Why are Americans so enraptured by conspiracy theories?

Rod Graham
June 02, 2022


In a June 2021 episode of On the Media, host Brooke Gladstone described a common debate in media circles over conspiracy theories.

Don't put those liars on the air!
I hear you, but sometimes I have to tell people what's going on!
You're spreading their propaganda for them!
It's already spread and having real-world effects!
Well, it wouldn't spread if you denied them a platform!
Gatekeepers don't have that kind of power anymore!
They might if they worked together!
That just drives it underground and it gets even worse!

The conspiracy du jour was election denial. Do you engage with election deniers, platforming and potentially legitimating them? Or do you ignore them at risk of having them spread with no critique?

In that episode, Gladstone spoke with Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University and media critic.

Rosen suggested possible ways out of the puzzle.

One was to report disinformation within a truth sandwich:
When you feel you have to report on a falsehood, you should start with a true statement, sandwich the misleading one in the middle and end with a true statement.

A second was to shift reporting from national to local politics:
The more politics is rooted in problem-solving that people can see in their lives, the less likely this dueling realities universe is to take over.

I started this piece with the intent of describing how much the right-wing has been hijacked by conspiracy theories. I intended to suggest my own ways forward. But the story of conspiracy theories in the US turns out to be more complex. And more troubling.

The contours of conspiracism

Conspiracy theories are dangerous not simply because people believe them. Nor are all conspiracy theories equal. People who believe the Apollo moon landing was faked are not a societal concern. It's when those false claims power troubling behaviors that we worry.

Unlike moon landing conspiracies, election denial forms the justification for overturning legitimate free elections. It can turn a representative democracy into a fascist regime. That was the goal of the J6 insurrection, all powered by a conspiracy theory.

The American public is now learning about “replacement theory,” which is the idea that migrants and nonwhite people are systematically replacing white people. According to a recent Yahoo News/You Gov poll, about 60 percent of Trump voters believe this theory.

We don't have to think that hard to imagine the consequences of accepting this false statement as a true statement. It will lead to xenophobia and mistreatment of migrants, especially nonwhite ones.

Let's not forget about QAnon, a conspiracy theory that ran a close second to election denial since 2020. QAnoners believe, among other things, that an evil cult has taken over the world. They mistrust governments, institutions and elites. They are more likely to believe information not coming from people associated with those entities.

In February, the Public Religion Research Institute said it found that, “Across 2021, 16 percent of Americans were QAnon believers, 48 percent were QAnon doubters, and 34 percent were rejecters."

Wait, wut?

Sixteen percent is one in six people!

And only half of the country doubts QAnon?

This is significant. It suggests this may be a society-wide problem, not only clustered among Republicans. PPRI said Black and brown people were more likely to be QAnon believers than white Americans.

It’s still true that QAnon believers are primarily white (around 60 percent of total QAnon believers), and the largest share is Republican (about 43 percent). But there is more diversity here than I realized.

More research out of the University of Chicago, about conspiracies and immigration, also shows how widespread conspiracy beliefs are. Based on answers to a questionnaire, researchers sorted respondents into two categories: "high conspiratorial thinkers" and "low conspiratorial thinkers." I like this because it’s not tied to any specific conspiracy but instead taps into the predisposition to believe them.

As expected, 45 percent of all high conspiratorial thinkers were Republicans. But a sizeable 36 percent were Democrats.

Similarly, we would expect less-educated Americans to be high conspiratorial thinkers, the logic being these folks have less information literacy or have had less exposure to established facts.

Indeed, 66 percent of “high conspiratorial thinkers” are did not go to college. But that leaves 34 percent of the same who did go to college.

To say we’re a nation of conspiratorial thinkers is no overstatement.

A slightly different question

So what is the solution?

First, I don't think Rosen's suggestions are helpful. It’s all well and good to create a truth sandwich, but when conspiracy theories have as a component that elites are controlling the population, having an elite telling them they are wrong about their ideas is a non-starter.

Covering local issues, where reality is shared, doesn't seem that effective either, mainly because everyday reality simply isn't shared.

People died in Buffalo because one person had a reality in his mind that he and other white people were being replaced. Queer kids are being erased through teacher gag orders in Florida, premised on the QAnon-reality that elite educators want to groom children.

I don't have a solution.

But let me suggest that because so many people in this country across class, race and political lines believe in conspiracy theories, we have been asking the wrong question (myself included).

We have been asking why MAGA types are so invested in conspiracy theories. This question inevitably leads to answers involving racism, Christian nationalism, xenophobia and possibly lack of education.

These answers are only partially correct.

The question goes only halfway.

A full question would ask why we are a nation of conspiratorial thinkers? Once we answer that, we can address the problem.

Rod Graham is a sociologist. A professor at Virginia's Old Dominion University, he researches and teaches courses in the areas of cyber-crime and racial inequality. His work can be found at roderickgraham.com. Follow him @roderickgraham

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: The Origin of American Conspiracy Theories 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CONSPIRACY

Verizon caught spreading Legionnaires’ disease in New York City: attorney general

Bob Brigham
June 02, 2022

Shutterstock.

Attorney General Letitia James announced on Thursday that her office had found Verizon spread Legionnaires' disease in New York.

"An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that since 2017, there were at least 225 alleged violations of city and state laws at 45 of Verizon’s cooling tower locations throughout the state, with the company failing to conduct testing, address positive test results, and clean and inspect the cooling towers by required deadlines," James' office announced.

Verizon agreed to comply with the law and pay a $118,000 fine.

“Legionnaires’ disease remains a deadly presence in areas across our state, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color,” said James. “It is essential that companies such as Verizon are taking the necessary actions to avoid the spread of this preventable and lethal disease. This agreement will protect New Yorkers' public health and slow the spread of Legionnaires' disease.”

The Centers for Disease Control says the disease is a "serious type of pneumonia (lung infection) caused by Legionella bacteria. Legionella bacteria can also cause a less serious illness called Pontiac fever."

According to the New York AG's office, "rooftop cooling towers, which are part of some buildings’ cooling systems, are considered a significant source of public exposure to Legionnaires’ disease. If not maintained and monitored properly, they can provide an ideal environment for the growth of Legionella and can expose and infect nearby communities due to the mist of water emitted into the air."

"Between 200 and 800 cases of Legionnaires’ disease are diagnosed in New York state each year, although the actual number of infections may be higher as many go undiagnosed or unreported. New York City has seen a series of lethal outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in recent months, with 24 people infected in the Bronx, leading to two confirmed deaths and several hospitalizations. The Bronx previously experienced an outbreak in 2015 that sickened 120 people and led to at least 12 deaths. Following the 2015 outbreak, both the state and city adopted laws designed to prevent Legionella growth in cooling towers and required building owners to adhere to a suite of safety, maintenance, and reporting requirements related to their cooling towers, with civil penalties for non-compliance," the AG's office said.

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE

AOC and Rep. Nydia Velázquez jet to Puerto Rico for talks on island’s statehood status

2022/6/2 
© New York Daily News

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

A congressional delegation including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., jetted into Puerto Rico Thursday for talks as Congress prepares to consider a bill that could lead to a decisive vote on statehood.

The New York lawmakers will meet with political players on all sides of the explosive debate over whether the island should seek to become the 51st state, declare independence or adopt a hybrid semi-independent status.

The issue has gained additional urgency because Democrats in the House of Representatives recently reached a breakthrough agreement to take up a measure that would authorize a plebiscite on the issue.

“The three options that are given to the public or the people, the residents of Puerto Rico, the American citizens of Puerto Rico, are fully democratic,” Gov. Pedro Pierlusi, who backs statehood, told the Hill ahead of the delegation’s three-day visit.

The measure, not yet introduced, follows months of negotiations between federal lawmakers who have long disagreed on what Puerto Rico’s political status should be.

“Getting to this point has not been an easy process. Is it perfection? No,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees affairs in U.S. territories.

But some powerful Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., favor allowing Puerto Ricans to vote on their future status.

The issue of statehood, or estadidad in Spanish, is the biggest and most controversial issue for Puerto Ricans both on the island and in the 5 million-strong diaspora on the mainland, centered in New York City, Philadelphia and the Orlando area.

Velázquez, the dean of the Puerto Rican caucus in the House, fiercely opposes statehood, which some advocates believe would dilute the island’s vibrant culture and reliance on the Spanish language. She and AOC had favored a convention that would determine the island’s options.

On the other hand, Rep. Ritchie Torres, R-N.Y., whose South Bronx district includes the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the nation, backs statehood as the only way for the island’s approximately 3 million residents to have an effective say over their governance.

The factions reached a breakthrough deal to move ahead with the bill under the auspices of Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., with all sides agreeing that the current commonwealth status is untenable and won’t be considered.

The proposal comes at a time when Puerto Rico is trying to emerge from a lengthy bankruptcy and recover from the devastation left by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

There is also growing discontent with Puerto Rico’s two main parties and ongoing government corruption scandals. The November 2020 elections were the first time that the territory’s two main parties failed to reach 40% of votes. Pierluisi won with only 33% of votes.

“I know we are all skeptical because of the political dynamics in Puerto Rico,” said Velázquez last month, who supports the new proposal.

Engineer pushing for more diversity in space

A 26-year-old electrical and hardware engineer will become the first Mexican-born woman in space when she joins a diverse international crew for a 10-minute flight. (June 3)

Mexican-born engineer pushing for more diversity in space

By ALEX SANZ and ANITA SNOW

yesterday

Katya Echazarreta will become the first Mexican-born woman and one of the youngest women in space when she and five others blast off from West Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute tourist flight launched by Blue Origin planned for launch on Saturday, June 4, 2022. The flight comes amid efforts to increase diversity in space travel, which long has been dominated by white men. (Katya Echazarreta via AP)


ATLANTA (AP) — Growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, Katya Echazarreta was encouraged to abandon her dreams of traveling to space.

“Everyone around me — family, friends, teachers — I just kept hearing the same thing: That’s not for you,” Echazarreta told The Associated Press.

Echazarreta, 26, will prove them wrong Saturday when she joins a diverse international crew boarding the fifth passenger flight by Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space travel venture.

She and five others, including Victor Correa Hespanha, the second Brazilian to fly to space, will blast off from Texas atop a New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight. The automated flight should reach an altitude of roughly 66 miles (106 kilometers) before parachuting into the desert.

Echazarreta, whose flight is sponsored by the nonprofit Space for Humanity, will be the first Mexican-born woman and one of the youngest women to fly to space. She was chosen from more than 7,000 applicants in more than 100 countries.

The flight comes as Blue Origin competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for space tourism dollars and efforts aimed to increase diversity in space travel, which long has been dominated by white men.

Of the more than 600 people who have been to space since Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering flight in 1961, fewer than 80 have been women and fewer than three dozen have been Black, Indigenous or Latino.

In April, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins arrived at the International Space Station, the first Black woman assigned a long-duration mission there.

Earlier this year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced the agency’s first-ever equity plan “to further identify and remove the barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities.”

Tabbetha Dobbins, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school at Rowan University, is a member of the American Institute of Physics task force aimed at increasing the representation of Black undergraduate students in physics and astronomy. She told The Associated Press that access to space — no matter how brief the trip — matters.




“They’re going beyond the boundaries that most human beings have gone and that’s a major step,” Dobbins said. “It’s so important that everyone sees themselves represented. It’s hugely impactful.”

But Jordan Bimm, a space historian at the University of Chicago, said it remains to be seen whether the commercial “space for all” ethos becomes reality.

“True diversity and access is sustained diversity and access,” Bimm told The Associated Press. “If we want the population of people getting to go to space to actually reflect human diversity on Earth, we need to rethink why we are going and who holds the keys.”

Echazarreta, who is pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering after a stint at NASA, said people from other cultures or other parts of the world “feel like this isn’t for them, like just because of where they’re from or where they were born, that this is automatically not something that they can dream or have as a goal.”

“I hear that all the time, particularly from Latin America,” said Echazarreta, who is excited for her family to see the launch, considering it their achievement as much as hers.

With this flight, Mexican parents can no longer tell their young daughters they can’t travel to space.

Instead, she said, they’ll have to respond: “You can do it, too.”

___

Snow reported from Phoenix.

___

Follow Alex Sanz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/alexsanz

A long-dead Muslim emperor vexes India’s Hindu nationalists

By SHEIKH SAALIQ

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A book seller shows books on Aurangzeb in New Delhi, Thursday, June 2, 2022. For more than three centuries, Mughal emperor Aurangzeb remained relegated to India's history books. Until recently, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others from his Hindu nationalist party brought him back to life as a brutal oppressor of their faith and culture. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)


NEW DELHI (AP) — Narendra Modi rose from his chair and walked briskly towards the podium to deliver another nighttime address to the nation. It was expected the speech would include a rare message of interfaith harmony in the country where religious tensions have risen under his rule.

The Indian prime minister was speaking from the historic Mughal-era Red Fort in New Delhi, and the event marked the 400th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh guru who is remembered for championing religious freedoms for all.

The occasion and the venue, in many ways, were appropriate.

Instead, Modi chose the April event to turn back the clock and remind people of India’s most despised Muslim ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years.

“Aurangzeb severed many heads, but he could not shake our faith,” Modi said during his address.

His invocation of the 17th century Mughal emperor was not a mere blip.

Aurangzeb Alamgir remained buried deep in the annals of India’s complex history. The country’s modern rulers are now resurrecting him as a brutal oppressor of Hindus and a rallying cry for Hindu nationalists who believe India must be salvaged from the taint of the so-called Muslim invaders.

As tensions between Hindus and Muslims have mounted, the scorn for Aurangzeb has grown, and politicians from India’s right have invoked him like never before. It often comes with a cautionary warning: India’s Muslims should disassociate themselves from him as retribution for his alleged crimes.

“For today’s Hindu nationalists, Aurangzeb is a dog whistle for hating all Indian Muslims,” said Audrey Truschke, historian and author of the book “Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth.”

Hating and disparaging Muslim rulers, particularly Mughals, is distinctive to India’s Hindu nationalists, who for decades have strived to recreate officially secular India into a Hindu nation.

They argue that Muslim rulers like Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu culture, forced religious conversions, desecrated temples and imposed harsh taxes on non-Muslims, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated. Popular thought among nationalists traces the origin of Hindu-Muslim tensions back to medieval times, when seven successive Muslim dynasties made India their home, until each were swept aside when their time passed.

This belief had led them on a quest to redeem India’s Hindu past, to right the perceived wrongs suffered over centuries. And Aurangzeb is central to this sentiment.

Aurangzeb was the last powerful Mughal emperor who ascended to the throne in the mid-17th century after imprisoning his father and having his older brother killed. Unlike other Mughals, who ruled over a vast empire in South Asia for more than 300 years and enjoy a relatively uncontested legacy, Aurangzeb is, almost undoubtedly, one of the most hated men in Indian history.

Richard Eaton, a professor at the University of Arizona, who is widely regarded as an authority on pre-modern India, said that even though Aurangzeb destroyed temples, available records show it was a little more than a dozen and not thousands, as has been widely believed. This was done for political, not religious reasons, Eaton said, adding that the Muslim emperor also extended safety and security to people from all religions.

“In a word, he was a man of his own time, not of ours,” said Eaton, adding that the Mughal emperor has been reduced to “a comic book villain.”

But for Aurangzeb’s detractors, he embodied evil and was nothing but a religious bigot.

Right-wing historian Makkhan Lal, whose books on Indian history have been read by millions of high school students, said ascribing political motives alone to Aurangzeb’s acts is akin to the “betrayal of India’s glorious past.”

It is a claim made by many historians who support Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, also known as the BJP, or its ideological mothership, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a radical Hindu movement that has been widely accused of stoking religious hatred with aggressively anti-Muslim views. They say India’s history has been systematically whitewashed by far-left distortionists, mainly to cut off Indians — mostly Hindus — from their civilizational past.

“Aurangzeb razed down temples and it only shows his hate for Hindus and Hinduism,” said Lal.

The debate has spilled over from academia to angry social media posts and noisy TV shows, where India’s modern Muslims have often been insulted and called the “progeny of Aurangzeb.”

Last month, when a Muslim lawmaker visited Aurangzeb’s tomb to offer prayers, a senior leader from Modi’s party questioned his parentage.

“Why would you visit the grave of Aurangzeb who destroyed this country,” Hemanta Biswa Sarma, northeastern Assam state’s top elected official, thundered during a television interview. Referring to the lawmaker, he said: “If Aurangzeb is your father, then I won’t object.”

The insults have led to more anxieties among the country’s significant Muslim minority who in recent years have been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists, emboldened by a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum on such attacks since he was first elected in 2014.

Modi’s party denies using the Mughal emperor’s name to denigrate Muslims. It also says it is merely trying to out the truth.

“India’s history has been manipulated and distorted to appease minorities. We are dismantling that ecosystem of lies,” said Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a spokesman of the BJP.

The dislike for Aurangzeb extends far beyond Hindu nationalists. Many Sikhs remember him as a man who ordered the execution of their ninth guru in 1675. The commonly held belief is that the religious leader was executed for not converting to Islam.

Some argue that Modi’s invocation of Aurangzeb’s name at the Sikh guru’s birth anniversary in April serves only one purpose: to further widen anti-Muslim sentiments.

“In so doing, the Hindu right advances one of their key goals, namely maligning India’s Muslim minority population in order to try to justify majoritarian oppression and violence against them,” said Truschke, the historian.

Despite referencing Aurangzeb routinely, Hindu nationalists have simultaneously tried to erase him from the public sphere.

In 2015, New Delhi’s famous Aurangzeb Road was renamed after protests from Modi’s party leaders. Since then, some Indian state governments have rewritten school textbooks to deemphasize him. Last month, the mayor of northern Agra city described Aurangzeb as a “terrorist,” whose traces should be expunged from all public places. A politician called for his tomb to be levelled, prompting authorities to shut it to the public.

A senior administration official, who didn’t want to be named because of government policy, compared efforts to erase Aurangzeb’s name to the removal of Confederate symbols and statues — viewed as racist relics — in the United States.

“What is wrong if people want to talk about the past and right historical wrongs? In fact, why should there be places named after a zealot who left behind a bitter legacy?” the official asked.

This sentiment, fast resonating across India, has already touched a raw nerve.

A 17th-century mosque in Varanasi, Hinduism’s holiest city, has emerged as the latest flashpoint between Hindus and Muslims. A court case will decide whether the site would be given to Hindus, who claim it was built on a temple destroyed on the orders of Aurangzeb.

For decades, Hindu nationalists have laid claim to several famous mosques, arguing they are built on the ruins of prominent temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.

Critics say it could lead to long legal battles, like that of the Babri mosque, which was ripped apart by Hindu mobs with spades, crowbars and bare hands in 1992. The demolition set off massive violence across India and left more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. In 2019, India’s Supreme Court gave the site of the mosque to Hindus.

Such worries are also felt by historians like Truschke.

She said the “demonization” of Aurangzeb and India’s Muslim kings is in “bad faith” and promotes “historical revisionism,” which is often backed by threats and violence.

“Hindu nationalists do not think about the real historical Aurangzeb,” said Truschke. “Rather, they invent the villain that they want to hate.”

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUTVA 

EXPLAINER: What is behind Turkey’s Syria incursion threats?

ERDOGAN'S WAR IS AGAINST THE KURDS 

AND KURISTAN NORTH (SYRIA) AND SOUTH (IRAQ)

By BASSEM MROUE and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY

 Turkish troops deploy in Syria's northern region of Manbij, Syria, Oct. 14, 2019. Hardly a day passes in northern Syria without Kurdish fighters and opposition gunmen backed by Turkey exchanging gunfire and shelling and concerns are rising that the situation will only get worse in the coming weeks with Ankara threatening to launch a new major operation along its southern border. (AP Photo, File)


BEIRUT (AP) — In northern Syria, residents are bracing for a new fight. With the world’s attention focused on the war in Ukraine, Turkey’s leader says he’s planning a major military operation to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create a long sought-after buffer zone in the border area.

Tensions are high. Hardly a day passes by without an exchange of fire and shelling between the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, and Turkish forces and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition gunmen.

Analysts say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to push his own goals in neighboring Syria — even using Turkey’s ability as a NATO member to veto alliance membership by Finland and Sweden as potential leverage.

But a major incursion by Ankara comes with risks and complications, threatening to upset Turkey’s ties with both the United States and Russia. It also risks creating a new wave of displacement in a war-ravaged region where the Islamic State group still lurks in the shadows.

Here’s a look at the situation on the ground and some of the key issues:

TURKISH AMBITIONS

Erdogan last month outlined plans to resume Turkish efforts to create a 30-kilometer (19 mile) deep buffer zone in Syria, along its southern border through a cross-border incursion against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters. Erdogan wanted to create that zone in 2019 but a military operation fell short of achieving it.

“We’ll come down on them suddenly one night. And we must,” Erdogan said, without giving a specific timeline.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched three major operations inside Syria, targeting Syria’s main Kurdish militia — the People’s Protection Units or YPG — which Turkey considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. The PKK has for decades waged an insurgency within Turkey against the government in Ankara.

The YPG, however, forms the backbone of U.S.-led forces in the fight against Islamic State militants and has been a proven top U.S. ally in Syria.

Turkey, through the three previous military operations in Syria, already has control over a large chunk of Syrian territory, including the towns of Afrin, Tel Abyad and Jarablus. Ankara plans to build thousands of housing units in those areas, to ensure what it says will be the “voluntary return” of 1 million out of the 3.7 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkish troops now aim to take new areas, including the towns of Tel Rifaat and Manbij, which sits on a major intersection of roads on Syria’s west-east highway known as the M4. Turkey says the Syrian Kurdish fighters use Tel Rifaat as a base to attack areas held by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters.

There have been also reports that Turkish troops might enter the strategic border town of Kobani, where the U.S. military and Kurdish fighters first united to defeat IS in 2015. The town holds powerful symbolism for Syrian Kurds and their ambitions of self-rule in this part of Syria.

WHY NOW?

Analysts say Erdogan likely sees a confluence of circumstances, both international and domestic, that make an operation in Syria timely. The Russians are preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, and the Americans need Erdogan to drop his objections to the expansion of NATO to include Finland and Sweden.

“They (Turks) sense an opportunity to try and get concessions from the West,” said Aaron Stein, head of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.

A Syria offensive could also be used to rally Turkish nationalist voters at a time when their economy is in decline, with inflation running at 73.5%. Turkey is set to hold presidential and parliamentary elections next year, and previous incursions into Syria to drive out the YPG have bolstered support for Erdogan in past balloting.

So far, there are no signs of mobilization pointing to an imminent invasion, although the Turkish military could be called upon fairly quickly. Syrian Kurdish fighters, however, say they are taking Turkey’s latest threat seriously and have been preparing for a possible attack.

They warn that an incursion would affect their ongoing fight against IS and their ability to protect prisons in northern Syria where thousands of extremists, many of them foreign nationals, have been locked up since IS was defeated territorially three years ago.


TURKEY’S US AND RUSSIA TIES

A large-scale military operation carries high risks and is likely to anger both the U.S and Russia, who also have a military presence in northern Syria.

Turkey and Russia support rival sides in Syria’s 11-year conflict but have been closely coordinating in the country’s north. While Russia has not officially commented, it has in recent days sent fighter jets and helicopter gunships to a base close to the border with Turkey, according to Syrian opposition activists.

As one of Damascus’ closest allies, Russia’s role in Syria has been paramount in turning the tide of the conflict in Syria — which started amid Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 — in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Syrian opposition fighters were relegated to an enclave in the northwest and Turkey’s sphere of influence.

But with Moscow focused on Ukraine, it’s unlikely Vladimir Putin will stand in Erdogan’s way over what is essentially just a strip of land along Turkey’s southern border.

Washington has made clear its opposition to a Turkish military incursion, saying it would put at risk hard-won gains in the campaign against IS.

“We recognize Turkey’s legitimate security concerns on its border. But again, we are concerned that any new offensive would further undermine regional stability,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Stein, the analyst, said any operation would be complicated because of Russian presence in both potential hotspots, Kobani and Tel Rifaat.

Whether an operation takes place boils down to the question on how far Erdogan is prepared to go in Syria, particularly in and around the Kobani area — and whether he would be unchallenged by Moscow and Washington.

“How much risk does he want to take? The evidence that we have is that he takes a lot of risk,” Stein said.

___

Bilginsoy reported from Istanbul.

The Revenant: Harini Logan rallies for spelling bee title


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Harini Logan, 14, from San Antonio, Texas, celebrates winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee with her family, brother Naren Logan, right, mom Rampriya Logan, second from right, and dad Logan Anjaneyulu, left, Thursday, June 2, 2022, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Ben Nuckols 

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Harini Logan kept trying to learn from her near-misses in online spelling bees. Recognized for years as one of the best spellers in the English language, she had never taken home a national title.

In the biggest bee of them all, she endured a new series of setbacks, but somehow, at the end, she was still there.

Harini was eliminated, then reinstated, during the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s much-debated multiple-choice vocabulary round. She misspelled four times as Scripps’ most challenging words proved too much for her and Vikram Raju, who also got four wrong in the closing stretch. And then she finally took down Vikram in the bee’s first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker on Thursday night.

Call her spelling’s version of “The Revenant.”

“Harini has been to hell and back with her spelling bee experiences,” said her longtime coach, Grace Walters.

The 14-year-old eighth-grader from San Antonio, Texas, who competed in the last fully in-person bee three years ago and endured the pandemic to make it back, spelled 22 words correctly during the 90-second spell-off, beating Vikram by seven. The winning word, according to Scripps, was “moorhen,” which means the female of the red grouse, because that was the one that moved her past Vikram. Judges announced at the bee that Harini’s word total was 21, but she was credited with one more after a later video review.

Over the past couple months, the ever-prepared Harini had practiced for the possibility of a lightning round, a format she found uncomfortable.

“When it got introduced last year, I was a bit terrified, to be honest,” Harini said. “I go slow. That’s my thing. I didn’t know how I would fare in that setting.”

Harini, a crowd favorite for her poise and positivity, wins more than $50,000 in cash and prizes. She is the first-ever Scripps champion to be reinstated during the competition. And that was before her four late stumbles.

“I think it would have been really easy for me to get deterred, to get sort of like, ‘Wow, why am I missing so much?’” Harini said. “Really just focusing on the next word and knowing that I’m still in, I think was just a big relief for me.”

She is the fifth Scripps champion to be coached by Walters, a former speller, fellow Texan and student at Rice University who is considering bowing out of the coaching business. Harini also got help from Navneeth Murali, who handed her one of those runner-ups in the 2020 SpellPundit online bee — a consolation prize for the Scripps bee that was canceled because of the pandemic.

It was Walters and Navneeth who rushed to the bee judges, along with Harini’s mom, Priya, as soon as Harini walked off the stage in the vocabulary round, seemingly her most crushing disappointment of all.

“My heart stopped for a second,” Harini said.

Harini defined the word “pullulation” as the nesting of mating birds. Scripps said the correct answer was the swarming of bees. Her supporters made the case to the judges that she’d gotten it right. A few minutes later, head judge Mary Brooks announced the reversal.

“We did a little sleuthing after you finished, which is what our job is, to make sure we’ve made the right decision,” Brooks said. “We (did) a little deep dive in that word and actually the answer you gave to that word is considered correct, so we’re going to reinstate you.”

From there, Harini breezed into the finals against Vikram. They each spelled two words correctly. Then Scripps brought out the toughest words of the night.

Both misspelled. Then Vikram missed again and Harini got “sereh” right, putting her one word away from the title. The word was “drimys,” and she got it wrong.

Two more rounds, two more misspelled words by each, and Scripps brought out the podium and buzzer for the lightning round that all the finalists had practiced for in the mostly empty ballroom hours earlier.

Harini was faster and sharper throughout, and the judges’ final tally confirmed her victory.

 For the first time in the nearly 100-year history of the competition, the winner was decided in a spell-off, which saw the two finalists face off to see who could spell the most words correctly in 90 seconds.

Harini successfully spelled 21 words, while Vikram spelled 15.

Harini was initially eliminated in the word meaning round, which was brought back to the competition this year, but was reinstated after judges concluded that the definition she gave for the word "pullulation" could be construed as correct.

“I knew I just had to blurt off the spelling I could think of off the top of my head, and I just had to be a little faster,” said Vikram, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Aurora, Colorado, who hopes to return next year.

Vihaan Sibal, a 13-year-old from McGregor, Texas, finished third and also has another year of eligibility. Saharsh Vuppala, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Bellevue, Washington, was fourth.

The last fully in-person version of the bee had no tiebreaker and ended in an eight-way tie. The bee returned last year in a mostly virtual format, with only 11 finalists gathering in Florida as Zaila Avant-garde became the first Black American champion.

Harini is Indian-American, resuming a trend that’s persisted for two decades — 21 of the past 23 champions have had South Asian heritage.

Another change to this year’s bee: Scripps ended its deal with longtime partner ESPN and produced its own telecast for its networks ION and Bounce, with actor and literacy advocate LeVar Burton as host. The transition was bumpy at times, with long and uneven commercial breaks that broke up the action and audio glitches that exposed the inner workings of the broadcast to the in-person crowd.

The bee itself was leaner, with fewer than half the participants it had in 2019 because of sponsors dropping out and the elimination of a wild-card program. And the addition of live vocabulary questions during the semifinals and finals resulted in surprising eliminations.

Harini bowing out on a vocabulary word was briefly the biggest shock of all.

“In the end, it’s all been worth it,” Walters said. “Every second place. Every ding. Every tear. All of it. This is the ending Harini deserves.”

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Follow Ben Nuckols on Twitter at https://twitter.com/APBenNuckols

AP-NORC poll details rift between lay Catholics and bishops


Migrants watching Pope Francis' Mass in Juarez, Mexico, from a levee along the banks of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, take part in Communion, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016. According to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted in mid-May 2022, only 31% of lay Catholics agree that politicians supporting abortion rights should be denied Communion, while 66% say they be allowed access to the sacrament. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)


The hardline stances of many conservative Catholic bishops in the U.S. are not shared by a majority of lay Catholics. Most of them say abortion should be legal, favor greater inclusion of LGBT people, and oppose the denial of Communion for politicians who support abortion rights, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The poll, conducted in mid-May, shows a clear gap between the prevalent views of American Catholics, and some recent high-profile actions taken by the church’s leaders.

For example, leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently called on Catholics nationwide to pray for the U.S. Supreme Court to end the constitutional right to abortion by reversing its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. According to the new poll, 63% of Catholic adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% say Roe should be left as is.

On May 20, the archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, announced that he will no longer allow U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

According to the poll, only 31% of lay Catholics agree that politicians supporting abortion rights should be denied Communion, while 66% say they should be allowed access to the sacrament.

An even larger majority – 77% -- said that Catholics who identify as LGBT should be allowed to receive Communion. That contrasts sharply with a policy issued by the Diocese of Marquette, which encompasses Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, saying pastors should deny Communion to transgender, gay and nonbinary Catholics “unless the person has repented.”

Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, said the rift between rank-and-file Catholics and the bishops “reveals a breakdown in communication and trust -- shepherds who are far removed from the sheep.”

“This is a precarious time for the U.S. Catholic church,” she added in an email. “U.S. Catholics are, on the whole, accustomed to living and working in a pluralistic society and this poll reinforces the notion that they want the public square to remain pluralistic, free from coercion, and oriented toward care for the vulnerable populations among us.”

The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the poll results didn’t surprise him, and underscored a need for anti-abortion clergy and activists to redouble efforts to change people’s positions.

“For us working on pro-life issues, these kinds of polls are like a summons,” he said. “You’ve got to be doing your work -- maybe you’ve got to do it better.”

As for conservative bishops, “their awareness of the gaps that the polling reveals is precisely one of the reasons they feel the need to speak up,″ Pavone said. “They are striving to exercise the role outlined for them in Scripture, namely, to patiently and persistently teach the faith, whether convenient or inconvenient, to clear up confusion.”

Beyond the bishops/laity rift, the poll highlighted other challenges facing the church, which is the largest denomination in the U.S.



For example, 68% of Catholics reported attending religious services once a month or less. Compared to five years ago, 37% said they were now attending less often; 14% said they were attending more often.

Over that five-year span, 26% percent of Catholics said their opinion of the Catholic church had worsened, while 17% said their opinion had improved. Most said their opinion hadn’t changed.

More than two-thirds of U.S. Catholics disagree with church policies that bar women from becoming priests. And 65% say the church should allow openly gay men to be ordained.

The poll was conducted just after the leak of a draft Supreme Court majority opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade. The views of U.S. Catholics, as expressed in the poll, were in line with the overall American public, both in regard to supporting abortion’s legality and preserving Roe.

However, there were sharp differences among major religious groupings. While 63% of Catholics said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, that stance was held by 74% of mainline Protestants and only 25% of evangelical Protestants.

Sharon Barnes of Dallas, who converted to Catholicism as a young adult, appreciates the centuries-old consistency of Catholic doctrine. Yet she differs from the church on some major social issues, including abortion.

“It’s a woman’s right to decide,” said Barnes, 65. “It’s something that you have to kind of reconcile yourself, and it’s between you and God.”

Pedro Gomez, a 55-year-old border patrol agent in Rio Rico, Arizona, is a lifelong Catholic who prays every night and attends church regularly. He understands the need for abortion in cases of rape, incest or saving the life of a mother, but he said he considers the procedure to be the killing of a child.

Gomez was surprised that most U.S. Catholics support some degree of abortion rights.

“There’s a lot of gray area now that was never there in my upbringing,” he said. “Maybe they’re watering down Catholicism ... Now people are being able to make up their own rules.”

Ed Keeley, a 62-year-old public school teacher in Houston, also was raised Catholic. He described abortion as “a hard subject,” saying he believes in the sanctity of life but that abortion should be allowed in specific cases, including rape or incest.

He finds it “ridiculous” that a priest would deny Communion to someone because of their views on abortion or politics generally.

Last year, some conservative bishops, including Cordileone, argued publicly that President Joe Biden — a lifelong Catholic — should not receive Communion because of his support for abortion rights. However, Pope Francis conveyed his opposition to such a stance, saying Communion “is not a prize for the perfect.”

Cordileone’s recent denial of Communion for Pelosi was supported by several of his clerical colleagues, including the archbishops of Denver, Oklahoma City, Portland, Oregon, and Kansas City, Kansas. However, Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, issued a statement describing the action as “misguided.”

“As Jesus said, it’s the sick people who need a doctor, not the healthy, and he gave us the Eucharist as a healing remedy,” Jackels said. “Don’t deny the people who need the medicine.”

He also contended that abortion was not the only critical “life issue” facing the church.

“Protecting the earth, our common home, or making food, water, shelter, education and health care accessible, or defense against gun violence… these are life issues too,” he said. “To be consistent, to repair the scandal of Catholics being indifferent or opposed to all those other life issues, they would have to be denied Holy Communion as well.”

John Gehring, Catholic program director at the Washington-based clergy network Faith in Public Life, said some conservative bishops engage in the culture wars “in ways that damage their already diminished relevance and credibility.”

“Most Catholics are fed up with bishops who want to weaponize Communion in a hypocritical, single-issue campaign against pro-choice politicians, especially when we see Pope Francis offering a better road map,” said Gehring

The AP-NORC poll of 1,172 adults, including 358 Catholics, was conducted May 12-16 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 4.0 percentage points, and for Catholics is plus or minus 7.4 percentage points.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Exhibit of famed prehistoric cave to open in Marseille


A replica of the Cosquer Cave in the Villa Mediterranee is pictured in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, June 2, 2022. From Saturday June 4 2022, in the port city of Marseille, visitors will be able to see a replica of the over 30,000-year old site with copies of the prehistoric paintings that made the cave internationally famous. The Cosquer Cave was discovered in 1985 by diver Henri Cosquer, nestled deep in the sea under the Marseille coastline. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — A permanent virtual exhibit of one of France’s most famous prehistoric sites, the undersea Cosquer Cave, is set to open its doors as concerns grow that it could be completely inundated as a result of rising tides driven by climate change.

As of Saturday, visitors to the port city of Marseille will be able to see the Cosquer Mediterranee, a replica of the over 30,000-year old site. The visual and audio “experience” features copies of the prehistoric paintings that made the cave internationally famous.

The Cosquer Cave was discovered in 1985 by diver Henri Cosquer, in deep waters off the Marseille coastline.

Years in the making, the exhibit offers the chance to the public to discover the cave of which only 20% currently remains dry and accessible. Officials say the cave’s remaining dry areas are under threat of being flooded because of the effects of climate change.

Ford CEO sees electric vehicle price war as EV costs decline

By TOM KRISHER

June 1, 2022

Ford President and CEO Jim Farley speaks in Glendale, Ky., Sept. 28, 2021. Ford's chief executive says the global auto industry is headed for a huge price war in the coming years as electric vehicle costs drop and multiple companies sell EVs priced around $25,000. Farley told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday, June 1, 2022 that the $25,000 electric vehicle will democratize EVs. Materials to build that vehicle will cost around $18,000, he said. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, file)

DETROIT (AP) — Ford’s chief executive says he expects the cost of building electric vehicles to fall to the point that in coming years automakers will be battling each other for sales of EVs priced around $25,000.

CEO Jim Farley told the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday that the $25,000 price tag will democratize EVs. Materials to build that vehicle will cost around $18,000, he said.

“So I believe there will be our industry is definitely heading to a huge price war,” Farley said.

It currently costs much more to build an EV than it does one powered by a gas engine, Farley noted. The company’s Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, with a starting price around $44,000 but can run much higher, costs about $25,000 more than a comparable Ford Edge gas SUV, he said.

The battery cost alone is $18,000, and the charger adds another $3,000.

But big cost reductions are coming with new battery chemistries that use fewer expensive and scarce precious metals such as nickel and cobalt, he said. Plus, EVs will take less time and labor to build, saving more money, Farley said.

Ford also plans to cut distribution costs, which amount to $2,000 per vehicle more than Tesla, the world’s electric vehicle sales leader, he said. That can be done largely by cutting the expense of keeping a large supply on dealer lots, and cutting advertising costs.

Ford, like Tesla, may not have to buy advertising to sell EVs, which now amounts to $500 to $600 per vehicle, Farley said.

Ford is designing the next generation of EVs for “radical simplification” of the labor it takes to put them together, Farley said.

“Half the fixtures, half the work stations, half the welds, 20% less fasteners,” he told the conference. “We designed it, because it’s such a simple product, to radically change the manufacturability.”

New EVs, he said, also will be designed for optimal aerodynamics so they can use the smallest possible battery to get more range. Redesigning the body of an electric full-size pickup truck for lower wind resistance can add 75 miles (120 kilometers) of range from the same size battery, Farley said. The additional range, he said, cuts another $3,000 from the battery cost, he said.

“The re-engineering for the vehicle to minimize the size of the battery, since it’s so expensive, is going to be a game-changer for these second-generation products,” Farley said.

Ford has plans to differentiate itself and boost profits by selling software services, including driver-assist and autonomous features that could be rented for a time period or by the mile, Farley said.

It all adds up to erasing the $25,000 cost difference and turning profits, even with raw material costs expected to rise, Farley said.

A price war already is happening in China, where more than half the electric vehicles in the world are sold today, Farley said. The most popular one is a van made by Chinese manufacturer Wuling that costs about $8,000, he said.

Farley conceded that getting to the lower price point will be challenging, with many things to work on at once.

Michelle Krebs, executive analyst with Cox Automotive, said Ford has a long way to go to reach the cost reductions that Farley outlined.

“It sounds like a lot of things have to fall into place to make this happen,” Krebs said.

Ford in recent years has had quality control issues with several of its new vehicles, raising costs.

But building a $25,000 electric vehicle will attract more buyers to EVs, which the administration of President Joe Biden is banking on to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Research has shown that price is now is the biggest obstacle to people making the change from internal combustion engines, Krebs said.

The first of the next-generation electric vehicles at Ford will be ready in 2026, Farley said, as Ford refits older factories to build EVs and builds three new battery plants and one new assembly plant in Kentucky and Tennessee, he said. By then, the company will have lined up the needed raw materials and have new battery chemistry, he said.

“It’s going to take a little while, but I’m putting pressure on myself to get to making money on these vehicles,” Farley said. “It’s going to be a good investment.”

In March, Ford said it would split its electric vehicle and internal combustion operations into two individual businesses to accelerate new technology.

Ford plans a major restructuring with two distinct but strategically interdependent auto businesses — Ford Blue focusing on traditional combustion engines and Ford Model e, which will develop electric vehicles.

Farley also confirmed Wednesday that Ford is working on an electric vehicle made specifically for ride-hailing services such as Uber, saying that product would fit well into Ford’s other commercial offerings. He gave no other details.