Discovered in the deep: the incredible fish with a transparent head

The barreleye fish has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within a transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head. The two spots above its mouth are similar to human nostrils. 

Photograph: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute


The rare barreleye fish tracks its prey with extremely light-sensitive rotating eyes encased in a see-through canopy


Helen Scales

Wed 31 Aug 2022 0

In the ocean’s shadowy twilight zone, between 600 and 800 metres beneath the surface, there are fish that gaze upwards through their transparent heads with eyes like mesmerising emerald orbs. These domes are huge spherical lenses that sit on a pair of long, silvery eye tubes – hence its common name, the barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma).

The green tint (which actually comes from a yellow pigment) acts as sunglasses, of a sort, to help them track down their prey. There’s nowhere to hide in the open waters of the deep ocean and many animals living here have glowing bellies that disguise their silhouette and protect them – bioluminescent prey is hard to spot against the dim blue sunlight trickling down. But barreleyes are one step ahead.

Their eye pigment allows the fish to distinguish between sunlight and bioluminescence, says Bruce Robison, deep-sea biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. It helps barreleyes to get a clear view of the animals trying to erase their shadows.

The barreleye’s tubular eyes are extremely sensitive and take in a lot of light, which is useful in the inky depths of the twilight zone. But Robison was initially mystified that their eyes seemed fixed upwards on the small spot of water, right above their heads.

“It always puzzled me that their eyes aimed upward, but the field of view did not include their mouths,” says Robison. Imagine trying to eat scraps of food floating in front of you, while fixing your eyes on the ceiling.

But, after years of only seeing dead, net-caught specimens, Robison and colleagues finally got a good look at a living barreleye through the high-definition cameras of a remotely operated vehicle. “Suddenly the lightbulb lit and I thought ‘A-ha, that’s what’s going on!’,” he says. “They can rotate their eyes.” This means the fish can track prey drifting down through the water until it is right in front of their mouth.

Seeing a barreleye alive in the deep, Robison saw something else that scientists had previously missed. “It had this canopy over its eyes like on a jet fighter,” he says, referring to the transparent front part of the barreleye’s body, which had been torn off all the specimens he had previously brought to the surface.

He thinks this canopy probably helps protect their eyes as they steal food from among the stinging tentacles of siphonophores – animals that float through the deep sea in long, deadly strings, like drift nets.

Barreleyes have been found with a mix of food in their stomachs, including siphonophores’ tentacles, as well as animals that siphonophores feed on, including small crustaceans called copepods. Their tactic may be to swim up to siphonophores and nibble on the small prey snagged in their tentacles, using the transparent shield to protect their green eyes from stings.

But encountering barreleyes in the wild is not easy. In his 30-year career, Robison says he has only seen these 15cm-long fish alive maybe eight times. “We do spend a lot of time exploring down there, so I can say with some confidence that they’re quite rare,” he says.

UK asylum seeker deal leaves Rwanda hostel residents homeless

Survivors of Rwandan genocide were told to vacate hostel two days after Priti Patel signed £120m deal

The Hope Hostel in Kigali remains unused because the UK government has so far failed to send a single asylum seeker to Rwanda.

 Photograph: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images


Rajeev Syal 

Home affairs editor

Tue 30 Aug 2022 

Former residents of a hostel in Rwanda who were forced to leave under a controversial deal to house asylum seekers flown from the UK say they have been left homeless and destitute while the property remains unused.

The men, all of whom are survivors of the Rwandan genocide, had lived in Hope Hostel in Kigali for up to eight years. But they were told to vacate two days after Priti Patel, the British home secretary, signed a £120m agreement to send refugees arriving in the UK by small boats to the east African country.

Some former residents of the hotel were still students who say they lost their families in the genocide and have nowhere to go. The UK government has so far failed to send a single asylum seeker to Rwanda.

One former resident of eight years said: “We don’t know what to do. In public, government officials say they are going to help us but no extra help has come. We are very worried but we are suffering.

“It pains me to see that [the hostel] is still empty when we are homeless, on the street.”


Home Office planning new deportation flight to Rwanda

He told the Guardian the government gave him money, which lasted a month after he was asked to leave the hotel, but has not received any additional funds for the last three months. He says he has limited work and has since slept at friends’ homes.

“I was one year old when the genocide happened and all our relatives died. I came to this hostel as a gesture of kindness to give me some hope. Now, I have nowhere to go,” he said.

A second former resident said he had since dropped out of education because he had no money for rent or food.

“We face a lot of challenges that include hunger and lack of accommodation. Many families became fragile after the Covid-19 pandemic, so it’s hard to ask friends to accommodate any of us. The government says we are already grown-up people and we should find solutions but how can you find solutions when you don’t have a job?” he asked.

“If this issue is solved, we can thank God. We need help but we are also risking our survival by telling the truth.”

The residents asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. The Rwandan government has been criticised by Amnesty International for suppressing freedom of expression.

Hope Hostel, in Kigali’s Kagugu neighbourhood, was built by Rwandan donors to accommodate up to 190 survivors of the 1994 genocide when hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from the Tutsi minority, were murdered during three months of mass killings.

Formerly known as the Association of Student Survivors of Genocide (AERG) hostel, residents said there were about 40 people, mostly men, living there when Patel signed the deal.

Boris Johnson promised that tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel and arrived in the UK by irregular means would be sent to Rwanda, but so far, none have been sent following legal challenges. The first judicial review of the policy, brought by asylum seekers, two charities and a union representing Border Force staff, will begin in September.

Patel toured the hostel in April but survivors of genocide who lived there were dispatched on a day trip to prevent them disrupting her visit.

Priti Patel visiting a hostel allocated for refugees in Kigali, Rwanda, on 14 April. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Her visit was carefully managed by both the Rwandan authorities and the Home Office to present the plan in the best possible light.

The deal between Rwanda and UK, which was signed in April, has been widely condemned as inhuman, illegal, unworkable and prohibitively expensive.

The UK government said it had paid an initial £120m to the Rwandan government for implementing the plan, but will have to pay additional costs for housing, food and travel.

Yolande Makolo, a Rwandan government spokesperson, said the level of occupancy at the hostel had been dropping before the deal with the UK government was signed and that government funds continued to be offered to genocide survivors including those who lived at Hope Hostel.

“Former residents of Hope Hostel who are not yet self-sufficient continue to be supported with rent and living allowances, as well as capital to start small businesses, both by the association, as well as through the Fund for Genocide Survivors.”

Audace Mudahemuka, the president of AERG, said the hostel’s use by genocide victims was already in the process of being wound down before the government leased it for the UK deal.

“Only a small fraction of the beds in the hostel were being used, and the facility was expensive to maintain. We were delighted when the government offered to rent the property as the funds we receive from this contract allows us to provide support to thousands of genocide survivors,” he said.

The Home Office was approached for a comment.

What is Cop15 and why does it matter for all life on Earth?

Once-in-a-decade plans to protect the natural world and halt its destruction will be decided in Canada in December

It is 100 days until Cop15 – and the omens are good for a global plan to protect nature | John Vidal

A wild canary perches on a wildflower stem on Pico Island in the Azores. Huge declines in wildlife have left one in eight bird species threatened. Photograph: Charlotte Wilkins/Alamy


Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston

Tue 30 Aug 2022


With only a few short months until Cop15 in Montreal, governments are gearing up to create targets on biodiversity for the next decade. The world has so far failed to meet any UN targets on halting the loss of nature, yet awareness of the challenge is greater than ever. Here we examine why this UN meeting matters and how it could herald meaningful action on nature loss.

What is Cop15?


Nature is in crisis and for the past three decades governments have been meeting to ensure the survival of the species and ecosystems that underpin human civilisation. The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 saw the creation of three conventions: on climate change, desertification and biodiversity. The aim of the convention on biological diversity (CBD) is for countries to conserve the natural world, its sustainable use, and to share the benefits of its genetic resources.

Every 10 years, governments agree new targets on protecting biodiversity, which they aim to meet by the end of the decade. The last round of targets was agreed at Cop10 in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, when governments pledged to halve the loss of natural habitats and expand nature reserves to 17% of the world’s land area by 2020, among other targets. They failed on every count (more on that below).

Every two years or so there are “ordinary” meetings for governments to check on their progress. The Montreal meeting, Cop15 (which stands for conference of the parties meeting for the 15th time ), is “extraordinary” because a new set of targets is being agreed.

When, where and who is in charge?

The two-week conference starts on 7 December in Montreal, Canada, although China will hold the Cop15 presidency, the first time it has done so for a leading UN

 environmental agreement. This is because the summit had been scheduled to take place in Kunming, China, but was moved after successive pandemic-related delays and concerns over hosting an international summit under Beijing’s zero-Covid policy.
Photograph: UN Biodiversity

Delegates will arrive in Montreal just a few weeks after the climate Cop27 in Egypt. The official text is expected to be signed off on Saturday 17 December, the eve of the World Cup final in Qatar, although negotiations often go beyond the deadline.
How is it different from the climate Cops?

Biodiversity Cops are separate from climate Cops, the most recent of which was Cop26 in Glasgow. Climate Cops have a clear focus to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels, while aiming to limit heating to 1.5C, as settled under the Paris agreement in 2015.

At the moment, the UN’s biodiversity process does not have an equivalent north star. Governments will sign off targets under the three aims of the convention – conservation, sustainable use and sharing the benefits of genetic resources – which can sometimes clash with each other and are often very technical, even for those negotiating the agreement.

The summit’s final text – known as the post-2020 global biodiversity framework – is likely to include more than 20 targets that range from pledges to crack down on invasive species to complicated rules on the use of synthetic biology.
What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth – the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat, all rely on it. Scientists are still trying to understand how the web of life fits together and despite advances in technology, we can still only guess at the true number of species that live on our planet.

But we do know that life is not distributed equally: countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and China have incredible concentrations of plants, mammals, fungi and amphibians in their vast and unique ecosystems. A few hectares of the Borneo rainforest or a coral reef can be home to more species than live in the whole of the UK, and humanity relies on the healthy functioning of large ecosystems to survive.

Biodiversity is also the foundation of the global economy. More than half of global GDP – equal to $41.7tn (£34.6tn) – is dependent on the healthy functioning of the natural world, according to the insurance group Swiss Re.

Why should we worry?

Earth is experiencing the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs, and humans are to blame. The way we mine, pollute, hunt, farm, build and travel is putting at least one million species at risk of extinction, according to scientists. The sixth mass extinction in geological history has already begun, some scientists assert, with billions of individual populations being lost.

Unlike changes to the climate, which could be reversible even if it takes thousands of years, extinctions and the eradication of ecosystems are permanent.

As well as underpinning the health of ecosystems, biodiversity provides our basic needs. Human existence relies on having clean air, food and a habitable climate, all of which are regulated by the natural world. For example, 95% of the food we eat is produced in the soil, an ecosystem we know almost nothing about. Yet up to 40% of the world’s land is severely degraded by unsustainable agricultural practices, according to the UN.

Monarch butterflies are considered an ‘indicator species’ for the health of the surrounding ecosystem. 

Photograph: Sylvain Cordier/Getty

Likewise, the extinction of animals, insects, plants, and all living things has huge knock-on effects. Species need to be working together in harmony in order to thrive and provide the essential services humans need to survive. This is why biodiversity is so important. Life on Earth is like a giant web, and our actions are causing its threads to unravel. We cannot afford for it to fall apart.

Human activity has impacted both the abundance and diversity of animals and plants

Decline in global biomass of wild mammals 82%*

Decline of natural ecosystems 47%

Plant and animal species threatened with extinction 25%

Decline in abundance of naturally present land species 23%*

Guardian graphic. Source: IPBES. *Since prehistory

What species are in trouble?

We are seeing huge declines in wildlife across the board. According to scientists, insect numbers are plummeting, with some saying we’re living through an “insect apocalypse”; more than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and likely to be lost within 20 years; one in five reptiles are facing extinction; one in eight bird species are threatened; and 40% of the world’s plant species are at risk.

The five biggest threats to biodiversity are changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of natural resources; the climate crisis; pollution and invasive species.

All wildlife is affected by human-induced destruction. A report from 2018 written by 59 scientists found humans had wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, with the authors warning we are “sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff”. Even if the destruction were to end now, it would take between five and seven million years for the natural world to recover, researchers warn.

What happened at the last nature Cop?

Governments have never met any of the targets they have set in the history of the UN convention on biological diversity. From tackling pollution to protecting coral reefs, the international community did not fully achieve any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets agreed at Cop10 in Japan in 2010. It was a similar story in the decade before that.

However, much has changed since 2010 and the Paris agreement, despite its flaws, restored some faith in UN processes for protecting the environment. There is still hope that Cop15 could be nature’s “Paris moment”.

How could Cop15 help stop biodiversity loss?

The 21 draft targets to be negotiated in Montreal include proposals to eliminate plastic pollution, reduce pesticide use by two-thirds, halve the rate of invasive species introduction and do away with billions of pounds worth of harmful environmental government subsidies. The goals also include reducing the current rate of extinctions by 90%, enhancing the integrity of all ecosystems, valuing nature’s contribution to humanity and providing the financial resources to achieve this vision.
What are the big issues?

As with climate talks, there are significant divisions between the global north and south leading up to Cop15, and the fault lines focus on four big issues: money, 30x30 (a target to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030), the monitoring of targets, and a row over digital sequence information relating to biopiracy.

Momentum has built around a target to protect 30% of land and sea by the end of decade but concerns remain that the rights of Indigenous peoples will not be protected.

A Munduruku Indian woman carries a monkey on her head while on a search for illegal goldmines in western Para state, Brazil. 

Photograph: Lunae Parracho/Reuters

World leaders such as Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau and Ursula von der Leyen have made much of the importance of Cop15 in stopping biodiversity loss, but many developing countries say they need more money if they are to expand protected areas and grow their economies in a less destructive way than their rich counterparts. As such, the global south does not want to agree to targets such as 30x30, with strict monitoring requirements, without anything in return.


Put the planet before football, UN head of Cop15 nature summit tells leaders

A row over how countries are compensated for drug discoveries and other commercial projects using digital versions is also a sticking point, with the Africa group warning it will not sign off on anything unless there is an agreement on digital sequence information (DSI) in the final framework.
What are we hoping for?

A positive final agreement that will be ambitious enough to halt the decline of nature, but modest enough to make targets achievable. There are plenty of quick wins available – invasive species eradication on islands, crackdowns on pollution, money for restoration efforts – but it will ultimately depend on the will of heads of state. Cop15 will be the moment to turn rhetoric into action and become a key part of the UN’s wider ambition for humans to live in harmony with nature by 2050.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

Maybe US mainstream media should begin using the term ‘fascism’

My tweet about Ron DeSantis provoked outrage in rightwing media – perhaps it hit the nerve of the fascism now taking root in the Republican party?

‘If you’re seeking a presidential nomination in today’s GOP, there’s nothing like an accusation of fascism to rally Trump supporters.’ 

Photograph: Octavio Jones/Reuters

Robert Reich
Wed 31 Aug 2022 

I’ve been watching the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, for some time. Last Tuesday I tweeted: “Just wondering if ‘DeSantis’ is now officially a synonym for ‘fascist’.”

I was surprised at the outrage my little tweet provoked in rightwing media.

The Washington Examiner, for example, called me an “ultra-leftwing elitist” who wrote an “insulting slur”, which is “what leftwing ideologues do when they discuss Republican politicians who pose any threat to the existence of their political ideology … Anyone the Democrats don’t like or disagree with is a fascist.”

This was among the kindest responses.

After a half-century in and around politics, I’ve got a thick skin. But the size of the blowback on my little tweet makes me think I struck a nerve.

DeSantis is the most likely rival to Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024. The Harvard and Yale educated DeSantis (what do they teach at Harvard and Yale?) has been called “Trump with a brain”.

DeSantis is the nation’s consummate culture warrior. Lately he has been campaigning on behalf of Republican election-deniers around the country, including gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania and US Senate candidate JD Vance in Ohio.

In Florida, discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity are now barred in schools. Math textbooks have been rejected for what officials call “indoctrination”. Claiming tenured professors in Florida’s public universities were “indoctrinating” students, DeSantis spearheaded a law requiring them to be reviewed every five years.

Teachers are limited in what they can teach about racism and other tragic aspects of American history. DeSantis has got personally involved in local school board races, endorsing and campaigning for 30 board candidates who agree with him (so far, 20 have won outright, five are going to runoffs).

Abortions are banned after 15 weeks. (DeSantis recently suspended an elected prosecutor who said he would refuse to enforce the anti-abortion law.)

A new state office has been created to investigate “election crimes”.

Florida’s Medicaid regulator is considering denying state-subsidized treatments to transgender people. Its medical board may ban gender-affirming medical treatment for youths.

Disney (Florida’s largest employer) has been stripped of the ability to govern itself in retaliation for the company’s opposition to the crackdown on LGBTQ+ conversations with schoolchildren.

Florida’s congressional map has been redrawn to give Republicans an even bigger advantage.

DeSantis also spews culture-war rhetoric. “We are not going to surrender to woke,” he said last Tuesday. “Florida is the state where woke goes to die.”

He describes an America under assault by leftwing elites, who “want to delegitimize our founding institutions”.

He calls the state of Florida a “citadel of freedom” and says his job as governor is to fight critical race theory, “Faucian dystopia”, uncontrolled immigration, big tech, “leftwing oligarchs”, “Soros-funded prosecutors”, transgender athletes and the “corporate media”.

He charges – using a standard racist dog whistle – that “we’re not letting Florida cities burn down … In Florida, you’re not going to get a slap on the wrist. You are getting the inside of a jail cell.”

So, is it useful to characterize DeSantis’s combination of homophobia, transphobia, racism and misogyny, along with his efforts to control the public schools and universities and to intimidate the private sector (eg, Disney), as redolent of fascism?

America’s mainstream media is by now comfortable talking and writing about “authoritarianism”. Maybe it should also begin using the term “fascism”, where appropriate.

Even Joe Biden, never known as a rhetorical bomb-thrower, last Thursday accused the Republican party of “semi-fascism”.

Authoritarianism implies the absence of democracy, a dictatorship. Fascism – from the Latin fasces, denoting a tightly bound bundle of wooden rods typically including a protruding axe blade, adopted by Benito Mussolini in the 1930s to symbolize his total power – is different.

Fascism also includes hatred of “them” (people considered different by race or religion, or outside the mainstream, or who were born abroad), control over what people learn and what books they are allowed to read, control over what had been independent government units (school boards, medical boards, universities and so on), control over women and the most intimate and difficult decisions they’ll ever make, and demands that the private sector support the regime.

Perhaps my “just wondering” tweet about DeSantis hit the nerve of the fascism now taking root in the Republican party?

Or is DeSantis’s own nascent presidential campaign behind the outsized reaction to my tweet?

After all, if you’re seeking a presidential nomination in today’s GOP, there’s nothing like an accusation of fascism to rally Trump supporters. It might be a particularly useful strategy if your primary opponent in 2024 will be Trump.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com

Protests in India against release of 11 convicted rapists

By BHUMIKA SARASWATI

August 27, 2022

1 of 9

A woman holds a placard during a protest against remission of sentence by the government to convicts of a gang rape of a Muslim woman, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. The victim, who is now in her 40s, was pregnant when she was brutally gang raped in communal violence in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat, which saw over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed in some of the worst religious riots India has experienced since its independence from Britain in 1947. 

(AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)


NEW DELHI (AP) — Hundreds of people on Saturday held demonstrations in several parts of India to protest a recent government decision to free 11 men who had been jailed for life for gang raping a Muslim woman during India’s devastating 2002 religious riots.

The protesters in the country’s capital, New Delhi, chanted slogans and demanded the government in the western state of Gujarat rescind the decision. They also sang songs in solidarity with the victim.

Similar protests were also held in several other states.

The 11 men, released on suspended sentences on Aug. 15 when India celebrated 75 years of independence, were convicted in 2008 of rape, murder and unlawful assembly.

The victim, who is now in her 40s, recently said the decision by the Gujarat state government has left her numb and shaken her faith in justice.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault.

The victim was pregnant when she was brutally gang raped in communal violence in 2002 in Gujarat, which saw over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, killed in some of the worst religious riots India has experienced since its independence from Britain in 1947. Seven members of the woman’s family, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed in the violence.

“The whole country should demand an answer directly from the prime minister of this country,” said Kavita Krishnan, a prominent activist.

Officials in Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party holds power, have said that the convicts’ application for remission was granted because they had completed over 14 years in jail. The men were eligible under a 1992 remission policy that was in effect at the time of their conviction, officials said. A newer version of the policy adopted in 2014 by the federal government prohibits remission release for those convicted of certain crimes, including rape and murder.

The riots have long hounded Modi, who was Gujarat’s top elected official at the time, amid allegations that authorities allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed. Modi has repeatedly denied having any role and the Supreme Court has said it found no evidence to prosecute him.

Asiya Qureshi, a young protester in New Delhi, said she participated in the demonstrations to seek justice for the victim.

“Modi gave a speech on 15th August on the safety and protection of women of India and the same day they released the rapists,” Qureshi said. “How am I safe in such a climate?”

UK STRIKES
Garbage piles in Scotland raise health concerns amid strikes

August 27, 2022

1 of 8

A view of overflowing bins in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh where cleansing workers from the City of Edinburgh Council are on the fourth day of eleven of strike action, in Scotland, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Workers at waste and recycling depots across the city have rejected a formal pay offer of 3.5 percent from councils body Cosla. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Stinking piles of garbage on the streets of Edinburgh are threatening the health and safety of the public, a health authority warned Saturday as strikes by garbage collectors in the Scottish capital moved into their ninth day.

The warning from Public Health Scotland came as garbage collectors in Newham, a borough of London, also walked out for a week over a pay dispute.

Images of food waste and diapers rotting on the streets is just adding to scenes of chaos in U.K. as industrial disputes multiply amid soaring food and energy costs. Bathers in the U.K. were warned last week to stay away from dozens of beaches as heavy rain flushed raw sewage into rivers and seas.

Public Health Scotland told local authorities that the “decontamination of public areas where bins have overflowed may be required.” It warned that “if organic waste builds up, it can become a risk to human health.”

Garbage collectors walked out on Aug. 18 and plan to stay off work until Aug. 30. Even more strikes lay ahead if the pay dispute is not resolved.

Britain is facing a massive cost-of-living crisis, with wage increases failing to keep up with inflation, which last week stood at 10.1%. Those financial challenges have only been increased due to soaring energy costs — authorities say residents in Britain will see an 80% increase in their annual energy bills in October.

The country has seen waves of strikes this summer, with the public transport system grinding to a virtual halt on several days due to rail strikes. Primary schools and nurseries in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, will be forced to close for several days next month if a strike from council workers goes ahead.

In London, garbage drivers in Newham Council began a week of walkouts on Saturday, with union officials warning there could be more. Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said those workers were paid less than others in neighboring councils.

“The council must now focus on reaching a deal with the workers, who face a financial crisis,” Graham said. “If they don’t, then the coming days will undoubtedly mean more industrial action.”

Britain’s image has taken a battering this summer. French lawmakers in the European Parliament complained this week that the raw sewage flushed into rivers and seas by the U.K. also threatens bathing waters, fishing grounds and biodiversity in the European Union as well.

Parts of Britain’s sewage system became overwhelmed after several days of unseasonably heavy rainfall.

___

Follow all AP stories on the environment at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

DEBTORS PRISON U$A

At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt

By PAT EATON-ROBB

August 27, 2022

1 of 4

In this Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022 photo, Fred Hodges, left, and Da'ee McKnight at their workplace, Family ReEntry, a reentry support group aiming to break cycles of violence, crime and incarceration in Bridgeport, Conn. Hodges and McKnight are former Connecticut inmates who have been paying for cost of their incarceration.

 (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two decades after her release from prison, Teresa Beatty feels she is still being punished.

When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes.

Now, she’s afraid she’ll have to sell her home of 51 years, where she lives with two adult children, a grandchild and her disabled brother.

“I’m about to be homeless,” said Beatty, 58, who in March became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state law that charges prisoners $249 a day for the cost of their incarceration. “I just don’t think it’s right, because I feel I already paid my debt to society. I just don’t think it’s fair for me to be paying twice.”

All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars, though not every state actually pursues people for the money. Supporters say the collections are a legitimate way for states to recoup millions of taxpayer dollars spent on prisons and jails.

Critics say it’s an unfair second penalty that hinders rehabilitation by putting former inmates in debt for life. Efforts have been underway in some places to scale back or eliminate such policies.

Two states — Illinois and New Hampshire — have repealed their laws since 2019.

Connecticut also overhauled its statute this year, keeping it in place only for the most serious crimes, such as murder, and exempting prisoners from having to pay the first $50,000 of their incarceration costs.

Under the revised law, about 98% of Connecticut inmates no longer have to pay any of the costs of their incarceration after they get out, said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat and a sponsor of the repeal legislation.

The state retained its ability, though, to collect some prison debts already on the books before the law changed. It’s unclear whether the change in the law, made after Beatty sued, will be enough to keep her in her home. That will be decided in court.

Her lawyers have asked a federal judge to block the state from enforcing the law against anyone, saying it remains unfair even after the amendments.

Beatty acknowledges she was guilty of selling and possessing drugs, but said nobody told her when she went to jail that every day behind bars would cost her more than a night at a fine hotel.

“It just drags you back to despair,” said Beatty, who has had other brushes with the law over drug possession since her release from jail, but has also become a certified nursing assistant. “That’s where I feel like I’m at. I feel like no hope. Where do I go? All of this work and it feels like I’ve done it in vain.”

Pay-to-stay laws were put into place in many areas during the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and ’90s, said Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Southern California who is leading a study of the practice.

As prison populations ballooned, Friedman said, policymakers questioned how to pay for incarceration costs. “So, instead of raising taxes, the solution was to shift the cost burden from the state and the taxpayers onto the incarcerated.”

Laws vary from state to state. Many, like Connecticut, only go after inmates for the cost of incarceration if they come into money after leaving prison. A few, such as North Carolina, have laws on the books but almost never use them, Friedman said.

Connecticut’s partial repeal went into effect July 1. The state is projected to collect about $5.5 million less per year from ex-prisoners because of the change.

State Sen. John Kissel, the top Republican on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said he opposed the repeal passed by the Democratic majority, but might support reforms like allowing inmates to pay off debt in installments.

Kissel said that while Beatty’s situation tugs at one’s heartstrings, “Everybody has issues.”

“The policy is to make one appreciate that your incarceration costs money,” he said. “The taxpayers footed the bill. They didn’t do anything wrong. And knowing that one has to pay the state back a reasonable sum on a regular basis is not a bad policy.”

Connecticut used to collect prison debt by attaching an automatic lien to every inmate, claiming half of any financial windfall they might receive for up to 20 years after they are released from prison, said Dan Barrett, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. That included things like insurance settlements, inheritances and lottery winnings.

The state even collected money awarded to inmates in lawsuits over alleged abuse by prison guards.

Former Connecticut inmate Fred Hodges, who served more than 17 years in prison for killing a man while trying to retrieve his son’s stolen bicycle, came into $21,000 after his car was totaled in a 2009 traffic accident. The state claimed half of that, he said. After paying his lawyer, he was left with about $3,000.

“I have seven grandchildren and the money could have helped them. It could have helped me,” said Hodges, who works for a nonprofit that helps other inmates reenter society. “You’d be surprised at the effect it can have on you psychologically when they tell you you owe them $249 a day. I was locked up for 17 1/2 years. At $249 a day, how are you going to come up out of that?”

Beatty’s lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status, argues that the pay-to-stay seizures violate the excessive fines clause of the Constitution.

Da’ee McKnight, who works with Hodges as a coordinator for an organization called Family ReEntry, said the state took an insurance settlement from him, even though he served most of his sentence before the law was on the books.

“Here, I’m being penalized for something that I was not even made aware of at the time I was sentenced, because it did not even exist,” he said.

____

Associated Press writer Dave Collins contributed to this report.

ZIONIST POLICE STATE

Israeli Supreme Court rejects hunger striker’s petition


1 of 5

Khalil Awawdeh, a Palestinian who has been on a hunger strike for several months protesting being jailed without charge or trial under what Israel refers to as administrative detention, lies in bed at Asaf Harofeh Hospital in Be'er Ya'akov, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Israel's Supreme Court court rejected an appeal by his lawyer on Sunday calling for his immediate release due to his failing medical condition. Around 670 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention by Israel. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition for the release of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for nearly six months and whose lawyer says is in danger of “sudden death.”

Khalil Awawdeh is protesting being held by Israel in what’s known as administrative detention, a practice in which detainees suspected of militant activities are imprisoned for months or years without charge or trial.

In recent pictures he resembles a human skeleton, his skin tightly stretched over a bony frame.

Israel says administrative detention is needed to keep dangerous militants off the streets without revealing sensitive intelligence. The Palestinians and rights groups say it denies detainees the basic right of due process.

Awawdeh’s lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, says Israel accuses him of being a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group, an allegation he denies. Islamic Jihad demanded his release as part of a cease-fire that ended a flare-up of violence in Gaza earlier this month, but did not identify him as a member.

Haddad says the 40-year-old Awawdeh weighs 37 kilograms (around 80 pounds) and is suffering from neurological damage. He took vitamins over two weeks in June when he thought his case was being resolved but has otherwise only had water since the strike began in March, his family says.

“He is in a stage between life and death,” Haddad said. “According to the medical literature, he is in a danger of a sudden death.”

In its ruling, the court said it “hopes that the petitioner will come to his senses and stop the hunger strike,” adding that it was confident he would receive the necessary medical care.

Israel has officially suspended his arrest, but he remains in custody at an Israeli hospital.

Several Palestinians have gone on prolonged hunger strike in recent years to protest being held in administrative detention. In most cases, Israel has eventually released them after their health significantly deteriorated. None have died in custody, but many have suffered irreparable neurological damage.

Israel is currently holding some 4,400 Palestinian prisoners, including militants who have carried out deadly attacks, as well as people arrested at protests or for throwing stones. The Palestinians view all of them as political prisoners held for resisting Israel’s 55-year military occupation of territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

Around 670 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention. The number has jumped since March, as Israel has carried out near-nightly arrest raids in the occupied West Bank following a series of deadly attacks against Israeli

‘It’s had a chilling effect’: Florida teachers anxious about ‘don’t say gay’ bill


Lack of guidance by state’s education department and possible implications has teachers worried as school year begins

The Tampa Pride 2022 was held in the wake of the passage of Florida's controversial "don't say gay" bill. Photograph: Octavio Jones/Getty Images


Michael Sainato

Wed 31 Aug 2022 

Michael Woods, a high school special education teacher in Palm Beach county, Florida, with 30 years of experience teaching and who grew up as a student in the area who was bullied for being gay, said he cried the night before this school year began in August 2022 because of anxiety related to Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill that went into effect in July 2022.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis attacks media in ‘Top Gun’ campaign ad

“As a gay teacher, as a queer male, it’s been painful for me, it’s been very painful and very upsetting,” said Woods. “It’s had a chilling effect, because I’m really questioning myself, about what conversations I can have and there’s really no clarity on it.”

Before the school year began, Woods’ district issued guidance over reviewing all books in classrooms for anything that could be perceived as controversial in regards to the new legislation, which prompted him to remove a library that he’s maintained in his classroom for over 20 years because of how arduous a task it would be to review every single book.

Woods has had several longtime teachers email him with questions about the law, as the Florida department of education still hasn’t issued guidance on the legislation for teachers from fourth to 12th grade. Teachers are also worried about the implications of what violating the law could be, from facing lawsuits to termination.

“I went to school in this district and I thought we had resolved all these issues, and created safe spaces, because I remember being bullied. And I feel almost like as an adult, I’m being re-bullied by these laws,” added Woods. “If you’re going to write legislation, it should be a requirement that it positively impacts the classroom, that it positively impacts teaching, that it positively gives strategies that will make kids successful, and not make it and their adult teachers feel like they are less than or they don’t matter. Because I do matter. My kids matter.”
I think the biggest thing going into the school year is this bill ... gives parents the ability to bring complaints against teachers, bring lawsuits against school districts ...Andrew Spar

The bill, called the parental educational rights bill by its Republican authors, prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, but also vaguely prohibits instruction deemed age inappropriate in the public school system. The bill also grants parents the right to file lawsuits for damages if a school district doesn’t resolve a complaint about their child’s education.

That vagueness and the rhetoric of the bill’s proponents have incited fears and anxiety that the legislation will be used to suppress and intimidate acknowledgement of the LGBTQ+ community in schools and embolden hate toward the LGBTQ+ community.

“These bills are all based on false pretenses, their lies, they’re based on lies, they make assumptions that something is happening in our schools area, that teachers are somehow indoctrinating our students, teaching them to be gay, or whatever the case may be,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.

Spar added: “I think the biggest thing going into the school year is the unknown, because this bill and these other bills that are out there, give parents the ability to bring complaints against teachers, bring lawsuits against school districts, and we just don’t know how it’s going to play out.”

Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the bill as LGBTQ+ groups have strongly opposed the legislation.

The White House criticized the bill and characterized it as “discrimination, plain and simple. It’s part of a disturbing and dangerous nationwide trend of rightwing politicians cynically targeting LGBTQI+ students, educators, and individuals to score political points.”

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, signing the ‘don’t say gay’ bill in March 2022. Photograph: Douglas R Clifford/AP

The bill has gone into effect as Florida is currently facing a shortage of more than 9,000 teacher and staff vacancies across the state.

Clinton McCracken, the president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association in Orlando, Florida, explained he and the district have been working on trying to develop and issue guidance over questions and concerns teachers and students have on how the legislation impacts them, and trying to reaffirm support.

Despite this, McCracken noted there are still concerns over issues such as when to report to parents that their child is having sexual identity issues and fears over parents and far-right groups intent on targeting teachers and the ongoing rhetoric from Florida Republican leaders that vilifies teachers.

“Because the law was written in such a vague way, there are a lot of teachers who are self censoring,” said McCracken.

He argued rather than have to worry about politically motivated culture war attacks on teachers and public education, that teachers would like to see issues such as staffing shortages, low pay, and inadequate funding of public education be addressed.

Florida ranks 48th in the US in overall teacher salaries. According to EducationData.org, Florida ranks 42nd in the US for public education spending and single pupil spending falls thousands of dollars below the national average.

“All of these real huge concerns in public education is what we should be talking about in the news and the governor should be talking about,” added McCracken. “It should be considered a crisis in education but he has everyone talking about these false flag narratives. It’s all very frustrating because we do have massive problems in public education and this isn’t one of them.”

Crist picks Miami teachers union leader as running mate

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

August 27, 2022

1 of 10

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist celebrates as he announces his running mate Karla Hernández-Mats at Hialeah Middle School in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday Aug. 27, 2022 as he challenges Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in November (AP Photo/Gaston De Cardenas)


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Democrat Charlie Crist on Saturday tapped Miami-Dade County teachers union president Karla Hernandez-Mats as his running mate as he challenges Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Crist, a congressman who served as the state’s Republican governor a decade ago, announced United Teachers of Dade President Hernandez-Mats as his lieutenant governor pick at a brief rally in South Florida, describing her as a compassionate former teacher of special needs children with the “heart” necessary to govern.

“Caring, loving, empathic, compassionate — that’s what we don’t have in the governor’s office right now and that’s what you deserve to have in the governor’s office,” Crist said before introducing Hernandez-Mats to the crowd.

The selection of Hernandez-Mats ensures a campaign focus on education, an arena where DeSantis has had success in animating his conservative base through his hands-off approach to the coronavirus pandemic and policies limiting classroom discussions of race and LGBTQ issues

Crist secured the Democratic nomination this week after a campaign that focused heavily on criticizing DeSantis as a “bully” who gained political prominence through his willingness to exploit cultural divides on gender, sexuality and race.

On Saturday, Hernandez-Mats framed the Democratic ticket as a way to “bring decency and respect back to the state of Florida” and preserve abortion access and voting rights.

“It has been dark in here but we’re going to bring the sunshine back,” she said.

Hernandez-Mats advocated delaying students’ return to school in the fall of 2020 and continuing mask mandates in 2021, in defiance of DeSantis’ administration. She has also previously been critical of a new law critics have dubbed “ Don’t Say Gay, ” which bars classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade as well as material that is not deemed age-appropriate.

The daughter of two Honduran immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1970s, Hernandez-Mats was the first Hispanic elected to lead the United Teachers of Dade in 2016. She was born in Miami and her father picked tomatoes in the Everglades before becoming a carpenter and labor leader, according to a statement from Crist’s campaign.



Crist defeated state agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried in the Democratic primary in a race that increasingly centered on abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and a new Florida law that bans abortions after 15 weeks. Fried often questioned Crist’s Democratic bonafides, highlighting his appointment of conservative state Supreme Court justices while he was a GOP governor. The state’s high court is soon expected to decide the constitutionality of the GOP-backed 15-week ban.

Crist on Saturday reiterated a pledge to sign an executive order protecting a woman’s right to choose, upon the first day of his new administration.

DeSantis as governor has become one of the most popular Republicans in America, with his frequent and vocal opposition to Democratic President Joe Biden and liberal policies on abortion and gender issues winning him large sums from wealthy GOP donors and fueling speculation of a 2024 presidential bid.

In Florida, with the help of the GOP-controlled Legislature, DeSantis has carried out a brash approach to policymaking, exerting unusual control over the state’s congressional redistricting process, suspending an elected prosecutor who pledged not to enforce the 15-week abortion ban and punishing Disney for opposing the law that bars lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3.

The governor this week, in a speech after Crist’s primary win, did not mention Crist by name, instead casting the general election as a battle against Biden and “woke” ideology.