What's the big deal about minimum wage in Germany?

Germany is relatively new to the list of countries with a minimum wage. Now, government coalition talks are considering raising it without using the country's independent expert commission. There are pros and cons.

Some in Germany live in poverty despite the country's high minimum wage

Ever since the first modern minimum wages were introduced in the late 19th century in New Zealand and Australia, they have been very controversial.

As the name suggests, a minimum wage is the lowest amount employers must pay employees. Around the world, most countries have some sort of minimum wage in place, though there are often many exceptions to the rules.

In Germany, a federal minimum wage was introduced in January 2015, under Christian Democrat (CDU) Chancellor Angela Merkel, though mainly due to pressure from the CDU's coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD).

It replaced various wages negotiated within different sectors and was set at a pretax rate of €8.50 across the country. Since then, it has slowly crept up, with the most recent increase in July bringing it up to €9.60 ($11.20). Two more increases are planned; by July 2022 workers can expect to earn at least €10.45 an hour.

Within Europe, Germany's minimum wage is on the high side, topped only by Luxembourg and France. A number of European Union countries — such as Denmark, Italy, Austria, Cyprus, Finland and Sweden — have no national minimum wage. They rely on unions and individual sectors to set their own wages.

Who gets a minimum wage in Germany?

Germany's minimum wage covers a majority of workers in the country who are over 18. This includes seasonal workers, no matter where they are from.

As in most places, there are a number of exceptions to the rule. Apprentices, workers taking part in job-promotion schemes, long-term unemployed people in the first six months after reentering the labor market and self-employed individuals are not covered by the minimum wage law.

Workers transiting through the country, such as airline pilots and truck drivers, are likewise not covered.

The initial 2015 minimum wage rate was set by the then-government. After that, an independent government body known as the Minimum Wage Commission took charge of setting the rate and making adjustments. In all decisions, the commission has to balance worker protection, fair competition and employment levels. Political considerations should be left at the door. But now, the independence of this commission is being called into question.

In Germany, servers start out earning minimum wage, but don't typically get much in tips

SO TIPS ARE NOT REALLY FOR SERVICE, THEY ARE A PITY WAGE

Minimum wage as political football

What has brought the minimum wage back into the spotlight in Germany is ongoing coalition talks to form a new government. The talks between the Social Democrats, Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) will continue in earnest after an initial exploratory phase. Coalition parties now need to agree on a plan for governing.

One SPD and Green campaign promise that may turn into reality is a plan to raise the minimum wage to €12 an hour within a year. Doing so would not only negate years of work by the Minimum Wage Commission: It would go over the body's head and take away its independence. Unfazed by this paradox, the parties say that, after this one-off increase, the commission can once again take over.

Critics are up in arms about this sudden politicization of a supposedly autonomous body. The parties point out that the minimum wage was too low to begin with and that raising it is a way to fight poverty — but many experts say a minimum wage is not the way to fight poverty.

Such a large increase could make it less likely that when the commission is back in charge, it would agree to more increases in the near future, potentially keeping the wage stuck indefinitely at €12.
Why is minimum wage controversial?

When the minimum wage was originally implemented in Germany in 2015, many feared that higher wages would induce businesses to move to where labor is cheaper, or replace workers with machines. Some experts predicted up to 900,000 job losses. This did not happen then. It could be a gamble to see if the economy is once again strong enough to deal with such an increase.

Youth unemployment is particularly bad for those who want to start careers

Over the years, various studies have come to different conclusions about the pros and cons of a mandated minimum wage. Some found no correlation between employment and a minimum wage; others found negative impacts, such as reduced hiring or fewer hours for workers. Still others claim a direct positive impact.

The positive effects typically cited include helping low-skilled workers earn more, decreasing poverty, encouraging legitimate employment, creating more technological innovation and reducing employee turnover.

The supposed negative impacts are just the opposite. Opponents say a minimum wage hampers the flexibility of firms, encourages the use of machines instead of people, leads to fewer jobs, makes it harder for first-time job-seekers and adds to long-term unemployment as jobs move abroad.

Also some in the elder care sector earn the minimum wage

For the naysayers, the biggest threat from a minimum wage is a wage-price spiral. This happens when business have to pay more for labor, giving workers more money to spend, which causes demand and therefore prices to increase. To make up for these increased prices, wages then go up. It is a circle where everyone ends up paying more in the end, also causing inflation increases.

But the story is not the same everywhere, and wages are only one piece of the complex economic picture; pinpointing the true impact of minimum wages will keep experts busy for the foreseeable future.

One thing most will be able to agree on is that workers should be able to live from what they earn. What that means to the future German government will slowly come into focus as it agrees to a governing platform over the weeks to come.

Bolsonaro welfare plan shakes Brazil markets, sparks resignations

FASCISTS (EL CAPO)LOVE ONE TIME PSEUDO-WELFARE PLANS JUST ASK PERON

Issued on: 22/10/2021 - 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is proposing a controversial and expensive welfare program a year before elections he is expected to lose EVARISTO SA AFP

Brasília (AFP)

The program could cost the government an extra 30 billion reais ($5.3 billion dollars) at a time when inflation is already high and exceed the government spending ceiling established by law.

The government announced earlier this week that it was setting up a new social welfare program to replace the "Bolsa Familia" system created by the leftist administration of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The new program would start in November with a 20 percent increase in benefits paid to nearly 17 million Brazilians in need.

Coming just a year before a presidential election in which Bolsonaro is widely expected to be defeated by Lula da Silva, the move was seen by several analysts as a pre-election sweetener.

The measure rattled investors. The Sao Paulo stock market fell 2.75 percent, while the price of the US dollar rose to 5.65 reais, its highest level in six months.

Concerned by the plan, several economic officials quit their posts, including top treasury officials Bruno Funchal and Jeferson Bittencourt, authorities said.

Bolsonaro denied that his project, whose source of funding has not been specified, is against the law.

"There are around 16 million people registered with the 'Bolsa familia', and though the financial aid reaches an average of 192 reais, many people receive 40, 50, 60 reais. What we are saying is: 400 reais for all," he said Thursday.

Bolsonaro also offered to "help" 750,000 truckers with compensation for increases in the price of diesel.

The president made the announcements at a time when his popularity is at its lowest level since he took office in 2019, and amid high inflation and high unemployment.

© 2021 AFP

Juan Peron against Capitalism and Communism

Edited footage of speeches given by Juan Peron whilst forming bonds with the leaders of other Latin American countries in an attempt to form an alliance that excluded the United States of America.  The US had already set up its own South American anti-communist bloc, which only one country, other than itself, had joined.  It was extremely hostile to Peron influence and stature, since it would only accept a Pan American association with itself as the leader - of course

Consumer watchdog to probe Big Tech payment systems


 In this May 8, 2019, file photo, Federal Trade Commission commissioner Rohit Chopra testifies during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. In its first move since getting a new director, Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Apple, Amazon, PayPal and other tech giants to disclose how they operate their proprietary payment networks, which have to come to dominate large portions of e-commerce and person-to-person payments. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — In its first significant action under a new director, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ordering Apple, Amazon, PayPal and other tech giants to reveal how their proprietary payment networks function.

Apple Pay, Google Pay and other payment systems created by big tech companies now dominate large portions of e-commerce and person-to-person payments. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is seeking more transparency, as well as more details about what consumer protections have been put in place.

The CFPB also raised potential antitrust concerns.

“Big Tech companies are eagerly expanding their empires to gain greater control and insight into our spending habits,” Chopra said in a prepared statement.

Before being confirmed as director last month, Chopra was a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission where he used his role to raise concerns about anticompetitive behavior at large technology firms. He also raised the issue during his confirmation hearing at the Senate Banking Committee.

The CFPB has rescinded or scaled back a number of policies put in place by the Trump administration. And the bureau is adding staff in anticipation of taking a more active role in regulation and enforcement, as it did during the Obama administration.

In the past decade, technology companies have rolled out full-featured payment systems and networks like Apple Pay, AliPay and Google Pay, which are often embedded into smart devices. Apple sells its Apple credit card product right inside the iPhone, and if a consumer opens an account, it is automatically integrated into the customer’s payment options. In many ways, a consumer’s smart phone has replaced their wallet.

While the innovation has been largely celebrated by those who use it, banks and consumer groups have raised concerns about tech companies running their own independent payment networks. While banks have tried to compete with Silicon Valley in payments through services like Zelle, they have struggled to keep up and do not have the integrated systems Apple or Google operate that is seen a competitive advantage. Consumers can add their credit or debit cards to their iPhone or Android devices, but it usually requires additional steps.

“Since the Bureau was founded, a growing share of banking activity has occurred outside of the purview of leading regulators, putting consumers and the resiliency of the financial system at risk,” said Richard Hunt, CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, the trade group for the nation’s big consumer banks.

In its letter to companies, the CFPB asked for information on how their products store consumer information, how the data is aggregated or sold or shared with other companies, as well as how consumers’ information may be used to sell them additional products.

The Electronic Transactions Association, which represents Apple, Amazon, Google and other technology companies when it comes to payments, said they plan to fully cooperate with the CFPB’s order.

“The digital transactions industry has a good story to tell about its efforts to protect consumer data. We look forward to working with Director Chopra and the CFPB on this important effort,” said ETA CEO Jodie Kelley in a prepared statement.

COPS LIE & EXAGERATE

Official: Narrative of riders filming train rape is false

 In this Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 file photo, A SEPTA transit map is shown outside the Pattison subway station near the Wachovia Spectrum, left, and the Wachovia center, right in Philadelphia. The narrative that passengers watched a man rape a woman on a train in suburban Philadelphia last week and “filmed it for their own gratification instead of calling the police” is false, the prosecutor handling the case said Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 as he asked witnesses to come forward. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)


MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — The narrative that passengers watched a man rape a woman on a train in suburban Philadelphia last week and “filmed it for their own gratification instead of calling the police” is false, the prosecutor handling the case said Thursday as he asked witnesses to come forward.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said during a news conference that the other passengers on the train were not present for the entire 40-minute interaction on Oct. 13 and may not have understood what they were seeing.

“People get off and on at every single stop,” Stollsteimer said. “That doesn’t mean when they get on and they see people interacting that they know a rape is occurring.”

Stollsteimer’s recount of surveillance video and plea to witnesses came after days of authorities saying multiple passengers were present for the assault, with some appearing to hold their phones in the direction of the attack as police allege 35-year-old Fiston Ngoy raped the woman in a train seat.

Police and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority officials initially expressed dismay that passengers did not call 911 or report the attack, even if they didn’t understand the seriousness of what was happening.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt told reporters over the weekend there were passengers present who “should have done something,” in his opinion.

Nevertheless, Stollsteimer said Thursday “the narrative that there is a group of people callously filming and didn’t act, is simply not true.” He added that witnesses of the attack could share information without fear of being charged.

He said Wednesday that Pennsylvania law does not allow for the prosecution of someone for simply witnessing a crime.

Surveillance video shows two passengers holding phones up toward the assault, Stollsteimer said. One of those people provided video to authorities as part of the investigation, he said.

Requests by The Associated Press for surveillance video from the attack on the Market-Frankford line have been denied by SEPTA, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

In an arrest affidavit for Ngoy, police said he boarded the train shortly after the woman, quickly sitting next to her, and repeatedly tried to touch and grope her over the next almost 40 minutes. Investigators say surveillance video also shows the woman pushing Ngoy away several times.

Ngoy, who told police he had seen the woman before and that the sexual encounter was consensual, is charged with rape and several related offenses and is being held on $180,000 bail. The woman, who was taken to the hospital, said she had never met Ngoy and did not give him permission to touch her.

A public defender assigned to represent Ngoy declined to comment, saying it was still very early in the case. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.

SEPTA Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III’s best estimate was there were about 10 passengers in the close vicinity of Ngoy and the woman during the rape, which started about 9:52 p.m. and ended when SEPTA police pulled Ngoy off of the woman about 10 p.m., authority spokesman Andrew Busch said Wednesday.

An off-duty SEPTA employee was one of those 10 people. That employee alerted SEPTA police because he believed something wasn’t right with the interaction, Busch said. He praised the employee’s actions, saying he likely prevented Ngoy from being able to walk off the train and escape arrest.

Three minutes after the employee reported the assault, SEPTA officers stationed at the 69th Street terminal responded to the train car and stopped it.

An arrest for a separate sexual assault at the 69th Street terminal was also announced at the news conference Thursday. Bernhardt said a woman had missed her stop and asked the suspect how to get to the platform to go in the opposite direction. As he showed her, Bernhardt said he groped the woman and pushed her into a seclude area.

A passenger on the platform heard her screams for help and intervened. SEPTA police ultimately stopped the attack and took the man into custody.

Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say


Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say

Sarah Kaplan, (c) 2021, The Washington Post
Wed, October 20, 2021, 4:50 PM·11 min read

Climate change is set to become the "defining narrative of human health," a top medical journal warned Wednesday - triggering food shortages, deadly disasters and disease outbreaks that would dwarf the toll of the coronavirus. But aggressive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions from human activities could avert millions of unnecessary deaths, according to the analysis from more than 100 doctors and health experts.

In its annual "Countdown on health and climate change," the Lancet provides a sobering assessment of the dangers posed by a warming planet. More than a dozen measures of humanity's exposure to health-threatening weather extremes have climbed since last year's report.

"Humanity faces a crucial turning point," the doctors say, with nations poised to spend trillions of dollars on economic recovery from the pandemic and world leaders set to meet in Glasgow for a major U.N. climate conference in less than two weeks. The United States is working to assemble a set of climate policies to help coax bigger commitments from other top emitters at that conference, even as the Biden administration is scaling back its climate legislation, given opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., who represents a coal-producing state.

Rising temperatures have led to higher rates of heat illness, causing farmworkers to collapse in fields and elderly people to die in their apartments. Insects carrying tropical diseases have multiplied and spread toward the poles. The amount of plant pollen in the air is increasing, worsening asthma and other respiratory conditions. Extreme floods and catastrophic storms have boosted the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. Smoke from fires in California infiltrates the lungs and then the bloodstreams of people as far away as Texas, Ohio and New York. Droughts intensify, crops fail, hunger stalks millions of the world's most vulnerable people.

"If nothing else will drive the message home about the present threat that climate change poses to our global society, this should," said Lachlan McIver, a Doctors Without Borders physician who was not involved in writing the Lancet report. "Your health, my health, the health of our parents and our children are at stake."

The Lancet study is just the latest salvo from health professionals demanding a swift end to burning fossil fuels and other planet-warming activities. In a special report released last week, the World Health Organization called climate change "the single biggest health threat facing humanity," warning that its effects could be more catastrophic and enduring than the coronavirus pandemic. Dozens of public health experts are headed to the U.N. climate summit starting at the end of the month, aiming to convince world leaders that they must take bolder action to curb their nations' carbon output.

Yet just half of countries surveyed said they have a national climate and health strategy in place, the Lancet study said. Trends in renewable energy generation and adaptation initiatives have improved only slightly. And most of the world's biggest emitters, including the United States, continue to subsidize fossil fuels at rates of tens of billions of dollars per year - rivaling the amounts they spend on public health.

The outcomes of national spending debates and international climate negotiations will either "lock humanity into an increasingly extreme and unpredictable environment," the report says, or "deliver a future of improved health, reduced inequity, and economic and environmental sustainability."

"Lowering greenhouse gas emissions is a prescription," said Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who helped write the "Countdown" and an accompanying policy brief aimed at U.S. lawmakers. "The oath I took as a doctor is to protect the health of my patients. Demanding action on climate change is how I can do that."

The world has not committed yet to cutting emissions enough to avert the worst effects of warming. Based on countries' current pledges under the Paris climate accord, average temperatures are on track to increase by a catastrophic 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. The planet has already warmed about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the preindustrial era.

And a U.N. report released Wednesday found that governments are still planning to boost fossil fuel use on a scale far beyond even those insufficient targets. G-20 countries have directed more new funding to fossil fuels than clean energy since the start of the pandemic, the report says.

The United States is one of the worst offenders, slated to increase oil and gas production by a combined nine exajoules by 2030 - the equivalent of about 215 million tons of oil - despite President Joe Biden's pledge to more than halve emissions by the end of the decade.

"A carbon-intensive COVID-19 recovery would irreversibly prevent the world from meeting climate commitments," the Lancet report warns.

The report draws repeated parallels between the coronavirus pandemic and the health crisis posed by climate change. Both have exposed and exacerbated inequality, and highlight the folly of prioritizing short-term economic interests over long-term consequences.

Yet the death toll from climate change will outstrip that of the coronavirus, the scientists warned - unless drastic action is taken to avert further warming and adapt to changes underway.

Already, climate change routinely threatens to overwhelm health systems' capacity to respond. When record-high temperatures scorched the Pacific Northwest this summer, the rate of emergency room admissions spiked to 69 times higher than the same period in 2019.

David Markel, an emergency physician at Swedish Medical Center's Cherry Hill campus in Seattle, said at the time that the surge of patients rivaled the worst days of the pandemic. He and his colleagues were treating patients in hallways, stuffing ice packs into people's armpits to bring their temperatures down.

"This is going to impact us all," Markel said. "The more crises like this we face, the more clear it is."

Just 0.3% of global climate change adaptation funding has been directed at health systems, the Lancet report says, despite an explosion of evidence for the health consequences of unchecked emissions. In the past month, studies in academic journals have reported the following:

El Niño weather patterns - which are projected to intensify as the planet warms - cause about 6 million children to go hungry.

Air pollution causes tens of thousands of early deaths among Americans each year, even at low levels deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The warming of the Amazon, combined with deforestation, will expose roughly 11 million people to potentially lethal heat by the end of the century.

This drumbeat of new studies has been accentuated by a crescendo of recent climate-linked disasters: Drought in Madagascar has pushed more than 1 million people to the brink of starvation. Flash floods in Niger worsened the West African nation's cholera epidemic.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, at least 538 Americans have died in major climate disasters this year. That doesn't account for the less-direct deaths: people who get sick from mold that forms after their home is deluged during a hurricane and patients whose chronic conditions are exacerbated by extreme temperatures. Studies suggest that smoke from wildfires led to thousands more coronavirus cases out West, and in one county was linked to 41% of deaths.

Recent disasters "are grim warnings that for every day that we delay our response to climate change, the situation gets more critical," said Marina Romanello, research director and lead author for the "Countdown."

Yet climate change's greatest dangers are not always associated with the most obvious weather extremes. Other threats will emerge from relatively slow, subtle transformations of the Earth and air.

By far the deadliest hazard comes from the act of burning fossil fuels, which generates tiny, lung-irritating particles known as PM2.5. One estimate published this February put the toll of this pollution at more than 10 million excess deaths each year. The Lancet study is more conservative, putting the figure closer to 1 million.

When it comes to the consequences of warming, heat is the world's worst killer. Elderly people and infants younger than 1 - the groups most vulnerable to heat - are exposed to roughly four more extremely hot days per year now than a generation ago, the Lancet report found. Almost 350,000 people died of heat-related illness in 2019.

Steadily rising temperatures, combined with habitat disruption and globalization, have also given infectious diseases a chance to evolve and expand.

Fungal illnesses, which can't be treated with vaccines or antibiotics, may be on the rise. Historically, there haven't been many fungi capable of infecting humans, because the microbes don't thrive at typical body temperatures. But as global warming increases the average temperatures in the environments where fungi live, it may be pressuring these species to adapt. This in turn could make them better suited for invading human guts or respiratory tracts, scientists suggest.

An April study in the journal PLOS Pathogens noted that Candida auris, a treatment-resistant infection that was first identified only 12 years ago, may have evolved this way. Same goes for a new kind of Cryptococcus gattii, a lung-infecting fungi typically found in the tropics, that recently emerged in the Pacific Northwest. In the Southwest United States, scientists have documented a rise in Valley Fever cases, which are caused by a fungus whose spores are spread on dusty, windy days that are now common because of climate-induced drought.

"They are kind of lurking in the soil and lurking in the environment," said Anita Sil, a microbial geneticist at the University of California at San Francisco who studies disease-causing fungi. "They're in the air we breathe."

Meanwhile, disease-carrying mosquitoes are moving to more temperate areas and higher elevations, their life cycles accelerated and their biting behaviors intensified. Shifting environmental factors have raised the basic reproductive rates of illnesses like Zika and chikungunya, enhancing their potential to explode into epidemics. A study published by the Lancet Planetary Health this July found that unabated carbon emissions would put almost 90% of the world's population at risk of malaria and dengue by the end of the century.

In the past decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified at least 128 cases in which people contracted dengue within the mainland United States. One case emerged as far north as New York.

But the diseases will continue to hit hardest in the low-lying, tropical nations where they are already endemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, McIver said, the toll could amount to as many as 50 additional deaths every hour, most of them in children under 5.

Other studies suggest that the rate of diarrheal diseases in children will increase as much as 5% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of temperature rise.

The particular danger to young children underscores what McIver calls the "cruel irony" of climate-related health threats: "Those who are being the most affected by the problem are those contributing least to the phenomenon of climate change," he said. "That's the thing we should all be staying awake at night thinking about."

On Capitol Hill and in international negotiations, the high price tag of addressing these impacts and moving the world away from fossil fuels has been an obstacle to climate legislation.

The Lancet "Countdown" argues that inaction will be even more expensive.

Last year, the direct costs of climate disasters totaled more than $178 billion, the report says. Drought affected 19% of the world's total land surface area, damaging yields of crucial crops such as wheat, corn and soy. Extreme heat harmed workers and shut down operations at farms and factories, depriving the world of 295 billion potential work hours.

But curbing emissions, investing in clean energy and funding adaptation efforts could save money as well as lives, the report says. The reduced air pollution that would result from eliminating fossil fuels alone could deliver global health benefits in the trillions of dollars. A 2019 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that deaths from fine-particle pollution cost the United States more than $800 billion per year; more than half of those costs were attributable to pollution from the energy and transportation sectors.

"We have an enormous opportunity to get to the root cause of health harms from the burning of fossil fuels," Salas said. "To me there is no greater treatment that will have the widest health benefits for my patients than reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Climate change will cause global tensions, say US intelligence services

Issued on: 22/10/2021 

A wind-driven wildfire burns near power line tower in Sylmar, California, U.S., October 10, 2019. 

© Gene Blevins, REUTERS
Text by: NEWS WIRES

US intelligence services said Thursday for the first time that climate change poses wide-ranging threats to the United States' national security and stability around the world.

More extreme weather "will increasingly exacerbate a number of risks to US national security interests, from physical impacts that could cascade into security challenges, to how countries respond to the climate challenge," the White House said in a summary of the intelligence reports.

The prediction was made in the first official assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, which oversees the sprawling US intelligence apparatus.

The document "represents the consensus view of all 18" elements in the intelligence community, the White House said.

According to the agencies, climate change is driving "increased geopolitical tension as countries argue over who should be doing more," cross-border "flashpoints" as countries respond to climate change impact by trying to secure their own interests, and fallout from climate on national stability in some countries.

On a practical level, US national security bodies will be integrating climate change effects into their planning, the White House said.

The Pentagon, for example, will consider climate change "at every level, which will be essential to train, fight, and win in an increasingly complex environment."

Migration, a politically sensitive issue on the US southern border, will also be seen partly through the lens of climate change, the White House said.

"This assessment marks the first time the US government is officially recognizing and reporting on this linkage."

The report was issued just ahead of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which President Joe Biden will be attending.

"With more than 85 percent of global emissions coming from beyond US borders, we alone cannot solve this challenge. We need the rest of the world to accelerate their progress," a senior US official, who asked not to be identified, told reporters.

"It is definitely a security issue and a national security issue."

A separate government report issued later Thursday characterized climate-related risk as "an emerging threat to financial stability of the United States," according to the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Recommendations included directives for regulators to require additional climate disclosures of companies and other regulated entities and consider mandates for them to undertake "scenario analysis" on climate outcomes.

"This report puts climate change squarely at the forefront of the agenda," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said at a meeting of the FSOC, which was set up after the 2008 financial crisis.

Yellen described the report as a "critical first step" as she called for immediate action, saying "the longer we wait to address the underlying causes of climate change, the greater the risk."

(AFP)

Gov't reports say climate change affecting immigration, national security in U.S.


Vehicles wait at the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the United States on March 21. File 

Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The White House and the entire U.S. intelligence community each issued key reports on Thursday that underscore the harm posed by climate change as it relates to priorities like national security and immigration.

The White House report examines the climate impacts on migration, and the intelligence assessment weighs a broader scope of the potential damage.

The latter report -- which is the first to include a consensus on climate change from all 18 elements of the U.S. intelligence community -- outlines a number of areas of vital U.S. interest that are under threat from global warming.

"Geopolitical tensions are likely to grow as countries increasingly argue about how to accelerate the reductions in net greenhouse gas emissions," the 27-page National Intelligence Estimate on Climate states.

"Forecasts indicate that intensifying physical effects of climate change out to 2040 and beyond will be most acutely felt in developing countries, which we assess are also the least able to adapt to such changes."

The report also said the physical impact of climate change is likely to "exacerbate cross-border geopolitical flash points as states take steps to secure their interests."

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Defense Department, Homeland Security Department and National Security Council contributed to the assessment.

The White House said in its report that there's a definitive link between climate change and immigration, and that Thursday was the first time the U.S. government is recognizing the cause and effect.

"The accelerating trend of global displacement related to climate impacts is increasing cross-border movements ... particularly where climate change interacts with conflict and violence," the 37 page report, titled "The Impact of Climate Change on Migration," states.

Recommendations in the White House report include creating an interagency policy process on climate change and migration, improving analytics, establishing programs and investments into climate change mitigation and legislative action to address the crisis.

The recommendations in the reports reflect a pledge by President Joe Biden to make climate change a central tenet of foreign policy and national security.

"The climate crisis is reshaping our physical world, with the Earth's climate changing faster than at any point in modern history and extreme weather events becoming more frequent and severe," the White House added.

"We are already experiencing the devastating impacts that climate has wreaked on almost every aspect of our lives, from food and water insecurity to infrastructure and public health, this crisis is exacerbating inequalities that intersect with gender, race, ethnicity and economic security."

The sweeping assessments released on Thursday came one day after a study found that almost 100 of scientific studies agree that the cause of climate change is human activity.

"It's pretty much case closed for any meaningful public conversation about the reality of human-caused climate change," one expert in the study said.

US regulators endorse efforts to address climate risks


Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen listens as President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with business leaders about the debt limit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. financial regulators on Thursday approved a series of steps toward addressing the dangers that climate change poses to the nation’s financial system.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and includes Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, acknowledged in a report that climate change is a serious economic threat.

“Climate-related impacts in the form of warming temperatures rising sea levels, droughts, wildfires, intensifying storms and other climate related events are already imposing significant costs upon the public and the economy,” the council’s 133-page report says. “It is the responsibility of the council and its members to ensure the financial system’s resiliency to climate related risks.”

The report includes more than 30 proposals aimed at improving efforts to the assess risks. It put forward recommendations to upgrade the collection of risk data and also ways of making sure the public has access to the data.

The report was released 10 days before a United Nations conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. It signals the Biden administration’s intention to tell the broader international community that it is putting together the policy architecture to address climate change and improve the resilience of financial markets.

With the United States lagging behind the European Union and the United Kingdom in responding to climate change’s economic threats, the administration hopes to use the report to assert more leadership on the issue.

As recommended by the report, a special advisory committee would be established of scientists, Wall Street executives, business and labor leaders, environmentalists and others to help develop standards for monitoring the economic impacts of climate change.

The report also advises identifying and filling gaps in data for assessing how climate change could threaten the economy, including the sharing of data across the federal government and with international counterparts.

The council approved creation of two climate advisory panels that will report to the group on a regular basis to keep officials informed of progress being made.

Companies and government agencies would also have new standards for public disclosures about the climate, a move designed to make it easier for the markets to appropriately weigh the impacts of climate change and the potential savings from reducing those impacts through measures like the use of renewable energy.

Yellen called the changes approved by FSOC an “important first step” but said they were by no means the end of the group’s effort to better incorporate the assessment of climate threats into the regulatory process.

She said the severe weather events of this summer from the wildfires in the West to Hurricane Ida along the Gulf Coast demonstrated the need for action.

Powell, calling climate change a “significant challenge for the global economy and the financial system,” said the Fed was committed to doing its part in such areas as using more sophisticated analyses to better assess climate risks.

Yellen has made addressing climate change a top priority since joining the Biden administration.

Environmental groups, however, said they were disappointed that the FSOC did not make more ambitious recommendations.

“Financial regulators can and must act to rein in Wall Street’s contributions to the climate crisis,” said Ben Cushing, the manager of the Sierra Club’s fossil-free finance campaign. “This report is a step in the right direction, but bolder action from regulators is necessary in order to protect our economy from the climate crisis.”

FSOC is an umbrella panel made up of the heads of the government’s top financial regulatory agencies. It was created by Congress in 2010 to address serious problems in coordination between agencies that had been revealed by the 2008 financial crisis.

The report and its recommendations were approved by all members of the panel with the exception of Jelena McWilliams, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., who abstained on the grounds she felt more information was needed before reaching a conclusion. McWilliams was appointed to the FDIC by then-President Donald Trump.

US: More threats, more desperate refugees as climate warms

By JULIE WATSON, ELLEN KNICKMEYER and NOMAAN MERCHANT

In this Oct. 13, 2021, file photo, a firefighter watches as smoke rises from a wildfire in Goleta, Calif. Worsening climate change requires that the United States do much more to track and manage flows of migrants fleeing natural disasters. That's the finding of a multiagency study from the Biden administration. President Joe Biden ordered the assessment. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Earth’s warming and resulting natural disasters are creating a more dangerous world of desperate leaders and peoples, the Biden administration said Thursday in the federal government’s starkest assessments yet of security and migration challenges facing the United States as the climate worsens.

The Defense Department for years has called climate change a threat to U.S. national security. But Thursday’s reports by the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, National Security Council and Director of National Intelligence provide one of the government’s deepest looks yet at the vast rippling effects on the world’s stability and resulting heightened threats to U.S. security, as well as its impact on migration.

They include the first assessment by intelligence agencies on the impact of climate change, identifying 11 countries of greatest concern from Haiti to Afghanistan.

Another report, the first by the government focusing at length on climate and migration, recommends a number of steps, including monitoring the flows of people forced to leave their homes because of natural disasters, and working with Congress on a groundbreaking plan that would add droughts, floods and wildfires and other climate-related reasons to be considered in granting refugee status.

The climate migration assessments urge the creation of a task force to coordinate U.S. management of climate change and migration across government, from climate scientists to aid and security officials.

Each year, storms, the failure of seasonal rains and other sudden natural disasters force an average of 21.5 million people from their homes around the world, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says. Worsening climate from the burning of coal and gas already is intensifying a range of disasters, from wildfires overrunning towns in California, rising seas overtaking island nations and drought-aggravated conflict in some parts of the world.

“Policy and programming efforts made today and in coming years will impact estimates of people moving due to climate-related factors,” said the report, one of dozens of climate change assessments President Joe Biden ordered from federal agencies. “Tens of millions of people, however, are likely to be displaced over the next two to three decades due in large measure to climate change impacts.”

The Biden administration is eager to show itself confronting the impacts of climate change ahead of a crucial U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, that starts late this month. That’s especially so as Biden struggles to get lawmakers to agree to multibillion-dollar measures to slow climate change, a key part of his domestic agenda.

As part of its push Thursday, the administration released the first-ever national intelligence estimate on climate change, a document intended to signal the importance placed on the issue. National intelligence estimates are benchmark documents created by U.S. intelligence agencies that are intended to inform decision-making and analysis across the government.

Notably, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded it was probably already too late to keep the warming of the planet at or below the level laid out in the 2015 U.N. Paris climate accord. While that level remains the official goal for the United States and United Nations, many scientists have concluded the Earth’s temperature will rise at least several more tenths of a degree, a level of warming that brings even more damage and threatens some nations’ existence.

“Given current government policies and trends in technology development, we judge that collectively countries are unlikely to meet the Paris goals because high-emitting countries would have to make rapid progress toward decarbonizing their energy systems by transitioning away from fossil fuels within the next decade, whereas developing countries would need to rely on low-carbon energy sources for their economic development,” the intelligence report said.

No nation offers asylum or other legal protections to people displaced specifically because of climate change. The United States has the opportunity to change that, which could prompt others to follow suit, refugee advocates said.

The administration said it is not seeking to change international agreements on refugees but rather create U.S. laws that would allow climate change effects to be part of a valid claim for refugee status.

It noted that activists persecuted for speaking out against government inaction on climate change may also have plausible claims to refugee status.

Ama Francis, who has been helping the International Refugee Assistance Project find ways to protect climate refugees, applauded the administration’s recognition that global warming should be taken into account.

“That’s a huge signal from the U.S. government that our refugee and asylum system can protect people right now, which is important because there are thousands of climate displaced people already on the move, including those showing up at the U.S. border,” Francis said.

It’s imperative the report turn into legislation that allows climate refugees the ability to resettle in the United States, and not just result in another task force, others said.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine U.S. agencies working to resettle refugees, said action is needed because the current U.S. humanitarian protection system “wasn’t engineered for cascading natural disasters, mass aridification or large swath of lands consumed by rising seas.”

According to the separate intelligence assessment, a warming planet could increase geopolitical tensions particularly as poorer countries grapple with droughts, rising seas and other effects, while they wait for richer, higher-polluting countries to change their behavior. Climate change will “increasingly exacerbate risks to U.S. national security interests,” according to the estimate.

The estimate identifies 11 countries of particular concern: Afghanistan, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iraq, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea and Pakistan. It also lists two regions of concern: Central Africa and small island states in the Pacific Ocean.

Strains on land and water could push countries further toward conflict. In South Asia, much of Pakistan relies on surface water from rivers originating in India. The two countries are nuclear-armed rivals that have fought several wars since their founding in 1947. On India’s other side, about 10% of Bangladesh’s 160 million people already live in coastal areas vulnerable to rising seas and saltwater intrusion.

Intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity under agency rules said climate change could indirectly affect counterterrorism by pushing people seeking food and shelter to violent groups.

The intelligence community needs more scientific expertise and to integrate climate change into its analysis of other countries, the officials said.

Rising temperatures could force almost 3% of the populations of Latin America, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — more than 143 million people — to move within their countries in the next 30 years, according to one forecast cited in the report.

____

Watson reported from San Diego. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed.

Harbor patrol searched, couldn’t find California oil spill

1 of 8

In this Oct. 7, 2021, file photo, workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach in Corona Del Mar after an oil spill in Newport Beach, Calif. A group of environmental organizations is demanding the Biden administration suspend and cancel oil and gas leases in federal waters off the California coast after a recent crude oil spill. The Center for Biological Diversity and about three dozen organizations sent a petition Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, to the Department of the Interior, arguing it has the authority to end these leases. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Southern California harbor patrol boats picked up reports of a possible fuel spill off the coast on a marine radio emergency channel about an hour before the Coast Guard heard anything about oil on the water and about 15 hours before a large slick, which came from a leaking undersea pipeline, was confirmed, officials said Thursday.

Carrie Braun, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said harbor patrol boats off the coast of Huntington Beach picked up radio chatter among local boaters about an oily sheen and smell on the water at about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 1. At least one of the boats, which were in the area to assist with a popular air show, checked on the spill reports but found nothing on the water, she said.

The Coast Guard, however, didn’t hear any radio chatter about a possible spill until about an hour later from a commercial vessel anchored off the coast, Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jeannie Shaye said. The federal agency asked the vessel to make a report to the National Response Center, which is staffed by the Coast Guard and notifies other agencies of emergencies for quick response, she said.

The spill of about 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) of crude from a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy that ferried oil from three offshore platforms forced the closure of some of the region’s signature beaches and fisheries and harmed animal and plant life.

In the days after the spill, Coast Guard officials gave at-times conflicting accounts of the timeline for the initial response.

On Thursday, Shaye confirmed that multiple calls about a possible spill came in over the marine radio channel but said her agency only acted after a call around 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1 from the anchored vessel. She said the Coast Guard had no prior knowledge that the harbor patrol actually searched for the spill that evening.

She said the Coast Guard reached out to state and local authorities about 7 p.m. but did not launch a search because darkness was falling. By then, Braun said the harbor patrol had completed its check.

It wasn’t until 8:22 p.m. that the commercial vessel’s report was called into the National Response Center by Colonial Compliance Systems Inc., which works with foreign ships in U.S. waters to report spills, according to reports compiled by the California Office of Emergency Services.

The next morning, Coast Guard hazardous materials investigators went out on a harbor patrol fireboat and located a miles-long black plume several miles offshore, according to a sheriff’s department memo that was obtained by the AP through a California Public Records Act request.

Pete Stauffer, environmental director for Surfrider Foundation, which is working as a liaison between non-governmental agencies and the unified command for the spill response, said a swift response to a spill is key to limiting damage.

“When there’s a report of a significant-sized oil slick on the ocean, it’s important to investigate,” Stauffer said. “What happens in the first hours and days during an oil spill is absolutely critical.”

The cause of the spill is under investigation. Federal investigators are examining whether the Panama-registered MSC DANIT, a 1,200-foot (366-meter) container ship, was dragging anchor during a Jan. 25 storm and snagged the pipeline and dragged it on the seabed.

It’s not known why the leak occurred eight months later, and authorities also are looking into whether other anchors hit and weakened the pipeline or if a preexisting condition with the line was to blame.

After the spill, blobs of oil and tar balls washed ashore, forcing a weeklong closure of beaches that disrupted the local economy and killed dozens of birds. Environmental advocates say the damage was less than initially feared. But the long-term impact on wetlands and marine life is unknown.

A group of environmental organizations this week demanded that the Biden administration suspend and cancel oil and gas leases in federal waters off the California coast.

The Center for Biological Diversity and about three dozen organizations sent a petition arguing that the Department of the Interior has the authority to end these leases and that the decades-old platforms are especially susceptible to problems because of their age. The agency declined to comment.

____

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

California proposes new oil drilling ban near neighborhoods

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE

1 of 4

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks near oil fields by the Wilmington Boys & Girls Club Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021, in Wilmington, Calif. California's oil and gas regulator on Thursday proposed that the state ban new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals to protect public health in what would be the nation's largest buffer zone between oil wells and communities 

(Hunter Lee/The Orange County Register via AP)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s oil and gas regulator on Thursday proposed that the state ban new oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals to protect public health in what would be the nation’s largest buffer zone between oil wells and communities.

It’s the latest effort by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to wind down oil production in California, aligning him with environmental advocates pushing to curb the effects of climate change and against the powerful oil industry in the nation’s seventh-largest oil producing state.

Studies show living near a drilling site can elevate risks of birth defects, cancer, respiratory problems and other health issues. More than 2 million Californians live within 3,200 feet (975 meters) of oil drilling sites, primarily low-income residents and people of color in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley. The proposal would not ban 

“This is about public health, public safety, clean air, clean water — this is about our kids and our grandkids and our future,” Newsom said in Wilmington, a Los Angeles neighborhood with the city’s highest concentration of wells. “A greener, cleaner, brighter, more resilient future is in our grasp and this is a commitment to advance that 

The rules are a draft that signal what the administration is seeking, but they could change and won’t take effect until at least 2023.

This would be the first time California has set statewide rules on how close drilling can be to homes, schools and other sites. Other oil and gas producing states such as Colorado, Pennsylvania and even Texas have rules about how close oil wells can be to certain properties. Colorado’s 2,000-foot setback on new drilling, adopted last year, is the nation’s strictest rule right now.

California’s plan, if adopted, would also go further than the 2,500 foot (762 meter) buffer environmental groups sought. A coalition of environmental justice groups that advocate for Black, brown and Indigenous communities in heavily polluted areas commended the ruling but pushed Newsom to more aggressively phase out existing neighborhood drilling.

“Oil and gas companies have been treating our communities as sacrifice zones for over a century,” Juan Flores, community organizer with the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, said in a statement. “Frontline community members have spoken in a clear voice, demanding an end to neighborhood drilling.”

The Western States Petroleum Association, an oil and gas interest group, blasted the proposed rules as an “activist assault on California’s way of life, economy and people” in a statement from President Catherine Reheis-Boyd.

Reheis-Boyd said the industry doesn’t oppose local setbacks but does not approve of a statewide rule. She said the rules would lead to less reliable energy and higher prices in an industry that employs about 150,000 people.

Robbie Hunter of the influential State Building and Construction Trades Council, a labor union, said the rule would increase California’s dependence on foreign oil, and said the state was “fast becoming a beached whale with no ability to meet its own needs.”

Newsom, who just survived a recall election, cast the proposal as the latest step in his efforts to ensure oil is not part of California’s future. He has directed state air regulators to make a plan to end oil and gas production by 2045 and curb demand by banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

He was joined in Wilmington by state lawmakers who have long pushed for setbacks and doctors who spoke about the dangers of oil pollution for people who live nearby, particularly expectant mothers and children.

“I am tired of my district being called ‘asthma alley,’” said state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat who represents southeast Los Angeles County.

The rules were proposed by the California Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGEM, which regulates the state’s oil industry and issues drilling permits. Newsom directed it to focus on health and safety when he took office in 2019, specifically telling the division to consider setbacks around oil drilling to protect community health. The state received more than 40,000 public comments on the draft rules and convened a 15-member panel of public health experts to research the effects of neighborhood oil drilling on health and safety.

CalGEM has long faced criticism that it’s too cozy with the industry it regulates. Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the state natural resources agency, acknowledged the regulator needs to better enforce oil companies’ compliance with state law.

Wells within 3,200 feet of community sites account for about a third of the state’s oil extraction, Crowfoot said. There are about 32,400 wells in that zone, said Erin Mellon, a Newsom spokeswoman. Community sites include homes and apartments, preschools and K-12 schools, day cares, businesses, and health care facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes.

Existing wells would not be shut down but would be required to meet many new pollution control measures, including comprehensive leak detection and response plans, vapor recovery, water sampling and a reduction of nighttime lighting and dust. They are designed to limit health effects such as asthma and pregnancy complications, and cut nuisances like noise pollution.

Administration officials said they hope the new rules will be burdensome enough to prompt some drillers to close the wells. Operators would be financially responsible for meeting the requirements and have one to two years to do so.

Jared Blumenfeld, California’s environmental protection secretary, said the rules signal to existing drillers that “they’re going to have to invest a significant amount of time, money and attention in order to get into compliance.”

Alyssa Milano testifies before House committee on Equal Rights Amendment

By UPI Staff & Christina van Waasbergen, Medill News Service

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano speaks during a press conference calling for the certification of the Equal Rights Amendment during a press conference. 

Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Actress Alyssa Milano testified Thursday during a House committee hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment, stating that the Constitution "failed" the country by not including women.

Milano, a former Charmed star, encouraged the House Oversight and Reform Committee to pass legislation that would prohibit gender discrimination.

"The lack of constitutional protections for anyone who is not a cisgender man is a blemish on the very idea of Americanism," Milano told the committee.

"How can we be a free people when our governing document does not prohibit discrimination against more than half of the population?" she added. "The answer, of course, is that we cannot."

The ERA aims to amend the Constitution and add language ensuring equality of the sexes and grant Congress the power to enforce the amendment.

The amendment would read: "equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney called for the archivist of the United States to ignore the fact that the 38th state didn't ratify the amendment until decades after the deadline and certify the ERA.

"After 100 years, women cannot wait any longer for full constitutional equality," she said.

Originally written by suffragist Alice Paul in 1923, the ERA gained congressional approval in 1972 and then was sent to the states for ratification by March 22, 1979. However, by 1977, only 35 of the necessary 38 states needed to ratify the proposed constitutional amendment had done so. Though Congress voted to extend the ratification deadline by three years, no new states signed on. Since then, three more states have ratified the ERA, with Virginia becoming the pivotal 38th state in January 2020.

In March, the House passed a joint resolution removing the time limit for ratification.



Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the top Republican on the committee, pointed out that five states have rescinded their ratification, but Maloney argued that doesn't matter. She said the 14th Amendment was certified even though multiple states had rescinded their ratification of it.
THE TALIBAN ARE CONSERVATIVE
Inez Feltscher Stepman, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Independent Women's Forum, told the committee that the Constitution and state and federal laws already guarantee "basic sex equality," and the ERA would prohibit the government from recognizing "the very real differences between males and females."

PHYLISS SCHAFLEY WANNABE

For instance, she said, the ERA would make single-sex prisons unconstitutional.

Georgetown University law professor Victoria Nourse disagreed, arguing the ERA would still allow the government to differentiate between the sexes for a compelling reason.

Nourse also noted that late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the 14th Amendment does not prohibit sex discrimination.

"We now have a court of nine unelected men and women, six of whom idolize Justice Scalia," she said.

At a news conference before the hearing, Nourse said that with a conservative supermajority now on the Supreme Court, "almost all of the 1970s decisions that women take for granted" could be overturned without the ERA.

Milano, 48, was arrested outside of the White House during a voting rights rally Tuesday.

In a message on Twitter on Thursday, Milano said she was proud of the other women involved in the hearing and felt honored to participate.

From exile, former female Afghan leader keeps fighting
By THALIA BEATY

Fawzia Koofi, one of the Afghanistan's once-prominent female leaders — a former parliament member, candidate for president and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize -- speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, in New York. Koofi called for humanitarian aid sent to Afghanistan to be contingent on the participation of women in its distribution, as well as free and safe travel for Afghans into and out of the country. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Two months after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, one of the country’s once-prominent female leaders — a former parliament member, candidate for president and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize — is visiting the United Nations, not as a representative of her government but as a woman in exile.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Fawzia Koofi called for humanitarian aid sent to Afghanistan to be contingent on the participation of women in its distribution, as well as free and safe travel for Afghans into and out of the country.

Aid “should not be politicized. ... Women should be involved in every stage of it and they should be listened to. Women should not be only the recipients,” said Koofi, part of a delegation of Afghan women visiting the U.N. to urge member states not to compromise on inclusion and equal rights in Afghanistan.

Since fleeing Kabul in August, Koofi has been living in hotel rooms in Europe. She described the pain of separation from her country, of two decades of hopes dashed and of searching for permanent residence for herself and her two daughters.

“This is not an Afghanistan I fought for,” she told the AP. “The Afghanistan that I was hoping for was (that) women should not suffer as much as I suffered during my childhood, during the time that I was a teenager, when (the) Taliban took over.”

“I wanted other girls to enjoy at least the freedom of choosing which school they should go. But now, their choice is limited to which room in their houses they should spend during the day. This is heartbreaking.”

Koofi, a former deputy speaker of parliament, was one of only four women in talks to reach a power-sharing deal with the Taliban, which ultimately failed. She described watching the Taliban’s commitment to negotiations change after they signed a peace agreement with the United States in February 2020.

“After they signed the agreement, they were more extreme and they were more into buying time, preferring a military strategy,” she said.

Taliban fighters pursued that strategy in the summer, seizing province after province until they reached Kabul in August. When then-President Ashraf Ghani fled, the Taliban entered the capital, sparking panic among many who had opposed their rule and feared for their lives and futures.

That was the fatal blow to reaching a political settlement many had hoped would cement the gains women had achieved in access to education, work and the legal system, Koofi said.

She also blamed “world leaders,” seeming to point a finger at U.S. President Joe Biden. “As a superpower, the United States has a major responsibility and should be held accountable,” she said.

When he announced withdrawal plans, Biden said he was bound by the timetable set by the Trump administration and that the U.S. could not continue to extend the military presence in Afghanistan and expect a different result.

Still, Koofi said she thinks the breakdown of peace talks and the Taliban takeover could have been avoided. Pausing as tears ran down her face, she said: “I mean, every day we are actually dealing with this trauma.”

Her former female colleagues in parliament, female judges who used to sentence people affiliated with the Taliban and some journalists who spoke out against the group are now fearful, she said.

The Taliban must also be held accountable, she added, for their pledges that women would be able to go to school and work “within the principles of Islam.”

Each day, Koofi said she gets hundreds of text and voice messages largely from women still in Afghanistan, hoping she can help them.

“They’re very angry ... that I am not with them at these difficult times,” she said. “The women, especially, they keep sending me messages expressing their anger that, you know, ‘We need you to be here with us in the streets of Kabul,’ and they are right.”

Women she used to work with and who were the breadwinners in their families send her photos of themselves as reminders.

“Psychologically to process this and to be able to adjust and accept, it’s not been easy,” she said. “Not only for me, for every woman and man that I have met in the last two months after I left Kabul.”

For now, Koofi is focused on resolving residency status for herself and her daughters, ages 22 and 23. For security reasons, she declined to say where.

Some 100,000 Afghans have fled the country since the Taliban took power, though many were unable to leave in the final chaotic airlifts. The 38 million Afghans who remain are facing “ universal poverty ” within a year, the U.N. development agency said in September.

Koofi also warned of the threat from the Islamic State group in Afghanistan — known by its Arabic acronym Daesh — and called for renewed political negotiations because, she said, stability does not just come from the cessation of violence, but strong and inclusive institutions.

“If we think that one military extremist group, which is Taliban, is going to defeat Daesh — it’s not going to work that way,” she said.

“You need to continue to empower the nation, empower the people, educate them, support the political process.”

Taliban strike journalists at Kabul women's rights protest

The Taliban struck several journalists to prevent media coverage of a women's rights protest in Kabul

 BULENT KILIC AFP

Kabul (AFP)

A group of about 20 women marched from near the ministry of education to the ministry of finance in the Afghan capital.

Wearing colourful headscarves they chanted slogans including: "Don't politicise education", as traffic drove by shortly before 10 am.

The women held placards saying: "We don't have the rights to study and work", and" "Joblessness, poverty, hunger", as they walked with their arms in the air.

The Taliban authorities allowed the women to walk freely for around an hour and a half, AFP journalists saw.

However, one foreign journalist was struck with the butt of a rifle by one Taliban fighter, who swore and kicked the photographer in the back as another punched him.

At least two more journalists were hit as they scattered, pursued by Taliban fighters swinging fists and launching kicks.

Zahra Mohammadi, one of the protest organisers, told AFP the women were marching despite the risks they face.

"The situation is that the Taliban don't respect anything: not journalists -- foreign and local -- or women," she said.

"The schools must reopen to girls. But the Taliban took this right from us."

High school girls have been blocked from returning to classes for more than a month, while many women have been banned from returning to work since the Taliban seized power in mid-August.

"My message to all girls and women is this: 'Don't be afraid of the Taliban, even if your family doesn't allow you to leave your home. Don't be afraid. Go out, make sacrifices, fight for your rights'," Mohammadi said.

Afghans have staged street protests across the country since the Taliban returned to power, sometimes with several hundred people and many with women at forefront BULENT KILIC AFP

"We have to make this sacrifice so that the next generation will be in peace."

Children walked alongside the protest in downtown Kabul, although it was unclear if they were part of the organised group.

Some Taliban fighters policing the march wore full camouflaged combat gear, including body armour, helmets and knee pads, while others were wearing traditional Afghan clothing.

Their weapons included US-made M16 assault rifles and AK-47s.

Unthinkable under the hardline Islamist group’s last rule in the 1990s, Afghans have staged street protests across the country since the Taliban returned to power, sometimes with several hundred people and many with women at forefront.

But a ban on unauthorised demonstrations has meant protests against Afghanistan's new masters have dwindled.

© 2021 AFP

Afghan midwives vow to help mothers and babies under Taliban rule


Issued on: 22/10/2021 - 

The teachers at the midwifery college in Maidan Shar have continued working for the sake of mothers and babies in the rural community despite the danger to their lives BULENT KILIC AFP

Maidan Shar (Afghanistan) (AFP)

But they kept working for the sake of the mothers and babies in their rural community.

Now, with the Islamist hardliners in control of Afghanistan, the instructors are calling on the new government to allow them to continue their work in peace.

"I do my job because of a sense of humanitarianism and patriotism, and because I feel the need to serve my community and the most oppressed members of our society: women and children," teacher Shafiqa Bironi told AFP.

"Our demand now is that the Taliban provide a safe and open space for women to at least be able to help other women," the 52-year-old said.

The Community Midwifery Education School in Maidan Shar, the capital of the central Wardak province, has 25 students who will graduate in May 2022 after a stop-start two-year programme because of the unrest and the coronavirus pandemic.

At times during fierce fighting between the Taliban and former government forces the school would get caught in the crossfire, forcing teachers and students to bolt themselves behind steel doors.

During fierce fighting the school would get caught in the crossfire, forcing teachers and students to bolt themselves behind steel doors

 BULENT KILIC AFP

"It was hard work," said course director Khatool Fazly, whose office walls still bear bullet holes. "There were battles literally every day."

In 2013, the previous school site was completely destroyed in an explosion targeting a prison next door that housed Taliban fighters.
'Overcome the challenges'

The Taliban, known for their oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, have effectively excluded many women and girls from education and work, while some healthcare workers, encouraged to return, have been too afraid.

In May, the Taliban began snapping up government-controlled districts in Wardak province, before the whole country finally fell to the group in mid-August.

Teachers at the midwifery college say they continue to work for humanitarian reasons and to help women in the community

 BULENT KILIC AFP

For now, the new rulers have not imposed any new rules that would impact the work of the midwifery college.

Fazly said local Taliban loyalists' wives and children are among those who rely on its services.

The biggest challenge facing the midwives, like many healthcare workers across the country, is that they have not received their salaries for four months because of Afghanistan's dysfunctional banking system.

Steep progress has been made over the past 15 years, thanks in part to international aid organisations supporting healthcare facilities and training programmes like the one in Maidan Shar.

But Afghanistan still has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world and thousands of Afghan women die every year from pregnancy-related causes, most of which should be easily preventable.

Fazly set up the centre in 2004 to "overcome these challenges, particularly in our province".

The trainees study in a room lined with posters raising awareness on obstetric care as well as Covid prevention.

During a visit by AFP, about 10 women wearing white lab coats and headscarves gathered around plastic models of female anatomy and medical equipment, discussing labour and emergency procedures.

Since its founding, 181 women have graduated from the school.

"It is important for every citizen to serve their country and community by any means in any area, be it education or health because our people really need it," Fazly said.

© 2021 AFP