ONTARIO

Species unique to Manitoulin newly named to 'at risk' list


Three local species have been added to Ontario’s species at risk list by COSSARO, the independent Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario, that considers which plants and animals should be assessed as at risk in Ontario. A total of 15 species were added in the 2019-2020 report, which was released last month.

 Two lake whitefish sub-species from Como Lake (near Chapleau) were marked as extinct and the red-headed woodpecker was elevated from special concern to endangered. Two additional species were down listed from threatened.

Species at risk in Ontario are classified in one of four categories. A species is assessed as extirpated when it is locally extinct in one area but still lives somewhere else in the world. A species is endangered when it lives in the wild in Ontario but faces imminent extinction or extirpation. A threatened species is found living in the wild and while not endangered, is likely to become endangered if steps are not taken to address threats. Finally, a species is classified as special concern when it is not endangered or threatened but may become so due to a combination of biological traits and identified threats.

Seven species were added to the endangered list. These are shagreen, toothed globe snail, false foxglove sun moth, black ash, white rimmed single lichen, downy yellow false foxglove and Gillman’s goldenrod. Two other distinct lake whitefish sub-species (Opeongo Lake small bodied and Opeongo Lake large bodied) were added to the threatened list as were the Carolina mantleslug, hudonia godwit, smooth yellow false foxglove, fern leaved yellow false foxglove and hairy valeria. The red-tailed leafhopper was assessed as special concern. Spoon leaved moss was down listed from endangered to threatened and goldenseal was down listed from endangered to special concern.

Many of the species assessed are located in the Carolinian forest region of southern or southwestern Ontario but several have a unique connection with Manitoulin Island. Gillman’s goldenrod, for example, is endemic to the Great Lakes. The yellow flowered perennial is only found in open Great Lakes sand dunes with sparse vegetation and patches of bare sand, mostly on the shores of Lake Michigan and northern Lake Huron in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ontario. The plant only currently occurs in Ontario on Great Duck Island.

According to the COSSARO report, there once was a sub-population of Gillman’s goldenrod at Dean’s Bay on Manitoulin Island but it was extirpated before 2000.

Gillman’s goldenrod was also added to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) list in September 2020. COSEWIC is the federal panel that assesses species at risk of extinction. It was first created in 1977 and reports to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. COSEWIC is currently an independent advisory body designated under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA). Gillman’s goldenrod is listed as endangered under COSEWIC. “This perennial plant species is a Great Lakes endemic now found in Canada only on one island off the south shore of Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. The species is threatened by habitat disturbance caused by invasive plants.”

The red-tailed leafhopper is another species whose Ontario population occurs entirely on Manitoulin Island and adjacent islands. Because it feeds exclusively on prairie dropseed and cannot fly, the red-tailed leafhopper has limited habitat options. COSEWOC (2019) recognized two designated units (DU) for this species, one of which is the Manitoulin population, called the Great Lakes Plains DU. According to COSSARO, the Great Lakes Plains DU is “a relic population from a previous expansion of prairie habitat during the Hypisithermal period (5,000 to 8,000 years ago) and is currently known from 19 locations on Manitoulin and other Lake Huron islands. It is threatened by habitat loss from a variety of causes.”

The red-tailed leafhopper has been assessed by COSSARO as being of special concern, “based on the potential of decline of the small range caused by various threats, and Ontario’s conservation responsibility for the Great Lakes Plain population.” The status is consistent with COSEWIC (2019).

Black ash was assessed as endangered in Ontario based on projected declines in total numbers over the next 100 years or two generations. Not only is 53 percent of the Ontario range currently considered susceptible to the emerald ash borer, but 78 to nearly 100 percent of the Ontario range could be affected during that time period due to climate change. The COSSARO reports indicates a predicted mortality of black ash exceeding 90 percent in areas affected by the emerald ash borer.

Black ash is a medium-sized hardwood tree endemic to all of Ontario except the far north. It occurs in swamps, bogs and other wetland areas and has long been used by Indigenous peoples for basket making. The bark of the black ash was used to make baskets for berries.

The species is still relatively common throughout Ontario but there have been significant population declines in areas affected by the emerald ash borer. The species was assessed by COSEWIC (2018) as threatened; however, it is considered threatened in Ontario because of Ontario’s “significant conservation responsibility and the specie’s declining status in the broader biologically relevant range.”

Ontario’s conservation responsibility is deemed to be significant based on the fact that the species is globally at risk (IUCN 2017) and more than 25 percent of the global range is located in Ontario.

The red-headed woodpecker is native to eastern North America. In Ontario, it is mainly found south of the Canadian Shield, with the exception of a small population in the northwestern Ontario area of Rainy River. This woodpecker nests in cavities in standing dead trees and is mainly found in open deciduous forests across its range. A red-headed woodpecker population previously found on Manitoulin Island disappeared following pesticide use in the mid-twentieth century.

COSSARO submits a report to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in January of each year. The report includes the classification of each species assessed. The committee may submit a report classifying a species at any time in addition to the annual reporting requirement. Committee decisions are posted on COSSARO’s website following presentation to the ministry.

The ministry must amend the Species at Risk in Ontario (SARO) list regulation within 12 months of receipt of the report. Once the regulation has been changed the species is protected based on its classification.

Individuals may submit written information on a species being obsessed. The list of plants and animals that will be considered at COSSARO’s next meeting is available on its website (cossaroagency.ca) under Upcoming Species Assessments. The public is welcome to observe the species assessment discussions at COSSARO meetings and meetings do include an open session for presentations by interested stakeholders or members of the public on the species to be assessed.

Lori Thompson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor

#ENDFURFARMING
Holt Renfrew to stop selling animal fur and exotic skins by the end of the year

 Provided by The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Holt Renfrew says it will stop selling all animal fur and exotic skins by the end of the year.

The luxury retailer made the announcement as part of a series of sustainability promises.

Holts said it plans to stop selling cosmetic products that contain plastic glitter and made a commitment that its denim will come  from certified sustainable sources by the end of 2025

It also said materials across its business such as cotton, leather, down and feathers and plastic packaging will come from certified sustainable sources by the end of 2025.

The sustainability commitments also included targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions from its operations.

The announcement by Holts came the same day that luxury parka maker Canada Goose said it would using fur by the end of next year.

 This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2021.

The Canadian Press

#STOPHUNTINGPREDATORS

Rare gray wolf pack makes its home in northern California
Maanvi Singh 

A new gray wolf pack has established itself in northern California, retaking a part of the vast territory that the species used to inhabit.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Associated Press

The fledgling Beckwourth pack has set down roots in Plumas county, near the California-Nevada border, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) reported Wednesday. Its three members include LAS12F, a 2-year-old female wolf born in California, and two others. Wildlife officials are tracking and analyzing the feces of wolves in the region in an effort to identify the lineage of these wolves.

“Tracks of two wolves had been observed in the same general area in February,” CDFW said in a statement. “Field efforts are ongoing, and it is not yet known whether the pack is reproductive.”

Related: Family of bobcats found in ‘unusual’ California tree den

The Beckwourth pack is only the third to establish itself in California in the last century. These wolves join two other groups of gray wolves in California, heartening biologists and environmental activists who have decried the rollback of state and federal protections for wolves across the US west – undercutting their recovery after they were nearly hunted to extinction.

Earlier this year, two other young wolves forged an arduous, urine- and scat-scented trail into California. One young male, OR-93, made the longest tracked journey of any wolf over the last century – leaving his home range in Oregon, cutting through the spine of Sierra Nevada, over northern California lava beds all the way down to California’s central valley, and then west to the coast. “He’s the captain magnificent of wolf travelers,” said Amaroq Weiss, a biologist at the environmental not-for-profit Center for Biological Diversity.

© Photograph: Associated Press A young male gray wolf known as OR-93 made his trek into California from Oregon earlier this year.

“This may be the most concentrated numbers of wolves we’ve seen in California,” said Weiss. “It’s just incredible – the wolves have basically thumbed their nose at the feds by showing up here, and by continuing to show up here.”

In January, the Trump administration removed endangered species protections from grey wolves and in May, Idaho enacted a law allowing hunters to kill 90% of the state’s wolf population. Montana’s governor, who was cited for breaking state hunting regulations when he trapped and shot a wolf, signed a bill that reimburses wolf hunters for their expenses. And in South Dakota, wolves who wander into state lines have been classified as predatory animals that can be hunted and trapped.

© Provided by The Guardian Two pups follow a female gray wolf through Lassen national forest in 2017. Wolves remain on the endangered species list in California. Photograph: AP

In California, wolves remain listed as endangered under the state’s Endangered Species Act, and it is illegal to hunt to kill wolves. But their killing in nearby states – fueled by fears that growing wolf populations would attack livestock – has hindered the species’ efforts to breed and expand back into their historically vast territory across North America.

Researchers have found that killing gray wolves doesn’t protect cattle and can even backfire: killing one wolf who poses a threat to cattle can increase the odds that wolves will kill more cattle the next year. Biologists suspect that could be because wolf packs compensate for a death by reproducing more, birthing more pups that may feed on sheep and cows.

Moreover, a growing body of research has found that wolves – who generally fear and avoid humans – tend to stay away from people and farms, especially in areas with an abundance of wild prey. Aerial surveys have also found that the long-held belief that growing wolf populations would drive down populations of deer and elk isn’t reflected in reality, though the presence of wolves does tend to drive skittish prey deeper into the woods.

Wildlife biologists still don’t know what, exactly, compels some wolves to break away from their packs and undertake epic journeys across the country to find new territory. What they do know is that wolves follow the paw steps of these trailblazers: sniffing out the scent-markings of other wolves to find new mates and establish new packs.

“Wolves transcend whatever concept of beauty and wildness you might ever read in a book,” Weiss said. “When you see them in the wild – their grace, their power and their agility, both when they are chasing prey, and when they’re playing with each other – is just, holy smokes.”

“And that’s why we have to fight to protect them – for the sake of the whole public,” she said.

Serbian Roma girl band sings for women's empowerment

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Their songs are about “women chained” in abuse witnessed by generations, or teenage brides being forced into marriage by their fathers. And they tell women to seek love, fight back and stand up for their right to be equal with men.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A female Roma band in Serbia is using music to preach women's empowerment within their community, challenging some deeply rooted traditions and centuries-old male domination.

Formed in 2014, “Pretty Loud” symbolically seeks to give a louder voice to Roma girls, encourage education and steer them away from the widespread custom of early marriage. The band has gained popularity and international attention, performing last year at the Women of the World Festival in London.

“We want to stop the early marriages ... we want the girls themselves, and not their parents, to decide whether they want to marry or not,” said Silvia Sinani, one of the band members. “We want every woman to have the right to be heard, to have her dreams and to be able to fulfil them, to be equal,”

Sinani, 24, said the idea for an all-female band was born at education and artistic workshops run for Roma, or Gypsies, by a private foundation, Gypsy Roma Urban Balkan Beats. The girls initially danced in GRUBB's boys' band and then decided they wanted one of their own, she said.

“They (GRUBB) named us ‘Pretty Loud’ because they knew that women in Roma tradition are not really loud," she said.

The band's music, a combination of rap and traditional Roma folk beat, mainly targets a younger generation of girls who are yet to make their life choices — the band itself includes 14-year-old twin sisters. The songs tackle women's position in their community, and seek to boost their self-awareness.

The quest is essential in a community where early marriages are widespread — a UNICEF study published last year showed that over one-third of girls in Roma settlements in Serbia aged 15-19 are already married. Of them, 16% were married before they were 15.

Alarmed, Serbian authorities, too, have formed a state commission to try to reverse the trend.

“I am an example of early marriage,” said band member Zlata Ristic, 27, who gave birth to a baby boy at 16. “Nobody forced me into it but I have realized I should not have done it."

Now a single mother, Ristic said she wants other women in similar situations to know that their lives are not over once they have children, and that they can still pursue their dreams.

“My biggest reward is when 14-year-old girls write to me and say they want to become one of us, that they now attend school thanks to us, that they have improved their grades,” she said.

Among the most underprivileged ethnic communities in Serbia and Europe, the Roma largely live in segregated settlements on society's fringes, facing poverty, joblessness and prejudice.

Activists have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic has further fueled the social isolation of marginalized groups and increased their poverty. Disruptions of regular schooling due to the virus lockdowns have made it even harder for Roma children to stay in the system.

At the GRUBB center in Belgrade's Zemun district, several children could be seen working with young instructors in an improvised classroom. The girls from "Pretty Loud" teach at music and dance workshops run by GRUBB, which was established in Serbia in 2006.

Diana Ferhatovic, 18, first came to the center four years ago, initially seeking help with school lessons before joining the music program and finding her way into “Pretty Loud.” Their performance in London last March — just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting — was unforgettable, she said.

“I had a kind of positive jitters, we all did at first, the whole group,” Ferhatovic said. “Then we blew them off their feet.”

___

“One Good Thing” is a series that highlights individuals whose actions provide glimmers of joy in hard times — stories of people who find a way to make a difference, no matter how small. Read the collection of stories at https://apnews.com/hub/one-good-thing

___

This story was first published on June 22, 2021. It was updated on June 24, 2021, to correct the name of the festival the band appeared in. It was Women of the World, not Women of the Year.

Jovana Gec, The Associated Press

ASSASSINATION
Critic of Palestinian Authority dies after violent arrest


JERUSALEM (AP) — An outspoken critic of the Palestinian Authority who was a candidate in parliamentary elections called off earlier this year died after Palestinian security forces arrested him and beat him with batons on Thursday, his family said.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Nizar Banat was a harsh critic of the PA, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and had called on Western nations to cut off aid to it because of its authoritarianism and human rights violations. Earlier this week, another prominent activist was detained by the PA and held overnight after criticizing it on Facebook.

The crackdown on dissent comes as the internationally-backed PA faces a growing backlash from Palestinians who view it as corrupt and increasingly autocratic, a manifestation of a three-decade peace process that is nowhere close to delivering Palestinian independence. Hundreds took to the streets in protest after word spread of Banat's death.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was elected to a four-year term in 2005, has little to show after more than a decade of close security coordination with Israel. The 85-year-old leader has been powerless to stop the expansion of Jewish settlements, home demolitions, evictions in Jerusalem and deadly Israeli military raids, and was largely ignored during the recent unrest in Jerusalem and the 11-day Gaza war.

Western nations nevertheless view the PA as a key partner for rebuilding Gaza, which is ruled by the militant Hamas group, and eventually reviving the moribund peace process.

Mohammed Banat, a cousin who witnessed the arrest, said a group of men, some wearing masks, burst into the house where Nizar was staying and sprayed everyone with pepper spray.

“They beat Nizar with batons on his head and body,” he told The Associated Press. "They did not identify themselves and we did not recognize them. They arrested Nizar and disappeared.”

In a brief statement, the Hebron governorate said Nizar's “health deteriorated” when Palestinian forces went to arrest him early Thursday. It said he was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations called for an investigation, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced the formation of an investigative committee.

Dr. Samir Abu Zaarour, a forensic pathologist for the Independent Commission for Human Rights who attended the autopsy, said the death was “unnatural” and ruled out a heart attack or stroke. He said final results will only be available after further testing. Pictures of the body released by the family appear to show bruising on his head and legs.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah and tried to march to the PA's headquarters, chanting “The people want the downfall of the regime" and "Abbas, you are not one of us, take your dogs and leave.”


Palestinian security forces fired tear gas at the marchers and beat people with wooden batons.

Tahani Mustafa, an analyst at the Crisis Group, an international think thank, said there's been “increasing repression" since the PA was sidelined and widely derided during the Gaza war. “At this point the PA can’t really afford any level of criticism," she said.

She added that the international community, which has trained and equipped Palestinian security forces, “needs to take some responsibility” and push for accountability and change.

In early May, gunmen fired bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Nizar Banat's home near the West Bank city of Hebron, where his wife was inside with their children. He blamed the attack on Abbas' Fatah party, which dominates the security forces.

“The Europeans need to know that they are indirectly funding this organization,” he told The Associated Press in May in an interview at a house where he was hiding out. "They fire their guns into the air at Fatah celebrations, they fire their guns in the air when Fatah leaders fight each other and they fire their guns at people who oppose Fatah.”

The EU delegation to the Palestinians tweeted that it was “shocked and saddened" by Banat's death and called for a “full, independent, and transparent investigation." The U.N.'s Mideast envoy, Tor Wennesland, said the “perpetrators must be brought to justice.”

The U.S. State Department echoed those calls. In a statement, it expressed “serious concerns about Palestinian Authority restrictions on the exercise of freedom of expression by Palestinians and harassment of civil society activists and organizations.”

Earlier this week, Palestinian security forces detained a prominent activist and held him overnight after he took to Facebook to criticize the PA's arrest of another individual. Issa Amro is an outspoken critic of both Israel and the PA, and has been detained by both in the past.

“I feel that my life is in danger like Nizar Banat. I don't feel there is anyone who can protect me from attacks by outlaws affiliated with some security authorities," Amro said. “Unfortunately, there's a state of security chaos since the cancellation of the elections.”

A recent poll showed plummeting support for Abbas, who cancelled the first elections in 15 years in April when it looked like his fractured Fatah party would suffer another humiliating defeat to Hamas, which seized Gaza from Abbas' forces in 2007.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Abbas when he visited the region after the Gaza war last month, and the Biden administration is working to bolster the PA after relations fell to an all-time low under President Donald Trump.

The European Union has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in direct aid to the PA over the years. Earlier this week, it signed an agreement to provide $425 million in loans to the PA and Palestinian banks.

Mustafa, of the Crisis Group, said such initiatives will be “incredibly ineffective” unless the U.S. presses for political renewal that allows the Palestinians to choose their own leaders.

“Any pursuit toward the peace process will not be accepted by the majority of Palestinians if it’s being done on behalf of a small cluster of people that they do not see as being representative or acting in their own interest, which is what we are seeing now," she said.

Joseph Krauss, The Associated Press

Colombian guerrilla leader steps down due to illness
AFP 

The leader of the last active guerrilla group in Colombia, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, has announced his retirement due to ill health, eliciting an angry response from Bogota.

© HO Handout picture released on July 28, 2011 by the Ministry of Defense with Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista a.k.a. "Gabino" second from right. AFP PHOTO/Ministerio de Defensa Nacional/HO

Bautista, alias "Gabino," has been in command of the National Liberation Army (ELN) since 1998, having joined the rebels at age 14.

Now 71, Bautista announced his retirement from an undisclosed destination in Cuba in a statement dated May 1 but distributed by the ELN on Thursday.

He said he has been in Cuba since May 2018 under a humanitarian agreement between the two countries, and is receiving medical care there for an undisclosed ailment.

Reacting to the announcement, Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace Juan Camilo Restrepo, said it was not news of Bautista's resignation the world was awaiting, but "the ELN's renouncement of its criminal actions" which include recruiting minors, kidnappings, and planting anti-personnel mines.

In another statement, dated June 14 but also released Thursday, the ELN said Bautista would be replaced by Antonio Garcia.

Colombian President Ivan Duque ended negotiations in 2019 with the ELN, the only rebel force still active after a 2016 peace accord disarmed the last guerrillas of the FARC to end decades of civil war.

He called off talks after a car bomb attack claimed by the ELN killed 22 police cadets.

Duque wants Cuba to hand over ELN members who are on its soil.

Colombia is in the midst of its worst outbreak of violence since the 2016 peace deal that ended Latin America's most powerful insurgency, having claimed more than nine million victims between the dead, missing and displaced.

Armed groups, including dissident FARC members who turned their backs on the peace pact, continue fighting for territory and resources, including drug fields and smuggling routes.

lp/rd/mlr/dw

Colombia union leader vows bigger antigovernment protests if demands not met
By Luis Jaime Acosta 

© Reuters/STRINGER Demonstrations demanding government action continue, in Cali

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's antigovernment protests could grow in the second half of the year if neither the government nor Congress meet the economic and social demands driving them, a union leader said on Thursday.

Protests against the government of President Ivan Duque exploded at the end of April in opposition to a now-withdrawn tax reform. While largely peaceful, they have been marked by occasional violence and clashes between police and protesters.

Though the proposed tax bill was withdrawn, prompting the resignation of the then-finance minister, protesters' demands have expanded to include a basic income, opportunities for youth, and an end to police violence.

"(There will be) a great national strike in the second semester," Francisco Maltes, president of the Central Union of Workers (CUT), told Reuters in an interview. "It'll be of greater proportions because citizens have understood that it's through unity and peaceful mobilization that we can achieve changes in this country,"

Earlier this month Maltes and other protest leaders, who make up the national strike committee, suspended marches while they work on laws to present to Congress in the legislative period due to start on July 20.

"If neither the president nor Congress solve the needs of Colombians, of course the next national strike will be bigger, more powerful, and last longer than the strike that began on April 28," Maltes said.

While almost all road blockades that formed part of protests across Colombia have been lifted, demonstrations involving hundreds of protesters continue in the capital Bogota and other cities.

So far the attorney general's office has linked 24 deaths to the protests, with a further 11 under investigation. However, rights groups accuse security forces of killing dozens more protesters.

Protest leaders are open to restarting talks with the government if it signs a pre-agreement establishing guarantees for protests and withdraws a decree permitting militarization of cities, Maltes said.

The union leader rejected accusations protests have driven inflation and unemployment, as well as suggestions that marches are behind an increase in coronavirus infections and deaths, instead blaming the government for poor management of social and economic policies, as well as for a slow start to vaccinations.

Protests are not intended to topple the government, Maltes said, but rather to push for a solution to economic and social crises afflicting the majority of Colombians.

"We're talking about policy changes, not overthrowing the president," he said.

(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Bezos' 2021 Space Odyssey a risk too far for insurers

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn

© Reuters/CLODAGH KILCOYNE FILE PHOTO: Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Amazon Jeff Bezos unveils his space company Blue Origin's space exploration lunar lander rocket called Blue Moon during an unveiling event in Washington

(Reuters) - Launching one of the richest individuals on earth into orbit has proved a leap too far for insurers, who are not ready to price the risk of losing Jeff Bezos or his fellow space travelers.

Amazon CEO Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast, has been vying with Elon Musk and Richard Branson to become the first billionaire to fly beyond the earth's atmosphere.

And while insurers are well known for offering cover for even the most outlandish of risks, at a price, potential accidents in space are not yet among them.

"Space tourism involves significant risk, but is not an issue life insurers specifically ask about as yet because it is so rare for anyone to travel into space," Insurance Information Institute (III) spokesperson Michael Barry said.

There is a nearly $500 million market to insure satellites, rockets and unmanned space flight, but no legal requirement for an operator such as Blue Origin, which Bezos founded, to insure passengers for injury or death or for space tourists to have life cover, brokers and insurers said.

"We're not aware of a case where anybody is insured against passenger liability," Neil Stevens, senior vice president, aviation and space at Marsh, the world's biggest insurance broker, told Reuters.

Assuming they lift-off as planned next month, Bezos and the other wannabe astronauts on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft will not only spend several minutes 62 miles (100 km) above the earth in a truck-sized capsule, they also have to get back.

The only group that has regularly flown humans sub-orbitally since the 1960s is Branson's Virgin Galactic. All have been tests, with one failure in 2014 resulting in a death. Blue Origin has flown 15 unmanned sub-orbital flights with no failures, Seradata SpaceTrak data showed on June 10.

Bezos, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters on their insurance plans and flight records.

'DIFFERENT RISK PROFILES'

Being uninsured in space is nothing new.

NASA and the U.S., in general, do not buy liability cover, with government launches basically insured by taxpayers, Richard Parker of Assure Space, a unit of insurer AmTrust Financial that provides space insurance, said.

NASA astronauts are eligible for government life insurance programs, a NASA spokesperson said in an emailed response.

Charles Wetton, underwriting manager for space policies at insurer Global Aerospace, said astronauts on government-funded missions are carefully selected for their knowledge, skills and fitness and train for several years before blast off.

"They and their families understand the risks of the work they do, Wetton said.

But commercial space cadets may only get a few days of training for a sub-orbital flight or a few months for a ride to the International Space Station (ISS), Wetton said, adding: "These represent two very different risk profiles that insurers will take into account".

Blue Origin on its website says the spaceflight passenger will receive training the day before the launch, including mission and vehicle overviews, safety briefings, mission simulation and instruction on in-flight activities.

Virgin Galactic said participants will get three days of training and preparation before the launch.

Insurers expect iron clad waivers and contracts from commercial space travel firms, stating they will bear no burden if a passenger dies during a flight.

NASA has called for responses from the industry for its plans for a liability framework for privately-funded astronaut missions to the ISS. NASA's plans include requiring private astronauts to buy life insurance.

It is still early days, but cover for space tourists may be the next step, said Tim Rush, senior vice president, U.S. space, at insurance broker Gallagher, adding that the life insurance market currently provides individual cover of $2-5 million for private astronauts.

The only mandatory insurance in place for commercial space operators is third-party liability, mainly to cover property damage on earth or to a flying aircraft, said Akiko Hama, client executive, space and aerospace underwriting at Global Aerospace.

Blue Origin plans for its six-seater spacecraft to take off on July 20 and fly for four minutes beyond the boundary between the earth's atmosphere and outer space, where passengers will experience total weightlessness.

Safety record of orbital human space flights https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION/INSURANCE/xklpyawokpg/chart.png

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

A key question for how the sector develops is whether risks related to tourism fall under space or aviation insurance lines, insurers and brokers told Reuters.

The U.N. Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention of 1972 governs all activities in space and very few countries have a legal framework for commercial human spaceflight, they said.

The first-ever aviation insurance policy was written by Lloyd's of London in 1911. A few years later the market insured Charles Lindbergh and his single-engine plane for $18,000 on its non-stop flight from the United States to Europe.

Space trips are different, said Marsh's Stevens, because the passengers are returning to the same place as they left, making it technically a domestic trip to which international aviation insurance cannot be applied, meaning there will also be no limitation to liability.

"The aviation, aircraft insurance market, and the like, are less keen to take on risks that involve spacecraft," he said, adding that whether space tourism trips fall under aviation or space insurance is a "million dollar question".

While air travel is governed by rules that establish airline liability in the case of death of passengers, Stevens said he was unaware of plans for similar rules for space tourism.

However, Wetton said Global Aerospace had started to receive enquiries from companies for sub-orbital missions.

"In 10 years' time, maybe the two lines, aviation and spaceflight will look very similar," said Assure Space's Parker.

"Some legislative somewhere will say, look, we're now having average Joes flying on these launch vehicles and need to protect them," Parker added.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London; Graphic by Manojna Maddipatla; Editing Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Alexander Smith)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BANK ROBBERY
Banks involved in Archegos meltdown face DOJ probe - Bloomberg Law

(Reuters) -U.S. investigators who focus on corporate collusion are examining how global banks handled multibillion-dollar trades with Bill Hwang's Archegos Capital Management, Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday.

© Reuters/Carlo Allegri FILE PHOTO: 888 7th Ave, a building that reportedly houses Archegos Capital is pictured in New York City

At least part of the probe is being handled by the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) antitrust division, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. (https://bit.ly/3dcAMed)

Archegos, a family office run by former Tiger Asia manager Hwang, defaulted on margin calls in March, leaving banks nursing heavy losses and sparking a fire sale of shares including ViacomCBS and Discovery Inc.

The blowup cost big global banks including Credit Suisse, Nomura Holdings, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank more than $10 billion in losses.

The banks declined to comment, while the DOJ did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Sohini Podder in Bengaluru, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall and Matt Scuffham in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Guggenheim will pay to settle SEC allegations it discouraged employees 

from reporting wrongdoing

egraffeo@businessinsider.com (Emily Graffeo)

© Andrew Kelly/Reuters Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Guggenheim violated whistleblower protections when its policies prohibited employees from reporting potential wrongdoing, the SEC said.

Guggenheim's employee manual required employees to contact the firm's internal legal department before contacting regulators.

The firm will pay a $208,912 fine to settle charges from the SEC.

The brokerage arm of Guggenheim Partners will pay a $208,912 fine to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission charge that the firm's policies discouraged employees from reporting potential wrongdoing, the US regulator said.

From at least 2016 to 2020, Guggenheim's Core Compliance Manual prohibited employees from initiating contact with any regulator, including the SEC, without prior approval from the firm's compliance or legal department. This was a violation of the SEC's whistleblower protection rules put in place by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

The SEC also found that in 2018 and 2019, Guggenheim's annual compliance training for employees contained similar language.

Guggenheim removed the language prohibiting employees from contacting officials after the SEC contacted the firm. Guggenheim also added language that affirmatively advised employees of their right to contact regulators without legal penalty.

Guggenheim did not admit or deny the SEC's allegations. Along with paying the fine, the firm has agreed to a cease-and-desist order and a censure.

The firm in an email to Bloomberg said: "We are pleased to resolve the matter. Guggenheim Securities has always sought to protect whistle-blower rights, and we note that the SEC acknowledged in this settlement that there was no evidence that Guggenheim Securities impeded whistle-blower communications, if any."

Read the original article on Business Insider

The Teamsters have a new mission: Unionize Amazon workers


NEW YORK (AP) — One of the nation's largest union is aiming to unionize Amazon workers.

Representatives from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that represents 1.4 million workers, voted on Thursday to make organizing Amazon workers a priority. That means it will create a division focused on Amazon and set aside money for the effort.

The Teamsters said that Amazon, the nation's second-largest private employer, is exploiting its employees by paying them low wages, pushing them to work at fast speeds and giving them no job security. It also said the company, which has been rapidly growing its delivery business, threatens the working standards it has created for workers at other freight and delivery companies, such as UPS.

“Amazon workers are calling for safer and better working conditions and with today’s resolution we are activating the full force of our union to support them," said Randy Korgan, the national director for Amazon at the Teamsters.

Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday.

So far, no effort to unionize Amazon has been successful in the company’s 26-year history, including a recent one at an Alabama warehouse where workers overwhelmingly voted against joining a union.

But Korgan said the Teamsters will try a different strategy. He wrote in a Salon article earlier this month that unionizing one facility at a time doesn’t work because companies like Amazon have the money and legal resources to kill unionizing efforts inside their facilities. Organizing Amazon workers, he wrote, will take “shop-floor militancy,” such as taking to city streets and holding warehouse strikes.

Amazon fought hard against the union push at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. At the time, Amazon said that it paid workers at least $15 an hour and offers them benefits, both things unions want. It hung anti-union signs throughout the warehouse and held mandatory meetings to convince workers why the union is a bad idea, according to one worker who testified at a Senate hearing. When the votes were counted in April, the majority rejected the union. The organizing there was led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents 100,000 workers at poultry plants and retailers, such as Macy’s and H&M.

The Teamsters said it is targeting workers in Amazon's delivery business, who drive vans or pack orders in warehouses. Amazon wants to deliver most of its packages itself and rely less on UPS and other carriers. It has opened packaging-sorting hubs at airports, built warehouses closer to shoppers' homes and bought jets to deliver orders faster.

Joseph Pisani , The Associated Press

AND GIVE EM BENEFITS
Biden whispers the quiet part out loud on the labor shortage: 'Pay them more!'

"This is the employees' bargaining chip now [Employers] are going to have to compete and start paying hard-working people a decent wage."

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck) 

 President Joe Biden. Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images

The solution to attracting workers is to simply "pay them more!" Biden whisper-shouted on Thursday.

Massive demand for workers gives Americans a new "bargaining chip" for earning higher pay, he added.

The comments come as businesses are hiking wages and offering incentives as they scramble to rehire.

The solution to the labor shortage is, according to President Joe Biden, as simple as a higher wage.

The president allayed a range of concerns around the economy during a Thursday press conference. Among them is the nationwide labor shortage, which has seen hiring slow despite millions of Americans still being unemployed. The shortage may be delaying a full labor-market recovery, but he told journalists at the White House there's an easy solution.

"I remember you were asking me ... 'Guess what? Employers can't find workers.' I said, 'Pay them more!'" the president said in his distinctive whisper-shout.

The refrain has been popular with Biden as businesses rush to attract workers. The president said in May that the accelerating rate of wage growth was a "feature" and "not a bug" of the post-pandemic economy. Increased competition between employers gives Americans more "dignity and respect in the workplace," he added.

"This is the employees' bargaining chip now," he said on Thursday. "[Employers] are going to have to compete and start paying hard-working people a decent wage."

The president also eased fears that recent bouts of stronger inflation would hinder the recovery. The Consumer Price Index - a popular gauge of broad inflation - rose 0.6% in May, beating the median estimate of a 0.4% gain. The reading marked the fastest rate of price growth since 2009, but Biden assured the overshoot would soon fade.

"The overwhelming consensus is it's going to pop up a little bit and then come back down," he said.

The president's comments were made during a press conference focused on the $1 trillion bipartisan deal for infrastructure spending that Biden had thrown his support behind earlier on Thursday. The plan includes funding for physical infrastructure like roads and bridges, as well as improved broadband access and public transit projects.

The package represents just half of the White House's economic plan, Biden said during the afternoon press conference. The other portion will focus on improving childcare, education, and clean energy projects. Both proposals will move through Congress "in tandem" and represent Biden's next steps for building a stronger economy.

"If it turns out that what I've done so far - what we've done so far - is a mistake, it's going to show," the president said. "If that happens, my policies didn't make a lot of sense. But I'm counting on it not."
Read the original article on Business Insider

Collapsed Miami condo had been sinking into Earth as early as the 1990s, researchers say

Gina Barton, Kyle Bagenstose, Pat Beall, Aleszu Bajak and Elizabeth Weise 

USA TODAY


A Florida high-rise that collapsed early Thursday was determined to be unstable a year ago, according to a researcher at Florida International University.

© Amy Beth Bennett, South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP Part of the 12-story oceanfront Champlain Towers South condo collapsed early June 24 in Surfside, Fla.

The building, which was constructed in 1981, has been sinking at an alarming rate since the 1990s, according to a study in 2020 by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment.

When Wdowinski saw the news that the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside collapsed, he instantly remembered it from the study, he said.

“I looked at it this morning and said, ‘Oh my god.’ We did detect that,” he said.

Graphics: Closer look at the Florida building that partially collapsed

Wdowinski said his research is not meant to suggest certainty about what caused the collapse. The building was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s and could have slowed or accelerated in the time since, he said.

In his experience, even the level of sinking observed in the 1990s typically results in impacts to buildings and their structures, Wdowinski said. He said that very well could have been the case for the Champlain building in the 1990s, based on his findings.

“It was a byproduct of analyzing the data. We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement,” Wdowinski said.

Daniel Dietch, who served as Surfside’s mayor from 2010 to 2020, warned against drawing conclusions too soon.

“This is an extraordinarily unusual event, and it is dangerous and counterproductive to speculate on its cause,” he said.

Workers sorted through the rubble Thursday afternoon. Officials said 35 people were rescued and confirmed at least one death, saying they expect the death toll to rise. At least 99 people remained unaccounted for.

According to Surfside Town Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer, “This was not an act of God. This was not a natural disaster. Buildings don't just fall.”
Water damage and cracks

The county requires commercial and multifamily buildings to be recertified every 40 years. The process involves electrical and structural inspections for a report to be filed with the town. It was underway for the condominium building but had not been completed, town officials said Thursday.

Salzhauer said no serious complaints about the building had been brought to the town’s attention.

"If a building had serious problems, we would certainly know about it," she said.

In 2015, a lawsuit alleged building management failed to maintain an outside wall, resulting in water damage and cracks. The owner who filed that suit had previously sued over the same issue, according to a court filing. The management company paid for damages in the earlier case, according to records.

Cracked walls or shifting foundations can be clues that sinking has affected the stability of a structure, according to Matthys Levy, a consulting engineer, professor at Columbia University and author of “Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail.”

Video: At least 1 dead, 51 unaccounted for after partial collapse of condo near Miami, officials say (The Independent)

Residents of the building might have noticed changes, he said.

“Had there been changes in the building? Cracks in the walls, in the floor? Floors not being level, things rolling off tables?” he said. That would indicate the building was shifting.

A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue person and a K-9 continue the search and rescue operations in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. It is unknown at this time how many people were injured as the search-and-rescue effort continues with rescue crews from across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.38 SLIDES © Joe Raedle, Getty Images

A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue person and a K-9 continue the search and rescue operations in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. It is unknown at this time how many people were injured as the search-and-rescue effort continues with rescue crews from across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The city needs to invest in technology that can determine which buildings are at risk of collapse due to geologic processes, said Keren Bolter, a Florida-based geoscientist at the engineering firm Arcadis who has advised the Federal Emergency Management Agency on hazard mitigation.

“It's very sad that people are forced to be reactive. We're constantly putting out fires. I think there's a systemic problem we have,” she said. "Investing in preventative measures instead of reactive responses saves lives, money and time.”

Satellites, drones and other means are used to monitor where Florida is sinking and understand which buildings might be at risk, according to Ryan Shamet, a professor of engineering at the University of North Florida. Those efforts vary by jurisdiction and depend on whether structures are privately or publicly owned, he said. Aside from the analysis at the time of construction, monitoring is generally not done proactively, he said.

”Structural health monitoring is already there,” Shamet said. “But it's hard because we don't have the resources yet to monitor every single structure. You kind of have to know if there's an issue first before you start monitoring it.”
Progressive collapse

There is always concern for structures built on reclaimed land, according to Levy.

Reclaimed land, whether landfill or wetlands, can compact over time, leading to shifts in the ground under the building and potentially to the foundation.

“A milliliter may seem like a small number, but when you add them up over many years, it becomes a big number,” Levy said.

The building could have been especially vulnerable if the ground it was situated on was sinking at different rates, causing differential settlement.

“The fact that one part of it is still standing is important. The portion that collapsed might have been tipping compared to the other portion, which may not have been sinking as fast. So you have an unequal situation, and in between, things begin to crack and tilt,” Levy said.

“There has to be some trigger that occurs. If you have two parts of a building and one part is well-founded and doesn’t move that much and the other is not, then between the two, you get movement. That can cause distortion in the floor slabs. They can begin to crack; suddenly, you get cracking, breaking and fracturing,” he said.

That leads to what’s known as progressive collapse, when one part fails, then another and another until the entire structure fails. That is what happened to the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks, he said.

“Buildings are not super strong; they’re not built to sustain an unusual event like this,” he said.

“If one part of the building fails, it drags the rest with it,” he said. “It just continues, you can’t stop. There’s nothing there to stop it, there’s no strong elements to hold it back. It’s a cascade.”

Impact of sea level rise and flooding

Over the past several years, Wdowinski and his team have researched which parts of the Miami area are sinking, primarily to identify where sea level rise and flooding could have the most impact. They obtained historical data from European satellites, which mapped the area by bouncing signals down to the ground and back to identify shifting elevations.

They published the results in April 2020.

© Joe Raedle, Getty Images A portion of the 12-story condo tower crumbled to the ground June 24 in Surfside, Fla.

The data, collected from 1993 to 1999, showed that most of the Miami area was not sinking appreciably, save for a few hot spots. Wdowinski said most of those occurred in the western part of Miami, where the elevation is lower. The level of sinking at the Champlain condo was unusual, he said.

Wdownski said he doesn’t believe anybody in the city or state government would have had a reason to be aware of the findings of the study. The bulk of it focused on potential flooding hazards, not engineering concerns. The study’s mention of the “12-story condominium” was relegated to a single line.

“We didn’t give it too much importance,” Wdowinski said.

The incident has made him think about the possibility of using such data to identify areas of potential structural risk, he said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Collapsed Miami condo had been sinking into Earth as early as the 1990s, researchers say

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/report-showed-major-damage-before.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/experts-get-1st-clues-on-what-may-have.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/06/third-world-usa-construction-corruption.html

THIS HAPPENED THREE DAY'S EARLIER

USS Gerald Ford shock trials register as 3.9 magnitude ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-gerald-ford-shock-trials-earthquake-florida

2:07

2021-06-21 · The blast registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. June 21, 2021 / 2:26 PM / CBS/AFP. The U.S. Navy has started a series of tests on its newest and most advanced aircraft carrier

US Navy detonates huge 40,000lb bomb next to its own aircraft carrier triggering earthquake 100 miles away in Florida

THE US Navy detonated a mammoth 40,000lb bomb next to its OWN aircraft carrier – triggering an …

The Sun · 3d

CONCRETE MAN
Meet Nesher Ramla Homo - new early human discovered at Israeli cement site
By Ari Rabinovitch 

REUTERS

JUNE 22, 2021

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD Nesher Ramla - pieces of fossilised bone of a previously unknown kind of early human discovered in Israel

TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Scientists said on Thursday they had discovered a new kind of early human after studying pieces of fossilised bone dug up at a site used by a cement plant in central Israel.

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD Nesher Ramla - pieces of fossilised bone of a previously unknown kind of early human discovered in Israel

The fragments of a skull and a lower jaw with teeth were about 130,000 years old and could force a rethink of parts of the human family tree, the researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said.

Nesher Ramla Homo - named after the place southeast of Tel Aviv where it was found - may have lived alongside our species, Homo sapiens, for more than 100,000 years, and may have even interbred, according to the findings.

The early humans, who had very large teeth and no chin, may have also been ancestors of the Neanderthals, the study added, challenging the current thinking that our evolutionary cousins originated in Europe.

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD Nesher Ramla - pieces of fossilised bone of a previously unknown kind of early human discovered in Israel

"The discovery of a new type of Homo is of great scientific importance," said Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University, one of the leaders of the team that analysed the remains.

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD Nesher Ramla - pieces of fossilised bone of a previously unknown kind of early human discovered in Israel

"It enables us to make new sense of previously found human fossils, add another piece to the puzzle of human evolution, and understand the migrations of humans in the old world."

Dr Yossi Zaidner of the Hebrew University found the fossils while exploring the mining area of the Nesher cement plant near the city of Ramla, the universities said in their statement.

TOOLS AND BONES

Excavators uncovered the bones about eight metres (25 feet) deep among stone tools and the bones of horses and deer.

The study said the Nesher Ramla resembled pre-Neanderthal groups in Europe.

"This is what makes us suggest that this Nesher Ramla group is actually a large group that started very early in time and are the source of the European Neanderthal," said Hila May, a physical anthropologist at the Dan David Center and the Shmunis Institute of Tel Aviv University

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD Nesher Ramla - pieces of fossilised bone of a previously unknown kind of early human discovered in Israel

Experts have never been able to fully explain how Homo sapiens genes were present in the earlier Neanderthal population in Europe, May said, and the Nesher Ramla may be the mystery group responsible.

The jaw bone had no chin and the skull was flat, she said. 3D shape analysis later ruled out relation to any other known group.

What they did match, May said, were a small number of enigmatic human fossils found elsewhere in Israel, dating back even earlier, that anthropologists had never been able to place.

"As a crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia, the Land of Israel served as a melting pot where different human populations mixed with one another, to later spread throughout the Old World," said Dr Rachel Sarig, from Tel Aviv University.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Fossil find adds to evidence of dinosaurs living in Arctic year-round

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Fossils from tiny baby dinosaurs discovered in northernmost Alaska offer strong evidence that the prehistoric creatures lived year-round in the Arctic and were likely warm-blooded, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The fossils are from at least seven types of dinosaurs just hatched or still in their eggs about 70 million years ago. Researchers have never found evidence of dinosaur nests so far north, said lead author Pat Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

The find helps upend past assumptions of dinosaurs as giant cold-blooded reptiles.

"If they reproduced, then they over-wintered there. If they overwintered there, they had to deal with conditions that we don't usually associate with dinosaurs, like freezing conditions and snow," Druckenmiller said.

To survive dark Arctic winters, those dinosaurs could not have basked in the sun to warm their bodies, as lizards do, he said.

"At least these groups had endothermy," he said, using the term for the ability of animals to warm their bodies through internal functions. "They had a degree of warm-bloodedness."

The discovery site is a steep bluff on the Colville River on Alaska's North Slope, at latitude 70 and about 250 miles (400 km) north of the Arctic Circle. In the Cretaceous period, when North America was positioned differently, it was even farther north, at latitude 80 or 85, Druckenmiller said.

The region was much warmer then than Alaska's North Slope is now but hardly tropical. From remnants of ancient plants, scientists calculate the average annual temperature at about 6 degrees Celsius (42.8 Fahrenheit) – similar to Juneau, Alaska – meaning below-freezing winters with snow, Druckenmiller said.

While Alaska's North Slope endures two months of total winter darkness now, during the Cretaceous period it was in total darkness for up to four months a year, he said.

Finding the tiny bones and teeth, some the size of a pinhead, was laborious, Druckenmiller said. They were identified through microscopic examination after being sifted out multiple times from sediments collected in expeditions stretching back decades, he said.

"I liken it to gold panning. It's a very slow process," he said.

The discovery site, called the Prince Creek Formation, has proved crucial to modern understanding of the ancient creatures.

The first dinosaur discovery was made there in the 1960s by a petroleum geologist. Subsequent expeditions found previously unknown dinosaur species. Over time, evidence of year-round Arctic occupation has mounted.

At the same formation, other scientists found a jawbone from a baby dromaeosaurid, detailed in a study published last year in the journal PLOS ONE. That meat-eating dinosaur would have been the size of a small puppy and incapable of long-distance migration, said co-author Tony Fiorillo, a Southern Methodist University paleontologist.

The new study about nesting dinosaurs strengthens the growing realization that dinosaurs lived full-time in the Arctic and thus could not be cold-blooded, Fiorillo said.

"This new study broadens the conversation about year-round dinosaurs in the Arctic. It didn't invent the conversation," he said.

(Reporting By Yereth Rosen in Anchorage; editing by Richard Pullin)

Alberta paleontologists find dramatic change in bite force as tyrannosaurs matured

Tyrannosaurs are well known as having been ferocious predators at the top of the food chain millions of years ago, but a study led by an Alberta-based researcher shows the reptiles didn't start out life that way.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

François Therrien, curator of dinosaur paleoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta., said the study focused on tyrannosaur teeth and their dramatic change as they matured.

He collaborated with Darla Zelenitsky and Jared Voris of the University of Calgary, as well as Kohei Tanaka of the University of Tsukuba in Japan.

For the study, published this week in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, the researchers examined the lower jaws from the Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus, types of tyrannosaurs commonly found in Canada that predated the T. rex by millions of years.

"Our fossil records for those two species of tyrannosaurs is excellent," Therrien said about the collection at the museum.

"We have so many specimens of those ... that represent a full growth series from very young individuals that were probably three or four years of age all the way to fully grown adults that were over 20 years of age."

By examining a wide range of fossils, the researchers were able to see a significant change in tooth size and jaw force once the tyrannosaurs reached about 11 years of age.

Feeding behaviour did not appear to change during the lifespan of the tyrannosaurs, because their jaws were adapted to capturing and seizing prey with their mouths, probably because the forelimbs were too short to grasp food, Therrien said.

"Tyrannosaurs were truly unique when you look at all the theropods," he said. "They were atypical ... because their bite and their skulls were their main weapon for killing prey."

But what did change, he said, is the size of their teeth and their bite force.

A tyrannosaur at about three years of age was still a deadly predator, but it had smaller blade-like teeth that could only slice through flesh. The bite force, Therrien added, was about 10 per cent that of a fully grown alligator.

That means younger tyrannosaurs ate smaller prey and had to compete with other like-sized predators such as the Velociraptor.

Once tyrannosaurs turned 11, Therrien explained, they went through a growth spurt in which their teeth became larger and wider. By the time the reptiles were fully grown, their bite force was eight times more than that of an alligator.

And that meant their diets also changed.

"These teeth were better adapted for resisting twisting stresses either associated with biting of big prey or even crushing bone."

Therrien said his study shows that young tyrannosaurs were distinct predators that occupied different ecological niches.

"Young tyrannosaurs were not just scaled-down versions of the mature parents," he said. "They were creatures that actually had their own lifestyles."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2021.

Daniela Germano, The Canadian Press

New renewable energy projects will be more cost-effective than coal: report

Nearly two-thirds of all wind and solar projects built globally last year could generate cheaper electricity than even the least expensive coal alternatives, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

© Photographer: Jeremy Suyker/Bloomberg ORG XMIT: 775664878 A construction worker passes between solar panels at the Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. solar park, on a brownfield site formerly occupied by an ArcelorMittal SA metals plant, during construction in Laudun L'Ardoise, France, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. 

EU member states will put more than 34 billion euros of stimulus into clean energy, including renewable power projects, grid upgrades, and renewable hydrogen deployment, according to recovery plans submitted to the European Commission.

Because of downward costs associated with wind farms and solar panels, the report states that 62 per cent of renewable energy projects could be more cost-effective than coal equivalents of up to 800 gigawatts, approximately enough to meet the U.K.’s electricity demand 10 times over.

“Today renewables are the cheapest source of power,” said Francesco La Camera the director-general of IRENA in a press release , “Renewables present countries tied to coal with an economically attractive phase-out agenda that ensures they meet growing energy demand, while saving costs, adding jobs, boosting growth and meeting climate ambition.”

IRENA’s cost analysis program has been collecting performance data of renewable energy technologies since 2012and simultaneously reporting on the costs of those technologies. Two key data sources were used to create the report, including the IRENA Renewable Cost Database and the IRENA Auctions and Power Purchase Agreement databases. The report analyzed approximately 20,000 renewable energy projects around the world and also data from 13,000 auctions and renewable power purchase agreements.


Last year solar prices fell by 16 per cent, according to the report, while the cost of onshore wind fell by 13 per cent and offshore wind by nine per cent during the same time period.

Video: International Energy Agency report states fossil fuel investment must end to reach climate goals (Global News)

In comparison, the price of a new coal plant in Europe would well exceed the cost of a wind or solar farm when mandatory carbon prices are included, according to the Guardian . In the U.S. renewable forms of energy could be between 75 and 91 per cent cheaper in comparison to existing coal-fired power plants and in India renewable energy sources would be 87 and 91 per cent cheaper than new coal plants.

Replacing active coal plants with unsubsidized renewable energy could also save $32.3 billion (39.74 billion CAD) annually in energy system costs, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by three gigatonnes, according to the report.

Carbon savings from phasing out 800GW of coal power, the report said, would have the equivalent of cutting the world’s energy-related emissions by nine per cent last year, or around 20 per cent of carbon savings required by 2030 to mitigate global heating by 1.5C over pre-industrial temperatures.

La Camera said the agency’s latest report provides evidence that the world is “far beyond the tipping point of coal,” partly because costs associated with solar power have fallen by more than 85 per cent between 2010-20, while onshore wind costs have fallen by 56 per cent and offshore wind by 48 per cent in that same time.

IRENA’s most recent report also predicts the trend of falling renewable energy prices to continue in the coming years. In the next two years alone, the report projects three-quarters of all novel solar power initiatives to be cheaper than their coal counterparts, while onshore wind costs will fall to be 20-27 per cent cheaper than the cheapest coal option.

“The trend confirms that low-cost renewables are not only the backbone of the electricity system, but that they will also enable electrification in end uses like transport, buildings and industry and unlock competitive indirect electrification with renewable hydrogen,” said the report.

Boom in Native American oil complicates Biden climate push

© Provided by The Canadian Press

NEW TOWN, N.D. (AP) — On oil well pads carved from the wheat fields around Lake Sakakawea, hundreds of pump jacks slowly bob to extract 100 million barrels of crude annually from a reservation shared by three Native American tribes.

About half their 16,000 members live on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation atop one of the biggest U.S. oil discoveries in decades, North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation.

The drilling rush has brought the tribes unimagined wealth -- more than $1.5 billion and counting -- and they hope it will last another 20 to 25 years. The boom also propelled an almost tenfold spike in oil production from Native American lands since 2009, federal data shows, complicating efforts by President Joe Biden to curb carbon emissions.

Burning of oil from tribal lands overseen by the U.S. government now produces greenhouse gases equivalent to about 12 million vehicles a year, according to an Associated Press analysis. But Biden exempted Native American lands from a suspension of new oil and gas leases on government-managed land in deference to tribes’ sovereign status.

A judge in Louisiana temporarily blocked the suspension June 15, but the administration continues to develop plans that could extend the ban or make leases more costly.

With tribal lands now producing more than 3% of U.S. oil and huge reserves untapped, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the first Native American to lead a U.S. cabinet-level agency — faces competing pressures to help a small number of tribes develop their fossil fuels while also addressing climate change that affects all Native communities.

“We’re one of the few tribes that have elected to develop our energy resources. That’s our right,” tribal Chairman Mark Fox told AP at the opening of a Fort Berthold museum and cultural center built with oil revenue. “We can develop those resources and do it responsibly so our children and grandchildren for the next 100 years have somewhere to live.”

Smallpox nearly wiped out the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes in the mid-1800s. They lost most of their territory to broken treaties — and a century later, their best remaining lands along the Missouri River were flooded when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created Lake Sakakawea. With dozens of villages uprooted, many people moved to a replacement community above the lake — New Town.

Today, leaders of the three tribes view oil as their salvation and want to keep drilling before it's depleted and the world moves past fossil fuels.

And they want the Biden administration to speed up drilling permits and fend off efforts to shut down a pipeline carrying most reservation oil to refineries.

PIPELINE FIGHT

Yet tribes left out of the drilling boom have become outspoken against fossil fuels as climate change worsens. One is the Standing Rock Sioux about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south.

Home to the Dakota and Lakota nations, Standing Rock gained prominence during a months-long standoff between law enforcement and protesters, including tribal officials, who tried to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline that carries Fort Berthold crude.

A judge revoked the pipeline's government permit because of inadequate environmental analysis and allowed crude to flow during a new review. But Standing Rock wants the administration to halt the oil for good, fearing a pipeline break could contaminate its drinking water.

Meantime, attention surrounding the skirmish provided the Sioux with foundation backing to develop a wind farm in Porcupine Hills, an area of scrub oak and buffalo grass with cattle ranches.

The pipeline fight stirs bitter memories in Fawn Wasin Zi, a teacher who chairs the Standing Rock renewable power authority. She grew up hearing her father and grandmother tell about a government dam that created Lake Oahe — how they had to leave their home then watch government agents burn it, only to be denied housing, electricity and other promised compensation.

Wasin Zi, whose ancestors followed legendary Lakota leader Sitting Bull, wants to ensure the tribe doesn't fall victim yet again to a changing world, where fossil fuels warm the planet and bring drought and wildfire.

“We have to find a way to use the technology that's available right now, whether it's geothermal or solar or wind," she said.

Only a dozen of the 326 tribal reservations produce significant oil, according to a drilling analysis provided to AP by S&P Global Platts.

Biden's nominee to oversee them as assistant secretary for Indian affairs, Bryan Newland, recently told a U.S. Senate committee the administration recognizes the importance of oil and gas to some reservations and pledged to let tribes determine resource development.

Interior officials denied interview requests about tribal energy plans, but said tribes were consulted in April after Biden ordered the department to "engage with tribal authorities" on developing renewables and fossil fuels.

Joseph McNeill Jr, manager of Standing Rock’s energy authority, said a conference call with Interior yielded no pledges to further the tribe's wind project. Fort Berthold officials said they've had no offers of discussions with the administration.

ONE TRIBE'S BUILDING BOOM

Fort Berthold still reels from ills oil brought — worse crime and drugs, tanker truck traffic, road fatalities, spills of oil and wastewater. Tribal members lament that stars are lost in the glare of flaring waste gas from wells.

Yet oil brought positive changes, too. As the tribes' coffers fattened, dozens of projects got underway. The reservation now boasts new schools, senior centers, parks, civic centers, health and drug rehab facilities. Oil money is building a $26 million greenhouse complex heated by electricity from gas otherwise wasted.

The $30 million cultural center in New Town pieces together the tribes’ fractured past through displays and artifacts. A sound studio captures stories from elders who lived through dam construction and flooding along the Missouri. And one exhibit traces the oil boom after fracking allowed companies to tap reserves once too difficult to drill.

“Our little town, New Town, changed overnight,” said MHA Nation Interpretive Center Director Delphine Baker. “We never had traffic lights growing up. It's like I moved to a different town.”

HOPING FOR “MORNING LIGHT”

Lower on the Missouri, Standing Rock grapples with high energy costs. There’s no oil worth extracting, no gas or coal. The biggest employer beside tribal government is a casino, where revenue plummeted during the pandemic.

“There’s nothing here. No jobs. Nothing,” said Donald Whitelightning, Jr., who lives in Cannon Ball, near the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.

Whitelightning, who cares for his mother in a modest home, said he pays up to $500 a month for electricity in winter. Utility costs, among North Dakota's highest, severely strain a reservation officials say has 40% poverty and 75% unemployment.

The tribe hopes its wind project, Anpetu Wi, meaning “morning light,” will help. Officials predict its 235 megawatts — enough for roughly 94,000 homes — would double their annual revenue and fund benefits like those Fort Berthold derives from oil — housing, health care, more jobs.

Standing Rock's power authority can directly negotiate aspects of the project. Yet it needs Interior approval because the U.S. holds tribal lands in trust.

“AN OIL FIELD TO PROTECT”

Outside North Dakota, tribes with oil — the Osage in Oklahoma, the Navajo in the Southwest and Native corporations in Alaska — also are pushing the Biden administration to cede power over energy development, including letting tribes conduct environmental reviews.

A Navajo company's operations in the Aneth field in southern Utah bring about $28 million to $35 million annually. Active since the 1950s, the field likely has another 30 years of life, said James McClure, chief executive of the Navajo Nation Oil and Gas Co..

The company has considered expanding into federal land in New Mexico and Colorado. Biden’s attempts to suspend new leases could slow those plans, and it’s considering helium production as an option.

In northern Oklahoma, the Osage have been drilling oil for more than a century.

Cognizant of global warming and shifting energy markets, they are pondering renewables, too. For now, they want the Biden administration to speed up drilling permits.

“We are looking at what is going to be best for us,” said Everett Waller, chairman of the tribe’s energy regulator. “I wasn’t given a wind turbine. I was given an oil field to protect.”

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Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Ariz.

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

Matthew Brown And Felicia Fonseca, The Associated Press