Thomasville, Georgia, has a water problem. Its treatment system is far out of date, posing serious health and environmental risks.

“We have wastewater infrastructure that is old,” said Sheryl Sealy, the assistant city manager for this city of 18,881 near the Florida border, about 45 minutes from Tallahassee. “It’s critical that we do the work to replace this.”

But it’s expensive to replace. The system is especially bad in underserved parts of the city, Sealy said.

In September, Thomasville applied to get some help from the federal government, and just under four months later, the city and its partners were awarded a nearly $20 million Community Change grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make the long-overdue wastewater improvements, build a resilience hub and health clinic, and upgrade homes in several historic neighborhoods.

“The grant itself was really a godsend for us,” Sealy said. 

In early April, as the EPA canceled grants for similar projects across the country, federal officials assured Thomasville that their funding was on track. Then on May 1, the city received a termination notice.

“We felt, you know, a little taken off guard when the bottom did let out for us,” said Sealy.

Thomasville isn’t alone. 

Under the Trump administration, the EPA has canceled or interrupted hundreds of grants aimed at improving health and severe weather preparedness because the agency “determined that the grant applications no longer support administration priorities,” according to an emailed statement to Grist.

The cuts are part of a broader gutting of federal programs aimed at furthering environmental justice, an umbrella term for the effort to help communities that have been hardest hit by pollution and other environmental issues, which often include low-income communities and communities of color. 

In Thomasville’s case, the city has a history of heavy industry that has led to poor air quality. Air pollution, health concerns, and high poverty qualified the surrounding county for the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, which prioritized funding for disadvantaged communities. Thomasville has some of the highest exposure risks in Georgia to toxic air pollutants that can cause respiratory, reproductive, and developmental health problems, according to the Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Vulnerability Index. The city’s wastewater woes don’t only mean the potential for sewage backups in homes and spills into local waterways but also the risk of upper respiratory problems, according to Zealan Hoover, a former Biden administration EPA official who is now advising the advocacy groups Environmental Protection Network and Lawyers for Good Government.

“These projects were selected because they have a really clear path to alleviating the health challenges facing this community,” he said.

Critics argue there’s a disconnect between the Trump administration’s attack on the concept of environmental justice and the realities of what the funds are paying for.

“What is it about building a new health clinic and upgrading wastewater infrastructure … that’s inconsistent with administration policy?” Democratic Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin at a recent hearing. 

Zeldin repeatedly responded by discussing the agency’s review process intended to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, particularly those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, but Ossoff cut him off, pushing for a specific answer about Thomasville’s grant. “Is a new health clinic for Thomasville, Georgia, woke?” he asked.

Thomasville’s Sealy said she understands that the federal government has to make hard funding decisions — that’s true locally too — but losing this grant has left her city in the lurch. In addition to the planned work on the wastewater collection system, the city needs to update its treatment plant to meet EPA standards. That overhaul will likely cost $60 million to $70 million, she said.

“How do you fund that?” Sealy asked. “You can’t fund that on the backs of the people who pay our rates.”

The funding cuts have left cities across Georgia — including Athens, Norcross, and Savannah — as well as nonprofit groups, in a state of uncertainty: some grants terminated, some suspended then reinstated, some still unclear. This puts city officials in an impossible position, unable to wait or to move forward, according to Athens-Clarke County Sustainability Director Mike Wharton. 

“Do you commit to new programs? Do you commit to services?” he said. “Here you are sitting in limbo for months.” 

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Like Thomasville, Athens was also awarded a nearly $20 million Community Change grant. The city was going to use the money for backup generators, solar power, and battery storage at its public safety complex — ensuring 911, police, the jail, a domestic violence shelter, and other services could all operate during a power outage. That grant has been terminated.

The problem, Wharton said, goes beyond that money not coming in; the city had already spent time, resources, and money to get the grant.

“We spent $60,000 in local funding hiring people to write the grants,” he said. “Over a period of 14 months we invested over 700 hours of local personnel time. So we diverted our services to focus on these things.”

These frustrations are playing out for grant recipients throughout the state and country, according to Hoover. He said it’s not just confusing — it’s expensive.

“They are causing project costs to skyrocket because they keep freezing and unfreezing and refreezing projects,” he said. “One of the big drivers of cost overruns in any infrastructure project, public or private, is having to demobilize and remobilize your teams.”

Thomasville and Athens officials both said they’re appealing their grant terminations, which require them to submit a formal letter outlining the reasons for their appeal and requesting the agency reconsider the decision. They’re also reaching out to their elected officials, hoping that pressure from their senators and members of Congress can get them the federal money they were promised.

Other cities and nonprofits, as well as a group of Democratic state attorneys general, have sued, arguing that terminating their grants without following proper procedures is illegal. But that’s a difficult step for many localities to take.

“Suing the federal government to assert your legal rights is very daunting, even if the law is on your side,” Hoover said.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump cuts hundreds of EPA grants, leaving cities on the hook for climate resiliency on Jun 2, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Emily Jones.

Many weeks after they were rescued from scam centers inside Myanmar, more than 200 Vietnamese workers are still stranded in a squalid camp near the Thai border because they can’t afford their passage home, two of the workers told Radio Free Asia.

“Life here is very hard. The accommodation is like a chicken coop. You have to sleep on the floor on mats,” said a 31-year-old woman from the northern Vietnamese province of Son La, adding that conditions were “miserable” and infections spread among people there.

Hundreds of Vietnamese were among the more than 8,000 people of various nationalities who were freed in February by a pro-junta Myanmar militia that hosted extensive online fraud operations in its territory on the Thai-Myanmar border.

The Karen National Army, or KNA, let them go after unprecedented pressure from governments, including China, over criminal activity in the militia’s area including forced labor and torture of workers, and fraud against the targets of cyber scams.

Freed workers were taken to a makeshift camp near Myawaddy, the main international border crossing point to Thailand, to await repatriation. While the majority of those freed were Chinese, the Karen force said they included 685 Vietnamese.

(Citizen photo)

On May 15, Vietnam confirmed that it had repatriated a total of 450 citizens from Myanmar, and about 200 were still waiting to return. Stranded workers told RFA there were 215 Vietnamese left, and the KNA said 214.

Those still left behind are increasingly sore about it.

“I am very disappointed,” the Son La woman said. “Even Ethiopians, the poorest people here, were allowed to return home, leaving only over 200 Vietnamese people still here.”

People have to pay

RFA spoke directly to two of the Vietnamese workers. Others were within earshot of the call at the camp. They all said that they have to pay money to their embassy to be repatriated - money they don’t have. All requested anonymity for safety reasons.

“At first, you only had to pay 10 million (dong) ($385), but the longer you stay, the higher it gets. Now it’s 12 million ($470), and some people have to pay 13 million $500),” a Vietnamese man in the camp told RFA.

He said he was instructed by a representative of the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok on how to pay to be on the repatriation list.

He showed RFA the contents of a text message exchange with that official via the messaging app Zalo. In it, the official explained that the amount of “more than 12 million (dong)” was to buy a plane ticket, and if there was money left over it would be returned to the family.

“To be honest, I can’t afford to pay because my family is very poor. My family also asked me why I have to pay for the rescue?” the man told RFA.

The woman told RFA that she was also asked to pay money if she wanted to return home. “People from the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand said it would cost money, and if you don’t pay, you won’t be able to return,” she said.

RFA contacted the Vietnamese embassies in Myanmar and Thailand to verify the above information but received no response.

(Reuters)

The revelation that the Vietnamese scam center workers have to pay for their passage home may raise awkward questions about the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ handling of the situation.

Past problems with repatriations

The ministry and other Vietnamese government agencies have courted controversy in the past over officials skimming repatriation funds. In 2023, a Hanoi court convicted 54 defendants, including senior diplomats, for collecting over $7.4 billion in bribes to arrange government flights home for Vietnamese citizens stranded overseas during COVID pandemic lockdowns during 2020 and 2021.

While this repatriation operation is far smaller in scale, the scam centers have been headline news, shining a spotlight on the plight of those caught up in huge fraud operations in lawless regions of Southeast Asia. These centers are often staffed by people lured by false job advertisements and forced to work, sometimes under threat of violence, rescued workers and rights groups say.

The scamming, known as “pig butchering” in China, involves making contact with unsuspecting people online, building a relationship with them and then defrauding them. Researchers say billions of dollars have been stolen this way from victims around the world.

The Vietnamese man said he had arrived in Thailand in 2023 to take up another job but was forced to cross the border into Myanmar to work in a Chinese scam center to target Vietnamese people. He said if he did not achieve monthly targets, he would be tortured.

The woman from Son La told a similar story. She got a job as a translator in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand in September 2024 but was then forced at gunpoint by her employers to cross the border into Myanmar to work in a scam center.

She said that after that she had tried to contact the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar for help but received no response, and started to plan an escape with other women from India and Indonesia. Their plan was exposed, and she was then locked in a separate room by her Chinese employers for two months as punishment. In April 2025, she was taken to the border camp by the Karen militia.

US sanctions

Despite the KNA’s apparent efforts to show it is untangling itself from the scam industry, on May 5, the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted the ethnic army, its leader Saw Chit Thu and his two sons for facilitating cyber scams from territory they control on the Thai-Myanmar border. The KNA was designated as a “significant transnational criminal organization” that is barred from holding property in the United States and conducting transactions with U.S. persons.

On May 6, Lt. Col. Naing Maung Zaw, a spokesperson for the KNA, told The Associated Press 7,454 of 8,575 foreign scam workers have so far been repatriated through Thailand. He said more than 10,000 people remained to be identified in the KNA-controlled areas, and the group would continue to work toward the elimination of scam activities.

Speaking to RFA last week, Naing Maung Zaw said they do not have a direct communication channel with the Vietnamese government and have noticed that recently Vietnam has reduced the repatriation of its citizens. He said he wasn’t aware those stuck at the camp have to pay money to the Vietnamese government to be repatriated.

“Now that RFA has mentioned it, I will pay attention to this issue. I will meet the Vietnamese people tomorrow and ask them directly if this is true. If it is true, we will report it to our superiors and do something,” he said.

Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told reporters in Hanoi on May 15 that the ministry will direct Vietnamese representative agencies in Myanmar and Thailand to bring the remaining Vietnamese citizens home as soon as possible.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Truong Son for RFA Vietnamese.

The election victory of Mark Carney’s Liberal Party on April 28, 2025, provoked fresh strain and already rigid posing of Alberta’s separation question. “For the last 10 years, successive Liberal Governments in Ottawa have unleashed a tidal wave of laws, policies and political attacks aimed directly at Alberta’s free economy – and in effect – against the future and livelihoods of our people,” wrote the province’s Premier Danielle Smith. The implementation of the No new pipelines law Bill C-69 as well as the oil tanker ban, increase of taxes on carbon emissions and imposing restrictions on oil and gas industry are just several examples of the liberal governments’ actions that cost Alberta billions of dollars.

It should be emphasized that the province contributes great sums of money to the federal budget of Canada, some hundreds of billions of dollars more, then other parts of the country. Despite this fact, the money is not allocated between provinces in proportion to their contribution. Thus, the Albertans give several times more, than they get.

It’s no surprise that, according to the data reported for May, 2025, the idea of independent Alberta is supported by approximately 36% of the locals. Their desire to leave Canada is quite reasonable as independence will open up new horizons to the current Canadian province and will help to avoid the limits set by Ottawa. Among other advantages Alberta will gain an opportunity to export its natural resources not only to the USA but also to other countries, all money it earns will stay within Alberta that will substantively increase the living standards of the population.

Premier Danielle Smith says she is ready to hold a referendum on provincial separation already in 2026 if citizens gather the required signatures on a petition. Taking into account that Ottawa demonstrates no intention to change its policy towards Alberta as well as to meet the demands voiced by the province’s Premier, there is no doubt the task will be implemented within a short period of time. By the way, it’s important to stress that the Albertans are not the first who started to talk about separation in Canada. The experience of Quebec, that tried to gain independence twice, should help the Albertans to achieve their goal.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Aaron Denley.

The election victory of Mark Carney’s Liberal Party on April 28, 2025, provoked fresh strain and already rigid posing of Alberta’s separation question. “For the last 10 years, successive Liberal Governments in Ottawa have unleashed a tidal wave of laws, policies and political attacks aimed directly at Alberta’s free economy – and in effect – against the future and livelihoods of our people,” wrote the province’s Premier Danielle Smith. The implementation of the No new pipelines law Bill C-69 as well as the oil tanker ban, increase of taxes on carbon emissions and imposing restrictions on oil and gas industry are just several examples of the liberal governments’ actions that cost Alberta billions of dollars.

It should be emphasized that the province contributes great sums of money to the federal budget of Canada, some hundreds of billions of dollars more, then other parts of the country. Despite this fact, the money is not allocated between provinces in proportion to their contribution. Thus, the Albertans give several times more, than they get.

It’s no surprise that, according to the data reported for May, 2025, the idea of independent Alberta is supported by approximately 36% of the locals. Their desire to leave Canada is quite reasonable as independence will open up new horizons to the current Canadian province and will help to avoid the limits set by Ottawa. Among other advantages Alberta will gain an opportunity to export its natural resources not only to the USA but also to other countries, all money it earns will stay within Alberta that will substantively increase the living standards of the population.

Premier Danielle Smith says she is ready to hold a referendum on provincial separation already in 2026 if citizens gather the required signatures on a petition. Taking into account that Ottawa demonstrates no intention to change its policy towards Alberta as well as to meet the demands voiced by the province’s Premier, there is no doubt the task will be implemented within a short period of time. By the way, it’s important to stress that the Albertans are not the first who started to talk about separation in Canada. The experience of Quebec, that tried to gain independence twice, should help the Albertans to achieve their goal.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Aaron Denley.

We speak with journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo News about the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the suppression of pro-Palestine activism and more. Hasan is a former host for Al Jazeera and MSNBC who started his own news outlet last year. On _Zeteo_’s first anniversary, he describes his frustrations while working for mainstream outlets and says the U.S. media continues to ignore Palestinian voices in coverage about the Middle East.

“You are getting a very one-sided view of the conflict,” Hasan says. “The real tragedy is that the media has been complicit in the Gaza genocide.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

I just felt it. I used to feel very fulfilled at the library, where I worked as a full-time photographer, but then I was waking up and dreading going in. I felt like I wasn’t giving 100 percent and instead looking forward to doing more things on my own. But I wasn’t doing anything to leave my job because I was so scared. But then I just thought, “What do I really want to show for my life?” That’s what pushed me forward. Because for a long time I was happy and content at my job. But then I felt like, “I’ve done everything here. What can my next thing be?” It was after I won employee of the year. I was like, “I can’t be here anymore. I can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.” When I was, I don’t know, 15, 16, I thought I’d never do creative photography as my full time job. I thought, have to have a “real job.” That was a mindset I had for a long time. And then it was like, “No, but you can. You can do this.”

What ultimately helped you decide to take that leap and get past that very understandable resistance towards making such a big life change?

It’s been years and years of me doing this on the side, on the weekends, and being drained from that and getting frustrated that I couldn’t put a hundred percent in either of them. I guess I thought it would just come to me and I’d be like, “Okay, now it’s time.” But I just had to push myself. And turning 30 was a big milestone; like, I’m going to be 30 now–what’s next? I do have one memory: I was just vacuuming, and I thought, “What if I quit over the summer?”

I had also just done the [Colorpop] Workshop and that was a big eye opening thing. I went to Utah with this group of women from around the world. We did stylized shoots, but we also got to talk to each other. And hearing from other women who were able to do this full time was inspiring as well. That gave me the final push to be like, “Okay, I can’t go back to the library after doing this workshop and being this creative.”

Why do you think teenage you didn’t think being a full-time professional photographer was possible?

At the time I couldn’t understand what avenues there were in photography, and I thought it was just taking pictures for newspapers or magazines. I couldn’t understand there was a whole world, and I’m still learning all the ways people use photography and [might] need my services. I think I kind of halted a little bit right out of college. I got an internship at the library and was there for eight years. So I feel now very much like I’m going back to before-college Amanda, high-school Amanda, where what I did for fun was just take pictures and edit them on and put them on Flickr and Tumblr.

What does it feel like now to be a full-time freelance photographer compared to being a photographer for an organization?

It’s a lot harder. I realized early on I’m really going to have to work for this now, instead of just showing up to an office every day. I was very good at the library and it was [relatively] easy in comparison. And it was nice to have someone to report to, and I do miss being on a team. I miss my coworkers. So that’s what I’ve been trying to do this year, find more community in Orlando.

I’ve been doing this for over 10 years officially, since the very first person paid me for pictures in 2012, but I still feel like it’s only been like six months of “Okay let me try to do this for real.”

One of my favorite things is seeing how you play with the self-timer setting in your garage. What is your process for playing and experimenting with your art?

I have been taking pictures of myself for years. My sister’s a lot younger than me so I couldn’t really use her as a model, so I relied on myself. I spent a lot of time in my room with my camera. And that’s the best and easiest and best way I know how. I wish I was a painter. I wish I could draw. I cannot, I’m not artistic in that way, but my form of self expression is my self portraits. But I kind of abandoned that for a little while and it’s been fun to get back.

And I love how confident you feel right after you create something. I always feel so much better about myself. Creating for myself is a learning opportunity as well. If it’s something I want to try on a client, I’m like, let me try it out on myself first.

From the outside, it also seems like you’re accessing this sense of play and creativity in your self-portraits that inspire me. Where does that sense of play come from for you?

Other photographers and other photos I see inspire me. I’ve always been like that from Tumblr, just seeing other photos and thinking, “I want to do something like that,” and of course make it my own. Listening to music also inspires me. I feel like your music choices can manifest in the art you create.

When you’re not shooting for a client or shooting self portraits in your garage, what are you typically drawn to capture and why?

I love architecture a lot. I definitely love trying to make art out of the abstract architect pieces and look at it in a different way. And when going for a walk [I’m] drawn to the way the sun sets, the grass and the water and the trees at the lake. And flowers. I love flowers.

Why do you think you’re drawn to these things in particular?

I don’t know how to make it not sound cheesy like capturing a moment in time, but it is about capturing something, capturing the way you see it and creating something new. It’s a moment in time and it’ll never be like that again. The next day it’s not going to look like that anymore.

Even thinking about flowers, you’re capturing something that really won’t be exactly like that tomorrow. There will be other flowers, sure. But that flower, at that moment, will change tomorrow. That hits me differently in my late thirties, and with these recent horrific LA fires; this idea of how ephemeral things are. How temporary.

Yes, and that idea of what’s lost is a huge part of my life. I love going down memory lane. I love looking at old photos. There’s been so many times I’ve regretted not bringing my camera or thought I should have taken that photo. Because it’ll never look like that again. I’ll never look like this again.

I love how vocal you have been about having a big dream to photograph Ariana Grande one day. You said that to me the first time we met, and I was so delighted because as I told you then I’ve always had a big dream to profile Taylor Swift. I don’t meet a lot of people who say big dreams like that out loud. What does dreaming big as an artist do for you?

We’ll see if it ever happens, but when I was younger I didn’t really have a lot of goals. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a while. But I learned a lesson back in college where I was like, I really want to study abroad. And then I ended up finding some information about how my community college actually had study abroad programs. I’m like 19 and for the first time I realized, “Oh if I want to do something and want to be inspired by something, I can do it.”

And I think having a goal that’s not too crazy is important as well, but a big goal kind of pushes you and inspires you. I would love to photograph Ariana Grande. I love her as a model and her brand, her essence, her style. And looking at all her pictures and seeing what other photographers do, I just get this feeling like, “I can do that.” Because I think the worst thing that I do and that people can do is [say] “I can’t; I could never do that; that’s so far out of my reach.”

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Isa Adney.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government, launched as the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires burned across Los Angeles, have left the country’s wildland firefighting force unprepared for the rapidly approaching wildfire season.

The administration has frozen funds, including money appropriated by Congress, and issued a deluge of orders eliminating federal employees, which has thrown agencies tasked with battling blazes into disarray as individual offices and managers struggle to interpret the directives. The uncertainty has limited training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation in areas vulnerable to wildfire. It has also left some firefighters with little choice but to leave the force, their colleagues said.

ProPublica spoke to a dozen firefighters and others who assist with the federal wildfire response across the country and across agencies. They described a range of immediate impacts on a workforce that was already stressed by budgetary woes predating the Trump administration. Hiring of some seasonal workers has stalled. Money for partner nonprofits that assist with fuel-reduction projects has been frozen. And crews that had traveled to support prescribed burns in Florida were turned back, while those assisting with wildfire cleanup in California faced confusion over how long they would be allowed to do that work.

“Uncertainty is at an all-time high. Morale is at an all-time low,” one federal wildland firefighter said. Multiple federal employees asked not to be named because of their fear of retribution from the White House.

In two separate lawsuits, judges issued temporary restraining orders against aspects of the White House’s broad freeze of federal spending, although the administration continues arguing that it has the authority to halt the flow of money. Some funding freezes appear to be thawing, but projects and hiring have already been severely impacted.

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In one case, the freeze to bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act funding, combined with orders limiting travel by some federal employees, forced the National Park Service to cancel a massive prescribed burn scheduled for January and February in Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, ProPublica has confirmed. Prescribed burns help prevent catastrophic wildfires by clearing vegetation that serves as fuel, and the meticulously planned 151,434-acre Florida fire — to cover more than six times the land area of nearby Miami — was also meant to protect a Native American reservation and improve ecological biodiversity.

“We will be more vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the future as a result of not being able to do the prescribed burns,” a federal firefighter with direct knowledge of the situation said.

The National Park Service gave conflicting explanations for the cancellation, suggesting in a news release that weather was the cause while internally acknowledging it was due to funding, the firefighter said.

This comes as the U.S. Forest Service, which employs more than 10,000 firefighters, has been wracked by long-running deficits and a lack of support for the physical and mental health stresses inherent in the job. Federal firefighters told ProPublica they were happy to do a dangerous job, but the administration’s actions have added to uncertainty surrounding their often seasonal employment.

A spokesperson for the Forest Service said in a statement that a major prescribed burn training program was proceeding as planned and “active management, including hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed fires, continue under other funding authorities.” The newly confirmed secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will review the remainder of the agency’s spending, according to the statement. The Forest Service did not say specifically what funding the agency has available or when the freezes might be lifted.

“Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority,” the statement said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The reality is supervisors are guessing how to interpret the White House’s commands, and a “huge leadership vacuum” has resulted in conflicting orders, according to Ben McLane, captain of a federal handcrew, which constructs the fireline around an active blaze.

A national firefighting leadership training program that McLane was set to attend was canceled on short notice, he said. McLane acknowledged that federal firefighting agencies need a major overhaul, noting that his crew was downsized 30 percent by pre-Trump administration cuts. But the current confusion could further impact public safety because of the lack of clear leadership and the disrupted preparations for wildfire season.

“Wildfire doesn’t care about our bureaucratic calendar,” McLane said.

‘It’s always cheaper to do a prescribed burn’

The threat of wildfire is year-round in the Southeast and spreads west and north as snow melts and temperatures rise. In the West, fire season generally starts in the spring, although climate change has extended the season by more than two months over the past few decades, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Preparations for fire season begin each year in the Southeast, where mild winters allow crews to carry out prescribed burns while snow blankets the West. In a typical year, crews fly in from across the country to assist in containing the planned fires and to train for battling wildfires. The Southeast typically accounts for two-thirds of the acreage treated with federal prescribed burns annually, according to data from the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils and the National Association of State Foresters.

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The controlled burns serve several purposes: minimizing the size of naturally occurring wildfires by reducing available fuel; promoting biodiversity by creating varied habitat and recycling nutrients into the soil; and providing an opportunity for training in a controlled setting.

Any delays this time of year set preparations back, and numerous firefighters raised the alarm about the canceled burn in the Everglades.

Crews had arrived for three-week assignments to assist with the burn, which was planned alongside the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and was to remove fuel near the Miccosukee Indian Village. The goal, according to a National Park Service press release, was to “protect the tribal community from wildfire, enhance landscape resiliency, aid in ecosystem restoration, protect cultural values, and improve firefighter and public safety.”

But some crews were told to head home early, according to a firefighter with direct knowledge of the situation. “We do not have the resources to control this burn,” the firefighter said.

A National Park Service representative confirmed the burn was canceled but did not answer questions about the reason for the cancellation.

Internally, however, the agency acknowledged that gaps in funding and staffing forced it to abandon the plan until at least the next fiscal year. The agency also told staff that congressionally appropriated funds were frozen, some hiring was halted and overtime was strictly limited, the firefighter said.

Prescribed burns across the country that require travel or overtime pay have also been limited. Nonprofits that manage complementary burns, adding to the acreage treated, have also seen their federal funding frozen. And some state agencies have been locked out of these funds.

In Montana, for instance, the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation uses federal grants to assist communities in becoming more resistant to wildfires. That money was recently cut off, according to emails reviewed by ProPublica. (The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

“What do they want, more fires?” Mary Louise Knapp, a Montana resident who has worked with the department on fire resiliency in her own neighborhood, said of the Trump administration.

Any short-term savings from the funding freeze, one federal firefighter said, are likely to be eclipsed by the vast resources needed to combat even larger wildfires. “It’s always cheaper to do a prescribed burn,” the firefighter said.

‘They still don’t have the budget under control’

Even before Trump’s second inauguration, the federal firefighting force faced severe challenges.

The Government Accountability Office, in a 2023 study, found that low pay, which “does not reflect the risk or physical demands of the work,” made hiring and retaining firefighters difficult. The study also pointed to well-documented mental health and work-life balance issues across the Forest Service and the four agencies within the U.S. Department of the Interior that constitute the then-18,700-person strong force.

Then came the Forest Service’s attempts last year to close a budget shortfall worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The agency stopped hiring seasonal workers outside the fire program.

“The reality’s setting in — they still don’t have the budget under control,” one Forest Service firefighter said. Even though firefighting positions were exempted, personnel who do other jobs often assist with fires. And a lack of support staff could force firefighters to do additional work such as maintaining recreational trails, taking them away from fire-related duties.

Much of the force is hired seasonally or switches between crews and agencies at different times of the year. But the increased uncertainty has prompted once-reliable seasonal hires to take other jobs that offer more stability.

“We’re the only ones left,” the Forest Service firefighter said of the hiring freezes.

(In early February, Senator Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, and Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, introduced legislation to create a new, unified firefighting agency.)

All this comes as wildfires are growing larger and more catastrophic. The area of land burned annually over the past decade was 43 percent larger than the average since the federal government began tracking it in 1983, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center.

‘Long, snowballing effects’

The bureaucratic turbulence will have long-term consequences for the force and for communities in fire-prone areas, firefighters said.

One federal employee involved in training programs likened the federal funding freeze during the prime training season to a “massive sledgehammer” hitting the force. The firefighter painted a stark picture of the harm: instructors quitting, workers in the dark about whether they can travel to receive instruction, and leadership positions potentially remaining vacant as firefighters, who lack required training, are unable to qualify for promotions.

“Any pause in a training system like this can have long, snowballing effects,” they said.

Additionally, the workforce has been stressed by Trump’s executive orders calling for programs relating to the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion to be shuttered, including employee support groups and seminars on topics such as women in the wildfire community. Government websites have already been scrubbed of information lauding progress in diversifying the male-dominated federal firefighting force, ProPublica found.

Workers who deal with the aftermath of wildfires are also under pressure.

In Southern California, the Environmental Protection Agency has more than 1,500 employees and contractors working to clean up toxic pollution released by the Palisades and Eaton fires. There, too, the Trump administration’s orders have caused confusion, particularly a decree that the effort must be completed within a 30-day window.

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That timeline is unprecedented, EPA staff on the ground told ProPublica, and has led to logistical headaches and an inability to gather community input on how to best approach the cleanup. “We’re doing as much as we can, but we’re down to the wire already,” an EPA employee working on the response said.

The agency had completed hazardous material removal at more than 4,600 properties as of Wednesday, according to a statement from Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokesperson. “EPA is on track to meet President Trump’s ambitious cleanup timeline,” she said.

As Trump has signed more executive orders aimed at shrinking the federal workforce, firefighters voiced concern about their long-term ability to do their jobs.

On February 11, a Trump order demanded agencies only hire 1 replacement for every 4 people who leave the government. Firefighters in multiple divisions said they had asked whether their jobs were protected by an exemption for public safety but received no clear answer.

“The 2 million federal employees are seen as the boogeyman, and we’re really not,” said Kelly Martin, the former chief of fire and aviation at Yosemite National Park. “It’s had a really devastating impact on morale for the federal employees that have committed their lives and moved their families into rural communities. Now, they’re finding, ‘I may not have a job.’”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How the federal funding and hiring freezes are leaving communities vulnerable to wildfire on Feb 17, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Mark Olalde, ProPublica.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal government, launched as the deadly Palisades and Eaton fires burned across Los Angeles, have left the country’s wildland firefighting force unprepared for the rapidly approaching wildfire season.

The administration has frozen funds, including money appropriated by Congress, and issued a deluge of orders eliminating federal employees, which has thrown agencies tasked with battling blazes into disarray as individual offices and managers struggle to interpret the directives. The uncertainty has limited training and postponed work to reduce flammable vegetation in areas vulnerable to wildfire. It has also left some firefighters with little choice but to leave the force, their colleagues said.

ProPublica spoke to a dozen firefighters and others who assist with the federal wildfire response across the country and across agencies. They described a range of immediate impacts on a workforce that was already stressed by budgetary woes predating the Trump administration. Hiring of some seasonal workers has stalled. Money for partner nonprofits that assist with fuel-reduction projects has been frozen. And crews that had traveled to support prescribed burns in Florida were turned back, while those assisting with wildfire cleanup in California faced confusion over how long they would be allowed to do that work.

“Uncertainty is at an all-time high. Morale is at an all-time low,” one federal wildland firefighter said. Multiple federal employees asked not to be named because of their fear of retribution from the White House.

In two separate lawsuits, judges issued temporary restraining orders against aspects of the White House’s broad freeze of federal spending, although the administration continues arguing that it has the authority to halt the flow of money. Some funding freezes appear to be thawing, but projects and hiring have already been severely impacted.

In one case, the freeze to Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding, combined with orders limiting travel by some federal employees, forced the National Park Service to cancel a massive prescribed burn scheduled for January and February in Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, ProPublica has confirmed. Prescribed burns help prevent catastrophic wildfires by clearing vegetation that serves as fuel, and the meticulously planned 151,434-acre Florida fire — to cover more than six times the land area of nearby Miami — was also meant to protect a Native American reservation and improve ecological biodiversity.

“We will be more vulnerable to a catastrophic fire in the future as a result of not being able to do the prescribed burns,” a federal firefighter with direct knowledge of the situation said.

The National Park Service gave conflicting explanations for the cancellation, suggesting in a news release that weather was the cause while internally acknowledging it was due to funding, the firefighter said.

This comes as the U.S. Forest Service, which employs more than 10,000 firefighters, has been wracked by long-running deficits and a lack of support for the physical and mental health stresses inherent in the job. Federal firefighters told ProPublica they were happy to do a dangerous job, but the administration’s actions have added to uncertainty surrounding their often-seasonal employment.

A spokesperson for the Forest Service said in a statement that a major prescribed burn training program was proceeding as planned and “active management, including hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed fires, continue under other funding authorities.” The newly confirmed secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture will review the remainder of the agency’s spending, according to the statement. The Forest Service did not say specifically what funding the agency has available or when the freezes might be lifted.

“Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority,” the statement said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The reality is supervisors are guessing how to interpret the White House’s commands, and a “huge leadership vacuum” has resulted in conflicting orders, according to Ben McLane, captain of a federal handcrew, which constructs fireline around an active blaze.

A national firefighting leadership training program that McLane was set to attend was canceled on short notice, he said. McLane acknowledged that federal firefighting agencies need a major overhaul, noting that his crew was downsized 30% by pre-Trump administration cuts. But the current confusion could further impact public safety because of the lack of clear leadership and the disrupted preparations for wildfire season.

“Wildfire doesn’t care about our bureaucratic calendar,” McLane said.

The threat of wildfire is year-round in the Southeast and spreads west and north as snow melts and temperatures rise. In the West, fire season generally starts in the spring, although climate change has extended the season by more than two months over the past few decades, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Preparations for fire season begin each year in the Southeast, where mild winters allow crews to carry out prescribed burns while snow blankets the West. In a typical year, crews fly in from across the country to assist in containing the planned fires and to train for battling wildfires. The Southeast typically accounts for two-thirds of the acreage treated with federal prescribed burns annually, according to data from the Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils and the National Association of State Foresters.

The controlled burns serve several purposes: minimizing the size of naturally occurring wildfires by reducing available fuel; promoting biodiversity by creating varied habitat and recycling nutrients into the soil; and providing an opportunity for training in a controlled setting.

Any delays this time of year set preparations back, and numerous firefighters raised the alarm about the canceled burn in the Everglades.

Crews had arrived for three-week assignments to assist with the burn, which was planned alongside the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and was to remove fuel near the Miccosukee Indian Village. The goal, according to a National Park Service press release, was to “protect the Tribal Community from wildfire, enhance landscape resiliency, aid in ecosystem restoration, protect cultural values and improve firefighter and public safety.”

But some crews were told to head home early, according to a firefighter with direct knowledge of the situation. “We do not have the resources to control this burn,” the firefighter said.

A National Park Service representative confirmed the burn was canceled but did not answer questions about the reason for the cancellation.

Internally, however, the agency acknowledged that gaps in funding and staffing forced it to abandon the plan until at least the next fiscal year. The agency also told staff that congressionally appropriated funds were frozen, some hiring was halted and overtime was strictly limited, the firefighter said.

Prescribed burns across the country that require travel or overtime pay have also been limited. Nonprofits that manage complementary burns, adding to the acreage treated, have also seen their federal funding frozen. And some state agencies have been locked out of these funds.

In Montana, for instance, the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation uses federal grants to assist communities in becoming more resistant to wildfires. That money was recently cut off, according to emails reviewed by ProPublica. (The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

“What do they want, more fires?” Mary Louise Knapp, a Montana resident who has worked with the department on fire resiliency in her own neighborhood, said of the Trump administration.

Any short-term savings from the funding freeze, one federal firefighter said, are likely to be eclipsed by the vast resources needed to combat even larger wildfires. “It’s always cheaper to do a prescribed burn,” the firefighter said.

Even before Trump’s second inauguration, the federal firefighting force faced severe challenges.

The Government Accountability Office, in a 2023 study, found that low pay, which “does not reflect the risk or physical demands of the work,” made hiring and retaining firefighters difficult. The study also pointed to well-documented mental health and work-life balance issues across the Forest Service and the four agencies within the U.S. Department of the Interior that constitute the then-18,700-person strong force.

Then came the Forest Service’s attempts last year to close a budget shortfall worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The agency stopped hiring seasonal workers outside the fire program.

“The reality’s setting in — they still don’t have the budget under control,” one Forest Service firefighter said. Even though firefighting positions were exempted, personnel who do other jobs often assist with fires. And a lack of support staff could force firefighters to do additional work such as maintaining recreational trails, taking them away from fire-related duties.

Much of the force is hired seasonally or switches between crews and agencies at different times of the year. But the increased uncertainty has prompted once-reliable seasonal hires to take other jobs that offer more stability.

“We’re the only ones left,” the Forest Service firefighter said of the hiring freezes.

(In early February, Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican, and Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, introduced legislation to create a new, unified firefighting agency.)

All this comes as wildfires are growing larger and more catastrophic. The area of land burned annually over the past decade was 43% larger than the average since the federal government began tracking it in 1983, according to data from the National Interagency Coordination Center.

The bureaucratic turbulence will have long-term consequences for the force and for communities in fire-prone areas, firefighters said.

One federal employee involved in training programs likened the federal funding freeze during the prime training season to a “massive sledgehammer” hitting the force. The firefighter painted a stark picture of the harm: instructors quitting, workers in the dark about whether they can travel to receive instruction and leadership positions potentially remaining vacant as firefighters, who lack required training, are unable to qualify for promotions.

“Any pause in a training system like this can have long, snowballing effects,” they said.

Additionally, the workforce has been stressed by Trump’s executive orders calling for programs relating to the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion to be shuttered, including employee support groups and seminars on topics such as women in the wildfire community. Government websites have already been scrubbed of information lauding progress in diversifying the male-dominated federal firefighting force, ProPublica found.

Workers who deal with the aftermath of wildfires are also under pressure.

In Southern California, the Environmental Protection Agency has more than 1,500 employees and contractors working to clean up toxic pollution released by the Palisades and Eaton fires. There, too, the Trump administration’s orders have caused confusion, particularly a decree that the effort must be completed within a 30-day window.

That timeline is unprecedented, EPA staff on the ground told ProPublica, and has led to logistical headaches and an inability to gather community input on how to best approach the cleanup. “We’re doing as much as we can, but we’re down to the wire already,” an EPA employee working on the response said.

The agency had completed hazardous material removal at more than 4,600 properties as of Wednesday, according to a statement from Molly Vaseliou, an EPA spokesperson. “EPA is on track to meet President Trump’s ambitious cleanup timeline,” she said.

As Trump has signed more executive orders aimed at shrinking the federal workforce, firefighters voiced concern about their long-term ability to do their jobs.

On Feb. 11, a Trump order demanded agencies only hire one replacement for every four people who leave the government. Firefighters in multiple divisions said they had asked whether their jobs were protected by an exemption for public safety but received no clear answer.

“The 2 million federal employees are seen as the boogeyman, and we’re really not,” said Kelly Martin, the former chief of fire and aviation at Yosemite National Park. “It’s had a really devastating impact on morale for the federal employees that have committed their lives and moved their families into rural communities. Now, they’re finding, ‘I may not have a job.’”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Mark Olalde.

Still, the sound of Trump’s black Sharpie scratching across the signature line of an executive order — “Putting America First In International Environmental Agreements” — seemed to reverberate around the world this week, as climate experts, diplomats, and concerned laypeople watched the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases turn its back on the accord.

The 2015 Paris Agreement is a treaty signed by 196 countries that agrees to limit global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius” (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and, ideally, cap temperature increases at 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F). Almost every year since then, countries have gathered annually to hash out the accord’s particularities and — in theory, at least — reach further consensus on how to address climate change. This annual conference, known as the “conference of the parties” or COP, is the main venue at which the United States’ withdrawal will be felt.

Some of the most immediate impacts will be financial. Leaving the Paris Agreement, which will take one year from the day Trump notifies the United Nations of his intention to do so, means the U.S. will no longer contribute to funding streams intended to help poorer countries transition away from fossil fuels and prepare for the impacts of climate change. Trump’s executive order said it “revoked and rescinded” the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan, which laid out a government-wide strategy to scale back public investments in international fossil fuel projects while increasing investments in clean energy and adaptation financing abroad.

In 2024, U.S. Congress appropriated $1 billion for climate mitigation in the developing world, and the country has contributed less than the other nations most responsible for climate change, like Germany and Japan. Although Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project run by three research institutions, has rated the U.S.’s contributions to climate finance “critically insufficient,” some experts have raised concerns that the U.S. halting funding altogether could have a chilling effect on contributions from other donor countries.

Even so, U.S. nonparticipation in the Paris Agreement is unlikely to dramatically change the pace of climate progress. That’s due to a couple of ways the treaty is structured. First, the 2015 pact never bound the U.S. to any specific amount of emissions reductions; it just required the U.S. to submit a “nationally determined contribution,” or NDC, every five years. The U.S. has dutifully done so — but not in accordance with the goals set by the agreement’s signatories. Up until former president Joe Biden’s last full month in office — when he pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions 61 to 66 percent by 2035 — the targets the U.S. submitted were deemed by Climate Action Tracker to be incompatible with the Paris Agreement objective of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The same is true of every other country that’s a party to the agreement. Not one has set a Paris-aligned emissions reduction target, and the United Nations Environment Programme estimated last October that countries’ collective emissions reduction pledges would allow 2.6 to 3.1 degrees C (4.7 to 5.6 degrees F) of warming by the end of the century. A May 2024 survey of 380 members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the world’s foremost scientific authority on the subject — found that 77 percent believe humanity is headed toward 2.5 degrees C (4.5 degrees F) or more of warming by 2100.

“The global emissions trajectory was already far off track from where the science showed was necessary, before this administration came in,” said Rachel Cleetus, a policy director for the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists.

Second, countries aren’t in any way compelled to adhere to the insufficient emissions reduction targets they submit under the Paris Agreement. These are only binding insofar as they are made binding by domestic law — and the U.S. has never passed any legislation holding it to its Paris targets. Up until December, the U.S.’s NDC was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 — a goal that many analyses claimed was “within reach” due to investments enabled by Biden’s two signature climate bills, the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But as of 2022, U.S. policies would only deliver up to a 42 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions; the gap would have to be filled with additional actions from states, cities, and private companies.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration also increased oil and gas extraction to record levels, despite repeated warnings from the International Energy Agency — an independent intergovernmental organization — that no new fossil fuel infrastructure is compatible with a pathway to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.

Sheila Olmstead, a professor of public policy at Cornell University, said the U.S. exiting the Paris Agreement was “potentially mostly symbolic.” What will ultimately matter, she said, is what the Trump administration does domestically: for example, with vehicle emissions standards, greenhouse gas limits for power plants, and clean energy subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, which made $137 billion available for renewable energy infrastructure and climate resilience.

It remains to be seen what Trump will be able to achieve in terms of rolling back those policies, Olmstead said, though he has already signed a spate of executive orders to roll back vehicle emissions standards, pause climate spending under the Inflation Reduction Act, and expand oil and gas drilling on federal lands. State and local resistance could at least partially frustrate the president’s plans to do so — for instance, the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of 24 governors whose states represent more than half of the country’s economy, have pledged to honor the U.S.’s most recent NDC submitted during the waning days of the Biden administration.

Still, a December analysis by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, found a deregulatory agenda — the type Trump has begun to enact — could lead to a 24 to 36 percent increase in climate pollution in 2035, compared to current policies.

The U.S. exit “threatens to reverse hard-won gains in reducing emissions and puts our vulnerable countries at greater risk,” said Evans Njewa in a statement. Njewa is the chair of the group of least-developed countries at U.N. climate negotiations — a 45-nation bloc including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Niger that advocates for ambitious policies at annual climate talks.

For the most part, experts are not concerned that the Trump administration will catalyze a mass exodus from the Paris Agreement. Kaveh Guilanpour, vice president for international strategies at the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said the U.S.’s exit from the Paris Agreement will be “less consequential” than it was during Trump’s first term, because other countries have had more time to prepare.

“I don’t think it’s in the interests of the United States to leave the Paris Agreement,” he said — but the world “won’t be taken by surprise this time — it knows what’s coming.” 

There is no precedent, however, for a climate conference at which the U.S. is a mere observer. The last time Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement in 2017, U.N. rules made it slow going — no signatory could leave the agreement until “after three years from the date on which this Agreement has entered into force.” By the time the U.S. was officially out, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had postponed talks until the following year — after Biden’s inauguration.

This time around, there’s no three-year buffer period, and it will only take one year for the U.S. to leave the Paris Agreement. Trump may choose not to honor even that abbreviated timeline — his executive order says the country “will consider its withdrawal from the Agreement and any attendant obligations to be effective immediately upon this provision of notification” — but he will technically still be allowed to send a delegation to participate in this year’s round of negotiations, scheduled to take place in November in Brazil. Come COP31, the name for the annual climate conference in 2026, the U.S. will officially be demoted to observer status — still able to attend, but with no decision-making power and no obligation to submit new climate commitments and to report on its progress toward them.

Without the U.S. in the Paris Agreement, it’s possible that other countries will take their climate commitments less seriously — particularly those that are currently led by far-right climate deniers. According to Olmstead, however, that wasn’t really the case last time the U.S. said it was dropping out. “There was a galvanizing nature to it,” she said, prompting Europe and China to reaffirm their commitments to emissions reductions. 

Meanwhile, some experts say the structure of the Paris Agreement is at the root of the broader failure to stem rising global emissions. The compact’s bottom-up, voluntary nature is often cited as one of its great strengths and the reason why it garnered buy-in from nearly every country on Earth. But that flexibility clearly becomes a problem when signatories — especially major polluters like the U.S. — choose not to do their fair share. 

Olmstead said there are essentially two worldviews when it comes to addressing the climate crisis: the “mother of all collective action problems,” as she described it. The one demanded by the Paris Agreement values fairness and collaboration toward common goals. The one being enacted by the Trump administration, by contrast, is more isolationist, with “every country acting only in its own interest,” and expresses skepticism about the capacity of any international institution to be better than the sum of its parts.

“It’s unfortunate that that worldview is now being applied to climate change,” Olmstead said, “because it doesn’t seem like it’s compatible with addressing it.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump leaving the Paris Agreement is ‘mostly symbolic.’ What does it actually mean? on Jan 23, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Joseph Winters.

On January 12, border guards at Ashgabat International Airport, in the country’s capital, prevented Halykov from boarding a flight to the United Arab Emirates, where he had been due to start a job outside of journalism, informing him that he was under a temporary travel ban but without providing a reason.

“Journalist Nurgeldi Halykov has already suffered appalling retaliation for his reporting. It’s time Turkmen authorities let him get on with his life,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities in Turkmenistan must end their relentless harassment of those who collaborate with the country’s exiled media.”

Border guards told Halykov to contact Turkmenistan’s State Migration Service for more information about the ban. Turkmen.news Director Ruslan Myatiev told CPJ on January 14 that Halykov had yet to make an inquiry. CPJ emailed the State Migration Service for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.

Ashgabat police arrested Halykov on July 13, 2020, the day after he forwarded to Turkmen.news a photo that he found on social media of a World Health Organization delegation at a local hotel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Turkmenistan is the only country in the world that says it has not recorded a single case of COVID-19.

A court in September 2020 sentenced him to four years in prison on fraud charges for allegedly failing to repay a loan.

Myatiev told CPJ  in March 2021 that he suspected that Halykov’s wider work for Turkmen.news was the reason for his imprisonment.

The media environment in Turkmenistan is one of the most restrictive in the world, and exile-based news outlets rely on networks of correspondents who generally publish anonymously, a number of whom have previously been jailed on retaliatory charges.

In November, Turkmen authorities prevented Soltan Achilova, a reporter for Austria-based Chronicles of Turkmenistan, from traveling abroad to collect an award for the third consecutive year.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The salvage yard, which buys used vehicles and farm machinery in this rural area to sell for parts, has been in business for nearly 70 years. For most of those years, the dam — less than a half-mile up the road — has protected its yard of hundreds of old cars and broken-down equipment from frequent and sometimes severe flooding in the area.

The dam “was put in place for a reason,” said owner Greg Sheldon.

But it might soon go away. 

Maple Dale is one of thousands of dams constructed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, beginning in the mid-20th century, for the purposes of flood control. 

In 2018, five similar dams in the region failed during a massive rainstorm that caused property damage in the tens of millions of dollars. A study determined that several other dams in the watersheds hit hardest by the flood, including Maple Dale, were also vulnerable to failure but would be too expensive to replace. 

As a result, local officials are voting on whether to dismantle the dams by cutting large notches in them, allowing the water to flow again, in a process called decommissioning. Experts say it could be the most dams ever decommissioned in a single county in the U.S. 

And it could be a harbinger for other communities.

Although the county may be the first to take on a project of this size, it’s unlikely to be the last. Dams across the country are aging, and also facing pressures from urban sprawl and intensifying floods wrought by climate change. The price tag to fix what’s broken, though, is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, meaning dam owners could face hard questions about what to do with them. 

In Viroqua, it’s also leaving the people who own property below the dams uneasy about what comes next — including Sheldon.

“To come along and just rip a big hole out and let the water run is a mistake,” he said.

Removal plan controversial

The southwest Wisconsin dams are among nearly 12,000 that have been built under the USDA’s Watershed Programs. Generally smaller and set in rural agricultural areas, they’re mostly clustered from the center of the country eastward. Oklahoma has the most, followed by Texas, Iowa, and Missouri. 

The idea for the watershed program dams arose during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Because there was little vegetation left on the landscape to soak up rain when it fell, there were several severe floods during that time, prompting federal agencies to look for a way to control the water. 

To get the dams built, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, entered into a contract with a local sponsor, such as a county. NRCS covered all the construction costs and helped the sponsor with inspections and repairs. In return, the sponsor maintained the dam for a certain number of years — under most contracts, 50 — to ensure taxpayers got their money’s worth out of the project. 

Since many of the dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s, said Steve Becker, Wisconsin’s state conservation engineer for NRCS, their contracts are now up. 

“We pretty much told the counties, ‘You have full autonomy to do whatever you want with those dams,” Becker said. “You can maintain, you can rehab, you can repair. It doesn’t really matter. We’re out.” 

When the Wisconsin dams failed, however, local officials enlisted the help of NRCS to figure out what to do. The agency launched a study of all the dams in the watersheds and found that, while they’d controlled flooding over the last few decades, they fared much worse under future modeling because of their age and projected increases in heavy rainfall. Because the cost to replace them was too steep, NRCS recommended taking them out of service, on the federal government’s dime. 

In Vernon County, home to the majority of the dams examined in the study, that plan has been controversial. 

Garrick Olerud is treasurer of the Snowflake Ski Club in Westby, which is below three of the dams that are set to be dismantled. The club has had to spend “a lot” of money over the past decade fixing flood damage to the ski jump and the golf course on the property, Olerud said — and that’s with the protection of the dams. 

“When you remove those dams, I guess I have big, big concerns about the long-term effects it’ll have,” he said. “I’m not an expert, but I don’t believe that the course or the ski jump will continue to … have the financial means to build back after stuff gets washed away.” 

To others, leaving the dams in place risks a bigger catastrophe if more of them fail during a storm.

“When [the dams] work, they work, but when they go out, it’s 10 times worse than a regular flood,” Frank Easterday, a member of the Vernon County board, said during an August 15 meeting. 

At the meeting, the board voted to accept federal funding from NRCS so the agency can move forward with decommissioning. Nearby La Crosse and Monroe counties, which have a handful of such dams between them, have followed suit. 

Aging dams, climate threats make for ‘perfect storm’ 

Threats to America’s dam infrastructure were thrust into the spotlight in June when the Rapidan dam in southern Minnesota partially failed, pushed to its limit by days of historic flooding across the upper Midwest. 

In the American Society of Civil Engineers’ latest Infrastructure Report Card, released in 2021, the group gave the nations’ more than 91,000 dams a “D.” That’s largely because of their age — the average age of a dam in the U.S. is over 60 years old, said Del Shannon, the lead author of that section of the report card. 

As residential development has sprawled nationally, some dams that once posed little risk to human life if they failed are now a bigger threat. 

On top of that, climate change is leaving question marks about how dams will perform under new weather conditions. Precipitation, for example, increased 5 percent to 15 percent across the Midwest between 1992 to 2021, compared with the 1901-1960 average. That’s largely driven by intensifying rainfalls.  

To date, almost 6,600 of the watershed program dams will have completed their contracts, according to an NRCS spokesperson. In the next five years, that number will rise to 7,383. That means many more places like Vernon County will have decisions to make about how — and whether — to keep them up. 

In 2015, now-retired NRCS watershed program engineer Larry Caldwell warned in a memo that a “perfect storm” of problems with watershed dams could put people and property at risk. He outlined seven such problems: these dams are everywhere across the nation; downstream landscapes have filled in since they were constructed; they’re getting old; climate change is bringing more extreme weather; limited funds for repairs; loss of institutional knowledge about the dams; and the fact that the failure of smaller dams can — and have — killed people. 

“Any one condition is cause for concern. The presence of two or three would be cause for alarm,” Caldwell wrote. “But all seven are occurring simultaneously, which will eventually create a crisis for many communities.” 

Properly maintained dams can continue doing their job “well beyond” their contracts, the NRCS spokesperson said. Still, understanding the proper path forward for an individual dam can be challenging because all dams are unique, Shannon said. 

What’s more, there’s not a good understanding of how long these kinds of dams can function, a gap Shannon called “astonishing and embarrassing.” He’ll take part in a forthcoming study that seeks to give dam owners broad information about when dam parts start to show wear — like crumbling concrete spillways or corroded metal gates — and when to think about repairing, replacing or charting another course. 

High price tag for dam rehab means other solutions may be necessary 

Another hurdle in the quest for better dam infrastructure: cost. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials, which works to improve dam safety through professional development and lobbying, estimates the cost to fix nonfederal dams, which make up the vast majority of the nation’s dams, at $157.5 billion. 

The bipartisan infrastructure law, passed in 2021, provided somewhat of a shot in the arm: $3 billion was earmarked for dam safety, including $118 million for the rehabilitation of the USDA watershed program dams. An NRCS spokesperson said that money paid for 118 dam projects across the nation, many clustered in the southern and eastern U.S.

Shannon said he views it as a downpayment, but more funding is obviously needed. The southwest Wisconsin dams, for example, would cost a few million dollars apiece to replace, Becker estimated — racking up close to $100 million just for one small region. 

“What can we afford to do? We can afford to notch them out,” Becker said. “If some big benefactor came in and said, ‘23 dams times $3.5 million? We can help pay for that,’ we’d reevaluate.” 

Although recent federal funding will move the needle, looking at the total cost can be depressing, said Lori Spragens, executive director of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials — particularly when remembering that dams are aging every day. She called it a “one step forward, two steps back” situation, and said there’s an urgent need to make progress. 

“I think we are going to see more dams under stress, or even failing,” Spragens said. “It’s not really fun to look at in the future.” 

Amid these challenges, there’s growing interest in natural solutions to reduce the impact of floodwaters in place of built infrastructure. Moving away from areas that flood often and using farming practices that help the land hold on to water, instead of allowing it to run downstream, could help. 

The community in Vernon County recognizes that. 

“With or without the dams, flooding is going to be a huge challenge in this community,” county conservationist Ben Wojahn told the board during the Aug. 15 meeting. “Decommissioning these dams is not the end … keeping the dams would not be the end.” 

This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The fate of thousands of U.S. dams hangs in the balance, leaving rural communities with hard choices on Oct 14, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Janine Jackson interviewed the Joint Center’s Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and CEPR’s Algernon Austin about the Black economy for the September 6, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

CEPR (8/26/24)

Janine Jackson: Corporate economic news can be so abstract that it’s disinforming even when it’s true. The big idea is that there’s something called the “US economy” that can be doing well or poorly, which obscures the reality that we are differently situated, and good news for the stock market, say, may mean nothing, or worse, for me.

A people-centered press corps would spell out the meaning of economic indicators, not just in terms of their impact on different communities, but in relation to where we want to go, as a society that has yet to address deep, historical and structural harms.

A new report on the current state of the Black economy takes up these questions. We’ll hear from its co-authors: Dedrick Asante-Muhammad is president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and Algernon Austin is director of the Race and Economic Justice program at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. That conversation is coming up on today’s show.

***

JJ: Corporate news media tend to report economic news like the weather. Yes, it affects different people differently, but the source, the economy, is just—stuff that happens.

But there’s really no such thing as “the economy.” There are policies and practices about taxes and lending and wages, and they are as historically embedded, preferentially enforced and as susceptible to intentional change as everything else.

So how should we read reports about the “best Black economy in decades,” particularly as one question news media rarely include in the daily recitation of numbers is: Compared to what?

A new research brief engages these questions; the title’s a bit of a giveaway: “The Best Black Economy in Generations—and Why It Isn’t Enough.”

We’re joined now by the brief’s co-authors. Dedrick Asante-Muhammad is president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and Algernon Austin is director of the Race and Economic Justice program at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Algernon Austin.

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad: Thank you.

Algernon Austin:  It’s a pleasure to be with you.

JJ: Economic reporting can seem very dry and divorced from life as lived. We read that the country’s GDP is up, or that inflation is leveling off, and a lot of us just don’t know what that means, in terms of whether we are more likely to get a job, or a wage increase, or a home loan. If you can parse that data, though, it does tell us something, if not enough. So let me ask you first, what particular indicators are telling us or showing us that Black Americans are experiencing the most positive economic conditions in generations? What are you looking at?

Algernon Austin: “If you had an additional 1.4 million Black people working, you would…significantly reduce Black poverty, and would help Black households start to build wealth.”

AA: One thing that I pay a lot of attention to is the employment-to-population ratio, or the employment rate, and that’s simply what percent of the population is working. And that’s something that’s very concrete, that people can relate to. And the Black population, historically, has had a significantly lower employment rate than the white population.

So why we’re in the greatest economy on record is because, if you look at the prime age employment rate, that’s individuals 25-to-54 years old, the Black prime age employment rate, the annual rate for the first half of this year has been at a record high. So that is certainly quite positive news, and something that we should celebrate.

But as you pointed out, compared to what? Compared to the white prime age employment rate, it’s still below average. And when you do the full calculation of what I call the “Black jobs deficit,” we need about 1.4 million more Black people working to have the same employment rate as white people.

And what does that mean in terms of income for Black America? If you had an additional 1.4 million Black people working, you would have an additional $60 billion, that’s with a B, $60 billion going into Black America, which would significantly reduce Black poverty, and would help Black households start to build wealth.

So that’s the positive: We have a high employment rate. The negative is it’s still lagging, and that lag, that deficit, is still causing a great deal of poverty for Black people.

JJ: So Algernon, you’ve connected employment and poverty and income right there, which are the key indicators that I’m seeing lifted up in this report. Unemployment is one that is a complicated thing to report because, as we know, sometimes unemployment rates don’t include people who’ve stopped looking for work, and all of that. But you’re saying that unemployment and poverty and income are all connected here. What can you tell us about what those other indicators, the poverty rates, and the income and wealth indicators, what do they add to this picture about good news?

AA: We pay a lot of attention to the unemployment rate, which is valid; it’s an important indicator. But for populations that face persistent challenges finding work —and I just said that there are about 1.4 million Black people who should be working but who aren’t—you see the unemployment rate undercounts joblessness. Because if people have been repeatedly rejected by employers—so imagine someone who maybe was formerly incarcerated—that individual is less likely to be actively looking for work. And if you’re not actively looking for work, you’re not counted as being unemployed. Or if you’re in an economically depressed area and you look around and you say, “there’s no jobs,” and you’re not actively looking for work, you’re not being counted as unemployed.

So the unemployment rate is an important indicator, and the Black rate is typically about twice the white rate. Right now, it’s a little bit less than two times, so that’s, again, another positive sign. But it does undercount joblessness.

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad: Yeah. And in terms of income and wealth, we’ve also seen some positive signs. So I think that’s why we’re saying it’s the strongest Black economy in generations, because we see in many of the major indicators that Blacks are at record high. Also in terms of median household income, Blacks in 2022 were at $53,000 median income for households. And so that is a record high for the African-American community. As well as wealth in 2022, where we have the most recent data, it’s at a record high of $45,000.

Now, just as Algernon had noted, record highs can be great, but relative to what, and what does that mean? The median income for white households is $81,000. So Blacks are still about $30,000 less in terms of median income. And I think most people would understand that $53,000 for a household is not a lot of money.

And we look at wealth. We also argue that $45,000 median wealth is actually a household that is asset poor, that does not have enough wealth to keep them financially secure. There’s been estimates, well, let’s just put forward that white median wealth is $285,000. So you have that $45,000, compared to $285,000, with past estimates of middle-class wealth beginning around $170,000.

So we can see that we’re hitting record highs, but we’re still leaving African Americans in spaces of economic insecurity, and that’s why it isn’t enough and we need to do more.

New York Times (5/30/24)

JJ: There’s been a phenomenon lately where reporters and pundits seem to say, “People are saying they’re not happy with the economy, but they’re wrong, because look at this chart.” It’s sort of like people are maybe too dumb to know how good they have it.

But people aren’t dumb. They know they have two jobs and still struggle. They know they have a fairly good income, but they could not survive one medical emergency. But reporting, and some politicking, seems to suggest that if you aren’t doing well, then maybe that’s a you problem, because, after all, “the economy” is firing on all pistons. But people’s opinion about their economic health and their economic situation, Black people’s opinion, comes from a combination of things, you found?

AA: A lot of the reporting is based on macroeconomic indicators, which are, I’m not disputing them, it’s just that the big picture, national average can mask a lot of variation on the ground, and can be distant from what people are feeling.

So we’ve been through, because of Covid, because of the lockdowns, because of the shutdown and supply chains, because of the war in Ukraine, we’ve seen a massive spike in inflation, I think probably more than we’ve seen in a generation. And that has been quite a shock. And I think that affects people’s views of economic conditions.

We’ve also seen very high interest rates, and that makes it very hard for people to borrow, or increases the cost of trying to get a mortgage, increases credit card debt. We’ve seen, in terms of housing, a real scarcity in housing, and a real spike in housing costs.

So there’s a lot of things for people to be worried about, to be anxious about. And of course there was the Covid recession, which was massive. So there’s been a lot of economic turmoil, and it’s an error to discount what these recent traumatic experiences are, and the fact that they’re not just experiences, there are real economic consequences that people see every day when they go to the grocery store and pay their grocery bills.

JJ: And Dedrick, the report says Black Americans are optimistic, pessimistic, multifaceted and complex in terms of their understanding of their own economic situation, and then when they’re asked about the broader picture; and that makes sense as human beings.

Pew (7/18/23)

DA: Yeah, yeah. I did think that was an interesting thing pulled out of our paper, was looking at some past surveys and seeing 67% of African Americans expressed optimism, feeling good to somewhat good, about their financial future, while at the same time, in a different poll, in a Pew poll, we saw that African Americans, 70% said they did not have enough money for the life they want. And these are different things, right?

Again, if you’re used to ridiculously high unemployment rates in your community, and then it’s getting a little bit better, that might make you feel optimistic that, oh, well, maybe things can get better in my household. But, at the same time, you can still understand that, “but I don’t have enough money to be a homeowner. I’m having a harder and harder time paying grocery bills.”

So both of those feelings can live within one’s life experience and be real. I think it’s only when you’re trying to just have a very simple explanation of how people feel that we act like they’re in contradiction.

JJ: Algernon has referred a couple times to consistent challenges faced by Black Americans. I think that’s part of what’s left out of a lot of news media conversations. So let’s just talk about, when you say big numbers, macro numbers, can be trending in a good direction, but they’re not enough, and they’re not going to be enough without something else, what are you getting at? What would responsive policy look like?

CBPP (6/10/24)

AA: In response to the Covid pandemic, the federal government expanded the child tax credit, and expanded the earned income tax credit, so that more poor people and more poor people with children would get aid from the federal government.

And what did we see? We saw a dramatic decline in poverty, dramatic decline in Black poverty, dramatic decline in Black child poverty, as well as for American Indians, for Latinos, and for the white population. So we know what works, we know that we have the power to do it, but, unfortunately, conservatives in Congress decided that they were not going to extend the expanded child tax credit and the expanded EITC.

So we’ve seen a reversal. So we’ve seen Black poverty rates—and this is using the supplemental poverty measure, that factors in these tax credits—increase again. So it’s unfortunate that policy makers don’t put the policy agenda to fight poverty, and to produce more racial equality, as a higher priority.

DA: Yes, and I’ll just add to that, I think an important takeaway from this is that though we have some record highs, we don’t need to let up on the economy. We need to put our pedal down to the metal, as the saying goes, in order to continue to build and strengthen. Because even with these record highs, in terms of income, we noted a report that was done last year with the Institute for Policy Studies, that noted that even at the current rate, if you look from 1960 to 2020, it would take hundreds of years before Blacks had equal pay with whites, and it would take almost 800 years for Blacks to have equal wealth with whites.

And so over the last five years, we’re having some important advances. And so what we need to do is do policies that build off of that, right? Whether it’s to continue to strengthen the earned income tax credits and other such types of credit, I think increased home ownership, there’s a lot of conversation on that. We have to make sure any type of home-ownership advancement is something that disproportionately affects African Americans in particular, but Latinos as well. African Americans have never had the majority of their population as homeowners, and that’s the No. 1 source of wealth for most Americans. So if we can do something in 2025 to really strengthen homeownership for first-time homeowners, that could be something substantial that could help break away from these historic inequalities that have made racial inequality, not just something that occurs through prejudice, but something that can be seen through socioeconomic status.

AA: We also need targeted job creation. Subsidized employment is the most effective way, so subsidized employment programs targeted to high-unemployment communities. I mentioned that we still need about 1.4 million more Black people working for the Black employment rate to be the same as the white employment rate. So we need to target those high-unemployment communities with effective job creation.

CEPR (2/9/23)

JJ: When I hear “consistent challenges,” I mean, we’re talking about racism, in terms of economic policy in this country, and the harms have been targeted, historically and presently—redlining, loan denial, all of that, the harms have been targeted. But at this moment, supposedly reforms are not allowed to be targeted, because that would be DEI, that would be unfair.

And I know we’ve talked about, for example, the Covid response was not about race. Great Depression, the WPA was not targeted by race. It was actually something that helped Black people, because it helped everyone. But we’re in this present moment that we’re in, where if you say these people are being particularly harmed, and so at least some remedy should be targeted towards them, we know that that’s going to be politically difficult. And I know that’s a weird question, but I wonder what your thoughts are on that.

DA: Clearly, racial equality has always been politically difficult, as the history of this country has shown. So it will continue to be politically difficult. I think we have seen, like the War on Poverty, that sometimes in its name might not appear as something particularly focused on African Americans, but it was coming out of the strong Black civil rights movement of that time period, when we saw a substantial decline of Black poverty in particular, all poverty. But many of the policies I did think had a disproportionate impact on African Americans.

The most effective and efficient way to address disproportionate negative harm is to then put in positive economic impact, particularly on those communities. So we should look at ways of doing that. Sometimes race would be the factor named, but sometimes you can also get it just by focusing on first-time homeowners of certain income and wealth level that would disproportionately have a good amount of African Americans, Latinos, and would have some whites, but would have a disproportionate impact on the community.

So I think if policymakers are willing—and I think our job as the electorate is to make policymakers willing—and we can get forward these policies, whether we call them DEI policies, or whether we call them trying to ensure that America is majority homeowner, or America is fully employed throughout the nation, there are ways of putting this forward.

Vox (7/9/23)

AA: This is a long struggle. So if you look at the history of the Black civil rights movement, or Black liberation struggle, however you want to characterize it, there have been moments when we’ve moved forward, there have been moments when we’ve moved backwards. So this is just one phase. So it’s important for people to recognize: OK, what’s next? How do we move forward from this particular point? So I think it’s important to regroup and think about how we move forward.

I’m focused on affirmative action policies, and particularly affirmative action in employment, which still exists, which needs to be protected and fought for, because it will be under attack. The second point that Dedrick was making is that there are ways that may be less efficient for racial justice, but there are ways to make impacts that reduce racial inequality.

And we saw it, going back to poverty, the expansion of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit had a disproportionate positive impact on reducing Black poverty. It also reduced white poverty, and poverty for all other groups, but because more Black people were poor and in hardship, it had a disproportionate benefit. So although that was a race-neutral program, it did have a disproportionate racial benefit.

And similarly, I’ve called for targeted subsidized employment, and notice I said targeted to high-unemployment communities. You can go to Appalachia and find majority white communities that are high unemployment, and we should be concerned about those high-unemployment white communities. But if you target job creation to high-unemployment communities, you will disproportionately benefit Black communities, because that’s where the high unemployment is disproportionately concentrated.

So I think it’s important that we continue on both fronts. Let’s exploit all the race-neutral policies that we can, but also let’s not give up on a race-conscious economic justice fight in addition.

JJ: I just want to ask you, finally, about news media, about reporting. When, Dedrick, we spoke in 2017, I was talking about a Washington Post piece that said that a rise in middle-class incomes was “unequivocally good news,” even as the same report had some sort of notes in between, one of which was, oh yeah, “yawning racial disparities remain.” And that’s kind of par for the course in news, the idea that racial gaps in economic circumstances and options are lamentable but normal, and kind of a footnote to the real story, which holds an implication that a rising economic tide will eventually lift all boats.

And that framing and that absence of complexity, while it’s kind of par for the course in corporate journalism, it reflects a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the way economic developments affect different groups, which is what we’ve been talking about. And I wonder, from both of you, if you have any thoughts about the role that journalism currently plays in illuminating this set of issues, and about the role that journalism maybe could play?

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad: “The future of the economy is based on how well minorities do in America.”

DA: Things have changed a lot over the last 30 years, even this idea of racial inequality, minority groups. I mean, now you look at Blacks and Latinos, and Latinos oftentimes, as well, have lower income levels, have lower home ownership levels, and you put these populations together, Blacks and Latino, and they’re about a third of the population. And if you talk about youth and children, you see that the majority of kids in many school districts throughout the country are students of color.

So no longer can it be kind of, well, there’s an issue with a small part of the population, but the rest of the economy is going strong. The future of the economy is based on how well minorities do in America—Latinos being the largest group now, African Americans being the second-largest group. So it will be essential, if we’re looking at how the economy can grow, making sure these communities are getting their share of the growth that would get them at a level of true middle class.

I think that’s one thing I particularly look at in terms of wealth, is that Black America’s never had a strong Black middle class in terms of wealth. You’ve always had a very small population that have had a middle-class economic wealth stability. And, again, the future of reporting on the future of the country really requires understanding those differences, and highlighting that, so we can push the country in the right direction, and how do we move the country forward in a way that is equitable in a manner that it never has been.

AA: I don’t want to appear to be too self-centered or self-serving, but we need the information presented in this report covered, because I feel both parts of the story have not gotten sufficient media attention. One is that we’re at historic highs on so many different measures that I don’t think has been talked about enough, and two, we still have significant inequality that we haven’t addressed. There’s some positive signs, but we obviously need to do a lot more. And like Dedrick said, we need to keep pressing the gas. We can’t take our foot off the pedal.

So that’s one thing. The other thing—I try to stress this when I speak to people—is that we’re talking about the United States, and Black people are part of the United States. Latinos are part of the United States. The American Indian or the Indigenous population are sort of part of the United States; some are independent nations, but they’re also interacting with the US economy.

If you improve the economic conditions of the Black population, you’re improving the economic standing of the United States. If you improve the economic condition of Latinos, you’re improving the economic strengths and health of the United States.

And it’s important that people understand that, because, unfortunately, people tend to go into a zero sum mode, and not recognize that helping Black people, in terms of public policy, is a way to help the entire country, help the United States. So that’s something that I think reporters can also work on communicating.

DA: The one thing I’ll add, in terms of what can reporters do, I think reporters need to focus in on expertise, Black expertise, expertise around racial inequality. I’ll just put forward, as recently new president of Joint Center for Political Economic Study, it’s important that Black institutions are utilized and are put at the forefront of conversations around the economy and these issues.

It’s great that there’s been more conversations around racial wealth divide, and race and economics; there’s been a lot of conversation around DEI—diversity, equity, inclusion—movement, and attacks on it. But I don’t feel that they have enough centered on those who have been at the forefront of highlighting these issues, putting forth policy solutions to address them.

There are a cadre of reporters who have been focused on these issues for the last 20 years, and these reporters need to be at the forefront of the conversation. Too often times, if I do get a call, I’m getting a call from someone who’s reporting this for the first time, and doesn’t even quite understand the reality that there is deep economic inequality, it has been ongoing, and it would take radical change to really get us to a place where we could have some equality. So, again, I think we need to value those who have been focused on this area, and those institutions from these communities, if we really want to report correctly on these challenges.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and with Algernon Austin, director of the Race and Economic Justice Program at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The brief we’ve been discussing can be found at both JointCenter.org and CEPR.net. Thank you both so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

DA: Thanks for having us.

AA: Thank you.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Janine Jackson.

Young people have been leaving Myanmar in droves to work in other countries since the military seized control in a February 2021 coup d’état followed by violent crackdowns on civilians and civil war.

The new measure is one of various methods used by the ruling military council to control the number of citizens leaving for employment opportunities abroad because of the civil war, economic downturn and military conscription.

Men ages 18 to 35 years and women ages 18 to 27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military under Myanmar’s conscription law.  

In May, the junta temporarily banned all men from working abroad amid widespread public concern over the implementation of the military conscription law.

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Authorities are denying people between the ages of 23 and 35 from taking flights out of Yangon, the country’s largest city, since the beginning of August, said a city resident.

They have implemented tighter passenger scrutiny and are turning away young adults regardless of the type of passport they hold, citing incomplete documentation, said the person, who like other sources in this report asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

Myanmar issues nine types of passports, including one for overseas workers, known as PJ, one for tourists, known as PV, and one for sailors, known as PS.

But there is no specific policy detailing which types of people are restricted from traveling, the Yangon resident said. 

“Even those with all the required documents and a PJ passport people have been barred from leaving the country,” the person said. 

Neither junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun or Nyunt Win, permanent secretary of the Labor Ministry, responded to requests for comment on the travel restrictions.

Illegal ways to go abroad

RFA has not been able to determine how many people have been affected by the measure so far.

A labor union leader criticized the new restrictions, saying they would push young people to find illegal ways to go abroad.

“Due to the pressure on people to leave because they can’t find work in this country, it is the foreign employment agencies that are most affected,” he said. “As a result, illegal agencies are beginning to emerge, and brokers are becoming more active.” 

Authorities previously didn’t check whether passports matched corresponding visas, but now if there’s a mismatch, the person is not allowed to leave the country, said an employee at an overseas job search service in Myanmar.

“Some travelers were sent back because they were using PV passports with a work visa, even though the passport type appeared to match the visa type,” the person said, adding that those with such visas cannot use them for other travel purposes. 

“In other words, if you hold a tourist passport, you will no longer be allowed to go abroad for work, study or similar purposes,” the source said.

In June, the military council also revoked the right to change passport types. Additionally, PJ passport holders are now permitted to work overseas only if they possess an Overseas Worker Identification Card.

A young woman aspiring to work abroad said she believes the cash-strapped junta is restricting those with PV passports from leaving the country for jobs elsewhere because it doesn’t collect taxes from them.

“It would be more convenient if, after allowing people to go, the authorities required 25% of their salary to be transferred back at a set amount, deducting the government’s share,” she said. “This system could then be applied to PV passport holders in the same way.”  

A young sailor told RFA that he and others who must renew their passports have to wait longer than previously to get a new travel document.

Passports must be valid for at least 18 months before sailors set off and leave Myanmar, but unforeseen delays in waiting for a QR code after submitting a renewal application are preventing them from working, he said.

“I have about six months left on mine, but I can’t work on a ship with only six months remaining,” he added.

Translated by Kalyar Lwin for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.w

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

"Starting from August 1, all businesses except the U.S. Consulate will be closed," an employee who answered the phone at Shanghai's Westgate Mall said when contacted by Radio Free Asia on July 24.

The U.S. Consulate said it would continue to run its visa and immigration services from the 9th floor of the mall, on Shanghai's Nanjing Road shopping street.

"Please note, due to a planned renovation, other businesses and stores in Westgate Mall will cease operation beginning Aug. 1, 2024," the Consulate said in a notice on its official website, adding: "The Non-Immigrant Visa and American Citizen Services units will continue to operate."

The closures come amid an economic downturn that has seen nearly 7,000 retail outlets closed down in China during the first six months of this year despite ongoing efforts by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to boost economic growth by encouraging consumption.

One of the biggest tenants of the mall, Shanghai Westgate Isetan Department Store shut down at the end of June after its lease expired.

A resident of Shanghai who gave only the surname Hu for fear of reprisals said businesses are closing down all over the city, citing a recent trip to a building at the intersection of Nanjing Road and Tibet Road, where he said some two thirds of the restaurants had shut down.

"Nanjing Road is the top shopping street in the whole of China, maybe first or second in the whole of Asia," Hu said. 

"There used to be a lot of foreigners around there, but there's hardly anyone in the malls these days -- they're dead," Hu said.

No money to spend

Chen Soong-hsing, an adjunct professor in China Studies at Taiwan's Chinese Culture University who lived and worked in Shanghai for three years, said the economic downturn has hit the city hard.

"To start with, we were worried about foreign capital leaving, but even Chinese companies can't stay in operation, and are moving overseas," Chen said.

"The rich are voting with their feet, and Shanghai was where the richest people in China were concentrated," he said.

The investment community platform PEDaily.com quoted incomplete statistics from Yilan Business as saying that in the first half of 2024, at least 6,882 stores in China announced they would close, including some in major chains like Walmart and Alibaba's Freshippo.

The 2024 China Consumer Trends Survey from international consulting firm McKinsey cited worries about unemployment or income instability, asset depreciation and debt as contributing to the dearth of consumer demand.

"Ordinary people just don't have any money to spend," Hu said. "Even some people in Shanghai who have some money daren't spend recklessly, and are dialing back their consumption."

Chen said that if the downturn is so clearly visible in Shanghai, a top-tier city, then the situation must be far worse in smaller cities across China.

He said the current leadership under Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has done little to assuage people's fears.

"The current group of leaders have no idea about how to deal with our current economic difficulties, so they continue to cut interest rates and stimulate liquidity," Chen said.

Hong Kong also hit

China announced unexpectedly on Thursday that its central bank would cut its one-year medium term policy loan lending rate by 20 basis points to 2.3%, the biggest rate cut since the ending of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in 2022.

Meanwhile, a brief survey by RFA Cantonese found empty offices and piled up utility bills throughout a US$7 billion skyscraper in Hong Kong called The Center.

Several units were vacant when visited on July 24, with large numbers of unopened bills for water and other letters piling up outside the doors to individual units.

A notice posted on the door of one shuttered office once occupied by the asset management group Sanne Group Asia said the company had moved.

An office worker who gave only the surname Lee for fear of reprisals said the city's government is struggling to rekindle economic confidence.

"They're trying to find foreign investors who want to come back, but it's not easy," Lee said. "There is around 20% to 30% less [foreign investment] than before."

An IT worker in the same building who gave only the surname Tang for fear of reprisals said there are also fewer people in Hong Kong, following a mass exodus of middle-class families amid an ongoing crackdown on peaceful protest and political dissent.

"We have some vacancies in my office because some of our colleagues have emigrated," Tang said. "There are around 20 less of us than before."

Asked if he was worried, Tang replied: "Yes, we are, a bit, because it's affecting the economy."

"Everyone is a little worried about their future prospects," he said.

Downsizing

At the end of 2023, offices in The Center were renting for around HK$28,000 per square foot for a full-floor office in the middle levels of the building.

Similar spaces cost around HK$50,000 per square foot in September 2018, according to figures from the real estate company Centaline.

Simon Lee, an honorary teaching and research fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, said that while The Center alone may not be enough of a bellwether for the city's economy, he believes the current situation in Hong Kong is "somewhat unfortunate."

"Foreign investors are downsizing and in some cases withdrawing altogether," Lee said. "Chinese capital should be the main thing that is supporting the office market, but some Chinese investors have run into difficulties, and some haven't done a good job of managing risk."

"If Hong Kong were to get back its former economic momentum and go back to the situation we had in 2018, I think office buildings would be in huge demand again," he said. "But when will that day come?"

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Huang Chun-mei for RFA Mandarin, Wei Sze and Matthew Leung for RFA Cantonese.

The vision

“There’s our carbon footprint to think about, and then there’s also our cultural footprint — both of which are important, but this industry is uniquely positioned to have a large cultural footprint.”

— Sam Read, executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance

The spotlight

Dearest gentle reader,

One thing about me is that I love a good (or medium-good, or downright trashy) TV show. Last summer, we covered the rise of climate mentions and plotlines in mainstream movies and shows — something I had begun to witness as a casual viewer.

But recently, I’ve also been thinking about the fact that the shows I binge so voraciously come with their own carbon footprint, much like any other product that we consume. Producing a piece of media requires energy, transportation, filming and audio equipment, food, wardrobes, props, and a host of other resources.

Just as film creators and studios are increasingly considering how to weave climate narratives into their projects, the industry is also grappling with the challenge of decarbonizing behind the scenes.

“The biggest source of emissions for our industry, at least in terms of production, is fuel,” said Sam Read, executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance. That includes not only vehicles that bring equipment, catering, and people to set, but also a source you might not immediately think of: diesel generators. TV and film productions often shoot on location, including in remote areas, and rely on a setup of trailers. Diesel-powered generators have long been the industry standard for supplying power to these sets. And diesel is a particularly dirty fuel, causing air pollution with a range of known health effects.

The Sustainable Entertainment Alliance (formerly the Sustainable Production Alliance), a coalition of leading studios and streamers working toward sustainability in the industry, offers tools like a carbon calculator for productions and a checklist for implementing sustainable practices — such as donating uneaten craft services food, using responsibly sourced plywood to build sets, or buying used items for set decoration.

And a big one is swapping out those old diesel generators for a variety of cleaner alternatives, including hydrogen and solar power, which a few recent productions have started to make use of.

In many cases, the switch to greener practices isn’t just about helping the climate. These modern technologies are also healthier and more efficient. “There are so many benefits to the alternatives to diesel generators — one of them obviously being emissions — but they’re also quieter and less polluting,” Read said. For that reason, they can be situated closer to “video village” (where the director sits on a film set, observing the action from various monitors), eliminating some of the need for long cables.

The alliance, which already includes major players like Disney, Amazon Studios, Netflix, and Paramount Pictures, is working to broaden its membership. Read sees a growing appetite for decarbonization in the entertainment industry, driven in part by advocacy from unions like The Producers Guild of America, which helped create the sustainable production checklist. (Check out the 2022 Hollywood Reporter report on sustainability for more stories of how studios have embedded climate goals into productions.)

The alliance and other groups are also advocating for more climate stories onscreen. But in another part of the industry, the distinction between what happens behind the scenes and on camera is a little fuzzier, creating unique opportunities to both decarbonize and model sustainability to viewers. That’s reality TV — my truest and guiltiest pleasure.

“It is such a good year for sustainability on TV,” said Cyle Zezo, an executive producer and the founder of Reality of Change, an initiative focused on sustainability and climate storytelling opportunities in unscripted entertainment, including documentaries, reality TV, and game and competition shows.

On average, Zezo said, the footprint of an unscripted show is likely to be smaller than a scripted production. Producers of these shows may contend with some of the same issues — like the need for clean energy to power equipment in remote filming locations. But generally, the clean production practices on a reality show or documentary are simply reflecting the way real people live their lives.

When we spoke for my story last year, for instance, Zezo highlighted compost bins on the set of a cooking show called Recipe for Disaster, and how the crew intentionally showed them during filming. Also last year, Netflix announced a partnership with General Motors to use more electric vehicles in shows like Love Is Blind and Queer Eye.

“I’m gonna make a prediction, and I hope I’m right, that climate and sustainability representations are only going to continue to grow in this area over the coming years,” Zezo said.

I asked Zezo, Read, and others to point me toward some recent shows and movies that have embedded sustainability into their productions in new or interesting ways. These series and movies may not all appear to be climate-related, but they can all help decarbonize your summer watch list.

Clean power on set

Bridgerton. That’s right, dear readers. This steamy romance series set in the Regency era in London took a more modern approach to sustainability in the production of its third season. In a set tour, two actors from the show describe how the cast trailers and work trucks were all powered by a hydrogen power unit supplied by British company GeoPura. The production also omitted beef from craft services due to its outsized carbon footprint.

The Decameron. This upcoming show (premiering July 25), loosely inspired by the short story collection of the same name, tells the story of a debaucherous retreat in the Italian countryside as wealthy nobles, and their servants, attempt to avoid the bubonic plague. This show also pursued clean energy in its production; its base camp ran on batteries charged by solar panels, according to Netflix.

Bosch: Legacy. A third show replacing diesel generators on set, this is the next chapter of a seven-season police procedural drama following the career of detective Harry Bosch. The show was among the first to use mobile battery units designed by a company called Moxion.

Sitting in Bars With Cake. This 2023 movie, starring Yara Shahidi, Odessa A’zion, and Bette Midler, is about friendship, navigating life in your 20s, and, as the title would suggest, cake. It also used Moxion’s mobile clean-tech batteries on set.

The Gilded Age. In the second season of this historical drama, producers took a more holistic approach to get the show off diesel power. “They actually installed power lines — like they put in power poles and a whole power system in the backlot area where they were shooting,” Heidi Kindberg, the vice president of sustainability at Warner Bros. Discovery, told The Hollywood Reporter. That enabled the show to go generator-free when shooting its second season in New York.

True Detective: Night Country. The fourth season of this critically acclaimed crime drama takes place in the Arctic — it was filmed in Iceland, where the production was able to draw on the country’s nearly 100-percent renewable energy grid. Where remote power was needed, the show piloted an electric battery generator called the Benerator. According to a report from the Producers Guild of America, the show’s creators also slashed waste by placing recycling and compost bins and water-fill stations around set. And, this season features a climate-related storyline.

Subtle solutions on screen

Homegrown. In this series, now in its fourth season, Atlanta-based farmer and food activist Jamila Norman helps homeowners transform their yards into urban farms, while discussing the many benefits that farms and gardens can bring to communities. Zezo loves how it invites viewers in, showing them how anyone can do the things shown onscreen.

Building Outside the Lines. This quirky build show follows father-daughter duo Jared (“Cappie”) and Alex Capp as they take on bespoke design and construction projects, largely in their South Dakota community. Zezo noted that its sustainability themes are subtle, showcasing the use of electric power tools and unconventional or upcycled materials, like shipping containers.

OMG Fashun. This competition show, co-hosted by Julia Fox and Law Roche, is all about upcycled fashion — it’s Project Runway meets Chopped. The show is incredibly on-message with its themes of sustainability and reuse, Zezo said, without coming across as stuffy or preachy. “It’s just so sharp and creative and, like, absolutely wild fun.”

Family Switch. OK, this is a holiday movie — so maybe save it for a few months (or for a night when you just need something cozy). It’s a Freaky Friday-inspired family romp starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, and according to Netflix it ran on electric vehicles. Four EV passenger vans transported the crew, another brought the catering and production items, and an electric pickup truck pulled the director’s trailer. An EV makes an onscreen appearance as well — it’s brief, but the family’s Polestar 2 shows up in at least one scene.

— Claire Elise Thompson

A parting shot

In March, the advocacy group Gas Leaks Project launched an awareness campaign about the health dangers of gas stoves — in the form of a reality TV show trailer. The made-up show was dubbed Hot & Toxic, a spoofy take on a house-full-of-hot-and-melodromatic-young-singles style of show, where the house is that of a new and unsuspecting homeowner, and the singles are personified forms of the cancer-causing chemicals spewing out of her stove.

IMAGE CREDITS

Vision: Grist

Parting shot: Gas Leaks Project

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline These TV shows are leaving emissions on the cutting room floor on Jul 3, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Claire Elise Thompson.

The vision

“There’s our carbon footprint to think about, and then there’s also our cultural footprint — both of which are important, but this industry is uniquely positioned to have a large cultural footprint.”

— Sam Read, executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance

The spotlight

Dearest gentle reader,

One thing about me is that I love a good (or medium-good, or downright trashy) TV show. Last summer, we covered the rise of climate mentions and plotlines in mainstream movies and shows — something I had begun to witness as a casual viewer.

But recently, I’ve also been thinking about the fact that the shows I binge so voraciously come with their own carbon footprint, much like any other product that we consume. Producing a piece of media requires energy, transportation, filming and audio equipment, food, wardrobes, props, and a host of other resources.

Just as film creators and studios are increasingly considering how to weave climate narratives into their projects, the industry is also grappling with the challenge of decarbonizing behind the scenes.

“The biggest source of emissions for our industry, at least in terms of production, is fuel,” said Sam Read, executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance. That includes not only vehicles that bring equipment, catering, and people to set, but also a source you might not immediately think of: diesel generators. TV and film productions often shoot on location, including in remote areas, and rely on a setup of trailers. Diesel-powered generators have long been the industry standard for supplying power to these sets. And diesel is a particularly dirty fuel, causing air pollution with a range of known health effects.

The Sustainable Entertainment Alliance (formerly the Sustainable Production Alliance), a coalition of leading studios and streamers working toward sustainability in the industry, offers tools like a carbon calculator for productions and a checklist for implementing sustainable practices — such as donating uneaten craft services food, using responsibly sourced plywood to build sets, or buying used items for set decoration.

And a big one is swapping out those old diesel generators for a variety of cleaner alternatives, including hydrogen and solar power, which a few recent productions have started to make use of.

In many cases, the switch to greener practices isn’t just about helping the climate. These modern technologies are also healthier and more efficient. “There are so many benefits to the alternatives to diesel generators — one of them obviously being emissions — but they’re also quieter and less polluting,” Read said. For that reason, they can be situated closer to “video village” (where the director sits on a film set, observing the action from various monitors), eliminating some of the need for long cables.

The alliance, which already includes major players like Disney, Amazon Studios, Netflix, and Paramount Pictures, is working to broaden its membership. Read sees a growing appetite for decarbonization in the entertainment industry, driven in part by advocacy from unions like The Producers Guild of America, which helped create the sustainable production checklist. (Check out the 2022 Hollywood Reporter report on sustainability for more stories of how studios have embedded climate goals into productions.)

The alliance and other groups are also advocating for more climate stories onscreen. But in another part of the industry, the distinction between what happens behind the scenes and on camera is a little fuzzier, creating unique opportunities to both decarbonize and model sustainability to viewers. That’s reality TV — my truest and guiltiest pleasure.

“It is such a good year for sustainability on TV,” said Cyle Zezo, an executive producer and the founder of Reality of Change, an initiative focused on sustainability and climate storytelling opportunities in unscripted entertainment, including documentaries, reality TV, and game and competition shows.

On average, Zezo said, the footprint of an unscripted show is likely to be smaller than a scripted production. Producers of these shows may contend with some of the same issues — like the need for clean energy to power equipment in remote filming locations. But generally, the clean production practices on a reality show or documentary are simply reflecting the way real people live their lives.

When we spoke for my story last year, for instance, Zezo highlighted compost bins on the set of a cooking show called Recipe for Disaster, and how the crew intentionally showed them during filming. Also last year, Netflix announced a partnership with General Motors to use more electric vehicles in shows like Love Is Blind and Queer Eye.

“I’m gonna make a prediction, and I hope I’m right, that climate and sustainability representations are only going to continue to grow in this area over the coming years,” Zezo said.

I asked Zezo, Read, and others to point me toward some recent shows and movies that have embedded sustainability into their productions in new or interesting ways. These series and movies may not all appear to be climate-related, but they can all help decarbonize your summer watch list.

Clean power on set

Bridgerton. That’s right, dear readers. This steamy romance series set in the Regency era in London took a more modern approach to sustainability in the production of its third season. In a set tour, two actors from the show describe how the cast trailers and work trucks were all powered by a hydrogen power unit supplied by British company GeoPura. The production also omitted beef from craft services due to its outsized carbon footprint.

The Decameron. This upcoming show (premiering July 25), loosely inspired by the short story collection of the same name, tells the story of a debaucherous retreat in the Italian countryside as wealthy nobles, and their servants, attempt to avoid the bubonic plague. This show also pursued clean energy in its production; its base camp ran on batteries charged by solar panels, according to Netflix.

Bosch: Legacy. A third show replacing diesel generators on set, this is the next chapter of a seven-season police procedural drama following the career of detective Harry Bosch. The show was among the first to use mobile battery units designed by a company called Moxion.

Sitting in Bars With Cake. This 2023 movie, starring Yara Shahidi, Odessa A’zion, and Bette Midler, is about friendship, navigating life in your 20s, and, as the title would suggest, cake. It also used Moxion’s mobile clean-tech batteries on set.

The Gilded Age. In the second season of this historical drama, producers took a more holistic approach to get the show off diesel power. “They actually installed power lines — like they put in power poles and a whole power system in the backlot area where they were shooting,” Heidi Kindberg, the vice president of sustainability at Warner Bros. Discovery, told The Hollywood Reporter. That enabled the show to go generator-free when shooting its second season in New York.

True Detective: Night Country. The fourth season of this critically acclaimed crime drama takes place in the Arctic — it was filmed in Iceland, where the production was able to draw on the country’s nearly 100-percent renewable energy grid. Where remote power was needed, the show piloted an electric battery generator called the Benerator. According to a report from the Producers Guild of America, the show’s creators also slashed waste by placing recycling and compost bins and water-fill stations around set. And, this season features a climate-related storyline.

Subtle solutions on screen

Homegrown. In this series, now in its fourth season, Atlanta-based farmer and food activist Jamila Norman helps homeowners transform their yards into urban farms, while discussing the many benefits that farms and gardens can bring to communities. Zezo loves how it invites viewers in, showing them how anyone can do the things shown onscreen.

Building Outside the Lines. This quirky build show follows father-daughter duo Jared (“Cappie”) and Alex Capp as they take on bespoke design and construction projects, largely in their South Dakota community. Zezo noted that its sustainability themes are subtle, showcasing the use of electric power tools and unconventional or upcycled materials, like shipping containers.

OMG Fashun. This competition show, co-hosted by Julia Fox and Law Roche, is all about upcycled fashion — it’s Project Runway meets Chopped. The show is incredibly on-message with its themes of sustainability and reuse, Zezo said, without coming across as stuffy or preachy. “It’s just so sharp and creative and, like, absolutely wild fun.”

Family Switch. OK, this is a holiday movie — so maybe save it for a few months (or for a night when you just need something cozy). It’s a Freaky Friday-inspired family romp starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms, and according to Netflix it ran on electric vehicles. Four EV passenger vans transported the crew, another brought the catering and production items, and an electric pickup truck pulled the director’s trailer. An EV makes an onscreen appearance as well — it’s brief, but the family’s Polestar 2 shows up in at least one scene.

— Claire Elise Thompson

A parting shot

In March, the advocacy group Gas Leaks Project launched an awareness campaign about the health dangers of gas stoves — in the form of a reality TV show trailer. The made-up show was dubbed Hot & Toxic, a spoofy take on a house-full-of-hot-and-melodromatic-young-singles style of show, where the house is that of a new and unsuspecting homeowner, and the singles are personified forms of the cancer-causing chemicals spewing out of her stove.

IMAGE CREDITS

Vision: Grist

Parting shot: Gas Leaks Project

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline These TV shows are leaving emissions on the cutting room floor on Jul 3, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Claire Elise Thompson.

The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument was established in 2009 and currently preserves nearly half a million square miles of ocean surrounding seven islands in the central and western Pacific. The Biden administration is seeking to strengthen environmental protections by overlaying and expanding the area of protection up to 770,000 square miles and designating it as a national marine sanctuary. The monument already bans commercial resource extraction like deep-sea mining, but the proposed sanctuary would both expand the protected waters and give the whole area an additional layer of federal protection.

The expansion would also make a dent in the Biden administration’s goal to conserve 30 percent of the country’s land and waters by 2030. 

However, according to Angelo Villagomez and Steven Manaʻoakamai Johnson, authors of the peer-reviewed article in Environmental Justice, the Biden administration has privileged Native Hawaiian perspectives (who are supportive of the expansion, which does not extend to the archipelago) over those of other Indigenous Pacific Islanders, namely Micronesians and Samoans, who have less political power in the U.S. system and have voiced more concerns about the proposal. 

“Anti-Micronesian bias and colonialism are harming efforts to protect and manage waters surrounding U.S. overseas territories in the Pacific Islands,” the authors wrote. “The proposal is problematic because it has failed to meaningfully include the Indigenous people who live closest to the region and who have the strongest historical and cultural ties to the islands — Micronesians and Samoans.” 

Villagomez, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who is Chamorro and grew up on the Mariana Islands, has been advocating for ocean-protected areas for more than 15 years. When he began this work, back in 2007, Villagomez sought to organize support in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for the Marianas Trench National Marine Monument, which conserves nearly 100,000 square miles of water in the Marianas archipelago. Although the proposal faced pushback from locals who were concerned that the move infringed on Indigenous sovereignty, Villagomez thought the monument would not only help the planet but also bring federal jobs to the territory. He was in the room celebrating when then-President George W. Bush signed the monument into existence in 2009, hailed as a major environmental achievement.

For years afterward, Villagomez watched as government jobs for the monument were concentrated in Hawaiʻi. The office was located in Honolulu, thousands of miles away from the monument. Research vessels were being outfitted out of Honolulu and staffed with people who were from Hawaiʻi and other states. It was disappointing to see that these benefits weren’t helping the people of the Northern Marianas, which has a much more fragile economy. After all, he had seen how the 2006 Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Monument in the northern Hawaiian islands had given Hawaiʻi a boost of prestige and research funding.

“We were working under the assumption that [the Marianas monument] would operate like [the one in] Hawaiʻi,” Villagomez said. “But the difference is Hawaiʻi has two senators, and they have representation in the House of Representatives, and they can vote for president. And we just don’t have the political power to bring the dollars to our islands the way that Hawaiʻi does.”

Only recently has an office for the Marianas Trench monument opened in the Commonwealth. And just last month — 15 years after monument designation — the Interior Department released a proposed management plan for the Marianas Trench monument. Villagomez thinks the delays reflect a broader disregard for the territories that he’s seeing unfold again in the Pacific Remote Islands sanctuary designation effort.

“The process of colonization doesn’t only play out with the colonizer and the colonized, but it also plays out in relationships between colonized people,” said Steven Manaʻoakamai Johnson, Villagomez’s co-author who is an assistant professor of natural resources and the environment at Cornell University. “In this case, what we’re trying to highlight is that the Hawaiian perspective and the Hawaiian voice is being privileged, above that of the Micronesian and Samoan voice.”

For instance, the official community group advising government agencies about the monument includes a designated Native Hawaiian representative but not an equivalent role for other Indigenous peoples, Villagomez and Johnson wrote. 

Similarly, in documents describing the cultural importance of the islands, advocates for the marine sanctuary often describe the sacrifices of Native Hawaiians who lived on Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands during World War II, and ignore the comparable sacrifices of Indigenous Chamorros killed on Wake Island and the fact that most of the islands within the monument’s coverage are part of the Micronesian region, Villagomez and Johnson wrote. 

Sarah Marquis at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the agency plans to release a draft plan for the sanctuary designation later this year and will accept further public input on the proposal then. “We cannot comment on specific papers or articles at this stage of designation,” she said. 

Naiʻa Lewis, a member of the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition that has been advocating for the sanctuary designation, said the group has long advocated for inclusivity through avenues like co-management and renaming. 

“It’s really important when we are critiquing frameworks that we feel like do not support our communities and our perspectives that we also highlight people, organizations, and communities that are working in that space to make those changes,” Lewis said.

Villagomez said a major impetus for releasing the paper is the importance of Pacific territories to the U.S.’s ocean conservation goals: 29 percent of the country’s ocean territory surrounds Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and 99 percent of the country’s protected ocean areas are in the Pacific region. Villagomez said he would like to see the territories accrue benefits from those protected areas, such as jobs and funding, but said sometimes they can’t even get their own people on the boats that explore those waters. 

In American Samoa, political leaders have long opposed monuments that restrict commercial fishing. Even though conservation supporters point to a recent study that shows relatively few ships that dock in Pago Pago, its primary port, actually fish in the proposed Pacific Remote Islands sanctuary area, fears about economic harm persist. These concerns are particularly resonant when the islands’ struggling economies continue to fuel major outmigration and make it difficult for territories to provide essential medical care for their residents. 

In the Northern Mariana Islands, commercial fishing is not a major industry, but critics of the marine monuments have argued that closing off large portions of the ocean to potential economic activity violates their right to Indigenous economic self-determination and is especially egregious when those same areas remain open to U.S. military undersea sonar training and explosive testing. 

“Our already disadvantaged and marginalized communities carry a disproportionate burden for meeting national conservation goals,” the governors of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam wrote in a joint letter to Biden last year.

Villagomez and Johnson both support ocean conservation but argue that any marine sanctuary designation should include dedicated funding for the affected territories and peoples, and urge NOAA to create such a fund. 

“It’s the territories who are living with the decisions,” Villagomez said. “But it’s people in Washington D.C. and Honolulu who are forcing the territories to carry these burdens for the rest of the country.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline A Biden effort to conserve oceans is leaving out Indigenous peoples, report finds on Jul 3, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Anita Hofschneider.

A Chinese activist who supported an online free speech campaign that saw its leader arrested in Laos and is “terrified” of being sent back to China is now facing deportation from Denmark after her asylum application was rejected by authorities there.

Liu Dongling fled China in 2018 when her son was refused an education by authorities after she helped victims of forced evictions to apply for compensation through legal channels, she told RFA Mandarin in an interview recorded two days before World Refugee Day, June 20.

She said the authorities claimed they couldn't be sure from the evidence she submitted that she was at risk if she went back to China.

But Liu says she knows otherwise, citing repeated phone calls from a state prosecutor from her home city of Zhengzhou.

"I gradually realized that this Gaoxin District People's Procuratorate official called Li Hongbin had been put in charge of my case, relating to when I was helping others with their [forced eviction complaint] cases," Liu said. "I realized that the fact that he kept calling me put me in danger."

Who is a refugee?

The United Nations defines a refugee as someone who legitimately fears persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, belonging to a social group or having a certain political opinion, and is unwilling to return to the country for those reasons.

Yet foreign governments have been repeatedly criticized by rights activists for repatriating asylum-seekers who are then arrested and jailed on their return to China.

China also actively works to force its overseas dissidents to return home, sparking international concern over the Chinese Communist Party's "long-arm" law enforcement operations, which have included running secret police "service stations" in dozens of countries, according to the Spain-based rights group Safeguard Defenders.

Liu, who started writing for the overseas Chinese-language website Boxun after leaving China, also cites the forced repatriation of rights activists Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei by authorities in Thailand around the time she left China.

"I was told by a colleague at Boxun ... that a lot of Boxun journalists had been detained in China, and that some had even been detained in Thailand," Liu said. "So I got more and more terrified."

Captured in Laos

Liu had also been a vocal supporter via X of an anti-censorship movement started by Lao-based activist Qiao Xinxin, who was later detained and forcibly repatriated.

Qiao, whose birth name is Yang Zewei, went missing, believed detained on or around May 31, 2023 in Vientiane, after launching an online campaign to end internet censorship in China, known as the BanGFW Movement, a reference to the Great Firewall, according to fellow activists.

His family were later informed that he is being held in a juvenile detention center in Hunan's Hengyang city in another example of China’s cross-border law enforcement activities.

Qiao had lived in Laos for several years before launching the BanGFW Movement, yet was believed to have been detained by Chinese police in Vientiane.

Radio Free Asia contacted the Danish Refugee Council by email about Liu's case, but had received no reply by June 19. Danish Repatriation Council official Tina Fjorside confirmed on Tuesday that Liu had now entered a process that will result in her forced repatriation.

Immigration jails are ‘hell on earth’

Thailand-based political dissident Li Nanfei told RFA Mandarin that he's now basically stuck in the country, playing an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse with Thai immigration authorities, and trying to stay out of their detention centers.

"Immigration detention centers are like hell on earth," Li said. "Human rights violations are very common, inmates are packed in very densely, and there is frequent violence."

Li spent his savings on bailing himself out of his last spell in detention, where he ran into plenty of other refugees on the run from China.

"The immigration prisons would hold onto them for a long time," he said. "Some people were held there for more than 10 years. Some even died in there."

Figures released by the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR in June 2022 showed that while around 12,000 Chinese nationals sought asylum overseas in 2012, the year that Xi took office as Communist Party general secretary, that number had risen to nearly 120,000 by 2021.

The U.S. remains the most popular destination, accepting 88,722 applicants from mainland China last year. Australia took 15,774 asylum-seekers in the same year, figures showed.

New York-based current affairs commentator Ma Ju, who runs a refugee relief station offering two weeks of free food and accommodation to Chinese asylum-seekers in the city, said the refugees just keep on coming, despite the hazards of overland travel to the border with Mexico, known in Chinese as "walking the line."

"A very high proportion, about 80%, are here because of political, religious or ethnic [persecution]," Ma said. "A lot of ethnic minorities like Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Hui Muslims, Mongolians and Tibetans are there because of their religion or ethnic identity."

The vast majority can't live a life of any dignity back home in China, Ma said.

"They were in pain and misery every day -- there's nothing there for them, no dignity," he said, adding that only a small minority of refugees are basically there for what he termed "economic reasons."

In San Francisco, artist and rights activist Xiang Li has formed a group to help refugee women through art. Most of them are Chinese women.

"Some have psychological trauma and need treatment," Xiang said. "We haven't gotten to the point of offering counseling yet, but there is a kind of mutual support we can offer, which is sometimes even more effective."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin.

Hendrickson is the mayor of Redington Shores, Florida, a well-heeled beach town in Pinellas County. Her town occupies a small section of a razor-thin barrier island that stretches down the western side of the sprawling Tampa Bay metro area, dividing cities like Tampa and St. Petersburg from the Gulf of Mexico. Many of her constituents have an uninterrupted view of the ocean.

The town’s only protection from the Gulf of Mexico’s increasingly erratic storms is a pristine beach that draws millions of tourists every year — but that beach is disappearing fast. A series of storms, culminating in last fall’s Hurricane Idalia, have eroded most of the sand that protects Redington Shores and the towns around it, leaving residents just one big wave away from water overtaking their homes.

This perilous situation is the result of a standoff between local residents and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that handles flood prevention and protects many of the nation’s beaches. The Corps often rebuilds eroded beaches by hauling in thousands of tons of sand, but the agency is refusing to deliver $42 million of new sand to Pinellas County unless the area’s coastal property owners grant public access to the slivers of beach behind their homes. Hundreds of these property owners, however, are in turn refusing to sign documents that grant these points of access, which are known as easements. The faceoff has brought the area’s storm recovery to a near standstill.

This standoff highlights growing tensions between the federal government and homeowners in coastal areas that are threatened by climate change. As sea levels have risen and strong storms have caused greater damage than ever before, the costs of protecting and insuring beach fronts in Florida and other states have increased rapidly. Agencies like the Corps have had to weigh these costs against the interests of property owners in places like the Tampa Bay region. When those interests come into conflict, populated coastal areas can be left exposed or uninsured, making them sitting ducks for the next climate-fueled storm.

“Our coastlines are the first line of defense against storms, and our Gulf beaches are just eroding away,” Hendrickson told Grist. “I don’t know where we go with it now, or how we come together to work through it.”

The Corps put the easement policy in place decades ago to ensure that it didn’t spend public money to restore private beaches, but the agency didn’t begin enforcing the rule in earnest until after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. When the Corps tried to replace disintegrated beaches in New Jersey, it discovered that it didn’t have all the easements it needed. Local governments spent years trying to obtain them, and the state government had to use eminent domain to seize portions of the beach in order to satisfy the agency.

In the years since, the agency has warned Pinellas County and other local governments that they won’t get any more sand unless they get easements from all the property owners on their beaches. The Corps says it first raised the issue with Pinellas back in 2017, but tensions started rising last year after Idalia eroded the area’s beaches to a dangerous degree, creating a desperate need for new protective sand.

The Corps requires that easements be “perpetual,” which means that the public will always be able to access the beach area behind an owner’s property. The agency says this is only so that it has the ability to help out after future storms: When a hurricane wipes out a beach, the Corps often swoops in to pay for an emergency beach replenishment just weeks later, ensuring homes don’t wash away. The agency says that it can’t commit to doing this emergency work unless it can be sure that beach access will remain public for good. It also says that it needs easements from all property owners in a given area, because nourishment projects don’t work unless they’re continuous along an entire stretch of sand.

Pinellas County officials tried their best to obtain these easements, even going from door to door and pleading with residents to “sign for sand.” Nevertheless, around half of the 461 property owners along the barrier island have refused to grant them. County officials are still urging residents to submit, but they have obtained few new easements since late last year.

The strange thing about the easement controversy is that these waterfront residents don’t fully own the beaches behind their homes — in fact, most of the county’s beaches are already public. State law provides that all Florida beaches with artificial sand are public up to the “erosion control line,” which is about the same as that which marks high tide. In other words, everything from the water to the high tide line is open for anyone to walk, tan, or spread a blanket. The land in dispute between the Corps and the homeowners is only the section of sand between the backside of a beach house and the high tide line, which in many cases is just a few dozen feet.

“For most of the project, the beach is wide open to the public,” said John Bishop, Pinellas County’s coastal management coordinator. “A lot of the easement areas aren’t even on the beach, they’re in the dune behind the beach.”

Owners’ reasons for refusing easements are numerous, but most cite a fear that granting public access to the sand behind their property will encourage tourists to venture up on their dunes or sit on the sea walls behind their homes. Sure, they can’t stop tourists and beachgoers from using the beach that sits between the erosion line and the water — but they don’t want them coming any closer.

Even those property owners who have granted their easements haven’t yet seen any benefit from doing so, since the Corps won’t deliver sand until everyone complies.

Andrew Youngman, the property manager at the Sea Oats resort condominium in Redington Shores, says the board of his 40-unit building was initially eager to grant the Corps an easement for beach nourishment last year. But when residents learned they wouldn’t get new sand unless the county secured easements from all property owners, they figured it would never happen, so they never finished the paperwork. Since then, Youngman has watched the area around his property erode.

“We’re probably in the best shape in the vicinity, because we have a dune of our own out there,” Youngman told Grist. “Everyone else is just flat from their building to the water.”

The local government and the Army Corps of Engineers have kept up this staring contest for almost a year now, and some political heavyweights have gotten involved on the county’s side. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio and Representative Anna Paulina Luna, all Republicans, have accused the Corps of holding up the beach project on bureaucratic grounds. Last month Scott sent a letter to the Corps saying that his constituents “have seen enough inaction.” The letter urged the Corps to relax its easement policy and said that “further delays on these projects could cause catastrophic damage to … coastal communities.”

In response to questions from Grist, a spokesperson for the Corps gave no indication that the agency will budge on its policy, which it has begun to enforce elsewhere in Florida and in other coastal states like South Carolina.

Even when Pinellas County tried to obtain separate temporary easements to build new emergency dunes at the top of its beaches, many residents still refused, in part out of a concern that new dunes would block their ocean views. This further stalemate with homeowners has forced the county to build a piecemeal dune behind coastal properties, leaving holes in front of the homes and hotels where the owners didn’t want to grant an easement. 

This broken dune won’t do much come storm season, according to René Flowers, a Pinellas County commissioner who has been pushing the Corps to deliver the sand.

“When you have a break in the chain, then all of the work that you’re doing is not as impactful in protecting as it would be,” she said.  

Rob Young, a professor of geology at Western Carolina University and a frequent critic of beach nourishment projects, says Pinellas County should fund the nourishment itself through sales tax increases rather than relying on the federal government to pay for new sand. He pointed out that some beach towns on the Outer Banks of North Carolina have taxed tourism to pay for sand after the federal government stopped covering the costs.

“For a lot of people, the privacy is more important to them than the risk of destruction,” he said, referring to residents who refused to grant easements. “The solution is very easy — pay for your own risk.” Young added that many nourishment projects don’t seem to be worth the money they cost. He pointed to the Jersey Shore, where a $1 million beach nourishment project washed away in just one year.

The knowledge that beach nourishment might not be a good investment doesn’t do much to help local leaders like Flowers, the Pinellas County commissioner, who is bracing herself for a hurricane season that meteorologists predict will be one of the most active in decades.

“I’m very concerned for those homeowners out there who will be impacted because perhaps their neighbor has opted not to allow access,” she said. 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The homeowner mutiny leaving Florida cities defenseless against hurricanes on Jun 4, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Jake Bittle.

New York City police officers blocked a reporter for independent newsroom THE CITY, along with other journalists, from leaving a building on Columbia University’s campus during mass arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on April 30, 2024.

Journalist Gwynne Hogan, who said she was displaying her press credentials, posted on social media platform X shortly before 9:30 p.m. that she and a group of fellow reporters and students were “pushed” into a building adjoining Hamilton Hall — which protesters had occupied and dubbed “Hind’s Hall” — as police descended on campus and began a sweep of the occupied building.

“NYPD had fully cleared the area where students started camping out last night, rows of demonstrators linked arms around the entryway to ‘Hinds Hall’ are the only ones left outside,” Hogan wrote in the post. “I'm with a crowd of students and reporters pushed back into an adjoining building.”

Moments later, Hogan posted video and reported that she was being blocked in by police, adding, “They won't let me out despite showing many of them my NYPD press pass.” In the video, several officers in riot gear can be seen through the doors, barring the exits as other officers in the background lead away protesters.

Shortly after midnight, Hogan posted “Made it out, NYPD and campus safety escorting groups of students out from buildings that were previously locked down.”

In a May 1 article for THE CITY detailing police crackdowns at Columbia and other New York City colleges, Hogan wrote of Columbia that “student journalists and a CITY reporter were forced into adjoining buildings and blocked in for several hours, unable to observe officers entering Hamilton Hall, or the arrests of students who’d linked arms to try and block the entryway to the hall.”

Hogan did not respond to a request for comment.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

We look at Monday’s unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states do not have the authority to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment with Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern, who calls the decision a “disaster” that appears tailor-made to let Trump avoid accountability for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He says despite the superficial unanimity of the 9-0 ruling, it was closer to a 5-4 split, with the five conservative justices who wrote the majority opinion raising additional barriers to keeping insurrectionists from public office.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

In the autumn of 2021, an 800-page report crossed the desk of Washington state lands archaeologist Sara Palmer. It came from an energy developer called Avangrid Renewables, which was proposing to build a solar facility partly on a parcel of public land managed by the state. Palmer was in charge of reviewing reports like these, which are based on land surveys intended to identify archaeologically and culturally significant resources.

Developers have proposed dozens of similar solar and wind projects across the state — a “green rush” of sorts amid rising fears of climate change. With the projects came more reports.

Often, Palmer, who worked for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, read the reports and signed off; sometimes she shared notes on any concerns or told the developer to have the archaeologists they’d contracted with do additional fieldwork. This time, as she looked at the report, she grew concerned. The consulting company that Avangrid had hired, Tetra Tech, had included a lot of boilerplate language about human history on the Columbia Plateau, but fewer details than Palmer expected about what was actually found on the land.

Palmer knew that the parcel, located on a ridge called Badger Mountain, near the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers, was historically a high-traffic corridor for the škwáxčənəxʷ and šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷ peoples (also known as the Moses Columbia and Wenatchi tribes). The area would likely be rich in cultural resources, including historic stone structures and first foods, the ingredients that make up traditional Indigenous diets.

Palmer was used to helping developers improve their technical reports to meet state standards. So, as soon as the snow melted, she drove out to Badger Mountain to look at the land herself.

As she walked the sagebrush overlook, Palmer quickly found signs of current-day Indigenous ceremonial activity, as well as ancient sites such as stone structures that can look like natural formations to the untrained eye but serve a variety of functions, including hunting and storage.

Most of the proposed development is on private lands, which Palmer lacked the authority to access. But in about 20 hours of fieldwork on the state-owned parcel, over the course of several days, Palmer said she found at least 17 sites of probable archaeological or cultural importance not listed in Tetra Tech’s survey. She would find more on subsequent visits.

Over the next year, Palmer’s findings — and how she shared them — would pit her against corporate and political forces that seemed determined to push the project through.

As soon as she returned from her initial trip, Palmer emailed her findings of “serious deficiencies” in Avangrid’s report to her colleagues at the Department of Natural Resources, which manages lands like the Badger Mountain parcel for the purpose of generating revenue for public services. Palmer called the situation “extraordinary,” noting that she had found a significant network of interconnected archaeological sites from before the arrival of white settlers.

Palmer also forwarded her findings to two tribal nations whose resources would be impacted: the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, where the škwáxčənəxʷ and šnp̍əšqʷáw̉šəxʷ people are enrolled today. The tribal nations retain the right, via treaty and other legal mechanisms, to continue cultural practices like harvesting on any public lands in their ancestral territory. Treaties are considered the “supreme Law of the Land,” according to the U.S. Constitution, and the courts are supposed to view them as “equivalent to an act of the legislature,” according to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

States play a role in upholding treaties, which require them to protect cultural resources on public lands. To do that, the state needs to know what resources are out there. For energy projects in Washington, state officials like Palmer generally rely on developers to conduct the surveys to find out.

Developer-conducted surveys have caused issues elsewhere: Officials in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, for example, pressured their consulting archaeologists to change a report that concluded a Black cemetery was eligible for historical designation, while in Louisiana, an archaeological firm, under pressure from its clients, edited a report to downplay evidence that a grain facility threatened notable Black historic sites.

Joe Sexton, an Indigenous rights attorney with the Washington law firm Galanda Broadman, said developer-funded archaeologists are a chronic problem in the state. Their reviews “are at best deficient and at worst deliberately negligent in overlooking tribal interests, overlooking clear potential for, for example, human burials, not considering sacred sites, not discussing with tribal elders and considering oral histories in particular,” he said.

Tetra Tech did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In an emailed statement, an Avangrid spokesperson said the company has followed “all relevant law and regulation” with regard to the Badger Mountain solar project. The company “has taken additional steps to accommodate stakeholder feedback where possible,” the spokesperson wrote. “We will continue to do so as the project moves forward.”

In late May and early July of 2023, the Colville Tribes and the Yakama Nation officially registered their disapproval of the survey for Badger Mountain with the state agency in charge of permitting the solar project. Last fall, the agency took the rare step of requiring Avangrid to pay for a second, independent survey.

But even a perfect cultural survey only tells the state where cultural resources are; it doesn’t necessarily prevent them from being damaged, removed or destroyed.

In June, at a tribal summit with state agencies and developers in Tacoma, Washington, Yakama Nation archaeologist Noah Oliver criticized the state’s green rush. “It’s a land grab,” he said, pointing to the entire method of siting, permitting and consultation for renewable energy projects. “The system we work under is broken.”

The Yakama Nation considers all of Badger Mountain to be a traditional cultural property — government parlance for a place the tribes have identified as significant and eligible for federal protections. It is also an important harvesting site for the heirloom foods that make up much of Colville people’s diets. Andy Joseph Jr., an elected member of the Colville Tribal Business Council, estimated that the Badger Mountain project would destroy roughly half the root vegetable harvest in the area.

Joseph said the destruction of tribal food systems began when white settlers arrived, eroding community health and forcing assimilation. The building of Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams in the mid-20th century extirpated salmon from much of the upper Columbia River. The impacts were so severe that the Yakama Nation called the construction of one dam “cultural genocide,” committed to develop renewable energy, and Joseph said the new development plans continue that practice.

Joseph, who has also served on the National Indian Health Board, said protecting the healthy foods on Badger Mountain is vital to the well-being of Native people, who experience some of the nation’s worst health disparities. Tribal leaders have declined to describe or identify their heirloom crops out of concern that the non-Native public might overharvest or commercially exploit them.

“This is one of the last places where our roots aren’t being sprayed by anybody or they’re not grazed over by animals,” Joseph said. “It’s our food cache, and we don’t want it ruined.”

This is one of the last places where our roots aren’t being sprayed by anybody or they’re not grazed over by animals. It’s our food cache, and we don’t want it ruined.

As well as being a source for foods, Badger Mountain is culturally critical as an active ceremonial ground, and some of the rock features crafted by tribal ancestors are spiritual in nature. As they do with root vegetables, the tribal nations keep ceremonial information private to protect it from appropriation or commodification by non-Natives. But Joseph said root harvesting begins with a prayer ceremony, which tribal elders teach to the youth, feeding both the body and spirit.

Political pressure to advance the Badger Mountain project has been growing for years. In 2018, DNR developed a plan to lease out state lands for solar and wind projects. Three years later, Gov. Jay Inslee signed his blockbuster Climate Commitment Act, formalizing a statewide goal of reducing net climate pollution to zero by 2050 and opening the doors to a sweeping array of development opportunities. As of early 2023, developers had proposed 50 new solar and 12 new wind projects across the state, according to government data. Most are in eastern Washington where the ancestral lands of the Colville Tribes and the Yakama Nation are.

By March 2019, DNR was discussing developing Badger Mountain with Avangrid, which had become a powerful player in the Northwest’s push for green energy. The company built Washington’s largest solar facility, the Lund Hill solar project, south of Badger Mountain in Klickitat County, and it also operates the largest solar facility in Oregon.

Avangrid, its subsidiaries and its parent company, Iberdrola, have faced legal and economic tumult in recent years, including millions of dollars in fines related to service issues with its subsidiary Central Maine Power and opposition to a now-canceled merger agreement with New Mexico’s public utility. In a statement, a company spokesperson said that Central Maine Power had improved its standing and “met or exceeded service quality benchmarks for more than three consecutive years.” Concerns regarding the merger were not relevant to Badger Mountain, the statement reads, and the merger “had wide support.” The company is “dedicated to being a socially responsible business and corporate citizen,” the spokesperson said.

In Washington, as Avangrid was in talks with DNR about Badger Mountain, the company was also negotiating leases for private lands around the state’s parcel and was ready to move ahead.

Before Avangrid could build, however, it would have to satisfy the State Environmental Policy Act, in part by documenting potential cultural resources. That’s where the developer-conducted surveys come in.

To conduct its survey of Badger Mountain, Avangrid hired Tetra Tech, a Pasadena-based company that has previously faced criticism for insufficient scientific work. In 2018, two Tetra Tech supervisors pleaded guilty to falsifying records on a shipyard cleanup project in San Francisco, part of an ongoing legal battle over the allegedly inadequate cleanup of a Superfund site. The U.S. Department of Justice joined three whistleblower lawsuits against Tetra Tech. In response, Tetra Tech sued the companies that the Navy hired to look into the cleanup work. Last year, a group of homeowners sought class status against Tetra Tech, alleging the company had falsified work that stunted property values; Tetra Tech challenged a separate class action lawsuit about the same site, filing a motion to dismiss and arguing the case was based on “unsupported speculation about alleged widespread data falsification.”

Given the issues she found with the survey, Palmer said, “it always seemed like the simplest thing to do would have been to tell Avangrid, ‘Look, we're going to need you to hire a different consultant.’”

But the Department of Natural Resources didn’t do that.

Critics say DNR’s dual responsibility for both protecting and monetizing state lands has sometimes worked against the interests of tribal nations. “We've seen prioritization of monetary interest, certainly over tribal resources and resources important to Indigenous people,” said Sexton, who has represented the Yakama Nation against city and county governments, as well as federal agencies, to protect tribal rights on treaty lands.

DNR “is committed to engaging Washington’s Tribes when it comes to safeguarding lands and resources,” agency spokesperson Courtney James wrote in an emailed statement. “While we are committed to using state lands to build the clean energy future we need, we understand the care we must take to ensure projects don’t impact critical cultural resources.”

In an interview, Michael Kearney, head of product sales and leasing at DNR, said, “I do understand the concerns with the project proponent hiring their own specialists,” adding that “there are potential pitfalls with that.” But he said the agency doesn’t regulate renewable energy developers and can’t force developers to edit their cultural survey reports.

“We generally consider that to be a proprietary or business relationship,” Kearney told High Country News and ProPublica. “We’re not really playing that regulatory function.”

Palmer, however, felt compelled to step in.

After conducting her field work, Palmer emailed her colleagues: “I consider it unlikely that Tetra Tech will be able to produce a legally defensible technical document.”

Palmer said her findings quickly escalated tensions. “What I had seen was very inconvenient to the development plans out there, and it was clearly something that the project proponents did not like,” Palmer told HCN and ProPublica. She believed that it put DNR leadership in a “very uncomfortable situation where they had an unhappy, politically connected developer.” Neither Avangrid nor DNR would comment on this characterization.

Avangrid itself pushed back.

On May 5, 2022, about two weeks after Palmer emailed her findings to DNR colleagues, Avangrid’s director of business development, Brian Walsh, sent her a string of urgent text messages, which HCN and ProPublica obtained through a public records request. After Palmer said she wasn’t available to talk, Walsh insisted that she keep her findings private and not share them with the tribes.

“I wanted to make sure any comments or concerns based on your field visit to Badger Mtn remain internal until we have had a time to discuss w peer professionals,” Walsh wrote. “We would like the opportunity to discuss any of your concerns before they are communicated externally, especially w the tribes.”

In fact, Palmer was at Badger Mountain that day — showing her findings to a Colville tribal archaeologist. DNR shares cultural surveys with the tribes, and Palmer regularly communicated with tribal archaeologists.

“Can you respond to my question on any external communications that you have made on Badger cultural?” Walsh persisted. “Specifically the tribes.” Palmer did not respond.

On May 12, 2022, after Palmer told the Yakama Nation about her findings on Badger Mountain, tribal leaders sent a letter to the state, saying the deficiencies in Tetra Tech’s report had far-reaching implications, since the company was doing other work on Yakama lands as well. “At this time we will not accept cultural resources work conducted by this contractor,” wrote Casey Barney, manager of Yakama Nation’s cultural resources program.

In response, DNR held a series of meetings with other agencies, Avangrid and tribal representatives. Handwritten DNR meeting notes obtained through a public records request show that Walsh told DNR officials that Palmer had gone “rogue.” DNR confirmed that this was Walsh’s characterization of Palmer.

According to Palmer, DNR leadership stopped including her in meetings with Avangrid and appointed the agency’s clean energy program manager, Dever Haffner-Ratliffe, as the sole point of communication with Walsh.

Agency group chats show that Tetra Tech instructed its staff not to speak with Palmer, even regarding other projects, for “political” reasons.

We would like the opportunity to discuss any of your concerns before they are communicated externally, especially w the tribes.

Emails from June 10, 2022, show that Walsh asked for the power to vet external agency communications before they went out to the tribes or other agencies and threatened to pull Avangrid’s business — by moving the project forward on private lands only, depriving the state of any potential revenues — if the agency didn’t comply. He also asked DNR to issue Avangrid a lease before the state’s environmental review process was complete; DNR and Walsh acknowledged this was something the agency had done for him before under other circumstances. Haffner-Ratliffe told Walsh that neither would be possible.

But DNR had been sending Walsh mixed signals. Before his exchanges with Haffner-Ratliffe, the agency had already given Avangrid a letter of intent to lease once the review process was complete, for Walsh to show to his superiors. And the agency had allowed Walsh to vet a draft of the letter before sending it out.

Emails show that DNR intended the letter to assure Avangrid that Walsh was making progress securing the land, even while the environmental review process was pending. And the agency knew it had to be careful, because the letter could give the impression externally that it had made the decision to lease before the environmental review was complete.

Even after Haffner-Ratliffe denied Walsh’s requests for a lease and approval to vet communications, he kept pushing. He kept repeating these requests and asked her to cite state laws supporting her denial of them; he also asked her to loop in a supervisor who could authorize her reply.

By the end of the year, another state lands archaeologist besides Palmer had emailed Haffner-Ratliffe regarding Walsh’s behavior in meetings, saying he had been “combative and provocative to me in particular,” and tried to “bully me into giving him the answers he wanted.” The interactions, she wrote, left her shaking and in a cold sweat.

On Dec. 21, 2022, Haffner-Ratliffe emailed DNR leadership asking them to address Walsh’s behavior toward at least three women within the agency. “I’ve experienced him yelling at me in meetings,” she wrote, adding that he had demanded preferential treatment and asked staff to violate state laws. “So far, the direction I’ve received has primarily been that I should listen, be cooperative, and communicative.” Avangrid and Walsh, who has since left his position at the company, denied asking DNR to violate any state laws.

DNR spokespeople said the agency addressed some of Haffner-Ratliffe’s specific concerns, like making sure managers were present in meetings with Walsh and giving staff the authority to end meetings or phone calls if they became uncomfortable. Nevertheless, Haffner-Ratliffe left the agency in January 2023. In her resignation letter, she said she was leaving because of a “lack of support” and “unprofessional behavior by clients and peers going unaddressed.”

Haffner-Ratliffe declined a request to comment for this story.

Walsh told HCN and ProPublica that Avangrid conducted an internal investigation into his conduct and cleared him of any wrongdoing. Avangrid declined to comment on Walsh’s claim.

Palmer continued to advocate for accurate documentation of cultural resources. On Oct. 31, 2022, Tetra Tech updated its cultural survey to reflect some of Palmer’s findings, listing more stone structures.

But Palmer told DNR colleagues that the updates were inadequate. “A number of resources that I have observed in the field are not included in this documentation or in previous documentation I have seen from Tetra Tech,” she wrote in an email obtained through a public records request.

Palmer added that date estimates were also off, and some stone features were mischaracterized as natural formations, while others were missing entirely.

Still, in May 2023, Avangrid submitted Tetra Tech’s updated survey, which then became available to the Colville Tribes and Yakama Nation for feedback.

Avangrid representatives said they were unaware of the issues with the initial survey and, when they became aware of them, modified their project plans to accommodate the tribally significant sites. They acknowledged that the state concluded that the updates were inadequate.

A number of tribal officials and sources in state agencies told HCN and ProPublica that tribal opposition to a cultural survey rarely, if ever, makes a difference. But this time it did.

The permitting authority for the Badger Mountain project is a state agency called the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council. The agency has the power to recommend proposed renewable energy developments to the governor for project permits. Additionally, it will produce the environmental impact statement and oversee the process of satisfying state environmental regulations.

The Colville Tribes and Yakama Nation both filed official comments with EFSEC stating that Tetra Tech’s updates failed to address their concerns. According to the Colville Tribes’ comments, the survey included only four of the archaeological sites that Palmer had found and missed additional sites recorded by a Colville tribal archaeologist. The Yakama Nation requested a full redo of Tetra Tech’s cultural survey by an independent third party. And this time, tribal concerns were echoed by comments from DNR and the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

By October 2023, EFSEC commissioned an independent cultural survey. Karl Holappa, EFSEC’s public information officer, told HCN and ProPublica that agency leaders do not recall ever previously commissioning an independent cultural survey, and a public records request shows that there’s no record of one at least in the past decade.

Holappa said in an email that EFSEC took this step to “ensure confidence in the outcome of the Survey by all parties.” He added that the new cultural survey will replace Avangrid’s and that the date of completion will partly depend on when the snow melts, making the ground visible again.

The new cultural survey doesn’t necessarily mean that EFSEC will recommend against issuing a permit for the Badger Mountain project. “I’ve never had EFSEC stop a project on cultural resources — not that I’m aware of,” said Allyson Brooks, the historic preservation officer in charge of the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Holappa said EFSEC doesn’t have the authority to stop a project during the site evaluation process. DNR and the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation also said they lack the power to approve or deny a project.

Still, EFSEC can advise the governor not to permit the project, and DNR could also withhold a lease. State law does authorize agencies to deny a proposed project if it would have significant impacts and insufficient mitigations.

In an email to HCN and ProPublica, Holappa said EFSEC thoroughly examines impacts on cultural resources and tribal concerns during the site evaluation process. “EFSEC will complete its review before making any recommendation to the Governor either to reject this project, to approve it as proposed, or to approve it with additional conditions,” he wrote.

Oliver, the Yakama Nation archaeologist, said having tribal nations take the lead on renewable energy development would be one way to solve the bigger problem. “They’re the ones who have the knowledge” to avoid sensitive sites, he said. The developers themselves can also include tribes: For the Lund Hill renewable project, Avangrid contracted directly with the Yakama Nation to survey the land. Oliver also recommended the state survey public lands and catalog cultural resources before any developers propose projects.

Brooks, the state historic preservation officer, has been working with the governor’s office on a pilot project to do that, allocating about half a million dollars for the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation to inventory cultural resources on some state lands.

Some critics say that plan still overlooks the core issue: Federal and state governments don’t recognize tribal nations’ authority to stop or alter development projects that threaten cultural resources on off-reservation lands where they hold legal rights.

“It's incredibly important for tribal nations to have a decisive say over their land, territories, resources and people,” said Fawn Sharp, vice president of the Quinault Indian Nation and former president of the National Congress of American Indians. “For us to fully engage and fully exercise the broad spectrum of authorities that are inherent to our sovereign interests, we absolutely must have free prior and informed consent as a recognized policy.”

Meanwhile, the Yakama Nation is using federal funds to build solar panels of its own, in a way that it says supports tribal communities. “Non-carbon emitting energy projects are positive advancements our state and country needs, but not at the cost of our traditional grounds and resources,” Yakama Nation officials wrote in an emailed statement to HCN and ProPublica. “Yakama Nation supports responsible energy development efforts. The Badger Mountain project, and the developer’s approach to advancing the project, fall far short of responsible energy development.”

In early 2023, Palmer left DNR, in part due to her frustration with the Badger Mountain project. “I would like to think that we can model a better way to do rural economic development,” she told HCN and ProPublica. “I would like to think there are alternative ways of operating that aren't just corporations preying on people, and no regulation.”

Mariam Elba contributed research.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by B. “Toastie” Oaster, High Country News.

“Regulators taking positions with the industries that they were recently charged with reigning in is corrosive to good governance and public trust in government. This issue is magnified with the Commodities Future Trading Commission—an agency tasked with regulating the derivatives industry that crashed the global economy in 2007 and one that Behnam has thrust forward as a potential chief regulator of the fraudulent world of cryptocurrency.”

“Despite what many in Washington seem to believe, the revolving door between private industry and government not only has the image of impropriety, it is a genuine hindrance to effective policymaking. Government officials who know they will seek post-government employment with the industries they have regulated are incentivized to maintain a friendly if not openly deferential relationship.”

“Behnam’s choices at the CFTC could easily be seen through this prism. His recent decision to vote with Republican CFTC commissioners to enact a Trump administration-proposed weakening of swaps regulation well into the Biden administration is a great example of this, as is his cozy relationship with cryptocurrency companies including the now-bankrupt FTX and its criminal former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.”

“If Behnam does leave the CFTC years before his term expires to pursue a lucrative job with the industries he recently oversaw, President Biden should seize the opportunity to fill his vacated seat with a public servant dedicated to the furtherance of the public good rather than their own financial situation.”

The Revolving Door Project has submitted a FOIA request seeking records of communications between Behnam and the CFTC Acting Inspector or CFTC Agency Ethics Officials to monitor any official ethics disclosures on his potential future employment and will continue to file updated FOIA requests in the coming months. Any disclosures uncovered by these requests will be shared with the media immediately.

The Revolving Door Project’s Henry Burke and Kenny Stancil wrote a piece for The American Prospect on the potential of Behnam leaving the CFTC and the relative odds of his post-government employment. The piece can be read here.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Relatives of the Thais have reached out to the Chinese government seeking its help in evacuating their loved ones. On Friday, the group submitted a letter to China’s Embassy in Bangkok, through a local police officer, requesting that Beijing intervene, according to a report from BenarNews, an online news outlet affiliated with RFA.

In a video posted on Facebook Live by Ekarat Sukonthamas, a Thai man trapped in Laukkaing said he and his friends were living in a field hospital at a local school after they were rescued from a call center after being trafficked and recruited as part of a scam. They wanted to return to their Thai homes, the man said.

“Living in the midst of explosions and gunfire all day and night is really terrible. Some people are in a state of stress and pressure to the point where they can’t sleep,” said another Thai man who appeared in the Facebook post but also did not identify himself.

“We have been cut off from water and electricity. Now we have to buy our own drinking water,” he said, adding he and the others had received small portions of rice, including some that was not edible.

Post-coup Myanmar has disintegrated into bloodshed through various conflicts since the Burmese military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021. Lately, it has become a regional hub for online scam operations and casinos that employ people trafficked from other countries in Southeast Asia, as BenarNews-affiliated Radio Free Asia (RFA) has reported.  

A woman, who also did not identify herself, said in the Facebook video that the group had been alerted about a major battle that would take place sometime soon.

“We want to return before the 18th [Saturday]. We would like the government to help and appeal to the Chinese government as well,” the woman said.

BenarNews could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video.

In August, a report by the U.N. human rights agency identified Myanmar and Cambodia as epicenters of a new human trafficking scourge in Southeast Asia.

Hundreds of thousands of people were “being forcibly engaged by organized criminal gangs into online criminality in Southeast Asia – from romance-investment scams and crypto fraud to illegal gambling,” the U.

N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or the OHCHR, reported.  

In Bangkok, a spokesperson for the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said about 300 Thais remained in Laukkaing as of Friday. Of those, 254 were being kept safe by the Myanmar military while 40 to 50 were being held by their employers.

Meanwhile, a group of 41 Thais have been removed from the region and were being held in Myitkyina province where they were undergoing background checks. Myitkyina province borders Mae Sai district in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.

The Thai government previously said the 41 were to be sent home on Thursday.

On Friday, Col. Nathee Timsen, commander of the Chaotak Unit of the Pa Muang Task Force and a member of the Thai-Myanmar Border Local Committee (TBC), said he met with Col. Thura Soe Win So, commander of the Tachileik Tactical Operation Command, to inquire about their return. 

The Myanmar commander said he was waiting for approval from his superiors, expected in a day or two, to allow their release.

‘Not an easy situation’

In the Thai capital, eight relatives of Thais trapped in Laukkaing town traveled to the Chinese Embassy to submit a letter seeking assistance from the Chinese government.

“My niece is stuck there. She went there in June. After the first month, she contacted us and said that she was taken to Laukkaing, locked up and she wanted help,” Kanisorn Payomhom told BenarNews. 

“Her sister went to report to different foundations, but we got no response. Some family members contacted the Thai consulate in Myanmar for help, but when the gang found out about it, some people were beaten up.” 

Kanisorn said her niece was rescued earlier this month and was now in the care of the Myanmar government, which has not allowed her to leave the country.

“We think that the Chinese government can help because they are allies,” she said, adding family members were worried about a potential junta attack in that region.

Kanisorn’s group delivered the letter to police Col. Ekarat Malawanno, deputy superintendent of Huai Khwang Police Station, because the Chinese Embassy did not send a representative to receive it.

The group then went to Government House, the prime minister’s office in Bangkok, to submit a similar letter.

Kanchana Patarachoke, director-general of the Department of Information and spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Thai government was making every effort to assist those stranded in Myanmar.

“We assure you that we are trying, but it is not an easy situation. We are also discussing the legal process of cases in Laukkaing,” Kanchana said. “We are trying to work with the person in charge of this matter instead of hiring a random person out of necessity.” 

The Thai Embassy in Myanmar issued warnings to citizens in June and October to be wary of being lured to work in Myanmar through online job postings. It warned that while the postings promise good salaries, respondents could be sold to work in scam centers or forced into prostitution. 

Malaysian efforts to extricate nationals

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Fadillah Yusof, Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, asked the Chinese government on Thursday to assist in efforts to repatriate citizens who had fallen victim to similar scams and were trapped in Myanmar.

Fadillah, who was on a working visit to China, said Malaysian nationals had their passports taken away and were unable to leave. He said Chinese officials pledged to help.

Earlier this week, 16 Lao workers who had been released from a Chinese-run casino in Myanmar and had been the victims of human trafficking were able to return home, RFA reported. The 16 were held in a police station for two months before being released.

On Friday, the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), an NGO of Southeast Asian lawmakers, called on the international community to “turn their attention to the plight of internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees at the [Thailand-Myanmar] border.”

“We therefore reiterate our calls to ASEAN and the international community to take firm action against the illegal Myanmar junta, including by suspending any military or diplomatic cooperation, and to recognize the National Unity Government as the legitimate representatives of the Myanmar people,” Mercy Barends, chairwoman of the parliamentarians group, said in a statement.

“As long as the junta remains in power, the suffering of IDPs and refugees will only increase, leading to an unsafe Thai border as well as wider regional instability.”

BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Nontarat Phaicharoen for BenarNews.

I feel that you are never totally in control of the work that you make, in a music context. Maybe painting is similar, as I was a painter in college, but I like to distance myself from authorship as much as I can and try to set up parameters for magic and happy accidents and for the unexpected to happen. I think you can build the structure, you can build the foundation, but all music I love has this kind of otherworldly magic element where you just can’t be like, “Oh, the person making it had a thousand percent intent on every detail here.” It’s never like that. There’s always that other thing that happens. It’s really hard to convey in words.

My philosophy for making any art is not being too precious about the end results but being more serious about the parameters by which it’s made and the process by which it’s made—and allowing that chance and magic to occur. This could even go for a collage you’re making, an art collage or a video piece maybe. Film is one of those things that’s interesting because everything is so controlled in the frame, and it’s like you’re hyper-manufacturing reality. I guess the magic factor happens within the acting. That’s the unknown zone where anything can happen, but as far as the frame that you’re viewed in, everything is there. You don’t want there to be variables really, at least from my understanding of film.

But with music, something happens when you have live takes. You have harmonic interests and dissonance and concordance and all the tones and textures. They’re colors. But when you put them together, there’s something else that you just can’t account for, and that’s what my philosophy is now going forward in music making.

This idea of distancing yourself from authorship reminds me of an interview you and I did back in 2015, when you told me that you didn’t feel responsible for anything you created. Do you still feel that way?

Yeah, totally. I think that’s what led me into this process. It kind of went hand in hand with learning a very crude technique for fingerpicking and then putting it through pedals and very quickly arriving at something that I thought could possibly have some kind of longevity. I had an understanding of rhythm because I was a drummer first—and for a long time—but as far as facility on the guitar, it happened quick enough for me to not feel like I totally deserved the strides I was making on the instrument. At that point, there was a deep catharsis in playing, and there kind of always is and has been. It was at that juncture that I decided to start detaching myself from the experience so I could look at and listen to the recordings more objectively. That’s when I heard something else I didn’t quite believe was myself.

That must’ve been a strange experience.

It was. It still is. I listen to the old recordings, and because I work so fast, too, I don’t really have a very clear memory of how I arrived at any of this stuff. I don’t listen to my music all that often, but when I do, and something like eight years have passed, it really becomes almost a hundred percent objective experience. Sometimes I think it’s cool, but sometimes I think it’s weird and I can’t relate to it. I like that about it, though. I don’t want to be someone that paints and they hang all their paintings up in their house, and they see them every day, and they kind of start to hate them. I don’t like revisiting work. I like moving forward and getting space from it and then looking at it later.

This detached feeling from the music you were making is what led to you coming up with Deb Demure. You didn’t feel like yourself, so you decided to be someone else. How did you develop the character?

Oddly enough, the name Deb came from this trucker jacket I got. I got it at a thrift store, and it said something like, “Grand Rapids Trucking Conference, 10th annual,” and then it said “Deb” on it. I had a bartending job at the time, and it was Halloween, and I showed up to my bar gig in the first Deb wig and some crude lipstick, and I just went as this kind of butch trucker lady. I was the character I imagined Deb to be.

I had this whole other idea of finding work shirts and returning them to the people who had them at one time, or finding out who they are, like, “Who’s Ron from the auto body shop? Where are these people?” That was a side project I was doing. But I always loved the name Deb. When it came time to go back and think about how I could showcase this as something that’s outside myself—this is probably about six or seven years before I started Drab—I was like, “Oh, the Deb jacket.” There’s something about the name I always felt connected to.

What about Deb’s persona? She’s kind of a blank slate.

That was a combination of my interests in Hollywood and public access, and there was an aesthetic there I picked up from riding the bus and seeing these interesting Hollywood people who were somewhere in between beauty and desecration. There’s an element of glamor, but then there’s an element of darkness or pain. These people look beautiful and really interesting, and I felt that might be a good place to start. But the early iterations of the character had too much personality. As the music kept getting more advanced, I was finding myself not relating to it even more. And eventually, I felt like I wanted to remove full features of the face, which I did with white or silver metallic makeup, and really cover the eyes, too. Because the eyes convey too much. They’re too personal.

Then there was a tour where we were experimenting with this retro reflective fabric that’s basically anti-paparazzi fabric. When you take a picture of it with a flash, it blurs. It makes everything around it black, and then just blurs out the whole image. We had a friend make this gown, and it was basically like wearing a shower curtain. It was the summer, it was really hot, and I probably lost 20 pounds just wearing the thing. It was a really, really bad idea, but it came out cool, and it did work from time to time if people used flash photography—it kind of erased the person in the shot.

I’m still trying to grapple with the idea of how we could perform as almost inanimate objects. That’s something I’m still trying to wrap my mind around, but I like the idea of just losing features, losing identity. The paradox is, by losing identity, you assume a different identity. There’s no way of totally losing identity, but that’s still what I’m trying to play with.

When you started out, you were playing in bands as a drummer. Was the transition to being the frontperson pretty smooth, or did you struggle with it at first?

It was pretty smooth for me because I had [former Nocturnes bandmate] Emma [Ruth Rundle] to bounce ideas off of, and she was doing the same thing, essentially. She had moved from auxiliary guitarist in Red Sparowes to kind of closer upfront in Marriages, and then full-on to her solo thing. So, she kind of paved the way for possibilities in that department, and I followed suit. I owe her a lot in terms of getting confidence around my playing. Even fingerpicking the way I do is totally indebted to her and her technique. She buys these press-on nails from CVS. I’m looking at a box of them right now. They’re everywhere in my house. Just glue them on and file them. They stay on for three or four days. Beyond that, she helped give me a voice and some confidence in that regard.

How did being a drummer inform Drab?

I was kind of tired of just playing rhythms. Melodic instruments are so fun. Drums are critical, but melodic instruments convey a lot. Because I had no reference point of how to really do a solo project, it was kind of freeing. I was able to spend a lot of time in my room doing the bedroom thing. I mean, the band is still a bedroom project, as strange as that is. That’s where tunes are conceived. I miss playing drums, but I’ve lost all ability to do it. It’s sad, dude. It’s not like riding a bike. No instrument really is.

When you’re in character as Deb, do you feel you can do anything that maybe you can’t do as Andrew?

Yeah, I play the entire show. I don’t think I could do that in my plain clothes. No way. Also, because it’s such a delicate ballet of playing and singing and doing the pedal work, plus just the flow of the set, it needs to be pretty controlled. It’s not punk music. It’s not VR Sex, where there’s plenty of room for freeform abandonment. With Drab, it’s about 80 percent predetermined. There’s a system I need to follow from the first song to the last. And then there’s 20 percent play. But the whole thing is a hundred percent in the zone.

Do you feel like someone else onstage?

On the good shows. Yeah, for sure.

Are you Deb when you’re writing as well?

I’d say I’m somewhere in between. It’s a meditative state similar to that of playing—only when I’m writing solo, though. If I’m collaborating, there’s a different kind of brain between [Drab Majesty keyboardist] Alex and I, and it’s something magical, too. There’s lots of elated moments. He writes fast, like I do. It’s always boom, boom, boom. “Oh my god, we have a tune.” So, there’s that. I have those quick epiphanies when I’m working by myself, too. But the live thing is full meditation, and the writing part is somewhere in between. And I don’t write in garb.

Beyond that, do you have a strict separation of church and state? Meaning, you’re Deb onstage, but when you’re backstage after the show, you’re Andrew again?

Absolutely, yeah. The character is, I don’t want to say “relegated,” but it’s only allowed to operate on stage. That’s where it happens. It’s kind of disturbing, I think, for some people. They’re kind of shocked. They’re like, “What?” But that’s how I honor it without destroying the mystique. That’s why I’ve done almost no video interviews.

You mentioned Alex. You brought him and his character, Mona, into the band, in 2016, I think that was. How did that open things up for Drab?

It brought more symmetry to the stage, first of all. And he knew exactly my references, my deeper musical references. He’s a really adept DJ and a big music head. He used to work at KXLU for like eight years. He had a weekly show. He really understood the project from the get-go, and he and I bonded over a love of psychedelics. I did one of those deprivation float tanks for the first time with him, and it was just like I found this dude who totally understands my musical language, is respectful of my ideas, and just wanted to help in any way he could. He learned how to play keyboards, essentially, for the band. He’s actually a guitarist and a very competent one, too. We’re going to do more of dual guitar thing for the next record. But he was able to enhance a lot of the parts I had written with my very rudimentary style of key playing, because I’m not a good keyboardist. And we finally just started to write an album together. The next record is full 50/50.

As a drummer, you were in bands playing other people’s material, which I imagine is part of the reason you started Drab in the first place. And now you’re collaborating again. Was the interim solo period necessary for you to get back to the head space of working with someone else?

I would say yes, for sure. Coming out of art school and having an understanding of how to see a work through as the sole creator of it, I kind of enjoyed applying the same craft and technique to a cassette or this little EP release we just did, An Object in Motion. I mean, you know the feeling of total home brew. And I had to do that for a while. I needed to have that autonomy. I guess it was selfish, but it was necessary.

And then, the next step in collaboration I graduated into was working with a producer. That was kind a big step for me, working with Josh Eustis from Telefon Tel Aviv. But then I realized, “Oh, wow. Okay. So, now this is as good as the sum of its parts. Now, someone I trust is taking my tunes and making them sound better than I could.” I had to admit that—and I was happy to. It was actually very freeing. I always thought the musicians should do everything. They should write the record, make the cover art, mix and master the record, do the videos themselves. Again, that’s what I learned from Emma early on. She was super DIY with Nocturnes. She did pretty much everything. That made sense to me, coming from an art school background. But the next phase was actually bringing in another person and handing out more of your work, your raw material, for them to interpret.

And then, the next phase, I was working with more producers, then working with other video people that weren’t me, because I did some of the videos early on. I still have a hand in most of the videos, but you just start to kind of relinquish control more and more, and it feels good. It’s taken about 10 years to get to where we are now. I still don’t have a full band, but that’s subject to change.

There’s some ego death taking place in order for that to happen, to realize you don’t need to hold everything in an iron grip.

Yeah. And it goes back to the whole thing of setting up parameters and then letting chance and magic take over. The album is never going to sound exactly how you want it to. It’s going to be something else because you are putting it in the hands of other people who are making a number of decisions beyond your total control. And I don’t like backseat driving on everything when it comes to production or mixing. I like a first pass like, “How do you hear the song?” I think it’s really important as someone who collaborates to be constantly moving your anchor point or changing where the bar is. Not like, “Oh, it’s good enough,” but being open to seeing a new angle that you might not have considered before.

You went to the Oregon coast to write An Object In Motion. I think you went to Greece to write your previous album. The idea of isolating so you can focus on your work has been employed by artists forever, but why was it important for you?

I am so ADD, and living among all my gear at my house, and then all the distractions…L.A. is just full of shit to do. I could lose a full day of work just stepping outside of my house. I like the isolation because, for one, if it’s in another country and I don’t speak the language, I’m not talking to many people. I’m also on another timeline or time zone. So, the phone’s not blowing up. People are sleeping back home when I’m trying to work in the morning, which is fucking awesome. And also, I don’t hear my own voice that much because I’m not talking to anyone. So, I like that.

The cabin on the Oregon coast had really spotty cell service. There’s a town, but in town there’s one restaurant, one bar, one brewery and a market, and that’s it. So, you go there, and you have to work. And making the trek also sets you up for a fixed timeline. I work well under pressure. If I have to make it happen, I will. And at home, there’s not much pressure. That’s why I work in weird, isolated spurts at home. I can’t really get into a rhythm. I kind of have to go off the grid or work really late at night. It’s a bummer, to be honest.

Drab was already going strong when you started VR Sex. Why did you feel the need to have another outlet at that point?

Because I was hyper-obsessive with all the world building in Drab, and I guess I still do that a little in VR, but at least the guitar playing and the songwriting is way less precious and way more id-driven. VR’s music was kind of a counterpart to the Drab stuff. I was actually doing the VR shit shortly after I started doing Drab stuff. I wanted to make gnarled, cassette punk stuff, but I didn’t have anybody around that could play in that kind of band. So, I kind of shelved that stuff and then revisited it in about 2016. VR is less precious but more fun. And it’s kind of similar to what my brain sounds like on a daily basis. The Drab thing is definitely more of a conscious meditation.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by J. Bennett.

After taking office in 1992 following a decade as the mayor of San Francisco, Feinstein established herself as a champion for conservation. She worked to pass legislation that would protect millions of acres of California wilderness from development and extractive industry, using her deft skills as a negotiator to bridge disputes between competing interests. She succeeded in that conservation effort where her predecessors had failed, spearheading a 1994 bill that created the Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks, which encompass millions of acres. She later passed bills to protect Lake Tahoe, the California redwoods, and the Mojave Desert.

Feinstein also supported action to reduce carbon emissions for much of her Senate career, and she was a key backer of a cap-and-trade bill that failed to pass the Senate during the first years of the Obama administration. She also authored successful legislation on automobile fuel economy standards, and pushed forward new regulatory standards for oil and gas pipelines following a 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people.

Even so, as a compromise-oriented legislator from California, she often had to weigh the competing interests of farmers, ranchers, and environmentalists, and at times she angered all of them. This tendency toward centrism was evident in her legislative work on water in the state’s Central Valley. She brokered a monumental restoration agreement on the valley’s overstressed San Joaquin River in 2009, but then helped override species protections for fish on that same river in 2016.

“That is wrong, it is shocking,” her colleague Senator Barbara Boxer said at the time, according to E&E News.

Even so, as the pace of the climate crisis advanced, Feinstein attracted criticism from the left for not supporting more ambitious policies to tackle climate change, and her reputation as a broker of compromise came back to haunt her. In early 2019, a group of activists with the Sunrise Movement confronted Feinstein in the Capitol building, urging her to support progressive calls for Green New Deal legislation.

Feinstein rebuffed the protestors. 

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I know what I’ve been doing,” she said in a viral video. “You come in here and say it has to be my way or the highway.” Her office later released a statement on the incident that mistakenly referred to the protestors as part of the “Sunshine Movement.” 

In the following years, following reports that Feinstein was experiencing a loss of her mental faculties, some politicians called for her to step down from the Senate. She resisted those calls and instead said she would retire at the end of her current term, which would have lasted through next year’s election. 

The senator’s death will create even more turmoil in Washington, D.C., as lawmakers tangle over a looming government shutdown. The Senate has moved closer to passing a resolution to fund the federal government over the course of the week, but it’s unlikely to pass the House of Representatives thanks to a revolt from hardline Republicans.

Feinstein cast her final vote on Thursday morning on a procedural item relating to the Federal Aviation Administration, but she didn’t vote on an environmental bill later that afternoon. In the vote she missed, Republican lawmakers tried to override President Biden’s veto of a bill that would have rolled back endangered species protections for the prairie chicken. The final vote total was 47 Republicans to 46 Democrats, not enough to override the veto.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the outcome of a vote on endangered species protections.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Dianne Feinstein dies, leaving a complicated legacy on climate issues on Sep 29, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Jake Bittle.

I’m actually going on Sunday to record reverb impulses in Carrera [Tuscany, Italy] in a marble quarry. To me, “experimental” means that at the moment I’m just thinking, “oh my god, what am I doing?” I literally don’t even know. I’m just gonna have to be reading up on how to do that… [laughs]

Just learning as you do it?

Yeah. It definitely feels like the right thing to do, but I have no idea how that type of process might inform something else. It’s for a project—the artist I’m working with on it, we did another project together last year, in Berlin, where everyone who came into the museum had their hearts mic’d up. It was an orchestra of heartbeats for 24 hours. People just came.

There was a maximum of 24 people in the space; it was a really nice, reverberant space, and everyone was completely silent. People would sit down and listen to each other’s hearts, basically. So when there was two people, it was really amplified, so like, “Boom!…Boom!…Boom…Boom!” and then when there was four it would be like “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!” and then 24, it was like [makes loud, crashing sounds] it was crazy. Even just technically, it’s interesting, how to do that. Like mic’ing up, when you put something like that out there.

Your new album GUT as the title implies goes a bit south of the heart. It was at least partly prompted by an intestinal illness you suffered a couple of years ago?

I had never been physically ill before, in my life, and then when I was 30, just after [scoring the Mona Fastvold film] The World To Come, I got ill. It was a big thing to deal with. I didn’t really know about illness, but—naturally, it just sort of fell into the way that I write. I wasn’t surprised that it started to bleed into the writing of the record because it took the best part of two years to actually be more normal again.

But, “gut” is also a word that just came to me. I thought it was amazing, visually, as well. I looked it up, and [looking through pages of a notebook], I had all the definitions written down in the studio, when I started to write. Obviously, it refers to your gut, which I was having issues with, but it’s also the essence of something…the inner parts, or the essence. Or, your gut response, your instinctive, emotional response. Or, if you “have guts” you have courage, and determination. Or, a toughness of character. “Misery guts”? Right? Like, I’m an emo artist. [laughs] And then there are weird things like removing—to “gut” something is to remove the internal parts, of a building or a structure. Or, to remove the intestines or something.

Improvisation and collaboration have been key to your music in the past decade or so, on your own records, with players like Tom Wheatley, Billy Steiger, Ute Kannegiesser, and on projects like GUO, your duo with saxophonist Seymour Wright. But GUT was pretty much just all you.

That’s been the recurring theme with this moment, and this record. Normally I will write stuff—which is always a solitary process—and then the payoff for me has been to bring it to these brilliant musicians, and spend time with it, working on them, and then of course, playing live shows. But with this record, it seemed, I was here, alone for so long, and not really playing music with other people, because of the pandemic. It seemed kind of inappropriate to bring other people into this kind of piece.

And, personally I love improvised music and I mainly listen to improvised music. With GUT, I was recording all on my own, and it was really important for me to do the core of the record in one take. It’s that kind of micro-instinct of like, when the song stops, when you pick up the next instrument. And the drums were all done in one take.

I mean, it’s definitely not an improvised record, it was composed and all. But I think that sort of process, of playing with people and improvising, it always has an effect on the work. It’s the norm for me. And I think, definitely if I’m collaborating with people it’s on the basis that we have a mutual understanding, creatively, but also just understanding the way we treat people—it extends to lots of other things.

I always think about Shadows, the Cassavetes film [1959] where he tried to make an improvised film. It’s got this energy where you can imagine he had these workshops with the actors. It had that energy, but they obviously didn’t all just go, “Right, let’s do a film!” and a week later it’s this beautifully formed thing. [laughs]

Before you got into writing the album, in the early COVID days, it was your drawing that sustained you.

Yeah, I mean the pandemic, it was cool because I had just finished this film score, and I was getting more ill, and I just needed some space from like people coming to the studio every day. It was nice at the start, but then eventually I could just draw. And also it was too dangerous for me to play with other people. Drawing made sense, during the pandemic and during those years in the studio. Whereas music, it didn’t make sense. It was definitely the only moment where I didn’t really work on music.

I wasn’t worried about it or anything, I just felt that it was quiet, and I felt like working on my drawing. But then, I work with an artist called Elvin Brandhi and we have a duo together, BAHK. We’ve never released anything formally, but we did a residency in Lisbon [in Oct-Nov 2020]. It was the first time I had worked with someone else, during that time. I think it began this process of writing. We always make lots of music and films and weird things, but after that was when I started to get that energy, and then eventually I just started writing, and it all came together quite quickly.

So one project can inspire you on another front?

That’s one of the things with my work. When I make a record, or with The World To Come, one of the things was like in the process, as you’re working, you have ideas about other things that you can do. It’s exciting! You’re always thinking beyond. I always write a lot of notes, when I record. A lot of recording is problem-solving. It’s sort of similar to a film set. You’re literally just problem-solving. It’ll be like, you’ve got an idea, like, “Oh, if these microphones are pointing there, then they’re gonna pick up some of that, so how can we limit that problem?” You’re constantly experimenting.

On GUT you experimented with different types of mic techniques?

I wanted to literally swallow one of the songs. I had it playing through the speakers and amplified through my Neumann, and the microphone was pointing at the speakers and then I put it in my mouth, so that the song was literally being recorded from the inside of my mouth. It’s the song “HOLDBACK” and all of the reflections of my mouth and were putting the song in this weird sort of phase sound. Seymour, the saxophonist I work with, he was someone that I spoke to a lot. He would come and listen to the recordings, and we would talk about it. Working on my own I think I still rely a lot on some of these friends, and then of course Pete [Walsh] who mixed it, we were in touch about everything throughout.

We’ve known each other more than a decade and I’ve seen you go from an indie rock band to leaning heavily into visual art—drawing and watercolors—then really rediscovering music through improvisational and experimental work, and more recently film scoring. What’s your relationship to past work? Do you tend to cringe or feel like you just can’t relate to something you made five, 10 years ago?

Yeah definitely, when you’re starting—or I started at 15, making music—and when you’re growing and discovering what you like and don’t like and stuff, I think yeah, I was always horrified of the stuff I’d done before. But it’s plateaued a bit, and over the last 10 years or something, um, or nine years, maybe, there’s been a process where it changes, incrementally. Sometimes I think it’s the last thing I’ve done. Like, with the record this time I was definitely more reactive to the last record I made in a way that I found funny. I was listening to it thinking, “Wow, I just wouldn’t…” I was critical.

This was [2020’s] On&On?

Yeah, I was critical of it in quite a productive—like, you find that it almost provokes a reaction in you sometimes, in a different direction?

You exited the pop and rock world quite a long time ago now, where “success” is pretty clearly quantified by a few metrics. What does “success” for the artist you are today look like?

If you think you’ve done your best. That’s the first part. When there’s a nagging thing of, “Oh, we could have actually tried that,” less so. That’s a nice thing to not have to deal with. If you feel like you’ve left no stone unturned, then there’s a sort of relaxation.

Your next major project is scoring your friend Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. The film was pushed back a few times, and just shot this spring. Were you able to do early work on it, work on your own record, and come back to it? Or can you not do that sort of back-and-forth?

No, I’ve become quite mono, specially with the song stuff, I really wanted to finish this album before Brady started to shoot, because his film means a lot to me. It’s similar to working on one of my projects. It’s important that I make something really good for his beautiful script. When it kept getting delayed, in a way it was good, because it meant that I could finish. I find it quite difficult to bounce back and forth and stuff.

As with The World to Come, you spent time on the set of The Brutalist. Is that important to you? And do you feel like you know a lot more about the mechanics of scoring going into this one?

Yeah there is a tendency with films where [music composers] start after the edit. I sometimes get sent films that are already edited. And for me, I just at, least initially, like to make it as fluid as possible. So for me, seeing the shoot, and the space, reading the script, I prefer that as opposed to working to picture. WHat I quite like about doing the scores is that it’s definitely for that story. And you want to create a sonic world, in the same way that Brady is trying to create a visual language with his story. It’s like I’m trying to help him with the audio side of the story.

But yeah, of course The World To Come was the first feature I did, so technically you learn a lot. More about like timings and how it all works, how to plan sessions and stuff. There’s quite a lot of technical stuff to do.

Is there any sense in which scoring a film is more of a “j-o-b”?

I’ve never had that experience. In my life I think there’s been moments when I tried to make, or I tried a couple of times to think about things like, “Oh, maybe I could do this as a job.” But it’s just not how I work.

Would you be capable of creating a visual piece on commission? If someone wanted to pay you a lot of money to create—a mural, say—with certain specifications?

I mean, that’s like saying, “Do you think you could study law and become a lawyer?” I mean, probably if I wanted to spend that amount of time doing something completely random, I could. I’ve never been fishing, for example. But if I wanted to move somewhere and start fishing, I’m sure I could work out how to do it. But it’s just not what I do.

When you start to say, “Can you draw like this?” or something, I just don’t know what that is. I mean I did a thing, like an exhibition at a museum, where my work was too fragile to transfer. It just ended up costing too much. But in the end they said, “Do you just want to come to the museum, and do the work here?” And I did. And they said, “How long do you need?” and I said, “an evening.” And they were really surprised about that, but that’s how I work. I spread out a piece of paper and just do it. But yeah, I don’t get stuff that comes with instructions, if that’s what you mean.

That’s kind of what I meant.

But I don’t think it’s an ethical thing. It’s, again, just the way I work. I like working in different rhythms and stuff, but it depends on who and what the project is.

The “alone time” you had on GUT and your recent live performances of the album—that’s about to come to an end with The Brutalist.

There is a certain kind of focus to the solo thing that I think is important. But yeah, normally it’s kind of mixed in with playing with other people, and I do miss playing with others. Working on a film score, soon people will start coming into that process, yeah. And then I’m working with the director, and that’s very collaborative. It’s nice to have that. But then in a few months I’ll be sick of people. I’ll be sick of everyone coming to the studio with their instruments and stuff. [laughs] You have all these things that you want to do. Sometimes it seems nice to be sitting in the studio, on my own, drawing all day. It sounds really lovely! [laughs] Sometimes you just want to do something else.

You’ve had such a varied life it’s strange sometimes to think you’re still only in your early thirties. But then again with the music you make, it seems you often work with people decades older than you.

I think age is a—I don’t know, it’s a funny thing. My friend just turned 90. When we met, I was like 18 or something, and I didn’t even know how old she was. She must have been like 75? But she was driving around. Now she’s kind of stuck at home, which is sad. But she’s truly one of my closest friends. I knew she was older than me, of course—like 75 to 18 is like a big age gap—but no, I’ve always had people that I work with that, or friends who are different ages.

Or, I like film and lots of older directors’ work, like [Robert] Bresson, he made his last film, L’Argent, it was a masterpiece, at age 82. I think [Michael] Haneke started making films when he was in his mid-forties. And then my friend who’s a painter has just become famous in her 80s, and she’s just still working, like she always does.

I think, maybe with music, with pop music, sometimes there’s an emphasis on youth. But yeah—I definitely have friends who are different ages. I mean, before most of my friends were older than me, but I have a few friends that are younger than me now! [laughs] But that’s what happens when you get a bit older, I guess.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by John Norris.

• Idalia heads out to sea, leaving power outages and flooding and fallen tree damage in the Southeast.
• President Biden visits FEMA employees in DC, calls on Congress to fund Agency.
• Unemployment claims down last week, another sign economy still strong despite inflation.
• Santa Clara County officials highlight drug overdose crisis on National Overdose Awareness Day.
• Vallejo police officer who shot and killed young man given his job back.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – August 31, 2023 Idalia heads out to sea, leaving power outages and flooding and fallen tree damage in the Southeast. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Idalia heads out to sea, leaving power outages and flooding and fallen tree damage in the Southeast.
• President Biden visits FEMA employees in DC, calls on Congress to fund Agency.
• Unemployment claims down last week, another sign economy still strong despite inflation.
• Santa Clara County officials highlight drug overdose crisis on National Overdose Awareness Day.
• Vallejo police officer who shot and killed young man given his job back.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – August 31, 2023 Idalia heads out to sea, leaving power outages and flooding and fallen tree damage in the Southeast. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Shortly before the Council met to discuss the latest situation in Mali on Monday, the head of MINUSMA, El-Ghassim Wane, spoke exclusively to UN News. 

In his interview with Jerome Bernard, he had a powerful message for the Malian people: “MINUSMA is leaving, but the UN is staying”. 

This content originally appeared on UN News - Global perspective Human stories and was authored by Jerome Bernard.

The post Why Capitalism is Leaving the US, in Search of Profit appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Richard D. Wolff.

I don’t think it was one moment, but a series. I had this teacher, David Johnson. He retired last year and I’m still in touch with him. He was a legitimate weirdo, but very funny. What he exposed me to was this world of people who made art that you’re not going to see in Artforum. You’re not going to see them in a big white-wall gallery, but they’re making important work. I ran with that. It was parallel to the kind of music I was into.

The printmaking room smelled like ink and oil. It wasn’t this romantic or conceptual thing, it was a workshop. You’d go in there late at night, just you and a couple other dudes, listening to John Coltrane records and working on a lithograph. It’s just a vibe. There was a feeling that these are my people, I had found them.

You had a visual.

That’s what’s important to see, someone setting an example. He was always making work. You could see how important drawing was to him. You wanted to keep up.

You’ve taught a handful of workshops and classes. Do you have a teaching philosophy?

The first several, I was in over my head and bullshitted my way into. I want to level the playing field and demonstrate that I don’t think anybody knows what they’re doing. There’s people that do things for a long time and have some things figured out, but we’re all just trying to make stuff. I try to eliminate that hierarchy and shine a light on the bigger picture—this is some of the most important stuff to do with your life. You’re doing something creative, meaningful, and it feeds you. It fills your cup a bit.

At the same time, it doesn’t matter. None of this matters. Why be afraid to take a risk? Why be afraid to try something? If you fail or you look stupid, who cares? It doesn’t matter. We’re all going to be dust any minute.

What did finding art, music, etc. look like for you as a kid?

It was just me and my mom for the most part. I saw my dad a lot, everybody’s cool. I had a lot of alone time. I’m a classic latchkey kid—watching everything that’s on HBO this summer, every music video. But I’m also outdoors with my friends, hanging out behind shopping malls, going to newsstands and absorbing any and all pre-internet information. Pulling on those threads, seeing where they come up.

It’s like opening a skateboarding magazine. What’s this band called fIREHOSE? Why is the F little in the name? What does that mean? My parents are super cool. Mom was very, “Do whatever. I’ll drive you to that skateboard contest. I’ll let you go to that concert.” She would take me to movies every weekend. We kind of lived like roommates.

My uncle, my dad’s younger brother, lived in Texas but was this cool figure to me. He had long hair, a beard, and could draw well. There’s this cool pen and ink drawing he had up at my grandma’s house. He did cartoons, could do a handstand on his skateboard, just thought he was the coolest.

You were drawn to skate companies with consistency of look and feel. How do you carry that into your own work?

For me it’s like throwing Scrabble letters on a board. You dump the bucket out, some things resonate and repeat. I have recognized things I’ve done that continue to resonate with me, or that continue to ring that bell.

For a long time I tried to separate visual art and playing songs. That’s the dumbest thing you could do. I realized how words respond to drawings, how they’re all one thing. You can make a drawing the name of a song, or vice versa. I’ve discovered my personal themes. Again, threads that I keep wanting to pull on. They’ve snaked through all the way back to college, or before.

It’s identifying threads and then digging a little deeper, taking them further. It’s a discovery process I wasn’t able to put my finger on until recently. Sort of like carving yourself out of a big block of stone, it starts to reveal itself bit by bit.

This makes me think of other musicians/visual artists (Michael Hurley, John Andrews) who use recurring characters. Do you have these?

I’m a big fan of those artists. Another great one is Kyle Field. I’m biased, he’s a good friend, but he’s also one of my favorite artists on Earth. The way he can push themes and characters into song, onto paper, and through his worlds while they continue to resonate and grow. With Hurley, there’s Snock. I don’t have a Snock, but I have icons that keep coming back. Whether it’s a figure, a bird, or a hand. Sometimes that boils down to, “Oh, this is something I like to draw.” That’s true, but there’s another reason I don’t have my finger on yet. That’s good because I can continue to circle it and see what pops up.

There are songs you want to sing all the time. I used to beat myself up about it. “I think I’ve probably already drawn this.” I’m like, “Who cares? I want to draw it again. Maybe it’ll be different or cooler. I want to keep drawing it and see. It feels good. I think about art through the prism of music constantly. That’s the way it makes sense to me. I want to sing that song or paint that picture again.

How do you balance being prepared while leaving room for magic?

This is something I’ve thought about a lot recently. I have poor study habits. All through school I was not great at studying. I would try to cram at the last minute and procrastinate. I’d never have anything done early. It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life. Something I’m not a fan of about myself. I end up doing a lot right before it’s due. I’ve got to this point where I’ve accepted that it’s part of who I am, that’s my process.

How can I use this? How can I accept this in a way that benefits the art, and to surprise myself? I want to make something that’s exciting to me. A lot of it comes to, “Okay, I’m going to set up a scenario, build this structure.” Sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally. I’m going to do this setup to get to a point where now I just have to pull this shit off. I’m going to think about it while I’m making the physical structure. When it comes down to it, the art show is not planned. I don’t know what it’s going to be until it’s there.

I used to feel self-conscious and beat myself up about it. All of those skate bowls and big murals, it’s me in the hotel with a giant coffee the morning of, being like, “What am I going to do?” I’ll look through old sketchbooks. Then, “Okay, I guess this is it.” Just going for it. I used to joke like, “Oh man, it’s like jazz. Miles Davis did four records in one day. I can do this.” In the meantime, I’m in my head like, “Oh, you’re the biggest piece of shit. You suck.”

I’m not the best at anything, but I’m comfortable with the way I use a paintbrush or pencil, the way I draw a picture. I like to create an opportunity, book studio time and then, “All right, let’s go.” See what happens. When it works it feels awesome. I’ve had times where it doesn’t, but that goes with it.

You’ve gone from a place of frustration to acceptance.

I feel like I’m doing all right. I’ve made it this far. I’m not doing it in spite of myself. Sometimes maybe. Maybe it’s all helping. It’s not to say it’s the only way, but at least I’m able to enjoy it now.

It’s cool to know you’re on a path at all.

Have you read that book of Will Oldham interviews?

Yes, one of my favorites.

The theme of that book is trying to catch that energy, to be in that moment. That’s one way to be in that moment—get it all set up. The studio’s ready, paints and brushes are clean, now go.

What are non art-based activities that help you form ideas? How do you keep track of them?

My life is different now than it was 15 years ago. Where I live, family responsibilities, my lifestyle. When I was living in San Francisco and Oakland, I walked everywhere. I didn’t have a car. I was on my feet, walking with headphones a couple hours a day. Sitting on the BART train looking out the window I always had a little notebook with me. There’s drawings in there, but mostly words or titles. That hasn’t changed. I try hard like, “Oh, I’m going to put an app on the phone and do my notes and I’ll put them on the cloud. But I can’t, man. I have five or six half finished notebooks that I lose and find again. I write down things on scraps of paper, try to remember them, and send text messages to myself.

I still like to go skateboarding, but I do it in an old man style at this point. I go to the skate park early in the morning, cruise around and hit curbs. It’s a way to put myself in my body. Gets your heart rate up and takes the edge off. It’s why people go surfing until they’re 80. Some days it’s drinking a bunch of coffee, going for a walk, and listening to music. Trying not to look at the internet. Read books, that’s about it.

How do you determine whether or not to take on a larger commercial project?

Many times it comes down to what mood I’m in when I read/answer the email. I don’t always handle things in the most professional manner. Of course I don’t want to work for Shell Oil or to promote a Tesla. I take illustration and design jobs that are exciting and interesting to me - where I’m being compensated fairly, hopefully generously. Ones where I don’t have a problem with the company. Sometimes I’ll regret it or feel weird about it later. Sometimes I do things for nothing for another artist, and sometimes it’s just not a good fit.

I’m pretty good at knowing if something’s going to feel good or not. If it’s a huge company I’ll go big on the quote. That’s the tax for being a giant company. I’ve got to make a living. But if I’m going to live with myself, at least I can pay my mortgage for a few months. Most of the time they’re like, “No, we can get someone in-house.” That’s honestly a relief most of the time.

It can take work to have joy stay in the equation.

That’s the eternal struggle. We live in this capitalistic society. The dream is to make your art the way you want to make it. I wish I could make my art and not have to be a salesman, not have to take people’s money. When business mixes with art, it’s always lame. It takes something away.

Do you see Instagram as a positive tool?

Before Instagram, I had a blog I kept for several years. I started it because I could not find time to build a website. Instagram was a way to share work efficiently and instantly. There’s a feedback loop that you can get stuck inside of. I’ve noticed it’s changed and I don’t understand it. I intentionally don’t explore it because it’s daunting to me.

It’s as good as you make it. If you want it to be important in your life, you can do that. If you want to work that program, you can make it work. I know people who make their living off it. I like getting positive feedback, sharing things with people, and people connecting with my work. It’s a good way to make announcements to people that are my people. I try not to trip out about it. I don’t have the psychological bandwidth or energy for that. Maybe I’m missing out. Maybe I’m letting an opportunity pass me by.

It also can make people feel like they have to be great at something right away.

Absolutely. For a long time all I wanted was to make skateboards. I have the rejection letters to prove it. I was in my late 30s when I got my first one. Kyle was the one who was like, “Hey, will you do it?” I was so pumped. After that it took many, many years, to get to a point where someone’s calling like, “Oh, do you want to make some OJ II wheels?” It’s also great to be detached from it. I’m no longer the nervous fanboy. I have enough scar tissue built up where I’m not going to be heartbroken if something doesn’t happen.

I have so much gratitude to be able to check that off the list. I met people that were important to me growing up and shaped the way I approached things. I realized they’re just normal goofballs like me. This pedestal you put them on is not real.

Where does making music enter the equation?

I’m always shocked and flattered when anyone recognizes me from music. I get into this repetition, rediscovering songs I made up over the years that still resonate. Hearing them within a new context, how they relate to other things I’m working on.

I was going to do some artwork and stage design at this festival in New Hampshire. They’re like, “Oh, we can get you more money if you want to play the show, too.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure.” Again, I’m creating this structure. I’m creating this moment to make it work. Now I get to play midday at this festival with musicians that are part of my DNA. I don’t know what the stage backdrop is going to look like or how this set is going to go, but I’m going to set the stage so I have the chance to figure it out. A chance to articulate and present something, be in that moment. I’m really excited.

You’re giving yourself permission.

I’ve absorbed and taken in all these other works. They’ve enriched my life. Now what is my part? Nobody needs to hear another thing that sounds exactly like the thing you want it to sound like. What does my thing sound or look like? It’s all connected. It’s about a sense of self, scraping away the top layers to see what’s there. If you do it right, there’s going to be a pleasant discovery. If you’ve been honest with yourself and released yourself of expectations, just allow it to come out. That’s what we’re talking about with other artists, skateboarders, and musicians that we talk to. They’re willing to eat shit. It’s a beautiful demonstration of the human spirit.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Jeffrey Silverstein.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Alexander Etkind.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Seth Thevoz.

The post NYT Trashes Trumpers for Leaving Us Less Prepared for Next Pandemic But Not Drug Companies appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Dean Baker.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Ruby Lott-Lavigna.

With each crossing of the street, with the tempo and multiplicity of economic, occupational and social life, the city sets up a deep contrast with small town and rural life with reference to the sensory foundations of psychic life.

— Georg Simmel¹

Five thousand years ago, the first cities emerged as, and remain today, marketplaces–concentrated centers of trade, commerce, finance. Qualitative values–sentimental, aesthetic, empathic–are replaced by quantitative ones, which could be summed up in the phrase: “How much?” In the beginning, monumental architecture symbolized the awe-inspiring omnipotence of gods and the immortality of rulers. Somewhat later, a market-ideology fostered enthrallment to the false god of Mammon.

As anthropologists have ceaselessly reminded us, modern Homo sapiens, for hundreds of thousands of years, wandered through endlessly varying landscapes, following migrating game animals and seasonally harvesting dozens of different edible plants. As the brain was attaining its modern, enlarged organization, the visual cortex was processing a daily continuum of gradually shifting scenes and movements (including that of insouciant creatures encountered), in the context of the tempo of walking and resting. Such Gestalt perception, the discernment of patterns of contrasting yet integrated elements within forest and landscape, sharply contrasts with the fragmented, fleeting, ever-fluctuating and disjunctive “sensory-overload” of the urban milieu. The late radical historian Theodore Roszak invented a new field, ecopsychology, for the study of these contrasting experiential worlds.²

Perceptive and cognitive dissonance may fluctuate as stimulus-diversity in urban experience over-stresses and fatigues the individual:

A surfeit of diversity, akin perhaps to the tedium produced by the lack of it – witness the phenomenon of “visual pollution,” i.e., the wearisome hodge-podge of highly diverse sights, represented by the succession of gaudy signs, gas stations, and hamburger stands greeting the motorist on the outskirts of so many American cities…. Psychologists have done little so far to clarify the nature of ugliness, but it is a plausible hunch that it is the very diversity, i.e., lack of unity of a stimulus configuration that is responsible for the response “ugly” that it evokes in us.³

As a field biologist and early practitioner of ethology–the naturalistic study of wild animal behavior–Konrad Lorenz proposed a controversial theory that urbanized humans are “domesticated,” with a resultant decline in adaptive versatility.⁴ Fifty years ago, zoos were still highly confining, and in The Human Zoo (1969) ethologist Desmond Morris elaborated on the analogy: the animals typically suffered symptoms of chronic stress (enlarged adrenal glands), obesity, “stupidity,” stomach ulcers, hyper-sexuality, and various other “neurotic” behaviors (repetitive, obsessional, etc.).⁵

The modern urbanscape is a geometric artifice, a right-angled gridwork of standardized boxes, intersections and alternating signals. Visual homogeneity (sensory deprivation), jarring noise pollution and fragmentation of image exacerbate cognitive dissociation and strain. Kinesthetic experience–the changing spatial context of varied human movements–is further diminished by the sedentary operation of high-speed automobiles. Inhabitants engage in an ongoing (and largely senseless) struggle to “cope” and “adjust,” becoming addicted to food, drink, “recreational” drugs, sex, TV, shopping, the Internet, and yes, social media.

1. Georg Simmel. “The Metropolis and Mental Life” (1903). Anthologized in many sociology article-texts.
2. Theodore Roszak. The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
3. Joachim F. Wohlwill. “Behavioral Response and Adaptation to Environmental Stimulation.” In: Physiological Anthropology, ed. Albert Damon, pp. 295-334. Oxford University Press, 1975.
4. Despite his valuable theoretical contributions to biology (co-recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Medicine), the Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) is today a very controversial figure. After the Nazi take-over of Austria in the late 1930s, Lorenz became a member of the Nazi Party and wrote articles in support of Nazi eugenics ideas of “racial hygiene.” Drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1941, he was assigned for at least two years as military psychologist in the Office of Racial Policy. In his later years, he apologized for his bad judgment, claiming that his knowledge at the time of the deportation of Jews to the death camps was quite limited. The extent of his involvement is evidently still unclear.
5. Desmond Morris. The Human Zoo. Kodansha Globe, 1996 (reprint).

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by William Manson.

A Christian pastor, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said Kalam Samson was temporarily detained as he was about to board a flight to Bangkok on Sunday.

“Both of his phones were turned off this morning,” the pastor told RFA Burmese. “The last thing I knew was that he was taken away when he was about to board the plane. He did not do anything to get arrested by the military council.”

Other friends said he was detained after airport officials found his name on a junta-compiled list of people banned from leaving the country when they checked his passport.

Kalam Samson is chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly (WMR), a group made up of religious leaders, politicians from parties in Kachin State and high-ranking members of the Kachin Independence Organization, the political wing of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The KIA is one of several ethnic armies battling the military junta, which deposed the country’s democratically elected government in a Feb. 2021 coup.

A former chairman of evangelical group the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), Kalam Samson is also involved in peace and relief issues in his home state. He supervised the funerals of the more than 60 people killed when junta aircraft attacked a Kachin Independence Army concert in Hpakant township on Oct. 23.

In 2019, Kalam Samson was invited to the White House to discuss the state of religious freedom in Myanmar by then-U.S. president Donald Trump. On his return he faced prosecution over the visit by Lt. Col. Than Htike of Myanmar’s Northern Military Command but the case was later withdrawn.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

On the evening of October 31, three men armed with guns stopped reporter Niaz Mohammad Khaksar as he walked home in District 7 in the city of Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province, according to Khaksar, who spoke to CPJ by phone, and a report by U.K.-based Afghanistan International.

The men questioned him about his identity, his background as a journalist, and his work at the privately owned independent Enikass Radio and TV, according to those sources. Khaksar said one of the men punched him in the eye, and the other two started beating him in the head, legs, and stomach after he said he was a journalist, leaving him unconscious.

Separately, on October 18, two men armed with guns took Ezatullah Salimi, a reporter and presenter with the privately owned Spogmai FM, from his office in the capital, Kabul, and held him in their car for three hours while questioning and beating him, according to Salimi, who spoke to CPJ by phone, and security footage of the abduction reviewed by CPJ.

“The Taliban must investigate the beating and harassment of Afghan journalists Niaz Mohammad Khaksar and Ezatullah Salimi, and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator in Frankfurt, Germany. “Violence against journalists must not go unpunished. The Taliban should also stop detention and harassment of journalists in Afghanistan and allow the media to operate freely.”

Residents sent Khaksar to the Fatema Zahra hospital, where he regained consciousness after a few hours and was hospitalized for a day, he said. As a result of the beating, Khaksar has bruises on his left eye and back, according to pictures reviewed by CPJ.

The attackers questioned Salimi about his journalistic activities, and when he defended his reporting, he said one of the men punched him in the head and slapped him in the face. They continued to punch and slap him on the face, head, and upper body as they questioned and accused him of anti-Taliban reporting.

When they approached a Taliban checkpoint, one of the men shocked him in the neck with some type of electric tool and told him to keep silent, said Salimi. The men also searched his cell phone and released him from the vehicle, threatening him with sexual assault and murder if he ever disclosed the incident.

Salimi said he tried to report the attack to Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid but did not receive a reply. Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Sonia Correa, Juan Elman.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Sunny Singh.

On Oct. 25, troops arrived by land and air, attacking the PAG office near Hpa Lan Pin. The bodies were found when locals were cleaning up the remains of the office on Thursday after the military column left, according to an official from Pale township’s PAG, who did not want to be named for security reasons. 

“We have been cleaning the area since yesterday and found 11 bodies in the burned office buildings of the People’s Administration Group,” the official said. 

“Children were found among the bodies… I strongly believe [they] were shot dead by the junta troops," he said, adding that the ages and names are still being verified. 

The 11 were prisoners who had been released from the PAG office but ran into junta troops who shot them, the official said. 

“When the junta column stormed the office, the detainees were released and put in a vehicle but they were met by junta troops dropped from a military helicopter,” he said. 

“The junta troops fired repeatedly at the detainees… People who were shot and injured, but were still alive were taken to the military’s Northwest Regional Command by helicopter." 

According to an SAC statement on Wednesday, seven women, including the detained wife of an army officer, four children and 15 men managed to escape when troops raided a PDF camp near North Yama dam at Hpa Lan Pin village in Pale township on Oct. 25.

It said others were injured when the PDF blew up the offices up as they fled the junta troops. The SAC said it rounded up the fleeing locals and gave them medical treatment. However, the PDF said its members arrested the injured and gave them medical treatment, releasing them before the junta raids.

The Pale township PAG said it was junta troops not the PDF that burned down the office. It said the people who were arrested were being held in accordance with human rights standards, rules and regulations issued by the National Unity Government (NUG). 

RFA contacted Aye Hlaing, the SAC’s Social Affairs Minister and spokesman for the Sagaing regional government for comment. He told our reporter to contact the Minister of Security and Border Affairs of Sagaing region because it was a security issue. 

On Oct. 11, independent research group, the Institute for Strategy and said a total of 1,512 civilians had died in Sagaing region in the 21 months since the military coup. 

According to an Oct. 1 report by the United Nation Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, a total of 545,200 civilians fled their homes in Sagaing region due to insecurity and fighting since the Feb. 2021 military coup.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Nikolay Andreev.

Vu, a member of the Can Gio Redemptorists Church under the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City, told RFA’s Vietnamese service that he was stopped by security at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport prior to boarding an 8:45 a.m. flight to Manila, where he had planned to change planes and proceed on to the United States.

“I was temporarily banned from leaving the country while on a business trip to the U.S.,” he said in an interview by phone. Authorities told him “the ban was for social order and safety reasons.” 

He was instructed to contact the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department with any inquiries about his exit suspension, but said he had no plans to do so as “it will just be a waste of time.”

Vu runs a program at the church named "Paying Tribute to Disabled Veterans of the Republic of Vietnam," referring to the short-lived country formed in the wake of the 1954 division of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh City – formerly known as Saigon – as its capital. It was reunified after North Vietnamese troops seized control of Saigon in April 1975, at the end of the war.

Vietnam’s government provides no social benefits to the disabled veterans of the Republic of Vietnam, who are estimated to number around 20,000 individuals, according to Vietnamese state media. Unable to work, many are forced to earn a living by selling lottery tickets or begging.

The program Vu oversees was created to provide material assistance to the veterans on holidays, as well as occasional checkups from volunteer doctors, nurses, and social workers. Its funding comes from both inside and outside Vietnam.

Vu hopes to provide New Year’s gifts to more than 6,000 disabled veterans of the former republic between December 2022 and March 2023, and said he was traveling to the United States to seek funding for the campaign.

Influencing Redemptorist elections

While the government has shown little interest in supporting the veterans of its former enemy, Father Le Ngoc Thanh of the Long Xuyen Redemptorist Church suggested that Vu’s exit suspension could be related to this week’s election of the Provincial Conference of the Redemptorists.

“The key thing is that [authorities] want to influence the Redemptorists’ 2022 annual meeting,” which starts on Tuesday, he said. “This meeting will elect the new Conference of the Redemptorists in Vietnam for the term beginning in 2023.”

Thanh said that by blocking Vu’s travel, authorities were sending a message to the conference’s delegates that they should select a moderate leader who will be more receptive to efforts by the government to exert control over the Redemptorist order.

He said officials had recently contacted several delegates with messages of support for the existing Redemptorist leadership and calling for the selection of similar candidates in the coming term.

Vu is one of six priests banned from leaving Vietnam over the past few years. Others include Fathers Le Xuan Loc and Nguyen Ngoc Nam Phong from the Ky Dong Redemptorist Church, Father Dinh Huu Thoai from the Ba Ria Vung Tau Diocese, Father Le Ngoc Than from the Long Xuyen Redemptorists Church, and Father Pham Trung Thanh – the former Provincial Superior in Vietnam.

All were suspended from traveling abroad for “national security” or “social order and safety reasons.”

Father Thanh told RFA that Ho Chi Minh City police seized his passport in 2015 and have yet to return it to him.

Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Katherine Hearst.

Don and other family members were barred from leaving Vietnam by police at Tan Son Nhat Airport at around 9:42 p.m. on Sept. 27, Don said, calling the action taken against him by authorities arbitrary and vindictive.

Don added that airport police told him he would need to contact immigration authorities in his home province of Phu Yen, on Vietnam’s south-central coast, for an explanation of the order barring his travel overseas.

He and his family were now on their way back to Phu Yen, Don said.

“I’ll work with the Phu Yen police tomorrow to find out why my departure was temporarily suspended,” Don said, saying that airport police had cited “security reasons” for blocking his departure in accordance with Article 36 of the Law on Entry and Exit for Vietnamese citizens.

According to Vietnamese law, citizens of the country have the right to travel domestically and overseas, Don said. “I’ll take legal action against them and file a request for compensation if they fail to give legitimate reasons for what they did,” he added.

“In the past, I used to work as a defense lawyer for ordinary, common people,” said Don, whose license to practice law was revoked in 2017 after he successfully defended the right to benefits of the surviving family members of a person who died in police custody.

“Since then I have only stayed at home and worked as a farmer. I have not been involved in any other cases or broken the law, and there is therefore no reason to say that I have been a threat to national security,” he said.

Don said he and his family had decided to seek asylum in the US because they were suffering harassment by Phu Yen authorities and economic hardship since he could no longer work as a lawyer.

The Washington-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) had secured advance funding for the family’s airfare, which was returned to the IOM when the family could no longer fly.

Don had taken his children out of school and given away many of his family’s belongings before trying to leave, and now has to buy many household appliances again, he said. He hopes his children’s schools will now allow them to return to class, he added.

'Prestige of the Party'

Requests for comment sent to the US Embassy, IOM offices in Vietnam and the Vietnam Immigration Department received no responses this week.

A Sept. 28 article in the Ministry of Public Security’s Public Security Newsletter said however that Don during his work as a lawyer had “damaged the prestige” of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party and government by posting stories on social media and speaking to members of the foreign press.

Speaking to RFA, Truong Minh Tam — a Vietnamese lawyer and human rights activist now living in Illinois — said that Phu Yen police had abused their authority by ordering the suspension of Don’s right to travel abroad.

“According to Article 37 of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, only the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Public Security have that authority,” Tam said.

Also speaking to RFA, Vietnamese musician and political observer Tuan Khanh noted that Don had successfully brought a suit in 2014 against five Phu Yen police officers who caused the death of a citizen, Ngo Thanh Kieu, held in their custody.

This had likely made Don a target for provincial authorities’ revenge, Khanh said.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

During a bank oversight hearing this week, Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth boasted that one of his staffers would soon be leaving Congress to work on Wall Street, offering a glimpse of the legalized corruption that permeates the highest levels of the U.S. political system.

Perhaps free to speak so candidly because he's not running for reelection, Hollingsworth (Ind.) happily announced that one of his top aides, Sruthi Prabhu, is departing his office next week to join Bank of America, a powerful institution whose CEO testified at Wednesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing alongside other top industry executives.

"She is very, very excited," said Hollingsworth, whose past campaigns were funded heavily by the finance and investment industries. "I hope you will take good care of her and know and recognize the talent she has shown already in our office. I'm sure she'll do the same at Bank of America."

"We will do that," responded Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. "And her father already works for us."

Watch:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, wrote in a Twitter post Thursday that she "was in the room when this happened and it was just as gross and wild in person as it is here."

"People rightly discuss conflicts of interest of members of Congress, but lobbying of senior staff (who move on behalf of members and committees) is a huge part of the problem too," Ocasio-Cortez noted.

Donald Sherman, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, expressed a similar sentiment, writing, "This is gross."

The exchange between Hollingsworth and Bank of America's CEO provides a striking look at a phenomenon commonly known as the revolving door, which describes the seamless employment track from Congress to the industries lawmakers are tasked with regulating, and vice versa.

The revolving door between committees that oversee the nation's banks spins particularly fast: Many lawmakers and aides involved in crafting—and watering down—Wall Street regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crash went on to take jobs at large financial institutions.

Public Citizen has estimated that in the midst of the economic crisis, the financial services industry deployed more than 1,400 former federal employees—including ex-committee staffers—to lobby Congress on banking issues.

Walter Shaub, a senior ethics fellow at the Project on Government Oversight and the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, called Hollingsworth's jovial back-and-forth with Bank of America's top executive "absolutely wild."

"I'm not an extremist who thinks people should be unemployable, but anyone who says Washington's revolving door isn't a problem is either lying or hasn't spent much time with folks working on the Hill or in presidential administrations, including this one."

Some who have spent substantial time working on Capitol Hill, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) aide Warren Gunnels, reacted with disgust to Wednesday's hearing.

"I'll never forget, after a meeting with GOP staff on the financial services committee one day, I said I had to work with Bernie on a statement and questions for an upcoming hearing," Gunnels recounted. "They laughed and said, 'You're so funny! Banking lobbyists write all of our statements and bills for us.'"

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

Even medicines commonly used for treating head colds or flu now cost twice as much as they did before the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup that overthrew civilian rule in Myanmar, sources say.

“Prices are just going up and up,” a resident of the country’s former capital Yangon told RFA. “A packet of the widely used household medicine Mixagrip used to cost around 600 kyat [$0.29] but now sells for around 1,800,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“For a while, Mixagrip was not even available in the stores, but has started to show up on the shelves again just recently,” he said.

The cost of other medicines has also soared, with Cardivas, a drug used for treating heart conditions, almost doubling from 1,000 kyat ($0.48) to over 1,500 kyat, and Amlong-5, a drug used for treating hypertension, climbing from 3,400 ($1.62) kyat to 6,500 kyat, sources say.

The owner of a drug store in Yangon region’s Mingaladon township said that it is difficult to keep pharmaceuticals in stock because the costs charged by suppliers keep changing every day.

“I don’t order medicines anymore. I’m now just selling the ones I have, especially the drugs people need for emergencies,” he said. “I have to charge customers more than a thousand kyat each for the small packs that we used to sell for around 600.

“It’s not easy to sell to the public. People cannot pay that much,” he added.

RFA contacted Myanmar pharmaceutical companies to ask about the exorbitant prices of household medicines, but staff on duty said they were not allowed to discuss the matter. Officials at the Myanmar Medical Equipment Traders and Entrepreneurs Association also refused to answer questions.

Problems in foreign exchange market 

The owner of a major drugstore in Yangon’s Mingalar Market said that prices of household medicines have doubled due to the chaos in the foreign exchange market caused by dollar restrictions imposed by Myanmar’s Central Bank.

“The prices of commodities always change in accordance with the dollar price,” the store owner said, also asking for anonymity in order to speak freely. “We can still get drugs from our suppliers on a quota basis, like 20 or 30 bottles or packets at a time, and if a certain drug isn’t available, we can substitute it with another.

“The price of the drug in short supply would of course go up a little,” he added.

Drugs showing the greatest cost increase in recent months are antibiotics and drugs used in the long-term treatment of patients with cardiac and kidney problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

The prices of these medicines increased by 40% to 50% in August, sources say.

A doctor in Yangon region’s Hlaing Tharyar township told RFA that the number of patients seeking treatment at his private clinic has fallen recently due to the higher costs of medicines.

“Even if we don’t charge our doctors’ fees, drug prices have gone up a lot,” he said. “People are already facing hardships, especially in this township, and the high price of drugs is only making things worse.

“I can say that the number of patients visiting me has fallen a little. I think they only take home remedies nowadays instead of visiting the clinic if they feel a little unwell.”

Junta spokesman Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun denied to reporters in Naypyidaw on July 26 that medicines were in short supply and said that factories were turning out medicines that were high in quality though possibly expensive.

A 2021 survey by the UK-based website Prosperity.com, which tracks the education, health and safety conditions of different countries, ranked Myanmar’s development status at 133 out of 167 countries, with its health care ranking at 106.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

The former workers are from a group that has been holding regular protests since they were among 1,300 laid off by the NagaWorld Casino in December 2021. The workers say they were unfairly fired and offered inadequate compensation, although only around 150 continue to protest, as an increasing number have accepted payouts after months of no salary and repeated confrontations with police.

At around 2 p.m. on Thursday, dozens of authorities blocked the group from holding a protest outside the casino with metal barricades, and rained blows down on those who tried to remove them, according to Bun Sina, one of the former workers.

“I came to demand the right to seek justice, [as the situation] has not yet been resolved, but I was kicked in the thigh by the authorities,” she told RFA Khmer, adding that she was shocked by the brutality of the officers.

“How much more of this violence and torture will we have to suffer from the authorities before this dispute is resolved?”

“We were kneeling in front of the security forces and begging to be allowed to go to the NagaWorld building, but they assumed we were attacking them and fought us,” she said.

“The officer hit me full force with his fist, breaking my nose and making me bleed. The blow knocked me unconscious,” she added, saying she is still in pain from the injury.

The two sides clashed for around 15 minutes before resuming a verbal confrontation across the barricade line. The former workers eventually left the area around 5 p.m.

Following the incident, the Phnom Penh government issued a statement calling the rally “illegal” for disrupting traffic and accusing protesters of intentionally attacking the reputation of the authorities by orchestrating the clash.

“They created an event to put the blame on the government, inciting and provoking anger by cursing and insulting public officials before smashing 20 barricades and using violence against security forces who tried to block their path,” the statement said.

“All workers should stop their unlawful demonstrations and try to resolve the dispute with the authorities,” it added.

More than eight months since the layoffs, NagaWorld has said it will only discuss severance packages with former workers and Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor has deferred the matter to the courts. But the workers say they can’t afford to bring a lawsuit against the company and have urged the government to intervene in the dispute.

Petition submitted

Earlier on Thursday, a group of around 50 former NagaWorld workers and trade union representatives gathered to submit a petition to the Ministry of Labor, requesting that authorities drop charges against Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions President Yang Sophorn, who the ministry has accused of organizing the protests.

The petition also requested a meeting with Labor Minister Ith Samheng to find a resolution to the dispute.

“We only see that the government – through City Hall, the Ministry of Labor, the judiciary, the Ministry of Health, authorities at all levels – is standing by the NagaWorld company, which is prohibited by law,” she said.

“They have a role in mediation, not in protecting one side, and they must remain independent in this dispute.”

Attempts by RFA to contact Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour for comment went unanswered Thursday.

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

On August 1, the Ofer Israeli Military Court ordered Abu Arafa, a correspondent for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, to be held in administrative detention for four months, according to Quds Press and the MADA Center, a Palestinian press freedom organization.

A representative for the Israel Defense Forces’ North America desk told CPJ via email that authorities were investigating Abu Arafa for alleged membership in a terrorist organization. Israeli forces raided Abu Arafa’s home and arrested him July 19, as CPJ reported at the time.

Separately, Israeli border guards blocked Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouna, a reporter with the Turkish broadcaster TRT, from leaving the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 25, according to reports from MADA and the Skeyes Center for Media Freedom, a regional press freedom organization.

“Whether they use prison walls or travel bans, Israeli authorities are showing their determination to clamp down on the Palestinian press,” said CPJ Senior Middle East and North Africa Researcher Justin Shilad. “Israeli authorities should immediately release all detained journalists including Amer Abu Arafa, and end the use of arbitrary detention and travel bans against the press.”

On July 25, Israeli border guards stopped Hassouna from leaving the West Bank to cross into Jordan, according to those reports by MADA and Skeyes.

Border guards held Hassouna’s passport for two hours before telling her that she was forbidden from traveling, without giving any reason. The MADA Center reported that Israeli authorities previously barred Hassouna from traveling in 2020 and 2021.

Additionally, CPJ is investigating Israeli forces’ recent detention of Faisal al-Rifai, who was sentenced on August 3 to six months in administrative detention for allegedly being a member of a terrorist group; al-Rifai was described in news reports as a freelance journalist but CPJ was unable to immediately find examples of his work since 2017.

CPJ is also investigating reports that Israeli border forces blocked Palestinian journalist Mujahid al-Saadi from leaving the West Bank to enter Jordan on July 26; CPJ was similarly unable to find examples of al-Saadi’s work in recent years.

CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces North America desk for comment on al-Rifai, Hassouna, and al-Saadi’s cases, but did not immediately receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

In it, the wife of prisoner of conscience Nguyen Bac Truyen said she was banned from leaving the country by the Vietnamese government to prevent her speaking in the U.S. about her husband's situation and the issue of religious persecution in Vietnam.

Nguyen Bac Truyen was arrested in July 2017 under the charge of "subversion" and was sentenced to 11 years in prison during a trial in Hanoi in April 2018.

Phuong told RFA she has been banned from leaving the country since 2019.

“In 2019, I was invited to attend a conference by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, but when I arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport, I was blocked from leaving the country,” she said. “They said the reason I was stopped was for security, social order and safety reasons.

“I lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Public Security and the Immigration Department, and they replied giving the same reason."

Phuong said she has been invited every year since 2019 to attend a conference on religious freedom, and, although every year she still submits a complaint to the Ministry of Public Security to ask to be allowed to leave the country, she is not allowed to leave Vietnam.

“In 2020, I was also invited,” she said. “I applied to the Vietnamese Government to ask if I was allowed to leave the country, and they answered with the same reason. In 2021, I also filed a petition to prepare to leave the country to attend the conference but the COVID-19 pandemic occurred.”

“This year, before this conference, I also submitted a petition to the Ministry of Public Security and the Immigration Department, but until today they have remained silent.”

Her husband Nguyen Bac Truyen is an independent Hoa Hao Buddhist and an active human rights activist. When he was arrested, many organizations believed the arrest to be politically motivated and a case of religious persecution.

The International Religious Freedom Summit is an annual event. This year's conference runs from Tuesday to Thursday. Part of the program will be devoted to victims of religious persecution around the world to publicize and discuss their cases.

When asked about her feelings when being prevented from attending an international conference to fight for her husband, Ms. Bui Thi Kim Phuong said:

"Of course, deep down I am very angry and frustrated but, since I live in this regime, if they block me and I still go it will be very difficult since I am still living in this country."

She added that she still planned to speak out strongly to denounce the government persecution faced by her family and her religion.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Vietnamese.

The global aid group Oxfam International slammed the G7 on Tuesday for failing to respond anywhere near adequately to a global food crisis that has pushed as many as 323 million people worldwide to the brink of starvation.

"Corporate profits have soared during Covid-19. This food crisis is big business."

The wealthy Group of Seven countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan—acknowledged that staggering figure in a joint statement issued at the close of their latest summit but pledged just USD $4.5 billion in additional funds to fight the emergency, which Russia's war on Ukraine has exacerbated.

Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at Oxfam, noted in a statement that "at least $28.5 billion more" is needed from the G7 to "finance food and agriculture investments to end hunger and fill the huge gap in U.N. humanitarian appeals."

"Faced with the worst hunger crisis in a generation, the G7 have simply failed to take the action that is needed. Many millions will face terrible hunger and starvation as a result," said Lawson. "Instead of doing what is needed, the G7 are leaving millions to starve and cooking the planet."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth month, has thrown the global grain market into chaos, slashing exports, driving up costs, and leaving low-income nations that rely heavily on Ukraine for wheat and other crucial food supplies scrambling for alternative sources.

The U.S. Congress passed a massive weapons and economic aid package for Ukraine in early May that included $5 billion in funding to fight global hunger, but Politico reported over the weekend that the Biden administration has yet to send out any of the nutrition money.

Last week, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) pleaded with G7 countries to "act now or record hunger will continue to rise and millions more will face starvation."

"We have a plan—the most ambitious in WFP's history—that requires USD $22.2 billion to both save lives and build resilience for 152 million people in 2022," the organization said.

Including the $4.5 billion pledged Tuesday, G7 countries have vowed to devote roughly $14 billion this year to combat global food insecurity, a longstanding crisis made worse by the intensifying climate emergency and military conflict.

And Lawson stressed in his statement that "pledging more money is just part of what the G7 could do to end hunger."

"They could ban biofuels," Lawson argued, pinpointing what critics have long said is a major driver of hunger in low-income countries.

"They could cancel debts of poor nations," he continued. "They could tax the excess profits of food and energy corporates. Most importantly they could have tackled the economic inequality and climate breakdown that is driving this hunger. They failed to do any of this, despite having the power to do so."

"Corporate profits have soared during Covid-19 and the number of billionaires has increased more in 24 months than it did in 23 years," Lawson added. "This food crisis is big business."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

The global aid group Oxfam International slammed the G7 on Tuesday for failing to respond anywhere near adequately to a global food crisis that has pushed as many as 323 million people worldwide to the brink of starvation.

"Corporate profits have soared during Covid-19. This food crisis is big business."

The wealthy Group of Seven countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan—acknowledged that staggering figure in a joint statement issued at the close of their latest summit but pledged just USD $4.5 billion in additional funds to fight the emergency, which Russia's war on Ukraine has exacerbated.

Max Lawson, the head of inequality policy at Oxfam, noted in a statement that "at least $28.5 billion more" is needed from the G7 to "finance food and agriculture investments to end hunger and fill the huge gap in U.N. humanitarian appeals."

"Faced with the worst hunger crisis in a generation, the G7 have simply failed to take the action that is needed. Many millions will face terrible hunger and starvation as a result," said Lawson. "Instead of doing what is needed, the G7 are leaving millions to starve and cooking the planet."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth month, has thrown the global grain market into chaos, slashing exports, driving up costs, and leaving low-income nations that rely heavily on Ukraine for wheat and other crucial food supplies scrambling for alternative sources.

The U.S. Congress passed a massive weapons and economic aid package for Ukraine in early May that included $5 billion in funding to fight global hunger, but Politico reported over the weekend that the Biden administration has yet to send out any of the nutrition money.

Last week, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) pleaded with G7 countries to "act now or record hunger will continue to rise and millions more will face starvation."

"We have a plan—the most ambitious in WFP's history—that requires USD $22.2 billion to both save lives and build resilience for 152 million people in 2022," the organization said.

Including the $4.5 billion pledged Tuesday, G7 countries have vowed to devote roughly $14 billion this year to combat global food insecurity, a longstanding crisis made worse by the intensifying climate emergency and military conflict.

And Lawson stressed in his statement that "pledging more money is just part of what the G7 could do to end hunger."

"They could ban biofuels," Lawson argued, pinpointing what critics have long said is a major driver of hunger in low-income countries.

"They could cancel debts of poor nations," he continued. "They could tax the excess profits of food and energy corporates. Most importantly they could have tackled the economic inequality and climate breakdown that is driving this hunger. They failed to do any of this, despite having the power to do so."

"Corporate profits have soared during Covid-19 and the number of billionaires has increased more in 24 months than it did in 23 years," Lawson added. "This food crisis is big business."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jake Johnson.

There are at least 10 more names that do not appear on CPJ’s list of journalists killed in the conflict. All are Ukrainian, and all have worked in journalism – until Russia’s February invasion, when they left to join the war effort and died as combatants. (CPJ’s database only tracks journalists killed on assignment or in circumstances possibly linked to their journalistic work.)

There’s no official estimate of how many Ukrainian journalists have joined the military since February, a move that seemingly contradicts the journalistic norm of impartiality, even in wartime. But for some who have made that move, the decision was crystal clear.

“It’s simple: the scale of the [Russian] invasion was such that the existence of Kyiv and the country as a whole was in doubt,” former Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reporter Stanyslav Aseyev told CPJ by messaging app. “Had Ukraine disappeared, journalism would have been meaningless.” 

Aseyev joined the Territorial Defense Forces, a volunteer unit within the Ukrainian army, just two days after Russia invaded. “We were not sure that we could hold Kyiv, even with the forces we had. That’s why defending the country became a priority,” he said.

Oleksandr Makhov, well known for his reporting on the military for Ukrainian TV,  posted a photo on Facebook February 24, the day the invasion began, announcing his career change. “I’m going to war,” Makhov wrote, under the photo showing him in military clothing. “It’s time for a war of liberation! I’ll fight and kill as much as I can. I serve the Ukrainian people.” 

On May 4, DOM TV, the channel Makhov worked for just before the invasion, reported he was killed by shelling at a battlefront in Izyum, in the Kharkiv region. “Eternal memory to him and all our heroes who gave their lives for Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said of Makhov.

In articles, the Ukrainian National Union of Journalists lists media workers killed during the conflict, identifying 10 of them as having left for the military and “died with weapons in their hands.” Unlike CPJ, the union counts those who died as combatants, because “We admire every colleague who contributes to the defense of the country,” union president Serhiy Tomilenko told CPJ in an email. “Each of our deceased colleagues is a Hero to us.” 

Correspondents and press freedom advocates who monitor conflict reporting said they could not recall another recent war where journalists had left to join the military in significant numbers, nor where so many had fallen as combatants. Ukraine’s fierce resistance to the Russian invasion has broad public support, which has inspired people from many walks of life to volunteer for service. 

In fact, Ukraine’s battle has drawn volunteer fighters from around the world, including from Russia – and including at least one Russian former journalist. Sergei Loiko, 69, who worked for years in the Moscow bureau of the Los Angeles Times, said in March that he had gone to Ukraine “not as a journalist, but as a fighter in this Armageddon struggle between the good and evil.” 

Loiko’s description would likely find wide agreement among the Ukrainian journalists who have chosen fighting over writing in this war.

“If you’re fighting for the survival of your country, as Ukrainians are, I can understand why some people would feel that they had a patriotic duty to give up journalism and go into battle,” said Ray Moseley, author of “Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture and Death to Cover World War II.”

Though some World War II-era journalists left the profession to fight, to work as military press aides, or to join the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA), hundreds went to war as correspondents for their American news outlets.

Those accredited with Allied forces wore military uniforms with a large “C” for correspondent on the sleeve. Then – as now – international humanitarian law called for journalists to be treated by warring parties as civilians, as long as they did not carry weapons and fight. But in World War II, a few ignored the rules – and in doing so “they compromised their positions as journalists,” Moseley said in an interview with CPJ. Ernest Hemingway “was the most egregious violator of international law” in this regard, according to Moseley. Other reporters filed complaints with military officials that Hemingway was armed and sometimes acting as a combatant, but his military accreditation to cover the war as a journalist was never revoked, according to Moseley.

Several Ukrainians who moved from journalist to soldier have made very public announcements about the change.

Kyiv Independent journalist Artur Korniienko wrote on Twitter: “You may know me as a culture writer for @Kyivindependent. Since Russia’s invasion, I joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces and can’t write much.”

Valentyn Chernyavsky, a journalist in Cherkasy, in central Ukraine, told a local website that he had exchanged his camera and microphone for a machine gun because “I thought that now was definitely not the time for the entertainment content I was shooting.”

But in this internet age, those who go to war can still send dispatches from the frontlines.

Makhov the journalist killed in early May, used Instagram to post images from the front. Korniienko, the Kyiv Independent culture writer, told his Twitter followers “[R]eaders keep asking about our wartime culture. So I’ll tweet about things that inspire me and my comrades to keep up the fight.” Several recent tweets have praised the Ukrainian soldiers under siege in a Mariupol steel plant.

Aseyev, the former RFE/RL reporter, said he continues to write for Swiss and Austrian media but believes there is no conflict with his volunteer military service “because I’m doing opinion journalism.” In an op-ed for the Swiss site NZZ am Sonntag recently, he wrote that he now carries a weapon because “Writing alone is no longer enough to ensure Ukraine’s future.” 

Russian-backed separatists captured Aseyev in 2017 in eastern Ukraine, where he had been reporting for RFE/RL and Ukrainian news sites. He was held for two-and-a-half years, then freed in a prisoner swap in late 2019, when he began work on a searing book about the constant beatings and abuse that he and other Ukrainians endured at the hands of the separatists. His book, “The Torture Camp on Paradise Street,” has been published in several languages.

Russian forces have repeatedly detained media in Ukraine since the February invasion. Given his current military status, and his past writings disclosing abuse at the hands of Russian separatists, how does Aseyev think he would be treated if he’s captured again?

“In this case,” he wrote, “a slow and very painful death awaits me.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Ann Cooper.

We speak with human rights and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, who was released Monday from nearly 1,000 days of house arrest as part of a years-long legal ordeal that began after he successfully sued Chevron on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian Amazonian Indigenous people. Donziger calls his misdemeanor sentencing and arrest “a retaliation play by Chevron and some of its allies in the judiciary,” meant to intimidate other human rights advocates and lawyers from pursuing environmental justice. “Chevron tried to use me as what I would say is a weapon of mass distraction so people wouldn’t focus on the environmental crimes they commited in Ecuador,” continues Donziger, who says, “I didn’t really understand freedom until it was taken away.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

This content originally appeared on openDemocracy RSS and was authored by Caroline Molloy.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Intercepted.

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This content originally appeared on Intercepted and was authored by The Intercept.

On Tuesday, immigration officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in the western city of Mumbai stopped Ayyub, an investigative journalist and a Washington Post commentator who has frequently criticized the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s policies and politics, and told her she was not allowed to travel to London, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by messaging app.

Airport officials told Ayyub that she could not leave the country because she is the subject of a recently opened money laundering investigation and that the Enforcement Directorate of the Indian finance ministry was sending her a summons to appear on April 1, 2022, Ayyub told CPJ. Ayyub received the emailed summons one hour before her flight departure.

“Preventing Rana Ayyub from traveling abroad is another incident in a growing list of unjustified and excessive actions taken by the Indian government against the journalist,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, from Washington, D.C. “Indian authorities should immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against Ayyub.”

The Enforcement Directorate froze Ayyub’s bank account in February and accused her of laundering money that she raised to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ayyub has denied the allegations and called it an attempt to intimidate her. The account also included income that Ayyub earned writing for The Washington Post and a newsletter on Substack, according to a Substack post by Ayyub.

Ayyub was flying to London to speak at an event about online violence against female journalists organized by the International Center for Journalists, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, according to those news reports. Ayyub has been subjected to intense online trolling and received numerous threats, as CPJ has documented.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees the country’s immigration authorities, and the Enforcement Directorate did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via email.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Harris lives in an area called Rio Verde Foothills, an unincorporated expanse of dirt roads and horse farms on the outskirts of Scottsdale, Arizona, a city that is itself on the outskirts of Phoenix. The neighborhood sprung up during the housing boom of the early 2000s, but it lacked robust water access, so residents like Harris relied on private “water haulers” to bring them water from nearby Scottsdale. Every few days a truck bearing a shipment of water from a city facility drove to Harris’ house and pumped water into a four-thousand-gallon tank behind her property. She tapped the tank until it ran out, then paid to get more. 

This time, though, her water hauler was the one tapping out: The company posted on Facebook to say it would stop serving Rio Verde Foothills at the end of 2022. The other haulers in the area are quitting as well, because Scottsdale decided to stop allowing haulers to bring water to customers who live outside the city limits, including the hundreds of people in Rio Verde Foothills. 

The city’s decision was a direct result of the federal government declaring what’s known as a Tier 1 water shortage on the Colorado River last year. The Colorado is hundreds of miles away from Scottsdale, but the city relies on the river for around 70 percent of its water, which travels across the width of the state on the 336-mile Central Arizona Project canal. The federal government financed the construction of the canal, and in return Arizona agreed to have the most junior rights of any state that uses the river, which means now the state is taking an 18 percent reduction in water deliveries to accommodate the ongoing drought. Cities that rely on Colorado water are scrambling to retrench their water usage so their own residents don’t suffer during future cuts. In Scottsdale, that means cutting off the haulers who brought water to Rio Verde.

The city had been warning about the shutoff for years, but the formal announcement set off a neighborhood-wide scramble to find an alternate water source. If the issue isn’t resolved before the end of the year, hundreds of residents in the area will lose their water access altogether, making their brand-new ranch homes both unlivable and virtually impossible to sell. The neighborhood’s water shutoff portends a much larger crisis caused by the climate change-enhanced megadrought in the American West, which experts say has no precedent in the past 1200 years. 

Arizona and other states across the West have built millions of new homes over the past few decades on the assumption that they could find enough water to support them. Now both surface water and groundwater sources are proving less reliable than earlier generations had assumed, and this longtime growth spurt may be faltering in its tracks.

“We have no water rights whatsoever, except to the aquifer beneath our home, which is highly stressed,” said Harris, a retired TV news producer who moved out to the area with her husband so they could be close to their favorite hiking trails.

“Our little corner,” she added, “is the canary in the coal mine.”

Like many places on the outskirts of Phoenix, the Rio Verde Foothills area occupies a no-man’s-land between rural and urban. Development in the area has proceeded in a piecemeal fashion for decades, with new owners expanding a checkerboard street grid in every direction, but the area isn’t an incorporated city of its own, and it isn’t a part of neighboring Scottsdale.

In the early days of the neighborhood, most residents got water from groundwater wells on their own property. As time went on, though, the neighborhood continued to drain the subterranean aquifer, and some residents started to pay water haulers to bring them water from Scottsdale, which in turn got the water from the Colorado River. Water hauling is more common in remote rural areas than in big cities, but it has also become a linchpin for fast-developing exurbs like Rio Verde and New River north of Phoenix, which swelled 40 percent to house over 15,000 people over the last two decades.

Now that hauling is no longer an option, Rio Verde residents are now scrambling to find an alternative water source, except no one can agree on what that source should be. One group of residents has proposed the creation of a “domestic water improvement district,” a quasi-governmental authority that would raise money to build a smaller water facility in the neighborhood and connect it to Scottsdale’s water pipeline, giving them priority access to Colorado water; that process would require the commitment of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who haven’t yet made a decision on the issue. Other residents don’t want to form such a district and instead hope to contract with other water haulers who don’t use Scottsdale water; in that case, though, the water would come from the far side of Phoenix, dozens of miles away, and likely cost much more.

Just as water hauling from Scottsdale wasn’t a permanent solution, neither of these routes would provide permanent solutions either. The federal government could declare a Tier 2 or 3 shortage on the Colorado as early as next year, which would cut another 6 percent from Arizona’s water allocation, and other water sources like the San Carlos reservoir have also been at historic lows in recent years amid the west’s ongoing megadrought. Even if the neighborhood does manage to tap a long-term water source, the water will get more expensive as demand continues to grow. 

Further cuts will bolster the importance of the seniority scheme that governs usage of water from the Colorado River, which stretches from the Rocky Mountains down to Mexico and provides water for some 40 million people. A century-old agreement between seven states grants each state the right to draw a certain amount of water per year, but priority within Arizona depends in large part on how long a given user has been around. This means tribal nations that have settled with the federal government for their water rights have some of the strongest protections in the state, followed by cities and industrial users, with agriculture at the bottom of the hierarchy. 

As Arizona scrambles to adapt to the first cuts, the various parties who receive Colorado water are starting to swap and sell water rights: The Gila River Indian Community, for instance, has sold water to the city of Chandler, another suburb like Scottsdale that needs to secure more water in order to grow. (Some tribes, like the Navajo Nation, have never reached a settlement with the government and thus have no guaranteed water access; other tribes suffer from outdated infrastructure that makes it impossible for members to tap their water rights.)

The situation in Rio Verde Foothills is unique, but the water shutoff there is just the most vivid consequence of a larger dynamic, according to Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. 

 “Rio Verde is just one of many measures that [Scottsdale] has taken to ensure that they’re going to be able to ride through this time of less Colorado River water,” Porter told Grist.

In Pinal County, south of Phoenix, state officials have said new developers can’t rely on groundwater for new subdivisions, which places a de facto cap on new building projects. The fast-growing town of Fountain, Colorado, has begun to tell new developers that they will have to pay for their own water infrastructure if they want to build; meanwhile, the town of Oakley, in central Utah, has halted new construction permits altogether until it can find new water sources. 

In the short term, though, most towns and cities will keep building. Local leaders have every incentive to approve future development, since new population growth helps shore up tax revenue and also brings new jobs. The cuts on the Colorado River will fall hardest on agricultural users, and a decrease in overall farming could free up more water for residential use. Arizona remains one of the fastest-growing states in the country, and in the most recent Census Phoenix leapfrogged Philadelphia to become the nation’s fifth-largest city.

All these new arrivals will be competing for a water supply that is not getting any larger. If the megadrought continues, cities like Scottsdale will have to keep reducing their water usage, saving supplies for the densest residential areas and cutting off everyone else. The specific nature of the cuts will be different in every place, but the effect will be the same: Outward expansion will slow down or stop altogether.

In the meantime, Rio Verde Foothills is in limbo. The process of development hasn’t slowed down, and new homes in the area are still going up, but the future value of those homes is uncertain. If the neighborhood doesn’t figure out an alternative water source, residents like Harris will be stuck with assets that are worth nothing, forced to walk away from their houses or default on their mortgages. Even if the neighborhood does find a resolution to the water issue, future buyers might be wary of future supply gaps, and property values in the neighborhood could fall. 

Going back to groundwater, meanwhile, is not an option, because the neighborhood’s aquifers are already tapped out. Many residents’ wells have started to spit up mud, and those who do get actual water often find that it’s turbid and laden with arsenic. Harris knows one neighbor who’s tried to punch six different wells on his property and come up dry each time.

If the worst comes to pass, residents will have no choice but to cut their losses and leave.

“Our houses will be unlivable,” says Harris. “We won’t be able to sell them, we won’t be able to live. It will really be a Hunger Games type of deal.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How the West’s megadrought is leaving one Arizona neighborhood with no water at all on Mar 10, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Jake Bittle.

Around 20 People’s Defense Force fighters have also been killed in the clashes, sources said.

Local aid groups and other sources say the fighting began on Feb. 16 in the town of Mobye in southern Shan state and has spread to Nang Mae Khon in Kayah state, forcing more than 30,000 people to flee their homes.

Clashes continued Friday morning, a spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“The fighting has been intense for eight days in a row, and has gotten worse in recent days,” the spokesman for the armed ethnic group said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “And as junta forces are now using airstrikes, the destruction is even greater.

“More than 70 to 80 enemy soldiers have been killed in the fighting, while we suffered about 20 losses,” the spokesman added.

At least 10 civilians have been killed in heavy shelling by junta forces near Mobye since fighting began, the KNDF said on Feb. 22, with other local sources saying that junta helicopters and fighter jets have carried out daily bombing raids in the area since Feb. 17.

A People’s Defense Force fighter in Kayah state’s Demawso township told RFA that the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 427 in Demawso, Light Infantry Battalion 422 in Mobye, and Infantry Battalion 250 in Loikaw township were using heavy artillery fire against civilian targets.

“It’s really too cruel to attack innocent civilians when there aren’t any battles happening nearby,” he said. “We are suffering heavy casualties.”

Two doctors working in Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement, Maung Nwae Le and U Alexander, were killed Thursday evening by junta airstrikes that also destroyed six houses in Dawkamee village, the Demawso People’s Defense Force said in a statement.

Villagers remaining in Demawso’s Nang Mae Khon have meanwhile fled their area to escape heavy fighting, one refugee who had earlier escaped to southern Shan state said.

“They said earlier that they would wait to see how the situation developed, but then were not able to escape to the north when things got worse. So last night, when the planes attacked Nang Mae Khon, they fled to the west, moving all night.

“It’s not so easy to come here, especially in large numbers,” she said.

Destroying property, spreading fear

Ko Banyar, director of the Karenni Human Rights Group, said that 25 civilians had been injured in clashes during the recent nine days of fighting. Myanmar junta soldiers now see all villagers as enemies, he said.

 “They are deliberately destroying people’s property,” he said. “Wari Suplai and Wi The Ku villages are still burning, so the military is deliberately trying to endanger people’s lives if they return to their homes.

“Cutting off health and food supplies also threatens people’s lives, and we can see that the military is spreading fear among the locals. All in all, the junta is systematically violating human rights,” he said.

More than 10,000 refugees have fled Daw Bu Ku and Thay Sulie villages since Thursday’s bombing of Nang Mae Khon, the Karenni Human Rights Group said.

Reached for comment, deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, said that no junta soldiers had died in the recent fighting, but some had been injured.

“In the Mobye area, around 150 to 200 [Karenni National Progressive Party] militants set fire to the Loi Lem Lay police station yesterday, and they then attacked security forces in seven places near Mobye Nang Mae Khon. Some of our soldiers were wounded, but as far as I know no one was killed,” he said.

In nine days of fighting, more than 20,000 people from Mobye and 10,000 from Nang Mae Khon have fled their homes, bringing the total number of war refugees in Kayah state to nearly 200,000, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Richard Finney.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

This content originally appeared on The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good and was authored by Zahra Yagana.