RACIST MEDICINE USA

Study: ERs in New England hospital system restrain Black kids more than White kids



Children of color are restrained during visits to the emergency room at "higher rates" than White patients, a study of one New England hospital system has found. Photo by paulbr75/Pixabay


Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Black children and teens were 80% more likely than their White peers to be physically restrained in a New England hospital system's emergency rooms due to behavioral concerns, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics.

Over an eight-year period, Black patients accounted for nearly 40% of young patients for whom restraints were used in the ER at the hospital system, the data showed.

In comparison, White patients made up just under 38% and Hispanic patients accounted for 19%.

Sixty-two percent of the national population is White, while 17% is Hispanic and 13% is Black, according to the U.S. census.

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Based on previous analysis by the same researchers, the treatment may not be all that uncommon.

"Black children are restrained in the [ER] at higher rates than White children," study co-author Dr. Katherine Nash told UPI in a phone interview.

"Sadly, this is evidence of structural racism within the healthcare system," said Nash, part of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

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Physical restraints that bind patients to hospital beds, typically at their wrists and ankles, are recommended only in cases in which patients risk harming themselves, according to Nash and her colleagues.

A similar study of adult ER patients conducted by Nash's colleagues at Yale and published earlier this year found that Black people were 13% more likely to be restrained than White people.

Both studies concluded that restraints are used in less than 1% of ER patients, regardless of age and race or ethnic origin.

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For this study, Nash and her colleagues analyzed data on more than 550,000 ER visits involving children at an unnamed New England hospital system over an eight-year period between 2013 and 2020.

Of these visits, 532 patients, or 0.1%, were restrained, the data showed.

Among those restrained, 208, or 39%, were Black, while 200, or 38% were White and 103, or 19%, were Hispanic.

Just over 81% of those restrained were age 10 to 16, and roughly two-thirds were male.

More than 70% of the restrained patients were covered under Medicaid, while about 80% were admitted to the ER with a "behavioral health problem."

Nearly three-fourths of the restrained patients were treated with medications used to treat mental health disorders and 44% had been diagnosed with such a condition before their arrival in the ER.

Based on population differences, the researchers calculated that young Black patients were 80% more likely to be restrained than White patients, while males were 95% more likely than females.

Also, patients on Medicaid were 28% more likely to be restrained than those covered by private insurance, according to the researchers.

Many of these children should not, however, have been sent to the emergency room, Nash said.

"We need to ask why children with behavioral health disorders are being sent to the [ER] in the first place," she said.

In some cases, "this could be happening because the child's school not understanding their needs, or not having the resources to meet them."

COLD WAR 2.0
Chinese students hit by US visa rejections amid tension

By FU TING

1 of 4

In this April 3, 2021, photo and released by Monica Ma, Monica Ma poses for a photo along the coast of Qinhuangdao in northern China's Hebei province. Ma is among at least 500 students the Chinese government says have been rejected under a policy, aimed at blocking Beijing from obtaining U.S. technology with possible military uses, issued last year by then U.S. President Donald Trump. 

(Monica Ma via AP)


After a semester online, Wang Ziwei looked forward to meeting classmates who are returning to campus at Washington University in St. Louis. But the 23-year-old finance student said the U.S. revoked his student visa on security grounds.

Wang is among at least 500 students the Chinese government says have been rejected under a policy issued by then-President Donald Trump to block Beijing from obtaining U.S. technology with possible military uses. Students argue it is applied too broadly and fume at what they say is an accusation they are spies.

“The whole thing is nonsense,” Wang said. “What do we finance students have to do with the military?”

The students join companies and individuals whose plans have been disrupted by U.S.-Chinese tension over technology and security, Beijing’s military buildup, the origins of the coronavirus, human rights and conflicting claims to the South China Sea and other territory.

The policy blocks visas for people who are affiliated with the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, or universities deemed by Washington to be part of military modernization efforts.

U.S. officials say they believe thousands of Chinese students and researchers participate in programs that encourage them to transfer medical, computer and other sensitive information to China.

Washington cites Beijing’s strategy of “civil-military fusion,” which it says treats private companies and universities as assets to develop Chinese military technology.

“Joint research institutions, academia and private firms are all being exploited to build the PLA’s future military systems — often without their knowledge or consent,” the State Department said in a 2020 report.

Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has given no indication of what he might do.

Chinese officials appealed to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to drop the visa restrictions when she visited in July, according to The Paper, a Shanghai online news outlet.

The policy is necessary to “protect U.S. national security interests,” the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said in a statement. It said the policy is a response to “some abuses of the visa process” and is “narrowly targeted.”

More than 85,000 visas for Chinese students have been approved over the past four months, according to the embassy.

“The numbers show clearly that the United States stands ready to issue visas to all those who are qualified — including Chinese students and scholars,” it said.

Separately, a group of 177 Stanford University professors sent an open letter this month asking the U.S. Justice Department to end the China Initiative, another Trump-era program that investigates researchers in the United States. The letter signers say it has raised concerns about racial profiling and discouraged scholars from staying in or coming to the country.

China is the biggest source of foreign students in the United States, according to U.S. government data. The number fell 20% in 2020 from the previous year but at 380,000 was nearly double that of second-ranked India.

An engineer at a state-owned aircraft manufacturer said he was turned down for a visa to accompany his wife, a visiting scholar in California studying pediatric cancer.

The engineer, who would give only his surname, Huang, has undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China’s northeast. It is one of seven schools Chinese news reports say are associated with visa rejections because they are affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

“I was insulted,” Huang said. “That I graduated from this school means I am a spy? What’s the difference between this and racism?”

Huang said his wife’s fellowship was two to three years, but she will cut that to one, “sacrificing her career” to avoid being away from their two children for too long.

“It’s a pretty big impact on individuals when one country fights with another,” Huang said.

Rejection letters received by several students cited Trump’s order but gave no details of the decision. However, some students said they received rejections immediately after being asked which university they attended.

Wang, the finance student, said he obtained a visa, but the U.S. Embassy called later and said it was revoked.

Wang graduated from the Beijing Institute of Technology, another university associated with visa rejections due to its connection with the industry ministry. Others include Beijing Aerospace University, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Harbin Engineering University and Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Graduates of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications also say they have been rejected.

Five Chinese scientists at universities in California and Indiana were charged last year with lying about possible military connections on visa applications. Those charges were dropped in July after the Justice Department said an FBI report indicated such offenses often had no connection to technology theft.

The Chinese government complained in August that three students who had visas were refused entry into the United States at the Houston airport after military training photos were found in their phones.

Beijing “strongly deplores and rejects” the policy and appealed to the U.S. government to make changes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

A group that says it represents more than 2,000 students and scholars has announced plans for a lawsuit asking a court to throw out or narrow the restrictions.

At Washington University in St. Louis, a “handful of student visas” were affected, according to Kurt Dirks, vice chancellor for international affairs.

Students can start the semester online or wait until next year, Dirks said in an email.

“Should they continue to face challenges, the university will work with them so they can complete their program online,” Dirks said.

Monica Ma, 23, said she was turned down for a U.S. visa to complete a master’s degree in information management at Carnegie Mellon University.

The graduate of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications said after spending a year in Australia working on her degree, she needs to attend classes in person at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh because they no longer are taught online.

Ma said she has a job offer from an internet company that requires her to complete her degree. She has postponed her attendance for classes until next year in hopes she can obtain a visa by then.

“I cannot change it through my efforts. That’s the saddest part,” Ma said.

Li Quanyi, an electrical engineering student from the southern city of Guiyang, said he was accepted by Columbia University but failed to obtain a visa. Li graduated from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

Carnegie Mellon and Columbia didn’t respond to questions sent by email.

Li has moved to Hong Kong and said he is happy there.

“I am not going, even if the rule changes,” Li said. “The United States rejected me, and I am not going.”

Once inmates, Taliban now in charge in a Kabul prison


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A Taliban fighter lifts a makeshift weight left behind by former prisoners at an empty area of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. Pul-e-Charkhi was previously the main government prison for holding captured Taliban and was long notorious for abuses, poor conditions and severe overcrowding with thousands of prisoners. Now after their takeover of the country, the Taliban control it and are getting it back up and running, current holding around 60 people, mainly drug addicts and accused criminals. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)


KABUL (AP) — Once, Kabul’s main prison was crowded with thousands of Taliban captured and arrested by the government. On Monday, a Taliban commander strolled through its empty halls and cell blocks, showing his friends where he had once been imprisoned.

It was a sign of the sudden and startling new order in Afghanistan after the militant group swept into the capital nearly a month ago and threw out the crumbling, U.S.-backed government it had fought for 20 years.

The Taliban now run Pul-e-Charkhi Prison, a sprawling complex on Kabul’s eastern outskirts. After capturing the city, the fighters freed all the inmates there, the government guards fled, and now dozens of Taliban fighters are running the facility.

The commander, who refused to give his name, was on a personal visit to the complex with a group of his friends. He told The Associated Press he had been arrested around a decade ago in eastern Kunar province and was brought to Pul-e-Charkhi, bound and blindfolded.

“I feel so terrible when I remember those days,” he said. He said prisoners suffered abuses and torture. He was imprisoned for around 14 months before he was released. “Those days are the darkest days of my life, and now this the happiest moment for me that I am free and come here without fear.”

Many Afghans as well as governments around the world have been alarmed by the swift Taliban seizure of power, fearing the movement will impose a similar, harsh rule as they did during their first time ruling in the 1990s. But for the Taliban fighters, it’s a moment to savor a victory after years of grueling fighting — and to see a city few of them have entered since the war began.

For some of the Taliban guards accompanying the AP, it was the first time they’d entered the abandoned cell blocks. They looked with curiosity through the cells, still littered with things the last inmates left behind — fabrics hanging from the walls and windows, small rugs, water bottles.

One fighter exchanged his sandals for a better pair he found in a cell. Then he found yet a better pair and exchanged again. Others played with the former prisoners’ makeshift weight bars.

Pul-e-Charkhi had a long, disturbing history of violence, mass executions and torture. Mass graves and torture cells were uncovered dating from the Soviet-backed governments of the late 1970s and 1980s. Under the U.S.-backed government, it was more known for poor conditions and overcrowding — its 11 cell blocks were built to house 5,000 inmates, but were often packed with more than 10,000, including Taliban prisoners and criminals.

Taliban prisoners often complained of abuses and beatings, and there were regular riots. Still, they kept up their organization behind bars, winning concessions like access to cell phones and longer time outside their cells.

Some of the Taliban now guarding the site were former inmates. The government guards have fled and don’t dare return, fearing reprisals. Though the facility remains largely empty, one section holds around 60 people imprisoned in the past few weeks, who the guards said were mostly accused criminals and drug addicts.

Bluefin tuna serve as global barometer of mercury pollution


Researchers determined Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean feature the highest rates of mercury accumulation, according to a new study. 

File Photo by Randy Wilder/Monterey Bay Aquarium 

Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Bluefin tuna, which migrate long distances and accumulate mercury as they age, can serve as global barometers of mercury pollution, according to a new study.

Health officials in the United States recommend eating no more than a few ounces of tuna per week, and women who are pregnant are advised to abstain.

That's because tuna, especially older, bigger specimens, accumulate methylmercury in their muscle tissue.

Exposure to signficiant levels of methylmercury can disrupt the nervous system. Contamination has been linked to cancer in adults and cognitive impairment in children.

In bluefin tuna, mercury contamination can reach concentrations unsafe for human consumption. However, mercury concentration varies across bluefin tuna populations.

Unfortunately, the global distribution of mercury pollution is poorly understood.

To shed light on the problem, scientists conducted a global survey of mercury contamination levels, revealing geographic variations, as well as the influence of age, size, sex and position in the food web on mercury concentrations.

Using data from dozens of tissue sample surveys conducted between 1998 to 2019, researchers determined Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean feature the highest rates of mercury accumulation.

Scientists published the results of their survey in a new paper, published online on Monday in the journal PNAS.

Atlantic tuna are the most important tuna species for commercial fishing, and most are caught in the Mediterranean. Atlantic tuna from the North Atlantic feature lower levels of mercury, as do related species, Pacific tuna and Southern tuna, caught in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The data also showed variation in mercury concentrations correspond with mercury pollution levels measured in seawater and zooplankton samples.

"Our study shows that mercury accumulation rates in bluefin tuna may be used as a global pollution index that can reveal patterns of mercury pollution and bioavailability in the oceans, natural and human caused emissions and regional environmental features," senior author John Reinfelder, a professor of environmental sciences at Rutgers University, said in a press release.

Mercury leaches naturally into the ocean from rocks. It's also released by metal mining, the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities.

Researchers confirmed that geographic variation of mercury pollution reflects the distribution of mercury-emitting human activities.

Previous studies have shown that as mercury pollution levels drop, so do concentrations in tuna and other fish populations.

Unfortunately, in some places, mercury levels continue to rise, increasing concentrations in local tuna populations.

"Overall, mercury accumulation rates provide a means to compare mercury bioavailability among geographically distinct populations of upper trophic level marine fish across ocean sub-basins, to investigate trophic dynamics of mercury in marine food webs and to improve public health risk assessments of mercury exposure from seafood," Reinfelder said.

Study: Obamacare's Medicaid expansion helped lower U.S. blood pressures

By HealthDay News

With the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, fewer Americans are uninsured and more are getting their blood pressure and blood sugar under control, a new study finds.

The gains are especially strong among Black and Hispanic patients, according to Boston University researchers.

"Our results suggest that over the longer-run, expanding Medicaid eligibility may improve key chronic disease health outcomes for low-income, marginalized populations, which is an important consideration for the 12 states that have not yet adopted Medicaid expansion," said researcher Megan Cole Brahim, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management.

Her team found that Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act has resulted in better care and service capacity at federally qualified health centers.

RELATED Increasing affordable housing may decrease heart disease rates, study says

The centers serve one in five Medicaid patients and one in three whose income is below the federal poverty line.

In the 26 states that expanded Medicaid by January 2014, the federally qualified health centers saw a 9 percentage point drop in patients who were uninsured, compared with states that did not expand Medicaid, the study found.

Compared to nonexpansion states, there also was a 2 percentage point increase in blood pressure and blood sugar control in expansion states, the researchers said.

For the study, the research team analyzed data from more than 900 federally qualified health centers that served nearly 19 million patients per year.

In states that expanded Medicaid, the percentage of uninsured patients dropped from about 42% in 2012 to 21% in 2018. Meanwhile, the rate of uninsured patients in other states fell from 52% to 42%.

Over five years, Medicaid expansion states saw a 2 percentage point rise in high blood pressure control compared with other states. Among Black patients and Hispanic patients, the improvement was even greater -- 3 percentage points.

Improvement was also seen in blood sugar control -- 2 percentage points overall 4 percentage points among Black folks and nearly 3 percentage points among Hispanic patients, the researchers reported.

"Once a patient gains health insurance coverage, associated health outcomes likely don't improve overnight," Cole Brahim said in a university news release.

"It takes time for patients to become better connected to care and care management while gaining access to prescription medications," Brahim said.

She added that it also takes time for federally qualified health centers to invest new revenue into things that improve the quality of care.

Despite the improvements, however, the researchers noted that racial and ethnic disparities persist.

Co-author Timothy Levengood, a doctoral student in the health law, policy and management department, said, "We have a good sense that these disparities are reflective of the political, economic, and social systems we live in that do not currently provide equal opportunities for health on the basis of skin color."

"Whether you can afford to regularly see a doctor and keep these conditions in check contributes substantially to whether you will develop these chronic conditions or die from them. It's important to study relevant policy changes to these systems to combat these disparities and to craft a more equitable society for all Americans," Levengood said.

The findings were published online this month in JAMA Health Forum.More information

For information about the Affordable Care Act, visit HealthCare.gov.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


Study offers more evidence that stress can drive blood pressure higher

By HealthDay News

If you often feel stressed out, your blood pressure may rise over time alongside higher odds for other heart concerns, a new study indicates.

Researchers found adults with normal blood pressure but high levels of stress hormones were more likely to develop high blood pressure in six to seven years than those with lower stress hormone levels.

"The stress hormones norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol can increase with stress from life events, work, relationships, finances and more. And we confirmed that stress is a key factor contributing to the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular events," said study author Dr. Kosuke Inoue, an assistant professor of social epidemiology at Kyoto University in Japan.

The study, published Monday in Hypertension, included more than 400 people, ages 48 to 87, who took part in a larger study of atherosclerosis -- clogged arteries that can lead to heart disease -- involving six U.S. communities.

They participated in a 12-hour overnight urine test between July 2004 and October 2006.

The researchers analyzed their levels of norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine and cortisol.

The first three are related to the autonomic nervous system, which regulates heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that is released during stress.

"Although all of these hormones are produced in the adrenal gland, they have different roles and mechanisms to influence the cardiovascular system, so it is important to study their relationship with hypertension and cardiovascular events, individually," Inoue said in a journal news release.

He is also affiliated with the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Participants were followed through June 2018 to see if they developed high blood pressure, or hypertension, and cardiovascular events such as chest pain, needing an artery-opening procedure, or a heart attack or stroke.

A growing body of research refers to the mind-heart-body connection, which suggests a person's mind can positively or negatively affect risk for heart disease and strokes.

"Previous research focused on the relationship between stress hormone levels and hypertension or cardiovascular events in patients with existing hypertension. However, studies looking at adults without hypertension were lacking," Inoue said.

The research team found that over a roughly 6.5-year follow-up period, every doubling of the four stress hormone levels was associated with a 21% to 31% increase in the risk of developing high blood pressure.

And over a median of 11 years, each doubling of cortisol levels was associated with a 90% increased risk of heart events or stroke.

"It is important to examine the impact of stress on adults in the general population because it provides new information about whether routine measurement of stress hormones needs to be considered to prevent hypertension and CVD [cardiovascular disease] events," Inoue said.

The authors acknowledged some limitations to the study: It did not include people who already had high blood pressure and did not use other tests to measure stress hormones.More information

The American Psychological Association offers some healthy suggestions for reducing stress.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Two African servals escape from pet store owner's barn in Alabama


Two African servals are on the loose in the Huntsville, Ala., area after escaping from a pet store owner's barn. Photo by 3342/Pixabay.com


Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A pair of exotic African servals are on the loose after escaping from the barn where they were being kept in Alabama.

Lacey Harring, owner of pet store 256Exotics, said in a Facebook post that two servals -- African cats that resemble small leopards -- escaped from her Huntsville barn Sunday night.

Harring said the felines escaped by digging a tunnel under one of the walls

She asked anyone who spots the animals to contact the Madison County Sheriff's Office or local animal control officers.

A Huntsville Police Department spokesperson said officers were unaware of the escape, but urged residents to use caution if they spot the animals.

"We would advise citizens to be aware of surroundings, use caution and report any sightings," the representative told WHNT-TV.

Alabama is one of 18 states that allow private individuals to own servals without a permit.

Oregon cities losing cannabis tax money to drug treatment

Of the 19 states with legal recreational cannabis, Alaska, California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Virginia allow local governments to tax the drug.

 File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo


PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- For Ontario, Ore., legal cannabis promised a facelift and a path to prosperity for the town of 11,000.

After lifting its ban on recreational marijuana in 2018, Ontario had seen an influx of visitors from nearby Idaho (where the drug remains illegal). Malheur County, a sparsely populated and economically depressed area home to Ontario, has since consistently seen some of Oregon's highest cannabis sales. Last year, Ontario's 14 retailers generated over $100 million in sales, boosting the town's tax revenue.

Ontario City Manager Adam Brown said the town plans to spend its cannabis tax revenue on making it a more attractive place for new residents and businesses. That means funding for improved lighting and fiber Internet connections downtown, better roads and a 3-D mural at a local park.

"We could really make this city shine," Brown said. "We could make it attractive for the kids who say there is nothing for them here."

RELATED California Supreme Court: Legalized marijuana doesn't apply to prisoners

But Ontario, along with cities across Oregon, will have a harder time realizing their plans because of a shift in how the state distributes cannabis tax revenue.

The change was brought by Measure 110, a ballot initiative voters passed in November that decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs and replaced incarceration with treatment. Funding that treatment limited how much cannabis tax revenue cities can keep.

Of the 19 states with legal recreational cannabis, Alaska, California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Virginia allow local governments to tax the drug, according to the Urban Institute.

RELATED Senate Democrats to introduce bill to end federal ban against marijuana

Many of these states have seen ongoing debates over how high cannabis taxes should be and how the money should be spent. But Oregon has implemented a sudden and significant reordering of how it spends tax revenue from an industry that topped $1 billion in sales for the first time last year.

Mark Gharst, lobbyist for the League of Oregon Cities, questioned if voters understood that Measure 110 would drain money for city services when they approved it.

"We're very concerned," Gharst said. "It's disappointing, and it really matters to our cities that they provide services that our residents demand."

Oregon cannabis retailers charge a state sales tax of 17%. The tax is collected by local governments and a portion is sent back to them.

Before Measure 110, cities would have received $37.7 million in Oregon's current two-year budget, Gharst said. But now they'll only receive $9 million -- a 73% drop.

Megan Chuinard, public affairs associate for the Association of Oregon Counties, said counties are expecting a similar loss that will increase as all growth in cannabis tax revenue goes to drug treatment.

Oregon cities and counties received $8.6 million in cannabis tax revenue in the last quarter of 2020, according to state figures. That amount dropped to $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2021.

Brown said Ontario's annual share of state cannabis tax revenue was already meager, receiving about $70,000 from the $1.7 million the city collected. The share is based on population, which Brown says doesn't account for the 1,500 trips Ontario sees each day from Idaho residents who use roads and other city services.

"It's like adding insult to injury," he said.

Ontario's current budget anticipates $3 million in cannabis tax revenue. Brown said the city saw a 10% drop in revenue last quarter, which he said could be due to the market slowing after reaching record sales during the pandemic.

In addition to the state tax, cities can charge a 3% local tax, which has been Ontario's biggest driver of revenue over the last two years.

Lawmakers took note of Ontario's situation and other cities during Oregon's last legislative session. They introduced a bill allowing them to increase the local tax to 10%.

While the bill would have kept the cannabis tax rates lower than neighboring Washington and California, it ended up stalling.

State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, spoke against the bill when it came up for a vote in June. He pointed out that when voters legalized marijuana in 2014 they were told tax revenue generated from it would be used specifically for schools and public safety, as well as drug abuse treatment and prevention.

The way the money was being used had drifted far from those purposes, he said.

"Really? Infrastructure?" he said.

Pope visit a sign of inclusion for Slovakia’s excluded Roma
By NICOLE WINFIELD

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Pope Francis waves to faithful holding Vatican flags as he arrives on his pope-mobile to celebrate a Byzantine rite Mass at Mestska sportova hala Square, in Presov, Slovakia, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. Pope Francis is on a four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

KOSICE, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis traveled to the far east of Slovakia on Tuesday to meet with the country’s Roma in a gesture of inclusion for the most socially excluded minority group in Slovakia, who have long suffered discrimination, marginalization and poverty.

Francis’ visit to the Lunik IX settlement in Kosice is one of the highlights of his four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia. It’s his first trip since undergoing intestinal surgery in July and marks the restart of his globetrotting papacy after a nearly two-year coronavirus hiatus.

Lunik IX is the biggest of about 600 shabby, segregated settlements where the poorest 20% of Slovakia’s 400,000 Roma live. Most lack basics such as running water or sewage systems, gas or electricity.

The “pope of the peripheries” has long sought to meet with society’s most marginal during his foreign trips, making sure to always include visits to slums, ghettos or prisons where he can offer words of encouragement, solidarity and welcome.

Francis was starting the day by celebrating a Byzantine rite Mass in Presov, near Kosice, in recognition of the country’s Greek-Catholic believers. During the chant-filled, open-air Mass, Francis recalled the persecution endured by all Christians during communist rule.

“Here I think of the martyrs who in this nation bore witness to the love of Christ in troubled times, when everything counselled silence, taking cover, not professing the faith,” he said. “How many generous persons suffered and died here in Slovakia for the name of Christ!”

Organizers expected some 40,000 people, and well before Francis’ arrival they had filled the outdoor sports arena as a choir sang hymns. They cheered and wildly waved the yellow and white flags of the Holy See as Francis looped through the site in his popemobile before the service.

“We came here at 3 a.m. to get the best spot,” said Slavka Marcinakova, a local resident from Presov. “Pope coming to Slovakia — you have an opportunity like this only once in a lifetime, we are so happy for that.”

Among those on hand for the Mass was Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the longtime aide to St. John Paul II, the Polish pope who made three visits to Slovakia during his quarter-century papacy.

The Rev. Michal Ospodar, a Greek-Catholic priest from Kosice, said Francis’ visit would encourage the local faithful.

“Our church suffered a lot in the past because we were loyal to the pope,” he said. “Because of that we feel thankful that the pope came to our region and that we can meet him in person.”

Francis, 84, has appeared in good form during his trip, clearly enjoying being back on the road again after the coronavirus, and then his intestinal surgery in July, kept him cooped up in the Vatican. On Monday, he was welcomed by Slovakia’s Jewish community in a significant moment of reconciliation, given the decades of distrust and tension following the Holocaust, when 68,000 Slovakian Jews perished in Nazi death camps.

Slovakia was led during World War II by a Catholic priest and president, Jozef Tiso, who oversaw some of the harshest anti-Jewish laws in Europe.

After the Mass and Roma encounter, Francis was meeting with Slovakia’s young people. He returns to Rome on Wednesday after celebrating his main big Mass in Sastin near the capital, the site of an annual pilgrimage each Sept. 15 to venerate Slovakia’s patron, Our Lady of Sorrows.

___

AP visual journalists Andrea Rosa and Luigi Navarra contributed.

Pope in Slovakia meets with Roma in 'eyesore' housing project

Pope Francis meets with Roma in a notorious housing project on day three of his Central Europe trip. The visit comes after he met with Holocaust survivors in Bratislava Monday.

Pope Francis traveled to the eastern Slovak city of Kosice Tuesday to meet with members of the Roma community in a dilapidated housing project, Lunik IX.


Pope Francis meets members of the Jewish community in Bratislava on Monday

The visit to Lunik IX is one of the highlights of his four-day swing through the Central European nations of Hungary and Slovakia and a gesture of inclusion for one of the country's marginalized and impoverished communities. On Monday, he met with Holocaust survivors in Bratislava, the capital.

One fifth of Slovakia's population belong to the Roma minority. They have long been excluded from society, generally living in segregated settlements that often lack basics like electricity and running water, heating and gas.

Villagers in Slovakia exclude Roma from their church services

In the days leading up to the pope's trip, politicians in Slovakia openly debated who was "to blame" for the inclusion of the "eyesore" Lunik IX with its rundown prefabricated buildings that are home to thousands on the Pope's itinerary.

Thomas Schumann, spokesperson for Renovabis, the Catholic relief organization for Central and Eastern Europe, told the DPA news agency he hoped the pope's visit would spur greater inclusivity of opportunities and education for members of the Roma community in Slovakia.

Tuesday began with Greek Catholic mass

Pope Francis started Tuesday with a large Byzantine rite open air Mass near Kosice in the city of Presov. There the pope recalled the persecution of Christians under communism.

"Here I think of the martyrs who in this nation bore witness to the love of Christ in troubled times, when everything counselled silence, taking cover, not professing the faith," the Pope told the gathered faithful. "How many generous persons suffered and died here in Slovakia for the name of Christ!"

Organizers expected 40,000 in attendance and an outdoor stadium had filled prior to his arrival by popemobile.

"We came here at 3 a.m. to get the best spot," Presov resident Slavka Marcinakova told AP, calling the opportunity to see the pope a "once in a lifetime" event.

On Tuesday evening, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with young people at the outdoor football stadium in Kosice.

ar/rc (AP, dpa)

Your suffering is ours: Pope honors Slovak Holocaust victims

By NICOLE WINFIELD and KAREL JANICEK

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Pope Francis prays as he meets members of the Jewish community in Bratislava, Slovakia, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. Ahead of a rigorous two days hop-scotching around Slovakia, Francis is spending Monday in Bratislava where the highlight of his visit is the encounter at the capital's Holocaust memorial, built on the site of a synagogue destroyed by the communist regime in the 1960s.

 (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis honored Slovakian Holocaust victims and atoned for Christian complicity in wartime crimes as he sought to promote reconciliation Monday in a country where a Catholic priest was president of a Nazi puppet state that deported tens of thousands of its Jews.

“Your history is our history, your sufferings are our sufferings,” Francis told members of Slovakia’s small, remaining Jewish community, standing in the shadow of the country’s Holocaust memorial.

Even though St. John Paul II made three trips to Slovakia, he never met here with the country’s Jews, evidence of the strained local Catholic-Jewish relations that endured in the post-war decades even with a Polish pope known for his outreach to Jews.

As a result, Francis’ welcome by the community — during the solemn 10-day period of repentance stretching from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur — was a significant step forward and was hailed as historic by local Jewish leaders who said it was chance to look to the future.

Francis is on the second day of a four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia, his first big international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July. The 84-year-old pope has appeared in good form, walking around to greet well-wishers and clearly enjoying the enthusiasm of Slovaks after being cooped up in the Vatican for over a year of coronavirus lockdowns.

He was solemn on Monday afternoon, listening intently via headphones providing simultaneous translation as he heard testimony from a Holocaust survivor about the horrors of the Shoah and the enduring pain of the Jewish community.

“Let us unite in condemning all violence and every form of antisemitism, and in working to ensure that God’s image, present in the humanity he created, will never be profaned,” Francis said.

Slovakia declared its independence from Czechoslovakia in 1939 and became a Nazi puppet state with politician and Roman Catholic priest Jozef Tiso becoming the country’s president.

Under his rule, the country adopted strict anti-Jewish laws and deported around 75,000 Jews to Nazi death camps where about 68,000 perished.

Tiso was sentenced to death and hanged in 1947, and over the years scholars have unearthed archives showing that the Vatican under Pope Pius XII didn’t approve of Tiso’s policies and intervened to halt the deportation of Slovak Jews in 1942, though they resumed two years later after Nazi troops entered Slovakia at Tiso’s request.

Now, only about 5,000 Jews live in Slovakia, a largely Roman Catholic country of 5.5 million currently ruled by a four-party center-right coalition government.

Slovakia’s Catholic bishops over the years expressed regret for their wartime failings and asked forgiveness from the Jewish community, but an official process of dialogue only began after Slovak representatives from both faiths met with Francis at the Vatican in 2017.

Francis praised that encounter as a key moment in the path of Catholic-Jewish reconciliation that he said was necessary to “advance, in truth and honesty, along the fraternal path of a purification of memory, to heal past wounds and to remember the good received and offered.”

The head of the umbrella group of Slovakian Jewish communities, Richard Duda, said at the encounter that Francis’ visit was “historic,” and a “turning point” in relations, and that dialogue was the only way to achieve peaceful coexistence.

“We hope that the sincerity and availability for an open dialogue will allow us to one day put a final point even on the dark sides of the complicity which, during the terrible world war 80 years ago, marked relations between the people of this land,” he said.

While Francis’ visit marked a new step in Catholic-Jewish relations, it also served to remind Slovaks that Catholics also saved lives.

A Holocaust survivor, Tomas Lang, cited a Vatican embassy official at the time, Monsignor Giuseppe Burzio, as someone who “unceasingly tried to halt the antisemitism of the murderous regime of the time.”

And a Slovak Orsoline nun, Sister Samuela, told Francis of the several instances of Jewish children and their families who were hidden in Slovak convents and even the Vatican embassy itself.

Overall by 2019, 580 Slovaks were honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

The site of Francis’ encounter was significant: Bratislava’s Holocaust memorial stands on the site of a synagogue that was destroyed in 1969 by the communist regime to make room for a bridge. The synagogue had stood next to the city’s cathedral, and Francis said their proximity showed that Catholics and Jews had long lived in peaceful coexistence “and a striking sign of unity in the name of the God of our fathers.”

“Here, in this place, the name of God was dishonored, for the worst form of blasphemy is to exploit it for our own purposes, refusing to respect and love others,” he said.

“In this place, our histories meet once more. Here let us affirm together before God our willingness to persevere on the path of rapprochement and friendship,” Francis said.

Just last week, the Slovak government formally apologized for the racial laws that stripped Jews of their human and civil rights, prevented their access to education and authorized the transfer of their property to non-Jewish owners. The government took action on the 80th anniversary of the “Jewish Code,” considered one of the toughest anti-Jewish laws adopted in Europe during the war.

Lucia Hidveghyova, a leading Slovak expert on Jewish-Catholic relations, called Francis’ meeting with the Jewish community “very important” and the fruit of improving relations that got a major boost after the 2017 Vatican encounter, which resulted in the formation of joint committees.

“It’s true than that in the last five years, the dialogue between them on the official level has moved forward more than in the previous 50 years,” she said in a telephone interview.

“I believe that (by coming) he wants to further encourage the dialogue,” she said.

Maros Borsky, secretary of the dialogue commission between the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities and the Catholic Church, said the pope’s visit can only help improve relations going forward.

“What happened in the past cannot be fixed, but it’s necessary to look into the future,” Borsky told The Associated Press.

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Karel Janicek reported from Prague.

Germany and the Middle East: A tale of morals and markets

Germany's foreign policy is explicitly values-based. But what happens when democracy, the rule of law and human rights collide with the logic of trade and business?



'Leopard' tanks are part of German arms sales to the Middle East


On its homepage, Germany's foreign ministry lists "peace and security, the promotion of democracy and human rights, and commitment to multilateralism," as the guiding principles of German foreign policy.

Just a few lines later, however, it says that Germany, as a trading nation, has a particular interest in an effective foreign economic policy "that helps companies to tap into international markets and to improve the conditions for doing business."

So what happens when these two fundamental principles collide?

A famous 'selfie' Syrian refugee Anas Modamani took of himself and Chancellor Merkel in 2015

It is perhaps no surprise that the German government welcomed the mass protests and striving for democracy in what became known as the "Arab Spring" — even if that movement by and large ended in failure and frustration. It is moreover commonplace to hear German politicians condemning human rights abuses in the Arab-speaking world, including torture, the incarceration of opposition activists, the oppression of women.

Germany also took in some 770,000 Syrian refugees and provided rapid and unbureaucratic support for many at a time of great suffering and need.

At the same time, though, Germany has worked hard to build trade ties with countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Countries that — in view of their human rights records — Germany should perhaps really be shunning. And above all, representatives of business and politics are all too often willing to turn a blind eye to the lucrative trade in military equipment. And worse, say critics.

The 'Arab Spring' saw thousands of protesters take to the streets in Cairo in 2013
Dramatic impact on domestic policy

The high number of refugees alone makes it hard to understate the importance to Germany's vital interests of its ties in the Middle East, says Guido Steinberg, an expert on the region at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "In 2015, we witnessed how events in the Middle East as a whole, including in north Africa, can have a dramatic impact on the domestic situation in Germany," Steinberg told DW.

Germany must, believes Steinberg, come up with a clearer definition of its interests. He outlines three priorities. Firstly: preventing further proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. Secondly: avoiding large-scale refugee flows by boosting regional stability. And thirdly: an effective anti-terrorism strategy.

Also among those calling for a more "robust approach towards the Arab world" is Kerstin Müller, a Middle East expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Speaking to DW, she first and foremost questioned the reasoning behind arms sales to the United Arab Emirates: "The UAE is Germany's biggest trading partner in the region. The two sides even maintain what is termed a "strategic partnership." And although the UAE is deeply immersed in the Yemen war, it can still purchase arms from European and German sources."

On the anniversary of the death of Jamal Khashoggi, activists protest against the incarceration of blogger Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia
Exports worth billions

Germany, it seems, has few inhibitions when it comes to arms deals with questionable partners. That is the conclusion to be drawn from a statement issued earlier this year by the Economics Ministry in response to a question put forward by the Green Party.

According to the statement, in the year 2020, the German government gave the go-ahead for arms exports worth around 1.16bn euros ($1.36bn) to countries embroiled in the conflict in Yemen or Libya: Egypt, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, as well as NATO member Turkey.

Kerstin Müller is also highly critical of potential deals with Saudi Arabia, which have, however, been temporarily put on hold — a measure that Müller believes should have come much sooner: "After the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia came under a lot of pressure and a moratorium was put on arms deals," she says. "In my opinion, though, its role in the Yemen war or even its troubling human rights record would have sufficed to put a blanket ban on arms shipments to Saudi Arabia."

Not only is Berlin's arms policy inconsistent, it also contravenes its own guidelines for exports of military equipment, which in times of conflict or crisis prohibit the delivery of military equipment to so-called third countries — defined as neither European Union nor NATO members (or "NATO-equivalent," such as Australia).

Meanwhile, there is growing pressure in Germany for a reappraisal of the country's Middle East policy.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (r) welcomed Libyan Premier Abdul Hamid Dbeibah at a peace conference in Berlin in June 2021

Time to take on more responsibility

Germany is facing a tense parliamentary election at the end of September that will also signal the end of Angela Merkel's 16-year term in office as German chancellor. Whoever emerges as the next leader is going to have his or her work cut out for them in dealing with the United State, which looks set to keep up the pressure on Berlin to play a more decisive role on the international stage.

It looks likely that Germany will increasingly be expected to take on more responsibility — including in the Middle East, where it has so far had a minor role as a conflict mediator, such as in Libya.


New source of tension: Extreme weather events

The global community is facing an unprecedented existential challenge in climate change, which can only be contained or combatted if markets and morals are made to augment each other. As in so many parts of the world, the Middle East, too, is threatened by a spiraling number of extreme weather events that Stefan Lukas describes as "accelerants for already-existing problems." His fear is that the region will be further destabilized, pushing more and more people to join the many refugees already trying to make their way to Europe.

"And that of course leaves us facing a big problem. Because if we start telling Libya, Saudi Arabia, or UAE to leave their oil in the ground, they are not going to be amused. After all, their revenues are mainly derived from fossil fuel sources," cautions Lukas, a lecturer at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff Academy for the Middle East in Hamburg

Stefan Lukas says there is no alternative to aligning markets and morals: "The bottom line is that it is both a moral and economic imperative for Europe to help the countries of the Middle East come up with new options and new incentives, including economic incentives."

Climate change can, he adds, become a "pathway towards multilateral peacebuilding."

He maps out an ambitious vision: "A coordinated environment and climate agreement could spark a move towards greater political cooperation. And that, in turn, could help us to build a bridge between morals, on the one hand, and market-driven egoism on the other."

This article was translated from German.

RUMSFELD, CHENEY, BUSH OUTSOURCED WAR

Study: Pentagon reliance on contractors hurt US in 9/11 wars

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER

 In this Oct. 27, 2010, file photo a private security contractor watches a NATO supply truck drive past in the province of Ghazni, south-west of Kabul, Afghanistan. Military contractors got up to half of the $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since 9/11, a study by Brown University’s Costs of War project and the Center for International Policy said Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad, File)

Up to half of the $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since 9/11 went to for-profit defense contractors, a study released Monday found. It’s the latest work to argue the U.S. reliance on private corporations for war-zone duties that used to be done by troops contributed to mission failure in Afghanistan.

In the post-9/11 wars, U.S. corporations contracted by the Defense Department not only handled war-zone logistics like running fuel convoys and staffing chow lines but performed mission-crucial work like training and equipping Afghan security forces — security forces that collapsed last month as the Taliban swept the country.

Within weeks, and before the U.S. military had even completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban easily routed an Afghan government and military that Americans had spent 20 years and billions of dollars to stand up. President Joe Biden placed blame squarely on the Afghans themselves. “We gave them every chance,” he said last month. “What we could not provide them was the will to fight.”

But William Hartung, the author of Monday’s study by Brown University’s Costs of War project and the Center for International Policy, and others say it’s essential that Americans examine what role the reliance on private contractors played in the post-9/11 wars. In Afghanistan, that included contractors allegedly paying protection money to warlords and the Taliban themselves, and the Defense Department insisting on equipping the Afghan air force with complex Blackhawk helicopters and other aircraft that few but U.S. contractors knew how to maintain.

“If it were only the money, that would be outrageous enough,” Hartung, the director of the arms and security program at the Center for International Policy, said of instances where the Pentagon’s reliance on contractors backfired. “But the fact it undermined the mission and put troops at risk is even more outrageous.”

At the start of this year, before Biden began the final American withdrawal from Afghanistan, there were far more contractors in Afghanistan and also in Iraq than U.S. troops.

The U.S. saw about 7,000 military members die in all post-9/11 conflicts, and nearly 8,000 contractors, another Costs of War study estimates.

The Professional Services Council, an organization representing businesses contracting with the government, cited a lower figure from the U.S. Department of Labor saying nearly 4,000 federal contractors have been killed since 2001.

A spokeswoman pointed to a statement last month from the organization’s president, David J. Berteau: “For almost two decades, government contractors have provided broad and essential support for U.S. and allied forces, for the Afghan military and other elements of the Afghan government, and for humanitarian and economic development assistance.”
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U.S. officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks embraced private contractors as an essential part of the U.S. military response.

It started with then-Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton received more than $30 billion to help set up and run bases, feed troops and carry out other work in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2008, the study says. Cheney and defense contractors argued that relying on private contractors for work that service members did in previous wars would allow for a trimmer U.S. military, and be more efficient and cost effective.

By 2010, Pentagon spending had surged by more than one-third, as the U.S. fought dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a post-9/11 American, politicians vied to show support for the military in a country grown far more security conscious.

“Any member of Congress who doesn’t vote for the funds we need to defend this country will be looking for a new job after next November,” the study notes Harry Stonecipher, then the vice president of Boeing, telling The Wall Street Journal the month after the attacks.

And up to a third of the Pentagon contracts went to just five weapons suppliers. Last fiscal year, for example, the money Lockheed Martin alone got from Pentagon contracts was one and a half times the entire budgets of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the study.

The Pentagon pumped out more contracts than it could oversee, lawmakers and government special investigators said.

For example, a Florida Republican Party official made millions on what lawmakers charged were excess profits when the U.S. granted a one-of-a-kind contract for fuel convoys from Jordan to Iraq, the study notes. The electrocution of at least 18 service members by bad wiring in bases in Iraq, some of it blamed on major contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root, was another of many instances where government investigations pointed to shoddy logistics and reconstruction work.

The stunning Taliban victory last month in Afghanistan is drawing attention now to even graver consequences: the extent to which the U.S. reliance on contractors may have heightened the difficulties of the Afghan security forces.

Jodi Vittori, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel and scholar of corruption and fragile states at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who was not involved in the study, points to the U.S. insistence that the Afghan air force use U.S.-made helicopters. Afghans preferred Russian helicopters, which were easier to fly, could be maintained by Afghans, and were suited to rugged Afghanistan.

When U.S. contractors pulled out with U.S. troops this spring and summer, taking their knowledge of how to maintain U.S.-provided aircraft with them, top Afghan leaders bitterly complained to the U.S. that it had deprived them of one essential advantage over the Taliban.

Hartung, like others, also points to the corruption engendered by the billions of loosely monitored dollars that the U.S. poured into Afghanistan as one central reason that Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government lost popular support, and Afghan fighters lost morale.

Hillary Clinton, while secretary of state under President Barack Obama, accused defense contractors at risk in war zones of resorting to payoffs to armed groups, making protection money one of the biggest sources of funding for the Taliban.

The United States also relied, in part, on defense contractors to carry out one of the tasks most central to its hopes of success in Afghanistan — helping to set up and train an Afghan military and other security forces that could stand up to extremist groups and to insurgents, including the Taliban.

Tellingly, Vittori said, it was Afghan commandos who had consistent training by U.S. special operations forces and others who did most of the fighting against the Taliban last month.

Relying less on private contractors, and more on the U.S. military as in past wars, might have given the U.S. better chances of victory in Afghanistan, Vittori noted. She said that would have meant U.S. presidents accepting the political risks of sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and getting more body bags of U.S. troops back.

“Using contractors allowed America to fight a war that a lot of Americans forgot we were fighting,” Vittori said.