BACKGROUNDER

Who Could Be Part Of A U.S.-Russia Prisoner Exchange?

August 06, 2022 
By Todd Prince

U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner (right) is escorted from a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow after a trial that saw her sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison.

As the United States and Russia prepare to discuss a prisoner swap just days after Moscow sentenced a U.S. women’s basketball star to nine years in prison on drug smuggling charges, much remains unclear about who could be freed.

Speaking separately at an Asia conference in Cambodia on August 5, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, confirmed that they were ready to pursue swap talks though they gave no further details.

Late last month, Blinken said the United States had made a "substantial offer" to Russia for the release of basketball player Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia on espionage charges that he denies.

The United States claims that the two jailed Americans are political pawns being used by Moscow amid a deteriorating bilateral relationship.

U.S. media reported last week that the White House had offered to swap Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence, for the two Americans. Moscow has been seeking Bout’s release for years.

However, Russia holds at least two other U.S. individuals on controversial grounds and experts do not exclude a swap involving more prisoners.

SEE ALSO:
Russia, U.S. Say They're Ready For Talks On Prisoner Swap After Griner Sentenced

The problem for the Kremlin may lie in deciding whom to choose among the dozens of Russian individuals serving time in U.S. jails in connection with serious crimes.

Over the past decade, the United States has sentenced dozens of Russian individuals to prison terms on money-laundering, hacking, and ransomware charges.

Some of the hackers are high profile individuals of interest to the Kremlin and could be part of a swap, said Arkady Bukh, a U.S.-based defense lawyer who represents Russian-speaking clients.

Many of them had been arrested in third countries on U.S. warrants and later extradited to the United States, prompting Moscow to accuse Washington of “hunting” its citizens around the world.

The United States has claimed that Russia does not take action against its own citizens committing cybercrimes against foreign countries.

Russia has filed competing extradition requests to block their citizens from falling into the hands of the United States though it has lost in most cases.

The harsh sentences handed down by Russian courts to U.S. citizens for minor crimes, such as possession of marijuana, may be retribution by Moscow for those arrests.

Russia’s courts are not independent with the state calling the shots on high-profile cases, experts say.

Moscow and Washington have carried out swaps involving diplomats and spies over the decades, but exchanges of individuals convicted of criminal activity is unusual, Bukh said.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration agreed to swap Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot from Russia who was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States, for Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was imprisoned in Russia for nearly three years on charges of assaulting two police officers.

Below is a list of Russian and U.S. individuals who could be involved in another potential prisoner swap.

Victor Bout

Russian arms trader Viktor Bout (file photo)

Viktor Bout, 55, is serving a 25-year sentence in the United States for conspiring to sell weapons to a Colombian terrorist group. The U.S. accused Bout, a pilot, of running an international arms-trafficking network that supplied a wide-range of clients from the Taliban to Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.

He was arrested in Thailand in 2008 at the behest of the United States and convicted by a U.S. court in 2011. Russian authorities complained that he was arrested illegally by U.S. agents in Thailand and fought to have him extradited back home. A former Soviet military officer, Bout had served in Angola, where he is alleged to have worked for the KGB.

Roman Seleznyov

An undated photo of Roman Seleznyov (center) with his family.

Roman Seleznyov, the son of Valery Seleznyov -- a member of Russia's lower house of parliament and an outspoken critic of U.S. policies -- is serving a 27-year sentence for various cybercrimes, including selling stolen U.S. credit card data. Seleznyov, 38, was arrested by U.S. authorities in 2014 at an airport in the Maldives and quickly taken to the U.S. territory of Guam, sparking accusations by Moscow that he was kidnapped.

U.S. investigators uncovered Seleznyov’s online activities in the late 2000s and asked Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for help. Seleznyov’s online footprint soon disappeared, leading U.S. investigators to believe Russia was protecting him. Seleznyov (listed as Roman V. Seleznev in U.S. court papers) received one of the harshest sentences ever handed down to a Russian hacker because he chose to fight his case despite a preponderance of evidence rather than cooperate.

Vladislav Klyushin

Vladislav Klyushin, 41, was arrested in Switzerland on March 21, 2021, on charges of stealing insider information and using it to make a fortune. He was extradited to the United States on December 18. Klyushin is accused of being part of a group that hacked into networks to steal sensitive corporate data and use the information to trade stocks.

The group is thought to have made a total of $82 million over a two-year period from 2018 to 2020. The other members of the group remain at large. One of them is a former officer in the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, known as the GRU, who was previously charged in July 2018 for his alleged role in a Russian effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Klyushin owned M-13, a Russian company that offers media-monitoring and cybersecurity services, and is believed to have Kremlin ties. His company provided IT solutions that were used by the Russian president, federal ministries and departments as well as regional state executive bodies.

Aleksandr Vinnik

Aleksandr Vinnik (file photo)

Aleksandr Vinnik, 43, who is also known as Mr. Bitcoin, was extradited to the United States on August 5 to face money-laundering charges. Vinnik allegedly owned and operated BTC-e, one of the world’s largest digital-currency exchanges. The United States claims that BTC-e was used extensively by cybercriminals worldwide to launder money because it did not require users to validate their identity, obscured and anonymized transactions and sources of funds, and lacked any due diligence processes.

Vinnik was arrested on a U.S. warrant in 2017 on a Greek beach while vacationing with his family. However, he was initially extradited to France to face separate money-laundering charges and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released from a French prison on August 4 but immediately sent back to Greece, which had requested his return so it could execute the original U.S. warrant. If convicted by a U.S. court, Vinnik faces up to 20 years in prison.

The timing of Vinnik's transfer to the United States coincided with the sentencing of Griner, giving rise to speculation he may be used in a possible prisoner swap.

Denis Dubnikov

Denis Dubnikov, 29, was detained last year in the Netherlands at the request of the United States for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency tied to a notorious ransomware gang and could soon be extradited. Dubnikov flew to Mexico in November for a vacation and was denied entry. Instead of being put on a plane back to Russia, he was sent to the Netherlands, where he was detained upon arrival. The Netherlands has historically approved extraditions to the United States.

Dubnikov, who co-owns small crypto-exchanges, allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of digital currency from Ryuk, a ransomware gang believed to have extracted tens of millions in ransoms, including from U.S. victims. Dubnikov denied the charges, saying at the time through his lawyer that he did not know the source of the money that the United States alleges came from ransomware payments.

Dubnikov's arrest has been called one of U.S. law enforcement's first potential blows to the Ryuk gang, which is suspected of being behind a rash of cyberattacks on U.S. health-care organizations. The Wall Street Journal said that Ryuk took in more than $100 million in ransom payments last year.

Brittney Griner

U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner sits inside a defendants' while her sentence is read out in court on August 4.

Brittney Griner, 31, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport in in February for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia. Griner, a star for the Phoenix Mercury in the United States, plays for a basketball team in Russia during the off-season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She pleaded guilty to possessing the cartridges but claimed she did not intend to violate Russian law. Her nine-year sentence was not extreme by Russian standards, experts have said.

Paul Whelan

Paul Whelan (file photo)

Paul Whelan, 52, a Michigan-based corporate security executive, was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges while visiting Moscow for a friend's wedding. Russia claimed Whelan was caught with a computer flash drive containing classified information. Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian, and Irish citizenship, said he was set up in a sting operation and had thought the drive, given to him by a Russian acquaintance, contained vacation photos. In June 2020, he was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years of "hard labor" in a Russian prison. The U.S. government said Russia produced no evidence to prove Whelan’s guilt during a trial that it called a mockery of justice.

David Barnes

David Barnes, 65, a Texas resident, was arrested by Russian authorities in Moscow in January 2022 on charges of abusing his children in the United States. Barnes traveled to Moscow in December 2021 to win the right to either see his children or bring them back home. Barnes ex-wife, Svetlana Koptyaeva, fled to Russia with the children in 2019 amid divorce and custody proceedings.

A Texas court in 2020 awarded Barnes custody of the children and Koptyaeva is now wanted by the United States on charges of interfering with child custody. Koptyaeva had accused Barnes of child abuse but a 2018 investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services did not find sufficient evidence to support such a conclusion and closed the case without filing any charges.

Marc Fogel

Marc Fogel, a 60-year-old English teacher, was arrested in an airport in Moscow in 2021 for carrying about half an ounce of medical marijuana. He was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony after prosecutors claimed he intended to sell the drugs to his students.

Fogel had been teaching for nearly a decade at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, a prestigious fee-paying primary school that had been established by the U.S., Canadian and British embassies. Fogel, who had surgeries on his back, shoulder, and knee, said he began to use medical marijuana while in the United States on summer break to cope with pain and tried to bring some of it back to Russia, where it is illegal.

Todd Prince is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL based in Washington, D.C. He lived in Russia from 1999 to 2016, working as a reporter for Bloomberg News and an investment adviser for Merrill Lynch. He has traveled extensively around Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia.

A former Marine details the chaotic exit from Afghanistan — and how we should mark it

By Rachel Martin

NPR
Published August 6, 2022

U.S. Central Command Public AffairsThis handout image shows a Marine passing out water to evacuees during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 22.


It's been almost a year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan again and the U.S. military pulled out of the country.

As the withdrawal unfolded, Marine Corps veteran Elliot Ackerman was watching the chaos from a distance. He was on a family vacation in Italy but couldn't tear himself away from what was happening.

Ackerman had deployed to Afghanistan multiple times. He felt bound to America's Afghan allies, so when the U.S. announced it was leaving and those same Afghans were desperate to get out, he lay awake at night, glued to his phone.

"My entire network was lighting up and it had become quickly a crowdsourced evacuation, with each person playing their part," Ackerman told Morning Edition.

''Some people were trying to raise money for charter flights, other people were arranging the buses that would transport evacuees from various pickup points in Kabul into the airport."

Ackerman was key because he knew Marines who were inside the airport, manning those gates and deciding who could come in and who could not. He writes about this experience in his new book, The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alyssa Schukar Photography LLC
Elliot Ackerman, 41, deployed as a Marine to Afghanistan from 2008 to 2011 and trained Afghan Commando soldiers.

Interview highlights

On mobilizing to help Afghans evacuate

Everyone was very much focused on the task at hand, because the stakes are obviously very high. You know, you've got the photographs of the people who are trying to get out and their families, [because] these aren't people any of us knew — the only family that I got out who I had a direct personal connection to was my interpreter. He has since moved to the U.S. but his family was still there and we were able to get his family out. But everyone else, these were strangers and they were strangers for most of us. So in that moment, you can't really step away.

But there were certainly little interludes. And my wife, in the book, she almost comes off like a Greek chorus conscience of the book, saying, you know, "Why are you all having to do this? Why are the people who left the wars 10 years ago now being sucked in to try to finish them?"

/ Omar Haidari/AFP
This image made available to AFP on August 20, 2021 by Human Rights Activist Omar Haidari, shows a U.S. Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 19, 2021.

On how he views America's exit from Afghanistan

I think it was a collapse of American morals that we made these promises and we fell short. It was a collapse of American competence. I mean, listen, despite the heroic efforts of those who were at the airport — and our efforts were truly heroic, so I'm not questioning their competence — but I would question the competence of decision-making that put us into this position where our back was up against a wall with this Aug. 31st withdrawal date that we couldn't seem to move.

It was a collapse of hierarchy, because as the war was ending in those days, I found myself on text chains and phone calls with retired four star generals and admirals, some of whom had commanded the entire war, because no one could get anyone out because of the craziness. And because, for a brief window, the team that I was working with was having some success, we found ourselves serving in this collapsed hierarchy all working together. And that was surreal for me at times.

On how it's impossible to really separate yourself from the experience of war

People have sometimes asked me, "Elliot, how do you think the war's changed you?" and I've never known how to answer that question. Because the war in so many ways made me. I don't know how to unbraid it out of the knots that are me. But the friendships that I have there, the memories that I have from that time, of course I think about and it's the time when I was growing up. I mean, I grew up there in the war.

I entered the service and started that training pipeline at 17 years old. And as you see in the book, those friendships have projected out because as Kabul was falling, so many of the people I'm working with, these are folks who've also transitioned. They've ended the wars themselves and we're all still friends.

On what an appropriate memorial would look like to these particular American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

I started thinking about it with regards to the recent passage of the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Location Act, which has gone through Congress to authorize a memorial to these wars. But the global war on terrorism isn't over yet, so it's actually interesting.

For the first time as a country, we will be trying to make a memorial to a war that we are still technically fighting. But it got me thinking, how would you make a memorial to a forever war? And that got me thinking, well maybe what would be more appropriate instead of erecting all these memorials upward, maybe we should dig downward, kind of like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

And I imagined a war memorial that would look almost like the sloping granite rock, sort of descending downward conically like something from Dante, and we would get rid of all the memorials to each specific war and we would just have one American War Memorial.

/ Penguin Random House
Ackerman's book, The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan.

It would begin with the names, the first being Crispus Attucks, who was killed at the Boston Massacre. And we would just list them all chronologically digging ourselves deeper and deeper and deeper. So we have more than a million war dead at this point in our country's history. And every time we fund a new war, we just add the names going down and down into the earth. And then, in my imagination of this war memorial, when you got to the very last name, there would be a desk and a pen. And Congress would pass a law that before any troop deployment, the president — he or she — would have to come down to the war memorial and that pen would be the only pen that could be used to sign that troop deployments.

They would have to walk by all of the war dead before they would need to do that. And then we wouldn't have to have any more debates about war memorials — we would just know what we did every time we fought a war, we'd just add the names.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org

Rachel Martin is a host of Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
See stories by Rachel Martin

California and Maine Are Implementing Universal Meal Programs for All Children

An incoming fourth-grade student at Compton Avenue Elementary School samples and tastes new breakfast and lunch menu items at Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts on July 29, 2022, in Los Angeles, California.

GARY CORONADO / LOS ANGELES TIMES 

BY Lily Levine, 

Prism August 6, 2022

When Erin Primer first heard the news that California was implementing a Universal Meal Program, she didn’t think it was true. For Primer, the director of food and nutrition services at San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD) and a long-time advocate of universal meals, the announcement came as a colossal victory.

“It’s been something that we never thought was actually possible, especially at the beginning of the pandemic,” Primer said. “It’s allowed me to be incredibly hopeful about school food.”

On July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Free School Meals for All Act, which pledges $650 million in ongoing funding to give about 6 million public school children in grades K-12 the option of receiving both a free breakfast and lunch every school day starting at the beginning of SY 2022-23. The bill was originally proposed by state Sen. Nancy Skinner and backed by a coalition of over 200 organizations.

The decision to implement universal free school meals is historic. Under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), students must qualify for free or reduced-price lunch based on household income level. The new bill, however, allows all children — regardless of eligibility — to receive food.

While talks regarding universal meals had been ongoing before the pandemic, it wasn’t until March 2020 that school educators and administration realized the categories surrounding income weren’t sufficient — suddenly, everyone was in need.

“It started very much out of this need to feed people during a time of scarcity and uncertainty, and it’s really allowed us to lean into our food values and express that in our entire program,” Primer said.

California’s decision has already inspired Maine to follow suit, indicating a more significant shift toward greater national food equity.

A More Inclusive System

For the upcoming school year, a family of four in the contiguous states, territories, and Washington, D.C., qualifies for a free meal if they make an annual income of $36,075 and a reduced-price meal if they earn $51,338. Consequently, families that just miss the cut-off may still be struggling financially but would not be eligible for federal assistance; NSLP guidelines also do not take into account the cost of living, which varies from state to state.

In southern California, the new policy will ensure no children fall through the cracks. Menu Systems Development Dietitian for the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Melanie Moyer said of the 97,000 students in her district, 40,000 receive government assistance, with about 60% eligible for free or reduced price meals. Furthermore, there are about 7,000 unhoused students in her district, all of whom will now be able to receive meals without question.

Destigmatizing Free Food

Social stigma is another barrier that prevents many students from taking advantage of school meals.

Zack Castorina, a special education math resource provider at Equitas Academy 4 in the Los Angeles Unified School District, knows hungry students don’t learn as well as fed students do.

“Students continuously compare themselves to their peers in all forms and are aware of where they fall financially within their class,” he said. “By universalizing [meals], students and families feel no judgment in taking food they need.”

Destigmatizatizing school food also means prioritizing the dignity of those consuming it. To do this, Primer believes school districts should have food that is so good that everybody wants to eat it. And that’s what they’ve done.

During the pandemic, SLCUSD kept up with demand by distributing nearly 2,000 pantry-style boxes per week containing loaves of bread, blocks of local cheese, and various local produce. Similarly, SDUSD sources their dairy and bread locally and hosts “Harvest of the Month” to expose their students to foods they may otherwise not taste outside of school.

Narrowing Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities

Food is a racial equity issue, demonstrated by the numbers revealing Black- and Latinx-headed households are nearly three times as likely to experience food insecurity as their white counterparts. This is significant since in California, 5.2% of enrolled students in 2020-21 identified as African American and 55.3% as Latinx.

At the school where Castorina teaches in Los Angeles, 95% of the student population is Latinx, and 92% qualified for free or reduced meals.

“[When I learned about the initiative], I was excited about how it can impact low-income families by taking [off] some of the financial burdens [of] feeding their children,” he said.

Whittier, California, resident and recent California High School graduate Jonathan Pilares ate free school meals along with his 9-year-old sister. He said that having a school lunch was financially helpful for his family in the long run. It also meant his mother would only have to cook once a day.

To Pilares, the bill will reduce barriers to access, ensuring more families are reached.

“Being from a Latino family and a heavily Latino populated area, I know many parents would struggle understanding the forms required by schools, even if they were in Spanish,” Pilares said. “This makes it easier for them to get food for their children without having to worry about the forms and hassle.”

Though by no means perfect in taste or quality, Pilares said he hopes this policy will benefit underprivileged students of all ethnicities in a similar way.
Toward a Fuller Future

Perusing the daily school newsletter, Moyer has already seen chatter about other states potentially adopting similar policies.

“I think that’s great, because California is not the only state with food insecure children,” she said.

One way to bring further awareness to the issue is through partnerships with state and nationwide legislators. Last fall, SLCUSD hosted state Sen. John Laird and U.S. House Rep. Salud Carbajal to eat a real school lunch and sit in their garden to see where the food is grown; First Partner of California Jennifer Siebel Newsom is also expected to visit in July. In Primer’s opinion, experiencing the food program firsthand will allow politicians to share these stories and find ways for states to jump on board.

“California’s leading the pack. It’s exciting,” she said.

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.

SPY VS SPY

Public Information vs. Propaganda: The Battle for Truth in Conflict

John Davis / Aug 7, 2022
INTELLIGENCE

A careful study of events in Ukraine is a security education in itself. Examples of compromised public information appear almost daily in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Soldiers’ private cell phone calls are monitored and war crimes they allude to, or clearly state, are reported to media outlets. The names of potential war criminals appear in the leaked list of names of Russians who were present in Bucha. In that killing field, civilian victims with their hands tied were discovered, shot in the head.

Governments can access this data from a host of sources. Sometimes the source is government technology. Other times, hacktivists who are skilled at discovering weak links in controlled access information elicit the information through means such as phishing. Those with cleared access to the information are deceived into releasing information to someone they believe is authorized to receive it, but who is really an adversary. An astounding release of the names of Russian FSB employees allowed into the Moscow headquarters of that espionage organization was recently compromised, according to Wired Magazine. With these names, other hacktivists or government counterspies can track the activities of these people around the world.

RELEASED INFORMATION BATTLES PROPAGANDA’S LIES

Lies by an opponent about virtually anything can be contested when controlled information is compromised. The BBC validated a photograph of the Russian ship Moscow which showed two gigantic holes in the side of the vessel. This runs directly counter to the Russian statement that ‘a fire’ broke out onboard. How this information was accessed is not given. Taken from the side of vessel, it could have been a Russian citizen, a sailor, or a drone. We won’t know, but the damage was done to those on the Russian side whose job it was to lie about the nature of the damage.

Monitoring information around the world also contributes to information collection and validation. Recruitment of Russian-trained Syrian soldiers is happening, and a number of them have departed for employment against Ukraine. U.S. government and hacktivists who monitor activities in Syria are reported to be the source of this information by the Associated Press. What this means in practice could come down to a single person with access to the government information in Syria, or of an unwitting leak by that government. Or, it could not have come from Syria at all, but was leaked from Russia, thus protecting the source of the leak.

The point security professionals should take away is that our adversaries will search everywhere for information to defeat us, our allies, or our interests. Look out for possible spies in your midst, but don’t forget that you could be your own worst enemy. If you are accidentally leaking information on insecure communication devices (as many who lost their secure communication equipment in Ukraine have done) don’t look to spies betraying you. You did it to yourself. We’ve seen how easy it is for others to compromise unsecured cell phone traffic. In fact, once artillery rounds started coming in when the first conflict between Russian and Ukraine began in 2014, cell phones were banned from front line trenches altogether. How easily lessons are forgotten when a new battle arises.

Consider what is most important to your side, and protect it. Whether you are engaged in combat, potential combat, or simply preparing equipment for transfer, all of that has timely security requirements. Know what you need to protect, and for how long. If your company makes equipment necessary for the defense of an allied country, protect it as if your own country was at stake. If the arrival of special equipment is important to success on the battlefield, be sure you take care to protect all delivery information until it arrives safely. Make sure you protect your shipment information as much as the equipment itself. Think holistically. See the many ways your adversary can collect against you.


John William Davis was commissioned an artillery officer and served as a counterintelligence officer and linguist. Thereafter he was counterintelligence officer for Space and Missile Defense Command, instructing the threat portion of the Department of the Army's Operations Security Course. Upon retirement, he wrote of his experiences in Rainy Street Stories.

Canada is home to 'some of the most liveable cities in North America'

Country ranks highly in Economist Intelligence Unit’s global survey


Kelly Clarke
Aug 07, 2022

Canada has topped the list for being home to some of the most liveable cities in North America, dominating four of the top five spots for the region.

Calgary was named the most liveable city in North America and the third most liveable city in the world.

Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal were named the second, third and fourth most desirable places to live in the region.

The list, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global survey, ranked 173 cities on stability, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, and health care.

Calgary received perfect 100 scores for health care, education and infrastructure, while culture and environment received 90.

Per the report, more than 630,000 people moved to North America from other parts of the world in the first half of 2022, a rise of 51 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

For decades, Canada has proved to be a big hit for people looking to start a new life abroad, including those from the UAE.

The country has some of the world's top universities, according to some people. With cold, snowy winters and hot summers, the climate is a big selling point for people, too.

Cities across the country are well regarded for their accepting and tolerant society and great quality of life.

Calgary secured an impressive overall score of 96 points out of 100 in the survey. This was the most of any North American city.

Calgary came first in the region twice before in the past decade, followed by Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, who all scored high in the healthcare and education categories.

“Canada’s roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine boosters and the quick reopening of schools during the pandemic aided its high marks,” the report said.

Here, The National has put together the top five most and least liveable cities of the 25 ranked in North America.

Most liveable cities in North America

 

1. Calgary, Canada: 96

A general view of Stephen Avenue in Calgary downtown in Canada.

 

2. Vancouver - 96.1

 

3. Toronto - 95.4

4. Montreal - 92.9

5. Atlanta - 92.3

Least liveable cities in North America

 

21. New York 

 

22. Cleveland 

 

23. Houston 

 

24. Detroit 

25: Lexington, US: Old historic city downtown of Lexington, Kentucky.

Chile sinkhole grows large enough to swallow France's Arc de Triomphe

A sinkhole is exposed close to Tierra Amarilla town, in Copiapo,Chile

Sun, August 7, 2022 

(Reuters) - A sinkhole in Chile has doubled in size, growing large enough to engulf France's Arc de Triomphe and prompting officials to order work to stop at a nearby copper mine.

The sinkhole, which emerged on July 30, now stretches 50 meters (160 feet) across and goes down 200 meters (656 feet). Seattle's Space Needle would also comfortably fit in the black pit, as would six Christ the Redeemer statues from Brazil stacked head-to-head, giant arms outstretched

The National Service of Geology and Mining said late on Saturday it is still investigating the gaping hole near the Alcaparrosa mine operated by Canadian company Lundin Mining, about 665 km (413 miles) north of Santiago.

In addition to ordering all work to stop, the geology and mining service said it was starting a "sanctioning process." The agency did not provide details on what that action would involve.

Lundin did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The company last week said the hole did not affect workers or community members and that it was working to determine the cause.

Lundin owns 80% of the property and the rest is held by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation.

Initially, the hole near the town of Tierra Amarilla measured about 25 meters (82 feet) across, with water visible at the bottom.

The geology and mining service said it has installed water extraction pumps at the mine and in the next few days would investigate the mine's underground chambers for potential over-extraction.

Local officials have expressed worry that the Alcaparrosa mine could have flooded below ground, destabilizing the surrounding land. It would be "something completely out of the ordinary," Tierra Amarilla Mayor Cristobal Zuniga told local media.

(Reporting by Marion Giraldo; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Opinion
The GOP is Viktor Orban’s party now

By Max Boot

Columnist| 

 August 7, 2022

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban gestures to the audience after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Aug. 4. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

All you need to know about the state of the Republican Party today is what happened at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas on Thursday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been destroying his country’s democracy, received a standing ovation less than two weeks after he gave a speech in Romania in which he endorsed the white supremacist “replacement theory” and denounced a “mixed-race world.”

One of Orban’s longtime advisers quit over what she described as a speech “worthy of Goebbels” before backtracking a bit. But Orban hasn’t recanted his repugnant views, and right-wingers in Dallas thrilled to his denunciations of immigration, abortion, LGBTQ rights and “the Woke Globalist Goliath.” He even excoriated Jewish financier George Soros, a Hungarian native, as someone who “hated Christianity.” The racist and anti-Semitic signaling was not subtle.

You can trace the current iteration of the Republican Party to the 1990s Gingrich revolution, as my brilliant Post colleague Dana Milbank does in a new book. Or you can go further back to the Goldwater revolution in the 1960s, as I did in my own book. But we must also acknowledge that something profound has changed in recent years

Ten years ago this month, Republicans nominated a national ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul D. Ryan, a centrist former governor and a budget policy wonk. Now we have the coup-coup caucus cheering Viktor Orban. This is the Trump effect: The former president has made the marginal into the mainstream of the Republican Party, and vice versa.

Some observers were deceived by the success in Georgia of Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in handily defeating Trumpist challengers in May despite certifying President Biden’s victory. That was an aberration. In other races across the country, Republicans are nominating far-right fanatics who claim that the 2020 presidential election — and any election that they lose, for that matter — was “rigged.” By refusing to accept electoral defeat, they embrace authoritarianism.

In four key swing states — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania — the GOP nominees to oversee state elections deny the legitimacy of Biden’s election. Two of those candidates, Arizona secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem and Pennsylvania governor nominee Doug Mastriano, were outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. If elected, they are no more likely to certify a Democratic victory in 2024 than they are to embrace critical race theory. Meanwhile, most House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection are being driven out of Congress. Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer was the latest to lose a primary last week to a proponent of the “big lie.”

Taking a cue from Trump, the winners of Republican primaries traffic in authoritarian imagery and rhetoric. Guns have become a de rigueur accessory in GOP campaign commercials. Arizona U.S. Senate nominee Blake Masters wants to lock up Anthony S. Fauci for trying to slow the spread of covid-19. And Arizona gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake wants to lock up her opponent for certifying Biden’s election victory.

Masters and Ohio U.S. Senate nominee J.D. Vance are both bankrolled by tech tycoon Peter Thiel, who has concluded that freedom and democracy aren’t “compatible.” Thiel’s “house political philosopher” is far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, who is also close to Masters and Vance. Yarvin has mused that we may need an “American Caesar” to take control of the federal government. Trump is auditioning for the role; his henchmen are plotting to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with ultra-MAGA loyalists in 2025.

The libertarian-leaning Republican Party I grew up with in the 1980s is long gone and not coming back. Republicans still use the language of “freedom,” but their idea of freedom is warped: They want Americans to be free to carry weapons of war or spread deadly diseases but not to terminate a pregnancy or discuss gender or sexuality in school.

Republicans, once suspicious of government power, are now eager to use it to impose their agenda. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, next to Trump as the most likely 2024 GOP nominee, is establishing his culture-war credentials by, most recently, suspending an elected prosecutor who vowed not to “criminalize personal medical decisions,” such as abortion or “gender-affirming healthcare.” DeSantis even threatened to investigate parents who take their kids to drag shows.

These Republican extremists are often described as the “New Right,” but the term doesn’t fit. The New Right was the movement in the 1960s-1970s that produced Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. You can argue that the New Right helped lead to the present imbroglio, but it’s hard to imagine Goldwater or Reagan flashing Viktor Orban a thumbs-up, as Trump did.

Some other term is needed. “Christian nationalism” and “nationalist conservatism” have been bandied about, but the most apt phrase for this American authoritarianism is the New Fascism, and it is fast becoming the dominant trend on the right. If the GOP gains power in Washington, all of America will be in danger of being Orbanized.


Opinion by Max BootMax Boot is a Washington Post columnist, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.” Twitter

NO LONGER 'ELITIST' 
Game of chess teaches kids problem-solving, patience and creativity skills

On 'Fox & Friends Weekend,' Mark Kurtzman of Tri-State Chess touted the benefits of chess for kids

By Maureen Mackey | Fox News

UCF Life Master Mark Kurtzman and four-time national chess champion Adam Maltese share their love for the game of chess and ways kids can get involved with the classic game.

Speaking this morning on "Fox & Friends Weekend," two accomplished chess players shared their enthusiasm for the game of chess — and noted the many ways that kids today can get involved in the game and gain a host of benefits from learning and playing chess.

"Chess is just so much fun," said Mark Kurtzman, a United States Chess Federation (UCF) life master, on the program on Sunday morning.

He added that when he was growing up, there weren't many programs and offerings for kids as there are now in so many communities across the country.

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"Now there's so much structure around it. There are programs [for kids] and places to learn … Kids love it and it's so much fun."

Adam Maltese, a four-time national chess champion, spoke about the first time he won a multi-round chess tournament when he was just nine years old.

This giant chess set is perfect for an outdoor living space — and can work for adults or kids. (Donald Mensch)

"It's gotten a little bit tougher since I've been a kid," he said, commenting on the computerization of chess games today.

So what is the number-one tip for novice players?

"Think before you move," said Kurtzman.

Problem-solving skills, patience, creativity and consequences for one's actions are some of the many benefits of learning to play chess.

He noted that there are many skills that kids learn from the game of chess — including problem-solving skills, patience, creativity and consequences for one's actions.

Chess is a game of strategy and tactics that anyone of almost any age can learn to play. (iStock)

Players were deeply involved in their chess games on Fox Square this morning as the chess masters evaluated some of the matches.

Some of the children were as young as five as they played chess.

Kurtzman commented on the kids that he teaches today — "We get 250 players," he said, who are rated by the chess foundation.

"Students enjoy themselves while learning to become mature and well-respected chess players."

He also said there are chess camps available to kids, too.

"The players are developing their pieces … preparing for the battle," noted Kurtzman of a game that had just begun.

This young person learned how to play chess when he was four years old. (Kori McConnell)

Kurtzman runs Tri State Chess (tristatechess.com), an organization based in New York City and in operation for over 30 years.

It is "devoted to establishing competitive chess programs in elementary schools throughout the Tri-State area," its website says.

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"In order to maintain the highest possible standards," the group adds, "experienced chess coaches are personally trained by our professional staff."

It also said, "All coaches are instructed to implement an established teaching system, proven effective through years of use."

"In this way, students enjoy themselves while learning to become mature and well-respected chess players."

To learn more about chess and its benefits, watch the video Student chess players face off at Fox Square

Opinion: Putin is still king at world chess organization FIDE

The world chess federation FIDE has chosen to continue with Russian Arkady Dvorkovich as the head of the organization. This despite the international sanctions on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.


Putin likes to be seen with prominent chess players, including Dvorkovich (far left) in 2014

In the world of chess, everything is apparently still in perfect order. While there are sanctions in place against Russia and Belarus in the sport, they only apply to the players. At the FIDE Congress in Chennai, India, on August 7, the incumbent president Arkady Dvorkovich was re-elected.

Until 2018, Dvorkovich was Russia's deputy prime minister and chairman of the board of the (wartime essential) Russian Railways. Since then, he has been the head of the World Chess Federation, and will remain in the post for another four years.

Among chess officials, there's a pretense that President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine does not exist — a politically and morally bankrupt declaration. Dvorkovich's opponent could not even achieve respectable success: The Ukrainian chess grandmaster Andrii Baryshpolets received just 16 of the 173 votes. The German Chess Federation — as announced two months ago — supported the defeated Ukrainian.

Arkady Dvorkovich has been re-elected as the president of FIDE

Chess is also politics in Russia

Sports federations like to claim they are apolitical. This has never been true for chess, particularly not in Russia. Chess is much more than just a niche sport for nerds. Putin, a chess enthusiast, always likes to be seen with prominent chess players, although Dvorkovich has tried to distance himself a bit publicly from the Russian war of aggression.

But the bottom line is that the signal sent by chess is fatal: once again, Russia's overwhelming influence in the sport has not been contained. On the contrary, despite global sanctions, Russia has managed to keep one of its own at the helm of an international sports federation. For Putin, that's cause for celebration.

Sure, Dvorkovich had a comparatively good record. After decades in which FIDE had been marked by chaos and corruption, he had brought professionalism and (mostly Russian) sponsorship to the notoriously cash-strapped sport. He also had the smart idea of choosing the universally esteemed former world champion Viswanathan Anand as his deputy, as a representative of the up-and-coming chess nation India.

Magnus Carlsen does not intend to defend his world title

FIDE on the sidelines?

But it's doubtful that FIDE under Dvorkovich can simply carry on as before. Western sponsors have deserted the sport and Dvorkovich himself may soon appear on international sanctions list. "If that happens, it's over," even Putin-affiliated former world champion Anatoly Karpov speculated before Dvorkovich's re-election.

It is all a disaster for chess. After all, the board game is actually booming. In the COVID era, the sport has partly shifted online. Chess has long since ceased to revolve around the somewhat cumbersome official world championships.

The still reigning champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, has recognized the signs of the times. The 31-year-old does not intend to defend his title for the time being, but the world's best chess player by far will continue to play the game — on his own. He brings money into the sport with his listed Play Magnus Group.

A world chess federation that stands closely alongside the economically and politically isolated Russia will find it difficult to keep up. Other major chess federations — like Germany's — will distance themselves even more. It is quite possible that game has checkmated itself.

CHESS: THE GAME OF KINGS AND ARTISTS
Pastime of the stars
American Western actor John Wayne (right) was an enthusiastic chess player. German film diva Marlene Dietrich (left) is said to have always traveled with a huge chess board. The board game was particularly popular among Hollywood stars in the 1930s to 1950s. Dietrich and Wayne are pictured here in 1942 on the set of the film "Pittsburgh."
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This article was translated from German.

AMERIKA
Sterilization Laws Are Still on the Books — and Pose New Dangers Post-“Roe”

The front of the U.S. Supreme Court, seen through a fence line on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 14, 2022.

TOM BRENNER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

BY J oaquín M. Lara Midkiff, 

Truthout

PUBLISHED August 7, 2022

The repudiation of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey awakens fears around the repercussions of an unchecked and compromised high court. Now as a result, in a period when the protections against the deprivations of privacy and liberty are weakened, the U.S. must brace itself as the legacy of eugenics threatens to break forth.

Recall Carrie Buck, a 16-year-old in a muggy Virginia town, almost a century ago. In the summer of 1923, Buck — who had lived her whole life under the guardianship of foster parents, John and Alice Dobbs — was raped by a Dobbs family nephew. Buck’s mother, Emma, was locked away at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded in Lynchburg under the auspices of clinical “immorality,” prostitution and the crime of having syphilis.

Carrie Buck became pregnant as a result of the rape. In her third trimester, Buck was committed to the very same Virginia State Colony as her mother, on the basis of “mental incompetence,” “incorrigibility” and “promiscuity.” By early 1924, Virginia had passed the Eugenical Sterilization Act, meant to protect the state’s right to strip “defective” and “socially inadequate” people of their reproductive potential. Early that same year, against her will, Carrie Buck’s fallopian tubes were gutted.

In a cruel legal wile, Buck’s attorney, Irving Whitehead, was not only a vehement eugenicist but also a close friend of the superintendent of the residential facility that had sterilized her. He called no witnesses. He made no effort to dispute claims, later revealed to be false, that questioned Buck’s intelligence and mental fortitude, nor did he challenge the idea that people’s reproductive capacity should be forcibly excised due to disability. His counsel was a sham.

Robert Shelton, a justice of the peace who served as Buck’s guardian while she was institutionalized, appealed the Amherst County judge’s decision to side with the Virginia State Colony. By 1927, Buck v. Bell had reached the Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in an 8-to-1 decision, delivered the now-infamous majority opinion.

The Court found that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, the State is within its right to sterilize somebody should they become institutionalized and found to be “afflicted with a hereditary form of insanity or imbecility.” The “imbecility” in the Buck case was a euphemism for her involuntary pregnancy. In his measly 1,000-word opinion, Holmes wrote, “It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.”

“Three generations of imbeciles are enough,” he concluded.More than 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized in the wake of the Buck ruling.

It is almost a century later and Buck v. Bell, while weakened, has not been overruled. States retain the right to sterilize their citizenry on the basis of “defect” or disability. In its most pernicious interpretation, the state may determine defect to include, as it did in the 1920s, categories as unspecific and sinister as social inadequacy, immorality and promiscuity. Buck remains one of the most twisted cases in U.S. history — and today, in a world of judicial dynamism and precariousness, is a latent tool in service of the ugliest currents of society.

With Roe v. Wade being nullified on the basis of a narrowed Fourteenth Amendment, it is imperative to remember the ways in which, when it is not providing equal protection under the law, the Fourteenth Amendment has been weaponized as a tool of oppression and state control. More than 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized in the wake of the Buck ruling. This century, under the Trump administration, immigrant women were detained and carved out through medically unnecessary hysterectomies.

As of June 2022, a new generation has fewer constitutional rights than the one who preceded it. Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson outlines a path for rescinding a string of rights — some long protected under the Fourteenth Amendment — such as a right to contraceptives, gay marriage, sexual privacy and even interracial marriage.

These efforts are rooted in the very same legal illogic as Buck and motivated by the same contempt for justice that Irving Whitehead harbored.Today, 31 states unabashedly have laws sanctioning the sterilization of disabled people. In Nevada and Iowa, these laws, only three years old, are fresh.

We mustn’t forget this soft mandate, handed down by the courts, for states to intervene, not in pregnancy, but in the ability to reproduce in anybody institutionalized with anything the state deems an inadequacy. Historically, the communities that have been violated and exploited the most by this mandate include Black and Indigenous women, immigrants, trans folks — and, critically, people with disabilities.

In a post-Roe world, the promises of societal progress and bodily liberty, long the roar of a country constantly seeking to better itself, are duller. Today, 31 states unabashedly have laws sanctioning the sterilization of disabled people. In Nevada and Iowa, these laws, only three years old, are fresh. Seventeen of these states consider disabled children eligible for forced sterilization. This most recent assault on reproductive rights, decades in the making, renders conceiving of a future free from state control of our bodies, persecution of disability and intolerance of difference markedly more difficult.

Carrie Buck’s story reminds us that draconian laws last. It is not only a question of abortion and forced sterilization. The role that eugenics can play in an era of conservative and quasi-theological judicial activism is expansive: medical experimentation, forced institutionalization, marriage equality for people with disabilities, access to health care, and beyond. At a time when the court of the land has the appetite to obliterate half a century of precedent and progress, we are faced with immediate uncertainty. The legal apparatus that has, for over a century, functioned as a bludgeon for disabled Americans (and others) now threatens indiscriminately — and no one has the luxury of not knowing the consequences.

Joaquín M. Lara Midkiff is a human rights commissioner for the City of Salem, Oregon. He is also a fellow at the MacMillan Center, researcher at the Peabody Museum, and was founding editor of the Yale Review of Disability Experience. He is senior advisor (and former president) to DEFY, a disability justice organization advocating on behalf of students with disabilities in higher education.

Drop box for babies: Anti-abortionists promote anonymous ‘newborn deposits’

By Dana Goldstein
August 8, 2022 —


New York: The Safe Haven Baby Box at a firehouse in Carmel, Indiana, looked like a library book drop. It had been available for three years for anyone who wanted to surrender a baby anonymously.

No one had ever used it, though, until early April. When its alarm went off, Victor Andres, a firefighter, opened the box and found, to his disbelief, a newborn boy wrapped in towels.

A drop-off box for parents to surrender their newborns at a fire station in Carmel, Indiana.

The discovery made the local TV news, which praised the courage of the mother, calling it “a time for celebration”. Later that month, Andres pulled another newborn, a girl, from the box. In May, a third baby appeared. By summer, three more infants were left at baby box locations throughout the state.

The baby boxes are part of the safe haven movement, which has long been closely tied to anti-abortion activism. Safe havens offer desperate mothers a way to surrender their newborns anonymously for adoption, and, advocates say, avoid hurting, abandoning or even killing them. The havens can be boxes, which allow parents to avoid speaking to anyone or even being seen when surrendering their babies. More traditionally, the havens are locations such as hospitals and fire stations, where staff members are trained to accept a face-to-face handoff from a parent in crisis.

All 50 states have safe haven laws meant to protect surrendering mothers from criminal charges. The first, known as the “Baby Moses” law, was passed in Texas in 1999 after a number of women abandoned infants in trash cans or dumpsters. But what began as a way to prevent the most extreme cases of child abuse has become a broader phenomenon, supported especially among the religious right, which heavily promotes adoption as an alternative to abortion.

Over the past five years, more than 12 states have passed laws allowing baby boxes or expanding safe haven options in other ways. And safe haven surrenders, experts in reproductive health and child welfare say, are likely to become more common after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The Safe Haven drop-off box, as seen from inside the fire station, where a baby was left in April, the first in the three years since the box was installed, in Carmel.

During oral arguments in the case Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that safe haven laws offered an alternative to abortion by allowing women to avoid “the burdens of parenting.” In the court’s decision, Justice Samuel Alito cited safe haven laws as a “modern development” that, in the majority’s view, obviated the need for abortion rights.

But for many experts in adoption and women’s health, safe havens are hardly a panacea.

To them, a safe haven surrender is a sign that a woman fell through the cracks of existing systems. They may have concealed their pregnancies and given birth without prenatal care, or they may suffer from domestic violence, drug addiction, homelessness or mental illness.

The adoptions themselves could also be problematic, with women potentially unaware that they are terminating parental rights, and children left with little information about their origins.

Demonstrators on both sides of the abortion issue outside the US Supreme Court after it struck down federal abortion rights protections.

CREDIT:ANNA ROSE LAYDEN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

If a parent is using a safe haven, “there’s been a crisis, and the system has already in some way failed,” said Ryan Hanlon, president of the National Council for Adoption.

Boosting the movement

Safe haven surrenders are still rare. The National Safe Haven Alliance estimates that 115 legal surrenders took place in 2021. In recent years, there have been more than 100,000 domestic adoptions annually and more than 600,000 abortions. Studies show that the vast majority of women denied an abortion are uninterested in adoption and go on to raise their children.

But the safe haven movement has become much more prominent, in part because of a boost from a charismatic activist with roots in anti-abortion activism, Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes.

Firefighter Ben Krieg at the station where a baby was left in its Safe Haven drop-off box in April.

With Kelsey and allies lobbying across the country, states like Indiana, Iowa and Virginia have sought to make safe haven surrenders easier, faster and more anonymous — allowing older babies to be dropped off or allowing relinquishing parents to leave the scene without speaking to another adult or sharing any medical history.

Some who work with safe haven children are concerned about the baby boxes in particular. There are now more than 100 across the country.

“Is this infant being surrendered without coercion?” asked Micah Orliss, director of the Safe Surrender Clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Is this a parent who is in a bad spot and could benefit from some time and discussion in a warm handoff experience to make their decision?”

Kelsey is a former medic and firefighter, and an adoptee who said she was abandoned at birth by her teenage mother, who had been raped.

She first encountered a baby “safe” – a concept dating back to medieval Europe – on a 2013 trip to a church in Cape Town, South Africa, where she was on a pro-abstinence speaking tour.

She returned home to Indiana to found a nonprofit, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and installed her first baby box in 2016.

To use one of Kelsey’s boxes, a parent pulls open a metal drawer to reveal a temperature-controlled hospital bassinet. Once the baby is inside and the drawer is closed, it locks automatically; the parent cannot reopen it. An alarm is triggered, and the facility’s staff members can access the bassinet. The box also sends out a 911 call. Twenty-one babies have been left in the boxes since 2017, and the average amount of time a child is inside the box is less than two minutes, Kelsey said.

She has raised money to put up dozens of billboards advertising the safe haven option. The advertisements feature a photo of a handsome firefighter cradling a newborn, and the Safe Haven Baby Box emergency hotline number.

Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes.

Kelsey said she was in contact with legislators across the country who wanted to bring the boxes to their regions, and she predicted that within five years, her boxes would be in all 50 states.

“We can all agree a baby should be placed in my box and not in a dumpster to die,” she said.

Because of the anonymity, there is limited information about the parents who use safe havens. But Orliss, of the Los Angeles safe haven clinic, performs psychological and developmental evaluations on some 15 such babies annually, often following them through their toddler years. His research found that more than half the children have health or developmental issues, often stemming from inadequate prenatal care. In California, unlike in Indiana, safe haven surrenders must be done face to face, and parents are given an optional questionnaire on medical history, which often reveals serious problems such as drug use.

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Still, many children do well. Tessa Higgs, 37, a marketing manager in southern Indiana, adopted her 3-year-old daughter, Nola, after the girl was dropped off at a safe haven just hours after her birth. Higgs said the biological mother had called the Safe Haven Baby Box hotline after seeing one of the group’s billboards.

“From day one, she has been so healthy and happy and thriving and exceeding all developmental milestones,” Higgs said of Nola. “She’s perfect in our eyes.”
Legal grey areas

For some women seeking help, the first point of contact is the Safe Haven Baby Box emergency hotline.

That hotline and another maintained by the Safe Haven National Alliance tell callers where and how they can legally surrender children, along with information about the traditional adoption process.

Safe haven groups say they inform callers that anonymous surrenders are a last resort, and give out information on how to keep their babies, including ways to get diapers, rent money and temporary child care.

“When a woman is given options, she will choose what’s best for her,” Kelsey said. “And if that means that in her moment of crisis, she chooses a baby box, we should all support her in her decision.”

But Kelsey’s hotline does not talk about the legal time constraints for reunifying with the baby unless callers ask for it, she said.

In Indiana, which has the majority of baby boxes, state law does not specify a timeline for terminating birth parents’ rights after safe haven surrenders, or for adoption. But according to Don VanDerMoere, the prosecutor in Owen County, Indiana, who has experience with infant abandonment laws in the state, biological families are free to come forward until a court terminates parental rights, which can occur 45 to 60 days after an anonymous surrender.

Because these relinquishments are anonymous, they typically lead to closed adoptions. Birth parents are unable to select the parents, and adoptees are left with little to no information about their family of origin or medical history.

Hanlon, of the National Council for Adoption, pointed to research showing that over the long term, birth parents feel more satisfied about giving up their children if biological and adoptive families maintain a relationship.

And in safe haven cases, if a mother changes her mind, she must prove to the state that she is fit.

According to Kelsey, since her operation began, two women who said they had placed their infants in boxes have tried to reclaim custody of their children. Such cases can take months or even years to resolve.

Birth mothers are also not immune from legal jeopardy and may not be able to navigate the technicalities of each state’s safe haven law, said Lori Bruce, a medical ethicist at Yale.

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While many states protect surrendering mothers from criminal prosecution if babies are healthy and unharmed, mothers in severe crisis – dealing with addiction or domestic abuse, for example – may not be protected if their newborns are in some way affected.

The idea of a traumatised, postpartum mother being able to “correctly Google the laws is slim,” Bruce said.

With the demise of Roe, “we know we are going to see more abandoned babies,” she added. “My concern is, that means more prosecutors are going to be able to prosecute women for having unsafely abandoned their children – or not following the letter of the law.”

On Friday, the Indiana governor signed legislation banning most abortions, with slim exceptions.

And the safe haven movement continues apace.

Higgs, the adoptive mother, has stayed in touch with Monica Kelsey of Safe Haven Baby Boxes. “The day that I found out about Roe v Wade, I texted Monica and was like, ‘Are you ready to get even busier?’”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

PHOTO CREDIT:KAITI SULLIVAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES