latam chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

efe.com

Braver than the troops  The Hospital de San Bartolome in Peru organized Monday a breast milk collection marathon, in which 10 volunteers participated, to help prematurely born children with low weight problems and other high-risk conditions. “This is the eighth ‘Lechetón’ contest that we have done since we started our work in 2014. We have been working uninterruptedly, even in a pandemic we have worked perfectly, trying to meet our mandatory goal of providing milk to all premature infants under 1,500 grams from the hospital,” said Wilfredo Ingar Armijo, head of the San Bartolome Hospital Milk Bank. He said the milk extracted Monday is going to be frozen and pasteurized, “with all the necessary controls to guarantee its safety,” so premature babies “can receive safe, nutritious and ideal milk for their neurological development.”

technology chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

grist.org

name a more cursed  cars x carnism combo This story was co-published with Popular Science. Electric vehicles are becoming more and more commonplace on the nation’s roadways. The federal government wants nearly two-thirds of all cars in the United States to be EVs within the next decade. All the while, EVs are breaking sales records, and manufacturers are building charging stations and production plants to incentivize a shift away from fossil fuels in the transportation sector. With EVs taking the streets by storm, an unlikely industry now wants a piece of the pie. Trade associations, fuel producers, and bipartisan lawmakers are pushing for biogas, fuel made from animal and food waste, to start receiving federal credits meant for powering electric vehicles. The push for biogas-powered EVs would be a boon for the energy sector, according to biogas industry leaders. Environmental groups and researchers, however, say the fuel has yet to prove itself as a truly clean energy source. Biogas created from agriculture has been linked to an increase in waterway pollution and public health concerns that have disproportionately exposed low-income communities and communities of color to toxic byproducts of animal waste. With the nation needing more ways to power fleets of Teslas and Chevy Bolts, the use of livestock manure to power EVs is still in limbo. For biogas, there are, broadly speaking, three sources of waste from which to produce fuel: human waste, animal waste, and food waste. The source of this fuel input can be found at wastewater treatment plants, farms, and landfills. At these locations, organic waste is deprived of oxygen, and a natural process known as anaerobic digestion occurs. Bacteria consume the waste products and eventually release methane, the main ingredient of natural gas. The gas is then captured, piped to a utility, turned into electricity, and distributed to customers. Fuel created from animal waste isn’t a new concept. Farms around the country have been cashing in on biogas for decades, with a boom in production facilities known as anaerobic digesters expected after funding for their construction made it into the Inflation Reduction Act. At the end of June, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized its Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS, which outlines how much renewable fuels — products like corn-based ethanol, manure-based biogas, and wood pellets — are used to cut greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reduce the use of petroleum-based transportation fuel, heating oil, or jet fuel. Under this program, petroleum-based fuels must blend renewable fuels into their supply. For example, each time the RFS is updated, a new goal for how much corn-based ethanol is mixed into the nation’s fuel supply is set. This prediction is based on gas and renewable-fuel-industry market projections. These gas companies and refineries purchase credits from renewable-fuel makers to comply with the mandated amount of renewable fuel that needs to be mixed into their supply. A currency system tracks which renewable fuels are being produced and where they end up under the RFS. This system uses credits known as RINs, or Renewable Identification Numbers. According to the EPA, a single RIN is the energy equivalent of one gallon of ethanol, and the prices of the credits will fluctuate over time, just as gas prices do. Oil companies and refineries purchase credits from renewable-fuel makers to comply with the mandated amount of renewable fuel that needs to be mixed into their supply. The unique RIN credit proves that an oil seller has purchased, blended, and sold renewable fuel. Currently, the biogas industry can only use its RIN credits when the fuel source is blended with ethanol or a particular type of diesel fuel. Outside of the federal program, biogas producers have been cashing in on low-carbon fuel programs in both California and Oregon. With the boom in demand for renewable electricity, biogas producers want more opportunities to sell their waste-based fuels. EVs might get them there. During recent RFS negotiations, the biogas industry urged the EPA to create a pathway for a new type of credit known as eRINs, or electric RINs. This pathway would allow the biogas and biomass industry to power the nation’s EVs directly. While the industry applauded the recent expansion of mandatory volumes of renewable fuels, the EPA did not decide on finalizing eRIN credits. Patrick Serfass is the executive director of the American Biogas Council. He said the EPA could approve projects that would support eRINs for years, but has yet to approve the pathway for biogas-fuel producers. “It doesn’t matter which administration,” Serfass said. “The Obama administration didn’t do it. The Trump administration didn’t do it. The Biden administration so far hasn’t done it. EPA, do your job.” Late last year, the EPA initially included approval of eRINs in the RFS proposal. Republican members of Congress who sit on the Energy & Commerce Committee sent a letter to the EPA, saying that the RFS is not meant to be a tool to electrify transportation. “Our goal is to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable, available, reliable, and secure energy,” the committee members wrote. “The final design of the eRINs program under the RFS inserts uncertainty into the transportation fuels market.” The RFS has traditionally supported liquid fuels that the EPA considers renewable, the main of which is ethanol. Stakeholders in ethanol production see the inclusion of eRINs as an overstep. In May, Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, introduced legislation that would outlaw EVs from getting credits from the renewable-fuels program. Grassley has been a longtime supporter of the ethanol industry; Iowa alone makes up nearly a third of the nation’s ethanol production, according to the economic growth organization Iowa Area Development Group. Serfass said biogas is a way to offset the nation’s waste and make small and midsize farms economically sustainable, as well as local governments operating waste treatment plants and landfills. When it comes to animal waste, he said the eRIN program would allow farmers to make money off their waste by selling captured biogas to the grid to power EVs. “There’s a lot of folks that don’t like large farms, and the reason that large farms exist is that as a society, we’re not always willing to pay $6 to $9 for a gallon of milk,” Serfass said. “You have farm consolidation so that farmers can just make a living.” Initially, digesters were thought of as a climate solution and an economic boon for farmers, but in recent years, farms have stopped digester operations because of the hefty price tag to run them and their modest revenue. Biogas digesters are still operated by large operations, often with the help of fossil fuel companies, such as BP. In addition to farms, Serfass said biogas production from food waste and municipal wastewater treatment plants would also be able to cash in on the eRIN program. Dodge City, Kansas, a city of 30,000 in the western part of the state, is an example of a local government using biogas as a source of revenue. In 2018, the city began capturing methane from its sewage treatment and has since been able to generate an estimated $3 million a year by selling the fuel to the transportation sector. Serfass said the city would be able to sell the fuel to power the nation’s EV charging grid if the eRIN program was approved. The EPA’s decision-making will direct the next three years of renewable-fuel production in the country. The program is often a battleground for different industry groups, from biogas producers to ethanol refineries, as they fight over their fuel’s market share. Of note, the biomass industry, which creates fuel from wood pellets, forestry waste, and other detritus of the nation’s lumber supply and forests, also wants to be approved for future eRIN opportunities. This fuel source has a questionable track record of being a climate solution: The industry has been linked to deforestation in the American South, and has falsely claimed they don’t use whole trees to produce electricity, according to a industry whistleblower. The EPA did not answer questions from Grist as to why eRINs were not approved in its recent announcement. “The EPA will continue to work on potential paths forward for the eRIN program, while further reviewing the comments received on the proposal and seeking additional input from stakeholders to inform potential next steps on the eRIN program,” the agency wrote in a statement. Ben Lilliston is the director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He said he supported the EPA’s decision to not approve biogas-created electricity for EVs. “I think the jury is still out around biogas from large-scale animal operations about how effective they are,” Lilliston said. He wants more independent studies to determine what a growing biogas sector under the eRIN program would mean for the rural areas and communities of color that surround these facilities. Predominantly Black and low-income communities in southeastern North Carolina have been exposed to decades of polluted waters and increased respiratory and heart disease rates related to the state’s hog industry, which has recently cashed in on the biogas sector. In Delaware, residents of the largely rural Delmarva peninsula have become accustomed to the stench of the region’s massive poultry farms. These operations now want to cash in on their waste with the implementation of more biogas systems in a community where many residents are Black or immigrants from Haiti and Latin America who speak limited English, according to the Guardian. “I think that our concern, and many others’, is that this is actually going to increase emissions and waste and pollution,” Lilliston said. Aaron Smith, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of California, Davis, said electricity produced from biogas could be a red herring when it comes to cheap, clean energy. “There’s often a tendency to say, ‘We have this pollutant like methane gas that escapes from a landfill or a dairy manure lagoon, and if we can capture that and stop it from escaping into the atmosphere, that’s a win for the climate,'” Smith said. “But once we’ve captured it, should we do something useful with it? And the answer is maybe, but sometimes it’s more expensive to do something useful with it than it would be to go and generate that energy from a different source.” Smith’s past research has found that the revenue procured by digesters has not been equal to the amount of methane captured by these systems. In a blog post earlier this year, Smith wrote that taxpayers and consumers are overpaying for the price of methane reduction. He found that the gasoline producers have essentially subsidized digester operations by way of the state’s low-carbon transportation standards. To pay for this, the gasoline industry offloads its increased costs by raising the price of gas for consumers. “I think we do need to be wary about over-incentivizing these very expensive sources of electricity generation under the guise of climate games,” Smith told Grist.

urbanism chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

grist.org

In a region where communities of color are most impacted by flooding, RainReady is bringing together community members to create flood mitigation plans. This story was originally published by Borderless. The day before Independence Day, the summer sun beat down on dozens of clothes and shoes strewn across the backyard and fence of the Cicero, Illinois, home where Delia and Ramon Vasquez have lived for over 20 years. A nearly nine-inch deluge of rain that fell on Chicago and its suburbs the night before had flooded their basement where the items were stored in plastic bins. Among the casualties of the flood were their washer, dryer, water heater and basement cable setup. The rain left them with a basement’s worth of things to dry, appliances and keepsakes to trash, and mounting bills. The July flood was one of the worst storms the Chicago region has seen in recent years and over a month later many families like the Vasquezes are still scrambling for solutions. Without immediate access to flood insurance, the couple was left on their own to deal with the costs of repairing the damage and subsequent mold, Delia said. The costs of the recent flood come as the Vasquez family is still repaying an $8,000 loan they got to cover damages to their house from a flood in 2009. Aggravated by climate change, flooding problems are intensifying in the Chicago region because of aging infrastructure, increased rainfall and rising lake levels. An analysis by Borderless Magazine found that in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, extreme weather events and heavy rainfall disproportionately affect people of color and those from immigrant backgrounds. These same communities often face barriers to receiving funding for flood damage or prevention due to their immigration status – many undocumented people cannot get FEMA assistance – as well as language or political barriers. “You feel hopeless because you think the government is going to help you, and they don’t,” Delia said. “You’re on your own.” The lack of a political voice and access to public services has been a common complaint in Cicero, a western suburb of Chicago where Latinos account for more than four out of five residents, the highest such percentage among Illinois communities. One potential solution for communities like Cicero could come from Cook County and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) in the form of their RainReady program, which links community input with funding for flood prevention. The program has already been tried out in a handful of suburbs and is now being implemented in the Calumet region, a historically industrial area connected by the Little Calumet River on the southern end of Cook County. The RainReady Calumet Corridor project would provide towns with customized programs and resources to avoid flooding. Like previous RainReady projects, it relies on nature-based solutions, such as planting flora and using soil to hold water better. CNT received $6 million from Cook County as part of the county’s $100 million investment in sustainability efforts and climate change mitigation. Once launched, six Illinois communities — Blue Island, Calumet City, Calumet Park, Dolton, Riverdale and Robbins — would establish the RainReady Calumet Corridor. At least three of the six communities are holding steering committee meetings as part of the ongoing RainReady Calumet process that will continue through 2026. Some participants hope it could be a solution for residents experiencing chronic flooding issues who have been left out of past discussions about flooding. “We really need this stuff done and the infrastructure is crumbling,” longtime Dolton resident Sherry Hatcher-Britton said after the town’s first RainReady steering committee meeting. “It’s almost like our village will be going underwater because nobody is even thinking about it. They might say it in a campaign but nobody is putting any effort into it. So I feel anything to slow [the flooding] — when you’re working with very limited funds — that’s just what you have to do.” In Cicero and other low-income and minority communities in the Chicago region where floods prevail, the key problem is a lack of flood prevention resources, experts and community activists say. Amalia Nieto-Gomez, executive director of Alliance of the Southeast, a multicultural activist coalition that serves Chicago’s Southeast Side — another area with flooding woes — laments the disparity between the places where flooding is most devastating and the funds the communities receive to deal with it. “Looking at this with a racial equity lens … the solutions to climate change have not been located in minority communities,” Nieto-Gomez said. CNT’s Flood Equity Map, which shows racial disparities in flooding by Chicago ZIP codes, found that 87 percent of flood damage insurance claims were paid in communities of color from 2007 to 2016. Additionally, three-fourths of flood damage claims in Chicago during that time came from only 13 ZIP codes, areas where more than nine out of 10 residents are people of color. Despite the money flowing to these communities through insurance payouts, community members living in impacted regions say they are not seeing enough of that funding. Flood insurance may be in the name of landlords who may not pass payouts on to tenants, for example, explains Debra Kutska of the Cook County Department of Environment and Sustainability, which is partnering with CNT on the RainReady effort. Those who do receive money often get it in the form of loans that require repayment and don’t always cover the total damages, aggravating their post-flood financial difficulties. More than half of the households in flood-impacted communities had an income of less than $50,000 and more than a quarter were below the poverty line, according to CNT. CNT and Cook County are looking at ways to make the region’s flooding mitigation efforts more targeted by using demographic and flood data on the communities to understand what projects would be most accessible and suitable for them. At the same time, they are trying to engage often-overlooked community voices in creating plans to address the flooding, by using community input to inform the building of rain gardens, bioswales, natural detention basins, green alleys and permeable pavers. Midlothian, a southwestern suburb of Chicago whose Hispanic and Latino residents make up a third of its population, adopted the country’s first RainReady plan in 2016. The plan became the precursor to Midlothian’s Stormwater Management Capital Plan that the town is now using to address its flooding issues. One improvement that came out of the RainReady plan was the town’s Natalie Creek Flood Control Project to reduce overbank flooding by widening the channel and creating a new stormwater storage basin. Midlothian also installed a rain garden and parking lot with permeable pavers not far from its Veterans of Foreign Wars building, and is working to address drainage issues at Kostner Park. Kathy Caveney, a Midlothian village trustee, said the RainReady project is important to the town’s ongoing efforts to manage its flood-prone creeks and waterways. Such management, she says, helps “people to stop losing personal effects, and furnaces, and water heaters and freezers full of food every time it rains.” Like in the Midlothian project, CNT is working with residents in the Calumet region through steering committees that collect information on the flood solutions community members prefer, said Brandon Evans, an outreach and engagement associate at CNT. As a result, much of the green infrastructure CNT hopes to establish throughout the Calumet Corridor was recommended by its own community members, he said. “We’ve got recommendations from the plans, and a part of the conversation with those residents and committee members is input on what are the issues that you guys see, and then how does that, in turn, turn into what you guys want in the community,” Evans said. The progress of the RainReady Calumet Corridor project varies across the six communities involved, but final implementation for each area is expected to begin between fall 2023 and spring 2025, Evans said. If the plan is successful, CNT hopes to replicate it in other parts of Cook County and nationwide, he said. Despite efforts like these, Kevin Fitzpatrick of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District argues that the scale of the flooding problem in the Chicago region is so large that a foolproof solution would be “prohibitively expensive.” Instead, communities should work toward flood mitigation with the understanding that the region will continue to flood for years to come with climate change. And because mitigation efforts will need to be different in each community, community members should be the ones who decide what’s best for them, says Fitzpatrick. In communities like Cicero, which has yet to see a RainReady project, local groups have often filled in the gaps left by the government. Cicero community groups like the Cicero Community Collaborative, for example, have started their own flood relief fund for residents impacted by the early July storm, through a gift from the Healthy Communities Foundation. Meanwhile, the Vasquez family will seek financial assistance from the town of Cicero, which was declared a disaster area by town president Larry Dominick and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker after the July storm. The governor’s declaration enables Cicero to request assistance for affected families from FEMA. But the flooding dangers persist. The day after her home flooded, a neighbor suggested to Delia Vasquez that she move to a flood-free area. Despite loving her house, she has had such a thought. But like many neighbors, she also knows she can’t afford to move. She worries about where she can go. “If water comes in here,” Vasquez said, “what tells me that if I move somewhere else, it’s not going to be the same, right?” Efrain Soriano contributed reporting to this story. This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, Borderless, Ensia, Grist, Planet Detroit, Sahan Journal and Wisconsin Watch, as well as the Guardian and Inside Climate News. The project was supported by the Joyce Foundation.

labour chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

Garments that can be packed with ice or equipped with fans are becoming increasingly popular among workers exposed to high heat. It’s not the disease-carrying mosquitoes, the scorpions, or the 22-kilogram tanks full of pesticide strapped to his back that Wendell Van Pelt fears. It’s the heat. This summer, while spraying insect-killing chemicals in the gardens of the rich in Greater Scottsdale, Arizona, Van Pelt has endured temperatures well in excess of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Stepping past velvety green lawns and lagoon-like pools on his rounds, the field training manager at Mosquito Squad, a pest control service, has at times felt like he's “living in an oven.” But Van Pelt has had respite from the scorching conditions: a cloak of cooling power wrapped around his torso—a vest filled with ice. “I love it,” he says, describing how his backpack filled with pesticide or natural repellent seems to amplify the effect: “That backpack is almost pressing the cold into your back. It just feels fantastic.” Van Pelt knows that heat stress can be very dangerous. Everyone should be mindful of the risks, he emphasizes. And due to climate change and multiple recent heat waves, awareness of those risks is growing around the world. Millions of workers who toil outside, or in indoor spaces where temperatures can climb to unbearable levels, are increasingly adopting special strategies to cope. Cooling garments—vests, hats, and scarves—are among them. It was only last year that Mosquito Squad rolled out cooling vests to employees in Greater Scottsdale. Many other firms are taking the same step, from power companies to real estate management businesses. Cooling vests have actually been around for decades, but in recent years their popularity, and variety, has exploded. Choosing the right one could potentially make the difference between going home after a good day’s work or heading to the ER. Over the past decade, hundreds of workers have died from environmental heat exposure in the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For Van Pelt, activating the cooling properties of his vest means stuffing it with flat, flexible packs of water ice straight from the freezer. These gradually melt as he works, but they can keep him cool for hours, he explains. There are many other technologies available. Some use packs that contain fluids other than water—known as “phase change materials,” or PCMs. As these materials transition from solid or semisolid to liquid, they soak up heat, because this phase change requires energy. Non-water PCMs can be concocted in such a way as to remain flexible when cold or have higher melting points, which helps them last longer while maintaining a constant comfortable temperature. Other vests have tubes through which water is pumped around the wearer’s torso, or you might choose one with built-in fans that blow air directly onto your body. Finally, some vests are simply made with highly breathable fabric. Depending on the design and accessories, a top-of-the-range cooling vest could set you back close to $400. “Demand this year has been so strong that just a few customers consumed 100 percent of our manufacturing capacity for months,” says Justin Li, cofounder and CEO of Qore Performance, a Tennessee-based firm that makes panel-like containers that you fill with 1.5 liters of water, freeze, and then sling against your chest, back, or both. A pair costs $148, and you can drink the water in them, via a tube, as it melts. Li got the idea, he explains, after talking to a soldier serving in Afghanistan, who told him how he and his comrades would put a frozen water bottle inside their body armour to try and stay cool while out on patrol. “We just reshaped it,” says Li. Qore Performance has sold tens of thousands of the special water bottles, called IcePlates, to military personnel, Li estimates, but he has lots of commercial customers too. The surge in orders this year was largely driven by companies buying the devices for employees as heat waves erupted in the US and Europe. Known users of the IcePlate include factory staff, schoolyard supervisors, and fast-food workers, he says. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, EZ Cooldown has found clients for its cooling vests among roofers, cargo loaders, and TV production staff. But that’s not how things started. “The cosplay community and the fur-suit community was the group that I targeted first,” says Pepeyn Langedijk, founder and co-owner, who is himself a furry—someone who enjoys socializing while dressed in an animal-like furry suit. Such suits are very hot, but they’re designed to look sleek—no one wants to wear a bulky cooling vest underneath them, even if the effect feels pleasant. Langedijk has a solution: a highly contoured, slimline vest, into the lining of which you can slip packs filled with a frozen, vegetable-oil-based fluid. “We have packs made to our specifications,” he says. “That product is something I created myself.” Depending on how hot the user is at the time, EZ Cooldown’s packs might provide cooling for up to several hours. Once melted and no longer cool, they can be swapped out for a fresh set of packs straight from the fridge or freezer. Like Li, Langedijk says demand is booming—sales are up 35 percent this year, and he’s noticed rising interest from places like Scandinavia, where, he suggests, people are less adapted to the heat waves that are becoming more common there. A lot of the vests require the user to swap out expired cooling components for fresh ones. Once the cooling substance has done what it can and has warmed up, the vest might in theory make things worse, since the wearer is then left with an unnecessary additional layer of clothing, notes Sarah Davey, an assistant professor at Coventry University in the UK who researches work and exercise in extreme environmental conditions, and who has studied cooling vests. “They can help. However, we’ve seen that the effectiveness varies,” adds Andreas Flouris, an associate professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of Thessaly in Greece. “It varies based on the system that you use, and it also depends on the environmental conditions.” Flouris has studied the use of cooling vests by a variety of workers—including those who helped to build stadiums for last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He has also observed trials involving grape pickers in a Cypriot vineyard. In that scenario, vests with built-in fans proved problematic. They kept sucking vegetation against the workers’ clothing, and the vests were very cumbersome to wear. Garments containing phase-change materials are almost always the best option, he says. A particularly effective technique isn’t to wear a body vest at all, but to instead cool down a person’s head and neck before physical exertion, Flouris says. In one study, adolescent tennis players wore a cooling cap for 45 minutes until their core temperature dropped by half a degree Celsius. Flouris and colleagues measured this by asking the players to swallow a capsule that could record their core body temperature and broadcast it to a nearby receiving device. “The cooling effect is tremendous,” says Flouris. He explains that cooling the blood vessels in your head helps chill the rest of your body relatively quickly. In the study, when players used the cooling cap pregame, they had lower skin temperature throughout and felt, on average, 14 percent more comfortable than when they didn’t use it. There were also some small improvements in player performance too. There may be resistance in some quarters from those unwilling to admit that they need help to survive blistering heat. Workers who spoke to WIRED confirmed that such attitudes are common. But the threat is real, stresses Tom Votel, president and CEO of Ergodyne, which makes a range of cooling garments. Workers who embrace such tools are no less tough than their colleagues—they’re just savvier, he argues. Research in the US suggests that heat stress results in thousands of workplace injuries annually. By and large, employers aren’t yet protecting workers enough from excessive heat, says Juley Fulcher, worker health and safety advocate at Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. There are many cheaper alternatives to cooling gadgets too. It’s important to provide employees with water, fans, breaks in cool locations, or the option to adjust their schedules when temperatures rise, she suggests. “If you can keep them from experiencing heat stress, you’re going to get a lot more productivity out of them,” says Fulcher, noting the benefit to businesses. Rutger Standaart, an account manager at Bertschat in the Netherlands, which sells cooling and heating garments, recently visited a company that uses welding machines. In the summer, temperatures by the machines can rise above 50 degrees Celsius, meaning that working for longer than 20 minutes at a time is unbearable. “With our cooling vests, they can work for an hour,” he says. Fulcher says that cooling garments work best if they can be made lightweight and ergonomic. As the technology improves, she says, such devices could provide an alternative to energy-hungry air-conditioning in some situations—since AC is accelerating the climate crisis: “You’re going to see a lot more of these cooling vests used as an option around the world,” she says.

history chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.wired.com

archive : https://ghostarchive.org/archive/NLeTL Coming from the Congo, I knew where the essential ingredient for the atomic bombs was mined, even if everyone else seemed to ignore it. Papà, my dad, told me a story long ago about the uranium that powered the first nuclear bombs. The ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the bombs you saw being built in this summer’s dramatic film, Oppenheimer. Papà, you see, was born in the Belgian Congo. Earlier this summer, I was invited to a screening of the blockbuster. The film’s director, Christopher Nolan, was there too. In a recurring scene, meant to symbolize the inching along of the scientists’ efforts, Oppenheimer fills an empty glass bowl with marbles—first one at a time, then in handfuls. The marbles represent the amount of uranium that has been successfully mined and refined to power the nuclear reaction. The outcome of World War II, and the future of humanity, hinges on who can create that monster first—the Axis or the Allies. The closer we get to the bomb’s completion, the more marbles go into the bowl. But there’s no mention in the film of where two-thirds of that uranium came from: a mine 24 stories deep, now in Congo’s Katanga, a mineral-rich area in the southeast. As the marbles steadily filled the bowl onscreen, I kept seeing what was missing: Black miners hauling earth and stone to sort piles of radioactive ore by hand. Papà was born in 1946 at Mission Ngi, a tiny Belgian missionary outpost. He told us how, growing up, the Belgians taught the Congolese to worship God; how the Belgians addressed Congolese adults with the informal French tu, not the formal vous; how the Belgians said eating with your hands, as Papà did at home, was uncivilized. The Congolese were backward and ancillary to modern life, Papà learned in school. So did I. And yet, Papà said, the Congolese were the essential ingredient, the sine qua non, of arguably the most consequential creation in modern history. In 1885, when King Leopold II of Belgium first claimed ownership of this massive stretch of land sitting on the world’s deepest river, smack in the center of Africa, he called it Congo Free State. Of course, life for the roughly 10 to 20 million inhabitants meant surviving violence and a terror state run by the king. Throughout the territory, which was converted into a series of cotton and rubber plantations, the king’s soldiers amputated the forearms of Congolese people who didn’t meet harvesting quotas. King Leopold’s policies drove famine and disease. Millions didn’t make it. In 1908, when the Belgian government snatched the territory from the king, “Congo Free State” became the “Belgian Congo.” At that point, writes historian Susan Williams, author of Spies in the Congo, the private sector replaced the king as the extractor of Congo’s natural resources. The violence remained. What’s more, while the Belgian officials let Christian missionaries begin formally educating kids, they were worried that literate Congolese would overturn the colony. Papà told me how schooling beyond the fifth grade was illegal for most Congolese kids. Papà, to the delight of his own father, would chance into one of the colony’s exceptions—education for those who would become priests—an opportunity even some of Papà’s elder siblings wouldn’t have. As the marbles steadily filled the bowl onscreen, I kept seeing what was missing: Black miners hauling earth and stone to sort piles of radioactive ore by hand. The colonial system built workers—or borderline enslaved people—not scholars. An American officer who traveled to the Belgian Congo described a scene he saw on his first day: A Congolese man in ragged shorts knelt on the ground, a Belgian officer towering over him with a chicote, a leather whip tipped with metal ends. “The whip whistled … Every lash was followed by a scream of agony … The black’s skin from neck to waist was a mass of blood with ribs shining through.” This, the American reported, was punishment for stealing a pack of cigarettes from a Belgian. “Welcome to the Congo,” the American was told. The largest company in the Belgian Congo was the mining company Union-Minière du Haut-Katanga. The colonial government had granted it the rights to an area spanning nearly 8,000 square miles, over half the size of Belgium. One of the mines there, Shinkolobwe, was rich with uranium. In fact, it was filled with uranium that the Congolese had already excavated and placed aboveground. Initially, uranium was just a waste byproduct of digging for the more valuable radium, which Nobel-prize winner Marie Curie had helped discover could treat cancer. In 1938, using uranium, the physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch worked out the calculations that defined nuclear fission. If enough nuclei were split, scientists realized, massive amounts of energy could be emitted. Uranium was now coveted. In 1939, just before the start of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a muted warning: “The element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future … It is conceivable … that extremely powerful bombs of this type may thus be constructed.” Einstein’s letter mentioned four known uranium sources: the United States, which “has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities”; Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, where “there is some good ore”; and Congo—“the most important source of uranium.” According to Jean Bele, a Congolese nuclear physicist at MIT, 100 kilograms of Congolese uranium ore could yield about 1 kilogram of refined uranium. The same amount of ore from the other locations would yield only 2 or 3 grams of the refined uranium necessary for such a weapon. The mining company typically built fenced-in compounds that resembled prison camps for the workers and their families; the company initially gave each family about 43 square feet—the size of a small garage—and weekly food rations. At work, miners sorted uranium ore by hand. One person described a piece of Shinkolobwe uranium as a block “as big as a pig.” It was “black and gold and looked as if it were covered with a green scum or moss.” He called them “flamboyant stones.” The director of Union-Minière du Haut-Katanga was Edgar Sengier, a pale Belgian man with a sharply cut mustache. Having seen Germany invade Belgium in World War I, Sengier was unsure about what Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 foretold. Would Belgium—or even the African colonies—be next? So in October, he fled Belgium for New York City and transferred the mining company’s business operations there. However, before he had set up shop, a British chemist and the Nobel Prize–winning scientist Frédéric Joliot-Curie, son-in-law of Marie Curie, tipped off Sengier that the uranium in Congo might become essential in the war. The next fall, Sengier ordered that it be shipped to New York. So Congolese workers carried and loaded the ore. It was sent by train to Port Francqui (now Ilebo), then by boat down the Kasai and Congo Rivers to the capital, Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). At the port of Matadi, the uranium began its trek across the Atlantic Ocean, past German U-boats, to a warehouse on Staten Island. Sengier stored more than 2.6 million pounds of ore in the States. About 6.6 million pounds remained in Shinkolobwe. In May 1940, Hitler invaded France and Belgium. The Belgian government fled to London, and the Third Reich installed a pro-Nazi government in Belgium. The governor-general of the Belgian Congo, however, declared that the colony would support the Allies. He drafted troops, offered up Congolese laborers, and created production quotas to supply the Allies with necessary war materials. And so, during the war, many Congolese returned to the very forests where their parents and grandparents had had their hands amputated, ordered to cull rubber again, this time for hundreds of thousands of military tires. As the war ramped up, Congolese miners also dug for minerals like copper in around-the-clock shifts. In Sengier’s mining towns, as elsewhere, the Congolese were unable to move freely without permits. Or to vote. Workers had to be home by 9 pm, lest they suffer harsh consequences. Pay was terrible. But by 1941, though “natives” were excluded from unions, Black workers at several of Sengier’s mines began organizing for higher wages and better labor conditions. December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day, was not only a pivotal day in the course of the war, but also in the lives of the Congolese mine workers. That day, Sengier’s Black employees organized a massive mining strike across Katanga. In Elisabethville, 500 workers refused to start their shifts. Soon, freshly off-duty miners joined them and assembled in front of management’s offices, demanding a raise. They won an agreement that they could come bargain the next day. The next morning, the mine workers showed up to the local soccer stadium to negotiate with Sengier’s company and the colonial governor of Katanga. According to conflicting reports, between 800 and 2,000 strikers attended. The company offered a verbal agreement to raise wages. One historian describes it as the “first open expression of open protest in the social history of the Congo.” But when a Congolese worker named Léonard Mpoyi demanded written confirmation of the wage raise, the colonial governor insisted the crowd go home. “I refuse,” Mpoyi said. “You must give us some proof that the company has agreed to raise our salaries.” “I have already demanded that you go to the office to check,” replied the governor, Amour Marron. He then pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Mpoyi, point blank. Soldiers opened fire “from all directions.” The mine workers poured out of the stadium. Roughly 70 people died. About 100 were injured. The next morning, a company loudspeaker summoned everyone back to work. About a year after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt assigned General Leslie Groves to head the Manhattan Project. On his first day, in September 1942, Groves and his deputy, Colonel Kenneth Nichols, talked about how to procure the necessary uranium for the massive project. Nichols told Groves about Sengier, and his uranium. The next morning, Nichols met Sengier in his New York office, and by the end of the meeting they struck a deal on a yellow legal pad. “I want to start hauling the uranium away tomorrow,” Nichols declared. Less than a month later, Groves hired J. Robert Oppenheimer to build the bomb. Over the next couple years, the Congo became a hotbed for American spies—under the cover of “consulate officer,” “Texaco employee,” a “buyer of silks,” and “live gorilla collector”—there to secure the flow of uranium. General Groves insisted that the US gain complete control of Shinkolobwe and recommended to President Roosevelt that the mine be reopened. The Army Corps of Engineers was sent to the Congo to start up mining operations anew. The mine’s location was scrubbed from maps. Spies were told to eliminate the word “uranium” from their conversations; rather, advisers added, use words like “diamonds.” The company’s miners also began mining for other war-necessary minerals, toiling in sweat by day, and with immense furnaces by night, swarmed by the sound of trains or planes from America. By then, thanks to the mining strike, worker salaries had risen by 30 to 50 percent. Still, some men were forcibly required to mine. From 1938 to 1944, fatal accidents at the company’s plants almost doubled. To avoid rubber quotas, people fled the rural areas for cities like Elisabethville, whose African population swelled from 26,000 in 1940 to 65,000 in 1945. Spies were told to eliminate the word “uranium” from their conversations; rather, advisers added, use words like “diamonds.” The US government was also worried about Nazi spies. One American spy was tasked with figuring out if Nazis were smuggling Shinkolobwe uranium. Among Sengier’s many shipments of ore, one was intercepted and sunk by the Nazis. When they arrived in the US, the flamboyant stones were refined in places like Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then shipped to Oppenheimer in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It took nearly three years for Oppenheimer and his team to develop the bombs. Even though the Germans surrendered in May 1945 (and it became clear they were not close to completing a nuclear bomb), the war in the Pacific still raged. Ultimately, in August 1945, the US dropped two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki filled with—like Papà said—Congolese uranium. Jean Bele, the Congolese nuclear physicist, tells me radioactive isotopes are still in the ground near Shinkolobwe today. “Radioactive solids enter the water, the crops, the trees, the soil, the animals, and they get to the humans,” he said. We don’t know the extent of the radiation. We do know that in Oak Ridge there is increased cancer mortality. And near St. Louis, Missouri, where remains of the Congolese ore were dumped, contamination poses risks to workers for the next 1,000 years. After the screening of Oppenheimer, like a fanboy, I approached Nolan in the lobby. I was able to ask him about the marbles, about why he chose them and what creative issue they solved. He acquiesced with a courtly nod: “I needed a way to demonstrate how long it would have taken to refine all that ore.” Then he added, “The number of marbles was actually mathematically accurate to represent the amount that they needed.” Of course, without Congo, obtaining all that ore would have been impossible. In a race to build the bomb, both sides wanted the Congolese ore. The Shinkolobwe mine was “a freak occurrence in nature,” according to Colonel Nichols. “Nothing like it has ever again been found.” And that, of course, means that without Congo’s Black workers—terrorized and chicote-d into submission, digging essential war minerals 24 hours a day—the outcome of arguably the most consequential project in human history would have been very different. In 1946, Sengier became the first non-American to receive the president’s Medal for Merit—“for the performance of an exceptionally meritorious or courageous act” that sealed the Allies’ victory. In a photo from the ceremony, you might see something else: a man with something to hide. Intelligence during the war revealed that Sengier’s company also sold about 1.5 million pounds of Congolese uranium to the Nazis. In 1948, a radioactive mineral was named in Sengier’s honor: sengierite. At the same time, the Congolese, the people I come from, set about tearing down the colonial systems meant to eclipse their power; they finally won their independence in 1960. Papà was 13 years old then, and though it would take years for him to learn about the uranium miners, he always knew that Congolese people matter to history.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.aljazeera.com

With first 2024 presidential debate days away, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley hits out at Vivek Ramaswamy’s Israel remarks. Washington, DC – Ahead of the first Republican debate in the 2024 United States presidential race, two candidates have clashed over support for Israel, showing differences within the party over foreign aid. Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hit out at her fellow Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Monday for suggesting that he would cut US military assistance to Israel. “Vivek Ramaswamy is completely wrong to call for ending America’s special bond with Israel,” Haley, a staunch Israel supporter, said in a statement. “Support for Israel is both the morally right and strategically smart thing to do. Both countries are stronger and safer because of our iron-clad friendship. As president, I will never abandon Israel.” Ramaswamy said in an interview with British actor and activist Russell Brand this month that his commitment would be to US interests only. “There’s no North Star commitment to any one country other than the United States of America,” he said when asked about aid to Israel. Ramaswamy, a billionaire entrepreneur who has no previous experience in politics, went on to say that he believes ties with Israel have been beneficial to the US. But he added that he would push to get more Arab and Muslim countries to recognise Israel as part of Washington’s ongoing “normalisation” drive, so aid “won’t be necessary” for stability in the region. Ramaswamy said he would honour the current memorandum of understanding — signed under former Democratic President Barack Obama — that grants Israel $3.8bn annually until it expires in 2028. The candidate’s comments made headlines late last week, days after the interview had aired. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel, one of the richest countries in the Middle East, was the top recipient of US foreign aid. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of imposing apartheid — defined as systemic policies to ensure the dominance of one racial group over the other — against Palestinians. Israel, however, has enjoyed strong bipartisan backing in the US, with Democratic President Joe Biden calling the two countries’ bond “unbreakable”. Despite voicing support for Israel, Ramaswamy’s comments put him at odds with most Republicans, even foreign policy isolationists and opponents of foreign aid, who often carve out an exception for Israel. For example, last year, Republican Senator Rand Paul proposed halting all foreign assistance administered through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for 10 years — except for money allocated for Israel. Foreign aid, especially for Ukraine, is a contentious issue among Republicans. But evangelical Christians, who support Israel for theological reasons, have grown into a major Republican constituency. Backing Israel has become a default for many Republican platforms. Ramaswamy’s proposal to scale back aid for Israel comes as the candidate rises in the polls, making him a greater target for his Republican rivals. An August survey from Emerson College puts support for Ramaswamy at 10 percent, tied with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has taken a more hardline approach to Israel. DeSantis has prided himself on penalising companies that boycott Israel and falsely stated that the Palestinian West Bank is not occupied territory. At the first presidential debate on Wednesday, Ramaswamy, Haley and DeSantis are all expected to take the stage to discuss their policy platforms. But former President Donald Trump, who enjoys a massive lead among the Republican candidates, has confirmed that he will not take part in the event. During his presidency, Trump pushed US policy further in favour of Israel, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem and recognising the country’s claims to Syria’s occupied Golan Heights. Other candidates set to attend the debate include former Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott and ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — all outspoken supporters of Israel. Biden, who is widely expected to win his party’s presidential nomination in 2024, has also pushed on with Trump’s pro-Israel policies.

sports chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.aljazeera.com

   Luis Rubiales condemned for kissing Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup’s victory celebrations. Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), has been slammed for kissing Spanish football player Jenni Hermoso during the FIFA Women’s World Cup post-match celebrations. Spain beat the United Kingdom on Sunday, winning the title in Sydney, and Rubiales was one of the FIFA officials on stage, celebrating the team’s victory after they received their medals. While he planted a kiss on the cheek of every other Spanish player after they received their gold medals, he kissed Spanish midfielder Hermoso on the lips. The unexpected act triggered widespread backlash in Spain and around the world. “Rubiales is a man with power over Hermoso who has decided unilaterally and in the middle of a stage to plant a kiss on the mouth of a player. It is part of that culture in which we are touchable and compliment-able,” said one post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Some described his act as “sexual abuse” and called on FIFA to step in and take action against Rubiales. In an Instagram live, Hermoso expressed her discomfort over the incident. According to a post on X by Spanish journalist Irati Vida, Hermoso said: “Hey, I didn’t like it, eh.” But according to local media reports, in a statement by the RFEF after Spain’s victory, Hermoso was quoted saying that the kiss was a “spontaneous mutual gesture”. Videos and pictures on social media also showed Rubiales holding hands with other players and kissing Spanish footballer Olga Carmona on her cheek as she celebrated Spain’s victory over England. Rubiales has defended his actions with Hermoso and told Spanish Radio Marca that it was “two people having a minor show of affection”.

technology chilemango • 1 year ago • 95%

www.aljazeera.com

Subscription users of X, formerly Twitter, will need to send a selfie and copy of ID to an Israeli verification company. X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, will now require X Blue users to submit a selfie alongside a photo of a government-issued ID, according to a report by PC Magazine. The user’s personal information required by the verification process will be handled by Israeli company AU10TIX software which will store the information for up to 30 days. said the data collected from a user’s profile will be used “for the purpose of safety and security, including preventing impersonation”. Many X users were unhappy with the choice of the company to store user data, pointing out its employees’ links to Israeli intelligence. Others expressed their discomfort with giving a company their data when so many data breaches have been reported in the past. AU10TIX helped to create the identity verification systems for airports and border controls in the 1980s and 90s before expanding, with the growth of the internet, into what it describes as “digital spaces” in 2002. It now boasts several high-profile clients such as Uber, PayPal and Google. Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in October 2022, appeared to have completed ID verification on August 1, suggesting that the ID verification system is already operational and could therefore appear publicly soon. Verification was then extended to any account with a verified phone number and an active subscription to an eligible Twitter Blue plan. On April 1, Twitter announced it would begin removing its legacy verification programme and removing legacy verified checkmarks. These changes led to fears that impersonation would be easier on the platform and hand false credibility to accounts that spread misinformation. In response, the platform, introduced gold and grey checkmarks, used by verified organisations and government-affiliated accounts, respectively. In July 2023, Musk announced that Twitter would be rebranded as X. The latest X verification process, which requires a selfie and a government-issued ID, is part of a drive to add an additional layer of security against impersonation and fraud.

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.cbsnews.com

A zoo in Tennessee says it has welcomed a rare giraffe that does not have any spots. The spotless giraffe was born at Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, on July 31 and the zoo says experts believe she is the only solid-colored reticulated giraffe on the planet. On Sunday, the zoo announced a naming contest for the baby giraffe, which visitors can now see at the zoo.

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

jezebel.com

“It is also a problem, frankly, with abortion pills," said Liz Murrill. "Buy em online, well, they’re gonna have fentanyl in them too.” Nope! Liz Murrill, Louisiana’s solicitor general and attorney general candidate, believes—or, more likely, wants the rest of us to believe—that drug dealers have slipped opioids into abortion pills. Murrill, whose sharp mind is in charge of leading complex constitutional litigation in the state, is running as a Republican. During an interview on “Mornings with Brian Haldane” on Thursday, the candidate made her bizarre claim after going legal cannabis. “The fact is that that also creates a great black market, and that’s what actually creates a great avenue for more fentanyl, and they do put fentanyl in pot,” Murrill told the host. “It is also a problem, frankly, with abortion pills. Buy em online, well, they’re gonna have fentanyl in them too.” Huh?! Murrill wasn’t done. “You can’t buy anything online that’s illegal and not consider it to be a problem potentially with fentanyl in it,” she said. Well, that’s great for abortion pill takers, because abortion pills are not illegal. In fact, they’re among the safest pills out there. Mifepristone, the main pill in the two-drug protocol for most medication abortions, is safer than other low-risk drugs like Viagra and penicillin. Since 2000, mifepristone has seen 5 deaths per every 1 million people who used it, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Safety is just one of the reasons medication abortion became the most used method of abortion care in America. However, that incredible safety record hasn’t stopped anti-abortion politicians, activists and quack doctors from trying to restrict the public’s access to abortion pills. Just last week, the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that if it weren’t for the pesky Supreme Court, it would have severely restricted abortion pills. (The Supreme Court stepped in earlier in litigation to say abortion pill access would remain as it currently is until the case is fully resolved. You can still get abortion pills.) A group of activists are trying to weaponize environmental regulations to ban abortion, falsely contending that medication abortions at home (whether self managed or under the supervision of a doctor) are contaminating our waste water. In Congress, Republicans attempted to pass a budget that would take away the FDA’s ruling to mail abortion pills. The Department of Justice cleared the U.S. Postal Service to carry and delivery abortion pills at the start of this year, even if the abortion may be performed after an arbitrary six-week ban. So abortion pills have no shortage of enemies on the right, but they definitely do not contain fentanyl. Murrill, who was recently endorsed by the state Republican party, has not presented any evidence that mifepristone and misoprostol are being contaminated. This is a not a problem, but it is a quick way to get rapid primary voters on your side. And it’s troubling that the woman (woman!) who wants to be the top cop in Louisiana is being so willfully obtuse and misleading about basic reproductive health care.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

truthout.org

Sunday’s vote makes Ecuador the first country to restrict fossil fuel extraction through the citizen referendum process. Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to reject oil drilling in a section of Yasuní National Park, the most biodiverse area of the imperiled Amazon rainforest. Nearly 60% of Ecuadorian voters backed a binding referendum opposing oil exploration in Block 43 of the national park, which is home to uncontacted Indigenous tribes as well as hundreds of bird species and more than 1,000 tree species. The Associated Press reported that “the outcome represents a significant blow to Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who advocated for oil drilling, asserting that its revenues are crucial to the country’s economy. As a result of the vote, state oil company Petroecuador will be required to dismantle its operations in the coming months.” Yasunidos, the civil society group behind the referendum, celebrated the vote as “a historic victory for Ecuador and for the planet.” Drilling operations in Block 43, which began in 2016, currently produce more than 55,000 barrels of oil per day. Most of Ecuador’s oil is located under the Amazon rainforest, whose role as a critical carbon sink has been badly diminished in recent years due to deforestation and relentless corporate plunder. Sunday’s win was decades in the making. As The New York Times reported ahead of the vote, the referendum is “the culmination of a groundbreaking proposal suggested almost two decades ago when Rafael Correa, who was president of Ecuador at the time, tried to persuade wealthy nations to pay his country to keep the same oil field in Yasuní untouched. He asked for $3.6 billion, or half of the estimated value of the oil reserves.” “Mr. Correa spent six years in a campaign to advance the proposal but never managed to persuade wealthy nations to pay,” the Times noted. “Many young Ecuadoreans, though, were persuaded. When Mr. Correa announced that the proposal had failed and that drilling would begin, many started protesting.” Yasunidos ultimately collected around 757,000 signatures for the proposed ban on oil exploration in Yasuní — nearly 200,000 more than required to bring a referendum to a vote in Ecuador. “The uncontacted Tagaeri, Dugakaeri, and Taromenane have for years seen their lands invaded, firstly by evangelical missionaries, then by oil companies,” said Sarah Shenker, head of the Survival International’s Uncontacted Tribes campaign, following the vote. “Now, at last, they have some hope of living in peace once more. We hope this prompts greater recognition that all uncontacted peoples must have their territories protected if they’re to survive, and thrive.” Sunday’s vote makes Ecuador the first country to restrict fossil fuel extraction through the citizen referendum process, according to Nemonte Nenquimo, a Waorani leader. “Yasuní, an area of one million hectares, is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth,” Nenquimo wrote in a recent op-ed for The Guardian. “There are more tree species in a single hectare of Yasuní than across Canada and the United States combined. Yasuní is also the home of the Tagaeri and Taromenane communities: the last two Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation in Ecuador.” “Can you imagine the immense size of one million hectares?” Nenquimo added. “The recent fires in Quebec burned a million hectares of forest. And so the oil industry hopes to burn Yasuní. It has already begun in fact, with the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil project on the eastern edge of the park.” Ecuadorians’ decision to reject oil drilling in the precious ecosystem drew applause from around the world. “Historic and wonderful,” responded the climate group Extinction Rebellion Global. “Thank you and congratulations to the people of Ecuador for protecting their people, land, nature, future, and those of the rest of the world, too. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative — a global campaign that works to accelerate the transition to renewable energy — added that “the historic vote sets a remarkable example for other countries in democratizing climate politics.” This story has been updated to include a statement from Survival International.

news chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.thecanary.co

Rickets – a disease associated with Victorian-era slums – is on the rise in Scotland, while other conditions linked to poverty and malnutrition are also increasing across the UK. On the rise: rickets and other diseases Rickets is a skeletal disease caused by a sustained lack of Vitamin D. It can lead to skeletal deformities such as bowed legs or knock knees. Research has linked rickets to a lack of exposure to sunlight and Vitamin D, which is found in foods like oily fish and eggs. It largely disappeared from Britain more than half a century ago. This was after government and health service efforts to improve the public’s diet and exposure to sunlight. However, it’s now on the rise again. In Scotland, a total of 442 cases of rickets were recorded in 2022, compared to 354 in 2018 – a 25% increase. Most of the cases were recorded in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, with 356 diagnoses. Glasgow is one of the most deprived local authority areas in Scotland. 32% of all children in the city were estimated to be living in poverty in 2021-2022. According to the latest data from 2019, men living in the most deprived areas of the city on average live 15.4 years less than those in the most affluent parts. For women, the gap has increased from 8.6 to 11.6 years in recent times. Some 482 cases of rickets were also found across England. Back in Scotland, and data collated by the Times showed 112 cases of tuberculosis in 2022, another disease which historically had been got under control. There was a sharp rise in scarlet fever diagnosis, with 223 cases in 2022 compared with 39 the year before. Meanwhile, in England there were 171 cases of scurvy in 2022, with three recorded in Scotland. This is a disease linked to Vitamin C deficiency. People are poor in the UK – poverty has increased, and it set to continue to do so. With think tank the Resolution Foundation forecasting that child poverty is set to reach its highest levels since since 1998/88 in 2027/28, it’s likely that without action, the increase in Victorian-era diseases will only continue.

sports chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.thecanary.co

The English Chess Federation (ECF) has said that it won’t impose restrictions on trans people’s participation in the game. This news comes after chess’s international body announced it would change the way trans men and women participated for at least the next two years. All trans people facing restrictions The International Chess Federation (FIDE) said on 14 August that it was updating its policy on how trans people participate. Among a number of new regulations was a restriction on trans women participating in FIDE’s women’s events until “further decisions are made”. This investigation could take up to two years. As a result, it effectively bans trans women from taking part in women’s events. Meanwhile, trans men faced other restrictions. FIDE’s new regulations said trans men would lose any titles they held from women’s events. FIDE also said it would reinstate the titles “if the person changes the gender back”. However, the reverse didn’t apply. FIDE will permit trans women to retain their open-play titles post-transition. There are also no restrictions on players that want to take part in the open category. FIDE reasoned its decision by saying it has received an influx of gender change requests. Both chess players and trans activists criticised FIDE’s move. Chess coach Yosha Iglesias described it simply as “anti-trans”: The US-based National Center for Transgender Equality pointed out that it attacked not just trans people but cis women too: While FIDE is busy creating regressive and unnecessarily divisive policies regarding trans people, it appears to have taken little action on actual material threats against women. On 8 August, more than 100 women signed a public letter denouncing the chess world’s “sexist and sexual violence” against women. It said that such actions are “still one of the main reasons” that there are far fewer women than men playing the game. Iglesias shared her own experiences of sexual harassment: FIDE responded to the letter saying it was still working on a safeguarding policy for women. Both these issues point to the same problems, of course: patriarchy and social conservatism. The barring of participation and stripping of titles are cruel forms of public humiliation wielded against trans people, and stem from the same mindset that apparently hasn’t seen fit to create a safeguarding policy for all women, even in 2023. FIDE’s ban also comes at a time when other sporting bodies are manufacturing hostility against trans people under the guise of ‘fairness’. Fortunately, though, the EDF and its counterparts aren’t bowing to FIDE’s pressure.

sports chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.france24.com

High levels of water pollution in the Seine River caused two swimming events to be cancelled over the weekend, after two others successfully went ahead on Thursday and Friday. A year ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, organisers say there is no Plan B for swimming events set to be held in the river. “I always dive with [an] open mouth. It's not going to be funny if I wake up tomorrow morning with ... whatever," triathlete Kristian Blummenfelt told reporters on Wednesday, August 16, before jumping in Paris’s Seine River. Athletes were testing out the water on Wednesday to get used to the river currents before four days of triathlon test events ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, during which multiple swimming races are set to be held in the river. The races were a partial success for organisers. The women’s and men’s triathlons went ahead as planned on Thursday and Friday, before the swimming stages were called off for the weekend’s para triathlon and mixed relay races after high levels of E.coli bacteria were detected in the river water. Results of water quality tests showed “significant discrepancies” in the hours leading up to Saturday’s events, organisers said in a statement. The water quality did not offer the "necessary guarantees", said the Paris Olympics organising committee and governing body World Triathlon. The cancellations came just two weeks after races for the 2023 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup were also cancelled due to the high levels of pollution in the Seine. Yet the Paris 2024 organisers insist that open water swimming events can – and will ­– go ahead in the river during the games. "We will remain in this extraordinary location, no matter what happens,'' said Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organising committee and a former canoe champion. "We want to preserve this ambition.'' There is one small concession: a contingency plan will allow Olympic swimming events to be postponed for a few days if water quality isn't up to standard. Bathing in the Seine has been banned since 1923 – although some determined open-water swimmers have continued the practice in the French capital’s waterways. Promises to restore water quality date back to 1990, when then-Paris mayor Jacques Chirac - later French president - vowed, but failed to make the Seine safe for swimming again. The plan for Olympic and Paralympic athletes to swim in the Seine is the most high-profile marker of Paris city hall’s recent efforts to clean up the river. The largest pollution risks now come from heavy rain, which can cause the Parisian sewage system to overflow and be discharged into the Seine, polluting it with faecal bacteria E.coli and Enterococcus. Swimming events earlier in the summer were disrupted by rain levels that reached four times the usual average, said Christophe Noël du Peyrat, chief of staff of the Paris region authority. “We still have a lot of work ahead for year 2024 . . . to be able to face exceptional weather like what we've known at the end of July and beginning of August.” However the cause for high levels of bacteria in the water on Saturday and Sunday is still being investigated. “To date, we have not yet found an explanation," Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of Sport and the Olympics told AFP. A €1.4 billion investment in waste-water management from the state and local authorities has produced “significant progress” in recent years, and polluted water overflow into the Seine has been reduced, say Olympics organisers. Additional infrastructure is still a work in progress, including a giant underground reservoir in Paris that will stock excess water during storms so it doesn’t spill untreated into the river and can be treated later. An extensive water testing system is also in place to ensure athlete satefy including hourly sampling and laboratory tests, according to Paris city hall. If the Olympic triathlon race can go ahead as planned, the route will showcase some of the highlights of the French capital. On Thursday and Friday, athletes dived into the river from a floating pontoon overlooked by golden statues on the 19th-century Pont Alexandre III bridge to swim two laps through the heart of the capital, past famous monuments including the Grand Palais and the Place des Invalides. The cycle and running routes then took them along the Champs-Elysées avenue and past the Orsay Museum on the banks of the Seine. On Thursday, some competitors were struck by the majesty of their surroundings. It was a “special place to be in”, said American triathlete Katie Zaferes. “It’s a magnificent event, everyone is so happy to compete here,” said France's Cassandre Beaugrand, who placed second in the race. The triathlete was unfazed by her dip in the river. "We are used to swim[ming] in much worse waters.” Briton Beth Potter won Thursday’s event. Asked after her race whether she was concerned about the pollution risk, she said: "It's too early to say. Maybe we'll get sick, you never know,” before adding, “I hope not, but that's the risk you take swimming in open water.”

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.france24.com

read more : https://resumen-english.org/2023/08/ecuador-and-guatemala-go-to-the-polls-under-a-shadow-of-violence-and-political-uncertainty/ Leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzalez, 45, was leading in a first-round presidential election in Ecuador on Sunday, but looked headed for a run-off after grabbing only 33 percent of the votes, official data showed. In an unexpected performance, the right-wing candidate Daniel Noboa, 35, was coming second with 24 percent, with 74 percent of votes counted as of Sunday evening.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.france24.com

read more : https://resumen-english.org/2023/08/ecuador-and-guatemala-go-to-the-polls-under-a-shadow-of-violence-and-political-uncertainty/ Surprise favorite Bernardo Arevalo was swept to victory in Guatemala's presidential election on Sunday, with his anti-corruption message firing up weary voters. Arevalo scored 59 percent of the vote, with 95 percent of ballots counted, according to official results from the TSE national election body. His rival, the former first lady Sandra Torres, came in second with 36 percent of the vote as of Sunday night. Arevalo pulled off a massive upset after defying opinion polls and coming in second in the first-round election in June. Ahead of Sunday's vote, observers and foreign allies had sounded the alarm about meddling and efforts to undermine the electoral process, after a top prosecutor tried to have Arevalo disqualified and ordered raids on his party offices and the election body during the campaign. After a first round marked by low turnout and invalid votes, the TSE reported "a historic turnout percentage" at the close of Sunday's voting, without giving details. Fed-up voters expressed despair over the poverty, violence and corruption that have crippled the Central American nation, pushing thousands of its citizens to emigrate in search of a better life, many to the United States. "You can no longer live anywhere, because there is so much crime," complained 66-year-old housewife Maria Rac, an Indigenous Mayan who voted in the town of San Juan Sacatepequez, 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital. Truck driver Efrain Boch, 47, voting in the same town, pleaded with the new government to tackle corruption. Arevalo, the son of the country's first democratically elected president, Juan Jose Arevalo, has slammed the plague of corrupt politicians on the campaign trail. "We have been the victims, the prey, of corrupt politicians for years," Arevalo, a 64-year-old sociologist and former diplomat, said. "To vote is to say clearly that it is the Guatemalan people who lead this country, not the corrupt." The prosecutor who has targeted him, Rafael Curruchiche -- sanctioned by Washington for corruption -- said he did not rule out more raids and possible arrests after the elections. A 'risk' to the system At the close of voting, the TSE reported no "significant incidents" during the day. Torres, from a traditionally center-left party, promised welfare programs and various subsidies for the poor. However, she had also won the backing of the right and evangelicals, increased her socially conservative rhetoric, and was seen as representing the establishment. "Traditional political forces have bet on Torres, because Arevalo is seen as a risk to the continuity of the system," political analyst Arturo Matute told AFP ahead of the results. Mayan farmer Brigido Chavix, 57, said he did not support Arevalo, "but I voted for him because we want new faces." "That lady (Torres) has already been around for a long time talking about policies, policies, and she has never carried them out." Torres, 67, the ex-wife of late leftist president Alvaro Colom, has failed in her third attempt to become president. Ahead of the results she had denounced "some irregularities" during Sunday's voting, without giving evidence. Before the election, she raised doubts about the objectivity of the country's electoral board, accusing it of leaning toward Arevalo's party. She had dismissed Arevalo as a "foreigner" because he was born in Uruguay while his father was in exile. 'Corrupt' taken control Arevalo will replace unpopular right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei, who is constitutionally limited to one term. Under Giammattei, several prosecutors fighting graft have been arrested or forced into exile. He has also cracked down on critical journalists. The corrupt "have progressively taken control of all state institutions," former attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz -- who is now in Costa Rica -- told AFP. Guatemala has some of the worst poverty, malnutrition and child mortality rates in Latin America, according to the World Bank. The murder rate is one of the highest in the world, with many killings attributed to gang violence related to drug trafficking.

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.france24.com

Iraqi authorities on Sunday ordered the shutdown of LED advertisement screens installed across Baghdad after a hacker managed to show a pornographic film on one, security forces said, announcing the arrest of a suspect. On Saturday evening, "a person managed to hack into an advertising screen in Uqba bin Nafia Square", a major intersection at the centre of the Iraqi capital, a security source who requested anonymity told AFP. The hacker "showed a pornographic film for several minutes before we cut the power cable," he said. Videos of the pornographic film being screened as cars passed by in central Baghdad were widely shared on social media. These "immoral scenes" prompted the authorities to "turn off all advertising screens in Baghdad" while they review security measures, explained the security official. The interior ministry also announced in a statement that a suspect had been arrested, without giving details. Several screens that usually show advertisements for household goods or political candidates before elections were switched off on Sunday morning, according to an AFP photographer. Largely-conservative Iraq announced in 2022 that it was planning to block pornographic websites, but many have been left accessible.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.greenleft.org.au

In Part 2 of our interview, Left Bloc leader Jorge Costa discusses the recent rise of the far-right Chega (Enough) party in Portugal with Green Left’s Dick Nichols. (Read Part 1 of the interview here.) Chega (Enough) is a late arrival in the wave of far-right reaction in Europe. What features does it share with other far-right forces? Why did it emerge so belatedly? Does it have support in the state apparatus, judiciary, armed forces and police? For many years there was a party, the Party of the Social and Democratic Centre (CDS-PP), which was kind of a gathering together of the remnants of the dictatorship, political personnel from its last years, with close connections with the church and sections of the bourgeoisie, sections of the employers’ confederation, etc. At its electoral peak, CDS-PP got the same score that Chega gets today, around 12%. CDS-PP disappeared from the political landscape and its cadres are now orphans. They are not in Chega — they did not become politicians for the far right. But the far right absorbed the popular vote this party had, so you can see this as a kind of aggiornamento [updating] from the grassroots of the right wing, from its voting base. When you note the political personnel of these new ultra-right political parties — not only Chega but also Iniciativa Liberal (IL, Liberal Initiative) — they come from the middle cadres of the traditional right-wing parties. So, rather than Nazi and fascist groups getting parliamentary representation and growing, we have sectors from the previously existing right-wing formations fragmenting and reorganising, adopting elements of the radicalised right — of Donald Trump and Viktor Orban, and also of the ultra-liberal right from all over Europe. In the case of Chega, we should also note its organic fragility. For example, one-third of its elected members on local council executives resigned from the party last year. Not for any specific political difference, but because of clashing personalities and personal ambitions. Also, the last congresses of the party were ruled to be irregular by the Constitutional Court. So, this is an organisation that is still very weak, which still gets its representatives and candidates from people with very loose connections with the party itself, and that reflects its lack of real social presence. Yes, Chega is very visible in parliament. It has a very charismatic leader, André Ventura (who came from the [liberal-conservative] Social Democratic Party), but it is a very loose organisation with very little capacity for street mobilisation. The only sector with real far-right influence in its organised ranks is the police. In no other sector, in no other expression of protest, does Chega have anything comparable, not even in massively mobilised sectors, like teachers and nurses. Nowhere else does the far right have any capacity for mobilisation. Nonetheless, the far right still connects with the traditional themes of the Portuguese right: anti-Roma racism, colonial nostalgia and Salazarism, the normalisation of the fascist dictatorship and the Colonial War viewed as an heroic epic. All that goes with macho nostalgia and a very strong rejection of feminism. These are the main features of the Portuguese far right narrative, as represented by Chega. Then there is IL, another radicalised party of the right, but which is very different. IL is an ultra-liberal party, inspired by Hayekism [based on Friedrich Hayek's ideas], one of many European parties of this type. An extremist liberal party, anti-Marxist but not ultra-conservative, with an agenda focused on economic issues like lowering tax rates. IL has a high-income support base and is much more concentrated in wealthy inner-city milieux. Its typical voter is younger and more educated. It does not express xenophobic and racist ideas openly and refuses to make them part of its agenda. Socialist Party (PS) Prime Minister António Costa aims to build the PS vote by splitting the right and frightening left voters into seeking shelter with PS against Chega’s rise. How does the Left Bloc counter this tactic? The main way that the Left Bloc deals with this is by explaining that Chega is a “federation of discontent” — discontent with neoliberal policy and its results in wages, health, education, etc. — despite its lack of policies to answer these needs, or even a more radical version of neoliberal policies. This is the direct result of the bad politics of the socialist government. So, we answer the far right by finding the largest unity in the movements that resist fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia or transphobia, but also by underlining our opposition to PS neoliberalism and by responding on the terrain of alternative economic and social policy. This orientation coincides with how protest has developed in the first year and a half of the PS’s absolute majority. Every demonstration that has emerged comes with left-wing demands: those of the teachers, of the health workers, of the workers in the legal system; the demands of the feminists, the demands of LGBTIQ+ movement, the demands of young people who are fighting for housing. They all connect with the left and with our left demands. They have no connection with, and there is no presence of, the far right in these demonstrations. This is very, very important because the opposition in the streets to the Costa government is not a far-right opposition at all. It is mainly led by social movements and trade unions, which connect directly with the left-wing parties and the left-wing opposition, either with the Portuguese Communist Party or the Left Bloc. That is the way we can create a left-wing pole of attraction that can win over those social sectors in the working class who are in shock because of the neoliberal policies of the PS and could be more vulnerable to far-right demagogy. In the Spanish state, support for far-right party, Vox, which mainly comes from the rich and very rich suburbs, is also concentrated among Spanish speakers in the poorest and most abandoned Mediterranean coastal regions with large migrant worker populations. Is the Portuguese situation similar? What does the Left Bloc propose to counter the influence of Chega? The characteristics of immigration in Portugal are quite different from Spain. Here, Chega is closely connected to the interests of our intensive monoculture in agriculture, which is very much dependent on immigrant labour. So, Chega has shifted its message more to themes like Romaphobia, corruption in politics, ultra-conservatism around LGBTIQ+ and feminist concerns, and opposition to euthanasia and abortion. These are the main issues along which the far right tries to build its identity, more than with a straightforward racist and anti-immigrant stance, which would, at a certain point, clash with the interests of some of its own supporters and financiers. Also, Chega voters are different from their Vox counterparts. The typical Chega voter is male, middle-aged to elderly, and from the popular classes. As I said, the more highly educated, urban right-wing voter who might vote Vox in Spain tends to vote IL in Portugal. Abridged and edited from a longer interview at links.org.au

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

An unprecedented anti-corruption storm is currently sweeping through the field of medicine in China. Over the last three weeks, intensive inspections have been launched in medical institutions nationwide, with tip-offs from the public and industry-related personnel increasing on social media platforms, and numerous reports of fallen officials have emerged one after another… So far, at least 20 provincial disciplinary authorities have spoken out against corruption present in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, while at least 176 hospital heads have been probed - more than double the number in 2022 - during the "most vigorous" crackdown ever seen in the healthcare industry. Initiated by the National Health Commission (NHC), along with nine other departments, in late July, the systematic anti-corruption campaign has impressed many with its top-down rapidity, fierce momentum, and strong determination. Why is the current anti-corruption campaign in the medical industry necessary and urgent? What are the deep-rooted problems that are a cause of distress for the public? From the bribery of pharmaceutical companies to the unaffordability of treatment for ordinary patients, how were medical costs gradually inflated? What are the blind spots within the industry and hidden means through which ill-gotten gains are laundered in this profitable industry chain? Industry insiders, clinicians, and medical representatives reached by the Global Times pointed out that medical corruption in China has led to the exploitation of the healthcare system, ultimately causing harm to ordinary people and damaging the reputation of the national healthcare service delivery. In order to address the issue of difficulties in accessing medical services amid an aging society, large-scale anti-corruption efforts and systematic reforms are deemed necessary. Meanwhile, many grassroots doctors and experts stressed that the actions of a corrupt few do not represent the vast majority of diligent and dedicated frontline healthcare professionals. The achievements of China's healthcare reforms in recent years cannot be erased or negated by a few cases of corruption. China's top anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or the CCDI, published an article on July 28, targeting opaque collaborations, bribery of officials in public hospitals, and the misuse of prescriptions for personal profit among other illegal practices. The NHC held a press conference on Tuesday, reiterated six key areas of focus for rectification during this campaign, which include crackdown on medical institutions engaging in "kickback sales" of drugs and devices, as well as the improper use of medical insurance funds, stressing that the pharmaceutical field is the "main battleground" for safeguarding the health of the people. Compared with previous efforts, the current round of anti-graft campaigns involves the participation of more governmental agencies, which is more far-reaching and affecting more high-powered individuals in the medical sector, pharmaceutical firms, and relevant associations, Xu Yucai, a veteran in medical reform, told the Global Times. Rough estimates show that at least 30 "deans," "directors," and "Party chiefs" in the medical system have been investigated across various levels in hospitals over the last three weeks, and about half of them have retired. More violators are being pressured to voluntarily surrender. A number of regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan, have made reporting hotlines available to the public. A wave of complaints has since been received from several places and some of the country's well-known hospitals. Insiders told the Global Times that guidelines on discipline in hospitals have intensified, as relevant inspections of key heads of department are increasing. Amid the campaign, a slew of cancellations of medical conferences and events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies have been witnessed, which is evidence of a deterrence effect. "Currently, the [domestic medical representatives] industry is basically in a vigilant state," a medical representative told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. "Both domestic and foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are generally freezing their contacts with hospital and officials, and some have migrated their businesses online exclusively or are more discreet, as many in the industry are now cautious and apprehensive." The medical representative noted that workshops and training programs in the medical sector have been largely canceled as these platforms have been found to have become a convert channel for bribery and kickbacks. IN-DEPTH / IN-DEPTH China vows unprecedented, year-long anti-graft campaign in medical sector to rectify prominent malpractices Resolute crackdown By Hu Yuwei , Lu Yameng and Leng Shumei Published: Aug 15, 2023 11:15 PM Representatives of the disciplinary watchdog conduct an inspection of drug procurement, sales, and use at a hospital in Luliang county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on August 7, 2023. Photos: VCG Representatives of the disciplinary watchdog conduct an inspection of drug procurement, sales, and use at a hospital in Luliang county, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on August 7, 2023. Photos: VCG An unprecedented anti-corruption storm is currently sweeping through the field of medicine in China. Over the last three weeks, intensive inspections have been launched in medical institutions nationwide, with tip-offs from the public and industry-related personnel increasing on social media platforms, and numerous reports of fallen officials have emerged one after another… So far, at least 20 provincial disciplinary authorities have spoken out against corruption present in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, while at least 176 hospital heads have been probed - more than double the number in 2022 - during the "most vigorous" crackdown ever seen in the healthcare industry. Initiated by the National Health Commission (NHC), along with nine other departments, in late July, the systematic anti-corruption campaign has impressed many with its top-down rapidity, fierce momentum, and strong determination. Why is the current anti-corruption campaign in the medical industry necessary and urgent? What are the deep-rooted problems that are a cause of distress for the public? From the bribery of pharmaceutical companies to the unaffordability of treatment for ordinary patients, how were medical costs gradually inflated? What are the blind spots within the industry and hidden means through which ill-gotten gains are laundered in this profitable industry chain? Industry insiders, clinicians, and medical representatives reached by the Global Times pointed out that medical corruption in China has led to the exploitation of the healthcare system, ultimately causing harm to ordinary people and damaging the reputation of the national healthcare service delivery. In order to address the issue of difficulties in accessing medical services amid an aging society, large-scale anti-corruption efforts and systematic reforms are deemed necessary. Meanwhile, many grassroots doctors and experts stressed that the actions of a corrupt few do not represent the vast majority of diligent and dedicated frontline healthcare professionals. The achievements of China's healthcare reforms in recent years cannot be erased or negated by a few cases of corruption. Photo: VCG Photo: VCG Shock and awe China's top anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or the CCDI, published an article on July 28, targeting opaque collaborations, bribery of officials in public hospitals, and the misuse of prescriptions for personal profit among other illegal practices. The NHC held a press conference on Tuesday, reiterated six key areas of focus for rectification during this campaign, which include crackdown on medical institutions engaging in "kickback sales" of drugs and devices, as well as the improper use of medical insurance funds, stressing that the pharmaceutical field is the "main battleground" for safeguarding the health of the people. Compared with previous efforts, the current round of anti-graft campaigns involves the participation of more governmental agencies, which is more far-reaching and affecting more high-powered individuals in the medical sector, pharmaceutical firms, and relevant associations, Xu Yucai, a veteran in medical reform, told the Global Times. Rough estimates show that at least 30 "deans," "directors," and "Party chiefs" in the medical system have been investigated across various levels in hospitals over the last three weeks, and about half of them have retired. More violators are being pressured to voluntarily surrender. A number of regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan, have made reporting hotlines available to the public. A wave of complaints has since been received from several places and some of the country's well-known hospitals. Insiders told the Global Times that guidelines on discipline in hospitals have intensified, as relevant inspections of key heads of department are increasing. Amid the campaign, a slew of cancellations of medical conferences and events sponsored by pharmaceutical companies have been witnessed, which is evidence of a deterrence effect. "Currently, the [domestic medical representatives] industry is basically in a vigilant state," a medical representative told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. "Both domestic and foreign-funded pharmaceutical companies are generally freezing their contacts with hospital and officials, and some have migrated their businesses online exclusively or are more discreet, as many in the industry are now cautious and apprehensive." The medical representative noted that workshops and training programs in the medical sector have been largely canceled as these platforms have been found to have become a convert channel for bribery and kickbacks. Chain of medical corruption High medical spending has long been one of "three burdens" - along with housing and education - for Chinese citizens. In an aging society, the cost burden of managing chronic conditions plagues many senior citizens, and is a source of public complaint. Back in the 1990s, as medical services moved toward market compliance, the government reduced investment and hospitals began to sell drugs at a mark-up to make up for shortfalls in public funding. At the same time, competition intensified among pharmaceutical companies, while corruption spaces grew gradually. The culture of kickbacks or bribery among hospital officials and pharmaceutical enterprises across many regions in China has been a long-standing open secret. Medical corruption may occur in the entire process, from listing, bidding, procurement, to usage and payment. Every stage involves relevant departments, hospital management personnel, clinicians, and pharmacists, Xu said. In this chain, medical representatives are those who "thread the needle," and the senior hospital officials are the key figures who can determine the clinical usage and the quantity purchase of products from the bid winner, according to Xu. The expert said that some kickbacks are hard to investigate as they could be disguised as sponsorship or invitations to medical conferences. Xu, also the former deputy head of the health commission in Shanyang county, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, told the Global Times that in recent years, as previous anti-corruption moves have sealed off the traditional benefit delivery pipeline between pharmaceutical companies and medical personnel, some poorly scrutinized medical associations have turned to "academic activities" as a disguise to transfer the benefits. Bribes are thus laundered through so-called training or consultancy fees. A doctor from a certain top-tier hospital once disclosed to the media that some academic conferences typically offer ordinary doctors a fee of 1,200 yuan ($165) per hour for lectures, 1,800 yuan for experts, and 3,000 yuan for top-level experts. Additionally, the procurement of large medical equipment is another hotbed of corruption. In case of illegality disclosed in recent years, inappropriate high-priced medical equipments are commonly seen. In May, China's anti-corruption body exposed a hospital chief in Southwest China's Yunnan Province for receiving 16 million yuan in bribes for buying a medical accelerator worth 15 million yuan. A practitioner surnamed Tao from the Shanghai disease control and prevention system told the Global Times that the selection of self-funded vaccines has also become a means of making money in some grassroots disease control centers. "County-level disease control centers are allowed to select vaccines from different manufacturers on the provincial whitelist. Currently, this process lacks standard rules, and the head of the county center holds the principle decision-making power in that regard," said Tao. To address this issue, the Chinese government has implemented several measures to crack down on corruption in the medical industry. One such initiative was the establishment of the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) in 2018, which oversees the country's healthcare system and is responsible for regulating medical expenses and combating fraud. Xu recalled that obvious efforts have been made in medical reform since the establishment of the NHSA. The centralized pharmaceutical procurement system launched in China in 2018, for example, has reduced the prices of certain drugs, by pooling the demands of member cities and granting contracts to manufacturers with the lowest bids. These policies have played a great role in eliminating kickbacks and price manipulation. Additionally, the government has encouraged the use of electronic payment systems to reduce cash transactions, which were often used to facilitate bribery, Xu said. The programs have successfully reduced medical costs for patients and have, so far, helped save about 300 billion yuan in medical insurance costs and patient expenditure, the Xinhua News Agency reported in July 2022. Furthermore, the Chinese government has strengthened its enforcement actions against corrupt practices in the medical field. Numerous high-profile cases have been investigated and prosecuted, leading to the arrest and punishment of doctors, hospital administrators, and pharmaceutical company executives involved in bribery and embezzlement. With deepened medical and healthcare system reform, China's public healthcare system withstood the tests of the H7N9 bird flu, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, and COVID-19, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods over the last decade. The era when pharmaceutical representatives freely prowled outpatient clinics and hospital wards is long gone. Instead, signs warning that "Pharmaceutical representatives are prohibited from entering" are now posted throughout healthcare facilities. "Over the last decade, China hasn't remitted in its anti-corruption efforts, but corruption remains increasingly pervasive and hidden. This is why a fundamental system rebuilding and resolute crackdown are imperative as medical corruption undermines the credibility of the healthcare system and erodes social trust," Xu said. However, while the shocking and heart-wrenching phenomenon of corruption in medical industry has aroused the indignation and condemnation of the Chinese people, a growing sentiment among the public, which is stigmatizing the entire healthcare industry and fostering a collective resentment toward medical professionals, has gone viral on the internet. Observers and medical practitioners clarified that the recent highly publicized crackdowns do not imply widespread corruption within the healthcare system. They stressed that corrupt individuals within the healthcare system are still a minority, and many conscientious and judicious healthcare workers also detest various forms of medical corruption. A front-line doctor in East China's Shandong Province told the Global Times on Sunday that the vast majority of grassroots doctors are far from corrupt, as most of them, especially young doctors, always follow the principle of curing disease and saving lives first. Clinical doctors from top-tier hospitals in China are sharing their schedules on social media, with some claiming that they work 12 hours a day and have to work overtime voluntarily at weekends, resulting in a total work duration of 80-100 hours per week. Some clinicians are also facing pressure from research. "For those unfortunate projects that did not receive research funding, doctors have to bear the expenses of animal experiments, reagents, consumables, and labor costs. Many people even pay out of their own salaries to support research projects," said Dr. Chen Yu, an attending physician at a large top-tier hospital in Shanghai, as cited by financial media outlet Yicai. "To fundamentally solve the problem, other supporting measures are still needed, such as raising the prices of medical services, so that medical staff and medical institutions can receive reasonable remuneration and see their true value reflected," Cai Jiangnan, an economics scholar, also executive chairman of the CHIP Academy, told the Global Times. Cai also suggested establishing a fair system of pharmaceutical production and distribution, and improving China's ability to conduct research and manufacture innovate drugs. Medical anti-corruption may cause "growing pains" in the short term, but it will bring long-term wellbeing and win the hearts of the people, Cai said.

news chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

grist.org

A new study suggests children near oil and gas wells are 5-7 times more likely to develop lymphoma. After dozens of childhood cancer cases surfaced in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 2019, state health officials embarked on a multi-study project to determine whether the region’s boom in oil and gas extraction might be to blame. This week, the results of that work are in: Epidemiologists at the University of Pittsburgh, which was contracted to do the research, found evidence that minors living close to fracking sites are over 5 times more likely to develop a rare type of childhood cancer. They also found a greatly increased risk of asthma attacks and lowered birth weights. The eight counties that make up Southwestern Pennsylvania comprise one of the nation’s most important fossil fuel-producing regions. Much of the state’s natural gas is buried thousands of feet beneath the earth, under sheets of fine-grained rock known as shale. These once-inaccessible fuel reserves were unlocked in the early 2000s with the widespread adoption of fracking, a method of fuel extraction that involves injecting huge volumes of water and other chemicals underground to shatter bedrock and free up oil and gas reserves. The number of fracking wells has increased more than tenfold over the last two decades, and Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in the number of wells it contains. While previous research has identified numerous chemicals used in fracking as capable of causing cancer — among them formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, benzene, and ethylene oxide — the science that actually links fracking directly to adverse public health outcomes is still coming into view. This week’s studies helped to fill this gap by using existing medical records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The authors analyzed cancer incidence data from 2010 through 2019, which included 498 total cases in children born and diagnosed in the eight-county study area. Of the four types of cancer analyzed, they found significant evidence that children living within five miles of an active oil and gas well were 5 to 7 times more likely to develop lymphoma. They did not find evidence that the other three childhood cancers — leukemia, brain tumors, and bone cancers — were associated with proximity to oil and gas development. However, James Fabisiak, an author on all three studies that were released this week, said that doesn’t mean a connection to those cancers can be ruled out. A separate state-wide study from Yale University last year found a link between fracking and a subtype of leukemia in children aged 2 to 7. “In any scientific study like this, you always have some uncertainty about the negative result,” Fabisiak told Grist. “If I had more patients, if I had more sample size, might I find a statistically significant difference?” The researchers wanted to understand how each phase of the fracking process affects the health of nearby residents. Before workers start injecting fluid into the earth, they often have to clear sites, build roads, and drill deep crevices in the ground. The subsequent fracking phase of the process is typically short, lasting only about three to five days, while the production phase, when fuel is actually extracted from the ground, takes much longer — from a few weeks to decades. The studies analyzed records of more than 46,000 patients, aged 5 through 90, over the past two years, and found that people with asthma are 4 to 5 times more likely to have an asthma attack if they live near a fracking well during production. The researchers also connected this phase of the fracking process to lower birth weights. On average, babies born to people living near oil wells during the production process were 1 ounce smaller at birth. (The researchers noted that such a difference does not usually pose a significant health risk.) Fabisiak said that he found the findings of the asthma study to be most troubling, given how widespread the condition is — more than 25 million Americans have asthma. “I have a son who grew up with asthma, and I know the burden of what that particular disease has on an individual in a family,” he said. The studies were not able to identify what particular hazard connected with fracking caused the adverse health effects that they observed in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but it builds on research documenting the relationship between fossil fuel development and asthma and birth defects in other parts of the world. It’s well-known that flaring, a practice that involves burning off unwanted gas, can generate substantial air pollution, and that the chemicals used in fracking, if not properly extracted and disposed of, can leak into the soil and groundwater, exposing nearby residents for prolonged periods. Fabisiak said that drawing a direct link between those hazards and poor health outcomes should be the work of future studies.

acab chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.theroot.com

A slew of Antioch and Pittsburg officers were arrested following an FBI probe into civil rights violations and investigation tampering. Nine officers across two police departments in East Bay, Calif. were arrested by FBI agents Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. Of those officers were the slimy Antioch cops exposed for calling Black people gorillas, n-words and all types of degrading insults in their texts. Over 100 FBI agents were deployed to arrest current and former officers from the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments, according to KRON4 News. The 30-page federal indictment accuses the group of crimes including college degree benefit fraud and violating the civil rights of civilians. As if the APD isn’t in enough hell upon the state and federal probes into their employees’ bigoted banter, two of them were accused of slinging anabolic steroids. They were also accused of trying to destroy the evidence. Another APD cop, Morteza Amiri, was accused of excessive force for deploying his K-9 on 28 people and then saving images of the bloody dog bites in his camera roll. At this point, what haven’t they been accused of? ::: spoiler cw: graphic violence Eric Rombough, Devon Wenger and Mortez Amiri have been accused of conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate” residents in Antioch, a city of roughly 114,000 people located 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, according to a 30-page indictment filed in federal court in California’s Northern District. In a 2020 text, Wenger told Amiri that they needed to “go 3 nights in a row dog bite!!!” Amiri emphasized the message, according to the indictment, and Wenger replied with a homophobic slur about a senior officer, saying they should give the lieutenant “something to stress out about lol.” In another text that year, Amiri sent Wenger eight graphic images of people with dog bites and described the work week as “very eventful,” according to the indictment. ::: Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who was a target of the racist police messages, issued a statement in response to the arrest calling it a “dark day” for the city. “People trusted to uphold the law allegedly breached that trust and were arrested by the FBI. Today’s actions are the beginning of the end of a long and arduous process. Today’s arrests are demonstrative of the issues that have plagued the Antioch Police Department for decades,” he said. Simultaneously, the Contra Costa DA’s office, FBI and California Attorney General’s Office are investigating the officers involved. Over the past 2 two years of the probes, nearly half the Antioch Police Department was accused of something. More arrests could be on the way.

technology chilemango • 1 year ago • 96%

jalopnik.com

Replace the word stop with keep whenever applicable The future is here, robots are out here parking our cars, cleaning our floors, and now delivery food and groceries to communities across America. But if we’re to succeed in this new robot-run world, we need to learn to live with our autonomous friends, and not keep robbing the little delivery robots. Because that’s what’s happening in some communities that have started rolling out delivery robots to carry out grocery runs and drop off takeout orders. According to Autoweek, businesses in Los Angeles and Greenville, NC, have reported thefts from their delivery bots. The LA delivery robots operate across West Hollywood and were built by a company called Serve Robotics. So far, operators in the area have reported the theft of goods from these robots, such as food. As Autoweek reports: Early on delivery robot developers have tried to allay commercial customers’ concerns over the potential for theft from robots, showcasing locked compartments and plenty of surveillance tech on the robots themselves, in addition to loud sirens. After a honeymoon period of sorts early on in the pandemic where robots were generally left alone, this is no longer the case, and sirens aren’t stopping acts of theft and vandalism in all cases. The robberies aren’t limited to California, and reports have also emerged of vandalism affecting GrubHub robots operating on the East Carolina University campus in Greenville, NC. There, robots have been found flipped upside down and have even been discovered in a creek. In order to protect the bots, they are equipped with all manner of surveillance tech. But actually prosecuting people for stealing from these machines is proving much trickier than it is for people who shoplift from a physical store. Despite the crimes falling under the same legislation for theft and vandalism, Autoweek reports that the low priority for police forces investigating such incidents means prosecution for these crimes remains unlikely. Still, while the spate of robberies appears to be spreading, robot operators across the country say their little worker bots are still managing to hit a 99.9% delivery completion rate.

acab chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

jalopnik.com

He was only arrested after multiple officers showed up to the scene. Public urination is never a good idea, but arresting an innocent child for doing something like that is maybe taking the law a little too seriously. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to a 10 year old in Mississippi, Fox Memphis reports. On August 10th, Latonya Eason stopped by an attorney’s office in Senatobia, MS for some legal advice. Her two children, a daughter and her 10 year old son Quantavious, waited in the car while she was in the office. At some point, Quantavious needed to use the restroom, so he got out of the car and went to pee behind it. At the same time, a Senatobia Police officer just happened to be passing by and caught the kid peeing behind the car. But it was no biggie; Latonya said the officer was just going to give them a warning: “I was like son, why did you do that? He said, ‘Mom, my sister said they don’t have a bathroom there.’ I was like you knew better, you should have come and asked me if they had a restroom. [The officer] was like you handled it like a mom. He can get back in the car,” she said to Fox Memphis. It wasn’t a big deal — until other officers became involved. Eason said several other officers showed up, including a lieutenant who said that Quantavious had to be arrested and taken to jail for peeing. Eason admits her son shouldn’t have peed, but she says arresting him over it was doing too much. “No, him urinating in the parking lot was not right, but at the same time I handled it like a parent, and for one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car, it was okay, and to have the other pull up and take him to jail? Like no. I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a ten year old kid?” she said. Quantavious said he was scared and started shaking when the officers took him to jail. Once there, they held him in a cell, charged him with “child in need of services” and then released him to his mother. keep reading : https://jalopnik.com/police-arrested-10-year-old-peeing-behind-his-moms-car-1850752223

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

news.yahoo.com

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has a reckless plan for achieving U.S. global dominance: giving away other countries’ territory. Ramaswamy is already under fire for his objectively terrible plan to let China invade Taiwan after 2028 if he were elected. Now, the presidential hopeful thinks that Russia should be allowed to keep the parts of Ukraine it currently occupies. “Our goal should not be for Putin to lose. Our goal should be for America to win,” Ramaswamy told CNN Thursday night. Ramaswamy said that U.S. involvement in Ukraine is strengthening the Russia–China military alliance—and the only way to break that alliance and bring Russia around to the American side is to give Vladimir Putin what he wants. “I would freeze the current lines of control, and that would leave parts of the Donbas region with Russia,” Ramaswamy explained. “I would also further make a commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. But there are even greater wins that I will get for the United States.” Ramaswamy seems to be under multiple false impressions with this diplomatic plan, the first being that the United States has the authority to simply give away parts of another sovereign nation. He also appears to believe that if he visits Moscow, he can single-handedly buddy up to Putin enough to convince the Russian leader to drop a highly advantageous military alliance. And as anchor Jim Acosta rightly pointed out, Putin is unlikely to stop with Ukraine. He wasn’t satisfied with annexing Crimea in 2014 and now wants all of Ukraine. If he is allowed to keep parts of Ukraine, it’s possible that he’ll try to invade somewhere else such as Poland, a NATO member—which would require military intervention from the rest of the members. This plan is just as bad as Ramaswamy’s strategy for Taiwan. Earlier this week, Ramaswamy proposed letting China take over Taiwan after 2028, which he believes is when the U.S. would build up its own supply of semiconductors. Taiwan produces about 60 percent of the global supply of semiconductors, which are microchips crucial to making all electronic devices. Ramaswamy said he intends to dramatically up the firepower around Taiwan during his first term, to make clear to Beijing that they should “not mess” with the island until the U.S. has semiconductor independence. After that, China can do whatever it wants. It did not seem to occur to him that China would likely interpret these moves as acts of aggression and respond in kind. Nor does he seem to realize that it’s highly unlikely China would listen to his proposed arrangement. But despite his only campaign points being battling “wokeness,” taking away rights, and, apparently, allowing authoritarian governments to do whatever they want, Ramaswamy is somehow rising in the polls.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.splcenter.org

A year after the far-right Mises Caucus took over the Libertarian Party, its membership and financial numbers are down. Some state parties, including New Mexico, Virginia and Massachusetts, have splintered or disaffiliated from the national party. Leaked documents Hatewatch obtained show the Libertarian National Committee is squabbling and worried that their takeover is “turning into a disaster.” Members of the national Libertarian Party (LP) leadership board for months have squabbled and aired concerns about the LP’s challenges under the leadership of the far-right Mises Caucus (MC), according to a cache of leaked documents Hatewatch obtained. The leak contains hundreds of pages of text messages, group chats and confidential memos between members of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC). Hatewatch received the leak from John Hudak, a libertarian critic of the MC. Members of the LNC, which steers the national party, have acknowledged the leak in publicly available communications. The leak appears to come from Miguel Duque, an MC-affiliated LNC representative from Washington state. In a document titled, “START HERE The Takeover has failed by Miguel and Anna Johnson Duque,” Duque’s wife appears to detail their reasons for leaking the documents. Metadata suggests the Duques created the document on Aug. 13. The departure of Lainie Huston, the former interim executive director of the LP, who announced she was leaving her position on July 31 after internal conflicts, appears to have motivated the couple in part. The documents include memos, Discord group chats and text messages between the Duques and LNC members. The Duques blamed the LNC’s failures on a “lack of vision, which leads back to” LNC chair Angela McArdle. Miguel Duque is still on the LNC, and the documents suggest he and his wife are concerned with staffing issues and a slow response to challenges the LP has faced over fundraising and membership. The Duques claimed these challenges are made worse by the LNC’s inability to obtain “functional data” through software “tools.” The documents detail concerns about CiviCRM, a nonprofit donor fundraising software and internal conflicts between LNC members. The MC won control of the LP’s national governing body at its national convention held in Reno, Nevada, in 2022. McArdle won the position of chair of the LNC with over 69% of the vote that year. MC candidates won two-thirds of LNC positions at the convention. MC members considered the victory a “takeover” and called it the “Reno Reset.” “We believe the massive opportunity of the Takeover / Reno Reset has thus far been utterly squandered, that this Party is being severely injured by the avoidable mistakes by leadership outlined here,” the Duque’s document states. McArdle and others lauded their victory as a turn from what they viewed as left-wing management by the LP’s former LNC. The new leaders stripped the LP’s platform of its pro-abortion rights plank and began posting pro-secession rhetoric. They also stripped the platform of its plank that condemned bigotry as “irrational and repugnant.” After Hatewatch published an article about the MC’s far-right rhetoric and ties, members of the newly formed LNC attempted to pass a resolution condemning the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “irrational and repugnant.” The resolution failed. When asked for comment, Miguel Duque responded that he condemns the SPLC “as irrational and repugnant,” referencing the failed resolution. However, in a text message to McArdle contained in the leak, Anna Johnson Duque said she was “secretly thrilled” the resolution failed due to internal LNC politics. McArdle and others thought the turn to far-right rhetoric and the MC’s management would appeal to Libertarians, who McArdle believed were “far more right leaning” than the MC. McArdle said during a debate for the position of LNC chair that the MC would “make this [party] functional and not embarrassing for you.” The leaked documents show McArdle has waning confidence in the Reno Reset. “The takeover is turning into a disaster,” McArdle said in a confidential memo from May that the leak contains. “Members have asked me what we are doing. We spend lots of time in executive session, dealing with lawsuits and personnel issues,” she wrote in the memo, titled “LNC Dysfunction - Is There A Realistic Path Forward?” The memo does not explicitly state the nature of the lawsuits. The LNC has filed one lawsuit against the eight Michigan Libertarian candidates over their use of the LP trademark after a leadership dispute in that state. The candidates ran separately from the LP. The LP has further lost state affiliates. New Mexico and Virginia both disaffiliated, though the LP organized new parties in both states. Massachusetts has two Libertarian parties: One controlled by the MC and another that splintered over concerns about the MC’s far-right rhetoric. Pennsylvania has the Keystone Party, which libertarians formed after they saw the LP as “veering too hard to the right.” McArdle also aired concerns over the LP’s finances. Publicly available monthly reports that LNC officials prepare have showed that membership and financials have taken a sustained a steady fall since the MC took over. According to the June 2023 membership report, the LP’s “sustaining members” – those who have donated at least $25 in the 12 preceding months, according to the LP’s bylaws – have dropped to slightly over 14,000. This was a 6.5% drop from the preceding month, and a drop of nearly 3,000 since Dec. 2022. “In the face of financial challenges, we have lost the purpose and vision of what we set out to do and are thrashing around like a drowning person. It is very hard to save someone who is thrashing about,” McArdle wrote in the document. McArdle echoed the Duques and said the LP’s staff say their “main fundraising tool and data are a disaster.” When asked for comment about the leak and her remarks in the memo, McArdle said: “We’re in an excellent place right now, we’re going to kick ass in 2024, and prove wrong the depraved vultures who pay attention to this sort of gossip.” The Duques wrote, “Fundraising and membership are down for various reasons, and the data is so wrecked that it’s very difficult to objectively pinpoint the real reasons or the severity.” Hatewatch asked Holly Ward, the former chair of the Virginia Libertarian Party that disaffiliated, what she believed to be the reason for the drop in funds and members. After seeing portions of the leaked material, Ward told Hatewatch it “is clear that even the Mises Caucus knows that what they set out to accomplish has failed, as any movement built on hatred and division is destined to fail.” She concluded: “They have, for a time, been able to lie to their supporters about this fact, but their internal conversations make clear they are no longer able to lie to themselves.”

acab chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

jacobin.com

Stonewall was a riot — but in some cities, Pride officials have banned “political” groups and welcomed cops. Now activists are organizing radical Pride marches to show that Pride is a protest, not just a party. In 2016, Toronto was preparing for its annual Pride march. For the first time, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, would attend alongside the thousands in the parade, with Black Lives Matter (BLM) as guests of honor. But BLM was angry, after years of seeing Blockorama — the only Pride month event for black queers — moved further from the march, even as police were welcomed at the parade. Objecting to their presence, BLM blocked the march for thirty minutes. This cop involvement especially mattered because Toronto Pride had first begun in 1981 as a protest against a police raid on four bathhouses in the city. That February, officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers had arrested over two hundred fifty gay men in “Operation Soap.” Black activists who participated in that first Pride were back in 2016 and were joined by both younger protesters and indigenous drummers in bringing the march to a halt. Faced with the protests, Toronto Pride’s executive director, Mathieu Chantelois, signed off on BLM’s demand not to allow the police to return in future — but then backtracked, claiming he had only done so to get the march moving again. After widespread criticism, Chantelois resigned; next time around, the police float was noticeably absent. Toronto is hardly the only city where police have joined Pride. In a similar action in Britain last year, activists from Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM) broke through the barriers at London’s Pride march to stage a die-in. Holding funeral bouquets and draped in pink veils, they held up the march for twenty-three minutes — one minute for each person that had died in police custody since 2020 — to protest metropolitan police officers joining the parade. One participant in the protest, Ink, explains, “I watched friends cheer on the police at London Pride, despite understanding their role in oppressing queer people. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, the presence of police at pride became especially unconscionable and we felt it was important to reclaim Pride as a space hostile to the presence of the state and its violence.” Criticisms of mainstream Pride, made by queer participants like Ink who would prefer to see it returned to its roots in protest, have been bubbling under the surface for years. In 2001, Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist who cofounded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries alongside fellow Stonewall riots veteran Marsha P. Johnson, called modern Pride “a big smokescreen.” Baulking at how corporations use Pride to present themselves as virtuous — what we now call pinkwashing — she mourned a modern Pride that only believes in the “almighty dollar,” stating “this is no longer my Pride.” Gay rights have progressed, but activists still debate assimilation versus liberation — whether queer people should adapt to the norms and values of wider society or else change society to one that doesn’t privilege certain queer identities. Indeed, as Pride events have become mainstream, so too have certain versions of fitting in. Equality for some LGBTQ people means the freedom to marry, adopt kids, or even to get a well-paying job at an arms company with the same rights and protections as a straight colleague. That is lauded as progress whilst queers who can’t — or don’t want to — obey such norms continue to be marginalized. Corporations and the state use diversity and inclusivity in this way to wash themselves clean. At this year’s Pride in Washington DC, arms industry giant Lockheed Martin drove a sponsored float through the city, much to the disgust of socialists and queer activists. This year in London, big oil was the target of protests as activists picketed the annual LGBTQ awards sponsored by BP, Shell, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Santander, Amazon, and Nestlé. Days later, this July 1, five activists from Just Stop Oil were arrested after jumping in front of BP’s float and halting London’s Pride parade, reminding onlookers that there will be no pride on a dead planet. In recent years, Reclaim Pride groups sharing these criticisms of contemporary Pride celebrations have sprung up from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Oslo, Norway, and New York City. Some groups have tried to reclaim Pride by protesting, as BLM and LGSM have. Others have chosen opt out and create their own celebrations that stay true to Pride’s roots in a riot against police violence. In 2019, as preparations were underway for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, activists in New York City organized an opposing Queer Liberation March instead. The official parade ran for twelve hours because there were so many corporate floats, notes Paul Nocera from New York’s Reclaim Pride Coalition. He told Jacobin how activists had become disillusioned with Pride — and the way acceptable queerness was policed by letting in some people and shutting out others: “The barricades don’t just contain people, they set up an entertainment dynamic where the people on one side are the audience and the people on the inside are the entertainment. This is a march, we’re not the entertainment,” he explains. “It really gives so much control over the message, the method, the anger. All the aspects of what we’re trying to do in our march get squashed . . . the cops want to have a march that doesn’t mean anything, that doesn’t make any complaints.” For activists in New York, it was important to have a protest with radical politics to mark the anniversary. Each year since, they have held one on the same day as New York’s official Pride parade. Sometimes — Nocera told me — he gets disillusioned and exhausted, “It’s really tough because we do this every year and I don’t see anything changing — so what the hell are we marching for? But I was reminded that this is the moment when the community gathers together and link arms. Whether were faced outward and yelling and screaming or faced inward and having a teary eye, it’s still the gathering of the community, and that’s hugely important,” says Nocera. “To not have a march, to not have any radical gathering of people and spirits, that would be a huge loss.” Over in England, Sheffield Radical Pride (SRP) took things a step further and organized the city’s only Pride march this year, scheduled for July 22 to coincide with Tramlines music festival when tens of thousands descended on the city. In 2018, the previous organizers declared the event was a march of “celebration, not protest.” They banned political groups from taking part and demanded banners and placards be inspected for approval to avoid causing offense. This sparked outrage from many in the queer community, who criticized Pride Sheffield for conveniently forgetting the previous fifty years of history. Since the pandemic, Sheffield has struggled to organize a Pride and 2023 marks the third year the council has not funded one. Over winter, a group of young, largely transgender activists started conversations about how their organizing could reach the wider city and decided they should step in and organize this year’s event. They want to turn Pride back into a street movement they hope those at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 could be proud of. A month before the march, SRP announced cops and corporations were banned. “It’s exciting and it’s fun . . . I’m glad that we have the opportunity to make Sheffield’s only Pride one that is genuinely radical and one that is free of corporations and cops,” says Alex, one of the organizers. This year, the theme for the Queer Liberation March in New York was “Trans + Queer; Forever Here!” Nocera says trans people have been at the forefront of organizing the march for years, but they felt in 2023 trans liberation needed special attention. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States, and a large number of those attack trans people in various ways such as limiting their access to health care and preventing social transition or education about trans people in schools. Some have already passed laws attempting to limit drag performances and prevent cross-dressing. In New York, where trans people led the Stonewall riots, Nocera says the focus of this year’s march has given a sense of “continuing the legacy of Stonewall which is protest, resistance and resilience as a community.” Organizers of Sheffield’s trans-led march have also seen the recent attacks on the trans and queer community from both far-right street mobilization and the UK government. One of the recent attacks from the British state came from the Tories’ so-called equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch. In April, she announced plans to change the legal definition of “sex,” which could see the trans community lose vital rights and protections. For the trans community, pride has to be a protest — because pretending they can safely celebrate their identity simply isn’t an option. Across the UK, grassroots Trans Pride marches have appeared, with the largest held annually in London. Another of their organizers, Matt, tells me that the vitriol targeted at trans people is the first step to revoking everyone’s rights: “This pushback and backlash against trans rights is a gateway to repealing more equalities and targeting more minorities. It’s being done by some people in the name of feminism and women’s rights but really, these people are partnering with fascists.” He adds, “Rights aren’t this permanent thing once you’ve achieved them — they can also go away.” In making Sheffield Pride a protest, Matt and Alex hope honest conversations can be had about queer liberation and the challenges it faces: “We’re not putting on this façade about how everyone’s super-accepting and how some company is going to sell you products and hire you and therefore homophobia is over,” says Matt. “We’re not going to radicalize everyone who comes. But we can tell people how it is for queer people now and we can’t be silenced through threats over funding or permissions.” As groups like Sheffield Radical Pride and the Reclaim Pride Coalition continue organizing marches, we can hope Pride is slowly returning to something Sylvia Rivera might recognize — and be proud of.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

truthout.org

US. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday said her country’s government should declassify documents related to its role in the violent 1973 overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, nearly five decades ago. “It’s very important to frame the history of what happened here in Chile with Pinochet’s dictatorship. And also to acknowledge and reflect on the role of the United States in those events,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a video conversation with Camila Vallejo, a spokesperson for the Chilean government. “The transparency of the United States could present an opportunity for a new phase in our relationship between the United States and Chile,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who led a congressional delegation to Chile and other Latin American nations — an effort sponsored by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The Nixon administration was closely involved in efforts to prevent Allende, a democratic socialist, from assuming power in 1970 and in the subsequent overthrow of the Chilean government on September 11, 1973. The CIA has acknowledged that it “actively supported” the viciously repressive military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who was later arrested and indicted for human rights violations. While some U.S. documents related to the Chile coup have been declassified, Ocasio-Cortez has called for the declassification of “all information” at the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon detailing U.S. involvement in the coup. In July, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an amendment to the annual U.S. military policy bill that would have aimed to declassify the documents, but the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee blocked the amendment from receiving a vote. “It’s time for the U.S. to acknowledge its history of contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America,” the New York Democrat said at the time. “To reset this relationship, we must take full, public responsibility for our historical role — and demonstrate with our present actions that we will not support human rights abuses.” Ocasio-Cortez and fellow lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), are now set to travel to Colombia. In a statement earlier this week, Casar noted that “U.S. foreign policy has too often contributed to instability in Latin America: we should be protecting democracy rather than supporting coups, and we should be creating peace and prosperity across the Western Hemisphere rather than replaying the Cold War.” “Now is the time to talk about our history, jointly fight the climate crisis, and invest in lasting peace,” said Casar.

history chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.thearchaeologist.org

Human bones from the Early Neolithic period discovered in Spain's Sierra de Atapuerca cave system's Galera del Slex cave have been studied again by researchers at the Universidad de Alcala. The team describes their examination of the site, fossils, and context of the remains in an article titled "Early Neolithic human remains from Galera del Slex in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain" that was published in Quaternary Science Reviews. This investigation was done to piece together the history of the people who were discovered there. For thousands of years, people have used the Galera del Slex cave. Numerous human and animal remains, 53 panels of engravings and red and black cave paintings, dozens of fire hearth ruins, and pieces of ceramic vessels may all be found in the cave. The cave entrance was sealed just as the Bronze Age was coming to an end, creating a time capsule that survived until its discovery in 1972. Over time, a more nuanced image began to emerge, but at first the objects and remains were all assumed to date from the Bronze Age. In the decades following discovery, 2,700 human remains were gathered from various cave regions. In addition, several hearths, the remains of torches that were placed in strategic locations, more than 6,000 ceramic fragments (at least 336 containers), tools, flint, an axe that had been polished, and 341 animal bones, mostly rabbits, were also discovered. The remains of five people were found in the cave's two deep chasms, Sima A and Sima B. Sima B Three people are found in Sima B's vertical shaft, and the positioning and surroundings of the remains imply intentional placement. One person (I-1) is discovered to have all of the skeleton remains present, showing that it was thrown into the chasm just after passing away. The others could have been moved from another area to the shaft because they are not as complete. The authors note that using the pictures of the original excavation to rebuild this location presents significant challenges. Sima A From the depths of Sima A, two people and six pottery vessels that were later dated to the Early Neolithic were found. The two people were initially thought to be a tragic pair of Bronze Age cave explorers who became disoriented and fell into the 15-meter-deep crevice of the Sima A features. Neolithic ceramics, on the other hand, point to an older, deliberate placement. According to the authors, this intention is consistent with the custom of 5,000–6,000 years ago, when pottery vessels were frequently left as funerary offerings in Neolithic cemeteries. According to forensic analysis, one of the people (I-5) was a female who was 13 years old when she passed away. Her full and assembled remains were discovered resting against the far wall of the chasm floor, close to the six porcelain urns. The other bones (I-4) were of an adult guy who was found face down and without the lower half of his skeleton, indicating that he may have been a more unfortunate explorer than the others. Three of the remains—one from the young girl (I-5) of Sima A and two from Sima B—have undergone radiocarbon dating, which dates them to the latter half of the 6th millennium BCE, or more than 7,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest Neolithic human remains ever discovered in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. It is by more than 1,000 years the oldest Neolithic funeral site in the instance of the 13-year-old girl. It's interesting to note that individual I-4 of the Sima A funeral site is significantly more modern, dating to just over 4,000 years old. This is consistent with the first excavation interpretation of a Bronze Age spelunker who ran into some terrible luck. Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-08-year-old-girl-iberian-cave-early.html

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

6abc.com

And some will claim  has no culture A 6-year-old boy from West Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County has been named the 2023 Kids Mullet Champion. Rory Ehrlich won the contest on Wednesday, beating out other kids across the country. The rising first grader says life has been pretty exciting since he entered the contest and became mullet-famous in Philadelphia.

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.theonion.com

YOUNGSTOWN, OH—Midway through a tour of a construction site partially funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden reportedly fell Wednesday into a cement mixer. “See, this is the kind of building we used to do in America, the kind we can do again thanks to the IRA, and if you just—whoaahoaaahoaaa,” said the president, who sources confirmed tumbled headfirst into the rotating industrial mixer, his legs kicking behind him as his cries for help were muffled by the thick concrete mixture inside. “Oh god, it’s really dark in here. Anyone out there? Hello? Hello? I’m getting dizzy in here!” At press time, a cement-encased President Biden had reportedly been inserted into a Cleveland bridge’s support beam as part of the rollout of his infrastructure package.

technology chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.climatechangenews.com

China is the world’s biggest manufacturer of renewable energy equipment and is making plans for how to dispose of it once it stops working China, the world’s biggest renewable equipment manufacturer, will set up a recycling system for ageing wind turbines and solar panels as it tries to tackle the growing volumes of waste generated by the industry, the state planner said. China has ramped up its wind and solar manufacturing capabilities in a bid to decarbonise its economy and ease its dependence on coal, and it is now on track to meet its goal to bring total wind and solar capacity to 1,200 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, up from 758 GW at the end of last year. But as older projects are replaced and decommissioned, waste volumes are set to soar, with large amounts of capacity already approaching retirement age, posing big environmental risks. To cope with the challenge, China will draw up new industrial standards and rules detailing the proper ways to decommission, dismantle and recycle wind and solar facilities, the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Wednesday. The state planning agency said that China would have a “basically mature” full-process recycling system for wind turbines and solar panels by the end of the decade. Photovoltaic (PV) panels have a lifespan of around 25 years, and many of China’s projects are already showing significant signs of wear and tear, China’s official Science and Technology Daily newspaper said in June. The paper cited experts as saying that China would need to recycle 1.5 million metric tons of PV modules by 2030, rising to around 20 million tons in 2050. The problem of waste from the renewable energy sector has become a growing global concern. Total waste from solar projects alone could reach 212 million tons a year by 2050, according to one scenario drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) last year.

urbanism chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.climatechangenews.com

Despite Beijing’s sponge city project, the capital was overwhelmed by recent floods with dozens dying and a new “sponge airport” shut down Recent devastating floods in Beijing have put China’s drive to create “sponge cities” which can handle extreme rain to the test. Since 2013, China has been trying to make cities like Beijing more flood-proof by replacing roads, pavements and rooftops with natural materials like soil that soak up water and by giving more space to water bodies like lakes to absorb stormwater. But despite these measures, massive amounts of rainfall in recent weeks caused floods which killed at least 33 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and shut down the Chinese capital’s second busiest airport. Experts told Climate Home the flooding shows the limited progress China has made on its plan to invest $1 trillion into sponge cities by 2030 – with the city still largely concrete. Sponge airport overwhelmed Even new infrastructure, build with the sponge city concept in mind, could not cope with the rains. Daxing airport opened a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic. Its builders described it as a “sponge airport” as it was equipped with plants on its roof, a huge wetland and an artificial lake the size of over 1,000 Olympic swimming pools. Despite these measures, the runways flooded on July 30 and it had to cancel over 50 flights. Waters diverted The government tried to collect the rain in 155 reservoirs in the Hai River Basin, but the measure proved ineffective in controlling the deluge. About 50 years ago, the basin –a natural sponge–was locked with embankments and reservoirs to manage the water flow. In recent years though, these structures have made flooding worse as climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall. These structures lead to overflow, collapse and the authorities have blown them up to ease flooding. Reuters reported that flood waters locked in reservoirs were diverted to low-lying populated land in Zhuozhuo, a small city around 80km from Beijing, to flush out the stormwater from the country’s national capital. Residents of Zhuozhou were angry at the government’s response, Reuters reported. The government reacted by shutting down criticism on social media. More work needed Experts argued that these problems show that, rather than abandoning the sponge city project, China and Beijing need to double down and make them better. Kongjian Yu is the founder of Turenscape, a company involved in the project. He said that just “maybe 1% or 10%” of the city has been converted to a sponge city. The government’s target is 20% by 2030. “We have a long way to go,” he said. Yu added that sponge cities are worth doing not just because they control floods but for managing droughts and refilling groundwater supplies too. Tony Wong, professor of sustainable development at Monash University, said that progress was always going to be slow as “it takes a long time and a lot of money” to convert a city like Beijing, with lots of people and concrete buildings crammed into a small area, into a sponge city. More work is needed, says Wong, because Beijing and many other cities lack effective urban planning, and there is no provision for a safe channeling of extreme floodwater. “What the city needs is the inclusion of green corridors, just like Singapore – another high-density city- has done to transport excess stormwater into low-lying areas to prevent loss of lives and property.” If China pulls this off it could become an example for many developing countries with high-density cities struggling to control urban flooding, added Wong.

urbanism chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

jacobin.com

Here’s a summer story you never knew you needed: an 1895 article by Eugene Debs waxing poetic about bicycles, which he said would “liberate millions” and bring “the enrapturing panorama of nature” to all. The mission of the bicycle is greatly underrated. Human ingenuity, in evolving the bicycle, has given man a mighty boon. It is to play a great part in the world’s affairs. It is to liberate millions from the thralldom of foul atmosphere, squalid and filthy apartments, and all the multiplicity of debauching and demoralizing conditions that make the lives of workingmen and women in manufacturing and commercial centers a continuous curse. It is to be an important factor in depopulating cities and building up the country. It will be a mighty leveler upward and downward. The bicycle will attack the fabulous value of city real estate, distribute population, lower rent, close up the tenement den, and extinguish the sweatshop hell. It will free the inhabitants of cities from the fetid odors their overcrowded conditions generate and pour a perpetual flood of fresh air upon the race. As a matter of course working people will have them and the man who trudges to his daily toil will be an object for a relief commission. The limits of an interview will admit only the merest glimpse of the possibilities of the bicycle. The great health-giving advantages of fresh air and exercise, will by the fiat of the bicycle, be the heritage of the race. The bicycle, not the medical profession, will triumph over disease. The wheel is on the trail of Consumption and will overtake and vanquish the remorseless destroyer. Men and women and children will all ride the bicycle and the enrapturing panorama of nature will no longer be forbidden glories to most of the race. Of course, the bicycle is yet in embryo. The wheel of the future will revolve to suit man’s fancy and the variety, design, and capacity will be practically without limit. And when monopoly and special privilege are abolished, the bicycle may be purchased for a song and will be within the reach of all. The world will yet revolve on wheels.

chapotraphouse chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

https://inthesetimes.com/article/chex-and-balances-comics-labor-inequality-politics Why did they put the fruit loops in his beard though 

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.yahoo.com

Better late than never, and landlords get paid as a treat as they always do, but obiously can't build housing that's only for the USSR we only build $2000 a month luxury high rise apartments in places where the median income is less than $2000 a month --- New York plans to use $25 million in state funds to rent temporary homes for up to 1,250 asylum-seeking families who opt to leave New York City's crowded shelters. Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers approved funding for voluntary relocations in the state budget adopted in May. It was part of a $1 billion allocation for housing and services for tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been bused to New York City from the southern border over the last year. So far, 17 families have volunteered to move into state-rented homes, Gov. Hochul's office announced Saturday. State officials told the USA TODAY Network on Monday that the program will cover rent for up to a year while helping families with school enrollment, health care and other needs to settle into their new communities. The total funding amounts to $20,000 per family if 1,250 families indeed volunteer. https://www.yahoo.com/news/ny-spend-25m-state-funds-091548844.html

sports chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.erininthemorning.com

International Chess Federation, FIDE, has released new guidelines targeting transgender players. The guidelines would strip trans men's titles, and potentially bar trans women from playing. In recent months, the discussion surrounding transgender participation in sports has intensified. Several sports organizations have ruled that transgender women cannot participate in their competitions. This trend has expanded beyond traditional sports like swimming, touching even disc golf and billiards, based on perceived “advantages” of transgender athletes. The reaction to trans people in competition has grown to include non-sporting contests like beauty pageants and Jeopardy! after seeing transgender success. Now, FIDE, the world’s foremost international chess organization, has introduced guidelines that would revoke titles from transgender men and bar many transgender women from competing, asserting that trans women "have no right to participate.” The regulations, reported online by French transgender FIDE master, Yosha Iglesias, spell out a list of policy changes that apply to transgender competition in chess. Among the policy changes: Transgender men must relinquish their women-category titles after transitioning. Transgender women can keep their previous titles. Transgender women have “no right to compete” in the women’s division. Transgender women will be “evaluated” by the FIDE Council on if they will be allowed to compete in a process that may take up to 2 years. FIDE can mark transgender players as “transgender” in their files. Gender changes must be “comply with the player’s national laws” and may include birth certificate documents (despite many nations refusing to change transgender birth certificates) See the main page on transgender participation from the organization: The unveiling of these regulations drew widespread ridicule, with numerous individuals challenging the notion that transgender women possess a “natural advantage” in chess. According to the chess news site Chessbase, the women’s category in chess exists to encourage increased participation among women, not because women inherently perform at a lower level in the game. Thus, the typical arguments against transgender women competing don't hold water, as it's implausible to claim that transgender women have an unfair advantage. This isn't the first instance of scrutiny regarding transgender participation in non-physical competitions. In 2022, transgender Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider set the record as the highest-winning woman in Jeopardy history. Following her success, several anti-trans voices online claimed she unfairly took the title from “real women,” suggesting that transgender women possess an inherent advantage in trivia over cisgender women. The regulations are harmful and discriminatory towards transgender individuals. The logic behind revoking titles from transgender men transitioning from the women’s category is not explained anywhere in the document. Additionally, these rules would delay transgender women from competing for up to two years while their gender is examined, and could even prohibit them indefinitely. Given that the usual "unfair advantage" argument doesn't logically apply in this context, these regulations appear to unfairly target transgender individuals while sidestepping even the usual arguments against trans competition. The enforcement of these policies remains unclear. Iglesias took to Twitter, asking, "Am I woman enough?" She listed the FIDE council members, sharing photos that depict the majority as older cisgender men, adding, "these people will decide." The documents don't specify how decisions regarding a transgender member's participation will be made. Until further clarity, transgender international chess players face uncertainty about their continued involvement in the sport.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

nz.news.yahoo.com

Tasmania has become the first jurisdiction to ban the Nazi salute, with penalties of up to three months' jail on the cards for first-time offenders. The laws, which also prohibit the display of Nazi symbols, have passed the state's upper house and are expected to come into effect later in 2023. "We strongly condemn any display of hate in our community," Attorney-General Elise Archer said on Wednesday. "This (law change) is the first of its kind in Australia and will contribute to the creation of a safer and more inclusive Tasmania." The federal government is moving to ban Nazi symbols, with a proposal introduced to parliament in June. But it doesn't cover the salute. Victoria is among several states to have banned Nazi symbols and has flagged plans to also outlaw the salute. A Victorian government spokesperson said legislation was being finalised and more would be revealed soon. "These actions incite hatred towards Jewish people and other minority groups, and it won't be tolerated in Victoria,'' the spokesperson said. Under the law changes in Tasmania, it is an offence to perform a Nazi gesture if a person knows, or ought to know, it is a Nazi gesture. There is a defence if a person proves the gesture was reasonable and performed in good faith for a genuine academic, artistic, religious, scientific, cultural, educational, legal or law enforcement purpose. First offenders face a $3900 fine or three months' jail, with maximum penalties doubling for further offences within six months. Ms Archer said the law change acknowledged the importance of the swastika to the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religious communities. "(It) clearly states that the display of a swastika in this context is not an offence," she said. "The bill also acknowledges other legitimate public purposes for display, including other religious, cultural, academic and educational purposes." Ms Archer said police would undergo education and training on the new offences, including for the cultural significance of the swastika.

politics chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

news.yahoo.com

By Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's cabinet passed a contentious bill on Wednesday to legalize recreational marijuana use and cultivation, one of the most liberal cannabis laws in Europe that could potentially provide further momentum for a similar worldwide trend. The legislation, which still has to pass parliament, would allow adults to possess up to 25 grams (0.88 oz) of the drug, grow a maximum of three plants, or acquire weed as associates of non-profit cannabis clubs. The centre-left government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes the law will curb the black market, protect consumers against contaminated marijuana and reduce drug-related crime. A key pillar of the plan, which removes the taboo around cannabis use, is also a campaign to raise awareness about the risks, which should ultimately curb consumption, said Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, of Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD). Such a campaign would not gain the same level of attention if it were introduced without a change in the law, he said. "With the current procedures we could not seriously protect children and young people, the topic has been made a taboo," Lauterbach told a news conference in Berlin to present the law. "We have rising, problematic consumption, we couldn't simply allow this to go on," he said. "So this is an important turning point in our drug policy." The number of adults in Germany aged between 18 and 25 years old that consumed cannabis at least once nearly doubled in 2021 from the previous decade to 25%, according to the health ministry. Young adults are considered more vulnerable to the health risks of cannabis. The new legislation will limit the amount of cannabis young adults can buy to 30 grams a month, compared to 50 grams for older adults. CRITICISM FROM BOTH SIDES Opposition to the legislation is fierce, with conservative policymakers in particular warning that it will encourage marijuana use and that the new legislation will create even more work for authorities. "This law will be linked to a complete loss of control," Armin Schuster, conservative interior minister for the state of Saxony, told media group RND. A U.N. narcotics watchdog said in March moves by governments to legalize the recreational use of marijuana have led to increased consumption and cannabis-related health problems. Lauterbach said Germany had learned from other countries' mistakes, however. Scholz's government had already watered down original plans to allow the widespread sale of cannabis in licensed shops after consultations with Brussels. Instead, it said would launch a pilot project for a small number of licensed shops in some regions to test the effects of a commercial supply chain of recreational cannabis over five years. For that, it will need to present separate legislation in a second phase. Similar such projects already exist or are planned in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Many countries in Europe have already legalised cannabis for limited medicinal purposes, including Germany since 2017. Others have decriminalized its general use. Malta became the first European country to allow limited cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use in late 2021. Germany would become the first major European country to do so. The legislation presented on Wednesday includes strict rules for growing weed - cannabis clubs of up to 500 associates must have burglar-proof doors and windows, with greenhouses fenced off. Associates will not be allowed to smoke weed at the clubs or in the vicinity of schools, nurseries, playgrounds or sports grounds. Germany's hemp association said the rules were "unrealistic" and the black market could only truly be fought with the introduction of cannabis sales in shops. The parliamentary drug policy spokesperson of junior coalition partner the Free Democrats, Kristine Luetke, accused Lauterbach of continuing a "prohibition policy" and creating a "bureaucratic monster". (Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Bernadette Baum)

labour chilemango • 1 year ago • 100%

www.aljazeera.com

Miners wearing safety equipment walk through an underground tunnel at the South Deep gold mine, operated by Gold Fields Ltd., in Westonaria, South Africa, on Thursday, March 9, 2017. South Deep is the world''s largest gold deposit after Grasberg in Indonesia, makes up 60 percent of the company''s reserves and the miner says it''s capable of producing for 70 years. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg The Catholic Church says it is shepherding a class-action lawsuit through the courts against mining companies in South Africa on behalf of coal miners with lung disease. The Southern African Bishops Conference said on Wednesday that lawyers filed papers with South Africa’s High Court on Tuesday. “Very often ex-mine workers are no longer members of trade unions and, therefore, lack the means and capacity to seek legal recourse from large companies which are responsible for their lung diseases,” Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin said. “It is thus incumbent on the church to give assistance where it can, … so that they can access compensation that is legally due to them.” The miners are represented by Richard Spoors, a lawyer who has won compensation in similar cases before. Filed on behalf of 17 former and current mine workers, the case targets mining giant BHP, its spin-off South32 and South Africa’s Seriti, Dasantha Pillay, a lawyer with Spoors’s firm, told the Agence France-Presse news agency. It seeks recourse for all miners who worked for these companies since 1965 and contracted lung disease as well as dependents of workers who died from coal dust-induced illness. The firms did not immediately reply to AFP’s request for comment. The church said it initiated and facilitated the case after it was approached by mine workers for assistance. Coal is a bedrock of South Africa’s economy, employing almost 100,000 people and accounting for 80 percent of electricity production. The industry is concentrated in the eastern region of Mpumalanga, which environmental campaigners Greenpeace said has some of the dirtiest air in the world. The class action accuses the companies of failing to provide their workers with adequate training, equipment and a safe working environment despite knowing the risks to coal miners.