Biden Administration Appeals $230 Million Ruling Against Military Following Texas Mass Shooting



Drew F. Lawrence, Konstantin Toropin
Thu, June 16, 2022

The Department of Justice filed an appeal last week in an effort to overturn a judgment that found the Air Force 60% responsible for the events surrounding a 2017 church shooting in which a service veteran killed 26 people and injured dozens of others. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.

The ruling ordered that the federal government pay victims and their families $230 million in compensation for not flagging the shooter to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) after he made threats of violence to his Air Force superiors, assaulted his wife and child, attempted to smuggle firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, and escaped from a behavioral health facility while awaiting court-martial in 2012.

The judge in the trial, Judge Xavier Rodriguez, wrote in a July 2021 ruling that "had the Government done its job and properly reported [the shooter's] information into the background check system -- it is more likely than not that [the shooter] would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting."

The shooter purchased weapons between 2014 and 2017, according to CNN, two years after he was court-martialed for the assault.

Shortly after the shooting, the Air Force also acknowledged that "had his information been in the database, it should have prevented gun sales to [the shooter]."

Now, in the wake of the Uvalde shooting that killed 21 at a school, 19 of whom were elementary-age children, the DOJ is fighting the ruling that found the government culpable for the 2017 shooting that took place at the Sutherland Springs church, according to court documents, though it is unclear whether the appeal is aimed at reducing the compensation or disputing the government's overall culpability.

Some of the survivors of the shooting continue to struggle through medical consequences today. Military.com reached out to one of the victims' parents, Chancie McMahan. McMahan is the mother of Ryland Ward, who was severely wounded during the shooting.

McMahan could not speak at length with Military.com because she was with her 10-year-old as he prepared for surgery to attempt to fix injuries sustained during the shooting.

Ward, who was five years old at the time of the shooting, sustained four gunshot wounds, with one wound causing severe blood loss. Among other severe injuries, his femur was fractured in several places, an injury that required extensive surgery.

"Even after extensive physical therapy, [Ward] cannot make full use of his left arm or leg," Rodriguez's ruling said, "because the injuries to his hip and femur destroyed his growth plate, [Ward's] leg will not grow from the hip."

Last week's legal filings gave no indication as to what argument the Department of Justice planned to make in its appeal or what issue it had with the way the case was initially tried. However, coverage of the trial from November 2021 -- before the judge's ruling was issued -- suggests that the government's lawyers were balking at the possibility of having to pay the $400 million the families felt they were owed. Instead, they offered about $31 million.

A Justice Department spokesperson, Dena Iverson, confirmed that the department filed the appeal, adding "by filing this notice, the government continues its close review of the legal issues presented."

"The Department is dedicated to doing everything in its power to prevent senseless gun violence that continues to take countless innocent lives," she told Military.com via email. She also noted that the DOJ will work with courts to reach a resolution, "including possible mediation or settlement."

The February ruling issued by Rodriguez allocated a collective $230 million to victims and their families after the shooting and said that "the Court concluded that the Government failed to exercise reasonable care in its undertaking to submit [the shooter's] criminal history to the FBI," adding that the government was 60% responsible for the incident.

Then-Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson acknowledged the service's failings in response to the shooter's threats and domestic violence while he was still in the service.

In a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, she said, "It was clear very early that [the shooter's] criminal history was not reported. And it should have been," adding that the failure to report these crimes was not an anomaly for the Air Force. Wilson also referenced a 2015 Department of Defense Inspector General report that found that between 2010 and 2012 hundreds of fingerprints were missing from the Air Force and Navy's convicted offenders list meant to be shared with the FBI. The IG could not determine the Army's compliance due to "data validation limitations."

The shooter received a "bad-conduct" discharge, was jailed for one year, and reduced to the rank of E-1 after assaulting his wife and child in 2012.

The FBI states that, under the NICS program, firearms cannot be sold to "a person convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime which includes the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon and the defendant was the spouse … by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common." Other prohibitive categories include, in part, being "involuntarily committed to a mental institution" or the subject of a protective order against a spouse or child.

The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the attack.

Rodriguez awarded more than $10 million to Ward for "disfigurement," as well as physical and mental anguish sustained during the shooting, accounting for any pain he may feel in the future.

McMahan told San Antonio's KSAT television station that the cost of medical bills and time needed to take off work to care for the 10-year-old during his extensive recovery was taking a financial toll on the family.

"You know I'm panicking because I don't know what I'm going to do because I'm not getting any help," McMahan said.

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

Related: Air Force Ordered to Pay More Than $230M in Church Shooting

Attack on Sikh temple in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul kills two



oA view shows smoke rising from a building in Kabul

Mohammad Yunus Yawar
Fri, June 17, 2022, 
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

KABUL (Reuters) -An attack on a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed at least two people and injured seven on Saturday, following a blast in a car loaded with explosives, officials said, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Grey smoke billowed over the area in images aired by domestic broadcaster Tolo. A Taliban interior spokesman said attackers had laden a car with explosives but it had detonated before reaching its target.

Taliban authorities were securing the site, he added.

"There were around 30 people inside the temple," said a temple official, Gornam Singh. "We don't know how many of them are alive or how many dead."


Temple authorities did not know what to do, as the Taliban were not allowing them inside, Singh told Reuters.

A spokesman for Kabul's commander said his forces had taken control of the area and cleared it of attackers. One Sikh worshipper had been killed in the attack and one Taliban fighter killed during the clearing operation, he added.

Since taking power in August, the Taliban say they have secured Afghanistan, although international officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains.

Some attacks in recent months have been claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

Sikhs are a tiny religious minority in largely Muslim Afghanistan, comprising about 300 families before the country fell to the Taliban. But many left afterwards, say members of the community and media.

Like other religious minorities, Sikhs have been a continual target of violence in Afghanistan. An attack at another temple in Kabul in 2020 that killed 25 was claimed by Islamic State.

India's foreign ministry expressed concern over reports of the attack. "We are closely monitoring the situation and waiting for further details," foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.

Saturday's explosion follows a blast at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz the previous day that killed one person and injured two, according to authorities.

(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez)


At least 1 killed in attack on Sikh temple in Afghan capital

Taliban fighters stand guard at the site of an explosion in front of a Sikh temple in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 18, 2022. Several explosions and gunfire ripped through the temple in Afghanistan's capital. 

(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

RAHIM FAIEZ
Fri, June 17, 2022, 

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Several explosions and gunfire ripped through a Sikh temple in Afghanistan’s capital Saturday killing one person and wounding seven others, a Taliban official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Gunmen attacked the Sikh house of worship, known as a gurdwara, in Kabul and a gunbattle between the attackers and Taliban fighters ensued, said Abdul Nafi Takor, a Taliban-appointed spokesperson for the Interior Ministry.

He said a vehicle full of explosives was detonated outside of the temple but that resulted in no casualties. “First the gunmen threw a hand grenade which caused a fire near the gate,” he said.

Khalid Zadran, a spokesman for the Kabul police chief, said the police operation ended after the last attacker was killed several hours later. He did not say how many attackers were involved.

Zadran said one Sikh was killed and seven others were wounded in the attack and a Taliban security force was also killed during the rescue operation.

“The security forces were able to act quickly to control the attack and eliminate the attackers in a short period of time to prevent further casualties,” he said.

Videos posted on social media show plumes of black smoke rising from the temple in Kabul's Bagh-e Bala neighborhood and gunfire can be heard.

A regional affiliate of the Islamic State group known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province has lately increased attacks on mosques and minorities across the country.

The IS affiliate, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014, is seen as the greatest security challenge facing the country’s Taliban rulers. Since seizing power in Kabul and elsewhere in the country last August, the Taliban have launched a sweeping crackdown against the IS in eastern Afghanistan.

In March 2020, a lone Islamic State gunman rampaged through a Sikh temple in Kabul, killing 25 worshippers, including a child, and wounding eight others. As many as 80 worshippers were trapped inside the gurdwara as the gunman lobbed grenades and fired an automatic rifle into the crowd.

There were less than 700 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan at the time of the 2020 attack. Since then, dozens of families have left but many cannot financially afford to move and have remained in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul, Jalalabad and Ghazni.

 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Porsche to pay $80 million to resolve fuel economy claims on U.S. vehicles


The logo of German carmaker Porsche AG is seen before the company's annual news conference in Stuttgart

Thu, June 16, 2022
By David Shepardson

(Reuters) -Volkswagen AG and its Porsche AG unit have agreed to a class-action settlement worth at least $80 million to resolve claims it skewed emissions and fuel economy data on 500,000 Porsche vehicles in the United States, court documents show.

The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, must be approved by a federal judge. It covers 2005 through 2020 model year Porsche vehicles after owners accused the automaker of physically altering test vehicles that affected emissions and fuel economy results.

Owners of eligible vehicles will receive payments of $250 to $1,109 per vehicle.

Porsche confirmed the settlement in a statement but said it has "not acknowledged the allegations in these proceedings. The agreement serves to end the issue. The comparison applies only to vehicles sold in the United States."

Scrutiny of Volkswagen's vehicles grew after the German automaker in 2015 disclosed it had used sophisticated software to evade emissions requirements in nearly 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

VW settled U.S. criminal and civil actions prompted by the cheating scandal for more than $20 billion. The automaker pleaded guilty in 2017 to fraud, obstruction of justice and falsifying statements.

Lawyers for the Porsche owners said the automaker physically altered the hardware - gears connecting the drive shaft and rear axle - and manipulated the software of testing vehicles. The test vehicles emitted fewer pollutants and were more fuel efficient than the production vehicles consumers bought or leased.

Settlement documents say testing showed fuel economy may have been 1-2 miles per gallon lower than listed on vehicle labels.

VW also will pay $250 to owners of Porsche vehicles with "Sport+" driving mode that exceeded emissions limits when driven in that mode. They will receive the payment when they complete emissions compliant repair software updates that will reduce vehicles' emissions.

The lawsuits were prompted after a whistleblower at Porsche reported at least one suspected defeat device in certain gasoline vehicles through an internal reporting system, which prompted Porsche to report these findings to German and U.S. regulators, the lawsuit said.

The suit said in late 2015, Porsche management commissioned a systematic review that soon determined Porsche’s gas fleet was violating emissions test rules but was not immediately disclosed to U.S. regulators.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by Jan Schwartz Editing by Richard Chang and David Gregorio)

Brazil Indigenous expert was 'bigger target' in recent years

MAURICIO SAVARESE and FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Fri, June 17, 2022

SAO PAULO (AP) — Before disappearing in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, Bruno Pereira was laying the groundwork for a mammoth undertaking: a 350-kilometer (217-mile) trail marking the southwestern border of the Javari Valley Indigenous territory, an area the size of Portugal.

The purpose of the trail is to prevent cattle farmers from encroaching on Javari territory — and it was just the latest effort by Pereira to help Indigenous people protect their natural resources and traditional lifestyles.

While Pereira had long pursued these goals as an expert at the Brazilian Indigenous affairs agency, known as FUNAI, he worked in recent years as a consultant to the Javari Valley's Indigenous organization. That's because after Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president in 2019, FUNAI began taking a more hands-off approach toward protecting Indigenous land and people — and the government unapologetically promoted development over environmental protection.

Deeply frustrated, Pereira left the agency and embarked on a more independent -- and dangerous -- path.

He was last seen alive on June 5 on a boat in the Itaquai river, along with British freelance journalist Dom Phillips, near an area bordering Peru and Colombia. On Wednesday, a fisherman confessed to killing Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, and took police to a site where human remains were recovered; some remains were identified Friday as belonging to Phillips, others are believed to belong to Pereira.

Pereira spoke several times with The Associated Press over the past 18 months, and he talked about his decision to leave FUNAI, which he felt had become a hindrance to his work. After Bolsonaro came to power, the agency was stacked with loyalists and people who lacked experience in Indigenous affairs, he said.

“There’s no use in me being there as long as these policemen and army generals are calling the shots,” he said by phone in November. “I can’t do my work under them.”

As a technical consultant for the Javari Valley’s association of Indigenous people, or Univaja, Pereira helped the group develop a surveillance program to reduce illegal fishing and hunting in a remote region belonging to 6,300 people from seven different ethnic groups, many of whom have had little to no contact with the outside world. He and three other non-Indigenous people trained Indigenous patrollers to use drones and other technology to spot illegal activity, photograph it and submit evidence to authorities.

“When it came to helping the Indigenous peoples, he did everything he could,” said Jader Marubo, former president of Univaja. “He gave his life for us.”

___

Like Pereira, Ricardo Rao was an Indigenous expert at FUNAI who, in 2019, prepared a dossier detailing illegal logging in Indigenous lands of Maranhao state. But fearful of being so outspoken under the new regime, he fled to Norway.

“I asked Norway for asylum, because I knew the men I was accusing would have access to my name and would kill me, just like what happened with Bruno,” Rao said.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly advocated tapping the vast riches of Indigenous lands, particularly their mineral resources, and integrating Indigenous people into society. He has pledged not to grant any further Indigenous land protections, and in April said he would defy a Supreme Court decision, if necessary. Those positions directly opposed Pereira’s hopes for the Javari Valley.

Before taking leave, Pereira was removed as head of FUNAI’s division for isolated and recently contacted tribes. That move came shortly after he commanded an operation that expelled hundreds of illegal gold prospectors from an Indigenous territory in Roraima state. His position was soon filled by a former Evangelical missionary with an anthropology background. The choice generated outcry because some missionary groups have openly tried to contact and convert tribes, whose voluntary isolation is protected by Brazilian law.

Key colleagues of Pereira’s at FUNAI either followed his lead and took leave, or were shuffled to bureaucratic positions far from the demarcation of protected lands, according to a recent report from the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies think tank and the nonprofit Associated Indigenists, which includes current and former FUNAI staff.

“Of FUNAI’s 39 regional coordination offices, only two are headed by FUNAI staffers,” the report says. “Seventeen military men, three policemen, two federal policemen and six professionals with no prior connection with public administration have been named” under Bolsonaro.

The 173-page report published Monday says many of the agency’s experts have been fired, unfairly investigated or discredited by its leaders while trying to protect Indigenous people.

In response to AP questions about the report’s allegations, FUNAI said in an emailed statement that it operates “with strict obedience to current legislation” and doesn’t persecute its officers.

___

On the day they went missing, Pereira and Phillips slept at an outpost at the entrance of the main clandestine route into the territory, without passing by the Indigenous agency’s permanent base at its entrance, locals told the AP.

Two Indigenous patrollers told the AP the pair had been transporting mobile phones from the surveillance project with photos of places where illegal fishermen had been. Authorities have said that an illicit fishing network is a focus of the police investigation into the killings.

Pereira wasn't the first person connected with FUNAI to be killed in the region. In 2019, an active FUNAI agent, Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, was shot to death as he drove his motorcycle through the city of Tabatinga. He had been threatened for his work against illegal fishermen before he was gunned down. That crime remains unsolved.

Pereira’s killing will not stop the Javari territory’s border demarcation project from moving ahead, said Manoel Chorimpa, an Univaja member involved in the project. And in another sign that Pereira's work will endure, Indigenous patrollers’ surveillance efforts have begun leading to the investigation, arrest and prosecution of law-breakers.

Before his career at FUNAI, Pereira worked as a journalist. But his passion for Indigenous affairs and languages — he spoke four — led him to switch careers. His anthropologist wife, Beatriz Matos, encouraged him in his work, even though it meant long stretches away from their home in Atalaia do Norte, and their children. More recently, they were living in Brazil's capital, Brasilia.

The Indigenous people of the region have mourned Pereira as a partner, and an old photo widely shared on social media in recent days shows a group of them gathered behind Pereira, shirtless, as he shows them something on his laptop. A child leans gently onto his shoulder.

In a statement on Thursday, FUNAI mourned Pereira's death and praised his work: “The public servant leaves an enormous legacy for the isolated Indigenous people's protection. He became one of the country's top specialists in this issue and worked with highest commitment."

Before the bodies were found, however, FUNAI had issued a statement implying Pereira violated procedure by overstaying his authorization inside the Javari territory. It prompted FUNAI's rank-and-file to strike, claiming that the agency had libeled Pereira and demanding its president be fired. A court on Thursday ordered FUNAI to retract its statement that is “incompatible with the reality of the facts” and cease discrediting Pereira.

Rubens Valente, a journalist who has covered the Amazon for decades, said Pereira's work became inherently riskier once he felt it necessary to work independently.

“Fish thieves saw Bruno as a fragile person, without the status and power that FUNAI gave him in the region where he was FUNAI coordinator for five years," Valente said. “When the criminals noticed Bruno was weak, he became an even bigger target.”

___

Maisonnave reported from Atalaia do Norte. AP writer Débora Álvares contributed from Brasilia.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

  

Bolsonaro blamed as UN, activists denounce Amazon murders

Joao Laet with Jordi Miro in Brasilia
Thu, June 16, 2022,


The United Nations as well as environmental and rights groups expressed outrage Thursday at the murder of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, which they linked to President Jair Bolsonaro's willingness to allow commercial exploitation of the Brazilian Amazon.

Veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, went missing on June 5 in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

Ten days later, on Wednesday, a suspect named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira took police to a place where he said he had buried bodies near the city of Atalaia do Norte, where the pair had been headed.


Human remains unearthed from the site arrived in Brasilia on Thursday evening for identification by experts, with members of the federal police seen carrying two brown coffins through a hangar. Official results are expected next week, according to local media.

Federal police said Thursday that traces of blood found in Oliveira's boat belonged to a man, but not Phillips. Further analysis will be necessary to determine if it was that of Pereira.

There is still much to clarify in the case, including a motive and the circumstances surrounding the killings, apparently carried out by firearm.

Late Wednesday, the federal police chief of Brazil's northern Amazonas state said there was "a 99 percent probability" the unearthed remains corresponded to the missing men.


The UN human rights office said Thursday it was "deeply saddened by the information about the murder" of the two men.

"This brutal act of violence is appalling and we call on state authorities to ensure that investigations are impartial, transparent and thorough, and that redress is provided to the families of the victims," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva.

Phillips, a longtime contributor to The Guardian and other leading international newspapers, was working on a book on sustainable development in the Amazon with Pereira as his guide, when they went missing.

Pereira, an expert at Brazil's indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from loggers and miners with their eye on isolated Indigenous land.
- 'Heartbroken' -

Phillips' family said in a statement they were "heartbroken" by the discovery of two bodies Wednesday, which they took as confirmation that the pair had been killed.

Beatriz Matos, the wife of Pereira, wrote on Twitter that "now that the spirits of Bruno are walking through the jungle and scattered among us, our strength is much greater."


The Javari Valley where the men went missing -- an area near the borders with Peru and Colombia -- is home to about 20 isolated Indigenous groups where drug traffickers, loggers, miners and illegal fishermen operate.

Greenpeace Brazil said the deaths were "a direct result of the agenda of President Jair Bolsonaro for the Amazon, which opens the way for predatory activities and crimes... in broad daylight."

Bolsonaro, who took office in 2019, has pushed to develop the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest.

He drew fresh criticism Wednesday for saying Phillips was "disliked" for his reporting on the region and should have been more careful.

On Thursday, the far-right president tweeted "our condolences to the families" of the men.

In Brussels, seven Brazilian Indigenous leaders deplored the climate of violence and "impunity" in the Amazon in front of the European Union headquarters.

One of them, Dinamam Tuxa, told AFP that "Bruno and Dom Phillips were victims of government policies."
- 'Political crime' -

Shamdasani said attacks and threats against activists and Indigenous people in Brazil were "persistent" and urged the government to step up protections.

The Univaja association of Indigenous peoples, which had taken part in the search for the missing men, denounced the suspected killings as a "political crime," while the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism said "the president and his allies have become protagonists of attacks on the press" uncovering environmental crimes.

"People dead for defending Indigenous lands and the environment. Brazil cannot be that," added ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will face Bolsonaro in October elections.

Investigations continue to look into the motive for the crime as well as the role played by Oliveira and fellow suspect Oseney da Costa de Oliveira.

On the ground, civil police carried out three search warrants, but no arrests were made. Authorities said they had so far been unsuccessful in finding the boat in which Phillips and Pereira were traveling when they were last seen, an AFP journalist confirmed.

Brazilian media report there may be three more people involved. Police have not ruled out more arrests.

jm/app/dga/mlr/bfm/dw

Brazil Amazon Police navigate the Itaquai River during the search for British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Araujo Pereira in the Javari Valley Indigenous territory, Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas state, Brazil, Friday, June 10, 2022. Phillips and Pereira were last seen on Sunday morning in the Javari Valley, Brazil's second-largest Indigenous territory which sits in an isolated area bordering Peru and Colombia. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)

‘This is criminal activity’: Russia is selling stolen Ukrainian grain in Syrian ports as Putin holds world hostage over food


Vincent Mundy—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Tristan Bove
Fri, June 17, 2022

More ships flying the Russian flag have reportedly been spotted unloading Ukrainian grain abroad, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues using the threat of a global hunger crisis to coerce Western countries into lifting their sanctions on Russia.

Two Russian bulk carriers, merchant ships designed to carry unpackaged bulk cargo such as grain, were spotted unloading grain at Syrian ports by U.S. satellite company Maxar Technologies, Reuters reported. The same ships had been seen days earlier loading grain at the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, Maxar said, where Russian troops have for weeks been reportedly loading stolen Ukrainian grain, according to satellite images taken by Maxar in May.

Syria has been a close ally to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began at the end of February, accepting Russian ships in their ports even as Ukrainian officials warned they were carrying stolen grain and urged countries not to buy from Russia.

But the war and an agricultural shortfall has brought several Middle Eastern and African countries to the brink of a catastrophic hunger crisis, including Syria, where around 60% of the population suffers from food insecurity, according to the UN.

At the beginning of the war, Putin sought to use Europe’s dependence on Russian energy exports as a bargaining chip, attempting to have European countries pay for Russian gas in rubles to prop up the failing currency. The European Union didn’t abide, and decided to cut off 90% of Russian oil imports and two-thirds of gas imports by the end of the year instead. Now, Putin appears to be moving on to using a looming global hunger crisis, and the worldwide strife created by missing Russian and Ukrainian food exports, to his advantage.

Weeks of stolen grain reports

The Maxar images corroborate reports from May provided by the intelligence arm of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense that Russian ships were ferrying stolen Ukrainian grain to Syria.

Both the UN and U.S. intelligence have warned that there is credible evidence that Russian troops have been stealing Ukrainian harvests. Last month, Russian trucks were also seen looting Ukrainian grain silos and transporting the stolen goods to Russian-controlled ports in Crimea, CNN reported.

Russian troops have stolen around 600,000 tons of Ukrainian grain during the war, according to UAC, a Ukrainian agricultural producers union. Of this, around 100,000 tons of wheat worth more than $40 million have been shipped to Syria over the past three months, the Ukrainian embassy in Lebanon told Reuters earlier this month.

“This is criminal activity,” the embassy said.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the claims that its troops are stealing Ukrainian grain, with Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko saying in an interview this week that Russia “does not ship grains from Ukraine.”

But in spite of Russia’s protests, Ukrainian officials have insisted that stolen grain from Ukraine is circulating in many Middle Eastern and African countries. One Ukrainian diplomatic envoy to Turkey told reporters this month that Turkish buyers were receiving large volumes of stolen grain shipments.

Putin’s strategy

Combined, Ukraine and Russia accounted for nearly one-third of global wheat supply, while Russia was a major exporter of fertilizer, and Ukraine of corn and sunflower oil. The reduced food exports from the two countries is aggravating a global hunger crisis, and Putin has made clear to the West that he intends to withhold supplies until sanctions are lifted.

The UN has expressed openness to negotiating with Russia, although the U.S. has so far remained staunchly opposed to lifting sanctions, even cautioning nations against buying Russia’s stolen grain supplies.

But several African nations—where years of drought and bad agricultural conditions have dramatically reduced domestic output—have become reliant on food imports, with some leaders joining Putin in calling for a lifting of Western sanctions.

The war in Ukraine has accelerated what the UN has called an “alarming rise” of hunger in the world’s most vulnerable regions, particularly around the Horn of Africa, where countries are especially reliant on Ukrainian and Russian food imports. In Sudan, where over half the country’s wheat imports originate in the Black Sea regions, the UN warned Thursday, one-third of the country’s population was facing “acute food insecurity.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Factbox - What has the WTO ministerial conference achieved?

World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Geneva

Fri, June 17, 2022, 3:54 AM·

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization's 164 members approved a series of trade agreements early on Friday that included commitments on fish and pledges on health and food security after more than five gruelling days of negotiations. [L1N2Y400M]

Here are details on those agreements

PANDEMIC RESPONSE

India and South Africa and other developing countries have sought a waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for over a year, but faced opposition from several developed nations with major pharmaceutical producers.

A provisional deal between major parties - India, South Africa, the United States and the European Union - limited to vaccines emerged in May and this is largely what has been adopted.

Developing countries will be allowed to authorise the use of a patent for production and supply without the patent holder's consent for five years, subject to a possible extension. The production need not be predominantly for the domestic market, meaning more exports are allowed to ensure equitable access.

Within six months, WTO members are to consider extending the waiver to therapeutics and diagnostics.

China has voluntarily opted out of the waiver, something the United States had insisted on.

Campaign groups had urged members to reject the text, saying it was too narrow and was not a real IP waiver at all.

The WTO also agreed a declaration on its response to COVID-19 and preparedness for future pandemics, stressing the needs of least developed countries.

Members further recognised that any emergency trade measures should be proportionate and temporary and not cause unnecessary disruptions to supply chains. Members should also exercise restraint in imposing export restrictions on essential medical goods.

FISHING

WTO members struck an agreement to reduce subsidies that contribute to over-fishing, a step that environmentalists say is vital to helping fish stocks recover.

Talks have been going on for 20 years and the deal is only the second multilateral agreement on new global trade rules that the WTO has agreed in its 27-year history. The fisheries outcome was seen as a critical test of the WTO's own credibility.

The agreement says that no WTO member shall grant any subsidy for vessels or operator engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing or for fishing of an over-fished stock.

Developing countries will be exempt for two years.

Members themselves will carry out investigations into activities off their coasts and all member will be required to notify the WTO of their fishing subsidy schemes.

India had earlier been one of the biggest critics.

Talks will however continue to achieve a more comprehensive agreement to crack down further on fisheries subsidies, ideally for the next ministerial conference, likely to be in 2023.

FOOD SECURITY

The WTO sought to respond to a food supply and price hike crisis exacerbated by export disruptions from major cereal producers Ukraine and Russia.

WTO members agreed in a declaration that they would take concrete steps to facilitate trade of food and agriculture, including cereals, fertilizers and other agricultural inputs, and reaffirmed the importance of limiting export restrictions.

WTO members also agreed to a binding decision not to curb exports to the World Food Programme (WFP), which seeks to fight hunger in places hit by conflicts, disasters and climate change. Members would still be free to adopt measures to ensure their own food security.

E-COMMERCE MORATORIUM

WTO members have extended a moratorium on placing customs duties on electronic transmissions, from streaming services to financial transactions and corporate data flows, worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

The moratorium has been in place since 1998. South Africa and India had initially opposed an extension, saying they should not be missing out on customs revenues.

The extension runs to the next ministerial conference, which would normally be held by the end of 2023, but in any case will expire on March 31, 2024.

WTO REFORM

All WTO members say the organisation's rule book needs updating, although they disagree on what changes are required.

Most pressingly, its dispute appeals court has been paralysed for nearly two years since then-U.S. president Donald Trump blocked new adjudicator appointments, which has curbed the WTO's ability to resolve trade disputes.

Members committed to work towards necessary reforms of the WTO to improve its functions. This work should be transparent and address the interests of all members, including developing countries, which are afforded special treatment.

The WTO committed to conduct discussions so as to have a fully functioning dispute settlement system by 2024.

The declaration highlighted the growing importance of services trade and the need to increase the participation of developing countries.

The members also recognised global environmental challenges including climate change and related natural disasters, loss of biodiversity and pollution. Some experts believe issues about the environment have the potential to give the body a new vitality and purpose.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Walking on Hot Coals: A Company Event Goes Wrong

The sense that walking across burning coals requires a special inner state has motivated its transformation from a mystical spiritual tradition into a capitalist self-improvement project. 

Alex Traub

Fri, June 17, 2022

Walking barefoot across hot coals, an ancient religious ritual popularized in recent years as a corporate team-building exercise, has once again bonded a group of co-workers through the shared suffering of burned feet.

In the latest case of the stunt going wrong, 25 employees of a Swiss ad agency were injured Tuesday evening while walking over hot coals in Zurich, officials said. Ten ambulances, two emergency medical teams and police officers from multiple agencies were deployed to help, according to the Zurich police. Thirteen people were briefly hospitalized.

“We very much regret the incident and we are doing everything we can to ensure that our employees get well again quickly,” Michi Frank, the chief executive of the company, Golbach, said in a news release. The company declined to provide more details of the event.

The sense that walking across burning coals requires a special inner state has motivated its transformation from a mystical spiritual tradition into a capitalist self-improvement project. 

The practice appears to have emerged separately thousands of years ago as a religious tradition in various places around the word.

In Greece, the tradition involves singing, dancing and fire-walking, commemorating the rescue of icons from a burning church. Seemingly unrelated traditions also exist in Bali, Fiji, India and Japan.

Travel journalists have popularized it, sometimes in mystical terms. “The secret is concentration,” The New York Times reported in 1973 from a fire walk at a temple above Kyoto. “Either mind, body and environment are perfectly in harmony and all sequences of cause and effect become simultaneous, or they are not, and nothing will go right.”

In the years since, it has become a trope in movies and on television, notably as the signature group activity at seminars led by Tony Robbins, the life coach and motivational speaker.

“Now let me show you how to walk on fire,” Robbins likes to announce. He organizes long lines of people to walk across a short row of burning coals while leading participants in a bloodcurdling call and response of “Say yes!” and “Yes!”

“The purpose of the fire walk,” he explained at a 2017 event, “is just a great metaphor for taking things you once thought were difficult or impossible and showing how quickly you can change.”

Sometimes the metaphor gets a little too real. Dozens of attendees who walked on coals at Robbins seminars in 2012 and 2016 were injured, with some hospitalized with third-degree burns.

“It is always the goal to have no guests with any discomfort afterward but it’s not uncommon to have fewer than 1% of participants experience ‘hot spots,’ which is similar to a sunburn which can be treated with aloe,” a spokeswoman for Robbins told The Washington Post after the 2016 episode.

Pop culture has sometimes mocked the emancipatory potential of walking on fire. In a 2007 episode of the NBC sitcom “The Office,” Dwight Schrute attempts to blackmail his boss, Michael Scott, by not crossing hot coals at a corporate retreat, but instead remaining torturously standing on them until he is granted a promotion. In “Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls” (1995), Jim Carrey’s character crosses the coals only by flinging someone else atop them and stepping on him.

But other depictions have touted the potential for spiritual transformation, including the first season finale of the CBS reality show “Survivor” in 2000. Along the way, reports of injuries have risen. In 2001, a dozen Burger King employees were hurt at a corporate retreat in Key Largo, Florida, that featured walking on hot coals.

Was this a spiritual failing? Not likely. With proper instruction and preparation, experts say, walking across hot coals is not as dangerous as it looks.

“For the vast majority of people, maybe a blister the size of your little fingernail is the worst thing that can happen to you,” a physicist, David Willey, said in a phone interview on Thursday. Willey, who taught for years at the University of Pittsburgh, once shared the world record for the longest distance walked on hot coals.

The promises made by corporate retreat organizers are frequently unjustified, Willey said.

“They’re telling you that it’s all in your mind and this will give you powers that will continue,” he said. “It’s not in your mind. Anybody can do it. And I don’t think the confidence you get from it is necessarily going to last that long.”

Willey said that coals at 1,000 degrees are safe to walk on for 20 feet or more, adding that he walked on coals at that temperature for 495 feet without getting a blister.

On his website, he writes that at a brisk walk your bare foot comes into contact with coals for just around a second, which is not enough time for heat to be transmitted painfully from coals to the human flesh. Both the coals and skin have vastly lower thermal conductivity than, for instance, metal, he said.

But mistakes can lead to injuries. These include curling your toes and trapping a coal between them; walking on coals that are too hot; choosing the wrong type of wood, since some get hotter than others; and performing a fire walk on a beach, where your feet might sink into sand, Willey said.

The organizer of the event in Zurich, Thomy Widmer, said in an interview with the Swiss news outlet Blick that he had warned participants to not “stroll run or hop across” the fire, but to walk across it in a steady, quick “military step”-like clip. Widmer said he felt sorry for anyone who got hurt but denied that he had responsibility for the accident. “It could have been a great event,” he said.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

Why Rwanda and Congo are sliding toward war again

CARA ANNA
Fri, June 17, 2022,

People walk on the road near Kibumba, north of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, as they flee fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels in North Kivu last month. (Moses Sawasawa / Associated Press)

The threat of war with neighboring Congo is simmering under the tidy surface of Rwanda’s capital as the East African nation hosts the British prime minister and other world leaders next week for the Commonwealth summit.

Decades-old tensions between Rwanda, which has one of Africa’s most effective militaries, and Congo, one of the continent's largest and most troubled countries, have spiked along their shared border a few hours' drive from Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Alarm has reached the point where Kenya’s president is urging the immediate deployment of a newly created regional force to eastern Congo to keep the peace.

Each side has accused the other of incursions. Congo now seeks to suspend all agreements with Rwanda. If Rwanda wants war, “it will have war,” a spokesman for the military governor of Congo’s North Kivu province told thousands of protesters on Wednesday.

Here’s what’s at stake.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

Eastern Congo lives with the daily threat from dozens of armed groups that jostle for a piece of the region’s rich mineral wealth that the world mines for electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. Earlier this year, one of the most notorious rebel groups, the M23, surged anew.

The M23 launched an offensive against Congo’s military after saying the government had failed to live up to its decade-long promises made under a peace deal to integrate its fighters into Congo’s military. This week the M23 seized a key trading town, Bunagana, sending thousands of people fleeing into neighboring Uganda and elsewhere.

At that, Congo’s military accused Rwandan forces of “no less than an invasion,” alleging that Rwanda backed the rebels in their capture of Bunagana.

Congo’s government has long accused Rwanda of supporting the M23, which Rwanda denies. The accusations have surged again in recent weeks. Many of the M23 fighters are ethnic Tutsis, the same as Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

Rwanda, for its part, has accused Congolese forces of injuring several civilians in cross-border shelling.

WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF TENSIONS?

Relations between Rwanda and Congo have been fraught for decades. Rwanda alleges that Congo gave refuge to the ethnic Hutus who carried out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In the late 1990s, Rwanda twice sent its forces deep into Congo, joining forces with Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila to depose the country's longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. The Rwandan forces in Congo were widely accused of hunting down and killing ethnic Hutu, even civilians.

Millions of Congo's people died during the years of conflict, according to rights groups, and the effects still run deep today. Many women live with the scars and trauma of rape.

Eastern Congo continues to see divisions along ethnic lines at times. The region's history of instability, loose governance and its vast distance — more than 1,600 miles — from Congo's capital, Kinshasa, have dampened investment and left some basic infrastructure such as roads tattered or nonexistent.

Congo and Rwanda have long accused each other of supporting various rival armed groups in eastern Congo, a restless region and major hub for humanitarian aid. A United Nations peacekeeping force of more than 17,000 personnel is based in Goma, but a top official this week made clear that the tensions with Rwanda and Uganda are not a part of its role.

“That’s not the reason why were are here,” said Lt. Col. Frederic Harvey, the U.N. mission’s chief of liaison with the Congolese military. “We are here to accomplish our mandate, which consists of protecting the civilian population and preserving national integrity.”

Goma, the region's key city of more than 1 million people, was briefly seized by M23 fighters a decade ago. Many Goma residents now call on the international community to intervene to help establish peace and stability. “Kagame, enough is enough,” read one sign in a protest on Wednesday.

Pope Francis had planned to visit Goma next month as part of a trip to Congo and South Sudan but canceled it last week, citing doctor’s orders because of his knee problems. The visit was meant to draw further global attention to populations long wrestling with conflict, even as this new one develops.

NOW WHAT?

With an eye on the growing tensions, the six-nation East African Community — Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania — earlier this year created a regional force meant to respond to trouble. Now Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the current chairman of the bloc, wants the force to be activated immediately and deployed to eastern Congo, noting the “open hostilities” there.

Kenyatta also calls for the eastern Congo provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri to be declared a “weapons-free zone” where anyone outside mandated forces can be disarmed. Within hours, his call was “warmly” welcomed by the president of Burundi, which borders both Rwanda and Congo.

Regional commanders of the member defense forces will meet on Sunday in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, at the heart of East Africa's economic hub.

The regional force was agreed to by leaders from the countries now seemingly closing in on war — Congo, the EAC’s newest member, and Rwanda, the largest African troop contributor to U.N. peacekeeping missions worldwide.

But Rwanda notably was the only EAC member to skip a meeting of the heads of regional armed forces earlier this month in Goma. And there was no immediate response from Rwanda on Thursday to Kenyatta's call to action.

Congo, too, didn't comment directly on the call to deploy the regional force, but government spokesman Patrick Muyaya welcomed the Kenyan president's request for a cessation of hostilities and weapons-free zones.

Associated Press writer Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Philippine militants accused of beheading tourists surrender


JIM GOMEZ
Fri, June 17, 2022

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two long-wanted Abu Sayyaf militant commanders accused of beheading two kidnapped Canadian tourists and a German in the southern Philippines have surrendered to authorities, officials said Friday.

Almujer Yadah and Bensito Quitino gave themselves up to military officials in Jolo town in southern Sulu province and surrendered their assault rifles, Sulu military commander Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio and other security officials said. The officials did not provide details of how and when the surrenders were arranged.

The two were briefly presented in a news conference in an army camp in Jolo and later turned over to police.

Sulu provincial police chief Col. Jaime Mojica said they will face multiple murder and other criminal charges, including violation of the country’s anti-terrorism law. The militants are accused of beheading the hostages after failing to obtain large ransoms they had demanded.

They also were involved in other ransom kidnappings and bomb attacks, Mojica said.

Canadian tourists Robert Hall and John Ridsdel were abducted by Abu Sayyaf gunmen from a marina on southern Samal island along with a Norwegian and a Filipino in September 2015 and taken to jungle camps in Sulu.

Hall and Ridsdel were beheaded by the militants months later after the deadline for payment of the ransoms passed. Videos released by the militants showed the victims being brutally killed in front of an Islamic State group-style black flag. The Norwegian and Filipino hostages were eventually freed.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time that he was horrified by the killings and affirmed Canada’s refusal to “pay ransoms for hostages to terrorist groups, as doing so would endanger the lives of more Canadians.” He said Canada was working with the Philippine government “to pursue those responsible for these heinous acts and bring them to justice, however long it takes.”

Other key suspects in the kidnappings and killings of Hall and Ridsdel were killed earlier in clashes with Philippine forces.

Mojica said the two militants were also involved in the 2017 beheading in Sulu of German hostage Jurgen Gustav Kantner. Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized Kantner at gunpoint and killed a woman sailing with him off neighboring Malaysia’s Sabah state. Villagers later found a dead woman on a yacht with a German flag off Sulu’s Laparan Island.

The United States and the Philippines have labeled the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist organization for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings. The small but brutal group emerged in the early 1990s as an extremist offshoot of a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines, the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

The Abu Sayyaf has been weakened considerably by decades of military offensives, surrenders and infighting, and is currently estimated by the military to have less than 200 armed fighters, but remains a national security threat.

Two students sue shipping giant Maersk, alleging sexual assault and harassment


By Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, CNN
Wed June 15, 2022


Shipping giant Maersk is the subject of two new lawsuits, filed by students from the US Merchant Marine Academy who say they were victims of sexual misconduct on one of the company's ships

(CNN)An 18-year-old US Merchant Marine Academy student who was repeatedly harassed and groped by older, male crew members during a training program aboard a commercial ship was so terrified of being sexually assaulted that she slept in a locked bathroom, clutching a knife for protection, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

Using the moniker Midshipman-Y, the young woman's account represents the latest blow to the federal academy, which has struggled to protect students from sexual abuse both on campus and at sea, and hold offenders accountable. Last year, the academy briefly shut down its mandatory "Sea Year" training program following the published report of another student who said she was raped by a senior crew member at sea in the summer of 2019, when she was 19 years old.

Both students had been placed on the same Maersk ship during their respective Sea Years, two years apart. Now, just days before the end of the school year, they are suing Maersk in separate lawsuits filed this week, alleging the shipping giant did not have safeguards in place to protect them and that it fostered a culture where sexual assault and harassment weren't taken seriously.

"It is common sense that putting a 19-year-old girl on a ship full of older men, where many of the men have unfettered access to her stateroom via master keys, and where the men routinely get heavily intoxicated, could foreseeably lead to a teenaged girl being sexually assaulted," attorneys wrote in one of the lawsuits.

Maersk Line, Limited said in a statement that it is reviewing the lawsuits but does not comment on pending litigation. The company noted, however, that it has "zero tolerance for assault, harassment or any form of discrimination on our vessels or in our company."

"We take all allegations of assault or harassment very seriously, and we remain committed to ensuring that the shipboard environment is safe, supportive and welcoming to all," the company said in the statement.

According to the lawsuit filed by Midshipman-Y, the now 19 year old was assigned to undergo training aboard the Maersk ship, the Alliance Fairfax, last summer. Upon boarding, she alleges she was warned by a fellow female student leaving the vessel about "creepy guys" onboard and to "be careful." The departing student said she should avoid wearing a bathing suit or shorts so as to not attract any attention. But from the moment she stepped on board, Midshipman-Y said she became the subject of sexual comments and jokes from a number of crew members. An electrician and senior crew member also began making unwanted sexual advances, allegedly telling her he wanted to have a sexual relationship with her and repeatedly groping her.

"You're the only girl. We should pull your pants down, lay you on the table, and let everyone slap your ass," he allegedly said to her one day while she was playing a card game with two other cadets. While high ranking officers overheard the exchange, no one confronted the electrician or reported him, the lawsuit alleges. "Not only did the senior officials on the Alliance Fairfax not enforce the anti-[sexual assault and sexual harassment] policies, but they were among the offenders," it states.

Culture of fear at Merchant Marine Academy silences students who say they were sexually harassed and assaulted

As detailed in her lawsuit, Midshipman-Y said she didn't feel safe in her room, since other crew members had master keys that could open any room on the ship. So she slept on the floor of her locked bathroom and held a pocket knife in case the electrician tried to find her. She tried seeking help from the one other female on the ship, but that woman only shared her own stories of harassment. For weeks, she was unable to reach anyone off of the ship because of limited Wi-Fi and an unreliable satellite texting device given to her by the academy, according to the suit.

Around 45 days into the journey, she reached a port where she was finally able to call her mother — who encouraged her to get off the ship. Even though she knew that cutting her time at sea short could mean she wouldn't be able to graduate, the lawsuit states, Midshipman-Y requested an "emergency evacuation" anyway, the lawsuit states.

'It's just going to keep happening'

The second lawsuit came from the student who had published her explosive allegations of being raped at sea under the pseudonym of Midshipman-X. On Tuesday, she identified herself in court records by her real name: Hope Hicks.

Hicks, in an interview with CNN, said that hearing Midshipman-Y's story of harassment on the same ship where she was allegedly assaulted two years earlier shows just how bad the situation is.

Hope Hicks, a student at the US Merchant Marine Academy, wrote an anonymous account under the pseudonym "Midshipman-X" alleging that she was raped at sea. Now she and another student are suing Maersk for negligence.

"That just goes to show even if there is a change of people there isn't a change of culture. Until it changes it's just going to keep happening," Hicks said, adding that she hopes her lawsuit will give other victims the courage to come forward so that Maersk and other shipping companies will be forced to create safe working environments for female crew members, who are significantly outnumbered in the industry.

When Hicks came forward with her rape allegation in a blog post last fall, it sparked the attention of lawmakers and prompted Maersk to suspend and later fire five crew members. The company, however, said it was "unable to make any findings with respect to the rape allegation" because certain employees refused to cooperate with the investigation. The Coast Guard investigated the alleged rape as well and referred the case to the Department of Justice, but prosecutors declined to comment on whether charges would be filed, citing the ongoing investigation. The Maritime Administration, which oversees the academy, temporarily halted Sea Year in November and later rolled out a series of reforms aimed at better protecting students from sexual harassment and assault.

In Hicks' lawsuit, her attorneys allege that the Maersk "took insufficient measures to protect the teenaged cadets under its charge." The only female on the Alliance Fairfax, Hicks alleged she was ordered to log in under the names of other crew members to complete the sexual assault and harassment training that was federally mandated in order to have cadets on board. Hicks said members of the crew often looked on as she was sexually harassed by her supervisor on the ship and did nothing to intervene.

Then one night, her superiors demanded that she leave her room and forced her to take repeated shots of liquor, despite Maersk's "zero tolerance" policy for drugs and alcohol, her lawsuit states. She woke up the next morning to find blood on her sheets and bruises on her body. She said she knew immediately that she had been raped, but she was too scared — both of the retaliation she could face and academic consequences — to report what happened.

"If it's the commanding officers who are assaulting you and harassing you, who are you going to report to?" she told CNN. "Those are the people you are supposed to trust. I did not feel like the school could protect me. I did not feel like the school would believe me. I certainly did not feel like anyone on my ship would believe me."

CNN reported earlier this year how school policies created significant barriers to the reporting and investigation of alleged assaults. The Maritime Administration declined to comment on the lawsuits but previously acknowledged that more needs to be done to remove barriers that prevent students from speaking up.

Power in numbers

Both Hicks and Midshipman-Y were severely traumatized by what happened to them at sea, their lawsuits state.

Shortly after returning to campus, Midshipman-Y says she became extremely sick from her anxiety — ultimately passing out in the dining hall from a panic attack and being transported to the emergency room via ambulance. A good student before her time on the Alliance, according to the complaint, she struggled to focus on her studies and failed three classes before she was sent a notice of disenrollment from the academy, which would require paying back tens of thousands of dollars in tuition or enlisting in the military.

She appealed the academy's decision and was given a "compassionate setback" to the class of 2025 and is currently living at home with her family attempting to heal from the trauma she experienced, her lawsuit states.

Lawmakers push for more reforms to prevent sexual assault at sea

The young woman, who was working to become a fighter pilot in the military, is not sure if she will ever feel emotionally ready to return to campus — or to sea to complete the training hours needed to graduate, her attorneys said.

Hicks, meanwhile, said she suffered from both depression and panic attacks — sometimes succumbing to bouts of uncontrollable tears. She celebrated her 22nd birthday Tuesday and will graduate from the academy this weekend. Her rape, she said, destroyed the interest she had in pursuing a career as a Merchant Marine engineer.

 Instead, she said, she is set to join the Navy after graduation as a commissioned officer.
Hicks said she suffered some pushback from fellow students who figured out she was the anonymous student who had come forward and worried their Sea Year studies would be affected. But, she added, she was overwhelmed by the support she received from many other students on campus and is determined to do everything she can to seek justice for what happened to her and others.

"The system makes it very hard for victims to come forward. I want to make others feel like it is safe to come forward with their own stories," she said. "I am going to keep fighting for this cause until there is actual change. There is power in numbers; the more people who come forward the better."