KUDISTAN (TURKIYE)

Van co-mayor Zeydan: No one will even think of usurping your will anymore

Speaking in Van on Wednesday night, co-mayor Abdullah Zeydan said: "No one will even think of usurping your will anymore."


ANF
VAN
Thursday, 4 April 2024, 08:33

After the decision of the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) to reinstate the Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor of the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), Abdullah Zeydan, some one hundred thousand people flocked to Musa Anter Park to celebrate Van's victory.

They will never find the courage to usurp the people’s will again

Van Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor Neslihan Şedal said: “This victory, this resistance is yours, congratulations. After this resistance, who would dare to usurp our will, who would dare to usurp our institutions? You have been displaying great resistance for two days. The winners of this resistance were women and young people. Never again will anyone find the courage to usurp this will. This resistance was not just about winning the municipality. This resistance is a great gift to our friends in prison. This success is also their success. The winner was the spirit of the youth, the winner was the spirit of 'jin, jiyan, azadi'. "We resisted very hard and tomorrow we will clean our streets from the trustee's garbage."



Zeydan: you showed how the Kurdish people have honor

Van Metropolitan Municipality co-mayor Abdullah Zeydan said: “Van is a place of honour and dignity. How happy we are that we are the children of honorable people like you. We said something to the vultures who wanted to collapse against the will of the people in this square. Our people protected their honor and will against all attacks. We said that we would not sacrifice your honor to these vultures. You showed how honorable the Kurdish people are, despite all the pressure, despite all the dirty relationships, despite the promises of money. You gave your message to the whole world by winning 14 out of 14 municipalities. Despite the vultures, you revived the hopes of freedom between those four walls of our comrades, Demirtaş, Kışanak, Yüksekdağlar, Bekir Kayalar, Nazmi Gür, who have been on hunger strike for 125 days in the prisoons today. From now on, no one will even think of usurping your will. We salute and thank you for your honorable resistance. Now is the time to serve."

Abdullah Zeydan of DEM Party reinstated as mayor of Van

The resistance from all over Turkey, especially in Kurdistan, yielded results. The Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) gave the certificate of election to the elected DEM Party Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Abdullah Zeydan.


ANF
VAN
Wednesday, 3 April 2024

As a result of the resistance of the Kurdish people, their friends and democratic public opinion, the Supreme Electoral Board (YSK) was forced to return the certificate of election unlawfully granted to the AKP candidate to the democratically elected Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Abdullah Zeydan of the DEM Party.

The DEM Party filed an objection to the YSK against the Provincial Election Board's decision to give the certificate of election to the AKP candidate. The YSK, which took the objection on its agenda today, decided to return the certificate of election to Zeydan.

Abdullah Zeydan commented on the YSK decision, saying, "We have been given back the certificate of election that we are entitled to. We salute the support and will of our people. We bow with respect in front of this upright stance and struggle of our people."

Background

The Peoples’ Democracy and Equality Party (DEM Party) achieved a historic victory in the local elections held on March 31, 2024, in Van. The people of Van province entrusted all fourteen municipalities, including the Metropolitan Municipality, to the DEM Party, establishing it as the leading party in the Provincial General Assembly by a significant margin. In the Metropolitan Municipality, where the DEM Party received 55% of the vote and the AKP just 27%, elected DEM Party Co-Mayor of Van Metropolitan Municipality, Abdullah Zeydan, has been denied office and replaced by the AKP candidate.

The illegal action against Zeydan was taken despite the fact that he completed all requisite legal procedures and successfully secured candidacy approval from the Supreme Election Board (YSK) after rigorous scrutiny. He garnered substantial support from the people of Van and was duly elected together with Neslihan Şedal.

However, merely five minutes before the close of business on Friday, March 29, 2024, and a mere two days before the election, the Ministry of Justice, via an administrative decision and correspondence, contested the legal credentials of Zeydan, who had been restored his full civil rights by a court decision when released from prison in 2022. Following Friday’s administrative decision and objection letter, which was essentially a directive, the authorized prosecutor's office resubmitted the matter to the court that had issued the decision to restore his civil rights two years ago. That same day, the court revoked their own previous decision and dismissed Zeydan’s civil rights application; and they pre-emptively informed the YSK prior to the formalisation of their new reversed decision, thus curtailing the right to object and appeal.

The very court that had initially ruled in favor of restoring the civil rights of Abdullah Zeydan reversed its decision.

The unlawful action against Zeydan was met with protests, starting from Van and spreading to the entire Kurdish region. People have been taking to the streets for two days in protest at the usurpation of the will of the people of Van. In addition to the Kurdish politics and population, democratic circles from Turkey and abroad also expressed their support for Zeydan against attempts to deny the will of the Kurdish voter

Resistance in Van: We will continue our struggle until we get results

Speaking in Van, Tuncer Bakırhan appealed to the government, saying, “As long as you usurp the will of this people, you are doomed to lose,” Tülay Hatimoğulları said that they would continue their struggle until the return of their mandate.

ANF
VAN
Wednesday, 3 April 2024

Protests continue in the Kurdish province of Van where the democratically elected co-mayor of the DEM Party was stripped of his civil rights by order of the Turkish government and unlawfully replaced by the AKP candidate.

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) held its Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting at the Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions (KESK) building in Van. After the meeting, a march started in in the city centre. Tens of thousands of people participated in the march and frequently chanted slogans such as "Abdullah Zeydan is our honour", "We will win by resisting" and "Rights, law, justice". After the march, a statement was made at Feqiyê Teyran Park.

Addressing the people here, DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said, "As I said before, Van is the heart of the Kurds and Kurdistan. Van, with its honourable stance, has given the answer that the Kurdish demands for freedom and democracy cannot be eliminated by oppression, persecution and trustee system, on Newroz Day, in the elections and today in this field. We feel honoured whenever and wherever we hear Van's name. Those who appointed trustees to our will for two terms are now trying to usurp the will of the people of Van again with a conspiracy, political and judicial coup. We will not allow this. Neither their political coups nor their judicial coups will succeed as long as you stand together here with honour despite all the pressure, batons, guns and pepper gas. We promise you that we will protect all the 14 municipalities we have won here."

Bakırhan emphasised that no one can usurp the will of the people of Van and continued his speech as follows: "The calculations made in Ankara, in those dark depths, are doomed to be shattered by hitting the Newroz field and the Castle in Van. They think that we will swallow this injustice. We call on them to deliver the mandate to the people of Van. I would like to appeal to the YSK (Supreme Election Board); do not be an instrument to this political coup. You authorised Abdullah Zeydan with your own hand and approved his candidacy. Now stand by your decision. Please do not remain under the pressure of the government, which has received the necessary response from the people of Turkey in this election. I hope and wish that you will not ignore the will of this people.”

Bakırhan further stated the following: “Another call is for the AKP candidate. If you are Kurdish, if you are a human being, if you are a believer, if you are a person of this land, do not let yourself be deceived. Do not accept the mandate. Tomorrow you will have to lower your head when you walk among the people of Van, on the streets of Van. Do not stand by the AKP-MHP government that will usurp the will of this people. Kurdish people are honourable. They do not forget those who do good, those who do right and those who are not a tool of conspiracy games. If you want to live with your people in your own region with a conscience, honourably and with your head held high, do not lay hands on to the mayor’s office, which is the right of Abdullah Zeydan and Neslihan Şedal.

The election in Van is being discussed all over Turkey. For the first time, Turkey has formed a great alliance against this unjust and unlawful decision against Van. We convey our thanks to the political parties, leaders, democratic mass organisations, labour and professional organisations who embrace Van and stand behind the will of the people of Van. Be sure that for the first time, the labourers and oppressed people of Turkey are in solidarity with the people of Van in a strong way. Do not worry, you are not alone. The labourers and the poor all over Turkey are with you. Once again, I call out to the AKP government; as long as you usurp the will of this people, you are doomed to lose. On 31 March, you lost. Turn from this wrong path, this is not a right path. It will lead nowhere. Your miscalculations have disappeared here today as they did yesterday."

Speaking after, DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları stated the following "While we are speaking here, we are addressing not only you but also 85 million people living in Turkey. The YSK, which approved the candidacy of Abdullah Zeydan, reported a problem with his candidacy 48 hours before the elections, 5 hours before 17.00 on Friday, and this problem is communicated to the AKP and AKP's candidate before it is communicated to the DEM Party. They plotted against us while the elections were still taking place. However, you will foil their conspiracy. We appeal to the YSK; the Provincial Electoral Board has taken this decision with a 2 to 1 vote, that is, with an annotation. This morning, our esteemed lawyers and party officials conducted a study and submitted a very broad objection to the YSK. Until this objection is officially finalised, until our objection is accepted, the DEM Party will continue to put forward a democratic struggle in the strongest way together with our people and continue this struggle until Abdullah mayor is given his mandate. We held our MYK meeting here in Van today. All of our MYK group, our Party Assembly, and a significant majority of our MPs will remain in Van until this decision is approved positively. We will carry out this struggle together with the people of Van."

After the statement, thousands of people marched towards Van Courthouse where the Provincial Election Board is located.

The police once again attacked the people as they marched along the Maraş Street in the city centre shouting slogans.

Anti-riot vehicles, gas bombs and rubber bullets were used in the attack and MPs were also targeted. While the public was seriously affected by the intensive use of gas, many protesters were subjected to police violence. Clashes spread to all side streets.

KNK: Stop Erdogan’s coup in Van and stand up for democracy

Today is the day of solidarity, said the KNK, calling on members of national parliaments, governments, trade unions, civil society organizations, bar associations and political parties to take a stand against flagrant lawlessness.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Wednesday, 3 April 2024

Kurdish politician Abdullah Zeydan, who ran as co-mayor with Neslihan Şedal for the DEM party and won the election with a large majority, was stripped of his civil rights by order of the Turkish government and replaced by the AKP candidate who was given the certificate of appointment as mayor. The protests in Van and many other cities against the appointment of AKP candidate Abdulahat Arvas as mayor continue.

The Executive Council of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) released a statement calling for solidarity against the Erdoğan regime’s flagrant lawlessness that ignores the will of the people.

Noting that the Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party achieved a significant victory in the local elections held in Turkey on March 31, 2024, KNK said that the DEM Party’s electoral strategy, in which its voters supported opposition CHP candidates, prevented Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP-MHP alliance from winning the municipalities of major cities like Istanbul and Ankara. The DEM Party itself won 81 municipalities in Kurdistan.

The result in Van province stood out. DEM Party candidates won the Van Metropolitan Municipality and all fourteen district municipalities. The DEM candidate for Van Metropolitan Municipality, Mr Abdullah Zeydan, won 55.5% of the vote. The AKP candidate came in a distant second with just 27.2% of the vote. However, per the Justice Ministry’s order, the Van Provincial Election Board ruled on April 2 to hand the “certificate of election,” a document that signifies the elected candidate’s right to govern, to the second-place AKP candidate.

“The legal reasoning behind this move was extremely faulty. Mr. Zeydan applied on time, received his appeal documents, finalized the restitution of his divested rights, and campaigned for months. It is obvious that this is a political attack on the right of voters in Van to choose their representatives and has nothing to do with the law,” said the KNK statement, which further included the following:

“The Erdoğan regime has now trampled on the will of the Kurdish people and the voters of Van for the third time in the past 10 years. It is well past time for the dictatorial practices of the fascist AKP-MHP regime to come to an end.

The Kurdish people and their allies are on the front lines of the global fight for democracy today. The international community must not let them do so alone. Standing together with the DEM Party against this coup can help move Turkey towards democracy and will signal to autocrats everywhere that stealing elections has consequences.

The UN, the Council of Europe and the EU, of which Turkey wants to become a member, must support the Kurdish people and the principles of democracy in Turkey against Erdoğan’s authoritarianism. They must not waste time in taking action. There have been frightening signs since yesterday that special paramilitary units are being deployed in Kurdistan to prevent the Kurds from standing up for their democracy and their fundamental civil rights. These units were responsible for thousands of assassinations and disappearances of Kurdish politicians, activists, and civil society leaders in Kurdistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Curfews and travel bans are being imposed to prevent information from coming out of the region. We fear that they may return to such tactics again.”

The statement concluded: “We call on members of national parliaments, governments, trade unions, civil society organizations, bar associations and political parties: Today is the day of solidarity. Please take a stand against the Erdogan regime’s flagrant lawlessness that ignores the will of the people. Democratic societies must stand together with the DEM Party, Kurdish voters, and all defenders of democracy in Turkey and Kurdistan.”

THE LAST BIRD YOU WANT EXTINCT
Many SC vultures found dead with bird flu, health officials warn. Here’s what we know


Tracy Glantz/tglantz@thestate.com


Patrick McCreless
Fri, May 27, 2022, 11:01 AM·1 min read


A mass die-off of wild vultures, some of which tested positive for avian influenza, was recently found in Charleston County.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is urging the public to make sure their pets and domestic animals avoid contact with dead or sick vultures, other birds and wild animals. DHEC also recommends that residents avoid areas where dead birds have been found.

While the risk of bird flu transmission to people or pets and tame animals is thought to be low, the risk is also not well known and is best avoided by not having contact with dead birds, the DHEC states. The virus causing the bird flu can be spread through feathers and fecal material or areas and items contaminated by infected birds.

Handling dead birds without recommended protective measures increases the risk of transmission. DHEC says the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources will continue monitoring and surveillance and encourages members of the public to report unusual bird mortality events.

If you come into contact with a dead vulture or other dead bird in the area, please seek medical attention if you become ill with symptoms of fevers, cough, fatigue, body aches, etc., and report your potential exposure to your health care provider and local health department. DHEC recommends monitoring for symptoms for 10 days after the last exposure to a bird with avian flu.

Christmas tree turns symbol of hope at Brazil dump

 Gabriel Silva holds a Christmas decoration he found while scavenging through garbage at the Picarreira landfill of the Cidade das Aguas neighborhood, in Pinheiro, Brazil, on November 08, 2021 (AFP/Joao Paulo Guimaraes)

Joao Paulo GUIMARAES, with Louis GENOT in Rio de Janeiro
Fri, December 10, 2021, 10:08 PM·3 min read

An illegal garbage dump seems an unlikely setting for a holiday story, but when a photojournalist captured 12-year-old Gabriel Silva pulling a Christmas tree from a fetid mountain of trash, the image quickly went viral.

Silva lives with his mother and two older brothers in a small mud hut next to the dump in the town of Pinheiro, in northeastern Brazil.

It is a disturbing landscape of rotting waste and discarded plastic, where dozens of trash-pickers compete for scraps of food with vultures, cats, dogs and cattle.

Silva was with his mother on November 8, digging through the garbage as he does most days after school, when he unearthed a blue plastic bag with a small artificial Christmas tree inside.

"I had never had a Christmas tree before," he says.

His face has an inscrutable expression in the picture that photographer Joao Paulo Guimaraes captured of that moment, as if the shirtless young trash-picker were unsure what to make of this find: it intrigued the child in him, but would do nothing to feed his family.

But then the image went viral on social networks, and the little plastic tree turned into an unexpected Christmas present.

Silva and his family's dirt-floor hut now has a giant, sparkling Christmas tree inside -- not the one from the dump, but a gift from a benefactor who was moved by the photograph.

It is just one of a flood of donations the family has received.

"We've gotten clothes, mattresses, baskets of food. Thank God, we'll be able to get by fine for Christmas this year," says Silva's mother, 45-year-old Maria Francisca Silva.

There has also been money, thanks to online collections -- a windfall for Maria Francisca, who earns around 600 reais ($105) a month selling recyclable materials from the dump.

The family hopes to soon fulfill their dream of building an actual house.

They have already realized one longtime wish, thanks to an initial donation of 500 reais: install a hydraulic pump to bring up water from their well, replacing the rope and bucket they used to use.

But Silva's favorite gift is a bicycle he received from a teacher at his school.

Gabriel Silva poses inside his house in Pinheiros, Maranhao state, Brazil, on December 10, 2021 

(AFP/JOAO PAULO GUIMARAES)

- 'Like the apocalypse' -

Silva spends much of his free time at the dump with his mother.

"I prefer to bring him with me. If I let him run around in the street, he could get into drugs, do things he's not supposed to," she says.

"He's a good boy. He always helps me."

The episode has turned Silva into a local celebrity.

"Every day, people want to take my picture, ask me things," he says.

Guimaraes, a freelance photographer who collaborates with AFP, lives in the neighboring state of Para.

He got the idea to shoot pictures at the dump after seeing a video of residents there running after a garbage truck carrying waste from a supermarket.

"It was just crazy. There were probably 50 people chasing it," says Pinheiro's public defender, Eurico Arruda, who shot the video.

"That dump is like something out of the apocalypse. There are fires and smoke everywhere, vultures, dogs. It's the bottom rung of destitute poverty."

Arruda, who has set up a cooperative to help the trash-pickers defend their rights, says he hopes the Christmas tree picture will raise awareness about the plight of people like the Silvas.

The local government has already promised monthly welfare payments of 100 reais ($18) for the trash-pickers, and vowed to build a legal dump next year that complies with sanitation regulations.

jpg-lg/jhb/md

Illegal but essential, migrants recycle Istanbul's waste




Most of the trash collectors and warehouse workers live on-site in crudely arranged containers 

(AFP/Bulent KILIC)

Anne CHAON
Fri, December 10, 2021, 11:33 PM·4 min read

Shrouded by acrid smoke, a young Afghan crouches sorting waste he has pulled from the trash bins of Istanbul, anxious that Turkey will soon strip him of even this subsistence.

"I start at eight in the morning and finish at eight at night," said Issam Raffur, who has spent four of his 20 years in Turkey.

"It is very hard and poorly paid, but I have no choice," he shrugged, smoke billowing from a fire barely warming his makeshift sorting centre on a soggy winter day.

Considered the poorest of Turkey's poor, Afghans have joined Kurds, the Laz, Roma and other ethnic minorities and undocumented migrants in doing work others snub.

For less than $10 a day, they roam the streets of Istanbul, a megalopolis of nearly 16 million people straining under the weight of a currency crisis and a flood of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and other conflict-riven states.

Diving headfirst into dumpsters, they dig up plastic bottles, glass and other waste they then sort and sell in bulk -- a self-organised, unregulated business that keeps the city clean, and men such as Issam fed.

But as public sentiment turns against migrants and other foreigners in Turkey, the state-appointed prefecture of Istanbul has declared this work bad for "the environment and public health".

Issam and his friends suspect that what Turkish officials really want is to put this potentially profitable business under the control of a few, well-connected recycling firms.

"If the big companies take over, they will saw off our last branch of support," said Mahmut Aytar, a Turk who manages one of the small recycling centres on the Asian side of Istanbul. "They will throw us in the ravine."

Speaking to AFP, Deputy Environment Minister Mehmet Emin Birpinar did little to ease Aytar's concerns.

"Waste can be bought and sold, so we have started to view it as a raw material with other uses," he said. "After the price of raw materials increased, the value of recycled goods has risen."

- Women and children -

Born in multi-ethnic southeastern Turkey, Aytar, 28, launched his recycling business out of desperation after failing to find work befitting his biology degree.

"This job does not require experience or training. Anyone can do it, but it is mostly the people excluded by the system who get involved," he said while watching his press machines crush plastic bags and empty bottles.

After being shrunk into tidy bales, the plastic waste is loaded onto trucks of small, independently run recycling operators who convert them into granules.

Aytar said he runs one of 2,500 or so impromptu recycling depots in Istanbul, receiving dozens of trash collectors -- called "cekcekci" (pronounced "chekchekchi" and roughly translating as those who pull carts) -- every day.

Tugging white, muddied carts filled with paper, cardboard, plastic and bottles, they dart between honking cars and pedestrian streams, earning 80-120 liras ($6-$9) a day.

Women and minors specialise in cardboard boxes, which they find after the shops close at night, their babies sometimes riding along in the carts' lower folds.

Each kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of waste is worth about a lira (seven US cents), and the bravest collect about 150 kilogrammes of waste a day.

"They probably don't realise it, but by being impoverished, they contribute to protecting the environment," said Aytar. "They are helping society."

Refugees dig up plastic bottles, glass and other waste they then sort and sell in bulk

 (AFP/Bulent KILIC)

- 'Harassment' -

They do so while living in destitution and depend on the whims of the police.

In early October, security forces rounded up more than 250 cekcekci in one day, releasing them after a few hours but keeping their precious cargoes of waste.

"It's harassment," said Elrem Yasar, who started managing his own depot after collecting trash for 12 years.

"Each confiscation costs me about 560 liras, which I earn in three days."

Istanbul prefecture officials defended their crackdown.

"These cekcekci work illegally," one official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It is up to the city to take care of recycling and to collect revenues from it."

Conceding that his work has no legal status, collector Ekrem Yasar said he would be happy to pay taxes if ever given the chance.

"We are not asking for state handouts, but if they take away our jobs, tens of thousands of people will be left with nothing," he said, pinning his hopes on the first cekcekci union, which is still in the process of being set up.

Most of the trash collectors and warehouse workers live on-site in crudely arranged containers, huddling around open fires in Istanbul's industrial zones.

"Imagine, life in the city," Yasar said with a bitter laugh. "You think we are making money? Look, we only have one teaspoon between us," he said while serving tea.

ach/zak/imm/lth/cdw

Avian flu vaccine for California condors approved amid fears of extinction



Vaccine gets emergency approval as ‘highly contagious’ virus sweeps through flocks of species on the brink of extinction

Gabrielle Canon and agencies

Wed 17 May 2023

A new vaccine has been granted emergency approval to protect California condors from a deadly strain of avian influenza, federal officials said this week, amid attempts to pull the endangered species back from the brink of extinction.

The emergency action underscores an outbreak that has alarmed the conservation community, which fears that condors, a vulnerable species that has spent decades in recovery, could be dealt a devastating blow. After first being detected in a deceased condor in late March, the illness has swept through the small flock of wild birds, which are closely monitored by agencies in the south-west. So far 21 condors have died, impacting eight breeding pairs, according to a statement issued by the US Fish and Wildlife service.


Top-flight recovery: the inspiring comeback of the California condor

The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, is a virus that has been described as “highly contagious” by the agency. An April statement confirming deaths of the first infected condors in early April said the virus can spread quickly though “bird-to-bird contact, environmental contamination with fecal material, and via exposed clothing, shoes and vehicles”.

Several condors remain in the care of experts, including a newly hatched chick whose egg was pulled from its contaminated nest before its mother succumbed to the disease. Officials and rescue workers remain hopeful that the orphaned baby, now being nurtured with the help of a plush condor at the Liberty Wildlife facility in Phoenix, Arizona, can soon be returned to the wild. For now the chick is nestled among blankets and its stuffed surrogate, awaiting placement with foster parents at the Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding facility.

Despite it being limited to one flock in Arizona, conservation groups are concerned that the deadly illness has already taken a devastating toll on the delicate condor population. “In a matter of weeks, this event has set our recovery effort back a decade or more,” the Peregrine Fund, an organization dedicated to protecting birds of prey and a key federal partner in restoring and rehabilitating California condors to the wild, wrote in a late-April update on the HPAI impact on condors, adding that the new threat posed by avian flu “highlights the need to address preventable and manageable threats, and rely even more heavily on proven strategies such as captive breeding to increase the wild population”.

Once abundant in the skies across their western range, which spans from the Pacific north-west to Baja California, Mexico, only a few hundred of these iconic and enormous vultures remain in the wild even after decades of dedicated breeding and conservation efforts.

The fast-spreading disease is one of several threats condors have faced since populations were first decimated by hunting during the California gold rush, including dangers posed by the toxic DDT pesticide and lead poisoning from ammunition lodged in scavenged carcasses. Recovery has been slow. Condors don’t mate until they reach maturity at around eight years old, and females only produce a single egg every two years.

This dangerous strain of avian flu has rapidly spread across the US, killing millions of domestic and wild birds since it arrived in North America at the end of 2021. Though the virus is not considered a high risk to humans, it’s been among the most devastating outbreaks for birds in the country’s history. Roughly 58 million commercial poultry have had to be euthanized in attempts to slow the spread of the disease, which has also claimed the lives of hundreds of bald eagles and been detected in more than 6,700 wild birds, a figure widely considered to be underestimated.

While the emergency-use approval by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is limited to California condors, the agency is continuing work to develop options for other types of birds. Before administering it to condors, a pilot study has been initiated to test the vaccine on North American vultures – “a similar species” – to ensure there are no adverse effects.

“APHIS approved this emergency vaccination of the condors because these birds are critically endangered, closely monitored, and their population is very small which allows close monitoring of the vaccine to ensure it is administered only to the approved population,” the agency said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Along with the hopeful announcement that a vaccine may soon be ready to administer, efforts to isolate infected birds have been successful. Infections among the Arizona flock where the virus was found are holding steady.

“Our field teams have not detected any additional compromised California condors in northern Arizona since April 11,” the Peregrin Fund posted in an update this week, adding that four birds under its care are showing signs of recovery. “The Peregrine Fund’s captive breeding program is also in full swing, and new life is hatching,” it added. “Of 18 eggs laid, nine young have hatched and a new season for the recovery effort begins.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Coronawashing: for big, bad businesses, it's the new greenwashing

A Who’s Who of polluters, tax dodgers and outsourcing vultures are urging us to #StaySafe and clap for the NHS

Mon 11 May 2020 Oscar Rickett

‘HSBC is now showing its caring side ... Yet at the same time it has decided, at Ramadan, to block donations to a Palestinian aid charity.’ Photograph: Maureen McLean/REX/Shutterstock

Last week, the Lancashire Post carried a feelgood yarn about a great British success story. “It’s plane sailing for BAE Systems – with a little help from Carol Vorderman”, ran the headline, accompanied by a picture of the smiling former Countdown maths whizz sitting in the cockpit of a plane.

Lancashire’s biggest private sector employer had “designed and built a ventilator” to aid treatment in the coronavirus pandemic, and they’d done it with a bit of help from the beloved TV personality, who said that her small private plane had delivered some of the vital components.

You had to read to the end of the article to find out that, in fact, the world’s sixth largest arms-producing company had simply manufactured 2,700 ventilator parts, and that “ventilator design did not eventually go forward to full-scale production due to the drop in the need for ventilator technology”.

All of which represents another great day at the office for the communications team of a company that made $21bn in sales in 2018 – 95% of them to military customers – and whose Typhoon and Tornado aircraft have been key to devastating Saudi-led attacks on Yemen, which have killed thousands of civilians and contributed to what the UN calls a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

A key element of coronawashing is, of course, the performance – being seen to be supportive in the face of a national and global tragedy

The word coronavirus has entered our vernacular in the space of a few months – now it’s also swiftly become a shortcut to brand self-awareness and vague corporate caring, with many companies quick to jump on board. A Who’s Who of polluters, tax dodgers and outsource vultures are urging us to #StaySafe, pumping out soft-focus branded content that makes Forrest Gump look like an episode of Chernobyl.

In a neoliberal society in which private companies need to project an image of public-spirited compassion, a global pandemic means back-to-back strategy Zoom calls for corporate communications teams. The mission objective is: how do we look like legends without impacting our profits?

More than that, these are often businesses that helped create and profit from the weakened public services and diminished standards of living that the outbreak of Covid-19 has served to expose, and which have hampered the UK’s response. These feelgood pieces of PR, then, are exercises not just in making it look like corporations are fighting the crisis, but that they also are definitely not culpable in having helped worsen it.


We have become used to sportswashing, greenwashing, pinkwashing and even wokewashing. We are now in the first wave of coronawashing, in which corporations trip over themselves to clap for key workers, before packaging the footage up into moving nuggets of shareable content and promoting them on several social media platforms. In the background, these same companies are asking for government bailouts and taking advantage of a crisis to push for favourable legislation and the slashing of regulations that are more necessary than ever.

And so we have Holly Branson, doing her best Ivanka Trump, tweeting about Virgin ventilator design while her father, Richard, lord of the boomers, moves on from taking legal action against the NHS to pleading for government money.

Then we have HSBC, which, among much else, has been heavily fined in the US for facilitating tax evasion and money laundering and was found to have “helped clients dodge millions in tax”. The banking giant is now showing its caring side by filling newspaper advertising pages with messages of support in this time of crisis. Yet at the same time it has decided, at Ramadan, to block donations to a Palestinian aid charity.

Meanwhile, on YouTube, in a video entitled Thank You For Not Riding, plaintive piano lines soundtrack footage of ordinary people in their homes during pandemic. It’s not until you get to the end of this moving tribute to the common man that you realise it was made by Uber, a company with a litany of questionable work practices, which is now using coronavirus sick-leave measures to argue against giving its drivers employee status.

Examples of coronawashing are everywhere. Amazon, the selfless buddy who does a favour for you behind the scenes and then tells you and all your mutual friends about it, was recently “revealed” as a “mystery £250,000 donor to UK bookshops”. Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos makesmore than $8m every single day. His company has been deemed “worst” for aggressive tax avoidance and has long been widely blamed for the destruction of the very independent bookshops it is now so generously and mysteriously donating to.

A key element of coronawashing is, of course, the performance – being seen to be supportive in the face of a national and global tragedy. Primark donated “care packs” to staff at London’s new Nightingale hospital, established to treat coronavirus, but in Bangladesh it was cancelling production of $273m-worth of goods, leaving already immiserated workers destitute. (In the face of adverse publicity, Primark reversed its position.)

All of which recalls a line from, of all people, Peter Buffett, son of investor billionaire Warren. In an essay entitled The Charitable-Industrial Complex, Buffett described taking over some of his father’s philanthropic work and finding himself sitting around the table with power players “searching for answers with their right hand to problems that others in the room have created with their left”.

This is a neat description of the coronawashers: these corporations obviously weren’t responsible for the global pandemic, but they spent decades eviscerating the public sphere, which, in turn, has reduced the state’s ability to respond to large-scale problems. Now they hope to be patted on the back for throwing out some loose change and clapping the NHS (in an inspiring social media clip that you can like and share).

• Oscar Rickett is a journalist and writer

LEAD FROM BULLETS

Birds of prey face global decline from habitat loss, poisons

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a few high-profile conservation success stories – like the dramatic comeback of bald eagle populations in North America – birds of prey are in decline worldwide.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A new analysis of data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and BirdLife International found that 30% of 557 raptor species worldwide are considered near threatened, vulnerable or endangered or critically endangered. Eighteen species are critically endangered, including the Philippine eagle, the hooded vulture and the Annobon scops owl, the researchers found.

Other species are in danger of becoming locally extinct in specific regions, meaning they may no longer play critical roles as top predators in those ecosystems, said Gerardo Ceballos, a bird scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and co-author of the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The golden eagle is the national bird of Mexico, but we have very few golden eagles left in Mexico,” he said. A 2016 census estimated only about 100 breeding pairs remain in the country.

Harpy eagles were once widespread throughout southern Mexico and Central and South America, but tree cutting and burning has dramatically shrunk their range.

Of threatened birds of prey that are active mostly during the day — including most hawks, eagles and vultures — 54% were falling in population, the study found. The same was true for 47% of threatened nocturnal raptors, such as owls.

That means “the factors causing the decline have not been remedied" and those species need immediate attention, said Jeff Johnson, a biologist at the University of North Texas, who was not involved in the study.

Globally, the biggest threats to these birds are habitat loss, climate change and toxic substances, said Evan Buechley, a research associate at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and a scientist at nonprofit HawkWatch International who was not involved in the study.

The insecticide DDT thinned egg shells and decimated bald eagle populations in North America, leading to its ban in the U.S. in 1972. But Buechley said other threats remain, including rodent pesticides and the lead in hunters' bullets and shot pellets. Many raptors feed on rodents and dead animals.

The Andean condor is declining due to exposure to pesticides, lead and other toxic substances, said Sergio Lambertucci, a biologist at the National University of Comahue in Argentina.

Widespread use of an anti-inflammatory drug in livestock led to the rapid decline of vultures in South Asia. The birds died after eating carcasses, shrinking the population of some species by 95% in recent decades.

In East Asia, many raptor species are long-distance migrants: They breed in northern China, Mongolia or Russia and travel down the eastern coast of China to spend summers in Southeast Asia or India.

“Certain areas of the coast will see 30 to 40 species during peak migration,” said Yang Liu, an ecologist at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, who was not involved in the study.

But eastern China is also the most populous and urban part of the country, with steep development pressures. “Sites that are bottlenecks for migration, with thousands of birds passing through, are important to protect,” he said.

Of 4,200 sites identified by conservation groups as critical for raptor species globally, most "are unprotected or only partly covered by protected areas," said Stuart Butchart, chief scientist at BirdLife International in the United Kingdom.

A 2018 study in the journal Biological Conservation found that 52% of all raptor species worldwide are decreasing in population.

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Follow Christina Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Christina Larson, The Associated Press

Rewilding: How vultures could save an ecosystem

Conservation groups all over the world are bringing animals back from the brink of extinction. I meet a team in Bulgaria working with the creepiest species of them all: vultures. The idea is that they will eventually help mitigate climate change. But how exactly is that supposed to work? Reporter: Aditi Rajagopal Video Editor: Andreas Hyronimus Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk

 

When bees get a taste for dead things: Meat-eating 'vulture bees' sport acidic guts

by University of California - Riverside

Raw chicken baits attracting vulture bees in Costa Rica. Credit: Quinn McFrederick/UCR

A little-known species of tropical bee has evolved an extra tooth for biting flesh and a gut that more closely resembles that of vultures rather than other bees.

Typically, bees don't eat meat. However, a species of stingless bee in the tropics has evolved the ability to do so, presumably due to intense competition for nectar.

"These are the only bees in the world that have evolved to use food sources not produced by plants, which is a pretty remarkable change in dietary habits," said UC Riverside entomologist Doug Yanega.

Honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees have guts that are colonized by the same five core microbes. "Unlike humans, whose guts change with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria over roughly 80 million years of evolution," said Jessica Maccaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student.

Given their radical change in food choice, a team of UCR scientists wondered whether the vulture bees' gut bacteria differed from those of a typical vegetarian bee. They differed quite dramatically, according to a study the team published today in the American Society of Microbiologists' journal mBio.

To track these changes, the researchers went to Costa Rica, where these bees are known to reside. They set up baits—fresh pieces of raw chicken suspended from branches and smeared with petroleum jelly to deter ants.

The baits successfully attracted vulture bees and related species that opportunistically feed on meat for their protein. Normally, stingless bees have baskets on their hind legs for collecting pollen. However, the team observed carrion-feeding bees using those same structures to collect the bait. "They had little chicken baskets," said Quinn McFrederick, a UCR entomologist.

For comparison, the team also collected stingless bees that feed both on meat and flowers, and some that feed only on pollen. On analyzing the microbiomes of all three bee types, they found the most extreme changes among exclusive meat-feeders.

"The vulture bee microbiome is enriched in acid-loving bacteria, which are novel bacteria that their relatives don't have," McFrederick said. "These bacteria are similar to ones found in actual vultures, as well as hyenas and other carrion-feeders, presumably to help protect them from pathogens that show up on carrion."

One of the bacteria present in vulture bees is Lactobacillus, which is in a lot of humans' fermented food, like sourdough. They were also found to harbor Carnobacterium, which is associated with flesh digestion.

"It's crazy to me that a bee can eat dead bodies. We could get sick from that because of all the microbes on meat competing with each other and releasing toxins that are very bad for us," Maccaro said.

The researchers noted that these bees are unusual in a number of ways. "Even though they can't sting, they're not all defenseless, and many species are thoroughly unpleasant," Yanega said. "They range from species that are genuinely innocuous to many that bite, to a few that produce blister-causing secretions in their jaws, causing the skin to erupt in painful sores."

In addition, though they feed on meat, their honey is reportedly still sweet and edible. "They store the meat in special chambers that are sealed off for two weeks before they access it, and these chambers are separate from where the honey is stored," Maccaro said.

The research team is planning to delve further into vulture bee microbiomes, hoping to learn about the genomes of all bacteria as well as fungi and viruses in their bodies.

Ultimately, they hope to learn more about the larger role that microbes play in overall bee health.

"The weird things in the world are where a lot of interesting discoveries can be found," McFrederick said. "There's a lot of insight there into the outcomes of natural selection."Newly identified bacteria may help bees nourish their young

More information: Laura L. Figueroa et al, Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome, mBio (2021). DOI: 10.1128/mBio.02317-21

Journal information: mBio 

Provided by University of California - Riverside 

AVIAN PANDEMIC

Bald eagles aren’t fledging as many chicks due to avian influenza

As more eagles die from H5N1, researchers concerned virus may undo decades of conservation efforts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Bald eagles are often touted as a massive conservation success story due to their rebound from near extinction in the 1960s.

But now a highly infectious virus may put that hard-fought comeback in jeopardy.

Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, new research from the University of Georgia showed highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as H5N1, is killing off unprecedented numbers of mating pairs of bald eagles.

“Even just one year of losses of productivity like we’ve documented regionally is very concerning and could have effects for decades to come if representative of broader regions,” said Nicole Nemeth, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “There were nights where I couldn’t sleep based on what we were hearing and seeing. We have already lost unprecedented numbers of wild birds due to this virus in the U.S. and it appears here to stay.”

Less than half of Georgia bald eagle nests fledged one chick in 2022

The researchers found that just under half of bald eagle nests along coastal Georgia successfully fledged at least one eaglet in 2022. That’s 30% below average for the region.

The study also showed the success rate for nests was halved in one Florida county, dropping to 41% from an average of 86.5%. Another Florida county experienced a less dramatic but still concerning decrease from an average of approximately 78% to 66.7%.

“We had reports from people who faithfully monitor eagle nests year after year with these heartbreaking stories of an adult eagle found dead below their nest. Within a few days, often its mate and the chicks were also found dead below the nest. It is clear the virus is causing nest failures,” said Nemeth, who is part of the UGA-based Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS).

The collaboration is the first diagnostic and research service established specifically to investigate wildlife diseases.

Number of infected wild birds likely an undercount

In April 2022, SCWDS researchers confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza had hit Georgia’s eagle populations for the first time.

The three dead eagles were found in Chatham, Glynn and Liberty counties in March.

At the time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had confirmed around 660 cases of the H5N1 virus in wild birds, only 11 of which were from Georgia. 

That number has since skyrocketed to more than 6,200 reported cases across the country, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Those cases include a variety of vultures and other raptors, waterfowl like geese and ducks, as well as other aquatic birds like pelicans and herons, and even some songbirds, though they are less common victims of the virus. (Tens of millions of commercially farmed poultry have died or been culled due to risk of infection.)

“I think the number of wild bird cases is drastically underreported,” Nemeth said. “People will submit one snow goose, for example, and it will test positive for the virus. And then they’ll tell you, ‘Well, there are thousands of geese dying at the same site.’ But it only goes down as one infected bird.”

H5N1 doesn’t pose massive threat to humans but may to other species

The birds at biggest risk of infection are those that live in coastal or other aquatic areas inland or prey on other birds that do.

The virus can persist in water for over a year, given the proper conditions. While not a risk to people, birds can pick up the virus from spending time in the water and carry it to new locations through migration.

Raptors like eagles and vultures then catch the virus when they consume the infected birds.

“Worst case scenario, we get into a scary place with some of these bird species,” Nemeth said. “We could see a lot more decline in the numbers of eagles, raptors, waterfowl and other birds than what we’ve already seen. It could be devastating.”

Bears, red foxes and coyotes among animals infected with virus

Avian influenza has hopped species as well.

H5N1 has infected wild mammals such as red foxes, coyotes, racoons, seals, opossums and even some bears in North America. However, very few people have been infected with the virus in the U.S. and have recovered with minimal symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“A virus that can spread and be maintained as this virus can, it’s everywhere now,” Nemeth said. “We can’t contain the virus, and we can’t vaccinate wild birds. But we can document the losses and try to help conserve affected species and populations the best we can.”

The study was co-authored by the University of Georgia’s Mark Ruder, Rebecca Poulson and David Stallknecht. Additional co-authors include Robert Sargent of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Shawnlei Breeding of Audubon’s EagleWatch, Meaghan Evans, Jared Zimmerman, Rebecca Hardman, Mark Cunningham of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Samantha Gibbs  of U.S. Fish & Wildlife.

---

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-27446-1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Bald eagle mortality and nest failure due to clade 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza a virus

Q&A: Maui wildfires ‘an acceleration of injustices’ long felt on island

Al Jazeera speaks to Kaniela Ing, director of Green New Deal Network, about devastating Hawaii blazes and what’s next.

Protesters demand more government relief in the aftermath of devastating wildfires on Maui, August 21, 2023 

[File: Jae C Hong/AP Photo]
By Brian Osgood
Published On 25 Aug 2023

A massive wildfire driven by hurricane winds scorched communities across Hawaii’s Maui island this month, destroying homes and sending residents fleeing for their lives.

The fast-moving flames killed at least 114 people and consumed the historic community of Lahaina, home to about 13,000 residents and once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom.

Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for as crews continue to search through the devastation, and officials have said the death toll is expected to rise.

As Lahaina continues to reel from the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in the United States, the incident has reinvigorated a longstanding debate over climate change, the role tourism plays in Hawaii’s economy and the legacy of colonialism on the island.

Al Jazeera speaks to Kaniela Ing, a seventh-generation Native Hawaiian from Maui and the national director of the Green New Deal Network climate justice group, about the effect of the wildfires and what comes next.

Al Jazeera: Where does the toll of the wildfire currently stand?

Kaniela Ing: The scene is still quite apocalyptic. There [are] dozens of cadaver dogs sniffing through the rubble in search of our loved ones, utility workers digging up piles of electrical lines, thousands of historic buildings flattened.

There’s remarkable displays of unity, but the aftermath remains macabre.

Al Jazeera: Are people in Lahaina getting the help they need from the authorities?

Ing: Hawaii is over 2,000 miles [3,200km] from the closest mainland state, so it takes some time.

For those first few days, we had no choice but to mobilise support ourselves. Now [there’s more] direct assistance — $700 immediately went out to families right when the [emergency] declaration was signed — there’s around 20,000 hot meals being served everyday.

Less people [are] in shelters sleeping on cots and floors as people are moving into hotels and Airbnbs that are subsidised by the government.

But there’s also deeply rooted mistrust of a government that tends to only show up when there’s ribbon cuttings for hotels.

Al Jazeera: Unfortunately, a lot of people have come to associate Lahaina with these apocalyptic scenes, but it’s a place with a long history. Can you talk about its importance historically?

Ing: Lahaina was our original capital, it was the heart of the Hawaiian Kingdom. King Kamehameha’s palace stood at the centre, watching over the shoreline. It was a lush wetland.

It also told a history of colonialism and capitalism. You could walk from one end of the main street to the other through the annals of colonial history, from kingdom days, to sugar and pineapple [industries], to tourism.

Al Jazeera: Do you see a connection between today’s climate crisis and the legacy of colonialism in Hawaii?

Ing: The fire is tragic, but it’s really an acceleration of injustices that local people, especially Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiians], have experienced for generations.

One factor is climate change: Drier vegetation, low humidity, high winds, those are all functions of climate change.

Second, there was the diversion of water from Lahaina by sugar barons at the turn of the 20th century and the introduction of dry grass. The third is the negligence and mismanagement of Hawaiian Electric, our utility on the island.

Without any of those factors, the fire wouldn’t have been as deadly as it was. And those are all connected to the legacy of colonialism in Hawaii.

Al Jazeera: A debate that has been supercharged by the wildfires is whether Hawaii exists for tourists or for the people who live there. Can you walk us through that discussion?

Ing: It feels like every few months there’s another symbol of how Hawaii’s economy is catered towards those who think of Hawaii as their playground, rather than the people who live and work there.

Recently, there was a drought on Maui and people were being fined $500 for watering their lawn. At the same time, hotels have full pools and waterslides.

It was so obvious how the government caters to these multinational corporations and the tourism industry. Right now, our economy consists primarily of tourism and real estate.

Both industries are unsustainable in that they rely on enjoyment of the natural beauty of our islands, but also the development and destruction of them.

There’s a lot of talk about diversifying our economy by politicians, but actions speak differently. We’ve created this permanent underclass. It’s a modern version of the plantation economy.

Al Jazeera: Are you worried that model could be imposed on Lahaina as the town rebuilds?

Ing: Unless the people of Lahaina and everyone in Hawaii rise up and demand immediate relief, a just recovery, and community-centred rebuilding, then we should expect nothing to change.

But this is an inflection point. The fire has left a power vacuum in a sense that it’s not immediately clear who’s going to be in charge of rebuilding, and while we’re grieving and healing, unfortunately, there’s already land grabbers and disaster capitalists circling the carnage like vultures.

There’s an opportunity to transform our economy, our land use, our political influence, and we really need to seize that opportunity. I’m really hoping for this recovery to set an example of what justice can look like and how we can centre the people most impacted in the process.

Al Jazeera: For people asking what they can do to help, what would you point them towards?

Ing: Well, don’t come to Maui yet. We need hotel rooms across the island right now. There might be a time where there could be boots on the ground support, but not now.

We need the federal government to provide aid to small businesses and workers directly like they did during COVID, so we don’t face this impossible choice of our shops needing revenue and our survivors needing places to stay.

So far, a lot of these grassroots funds have raised a lot of money. But we know that rebuilding will cost at least $6bn, and that kind of money isn’t going to come from grassroots donors or philanthropy, it’s going to come from government.

We also set up mauirecoveryfund.org. It’s a collaboration between the most rooted funds, with an eye on the long run.


This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Hawaii’s governor promises to prevent ‘land grabs’ after Maui wildfires