot is being tested near Amazon's Seattle headquarters (Amazon)

Other delivery methods Amazon is currently working on include autonomous drones, which are already being tested in the UK.

It is hoped such technologies will dramatically reduce delivery times, with the first Prime Air delivery in 2016 dropping off a package within 13 minutes of being ordered.


"It looks like science fiction, but it's real," Amazon said at the time. "One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road."

Amazon is yet to reveal if and when the Scout robot or Prime Air will be introduced to customers on a wider scale.



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