Showing posts with label US COUP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US COUP. Show all posts

Sunday, January 10, 2021

RSN: Robert Reich | With Control of Government, Joe Biden and Democrats Must Deliver for the People

 

 

Reader Supported News
10 January 21


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10 January 21

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Robert Reich | With Control of Government, Joe Biden and Democrats Must Deliver for the People
Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star)
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Facebook Page
Reich writes: "We can't lose sight of this: Millions of Americans are suffering and on the brink of financial devastation."

 The economy lost 140,000 jobs in December — the first drop since April, after gains slowed for three months. As the pandemic surges to its deadliest peak yet, the economy will continue its downward spiral and people’s livelihoods hang by a thread.

With control of Congress and the presidency, Joe Biden and Democrats must pass sweeping relief within his first month in office. First up: $2,000 survival checks to every American. And do not give in to faux deficit hawks claiming we can’t afford to spend more. We’re the richest country in the history of the world, and a crisis of this magnitude requires massive relief. We can’t afford anything less — the government must deliver for the people.

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A crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (photo: ProPublica)
A crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (photo: ProPublica)


Right-Wing Extremists Vow to Return to Washington for Joe Biden's Inauguration
Anna Schecter, NBC News
Schecter writes: "In the wake of Wednesday's riot at the Capitol, Trump supporters with extremist views feel emboldened and are vowing to return to Washington for the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, using online platforms to rally each other."

"We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match,” wrote a popular Parler user who frequently posts about QAnon.


“Many of Us will return on January 19, 2021, carrying Our weapons, in support of Our nation's resolve, towhich [sic] the world will never forget!!! We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match,” wrote a popular Parler user who frequently posts about QAnon, and is being tracked by the Anti-Defamation League.

Parler, Telegram chat rooms and the platform TheDonald.win were all used to plan and coordinate the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a riot. Posters explicitly stated their intentions to “occupy” the Capitol. QAnon conspiracy theorists and people associated with militia groups had a visible presence in Wednesday’s crowd.

“Round 2 on January 20th. This time no mercy. I don’t even care about keeping Trump in power. I care about war,” an anonymous person posted on the platform TheDonald.win, which is filled with comments posted by people who lauded those who rioted Wednesday as “heroes.”

Law enforcement is scrambling to identify those who broke into the Capitol building, and are worried about the inauguration as another target.

“There is growing concern that violent extremists are emboldened by the breach of the Capitol, which means the clock is ticking on taking down the most influential incites of violence before they act again,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director and NBC News national security analyst.

Federal and local law enforcement have made dozens of arrests so far in connection with Wednesday's Capitol breach and for violations of the curfew that followed.

The Secret Service, which is supervising security for the inauguration, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, referred NBC News to the Secret Service.

According the National Park Service, which handles permits for rallies in D.C., there are seven First Amendment permit applications in process that overlap with the inauguration date, one of which is clearly for Trump supporters.

Megan Squire, professor of computer science at Elon University and a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center who tracks online extremism, says she’s concerned that since President Donald Trump will not be at the inauguration, extremists will be focused on Biden.

“On January 6th their energy was focused on Congress. On the 20th their energy will be focused on Biden. That’s concerning especially since they’re not remorseful or ashamed. Right now it looks not great,” she said.

Squire has been collecting fliers for as many as 10 rallies planned for Jan. 17 organized by members of the far-right militia movement who call themselves “Bugaloo bois.” They emerged last year showing up at rallies calling for the protection of Second Amendment rights and the group has been on law enforcement’s radar for anti-government activity.

Of most concern is the excitement expressed online by accelerationists, some of the most violent and extreme in the white supremacist movement who believe there is an impending race war.

“On the whole the system’s power took a major hit yesterday,” one person wrote in a Telegram chatroom favored by accelerationists.

“[Accelerationists] are over the moon and talking about how to exploit grievances. They’re on these Telegram groups completely excited about it,” Squire said.

Just because a new president will be inaugurated, according to ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt, doesn’t mean pro-Trump extremists will fade into the background.

“The conspiratorial, baseless narrative of a stolen election will continue to animate extremists for some time to come,” he said.

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Security officials at U.S. Capitol building. (photo: Reuters)
Security officials at U.S. Capitol building. (photo: Reuters)


ALSO SEE: Capitol Rioter Texted Pals He Wanted to
Shoot or Run Over Nancy Pelosi


Police Found a Pickup Truck Full of Bombs and Guns Near Capitol, Feds Say
CNN
Excerpt: "An Alabama man allegedly parked a pickup truck packed with 11 homemade bombs, an assault rifle and a handgun just two blocks form the United States Capitol Building, according to federal prosecutors."

The revelation is one of the most unsettling details federal prosecutors have made public this week as they sift through what went down when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol. Other people have been accused of taking guns and ammunition onto Capitol grounds.

Lonnie Leroy Coffman, 70, of Falkville, Alabama, is accused of planting the pickup truck.

A bomb squad found the arsenal during the scramble to secure the federal complex after it was overrun by pro-Trump rioters.

Coffman has been arrested and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and carrying a pistol without a license, CNN reported. He told police that he had mason jars filled with “melted Styrofoam and gasoline.” Police also found cloth rags and lighters.

Federal investigators said that combination, if exploded, would have the effect of napalm “insofar as it causes the flammable liquid to better stick to objects that it hits upon detonation,” according to the court record.

Coffman had parked his pickup truck at 9:15 a.m. ET on First St SE on the Hill, near the National Republican Club, commonly called the Capitol Hill Club. The truck had a handgun on the passenger seat, an M4 Carbine assault rifle, along with rifle magazines loaded with ammunition, police said.

Coffman appeared before a federal judge this week, and is being detained at least until his next court appearance on Tuesday.



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Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). (image: Getty Images/iStock)
Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). (image: Getty Images/iStock

LSO SEE: More Than a Dozen GOP State Lawmakers
Attended Rally That Gave Way to Riots

Calls Mount for Senators Cruz and Hawley to Step Down: 'Broken Their Oath of Office'
Alex Woodward, The Independent
Woodward writes: "Democratic Senator Patty Murray has emerged the highest-ranking Democratic lawmaker to demand Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley resign, joining growing protests and calls for their resignations or expulsions from Congress after the senators objected to Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential election."


Top Democrats demand GOP senators step down after objecting to election results that compelled Capitol violence

Chris Coons, Democratic senator from Delaware, has also called on the two GOP senators to resign.

More than a dozen House Democrats are supporting a resolution targeting members of Congress who have supported efforts to overturn election results, provoking a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters to storm the Capitol and threaten lawmakers barricaded inside the building on 6 January, as they convened to formally certify Electoral College votes.

In Houston, protests demanded the Texas senator step down. Texas Democrats Joaquin Castro and his brother Julian Castro also called on Senator Cruz to resign. The hashtag #RESIGNCRUZ trended on Twitter on Friday.

Missouri’s Kansas City Star, Senator Hawley’s home-state newspaper, issued a damning editorial placing the failed insurrection’s blame on his shoulders and writing that he "has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt.”

The editorial said that "no one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible” for the violence that led to the death of at least five people at the Capitol, including a Capitol police officer struck in the head with a fire extinguisher and a woman who was fatally shot by Capitol police officer.

Asked whether they should resign on Friday, president-elect Joe Biden said they should be “flat beaten” the next time they run for office, calling their terms “part of the big lie” and comparing them to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

He also said prominent Republicans have admitted to him that “the Ted Cruzes of the world are as responsible, in terms of people believing the lies" as the president.

In his remarks to the Senate, Senator Cruz defended his objections, claiming that many Americans believe the election is “rigged” against them, indulging the president’s lies about voter fraud and election integrity despite a lack of meaningful evidence from neither the president’s own campaign or administration.

Senator Murray said that “there can be no normalising or looking away from what played out before our eyes this week.”

“The violent mob that attacked the Capitol was made up of people who don’t accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force,” she said in a statement on Friday. “This is not how we keep our people and our country free. As a Senator, I respect every member who disagrees with my ideas. I reserve my right to use my voice to fight for what I believe in. At the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force. Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.”

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, considered a potential 2024 presidential contender, condemned senators Cruz and Hawley after their campaigns sent fundraising texts and emails during the Capitol siege.

“Some senators who, for political advantage, were giving false hope to their supporters, misleading them into thinking that somehow … Congress could reverse the results of the election or even get some kind of emergency audit," he told Fox News on Thursday. “That was never going to happen, yet these senators, as insurrectionists literally stormed the Capitol, were sending out fundraising emails.”

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Senator Cruz "must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday. And how you fundraised off this riot. Both you and Senator Hawley must resign. If you do not, the Senate should move for your expulsion.”

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Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Chair Shelly Fyant poses for a portrait on Jan. 2, 2021, in Polson, Montana. (photo: Tailyr Irvine/The Intercept)
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Chair Shelly Fyant poses for a portrait on Jan. 2, 2021, in Polson, Montana. (photo: Tailyr Irvine/The Intercept)


Montana Tribes Hard-Hit by Covid-19 Brace for Republican Takeover
Miranda Green, The Intercept
Green writes: "When Montana's legislature met at the end of December to vote on whether visitors to the state capitol building should have to wear masks, one lawmaker gave an impassioned plea."

Native Americans in Montana are dying from Covid-19 at a rate 11 times higher than white residents.

“I have no stomach to talk about this abstractly; my community has been hit hard,” said Sharon Stewart Peregoy, a Democratic state representative and member of the Crow Tribe. “Even today, I just got a notification that another one has passed. It’s real, folks. We should take the basic steps.”

A colleague called her words “emotional” and “insulting.”

“Science does lie. It depends on which science you are listening to. Different news channels have different scientists,” said Republican Rep. Barry Usher. “It’s the facts.”

The Legislature ultimately voted against a mandate along party lines, making mask-wearing optional in Montana’s seat of government a month after the state experienced a Covid-19 surge that topped the charts globally.

For Indigenous communities, it was just the latest public health battle fought and lost during the pandemic.

“It’s the intersection of highly vulnerable people going above and beyond and folks in rural communities who lean more conservative buying into all the garbage that it’s ‘embarrassing to wear a mask,’” said state Sen. Shane Morigeau, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “I don’t think the state leaders realize [the spread] is their fault — or they don’t care, to be honest. It makes me tear up thinking about it.”

Covid-19 has killed Native Americans across the U.S. at nearly twice the rate of white people. But in Montana, Native Americans are dying from the disease at a rate 11 times higher than white residents. When Covid-19 raged through the High Plains this fall, making the state an international hot spot, tribes and reservations closed their businesses, imposed shutdowns, and introduced curfews. Intensive care units reached zero percent capacity, federally run hospitals on reservations were airlifting Covid-19 patients out, and neighboring states stopped being able to receive transfers. Overworked medical staff quit from the stress.

Then-Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, implemented a statewide mask mandate to mitigate the spread, but in many counties, including those bordering reservations, masks are still rejected and public health officials are ignored, putting Indigenous lives in the crosshairs. On January 4, Bullock was replaced by former U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, Montana’s first Republican governor in 16 years, adding to concern among tribal leaders and public health experts that the pervasive anti-mask movement will soon become the law of the land.

Fault Lines

Shelly Fyant’s family lost three members to the Spanish flu of 1918 within the span of two days. When Covid-19 began spreading across the U.S., she didn’t want the same thing to happen again. Fyant, chair of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council, helped establish a Covid-19 unified command team in conjunction with neighboring Lake County, where tribal residents buy their food.

“Early on, I could see we were unified to a point,” she said of the relationship. “A month in, it started to deteriorate.”

The tribes closed their Flathead Reservation in Montana’s forested, mountainous West to nonresidents in late March but immediately faced a huge hurdle: The reservation is a checkerboard of land owned by both Native Americans and Montana locals who claimed property rights through homesteading in the 1800s. U.S. Route 93, which links Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, also cuts through the reservation. The tribe asked Lake County to agree to temporarily close the route, but county leaders refused.

In late April, when Bullock decided to reopen Montana but allowed local communities to enforce stricter rules, the tribe again asked Lake County to keep restrictions in place. The county punted. So when Fyant found out that a Fourth of July boat parade in support of President Donald Trump was scheduled in the nearby city of Polson on a lake that abuts the reservation, and that a restaurant called The Shoe was holding a barbecue equipped with “three live bands,” she had a hunch her concerns would go unheard.

“The city basically said, ‘We’re not the pandemic police,’” she recalled.

Almost half of Lake County’s Covid-19 cases are tribal, according to the county public health department. When photos emerged from the Independence Day event, it was clear just how little mask-wearing and social distancing had been implemented, but one person in particular stood out: a blond woman on a Jet Ski wearing a feather headdress, much like the Salish and Kootenai chiefs wear — some of their “most sacred regalia,” Fyant said. Tribal members viewed the act as a direct attack on their small community at a time when families were burying their loved ones in bursts.

“It was gut-wrenching,” Fyant said, looking back. “We have lost so many tribal members. … Families upon families are suffering.”

A Toxic Environment

In Montana, which has one of the smallest populations of any U.S. state, the virus has had an outsize impact on rural Indigenous communities. Native Americans make up just 7 percent of Montana’s residents but have accounted for nearly 40 percent of the state’s Covid-19 deaths. The disparity is largely due to the prevalence of underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, in Indigenous communities and the fact that many people lack access to running water and reside in multigenerational homes.

At least 183 Native Americans in Montana have died from the virus, and more than 8,000 have been infected.

“My dad had three of his best friends pass away within two weeks,” said Kaci Wallette, a registered nurse and member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in northwest Montana. “He just called me today to tell me he tested positive.”

Her dad’s diabetes and age put him in a high-risk category.

“I try not to let it get me down,” she said. “It’s a very sad time for our tribe.”

There are 12 tribes spread across seven reservations in Montana, and many share borders with some of the fiercest anti-mask counties.

In Flathead County, north of the Flathead Reservation, a public health official quit her job after she said members of the county commission and city-county board of health were creating a “toxic environment” that focused on bolstering political views instead of locals’ health.

“It’s clear that the underlying motivation by several members of your groups is more closely aligned with ideological biases than the simple desire to do what’s best for the health of the community,” Interim Health Officer Tamalee St. James Robinson wrote in her resignation letter in early December.

She was the second person in six months to resign from the county’s health board.

Bullock sued five businesses in Flathead in October over their failure to enforce his mask mandate, but a district judge threw out the case. Those businesses have since launched a countersuit against the state.

In Pondera County, next to the Blackfeet Reservation, all four members of the health department resigned in early November due to pushback from local leaders.

“In order to be successful, I need to be heard and invested in, the lines of communication need to be open, and frequent contact needs to be in place,” Health Department Director Nicki Sullivan wrote when she quit. “Hearing negative talk within the community about myself … should be thwarted and never accepted.”

Health experts in Lake County are facing similar resistance from local authorities. Emily Colomeda, Lake County health services director, said her team has been extremely limited in their ability to enforce the statewide mask mandate. County officials who do have the authority have not enforced the rule, she said, and businesses like The Shoe have taken advantage of the impasse.

“As health directors, we have no authority. We reached out to the environmental health department to look into it. We were met with resistance from the business, I have to say. The county attorney didn’t want to enforce it,” said Colomeda.

Covid-19 cases in the county spiked following the July Fourth holiday weekend. Colomeda said a handful were traced back to the boat parade and dinner at The Shoe.

“We have a very small staff, four, and the tribe is also in the same county, so we share a population, basically,” she said. “It’s a little frustrating that we are working overtime on weekends and evenings and that this is still happening.”

On New Year’s Eve, The Shoe held another bash that offered a four-course meal, live music, and dancing. But Colomeda’s hands were tied.

“It came to the point where we just kind of gave up on that,” she said. “Obviously our efforts haven’t been validated.”

The Only Ones Wearing Masks

With limited state leadership on masks and infighting across counties, reservations have been left to go it alone to keep their populations safe from Covid-19.

“Those of us in public health, and especially anyone who’s worked with Native communities, knew that when [Covid-19] came and hit, it would hit really hard,” said Cora Neumann, a public health expert who supported the 2014 Ebola response in West Africa for the Global First Ladies Alliance, a partnership she founded with the offices of Laura Bush and Michelle Obama.

Neumann is a public health adviser for Western Native Voice, a nonprofit that advocates for Native American communities. She’s been leading online and in-person tutorials and debriefings with tribes on how to mitigate Covid-19 exposure and deal with the stigma surrounding getting sick. She brought in Beth Cameron, who previously headed the pandemic readiness office that Trump disbanded in 2018, to help draft the guidance.

Neumann says tribes have been the true leaders during the pandemic, at times taking the strongest steps to curb the spread of the virus in Montana. But they are still the main victims of the disease.

“When you have the Crow or Northern Cheyenne or Blackfeet locking down and implementing stay-at-home orders for months on end, but the surrounding counties don’t abide, that’s the problem,” she said. “And who gets sick? The Native Americans get sick.”

But it’s not as simple as staying away from those counties. Tribal residents frequently live in food deserts and rely on neighboring communities for gas and other needs. Something as simple as a trip to the mechanic can be perilous.

“We just got our oil changed at one of the car dealerships where we bought our car. When we go in there, we’re probably the only ones that wear masks around. … We just go there as quickly as we can and get out,” said Susan Webber, a state senator and member of the Blackfeet tribe. “Only the Indians are wearing masks.”

The risk of exposure is glaring. In November, the Blackfeet hosted a digital memorial service honoring 27 members who died from Covid-19.

Webber has served in the Legislature for eight years and lived on the reservation her entire life. Tensions between the reservation and surrounding towns have always been tough. She says she’s been a victim of the “lazy Indian” stereotype, recalling an instance in a supermarket where another shopper incorrectly scolded her for “being on welfare.”

“Native Americans are the largest minority in Montana. So we’re the only ones visible. We’re the dark people,” she said. “Until the Trump administration, it used to be kind of covert. Now it’s overt.”

“As an Indian in Montana, you live with discrimination all the time,” she added. Choosing where to go based on who follows the mask guidelines is just another hurdle for her daily routine.

Webber and others are concerned that Bullock’s successor, Gianforte, won’t help bridge the state’s divide on pandemic policies. Gianforte, who was charged with assault for attacking a reporter during his 2018 congressional run, has been criticized for speaking at the Let Freedom Ring concert in October, which officials said violated health guidelines. The concert was linked to multiple Covid-19 cases. He has also promoted the idea of herd immunity as an effective approach to the pandemic.

In a letter to the state Legislature, Gianforte said his office would be taking “commonsense, precautionary” measures and encouraging visitors to wear masks. He said he will wear one in the capitol building but has not committed to continuing Bullock’s mandate, which required all counties to enforce mask-wearing regardless of active case counts. Gianforte is the only elected governor to take the reins for the first time during the pandemic. He did not respond to a request for comment.

“I generally believe in personal responsibility rather than mandates,” he told a local TV station in December. “I think Montanans will do the right thing when presented with the facts.”

Many remain skeptical.

“In past administrations, when we didn’t have Democratic representation, we’ve seen a little more strained relationships with tribes,” said state Sen. Morigeau, of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “Gianforte, he won, and he deserves the chance to prove me wrong and prove otherwise.”

Webber, meanwhile, said she wouldn’t stick around the capitol building long enough when the Legislature convened in early January to see whether Gianforte stuck to his mask promise.

“It has the potential of being a superspreader event. We are locked in this one capitol building for 90 days. About 250 staff. About 200 lobbyists and then every person who wants to testify for a bill comes from every part of Montana.”

“As soon as I swear in, I’m leaving,” she said. “I can’t take any chances of bringing this back home.”

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Bolivia: Coup's Ex Interior Minister Murillo Fled to The US

Bolivia Identifies 7 Suspects Related to Sacaba Massacre
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Bolivia's Interior Ministry Thursday identified seven alleged perpetrators of the Sacaba massacre that took place in Cochabamba city in 2019."

Over 30 people died due to police brutality after the U.S.-backed coup against Evo Morales in Nov. 2019.


The suspects must testify before the Public Prosecutor's Office of La Paz for the violent acts that followed the coup against former President Evo Morales.

"We identified the suspects after interviews with the military, police, and civilians involved," prosecutor Nuria Gonzales said and informed that an investigation is underway to determine the defendants' degree of responsibility.

Until Thursday, Cochabamba's former military chief Alfredo Cuellar was the only officer being investigated for the violent incidents in which the military and police fired on anti-coup demonstrators.

Cuellar, who is under house arrest, denied responsibility for the massacre. Former Cochabamba Police Commander Jaime Zurita is also one of seven police officers to be investigated for charges of homicide.

During the investigative process, the Attorney General's Office will interview Morales and former Vice President Alvaro Garcia as victims.

After the coup d'état, Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) supporters marched in various parts of the country demanding the return of democracy. In Sacaba and Senkata, over 30 people died due to police brutality.

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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (photo: Getty Images)
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (photo: Getty Images)


The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Will Not Face Mass Oil Drilling - for Now
Rasha Aridi, Smithsonian Magazine
Aridi writes: "For the last 40 years, politicians, oil companies, environmentalists, and Indigenous peoples have clashed over whether or not the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) - the largest stretch of intact wilderness in the United States - should be opened up for drilling."


Large oil companies skipped out on the auction, but environmentalists say a worrisome precedent has been set

Now, that battle is finally coming to a close, reports Joel K. Bourne, Jr. for National Geographic.

The ANWR is located within the Arctic Circle in the northeastern corner of Alaska. It is home to an abundance of wildlife like polar bears and caribou, which the region's Indigenous communities rely on and hold sacred. But billions of barrels of oil may lurk beneath the icy surface, making the refuge a target for oil companies and pro-industry politicians, reports Emily Holden for the Guardian.

"If you can’t draw a line at the tundra and keep this one area of the Arctic off limits, then the question is, where can you draw the line and what protected part or wildlife refuge in the United States will remain off limits?" Adam Kolton, the executive director of the environmentalist Alaska Wilderness League, tells the Guardian.

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he will protect the refuge from exploitation, and the Trump Administration has been racing to seal the deal and auction off parts of the refuge before the end of Trump's term on January 20, reports Andy McGlashen for Audubon.

A build-up of anticipation and angst accumulated as the current administration attempted to auction off the leases on January 6, which would have sealed the fate of the refuge. The administration originally argued that the sale could ring in $900 million, but in a turn of events, the sales came up short. Very short. They only attracted three bidders, and one was the state of Alaska itself, report Tegan Hanlon and Nathaniel Herz for Alaska Public Media.

"They held the lease in ANWR—that is history-making," Larry Persily, a former federal gas line official for Alaska, tells Alaska Public Media. "That will be recorded in the history books and people will talk about it. But no one showed up."

The auction raked in a total of $14 million for 11 tracts of land that cover around 600,000 acres, reports the Guardian. The lack of interest was likely driven by the fact that oil is in such low demand at the moment and that the public has become more critical of drilling because of its effects on the environment and climate, reports Audubon.

Persily tells Alaska Public Media that some politicians have been gunning for drilling in the Arctic for years, but companies don't treasure it like they once did. However, pro-oil politicians have continued the push, arguing the move would help the U.S. become self-dependent on oil and boost Alaska’s economy, reports Alex DeMarban for the Anchorage Daily News.

"After years of promising a revenue and jobs bonanza [the Trump Administration] ended up throwing a party for themselves, with the state being one of the only bidders," Kolton says in a statement. "We have long known that the American people don’t want drilling in the Arctic Refuge, the Gwich’in people don’t want it, and now we know the oil industry doesn’t want it either.”

Despite the few bids, environmentalists aren't celebrating. Now, that even a few leases have been sold, it'll be even more challenging to stop the development, Nauri Toler, an Iñupiaq woman and an environmental organized for Native Movement, tells Alaska Public Media.

"It’s hard to go back after the lease sales—it’s a whole different game after that happens," she said during a protest on Wednesday, reports Alaska Public Media. "It’s pretty heart-wrenching.

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The Rest of the World Is Laughing at Trump
Donald Trump. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
Applebaum writes: "Anybody who knows any history will be aware that propaganda - even the most obvious, most shameless propaganda - sometimes works."
READ MORE


Medical staff attend to a patient infected with COVID-19. (photo: Thomas Samson/AP)
Medical staff attend to a patient infected with COVID-19. (photo: Thomas Samson/AP)


Draft Report Predicts Covid-19 Cases Will Reach 200,000 a Day by June 1
William Wan, Lenny Bernstein, Laurie McGinley and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "A draft government report projects covid-19 cases will surge to about 200,000 per day by June 1, a staggering jump that would be accompanied by more than 3,000 deaths each day."




Migrants board a van that will take them to a processing center, on May 16, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (photo: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images)
Migrants board a van that will take them to a processing center, on May 16, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (photo: Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images)



"It's Like Purgatory": How the US Has Undermined the Promise of Asylum
John Washington, The Intercept
Washington writes: "Humans recoil from death as well as from captivity. We want to live and we want to live free. We want both."

EXCERPT:
Since detention standards were changed in 1996, the U.S. government, in direct refutation to the 1951 Refugee Convention, has locked up hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers who have broken neither domestic nor international law. The idea is to use them as an example of the misery the government is willing to draw on the bodies and minds of those seeking its protection, in order to convince future asylum-seekers from even trying.
When former White House chief of staff John Kelly first introduced the idea of separating migrant families in 2017, he said, “Yes, I’m considering” family separation “in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network. I am considering exactly that.” But deterrence — prolonged detention, family separation, or forcing migrants to walk through the remote deserts — doesn’t work. Bertha, for example, a 63-year-old Honduran grandmother fleeing to save her and her granddaughter’s life, came to the United States knowing that they would likely be detained. And they were. Even after Bertha’s granddaughter was released, Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept Bertha locked up for almost two years.
I met Bertha in a small echoic room in the El Paso Processing Center, in her 18th month of detention. Boggled as to why ICE would detain, for such a long time, a shy grandmother with developing health complications who poses neither flight risk nor security concern, I asked her lawyer, Ed Beckett, if he knew why the government hadn’t released her.
They’re just assholes, Beckett told me. Cruel and unusual punishment, that’s about it. I think she’s a prime example of deterrence.
At her first asylum hearing in the low-ceilinged court inside the El Paso Processing Center, Bertha was denied asylum but was offered protection and relief from deportation through the Convention Against Torture. But then, a few days after the hearing, and before she was released, the judge suddenly changed his mind and reversed his decision. As Beckett helped Bertha appeal, she was kept in detention.
I’ve been in here 18 months, she told me in the spartan interview room. I’m from the department of Cortés. I came to the bridge on November 18. We were in the hielera — an icebox, and the common Spanish name for freezing-cold holding cells — for one day, and then they sent us here. I came … I fled. We came together. My granddaughter was only 14, her name is Yariela. The gangsters wanted her to be their wife. But I couldn’t let that happen. And then they wanted to kill me. They said they were going to kill me. We left the next day. I knew … well, I’m scared to return to my country, that’s what I told them.
I asked her what the security situation was like in her hometown.
I lost my grandson on October 11, 2013. They disappeared him. We don’t know where he is. I raised them both. Their mom was already here, in Houston. And when we had to leave, we just left, without hardly anything. We ran out of money in Guatemala. We had to go asking for money, asking for alms, for food. I was asking God for help. We traveled by bus. I wouldn’t know how to take a train. We were hungry sometimes, but people treated us OK. They gave us food.
They respected me because of my age. An abuelita. A little grandmother.
That’s why we left. Because a gangster was trying to make my granddaughter his wife. I turn to ice when I think about going back there.
I came to ask for protection. I didn’t kill anyone, she says. She began counting on her fingers, starting with her thumb, then index finger. I didn’t rob anyone. I don’t do drugs, don’t have anything to do with drugs. She held up all five fingers to me, and then dropped her hand. I’m clean. A good woman. My daughter is the only one who helps me with some money, for the vending machine, for phone calls, but I can’t stand anything from the vending machines anymore. I can’t stand the soda … I’m just asking God to get me out of here. And my granddaughter. She asks me, she’s so sad, she asks me, Mami, she calls me, why don’t they let you out? And she starts to cry. You raised me. Please come here with me.
You can’t make a complaint or go to the police back in Honduras, Bertha told me, because they’ll know. They have a system, they can track you. I was looking for my grandson after he disappeared, but trying not to make too much noise. And we never found him. I imagine that they killed him, dropped him off somewhere, in some ditch, that’s how they do it. You can’t try to talk to the police or they’ll disappear you. If you see something, she said, and then zipped her lips with a finger.
I don’t know why there’s so much violence. I can’t explain it. It started around, around 2000. It wasn’t like this when I was a girl. Everything was much calmer. But it’s so bad now. Everybody, so many people are leaving. They told me they had to separate us, but they didn’t tell me where they were taking her. I was so … I never expected to be here so long.
To kill time I read the Bible. I also like to play Monopoly. I used to play with this other woman, from Honduras. We played a game last night. But she left today.
I asked her who won.
She smiled, embarrassed. I did, she said. I’ll miss her a lot. She went back to Honduras, just today. I lie in bed and read the Bible. The Psalms. My dad died when he was 91 years old, and he told me, hija, for this, your tongue, she said, and stuck out her tongue, they’ll kill you … for talking, for saying what you see. The gangs, they were taking money, war taxes. They charge you for everything. There wasn’t any more money for food.
Here, in detention, we wake up at five, we have breakfast. Lunch at 11. And dinner at 4:30. But sometimes I’m hungry at night. At home we ate at nine. I get hungry at midnight. Sometimes I buy something from the vending machine, but I don’t like those crackers or cookies anymore. I don’t even like soda. I go to bed hungry. Lights out at nine o’clock. There’s count three times a day. At 10 in the morning, at 3:30, and at nine. At count we have to be quiet. We have to lie in our beds and we can’t talk. If we make noise we get in trouble. At night though, it’s hard to sleep. If someone’s snoring, she says, laughing and putting her hands on her cheeks, we have to deal with it. There’s always someone in the barracks with us. One of the guards. They’re not mean, but they talk strong if we’re loud, if someone’s talking during count. She paused to think. Sometimes, to pass the time, I draw. I draw flowers, princesses, little animals, things like that. Curlicues. Just to pass the time.
It’s not good to be in here. This situation … it’s like a purgatory. It’s like we’re never going to leave. I just think I’m never going to leave. If I get out I’m going to do what I always do, follow the right path. Be good. Do right. We’re all the same. You have to treat people nice. I hope, I hope that God forgives the United States. They have no heart. We’re people. We’re old women. We can’t be here. I don’t know why they don’t let us go. I just don’t know why.
Bertha started telling me about her favorite Psalms, but then one of the guards interrupted us. Our time was up. I told her I would read a couple of her recommendations, and, as I scribbled into my notebook and the guard stood watching us, she told me to read Psalms 23, 91, 102, 27, and 71.
It had been a long time since I read any of them, and, at my hostel later that night, as I began to read them on my computer, I wondered at first if all the Psalms referred to danger and searching for refuge in times of trouble and old age, or if she had just selected those that so precisely fit her situation.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned like a hearth. My heart is stricken and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. My bones cling to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness, I am like an owl of the desert. I lie awake, and am like a sparrow alone on the housetop. Do not cast me off in the time of old age. Do not forsake me when my strength fails. You prepare a table before me. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
In the summer of 2018, after 20 months of detention, Bertha lost her appeal and was deported alone back to Honduras. When I think of her now, I think of another poem, the line from Keats — “Where but to think is to be full of sorrow” — and of Saint Oscar Romero, who was reading the 23rd Psalm, one of Bertha’s recommendations, during mass on the day he was assassinated in the cathedral in El Salvador’s capital. “May God have mercy on the assassins” were the archbishop’s last words.
Sixteen hours after a Salvadoran army sniper pulled the trigger and killed Romero, on March 24, 1980, the U.S. House Foreign Operations Subcommittee began hearings on the $5.7 million in military aid that the archbishop had begged President Jimmy Carter not to send, which Romero said would “surely increase injustice here and sharpen the repression that has been unleashed.”
Though the vote was postponed, the military aid was eventually approved.
Joan Didion described the administration’s account of the Salvadoran government’s progress toward human rights, on which the U.S. aid depended, as hallucinatory. The adjective also would apply to ICE’s self-proclaimed compliance with its own standard of guaranteeing “safe, secure, and humane environments” for what it calls “custodial supervision.”



Activists in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. (photo: Getty Images)
Activists in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. (photo: Getty Images)


The Fight Over the Affordable Care Act and Birth Control Is Back at the Supreme Court
David H. Gans, Slate
Gans writes: "A religiously affiliated employer known as the Little Sisters is urging the Supreme Court to bless the Trump administration's decision to give employers an unconditional religious exemption from the contraceptive coverage requirements of the [ACA] and declare [its] religious accommodation unlawful."


n 1756, the Rev. Francis Alison, a prominent minister from Pennsylvania, urged people in the colonies of all religious persuasions to join together to help win the French and Indian War. In making a point about conscientious objectors, Alison argued that “[a]ll … should have a free use of their religion, but so as not on that score to burden or oppress others.” Alison’s understanding of religious liberty would be reflected in the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, which freed conscientious objectors from having to fight but required them to pay for a substitute. 
The story of how conscientious objector laws have safeguarded religious liberty, while also protecting the rights of others—laid out in a brief filed by prominent military historians—should be front and center on Wednesday when the Supreme Court hears Little Sisters v. Pennsylvania and Trump v. Pennsylvania. In those cases, a religiously affiliated employer known as the Little Sisters is urging the Supreme Court to bless the Trump administration’s decision to give employers an unconditional religious exemption from the contraceptive coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act and declare the ACA’s religious accommodation unlawful. 
In 2014, a bitterly divided Supreme Court in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores held that closely held corporations, whose owners had a religious objection to providing contraceptive coverage, were entitled to avail themselves of the religious accommodation contained in the ACA’s regulations. Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, such businesses would be entitled to shift the obligation to provide contraceptive coverage to their insurance companies. For the first time in history the Supreme Court held that some business corporations were entitled to religious accommodations, sending the message that owners of companies could invoke their religious beliefs to skirt the law
The silver lining in the 5–4 ruling was the majority’s recognition that the ACA’s religious accommodation provided the key to taking account of the rights of all parties. The majority concluded that the accommodation is “an alternative that achieves all of the government’s aims while providing greater respect for religious liberty” and guarantees that “women would still be entitled to FDA-approved contraceptives without cost-sharing.” Now, the Little Sisters and the Trump administration are asking the Supreme Court to shelve that part of the Hobby Lobby ruling and strike down the accommodation. 
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has been asked to take this step. In 2016, in Zubik v. Burwell, the court heard a set of cases in which employers argued that the accommodation violated RFRA. But an eight-member court failed to resolve the issue. That is unlikely to happen this time around. 
In more than two centuries, the Supreme Court has never struck down a religious accommodation on the ground that it substantially burdened the free exercise of religion. The Little Sisters, joined by the Trump administration, is urging the court to take that extreme step for the first time. Even though the ACA’s religious accommodation eliminates any role for the employer in providing contraceptive services and shifts the burden of paying for contraceptive coverage to insurance companies, the Little Sisters argues that the accommodation still tramples on its religious beliefs. In its view, the government may not require it to do anything—even a ministerial task as simple as filling out a piece of paper—if the end result is that even one of its employees could enjoy the access to contraceptive coverage that the ACA requires. 
When the Supreme Court hears oral argument on Wednesday—which will be livestreamed for all to hear as part of the court’s social distancing measures taken in response to COVID-19—the questioning is likely to focus on RFRA and the court’s precedent. But the court should not ignore centuries of historical practice that have given meaning to the guarantee of the free exercise of religion. 
The sweeping arguments for a total religious exemption are profoundly inconsistent with the history of religious accommodation in this country and the backdrop against which the Framers crafted the First Amendment. Throughout American history, religious accommodations that have allowed objectors to opt out and to transfer their legal duties to others have been a crucial means of respecting religious liberty in a nation of diverse faiths. 
From 1776 to the present, conscientious objector laws have exempted those with a religious objection to war from combat, while still requiring them to aid the nation during wartime. What the Little Sisters denounces as a violation of their freedom of conscience is what history shows is a common practice: accommodating religious objectors by shifting their obligations to third parties who do not share that objection
In 1776, the people of Pennsylvania enacted a new Constitution, which relieved conscientious objectors of the duty to fight but required those opposed to war to “pay such equivalent” in order to find a substitute. The Keystone State was not alone in rejecting an unconditional exemption. In numerous states, conscientious objector laws enacted at the time of the American Revolution and the writing of the Constitution required individuals objecting to participation in military service on religious grounds to pay for a substitute. 
Religious accommodations for military service also figured prominently in debates over the Bill of Rights. During debates in Congress over proposals to include a religious exemption from combat in the Second Amendment, members of the First Congress stressed that conscientious objectors had to do their part to ensure the safety of the nation. A religious exemption from combat would be “unjust, unless the constitution secured an equivalent.” Ultimately, the Second Amendment did not contain a religious accommodation, leaving matters to the states. In many states, a conscientious objector had to pay for a substitute. 
Since the Civil War, federal draft laws have accommodated individuals with a religious objection to war, requiring them to perform alternative service. Under these laws, an individual who considers war sinful cannot refuse to participate in the war effort entirely. What is more, a conscientious objector cannot stop a draft in its tracks by insisting that calling up the next draftee makes him or her complicit in sin. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor commented during oral argument in Zubik, the logic of the argument for an unconditional exemption would wreak havoc with federal draft laws. Look for her to press this line of questioning again. 
Our Constitution and laws place the highest of values on religious liberty, recognizing the right to practice’s one’s religion as critical to freedom, dignity, and self-definition. But the Affordable Care Act has already accommodated the beliefs of those who have a religious objection to contraception. What the Little Sisters wants—to prevent insurance companies from assuming their legal duty—would pervert our cherished constitutional values of religious liberty. It would allow employers to impose their own religious beliefs on their employees and extinguish important federal rights secured by the Affordable Care Act. Women would be left without access to the most effective forms of contraception. 
In Little Sisters and other cases on the docket both this term and next, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is poised to reshape the meaning of religious freedom in America. If the Supreme Court strikes down the ACA’s religious accommodation, it will be casting aside centuries of history. As the history of conscientious objector laws shows, religious accommodations help, not harm, religious liberty. Religious accommodations, like those contained in the Affordable Care Act, ensure, as the Rev. Francis Alison explained more than 250 years ago, that “all should have a free use of their religion, but so as not on that score to burden or oppress others.” 



Women shop at a market wearing protective face masks amid concerns over COVID-19 in Cairo, Egypt, April 12, 2020. (photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)
Women shop at a market wearing protective face masks amid concerns over COVID-19 in Cairo, Egypt, April 12, 2020. (photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)


For Arab Women and Girls, the Crisis Is Just Beginning
Lina AbiRafeh, Al Jazeera
AbiRafeh writes: "In the Arab region, where I now work, women were vulnerable before the crisis. And their crisis is just beginning."

EXCERPT:
I have spent my career as a humanitarian aid worker in insecure environments around the world, supporting women to mitigate the risks they face in those settings - notably as a result of a more hidden global pandemic, violence against women. Everywhere I have worked - from Afghanistan to Mali to Haiti - women and girls suffer more. It does not matter whether this is due to a conflict, a natural disaster or an epidemic.
Already volatile prior to COVID-19 due to socioeconomic instabilities and protracted humanitarian crises, the Arab region is uniquely affected by this global pandemic, with more than 62.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
In the Arab region, nearly half of the female population of 84 million is not connected to the Internet nor has access to a mobile phone. This, coupled with alarming literacy rates - approximately 67 percent of women and 81 percent of men - means that women are disproportionately unable to access accurate information about the virus to help them prepare, respond and survive.
Amid this crisis, and combined with the continuing conflicts and economic collapse, violence against women is increasing. For many women and girls, being quarantined safely is a luxury. Based on anecdotal evidence and reporting by several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Lebanon, under lockdown the number of reported cases of violence against women rose by 100 percent during the month of March. 
Similarly, live-in migrant domestic workers (almost always women) are exposed to unique risks stemming from the nature of their jobs. The travel ban and other restrictions further harm their livelihoods and ability to support family members in their countries of origin. Additionally, they cannot leave the house and are therefore working around the clock often without the right to rest. The abuse they suffer - sexual, physical, psychological, economic - is heightened as a result of the additional stress of deteriorating economic conditions and health risks.
Refugees are another disproportionately affected group. Female refugees, in particular, are no strangers to discrimination. Lack of funding due to the pandemic has compromised their survival. Even more than before, refugees are considered a threat by host communities and are shunned due to fears that the virus will spread through the camps, placing the host country at greater risk.
Women in conflict zones face additional risks during this pandemic. In both Syria and Yemen, the healthcare infrastructure has been decimated by years of armed conflict - with 67 attacks on hospitals in Syria in over a year and constant attacks on health facilities and medical personnel in Yemen.
The informal and community-based nature of women's work in conflict zones also means an inherent lack of financial stability and access to formal, professional roles in society. In Yemen, at least there is momentum and strong organising for feminist peacebuilding and the inclusion of women in official peace talks and conflict mitigation processes.
The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to result in the loss of 1.7 million jobs in the Arab region, including approximately 700,000 jobs held by women. But female participation in the labour market is already weak, with high unemployment among women reaching 19 percent in 2019, compared with 8 percent for men.
Projections indicate that the informal sector will be particularly impacted by the pandemic. In the Arab region, women perform nearly five times as much unpaid care work as men while approximately 61.8 percent of active women work in the informal sector and will, therefore, suffer disproportionately. 
Women are the majority of the world's healthcare practitioners and family caretakers, performing unpaid labour and exposing themselves to infection in order to care for a sick child, an elderly family member or a needy member of the community.
In Lebanon, 80 percent of nursing staff are female. More than half of these are now working with reduced salaries and longer hours, rather than being properly compensated and protected. In every emergency I have worked in, women are the ones who know who is in need, what they need and how to get it to them. They are the world's social safety net.
If women are once again left out of leadership roles in the response to the pandemic, the patriarchal consolidation of power in these areas will have devastating effects on women's rights, equality and autonomy. This requires a robust feminist response, guaranteeing women's right to information, to healthcare, to choose. Because when others decide for a woman, she faces discrimination and violence. In short, her own life is at risk.
A feminist response to this pandemic must work to undo rather than magnify oppression and the very systems that place women at higher risks in times of crisis, with the recognition that simply existing as a woman is a form of crisis. Simply, a woman's right to decide must be at the heart of the response to this pandemic.
Life will undoubtedly be different in the aftermath of the pandemic. And, for the majority of women, their challenges do not end when the crisis is resolved. For women and girls, the crisis is just beginning.
In the Arab region, this presents an opportunity to implement feminist policies and ensure that women's rights organisations and feminist activists have the tools and resources they need to advocate and act on behalf of women and girls.
Centring women in the response will enable the region to better withstand future shocks. In short, when women lead, we all benefit. 




Nicolás Maduro. (photo: AP)
Nicolás Maduro. (photo: AP)


Venezuela Detains Two Americans Allegedly Involved in Failed Raid to Remove Maduro
Reuters
Excerpt: "Venezuelan authorities have detained two US citizens allegedly working with a US military veteran who has claimed responsibility for a failed armed incursion into the oil-producing country, President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday."

In a state television address, Maduro said authorities arrested 13 “terrorists” on Monday allegedly involved in a plot he said was coordinated with Washington to enter the South American country via the Caribbean coast and oust him.
Eight people were killed during the foiled incursion attempt on Sunday, Venezuelan authorities said.
Maduro showed what he said were the US passports and other identification cards belonging to Airan Berry and Luke Denman, who he said were in custody and had been working with Jordan Goudreau, an American military veteran who leads a Florida-based security company called Silvercorp USA.
“They were playing Rambo. They were playing hero,” Maduro said, adding that Venezuelan authorities had caught wind of the plot before its execution.
Goudreau, who identified himself as an organiser of the invasion on Sunday, told Reuters on Monday that Berry and Denman were also involved.
“They’re working with me. Those are my guys,” he said by telephone.
The State Department did not provide any immediate comment on the alleged arrests. US officials have strongly denied any US government involvement in the incursions.
A person familiar with the matter said the two US citizens were captured on Monday in a second-day roundup of accomplices and were believed to be in the custody of Venezuelan military intelligence.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the details came from contacts with Venezuelan security forces.
Opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, who the US has backed to be president of Venezuela, cast doubt on the government’s version of Sunday’s events, insisting Maduro is seeking to distract from other problems in recent days including a deadly prison riot and a violent gang battle in Caracas.
Guaidó’s communications team on Monday denied media reports that Guaidó had hired Silvercorp to remove Maduro by force, adding the opposition leader and his allies “have no relationship with or responsibility for the actions of the company Silvercorp.”
In a statement on Monday evening, Guaidó’s team said: “We demand the human rights ... of the people captured in recent hours be respected.“
Washington has imposed tough economic sanctions against Venezuela in an effort to oust Maduro, whom it accuses of having rigged elections in 2018. Maduro’s government says the United States wants to control Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.
Monday’s arrests come after Maduro’s government on Sunday said mercenaries had attempted to enter the South American country on speed boats from neighbouring Colombia, saying eight people had been killed and two detained.
Later on Sunday, Goudreau released a video identifying himself as an organiser of the alleged invasion, alongside dissident Venezuelan military officer Javier Nieto.
Goudreau said in the video that fighters on the ground continued to carry out operations in different parts of the country.
He identified one of the fighters as “Commander Sequea,” which appeared to be a reference to Antonio Sequea, who was identified on Monday by state television as one of the people arrested.
Silvercorp’s website describes Goudreau as a “highly decorated Special Forces Iraq and Afghanistan veteran.“





Single-use plastic containers are the biggest source of trash found near waterways and beaches. (photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/Getty Images)
Single-use plastic containers are the biggest source of trash found near waterways and beaches. (photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/Getty Images)


Satellite Imagery Helps Detect Ocean Plastic Pollution
Elizabeth Claire Alberts, Mongabay
Alberts writes: "Lauren Biermann was scouring a satellite image of the ocean off the coast of the Isle of May, Scotland, searching for signs of floating seaweed for a project at her university. Her eyes were drawn to lines of white dots gently curving along an ocean front."


EXCERPTS:


More than 8.3 billion tons of plastic waste enter the oceans each year, equivalent to a garbage truck dumping its contents into the sea every minute of the day, according to a report by the World Economic Forum. Anything more than 5 millimeters in size, about a fifth of an inch, is generally considered to be "macroplastic," while anything below that size is "microplastic."
Biermann and a team of colleagues embarked on their own study of detecting ocean plastic through satellite imagery, and recently published their findings in Scientific Reports. First, they obtained high-resolution optical data from the European Space Agency (ESA), which is gathered by the Sentinel-2 Earth observation satellite. Second, they used the plastic target data from the University of the Aegean to help differentiate plastic debris from natural objects like driftwood and seaweed.


There will be cleanup operations like the Ocean Voyages Institute, which we'd like to work with. They would then go to where we spotted things, and they would be able to remove tons of plastic at a time," Biermann said. "This really is the first technical exercise, but we would then like to apply the method, far more broadly … to rivers and open waters."
Biermann makes an important clarification: this satellite data shouldn't be seen as a solution to the plastic pollution issue.
"On its own, it can't do anything to curb the plastic pollution problem," Biermann said. "The way to curb plastic pollution problem is to address the source. We know that the majority of plastics come from land, so it's not just addressing the source in terms of the industry, but also in terms of waste management practices on land."
She says she also hopes this data will help build awareness of the global plastic pollution issue, and inspire action on the issue.
"What I don't want to see is my work being used to greenwash the problem — now we can see it from space, so we know where to go and fetch it," she said. "That's not the case at all. And I think if anything, it's just to say there that there's enough of it now that it can be seen from space, [and we should] take that message to heart. The individual is not the problem here, and our individual behavior is not generating plastic on such a scale that it can be seen from space. Really, it is an industry problem."
















This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 441.

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