EPA orders Norfolk Southern to clean up Ohio train derailment, pay costs


An EPA Emergency Response worker checks for chemicals that have settled at the bottom of a creek in East Palestine, Ohio (Michael Swensen / Getty Images file)

Sarah Fitzpatrick
Tue, February 21, 2023 

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.

“The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in remarks prepared for a news conference in East Palestine. “Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community.”

If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will “immediately” conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost. The order will require the company to identify and clean contaminated soil and water; pay any EPA costs, including reimbursing the agency for cleaning services that it will offer to residents and businesses; and participate in public meetings at EPA’s request and post information on-line.

The rail company already faces multiple class-action suits from members of the East Palestine community over the incident, which forced residents within roughly a mile radius to evacuate their homes.

The Ohio state attorney general’s office has also indicated it plans to take legal action against Norfolk Southern.

After the derailment of the 150-car train carrying hazardous chemicals through the eastern Ohio town, Norfolk Southern released and burned a toxic chemical in the area to avoid an explosion.

On Tuesday, the Ohio Health Department opened a clinic in East Palestine to address mounting health concerns among residents.

The department said in a news release Sunday that it would open the clinic in partnership with the Columbiana County Health Department and with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It said the clinic will be available to East Palestine-area residents “who have medical questions or concerns related to the recent train derailment.”

Ohio EPA officials tour the damage in East Palestine, Ohio 

(Lucy Schaly / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP file)

The EPA says it began testing air quality in the East Palestine area within 24 hours of the derailment, including the use of a mobile analytical laboratory. The agency said Tuesday that it has assisted with indoor air monitoring of more than 550 homes under a voluntary screening program offered to residents, and that “no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride were identified above levels of concern.”

Regan expressed gratitude to first responders and EPA personnel on the ground in Ohio, and said that the EPA will “continue to coordinate closely with our local, state, and federal partners through a whole-of-government approach to support the East Palestine community during the remediation phase. To the people of East Palestine, EPA stands with you now and for as long as it may take.”

Norfolk Southern did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

EPA takes charge of cleanup in toxic Ohio train derailment


JOHN SEEWER and MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Tue, February 21, 2023

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Federal environmental regulators on Tuesday took charge of the cleanup from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical burn and ordered Norfolk Southern to foot the bill.

The Environmental Protection Agency told Norfolk Southern to take all available measures to clean up contaminated air and water, and also said the company would be required to reimburse the federal government for a new program to provide cleaning services for impacted residents and businesses.

The EPA warned Norfolk Southern that if failed to comply with its order, the agency would perform the work itself and seek triple damages from the company.

“The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement ahead of a news conference with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community," he said.

“In no way shape or form will Norfolk Southern get off the hook for the mess they created," Regan said at the press conference.

He added that he knows the order “cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much needed comfort for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused."

The agency said it would release more details on the cleanup service for residents and businesses this week.

The EPA said its order marks the end of the “emergency” phase of the derailment and the beginning of long-term remediation phase in the East Palestine area.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday also acknowledged the community’s concern that it will be left to handle the aftermath on its own once the news cameras leave and public attention turns elsewhere, and he assured residents that won’t be the case.

EPA issued the order under the so-called Superfund law that gives the agency authority to order those responsible for contamination or hazardous waste to clean it up. EPA can fine the railway up to $70,000 a day if the work is not completed. EPA can also do the work itself if necessary and bill Norfolk Southern triple its costs.

Appearing at the news conference with Regan, DeWine and other officials, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro blasted Norfolk Southern over what he called its “failed management of this crisis," saying the company chose not to take part in a unified incident command, and provided inaccurate information and conflicting modeling data.

“The combination of Norfolk Southern's corporate greed, incompetence, and lack of concern for our residents is absolutely unacceptable to me,” he said.

Shapiro said his administration had made a criminal referral of Norfolk Southern to the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, while DeWine said Ohio’s attorney general had also launched an investigation.

Separately, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a package of reforms Tuesday, calling on railroad operators to take immediate steps to improve safety, such as accelerating the planned upgrade of tank cars.

Some 50 freight cars derailed on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, prompting persistent environmental and health concerns. The derailment prompted an evacuation as fears grew about a potential explosion of smoldering wreckage.

Officials seeking to avoid the danger of an uncontrolled blast chose to intentionally release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke again billowing high into the sky. That left left people questioning the potential health impacts for residents in the area and beyond, even as authorities maintained they were doing their best to protect people.

___

Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. AP writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

TDG

Train derailments get more headlines, but truck crashes involving hazardous chemicals are more frequent and deadly in US

Michael F. Gorman, Professor of Business Analytics and Operations Management, University of Dayton
Tue, February 21, 2023 

A trooper checks the tire of a truck carrying flammable contents during a random hazmat checkpoint in Colorado. Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Less than two weeks after train cars filled with hazardous chemicals derailed in Ohio and caught fire, a truck carrying nitric acid crashed on a major highway outside Tucson, Arizona, killing the driver and releasing toxic chemicals into the air.

The Arizona hazmat disaster shut down Interstate 10, a major cross-country highway, and forced evacuations in surrounding neighborhoods.

But the highway crash didn’t draw national attention the way the train derailment did, or trigger a flood of calls for more trucking regulation like the U.S. is seeing for train regulation. Truck crashes tend to be local and less dramatic than a pile of derailed train cars on fire, even if they’re deadlier.


In fact, federal data shows that rail has had far fewer incidents, deaths and damage when moving hazardous materials in the U.S. than trucks.

After the train derailment and fire in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023, the U.S. EPA tested over 500 homes. It reported that none exceeded air quality standards for the chemicals tested. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Trucks carry more hazmat and more risk

At one time, rail and water were the only options for transporting chemicals and other potentially dangerous materials. The emergence of the automobile and subsequent construction of the interstate highway system changed that, and hazardous materials shipments by road steadily increased.

Today, trucks carry the largest percentage of hazardous materials shipped in the U.S. – about twice as much as trains when measured in ton-miles, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ latest data, for 2017. A ton-mile is one ton shipped for one mile.

While truck incidents involving hazardous materials don’t look as dramatic as train derailments and are not as widely covered by news media, federal data shows they represent more fatalities and property damage, and there are thousands more of them every year.

Truck-related hazardous materials incidents caused over 16 times more fatalities from 1975 to 2021 – 380 for truck, compared with 23 for rail, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The difference is more pronounced in the last decade, when U.S. rail transportation of hazardous materials caused zero fatalities and truck incidents were responsible for 83.

Trucks have also caused nearly three times as much property damage as rail incidents since 2000. That might seem surprising since derailments can involve several cars with hazardous materials. But most rail events take place in remote areas, limiting their human impact, while trucks travel on highways with other drivers around and often in busy urban areas.
Where do we go from here?

I study rail systems and regulation, and I have followed the increasing costs to the industry to comply with tightening regulatory rules.

Shipping hazardous materials in the U.S. has been regulated for over 150 years. A deadly explosion in San Francisco in 1866 involving a just-arrived cargo of nitroglycerin, used for blasting rock, led to the first federal laws regulating shipping explosives and flammable materials.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks spurred a vast expansion of regulation over movement of hazardous materials. Many cities now have hazardous materials routes for trucks that circumvent city centers to reduce the potential risk to high-population areas.

With the Ohio train derailment now making national news, lawmakers are focusing on regulations specifically for rail.

Ohio’s governor wants rail companies to be required to notify states of all hazardous shipments. This knee-jerk reaction to a major event would appear to be a responsible demand with relatively low costs, but it would have no impact whatsoever on prevention of hazmat events.

Activists are calling for more expensive investments, including requirements for heat sensors on train bearings, which appeared to have been involved in the Ohio derailment, and the restoration of a rule requiring advanced braking systems for trains carrying hazardous materials. Both would raise the cost of rail shipping and could wind up putting more hazardous materials shipments on U.S. roads. The Trump administration repealed the braking system requirement in 2017, arguing that the costs outweighed the benefits.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, speaking with reporters, discussed looking into new rules for advanced braking systems, higher fines and encouraging rail companies to speed up their phase-in of more puncture-resistant tank cars.

On Feb. 14, 2023, a truck carrying hazardous materials crashed on busy Interstate 10 near homes outside Tucson, Ariz., killing the driver and forcing an interstate shutdown and evacuations. 

Arizona Department of Public Safety via AP

Rail is still more economical and better for the environment than trucks for longer distances, but with ever-increasing regulations, rail transport can be economically and logistically discouraged – chasing more traffic to far more dangerous roadways.

If the concern is the public’s exposure to hazardous materials, regulation on road-based hazardous materials transportation should expand as well.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. The Conversation is trustworthy news from experts. Try our free newsletters.

It was written by: Michael F. Gorman, University of Dayton.

Read more:

How dangerous was the Ohio chemical train derailment? An environmental engineer assesses the long-term risks

How vinyl chloride, chemical released in the Ohio train derailment, can damage the liver – it’s used to make PVC plastics

Despite disasters, oil-by-rail transport is getting safer

As an expert in rail policy, Michael Gorman has consulted with railroad companies over the past 20 years. He worked for BNSF in the 1990s.

Ohio train derailment – live: Buttigieg calls for Norfolk Southern reform as officials drink East Palestine water

Graig Graziosi,Louise Boyle and Andrea Blanco
Tue, February 21, 2023 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced he planned to visit East Palestine and teased that the federal government was planning to pursue higher fine caps and stricter safety regulations for rail companies in the wake of the Ohio train derailment.

Ohio officials have shared a video of them drinking tap water in East Palestine in an effort to reassure concerned residents that it is safe.

Lt. Governor Jon Husted posted a video on Twitter over the weekend of him, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick, Police Chief James Brown, and Mayor Trent Conaway drinking glasses of water together.

“The water is safe and they are working around the clock to keep it that way,” Mr Husted tweeted.

Residents in East Palestine have reported concerns with the local water supply after the 3 February train derailment prompted operator Norfolk Southern to release and burn a toxic chemical to avoid an explosion.

On Tuesday, the Ohio Department of Health will open a clinic in East Palestine as it seeks to address the growing health fears.

Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will also make a second visit to the village today along with Ohio and Pennsylvania governors Mike DeWine and Josh Shapiro and Congressman Bill Johnson.

READ ON LIVE POSTING Ohio train derailment – live: Buttigieg calls for Norfolk Southern reform as officials drink East Palestine water (yahoo.com)

Key points

Ohio officials share video of them drinking water in East Palestine


Toxic spill health concerns prompt state to open East Palestine clinic


EPA administrator returning to East Palestine on Tuesday


Lawsuit alleges Norfolk's clean up efforts 'made it worse'


Angry Ohio residents seek answers on train's toxic spill


Ohio train derailment fallout map

The Train Derailment in Ohio Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen

John McCracken, Grist
Tue, February 21, 2023 

Chemicals float on the top of the water in Leslie Run creek after being agitated from the sediment on the bottom of the creek on February 20, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio.

When a freight train filled with volatile chemicals derailed in rural Ohio earlier this month, it set off a chain of reactions: the evacuation of a town of nearly 5,000 people; a massive black plume of smoke from a controlled burn; the death of fish in local waterways; and the necessity of monitoring the local air for pollutants

While the disaster garners headlines, researchers and chemical spill experts told Grist it’s a situation that plays out far too often across the country.

The train that derailed around 9 p.m. on February 3 was carrying chemicals used in a variety of industries, from plastics to agriculture, each with a specific degree of hazard.

The rail industry is responsible for a large share of the movement of highly volatile chemicals and explosives across the country. But for years, it has been plagued by harsh working conditions and a lack of rigorous safety standards and transparency.

Justin Mikulka, a reporter who spent years researching the rail industry’s pitfalls and disasters and wrote the book Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk, said weakened regulations and a rush to reopen is to be expected.

“While the trains are still burning, they’re rebuilding the rails,” Mikulka told Grist. “It’s again an excellent example of how they put profit over public safety.”

Mikulka said, be it chemicals or crude oil, trains are getting longer, going faster, and moving through the majority of the nation’s backyard. These lines are often dubbed “bomb trains” by those in the rail industry and environmental groups.

In the last two decades, train lengths have increased by 25 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Currently, the Federal Railroad Administration, or FRA, does not have a limit on how long a train can be. While derailments have decreased in recent years, the severity has increased as the industry focuses on longer trains with small crews.

“The accidents that do occur, because of the longer trains, tend to be bigger accidents — more cars and more potential damage,” Steven Ditmeyer, a former head of the office of research and development at the FRA, told Vox.

Mikulka said that the Ohio derailment could have been worse.

A Northfolk Southern spokesperson told Grist that there were three operators on board the train that derailed, one conductor, one engineer, and a conductor trainee, none of whom were injured. In recent years, rail companies have lobbied for one-person crews to cut costs and rail unions have urged for two-person crews to be mandated at the federal level. Under the Trump administration, the FRA dropped the two-crew proposal, saying at the time “no regulation of train crew staffing is necessary or appropriate for railroad operations to be conducted safely.”

When crews are stretched thin, Mikulka said, accidents and derailments are just waiting to happen. He said calls from workers for increased safety measures have gone unheard. “There are so many different points in this process where we look at how we can make it safer, and the rail company says ‘Yeah, but we don’t want to pay for that.’”

At a press conference last week Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said the train that went through East Palestine was not marked as hazardous, despite the chemicals on board. He called it “absurd” and is asking Congress to investigate how hazardous materials are handled.

“We should know when we have trains carrying hazardous material that are going through the state of Ohio,” DeWine said.

The problem, however, is that freight trains are almost always carrying toxic materials, and most communities they barrel through don’t know what is onboard.

Over 250 trains derailed in the last decade, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, a branch of the federal Department of Transportation. Nearly half of those derailments involved hazardous waste.

Rick Hind, a retired legislative director with Greenpeace with decades of chemical regulation experience, has worked firsthand with various chemical spills. He said the nation’s rail systems are the “wild west” when it comes to regulation and transparency of moving hazardous materials.

Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, monitors the chemicals used inside roughly 12,000 authorized chemical facilities which are estimated to impact nearly 175 million people in the country. But when those chemicals are on the rails going to and from facilities, regulations change.

PHMSA is supposed to set safety standards for trains in motion, but the agency has a notoriously brittle track record. Former California congressperson Jackie Speier called the agency “fundamentally broken” in the aftermath of a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in her state.

“PHMSA is not only a toothless tiger, but one that has overdosed on Quaaludes and is passed out on the job,” Speier said in a 2016 hearing. When Washington State attempted to regulate the movement of hazardous chemicals and oils within its borders in 2019, the federal government stepped in to overturn this ruling, with PHMSA legal counsel saying “a state cannot use safety as a pretext for inhibiting market growth.”

The EPA is currently reviewing its rules for Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention. But, industry pressure from a large rail industry lobbying group, the Association of American Railroads, has already mounted against the federal agency’s proposals for the management of moving hazardous materials.

“We clearly need to revamp the safety rules on railroads,” Hind told Grist. “If there aren’t strong legal requirements, you can’t have strong regulations.”

Hind said workers in the rail industry face the compounding pressures of lack of paid sick and leave time, failing technology, and thin crews aboard trains that have gotten longer and longer over the years.

“Figuratively speaking, how can you check the tires on a train that is a mile and a half long?,” Hind said.

According to a report from Vice, the train that derailed in Ohio had a reputation for being difficult for rail workers, earning it the nickname “32 Nasty,” about the 32N name it was assigned. “This train is notorious for breaking knuckles or drawbars or some other malfunctions,” a rail worker told Vice.

In addition to fighting against mandated crew size, train length regulations, brake technology changes, and new standards for moving hazardous chemicals, the rail industry has not been known to adhere to a National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, voluntary, confidential “close call” reporting system, which is an anonymous way for employees to report near-misses and unsafe incidents.

In a recent letter from Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO union, to the head of the FRA, he said none of the seven major U.S. freight railroads voluntarily use this reporting program.

When asked if Norfolk uses this reporting system, a spokesperson told Grist that the company operates “its own reporting system of that nature with its workforce.” The spokesperson declined to comment or speculate on the cause of the derailment, citing an ongoing NTSB investigation.

Ahead of the final investigation report, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued a letter to Norfolk Southern, outlining concerns that the company did not immediately notify Pennsylvania emergency management and was not forthcoming with the specific chemicals and amounts on board the derailed train.

“Norfolk Southern failed to explore all potential courses of action, including some that may have kept the rail line closed longer but could have resulted in a safer overall approach for first responders, residents, and the environment,” the governor wrote.

While the people of East Palestine, Ohio, and officials await the NTSB investigation, expected to be released in the next few weeks, cleanup continues. Federal investigations could be underway as Congressmembers have expressed plans to investigate after the final investigation is released. A spokesperson for the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Republicans told Grist that they are currently in contact with the federal agencies involved and Norfolk Southern and will know the next steps once confirmed causes are determined.

Despite outcries from sitting members of Congress for more federal help, a spokesperson for Ohio Governor DeWine told Grist that they do not expect to announce a disaster declaration, which would qualify the state for the use of Federal Emergency Management Agency aid. Late last week, the Governor’s office announced they will be accepting federal on-the-ground assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney told Grist that one of the reasons for declining federal aid is that “Norfolk Southern has been picking up the tabs’” on expenses that would normally go to local and state governments. “They’re picking up the testing costs and providing that to third party vendors,” he continued.

Tierney said that there has now become a “public expectation” that if there’s a high level of hazardous chemicals moving through a community on a freight train, state and local agencies should know ahead of time.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/accountability/train-derailments-business-usual-railroad-industry/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

Gizmodo

Syrian girl rescued after quake battles 'crush syndrome'

Omar Haj Kadour
Tue, February 21, 2023 


Syrians have been moved by the fate of a brave nine-year-old girl called Sham that has captured the tragedy, hope and heartbreak of the earthquake which devastated her war-ravaged country.

Trapped under the rubble for 40 hours, she was rescued alive but now faces the risk of having both her legs amputated because of tissue damage from the crush injuries, say her doctors.

Sham was celebrated for her courage after humming a tune along with her White Helmets rescuers, who worked for six hours to free her from the concrete -- scenes captured in footage that has gone viral online.

"She gave us strength when we heard her," one of the group's volunteer rescuers, Mohammed Nasreddine, told AFP, recalling how they would hum the tune called "Damascus" together.


"Our joy was indescribable when she got out," said Nasreddine, whose White Helmets group has been famed for freeing people from bombed buildings in the country's rebel-held regions throughout Syria's civil war.

Sham, like many survivors of the 7.8-magnitude quake that killed over 44,000 people across Turkey and Syria on February 6, is now suffering from what doctors call crush syndrome.

It occurs in limbs that were starved of blood circulation for too long and starts with a severe pain in the affected extremity, which can still look healthy in the early stages.

In the condition known by the medical term rhabdomyolysis, muscle fibre dies and is released into the bloodstream, sometimes causing kidney failure.

Patients at first seem to be in good condition before they start to deteriorate.

"This is what we call 'the smile of death'," said orthopaedic surgeon Tarek Mustafa, who explained that it can cause cardiac and other potentially fatal complications.

- Amputation risk -

"Sham is one of several patients suffering from the syndrome who have been admitted to the region's hospitals," Dr Mustafa said, with health services in the rebel-held Idlib region reporting at least 100 such cases.

Many of these casualties are traumatised children, some already reeling from losing one or both parents in the tragedy.

Sham's mother and sister were killed when the family's building collapsed in the town of Armanaz, in the northwestern province of Idlib, while her father and two brothers also survived.

The family had moved there in 2019 after fleeing a military offensive by the Russian-backed Syrian regime, which has regained control of most of the country's territory since the war started in 2011.

Sham's possible leg amputations have been postponed for now, but she is not yet safe, said Dr Mustafa, who works in one of the hospitals run by the Syrian American Medical Society in the northwest.

When the White Helmets heard that Sham's legs may be amputated, they posted a tweet asking followers to pray for her and for other survivors battling crush syndrome.

Another of the group's rescuers, Ziad Hamdi, recalled how "I was working to free her legs, and tears came to my eyes. She reminded me of my five-year-old daughter."

In the clip, he is heard promising to take Sham to an amusement park if she can just hold on a little longer.

"I want to wear beautiful clothes," the little girl responded cheerfully. "I want to be a princess."

"She's witty, I did not expect such an answer" from a child fighting for her life, said Hamdi. "We made a promise. I will take her to the amusement park and buy her whatever she wants."

ohk/lar-rh/aya/fz/dv

Scientists unlock secrets of Earth's wickedly hot innermost realm


A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP

Tue, February 21, 2023 
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In Jules Verne's classic 1864 novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth," adventurers descend through an Icelandic volcano into a vast underground world populated by prehistoric creatures as they explore our planet's interior. The actual center of the Earth is nothing like this fanciful depiction - and in some ways is even more dramatic.

Researchers on Tuesday said an intensive study of Earth's deep interior, based on the behavior of seismic waves from large earthquakes, confirmed the existence of a distinct structure inside our planet's inner core - a wickedly hot innermost solid ball of iron and nickel about 800 miles (1,350 km) wide.

Earth's diameter is about 7,900 miles (12,750 km). The planet's internal structure comprises four layers: a rocky crust on the outside, then a rocky mantle, an outer core made of magma and a solid inner core. This metallic inner core, about 1,500 miles (2,440) wide, was discovered in the 1930s, also based on seismic waves traveling through Earth.

Scientists in 2002 proposed that lurking within this inner core was an innermost section separate from the rest, akin to a Russian Matryoshka nesting doll. The increasing sophistication of seismic monitoring enabled this to be confirmed.

Earthquakes unleash seismic waves that travel through the planet and can reveal the contours of its interior structure based on the changing shape of the waves. Until now, scientists were able to detect these waves bouncing up to twice, from one side of Earth to the other and then back. The new research studied waves from 200 quakes with magnitudes above 6.0 ricocheting like ping pong balls up to five times within the planet.

"We may know more about the surface of other distant celestial bodies than the deep interior of our planet," said observational seismologist Thanh-Son Pham of the Australian National University in Canberra, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

"We analyzed digital records of ground motion, known as seismograms, from large earthquakes in the last decade. Our study becomes possible thanks to the unprecedented expansion of the global seismic networks, particularly the dense networks in the contiguous U.S., the Alaskan peninsula and over the European Alps," Pham added.

The inner core's outer shell and its newly confirmed innermost sphere both are hot enough to be molten but are a solid iron-nickel alloy because the incredible pressure at the center of the Earth renders it a solid state.

"I like to think about the inner core as a planet within the planet. Indeed, it is a solid ball, approximately the size of Pluto and a bit smaller than the moon," said Australian National University geophysicist and study co-author Hrvoje Tkalčić.

"If we were somehow able to dismantle the Earth by removing its mantle and the liquid outer core, the inner core would appear shining like a star. Its temperature is estimated to be about 5,500-6,000 degrees (Celsius/9,930-10,830 Fahrenheit), similar to the sun's surface temperature," Tkalčić said.

The transition from the outer part of the inner core to the innermost sphere appears to be gradual rather than a sharp boundary, Pham said. The researchers were able to differentiate the two regions because the seismic waves acted differently between them.

"It could be caused by different arrangements of iron atoms at high temperatures and pressures or the preferred alignment of growing crystals," Pham said.

The inner core is slowly growing in size at the expense of the outer core by solidifying molten materials as Earth gradually cools - as it has done since its birth about 4.5 billion years ago.

"The latent heat released from solidifying the Earth's inner core drives the convection in the liquid outer core, generating Earth's geomagnetic field," Pham said. "Life on Earth is protected from harmful cosmic rays and would not be possible without such a magnetic field."

(Reporting by Will Dunham, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

HISTORIC CHANGE!

'Our home on native land': Jully Black calls for small change to O Canada lyrics

SUNG OUTSIDE OF CANADA

WATCH RIGHT WING HAIR ON FIRE


Mon, February 20, 2023 

TORONTO — Jully Black says she hopes her one-word change to O Canada at Sunday's NBA All-Star Game leads to a lasting revision of the lyrics.

The Juno-winning R&B singer performed Canada's national anthem before the NBA celebrity basketball game in Salt Lake City, Utah, making one alteration to acknowledge the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land before European settlers.

It was a subtle edit in the anthem's usual opening, replacing "O Canada! Our home and native land!" with "O Canada! Our home on native land." Her delivery added a slight emphasis to "on" when she sang the word.

"I wouldn't have sung it if I didn't believe it should be this," Black said in a phone interview.

"This one word would significantly give honour, support and recognition to the Indigenous community who have often been overlooked and unrecognized."

The 45-year-old singer characterized her edit as not perfect. Some may see "native" in this context as the wrong word, she added, but she hopes it stokes more conversation and ultimately action.

"If not now, when? If not me, who? That's how I look at it," she added.

"If it is not meaningful in this day and age for me, it doesn't make sense. And as a person of colour, who is a Black person, who's been asking for the support of many nations, it's up to me now to do that change."

Black said she's performed O Canada "more times than she can count" throughout her career, but over the past three years she turned down a number of opportunities to sing it for events while she educated herself about Indigenous rights and reconciliation.

When the call for the all-star game came about, she turned to people close to her for advice.

"I decided to ask friends who are Indigenous how they felt about me doing the anthem," she said.

None of them suggested edits to the words, Black said, but she collected their thoughts and examined how they might influence her performance. That led her to consider the change. She took the lyrics for a test run on morning television last week and found the feedback was "very spiritual."

"That one word, for me, felt right because it's fact, and I wanted to lead with love and fact," she said.

Some have criticized Black's revision, though this is hardly the first time the words in O Canada have been changed.

For instance, in 2018 a years-long effort to make the anthem more inclusive led by late Liberal MP Mauril Belanger became official when the second line was rewritten to make it gender-neutral.

The new wording of the anthem’s English version became “in all of us command” from “in all thy sons command.”

Canadians who react negatively to the notion of updating Canada's lyrics should take a moment to reflect, Black said.

"I think it's important for them to now go into their private space and ask themselves why," she continued.

"Why is it so hard to acknowledge the fact when it’s not going to take away from your existing privilege?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2023.

David Friend, The Canadian Press

'I sang the facts,' says Jully Black about 1-word change to O Canada at NBA All-Star game

Mon, February 20, 2023 

Jully Black sings prior to the 2023 NBA All-Star game between Team Giannis and Team LeBron at Vivint Arena on Feb.19, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images - image credit)

Jully Black says the subtle change she made to the lyrics of O Canada at Sunday's NBA All-Star game was the result of a long reflection.

"I sang the facts. We are walking, breathing, living, experiencing life on native land. On Indigenous land," the Juno award-winning R&B singer told The National on Monday.

Black performed the national anthem before the game in Salt Lake City, Utah, and altered one line to recognize the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land before European settlers.

Black swapped out the anthem's usual opening line "O Canada, our home and native land," with "O Canada, our home on native land," adding a slight emphasis to the word "on" when she sang.

The new lyrics appeared to draw a largely positive reaction on social media, where some viewers praised Black's revised lyrics, and many used the hashtag #OurHomeOnNativeLand.

On YouTube, where the NBA posted a video of Black's rendition, she received more praise. Many commenters said they were proud.

"Jully took Utah to church," wrote one commenter.

Black became emotional as she recounted how a close friend, who is Indigenous, reacted to her lyrics.

"I didn't know how much this would mean to him. But now I do. And to every person who has lived generationally through being Indigenous, and just want the world to know that their lived experience matters."

Positive reactions

Isaiah Shafqat, a Mi'kmaq student and Indigenous student trustee with the Toronto District School Board, praised the change to the lyrics.

"It was exciting. It was a shock, because, you know, Indigenous people, we listen to O Canada and we always hear 'home and native land.' And that's not true," he told The National.

A number of people on Twitter commended Black's performance, including rapper Chuck D, a member of U.S. hip-hop group Public Enemy:

"My girl @JullyBlack just kicked the most soulful O Canada I ever heard at 2023 #NBAAllStar game," he tweeted.

'Attacks the symbol'

But some people criticized Black's revision, with one user on social media saying she was "just creating controversy," and another saying it was "absolutely disgraceful."

Some could be offended by the change, and might think it "attacks the symbol" of the anthem, explained Frédéric Bérard, co-director of National Observatory on Language Rights and a lecturer at the Université de Montréal's faculty of law.

"But I don't see any consequences for her because she is exercising her constitutional right," he said.

This is hardly the first time the words in O Canada have been changed.

For instance, in 2018 a years-long effort to make the anthem more inclusive, led by late Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger, became official when the second line was rewritten to make it gender-neutral.

The new wording of the anthem's English version became "in all of us command" from "in all thy sons command."

Jully Black Made A Subtle But Powerful Change To ‘O Canada’ At The NBA All-Star Game And People Are Here For It

DERRICK ROSSIGNOL

MUSIC NEWS EDITOR

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

There were a lot of musical moments this past NBA All-Star weekend, whether it was Janelle Monáe putting in work during the celebrity game or Burna Boy, Rema, and Tems highlighting the halftime show. One that stood out most to some people, though, was the pre-game performance of “O Canada” by Canadian R&B icon Jully Black. Her vocal performance went without issue, but it was what she sang that got a reaction.

The opening line of the song usually goes, “O Canada! Our home and native land!” However, Black instead sang, “O Canada! Our home on native land,” seemingly a nod to the Indigenous people who lived in the country before European settlers came over.

People enjoyed the change. One Twitter user wrote, “Today in #popculturehistory @JullyBlack sings the Canadian anthem at the #NBAAllStar and seamlessly made the lyrics more inclusive while reminding us all, we are indeed on native land.” Another tweeted, “Jully Black just changed the words to the Canadian national anthem by singing ‘Oh Canada, our home ON native land’ and I thought it was beautiful [Canadian flag emoji].”

Chuck D dug the performance, too, as he tweeted, “My girl @JullyBlack just kicked the most soulful O Canada i ever heard at 2023 #NBAAllStar game.”

Before the performance, Black spoke some about how she was going to approach her rendition:

Tom Mulcair: Our home on native land

Tom Mulcair
Contributor CTV NEWS
Updated Feb. 21, 2023 

During the past week, two women of character have put their indelible marks on longstanding issues involving First Nations, Inuit and Métis rights.

Leah Gazan, an Indigenous woman and the New Democrat member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, has proposed the extension of Criminal Code provisions on hate speech to include denialism of the genocide committed in residential schools.

Award-winning singer Jully Black brilliantly changed one word in the Canadian national anthem at last weekend’s NBA All-Star Game, replacing “our home and native land,” with “our home on native land”. Bam! No more arguments about details of land recognition statements: this one will have all the bases covered right from the start at thousands of major events.

Gazan’s proposal, which has not yet been tabled, is legally simple and straightforward. It is also so timely and necessary that Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller has said he’s willing to consider it. Miller is highly regarded with a sterling track record during his tenure. His nod could give a real boost to the chances of Gazan’s proposal becoming law.

A 'TIMELY AND NECESSARY' PROPOSAL

Gazan was already acknowledged for her leadership on the issues when she presented a motion in the House of Commons recognizing that the residential school system was a genocide. Her motion was adopted unanimously. An extraordinary admission by legislators from all parties.

I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing Gazan for many years. Unpretentiously strong, she is a gifted communicator. I invited her several times to speak with graduate students at l'Université de Montreal and she left them awestruck. She has a knack for getting to the substance of complex issues and connecting with those who don’t have her lived experience.

On issues of Indigenous history and rights she is truly inspiring. A part of her own complex family history has also left her with an acutely deep sensitivity to genocide issues. Her father, a Dutch Jew, was the only surviving child of his family when he came out of hiding after the war.

Gazan’s partner, former NDP MP Romeo Saganash, has spoken about his family’s own suffering in the residential school system that he attended. His mother was only shown his brother’s grave decades after his death in a residential school. Gazan’s actions honour the memories of their and so many other families. Capital Dispatch: Sign up for in-depth political coverage of Parliament Hill

Canada’s Criminal Code was recently amended to include the crime of anti-Semitic hate speech in the form of Holocaust denial.

Denying Canada’s genocide, perpetrated by our own governments in the residential school system, should also be proscribed as hate speech in a provision with similar wording.

Anyone who followed the years-long quest by late Ottawa-area Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger to make our national anthem gender neutral realizes that it’s not changed overnight. But thanks to Bélanger’s determination, we now sing “in all of us command” instead of “in all thy sons command.” Positive change is hard to resist.

But it has to start somewhere and with a clear idea. That’s the beauty of Jully’s proposal. It’s simple, it’s easy and it’s impossible to disagree with in good faith, because it’s so profoundly true.

When the Montreal Canadiens, much to the credit of the organization, started making Indigenous land recognition statements prior to games last season, the usual gang of “anti-woke” suspects was up in arms. They tried to nit pick which Nation was there at what epoch. Their real hope was to flush the statement. The Canadiens made some adjustments but have stuck to their statement, a rarity in Quebec.

On the subject of the residential school genocide, the target of denial has often been those who speak out clearly about the deaths of native children. “Lots of children died in that era” is one of the arguments thrown at people who have read the reports, heard the witnesses and know, and affirm, that Indigenous children were indeed killed. First-hand accounts from residential school survivors

As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proved conclusively, there is a huge difference between the mortality rates of First Nation, Inuit and Métis children in residential schools and deaths of children in the general population era for era.

Another typical approach is to take issue based on the historically stated benevolent intention for the schools. As the Commission proved, the real intention of those schools was to “beat the Indian out of the child.”

'THAT"S WHY IT WAS A GENOCIDE"

Maybe we have trouble accepting as true what our own governments did for generations. The time for justification and argument is over. Let’s face the ugly historical fact: Indigenous kids were killed in large numbers in institutions created to destroy their language, culture and identity.

That’s why it was a genocide. Recognized as such, unanimously, by the House of Commons under the leadership of Gazan.

World history tragically includes other genocides, in particular the horror perpetrated by the Ottomans against the Armenians at the height of the First World War. That genocide has been recognized by the Canadian Parliament as well. Hitler famously said on the eve of World War II, in preparing his plans for the Holocaust: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" The world has a collective duty to remember these horrors if we’re to have any hope of avoiding them in the future.

We, as Canadians, have a specific obligation to do everything that we can to acknowledge and atone for what Canada itself has done. Part of that atonement includes putting into Canadian law a prohibition against denial of the residential schools genocide. It won’t necessarily be an easy task in a minority Parliament. Unanimous consent to shorten delays could prove elusive.

NDP Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre and Member of The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO), Leah Gazan, speaks during a press conference on a House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women report in Ottawa, on Dec. 14, 2022. 

IN 2008, POILIEVRE 'SHOWED AN ABJECT LACK OF SENSITIVITY'

On the day, in 2008, when the House of Commons made an historic apology for the suffering and death caused in the residential school system one MP, Pierre Poilievre, showed an abject lack of sensitivity. He said that he wasn't sure Canada was "getting value for all of this money" being spent to compensate former students in that system.

He added that his “view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance. That's the solution in the long run — more money will not solve it.”

The residential school apology came at the beginning of my career in Ottawa and stands out as one of the most emotional events I’ve ever attended. Stephen Harper deserves full personal credit. The last minute behind the scenes shenanigans by the opposition Liberals to try to scupper the event were shameful and then-NDP leader Jack Layton played a key role in helping the minority Conservatives keep the historic event on track.

Poilievre was forced to issue a complete apology for his statements, but he did make them. Accepting that that apology was sincere is of course the right thing to do. The problem is, he’s still flirting around the edges of the same intolerance.

Just last month Poilievre spoke at a Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP) luncheon in Winnipeg.

It is inconceivable that with the full staffing he enjoys as Leader of the opposition, Poilievre didn’t know of the Centre’s shocking positions on residential schools. One example: it ran radio ads in 2018 that said it was a myth that residential schools robbed Indigenous children of their childhood.

Minister Miller once again had the right words: Poilievre’s “stunt” called into question the authenticity of his 2008 apology.

Rationalizing, Poilievre lamely claimed, “We speak with groups all the time with which we disagree.” Fact is, Poilievre would never accept to speak with a group of Holocaust deniers. His justification rang hollow.

Poilievre must’ve had contact with First Nations youth growing up. Whatever it is in his makeup that leads him to these troublesome, repeat positions about indigenous people and their history is for him to explain.

Canadians, who are exhausted with the incompetence of our current government, would normally be tempted to give his second place Conservatives a chance.

Poilievre seems intent on doing everything he can to convince them not to.

Tom Mulcair was the leader of the federal New Democratic Party of Canada between 2012 and 2017

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Cartel ‘Queen’: My Crimes Are No Worse Than Marrying a Politician

José Luis Montenegro
Tue, February 21, 2023

Jose Luis Montenegro

GUADALAJARA, Mexico—Sandra Ávila Beltrán—once alleged to be Mexico’s most famous female drug trafficker—enters the room like a movie star; turning heads, dressed in Chanel, and well over three-hours late.

Now in her early sixties, she still exudes the magnetism and raw sex appeal that saw her rise through the ranks as an immaculately connected power player in the wild world of the major drug cartels.

She became a household name—known as the “Queen of the Pacific”—in Mexico after her coolness under police interview was captured on camera in 2007. In that viral video, she was totally unruffled by claims that she had been part of an operation to smuggle nine tons of cocaine, insisting that she was just a housewife with a side-hustle selling clothes and renting out properties.


Ávila was charged along with her lover, the Colombian drug lord Juan Diego Espinosa, universally known as “El Tigre.” The authorities claimed she was one of the key cross-border links between the Sinaloa cartel and Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia.

The lifestyle and criminal career of this narco legend became the basis for the show The Queen of the South, although Netflix has refused to pay her a cent despite Ávila filing a lawsuit to demand a share of the revenues.

Her connections to the Mexican cartels run deep. Ávila’s uncle, Felix Gallardo, controlled the illegal trade of narcotics from Mexico to the United States for many years; it was said that there was no cargo route or drug trafficker that was not under his command in the 1980s. He was also the architect of the alliance with drug cartels in Colombia, specifically with Pablo Escobar Gaviria and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha.

Queenpins of the Drug Cartels

Gallardo, who was eventually convicted of drug trafficking, racketeering and the murder of a DEA agent, was known as “El Jefe de Jefes” (The Boss of Bosses), or “El Padrino” (The Godfather.) For years, he continued to run his drug smuggling operation from behind bars.

Ávila was twice married to men who joined the Sinaloa Cartel after careers as commanders in the Federal Judicial Police—which has since been shut down for its rampant corruption and links to the cartels. They had provided her with all kinds of luxuries, including vehicles and homes. “If my husband wants to give me a car or a house, I don’t ask where the money comes from,” she told The Daily Beast, running her hand through her hair and smiling.

Ávila—who famously showed up to one narco-party carrying an AK47—was never convicted of direct participation in drug running, but she spent time in U.S. and Mexican prisons for being an accessory to criminal activity and money laundering.

She believes she should never have been incarcerated simply for handling the proceeds of crime. As far as she is concerned her relationships with senior cartel members were no different to being married to a politician.

“I was accused of money laundering. But let's see, if I have a husband and he buys me a house or buys me a car, is that why I’m laundering capital? Tell me if the wife of a politician tells her husband: ‘No, I don’t want the house.’ For example: Angelica Rivera, the former first lady of Mexico, [an actress who was married to former President Enrique Peña Nieto] do you think that her money came from a salary from Televisa network? Who believes that?

“If I have a husband and he buys me a house, I'm not going to ask him where he got [the money] from, nor do I care. And if someone comes right now and gives me a house or a car, I’m not going to ask them how where they got it from. I don't care.”

Ávila was expounding on her theory during the second of two meetings in Guadalajara. I responded by asking if that wasn’t the precise definition of money laundering? “Imagine, how many women would they take [to jail] if they talk about money laundering? Martha Sahagun [wife of former President Vicente Fox Quesada], Angelica Rivera?”

So, what does she think of these former first ladies of Mexico? “What good luck! I congratulate you. Everyone has a destiny and if theirs was to have all that and that fortune came to them, it came to them. I couldn’t finish a subdivision that I was building in Sonora.”

After her marriages to two corrupted cops, Ávila’s relationship with “El Tigre” linked her to one of the most notorious cartel drug runners who Mexican authorities claim made a fortune trafficking more than 500 tons of cocaine from Mexico to the United States between 1990 and 2004.

The link between politicians and drug lords is far closer in Mexico than most countries—sometimes literally with claims that they are operating on behalf of one cartel or another. Even for clean politicians, the threat of violence is ever-present. Hundreds have been killed since the so-called war on drugs began in 2006.

The latest trend is the sons of big drug bosses getting into politics, which Ávila welcomes. “Can you imagine that they wanted to do something different for their country? That is, they didn't do what their father did or they wanted to show that their father wasn't as bad as they thought,” she said. “I would do it. I would like to. There are very good people with a big heart and who help the people who need it most.”

Before sitting down for a full interview, Ávila came for a pre-meeting at a restaurant in Guadalajara, where she was greeted like a star by four waiters as soon as she entered the building. She was three and a half hours late for lunch but ordered only an artichoke heart and mineral water. Our table in the back monopolized our fellow diners’ whispers and their glances but the lack of privacy never seemed to hold Ávila back.

The meeting ended with her asking a favor. “Can you take a couple of photos for me? I want my legs to look long.” I took her cellphone and did as I was asked.

A van was waiting for her at the entrance of the restaurant as she left. I watched her leave and decided to walk through town. To my surprise, a couple of burly guys followed me for a couple of hours before getting lost among the luxury stores. I assumed they wanted to make sure I didn't follow Ávila, or perhaps they were analyzing my movements.

Word soon came through that we could meet again to discuss her extraordinary history.

ICE deports Sandra Ávila Beltrán in 2013.
ICE

How Sandra Ávila Beltrán Got Caught

At the turn of the century, “the Queen of the Pacific” was at the height of her powers. She was in her early forties, considered royalty in cartel land and had inherited enviable economic stability from her father and two dead husbands who had provided her with all the luxuries she could desire.

On April 18, 2002, however, fortune stopped smiling on her.

An armed commando, dressed all in black, arrived at a gym in the Puerta de Hierro area in the city of Guadalajara, and kidnapped her only son, Jose Luis Fuentes Avila, who was 15. “It was the greatest pain I have ever been through in my life,” she told The Daily Beast. “The person who kidnapped him was a family friend, a friend of mine, including my son’s father. Almost always the kidnappings come from the escort, the cousin, there have even been children who have kidnapped their parents. They are the people closest to you.”

Rather than turn to the criminal underworld for assistance, Ávila panicked and went to the authorities. She explained to the Jalisco Attorney General's Office that the kidnappers were demanding $5 million for the boy’s release.

This sparked an investigation, which soon uncovered that this glamorous woman did not have a successful business track record, and yet she seemed to handle large sums of cash. The state anti-kidnapping unit began to monitor Ávila’s phone calls, and that’s when they discovered exactly what kind of friends she had.

As well as communication with the criminals who held her son captive, the authorities listened in as the calls rolled in from the likes of “El Tigre,” the murderous drug lord “Nacho” Coronel and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the notorious trafficker who now has a $15 million U.S. government bounty on his head after he became head of the Sinaloa cartel when Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was captured.

After 17 days, the boy was released. According to the Mexican government, Ávila paid the kidnappers $1.4 million dollars to secure his freedom. Other reports, however, suggest she may have paid up to $3 million financed by Zambada and Coronel, one of whom also reportedly gave the kid a black armored BMW to keep him safe.

The boy was free, but the Federal Investigation Agency of Mexico, which had been set up the year before to fight organized crime, was already on her case.

Meanwhile, her relationship with “El Tigre” was blossoming.

“I met him accidentally. At a birthday that was celebrated at my mother's house, he was invited. I arrived at lunch and there I met him. With the passage of time, he began to talk to me, to visit me, and he supported me a lot via businesses that he had with his brother.”

She denies that she knew he was involved in any illegal activities. “No, one of his brothers came to Mexico because they were engaged in textiles. They brought underwear from Colombia and that’s how I met them.”

Underwear was certainly not the only thing they were exporting to Mexico. On July 17, 2002, cops and members of the Mexican Navy seized a tuna vessel named “Macel” that was carrying nine tons of cocaine valued at $80 million. The Mexican authorities said the shipment was linked to Juan Diego Espinosa Ramírez—better known as “El Tigre”—and Sandra Ávila Beltrán.

It would take almost five years for law enforcement to track them down, in February 2007. Legend has it, the police arrested Ávila as she left a high-end beauty parlor in the exclusive neighborhood of Polanco in Mexico City.

“Is a lie,” Ávila says. “They stopped me at the Vips restaurant in San Jeronimo, south of the capital. I was leaving a breakfast. I wasn’t in any beauty salon, let alone in Polanco.”

She says she was sold out by a business partner when she demanded he return an investment she had made. She believes he tipped off the cops about their breakfast meeting. “I was upset with him and I asked him to return my investment. And in order not to do it, what this man did was hand me over to the government. I think,” she said.

Sandra Avila Beltran, 52, a convicted aggravated felon, is watched over by members of the Ministerial Federal Police after her arrival at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City August 20, 2013.
Secretaria de Gobernacion/Handout via Reuters

After years of judicial wrangling, Ávila was extradited to the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. She eventually pleaded guilty in 2013 in Miami to being an “accessory after the fact” for helping “El Tigre” escape justice. She was sentenced to 70 months in federal custody but by then she had been in jail in Mexico and the U.S. for five years and was soon deported back to Mexico. Once back home, she was initially sentenced to another prison term for money laundering but the Mexican courts threw that conviction out in 2015 and she was released after more than seven years behind bars.

Ávila was one of the first to fall foul of former President Felipe Calderón’s war on drug trafficking after he came to office in 2006. “I was the first,” she said. “A woman is the easiest.”

Calderón has previously been accused of working with the cartel bosses. Drug lord Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S. citizen, wrote a letter to Mexican newspaper Reforma in 2012 claiming that Calderón had met with the cartel bosses himself to strike a working arrangement. He denies the claims.

“[I spent] seven years and five months of my life in prison for something I shouldn’t have. Do you think they don’t owe me? Why isn’t Calderón in there? Do you think Calderon is innocent? I assure you not. They owe me for the pain that they caused my mother that she died of sadness, they owe me freedom, they owe me the damage they did to my son. They owe me a lot and no one punishes them. It is very easy to blame but check it out.”

At that moment, Ávila broke down. Her glassy eyes gave her away; the pain was still there but she did not let a tear run down her cheek.

Have you a clear conscience, I asked? “Yes, I don’t owe anyone anything. I do not hurt anyone.”

Unlike “El Chapo” Guzmán or Caro Quintero, Ávila articulates her answers very carefully. She calculates all her words. And she does it not only because she has lived close to the power that drug trafficking confers, but because she herself embodies the intelligence that allows that wicked empire to succeed.

After years of silence, Ávila now wants to get her words out there.

She has joined TikTok where she challenges some of the notoriety and the rumors that surround her. “So that they see that I am not what they think. There are people who believe that I am frivolous and bad. And yes, I can be good for many and very bad for others. Just so they know me.”

“It is difficult to take away from people an idea that the press, the sayings, the myths, the government have put into them for many years. I knew it was risky because I was exposing myself to criticism and insults. There were many fake accounts that could answer questions alien to them and I decided to be the one to finally speak.”

It remains to be seen if her new found willingness to speak out unapologetically gets Ávila into any more trouble.

She told The Daily Beast that when she was at her release hearing in the U.S., she couldn’t resist the chance to taunt the law enforcement officials one last time.

She said agents from the DEA and the FBI asked her to tell them if she planned to continue her criminal activities and smuggle more drugs into the United States when they let her go.

Ávila gave a mischievous smile and told The Daily Beast she finished by saying: “As an asshole, I say yes!”

The Daily Beast.

UN Security Council denounces Israel in statement after US showdown averted


A view shows the ILLEGAL Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Mon, February 20, 2023 
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The U.N. Security Council issued a formal statement on Monday denouncing Israel's plan to expand settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, the first action the United States has allowed the body to take against its ally Israel in six years.

Washington's support for the presidential statement - action the 15-member council has to agree by consensus - came after the United Arab Emirates said it would not put a stronger draft resolution on the issue to a vote, a move that could have prompted a U.S. veto.

"The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines," the council said in the statement. "The Security Council expresses deep concern and dismay with Israel's announcement on February 12."

In contrast the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, would have demanded Israel "immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory." Resolutions need nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Russia, China, France or Britain to be adopted.

Israel's religious-nationalist coalition government on Feb. 12 granted retroactive authorization to nine settler outposts that had been erected without government approval, angering the Palestinians, who want the West Bank for a future state.

"All the ingredients are there for us to reach a point of no return," Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told the council. "Every action we take now matters. Every word we utter matters. Every decision we delay matters."

'ONE-SIDED'

The UAE told Security Council counterparts on Sunday that it would not put the draft resolution to a vote on Monday "given the positive talks between the parties."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office then said on Monday that Israel will not authorize new settlements in the occupied West Bank in the coming months.

Netanyahu's office described the Security Council statement on Monday as "one-sided" and criticized the United States for supporting it, adding: "The statement should not have been made and the United States should not have joined it."

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that the United States opposes Israel's Feb. 12 settlement plans.

"These unilateral measures exacerbate tensions. They harm trust between the parties. They undermine the prospects for a negotiated two-state solution. The United States does not support these actions full stop," she said.

Thomas-Greenfield described the presidential statement as "real diplomacy at work" that shows how seriously the council "takes these threats to peace," adding: "The United States joined other members of this council in asking both Israelis and Palestinians to take the urgent and necessary steps to restore calm and improve the quality of life for their people."

In December 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama's administration abstained on a Security Council vote, allowing the body to adopt a resolution that demanded Israel stop building settlements.

Most world powers view as illegal the settlements Israel has built on land it captured in a 1967 war with Arab powers. Israel disputes that and cites biblical, historical and political links to the West Bank, as well as security interests.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Rami Ayyub, Nick Zieminski and Sandra Maler)