Update 19 – IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine

03/12/2022
Vienna, Austria, 



Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that Russia was planning to take full and permanent control of the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) under the management of the state firm Rosatom, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. This was later denied by the Russian Federation.

The President of Ukraine's nuclear power plant operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, said in a letter to the Director General that around 400 Russian soldiers were “being present full time on site” and confirmed that the NPP remains under the control of the Russian military forces’ commander.

In addition, Energoatom’s Kotin said plant management were required to coordinate with the Russian forces on all operational issues, including technical matters. He confirmed that staff at the NPP were regularly rotating and added that Russian experts had arrived at the site a few days ago to assess the radiation situation there.

Ukraine had previously informed the IAEA that Russian military forces took over the country’s largest nuclear power plant, with six reactors, on 4 March. Its regular staff have continued to operate the NPP and carry out their day-to-day work, but its management is under the control of the commander of the Russian forces there, Ukraine said. Russian forces took control of another nuclear site in Ukraine, the Chornobyl NPP, on 24 February.

In a telephone call with Director General Grossi early today, 12 March, the Director General of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev confirmed that a limited number of the company’s experts were present at the Zaporizhzhya NPP in south-eastern Ukraine, but he denied that Rosatom had taken operational control nor that it intended for the plant to be under Rosatom’s “management system”.

In a regular technical update today, the Ukrainian regulator told the IAEA that the Zaporizhzhya NPP power supply situation had not changed in recent days. The site has four high voltage (750 kV) offsite power lines plus an additional one on standby. Two of the four have been damaged. The operator has informed the IAEA that the NPP off-site power needs could be provided with one power line available. Diesel generators were also ready and functional to provide back-up power.

Rosatom Director General Likhachev confirmed the site power supply situation and said work was being carried out to restore the lost power lines but in a way not to put at risk the existing supplies, and therefore additional fuel supplies for back-up diesel generators were being brought in, in case they would be needed. He added that other supplies for the plant could also be delivered.

The Russian Federation separately informed the Agency formally today that, “management and operation of the Zaporozhskaya and Chernobyl NPPs is carried out by the Ukrainian operating personnel. A group of several Russian experts provides them consultative assistance. In the framework of providing technical support, the priority needs of plants are being determined to ensure the safe and sustainable operation of nuclear power units. Thus, in particular, with the consultative assistance of Russian specialists, the restoration of the power supply of the Chernobyl NPP and the physical protection system of the Zaporozhskaya NPP is now being carried out. While implementing measures carried out at ensuring the safe and secure operation of Ukrainian NPPs the Russia side maintains close contact with the IAEA”.

Director General Grossi reiterates that the current situation clearly contravenes one of the seven indispensable pillars namely that “The operating staff must be able to fulfil their safety and security duties and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure”.

Regarding the situation at the Chornobyl NPP, the Ukrainian regulator said efforts to repair the damaged power lines were continuing but external electricity supplies remain severed since 9 March. Diesel generators are continuing to provide back-up power to systems relevant for safety, including spent fuel storage facilities at the site of the 1986 accident, and additional fuel deliveries arrived on 11 March, it said.

In his phone discussion today with Director General Grossi, Rosatom’s Likhachev also provided information about the new diesel deliveries and said power lines could be extended from nearby Belarus to supply the Chornobyl NPP. He said some Rosatom experts were on the site.

At the Chornobyl NPP, the plant’s staff of 211 technical personnel and guards have still not been able to rotate, in effect living there since the day before Russian forces took control, the Ukrainian regulator said.

Director General Grossi has repeatedly stressed the urgent need to ensure they can properly rest and rotate, saying this is also a vital element for safe and secure nuclear power operation. Adding to the difficult situation, communications between the plant and the regulator were lost on 10 March. The regulator is still in contact with off-site management and is able to provide information about the plant to the IAEA.

On the status of Ukraine’s operational nuclear power plants, the regulator said eight of the country’s 15 reactors remained operating, including two at the Zaporizhzhya NPP, three at Rivne, one at Khmelnytskyy, and two at South Ukraine. Radiation levels remain normal, it added.

Director General Grossi has from the beginning of the conflict expressed grave concern about the safety and security of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities. He has proposed an agreed framework to ensure the safety and security of nuclear facilities in Ukraine, which he discussed in his recent meetings in Antalya, Turkey with the Ukrainian and Russian Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergei Lavrov respectively. In addition, he is preparing detailed technical proposals on how the IAEA can assist in this regard, coordinating closely with all relevant parties. Director General Grossi said that the agreed framework must be concluded urgently and he added that in its absence no IAEA on-site assistance could be provided.

In relation to safeguards, the Agency confirmed that it has managed to recover all of the data of the Zaporizhzhya NPP that could not be transmitted to IAEA headquarters for a few days this week. There are no new developments regarding the Chornobyl and South Ukraine sites.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CHERNOBYL 

Vladimir Putin and the risk of World War III


George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations, and a pioneer of the hedge-fund industry

13TH MARCH 2022

By George Soros

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 was the beginning of a third world war that has the potential to destroy our civilisation.

The invasion was preceded by a long meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on February 4 – the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations and the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

At the end of that meeting, the two men released a 5,000-word, carefully drafted document announcing a close partnership between their two countries. The document is stronger than any treaty and must have required detailed negotiations in advance.

I was surprised that Xi appeared to have given Putin carte blanche to invade and wage war against Ukraine. He must be very confident that his confirmation as China’s ruler for life later this year will be a mere formality.

Having concentrated all power in his own hands, Xi has carefully scripted the scenario by which he will be elevated to the level of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

Having obtained Xi’s backing, Putin set about realising his life’s dream with incredible brutality.

Approaching the age of 70, Putin feels that if he is going to make his mark on Russian history, it is now or never.

But his concept of Russia’s role in the world is warped. He seems to believe that the Russian people need a Czar whom they can follow blindly. That is the direct opposite of a democratic society, and it is a vision that distorts the Russian “soul,” which is emotional to the point of sentimentality.

As a child, I had many encounters with Russian soldiers when they occupied Hungary in 1945.

I learned that they would share their last piece of bread with you if you appealed to them. Later, at the beginning of the 1980s, I embarked on what I call my political philanthropy.

First, I set up a foundation in my native Hungary, and then I actively participated in the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, the disintegration had already begun. I set up a foundation in Russia, and then did the same in each of the successor states. In Ukraine, I established a foundation even before it became an independent country.


I also visited China in 1984, where I was the first foreigner allowed to set up a foundation (which I closed in 1989, just before the Tiananmen Square massacre).
Ruthlessness

I don’t know Putin personally, but I have watched his rise very closely, aware of his ruthlessness. He reduced the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, to rubble, just as he is currently threatening to do to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

Putin used to be a canny KGB operator, but he seems to have changed recently. Having developed an idée fixe, he appears to have lost touch with reality.

He certainly misjudged the situation in Ukraine. He expected Russian-speaking Ukrainians to welcome Russian soldiers with open arms, but they turned out to be no different from the Ukrainian-speaking population.

Ukrainians have put up an incredibly brave resistance against seemingly overwhelming odds.

In July 2021, Putin published a long essay arguing that Russians and Ukrainians are really one people, and that the Ukrainians have been misled by neo-Nazi agitators.

The first part of his argument is not without some historical justification, given that Kyiv was the original seat of the Russian Orthodox Church. But in the second part, it was Putin who was misled. He ought to have known better.
Euromaidan

Many Ukrainians fought valiantly during the Euromaidan protests in 2014.

The events of 2014 made him very angry. But the Russian army performed poorly when it was ordered to attack its Ukrainian brothers. Ingrained corruption in the awarding of defense contracts also has played an important role in its underperformance.


Yet rather than blaming himself, Putin seems to have gone literally mad. He has decided to punish Ukraine for standing up to him, and he appears to be acting without any constraint. He is throwing the entire Russian army into the battle and ignoring all the rules of war, not least by indiscriminately bombing the civilian population.

Many hospitals have been hit, and the electrical grid supplying the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (currently occupied by Russian troops) has been damaged. In besieged Mariupol, 400,000 people have been without water and food for nearly a week.

Russia may well lose the war. The United States and the European Union are both sending defensive weapons to Ukraine, and there are efforts to buy Russian-made MIG fighters that Ukrainian pilots know how to fly. These could make all the difference.

Regardless of the outcome, Putin has already worked wonders when it comes to strengthening the EU’s resolve and unity.

Meanwhile, Xi seems to have realised that Putin has gone rogue.

On March 8, one day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had insisted that the friendship between China and Russia remained “rock solid,” Xi called French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to say that he supported their peacemaking efforts. He wanted maximum restraint in the war in order to avert a humanitarian crisis.

It is far from certain that Putin will accede to Xi’s wishes. We can only hope that Putin and Xi will be removed from power before they can destroy our civilisation.

George Soros, Founder and Chair of the Open Society Foundations, is the author, most recently, of In Defense of Open Society (Public Affairs, 2019).

Ukraine war: Nine dead after Ukrainian military base used for NATO drills near Poland is targeted by Russian airstrikes

The training facility is the biggest in the western part of Ukraine and is traditionally used for joint drills with NATO. The airstrike comes a day after Russia warned Western arms shipments could become "legitimate targets" for attacks.

Tom Gillespie
News reporter @TomGillespie1
Sunday 13 March 2022 

Ukrainian soldiers and US military instructors took part 

in drills at the base in February

Nine people have been killed after a Ukrainian military base used for NATO drills less than 15 miles from the Polish border was targeted in a Russian airstrike, the governor of the Lviv region has said.

Maksym Kozytskyy added 57 people were wounded after 30 rockets were fired at the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security in Yavoriv, in what appears to be the westernmost attack of the war so far.

Ukraine's defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said foreign military instructors work on the site in the Lviv region.

A defence ministry representative said they are still trying to establish if any of the instructors were at the facility at the time of the attack.

Reuters says a witness saw more than a dozen ambulances heading in the direction of the base.

Since 2015, the US has regularly sent instructors to the military base and the facility has also hosted international NATO drills.

The military training facility is the biggest in western Ukraine and is located less than 15 miles (25km) from the border with Poland, a member of NATO.

"The occupiers launched an airstrike on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security. According to preliminary data, they fired eight missiles," Anton Mironovich, spokesman for the Academy of Land Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was quoted as saying by the Interfax Ukraine news agency.

Mr Mironovich did not clarify whether the military base was hit but said there were no deaths and that information on the wounded was being confirmed.

Key developments
'Invaders' are trying to turn Kherson into a breakaway region, Zelenskyy says
Russia 'installs new mayor in city of Melitopol'
Britons who host refugees will get £350-a-month 'thank you' from the government
Russian forces appear to be making progress in their advance on Kyiv
Mariupol's situation is becoming critical after a 12-day blockade, officials said
Russia warns that it now considers Western arms shipments to Ukraine 'legitimate' military targets

The military base was targeted by Vladimir Putin's forces a day after a Russian diplomat warned that Western shipments of military equipment to Ukraine could be "legitimate targets" for attacks.

The strike also come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russian forces that they faced a fight to the death if they try to occupy the capital Kyiv, as air raid sirens again woke residents on Sunday morning.

"If they decide to carpet bomb and simply erase the history of this region... and destroy all of us, then they will enter Kyiv. If that's their goal, let them come in, but they will have to live on this land by themselves," Mr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

Palestinian Presidency condemns Occupation Authorities' Decision to build 730 new settlement units

Published: 13 Mar 2022 - 


QNA

The Palestinian Presidency condemned the decision of the Israeli occupation authorities to build 730 new housing units in the settlement of Pesgat Ze'ev in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Presidency said in a statement that this decision is evidence that the occupation government insists on ignoring the resolutions of international legitimacy on the illegality of settlements, adding that the occupation government is seeking to sabotage all efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the region and the world.

The Presidency stressed that Jerusalem, with its Islamic and Christian holy sites and neighborhoods, is a red line that is untouchable and warned against Israel's "exploitation of the international community's preoccupation with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis to advance settlement projects and steal more Palestinian land."
It stressed that all settlements are illegitimate, and are destined to demise. Nothing will bring about a just and lasting peace other than the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, by ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the Presidency added.

The so-called "Israeli District Planning and Building Committee" had earlier approved a plan to build 730 new settlement units in the "Psgat Ze'ev" settlement, which is built on Beit Hanina lands.

FEATURE
For Israelis, the outpouring of aid to Ukraine is personal
Israeli organizations are helping refugees of all faiths, as they do in any world crisis. But this time, there’s also a Jewish connection.

Children in Jerusalem demonstrating against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.

BY ABIGAIL KLEIN LEICHMAN

(March 13, 2022 / Israel21C) Dr. Albina Rotshtein’s March 6 birthday nearly went unnoticed this year. She was busy caring for Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border as part of NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief’s medical mission from Israel.

Instead, she received a miraculous gift: Her parents, her sister and her sister’s two children managed to cross into Poland that day from their endangered home in Ukraine. Overjoyed, she rushed to Krakow to greet them.


Rotshtein’s birthday miracle exemplifies what is exceptional about the outpouring of Israeli aid for Ukrainians since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24.

Although Israelis always rush to help victims of disasters anywhere—Haiti, Japan, Mexico, Mozambique, South Sudan, Nepal, the Philippines and dozens of other countries—this time, it is highly personal.

A NATAN doctor treats a Ukrainian refugee child in Poland, March 2022. Credit: NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief.

Personal connections

Not only are roughly half a million Israelis of Ukrainian descent, but about 26,000 Ukrainian nationals live in Israel and an estimated 300,000 Jews reside in Ukraine, like Rotshtein’s family.

And so, while numerous Israeli governmental and non-governmental organizations are helping all Ukrainian refugees pouring into border countries, the world’s only Jewish country has a special role to play.

EMT Yechiel Gurfein, a member of United Hatzalah of Israel’s mission to help Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, reports that delegation members were invited to bless the newlyweds at a double wedding in the Kishinev (Chisinau) Jewish community.

“This is a major part of our mission: to remind everyone that all of Israel is responsible for one another and that we are all brothers, and that no one is ever alone, no matter what they are going through,” Gurfein said.

Hagit Krakov, head of mission for IsraAID in Moldova, is of Moldovan heritage and most of her relief team has roots in the area, as well.

“We’ve met many people who have family in Israel, both Ukrainians crossing with Jewish heritage and also Moldovans,” said Ethan Schwartz, IsraAID’s spokesman.

Everyone working together

Leaders of Israeli NGOs and government agencies noted the outpouring of concern from across the nation.

“We have about 6,000 volunteers and more than 1,000 responded to our call for our first mission to Moldova,” United Hatzalah spokesman Raphael Poch tells Israel21c. “It was incredible how many volunteers wanted to go from all different communities. Some of our Arab volunteers want to come, too, but they can’t speak English or Russian. We will try to find a way for them to help.”

Eynat Schlein, head of the Foreign Ministry’s MASHAV international development agency, said, “We received many calls trying to see how people in Israel or NGOs can help the people in Ukraine. MASHAV is looking for a way to channel all of these goodwill attempts and donations and do something significant … People in Israel are really touched and moved by the scenes that we’re seeing and want to help.”

Israeli NGOs “have chutzpah—they are small but hands-on and work with international organizations to know where the needs are,” says Dana Manor, deputy director of the Society for International Development (SID)-Israel, a 10-year-old humanitarian aid umbrella organization.

A message of support in Ramat Gan, Feb. 27, 2022. Photo by Yossi Zeliger/Flash90.

Israel-headquartered workplace productivity company Monday.com built a dedicated platform to help SID-Israel and its partner, OLAM, coordinate the efforts of all parties. Israel’s Foreign Ministry also has established a coordination center to deal with the many initiatives to help Ukrainians.

In addition to the nonprofits mentioned above, other Israel-based NGOs helping refugees include ZAKA, SmartAID, Rescuers Without Borders, Dream Doctors, Yad Ezer L’Haver, Brit Olam and Shalom Corps.

“This is what they are trained to do, to deploy to any disaster situation,” Manor tells Israel21c.

Safe harbor in Israel

Israel has absorbed the most Ukrainians per capita since the Russian invasion than any other Western country without a land border with Ukraine, said Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked.

Some 15,000 Ukrainians could arrive in Israel by the end of the month, “90 percent of whom are not eligible to be included under the Law of Return [having one Jewish grandparent],” she said. The World Zionist Organization is setting up temporary housing.

“Israel is uniquely ready to absorb and give citizenship to the most Ukrainian nationals in the world. This is the very great challenge that awaits us vis-à-vis housing, employment and other areas,” Shaked said.

On March 6, about 100 Jewish Ukrainian children landed along with orphanage staffers. They were evacuated with the assistance of the Israeli embassy in Romania, which is aiding Ukrainian refugees of all faiths.

The children were greeted by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Minister of Aliyah and Integration Pnina Tamano-Shata—herself a former refugee from Ethiopia—and bused to the KKL-JNF field school in Ness Harim, where local children welcomed them for an expected month-long stay.

The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal, United Hatzalah and Jewish groups and donors from around the world are bringing Ukrainian Jews to Israel.

JAFI raised more than $19 million so far to support humanitarian and rescue operations in Ukraine border countries Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary.

Hundreds of Jewish and Christian volunteers are assisting refugees on the ground and through a hotline that has received some 16,000 calls. Many callers inquire about moving to Israel, while others are concerned relatives in Israel and refugees within Ukraine, according to JAFI.

JAFI and the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel initiated Torenu (Our Turn), to collect winter clothing and hygiene items from the Israeli public and transfer them to Jewish Agency centers active along the Ukrainian border.

Help on the way

Manor said many Israeli companies and domestic aid groups “are looking to channel help according to the rapidly changing needs in Ukraine and the countries where refugees are fleeing.”

Israeli therapeutic clowns on the way to the Ukrainian border. Credit: Dream Doctors.

TytoCare provided 50 telemedicine devices for Ukrainian children. Rakuten Viber initiated free calls and information-sharing channels in the countries with the largest influx of refugees.

Latet donated food, blankets and winter equipment for distribution by United Hatzalah. Magen David Adom and MASHAV produced first-aid instructional videos in Russian, and is setting up a refugee aid center at its headquarters near Tel Aviv.

Hospitals are taking initiative, as well. Aside from the field hospital to be set up in Lviv by Israel’s Health Ministry, Sheba Medical Center and Clalit HMO, medical personnel from Schneider Children’s Medical Center and Hadassah University Medical Center flew over to aid refugees.

“I’m really worried about the situation,” said IsraAID’s Hagit Krakov. “All these mothers and children crossing the border need a lot of support, and it’s not going to be ending very soon.”

This article first appeared in Israel21c.

REAL DEMAND DESTRUCTION
Russia has destroyed $100 billion worth of Ukrainian assets since it invaded
By Mehr Ali / in Europe, World / on Sunday, 13 Mar 2022 


The top economic adviser to the Ukrainian government called on Thursday for a full, global embargo on Russian oil and gas, describing the payments for Russia’s energy products as “blood money.”

The adviser, Oleg Ustenko, made the plea as he outlined the steep economic costs that Russia’s invasion is having on Ukraine’s economy as the country faces relentless bombardment. He estimated that $100 billion worth of Ukrainian assets have been lost and destroyed so far.

The country’s business sector has been crippled, Mr. Ustenko said, with 50 percent of businesses not operating and those that are running at less than full capacity. He added that Ukraine’s financial system and the currency remained stable, given the circumstances.

The cost of building that Ukraine will face when it emerges from the war will be vast, Mr. Ustenko said.

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved $1.4 billion of emergency financing for Ukraine on Wednesday. The World Bank is also working to deploy a $500 million supplemental loan to help support Ukraine’s economy. And in the United States, the House approved $13.6 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine on Wednesday.

Mr. Ustenko said that beyond military support, Ukrainians will need aid for food, clothing, and other basic needs.

AUTHOR
Mehr Ali is a journalist, photographer, and football player.

Rabbi who helped Abramovich get citizenship under investigation

Rabbi Daniel Litvak has been barred from leaving Portugal as an investigation looks into how Roman Abramovich was granted citizenship.

Abramovich's naturalisation process was granted under the authority of the Porto community, where Litvak is the rabbi. (Reuters Archive)

A rabbi responsible for the certification that allowed Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and others to obtain Portuguese citizenship is not allowed to leave the country and must present himself to authorities when required.

Saturday’s decision came following the arrest of rabbi Daniel Litvak on Thursday by officers of the Judicial Police, the national criminal investigation agency, as part of an ongoing public prosecutors inquiry into how Chelsea soccer club owner Abramovich was granted citizenship.

Lusa news agency said Litvak, who was preparing to travel to Israel when he was detained, was asked to hand over his passport.

Abramovich was granted Portuguese citizenship last year based on a law offering naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula during the Mediaeval Inquisition.

Applicants' genealogies are vetted by experts at one of Portugal's Jewish communities in Lisbon or Porto. The Porto community, where Litvak is the rabbi, was responsible for Abramovich's process.

Abramovich has been sanctioned by the British government over his links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's military operation in Ukraine. He has denied having such ties.

Suspicions of corruption

There is little known history of Sephardic Jews in Russia, although Abramovich is a common surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin.

Citing a judiciary source, Lusa said authorities took "coercive measures" against Litvak while he waits for legal proceedings to move forward.

The Judicial Police did not immediately reply for comment and neither did representatives of the Jewish community in Porto.

Porto's Jewish community has denied any wrongdoing and said it was the target of a smear campaign, adding that Litvak oversaw the department that certifies Portuguese nationality on the basis of criteria that "have been accepted by successive governments".

In a statement on Friday, the Judicial Police and the public prosecutor said there were suspicions of money laundering, corruption, fraud and falsification of documents in the process of granting citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews.

Close to 57,000 descendants of Sephardic Jews have been granted citizenship since the law was implemented in 2015, according to official data.

War in Ukraine: The teenagers at war with only three days training

Students Maksim, 19 and Dmytro, 18, volunteered for the Ukrainian army and received just three days of basic training before being sent to war.

Speaking to the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, the young soldiers talked about their nerves and how their families feel about their situation.

How political pressure led to shutdown of Texas’ largest gender-affirming care program

Orion Rummler,

 The 19Th
March 12, 2022

THE TEXAS GRINCH

Greg Abbott YouTube/screen grab

Leaders of a now-defunct health clinic — known for years as the largest program of its kind for transgender youth in Texas — came under pressure to restrict gender-affirming care from the governor’s office and a state House investigative committee, according to recordings of internal meetings among hospital leadership and staff obtained by The 19th.

Hospital administrators and doctors at GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS), a state-run medical institution, struggled to reconcile halting care with the knowledge that doing so could severely jeopardize the mental health of their patients, the recordings reflect.

GENECIS, which was jointly run by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, quietly closed to new patients in November, with all references removed from the Children’s Health website. The 19th obtained nearly five hours of meetings among UT Southwestern leadership and staff, as well as staff and leadership at Children’s Medical Center and GENECIS employees, that took place during 2021 and 2022.

The shuttering of GENECIS is part of Texas officials’ efforts to restrict health care and full access to services for trans youth. Gov. Greg Abbott called three special sessions of the Texas legislature that prioritized anti-trans legislation, pledged to take action against gender-affirming care for trans youth, and has backed the state attorney general’s interpretation that giving puberty suppressing drugs and hormone therapy to trans youth is child abuse. These moves have put multiple parents seeking care for their trans children under investigation by the state. (A state court issued an injunction on Friday evening blocking these investigations.) On a March 2 call with reporters, Abbott’s campaign reportedly described the push to investigate parents of trans kids as a winning issue.

In an emailed statement, a UT Southwestern spokesperson said that hospital leadership was not contacted by the governor himself about GENECIS and its services. When asked if leadership was contacted by the governor’s office, the spokesperson said that inquiries into actions by the governor’s office should be directed there. The governor’s office and Children’s Medical Center Dallas did not respond to requests for comment.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s nonbinding opinion about gender-affirming care was issued in response to state Rep. Matt Krause, chairman of the Texas House General Investigating Committee, who asked the attorney general last August whether puberty-suppressing drugs and hormone therapy count as child abuse. Krause had also written a letter dated June 30 to the GENECIS clinic, obtained by The 19th, saying that he had begun an inquiry into their work as part of an investigation into gender-affirming care in Texas. Krause did not respond to requests for comment.

The hospital leadership and staff at GENECIS began to discuss the political pressure on the clinic as early as July, according to the recordings, as the Texas investigative committee looked into their work and the governor’s office probed for more information.

Meetings among hospital leadership and staff beginning last summer portray disarray and distress. They worried that halting care could lead to suicides and poor mental health among trans youth in a state with few options.

“How can we minimize the risk of suicidality in patients who could otherwise have come into GENECIS? I think that’s a very high priority,” Dr. Perrin White, director of pediatric endocrinology at UTSW, said at a November meeting.

“We’re taking away the life-saving medical care for the new patients,” one GENECIS employee said in response. “If we’re mitigating suicidality, let’s be clear, it’s because in large part, we’re taking away medical care.”

The GENECIS team was instructed by UT Southwestern leadership in November to stop prescribing hormone treatment and puberty blockers to new patients, several days after the website suddenly came down on November 12. Existing patients were allowed to continue all treatment, but new patients would only be able to access psychiatric evaluation and counseling, and be evaluated for gender dysphoria.

Physicians and staff debated how to maintain some semblance of care for trans youth under their new normal. Several GENECIS staff members raised concerns that the program was not designed to offer psychological care alone — and that the ultimate point of evaluating patients’ mental health is to determine whether they can receive hormone treatment or puberty blockers, considered life-saving care by families of trans kids and many of the physicians who work with them.

Access to hormone therapy and puberty-suppressing drugs, widely recommended by medical authorities, is linked to lower rates of suicidal ideation and improved mental health among trans youth. Kids who received one year of hormone therapy through GENECIS reported small to moderate improvements in symptoms of depression, per research by leaders of the program published in the American Academy of Pediatrics in March 2020.

Evan Singleton, 19, who lives outside Dallas, told The 19th that he believes the gender-affirming care he received through GENECIS — puberty blockers and hormone treatment — saved his life.

“I feel scared and sorry for these kids that can’t get the help that they need,” he said. For him, starting puberty blockers soon after he turned 10 was a relief. His mother, Mela, added that finding a way to halt her son’s puberty afforded her time to learn the best course of action for her child’s future, while halting the extreme emotional distress caused by his puberty.

Another recurring concern discussed among staff was the potential for the clinic, or even individual physicians, to face lawsuits after denying hormone treatment to trans kids while prescribing that same treatment to cisgender kids with precocious puberty.

Although UT Southwestern will not provide puberty blockers and hormone treatment to new patients if they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the hospital does provide hormone therapy to patients with precocious puberty, spokesperson Rian Russell said in a statement, pointing to FDA approval as a reason for the discrepancy.

UT Southwestern is tied to Texas officials. The medical center relies on state funding that is approved through the governor’s office. Texas’ governor also appoints members for the governing body for the University of Texas System, pending approval by the state Senate.

Dr. John Warner, the executive vice president of health system affairs at UT Southwestern, referred to that unique pressure faced by UT Southwestern as a state agency in the recorded meetings. A senior leadership official with the Children’s Medical Center also shared that sentiment in a meeting earlier this year. Both men, in addition to White, spoke about pressure and questioning into the GENECIS program by the governor’s office.

Prior to July, the governor’s office had requested information about the clinic with “an expectation that something different would occur,” Warner later told his colleagues in November.

“We weren’t sure what that was going to mean,” he continued in the recorded meeting. “We thought that might mean that portrayed something that would come via this legislative session, so again, we’re fortunate in that it did not, because it gives us a little room to work,” Warner said.

Through the meetings, details of how the governor’s office purportedly reached out to the hospital or what the governor’s office said were not clear.

The 19th independently identified Warner from introductions made for him during a recorded meeting as well as public videos of him speaking professionally. White was also identified independently by The 19th from public videos of him discussing his work. White offered to respond through official channels at UT Southwestern, but the medical center’s press office had not responded as of publication time. Warner did not respond to requests for comment.

“I think people will come after it until it’s gone,” Warner said at the November meeting. During the previous legislative session, the clinic had come under significant pressure from state legislators, plus scrutiny from the governor’s office, he said.

Although Abbott’s third special legislative session did not result in the worst-case scenario outlined by Warner — GENECIS being “eliminated entirely” through legislative amendment — he explained to colleagues that he still did not believe the clinic would be allowed to continue without some modifications.

The pressure from Krause, who headed the investigative committee looking into GENECIS, was a precursor of what would come in 2022. In his June 30 letter, Krause had asked the clinic to provide details about their services, including what age groups the clinic treats, what other practitioners the clinic makes referrals to, and for copies of consent forms required of patients. All of these questions were discussed by UT Southwestern leadership and staff in a meeting that summer, with hospital leaders voicing particular concerns about whether the clinic could continue to provide gender-affirming care while beholden to the state.

Over the course of three special sessions from July to October last year, Republicans in Texas introduced nearly 50 bills that proposed to restrict access to gender-affirming care or school sports for trans youth, in addition to a few other bills focused on birth certificates — in total, triple the number of anti-trans bills of any other state in 2021. One restricting trans youth’s sports participation passed.

Then the GENECIS website disappeared.

During meetings in November, attorneys representing UT Southwestern had assured hospital leadership that halting gender-affirming care for new trans patients would not make them liable if faced with a lawsuit.

But physicians and staff with GENECIS still expressed discomfort about what they were being asked to do — and what it would mean for the trans youth they treat.

GENECIS is an early example of a trend unfolding across Texas in the wake of Paxton’s nonbinding opinion: clinics shuttering gender-affirming care for minors in response to state pressure.

Texas Children’s Hospital, a nonprofit hospital in Houston, announced last week it will cease gender-affirming care in response to Abbott’s call to investigate families to avoid “potential criminal legal ramifications” for health care staff and families seeking care, spokesperson Natasha Barrett emailed in a statement.

One parent of a trans child living in Texas, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of being reported to the state and investigated, told The 19th that the Legacy Community Health in Houston stopped prescribing hormone treatment or puberty blockers for trans minors on Monday, March 1. They could not get access to their son’s testosterone prescription for three days until the clinic resumed prescriptions on Wednesday.

The parent said they weren’t told why the clinic started providing prescriptions again, and that they did not receive any written communication when their son’s prescription was first denied. Legacy Community Health clinic did not respond to requests for comment.

LGBTQ rights supporters gather at the Texas State Capitol to protest state Republican-led efforts to pass anti-trans legislation on the first day of the 87th Legislature’s third special session.

 (Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images)

Last week, as the Biden administration admonished Texas for its push to investigate the parents of trans youth, the Department of Health and Human Services encouraged health care providers who believe that they have been unlawfully restricted from providing gender-affirming care to patients based on their gender identity to file a complaint with the agency’s office of civil rights.

“We are evaluating the tools at our disposal to protect trans and gender diverse youth in Texas,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

Charis Sharp, a 21-year-old psychology student living in Hawaii, told The 19th that care she received through GENECIS — puberty blockers when she was 12, and then hormone treatment — were a critical lifeline at a time when she was suicidal due to gender dysphoria and discrimination she faced from her peers.

“The fact that they’re no longer allowed to accept new patients, this can have disastrous impacts on these childrens’ mental health, and I know it because that was me,” she said.

A 'Freedom Convoy' we can all support: Send the truckers to Russia!

Kirk Swearingen, Salon
March 12, 2022

Jordan Green

In any negotiation to stop Vladimir Putin's unprovoked terror war against the Ukrainian people, may we add one small demand — that he open his borders to anti-Americans here at home?

I know I would.

I'm talking about the gun-toting, flagpole­-wielding insurrectionists, those faux-truckers with their faux demands for faux freedom from wearing masks they weren't wearing anyway — at least not over their noses — and all those folks who want to push their religious beliefs or unbelievably idiotic conspiracy theories on the rest of us, the reasonably educated "elite."

RELATED: The "People's Convoy," like Trump's social media platform, is a right-wing grift gone bust

Anyone who (at least until very recently) has openly praised Putin as being a stronger leader than their own president.

A jury just reached the first conviction of a Jan. 6 insurrectionist, and he will be sentenced in June. Given that there are something like 750 cases coming up for the Justice Department to deal with, some have suggested that the judge in that case will hand out a severe sentence to encourage others to make a plea deal.

What if these defendants were given the freedom to make a different choice — one that would save the country the expense of a trial and likely incarceration? They could emigrate to Mother Russia. (It might be more appealing if Putin rebrands that as "Daddy Russia," given the general misogyny and repressed erotic longing found on the American right.)

It's nice to see Republican support for Ukraine's struggle against Russia's war — after a fair amount of initial hedging — and polls show a vast majority of Americans say they are willing to deal with increased gas prices to support the overall effort. But there is no doubt that Republican leadership will start blaming President Biden for rising gas prices the moment they think they can get away with it — oh wait, they never stopped—as if he, or any president, has any control over the price at the pump.

But to all true-red Putin fanboys, like Fox News "personality" Tucker Carlson, and those who, like him, see in Russia or Hungary a model for our future, I say: Go. Democracy makes you feel very uncomfortable, like reading some generally beloved literature. And lots of science. And a good deal of history. And, now, gender studies.

The problem with you is that your oft-stated desire to "be free" is mostly about imposing your religious beliefs on others and curtailing your fellow citizens' freedom to life, liberty and the pursuit of their own happiness — including the liberty and happiness one feels as a citizen in casting a ballot, exercising democratic responsibility and feeling that fundamental sense of agency in the world.

Your idea of freedom is that everyone is free to think like you do. (How Putin-esque!) Are your antidemocratic impulses a good fit for living in the increasingly diverse United States of America in the 21st century? Let me put it in a way you'll comprehend: Nyet.

Perhaps the AARP magazine should include Russian Federation states and allied countries in upcoming features on the best places to retire. You know, the AARP staff could provide additional categories for aging Americans with pro-Putin leanings to consider. Along with the standard categories of taxes, recreation and health care, they could include how adeptly officials in the region suppress protesters, women and journalists, or how helpful they are to folks who want to launder money in the West. Some wealthy Americans might choose to retire to, say, Belarus or Kyrgyzstan instead of Florida (and not go through the current endless hassle of turning Florida into Belarus or Kyrgyzstan). For less affluent Russia lovers, "Borscht-ing on a Budget" and "Surviving — and Thriving — in a Siberian Winter!" are a couple of feature story ideas that immediately come to mind.

Here at home, we would also love to be free of your endless trolling — which is an impulse, come to think of it, that could stand you in good stead in the Russian Federation or its allied states. As would that strong desire you seem to have lately to suppress the vote, rat on your neighbors and turn them in to the authorities (which, OK, can sometimes backfire).

You would have the freedom to live in a land where books don't need to be banned or burned, because they simply aren't published in the first place; where LGBTQ rights are unknown, partly because such acronyms, as well as human rights in general, remain unworkable in Russian; and where women and people of color know better than to raise their voices as full human beings.

You know, those good old "real American" values!

We can save the nation, and the union, while not breaking it up by states or counties — or ceding our reddest counties to the protectorate of Putin's lame alt-NATO, the CSTO. You and your fellow Putin admirers, along with evangelicals (who don't comprehend the First Amendment), gun fetishists (who don't comprehend the Second Amendment) and white supremacists (who don't understand the 14th, the 15th and — well, any number of amendments, as well as the life and message of Jesus) can live in a country much better suited to your zealotry and fervent beliefs.

As Christian historian Jemar Tisby, author of the bestselling "The Color of Compromise" and "How to Fight Racism," has extensively discussed, American white Christians being hellbent on white nationalism is nothing new. Writer, farmer and philosopher Wendell Berry called our deep reluctance to acknowledge our racist history America's hidden wound, and the right is very busy now further covering it up.

But fear not, Republicans — Putin has your back. His form of Christianity is said to be more about power and ideology than theology. And many Americans on the right, who have been encouraged to fear an "elite" left and to hate their political opponents for advocating diversity and inclusion in our pluralistic, multicultural democracy, greatly admire any "strongman" who might make it all go away, with a big assist from a like-minded Supreme Court.


The horrific human scenes of devastation we are witnessing from cellphone and amateur video coming out of Ukraine may be momentarily silencing most Putin aficionados and apologists in the United States, but don't think for a moment that they don't still love him.

Watching courageous Ukrainians pushing back against the little Russian tyrant, with their lives and homeland on the line, and an empathic and competent American president methodically working with the leaders of a strengthened NATO against him, should make us appreciate the strength inherent in the American promise — which is painfully slow, yes, but still a promise, a worthy aspiration — of greater justice for all, as well as the creative energy that comes from our blessed diversity of thought and cultures.

I want to feel as proud of my homeland as the Ukrainians obviously do theirs.


That trucker convoy was an AstroTurf bogus protest, but a "freedom convoy" of insurrectionists and QAnoners and authoritarian-loving Putin-stooges in Congress and the media packing up and heading straight out of this country would be the real thing.

Let's forge a moment of rare bipartisan consensus and make your freedom convoy — and ours — a reality.