Nature defenders murdered in record numbers, environmental rights group says

Issued on: 13/09/2021

The so called Odami sawmill in Para, Brazil. A Global Witness report published on September 12, 2021, said Latin American forest defenders were particularly targeted in 2020. 

© Raphael Alves, AFP (file photo)
Text by: NEWS WIRES

A record 227 people were killed worldwide in 2020 for their defense of nature -- more than four a week on average, and almost three-quarters of them in Latin America, environmental rights organization Global Witness said Sunday.

For the second year in a row, Colombia was the country with the highest number of killings -- 65 -- while Nicaragua had the highest per-capita rate, with 12 murders up from five in 2019, the group said in its annual report.

Seven of the 10 deadliest countries for land and environmental defenders were in Latin America, with 165 killings recorded, though Global Witness said the number was "almost certainly" an underestimate.

After Colombia, Mexico had the second highest number of deaths globally, with 30.

It was followed by the Philippines (29), Brazil (20), Honduras (17), the Democratic Republic of Congo (15), Guatemala (13), Nicaragua (12), Peru (six) and India (four).

"This is a crisis against humanity," said the report.

"Land and environmental defenders that have stood up to powerful interests have paid a heavy price -- with their freedom, livelihoods and even their lives."

Repressive governments, added Global Witness, used the global coronavirus outbreak "as an opportunity to clamp down on civil society as companies pushed ahead with destructive projects."

Many activists and communities also experience attempts to silence them through death threats, surveillance, sexual violence or arrests, said the report.

The majority of victims -- 71 percent -- had been working to protect forests, while others died for their work to conserve rivers, coastal areas and the oceans.

'Extractive economic model'

A third of fatal attacks targeted indigenous peoples, who make up only five percent of the world's population.

"We are indigenous... we know that only the environment can sustain us," Celia Umenza, who agitates against mining and sugarcane farming in the violent southwest of Colombia, told AFP.

She has survived three attacks.

In Mexico, where lethal attacks increased 67 percent from 2019, the Kumeyaay people have organized against a brewing company they accuse of hoarding drinking water. One of their leaders, Oscar Eyraud, was assassinated last year.

"It was very shocking. A group of people came to his house and killed him with big guns," a friend, Diana Aranguren, told AFP, adding there has been "no progress" in the investigation.

The report blamed corporations that it said operated "with almost complete impunity" in countries rich in natural resources.

"It's clear that many companies engage in an extractive economic model that overwhelmingly prioritizes profit over human and environmental harm," said the report.

Global Witness said 23 people worldwide were killed in 2020 for their activism against logging -- the biggest single category -- 20 in disputes over water and dams and 17 each for challenging the agribusiness and mining sectors.

'Impunity'

"Businesses have profited from human rights abuses and environmental damage with relative impunity for far too long," said the report.

It also criticized governments for being "all too willing to turn a blind eye."

"They (governments) are failing to protect defenders -- in many cases directly perpetrating violence against them, and in others arguably complicit with business."

Global Witness has been collecting data on these types of attacks since 2012.

Among its recommendations, it said the United Nations should "fill a glaring gap" by formally recognizing the human right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment.

Global Witness said the data in its report did not capture the true scale of the problem, given press restrictions or a lack of independent monitoring of attacks in some countries.

Death stalks Colombian defenders of nature

Issued on: 13/09/2021 - 

Death is a constant companion for indigenous defenders of nature in violence-ridden Colombia, and Celia Umenza has already survived three attempts on her life 

LUIS ROBAYO AFP


Toribío (Colombia) (AFP)

As the sound of gunfire erupts near her office, Celia Umenza takes the briefest of pauses from discussing her battle against farming expansion and mining that threaten indigenous land and water in Colombia.

Death is a constant companion for indigenous defenders of nature in the violence-ridden country, and Umenza has already survived three attempts on her life.

While speaking to AFP, bursts of gunfire and explosions reverberate in the mountains near her office in Toribio, in the rural Cauca department.

She stops speaking for just a moment before resuming the interview, seemingly indifferent to the looming threat that has become a part of life for many in Colombia.

In a report released Sunday, the non-governmental group Global Witness said Colombia was the most dangerous country for land and environment defenders for the second year in a row in 2020, accounting for 65 of the 227 killings reported worldwide.

"We have the threat of government repression, of retaliation by the guerrillas and also by the paramilitaries," said Umenza, 48.

The most recent attack on her life was in 2014.

"A neighbor was driving me in a van... they riddled the van with bullets," she said.

According to Global Witness, 2020 was the deadliest year on record for environmental activists since 2012, when its records begin.

A third of deadly attacks were on indigenous peoples, and many were linked to opposition to logging, mining, agribusiness, hydroelectric dams and other infrastructure threatening natural resources that communities have relied on for generations.

- 'Preserving the water' -

Since the 1970s, the indigenous peoples of the Cauca region of southwest Colombia have been fighting an expansion by sugarcane growers they say are driving them from the fertile lowlands they rely on for survival, and destroying the forest.

"We no longer have those forests that used to exist, we no longer have that fauna, that flora. It is really worrying," said Umenza.

Near Toribio, where Celia Umenza lives and works, illegal gold mining contaminates water with mercury; further north, pesticides used in the cultivation of marijuana poison the soil

 LUIS ROBAYO AFP

The dispute is also about water, she said.

Unlike the native vegetation, she explained, the sugar cane "draws a lot of water and little by little" has been drying up the streams.

In its report, Global Witness said 17 people worldwide were killed in 2020 for their activism against agribusiness, and 20 in disputes over water and dams.

"Companies have been acting irresponsibly for decades, contributing to, and benefiting from, attacks on land and environmental defenders," it noted.

- In the crosshairs -

Near Toribio, where Umenza lives and works, illegal gold mining contaminates water with mercury. Further north, pesticides used in the cultivation of marijuana poison the soil.

Both illegal activities finance dissident FARC guerillas, who rejected a peace pact with the government in 2016 to end a near six-year civil war, as well as fighters of the last remaining rebel group the ELN and paramilitary forces that are still active.

Since the 1970s, the indigenous peoples of the Cauca region of southwest Colombia, where Celia Umenza lives, have been fighting an expansion by sugarcane growers they say are driving them from the fertile lowlands they rely on for survival 

LUIS ROBAYO AFP

According to the Global Witness report, paramilitary and criminal groups have increased their control of rural areas through violence.

"Those seeking to protect their land and environment are increasingly being caught up in the crosshairs of this violence –- with those protecting indigenous land particularly at risk," it said.

Frequently the victims are community members seeking to benefit from a government program to convert illegal coca crops, from which cocaine is derived, into legal ones.

The situation was worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, with official lockdowns leading to defenders being targeted in their homes, and government protection measures being cut.

To make matters even more complicated, Umenza says legal companies benefit from the illegal gold extraction, buying at low prices.

She is protected by the Indigenous Guard, a self-defense organization that confronts perceived intruders armed with batons and two-way radios, but no guns.

"In the indigenous territories we have fortunately managed to keep mining out," said Umenza.

But the price is high, with one member of the Guard killed every week so far this year, she added.

- 'A moving target' -

Umenza says she has received countless death threats since 2001.

The first attempt on her life came in 2005, she says by FARC guerillas, who shot at her while she was walking in the countryside.

Five years later, continued threats forced her to move -- the first of several involuntary relocations, the most recent of which was in January this year.

In 2011, the government's National Protection Unit assigned a vehicle escort to protect Umenza and four other threatened people in the Toribio region.

A few months ago, it offered her a bodyguard and a bullet-proof vest.

She "did not accept because walking around in the vest makes me feel more vulnerable," like a moving target, she told AFP.

Since 2009, Umenza's three children have been living far away for their own safety, and she says their father left her because he "could not stand" the constant threats, attacks and regular uprooting.

She has a new partner today -- but she is realistic about her happy ever after.

"It is not easy living with someone who today takes you on the run, and tomorrow, who knows," she said.

© 2021 AFP

 

Wildcat Gold Mining Is Devastating the Amazon

Sep 11, 2021

Inside Edition
Illegal mining is booming in the Amazon, and that’s bad news for one the earth’s most important natural spaces. The Amazon is home to an incalculable array of plants and animals. A number of indigenous communities also make their home in the world’s largest rainforest, which spans several countries in South America. Every year, the Amazon absorbs billions of tons of carbon dioxide, making it a crucial hedge against human-caused climate change.

Billionaires have been using charity to whitewash their tiny tax bills. It's time to end this incredibly wasteful charade.



Alan Davis
Sun, September 12, 2021

Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates.


Billionaires have long used charity to bolster their public image while avoiding taxes.


Philanthropy is good but should not be a substitute for democratic decision making


The solution to this problem is simple - tax the rich.


Alan Davis is president of The Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund.
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

Jeff Bezos's recent trip into space and the questionable intentions behind his large charitable donations tied to his trip have reignited national conversations around whether the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes. As President Biden continues to push for ambitious new tax increases on wealthy Americans and increased enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service, the question of "what do billionaires owe the rest of us?" has never been more important.

A recent ProPublica exposé showed that the 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion dollars in taxes from 2014 to 2018 as their wealth rose over $400 billion in the same time period, a true tax rate of only 3.4% as determined by ProPublica. Warren Buffett, who is perhaps best known for his support for higher taxes on the wealthy and his plan to donate $4.1 billion to various charitable funds, paid the smallest amount of his wealth in taxes of all the American billionaires profiled in the explosive piece. As his wealth grew by over $24 billion in the mid-2010s, he managed to pay just 0.1% of that in federal income taxes.

In 2006, when Buffett and other wealthy individuals announced that they would be giving away at least 50% (and in some cases up to 99%) of their wealth to charity, it was met with praise by many in the media and in charitable organizations around the world. But if the last year has taught us anything, the most charitable thing billionaires like Buffett and Bezos can do to move our country forward would be paying more in federal taxes. Instead of holding billionaires accountable to the commitments they've made, The Giving Pledge enables and rewards them for moving slowly on charitable donations through the US tax code.


Buffett argues that he believes his money will be of more use to society if disbursed philanthropically than if it is used to slightly reduce an ever-increasing US debt through paying more in taxes. However, while philanthropy is inarguably a good thing, when billionaires use their charitable giving as an argument for why they shouldn't have to pay taxes, what they're really saying is that their beliefs and desires are a better substitute for democratic decision making.

Elected representatives should be able to select how to use money for the public good, rather than relying on billionaires that give to charities in ways that are often in their own personal best interest. For example, while Bezos gave hundreds of millions away to charity to make his self-funded trip into space a little more palatable, he almost certainly spent the same or more amount of money on that very trip, in what was perhaps the most expensive self-indulgence in human history.

Last year, Bill Gates, another billionaire perhaps best known at this point for his philanthropic giving, announced he would be donating $300 million to COVID-19 relief. That's a significant number, but it's pocket change for one of the world's richest individuals. According to his estimated wealth, it's a measly 0.3% of his overall net worth, and Gates earned back that $300 million within just two weeks of donating it based on his passive investments.

This giving also gives Gates heightened influence in the debate over whether the patents associated with COVID-19 vaccination should be suspended to allow the free and widespread distribution of that research. How much better off would the US and the world have been if that money had instead been taken from Gates in the form of tax payments that were then used to fund COVID-19 relief, leaving that up to the democratically-elected US government?

While Gates' charity has since changed his position on waving patent rights to COVID relief, the episode shows that when billionaires donate money to charity it is often done to build credibility that is used to then push their interest over the public good.

The huge trickle-up effect that has taken place in our country for decades, driven in large part by policy changes that favor billionaires, has led to a slowly disappearing middle class, lack of investment in the public good and a deterioration of democracy. Meanwhile the rich continue to amass their wealth at the expense of the country, so much wealth that they can fund their own extraterrestrial travel and then expect that same country to cheer them on.

The solution to this problem is simple: tax the rich. If billionaires want to save the world, they can start advocating for specific, impactful changes to our tax code that will make them and their peers pay their fair share. It is high time that we stop letting the country's wealthy get off by making self-interested donations, and start requiring them to pay more in taxes. The IRS is the country's best charity, so let's make billionaires start funding it.

New UN envoy: Yemen is stuck in `indefinite state of war'


EDITH M. LEDERER
Fri, September 10, 2021

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The new U.N. special envoy for Yemen said Friday that the Arab world’s poorest nation is “stuck in an indefinite state of war” and resuming negotiations to end the more than six-year conflict won’t be easy.

Hans Grundberg, a Swedish diplomat who took up the post four days ago after serving as the European Union’s ambassador to Yemen since 2019, told the U.N. Security Council that “there are no quick wins” in Yemen's civil war.

To chart the best way forward, he said, he plans to review what has worked and what hasn’t, and "listen to as many Yemeni men and women as possible.”

“The conflict parties have not discussed a comprehensive settlement since 2016,” Grundberg said. “It is therefore long overdue for the conflict parties to engage in peaceful dialogue with one another under U.N. facilitation on the terms of an overarching settlement, in good faith and without preconditions.”

Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital of Sanaa and much of the northern part of the country, forcing the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed by the United States, to try restore Hadi to power, and threw its support behind his internationally backed government. Despite a relentless air campaign and ground fighting, the war has deteriorated largely into a stalemate and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The U.S. has since suspended its direct involvement in the conflict.

Grundberg said the U.N.’s approach to ending the conflict must include "meaningful participation of women.”

He said his first consultations with Yemenis and key regional and international parties “will soon start.”

The Security Council welcomed Grundberg's appointment and said in a brief statement that it expects the parties to meet with him “and with each other under U,N. auspices, in good faith and without preconditions.”

Surveying the complex situation in Yemen, Grundberg said that since early 2020 the focus has been on the Houthi offensive in the government-held city of Marib which has cost the lives of thousands of young people and left thousands of displaced civilians living in constant fear of violence and having to move again. In the key port city of Hodeida, there has been “a noticeable decline in cease-fire violations,” but hostilities in southern districts “are of particular concern,” he said.

In southern Yemen, Grundberg said, there have been regular flare-ups of violence and basic services and the economy have deteriorated. He stressed that southern grievances and demands must “play a part” in determining the path forward.

Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, a deputy director in the U.N. humanitarian office, told the council that “the threat of famine is not over in Yemen” but there has been a surge in donor funding over the past few months with the U.N. receiving more than $1.9 billion -- 50% of its total requirement.

As a result, she said, the U.N. has scaled up assistance, reaching 12.8 million people in June -- 3.3 million more than in May -- and famine has been prevented in the first eight months of the year.

Mudawi said a high-level side event on Yemen will take place on Sept. 22 at the U.N. General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders co-hosted by the European Union, Sweden and Switzerland.

Entesar Al-Qadhi, executive director of the Marib Girls Foundation for Development, said three of the 200 families that fled their homes in the embattled city this week to escape attack were her relatives.

Beyond the threat of missiles, she told the council that the conditions in camps for the displaced are “dire,” saying “people are battered by winds, floods and heat of the desert without sufficient shelter” and don’t have sufficient assistance and services.

She urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding a halt to Houthi attacks on Marib, saying this should pave the way for a Yemen-wide cease-fire. She also called on council members to support an inclusive peace process “and ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of diverse women, youth and civil society” in all stages.

Ethiopia: The country where a year lasts 13 months

Lucy Fleming - BBC News
Fri, September 10, 2021

A woman blows a trumpet ahead a procession to mark the victory at the Battle of Adwa - March 2021, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ethiopians are marking the start of a new year, with feasting in many homes despite the difficulties caused by rising prices and the war and hunger crisis raging in the north. Find out more about Ethiopia's unique calendar and cultural heritage.
1) The year lasts 13 months

Not only that - the Ethiopian calendar is also seven years and eight months behind the Western calendar, making Saturday the start of 2014.


This is because it calculates the birth year of Jesus Christ differently. When the Catholic Church amended its calculation in 500 AD, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church did not.

So the new year falls on 11 September in the Western calendar, or 12 September in leap years, at the start of spring.

During the Oromo community's Irreecha celebrations, freshly cut grass and flowers are placed in water to thank God for the beginning of spring

Unlike children growing up elsewhere, there is little need for Ethiopian youngsters to learn rhymes to remember how many days each month has.

In Ethiopia it is simple: 12 months each have 30 days and the 13th - the last of the year - has five or six days, depending on whether it's a leap year.

Time is also counted differently - with the day divided into two 12-hour slots starting from 06:00, which would make both midday and midnight six o'clock in Ethiopian time.

So if someone arranges to meet you in Addis Ababa at 10 o'clock for a cup of coffee - Ethiopia is after all the birthplace of the arabica bean - don't be surprised if they rock up at 16:00.
2) Only African country never colonised

Italy tried to invade Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as it was also known, in 1895, when European powers were carving up the African continent between themselves - but it went on to suffer a humiliating defeat.

Italy had managed to colonise neighbouring Eritrea after an Italian shipping company bought the Red Sea port of Assab. Confusion following the death in 1889 of Ethiopian emperor Yohannes IV then allowed Italy to occupy the highlands along the coast.

A parade is held each year to mark the Battle of Adwa - it was the 125th anniversary in March

But a few years later when Italy tried to push further into Ethiopia, it was defeated at the Battle of Adwa. Four brigades of Italian troops were overcome in a matter of hours on 1 March 1896 by Ethiopians serving under Emperor Menelik II.

Italy was forced to sign a treaty recognising Ethiopia's independence - though decades later fascist leader Benito Mussolini violated it, occupying the country for five years.

One of Menelik's successors, Emperor Haile Selassie, capitalised on his Italian victory by pushing for the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union, which has its headquarters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

"Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are free," Selassie said at the OAU's launch in 1963, a time when much of the continent was still ruled by European powers.

The three main colours of Ethiopia's flag have come to represent pan-Africanism - several post-colonial states adopted them

He invited those leading the fight against colonialism for training - including South Africa's Nelson Mandela - who was granted an Ethiopian passport, which allowed him to travel around Africa in 1962.

Mandela later wrote about the special place Ethiopia held for him ahead of the trip: "I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African."


The man who taught Mandela to be a soldier
3) Rastafarians worship Emperor Haile Selassie

This stems from a quote in 1920 from influential Jamaican black rights leader Marcus Garvey, who was behind the Back to Africa movement: "Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand."

A decade later, when 38-year-old Ras Tafari (or Chief Tafari) was crowned Ethiopia's Haile Selassie I, many in Jamaica saw this as the prophecy coming true, and the Rastafari movement was born.

Haile Selassie (left) denied he was immortal

Reggae legend Bob Marley was instrumental in spreading the Rasta message - and the lyrics to his song, War, quote the emperor's address to the UN General Assembly in 1963 calling for world peace: "Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned… until that day, the African continent will not know peace."

The title track of Marley's Exodus, named by Time magazine as the album of the 20th Century, reflects the Rastafari desire to return to Africa, which millions of people were forced to leave during the transatlantic slave trade.

The Ethiopian emperor was greeted by tens of thousands of Rastafarians when he went to Jamaica in 1966

To this day a small Rastafarian community lives in the Ethiopian town of Shashamene, 225km (150 miles) south of Addis Ababa, on land granted by Selassie to black people from the West who had supported him against Mussolini.

Selassie, an Orthodox Christian, may not have been a Rasta believer, insisting that he was not immortal, but Rastafarians still revere him as the Lion of Judah.

This is a reference to Selassie's alleged lineage, which Rastafarians, and many Ethiopians, believe can be traced back to the biblical King Solomon.

The flawed Rastafarian 'promised land'

4) Home to the Ark of the Covenant

For many Ethiopians, the sacred chest holding the two tablets with the Ten Commandments which the bible says were given to Moses by God is not lost - Hollywood's Indiana Jones need only have gone to the city of Aksum.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church says the ark is under constant guard on the grounds of Aksum's Our Lady Mary of Zion Church, where no-one is allowed to see it.

Tradition has it that the church has this precious relic thanks to the Queen of Sheba, whose existence may be disputed by historians, but generally not by Ethiopians.

They believe she travelled from Aksum to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon to find out more about his reputed wisdom in around 950 BC.

The story of her journey and seduction by Solomon are detailed in the Kebra Nagast epic (Glory of the Kings) - an Ethiopian literary work written in the Ge'ez language in the 14th Century.

It tells how Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, gave birth to a son - Menelik (meaning Son of the Wise) - and how years later he travelled to Jerusalem to meet his father.

Solomon wanted him to stay and rule after his death, but agreed to the young man's wish to go home, sending him back with a contingent of Israelites - one of whom stole the ark, replacing the original with a forgery.

When Menelik found out he agreed to keep it, believing it to be God's will that it stay in Ethiopia - and for the country's Orthodox Christians it remains sacred and something they are still willing to protect with their lives.

This was evident last year when, during the conflict that has erupted in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray, soldiers from Eritrea reportedly tried to loot Our Lady Mary of Zion Church in the aftermath of an horrific massacre.

A civil servant in the city told the BBC that young people ran to the site to protect the ark: "Every man and woman fought them. They fired guns and killed some, but we are happy as we did not fail to protect our treasures."

How a massacre in Ethiopia’s sacred city unfolded

5) Home to first Muslims outside Arabia

"If you were to go to Abyssinia, you will find a king who will not tolerate injustice," the Prophet Muhammed is said to have told his followers when they first faced persecution in 7th Century Mecca, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

One of the mausoleums at the historic al-Negashi Mosque was damaged in the ongoing Tigray conflict

This was at the time the prophet had just begun his sermons, which proved so popular that he was seen as a threat by the city's non-Muslim rulers.

Taking his advice, a small group set off to the Kingdom of Aksum, which then covered much of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea, where they were indeed welcomed and allowed to practise their religion by the Christian monarch Armah - whose royal title in Ge'ez was Negus, or Negashi in Arabic.

The village of Negash, in what is now Tigray, is where these migrants are thought to have settled and built what is considered by some to be the oldest mosque in Africa. Last year, the al-Negashi Mosque was shelled during the fighting in Tigray.

Local Muslims believe that 15 disciples of the prophet are also buried in Negash.

In Islamic history this move to Aksum became known as the first Hijra or migration.

Today Muslims make up nearly 34% of Ethiopia's more than 115 million inhabitants.


Inside 'Africa's Mecca'


How Ethiopia has changed over the last 50 years

The US ranks second highest among high-income countries in terms of vaccine hesitancy, one chart shows

Aylin Woodward
Sat, September 11, 2021

Anti-vaccination protesters pray and rally near Los Angeles City Hall in California on August 14, 2021. David McNew/AFP via Getty Images

About one-quarter of Americans are unwilling to get vaccinated or uncertain if they will do so.

The US ranks second, behind Russia, on vaccine hesitancy out of 15 high-income countries.  CONSPIRACY THEORY NATIONS


A chart from Morning Consult shows how different countries compare in terms of vaccine hesitancy.


Unvaccinated Americans are 11 times more likely to die and 10 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 than people who are fully vaccinated, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Friday.

But despite these elevated risks, nearly 1 in 5 US adults remains unwilling to get vaccinated.

A recent survey by Morning Consult, an intelligence company that specializes in online survey research, found that 17% of US adults don't intend to get COVID-19 shots, and another 10% aren't sure if they will get vaccinated - meaning more than one-quarter of Americans are vaccine hesitant.

The US has the second highest vaccine hesitancy rate out of 15 high-income countries, according to Morning Consult's analysis.

Russia has the highest rate, as shown in the chart below - 28% of residents there are unwilling to get their shots, and another 15% aren't sure if they will get vaccinated.

A chart shows the rates of vaccine hesitancy in 15 countries based on data collected between August 31 and September 6, 2021. Morning Consult

The analysis is based on at least 50,000 interviews with adults in the US and 14 other countries conducted between August 31 and September 6. The company asked respondents if they had been vaccinated, then gave them four different response options: "Yes," "No, but I will get it in the future," "No, and I am not sure if I will get it in the future," or "No, and I do not plan to get it."

Another chart by Our World In Data suggests a similar ranking: As of August 15, the US had a higher rate of vaccine hesitancy than 13 other high-income nations, according to that data. (The ranking does not include Russia.)

Vaccine hesitancy has been higher in the US throughout the pandemic

A child holds a sign at a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in New York City on August 9, 2021. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

High levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy isn't a new phenomenon in the US.

A February analysis found that vaccine acceptance rates in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and China - which ranged between 91% and 93% - were nearly double the rates in Italy, Russia, Poland, the US, and France, which averaged 56%. The analysis examined surveys conducted across 33 different countries in December 2020, when vaccines weren't widely available.

A July study also revealed that COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates were lower in the US and Russia than in less wealthy countries. On average, the vaccine acceptance rate across 10 low- and middle-income countries - Colombia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and six African nations - was more than 80%. But the average acceptance rates in the US and Russia were 65% and 30%, respectively.
Concerns over side effects drives hesitancy in the US

Debbie Bonnett (left) administers a COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination clinic at Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans on August 14, 2021. Mario Tama/Getty Images

About 54% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of Friday, up from 48% in mid-July, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In general, concerns over vaccine-related side effects and worry that vaccine clinical trials moved too fast are the top two drivers of vaccine hesitancy across all 15 countries, the Morning Consult survey found.

That said, the percentage of surveyed Americans who are unwilling to get vaccinated has been slowly decreasing since mid-March, when Morning Consult first started polling US adults.

A volunteer passes out vaccination information at a pop-up vaccination center in Halifax, England on July 31, 2021. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Between March 10 and April 19, the percentage of those surveyed who were unwilling to get vaccinated hovered between 20% and 21%. By mid-July, that figure was 19%. By early September, it had dropped to 17% - meaning about one-fifth of formerly unwilling Americans had changed their minds in the last six months.

However, vaccine hesitancy dropped about twice as fast, on average, in the 14 other high-income countries included in the survey.

Utah vaccinations jump after encouragement from Mormon leaders, dip due to 'conspiracy theories'

Matthew Miller

Sun, September 12, 2021, 

Utah's vaccination rate spiked after the Church of Latter-day Saints issued a strong statement encouraging vaccinations, then decreased in the weeks that followed.

"To limit exposure to these viruses, we urge the use of face masks in public meetings whenever social distancing is not possible," the church's statement read. "To provide personal protection from such severe infections, we urge individuals to be vaccinated. Available vaccines have proven to be both safe and effective."

The governing body, known as the First Presidency, reportedly instructed California Mormon leaders not to sign religious exemptions to the vaccine. The state of Utah is 61% Mormon.

BIDEN VACCINE MANDATE LEAVES COMPANIES SCRAMBLING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO COMPLY

Some 65% of Mormom church members said they support vaccination, according to a July report by the Public Religion Research Institute. The remaining 35%, however, stand to threaten the Mormon church's long-held tradition of large public religious gatherings.

A week after the church's announcement encouraging vaccination, Utah's seven-day vaccine administration average rose from 7,204 to 8,076, Newsweek reported. The following week, the average dipped to 7,517 before falling to 7,267 the next week.

Matt Harris, an expert on Mormon history at Colorado State University Pueblo, says that the minority of Mormons resisting the vaccine are "accustomed to conspiracy theories" and are absorbing information outside of the instruction of the First Presidency.

"Because they become accustomed to these conspiracy theories over the years, it's easy for Latter-day Saints today to think the election was stolen or that vaccines are evil," Harris explained. "This is the way by which they've been indoctrinated into viewing the world and also government."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The John Birch Society, an entity connected to former Mormon leader Ezra Taft Benson, is to blame for the minority of Mormons who fall into this category, Harris says. Benson served as the church's 13th president and prophet from 1985-1994, introducing far-right and anti-communist influence to the church.

"Benson and his scouts had planted the seeds over at least three or four decades," Harris explained. "When Trump was elected in 2016, it sort of brought all of this to the surface."

USA

Big Mad Anti-Vaxxers Are Planning a Walkout — and It’s Flopping

EJ Dickson

ROLLING STONE
Fri, September 10, 2021

AP21242210371698c - Credit: Paul Weaver/Sipa USA/AP Images

When President Biden announced last night that his administration would be instituting vaccine mandates for up to 100 million Americans, no one expected anti-vaxxers and far-right extremists to be particularly happy. Yet one would’ve thought they would’ve organized something a little better than this.

In response to Biden’s mandate, which requires that federal employees be vaccinated against Covid-19 or be subject to weekly testing, anti-vaxxers predictably became enraged, swapping calls for revolution and uprising and sharing template forms for how to request religious exemptions from their employers. (He also announced that workers at companies with more than 100 employees would be subject to vaccine requirements, though they will have the option of weekly testing, instead.)

One far-right influencer who appeared to have been particularly enraged by the mandate was Ron Watkins, the former administrator of the message board and bastion of far-right extremism 8chan (Watkins is also widely believed to be “Q,” the anonymous poster responsible for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory; prior to being suspended from Twitter in January for promoting QAnon, Watkins had a large following on Twitter and was occasionally retweeted by former President Trump. He has since pivoted to spamming subscribers and ranting about UFOs.) Last night, he posted a video on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where he has more than 420,000 subscribers, with the caption “Info coming soon. #TheGreatAmericanWalkout,” showing off posters with the slogan “No forced vaccinations.”

Earlier today, Watkins posted a flier for #TheGreatAmericanWalkout, encouraging Americans “willing to stand against forced vaccinations” to walk out of their jobs and schools in protest between September 11 and September 14. “God has given us inalienable rights and freedoms. With increasingly tyrannical mandates, they are trying to take your God given rights away from you. Now we STAND UP to tell them NO,” he wrote. Watkins also posted the contact information for a print shop in San Diego where people participating in the protest could print out banners and fliers. (Watkins did not immediately return a request for comment.)

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that many people have heeded the call to “STAND UP” against the tyranny of being encouraged to take a potentially life-saving vaccine. According to data provided to Rolling Stone by Darren Linvill, an associate professor at Clemson University and researcher into social media disinformation, the hashtag only has a little more than 500 tweets, most of which come from accounts with a few hundred followers, far fewer than one would expect for an organized social media campaign. The largest amplifier of the hashtag was an account with 10,000 followers, and even that tweet only garnered a few retweets. “End of the day on Friday is not when you want to start this kind of thing,” he says. The hashtags also has less than 100 posts on Instagram.

People on the internet have also started skewering the attempt to start a social movement, pointing out just how ineffectual a “walkout” organized largely on a weekend could be. “Yes, all of the students are gonna walk out of their schools on September 11 and 12….on a weekend,” one YouTuber said. Even those on the right have criticized the campaign. “I do not support a national walkout, Sept. 11-14. Whoever is ‘organizing’ this seems sus,” Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander wrote on Telegram, adding, “Everyone indiscriminately walking out, starting on a Saturday, and with that many people remote, makes NO SENSE.”

Additionally, when contacted by Rolling Stone, an employee at Green House Sign Design, the company Watkins promoted on Telegram, said he had received only two actual orders to print #GreatAmericanWalkout signs. Though he refused to disclose the name of the customer who had placed the original order, he said that he did not share the customers’ views about vaccine mandates. “That question shouldn’t be asked to me,” he said. “I’m just a printer trying to make money.”

Northern Idaho's anti-government streak hampers COVID fight



NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Sun, September 12, 2021, 

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — Northern Idaho has a long and deep streak of anti-government activism that has confounded attempts to battle a COVID-19 outbreak overwhelming hospitals in the deeply conservative region.

A deadly 1992 standoff with federal agents near the Canadian border helped spark an expansion of radical right-wing groups across the country and the area was for a long time the home of the Aryan Nations, whose leader envisioned a “White Homeland” in the county that is now among the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hospitals in northern Idaho are so packed with COVID-19 patients that authorities announced last week that facilities would be allowed to ration health care.


“This is extremism beyond anything I ever witnessed,” Tony Stewart said of people who refused to get vaccinated and wear masks.

Stewart is a founding member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which battled the Aryan Nations for decades and helped bankrupt the neo-Nazi group. “I’m almost speechless in seeing so many people have lost concern for their fellow humans.”

Only 41% of Kootenai County's 163,000 residents were fully vaccinated, well below the state average of about 56%, officials said.

Anti-government sentiments are strong in northern Idaho.

State Rep. Heather Scott, a Republican from Blanchard in the northern part of the state, refused an interview request, saying reporters were liars. Scott promoted mask-burning protests around northern Idaho and the rest of the state earlier this year. She is also among the lawmakers that have frequently pushed misinformation about COVID-19 on Facebook.

Stewart called fierce opponents of vaccines an “irrational segment of the population.”

But not everyone agrees there is a problem.

David Hall, 53, who co-owns a restaurant in bustling downtown Coeur d'Alene, said Friday he “serves hundreds of customers a week and I've heard of nobody that's been hospitalized.”

“Not a single person who worked for me got it,” Hall said of COVID-19. “I don't know where (patients) are coming from."

One thing Hall does know is news of packed hospitals is bad for business, saying his revenues have dropped.

Don Kress, 65, of Coeur d'Alene, said he believes that Kootenai Health, the town's major hospital, is overflowing with patients.

“It's become such a politicized issue,” he said of COVID-19. “If you take the politics out of it and let common sense prevail, people will get the shot.”

Northern Idaho has had an anti-government segment of the population for decades. It was the site of the standoff at Ruby Ridge, north of the town of Sandpoint.

Randy Weaver moved his family to the area in the 1980s to escape what he saw as a corrupt world. Over time, federal agents began investigating the Army veteran for possible ties to white supremacist and anti-government groups. Weaver was eventually suspected of selling a government informant two illegal sawed-off shotguns.

To avoid arrest, Weaver holed up on his land.

On Aug. 21, 1992, a team of U.S. marshals scouting the forest to find suitable places to ambush and arrest Weaver came across his friend, Kevin Harris, and Weaver’s 14-year-old son Samuel in the woods. A gunfight broke out. Samuel Weaver and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed.

The next day, an FBI sniper shot and wounded Randy Weaver. As members of the group ran back toward the house, the sniper fired a second bullet, which passed through wife Vicki Weaver’s head — killing her — and wounding Harris in the chest. The family surrendered on Aug. 31, 1992.

The Aryan Nations was not specifically anti-government, but it drew many disaffected people to the area after white supremacist Richard Butler moved there in 1973 from California.

Four years after moving to rural Kootenai County, Butler — a former aeronautical engineer — started a compound. The 20-acre site north of Hayden Lake would become a racist encampment that drew people from across the country. The group held parades in downtown Coeur d’Alene and annual summits at the compound. By the 1990s, the Aryan Nations had one of the first hate websites.

The Aryan Nations compound and its contents were burned and bulldozed after a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center bankrupted the group in 2000.

Now COVID-19 has exacerbated conflicts in Coeur d'Alene, a fast-growing resort and retirement community that hugs the shore of a namesake lake and draws celebrities and the rich to gorgeous lakefront homes. High-rise condos have replaced lumber mills near the lakefront, and swanky stores abound.

Last year, armed groups patrolled the city's downtown core to protect against non-existent Black Lives Matter protesters.

COVID-19 has thrived in this environment.

Kootenai Health has 200 beds for medical or surgical patients. On Wednesday, Kootenai Health’s doctors and nurses were caring for 218 medical and surgical patients, aided by military doctors and nurses called in to help with the surge.

On Friday, the hospital tallied 101 COVID-19 patients, including 35 requiring critical care. The hospital normally has just 26 intensive care unit beds.

Jeanette Laster is executive director of the Human Rights Education Institute, which was established in the wake of the Aryan Nation's rise in the region.

She cautioned that it is incorrect to assume that the neo-Nazi philosophy of the Aryans is related to the anti-government sentiments that now dominate the political agenda.

The Aryan Nations was a white supremacist, antisemitic group, she said, while anti-government sentiments are rooted in freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

“I don't feel the majority of our community is hateful,” Laster said. “This is more about constitutional rights.”

Distrust of the media and authorities is also an issue, she said.

“People are begging for accurate information,” Laster said. “There's a lot of fear.”

Taliban spokesman says women incapable
of performing government jobs

Virginia Aabram

Fri, September 10, 2021

A Taliban spokesman made clear what kind of role women would play under the new regime, and it doesn’t bode well for those hoping for an inclusive government.

In an interview on Afghanistan’s Tolo News on Thursday, Sayed Zekrullah Hashimi said women are incapable of performing government duties.

“A woman cannot do the work of the ministry — you put something on her neck that she cannot carry,” Hashimi said, according to a translation.

He dismissed the women who took to the streets to protest against the new government, arguing it does not indicate how most women in the country feel.

“The four women protesting in the streets do not represent the women of Afghanistan,” he said. "The women of Afghanistan are those who give birth to the people of Afghanistan and educate them on Islamic ethics.”

The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan last month as U.S. forces departed. There were multiple women in political positions when the U.S.-backed government fell.

Two decades after 9/11 British authorities continue to allow Taliban to launder money in the UK


Henry Bodkin
Sat, September 11, 2021,

Two former US Government officials spoke to The Telegraph as the Taliban cemented its grip on Afghanistan, having swept back into power last month after 20 years of western military presence - SETH MCALLISTER/AFP

UK authorities are still allowing the Taliban to launder its money in the UK 20 years after 9/11 because of their inability to take on the City, a former White House intelligence chief has said.

Robert Greenway, a senior director at the National Security Council, said Britain missed opportunities to prevent the militant group and its associates from using London as a money-laundering hub, and of preventing donations from sympathisers.

He is one of two former US Government officials to speak publicly about the frustration in Washington in recent years over the UK’s failure to act.

Another, Gretchen Peters, who now runs the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime, revealed she was part of a 2012 US delegation to London to “beg” the Government to take the issue seriously.

They spoke to The Telegraph as the Taliban cemented its grip on Afghanistan, having swept back into power last month after 20 years of western military presence.
British authorities 'ran into obstacles'

Mr Greenway described British counter-terror officials as “committed”, but said: "Activities and actions have been more problematic because when you’re doing business in London, which is a corporation not a city in my experience, it becomes really problematic to take effective law enforcement action.

“My sense is the British authorities were always enthusiastic but they ran into obstacles, just because of the way that the laws and the authorities were configured, in and around London in particular.”

The former special forces officer and intelligence advisor to General David Patreus, now a fellow at the Hudson Institute, pointed to the existence of hawalas, unregulated money networks used widely in the Arab word and south Asia, and the exchange houses which facilitate them.

He said the networks are used by the Taliban’s Pakistani affiliates to infiltrate the group's money - much of it made from drugs - into the legitimate global financial system, ending up in hubs such as London, often via the Gulf.

Hawalas, many of which have brokers or “hawaladars” in the UK, are also used by Taliban sympathisers to wire donations directly from the west.
Networks funding terror common knowledge in intelligence circles

The potential of the networks to fund terror have been common knowledge in intelligence circles for the best part of 20 years and were extensively discussed in the 9/11 Commission Report.

The same report found that al-Qaeda operatives had kept funds in the UK in the years before the devastating attack.

It was also the subject of a 2012 report by the United Nations Security Council.

However, Ms Peters said that hawala networks suspected of being involved in Taliban and other terror funding via the UK were “100 per cent still happening”.

“When I was working for the DoD (Department of Defense) we came over to London and met with the Brits about this,” she said.

“There was really never a comprehensive effort to follow the money around Taliban drug trafficking - I begged for it to happen.”
Taking on more sophisticated terror financing could 'open a can of worms'

The US has had some success against financial networks, such as persuading the UAE Central Bank to revoke the license of the Al Zarooni Exchange for violations of anti-money laundering regulations.

Ms Peters also echoed her former colleague’s concern about the ability of UK authorities to take on more sophisticated terror financing.

“Because the City of London has become such a major centre for money laundering generally, there is a hesitancy on the part of the British to open that can of worms to look too closely,” she said.

In January Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Economic Crime Centre, warned the City that up to half of all dirty money being laundered by Russia is being done so through the UK.

Dr Rakib Ehsan, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a London think tank, said: “We know that much of the financial and logistical support the Taliban has received comes from Pakistan, but that the ultimate origin of some of that is in the West.

“That’s something that we as a country haven’t been as urgent as we should have been in terms of clamping down on those transfer activities.

“This is something we have to take very seriously.”

A Taliban fighter stands guard as Afghan women shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan protest rally, near the Pakistan embassy in Kabul - AFP

A government spokesman said: “It is wrong to suggest the Government isn’t taking action to help prevent the funding of terrorism.

“In light of the situation in Afghanistan, we have engaged with businesses in the region about the increased risks criminals seeking to exploit them to launder money or finance terrorism.

“More widely, the UK Government, law enforcement and the financial sector are cracking down on terrorist financing through the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Task Force, which shares intelligence allowing us to better detect and prevent the movement of terrorist funds.”

#LEGALIZEDRUGS

‘Large waves’ of Afghanistan’s heroin supply to hit Britain’s streets


Charles Hymas
Fri, September 10, 2021,

An Afghan opium farmer stands next to his poppy field in the remote village of Baqwa in Farah - John Moore/Getty Images

Heroin supply on to the streets of Britain from Afghanistan is set to increase after the fall of the country to the Taliban, a senior policing leader has warned.

Donna Jones, the lead for serious and organised crime for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said police chiefs were concerned the loss of UK and US forces’ checks on exports would pave the way for more heroin trafficking into the UK.

Afghanistan accounts for 82 per cent of global opium cultivation, according to the National Crime Agency, with most heroin that reaches the UK trafficked through the western Balkans.


“Having checks over airport borders and shipping containers has given us an element of control,” said Ms Jones, the police and crime commissioner for Hampshire.

“With an unstable government, with the Taliban in those key roles, do we believe that these organised crime issues could be overlooked or even possibly supported by the Taliban in Afghanistan? I’d say probably yes.”

The opium trade is a major source of income for a large proportion of the Afghan population as it is far more profitable than wheat or other crops.

For about a year before the Taliban were overthrown by the US-led coalition 20 years ago, they had declared opium production as un-Islamic and led a successful campaign eradicating almost all production in areas it controlled.

However, in the past 20 years, the drug trade has become a significant source of income for the Taliban insurgency against the US.

“It is highly unlikely the Taliban will prioritise a ban on opium production at a time when they are badly in need of funds. This is the cognitive dissonance that will be going on in the minds of their leadership: ideology versus necessity,” said a police source.

Ms Jones said the initial impact was expected to be limited. “I don’t think the increase is hitting the person on the street yet, but I think it will do over the next six to 12 months and I think it will do in quite large waves,” she said.

“As a commissioner who has responsibility for making sure that we are tackling drug-related harm, I am very concerned about the effect of heroin on the streets of Britain over the next year and beyond.”

The number of drug-related deaths are at their highest on record, at 4,561 in 2020 in England and Wales, with heroin and morphine accounting for more than a third.

The warning over heroin imports coincides with a national alert by Public Health England over a surge in overdoses that have accounted for at least 16 deaths in less than two weeks in southern England.

Three of deaths – linked to heroin adulterated with the synthetic opioid isotonitazene – had been in Hampshire, said Ms Jones. Isotonitazene is said to be 500 times stronger than morphine.

Jason Harwin, deputy chief constable and the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for drugs, said: “Heroin causes significant harm and misery in our communities and police continue to work hard to target those who import and sell it. We are monitoring and reviewing intelligence in relation to heroin being imported from overseas.”

Container shipping making waves on St. Lawrence/Great Lakes system


Chris Brock, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
Sun, September 12, 2021

LONG READ

Sep. 12—On Monday, the container ship Peyton Lynn C, which loaded in Antwerp, Belgium, passed through the locks in Massena and Iroquois, Ontario, on her way upriver on the St. Lawrence heading for the Great Lakes. In her wake, her owners believe, may be a new era in regards to a shipping method for the international waterway.

Industry experts say that about 90% of non-bulk cargo worldwide is transported by container ships, with large coastal ports along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans the hubs of that activity. But the container vessel business model has begun to create ripples in the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes.

At the Port of Oswego, executive director William W. Scriber is excited for its potential but extremely frustrated about the delay in its implementation on the Great Lakes and especially at his port, which he says is due to the red tape of U.S. Customs.


"This has been one of my major gripes for years here," Mr. Scriber said. "We're held back from reaching the potential of a container port on the Great Lakes. We're the only port in New York state on Lake Ontario. We would be the perfect, perfect place for the dropping of containers here."

Meanwhile in Montreal, by 2024, with the support of Canada Infrastructure Bank and private partners, the port intends to develop a new state-of-the-art container terminal to handle 1.15 million 20-foot equivalent units per year.

"This project will strengthen our world-class logistics hub in the heart of the St. Lawrence Valley," the port announced in a news release.

In June, the MSC Melissa, the largest container ship to sail the St. Lawrence, arrived in Montreal before heading back to Europe. The dimensions of the vessel (994 feet long and 131 feet wide) are too large for further upriver travel through the Seaway lock system.

In Ohio, at the Port of Cleveland, its operators are excited to see its container shipping operations grow, with the help of ships like the Peyton Lynn C. In 2014, the port invested millions of dollars into a project that allows for the handling of container ships.

"We saw the need for a container service on the Great Lakes," said David S. Gutheil, chief commercial officer for the Port of Cleveland. "There's been a lot of studies over the years. We're handling a few thousand containers a year and we're happy now that Spliethoff is adding another vessel to grow the business."

The Peyton Lynn C. was purchased by H.R. Doornekamp Construction/Shipping Services Ltd., a family owned business based in Odessa, Ontario, about 12 miles from Kingston. It also owns and operates Picton Terminals, located in Prince Edward County in northeast Lake Ontario.

Doornekamp's first vessel, the Peyton Lynn C is being leased by Spliethoff, a worldwide ocean transport company. Peyton Lynn C was built in 2007 and is on her maiden voyage under new owner Doornekamp. She will be sailing a regular schedule between the ports of Antwerp (Belgium), Picton, Ontario, and Cleveland under long-term charter by Spliethoff.

Peyton Lynn C is scheduled to discharge her container cargo in Picton, continue to Cleveland for discharge and loading before heading back to Antwerp. Transit time is 12 days to Picton and 15 days to Cleveland. It's part of Spliethoff's Cleveland Europe Express (CCE) in response to the high demand for tonnage between Europe and the Great Lakes.

"We're going from two calls per month to three calls per month on our container service," Mr. Gutheil said.

Containers, he said, can carry anything from foodstuffs to automobile parts.

"From a container standpoint, typically it's more cost-effective to move goods, depending on how much goods you have in a single container, than it is in break bulk," Mr. Gutheil said. "Moving the cargo in a container certainly makes it much more efficient when the container is discharged off a vessel, picked up by truck and taken to its final destination."

Benjamin Doornekamp, owner of Doornekamp Construction and Picton Terminals, said the Peyton Lynn C was modified for the Seaway and Great Lakes system and will be the only vessel that's designed to solely focus on containers with a regular route on the system. The CEE service has run mainly with Spliethoff-owned versatile multi-purpose "tweendecker" vessels, able to carry a variety of cargo types, but Peyton Lynn C carries containers only.

"There's been a few other one-off tries and odd times when the Port of Montreal was on strike, or the rail was blocked," Mr. Doornekamp said. "I've seen some others that might be trying it, but this seems to be the first that's coming, and repeating, coming directly from Europe."

Michael J. Folsom, founder of the St. Lawrence Seaway Shipwatchers Facebook group and an industry expert, said that the addition of Peyton Lynn C provides new opportunities for trading between Europe, Nova Scotia and the Great Lakes.

"Between cost cutting on shipping by getting containers further inland to a potential need for more port workers to offload cargo, while adding another vessel in the container business, it's a good thing for the industry," Mr. Folsom said.

A few vessels hauling containers were seen in the early days of the Seaway, which opened in 1959.

"Back when containerization came to fruition in the global maritime industry back in the late '60s, early '70s, there were a few scheduled services on the Great Lakes," said Mr. Gutheil. "But as containerization grew and grew, the ships became larger and larger and the ships became too large to get in the St. Lawrence Seaway through the locks. That's when the coastal container business out of the large ports started to grow in stature, size and importance."

Mr. Doornekamp said that the Peyton Lynn C is a diversification of the company's construction, property management and port operations. He said the company is well-situated for the development of container vessel shipping. The company purchased Picton Terminals in 2015. It was built in 1953 for Bethlehem Steel to ship pelletized iron ore to the USA. Since the late 1970s, its infrastructure had been dormant

Mr. Doornekamp said that with his company owning the container ship and the revitalized Picton port, it makes container shipping more economically feasible.

"It just simplifies it," he said. "Whenever you simplify something, it's typically cheaper."

One historical drawback to the container method, he said, has always been the Seaway's annual three-month shutdown. Another, he said, is the lack of ports designed to handle containers.

"Another main blocker is that anybody who has sort of tried to do containers in the past, in most situations, there was a port at each end, stevedores at each end, agents at each end and ship owners," he said. "There was always six to 10 hands in the cookie jar trying to get money out of it and making it very, very expensive."

It's a situation with too many people owning different assets, Mr. Doornekamp said.

"In our case, we're the owner of the ship, we're the owner of the port, we're the owner of the trucks. The only part of the puzzle we don't own is the Port of Halifax."

The Peyton Lynn C is also scheduled to make regular stops at Halifax, the largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

"They'll be one of the ports of call, but Picton being the main call, and Cleveland for the U.S.," Mr. Doornekamp said.

Doornekamp also owns a second ship, the Vivienne Sheri D, scheduled to come on line soon. She is not yet fitted for the Seaway and won't be traveling the river for at least the next two years. It's assigned route now is Europe to Halifax and Portland, Maine.

Doornekamp is also in the process of purchasing a third and fourth ship, Mr. Doornekamp said.

"With the big shipping companies, their big ships can't fit down the Seaway," he said. "We made some modifications to get the biggest possible ships through the Seaway for economy of scale. It's a positive for customers, because it's one-stop from Europe to say, Ontario or to northern U.S."

Steven J. Lawrence, executive director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority, said port officials have given some thought about the potential that shipping containers could bring.

"But usually, it's not in numbers that work," he said.

The Ogdensburg port does deal with containers related to shipments of windmill parts that come in. Related parts like electrical panels are shipped in the containers.

"We've got the large forklifts to handle them," Mr. Lawrence said. "But at this point, where we're located, there's not a real market to move by containers. There's other options. Ours are just on a project basis."

In Oswego, Mr. Scriber is frustrated that the potential for the increased business that container vessels could bring his port is sailing on by. About seven years ago, the port, a state agency, purchased container movers. The port also has rail service directly to the water and is on the Barge Canal, enticing opportunities for the movement of containers.

"We were going to be one of the major container operators from the St. Lawrence into the Great Lakes," Mr. Scriber said. "We have two operational container movers we purchased in anticipation of the possible use of containers here."

The issue preventing it, he said, is one shared by the Port of Monroe in Michigan: Restrictions placed upon them by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"I'm not looking for a fight with Customs," Mr. Scriber said. "I'm just simply saying there needs to be a sit down discussion on Customs' regulations as it affects the 'one size fits all' on the Great Lakes."

He said the Port of Oswego is in the same boat with the Port of Monroe in Michigan. On Aug. 21, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, toured the Port of Monroe with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, including acting Commissioner Troy Miller, and port leaders to assess operations and discuss resolving ongoing cargo clearance challenges the port faces. Mr. Peters has said the port has been restricted by CBP's Detroit Field Office from accepting international break bulk cargo and prohibited the port from accepting international maritime containers, unless the port invested in significant and costly screening technology and infrastructure upgrades.

The Port of Cleveland and Port of Oswego, Mr. Scriber said, have been held to different CBP screening equipment standards.

"There's no consistency on the Great Lakes," he said. "Cleveland was able to do what they've done because Customs gave them a break and let them have a period to equip themselves for all these standards. In Pennsylvania and New York, there is none. Here, it's like, 'You've got to build and do everything exactly according to our book the way we want it or you're not going to do containers.' It's different districts. Each Customs district has its own interpretation of what they want to do."

For example, Mr. Scriber said one recommendation is building mobile radiation monitors that would scan containers.

"That's just too costly for a port the size of Monroe and Oswego," he said. "We're sort of the same size. We could not do those sort of improvements with the low volume of containers that we would receive. It's frustrating."

Mr. Scriber said that mobile radiation monitors could be deployed by Customs to ports like Oswego.

"They have equipment that I could use for containers," he said. "The government already owns it, yet I can't get access. I have to buy my own."

Two years ago, Mr. Scriber spoke at a meeting of the American Association of Port Authorities.

"I advocated that Customs' regulations stunt growth of jobs and economic growth, both ways, import and export, on the Great Lakes," he said. "They add a huge cost to transportation that does not need to be there. The regulations they have are built on one size fits all, which is asinine. At the Great Lakes, we should have our own set of regulations that are both safe and economical."

The Port of Oswego, the first U.S. port of call and deep-water port on the Great Lakes from the St. Lawrence Seaway, has phase one completed on an intermodal yard — a facility designed for the loading and unloading of containers for movement on the railroad and subsequent movement on the street or highway.

"And we purchased a couple of container movers from the federal government in anticipation of having to do it in the future," Mr. Scriber said. "The only thing not there is the asphalt and the containers. Outside of that, we could be up and running in a month."

There would be less costs for shippers if the containers arrived in Oswego, Mr. Scriber said, because vessel owners wouldn't have to spend money for transport further west.

"We're unique because we're the first American port on the Great Lakes," he said. "This would be a huge advantage beyond Cleveland."

The Port of Cleveland contracted its Cleveland Europe Express service with Spliethoff in 2014.

"That was, and still is, the only container service on the Great Lakes," Mr. Gutheil said. "We charter the ship ourselves. We saw the need for container service on the Great Lakes. There were some shippers that for a long time supported the business. It's small. Compared to coastal ports, we're handling a few thousand containers a year."

The arrival of the Peyton Lynn C to the Port of Cleveland brings a new element to the business.

"This one is a container-only vessel," Mr. Gutheil said. "Whereas the ones we've been involved in since 2014 are multi-purpose vessels. They can handle containers and break bulk cargo."

On Aug. 29, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported that 44 freight ships were stuck awaiting entry into California's two largest ports, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The queue is a result of the labor shortage, COVID-19-related disruptions and holiday-buying surges," Business Insider reported.

"I think the Great Lakes needs to be viewed as a kind of a relief valve, so to speak, for a lot of the big coastal ports that are extremely congested, not very efficient right now," Mr. Gutheil said. "The problems moving containers through the big coastal ports now is becoming exacerbated by what's going on in the global supply chain."

In July, Sen. Peters wrote an op-ed in the Great Lakes Seaway Review. It said, in part: "The Great Lakes and the shipping industry they support are an economic engine for our entire region. Demand for e-commerce and other changes to supply chains have increased congestion at already busy sea ports along the east and west coasts. Heartland ports in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System offer a ready-made relief valve to alleviate some of this congestion."

John M. Peach, executive director of Save the River, a nonprofit designed to protect and preserve the ecological integrity of the Upper St. Lawrence River through advocacy, education, and research, said the idea of the Seaway becoming a container route has been kicked around for decades. Recently, he's noticed photos of container vessels being posted.

"But what's different now is these are ships really loaded with containers," he said. "Occasionally, you'd see one of the standard freighters with a couple of containers on them."

More ships in the system, he said, increase the risk for invasive species.

"It's new traffic coming through the Seaway and I understand that's economically important for the ports," Mr. Peach said. "But we have the same concerns that we've always had of the saltwater ships coming into the system, with ballast water exchange and the transport of invasive species."

The invasives that have left their detrimental mark in the St. Lawrence include zebra and quagga mussels, gobies and sea lampreys. But containers, Mr. Peach said, may bring new threats.

"Containers can bring in species that aren't necessarily aquatic species," he said. "They can bring in species of insects and other animals. They come out when they're unloaded."

He added, "It just raises my awareness of how important it is to continue to push for better ballast water legislation, enforcement and better equipment. Every time I see a new line of shipping come in, I say, 'We've got to raise concern again.'"

Shipping container facts, from PhilSpace:

n They were invented by American businessman Malcom McLean in the 1950s who sought a more efficient way of shipping items than the break-bulk style prevalent at the time.

n At any given time, about 20 million shipping containers are on ships.

n They have two standard sizes: 20 feet (20-foot Equivalent Unit) or 40 feet, which is two TEUs.

n A standard 20-foot container has a volume of 1,170 cubic feet.

n Each is assigned a unique digital unit number.

n About 97% of all shipping containers are made in China.

n They can last for 30 years.

n They can be repurposed, utilized as swimming pools, shops, clinics for disaster relief and instant classrooms. Outside of Mexico City, a small community of businesses housed in shipping containers has sprung up.

n It's estimated that only 2% to 10% of containers are inspected.

n Experts believe that 2,000 to 10,000 are lost annually. Some sink. Those that float remain just below the surface of the water, creating a possible hazard to vessels.

n It is estimated that a 20-foot container will float for up to 57 days, while a 40-foot one will sink after around 171 days.

Source: PhilSpace, Hampshire UK