Departure of U.S. Contractors Poses Myriad Problems for Afghan Military


Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt

NEW YOPRK TIMES
Sun., June 20, 2021


An Afghan Air Force helicopter lands at Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan, May 11, 2021. (Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan Air Force UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, shelled while on the ground by the Taliban on Wednesday, sat helpless at a small outpost in the country’s southeast, its burning and damaged airframe displayed in a video on Twitter.

Even if it could get to the chopper to try to service it, the Afghan military would face another escalating problem: It is heavily reliant on American and other foreign contractors for repairs, maintenance, fueling, training and other jobs necessary to keep their forces operating, and those contractors are now departing along with the U.S. military, leaving a void that leaders on both sides say could be crippling to Afghan forces as they face the Taliban alone.

The problem is especially acute for the Afghan Air Force. Not only does the small but professional fleet provide air support to beleaguered troops, but it is also essential to supplying and evacuating hundreds of outposts and bases across the country — the quickly thinning line that separates government and Taliban-controlled territory.

With their ability to maintain their aircraft diminishing, Afghan pilots who fly over Taliban-held territory are finding that the condition of their aircraft upon their return is as pressing a concern as the success of their mission.

There are “a lot of problems” in the Afghan Air Force and it needs “American support,” one pilot said bluntly shortly before he flew to retrieve Afghan troops in a besieged district. His helicopter was hit with several bullets and narrowly missed a rocket-propelled grenade.

The Pentagon’s command to train, advise and assist the Afghan Air Force, known as TAAC-Air, concluded in January that no Afghan aircraft could be sustained as combat effective for more than a few months in the absence of contractor support.

“I am concerned about the ability of the Afghan military to hold on after we leave, the ability of the Afghan Air Force to fly, in particular, after we remove the support for those aircraft,” Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of the Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan, told a Senate committee in Washington in April.

The issue is at the center of tortuous discussions among Biden administration officials, who are trying to devise workarounds for the myriad problems associated with President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops — and the contractors who support them — from Afghanistan. The withdrawal is expected to be complete by early to mid-July.

Officials at the Pentagon say that one possible solution would be to transfer contracts with private companies now paid for by the United States to the Afghan government. Under such an arrangement, American and other foreign contractors would stay in Afghanistan, but they would be paid by Afghan officials in overseas aid, mainly from the United States.

That way, the Pentagon and the Afghan government could get around the terms of the deal the United States struck with the Taliban, which implies that the Americans will not have private contractors in the country after the withdrawal.

“We should encourage the Afghan government to retain or engage contractor support for the Afghan Air Force and other key logistical and operational elements of the Afghan security forces — and we should pay for that support (including private security to protect those contractors),” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an essay this past week in The New York Times.

Contractors in Afghanistan have long operated under a system that is susceptible to corruption and mismanagement. Transferring their payments through another entity — in this case the Afghan government — is bound to make the contracts even more open to charges of corruption, lawmakers and independent analysts warn.

Even if the contracts are transferred, several senior American commanders and policymakers say it is unclear how many foreign contractors will choose to keep working in Afghanistan with the American security umbrella gone or if those companies will stomach the risk.

Another idea is to relocate aircraft out of the country for any major overhauls. But that would most likely become hugely expensive, one Pentagon official said, and could end up costing American taxpayers more than they pay now to maintain the Afghan Air Force and its planes inside the country.

Maj. Robert Lodewick, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an email Saturday that contracts with the Afghan Air Force and its special mission wing “have been modified, and the contractors continue their support.” Lodewick said he could not identify specific contractors or provide details on how the maintenance and logistics support would be provided.

These issues, fundamental to the survival of the Afghan national security forces once the U.S. military withdraws, are still being hashed out. That they are still being addressed even as the last U.S. troops are preparing to leave speaks to the years of disconnect between the Pentagon and a succession of presidents, all of whom, at one point or another, sought a more reduced American presence in the country than officials in the military and the Defense Department.

How to deal with the contractors is just one of a number of pressing problems created by the rapid withdrawal of American troops. The CIA is struggling to ensure that it can gather intelligence about potential threats from Afghanistan once the U.S. military presence ends.

The Pentagon is still weighing how it will strike terrorist groups such as al-Qaida from afar once it no longer has troops or warplanes in Afghanistan. And the Biden administration has yet to strike deals to position troops in any nearby nations for counterterrorism operations.

The Afghan government has always relied heavily on foreign contractors and trainers. As of this spring, there were over 18,000 Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan, including 6,000 Americans, 5,000 Afghans and 7,000 from other countries, 40% of whom are responsible for logistics, maintenance or training tasks, according to John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

The Afghan security forces rely on these contractors to maintain their equipment, manage supply chains, and train their military and police to operate the advanced equipment that the United States has bought for them.

For instance, during a virtual forum this year, Sopko spoke of the challenges the Afghans were facing with maintenance work. As of December, he said, the Afghan National Army was completing just under 20% of its own maintenance work orders, well below the goal of 80% that had been set and the 51% that they completed in 2018. The Afghan National Police carried out only 12% of its own maintenance work against a target of 35%.

Since 2010, the Defense Department has appropriated over $8.5 billion to develop a capable and sustainable Afghan Air Force and its special mission wing, but American policymakers and commanders have always known that both would need continued, expensive logistics support from contractors for aircraft maintenance and maintainer training, the inspector general’s office concluded in a report in February.

Contractors currently provide 100% of the maintenance for the Afghan Air Force’s UH-60 helicopters and C-130 cargo aircraft, and a significant portion of Afghan’s light combat support aircraft, Sopko said.

Problems with contractor support were mounting well before Biden’s decision in April to withdraw all American military personnel and contractors.

An assessment last fall by the inspectors general of the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, found that worker shortages, coronavirus-related restrictions and a lack of oversight made it difficult for American military officials to hold contractors accountable to performance standards.

Coupled with reduced training time and a lack of American officials to assess Afghans’ proficiency, the assessment found that basic skills for Afghan aircrews and aircraft maintenance workers declined.

By the end of last year, the American training command reported that only 136 of the 167 aircraft in the Afghan fleet were ready for combat missions or would be after minor maintenance, a drop of 24 aircraft from the previous quarter.

Even then, Afghan aircrews overworked what planes they had, the training command found, regularly exceeding the recommended number of flying hours between scheduled maintenance checks.

Another logistical headache emerged several years ago, after U.S. lawmakers lobbied to phase out Afghanistan’s fleet of Russian-made helicopters, called MI-17s, replacing them with U.S.-made Black Hawks.

Aside from not being able to carry as much cargo at higher elevations as the MI-17s, the more complicated Black Hawks effectively reset maintenance training for Afghan mechanics. One U.S. official said it would take until the mid-2030s for the Afghans to be able to maintain the Black Hawk fleet on their own.

“This plan we have for over the horizon,” the official added, “is not going to work as effectively as we need it to.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2021 The New York Times Company

The Cruel and Twisted Discoveries at Germany’s Stonehenge

Candida Moss

DAILY BEAST
Sat., June 19, 2021

When you think of Stonehenge what do you think of? England? Druids? Partygoers celebrating the solstice? A unique piece of ancient heritage? Chances are that you don’t think of Germany. As it turns out, however, Saxony-Anhalt has its own Early Bronze Age wooden henge—Ringheiligtum Pömmelter—and recent excavations have added more detail to its dark, distinctive history.

The reason that you might not have heard of Ringheiligtum Pömmelter is that it was only discovered in 1991. The monument, which is located near the village of Pömmelte, in the district of Salzlandkreis, was discovered when aerial photography of the region revealed the outline of the structure. Like Wiltshire’s Stonehenge, it is concentric and is made up of seven rings of raised banks, ditches, and palisades in which wooden posts were positioned. If you visit the 380-feet-wide circle today you can see the attractive reconstructed monument. The painted wooden posts erected at the site give tourists a sense of what it was like in its heyday.

Like Stonehenge the orientation of the site appears to have been determined by the summer and winter solstices. Thus, until recently, archaeologists assumed that Ringheiligtum was a ritual site that was used for religious purposes, stargazing, and the celebration of seasonal festivals. It was essentially a sacred flex space. Now excavations begun last month and reported this week by Heritage Daily, have revealed that people actually lived there. During the course of the May 2021 excavations scientists have discovered 130 dwellings (80 of which are complete), 20 ditches, and two burials. The newly discovered structures were built between 2800 BCE and 2200 BCE, with most of the houses dating to the latter period.

What makes the presence of homes especially noteworthy is the character of the religious rituals performed at Ringheiligtum. Between 2005 and 2008 excavations sponsored by the State Office for Cultural Heritage Management in Baden-Württemberg and the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg (both in Germany) probed the secrets of the site. It was these excavations that discovered the 300-year period of use and the post holes for the wooden fences and poles that have since been rebuilt. Other objects—including, grinding stones, millstones, stone axes, ceramic vessels, and animal bones were found in the pits.

The researchers also uncovered more macabre finds, in particular the dismembered remains of 10 children and women. Osteoarcheological analysis of the remains revealed that four of those buried there had suffered trauma to their skulls and ribs close to the time of their deaths, suggesting that they had died violently. While archaeologists uncovered more formal burials of 13 male adults within the east side of the rings of the Ringheiligtum, the internment of the women and children was different. Their bodies were thrown indiscriminately into the pits leading some to suggest that they had been ritually sacrificed as a part of the rituals that took place there.

André Spatzier, one of the lead excavators on the study, told LiveScience that one of individuals had had their hands tied before they were thrown in the pit. In the study itself the team wrote that it remained “unclear whether these individuals were ritually killed or if their death resulted from intergroup conflict, such as raiding.” But the difference between the male and female burials were suggestive: “the gender-specific nature of the adult victims and the ritual nature of the other deposits,” said the press release, “make [ritual sacrifice] a likely scenario.” Regardless of how you read the evidence, there was a clear disjuncture between the respectful burial afforded the men who were buried there, and the more dismissive and traumatic deaths of the women and children who may have been sacrificed (or executed). What the new excavation reveal is that whatever happened at Pömmelte, however violent, took place in close proximity to people’s homes. That the ritual sacrifice of women and children may have been taking place so close to domestic space (which is traditionally conceived of as the domain of women), is thought-provoking and suggestive. It’s easy to imagine the implicit threat that the memory of these violent rituals posed to the women who lived nearby.

What remains unknown, however, is the relationship between the Ringheiligtum at Pömmelte and the Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. If (like me) you grew up thinking that Stonehenge was special, you were wrong. Stonehenge was important and drew visitors from all across Britain, but it was far from unique. Though there are clear differences between the German and British examples the similarities are also apparent: concentric circles, monumental structures, religious rituals, and human remains buried in the system of pits and posts. The larger question of the relationship between and emergence of this symbolic sacred architecture remains unresolved. Stonehenge and the Woodenhenge at Pömmelte are not alone either. There are other circular monuments in the UK (the UK has its own Woodenhenge) and there is the 7,000-year-old Goseck circle in Germany, which also has ringed ditches and wooden palisades and has a strong claim to being the oldest of the Neolithic circles.

In sum, symbolic architecture and Neolithic solar observatories aren’t particular to the British Isles and seem to have originated in mainland Europe. The existence of other henges suggests that Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe was more interconnected than previously realized. As people migrated, they took their symbolic architecture and astrological-religious thought with them to new sites. And at some of those sites people—mostly vulnerable members of the community or outsiders—met grisly ends.

OF COURSE THEY DID

Texas power companies automatically raised the temperature of customers' smart thermostats in the middle of a heat wave

Tyler Sonnemaker
Sun., June 20, 2021

Texas power companies automatically raised the temperature of customers' smart thermostats in the middle of a heat wave

Power companies remotely accessing customers' smart thermostats raised privacy concerns for some residents. 

Texas power companies remotely adjusted customers' smart thermostats, KHOU 11 reported.

Customers said they had unknowingly agreed to let companies raise the temperature to save energy.


Texas regulators asked residents last week to conserve energy amid a heat wave.

Texas power companies heated up some customers' homes last week by remotely controlling their smart thermostats, KHOU 11 reported Thursday.

One resident in the state, which is facing a heat wave that is straining its power grid, told KHOU 11 his family had awoken from a nap sweating and shocked their home had gotten as hot as 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

It turns out they had enrolled their thermostats in an energy-conservation promotion called Smart Savers Texas, run by a company called EnergyHub, in partnership with power companies. The program gives EnergyHub permission to adjust participants' smart thermostats remotely during times of peak energy demand, in exchange for entry into a sweepstakes.

"During a demand-response event, Smart Savers Texas increases the temperature on participating thermostats by up to 4 degrees to reduce energy consumption and relieve stress on the grid," Erika Diamond, EnergyHub's vice president of customer solutions, told Insider, adding that "the ability to reduce energy consumption is critical to managing the grid, in Texas and nationwide."

Thermostat owners typically get an offer to participate in the program from their device manufacturer or energy provider via mobile app or email, Diamond said, and "every participant actively agrees to the terms of the program and can opt out of a demand-response event at any time."

Diamond told USA Today that demand-response events occurred rarely, about two to eight times a summer.

EnergyHub did not immediately have a response to Insider's questions about whether it notified participants before adjusting their thermostats.

CenterPoint Energy, a major energy provider in Texas, told KPRC 2 that it had "conducted a test curtailment event from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m." on Wednesday and that at its direction, EnergyHub "adjusted the thermostat set point for those enrolled customers."

Months after winter storms overloaded Texas' power grid, leaving millions without power or clean water, the state is dealing with a heat wave that led the state's top energy regulator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, to ask residents to conserve power last week.

Smart thermostats allow power companies one way to reduce strain on a power grid at scale, but they also sparked privacy and safety concerns for some residents who said they weren't aware what they had enrolled in.

"Was my daughter at the point of overheating?" Brandon English, a Deer Park, Texas, resident, told KHOU 11, adding: "She's 3 months old. They dehydrate very quickly."

"I wouldn't want anybody else controlling my things for me," English told KHOU 11, saying he unenrolled his thermostat after the event.

Read the original article on Business Insider

FIRST POST BLOGS

Investigating Wuhan 'lab leak theory' is a global imperative and India must be at forefront of the probe

The probe must look at how every single check and balance across every single global health institution got homogenised and drew from the same merry-go-round of medical-bureaucrats.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra

June 08, 2021 

File image of a security person outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the WHO team's field visit. AP


Scientific progress is intrinsically linked to freedom of expression. The reason is: All science at some point starts out as heresy. Consequently, only countries that encourage and celebrate heresy see a flourishing of the scientific revolution. 

Yet what COVID-19 has highlighted is, that the freedoms of the 1990s and early 2000s we took for granted, the freedoms that supported the information revolution and an unprecedented increase in global and Indian wealth, have now come full circle. Today, the suppression of dissent — especially scientific dissent — by the same players who benefitted from the information revolution have taken us back to the dark days of the suppression of Galileo and Copernicus.

The issue at hand is regarding what now seems as the deliberate scuttling of investigation into the origin of the coronavirus , and the full force of academic and institutional bullying, deplatforming, death threats and information suppression — not just of direct and circumstantial evidence, but also opinions based on said evidence. Normally, this would have merely been the subject of outrage, but we can now conclude that the said information suppression led to significant misdirection of medical efforts to contain the coronavirus . It definitely led to a lot of research, which could have contributed to an early solution up the garden path, and in so doing may have cost thousands if not millions of additional deaths.

Can India lead the probe?

Finding the exact source and nature of the leak was important for a variety of reasons — it had nothing to do with geopolitics and naming/shaming China or to focus international attention on its bio weapons programme. Far from it, the finding of “patient X” or the first person who contracted the virus is one of the key links in establishing the nature of the virus, its mutation and its virulence, all critical elements in finding the solution to it. Yet, it is at this same time that a global medical bureaucracy does everything in its power to suppress and divert the investigation.

From this point on, an investigation cannot merely have narrow terms of reference restricted just to the origins of the virus and the role of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

What we have seen over the last harrowing year is a global systemic failure, made worse by a cover-up, severe conflicts of interest at every stage of the global information, warning and response as well as the complete breakdown of the ability of dissenters and doctors to hold the powers to be to account. Thus, any global investigation has to cover the entirety of these in order to ensure there is no repeat.

India having managed this relatively well, and having the worst of the second wave behind it, can’t fall back on complacency. Far from it, India now needs to take a leadership role in forcing the international community to examine where things went wrong. Indeed, it is precisely the vast web of conflicted interests and institutional incest that led to the current situation that will do everything to stall such a comprehensive investigation. That is why state power — that too, a state that has been relatively untouched by the corrosive influence of the global health cartel — needs to be put behind this investigation. This would ensure both that the right questions are asked and that the terms of reference are not artificially skewed to ensure the exoneration of the transparently guilty.

Questions the world must ask

What would these questions and terms of reference look like? First up, there needs to be an investigation into the academic failure, corruption and research corrosion that happened. How is it that organisations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have through their distribution of grants been able to control and censor not just the publication of medical opinion but also the economic and remedial pathways?

How is it that the entire global public health ecosystem is a web of conflicting interests, where the man tasked by the WHO to investigate the Wuhan Institute of Virology was also the same man who had forwarded the US government funding to the institute for the Gain of Function research, who was simultaneously advising Dr Anthony Fauci to deny what we now know to be true, and who was engaged in a targeted campaign of academic harassment against those who questioned dogma, going so far as to both become a fact checker for social media giants and force editorial policy onto The Lancet?

Why was it that despite early evidence, the “five micron” threshold for labelling a disease as airborne was rejected by the WHO; regardless of presentations from highly qualified physicists, who was responsible for the pushback; why was the information suppressed and who will pay the price for the rejected early warnings? Why were “eminent personalities” like Fauci and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on record first discouraging the use of masks and then turning into mask fanatics, that too when all evidence points to the fact that both these people had access to the airborne nature of the disease in early 2020?

Ultimately the investigation must look at how every single check and balance across every single global health institution — be it medical, academic, policy, media and social media — got homogenised and drew from the same merry-go-round of medical-bureaucrats. We also need to ask how did China manage to work every single lever it could — from the WHO, to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to Dr Fauci, to an assorted set of allegedly diverse global heath NGOs — to deflect criticism away from it by providing the media and social media with talking points, ranging from racism to “misinformation”.

India has defied the global medical consensus frequently. Almost always it has been proven right — be it India’s defiance on generic drugs to taking a firm stand on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when the opportunity arose, and similarly managing to kick Chinese apps and companies out. Uniquely, it is India’s frustrating resistance to market economics that has made it so willing to defy the global health cartels and China and take them both on. It is now time India utilised this magnificent legacy of resistance into a constructive leadership path and frame the terms of reference and scope of the international investigation into the COVID nightmare.

The author is senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. Views expressed are personal.​

History tells us Himalayas hold key to controlling Asia; India must continue to be wary of China

Tsewang Dorji
Sun., June 20, 2021



For the past few years, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has upgraded its high-tech weapons and conducted a series of live-fire military exercises along the Himalayan borders and in Tibet. For Instance, Global Times reported on 5 January, 2020 that "China's latest weapons including the Type 15 tank and the new 155-millimeter vehicle-mounted Howitzer were deployed in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) began a first round of exercises in 2020€¦".

After Xi Jinping came to power, a major reorganisation of the PLA was carried out in 2015 and later in February 2016, the seven military regions were reorganised into five theatre commands. During the official flag-conferring ceremony held in Beijing on 1 February, 2016, Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), "urged the theate commands to improve their ability to command and strengthen joint command and action to complete the tasks of routine combat readiness and military actions".

Since then, there have been different intensive military exercises which also involved joint military exercises between different theatre commands, including the Western Theatre Command, which overlooks the security of East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet. All this centralisation of the command system indicates that China is planning to create a new front in the Indo-Tibet border.



In other words, China's growing number of military exercises in Tibet increases the threat that India faces.

During the military and diplomatic stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the Galwan Valley in June last year, despite pursuing a negotiation with India, satellite images proved that the PLA has been actively upgrading its military infrastructure. While pressuring India to stop the construction of roads in the Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso, China continues to develop an enhanced transport network and military infrastructure across Tibet bordering India.

This is further proved by the satellite images released by the space technology company Maxar. The structures consisting of bunkers, tents and storage units for military hardware built by the PLA overlooking the Galwan River were not visible in aerial photographs earlier in June. Hence, in dealing with India, there is a dualistic approach from Communist China.

Shishir Gupta, author of the Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and the Indian Riposte, reported in Hindustan Times on 20 November, 2020 that "Military commanders and national security planners who spoke on condition of anonymity said that over the past month they noticed the PLA engage in road construction at Churup village right across Kaurik pass in the central sector and that it has placed new container housing modules around Tunjum La, north of the contested Barahoti plains in Uttarakhand, just 4 km from the 565 km LAC in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand".

However, the construction of a road right across Kaurik pass threatens the security of India. Not only this, the existence of the East Turkestan-Tibet highway, which is closer to Kaurik pass, is one of the important strategic roads for the deployments of PLA's soldiers and military hardware during the time of 1962 border war with India.

On 29 May, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur along with Director-General of Police Sanjay Kundu visited the forward areas of Lepcha in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts.

Accompanied by cabinet minister Dr Ram Lal Markanda, after the inspection, the chief minister was quoted in Outlook as saying, "It's true that China is building roads and ramping up other infrastructural projects along the state's borders in the Tibet region. It appears China is planning to set up its surveillance network at some vantage point which is located at a higher elevation so as to keep an eye on our side of the borders".



These continuous Chinese infrastructure developments on the Tibetan Plateau further confirm the importance of Tibet.

From a strategic point of view, Himachal Pradesh is important because it shares a 260-kilometre-long porous border with Tibet in Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti districts. Of the total border length, 140 kilometres lie in the Kinnaur district, while 80 kilometres come under Lahaul and Spiti districts. In addition to this, the outfitting of 5G at the radar station in Tibet will further enhance the military communications and support a sprawling network for the rapid deployment of army and weapons along the India-Tibet border.

For the past decade, in the name of poverty-alleviation programmes, nearly 266,000 Tibetan nomads and farmers have been transferred into 960 new relocations near Tibet's border with India. The long-term plan of these mass relocation programes is to occupy and safeguard the Tibet border. Moreover, in Tibet, the party-state has systematically connected the major isolated border villages to highways and most of the border villages are now brought under the centralised surveillance system network.

In 2017, Communist China released its plan for the 'Construction of Villages of Moderate Prosperity in Border Areas (2017-2020)'. The objective of this plan is guided by Xi's governing strategy for Tibet: "[To] govern the country well we must first govern the frontiers well, and to govern the frontiers well we must first ensure the stability of Tibet".

Despite the 11 rounds of talks between Corps Commander-level between India and China over the Indo-Tibet border, China hasn't given up its expansionist policy towards the Himalayas.



From the military preparedness and strategic calculation, it seems China's "early harvest strategic move" is likely to shift towards the Tibet-Himachal borderland.

Around six decades prior, George Ginsburgs and Michael Mathos aptly summed up the importance of Tibet in the following words: "He who holds Tibet dominates the Himalaya piedmont; he who dominates the Himalaya piedmont threatens the Indian subcontinent; and he who threatens the Indian subcontinent may well have all of South Asia within his reach and, with it, all of Asia".

In short, in future whatever happens inside Tibet may matter for the Indian security environment and also that of Asia as well.

The author is research fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute in Dharamsala. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Madras

DURING THE COLD WAR 1.0 CHINA ALIGNED WITH PAKISTAN, STILL DO, INDIA WAS ALIGNED WITH RUSSIA AND A MEMBER OF THE NONALIGNED NATIONS (SO CALLED)

#NOTOKYOOLYMPICS
Why are Olympics going on despite public, medical warnings?
By STEPHEN WADE

AP

June 17, 2021

1 of 7
FILE - In this May 9, 2021, file photo, people who are against the Tokyo 2020 Olympics set to open in July, march to protest around Tokyo's National Stadium during an anti-Olympics demonstration. Public sentiment in Japan has been generally opposed to holding the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. This is partly based of fears the coronavirus will spike as almost 100,000 people — athletes and others — enter for both events.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

TOKYO (AP) — Public sentiment in Japan has been generally opposed to holding the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, partly based on fears the coronavirus will spike as almost 100,000 people — athletes and others — enter for both events.

The Japanese medical community is largely against it. The government’s main medical adviser Dr. Shigeru Omi has said it’s “abnormal” to hold the Olympics during a pandemic. So far, only 5% of Japanese are fully vaccinated.

The medical journal The Lancet has raised questions about the health risks and criticized the World Health Organization and other health bodies for not taking a clear stand. The New England Journal of Medicine has said the IOC’s decision to proceed “is not informed by the best scientific evidence.”

The second-largest selling newspaper in Japan, the Asahi Shimbun, has called for the Olympics to be canceled. So have other regional newspapers.

Still, they are going ahead. How have the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga been able to bypass strong opposition?

At the core is the Host City Contract that gives the IOC the sole authority to cancel. If Japan cancels, it would have to compensate the IOC. Of course, the IOC is unlikely to sue a host city. So any deal would be worked out behind the scenes.

And there are billions at stake. Japan has officially spent $15.4 billion but government audits suggest it’s twice that much. Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Inc., a key player in landing the corruption-tainted bid in 2013, has raised more than $3 billion from local sponsors.

Estimates suggest a cancellation could cost the IOC $3 billion-$4 billion in lost broadcast rights income. Broadcast income and sponsors account for 91% of the IOC income, and American network NBCUniversal provides about 40% of the IOC’s total income.

Fans from abroad have been banned already, and a decision on local fans attending Olympic venues should come as early as next week.

Associated Press sought perspectives from inside and outside Japan with the Olympics set to open on July 23.

“It’s a bit like a gambler who already has lost too much. Pulling out of it now will only confirm the huge losses made, but carrying on you can still cling to the hope of winning big and taking it all back. It’s true that public opinion is unlikely to be kind even if Suga decides to cancel at the last minute. He might as well take the chance and hope for the best by going ahead with it. At least there is some chance that he can claim the games to be a success — just by doing it — and saturating the media with pride and glory might help him turn the negative opinion around.”

—Koichi Nakano, political scientist, Sophia University

___

“The IOC carries a brand that is powerful. Athletes from around the world coming together to compete in peace is a heart-tugging draw. It takes an entertainment event and infuses it with a certain level of piety and awe. Who is against peace? With this “Olympism” as a goal, it has snagged corporate sponsors willing to pay lots of money. Therefore, the IOC has the leverage to exact contract terms very favorable to it and it certainly has done that in this case. The fact that only the IOC can formally decide to pull the plug on the games — even in the case of unforeseeable health events -- is testament to this.”

—Mark Conrad, lawyer, Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University

___

“The host city contract hands over all the power to the IOC. The Olympic industry has had 120-plus years to win hearts and minds around the globe, with obvious success. In the age of the internet, their PR controls the message and protects the brand 24/7. The IOC is also beyond the reach of any oversight agency, including the governments of host countries. It can violate a country’s human rights protections with immunity, including athletes’ right to access domestic courts of law.”

—Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, sociologist, author “The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach”

___

“Based on what I am hearing, people within the government have been given their instructions to make the games happen, and that is their singular focus right now — for better or for worse. Their hope is to get through the games with as few missteps as possible. Politicians may well be aware of the risk they are taking but hope that once the games begin the Japanese public will persevere ‘for the good of Japan’ and forget how we got there.”

—Aki Tonami, political scientist, University of Tsukuba

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“The IOC is an elitist club that garners support from other elites and people — and countries — that aspire to joining the elite. From a sports perspective, the IOC represents the custodian of the exclusive medals that athletes in numerous sports aspire to, acts as the chief promoter of the mythology of the healing power of sport, and the organization that most international sports federations and national Olympic committees are reliant on for funding.”

—John Horne, sociologist, Waseda Univeristy, author with Garry Whannel of “Understanding the Olympics”

___

“Politically, the opposition is so weak, the government can do pretty much anything it wants. Although a disastrous Olympics would damage the LDP’s credibility, the party likely feels safe because a majority of the public doubts the capability of the opposition to govern. The government may be hoping that once the games start, public opinion will turn. At the very least, producing a distraction, and at most, perhaps a rally round the flag effect.”

—Gill Steel, political scientist, Doshisha University

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“You notice how nobody seems to be in charge. You have all these different entities: the Tokyo organizing committee, the Japanese Olympic Committee, the Prime Minister’s office, the Governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike, the Japan Sports Agency, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Suga is asked in the Diet about canceling the games and says it’s not his responsibility. Nobody wants to lose face. You saw the same in the run up to the 1964 Games. In fact, it wasn’t until Feb. 11, 1963 — some 600 days before the opening ceremony — that Japan finally found somebody willing to accept the presidency of the local organizing committee.”

—Robert Whiting, author of several books on Japan including the latest “Tokyo Junkie”

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“A lot of the opposition is shallow and movable, though of course that’s contingent on the Olympics actually working out. There will be a lot of people (broadcasters, etc.) invested in trying to make it look like a good show, so I think they’ll have the winds at their back if there’s not an appreciable spike in COVID deaths or any heat-related tragedies for the athletes.”

—David Leheny, political scientist, Waseda University

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“If it turns out there is a surge in coronavirus patients and it becomes a catastrophe, that’s not the responsibility of the IOC. It’s the Japanese government that will be stuck with the responsibility.”

—Ryu Homma, author, former advertising agency executive

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Associated Press reporter Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Biden must stop methane pipelines to deliver on climate change and environmental justice


Crystal Cavalier and Michael E. Mann  

Mon., June 21, 2021,

Protesters holding a "NO NEW PIPELINES" inflated "pipeline" in Richmond, Va., on April 7, 2015.

Four years of President Donald Trump have cost America dearly. We lost our global leadership on addressing climate change and saw the struggle for environmental justice thwarted here at home. President Joe Biden has defined both of these objectives as cornerstones of his legacy, but a huge interstate methane gas pipeline now being rammed through the Appalachian Mountains threatens to undermine the progress his administration has promised.

The 42-inch diameter Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) would run 303 miles from West Virginia to Virginia, and it is one of the biggest U.S. gas pipelines in process. The pipeline's climate impact is estimated to be equivalent to about 23 typical coal plants, or more than 19 million passenger vehicles. That does not include a proposed 74-mile extension of the pipeline into North Carolina.

Methane gas is a climate change double whammy. It's a fossil fuel and, when burned for energy, releases the planet-warming greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But methane itself is a very potent greenhouse gas, and when some of it inevitably escapes into the atmosphere during hydraulic fracturing, we get further warming.


Pipelines affect disadvantaged people

Yet these harmful pipeline projects continue. Two other major interstate methane gas pipelines, the PennEast and the Pacific Connector, are being challenged, while more than a dozen are waiting for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – each another nail in America's climate coffin.

A recent national analysis found that the vast network of existing transmission pipelines are disproportionately concentrated where people experience high levels of "social vulnerability," a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention index of race, socioeconomic status, age, type of housing, language spoken and other factors.

It should come as no surprise that the big energy corporations behind the MVP who are willing to profit at the price of hurricanes, wildfires, floods and droughts are equally willing to trample local people. They even seem willing to trample the dead.

The MVP pipeline and its extension roughly follow the Native American Great Trading Path through Virginia and North Carolina, and tribal representatives are concerned the projects would desecrate sacred sites. Construction of the MVP mainline has already impacted sites on the traditional homeland of the Monacan Indian Nation (federally recognized in 2018), and Occaneechi, Saponi and Tutelo tribes, including a burial mound near Roanoke, Virginia, dating back several thousand years.

In West Virginia in 2019.

Despite requests by tribes for consultation with the FERC to ensure cultural resources were protected, they were largely ignored. The developer, describing the burial mound as a rock "push pile," has clear-cut the woodlands within yards of the site. Last month, FERC reached out to the Monacan Indian Nation to start consultation.

Follow the facts: On COVID-19 and climate change, denialism is deadly

Then there are the lower-income and elderly rural residents along the MVP route, too often disenfranchised when confronted with these kinds of projects. Almost half of the 17 affected counties in West Virginia and Virginia have poverty rates higher than the respective state average, and 14 of the counties have more elderly than average.

Two of the MVP's three West Virginia compressor stations – significant sources of air pollution – are in counties where 1 in 5 people live below the poverty line, counties "considered environmental justice communities," according to FERC.

Colonizer mentality on display

The MVP has also been an unmitigated disaster for water quality. Regulators in the two states have cited the developer for more than 350 clean water violations, amounting to more than $2 million in fines.

Now, the company is seeking permission from federal agencies to bore under or trench through hundreds more streams, rivers and wetlands, threatening countless water resources. In one case, the developer wants to drill under the Greenbrier River in West Virginia, a huge effort that would use 1 million gallons of water and take months, putting at risk the drinking water for a local public service district.

Require disclosure: Corporate America needs to level with investors on climate change

The MVP, announced in 2014, is still roughly only half-built, more than three years behind its original schedule and almost 100% over budget. It's one of the last-ditch efforts of the fossil fuel industry to squeeze out every penny in profit before it goes the way of the dinosaurs. It's also a clear example of the colonizer mentality of industry special interests, who have done unimaginable harm and put the planet in a climate crisis.

We fervently hope the Biden administration intends to make genuine progress on the paired crises of climate change and environmental justice. The MVP, for starters, has no place in that vision for America.

Crystal Cavalier of North Carolina is a member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Tribe and is working on her doctoral dissertation, "Missing Murdered Indigenous Women in Frontline Natural Gas Pipeline Communities." Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) is director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center and author of "The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden and climate: Methane pipelines are a test for the president

Tucker Carlson Outed As Secret Source: Reportedly Dished On Trump, Fox News

New York Times says the Fox News host’s willingness to gossip to reporters is an “open secret” in Washington.

By Ed Mazza

Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, who routinely rails against the mainstream media, is reportedly a secret and frequent source for reporters in the very organizations he attacks, according to The New York Times.

“Mr. Carlson, a proud traitor to the elite political class, spends his time when he’s not denouncing the liberal media trading gossip with them,” wrote media columnist Ben Smith. “He’s the go-to guy for sometimes-unflattering stories about Donald J. Trump and for coverage of the internal politics of Fox News (not to mention stories about Mr. Carlson himself).”

Carlson’s willingness to dish is an “open secret” in Washington, according to Smith.

Smith said he trades messages with Carlson himself, and said 16 other journalists from outlets other than the Times had all said Carlson has been a source, with three calling him a “great source.”

Read the full report here, which includes a pretty unforgettable piece of art.



Carlson’s rhetoric has turned increasingly extremist, airing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection, the coronavirus pandemic and vaccination. He’s also railed against immigrants, and both he and his guests have aired white nationalist talking points.

How the FBI became the target of a conspiracy theory about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Caitlin Dickson
·Reporter

Sun., June 20, 2021

A theory embraced recently by conservative media personalities and politicians who support former President Donald Trump, which alleges that the violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was somehow orchestrated by the FBI, appears to have originated with an article on a right-wing website run by a fired Trump White House official.

On Tuesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson told his roughly three million viewers that it appeared “the FBI was organizing the riots of Jan. 6.” Though Carlson provided no evidence for this inflammatory allegation, his claim was quickly picked up and repeated as fact by a number of other conservative pundits and Republican lawmakers.

Over the course of two days, outraged calls for the truth about the FBI’s supposed involvement in the Capitol riots ricocheted across social media, making their way to FBI headquarters and even into the Congressional record.

The FBI false-flag narrative did not originate with Tucker Carlson, however, but with an article published Monday by Revolver News, a right-wing website run by former Trump speechwriter Darren Beattie. Beattie, who was fired from the White House in 2018 for attending a conference alongside white supremacists, was later appointed by Trump on his way out of office to a government commission that preserves Holocaust-related sites in Europe.

Supporters of President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally on Jan. 6. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

It’s unclear whether anyone other than Beattie writes for Revolver, as no bylines appear to be on the site’s original posts, including this week’s “exclusive” suggesting the FBI was behind the Capitol riots.

The route from an obscure right-wing website to a major network program illustrates how quickly misinformation, or distorted information, can become part of a national discussion, despite an absence of evidence. This isn’t the first conspiracy theory or misinformed talking point to follow the Revolver-to-Fox News pipeline, either. Last September, for example, Beattie appeared on Carlson’s show to promote a similarly convoluted theory, first outlined on Revolver, charging that Democratic operatives and government insiders were plotting a “color revolution” to overthrow Trump in the 2020 election, which conservative commentators quickly echoed.

Similarly, Beattie’s FBI allegation was rapidly picked up by some Republican members of Congress.

“We need names and answers about the FBI operatives, who were involved in organizing and carrying out the Jan 6th Capitol riot,” tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman congresswoman from Georgia who has a history of promoting conspiratorial beliefs, including those associated with QAnon. Greene’s call to action was echoed by other outspoken Trump allies, like Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, who cited Carlson’s Fox News segment and the Revolver article on the floor of the House of Representatives, entering both into the Congressional record.

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Florida announced on Twitter that he’d sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray formally requesting that he “fully disclose the role and involvement of FBI operatives during the January 6th Capitol riot.” The FBI confirmed in an email to Yahoo News that it had received the letter from Gaetz but declined to provide any additional comment.

On Thursday night, Carlson doubled down on his claims before his primetime Fox News audience.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via Reuters)

The Revolver article is based mostly on hypotheticals, deriving a potentially “sinister” significance from the numerous references to “unindicted co-conspirators” in several of the indictments against alleged members of far-right extremist and paramilitary groups like the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and Proud Boys, who are accused of planning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Based on the information contained in these charging documents, the article claims, without evidence, there to be a “disturbing possibility” that these anonymous co-conspirators were working as undercover federal agents or confidential informants.

"The government knows who they are, but the government has not charged them," Carlson said Tuesday, summarizing the Revolver article’s core implication. "Why is that? You know why. They were almost certainly working for the FBI.”

Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and a professor at Pace University law school in New York, called that conclusion “patently ridiculous.”

Gershman did not dispute that the FBI may have sought to infiltrate some of these extremist groups with undercover agents or informants prior to Jan. 6.

“That’s something that’s done all the time,” he said. But, Gershman emphasized, “it’s one thing to infiltrate in order to get evidence of crime. It’s another thing to instigate and provoke.”

Some of the Proud Boys' top brass do have a history of cooperating with the FBI. In January, Reuters reported that Enrique Tarrio, a prominent leader of the group who did not enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6, worked repeatedly as an undercover informant for federal and local law enforcement for several years. And in March, Joseph Biggs, another Proud Boys leader who has been charged with conspiracy in relation to the insurrection, sought to avoid jail time by claiming in a court filing that he, too, had been in regular contact with federal and local law enforcement about the group’s activities starting in 2018. (Biggs was temporarily released before being ordered back to jail in April pending trial.)

Gershman, who previously specialized in criminal defense litigation in private practice, said it’s very common for the defense to make complaints of entrapment or government instigation in cases involving undercover agents or informants. In some cases, he acknowledged, those complaints are valid.

“There are situations where, in the past, agents have provoked and instigated crimes,” Gershman said, adding, however, that it’s highly unlikely that the unindicted co-conspirators referenced in the indictments stemming from the Capitol riots were working for the FBI prior to Jan. 6. What is possible and much more likely, he said, is that they played a key role in the attack, and may have very well been genuine accomplices of the people facing criminal charges.

“Usually, the unindicted co-conspirators are really involved in the unlawful activity,” making them particularly valuable to the government, he said. These individuals have likely evaded their own indictments by agreeing to cooperate with investigators in the aftermath of Jan. 6., and may have provided crucial evidence used to file criminal charges against their accomplices, or prosecutors may be planning to call them to testify as witnesses in a trial, according to Gershman.

The Justice Department’s internal manual states, “In the absence of some significant justification, it is generally not appropriate for a United States Attorney to identify” unindicted co-conspirators in court filings.

The FBI appears to be the latest scapegoat to emerge in the ongoing effort by Trump's allies to reframe the narrative around Jan. 6 and deflect responsibility for the violence that occurred at the Capitol away from him and his supporters. After an unsuccessful initial campaign to point the finger at left-wing agitators and antifa, a number of Republican lawmakers have continued to try to rewrite history, insisting that the actions of the violent mob that stormed the Capitol, forcing them and their colleagues to barricade in offices and take cover under desks, did not amount to a violent insurrection but rather a mostly “peaceful protest,” similar to a “normal tourist visit.”

Such efforts to downplay the severity of what happened on Jan. 6 have been used by some Republicans as a shield against further scrutiny, like the kind that would come from an independent investigation by a 9/11-style commission. Last month, Republicans blocked attempts to establish a commission to look at the Jan. 6 riot.

'We are not relics of the past': Canada needs more than just National Indigenous Peoples Day to achieve true reconciliation

Farah Khan
Sun., June 20, 2021



June 21, 2021 — Today, we mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, honouring the very positive and profound impact of Indigenous communities and culture in Canada. With a heavy heart, we pay tribute to the countless Indigenous lives lost through Canada’s residential school system, to missing and murdered Indigenous women and men, and to the resilience required to survive the traumas of colonization on identity, land and culture.

Today, we have altered the Yahoo logo on our Homepage to commemorate Canada's Indigenous roots with a medicine wheel, an emblem of North American Indigenous cultural values, traditions and spirituality. The medicine wheel's four quadrants are a symbol of wholeness, connectedness and strength. It reminds us that we must reckon with the past in order to achieve true reconciliation. — Yahoo Canada Editors
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Get to know what National Indigenous Peoples Day means to individuals with Indigenous heritage in Canada and what they hope to see for true reconciliation:

Wab Kinew

Wab Kinew is the Leader of the Manitoba NDP. He is also a bestselling author, award-winning musician, and former journalist.

National Indigenous Peoples Day is a time to reflect on the important contributions Indigenous peoples have made in shaping our country and the places we live. This year, with the heartbreaking news from Tk'emlups te Secwepemc, it is also a time to commemorate the children lost to Residential Schools and recommit to the work of reconciliation. I would like governments, businesses, public institutions and Canadians to commit to the implementation of the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the Calls to Justice of the National Inquiry, including searching all the sites of former Residential Schools for other unmarked burials.Wab Kinew, NDP leader in Manitoba

Riley Yesno

Riley Yesno is a queer Anishinaabe writer, researcher, and public speaker from Eabametoong First Nation.


For me, days of recognition mostly provide an opportunity to take stock of the brilliance of our communities. The joy, pleasure, and transformative futures we are always building. I center our love. For true reconciliation I would like to see Canada stop pretending like they don’t know what they need to do to fix the harm we face. There are dozens of reports with hundreds of recommendations showing the way forward— we just need the will to pursue it. #LANDBACK.

Elmer St. Pierre

Elmer St. Pierre is The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples National Chief.

CAP IS A RIGHT WING  FIRST NATIONS NGO ORGANIZED BY THE CONSEVATIVES AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE AFN.



National Indigenous Peoples Day is a day for our communities across the country to celebrate, and we do so in many different ways. I celebrate by attending pow wow’s with my family and community. We drum, sing, dance, enjoy traditional food and visiting crafters. What Canada can improve: The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples full and equitable participation in the implementation process of Bill C-15, Canada’s Act to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The federal government needs to act on the CAP-Daniels v. Canada Supreme Court decision to ensure the rights, interests and needs of CAP’s communities are met. The greatest opportunity for change in the history of Métis and Non-Status Indians is right in front of us, and we can’t miss it.

Sol Mamakwa

Sol Mamakwa is an MPP for the NDP representing Kiiwetinoong.

National Indigenous Peoples Day is a time of love, joy and reflection. We love our families and communities and if we have a day to celebrate each other - that’s beautiful. But I believe we are more than just a day or month marked on the calendar. Our existence is our resistance to ongoing colonial oppression and continued injustices. I have no doubt we shall rise above and shine. I know this because we are all STILL here, we are reclaiming and with each generation, we get stronger. There can be no Reconciliation in this country without truth. Canada is still listening and learning the truth. And that starts by honouring our treaties. The treaties that built this country are the laws of the land but Canada has continually ignored them, carrying on as if they meant nothing. But they mean everything. Canada constantly breaks its own laws and treats us like we are second class citizens. We are not. We will not rest until Canada honours the treaties.

Chanin Lee

Chanin Lee is an actress from Toronto.


The month feels like a time to especially celebrate my culture and who I am. I remember my roots and my ancestors before me. Personally, I think it gives visibility for non-Natives to have a chance to learn about Indigenous history, and that we’re still here and flourishing against everything we’ve been through. Everyday is Indigenous Peoples Day for me and still being here as a proud mixed Anishnaabe woman feels like a triumph. I think the only way for true reconciliation would be “land back” since that's far fetched, at the least, we need to allow Indigenous people to be the stewards of the land and to be supported and aided by the government and rest of population. I'd like to see non-Indigenous people learning a non-biased history of our peoples. I’d like to see more Indigenous people being given access to land-based traditions and teachings. I’d like to see clean water on all reserves. I’d like to see an understanding from non-Indigenous people of the effects of residential schools, the '60s scoop and how many if not all of our people are dealing with intergenerational trauma.

Chanin Lee, Toronto actress

Wade Grant

Wade Grant is an advocate for reconciliation and a member of a Musqueam Indian Band.

National Indigenous Day was recognized in this country as a moment for people like myself and my children to be seen. It was a day to actually lift up communities that were left behind, communities that were ignored, communities that were discriminated against, the first peoples of this country that did so much to build up this country, prior to Confederation and since Confederation, to finally be recognized that we are still here. We are not relics of the past. True reconciliation needs to happen at a grassroots level where people can have conversations, coffee table talk, family get togethers, and bringing groups together.

Wade Grant, advocate for reconciliation, member of a Musqueam Indian Band

Join an activity across Canada using this interactive map to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Consider donating to Indigenous communities across Canada to support the journey to reconciliation.