HINDUTVA IMPERIALISM & CASTISM

A village in India's northeast mourns after deadly attacks



















Nguntoi Konyak, 85, sits outside her home in Oting village, in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. "They killed innocent villagers. All the young boys of this village have been killed," Nguntoi said. High up in the hills along India's border with Myanmar, Oting village is in mourning after more than a dozen people from the village were killed by Indian army soldiers. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

YIRMIYAN ARTHUR
Wed, December 22, 2021,

OTING, India (AP) — It was 2004 when a bear mauled Nenwang Konyak in the forest in Mon district, high up in the hills along India’s border with Myanmar. The men in his village, Oting, rescued him and carried him home. He survived, thanks to them, but was left with a jagged scar running down his face.

When Nenwang heard that his village had called for a search team earlier this month to look for a group of laborers who were missing, he didn’t hesitate. He and his 23-year-old twin brothers joined them on Dec. 4, not knowing that the laborers had already been killed by Indian soldiers. Later that day, seven men in the search party were killed by the soldiers -– and Nenwang returned home without his twin brothers.

Like others in the village, he is haunted by the events of Dec. 4 and 5, when 14 civilians and a soldier were killed in a series of attacks in the northeastern state of Nagaland. Twelve of men, most of them coal miners, were from Oting village. The violence, among the deadliest to hit the state in recent years, sparked national anger and headlines -– and left Oting reeling with shock and grief.

Nenwang Konyak, who was mauled by a bear in 2004 in the forest high up in the hills along India’s border with Myanmar, sits for a photograph in Oting village, in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Dec. 16, 2021. The men in his village, Oting, rescued him and carried him home. On Dec. 4, Nenwang joined another search team to look for eight missing villagers but returned home without his twin brothers. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

“Even Christmas will bring no joy. Our hearts are hurting. They were our own children,” said Among, a 50-year-old Christian woman in the village.

This part of India is long accustomed to pain. The people here are Nagas, a minority group more ethnically tied to Myanmar and China than to India. Over 90% of the state’s more than 1.9 million people are Christian -- a striking contrast in a Hindu-majority country. For decades, Nagas have fought a battle for independence from India, and there are few families that have not suffered from the violence.

In recent years, the violence has ebbed but the demands for political rights have grown even as the federal government has pushed for talks with separatists. Peace negotiations began in 1997 after the Indian government signed a cease-fire agreement with the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland.

In Oting, many work as farmers, except for during the lean season from November to March as the rains subside. During that time, they labor in open-pit coal mines. It is a backbreaking work. The money earned is often used to pay for school for their children, but when December comes, it’s all about Christmas.

On Saturday, Dec. 4, Shomwang, a villager, set off from Oting with food to give to the people working in his coal mine. On his way back home, he was joined by seven miners on his truck who wanted to be back in the village for the Sunday church service.

Their vehicle had barely left the mine when it was ambushed by Indian soldiers. Bullets began raining down, killing Shomwang and five others. Two remain hospitalized.

Back in Oting, the villagers heard the shooting but dismissed it as a gunfight between soldiers and Naga fighters or between rival Naga factions. But when night fell and no one had seen the laborers, a search party set out. Soon, they found the truck, empty and bullet-ridden. Barely 50 meters (150 feet) away, they saw soldiers on four trucks, one of them carrying the dead bodies of their brothers, sons and friends piled like animal carcasses on top of one another.

Enraged, they set three military vehicles on fire. The soldiers retaliated by shooting not just at the crowd, but also at stalls and shops about a kilometer (half a mile) away. By the time the last bullet was fired, 13 civilians in total and one soldier had been killed. Several were injured.

The violence continued the next day, when protesters attacked an army camp, prompting soldiers to shoot, killing one more civilian.

The army said the soldiers acted on the basis of “credible intelligence” that some of the victims were militants, but expressed regret and called it a case of “mistaken identity.” The government said it will launch an investigation. But villagers have rejected it, demanding an independent probe. They have also refused compensation offered by the government.

“I was helping others unload the bodies from the truck when the soldiers started firing. I ran for my life and took refuge inside an earthmover. Two people hiding with me got killed. When the soldiers started shooting in our direction, I ran,” said Phonai, a coal miner and part of the search team who survived.

Nearly three weeks later, Shomwang's truck, marked with bullet holes and cordoned off by crime scene tape, still stands at the site of the attack as a reminder. A stench, foul and overpowering, hangs in the air.

The incident struck a chord, drawing hundreds of people to Oting. Officials came to investigate, others came simply to offer support and share their grief.

“The pain is unbearable,” said Naophe Wangcha, the mother of the village chief. “We just want news that the guilty have got what they deserve.”

Cries of anger have spilled beyond Oting, swelling in towns and cities across Nagaland. Since the deaths, candlelight vigils and solidarity marches have called for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special (Powers) Act, which has loomed over the region since 1958 and gives many areas the feel of an occupied territory. The act gives the military sweeping powers to search, arrest and even shoot suspects with little fear of prosecution. Nagas and human rights groups have long accused security forces of abusing the law.

On a recent Thursday, in a tiny wooden house with mud floors, an 18-year-old, Mary Wangshu, was mourning her brother.

Manpeih was the family’s only son and was pampered at home. The siblings worked in the coal mines, and were the only ones living in the family house with their parents. “I miss him,” she said. “He was my only companion at home after everyone moved away.”

Outside, her mother, Awat, was surrounded by neighbors who tried to distract her -– once, she even tried to laugh.

Grief is shared here, even if villagers processes loss in their own way. Some silently weep in their kitchens, some angrily call for justice, some share stories, some seek solace in the church. Yet they’re all interconnected, and have been, for generations. There are friendships and marriages and lifetimes that link the people here.

“Humans are not harvested from the ground. They aren’t grown wild. They come from our wombs. We care for them for nine months with physical pain, we keep them safe from mosquito bites, we give them food meant for ourselves, we send them to school with hope for their future. And then to have them killed has brought us much grief,” Among said. “We will visit their graves on Christmas morning and speak with them. We will ask their spirits to visit us.”

At dusk a few days after the killings, Shomwang’s younger brother is sitting with Nenwang and his parents around the fireplace. Both families have suffered loss but have also found solace in each other.

“It is too painful. I don’t want to talk about it,” Nenwang said softly.

India Army KillingsThe graves of 12 civilians, killed by Indian army soldiers on Dec. 4, lie in a row in Oting village, in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. The killings have prompted calls for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, or AFSPA, that gives the military, in parts of the country where it is in effect, sweeping powers to search, seize and even shoot suspects on sight without fear of prosecution. Nagas and human rights groups have long accused security forces of abusing the law. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Philippine supertyphoon Rai 'exceeded all predictions' - forecaster


Typhoon Rai aftermath in Surigao city

Kanupriya Kapoor
Tue, December 21, 2021
By Kanupriya Kapoor

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The rapid intensification that turned this week's Typhoon Rai into the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year surpassed all predictions, forecasters said, leaving nearly 400 people dead and almost a million displaced.

While it's unclear exactly how global warming is affecting the intensification of such storms, the UN's climate change agency has found it is "likely that the frequency of rapid intensification events have increased over the past four decades" as temperatures rise.

Before Rai underwent a process of rapid intensification, forecasters at first warned of a storm that could bring "considerable damage", with winds of up to 165 kilometres (103 miles) per hour.

"But the situation evolved very fast," said Nikos Peñaranda, a forecaster who studies thunderstorms at the Philippines' national weather bureau, speaking on Tuesday. "Our models weren't able to predict the way the storm intensified, and it exceeded all our predictions."

In rapid intensification of storms, warm ocean water and differing wind speeds near the eye of the storm act as fuel to whip it up into a more severe event. In the case of Rai, the storm turned into a category 5 supertyphoon, with speeds similar to when a passenger airplane starts to lift off the ground.

When it made landfall, winds of up to 210 km/hr were uprooting coconut trees, ripping down electricity poles, and hurling slabs of corrugated tin and wood through the air.

A lack of real-time data and case studies of similar storms in the region made it difficult for forecasters to predict just how much Rai, or Odette as the storm is known locally, would intensify, said Peñaranda.

"The challenge in forecasting rapidly intensifying events is just that the speed with which this occurs, often in a matter of hours, leaves less time for disaster risk reduction mobilisation and evacuations," said Clare Nullis, media officer specializing in climate change at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm, experienced a similar intensification in the Gulf of Mexico hours before it slammed into the U.S. state of Louisiana in August.

Ocean temperatures near the surface and at depths of up to 200 metres are rising around three times faster in this region than the global average, according to the WMO, making it fertile ground for more intense, less predictable storms.

In the past three decades, the Philippines has recorded at least 205 tropical cyclones, the highest of any Asian country, according to EM-DAT, a publicly available database on disasters run by the University of Louvain. Nearly each one of has taken lives and caused millions of dollars worth of damage.

By comparison, China, the second-most affected country, has seen 139, and Bangladesh, also prone to storms, has seen 42.

($1 = 49.9300 Philippine pesos)

(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

What we learned this year about how to avoid a climate catastrophe




Daniel Cooper
·Senior Editor
Thu, December 23, 2021

COP26 was not a fist-in-the-air moment, and not the victory against climate change that humanity had been banking on. Sadly, politics and commerce put a hard thumb on proceedings, limiting the action possible. Commitments to “phase down” coal, rather than a firm pledge to eliminate it outright, show how far we still have to go. But the event also served to highlight the extent of what needs to be done if humanity’s going to survive beyond the next century.

One “victory” out of the event was the belief that ensuring global warming held at 1.5 degrees was still possible. It’s worth saying, however, that 1.5 degrees isn’t a target to meet so much as an acceptance of impending disaster. In October, the IPCC explained that such a temperature increase will cause significant upticks in the frequency of extreme heat waves, monsoon-like rainfall and widespread droughts. Extreme weather events that may have taken place once every 50 years a few centuries ago could become a regular, and fatal, occurrence.


All the while, the facts of the matter are unchanged: Humanity needs to avoid adding new carbon emissions while also tackling those we’ve already emitted. That means an aggressive reduction of every man-made carbon-emitting process everywhere on Earth, the total reformation of agriculture and an unprecedented rollout of carbon capture and storage technology. And, ideally, that process should have begun the better part of two decades ago.

There are many dispiriting facts about the world, but one that always hurts is the fact that coal plants are still being greenlit. Global Energy Monitor’s data has plants currently being permitted or under construction in (deep breath) China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Mongolia, Vietnam, Singapore, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. As Reuters says, each plant will be expected to run for at least 40 years, severely damaging efforts to go Carbon Negative. Not only is it in everyone’s best interest that these plants don’t go online, but wealthier nations have a moral obligation to help provide the funding to help at least some of those names move toward clean energy.

The problem is that electricity is going to be the most important resource of the 21st century, especially if we’re going to tackle climate change. Many key technologies, like transportation, will ditch fossil fuels in favor of electricity as their primary source of fuel. The world’s demand for energy is going to increase, and we’re going to need to generate that power cleanly. The US Center for Climate and Energy Solutions believes that, by 2050, the world’s power needs will jump by 24 percent. So where will we get all of this clean power from?

Fusion has, forever, been held up as a magic bullet that will totally eradicate our worries about energy generation. Unlike Nuclear Fission, it produces little waste, requires little raw fuel and can’t produce a runaway reaction. Unfortunately, Fusion remains as elusive as The Venus de Milo’s arms or a good new Duke Nukem game. ITER, the internationally-funded, French-built experimental reactor won’t be finished until 2025 at the earliest and is still just a testbed. If successful — and that’s a big if — we’re still a decade away from any serious progress being made, at which point mass decarbonization will already need to be well underway.

That means any power decarbonization will have to come from the renewable technology that’s available to us today. Nuclear, Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Tidal power all need to be ramped up to fill in the gap, but the scale of the task in the US alone is staggering. According to the EIA, the US generated just short of 2,500 billion kWh using fossil fuels in 2020. If you wanted to, for instance, replace all of that with nuclear power, you’d need to build anything in the region of 300 reactors, or increase the number of solar panels installed in the US by roughly a hundred percent — and that’s before we talk about intermittency.

Urtopia ebike.

One thing we can do, however, is to reduce our demand for energy to lessen the need for such a dramatic shift. That can be, for instance, as easy as better insulating your home (in cold climates) or improving the efficiency of AC systems (in warm climates). Another smart move is to ditch the car in favor of public transportation, walking, or getting on your bike. There is evidence that e-bike adoption is becoming a big deal, with Forbes saying that sales are tipped to grow from just under 4 million annually in 2020 to close to 17 million by 2030.

None of this, however, will matter much unless we can also find a way to pay off the debts humanity has racked up over the last century. The IPCC believes that we need to extract up to one trillion tonnes of atmospheric CO2 in the near future. This can be done with massive tree planting works, more of which needs to be done, but also this process may need a little help.

That’s why a number of startups have been working on industrial processes to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Right now, such a process is very expensive, but it’s hoped that as the technology improves, the cost will start to tumble. There’s also a concern, of course, that running schemes like this will give polluting companies and nations a free license to avoid reform.

As much as we can hope that this technology matures quickly, the rate of progress needs to get a lot faster a, uh, lot faster. For instance, Climeworks’ Orca, its new flagship carbon capture plant in Iceland, will extract 4,000 tons of CO2 per year. If we’re going to reach the point where we can avert a climate catastrophe using extraction alone, we’ll need this capacity to increase by about a hundred million times.

The point of this is, broadly speaking, to outline how much more sharply our attitudes toward the climate need to shift. If we’re going to succeed at defeating climate change then we’re going to need to go onto the sort of war footing – where resources are devoted to nothing but solving the crisis – that few can ever imagine undertaking. But, as most of the resources point out, the only way that we’re going to stave off the damage after dragging our feet for so long is to go all-out in search of a solution.

BRAIN DRAIN

Migration to U.S. empties Venezuela's once-booming oil capital

Migration to U.S. empties Venezuela's once-booming oil capital

Thu, December 23, 2021, 7:07 AM·5 min read
By Mariela Nava

MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - It took accountant Anibal Pirela six days of travel and $7,000 to reach Austin, Texas from Maracaibo, the capital of Venezuela's once-flourishing western oil state of Zulia.

Pirela traveled with his four-year-old son Daniel, joining a flood of emigrants emptying neighborhoods in Zulia, the top departure point for Venezuelans leaving their crisis-striken homeland.

"The people I know who have left the country are almost too many to count," Pirela, 48, said from his new home in Austin.

The number of Venezuelans detained by U.S. authorities on the southern border soared to 47,762 in the year to September, versus just 1,262 in the year-earlier period, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Hundreds of Zulians are leaving each month, advocacy groups say, though there are no official migration figures for any of Venezuela's 23 states.

The state has historically been more insulated from economic hardship because of the oil industry, but that has been walloped by U.S. sanctions targeting the OPEC member, cutting off much-needed income.

Reuters spoke with eight families who fled Zulia in the past two months because of lack of public services, medicines and jobs.

Abandoned houses and buildings are increasingly common in Maracaibo, home to 1.7 million inhabitants, according to current and former residents.

In 2018, half of households in Zulia already had at least one relative living abroad but since 2019 that number has risen to 70%, according to the Zulia Human Rights Commission (CODHEZ), a non-governmental organization.

"There are neighborhood areas with few people left," said CODHEZ general coordinator Juan Berrios.

POWER CUTS, WATER SHORTAGES

Zulia, at the end of national transmission lines for water and electricity, suffers more frequent outages than other parts of Venezuela, residents say.

The collapse of Venezuela's oil industry - due in part to a series of recent U.S. sanctions https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-venezuela-sanctions-idUKKCN1B521E by the Trump administration and what critics say is state mismanagement - has led to high unemployment. Some analysts say the sanctions have exacerbated https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-sanctions/u-n-envoy-urges-u-s-to-relax-venezuela-sanctions-drawing-opposition-rebuke-idUSKBN2AC2HD the country's worsening economic crisis.

Even those with jobs are so poorly paid that living costs are prohibitive - especially for imported or smuggled food.

Carmen Ortega, 74, cares for her eight grandchildren with what she earns as a street cleaner.

"We're in extreme poverty," Ortega said at her dirt-floored home, constructed out of cans. "We have two of the girls begging on the street. They bring a bit of bread; people give them flour."

The children's mother is unemployed and their father has left for Colombia. Ortega said the family have to start the day without food or coffee.

"I cry at night," she said.

Venezuela's monthly minimum wage is equivalent to just $3. Inflation reached 631% from January through November, according to the central bank.

Approximately 850 people per week crossed to Colombia from Zulia before the coronavirus pandemic, with about half returning after making purchases of medical supplies or other goods, according to Juan Restrepo, president of the region's largest transportation union.

Now some 2,000 people leave every week, Restrepo said: just 30% return.

The United States is the ultimate destination for many.

Under pressure from Washington to stem the rise in Venezuelans entering the United States illegally across the southern border, Mexico announced last week it will impose visa requirements https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-impose-visa-requirements-venezuelans-2021-12-17 for them to enter the country, though it is unclear when the measure will take effect.

LONG ROAD NORTH

Residents of Maracaibo's poor Altos de Milagro Norte neighborhood say food shortages are ever-present and their city's collapse is even affecting burials.

Jose Amaya's family made a hole in their outdoor patio to bury his brother.

"The funeral home will do it all for $170 but we don't have the resources," he said.

The community had 2,200 residents pre-pandemic but just 1,500 remain, social worker Maria Carolina Leal said.

To get his family to Austin, Pirela sold his car and withdrew pension benefits. That was enough to send his wife Daniela Mendoza, 31, and 12-year-old daughter Paula by airplane from Colombia.

Next, he sold his appliances and took out all his savings to get himself and Daniel on a series of flights north to Monterrey, Mexico.

A people smuggler, charging him $4,400, took them to a small building housing some 30 other Venezuelan migrants, about a third of them from Maracaibo, Pirela said.

The next morning, the group was driven seven hours north to the border, hiking some fifteen minutes to cross the Rio Bravo on foot and enter the United States.

He was met by migration officials and the next day was enrolled in a Department of Homeland Security program that allows migrants' release with an ankle monitor, handing over his passport and giving his fingerprints.

Pirela has so far had one check-in appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the first in what he says may be a long process to legalize his status. His next appointment is in February.

"Now I'm with my family, the reunion was beautiful," said Pirela, adding he what he wants most is a work permit.

"I have to wait because I want to do things right."

(Reporting by Mariela Nava in Maracaibo, additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Vivian Sequera and Aurora Ellis)

2 small earthquakes hit eastern Kentucky

Map image where the second Kentucky earthquake hit early Thursday morning. 

Photo by United States Geological Survey/UPI

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Two small earthquakes hit eastern Kentucky before dawn Thursday morning, but there were no early reports of injuries or structural damage, officials said.

The first was a 2.3-magnitude earthquake with the epicenter located about 10 miles northeast of Jackson.

The second, a 2.5-magnitude tremor, happened nearly two hours later next to Pikesville.

"Earthquakes this size can happen basically anywhere in the U.S.," Paul Barle, a seismologist with United States Geological Survey, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "These are small earthquakes. For earthquakes this size, you have to be pretty close to be felt."

Barle said while there is a chance the smaller earthquakes could trigger more movement, there was no guarantee that would happen.


Hydraulic Fracturing in Kentucky
https://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/factsheet/Hydraulic-Frac-Ky-PRI… · PDF file
In Kentucky, fracking is regulated. High-volume hydraulic fracture

'Everything to me': Chile's LGBTQ community relieved after Boric election win





Chile's LGBTQ crowd  COMMUNITY feels hope and relief after leftist presidential win, in Santiago

Thu, December 23, 2021, 1:05 PM·4 min read
By Anthony Esposito

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - For Ian Harting, a 29-year-old dancer and choreographer, voting in Chile's deeply divisive presidential election last weekend felt like a matter of life and death for him as a gay man.

The emphatic victory of progressive leftist Gabriel Boric over ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast left him elated.

Kast's surprise rise in the polls - winning November's first round vote - stirred alarm among Chile's LGBTQ community, feminists and abortion rights activists, among others.

The 55-year-old lawyer has opposed gay marriage, abortion and the emergency contraception "morning-after pill," and he defended the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.

During the campaign, he threatened to eliminate Chile's Women's Ministry before backtracking amid a barrage of criticism.

"As gay man I have my partner, and I had never really been scared for my life, for my rights," said Harting. "The presidential race in Chile was a reminder of that fear."

Harting said Kast's messages fueled hate in those who wanted to mistreat, marginalize and discriminate minorities.

Kast's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Following his election win, Boric, who at 35 becomes Chile's youngest democratically-elected president, spoke to a sea of supporters who lined the streets of downtown Santiago: block after block of them waving pride, feminist and the indigenous Mapuche flags.

"Celebrating this victory meant everything to me!" said Harting, who went with his partner and friends to hear Boric. "It really tied into my life, my safety, the safety of my boyfriend, the safety of my friends, the safety of all the people I love in this world."

Boric laid out broad plans to unite the nation and expand rights, mentioning indigenous rights, gender equality and the environment. He also promised fiscal responsibility and to nurture the economy.

Paola Fernandez, 39, whose daughter is homosexual, said she was afraid of Kast's hard-right policies and conservative social agenda.

"Chile has already experienced a dictatorship and we could not live through one again," she said, hugging her daughter.

"My father-in-law was persecuted and exiled so we couldn't let a candidate like Jose Antonio Kast come to power."

MORE STREET MOBILIZATION

A native of Punta Arenas in Chile's far south, Boric as a student led the Federation of Students at the University of Chile in Santiago. He rose to prominence organizing protests in 2011 demanding improved and cheaper education.

That was a precursor to a social uprising in 2019 that paved the way for hard-fought gains in rights and lit the fuse for the rise of the left and the redrafting of Chile's dictatorship-era constitution.

After a decade-long legal battle, Chilean lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage this month, a milestone for a country that has long had a conservative reputation even compared with its Catholic Latin American peers.

The rallies however often devolved into clashes with police, riots and looting, which served as a rallying cry for many Chileans frustrated with the movement and was fodder for Kast's tough law-and-order stance.

Activists interviewed by Reuters said they would continue marching to press for further progress.

"What we've achieved we owe to the mass struggle, to occupying public spaces, actively mobilizing," said Pamela Valenzuela, spokesperson for the March 8 Feminist Coordinator (CF8M). "So it's clear to us that we are going to continue mobilizing from a position of autonomy."

The hundreds of thousands of Chilean women who hit the streets in recent years were key to achieving laws to penalize femicide, legalize abortion, and give women an equal voice in drafting the new constitution.

FREE, LEGAL AND SAFE ABORTION

Chile in 2017 legalized abortion for women under conditions where their life was in danger, a fetus was unviable or when a pregnancy had resulted from rape.

But efforts to expand legal access have faced an uphill battle. In November, Chile's Lower Chamber of Congress rejected a bill that proposed legalizing termination of pregnancy up to 14 weeks.

"The president-elect in his program expressly says it: free, legal and safe abortion," said reproductive rights activist Gloria Maira. "It has been our feminist slogan for decades."

Despite Boric's promises of change, pushing through contentious policies could prove difficult with Congress evenly split between left and right after the November elections.

"President Boric's government will not be an easy one," said Maira.

During the campaign, Boric said Chileans who had faced discrimination would be "protagonists" of his government.

Gay rights activist Victor Hugo Robles said the appointment of an openly gay or trans minister would be a major statement.

A gesture of that magnitude would "symbolize change, freedom: revolution for the Chile of today and the Chile of the future," he said.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Abortion rights activists sound the alarm on 'terrifying' aspect of Roe v. Wade's possible overturn: 'So few people are talking about [it]'

Alex Lasker
Wed, December 22, 2021

TO READ ARTICLE WITH TIK TOK EMBEDDED 

Abortion rights activists sound the alarm on 'terrifying' aspect of Roe v. Wade's possible overturn: 'So few people are talking about [it]' (yahoo.com)

The internet brims with heartwrenching abortion stories: a 13-year-old rape victim forced to travel hours across Texas to terminate her grandfather’s baby; a woman who underwent a late-term abortion because her life depended on it; a family that ended a desperately wanted pregnancy to spare their child from severe suffering.

These personal narratives received heightened attention in late 2021, following Texas’ six-week abortion law and Mississippi’s 15-week abortion law. These limitations pose a serious threat to the abortion access guaranteed by historic cases like Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

At a House hearing on the Texas law in September, Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush joined the growing chorus of voices working to generate support for the right to choose by taking a rare step for a lawmaker.

She recounted her own trauma of being raped, becoming pregnant and seeking an abortion at age 18.

Online and offline, from TikTok to Washington, D.C., abortion discourse is taking place in such an unprecedented way that it’s borderline impossible to remain unaffected by it.

But even as women continue to cry out in support of their right to bodily autonomy, the fate of abortion as a constitutional right still remains uncertain.

As many as 26 states are poised to either ban or severely restrict abortions pending the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on Mississippi’s abortion law, which directly challenges Roe v. Wade.

This is happening despite polls showing that about 61% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in most or all circumstances during the first trimester of a pregnancy, while 54% of people oppose the complete overturning of Roe.

At this precarious moment in history, pro-choice activists are exploring many ways to preserve what they believe to be a fundamental human right.
‘Pro-life accounts dominated the app’

For such a contentious subject, abortion is an exceedingly common medical procedure in America.

Nearly one in four women in the United States will have an abortion by age 45, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, one of the nation’s leading groups for research and policy analysis on abortion.

By age 20, 4.6% of women will have had an abortion, and 19% will have done so by age 30.

The odds that you know someone who’s had an abortion are pretty high.

And yet, the topic largely remains taboo, even when a majority of the population wants to keep abortion legal. Why is that?

An organization dedicated to changing the conversation about abortions, Sea Change posits that abortion stigma disseminates from our culture’s “shared understanding that abortion is morally wrong and/or socially unacceptable.”

We see these morals — many of which are deeply rooted in both religion and politics — imposed again and again through both abortion bans and challenges and through the shaming of women who have undergone abortions, both in pop culture and in real life.

Whether consciously or not, we act in line with these morals every time we speak about abortion in a secretive manner, like it’s something to be deeply ashamed of.

Activists suggest part of the solution lies in changing the language and tone we employ around abortion.

Paige Alexandria, a 30-year-old Austin resident and staunch pro-choice advocate, is working toward this through her TikTok page, @abortioncounselor.

The content creator, who worked as an abortion counselor at a Texas clinic for two years and now serves as a board member at The Lilith Fund, started her account in May 2020 when she became aware that pro-choice voices were wildly underrepresented on the app.

“I joined TikTok last year at a time when pro-life accounts dominated the app, after being approached by a young person who was determined to shift the narrative,” Alexandria told In The Know. “She contacted every abortion organization in the U.S. and tried to convince them to join the app to combat the wave of misinformation and abortion stigma.”

Alexandria decided she could be the voice to fill that void, and, almost immediately, her unique content gained traction.

In one of her early viral hits, Alexandria joyfully dances along to Doja Cat’s “Say So” while sharing information on how those under 18 can obtain an abortion without their parent’s permission.

In another video, Alexandria and her girlfriend @abortionqween — another prominent pro-choice activist — lip-sync to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” while lamenting how women are forced to bear the brunt of unplanned pregnancies.

“When you have to have an abortion to avoid parenting, and all he has to do is block you on social media,” Alexandria writes, before mouthing Rodrigo’s lyrics, “God, I wish that I could do that.”

‘Abortion can be happy, sad, funny, relieving and more‘

Alexandria’s light-hearted and playful videos stand in stark contrast to the solemn ways we typically discuss abortions. Her casual, humorous tone clearly resonates with TikTokers, as her account now boasts over 112,000 followers.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that abortion stories cannot be sad, as in the traumatic anecdote shared by Rep. Bush — it just means they don’t only have to be sad.

“Our experiences with abortion can be happy, sad, funny, relieving and more,” Alexandria explained. “Most importantly, they’re our stories, and we shouldn’t have to hide them.”

Alexandria says she developed her unique presence on the app to speak directly to members of Gen Z, who may have been explicitly taught in school or at home that “abortion is wrong,” period.

“It seemed that many people on TikTok weren’t exposed to the same messaging I was … it often seemed [that] folks thought abortion was supposed to be someone’s secret — certainly not something to celebrate, like I often posted about,” she explained. “I soon learned a lot of my viewers didn’t have access to information that discussed abortion in an unbiased way, or [that] they lived in homes where abortion wasn’t presented as a pregnancy option.”

The decision to terminate a pregnancy is a complex matter influenced by myriad factors. Alexandria believes that by showing people how abortion is a three-dimensional choice rather than a black-and-white moral issue, she can begin to normalize the subject.

“TikTok has provided so many young folks with a different perspective when it comes to learning about their own body, pregnancy options and reproductive health,” she said. “And so many other creators have shared their abortion stories by creating engaging videos that normalize abortion in ways that resonate with Gen Z.”

“Whenever abortion is illegal, a miscarriage must be investigated”

Abortion is not the only facet of pregnancy healthcare that Roe v. Wade impacts.

Whitney Smith (@prochoicewithheart), a 35-year-old mom and activist who founded ProChoice With Heart, says she first began advocating for the cause when she was questioned about whether she was responsible for causing her own miscarriage during an emergency room visit.

After the traumatic experience, Smith did some research and realized she was not alone.

“When I looked online, I found all these other stories of women who'd been arrested, detained, investigated and imprisoned simply for having miscarriages,” she told In The Know. “I knew I had to speak up.”

In November 2021, Brittney Poolaw made international headlines when she was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison after having a miscarriage at 17 weeks pregnant. Although the 21-year-old Native American woman admitted to using illicit drugs while pregnant, the fetus’ official cause of death was attributed to multiple different factors, including genetic anomaly and placenta abruption, BBC reports.

Pro-choice advocates like Smith worry about the precedent that Poolaw’s case may set.


Miscarriage, or the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week, is relatively common. Between 10 and 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The healthcare organization notes that the real number is likely even higher since some miscarriages happen before many even know they’re pregnant.

Should states be allowed to enact near-total bans on abortion, it could mean more scrutiny toward those who miscarry or deliver stillborns.

“We have to remember that when [lawmakers] ban abortion and put these really strict abortion laws in place, not only does that hurt access to healthcare, it also criminalizes miscarriage because whenever abortion is illegal, a miscarriage must be investigated to make sure that the ‘crime’ of abortion didn’t happen,” Smith explained.

An August 2021 report published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers titled "How Legislative Overreach Is Turning Reproductive Rights Into Criminal Wrongs" addressed the legal landscape for future prosecutions of pregnant people if Roe is overturned.

“Whether as a result of self-abortion, a miscarriage or stillbirth allegedly caused by some action including alcohol use, drug use, or a physical altercation, an omission, such as lack of prenatal care or hospital-based birth, or the birth of a baby that was exposed to some risk of harm while in utero, pregnant women in states such as Arkansas, Alabama, Utah, Mississippi and Ohio are being aggressively targeted through state criminal and anti-abortion statutes,” researchers found. “Increasingly, pregnant women are subjected to arrest, prosecution and incarceration for crimes that run the gamut from child and chemical endangerment to First Degree Murder despite the fact that many state statutes criminalizing abortion purport to reach only those who perform the abortion.”

The report also found an increase in state laws that have already redefined “personhood” to include “an unborn child,” including Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

Reclassifying a fetus as a person could leave women who have abortions, miscarry or deliver stillborns criminally liable for the outcome of their pregnancies and open them up to charges such as homicide, feticide and aggravated assault, nonprofit newsroom The 19th explains.

Smith hopes her TikTok page can make people aware of this less-discussed aspect of Roe’s possible overturn.

“This is something that so few people are talking about,” she said. “These abortion bans do not just affect people that need or want an abortion, they affect every single person who can get pregnant.”
‘They can’t coexist'

Alexandria says she noticed a mood shift in the pro-choice community regarding the recent setbacks to abortion rights in Texas and Mississippi.

“People have been sharing their experiences with abortion for as long as we’ve been able to get pregnant, but I think this new reality is scaring a lot of us,” she told In The Know.

Those fears are certainly not unfounded.

Nicholas Creel, a 37-year-old assistant professor of Business Law at Georgia College and State University who specializes in constitutional law, explained why the Mississippi law poses a threat to both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

“Mississippi’s law is set to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy,” Creel told In the Know. “Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey established that states could not put an undue burden on women seeking abortions up until the point of fetal viability, which today is set at about 24 weeks. So, Mississippi is trying to move the standard up about nine weeks earlier than the existing precedent allows. Hence, it’s a direct and flagrant challenge to Roe and Casey. Either [Mississippi’s] law or [Roe and Casey] have to go; they can’t coexist.”

As for how that will likely play out?

“The short version is that I am strongly expecting Roe and Casey to be overturned and the Mississippi law to stand,” Creel speculated. “The reasoning for my pessimistic view as to Roe and Casey’s fate is that the Supreme Court’s current makeup is strongly conservative, and the oral arguments over the Mississippi case made clear there are not five votes from Justices to uphold those cases.”

Of the current nine justices, six (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett) were appointed to the bench by Republican presidents whose party has sought to overturn Roe.

“To see the math, it helps to remember that, of the nine justices, we have only three who we can expect to uphold Roe [Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer], and we have three that we can absolutely expect to seek to overturn it [Justices Thomas, Alito and Barrett],” he continued. “With just three justices left [Gorsuch, Roberts and Kavanaugh], the liberal side of the Court would need to win two of these potential ‘swing votes’ to win the day.”


While Creel believes that abortion discourse may not change the imminent fate of Roe v. Wade, he, like Alexandria and Smith, argues that these narratives likely make women feel more comfortable being open about their own abortions.

In turn, this could help destigmatize the topic and expose more people to the reasons why safe abortion access is so important, leading to more long-term support for reproductive freedom later on.

“We can’t really gauge the impact of any single abortion narrative, but should the topic continue being discussed openly, we could well see increased support for abortion access over time,” Creel said. “This won’t be any sort of overnight change, mind you. It’ll be a slow slog filled with uncomfortable conversations.”
‘All abortions are OK’

As the future of reproductive freedom in America hangs precariously in the balance, one of the most viable long-term solutions is to remove expectations of shame surrounding abortion.

Creators like Alexandria, who discuss their abortions as informally as one might discuss a new song release or what they had for lunch, are diligently working to destigmatize the topic and push society toward a place where abortions can be spoken of as easily as anything else.

“Abortion storytelling can lead to real, tangible change on a legislative level, but it also builds community for those of us who’ve had abortions, which is extremely important when living in a society that tells us what we’re doing is wrong — or that only some abortions are OK,” Alexandria explained. “All abortions are OK, and every reason is a good enough reason to have one.”


Smith also encourages people to open up about their experiences with abortion and miscarriages, if they are able to do so safely and without risking their personal wellbeing.

“It is a place of privilege to have the ability and the safety to share your story,” she said. “But I do think if someone is able to share their story, that it can help change the narrative and change the world, because what we’re up against are years and years of systematic paid political advertisement stigmatizing abortion, women’s healthcare and anyone with a uterus’ health, because this affects more than just women.”

She also shared hope for a day that women will not feel pressure to share their personal stories in order to prove that they deserve healthcare.

“I wish we didn’t have to be doing this at all. It’s absurd that we are having the same fight that our grandmothers fought, that our mothers fought, but here we are,” she said. “I would rather be spending my time and energy doing just about anything else than having to fight for my most basic human rights and to have to share the most intimate, personal details of my life. I would rather be doing anything else. However, we cannot do anything else until we have the right to control our own bodies.”

So … what do I do now?

As the pro-choice community addresses these issues with abortion discourse, experts say we need to immediately start preparing for a world where Roe is no longer law.

Creel says the best way to fight for the right to safe abortions is to pressure state governments to protect these freedoms.

“The Supreme Court’s path is pretty much set at this point, and their ruling is expected to free up state governments to pull back on abortion access,” he explained. “Many people tend to ignore state politics, focusing only on national races instead. They don’t realize that most of the policies that affect them the most, like reproductive rights, aren’t set in Washington, D.C., but in their own state capitals.”

To register to vote, visit Vote.gov and select your state or territory from the dropdown list. Check out key election dates in each state here.

It’s also worth taking the time to familiarize yourself with relevant medical information that can help lower your odds of needing access to an abortion in the near future.


Smith suggests joining in with local pro-choice rallies, or even volunteering to organize one, which her organization can help plan.

"We do volunteer training for free because we're a volunteer organization," she explained. "Since I started doing activism through ProChoice With Heart, we've held hundreds of protests all over the country, some even outside of the country, and we've even had teens step up and be speakers at our protests, which I think is incredible."

Ultimately, most abortion rights activists seem to agree on one thing; the time to take action is right now.

"We are seeing the reality of a world where our rights are constantly under attack," Smith said. "It is terrifying."

If you wish to support local abortion funds, consider donating to these foundations in Texas and Mississippi, and learn how to support your own state’s fund here.

If you or someone you know needs abortion counseling, contact the National Abortion Federation at 1-800-772-9100 or Planned Parenthood at 1-800-230-PLAN. You can also connect with a Crisis Text Line counselor at no charge by texting the word “HOME” to 741741.

More from In The Know:

Gynecologist explains how abortion can be a life-saving form of health care

Single mom of twins recounts emotional journey after boyfriend left at 7 weeks

Gynecologist debunks three dangerous sexual health myths circulating on TikTok

Board-certified gynecologist shares the pros and cons of 7 types of birth control

Prescribing abortion pills without restrictions is safe, effective option for women: Canadian study
(

© trac1 - stock.adobe.com)

DECEMBER 9, 2021

by John Anderer

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canada removed all restrictions on mifepristone, an abortion pill considered the “gold standard” drug for medical abortion on a global scale, in 2017. Now, researchers from the University of British Columbia report that wide access to the pill resulted in absolutely no increase in abortion-related health complications.

The team analyzed government health data pertaining to 315,000 abortions taking place in Ontario between 2012 and 2020 for this project.

“Complications were already very rare, and we found that abortion continued to be safe and effective when mifepristone was prescribed without restrictions,” says lead study author Dr. Laura Schummers, a postdoctoral fellow in UBC’s department of family practice, in a university release. “This is the strongest evidence yet that it is safe to provide the abortion pill like most other prescriptions—meaning any doctor or nurse practitioner can prescribe, any pharmacist can dispense, and patients can take the pills if, when and where they choose.”

Major abortion shift after policy change

Canada was the first country to remove any and all supplemental restrictions on both dispensing and administering mifepristone. Prior to November 2017, Canadians wanting to use mifepristone could only do so under a doctor’s direct supervision. The drug was also unavailable in pharmacies and only specially trained physicians could administer it to patients. Most countries, including the United States, still restrict access to mifepristone in a similar manner.

“Our study is a signal to other countries that restrictions are not necessary to ensure patient safety,” says Professor Wendy Norman, the study’s senior author and professor in UBC’s department of family practice. “There is no scientific justification for mifepristone restrictions, which only make it harder for people to access the care they need. Canada’s experience offers a roadmap for other countries on how to safely improve access to family planning services.”

The research also shows that more women chose to use mifepristone when having an abortion instead of opting for an abortion surgery once Canada lifted its restrictions. Prior to mifepristone becoming widely available, only 2.2 percent of Canadian abortions involved medication. Once the rules changed, that percentage jumped to 31.4 percent within two years.

Does this mean abortions are increasing in Canada?

Importantly, however, the overall Canadian abortion rate has continued to decline since 2017, dropping from 11.9 to 11.3 abortions per 1,000 female residents between 15 and 49 years-old. So, these changes in mifepristone access haven’t led to more abortions in general, just less surgeries.

“We saw that patients and their health care providers rapidly began choosing medical abortion, which can sometimes be preferred over surgical methods by offering care closer to home and earlier in pregnancy,” notes study co-author Dr. Sheila Dunn, a scientist and family physician at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. “As other studies have shown, making abortion more accessible does not increase the number of people seeking abortion. We found that abortion rates continued to decrease after mifepristone’s availability as a normal prescription.”

Study authors are confident they’ve produced an accurate picture of mifepristone abortion health outcomes and safety.

“We were able to complete a robust safety profile for the entire province by linking together health records from all practitioner visits, hospital visits and outpatient prescriptions,” concludes study co-author Dr. Elizabeth Darling, assistant dean of midwifery and associate professor at McMaster University and an ICES scientist. “This paints the most comprehensive picture of abortion safety to date, capturing any setting where a complication would present. It demonstrates very clearly that restrictions on the abortion pill are not necessary for safety.”

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Germany moves to scrap ban on 'advertising' abortions

File---In this picture taken Dec.9, 2021 Marco Buschmann, Federal Minister of Justice, gives a statement at the BMJV in Berlin, Germany. (Thomas Trutschel/dpa via AP, file

Wed, December 22, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's justice minister says he will present legislation next month to remove from the country's criminal code a ban on doctors “advertising” abortions, one of several more liberal social policies that the new government plans.

The three parties that form Chancellor Olaf Scholz 's government have long opposed the current rules, but they were defended by the center-right Union bloc of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is now in opposition.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in comments to the Funke newspaper group published Wednesday that there is a “huge reform backlog” on social policy. He said the first step will be to scrap a paragraph in Germany's criminal code that bans “advertising” abortions, and which carries a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years.

Under a compromise in 2019, Merkel's government left the ban formally in place but allowed doctors and hospitals for the first time to say on their websites that they perform abortions. They were not, however, allowed to give more detailed information.

Buschmann said the so-called paragraph 219a constitutes a “penal risk” for doctors performing legal abortions who give factual information on the internet, and that is “absurd.”

“Many women who wrestle with themselves on the question of an abortion look for advice on the internet,” he said. “It cannot be that, of all people, the doctors who are professionally best qualified to inform them aren't allowed to provide information there.”

Other changes to social policy planned by the new governing coalition of Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, the Greens and Buschmann's Free Democrats include scrapping a 40-year-old law that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, a process that often involves intimate questions.

The coalition has pledged to replace that with a new “self-determination law.”

Liver disease and early death caused by air pollution, study warns

(Photo by Bence Szemerey from Pexels)

DECEMBER 13, 2021
by Study Finds

CHENGDU, China — Living near a busy road can lead to liver disease, according to new research. A large-scale study has identified a link between the deadly condition and local levels of air pollution. Even small hikes in pollution increased local people’s risk of fatty liver disease by almost a third, according to scientists in China.

An estimated 100 million Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and, according to studies, fumes from traffic and industry are fueling soaring numbers of cases.

“Our findings add to the growing evidence of ambient pollution’s damaging effects on metabolic function and related organs,” says lead investigator Dr. Xing Zhao of the West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University in a media release.

The findings come from health and residency records of around 90,000 people in China. Other information the team used included blood, urine, and saliva samples, imaging data, and information on sociodemographic and lifestyle habits.
Air pollution’s link to several diseases

Liver disease incidences have soared in the last four decades, currently affecting a quarter of the global population. NAFLD is the ​​most common form of liver disease in children. The NAFLD mortality rate in the U.S. is also increasing. NAFLD, also called metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), may trigger cirrhosis or liver cancer. Some patients require a liver transplant.

“The [metabolic-associated fatty liver disease] MAFLD epidemic corresponds to environmental and lifestyle changes that have occurred alongside rapid industrialization worldwide, especially in many Asian countries,” Dr. Zhao explains.

“A growing number of studies have suggested that ambient air pollution, which is the biggest environmental problem caused by industrialization, may increase the risk of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, and related diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome. However, epidemiologic evidence for the association was limited, so we conducted this research to improve our understanding of the effects of air pollution on human health and also to help reduce the burden of MAFLD.”

Particulate matter significantly increases disease risk

The study found a person’s chances of having the illness rose with greater exposure to particles and gases formed by the burning of fossil fuels. For instance, for every density increase in PM2.5s (fine particulate matter) of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, the risk increased by 29 percent. The tiny particles lodge in the lungs and make blood stickier, triggering inflammation. The same small climb in nitrogen dioxide levels — produced mainly by diesel vehicles — made liver disease 15 percent more likely.

Men, smokers, drinkers, and those who consume a high-fat diet appear to be most prone, suggesting unhealthy lifestyles may exacerbate the harmful effects.

“However, physical activity did not seem to modify the associations between air pollution and MAFLD. We suggest that future studies explore whether the timing, intensity, and form of physical activity can mitigate the harmful effects of air pollution,” Dr. Zhao notes.

Apparently, traffic fumes in towns and cities largely wipe out the benefits of walking, jogging, or cycling. The researchers propose that governments should recognize air pollution as a modifiable risk factor for liver disease. Populations at high risk should be aware of the air quality in the areas where they live and plan activities to minimize exposures.

Air pollution continues to be a global health threat

Pollution tops the list in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) major determinants of mortality. It ranks higher than smoking, drinking, and major infectious diseases and is likely to be responsible for millions of deaths per year. Liver specialists Prof. Massimo Colombo of San Raffaele Hospital in Italy and Prof. Robert Barouki, a biochemist at Paris University, believe pollution should fall into the same category as asthma in terms of health threats.

“Indeed, whereas physical activity together with a healthy diet stand as a primary pillar in the fight against metabolic syndrome associated morbidities, including MAFLD, the findings that ambient pollution could exacerbate MAFLD risk might offer new clues to refining the counseling of these patients, for instance by restricting exposure of risk populations to open air settings at high level of pollution, as is recommended for patients suffering from severe asthma,” Colombo and Barouki say.

“It also constitutes an additional incentive for decision makers to speed up the efforts to conform with the WHO guidelines and limits on air pollution, as many cities in Europe and worldwide are still well above those limits.”

Long-term exposure to pollution is a leading global health concern. Even low concentrations could cause tens of thousands of early deaths every year in the U.S.

The study is published in the Journal of Hepatology. The new findings also confirm animal experiments showing breathing in air pollutants leads to liver disease.

South West News Service writer Mark Waghorn contributed to this report.