Black woman accuses Peel police of racism after officer shoots her on Mother's Day

© CBC Chantelle Krupka, 34, a mother of a 10-year-old boy, speaks to reporters outside her Mississauga home about being shot on Mother's Day.

A Black woman in Mississauga says Peel police used excessive force against her when one officer Tasered her in the back and then another officer shot her in the abdomen on Mother's Day.
Chantelle Krupka, 34, a mother of a 10-year-old boy, told reporters on Mississauga on Tuesday that police were responding to a domestic call made by her ex-partner.

Krupka was injured by the officers on the front porch of her home. A single bullet fractured her right hip.

"I asked the officer who shot me why she shot me. It actually in a way calmed me down because the Tasing hurt much more. The shock from the shot really kind of pushed me back and calmed me. It took a minute to register what had happened," an emotional Krupka said at a news conference.
"And I looked her in the eye and I maintained contact. And I asked her repeatedly why she shot me. I said, 'I just wanted to see my son. I didn't deserve this. Why did you do this to me?' She didn't answer."

Krupka's account comes in the wake of a number of recent cases in the U.S. and Canada where racialized people have been killed or injured in interactions with police — the most notable being the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, a death that touched off street protests around the world.© Evan Mitsui/CBC Anti-racism demonstrators march in Toronto on June 6, 2020, more than a week after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis. Chantelle Krupka's account comes in the wake of a number of recent cases in the U.S. and Canada where racialized people have been killed or injured during interactions with police.
Krupka said she was no threat to police when the shooting happened on May 10 at about 10:30 p.m.

Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), has been called in. Krupka took cellphone video of the confrontation, and it is now in the possession of the SIU, which also seized the firearm used by the officer.

Krupka said police also used excessive force against her current partner, Michael Headley, who was Tasered three times as well in front of the home.

In a release on Tuesday, the SIU said it is "nearing completion" of its investigation into the case.

The SIU said the firearm was submitted to the Centre of Forensic Sciences for analysis and information from the conducted energy weapon used on Krupka has been downloaded. It is still waiting for "some recently requested materials" from Peel police.

© CBC Chantelle Krupka, middle, answers questions while her partner, Michael Headley, left, and her lawyer, Davin Charney, right, listen.
Krupka and Headley have also filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director.

They allege that Peel police used excessive force against both of them, unlawfully arrested Headley, and committed "discreditable conduct" because "this is a case of racism."

They allege the officers escalated the situation and that there is systemic racism within Peel police.

"My ex knows that he can weaponize police against me because I am Black. He knows when he calls police they believe him because he is not Black and that they will mistreat me because I am Black. I would not have been shot and Tasered if I was a white woman," Krupka says in the complaint.

"Michael would not have been Tasered if he was a white man. Any fear police felt was exaggerated in their minds because of negative and improper stereotypes and poor training. How could I possibly have been seen as a threat when on the ground after being tasered in the back?"  

© Jeremy Cohn/CBC According to Krupka, police were called to the home after she and her ex-partner, with whom she shares custody of their 10-year-old boy, exchanged text messages earlier in the day. She expressed a desire to talk to her son on Mother's Day and there was nothing threatening in the text messages.

According to Krupka, police were called to the home after she and her ex-partner, with whom she shares custody, exchanged text messages earlier in the day. She expressed a desire to talk to her son on Mother's Day and there was nothing threatening in the text messages.

She said when police arrived, a male officer called her, and she became afraid.

She said police shone a spotlight on her house, and she called emergency dispatch and was told to go outside. When she and Headley went outside, she said the male officer accused her of making a fist, and Tasered Headley.

Krupka said she tried to run away. The officer then Tasered her, she fell to the ground, rolled over onto her back and a female officer shot her.

Krupka was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries and underwent surgery. Police searched the home and told her two weeks later that she was being charged.

"The night of the incident, police seized property from my home, including cash, a cell phone, and cannabis — each of which are legal," the complaint reads.

"I believe that the charges against Michael and myself were laid in an attempt to paint us as criminals and create an after-the-fact justification for the excessive use of force against us," it continues.
Use of force 'outrageously abusive,' complaint says

"Even if there were any merit to the charges, which we absolutely deny, the use of force was excessive and outrageously abusive. We did not deserve to be tasered. I did not deserve to be shot."

Davin Charney, her lawyer, said police came to the home to give relationship advice and there is no need for armed officers to do so.

Const. Akhil Mooken, spokesperson for Peel Regional Police, said on Tuesday the force is unable to comment on the incident because the SIU is investigating.

Mooken, however, confirmed that a female was struck and injured on May 10 by a "police-discharged firearm."

He said Krupka has been charged with laundering proceeds of crime committed within Canada, a charge under the Criminal Code, and possession for the purpose of distributing over 50 grams of marijuana, a charge under the Cannabis Act.

© Jeremy Cohn/CBC In a release on Tuesday, the SIU said it is 'nearing completion' of its investigation into the case.

The SIU has not yet responded to an email requesting further comment.

In the release, the SIU said four investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the case. Investigators have canvassed the area in an attempt to obtain evidence and locate witnesses. Krupka, four witnesses, six officers and the officer who is the subject of the investigation have all been interviewed.

The SIU is an arm's length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

CANADA

Indigenous women's group urges RCMP to end 'needless deaths'

The Canadian Press Staff Published Tuesday, June 23, 2020

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki is seen during a news conference in Ottawa, Monday, April 20, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA -- A national group representing Indigenous women is urging the RCMP to quickly take steps -- including equipping Mounties with body cameras -- to end what it calls needless killing and assaults by police.

In a letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, the Native Women's Association of Canada also calls on the force to make non-violent apprehension the imperative when a suspect has no gun and to ensure social workers, health professionals or elders be called when an Indigenous person is suffering a mental health crisis.

The letter to Lucki comes as a House of Commons committee prepares to meet today to consider doing a study of systemic racism in policing.

Related Stories
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With spotlight on policing failures, how can the system better respond to mental-health crises?

New Democrat MP Jack Harris has been pressing the public safety committee to reconvene to get an examination underway.

Harris wants Lucki and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, to be among the witnesses.

Lucki recently said she was struggling with the notion of systemic racism in the RCMP, only to acknowledge its existence days later.

New Democrats have already called for a review of the RCMP budget and for more spending on mental health and addiction supports to prevent crises from becoming police matters.

Concerns about police brutality and discrimination have sparked rallies and cries for change around the world since the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minnesota police.

The recent police killings of Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi in New Brunswick, and the battering of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam by RCMP in Alberta, have highlighted the issue in Canada, the association notes.
In the letter to Lucki, association president Lorraine Whitman invites Lucki to take "the first steps to end the needless deaths and assaults of Indigenous women and men at the hands of Canadian police."

"We, as Indigenous women, did not need to read the recent spate of tragic news to understand the tragic outcomes that can occur when our people have encounters with law enforcement in this country," Whitman writes.

"But we ask that you use this moment to begin taking the steps necessary to prevent further lives from being lost."

The association also wants the RCMP and other Canadian police forces to join in forming a task force to rewrite the relationship between police and Indigenous women.
"We want culturally appropriate protocols that will keep our women, girls and gender-diverse people safe, not just from street killers and other assailants who have targeted them as prey, but from the police themselves."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2020.

THE RCMP MALE MEMBERS OF THE FORCE HAVE A RAPIST MISOGYNISTIC APPROACH TO INDIGENOUS WOMEN WHEN ASSIGNED TO NORTHERN COMMUNITIES ON THE PRAIRIES AS A RESULT OF PUNISHMENT FOR

SOME INFRACTION ON THE FORCE SUCH WAS THE CASE OF FORMER MP, ALBERTA  MLA EX RCMP JACK RAMSEY 

HOUSE COMMITTEE HEARINGS WITH RCMP COMMISSIONER BRENDA LUCKI






Pam Palmaterverified_user
Pam_Palmater
My latest for @macleans I agree with Senator Dyck, NAN Grand Chief @gcfiddler & others that @rcmpgrcpolice Commissioner Brenda Lucki must go. She has not addressed lethal racism in RCMP. #MMWIG #RodneyLevi #ChantalMoore https://t.co/QJNZC4xGkr
Twitter 2020-06-18 5:47 p.m


Gary Anandasangareeverified_user
gary_srp
During yesterday's Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, I asked Royal Canadian Mounted Commissioner, Brenda Lucki what steps the RCMP is taking to address issues of systemic #racism within the police force. (1/3) https://t.co/q3sv4lpU7I
Twitter 6:50 a.m.


Kristy Kirkupverified_user
kkirkup
Last night at a committee, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki pointed to an example of a six-foot jump in response to a question about systemic racism in her force from @GregFergus. “That would be systemic discrimination,” he said. https://t.co/xc3ibJXro0 #cdnpoli
Twitter 6:37 a.m.

Police in misconduct cases stay on force through arbitration

1 of 3
FILE - In this May 30, 2020 file photo, a protester addresses a line of Tucson Police Officers in riot gear in Tucson, Ariz. Hundreds of officers across the country were fired, sometimes repeatedly, for violating policies but got their jobs back after appealing their cases to an arbitrator who successfully overturned their discipline – a all-too-common practice that experts say stands in the way of real accountability. On Monday, June 22, 2020 James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, said " management should do a better job when hiring officers. (Josh Galemore/Arizona Daily Star via AP)


SEATTLE (AP) — An Oregon police officer lost his job and then returned to work after fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in the back. A Florida sergeant was let go six times for using excessive force and stealing from suspects, while a Texas lieutenant was terminated five times after being accused of striking two women, making threatening calls and committing other infractions.

These officers and hundreds of others across the country were fired, sometimes repeatedly, for violating policies but got their jobs back after appealing their cases to an arbitrator who overturned their discipline — an all-too-common practice that some experts in law and in policing say stands in the way of real accountability

“Arbitration inherently undermines police decisions,” said Michael Gennaco, a police reform expert and former federal civil rights prosecutor who specialized in police misconduct cases. “It’s dismaying to see arbitrators regularly putting people back to work.”

The killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer sparked weeks of protests and calls for reforms, but experts say arbitration can block those efforts.

Arbitration, the appeals process used by most law enforcement agencies, contributes to officer misconduct, limits public oversight and dampens morale, said Stephen Rushin, a Loyola University Chicago law professor who last year published a study on arbitration in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

“Police arbitration on appeal is one of the single most important accountability issues in the country,” he told The Associated Press. “You can’t change an organization if you have to keep employing people that you know are going to do bad things.”

Generally, when a misconduct complaint is filed against an officer, it’s investigated internally and if a policy violation occurred, the chief or other official may order discipline ranging from oral reprimand to suspension to termination.

An officer who objects can appeal to an arbitrator. Each state and municipality is different, but this is the most common process. Police unions argue that arbitration is less expensive and less time-consuming than going to court, so it’s written into their contracts.

Arbitrators are usually lawyers who focus on labor law, and in most cases they have the final word. The process can take years. Officers who are fired and reinstated can get back pay for the time they weren’t working.

The contract between the Seattle police union and the city states the burden of proof to fire an officer must be “more than preponderance of the evidence,” in cases for an offense that could “stigmatize” an officer and make it harder to get employment elsewhere.

This type of requirement is common, Gennaco said, adding, “The raised standard for termination cases is another example of a union contract that gives special rights to police.”

James Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, which has 351,000 members, said management should do a better job when hiring officers.

“Rather than acknowledge their failure in recruiting and screening, they want to blame problem officers on the union contract,” Pasco said Monday. “If they did appropriate recruiting, training and supervision, we wouldn’t be in the position of using arbitration.”

It’s unclear whether some cases are overturned due to an arbitrator’s personal bias or flaws in the internal investigations, or both, said Rushin, the law professor.

One Seattle officer was fired for punching a handcuffed woman in his patrol car in 2014. He appealed, and the arbitrator reduced his punishment to a 15-day suspension. The city appealed in state court, and the judge reinstated his dismissal.

That’s unusual, Rushin said. More often, union agreements make the arbitrator’s decision final, and a court can’t overturn it.

Officials in Portland, Oregon, took their opposition to an arbitrator’s decision to the Oregon Court of Appeals but lost their bid to enforce the firing of Officer Ron Frashour.

Frashour and another officer had gone to the home of Aaron Campbell on Jan. 29, 2010, on a report that he was distraught over his brother’s death. The officers ordered Campbell to exit the home, and he came out unarmed, walking backward with his hands on his head. Frashour shot Campbell in his back, killing him.

Portland settled a federal lawsuit with the Campbell estate in 2012 for $1.2 million, and city officials fired Frashour, concluding Campbell didn’t pose a threat. But an arbitrator ruled in 2012 that the city must reinstate him. The city appealed and lost again.

San Antonio officials have repeatedly ordered discipline for Lt. Lee Rakun, but he successfully appealed his termination five times, according to reports. His most recent suspension occurred in 2018 for leaving work early and defying authority. He appealed that firing once again.

Rakun isn’t alone. San Antonio TV station KSAT found that two-thirds of fired officers had gotten their jobs back since 2010.

San Antonio City Manager Erik Walsh said the current collective bargaining agreement limits the chief’s ability to appropriately discipline officers.

“We intend to bring those issues to the next contract negotiation with the police union,” he said. “I am hoping the police union will agree that these cases tarnish and impact the community’s confidence in our police department.”

A Florida police officer who was fired six times went back on patrol in 2018. An arbitrator ordered the Opa-locka Police Department to rehire Sgt. German Bosque after he was fired in 2013 for evidence tampering. A 2011 Sarasota Herald-Tribune report said Bosque had 40 internal affairs complaints, including 16 for battery or excessive force.

When an arbitrator changes the punishment or throws it out, it can have a demoralizing effect on the people in charge.

“One of the most common complaints I’ve heard from chiefs is they say why should an unelected arbitrator, who doesn’t know our department, doesn’t know our history, why should they be the one that gets to decide which type of punishment is excessive and which type of punishment is reasonable?” Rushin said.

No state or federal agency tracks arbitration outcomes, but media investigations have documented hundreds of officers who returned to work after being fired. A Washington Post report documented 1,881 officers who were fired between 2006 and 2016, and 451 got their jobs back through arbitration.

SELF ORGANIZED SELF DIRECTED PROTESTS ARE NOT ORGANIZED BY A GEORGE SOROS CONSPIRACY IF IT WERE THEY WOULD HAVE PROFESSIONAL SIGNS NOT HOMEMADE ONES

A City Painted Over A Black Lives Matter Street Mural As Protests Continue

People pointed out the symbolism of the blue line of paint — but police said the paint is gray.

Claudia KoernerBuzzFeed News Reporter

Last updated on June 21, 2020, at 10:30 p.m. ET

• 
  
• 
  
• After protesters painted "Black Lives Matter" on a street outside the Florissant, Missouri, police department, the city covered it up, drawing new criticism as protests continue locally and around the US.

David Parsons@davidlparsons

Police in Florissant, Missouri, protecting people while they paint a blue line over a BLM street mural

10:35 PM - 20 Jun 2020

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A photo posted to Twitter on Saturday showed a group of people painting over the stenciled words and questioned the use of a blue line of paint to do the job. "The thin blue line" has for decades been a metaphor for police work, and it's frequently included in pro-police imagery.

But according to Florissant Police Department Officer Steve Michael, the paint is not blue, but gray.

"It was painted over because it is illegal to paint the roadway," he said in an email to BuzzFeed News. "It has absolutely nothing to do with the message."

Michael added the new paint job was done by the city's street department.

"If we allow all groups to paint a message anywhere then we would have all kinds of different groups doing it," he said. "We simply cannot allow any group to paint anything on roadways."

Search4Swag@search4swag

05:20 PM - 20 Jun 2020

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Florissant, a St. Louis suburb, is a neighbor of Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by police in 2014. Locals have protested many times since then, and they once again gathered against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Search4Swag@search4swag

#CenterLineWars

11:38 PM - 21 Jun 2020

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Police have at times used chemical agents on protesters, and earlier this month, an officer was fired after striking a man with an unmarked police vehicle.

The street mural was first painted on Friday, KMOV reported.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqUXZzl_u7/?utm_source=ig_embed

Instagram: @juvon_baker

After it was initially painted over, protesters once again wrote "Black Lives Matter" in the street's center lane. It was then again painted over, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter said.

Jesse Bogan@JesseBogan

Starting to chalk lines in for Black Lives Matter. Has been painted and repainted 2 times this weekend. Florissant police say deployment of chemical munitions imminent. 'Hell no, we won't go' chant protesters.

12:40 AM - 22 Jun 2020

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But as of Sunday night, protesters were again gathering. And they were again writing out "Black Lives Matter."

Russian court grants early release to imprisoned Jehovah's Witness
Dane Dennis Christensen was sentenced to six years in jail by a Russian court in May 2017 for continuing the activities of an extremist group for practicing his Jehova's Witnesses religion. Photo courtesy of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom/Website

June 23 (UPI) -- The Jehovah's Witnesses said a Danish citizen who has been jailed in Russia since 2017 for practicing their religion was granted early release on Tuesday by a Kremlin court.

The Lgovskiy District Court in the Kursk Region that borders Ukraine granted Dennis Christensen early release at the prosecution's request, the religion said in a statement on its website.

Christensen was sentenced to six years in prison in February 2019 on charges of continuing the activities of an extremist group. The Jehovah's Witnesses organization was banned as an extremist group in 2017.

The Danish carpenter who lives in Oryol with his Russian-citizen wife was arrested on May 25, 2017, when Federal Security Service agents broke up a Jehovah's Witnesses prayer service in a crackdown on the religion, detaining some 70-80 people.

RELATED EU weighs barring travelers from U.S., Russia, Brazil in border reopening plan

The church said the judge mitigated the remainder of his sentence to a $5,759 fine.

"The decision will take effect in 10 days, after which he will be able to go home to his wife, family and fellow worshipers," the statement read.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom "welcomed" the decision to grant Christensen clemency.

Paroling Dennis Christensen was the right thing to do and we are glad that the Russian government finally took this important step," said USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin, who advocated for Christensen's release through the commission's Religious Prisoner of Conscience Project. "We are hopeful that this represents a change in policy, yet we remain concerned about Russia's ongoing imprisonment of people for simply practicing their peaceful religious beliefs."

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, 10 of its followers remain behind Russian bars for their beliefs while another 24 remain in pretrial detention and another 24 are under house arrest.

The USCIRF recommended in its 2020 Annual Report that the U.S. State Department designate Russia as a country of particular concern over its violations against religious freedom. It currently has Russia on its Special Watch List.

According to the State Department's website, a CPC designation allows an economic measure, such as sanctions, to be imposed against the offending country if non-economic policy options fail to force the country to cease violating religious freedoms.

"Dennis Christensen's health noticeably deteriorated while in custody, and USCIRF is hopeful that he will recover his strength at home," Manchin added.

RELATED North Korea denounces U.S. as 'human rights wasteland'

upi.com/7017066

USS Nitze sails into contested waters off coast of Venezuela

IMPERIALIST PROVOCATION

DEFENSE NEWS 
JUNE 23, 2020 / 8:05 PM

Official U.S. Navy file photo of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze departs Safaga, Egypt after a port visit in this July 2019 photo. On June 23, 2020, while peacefully operating in the Caribbean Sea, USS Nitze conducted a freedom of navigation operation off the coast of Venezuela. Photo by Will Hardy/U.S. Navy

June 23 (UPI) -- The USS Nitze sailed into contested waters off the coast of Venezuela Tuesday in what the Navy describes as a "freedom of navigation operation" contesting "an excessive maritime claim" by Venezuela.

According to the Navy, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer conducted the operation outside of Venezuela's 12-nautical-mile territorial jurisdiction -- an area the Maduro regime claims control over.

"The U.S. Navy routinely conducts freedom of navigation operations around the world to preserve the maritime navigation and access rights guaranteed to all nations and vital to the global mobility of U.S. forces," said the Navy's press release on the operation.

The Navy and Coast Guard are currently operating in the Caribbean as part of a counter-narcotics operation announced earlier this spring.

PHONEY WAR ON DRUGS, TO INCREASE AMERICAN ABILITY TO INTERDICT 

AS IT WILLS, IN OTHER WORDS PIRACY AND PRIVATEERING

"The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, preserving the rights, freedoms and lawful use of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations," said Adm. Craig Faller, Commander of U.S. Southern Command. "These freedoms are the bedrock of ongoing security efforts, and essential to regional peace and stability."

CAP IN HAND
Lord: Pentagon needs more funding to reimburse contractors for COVID-19 claims

NO THEY DON'T THEY ALREADY GET 65% OF THE US ANNUAL BUDGET FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES, ALMOST $1TRILLION ANNUALLY

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PERMANENT+ARMS+ECONOMY

Ellen M. Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, briefs reporters on the Defense Department’s COVID-19 acquisition policy at the Pentagon Monday. Photo by Jackie Sanders/U.S. Air Force

June 23 (UPI) -- The Department of Defense may have to reach into fiscal 2021 appropriations to reimburse contractors for costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Undersecretary for Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters this week.

Lord said Monday that the Pentagon needs an amount of money in the "lower double-digit billions" to be included in the fiscal 2021 Defense appropriations bill to meet an expected wave of claims by contractors related to the pandemic.

Lord said the Pentagon might have to dip into its modernization and readiness funding to address anticipated contractor claims under Section 3610 of the CARES Act.

The section of the law allows DoD and other agencies to modify contract terms to allow contractors to keep their employees who are not working onsite but can't work from home at a "ready state," and reimburse up to 40 hours of paid leave per employee.

RELATED GenDyn inks $9.5B deal for first 2 Columbia-class subs

It also allows agencies some discretion in how they reimburse contractors.

So far the agency has not released its criteria for claims, nor received any from contractors, according to Lord.

"We have not yet received any claims because I believe the defense industrial base is waiting to more clearly understand what the process is and we are working with them on the criteria," Lord said.

RELATED Most civilian contractors have reopened, top Pentagon official says

Lord said the Pentagon has seen "an enormous amount of recovery" in the defense industrial base, depending on the location and type of work being performed.

The Pentagon also entered into an agreement this week with the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to create a two-year, $100 million loan program to create, protect, maintain, expand or restore domestic industrial capabilities in support of COVID-19 response.

JUST DESSERTS
Judge orders Brazilian President 'JAIR JAIR' Bolsonaro to wear face mask  


A federal judge ordered Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a face covering while in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or face a daily fine of approximately $390. Photo by Joedson Alves/EPA-EFE

TRUMP MINI ME

June 23 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to comply with measures requiring the use of a face mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 or face a fine.

The ruling, made public Tuesday, declared that Bolsonaro was not exempt from the laws of the federal district, including Brazil's capital, and would face a fine of approximately $390 a day for failing to comply.

"The president of the republic must take all necessary measures to avoid the transmission of COVID-19 be that in order to protect his own health or that of those around him," Judge Renato Coelho Borelli wrote.Bolsonaro has repeatedly been seen in public without a mask or face covering and has been seen wearing a mask improperly, including hanging it off of his ear.

"A straightforward Google search is enough to find numerous images of the defendant Jair Messias Bolsonaro moving around Brasilia and the surrounding federal district without using a mask and exposing others to the spread of this infirmity that has caused a nationwide upheaval," Borelli wrote.

Brazil has reported 1.1 million positive COVID-19 cases and a death toll of 51,271 related to the virus, according to figures by Johns Hopkins University.

Bolsonaro has sought to diminish the threat of the coronavirus publicly, referring to it as a "little flu" and clashing with local legislators by pushing them to keep businesses open.

First egg ever found in Antarctica may come from extinct sea lizard

ANOTHER AMAZING FIND FROM THE MUSEUM STORAGE ROOM

Scientists likened the egg to a deflated football. Photo by Legendre et al.

June 17 (UPI) -- Nearly a decade ago, Chilean scientists recovered what looked like a deflated football among ancient marine deposits of the Antarctic coast.

But until recently, the fossilized orb -- nicknamed "The Thing" -- sat unnamed in collections at Chile's National Museum of Natural History. New research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggests The Thing is actually a 66-million-year-old egg.

Measuring 11 inches in length and 7 inches wide, it is the largest soft shell egg ever found, and the second largest in history. The biggest egg ever discovered was laid by an elephant bird, a kiwi relative that went extinct only a few thousand years ago.

Scientists hypothesized that the egg found in Antarctica was laid by an extinct, giant marine reptile, like a mosasaur.

RELATED Remains of 90-million-year-old rainforest found near South Pole

"It is from an animal the size of a large dinosaur, but it is completely unlike a dinosaur egg," lead study author Lucas Legendre, geoscientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, said in a news release. "It is most similar to the eggs of lizards and snakes, but it is from a truly giant relative of these animals."

Chilean scientist David Rubilar-Rogers, a member of the research team that first found the egg, showed the fossil to scientists visiting the museum where it was stored, but most were puzzled -- that is until Julia Clarke, a professor of geological sciences at Texas, took a look.

"I showed it to her and, after a few minutes, Julia told me it could be a deflated egg!" Rubilar-Rogers said.

RELATED Early marine reptiles used pebble-like teeth to crush shellfish

Clarke's hunch was confirmed when powerful microscopes revealed several layers of membrane beneath the surface of the egg. According to Rubilar-Rogers, the ancient egg looks a lot like transparent, quick-hatching eggs laid by several modern snake and lizard species.

An artistic rendering shows a baby mosasaur hatching from an egg only moments after it was laid in the open seas of Late Cretaceous Antarctica. Photo by John Maisano/The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences

By analyzing the body and egg sizes of 259 living reptiles, researchers determined the species that laid the deflated football some 66 million years ago would have likely stretched about 20 feet from the nose to the end of the body, not counting the tail.

Marine deposits near the egg's origin have previously yielded the remains of mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both babies and adults.

"Many authors have hypothesized that this was sort of a nursery site with shallow protected water, a cove environment where the young ones would have had a quiet setting to grow up," Legendre said.

It's possible the ancient marine lizard laid eggs in the open sea like some modern sea snakes. The reptile could have also buried its eggs on the beach, just beyond the breakers.

"We can't exclude the idea that they shoved their tail end up on shore because nothing like this has ever been discovered," Clarke said.

Archaeologists find ancient circle of deep shafts near Stonehenge  


Archaeologists found a series of ancient pits encircling a prehistoric monument called the Durrington Walls. Photo by Vincent Gaffney, et al./Internet Archaeology/EDINA Digimap Ordnance Survey Service

June 22 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have discovered the markings of a prehistoric structure surrounding Durrington Walls, an ancient monument positioned just 1.9 miles northeast of Stonehenge.

The discovery suggests that roughly 4,500 years ago, Neolithic builders -- the same people who constructed Stonehenge -- dug a series of deep shafts, forming a circle spanning 1.2 miles in diameter, according to a study published Sunday in the journal Internet Archaeology.

Until recently, the pits -- usually discovered a few at a time -- were thought to be sinkholes or dew ponds. But their uniformity inspired further investigation, and aerial surveys using a combination of technologies, including ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry, revealed a larger pattern.

"The area around Stonehenge is among the most studied archaeological landscapes on earth and it is remarkable that the application of new technology can still lead to the discovery of such a massive prehistoric structure which, currently, is significantly larger than any comparative prehistoric monument that we know of, in Britain at least," Vincent Gaffney, one of leading archaeologists on the survey effort, said in a news release.

RELATED Bones show hundreds flocked to ancient Ireland capital for Iron Age feasts

Because the Durrington Walls, one of Britain's largest monument sites, sits at the center of the massive circle of shafts, researchers suspect the pits served as a boundary to lands considered sacred by the population.

"As the place where the builders of Stonehenge lived and feasted, Durrington Walls is key to unlocking the story of the wider Stonehenge landscape, and this astonishing discovery offers us new insights into the lives and beliefs of our Neolithic ancestors," said Nick Snashall, National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. "The Hidden Landscapes team has combined cutting-edge, archaeological fieldwork with good old-fashioned detective work to reveal this extraordinary discovery and write a whole new chapter in the story of the Stonehenge landscape."While Stonehenge is positioned in relation to the summer and winter solstices, marking the limits of the sun's range, the newly discovered pits suggest ancient recognition of even larger cosmological phenomena

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It's not clear whether the pits were intended to guide people toward the ancient monuments or keep people out, but the shafts suggest the region's monuments were part of an expansive cultural and spiritual tradition.

"Seemingly isolated features have been shown to be linked and significant to the story of the emergence of the ritual landscape," said Chris Gaffney, archaeological geophysicist at Bradford University. "An interdisciplinary approach, using a battery of techniques, has been key to the successful understanding of this complex but structured element of the landscape around Durrington Walls."

In addition to the Durrington Walls, the boundary formed by the pits also includes a second monument, the Larkhill causewayed enclosure, built 1,500 years before Stonehenge.

RELATED DNA suggests Stonehenge builders came from Anatolia

The latest discovery suggests Britain's Stone Age populations were remarkably sophisticated and capable of tremendous geoengineering feats. Researchers say digging such massive pits with primitive tools is every bit as impressive as arranging giant stones.

"Seeing what is unseen! Yet again, the use of a multidisciplinary effort with remote sensing and careful sampling is giving us an insight to the past that shows an even more complex society that we could ever imagine," said Richard Bates, an earth scientist at the University of St. Andrews.

"Clearly sophisticated practices demonstrate that the people were so in tune with natural events to an extent that we can barely conceive in the modern world we live in today," Bates said.

WITHOUT THE AID OF ALIENS!

New Stonehenge discovery opens up new lines of exploration

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Evidence suggests the wide circle of subterranean pits about 3 kilometres northeast of the famous stone circle was built in the same time period.

U.S. beekeepers saw unusually high summertime colony losses in 2019

Honey bee colonies experienced unusually high losses in the U.S. during the summer of 2019. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI | License Photo
By
Brooks Hays
SCIENCE NEWS
JUNE 22, 2020 

June 22 (UPI) -- Beekeepers in the United States lost 43.9 percent of honey bee colonies between April 2019 and April 2020, but surprisingly, a majority of the losses were recorded during summer months.

Every April, researchers with the Bee Informed Partnership distribute flyers to beekeepers across the United States. Participants are asked to provide information about the colonies they managed over the past 12 months.

The results of the latest survey were released online Monday, showing summer was much worse than winter last year.

"They give us the number of colonies they managed at different times, the number of splits they made or new colonies they bought, or sold, etc., and from all that information, we calculate the 'turnover rate,'" Nathalie Steinhauer, BIP's science coordinator, told UPI in an email.

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Researchers expect to see fluctuations in the turnover rate from year to year, usually with particularly bad years followed by less dramatic losses, and vice versa. But typically, winters are worse than summers -- especially for small-scale beekeepers.

According to the latest results, losses over this past winter were down 15.5 percentage points from the winter before.

"We recorded high losses in the summer of 2019 on the other hand," said Steinhauer, who is also a post-doctoral researcher in the entomology department at the University of Maryland. "And when we dig deeper into beekeeper categories, we realized it was mostly large sale migratory beekeepers that seemed to suffer the most that summer."

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The Bee Informed Partnership's survey results don't offer a colony-by-colony autopsy report, but the questionnaires distributed to beekeepers do inquire about the suspected cause of colony losses.

"We ask beekeepers their opinion as to what caused their colonies to be lost, but it is rather subjective, and mostly indicative of what the beekeepers perceive are the high risks factors," Steinhauer said.

While understanding how beekeepers perceive risk can be useful, Steinhauer said there's plenty of research highlighting the biggest threats to honey bee colony health.

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The biggest threats to bee colony health include: parasites, particularly the Varroa mite; a variety of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens; pesticides; and poor nutrition. All of these threats can be exacerbated by weather patterns and poor management practices, experts say.

According to Steinhauer, weather anomalies best explain the unexpected results from the latest survey.

"We have heard anecdotally from various sources that spring 2019 was particularly late and wet, slowing a lot of the development of colonies and queen rearing early in the year, which meant colonies did not grow as strongly as you would have wanted," she said.

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Despite alarmist stories about bee losses, honey bees aren't on the verge of extinction. Bee keepers are usually able to replenish their colony stocks via hive splitting and other management techniques to replace annual colony losses. Still, there is plenty of evidence that both wild and managed bees are facing a litany of environmental threats.

"Some level of colony turnover is normal, but the question is how much is normal and how much is too much," Steinhauer said.

The Bee Informed Partnership was largely started to help answer that question, but Steinhauer suggests there's still not yet enough data to say for sure.

"We know from beekeepers that they think the current levels are really high," she said. "Also, a lot of beekeepers tell us that they've managed to keep the colony numbers high, but they notice the colonies are not as 'plump' as they used to be. It's hard because again, we don't have historical data on those aspects either. So, generally, we say our goal is to improve honey bee health."

In addition to continuing to collect data on colony losses, Steinhauer and other honey bee researchers are working on ways to combat the honey bee's biggest threats, including pests, pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

"Each of those can affect honey bees directly, and each of those impact the effects of the others," Steinhauer said. "Nutrient deprived bees have lower capabilities to detoxify pesticides; infected bees will not collect as much food from their environment. It is all a vicious circle where one stressor makes it harder for bees to resist the others."

Research suggests that when bees have access to a greater diversity of plants and live in generally healthier ecosystems, they're better able to fight off parasites and resist disease.

"There is no single culprit which means there is no single solution. But if we generally improve the environment our bees -- and we -- live in, it might help more than the bees themselves," Steinhauer said.

Scientists confirm 50-year-old theory that aliens could exploit a black hole for energy


New research suggests the physics behind a theory that aliens could exploit a black hole for energy is sound. Photo by NASA/UPI | License PhotoJune 23 (UPI) -- Lab experiments have confirmed the 50-year-old theory that an alien civilization could exploit a black hole for energy.

More than a half-century ago, British physicist Roger Penrose surmised that energy could be harvested from a black hole by dropping an object into it's ergosphere, the outer layer of the black hole's event horizon.

The object would need to be quickly split in two, allowing half to fall into the black hole and the other half recovered. According to Penrose's theory, the recoil action would provide the recovered half of the object a loss of negative energy. It would, in effect, gain energy.

Not just any aliens could carry out such a complex engineering feat, Penrose acknowledged. If aliens were to harvest energy from a black hole, they'd need to be highly advanced.

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In 1971, two years after Penrose published his theory, another physicist, Yakov Zel'dovich, claimed the idea could be put to the test on Earth using twisted light waves bounced off the surface of a cylinder spun at just the right speed. Zel'dovich claimed a phenomenon known as the rotational doppler effect would cause the reflected light waves to bounce back with surplus energy.

Zel'dovich's proposal has gone untested, in part due to the need for the cylinder to rotate at speeds in excess of a billion revolutions per second -- a technological impossibility.

To finally put Penrose's original theory to the test, researchers at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, developed an alternative experiment using sound waves instead of light waves. By using waves with lower frequencies, the test wouldn't require the cylinder to spin so fast.

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Researchers at the University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy set up a unique combination of speakers to create a twist in the sound waves. Scientists directed the twisting sound waves toward a foam disc. Behind the disk, the team positioned a microphone.

Instead of bouncing off the foam disk, the sound waves traveled through and were picked up by the microphone on the other side. Recordings of the altered sound waves revealed changes in frequency and amplitude consistent with the doppler effect predicted by Zel'dovich.
Researchers detailed the results of their experiment this week in the journal Nature Physics.

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"The linear version of the doppler effect is familiar to most people as the phenomenon that occurs as the pitch of an ambulance siren appears to rise as it approaches the listener but drops as it heads away," lead study author Marion Cromb, a doctoral student at Glasgow, said in a news release. "It appears to rise because the sound waves are reaching the listener more frequently as the ambulance nears, then less frequently as it passes."

"The rotational doppler effect is similar, but the effect is confined to a circular space," Cromb said. "The twisted sound waves change their pitch when measured from the point of view of the rotating surface. If the surface rotates fast enough then the sound frequency can do something very strange -- it can go from a positive frequency to a negative one, and in doing so steal some energy from the rotation of the surface."

When researchers accelerated the spin of the foam disk, the sound from the speakers quieted, becoming too low to hear. As the disk spun faster, the pitch got higher and higher until it returned to its original pitch -- only louder, with an amplitude 30 percent greater than before.

"What we heard during our experiment was extraordinary. What's happening is that the frequency of the sound waves is being doppler-shifted to zero as the spin speed increases. When the sound starts back up again, it's because the waves have been shifted from a positive frequency to a negative frequency," Cromb said. "Those negative-frequency waves are capable of taking some of the energy from the spinning foam disc, becoming louder in the process -- just as Zel'dovich proposed in 1971."

Researchers suggest their surprise discovery has paved the way for a variety of new physics experiments. Scientists hope their test can be replicated using electromagnetic waves or some other kind of waves.
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