SUPERSPREADER EVENT

‘Not a good idea:’ Experts concerned about pope trip to Iraq

By NICOLE WINFIELD and SAMYA KULLAB

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A Christian priest holds a Vatican flag as he walks by a poster of Pope Francis during preparations for the Pope's visit in Mar Youssif Church in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. (AP/Photo/Hadi Mizban)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Infectious disease experts are expressing concern about Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Iraq, given a sharp rise in coronavirus infections there, a fragile health care system and the unavoidable likelihood that Iraqis will crowd to see him.

No one wants to tell Francis to call it off, and the Iraqi government has every interest in showing off its relative stability by welcoming the first pope to the birthplace of Abraham. The March 5-8 trip is expected to provide a sorely-needed spiritual boost to Iraq’s beleaguered Christians while furthering the Vatican’s bridge-building efforts with the Muslim world.

But from a purely epidemiological standpoint, as well as the public health message it sends, a papal trip to Iraq amid a global pandemic is not advisable, health experts say.

Their concerns were reinforced with the news Sunday that the Vatican ambassador to Iraq, the main point person for the trip who would have escorted Francis to all his appointments, tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating.

In an email to The Associated Press, the embassy said Archbishop Mitja Leskovar’s symptoms were mild and that he was continuing to prepare for Francis’ visit.

Beyond his case, experts note that wars, economic crises and an exodus of Iraqi professionals have devastated the country’s hospital system, while studies show most of Iraq’s new COVID-19 infections are the highly-contagious variant first identified in Britain.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” said Dr. Navid Madani, virologist and founding director of the Center for Science Health Education in the Middle East and North Africa at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The Iranian-born Madani co-authored an article in The Lancet last year on the region’s uneven response to COVID-19, noting that Iraq, Syria and Yemen were poorly placed to cope, given they are still struggling with extremist insurgencies and have 40 million people who need humanitarian aid.

In a telephone interview, Madani said Middle Easterners are known for their hospitality, and cautioned that the enthusiasm among Iraqis of welcoming a peace-maker like Francis to a neglected, war-torn part of the world might lead to inadvertent violations of virus control measures.

“This could potentially lead to unsafe or superspreading risks,” she said.

Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious disease control expert at the University of Exeter College of Medicine, concurred.

“It’s a perfect storm for generating lots of cases which you won’t be able to deal with,” he said.

Organizers promise to enforce mask mandates, social distancing and crowd limits, as well as the possibility of increased testing sites, two Iraqi government officials said.

The health care protocols are “critical but can be managed,” one government official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

And the Vatican has taken its own precautions, with the 84-year-old pope, his 20-member Vatican entourage and the 70-plus journalists on the papal plane all vaccinated.

But the Iraqis gathering in the north, center and south of the country to attend Francis’ indoor and outdoor Masses, hear his speeches and participate in his prayer meetings are not vaccinated.

And that, scientists say, is the problem.

“We are in the middle of a global pandemic. And it is important to get the correct messages out,” Pankhania said. “The correct messages are: the less interactions with fellow human beings, the better.”

He questioned the optics of the Vatican delegation being inoculated while the Iraqis are not, and noted that Iraqis would only take such risks to go to those events because the pope was there.

In words addressed to Vatican officials and the media, he said: “You are all protected from severe disease. So if you get infected, you’re not going to die. But the people coming to see you may get infected and may die.”

“Is it wise under that circumstance for you to just turn up? And because you turn up, people turn up to see you and they get infected?” he asked.

The World Health Organization was diplomatic when asked about the wisdom of a papal trip to Iraq, saying countries should evaluate the risk of an event against the infection situation, and then decide if it should be postponed.

“It’s all about managing that risk,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19. “It’s about looking at the epidemiologic situation in the country and then making sure that if that event is to take place, that it can take place as safely as possible.”

Francis has said he intends to go even if most Iraqis have to watch him on television to avoid infection. The important thing, he told Catholic News Service, is “they will see that the pope is there in their country.”

Francis has frequently called for an equitable distribution of vaccines and respect for government health measures, though he tends to not wear face masks. Francis for months has eschewed even socially distanced public audiences at the Vatican to limit the chance of contagion.

Dr. Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton’s Faculty of Medicine, said the number of new daily cases in Iraq is “increasing significantly at the moment” with the Health Ministry reporting around 4,000 a day, close to the height of its first wave in September.

Head said for any trip to Iraq, there must be infection control practices in force, including mask-wearing, hand-washing, social distancing and good ventilation in indoor spaces.

“Hopefully we will see proactive approaches to infection control in place during the pope’s visit to Baghdad,” he said.

The Iraqi government imposed a modified lockdown and curfew in mid-February amid a new surge in cases, closing schools and mosques and leaving restaurants and cafes only open for takeout. But the government decided against a full shutdown because of the difficulty of enforcing it and the financial impact on Iraq’s battered economy, the Iraqi officials told AP.

Many Iraqis remain lax in using masks and some doubt the severity of the virus.

Madani, the Harvard virologist, urged trip organizers to let science and data guide their decision-making.

A decision to reschedule or postpone the papal trip, or move it to a virtual format, would “be quite impactful from a global leadership standpoint” because “it would signal prioritizing the safety of Iraq’s public,” she said.

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Kullab reported from Baghdad. Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

HEPHASTEUS WORKSHOP

Explainer: Mount Etna puts on its latest spectacular show
By FRANCES D'EMILIO

February 25, 2021


Flames and smoke billowing from a crater, as seen from the southern side of the Mt Etna volcano, tower over the city of Pedara, Sicily, Wednesday night, Feb. 24, 2021. Europe's most active volcano has been steadily erupting since last week, belching smoke, ash, and fountains of red-hot lava. (AP Photo/Salvatore Allegra)


ROME (AP) — Mount Etna, the volcano that towers over eastern Sicily, evokes superlatives. It is Europe’s most active volcano and also the continent’s largest.

And the fiery, noisy show of power it puts on for days or weeks, even years every so often, is always super spectacular. Fortunately, Etna’s latest eruption captivating the world’s attention has caused neither injuries nor evacuation.

But each time it roars back into dramatic action, it wows onlookers and awes geologists who spend their careers monitoring its every quiver, rumble and belch.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?



On Feb. 16, Etna erupted, sending up high fountains of lava, which rolled down the mountain’s eastern slope toward the uninhabited Bove Valley, which is five kilometers (three miles) wide and eight kilometers (five miles) long. The volcano has belched out ash and lava stones that showered the southern side.

The activity has been continuing since, in bursts more or less intense. The flaming lava lights up the night sky in shocking hues of orange and red. There’s no telling how long this round of exciting activity will last, say volcanologists who work at the Etna Observatory run by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

While public fascination began with the first dramatic images this month, the explosive activity began in September 2019, becoming much stronger two months ago. The current activity principally involves the south-east crater, which was created in 1971 from a series of fractures.

HARD TO MISS

Etna towers 3,350 meters (around 11,050 feet) above sea level and is 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter, although the volcanic activity has changed the mountain’s height over time.

Occasionally, the airport at Catania, eastern Sicily’s largest city, has to close down for hours or days, when ash in the air makes flying in the area dangerous. Early in this recent spell of eruptive activity, the airport closed briefly.

But for pilots and passengers flying to and from Catania at night when the volcano is calmer, a glimpse of fiery red in the dark sky makes for an exciting sight.




LIVING WITH A VOLCANO

With Etna’s lava flows largely contained to its uninhabited slopes, life goes in towns and villages elsewhere on the mountain. Sometimes, like in recent days, lava stones rain down on streets, bounce off cars and rattle roofs.

But many residents generally find that a small inconvenience when weighted against the benefits the volcano brings. Lava flows have left fertile farmland. Apple and citrus trees flourish. Etna red and whites are some of Sicily’s most popular wines, from grapes grown on the volcanic slopes.

Tourism rakes in revenues. Hikers and backpackers enjoy views of the oft-puffing mountain and the sparkling Ionian Sea below. For skiers who want uncrowded slopes, Etna’s a favorite.

IT CAN BE DEADLY

Inspiring ancient Greek legends, Etna has had scores of known eruptions in its history. An eruption in 396 B.C. has been credited with keeping the army of Carthage at bay.

In 1669, in what has been considered the volcano’s worst known eruption, lava buried a swath of Catania, about 23 kilometers (15 miles) away and devastated dozens of villages. An eruption in 1928 cut off a rail route circling the mountain’s base.

More recently, in 1983, dynamite was used to divert lava threatening inhabited areas. In 1992, the army built an earthen wall to contain the lava, flowing from Etna for months, from hitting Zafferana Etnea, a village of a few thousand people. At one point, the smoking lava stopped two kilometers (just over a mile) from the edge of town.

Over the last century, a hiccup in geological time, low-energy explosive eruptions and lava flows, both fed from the summit and side vents, have characterized Etna.

After oil spill, Israel’s fishermen net catch despite ban

By ILAN BEN ZION and ALON BERNSTEIN

February 25, 2021


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Fishermen remove fish from nets after returning from a fishing trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Israeli Arab village of Jisr al-Zarqa, Israel, in the early morning of Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. After weathering a year of the coronavirus pandemic, an oil spill in the Mediterranean whose culprits remain at large delivered another blow for the fishermen of Jisr al-Zarqa.

 (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

JISR AL-ZARQA, Israel (AP) — After weathering a year of the coronavirus pandemic, the fishermen of an Arab village in central Israel have been dealt another blow by a mysterious oil spill in the Mediterranean.

Grappling with its worst ecological disaster in years, the government this week ordered a precautionary ban on selling seafood.

Despite the ban, Jisr al-Zarqa’s fishermen went to sea Thursday to bring in their catch.

Sami Ali, a representative for the village’s fishermen, insisted it was safe to keep on fishing.

“The tar floats on the sea, on the water, it doesn’t penetrate deep. It does damage to the reefs, maybe also seaweed, the beach and many facilities. Also it damaged our equipment,” he said. “But the fish do not eat things that are not natural.”

Scientists disagree, and say it’s far too risky to keep fishing as they continue to analyze the disaster.

Over 90% of Israel’s 195 kilometer (120 mile) Mediterranean coastline was covered in an estimated 1,000 tons of black tar, the result of an oil spill out at sea earlier this month. The pollution has swept north to neighboring Lebanon and has caused extensive damage to the ecosystem, killing seabirds, endangered green sea turtles and other marine life.

The government has not yet identified who it believes is responsible for the spill, and has blocked publication of details of the investigation, saying doing so could jeopardize its efforts to bring those responsible to justice. The clean-up is expected to take months.

Authorities have banned people from visiting beaches because of the tar’s toxicity, and on Wednesday the Health Ministry issued a ban on the sale of all Mediterranean seafood until further notice.

The ministry said that although it had yet to receive evidence indicating a health risk, the ban was meant as a precautionary measure. It said fish were being tested to determine the level of pollution, and that it had notified fishermen and fishmongers of the ban.

Jisr al-Zarqa, an impoverished Arab village on Israel’s coast south of Haifa, is already feeling the pains of the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout. The community is one of Israel’s poorest and has long protested what it considers discriminatory treatment by the Israeli government. Only half of the village’s fishermen, around 20 people, went to sea Thursday to bring in the morning catch in spite of the ban.

While Ali isn’t worried about pollution contaminating the fish, he is worried about how plunging sales this week have deepened the community’s financial struggles.

“We didn’t manage to sell much. Some of it we ate with our families,” Ali said.

Thousands of volunteers have taken up the task of cleaning the poisonous tar off Israel’s coast. But every day the sea belches up fresh batches.

“No one knows how much tar is out there, at the bottom of the sea or other places,” said Arik Rosenblum, director of EcoOcean, the organization leading the volunteer efforts.

Along with government authorities, EcoOcean has launched instruments into the sea that can detect the presence of oil and give researchers a better picture.

The oil spill’s impact on the coastal ecosystem has yet to be fully assessed, but is estimated to be enormous, said Noa Shenkar, a marine biologist from Tel Aviv University’s school of zoology.

“We have a very solid database of how it was before the oil spill,” she told The Associated Press. “But we have learned from oil spills in other places in the world that the damage to biodiversity is usually very significant, and for several years you can see the impact.”

The Environmental Protection Ministry says it received no prior warning of the oil spill from international agencies, and that it is doing its utmost to contend with the disaster. Environmental groups and scientists in Israel have charged that the ministry was slow to take action to prevent the petroleum from reaching Israel’s shoreline.

For fishermen like those in Jisr al-Zarqa, the oil spill’s impact will be long term.

“We have suffered the heaviest and most immediate blow,” Ali said, while complaining that polluting industries like offshore gas rigs have received “legitimacy in the seascape.”

“For us, the sea is not just a source of income, it’s our heritage,” he said.

SEE

Oil spill threatens to be ecological disaster for Lebanon coast

“Disaster”: Oil spill stains Israel’s coastline, reaches Lebanon

In oil-rich Iraq, a few women buck norms, take rig site jobs

HOW MANY WOMEN ON THE RIGS IN ALBERTA

By SAMYA KULLAB

Ayat Rawthan, a petrochemical engineer, poses for a photo near an oil field outside Basra, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2021. Rawthan is among just a handful of women who have eschewed the dreary office jobs typically handed to female petrochemical engineers in Iraq. Instead, they chose to become trailblazers in the country’s oil industry, taking up the grueling work of drilling. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jourani)

BASRA, Iraq (AP) — It’s nearly dawn and Zainab Amjad has been up all night working on an oil rig in southern Iraq. She lowers a sensor into the black depths of a well until sonar waves detect the presence of the crude that fuels her country’s economy.

Elsewhere in the oil-rich province of Basra, Ayat Rawthan is supervising the assembly of large drill pipes. These will bore into the Earth and send crucial data on rock formations to screens sitting a few meters (feet) away that she will decipher.

The women, both 24, are among just a handful who have eschewed the dreary office jobs typically handed to female petroleum engineers in Iraq. Instead, they chose to become trailblazers in the country’s oil industry, donning hard hats to take up the grueling work at rig sites.


They are part of a new generation of talented Iraqi women who are testing the limits imposed by their conservative communities. Their determination to find jobs in a historically male-dominated industry is a striking example of the way a burgeoning youth population finds itself increasingly at odds with deeply entrenched and conservative tribal traditions prevalent in Iraq’s southern oil heartland.

The hours Amjad and Rawthan spend in the oil fields are long and the weather unforgiving. Often they are asked what — as women — they are doing there.

“They tell me the field environment only men can withstand,” said Amjad, who spends six weeks at a time living at the rig site. “If I gave up, I’d prove them right.”

Iraq’s fortunes, both economic and political, tend to ebb and flow with oil markets. Oil sales make up 90% of state revenues — and the vast majority of the crude comes from the south. A price crash brings about an economic crisis; a boom stuffs state coffers. A healthy economy brings a measure of stability, while instability has often undermined the strength of the oil sector. Decades of wars, civil unrest and invasion have stalled production.

Following low oil prices dragged down by the coronavirus pandemic and international disputes, Iraq is showing signs of recovery, with January exports reaching 2.868 million barrels per day at $53 per barrel, according to Oil Ministry statistics.

To most Iraqis, the industry can be summed up by those figures, but Amjad and Rawthan have a more granular view. Every well presents a set of challenges; some required more pressure to pump, others were laden with poisonous gas. “Every field feels like going to a new country,” said Amjad.

Given the industry’s outsized importance to the economy, petrochemical programs in the country’s engineering schools are reserved for students with the highest marks. Both women were in the top 5% of their graduating class at Basra University in 2018.

In school they became awestruck by drilling. To them it was a new world, with it’s own language: “spudding” was to start drilling operations, a “Christmas tree” was the very top of a wellhead, and “dope” just meant grease.

Every work day plunges them deep into the mysterious affairs below the Earth’s crust, where they use tools to look at formations of minerals and mud, until the precious oil is found. “Like throwing a rock into water and studying the ripples,” explained Rawthan.



To work in the field, Amjad, the daughter of two doctors, knew she had to land a job with an international oil company — and to do that, she would have to stand out. State-run enterprises were a dead end; there, she would be relegated to office work.

“In my free time, on my vacations, days off I was booking trainings, signing up for any program I could,” said Amjad.

When China’s CPECC came to look for new hires, she was the obvious choice. Later, when Texas-based Schlumberger sought wireline engineers she jumped at the chance. The job requires her to determine how much oil is recoverable from a given well. She passed one difficult exam after another to get to the final interview.

Asked if she was certain she could do the job, she said: “Hire me, watch.”

In two months she traded her green hard hat for a shiny white one, signifying her status as supervisor, no longer a trainee — a month quicker than is typical.

Rawthan, too, knew she would have to work extra hard to succeed. Once, when her team had to perform a rare “sidetrack” — drilling another bore next to the original — she stayed awake all night.

“I didn’t sleep for 24 hours, I wanted to understand the whole process, all the tools, from beginning to end,” she said.

Rawthan also now works for Schlumberger, where she collects data from wells used to determine the drilling path later on. She wants to master drilling, and the company is a global leader in the service.

Relatives, friends and even teachers were discouraging: What about the hard physical work? The scorching Basra heat? Living at the rig site for months at a time? And the desert scorpions that roam the reservoirs at night?

“Many times my professors and peers laughed, ‘Sure, we’ll see you out there,’ telling me I wouldn’t be able to make it,” said Rawthan. “But this only pushed me harder.”

Their parents were supportive, though. Rawthan’s mother is a civil engineer and her father, the captain of an oil tanker who often spent months at sea.

“They understand why this is my passion,” she said. She hopes to help establish a union to bring like-minded Iraqi female engineers together. For now, none exists.

The work is not without danger. Protests outside oil fields led by angry local tribes and the unemployed can disrupt work and sometimes escalate into violence toward oil workers. Confronted every day by flare stacks that point to Iraq’s obvious oil wealth, others decry state corruption, poor service delivery and joblessness.

But the women are willing to take on these hardships. Amjad barely has time to even consider them: It was 11 p.m., and she was needed back at work.

“Drilling never stops,” she said.

Rights groups target sponsors 

like Airbnb for Beijing Games

By STEPHEN WADE February 25, 2021


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FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, file photo, people line up at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center at the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. A small core of international lawyers and activists are prodding leading Olympic sponsors to acknowledge China's widely reported human-rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetans and other minorities.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

In one corner are the 15 leading Olympic sponsors, many household names like Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Visa, Toyota, Samsung and General Electric. Together they pay at least $1 billion to the International Olympic Committee, and in the next four-year Olympic cycle the payments could reach $2 billion.

They are tied together by Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics, which opens in just under a year. Sponsors want the Olympic connection, but they risk damaging their brand because of reported human-rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetans and other minorities in China.

In the other corner is a small core of international lawyers and activists. They have branded these the “Genocide Games” and are pressuring sponsors, the IOC and world sports federations to investigate.

Thousands of Olympic athletes are caught in the middle. For most, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for fame and a medal. But they’re on their own. Those who speak out may be banned by Olympic bodies, dropped by sponsors, and threatened by the Chinese state.

“It’s not fair that these huge institutions who can speak out are going to leave it to the individual athletes to do this,” Blair McDougall, campaign director for the British-based Stop Uyghur Genocide, told The Associated Press. “The governing bodies could speak out, the sponsors, the IOC.”

Instead, there is silence.

“Once again athletes are being used as pawns,” said Rob Koehler, director general of Global Athlete, an advocacy group for Olympic athletes.

Human-rights groups have initially targeted Airbnb and CEO Brian Chesky. The World Uyghur Congress and other advocates for Uyghurs and Tibetans have previously called for moving the games, or some type of boycott.

“Airbnb describe themselves as a company that talks of having an ethos,” McDougall said. “So far they have ignored us.”

To grab attention, campaigners have designed a mock-ad linking Airbnb to the internment camps and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Although sponsors account for about 18% of the IOC’s income, 73% comes from selling broadcast rights. The American network NBC accounts for about half of the broadcast income.

This will be Beijing’s second Olympics in 14 years, following the 2008 Summer Games that were supposed to improve human rights in China. These Olympics landed in China after several European bidders withdrew over costs and public opposition. The IOC was left with two choices: Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan. Beijing won in a narrow 44-40 vote.

“Our direct request of the sponsors is simple,” McDougall said. “Meet with the Uyghurs and people who have survived the network of camps so that you are not complicit in the use of the games in silencing the issue; in being used as a propaganda tool to distract from what’s happening.”

AP contacted the three Japan-based sponsors. Toyota’s reply was typical in regard to the internment of Uyghurs in northwestern China. Panasonic did not immediately respond, and Bridgestone sent a form letter from the IOC.

“As for the recent situation in Xinjiang, we are not in the position to comment on it,” Toyota said in a statement.

McDougall contacted the World Curling Federation, which initially responded by blocking him on social media. He said they have since lifted the block “but have gone silent.”

“They’ll be getting pressure not to be the ones who break the dam of silence,” McDougall said.

London-based human-rights lawyer Michael Polak filed a complaint with the IOC ethics commission over Beijing’s “breaches of the Olympic charter.” Instead of responding to his brief, the commission referred him to a statement from IOC President Thomas Bach.

The charter in Principle 6 under “Olympism,” prohibits discrimination “of any kind, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Polak plans to follow up with Ban Ki-moon, the former United Nations secretary general and the chairman of the IOC ethics commission. The commission itself is not independent of the IOC, but Polak believes it should be.

The IOC has often repeated its position: it simply runs a sports events and “has neither the mandate nor the capability to change the laws or the political system of a sovereign country.”

IOC spokesman Mark Adams declined an Associated Press request to make Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. available for an interview with a journalist and a human-rights lawyer. Samaranch leads IOC preparations for Beijing. In a recent interview with China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, he called progress for the games “truly remarkable.” Bach called the preparations “almost a miracle.” Neither has commented in public about the camps or the abuses, or used the word “Uyghurs.”

Samaranch is the son for former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. He also helps to run the Samaranch Foundation in China. The foundation says its purpose is to promote “Olympism.” One program listed on its website is dedicated to “safe driving and healthy sports” in Xinjiang, the region where internment camps are located.

Polak said it’s impossible for the IOC to guarantee that elements used in the games — souvenirs, technology to time races, or clothing — were not produced by Uyghur “forced labor.”

“Because the supply chain is so muddy in China, it’s very likely that when an athlete crosses the finishing line, it will be the same technology that China uses to track Uyghurs,” Polak said.

Canada’s House of Commons on Monday voted 266-0 in a non-binding referendum that China is committing genocide against more than 1 million Uyghurs and called for the IOC to move the Olympics from Beijing. The Dutch parliament passed a similar motion on Thursday saying the treatment amounted to genocide.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he believes genocide is being committed against the Uyghurs.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded to Blinken: “The most important thing should be repeated three times: China has no genocide; China has no genocide; China has no genocide, period.”

Polak pointed out that the United Nations Genocide Convention spells out much of the behavior taking place in China.

“Internationally there is no dispute that crimes against humanity are taking place,” Polak said. “Whether it amounts to genocide, there are some arguments. Although most people seem to now accept it does reach the stage of genocide. That’s in regard to preventing births and also separating children from families.”

Polak said having the games might inadvertently benefit the Uyghurs. Television coverage will highlight the rights abuse, and athletes speaking out could be critical. Athletes are pushing for that right with changes to the IOC’s Rule 50.

“In some ways, the Olympics going ahead is almost better for the cause in terms of the world’s attention on what’s happening to the Uyghur people,” he said. “And not just the Uyghur people, but suppressed Christians, Tibetans and others.”

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Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Native American nominee’s grilling raises questions on bias

“She did not lose her cool, That’s because she had to put up with this crap for 60 years. This was not a new experience for her.”

By FELICIA FONSECA and MATTHEW BROWN

February 26, 2021



FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — When Wyoming U.S. Sen. John Barrasso snapped at Deb Haaland during her confirmation hearing, many in Indian Country were incensed.

The exchange, coupled with descriptions of the Interior secretary nominee as “radical” — by other white, male Republicans — left some feeling Haaland is being treated differently because she is a Native American woman.

“If it was any other person, they would not be subjected to being held accountable for their ethnicity,” said Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chairwoman of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah in Massachusetts.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Barrasso wanted assurance that Haaland would follow the law when it comes to imperiled species. Before the congresswoman finished her response, Barrasso shouted, “I’m talking about the law!”

Barrasso, former chairman of Senate Indian Affairs Committee, later said his uncharacteristic reaction was a sign of frustration over Haaland dodging questions.

“My constituents deserve straight answers from the potential secretary about the law,” he said in a statement. “They got very few of those.”

Among Haaland supporters across the nation who tuned in virtually, it was infuriating.

“It was horrible. It was disrespectful,” said Rebecca Ortega of Santa Clara Pueblo in Haaland’s home state of New Mexico. “I just feel like if it would have been a white man or a white woman, he would never have yelled like that.”

The Interior Department has broad oversight of energy development, along with tribal affairs, and some Republican senators have labeled Haaland “radical” over her calls to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and address climate change. They said that could hurt rural America and major oil and gas-producing states. Lounaisia Sen. John Kennedy after two days of hearings called Haaland a “neo-socialist, left-of-Lenin whack job.”

Andrews-Maltais saw “radical” as a code for “you’re an Indian.”

Cheryl Andrews-Maltais in 2010.

 (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

But Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana said it’s not about race. Daines frequently uses the term to describe Democrats and their policies, including President Joe Biden and former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, whom Daines defeated in November.

“As much as I would love to see a Native American be on the president’s Cabinet, I have concerns about her record. ... To say otherwise is outrageous and offensive,” he told The Associated Press.

Civil rights activists say Haaland’s treatment fits a pattern of minority nominees encountering more political resistance than white counterparts.

The confirmation of Neera Tanden, who would be the first Indian American to head the Office of Management and Budget, was thrown into doubt when it lost support from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He cited her controversial tweets attacking members of both parties.

Critics also have targeted Vanita Gupta, an Indian American and Biden’s pick to be associate attorney general, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as Health and Human Services secretary. Conservatives launched campaigns calling Gupta “dangerous” and questioning Becerra’s qualifications.

Democrats pushed back against Haaland’s treatment and questioned if attempts to block her nomination are motivated by something other than her record. Former U.S. Sens. and cousins Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado said Haaland “should be afforded the same respect and deference” as other nominees.

The hearing itself, in which Haaland was grilled on oil and gas development, national parks and tribes, represented a cultural clash in how the Democrat and many Indigenous people view the world — everything is intertwined and must exist in balance, preserving the environment for generations to come.

That was seen in Haaland’s response when asked about her motivation to be Interior secretary. She recalled a story about Navajo Code Talkers in World War II who prioritized coming up with a word in their native language for “Mother Earth.”

“It’s difficult to not feel obligated to protect this land, and I feel that every Indigenous person in this country understands that,” she said.

Rep. Haaland testifies before a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on her nomination to be secretary of the Interior. (Leigh Vogel/Pool via AP, File)

That broader historical context is missing from Republican talking points against Haaland that instead simplify the debate to a battle between industry and environmentalists, said Dina Gilio-Whitaker, a lecturer in American Indian studies at California State University, San Marcos.

“There’s obviously a really huge conversation about how the land came to be the United States to begin with,” she said. “That’s the elephant in the living room nobody wants to talk about.”

Andrew Werk Jr., president of the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre Tribes on Montana’s Fort Belknap Reservation, said Republicans’ brusque treatment of Haaland was unfair to her and to Americans.

But he doesn’t see any racial bias in Daines’ actions for dismissing Haaland as a “radical,” only hardened partisanship.

“For all the reasons Sen. Daines opposes her, those are all the reasons we support her in Fort Belknap,” Werk said. “Our land is our identity, and as tribes we want to be good stewards and protect that.”

Sen. Daines speaks during Rep. Haaland's confirmation hearing. 

(Sarah Silbiger/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Despite Republican opposition, Haaland has enough Democratic support to become the first Native American to lead the Interior Department. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on the nomination next week before the full Senate chimes in.

Haaland, 60, weaved childhood memories, experiences on public land and tribes’ rights into her answers during the hearing. She talked about carrying buckets of water for her grandmother down a dusty road at Laguna Pueblo, where she’s from, careful not to spill a drop because she recognized its importance. She talked about harvesting an oryx, a type of antelope, that fed her family for a year, about her support for protecting grizzly bears indefinitely and her ancestors’ sacrifices.

Frank White Clay, chairman of the Crow Tribe, which gets much of its revenue from a coal mine on its southeastern Montana reservation, said Republicans have “legitimate concerns about natural resources.” But he urged them to consider the historic nature of Haaland’s nomination.

“A Native woman up for confirmation — her issues are Indian Country issues,” White Clay said.

Haaland pledged to carry out Biden’s agenda, sidestepping specifics on what she would do if confirmed. While the vagueness rattled Republicans, her backers said it showed she’s a consensus-builder.

“She did not lose her cool,” said Kalyn Free, who is Choctaw and supports Haaland. “To me, that’s not an indicator of her performance. ... That’s because she had to put up with this crap for 60 years. This was not a new experience for her.”

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

How Deb Haaland's confirmation bid became a 'proxy fight' over fossil fuels

Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani 

THE GUARDIAN 

Partway through the sometimes contentious confirmation hearing for Deb Haaland as US secretary of the interior last week came an acknowledgement of the two powerful forces, with very different attitudes to the climate crisis, that have squared off over the nomination.

© Photograph: Reuters Deb Haaland at a Senate hearing on her confirmation as interior secretary.

“I almost feel like your nomination is a proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels,” Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, told Haaland during the Senate hearing.

Haaland, a strong advocate for climate action who is seeking to be the first Indigenous American confirmed as a cabinet secretary, was careful to not wade directly into this fray herself, assuring the senators that fossil fuels would be around for “years to come” and that she intended to be someone who will “serve all Americans, not just my one district in New Mexico”.

But the battle lines between the fossil fuel industry and the activists and environmentalists opposed to it have been starkly drawn in the fight for Haaland’s nomination.

John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who has received nearly $1.2m from oil and gas companies and their employees in his time in the Senate, said he was “troubled by many of [Haaland’s] radical views” and scolded her over a tweet in which she said Republicans didn’t believe in science. Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said he was “deeply concerned” over Haaland’s “radical” support for Joe Biden’s pausing of oil and gas drilling on public land, neglecting to mention his campaign had taken $288,500 from these industries in just the past five years.

Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican who has over his Senate career accepted nearly $1.7m from oil and gas interests, pointedly asked Haaland: “Will your administration be guided by a prejudice against fossil fuel, or will it be guided by science?” while Utah’s Mike Lee, who blamed protections placed on Bears Ears, an area of the state important to Native Americans, for “impoverishing” locals, has taken in $366,000 from oil and gas during his Senate tenure.

Related: Republicans criticizing Haaland's nomination have ties to fossil fuels

This staunch opposition will probably not sink Haaland’s nomination given Republicans are the minority in the Senate and Joe Manchin, a conservative swing Democrat from the coal heartland of West Virginia, has said he will vote to confirm her after getting sufficient assurances that fossil fuels won’t be immediately jettisoned in order to tackle the unfolding climate crisis.



But the feud over Haaland’s nomination highlights the enormous political challenge of rapidly shifting the US away from oil, coal and gas towards cleaner forms of energy to avert ever more disastrous heatwaves, flooding, wildfires, societal unrest and other maladies. Republicans have signaled they will fiercely enforce a status quo whereby fossil fuel extraction across vast swaths of public land, including areas sacred to Native Americans, remains unhindered.

Opposing them is a broad coalition of environmental, youth and indigenous rights groups, along with the progressive wing of the Democratic party, who see Haaland’s historic ascent as a pivotal moment to confront longstanding environmental, economic, racial and social inequities.

“Grassroots advocacy and Native civic engagement and not campaign contributions from extractive industries should be the major factor in the direction of the Department of the Interior,” said Judith LeBlanc, executive director of Native Organizers Alliance, which as been part of an effort in which tens of thousands of letters have been sent by Indigenous Americans to senators calling for Haaland’s confirmation.

She added: “It goes without saying the importance of this moment to Indigenous peoples everywhere. For an Indigenous woman to step into this role means real change is in the making. It reflects a reckoning with the long history of systemic racism.”

A Laguna Pueblo member, Haaland has become a progressive champion through her advocacy for tribal communities as well as for the Green New Deal, an ambitious plan to eliminate US greenhouse gas emissions – a quarter of which are currently generated on public lands.

“For us, her confirmation means progress towards environmental, racial and economic justice,” said Ellen Sciales, spokesperson for the Sunrise Movement, a youth justice organization.

But while Haaland may take part in protests such as the one over the Dakota Access pipeline that threatens the land and water of the Standing Rock tribe, her supporters point out she has enough bipartisan bona fides to lead a department with 70,000 members of staff that manages around a fifth of the American landmass.

“A unique thing about Deb is her track record during the partisan Trump era,” said Jade Begay, a member of the Tesuque Pueblo and Navajo Nation and the climate justice campaign director of the NDN Collective.

“She’s a skilled politician who knows how to work across party lines, and a lot of interior [department] policies are about relationships between communities who don’t see eye to eye, like the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists. We need someone who is a skilled bridge maker and that’s who Deb Haaland is.”

© Provided by The Guardian Haaland with Don Young of Alaska before the hearing. Photograph: Reuters

Even Don Young, a Republican US representative known for his embrace of the fossil fuel industry who said at the hearing that “you have to be on pot” to think oil and gas are going to be phased out, said he backed Haaland’s nomination after working productively with her.

“She has worked with me. She has crossed the aisle, and as a member of this administration, I know she will do a good job,” the Alaskan lawmaker said. “Respectfully, I want you to listen to her. Understand that there’s a broad picture.”

The struggle over Haaland’s nomination, and the obstacles she faces once confirmed, may well illustrate the overall climate challenge in miniature. Will the US pull off the trick of speedily switching to renewables while bringing along those workers who risk being left behind, or will it remain umbilically attached to extractive industries that blight the climate, water supplies and people’s health?

Climate activists hope Haaland will help deliver the former. “She understands the science behind climate change, and the urgent need to shift our priorities,” said Sharon Buccino, director of lands for the National Resource Defense Council. “Her opponents are stuck in the past – we need to look to energy sources other than oil and gas to deliver a secure and prosperous energy future.”

Michigan Republicans want to make it illegal

 to prioritize low-income or minority areas for vaccines: report

Matthew Chapman RAW STORY
February 24, 2021

YouTube/screen grab

On Wednesday, Dave Boucher of the Detroit Free Press reported that Republicans in the Michigan state Senate are advancing an amendment that would bar the state from using a "social vulnerability index" to prioritize distribution of COVID-19 vaccine doses — meaning that it would be illegal to prioritize areas based on race, socioeconomic status, or a number of other factors.

State Sen. Jim Runestad justified the bill by complaining that under the state rules, a 20-year-old with "minority status and you don't speak English that well" would get a vaccine ahead of a 65-year-old. This is false, as 20-year-olds are not yet eligible for vaccines in Michigan.

The amendment ultimately passed the Appropriations Committee, although it still needs approval by the broader legislature.

The issue of how to prioritize vaccines has varied from state to state. In Texas, Dallas County was forced to end a program prioritizing vaccine delivery for high-risk communities of color after the state health officials threatened to cut off their doses altogether.

U.S. communities are heavily segregated by race, and Black and Latino workers account for 43 percent of workers deemed essential in the pandemic, which has raised the urgency among many officials to ensure their communities have adequate vaccine supply.

GOP lawmaker's husband linked to Three Percenter pickup parked outside Capitol during insurrection

Travis Gettys
February 26, 2021

Facebook

A pickup truck bearing a Three Percenter militia sticker that was parked outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been traced to the husband of a Hitler-quoting Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) gained infamy two days after she was sworn in -- and one day before the deadly riot -- by saying Adolf Hitler "was right on one thing," and the militia-endorsing pickup was linked to her husband by the @capitolhunters Twitter account that's crowd-sourcing efforts to identify participants in the insurrection, reported The Daily Beast.

"Army friend gave me decal. Thought it was a cool decal. Took it off because of negative pub," said Chris Miller, the congresswoman's husband and himself a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, in an email statement to The Beast.

Chris Miller insists he was never a member of the loosely organized anti-government militia, and claims he "didn't know anything about 3% till fake news started this fake story and read about them."

The state lawmaker's pickup was photographed outside the Capitol, which is inaccessible to regular vehicle traffic, raised questions about who it belonged to and how it got there.

Online sleuths found a remarkably similar truck with the same Illinois license plate number carrying Mary Miller and Trump-Pence campaign banners in a July 2020 photo, and her Facebook page posted another photo showing what appears to be the same pickup with the same campaign banners.

The Millers have posted other photos of the same type of Ford pickup with stickers promoting other pro-gun groups, and the couple has prominently featured the truck in social media posts and campaign materials.

The license plate seen in photos from the Capitol riot shows it's a design that appears to be reserved for Illinois politicians -- such as Chris Miller, who took office in 2019.

As US mourns 500,000 lives lost, report shows billionaires added $1.3 trillion to their fortunes during pandemic

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
February 24, 2021

PARASITE

FILE PHOTO - Amazon President, Chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the Business Insider's "Ignition Future of Digital" conference in New York, U.S. on December 2, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo


As the United States this week mourned the devastating milestone of 500,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, a report out Wednesday shows that the nation's billionaires have seen their collective wealth grow by $1.3 trillion since the deadly pandemic began last year.

According to the new analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), America's 664 billionaires now have a combined net worth of $4.2 trillion—a figure that stands in staggering contrast to the economic pain being felt by countless families across the U.S. as joblessness, uninsurance, and hunger remain sky-high.

"Taxing those who have experienced windfall wealth gains to pay for Covid relief and recovery is a matter of equity and justice."

—Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies

"It is unseemly that billionaires have experienced such gains as we mark a half a million lives lost and millions more who have lost their health, wealth and jobs," Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality at IPS, said in a statement. "Taxing those who have experienced windfall wealth gains to pay for Covid relief and recovery is a matter of equity and justice."

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—the richest man in the world—and SpaceX founder Elon Musk saw their wealth grow by $76.3 billion and $158 billion respectively between March 18, 2020 and February 19, 2021—bigger gains than any other U.S. billionaire. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, saw his net worth jump by $41 billion during that period.

"Even as congressional Republicans try to nickel-and-dime suffering Americans by opposing President Biden's American Rescue Plan, including its $1,400 relief checks, American billionaires have reaped $1.3 trillion in pandemic profits," said ATF executive director Frank Clemente. "The need for the kind of fair-share tax program Biden ran and won on becomes clearer every day, as billionaire wealth balloons while working-family hopes deflate."

The U.S., which has the highest coronavirus death toll in the world, reached 500,000 lives lost to Covid-19 on Monday. "About one in 670 Americans has died of Covid-19, which has become a leading cause of death in the country, along with heart disease and cancer, and has driven down life expectancy more sharply than in decades," the New York Times noted.

While declining cases and an improving vaccine rollout have prompted some optimism, the grim milestone and still-rising death toll served as urgent reminders of how much work remains to be done to bring the catastrophic pandemic under control.

"We are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NBC earlier this month. "It's encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they're coming down from an extraordinarily high place."