California eyes banning loitering for prostitution arrests


California state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, speaks on a measure at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on March 31, 2022. Nine months after it passed the Legislature, California lawmakers are finally sending Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill that would bar police from making arrests on a charge of loitering for prostitution. Sen. Wiener took the unusual step of holding his bill until Monday, June 20, 2022. It passed the Assembly in September with no votes to spare. 

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


DON THOMPSON
Mon, June 20, 2022

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday finally sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a hot potato of a bill that would bar police from making arrests on a charge of loitering for prostitution, nine months after the measure passed the Legislature.

Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener and other supporters said arrests for loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution often rely on police officers’ perceptions and disproportionately target transgender, Black and Latino women.

Critics see it as a further erosion of criminal penalties that tie the hands of police on quality-of-life issues like shoplifting and car burglaries. Greg Burt, a spokesman for the California Family Council, and other opponents fear it’s part of an eventual effort to decriminalize prostitution.

“This bill seems to be perfect if you want sex trafficking to even increase in California,” he said. “This bill is really going to affect poor neighborhoods — it’s not going to affect neighborhoods where these legislators live.”

The bill would not decriminalize soliciting or engaging in sex work. It would allow those who were previously convicted or are currently serving loitering sentences to ask a court to dismiss and seal the record of the conviction.

The measure has passed both legislative chambers, but Wiener took the unusual step of stopping the bill from going to Newsom after the Assembly approved the measure in September with no votes to spare. More than two dozen of his fellow Democrats in the Assembly and Senate either voted no or declined to vote.

He wanted time, Wiener said then, “to make the case about why this civil rights bill is good policy ... and why this discriminatory loitering crime goes against California values."

The Senate finally sent the bill to Newsom on Monday.

But in the nine months since lawmakers acted, concerns about crime, homelessness and the perception that major California cities are becoming more unsafe have become more acute, providing fodder for political campaigns heading into the November election.

Among the bill's supporters is San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who voters just recalled from office in mid-term after critics mounted a campaign labeling him as soft on criminals.

Newsom, a Democrat running for reelection after easily beating back a recall last year, has said more needs to be done to address homelessness and shoplifting. Newsom’s spokespeople did not immediately comment on Wiener's bill.

Burt believes lawmakers waited to send it to Newsom until after the governor defeated the recall and safely made it through the June 7 primary election.

The bill is sponsored in part by groups supporting gay and transgender rights, and Wiener said he waited to send the measure to Newsom until Pride Month, which celebrates the LGTBQ community.

“It is more important than ever to get rid of a law that targets our community,” said Wiener, who is gay. “Pride isn’t just about rainbow flags and parades. It’s about protecting the most marginalized in our community.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the nation's largest such agency, and the 75,000-member Peace Officers Research Association of California are among the opponents. Both say repealing it will hinder the prosecution of those who commit crimes related to prostitution and human trafficking and make it harder to identify and assist those being victimized.

In a statement to lawmakers, the sheriff's department said the law is “often used to keep prostitutes from hanging around public places, business and residential communities, which can breed crime and drug use.”

While the intent is good, the unintended consequences will be to benefit sex buyers, the department said.

But Wiener said the loitering law “essentially allows law enforcement to target and arrest people if they are wearing tight clothes or a lot of makeup.” Similar legislation became law in New York last year, and Wiener cast his bill as part of a larger movement to end discrimination against and violence toward sex workers.

The debate split sex workers and advocates, with the American Civil Liberties Union of California supporting it and the nonpartisan National Center on Sexual Exploitation opposing it.

Once it formally reaches his desk, Newsom will have 12 days to sign or veto the measure.

Two other related measures already are law.

A bill passed in 2016 bars arresting minors for prostitution, with the intent that they instead be treated as victims. A 2019 bill bars arresting sex workers if they are reporting various crimes as a victim or witness. The same law bans using possession of condoms as reason for an arrest.

WAR IS ECOCIDE

Ukraine strikes at offshore Black Sea gas rigs
Mon, June 20, 2022

Ukraine attacked Russian-occupied gas rigs in Black Sea

“Our missile units caused a little accident at Boyko’s towers,” said Honcharenko.

Read also: Russia refuses to recognize death of 27 crew members of sunken cruiser Moskva, says Ukrainian intelligence

“A (Ukrainian) missile strike has somewhat impeded Russian (natural) gas extraction in Ukraine’s Black Sea waters.”

Read also: Ukraine responds to Lavrov’s naval blockade proposals

The attack was confirmed by the so-called “leader” of Russia-occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, via Telegram.

According to Aksyonov, five people were rescued from the rigs, including three injured. Search and rescue operations are ongoing.

Read also: Fighting continues at Ukraine's strategic Zmiinyi Island, says UK intelligence

Ukraine purchased these natural gas offshore drilling platforms in 2011-2012. The deal was widely criticized, as the cost was double of their market price. The rigs became known as the notorious “Boyko’s towers,” after then-Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, an ally of the fugitive former president Viktor Yanukovych.

During the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia seized these offshore facilities. They were later used for reconnaissance, besides natural gas extraction.

Exclusive: Trump’s Team Setting Up Eastman to Take Blame for Jan. 6

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley

ROLLING STONE
Mon, June 20, 2022, 

John Eastman Lawsuit - Credit: Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/Getty Images

With the Justice Department and Jan. 6 committee taking a close look at Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, he and his cronies could certainly use a fall guy, and it looks like they’ve found their patsy: right-wing lawyer John Eastman.

Eastman worked for Trump as the attorney devised legal strategies to overturn the election to keep the outgoing president in power. But, in recent weeks, Trump has confided to those close to him that he sees no reason to publicly defend Eastman, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone. The ex-president is also deeply annoyed with Eastman and all the negative “attention” and media coverage that the lawyer’s work has brought Trump and his inner sanctum, including during the ongoing Jan. 6 hearings on Capitol Hill.

'Can You Believe I Lost to This Guy?' Trump Admitted He Lost Election, Former Aide Says

Furthermore, to those who’ve spoken Trump about Eastman in recent months, the ex-president has repeated an excuse he often uses when backed into a corner, as investigators confront him with an associates’ misdeeds: He has privately insisted he “hardly” or “barely” knows Eastman, despite the fact that he counseled Trump on taking a string of extra-legal measures in a bid to stay in power and wrote the so-called “coup memo,” which laid out the facsimile of a legal argument for reversing Trump’s election defeat.

Behind closed doors, Trump will occasionally ask questions about Eastman’s fortunes, including bluntly inquiring: “Is [John] going to jail?” according to a source who has heard the former president say this. But publicly, Trump has stayed silent. Over the past several months, Trump has been strongly advised by lawyers and several associates not to openly discuss Eastman or his work — and to personally avoid the man altogether, according to three sources familiar with the matter. At this time, Trump, his legal advisers, and various political counselors would prefer to cut ties with Eastman and keep their distance, in a perhaps vain attempt to build a firewall between the lawyer who enthusiastically pitched strategies for delegitimizing the 2020 election outcome and the ex-president who repeatedly sought his help.

“It has been repeatedly communicated to the [former] president that he should not even bring up Johnny Eastman’s name because he is maybe the most radioactive person [involved in this] when it comes to…any so-called criminal exposure,” a source with direct knowledge of the matter says. “Johnny does not have many friends in [the upper crust of] Trumpworld left, and most people loyal to the [former] president are fine with him being left out on his own, to deal with whatever consequences he may or may not face.”

Indeed, the infamously garrulous Trump has publicly kept his mouth shut about Eastman, a lawyer whose work became integral to the scandalous efforts to nullify President Biden’s 2020 victory. (Trump even considered Eastman as counsel for his post-insurrection impeachment.)

Nowadays, in the top ranks of MAGAland, there’s a clear attitude towards Eastman (“Johnny,” as some Trump advisers derisively call him): He might be going down. So be it, as long as he doesn’t take anyone else down with him.

Eastman and a Trump spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.

Eastman has become an increasing focus for the January 6th committee for his role in spearheading many of the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the election. Exhibits posted by the committee last week included excerpts of a deposition by Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann in which he described a heated confrontation with Eastman the day after the insurrection where he told Eastman to “get a great fucking criminal defense lawyer” because “you’re going to need it.”

Shortly afterward, Eastman emailed fellow Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to say: “I’ve decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works.”

“Any time you give legal advice and then feel compelled to ask for a pardon, it probably wasn’t good legal advice,” says Steven Groves, formerly a lawyer and then a spokesman in Trump’s White House.

In a nod to growing calls by the January 6 committee for a criminal investigation of Trump’s actions around the election, Trump released a 12-page statement, which The New York Times reported contains the seeds of a potential defense against criminal allegations that the former president attempted to thwart the transfer of power while knowing he had legitimately lost the election. The document cites a range of wild-eyed theories, including 14 references to the bogus election fraud conspiracy documentary 2,000 Mules, but it does not mention Eastman or his work that the former president relied on to make the case that his efforts to overthrow the election were within the law.

Eastman, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas turned conservative constitutional law professor, was first welcomed into Trump’s orbit during the penultimate year of Trump’s term in office. Trump, enamored of Eastman’s skepticism of the birthright citizenship afforded by the constitution, increasingly came to rely on the attorney’s crackpot views of election law as the the odds of overturning Biden’s 2020 election victory grew longer. On behalf of Trump, Eastman authored briefs for the Supreme Court to intervene in the election in Trump’s favor — both ultimately discarded by the justices.

When the Supreme Court ultimately shut the door on Trump’s attempts to leverage the courts to stop the democratic transfer of power, Eastman took up the mantle of cobbling together a legal rationale for why, in blatant violation of the constitution, Vice President Mike Pence somehow had the authority to stop the counting of electoral votes on January 6.

But the idea that Eastman is becoming something of a fall guy for Trump and various Republicans’ efforts in 2020 and early 2021 is now so prevalent in influential conservative circles that it’s now being acknowledged by some of the former president’s favorite right-wing media stars.

“How many lawyers did Trump have? He had several…And John Eastman has turned into the fall guy,” Mark Levin, a Fox News and radio host, said on-air last week. “He’s a lawyer, he’s an advocate for the [former] president. Whether you agree with his legal judgment, his legal findings, or not, it’s what lawyers do.” (According to a New York Times report last year, Levin is indirectly responsible for landing Eastman in then-President Trump’s inner orbit — simply due to the fact that Trump had seen the attorney on a 2019 episode of Levin’s program.)

On Trump’s social media forum, Truth Social, the former president has remained silent about Eastman — even as he’s come to the defense of other aides and supporters now under scrutiny for their efforts to wage a coup against Joe Biden. In fact, Trump has “Truthed” about Elon Musk’s spat with Twitter, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial, and the PGA tour — but hasn’t posted even a fleeting defense of Eastman.

When the FBI arrested Trump’s former trade advisor Peter Navarro for defying a subpoena from the committee, the former president thundered with outrage that “our great trade genius, Professor Peter Navarro, was just handcuffed, shackled, and put in jail.” Ginni Thomas, whose efforts to overthrow Biden’s victory in Arizona, received similar encouragement from Trump when The Washington Post uncovered her emails urging legislators there to ignore the voters’ will and proclaim Trump the state’s victor. Thomas, Trump wrote after the Post story, is a “Great American Patriot, the wonderful wife of Justice Clarence Thomas” who “fought for Voter Integrity in the Great State of Arizona.”

On Trump’s personal website, where the former president hosted written statements after his ouster from Twitter and before the launch of Truth Social, he’s been similarly mum. Eastman’s name appears on the site only twice, in hosted copies of the Supreme Court election briefs he authored in 2020.

Despite multiple stories about the January 6th committee’s interest in Eastman, however, Trump’s thumbs have remained unmoved on the subject of his onetime attorney’s fate. On Truth Social, where the former game-show host has offered a running commentary on the committee’s hearings, Trump has not once mentioned Eastman who, as president, he had once hailed on Twitter as a “Brilliant Constitutional Lawyer.”

Trump aides have remained similarly quiet on the subject of Eastman. His spokeswoman Liz Harrington has not mentioned the campaign lawyer since a tweet on January 6, when she hailed his speech at the rally on the mall “explain the rigged voting machine system that corrupt politicians kept in place for the GA runoffs.”

Mexican migrant advocates demand end to deportations, detention

Mon, June 20, 2022

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican human rights organizations marked World Refugee Day on Monday by speaking out against the government's response to migrants entering the country, as record refugee claims are met with mass arrests and deportations.

"We feel like we're enemies of the government, especially when we raise our voices in the face of violations," said Magda Renteria, director of the Network for Documentation of Migrant Defense Organizations (REDODEM), noting the difficult conditions that detained migrants face.

"Suddenly Mexico is not the kind space to find rest," added the activist, who represents 23 migrant advocacy organizations.

Between January and May, 48,981 people from more than 100 nations arrived in Mexico requesting refuge, 8,245 more than during the same period in 2021, according to the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR).

Human rights organizations have criticized Mexico for its migratory containment policies, highlighting that this has increased abuses against migrants, including minors.

In another event on Monday, National Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said 28,463 members of security forces are currently enforcing "four containment lines" on migration, and 518,668 migrants have been "rescued" during the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Every year tens of thousands of migrants fleeing violence and poverty arrive in Mexico en route to the United States, straining institutions like COMAR.

"We have refugee applicants from all continents and from all latitudes of the world and this requires timely and concrete responses," said Alejandro Encinas, Undersecretary for Human Rights of the Mexican Interior Ministry, during the same event to commemorate World Refugee Day.

"Faced with this reality, our country has to adapt," he said.

A TASTE OF WHAT ABORTION CLINICS FACE DAILY

Protesters with fake blood, baby dolls and shackles picket Supreme Court justice’s home



Namita Singh
Mon, June 20, 2022

Pro-choice activists protested outside Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett’s Virginia home on Saturday ahead of the apex court’s decision on a landmark case constitutionally protecting a woman’s right to safe abortion.

The activists, part of a group called Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, donned clothes soaked in fake blood, held baby dolls and carried signs with slogans such as “Abortion on demand and without apology”.

One of the participants, protesting with her hands tied together and holding a doll, said: “This is what a lot of women are going through. People are actually dying and bleeding out because they can’t get safe abortion.

“This is a terrifying visual of what America is going to look like,” added another. “It is a terrifying visual that children are giving birth to children. They are being forced to against their will.”


The US Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in a Mississippi case challenging a state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, presenting a major challenge to the landmark precedent established in the 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, which enshrined constitutional protections for the procedure.

A leak of a draft opinion in the case suggests that justices are prepared to overturn Roe v Wade, potentially eliminating abortion access across more than half the US, forcing many pregnant women to carry their pregnancies to term unless they can travel to a handful of states with abortion protections in place.

The group, which carried other slogans including “forced motherhood = female enslavement,” tweeted saying “we aren’t incubators!”

“We aren’t protesting to change the minds of women-hating fascists,” but rather “calling on the pro-choice majority” to protest on the street and prevent the Supreme Court from “overturning Roe”.

The bombshell leak – the first ever in the court’s history – has sparked protests nationwide, including demonstrations outside the homes of the six conservative justices.

The run-up to the final Supreme Court ruling has put the nation on edge with the Department of Justice ramping up security for each of the justices. This comes as justice Brett Kavanaugh found himself to be a target of an assassination attempt on 8 June, with 26-year-old Nicholas Roske allegedly confessing to plotting to murder him ahead of the ruling.

The plot was foiled after he called 911 from outside the property, confessing his intentions, as he sought “psychiatric help”. He was taken into custody at the scene and charged with an attempt to murder a Supreme Court justice.

Australia power crisis forces manufacturers to eye offshore moves, production cuts

By Byron Kaye

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's biggest building materials manufacturers are cutting back operations, hiking prices and considering moving production offshore to manage a spike in power and gas bills, adding to pressure on the government to resolve the country's energy crisis.

The CEOs of Brickworks Ltd, the country's largest brickmaker, and Boral Ltd, the top maker of most other construction materials, flagged the changes even as Australia's new Labor government scrambles to try to beef up power supplies and bring down electricity prices.

Power prices have surged in Australia amid a shortage of coal-fired generation due to planned and unplanned outages, which has driven up demand for gas-fired generation at the same time as gas demand for heating jumped during a cold snap.

The price jump has been exacerbated by record high global coal and gas prices, stoked by sanctions on Russia.

That has left Australia's A$100 billion ($70 billion) manufacturing sector, a major power and gas consumer, exposed to soaring costs, especially those whose cheaper, long-term energy contracts are expiring.

Brickworks, for example, has gas contracts with Santos Ltd averaging A$10 per gigajoule, locked in for two years, compared to the current government-mandated price cap of A$40.

"If we had to pay, when our contract rolled over, (the current spot price), we would no doubt be shutting plants down and moving production offshore," said Lindsay Partridge, managing director of Brickworks.

Brickworks pays just $3 per gigajoule for gas in the United States, where it owns Pennsylvania-based brickmaker Glen-Gery Corp.

"If we rolled over and you had to pay A$40, and I could buy gas in the U.S. for $3, then it's a pretty easy equation to work out," added Partridge.

The United States generates just one-sixth of Brickworks' earnings from building materials, but the company could save money by shipping product back to Australia, he said.

Boral, which downgraded its annual profit forecast in May partly due to energy costs, told Reuters it has cut back on operations due to "the speed and magnitude of the change in energy prices".

"We have been forced to temporarily curtail some areas of our operations and unfortunately have been left with no other option than to pass increases onto customers directly," said Chief Executive Officer Zlatko Todorcevski in an email to Reuters, without specifying the size or products affected by the cuts. "We have also had to accelerate plans to review our overheads as we offset these inflationary challenges."

Boral welcomed a move last week by the Australian energy market operator to cap wholesale power prices and take control over power supplies, but Todorcevski said those temporary measures "do not provide long-term confidence for large manufacturers".

The Business Council of Co-Operatives and Mutuals said this month manufacturers were choosing between shutting "uneconomic operations" and passing higher costs to consumers as energy bills jumped more than 600% in a few months.

Incitec Pivot, Australia's top fertiliser maker, has said it would close its Brisbane plant at the end of 2022 because it was unable to line up an affordable gas contract.

GAS EXPORT CONTROLS

The latest crisis has highlighted the need for more gas supply in the domestic market, for a country which is the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Manufacturers have long clamoured for gas export controls or a reservation of gas for the domestic market. Gas prices have more than tripled in price since 2014, when Australia started exporting LNG from the east coast.

In Western Australia, where 15% of gas is reserved for local consumption, domestic prices are a fraction of the capped east coast price.

"There's certainly a strong call from many quarters for something to be done and a lot of people point to gas export controls," said Tennant Reed, energy policy director at the Australian Industry Group.

Australia's new resources minister, Madeleine King, has said all options are on the table for dealing with gas supply challenges.

Successive governments have previously opposed a gas reservation on the east coast, under pressure from gas producers which say the structure would deter further investment.

"It was something I raised 10-12 years ago with the previous Labor government about allowing all the gas to be exported, and connecting up the east coast of Australia into international markets," said Partridge, the Brickworks managing director.

"Now it's all come home to roost."

($1= 1.4388 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

79 years after a brutal battle to oust the Japanese, a remote piece of US territory is the center of attention again

Benjamin Brimelow

Sun, June 19, 2022, 

US soldiers and equipment land on the beach at Massacre Bay on Attu Island, May 26, 1943.(AP Photo/US Navy)

• In May 1943, US soldiers launched a brutal fight to retake the islands of Attu and Kiska from the Japanese.

• The remote islands, part of Alaska's Aleutian chain, were important for operations in the Pacific.

• Now, with the US focusing more on the Pacific and the Arctic, Alaska has renewed military importance.

On May 11, 1943, American soldiers began landing on the island of Attu, which, along with the neighboring island of Kiska, had been seized by Japanese troops a year earlier.

Attu is the westernmost point in Alaska's Aleutian Island chain, some 1,500 miles from Anchorage. Its occupation by Japan was the first time since the War of 1812 that US territory had been seized by a foreign power.

The Japanese troops who landed on the islands were the northernmost arm of a larger operation that included the forces sent to attack and occupy Midway Island in the Central Pacific. Having turned back the Japanese advance, the US sent a massive force to retake the islands in mid-1943.

Instead of the three days of fighting that the Americans expected, the battle for Attu turned into a three-week slog.

Now, 79 years later, the Aleutian Islands and Alaska have renewed importance for the US, as the increasing accessibility of the Arctic is making the region a venue for competition with Russia and China.

Aleutian Islands campaign

US military bases in the Aleutians as of August 1942.Wikimedia Commons

Japan seized Kiska and Attu in June 1942, exactly six months attacking Pearl Harbor. Their landings were preceded by air raids on nearby Dutch Harbor, which killed 43 US personnel and destroyed 11 planes.

Japan's goals in the Aleutians were twofold: distract the Americans before the planned invasion of Midway and prevent them from using the sparsely populated islands as forward outposts.

Within months of arriving, the Japanese had deployed thousands of troops to the islands and built fortifications and critical infrastructure, including bunkers and tunnels. Harbor facilities and an airstrip were also built on Kiska.

The US military increased its footprint in Alaska when it realized the importance of the area and its lack of defenses there. When Kiska and Attu were seized, Alaska Defense Command had just 24,000 troops at its disposal. By January 1943, it had 94,000.

By the end of February 1943, US troops had landed on nearby islands and built airfields from which to conduct bombing raids on Attu and Kiska. By mid-March, a US Navy blockade had cut the Japanese garrisons off from resupply and reinforcement.

On April 1, US commanders authorized the invasion of Attu. Dubbed "Operation Landcrab," the objective was to defeat the smaller Japanese garrison on Attu before turning to Kiska.

'Attacking a pillbox by way of a tightrope'

US soldiers with guns and grenades close in on Japanese troops in dugouts on Attu Island in June 1943.(AP Photo)

The first landings on May 11, which were preceded by air and naval bombardment, were unopposed, leading many to believe victory was imminent.

In fact, the garrison of more than 2,500 Japanese troops had prepared defenses farther inland and waited for the Americans to advance before ambushing them in small groups — a preview of what American troops would face on Iwo Jima and Okinawa a year later.

Making matters worse, the Americans soon found that they were fighting two enemies, the Japanese and the weather. Attu is covered in fog, rain, or snow for about 250 days of the year, with winds up to 120 mph.

Many US troops were without appropriate winter gear and suffered frostbite, gangrene, and trench foot. "It was rugged," Lt. Donald E. Dwinnell said. "The whole damned deal was rugged, like attacking a pillbox by way of a tightrope … in winter."

The Americans pressed on, seizing the high ground and pushing the Japanese into a few areas along the shore.

US Army reinforcements land on a beach in Attu, June 23, 1943.(AP Photo)

On May 29, with defeat looming, the last Japanese troops able to fight conducted a massive banzai charge with the goal of seizing high ground, using captured artillery against American troops, and retreating back to their own fortifications with captured food and supplies.

In what one American soldier described as "a madness of noise and confusion and deadliness," some 800 Japanese soldiers penetrated the main American line and reached rear areas. The fighting was intense and included hand-to-hand combat, but the Americans rallied and pushed the Japanese back.

By May 30, the Island was secure. At least 2,351 Japanese bodies were recovered and buried by the Americans. As on other islands recaptured from the Japanese, many defenders killed themselves rather than accept defeat. Only 28 Japanese soldiers surrendered.

The fighting was so intense that the Japanese secretly withdrew from Kiska under the cover of fog and darkness at the end of July. Despite the Japanese departure, US and Canadian troops still took casualties from booby traps, friendly fire, and the harsh environment when they landed on Kiska in mid-August.

In total, 549 US soldiers were killed and 1,148 wounded during the Aleutian Campaign.

Newfound importance

US Coast Guard cutter Bertholf trailing Chinese navy ships in international waters in the Bering Sea, August 30, 2021.US Coast Guard photo by Ensign Bridget Boyle

Given its proximity to the Soviet Union, Alaska remained important during the Cold War, especially for air and missile defense, but memories of the World War II campaign largely faded over the following decades.

Today, with the US reorienting toward great-power competition, and with the region growing more accessible, Alaska's significance for military operations is getting renewed attention, which has been reflected in recent activity there.

In 2007, Russia restarted long-range bomber patrols that sometimes enter the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, which surrounds the state but is not US territorial airspace. In 2020, US officials said intercepts of those flights were at the highest level since the Cold War.

Russian naval activity around Alaska has also increased. A massive drill in 2020 saw 50 Russian warships operating in the US exclusive economic zone, which stretches some 200 miles from the US coast, where they had run-ins with US fishing vessels.

China has also expressed interest in the Arctic. It has declared itself a "near-Arctic state" and is growing its icebreaker fleet. Chinese warships operated off Alaska for the first time in 2015, and four Chinese warships appeared off the Aleutian Islands again in August 2021.

With the Cobra Dane radar in the background, US special-operations troops train with a Stinger missile on Shemya Island, October 2021.US Special Operations Command

The US military is bolstering its posture in Alaska. The Army has revamped its forces there, reestablishing the 11th Airborne Division and investing in new equipment and expanded training.

The Air Force, which has long had the largest Arctic presence of any US service branch, has added dozens of fifth-generation fighter jets to bases there. The Marine Corps has expressed interest in increasing its training in Alaska, and the Navy is looking to build out its operations there with a new deep-water port in Nome.

Alaska's renewed importance extends to the Aleutians. In 2019, US sailors and Marines trained on Adak Island, which is south of the increasingly busy Bering Strait and once housed a major US Navy base.

In late 2020, US special operators deployed to Shemya Island — which is closer to Russia than to the mainland US — to practice "securing key terrain and critical infrastructure."

With Arctic ice receding and Russian and Chinese activity increasing, Alaska's importance for the US military will only grow in the years ahead.

Fox News to Pay $15 Million Settlement to Ex-Host Who Raised Concerns About Gender Pay Gap



Harper Lambert
Sun, June 19, 2022

Fox News has agreed to pay former host Melissa Francis a $15 million settlement after she accused the network of gender pay disparity and was ultimately taken off the air, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

The news comes six months into the New York State Department of Labor’s investigation into her complaint that Fox News retaliated against her for speaking up about the discriminatory practice.

In 2012, Francis left her post covering financial news for CNBC to become an anchor at Fox Business. About five years into her tenure, she was promoted to co-anchor of Fox News’ midday show “Outnumbered,” while continuing to co-host Fox Business’ “After The Bell” and making occasional appearances on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Francis told the Post that the meager salary increase she was offered prompted her to start gathering information about her male and female coworkers’ salaries. During a contract negotiation meeting in 2019, Dianne Brandi, former EVP for business and legal affairs at Fox News informed Francis that she would not receive a pay raise. Francis alleged that when she presented the data she had collected, Brandi said, “That’s how the world works. Women make less. It’s just a fact.”

A spokesperson for Fox on behalf of Brandi called Francis’ version of that conversation “untrue and patently absurd – furthermore, it is illogical that anyone with Dianne Brandi’s level of experience in negotiating talent contracts for a living would make such a ludicrous statement.”

“We parted ways with Melissa Francis over a year and a half ago and her allegations were entirely without merit,” a Fox spokesperson said. “We have also fully cooperated with the New York State Department of Labor’s investigation and look forward to the completion of this matter.”

According to the Post, Francis was effectively taken off the air on Oct. 7, 2020, the day Fox was ordered to turn over salary information by an arbitrator. She officially resigned in February 2021.

Her attorney, Kevin Mintzer, said Francis filed the Labor Relations complaint “not for herself but for the women of the company who remain behind.”

In the post-#MeToo upheaval that saw the ousting of Fox News mainstays like Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly, female accusers were paid upwards of $20 and $30 million as settlement.

“Fox News has always been committed to the equitable treatment of all employees which we have demonstrated consistently over our 26-year history, and we are extremely proud of our business,” the Fox News spokesperson said.

Sri Lankan students demand government resign over crisis

 

 

ERANGA JAYAWARDENA
Mon, June 20, 2022

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of students from state universities marched in Sri Lanka’s capital on Monday to demand the president and prime minister resign over an economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential supplies and disrupted people's livelihoods and education.

The students say President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is responsible for the economic crisis, the worst since independence in 1948, and that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the position a little more than a month ago promising to end shortages, has not delivered on his pledges.

Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt and has suspended repayment of $7 billion in foreign debt due this year. It must also pay back more than $5 billion every year until 2026. Its foreign reserves are nearly gone and it is unable to import food, fuel, cooking gas and medicines. A lack of fuel to run power stations has resulted in long daily power cuts.

In recent months people have been forced to stand in long lines to buy fuel and gas, and the country has survived mostly on credit lines extended by neighboring India to buy fuel and other essentials.

With that credit also running out, authorities have shut schools and instructed teachers to teach online, and have asked non-essential government employees to work from home for one week to preserve limited stocks of fuel.

Officials from the International Monetary Fund are currently in Sri Lanka to discuss a bailout package.

Monthslong protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.

One of Rajapaksa's brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two other brothers and a nephew quit their Cabinet posts earlier.

President Rajapaksa has admitted he did not take steps to forestall the economic collapse early enough, but has refused to leave office. It is nearly impossible to oust a president under the constitution unless he resigns on his own accord.

Sri LankaSri Lankan student Buddhist monks shout slogans as they march demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign over the economic crisis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, June 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

What Happened When France Sent Low-Income Kids to Wealthy Schools


Peter Yeung
Mon, June 20, 2022,


In 2004, Maxence Arcy moved with his family to Bellefontaine, a poor suburb of the French city of Toulouse. Limited by what he could afford, the father of six bought a place on a sprawling housing estate in the neighborhood which had catchment schools with the worst educational record in the region.

“At the time, there were only Mahgrebians and Africans living on the estate and going to these schools,” says Arcy, who originally migrated from Morocco in search of work in 1984. “It was a kind of segregation in the 21st century.”

But in January 2017, local authorities closed those schools in France’s fourth biggest city and instead bussed the 1,140 affected pupils to high-achieving facilities in the prosperous downtown in an attempt to write a new chapter of education equality.

The theory, according to Georges Méric, president of the Haute-Garonne region that includes Toulouse, was that a “rising tide lifts all boats.” Put another way, by inserting the students from Bellefontaine and two other suburbs, La Reynerie and Mirail, into schools of proven success, social determinism would be countered and all children would benefit.

“There are districts in Toulouse with 90 or 95 percent immigrant populations,” says Méric, who helped develop the scheme. “They are very poor and opportunities are hard to come by. But the young children living there have the right to success in life.”

Under Méric’s €56 million project, buses take the pupils — aged 11 to 15 — to nearly a dozen different schools in the city center in journeys that take less than an hour. The school principals and teachers are supported by six “social mix masters” who help facilitate logistics such as transport and tackle any problems that arise, such as dealing with parent concerns.

Five years on, the test results have been noteworthy. Before the bus scheme began, the drop-out rate for students living on the three estates after taking the Brevet — France’s national diploma for 15-year-olds — was almost 50 percent. That rate has now fallen to less than six percent and grades have risen by nearly 15 percent on average. Some 94 percent of pupils have stayed in the same school, calming fears that the scheme would lead wealthier families to move their children into the private sector.

“The welcoming colleges had a very good academic level already, that was important,” says Méric. “It’s worked very well. There has not been segregation in them and it’s promoting the wider acceptance of diversity across the city.” (Middle school is the U.S. equivalent of what is called college in France.)

Eduardo Mosqueda, a professor who specializes in access to education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, acknowledges the successes of the Toulouse project. But, he says, consideration must be given to the amount of funding it requires.

“I can’t help to wonder what the differences are in resources [that were] available to students in Bellefontaine compared to students in the schools where they are being bussed in terms of quality curriculum and adequately prepared teachers,” he says. “If the project to bus students costs €56 million, how much would student achievement improve if that money was invested into improving the schools that were closed?”

Even so, despite their poor academic performance, the Bellefontaine schools already had a high student to teacher ratio of around four to one, which came at a significant cost.

Mosqueda also believes bussing might lead to added pressures on pupils. “Students that are bussed are also in new school environments where it may be difficult to integrate given the racial, income, cultural and linguistic differences,” he says.

Yet Maxence Arcy’s 13-year-old son, Adam, who switched from a Bellefontaine school to one in Saint Aubin, has had few issues to date. “There’s a bus that comes to pick him up 200 meters from our house,” says Arcy. “He’s mixing with other students. He’s happy, he has improved his grades. He wants to be an engineer.”

For Arcy, the initiative is a textbook example of how to improve social diversity and the opportunities of future generations. “We were always for the project,” he says. “We wanted our child to see other nationalities and cultures. We were just concerned about the distance to the new school, but the bus works well.”

One crucial learning from the scheme has been the need for extensive dialogue between all parties involved. As many as 80 meetings, including 50 public meetings, were held before the bussing project was launched, helping address the concerns of those who voiced opposition to the project.

The latter included parents worried about the distances the children would have to travel and a handful of teachers who were resistant enough to the idea of changes in the student makeup that they went on strike to try and prevent it.

“It wasn’t comfortable at the beginning,” says Méric. “There was resistance both through administration and the local level. But we listened to their concerns.”

These lessons could be invaluable, according to Malika Baadoud, director of L’École et Nous, a Bellefontaine-based parents association, given that schooling segregation is present across France and other countries. Often resulting from societal divides, she says, it has led to high dropout rates, school violence, racism and teacher burnout. “In certain areas of France, social and racial diversity simply doesn’t exist,” says Baadoud, who has held her role since 2003 and was last year awarded the prestigious National Order of Merit for her work.

One of the initial concerns for parents whose children were set to be bussed further afield, according to Baadoud, was the fact that many families don’t own cars. But that was resolved by providing parents with free bus passes to travel from the estates to the schools to meet their children. “Slowly it was proved that all of these fears were unfounded,” says Baadoud. “They know it’s an opportunity for their children. It’s something that is unprecedented.”

The project is here to stay. Already this year two new schools have been built away from the estates’ traditional catchment areas in other, more privileged parts of Toulouse to ensure permanent social mixing in the classrooms and promote a more diverse staff.

Encouraged by the results, several other cities and towns across France are now studying ways to launch their own bussing initiatives, according to Méric, with the Ministry of National Education helping to coordinate.

“Others have contacted us — regional departments and ministerial officials have come to see us,” he says. “I hope the scheme multiplies.”