Rhino population in Nepal grows in conservation boost


Issued on: 11/04/2021 - 

Thousands of one-horned rhinos once roamed the southern plains 

PRAKASH MATHEMA AFP

Kathmandu (AFP)

Nepal's population of endangered one-horned rhinoceros has grown by more than a hundred over the past six years, officials said, with campaigners hailing the increase as a conservation "milestone".

The population rose to 752 across four national parks in the southern plains, up from 645 in 2015, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation said Saturday.

"The increase of rhinos is exciting news for us," the department's information officer, Haribhadra Acharya, told AFP on Sunday.

"But we have challenges ahead to expand the habitat areas of this animal to maintain the growth."

Thousands of one-horned rhinos once roamed the southern plains, but rampant poaching and human encroachment on their habitat reduced their numbers to around 100 in Nepal in the 1960s.

Since 1994, the Himalayan nation has conducted a rhino census once every five years, as authorities stepped up their efforts to boost population numbers for the species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation for Nature.

In the first census in 1994, 466 rhinos were counted.

Some 250 personnel -- including enumerators, soldiers and veterinarians -- rode on 57 elephants for nearly three weeks from late March to count the rhinos.

The census -- delayed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic -- was carried out using GPS equipment, binoculars and cameras.

"Rhinos were counted through a direct observation method, where the counting team reached as close as 100 metres (330 feet) from the wild animal," Acharya added.

During the census, an elephant mahout was attacked and killed by a tiger, authorities said. Another official was injured when a wild elephant attacked the team.

Global conservation group the World Wildlife Fund -- which provides financial and technical assistance for the census -- called the population increase a "milestone" for Nepal.

"The overall growth in population size is indicative of ongoing protection and habitat management efforts by protected area authorities despite challenging contexts these past years," the WWF's Nepal representative, Ghana Gurung, said in a statement.

The rhino population has climbed in recent years amid the government's anti-poaching and conservation initiatives.

But the illegal trade of rhino horns -- prized in China and Southeast Asia for their supposed medicinal properties -- remains a threat.

Some 26 rhinos died in Nepal last year, including four from poaching, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation said.

© 2021 AFP

Germany's far-right, anti-migrant AfD calls for end to Covid-19 restrictions

Issued on: 11/04/2021 -

Party leaders attend the second day of the congress of far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD - Alternative fuer Deutschland) party in Dresden, eastern Germany, on April 11, 2021. © Jens Schlueter, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Germany’s far-right AfD party vowed to campaign for an end to coronavirus restrictions, a tougher line on migration and an exit from the EU as it finalised its election manifesto on Sunday.

On the second day of a congress to firm up its strategy ahead of Germany’s election on September 26, the anti-Islam, anti-immigration party voted to call for a complete ban on refugees being joined by family members.

Party members agreed to come out against “any family reunification for refugees”, revising previous wording that had called for such reunions to be allowed only under exceptional circumstances.

The AfD had on Saturday voted to include a call for Germany to leave the European Union in its manifesto, as well as vowing to demand an end to coronavirus measures, complaining of a “politics of fear”.

The AfD has often sought to capitalise on anger over Germany’s coronavirus measures ahead of September’s election—the first in 16 years not to feature Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is bowing out of politics.

Some AfD members have courted controversy by joining anti-vaxxers and “Querdenker” (Lateral Thinkers) at various demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions.

AfD co-leader Joerg Meuthen on Saturday vowed to dispel “these orgies of bans, these jailings, this mania for locking down”.

With Merkel and state leaders expected to tighten infection control measures further this week, the far right unveiled its election slogan of “Germany. But normal”—at least in part targeting coronavirus restrictions

Starting out as an anti-euro outfit in 2013, the AfD capitalised on public anger over Merkel’s 2015 decision to allow in a wave of asylum seekers from conflict-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The party caused a sensation in Germany’s last election in 2017 when it secured almost 13 percent of the vote, entering parliament for the first time as the largest opposition party.

But it has lost support as Germany reels from the coronavirus pandemic, and has lately been plagued by internal divisions and accusations of ties to neo-Nazi fringe groups.

Latest surveys have the party polling at between 10 and 12 percent, with Merkel’s CDU/CSU on around 27 percent and the surging Greens not far behind.

(AFP)

  

Meeting in Dresden in eastern Germany, the far-right AfD party on Sunday vowed to campaign for an end to Covid-19 restrictions, a tougher line on migration and an exit from the European Union. FRANCE 24 speaks to analyst Götz Frommholz of the Open Society Foundations.

COVID 19 VACCINE CRISIS IN THE NEWS

S. African Covid variant better at bypassing Pfizer/BioNTech jab: Israeli study

Issued on: 11/04/2021 - 

Israel's vaccination campaign has seen 5.3 million people receive a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, while 4.9 million, or 53 percent of the population, have had two shots AHMAD GHARABLI AFP/File

Jerusalem (AFP)

The South African coronavirus variant is better at "breaking through" the defences of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine than other forms of the virus, Israeli experts said Sunday.

However, one of the authors told AFP that while the study showed the variant to be relatively successful in infecting vaccinated people, it did not provide any data on whether it could generate serious illness among vaccinees.

The study by Tel Aviv University and Clalit Health Services, Israel's largest healthcare provider, compared 400 unvaccinated people infected with Covid-19 to 400 partially or fully vaccinated people who also had the virus.

According to the study, published as a draft on Saturday and currently being peer reviewed, the South African variant accounted for less than one percent of coronavirus cases in Israel.

But, among the 150 people in the study who were fully vaccinated and had Covid-19, "the prevalence rate (of the South African variant) was eight times higher than the rate in the unvaccinated (individuals)," the study said.

"This means that the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, though highly protective, probably does not provide the same level of protection against the South African (B.1.351) variant of the coronavirus," the study added.

"The South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine's protection," said professor Adi Stern of Tel Aviv University's Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, one of the study's authors.

Stern told AFP Sunday the study did not assess whether the fully vaccinated Israelis with the South African variant -- eight people in total -- developed serious illness.

"Since we found a very small number of vaccinees infected with B.1.351, it is statistically meaningless to report disease outcomes," he said.

- Preventative measures -

Two studies published in February in the New England Journal of Medicine conducted by principal vaccine manufacturers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna showed that the presence of antibodies after vaccination was less pronounced in people exposed to the South African variant, indicating diminished protection.

The Israeli study was the first real-world assessment of the South African variant's ability to bypass a vaccine.

Israel's vaccination campaign has seen 5.3 million people receive a first dose, while 4.9 million, or 53 percent of the population, have had two shots.

An earlier study by Clalit on 1.2 million Israelis found that the Pfizer/BioNTech jab gave 94 percent protection against Covid-19.

Following the successful vaccination rollout, Israel has eased many of its restrictions but various measures remain in place including mask-wearing and a "green passport" system that grants access to certain sites only to those vaccinated.

Ran Balicer of Clalit, one of the study's authors, told AFP the results could help inform states on how best to ease restrictions.

Balicer said inoculations, plus mask-wearing and other safety measures had still likely helped limit the spread of the South African variant, despite its apparent ability to break through the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

A combination of all these factors "are most likely... preventing the virus strains, including the South African one, from spreading" significantly in Israel, he said.

"As we taper down the non-pharmaceutical interventions, we must do so gradually to ensure we do not cross a threshold that would enable these variants to spread."

© 2021 AFP

India bans export of Covid-19 treatment drug remdesivir

Issued on: 11/04/2021 - 

India has banned the export of remdesivir as infections soared to a new daily high and hospitals grappled with increasing demand for the coronavirus treatment drug Ulrich Perrey POOL/AFP/File

New Delhi (AFP)

India on Sunday banned the export of remdesivir as infections soared to a new daily high and hospitals grappled with increasing demand for the coronavirus treatment drug.

The vast nation has experienced a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks, adding 152,000 new cases on Sunday to take the toll to 13.3 million infections.

The health ministry said the surge in cases has led to a "sudden spike in demand" for the antiviral drug.

"There is a potential of further increase in this demand in the coming days," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the export ban would be in place "till the situation improves".

Remdesivir, made by US pharma giant Gilead, was one of the first drugs to show relative promise in shortening the recovery time for some Covid-19 patients.

But a World Health Organisation-backed study has said that the drug had "little or no effect" on Covid-19 mortality.

Gilead last year signed licensing agreements with generic pharmaceutical producers based in India, Pakistan and Egypt, allowing them to manufacture remdesivir for distribution in 127 mostly low and lower-middle income nations.

Seven firms in India -- the world's biggest producer of generic drugs -- are licensed to manufacture remdesivir.

They have a monthly production capacity of up to 3.88 million injection doses, the ministry added.

The ban came as India's wealthiest state Maharashtra, which has been the main driver of the infection spike, explored announcing a complete lockdown from as early as Monday.

India had shied away from harsh restrictions since a months-long nationwide lockdown -- one of the strictest in the world -- was gradually lifted last year, amid fears of shattering the already battered economy.

But local authorities have increasingly imposed restrictions, including Maharashtra's weekend lockdown and night curfew, as cases continue to rise.

The chief minister of Delhi, India's capital, said Sunday that his government was not in favour of a lockdown, but would consider the drastic measure if hospital beds start running out.

He added that 65 percent of new Covid-19 patients were less than 45 years old.

India, home to the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer, has meanwhile slowed its export of shots due to the spike as several states have warned in recent days that their stocks were running low.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a four-day "vaccine festival" to kick start a "second battle against corona" in a bid to speed up a sluggish vaccination rollout.

© 2021 AFP

'Up to 80 percent' in Sicily refuse AZ vaccine: president

Issued on: 11/04/2021 

Italy's vaccination drive is already struggling and refusal of the AstraZeneca jab could slow it further ANDREAS SOLARO AFP/File

Rome (AFP)

Up to 80 percent of people offered the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine In Sicily refuse it out of fears over its safety, according to the southern Italian region's president Nello Musumeci.

Public confidence in the Anglo-Swedish jab has been badly shaken by reports linking it to rare, but potentially fatal, blood clots, and by conflicting recommendations on its use.

"In Sicily, there is an 80-percent refusal rate of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Every 100 people, 80 say no," Musumeci said late Saturday in Catania, according to multiple media reports.

Musumeci added: "It is natural" for people to be particularly concerned, "but we have a duty to believe scientists when they say it is more dangerous not to get vaccinated than to get vaccinated."

The president actually meant to say "up to 80 percent," his spokeswoman Michela Giuffrida told AFP on Sunday, adding, as an example, that in the town of Syracuse the refusal rate was "30 percent."

A large-scale boycott of the AstraZeneca jab would put Italy's vaccination plan -- already struggling with supply shortages and botched priorities -- under further stress.

- 86 cases out of 25 million -

Earlier this week, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) said blood clots should be listed as a "very rare" side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but added that benefits continued to outweigh risks.

The announcement came after EMA examined 86 blood clotting cases, 18 of which were fatal, out of around 25 million people in Europe who received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Most of the cases were in women aged under 60.

In response to the findings, Italy -- which initially recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine for those in the 18-55 age group -- restricted its use to those aged 60 and above.

Similar action was taken in other European countries.

On Friday, the EU medicines regulator also said it was probing a possible link between the AstraZeneca jab and a separate blood vessel disorder causing tissue swelling and a drop in blood pressure.

But the Italian government's top scientific advisor on the coronavirus crisis, Franco Locatelli, insisted in a Sunday interview that fears over the Anglo-Swedish vaccine were "understandable, but unjustified."

"I say that we are offering a vaccine that is safe and effective, which people must accept. That said, if we find ourselves facing a disarming number of defections, we will reconsider the issue," he told La Stampa daily.

Italy is one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic, with almost 114,000 dead, but its vaccination drive has been criticised for failing to focus on the most at-risk group -- the elderly.

People in their 70s are among those most neglected, with only 2.7 percent fully vaccinated compared with 4.1 per cent for people in their 20s.

Overall, Italy has administered almost 13 million doses and fully vaccinated 3.9 million people -- equal to around 6.5 per cent of a total population of some 60 million.

© 2021 AFP

70 dead as battle for Yemen's Marib rages on three fronts

However, the Saudi firepower does not seem to have halted the rebel offensive.

Issued on: 11/04/2021 

Saudi-backed Yemeni loyalist forces are battling a fierce Huthi rebel offensive on the strategic city of Marib STR AFP/File

Dubai (AFP)

Fierce fighting for Yemen's strategic Marib city has killed 70 pro-government and Huthi rebel fighters over the past 24 hours, with battles raging on three fronts, loyalist military officials said Sunday.

The Huthis have been trying to seize Marib, the capital of an oil-rich region and the government's last significant pocket of territory in the north, since February.

Two officials from pro-government forces told AFP that the rebels were mounting a concerted push that had left 26 loyalist soldiers dead as well as 44 from Huthi ranks. The rebels rarely disclose their losses.

The new toll adds to 53 killed on both sides in the previous 24 hours, according to loyalist military officials.

One of the officials said Sunday that the rebels "are launching simultaneous attacks" in the areas of Kassara and Al-Mashjah, northwest of the city, and Jabal Murad in the south.

"They have made progress on the Kassara and Al-Mashjah fronts, but they have been thwarted on the Jabal Murad front," he told AFP.

The other official said that warplanes from the Saudi-led military coalition, which entered the Yemen conflict to support the government in 2015, launched airstrikes that "destroyed 12 Huthi military vehicles, including four tanks and a cannon."

However, the Saudi firepower does not seem to have halted the rebel offensive.

- Fears for civilians -

The Iran-backed Huthis in late 2014 overran the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the west of Marib, along with much of northern Yemen.

The loss of Marib would be a heavy blow for the Yemeni government, currently based in the southern city of Aden, and for its Saudi backers.

It could also lead to humanitarian disaster, as vast numbers of civilians displaced from fighting elsewhere have sought refuge in Marib.

Around 140 sites have sprung up in the region to provide basic shelter for up to two million displaced, according to Yemen's government.

The rebels have stepped up missile and drone strikes against neighbouring Saudi Arabia in recent months, demanding the opening of Yemen's airspace and ports. They have rejected a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire.

The United Nations last month condemned the escalation and warned of a looming humanitarian disaster.

The UN Security Council said the fighting "places one million internally displaced persons at grave risk and threatens efforts to secure a political settlement when the international community is increasingly united to end the conflict".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that the suffering will only end when a political solution is found between the Huthis and the internationally recognised government.

The conflict in Yemen has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine, in what the the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

© 2021 AFP

Scores killed in single day in Myanmar crackdown, reports say

Issued on: 11/04/2021 

This screengrab from Hantarwadi Media video footage taken on April 9, 2021 and provided to AFPTV shows a protester setting off fireworks from behind a makeshift barricade while a man at left holds a homemade rifle in a clash with security forces during a crackdown on demonstrations against the military coup in Bago. AFP - HANDOUT

Text by: NEWS WIRES

At least 82 people were killed in one day in a crackdown by Myanmar security forces on pro-democracy protesters, according to reports Saturday from independent local media and an organization that keeps track of casualties since the February coup.

Friday’s death toll in Bago was the biggest one-day total for a single city since March 14, when just over 100 people were killed in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. Bago is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Yangon. The Associated Press is unable to independently verify the number of deaths.

The death toll of 82 was a preliminary one compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which issues daily counts of casualties and arrests from the crackdown in the aftermath of the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

'The most alarming development yet'

Their tallies are widely accepted as highly credible because cases are not added until they have been confirmed, with the details published on their website.

In its Saturday report, the group said that it expected the number of dead in Bago to rise as more cases were verified.

The online news site Myanmar Now also reported that 82 people had been killed, citing an unnamed source involved with charity rescue work. Myanmar Now and other local media said the bodies had been collected by the military and dumped on the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda.

At least 701 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces since the army’s takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The attack on Bago was the third in the past week involving the massive use of force to try to crush the persistent opposition to the ruling junta.

Attacks were launched Wednesday on hardcore opponents of military rule who had set up strongholds in the towns of Kalay and Taze in the country’s north. In both places, at least 11 people -- possibly including some bystanders -- were reported killed.

The security forces were accused of using heavy weapons in their attacks, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, though such allegations could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press. Photos posted on social media from Bago appeared to show fragments of mortar shells.

Most protests in cities and town around the country are carried out by nonviolent demonstrators who consider themselves part of a civil disobedience movement.

But as the police and military escalated the use of lethal force, a hardcore faction of protesters armed themselves with homemade weapons such as firebombs in the name of self-defense. In Kalay, activists dubbed themselves a “civil army” and some equipped themselves with rudimentary hunting rifles that are traditional in the remote area.

A report by Myanmar Now said residents of Tamu, a town in the same region as Kalay, used hunting rifles Saturday to ambush a military convoy, and claimed to kill three soldiers.

The junta has taken other measures as well to discourage resistance. It recently published a wanted list of 140 people active in the arts and journalism charged with spreading information that undermines the stability of the country and the rule of law. The penalty for the offense is up to three years’ imprisonment. Arrests of those on the list have been highly publicized in state media.

State television channel MRTV reported Friday night that a military court had sentenced to death 19 people -- 17 in absentia -- for allegedly killing an army officer in Yangon on March 27. The attack took place in an area of the city that is under martial law, and the court action appeared to be the first time the death sentence has been imposed under the junta’s rule.

The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, arrived Friday in the Thai capital Bangkok on a regional mission to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. She intends to sound out several Southeast Asian governments for their ideas but has been denied permission to visit Myanmar.

(AP)

SECOND ERUPTION
St. Vincent covered in ash as volcano activity continues
ABC NEWS 4/10/2021

Much of St. Vincent remains covered in ash, following eruptions at the island's La Soufriere volcano.

Thousands evacuated as volcano erupts in St. Vincent

After nearly 42 years without an explosion, the volcano in the northern part of the eastern Caribbean island, erupted Friday.

MORE: New fissure opens on volcano

"There's been three explosive events that occurred during the day," University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center director, Dr. Erouscilla Joseph, said in an audio statement on the center's Facebook page

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© Robertson S. Henry/Reuters Ash and smoke billow as the La Soufriere volcano erupts in Kingstown on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, April 9, 2021.

The ash plume reached as high as six miles into the air, with wind taking it as far as 25,000 feet east of St. Vincent, according to official estimates.

Activity at the volcano continued into Saturday, with Vincentians living close enough reporting that rumblings could be heard coming from La Soufriere, overnight.

"Overnight, we have had more or less an almost continued period of the venting of many ash up into the atmosphere," Richard Robertson, the UWI Seismic Research Center's lead scientist monitoring the volcano, said Saturday during a national radio address.

© The UWI Seismic Research Centre via Getty Images La Soufriere Volcano erupts on the Carrobean island of Saint Vincent, April 9, 2021.

There have been reports of some people's homes being damaged by the weight of the ash, the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves said, but he also said those reports have yet to be confirmed.

© Robertson S. Henr/Reuters

Officials are now left trying to figure out how to remove the ash.

On Saturday Gonsalves announced during the radio address plans to mount a cleanup operation, beginning in Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

"It's a complicated business, you can't leave it," Gonsalves said. "But, in the disposal of it, you have challenges."

Officials were looking into using street sweepers and water from fire trucks.

Friday's eruptions came less than 24 hours after Gonsalves gave the order for people living closest to the volcano -- an area declared the "red zone" -- to evacuate their homes.

© Robertson S. Henry/Reuters Ash covers roads a day after the La Soufriere volcano erupted after decades of inactivity, in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines April 10, 2021.

Shelters have been set up to house evacuees, while the government has also booked hotel rooms for people to take shelter. Over 3,200 people have opted to use shelters.

Gonsalves said there may be delays in getting food supplies to evacuees in shelters, with numbers constantly changing.

Gonsalves asked those impacted by the volacano's eruption to have patience and remain calm, and said "additional supplies" will be sent.

Some countries have also publicly pledged to send supplies or even personnel, to aid St. Vincent with recovery efforts. Gonzalves said the United States is among those countries Gonsalves said he’s been speaking with.

© Robertson S. Henr/Reuters Ash and smoke billow as the La Soufriere volcano erupts in Kingstown on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent April 9, 2021.

A number of neighboring Caribbean countries have offered to take in evacuees. Several cruise ship companies have also offered to send ships to transport those evacuees to other islands.

"Those countries are not going to take you unless you are vaccinated, which is understandable in the time of the pandemic," Gonsalves said.

The last time St. Vincent's La Soufriere volcano erupted was on April 13, 1979. On Friday, around 8:41 a.m. local time, officials confirmed the first explosive eruption since then. Later that day, two more eruptions occurred.

  

Caribbean island Saint Vincent covered in thick ash after volcanic eruption

Issued on: 11/04/2021 -

A cloud of volcanic ash hovers over Kingstown, on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Saturday, April 10, 2021, a day after the La Soufriere volcano erupted. © Lucanus Ollivierre, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Ash covered much of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent on Saturday, and the stench of sulphur filled the air after a series of eruptions from a volcano that had been quiet for decades.

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The thick dust was also on the move, traveling 175 kilometers (110 miles) to the east and starting to impact the neighboring island of Barbados.

"Barbadians have been urged to stay indoors as thick plumes of volcanic ash move through the atmosphere," the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said.

The whitish powder caked roads, homes and buildings in Saint Vincent after the powerful blasts from the volcano called La Soufriere that began Friday and continued into the night.

"Saturday morning on the island of over 110,000 residents looked like a winter wonderland, albeit blanketed by ash," the news portal news784.com said

Visibility in some areas was extremely limited, while in the capital city Kingstown on the south of the island -- the volcano is in the north -- the ash caused a thin haze of dust, the portal said.

"Vincentians are waking up to extremely heavy ash fall and strong sulphur smells which have now advanced to the capital," the local emergency management agency tweeted.

The eruptions prompted thousands of people to flee for safety. Around 16,000 people live in areas under evacuation orders.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said Saturday that water has been cut off in most areas and the country's air space is closed because of the ash. Around 3,000 people spent the night in shelters.

"It's a huge operation that is facing us," Gonsalves told NBC News.

He said his government has been in contact with other countries that want to provide aid. Guyana and Venezuela are sending ships with supplies, Gonsalves said.

The initial blast from La Soufriere, the highest peak in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, sent plumes of hot ash and smoke 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) into the air Friday morning.

A second, smaller eruption took place Friday afternoon, belching out a 4,000-meter-high ash cloud, the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre said.

The Centres director, Erouscilla Joseph, said late Saturday that there had been "additional explosions" throughout the day which had been accompanied by more ash.

"Unfortunately, we believe that more seismic unrest will be expected overnight," she added in a voice recording posted to Twitter.

The 1,235-meter La Soufriere -- the name is French for "sulphur mine" -- had not erupted since 1979, and its largest blow-up happened over a century ago, killing more than 1,000 people in 1902.

It had been rumbling for months before it finally blew.

Evacuation orders

"We are trying to be ok. It's deathly quiet outside and the mood is pensive," said Vynette Frederick, 44, a lawyer in Kingstown.

Northwest of Kingstown on the 30-kilometer-long (18-mile-long) island, Zen Punnett said things had calmed down after the initial panic as evacuation orders came out Thursday night.

"It's gotten hazier. We are staying inside," she said.

The emergency management agency posted photos of a Coast Guard ship evacuating residents of an area who had previously refused to leave. Standing on a dock, the air above the evacuees was a chalky gray.

Most of the people in the red zone had been moved to safety by Friday, authorities said.

Cruise ships were on the way to assist the evacuation effort.

The Saint Vincent and Grenadines police on Saturday issued an appeal for troublemakers to stop making prank calls to emergency responders.

"We are in the middle of a serious evacuation and security exercise, to safeguard and rescue persons who are affected by the eruption," the agency said.

"These irresponsible calls divert much-needed resources and personnel from the evacuation exercise."

(AFP)

LOTTA CONTINUA

Amazon won in Alabama but still faces resistance in Europe

The vote in Alabama represents a victory for Amazon over trade union organisers in the US. But as its empire expands, it faces a bigger war against labour activists in Europe.

Issued on: 10/04/2021 

Demonstrators hold a banner reading "Stop Amazon and its world" as they protest against a proposed Amazon site, in Perpignan, on January 30, 2021. © Raymond Roig, AFP

Text by: Catherine Bennett


Amazon workers in Alabama may have voted not to unionise on Friday but the e-commerce giant faces stiff opposition further from home. Activists and trade unions across Europe are mobilising against the company's "disrespectful" business model. FRANCE 24 spoke to an anti-Amazon protest movement in the west of France about why the company faces so much opposition.

The tally is in. A Friday vote count revealed that Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against forming a trade union, with 1,798 against and a paltry 738 in favour.

Labour union organisers in the US had hoped that workers at the Alabama warehouse would help kickstart the labour activist movement.

But Amazon has a history of extinguishing attempts at unionisation in the US. This is just the second time in the company’s history that a union effort has even got so far at a vote. Yet overseas, the company struggles to win over its workers in the same way.

In Europe, Amazon’s second-biggest market, different labour laws, regulators and the power wielded by trade unions means that Amazon frequently has to concede to pressure from workers.

One prime example occurred last year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. French Amazon warehouse workers sued the company, saying they refused to work in unsafe conditions. In April, a judge ruled in their favour, and Amazon was ordered to only sell essential items. During lockdown, when sales of video games and entertainment products were booming, this was a huge blow to the company and Amazon France responded by deciding to temporarily shut down operations, only reopening in late May.

A slow rise to dominance

Amazon arrived in France in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2016 that the company launched its delivery service in the country. Every year Amazon covers more ground in France – opening up more warehouses and dominating the e-commerce sector. In 2019, Amazon represented 22% of the e-commerce market in France, with its nearest rival Cdiscount accounting for just 8.1% in comparison.

But unlike in the United States, its progress is stalled by France’s energetic activist and trade union movements.

A national strategy

Amazon’s strategy is to target several areas at once as possible locations to build warehouses or logistics facilities. Depending on the size of local opposition – and how loudly that opposition can make its voice heard – Amazon will either let the idea fade away and set its sights on another spot, or will follow through with a request for planning permission and lobbying local authorities.

Amazon is currently pursuing a number of plans to build warehouses in different French regions. One proposed site is in Montbert in the west of France, a plan that has been met with passionate demonstrations from locals and trade union representatives. Amazon’s proposal has now run out of steam, partly because of the backlash, and was halted in March.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Alain Thalineau, a spokesperson for the protest group ‘Amazon Ni Ici Ni Ailleurs’ (‘Amazon neither here nor elsewhere’), who helped to organise the movement against Amazon in Montbert.

“It’s not that we don’t want the warehouse, it’s the fact that it’s an Amazon warehouse,” he explained. “They’ve come here without any attempt at dialogue."

A French trade union posted a 'survival guide to Amazon' on its Facebook page. Amongst its advice: 'Don't think of the job as a stroke of luck. You're selling your labour', 'Don't trust Amazon if you're ill or have an accident. They only want to make sure you don't get paid', 'HR is there to manage human resources, not to help you', and 'Get everything in writing'.

An un-European business model

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The accusations that activists and trade unions level against Amazon focus not only on workers’ rights but also on environmental issues and Amazon’s reputation for tax avoidance.

Thalineau says that Amazon's business model disrespects the rules of the countries where it operates: “Amazon thinks it’s above state laws, above thinking about working conditions, the environment or the tax system. Amazon will always find opposition in France because they think that the country is there to work for them, when in fact [the company is] there to serve us, the citizens.”

Thalineau was keen to stress that it’s not just in France that trade unions and activists are putting up a fight – he considers this a pan-European battle.

Amazon has also encountered resistance in Italy, Spain and Germany as well. The German trade union Verdi called a general strike for workers at six Amazon sites at the beginning of April to try to force the company’s hand on wage issues. Just a week earlier, Amazon workers in Italy went on their first ever national strike over working conditions, a 24-hour strike that affected the company’s entire logistics operation in the country.

The vote in Alabama represents a victory for Amazon over trade union organisers in the US. But as its empire expands, it faces a bigger war against labour activists in Europe.

Nature Sounds Can Actually Heal Pain, According to a New Study

You already knew that getting outside to breathe a bit of fresh air and take in the sunshine is good for your soul, but as one researcher recently found, getting outside to listen to Mother Nature can actually help heal your body too.

© Provided by Travel + Leisure Feeling achy? Get out in Mother Nature.

Rachel Buxton, a research associate in the department of biology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, along with a few of her colleagues, recently studied the effects of natural sounds, including the birds chirping and rivers running, on both the human mind and its effects on human pain. The team found natural sounds can have a positive effect on both, and published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Nature Sounds Can Actually Heal Pain, According to a New Study"

"It's good for what we're calling positive effect, so things like feelings of tranquility," Buxton shared with U.S. News and World Report about the findings. "It's good for alleviating stress and just a wide variety of benefits that we saw from alleviating pain to improving mood and cognitive ability...I think it's really remarkable, not only that natural sounds confer these health benefits, but also the variety of health benefits."

As to which sound people respond to best, the researchers found soundscapes that included birds had the largest effect on lowering stress and feelings of annoyance.

"We actually have pretty good evidence that there are major health benefits to being exposed to nature," George Wittemyer, co-author of the study, shared with 9 News. "The evidence is really clear. Listening to natural sounds reduces stress, reduces annoyance and it's correlated with positive health benefits."

So we should all run to our nearest national park, right? Well, hang on a second, because the researchers have a bit of bad news to share too.

While researching how natural sounds affect humans, the team studied audio tracks recorded at 221 sites across 68 national parks. It found that biological sounds (those made by animals) were highly audible at about 75 percent of the sites. However, it also found that human noises like car horns were found in high levels at almost every park. In total, it found just 11.3% of the places they evaluated had low audibility of human sounds. This means the more people that go to parks, the more human noises will drown out the natural ones.

Still, this doesn't mean the team thinks we should avoid natural spaces, but rather, spend more of our efforts protecting them.

"I would strongly encourage people to take a moment to stop and listen. Experience the benefits of sound. I think it's something we often overlook and take for granted," Wittemyer said. "We should be protecting them. We should be protecting the natural soundscape and ensure that we don't inundate it with noise."

Read more about the findings here.

Iran reports 'power failure' accident at Natanz nuclear site

Issued on: 11/04/2021 - 13:18

A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidential office on Saturday shows a video conference screen of an engineer inside Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant - Iranian Presidency/AFP

Tehran (AFP)

Iran reported an accident caused by a "power failure" Sunday at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, with one lawmaker blaming the outage on an act of "sabotage".

No-one was injured and there was no radioactive release, the official Fars news agency reported, citing the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

The incident came a day after the Islamic republic said it had started up advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the site, in a breach of its commitments under a troubled 2015 deal with world powers.

AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said there had been "an accident in part of the electrical circuit of the enrichment facility" at the Natanz complex near Tehran, but that there were "no casualties nor pollution".

"The causes of the accident are under investigation and more details will be released later," he added.

He did not say whether power was cut only in the enrichment facility or across other installations at the site and added that there was "no further information for the moment".

But Malek Chariati, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy commission, took to Twitter to allege sabotage.

"This incident, coming (the day after) National Nuclear Technology Day as Iran endeavours to press the West into lifting sanctions, is strongly suspected to be sabotage or infiltration," Chariati said.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani had on Saturday inaugurated a cascade of centrifuges for enriching uranium and two test cascades at Natanz, in a ceremony broadcast by state television.

An Israeli public broadcast journalist, Amichai Stein, said on Twitter "the assessment is that the fault" at Natanz is the "result of an Israeli cyber operation," without elaborating or providing evidence to corroborate his claim.

- 'Terrorist sabotage' -

Iran's president had on Saturday also inaugurated a replacement factory at Natanz, after an explosion at a facility making advanced centrifuges there last July.

Iranian authorities blamed the July incident on "sabotage" by "terrorists", but have not released the results of their investigation into it.

The equipment inaugurated Saturday enables quicker enrichment of uranium and in higher quantities, to levels that violate Iran's commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal it agreed with the five permanent UN Security Council powers, plus Germany.

The administration of then-US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from this multilateral nuclear accord in 2018 and re-imposed biting sanctions on Iran.

Iran later responded by progressively rolling back its own commitments under the agreement.

Trump's successor Joe Biden has said he is prepared to return to the deal, arguing it had -- until Washington's withdrawal -- been successful in dramatically scaling back Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran's latest move to step up uranium enrichment follows an opening round of talks in Vienna Tuesday with representatives of the remaining parties to the nuclear deal on bringing the US back into it.

The Vienna talks are focused not only on lifting the crippling economic sanctions Trump reimposed, but also on bringing Iran back into compliance.

Iran's nemesis Israel has always been implacably opposed to the 2015 accord.

In November last year, Iran's top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by machine gun fire while travelling on a highway outside Tehran.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said a satellite-controlled gun with "artificial intelligence" was used in the attack, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

© 2021 AFP

THEY WOULD BE RIGHT

Iran calls Natanz atomic site blackout 'nuclear terrorism'

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Sunday described a blackout at its underground Natanz atomic facility an act of “nuclear terrorism,” raising regional tensions as world powers and Tehran continue to negotiate over its tattered nuclear deal.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion fell immediately on Israel, where its media nearly uniformly reported a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by the country caused the blackout.

If Israel was responsible, it further heightens tensions between the two nations, already engaged in a shadow conflict across the wider Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Sunday with U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, has vowed to do everything in his power to stop the nuclear deal.

Details remained few about what happened early Sunday morning at the facility, which initially was described as a blackout caused by the electrical grid feeding its above-ground workshops and underground enrichment halls.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the American-educated head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, who once served as the country's foreign minister, offered what appeared to be the harshest comments of his long career, which included the assassination of nuclear scientists a decade ago. Iran blames Israel for those killings as well.

He pledged to “seriously improve” his nation's nuclear technology while working to lift international sanctions.

Salehi’s comments to state TV did not explain what happened at the facility, but his words suggested a serious disruption.

“While condemning this desperate move, the Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes the need for a confrontation by the international bodies and the (International Atomic Energy Agency) against this nuclear terrorism,” Salehi said.

The IAEA, the United Nations' body that monitors Tehran's atomic program, earlier said it was aware of media reports about the incident at Natanz and had spoken with Iranian officials about it. The agency did not elaborate.

However, Natanz has been targeted by sabotage in the past. The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010 and widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, once disrupted and destroyed Iranian centrifuges at Natanz amid an earlier period of Western fears about Tehran's program.

Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion at its advanced centrifuge assembly plant in July that authorities later described as sabotage. Iran now is rebuilding that facility deep inside a nearby mountain. Iran also blamed Israel for the November killing of a scientist who began the country’s military nuclear program decades earlier.

Multiple Israeli media outlets reported Sunday that an Israeli cyberattack caused the blackout in Natanz. Public broadcaster Kan said the Mossad was behind the attack. Channel 12 TV cited “experts” as estimating the attack shut down entire sections of the facility.

While the reports offered no sourcing for their information, Israeli media maintains a close relationship with the country’s military and intelligence agencies.

“It’s hard for me to believe it’s a coincidence,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, said of Sunday’s blackout. “If it’s not a coincidence, and that’s a big if, someone is trying to send a message that ‘we can limit Iran’s advance and we have red lines.’”

It also sends a message that Iran’s most sensitive nuclear site is “penetrable,” he added.

Netanyahu later Sunday night toasted his security chiefs, with the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, at his side on the eve of his country’s Independence Day.

“It is very difficult to explain what we have accomplished,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s history, saying the country had been transformed from a position of weakness into a “world power.”

Israel typically doesn't discuss operations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency or specialized military units. In recent weeks, Netanyahu repeatedly has described Iran as the major threat to his country as he struggles to hold onto power after multiple elections and while facing corruption charges.

Speaking at the event Sunday night, Netanyahu urged his security chiefs to “continue in this direction, and to continue to keep the sword of David in your hands,” using an expression referring to Jewish strength.

Meeting with Austin on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Israel viewed America as an ally against all threats, including Iran.

“The Tehran of today poses a strategic threat to international security, to the entire Middle East and to the state of Israel,” Gantz said. “And we will work closely with our American allies to ensure that any new agreement with Iran will secure the vital interests of the world, of the United States, prevent a dangerous arms race in our region, and protect the state of Israel.”

The Israeli army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, also appeared to reference Iran.

The Israeli military’s “operations in the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemy,” Kochavi said. “They are watching us, seeing (our) abilities and weighing their steps with caution.”

On Saturday, Iran announced it had launched a chain of 164 IR-6 centrifuges at the plant. Officials also began testing the IR-9 centrifuge, which they say will enrich uranium 50 times faster than Iran’s first-generation centrifuges, the IR-1. The nuclear deal limited Iran to using only IR-1s for enrichment.

Since then-President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran has abandoned all the limits of its uranium stockpile. It now enriches up to 20% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran maintains its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.

The nuclear deal had granted Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for ensuring its stockpile never swelled to the point of allowing Iran to obtain an atomic bomb if it chose.

On Tuesday, an Iranian cargo ship said to serve as a floating base for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard forces off the coast of Yemen was struck by an explosion, likely from a limpet mine. Iran has blamed Israel for the blast. That attack escalated a long-running shadow war in Mideast waterways targeting shipping in the region.

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Josef Federman and Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press

UK

Brixton riots 40 years on: ‘A watershed moment for race relations’

“For me, the Brixton riot was a Brixton uprising,” 

Aamna Mohdin Community affairs correspondent 

THE GUARDIAN 4/11/2021

It’s been 40 years since Ros Griffiths watched her neighbourhood burn to the ground. Then 15, she wandered the streets through one of the most devastating civil disturbances England has seen, in a state of shock. “As I got into the area, you could see the fighting. It looked like war.”

But even amid the smoke, fire and police cars that tore through the streets, Griffiths still remembers the reggae music that played softly into the night.

Brixton was then the centre of the UK’s black community, Griffiths said, with young people from across the country coming down for the weekend to enjoy its cultural vibrance. From the protests and literature to the sound systems, the street corners reverberated a simple yet powerful political message: black is beautiful.

For her generation of black Britons, plagued by mass unemployment, poor housing conditions and police brutality, it was a message they desperately needed to hear.

But as she walked through the wreckage, she saw the consequences of decades-long tension being ignored. The violence, which over the next summer would sweep through a number of England’s inner cities, was widely condemned

.

© Provided by The Guardian Ros Griffiths was a teenager when she witnessed the Brixton riots in 1981. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Griffiths said what happened in Brixton all those years ago helped her peers, the generation that followed Windrush and who wrestled most painfully with the identity of being black and British, to make a stand.

“For me, the Brixton riot was a Brixton uprising,” she said. “It was a watershed moment for race relations.”

* * *

Alex Wheatle moved from Shirley Oaks children’s home to a social service hostel in Brixton when he was 15. He immediately fell in love with the place – the all-night parties, the record shops, and using what money he had to be as stylish as possible.

“It was like an awakening to my culture,” he said. “For the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged.”

© Provided by The Guardian Alex Wheatle photographed near his home in Clapham. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

There was a political awakening, too. “Everyone knew of a tale of a young black guy being hauled into the police cells and getting beaten up,” he said. “No one listened to us, no one believed us.”

The issue went much further than the police. Wheatle remembers waiting on corners for builders’ vans to pick them up for a day’s labour. When he went to Brixton unemployment exchange, he saw that the jobs there for young black women were as chambermaids.

Wheatle said the New Cross fire, in which 13 young people died in a blaze during a birthday party at the beginning of the year, crystallised what many black Britons felt at the time: that the people in power did not care about them.

“Something systemic was happening in terms of racial discrimination. It was being observed in schools, in the job market, in policing and the courts,” said Colin Prescod, a British sociologist and chair of the Institute of Race Relations.

The optimism of the Windrush generation, who had hoped their children would be able to get a decent education and jobs, had evaporated by the late 1970s, Prescod said. The “dashing of the migrant settler dreams” was felt acutely by the black Britons born in the country.

In the first seven weeks of 1980, there was a 78% increase in street crime over the previous year in the so-called L district, which included Brixton. One tool used to crack down on street crime by the police was “sus”, which was a charge of loitering with suspicion to commit a criminal offence.

© Provided by The Guardian Colin Prescod: ‘Something systemic was happening in terms of racial discrimination.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

In the run-up to April 1981, “Operation Swamp 81” was planned, a special police exercise that began on 6 April and was meant to finish on 11 April. It consisted of 100 officers patrolling in plainclothes in certain areas between 2pm and 11pm daily. About 1,000 people were stopped and 100 arrested for a variety of offences, of which only a few were for robbery or burglary.

On 10 April, the first warm day of the year, PC Steve Margiotta tried to stop a distressed young black man who was bleeding from a stab wound. The young man ran away and a crowd formed around Margiotta and his colleagues.

Related: Black youth unemployment rate of 40% similar to time of Brixton riots, data shows

That night, Brixton was awash with false rumours that the police had prevented the young man from getting treatment and he had died. There was an increased level of policing the following day, and in the afternoon of 11 April two police officers patrolling Atlantic Road questioned a man sitting in a car outside a car hire firm.

“Everyone knew that something big was going to happen, everyone knew it. When it did, I just followed the crowd and just raced into Atlantic Road. And by the time I got there, they were rocking a police van from side to side, and it smashed on to the road,” Wheatle said.

By then there were hundreds of people throwing things at police officers on Atlantic Road and into Coldharbour Lane. Julian Skellett, then a 24-year-old student living in Brixton, was in a pub drinking with friends. “I looked out of the window and I saw this police car, which I think was a panda, upside down and in flames,” he said. The pub landlord locked the customers in and they stayed there for several hours.

“It was exhilarating. It was empowering. It was frightening because in the corner of your mind you’re thinking: lord God, if the police catch you in a cell, you’re finished,” Wheatle said. “But the exhilaration to actually see the police in retreat was something I’d never seen before. It is usually us running away from the police.”

By the evening, crowds were throwing petrol bombs. The Windsor pub was burning and flares could be seen all over Railton and Mayall roads. The fire brigade and ambulance crew were caught in the crossfire.

By the end of the weekend, hundreds of civilians and more than 350 police officers had been injured . Two dozen buildings had been set ablaze, causing damage estimated at £7.5m.

A now-retired Metropolitan police officer, who was deployed to Brixton from east London, remembers walking around the area in the early hours of the Monday morning with a bizarre sense of deja vu. “I realised what it was. As it got lighter, you could see it was like the pictures of the Blitz. It looked like it looked as though there’d been a bombing raid in Brixton.”

© Provided by The Guardian Local residents walk past a burned-out pub in Brixton after a second night of rioting in the area, 13 April 1981. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images

* * *

Wheatle was arrested a few weeks after the riot and later imprisoned for taking part. While he was in prison his cellmate Simeon encouraged him to write about his experiences: his story was important.

In the decades that followed, the acclaimed director Steve McQueen would agree, and he featured Wheatle’s life in an episode of Small Axe. It explores how Wheatle, known as the Brixton Bard, became a successful British novelist, writing the acclaimed book East of Acre Lane.

He wasn’t the only one to find his voice. “I had the confidence to say enough is enough, I’m not having it. You will not call me these racial slurs, you will not refer to me as if I’m inadequate,” Griffiths said.

Brixton itself has changed over the years, and so too has British policing. Following a report by Lord Scarman, who led an inquiry into the riot, the government passed the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act, which regulated stop and search, and it set up the Independent Police Complaints Authority in 1985.

Prescod doesn’t believe that would have been possible without the riots and the movement that followed. “Riots pushed the analysis of racism in this country,” he said.

As for Griffiths, remembering the past is important for changing the future. She is excited by the hunger of young people today to make a difference in their communities, especially those involved with Black Lives Matter protests. Their fight is similar to her generation’s struggle.

“1981 was a very significant time in my life. I was fighting to belong somewhere,” she said. “I am accomplished now and my focus is on passing on the baton on to the next generation of young leaders.”