California to repurpose US’ largest death row

The state hopes to transform the historic prison into a “healing environment”

The California state government has pledged to abolish the nation’s largest death row complex at San Quentin prison, vowing to transfer all condemned inmates to other facilities in a period of two years. 

“We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation,” corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told the Associated Press on Monday, while the state administration argued the goal is to create a “positive, healing environment” at San Quentin instead.

Though California has not carried out an execution since 2006, capital punishment has not been abolished in the state and hundreds of prisoners remain on death row there. Governor Gavin Newsom has long vowed to reform the practice, issuing a halt on executions and shuttering San Quentin’s lethal injection chamber in 2019, while the latest initiative takes advantage of a 2016 provision allowing the government to transfer inmates off of death row.

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As of last Friday, 116 of the state’s 673 condemned male inmates have been moved to other maximum security prisons, according to the AP. The government will soon create regulations that would mandate such transfers, which Waters said will “allow for the repurposing of all death row housing units.” Newsom, meanwhile, has requested some $1.5 million in funds to accomplish that project in his latest budget proposal. 

The department of corrections, however, assured that all inmates participating in the transfer scheme will be “carefully screened,” including for security risks, medical ailments, as well as psychiatric or behavioral needs, among other considerations. So far, Waters said there had been no “safety concerns” or “major disciplinary issues.”

Russian plane flies abandoned pets out of Afghanistan

Almost 300 animals stranded in Kabul after the US exit are now bound for Canada on an Il-76 transport

Five months after the end of the US airlift stranded them in Afghanistan, some 156 dogs and 133 cats are finally on board an Il-76 chartered from a Russian transport company, which departed Kabul on Sunday and is bound for Vancouver, Canada. 

“The plane is a total beast, an [Ilyushin] 76-TD, basically built for flying into Siberia in the middle of winter, so we do not expect winter weather to cause any delays or disruptions,” said Charlotte Maxwell-Jones of the Kabul Small Animal Rescue (KSAR), the charity organizing the airlift.

The plane took off from Kabul on Sunday and is stopping over in Turkey and Iceland before ending up in British Columbia. The original flight plan had to be revised due to tensions between Russia and Ukraine, according to Maxwell-Jones.

“I don’t want to jinx anything, given that we are operating in a fluid environment and trying to mitigate potential hiccups that could come from a worldwide pandemic, a burgeoning conflict involving a few superpowers, and for all I know an alien invasion of giant jellyfish,” she posted on Facebook, announcing the flight.

300 dogs and cats from the Kabul Small Animal Rescue #KSAR are back in the air on their way from Kabul to Vancouver. They’ll make one more tech stop in Reykjavik before making their way to @yvrairport. https://t.co/C3sQ4WxF8J pic.twitter.com/SwfpESlsGx

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 31, 2022

The original plan was to fly the animals into the US, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had put Afghanistan on a list of high-risk countries for dog imports.

Success is amazing people & organizations able to pivot over and over again to make what seemed impossible super “pawsible” #KSAR to every supporter in Vancouver,the USA, and around the world @SPCAINT @thankdogiamout @MarleysMutts @Raincoast250 @WarPawsIraq @NoPawLeftBehind pic.twitter.com/VgzlzIBrGL

— Thank Dog I Am Out Dog Rescue Society (@thankdogiamout) January 31, 2022

“It was next to impossible,” Lori Kalef, a director at SPCA International, told the Vancouver Sun. “We couldn’t get landing permits, overflight permits, permission from the US State Department.”

Many US and other Western diplomats, contractors and other staff fleeing Kabul in August – as the NATO-backed government collapsed without much of a fight and the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital – left their pets in the care of KSAR, unable to bring them along. Maxwell-Jones was “able to get to the airport, the dogs made it into a hangar, but after many days waiting in their cages, in horrendous circumstances we weren’t able to get a flight,” said Kalef.

Another 50 or so service dogs used by the US military were also left behind at the Kabul airport, though the Pentagon insisted they had been let out of their cages and were handed over to the KSAR. 

“It was horrifying, but we never gave up,” said Kalef, describing how some of the animals died, while others remained stranded at the airport for months. “Had they stayed, their fate would be certain death.”

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About 80 of the pets that finally made it out will be reunited with their families. The rest will be put up for adoption in Vancouver. Kalef and KSAR partnered with charities called War Paws, Marley’s Mutts, RainCoast Dog Rescue Society, and Thank Dog I Am Out.

Loading the plane itself involved a lot of “late night cat-crate Tetris,” said Maxwell-Jones, but in the end the critters were sorted out in such a way that a couple of crew members could check in on them throughout the flight and make sure they were fed, watered and cared for. 

Publisher apologizes for book naming Anne Frank betrayal suspect

Ambo Anthos will suspend the printing of further Dutch copies of the book

The Dutch publisher of a book which accuses a Jewish man of “most likely” betraying Anne Frank to the Nazis in 1944 has apologized to “anyone who feels offended” and stopped printing further copies.

Ambo Anthos – which publishes the Dutch version of ‘The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation’ by Rosemary Sullivan – has expressed concern that not enough work was done to ensure Jewish Council of Amsterdam member Arnold van den Bergh was for certain the man who betrayed Frank and her family.

In a letter on Monday, the publisher said that “the conclusions of the study… are being questioned by several researchers.” Ambo Anthos apologized that the book has provoked “such a reaction” and admitted that it was “not possible to assess all details of the arguments” in the book “for correctness or substantiation.”

We offer our sincere apologies to anyone who feels offended by the book

“We realize that we have gained momentum through the international publication and that a more critical stance could have been taken here,” the publisher claimed, adding that it was “waiting for answers from the research team to the questions that have arisen” and would be “delaying the decision to print” more copies.

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The decision to delay further printing will not affect copies of the book in other languages, including English, which are not published by Ambo Anthos.

While many researchers and historians agreed that it was likely van den Bergh sold out the Frank family to the Nazis in an effort to protect his own, others expressed skepticism over the claims and argued there was not enough evidence.