Black Canadians get sick more from COVID-19. Scientists aim to find out why

Emily Chung, Vik Adhopia, Melanie Glanz
© Craig Chivers/CBC Cheryl Prescod, executive director of Black Creek Community Health Centre, has been setting up mobile COVID-19 testing centres in her northwest Toronto community, which has been a hot spot for the disease. She has also been helping to…

Race-based data shows that Black Canadians are far more likely to get sick and be hospitalized for COVID-19 than other ethnic groups. A new study looking at antibodies in the blood of Black Canadians aims to understand the reasons in an effort to reduce the impact of the disease on Black communities.

The study is being led by Dr. Upton Allen, chief of infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He says the data shows that across North America, Black communities are disproportionately affected by the pandemic, according to data from cities like Toronto and Ottawa, and organizations such as the Edmonton-based African Canadian Civic Engagement Council and the Innovative Research Group.

In Toronto, for example, data from May 20 to July 16 found that Black patients made up 21 per cent of COVID-19 cases, even though they were only nine per cent of the population.

"What is less clear in the Canadian context is why?" Allen said. "We suspect that it has to do with the types of exposures that people have. However, we really need the data to substantiate that."

Researchers suspect that a number of risk factors might play a role:

The work that people in the communities do, including how many are front-line workers and how many work several different jobs at different locations to make ends meet.

Living conditions, such as crowded, multigenerational homes.

Pre-existing medical conditions that can increase risk, such as obesity and diabetes, which are often associated with poverty.

In order to find out if that's the case, the study will be recruiting 2,000 Black Canadians and 1,000 non-Black Canadians from across the country, including both adults and children over two years old. Participants will answer a questionnaire and do a blood test for two types of antibodies:


One that indicates whether the person has been infected with COVID-19.


Another, called a neutralizing antibody, that provides immunity against the virus.

Participants will get their results and can opt to be retested over two years.

"This is important because it provides information for the individual that gives them some idea of their level of protection over time but also provides an idea of overall protection within the community," Allen said

.

© Craig Chivers/CBC COVID-19 testing kits are seen at a pop-up testing site in northwest Toronto.

He said he hopes the study will show:


The extent to which certain communities are protected (or not protected) over time by "herd immunity," whereby so many people are immune that the virus can't easily spread.


The biggest risk factors in certain communities, and therefore what measures need to be ramped up to minimize risk of further outbreaks in those communities.


Opportunities for support, such as providing a place for infected people to self-isolate.

Allen said he's been working for several months to get communities involved in the project.


"It's all about trust," he said, "recognizing that we are doing this research to benefit the community."

WATCH | Scientists dig into why Black Canadians are more likely to be sick or hospitalized with COVID-19:

Why community involvement is crucial

Patrick Shaw has volunteered to participate in the study and is helping to recruit other participants. He runs a youth organization in Toronto called Sister's Keeper Basketball and began connecting with the community about COVID-19 after learning about the high rate of the disease in Black communities.

"We were asking them, you know, 'Did you get tested?... Do you know where to get tested?' And they were saying, 'No,'" he said.

He said Black communities in Toronto consist of multiple cultures that think in different ways, and culture itself can pose a challenge

.

© Melanie Glanz/CBC Patrick Shaw has volunteered to participate in the antibody study and is helping recruit other participants. He says having people on the ground that community members trust will be key to the study's success.

Some people are distrustful of doctors because of bad experiences in the countries they came from, Shaw said, and many others don't have a family doctor — relying on walk-in clinics — which doesn't allow them to build trust with the medical community.

"If they don't trust you," he said, "they're not going to believe anything you say."

Shaw said having people on the ground that community members trust will be key to the study's success.

Cheryl Prescod, executive director of Black Creek Community Health Centre, has been setting up mobile COVID-19 testing centres in her northwest Toronto community, which has been a hot spot for the disease.

She, too, has been helping to recruit participants for the study.

Prescod said most of the people in the community live in apartments and take public transit to work, and many have jobs that put them in contact with other people.

"We need to think about neighbourhoods like this in a very unique way," she said. "And we have to think about what are the characteristics that will increase that spread."

WATCH | Black Canadians hit harder by COVID-19, study reveals:
Socioeconomic versus genetic factors

Dr. David Naylor, co-chair of the federal government's Immunity Task Force, is among those keen to see the study's results. The task force's job is to look at antibodies and other markers of immunity to better understand how COVID-19 has spread and "where it's touched down hardest."

"Data in Ontario are pretty clear, you know — two to four times higher rates of, variously, infection, intensive care unit hospitalization and death among diverse neighbourhoods," he said. "So understanding the spread of this disease in those neighbourhoods by looking at more than simply confirmed diagnostics is pretty valuable."

Naylor said he wonders how much of the disease's impact on Black communities is due to socioeconomic conditions, "and how much could be genetic?"

He said he's interested in the details about what subgroups within Black communities are hit hardest.

"Are there differences across ethnic racial groups? Are there special markers?... This kind of information will help public health officials, that'll help clinicians, that'll help community leaders, above all, to think about how they can protect those communities."

The task force is currently looking for proposals to study COVID-19 "hot spots" — groups of workers or neighbourhoods with high concentrations of cases, and Naylor said he has encouraged Allen to submit his study.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

Virus disrupting Rio's Carnival for first time in a century

© Provided by The Canadian Press

RIO DE JANEIRO — A cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Rio de Janeiro throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been lifted, but gloom remains — the annual Carnival parade of flamboyant samba schools won’t be held in February.


And while the decision is being characterized as a postponement of the event, no new date has been set.

Rio’s League of Samba Schools, LIESA, announced Thursday night that the spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold the traditional parades that are a cultural mainstay and, for many, a source of livelihood.

“Carnival is a party upon which many humble workers depend. The samba schools are community institutions, and the parades are just one detail of all that,” Luiz Antonio Simas, a historian who specializes in Rio’s Carnival, said in an interview. “An entire cultural and productive chain was disrupted by COVID.”

Rio’s City Hall has yet to announce a decision about the Carnival street parties that also take place across the city. But its tourism promotion agency said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sept. 17 that without a coronavirus vaccine, it is uncertain when large public events can resume.

Brazil’s first confirmed coronavirus case was Feb. 26, one day after this year’s Carnival ended. As the number of infections grew, the samba schools that participate in the glitzy annual parade halted preparations for the 2021 event.

Nearly all of Rio’s samba schools are closely linked to working class communities. Their processions include elaborate floats accompanied by tireless drummers and costumed dancers who sing at the top of their lungs to impress a panel of judges. Tens of thousands of spectators pack the bleachers of the arena, known as the Sambadrome, while tens of millions watch on television.

Before the schools began competing in the 1930s, Carnival was celebrated in dance halls and haphazardly on the streets, Simas said. The parades entered the Sambadrome in the 1980s, and have become Rio’s quintessential Carnival display.

The immense labour required for each show was already stymied by restrictions on gatherings that Rio’s governor imposed in March. Even with those measures, Rio’s metropolitan region, home to 13 million people, so far has recorded more than 15,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Beneath the Sambadrome’s bleachers, the city created a homeless shelter for the vulnerable population during the pandemic.

Samba schools suspended float construction, costume sewing, dance rehearsals, and also social projects. The Mangueira school’s program in the favela near downtown Rio that teaches music to children — keeping them away from crime, and cultivating the school’s future drummers — hasn’t held classes since March.

The pulse of entire suburban Rio cities like Nilopolis, whose population of 160,000 cheers the Beija-Flor samba school, has faded, Simas said.

Some performers resorted to odd jobs and gigs. Diogo Jesús, the lead dancer referred to as “master of ceremonies” in the Mocidade school, couldn’t make rent without his income from private events. He started driving for Uber and sewing facemasks to sell at a fair.

“It was a blow. We live Carnival all year round, and many people when they realized everything would stop wound up getting sick or depressed,” Jesus said in an interview inside his house in Madureira, a neighbourhood in northern Rio. “Carnival is our life.”

The last year Rio’s Carnival was suspended was 1912, following the death of the foreign relations minister. The mayor of Rio, at the time Brazil’s capital, postponed by two months all licenses for the popular dance associations’ Carnival parties, according to Luís Cláudio Villafañe, a diplomat and author of the book “The Day They Delayed Carnival.” The mayor also voiced opposition to unregulated celebrations, but many Rio residents partied in the streets anyway.

Revelers were undeterred during World War II. And they poured into the street every year during more than two decades of military dictatorship, until 1985, with government censors reviewing costumes, floats and song lyrics.

Then came coronavirus.

“We must await the coming months for definition about if there will be a vaccine or not, and when there will be immunization,” LIESA’s president, Jorge Castanheira, told reporters in Rio on Thursday. “We don’t have the safety conditions to set a date.”

The 2020 coronavirus already forced Rio’s City Hall to scrap traditional plans for its second-biggest party, New Year’s Eve, which draws millions of people to Copacabana beach for dazzling fireworks. Earlier this month, the city’s tourism promotion agency Riotur announced that main tourist spots will instead display light and music shows to be broadcast over the internet.

Delay of the Carnival parade will deprive Rio state of much needed tourism revenue. In 2020, Carnival drew 2.1 million visitors and generated 4 billion reais ($725 million) in economic activity, according to Riotur. A statement from the agency Thursday provided no further clarity on the fate of the Carnival street parties.

Some parties are small — for example one including a few dozen dog owners exhibiting their pets wearing wigs or funny hats. But most feature amps blasting music to throngs of thousands who dance, kiss and swill booze in a crush of celebration. The biggest one boasts more than two million partygoers.

Rita Fernandes, president of Os Blocos da Sebastiana, said her association already cancelled its 11 street parties that together draw 1.5 million revelers. Most others groups will follow, she said.

“We cannot be irresponsible and bring the multitudes to the street,” she said, pointing to Europe’s second wave of contagion.

After several weeks of declining daily infections, Rio authorities have begun expressing concern about an uptick. Public spaces such as beaches have been crowded in violation of pandemic restrictions.

A drummer in Mangueira’s samba school, Laudo Braz Neto, said the children he instructed before the pandemic are listless, and he knows there is no way to put on Carnival without being able to safely gather.

“Carnival will only really happen when the whole world can travel. It’s a spectacle the world watches, brings income and movement here,” he said. “I have no hope for 2021.”

____

Associated Press videojournalist Diarlei Rodrigues contributed to this report.

Marcelo De Sousa, The Associated Press

Watch: Robert Redford, Edward Norton Premiere Documentary ‘Public Trust’ Live On YouTube

Aynslee Darmon



Edward Norton is inviting documentary fans to the premiere of "Public Trust".

The virtual event will take place on YouTube Friday night with Norton and the filmmakers.

"Public Trust" is about America’s system of public lands and waters that are held in trust for all Americans, documenting the fight to protect them.

"Even in this moment of deep polarization, there are some things we ought to be able to unite around like defence of our public lands," Norton said ahead of the premiere. "Yet, they’ve never been more threatened."

The film is from director David Garrett Byars and Patagonia Films. Yvon Chouinard and Robert Redford are executive producers.

Questions linger about firm that received border wall contract


CBSNews

© Credit: CBSNews 60borderwallpreview-10.jpg

Three former administration sources say President Trump wanted government officials to give border wall contracts to a company with a checkered past, the same firm that recently built a private wall on the Rio Grande that some engineers say is likely to fail. The North Dakota company, Fisher Sand and Gravel, was partially funded by the pro-Trump "We Build the Wall" campaign whose executives are now charged with fraud and money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty. Sharyn Alfonsi investigates company CEO Tommy Fisher and his campaign to win over the Trump Administration on the next edition of 60 Minutes, Sunday, September 27 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Fisher had the president's attention after multiple appearances on Fox News touting a better, cheaper way to build the border wall. Former Department of Homeland Security officials said there were concerns about an initial wall prototype Fisher Sand and Gravel put up in San Diego. But he did get funding to build two private walls from "We Build the Wall," the crowdsourcing group chaired by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon. Fisher reportedly used $20 to $30 million of his company's money to complete one of them. 60 Minutes wanted to ask Fisher why he would put up so much of his own investment but the contractor did not respond to interview requests.

Bannon, Brian Kolfage, the entity's founder, and two others connected to "We Build the Wall" were charged with defrauding donors; federal prosecutors say they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the money they raised for personal items. Fisher denies he had any role in the alleged scheme and has not been charged. He parted ways with the group, he told the Washington Post.

Alfonsi saw one of the walls Fisher Sand and Gravel built on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mission, Texas. A local attorney, Javier Pena, who has filed a lawsuit for a neighboring land owner, says mounds of dirt were recently used to hide problems caused by summer rains. "Massive erosion…The foundation is crumbling…There are these trenches all along the wall, the sand just washing away," Pena says. Pena tells Alfonsi engineering experts he hired who have viewed the site concur. "It's not a question of whether it's going to fail, it's when it's going to fail and it already started to fail." In a leaked memo about the private walls Fisher Sand and Gravel constructed, Customs officials alleged Fisher "inflated" claims about the quality and speed of his work "due to lack of experience."

Attorney for land owners says parts of southern border wall failing due to erosion

Three former Trump Administration sources say that President Trump pressured government officials to direct wall contracts to Fisher Sand and Gravel, which had promised to build walls faster and cheaper than others. Over the last nine months, Fisher Sand and Gravel has been awarded almost $2 billion in federal border wall contracts.

Fisher Sand and Gravel has a troubled environmental and safety record, racking up violations in six states from 2000 to just this past June and paying almost two million in fines. The company also admitted responsibility for tax fraud in 2009. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has called for an investigation into the awarding of the contracts to Fisher. "Fisher could potentially have been debarred from bidding on any federal contracts. But they weren't," Thompson says. "The president made no bones about his support for Fisher. And-- guess what? Fisher got the contract. It speaks for itself." An investigation into Fisher Sand and Gravel by the Department of Defense Inspector General is ongoing

Nigerian air travel could shut as unions pledge to join strike

By Camillus Eboh

© Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde FILE PHOTO: A passenger wearing a face mask pushes a trolley outside the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's airports could shut down on Monday as four key unions said they would join an indefinite nationwide strike to protest an increase in power and petrol prices.

A Thursday statement issued by four unions representing pilots, engineers and other aviation professionals said they are "in full support" of a strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress, which represents millions of workers across most sectors of Africa's biggest economy.

"All workers in the aviation sector are hereby directed to withdraw their services at all aerodromes nationwide as from 00hrs of 28th September," the unions said in a statement seen by Reuters.

The signatories included National Union of Air Transport Employees, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers, the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Aviation said negotiations are happening at a high level; union leaders met yesterday with the Labour, Petroleum and Power ministries at the presidential villa, but reached no consensus.

Nigeria's government removed pump-price controls on petrol earlier this month, and roughly doubled power tariffs in an aim to shore up a budget battered by a fall in oil prices and an economic contraction brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Petrol subsidies drained billions from government coffers, while experts said artificially low tariffs were holding back much-needed investment in the nation's dilapidated power sector.

International lenders such as the World Bank have pressed Nigeria to make the reforms to qualify for budget support loans.

But the unions said the increases were poorly timed due to the economic hardship created by the pandemic, with high inflation and a recession looming after the economy contracted in the second quarter.

Union leaders previously said a reversal of the price hikes would avert the strike.

(Reporting By Camillus Eboh, writing by Libby George; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

Executives caught bragging of cozy government relationships as they sought approvals for controversial Alaskan gold mine


By Bill Weir, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent 

© Bill Weir/CNN Tom Collier, photographed when he was CEO of the Pebble Partnership, has worked with Republicans and Democrats.

For mining executives dreaming of a mountain of gold, they could go down as the Zoom calls that cost billions of dollars.


But for the Alaskan tribes, anglers and nature lovers trying to stop them, it could be the sting that finally ends the long battle over Pebble Mine.

Top executives hoping to blast open North America's largest gold and copper mine were secretly recorded describing in detail their cozy influence over US lawmakers and regulators. They also revealed their intentions to go far beyond what they were saying on applications for federal permits to work near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska -- one of the last great wild salmon habitats left on Earth.

"I mean we can talk to the chief of staff of the White House any time we want, but you want to be careful with all this because it's all recorded," said Ron Thiessen, CEO of Northern Dynasty Minerals, of official communications to the White House, as he himself was recorded unknowingly. "You don't want to be seen to be trying to exercise undue influence."

The "Pebble Tapes" were recorded by activists from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency posing as Chinese investors. In the calls from August and September, which were released this week, Thiessen and Tom Collier, CEO of American subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership, are heard boasting of the sway they hold, even as the project was hit by an unexpected permitting setback.

"The governor I count as a friend," Collier says of Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. "I did, in my home, the largest private fundraiser for the governor when he was running for office and it's not unusual for the governor to call me."

Thiessen also described how Pebble uses Dunleavy as a back channel to the White House to avoid public scrutiny. CNN revealed last December that Pebble coached Dunleavy on how to lobby the White House.

The new recordings also show the mining executives saying how friendly insiders at the Army Corps of Engineers help them game the complex permit process being led by the Corps.

"Typically, with the Army Corps of Engineers, if there's something that's going to be out of the ordinary, they try and get us that information as soon as possible," Thiessen said.

The conversations are so damning, Northern Dynasty apologized "to all Alaskans" while announcing the resignation of Collier, who would have earned a $12 million bonus if the mine was permitted.

The angry backlash from the officials named has also put the whole project in doubt just weeks before the Army Corps of Engineers was expected to issue its decision on whether to give the green light to begin construction.

"The individuals in those videos embellished their relationships with state and federal officials at all levels," a statement from Dunleavy's office read, while officials at the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency said the tapes do not accurately represent their interactions with Pebble executives.

© Bill Weir/CNN The mine plans include a port development that could impact the Alaskan environment, as in Katmai National Park, where these brown bears were photographed.

STARVING BROWN BEARS

But the harshest rebuttals come from Alaska's US senators, Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, portrayed on the tapes as political animals who secretly approve of Pebble Mine but can't say so.

"Senator Murkowski, she's very political," Thiessen says in one tape. "She in her heart wants the project to go ahead. She will say things that appeal to sometimes people's emotions but that won't do any damage to the project overall."

Collier also claimed both senators "are just sort of sitting over in a corner and being quiet," embarrassed by their confusion over last month's letter from the Corps of Engineers, which cast the mine in doubt. 

© Liz Lynch/Getty Images Sen. Lisa Murkowski, pictured on Capitol Hill this week, called for a permit for Pebble to be denied.

"Let me be clear: I did not misunderstand the Army Corps' recent announcement," Murkowski said in a statement. "I am not 'embarrassed' by my statement on it, and I will not be 'quiet in the corner.' I am dead set on a high bar for large-scale resource development in the Bristol Bay watershed. The reality of this situation is the Pebble project has not met that bar and a permit cannot be issued to it."

Robin Samuelson, a longtime commercial fisherman opposed to the development, said the tapes reminded him of the Mob.

"It sounds like John Gotti and Al Capone talking, to me," he said. "All of us are being lied to."

And he had a message for Murkowski and Sullivan: "I'm imploring our senators to get out of the damn corner you're sitting in and show us some action."

Since the rich deposit of copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum was discovered in the late 1980s, Northern Dynasty and various partners have spent nearly 20 years and a billion dollars trying to get a federal permit. Their plans include new roads, docks, pipelines and lakes of acidic "tailings" waste on land prone to earthquakes, all in the middle of a delicate ecosystem that opponents believe is too close for comfort to the spawning streams of Bristol Bay.

In courtrooms and on airwaves, Pebble has fought a strange-bedfellows coalition that includes the Sierra Club, local tribes, scientists and Republican anglers like Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Under President Barack Obama, the EPA invoked the Clean Water Act to all but kill the project, but Pebble Mine came back to life under Trump as Northern Dynasty agreed to eliminate the use of cyanide, shrink the footprint of the mine and only operate it for 20 years. But the Pebble Tapes reveal their plans to expand the mine for close to two centuries while developing several other new mines in the region.

"The Clean Water Act, it says that the Army Corps of Engineers 'will issue a permit based on the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative,'" Thiessen says in one of the conversations. "So I mean, you may still cause a lot of environmental damage but if it's the least damaging alternative, you get your permit."

© Bill Weir/CNN A core sample from the proposed Pebble Mine is mounted in the company offices above a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, a defender of the natural world.

The tapes also reveal a rare glimpse of the political shapeshifting used to gain advantage. Collier was a former chief of staff to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt under President Bill Clinton and the now-former Pebble CEO often used those credentials with environmentalists while becoming, "a well-known Republican fundraiser" in Alaska.

"Now, having said that, it's entirely possible that we may have Biden as a president, and if we do, I'm gonna brush off my Democratic credentials and start using them a little more actively than I do," Collier added.

"Everybody that's been listening to the Pebble debate for 10 years thinks I'm lying," Collier told CNN in 2018. "But I've got an ace up my sleeve and it is this permitting process. It is the truth-testing process. I'm if we're not telling the truth, we don't get a permit."

This time, Collier refused CNN's request for comment but a spokesman told the Washington Post, "He regrets the way he conveyed the influence and importance" of Alaska's senators.

© CNN Bristol Bay, one of the world's last pristine salmon spawning grounds, supports the local fishing industry.

© Shealah Craighead/White House Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, here with President Trump aboard Air Force One, was used as a go-between with the White House, the mine executives said.

Designer Bora Aksu presents pandemic-inspired collection at London Fashion Week


By Sarah Mills
2020-09-18

© Reuters/HENRY NICHOLLS Models prepare backstage of the Bora Aksu catwalk show at London Fashion Week 2020, in London

By Sarah Mills

LONDON (Reuters) - Turkish designer Bora Aksu said the coronavirus pandemic inspired his latest collection, which looks back over one hundred years to the Spanish flu pandemic and the end of World War One.

COVID-19 meant that Aksu's fashion show on Friday was one of only four taking place at London Fashion Week, according to the British Fashion Council, compared with the 46 shows that took place at the event last September.

The designer said that after such an isolating period earlier in the year due to the pandemic, he felt that not having a traditional show would have been "cutting off that human touch, I really couldn't do it."

He said of the pandemic: "It has so kind of affected all our lives and the way we operate and work that I could not take myself out of it."

It made him think of the 1918 flu pandemic and the accompanying time of mourning at the end of the war, and the much more optimistic period that followed.

The floaty white dresses with long socks and white boots reflected the minimal dressing of the nurses who treated the war wounded and those suffering from flu, he said.

Parading in London's autumn sunshine, models, wearing sheer face veils, also showed off tiered dresses in pastel shades of pink and blue, and dark purples, with prints and lace.

"The collections and the fashion actually should reflect the times that we be going through," Aksu told Reuters.

He said he wanted to send a message of hope by reminding people that after World War One and the Spanish flu pandemic, good times followed for many in the early 1920s.

(Reporting by Sarah Mills, Writing by Sarah Young; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Watch as 'huge UFO-shaped drone' shoots a green laser beam into the Milton Keynes sky

A green laser beaming into the Milton Keynes sky was caught on camera last night (Thursday, September 24) with some people comparing it to a UFO incident.


By Logan MacLeod
Friday, 25th September 2020

The laser was reportedly active in the Kingston area of the town at around 10pm. It is unknown who or what was responsible for it as of yet, but some people have given their version of events.

Tom Marvin, from Broughton, captured the incident on video. He said: "It first caught our attention as the beam shone through our bedroom window and it was really bright. My first thought was that it was a search light from a police helicopter but, after seeing the light shine as high into the sky as we could see, we knew it wasn’t.

"When we looked again we thought it was a huge UFO-shaped drone going up and down through the beam. This drone let off another beam which was shining in all different directions."

The laser shot up into the sky. Photo: Tom Marvin

Westley Gilbert, from Brooklands, said he saw news about the laser on Facebook and had to go and check it out for himself.

He said: "When I went into the garden to look I realised this was no ordinary laser, so I decided to get in the car and see where it took me. It was coming from a factory in the industrial estate in Kingston. I got out of my car to have a look and couldn't believe how big this beam was, shooting straight up into the sky.

"I started filming, and then this massive drone took off. I started following the laser up into the sky, it got halfway up and started shooting lasers all over the sky. It was truly amazing."

After some research, Westley believes it was a laser test carried out by a tech company based in the Midlands.

The green laser beam last night. Photo: MK Future

The Open University has said it was not involved, despite reports.

Milton Keynes Council has been contacted for comment.

The laser was reportedly in action at around 10pm. Photo: Tom Marvin

Japan is now tracking and investigating UFOs
By Austin Williams

TOKYO - Local Japanese news agencies reported earlier in September that Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono has requested the Self-Defense Forces follow new protocols regarding possible interactions or sightings of unidentified flying objects which might pose a threat national security.

In a statement obtained by Japan Times, Kono ordered members of the military beginning Monday, Sept. 14, to record, photograph and investigate any unknown objects that mysteriously enter Japanese airspace.

Orders include implementing “necessary analysis” of such sightings, including sightings by the public, according to Japan Times.

The outlet reported that in 2018, the Japanese government publicly stated its position on UFOs, saying, “No confirmation has been made of their existence.”

Kono’s September announcement came after an April press briefing by the Japanese Ministry of Defense, which announced that it would implement guidelines to track and investigate UFO sightings.

The decision followed the release and declassification of videos by the United States which show an encounters between UFOs and U.S. Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015.

Photo of UFO captured by U.S. Navy pilot.

After the release of the videos, reports surfaced of a top-secret Pentagon program conducting classified briefings for over a decade, analyzing various encounters between military craft and unidentified aerial vehicles.

In July, the Pentagon stated that the program was disbanded, but a Senate committee report from June revealed spending on a program called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) Task Force.

RELATED: ‘Not made on this earth’: Top-secret Pentagon UFO task force reportedly expected to reveal some findings

During a September press briefing, Kono said he has been in talks with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on UFO sightings in Guam.

An Aug. 29 news release by the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the meeting between Esper and Kono in Guam, a meeting that was meant to discuss “views on their shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Astrophysicist and former consultant for the UFO program since 2007, Eric W. Davis, told the New York Times in July that he gave a classified briefing to the Defense Department agency as early as March regarding “off-world vehicles not made on this earth.”

In September, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that three UFO videos that were released by former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge and published by The New York Times were of real "unidentified" objects.

“The Navy considers the phenomena contained/depicted in those three videos as unidentified," Navy spokesman Joseph Gradisher told The Black Vault, a website dedicated to declassified government documents.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.

'No I hadn't been drinking': Fuzzy yellow 'UFO' hangs in sky for 10 minutes before vanishing

The strange object was lingering over Redmashall village

The strange object seen in the sky (Image: Paul Davies)

A puzzling fuzzy bright yellow circle was spotted hovering in the sky this week - before suddenly vanishing.

Paul Davies saw the "UFO" over Redmarshall, near Stockton, on Wednesday night, before it "just disappeared".

He whipped out his phone and snapped some blurry photos of the strange object in the distance before sharing the unusual sight with Teesside Live.

He said: "So I saw a UFO Wednesday, it was bright yellow circle with bright yellow lines coming out of it, symmetrical all the way around and it just hung there in the sky for about 10 minutes.

"Then it just disappeared!

"It photographed totally different to the naked eye - and no I hadn’t been drinking."

COMMENT
SC
Slow Clap For Boris2 HRS AGO
It wouldn't be a UFO photo if it wasn't blurred!

Breonna Taylor: A woman killed. An officer shot. And no one legally responsible

David A Fahrenthold Sep 25 2020





Two police officers were shot in Louisville, Kentucky, amid protests after a grand jury brought no charges of homicide against police for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.

ANALYSIS: In the early hours of March 13, police broke down the door to an apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Three men – one inside the apartment and two officers trying to get in – fired guns. A police officer was wounded. Breonna Taylor, an unarmed bystander who lived in the apartment, was killed.

And none of the three men who fired has been charged with a crime.

Legal experts say the Taylor case reveals an unresolved conflict in US law. A police tactic meant to keep officers safer – raiding homes late at night, giving occupants little or no warning – can conflict with “castle doctrine” laws meant to keep homeowners safe by giving them leeway to use deadly force against intruders.

In this case, Taylor's boyfriend saw the police and thought they were intruders. He says he fired in self-defence. The police fired back, in self-defence against his self-defence.


Cries of 'Breonna Taylor!' from coast to coast

Activists chanted Taylor's name on the streets of Louisville, New York City, Pittsburgh and Oakland, after a grand jury declined to charge police officers for her death

The result, as in other cases, was a tragedy that the law didn't prevent and won't punish.

“There's a gunfight, but no one is criminally responsible,” said Michael Mannheimer, a law professor at Northern Kentucky University. “As unfortunate and as strange as that sounds.”

On Wednesday (local time), the announcement that the officers who shot Taylor would not face charges set off demonstrations around the country.

In Louisville, two police officers were shot on Wednesday night. One officer was struck in the hip and was treated and released from the hospital on Thursday. The other was in stable condition with an injury to the abdomen. Police arrested a suspect but declined to comment about the motive for the shootings.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, posted an illustration of her daughter on Instagram and wrote in the caption “#ThesystemfailedBreonna”.

DARRON CUMMINGS/AP
People gather in Jefferson Square in Louisville, Kentucky.

Legal experts said the failures that led to Taylor's death appear to have begun long before the police officers arrived at her apartment. They said a major cause was the Louisville police's decision to seek a “no-knock” search warrant for Taylor's apartment, allowing them to enter without announcing themselves as police.

To justify the “no-knock” warrant, police had told a judge that they were investigating Taylor's ex-boyfriend for drug trafficking and that they thought the ex-boyfriend was receiving packages of drugs at her home. They said they needed to enter without knocking because “these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence”, according to a copy of the application for the search warrant.

The warrant was approved.

That night, the three officers in plain clothes were sent to Taylor's apartment. Daniel Cameron, a Republican, Kentucky's attorney general, said that although the warrant allowed them to enter without warning, the officers actually did knock and announce themselves as police.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
Police and protesters clash in Louisville on Wednesday.

But Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, has said he didn't hear that. He said he heard only knocking, and then the door being broken down. He had a registered handgun and fired it once at the intruders.

Even after they fired back – missing Walker but striking Taylor, who was standing nearby – Walker said he did not know they were the police.

“I don't know what is happening,” Walker said in a call he made to 911. “Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”

Walker's one shot hit police sergeant Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh and pierced his femoral artery, but the officer narrowly missed a fatal injury. Walker was charged with attempted murder and assault, but prosecutors dropped those charges in May.

Under Kentucky's version of the castle doctrine – a home-defence provision common in many states – residents are allowed to use defensive force against someone “forcibly entering” a dwelling. These laws, which have their origins in English common law, are distinct from “stand your ground” laws, which govern how people may respond to perceived threats in public places outside the home.

JOHN MINCHILLO/AP
Police stand at an intersection in Louisville after an officer was shot on Wednesday.

Kentucky's castle-doctrine statute doesn't allow for the use of force against police. But Walker said he didn't know he was facing the police, according to Louisville prosecutor Thomas Wine, a Democrat.

“It certainly does create a problem,” Wine said in May when asked about the conflict between no-knock warrants and castle-doctrine laws.

“What separated these two parties was a door,” Wine said, meaning Walker and the police. “And it's very possible that there was no criminal activity on either side of that door because people couldn't hear what the other party was saying.”

Cameron, the state attorney general, investigated the actions of the three officers at the scene that night – Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison. He said that Mattingly and Cosgrove had fired in response to Walker's first shot and that their bullets struck Taylor. Cameron said the two together fired 22 shots, but it was unclear which of the officers had fired the shot that killed Taylor.

Once Walker fired, the two officers were justified in firing back, Cameron said.

“According to Kentucky law, the use of force by Mattingly and Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves. This justification bars us from pursuing criminal charges in Ms. Breonna Taylor's death,” Cameron said at a news conference on Wednesday.

“This is a tragedy,” Cameron said. “And sometimes the criminal law is not adequate to respond to a tragedy.”

JOSHUA LOTT/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A mural of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.

Hankison, who was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department earlier this year, was outside the apartment when the firing began. He fired 10 times, through a window and a sliding-glass door, Cameron said. None of his bullets appear to have hit Taylor, Cameron said.

Hankison was the only one of the three officers charged with a crime: He faces three counts of “wanton endangerment” because some of his shots passed through a wall and entered a neighbouring, occupied apartment. None of the three people in that apartment were injured, Cameron said.

After Taylor's death, Louisville banned no-knock warrants and passed a law requiring police to wear body cameras while serving warrants.

Taylor's death is one of a string of cases where gunfire occurred during the execution of “no-knock” warrants. In Houston last year, two people were killed and five police officers injured during a no-knock raid on a home. No drugs were found, and police said that the search warrant had been based on false information provided by an officer.

Many police chiefs have begun to recognise the dangerous conflict that exists between castle-doctrine laws and no-knock warrants – and to sharply reduce the use of those warrants, said Chuck Wexler of the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum. Except in extreme circumstances, officers have other options, Wexler said. For one, they could simply wait for their subject to leave the house.

“Police chiefs are asking themselves, 'Is it worth it?' And the answer is no,” Wexler said. “There's so much risk involved, and there's another way to accomplish the same thing.”

Congressman Al Green calls for end to systemic racism
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300116748/breonna-taylor-a-woman-killed-an-officer-shot-and-no-one-legally-responsible
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith speaks with Congressman Al Green to get his thoughts on the charging decision related to the Breonna Taylor case.

The Washington Post

Brazil women's surfer Maya Gabeira breaks world record for biggest wave

Sep 24 2020

RED BULL Brazil big wave surfer Maya Gabeira.

Brazil surfer Maya Gabeira has extended her women’s world record and beaten the men to win the award for the biggest wave ridden this year.

The wave measured 73.5 feet and was ridden at the Praia do Norte in Nazaré, Portugal, on February 11.

NEW RECORD: Largest wave surfed - unlimited (female) - 73.5 foot (22.4 metres). Congratulations to Brazil's Maya Gabeira 🌊🏄🏻‍♀️
🎥 @wsl / Pedro Miranda pic.twitter.com/I71oqKYadS— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) September 10, 2020

It was officially ratified scientifically for the Guinness World Records by wave engineers and scientists with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Southern California Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.

It was also acknowledged at the World Surf League’s annual big wave awards this month.

Importantly, it also edged the 70-foot effort by top men’s big wave rider Kai Lenny of Hawaii for the overall WSL award.

“Although I say I'm not a competitive person, I was very in the zone and braver than I usually am on this day," Gabeira, 33, said of the tow-in ride that earned her the double honour.

"I was risking more than I usually like to do. When I let go of the rope, I had a feeling it could be the one but wasn't sure. The speed was very high but the noise that the wave made when it broke made me realise that this was probably the biggest wave I'd ever ridden.

"This world record really strikes me as quite amazing because the size of the wave was measured taller than the men's size for the winner, so it means a woman actually rode the biggest wave of the year overall.

"That was something I had dreamed of years ago but not as something realistic. There was no representation for me to believe that it was possible but to see that happen is incredible. This is seen as an extremely male-dominated sport, so to have a woman be able to represent that is quite rare."

Gabeira has had to overcome her demons and some criticism from male surfers to regain her place in the top echelon of big wave surfing.

In 2013, Gabeira wiped out on a 50-foot wave at the same location. After being held under water for an alarming amount of time, she surfaced to grab a tow-rope from a rescuer on a jet ski. But she was dragged to the beach face down and there were fears for her life when she reached shore.

RED BULL
Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira has a long history with the dangerous Nazare wave in Portugal.

She needed CPR to recover and the wipeout had also snapped her right fibula and herniated a disk in her lower back.

She needed three back surgeries to get over the injury that sidelined her for several years, costing her valuable sponsorships.

Her Hawaiian rival Paige Alms was stoked to see Gabeira edge the men for the award.

“I think it’s really important for the next generation of girls growing up to see women accomplishing these things,” Alms, 32, told the New York Times.

“You can only really dream as big as what you can see.”

Alms noted the disparities between the men and women in this dangerous category of surfing.

“Of the top 10 big wave women in the world, there’s three getting paid,” Alms said.

“The top 10 male big wave surfers own homes, travel year-round and bring their families with them.”

Three workers accused of creating man cave under New York's iconic train station Grand Central Terminal
 Sep 25 2020

AP
The "man cave" under Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Three railroad workers have been suspended for turning a storage room under New York's Grand Central Terminal into an unauthorised “man cave” with a television, a refrigerator, a microwave and a futon couch, officials say.

A Metropolitan Transportation Authority investigation found that managers at Metro-North Railroad were unaware of the hideaway beneath Track 114.

"Many a New Yorker has fantasized about kicking back with a cold beer in a prime piece of Manhattan real estate – especially one this close to good transportation,” MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny said in a news release.

“But few would have the chutzpah to commandeer a secret room beneath Grand Central Terminal.”

Three Metro-North employees – a wireman, a carpenter foreman and an electrical foreman – were suspended without pay pending disciplinary hearings.

AP
Three railroad workers have been suspended for turning a storage room under New York's Grand Central Terminal into an unauthorised "man cave" with a television, a refrigerator, a microwave and a futon couch.

The investigation began after the MTA's office of the inspector general received an anonymous tip in February 2019 alleging that there was a “man cave” under Grand Central with “a couch and a flat screen TV” where three specific employees would “hang out and get drunk and party.”

Investigators found the room, which had wooden cabinets designed to conceal the TV and futon, according to the report.

Railroad officials said the space presented a fire hazard because rescue workers would have had difficulty accessing an unmapped room.



AP

Crowd boos as Trump pays respects to  ATTENDS late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg LAYING IN STATE

Kevin Freking 4:18, Sep 25 2020

THE FIRST WOMAN AND JEW TO BE SO HONOURED 

Trump booed while paying respects to late Justice Ginsburg

U.S. President Donald Trump was hit with cries of 'Vote him out' as he visited the U.S. Supreme Court, where the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose.

US President Donald Trump paid respects to late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday morning, just two days before he announces his nominee to replace her on the high court.

The US president and first lady Melania Trump – both wearing masks – stood silently at the top of the steps of the court and looked down at Ginsburg's flag-draped coffin, surrounded by white flowers.

The death of the liberal-leaning justice has sparked a controversy over the balance of the court just weeks before the November presidential election.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP
US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pay respects as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lies in repose at the Supreme Court building.

Trump has called Ginsburg an “amazing woman,” but some spectators were not happy that he came.

Moments after he arrived, booing could be heard from those holding about a block away from the building.

The spectators chanted “vote him out” as the president stood near the coffin.

ALEX BRANDON/AP
US President Donald Trump wants to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the November 3 election.

He walked back into the court as the chants grew louder.

As the motorcade returned to the White House, there were also chants of “Breonna Taylor" from some spectators standing on the sidewalk.

AP

ZEN AIRLINES 
'My spirits will be lifted': Japan embraces the flights to nowhere
Sep 25 2020
Qantas 'Flight to Nowhere' Sells out Within Minutes

The "flight to nowhere" in Australia sold out in ten minutes. People have been deprived of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scenic flight on the A380 was sold out (file photo).

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with the spread of the novel coronavirus causing a dive in the use of passenger planes, major airlines are focusing on "scenic flights," by utilising planes that are not in service.

In what seems to be a vain effort to make up for the loss of revenue caused by the drop in flights, the concept is gaining popularity and tickets are selling out.

The world's largest double-decker Airbus, the A380, which is also known as a "flying hotel," normally operates on flights to Hawaii. However, due to low demand, the Hawaii route is currently out of service and the plane has not been used.

In its second attempt following one in August, All Nippon Airways (ANA) flew the A380 on a 90-minute scenic flight over Mt. Fuji, Nagoya and Miyakejima island, then back to Narita, on the Sunday of the four-day weekend.

Both flights of about 350 seats, including economy class (from 14,000 yen or NZ$200) and first-class (50,000 yen or US$725) were sold out. A 39-year-old office worker from Wakayama City said, "I rarely have the opportunity to fly on the A380. Even with the coronavirus crisis, my spirits will be lifted."

Modern slavery rife in NZ and Pacific Islands, charity claims

Riley Kennedy of RNZ Aug 01 2020
MARTY SHARPE/STUFF

Stephen Vaughan from Immigration NZ, left, and Detective Inspector Mike Foster speak after Matamata's sentencing.

This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

One in 150 people are living in "modern slavery" in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands, according to a new report by a human rights charity.

The Walk Free report identifies cases of forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and forced marriage in the Pacific.

The report, Murky waters: A qualitative assessment of modern slavery in the Pacific region, said exploitation was fuelled by widespread poverty, migration, and the abuse of cultural practices.

Senior researcher Elise Gordon said they had conducted interviews with law enforcement officers, victim support workers, policy and advocacy stakeholders, and people in the education and training industry in New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu.


123RF
Walk Free, a human rights charity, says New Zealand isn’t doing enough to stop modern slavery.

"We have heard reports of signs of modern slavery among migrant workers in the construction industry, stemming from increasing foreign investment in Pacific Island communities," Gordon said.

"Also fishing, a major industry in the region, brings with it a poor track record as being notorious for forced labour and human trafficking for labour exploitation."

Modern slavery was likely to increase as climate change exacerbated poverty and migration, Gordon said.

The report was released in the same week the first person to be convicted of slavery in New Zealand was sent to jail.

It said only a third of 54 Commonwealth countries had criminalised forced marriage and 23 nations had failed to criminalise the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

New Zealand did not do enough to stop modern slavery through its supply chain, the report stated.

Walk Free director Grace Forrest said the introduction of a modern slavery Bill should be among the New Zealand government's top priorities after the election.

The Australian government passed a Modern Slavery Act last year.

Two die in Solomon Islands bomb blast

Sep 21 2020
MORNING REPORT/RNZ
Two people in Solomon Islands have died after being injured after what's thought to be a bomb from the Second World War blew up in the capital Honiara.

This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.

Two people in the Solomon Islands have died after suffering injuries from a bomb blast in Honiara.

Police said the two, an Australian and a British citizen, were working for a Norwegian aid agency conducting a survey on unexploded ordnance.

The agency has named them as Trent Lee and Stephen Atkinson.

Inspector Clifford Tunuki said police were working overnight to clear the site of the explosion, which took place in a residential area in west Honiara.

GOOGLE MAPS
Police worked overnight to clear the site of the explosion, which took place in a residential area in west Honiara in the Solomon Islands.

Investigators will try to determine why explosives were present at a block of residential flats, which also serve as the project office.

The project aims to locate unexploded bombs dating back to the Second World War.

Authorities save 88 whales from Australia's worst mass beaching

Rod McGuirk, Sep 24 2020




The enduring mystery of whale beaching

As rescuers try to free a pod of around 470 stranded whales off the Australian island of Tasmania, scientists puzzle over the cause of the mysterious phenomenon.

Authorities have rescued 88 pilot whales and are attempting to free 20 others that survived Australia’s worst mass stranding, as crews prepare to remove 380 decomposing carcasses from the shallows of Tasmania state, officials said Thursday.

Crews found the 20 whales that are still alive on the fourth day of the rescue operation, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Manager Nic Deka said.

“Whenever we've got live animals that have a chance and we have the resources, then we'll certainly give it a go,” Deka said.

Almost 500 whales were discovered on Monday and Wednesday beached on the shore and sand bars along the remote west coast of the island state near the town of Strahan.

As rescuers try to free a pod of around 470 stranded whales off the Australian island of Tasmania, scientists puzzle over the cause of the mysterious phenomenon.

The task of removing hundreds of tons of whale carcasses begins Friday and is likely to take days, Marine Conservation Programme wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said.

Methods under consideration include towing the carcasses or loading them on barges to take them out to sea to be dumped somewhere where they will not drift ashore or create navigational hazards.

Carlyon said rescue crews were working 12-hour days.

PATRICK GEE/AP
Authorities revised up the number of pilot whales rescued from Australia's worst-ever mass stranding from 50 to 70 on Thursday.

“Everyone’s tired, feeling the fatigue, long days," Carlyon said. “The emotional toll can be significant."

Why the whales ran aground is a mystery.

Theories include that the pod followed sick whales or made a navigational error.

PATRICK GEE/AP
Rescue workers make a survey from a boat as they check on stranded whales near Strahan, Australia.

Tasmania is the only part of Australia prone to mass strandings, although they occasionally occur on the Australian mainland.

Australia’s largest mass stranding had previously been 320 pilot whales near the Western Australia state town of Dunsborough in 1996.

Tasmania’s previous largest stranding involved 294 whales on the northwest coast in 1935.

PATRICK GEE/AP
Whale carcasses are scattered along the water's edge near Strahan, Australia.

AP

READ MORE:
* Race to save surviving whales in Tasmania after huge stranding
* Nearly 500 pilot whales stranded on Australia's coast, 380 have died
* Around 90 stranded pilot whales dead off Australia's Tasmanian coast

Covid-19: Leaders in Europe and Canada issue stark warnings as pandemic winter looms
Emily Rauhala  12:12, Sep 25 2020

Johnson calls for 'spirit of togetherness' to survive tough coronavirus winter

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged the country to "summon the discipline, and the resolve, and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through".

Brace yourselves. That's the message coming from leaders in Europe, Britain and Canada as autumn arrives, bringing with it crisp air and predictions of a dark pandemic winter.

Europe faces a "decisive moment." Britain is at a "perilous turning point." Canadians probably shouldn't gather for Thanksgiving next month.

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP
Leaders in Britain and Canada are issuing stark warnings as a Covid winter approaches .

Leaders are emphasising the risks ahead for countries heading into cooler months with case counts now growing again, not shrinking, and populations already fed up with pandemic restrictions.

They're highlighting the deadly seriousness of a disease that has killed nearly one million people worldwide in the first nine months of this year - and is expected to kill many more.


And they're offering a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, who has sought to downplay the severity of the US outbreak, which is the worst in the world.


Experts long predicted that a summer respite from strict coronavirus measures, plus the return to schools and offices, would lead to more cases come fall. Now fall is here and cases are rising - fast.

There's little doubt they'll climb further as the weather gets colder, activities move indoors and the cold and flu season hits. Leaders see a limited window to blunt the force of the next wave.

"It is only September," said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious-disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital. "If you live in the northern hemisphere, there is a long fall and winter ahead."

There isn't much mystery as to why cases are climbing - or why it's happening now. After a brutal spring, many countries relaxed coronavirus restrictions through June, July and August, allowing citizens some simple pleasures: Visits with family, a drink at the pub, even parties for some.

VICTORIA JONES/AP
Leaders in Europe and Canada see a limited window to blunt the force of the next wave.

Then, through late August and September children in many countries started returning to school, allowing more parents to return to offices.

It's clear that the return to semi-normalcy has exacted a cost. The fear is that community transmission will continue, leading to a surge in hospitalisations and deaths.

Top European officials have been issuing dire warnings about the wave of new cases engulfing many countries.

"We are at a decisive moment," Stella Kyriakides, the European Union's top official for health issues, said on Thursday.

"Everyone has to act decisively," she said. "It might be our last chance to prevent a repeat of last spring."

The World Health Organisation is delivering a similar message. Hans Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe, described the situation as "very serious".

Kluge told reporters last week that half of European countries had reported increases in cases of more than 10 per cent in the past two weeks. In seven countries, they'd doubled.

France is on high alert.

Prime Minister Jean Castex last week spoke of a "clear deterioration of the situation."

On Wednesday, the French health ministry imposed new restrictions to curb what epidemiologists are calling a "second wave" and to ease the load on hospitals. In certain urban areas, including Paris, group sizes will now be limited and bars will be required to stop serving after 10pm.

But the government has shied away from imposing another nationwide lockdown, after a strict shutdown from mid-March to mid-May.

In Britain, the mood has shifted from optimism to alarm.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was hopeful that some aspects of ordinary life would be "back to normal by Christmas" thanks in part to "Operation Moonshot," the government's plan to test 10 million Brits every day.

But on Monday, Patrick Vallance, the British government's chief scientific adviser, and Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said cases were doubling roughly every seven days. If that rates holds, they warned, there could be 50,000 per day by mid-October.

The next day, Johnson unveiled a package of new restrictions he said could be in place for six months.

JESSICA TAYLOR/AP
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled new restrictions this week.

In a televised address he explained the need: "As in Spain and France and many other countries, we have reached a perilous turning point."

Pubs and restaurants in England will now be required to close by 10pm. Masks will be mandatory for certain types of workers, including taxi drivers, retail workers and bar and restaurant staff.

"Now is the time for us all to summon the discipline and the resolve and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through," he said.

In Canada, where the weather is already turning, the situation is also worrying.

A spike in cases in the country's four largest provinces has reversed gains made during the late spring and early summer.

Public health officials say most of the new cases are concentrated in adults aged 20 to 39, but it's only a matter of time before the virus spreads to people at greater risk.

Hospitalisations, a lagging indicator of infections, are slowly climbing. Some testing centres in Ontario have been so overwhelmed that they have reached capacity and had to turn people away before even opening.

If the country continues on its current path, public health officials say, it will reach 5000 cases a day by late October - more than at the height of its spring wave.

As in Europe, officials so far have opted for smaller and more targeted localised restrictions, keen to avoid another widespread shutdown.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed that people needed to change their behaviour to avert a winter lockdown - and save the holiday season. Thanksgiving - October 12 in Canada - is likely a wash, he said in a nationally televised address on Wednesday. But depending on how Canadians respond now, they might "have a shot" at Christmas.

"The second wave isn't just starting," he said. "It's already underway."

The Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum in Riga, Latvia, Karla Adam in London, James McAuley in Paris and Amanda Coletta in Toronto contributed to this report.


The Washington Post

China, the world's top emitter, aims to go carbon-neutral by 2060
Sep 25 2020




Net zero by 2060: China’s bold new carbon emissions goal

As US President Donald Trump dismisses climate change, Chinese President Xi Jinping says China will aim to be carbon-neutral by 2060.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says his country will aim to stop adding to the global warming problem by 2060.

Xi's announcement during a speech on Tuesday (local time) to the UN General Assembly is a significant step for the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Calling for a “green revolution”, Xi said the coronavirus pandemic had shown the need to preserve the environment.

“Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature,” he said.


SAM MCNEIL/AP
Smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province.

Citing the Paris Agreement that he and former US President Barack Obama helped forge in 2015, Xi said his country would raise its emissions reduction targets with “vigorous policies and measures”.

“We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060,” he said.

The term “carbon neutrality” means releasing no additional CO2 into the atmosphere, though technically it allows countries to keep emitting if they ensure that an equal amount is captured again in some form.

The announcement was cheered by climate campaigners. Greenpeace executive director Jennifer Morgan called it “an important signal” that showed climate change is “top of agenda for China”.

“A big shift for curbing emissions and a significant step forward in international cooperation,” UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said.

MARY ALTAFFER/AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping remotely addresses the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

The goal will be a challenge for China, which relies heavily for its electricity on coal, one of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels.

China released the equivalent of 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, into the atmosphere in 2018, according to the Global Carbon Project that tracks emissions worldwide. That was almost twice as much as the United States and three times as much as the European Union.

Several other major emitters have set earlier deadlines, with the EU aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. Frans Timmermans, who leads the EU executive’s efforts on climate change, welcomed Xi’s announcement.

“We need decisive action from every country to keep temperatures under control, tackle climate change and keep our planet inhabitable,” he said.

The United States has so far not set such a goal. US President Donald Trump, who once described climate change as a hoax invented by China, has started the process of pulling the US out of the Paris accord.

If China fulfils Xi’s goal, it could prevent 0.2 to 0.4 degrees Celsius further warming for the world, according to “very rough estimates” by MIT management professor John Sterman, who models and tracks emission reductions and pledges with Climate Interactive.

EVAN VUCCI/AP
US President Donald Trump once described climate change as a hoax invented by China.

But much depends on how they do their emissions reduction and how soon they cut them, he said, adding he has to do a more thorough analysis.

“That’s a lot,” Sterman said. “China’s by far the world’s big emitter. They're emitting more than the EU and US together.’’

“It puts a lot more pressure on the United States,” Sterman said.

Perhaps even more important than the carbon neutrality pledge is the effort to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 instead of by 2030, Sterman said. Carbon dioxide’s more than 100-year lifetime in the air makes earlier emission cuts more effective than promises in the future, he said.

“Emissions that don’t happen between now and 2030 are going to reduce warming a lot more than the same emission reductions after 2060,” Sterman said.

However, pledges are not the same as actions. What’s needed is signs of action, such as eliminating plans to build new coal-fired power plants, cutting subsidies for coal power and getting off coal entirely, Sterman said. Coal is the biggest carbon dioxide emitter of power sources.

Twenty-nine nations before China have pledged to achieve climate neutrality in different years, according to the Carbon Neutrality Coalition.

With China, the 30 countries that have some kind of carbon neutrality pledges, account for about 43 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The largest polluting countries not on the list are the United States, India, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Australia.


AP