The stomach-churning hypocrisy of the so-called ‘pro-life’ movement has revealed their true face

Susan J. Demas, Michigan Advance
September 03, 2021


Judge Amy Coney Barrett (Screen Grab)

This week, my almost 19-year-old daughter stepped foot on her college campus to take classes for the first time (a year late thanks to the loud, selfish minority's continual refusal to take COVID seriously).

This article was originally published at Michigan Advance

As I hugged her goodbye, it occurred to me that she now has fewer rights as a woman than I did when I left the nest for college 23 years ago.

Thanks to five far-right Supreme Court justices cowardly dropping an opinion in the dead of night Thursday essentially gutting Roe v. Wade, millions of people in Texas just lost their right to safe, legal abortion. (Of course, abortion has been around thousands of years and will always continue — it's just more people will desperately seek out risky methods). Other red states will giddily follow.

When it comes to women's rights in America, we have undisputedly gone backward.

Think your birth control is safe? Same-sex marriage? Please. The extremist Supreme Court will have the final say over what you do with your body and in your bedroom. Basic health care and civil rights will be overturned — perhaps without even giving citizens the courtesy of arguing their case in court.

This is the end point of a far-right Republican Party that considers the American experiment of democracy to be a failure because it's no longer conducive for them to fairly win elections on its unpopular platform of tax cuts for billionaires and basic rights for straight white men only.

Progress is never inevitable and permanency for hard-fought rights isn't guaranteed — that's a lesson we need to heed as we're being attacked on every front, from racial justice to the safety net. But after years of listening to Republicans shamelessly lie about abortion methods and statistics — even in legislation — and male pundits and editors smugly dismiss women who warned Roe would be overturned as “hysterical," I think we're all allowed to be angry right now.

As a journalist, I've been trained to question everything (the old adage is, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.") So it's been wild to see how the so-called pro-life movement has long been treated gingerly by the media.

Their talking points are repeatedly and egregiously false, from claiming that abortion leads to breast cancer to claiming that late-term abortions are casually prescribed to former President Donald Trump's favorite bizarre lie that doctors and women are teaming up for post-birth abortions (which would be straight-up infanticide and of course it isn't happening).

Since Trump came on the scene, many reporters have struggled with how to cover Republicans, whose press releases, tweets and public comments are a gordian knot of falsehoods that take paragraphs to debunk (they're of course counting on us not to bother and just reprint their propaganda).

But the anti-abortion movement wrote the playbook they're following.

Working the refs and loudly complaining about coverage you don't like — complete with threatening reporters' jobs, which some might call “cancel culture" — is a staple of right-wing political training. But there's more at work than that. Many journalists give anti-abortion activists enormous deference, rarely questioning if their moral or religious objection to basic health care is sincere — or if it's just rooted in deep misogyny. After all, pro-lifers are often vocally against the Equal Rights Amendment or even equal pay. It's not like they're hiding their sexist agenda.

But we do our readers and viewers dirty to unquestioningly include anti-abortion lies for the sake of balance — and it's irreconcilable with our core mission of informing the public.

We've also set the stage for how much of the COVID-19 pandemic has been covered, with lies and conspiracy theories spewed by anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers often juxtaposed with doctors detailing scientific research and giving sound medical advice.

 Gotta tell both sides.

We've now been living through a horrific pandemic for almost two years that's killed over 640,000 Americans — equivalent to wiping out the entire state of Vermont — and sickened 39 million, roughly the population of California, our biggest state.

It's been fascinating to see the radio silence from the so-called pro-life movement to stop a mass death event. This should have been their moment — if this was really about sincerely held beliefs.

Yet they're not on the forefront of the public health fight for masks in schools — especially to protect vulnerable children — and even lobbied in Michigan for vaccines to come with a warning if aborted fetal cells were used in developing them, which amped up vaccine hesitancy. Oh, and when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued stay-home orders in spring 2020, Right to Life of Michigan stayed mum on the life-saving measure, except to complain that she didn't shut down women's health clinics, sniffing that “her most important audience is Joe Biden's vice presidential selection committee."

It was always about raw political power for the right. It was never about the preservation of human life.

That's why your friendly neighborhood conservative who told you Trump wasn't that bad has been cheering over the Supreme Court's “pro-life" decision in Texas, but he's fine with your babies going to school and getting murdered by an active shooter or getting life-threatening COVID because “freedom."

But after watching anti-abortion activists' flagrant and stomach-churning hypocrisy during the pandemic — which is typically considered the greatest political sin imaginable — it's amazing that most reporters didn't cover groups with any more skepticism.

Last fall, Republicans installed anti-abortion warrior Amy Coney Barrett to replace women's rights champion Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the high court just days before badly losing the 2020 election. Barrett was mawkishly lauded by some women as “a new feminist icon" while others defended her against attacks on her large family (which Democrats never made).

Well, here's the truth about living in Amy Barrett's America, ladies. She got to have the family she wanted and on her own terms. You don't.


Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.

Modern indulgences: Does carbon offsetting really make up for flying?
2021/9/3 
©Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH

It seems like a straightforward transaction: Every time you fly somewhere, you compensate your emissions by donating to an organization that supports projects working to reduce carbon dioxide. However, taking responsibility for your carbon footprint isn't as easy as just throwing money at something. Andreas Arnold/dpa

It seems like a straightforward transaction: Every time you fly somewhere, you compensate your emissions by donating to an organization that supports projects working to reduce carbon dioxide.

However, taking responsibility for your carbon footprint isn't as easy as just throwing money at something. And there are many companies eager to soothe a guilty conscience by taking that cash.

Antje Monshausen from Tourism Watch at the German aid organization Bread for the World makes it clear: "First comes reducing, then comes offsetting." That means flying less would be the better option.

Experts estimate that the annual climate-compatible CO2 budget at a maximum of two tons per person. "That would get me to New York, but not back," says Monshausen.

Which trip is really necessary?

That's why carbon offsetting is mostly just for frequent flyers to feel less guilty, says Monshausen. "It should not be used to legitimize carrying on as we have. That impression would be fatal."

The situation is different if the flight is unavoidable. But what journey is actually unavoidable tends to be a matter of opinion.

In Monshausen's view, flying is avoidable if there is a less climate-damaging means of transport available.

In Europe, for example, most cities are reachable by train. "However, that often means arranging the journey differently," she says. While it's possible to take a night train from Berlin to Rome, for example, the time it takes to travel there isn't worth it if you want to go for just a weekend. It's better then to go for at least a week.

And that's a good thing for travellers, in Monshausen's opinion. "If you fly less often and stay longer, you often have a better quality trip," she says. You can get a deeper sense of the people and place.

Lots of greenwashing

If you decide to fly, you should at the very least spring for carbon offsetting. But it's important to be aware that offsetting doesn't mean that you're undoing the carbon dioxide produced; it merely means that projects that reduce emissions will be promoted elsewhere.

And there's a lot of greenwashing out there, warns Monshausen. One example: "Offers that involve planting trees are unsuitable for offsetting air travel," she says. Look for reputable organizations.

Stay home or offset?

Dietrich Brockhagen is the managing director of Atmosfair, a group that focuses on the fight against climate change, especially in the travel industry. Its website allows vacationers to compensate for the greenhouse gases they have caused during their trip. The money is then used, for example, to promote solar energy through photovoltaic systems in villages that are not connected to the electricity grid.

The money does have an effect on reducing emissions, says Brockhagen. "Some call it selling indulgences because they want to avoid paying. For me, the question is rather: Does this buy me freedom?"

There are two options, according to Brockhagen: Either you can stay at home, where there's no issue, or, if you've flown, you can offset emissions, which is "the best thing you can do for the climate."

However, he also confirms what Monshausen says: "Flying less would be better."

JUST IN TIME FOR LABOUR DAY

'Catastrophe' feared as 35 million people are set to lose jobless aid in 3 days
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
September 03, 2021

Volunteers from City Harvest food bank distribute food in Harlem, New York City 

Kena Betancur AFP

Millions of jobless workers are set to lose critical unemployment benefits in roughly 72 hours—and neither Congress nor the Biden administration seem prepared to do anything about it.

"Around 35 million people (10% of the U.S. population) live in households that are scheduled to lose unemployment income."

—Matt Bruenig, People's Policy Project

Despite the ongoing threat posed by the highly transmissible Delta variant, the White House and Democratic lawmakers have provided no indication that they plan to prevent several pandemic-related unemployment programs from expiring on September 6, which—in a cruel irony—happens to be Labor Day.

The consequences of government inaction in the face of what one analyst recently described as "the largest cutoff of unemployment benefits in history" could be massive, both for those directly impacted by the cuts and the still-ailing U.S. economy.

As Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project noted Thursday, the Labor Department's latest weekly unemployment insurance (UI) report shows that "9.2 million people are currently receiving benefits from either the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program or the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program," which were implemented last year to extend the duration of jobless aid and provide assistance to those who are typically ineligible for UI, such as gig workers.

"According to the Census Household Pulse Survey, the average household that is receiving UI benefits has 3.8 members in it," Bruenig observed. "This means that around 35 million people (10% of the U.S. population) live in households that are scheduled to lose unemployment income."

"These are not small cuts either," he continued. "Based on what happened in the states that already cut these benefits, we know that around half of those on UI will see their benefits drop to $0 while the remaining half will see their benefits cut by $300 per week, which is equivalent to $15,200 per year. Those formerly on UI will also cut their spending by about $145 per week ($7,540 annually), which will have negative effects on the revenue and employment of the businesses they patronize."

But even amid such dire warnings, the possibility of a UI extension has been virtually absent from discussions on Capitol Hill as Democratic lawmakers work to assemble a $3.5 trillion spending package aimed at achieving a range of longstanding policy goals, from major climate investments to Medicare expansion.

"The Biden administration has not made it a priority, and outside of Ron Wyden, you haven't heard too many people in the Senate be willing to push on that," Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, told Vox, referring to the Democratic senator from Oregon, a key architect of the soon-to-expire UI programs.

"The unwillingness to extend emergency benefits—or even debate it—shows how inured we've become to plight of the unemployed."

—Andrew Stettner, Century Foundation

"It doesn't seem like right now there would even be 50 votes in the Senate" for an extension, Stettner observed.

Last week, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that President Joe Biden believes it is "appropriate" for the $300-per-week federal UI boost to expire as scheduled. Twenty-six states—each led by a Republican governor except Louisiana—have already ended the emergency UI aid, and the Biden administration did not try to stop them.

Subsequent research has vindicated economists who warned that—contrary to the claims and predictions of Republican leaders—ending the benefits prematurely would do little to boost hiring. A Wall Street Journal analysis released Wednesday found that "states that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid."

While Republicans have insisted that the emergency UI programs are dissuading people from returning to the workforce, analysts have pointed to the myriad other factors at play, including lack of child care and pandemic-related health concerns.

Dr. Rakeen Mabud, the chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, warned in a statement earlier this week that "amid increasing uncertainty in the trajectory of the pandemic, Monday's unemployment cliff could not come at a worse time."

"Millions will suffer as they lose this critical source of income and the loss of spending will suppress job growth, setting us back yet again in our efforts for an inclusive and equitable recovery," Mabud said.

Painful enough in itself, the benefit cut-off will come just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration's nationwide eviction moratorium, putting millions of people at imminent risk of losing their homes amid a deadly pandemic. The U.S. is currently averaging around 164,000 new coronavirus infections and 1,500 deaths per day.

"It's going to be a perfect storm for a lot of folks," Jordan Dewbre, a staff attorney for the New York-based community organization BronxWorks, said of the confluence of UI expirations and the end of the eviction moratorium. "We are still in the middle of a pandemic."

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Stettner of the Century Foundation warned that "this cliff dwarfs anything we have seen before." If the federal programs expire, jobless workers will be left with often-paltry state-level UI benefits or—if they've exhausted their eligibility for such assistance—nothing at all.

"The unwillingness to extend emergency benefits—or even debate it—shows how inured we've become to plight of the unemployed," Stettner wrote. "With eviction protections ending at the same time, long-term unemployed workers are now vulnerable to lasting economic damage. Black and Latino workers have the least in savings built up to navigate this transitional period."

"Congress should have the courage to reinstate benefits, especially in high unemployment states, if the Delta surge slows the recovery," Stettner added, "and make permanent changes to UI benefits so that we won't have to rely on emergency programs during the next economic crisis."

'Virgin birth:' How does a shark reproduce without a mate?

The news that a female shark at an Italian aquarium gave birth without having mated with a male first was widely reported. But how rare is a "virgin birth" in sharks?



A lack of mate could be one reason why a shark might reproduce asexually

Scientists at the Cala Gonone Aquarium on the Italian island of Sardinia say a female smooth-hound shark that's been living in an all-female shark tank for 10 years recently gave birth to a baby shark.

The aquarium's press team told DW that they are currently waiting for a DNA analysis to confirm that what happened is a case of parthenogenesis.

To procreate, most species require an egg to be fertilized by a sperm. That's the case with sharks, too. But some animals can produce offspring all by themselves. This is called parthenogenesis.

The term comes from the Greek words parthenos, meaning "virgin," and genesis, meaning "origin."

The case in Italy could be the first time this "immaculate conception" has occurred in smooth-hound sharks, at least in captivity.

It isn't the first time parthenogenesis has been seen in sharks , and the process has been observed in a number of other shark species.

But scientists still don't know how often it happens, says Kevin Feldheim, a researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago, who researches the mating habits of sharks.

"We don't know how common it is and the handful of cases we have seen have mostly taken place in an aquarium setting," Feldheim told DW.

One study from the Field Museum discovered parthenogenesis in a wild population of smalltooth sawfish, a type of ray. This was the first time a vertebrate (animals with backbones inside their body), which usually reproduces the conventional way with a mate, was found to reproduce asexually in the wild, Feldheim said.
Where do the babies come from?

In sharks, asexual reproduction usually happens via a process called "automictic parthenogenesis," explained Feldheim. During egg development, one egg is produced along with three other products called polar bodies.

Usually these polar bodies are simply reabsorbed by the female. Parthenogenesis occurs when one of the polar bodies has the same amount of genetic material as the egg and fertilizes it.

Lack of males could be a trigger

In 2017, Australian scientists published a study in the journal Nature that found two female zebra sharks produced pups on their own ― no men involved.

The year after being separated from her male mate, the older female shark didn't lay any eggs. The following year her daughter from her previous mate was added to the tank. Two years later, the mother had three pups on her own, while her daughter had one.

Scientists think the lack of a mate could be a cause for asexual reproduction.

"We think that being without a male certainly triggers parthenogenesis," said Feldheim, "but beyond that, we don't know the mechanism."

US hospitals hit with nurse staffing crisis amid COVID

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

 In this July 16, 2021, file photo, a nurse sticks her head out of a room of a COVID-19 patient in the CoxHealth Emergency Department in Springfield, Mo. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the crush of patients this summer. 

(Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader via AP)


The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the crush of patients this summer.

The problem, health leaders say, is twofold: Nurses are quitting or retiring, exhausted or demoralized by the crisis. And many are leaving for lucrative temporary jobs with traveling-nurse agencies that can pay $5,000 or more a week.

It’s gotten to the point where doctors are saying, “Maybe I should quit being a doctor and go be a nurse,” said Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Georgia’s Augusta University Medical Center, which has on occasion seen 20 to 30 resignations in a week from nurses taking traveling jobs.

“And then we have to pay premium rates to get staff from another state to come to our state,” Coule said.

The average pay for a traveling nurse has soared from roughly $1,000 to $2,000 per week before the pandemic to $3,000 to $5,000 now, said Sophia Morris, a vice president at San Diego-based health care staffing firm Aya Healthcare. She said Aya has 48,000 openings for traveling nurses to fill

At competitor SimpliFi, President James Quick said the hospitals his company works with are seeing unprecedented levels of vacancies.

“Small to medium-sized hospitals generally have dozens of full-time openings, and the large health systems have hundreds of full-time openings,” he said.

The explosion in pay has made it hard on hospitals without deep enough pockets.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly lamented recently that the state’s hospitals risk being outbid for nurses by other states that pay a “fortune.” She said Wednesday that several hospitals, including one in Topeka, had open beds but no nurses to staff them.

   

In this Aug. 18, 2021, file photo, a poster honoring medical and frontline workers, hangs on a nursing station of an intensive care unit, at the Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, La. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a nurse staffing crisis that is forcing many U.S. hospitals to pay top dollar to get the help they need to handle the crush of patients this summer. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In Kansas City, Missouri, Truman Medical Centers has lost about 10 nurses to travel jobs in recent days and is looking for travelers to replace them, said CEO Charlie Shields.

He said it is hard to compete with the travel agencies, which are charging hospitals $165 to $170 an hour per nurse. He said the agencies take a big cut of that, but he estimated that nurses are still clearing $70 to $90 an hour, which is two to three times what the hospital pays its staff nurses.

“I think clearly people are taking advantage of the demand that is out there,” Shields said. “I hate to use `gouged’ as a description, but we are clearly paying a premium and allowing people to have fairly high profit margins.”

In Texas, more than 6,000 travel nurses have flooded the state to help with the surge through a state-supported program. But on the same day that 19 of them went to work at a hospital in the northern part of the state, 20 other nurses at the same place gave notice that they would be leaving for a traveling contract, said Carrie Kroll, a vice president at the Texas Hospital Association.

“The nurses who haven’t left, who have stayed with their facilities, they are seeing these other people come in now who are making more money. It provides a tense working environment,” Kroll said.

The pandemic was in its early stages when Kim Davis, 36, decided to quit her job at an Arkansas hospital and become a travel nurse. She said she has roughly doubled her income in the 14 months that she has been treating patients in intensive care units in Phoenix; San Bernardino, California; and Tampa, Florida.

“Since I’ve been traveling, I’ve paid off all my debt. I paid off about $50,000 in student loans,” she said.

Davis said many of her colleagues are following the same path.

“They’re leaving to go travel because why would you do the same job for half the pay?” she said. “If they’re going to risk their lives, they should be compensated.”

Health leaders say nurses are bone-tired and frustrated from being asked to work overtime, from getting screamed at and second-guessed by members of the community, and from dealing with people who chose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask.

“Imagine going to work every day and working the hardest that you have worked and stepping out of work and what you see every day is denied in the public,” said Julie Hoff, chief nurse executive at OU Health in Oklahoma. “The death that you see every day is not honored or recognized.”

Meanwhile, hospitals are getting squeezed by the revolving door of departures and new hires from traveling agencies.

Coule cited a recent example in which his hospital in Georgia hired a respiratory therapist through an agency to replace a staff member who had decided to accept a traveling gig. The replacement came from the same hospital where his respiratory therapist had just gone to work.

“Essentially we swapped personnel but at double the cost,” he said.

Patricia Pittman, director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University, said many nurses still harbor resentment toward their employers from the early stages of the pandemic, in part from being forced to work without adequate protective gear.

“The nurses say, ’Hey, if I am not going to be treated with respect, I might as well go be a travel nurse,’” she said. “‘That way I can go work in a hellhole for 13 weeks, but then I can take off a couple months or three months and go do whatever.’”

___

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland.

#KASHMIR   IS #INDIA'S  #GAZA

EXPLAINER: Resistance leader’s death deepens Kashmir strife

By SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIA PATHI

1 of 8

 In this Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, file photo, Kashmiris shout freedom slogans during a protest against New Delhi's tightened grip on the disputed region, after Friday prayers on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. The death of top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani on Sept. 1, 2021, in disputed Kashmir and the ensuing crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities have highlighted the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region. Soon after the 91-year-old's death late Wednesday, authorities quickly clamped down, blocking internet and mobile phone services and restricting public movement out of fear of anti-India protests. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin, File)


NEW DELHI (AP) — The death of a top separatist leader in disputed Kashmir and the ensuing crackdown on public movement and communications by Indian authorities have highlighted the turmoil seething just below the surface in the region.

Here’s a closer look at what Syed Ali Geelani meant to Kashmir and why problems still roil the region two years after India revoked its semi-autonomy and declared it a federal territory.

 In this Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010, file photo, Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani waves to the media before his arrest in Srinagar, India. Geelani, an icon of disputed Kashmir’s resistance against Indian rule and a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi, died late Wednesday, Sept, 1, 2021. He was 91. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

WHY HAS THIS DEATH STRUCK A RAW NERVE?

For many in the region, Geelani was the face of Kashmiri resistance against India. To his detractors, he was a hard-liner responsible for stoking tensions in the region, a charge he had denied.

Geelani was part of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of various Kashmiri political and religious groups that was formed in 1993 to spearhead a movement for the region’s right to self-determination.

He never wavered from his position as a devoted proponent of the merger of Kashmir with Pakistan. This stance put him at odds with other moderate separatists who wanted to engage with New Delhi and local politicians who favored Indian rule in the region with internal autonomy.

Soon after the 91-year-old’s death late Wednesday, authorities quickly clamped down, blocking internet and mobile phone services and restricting public movement out of fear of anti-India protests. Geelani’s family said his body was snatched away by authorities and discreetly buried without their consent.

Geelani’s death is expected to be a potential setback to the larger separatist movement in Kashmir, as his supporters may find it hard to find a successor with such towering popularity.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF KASHMIR?

A flashpoint between India and neighboring Pakistan, both of which claim the region in full but rule only parts, Kashmir has been wracked with tensions for years.

In 1989, Kashmiri activists launched an armed revolt against Indian rule. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Kashmiri militants, a charge Pakistan denies. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

In 2019, hostilities peaked when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the region of its semi-autonomy and took direct control of the region amid a harsh security clampdown and communications blackout.

Anticipating a massive backlash and protests, authorities flooded the region — already among the world’s most militarized — with soldiers, and arrested thousands of young people, activists and pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders. Even pro-India politicians who favored Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status within the framework of the Indian constitution were also detained for opposing the decision, but were later released.

By scrapping its statehood and separate constitution, India also removed inherited protections on land and jobs and opened up the region to Indians from outside to permanently settle, buy land and hold government jobs there.

The government said such a move would spur investment and bring more development to Kashmir. But critics and many Kashmiris fear this could dilute the region’s demographics.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS?

The situation on the ground remains tense.

India’s August 2019 move deepened anti-India sentiment in the region. Armed militancy has continued to grow and gunfights between Indian forces and rebels have become more frequent. Even though many of those arrested two years ago have since been released, some remain in detention.

The move also dealt a blow to Kashmir’s economy, which was then hit once again by lockdowns to curb the spread of the pandemic.

The region has since remained without an elected government and under the direct control of New Delhi.

Last year, India held local elections, calling it a vital grassroots exercise to boost development and uproot corruption. An alliance of pro-India politicians who favor self-governance in Kashmir but oppose New Delhi’s recent policies won the election. They have since reiterated their demand that the 2019 decision be reversed.

Later in June, in an effort to counter criticism, Modi held a meeting with pro-India politicians from the region. The government dubbed it as an opening “to strengthen the democratic process” in the region, but the alliance leaders said they did not get any concrete assurances from Modi.

The region’s separatist movement has also been impacted in the last two years.

Among those detained in 2019 were numerous top separatist leaders. With many of them still behind bars, the movement’s presence on the ground has taken a hit.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Syed Ali Geelani was 91 when he died, not 92.

___

Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this report from New Delhi.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

First flames, then fees: Tahoe evacuees report price-gouging

By SAM METZ and SCOTT SONNER

1 of 3

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2021, file photo, vehicles idle in bumper-to-bumper traffic after a wildfire evacuation order in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The threat the Caldor Fire poses to Lake Tahoe residents is exposing differences between laws against price-gouging in Nevada and California. Evacuees are reporting rideshare companies quoting trips from area ski resorts to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport at eight times the normal rate and hotels on the Nevada side of the resort town hiked room rates to $449 per night on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Sam Metz, File)


STATELINE, Nev. (AP) — As fearful Lake Tahoe residents packed up belongings and fled a raging wildfire burning toward the California-Nevada border, some encountered an unexpected obstacle: price gouging.

A rideshare company quoted a fee of more than $1,500 to be transported from the smoke-choked ski resort at Heavenly Valley to the safety of Reno-Tahoe International Airport, about eight times the going rate. A Nevada hotel-casino outside the evacuation order zone advertised a two-night stay for $1,090.72, almost four times the midweek rate offered a day earlier.

Reports of price-gouging routinely emerge during natural disasters and won newfound attention early in the pandemic, when some businesses tried to capitalize on panic amid demand for toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

While there is no federal law that bans it during emergencies, at least a dozen statehouses have addressed price-gouging since last year, including Nevada and California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning the practice last September.

Unlike California though, a Nevada price-gouging prohibition signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak in June doesn’t take effect until October. Its start date limits officials from policing the issue and taking action beyond promising to monitor it.

“We hope that good merchants are not going to partake in price gouging,” Sisolak said Tuesday in Carson City, where ash particles from the Caldor Fire rained from the sky. “They’re going to partake in trying to make their goods available to the widest group of people they possibly can.”

Officials in both states publicly warned businesses in the shadow of the massive blaze against price-gouging, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, his Nevada counterpart Aaron Ford and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei asking consumers to report incidents to their offices.

Ford’s office said Wednesday it hadn’t received any specific complaints. Bonta’s said the information was confidential.

The Caldor Fire spanned more than 328 square miles (850 square kilometers) and was 25% contained Thursday. On Monday, flames raced so quickly toward the California resort city of South Lake Tahoe that officials ordered a mass evacuation of all 22,000 residents. People across the state line in Douglas County were ordered to leave a day later.

The Montbleu Resort, Casino and Spa — a towering 438-room Nevada hotel just blocks from the California line — began offering discounts for evacuees, $60 rates for firefighters and first responders, and free lodging for its employees.

For everyone else, it hiked room prices Tuesday from $120 to $450 per night before taxes and fees.

Tim Tretton, the resort’s vice president-general manager, said in a statement Wednesday it did so to deter tourists from traveling near the wildfire and to keep rooms available for evacuees. The company planned to pay back the difference to those who booked at the higher cost, he said.

“We did not and do not plan to collect on these rates, and have provided reimbursements or reductions as appropriate,” Tretton said.

Leaving South Lake Tahoe also got pricier for some travelers.

A 60-mile (96-kilometer) Lyft XL ride from the resort town to Reno normally costs roughly $200. On Tuesday, it rose nearly eightfold as people rushed to beat the flames.

A furious resident shared a screenshot of the rates on Twitter, showing $1,535 for a minivan or SUV for a minimum of five passengers. SFGate reported the costs had dropped back to $230 midday.

Lyft and Uber said in statements Wednesday that price jumps triggered automatic caps as demand soared around South Lake Tahoe amid emergency evacuations. Lyft said it was “reviewing and adjusting fares for certain riders who were impacted in the region.”

“When ride requests outpace the number of drivers on the road, prime-time pricing — elevated fares designed to get more drivers to high-demand areas — is automatically enabled,” the company said. “When we realized how the evacuation order was affecting Lyft prices, we immediately implemented a cap and ultimately suspended prime-time pricing.”

Uber said fares in some places were capped Monday after it identified a public state of emergency. It enacted a second cap Tuesday.

Gas stations around evacuation zones did not appear to have raised prices significantly this week.

Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and 39 states have regulations limiting price gouging during emergencies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Mississippi, parts of which have been battered by Hurricane Ida, strengthened penalties in its price gouging law in 2006, months after Hurricane Katrina left a wide swath of destruction and supply shortages caused long lines for gasoline during the first weeks after the storm.

North Carolina’s attorney general filed a price-gouging lawsuit last week against a gas station that hiked prices for mid-grade and premium gas to $9.99 per gallon after a ransomware attack forced the Colonial Pipeline — the United States’ largest fuel delivery system — to shut down.

Nevada’s anti-price gouging law passed in May on a party-line vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. The law will ban price-gouging in areas where the governor has declared a state of emergency.

California law generally prohibits businesses from raising prices by more than 10% following a state or local emergency declaration.

“If you see price gouging — or if you’ve been a victim of it — I encourage you to immediately file a complaint with my office online at oag.cag.gov/report, or contact your local police department or sheriff’s office,” Bonta said.

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Sonner reported from Reno. Associated Press writers Olga Rodriguez and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco, Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas, and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi contributed to this report. Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Lake Tahoe resort city OK for now, wildfire fight not over

By SAM METZ and JANIE HAR

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A firefighter lights a backfire to stop the Caldor Fire from spreading near South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) — Better weather on Thursday helped the battle against a huge California wildfire threatening communities around Lake Tahoe, but fire commanders warned firefighters to be prepared for ongoing dangers.

Strong winds and dry conditions that drove the Caldor Fire east through high elevations of the Sierra Nevada for days faded, sparing for now the largest city of a recreational gem that straddles the California-Nevada state line. Thousands were forced to flee South Lake Tahoe earlier this week.

“I feel like we are truly the luckiest community in the entire world right now. I’m so incredibly happy,” said Mayor Tamara Wallace, who evacuated to Truckee, California.

But wind gusts were likely in some areas, and the forest was still extremely dry, officials warned. The fire is pushing on several fronts, threatening multiple communities.

Still, the mood was one of optimism, given the speed with which the fire grew earlier in the week. Flames raced so quickly toward the resort city that officials ordered a mass evacuation of all 22,000 residents on Monday before ordering those across the state line in Douglas County, Nevada, to leave a day later.

“It’s finally a chance to take a breath,” said Clive Savacool, chief of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue. “It’s a breath full of smoke. Nonetheless, I think we’re all breathing a little bit easier and we feel like we’re making some progress.”

Russ Crupi, who two days ago was arranging sprinklers around his mobile home park in South Lake Tahoe just miles from the fire line, had turned off the water for now, feeling confident his neighborhood was no longer under threat. The nearby mountains, cloaked in smoke for most of the week, had become visible.

“I’m just happy they stopped it. It looked close,” he said.

The Caldor Fire spanned more than 328 square miles (850 square kilometers) and was 25% contained Thursday. Its northeast tip was about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of South Lake Tahoe and nearing the California-Nevada state line, where visitors like to hit the casinos in Stateline.

About 15 million people visit Lake Tahoe every year for hiking, snowboarding, water sports and gambling. The possibility that wildfire might rip through the international destination alarmed those who have vivid memories of vacationing at Tahoe.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable. No deaths have been reported so far this fire season.

Fire crews from around the country joined in the fight against the fire, which broke out Aug. 14 southwest of the Lake Tahoe area, chasing residents from more remote areas of El Dorado County. Officials said that at least 622 homes, 12 commercial properties and 177 minor structures have been destroyed, though the tally is incomplete because many areas are not safe to be surveyed.

The Caldor Fire still threatened at least 33,000 more homes and structures. On Wednesday, firefighters were ferried by boat to protect cabins at nearby Echo Lake, while three of the region’s largest ski resorts, Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra at Tahoe, brought out snow-making devices to hose down buildings.

Jonathan Pierce, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said crews are chasing spot fires and trying to keep flames away from populated areas.

There was no timeline for when residents might return.

South Lake Tahoe can easily accommodate 100,000 people on a busy weekend, but on Thursday, just before the Labor Day weekend, it was eerily empty. Thick smoke made it difficult to see across the street, said Savacool, the fire chief.

“I’s really just a dead, dead town and it’s got an apocalyptic feel with garbage strewn about from the bears,” he said.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a federal emergency declaration and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local resources for firefighting efforts and relief for residents in four counties affected by the fire.

“I’ve seen these firefighters up close. Their courage is astounding, and they’re some of the bravest people I’ve ever known — and I’ve known a lot of them,” he said from the White House on Thursday, addressing is administration’s response to Hurricane Ida.

More than 15,000 firefighters were battling dozens of California blazes, including another monstrous blaze, the Dixie Fire about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north. It is the second-largest wildfire in state history at about 1,340 square miles (3,480 square kilometers).

The weeks-old fire was 55% contained. As of Thursday, officials said it had destroyed 688 homes, eight multi-unit residences, 139 commercial properties and hundreds of minor structures.

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Har reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

UAE's new human rights institute: Real change or 'image washing'?

State media has trumpeted the creation of a new human rights body set to work in line with global principles. But the UAE's critics say the move is audacious and a joke.


THe UAE has been heavily criticized for the way it treats international laborers

The United Arab Emirates announced earlier this week that it would set up an independent national human rights organization. The new institution will open an office in Abu Dhabi and, according to the UAE's state media, "aims to promote and protect human rights and freedoms" in accordance with the local and international laws and guidelines.

'Whitewashing campaign'

"This is just another tactic, part of the UAE's decadelong whitewashing campaign to make themselves look like a tolerant, respectful and open country," said Hiba Zayadin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, who focuses on abuses in the Gulf states.

"But the situation on the ground is very different," she told DW. "In fact, there is absolutely no room for dissent in the UAE. There have been no independent civil society groups there since 2012 and so many people have been jailed. There is a lot of fear of retaliation for speaking out and a high level of censorship, even amongst UAE-based international journalists and academics."

Other human rights organizations and media watchdogs have come to similar conclusions.

In its 2020 report, Freedom House, which assesses how democratic and open countries are, rated the UAE as "not free." The country has "one of the most restrictive press laws in the Arab world," researchers wrote. Additionally, "local human rights activists are at serious risk of detention, prosecution, and mistreatment in custody," the report said.
Rights groups cite lack of freedoms

Reporters Without Borders has highlighted the lack of independent media and the UAE's draconian cybercrime law from 2012. It ranks the country 131st in the world for press freedom out of 180.

UAE activist Ahmed Mansoor (left) was arrested in 2017

Amnesty International maintains a long list of "prisoners of conscience" in the UAE, "including well-known human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor," who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for posts on social media about human rights violations in the UAE.

In June, the UN's special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders called on the UAE to release a number of people who had been imprisoned since 2013 for speaking out against the government.

"They should have never been detained in the first place for legitimately exercising the freedoms that all people are entitled to," said Mary Lawlor.

'Joke of the season'

Social media users in the Middle East were also critical about the announcement of the human rights organization. "The UAE and human rights don't really go together," one Twitter user wrote.

"This is the joke of the season," UK-based researcher Fahad al-Ghofaili, quipped on the same website.

The UAE has said the new body will be set up in line with the so-called Paris Principles.

Those standards, officially adopted by the United Nations in 1993, essentially outline how a national human rights institution's leadership should be selected, how it will be funded and staffed and how it can cooperate with both civil society organizations and the government, but also remain independent.
Regional comparisons

Alexis Thiry, a legal adviser at Geneva-based legal advocacy organization MENA Rights Group, told DW it was too early to know if the new UAE organization would be sticking to the Paris Principles, as promised. This was because the rights group had not yet been able to read a publicly available version of the law, UAE Federal Law number 12 of 2021, that enabled the creation of the institution, said Thiry.

"It is difficult to have an opinion about the forthcoming independence of the [institution] and its compliance with the Paris Principles," he explained. "At this stage, it is also too early to comment on the performance of the institution since its members have yet to be appointed, to our knowledge."

Despite its modern outward appearance, the UAE is regularly criticized about its human rights record

When a new institution like this is formed, it often applies for accreditation with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions to see if it is adhering to the Paris Principles. The MENA Rights Group often provides assessments to the Global Alliance, which has 118 member organizations from around the world.

From the information the legal advisory group did have, it seemed that the UAE's new law would be similar to those in neighboring countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. All of these countries already have national human rights institutions.

But according to the Geneva-based lawyers, none of the national human rights institutions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar or Saudi Arabia fully comply with the Paris Principles.

However, if the UAE's attempts at creating this institution are really genuine, then organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty would welcome that, activists said. In promotional materials, UAE media said the institution "would seek to cooperate and deal with the UN and concerned international bodies."

"It will be interesting to see if the UAE are now willing to engage with external organizations," Human Rights Watch researcher Zayadin noted.

Despite multiple attempts asking UAE authorities to respond to allegations of abuse inside the country, and to get access to prisoners there, Zayadin said her organization has never received any response from the government.

"A very first step towards a genuine commitment to improving human rights in the country would be to allow international, independent monitors access to the country," said Zayadin. "An even more important step would be to release from prison all those who have been unjustly detained simply for exercising their right to free expression and association."


*This story was amended on September 3 to reflect the fact that the UAE human rights institution does not as yet have a hotline where abuses can be reported. This was mistakenly reported by a UAE based publication..

Pakistan: Environmentalists slam '10 billion trees' project

The Pakistani government's plan to plant 10 billion trees has garnered national and international praise. But critics believe that it is an unsustainable and expensive waste of resources.


According to government statistics, around 13% of Pakistan is now covered in forest

The Pakistani government claims to have already planted over a billion trees as part of its ambitious plan, as well as having created around 85,000 jobs. Launched in 2019, the project — with support from the United Nations Environment Programme — is aiming to plant 10 billion trees by 2023.

The fifth most populous country in the world with over 24% of its people living in poverty, Pakistan is one of the states most vulnerable to the changing climate. Its growing population needs resources that are depleting fast but given that the country is facing increasingly variable monsoons, receding Himalayan glaciers and extreme events including floods and droughts, meeting those challenges will prove extremely difficult.

Pakistan is aiming to reforest enough land to reach the global average of 31% forest coverage

Bureaucratic missteps

The government has said that it launched the plan to reverse environmental degradation but critics believe that is not the case.

Hassan Abbas, an expert in environmental affairs, says that the plan to plant ten billion trees is being executed without any proper planning. Forests cannot be planted in isolation, he told DW, they need to have a canopy and understory where medicinal and herbal plants may flourish.

Watch video26:01 Forests as a resource

He explained that saplings have also been planted in places already suffering from water scarcity. This adds to the logistical costs which are coming out of the public coffers.

"It is not experts who are in charge of this project but bureaucrats who know less about forestation and causes of deforestation. They do not even know these terminologies, let alone understand the real causes that are destroying our environment," Abbas said.

Pakistan's former Inspector General of Forests Syed Mahmood Nasir agrees. He told DW that authorities first need to carry out an empirical study into the availability of water. Currently, groundwater has to be extracted for the plants, putting strains on already depleted reserves.
Budget lacking transparency

The government said that the project would cost a little over 125 billion rupees ($750 million, €633 million) but critics claim that other costs are being ignored.

Abbas says that in a particular desert area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one sapling needs a one-off provision of 15 rupees worth of water. "Imagine billions of trees and calculate the total cost, which could have been diverted for clearing the river banks, ensuring the flow of water from rivers that would have led to natural growth of trees without spending any money," he said.


Deforestation brings many associated negative impacts with it

Mahmood Nasir believes any plant that is grown outside its natural biome is expensive and environmentally disastrous. "Did anybody plant trees for the Amazon Jungle? Did the government plant tens of thousands of trees in northern areas of the country? Nature has its own mechanism for planting trees and you do not need to plant and look after them," the former forestry official said.

There are also further associated costs, a senior government official familiar with this project told DW on the condition of anonymity. "Administrative and other costs are not part of the allocated amount. For instance, recently in [the Gujranwala administrative region] 12,000 students were brought to plant over 50,000 saplings," he said.

He questioned the transparency of the publicly funded budget that does not include transport and other costs.
Not without negative impacts

Experts believe planting trees can be good for nature but doing so without due consideration can have negative effects.

Criticism has also been leveled at the project for impeding on land used for pasture. Those grazing animals can help prevent wildfires, Mahmood Nasir explained. "One of the factors leading to fire in various parts of the world is the elimination of grazing areas, which helps prevent such catastrophes," he said.

Grazing animals can be part of the forest's natural ecology

The project has banned those animals from those areas meaning that more wildfires can be expected in the future.

The project is also going to destroy natural water springs, he said, adding this could create an acute shortage of water as well as affecting the fertility of the land.
Alternative solutions

The government claims that the survival rate of the planted trees is over 60%, but some critics dispute this. "Many saplings planted in Gujranwala burnt within no time due to intense heat,'' said the senior government official. "They have not appointed sufficient staff to look after these trees and who will look after them in hilly areas and desert regions anyway?"

Watch video 01:51 Pakistan launches "Throw and Grow" tree planting project

Instead of this costly project, the government should have targeted deforestation with strict administrative measures, the senior government official said.

In some areas, households burn over 10kg of wood every day. "Provision of solar geysers and cooking stoves, and a restriction on tree felling in northern and northwestern areas could help a lot," he said.

Some 40,000 hectares of forest are being destroyed every year, the senior official said. This could easily be prevented by tough action, he added.
Job creation claims under question

One international organization has claimed, citing the government's own data, that Pakistan's forest coverage has grown from 5% to 13% in just a few years. Government supporters have said that this will reach 31%, the global average.

Some international bodies have also claimed that the project has created around 85,000 jobs. But another anonymous government official questioned the validity of this claim, asking where the record is of these 85,000 workers.

The official criticized the lack of accountability and said that a number of people close to the chambers of power have set up nurseries from which the government buys the trees for planting. Government supporters are benefitting from the project, the official claimed.

A step in the right direction

There are, however, environmentalists who support the project and dismiss the criticisms leveled against it. They say that it will take decades for the already-existing environmental degradation to be reversed. For them, the government has taken positive action in the right direction.

Watch video 01:33 Pakistanis planting trees to tackle climate change

Environmentalist Sitara Parveen from the mountainous Hunza region of northern Pakistan is happy about the move. A graduate of the German University of Heidelberg, Parveen insists that this is the first Pakistani government to take environmental issues very seriously.

"In my area people are being encouraged to plant trees which would help prevent natural disasters as well as providing a healthy environment," she told DW.

"I have seen the planting of thousands of trees in my own area," she said. She also claimed that if the project succeeds, it could change local rainfall patterns. Few people realize that such a change would transform Pakistan's climate, not only protecting the country from disasters but also saving millions of lives, she added.

 

Deutsche Bahn loses second appeal against rail strike

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail company has failed a second time to put an end to ongoing industrial action that has crippled train services. Three-quarters of long-distance trains are out of action.

    

Train drivers are carrying out their third bout of industrial action in a matter of weeks

A Frankfurt court on Friday rejected Deutsche Bahn's (DB) second attempt to try and bring in an injunction against an ongoing train drivers' strike after its first legal challenge failed on Thursday.

The strike called by the GDL train drivers union  entered its third day on Friday after a Frankfurt labor court upheld the legality of its labor action.

"We were aware that the hurdles in summary proceedings are very high and that the right to strike in Germany is legally safeguarded with good reason," a Deutsche Bahn spokesperson told the German dpa news agency before the court gave its ruling.

 "Nevertheless, we see it as our responsibility to leave no stone unturned in ending the strike in the interest of our customers," the spokesperson added.

Only a quarter of trains running

The strike, which is set to last until Tuesday morning, has left 75% of long-distance trains out of operation as well as 60% of regional and metropolitan trains.

Deutsche Bahn had accused the GDL of pursuing political aims rather than an improvement of working conditions. The court on Thursday rejected the attempted injunction on the grounds that the aims of the strike could not be proved.

"We will continue with the industrial action until Deutsche Bahn makes a materially sensible offer," GDL leader Claus Weselsky said on Thursday. The union has said it is open to compromise but has rejected previous offers made by Deutsche Bahn bosses as insufficient.

The GDL, which held two strikes in August, is demanding a 3.2% increase in pay for drivers, in addition to a coronavirus bonus of €600 ($710).

Train drivers are calling for better pay and improved working conditions

Debate over collective bargaining

Labor lawyer Matthias Jacobs told German public radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the cause for the current strike is the Unified Collective Bargaining Act that stipulates that there can only be one collective bargaining agreement within a company.

This means that a union needs to mobilize over half of a company's employees in order to push through any change. This in turn means unions have to fight for more members "and that's exactly what GDL is doing now," Jacobs explained, adding that the act should be abolished.

The premier of the state of Thuringen, and member of the Left party, Bodo Ramelow said the strike was foreseeable and that he considered the Unified Collective Bargaining Act a mistake, Deutschlandfunk reported.

ab/sms (dpa, Reuters)