SARS LIKE PANDEMIC IN CHINA
The virus -- a new strain of coronavirus that humans can contract -- has caused alarm because of its connection to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.


Experts warn over scale of China virus as US airports start screening

AFP•January 17, 2020


The outbreak centred around a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan (AFP Photo/Noel Celis)More

Hong Kong (AFP) - The true scale of the outbreak of a mysterious SARS-like virus in China is likely far bigger than officially reported, scientists have warned, as countries ramp up measures to prevent the disease from spreading.

Fears that the virus will spread are growing ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese move around the country and many others host or visit extended family members living overseas.

Authorities in China say two people have died and at least 45 have been infected, with the outbreak centred around a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan, a city of 11 million inhabitants that serves as a major transport hub.

But a paper published Friday by scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London said the number of cases in the city was likely closer to 1,700.

The researchers said their estimate was largely based on the fact that cases had been reported overseas –- two in Thailand and one in Japan.

The virus -- a new strain of coronavirus that humans can contract -- has caused alarm because of its connection to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

China has not announced any travel restrictions, but authorities in Hong Kong have already stepped up detection measures, including rigorous temperature checkpoints for inbound travellers from the Chinese mainland.

The US said from Friday it would begin screening flights arriving from Wuhan at San Francisco airport and New York's JFK -- which both receive direct flights -- as well as Los Angeles, where many flights connect.

And Thailand said it was already screening passengers arriving in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket and would soon introduce similar controls in the beach resort of Krabi.

- Two deaths -

No human-to-human transmission has been confirmed so far, but Wuhan's health commission has said the possibility "cannot be excluded".

A World Health Organization doctor said it would not be surprising if there was "some limited human-to-human transmission, especially among families who have close contact with one another".

Scientists with the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis -- which advises bodies including the World Health Organization -- said they estimated a "total of 1,723" people in Wuhan would have been infected as of January 12.

"For Wuhan to have exported three cases to other countries would imply there would have to be many more cases than have been reported," Professor Neil Ferguson, one of the authors of the report, told the BBC.

"I am substantially more concerned than I was a week ago," he said, while adding that it was "too early to be alarmist".

"People should be considering the possibility of substantial human-to-human transmission more seriously than they have so far," he continued, saying it was "unlikely" that animal exposure was the sole source of infection.

Local authorities in Wuhan said a 69-year-old man died on Wednesday, becoming the second fatal case, with the disease causing pulmonary tuberculosis and damage to multiple organ functions.

After the death was reported, online discussion spread in China over the severity of the Wuhan coronavirus -- and how much information the government may be hiding from the public.

Several complained about censorship of online posts, while others made comparisons to 2003, when Beijing drew criticism from the WHO for underreporting the number of SARS cases.

"It's so strange," wrote a web user on the social media platform Weibo, citing the overseas cases in Japan and Thailand. "They all have Wuhan pneumonia cases but (in China) we don't have any infections outside of Wuhan -- is that scientific?"

China believes new virus behind mystery pneumonia outbreak

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=WUTAN

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CHINA

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SARS 

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PANDEMIC

Disease that killed millions of China's pigs poses global threat

By Tom Polansek,
Reuters•January 16, 2020722 Comments

African swine fever has killed millions of China's pigs and poses a possible global threa
By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bettie the beagle, a detector dog for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, picked up the scent of pork on a woman arriving from China at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Soon the dog's handler discovered and confiscated a ham sandwich in the purse of a passenger who had flown on a China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai.

The danger? That the food might be contaminated with African swine fever and spread the disease to the United States. China has lost millions of pigs in outbreaks of the disease, pushing its pork prices to record highs, forcing purchases of costly imports and roiling global meat markets.

"It's very likely it may come here if we aren't more vigilant," said Jessica Anderson, the handler for the pork-sniffing dog and an agricultural specialist for the border protection agency.

Bettie is among an expanded team of specially trained beagles at U.S. airports, part of a larger effort to protect the nation's $23 billion pork industry from a disease that has decimated China's hog herd, the world's largest. Governments worldwide are scrambling to shore up their defenses as the disease spills over China's borders, according to Reuters reporting from nine countries. The efforts underscore the grave threat to global agriculture.

African swine fever has spread to Southeast Asia and eastern Europe, with cases found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea, Myanmar, the Philippines, Poland, Belgium and Bulgaria. Around the globe, those countries and others that have so far sidestepped the epidemic are cracking down on travelers, increasing cargo screenings and banning meat imports.

Pork-producing countries stand to lose billions of dollars if the disease infects their industries because outbreaks devastate farms and shut export markets. African swine fever does not threaten humans but there's no vaccine or cure for infected pigs.

If the disease enters the United States, the top pork-exporting nation with 77.3 million hogs, the government would struggle to protect the industry, participants in a four-day drill in September told Reuters.

"If this gets in, it will destroy our industry as we know it," said Dave Pyburn, the National Pork Board's senior vice president of science and technology.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) simulated an outbreak in Mississippi that spread to the nation's top pig-producing states, including North Carolina, Iowa and Minnesota. Veterinarians, farmers and government officials gathered at command centers where they tested their capacity to swiftly detect, control and clean up after an outbreak.

The experience showed the U.S. needs to increase its capacity to quickly test pigs for the disease and to dispose of the animals without spreading it, said Pyburn, who participated in the drill.

In China, the top global pork consumer, the disease has been devastating. The exact number of hog deaths is not known. Rabobank estimated the country lost up to 55% of its pig herd last year. But the Chinese government has reported smaller losses in the country's $1 trillion hog sector since the first case in August 2018.

GLOBAL RESPONSE

The U.S. government is fielding dogs at airports and seaports, conducting outbreak-response drills and adding capacity to test pigs. France and Germany are killing hundreds of thousands of wild boar that might carry the disease. France also erected 132 kilometers (82 miles) of fencing to keep out wild boar and is planning stricter sanitary rules for pig farming, including requirements to disinfect trucks that transport swine.

Thailand culled pigs in a province close to Myanmar, where the disease has been found. South Korea ordered soldiers on its border with North Korea to capture wild boar, while Vietnam used troops to ensure infected pigs were culled.

Australia expelled travelers from Vietnam for smuggling pork and banned imports of pork products. Australia also deployed advisors to Pacific islands in an attempt to protect its closest neighbors from African swine fever. If such efforts fail, it could cost the country more than 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.4 billion) over five years, according to Australian Pork Limited, an industry group.

"It is certainly the biggest threat to commercial raising that we have ever seen, and arguably the biggest threat to any commercial livestock species we've seen," said Mark Schipp, Australia's chief veterinary officer.

U.S. officials plan to suspend domestic shipments of pigs among farms and to slaughterhouses if African swine fever is detected. The USDA and states could issue orders halting the movement of livestock in certain areas as a way to contain the disease.

The USDA said in a statement to Reuters that the September drill highlighted shortcomings in its guidance to states detailing when and how to limit the movement of pigs. The government is also increasing the number of laboratories it uses to test for African swine fever.

"We have identified some gaps," said Amanda Luitjens, who took part in the drill and is animal welfare auditor for Minnesota-based pork producer Christensen Farms. "The thought of it making it to the United States is scary."

BANS ON GARBAGE FEEDING

Travelers transporting meat represent the biggest risk for African swine fever to spread to the United States because the disease can live for weeks in pork products, Pyburn said.

Contaminated food can be fed to feral pigs or livestock in a practice known as garbage feeding, which the USDA says has caused outbreaks of swine diseases around the world. U.S. farmers are supposed to obtain a license to feed pigs with food waste that contains meat and cook it to kill disease organisms.

African swine fever can also spread from pig to pig, from bites by infectious ticks and through objects such as trucks, clothing and shoes that have come into contact with the virus.

China banned the transportation of live pigs from infected provinces and neighboring regions in an unsuccessful bid to contain its outbreaks. It also culled pigs and outlawed the use of kitchen waste for swine feed.

The disease has been detected in food products seized at airports in South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Philippines and northern Ireland.

African swine fever is thought to have arrived in the Philippines through contaminated pork smuggled from China. The Philippines is now conducting mandatory checks on carry-on luggage of passengers from countries with outbreaks.

The government of the province of Cebu in central Philippines banned imported products and those from the main Philippine island of Luzon to avoid swine fever. More than 60,000 pigs have died or been culled in Luzon because of the disease. The Philippines Department of Agriculture also banned garbage feeding that included leftover food from airports, airlines and seaports.

In the United States, low inspection rates at ports of entry increase the likelihood for illegal pork to enter the country undetected, the USDA said in a report assessing the risk from African swine fever. The agency works with Customs and Border Protection to alert all U.S. ports each time a new country is confirmed to have the disease, requesting increased scrutiny on travelers and shipments.

But Customs and Border Protection estimates it needs 3,148 people to specialize in agricultural inspections at entry points like airports and only has about 2,500.

The U.S. Senate last year authorized the annual hiring of 240 agricultural specialists a year until the workforce shortage is filled, and the training and assignment of 20 new canine teams a year. The government approved 60 new beagle teams to work at airports and seaports last year, for a total of 179 teams, according to USDA.

Those teams face a daunting challenge, said Senator Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who introduced the legislation with other lawmakers.

"Every day, millions of passengers and tens of thousands of shipping containers carrying food products cross our nation's borders," he said, "any one of which could do significant damage to America's food supply and agricultural industries."


(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila, Colin Packham and John Mair in Sydney, Nigel Hunt in London, Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Brian Thevenot)

EXCERPT INFOGRAPHIC: China’s pig industry crisis - https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-SWINEFEVER-FARMERS/010090DR0KM/index.html

AFRICAN SWINE FEVER

China’s pig industry crisis

Multiple outbreaks of African swine fever have been reported across China since it was first detected in the country on August 3, 2018. More than 1 million pigs have been culled in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading through the world’s largest pig herd.

By Chris Inton, Weiyi Cai, Han Huang and Dominique Patton

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

The history

First detected in Kenya in 1909, African swine fever spread from Africa to Europe and parts of the Americas in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, before being largely eradicated except in Sardinia, Italy, where it has been endemic since 1978.

In 2007, the virus spread to Georgia and into Russia and Eastern Europe. It is now endemic in regions of the Russian Federation, where domestic pigs and wild boar populations are widely affected.

The first outbreak in Asia was reported in Shenyang, northeastern China, in August 2018. Nowhere in the world has it spread faster and across such a wide area than in China.

The virus

The African swine fever virus is associated with ticks that infest the common warthog in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is usually deadly for pigs, as no treatment is available and despite efforts over the years, there is still no vaccine for the complex virus. Though humans are not susceptible, an outbreak in a pig population could have serious socio-economic consequences.



HOW IT SPREADS

Ingestion of meat or meat products by infected animals - kitchen waste, swill feed.

Contact with objects contaminated by the virus such as clothing, vehicles, and other equipment.

Bites by infectious ticks.

The virus can be spread through contact with infected animals, their excretions, or carcasses.

The virus can survive for 15 weeks in chilled meat, 300 days in cured ham and 15 years in frozen carcasses.

Warthogs are naturally resistant to the virus and usually do not develop clinical disease. They get infected as piglets and develop life-long immunity.

Wild boars, in which the virus is endemic, are usually exposed through contact with warthogs.

Domestic pigs are usually exposed through contact with infected pigs from other farms and wild boars. Spread is facilitated by human activities, like movement of animals due to trade, or sale of infected meat or animals.

SYMPTOMS

Clinical signs of African swine fever are variable and not always easy to recognise, but can include:

Vomiting and diarrhoea

Red or dark coloured skin around the ears or snout

Blood clots and necrotic areas under the skin

Weakness and reluctance to stand

Miscarriage, stillbirths and weak litters

Coughing or difficulty breathing

Most die within ten days. Some die suddenly with few signs beforehand.

Sources: Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China; European Food Safety Authority; European Union Reference Laboratory; The Pirbright Institute; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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A Federal Court Threw Out A High Profile Climate Lawsuit. Here's What It Might Mean For The Future of Climate Litigation

Madeleine Carlisle, Time•January 17, 2020


On Friday, the Ninth Circuit court of appeals threw out the high profile lawsuit Juliana v. United States, in which 21 young Americans sued the United States government for failing to act to stop climate change. The court acknowledged that while the threat of climate change is real, it “reluctantly” concluded that the issue should be raised with the executive and legislative branches of government, not the courts.

The suit, which was filed in 2015, argues that climate change threatens the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to life and liberty. It also argues that the U.S. government — which understood the threat of climate change for decades — failed to act to protect those rights. The suit requested multiple remedies, including the court order the U.S. government “to prepare and implement an enforceable national remedial plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions” and work to lower CO2 in the atmosphere.

Two judges of a three-person panel voted to dismiss the case on Friday. As Jennifer Rushlow, the director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School, explains, the court threw out the case on the finding of “redressability,” basically meaning they didn’t think they could give the plaintiffs what they sought. The dismissal reversed an earlier decision by district court judge Ann Aiken.

Our Children’s Trust, which brought the suit, announced that it plans to ask the Ninth Circuit to review this decision. “I am disappointed that these judges would find that federal courts can’t protect America’s youth, even when a constitutional right has been violated,” Kelsey Juliana, the 23-year-old named plaintiff of Eugene, Oregon, said in a statement.

“Such a holding is contrary to American principles of justice that I have been taught since elementary school. This decision gives full unfettered authority to the legislative and executive branches of government to destroy our country, because we are dealing with a crisis that puts the very existence of our nation in peril.”

Michael Gerrard, the director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School, tells TIME he was not surprised by Ninth Circuit’s decision. “The courts are good at acting as a shield against attempts to disregard laws that are on the books. They’re not going to come up with brand new rules. That’s left to the ballot box,” he says. “It would have been a very bold act for the court to have allowed a district judge to dictate the development of national energy and climate policy.”

However, Rushlow argues the court over-simplified Juliana‘s requests because the ruling didn’t acknowledge the other remedies requested by the suit, which included a declaration that the young people’s rights were violated and a declaration that a permit was unconstitutional. She argues that the court essentially said, “Anything the court can do… will not globally fix climate change, and therefore apparently they should do nothing.”

In his 32-page opinion, Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz acknowledged climate change is occurring at an ” increasingly rapid pace” and that the “the federal government has long understood the risks of fossil fuel use and increasing carbon dioxide emissions.”

However, he wrote that addressing climate change as the plaintiffs requested would “require a host of complex policy decisions entrusted, for better or worse, to the wisdom and discretion of the executive and legislative branches,” and “reluctantly” concluded that the court did not have that constitutional power.

The third member of the panel, Judge Josephine L. Staton, issued a fiery dissenting opinion. “In these proceedings, the government accepts as fact that the United States has reached a tipping point crying out for a concerted response—yet presses ahead toward calamity. It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward Earth and the government decided to shut down our only defenses,” she wrote.

Climate litigation in other countries such as the Netherlands has successfully gained action from the government. Legal experts tell TIME that it doesn’t mean other cases will not succeed in the future.
What does this mean for the future of climate litigation?

While Gerrard tells TIME he thinks the ruling “dampens some people’s expectations about what the courts can achieve,” Daniel Esty, an environmental law professor at Yale Law School, argues the it might actually open the door for more litigation down the road.

Crucially, the opinion names the seriousness of climate change and clearly states that the federal government promoted fossil fuel use. “It agrees that these kids have been injured. It also agrees that there’s a good chance that the US government is to blame,” Cara Horowitz, the co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law, points out to TIME in an email.

Esty explains that he reads the opinion as saying, “this is a serious problem, one that needs an answer. The better people to answer this would be the political branches of government.” But he adds that he “can imagine a day not too far from now, where if there continues to be break down in Washington… another court might take the starting point of this decision and take it a different direction.”

“I think the ultimate purpose of courts is step in and address failures by other branches of government, and to vindicate broad elements of what it takes to make a society work,” he continues. “One could argue that when you’ve got an existential threat to the future of not just the country, but the planet, this is where courts really have to exercise the kind of special role that a non-political branch of government is best positioned to play.”

Paul Sabin, a professor of environmental history at Yale, writes in an email that he thinks these types of suits will only grow, especially given the inaction in the executive and legislative branches of government on climate change. “[I]f the situation worsens, as is likely, the courts may grow more receptive to these claims. It was a 2-1 decision, and one already can imagine a different scenario in which a different set of judges might have reached a different result,” he writes.

Juliana might only the beginning of a new legal trend, even if it was dismissed. Gerrard tells TIME that only around 1100 climate cases have ever been brought in the U.S., and he estimates roughly 50 are pending right now. While Juliana was attempting to change policy, many other climate suits are much narrower, such as the many lawsuits against deregulation by the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency. Many of those suits have succeeded, Gerrard explains.

While Friday’s dismissal concerns many activists, Sabin says it does not necessarily determine the future of climate litigation long term. “The courts are still coming around to the necessary role that they may have to play. A dismissal now does not mean a dismissal forever.”

---30---

Apple shared customer data with US government in a record-high 90% of cases, even as Trump administration complains it's not doing enough

TALES OF THE SECURITY STATE;
 A P3 BY ANY OTHER NAME

tsonnemaker@businessinsider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker), Business Insider•January 17, 2020

Donald Trump Tim Cook AP

Apple announced in a report Friday that it received a record-high 3,619 requests from the US government for users' account information in the first half of 2019, up 36% from the previous six-month period.

Apple said it complied with 90% of those requests, which generally asked for customers' iTunes or iCloud account details and occasionally their iCloud data.

Apple's report comes amid its battle with the US government over privacy, which was reignited this week after it refused an FBI request to unlock a mass shooter's iPhones.

The report paints a stark contrast to the government's efforts to paint Apple as unhelpful in assisting law enforcement's' investigations.

BIG DATA IS BIG BROTHER 
Apple released its biannual transparency report on Friday, which included details about the number and type of government and private party requests for customer information that the company received globally.

Apple said it received 3,619 "account requests" from the US government in the first half of 2019, nearly a 36% jump from the six months prior and more than previous periods (the report is available as far back as 2013).

Account requests, sent when law enforcement officials suspect illegal activity, typically seek "details of customers' iTunes or iCloud accounts, such as a name and address" and occasionally, "iCloud content, such as stored photos, email, iOS device backups, contacts or calendars," the company said.

For 90% of those requests, Apple provided the government with at least some information about the account in question, up from 88% during the previous period. Apple also said the requests encompassed more than 15,301 customer accounts, another record high.

The report comes amid a heated standoff between Apple and the Trump administration over privacy and public safety, which was reignited this week after the company refused to help the FBI unlock a mass shooter's iPhones.




BARR IS A BACKDOOR MAN, WANTS TO END ENCRYPTION 
Trump's attorney general, William Barr, has repeatedly accused Apple and other tech companies of not doing enough to assist law enforcement in investigations. Specifically, Barr has expressed frustration with Apple's unwillingness to create a "backdoor" that would allow officials to access encrypted information stored on customers' devices.

However, Apple's transparency report suggests that, overall, it has been overwhelmingly responsive to government requests for information. In this latest case, even some FBI officials have reportedly taken Apple's side, saying that Apple has provided "ample assistance."

Apple has defended its use of encryption, saying in a statement to Business Insider: "Law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data."

The debate between Apple and the government has renewed concerns among privacy advocates that creating backdoors would undermine public safety, while security experts argue that the government already has the ability to access encrypted devices without Apple's help.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Modi’s Party Earned More Last Year Than All Its Rivals Combined

Archana Chaudhary, Bloomberg•January 17, 2020


1 / 2

Modi’s Party Earned More Last Year Than All Its Rivals Combined



(Bloomberg) -- India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party more than doubled its income to $339 million in the financial year ended March 2019 ahead of federal elections, which is more than twice that of its five major rivals put together.

About two-thirds of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s income, or 14.50 billion rupees ($204 million), came from opaque financing instruments called electoral bonds. These bonds allow individuals as well as corporations -- including those partly owned by foreign entities -- to fund political parties anonymously, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms, which cited the latest data from the Election Commission of India.

The BJP swept to a second term in office in May 2019, winning more than 300 seats out of 545 in India’s Lok Sabha or lower house of Parliament, giving Modi a powerful mandate.

The BJP’s largest rival, the Indian National Congress, reported 41.7% of its total income of 9.18 billion rupees came from electoral bonds, the report said. The only other national party to report income from electoral bonds was the All India Trinamool Congress, which received half its revenue of 1.92 billion rupees through the instrument.


Although the ruling BJP’s income jumped to 24.10 billion rupees from 10.27 billion rupees in 2017-18, its political competitors reported higher percentage hikes. The main opposition Congress party earned four-and-a-half times more in the financial year before the national elections. The biggest jump in income, 40-fold, was reported by the Trinamool Congress, which dominates West Bengal, a state that is due to go to the polls early 2021. India’s largest left party the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was the only national grouping to report a fall in income by 3.7% compared with 2017-18, according to the report.

Gopal Krishna Agarwal, BJP’s spokesman for economic issues, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress’ spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Sharp Rise

Indian political parties have shown a sharp rise in income after the government introduced electoral bonds in 2017-18. Although the BJP has consistently accounted for the highest income in Indian politics, its declared revenues have soared in 2018-19 by 148% from 9.70 billion rupees in 2014-15, the year Modi first came to power. The Congress, which had seen its income drop after 2014-15 when it lost power, reported a rise in income after the anonymous donations system of electoral bonds was introduced.

Despite the name, the bonds bear little resemblance to the promissory notes investors are familiar with where buyers are paid interest. Anyone can buy an electoral bond at the government-owned State Bank of India. They are then delivered to a political party, which can exchange them for cash. They don’t carry the name of the donor and are exempt from tax.

BJP’s former finance minister Arun Jaitley, who first announced plans for the electoral bonds in 2017, had argued they would improve transparency because they are banking instruments and every political party has to disclose how much it received. Prior to this, Indian political parties received most of their donations in cash.

India’s campaign finance overhaul began in 2017, when Parliament approved an amendment that made it easier for companies to donate to political parties, including removing a cap on corporate donations -- the maximum used to be 7.5% of a company’s average net income over three years. Requirements for companies to disclose how much they donated and to which party were also eliminated.

The latest income declarations are part of the audited income tax filings submitted to the independent Election Commission of India.


©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Political Turmoil to Be ‘New Normal’ for 2020, Risk Firm Says

Iain Marlow and Hannah Dormido,Bloomberg•January 15, 2020



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Political Turmoil to Be ‘New Normal’ for 2020, Risk Firm Says

(Bloomberg) -- The violent protests and political upheaval that marked 2019 and challenged governments from Hong Kong to Chile is set to stay and is now the “new normal,” according to a global risk firm.

Verisk Maplecroft, which advises corporate clients on political risk around the world, said in a new report released Thursday that it predicts “continued turmoil in 2020” as administrations around the world continue to be surprised by demonstrators and ill-prepared to address the underlying social grievances that spur them.

“We all need to buckle up for 2020,” said Miha Hribernik, the Singapore-based head of Asia risk insight for Verisk Maplecroft. “The rage that caught many governments off-guard last year isn’t going anywhere and we’d all better adapt.”

Many governments were caught by surprise by the scale and ferocity of the protests and ended up attempting to crackdown on the movements, deploying what human rights group have said were arbitrary arrests and indiscriminate violence. That response has ended up further radicalizing protesters and provoking more violent demonstrations, Verisk Maplecroft said in its Political Risk Outlook 2020.

Rising Unrest

Of the countries seeing significantly more angry protests than usual, some of the steepest increases on firm’s unrest index were in Chile and Hong Kong. Chile rose from 91st place to 6th on the index as simmering social strife transformed Latin America’s richest and most stable nation into a focal point of chaotic protests that caused some $2 billion of property damages and killed more than two dozen people.

Hong Kong similarly rose from 117th to 26th after seven months of pro-democracy street protests, the firm said. Although prompted by a since-withdrawn bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, Verisk Maplecroft added that the “root cause of discontent has been the rollback of civil and political rights since 1997.”

India and Iraq, which have both seen determined protests recently, ranked much lower on the list of worsening hot spots because they began last year with heightened levels of unrest. In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi now faces the most significant challenge to his rule since being first being elected in 2014, as protesters take to the streets criticizing his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for its anti-Muslim policies.


Many governments have “reacted with a combination of repression and limited concessions” which achieved little because resilient protest movements have adapted rapidly to police tactics, Hribernik said.

“During 2019, governments worldwidescrambled to find an effective response to protests,” he said. “We don’t see much changing during 2020, and January has so far borne this out -- protesters have continued to turn out in their thousands in Iran, Iraq, India, Chile, Hong Kong and Lebanon -- to name just a few places.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net;Hannah Dormido in Hong Kong at hdormido@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Muneeza Naqvi

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

How a Chilean dog ended up as a face of the New York City subway protests

Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond, Associate Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, University of California San Diego

A man holds a sign with an image of Negro Matapacos, in Santiago, Chile.
MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images

A black Chilean dog wearing a red bandana made his mark during the New York City subway protests beginning in November 2019.

The protests were ignited by videos documenting police assaults on black and brown youth in the subways. For example, in one, an officer punches a 15-year-old unarmed African American teenager in the face.

Stickers bearing the dog’s image jumping a turnstile appeared on subway walls and trains. They also surfaced in social media illustrations announcing his arrival in New York City.

Who is this dog – and how did he end up in New York City protests?

His name is Negro Matapacos. The dog attained celebrity status for uniting with the protesters during the 2011 uprising in Chile for education reform, facing the police alongside the students.

I have studied animals’ consciousness, as well as connections between violence against nonwhite people and violence against other species.

I see Negro Matapacos’ legacy as providing a dramatic contrast to the use of dogs to suppress dissent. In my view, as someone who takes animal agency seriously, he joined the front lines voluntarily to defend the protesters against the police.
Rise to fame

Negro Matapacos first became famous for protecting students from police brutality in Santiago, Chile in 2011.


He lived most of his life on Santiago’s streets. In 2009, a resident of the university district, Maria Campos, invited Negro Matapacos into her home. He thrived under her care, but was determined to remain independent. Though he slept at Campos’ house, she honored his choice to move freely about Santiago.

Negro Matapacos began spending time on the university campuses in Campos’ neighborhood. Along with a population of free-roaming dogs, he developed friendships with the students.

In 2011, the students organized marches demanding free, quality public education. Riot police used tear gas and water cannons against them.

Campos reported that on protest mornings, Matapacos waited desperately to be let out. She said a prayer, traced a cross on his forehead and kissed him on the snout before opening the door. He then raced in the direction of the demonstrations.

Negro Matapacos – a name the dog received as he attained notoriety – literally translates to “Black Cop Killer.” In Latin America, it is not uncommon to use an animal’s color as their name. “Matapacos” has a specific local meaning, referencing the infamous brutality of the Chilean police. Negro Matapacos never killed anyone, but snarled, lunged and barked when the police threatened and assaulted the protesters.
Going international

Negro Matapacos died of natural causes in 2017, surrounded by caregivers. However, he continues to represent indignation against oppression.

In October 2019, massive protests erupted in Chile, sparked by a 4% subway fare increase. The demonstrators want socioeconomic equality and free education and health care. They oppose the right-wing president, Sebastián Piñera.

Negro Matapacos’ image has appeared throughout the protests, gracing banners, posters, decals, murals and papier mâché and metal sculptures.

The Chilean demonstrators’ hashtag, #EvasiónMassiva, references subway fare evasion. Stickers appearing in New York City depict a smiling Negro Matapacos jumping a turnstile atop the word “evade.”

In addition to New York City, Negro Matapacos’ image is featured in a mural in Malinarco, Mexico.

At Shibuya Station in Tokyo, a red bandana much like the one Negro Matapacos wore adorns Hachiko’s statue. Hachiko is a famous dog who awaited his guardian’s return from work long after his death.

An enduring image

These far-flung images of Negro Matapacos reflect the universality of his social justice message.

In a documentary about him, sociologist Jaime Rodriguez observed that the Chilean demonstrations beginning in 2011 responded to the absence of a social safety net. Chile’s free-roaming dogs epitomize exposure to harm: “There is nothing more precarious than a dog in the street,” Rodriguez said.

One student protester speculated to director Víctor Ramírez about why dogs like Negro Matapacos joined the students. He speaks to the shared vulnerability of free-roaming dogs and students to institutional violence.

Another protester references Matapacos’ yearning for recognition, which he got from the students: “We are marching for the things we need, and the dogs unite themselves to our cause. They unite themselves with us because they need our love and affection.”

[ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter. ]

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
When Trump calls someone a dog, he’s tapping into ugly history

Countries to watch in 2020, from Chile to Afghanistan: 5 essential reads

Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

From the Conversation 

THIS IS NOT THE ONLY PROTEST DOG DOCUMENTED AS JOINING PROTESTERS 

AGAINST THE POLICE, AN INHERENT TRAIT OF DISTRUST OF UNIFORMS FROM MEMORY OF ABUSE

'Alarm' over climate change rising among Americans, survey shows

By Ellen Wulfhorst, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Reuters•January 16, 2020

NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The share of Americans "alarmed" over climate change has hit a new high, research showed on Thursday, spurred in part by growing media coverage and by Democratic presidential contenders paying attention to the issue.

A majority of Americans now say they are "concerned" or "alarmed" about climate change, with those "alarmed" increasing almost threefold in the last five years, according to research by Yale University.

Fueling that concern has been the prominence of the issue among Democratic candidates seeking their party's nomination to try to unseat Republican President Donald Trump in November, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

For Democrats, "this is one of the top voting priorities among their base, and that has never been true in American political history before," Leiserowitz told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Each of the Democratic candidates - now numbering a dozen - has called for concerted action to address global warming and for the United States to remain in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The Trump administration is in the process of pulling the United States - one of the world's biggest emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases - out of the agreement adopted by nearly 200 nations with the aim of limiting global warming.

Climate change is likely to drop from political headlines once the Democratic nominee is chosen later this year and faces off with Trump, however, because it will be just one of many ways in which the candidates differ, Leiserowitz predicted.

Yale's research on attitudes about climate change sorts respondents into six categories - from "alarmed" to "dismissive", a grouping for those who do not think global warming is taking places or that it is caused by human action.

The latest results, from November 2019, found the "alarmed" segment at a high of 31%. The "dismissive" and "doubtful" categories stood at 10% each.

The data has been collected from an average of about 1,250 online respondents twice a year since October 2014 by Yale and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

Growing concerns about climate change also were fueled by a report on dire global warming risks facing oceans and ice issued by the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year, Leiserowitz said.

Growing media attention as more news organizations cover the topic has played a role as well in changing attitudes, he said.

In addition, more Americans are starting to directly experience climate change impacts - from wildfires to floods or other extreme weather - or have seen them on television, he said.

For a growing number of Americans, "this isn't far away in time and space anymore. This is here and now and it's real." (Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Laurie Goering

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Chilean university admissions tests hit by fresh protests

By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda,Reuters•January 6, 2020



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Chilean university admissions tests hit by fresh protests
Protests against Chile's government in Valparaiso

By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - University entrance exams to be taken by 300,000 students around Chile were disrupted in some cities on Monday by fresh protests over inequality and elitism, with some students blocking access to test sites and burning exam papers.

The authorities suspended the university selection test - known locally as the PSU - in 64 of more than 700 exam centers around the country, citing in a statement the safety of students, staff and exam materials.

The test had been suspended twice since November amid widespread social unrest in Chile that has left more than 27 people dead, thousands injured and thousands more arrested.

With the unrest dwindling to a handful of smaller protests each week, the test had been rescheduled to this week, only to face calls for a boycott by student union groups that claim the admissions system privileges those who attend better schools, in better areas and have better resources to prepare for it.

"We will continue to fight against market education and for a country where poor and working-class children can study without competition or segregation," the Coordinating Assembly of Secondary Students (ACES) said in a statement on Twitter.

Students protested outside exam centers in cities around the country, including Santiago, the capital, the coastal city of Valparaiso and Calama to the north. Students carried banners calling for a more equitable education system.

In some cases, students blocked access to the sites, disrupted the exams, vandalized classroom furniture and burned exam papers. Eighty-one people were detained for damage and public disorder, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Education undersecretary Juan Vargas said those affected by the suspensions would be able to complete the test later.

"That group of young people who have been affected ... will have a solution, an alternative, to take the PSU," he told reporters in Santiago.

In recent years protests by Chilean students over the country's highly privatized education system have made global headlines and brought pledges of reform including making higher education free of charge, improving quality and widening access to more people.

Since October, Chile has been rocked by broader protests that started over a hike in public transport fares and broadened to include calls for better pensions, healthcare and education.




(Reporting by Natalia Ramos; writing by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Crossing continents to cover protests

Reuters•January 7, 2020

 Crossing continents to cover protests

FILE PHOTO: A man reacts in front of Haitian National Police (PNH) officers during clashes with protesters marching to demand the resignation of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, in the streets of Petion Ville, Port-au-Princ

BEIRUT (Reuters) - One moment, photographer Andres Martinez Casares was out on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, dodging teargas canisters as crowds called for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise and his government.

The next, he was in Beirut which was packed with protesters chanting for the political elite to be ousted.

Journalists have to live with sharp transitions as they move from story to story. Martinez Casares had to travel 10,500 km (6,500 miles), in just over a day, from the unrest in the heart of the Caribbean to mass protests in the Middle East.

The photographer - who had been working in Haiti since 2010 - had been asked to fly from Port-au-Prince to Guadeloupe to Paris and then Beirut to join the local team who had been covering the Lebanese demonstrations for weeks.

Reuters has a string of international bureaus well placed to report on developments on their patch, but on particularly long-running stories, they welcome reinforcements.

"Part of the job is to be a quick responder," said the 37-year-old from Leon, Spain.

"On my first day in a new place, I always like to be with somebody who is familiar with the situation and can help me to understand it on the ground."

Picture editors Cynthia Karam and Maria Semerdjian brought him up to speed on the latest developments in Beirut and showed him the main locations.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

From then on it was a question of following an adaptable set of rules of engagement - wearing the right protective gear, checking for exit routes, watching the behaviour of security forces and protesters.

"I've always tried to work with somebody that I can trust, a motorcycle taxi driver in Haiti, for example, or other colleagues - keeping an eye on them and vice versa in case there is a problem so we can assist each other.

"And when I’m taking pictures, it's about being respectful, responsible and accurate, not exaggerating or minimizing, and being honest and fair."

It's also about telling the story of individuals caught up in political unrest.

The last pictures he took in Haiti showed members of the national cycle team training in the backstreets as the protests raged around them.

Among the first he took in Lebanon showed life in the street camps that sprang up during the demonstrations - women chatting on the roof of an abandoned cinema, tents in a downtown square.

Three weeks on, those protests had died down in Beirut.

But just over 13,500 km southwest on another continent, thousands more people were heading out on the streets, many of them calling for the resignation of their own president. Martinez Casares got on another plane, heading for Santiago, Chile.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)