U.N. committee to consider racism complaint of N.S. Mi'kmaq fishers against Ottawa

HALIFAX — A United Nations committee on racial discrimination is asking the federal government to respond to allegations it committed racist actions in its treatment of Mi'kmaq lobster fishers in Nova Scotia.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The April 30 letter of notice from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination asks Leslie Norton, Canada's permanent representative to the U.N., to respond to allegations by Sipekne'katik First Nation by July 14.

The First Nation has argued that it has the right to fish for a "moderate livelihood" when and where they wish, based on a decision from the country's Supreme Court.

The court later clarified that ruling to say Ottawa could regulate the treaty right for conservation and other purposes.

Members of the Sipekne'katik band encountered violence from non-Indigenous residents last fall, resulting in the destruction of a lobster pound and the burning of a band member's van as the First Nation conducted a fishery outside of the federally regulated season in southwestern Nova Scotia.

The federal minister has repeatedly noted the principle of closed seasons exists for conservation purposes and has said her department will negotiate the distribution of commercial licences, which occur within existing seasons, tailored to the needs of each First Nation.

Talks with the band broke down earlier this year, and Sipekne'katik says it is planning to resume a self-regulated lobster fishery outside of federal seasons.

However, the United Nations committee says it is considering allegations the RCMP and the federal Fisheries Department "failed to take appropriate measures to prevent these acts of violence and to protect the fishers and their properties from being vandalized," and that treaty rights weren't respected last year.

"The committee is concerned about allegations of lack of response by the state party authorities to prevent and to investigate the allegations of racist hate speech and incitement of violence online as well as acts of violence and intimidation against Mi’kmaq peoples by private actors," says the letter of notice to the Canadian representative.

The committee's letter noted its prior recommendations requesting governments that have signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination "take steps to prevent racist hate crimes against all ethnic and minority groups, migrants and Indigenous peoples."

The letter asks Canada to respond to the allegations and indicate what actions have already been taken to deal with allegations of racism.

The notice is signed by Yanduan Li, the chair of the committee and a representative of China.

The First Nation's leader, Chief Mike Sack, said in a news release Sunday that it intends to proceed with a lobster fishery beginning in June, despite the lack of an agreement with the federal Fisheries Department.

Sack has said he will request United Nations peacekeepers if federal enforcement officers remove his band's lobster fishing gear from the fishing area in southwest Nova Scotia.

He said the involvement of the racial discrimination committee is encouraging.

"Being recognized by a body that represents marginalized people experiencing the destructive and intergenerational effects of systemic racism is a new milestone in our community’s efforts to overcome poverty and oppression,” said Sack in the release.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2021.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

Video: 

KELOWNA BC Road construction effecting migratory bird habitat 

(Global News)

Parks Canada captive caribou breeding proposal gets OK from scientific review panel

JASPER, Alta. — A last-ditch attempt to save some of Canada's vanishing caribou herds is a step closer after a scientific review panel's approval of a plan to permanently pen some animals and breed them to repopulate other herds.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The captive breeding program would be a first, said Dave Argument, conservation manager for Jasper National Park.

"This idea of bringing in wild caribou (and) raising them in captivity to augment a wild herd is certainly a novel approach."

No one doubts Jasper's caribou are in trouble. One of the park's three herds has already disappeared and the others are down to a handful of animals.

Parks Canada has proposed a $25-million project that would permanently pen up to 40 females and five males in a highly managed and monitored area of about one square kilometre surrounded by an electrified fence. The agency suggests the captive breeding could produce up to 20 calves a year — enough to bring Jasper's herds to sustainable levels in a decade.

The plan received a big boost last week when an independent scientific review panel concluded that it would likely work.

The panel, an international group of conservation experts, agreed that without dramatic measures Jasper's caribou will disappear. Strategies such as predator control or penning and protecting pregnant cows won't work in a national park, it concluded.

"We are confident that the case has been made for the proposed breeding program," the panel's report says.

It does warn that careful monitoring would be required to assess the survival rate of young caribou released into the wild. The effects of climate change on habitat would have to be watched and wolves might occasionally have to be culled, it adds.

"Predators will need to be monitored and managed."

Wolf density in Jasper is low enough that the animals would not be expected to be a major threat to rebuilding herds, the report says.

Justina Ray, a caribou biologist and head of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the program would also have to consider conditions outside the parks, where energy activity, forestry and road-building continue to degrade habitat.

"Conversion of caribou habitat for all these mountain caribou in southern Alberta and (British Columbia) is ongoing, and these conditions outside the park are very relevant to anything that happens within it," she wrote in an email.

Access to caribou habitat within the park would also have to be managed, she said.

"Access management (roads) ... will need to be stronger than it has been to date if animals are to be released into a safe space."

Parks Canada has met resistance when it has closed parts of Jasper park for part of the year to protect caribou.

Argument welcomed the panel's conclusion. But issues remain before a final decision is made, he said. Budgets need to be approved and consultations conducted.

"There's still an element of public support required," said Argument. "We're not going to proceed without the support of our Indigenous partners."

A preliminary site has been chosen. It's remote from the Jasper townsite and wouldn't be open to public visits.

"It's not going to be a zoo," Argument said.

The caribou have to remain as wild as possible if they are to make it outside the fence, he said.

"Releasing naive animals from a captive breeding facility into the wild comes with certain risks."

If all goes well, Argument said, the fenced pen could be built next year and accept its first animals as early as 2023.

Caribou herds are in trouble across the country. Argument said captive breeding wouldn't help much in places where habitat loss is the problem, such as in areas heavily affected by industry, but it could work in other situations.

"Different circumstances call for different solutions," he said.

"There are other situations across the country where this tool might be very useful. We're at the cutting edge in potentially applying it here."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2021

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton. Follow @row1960 on Twitter

Posthaste May 10: Pipeline hack highlights vulnerability of North America's stretched energy infrastructure

 

© Provided by Financial Post Storage tanks at the Colonial Pipeline Co. Pelham junction and tank farm in Pelham, Alabama, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. Fuel suppliers are growing increasingly nervous about the possibility of gasoline and diesel shortages across the eastern U.S. almost two days after a cyberattack knocked out a massive pipeline

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Yadullah Hussain

Good morning!

Energy infrastructure’s vulnerability has long been identified as a clear and present threat to North America’s energy security.

And it came to pass over the weekend.

Hackers seeking ransom broke into privately-owned Colonial Pipeline Co.’s systems, forcing the company to shut one of the country’s major arteries for fuel delivery.

The Georgia-based company said it moved quickly to contain the threat and halted operations as it sought to restore the system. It has yet to identify a restart date.

“While our mainlines (Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4) remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational. We are in the process of restoring service to other laterals and will bring our full system back online only when we believe it is safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations,” the company said in a statement.

The pipeline connect refineries throughout the Southern and Eastern United States through a pipeline system that spans more than 5,500 miles between Houston, Texas and Linden, New Jersey. Koch Capital Investments Co. LLC and Shell Midstream Operating LLC are among the five entities that own the pipeline.

The shutdown of the conduit, which ships around 2.5 million bpd of refined products, has already pushed up prices of gasoline and diesel, as the expectation is that both will be in short supply as long as the pipeline is sidelined.

“Given that the pipeline delivers nearly half of the diesel and gasoline consumed on the East Coast, depending on the duration, the supply shock could leave the region with widespread fuel shortages, sparking a jump in diesel and retail gasoline prices that at US$2.96/gal are already flirting with the highest nationwide levels in over five years,” according to Michael Tran, an analyst with the Royal Bank of Canada.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.4 per cent to US$65.14 Monday morning.

The U.S. Department of Transportation introduced emergency measures on Sunday to facilitate deliveries, lifting driver restrictions on fuel haulers in 17 states affected by the shutdown, and noted that it could take additional measures if the outage continues.

“Similar to the February freeze crisis, the impacts will be localized. While northeastern and southeastern states may see increased prices at the pump, other regions with more robust products inventories, such as the U.S. Gulf Coast, may not see the same price surge,” according to Rystad Energy.

The cyberattack also underscores the vulnerability of North America’s energy infrastructure, which has long been stretched due to delays in building new energy systems, poor economics and environmental fights.

“The importance of Colonial cannot be underplayed given that it is one of the few major sources of oil products deliverable into the refinery challenged East Coast (the line services 14 states). Due to poor

refinery economics, regional units have shut over recent years, leaving the U.S. Northeast as the least independent and energy secure district in the country,” wrote RBC’s Tran.

A former U.S. official and two industry sources told Reuters that among their suspects are DarkSide, a notorious group comprising veteran cybercriminals. But the group has stayed uncharacteristically silent, in contrast to its penchant for promoting its successes, Reuters noted.

Given the heightened political and environmental scrutiny around energy infrastructure, especially pipelines, the latest attack should alarm companies and intelligence agencies on both sides of the border.

Nor is old-school energy the only vulnerable point. A report by the U.S. Department of Energy last year warned that as the use of wind and other renewable energy systems become more widespread, “cybersecurity for integrated control systems and related technology has become an increasingly important and urgent matter.”

While the pandemic response has taken priority for businesses and governments over the past year, Canadian companies continue to report higher rates of cyberattacks. A recent CDW Canada report revealed that 99 per cent of businesses it surveyed had experienced a cyberattack over the past year.

Pipeline ransomware attack: US invokes emergency transport rules to keep fuel flowing
Liam Tung 

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has invoked emergency powers in response to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in order to make it easier to transport fuel by road.

© Getty Images/iStockphoto

Many new small iron metal shut-off valves, regulating valves with flanges for installation on pipelines, units, vessels at an oil refinery, petrochemical, chemical industrial plant, enterprise.

The ransomware attack, disclosed late last week, impacted the pipeline company, which is responsible for supplying 45% of the East Coast's fuel, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, home-heating oil, and fuel for the US military.

Colonial said it is developing a system restart plan and said that while its mainlines remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational.

"Quickly after learning of the attack, Colonial proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat. These actions temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our IT systems, which we are actively in the process of restoring," the company said.

In the meantime, the USDOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has issued a Regional Emergency Declaration – temporary exemptions involving laws restricting road transport of fuel, and allows drivers to work for longer.

The exemptions apply to vehicles transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products to Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

"Such emergency is in response to the unanticipated shutdown of the Colonial pipeline system due to network issues that affect the supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products throughout the affected states," FMCSA said in a statement.

Cybersecurity experts told Reuters today that the ransomware group DarkSide is suspected to have carried out the attack on Colonial Pipeline.

Darkside runs a ransomware-as-a-service business that other cybercrime groups can rent. It's been active since mid-2020 and although a decryptor was released in January, security firm Cyber Reason noted that the group recently released DarkSide 2.0. The group is known for encrypting, as well as stealing, some data and using the threat of its exposure on the internet as leverage for the victim to pay ransoms.

SEE: Ransomware just got very real. And it's likely to get worse

FMCSA's exemption is aimed at providing commercial tanker operators regulatory relief while directly supporting emergency efforts to patch up fuel supply shortages "due to the shutdown, partial shutdown, and/or manual operation of the Colonial pipeline system".

The shutdown of Colonial Pipeline might impact fuel prices depending on the length of the disruption.

Gaurav Sharma, an independent oil market analyst, told the BBC that a lot of fuel is banking up at Texas refineries.

"Unless they sort it out by Tuesday, they're in big trouble," said Sharma. "The first areas to be impacted would be Atlanta and Tennessee, then the domino effect goes up to New York."

Colonial Pipeline confirmed on Sunday it was the victim of ransomware and said it had engaged an external cybersecurity firm to assist with its recovery effort.

GONE THE WAY OF THE BUGGY WHIP MAKERS

Pakistan's water bearers quench thirst in Ramadan, but fear for their trade

KARACHI (Reuters) - Mohammad Ramzan pumps water into a large goat skin bag before carrying it down an alley and up several flights of stairs to deliver to a resident in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city

© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO A traditional mashki delivers water in goatskin bags in Karachi

© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO A traditional mashki delivers water in goatskin bags in Karachi

For more than four decades Ramzan has been a "mashki", or water bearer, an age-old profession now in decline as water companies and tankers increasingly supply residents.

But his services are at least in high demand during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which fasting can be a challenge when the weather is hot.

"In Ramadan, the poor mashkis have a very tough time delivering water to us inside buildings that are four or five storeys high," said resident Mohammad Imran, as Ramzan, 60, arrived with his load

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© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO A traditional mashki delivers water in goatskin bags in Karachi

"The tanker people often do not even answer our calls; they also charge too much. We are really grateful to these mashkis."

Karachi needs about 1,200 million gallons per day of water to meet the demand of its estimated population of 20 million people. But officials say its two main water sources only provide the city with about 580 million gallons per day.

© Reuters/AKHTAR SOOMRO A traditional mashki delivers water in goatskin bags in Karachi

Some of the water is lost due to dilapidated infrastructure and water theft, while experts say climate change and dams built upstream by India also reduce water supplies.

Ramzan stops to catch his breath as he climbs the narrow stairwell, carrying his leather "mashk" which can normally hold up to 35 litres of water.

"During the month of Ramadan, it becomes especially difficult for people to collect water from water points, so I bring water for them in the hope that Allah will bless me for it ... I also earn my living this way."

GLOBALIZATION

Water bearers have existed in South Asia for centuries, providing water to travellers and warriors during battles in ancient times.

But Ramzan worries that the days of the mashki are numbered.

"Tankers are delivering water everywhere; mineral water companies are supplying water from house to house," he said.

"Because of this, the profession of the mashki looks like it will not last long."

(Reporting by Waseem Sattar and Sheree Saradar; Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

'Extraordinary': Fossils of nine Neanderthals unearthed in Italy cave

Nathan Howes 
 The Weather Network

The unravelling of nine Neanderthal fossils is being hailed as a significant discovery that the "whole world will talk about."

Play Video Remains of nine Neanderthals discovered in Italian cave

That's according to Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who made the remarks in a news release with the agency's announcement Saturday. The fossils were unearthed in the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo, about 88 kilometres southeast of Rome, Italy.

“An extraordinary discovery that the whole world will talk about...because it enriches research on Neanderthals. It is the result of the work of our superintendency together with universities and research bodies, truly an exceptional thing," said Franceschini.

SEE ALSO: Ancient human species may have gone extinct because of climate change

The findings included the fossils of skulls and skull pieces, two teeth and other bone fragments. The date of one of the fossils can be traced as far back as 90,000 to 100,000 years ago, and the remaining pieces are thought to be 50,000 to 68,000 years old, according to Italy's cultural ministry.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Nine Neanderthal fossils were unearthed in the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo, about 88 kilometres southeast of Rome, Italy. (Italian Ministry of Culture)

EXCAVATIONS BEGAN IN 2019

The diggings began in 2019 in a part of the cave that had never been investigated including what anthropologist Alberto Carlo Blanc called a “pond” due to the presence of water in the winter months.

The systematic research was handled by the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Frosinone and Latina, in collaboration with the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

The Ministry of Culture called the Guattari Cave "one of the most significant places in the world for the history of Neanderthals." A Neanderthal skull was also discovered in the cave in 1939.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The diggings began in 2019 in a part of the cave that had never been investigated. (Italian Ministry of Culture)

Mauro Rubini, director of the SABAP anthropology service for Frosinone and Latina, said in the release that the discovery will "shed an important light on the history of the population of Italy."

"Neanderthal man is a fundamental stage of human evolution. He represents the apex of a species and is the first human society we can talk about," said Rubini.
WORK ON HISTORICAL REMAINS CONTINUES

Work is underway to build a paleoecological picture of the Pontine plain between 125,000 and about 50,000 years ago, according to the ministry, a time period when the Neanderthals frequented the Lazio region.

The cave has been able to keep the environment from 50,000 years ago fully intact. In addition to the Neanderthals, other fossilized remains found in the cave include elephant, rhinoceros and giant deer, among others.

© Provided by The Weather Network

The date of one of the fossils can be traced as far back as 90,000 to 100,000 years ago, and the remaining pieces are thought to be 50,000 to 68,000 years old. (Italian Ministry of Culture)

"Biological analyzes and genetic research will allow us to reconstruct the vegetation, climate and environment in which our ancestors lived. Isotope analyzes will allow us to reconstruct the diet of the animal species examined and the ancient diet of Neanderthal man," the ministry said in the release.

Thumbnail courtesy of Italian Ministry of Culture.

NOONE LEFT BEHIND MYTH
Vets, lawmakers say Biden administration not acting fast enough to help Afghans who face death from Taliban

Dan De Luce and Richard Engel 

NBC 10/5D/2021



WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is under mounting pressure from lawmakers, veterans groups and refugee organizations to organize a large-scale evacuation of endangered Afghan interpreters and others who worked for the U.S. government before U.S. troops withdraw from the country in September.

© Erik de Castro Image: AFGHAN FIGHTERS WATCH SEVERAL EXPLOSIONS FROM US BOMBINGS IN THE TORABORA MOUNTAINS. (Erik de Castro / Reuters file)

Advocates say that the Biden administration is moving far too slowly to protect tens of thousands of Afghans whose lives are in mortal danger because of their association with the U.S. and Western organizations and that action must be taken now before the last troops pull out as scheduled in four months.

"We're very concerned about the seeming lack of urgency on the part of the administration to protect vulnerable Afghans in light of the anticipated withdrawal," said Adam Bates, policy counsel for the nonprofit International Refugee Assistance Project. "In terms of concrete plans, the information that we have gotten from them is very sparse."

Veterans organizations from across the political spectrum support a mass evacuation of Afghans, said Chris Purdy, project manager of the Veterans for American Ideals program at the advocacy nonprofit Human Rights First.

The Biden administration so far has been "noncommittal," Purdy said.

In public statements, the administration has not signaled any plans for an evacuation or other emergency measures, and officials have yet to offer details about how the government plans to ensure the safety of Afghans who risked their lives working for the U.S.

2017: How a U.S. veteran made sure no Afghan and Iraqi translator was left behind

Asked about accusations that the administration is failing to move quickly to help Afghan partners, the White House National Security Council declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the State Department declined to "discuss internal deliberations" but said the department is working to respond "as promptly as possible" to Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and who have applied for U.S. visas.

The Taliban have ratcheted up attacks on civil society activists and women in particular as U.S. and NATO troops prepare to withdraw, assassinating judges, journalists and local officials. A massive bombing Saturday at a secondary school in Kabul killed at least 60 people, most of them girls. The Afghan government blamed the Taliban; the insurgents denied responsibility.

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, said he has spoken to frightened Afghans who feel the walls closing in.

"I am hearing from a lot of them, and the ones I talk to, their panic and fear ... in their voices is so palpable," Waltz said

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© Javed Tanveer IMAGE: A market area in Kandahar, Afghanistan (Javed Tanveer / AFP via Getty Images)

Waltz said Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have reassured him that they are taking the safety of Afghan partners seriously.

However, he said, "there are a number of avenues that the administration could take, but I'm just not seeing any movement."

To help Afghan interpreters and others who face retribution from the Taliban for their links to the U.S., Congress in 2009 set up the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, program, to provide U.S. visas to Afghans who had been employed by the U.S. government. The program has a backlog years long. More than 17,000 Afghans have applied, and their paperwork is still being reviewed.

A federal court ruled in 2019 that the U.S. government had failed to abide by a law requiring it to process applications within nine months, and an inspector general's report last year described a chronic staffing shortage that had hobbled the program.

Based on the government's track record, it would take more than four years to process the backlog of SIV applicants, assuming there was sufficient staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to handle the cases. There is no realistic prospect that most of the Afghan applicants could get visas in time before U.S. forces leave, Bates and other experts said.

The State Department spokesperson said, "The Biden administration is committed to supporting those who have helped U.S. military and other government personnel perform their duties, often at great personal risk to themselves and their families."

"The fallout of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan"

"Everyone involved in the Special Immigrant Visa process, whether in Washington or at our embassy in Kabul, is aware of the threats our Afghan colleagues face," the spokesperson said.

The State Department, which is seeking ways to improve the visa program, has deployed more staff to the embassy in Kabul to help handle SIV cases, the spokesperson added.

Neither the State Department nor the National Security Council responded directly to questions about whether the administration supported a mass evacuation.
The Guam option

Advocates for the Afghans promote the idea of evacuating thousands of Afghans to the U.S. territory of Guam or other safe locations outside Afghanistan, including military bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where U.S. officials could then vet them and review paperwork for possible resettlement.

A mass airlift of Afghans conjures up painful memories of the chaotic U.S. exit from Vietnam in 1975, when throngs of Vietnamese tried to board American helicopters at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. But supporters of the so-called Guam option say the U.S. military has successfully carried out similar evacuations.

© Bettmann Archive IMAGE: Evacuees boarding a helicopter in Vietnam in 1975 (Bettmann Archive / via Getty Images)

In 1975, about 130,000 Vietnamese refugees were flown to Guam after the fall of Saigon. In 1996-97, the U.S. military evacuated 6,600 Iraqi Kurds to the island after Saddam Hussein's regime launched attacks into Iraq's Kurdish region. The Kurds were housed at Andersen Air Force Base for three to four months; most resettled in the U.S.

"The U.S. government has proven in the past that it is capable of moving large numbers of people in short order when the situation requires it," said Bates of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Without an evacuation, tens of thousands of Afghans and their families — including those who worked for the U.S. government, as well as others who promoted democracy and women's rights at Western-backed organizations — will be at the mercy of the Taliban, said lawmakers, veterans and rights groups.

"My concern is very simple. And that is if we pull out and don't protect our Afghan partners, many of them will be killed," said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Taliban have threatened Afghan interpreters and others with Western ties, both publicly and privately. "I take them at their word," Crow said.

Crow and other lawmakers argue that the U.S. has a moral obligation to come to the aid of its Afghan partners and a national security interest to avoid signaling to the world that Washington abandons its allies. LIKE IT DID THE KURDSIN SYRIA 

Crow, part of a bipartisan group of 10 Democratic and six Republican House members pushing for more protections for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government, said evacuation is "an option that we need to be looking at seriously."

In a letter to the administration April 21, Crow and the 15 other lawmakers, including Waltz, said the U.S. "must provide a path to safety for those who loyally worked alongside U.S. troops, diplomats, and contractors, and work with our international partners to provide options for Afghans who would face a credible fear of persecution if the Taliban return to power."

Almost three weeks later, the White House has yet to respond, Crow said.

A National Security Council spokesperson said, "We have received Congressman Crow's letter and appreciate his interest in working with the administration on an issue we are prioritizing."

Asked what the military planned to do to help vulnerable Afghans who worked for U.S. forces, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said that he had no orders at the moment and that it was a matter for the State Department to provide visas for Afghan partners.

© Reuters Image: Site of a blast in Kabul (Reuters)

"I would just tell you that from a Central Command perspective and the perspective of the U.S. military, if directed to do something like that, we could certainly do it," McKenzie at a Pentagon briefing April 22.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that it was too soon to opt for an evacuation and that a worst-case scenario in Afghanistan is not a "foregone conclusion."

"We're working through the SIV process through the State Department, but I think it's a bit early to really sound the alarm on getting everybody out just yet," Milley said Thursday at a Pentagon news conference. "That's my own personal opinion, but I think that's based on some pretty good knowledge of what's going on right now."
'We will make some special ambush for you'

In the meantime, veterans and refugee organizations are inundated with pleas for help from former interpreters.

"Right now, we are getting desperate cries daily. Our inbox fills up every day, and our Facebook Messenger fills up every day with calls from people in Afghanistan asking for help," said Purdy of Human Rights First.

"And all they want to know is: 'President Biden, you gave us your word that you were going to help us. You're leaving, so how are you going to help us?'" he said.

A former Afghan interpreter in Kabul, Hilal, who asked to be identified only by his first name to protect his safety, said the Taliban threatened him repeatedly after he accompanied U.S. Army units who detained insurgents.

© Mariam Zuhaib IMAGE: School supplies left behind after deadly bombings near a school in Kabul (Mariam Zuhaib / AP)

Hilal said he got a letter threatening his life and then a flurry of phone calls. The voice on the other end of the line "was telling me if you don't stop working with the infidels, especially with the American infidels, I swear to God we will try our best to kill you and each of your family members one by one."

The Taliban caller somehow knew that Hilal had been given the nickname "Steve" by U.S. soldiers, Hilal said. "If you are Muslim, why are you helping the U.S. forces in Afghanistan against us?" the caller asked, according to Hilal. "We will kill you. We will kill you. We will make some special ambush for you."

Hilal, 42, who is married with six children, said that if he cannot secure a U.S. visa, he will have to consider fleeing over the border and trying to make his way to Europe.

Crow, the Army veteran who represents Colorado, argued that supporters and opponents of the U.S. troop withdrawal agree that the U.S. should not turn its back on Afghans who had been loyal partners and colleagues.

"We're going to debate the politics of the Afghan war for decades to come," he said. "What is very clear and what's not debatable is that there are people who served with us side by side, at great personal risk and sacrifice, that we have obligations to. If there is honor to be had here, it's doing right by those people."

THE UK AND OTHER NATO NATIONS ARE GOING THROUGH THIS AS WELL LEAVING BEHIND THE HIRED HELP

THE SECRET ORDER THAT RULES CAPITAL
Underwriters puzzle over how to make pandemics insurable again

By Carolyn Cohn 

© Reuters/MIKE BLAKE FILE PHOTO: The iconic Hollywood sign is shown on a hillside above a neighborhood in Los Angeles

LONDON (Reuters) - When much of the global economy locked down last year, insurers, facing estimated losses of more than $100 billion globally, reached straight for their red pens to strike pandemic cover from all new business policies.

Denis Kessler, chairman and CEO of French reinsurer SCOR, summed it up when he told a recent conference that pandemic risk was like war.

"We exclude war - it's not insurable," he said.

But as industries spanning travel and hospitality to construction and manufacturing revert to a new normal, huge demand is causing insurers to figure out how they can put pandemic risk back in policies without making them prohibitively expensive.

One example is the film and television industry.

U.S. company SpottedRisk has devised a model built on years of data on the political and economic environment of film locations in 150 countries, as well as a year's COVID-19 shutdown data, to come up with a pricing mechanism to cover the risk of production stopping due to the pandemic.

"I had been told by 20-plus industry insiders that it was going to be impossible, but we found a way," said SpottedRisk chief executive Janet Comenos.

The company, which declined to name its clients, said its insurance policy has enabled 19 independent film and TV productions with budgets of between $1 and $85 million to film at locations across the globe.

The SpottedRisk policy, which typically costs between $50,000 and $80,000 for $1 million of cover, helps to fill a gap in Hollywood where independent filmmakers have bemoaned the lack of cover, and contrasts with Britain, where a government scheme to enable film and TV production to go ahead has no insurer involvement.

While the film industry's risks are relatively contained over finite time periods, industries such as airlines have much higher potential losses and may prove harder to insure, with many insurers saying extensive cover can only come back if governments provide the same kind of backstop they offer for floods or terror attacks in some countries.

REMODELLING

Insurers do not want to be caught out again, having failed to predict the extent to which economies around the world would lock up in order to suppress the virus and keep juddering health systems afloat.

"Our modelling does capture infections and mortality," said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at risk modelling firm RMS.

"It didn't capture all the subtlety of how governments respond, driven by the number of vacant ICU (intensive care unit) beds." RMS is now factoring those in.

Government responses meant that, surprisingly, claims on trade credit, event cancellation and business interruption insurance were higher than for life insurance, industry sources said, because many of those who died may not have held life insurance due to their age.

"A year ago, on the non-life side we had essentially no pandemic modelling skills," said Iwan Stalder, head of accumulation management at insurer Zurich, who has since been engaged in broader scenario modelling for pandemics.

Few have returned to offering pandemic cover for non-life policies, except where events have been scheduled long in advance and insurance bought years ago, such as the Olympics.

Cancellation of the Olympics would result in a "mind-blowingly" large loss of $2-3 billion, insurance sources say.

Instead, insurers have asked governments for help.

Britain, the European Union and the United States are all looking at arrangements in which cover from commercial insurers would be backed by government reinsurance schemes. Such schemes could be less costly than business bailouts but the process of developing them is slow, as governments grapple with the problems at hand.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Some say commercial insurers are capable of doing more.

"The private market has the ability to create solutions," said Rod Fox, CEO of broker TigerRisk Partners, which helped SpottedRisk find underwriters for its film and TV policy.

Another way to cover COVID-19 could be to repackage pandemic risk as debt through so-called insurance-linked securities (ILS), sharing that risk with investors such as pension funds.

"It became clear to us early in the pandemic that the models which were appropriate prior to Covid were no longer appropriate," said Scott Mitchell, portfolio manager for life ILS at fund manager Schroders.

"Covid-specific aspects simply weren’t captured...the characteristics of the disease and the response by governments, and political factors that were involved in that.”

Schroders has developed new types of life ILS which take account of factors beyond mortality rates.

Insurers are also working on so-called parametric policies. These automatically pay out a specified amount when a certain trigger is reached, such as a government shutdown.

"If you put a boundary around it, you can price the risk," said Greg Medcraft, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s director for financial and enterprise affairs.

"For low probability, high impact events like climate change, cyber, pandemics - you have to have a new way of thinking."

While pandemics as a whole are hard to cover, some insurers have managed to slice out small parts of the risk, for instance providing travel insurance for short periods, or extra medical insurance for coronavirus patients after they leave hospital.

But policyholders may have to accept more expense in future.

Businesses will likely need to show insurers they are minimising their risks, for instance by requiring a negative COVID-19 test for spectators at live events, said Paula Jarzabkowski, professor of strategic management at City University of London.

And to enable insurers to bring in enough premium to cover pandemic risk, businesses interruption insurance may need to be mandatory, like motor insurance, she added.

"That does ensure that everybody who is prone to the possible risk takes some level of responsibility towards it."

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

CANADA
No recovery without 'she-covery': Women bear the brunt of latest jobs decline

Bianca Bharti 
POSTMEDIA 11/5/2021

The latest batch of hiring data has reignited fears that the COVID-19 crisis will impact women’s job prospects more harshly than men’s, causing the recovery to stretch on for even longer.

© Provided by Financial Post A closed sign is displayed on the door of a restaurant in Toronto during the coronavirus pandemic. Women and younger workers are feeling the brunt of job losses because they tend to dominate the industries that have been effectively closed for much of the past year.

Statistics Canada published data on May 7 that showed that women account for two-thirds of the 500,000 jobs that have yet to be reclaimed during the recovery from last year’s historic economic collapse.

Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and Atkinson fellow on the future of workers, was surprised by the degree to which women continue to trail men. Overall, the population of employed people aged 25 to 54 fell by 48,000 positions in April from March, Statistics Canada said. The majority of the losses in that group were women with full-time jobs. The participation rate of women aged 15 to 24 further exemplified the unequal nature of the recovery, as younger men are now working at roughly the same rate as they were before the crisis, whereas the participation rate of younger women remains four percentage points lower.

“Mathematically speaking, we cannot get to an (economic) recovery without a she-covery,” Yalnizyan said. “There just aren’t enough men to make up the difference.”

The numbers are a reminder of why the Bank of Canada continues to press ahead with aggressive monetary policy despite signs that inflation is heating up, and why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has spent so heavily on emergency benefits. A decade ago, the recovery from the Great Recession was frustratingly slow, in part because governments ended their stimulus efforts too soon. This time, policy-makers have pledged to err on the side of growth.

Still, low interest rates and big deficits can only do so much to offset the lockdowns and partial lockdowns that authorities have adopted to slow the spread of the virus. Women and younger workers are feeling the brunt of those measures because they tend to dominate the industries that have been effectively closed for much of the past year.

The stimulus is keeping the economy afloat, but the longer men and women remain unemployed, the harder it will be for them to get back in the labour force. A legacy of the crisis could be tens of thousands of workers who never reach their full potential, as businesses are more inclined to hire fresher prospects.

“As you fall out of the workforce, you’re not using your skills and that’s a real concern in the long-term,” said Leah Nord, the senior director of workforce strategies and inclusive growth at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Nord said women are especially at risk of being left behind because they tend to be the first to abandon paid work to care for their household’s children.

To be sure, men in vulnerable industries are struggling, too. Statistics Canada said the number of young men working either full-time or part-time jobs plummeted 4.7 per cent in April. The drop for younger women was a less severe 3.6 per cent.

Overall, women in all aged 25 to 54 worked 7.7 per cent fewer hours last month, compared to a 5.5-per-cent drop for men in the same age category.

From Yalnizyan’s perspective, one of the more pertinent ways Canada can ensure an equal recovery is for the governments to boost support for childcare, which has become excessively expensive in many of Canada’s biggest cities. If a lack of adequate childcare bars women from entering the workforce, “it will take us much longer to get back to so-called normal,” she said.

Canada sheds more than 200,000 jobs in April as third-wave lockdowns bite

New threats to an old problem: The pandemic has made ‘brain drain’ even worse

How to close the gaps in financing women-led businesses: Report

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland promised to spend $10 billion on a national childcare program in her budget last month, but she didn’t pretend all that money would make a big difference soon. The provinces govern daycare and no program will go ahead until they agree to participate. Freeland set a target of five years.

It might be faster to train women to work in the trades and other professions that struggle to find qualified labour. Nord said that it’s imperative policy and the private sector encourage women back into the workforce by way of proper retraining.

• Email: bbharti@postmedia.com | Twitter: biancabharti