Thursday, March 19, 2020

Pregnant cow who swam four miles after hurricane gives birth to 'sea calf'

Mother cow swam to shore after being swept away by Hurricane Dorian in September



Associated Press Thu 19 Mar 2020
 
The Outer Banks are seen the morning after
 Hurricane Dorian struck Kill Devil Hills, 
North Carolina, in September. 
Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA


A pregnant cow who swam four miles to shore after being swept away by Hurricane Dorian in September has given birth to a “miracle” calf.

A photo of the “sea calf” was posted on Monday on Facebook by Ranch Solutions, a group hired to return the pregnant cow home to North Carolina’s Cedar Island, 350 miles east of Charlotte. The cow, Dori, was one of three swept away by Dorian that were found in the state’s Outer Banks, the Charlotte Observer reported.

The calf has one brown and one blue eye, Ranch Solutions said. Having differently colored eyes is a rare condition shared by various animals, including some wild horses.

Getting close to the mother and calf for a photo has been difficult, because they run at the sight of humans, a Cedar Island resident, Woody Hancock, told McClatchy News group. “The wild cattle that lived on Cedar Island were not used to seeing humans or having them approach them,” the state’s National Park Service said.

When Hurricane Dorian generated an 8ft (2-meter) “mini tsunami”, it washed the calf’s mother and dozens of other animals away, including 28 wild horses that died.
Garment workers face destitution as Covid-19 closes factories

Campaigners call for fashion brands to protect workers in their supply chains globally as coronavirus causes orders to dry up

A woman sits near sewing machines as workers occupy a recently closed garment factory in Myanmar to demand their salaries. Photograph: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

Annie Kelly THE GUARDIAN Published on Thu 19 Mar 2020

The fashion industry is facing calls to step in and protect the wages of the 40 million garment workers in their supply chains around the world who face destitution as factories close and orders dry up in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Many factories in garment-producing countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam are already closing due to a shortage of raw materials from China and declining orders from western clothing brands.

Quarantine and self-isolation measures being rapidly imposed by governments across the world are likely to see the wide-scale closure of thousands more factories in the days and week to come.

Campaigners are demanding that brands take responsibility for the millions of workers in their supply chains who are likely to fall into crippling poverty as they lose their jobs and struggle to provide for their families.


Major western brands pay Indian garment workers 11p an hour
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The Clean Clothes Campaign, a coalition of campaigning groups, is also calling on brands to ensure that workers who contract the virus are allowed to take sick leave without repercussions from the factories and continue to receive their wages throughout their period of self-isolation.


Scott Nova, executive director at the Worker Rights Consortium, part of the Clean Clothes Campaign, said that poverty wages, unsafe and unsanitary workplaces and poor health already makes the garment workforce highly vulnerable to the worst effects of the Covid-19 virus

“The fashion industry has evolved in a way that makes it hard in normal times for the people who actually make the clothes we all wear every day to survive on the poverty wages they are paid,” he said.

“While it is understandable that companies are focusing on the needs of their local staff, clothing retailers must accept that if they choose a business model that relies on the labour of millions of garment workers overseas, then these people are their workers as well.”

Nova says it is impossible that garment workers would be able to save enough from their salaries to have funds to fall back on if they lose their jobs or are unable to go into work.

“Many of these workers live in countries where labour laws and protections are not upheld,” he says. “The track record of how governments in garment-producing countries and the retailers who profit from cheap labour treat workers in this industry does not bode well for the weeks to come.”

The Clean Clothes Campaign is warning that factories are closing in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Albania and across Central America

The situation for garment workers in Cambodia and Myanmar is already dire as local media reports suggest up to 10% of factories in the Yangon region of Myanmar are already closed, with workers not being paid their salaries.

In Cambodia tens of thousands of garment workers could also lose their jobs in the coming weeks if the flow of raw materials into the country does not pick up.

Under Cambodian law, employers must seek government authorisation before suspending workers and pay them 40% of the $190 (£161) monthly minimum wage for up to six months. Yet local campaigners are saying that some factories have already sacked workers without pay. Many workers cannot afford to live on their normal salaries and are therefore in high levels of debt; they are now likely to default on their loans.

Tola Moeun, executive director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights said: “Apparel brands have been profiting from the labour of Cambodian workers. These brands now need to step up in this time of crisis.”
80 years of Robin: the forgotten history of the most iconic sidekick
Comics and graphic novels


They were bold, badass – and brief. But Batman’s short-lived female sidekicks give us hope that women in comics are good for more than just sticking in a fridge


Julia Savoca Gibson THE GUARDIAN Wed 18 Mar 2020
 
To mark the 80th anniversary, several artists have 
produced variant covers for DC Comics including 
this one by Julian Totino Tedesco.

Eighty years ago, Robin – perhaps the most iconic sidekick of all time, the “boy wonder”, the cheery presence at Batman’s brooding side – literally burst onto the scene on the cover of Detective Comics #38.

The first character to become Robin, Dick Grayson, defined the sidekick as we know him now, in his 44 years in the role: the endless puns and exclamations of “Holy … !”; the red, green and yellow tunic with a scaly speedo and pixie boots; the dependable pluckiness. His successor, Jason Todd, brought an edge to Robin when he took over in 1983: openly rebellious against Batman, he became the first Robin to die on the job. The third, Tim Drake, brought the character into the modern age in the 90s, with a new and bold “R” on his chest, hacking skills, and, at long last, some trousers; Drake was popular enough to land a solo series. In 2006, the fourth and current Robin, Damian Wayne, flipped the Dynamic Duo’s dynamic: after his father Bruce died (sort of), Damian became a dark and angry sidekick to a lighter, jokey Batman as Dick Grayson – the original Robin – wore the cowl. Damian would also later die – but, like Jason, his father and so many superheroes, he was resurrected.

But there are two more Robins, whose lives and legacies have been largely forgotten or ignored: the girl wonders Carrie Kelley and Stephanie Brown.

Carrie appeared as Robin in one comic, 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns, which is regarded as the most influential Batman comic in history. If you’ve encountered any version of the caped crusader since 1986, you’ve likely seen its legacy: a brutal and hardened Batman who fights Superman in a bulky exoskeleton and drives a tank-like Batmobile. But one element of the comic had very little impact: the first female Robin.

Carrie was similar to the other Robins in some ways: she wore the same suit, the pixieish boots, and, at 13 years old, was as sharp as she was witty. And in others, she was utterly different: a ginger girl – not a black-haired, blue-eyed boy – who was often absolutely terrified. Where the boy wonders were defined by their confidence (“Holy cocky teenage boy, Batman!”), Kelley’s fear powered her story. She was bold and badass, like the other Robins, but, unlike them, she could be afraid. In one scene in the Batcave, Carrie stares at the memorial casket for Jason, the dead Robin; when she learns that her predecessor died in the role, she is scared – but not discouraged.

These days, Carrie only exists in its sequels (which sit outside of DC’s main continuity), and in brief cameos across various Batman media. While The Dark Knight Returns will always be remembered, she is forgotten all the time.

Nearly 20 years later, in 2004, the second female Robin appeared. Stephanie Brown was a supporting character and love interest in the Robin series, which featured Tim Drake in the role. When Tim quits, Stephanie offers to take his place and Batman accepts. Stephanie was fired just two issues later for disobeying Batman’s orders, which, as anyone familiar with Robin will know, is one of the defining traits of the character. In the following story arc, War Games, while trying to prove herself to Batman, Stephanie is captured and brutally tortured in a highly sexualised manner by the villain Black Mask. She dies shortly after.

Stephanie was not the first Robin to die, nor the last. But unlike Jason Todd, she got no memorial. In 2008, four years after War Games, Stephanie was revealed to have faked her death and brought back into the batfamily. In one scene, Batman explains to Tim, who reclaimed the Robin mantle after Stephanie’s death, that he hadn’t made her a memorial because he had suspected she was alive. Tim seems unsatisfied with that excuse – as were many fans

All the official iterations of Robin, by Yasmine Putri. 

Photograph: Yasmine Putri/DC Comics

Why we’ve not had more female Robins – or better served ones – is a symptom of a much wider problem. Of the 11 writers announced as contributing to DC’s anniversary issue for Robin, only two are women: Devin Grayson and Amy Wolfram. Between January and March last year, women accounted for 16% of the credits on comics released by DC; of writers, only 13% were women. The studio celebrated 80 years of Batman last year, but in that time not a single woman has been at the helm of Batman or Detective Comics. Aside from Grayson’s work on Nightwing and Gotham Knights, no female writer has ever written a Batman series. Given how many women are working on Batgirl, Catwoman and Batwoman, it would seem they are restricted to writing female heroes.


In her final moments, Stephanie asks Batman: “Was any of it real? Was I ever really Robin?” He responds: “Of course you were.” But in 2007, when DC’s then executive editor Dan DiDio was asked about her not getting a memorial, he said: “She was never really a Robin.” By 2011, DC officially erased Stephanie’s time as Robin from the canon. That same year, Batgirl writer Dylan Horrocks revealed that Stephanie’s death was decided long before War Games, and that her time as Robin had been “planned purely as a trick to play on the readers”. Despite the objections of Horrocks and Grayson, Stephanie’s excruciating torture and death proceeded.


Few superheroes have so much potential to be more inclusive as Robin, since very few mantles are passed on as often

Violence against women in comics has long been prominent. In 1999, future DC Comics writer Gail Simone, along with other feminist fans, compiled the now famous list of Women in Refrigerators, a plot cliche named after the fate of Alexandra DeWitt, a girlfriend of Green Lantern who was murdered and stuffed into a fridge. Women in comics get “fridged” when they are raped, killed, maimed, tortured, or otherwise injured for the sake of a male character’s arc. Batman comics are particularly infamous for fridging Barbara Gordon in Alan Moore’s 1988 The Killing Joke. Barbara is shot and paralysed from the waist down by the Joker, in an act that serves to torment her father, Commissioner Gordon, and Batman. The comic does not explore the impact this had on Barbara. When Moore asked his editors if it was okay to paralyse Barbara, editor Len Wein reportedly responded: “Yeah, OK, cripple the bitch.”

So is there space for a girl wonder outside of fridges? Recent developments suggest that she isn’t out of reach. We Are … Robin followed a group of Gotham teenagers who take up the mantle to fight crime. The lead character, a black teenager named Duke Thomas, eventually made the leap into the batfamily proper as a new hero, The Signal, supported by an incredibly diverse cast of supporting characters – including women. However, these Robins haven’t appeared in comics since 2018. Still, We Are … Robin was a genuine way to show what Robin has come to symbolise: any kid, from anywhere, can be the most iconic sidekick in history.

But in the main story, that’s not the case. The first three Robins were white, blue-eyed, black-haired boys. Carrie, a white girl, doesn’t officially count; the fourth, Stephanie, was also white. Damian is of mixed Arab, Chinese and Caucasian descent – but he is often whitewashed, drawn no differently than the previous Robins and rarely written with heed to his identity. A casual reader could understandably mistake Damian for yet another white, blue-eyed, black-haired boy. They could also fairly assume Robin has been an exclusively male role.

Who is Robin for, then? Sidekicks are a way for younger people to tap into superhero fantasy. While young heroes such as Spider-Man also serve a younger audience, there is something special about sidekicks, and there’s something even more special about Robin. To be part of an 80-year history, to be chosen and trained by the Batman, one of the most recognisable figures in pop culture, and become instantly recognisable in his own right … few characters come close to Robin’s legacy. Few superheroes have so much potential to be more inclusive, too, since very few mantles are passed on as often.

Though Robin remains so very male, perhaps girls won’t always have to look backwards to find a girl wonder. When Damian moves on, there’ll be a new Robin. She might stand where Carrie once stared down at Jason’s memorial. (And maybe there will be one for Stephanie, too.) She’ll be scared, but not discouraged. She’ll don the red, green and yellow costume, and she will be Robin. Perhaps, one day. Until then, we’ll be waiting for her.

• The Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 is published today by DC Comics.

Deaths of despair: why America’s medical industry explains working-class suicides

A system based on corporate pursuit of profit sets the US apart from other countries, fleecing the poor to give to the rich


Chris McGreal Thu 19 Mar 2020 THE GUARDIAN

 
A dorm room for clients recovering from drug addiction is seen at Recovery Point in Huntington, West Virginia. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The US healthcare system is helping to kill people in staggering numbers. And when it isn’t driving Americans to an early grave, the medical industry is bleeding the rest of the country of resources at the expense of decent jobs, crucial infrastructure and schools, according to a new book by two of the country’s leading economists.

As America’s health system faces its greatest challenge of recent times in the coronavirus, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, who won the 2015 Nobel prize for economics, say the pursuit of profit by medical corporations has played a leading role in the surge of “deaths of despair” since the 1990s, led by opioid overdoses, alcoholism and suicide.


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The Princeton economists were the first to reveal the phenomenon which by 2017 was claiming the lives of 158,000 Americans every year – a number they liken to three 737s’ worth of passengers falling out of the sky every day. Case and Deaton, who are married, also discovered that the surge in deaths of despair was overwhelmingly among white working-class Americans without a university degree, and that it was forcing down life expectancy in the US.

Now their new book, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, explores why this tragedy is an unusually American phenomenon and concludes that the greed of the US’s medical corporations was both an important driver in creating the conditions for the rise in deaths of despair and in providing the means for many to kill themselves.


There is something going on in America that is different, and that is particularly toxic for the working class

“There is something going on in America that is different, and that is particularly toxic for the working class,” they write.

The book springs from Case and Deaton’s shocking revelations five years ago about the causes of so many Americans dying in middle age and younger, a phenomenon not seen in any other industrialised country. Life expectancy rose sharply in the US through the 20th century but over the past two decades fell by 25% for white Americans without a university degree even as it continued to rise for the better educated and for other races. The geography of this tragedy – people dying younger in West Virginia and Mississippi and living longer in New York and California – reflects the country’s deepening class divide.
]A memorial in Huntington, West Virginia. 
The city has been portrayed as the epicenter 
of the opioid crisis. Photograph: 
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images


The couple concluded that the medical industry is at the heart of two key drivers in making those deaths an American phenomenon.

“One fact is that they unleashed these extremely powerful opioids on to the general public as if they were jelly beans at an Easter parade and that has not happened in Europe,” said Case. “The second is the way that we organise our healthcare system. We have the most expensive healthcare in the world and how do we pay for that? We pay for that per person.”

That has created a system Case and Deaton described as “Sheriff of Nottingham redistribution” in the fleecing of the poor to give to rich corporations while the high cost of healthcare forces companies to shed jobs and drives firms to bankruptcy.

“The American healthcare system is a leading example of an institution that, under political protection, redistributes income upwards to hospitals, physicians, device-makers, and pharmaceutical companies while delivering among the worst health outcomes of any rich country,” the economists write.

That in turn has contributed to the retreat of steady, decently paid work in working-class communities at the cost of social cohesion and helped drive the retreat to drugs and alcohol, and an increase in suicides.


“The pillars that held communities together are a job with meaning, a family life that was stable, getting to know and raise your kids, and hope for them for the future,” said Case. “Attachment to traditional churches fell dramatically as well. In the US, organised religion is an incredibly important institution and gave people a place of comfort during difficult times.”

The economists say that while globalisation and technical change, particularly robots, are often blamed for destabilising communities, other industrialised countries facing similar challenges have not experienced a comparable rise in deaths of despair. They conclude that the greed of America’s medical industry played a central role, calling it “a cancer at the heart of the economy” that has resulted in a “uniquely American calamity that is undermining American lives”.

“Unlike the countries of Europe, we have let the healthcare sector just run totally free. Totally, in that it was 5% of GDP in 1960 and it’s 18% of GDP today. It’s eating the economy from the inside out,” said Case.

In other industrialised countries medical treatment is covered at least to some degree by public funds. The structure of US healthcare passes the cost to the individual or their employer through private insurance. As the medical industry has grown more rapacious, so insurance premiums have surged and patients have been required to make ever larger out-of-pocket payments that can amount to thousands of dollars a year.

US drugmakers charge up to 10 times as much for insulin in a country where diabetes is rampant as they do across the border in Canada. For many Americans, the extra hundreds of dollars a month are not covered by insurance.


“The cost of healthcare is like a tribute that Americans have to pay to a foreign power,” the economists write. 

The sometimes staggering cost of healthcare means that Americans in need of everyday items such as insulin to treat diabetes resort to the black market. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Case and Deaton said that has taken a toll on employers too over the past two decades and contributed to the decline of working-class communities.

“Firms used to be able to afford to be the providers of social insurance, both healthcare and defined benefit plans for pensions. But we don’t live in that world any more. So that as healthcare becomes more and more expensive, these firms can’t afford to keep on workers that aren’t worth to them what they have to pay for their healthcare,” said Case.

So jobs get outsourced to contract workers who, if they have health insurance through their employers at all, find that it comes with requirements to pay thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs before their insurance kicks in. Many low-income families deal with this by not going to the doctor except in an emergency, or taking only take half their prescription pills each day to minimise costs, and so compounding the social crisis as their health fails.

The burden of extortionate medical costs is also felt by state governments forced to divert funds from crucial infrastructure maintenance, education and other public work projects to fund the public Medicaid scheme for very low-income families.


It’s not a free market at all. It’s a giant swamp


The economists attribute this to a failure of capitalism, arguing that healthcare and the free market are incompatible. But Deaton, a Scot who is now also a US citizen, scoffs at the idea that this is the free market at work when medical corporations pour vast amounts of money into buying politicians and laws to protect what he goes so far as to suggest is a corrupt health system.

“It’s not a free market at all. It’s a swamp. It’s a giant swamp that’s killing people in large numbers and making a lot of providers very rich,” said Deaton.

Case hopes their research will “help people connect the dots between what’s happened in the healthcare industry and what’s happening to low-wage workers in America.

“If enough people understood that the reason that these once great state universities have to increase their tuition to the point where in-state kids can’t go any more because the state can’t afford to fund them, because their Medicaid bills are so expensive; or if people understood that the reason that infrastructure is decaying is because the states don’t have the money because they’re paying their Medicaid bills; or if people understood that the reason that they’re being outsourced is because of the cost of healthcare premiums, maybe there might be enough of a push for cost control to actually see real change,” she said.

That may become even more evident if the toll of the coronavirus includes bankrupting medical bills for weeks of treatment for large numbers of Americans. But Deaton does not underestimate the forces arrayed against change.

“This is a system that was designed by an immensely clever team of devils who programmed it in a way that is self-protecting and really difficult to change,” he said.

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton University Press, $29.95 / £25

Disinformation and blame: how America's far right is capitalizing on coronavirus

The pandemic, a situation in which people are panic-buying supplies, is ideal for a movement powered by fear and lies
 

Conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones has used the outbreak to step up his aggressive pitching for bulk food products and other survival goods sold on his website. Photograph: Jonathan Drake/Reuters

Jason Wilson THE GUARDIAN Thu 19 Mar 2020

The far right in America has received the coronavirus pandemic in much the same manner as any other event: with disinformation, conspiracies and scapegoating. Many seem to see it as a significant opportunity, whether it is for financial gain, recruiting new followers, or both.

The delayed and much criticized response to coronavirus by the Trump administration has helped them, leaving many Americans confused, bereft of information and looking for answers. A situation in which people are panic-buying supplies is ideal for a movement powered by fear and lies.


Trump says 'keep politics out' of coronavirus then picks fight with Democrats


Apocalyptic narratives – whether of societal collapse, biblical rapture, or race war – are the central way that the a spectrum of far-right movements draw in followers and resources. These narratives use fear to draw followers closer, allowing leaders to direct their followers’ actions, and maybe fleece them blind.

For the survivalist elements of the far right, the coronavirus provides an opportunity to say that they told us so, win hearts and minds and make money. If they’re lucky, they might even get a hearing by the mainstream media.

The conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, for example, who has been warning of imminent cataclysms for more than 20 years, has used the outbreak to step up his aggressive pitching for bulk food products and other survival goods sold on his website.

Others have been assisted by mainstream media outlets in making the case that they are reasonable people who have been making reasonable preparations all along.

James Wesley Rawles, the reclusive founder of the separatist and survivalist American Redoubt movement, was interviewed by Dow Jones website, MarketWatch, about his approach to prepping.

They asked him about food storage and the pandemic. They did not ask Rawles about his position as the ideological godfather of a movement which promotes “political migration” by rightwing Christians to the interior of the Pacific north-west.

In a time of crisis, far-right figures are hoping for exactly this kind of wider exposure.

Farther out on the neo-Nazi right, in the Telegram channels where “accelerationists” – who seek to hasten the end of liberal democracy in order to build a white ethnostate – overlap with “ecofascists” – who propose genocidal solutions to ecological problems – groups are openly talking about how to use the crisis to recruit people to terroristic white supremacy.

One group posted a text that suggested “narratives that should be pushed”, including that “our current system is inadequate for modern issues”, and “everything that is bad that is happening is the fault of the system and its failings, not pandemics or markets.”

They also suggest forming “civil support groups” to fill the gaps left by the state, but only for recruitment purposes. They have no interest in restoring calm. “The more things destabilize the easier they are to continue to keep in flux”, the post continues, “now is the time to push when things are already teetering on the edge”.

Like many on the far right, these groups gleefully anticipate societal collapse, and what they might gain from it.

The other way in which various far-right groups and believers hope to gain ground is by proposing conspiracy theories about the causes and origins of the virus, and to use these narratives to scapegoat groups like immigrants, or minorities or liberals.

However, some are still following the lead set by Donald Trump in the earlier part of the crisis, and remain in denial. On Telegram, the has-been alt-right internet personality Milo Yiannopoulos asked his followers in a poll which was the “biggest hoax of our lifetime: Acid Rain, Climate Change, Satanic Ritual Abuse, Coronavirus”.

Others have more elaborate theories with which to focus their followers’ rage.

Along with his cash-in supplies, Jones has managed to slot coronavirus into his overarching conspiracy theories. Jones – an unwavering Trump supporter – has a neat solution to the problem of taking advantage of the commercial opportunities presented by virus without criticizing Trump’s lackadaisical response. He claims that Covid-19 is a human-made bioweapon, produced by the Chinese government to bring Trump down.

A similar conspiracy theory has made its way into the brains of more mainstream figures. This posits the idea that software mogul Bill Gates and financier and philanthropist George Soros were involved in concocting the virus with the Chinese Communist party.

In a now-deleted tweet on 27 February, the Republican California congressional candidate Joanne Wright wrote: “The Corona virus is a man made virus created in a Wuhan laboratory. Ask @BillGates who financed it.” In another disappeared tweet, she added: “Doesn’t @BillGates finance research at the Wuhan lab where the Corona virus was being created? Isn’t @georgesoros a good friend of Gates?”

As Trump has gradually moved towards an acknowledgment that the virus exists, he has also been leading the charge in scapegoating immigrants and foreigners for spreading the illness. He has repeatedly tweeted throughout early March that the US epidemic would be worse were it not for his administration’s border policies, and called it a “foreign virus”.

Trump sought to apportion blame, then, in a way that furthered his political agenda and has been amplified by his rightwing allies. In that spirit, the Liberty University president and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr – a high-profile backer of Trump – last week aired the theory that coronavirus was a North Korean bioweapon.
The legal stuff is garbage': why Canada's cannabis black market keeps thriving

North America’s biggest companies have seen their market values lose billions, prompting comparisons to dotcom bust



William Turvill THE GUARDIAN Wed 18 Mar 2020
 
A customer sniffs a display sample of marijuana at a retail shop in Vancouver.
 Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AP

Cannabis may be legal in Vancouver but visitors looking to score are likely to run into a seemingly counterintuitive suggestion: try the black market.

Recreational marijuana was legalised across Canada in October 2018. And yet on Reddit, the specialist forum website used by millions every day, many of Vancouver’s cannabis connoisseurs still swear by their underground supply.

This is one of the major issues facing North America’s marijuana companies, which experts say are in the midst of a dotcom-style market crash.

On a high: Canada celebrates cannabis being legalised

Canada and 11 US states have legalised recreational use of the drug, and a little over a year ago companies that cultivate and sell cannabis were seen by investors as one of the hottest tickets in town. Now billions of dollars have been wiped off the market values of the industry’s largest companies.

The North American Marijuana Index, which tracks listed firms in the sector, has plummeted about 80% in the last year and is at its lowest value since 2016, before much legalisation had taken place.

The market capitalisation of Canopy Growth, the biggest firm in the sector by value, has fallen from $24bn in April last year to just over $6bn now, according to figures from the financial data firm Y Charts.

Around $2bn of that loss has come in the last week. Coronavirus fears, which have dragged down stocks across the globe, have not helped. But a large part of Canopy’s latest share price drop came after the firm was forced to admit that it was struggling in Canada.

The company announced last Wednesday that it would be closing two cultivation greenhouses in British Columbia – the western Canadian province where Vancouver is found – leading to 500 job losses. Canopy, which will be focusing on more cost-effective outdoor cultivation, also cancelled plans for a third greenhouse in Ontario.

Bosses blamed the cutbacks on Canada’s recreational market, which they said had “developed slower than anticipated”.

The consensus on Vancouver’s cannabis-focused Reddit feeds is that the legal market is struggling to attract buyers because its product is more expensive but lower in quality than the black market alternative.

“The government’s pot is too expensive. The government doesn’t show you a picture of what you’re buying before you buy it, so you cannot be informed as a consumer. The government weed has been full of bugs, mouldy or too dry in some cases, and often takes too long to get there,” one user said.

“The legal stuff is garbage,” said another Reddit user. A third said: “Friends don’t let friends smoke government weed.”

The sentiment is not confined to the realms of Reddit. Canadian government survey results released last month found that 40% of the country’s marijuana consumers admit to having obtained the drug illegally since legalisation.

Omar Yar Khan, national cannabis sector lead at the consultancy firm Hill & Knowlton, says legal sales have fallen short of expectations for a number of reasons. Legal prices – driven up by taxes – have been a factor in helping keep the black market “as rampant as ever”, he says.

But Khan, who advises several cannabis companies on public affairs, also believes firms have suffered in Canada at the hands of regulations that restrict their ability to develop brands.

There are strict rules around advertising for cannabis companies. Khan said: “It’s very hard to draw loyal consumers away from the illicit market to a legal market when there is very little brand identity amongst the consumer groups.”

Companies have also been held back in their efforts to open stores, often by local authorities that are against cannabis being sold in their areas.

“There just aren’t enough legal licensed points of sale across the country,” Khan said. “I think in Ontario now we’re up to about 30. But there are over a thousand beverage alcohol points of sale. So if it’s not convenient for consumers to access the product through the legal system, why would they ever leave the legacy illicit market?”

Malawi legalises cannabis amid hopes of fresh economic growth

Anthony Dutton, a co-founder and former chief executive of Cannex – a US-focused marijuana firm that is listed in Canada and was recently renamed 4Front following a takeover – believes share prices in the sector have been driven down by certain firms overpromising to investors. He believes some of these companies are likely to collapse or be taken over by stronger rivals in the future.

Dutton, who remains a shareholder in 4Front and still advises the firm, likens the current woes of listed cannabis companies to the dotcom crash of the early 2000s.

“The market got ahead of itself, started to drink its own Kool-Aid, and it was a classic example of any bubble,” he said. “So what we’re seeing now, thankfully, is a lot of the companies that probably should never have been financed – and probably should never have gone public in the first place – are slowly withering on the vine and they’ll just disappear.

“Now there will be a consolidation around half a dozen strong operating companies, including 4Front, and those will be the companies that will take it into the next cycle.”

He added: “It’s just like in the dotcom boom. Oracle, Microsoft and other big companies were all around then, and they were profitable. And when the little companies began to fail, Microsoft and Oracle and the others picked up the ones they wanted, and the others they just let die.”

Kevin Sabet, the head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana – a campaign group that opposes lifting laws on the drug – says the legalisation of cannabis has been a “boon” to the black market in many areas because it means consumers are less concerned about trying the product.

Sabet, who has advised White House administrations on drug policy, also believes cannabis companies have misled their investors and politicians about the societal and financial benefits of legalisation.

“The cannabis business has been oversold to investors as a sure thing to get a great return,” he said. “I think there was a big hype over cannabis that has ended up being a reputation it could never live up to.”
Pakistan coronavirus camp: ‘No facilities, no humanity’

More than 1,000 remain there as thousands more are released into impoverished Balochistan


Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi and Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad Thu 19 Mar 2020 
 
Pilgrims wearing face masks at the camp for people 
returning from Iran via the border town of Taftan. 
Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty

It was the smell that was the worst. In this dusty camp on Pakistan’s border with Iran, which at one stage held more than 6,000 people, the stench of sweat, rubbish and human excrement hung in the air. There was no real housing, just five people to a ragged tent, and no bathrooms, towels or blankets.

The camp, in the town of Taftan in Balochistan province, was supposed to function as a sanitary quarantine location, preventing the spread of the coronavirus from Iran, which has had one of the worst outbreaks globally.

Instead, according to Mohammed Bakir, who was held there for two weeks, it was no more than “a prison … the dirtiest place I have ever stayed in my life”.

“These were the hardest days and nights of my life,” said Bakir. “We were treated like animals. There were no facilities but also no humanity and everything was in disarray. They were not prepared; there was nothing for us to sleep in except some dilapidated tents.”

Thousands of people have been kept in close quarters in hot, squalid conditions in Taftan, with not even basic precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. According to doctors at the camp, even those who presented with symptoms were not tested or even isolated, and there was a severe shortage of doctors and nurses. There was such a lack of medical facilities, the few doctors on site took to paying for necessary medicines themselves. Things got so bad that protests broke out among those quarantined.
“Neither the quarantining service nor the testing procedure was satisfactory at all,” said one doctor, who asked not to be named. “In the first 20 days, many people had symptoms, but there was no testing at all. We had no testing facilities for three weeks. One child was sent to [a] hospital in Quetta, and he tested positive. But there was no isolation or testing for anyone else.

“There were patients with diabetes, hepatitis and other diseases who were quarantined for 14 days without any proper medication. Their conditions were really bad there and they were treated like animals.”

The border between Pakistan and Iran is more than 600 miles and movement between the two countries is extremely common, especially among minority Shia Muslims in Pakistan who travel to Iran on religious pilgrimages. It is also a crucial trade route.

But over the past two weeks, it has become a hotbed of coronavirus, with infections going up by the dozen every day. There are 302 reported cases of coronavirus in Pakistan, the highest number of cases in south Asia .

Workers spray the quarantine camp at Taftan
 near the border with Iran. Photograph: Naseer Ahmed/Reuters

Even though infections in Iran began to rise rapidly weeks ago, the Pakistan government only officially shut the border less than a week ago. And the border is still porous; on Tuesday night at least 100 pilgrims crossed from Iran into Balochistan, reportedly after bribing border guards.

Among those held in Taftan was Abid Hussain, who is from Nagar in Gilgit-Baltistan, and was quarantined for two weeks after returning from Iran. “It’s like I have been released from prison,” said Hussain. “They call it a quarantine but we didn’t get hand wash, face masks or any other sanitary facilities. The only check was that in the morning a doctor used to come round taking everyone’s temperature. That was it for 13 days. Everyone was desperate to leave.”

Many of those in Taftan have been released or transferred to other facilities, but 1,200 remain.

Hussain also described lax regulations on movement for those in the camp, with many going to shops in the town, walking around the vicinity and having regular social gatherings. No guidelines were issued for how those in quarantine could protect themselves from getting the disease, and there was no running water for people to wash their hands.

Hundreds of people supposedly under lockdown left the camp to shop at local markets and stores, buying food and returning to the camp without any checks.

“Around these fruit stalls it was more like a scene from a busy Friday bazaar which was run by people who should have been quarantine camp in lockdown,” said one eyewitness.

The situation was equally bad in the hospitals in Balochistan, the least developed and most impoverished province of Pakistan, which were tasked with dealing with the outbreak. A doctor at one hospital in Quetta claimed that medical staff had refused to treat or even examine a young girl with all the symptoms of coronavirus, whose father had recently returned from China for work. The girl reportedly died days later without being tested.


Pakistan’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, said the doctor, was “depressing and disturbing”.

Pakistan has a notoriously poor track record for containing disease outbreaks and is one of only two countries in the world that have failed to eliminate polio. The government’s fear of a coronavirus outbreak meant it even refused to evacuate the 600 Pakistani students stranded in Wuhan province in China, where the pandemic began.
Population of critically endangered African black rhino 'slowly increasing'

Numbers are set to continue rising over next five years


Poaching is the biggest threat to the large mammals (File photo) ( PA )


The numbers of African black rhinos is slowly rising thanks to the efforts of conservationists, new figures have shown.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in an update that the total number of these critically endangered rhinos increased from 4,845 in 2012 to 5,630 in 2018 - an annual rise of 2.5 per cent.

This success has been put down to a combination of law enforcement measures and actions taken to manage the rhino population, such as the relocation of certain animals.

Dr Grethel Aguilar, acting director general of IUCN, said: "While Africa's rhinos are by no means safe from extinction, the continued slow recovery of black rhino populations is a testament to the immense efforts made in the countries the species occurs in, and a powerful reminder to the global community that conservation works."

"At the same time, it is evident that there is no room for complacency as poaching and illegal trade remain acute threats,” she added.

According to the IUCN, population models indicate that the number of black rhinos will continue to rise gradually over the next five years


Although the southwestern black rhino population has been growing for three generations, the two other subspecies - the southeastern and eastern - are still critically endangered, following huge population losses between the 1970s and 1990s.

Poaching is still the main threat to these animals.

However, the IUCN said that counter-measures have improved the situation, with poaching numbers down from a peak in 2015.

In 2018, at least 892 rhinos were killed by poachers, signalling a decrease from the minimum of 1,349 that were killed in 2015. 

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New fake rhino horn could push up poaching, inventors warned

Dr Richard Emslie, who works for the IUCN's African Rhino Specialist Group, said: "If the encouraging declines in poaching can continue, this should positively impact rhino numbers.

"Continued expenditure and efforts will be necessary to maintain this trend,” he added.

The white rhino, Africa's other rhino species, is currently listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

Additional reporting by PA

National Action: 'Miss Hitler' contestant and three fellow neo-Nazis convicted of terror offences

Alice Cutter fantasised about murdering Jews while wearing swastika knitwear and earrings

Lizzie Dearden Security Correspondent THE GUARDIAN 

Alice Cutter took part in National Action's 'Miss Hitler 2016' beauty pageant ( West Midlands Police )

A neo-Nazi who wore swastika earrings and ran in a “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant is among four National Action members convicted of terror offences.

A court heard that Alice Cutter, 23, sported “his-and-hers swastika knitwear” with her former fiancé Mark Jones – a senior figure in the banned terrorist group.

Prosecutors said the comments Cutter made about Jews, including violent fantasies of murder and ethnic cleansing, were “some of the most shocking in the case”.


She entered National Action’s “Miss Hitler 2016” competition, which was a publicity stunt to attract more members, under the name Buchenwald Princess.

It referenced a German concentration camp, where her boyfriend had performed a Hitler salute in an execution chamber the month before.

Cutter also attended National Action meetings and protests and was connected with key figures in the terrorist group including de-facto leader Christopher Lythgoe.

Jurors were shown photos of Cutter posing with what looked like an automatic rifle and knives, including blades emblazoned with Nazi symbols.

“I've gone from hanging around with humourless libtards to meeting intelligent young people who wear all black just like me,” she wrote in her “Miss Hitler” entry.
Read more

'Fully-fledged neo-Nazi' jailed for leading banned UK far-right group

“Sacrifice is inevitable in life, so why not make the 'sacrifice' of a comfortable and ignorant life for the greater good.”

Cutter was convicted of membership of a proscribed organisation alongside Jones, 25, Garry Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, following a retrial.

Addressing the four, Judge Paul Farrer QC, said a date for their sentencing would be fixed in due course.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that co-defendant Daniel Ward pleaded guilty to membership during their first trial, which ended with a hung jury last year.

Prosecutor Barnaby Jameson QC said they were part of a “fellowship of hate” who continued to further National Action’s aims after it was banned as a terrorist group in December 2016.

He said the “tiny, secretive group of die-hard neo-Nazis” were prepared to achieve their goals with terrorism, including the ethnic cleansing of Jews, black people, Asians, gays and liberals.

“The ultimate aim of the group was all-out race war,” Mr Jameson said. “Members of National Action were equipping themselves with weapons and the ability to produce explosives.”

National Action: Neo-Nazi terrorist couple who named baby ‘Adolf’ jailed

After the neo-Nazi group was banned, Jones was one of the senior figures who received instructions from Lythgoe that National Action was “just shedding one skin for another” and would continue underground.

It fragmented into regional cells, and successor groups called Scottish Dawn and NS131 that were later banned by the government.

The defendants were in a chat group set up the following February called the “triple K mafia”, in reference to the Ku Klux Klan, where National Action members from across the Midlands and Yorkshire exchanged violent posts.

Former British National Party member Jones, described as a “die-hard” member in court, was a leading figure with connections to the group’s leadership and international neo-Nazi groups.
Read more
How once-ridiculed BNP Youth leader planned neo-Nazi terror attack

One of his contacts was Brandon Clint Russell, an American extremist who founded Atomwaffen Division and was later jailed for explosives offences.

In December 2017, Jones travelled to meet members of the Azov Battalion militia in Ukraine and he had been messaging a member of Lithuanian nationalist organisation Skydas.

The court heard that he was a regional organiser in London before meeting Cutter and moving to West Yorkshire to live with her in 2017.

Jones, who went by the name “Granddaddy Terror” and “Mr Angry” in chat groups, attended numerous demonstrations and flew to Germany with National Action co-founder Alex Davies in April 2016.

The pair were photographed in the execution room of Buchenwald performing a Hitler salute and holding a National Action flag.

Jones met new National Action recruits and created neo-Nazi artwork for the group, as well as Scottish Dawn and NS131.

The court heard that Jones was also photographed conducting target practice with a crossbow and assault rifle, and purchased knives and posed with them at the home he shared with Cutter.

During searches, police uncovered National Action propaganda, Nazi paraphernalia, knuckle dusters, knives, a catapult, Nazi books and Swastika earrings and scarves.

Cutter cried in the dock as the court heard that Jones had cheated on her with a 16-year-old student he was attempting to recruit.

National Action shared a photo of Jones and Davies performing 
Hitler salutes at a Nazi concentration camp in 2016

In her evidence, Cutter told jurors she had removed the engagement ring Jones had given her when he proposed in Yorkshire over the infidelity.

Unknown to the jury, Cutter - who styled herself to other members as a “fashy princess” - also gained a romantic admirer who sent a love letter via the court during her first trial.

The pair were in the Midlands cell of National Action alongside Jack, who joined in 2016 and was described as an “out-and-out fanatic” in court.

He was previously convicted of stirring up racial hatred with a neo-Nazi stickering campaign at Aston University in Birmingham, and continued meeting members after the ban.

The youngest defendant, Scothern, practiced Islam from the age of 12, then was drawn to communism before settling on National Action in his mid-teens.

The court heard that he joined demonstrations, including one that saw him make a Hitler salute at a war memorial, and downloaded a recipe for making Molotov cocktails.

In September 2017, mass arrests sparked instructions from a senior member who was jailed in a separate trial to delete messages and burn memorabilia linking them to the group.

But the four defendants and Ward were arrested on 5 September 2018 and charged with continued membership after the ban, which they denied.
Alice Cutter took part in National Action's 'Miss Hitler 2016' beauty pageant (West Midlands Police)

Jones, Scothern and Jack claimed they quit National Action when it was banned in December 2016, while Cutter denied ever joining the group and claimed she would not have been admitted as a woman.

The case brings the total number of National Action supporters convicted of membership to 15, while several others have been jailed for other offences including plotting to kill an MP and making a pipe bomb.

Det Ch Supt Kenny Bell, head of the West Midlands Police Counter Terrorism Unit, said the defendants were a “significant part of the network”.

“Clearly the convictions are a significant disruption of National Action but I don’t take for one minute for granted the ongoing challenge,” he told The Independent.

“We’re beginning to shine a light on right-wing terrorism and some of the depraved views people are spouting. I will not be resting on my laurels over this threat.”

Jones and Cutter, both of Sowerby Bridge near Halifax, Jack, of Birmingham, and Scothern, of Nottingham, will all be sentenced at a later date.
Coronavirus: One dead every 10 minutes in Iran as medics forced to treat sick without masks
SANCTIONS ON IRAN ARE CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Families say they are digging makeshift graves for their dead, as many fear numbers of infected will soar during Nowruz new year celebrations

Bel Trew Beirut, Istanbul @beltrew,Borzou Daragahi @borzou

Iranian firefighters disinfect streets in the capital Tehran in 
a bid to halt the wild spread of coronavirus ( AFP via Getty Images )

The new coronavirus kills at least one person every 10 minutes in Iran, the country’s health ministry has warned, as shortages force medics to treat the sick without protective gear, while families say they are burying their loved ones in makeshift pits.

Nearly 18,500 have been infected and at least 1,284 people have died of Covid-19 in the country, the highest death toll outside of China and Italy.

The official body count increased by 149 on Thursday, the largest one day jump since the crisis, showing how quickly the effects of the pandemic were accelerating in Iran.

The World Health Organisation, however, has warned Iran’s toll was potentially five times higher as the testing has been restricted to the “most severe cases”. The authorities have also struggled to enforce measures like quarantine and self-isolation.

On Thursday Kianush Jahanpur, the health ministry spokesman said the crisis was so severe that Covid-19 was killing at least half a dozen an hour.

"Based on our information, every 10 minutes one person dies from the coronavirus and some 50 people become infected with the virus every hour in Iran," he tweeted.

This rate could soar: a computer simulation conducted by Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology this week concluded that in the best-case scenario the death toll could exceed 12,000 and reach a peak in mid-May.

In a worst-case scenario, if people keep travelling and ignoring health guidance, the report warned as many as 3.5 million could die.

As of Thursday, more than 9,000 people have died globally with more than 200,000 cases.

As the outbreak has spread medical professionals described unsafe conditions while they rush to treat patients with dwindling supplies.

A nurse working in Karaj, a city 25km northwest of Tehran, told The Independent protective masks are only available for those working in the emergency units, increasing the risk that those working in other sections of the hospitals could be infected and pass on the virus to other patients.

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“We are really short of equipment. Our hospitals are all full and the medical teams are already exhausted. Yet some people still don’t take this seriously,” the nurse said.

“In the first days there were masks and protective gowns for the medical staff at our hospital. But now it is getting more scarce as the number of infected people across the country is increasing.”

A lab technician in Tehran said each medical staffer is given two masks per shift, which is not sufficient.

“Infection cases among the doctors, nurses and the medical staff in general are increasing rapidly,” he said. “We're very worried about our own families since we might get infected… and carry the virus to our family.”

Read more
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe temporarily released from Iran prison

Civilians in Tehran told The Independent that bodies are massing in morgues and when the authorities bury the dead they have started to do so with lime to further prevent the spread of the disease.

In more rural areas, where citizens are largely on their own, one man said worried locals have been hastily burying bodies in makeshift graves without ceremony.

“A few days ago one of my relatives in a far off city noticed a neighbour had died likely from coronavirus. His family feared getting close to the body."

“My relative used a blanket to pack and move the body and finally just threw him in a grave, without any ceremony - like a dead animal,” the man added.

Despite reports that Iran has implemented a tight lockdown on public life, the same person said the authorities have failed to quarantine cities and enforce social distancing.

Instead many citizens are gearing up for the Nowruz, the Iranian new year, on Friday.

“Unfortunately many don’t understand and still travel around and are preparing to go on vacations,” the Tehran resident said.

“The regime simply doesn’t want to confess its incompetence,” the person added.

The nurse in Karaj also reported there was very little police presence and little enforcement of curfews.

The authorities have released statements telling people to stay home and avoid travelling during the new year holidays to help contain coronavirus contagion.
They just threw him in a grave, without any ceremony like a dead animalResident of Tehran

But on Thursday photos were shared online purportedly showing traffic jams on the Tehran-Qom motorway.

Iran’s outbreak began in Qom, a city 120km south-west of the capital and a stronghold of Iran’s shiite clergy.

There the authorities have battled to close down shrines to curb the spread of the disease: videos also shared online apparently show hard-line faithful storming the courtyards of Fatima Masumeh and Mashhad shrines demanding they open.

“From our sources on the ground - witnessing in person or getting this from reports they receive from key places - the numbers of Covid-19 cases are at least four times higher than being reported,” Mzahem Alsaloum, a researcher working for western defence contractors.

“The authorities cannot do proper tests, they have been testing only those who have extreme symptoms. They have been unable to impose quarantine or social-distancing measures, there are concerns about the New Year.

“There has been radical mismanagement by the regime.”

In his special message for Nowruz, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, also pointed to the United States saying it is responsible for the “destructive ramifications” of continuing to impose crippling sanctions on the country as it struggles to contain the disease.

The US administration of Donald Trump has resisted pressure to ease sanctions on Iran to allow for easier access to medical supplies, ignoring a precedent set by George W. Bush when he removed trade restrictions and dispatched aid after a 2003 earthquake.

Instead on Tuesday, Washington imposed fresh sanctions, blacklisting three Iranian individuals, for engaging in "significant transactions" to trade in Iranian petrochemicals.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Washington will maintain its maximum-pressure campaign to choke off Tehran's ability to export its oil.

Iran has strong commercial and political ties with China, where coronavirus emerged last year. It denied for weeks that the virus had been encountered in Iran finally acknowledging its presence on 19 February.

Still, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani insisted on Wednesday that Iran had been honest with people, calling accusations that Iran first tried to downplay the outbreak of coronavirus “propaganda” in a speech broadcast live on state television.

Responding to mounting public criticism, including an actor on television who publicly blasted the authorities for lying and failing to shut down the city of Qom, Tehran has offered a major olive branch to its many opponents, releasing 85,000 prisoners on furlough.

On Wednesday Iran announced it would pardon prisoners serving sentences of less than five years for “security crimes” ahead of Nowruz.

It remained unclear if Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual citizen, now out on furlough while serving five years in prison on trumped-up charges of toppling the regime, would be included in the pardon.