Fin 2017, la Chine a totalement interdit le commerce de l’ivoire, alors que le pays occupait autrefois la première place sur le marché mondial des défenses d’éléphant et de cornes de rhinocéros. Les importations ont, elles, été bannies dès 2015. Des mesures qui n’empêchent pas le trafic de perdurer. L’ivoire saisi a été découvert en mars 2019, lors d’une opération conjointe menée par des douaniers et des policiers dans six provinces, selon l’Administration générale des douanes.La précieuse cargaison a transité par de nombreux pays”Il s’agit de la plus grande quantité de défenses d’éléphant saisie ces dernières années dans une affaire menée de façon indépendante par notre bureau de lutte contre la contrebande“, a indiqué avec fierté Sun Zhijie, le directeur de cet organisme des douanes, lors de la révélation de la saisie le 16 avril 2019. L’opération a permis de “démanteler une organisation internationale criminelle“, partie prenante dans ce trafic, a ajouté M. Sun, soulignant que 20 suspects ont été arrêtés, sans préciser leur nationalité.Les défenses ont été expédiées d’Afrique par bateau. Après avoir transité par divers pays, elles ont ensuite été introduites clandestinement en Chine, cachées dans des chargements de bois.Selon l’ONG internationale Traffic, qui surveille le commerce des produits issus d’espèces sauvages, il pourrait s’agir de la deuxième plus grande saisie d’ivoire jamais enregistrée. L’association explique la permanence du trafic sur le sol chinois par l’importance des stocks existants et par le déplacement du commerce frauduleux dans les pays voisins comme le Cambodge, le Japon et le Vietnam, mais aussi à Hong Kong, région autonome chinoise, où la législation est plus souple.L’ivoire, signe extérieur de richesse en ChineDans un rapport réalisé en 2018 avec le WWF, l’organisation a constaté que l’interdiction du commerce de l’ivoire en Chine a eu des effets positifs. Le nombre de personnes déclarant avoir l’intention d’en acheter a ainsi été divisé par deux par rapport à 2017.Cependant, l’ivoire reste très recherché en Chine, où il est considéré comme le symbole d’un statut social élevé. D’autres produits illégaux issus d’animaux sauvages, comme les écailles de pangolin, suscitent toujours une forte demande, en raison notamment de leurs propriétés médicales supposées.

Un journaliste blessé au ventre est exfiltré pour être soigné. Ces images de chaos se sont répétées mercredi 1er mai, lors d’une violente manifestation entre pro et anti-Maduro à Caracas, au Venezuela. Rafales d’armes automatiques, chars lancés sur la foule, les opposants au régime ont été la cible d’attaques particulièrement virulentes. De nombreux blessés sont à déplorer et une femme de 27 ans a été tuée d’une balle dans la tête. Le président autoproclamé Juan Guaido appelle ses partisans à ne pas se laisser intimider. “Le régime va essayer d’accentuer la répression, il va essayer de me poursuivre, de faire un coup d’État et il pense que ça va nous arrêter”, a-t-il lancé à la foule.La pression américaineDe son côté, Nicolas Maduro a dénoncé un coup d’État orchestré par les États-Unis. “Ces Vénézuéliens putschistes sont appuyés par l’impérialisme américain qui leur fait croire que je vais abandonner le pays”, affirme-t-il. Face à la résistance du président, Washington accroît la pression sur le régime et fait planer la menace d’une intervention militaire.Le JT

• JT de 12/13 du jeudi 2 mai 2019 L’intégrale

Les autres sujets du JT

• 1
  

  Paris : intrusion à l’hôpital de La Pitié-Salpêtrière lors du 1er-Mai

• 2
  

  1er-Mai : 315 individus interpellés dont de nombreux black blocs

• 3
  

  Emmanuel Macron et son homologue italien célèbrent la mort de Léonard de Vinci

• 4
  

  Ascoval : le verdict du tribunal de Strasbourg rendu jeudi 2 mai

• 5
  

  Paris : une jeune fille atteinte d’autisme interdite de manège

• 6
  

  Permis de conduire : vers une baisse des prix

• 7
  

  À Paris, hommage à Julien Lauprêtre, président du Secours populaire pendant 61 ans

• 8
  

  Greffe : un rein livré par drone

• 9
  

  Le moustique tigre s’implante de plus en plus en France

• 10
  

  Transports : un train à hydrogène testé entre Paris et Orléans

• 11
  

  Plages : les sauveteurs préparent l’été

• 12
  

  Ain : les habitants à la chasse aux objets avant la fermeture du bistrot de Bény

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#AlertePollutionRivières ou sols contaminés, déchets industriels abandonnés… Vous vivez à proximité d’un site pollué ?
Cliquez ici pour nous alerter !L’assemblée générale de Total s’est tenue mercredi 29 mai. Pour plusieurs associations écologistes, c’était l’occasion de faire passer un petit message aux actionnaires. “Les arguments que nous avons exposés aux actionnaires sont juridiques et surtout économiques pour essayer de leur démontrer que leurs propres actions sont en danger et que le cours de l’action de Total pourrait s’écrouler si une action en justice aboutissait“, a expliqué Paul Mougeolle membre de l’ONG, Notre affaire à tous. Deux ONG avaient organisé une action l’année dernièreL’an dernier, Greenpeace et ANV Cop 21 s’étaient invitées à l’assemblée générale de Total. Objectif : empêcher un forage au milieu d’un récif coralien au Brésil. Cette année, dans un nouveau rapport, plusieurs ONG dénoncent une stratégie climatique de façade de la part de la multinationale. Total s’est engagé à respecter l’objectif de limiter la hausse de la température de la planète à deux degrés mais compte en même temps développer ses activités d’extraction de gaz. Click Here: Maori All Blacks Store

A sharp decline in ridership and revenue is forcing some of the largest transportation systems in the country to seek bailouts from the federal government as money dries up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Riders are staying away from many public transit systems, and a drop-off in sales tax revenues that fund some systems is adding to the financial burden.

At least five major transit systems — in Washington, New York, New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle — have all formally requested financial assistance from the federal government, some on the order of billions of dollars.

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Congress appears prepared to deliver. The $2 trillion stimulus package is expected to include $25 billion for mass transit, the same amount for the struggling airline industry.

“The virtues of public transit are precisely at odds with coping with the pandemic. That is, it’s good at moving a lot of people in the same direction at the same time, and we now have essentially a mandate to not move, to not have a lot of people together anywhere,” Brian D. Taylor, author and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor of urban planning and public policy, said in an interview.

The core business model of public transit, according to Taylor, depends on “crowding people together” to bring riders where they need to go.

As demand plummets, so does rider revenue. And as the economy enters what could be a prolonged recession, so will the sales tax revenues that some systems use to bolster their service.

Peter Rogoff, CEO of the Seattle area’s Sound Transit, said his agency relied on sales tax revenue for 58 percent of its budget last year.

“We are obviously, even without knowing what the future holds, are deeply concerned because of our very high dependence on sales tax,” Rogoff said.

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He added that Sound Transit drivers have even stopped collecting fares “so that bus operators can have separation from passengers.”

Several Sound Transit bus operators have already tested positive for the coronavirus, highlighting the front line positions they hold in a society that is slowly shutting down.

Rogoff said his agency “may have to be sizing the amount of service we could provide to the public based on the availability and willingness of our operators and maintenance personnel and rail supervisors and such to come to work.”

“Having worked in the Senate, during a number of disaster supplementals, you know, we need Congress to think creatively on how we target resources to the agencies most in need,” said Rogoff, a former Senate Appropriations Committee aide.

Specific requests have already been made.

New Jersey Transit, which runs New Jersey’s bus, train and commuter rail systems, requested more than $1.25 billion in aid from its congressional delegation, according to a letter obtained by The Hill.

“We are currently looking at efficiencies, however, we cannot overcome the unprecedented financial burden this national emergency has created on our own,” wrote the agency’s CEO, Kevin S. Corbett.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in New York projected losses of almost $3.7 billion over the next six months. The MTA asked members of their state’s congressional delegation for $4 billion in financial relief.

Lateefah Simon, the president of Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco, said in a letter that her agency will see rapid drops in ridership in the coming months. A BART spokeswoman said that the agency has seen a 90 percent ridership decline and estimated $960 million in lost revenue in the next six months.

In the nation’s capital, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) said ridership was off 85 percent as the virus spreads. Paul Wiedefeld, WMATA’s chief executive, said the system is spending $17 million in additional funds to clean its vehicles and protect its employees and customers. He estimated WMATA would lose $52 million in lost ridership revenue in the coming months.

Other agencies said they have not asked for help yet, but that they would seek reimbursements for cleaning products they do not usually buy.

“This time last year, we were not discussing, we probably didn’t buy much, if any, hand sanitizer and now we’re literally buying it by the barrel,” said Adam Brandolph, a spokesman for Pennsylvania’s Port Authority.

Brandolph said the transit system experienced at least a 50 percent decline in ridership as well.

Ridership on Phoenix’s Valley Metro is down significantly too. That agency plans to ask for a federal bailout in the future, though details are not final, said Susan Tierney, the Valley Metro spokeswoman.

Experts said it is the sales tax revenue, and not the ridership revenue, that represents the hardest hit the transit agencies will take.

“Transit is a public service and it depends on federal, state and local money for far more than it does on the fares people pay,” said Martin Wachs, a former professor of urban planning at UCLA. “It is a public service that we must keep operating during the crisis because people who have no option other than transit need to shop for food and get to doctors’ offices and hospitals.”

“There is no avoiding the burden this will place on taxpayers,” he added.

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People who deliberately spread coronavirus could face federal terrorism charges for “purposeful exposure and infection,” according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo.

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen sent the memo, which was obtained by Politico, to department leaders, law enforcement agency chiefs and U.S. attorneys on Tuesday.

“Because Coronavirus appears to meet the statutory definition of a ‘biological agent’… such acts potentially could implicate the Nation’s terrorism-related statutes,” Rosen wrote.

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“Threats or attempts to use COVID-19 as a weapon against Americans will not be tolerated,” he added.

It is reportedly unclear if intentional exposures or threats had been reported.

The DOJ also created a task force to combat hoarding and price gouging of the supplies, including masks, needed to fight the virus, Politico reported.

Attorney General Bill Barr announced Monday that hoarders and price gougers would face prosecution. 

But Barr and Rosen said in memos on Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services has not yet specified the health-related products that would be covered, the news outlet noted. 

U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito is reportedly overseeing the task force, which involves a person from each U.S. attorney’s office and other department units.

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China’s government is taking aim at Secretary of State Mike PompeoMichael (Mike) Richard PompeoTwitter comes under fire over Chinese disinformation on coronavirus spread Overnight Defense: Pentagon officials estimate coronavirus crisis could last months | Three sailors aboard carrier test positive | Trump slashes Afghan aid Democratic senator asks Pompeo to stop saying ‘Wuhan virus’ MORE in the country’s harshest criticism yet of Trump administration officials who have insisted on referring to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan” or “China” virus.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused Pompeo of harboring “sinister” motives against China and attempting to point blame for the virus’s spread, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

“He has a very sinister motive,” Geng said in a statement, adding that Pompeo was attempting to “stigmatize China and discredit China’s efforts in an attempt to divert attention and shift responsibilities.”

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Pompeo’s insistence on using the “Wuhan virus” label  has reportedly blocked a joint statement from leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations, who met remotely this week to discuss the coronavirus outbreak.

On Wednesday, Pompeo again criticized the Chinese government when asked if his insistence on the label was the reason for the holdup.

“We’ve wanted to work with the Chinese Communist Party throughout this crisis — this crisis that began in Wuhan, China,” Pompeo told reporters. “We tried, you’ll remember, from the opening days to get our scientists, our experts on the ground there so that we could begin to assist in the global response to what began there in China, but we weren’t able to do that. The Chinese Communist Party wouldn’t permit that to happen.”

President TrumpDonald John TrumpThe pandemic is bad, we need the capability to measure just how bad Florida governor wants federal disaster area declaration Amash calls stimulus package ‘a raw deal’ for ‘those who need the most help’ MORE has repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus” in public statements, while defending his use of the term and insisting that no racial connotation should be taken from it. 

“It’s not racist at all. No. Not at all,” the president told reporters last week. “It comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.”

Asian Americans have reported increased levels of harassment and discrimination amid the outbreak, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China.

Around 2,000 African migrants fleeing violence in Libya have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa since yesterday (27 March), according to local authorities. The tiny island, which lies closer to Tunisia than to Sicily, already hosts some 5,000 Tunisians, part of a wave of close to 20,000 who have arrived since mid-January. Most of the arrivals have been transferred to Sicily or the Italian mainland.

The Italian government warned that it would start deporting Tunisians in the coming days unless the Tunisian authorities took urgent action to prevent more departures.

Unlike most of the Tunisians who have made it to Italy, the Africans from Libya are thought to be refugees from persecution in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. They are expected to be transferred to reception centres in Sicily.

The European Commission today called on Italy to ensure that asylum-seekers receive international protection, saying that protection was of “paramount” concern. “There are clear procedures in place in the member states to deal with asylum-seekers,” a Commission spokesman said today.

Under a bilateral 2009 deal with Libya, Italy deported Africans intercepted at sea to Libya without checking their protection needs. It is unclear whether the arrivals this weekend include such cases. Aid agencies had been warning since 2009 that the refugees lived in perilous conditions in Libya.

Black Africans have been attacked by Libyan insurgents on suspicion of being mercenaries for the regime of Muammar Qaddafi, which is fighting for its survival.

Roberto Maroni, Italy’s interior minister, said last week that the government expected as many as 50,000 refugees from Libya.

Frontex, the EU’s border management agency, extended its assistance to Italy’s coast guard and border authorities until the end of August. Frontex began operating on Lampedusa on 20 February following an Italian request.

Visitors are flooding national parks, forcing the closure of Yellowstone National Park and leading to worries that the areas could become breeding grounds for the coronavirus. 

National parks have seen a surge in visitors as they have dropped entry fees, and as people have stayed home from work and school as a result of social distancing policies meant to get the virus’s spread under control.

But the rush to the parks, which some have compared to busy summer seasons, has prompted new concerns about the spread of the virus while creating serious problems for the parks themselves.

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Last week, a double line of cars could be seen entering Arches National Park in Utah. It extended for at least a quarter-mile from the park’s entrance, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. 

Thousands of visitors descended upon Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, local reports said. The park said in a tweet that Saturday’s visitors hadn’t followed social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

Parts of Point Reyes National Seashore in California closed after what the National Park Service (NPS) described as “unprecedented visitation.”

In Washington D.C., the NPS urged people to stay away from the Tidal Basin after large groups of people attempted to view flowering cherry blossom trees. 

The flood of visitors came at the invitation of the Trump administration, which in waiving entrance feels last week at parks that remained open said it would  make it “a little easier for the American public to enjoy the outdoors in our incredible National Parks.” 

Health experts have said it is good to get exercise even for strengthening the immune system, but they have said the coronavirus can be spread by crowds descending on open-air areas, including national parks.

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The CDC advises that people should avoid being in close contact with each other in communities where the virus is spreading.

“People want to be able to get out and exercise and have some fresh air, but when they congregate together it poses a risk of spreading the virus,” said Matthew Freeman, an associate professor of environmental health and epidemiology at Emory University.

Freeman particularly raised concerns about people who are traveling out of state to go to national parks and spreading the virus across state lines. 

“New York, Washington state, California have taken aggressive steps to try to contain the local outbreak, but people are leaving those outbreaks to go to places with less restrictive guidance which means that you may see the virus hotspots moving from some of these areas to areas where the guidance is more lax,” he said. 

Parks advocates are also raising concerns about the health of staff.

Phil Francis, the chairman of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, raised concerns that high parks attendance could pose risks to visitors, employees and neighboring communities. 

Francis, who is also the former superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, said national parks should have been “totally closed unless the superintendents could justify their opening.” 

Some parks, such as Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Great Smoky Mountains, have closed due to coronavirus concerns. But according to the National Park Service, more than 300 are at least partly open. 

“I’m receiving calls from park workers who are concerned about their health and the health of their coworkers,” Francis said. 

He added that people flocking to these sites during the offseason may catch parks off guard and understaffed. 

“This time of year is not the time of year when parks have all their employees on board. The busy summer season is usually when the parks are their most crowded and many parks rely upon seasonal maintenance employees,” he said, adding that this creates problems with “garbage and vandalism.”

He added that restroom closures can present an issue, saying that people will go to the bathroom in the parks themselves if they can’t access the facilities. 

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The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks was one of several groups that recently put out statements chastising the administration’s move to waive the fees at parks, saying that people should not be encouraged to visit. 

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, whose department oversees NPS, said in a statement announcing the waived fees that “our vast public lands … offer special outdoor experiences to recreate, embrace nature and implement some social distancing.”

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said it was “cavalier at best and profoundly dangerous at worst to encourage public lands visits without encouraging all visitors to avoid crowding of high-traffic areas and popular parks.”

NPS told The Hill in a statement this week that decisions to change operations are being made on a “park-by-park basis by the respective superintendent, using the most current guidance from state and local health authorities.”

“Where possible, most park grounds are accessible and we urge visitors to adhere to CDC guidance and practice Leave No Trace principles, including pack-in and pack-out, to keep outdoor spaces and themselves safe and healthy,” the agency said. 

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The coronavirus outbreak has impacted at least six Amazon warehouses in the U.S. as the retail giant works to address a surge in shipments as thousands of Americans are confined to their homes. 

Employees at Amazon warehouses in New York City, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, Michigan and Oklahoma City have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a Tuesday Washington Post report based on information from Amazon and local news reports. 

The news comes about a week after Amazon confirmed that its first warehouse employee had contracted the disease, causing a temporary shutdown a New York delivery station. The company has shuttered other warehouses affected by the disease’s spread and has asked workers who were in close contact with individuals who tested positive to self-quarantine. 

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Amazon has also increased the frequency of cleaning at all of its sites around the world and has staggered warehouse shifts to comply with social distancing recommendations. 

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Cheeseman told The Hill in a statement that the company is “supporting the individuals, following guidelines from local officials, and [is] taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of all the employees at our sites.” 

Many workers, however, have reportedly voiced problems with Amazon’s efforts to protect its employees amid the pandemic. More than 1,500 employees have signed on to a petition urging Amazon to take additional steps to ensure worker safety, the Post noted. 

The petition was crafted after warehouse workers in Spain and Italy, two countries hit especially hard by the virus, tested positive for the disease. The coronavirus has infected more than 400,000 people worldwide and more than 52,000 people in the U.S., according to a Johns Hopkins University database tallying confirmed cases. 

This month, Amazon announced a range of changes to keep up with demand during the coronavirus pandemic. The company said that it will hire 100,000 additional warehouse employees, increase hourly pay by $2.00 and suspend shipments of nonessential items to its warehouses in the United States and the United Kingdom because of shortages caused by the worldwide outbreak.

Amazon CEO Jeff BezosJeffrey (Jeff) Preston BezosAmazon doubling overtime pay for warehouse workers Hillicon Valley: Senators press Amazon over workplace safety amid outbreak | Lyft expands to deliveries | Dems seek election security funds in stimulus package Senators press Amazon on workplace safety amid coronavirus spread MORE said in a letter to employees over the weekend that the company had also placed an order for millions of face masks for individuals who can’t work from home. He added that “very few of those orders have been filled” because masks remain in short supply. 

UPDATED 8:08 a.m.

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Top Pentagon leaders on Tuesday estimated that the coronavirus outbreak could last months, as the number of military service members with confirmed cases continues to climb.

“I think we need to plan for this to be a few months long, at least, and we’re taking all precautionary measures to do that,” Defense Secretary Mark EsperMark EsperOvernight Defense: Pentagon officials estimate coronavirus crisis could last months | Three sailors aboard carrier test positive | Trump slashes Afghan aid Top Pentagon officials estimate coronavirus crisis could last months Overnight Defense: Navy hospital ship heading to Los Angeles | Military field hospitals to deploy to New York, Seattle | Pompeo flies to Afghanistan to revive peace process MORE said during a virtual town hall meeting at the Pentagon.

“I’m fully confident that at the end of the day, in a period of months, we will get through this.”

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Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley estimated that it might be as late as July before the crisis abates.

“Call it three months, based on what we know from other countries,” Milley said alongside Esper. “We’re going to do this as long as the mission takes.”

The predictions from military officials came the same week that President TrumpDonald John TrumpWhite House, Senate reach deal on trillion stimulus package Biden hits Trump’s remarks about reopening economy within weeks: ‘He should stop talking’ New York Times editorial board calls for national lockdown over coronavirus MORE signaled he would soon work to loosen guidelines for certain areas of the United States, a move that some worry would undercut much of the advice from medical experts about steps needed to contain the spread of the virus.

As of Tuesday morning, the number of coronavirus cases in the military had surpassed 300, according to the Pentagon. Included in the tally are 174 service members, 59 civilian employees, 61 family members and 27 contractors. One contractor died Saturday.

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 46,000 Americans and killed nearly 600, with dire effects on the U.S. economy, as well.

To help stop the spread, the Pentagon on Monday put more restrictions in place for entering the building in Northern Virginia.

Asked on Tuesday how long employees will be expected to telework, Esper replied, “it’s going to be weeks for sure, maybe months.”

“We’re going to telework as long as necessary to make sure that we’re beyond the coronavirus crisis, if you will,” he added.