Prayers at fire-bombed mosques as India’s riot toll grows

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and EMILY SCHMALL February 28, 2020

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Muslims offer prayers on the roof of a fire-bombed mosque in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Muslims returned to the battle-torn streets of northeastern New Delhi for weekly prayers at heavily-policed fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 38 dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


NEW DELHI (AP) — Muslims in a northeastern neighborhood of India’s capital returned for weekly prayers at fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

Five days after the riots started, authorities have not said what sparked the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades. Hospitals were still trying to identify the dead as the toll continued to rise, and residents of the areas affected by the riots were still seeking loved ones.

“If they burn our mosques, we will rebuild them again and pray. It’s our religious right and nobody can stop us from practicing our religion,” said Mohammad Sulaiman, who was among about 180 men who prayed on the rooftop of a mosque that was set on fire in the unrest.

Muslims offer prayers on the roof of a fire-bombed mosque in New Delhi, India, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Muslims returned to the battle-torn streets of northeastern New Delhi for weekly prayers at heavily-policed fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 38 dead and hundreds injured. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Hindu-first policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India.

Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, demanded at a rally Sunday that police shut down a Muslim-led protest in the city or else he and his followers would do it themselves.

And it appears they did.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone.

Al-Hind hospital, a small clinic with two doctors, was the nearest medical facility for many of the victims. When the riots broke out, it turned into a chaotic emergency ward, its doctors dealing for the first time with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls, stabbings and torn genitals.

“It was horrific, as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob,” said M.A. Anwar, the doctor on duty,

Religious tensions in the area where the clashes occurred still simmered on Friday, tempered by a heavy police presence. On one riot-torn street, Hindus shouted “Jai Shri Ram,” or Long Live Ram, the Hindu god, as Muslims attempted to reach a mosque damaged in the riots.

Several Muslim residents told The Associated Press that most Muslim families had locked their homes and fled the area.

The passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead.

The protest violence is the latest in a long line of periodic communal clashes that date to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when the country was split into secular, Hindu-majority India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

The protection of India’s religious, cultural and linguistic diversity is enshrined in its constitution. But communal tensions have occasionally flared into deadly riots, beginning with partition itself, when Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated to India, and Muslims in modern India to Pakistan.


Clashes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and people of other religions.

This week’s death toll marked the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on Ram’s birthplace. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw Modi’s right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in India’s Parliament.

In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob. A fire erupted — it remains unclear whether it was arson — and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing.

Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modi’s party came to power, in a largely poor neighborhood close to where this week’s rioting occurred. That violence left three dozen people injured.
Full Coverage: India

Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who wrote a book about Indian riots, said the worst has been averted — at least for now.

“If it had reached the scale of Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002, it would have doomed Indian politics for many years to come and brought India closer to the kind of Hindu-Muslim polarization that the current ruling party would ideally want, but is finding it hard to manufacture,” Varshney said.

BJP leaders, who have sought to demonize Muslim protesters as a threat to India, may see some gain from the violence, Varshney said.

But it comes at a cost, the international perception that India under Modi has become ungovernable, he said.

Government spokesman Raveesh Kumar denied the Modi government had inflamed religious tensions and failed to protect Muslims.

“These are factually inaccurate and misleading, and appear to be aimed at politicizing the issue,” he said. “Our law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.”

He added that Modi had “publicly appealed for peace and brotherhood.”

“We would urge that irresponsible comments are not made at this sensitive time,” he said.

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Associated Press writer Anirrudha Ghosal contributed to this report.

As India counts dead, brutality of Hindu-Muslim riot emerges
By SHEIKH SAALIQ 29/2/2020

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In this Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 photo, paramedics tend to the wounds of Mehfooz Umar at Al-Hind hospital in Old Mustafabad neighborhood of New Delhi, India. As the Mustafabad neighborhood of India's capital broke out in brutal communal riots for three days this week, the Al-Hind Hospital turned from a community clinic into a trauma ward. Authorities haven't said what sparked the violence that has left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, but it was the culmination of growing tensions since the passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW DELHI (AP) — The wounded came in waves. First in ones and twos, limping up the steps and staggering through the aluminum doors, and then in wheelbarrows, with bleeding skulls and stabbed necks. Finally, the motorcycles and auto-rickshaws arrived, their seats stained with the blood of as many as they could hold.

As the Mustafabad neighborhood of India’s capital was ravaged by communal riots for three days this week, the Al-Hind Hospital turned from a community clinic into a trauma ward.

Doctors like M.A. Anwar were for the first time dealing with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls and torn genitals.


“I wanted to cry and scream,” he recalled. “Something inside of me died during those three days.”

Almost a week after the clashes between Hindus and Muslims began, a clearer picture of the horrors inflicted during New Delhi’s worst communal riots in decades has begun to emerge.

On the eve of President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India last Sunday, Hindus and Muslims in the Indian capital charged at each other with homemade guns and crude weapons, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone, with houses, shops, mosques, schools and vehicles up in flames. At least 42 people were killed and hundreds more wounded.

Authorities have struggled to identify some of the bodies because of the gruesomeness of the injuries.

While both sides behaved brutally, most of the victims were Muslim.

Authorities haven’t given an official account of what sparked the riots, though the violence appeared to be a culmination of growing tensions that followed the passage of a new citizenship law in December.

The law fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims. Opponents say it violates India’s secular constitution, and further marginalizes the 200 million Muslims in this Hindu-majority nation of 1.4 billion people.

The law spurred massive protests across India that left at least 23 dead.

But what unfolded in Mustafabad this week was far more brutal, with mobs hacking individuals with swords, burning people alive and bludgeoning people to death.

A Hindu intelligence bureau officer was repeatedly stabbed and his dead body thrown into a sewage drain that divides Hindu and Muslim residential areas. A Muslim man had his legs spread so far apart that the lower half of his body tore. His condition remained critical.


Questions have been raised about the role of the New Delhi police and whether they stood by while the violence raged or even aided the Hindu mobs.

A New Delhi police spokesman, Anil Mittal, denied that police had aided rioters.

Al-Hind hospital’s doctors said authorities kept ambulances from reaching certain riot-hit places.

A little after midnight on Wednesday — more than 72 hours after the violence began — a New Delhi High Court passed an extraordinary order directing the police to provide safe passage for ambulances.

It was too late for many victims.

With streets taken over by the mobs and no way through for ambulances, Anwar knew early on that his clinic would soon be overcome with wounded.

Some slumped in plastic chairs as they draped gunshot-riddled arms and legs over tables.

Others just lay on the floor, bleeding.

Those who were there described the blood and chaos, but also shared oddly uplifting stories of teamwork and grit.

“We didn’t sleep. We didn’t eat anything. All we wanted to do was save lives. And we did,” said Aanis Mohammad, a volunteer at the clinic. “No patient of any religion was turned away.”

By mid-afternoon Wednesday as the violence came to an end, Anwar and his overwhelmed colleagues had treated more than 400 people and referred almost 100 to larger hospitals. Dozens, however, remained at the clinic in critical condition.

The hospital also gave refuge to those fleeing the violence, providing more than 50 people with food, bedding and safety.

Clean-up efforts in Mustafabad are underway but the scars are still visible.

At Guru Teg Bahadur hospital along New Delhi’s eastern border, 18-year-old Salman Ansari waited for his father’s body to be handed over.

Ansari’s father had gone out to collect scrap for money as there was no food in the house. After seeing police assurances on the news, he thought it would be safe. It wasn’t.

Ansari said he was sleeping when two strangers dumped his father outside their home early Wednesday.

He carted his father 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) on the family’s rickshaw to a private clinic. The doctors demanded 5,000 rupees ($69). His pockets were empty.

By the time Ansari managed to reach a public hospital, his father was dead.

For Anwar, the doctor, he said he eventually grew numb to the carnage. Yet he’s still coming to grips with how fellow Indians could do what they did to one another.

“It’s as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob,” he said.

___ Associated Press writer Aniruddha Ghosal contributed to thisTOPICS

Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims protest India violence

February 28, 2020

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Bangladeshis protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. Poster reads "Your religion allows the destruction of mosques, my religion prohibits destroying temples." (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Several thousand Muslims marched from the main mosque in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to denounce India’s government for allegedly inflaming tensions between Hindus and Muslims, leading to clashes that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

After Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims left the Baitul Mokarram Mosque in Dhaka and joined the rally, chanting slogans against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They threw shows at posters of Modi and burned a portrait of him. Many of the protesters carried banners saying, “Stop killing Muslims” and “Save Indian Muslims.”

The protesters also demanded that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cancel a plan to invite Modi to a commemoration next month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Rahman, Hasina’s father, led a political movement that created the separate nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war with what is now Pakistan in 1971.

“I ask the prime minister to immediately cancel Narendra Modi’s invitation,” Nur Hossain Kasemi of the influential Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam told the protesters. “If she fails to do so, the people of the country will be forced to take action and surround the airport. They will build resistance.”


Bangladeshis protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. Poster reads "Bangladeshis do not want terrorist Modi to come here." (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)

But he asked Bangladeshi Muslims not to harm Hindus.

“I remind the Muslims of our country that we believe in harmony. We don’t believe in violence. We shall not harm any non-Muslims in this country,” he said.

Tensions in India between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Modi government’s Hindu-first policies have been building for months. Violence exploded in parts of New Delhi on Sunday night, the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the three days of rioting occurred resembling a war

Bangladeshis beat a poster with a caricature of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a protest against the communal violence in New Delhi, after Friday prayers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Authorities have not said what sparked the riots, the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades, as the the toll continued to rise. The protestors also raised slogans against the visit of Modi who is scheduled to visit Bangladesh in mid-March. (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)
AP 

Boeing blames incomplete testing for astronaut capsule woes
JUST IN TIME PRODUCTION FAILS, AGAIN

FILE - This Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019 file photo shows the Boeing Starliner spacecraft after it landed in White Sands, N.M. On Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, Boeing acknowledged it failed to conduct full and adequate software tests before the botched space debut of its astronaut capsule late last year. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

By MARCIA DUNNFebruary 28, 2020
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing acknowledged Friday it failed to conduct full and adequate software tests before the botched space debut of its astronaut capsule late last year.

A software error left the Starliner capsule in the wrong orbit in December and precluded a docking with the International Space Station. Another software flaw could have ended up destroying the capsule, if not fixed right before reentry.

A Boeing vice president, John Mulholland, said both mistakes would have been caught if complete, end-to-end testing had been conducted in advance and actual flight equipment used instead of substitutes.


“We know that we need to improve,” he said.

The company is still uncertain when its next test flight might occur and whether astronauts might be aboard. NASA — which will have the final say — will announce the outcome of the ongoing investigation review next Friday. The first flight test had no crew.

SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to launch its Dragon crew capsule with NASA astronauts this spring.

Mulholland, who serves as the Starliner program manager, said the company is still reviewing the Starliner’s 1 million lines of code to make certain no other problems exist.

Because Boeing tested the Starliner’s software in segments rather than in one continuous stream to simulate the flight to and from the space station, the company failed to catch an error that knocked the capsule’s internal timer off by 11 hours shortly after liftoff. An unrelated communication problem prevented flight controllers from quickly sending commands in a bid to salvage the docking portion of the mission.

Then, just hours before the capsule’s early return to New Mexico, a second software error was detected by ground controllers. This mistake stemmed from the use of substitute equipment during preflight testing rather than actual flight hardware.

Mulholland stressed that the situation had nothing to do with saving money.

“We’re going to go make it right and we’re going to have a fantastic spacecraft going forward,” he said.

The December mission was supposed to be the company’s last major hurdle before launching the first Starliner crew — two NASA astronauts and a Boeing astronaut. NASA astronauts have not launched from home soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Biggest explosion seen in universe came from black hole
February 27, 2020

This image made available by NASA on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 shows the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster viewed in a composite of X-ray, radio and infrared data. The inset image at bottom right shows data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory which confirmed a cavity formed by a record-breaking explosion from a super-massive black hole. The explosion was so large it carved out a crater in the hot gas that could hold 15 Milky Ways, said lead author Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. (Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM: ESA/XMM; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF via AP)


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe, originating from a super-massive black hole.

Scientists reported Thursday that the blast came from a black hole in a cluster of galaxies 390 million light-years away.

The explosion was so large it carved out a crater in the hot gas that could hold 15 Milky Ways, said lead author Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

It’s five times bigger than the previous record-holder.

Astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to make the discovery, along with a European space observatory and ground telescopes. They believe the explosion came from the heart of the Ophiuchus cluster of thousands of galaxies: a large galaxy at the center contains a colossal black hole.

Black holes don’t just draw matter in. They also blast out jets of material and energy.

The first hint of this giant explosion actually came in 2016. Chandra images of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster revealed an unusual curved edge, but scientists ruled out an eruption given the amount of energy that would have been needed to carve out such a large cavity in the gas.

The two space observatories, along with radio data from telescopes in Australia and India, confirmed that the curvature was, indeed, part of a cavity.

“The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove,” co-author Maxim Markevitch of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. “This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here.”

The blast is believed to be over by now: There are no signs of jets currently shooting from the black hole.

More observations are needed in other wavelengths to better understand what occurred, according to the team.

The findings appeared in the Astrophysical Journal.
Explore: Science

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Feds reject removal of 4 US Northwest dams in key report

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

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FILE - In this April 11, 2018 file photo, water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash. Farmers, environmentalists, tribal leaders and public utility officials are eagerly awaiting a federal report due Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, that could decide the fate of four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River. (AP Photo/Nicholas K. Geranios,File)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A long-awaited federal report out Friday rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort tosave threatened and endangered salmon, saying such a dramatic approach would destabilize the power grid, increase overall greenhouse emissions and more than double the risk of regional power outages.

The four dams on the lower Snake River are part of a vast and complex hydroelectric power system operated by the federal government in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The massive dams, built in eastern Washington between 1961 and 1975, are at the center of a years-long battle that pits the fate of two iconic Pacific Northwest species — the salmon and the killer whale — against the need for plentiful, carbon-free power for the booming region.

Environmental groups that have pushed for years for the dams to come down immediately blasted the report. The three agencies in charge of overseeing the sprawling hydropower system recommended an alternative that doubles down on an approach that includes spilling more water over the dams when juvenile salmon are migrating — a tactic already being used.

“Rather than seizing this opportunity to heed the public’s call for working together for a solution that revives salmon populations, the draft plan is built on the same failed approach the courts have rejected time and again,” said Todd True, an attorney for Earthjustice who has represented environmentalists and fishing groups in ongoing litigation over the dams.


Dam removal opponents, however, said the report presented a balanced solution that won’t burden ratepayers or disrupt the region’s power supply.

“Once again, the science has determined that destroying the four Lower Snake River dams would have high environmental and economic costs,” said Todd Myers, environmental director at the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank.
The 14 federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers together produce 40% of the region’s power — enough electricity to power nearly 5 million homes, or eight cities roughly the size of Seattle. They also contain a system of locks that allows cities nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) inland access to Asian markets via barges that float down the rivers to the Pacific Ocean. Roughly 50 million to 60 million tons of cargo navigate the Snake and Columbia river system annually.

Yet the towering dams have proven disastrous for salmon that struggle to navigate past them on their way to and from the Pacific Ocean. Salmon are rare in that they hatch in freshwater streams, then make their way hundreds of miles to the ocean, where they spend years before finding their way back to mate, lay eggs and die.

Snake River sockeye were the first species in the Columbia River Basin listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1991. Now, 13 salmon runs are listed as federally endangered or threatened. Four of those runs return to the Snake River.

The Columbia River system dams cut off more than half of salmon spawning and rearing habitat, and many wild salmon runs in the region have 2% or less of their historic populations, said Meg Townsend, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

A chinook salmon, below, and a steelhead, above, move through the fish ladder at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Washington state. (Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review via AP, File)

On the way to the ocean, juvenile salmon can get chewed up in the dams’ turbines, she said. The adults returning from the ocean must navigate fish ladders — concrete chutes that bypass the dams — but they can become bottle-necked before reaching them and get picked off by predators, Townsend said.

Until recently, young salmon were sent by truck or barge around the dams or passed through the turbines or bypasses. An interim agreement that took effect last year prioritized the “flex spill” strategy of increasing the water in spillways to send more fish over the tops of the structures. This approach allows the U.S. government to adjust the spill level according to power demands.

The effect on the long-term survival of juvenile salmon won’t be known for several years, when biologists can start counting the adult fish that return from the ocean.

Scientists also warn that southern resident orcas are starving to death because of a dearth of the chinook salmon that are their primary food source.

FILE- In this Jan. 18, 2014, file photo, an endangered female orca leaps from the water while breaching in Puget Sound west of Seattle, Wash. A federal report released Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save threatened and endangered salmon. Scientists also warn that southern resident orcas are starving to death because of a dearth of the chinook salmon that are their primary food source. Dam removal could increase the numbers of two key stocks of chinook salmon for orcas. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

The Pacific Northwest population of orcas — also called killer whales — was placed on the endangered species list in 2005. A mother orca that carried her dead baby on her back for 17 days brought international attention in 2018 as their numbers have dwindled to 72 animals.

Opponents of dam removal say they want salmon to flourish, but they aren’t sure breaching four major hydroelectric dams will help — and it could instead damage the regional economy and the stability of the power supply.

Reservoirs behind some of the dams allow the Bonneville Power Administration to even out the more erratic power supply from wind and solar by spilling water to generate electricity on short notice. And a move away from low-cost coal plants in the Pacific Northwest has some worried about what the future could hold for ratepayers if the Snake River dams are removed, said Kurt Miller, of Northwest River Partners, which represents community-owned utilities across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

The Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River is seen from the air near Colfax, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren,File)

“If worldwide salmon populations are doing poorly because of climate change and carbon, does it make sense to tear out 1,000 average megawatts of carbon-free electricity?” he said. “For so many reasons, it’s bad public policy.”

The report addressed those concerns, noting hydropower generation would decrease by 1,100 average megawatts under average water conditions, and 730 average megawatts under low water conditions. The risk of a regional power shortages would more than double and the lowest-cost replacement power would be $200 million a year, it said. Those adjustments would increase the wholesale power rate up to 9.6%, the authors wrote.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bonneville Power Administration to revisit the impact of the hydroelectric system in 2016 while overseeing litigation over salmon.

In all, three federal judges have thrown out five plans for the system over the decades after finding they didn’t do enough to protect salmon.

Friday’s report is a draft and will be subject to 45 days of public comment. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will next analyze the proposal to determine if it does enough to protect salmon and orcas — a process that should be completed by June.

A final report is expected in September.

In this Feb. 12, 2020, photo, informational signs promoting dams on the Snake River are displayed during a lobby day at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. A federal report released Friday, Feb. 28, rejected the idea of removing four hydroelectric dams on a major Pacific Northwest river in a last-ditch effort to save threatened and endangered salmon. The report says breaching the dams would destabilize the power grid, increase greenhouse emissions and raise the risk of power outages. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Satellite almost on empty gets new life after space docking
By MARCIA DUNN February 26, 2020

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This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, bottom right. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A communication satellite almost out of fuel has gotten a new life after the first space docking of its kind.

Northrop Grumman and Intelsat announced the successful link-up nearly 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth on Wednesday. It’s the first time two commercial satellites have joined in orbit like this.

The recently launched satellite — Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV-1 — will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion.

Company officials called it a historic moment for space commerce, akin to the three-spacewalker capture of a wayward Intelsat satellite 28 years ago.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of what many thought would be impossible,” said Tom Wilson, president of SpaceLogistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. “The impossible is now a reality. Today is a great example of that.”

The Northrup Grumman satellite was launched from Kazakhstan in October. On Tuesday, it closed in on the 19-year-old Intelsat 901 satellite and clamped onto it. The duo will remain attached for the next five years.

This Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 photo provided by Northrop Grumman shows the Intelsat 901 satellite as the Mission Extension Vehicle-1 approaches it in orbit around the Earth, background. The Northrop Grumman MEV-1 will serve as a guide dog of sorts for its aging Intelsat companion which is almost out of fuel. (Northrop Grumman via AP)

This novel rescue was carried out at a slightly higher orbit to avoid jeopardizing other satellites if something had gone wrong. The Intelsat satellite was never designed for this kind of docking; officials said everything went well.

Once maneuvered back down into its operational orbit, the Intelsat satellite should resume operations in another month or two. MEV-1 will move on to another satellite in need once its five-year hitch is over.

Jean-Luc Froeliger, a vice president for Intelsat, said the satellite had just months of fuel remaining. It ended service late last year and was sent into the slightly higher orbit for the docking.

Officials declined to say how much the operation cost or what future rescues might cost. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said “there was a solid business case” for undertaking the salvage attempt with five more years of operation ahead for the satellite.

It’s reminiscent of another Intelsat rescue that unfolded closer to home.

Spacewalking astronauts captured the wayward Intelsat 603 satellite during Endeavour’s maiden voyage in 1992. It took three men to grab the satellite with their gloved hands in perhaps the most dramatic shuttle mission of all time. An attached rocket motor ended up propelling the satellite from a low altitude to its proper orbit.

Northrop Grumman envisions satellite refueling and other robotic repairs in another five to 10 years. In the meantime, a second rescue satellite will be launched later this year.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Congresswoman: Science should guide nuclear storage decision

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

February 25, 2020

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation wants to ensure a “sound and robust” scientific review is done before federal regulators decide whether to sign off on plans for a multibillion-dollar temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.

U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small in an interview with The Associated Press acknowledged that the growing stockpile of used fuel at commercial reactors around the U.S. is a national problem and that elected leaders need to ensure New Mexico does not pay an unfair price as part of the solution.

“My concern is making sure that we’re looking at the science and that we are doing our best to evaluate based on that, not based on economic considerations or based on fear or bias, but based on how do we solve a challenge that is a national challenge,” the Democrat said.

While elected leaders in Eddy and Lea counties support the project, it has garnered fierce opposition from nuclear watchdog groups, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and other members of the state’s congressional delegation. They are concerned about the state becoming a permanent dump since the federal government is far from having any long-term plan for dealing with the tons of spent fuel building up at nuclear power plants around the nation.

State and industry officials also have concerns about potential effects on oil and gas development, as the proposed site is located within the Permian Basin — one of the world’s most prolific energy production regions.

Torres Small narrowly won the district and is up for re-election this year. She said she has heard from constituents on both sides of the matter — those who have concerns and those who see the project as an opportunity for more jobs and revenue for the oil-dependent region.

New Jersey-based Holtec International is seeking a 40-year license from federal regulators to build what it has described as a state-of-the-art complex near Carlsbad.

The site in southeastern New Mexico is remote and geologically stable, the company has said. Holtec executives also have said the four-layer casks that would hold the spent fuel would be made of thick steel and lead and transported on a designated train with guards and guns.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is in the process of considering Holtec’s application. It could be next year before a decision is made.

Torres Small said the clock is ticking for elected leaders to find a permanent solution as spent fuel is now stored at a variety of dangerous locations scattered across the U.S., including near important waterways.

New Mexico already is home to the U.S. government’s only underground repository for Cold War-era waste generated over decades by nuclear research and bomb-making. Some watchdogs are concerned the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant could become the final destination for other types of waste as the government prepares to ramp up production of the plutonium cores that serve as triggers for weapons in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Torres Small couched her support forproduction of the plutonium coresby saying New Mexico has a long history of bearing a burden when it comes to nuclear development and waste. She said the focus should be on making sure the state and its residents are kept “whole and strong” as national security obligations are met.

Used cars keep Africans moving, but dumping concerns remain

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA and FARAI MUTSAKA 1/3/2020

In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020, traffic sits queued up on Uhuru Highway leading to downtown Nairobi, Kenya. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa new wheels often mean a used car from Japan or Europe which are affordable to the growing middle class, but environmental activists and others complain that the second-hand vehicles, unable to meet stringent pollution tests elsewhere, are simply being dumped in the world's poorest continent. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)


KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Salesmen whistle at potential buyers of scores of vehicles shining in the afternoon sun. One truck might bring over $20,000 but it’s far from the “brand new” ride the salesman touts it to be while attempting to start the engine.

The truck is one of tens of thousands of second-hand vehicles imported each year into Uganda from Europe or Asia, especially Japan. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the imports satisfy demand for mobility while many public transport systems are rudimentary and newer models are not affordable to many in the growing middle class.

But the used vehicles are a problem, officials say. They contribute the pollution burden on a continent that contributes far less than other regions to the emissions that cause global warming.

Africa has become “the burial ground of vehicles that run on fossil fuel as the West turns to electric and newer cleaner technologies,” said Philip Jakpor, an activist with the Nigerian branch of the group Friends of the Earth.

Many second-hand vehicles shipped to Africa from Japan are believed to have failed, or were about to fail, pollution tests there, according to the U.N. Environment Program. But in many parts of Africa such regulations are often poorly enforced, and rampant corruption ensures that used vehicles can slip by any controls.

The UNEP, which calls air pollution a “silent killer” in Africa that is responsible for about 7 million deaths each year, has warned that vehicle emissions are a major source of deteriorating air quality in booming cities.

More than 1.2 million used vehicles were imported into Africa in 2017, according to U.N. figures. Most were destined for Nigeria and Kenya, two of Africa’s largest economies. Both countries also have car-assembling plants.

“The West has refused to transfer technology or make the technology to transit to be cheap and accessible,” Jakpor said. “Our governments have equally failed to invest in renewables and transition, so we will have this dumping for a long time.”

In Uganda, more than 80% of all vehicles are second-hand imports. In part to stem the flow, legislation enacted in 2018 outlaws the importation of vehicles older than 15 years and imposes stiffer taxes on vehicles older than nine years.

A used vehicle made in, say, 2010 can seem new to both buyer and seller in the East African country without a single car-assembling plant and where rickety vehicles are ubiquitous. It’s not uncommon to see vehicles emitting a fog of dark fumes. Police frequently attribute deadly accidents to vehicles in dangerous condition.

“You cannot wake up and put a total ban” on used vehicles, said Dicksons Kateshumbwa, Uganda’s commissioner in charge of customs revenue. “There is a growing middle-income (class). Everyone who gets a job, and gets money, wants to drive.”

Taxes on used vehicles are “a key component” of the revenue agency’s overall collection targets, he said. He added there is no evidence suggesting that stiffer environmental levies on used cars cut into demand.

Car dealers in the Ugandan capital of Kampala told The Associated Press that demand for used vehicles remains solid because importers target certain vehicles that are much sought-after no matter how old they are. The Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Harrier are much-loved locally, for example.

“Ugandans are conversant with older models, so they are looking for those,” said car importer Amir Hussein of Cosmos Uganda Ltd. “For many people, it is their mindset: that old is solid, is good.”

Uganda’s government last year contracted two companies to inspect used vehicles before they are shipped. The head of the standards agency acknowledges the system is imperfect as not all vehicles are subjected to tests as they cross into the country. Inspectors based in Uganda only carry out spot checks.

Ben Manyindo, head of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, called for a plan that eventually would lead to the banning of used vehicles from abroad.

The question of whether to impose import restrictions remains contentious despite wide recognition of the dangers of an unlimited flow of used vehicles into Africa, the continent least equipped to deal with climate-changing carbon emissions.

In Zimbabwe, where the government has tried and failed to impose restrictions amid resistance from importers and others, there is no age limit for imported cars. Used cars are not checked for emissions levels when they enter the southern African nation from ports in Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa, which notably allows the importation of used vehicles only for re-export to other countries.

Zimbabwe’s environment protection agency lacks the resources to conduct effective spot checks for emissions, and over the years the government has appeared fickle in its attempts to regulate the trade in used vehicles.

In 2010 the government banned the importation of vehicles older than five years but later backed down. In December the finance minister announced that older cars would pay less import duty than newer cars, sparking criticism from some lawmakers and environmentalists who argued the measure would encourage people to buy cars that are more harmful to the environment.


In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, a worker washes used cars for sale in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa new wheels often mean a used car from Japan or Europe which are affordable to the growing middle class, but environmental activists and others complain that the second-hand vehicles, unable to meet stringent pollution tests elsewhere, are simply being dumped in the world's poorest continent. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)


“The old cars have higher emissions and are dumped on us because they are no longer considered as fit for the roads in their countries of origin,” said Byron Zamasiya of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, which urges stricter controls. “We should be incentivizing people to import newer cars than older ones.”

Used cars from Japan are so common in Zimbabwe that the business may be one of the few still profitable in a country reeling from serious economic woes. Zimbabweans spent over $5 billion importing used cars between 2006 and 2016, and an average of 300 pass through Beitbridge, the main border crossing with South Africa, according to official figures.

Open spaces in cities such as Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, have been taken over by used-car dealers selling anything from small sedans to rundown buses following the collapse of the country’s once-vibrant car assembly industry. A usually unreliable public transport system also fuels demand for used vehicles among people who can still afford one.

Like Uganda, Nigeria restricts importations of vehicles older than 15 years, but importers working with corrupt officials can always beat the system, according to importer Motola Adebayo. He believes the ability to bribe customs officials has encouraged an influx of very old vehicles into Africa’s most populous country.

“Many of them are being used for commercial transportation,” he said of the imports. “Very old vehicles are now becoming the standard means of commercial transportation in Nigeria.”

Oke Ndubuisi, a taxi driver in Lagos, reasoned that “here in Nigeria, because people are paying very little as transport fares, you cannot easily recover the cost of your investment in a vehicle if it is an expensive one.”

The taxi he drives is one of many that contribute to air pollution in Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital.

“The prices of new vehicles will have to come down in order to address the problem of pollution caused by old vehicles,” he said.

___ Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed.

Baltimore squeegee kids find work, risks, cash at stoplights

By REGINA GARCIA CANO 

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In a photo taken Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, Nathaniel Silas walks through stopped traffic at a red light while looking for cars to squeegee in Baltimore. A debate over Baltimore's so-called squeegee kids is reaching a crescendo as the city grapples with issues of crime and poverty and a complicated history with race relations. Officials estimate 100 squeegee kids regularly work at intersections citywide, dashing into the street as red lights hit to clean windshields in exchange for cash from drivers. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)


BALTIMORE (AP) — A clock starts ticking when the light turns red at Baltimore intersections. Young men huddled on the sidewalk jump into the street, a squeegee in one hand, a bottle of glass cleaner in the other.

For these “squeegee kids,” every idling windshield is an opportunity - to make a little cash, and to find work that doesn’t involve the drugs or gang violence that plague much of the city.

Nathaniel Silas’ goal is to make a dollar during every red light by cleaning windshields. Most drivers will give only a handful of change, if anything. Silas knows he has 24 seconds during each light. He keeps count in his head.

Silas is among about 100 squeegee kids — ages 14 to 21, mostly black and from low-income neighborhoods — regularly working intersections in neighborhoods across Baltimore, city officials estimate. For some, it’s a primary source of money; for others, a side hustle. They say it helps pay for groceries, rent and clothes. But many drivers call the squeegee kids a nuisance in a city with a complicated history of race relations and violence, and officials have tried for years to steer the workers to alternative jobs and have now launched a program to mentor them.

Silas, 19, scans motorists’ faces, watches for hand gestures. He passes cars with drivers mouthing “no” or shooing him away. Some turn on their wipers as a signal to stay away. But he also finds smiley drivers, and, after three years, he has regulars. He approaches one who gives a quick look of permission, and he stretches over the windshield. He jokes about accepting credit cards and Venmo.

He takes the change from the outstretched hand. The first windshield took 13 seconds. Other squeegee kids try to work at half that pace.

Silas and others know the work is illegal. Data analyzed by The Associated Press show that more than 3,100 complaints were logged about squeegee kids in 2019, the first year Baltimore used a specific designation for reports involving those cleaning windshields.

The City Council outlawed the practice in the 1980s, with white council members passing the ban and black ones opposing it. The city opened “squeegee stations,” where youths with approved badges could work after receiving safety and etiquette instructions. But the idea never caught on.

Baltimore officials have stopped short of arrests, a practice that made windshield washers virtually extinct in New York. Baltimore officers ask squeegee kids to leave the corner but don’t force them away. One was arrested in February after refusing to get off the street and fighting and biting an officer, according to a police report.

Squeegee kids - most of whom don’t want to share their name or other details because of the illegal nature of the work and the stigma attached to it - say the complaints don’t deter them.

Even so, the debate over the unsolicited window cleaning has reached a crescendo. Last year, the white CEO of Baltimore-based global investment firm T. Rowe Price requested a meeting with city officials to address the “adverse effects of the squeegee presence.” William Stromberg wrote that the “frustrations” created by the kids “negatively impact the quality of life” of his employees and city residents. Soon after, the city announced plans to help the squeegee kids with mentorship and workforce training programs.

But Silas, sitting on the sidewalk taking a break, isn’t sure he’s interested in the city’s “Squeegee Alternative Plan.” About 80 squeegee kids have connected with the incentive-based program in some way, said Tisha Edwards, head of the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success. Mentors have daily contact with the most active kids, encouraging them to return to school, helping them get the IDs they need for formal employment, and guiding them to workforce readiness training and permanent jobs. Organizers say about 25 kids have returned to school, and 15 now have conventional jobs.

“These are young people who’ve had a long history of not being successful in school, and they do what they know how to do, which is if the family is hungry or if the water bill needs to be paid or rent needs to be paid, they go back to the corner,” Edwards said. “We want young people to know there are opportunities available to them and they don’t have to make those hard choices of ‘If I go to school, how am I going to eat?’”

Silas has different career goals. He says he has considered saving some of his squeegee money to buy a van for a mobile car wash. Longer term, he hopes to work in real estate or own a car dealership.

Squeegee work can be dangerous, and he knows he can’t do it forever. But it’s good money - he can make upwards of $100 a day. It’s worth the risk of getting his toes run over and fingers hit by windshield wipers. It’s worth it even when he hears stories of occasional violence, like the woman who told police that her registered firearm went off after a squeegee kid leaned inside her car. And it’s worth it even when some drivers offer Silas nothing at all, and he walks back to the sidewalk with less of his generic cleaner and no cash to show for it.

“We ain’t selling no drugs, we ain’t gangbangers, we ain’t killing nobody,” Silas said. “I never did nothing like that. I came right here, and I’m trying to make some legit money.”

Lester Spence, a Johns Hopkins University associate professor of political science and Africana studies, believes the renewed scrutiny hinges on the squeegee kids’ race. He said it’s no coincidence the pushback is happening alongside growing concerns about crime and policing since the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, a young black man who, like the squeegee workers, grew up in poverty.

“It’s not that there is a problem with people being on these corners because if there was, then we would be talking about the homeless population, who usually just asks for money and doesn’t necessarily provide services,” Spence said.

Silas, who is black, agrees that his race plays a role. He also wonders whether city officials are just trying to save face with their plan. Its estimated annual cost is $992,000, and Baltimore can fund it only through June. Edwards said she hopes businesses will pledge funds to help once the city can show the program’s positive effect.

For now, Silas will keep squeegeeing. The money is putting new shoes on his feet and paying for his baby daughter’s needs.

“If you take it serious like a job, it can be a job, money-wise,” Silas said. “Three years ago, I was like broke for real. I would never have no money in my pocket or nothing.”

But attitudes and acceptance were different then, he said. “Now everybody is mad at us. Why you all mad at us?”

He runs back into the street, and the 24-second countdown begins again.

Pope tells scandal-marred Legion they still haven’t reformed

By NICOLE WINFIELD

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FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2020 file photo, Pope Francis gives his speech during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020 released a speech by Pope Francis where told the scandal-marred Legion of Christ religious order it still has a long road of reform ahead, making clear that 10 years of Vatican-mandated oversight didn’t purge it of the toxic influences of its pedophile founder. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis told the Legion of Christ religious order Saturday it still has a long road of reform ahead, making clear that 10 years of Vatican-mandated rehabilitation hadn’t purged it of the toxic influences of its pedophile founder.

In a prepared speech, Francis told the Legion’s new superiors a “very vast field” of work was needed to correct the Legion’s problems and create a healthy order. He encouraged them to work “energetically in substance, and softly in the means.”

“A change of mentality requires a lot of time to assimilate in individuals and in an institution, so it’s a continual conversion,” Francis said. “A return to the past would be dangerous and senseless.”


The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after revelations that its founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, sexually abused dozens of his seminarians, fathered at least three children and built a secretive, cult-like order to hide his double life.

Even though the Vatican envoy tasked to run and reform the Legion declared the order cleansed and reconciled with its past in 2014, new sexual misconduct scandals have called into question whether his mission was really accomplished.

Victims of other Legion priests have come forward, indicating that a culture of abuse extended far beyond Maciel’s crimes and involved a high-level cover-up by superiors who are still in power.

Francis had been scheduled to meet with the leadership of the Mexican order and its Regnum Christi consecrated branches, which are in Rome this month to elect new superiors and set policy decisions. Francis skipped the audience because he is sick. But the text of his prepared remarks was given to the Legion and released publicly by the Vatican press office.

In the speech, Francis gave his most extensive comments to date about the Legion and Maciel, who was hailed during the papacy of St. John Paul II for his purported orthodoxy and ability to attract vocations and donations.

The Legion scandal sullied John Paul’s legacy since he and his aides turned a blind eye to evidence, including documentation in the Vatican dating from the 1940s, that Maciel was a drug addict, pedophile and religious fraud.

Francis said that while the Legion cannot deny that Maciel founded the order, “you can no longer consider him an example of holiness to imitate” — a reference to the fact that some Legionaries still keep photos of him and read the writings of a man they considered a living saint.

Francis said the cult of personality Maciel created to run the order “in some way polluted” the original spiritual inspiration for the Legion.

The pope praised Legion members for their willingness to accept change and urged them to continue the path of renewal, including with a new governing council that he said must act as a check on the superiors.

Ever since the Legion scandal erupted in 2009, the number of its priests and members of its Regnum Christi lay branch have fallen, and several of its schools and seminaries have closed. The Legion now counts 970 priests, and only 51 novices entered seminary training last year, down from an average of around 200 a year at the Legion’s height.