Catholic Charities: Texas order on migrant transport violates religious rights


Most of the migrants who use Catholic Charities' Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, are families, many of them mothers traveling with children. Photo courtesy of Catholic Charities

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley is trying to block enforcement of an executive order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that it says would prevent it from providing essential services at its Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen to migrants who have been processed and released by the Border Patrol after entering the country.

The executive order, which the governor says is designed to stop the spread of COVID-19, allows only law enforcement members to transport groups of migrants by ground in the state. The order also authorizes the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop, on reasonable suspicion, any vehicle that might be transporting migrants and reroute it back to its point of origin or impound it.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas to permanently bar enforcement of the order. The department is asking for a preliminary injunction that would stop enforcement until the lawsuit is resolved and plans to ask for a permanent injunction if it prevails in the case.

The nonprofit Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a friend-of-the-court brief Aug. 12 on behalf of Catholic Charities that supports the request for an injunction. The brief says Executive Order GA-37 violates the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

RELATED Federal judge blocks Texas Gov. Abbott's immigration order

At the request of the Justice Department, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the executive order until Friday. A decision on the preliminary injunction request is pending.

Essential services

The respite center offers transitional care to the migrants and then staffers often drive them to a more permanent shelter or to the airport or bus station so they can reunify with family members. About 1,000 migrants are seen each day, and if they can't be moved out after they receive services, other newcomers will have to be turned away for lack of space, said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

RELATED Supreme Court says Biden must reinstate 'Remain in Mexico' policy

The center, working city and county officials, arranges for COVID-19 testing for migrants. Those who test positive are taken to quarantine spaces provided by hotels and city and county officials.

The others are admitted to the center, where they are offered a place to rest briefly, meals, hot showers and clean clothes. Volunteer doctors and nurses assist the mothers who are pregnant or nursing, and migrants can meet with volunteer lawyers to learn more about their rights and the legal process.

Most of the migrants who use the center are families, many of them mothers traveling with children. Single men and unaccompanied minors are not served there.

RELATED Federal judge blocks Biden administration directives limiting ICE arrests

The friend-of-the-court brief says providing migrants with food, COVID-19 testing and transportation is part of Catholic Charities' ministry.

"Religious exercise is by no means limited to what happens in the four walls of a church on Sunday morning," Eric Rassbach, Becket's vice president and senior counsel, told UPI.

Public health concerns

Executive Order GA-37 alleges that busloads of migrants, an unknown number of whom are infected with COVID-19, are being transported to communities across Texas, which poses an imminent threat of disaster for all counties.

But despite the emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, President Joe Biden has thwarted the effect of a Trump administration policy that allows for the swift expulsion of migrants at the border in the interest of public health, the order alleges.

"The dramatic rise in unlawful border crossings has also led to a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases among unlawful migrants who have made their way into our state, and we must do more to protect Texans from this virus and reduce the burden on our communities," Abbott said in a news release.

Under the order, only federal, state or local law-enforcement can provide ground transportation to "a group of migrants" who have been detained by the Border Patrol for crossing the border illegally or who would have been subject to expulsion under the Trump administration policy. The order, which Abbott signed on June 28, does not say whether driving a single migrant somewhere would be a violation.


The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

In her declaration, which was filed with the friend-of-the-court brief, Pimentel says a Texas Department of Public Safety official met on June 28 with her and Mario Alberto Avilés, auxiliary bishop of Brownsville, and said the order was effective immediately and Catholic Charities was prohibited from transporting any migrants in vehicles of any kind to any location.

The DPS official told them that once enforcement began, a patrol car would be stationed at the center's entrance, and officers would stop any vehicle suspected of transporting migrants.

The Justice Department says in its lawsuit, which was filed on July 30 in U.S. District Court in El Paso, that federal law pre-empts the executive order. In addition, the order jeopardizes the health and safety of noncitizens in custody and law enforcement personnel and their families and exacerbates the spread of COVID-19, the suit alleges.

The Texas Attorney General's Office counters there is no pre-emption issue because the executive order's purpose is to promote public health in the state and does not prevent the United States from enforcing federal immigration law.

"Suffering from the ongoing release of migrants who may spread COVID-19, Texas was not required to sit on its hands," the state says in a brief arguing against a ban on enforcing the order.

The state's brief also says the fact that non-governmental agencies sometimes test migrants for COVID-19 after they are released from federal custody does little to protect public health. A family of migrants who went to a La Joya restaurant, where they were coughing and sneezing without covering their mouths, were sick with the virus but had been released by the Border Patrol days before, according to the brief.

The friend-of-the-court brief says Catholic Charities and the people of the Diocese of Brownsville have made a positive difference in the lives of thousands and that "they merely ask to be left to serve in peace."

"An injunction against the order would protect religious freedom and the well-being of those Catholic Charities serves," the brief says.

Scars of Papua conflict weigh on Indonesia's vaccine drive

Issued on: 26/08/2021 - 

Decades of conflict, racism and human rights abuses in are fuelling Covid vaccine conspiracy theories in Papua at a time when the breakaway region is facing a renewed threat from the pandemic 

Yonri Susanto Revolt AFP/File


Jayapura (Indonesia) (AFP)

"William" is refusing to take a coronavirus vaccine because he fears Indonesia's military will use the country's inoculation programme to poison him and wipe out his fellow Papuans.

Decades of conflict, racism and human rights abuses are fuelling Covid conspiracy theories among his neighbours at a time when their breakaway region is facing a renewed threat from the pandemic.

"I won't take a vaccine if it's brought here by Indonesia," William, who asked not to use his real name, told AFP.

He said that he would gladly sign up for any dose administered directly by the World Health Organization.

"But (many people) here are worried that if the jabs come through Indonesia they'll be replaced with some other chemical substance that will kill us," he added.

There is no evidence of a genocidal plan by Indonesia, which has drafted the armed forces to help run a nationwide vaccination drive, including in Papua.

But a widespread hatred of the military runs deep in the region, located on the eastern edge of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation and just north of Australia.

Security forces have been accused of committing atrocities against Papuan civilians during decades of fighting between a rebel independence movement and government troops.

Much of this conflict has centred around William's hometown of Timika, near the world's biggest gold mine -- a potent symbol for Papuans of the region's exploitation and environmental devastation.

- 'Trauma of violence' -

Indonesia, as with many countries, has found its efforts to fight the pandemic hamstrung by both limited vaccine supplies and hesitancy driven by the spread of online disinformation.

The spread of unfounded rumours in Papua mirrors a similar phenomenon across the border in Papua New Guinea, an independent nation with stronger cultural and historical ties to Papua than the rest of Indonesia.

Social media posts there falsely claimed to show evidence of locals being forcibly vaccinated in a mass medical trial, and even suggested that the vaccine campaign as part of a racial genocide plot.

Papua's long history of conflict and mistrust has created a wide audience for fearful rumours.

"The conflict has been going on for so long (that)... whatever the central government is doing will appear suspicious," said Adriana Elisabeth, a Papua expert at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

Appeals by local activists have done little to lift low vaccination numbers among Papuans, which stand at fewer than 30,000 -- less than one percent of the region's population.

Papua has sailed through earlier waves of the pandemic relatively unscathed, with its 40,000 confirmed infections a tiny fraction of Indonesia's total.

But it is now threatened by the highly contagious Delta variant that has wreaked havoc elsewhere in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, and its underfunded health system is ill-equipped to navigate a crisis.

Authorities have blamed low take-up rates on social media hoaxes and say Papuan church leaders have also stoked doubts over the seriousness of the pandemic and staged mask-burning demonstrations.

Papua's largely Christian and ethnic Melanesian population shares few cultural ties with the rest of Muslim-majority Indonesia, and the region has been the site of decades of separatist conflict 

Yonri Susanto Revolt AFP/File

"The military is just an excuse," said Aaron Rumainum, head of the illness prevention division at Papua's health agency, adding that it was mostly civilians handling vaccinations.

"But we are not giving up. We'll focus on those who are keen instead of the ones who reject vaccines."

- 'You'll become weak' -

Jakarta took control of Papua in the 1960s after a UN-sponsored vote to incorporate the former Dutch colony into Indonesia -- a ballot widely viewed as rigged.

That set off decades of conflict in Papua, where the largely Christian and ethnic Melanesian population shares few cultural ties with the rest of Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Papuans routinely face anti-black discrimination in the rest of the archipelago.

Two years ago, the arrest of young Papuans studying in the city of Surabaya sparked riots that left dozens dead in the remote region.

The region has also been on tenterhooks since rebels assassinated Indonesia's top intelligence chief there in April, prompting a crackdown and the designation of local separatists as "terrorists".

Protests have broken out this month against the vaccination programme and broader anger over Papua's subservient status. Security forces responded by arresting and beating civilians, according to local media reports and rights groups.

The heavy troop presence on the streets was driving rumours that it was meant to limit independence-seeking Papuans' movements rather than reduce infections.

"There are soldiers and police everywhere," said Marcus Dogopia, a resident of provincial capital Jayapura who has also resolved not to seek a Covid vaccine.

"The jabs aren't safe for us. When you get vaccinated you'll become weak and won't be able to move around," he added.

© 2021 AFP

FRESH KILLS

The New York landfill site home to 9/11 debris, human remains

Issued on: 26/08/2021 - 

Dennis Diggins shows images of debris removal after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island 

Angela Weiss AFP

New York (AFP)

For some, the hill represents New York's resilience; for others it's a gaping wound. Beneath it lies debris, mixed with human remains, from the 9/11 attacks.

The site at Fresh Kills on Staten Island was the largest open-air dump in the world until it closed in March 2001. Today it's a source of consternation for some victims' families.

After al-Qaeda hijackers reduced the Twin Towers to piles of steel and concrete, the site was reopened so that rubble from the World Trade Center could be sent there.


The first trucks arrived the night of September 11, 2001 itself and for ten months, Dennis Diggins led efforts to sift through 600,000 tons of debris from "Ground Zero."

"I don't know what it would be like if I had a family member. But I can tell you that the material has been treated with the utmost respect," he recalls 20 years later.

"It's not co-mingled with garbage, there's a separation" ever since it arrived, he adds from the top of the hill which overlooks Lower Manhattan.

The area became like a small town with some thousand sanitation employees, police, FBI, and Secret Service agents. They combed the site for clues, valuables and remains that would help identify victims.

Diane and Kurt Horning, who lost their son Matthew in the 9/11 attacks, are seen at the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Jersey City, New Jersey Angela Weiss AFP

Kurt and Diane Horning were among victims' families to quickly visit the area. Their son Matthew was a database administrator who died when the North Tower fell an hour and 42 minutes after it was struck by a hijacked airliner.

They tensed up as soon as they arrived: Mud and seagulls pervaded the site. They came across a credit card, a shoe, a watch.

A worker told them that during the first 45 days, due to lack of equipment, they worked with rakes and shovels.

"The whole idea was get it done under budget, get in time fast, get something new up. We're going to show our resilience and we're not going to dwell on the dead, and that's what they did," says Diane.

Diggins assures that he and his workers never treated the area like a normal landfill site and operated "with respect."

Diane and Kurt Horning display items found at the Fresh Kills landfill site for Ground Zero debris 

Angela Weiss AFP

"You always knew that there were human remains. That never left you," he says, getting visibly emotional.

Once all the trucks left, Diggins said he even hired divers to search the surrounding wharf to make sure nothing had escaped his men.

- 'Garbage dump' -

Between the start and the end of the operation, the hill, which offers a breathtaking view of lower Manhattan, where the Towers stood, rose more than 80 feet (25 meters).

Separated from the rest of the hill by an insulating layer, the pile of debris was covered by a protective layer of film.

The Hornings believe some of Matthew's remains are buried there. To this day, only a bone fragment from their son has been recovered. Their attempts to have all remains removed were rebuffed by then mayor Michael Bloomberg's city government.

"It was a double loss, because, yes, some fanatics decided that this was a good idea and blew up my child. But then my own government decided he wasn't good enough to bury. So I had a double loss," says Diane.

Horning and other families proposed that the remains be sent to other sites in Fresh Kills that had never housed any trash but they got nowhere.

Dennis Diggins is seen at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island 

Angela Weiss AFP

In 2005, 17 of them started legal action. They tried to take it to the Supreme Court but justices refused to examine it.

"I crashed and I felt personally responsible for having dragged the families in. Now they have no hope and I had to live with that," said Diane.

The site still lets out more than 40,000 cubic meters of methane per day from the decomposing trash brought there over many decades. Once it is safe, New York authorities plan to open a memorial park on the site in 2035.

But the Hornings are not interested.

"It's a garbage dump," says Diane. "It's like if on Christmas morning, you handed your child a beautifully wrapped package and when your child opened it, there was garbage in it."

© 2021 AFP

#NOPASARAN

Paris honours the forgotten Spanish fighters who liberated the French capital

Issued on: 25/08/2021 -

La Nueve was the first company to enter Paris on 24 August 1944 

© WikimediaCommons

Text by:Alison Hird

Paris was officially freed from Nazi occupation on 25 August, 77 years ago. "Paris is liberated by itself, by its people," General Charles de Gaulle declared the following day. But the first Allied vehicles to drive into the city belonged to the 9th company known as La Nueve, and the vast majority of its members were Spanish Republican fighters.

"You cannot commemorate the liberation of Paris unless you start with the story of the men of La Neuve, and with this ceremony of 24 August," said the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo on Wednesday.

The Spanish-born mayor hosted the now-annual ceremony in City Hall's "Jardin des Combattants de la Nueve" (Garden of the Ninth Company Fighters), alongside a representative of the Spanish government and descendents of those who fought.

The story of La Neuve is little known in French history and it was only in 2004 that Paris officially recognised the company's contribution to its liberation.

Official photo of La Nueve taken at Dalton Hall, England, in the spring of 1944 

A.H.C.C La nueve

La Nueve (meaning ninth in Spanish) was the 9th company of the Régiment de Marche du Tchad, part of the 2nd Armoured Division (2DB) commanded by General Philippe Leclerc.


The vast majority, 146 of the 160-strong unit, were republicans: communists and anarchists who had cut their teeth fighting against Franco's dictatorship.

Trained in guerilla warware, they proved invaluable fighters, serving under the command of Captain Raymond Dronne.

"Some of them were even anti-militarists, but they were good soldiers, courageous and experienced warriors," said Dronne.

Whilst they were part of the French army, the company was allowed to stich the red, yellow and purple flag of Spain's second republic on their uniforms.

They even painted the flag on their half-track armoured vehicles which bore names reminiscent of home . . . Madrid, Teruel, Guernica, Guadalajara and Ebro.

Captain Raymond Dronne (centre) discusses plans for attacking a telecommunications centre with Amado Granell (right), on 25 August 1944 

© Musée de l’Ordre de la Libération

Triumphant entry

The company, led by Spanish Lieutenant Amado Granell, was the first to enter Paris on 24 August through the Porte d'Italie, south of the city.

While waiting for Dietrich von Choltitz (the Nazi military governor of Paris) to surrender, La Nueve was sent on a scouting mission to approach the city.

"Ebro" was the first tank to reach City Hall at around 9:30 pm, firing shots against a German machine-gun nest.

(EBRO WAS A FAMOUS BATTLE IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR)

"They were welcomed as liberators, the bells rang out, but Parisiens took them for Americans because all the equipment was American," says Juan Chica Ventura, grandson of a Nueve anarchist fighter.

On 25 August, the bulk of the allied troops, led by General de Gaulle, entered Paris in triumph and La Neuve escorted the general during his famous parade down the Champs-Elysées.

While more than 50 of the company's members received the Croix de Guerre for bravery, the fighters did not feature in de Gaulle's victory speech.

"Paris is outraged. Paris is destroyed. Paris is martyred," he said. "But Paris is liberated! Liberated by itself, liberated by its people with the help of the armies of France."

Mar y Luz Carina Lopez holds the flag of the Spanish Republic next to a portrait of the late Colette Dronne. The daughter of Captain Dronne considered La Nueve as "her family". © RFI/A.Hird

Long forgotten

For years La Nueve's contribution to the liberation of Paris was ignored and the ending of Nazi occupation presented as an altogether French triumph.

There were political reasons for this at the time.

"France had resisted but had also been collaborationist," Anne Hidalgo said during the ceremony. "At the end of the war there was a risk that France wouldn’t be recognised as a power in the same way as the Allies. General de Gaulle understood that risk."

Eye on France: A dark chapter of Franco-Spanish history

The fighters themselves did not seek the limelight.

"They didn’t push that forward, didn’t dare make it known," says Mar y Luz Carina Lopez whose father Angel Carina Lopez was a gunner on the "Guernica" half-track armoured vehicle.

"My father said nothing to me about what happened. I discovered more in 2010 when the Spanish port of Carino where he was born paid tribute to him. Lots of republican fighters didn't talk about it."

After fleeing Spain in 1939, Angel Cariña Lopez was interned in a camp in north Africa. He escaped by joining the French Foreign Legion then deserted in 1943 to join La Nueve and continue the fight against fascism. He died in France in 1979, three years after Franco, and like many of his Spanish republican comrades never returned to Spain. 

© Mar y Luz Cariña Lopez

In August 2004, spurred on by Hidalgo, who was then deputy-mayor, Paris officially paid tribute to the division, inaugurating a plaque "To the Spanish Republicans, main component of the Dronne column".

In February 2010, the city awarded the Grande Médaille de Vermeil to the company's survivors: Manuel Fernandez, Luis Royo Ibanez and Raphael Gomez Nieto.

Gomez, the last remaining survivor, died in 2020 after contracting Covid-19 in a hospital in Strasbourg. He was 99.

  

Rafael Gómez Nieto at a ceremony paying hommage to La Nueve on 20 April 2017 in Madrid. AFP

The work of remembrance

With no surviving members, it is all the more important to bring the story of La Nueve to the fore for future generations.

That memorial work is being actively done by the 24 August association "so that people know that there was opposition to fascism both inside and outside the country," says Juan Chica Ventura.

"There are now 12 plaques around the city tracing the route La Nueve took from Porte d'Italie through to City Hall, via rue Esquirol."

Chica Ventura's street art in rue Esquirol, 13th district, traces La Nueve's three epic days. RFI/Angélica Pérez

In 2019 Ventura painted a 20m high fresco on the wall in that street tracing the three days of the liberation of Paris from 24 to 26 August "to update the story of these forgotten soldiers".

He says the association is "also working hard to get the story of La Nueve into school text books so that the younger generation understands that Spain wasn't just a dictatorship but that people were also fighting against it, from abroad."

Asked whether her father would have appreciated the 24 August commemoration, Mar y Luz says: "What matters to me is these men defended certain values — freedom, anti-fascism, reconciling people.

"The commemoration allows us to bring those values to the fore. It’s important, and all the more important today when you see the rise of certain ideologies."

LIKE THEIR WAR ON DRUGS

'Total failure': The war on terror 20 years on


Issued on: 26/08/2021 - 03:16

US soldiers arrive at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in March 2002 as US-backed Afghan forces had seized key terrain and taken Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters prisoner in the early months of the "war on terror" 

ROSLAN RAHMAN AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

Twenty years ago, US president George W. Bush declared a "war on terror". Today, its failure is undeniable, with jihadist groups both more numerous and scattered more widely across the world.

Bush launched the war on terror after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington which were plotted from Afghanistan by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was sheltered by the Taliban regime of the time.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban and degraded the capabilities of Al-Qaeda, but it did nothing to eradicate the causes of violent Islamic extremism at its roots, analysts say.


"They managed to kill Bin Laden," said Abdul Sayed, a researcher on jihadism based at Lund University in Sweden, referring to the killing of the Al-Qaeda chief by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

"But if the goal was to end transnational jihadism, then it's a total failure," he said.

Today, jihadist terrorism has transformed into a more global threat, posed by disparate groups and individuals around the world.

- Rise of IS -

Though the United States, and the broader Western world, has seen no attack on the scale of 9/11 in subsequent years, analysts say that should not be used to claim the "war on terror" has been a success.

Then-US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld speaks to reporters at the Pentagon in Washington in April 2002, only months after the United States had invaded Afghanistan in the opening salvos of the "war on terror" 

LUKE FRAZZA AFP

"The objectives that it set for itself were unachievable. Terrorism cannot be defeated. The threat is constantly evolving," said Assaf Moghadam, senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated in 2018 that the number of active terror groups was 67, its highest level since 1980.

The number of fighters varied between 100,000 and 230,000, a 270-percent increase over the 2001 estimates.

A watershed event was the emergence of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria which was hostile to Al-Qaeda and whose influence grew as that of the bin Laden network waned following his death.

Given the vast resources devoted to it, the outcome of the war on terror has been disastrous, partly due to factors seen by some as major errors, notably the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein.

"It did allow AQ (Al-Qaeda) to resurrect itself, which laid the ground for the Islamic State to emerge," said Seth Jones, director of the international security program at CSIS.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment pose next to a mural of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein found after taking control of a hospital allegedly used for military purposes by Iraqi forces near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in March 2003 

CRIS BOURONCLE AFP/File

Experts say the strategy relied on head-on confrontation without sufficiently taking into account the breeding grounds of jihadism -- war, chaos, bad governance, corruption.

"Conflicts like the one in Syria can radicalise and mobilise thousands of militants in a short time period and there is little the outside world can do about it," said Tore Hamming, a fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation.

"Arguably the biggest problem is not military," Hamming said. "One of the strongest mechanisms to prevent recruitment to Islamic militancy is providing people better alternatives. Weapons do not do that."

- 'Threat has metastasised' -

The nature of the threat has transformed since 9/11 when jihadist terror essentially meant Al-Qaeda under the charismatic leadership of bin Laden. But then IS emerged and various branches pledging allegiance to IS or Al-Qaeda.

The geographic spread of the jihadist threat has also changed. The groups were limited to the Middle East but they are now also common throughout Africa, most of the Arab world as well as in South and Southeast Asia.

This official White House photo shows then-president Barack Obama, vice president Joe Biden, defense secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Hillary Clinton and others as they receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in May 2011

 Pete SOUZA The White House/AFP/File

The links between these jihadist groups are loose, their relations with their leaderships often weak. And local grievances usually prevail over international ambitions.

According to Moghadam, some terror figures have now "become serious political actors".

"You're not just talking about a small number of people that we can put on the terrorism watchlist."

"The threat has metastasised. You have a greater number of regimes in geographically dispersed places facing challenges of violent extremism."

Africa has become the new battleground for jihadism in the Sahel region and Maghreb, Somalia and Libya, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Syrians walk amidst destroyed buildings in Raqa in January 2018 after a huge military ground operation by Kurdish fighters and in the air by US warplanes defeated jihadists from the Islamic State group but left the city completely disfigured 

DELIL SOULEIMAN AFP/File

"It is very clear it has moved from the Middle East to Africa and I don't think it was anticipated," said Brenda Githing'u, a Johannesburg-based counter-terrorism expert.

"It's a failure in forecasting the emergence of a new battleground and in considering the potential Africa has in terms of a new jihad," she added.

- 'Shifted priorities' -

But times have changed for the West as well.

While in 2001 it was clear that terrorism was enemy number one of the United States and its allies, tensions have since grown with Iran, Russia and above all China.

Anti-war protesters march through the streets of Washington in January 2003, weeks before US forces invaded Iraq as part of the "war on terror" 

NICHOLAS ROBERTS AFP/File

"The US has shifted its priorities from countering terrorist groups overseas to dealing with the Chinese first, then the Russians and the Iranians," said Seth Jones.

"There is a huge debate in the US intelligence community about whether there should continue to be a shift away from countering terrorism, both collecting intelligence and targeting strikes, against AQ and IS."

Neither Al-Qaeda nor IS may have the means to stage attacks in the West in the near future like those against Paris on November 13, 2015 that were claimed by IS.

But the police and intelligence services are faced with so-called "lone wolves" and other isolated militants, often from the country they strike, radicalised on the internet and who kill blindly, in the name of a jihadist group, with a knife, a gun or a vehicle.

US President George W. Bush addresses the nation aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003, declaring a "mission accomplished" in Iraq, despite many years of fighting that followed 

STEPHEN JAFFE AFP/File

And the future threat may not always come from Islamist radicals drawing inspiration from the Middle East but from extreme right-wingers and white supremacists who look no further than the West.

"Tackling right-wing extremism is likely going to be an even greater challenge for the United States because there are significant pockets of support," said Moghadam.

"There is a certain degree of tolerance and sympathy in the West to the ideas."

© 2021 AFP

Could bats hold the secret to healthy ageing?



Issued on: 26/08/2021 - 

Experts are studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans Greg WOOD AFP/File


Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)

In the fictional links he drew between immortal vampires and bats, Dracula creator Bram Stoker may have had one thing right.

"Maybe it's all in the blood," says Emma Teeling, a geneticist studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans.

The University College Dublin researcher works with the charity Bretagne Vivante to study bats living in rural churches and schools in Brittany, western France.

"We're taking a little bit of blood, but rather than us being the vampires to the bats we're making them give us their secrets," she says.

Those secrets are tantalising.

Adaptations made by bats that make them interesting to science John SAEKI AFP

Bats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer and can harbour pathogens like Ebola or coronaviruses without getting sick.

Teeling, who outlined her research to AFP in an interview reproduced here in edited form, focuses on long-lived Greater Mouse-eared bats.

The aim is to discover the key to longer, healthier lives for people.

"I firmly believe it lies in studying bats," she says.

- What's so special about bats? -

Typically in nature there is a pattern -- nearly a law -- that small things live very fast and die young as a consequence of a really fast metabolism.

Bats are unique, they are some of the smallest of all mammals, yet they can live for an extraordinarily long time. They seem to have evolved mechanisms to slow down the ageing process.

Bats not only live longer than other animals of their size, they also stay healthy longer Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

It's not eternal youth -- everything dies and ageing has to catch up with you, but the rate of ageing is much slower in bats, their health span is much longer.

Think of a centenarian who is really healthy until the last few weeks of their life. That's what we want and it's what the bats have.

- How do you extract their secret? -

Nobody knew what was happening to bats as they age.

The only way you age a bat is to look at the bones in their fingers, if the joints are not yet fused, that bat is still a baby, once they're fused it is an adult.

But since 2010 Bretagne Vivante has put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin of these bats when they are babies.

Every year, Bretagne Vivante carries out an annual checkup on a colony of Greater Mouse-eared bats in western France 

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

Every year we come back to these roosts where the females give birth and we catch the entire colony, we take a little bit of wing, a little bit of blood, and we go back to my lab in Ireland and we look at what has changed as they age, tracking a few biomarkers of ageing.

- What are you looking for? -

We look at these things called telomeres: on the end of every one of your chromosomes in your cells you have these protective caps -- like the bumper on a car -- and every time your cells replicate, it gets shorter and shorter.

They get really short, the cell should self-destruct but sometimes it stays around and becomes old, potentially driving the ageing process.

But in the longest-lived bats like Greater Mouse-eared bats, the telomeres do not shorten with age. They can protect their DNA.

We sequenced genes from young, middle-aged and older bats and what we found was extraordinary -- they increase their ability to repair their DNA with age and repair the damage that living causes. Ours decreases.

As we age, we get arthritis, we suffer from inflammation, the bats don't seem to do this and the question is how?

So we found that they repair damage to their DNA and they are also able to modulate their immune response, keeping it balanced between antiviral and anti-inflammatory responses.

When you look at Covid-19 for example, what kills somebody is this over-excited immune response. In Dublin, we did an experiment looking at antiviral and anti-inflammatory cytokines and found that if a human with a bat's immune profile was hospitalised they wouldn't end up on a ventilator. If it is the other way around, so more like a mouse, they end up on a ventilator.

We share the same genes as bats, with slight tweaks and modifications. Imagine if we find the little controlling gene that regulates these effects, we could then make a drug to mimic it in humans.

- How long will it take? -

I would have said 10 years, but look how fast everything is going now.

People are really interested in looking at bats to find answers, there's been a huge speed up.

We sequenced the genome, that was the first step, then we have this field data and we're working with labs all around the world who are developing the cellular tools required.

We have to keep going and believe it's possible.

© 2021 AFP

From the shadows: the secret, threatened lives of bats


Issued on: 26/08/2021 

A colony of Greater Mouse-eared bats in western France undergoes an annual check-up to help understand and safeguard the protected species 

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

Noyal-Muzillac (France) (AFP)

It could be a scene from a bad horror movie: Torchlights slice through the darkness inside a church in western France as the building echoes with the shrieks of hundreds of bats.

But these creatures of the night are scaring no one.

They are having their annual check-up, as scientists try to unravel the secrets of an animal whose fiendish reputation has eclipsed its many gifts to the world.

Dozens of Greater Mouse-eared bats are passed from hand to hand -- gloved to avoid a bite -- by volunteers and scientists in Saint Martin's church at Noyal-Muzillac, in Brittany.

How bats are an integral part of the planet's ecosystems

 John SAEKI AFP

Each bat is painstakingly examined, its sex, height and weight noted, its blood taken, teeth checked for wear, translucent wings stretched out and inspected.

A male pup, born just a few weeks ago in the church rafters, is hanging upside down by its claws in a tube placed on a weighing scale: 19.7 grams (0.7 ounces).

Once the physical assessment is finished, the latest addition to the colony is implanted with a tag, no bigger than a grain of rice.

"They put a little microchip like you would a dog or a cat, it's called a pit tag, under the skin on these bats when they are babies and they release them," said Emma Teeling, head of zoology at University College Dublin.

At Saint Martin's church in Noyal-Muzillac, Brittany, volunteers and scientists painstakingly examine each bat 

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

This is a ritual that has been repeated every year for a decade by the organisation Bretagne Vivante, which captures and checks the entire colony to help understand and safeguard this protected dark-furred species.

Why lavish so much attention on such a maligned creature?

Because they are one of the world's most endangered animals -- threatened by habitat loss and by human persecution.

- Seeds and super powers -

Long demonised as fanged monsters or vectors of disease, the pandemic has done little to improve bats' image, after the World Health Organization said the coronavirus likely originated in the animals.

Rodrigo Medellin, who co-leads the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bat Group, said he has never worked harder to defend them.

But the only mammal capable of flight has a lot more to offer than viruses and vampire legends.

If you have ever sipped coffee, eaten a taco or worn a cotton t-shirt, you can thank bats, Medellin told AFP.

Climate change is increasingly taking its toll -- flying foxes in Australia have been devastated by heatwaves 

Greg WOOD AFP/File

Fruit-eating species help disperse seeds from tree to tree, while some bats are indispensable pollinators.

Some species can swallow half their weight in insects each night, according to Bat Conservation International.

"They are the best natural pesticide," said Medellin, of Mexico's Universidad Nacional Autonoma, adding that even tequila can be traced to millions of years of bat pollination of the agave plant.

"The benefits we receive from them are so huge and so different that they touch every day of our life," said Medellin.

But it is not just what bats do that makes them special.

They also have an array of innate talents that fascinate scientists.

Engineers are inspired by their natural sonar, enabling them to fly low and find their way thanks to echolocation.

And yes, they can harbour viruses like coronaviruses or Ebola. But why do they not fall ill?

Bats also seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process, said Teeling, whose lab in Ireland is exploring how these creatures stay healthy almost until the end of their lives.

Little animals typically "live fast, die young", she said, explaining that a reduced body size often means a fast metabolism: the lifespan of a mouse is often measured in months, while a bowhead whale can live for over a century.

Although little animals typically 'live fast, die young', bats seem to have evolved a way to slow down the ageing process Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

"In nature, when you look at the body size of something, you can predict how long they are going to live for," she said.

Not bats.

The Greater Mouse-eared Bats that Teeling and her colleagues study do not exceed eight centimetres (just over three inches), but they can live up to 10, or even 20 years.

In 2005, researchers in Siberia captured a Brandt's bat that had been tagged 41 years earlier, estimating it had lived nearly 10 times longer than expected for its size.

- 'Ecological traps' -

From the tiny two-gram "bumblebee bat", to the giant Philippine flying fox with its 1.5-metre (five-foot) wingspan, bats make up a fifth of all terrestrial mammals.

But some 40 percent of the 1,321 species assessed on the IUCN's Red List are now classified as endangered.

"We are losing species all over the world," said Julie Marmet, chiropterologist (bat expert) at the National Museum of Natural History in France.

Bats have been "resilient" for 50 million years, she told AFP, but today's changes are "far too fast for species to adapt".

Human actions are to blame, as with the biodiversity crisis gripping the entire planet -- which will come under the spotlight at the IUCN congress in early September.

Deforestation and habitat loss is the primary driver.

Many species live in trees and the 40 percent that live in caves depend largely on forests for foraging, said Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International.

Climate change is also increasingly taking its toll.

In the United States, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats have been killed by hypothermia after being lured by milder winters into abandoning their habitual migration south

 JEFF HAYNES AFP/File

Flying foxes in Australia have been devastated by heatwaves, while in the United States thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats have been killed by hypothermia.

Lured by milder winters into abandoning their habitual migration south, many of these little bats have taken to staying in their roosts under bridges in Texas during the cooler months.

These bridges over waterways look like "restaurants" for bats, said Frick, but it also represents an "ecological trap".

During the last winter, there was a particularly cold snap in Texas.

"Thousands and thousands of bats died during that big freeze," she said.

- Hunted and harassed -

Modern human infrastructure has become a perilous obstacle course.

Already victims of collisions with cars, they must now avoid wind turbines -- studies suggest half a million are killed every year in the US either by the blades or the deadly effects of the forceful air movement.

Even the automatic motion sensors that illuminate the stairways of apartment blocks can turn a short stopover for migrating pipistrelles into a waking nightmare.

As well as collisions with cars, wind turbines and even the automatic motion sensors that illuminate the stairways of apartment blocks can be perilous for bats 

GUILLAUME SOUVANT AFP/File

Normally these matchbox-sized bats only fly at night, said Andrzej Kepel, of the Polish association Salamandra.

But when they try to continue with their migration after a couple of days in these stairways, they trigger the sensor and the lights turn on.

"So they land," said Kepel. Again and again they try to leave and every time the lights flick on, stopping them.

Their cries can attract others.

"After several days, there are hundreds of bats in the staircase and people are panicking," he said. Bats can end up starving to death.

Inside caves, they are still not safe.

Whether it is tourists shining torches or the incursions of those collecting bat guano to use as fertilizer, the slightest disturbance can be devastating.

Especially since most bat species only have one baby per year, unusually for such a small mammal, said Marmet.

Bats are one of the world's most endangered animals, threatened by habitat loss and human persecution 

Roslan RAHMAN AFP/File

So "if there is a problem in a colony, it's over."

Hunted for meat or sport by people in Southeast Asia and Africa, they also fall prey to other animals.

In Jamaica, for example, cats have staked out the cave of a colony of critically endangered bats.

"We've documented within an hour cats taking about 20 bats, ripping their wings off and snacking on them," said Frick.

- Vampires to Vatican -

So who is frightening who?

Bats have not always had a bad reputation.

In Mayan culture they played a major role in the forming of the universe.

But in the Western world they have been unwittingly typecast as mascots of Halloween and horror films.

While just three types of bats in South America are (animal) blood-drinking "vampires", when Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in the 19th century it tarnished the reputation of the whole family.

"That is the moment bats began to be accused of being envoys of the devil, being evil, and filthy, and bringing diseases," said Medellin.

Batman was helpless to redress the balance.

Even Pope Francis last year likened people in a state of sin to being "like 'human bats' who can move about only at night".

But many of those who spend time with bats end up loving them.

Bat benefits: Fruit-eating species help disperse seeds from tree to tree, while some bats are indispensable pollinators 

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS AFP

"They are cute! We get attached to them," says Corentin Le Floch, of Bretagne Vivante.

In the church of Noyal-Muzillac, it's snack time and a Greater Mouse-eared bat is nibbling on a wriggling mealworm.

He gets a quick caress of his little pointy ears and then: freedom.

© 2021 AFP

Shellfish! How men hogged seafood in ancient Roman city hit by Vesuvius

Issued on: 25/08/2021 -

A general view shows the archaeological site of Herculaneum in Ercolano, near Naples, with the Mount Vesuvius volcano in the background 

ANDREAS SOLARO AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

A team of archeologists examining the remains of victims from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD have discovered coastal people of the time ate far more fish than modern Italians, with men getting more of the high-status food than women.

The researchers, led by a team at the University of York, analyzed amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins -- in 17 adult skeletons excavated from the city of Herculaneum, a popular seaside resort that remained buried under volcanic ash until the 18th century.

By studying the ratio of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of the amino acids and applying a statistical model, they were able to differentiate between food groups with a new level of precision, the team wrote in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.

Lead author and PhD student Silvia Soncin told AFP that Herculaneum provided an "extraordinary population" to study historic diets because the natural disaster gives archeologists a snapshot in time.

"Cemeteries are usually used over a certain period, we're talking about hundreds of years, and the food sources may have changed because of changing climate or different trade routes," she said.

Though Herculaneum and nearby Pompeii were destroyed by the volcano, most inhabitants managed to escape in time, senior author Oliver Craig, a professor of bioarcheology told AFP.

The 11 men and six women studied by the team were picked at random from 340 people who died on the beach and from nine adjacent fornici -- stone chambers for boats -- where they had sought shelter from the pyroclastic flow.

"We found a surprisingly high amount of marine contribution to the diet of these people, particularly compared to the modern Mediterranean population," said Soncin, with the ancient dwellers eating about three times the amount of seafood compared to their counterparts today.

Herculaneum's sewers were filled with fish bones, prior research has shown. Typical species would have included porgies, tuna and shellfish.

- Gender gap -

They also discovered a significant sex gap within the group, with males on average getting 50 percent more of their protein from seafood compared to females.

Visitors view human skeletons at the archaeological site of Herculaneum in Ercolano, near Naples 

ANDREAS SOLARO AFP/File

Men also got slightly more protein from cereals compared with their female contemporaries, while women obtained more of their proteins from animal products and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

The team put forward several possible reasons: men may have been more involved in fishing than women, but the historical record also shows that certain fish such as tuna were considered high-status food in Roman society, with men having more access.

Another aspect is that, although Herculaneum was known as a resort for the elite, it was also home to many slaves and freedmen, said Craig.

Male slaves had a higher chance of emancipation than women and were generally freed at an earlier age, giving them more access to coveted foods.

"Now we've got a way and approach for actually quantifying diet in the past, so what we want to do is apply this more widely through time and space," said Craig.

He hopes to next examine how quickly diets shifted when prehistoric humans moved from hunter-gathering activities to agricultural societies.

© 2021 AFP

New research shows men and women of Roman Herculaneum had different diets

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

 

IMAGE: ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXAMINED SKELETAL REMAINS view more 

CREDIT: DR LUCIANO FATTORE

Researchers  - led by the University of York’s BioArCh team  - developed a new approach to analyse amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, from 17 adult skeletons found in the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.   

By measuring the isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the bone amino acids, the researchers were able to reconstruct the diets of people who lived contemporaneously in much more detail than was previously thought possible. 

Senior author, Professor Oliver Craig, the  Director of BioArCH from the Department of Archaeology said: “The remains of those who perished at Herculaneum in AD79 offer a unique opportunity to examine the lifestyles across an ancient community who lived and died together. Historical sources often allude to differential access to foodstuffs across Roman society but rarely provide direct or quantitative information.

“We found significant differences in the proportions of marine and terrestrial foods consumed between males and females, implying that access to food was differentiated according to gender.” 

In total, 340 individuals have been excavated from the beach and from nine adjacent fornici (stone vaults) that run parallel to the seashore in Herculaneum, near Pompeii, where people sought shelter from the pyroclastic flow.

Researchers said they were able to quantify the gender gap more accurately within the group, with males on average obtaining approximately 50 per cent more more of their dietary protein from seafood  compared with females. 

Males also obtained a slightly higher proportion of protein from cereals compared with their female contemporaries, whereas females obtained a greater proportion of protein from animal products and locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Lead author, PhD student Silvia Soncin, from the Department of Archaeology, said: “Our research builds on what we know that males had greater access to marine fish at Herculaneum and more broadly in Roman Italy. 

“Males were more likely to be directly engaged in fishing and maritime activities, they generally occupied more privileged positions in society, and were freed from slavery at an earlier age providing greater access to expensive commodities, such as fresh fish.

Using their new approach,  the researchers were able to more accurately quantify ancient diets so they could be compared with recent nutritional records. The team suggests that fish and seafood made a greater overall contribution to the diets at Herculaneum compared to the average modern Mediterranean diet; the latter increasingly dominated by animal products. Whereas a similar proportion of cereals were consumed between ancient and modern.  

The research was conducted in partnership with Rome’s  “Museo delle Civiltà” and the Archaeological Parks of Pompeii and Herculaneum, amongst others. 

The paper, “High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the AD79 Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound specific isotope analysis” is published in Science Advances.

 

---

JOURNAL

Science Advances

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

High-resolution dietary reconstruction of victims of the AD79 Vesuvius eruption at Herculaneum by compound specific isotope analysis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Aug-2021

COI STATEMENT

None

LED streetlights contribute to insect population declines: study


Issued on: 25/08/2021 

Artificial lights at night had been identified as a possible factor behind falling insect populations around the world, but the topic had been under-researched

 Douglas Boyes www.douglasboyes.co.uk/AFP


Washington (AFP)

Streetlights -- particularly those that use white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) -- not only disrupt insect behavior but are also a culprit behind their declining numbers, a new study carried out in southern England showed Wednesday.

Artificial lights at night had been identified as a possible factor behind falling insect populations around the world, but the topic had been under-researched.

To address the question, scientists compared 26 roadside sites consisting of either hedgerows or grass verges that were lit by streetlights, against an equal number of nearly identical sites that were unlit.

They also examined a site with one unlit and two lit sections, all of which were similar in their vegetation.

The team chose moth caterpillars as a proxy for nocturnal insects more broadly, because they remain within a few meters of where they hatched during the larval stage of their lives, before they acquire the ability to fly.

The team either struck the hedges with sticks so that the caterpillars fell out, or swept the grass with nets to pick them up.

The results were eye-opening, with a 47 percent reduction in insect population at the hedgerow sites and 37 percent reduction at the roadside grassy areas.

"We were really quite taken aback by just how stark it was," lead author Douglas Boyes, of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told AFP, adding the team had expected a more modest decline of around 10 percent.

"We consider it most likely that it's due to females, mums, not laying eggs in these areas," he said.

The lighting also disturbed their feeding behavior: when the team weighed the caterpillars, they found that those in the lighted areas were heavier.

This undated image courtesy of Douglas Boyes shows a selection of moth caterpillars caught by sweep netting during fieldwork

 Douglas Boyes www.douglasboyes.co.uk/AFP

Boyes said the team interpreted that as the caterpillars not knowing how to respond to the unfamiliar situation that runs counter to the conditions they evolved in over millions of years, and feeding more as a result to rush through their development.

The team found that the disruption was most pronounced in areas lit by LED lights as opposed to high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps or older low-pressure sodium (LPS) lamps, both of which produce a yellow-orange glow that is less like sunlight.

LED lamps have grown more popular in recent years because of their superior energy efficiency.

The paper acknowledged the effect of street lighting is localized and a "minor contributor" to declining insect numbers, with other important factors including urbanization and destruction of their habitats, intensive agriculture, pollution and climate change.

But even localized reductions can have cascading consequences for the wider ecosystem, resulting in less food for the birds and bats that prey upon insects.

Moreover, "there are really quite accessible solutions," said Boyes -- like applying filters to change the lamps' color, or adding shields so that the light shines only on the road, not insect habitats.

© 2021 AFP

REPUBLICAN WANNABE PROVINCES

Alberta, Saskatchewan not planning to follow B.C. and Manitoba on broad mask mandates

EDMONTON — Alberta reported more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesdaybut, along with Saskatchewan, is not planning to follow broad mask mandates announced this week by neighbouring western provinces.

TYLER SHANDRO

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro have both said that vaccinations are the best, most effective way to get the province through the pandemic. Neither has addressed the surging numbers.

Both Alberta and Saskatchewan continue to urge residents who have not done so to get the two-dose protection.

Manitoba and British Columbia are reintroducing mask requirements in indoor public spaces to try to arrest a rise in case numbers.

Alberta reported 1,076 new cases Wednesday and had close to 8,500 active infections. Some 284 people were in hospital with COVID-19, 59 of them in intensive care. It's the highest daily case count since mid-May.

In Edmonton, Alberta Health spokesman Steve Buick said there is no plan to pursue a rule on face coverings. He added: "Our current mask rules remain in place, including mandatory masks in health-care settings and public transit."

In Saskatchewan, where there were 1,500 active cases and 108 people hospitalized, Health Minister Paul Merriman said provinces have the prerogative to choose what they want to do.

"But we feel right now that the vaccine is the best path through this," he told reporters in Regina.

"Public health measures are a stopgap," added Merriman, who stressed that the onus is on individuals to get vaccinated to protect themselves and to get the province through the pandemic.

Asked about mandatory vaccinations, he said: "You're infringing on people's personal rights if you're mandating things."

There is now a patchwork of masking and mandatory vaccination rules in both provinces for businesses, schools and events.

In Edmonton, fans over age 12 attending Oilers hockey games this fall will have to show proof of vaccination while, at this point, those attending Elks football games do not.

The Alberta Medical Association this week openly urged the province to institute mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers. Dr. Paul Boucher, the association's president, said that while he understands the issue is polarizing, vaccination "remains our most effective tool to keep our vulnerable patients safe."

David Shepherd, health critic for Alberta's NDP Opposition, said not following the lead of B.C. and Manitoba is yet another example of failed leadership from a United Conservative government that is seeking to off-load controversial or unpopular decisions.

"This government is devolving the responsibility to make important public health decisions onto school boards, onto businesses, onto individuals and, indeed, causing them to have to deal with the tension, the blowback, (and) the issues that come with having to enforce this," said Shepherd.

The rule changes in other provinces come as they address a rise in COVID cases, tied mainly to the more transmissible Delta variant.

Along with requiring masks again, including in schools, Manitoba is mandating vaccinations for front-line provincial employees who work with vulnerable populations. Workers affected included doctors, nurses, teachers and prison guards. Manitoba is still seeing a low number of new cases, but Premier Brian Pallister said precautions must be taken to prevent a spike.

B.C.'s mask rule extends to malls, grocery stores and public transit, as well as to students in Grade 4 and higher.

Also on Wednesday, the Northwest Territories, which is experiencing it's worst outbreak of the pandemic, reinstated its mask mandate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

ALBERTA WITH 3 MIL POP HAD 1000 COVID CASES  
New Australian virus cases soar over 1,000 for first time

Issued on: 26/08/2021 -

More than half of Australia's 25 million people are stuck in lockdown as a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak continues to surge 

DAVID GRAY AFP

Sydney (AFP)

Australia on Thursday reported more than 1,000 new local coronavirus cases for the first time during the pandemic, as a Delta variant outbreak surged in Sydney.

New South Wales state, which includes the country's most populous city Sydney, announced a record 1,029 cases of Covid-19 for the previous 24 hours.

An outbreak that began in the city in mid-June has reached over 15,000 cases and spread to smaller towns and cities, prompting the return of lockdowns and travel restrictions across Australia's populated southeast.

Despite the soaring figures and growing pressure on hospitals, state premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a modest easing of restrictions for vaccinated people from mid-September.

Up to five fully vaccinated people will be allowed to gather outdoors in non-hotspot areas after New South Wales hit a target of six million jabs in a population of about eight million.

"That was the option that met the mental health and wellbeing of our community but also provided the lowest risk setting," Berejiklian said.

She said the health system was able to cope with the added strain after capacity was boosted, pledging that "everybody who needs help will get that help".

It came as authorities extended stay-at-home orders for the rest of New South Wales to September 10, as concerns grew over rising cases in regional areas that deputy premier John Barilaro described as "a tinderbox ready to explode".

Meanwhile, Victoria state -- which is grappling with a smaller outbreak that emerged in Melbourne -- announced a further 80 new cases Thursday.

More than half of Australia's 25 million people are stuck in lockdown, including in Sydney where residents have been under stay-at-home orders for more than two months.

Australia's sluggish vaccine rollout has picked up in recent weeks as more supplies reached the country, with almost one-third of adults now fully vaccinated.

The nation has recorded almost 48,000 cases and nearly 1,000 deaths during the pandemic to date.

© 2021 AFP

BUT NOT IN ALBERTA 

Return of mask mandates the right move amid COVID-19 4th wave: experts


Experts are in agreement that bringing back mask mandates is the right move amid rising COVID-19 cases and a return to school this fall.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Grade one students wear masks as they attend class at Honore Mercier elementary school, Tuesday, March 9, 2021 in Montreal.

B.C. and Manitoba announced Tuesday that masks will again be mandatory for indoor spaces.

B.C. had only removed the policy two months ago but it will return on Wednesday, August 25, while Manitoba lifted the rules at the beginning of August and did not specify when the order will come into place.

Read more: B.C. brings back mandatory masks in public indoor spaces for entire province

Meanwhile, Quebec on Tuesday as well ordered mandatory masks at elementary and high schools in nine regions, including Montreal, after previously saying in June that masks wouldn't be necessary in classrooms.

The onslaught of returning public health policies comes as the provinces are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases during the early stages of a fourth wave of the virus.

"It makes sense," said infectious diseases specialist at University Health Network and the University of Toronto Alon Vaisman, referring to the return of masks.

Vaisman said that other places, such as Texas, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee, that removed their mask mandates initially did well but eventually the virus caught up to them with an increase in severe cases of COVID-19 and deaths.

Video: Concern for back-to-school as COVID-19 case count rises in Ontario

"In Canada, it's not likely to be as severe as in Texas, because our vaccination rates are much higher. But even a small slice of even a portion of what they're experiencing would still be significant for us," he said.

"It makes sense to pull back on things when you can, but right now, there would definitely be benefits from having mask mandates in indoor settings."

Zaisman said there is a general consensus that masking does reduce transmission of the virus.

"There is no doubt that it is helpful," he said.

"It's one of the least invasive things you can do to try to prevent transmission."

Read more: COVID-19: Manitoba brings back mask mandate, requires vaccination for some government employees

Despite Canada having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, it is still unclear whether the vaccines are effective in limiting transmission of the Delta variant, according to University of Toronto Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Omar Khan.

"If we were just dealing with Alpha and Beta, we would have been fine. But with Delta, that's where you have to look at the tools we have now," he said.

"Those tools are masks and distancing."

While being vaccinated should prevent severe illness and hospitalization, transmissions are still important to prevent to avoid further mutations of the virus and spreading COVID-19 to the unvaccinated, such as children under 12, according to Khan.

"We're still in the middle of this, let's be honest, it never ended," he said, referring as well to high global cases of the virus.

"We're always at risk of what will be evolving out there."

Video: Quebec children heading back to school to wear masks

Both Khan and Zaisman predict a rise in cases in the fall as the school year begins, making masks important in classrooms so youth are not carriers of the disease to others — an especially high risk for those not vaccinated.

"Children can become the reservoir for various viral infections that can spread to adults," Zaisman said. "If you can do whatever you can on the children, then you'll go a long way to protecting society as well."

While there have been some studies that suggest masks negatively impact children's socialization, Zaisman ultimately thinks the benefits outweigh the risks.

"If you can protect them with masking, if you can avoid a wave, then you should do whatever you can short of closing schools to protect them."

— with files from Richard Zussman, Shane Gibson and Kalina Laframboise