#ENDTHEEMBARGO

Demonstrators in Havana protest shortages, rising prices

 #EliminatetheBlockade

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

1 of 13
Plainclothes police detain an anti-government protester during a protest in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, July 11, 2021. Hundreds of demonstrators went out to the streets in several cities in Cuba to protest against ongoing food shortages and high prices of foodstuffs, amid the new coronavirus crisis. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Thousands of Cubans marched on Havana’s Malecon promenade and elsewhere on the island Sunday to protest food shortages and high prices amid the coronavirus crisis, in one of biggest anti-government demonstrations in memory.

Many young people took part in the afternoon protest in the capital, which disrupted traffic until police moved in after several hours and broke up the march when a few protesters threw rocks.

Police initially trailed behind as protesters chanted “Freedom,” “Enough” and “Unite.” One motorcyclist pulled out a U.S. flag, but it was snatched from him by others.

“We are fed up with the queues, the shortages. That’s why I’m here,” one middle-age protester told The Associated Press. He declined to identify himself for fear of being arrested later.

Cuba is going through its worst economic crisis in decades, along with a resurgence of coronavirus cases, as it suffers the consequences of U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

An official in the Biden administration tweeted support for Sunday’s demonstrations.

“Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need,” tweeted Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Cuba’s director general for U.S. affairs, Carlos F. de Cossio, dismissed her remarks in his own tweet: “US State Department and its officials, involved to their necks in promoting social and political instability in #Cuba, should avoid expressing hypocritical concern for a situation they have been betting on. Cuba is and will continue to be a peaceful country, contrary to the US.”

The demonstration grew to a few thousand in the vicinity of Galeano Avenue and the marchers pressed on despite a few charges by police officers and tear gas barrages. People standing on many balconies along the central artery in the Centro Habana neighborhood applauded the protesters passing by. Others joined in the march.

Although many people tried to take out their cellphones and broadcast the protest live, Cuban authorities shut down internet service throughout the afternoon.

About 2 1/2 hours into the march, some protesters pulled up cobblestones and threw them at police, at which point officers began arresting people and the marchers dispersed.

AP journalists counted at least 20 people who were taken away in police cars or by individuals in civilian clothes.

“The people came out to express themselves freely, and they are repressing and beating them,” Rev. Jorge Luis Gil, a Roman Catholic priest, said while standing at a street corner in Centro Habana.

About 300 people close to the government then arrived with a large Cuban flag shouting slogans in favor of the late President Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution. Some people from the group assaulted an AP cameraman, disabling his camera, while an AP photographer was inured by the police.

Demonstrations were also held elsewhere on the island, including the small town of San Antonio de los Banos, where people protested power outages and were visited by President Miguel Díaz-Canel. He entered a few homes, where he took questions from residents.

Afterward, though, he accused Cuban of stirring up trouble.

“As if pandemic outbreaks had not existed all over the world, the Cuban-American mafia, paying very well on social networks to influencers and Youtubers, has created a whole campaign ... and has called for demonstrations across the country,” Diaz-Canel told reporters.

Thousands of Cubans Take to Streets in Rare Anti-government Protests
By Reuters
Updated July 11, 2021 

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (C) is seen during a protest held by citizens demanding improvements in the country, in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, July 11, 2021.

HAVANA, CUBA - Thousands of Cubans took to the streets from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in rarely seen protests, expressing frustration over economic conditions, the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations and what they said was government neglect.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who also heads the Communist Party, blamed the United States for the unrest in a nationally televised speech Sunday afternoon.

Special forces jeeps, with machine guns mounted on the back, were seen in the capital, Havana, and Diaz-Canel called on supporters to confront “provocations."

Thousands of people gathered in downtown Havana and along parts of the seaside drive amid a heavy police presence. There were a few arrests and scuffles.

A Reuters reporter witnessed police pepper-spray a few protesters and hit others with batons, but there was no attempt to directly confront the thousands chanting "Freedom" as they gathered and marched in the city center. Their shouts of “Diaz-Canel step down” drowned out groups of government supporters chanting "Fidel."

The protests broke out in San Antonio de los Banos municipality in Artemisa Province, bordering Havana, with video on social media showing hundreds of residents chanting anti-government slogans and demanding everything from coronavirus vaccines to an end to daily electricity blackouts.

“I just walked through town looking to buy some food and there were lots of people there, some with signs, protesting,” local resident Claris Ramirez said by phone.

“They are protesting blackouts, that there is no medicine,” she added.

Diaz-Canel, who had just returned to Havana from San Antonio de los Banos, said many protesters were sincere but manipulated by U.S.-orchestrated social media campaigns and mercenaries on the ground, and warned that further “provocations” would not be tolerated.

There were protests later Sunday hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the east in Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, where social media video showed hundreds marching through the streets, again confirmed by a local resident.

“They are protesting the crisis, that there is no food or medicine, that you have to buy everything at the foreign currency stores, and on and on the list goes,” Claudia Perez said.

"We are calling on all the revolutionaries in the country, all the communists, to hit the streets wherever there is an effort to produce these provocations," Diaz-Canel said in his broadcast remarks.

The communist-run country has been experiencing a worsening economic crisis for two years, which the government blames mainly on U.S. sanctions and the pandemic, while its detractors cite incompetence and a Soviet-style one-party system.

A combination of sanctions, local inefficiencies and the pandemic has shut down tourism and slowed other foreign revenue flows in a country dependent on them to import the bulk of its food, fuel and inputs for agriculture and manufacturing.

The economy contracted 10.9% last year, and 2% through this June.

There has been a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths this year, with a record 6,900 cases and 47 deaths reported Saturday.

Cuba has two vaccines and has begun a mass vaccination campaign, with 1.7 million of its 11.2 million residents vaccinated to date and twice that many at various states of the multishot process.

Cubans take part in rare anti-government protests

Issued on: 12/07/2021 - 

The Cuban police detain a man during anti-government protests on July 11 2021 in Havana. © Adalberto Roque, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Thousands of Cubans took part in rare protests Sunday against the communist government, chanting, "Down with the dictatorship," as President Miguel Diaz-Canel called on his supporters to confront the demonstrators.

The anti-government rallies started spontaneously in several cities as the country endures its worst economic crisis in 30 years, with chronic shortages of electricity and food.

Several hundred protesters marched through the capital Havana chanting, "We want liberty," with a heavy military and police presence deployed after demonstrators massed outside the Capitol building.

Police used tear gas to disperse crowds, and at least ten people were arrested, while officers used plastic pipes to beat protesters, AFP journalists witnessed.

Several thousand protesters -- mainly young people -- also took to the streets of San Antonio de los Banos, a town 30 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Havana.

Security forces arrived soon after the protests began, and Diaz-Canel later visited the town himself surrounded by party activists as residents heckled him, according to videos posted online.

The president delivered a combative television address, saying: "The order to fight has been given -- into the street, revolutionaries!"

"We call on all revolutionaries of the country, all communists, to go out in the streets where these provocations occur... and to face them in a decisive, firm and courageous way."

Government supporters held some counter-demonstrations in Havana.

Social media showed several anti-government protests around the country, and mobile internet -- only introduced in Cuba since 2018 -- was largely cut off on Sunday afternoon.

The United States reacted swiftly to the day's events.

"The US supports freedom of expression and assembly across Cuba, and would strongly condemn any violence or targeting of peaceful protesters who are exercising their universal rights," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Twitter.

Boiling public anger

One local in San Antonio de los Banos, on condition of anonymity, told AFP that she participated in the demonstration as she was exasperated by "the situation with electricity and food."

Public anger has been driven by long food lines, worsening power shortages for several hours a day and a critical shortage of medicines since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, with Cuba under US sanctions.

Cuba is experiencing its toughest phase yet of the coronavirus epidemic, and on Sunday reported a new daily record of infections and deaths.

"The energy situation seems to have produced some reaction," Diaz-Canel told reporters in San Antonio de los Banos, blaming US sanctions imposed by Donald Trump and left unchanged by President Joe Biden.

He accused "a Cuban-American mafia" of whipping up the protests on social media.

"People have come to express their dissatisfaction with the situation they are living in," he acknowledged.

Diaz-Canel has been president since 2018, succeeding Raul Castro, who served as leader after his brother Fidel Castro.

The only authorised gatherings in Cuba are normally Communist Party events.

The country of 11.2 million people was left relatively unscathed in the first months of the Covid outbreak but has seen a recent hike in infections, with a new record of 6,923 daily cases reported Sunday and 47 deaths for a total of 1,537.

"These are alarming numbers which are increasing daily," said Francisco Duran, head of epidemiology in the health ministry.

Under hashtags such as #SOSCuba, calls for assistance have multiplied on social media, with citizens and music stars alike urging the government to make it possible for much-needed foreign donations to enter the country.

An opposition group called Saturday for the creation of a "humanitarian corridor," an initiative the government rejected by saying Cuba was not a conflict zone.

Ernesto Soberon, a foreign affairs official, denounced a "campaign" he said sought to "portray an image of total chaos in the country which does not correspond to the situation."

(AFP)

Virgin Galactic: space tourism takes off with Branson’s inaugural flight



Virgin Galactic takes off. Virgin Galactic

With British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s successful flight to the edge of space, he and his company Virgin Galactic have firmly established themselves in the history books as space tourism pioneers.

While not the first tourist to enter space, 70-year-old Branson is the first to make his journey with a commercial spaceflight company, marking a giant leap for the space tourism industry being championed by some of the world’s most famous billionaires.

Unlike its rivals, Virgin Galactic launched its spacecraft from a carrier craft – not from the ground. Branson and three Virgin Galactic mission specialists travelled along with two pilots in the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft “VSS Unity”, which was carried by a WhiteKnightTwo aircraft to an altitude of 50,000 feet before being launched from the carrier craft. The mothership aircraft, named VMS EVE (after Branson’s late mother), launched the afternoon of July 11, after a short weather-related delay.



VSS Unity then ignited its own rocket, taking it to a height of over 50 miles above Earth. The four passengers experienced weightlessness and observed the curvature of the planet’s surface before reentering the earth’s atmosphere and landing at the company’s spaceport America base in New Mexico.

While SpaceShipTwo did not reach the Kármán line – 62 miles altitude above Earth and often regarded of as the edge of outer space – the Federal Aviation Administration puts the dividing line lower, at 50 miles.

Virgin Galactic’s success has not been an overnight one. Founded in 2004 to provide paying customers a trip into suborbital space, the company has experienced many false dawns over the years with projected dates of flights proving overly optimistic and a major setback involving a fatal accident in 2014.

The company has made substantial progress in recent years, achieving its first suborbital flight in December 2018. Virgin Galactic became the first commercial spaceflight company to list on the stock market in October 2019. While the stock has been volatile in the meantime, it has rallied by around 50% since securing approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority last month to proceed with passenger flights.

With an eye on the history books, Virgin Galactic immediately announced plans to advance Branson’s spaceflight aboard SpaceShipTwo to July 11, upstaging by nine days his rival billionaire Jeff Bezos’ planned trip into space.

Virgin Galactic plans to start commercial space tourism flights early next year. This is welcome news for the 600 aspiring space tourists who have waited years since making their reservations at a reported price of $250,000 in the late noughties. The company has plans to produce dozens of spacecraft in anticipation of increased passenger demand.
Billionaires blast off

In winning the first round of the space tourism race, Branson has – for now – eclipsed his fellow billionaires, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and has scored a major marketing coup. However, both Bezos and Musk have ambitious plans for space tourism, extending in the case of the latter to the moon and even Mars.

Bezos himself is due to launch into space on July 20 – 52 years since the first moon landing – aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Bezos will be accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, American aviator Wally Funk who was part of jettisoned programme to send women into space in the 1960s, and a fourth passenger who won the auction for the remaining seat with a winning bid of US$28 million (£20.1 million)

.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is set to travel into space later this month. Blue Origin / Alamy Stock Photo

Beyond these initial flights with their billionaire founders aboard, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will be competing to take paying customers on suborbital flights.

The two companies will also derive revenue from taking science experiments and researchers into space. This will be far less expensive than the more elaborate task of sending experiments and people to the International Space Station. Later this year, Musk’s SpaceX plans to send four passengers on a three-day orbit around the earth, circling it in a Crew Dragon capsule at an altitude of 335 miles.

With the takeoff of space tourism and more generally the business of space, Bezos, Branson and Musk can no longer be dismissed as wealthy boys with toys. They have brought a renewed pioneering spirit and entrepreneurial zeal and intensity to the space sector. In doing so, they have made substantial progress in advancing the frontier of space and space tourism.

They have created cost economies through, for example, their innovative implementation of circular economy principles. For example, SpaceX’s embrace of reusable rockets has drastically reduced costs.

Critically, these flights have been an inspiration to others. Private capital is now flowing into the space sector with its size forecast to increase almost threefold by 2040 to become a US$1 trillion industry (£719 billion).

While the first round of the new space race may have a winner, there are many more rounds to be completed. Given the high risk nature of space travel and space more generally, there will be setbacks as well as successes. Still, while the stakes may be high, the potential rewards are great. Branson’s successful journey marks an important moment in the commercialisation of space.

July 11, 2021 12.56pm EDT

Author

Louis Brennan
Professor of Business Studies, Trinity College Dublin

Head of Aid Group Reports Increased Attacks by Myanmar Military in Border Areas

By VOA News
July 11, 2021


Displaced people carry a sick person in eastern Myanmar's Kayah State, June 17, 2021.

BANGKOK - The head of a Thai-based volunteer aid group, speaking from inside Myanmar, has described increasing attacks by that country’s military in the ethnic areas along the country’s borders with China and Thailand.

Speaking to VOA by satellite phone Friday from northern Kayin state in Myanmar’s east, David Eubank, the head of the Free Burma Rangers, said since the February 1 coup, Myanmar’s military has not only attacked urban protesters but is now carrying out increasing offensives on the country’s fringes.

The United Nations said last month that almost a quarter of a million people have been driven from their homes and villages by post-coup violence, and that millions risk hunger in coming months. Most of them are spread across the border areas, where ethnic minorities with standing armies have been fighting the military for autonomy for decades. Eubank’s Free Burma Rangers sends hundreds of volunteers into Myanmar’s conflict zones with medical services and supplies — from rice to schoolbooks — for remote rural areas.

‘The gloves came off’

“Once the coup happened,” Eubank said, “it was like the gloves came off the Burma military. Not only did they begin to crush the people in the streets, as you’ve seen; they began to unleash their power on the ethnics, and that’s when we saw this huge uptick of attacks and displacement.” Myanmar is also known as Burma.

When the military started attacking targets in northern Kayin after the coup, by air for the first time in decades, the area’s displaced population jumped tenfold from 4,000 to 40,000 by April, Eubank said.

He estimated the airstrikes have killed about 20 civilians in the area and wounded some 40 more. He said that is fewer than those killed by the military’s ground forces in northern Kayin, which he puts at about 40, “but the psychological impact of the airplanes is just huge up here.”

“Way past the killing that the airstrikes [caused] and damage they did has been the fear,” he said.

Myanmar government officials could not be reached for comment. In the past the military has said it has only uses proportionate force against threats to state security.

In the jungle

Eubank said most of the 40,000 have returned home in recent weeks as the airstrikes died down and most of the new troops the military moved in were pulled back, although skirmishes with forces of the Karen National Union, one of the country’s many armed ethnic groups, have kept up.

He said the most intense fighting since the coup is in the northernmost state of Kachin, where the military has been losing ground to the Kachin Independence Army, another ethnic armed group.

People take refuge in a jungle area in Demoso, Kayah state, June 3, 2021

In the past few weeks, though, fighting has picked up most in the tiny eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni, where the military is up against smaller militias and new “people’s defense forces” of locals who have pooled their weapons to resist the junta. Fighting there has driven more than 100,000 people out of their homes, now the most in any state or region, Eubank, who has teams there, said.

Those teams, he said, report soldiers looting villagers’ homes and firing into the jungle with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, both to keep any rebels at bay and to clear tracts of land of anyone else.

“I’m looking at photos that my team sent right now. … I see wrecked houses. I’m looking at a destroyed church. I’m looking at a guy who was shot. I’m looking at pictures of IDPs [internally displaced persons] hiding in the jungle,” he told VOA.

Heavy rains have only made it worse for those pushed into the jungle, he added, with many reduced to catching frogs and hunting squirrels to supplement their rice.

Those who can, find caves, the rest make due under pitched tarps, or less, Eubank said.

“Very often they fled out of the house with just what they could carry and maybe had a sheet of plastic over their shoulders. So maybe they’ll cut bamboo and make a frame, like a lean-to frame, and then lay banana leaves and other leaves over it to make a little shelter and huddle under that,” he said.

“They live pretty rough. And then there’s no school, and they’ve got the clothes on their back. And if there’s hundreds of them on the same stream. then you have pollution problems and dysentery.”

A looming crisis

Eubank said the military was also setting up checkpoints and sending out patrols to keep aid shipments from flowing from the plains into the hills and rebel-controlled areas, where many of the displaced are taking shelter, checking people for everything from extra food and medicine to batteries and children toys.

He said supplies were still getting in and that most of the newly displaced have enough rice right now and to last the next two to three months.

Even those who have felt safe enough to return home, though, as in Kayin, are a month or two behind on their farming and coming back to overgrown fields that need extra work, he added. That could mean much less rice at harvest time.

Some of those who have returned are also still under fire, he said.

Eubank said he came across a woman in Kayin a few weeks ago being shot at with automatic and sniper rifles from the surrounding hills while planting her rice field. Determined to get the job done, he said, she gathered up her neighbors and together they finished the planting that night in the dark.

The 100,000 still living rough in Kayah cannot even do that. Last month the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Thomas H. Andrews, warned of “mass death” among the displaced there from starvation, disease and exposure if the military continued to cut them off from critical supplies.

Eubank said that could come to pass if more aid does not get in and if they cannot move to where they can find what they need to survive.

“I think it’s a big risk if this goes on, especially for right now in Karenni,” he said. “We have these 100,000 people, and we’re moving literally tons of rice up there through a variety of means. But that’s not sure to meet all the needs. And if the Burma army continues the pressure against those 100,000, they’re going to have to move or they’re going to starve to death,” he said.

The junta claims it toppled the country’s civilian government because it had ignored reports of widespread irregularities in last year’s general elections, in which the military’s proxy party was soundly defeated, but has shown no evidence to back it up. State media now run by the junta has blamed the crisis that has followed the coup on “dishonesty of democracy” in the election.

 

Hepatitis C vaccine could be rolled out within five years, says Nobel Prize winner who discovered virus

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

A vaccine to protect against infection with hepatitis C could be in use within 5 years, says Professor Sir Michael Houghton, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology along with three other scientists for discovering the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989. Sir Michael will discuss the development of a vaccine in a special presentation at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year.

Up to 2 million new HCV infections occur every year around the world, with an estimated 70 million carriers of the virus globally, most of whom are not diagnosed. The virus is estimated to cause some 400,000 deaths annually. Many infected with the virus go on to develop liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

"While the advent of directly acting antivirals (DAAs) to cure hepatitis C has given us a huge weapon to turn the tide on this pandemic, there is no doubt that a vaccine is required to help the world reach its ambitious target of reducing new hepatitis C infections by 90% and mortality rates by 65% by 2030," explains Sir Michael, who is currently based at the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute, University of Alberta, Canada.

He will discuss that, while countries like Egypt have managed to enact huge control programs for hepatitis C (50 million screened and 4 million treated and cured using DAAs since 2014), they have only been able to do so thanks to mass production of generic drugs ($US84 per patient). However, the cost per patient in high-income countries is some $US20,000 per patient.

He will explain how the scientific community has learnt what immune responses protect against HCV infection, and many technologies including the new RNA technology (used in Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines) and adenovirus-based technologies (developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson) are able to reproduce these protective immune responses through vaccination.

Sir Michael and colleagues at the Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute are currently developing an adjuvanted recombinant vaccine, which is expected to induce production of antibodies to multiple cross-neutralising epitopes, making it harder for the virus to escape the humoral immune response. Put another way, there are many different antibodies likely to be produced by this vaccine that can prevent HCV infection, making it very hard for the virus to evade them by mutation and thus protecting the vaccine recipient from hepatitis C infection.

Sir Michael will discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed back many areas of medical research, including work on hepatitis C vaccines. But he anticipates phase 1 trials in 2022 using different adjuvants followed by phase 2 human efficacy trials from 2023-2026, either in an at-risk population such as people who inject drugs, or via human vaccine challenge trials.

He says: "If safety and efficacy are proven, roll-out of vaccine to the high-risk people-who-inject-drugs population could begin in 2026/2027. Following phase 3 trials, the hepatitis C vaccine could then be rolled out to other high-risk groups in or around 2029, such as men who have sex with men, healthcare workers, and babies born to mothers with hepatitis C, in all countries of the world."

Using Canada as an example, Sir Michael points out the huge cost savings that could be generated by a successful vaccine - it is estimated that treating people who inject drugs with DAAs over a decade would incur drug costs of around C$1 billion (US$0.8 billion), compared to $20 million (US$16 million) estimated for vaccine costs to protect the same population.

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New study shows that silver foil could reduce the risk of infection in hospitals

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

 

New research presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) taking place online (9-12 July) shows that covering high-touch (the most regularly touched) surfaces in hospitals with silver-impregnated foil could significantly reduce levels of contamination by clinically important bacterial pathogens.

The study by Professor Andreas Widmer and colleagues at the University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland, evaluated the antimicrobial effectiveness of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foil containing an integrated silver-based agent containing 2% silver ions.

The hospital environment has increasingly been recognised as having critical importance when formulating infection control measures as evidence has increased of the role it plays as a source of bacterial transmission and subsequent hospital-acquired infections. Regular cleaning and disinfection have been proposed as an option for lowering infection risk, however performing this to the required standard is a time and resource-intensive process.

An alternative approach is to use auto-disinfecting surfaces which would make it difficult for pathogens to survive and would require less thorough cleaning to achieve a safe environment in patient rooms. In this study a silver-impregnated PVC foil was applied to high-touch surfaces in patient rooms where contamination levels of bacterial pathogens were anticipated to be high.

The researchers found that contamination levels on foil-covered surfaces were significantly lower than on those without the covering. Overall, mean germ numbers were reduced by more than 60 times, while the median bioburden on untreated control surfaces was more than 3 times higher than on the antimicrobial foil. The large difference between mean and median relates to the large biological variability of germ density on the different types of surfaces.

The team also discovered that clinically important bacteria - in particular Enterococci - were significantly less likely to be present on foil-covered surfaces, and the antimicrobial effects were still present 6 months later.

The authors conclude: "A foil containing an integrated silver-based agent effectively decreases the load of clinically important disease-causing bacteria over a 6-month study period."

They add: "Auto-disinfectant foils or similar antimicrobially equipped surfaces might help prevent transmission, in particular of Gram-positive pathogens from the environment. Many studies confirm rapid recolonization (reinfection) of hospital surfaces even after vigorous disinfection. Therefore, such auto-disinfectant foils could be desirable in certain healthcare areas such as transplant units or also during outbreaks such as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic we are currently experiencing. Further research should be extended to the antiviral activity of such surfaces, as this silver-impregnated PVC foil has been found to work in experiments against another type of coronavirus: human coronavirus HCov-229E."

 

High-tech toilets could spread antibiotic-resistant superbugs in hospitals, Japanese study suggests

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Research News

Water-jet nozzles in electric toilets--commonly used in Japan and other parts of Asia--may be reservoirs for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) in hospitals, increasing the risk of dangerous germ transmission among patients, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year.

"This is the first report of hospital transmissions associated with electric toilets and could have major implications for infection control," says Dr Itaru Nakamura from Tokyo Medical University Hospital in Japan who led the research. "If water-jet nozzles are a source of hospital superbug cross-contamination, additional interventions - such as modified hand hygiene practices and toilet disinfection protocols - may be needed to stem the risk of transmission among healthcare providers and patients alike."

More than 80% Japanese households use electric toilets with an integrated bidet, which flush automatically [2]. The main feature is a nozzle the size of a pencil that comes out from underneath the toilet seat and squirts water to wash the bottom and clean the toilet. The nozzle is also self-cleaning and cleans itself before and after every operation.

P. aeruginosa naturally occurs in soil and freshwater, but it can also thrive on the moist surfaces in hospitals, leading to opportunistic infections in weakened and ill patients that could develop into life-threatening conditions like pneumonia or sepsis.

Because of the overuse of antibiotics, these bacteria have evolved the ability to withstand attempts to treat infections with drugs that once killed them. And infections caused by MDRP bacteria are becoming more common in both the community and hospitals. Mortality rates among people infected with these superbug strains are double those of people infected with strains that are susceptible to treatment [1].

In this study, researchers investigated the presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria recovered from the waterjet-nozzles of electric toilets in a haematology ward of Tokyo Medical University Hospital between September 2020 and January 2021.

The team made more than 10 visits to take samples from water-jet nozzles in electric toilets used by three patients with MDRP infections, including two patients with severe sepsis. MDRP strains were defined as those with resistance to at least two antibiotics such as imipenem, meropenem, amikacin and ciprofloxacin.

Using genetic fingerprinting techniques, they looked to see whether the strains of MDRP from the three infected patients were the same as the environmental MDRP strain sampled from the toilet nozzles. They found the samples matched, with strain 'ST235' dominating in all the samples--suggesting that transfers to and from patients were happening.

"In short, our findings imply that multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa bacteria were being transmitted within the patient community, and critically that the infection may be spread within hospitals via contaminated electric toilet nozzles", says Dr Nakamura. "With good hospital hygiene, which includes handwashing and environmental cleaning, we can control the spread of these pathogens, especially within in settings where patients' immune systems are compromised."

The authors point out that this was only a small study in a single hospital ward. They also highlighted several limitations including that the genetic analysis was not able to distinguish the direction of transfer, whether it is from the patient to the water-jet nozzles, or from those nozzles to the patients.

WATER IS LIFE

Slovenian voters reject changing water protection law

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenian voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected changes to the country's water management law, a development seen as a blow to the country's right-wing leader.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

About 86.5% of people voted Sunday against the amendments approved by Prime Minister Janez Jansa's government in March that ecologists claimed threaten the environment and water quality, according to a near-complete count of ballots released by election authorities.

Around 13.5% of the votes were in favor of the government amendments. The turnout was over 45% among Slovenia's 1.7 million eligible voters — the highest in a referendum since 2007, the STA news agency said, showing high public interest in the topic.

The issue has sparked a heated debate in the small European Union nation of 2 million people known for its stunningly beautiful Alpine scenery. The right to water was enshrined in the country's constitution in 2016.

“It has been shown that Slovenia is home to compassionate and tolerant people who help each other and fight for the public good and for nature,” said Nika Kovač from the Institute 8 March group that campaigned against the changes.

At the center of the dispute was a provision regulating the construction of buildings — including hotels, shops and restaurants— close to rivers, lakes or the sea.

Video: Eco warriors take on Slovenia's government over water rights (Reuters)

While the government insisted it has tightened the construction rules and provided more water and flood protection funds, opponents said the regulations favored the interests of private investors, limited public access to water and jeopardized its quality.

The water dispute reflected heightened political tensions in Slovenia, where Jansa’s government has faced accusations of curbing democratic and media freedoms in the traditionally liberal nation.

Environment Minister Andrej Vizjak told public broadcaster TV Slovenia that the referendum was misused and the government's goals misinterpreted.

“People have reacted emotionally" and encouraged to vote by “some pamphlets that have nothing to do with the legislation’s purpose,” he said, according to STA.

The referendum came after environmental and civil society groups joined together in a “Movement for Drinkable Water” and collected more than 50,000 signatures demanding the vote.

Jansa also has faced EU scrutiny over his populist ways as Slovenia took over the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency earlier this month.

The Associated Press

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST

Buffalo mayoral candidate says hardship prepared her for job
By CAROLYN THOMPSONyesterday

FILE - This Wednesday June 23, 2021 file photo shows Democratic Buffalo mayoral primary candidate India Walton as she delivers her victory speech after a primary defeat of incumbent Byron Brown in Buffalo, N.Y. After upsetting Byron Brown in the June race, a victory in November would put a self-described democratic socialist and, for the first time, a woman, at the helm of New York's second-largest city. (Robert Kirkham/The Buffalo News via AP, File)

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — If a majority of voters, along with the four-term incumbent, mostly ignored political newcomer India Walton’s campaign for mayor during the Democratic primary, they’re paying attention now.

After upsetting Byron Brown in the June race, a victory in November would put a self-described democratic socialist and, for the first time, a woman, at the helm of New York’s second-largest city.

Walton’s vault to the doorstep of City Hall may have seemed unlikely while growing up on Buffalo’s impoverished East side and becoming a mother at age 14.

There has been turmoil for the registered nurse and community activist, including financial challenges that she says are all too familiar to many would-be constituents in the Rust Belt city. All, she says, have helped prepare her for this moment.

“I believe that the people closest to the problem are also those closest to the solution,” she said.

Once home to a thriving manufacturing base that over time evaporated, along with nearly half the population, Buffalo’s story in more recent years has been about revival. The waterfront was transformed and old industrial buildings given new life as offices, restaurants and living spaces that appeal to young, educated newcomers.

But there remain residents and neighborhoods that feel passed by, and Walton says that while she is eager to work with long-time community and elected leaders, her success shows there is room to challenge the establishment.

“I think it’s important to note that the people of Buffalo are ready for progressive change,” she said. “We must work together to do what is best for our city. And also we are saying no more to the status quo.”

Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of socialist magazine Jacobin, said enthusiasm for Walton could suggest openings in similar cities nationwide.

“There’s some irony that you’re seeing a resurgence of socialism now when these cities are facing a lot of challenges,” Sunkara said, “and ordinary working-class residents are looking for answers and they’re looking for something different.”

Since shocking Brown in a low-key primary that about 80% of registered Democrats skipped, Walton has confronted questions about her past, revealing she was in an abusive marriage and is a survivor of domestic abuse. Her premature twins inspired her to get her GED and become a registered nurse in the same hospital where they were born.

While in her early 20s, she was accused by the Department of Social Services of food stamp fraud and made to repay a $295 overpayment. She and her ex-husband also were the subject of a $749 state tax lien, which included $562 in back taxes plus penalties, WKBW reported.

“We call it the ‘poor tax,’ right?” Walton told the station. “Late fees and fines that occur because of things that you are really unable to do because of your financial situation.”

She was arrested at the hospital where she worked in 2014 after missing a court appearance related to a coworker’s order of protection, The Buffalo News reported. Walton said the notice to appear had been mailed to her ex-husband’s home and that the violation eventually was dismissed.

Her most recent work has been to help establish and run a land trust to protect affordable housing in a neighborhood threatened with gentrification by the city’s expanding medical campus.

Sochie Nnaemeka, state director of the Working Families Party, said Walton ran a campaign “rooted in her lived experience” that appealed to poor and working-class voters who felt slighted by the incumbent’s strategy of refusing to debate or seriously acknowledge his challengers.

Walton had 500 volunteers for a primary effort that was capped by nearly 19,000 phone calls the night before the June 22 vote.

Although she had considered running for state Assembly, Walton said she saw an opening to challenge Brown during Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Specifically, when cameras captured a young Black man throwing a burning basket through a Buffalo City Hall window, Brown, who like Walton is Black, publicly called him an “idiot.”

“Our mayor should have said, ‘This is a young person who was expressing their frustration. Let’s call them in and do some problem-solving together,’” Walton said, “and not disparage, dismiss and write off a young person who had some very valid concerns.”

Backed by the Buffalo Teachers Federation and Democratic Socialists of America, she favors removing police officers from most mental health and routine traffic calls and reallocating funding, but shies away from using the term defunding police.

After her primary showing, Walton fielded praise from other progressive lawmakers, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of New York City.

Brown is pursuing a rematch in November. In announcing his write-in campaign, he said city residents oppose having a “radical socialist” lead the city he has governed for 15 years.

But “we have enjoyed many things that could be considered socialism during the pandemic that helped us get through,” countered Walton, “the economic stimulus, free health care, SNAP benefits for families with children.”

“These are things that we all enjoy and appreciate and we’ve proven that it can happen,” she said. “We just need to scale up.”

WAGE THEFT
Bonus pay for essential workers varied widely across states


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Crosby Smith, care provider at Ludeman Developmental Center, a state home for the developmentally disabled, poses for a portrait near the center premise, Thursday, July 8, 2021 in Park Forest, Ill. Smith and his fiancee were among numerous staff and residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center who contracted the virus last year. He said the hazard money helped pay down credit cards and avoid further debt when buying clothing and shoes. (AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — For putting their health on the line during the coronavirus pandemic, prison guards in Missouri got an extra $250 per paycheck. Teachers in Georgia received $1,000 bonuses. And in Vermont, nurses, janitors, retail workers and many others got as much as $2,000.

Over the past year, about one-third of U.S. states have used federal COVID-19 relief aid to reward workers considered essential who dutifully reported to jobs during the pandemic. But who qualified for those bonuses -- and how much they received — varied widely, according to an Associated Press review. While some were paid thousands of dollars, others with similar jobs elsewhere received nothing.

As society reopens, momentum to provide pandemic hazard pay appears to be fading — even though the federal government has broadened the ability of state and local governments to provide retroactive pay under a $350 billion aid package enacted by President Joe Biden in March.

So far, only a few states have committed to paying workers extra with money from the American Rescue Plan.

Florida is giving $1,000 bonuses to teachers and first-responders. Minnesota plans to distribute $250 million in bonuses to essential workers, though a special panel won’t determine who qualifies until later this year.

This past week, Hawaii Gov. David Ige vetoed a budget provision to pay teachers $2,200 bonuses. The Democratic governor said lawmakers didn’t have the authority to tell the state Department of Education how to use the federal money.

Some states remain reluctant to enact bonus programs.

An Oregon proposal to use federal pandemic aid to provide bonuses of up to $2,000 for essential workers failed to make it into the budget that took effect July 1, despite a union lobbying campaign that included thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls to lawmakers. The proposal would have covered workers in numerous fields, including education, health care, public safety and transportation.

“I don’t think anyone was opposed to it,” said Melissa Unger, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 503. But “no one prioritized it.”

Although states have until the end of 2024 to decide how to spend the latest federal aid, some advocates worry the realistic window for providing worker bonuses may be closing as more parts of society re-open.

“Unfortunately, the longer you delay doing it, the less it’s going to be on the top of minds of voters and those policymakers,” said Molly Kinder, a fellow at the nonprofit Brookings Institution who tracks pandemic hazard pay policies.

Premium pay is one of just several options provided to states under Biden’s aid package. States also can use the money to backfill budget holes, help businesses and households affected by the economic downturn, fund certain infrastructure projects and pay for public health programs such as COVID-19 testing and vaccinations.

Illinois lawmakers used the federal money for dozens of initiatives in the budget that took effect July 1 — from $75,000 for a high school mentoring and violence prevention program to $200 million for hospitals. Nothing was earmarked for extra pandemic pay, even though Illinois had paid it in the past.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration provided a temporary 12% pay boost last year to nearly 24,000 state workers whose jobs put them at risk of contracting COVID-19. Most of the $62 million cost was covered with federal funds.

“Morale-wise, that was a critical thing for my co-workers and I,” said Crosby Smith, a care provider at a state home for the developmentally disabled near Chicago. “Because at that time, when COVID hit our facility ... we felt kind of abandoned.”

Smith and his fiancee were among numerous staff and residents at the Ludeman Developmental Center who contracted the virus last year. He said the hazard money helped pay down credit cards and avoid further debt when buying clothing and shoes.

Most states that have provided COVID-19 hazard pay used money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act signed by then-President Donald Trump in March 2020. While some states limited payments to particular public employees, others passed out money to a wide range of private-sector workers deemed to be doing important jobs.

Louisiana spent more than $38 million last year providing $250 payments to more than 152,000 “frontline workers” earning less than $50,000 annually, according to state data provided to the AP. Health care workers received the largest share of the money, followed by grocery store workers and law enforcement personnel. But payments also went to gas station workers, child-care providers, janitors, bus drivers and others.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, used $50 million in federal aid for grants to over 600 businesses to provide a temporary $3 hourly boost to employees earning less than $20 an hour. Health care providers got most of the money, followed by the food industry, according to state data provided to the AP. But millions of dollars also went to cleaning companies and private security firms.

By contrast, South Dakota limited hazard pay to state workers and only for the time they were potentially exposed to COVID-19. One therapy assistant got an extra 40 cents, a pharmacist received $1.80 and a maintenance supervisor got $4, according to state data provided to the AP.

In some states, the cost of hazard pay programs far exceeded initial expectations.

Missouri originally budgeted about $24 million in federal aid to provide an extra $250 per two-week paycheck for state employees working in close-contact institutions such as prisons, mental health facilities and veterans nursing homes. The stipend applied to anyone without unscheduled absences at any facility with at least one COVID-19 case — ultimately covering a lot more people for a much longer period than policymakers had anticipated at the onset of the pandemic.

Missouri ended up paying more than $73 million in hazard stipends to more than 18,000 employees, trigging an additional $24 million in fringe costs such as pension payments and federal taxes, according to state data provided to the AP. The payments ended June 30, and the state has no immediate plans to resume them.

“Without a doubt, it was worth it,” said Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican. “Some people did some incredible jobs in this state to stay the course and to stay in the line of duty.”

Vermont’s hazard pay program also swelled in cost. Last August, the state allotted $28 million of federal funds to pay up to $2,000 to health care employees who worked during the early stages of the pandemic. It later added $22 million to expand the program to retail and grocery workers, child care providers, janitors, trash collectors and others. When those funds were depleted, the state added $10 million more to cover all eligible applicants.

Employees in Vermont’s retail and grocery industries received nearly a third of the total money, almost matching the amount that went to health care fields, according to data provided to the AP.

Demand was high, in part, because Republican Gov. Phil Scott encouraged hesitant big businesses, such as Walmart, to apply on behalf of their employees, said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. He said consumer spending spiked around the time the payments were distributed.

“The primary goal was to say thank you to those frontline workers, but it had that nice benefit as well of getting the money into the economy,” Pieciak said.

Israel’s SpaceIL secures funds for new lunar mission


FILE - In this July 10, 2018 file photo, Opher Doron, general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' space division, speaks beside the SpaceIL lunar module, during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel. SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the moon two years ago, said Sunday,, July 11, 2021 that it has secured $70 million in funding to make a second attempt at a lunar landing. (AP Photo/Ilan Ben Zion, File)


JERUSALEM (AP) — SpaceIL, the nonprofit Israeli initiative whose spacecraft crashed on the moon two years ago, said Sunday that it has secured $70 million in funding to make a second attempt at a lunar landing.

SpaceIL said the new pledges means that it has raised almost all of the $100 million it estimates is needed for the mission to meet its 2024 launch target.

SpaceIL said the funding would come from South African-Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, who bankrolled much of the first mission, French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi and South African philanthropist Martin Moshal, co-founder of venture capital firm Entree Capital.

The first “Beresheet,” or “Genesis” spacecraft, built by SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, crashed into the moon moments before touchdown in April 2019, falling short in its attempt to become the first privately funded lunar landing.

According to the Davidson Institute, a branch of the Weizmann Institute of Science research university in Israel, the spacecraft suffered a string of technical malfunctions. That included damage to the star trackers, a type of navigation tool, failure of computer systems and engine failure.

The new mission, to be called Beresheet 2, was first announced in late 2020 and plans to set new global space records through a double landing on the moon and the installment of the lightest ever moon landers, each weighing 60 kg (132 pounds) without fuel.

It will be composed of three spacecraft — an orbiter and two landers — with the mission hoping to follow China in becoming only the second to successfully land on the far side of the moon.

The orbiter, known as the mothership, is set to remain in space for years, serving as a platform for educational science activities through a remote connection that allows students from around the world to participate in deep-space research.

“The Beresheet project is my life’s mission, so I decided to take it up again. I plan to do everything that is within my power to take Israel back to the moon, this time for a historic double landing,” said Kahn, who is chairman of SpaceIL.

ECOCIDE
Tree DNA helps convict Washington timber thief after fire

July 9, 2021

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A federal jury has convicted a timber thief who authorities said started a large forest fire in Washington state, a case that prosecutors said marked the first time tree DNA had been introduced in a federal trial.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours before convicting Justin Andrew Wilke, 39, on Thursday of conspiracy, theft of public property, depredation of public property, and trafficking and attempted trafficking in unlawfully harvested timber, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Washington said in a news release.

The wood he sold to a mill in the city of Tumwater had been harvested from private property with a valid permit, Wilke said. But a research geneticist for the U.S. Forest Service, Richard Cronn, testified that the wood he sold genetically matched the remains of three poached trees.

Wilke used gasoline to destroy a wasp’s nest in the base of a maple tree he was stealing, prosecutors said, though jurors did not convict him of charges related to the fire. Some witnesses testified that, although Wilke was standing next to the nest when the fire began, they did not actually see his actions in the dark.

Wilke and others conducted an illegal logging operation in the Elk Lake area of the Olympic National Forest, near Hood Canal, between April and August 2018, according to records filed in the case. He poached maple trees prized as wood for musical instruments and brought them to lumber mills.

In July 2018, a man who had just been released from prison, Shawn Williams, joined the conspiracy; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than two years in prison.

In August 2018, the group decided to cut the maple tree that had the wasp’s nest near the base, prosecutors said. The poachers sprayed insecticide and gasoline and then lit the nest on fire — starting a 5.2-square-mile (13.4-square-kilometer) wildfire that came to be dubbed the “Maple Fire,” according to authorities.

Firefighting efforts cost about $4.2 million.

Williams testified during the trial that it was Wilke who set the blaze, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“When people steal trees from our public lands, they are stealing a beautiful and irreplaceable resource from all of us and from future generations,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said in a news release. “That theft, coupled with the sheer destruction of the forest fire that resulted from this activity, warrants federal criminal prosecution.”

Wilke faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in October.

Volvo to resume production at Virginia plant despite strike
an hour ago

FILE - In a Jan. 6, 2011, file photo, workers install parts on a truck on the Volvo truck assembly line at the Volvo plant in Dublin, Va. A tentative labor deal between Volvo Trucks North America and a union representing nearly 3,000 workers who have gone on strike twice in 2021 at the Virginia truck plant was rejected by the striking workers, late Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)


DUBLIN, Va. (AP) — Volvo Trucks North America says it will restart production at a plant in southwestern Virginia on Monday despite an ongoing strike and the lack of a labor deal between the company and a union representing nearly 3,000 workers.

The company said in a news release that it will implement terms and conditions of a tentative agreement endorsed by leaders of the United Auto Workers union on July 1. Workers at the tractor-trailer assembly plant in Dublin had rejected that tentative pact.

Returning employees “will immediately receive the wage increases and benefits outlined in the July 1 agreement, except for the ratification bonuses that would be paid on contract ratification,” the company said.

Brian Rothenberg, a UAW spokesperson, said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday evening that the “strike is ongoing.”

“The UAW is evaluating the company’s position and evaluating our legal options,” he wrote. “A new vote is scheduled Wednesday for the bargaining unit members on the company’s last, best and final offer.”

Volvo says the 1.6 million-square-foot (nearly 150,000-square-meter) Dublin plant is the largest manufacturer of Volvo tractor-trailer trucks in the world. It is one of the largest private sector employers in the region, with approximately 3,300 employees, some 2,900 of whom are represented by the UAW.

The previous contract, reached in 2016, was to have expired in mid-March. Negotiations began in February. Unionized workers went on strike from April 17 to 30 and returned to work as negotiations resumed. UAW members rejected a proposed contract in May. The company announced another tentative agreement later that month, but it was rejected June 6.

“The ongoing strike — which we continue to believe is unnecessary — is hurting our customers, and has already set back our project to expand and upgrade the facility,” NRV Vice President and General Manager Franky Marchand said in a statement last week. “No one is gaining from the current situation, and we will consider all options related to the bargaining process.”

The Volvo Group is the only heavy-duty truck manufacturing group that assembles all of its trucks and engines for the North American market in the U.S., according to Volvo. It said the plant is undergoing a $400 million investment for technology upgrades, site expansion and preparation for future products, including the Volvo VNR Electric truck.

It added the plant has added 1,100 jobs since the current union agreement was implemented in 2016 and is on track to have a net increase of approximately 600 positions in 2021.

Schumer wants NRA investigated for bankruptcy fraud

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and MICHAEL R. SISAK

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference in New York, Monday, June 28, 2021. Schumer on Sunday, July 11, 2021 called on the Justice Department to investigate the National Rifle Association for bankruptcy fraud, saying the financially stable gun-rights group abused the system when it sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of a New York lawsuit seeking to put it out of business. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, file)


NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday called on the Justice Department to investigate the National Rifle Association for bankruptcy fraud, saying the financially stable gun-rights group abused the system when it sought bankruptcy protection in the wake of a New York lawsuit seeking to put it out of business.

A judge rejected the NRA’s bankruptcy case in May, ruling the nonprofit organization had not acted in good faith. NRA leaders made clear that the organization was “in its strongest financial condition in years” and was seeking bankruptcy protection so it could changes its state of incorporation from New York to gun-friendly Texas.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the NRA’s continued heavy spending on advertising criticizing proposed gun control measures and the nomination of gun control lobbyist David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives are further evidence that its bankruptcy filing was inspired by legal, not financial, concerns.

“They recently told the judicial branch of government that they are bankrupt after the lawsuit by Tish James, and at the same time they’re saying they’re bankrupt, they’re spending millions of dollars on ads to stop universal background checks,” Schumer said, referencing New York Attorney General Letitia James. “That demands an investigation by the Justice Department.”

The NRA said it was working on a statement. The Justice Department declined comment.

The organization filed for bankruptcy protection in January, months after James sued the NRA, seeking its dissolution over claims that top executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. That lawsuit is ongoing.

In dismissing the NRA’s bankruptcy case, Judge Harlin Hale wrote that it appeared “less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme.”

Schumer, speaking to reporters Sunday, highlighted a $2 million advertising blitz the NRA announced in April, aimed at fighting gun control proposals, while the bankruptcy case was still pending. The organization said it was placing ads on TV and digital platforms, sending out mailers and holding town hall meetings in at least 12 states.

In West Virginia, Schumer said, the organization spent $250,000 on TV ads encouraging people to call U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and tell him to reject Chipman’s confirmation. Chipman, a former ATF agent, has worked as a policy adviser at an organization that supports gun control.

“How can you say you’re bankrupt at the same time you have millions of dollars to spend on ads throughout the country trying to prevent universal background checks fundraising and other things that will stop the killings on the streets?” Schumer said.

“The bottom line is the NRA shot itself in the foot when they declared bankruptcy and still have millions of dollars,” he said.

QAnon has receded from social media -- but it’s just hiding

By BARBARA ORTUTAY

July 9, 2021

The Facebook app is shown on a smart phone, Friday, April 23, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Since the start of the year, Twitter and Facebook have removed tens of thousands of accounts, groups and pages dedicated to the QAnon conspiracy theory. But QAnon is far from winding down. Federal intelligence officials recently warned that its adherents could commit more violence, like the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)


On the face of it, you might think that the QAnon conspiracy has largely disappeared from big social media sites. But that’s not quite the case.

True, you’re much less likely to find popular QAnon catchphrases like “great awakening,” “the storm” or “trust the plan” on Facebook these days. Facebook and Twitter have removed tens of thousands of accounts dedicated to the baseless conspiracy theory, which depicts former President Donald Trump as a hero fighting a secret battle against a sect of devil-worshipping pedophiles who dominate Hollywood, big business, the media and government.

Gone are the huge “Stop the Steal” groups that spread falsehoods about the 2020 U.S. presidential elections. Trump is gone as well, banned from Twitter permanently and suspended from posting on Facebook until 2023.

But QAnon is far from winding down. Federal intelligence officials recently warned that its adherents could commit more violence, like the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. At least one open supporter of QAnon has been elected to Congress. In the four years since someone calling themselves “Q” started posting enigmatic messages on fringe internet discussions boards, QAnon has grown up.

That’s partly because QAnon now encompasses a variety of conspiracy theories, from evangelical or religious angles to alleged pedophilia in Hollywood and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab who focuses on domestic extremism. “Q-specific stuff is sort of dwindling,” he said. But the worldviews and conspiracy theories that QAnon absorbed are still with us.

Loosely tying these movements together is a general distrust of a powerful, often leftist elite. Among them are purveyors of anti-vaccine falsehoods, adherents of Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and believers in just about any other worldview convinced that a shadowy cabal secretly controls things.

For social platforms, dealing with this faceless, shifting and increasingly popular mindset is a far more complicated challenge than they’ve dealt with in the past.

These ideologies “have cemented their place and now are a part of American folklore,” said Max Rizzuto, another researcher at DFRLab. “I don’t think we’ll ever see it disappear.”

Online, such groups now blend into the background. Where Facebook groups once openly referenced QAnon, you’ll now see others like “Since you missed this in the so called MSM,” a page referencing “mainstream media” that boasts more than 4,000 followers. It features links to clips of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and to articles from right-wing publications such as Newsmax and the Daily Wire.

Subjects range from allegedly rampant crime to unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and an “outright war on conservatives.” Such groups aim to draw followers in deeper by directing them to further information on less-regulated sites such as Gab or Parler.

When DFRLab analyzed more than 40 million appearances of QAnon catchphrases and related terms on social media this spring, it found that their presence on mainstream platforms had declined significantly in recent months. After peaks in the late summer of 2020 and briefly on Jan. 6, QAnon catchphrases have largely evaporated from mainstream sites, DFRLab found.

So while your friends and relatives might not be posting wild conspiracies about Hillary Clinton drinking children’s blood, they might instead be repeating debunked claims such as that vaccines can alter your DNA.

There are several reasons for dwindling Q talk — Trump losing the presidential election, for instance, and the lack of new messages from “Q.” But the single biggest factor appears to have been the QAnon crackdown on Facebook and Twitter. Despite well-documented mistakes that revealed spotty enforcement, the banishment largely appears to have worked. It is more difficult to come across blatant QAnon accounts on mainstream social media sites these days, at least from the publicly available data that does not include, for instance, hidden Facebook groups and private messages.

While QAnon groups, pages and core accounts may be gone, many of their supporters remain on the big platforms — only now they’re camouflaging their language and watering down the most extreme tenets of QAnon to make them more palatable.

“There was a very, very explicit effort within the QAnon community to to camouflage their language,” said Angelo Carusone, the president and CEO of Media Matters, a liberal research group that has followed QAnon’s rise. “So they stopped using a lot of the codes, the triggers, the keywords that were eliciting the kinds of enforcement actions against them.”

Other dodges may have also helped. Rather than parroting Q slogans, for instance, for a while earlier this year supporters would type three asterisks next to their name to signal adherence to the conspiracy theory. (That’s a nod to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, a three-star general).

Facebook says it has removed about 3,300 pages, 10,500 groups, 510 events, 18,300 Facebook profiles and 27,300 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against QAnon. “We continue to consult with experts and improve our enforcement in response to how harm evolves, including by recidivist groups,” the company said in a statement.

But the social giant will still cut individuals posting about QAnon slack, citing experts who warn that banning individual Q adherents “may lead to further social isolation and danger,” the company said. Facebook’s policies and response to QAnon continue to evolve. Since last August, the company says it has added dozens of new terms as the movement and its language has evolved.

Twitter, meanwhile, says it has consistently taken action against activity that could lead to offline harm. After the Jan. 6 insurrection, the company began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that it said were “primarily dedicated” to sharing dangerous QAnon material. Twitter said it has suspended 150,000 such accounts to date. Like Facebook, the company says its response is also evolving.

But the crackdown may have come too late. Carusone, for instance, noted that Facebook banned QAnon groups tied to violence six weeks before it banned QAnon more broadly. That effectively gave followers notice to regroup, camouflage and move to different platforms.

“If there were ever a time for a social media company to take a stand on QAnon content, it would have been like months ago, years ago,” DFRLabs’ Rizzuto said.

JORDAN IS ALSO PALESTINE
In Jordan sedition trial, U.S. defendant alleges torture
By KARIN LAUB and OMAR AKOUR

yesterday

FILE - In this June 21, 2021 file photo, Bassem Awadallah, a former royal adviser, leaves a state security court in a vehicle after the first session of his closed-door trial, in Amman, Jordan. Awadallah, a Jordanian American, alleges he was tortured and fears for his life in Jordanian detention, Michael Sullivan, a U.S. lawyer said Sunday, July 11, 2021, on the eve of a verdict in the high-profile sedition trial linked to a rare public rift in the kingdom's ruling family. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A U.S. citizen and former top aide to Jordan’s King Abdullah II alleged he was tortured in Jordanian detention and fears for his life, his U.S.-based lawyer said Sunday, on the eve of a verdict in the high-profile sedition trial linked to a rare public rift in the kingdom’s ruling family.

Along with the mistreatment allegations, the closed-door trial before Jordan’s state security court “has been completely unfair,” Michael Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor hired by defendant Bassem Awadallah’s U.S.-based family, told The Associated Press.

The allegations of mistreatment, denied by Jordanian officials Sunday, were raised just days before Jordan’s king is to become the first Arab leader to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on July 19. Jordan is a key Western ally in an unstable Middle East.

Awadallah and co-defendant Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a distant cousin of the king, have pleaded not guilty to sedition and incitement charges, which carry lengthy prison terms.

The defendants were accused of conspiring with a senior royal — Prince Hamzah, a half-brother of the king — to foment unrest against the monarch while soliciting foreign help. The indictment portrayed Hamzah as a disgruntled royal who never forgave Abdullah for taking away his title of crown prince in 2004. Hamzah, who was placed under house arrest in April and has been seen in public just once since then, denied he incited against the king, saying he was being punished for calling out high-level corruption.

Despite the serious nature of the charges against Awadallah and bin Zaid, the trial ended after just six sessions. The court denied requests by Jordanian defense lawyers to call witnesses and prosecutors only shared purported transcripts, but not audio, from surveillance of the alleged plotters.

The prosecutor’s office at the state security court denied the trial was unfair. Awadallah was “guaranteed due process” in line with Jordanian law, the prosecutor said in a statement to the AP. “He has not been mistreated in any way, and his allegations of torture of any kind are false.”

The U.S. State Department said that U.S. consular officials visited Awadallah five times and that “we also take seriously any allegations of abuse and lack of minimum fair trial guarantees.”

Sullivan, a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and former acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that based on the way the trial was conducted, a guilty verdict appeared to be a foregone conclusion. He said any conviction would be appealed.

The U.S. legal team, which has remained in the background until now, will play a more open role in the appeals stage, said Sullivan. He said the aim is to raise awareness about Awadallah’s case in the United States and internationally. This includes “the serious concerns about his safety and security in the short term and the complete unfairness in terms of the process, as well as obviously the torture and violation of a number of international conventions, treaties and laws,” Sullivan said.

The prosecutor’s office said Awadallah didn’t raise torture allegations during the court hearings, his 17 meetings with his Jordanian lawyer or the first four meetings with U.S. consular officials in Jordan. “He only made these claims at his most recent meeting with the consul, as the ruling’s pronouncement (verdict) neared,” the statement said.

Sullivan said Awadallah told his visitor that he had been been beaten, subjected to electrical shock and was threatened with future mistreatment “if he didn’t confess.”

The prosecutor’s office said Awadallah gave a voluntary statement about the case, denying it had been extracted by force.

Awadallah’s family said late last week that he fears for his life. “Bassem is justifiably fearful of being killed in prison after the sentencing, especially because he held several high ranking and sensitive positions in the Jordanian government,” the family said.

Awadallah, who also holds Jordanian and Saudi citizenship, served as head of the royal court and government minister in Jordan. He has extensive business interests in the Gulf and has advised Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on attracting foreign investment.

The Awadallah family urged the Biden administration to call for Awadallah’s release.

Laub reported from Berlin, Germany.

Gangs complicate Haiti effort to recover from assassination
By DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON

yesterday

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FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2018 file photo, an armed civilian carries a weapon on during a shootout between rival gangs to take control of the Croix-des-Bossales market, on Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a main commercial artery, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2018. The fight for control of the market, where vendors pay the controlling gang regular payments, erupted amid days of protests and a strike against alleged government corruption. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Gangs in Haiti have long been financed by powerful politicians and their allies — and many Haitians fear those backers may be losing control of the increasingly powerful armed groups who have driven thousands of people from their homes as they battle over territory, kill civilians and raid warehouses of food.

The escalation in gang violence threatens to complicate — and be aggravated by — political efforts to recover from last week’s brazen slaying of President Jovenel Moïse. Haiti’s government is in disarray; no parliament, no president, a dispute over who is prime minister, a weak police force. But the gangs seem more organized and powerful than ever.

While the violence has been centered in the capital of Port-au-Prince, it has affected life across Haiti, paralyzing the fragile economy, shuttering schools, overwhelming police and disrupting efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The country is transformed into a vast desert where wild animals engulf us,” said the Haitian Conference of the Religious in a recent statement decrying the spike in violent crime. “We are refugees and exiles in our own country.”

Gangs recently have stolen tens of thousands of bags of sugar, rice and flour as well as ransacking and burning homes in the capital. That has driven thousands of people to seek shelter at churches, outdoor fields and a large gymnasium, where the government and international donors struggle to feed them and find long-term housing.

Those included dozens of disabled people who were forced to flee last month when gangs set fire to the encampment where they settled after being injured in the catastrophic 2010 earthquake.

“I was running for my life in the camp on these crutches,” said 44-year-old Obas Woylky, who lost a leg in the quake. “Bullets were flying from different directions. ... All I was able to see was fire in the homes.”

He was among more than 350 people crammed into a school converted into a makeshift shelter where hardly anyone wore face masks against disease.

A cigarette dangled from the mouth of an older woman who washed clothes in a large bowl while a group of children took turns flicking a single blue marble. Nearby, a teenage girl crouched next to an elderly blind man sitting on the concrete floor and lifted a small bag of water to his mouth.

Experts say the violence is the worst they’ve seen since in roughly two decades — since before the creation of a second U.N. peacekeeping mission in 2004.

Programs aimed at reducing gang activity and an influx of aid following the earthquake helped quell some of the problem, but once that money dried up and aid programs shut down, gangs turned to kidnappings and extortion from businesses and neighborhoods they control.

Gangs are in part funded by powerful politicians, a practice recently denounced even by one of its reputed beneficiaries — Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer who heads a gang coalition known as G9 Family and Allies.

He complained that the country is being held “hostage” by people he did not identify: “They reign supreme everywhere, distribute weapons to the populous quarters, playing the division card to establish their domination.”

Cherizier, known as “Barbecue,” has been linked to several massacres and his coalition is believed to be allied with Moïse’s right-wing party. He criticized those he called “bourgeois” and “exploiters,” adding: “We will use our weapons against them in favor of the Haitian people. ... We’re ready for war!”

Cherizier held a news conference on Saturday and called Moïse’s killing “cowardly and villainous,” saying that while many disagreed with him, “no one wanted this tragic outcome that will worsen the crisis and amplify political instability.”

He also issued a veiled warning: “We invite all those who are trying to take advantage of this coup to think carefully, to consider whether they have in their hands the appropriate solution to the country’s problems.”

Cherizier added that he and others will demand justice for Moïse: “We are just now warming up.”

G9 is one of at least 30 gangs that authorities believe control nearly half of Port-au-Prince. Their names range from “5 Seconds” — for how long it allegedly takes them to commit a crime — to “400 Mawozo” — which roughly translated means 400 lame men.

The epicenter of the recent gang violence is Martissant, a community in southern Port-au-Prince whose main road connects the capital to southern Haiti. Drivers’ fear of caught in a crossfire or worse has almost paralyzed commercial connections between the two regions, driving up prices, delaying the transportation of food and fuel and forcing international organizations to cancel programs including the distribution of cash to more than 30,000 people, according to a July 1 report by the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The agency said more than 1 million people need immediate humanitarian assistance and protection.

“Newly displaced people seek refuge in shelters every day,” it said, adding that hygiene there was “appalling.” Authorities worry about a spike in COVID-19 cases in a country that has yet to give a single vaccine.

“Escalating violence on an almost daily basis is expected to last for some time,” the agency said in a report.

The overall economy doesn’t help. The U.N. said the cost of a basic food basket rose by 13% in May compared with February, and that foreign direct investment fell by more than 70% from 2018 to 2020, dropping from $105 million to $30 million. That translates into fewer jobs and increased poverty in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day and 25% less than $1 a day.

Many also worry that the gangs could derail elections scheduled for September and November — a contest crucial to restoring functional legislative and executive branches now largely moribund in the wake of Moïse’s slaying.

But Haiti’s elections minister, Mathias Pierre, said Saturday that those backing the gangs may want to disrupt the elections. Such periods commonly see an upsurge in violence as groups try to use fear to nullify rivals’ advantages.

He said that wouldn’t work this time, noting that countries have held elections even during wars. “We need to organize elections. ...They need to back off.”

Haiti’s Office of the Protection of Citizens, a sort of ombudsman agency, has urged the international community to help Haiti’s National Police, which it said was “unable to respond effectively to the gangsterization of the country.”

Pierre said that lack of resources and weakness of Haiti’s police led the government to ask the United States and United Nations to send troops to help maintain order following Moïse’s killing: “We have a responsibility to avoid chaos.”

Officials say they have been trying to boost the budget and manpower of a police force that now has about 9,000 operational officers for a country of more than 11 million people. Experts say it needs at least 30,000 officers to maintain control.

The government also is trying to figure out where to put people who have fled their homes due to violence, such as 43-year-old Marjorie Benoit, her husband and their three children.

Benoit, who lost an arm in the earthquake, said they fled as gunfire crackled around their neighborhood. She now also has lost her home and all their belongings.

“We have been uprooted,” she said, “and we don’t know where to start.”