Hydrogen: What's the big deal?

Hydrogen has been hyped as key to a global energy transition. After a slow start, it has received a boost from a Canada-Germany deal. So what does the future hold for the low-carbon fuel?

Hydrogen is being touted as the fuel to clean up our most carbon-intensive industries

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, which is probably why it deserves pole position on the periodic table. It’s a colorless, odorless and non-toxic gas that consists of a single proton and a single electron. It's also highly combustible. Each kilogram of hydrogen or H2 contains about 2.4 times as much energy as natural gas. Impressive, right? 

It is. Industry has long been in on the benefits and has been using hydrogen for decades in the petrochemicals sector —  mainly for oil refining, producing ammonia for fertilizers, and in the production of methanol and steel. But it has also been touted as a means of speeding up our transition to clean energy. Even the European Commission has described hydrogen as "the missing part of the puzzle to a fully decarbonized economy".

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also sees it as key to reducing reliance on Russian gas and reaching climate targets: the country has signed a deal with Canada to begin importing hydrogen on a large scale from 2025.  

Hydrogen is crucial in the oil refining process

What's so good about it?  

It's a clean, versatile fuel that doesn't produce any direct greenhouse gas emissions — all it takes to release the energy is oxygen, and the only byproduct is water.  

It could potentially help some polluting sectors slash their CO2 emissions. Think heavy-duty transport or buildings, where hydrogen could be blended into existing natural gas networks for heating. But it could also be used to store  renewable energy in the power sector and replace fossil fuels in chemicals and fuel production.  

Sounds like a green dream  

Let's not get carried away. Thing is, hydrogen doesn't exist on this planet in its pure form. It's great stuff once you can get your hands on it, but unlike fossil fuels, it's not just lying around waiting to be dragged from some ancient slumber. In fact, separating it from other substances so we can store and use it requires time and energy. Which also equates to money.   

4:05 min

H

There's a catch then...  

Yeah, afraid so. But isn't there always?   

The hydrogen catch is how it's made. From an environmental perspective, the energy-intensive ways of extracting it  become secondary if it's produced without CO2 emissions. But that is by no means always the case. Ranging from clean to dirty, the myriad H2 production methods are complicated. And what do we do when things get too complex?   

Bury our heads in the sand? 

Not advisable. No, we introduce a snazzy color scheme. So for the next couple of paragraphs, maybe try to forget that hydrogen is in fact a colorless gas. 

The most common form of H2 used today (ca. 95%) has been labeled gray hydrogen. If that calls to mind emissions, that's about right. Every ton of the gray variety comes with a footprint of about 10 tons of CO2 emissions because the production process — also known as steam methane reforming or SMR — relies on gas or fossil fuels.   

Blue hydrogen sounds a lot cleaner. But that's just color trickery because it is, in fact, also produced with methane. The only seemingly redeeming feature is that the CO2 emissions from the production process are captured and stored underground. 

Extracting green hydrogen requires a lot of energy

Pink hydrogen, which has a 1980s ring to it, relies on nuclear power. So while it might work in some countries where nuclear is big, it's not a global solution. It's also not pink.  

Other versions include brown, black, yellow, turquoise and green hydrogen. To cut to the chase, the only one that makes any real sense in terms of reducing our carbon footprint, is green. That's because green hydrogen is made via electrolysis (splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen) with the help of renewable energy. This means zero CO2 emissions and no mess to clear up. And it wouldn't harm global water supplies either.  

That said, it currently makes up less than 1% of global hydrogen production.  

What are we waiting for?   

In a nutshell, for prices to fall. At the moment, production of green hydrogen costs more than twice as much as its mucky grey counterpart. But things are changing.  

The more renewables we have — and global expansion is predicted to rise to 45% by 2040 — the more affordable green hydrogen will become. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a surge in clean energy infrastructure could see  the cost of production fall 30% by 2030.   

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Germany's hydrogen infrastructure

So once the prices have come down, we're sorted?  

Full disclosure, there's another catch. Hydrogen is much harder to store than fossil fuels because it has a very low density. It is the lightest gas in the universe, followed by helium. It's also highly explosive. All these special features mean the gas has to be trapped under vast pressure in special containers. Or stored as a liquid at a frigid minus 253 degrees Celsius. So, it's not exactly something that can be picked up at the local DIY store and kept in the garage for when gas supplies run low.  

The extremely low density of hydrogen also make it a challenge to transport on a large scale, so before it goes on the move it needs to be pressurized into a compressed gas or liquefied. It can then be exported either along pipelines or by trucks and ships. Germany plans to ship Canadian hydrogen, produced mostly by wind energy, across the Atlantic in the form of ammonia.

What's really sobering though is the sheer amount of electricity we would need to produce green hydrogen on a larger scale. Right now, about 70 million tons of hydrogen are produced globally each year — spewing some 830 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in the process. Which even more soberingly is roughly equivalent to the carbon emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.  

And get this: replacing those 70 million tons with green hydrogen would require about 3,600 TWh, more than the annual electricity amount generated by the  entire European Union. We would need A LOT more to decarbonize sectors such as heavy-duty transport.

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Renewable energy makes up about 25% of global power generation

Where does that leave us? 

Good question. Green hydrogen certainly isn't the answer to our medium-term energy needs, but it can play a crucial role in decarbonizing sectors that are tricky to electrify by 2050 — such as heavy-duty transport and industry. In other words, the last 20% that are difficult to wean off fossil fuels.  

But it won't be cheap. According to the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), to build a hydrogen economy that accounts for 15-20% of energy consumption we would need to fork out $15 trillion (€12.6 trillion) between now and 2050.  

And yes, that is more than a bit of loose change, but compared to predictions from leading economists who reckon failure to tackle climate change could cost us more than $50 trillion over the same period, green hydrogen actually sound like a steal.  

So it's ultimately cash talking?  

Cash certainly has its say, but the bottom line is that the case for green hydrogen is strongest when the supply of renewable energy outstrips demand. Might sound like science fiction, but it's where we're supposed to be heading.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker/Kathleen Schuster

FBI opens sweeping probe of clergy sex abuse in New Orleans

The probe could deepen the legal peril for the archdiocese as it reels from a bankruptcy brought on by a flood of sex abuse lawsuits and allegations that church leaders turned a blind eye to generations of predator priests.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond conducts the procession to lead a livestreamed Easter Mass in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, April 12, 2020. The FBI has opened a widening investigation into Roman Catholic sex abuse in New Orleans, looking specifically at whether priests took children across state lines to molest them. The FBI declined to comment, as did the Louisiana State Police, which is assisting in the inquiry. The Archdiocese of New Orleans declined to discuss the federal investigation. “I’d prefer not to pursue this conversation,” Aymond told AP. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

June 29, 2022
By Jim Mustian

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI has opened a widening investigation into sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans going back decades, a rare federal foray into such cases looking specifically at whether priests took children across state lines to molest them, officials and others familiar with the inquiry told The Associated Press.

More than a dozen alleged abuse victims have been interviewed this year as part of the probe that’s exploring among other charges whether predator priests can be prosecuted under the Mann Act, a more than century-old, anti-sex trafficking law that prohibits taking anyone across state lines for illicit sex.

Some of the New Orleans cases under review allege abuse by clergy during trips to Mississippi camps or amusement parks in Texas and Florida. And while some claims are decades old, Mann Act violations notably have no statute of limitations.

“It’s been a long road and just the fact that someone this high up believes us means the world to us,” said a former altar boy who alleged his assailant took him on trips to Colorado and Florida and abused him beginning in the 1970s when he was in the fifth grade. The AP generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

The FBI declined to comment, as did the Louisiana State Police, which is assisting in the inquiry. The Archdiocese of New Orleans declined to discuss the federal investigation.

“I’d prefer not to pursue this conversation,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond told the AP.

The probe could deepen the legal peril for the archdiocese as it reels from a bankruptcy brought on by a flood of sex abuse lawsuits and allegations that church leaders turned a blind eye to generations of predator priests.

Federal investigators are now considering whether to seek access to thousands of secret church documents produced by lawsuits and shielded by a sweeping confidentiality order in the bankruptcy, according to those familiar with the probe who weren’t authorized to discuss it and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Those records are said to document years of abuse claims, interviews with accused clergy and a pattern of church leaders transferring problem priests without reporting their crimes to law enforcement.

“This is actually a big deal, and it should be heartening to victims,” said Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania professor and chief executive of Child USA, a think tank focused on preventing child abuse. “The FBI has rarely become involved in the clergy sex abuse scandals. They’ve dragged their feet around the country with respect to the Catholic Church.”

The U.S. Justice Department has struggled to find a federal nexus to prosecuting clergy abuse, hitting dead ends in cases as explosive as the ones outlined in the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report that disclosed a systematic cover-up by church leaders. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed church records in Buffalo, New York, the same year in an inquiry that similarly went quiet.

“The issue has always been determining what is the federal crime,” said Peter G. Strasser, the former U.S. attorney in New Orleans who declined to bring charges in 2018 after the archdiocese published a list of 57 “credibly accused” clergy, a roster an AP analysis found had been undercounted by at least 20 names.

Strasser said he “naively” believed a federal case might be possible only to encounter a host of roadblocks, including the complexities of “putting the church on trial” for charges like conspiracy.

But federal prosecutors have in recent years employed the more narrowly focused Mann Act to win convictions in a variety of abuse cases, including against R&B star R. Kelly for using his fame to sexually exploit girls, and Ghislaine Maxwell for helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. In 2013, a federal judge in Indiana sentenced a Baptist pastor to 12 years in prison for taking a 16-year-old girl across state lines for sex.

Among the priests under federal scrutiny in New Orleans is Lawrence Hecker, a 90-year-old removed from the ministry in 2002 following accusations he abused “countless children.” Hecker is accused of abusing children decades ago on out-of-state trips, and other claims against him range from fondling to rape.

Hundreds of records currently under the confidentiality order “will reveal in no uncertain terms that the last four archbishops of New Orleans knew that Lawrence Hecker was a serial child predator,” Richard Trahant, an attorney for Hecker’s alleged victims, wrote in a court filing.

“Hecker is still very much alive, vibrant, lives alone and is a danger to young boys until he draws his final breath,” Trahant wrote.

Asked by telephone this week whether he ever abused children, Hecker said, “I’m going to have to hang up.”

More recent allegations are also drawing federal attention, including the case of Patrick Wattigny, a priest charged last year by state prosecutors after he admitted molesting a teenager in 2013. His attorney declined to comment.

Wattigny’s 2020 removal from the ministry came amid a disciplinary investigation into inappropriate text messages he sent a student. The case sent shockwaves through the Catholic community because church leaders had frequently characterized clergy abuse as a sin from the past.

“It was happening while the church was saying, ‘It’s no longer happening,’” said Bill Arata, an attorney who has attended three of the FBI interviews.

“These victims could stay home and not do anything,” he added, “but that’s not the kind of people they are.”

Clergy abuse is particularly fraught in Louisiana, a heavily Catholic state that endured some of the earliest scandals dating to the 1980s. Last year, it joined two-dozen states that have enacted “lookback windows” intended to allow unresolved claims of child sex abuse, no matter how old, to be brought in civil court.

But with few exceptions, most notably a former deacon charged with rape, the accused clergy have escaped criminal consequences. Even at the local level, cases have been hamstrung by statutes of limitation and the political sensitivity of prosecuting the church.

The archdiocese’s 2020 bankruptcy case has also frozen a separate court battle over a cache of confidential emails describing the behind-the-scenes public relations work that executives for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints did for the archdiocese in 2018 and 2019 to contain fallout from clergy abuse scandals.

While the Saints say they only assisted in messaging, attorneys for those suing the church have alleged in court records that Saints officials joined in the church’s “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.” That included taking an active role in helping to shape the archdiocese’s list of credibly accused clergy, the attorneys contend.

Attorneys for those suing the church have attacked the bankruptcy bid as a veiled attempt to keep church records secret — and deny victims a public reckoning.

“Those victims were on the path to the truth,” Soren Gisleson, an attorney who represents several of the victims, wrote in a court filing. “The rape of children is a thief that keeps on stealing.

New World Council of Churches head draws criticism over Israel remarks

Jewish leaders voiced frustration with the Rev. Jerry Pillay's comparison of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid in South Africa.

The Rev. Jerry Pillay, the general secretary elect of the World Council of Churches. 

Photo by Peter Williams/WCC

June 30, 2022
By Jack Jenkins

(RNS) — Since being elected to lead the World Council of Churches earlier this month, the Rev. Jerry Pillay, former general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, has been rebuffing critics who accuse him of making antisemitic remarks by referring to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as tantamount to apartheid.

Pillay, the dean of the University of Pretoria, is slated to assume leadership of the global ecumenical Christian group at the beginning of next year. As many in the WCC celebrated his June 17 election at a meeting of the group’s central committee, some Jewish leaders expressed outrage that the WCC would elevate someone who has in the past called out Israel in language that many Jews believe crosses a line.

David Michaels, director of United Nations and intercommunal affairs at B’nai B’rith International, a Jewish service organization, described Pillay’s election as “astounding and alarming” and accused him of espousing “simplistic ideological extremism” and having “a problem with Jews — at least those supportive of Zionism.”

Michaels and other critics pointed to a theological paper Pillay published in 2016 titled “Apartheid in the Holy Land: Theological reflections on the Israel and/or Palestine situation from a South African perspective.” The paper concludes that a “comparison between the Israel-Palestine conflict and the South African apartheid experience is, indeed, justifiable.”

Pillay also reportedly gave a speech at a 2014 event organized by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which took place during the denomination’s general assembly. Like the paper, the title of the talk delivered by Pillay was reportedly “Apartheid in the Holy Land.”

Besides Pillay’s invocation of apartheid — the term used to describe the historic, racist subjugation of people of color in South Africa — Michaels also challenged Pillay’s positive references to the controversial “boycott, divestment and sanctions” movement directed at Israel.

Michaels accused the WCC itself of being “complicit in a predominant contemporary strain of anti-Semitism,” saying a faction in the WCC has worked to “weaponize” the organization against Israel.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein called on Pillay “to retract his 2016 statements accusing Israel of apartheid and calling for a boycott of the Jewish state.”

Pillay responded in a statement issued by the WCC on June 23, saying: “I support the Jewish people preserving their identity and practicing their religious beliefs and values. I believe that all religions must be respected and people of all faiths — and no faith — must work together to create a world of justice and peace in which we express love, unity and reconciliation.”

The World Council of Churches logo. Image courtesy of WCC

“This stance has been and continues to be that of the World Council of Churches, and it would never elect a leader who practiced or preached antisemitism in any way, shape or form,” the statement said.

“Consequently,” it continued, “the WCC will continue to stand firmly behind United Nations (UN) resolutions on the occupied territories and speak out against all forms of injustice, regardless of where or who they come from.”

Comparisons between South African apartheid and the occupation of the West Bank, long invoked by Palestinian activists, have increased since at least 2007, when former President Jimmy Carter drew criticism for titling a book on Israel “Peace Not Apartheid.” The late Desmond Tutu, a South African archbishop renowned for his work as an anti-apartheid activist, also sparked pushback for invoking the comparison later in his life.

“When you go to the Holy Land and see what’s being done to the Palestinians at checkpoints, for us, it’s the kind of thing we experienced in South Africa,” Tutu told Religion News Service in 2013. “Whether you want to say Israel practices apartheid is immaterial. They are doing things, given their history, you think, ‘Do you remember what happened to you?’”

In January of last year, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published a report describing the Israeli government as overseeing a nondemocratic “apartheid regime.” Human Rights Watch also used the word in a 2021 report accusing Israel of “apartheid and persecution.” Amnesty International followed in February of this year, releasing a report titled “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity.”

At least one prominent Israeli has made the allusion: In February, former Israeli Attorney General Michael Benyair declared Israel “an apartheid regime.”

Jewish groups in the United States rebuked the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, in February for characterizing the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel as “21st century slavery.” He also referred to “dismantling apartheid” in the same speech.

On Wednesday, the PCUSA’s International Engagement Committee passed a resolution in a 28-3 vote that argues the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians “fulfill(s) the international legal definition of apartheid.”

An array of Israeli officials, Jewish leaders and Jewish organizations has passionately condemned the apartheid characterization, calling the term inaccurate, offensive and dangerous, saying it can encourage antisemitic views.

The Israeli foreign ministry railed against Amnesty’s report even before it was released, calling it “false, biased, and antisemitic.” The Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish group in the U.S., also blasted the report and singled out its use of the label apartheid, calling it “deeply wrong.”

“It is particularly incumbent upon those of us who have condemned the Occupation as a moral travesty, advocated strongly for its end, and who have a lengthy record of advocating for the human rights of the Palestinian people including the right to self-determination, to express our profound disappointment and explicit condemnation of this report,” read the group’s statement.

In January, the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent anti-hate organization dedicated to combating antisemitism, criticized use of the label as “inaccurate, offensive, and often used to delegitimize and denigrate Israel as a whole.” The group further argued invoking apartheid is “counterproductive to resolving issues related to injustices within Israeli society or the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Big cats in urban jungle: LA mountain lions, Mumbai leopards


© Provided by The Canadian Press

Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, share many superlatives as pinnacles of cinema, fashion, and traffic congestion. But another similarity lurks in the shadows, most often seen at night walking silently on four paws.

These metropolises are the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus where large felines — mountain lions in one, leopards in the other — thrive by breeding, hunting and maintaining territory within urban boundaries.

Long-term studies in both cities have examined how the big cats prowl through their urban jungles, and how people can best live alongside them — lessons that may be applicable to more places in coming decades.

“In the future, there’s going to be more cities like this, as urban areas further encroach on natural habitats,” said biologist Audra Huffmeyer, who studies mountain lions at the University of California, Los Angeles. “If we want to keep these large carnivores around on the planet, we have to learn to live with them."

FREEWAYS AND FRAGMENTED HABITAT

Twenty years ago, scientists in Los Angeles placed a tracking collar on their first cat, a large male mountain lion dubbed P1, that defended a wide swath of the Santa Monica Mountains, a coastal range that lies within and adjacent to the city.

“P1 was as big as they get in southern California, about 150 pounds,” said Seth Riley, a National Park Service ecologist who was part of the effort. “These dominant males are the ones that breed — they won’t tolerate other adult males in their territory.”

With GPS tracking and camera traps, the scientists followed the rise and fall of P1’s dynasty for seven years, through multiple mates and litters of kittens. “2009 was the last time we knew anything about P1,” said Riley. “There must have been a fight. We found his collar, blood on a rock. And never saw him again. He was reasonably old.”

Since then, Riley has helped collar around 100 more mountain lions in Los Angeles, building a vast database of lion behavior that’s contributed to understanding how much territory the cats need, what they eat (mostly deer), how often they cross paths with people and what may imperil their future.

As with medieval European kings, the biggest threat turned out to be inbreeding. Living in small territories separated by highways has caused some males to mate with daughters and granddaughters, who weren’t able to naturally disperse farther away. That's led to genetic problems such as fertility issues and kinked tails.

“Based on genetic analysis, we know that P1 mated with P6, his daughter – that was the first case we documented of this very close inbreeding,” said Riley.

LEOPARDS IN URBAN LANDSCAPE

In Mumbai, one of the world's most densely populated cities, the leopards are packed in, too: about 50 have adapted to a space ideally suited for 20. And yet the nocturnal cats also keep mostly out of sight.

“Because these animals are so secretive, you don’t know much about them. You can’t just observe them,” said Vidya Athreya, director of Wildlife Conservation Society in India and part of a research team that recently fitted five leopards with tracking collars.

The leopards’ core range is centered around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a protected area boxed on three sides by an urbanized landscape, including a neighborhood that's home to 100,000 people and nearly a dozen leopards.

Researchers tackled specific questions from park managers, such as how the cats cross busy roads near the park.

To get the answer, they collared a big male dubbed Maharaja. They found that it walked mostly at night and traversed over 60 kilometers (37 miles) in about a week, from the park in Mumbai to another nearby. The leopard crossed a busy state highway, using the same spot to pass, on three occasions. It also crossed a railway track.

The path chosen by Maharaja is nearby a new highway and a freight corridor under construction. Researchers said that knowing the big cats' highway crossing habits can help policy makers make informed decisions about where to build animal underpasses to reduce accidents.

LIVING ALONGSIDE BIG CATS

In Los Angeles, long-term mountain lion research showing the harm of fragmented habitat helped fuel a successful campaign to build a wildlife crossing bridge over U.S. Route 101, one of the city’s busiest freeways. Construction began on April 22.

When it’s finished in three years, the bridge will be covered in native plants and include special sound walls to minimize light and noise disturbances for nocturnal animals. It will connect Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills, enlarging the dating pool for resident mountain lions.

But learning to live alongside cats is not only a matter of infrastructure decisions, but also human choices and education.

When Athreya first started advocating for co-existence with Mumbai's leopards, she was met with skepticism and pushback from other biologists and policy makers. They thought it would be impossible for big cats to live alongside people without significant friction, or worse.

“The dominant narrative was about conflict,” she said. But she helped push the conversation to be about “negotiations, improving the situation for both wildlife and people.”

That is not to say living alongside a big predator is without perils. In Mumbai, Purvi Lote saw her first leopard when she was 5, on the porch of a relative’s home. Terrified, she ran back inside to her mother. But now the 9-year-old says she isn’t as afraid of the big cats.

Like other children, she doesn’t step outdoors alone after dark. Children and even adults travel in groups at night, while blaring music from their telephones to ensure that leopards aren’t surprised. But the most fundamental rule, according to the youngster: “When you see a leopard, don’t bother it.”

AVOIDING DEADLY CONFLICTS

Leopards in Mumbai adapted to mainly hunt feral dogs that frequent garbage dumps outside the forest and mostly attacked people when cornered or attacked. But in 2010, 20 people in Mumbai died in leopard attacks, said Jagannath Kamble, an official at Mumbai’s protected forest.

The turning point was the realization that the understaffed forest department couldn’t just keep reacting to individual attacks by capturing and transporting leopards to forests since they returned. Instead, it decided to focus on trying to get people to coexist with the predators.

Officials roped in volunteers, nongovernmental groups and the media for a public education program in 2011. Since then, fatalities have dropped steadily and no one has been killed in an attack since 2017.

The last known victim was Muttu Veli’s 4-year-old daughter Darshini. Veli, an office worker who came to Mumbai in 1996, said Darshini was playing outside their home in a slum at the edge of the forest and she just didn’t return home. Eventually, her mauled body was recovered.

“My daughter is gone. She won’t come back,” he said.

In Los Angeles, there have been no human deaths attributed to mountain lions, but one nonfatal attack on a child occurred in 2021.

Both cities have learned that trying to capture, kill or relocate the cats isn’t the answer.

“Relocation and killing makes conflict worse,” said Beth Pratt, California regional director at National Wildlife Federation. “It’s better to have a stable population, than one where hierarchies and territories are disrupted.”

Avoidance is the safest strategy, she said. “These big cats are shy — they tend to avoid human contact as much as they can. They’re really extreme introverts of the animal kingdom.”

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Larson reported from Washington and Ghosal from Mumbai, India.

On Twitter, follow Larson @larsonchristina and Ghosal @aniruddhg1

Follow AP’s Science coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/science

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Christina Larson And Aniruddha Ghosal, The Associated Press

RIP

Legendary Hells Angels chieftain Sonny Barger dead at 83

Brad Hunter - Toronto Sun

Criminal visionary Sonny Barger of the Hells Angels is dead.

Notorious Hells Angels boss Sonny Barger has taken his final ride.

The longtime leader of the outlaw motorcycle gang has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 83.

According to media reports, Barger died Wednesday in California surrounded by his wife, Zorana, friends and relatives.

A message was posted on the biker’s Facebook page: “If you are reading this message, you’ll know that I’m gone. I’ve asked that this note be posted immediately after my passing.

“I’ve lived a long and good life filled with adventure. And I’ve had the privilege to be part of an amazing club.”


Penchant for trouble. A mugshot of the future Hells Angels boss. 

ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFF

Barger added: “Stay loyal, remain free, and always value honour.”

The Angels were founded in California shortly after the Second World War by former bomber pilots still craving adventure and hell-raising.

Barger launched the Oakland chapter of the Angels and eventually crafted the organization into something bigger — and more profitable — than simply cracking heads at Podunk watering holes. Under his watch, the Hells Angels grew into an international criminal powerhouse.

Chapters stretch from Halifax to Vancouver in Canada.


Sonny Barger has a lot of famous friends. CORBIS/ GETTY IMAGES

“Barger converted a sloppy, rudderless gang into a lean, mean organization,” author Yves Lavigne told CNN in 1992.

The longtime biker and former longshoreman said in his autobiography that he was inspired by the pioneering 1953 Marlon Brando biker epic, The Wild One.

The iconic Barger always seemed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. He and three others were acquitted in 1973 of murdering a Texas dope dealer.

It was a narcotics beef that tripped him up. He was sentenced to a decade behind bars after being pinched with drugs and a weapon.

But Barger only served four-and-a-half years of his sentence. While not promising to go straight, Barger was ambivalent about returning to a leadership role in the club he birthed.

In 1980, he walked on a RICO beef.

Cancer has been as big a threat to Barger as the Bandidos, Outlaws and Pagans over the past few decades. Diagnosed with throat cancer, he had his vocal cords removed.

The Hells Angels leader went back to jail in 1988 after he was found guilty on a slew of drug, weapons and explosives charges. The feds said Barger received explosives designed to “kill, maim or threaten.”


© Allen McInnis

Hells Angels vests on display in Quebec.

While Barger was never directly tied to the notorious Lennoxville Massacre of the Angels notorious North chapter in Quebec on March 25, 1985, gang experts believe he gave the green light.

By the time the dust was settled, five Angels were dead and cops were fishing their bodies out of the St. Lawrence River for months.

bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun

HOW OTHERS SEE US

Beijing: Forced Labor Exists in US, Not China


TEHRAN (FNA)- There is forced labor in the US, not in China, Zhao Lijian, Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference on Monday, noting that the US has repeatedly hyped up the outrageous lie about so-called forced labor in Xinjiang and tried to create “forced unemployment”, which reflects the guilt of the US itself.

Zhao pointed out that forced labor is a chronic problem that has existed in the US since the birth of the country, adding that the long history of slavery is a reminder of the forced labor issues in the US, The Global Times reported.

A total of more than 12.5 million Africans were trafficked to America to engage in forced labor from 1525 to 1866, Zhao stated, highlighting that a large number of black slaves were forced to work at the bottom of society in terrible working conditions.

Zhao added that the US is still the epicenter of forced labor, making it a “modern slavery country".

Zhao said at least 500,000 people in the US are living under modern slavery and forced labor conditions, according to an article published on the website of the University of Denver.

Forced labor is ubiquitous in the US, especially in fields of housekeeping, agricultural cultivation, tourism, and catering services, with as many as 100,000 people per year being trafficked from abroad to engage in forced labor in the country.

The US still has about 500,000 children engaged in agricultural work. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has for years expressed concern about serious injuries among child farm workers in the US.

Zhao stressed that while the US government is busy spreading lies and rumors about forced labor in other countries, it turns a blind eye to the issue of forced labor at home, with the US having yet to ratify the Forced Labor Convention of 1930.

The US should face up to its serious problem of forced labor as soon as possible and respond to the concerns of international society, rather than making groundless accusations against others, Zhao continued.

Canadian radio station plays Rage Against the Machine song on repeat after DJ layoffs

2022/6/30 
© Advance Local Media LLC.

Vancouver, Canada's KiSS-FM radio station has been playing Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" on repeat after laying off their DJs on Tuesday.

Vancouver, Canada’s KiSS-FM radio station has been playing Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” on repeat for hours after laying off three of their DJs on Tuesday.

Three of the pop-soft rock station’s popular DJs and radio hosts, Kevin Lim, Sonia Sidhu and Tara Jean Stevens, were laid off after five years of working at the radio station, according to Pitchfork.

“KiSS is changing and, unfortunately, we were informed that we will not be part of this new chapter,” said Lim and Sidhu during their final broadcast yesterday. “It comes with mixed emotions, as you can probably hear.”

When a listener reportedly called in to request a different song, the DJ allegedly ignored it and continued to play “Killing in the Name,” according to The Vancouver Sun.

Upon learning of the protest song’s repeated airplay on Canadian radio, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morelloretweeted this one fan’s suggestion that the choice of song was deliberate due to staff changes.

The Bible says nothing about abortion. So being anti-choice is a cultural and political decision, not a biblical one

THE  CONVERSATION
Published: June 26, 2022 

In many churches across the United States of America, and even perhaps here in Australia, Sunday worship would have been an opportunity to celebrate the decision of the US Supreme Court to overturn the protections established in the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973. On Twitter one theology professor has responded to the news with “Well, praise the Lord!”, while another just gave a “Hallelujah”.

It’s clearly the case that the decision to overturn is seen as a victory for the Christian Right in the US and vindication of their role in electing President Trump.

The decision will be seen by many as a recovery of “biblical” values; a return to the Bible’s teaching on the sanctity of human life and the moral abhorrence of voluntary abortion.

So, this is a good time to remind ourselves that the Bible says nothing directly about abortion, the indirect evidence relating to biblical perspectives on the sanctity of life is deeply conflicted, and that one of the two major religious traditions that looks to the Bible as an authoritative text clearly affirms the moral necessity of abortion in certain cases.

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The Bible is silent on abortion

Discussions about, and laws pertaining to, the practice of voluntary abortion can be found in the literature of the Ancient Near East and Hellenistic worlds in which biblical texts were written.

It seems to have been a concern in Assyrian society around 1500–1200 BCE. There, if a woman was discovered to have had “a miscarriage by her own act” she was to be prosecuted and, if guilty, impaled (alive or dead) on a stake.

Aristotle said abortion is appropriate as a means of controlling the size of a family, but should be performed early, “before sensation and life”.

But the Bible is simply silent on the question on which the Supreme Court has now pronounced. Old Testament scholar John Collins is right to say “on this issue, there is no divine revelation to be had”.

What the Bible does contain are some verses which seem to refer to the status of the unborn fetus. The most famous and commonly cited is Psalm 139:13–16, a poem in which the Psalmist expresses the view that God created them in the womb.

In fact, the passage seems to suggest God “saw” who the poet was before they had even been conceived, let alone born (see also Jeremiah 1:5).

It’s hard to see that the passage has any direct relation to the ethical/legal issues at stake in the modern debate, such as the nature of personhood, bodily autonomy, or the negotiation of competing rights.

More specific is Exodus 21:22–25 which imagines a scenario in which a pregnant woman is injured through her involvement (or perhaps her intervention) in a fight between two men. The Hebrew version of this passage is clear about priorities: if all that happens is the fetus is lost through miscarriage then the man who injured the woman should just pay a fine. In the world of Exodus 21, this is the equivalent to losing ox or a donkey: the money is to make up for lost earnings and so the fetus is regarded as property.

But, if the woman herself suffers harm, then more direct restitution is required, depending on the severity of injury: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc.” The most important “person” in this scenario is clearly the woman. The Greek translation of this text, perhaps reflecting ideas of Aristotle outlined above, changes this latter injunction to make it clear it refers to any harm incurred by any child born “fully formed”.

Read more: Trump still enjoys huge support among evangelical voters — and it's not only because of abortion

Jesus said nothing on the unborn

When it comes to the New Testament there’s even less to go on.

Yes, John the Baptist “leaps” in Elizabeth’s womb. But any attempt to extrapolate from that specific statement to general ideas about the personhood of the unborn is, in the words of New Testament scholar Richard Hays, “ridiculous and tendentious exegesis”.

And we do find condemnation of those who practice pharmakeia (sorcery or magic), which some suggest includes mixing potions to induce abortion. But we have no way of telling what practices are being referred to by that term.

Jesus isn’t remembered as saying anything about the unborn. Paul is silent on the issue.

Attempts to claim otherwise are ideologically informed cases of special pleading.

So, the clear moral prohibition on abortion which we find in early Christian literature outside of the New Testament needs some kind of explanation.

That prohibition emerges in the late first or early second century in texts like the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, and, with highly disturbing threats of the eternal torture of women, the Apocalypse of Peter.

It seems to have occurred as a particular interpretation of the Old Testament commandments “you shall not murder” and “you shall love your neighbour as yourself”, but then developed by way of cultural accommodation to the Greek/Platonic idea that the fetus is a living being.

The Christian rejection of abortion seems to have been predicated on assumptions the fetus is a person. The woman, without whom the fetus would be nothing at all, disappears from view. But on such questions, Jesus and the early apostles say nothing.

Yet, around the same time, Jewish teachers were clarifying a position on abortion in which the woman carrying the fetus continued to play a central role. The second century discussion in the section of the Mishnah called Oholoth states clearly that if a woman is “in hard labour” then the fetus should be aborted “because her life takes precedence over the life of the child”. This requirement is only waived if the fetus has already been substantially born (defined as “the greater part [of its head] has come out”).

While we find nothing of this sort in the New Testament either, Jesus is remembered as invoking the same principle of the priority of saving life even if it means breaking Sabbath laws. Jesus’ ethical convictions owed far more to the traditions of Judaism than to the philosophical deliberations of early Christian treatises.

The recent decision of the Supreme Court is seen, in legal terms, as a victory for “originalism”: the idea that the Constitution should be interpreted according to some notion of its “original meaning”.

Applying the same criterion to the biblical texts would help to clarify that Christian support for legislation prohibiting abortion is a cultural and political stance. It has nothing to do with the Bible.

Author

Sean Winter
Associate Professor (New Testament Studies), University of Divinity

Abortion legal and apolitical in Japan, but cost and consent present barriers

A participant in a Women's Day march in Tokyo in 2019 | BLOOMBERG

BY MAGDALENA OSUMI
STAFF WRITER
Jun 28, 2022

Last week’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 1973 decision that deemed abortion a constitutional right has reignited the controversial debate over access to the procedure in the United States.

In Japan, where abortion is relatively accessible, it is rarely a political issue like in other countries. Nonetheless, there are various issues women face if they decide to have an abortion.

Experts and women’s rights advocates in Japan say that the nation’s abortion laws are problematic mostly on two counts: married women seeking an abortion need spousal consent, and the procedure used is unsafe and costly.

Is abortion legal in Japan?

Yes, albeit only under certain conditions. Under the Maternal Health Act, initially enacted in 1948 as the Eugenic Protection Act, abortion can be performed if the continuation of a pregnancy or the delivery of a baby will be harmful to the mother’s health for physical or economic reasons, if pregnancy endangers the child’s life or if they face serious impairment.

“Economic reasons” is defined by the health ministry as an instance in which childbirth would place a significant economic burden on the mother and her household, and damage the mother’s health.

Abortion can also be carried out when the fetus would not survive outside of the woman’s body, or when the pregnancy was caused by assault or intimidation.

But abortion must be carried out within 21 weeks of the first day of the last menstruation.

Also, married women seeking an abortion must obtain spousal consent. The only exceptions are when the spouse is dead, is unknown or cannot express an intention.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global organization seeking to ensure the protection of reproductive rights, Japan is among 10 countries and regions with this requirement.

While the health ministry has said the partner’s consent is not necessary for unmarried women and women who were impregnated by abusive partners or through rape, this policy is not well known. As such, doctors often demand a man’s signature for fear of getting into legal trouble, rights advocates say.

According to the health ministry, there were 145,340 abortions in 2020, down 7.3% from the previous year.

What methods are used in Japan?

With abortion pills still awaiting approval, a surgical procedure is still the most common method of terminating a pregnancy.

The cost of abortion is a big issue in Japan. Surgical abortions conducted in the first eight weeks of pregnancy costs around ¥100,000 ($740), while those performed beyond the 12th week can cost double that. The number of women who struggle to pay for the procedure has been on the rise since the pandemic started, according to the health ministry.

Abortion rights advocates say the high price of a surgical abortion — which is not covered by national health insurance, except in limited cases — has driven some women to seek other options, such as illegally importing abortion pills from overseas. Such practices can put a woman’s health at risk, experts say.

In contrast, a medical or surgical abortion in the first trimester in the U.S. costs about $550, but it could be triple the amount if the procedure is in the second trimester. Meanwhile, abortions in Britain are usually available free of charge under the country’s National Health Service.

Moreover, health experts question the safety of surgical procedures in Japan. The main method of choice of OB-GYN doctors in the country is dilatation and curettage, especially in cases less than 12 weeks into the pregnancy. A 2021 report by Kumi Tsukahara, an expert on reproductive rights associated with the Women’s Studies Association of Japan, pointed to a significantly higher rate of complications resulting from this method than when the vacuum aspiration method is used. The latter procedure, which is the main one used abroad, uses gentle suction to remove an embryo through the cervix.

In December, Britain’s LinePharma filed for approval of its oral abortion pills ー mifepristone and misoprostol ー with the health ministry. The medications, used in more than 70 countries, are considered a safe and affordable method of inducing an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.

Is there an abortion debate in Japan?

Religious views have played a predominant role in the enactment of legislation concerning reproductive rights worldwide.

While not as high profile or politically charged as in other countries, Japan has had its own abortion debate. In the 1970s and 1980s, for example, religious groups and some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party tried to remove the “economic reason” clause from the Eugenic Protection Act, but their attempts failed due to resistance from women’s rights groups and opposition party members, according to a 1993 paper on the history of Japan’s abortion policy by Misako Iwamoto, then at Mie University.

Nonetheless, abortion continues to be stigmatized in society, as it is viewed as a woman’s sin or a sign of bad motherhood, or even equated with a mother’s killing of her baby.

“Usually in Japan, only women are held responsible for abortion,” Tsukahara explained in a 2014 paper that compared abortion methods and values among various countries. “Therefore, abortion should be among the very critical problems targeted by efforts to end gender discrimination in this country, but this importance is rather unacknowledged among the Japanese people.”

An Irish solution to a US abortion problem

Human rights framework that fuelled political change in Republic can also be effective in America

Abortion rights demonstrators outside the supreme court after Roe v Wade was overturned. 

File photograph: New York Times

By Julie F. Kay

Mon Jun 27 2022

Abortion was illegal when I moved to Ireland in 2000. As an American it felt like I’d stepped through the looking glass. I successfully sued the Irish government at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of three women who had travelled for abortions — A, B and C — and celebrated as the Republic legalised abortion less than a decade later. Today I’m on the other side of the glass: an American stunned to see that the US supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade.

It’s America now that is going against the global trend, shrinking rights while the rest of the world expands reproductive freedom. On Friday, the US supreme court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization wiped out nearly a half-century of abortion rights in the US with one stroke of the pen. As we saw in the Republic, banning abortion does not make it go away but it does put women’s health and wellbeing in harm’s way.

This judicial fiasco results directly from the polarisation of American politics. When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, Democrats lost control of the supreme court. The vast majority of Americans — as much as 70 per cent — favour abortion rights as defined by Roe v Wade. Right-leaning, evangelical voters turn out to fervently support anti-abortion candidates, often voting as single-issue voters. These anti-abortion-focused voters turned a blind eye to Donald Trump’s indiscretions in exchange for his appointing three ultra-conservative justices to the supreme court — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Doing so tipped the balance of the nine-member court solidly in favour of curtailing abortion rights.

Constitution

In overturning Roe, the Trump-appointed trio was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, conservatives who rely heavily on the literal language of the constitution. Chief Justice John Roberts joined with less enthusiasm and more concern about the legitimacy of the court that bears his name. The majority brazenly overturned nearly 50 years of its own precedent simply by asserting that the US constitution contains no mention of abortion. By supplementing this with a false historical narrative about the legality of abortion around the time when the constitution was first drafted, it held that Roe had been wrongly decided in 1973. The dissenting opinion by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan recognises that once Roe’s framework is discarded, “from the very moment of fertilisation, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term, even at the steepest personal and familial costs”.

Now that the US constitution no longer provides protection for abortion rights, each of the 50 states can decide whether to permit abortion. More than a dozen will immediately ban abortion through laws they already had on the books. At least another dozen are expected to enact severe restrictions within the next several months. In total, abortion will likely remain legal in approximately half the US states. Moreover, those states that will preserve legal abortion are clustered on the east and west coasts with broad abortion deserts in between.

Conspiracy

Travel for abortion services will now be the American solution to the American problem and many states are set to welcome abortion migrants. However, some anti-abortion states are threatening to ban travel for abortion services through enacting specific legislation (Missouri) or by construing abortion travel as a conspiracy to do an act in another state (Alabama) or as aiding and abetting someone to commit a crime. Add to this the fact that America’s criminal justice system is inherently racist, and the threat of prosecution for women of colour who miscarry or use medications to self-induce abortion is significant.

Nonetheless, many charity organisations exist nationwide to fund abortion travel and services. With the threat to abortion rights rising, these organisations have been receiving increased financial support from individuals and sympathetic state and local governments. Anticipating the overturn of Roe, New York state governor Kathy Hochul, a long-time supporter of abortion rights, signed legislation that granted $35 million (€33 million) to support abortion providers in the state. Other “blue” or Democrat-led states have done similarly.

Now with state and federal elections set for November, abortion rights activists are urging supporters to focus on every candidate’s position on abortion. The issue has fallen squarely along party lines for more than a decade now: more than 70 per cent of voters for the Democratic party support abortion rights; only 34 per cent of Republican voters do and you’d be hard-pressed to find a pro-choice Republican official these days. Republicans control 30 state legislatures while Democrats control 18 making progress difficult. The Dobbs ruling is expected to motivate voters to turn out for those who support abortion rights.

Meanwhile, we are starting to see a shift in how the American public views abortion. Corporations that once shied away from mentioning it as “too controversial” are now stepping up to pay for employees to travel out of state for abortion services. They need to do more, including putting their voices and their electoral and philanthropic dollars toward supporting abortion as a human right. Religious leaders of many varied denominations are vocal in their support of these rights.

Ultimately the legal and political work and the mass activism that led to the legalisation of abortion in the Republic can serve as a model for the US. The human rights framework that fuelled protests and political change in Ireland can be effective in the US as well. It brings into focus that the state should not interfere with an individual’s decision about whether, when and with whom to have a child, neither should any woman be forced to risk her life or health during pregnancy. Americans will now have to fight to restore these rights, state by state and at the federal level as well, all while supporting those who need immediate access to abortion. It’s a long road but one we have no choice but to travel.

Julie F Kay is an American human rights lawyer who argued against the Republic’s ban on abortion before the European Court of Human Rights and the co-author of Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.