REAL ART NOT NFT
Leonardo da Vinci bear sketch could fetch over $16M

Megan C. Hills, CNN 

A tiny sketch of a bear by Leonardo da Vinci is expected to sell for over $16 million at auction.

© Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd

The item is one of only eight Leonardo drawings left in private hands, according Christie's, the auction house organizing the sale.

Measuring less than 8 square inches, the drawing was made on pale pink-beige paper using silverpoint -- a technique, taught to Leonardo by his master Andrea del Verrocchio, that involves marking chemically treated paper with silver rods or wire.

The sketch has changed hands several times over the centuries -- in fact, it was once sold by Christie's for just £2.50 (about £312, or $439, in today's money) in 1860. Titled "Head of a Bear," it has since been displayed at major institutions including the National Gallery in London, Louvre Abu Dhabi and Saint Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum.


In a press release, the chairman of Old Master paintings at Christie's New York, Ben Hall, called the sketch "one of the most important works from the Renaissance still in private hands," adding that it had "been owned by some of the most distinguished collectors in the field of Old Masters across many centuries." Notable previous owners include painter Sir Thomas Lawrence and art collector Captain Norman Robert Colville.

The drawing, which includes the artist's signature, will go on display in Hong Kong later this month. It will then move on to London, where it is expected to fetch between £8 million and £12 million ($11.21 million to $16.82 million) at a July sale.

Master of anatomy

The most expensive Leonardo sketch ever to appear at auction is "Horse and Rider," which sold for £8 million (over $11.2 million) in 2001. Stijn Alsteens, international head of the Old Masters department at Christie's Paris, said he had "every reason to believe we will achieve a new record in July for 'Head of a Bear,'" describing it in a press statement as "one of the last drawings by Leonardo that can be expected to come onto the market."

The sale price is, however, likely to fall short of the current auction record for an Old Master drawing. In 2009, Raphael's "Head of a Muse," a study for a fresco commissioned by Pope Julius II for the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican, netted almost $49 million at Christie's in London.

Though Leonardo is best known for oil paintings like the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper," the Renaissance master was also celebrated for his anatomical sketches. His drawing "The Vitruvian Man," a mathematically precise rendering of a nude male, is often hailed as one of his greatest accomplishments.

Leonardo was fascinated by the natural world, and he completed many other animal sketches in his lifetime. His drawings of cats and dogs, as well as one of a bear walking, are among those on display at institutions including the British Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Other Leonardo sketches depicted religious figures and biblical scenes. In 2016, a drawing titled "The Martyred Saint Sebastian" was set to fetch 15 million euros ($16 million at the time) at auction, though the sale was blocked after the French government declared the item to be a national treasure.

Other notable lots at the Christie's auction in July, titled "The Exceptional Sale," include an orrery clock designed by Jacques-Thomas Castel and an amethyst ormolu-mounted potpourri vase by Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis.

Investors chide Toyota's Toyoda for questioning combustion car ban

By Aaron Sheldrick 

© Reuters/PIERRE ALBOUY FILE PHOTO: Toyota logo displayed at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show

TOKYO (Reuters) - Some Toyota Motor shareholders have criticized its President Akio Toyoda for questioning Japan's plans to ban conventional cars only days after the firm said it was reviewing its climate lobbying and aimed for carbon neutrality by 2050.

The five investors, who collectively have around $500 billion in assets under management and spoke exclusively to Reuters, said the carmaker risks falling behind competitors that are rolling out electric vehicles, while giving cover for other companies seeking to avoid big changes to meet climate goals.

Japan's Toyota signalled a shift in its climate change stance last month when it said it would review its lobbying and be more transparent on what steps it was taking as it responded to increased activist and investor pressure.

Three days later though, in his capacity as head of the Japanese automobile Manufacturers Association, Toyoda questioned the country's decision to ban new internal combustion engined vehicles by 2035 in its quest for carbon neutrality.

"What Japan needs to do now is to expand its options for technology. I think regulations and legislations should follow after," Toyoda said.

"Policy that bans gasoline-powered or diesel cars from the very beginning would limit such options, and could also cause Japan to lose its strengths," he added.

Investors who had welcomed the earlier Toyota statement on lobbying said they were worried that Toyoda may not be on board with the plans.

"We're genuinely concerned that Mr. Toyoda does not seem to realize what is at stake here," said Jens Munch Holst, CEO of AkademikerPension.

The Danish fund told Reuters last month that it would consider a shareholder resolution or sell its holding in Toyota if there was no change after "intense" engagement with the company.

A Toyota spokeswoman told Reuters the company could not immediately comment on the investors' criticism but would be addressing climate issues later in the week when it announces earnings.

The company in recent years has said that electric vehicles will play a greater role in reducing emissions but other solutions should be used, like its successful hybrid or slow-selling hydrogen vehicles.

With pressure growing on carmakers to slash emissions, Toyota is scrambling to produce electric vehicles that can compete with models from the likes of Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors and Renault, plus Chinese startups like Nio and Xpeng.

The five investors who spoke about Toyoda's comments - also including Norway's Storebrand Asset Management, Nordic investor Nordea Asset Management, the Church of England Pensions Board and KLP, Norway's biggest pension fund - said Toyota was in danger of blunting its competitiveness.

"As a shareholder in Toyota, we actively engaged with the company and received reassurances that all of its lobbying activities, including with industry associations, would be reviewed and reported on this year," said Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management.

"Full electrification of transport is vital if we are to meet our climate targets and Toyota should be leading the charge on this rather than prolonging the production of new combustion engines and giving away their market share to other companies," he added.

(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Pravin Char)

New electric vehicle charging research could allow drivers to power their cars as they drive on the highway

gkay@businessinsider.com (Grace Kay) 

© Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty Images Electric vehicle charging.

Researchers at Cornell University are developing technology that can charge an electric car while its in motion.

US highways could embed the roads with metal plates that charge the cars as they drive over them.

The project is about five years away from a roll out, but can already power most electric vehicles.

What if you could charge your electric car while you were driving it?

Researchers out of Cornell University have been working on just that, developing a solution to one of the biggest hurdles to electric car adoption - battery range and charging availability.

Khurram Afridi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, is honing technology that would allow drivers to charge their electric vehicle while they are in motion. He has been working on a project for the past seven years that would implant wireless charging infrastructure into US roads.

"Highways would have a charging lane, sort of like a high occupancy lane," Afridi told Insider. "If you were running out of battery you would move into the charging lane. It would be able to identify which car went into the lane and it would later send you a bill."

Video player from: YouTube (Privacy Policy, Terms)

While it will be about five to 10 years before the project could be ready to be rolled out to major roadways, Afridi sees wireless charging as the best way to eliminate driver's fears related to finding charging stations and running out of battery.

Currently, there are about 1.8 million battery-powered cars on US roads, but there are only about 100,000 charging plugs for them at around 41,000 public station locations. President Joe Biden has pledged to build 500,000 new plugs over the next decade, a goal some experts say could be difficult to reach.

A recent study from University of California Davis found that one in five electric car owners switched back to a gas-powered car due to the hassle of needing EV charging stations. Data from JD Power found that anxiety related to an electric car's battery range is a primary limiting factor in the commercial viability of the vehicles.

"The only way people are going to buy electric cars is if they're just as easy to refuel as combustion engines," Afridi said. "If we had this [wireless charging] technology the electric vehicles would have even less limitations than traditional ones."
Wireless charging is not a new phenomenon

The science behind Afridi's project goes back over 100 years to Nikola Tesla, the inventor who used alternating electric fields to power lights without plugging them in. Afridi's technology would embed special metal plates in the road that are connected to a powerline and a high frequency inverter. The plates will create alternating electric fields that attract and repel a pair of matching plates attached to the bottom of the EV.

© Khurram Afridi A sketch of the wireless charging process 

In 1986, California tested a wireless charging option with roadway powered cars for its Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (PATH) program. In recent years, wireless charging for phones has also seen a push from companies like Apple and Samsung. But, overall, wireless charging efforts have fallen flat as the hardware has proven expensive and often unwieldy.

Wireless charging has failed to take off because tech companies have been focusing on magnetic fields, instead of electric ones, Afridi told Insider. Alternating magnetic fields require bulky, expensive hardware and use more energy than they provides.

Charging via electric fields has been mostly overlooked due to the high frequencies it would require and magnetic fields are also easier to generate, according to Afridi. But, the professor has long been interested in pushing technology to its highest potential frequencies, dating back to his work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1987.

"They thought it was not feasible because they did not think of going to the high level of frequencies that I was thinking of," Afridi said. "But, that has always been my area of research. It is really my passion to go to very high frequencies and push the technology to its highest potential frequency."

© Khurram Afridi Afridi and his team developed a wireless power transfer system. 

Afridi's team, a group of fellows and researchers at Cornell, has already made several advances and can power vehicles with up to 18 centimeters of clearance from the road, which accounts for most EVs. The group has also created technology that allows the vehicle to gain full power when passing over the charging plates (which would be embedded several meters apart) even if they are not fully aligned.

The biggest hurdles for the project has been finding and creating the components that would be able to conduct the high levels of electricity needed to power the vehicles, as well as electric switches that would be able to operate at the high frequencies required for efficient charging. To date the charging process takes about 4-5 hours for a full charge of a smaller vehicle like a Nissan Leaf, while larger Teslas would require an even longer charge time, Afridi said.

The infrastructure necessary for the charging lanes would require a massive overhaul of major US roadways, but Afridi told Insider one approach would be to electrify busy highways and major cities first. The metal plates would also be useful for charging at stop signs and traffic lights.

Afridi's group is already working on using its technology to power autonomous forklifts through a partnership with Toyota. While it will be several years before the technology is ready for major roadways, he told Insider the tech will likely first power the forklifts and autonomous robots in manufacturing warehouses.

Jewish group 'extremely disturbed' by reports of Hitler Youth flags in Alberta town

A prominent Jewish organization says it is “extremely disturbed” by reports of Hitler Youth flags being displayed in two Alberta towns within days of each other.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies says it filed a criminal complaint with RCMP after being alerted on the weekend to Hitler Youth and Confederate flags by a resident of Breton, Alta., about 100 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.


The Toronto-based organization says in a release that the RCMP confirmed that officers spoke to the property owner, who has refused to take down the flags.

The report came less than a week after the Jewish group filed a complaint to the RCMP about a Hitler Youth flag at a property in Boyle, Alta., about 125 kilometres north of Edmonton.

In a recent interview, RCMP spokeswoman Const. Chantelle Kelly said that property owner removed a flag after speaking with officers.

Mounties were not immediately available for comment on the Breton flag, but have said they were investigating whether hate was a factor in the Boyle case.

“Technically, flying a flag is not illegal in itself, so (investigators) have to determine whether there is motivation or something else behind it that is criminal in nature,” Kelly said in an interview last week.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said Tuesday that “it is extremely disturbing and quite disheartening to once again see a Hitler Youth flag, as well as the Confederate flag, on display.”

The organization said it has written to Breton's mayor and village council to ask that they work with police to ensure the flags are removed.

"These displays of hate go against the values that Canada stands for and are an attack on not only the Jewish and Black communities, but also on our veterans and fallen soldiers who made unspeakable sacrifices to defeat the Nazis and preserve our freedoms,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, the group's policy director, said in the release.

"We urge police to investigate this incident as a hate crime and for community leaders to send a message loud and clear that hate will not be tolerated in their community.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

Daniela Germano, The Canadian Press

Alberta government knew bighorn sheep contaminated with coal mine selenium: scientist

EDMONTON — Some herds of Alberta's provincial animal are heavily contaminated with selenium from old coal mines, says research from a retired senior government biologist.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Jeff Kneteman said Alberta Environment has known about the problem in bighorn sheep for years. But it has yet to commission any studies about the effects on the three herds and how far the contamination has spread through the local ecosystem.

"There was no interest," said Kneteman, who left government in March 2020. "Why wasn't any of this stuff ever followed up?"

The research comes to light as the United Conservative government attempts to convince Albertans the province's regulatory and monitoring systems are capable of ensuring an expansion of coal mining in the Rocky Mountains can be done safely.

The government did not respond to a request for comment.

Kneteman's work dates from 2015. It was his thesis for a master's degree and not provincially funded.

He was investigating selenium, a naturally occurring element associated with coal mines that is healthy in small doses but toxic in excess. Kneteman's study looked at what levels of selenium were normal for animals such as bighorns, deer, elk and caribou by considering 85 different herds from across North America.

Two herds in northwest Alberta stood out — those on the sites of the Smoky River, Gregg River and Luscar coal mines.

"(Levels in) bighorn that occupied coal mines were miles away from everybody," he said.

Both herds averaged well outside the safe range for selenium. One of them almost doubled that level.

"They're getting it from the coal mines," Kneteman said. "We found no evidence of elevated selenium in Alberta in any of the other populations that we sampled."

The Rockies are naturally low in selenium. As well, when bighorns from one of the coal-affected herds were transferred to Nevada, their selenium levels dropped to normal within a year.

Selenium is known to damage reproduction. That effect was present, said Kneteman.

"The sheep on the mines have the lowest reproductive potential and reproductive output that we've ever measured in Canada."

The province's 2015 draft management plan for bighorns found that the ratio of lambs to ewes was lower on coal mines than native range every year from 2008-2013.

Referring to unpublished government data, that plan says: "High selenium levels in blood samples from bighorns feeding in reclamation areas associated with a coal minesite ... are of concern to sheep managers.

"No examination of possible populations effects attributed exclusively to selenium toxicity has been undertaken to date."

Research suggests selenium is widespread in the local ecosystem.

Kneteman previously found elevated levels in dippers, small birds that feed on aquatic insects. Other studies have found excessive selenium in at least three area waterways.

"(Selenium) is throughout the system," Kneteman said.

Although his data is years old, Kneteman said there's little reason to believe things have improved.

"(Selenium) hasn't declined at all since the first measurements in the late '90s," he said.

"The assumption could be made it's the same today as it was in 2015. Why would we expect it to have changed?"

Meanwhile, the province's 2019 five-year monitoring plan mothballed all the area's water monitoring stations.

Since last spring, Alberta has sold tens of thousands of hectares of exploration leases for new coal mines along the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies.

In response to public concern, Energy Minister Sonya Savage has paused all work on the most sensitive landscapes, stopped further lease sales and struck a panel to hear concerns from Albertans.

Still, she has asked Albertans to have faith in the province's regulatory agency and monitoring programs, referring to Alberta Environment's "stringent environmental protections."

Kneteman said he tried repeatedly to get his former department to study a toxin from resource development contaminating the animal that is supposed to symbolize the province.

"No one's made any measurements, which is maybe dereliction," he said.

"The only reason we've got any measurements is that I went and got them. There wasn't any effort to find out what was going on."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Judge dismisses NRA bankruptcy case in blow to gun group


DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the National Rifle Association’s bankruptcy case, leaving the powerful gun-rights group to face a New York state lawsuit that accuses it of financial abuses and aims to put it out of business.

The case was over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where the state is suing in an effort to disband the group. Though headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a nonprofit in New York in 1871 and is incorporated in the state.

Judge Harlin Hale said in a written order that he was dismissing the case because he found the bankruptcy was not filed in good faith.

“The Court believes the NRA’s purpose in filing bankruptcy is less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," Hale wrote.

His decision followed 11 days of testimony and arguments. Lawyers for New York and the NRA’s former advertising agency grilled the group’s embattled top executive, Wayne LaPierre, who acknowledged putting the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy without the knowledge or assent of most of its board and other top officers.

“Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer, and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking,” the judge added.

Phillip Journey, an NRA board member and Kansas judge who had sought to have an examiner appointed to investigate the group’s leadership, was concise about Hale's judgment: “1 word, disappointed,” he wrote in a text message.

Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that the case was an attempt by NRA leadership to escape accountability for using the group’s coffers as their personal piggybank. But the NRA’s attorneys said it was a legitimate effort to avoid a political attack by the Democrat.

LaPierre testified that he kept the bankruptcy largely secret to prevent leaks from the group’s 76-member board, which is divided in its support for him.

The NRA declared bankruptcy in January, five months after James’ office sued seeking its dissolution following allegations that executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts and other questionable expenditures.

“The NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, and our case will continue in New York court,” James tweeted after the ruing was made. “No one is above the law.”

Shannon Watts, who founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a serious of tweets that the bankruptcy dismissal “comes at the worst possible time for the NRA: right as background checks are being debated in the Senate.”

“It will be onerous if not impossible for the NRA to effectively oppose gun safety and lobby lawmakers while simultaneously fighting court battles and mounting debt,” said Watts, whose organization is part of the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety.

___

Sisak reported from New York.

Jake Bleiberg And Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press

B.C. pledges to introduce permanent paid sick leave program in January

VICTORIA — Workers affected by COVID-19 in British Columbia will qualify for up to three days of paid sick leave under proposed legislation that Premier John Horgan says will plug holes in a federal plan and lay the groundwork for a permanent program.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

Horgan said Tuesday that the program would bridge the gap for workers between the time they first feel sick and when they can access the federal benefit, a pledge that some critics say doesn't go far enough.

"No one should have to make the difficult decision between staying home when they're sick and going into work because they have an economic imperative to do so," Horgan said.

"Today we're making that choice a little bit easier."

Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced the legislation Tuesday, saying it would be effective until Dec. 31 and apply to anyone who shows COVID-19 symptoms, self-isolates or gets tested.

Employers will be required to pay workers their full wages and those without an existing sick leave program will be reimbursed by the government $200 per day for each worker.

WorkSafeBC, the provincial injury prevention and safety agency, will begin administering the program next month and employers will be required to cover the difference for those workers who earn more than $200 a day.

Bains also said a permanent entitlement to paid personal injury and illness leave would take effect in January, although the number of entitlement days would be determined through consultation in the coming months.

"Having paid sick leave is good for businesses, good for workers, good for our communities and will help our economy recover faster," Bains said in the legislature on Tuesday.

About half of B.C. employees do not currently have access to paid sick leave, according to government estimates.

British Columbia's proposed legislation closely matches the program introduced in Ontario, which has come under heavy criticism for falling short of what's needed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Horgan said last month the province was considering its own sick-leave program after the federal government failed to bring in a national plan that would fill in the gaps of the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit.

The federal program covers lost wages of $450 a week after taxes, which is less than B.C.'s minimum wage.

Critics have said workers who qualify for the federal benefit have faced delays getting the money and often get a pay cut, obstacles that push people to go to work even when they're not feeling well.

Horgan said he's been disappointed that the federal government has allocated $2.6 billion to the program but only managed to get $400 million out the door.

"That doesn't speak to the lack of need for the program, that speaks to the inadequacy of construction," he said.

Neither he nor Bains could say how quickly the provincial funds would reach employees, but they said WorkSafeBC's existing relationship with employers will make it flow more quickly than programs created from scratch, such as some of the province's lagging pandemic relief for businesses.

Two major unions welcomed the news of a permanent paid sick leave program on the horizon, while saying the temporary COVID-19 measure is lacking.

"Although three days per calendar year is inadequate, today's announcement opens the door for future expansion," Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, said in a statement.

The B.C. Federation of Labour said it will advocate for up to 10 days of paid leave per year, as a basic public health protection and employment right for all. At the same time, it expressed concern with the limited temporary COVID-19 measure.

"Workers struggling with a COVID-19 illness face far greater than three days of lost pay, they face potential economic devastation,” president Laird Cronk said in a statement.

“Ensuring workers don’t have to make the untenable decision between staying home with symptoms or working sick to put food on the table and pay the rent is critical during this deadly race between variants and vaccines.”

Horgan defended three days as enough time for workers to access other programs.

"I do believe it's going to be sufficient to get that test done and get the result from that test and then to access the other programs available," he said, pointing to both the federal benefit and workers' compensation for those people who catch COVID-19 at work.

The Surrey Board of Trade issued a statement saying it was pleased with the proposed legislation.

"Businesses in the hardest hit industries will finally get the support that they need," president Anita Huberman said in the statement. "Paid sick leave is about reducing transmission and getting on the other side of this pandemic."

— By Amy Smart in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

RIP

Young whale trapped in London's River Thames euthanized

By Rob Picheta, Mitchell McCluskey and Amanda Jackson, CNN 

A young whale trapped in London's River Thames was euthanized after becoming stranded for a second time on a river embankment Monday evening.

© DAVID KORSAKS @dkfitldn/REUTERS Rescue attempts are made as a small whale stranded in the River Thames is seen in this picture obtained from social media in London, Britain, May 9, 2021. 

The minke whale's condition had deteriorated throughout the day as it struggled in the unfamiliar environment, and it was "humanely put to sleep" by veterinary experts, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue said in a statement.

"Medics used inflatable pontoons to prevent the animal from slipping back into the river, which allowed the veterinary team from the Zoological Society of London to further assess the animal and end its suffering," the statement read.

The whale had likely swum hundreds of miles before it was spotted around 7 p.m. on Sunday, stuck near Richmond Lock. Once freed, the whale slipped away under cover of darkness before rescuers could take further action, a spokesperson for the Port of London Authority told CNN.

The rescue team "managed to get a special inflatable pontoon around (the whale), and then floated it out onto the main river," Port of London Authority spokesperson Martin Garside told CNN. "At that point, the whale made its own decision and swam from the pontoon into the main river."

The whale was found again on Monday morning against the river wall, raising concerns it would become beached again.

The whale, estimated to be about 10 to 13 feet long, ended up far from its natural habitat. A postmortem examination will be carried out to try to establish how the whale came to be in "poor condition and lost in the river."

"This species lives in the northern North Sea, so it's very lost," Garside said. "It's a very young whale and it's in a very dicey situation and its life is hanging in the balance."

Minke whales can grow to weigh around 20,000 pounds and typically live for about 50 years, according to the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Garside said his organization tends to whales in the Thames around once a year, but no whale had ever swum so far west up the Thames.

The rescue team included officers from the Port of London Authority, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the London Fire Brigade.

Spectator Daniel Magee, who recorded several videos of the whale, said he initially assumed it was a seal.

"As we got closer I saw a fin and realized it was a whale," Magee told CNN on Sunday. "Some lock keepers hosing him down and it looked like the tide was going up so he could turn around. I realized that the whale might be injured as it started rolling on its side and thrashing about."

Another spectator, David Korsaks, told CNN he was surprised to see anything other than birds in the area.

"It was almost disbelief and shock to see a whale where you would normally only see ducks and swans," Korsaks said. "My next thoughts were I hope it's ok and manages to swim free."

Sophie Milner told CNN she took video of the whale after seeing people gathered at the scene.

"We just saw a crowd of people looking at the whale. It was being looked after by some specialists by the time we got there," she said.

It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for whales to enter the Thames and require rescuing.

In 2018, a Beluga whale was found in the river.

And in 2006, a bottlenose whale was spotted in central London, sparking a massive operation to return her to safety. Rescuers used a crane to lift her out of the river and onto a barge. But the whale died on the barge hours later, before it could be returned to deeper water.

Internal emails reveal WHO knew of sex abuse claims in Congo

BENI, Congo (AP) — When Shekinah was working as a nurse’s aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, she was offered a job from a World Health Organization doctor at double her salary — in exchange for sex.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“Given the financial difficulties of my family … I accepted,” said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She said the Canadian doctor, Boubacar Diallo, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the same proposition to several of her friends.

When a staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo informed WHO management about sex abuse concerns regarding Diallo, they were told not to take the matter further, The Associated Press has found.

WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Tedros declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, “We have no more information than you have.” However, an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management wasn't only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it.

The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO.

Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her. In a notarized contract obtained by the AP, two WHO staffers, including a manager, signed as witnesses to an agreement for Ngandu to pay the young woman, cover her health costs and buy her land. The deal was made “to protect the integrity and reputation” of WHO, Ngandu said.

When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP.

Eight top officials privately acknowledged WHO failed to effectively tackle sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak, emails, recordings of internal meetings, legal documents and interviews with dozens of aid workers and WHO staffers show. WHO declined to comment on any specific sex abuse allegations or how they were managed and said it had taken steps to address the problem.

“We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse,” WHO spokeswoman Marcia Poole said in an email.

WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged in internal meetings that sexual abuse problems during the agency’s outbreak responses were unlikely to be exceptional.

“You can’t just pin this and say you have one field operation that went badly wrong,” he said. “This is in some sense the tip of an iceberg.”

As WHO struggled to control spiraling Ebola cases in Congo in early 2019, emergency operations manager Dr. Michel Yao received an email with the subject line: “Private. Chat.”

“We cannot afford to have people tarnishing the sweat and effort of individuals sacrificing themselves thru (sic) inappropriate sexual harassment and bullying,” the staffer wrote, saying he was concerned about Diallo.

Yao responded that the matter would be handled, but the staffer said his concerns were dismissed. An internal WHO investigation failed to corroborate the charges, but those who complained about Diallo were not interviewed.

Diallo was described as a charismatic manager with connections to WHO’s senior leaders, including director-general Tedros. On WHO’s website, Tedros, Yao and Diallo are pictured smiling and bumping elbows during one of Tedros’ 14 trips to Congo during the outbreak.

Diallo rejected claims of sexual misconduct.

“I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life,” he told the AP.

In April 2019, Yao received another email detailing more alleged sexual misconduct, this time about the other doctor the AP tracked down, Ngandu.

“I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni,” outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote to Yao. Keita told Yao a young woman and her aunt had come to Beni’s Hotel Okapi looking for WHO managers, with two armed police officers. The woman’s aunt said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu and was now pregnant.

They asked WHO to cover the cost of the woman’s medical costs and for money to buy land, “given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone.”

Keita said he felt that Yao should be informed “so that you would give us your directions for how to better manage this problem.”

One week after the email was sent, Ngandu signed a notarized contract confirming he would pay the young woman $100 a month until her baby was born, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. Keita and Achile Mboko, a WHO human resources staffer, signed as witnesses.

Ngandu said he wasn't the father of the baby and the deal was a “private matter.” He said he agreed to it after his WHO colleagues, including Keita, “advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself.” The young woman declined to talk to the AP.

It is unclear if Yao reported the abuse allegations to his superiors, as required by WHO protocol. He has since been promoted to be director of WHO Geneva’s Strategic Health Operations Department.

On Oct. 15, Tedros appointed an independent panel to investigate sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak in Congo; no findings are expected until the end of August. At a town hall meeting in November, Ryan acknowledged sex abuse issues had been “neglected” for years.

Back in Congo, Shekinah said she “couldn’t count how many times” she had slept with WHO’s Diallo after accepting a job for which she was not qualified.

“I wanted to quit. But because of my financial problems, I endured it,” she said. Even after they separated, Shekinah said he continued to message her, asking her to send him nude pictures.

Diallo should be punished “for his sexual abuse of all those girls in Beni as a lesson to these international organizations that this should not happen again,” she said. “I would like justice to be done.”

___

Maria Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

Maria Cheng And Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, The Associated Press

N.B. redistributes $163 million in carbon tax revenue, cuts personal income tax

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick's finance minister is returning $28 million to New Brunswickers through a personal income tax cut.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

Ernie Steeves says the benefit is part of the government's commitment to recycle $163 million in revenue generated from the carbon tax.

Steeves says the change would reduce the income tax rate on the first tax bracket from 9.68 per cent to 9.4 per cent for the 2021 taxation year, benefiting more than 420,000 taxpayers.

The proposed savings would begin on July 1 and be reflected when New Brunswickers file their 2021 tax return next spring.

The government says $78 million will be returned to taxpayers through a reduction in gasoline and diesel taxes, and $36 million will be allotted to the Climate Change Fund.

Steeves says $12 million will go toward subsidizing natural gas distributor Liberty Utilities to offset the cost of the carbon tax, and $9 million will be given to First Nations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.