Concern deepens for Chinese tennis star's safety after email

Wed, November 17, 2021

Peng Shuai is a prominent Chinese tennis player who was number one in doubles 

(AFP/GREG BAKER)

The boss of women's tennis has cast doubt on an email posted on China's media purportedly from tennis star Peng Shuai, saying it "only raises my concerns as to her safety."

Steve Simon, chairman of the WTA, said in a statement that he had a "hard time believing" the email was written by Peng, who has not been heard from since alleging two weeks ago that a powerful Chinese politician had sexually assaulted her.

Peng, a former Wimbledon and French Open doubles champion, alleged on the Twitter-like Weibo earlier this month that former vice-premier Zhang Gaoli had "forced" her into sex during a long-term on-off relationship.

The claims were quickly scrubbed from social media and she has not been seen since, drawing mounting concern over her wellbeing.

However, state-run CGTN published a screenshot on Twitter of what it said was an email written by Peng to Simon and other WTA officials.

In the email, Peng purportedly claims that her earlier accusations of sexual abuse are "not true" and says she is "resting at home and everything is fine."

But doubts were quickly flagged about the language used in the purported email from Peng, which Twitter users noted had a cursor visible in the screenshot posted by CGTN.

Simon said he was struggling to believe it was authentic.

"The statement released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts," Simon wrote in a statement.

"I have a hard time believing that Peng Shuai actually wrote the email we received or believes what is being attributed to her," he added.

He said he had been repeatedly trying to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail.

He called for "independent and verifiable proof that she is safe".

- 'Incredible courage' -

"Peng Shuai displayed incredible courage in describing an allegation of sexual assault against a former top official in the Chinese government," said Simon.

"Her allegation of sexual assault must be respected, investigated with full transparency and without censorship.

"The voices of women need to be heard and respected, not censored nor dictated to."

China has kept silent over growing concern for the tennis star, whose claims marked the first time its fledgling #MeToo movement has struck at the top echelons of the ruling Communist Party.

But Beijing has previously faced allegations of using forced confessions on state media, with British regulators revoking CGTN's licence for failing to comply with fairness and privacy rules.

William Nee of advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Peng's statement "should not be taken at face value".

"The Chinese government has a long history of arbitrarily detaining people involved in controversial cases, controlling their ability to speak freely, and making them give forced statements," he said in a statement.

Nee called for Beijing to prove that she has not been detained.

- 'Power of the state' -

Mareike Ohlberg of the German Marshall Fund wrote on Twitter that these types of messages are "not meant to convince people but to intimidate and demonstrate the power of the state."

The message from Beijing is clearly: "'We are telling you that she is fine, and who are you to say otherwise?'", she wrote.

Details of Peng's allegations remain scrubbed from China's internet.

On November 2, Peng wrote on social media that Zhang -- who is in his seventies -- "forced" her into sex and said they had an on-off relationship lasting several years.

The post appeared to have been deleted quickly, however, sparking swift accusations from critics of Beijing of online censorship.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka said Wednesday that she was in "shock" about the case, with Novak Djokovic and numerous other players in recent days saying they were deeply worried about her.

American player Jessica Pegula tweeted Thursday that she hoped the WTA "continues to show what we stand for as players."

"I hope more people, not just tennis players, shed some light on this deeply concerning situation," she wrote.

China's national tennis association has not responded to AFP requests for comment.

ig-rox/ser

Chile's Pinera: the president defeated by social upheaval


Chile President Sebastian Pinera has had a torrid second term in office 

(AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)

Wed, November 17, 2021

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera modernized the political right to distance it from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, but a social crisis that broke out in 2019 will see him leave power with his popularity in tatters.

The billionaire leader, 71, who cannot stand for reelection in Sunday's voting, has served two non-consecutive mandates.

His second term, which ends in March, has been beset by numerous problems, not least the coronavirus pandemic.

But he has also had to deal with a social uprising, accusations of graft and an impeachment bid that was quashed on Tuesday by the Senate.

"The morning after the social outbreak was the end of the Pinera government politically and in terms of influence," elections analyst Axel Callis told AFP.

Pinera's early attempts to calm protests against social injustice were at best clumsy.

A rich businessman seen as the embodiment of the country's economic, political and institutional injustices, Pinera's martial tone and early decision to deploy the military proved disastrous.

Not long beforehand, he had described Chile as an "oasis" in Latin America due to its robust economy and political stability.

Two weeks later, two million Chileans took to the streets demanding change to the country's neo-liberal model.

The unprecedented protests convinced parliament to agree to hold a referendum on changing the country's dictatorship-era constitution -- and a year later the people voted overwhelmingly (78 percent) in favor of change.

Pinera, who failed to either propose or support the move, again appeared out of touch with the people he governed.

"What happened was a change in the axis of power," said Callis.

"In one way or another, a parliamentary system was installed, without the corresponding institutionality -- Chile is a presidential system -- and everything in terms of relevant politics started happening in parliament."

The executive found itself confined to the back benches and Pinera "ceased to be a valued, strategic or significant actor."

- Popularity plunge -

The pandemic could not have hit at a worse time.

While Chile can pride itself on its rapid vaccine roll-out -- 90 percent of those eligible amongst the 19 million population are fully immunized -- the government's procrastination in distributing aid prevented Pinera from regaining the people's trust.

Even less so his implication in the Pandora Papers, suspected of a conflict of interests over the sale of a mine by members of his family to a close friend, and completed in a tax haven.

While the Senate blocked opposition attempts to impeach Pinera, he remains the subject of a graft investigation.

With five months left of his term, Pinera's popularity has plunged to its lowest level at 12 percent, compared to 50 percent when he ended his first term in 2014.

In 2010, the Harvard-educated economist convinced the electorate that his personal success in business -- according to Forbes in 2018, Pineras was worth $2.8 billion -- could be transferred to the benefit of society.

He managed to bring back to power a revamped right-wing that had rid itself of the baggage of being associated with Pinochet's dictatorship.

During his first term he branded civilian defenders of the dictatorship as "passive accomplices" and closed a special jail set up for human rights abusers.

"Pinera wanted to represent a modern, democratic right-wing," Claudia Heiss, a professor of political sciences at the University of Chile, told AFP.

"He wanted to definitively end the transition" to democracy and "end the divisions that came from the dictatorship."

But his second mandate saw him "oscillate between two versions" of democracy, leaving him in "an ambiguous position," notably when it came to changing the constitution.

"He was never very clear ... he never wanted to say he was for or against" changing the constitution, said Heiss.

She says this fence-sitting served only to weaken the right-wing and facilitate the rise of far-right presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, a harsh critic of Pinera's.

Polls even predict Kast will deny Pinera's favored candidate Sebastian Sichel a place in the second round run-off.

In any case, the damage done to Chile's right-wing under Pinera has resulted in left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric being the election favorite.

apg/pa/pb/bc/jh

Experts call for more icebreakers as tensions intensify in Arctic

By Catherine Buchaniec, Medill News Service

The Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaking ice for the first time. Photo by U.S. Coast Guard

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- When it comes to power and positioning in the Arctic, the United States trails behind Russia, regional experts told lawmakers.

"Our presence in the Arctic is late to the game," retired Coast Guard Adm. Paul Zukunft said at a hearing Tuesday. "Russia has de facto established itself as a regional hegemon."

Zukunft, who previously served as the highest-ranking member of the Coast Guard, added that Moscow is "almost thumbing their nose at any effort we make."

U.S. initiatives in the region are predominantly headed by the Coast Guard, which embarks on maritime missions through the icy waters. Although Washington's role in the Arctic is often overlooked, the United States has been an Arctic power for over 150 years, starting with the acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

The admiral testified alongside several Arctic experts before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in a hearing focused on the national security implications of climate change in the Arctic.

The Arctic region has become increasingly accessible as global temperatures rise, melting ice and opening up previously unreachable territory and sea lanes. But with increased accessibility comes new venues for strategic competition.

Russia and the United States have long competed in the region, but climate change has exasperated existing competition, with China joining the fray and declaring itself a "near-Arctic power."

Throughout the past decade, Moscow and Beijing have increasingly sought to bolster their power in the region through military investments. Meanwhile, Washington has been slow to make similar investments, Zukunft said.

"We're waking up, but we're a little bit late to that wake-up call," Zukunft said, calling for an Arctic strategy that is more than a "skeleton."

When lawmakers asked for tangible recommendations, Zukunft pointed toward increased bandwidth for communications and infrastructure, as well as icebreakers, which are instrumental for Arctic navigation.

Icebreakers are large ships that can cut through thick sheets of ice. They are frequently used to carry supplies for military and scientific missions, as well as break up ice to create clear pathways for other vessels.

The U.S. Coast Guard has two ships in its icebreaking fleet, one of which is over three decades old. In contrast, Russia's fleet employs over 40 icebreakers of various sizes and strengths and Moscow plans to build more over the next decade.

China, meanwhile, operates a smaller fleet of two icebreakers, but has plans to expand its capabilities and has indicated an interest in developing a nuclear-powered icebreaker.

Although the United States authorized funding last year as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for six new icebreakers, it will take years for them to become fully operational.

The specifics of the Biden administration's plans for the Arctic are still being negotiated as part of the 2022 NDAA, but some members in Congress have indicated support for adding to the United States' icebreaker fleet. However, rather than sending the ship up the Arctic, others in Congress have floated the idea of acquiring an icebreaker to use domestically in the Great Lakes.

Study: Teen social media posts about cutting, self-harm skyrocketing

By Alan Mozes, HealthDay News

Teen social media posts related to cutting and other forms of self-harm have soared in recent years, a new study shows. Photo by sasint/Pixabay

American teens are increasingly turning to the social media giant Instagram to share graphic images of their own attempts to harm themselves, a new study reveals.

"It could be an attempt to share their emotional or psychological pain with others or find support from others," said study lead author Amanda Giordano. She is an associate professor of counseling and human development services at the University of Georgia, in Athens.

"It could be to discuss different forms of self-injury or how to hide it or do it in a way that does not lead to infection. It could also be a way of seeking help and reasons to stop," Giordano said.

No matter the reason, researchers who tracked Instagram throughout 2018 found that teen postings focused on self-harm -- such as cutting or burning oneself -- rose significantly over the course of the year.

In January and February of 2018, for instance, teens posted between 58,000 and 68,000 images with hashtags related to some form of self-injury in which suicide was not the apparent goal. The researchers labeled such images as reflective of non-suicidal self-injury.

But by December of 2018, that figure had shot up to over 112,000, the study found, with notable rises in the use of three hashtags: #selfharm, #hatemyself and #selfharmawareness.

The big picture was also bleak: Over all of 2018, more than 1.2 million teen NSSI posts were identified on Instagram accompanied by one of the three hashtags, along with two others: #cutting and #selfharmmm.

Overall, the hashtag #selfharm was most closely linked with suicide, at 25.4%, then depression at 25.2%, self-injury at 13.1% and general mental distress and 9.5%, the study found.

The hashtag #hatemyself was most associated with suicide, at 32.1%, then depression at 31.2%, self-injury at 19.9% and anxiety/panic at 6.7%.

A rise in teenage self-harm itself appears to be driving the rise in online expressions about it, Giordano said.

She noted that recent research showed that about 17% of U.S. teens harmed themselves in the previous year. And that percentage appears to be increasing.

For example, one recent study indicated that self-harm among college freshmen shot up from less than 3% in 2008 to more than 19% by 2015.

Along with other recent research, such findings suggest that "self-injury affects a substantial number of individuals, and that rates may be increasing," Giordano said.

"As the prevalence of self-injury increases," she continued, "it is not surprising that hashtags related to self-injury also are increasing on social media platforms."

Giordano and her colleagues found several indications that this is exactly what's happening.

For example, the team noted that while the hashtag #selfharm was almost never used in January 2018, by December, it accompanied more than 45,000 teen posts.

And by year's end, only one of the five highlighted NSSI tags -- #selfharmmm -- saw a drop in overall usage.

As to what compels teens to share their self-harm experiences on social media, Giordano suggested they likely have several needs that they think apps like Instagram can fulfill.

And it could also reflect a risky copy-cat phenomenon. The more teens see others sharing posts about self-harm, the more curious they become and the more inclined they may be to imitate what they see and then share that experience online, Giordano said.

Whatever the main motivator, the analysis raised a troubling concern - the two most commonly associated hashtags with those related to self-injury were #suicide and #depression.

"Therefore, it appears that the individuals using self-harm-related hashtags are associating it with suicidal thoughts as well as feelings of depression," she said. "To me, this emphasizes the need to discuss mental health with youth and ensure they have the support they need."

That thought was seconded by Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency medicine physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City who reviewed the findings.

"The significant increase in social media posts related to self-injury is a wake-up call not only to children and teens, but also to their parents and caretakers," he said.

Noting that "the reason behind such an increase is complex," Glatter suggested that self-harm behaviors such as cutting "can be a cry for help, and serve as a way to alert parents, friends and teachers of ongoing emotional pain and suffering."

And, he added, feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety probably got worse once the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

Glatter suggested parents monitor their children's screen time and use, with an eye towards preventing teens from descending down "a slippery slope" in which self-harm is normalized as an outlet for emotional pain and suffering.

"Parents should create an open and non-judgmental environment for sharing and communication in order to allow their child to be honest about and open up regarding what's going on in their life," he suggested.

"When a child feels they have an open line of communication, the potential for early intervention, including psychiatric evaluation and referral, can be life-saving and life-changing," Glatter said.

The findings were published recently in the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling.

More information

There's more about teens and self-harm at the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

First all-private space station mission to include two dozen experiments


Photo courtesy NASA

Nov. 17 (UPI) -- A private space company that's planning to send the first all-private crew to the International Space Station announced on Wednesday that they will conduct medical and scientific experiments during their time in low Earth orbit.

Axiom Space said former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will command the crew of four, who will fly to the space station on a SpaceX rocket in February. The company has not announced a firm date.

Mission pilot Larry Connor will conduct an experiment on behalf of the Mayo and Cleveland clinics, and mission specialist Mark Pathy will perform research for the Montreal Children's Hospital, Canadian Research Universities and Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

An experiment by mission specialist Eytan Stibbe will benefit the Ramon Foundation in collaboration with the Israel Space Agency in Israeli Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.

The crew is scheduled to perform more than two dozen experiments in all, the company said.

"Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbit's potential for breakthrough innovation, and Axiom was founded to push that envelope," Axiom President Michael Suffredini said in a statement.

"We're confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making space's potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time."

Dr. James Kirkland, director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic, said the private venture opens new doors to research.

Connor's research is designed to produce data on the impact of space travel on senescent cells and heart health.

"Ninety-five percent of what we're trying to do is to benefit people on Earth," Kirkland said in a statement.

"I never thought I'd be working with people headed to space, yet here we are."

Upcoming Beaver Moon eclipse longest of its kind since 1440
By Brian Lada, Accuweather.com

The moon is seen during a total lunar eclipse in Palestinian territories in Gaza strip on July 27, 2018. File Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo


A loud alarm clock and a strong cup of coffee may be needed to enjoy one of 2021's final astronomy events as the moon passes through Earth's shadow to create a lunar eclipse.

An impressive partial lunar eclipse will plunge 97% of the moon into darkness on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday over North America. It will also be visible from Australia, New Zealand, eastern Asia and part of South America.

This will be the longest partial lunar eclipse since 1440, but it is not the longest lunar eclipse in recent history. That title belongs to the total lunar eclipse of July 27, 2018, which lasted about 12 minutes longer than the one that is set to unfold this week, according to TimeAndDate.com.

Lunar eclipses only happen on the night of a full moon and November's full moon will be the smallest full moon of the year, also known as a "micromoon."

A micromoon is the counterpart to a supermoon and happens when there is a full moon near apogee, or the point in its orbit when it is farthest away from the Earth. Micromoons appear about 14% smaller and 30% dimmer than a supermoon, according to TimeAndDate.com.

November's full moon is also known as a Beaver Moon, leading some people to combine these nicknames to call the upcoming event a micro Beaver Moon eclipse.

The entire eclipse lasts around 6 hours, but onlookers do not need to be focused on the sky for the whole event to enjoy the show.

The penumbral phases of the eclipse are barely noticeable, even with the help of a telescope, so it might not be worth stepping outside until the partial phase of the eclipse begins around 2:19 a.m. EST.

The best time to look at the moon will be shortly after 4 a.m. EST when all but just a sliver of the moon will be in Earth's dark inner shadow. Some of the darkest areas of the moon could even appear red or orange around this time.

Unlike other celestial events such as meteor showers, a lunar eclipse can be seen from light-polluted cities, although the weather needs to cooperate for folks waking up in the middle of the night hoping to see the eclipse.

AccuWeather meteorologists are predicting excellent viewing conditions across most of the Southeast, as well as parts of the southern Plains and into the lower Midwest. Favorable weather is also expected across most of Mexico and the western Canadian Prairies.

Some clouds are likely for most of the mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes and Southwest, but since this is a long-lived event, there should be enough breaks in the clouds to occasionally catch a glimpse of the eclipsed moon.

Other areas of North America may want to consider watching the event online or reliving the eclipse through pictures the day after with mostly cloudy conditions in the forecast.

This week's partial lunar eclipse is a warmup for what's to come in 2022.

North America will experience a pair of total lunar eclipses next year that will be even more impressive than this week's event.

The first lunar eclipse is slated for the night of May 15 into the early morning of May 16. Six months later, the moon will once again pass through Earth's shadow on the night of Nov. 7 and into the morning of Nov. 8.

SAVING ENDANGERED RIGHT WHALES
Federal appeals court reinstates ban on lobstering in Gulf of Maine


Maine lobstermen Mark Rand, left, and Dick Mancini prepare to heave a crate of lobsters lifted off from their boat to be unloaded into lobster tanks at New Meadows Lobster Pound in Portland, Maine. File Photo by Lee K. Marriner/UPI | License Photo


Nov. 17 (UPI) -- In an effort to protect endangered whales, a federal appeals court reinstated a ban on traditional lobster fishing on a nearly 1,000-square-mile stretch of the Gulf of Maine on Wednesday.

The move comes after federal fisheries officials released a new set of restrictions on Main's iconic lobster fishery earlier this year, including state-specific gear marking and weak points in rope to allow whales to break free.

The law won't go into effect until May, after an October-to-January season closure requiring fishermen to remove their gear on Oct. 18.

The Maine Lobstering Union fought the decision, and U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker temporarily halted the closure until details and science behind the decision could be thoroughly checked.

In turn, the national marine Fisheries Service and conservationists appealed the decision in the U.S. District Court in Bangor, stating that the whale population declined by 30 in just one year. The motion was denied, and the group sought an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeal for the First Circuit in Boston.

The court ruled that the district court didn't have the jurisdiction to reject the judgment of the Fisheries Service, which has been charged by Congress to protect endangered animals.

"The First Circuit's decision affirms that the best available science and the law demand action now," Conservation Law Foundation Attorney Erica Fuller said in a statement.

 "Right whales can't wait for the perfect empirical data Judge Walker sought."

The Maine Lobstering Union plans to continue to fight the ban.

There are fewer than 336 North Atlantic right whales remaining, many of which are vulnerable to getting entangled in fishing gear and are killed in ship strikes.

Catholic bishops avoid banning politicians from communion over abortion views

Pope Francis meets with the United States President Joe Biden during a private audience at the Vatican on October 29. U.S. Catholic bishops declined to not prevent Biden from receiving communion because of his position on abortion. Photo by Vatican Media/UPI | License Photo


Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday declined to prevent President Joe Biden or other politicians who support abortion rights from receiving communion, something that was pushed hard for by conservative clergy leaders.

The bishops voted overwhelmingly on a "meaning of communion" emphasizing there is a "special responsibility" of Catholic public figures to shape their own views based on the "church's faith and moral law," according to the Washington Post.

The document approved did not address the question of public figures' right to the eucharist head-on as some wanted and barely mentioned abortion in its 29 pages.

The document passage ended, for now, a long campaign by conservative bishops to target Biden for his political position on abortion, despite the opposition of the effort from the Vatican.

Biden met with Pope Francis at the Vatican last month.

"President Biden thanked his holiness for his advocacy for the world's poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution," the White House said in a statement after the 90-minute meeting on Oct. 29.

"He lauded Pope Francis' leadership in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and an equitable global economic recovery."

Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun
Me, a name I call myself..... 

CAPITALI$M IS ADDICTION

More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in one year in U.S., report says

#LEGALIZEDRUGS

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay News

More than 100,000 people in the United States died of drug overdoses during a one-year period ending in April, according to a new report. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture



New government data confirms what many have suspected: The pandemic has prompted a record number of drug overdose deaths, with more than 100,000 Americans succumbing to addiction as COVID-19 raged across the country.

That figure is almost 30% higher than the previous year, when 78,000 overdose deaths were reported, according to provisional figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
"The 12-month period ending in April 2021 is the first time we've seen over 100,000 estimated deaths due to drug overdose," said lead researcher Farida Bhuiya Ahmad, the mortality surveillance lead at the NCHS.

"Drug overdose deaths continued to rise at least through April 2021," Bhuiya Ahmad said. "So that's this past spring, and we haven't seen any indication that the numbers are slowing down."

Those troubling statistics coincide with the pandemic, and the massive repercussions of social distancing and lockdowns.

"I think the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly contributed to the increase in overdose deaths and has exacerbated the addiction crisis," said Lindsey Vuolo, vice president of health law and policy at the Partnership to End Addiction.

"The economic losses, grief, anxiety and social isolation associated with the pandemic lead to increased substance use, increased demand for treatment, and put people in recovery at risk for relapse," Vuolo said.

"Social distancing requirements may have led to more people using drugs alone without someone to administer naloxone [an overdose reversal medication] or call 911 in the case of overdose, leading to a greater risk for a fatal overdose," Vuolo added.

"COVID-19 restrictions also made it even more difficult to access addiction treatment by placing limits on in-person care. Patients who were used to in-person treatment may have had difficulties switching to a remote format or had greater hesitation to go to treatment because of fear that they would be exposed to COVID-19," she said.

Overdose deaths from opioids alone rose to more than 75,600 in the 12 months ending in April, according to the NCHS report. The increase in deaths started in late 2019, but there was a sharp increase in mid-2020 that has continued through April 2021.

Opioids are fueling most of this rise in deaths. "That's opioids like fentanyl, but then we also see increases nationally, and in some states, of deaths from methamphetamines," Bhuiya Ahmad noted.

Bhuiya Ahmad said that with all the attention the opioid epidemic has incurred, it was hoped that opioid use and abuse would have declined.

"I think any optimist would hope that the numbers would go down," Bhuiya Ahmad said. "But so far, we're seeing that the increase is sustained - it just continues to rise, we haven't seen it leveling off."

Deaths have risen in every state except South Dakota, New Hampshire and New Jersey, the findings showed. The largest increases in opioid deaths were seen in California, Kansas, the mid-Atlantic states, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Annual overdose deaths were up nearly 50% in California, 37% in Kansas, 56% in Louisiana and 48% in Mississippi. Virginia had a nearly 46% increase, as did South Carolina, and in West Virginia deaths rose 62%, the researchers found.

"The staggering death toll is devastating, and it is even more tragic because addiction is a preventable and treatable disease," Vuolo said. "Research shows us what we need to do we just lack the will to make the significant, albeit necessary, changes."

"Prior to COVID-19, it was already very difficult to get addiction treatment," she noted. "Our current addiction treatment system wasn't able to meet existing demand before the pandemic and certainly won't be able to support this type of demand increase."

Vuolo suggested that "to immediately address the crisis, we need to significantly expand the tools we have to prevent opioid overdoses, including increasing access to FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder and naloxone, the opioid reversal medication."

In the long term, more needs to be done to address addiction as a health condition by fully integrating it with the mainstream health care system, she said.

This will require major changes, including increasing training in substance use and addiction treatment. Also, insurance companies must obey laws that cover addiction treatment so that care is affordable and accessible.

"We need a greater focus on prevention by implementing initiatives that promote healthy youth development and reduce risk factors. We also need to expand services to support individuals in recovery and families impacted by addiction," Vuolo added.

"To effectively make these changes, we have to continue to root out stigma against addiction, which remains pervasive among the public and professionals who interact with people with addiction," she said.

"There is now greater recognition that addiction is not a moral failing, but stigma is still reflected in the lack of urgency and willingness to adopt the major changes necessary to address the addiction crisis," she said.

More information

For more on drug overdose deaths, head to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Mild brain injury leads to early cognitive decline, study in veterans finds


Mild traumatic brain injuries can increase risk for early cognitive decline, including Parkinson's disease-like symptoms, a study with veterans found. 

Photo by toubibe/Pixabay

Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Military veterans who suffer a mild traumatic brain injury during combat experience early cognitive decline within seven years of the incident, a study published Wednesday by PLOS One found.

The effects of the injury on cognitive function are comparable with those seen by people with early-stage Parkinson's disease and significantly worse than those felt by healthy non-veterans, the researchers said.

Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that leads to shaking, stiffness and difficulty with walking, balance and coordination, according to the National Institute on Aging.

It may progress to include symptoms of dementia, or memory loss and declines in brain function, the institute says.

Although the study focused on the risks among veterans associated with combat, the results could have implications for others with a history of mild traumatic brain injury, according to the researchers.

"We found that young veterans with mild traumatic brain injury are exhibiting some specific premature cognitive aging effects," researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas Christian University wrote.

"[This] might be considered a possible phenotype linking remote mild traumatic brain injury to Parkinson's disease in later years," they said.

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force that occurs when a sudden trauma results in damage to the brain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

It can occur when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. TBI common among athletes and active-duty military in combat.

About 430,000 head injuries were suffered by active-duty servicemen and women between 2000 to 2018, with 82% classified as mild, the Department of Defense reported.

However, veterans with a history of mild TBI have a 56% higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease within 12 years of their injury, according to earlier research.

In addition, studies have shown that TBI increases the risk for ADHD among children and has been linked with dementia in older adults.

For this study, the researchers assessed 27 veterans ages 25 to 45 who had suffered a non-penetrating mild TBI -- which means it did not involve breaking through the skull -- during combat in the past seven years.

Their performance on several measures of cognitive function was compared with those of 30 healthy veterans and 30 healthy non-veterans -- all matched based on age and intelligence -- as well as 27 with Parkinson's disease at age 60 to 90 before the start of the study, the researchers said.

In all tests for cognitive function, the vets with mild TBI and Parkinson's took about 33% longer to complete tasks and performed less well than the healthy veterans and non-veterans, the data showed.

"We were able to show coincident similarities between veterans with mild TBI and Parkinson's disease in particular cognitive domains. ... We also found veterans with mild TBI significantly lagged behind their age- and IQ-matched controls," the researchers wrote.

They "performed more like older, early-stage Parkinson's disease subjects and presented cognitively as if they were at least three decades older on tests of cognitive flexibility, attention, processing speed and inhibitory control," they said.

More than 100 US troops suffered traumatic brain injury in ...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/10/us-troops-brain-injury...

The number of US service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) stemming from Iran’s missile attack on a base in Iraq last month has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday.

Trump Dismisses Troops’ Possible Brain Injuries as ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/middleeast/trump-iraq-brain...

The deputy commander of the American-led operation in Iraq said the Pentagon was putting service members through medical examinations to see if they had traumatic brain injuries.

Hate speech against the opposition in Myanmar continues to thrive on Facebook

By SAM McNEIL and VICTORIA MILKO

FILE - A young demonstrators participate in an anti-coup mask strike in Yangon, Myanmar, on April 4, 2021. Years after coming under scrutiny for contributing to ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar, internal documents viewed by The Associated Press show that Facebook continues to have problems detecting and moderating hate speech and misinformation on its platform in the Southeast Asian nation. (AP Photo, File)


JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Years after coming under scrutiny for contributing to ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar, Facebook still has problems detecting and moderating hate speech and misinformation on its platform in the Southeast Asian nation, internal documents viewed by The Associated Press show.

Three years ago, the company commissioned a report that found Facebook was used to “foment division and incite offline violence” in the country. It pledged to do better and developed several tools and policies to deal with hate speech.

But the breaches have persisted -- and even been exploited by hostile actors -- since the Feb. 1 military takeover this year that resulted in gruesome human rights abuses across the country.

Scrolling through Facebook today, it’s not hard to find posts threatening murder and rape in Myanmar.

One 2 1/2 minute video posted on Oct. 24 of a supporter of the military calling for violence against opposition groups has garnered over 56,000 views.

“So starting from now, we are the god of death for all (of them),” the man says in Burmese while looking into the camera. “Come tomorrow and let’s see if you are real men or gays.”

One account posts the home address of a military defector and a photo of his wife. Another post from Oct. 29 includes a photo of soldiers leading bound and blindfolded men down a dirt path. The Burmese caption reads, “Don’t catch them alive.”

Despite the ongoing issues, Facebook saw its operations in Myanmar as both a model to export around the world and an evolving and caustic case. Documents reviewed by AP show Myanmar became a testing ground for new content moderation technology, with the social media giant trialing ways to automate the detection of hate speech and misinformation with varying levels of success.

Facebook’s internal discussions on Myanmar were revealed in disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.

Facebook has had a shorter but more volatile history in Myanmar than in most countries. After decades of censorship under military rule, Myanmar was connected to the internet in 2000. Shortly afterward, Facebook paired with telecom providers in the country, allowing customers to use the platform without needing to pay for the data, which was still expensive at the time. Use of the platform exploded. For many in Myanmar, Facebook became the internet itself.

Htaike Htaike Aung, a Myanmar internet policy advocate, said it also became “a hotbed for extremism” around 2013, coinciding with religious riots across Myanmar between Buddhists and Muslims. It’s unclear how much, if any, content moderation was happening at the time by people or automation.

Htaike Htaike Aung said she met with Facebook that year and laid out issues, including how local organizations were seeing exponential amounts of hate speech on the platform and how its preventive mechanisms, such as reporting posts, didn’t work in the Myanmar context.

One example she cited was a photo of a pile of bamboo sticks that was posted with a caption reading, “Let us be prepared because there’s going to be a riot that is going to happen within the Muslim community.”

Htaike Htaike Aung said the photo was reported to Facebook, but the company didn’t take it down because it didn’t violate any of the company’s community standards.

“Which is ridiculous because it was actually calling for violence. But Facebook didn’t see it that way,” she said.

Years later, the lack of moderation caught the attention of the international community. In March 2018, United Nations human rights experts investigating attacks against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority said Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech.

When asked about Myanmar a month later during a U.S. Senate hearing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg replied that Facebook planned to hire “dozens” of Burmese speakers to moderate content, would work with civil society groups to identify hate figures and develop new technologies to combat hate speech.

“Hate speech is very language specific. It’s hard to do it without people who speak the local language and we need to ramp up our effort there dramatically,” Zuckerberg said.

Information in internal Facebook documents show that while the company did step up efforts to combat hate speech in the country, the tools and strategies to do so never came to full fruition, and individuals within the company repeatedly sounded the alarm. In one document from May 2020, an employee said a hate speech text classifier that was available wasn’t being used or maintained. Another document from a month later said there were “significant gaps” in misinformation detection in Myanmar.

“Facebook took symbolic actions I think were designed to mollify policymakers that something was being done and didn’t need to look much deeper,” said Ronan Lee, a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London’s International State Crime Initiative.

In an emailed statement to the AP, Rafael Frankel’s, Facebook’s director of policy for APAC Emerging Countries, said the platform “has built a dedicated team of over 100 Burmese speakers.” He declined to state exactly how many were employed. Online marketing company NapoleonCat estimates there are about 28.7 million Facebook users in Myanmar.

During her testimony to the European Union Parliament on Nov. 8, Haugen, the whistleblower, criticized Facebook for a lack of investment in third-party fact-checking, and relying instead on automatic systems to detect harmful content.

“If you focus on these automatic systems, they will not work for the most ethnically diverse places in the world, with linguistically diverse places in the world, which are often the most fragile,” she said while referring to Myanmar.

After Zuckerberg’s 2018 congressional testimony, Facebook developed digital tools to combat hate speech and misinformation and also created a new internal framework to manage crises like Myanmar around the world.

Facebook crafted a list of “at-risk countries” with ranked tiers for a “critical countries team” to focus its energy on, and also rated languages needing more content moderation. Myanmar was listed as a “Tier 1” at-risk country, with Burmese deemed a “priority language” alongside Ethiopian languages, Bengali, Arabic and Urdu.

Facebook engineers taught Burmese slang words for “Muslims” and “Rohingya” to its automated systems. They also trained systems to detect “coordinated inauthentic behavior” such as a single person posting from multiple accounts, or coordination between different accounts to post the same content.

The company also tried “repeat offender demotion” which lessened the impact of posts of users who frequently violated guidelines. In a test in two of the world’s most volatile countries, demotion worked well in Ethiopia, but poorly in Myanmar -- a difference that flummoxed engineers, according to a 2020 report included in the documents.

“We aren’t sure why … but this information provides a starting point for further analysis and user research,” the report said. Facebook declined to comment on the record if the problem has been fixed a year after its detection, or about the success of the two tools in Myanmar.

The company also deployed a new tool to reduce the virality of content called “reshare depth promotion” that boosts content shared by direct contacts, according to an internal 2020 report. This method is “content-agnostic” and cut viral inflammatory prevalence by 25% and photo misinformation by 48.5%, it said.

Slur detection and demotion were judged effective enough that staffers shared the experience in Myanmar as part of a “playbook” for acting in other at-risk countries such as Ethiopia, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, India, Russia, the Philippines and Egypt.

While these new methods forged in Myanmar’s civil crises were deployed around the world, documents show that by June 2020 Facebook knew that flaws persisted in its Myanmar safety work.

“We found significant gaps in our coverage (especially in Myanmar and Ethiopia), showcasing that our current signals may be inadequate,” said an internal audit of the company’s “integrity coverage.” Myanmar was color-coded red with less than 55% coverage: worse than Syria but better than Ethiopia.

Haugen criticized the company’s internal policy of acting “only once a crisis has begun.”

Facebook “slows the platform down instead of watching as the temperature gets hotter, and making the platform safer as that happens,” she said during testimony to Britain’s Parliament on Oct. 25.

Frankel, the Facebook spokesperson, said the company has been proactive.

“Facebook’s approach in Myanmar today is fundamentally different from what it was in 2017, and allegations that we have not invested in safety and security in the country are wrong,” Frankel said.

Yet, a September 2021 report by the Myanmar Social Media Insights Project found that posts on Facebook include coordinated targeting of activists, ethnic minorities and journalists -– a tactic that has roots in the military’s history. The report also said the military is laundering its propaganda through public pages that claim to be media outlets.

Opposition and pro-military groups have used the encrypted messaging app Telegram to organize two types of propaganda campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, according to an October report shared with the AP by Myanmar Witness, a U.K.-based organization that archives social media posts related to the conflict.

Myanmar is a “highly contested information environment,” where users working in concert overload Facebook’s reporting system to take down others’ posts, and also spread coordinated misinformation and hate speech, the report said.

In one example, the coordinated networks took video shot in Mexico in 2018 by the Sinaloa cartel of butchered bodies and falsely labeled it as evidence of the opposition killing Myanmar soldiers on June 28, 2021, said Benjamin Strick, director of investigations for Myanmar Witness.

“There’s a difficulty in catching it for some of these platforms that are so big and perhaps the teams to look for it are so small that it’s very hard to catch water when it’s coming out of a fire hydrant,” he said.

The organization also traced the digital footprint of one soldier at the incineration of 160 homes in the village of Thantlang in late October. He posed in body armor on a ledge overlooking burning homes, with a post blaming opposition forces for the destruction in a litany of violent speech.

Facebook “conducted human rights due diligence to understand and address the risks in Myanmar,” and banned the military and used technology to reduce the amount of violating content, spokesperson Frankel said.

Yet Myanmar digital rights activists and scholars say Facebook could still take steps to improve, including greater openness about its policies for content moderation, demotion and removal, and acknowledging its responsibilities toward the Myanmar people.

“We need to start examining damage that has been done to our communities by platforms like Facebook. They portray that they are a virtual platform, and thus can have lower regulation,” said Lee, the visiting scholar. “The fact is that there are real-world consequences.”

2 men convicted of murdering Malcolm X to be exonerated

 

File Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 17 (UPI) -- The Manhattan district attorney plans to exonerate two men convicted of killing civil rights leader Malcolm X in 1965, the Innocence Project and the men's lawyers announced Wednesday.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Shanies Law firm and the Innocence Project are expected to file a joint motion Thursday vacating the convictions of Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil.

Vance's office began a review of the case in January 2020, finding new evidence indicating the two men's innocence. The Innocence Project said investigators found FBI documents that were available at the time of their 1966 trial, but were withheld from both the prosecution and defense.

"It took five decades of unprecedented work by scholars and activists and the creation of a Conviction Integrity Program at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office willing to engage in a true joint re-investigation for these wrongful convictions to be officially acknowledged and rectified," Vanessa Potkin of the Innocence Project said in a statement emailed to UPI.

RELATED UPI Archives: Newsman present during Malcolm X's assassination

"The recently unearthed evidence of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam's innocence that had been hidden by the [New York Police Department] and FBI not only invalidates their convictions, it also highlights the many unanswered questions about the government's complicity in the assassination -- a separate and important issue that, itself, demands further inquiry."

Malcolm X was shot to death Feb. 21, 1965, while preparing to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Nation of Islam members Mujahid Abdul Halim (then known as Talmadge Hayer), Aziz (then known as Norman 3X Butler) and Islam (then known as Thomas 15X Johnson) were arrested and convicted of murder in 1966.

Halim confessed to the shooting but refused to identify Aziz and Islam as his co-conspirators, instead saying members of a Newark, N.J., mosque helped him in the attack on Malcolm X.

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Aziz was paroled in 1985, Islam in 1987 and died in 2009, and Halim in 2010.

Two reporters, including UPI correspondent Stanley Scott, were present at the Audubon Ballroom during the attack on Malcolm X. He wrote that one of Malcolm X's lieutenants told him press wouldn't be allowed to attend the "action program" that day.

"As a Negro, you can come in as an interested citizen," the lieutenant said. "But you will have to remove your press badge."

Scott wrote that he watched Malcolm X walk to the microphone and begin his speech, when he heard a commotion and someone yell "get out of my pocket." Malcolm X, he said, tried to ease the tensions.

"Take it easy. OK now, take it easy," Malcolm X said.

"Those were his last words. What sounded then like 20 or 30 shots rang out," Scott wrote. "Men and women, clutching small children, ducked to the floor and crawled under tables as the rapid firing continued in what seemed like an eternity."

Scott said a stretcher took Malcolm X to a hospital half a block away as his guards guarded his body and his wife followed, "still hysterical."

Companies bid $192 million in 1st Gulf oil sale under Biden

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, as the first government lease auction under President Joe Biden laid bare the hurdles he faces to reach climate goals dependent on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Interior Department auction came after attorneys general from Republican states led by Louisiana successfully challenged a suspension on sales that Biden imposed when he took office.

Companies bid on 308 tracts totaling nearly 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers). It marked the largest acreage and second-highest bid total since Gulf-wide bidding resumed in 2017.

Driving the heightened interest are a rebound in oil prices and uncertainty about the future of the leasing program, industry analysts said. Biden campaigned on pledges to end drilling on federally owned lands and waters, which includes the Gulf.

“Prices are higher now than they've been since 2018," said Rene Santos with S&P Global Platts. “The other thing is this fear that the Biden administration is here for another three years. They're certainly not going to accelerate the number of lease sales and they could potentially have fewer sales.”

It will take years to develop the leases before companies start pumping crude. That means they could keep producing long past 2030, when scientists say the world needs to be well on the way to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Yet even as Biden has tried to cajole other world leaders into strengthening efforts against global warming, including at this month’s UN climate talks in Scotland, he’s had difficulty gaining ground on climate issues at home.

The administration has proposed another round of oil and gas sales early next year in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and other states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.

Emissions from burning and extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters account for about a quarter of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“The thing that is really bedeviling people right now is this conflict between the short term and long term when it comes to energy policy,” said Jim Krane, an energy studies fellow at Rice University in Houston. “We still need this energy system that is basically causing climate change, even as we’re fighting climate change.”

Wednesday's livestreamed auction invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) — about twice the area of Florida. Federal officials estimated prior to the sale that it could lead to the production of up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Shell Offshore Inc., the largest leaseholder in the Gulf, said the 20 tracts on which it successfully bid $17.9 million could offer development opportunities near existing platforms or new areas.

“The need absolutely continues for continued competitive leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico,” said Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski.

Chevron USA was the top bidder, offering almost $49 million for 34 tracts. BP Exploration and Production had $30 million in high bids on 46 tracts, and Anadarko US Offshore had almost $40 million in high bids — including the day's highest bid, $10 million — on 30 tracts.

ExxonMobil bid nearly $15 million in two areas off the Texas shoreline in the northwest Gulf.

Those 94 tracts are in shallow water — less than 656 feet (200 meters) deep — where oil has mostly played out and there are few active leases.

Not far away in the Houston Ship Channel, Exxon is pursuing a government-industry collaboration that would raise $100 billion to capture carbon dioxide from industrial plants, carry it away in pipelines and inject it deep under the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS.

“The Exxon bids have to be a play on their proposed CCS project,” said Justin Rostant with industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Image: britannica.com

On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010.

ExxonMobil spokesperson Todd Spitler declined to say if there was a link between its bids and the carbon capture proposal. The company is evaluating the subsurface geology for ”future commercial potential" and will work with the Interior Department on its plans after leases are awarded, he said.

Shallow waters have typically been more attractive to smaller oil firms with less to spend on costly deep water exploration, said Rice University's Krane. As managing carbon becomes more viable, he said, shallow tracts will become attractive for things beyond oil production.

Environmental reviews of the lease auction — conducted under former President Donald Trump and affirmed under Biden — reached an unlikely conclusion: Extracting and burning the fuel would result in fewer climate-changing emissions than leaving it.

Similar claims in two other cases, in Alaska, were rejected by federal courts after challenges from environmentalists. Climate scientist Peter Erickson, whose work was cited by judges in one of the cases, said the Interior Department's analysis had a glaring omission: It excluded greenhouse gas increases in foreign countries that result from having more Gulf oil enter the market.

Federal officials recently changed their emissions modeling methods, citing Erickson’s work, but said it was too late to use that approach for Wednesday's auction.

An attorney for environmental groups challenging Wednesday's sale in federal court said it was based on “incorrect data” that doesn't reflect its impact on the environment.

“It's basically a giveaway to industry of millions of acres of the Gulf of Mexico so they can lock in production for years, at a time when we need to be shifting away from fossil fuel development," said Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy.

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 15% of total U.S. crude production and 5% of its natural gas.

Federal officials have 90 days to award or reject the bids.

__

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

___

Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP

Matthew Brown And Janet Mcconnaughey, The Associated Press

Appeal Court reserves injunction decision in Fairy Creek old-growth logging protests

VANCOUVER — A panel of three judges in British Columbia's Court of Appeal reserved its decision Tuesday on the future of an injunction against old-growth logging protests on southern Vancouver Island after a two-day hearing.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

While the judges didn't set a date for the release of their ruling, they did say a temporary injunction stopping old-growth logging protesters from interfering with Teal Cedar Products Ltd. actions remains in place.

The company appealed the B.C. Supreme Court decision in September that denied its application to extend an injunction against protest blockades in the area for one year.

More than 1,100 people have been arrested at ongoing protests over old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek area on southern Vancouver Island.

A lawyer representing the protesters, known as the Rainforest Flying Squad, said Teal Cedar Products has the right to defend its economic interests, but others also have right to lawful protest and freedom of expression and movement.

Malcolm Funt said there are limits to a company's economic and private-industry rights.

"The central question in an injunction application is what is just and equitable," said Funt.

In September, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson refused to extend the injunction, saying police enforcement led to serious infringements of civil liberties, including impairment of freedom of the press.

He also said the factors in favour of extending the injunction do not outweigh the public interest in protecting the court's reputation.

Funt said the lower court weighed the harm the company could suffer by denying the application to extend the injunction but decided to rule in favour of the other interests and the court's reputation.

"That's what he is supposed to do and that is what he did do," he said.

Teal Cedar lawyer Dean Dalke told the panel Monday the court must uphold the rule of law at the protest sites.

He said the company has been the victim of an unlawful, highly organized protest campaign to disrupt it from accessing legal timber rights in the Fairy Creek area.

"Mr. Dalke says it's fundamentally unjust Teal Cedar is left holding the bag, so to speak," said Funt. "There is no doubt Teal Cedar has rights in this case, but in my submission the court's defence of economic and private (industry) rights is not limitless and there are other interests at stake."

Funt faced questions Tuesday from the Appeal Court judges about the lower court's reasons not to grant the injunction extension, especially the suggestion the court's reputation was damaged by police conduct during the arrests of protesters.

"It raises the question of whether the judge erred in principle in suggesting the reputation of the court is damaged by police conduct," said Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon.

— By Dirk Meissner in Victoria

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2021.

The Canadian Press

CLIMATE EMERGENCY MON  AMOUR

Thousands of animals dead in 'agricultural disaster,' says B.C. government

Thousands of farm animals have died in an "agriculture disaster" in British Columbia set off by floods that swamped an area of the province known for its prime farming industry. © Provided by The Canadian Press

Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said many farmers attempted to move their animals by boat as their properties flooded but were forced to abandon them, "as the roads were disappearing beneath them."

Even the animals that were successfully moved are in poor health and some may need to be euthanized, she said.

"The animals that are getting moved through those water flows have been able to make it to a safe spot, but to tell you the truth, they're not in good shape when they get there," she said Wednesday during the same news conference where the B.C. government declared a state of emergency.

She said hundreds of farms have been affected by flooding, many of them in the Fraser Valley, about 100 kilometres east of Vancouver.

"And we have thousands of animals that have perished. We have many, many more that are in difficult situations and we're seeing an animal welfare issue develop," Popham said.

There will have to be euthanizations, while there are also animals that have survived that will be in critical need of care, the minister said.

The government is working to get safe access for veterinarians to those farms as soon as possible.

The animals that survived will be in critical need of food for the next 24 hours as flooding wiped out access to feed, said Popham.

Dozens of the farms under evacuation orders in the Fraser Valley region are poultry farms, says the national group that speaks for chicken farmers.

Lisa Bishop-Spencer, the communications director with Chicken Farmers of Canada, said of the 310 chicken farms in B.C., 61 farms are being evacuated, 22 of which are broiler farms, where chickens are raised for their meat.

"Everyone's still trying to make sure that themselves and their families are safe and taking as best care of their birds as possible, but we don't have any specific information on losses yet," she said.

It's fair to expect some losses as farmers were faced with challenging conditions trying to move animals to safety, she said.

Dairy and chicken farms cover the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford, the same location that residents in 1,000 properties were told to evacuate on Tuesday.

Farmers spent hours Tuesday working to transport their animals to safety, in some cases relying on boats and other watercraft.

B.C. is the third-largest chicken-producing province in the country, said Bishop-Spencer, but their organization is working to ensure there are no supply issues once help has been given to all farmers and animals.

"We're working with federal and provincial partners just to deploy support and assistance wherever," she said.

The mayor of Abbotsford said he does not know how many farm animals may have been lost as floodwaters washed over the city Tuesday.

Sumas Prairie is part of Abbotsford, which was deluged by water over a 72-hour period starting Saturday.

Mayor Henry Braun said he watched farmers trudge through water that was 1.5 metres deep to get the livestock out.

"We have no numbers. There's a lot of birds out there too. I saw barns that looked like they were half full of water. I can't imagine that there are any birds left alive, but we don't have those numbers."

Braun said Tuesday he knew the farmers wanted to protect their animals.

"Many would give their lives for their animals," Braun said.

The situation grew more frantic Tuesday night when it appeared a crucial water pump station would be overwhelmed.

Braun urged those farmers who had ignored the evacuation order to leave their animals and get out.

By Wednesday, the pump station had been surrounded by sandbags and Braun said he felt better about the situation.

Holger Schwichtenberg, chair of the board for the BC Dairy Association, took in 30 milking cows at his own farm in Agassiz Tuesday from a farm in the Fraser Valley.

He says the move was stressful for the cows but they've managed to integrate them with his 110 animals.

"Some are a little unhappy. They're doing a lot of mooing because this is new and different, and cows love routine ... but they fit in very nicely," he said Wednesday.

The association is aware of losses, but it's unclear how many are milking cows, he said.

The B.C. Milk Marketing Board has advised dairy farmers in areas like Abbotsford, Chilliwack and the B.C. Interior to dump any milk into manure piles because mudslides and road washouts have made it impossible to transport.

Many B.C. dairy producers have no road access at all to their farms right now. In other cases where milk can be picked up from the farm, there is nowhere for it to go.

Schwichtenberg said this week's flooding has put a strain on the industry, which is still reeling from a disastrous summer.

"We had a long, hot summer, we had a very poor growing season unless you had irrigation, the ongoing effects of COVID, and now we have this situation," he said.

"It's testing the resilience of dairy farmers, that's for sure."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2021.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

RUSHING THE IDES OF MARCH

Braid: UCP heading for a rough convention as another MLA challenges Kenney

This goes far beyond MLAs being encouraged to speak their minds on policy. These MLAs fear the collapse of their party under Kenney's leadership

Author of the article:Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Nov 16, 2021 •

Premier Jason Kenney in Edmonton on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021.

 PHOTO BY DAVID BLOOM /Postmedia

MLA Peter Guthrie stood up in a UCP caucus meeting Monday and read Premier Jason Kenney a letter.

The premier listened. His reaction isn’t recorded — there’s still a lingering scrap of confidentiality in this group — but he must have been furious.

The letter started leaking a couple of hours later. Guthrie, the MLA for Airdrie-Cochrane, tells me he knew it would go public. He’d sent the text to the premier and all caucus members.

Why do it? For starters, Guthrie said Tuesday, he believes UCP caucus members are “treated more like an opposition party” than an essential part of government.

His letter accuses the party and the premier’s office of meddling in local affairs, taking over ridings and even improperly funding the convention fees of Kenney loyalists from PAC funds.

“They are doing this to assist you in retaining the UCP board with the intent of controlling the (leadership) review process,” said Guthrie.

“This may not be illegal, but it is certainly unethical.”

He demands an independent investigation immediately “to hold any culprits accountable.

“And if you are complicit, then premier you need to step down here and now.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Guthrie hadn’t heard a word from the premier’s office about whether he will be disciplined.

Neither has Chestermere-Strathmore MLA Leela Aheer, who recently said the premier knew of internal harassment allegations and should resign.

Ever since the caucus voted to kick out two critical MLAs, Todd Loewen and Drew Barnes, everybody seems free to say anything.

This goes far beyond MLAs being encouraged to speak their minds on policy. These MLAs fear the collapse of their party under Kenney’s leadership.

Guthrie and other MLAs are angry about a rule for the looming UCP weekend convention that says only the premier can bring new business to the floor.

Airdrie-Cochrane UCP MLA Peter Guthrie.

 PHOTO BY PATRICK GIBSON /Postmedia

Then there’s the contentious resolution from the Edmonton-Northwest riding, where the president, Dave Prisco, is the paid communications director for the party.

It calls for raising from 22 to 29 the number of identical riding resolutions needed for an early leadership review.

“The bar is set too low and opens up the party to troublemaking by a small minority of CA (constituency association) boards,” says the riding’s rationale.

Late Tuesday afternoon, both the premier’s office and the party began mounting defences. They’ve been a long time coming. Dealing with this uprising in silence clearly isn’t working

First, the premier’s office denied any wrongdoing by people employed in Kenney’s legislature operation, while acknowledging that they’re often politically active.

“People who happen to work at the legislature are often involved in party politics, and that is true of every party and government,” Christine Myatt, the premier’s director of government communications, said in a statement.

“However, party politics functions are relegated to off-hours (i.e. not during the daytime while working for the taxpayers).”

On that hugely controversial motion to change rules for forcing a special meeting, a source familiar with the Edmonton-Northwest motion says it was written last spring, when Kenney’s leadership wasn’t such a hot issue. It was then vetted by party members for ranking at this weekend’s convention.

At that time, a review appeared set for the 2022 annual general meeting. The riding board had no thought of affecting the convention.

As for Kenney being the only person allowed to bring a new resolution, a party statement says “floor-dropping” new business has never been permitted. There’s no explanation of why Kenney has that power, however.

The party also says “financial assistance to defray the costs of attending a political convention is not unusual.

“CAs may choose to provide financial assistance to local members. We know the NDP encourages sponsorship to their conventions and, given their rules and history, it is likely done by unions.”

There’s no mention of Guthrie’s charges about PAC funding.

Without compromise — agreeing to a leadership review early next year, for instance — the party is heading for a tense and angry convention this weekend.

But so far, it seems the premier would rather fight than bend.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

Twitter: @DonBraid

Facebook: Don Braid Politics

Kenney defends use of third-party money to buy tickets to upcoming annual general meeting

Author of the article: Ashley Joannou, Lisa Johnson
Publishing date:Nov 17, 2021 • 

Premier Jason Kenney speaks about the Alberta Jobs Now program during a press conference at the Hudsons pub in Calgary’s Beltline on Tuesday, November 9, 2021

. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is defending the right of third-party organizations to pay entrance fees to this week’s United Conservative Party annual general meeting, amid allegations that the deck is being stacked in his favour ahead of a fight over an early leadership review.

The claim, made by UCP backbencher Peter Guthrie earlier this week, has led both independent MLA Todd Loewen and the NDP opposition to ask Alberta’s chief electoral officer to investigate if that breaks the laws related to political contributions.

Guthrie, the MLA for Airdrie-Cochrane, claims that third-party advertisers, or PACs, are paying for tickets to the meeting, scheduled to begin Friday, specifically for Kenney loyalists.

At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Kenney said while he’s not involved in third-party political organizations, those groups are within the law to be involved in politics. He said groups often pay for youth, for example, who could not afford to register for an AGM otherwise.

“And my understanding is that, for example, delegate registration fees are not considered a (political) contribution, but I would expect and insist that any group carefully acts within the regulations,” he said.

Tickets for the UCP AGM members cost $349, for youth under 25 years old, $149, and for observers, $999.

Loewen told reporters in the legislature Wednesday that Guthrie’s allegations were “alarming,” and warrant an investigation. He countered Kenney’s claim, saying it doesn’t matter if the purchase of tickets is considered a political donation or not, election finance rules still prohibit the move.

“This is an administrative activity of the party, and as such (the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act) applies,” he said, adding as a member of the UCP planning to attend the meeting, he hopes chief electoral officer Glen Resler is able to at least provide clarity on the issue before the AGM.

NDP Opposition democracy and ethics critic Thomas Dang similarly told reporters the move is prohibited under the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act.

“If Jason Kenney is so desperate that he needs to pay people to clap for him and vote for him, that’s between him and the UCP membership, but funnelling money from a PAC into a registered political party is illegal,” said Dang, adding if the allegations are true, it violates democratic principles and opens the door to “big money” in politics.

Pamela Renwick, acting deputy chief electoral officer, said in an emailed statement Elections Alberta “is unable to comment about investigations that we may or may not be conducting,” but it publishes any findings or decisions whenever any investigation is concluded.

In question period Wednesday, Dang asked Kenney about the allegations, but House Leader Jason Nixon answered instead, denying any wrongdoing and pointing to a statement from the party.

In a statement to Postmedia Wednesday, UCP spokesman Dave Prisco said registration fees are not legally considered a contribution.

“Financial assistance to defray the costs of attending a political convention is not unusual. For example, CAs (constituency associations) may choose to provide financial assistance to local members,” he said.

“We know the NDP encourages sponsorship to their conventions and given their rules and history, it is likely done by unions.”

Dang said the claim that third parties, including unions, sponsor attendees at NDP events in similar ways is false.

“There may be people with financial hardship that need additional assistance to access the convention and and we often do work with them or their constituency associations to waive some of those fees on the party side,” he said.

The UCP meeting will see a vote on a contentious resolution calling for the threshold to go up to 29 from 22 constituency associations needed to speed up Kenney’s leadership review to within the next three months, from April’s currently-scheduled review. Already, the threshold of 22 has been met.

Loewen said he hopes members turn down the special resolution.

“Any attempt to change the goalposts at this time I think is obviously a self-serving move,” said Loewen.