Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Ontario farm with migrant worker who died of COVID-19 hit with 20 charges
Andrew Lupton

© Submitted by Chaparro Family Juan Lopez Chaparro died June 20, 2020, after contracting COVID-19 from Scotlynn Group farm where he was employed. The Ontario farm now faces 20 charges.

An Ontario farm where an outbreak of COVID-19 affected more than 200 workers, including a man from Mexico who later died, now faces 20 charges following an inspection by the provincial Labour Ministry.

Charges filed with the Ontario Court of Justice under the Occupational Health and Safety Act say Scotlynn Sweetpac Growers Inc. and its owner, Scott Biddle, failed to take "every precaution reasonable" to protect workers from COVID-19 infection on the vegetable farm in Vittoria, located about 75 kilometres south of Hamilton.

Scores of workers tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak in the spring of 2020. Juan Lopez Chaparro, a 55-year-old from Mexico, died in June that year after working at the farm.

The charges, which have not been proven in court, say the farm and its owner failed to protect workers in the following ways:
Workers weren't informed about the need to wear face coverings.
Workers didn't have access to hand hygiene facilities.
There was a lack of cleaning on touch surfaces.
Workers with a higher likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 and those showing symptoms weren't given information or instructions to self-isolate.

CBC News called Scotlynn group for comment on Monday after 5 p.m. ET and was told by an employee who answered the phone to call back on Tuesday.

Chaparro — like thousands of workers who come to Ontario each growing season — was in Canada as part of the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, which allows farmers to hire temporary foreign workers.

One worker at Scotlynn Sweetpac, Luis Gabriel Flores, was fired after speaking out about conditions at the farm. He was Chaparro's bunkmate.

The province's Labour Relations Board ordered Scotlynn Growers to pay Flores $20,000 in lost wages and $5,000 in damages.

Migrant workers typically live in communal bunkhouses with shared kitchens and bathrooms, conditions health officials and advocates for migrant workers had warned, prior to the outbreak, created unsafe conditions in a pandemic. Advocates say the workers' families rely on money they earn in Canada, and many don't speak out for fear of losing their jobs and the ability to earn during the growing season.

Karen Cocq, who's with the group Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said the charges should have come much sooner than a year after Chaparro's death.

"[The delay] means the systems that we currently have in place, that are supposed to enforce laws and protect workers, clearly are not working," she said.

Cocq said the case involving Chaparro marks the first time any Ontario employer has been charged in response to a worker's death due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

The penalties section of the Occupational Health and Safety Act list possible penalties ranging from jail sentences of up to a year and fines that range up to $1.5 million.

The labor shortage may have an old-fashioned solution: carpenters, electricians, and other trades are good jobs that make workers happy

insider@insider.com (Madison Hoff)

Employment for electricians, carpenters, and plumbers could help address the labor shortage.

Skilled trade workers typically get paid well, get to learn on the job, and aren't saddled with student loan debt.

Two experts told Insider that employers in the space have a rare opportunity to attract new workers.

The jobs of the future are in part the jobs of the past: Work for electricians, carpenters, and plumbers could help fix the labor shortage.

With millions of Americans reevaluating their careers during the pandemic and quitting jobs, skilled trades that typically offer relatively high pay and on-the-job training may be a promising new career choice.

A new annual report from Angi, a marketplace for home services, highlights not only the situation of skilled trades during the pandemic but also how skilled trades can take advantage of the Great Resignation in other industries - if done right.

"If home trades recognize the connection between what their trades offer and what workers are seeking during the Great Resignation, we could begin to see a narrative change around trade labor and start to reverse the labor shortages that have impacted the trades for years," the marketplace wrote in the report.

People in skilled trades are happy with their work, and 83% of tradespeople in the Angi report said they were at least somewhat satisfied.

"So when two-thirds of the labor force aren't engaged in their work, this is an area where people should be going because it's booming," Mischa Fisher, chief economist for Angi, told Insider.

Angi notes that there's a demand for these workers owing to booming markets in homes and home improvements during the pandemic. This demand is also seen in an analysis of job data from industrial staffing agency PeopleReady:

Even before the pandemic, there was a shortage of skilled trade workers.

Kevin Ponder, construction director at PeopleReady Skilled Trades, told Insider some Baby Boomers decided to retire early because of the pandemic. A shortage of workers in construction has also contributed to a record backlog of homes authorized but not started.
Skilled-trade employers need to change how they attract talent

Per Angi, 46% of skilled-trade employers said they recruit new workers by word-of-mouth recommendations, but Fisher said this may not be very effective for finding new workers.

"Because for the most part, tradespeople know other tradespeople. And so word of mouth, it's a very closed ecosystem," Fisher said. He added that recruiters instead should increase their digital presence.

Fisher said recruiters need to change their messaging as well. Most tradespeople say they're satisfied with their work mainly because they find meaning and value in it, per Angi's results. But that isn't being prioritized in recruitment efforts as shown in the below chart:

"They have to make sure they're communicating [that] people really like this work. You're going to like your job if you do this," Fisher said. "And so both the message and the medium have to be improved."

Ponder added trades need to highlight benefits like good compensation and being paid while learning on the job through an apprenticeship program and without the burden of student loans.

The following table shows the typical education, training, and pay in some trades:

Fisher added that there also needs to be more of an effort to hire women and people of color, as skilled trades are predominantly white men. Women only make up 3.1% of electricians; 2.3% of plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters; and 3.8% of construction laborers in 2020 per BLS data. Last year's data also shows 86.6% of construction laborers were white.

"What people [in skilled trades] are looking for - willingness to work hard, willingness to learn, customer service skills, planning, craftsmanship skills - there's no reason why we couldn't see that rate of women in the trades be much, much higher," Fisher said.

Ponder said if you're interested in being outside or building something that will be around for years, "you get that in construction, you get that in the skilled trades. And that's an opportunity where you get to see something that you've done that may be here 20, 30, 40 years later, and be able to look at your kids or grandkids and say I was a part of that."

"So many people that I saw start off at barely over minimum wage, 10 years later they were running million-dollar projects because they worked hard and they learned, and there's just not a lot of industries out there that still have that flexibility and freedom to allow you to grow based on what you're learning on the job," Ponder said.

Did you quit your job during the pandemic and have made the switch into a skilled trade position? Email this reporter at mhoff@insider.com.Expanded Coverage Module: what-is-the-labor-shortage-and-how-long-will-it-last
Read the original article on Business Insider

UPDATED

Lava spewing again from Canary Islands volcano, airport remains closed

GAIA LIVES PELE VOCIFERATES

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -
Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Fraser JACKSON

A volcano began spewing out ash again Monday after a brief lull in the Canary Islands, where coastal residents are confined to their homes over fears of toxic gases when the lava hits the sea.

La Cumbre Vieja, which straddles a southern ridge in La Palma in the Atlantic archipelago, erupted on September 19, spewing out rivers of lava that have slowly crept towards the sea.

But on Monday morning, the lava and ash flow had stopped, and the week-long rumble of the eruption faded to silence, before resuming its activity several hours later, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Smoke had continued to emerge from the top during the lull.

"In the last hours, the volcanic tremor has almost disappeared, as well as the explosive strombolian activity," tweeted Involcan volcanology institute, using the scientific term for a mix of explosions and lava flow.

"Volcanic activity in La Palma has reduced significantly in the last few hours," Madrid's Institute of Geosciences tweeted.

"We must be very vigilant about how it evolves because the scenario can change quickly."

Several hours later, the volcano started pumping out ash again.

Fits and starts

Speaking to AFP after the resumption, Involcan spokesman David Calvo said it was "just ash, for the time being". La Cumbre Vieja had been switching between "explosive episodes and lulls for quite a while", he added.

Overnight, 300 residents living in coastal areas were ordered to stay at home to avoid harm from the release of toxic gases when the lava finally reaches the sea, the regional government said.

"The population must follow the instructions of the authorities and remain at home, with doors and windows closed," it said.

The lava, moving very slowly, is currently between 800 and 1,000 metres (around half a mile) away from the shore, it said. An evacuation order affecting four areas is in place around Tazacorte, where it is expected to enter the sea.

Officials have also set up an exclusion zone to head off curious onlookers.

Experts say the entry of lava into the seawater will send clouds of toxic gas into the air, causing explosions and a fragmentation of the molten rock like gunshots.

"Inhalation or contact with acid gases and liquids can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause breathing difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases," Involcan warned.

Air traffic disrupted

The molten rock has so far scorched its way across more than 235 hectares of land, burning up many banana plantations, devoured 513 properties and destroyed nearly 20 kilometres of road, the European Union's Copernicus Earth Observation Programme said.

And eruption has so far force more than 6,000 people from their homes, although 160 were allowed to return home on Sunday.

The authorities also said clouds of ash from the volcano had started to affect areas on the eastern side of the island.

At La Palma's airport, where air traffic was halted on Saturday for 24 hours due to the ash, local airline Binter said it had been unable to resume flights.

"We have halted our La Palma operations again after trying to make a first flight today and finding conditions were not safe enough," tweeted the airline, which is based in the Canary Islands, saying it would try again on Tuesday.

(AFP)

Lava from Spanish island volcano rolls slowly toward the sea

by Daniel Roca and Barry Hatton

In this Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021 satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. lava and ash from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain can be seen. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: Planet Labs Inc. via AP

Lava flowing from a volcano in Spain's Canary Islands picked up its pace on its way to the sea Tuesday, but scientists said it was impossible to estimate when the black-and-red stream of molten rock would reach the shore.

Authorities said the lava had moved on the island of La Palma to within 800 meters (875 yards) of the Atlantic Ocean as of Tuesday morning, nine days after the volcano's eruption. When it eventually meets sea water, the lava could trigger explosions and the release of toxic gas.

By the afternoon, officials said various factors dictated the unpredictable speed of the lava flow, including its departure from a path over an earlier flow that had hardened. The river of cooled lava had helped the moving flow slide along.

"The lava cools down as time passes and it meets uneven ground, which slows it down," said Miguel Ángel Morcuende, technical director of the Canary Islands emergency volcano response department. "And if it comes off the highway it was going along, that slows it even more because it spreads out wider."

A small hill and a built-up area also stood in the lava's way, and the shore area is flatter than the hills the lava has been flowing down.

For days, officials have nervously awaited the time when lava from the Sept. 19 eruption reaches the Atlantic, but the volcano has been erratic. After calming down on Monday, the volcano became more explosive again overnight.

Lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain on Monday Sept. 27, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

Authorities said they don't expect the slow-moving lava to create a large disruption on the coast. But Eugenio Fraile, a researcher at the Spanish Oceanography Institute, told Cadena Ser radio that only scientists wearing protective gear will be inside a security perimeter when the flow hits the ocean.

The National Geographic Institute detected six earthquakes Tuesday in the area of the eruption, with the strongest measured at magnitude 3.3.

La Palma, home to about 85,000 people, is part of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago off northwest Africa. The island is roughly 35 kilometers (22 miles) long and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide at its broadest point.

Lava from the eruption has devoured everything in its path, destroying 589 buildings and 21 kilometers (13 miles) of roads on La Palma. The lava now covers 258 hectares (637 acres), mostly farmland, according to a European Union satellite monitoring agency.

A woman takes a selfie as lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain on Monday Sept. 27, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Roca

In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021 satellite photo from Planet Labs Inc. lava and ash from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain can be seen. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: Planet Labs Inc. via AP

Lava flows from a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain in the early hours of Tuesday Sept. 28, 2021. A Spanish island volcano that has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished and authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters. Credit: AP Photo/Saul Santos

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, thanks to the prompt evacuations of over 6,000 people.

But local people have lost their homes and their livelihoods at the same time. Farming is one of the island's economic mainstays, along with tourism, and the lava and ash has ruined crops and irrigation systems, endangered aviation and poses a significant health risk to those nearby.

No flights went in or out of La Palma's airport for a fourth straight day because of a huge ash cloud. Volcanic ash is hazardous for aircraft engines.

The Spanish government announced after its weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday it's providing an immediate grant of 10.5 million euros ($12.3 million) to buy 107 properties to rehouse local people and also provide them with income aid.

More aid, including for the rebuilding of public infrastructure, will be sent once the current emergency is over, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said.

The volcano has so far spewed out more than 46 million cubic meters (1.6 billion cubic feet) of molten rock, according to the Canary Island Volcanology Institute.

Explore furtherSpanish volcano still packs a punch 5 days after eruption

© 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Pandemic dramatically worsens life in world's poorest countries

For 50 years, the UN has tracked the progress of the world's weakest economies. Despite some headway, things remain extremely hard in the world's least-developed nations. The pandemic has made things considerably worse.

Chlidren have been among the worst-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically worsened life for citizens in the world's poorest countries, according to a new UN report.

The UN's Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) "Least Developed Countries Report 2021" says the pandemic has brought about the countries' worst growth performance in 30 years and "has reversed progress achieved on several development dimensions, especially poverty, education, nutrition and health."

Compounding the problem is the chronically low rate of vaccination in the countries, relative to those in developed countries. Of some 1.1 billion people living in the world's least developed countries, just 2% have been vaccinated.

"Today LDCs find themselves at a critical juncture," UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said at the launch of the report. "They need decisive support from the international community to develop their productive capacities and institutional capabilities to face traditional and new challenges such as the COVID-19 crisis and climate change."

The UN currently designates 46 economies around the world as least developed countries (LDCs). The status entitles countries to aid and preferential market access. The vast majority are in Africa (33 - see map and list below the article), with nine in Asia, three Pacific Island nations and one (Haiti) in the Americas.

Huge investment needed from international community

Countries in the LDC category already faced monumental economic challenges before the pandemic struck. Despite being home to around 15% of the world's population, they accounted for just 0.13% of global total trade in the 2010s.

According to the UN, they remain marginalized in international trade. Around 85% are dependent on exporting commodities, rather than manufactured products.

UNCTAD emphasizes that the outlook for LDCs is grim. "The pandemic has severely affected LDCs due to their reduced resilience and diminished capacity to react to the COVID-19 shock and its aftermath," the report says.

However, the organization also says that if the world's least developed countries are to recover from the era-defining blow to their development struck by the pandemic, huge investment from developed nations is needed to develop "productive capacities" which would enable their economies to grow.

In order to accelerate progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals — a list of global targets for countries agreed by the UN in 2015 — a daunting level of financing is required, the report says.

Annual investment requirements for countries to achieve the target of 7% annual growth is around $462 billion (€394 billion), while $485 billion is the estimated annual amount required to end extreme poverty in the countries.

Longer-term structural transformations in the countries' economies will require even more money. Around $1 trillion is needed annually to help LDCs double manufacturing's share in GDP.

In order for LDCs to eradicate extreme poverty, an average annual growth rate of 9% is needed. To double manufacturing's share of GDP, a 20% growth rate is needed.

While LDC governments have a big role to play in improving their own finances, the report makes clear that the goals will not be met if richer nations don't contribute substantially.

"The international community has an essential role to play in supporting LDCs in their efforts to mobilize adequate financing for their sustainable development needs," it says.

Moving up the categories

While the pandemic has dramatically reserved progress for these nations, there is still some hope. Since the UN created the LDC category in 1971, six countries have "graduated" from "least developed" to "developing" status: Botswana, Cabo Verde, Maldives, Samoa and most recently, in 2017 and 2020 respectively, Equatorial Guinea and Vanuatu.

Angola was expected to move to developing status this year, but the pandemic and subsequent recession in the country means that is now on hold for at least three more years.

To move up a category, countries must meet certain requirements in two of the following three criteria: average income levels, 'human assets (meaning health and education levels) and economic and environmental vulnerability levels.

50-year lessons

This year's report marks 50 years of the UN's designation of LDCs. It explores in depth how the economies of LDC nations have evolved over the past five decades, emphasizing that their development trajectories have been "erratic and often fragile."

"These mixed results underscore the struggle of LDCs to make decisive progress on structural economic transformation and sustainable development, a struggle with complex origins now made worse by the COVID-19 crisis," Grynspan says.

"The pandemic rolled back many years of the hard-won progress LDCs had made in improving their peoples' lives, and bridging their widening income gap with other developing countries and the rest of the world."

As the world's richer nations focus on their own very different post-pandemic economic recoveries, this report makes clear that the status quo cannot continue if the world's poorest people are to be lifted out of extreme poverty and towards a more positive future.

"The current framework of domestic and international policies has not helped the majority of LDCs overcome the major development challenges they face," the report says.

UN Least Developed Countries List 2021

AFRICA

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia.

AMERICAS

Haiti

ASIA

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Yemen.

PACIFIC

Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu

MEDICINE IS RUN BY A GUILD OF DR'S TO LIMIT JOB COMPETITION*

India: Why medical students are taking their own lives

Some students who have taken the NEET medical entrance exam have killed themselves, alarming authorities in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Entrants say the pressure is immense.

Many young people in India face extreme pressure to become doctors, and the stress does not end there

At what is meant to be the beginning of a successful career, Barnali took her entrance exam to become a medical student in India this year.

But the experience has been far from pleasant, as she explained to DW. "My parents are both doctors," she began. "So I have always felt pressured to take up medicine as a career. I don't think I will qualify this year."

She is not alone in a country that affords great respect to practitioners of the medical profession.

Students undertaking the entrance exam feel an immense amount of pressure from their families, educational institutions and society as a whole.
Rising student suicides

In the southern state of Tamil Nadu, several students took their own lives after taking the undergraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), before the results were even out. Local media reports said many of the students were afraid they had not performed well enough in their exams, which is why they took this tragic measure.

The NEET is a centralized exam conducted across India for students to qualify for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) course. It was introduced in 2013 and is mandatory for students before entering private and public medical colleges to study for the MBBS degree. On average, students taking this exam are aged between 17 and 19 years of age.

State authorities have been alarmed by the high number of suicides among medical entrance candidates. Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister MK Stalin mourned the deaths of students on Twitter.

The state has launched a helpline so students can access counseling over the phone and introduced a bill to scrap the entrance exam altogether, saying it will reduce the amount of pressure on students to perform well in a one-off assessment that determines their fate. The western state of Maharashtra is also considering scrapping the exam.

While the move is being considered as a positive one, many are worried it will only transfer the pressure to school academic performances. India has three different educational boards: the CBSE, ICSE, and the state board, with differing educational levels and grading parameters.

"Canceling the NEET is a good idea, but it is going to make the process of getting into colleges even more competitive, based on their final grades," Kimberley, a student who took the exam in 2019, told DW.

"The school boards have different levels of difficulty, so the competition seems unfair. On the other hand, it could be a good thing because rich and privileged students who can afford private coaching for the NEET have an unfair advantage," Barnali said.
Undue pressure on students

Preeti N., a Mumbai-based counselor, told DW that students often suffer from anxiety and depression when it comes to highly competitive exams. "Students taking competitive exams, especially in a field like medicine, are often facing immense pressure from their parents, teachers and sometimes friends. To some of them, failure is not an option. Often, their lives completely revolve around exam preparation," she said.

"In a system where the number of entrants is so high," she continued, "the chances of getting through are low. It can get quite suffocating. It is important to reach out to students and make them understand that there are going to be other chances, as well as alternative paths and careers."

Studies suggest those who do make it into medical colleges and work as doctors continue to face extreme stress throughout their careers.

A survey of 358 suicide deaths among medical students, residents and physicians between 2010 and 2019 showed around seven out of 10 suicides happened before the age of 30. Academic stress and financial issues were the causes listed as the reasons behind the suicides.

As these professionals go on to make up the health care system of the country, the study said this was a public health crisis and called for further research.

"Many medical students, residents and doctors lead a terrible lifestyle," said Preeti. "It is one of the most stressful professions of modern times and has become increasingly difficult due to the pandemic. Even doctors need their own private time and a work-life balance like the rest of us. Students begin by taking tough exams, but even once they pass the test, the stress in their life continues."

If you are suffering from serious emotional strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information on where to find such help, no matter where you live in the world, at this website: https://www.befrienders.org/

* SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Socialized Medicine Began In Alberta

Member of European Parliament wants Bulgarian cops watched

Reports of wiretapping and police violence in Bulgaria during protests in 2020 have caused alarm. European Parliament lawmakers, government ministers and members of the protest movement have made serious accusations.

Protesters clash with police at demonstrations in Sofia in September 2020

At a press conference in Sofia recently, Sophie in't Veld, the chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, accused Bulgarian Prosecutor General Ivan Zhev of invoking "extraordinary powers" to target the opposition. In 't Veld, who led a European Parliament delegation to Bulgaria in December to investigate reports of official misdeeds, said Zhev had demonstrated an unwillingness to answer questions about corruption and her committee's investigation into wiretapping and police violence during the 2020 protests. She urged the European Commission to rigorously monitor developments in Bulgaria.

"Effective and equitable law enforcement, especially in the fight against corruption, remains one of the most pressing issues in Bulgaria," in 't Veld said. "The prosecution of high-level corruption remains problematic." The delegation was also concerned about cases of police brutality in summer 2020 that have not been properly investigated, she said.

In 't Veld led a delegation from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

The European Parliament's harsh criticism comes as members of Bulgaria's transitional government are making fresh accusations about the events of 2020 on an almost weekly basis. Police files leaked on the internet in mid-September 2021 revealed that 30 members of the protest movement and a total of about 1,000 people had been wiretapped during the mass demonstrations. Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov has made similar accusations since April. Last week, Culture Minister Velislav Minekov told DW that he and everyone he spoke to, including German journalists, were bugged.

Section 95 of the Bulgarian Criminal Code is the key to understanding the complexity of the wiretapping scandal. It defines subversion, seizure of power by force and armed insurrection. Based on that, the Bulgarian Prosecutor General's Office applied for and received judicial authorization last year to monitor members of the protest movement, according to Rashkov.

'Not illegally surveilled'

In July 2020, Zhev publicly accused Vasily Boschkov, a gaming billionaire who had fled to Dubai after he was charged with tax fraud, of being behind the nationwide protest movement. According to the prosecution, the fugitive billionaire paid rioters known to the police for violence on the fringes of the protests.

Minekov speaks at a protest in Sofia in August 2020

That became the official explanation for applying for the wiretap on grounds of subversion for the first time in Bulgarian history, which the judge granted. "I officially inquired with the public prosecutor whether I had been surveilled," Minekov told DW. "The response was: 'You were not illegally surveilled. I concluded that, according to the prosecutor's office, I was wiretapped legally along with everyone I spoke to, including German journalists and ambassadors," he said.

Minekov, one of the leading organizers of last year's mass protests, argued that the demonstrations were legal protests and that a "violent seizure of power or an overthrow was not even possible."

In June, the investigative platform bird.bg published police documents indicating that several journalists, including Vesela Sergieva, the head of office at Agence France-Presse in Sofia, were also wiretapped while speaking with representatives of protest groups.

Strict secrecy

Investigations into the surveillance measures have been slowed down by political trench warfare. In August, Nikolai Hajigenov, chairman of the parliamentary investigative commission, spoke of "the largest mass wiretapping of Bulgarian citizens in recent Bulgarian history." So far the investigators have not managed to get around the secrecy concerning individual events demanded by the public prosecutor's office and the police.

Police at the July 2020 protests in Sofia

The extent of the wiretapping operations, the names of the people affected and the contents of the wiretap protocols remain under wraps. But some documents have been leaked on the internet, making it easier for individuals to dismiss the accusations as politically motivated.

The Hajigenov Commission is also looking into allegations of police violence during two demonstrations in July and September 2020. An 18-minute surveillance video recently released shows police officers dragging a demonstrator into an area hidden by columns at the Council of Ministers building, and kicking and beating the prone figure on the ground.

The investigations have ground to a halt since. Six police officers were disciplined in 2020 for "excessive use of force." Interior Minister Mladen Marinov was replaced five days after the incident, and his successor, Hristo Terzijski, affirmed before the committee that he launched investigations. There were no political or legal consequences.

This article has been translated from German.

Peru's Ashaninka indigenous people remember the cruelty of war in the Amazon

Issued on: 28/09/2021

Ashaninka leader David Barboza Vargas (L), 62, who faced the Shining Path guerilla group in the 1980s in Peru

ERNESTO BENAVIDES AFP

Pichari (Peru) (AFP)

The indigenous Ashaninka people of the Peruvian Amazon hope the war that saw them targeted in massacres by the Shining Path in the 1980s has died along with the violent Maoist group's leader Abimael Guzman, who was cremated last week.

The leader of the Otari Ashaninka community, in the jungle region of Cusco in Pichari, remembers the war like a "sickness."

David Barboza Vargas, whose village is surrounded by yuca, cacao and coca leaf plantations, was himself wounded in the violence as his people faced down the Shining Path's guns with bows and arrows.

"For me, the '80s were a sickness of the Path," Barboza Vargas told AFP, wearing a colorful crown of parrot feathers and hedgehog quills.

"I don't ever want to go back to that."

"We are convinced that this (conflict) has betrayed our Ashaninka people throughout the Amazon enough," the 62-year-old Barboza Vargas said of his people.

The Ashaninka, the largest of the 65 Amazonian indigenous groups in Peru, live in the central and southeastern jungles of the country. They were the main Amazonian indigenous victims of the Shining Path during the Peruvian civil war, from 1980 to 2000.

Barboza Vargas' village of Pichari is situated in the largest coca-growing valley in Peru, surrounded by the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers.

Members of the Ashaninka indigenous community are seen in Pichari, Peru

ERNESTO BENAVIDES AFP

The so-called VRAEM region is known for ongoing violent clashes between soldiers and former Shining Path members that authorities say are now allied with drug traffickers.

Some 200 Ashaninkas live here in extreme poverty, their wood-shack homes topped with roofs of palm leaves.

- Communities disappeared -

"They were killed with bullets while they were running to get in the river," Barboza Vargas recalled, emotional as he explained he had lost several family members in the bloodshed.

Between 1986 and 1996, the Ashaninka were caught in the crossfire between the guerilla group and members of Peru's security forces in a slaughter that a Truth and Reconicilliation Committee (CVR) said amounted to a "genocide" against the Ashaninkas in the area.

The Ashaninka were caught in the crossfire of the Peruvian civil war between 1986 and 1996

ERNESTO BENAVIDES AFP

Some 6,000 people -- a little more than 10 percent of the group's 1993 estimated population of 55,000 -- were killed, and around 40 communities disappeared entirely.

According to testimonies gathered by the CVR in 2003, Shining Path guerillas kidnapped Ashaninka people, forcing them to work as servants and farm hands. Women were raped in an effort to produce more "soldiers."

- Kidnapped -

The leader of the Ashaninka Pitirinquini community, Abel Casiano, spent two years trying to escape captivity after he was kidnapped in 1986 at age 16.

"They captured me and coerced me as a teenager," he said.

Leader of the Pitirinquini Ashaninka community Abel Casiano was kidnapped in 1986 at the age of 16 by Shining Path guerillas in Peru before escaping two years later

ERNESTO BENAVIDES AFP

"They took Ashaninka kids, but I knew I could escape through the mountains," said 52-year-old Casiano, his face painted in a sign of his authority.

"We had to suffer," he said.

"They told me, 'This is the Communist Party. This is the guerilla army. Let's fight, let's take over the government,'" Casiano recalled.

He said Shining Path stabbed his mother Victoria and his siblings Sonia, Alicia, Norma and Simon.

Barboza Vargas said an attack by Shining Path dissidents just last May -- which left 16 people dead, including four children -- his community fears a return to the worst days of the guerilla violence.

"For us as Ashininkas, the Path affected us. Communities have disappeared, and even now we don't know what happened to (certain) Ashaninka brothers," vice president of the Apurimac River Ashaninka Organization (OARA) Reyna Barboza said.

- 'No more massacres' -

Following their military defeat three decades ago, the vast majority of Shining Path's fighters were put behind bars.

Guzman, the far-left group's leader, died at age 86 on September 11 in the same prison where he had been serving his life sentence since 1992.

He was cremated Friday on court orders.

Chayeki Tinkavo, 37, is the president of the Indigenous Committee of Ashaninka and Mashiguenga Self-Defense

ERNESTO BENAVIDES AFP

The story of the war "is the story of the death of the whole family of Peru," said 37-year-old Chayeki Tinkavo, the president of the Indigenous Committee of Self Defense of Ashaninka and Mashiguenga.

"Thank God we are alive. We want to live in peace, working so there are no more massacres," he said, carrying a gun and an arrow.

© 2021 AFP

Drugs in river at UK's Glastonbury music festival harming fish: scientists

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -

Scientists found high levels of cocaine and ecstasy in the water course running downstream from Glastonbury Oli SCARFF AFP

London (AFP)

High levels of illegal drugs have been found in a river running through Britain's Glastonbury music festival site, endangering a rare species of fish and other wildlife, scientists said on Tuesday.

The levels of cocaine and MDMA -- more commonly known as ecstasy -- detected in the water were so high, experts said, they could be harming wildlife downstream in Whitelake River that runs through the festival grounds.

Samples taken from the river in 2019, when more than 200,000 people thronged the five-day summer festival in Somerset, southwest England, found MDMA concentrations were four times higher the week after the festival.

The damagingly high levels of cocaine in the water in particular had risen to levels that interfere with the life cycles of the rare and protected European eel found in the area, the scientists said.

Experts are urging festival attendees to use Glastonbury's official toilets in the future because it is believed the drugs enter the surrounding water sources through public urination.

- Born trippy -

Dan Aberg, a postgraduate student at Bangor University in north Wales who collected the data, said all music festivals were "undoubtedly" an "annual source of illicit drug release".

"Unfortunately, Glastonbury Festival's close proximity to a river results in any drugs released by festival attendees having little time to degrade in the soil before entering the fragile freshwater ecosystem," he added.

Christian Dunn, also from Bangor University, said the amount of illicit drugs being released into the water had the potential to derail conservation of the endangered eels.

Researchers expressed concern about the effect on the life cycle of the protected European eel

Jan Hennop AFP

"We also need to raise awareness around drug and pharmaceutical waste," Dunn said, calling the pollutants "hidden, worryingly-understudied yet potentially devastating".

Because of Covid restrictions, the festival was forced to cancel its 50th anniversary celebrations in 2020, and again this year, after some 135,000 people purchased tickets.

Glastonbury's organisers have said they hope to hold the event in June 2022.

© 2021 AFP

Death by sadness, or the Taliban: LGBTQ Afghans in hiding

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -

Yahya, a gay, non-conforming person feared life would get worse "day by day" under the Taliban -

Kabul (AFP)

As the Taliban appeared on every corner of Kabul, Marwa and her friend -- both gay Afghans -- took the drastic decision to become husband and wife.

The hurried marriage was conducted with no ceremony or family around them.

"I was telling myself that the Taliban would come and kill me," the 24-year-old told AFP in an interview conducted over WhatsApp.

"I was afraid, I was crying all the time... so I asked my friend to prepare a marriage document," said Marwa, using a pseudonym for security reasons.

Many LGBTQ Afghans are haunted by the Taliban's brutally repressive reign from 1996 to 2001, when gay men were stoned to death or crushed by toppled walls as punishment.

The militants have not officially commented on the subject since they overran Kabul on August 15, but former senior judge Gul Rahim told Germany's Bild newspaper that the death penalty for gay people would return.

More broadly, the Taliban have made it resoundingly clear that they will apply their restrictive interpretation of Islamic law -- which is unequivocal on the rights of LGBTQ people.

Terrified for their lives, many young gay men and women have gone underground, erasing all traces of their former lives on social networks, according to NGOs and testimonies collected by AFP.

One gay man was raped and beaten by a group of men who lured him away on the pretence that he would be evacuated, according to LGBTQ rights activists cited by media reports.

"When the Taliban first came, we didn't come out of our homes for about two or three weeks and now we go outside wearing different clothes, trying to look plain," said Abdullah, who spoke to AFP in the western city of Herat.

"Before, we wore trousers and jeans, or T-shirts, and some gay men wore make-up," added the 21-year-old, who also used a pseudonym.

- Stay with our families -

Under successive US-backed governments over the past 20 years, only slight progress was made in LGBTQ rights, with the issue little understood in Afghanistan.

Even after the Taliban's 2001 ouster, gay sex was still a criminal offence that came with a prison sentence.

People were routinely subjected to discrimination, assault and rape, with little accountability.

Still, tiny pockets of acceptance began to bloom.

"They had a little freedom and some safe places in Kabul," said Artemis Akbary, a prominent Afghan LGBTQ rights activist who fled to Turkey several years ago.

"There was a cafe in Kabul where every Friday LGBT friends met each other and they danced."

Abdullah also described how support had begun to build in recent years, thanks to media coverage and access to information.

"This was motivation for all of us to remain in Afghanistan and strengthen the LGBT community here, and at least remain in our country with our own families," he said.

But as cities began to fall to the Taliban over the summer, some found ways to escape the country, including to Pakistan and Iran.

Since their August takeover, the Taliban have replaced the ministry of women's affairs with a department notorious for enforcing strict religious doctrine during their first rule two decades ago.

"For those still present in Kabul, it is clear that the reopening of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is by far the most dangerous Sword of Damocles," said Arnaud Gauthier-Fawas, a spokesperson for Inter-LGBT France.

The ministry's enforcers were known in the 1990s for carrying whips and were responsible for strictly implementing hardline interpretations of Islam.

The Rainbow Railroad in Canada, a rights group that helps LGBTQ people escape state-sponsored violence, said it had been contacted by more than 700 Afghans since the start of the crisis.

"We have been getting direct reports of LGBTQ people targeted in violent attacks, some of which have been fatal," the group's executive director Kimahli Powell said.

"People are in hiding and in fear for their lives. There is great uncertainty about what comes next."

- 'Like a bird' -

Yahya, who identifies as gay and a non-conforming person, says he was beaten by a Taliban guard wielding a blue PVC pipe the first time they dared to venture outside after Kabul fell.

"It's not written on my face that I am this person. But he used a curse word and said, 'Don't you know how to walk like a man?'

"My eyes were full of tears but I could not say anything to him because he had a gun hanging on his other shoulder. So I said nothing, and I just got in a taxi and went."

Yahya, who was beaten by their brother after being outed by a relative eight years ago, told AFP in Kabul that life would get worse "day by day" under the Taliban.

After weeks of frantic contact with international organisations, Yahya was evacuated.

"I'm so very happy, I can't explain it," Yahya told AFP after leaving Afghanistan. "I feel like a bird who is freed from a cage and ready to fly."

AFP changed their name to protect their identity.

"They will be killed by isolation, starving, sadness, depression or stress, or they will be killed by the Taliban or their family," she said.

© 2021 AFP

'No future': Trans woman fears death under Taliban

Issued on: 28/09/2021 -

Kabul (AFP)

As an Afghan transgender woman, Radwin has suffered brutal sexual violence on the streets and even rejection by her family.

But with the Taliban back in power, she fears she will be killed because of her identity -- and she is desperate to flee the country.

Trans people like Radwin have long been among the most marginalised in Afghanistan, where discrimination against the LGBTQ community is pervasive, and where being gay or transgender is widely seen as indecent and sinful

Even under the ousted US-backed government, gay sex was illegal while LGBTQ people were denied access to certain health services and fired from their jobs.

Some still found acceptance in tiny pockets of Afghan society, mainly among artists and intellectuals in Kabul and other cities.

However, under the Taliban, Radwin expects life for her and other transgender people is about to get much worse.

During the Taliban's last reign from 1996 to 2001, the militants routinely murdered gay men by stoning them to death or crushed them under falling walls.

"I can't live here in safety," Radwin told AFP, using a pseudonym to avoid retribution by the hardliners.

"Before the Taliban kill us, it's better to just leave," she added.

- 'People don't understand' -

"I can't leave the house at all... If I go outside I must cover myself up in a way that no one recognises me," Radwin said.

"God created me this way and it's natural, but people don't understand this."

Since coming out as transgender five years ago, Radwin has experienced several incidents of extreme sexual violence, including rape, at the hands of strangers.

She recounted one attack two years ago when three armed men on a motorbike kidnapped her and a friend while they walked down the street.

"They forced us to go with them. They had a pistol and knife," she said.

"One of my friends said, 'don't go', but they slashed a part of my arm," she said, rolling up her sleeve to show the scarring.

"They sedated us by forcing us to take drugs," she said. "And then they did whatever they wanted to do with us."

The injuries she suffered left her needing hospital treatment.

Police interviewed her and her friend, but nothing came of it.

Then, in the weeks leading up to the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, a man struck Radwin on the head using a pistol, leaving a deep mark across her temple.

- 'There is no light' -

While she has long lived in near-constant terror, Radwin said she found acceptance among some friends and could be herself at some private gatherings.

"Before the Taliban came, whenever I would go to my friends' parties I would wear women's clothes and feel really good," she told AFP at a secure location in Afghanistan.

Radwin says she dreams of a life away from torment and oppression -- but fears that her hopes "will not come true".

"I would like to wear nice clothes of my own choice. I would like to do modelling, even teach dancing alongside that," she said.

"My greatest desire is to live peacefully somewhere else. I can't stay here and let my life go to waste, because the things I desire cannot be achieved here."

Asked if there was a community of transgender people in Afghanistan where she could find support, Radwin said: "There were others, but they left the country. There's no one here who would want to help."

She once tried to reach out to a charity in Europe, but did not get a reply.

"Every path I take is blocked, there is no place to go," she said. "I am tired of this."

The Taliban have said they will rule more moderately than they did in the 1990s.

But they have made it resoundingly clear that they will apply their restrictive interpretation of sharia -- which is unequivocal on the rights of LGBTQ people.

They have also replaced the ministry of women's affairs with a department notorious for enforcing strict religious doctrine during their first rule two decades ago.

They have slashed the rights of women and girls, which experts say can only be a sign of even more hardship to come for gay and trans people.

"I don't see a better future," Radwin said. "I see darkness, there is no light."

The Inheritance Star Lois Smith Becomes Oldest Person to Win Tony Award for Acting at 90

Lois Smith just set a record

© Provided by People Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

At the 74th annual Tony Awards Sunday night in New York City, the longtime actress won her first trophy, becoming the oldest person to win an acting accolade at the award show, according to The New York Times. Smith, 90, won best actress in a featured role in a play for her work as Margaret in The Inheritance.

Smith said in her speech, "I love the processes of the live theater," then adding, "I first worked on The Inheritance in a workshop where Matthew López was finishing a play about the AIDS plague, and it was partly based on E.M. Forster's book Howards End, which had been my favorite novel for as long as I can remember."© Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Lois Smith won best actress in a featured role in a play for her work in The Inheritance

"E.M. Forster gave us, there's a famous two-word message from Howards End, which is so apt, I think, tonight for all of us who are here celebrating the importance, the functions, of live theater: 'Only connect,' " she added.

Previously, Smith was nominated at the Tonys for Buried Child in 1996 and The Grapes of Wrath in 1990. She is also known for her big-screen performances in movies like Twister, Lady Bird and Minority Report, as well as memorable TV roles in shows like True Blood, The Americans and Ray Donovan.

Smith is the only female actor in The Inheritance, which is a two-part play. She told Variety back in March 2020, "I think to myself, 'Now what's going to happen to me?' This may be the end of me. Suppose somebody asks me to do eight shows a week, what am I going to say? It's hard to imagine at this point!"