UN condemns Myanmar junta after two killed in anti-coup unrest

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Authorities have gradually ratcheted up their tactics against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi STR AFP


Yangon (AFP)

The deaths of two anti-coup protesters in Myanmar sparked fresh UN condemnation of the country's new military regime on Sunday, as mourners prepared for the funeral of a young woman who became a national symbol of resistance to the junta.

Authorities have gradually ratcheted up their tactics against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Saturday marked the deadliest day yet in more than two weeks of nationwide street demonstrations when security forces fired upon a rally in Mandalay, sending the crowd fleeing in fear.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the use of "deadly violence" in the melee, which emergency workers said had killed one teenager and wounded dozens more.

"The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable," Guterres wrote on Sunday.

The confrontation began when security forces in Mandalay, the country's second-largest city and cultural capital, attempted to raid a shipyard and detain port staff on strike to protest the army takeover.

Medical rescue workers said the troops used live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas against a crowd of people who had started flinging rocks in an effort to stop the arrests.

"Two people were killed," said Hlaing Min Oo, the chief of a Mandalay-based volunteer emergency rescue team.

Another emergency worker on the scene, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, confirmed the death toll.

Graphic video circulated on Facebook showing a teenaged victim, splayed on the ground and bleeding from his head as a bystander placed a hand on his chest to feel for a heartbeat.

Hlaing Min Oo said another 30 were wounded, with half of the injuries from live rounds.

Local media reported more than a dozen people were arrested after the clash.

"They beat and shot my husband and others," one resident told AFP. "He was standing on the side and watching the protest but the soldiers took him away."

Myanmar emerged from its seventh consecutive overnight internet blackout on Sunday, a measure imposed by the junta after neighbourhoods mobilised watch groups to guard against evening arrests.

A funeral was to be held in the capital Naypyidaw for a young protester who died on Friday after being shot in the head during a rally last week.

Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who turned 20 last Thursday as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed, has since become a potent symbol of the campaign against military rule.

Demonstrators have hoisted her photos high on street marches and unfurled a huge banner of artwork from a bridge in Yangon depicting the moment she was shot.

Vigils for the grocery store worker were held across the commercial hub on Saturday, with protesters lighting candles and laying roses by a banner with her picture.

- Hundreds arrested -

Much of Myanmar has been in uproar since troops detained Suu Kyi on February 1, with massive street demonstrations seen in major cities and isolated villages across the country.

The new junta has so far remained impassive in the face of relentless international condemnation, with the US, Britain and Canada all unveiling sanctions targeting the country's top generals.

European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday to discuss their own measures against the regime.

The bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged security forces to "immediately stop violence against civilians" on Saturday after the violence in Mandalay.

Nearly 570 people have been detained since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

Among those targeted have been railway workers, civil servants and bank staff, who have walked off their jobs as part of the anti-coup campaign.

A military spokesman said this week that one police officer had died in Mandalay after another clash there.

Suu Kyi -- who has not been seen since she was detained in a dawn raid -- has been hit with two charges by the junta, one of them for possessing unregistered walkie-talkies.

Her hearing is expected on March 1.

Myanmar protesters gather again as UN chief condemns deadly crackdown

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Text by :FRANCE 24

Thousands of opponents of Myanmar's military coup gathered again on Sunday in towns from north to south, undeterred by the bloodiest episode of their campaign the previous day when police and soldiers opened fire in the city of Mandalay, killing two.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the use of "deadly violence" in the country's second-most populous city, which emergency workers said killed one teenager and wounded dozens more.

"The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable," Guterres wrote.

The military has been unable to quell the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the February 2 coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of a new election, arrests and warnings against dissent.

Early on Sunday, police arrested a famous actor wanted for supporting opposition to the coup, his wife said, while Facebook deleted the military's main page under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence.

In the main city of Yangon, several thousand young people gathered at two sites to chant slogans, while hundreds massed peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, footage by a media outlet showed.

In Myitkyina town in the north, which has seen confrontations in recent days, people laid flowers for the dead protesters while young people with banners drove around on motorbikes.

Crowds marched in the central towns of Monywa and Bagan and in Dawei and Myeik in the south, posted pictures showed.

"They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They aimed at our future," a young protester in Mandalay told the crowd.

Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun, who is also the spokesman for the new military council, did not respond to request for comments.

He told a news conference on Tuesday the army's actions were within the constitution and supported by most people, and he blamed protesters for instigating violence.

The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule to 2011.

Members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers marched peacefully on Saturday in various places but tension escalated in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted striking shipyard workers.

Some demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse. Police responded with tear gas and gunfire at the protesters, witnesses said.

Video clips on social media showed members of the security forces firing and witnesses said they found the spent cartridges of live rounds and rubber bullets.

Two people were shot and killed and 20 were wounded, said Ko Aung, a leader of a volunteer emergency service.

>> Myanmar marks Union Day with the multi-ethnic national dream slipping further away

Police were not available for comment but the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the strikers sabotaged vessels and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults. Eight policemen and several soldiers were injured, it said.

The newspaper did not mention the deaths but said: "Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured due to the security measures conducted by the security force."

A young woman protester became the first death among anti-coup demonstrators on Friday. She was shot in the head on February 9 in the capital, Naypyitaw. The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.

The army seized power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that the NLD swept, detaining Suu Kyi and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.

Facebook said it deleted the military's main page, Tatmadaw True News Information, for repeated violations of its standards "prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm”.

'Unacceptable' use of force

Early on Sunday, police arrested actor Lu Min, who has been a prominent figure in Yangon protests and was one of six celebrities who the army said on Wednesday were wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join the protest.

His wife, Khin Sabai Oo, said in a video posted on his Facebook page that police had come to their home in Yangon and taken him away.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says 569 people have been detained in connection with the coup.

Western countries that earlier condemned the coup spoke out against the violence.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "deeply concerned" by reports that security forces had fired on protesters, while France's foreign ministry strongly condemned the "unacceptable" use of violence against protesters.

Singapore and Britain also condemned the violence, with British foreign minister Dominic Raab saying shooting protesters was "beyond the pale".

The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced limited sanctions with a focus on military leaders but the generals have long brushed off foreign pressure.

Suu Kyi faces a charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Law as well as illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. Her next court appearance is on March 1.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

VIDEOS

Myanmar protesters gather again as UN chief condemns deadly crackdown (france24.com)

Myanmar grieves as funeral rites held for young anti-coup protester

Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 

Thousands lined the route of the funeral procession 

to pay tribute to Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing in Myanmar's capital 

STR AFP

Naypyidaw (Myanmar) (AFP)

A sombre Buddhist funeral song rung out in Myanmar's capital as the body of a young woman, struck down during a rally against this month's military coup, was carried to a ceremony marking the end of her short life.

Thousands lined the route of the procession to pay tribute to Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who was shot in the head two days before her 20th birthday at a protest demanding the release of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The grocery store worker was kept on life support for 10 days but succumbed to her wounds on Friday, making her the first protester killed for participating in the massive civil disobedience campaign sweeping the country

An honour guard linked hands and formed a circle around her coffin as her family members and other mourners drew near to pay their respects.

"Please don't go," one older relative whispered, grief-stricken, as she gazed down at the open casket.

A large motorbike procession rode in convoy with the ornate black and gold hearse that transported Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing to the funeral hall, alongside other vehicles decorated with floral wreaths and photographs of the deceased.

Mourners gathered outside the funeral hall held up the three-finger salute that has been adopted as a gesture of resistance to military rule.

The crowd departed as her coffin was set ablaze for her cremation, a thin plume of smoke rising from the funeral hall's chimney.

One young woman walked back to the road while holding aloft a vinyl banner with an image depicting the moment Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing was shot, as others held her in a vain effort to render first aid.

- 'She had so much hope' -

"She was a young person who had much hope for her future," her sister Poh Poh told AFP almost two weeks ago.

In the days since she was shot, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing has become a potent national symbol of resistance to military rule.

Vigils in her honour have been held elsewhere in the country, with protesters laying flowers at memorials to the victim and reciting the Metta Sutta -- a Buddhist prayer urging protection from harm.

"We cannot attend her funeral, so we are praying for her," Ye Lin Tun, who gathered alongside friends in Yangon to mark the death on Sunday, told AFP.

Demonstrators have in recent days hoisted photos of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing in street marches, and news of her death on Friday sent a flash of anger through the country.

Some in the protest movement have described her as a "martyr", and rights groups have demanded an independent investigation into her death.

"This police killing is outrageous and unacceptable, there are no other words for it," Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said.

"The officer who pulled the trigger must be investigated, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

State media claimed on Sunday that an autopsy of Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing's body showed the bullet was not fired by police officers.

It also claimed she was "throwing stones" at security forces at the protest.

But Amnesty International said footage of the incident showed that "police recklessly targeted protesters, with no respect for their lives or safety".

© 2021 AFP

VIDEOS 

Myanmar grieves as funeral rites held for young anti-coup protester - France 24

‘Stakes are high’ as QAnon conspiracy phenomenon emerges in France



Issued on: 20/02/2021 - 

A QAnon sign is held aloft at a protest rally in Olympia, 

Washington state, USA on May 14, 2020. © Ted Warren, AP

Text by: Tom WHEELDON

After rising to the fore in the US during the most fraught presidential campaign the country has seen for decades, the QAnon phenomenon has emerged in France – prompting President Emmanuel Macron’s government to order a multiagency inquiry on conspiracist movements scheduled to report back at the end of February.

The French state agency responsible for tackling sectarian movements, MIVILUDES, has received some 15 reports over recent weeks raising the alarm about the rise of QAnon in France, Le Figaro reported. The agency described the development of the movement as “highly concerning” in an internal communication seen by the French paper.

As she commissioned an inquiry by the police and MIVILUDES, Minister for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa expressed the same sentiments: The development of “new conspiracist groups” on French soil is “very worrying”, she told France 3 in January – underlining that the government “has its eye on” QAnon.

The QAnon phenomenon encompasses “a few hundred thousand” adherents, Tristan Mendès France, an expert on conspiracist movements at Paris-Diderot University, told Le Figaro.

The website DéQodeurs is a major French gateway to its world. The site’s centrepiece is a big screen at the top of the homepage broadcasting a video titled “We are the people” – which has also garnered more than 57,000 views on YouTube since its publication on January 27, even though the site removed DéQodeurs’ dedicated channel in October.

‘Nothing on this earth can stop us’

The video opens with a martial drumbeat playing over an image of the US Capitol in black and white, with dark clouds dominating the sky. “You see, my son, I was your age; I wasn’t yet 15,” the voiceover starts. “The world was a crazy place.” An image follows of St. Peter’s Square menaced by storm clouds. “But this was only the beginning of the story,” the voice continues as the music becomes slower and gentler.

“Some people understood things since the start and they didn’t mess around,” it carries on. “And here and there you can hear them singing.” A photo shows a group of people putting their hands together. A song breaks out, with a chorus saying “we are the people, we are united, nothing on this planet can stop us”.

The DéQodeurs website offers links to “information” including articles relaying fake news based on QAnon tropes – such as the baseless claim that in 2016, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was about to release documents proving the existence of a massive paedophile ring in Washington DC. A section titled “armoury” offers videos – including a two-hour long segment stating falsehoods purporting to provide “absolute proof” that electoral fraud robbed Donald Trump of victory in November’s US presidential election, spoken using French translation clumsily superimposed over an American voice.

The idea of Trump as a hero waging a secretive war against a cabal of cannibalistic, Satan-worshipping paedophiles is the heart of QAnon’s fantasy – none of which is true.

The main figure behind DéQodeurs is Léonard Sojili, an Albanian national who first emerged on the French internet in 2011, promoting 9/11 conspiracies. Sojili also propagates QAnon theories through the YouTube channel Thinkerview. On this platform he mixes support for the conspiracy theory with interviews of prominent French figures from across the political spectrum. Thinkerview boasts some 773,000 subscribers.

A more surprising title boosting QAnon is France-Soir. This publication was one of the country’s most august broadsheets during the post-war economic and cultural flowering of France’s Trentes Glorieuses, publishing articles by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Joseph Kessel. The newspaper closed in 2012 after moving downmarket.

But France-Soir was relaunched four years later as a populist website sometimes trafficking in conspiracy theories, with its last remaining journalists sacked in 2019. Over the past year, the publication went from publishing coronavirus disinformation to publishing fake news to promoting QAnon theories.

Many QAnon proponents have weaved Covid-19 pseudoscience into their fantasy. France-Soir’s QAnon material “fits with” the publication’s “scepticism with government Covid policy”, said Emily St Denny, an expert on French politics at the University of Copenhagen.

“The emergence of QAnon in France is a recent development,” she noted, “having emerged largely in the second half of 2020, in parallel to the pandemic and public health restrictions put in place to curb it.”

A ‘unifying voice’

The popularity of pseudo-documentary Hold-Up shows that Covid disinformation has a big audience in France: It got more than 2.5 million views after its release in November, with several famous faces including iconic actress Sophie Marceau sharing the video. The film propagates an array of debunked claims, including the notion that a global cabal of elites is using the pandemic to create a totalitarian New World Order – a similar trope to QAnon’s belief in a conspiracy of Satan-worshipping paedophiles.

While it tends to eschew such lurid narratives, anti-vaccine sentiment is relatively widespread in France. An Ipsos poll published in November found that 46 percent of French adults said they would refuse to receive a Covid-19 vaccine – compared to 21 percent in the UK. A 2019 Gallup poll found that one in three French people thought all vaccines are dangerous – the highest proportion of respondents to say so in 144 countries surveyed.

“We’ve had suspicions about lockdowns, curfews and medical practices activating traditional French phenomena such as anti-vax sentiment and newer ones such as the alternative health movement,” said Andrew Smith, a professor of French politics at the University of Chichester.

QAnon is dangerous in this context, he noted, because it “offers a kind of unifying voice for a number of things challenging scientific and political authority – one that says to people ‘What do you think? Has anyone asked you?’ while presenting them with a conspiracy theory through the concept of gamification, a kind of puzzle-solving that becomes intoxicating to many”.

These factors mean that QAnon’s French sympathisers are far more ideologically heterogenous than those in the US, St Denny observed: “QAnon in France is definitely not the monopoly of far-right sympathisers as it might be in the US. Its anti-government underpinnings have made the conspiracy theory attractive to a very disparate collection of groups and individuals including established conspiracy theorists, some fringes of the Yellow Vests movement, and some of the more conspiracy-oriented among the alternative health movement.”

The “stakes are high” in France considering QAnon’s “disruptive potential in terms of giving a broad coalition the ideological glue to act together in ways that may be threatening to democratic or social processes”, St Denny continued.

“What strikes me is that in the US it took three years after its creation for QAnon to make an inroad into the mainstream,” Smith said. “In France, I don’t think it’s a political danger in the immediate sense – I don’t think the chap behind the DéQodeurs website is going to run for the presidency.”

“But QAnon’s rise does represent part of an erosion of sociocultural standards, including faith in parliamentary democracy as a system of rule,” he concluded. “It is an alarming threat to the values of the French Republic, as a Counter-Enlightenment trend that denies universalism.”

Barcelona rocked by fifth night of unrest over rapper's jailing


Issued on: 21/02/2021 - 08:21

Riot police face demonstrators during a protest condemning the arrest of rap singer Pablo Hasel in Barcelona on February 20, 2021. © Joan Mateu, AP
VIDEO Barcelona rocked by fifth night of unrest over rapper's jailing (france24.com)

Protesters threw bottles at police, set fire to containers and smashed up shops in Barcelona on Saturday in a fifth night of clashes after a rapper was jailed for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs.

Protesters threw bottles at police, set fire to containers and smashed up shops in Barcelona on Saturday in a fifth night of clashes after a rapper was jailed for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs.

The nine-month sentence of Pablo Hasel, known for his virulently anti-establishment raps, has sparked a debate over freedom of expression in Spain as well as protests that have at times turned violent.

Demonstrators hurled projectiles and flares at police, who fired foam bullets to disperse the crowd, the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan regional police, said on Twitter.

About 6,000 demonstrators gathered in the city, local police said.

Protesters attacked shops on Barcelona's most prestigious shopping street, Passeig de Gracia, while newspaper El Pais reported others had smashed windows in the emblematic Palau de la Musica concert hall.

Nine people were arrested in Catalonia, the regional police said, including three minors.

Some were detained for looting shops in Barcelona, local police said.

Nine people were injured, two of whom were taken to hospital, police said.

A demonstration in Madrid was peaceful but in the northern cities of Pamplona and Lleida, police charged protesters.

Earlier, Socialist Party President Cristina Narbona condemned the violence that has marked protests over the past four nights.

"We reiterate our strongest condemnation of violence which cannot be justified as a defence of the freedom of expression," she said.

Officials said four people were injured in Barcelona on Friday after demonstrators pelted police with projectiles, attacked two banks and burned containers. Protesters caused 128,000 euros ($156,000) in damages, the city council said.

More than 60 people have been arrested across Catalonia, police said. One woman lost an eye during clashes in Barcelona, triggering calls from politicians to investigate police tactics.

Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem was among artists, celebrities and politicians who called for a change in the law covering freedom of expression. The Spanish government announced last week it would scrap prison sentences for offences involving cases of freedom of speech.

(REUTERS)

Moustache on Wimpole Estate statue linked to '1st Century trends'

COPYRIGHTNATIONAL TRUST/OXFORD ACHAEOLOGY

It is believed the figure could represent Cernunnos, the Celtic god of fertility

A tiny statue's moustache and haircut could be evidence of popular fashion trends from the 1st Century, an archaeologist has said.

The 5cm (2in) figure of a Celtic deity was discovered at the National Trust's Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire.

Work in 2018 revealed a late Iron Age to early Roman rural settlement, and artefacts discovered there have since been subject to further analysis.

The "remarkable" detail was revealed when the figurine was cleaned.

COPYRIGHTNATIONAL TRUST/CLAIRE SARGENT

The Roman settlement that was excavated is believed to have been at the centre of a trading network

Its hair appears neatly shaped at the front and long but tidy at the back, and it is believed it could represent Cernunnos, the Celtic god of fertility.

Shannon Hogan, National Trust archaeologist for the East of England, said: "This figure is an exceptional find and thanks to careful conservation and cleaning, we can now see some remarkable detail.

"His hairstyle and moustache are clear, which might be indicative of current trends or perhaps typical for depictions of this particular deity."

While the figurine may have been made by the Romans, who invaded Britain in AD43 and settled, it exhibits "very Celtic traits" such as oval eyes, she added.

"The torc it is holding - an open-ended metal neck ring - is still clear and a small recess at the centre is suggestive of a decorative inlay, now lost," she said.

"We have extremely limited knowledge of what ordinary people of England at that time looked like, so this beautifully detailed figure might just be giving us a tantalising glimpse into their appearance, or how they imagined their gods."
 

COPYRIGHTNATIONAL TRUST/OXFORD ARCHAEOLOGY

The tiny figure was unearthed as part of an archaeological dig ahead of the construction of a new visitor centre

The figure probably originally served as the handle of a spatula, according to the National Trust.

It may have been lost or deposited at Wimpole by inhabitants of early Roman Britain at the end of the Iron Age.

'Influence and power'

Chris Thatcher, from Oxford East Archaeology, said: "Finds such as this give a rare and fascinating insight into aesthetics and symbolism in the latest Iron Age.

"The extent to which his hairstyle is typical of contemporary styles will never be known for certain.


"However, we think the combination of him holding a torc - associated with status - and forming the handle of a spatula - either used to mix medicines, or wax for writing tablets - speak of influence and power."


Imported pottery and about 300 metal objects were also uncovered during the dig.


These included coins, cosmetic implements, horse harness fittings, Roman military uniform fittings, a spearhead, an axe head, key handles and brooches.

Reversal of Earth's magnetic poles may have triggered Neanderthal extinction -- and it could happen again


By Amy Woodyatt, CNN
Updated February 19, 2021


During this time, Earth's inhabitants would have been subjected to some dazzling displays -- northern and southern lights, caused by solar winds hitting the Earth's atmosphere, would have been frequent.

(CNN)The reversal of Earth's magnetic poles, along with a temporary breakdown of the world's magnetic field about 42,000 years ago, could have triggered a raft of environmental changes, solar storms and the extinction of the Neanderthals, according to a new study.

The Earth's magnetic field protects us, acting as a shield against the solar wind (a stream of charged particles and radiation) that flows out from the sun. But the geomagnetic field is not stable in strength and direction, and it has the ability to flip or reverse itself.

Some 42,000 years ago, in an event known as the Laschamp Excursion, the poles did just that for around 800 years, before swapping back -- but scientists were unsure exactly how or if it impacted the world.

Earth's magnetic north pole is heading for Russia and scientists are puzzled

Now, a team of researchers from Sydney's University of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum say the flip, along with changing solar winds, could have triggered an array of dramatic climate shifts leading to environmental change and mass extinctions.

Scientists analyzed the rings found in ancient New Zealand kauri trees, some which had been preserved in sediments for more than 40,000 years, to create a timescale of how Earth's atmosphere changed over time.

Using radiocarbon dating, the team studied cross sections of the trees -- whose annual growth rings served as a natural time stamp -- to track the changes in radiocarbon levels during the pole reversal.

"Using the ancient trees we could measure, and date, the spike in atmospheric radiocarbon levels caused by the collapse of Earth's magnetic field," Chris Turney, a professor at UNSW Science, director of the university's Earth and Sustainability Science Research Center and co-lead author of the study, said in a statement.
The team compared their new timescale with site records from caves, ice cores and peat bogs around the world.

'End of days'

Researchers found that the reversal led to "pronounced climate change." Their modeling showed that ice sheet and glacier growth in North America and shifts in major wind belts and tropical storm systems could be traced back to the period of the magnetic pole switch, which scientists named the "Adams Event."

"Effectively, the Earth's magnetic field almost disappeared, and it opened the planet up to all these high energy particles from outer space. It would've been an incredibly scary time, almost like the end of days," Turney said.

Researchers say the Adams Event could explain many of Earth's evolutionary mysteries, including the extinction of Neanderthals and the sudden widespread appearance of figurative art in caves worldwide.

The phenomenon would have led to some dramatic and dazzling events. In the lead-up to the Adams Event, the Earth's magnetic field dropped to only 0% to 6% of its strength, while the Sun experienced several long lasting periods of quiet solar activity.
"We essentially had no magnetic field at all -- our cosmic radiation shield was totally gone," Turney said.

The weakening of the magnetic field meant that more space weather, such as solar flares and galactic cosmic rays, could head to Earth.

"Unfiltered radiation from space ripped apart air particles in Earth's atmosphere, separating electrons and emitting light -- a process called ionisation," said Turney in a statement. "The ionised air 'fried' the Ozone layer, triggering a ripple of climate change across the globe."

During this time, Earth's inhabitants would have been subjected to some dazzling displays -- northern and southern lights, caused by solar winds hitting the Earth's atmosphere, would have been frequent. Meanwhile, the ionized air would've increased the frequency of electrical storms -- something that scientists think caused humans to seek shelter in caves.

"The common cave art motif of red ochre handprints may signal it was being used as sunscreen, a technique still used today by some groups," Alan Cooper, honorary researcher at the South Australian Museum, said in a statement.
"The amazing images created in the caves during this time have been preserved, while other art out in open areas has since eroded, making it appear that art suddenly starts 42,000 years ago," Cooper, co-lead author, added.

An upcoming reversal

In the paper, published in the journal Science, experts say there is currently rapid movement of the north magnetic pole across the Northern Hemisphere -- which could signal another reversal is on the cards.

"This speed -- alongside the weakening of Earth's magnetic field by around nine per cent in the past 170 years -- could indicate an upcoming reversal," said Cooper.
"If a similar event happened today, the consequences would be huge for modern society. Incoming cosmic radiation would destroy our electric power grids and satellite networks," he said.

Human activity has already pushed carbon in the atmosphere to levels "never seen by humanity before," Cooper said.

"A magnetic pole reversal or extreme change in Sun activity would be unprecedented climate change accelerants. We urgently need to get carbon emissions down before such a random event happens again," he added.

Canada's Job Losses In 2020 Were All In Low-Paid Work: CIBC

The lower the pay grade, the worse the job situation in 2020.


Brett Bundale

Canadian Press

BUSINESS

02/20/2021 


GOODBOY PICTURE CO. VIA GETTY IMAGES


Canadians who lost their jobs due to the recession sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic all had something in common: They made $27.81 a year or less.

But the biggest decline in work was among the country’s very bottom wage earners, with an hourly wage under $13.91.

Those findings are included in a report by CIBC Economics based on Statistics Canada data that shows that all the jobs lost in 2020 were among workers who earned below average wages.

The research steps back from the monthly fluctuations of Canada’s job numbers to reveal a dramatic widening of the country’s income gap due to the pandemic.


“This is a very abnormal and asymmetrical crisis,” Benjamin Tal, the report’s author and CIBC’s deputy chief economist, said in an interview. “It’s a service-oriented crisis and that sector is populated by low paying jobs.”

The report found that the lower the pay grade, the worse the job market performance was in 2020.

The greatest job losses were among part-timers, temporary workers and self-employed, according to the bank’s report.

Yet higher-income Canadians actually experienced net job gains during the COVID-19 crisis ― an anomaly during a recession, the report said.

The rise in higher-paying jobs masked the steep drop in employment among low-wage workers, according to the research.

In fact, the biggest job growth was among those at the very top of the pay scale, earning an hourly wage of $41.73 or more, CIBC said.

“The surprise here is that, not only did high-wage earners not experience job losses, but in fact they have gained almost 350,000 jobs over the past year,” the report said.

Yet while top-earning jobs grew, the ability to spend disposable income waned.

“If you’re not spending and your income is rising, your savings account becomes fatter and fatter,” Tal said. “There’s close to $100 billion of excess cash sitting on the sidelines.”

The research underscores the uneven impact of the economic downturn and the growing gap between Canada’s rich and poor.

“Every crisis is a trend accelerator and this one is no different,” Tal said. “The income gap was widening before and clearly it’s widened during this crisis.”

He added: “This crisis exposed the vulnerability of our system, especially when it comes to the gig economy.”

Yet it’s possible some good could come out of the recession, including improvements to social assistance programs, Tal said.

Growing income gap

But first the widening gap between the rich and poor could get worse.

“There is little doubt that those numbers will get worse in the coming months,” the Jan. 19 report said.

Still, there is evidence to suggest the economy’s recovery during the second half of 2021 could be rapid.

The bank is forecasting that Canada’s unemployment rate will fall below seven per cent by the end of the year ― a significant improvement from the 9.4 per cent unemployment rate reported by Statistics Canada earlier this month.

“There is so much pent-up demand,” Tal said. “Not all the extra money will be spent but much of it will go toward the service sector, which is good news because that’s exactly where we need the jobs.

“That’s why we’re going to see such a nice rebound in the economy.”

Q IN CANADA

Liberals Accuse Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant Of Promoting 'Deranged Conspiracy Theories'

Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell said Gallant is spreading “disgusting and dangerous lies.”

• Joan Bryden CanadianPress
• 
  

02/20/2021

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 16, 2019.

OTTAWA — Federal Liberals are accusing a Conservative MP of promoting “deranged conspiracy theories” akin to those promulgated by supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump.

They’ve pounced on video of a virtual meeting eastern Ontario MP Cheryl Gallant held earlier this month with a group of young Conservatives at Queen’s University in Kingston.

In the video, Gallant says Liberals have become “radicals” who want “all illicit drugs to be legal” and “to normalize sexual activity with children.”

Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell, who posted the video on Twitter, says Gallant is spreading “disgusting and dangerous lies” and asserts that her fearmongering is “a threat to our democracy.”

Gallant says her comments were taken out of context.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, who has been attempting to put a more moderate face on his party, says the Liberals are trying to distract from their failure to deliver COVID-19 vaccines.

“Canadians have other priorities and so do I,” he said in a brief statement late Friday.

In the video, Gallant talks about how Liberals used to have more common sense but have now become a bunch of “radicals.”

“They want all illicit drugs to be legal. They want anything goes in every aspect of life. They want to normalize sexual activity with children,” she says.

Gallant also asserts that “cultural Marxists” have “taken over every university administration” and are silencing free speech on campuses.

It’s all part of a broader agenda, she says.

“The elites call it the great reset or build back better or green new deal. The names change but the goal remains the same: more power for the powerful and less freedom for everyone else.”

The idea of a “great reset” was first floated by the widely respected World Economic Forum in calling for post-pandemic policies to reduce societal inequalities.

But it has since become code for conspiracy theorists who see it as a plot by global elites to replace capitalism with a new socialist world order. Some go so far as to assert that the elites deliberately unleashed COVID-19 in order to achieve world domination.

In the video, Gallant goes on to complain that “the liberal media have been bought and paid for” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and are now backing Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault — whom she dubs the “censor in chief” — in his plans to make Google and Facebook pay for news content they disseminate on their platforms.

She says that will lead the tech giants to shut down their services in Canada, as Facebook has done in Australia. And she suggests that it is all part of Trudeau’s plan to silence critics before plunging the country into an election.

“Why do you think Trudeau would want Canadians to be unable to search or share news right as he’s planning a snap election?” she says.

O’Connell posted the video to Twitter, saying “another of Erin O’Toole’s team is promoting deranged conspiracy theories.”

She said Gallant is spreading “disinformation about election interference” and compared it to the Trump-led conspiracy theories about the alleged rigging of last November’s presidential election that sparked a violent riot at the Capitol last month.

“We have seen all too clearly the power of political disinformation and claims of election fraud,” O’Connell tweeted.

In a statement late Friday, Gallant said her “comments on the Liberals choosing to lower the age of consent were taken out of context.” She did not address any of her other comments and said she “will not be commenting further on this matter.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2021.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T

Uber: Bankrupt engineer Levandowski is hiding millions from creditors

Judge views Levandowski's financial antics with an "incredibly jaundiced eye."

TIMOTHY B. LEE - 2/18/2021

Enlarge / Anthony Levandowski in 2019.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Famed self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski was forced to declare bankruptcy last year after he lost a legal battle with Google over claims that he stole trade secrets on behalf of Uber. Now Uber is objecting to the proposed terms of his bankruptcy, arguing that he used legally dubious techniques to shelter his wealth from creditors.

Levandowski faces a skeptical bankruptcy judge. "I continue to view many of the transactions in which Mr. Levandowski engaged immediately prior to the filing of this bankruptcy case with an incredibly jaundiced eye," said Judge Hannah Blumenstiel during a phone conference last week.

Levandowski received tens of millions of dollars in compensation from Google in 2015 and 2016 for his work on self-driving technology. In October 2016, Google initiated an arbitration process to claw the money back, arguing that Levandowski had stolen trade secrets from Google on his way out the door. Uber alleges that Levandowski then took a number of steps to make it difficult for Google, Uber, or other creditors to get their money back.

The focus of Uber's objection is Levandowski's request that courts shield from creditors $17.2 million in a Roth IRA. Tax law limited Roth IRA contributions to $5,500 per year when Levandowski opened it in 2016—a figure that has since risen to $6,000. So how did he accumulate $17.2 million in five years?

According to Uber, Levandowski deposited $4,326 in cash around April 2016 and used the money to purchase 4,326,000 shares of Otto Trucking at a price of 0.1 cents per share. When Uber acquired Otto, these shares became worth millions of dollars. Uber says Levandowski sold half of them for $11.9 million, keeping the cash inside the IRA. He sold the rest of the shares to his business partner Robert Miller, in exchange for a $5.3 million promissory note.Advertisement


Retirement accounts are often shielded from creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. But Uber argues that rule shouldn't apply here because Levandowski violated several IRA rules when he set up the account. Tax law requires IRA money to be used for arms-length investments. Uber argues that investing in Levandowski's own company doesn't qualify.

Uber says Levandowski also took other steps to shield his assets from creditors. For example, in 2017, he bought a house for his father and stepmother for $949,000. He then "sold" it back to the stepmother for $720,000. Rather than paying cash, she gave him an unsecured promissory note with a balloon payment that comes due in 2048, effectively allowing her to live in the home rent-free for 30 years.

According to Uber, Levandowski invested $250,000 in a company founded by his fiancée on March 4, 2020, the same day he filed for bankruptcy.

In addition, Uber says Levandowski loaned more than $10 million to entities controlled by his college friend and longtime business partner Randall Miller. He funneled millions more to his new self-driving startup Pronto.ai.

Levandowski used a donor-advised fund to funnel $175,172 to Way of the Future, an AI "church" that Levandowski founded in 2017. The church got an in-depth write-up by our sister publication Wired in 2017. (Update: a Levandowski spokeswoman tells Ars that the Way of the Future was dissolved in 2020 and that "the entirety of the allotted funds in question, $175,172.00, was donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.")

Uber urged Judge Blumenstiel not to accept Levandowski's claim that he needed the $17.2 million in his IRA to support himself in retirement. Uber pointed out that Levandowski has more than $400,000 in more conventional retirement accounts that likely will be protected in bankruptcy. Even if his various other assets are stripped away in the bankruptcy process, the company argued, the 40-year-old's skills as an engineer and manager should enable him to make a good living over the next 20 years.

OUT OF SEQUENCE —
As coronavirus variants spread, the US struggles to keep up

Without federal strategy or enough funding, US sequencing superpowers don't work.

MEGAN MOLTENI, WIRED.COM - 2/20/2021

Family business

We tend to use the singular word “coronavirus” when referring to the bug that causes COVID-19. But a more accurate way to think about SARS-CoV-2 is as a population of viruses. And that population is in a state of constant flux—expanding and contracting, mutating, and evolving new lineages as it spreads from person to person. Genetic epidemiologists can track those minute changes, following them like the branches of a family tree to identify clusters of cases all linked to one another. With enough viral genomes, they can also zoom out to compare how fast different branches are growing. If one branch starts to take off, it can indicate that the genetic changes those viruses have acquired provide some kind of competitive advantage. And if a bunch of different branches independently acquire the same mutation, and they all start to take off, well, that’s convergent evolution.

Though the seven variants identified by Cooper, Kamil, Hodcroft, and company appear to have become more common in recent months—accounting for up to 15 percent of the transmission in some places where they have been found—there’s still much the researchers don’t understand about them. Where did they first emerge? Are they spreading faster because the 677 mutation changes the virus’s behavior, as is the case with the other major variants of concern first detected abroad? Or did holiday travel and family gatherings in the US spread it farther and faster than other domestic strains? Even basic questions about the real prevalence of each new variant are hard to answer, because the nation is still so far behind on sequencing.

“What we’ve discovered is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Cooper. Currently the US has sequenced the genomes of just 0.4 percent of all coronavirus cases, according to a WIRED analysis of GISAID data. By comparison, the UK is doing about 10 percent. Denmark, the world leader, has surpassed the 50 percent mark.

“Convergence is actually our friend”

The good news is that all the sequencing being done elsewhere in the world is finding that the virus keeps settling on the same genetic changes in its hunt for an advantage. That suggests it has chanced upon a run of good cards, but there might not be many better ones left in the deck. “In that sense,” says Cooper, “convergence is actually our friend here, because it limits the roster of mutations we have to pay attention to.” That’s not just good for surveillance and testing, but also for vaccine makers trying to future-proof their shots. Any constraints on the number and placement of useful mutations should make it easier to develop an arsenal of boosters that will be effective against whatever variants are yet to emerge.Advertisement


But that doesn’t change the fact that the US is still disastrously unprepared to spot them when they do. As WIRED has previously reported, scaling up a national SARS-CoV-2 monitoring network involves coordinating a patchwork of players—academics like Kamil and Gangavarapu, industry players like Helix, and labs on the front lines, operated by public health departments and hospitals. Connecting sequencing facilities to patient samples and data requires coordination—both in terms of logistics and of agreeing to do things in a standardized way.

All of that takes time and money. Each viral sequence costs between $25 and $400 to generate. So far, the CDC has funded seven universities to the tune of $14.5 million; signed contracts with Illumina, Helix, and medical testing behemoths LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics for $12.5 million; and released a further $15 million to public health labs. But this week, the Biden administration announced it is providing a much needed infusion of cash—almost $200 million—intended to ramp up the nation’s sequencing capacity from 7,000 to 25,000 samples per week. That would put the US on track to capture about 5 percent of new coronavirus cases, provided they continue to decline. It’s a threshold scientists at Illumina estimate the country needs to hit in order to detect a new variant before it grows to more than 1 percent of total cases.
“No consensus”

A spokesperson for the CDC declined to say whether the agency was setting specific targets. “There is currently no consensus in the US or globally on the optimal rate for genomic surveillance,” she wrote in an email to WIRED. In a briefing Wednesday, White House testing czar Carole Johnson described the funding as a “pilot” to tide the CDC over until Congress passes the proposed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The House version of that bill sets aside $1.75 billion for genomic surveillance.

“It’s really great that we have interest from Congress to invest in this,” says Lane Warmbrod, co-author of a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, outlining recommendations for what an effective SARS-CoV-2 surveillance program should look like. In the short term, she says, labs need money to buy reagents and sequencers, and to hire and train personnel to run them. That includes building up a bioinformatics workforce in public health labs—people who can sort, clean, and interpret the reams of genomic data produced by surveillance sequencing.Advertisement


“The much bigger barrier is the informatics side,” says Warmbrod. In addition to people, that also means computational firepower. She and her colleagues suggest that CPU-strapped public health departments could partner with the Department of Energy, which operates supercomputers around the country, to process increasing loads of genomic data. “We have the capacity and the expertise in this country,” she says. “We just need to incentivize it and put resources where it’ll be most efficient.”
“They’re going to keep coming”

She and her colleagues recommend that funds should go toward coordinating the characterization of variants—which ones should be studied and what experiments scientists should perform. Right now, the old standards of science are still largely being applied. Whoever discovers a variant gets to hold onto it and study it. But when those discoveries could have such a huge effect on human health, Warmbrod argues, the government might want to step in to make sure studies are being done swiftly, safely, and in the public eye. In the longer term, she also believes the US should invest some of those congressional funds in a national pandemic prediction agency to safeguard against emerging threats even after the Covid crisis subsides.

But for now, building up sequencing capacity in whatever way gets it done the fastest should be the highest priority, says Warmbrod. “We know variants are here. We know they’re going to keep coming as long as there’s transmission. These variants could pop up anywhere,” she says. “And right now, in most places in the country, a new variant could be popping up in your backyard, and we’d have no idea because we can’t see it.”

This story originally appeared on wired.com.