Yanks’ Balkovec living ‘American dream’ with manager role

By JAKE SEINER

New York Yankees minor league hitting coach Rachel Balkovec speaks to reporters during the Major League Baseball winter meetings on Dec. 10, 2019, in San Diego. Balkovec was introduced Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, as manager of the Tampa Tarpons, the New York Yankees’ Low A affiliate in the Florida State League. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)


NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel Balkovec is aware of the negativity in her social media feeds and tries to leave it there. Her sisters see it, too, and can’t help but pass along certain disparaging reactions to her barrier-breaking journey.

“It’s hilarious to me,” Balkovec said. “Because it’s the American dream.”

In the clubhouse? She hasn’t seen any of that toxicity there.

Balkovec was introduced Wednesday as manager of the New York Yankees’ Low A affiliate in the Florida State League. In taking over the Tampa Tarpons, Balkovec will become the first female manager in the history of affiliated baseball, an appointment 10 years in the making for the former college softball player.

“If you know my story and you have a pulse, I think it’s pretty hard not to get behind what’s going on here,” she said.

Nearly a decade after changing her name on resumes to disguise her gender and break into baseball, the 34-year-old has smashed several barriers en route to this title. She was the first woman to serve as a full-time minor league strength and conditioning coach, then the first to be a full-time hitting coach in the minors.

This promotion — a year after former Yankees employee Kim Ng became the majors’ first female general manager with the Miami Marlins — is different. Balkovec will run the clubhouse in Tampa, charged with overseeing the development of future big leaguers for one of the most famous sports franchises in the world.

“The players that I’ve worked with, whether they like me, they don’t like me, they like what I’m saying, they don’t like what I’m saying, I do feel like they respect me,” she said.

It’s a trust she’s earned via an unusual route — one that didn’t exist 20 years ago, but not just because of her gender.

A former softball catcher at Creighton and New Mexico, Balkovec has a master’s degree in kinesiology from LSU and another in human movement sciences from Vrije University in the Netherlands. She’s worked in strength and conditioning with the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros since first breaking into pro ball in 2012, and also spent time at Driveline Baseball, a data-driven center that has trained numerous major leaguers. She’s an expert in performance science, precisely the expert teams are coveting.

When the Yankees hired her as a minor league hitting coach in 2019, she was at the forefront among women breaking into uniformed jobs, but she was hardly the only coach without a traditional playing background.

Hitting 95 mph isn’t the same skill as teaching someone else to, and as teams have shifted their focus in the hiring process to reflect that, it’s created a pathway for women like Balkovec or Alyssa Nakken, part of the San Francisco Giants’ major league coaching staff since 2020.

“There wasn’t a ton of debate as to whether baseball was ready or the world was ready,” said vice president of baseball operations Kevin Reese, who made the decision to promote Balkovec. “We’re trying to find the best people and put them in the best position to have an impact here.”

Reese, introduced Wednesday under a new title after being promoted from senior director of player development, helped hire Balkovec in 2019 and has been overwhelmingly impressed with her expertise and ability to lead, including with young Latin American players. The Nebraska native taught herself Spanish after becoming Houston’s Latin American strength and conditioning coach in 2016, and some of her most notable work has been with New York’s Spanish-speaking players, including top prospect Jasson Dominguez.

General manager Brian Cashman has had a woman as an assistant general manager since hiring Ng in 1998. When she left in 2001, Jean Afterman was appointed to the role and has been there since. Balkovec has expressed interest in one day working in the front office and potentially becoming a GM herself.

“The sky’s the limit,” Cashman said. “She’s determined. She’s strong. She’s got perseverence.”

She’s needed it. After serving her temporary role with St. Louis in 2012, she began applying for baseball jobs with what she knew was a rock-solid resume. And yet, only one team responded.

Her point of contact with that club said his bosses wouldn’t let him hire a woman in a strength and conditioning role. Even worse, that person called around to other teams with vacancies, and they all told him the same.

“In that very moment, my level of naivete went from a 10 to a zero,” she said.

One of her sisters suggested changing her name to “Rae Balkovec” on her resume, and the tactic worked to at least get hiring managers on the phone. The Cardinals brought her back as a full-time strength and conditioning coordinator in 2014.

She’s seldom had issues with players related to her gender — “so little it’s hardly worth mentioning,” she said. Being the only woman in that trail-blazing role was lonely, though.

Now, she believes there will be 11 women with on-field jobs in affiliated ball next year, and she’s able to compare experiences with them. Tennis great Billie Jean King was among the many who congratulated her on the Tampa job, and she’s developed a network of support that’s reinforced her confidence that she’s ready for the role.

“On behalf of Major League Baseball, I congratulate Rachel on this historic milestone,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “As manager of the Tampa Tarpons, she will continue to demonstrate her expertise and leadership in the Yankees’ organization. We wish Rachel well in this new capacity and appreciate her mentorship to the growing network of women in baseball operations and player development roles.”

The job ahead of her, though, is the same as any other skipper — get the most out of the players in her clubhouse.

“My goal is really to know the names of the girlfriends, the dogs, the families of all the players,” she said. “My goal is to develop them as young men and young people who have an immense amount of pressure on them. My goal is to support the coaches that are on the staff.

“We’re going to be talking more nuts and bolts of pitching and hitting with them, and defense. It’s really just to be a supporter, and to facilitate an environment where they can be successful.”

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Follow Jake Seiner: https://twitter.com/Jake_Seiner

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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

TIT FOR TAT

Russia won’t rule out military deployment to Cuba, Venezuela

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and EMILY SCHULTHEIS

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US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, left, and Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov attend security talks at the United States Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. (Denis Balibouse/Pool via AP)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia raised the stakes Thursday in its dispute with the West over Ukraine and NATO’s expansion when a top diplomat refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if tensions with the United States escalate.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said he could “neither confirm nor exclude” the possibility of Russia sending military assets to Latin America if the U.S. and its allies don’t curtail their military activities on Russia’s doorstep.

“It all depends on the action by our U.S. counterparts,” the minister said in an interview with Russian television network RTVI, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Moscow could take unspecified “military-technical measures” if the U.S. and its allies fail to heed its demands.

Ryabkov led a Russian delegation in talks with the U.S. on Monday. The negotiations in Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels took place in response to a significant Russian troop buildup near Ukraine that the West fears might be a prelude to an invasion.

Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014, has denied having plans to attack the neighboring country. The Kremlin reacted to the suggestion by accusing NATO of threatening its territory and demanding that the military alliance never embrace Ukraine or any other ex-Soviet nations as new members.

Washington and its allies firmly rejected the demand this week as a nonstarter, but the NATO and Russian delegations agreed to leave the door open to further talks on arms control and other issues intended to reduce the potential for hostilities.

A senior Biden administration official suggested Thursday that Ryabkov’s statement about Cuba and Venezuela had not changed Washington’s calculations.

“We are not going to respond to bluster. If Russia actually started moving in that direction, we would deal with it decisively,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.

Ryabkov last month compared the current tensions over Ukraine with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis — when the Soviet Union deployed missiles to Cuba and the U.S. imposed a naval blockade of the island.

That crisis ended after U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed that Moscow would withdraw its missiles in exchange for Washington’s pledge not to invade Cuba and the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey.

Putin, in seeking to curtail the West’s military activity in Eastern Europe, has argued that NATO could use Ukrainian territory to deploy missiles capable of reaching Moscow in just five minutes. He warned that Russia could gain a similar capability by deploying warships armed with the latest Zircon hypersonic cruise missile in neutral waters.

Soon after his first election in 2000, Putin ordered the closure of a Soviet-built military surveillance facility in Cuba as he sought to improve ties with Washington. Moscow has intensified contacts with Cuba in recent years as tensions with the U.S. and its allies mounted.

In December 2018, Russia briefly dispatched a pair of its nuclear-capable Tu-160 bombers to Venezuela in a show of support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro amid Western pressure.

Ryabkov said a refusal by the U.S. and its allies to consider the key Russian demand for guarantees against the alliance’s expansion to Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations makes it hard to discuss the confidence-building steps that Washington says it’s ready to negotiate.

“The U.S. wants to conduct a dialogue on some elements of the security situation ... to ease the tensions and then continue the process of geopolitical and military development of the new territories, coming closer to Moscow,” he said. “We have nowhere to retreat.”

Ryabkov described U.S. and NATO military deployments and drills near Russia’s territory as extremely destabilizing. He said U.S. nuclear-capable strategic bombers flew just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Russia’s border.

“We are constantly facing a provocative military pressure intended to test our strength,” he said, adding that he wondered how Americans would react “if our bombers fly within 15 kilometers off some U.S. bases on the East or the West Coast.”

The high-stakes diplomacy this week took place as an estimated 100,000 Russian troops with tanks and other heavy weapons are massed near Ukraine’s eastern border. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday rebuffed the West’s calls for a troop pullback from areas near Ukraine.

“It’s hardly possible for NATO to dictate to us where we should move our armed forces on Russian territory,” he said.

Peskov said this week’s talks produced “some positive elements and nuances,” but he characterized them as unsuccessful overall.

“The talks were initiated to receive specific answers to concrete principal issues that were raised, and disagreements remained on those principal issues, which is bad,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

He warned of a complete rupture in U.S.-Russia relations if proposed sanctions targeting Putin and other top civilian and military leaders are adopted. The measures, proposed by Senate Democrats, would also target leading leading Russian financial institutions if Moscow sends troops into Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov likewise denounced the proposed sanctions as a reflection of U.S. “arrogance,” adding that Moscow expects a written response to its demands from the U.S. and NATO next week in order to mull further steps.

Tensions revolving around Ukraine and Russia’s demands on the West again appeared on the table at a Thursday meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Vienna.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, who assumed the position of the OSCE’s chairman-in-office, noted in his opening speech that “the risk of war in the OSCE area is now greater than ever before in the last 30 years.”

The tensions over Ukraine also figured high on the agenda of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brest, France. Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said it’s important “for Putin to understand that the military threats, the game he’s playing, the way he’s trying to take us back to the darkest days of the Cold War, is totally unacceptable.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, reiterated that “any further aggression against Ukraine will have massive consequences and severe costs for Russia.” Borrell said the 27-country bloc is providing 31 million euros ($35.5 million) in logistical assistance to the Ukrainian army and is preparing to send a mission to help the country counter cyberattacks.

Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula after the ouster of Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly leader and in 2014 also threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. More than 14,000 people have been killed in nearly eight years of fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces. .

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Emily Schultheis reported from Vienna. Lorne Cook in Brussels and Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

ANTI-ABORTION IS REALLY ANTI-BIRTH CONTROL 

Abortion grows as priority issue for Democrats: AP-NORC poll

By HANNAH FINGERHUT

Stephen Parlato of Boulder, Colo., holds a sign that reads "Hands Off Roe!!!" as abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, on Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington. With Roe v. Wade facing its strongest threat in decades, a new poll finds Democrats increasingly view protecting abortion rights as a high priority for the government.

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Roe v. Wade facing its strongest threat in decades, a new poll finds Democrats increasingly view protecting abortion rights as a high priority for the government.

Thirteen percent of Democrats mentioned abortion or reproductive rights as one of the issues they want the federal government to address in 2022, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from less than 1% of Democrats who named it as a priority for 2021 and 3% who listed it in 2020.

Some other issues like the economy, COVID-19, health care and gun control ranked as higher priorities for Democrats in the poll, which allowed respondents to name up to five top issues. But the exponential rise in the percentage citing reproductive rights as a key concern suggests the issue is resonating with Democrats as the Supreme Court considers cases that could lead to dramatic restrictions on abortion access.
“The public have lots of things that they want to see government addressing,” said Jennifer Benz, deputy director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “You ask this kind of question in a time of economic turmoil and in the time of a pandemic and all of these other things going on, we might not expect abortion to rise to the top.”

With a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, Republicans see this as their best chance in years to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion throughout the United States. In December, the Supreme Court left in place a Texas law that bans most abortions in the state and signaled during arguments that they would uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That decision will be made public in June.

Calling the abortion polling numbers “stark,” Benz noted that conventional wisdom holds that abortion is a motivating issue for Republicans and not for Democrats. Research from the 1980s and 1990s, Benz said, “regularly found that opponents of abortion had greater strength of attitudes and considered the issue important to them personally more than pro-choice people.”

That may be changing. Sam Lau, senior director for advocacy media at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, believes more Americans are recognizing this moment as a crisis for abortion access.

“I think what we have seen is absolutely an increase in awareness, an increase in urgency, an increase in the need to fight back,” he said. “But I still actually think that huge swaths of this population still don’t quite believe that the access to abortion and the 50-year precedent that is Roe v. Wade is really hanging in the balance.”

ABORTION

Republicans again reject family planning clinic contracts

Noem to push abortion ban after 6 weeks, conservative vision

GOP bill in Florida would ban abortions after 15 weeks

The court’s 1973 decision, reaffirmed in the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, allows states to regulate but not ban abortion up to the point of fetal viability, at roughly 24 weeks. If Roe and Casey are overturned in June, abortion would soon become illegal or severely restricted in roughly half the states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

That’s just months ahead of midterm elections that are expected to be challenging for Democrats.

Lau thinks people are starting to recognize they “simply cannot rely on the courts to protect our rights and our access to essential health care.”

“We are currently pushing for elected officials who are champions of sexual and reproductive health care to be bold and to go on offense and to pass proactive legislation to protect access to abortion,” Lau said. “I think voters are going to go to the polls and want to vote for candidates who they can trust to protect their health care and their reproductive freedom.”

Polling shows relatively few Americans want to see Roe overturned. In 2020, AP VoteCast, a survey of the electorate, showed 69% of voters in the presidential election said the Supreme Court should leave the Roe v. Wade decision as is; just 29% said the court should overturn the decision. In general, AP-NORC polling shows a majority of the public favors abortion being legal in most or all cases.

Still, Americans have nuanced attitudes on the issue, and many don’t think that abortion should be possible after the first trimester or that women should be able to obtain a legal abortion for any reason.

For 41-year-old Rachelle Dunn, who knew girls in high school and women in college and her adult life who have needed abortions, it’s “just health care.”

“It’s something that women I have known through my life have needed for different reasons,” said Dunn, of Tarentum, Pennsylvania. “The government needs to step in because all of these laws are being written and passed, but none of them are for medical reasons.”

She’s concerned about a domino effect from these Supreme Court cases, adding that she worries about how they will affect her two daughters’ futures, as well as her son’s.

“It just seems like, if it’s been affirmed, repeatedly, why are we still doing this?” Dunn said.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,089 adults was conducted Dec. 2-7 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

TOXIC

Rubble brings opportunity, and risk, in war-scarred Gaza
By FARES AKRAM

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Palestinian workers use a backhoe to break and remove parts of the Al-Jawhara building, that was damaged in Israeli airstrikes during Israel's war with Gaza's Hamas rulers last May, in the central al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Nov. 16, 2021. The Gaza Strip has few jobs, little electricity and almost no natural resources. But after four bruising wars with Israel in just over a decade, it has lots of rubble. Local businesses are now finding ways to cash in on the chunks of smashed concrete, bricks and debris left behind by years of conflict. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Gaza Strip has few jobs, little electricity and almost no natural resources. But after four bruising wars with Israel in just over a decade, it has lots of rubble.

Local businesses are now finding ways to cash in on the chunks of smashed concrete, bricks and debris left behind by years of conflict. In a territory suffering from a chronic shortage of construction materials, a bustling recycling industry has sprouted up, providing income to a lucky few but raising concerns that the refurbished rubble is substandard and unsafe.

“It’s a lucrative business,” said Naji Sarhan, deputy housing minister in the territory’s Hamas-led government. The challenge, he said, is regulating the use of recycled rubble in construction.

“We are trying to control and correct the misuse of these materials,” he said.

Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have gone to war four times since the Islamic militant group, which opposes Israel’s existence, seized control of the territory in 2007. The most recent fighting was in May. Israeli airstrikes have damaged or leveled tens of thousands of buildings in the fighting.

The United Nations Development Program says it worked with the local private sector to remove some 2.5 million metric tons of rubble left behind from wars in 2009, 2012 and 2014. Gaza’s Housing Ministry says the 11-day war in May left an additional 270,000 tons.

The UNDP has worked on rubble recycling since Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. It also has played a key role in the latest cleanup, removing about 110,000 tons, or more than one-third of the rubble. That includes the Al-Jawhara building, a high-rise in downtown Gaza City that was damaged so heavily by Israeli missiles that it was deemed beyond repair. Israel said the building housed Hamas military intelligence operations.

Over the past three months, excavators lifted atop the building systematically demolished it floor by floor. Just one floor remains and the construction crews are now removing the building’s foundations and pillars on the ground.

In a common scene outside every building destroyed by the war, workers separated twisted rebar iron from the debris, to be straightened out and re-used in things like boundary walls and ground slabs.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a crippling blockade on Gaza for the past 15 years, restricting the entry of badly needed construction materials. Israel says such restrictions are needed to prevent Hamas from diverting goods like concrete and steel for military use. Since 2014, it has allowed some imports under the supervision of the United Nations. But thousands of homes need to be repaired or rebuilt, and shortages are rampant.

The UNDP has put tight restrictions on its recycling effort. It says that renewed rubble is not safe enough for use in building homes and buildings. Instead, it allows it to be used only for road projects.

“We do not recommend any of the rubble to be used for any reconstruction as such, because it is not a good quality material for reconstruction,” said Yvonne Helle, a UNDP spokeswoman. She said the metal is separated and returned to the buildings’ owners because it “also has a value.”

On a recent day, trucks trickled into a lowland in central Gaza near the Israeli frontier, carrying large chunks from the Al-Jawhara tower. The site, adjacent to a mountain of garbage serving as Gaza’s main landfill, is overseen by the UNDP.

A wheel loader filled a bucket with debris that was tossed into a crushing machine. It produces large pieces of aggregate that the site supervisor said could be used as a base under the asphalt layer in street construction. Because of safety concerns, they are not allowed to crush the rubble into smaller aggregate that could be used in house construction.

The trucks then return to Gaza City where the UNDP is funding a road project, providing a much-needed source of work in a territory with nearly 50% unemployment.

The U.N. road projects have provided a partial solution for the rubble problem, but most of Gaza’s debris continues to make its way into the desperate private sector.

Sarhan, the Housing Ministry official, said it is forbidden to use recycled rubble in major construction. But he said enforcing that ban is extremely difficult and much of the material is creeping back into the local construction markets.

Ahmed Abu Asaker, an engineer from the Gaza Contractors’ Union, said many brick factories use the local aggregate, which he said is not a “great concern.” He said there have been a few isolated cases of it being mixed into concrete, which is far more dangerous.

There have not been any reports of building collapses. But Abu Asaker estimates that thousands of homes have been built with materials from recycled rubble since 2014.

Just north of the UNDP processing center, about 50 rubble crushers were hard at work at a private facility on a recent day, producing different kinds of aggregate.

The most popular items are the “sesame,” which is used for making cinder blocks, and the “lentil-like” grind sent to cement-mixing factories.

Around the crushers were mounds of small aggregate, with tiny pieces of shredded plastic, cloth and wood clearly mixed in.

Antar al-Katatni, who runs a nearby brick factory, says he makes bricks using the sesame aggregate. He acknowledged the material has impurities like sand, but there is an upside. “It makes more bricks,” he said.

He said engineers do not buy his blocks for internationally funded projects, because they are not allowed to do so, “but poor people do.”

A brick costs two shekels, or about 65 cents, when it’s made with higher quality Israeli-imported aggregate. The price for the ones he makes are slightly cheaper, at 1.7 or 1.8 shekels. When a typical project might require several thousand bricks, even the small price difference can add up for a poor family.

Sarhan said that given the blockade and Gaza’s numerous other problems, it is difficult to regulate the gray market industry.

“We cannot patrol or control every citizen,” he said. “That’s why you may find someone used recycled rubble here or there.”

Opinion: After COVID vaccine menstruation findings, a sigh of relief — and indignation

As one woman who experienced an irregular menstrual cycle after the COVID-19 vaccine, Sonya Diehn feels reassured that this has now been scientifically acknowledged. But why has it taken so long?

A woman of reproductive age receives the COVID vaccine in Cologne, Germany

Soon after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, stories began to emerge that some people were experiencing changes to their menstrual cycles after getting vaccinated.

For a long time, this did not get much media attention, and numerous medical experts continued to assure the public that the COVID-19 vaccines did not cause these side effects. Such stories remained confined to conversations, internet forums and social media.

I received my own first dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in summer. Though some people had told me how sick they felt after receiving it, I was relieved to have only moderate side effects.

A month later, I got my second dose — and then off we were, on family vacation.

I was scheduled to get my period right at the start of the trip. I had one day of heavy bleeding, none at all the next day.

 

Sonya Diehn is a senior editor at DW

Then, I proceeded to bleed for more than a week, nearly the duration of the vacation. The bleeding was quite heavy, and I also had more pain than usual. For me, this was not normal.

I got scared. I had read about an extremely rare blood-related side effect of mRNA vaccines, immune thrombocytopenia — a lack of platelets — and was concerned this could have been happening to me, with excessive vaginal bleeding as a possible symptom.

I felt anxious and did some serious consulting with Dr. Google. Eventually, the bleeding let up and the mega-period finally finished.

And, though I felt alone in my fear and anxiety, I most certainly was not.
COVID vaccines can affect menstruation

Now, a first-of-its-kind, women-led, peer-reviewed study has confirmed the experience of people who menstruate around the world: COVID-19 vaccines can affect periods.

With a dataset of almost 4,000 women, both vaccinated and not, using a menstrual cycle-tracking app, researchers found a clinically significant shift in the cycles of newly vaccinated individuals, lasting nearly one day longer on average.

Cycles typically returned to normal within a month or two, which was the case with me, as well.

This research has given women like me a sigh of relief — what I experienced was abnormal, but normal — and yet I'm left with a lot of questions.

Most importantly: Why were we not informed of this potential side effect before receiving the vaccine?

It turns out that menstrual information is not tracked in clinical studies of COVID-19 vaccines. Not to mention, menstrual side effects are not tracked in VAERS, the United States-based database that allows vaccine recipients to enter possible side effects themselves.

This is frustrating — women deserve to be listened to, and everyone deserves to be informed.

 

Despite its importance for women's health, talking about periods remains largely taboo

Genuine complaints brushed away

Menstruation is among the most basic benchmarks for the health of women in reproductive age, so any changes are a big deal. Yet talking about menstruation remains taboo.

Time and again, reports of altered cycles after receiving COVID-19 vaccines have been minimized and dismissed — especially by well-meaning proponents of vaccination trying to counter unfounded claims that vaccines could harm fertility.

Even after the menstruation study was released, I was reading headlines that downplayed its conclusions.

Of course, some people experienced no changes in their menstrual cycles, or none that they noticed. But the lack of information could have a strong psychological effect on people who do experience significant changes without knowing why.

Perhaps they were trying to get pregnant. Or perhaps they were hoping to avoid pregnancy. Perhaps, like me, they felt anxious or fearful about not being "regular."

Criticism or caution about vaccines is often swept aside as being irrational or the delusions of conspiracy theorists. Yet it should be possible to discuss any legitimate issue without shame or punishment.

Breaking the taboos around menstruation

Against the background of the ongoing culture wars around vaccines, I am as pro-vaccination as it gets. But this experience shook my position.

I don't feel like science has failed here; I feel like people have failed. In their zeal to prove that vaccines are safe, vaccine proponents ignored actual experiences.

As a result of medical experts not listening to valid concerns, it's possible that some women have lost faith in vaccination.

We need to remove the taboos around discussing periods. We need to make female reproductive health more central in education and health care.

Society, and science, need to listen to women.

If not, both may suffer.

Multiple sclerosis caused by Epstein-Barr-Virus — study

Researchers say Epstein-Barr-Virus is a main cause of MS, which affects 2.8 million people worldwide. New treatments and prevention may now be possible.


US researchers see a link between Epstein-Barr-Virus infections, which causes glandular fever, and multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable condition — an autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system, the brain and spinal cord.

MS tends to hit people in the prime of their lives. In most cases, the disease starts when those afflicted are between 20 and 40 years old.

It can be mild but can also turn into a lifelong disability, affecting a person's vision, arm or leg movement, sensation or balance.

And until now researchers have not known conclusively what causes MS. There are treatments to make living with MS better, perhaps easier, but there is no cure.

But that may change now that researchers say they have found a link between Epstein-Barr-Virus and MS. That could open the door to better treatments and even preventative measures.

The link between Epstein-Barr-Virus and MS

In a study conducted in the United States, researchers say they found that the Epstein-Barr-Virus (EBV) was definitely associated with all but one of 801 cases of multiple sclerosis.

The researchers analyzed blood samples from more than 10 million US military employees and identified 801 people with multiple sclerosis. They then analyzed those blood samples — from the people with MS — for EBV antibodies. That would indicate whether those people had ever had an EBV infection.

Epstein-Barr-Virus causes glandular fever, which commonly affects teenagers and young adults. It causes swollen glands and sore throat, and you usually only get it once in your life.

Among those US military personnel, 35 people with MS showed no EBV antibodies in an initial blood sample. But the researchers say that 34 of those 35 people later tested positive for EBV antibodies.

Only one of the 801 people with MS ultimately tested negative for EBV antibodies.

The most important indicator appears to be that those people who had initially tested negative for EBV antibodies also tested negative for multiple sclerosis at the time of the blood sample. It was only after those people experienced an EBV infection that they developed MS, which was also then detected by the researchers.

So, the researchers seem confident there is a link between EBV and MS. What they still don't know, however, is EBV's precise mechanism — or what it does exactly to cause MS and why.
EBV does not automatically mean MS

It's important to note that while about 90% of people contract EBV or glandular fever at some point in their lives, only very few develop multiple sclerosis.

However, experts say the new research and its data are significant.

"The study uses epidemiological methods to assess the risk of developing MS after an infection with the Epstein-Barr-Virus. And the authors conclude that the risk of developing MS is 32 times higher among people who have had EBV than those who have not," said Henri-Jacques Delecluse, a leading researcher at the German Cancer Research Center. "That is a significant number. It's the sort of risk we see for lung cancer among smokers."

But Roland Martin, a leading researcher at University Hospital Zurich, says it's too early to conclude that EBV is the main cause of MS.

"The methodology is good and solid, and you could conclude that EBV is the main cause of MS," said Martin. "But for me, that goes too far. Over the past 20 years, our data has indicated that MS has a complex genetic background, one that can make you more prone to developing MS."

So, it may not only be EBV or genetics, but a combination of the two.
Symptoms: What should you do if you're concerned?

As with every health issue: For the best advice, ask a medical professional or a doctor you trust if you're concerned.

Symptoms for multiple sclerosis can differ from person to person. But they can include the following:
Numbness or weakness in one or more limbs
Electric-shock sensations when you move your neck
Tremors or lack of coordination when you walk
Problems with vision, double vision and pain in your eyes
Slurred speech
Fatigue
Dizziness
Problems with sexual, bowel and bladder function

The study is published in the journal Science.

Gender-affirming treatment improves mental health in transgender youth: study

Trans youth experience better mental health outcomes when provided access to gender-affirming treatment, according to a new study.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) -- A new paper published Wednesday supports the overwhelming body of evidence that transgender youth with access to gender-affirming hormone treatments experience better mental health outcomes than those who wait until adulthood, or those who never receive the treatment.

The paper, featuring a secondary analysis of the largest ever survey of 27,000 transgender adults in the U.S., has the potential to combat prominent arguments in anti-trans legislation bubbling up in state houses across the country in an effort to limit access to this important treatment.

The paper published in the medical journal PLOS ONE is headed by Jack Turban, M.D. who serves as the chief fellow on child adolescent psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"These newer approaches of providing gender affirming hormones result in better mental health outcomes than not providing those interventions," said Dr. Turban.

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Turban's research suggests earlier access to gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy improve mental health outcomes, especially youth that started treatment in their early teens.

"They were less likely to have thought about suicide in the past year when we asked them as adults," said Turban.

They were also less likely to struggle with alcohol abuse, use illicit drugs, or have clinically relevant mental health diagnoses-the kinds of things that would require special treatment.

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Turban said there was an existing body of evidence pointing to the mental health benefits of accessing gender-affirming treatments for the transgender population, but this is the first study that looked into the benefits of different age groups accessing treatment.

"All of the groups had better mental health than people who were never able to access hormones, but people who accessed them during adolescence had better mental health than people who weren't able to access them until adulthood," he said.

In state houses across the country from Arkansas to Texas, a slew of bills were introduced in 2021 in an attempt to limit gender affirming treatment for youth whose gender identity does not match the body they were born into.

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Turban stresses it's important to note that all transgender or gender non-conforming people are not interested in hormone therapy or other gender-affirming medical treatments.

However, of the thousands of trans people who were surveyed in the 2015 report, 41% of people who wanted to access hormones were never able to access it.

Turban said, in part, there aren't enough doctors who are trained to provide medical care to trans and gender diverse people.

He hopes the findings of this new report will dispel misinformation about the effects of gender-affirming treatments that are often the focus of anti-trans policy debates.

"Some of the narratives that we are hearing today are very hostile and damaging especially toward younger transgender people," said Cecilia Chung, Transgender Law Center senior director of strategic initiatives and evaluation.

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Chung, a long-time transgender activist is hopeful this research will strengthen the organization's hand in the fight to win policy battles and hearts and minds.

"Things are moving slowly, but it seems that we have more family accepting their transgender children. And it's not something that we could even imagine 40 years ago when I first transitioned," she said.

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Turban echoes the sentiment that familial acceptance can go a long way.

"One of the greatest predictors of good mental health outcomes for transgender people is if their families accept them," he said. "Just having parents who say 'We love you no matter what. We accept your gender identity. We validate who you are as a person.' That does so much to make someone's mental health better."

EXCLUSIVE:
Devastating dust storms cause 'eternal black summer' where it hurts to blink or cough

For the latest in the NextGen International series, Marcos Vargas reports how demand for peanuts is fuelling unnatural and destructive dust storms every summer in Nicaragua

Demand for peanuts in the UK and Europe is driving unnatural dust storms 

(Image: Carlos Herrera)


By Marcos Vargas
13 Jan 2022

In the next part of our NextGen International project, young people from Nicaragua share their stories of the climate emergency.

Here, Marcos Vargas, who volunteers with our charity partner Raleigh International, writes how demand for peanuts in the UK and Europe is driving unnatural dust storms in Nicaragua.

Find out more and support the work of Raleigh International here.

Doors are bolted closed, shutters on windows come down and people put on their facemasks.

This is no lockdown, but a normal summer in the Central American city of Leon, Nicaragua, which is plagued by unnatural dust storms every year - because of demand for peanuts in the UK and Europe.

Peanuts are one of Nicaragua’s biggest exports but because of the way they are farmed, every summer cities suffer from dust whirlwinds, which affect air quality.

Peanuts are one of Nicaragua's biggest exports (Image: Carlos Herrera)

“Before the pandemic I used to wear face masks due to dust storms. Our houses are never clean,” says Pedro Caballero, a 22-year-old student, living in the Chacraseca district of León’s rural area, which is devoted to agricultural production.

“Throughout my life I have suffered from dust blisters and for me summer is the worst season. I am always sick during the dusty season and I just have to wait for winter to come.

“We have to eat quickly, we must keep the containers of water and food, doors and windows are always closed.”

He says his family are directly affected in the summer due to the house’s proximity to peanuts crops.

Pedro-Caballero says he and his family suffer every summer from the dust

“I live in an agricultural community surrounded by crops and the most terrible time is after the peanut harvest. The soil is completely arid, the land remains loose and when the wind blows the houses are completely covered with powder,” he adds.

This crop is being exported in record quantities to Europe.

In 2018, 64,000 tonnes of peanuts were sent to the UK, accounting for 70% of total Nicaraguan peanut exports, leading Nicaraguan soils to be overexploited.

More than 20,000 hectares of land in León - the size of about 37,000 football pitches - is devoted to peanut farming.

Marcos walks through a field where they grow peanut

The problem existed before peanut farming when the land was used for cotton but that made way for peanut cultivation in the 1950s.

Since then, the land has been decimated because the soil has been exploited far beyond what is sustainable.

The dust gets so bad in Leon, it’s referred to by some residents as the Eternal Black Summer.

The dust from the fields blows into nearby towns

Hanzell Benavides, 26, who volunteers with Raleigh International, says: “It leads to respiratory diseases and poor sanitary conditions of the areas when peanut crops are cut every six months during the summer.

“The worst thing about dust storms in León is how irritated your eyes and skin get due to the excess of dust.

“You can’t blink without feeling dust grains in your eyes, and can’t cough without inhaling dust particles.

“Even the traffic gets worse, drivers cannot see the street and businesses are forced to close.”

Marcos holds a peanut crop among the dry soil 

After harvesting the peanuts, farmers collect the stubble, which is the remaining stem and leaves of the plant rooted in the ground, and it’s then sold on as cattle feed.

But this process removes any remaining plants and nutrients in the ground, leaving only dirt which then causes the dust storms.

Dr Xiomaea Castillo has studied the soils where peanuts are grown 

In addition, the soils lose substantial amounts of fertility every time one of these whirlwinds occur.

And trees, a natural windbreaker, have been cut down to make way for more agricultural land which causes the dust to blow into nearby communities.

Dr Xiomara Castillo, a soil scientist from León, explains: “Peanut farming is a good example of how agriculture increasingly degrades our soils.

Marcos examines one of the crops

“The process of peanut farming, primarily during harvesting, involves tractors lifting the root structure of the peanut, which contains the peanut kernel and by straining and filtering, all the fine particles are removed from the soil.

“Since there is no windbreak protection system or soil cover protection system, trade winds blow over the land and carry practically all fine particles away.”

Among the companies that import peanuts from Nicaragua is KP, one of Britain’s biggest peanut brands.

A spokesman said: “We have a strict supplier selection policy, which includes a requirement that suppliers comply with our Responsible Sourcing Policy and includes the obligation to be a member of SEDEX.

NextGen reporter Marcos Vargas 

“We have a long-standing partnership with our supplier in Nicaragua, which deals directly with the farmers it sources from. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Central America and agriculture forms a significant part of the economy.

“We are aware of the challenges related to dust storms during the dry season, which pre-dates the peanut industry in Nicaragua, and we are committed to working in partnership with our supplier to help influence the use of more sustainable and regenerative practises across the region.

Raleigh International

Raleigh International is a global youth action organisation supporting a global movement of young people to take action for the planet.

Young people are at the forefront of building a fairer, more inclusive and greener world, and are actively confronting the planet’s most urgent crises through Raleigh International’s Action Not Excuses global campaign.

Dame Chance – meaning ‘to give a chance’ - is an Action Not Excuses campaign led by young people in Nicaragua to reduce deforestation and improve green livelihoods.



Dame Chance is tackling deforestation and unemployment by helping 6,000 local farmers to increase forest cover.

Through the work of this Action Not Excuses campaign, young people from rural communities are developing new job opportunities and working with local communities to conserve and protect Nicaragua’s precious forests.

PHOTOS Orlando Valenzuela

Sustainable fishing by 2025: 

What is the current situation in Indonesia?

Indonesia has set itself the goal of making its fishing industry sustainable by 2025. But subsidies and a lack of monitoring, coupled with the vital role of the sector, make this a challenging target.

Indonesia is aiming for a sustainable fishing industry by 2025

When the Indonesian government announced plans to make the country's fishing industry sustainable in early 2019, Arifsyah Nasution welcomed the news. The ocean campaign leader for Greenpeace in Southeast Asia has long been sounding the alarm about endangered fish stocks in Indonesian waters. But he is skeptical that the situation will change much by 2025.

With over 7 million tons of catch annually, Indonesia is the second-largest fishing nation after China. Most is for domestic consumption, with the 270 million-strong population eating more than three times as much fish and seafood as the global average.

This has wide-ranging consequences: Most fish stocks in Indonesia are completely depleted or already overfished. According to the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, 90% of Indonesian boats draw their catch from areas that are already overfished and overcrowded with boats.

Indonesian waters are home to 37% of the world's marine species, many of which are endangered as a result of fishing. Shrimp, for example, are already overfished in more than two-thirds of Indonesian waters, and are therefore becoming increasingly rare. Quotas have already been exhausted in other parts of the country, too.

The decline in stocks is alarming. The problem is not easy to solve though, because often the economic aspect, the sales volume, is in the focus. Nasution told DW "it's not about the demand of the world market, but the survival of the Indonesian population."  

Subsidies as drivers of overfishing

Subsidies in Indonesia's fisheries sector — such as lower fuel prices and tax deductions — have also contributed to a steady increase in catches over the past decades.

Many scientists are therefore critical of them: harmful subsidies can lead to overfishing, loss of biodiversity and destruction of marine areas. This happens, for example, when fishing is undertaken beyond sustainable levels or when subsidies encourage harmful fishing practices. More than 60% of global subsidies in the fishing industry are potentially harmful to the oceans, according to a study by the University of British Columbia in Canada. 

The World Trade Organization has been advocating for the abolition of harmful subsidies in the fishing industry since 2001, but has so far not been successful. "Two decades is too long for ending subsidies that finance the relentless overexploitation of our ocean. [...] We need these rules for the sake of the environment, food security and livelihoods worldwide," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a speech marking World Ocean Day in June. 

Turning subsidies from harmful to beneficial

So far, Indonesia is subsidizing fisheries more than other developing countries, spending over $932 million (€825 million) in 2018. Peru, which catches almost as much, spends only a third as much as Indonesia on subsidies for the fishing industry.

Indonesia spends more on capacity-enhancing, harmful subsidies (60%) in total US dollar, but, as a percentage of the budget, Peru's spending is much higher. Such capacity-enhancing subsidies entail support for boat construction and renovation as well as bigger projects such as fishing port developments.

Although small-scale fishing operations account for almost 95% of the sector, experts say it is mainly the fishing fleets of large-scale industry that benefit from subsidies. 

A fisherman dries his catch in a village near Jakarta, Indonesia

On the other hand, targeted, beneficial subsidies can help maintain biodiversity and protect ecosystems. In Indonesia, about one-third of subsidies have so far been used for this purpose. Some of the funds have gone toward the promotion of marine protected areas, which are intended to protect threatened ecosystems from human exploitation.

One successful example is Raja Ampat, in eastern Indonesia, where several marine protected areas were designated in 2004. They now cover 4.6 million hectares (11.3 million acres) and are considered the most biodiverse protected region in the world, home to more than 1,600 species of fish and hundreds of corals. The abundance of fish attracts many tourists — but also some poachers, who have repeatedly caused damage by fishing with dynamite, for example.

Worldwide, however, Raja Ampat is considered a success story for the cooperation between NGOs, fishing communities and the Indonesian government. NGOs focused more on research and communication to increase public awareness and inform stakeholders. The government, for example, focused more on establishing structures such as a monitoring force to protect the area.

Raja Ampat, home to 75% of the world's known stone corals, is considered the richest coral reef on Earth

Protected areas can't be established everywhere, and it's not yet possible to completely phase out harmful subsidies. With entire industries depending on these funds, there is a risk of economic collapse without them, said Simon Funge-Smith, senior fishery officer at FAO's Asia-Pacific regional office in Bangkok, adding that the consequences would be far-reaching. "The loss of jobs, the loss of livelihoods is political dynamite."

Almost 7 million people are employed in Indonesia's fishing industry. If the government suddenly stopped all harmful subsidies, small-scale fishermen in particular would suffer, according to Indonesia for Global Justice, an NGO that advocates for a fair-trade system. 

The government must therefore plan carefully, gradually converting harmful subsidies into beneficial ones while continuing to ensure the industry's economic viability, Funge-Smith said. 

Politics hinder sustainable development

That is easier said than done. In recent years, there has been little continuity in Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Since 2019 alone, the minister in charge has changed several times. As a result, a ban on particularly harmful trawl nets was temporarily lifted in November 2020 before it was reintroduced in July 2021.

Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia's fisheries minister from 2014 to 2019, strongly

 advocated for sustainable fishing and marine conservation

Nevertheless, in order to encourage responsible fisheries management, "all stakeholders including the civil society need to continue and to focus on advocating the Indonesia fisheries issues at local, national and international levels," Greenpeace's Nasution said.

After all, he said, the ministry's knowledge when it comes to sustainable fishing has increased greatly in recent years. However, leadership problems in the ministry and the government's focus on attractive investments from abroad has hindered these efforts. Foreign investment is primarily focused on profit, which increases the pressure on marine resources. 

From 2014, the Indonesian government used radical methods against illegal boats, sinking more than 300 foreign and domestic vessels within four years. The number of foreign fishing boats dropped by a quarter, yet local fishermen were more active, according to a study by the ministry and American and Indonesian researchers from various universities. The authors observed an overall recovery of fish stocks in that time, but noted the risk that this would be wiped out by a strong increase in local fishing.

Starting in 2014, the Indonesian Navy sunk hundreds of fishing boat for illegal fishing

No data, no control

Another crucial problem in combating overfishing is the lack of reliable data to monitor compliance with regulations and to make the necessary decisions to protect the ocean. The mere size of the Indonesian archipelago, with its 17,5000 islands and over half a million fishing boats, makes monitoring tricky. And most boats don't have onboard electronic devices to facilitate tracking.

With Indonesia containing more than 17,500 islands and 60% of the territory

 covered by water, fishing boats are difficult to monitor

Several pilot projects could provide a solution. One of these is FishFace, which automatically records catches and species using connected cameras on board. The technology enables remote monitoring in real time. 

Such developments give observers, including Funge-Smith, reasons to be optimistic, even if Indonesia ends up missing its stated goal of sustainable fishing by 2025. "Any progress towards that goal is great," he said. 

 

DW's Arti Ekawati contributed to this piece.

Edited by: Anke Rasper, Gianna Grün and Martin Kübler.

WWW LINKS

Data and sources behind this story

HRW: Western leaders need to 'do better' against autocrats

Western politicians have not adequately stood up for democracy, the Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. Autocrats, however, have been losing their grip on power, the advocacy group said.


Human Rights Watch released its report annual report chronicling the human rights situations in roughly 100 countries where it works

Democratic leaders have failed in addressing serious global challenges, such as climate changeand the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Thursday.

HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said the leaders in Western democracies have often been too mired in partisan battles and short-term preoccupations" to deal with the problems effectively.

"If democracies are to prevail in the global contest with autocracy, their leaders must do more than spotlight the autocrats' inevitable shortcomings," Roth wrote in the report's introductory essay.

"They need to make a stronger, positive case for democratic rule."

'Zombie democracy'

The pandemic also put the spotlight on the self-serving tendencies of autocrats, many of whom spent months downplaying the health crisis, Roth said.

"Autocrats claim to deliver better results than democrats, but they usually deliver mainly for themselves," the HRW chief said.

They have gone from subtly manipulating elections for the preservation of their power to overt electoral charades that guarantee their desired results, he wrote.

"What is left after such blatant undermining of elections is no longer managed democracy but 'zombie democracy'—the walking dead of democracy, a charade that has no pretense of a free and fair contest," the rights activist added.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said he wants to counter the "conventional wisdom'' that autocrats are in the ascendancy

'Weak defense of democracy'

Roth criticized Western politicians for displaying weakness in their defense of democracy, adding that these governments often descend to the compromises of realpolitik.

US President Joe Biden vowed to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy after four years of American embrace of "friendly autocrats" under his predecessor, the head of HRW noted.

"But he (Biden) continued to sell arms to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel despite their persistent repression," Roth said.

He also gave the example of Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Merkel government coordinated a global condemnation of Beijing's crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, he wrote, but when holding the European Union presidency, Germany promoted an EU investment deal with China.

The deal was pushed despite human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims, including mass internment, forced birth control, and labor transfers to other regions.

He accused French President Emmanuel Macron of turning a blind eye to the "abysmal rights situation" in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

"The defense of human rights requires not only curbing autocratic repression but also improving democratic leadership," Roth noted.