U.S. seeks to expand birth control coverage under Obamacare


A sign on an insurance store advertises Obamacare in San Ysidro

Mon, January 30, 2023
By Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Women whose employers have opted out of covering contraceptives under their health insurance plans on religious grounds would gain no-cost access to birth control under a rule proposed by the Biden administration on Monday.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, requires private insurance plans to cover recommended preventive services including contraception without any patient cost-sharing, but current regulations grant exemptions for religious or moral objections.

If the new rule is implemented, women enrolled in plans governed by the ACA would gain birth control coverage regardless of employer exemption, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement.

"Today's proposed rule works to ensure that the tens of millions of women across the country who have and will benefit from the ACA will be protected. It says to women across the country, we have your back," said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Under existing regulations, those enrolled in plans that do not cover contraception on religious or moral grounds can only access contraceptive services through an accommodation that employers can decline to offer.

Under the new rule, a provider would offer contraception at no cost to the employee and be reimbursed by an insurer, who would receive a credit from the government.

The rule would also remove employer moral objections as grounds for exemption from coverage but keep religious ones in place.

(Reporting Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Devika Syamnath and Cynthia Osterman)

White House moves to strengthen ObamaCare contraception requirement



Nathaniel Weixel
Mon, January 30, 2023 

The Biden administration is proposing an expansion of contraceptive coverage, including removing moral exemptions finalized under the Trump administration that made it easier for private health plans and insurers to exclude coverage of birth control.

The proposal, released Monday by the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Treasury and Labor, would remove the moral exemption but retain the existing religious exemption. Under the Trump administration rules issued in 2018, entities that have “sincerely held religious beliefs” against providing contraceptives are not required to do so.

Employers are not required to notify HHS if they have a moral objection. The agency said far more employers have invoked religious objections than moral; about 18 employers have claimed that exemption and around 15 employees are affected.

It would also establish a new independent pathway for individuals enrolled in plans or coverage offered by religious employers to obtain contraceptive services at no cost directly from a willing provider or facility that furnishes contraceptive services.

This would allow individuals and their covered dependents to “navigate their own care and still obtain birth control at no cost in the event their plan or insurer has a religious exemption,” the agencies said in the proposal.

The proposal aims to strengthen ObamaCare’s free contraception requirements while also balancing the religious objections certain employers have to providing that service. The law requires all health insurance offered by the vast majority of employers to cover at least one of 18 forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The so-called “individual contraceptive arrangement” would be available to the participant, beneficiary or enrollee without the plan sponsor or issuer having to take any action it objects to.

“Simply put, the action is undertaken by the individual, for the individual,” the agencies said in the proposal.

Ensuring access to contraception at no cost “is a national public health imperative,” the agencies said, as it can help people “exercise control over their reproductive health and family planning decisions, particularly in states with prohibitions or tight restrictions on abortion.”

In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “has placed a heightened importance on access to contraceptive services nationwide,” the agencies said in the proposal.

“Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it, and – thanks to the ACA – with no out-of-pocket cost,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Becerra emphasized the Biden administration was taking actions that worked within the “confines of the law.”

“The actions we took are consistent with the law, to try to make sure that we are protecting the rights of all Americans to access the health care they need. At the same time, protecting religious freedoms,” Becerra said.

“We wanted to make sure that in this very, very critical time that everyone had access to [a] caregiver they might need, and they should not be obstructed based on a basis that is impermissible by law.”

When asked why this action wasn’t taken sooner, Becerra said the decision was rolled out in a way to “raise the confidence level of the American people.”

“If you can show that you went through this in a very studied, methodical way to make sure you got it right — and so here there are many interests that are impacted and we wanted to make sure we did this in a way that was not just compliant with the law, but that people of reasonable mind would look at this and say it makes sense,” Becerra said.

The rule extended the provision to organizations and small businesses that have objections “on the basis of moral conviction which is not based in any particular religious belief.”

The rules apply to all nonprofit and for-profit employers with sincerely held religious objections, as well as private universities and colleges with religious objections with respect to student health insurance coverage.

The current rule allows employers to invoke an accommodation so they don’t have to provide coverage for birth control, so long as employees still were able to receive birth control seamlessly, without any barriers.

But under the rule, employers that object to providing coverage are not required to inform participants that the plan does not cover contraceptive services, and the accommodation is optional. There are no alternative mechanisms to provide contraceptive coverage for affected employees — leaving many people without coverage, the agencies said.

Updated at 4:53 p.m.

The Hill.

Carrier Emirates test flies Boeing 777 on sustainable fuel


FILE - An Emirates jetliner comes in for landing at the Dubai International Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Long-haul carrier Emirates successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight Monday, Jan. 30, 2023, with one engine entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel. This comes as carriers worldwide try to lessen their carbon footprint. 

JON GAMBRELL
Mon, January 30, 2023 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates successfully flew a Boeing 777 on a test flight Monday with one of its two engines entirely powered by so-called sustainable aviation fuel. This comes as carriers worldwide try to lessen their carbon footprint.

Flight 2646 flew for just under an hour over the coastline of the United Arab Emirates, after taking off from Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, and heading out into the Persian Gulf before circling to land. The second of the plane's General Electric Co. engines ran on conventional jet fuel for safety.

“This flight is a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges — reducing our carbon footprint," Adel al-Redha, Emirates' chief operation officer, said in a statement.

Emirates, a state-owned airline under Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, described the sustainable fuel as a blend “that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel.” It included fuel from Neste, a Finnish firm, and Virent, a Madison, Wisconsin-based company.

Virent describes itself as using plant-based sugars to make the compounds needed for sustainable jet fuel, while Neste's fuel comes from vegetable oils and animal fats. Those fuels reduce the release of heat-trapping carbon dioxide typically burned off by engines in flight.

Aviation releases only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. However, airplanes are used by far fewer people per day — meaning aviation is a higher per-capita source of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Airplane and engine manufacturers have been designing more-efficient models, in part to help keep down costs of jet fuel — one of the biggest expenses airlines face. Emirates, for instance, used over 5.7 million tons of jet fuel last year alone, costing it $3.7 billion out of its $17 billion in annual expenses.

But analysts suggest sustainable fuels can be three times or more the cost of jet fuel, likely putting ticket prices even higher as aviation restarts following the lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

It wasn't immediately clear how much the fuel used in the Emirates' test on Monday cost per barrel. Jet fuel cost on average $146 a barrel at the end of last week, according to S&P Global Platts.

The UAE, a major oil producer and OPEC member, is to host the next United Nations climate negotiations, or COP28, beginning in November. Already, the seven sheikhdom federation has been criticized for nominating the CEO of Abu Dhabi's state oil company to lead the U.N. negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties — where COP gets its name.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Fight climate change without slowing growth: UAE's COP28 chief


Mohamad Ali Harissi
Mon, 30 January 2023 


The fight against global warming should not be at the expense of economic growth, the United Arab Emirates' oil chief who will lead this year's UN climate talks said on Monday.

Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE' special envoy for climate change and CEO of oil giant ADNOC, said the energy transition needed to make the planet "wealthier and healthier".

"We need to hold back the global rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees (Celsius), without slowing economic growth," he told a graduation ceremony at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence.

"We need to drive an inclusive energy transition that leaves no one behind, especially in the Global South. We need to make our planet wealthier and healthier at the same time."

Al Jaber's appointment as president of COP28 has been criticised by activists who said it threatens the "legitimacy" of the global forum against climate change.

The minister of industry and advanced technology is a veteran of COP meetings and heads a leading renewable energy company. His appointment was welcomed by US climate envoy John Kerry.

On Monday, France's economy minister urged delegates to get behind Al Jaber and focus on "concrete decisions".

"Don't misunderstand the challenge of COP28," Bruno Le Maire said in Abu Dhabi.

"The challenge of COP28 is not to know who is in charge of the COP. The key challenge of the COP28 are the results, the concrete decisions."

- 'Single winner' -

The French minister, who also visited Qatar as part of his trip to the Gulf, said he had been reassured by Al Jaber and members of the UAE government regarding their approach to the climate conference.

"I think all the participants to the COP28 should ... try to support the efforts of the presidency of COP28 so that at the end of COP28 the single winner will be our planet."

The last UN climate talks, in Egypt in November, ended with a landmark deal to create a "loss and damage" fund to cover the costs that developing countries face from climate-linked natural disasters and impacts like rising sea levels.

But observers were left disappointed that little progress was made on reducing planet-heating emissions from fossil fuels.

The UAE, one of the world's biggest oil producers, argues that crude remains indispensable to the global economy and is needed to finance the energy transition.

The Gulf monarchy is pushing the merits of carbon capture -- removing carbon dioxide as fuel is burned, or from the air.

It is also spending billions to develop enough renewable energy to cover half of its needs by 2050, when it is targeting net-zero domestic carbon emissions -- which do not include pollution from exported oil.

mah/th/ho/fz

KRIMINAL KAPITALI$M

Wealthy Russian undertook $90 million hack-and-trade scheme, U.S. says at trial



Vladislav Klyushin, an owner of an information technology company with ties to the Russian government

Mon, January 30, 2023 
By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) -A wealthy Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin made tens of millions of dollars trading on secret financial information obtained by hackers about multiple companies before it was public, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday at the start of his trial.

Vladislav Klyushin, 42, and his associates made nearly $90 million trading stocks based on yet-to-be-announced information about hundreds of publicly-traded companies stolen by hackers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank told a federal jury in Boston.

"The defendant had tomorrow's news - tomorrow's headlines -today," Frank said in his opening statement. "And he exploited it for tens of millions of dollars in profits."

Klyushin, whose technology company M-13 did work for Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, personally turned a $2 million investment into $21 million, trading on hacked information and brought other investors into the scheme, Frank said.

The hackers who obtained the information, prosecutors said, include Ivan Ermakov, a former Russian military intelligence officer wanted on separate U.S. charges over allegations he was involved in schemes that interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Frank did not mention Putin or that election-related case, as a judge has barred reference to it at trial. But he stressed Ermakov worked with Klyushin and his associates to secure "big money" through hacked information.

Klyushin has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, unauthorized access to computers, and securities fraud.

'ZERO EVIDENCE' - DEFENSE

Klyushin's lawyer Maksim Nemtsev countered that the prosecution's case was built on "gaping holes and inferences."

He said there was "zero evidence" Klyushin ever saw or possessed a stolen earnings report and that instead his client had built up an operation within M-13 to monitor media and gauge investor sentiment that could be used instead for trading.

"There’s nothing illegal about being Russian, about having wealth, about having an IT technology company that contracts with the government," Nemtsev told the jury.

The three-week trial coincides with a low point in U.S.-Russia relations following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The case predates the war, but Klyushin's connections to the Kremlin have long intrigued U.S. authorities.

Klyushin was arrested in Switzerland while on a ski trip in March 2021 and was later extradited. His Swiss lawyer, Oliver Ciric, has said that before his arrest, U.S. and British intelligence agencies had tried to recruit him.

On Monday in court, the prosecutor Frank said that at M-13, Ermakov and others broke into the networks of two firms that help publicly traded companies file reports with securities regulators, Donnelley Financial Solutions and Toppan Merrill.

Hackers from 2018 to 2020 viewed and download yet-to-be-announced earnings reports for hundreds of companies including Tesla Inc, Microsoft Corp and Kohl's, which Klyushin and others used to trade before the news was public, Frank said.

"It wasn’t luck, and it wasn’t because of carefully financial research either," Frank said to the jury. "The defendant cheated."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Grant McCool)

Omar says McCarthy following playbook ‘used by demagogues throughout history’



Julia Mueller
Sun, January 29, 2023 

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Sunday said Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is following a political playbook “used by demagogues throughout history” by trying to “pit minority groups against each other” in his bid to remove her from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

McCarthy has accused Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, of “repeated antisemitic and anti-American remarks” in explaining his bid to sanction her.

Omar has apologized for comments that critics said echoed antisemitic tropes, while defending her criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

In a thread on Twitter Sunday night, Omar cited repeated examples of Republicans making offensive comments about Jewish people and Muslims, and accused McCarthy of demagoguery.

“McCarthy is following a well worn playbook: pit minority groups against each other in order to further marginalize them. It has been used by demagogues throughout history and it won’t work,” Omar said on Twitter.

McCarthy “did nothing” when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) “said Muslims don’t belong in our government” and when Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) called Omar “a terrorist,” the lawmaker argued.

“He did nothing when MTG wanted [Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)] & I kicked out of Congress unless we swore in on a Christian Bible. Spare me the GOP hypocrisy,” Omar said.

Omar and Tlaib were the first Muslim women in Congress, while Omar is also the first Somali American.

Omar, during in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, said the move to oust her from the Foreign Affairs Committee was due to her religion.

“These people are OK with Islamophobia. They’re OK with trafficking in their own ways in antisemitism. They are not OK with having a Muslim have a voice on that committee,” Omar said.

McCarthy formally blocked California Democratic Reps. Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff from the Intelligence Committee earlier this week, but the Speaker will need a House vote to remove Omar.

Democrats have rallied around Omar — and at least two Republicans have said they oppose ousting her, with others signaling skepticism.

Omar has said she didn’t understand that some of her comments about Israel may be linked to antisemitic tropes. On Twitter Sunday, she called out the “GOP hypocrisy” on the matter.

“Trump dined with Nazis, said ‘Jews have to get their act together,’ and said to a group of Jewish leaders, ‘You’re brutal killers. Not nice people at all. But you have to vote for me; you have no choice.’ He never apologized,” Omar said on Twitter Sunday.

“Kevin McCarthy himself accused Jewish donors of trying to ‘buy elections.’ He never apologized. Whip Tom Emmer said Jewish donors ‘essentially bought control of Congress.’ He never apologized.”

The Hill has reached out to McCarthy for comment on Omar’s remarks.

In Israel, disposable plastics trigger culture war, test PM

A man carries drinks in a disposable plastic cup at Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Israel's new government is in the process of repealing a new tax on single-use plastics. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have large families and use large quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery, say the tax unfairly targeted them.

 (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)


ILAN BEN ZION
Sun, January 29, 2023

JERUSALEM (AP) — On Idit Silman’s first day as Israel’s new environmental protection minister, she handed out soft drinks in disposable plastic cups to hospital patients.

The gesture held deep symbolic meaning in Israel, where soft drinks and single-use cups, plates and cutlery have become weapons in a culture war between the country’s secular Jewish majority and the smaller but politically powerful religious minority.

For much of the public, a tax imposed last year on plastic goods seemed like a straightforward way to cut down on the use of items that are major sources of pollution. But many ultra-Orthodox Jews saw the extra cost as an assault on a way of life that relies on the convenience of disposable goods to ease the challenges of managing their large families.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel's history, relies heavily on ultra-Orthodox parties and has moved quickly to remove the tax on plastics. On Sunday, his Cabinet voted to repeal the tax, sending the matter to the full parliament for what is expected to be final approval.

“We promised and we delivered,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party. “The fight against the cost of living is a fight we all are waging.”

In 2021, when Netanyahu and his religious allies were in the opposition, then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government authorized a tax on highly sugary drinks as a health measure to curb rising obesity rates and diabetes, and the tax on single-use plastics as a means of fighting a plague of plastic pollution. The tax levied 11 shekels per kilogram ($1.5 per pound) on single-use plastic goods, effectively doubling the market price.

Repealing those taxes were key demands of Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies, who made them a rallying cry ahead of November’s parliamentary election. Another coalition deal between Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies would effectively eliminate a refundable deposit on plastic bottles imposed a year ago.

The United Nations Environment Program has called plastic waste “one of the biggest environmental scourges of our time,” and says the equivalent of a garbage truck-full is dumped into the ocean each minute. Plastics can take centuries to degrade, cause extensive damage to ecosystems and can contain compounds toxic to organisms.

Israel is a major consumer of single-use plastics. The Environmental Protection Ministry said in a 2021 report that Israeli consumption of single-use plastics had more than doubled between 2009 and 2019. It said the per capita average hit 7.5 kilograms (16 pounds) per year — five times the average in Europe.

Single-use plastics made up an estimated 90% of trash on Israel’s coastline, and 19% of the garbage on public lands, constituting a major environmental threat, it said.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies, or Haredim, are celebrating the plastic tax’s expected repeal. Disposable plasticware has become a key element of the Haredi lifestyle in Israel in recent decades, said Yisrael Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox political analyst.

Families with an average of six children per household use disposable plasticware for weekday meals and large Sabbath gatherings alike as a labor-saving solution to washing the dishes. Single-use plasticware is de rigueur in Jewish seminaries where ultra-Orthodox men study and eat their meals.

“It’s an entire industry, an institution,” he said. “Single-use plastic is a great solution for the Haredi community.”

For ultra-Orthodox politicians, these taxes were emblematic of what they considered the previous government’s attack on their lifestyle. Haredi media outlets frequently referred to them as “decrees” issued by the secular finance minister at the time, Avigdor Lieberman, that were aimed at targeting the religious minority.

“Lieberman has been depicted as the one who stuck it to the ultra-Orthodox on every issue,” Cohen said. “Automatically this thing was painted as something that targets the Haredim.”

Environmental groups say that over the course of 2022 — the year the tax was in effect — single-use plastic consumption dropped by a third.

A survey of Israeli beaches by a pair of environmental groups, Zalul and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, found a significant drop in the quantity of single-use plasticware and plastic bottles on Israeli beaches. They cited the taxes on plastic and sweetened drinks.

On top of the environmental impact, the tax generated nearly $100 million in revenue, according to the country’s tax authority.

Meirav Abadi, an attorney with the union, said that repealing the tax would be “like a green light to go back to using these utensils in an even more intensive manner.”

Limor Gorelik, head of plastic pollution prevention at Zalul, called the minister’s photo op with the plastic cups “really embarrassing.”

“It’s so frustrating because we were so late in trying to make steps towards other countries” on multiple environmental issues. She fears Israel may “go backwards” on other issues as well.

Smotrich, the finance minister, has also extended a tax break on coal until the end of 2023 in a bid to keep electricity bills down — a move environmentalists say will increase consumption of the polluting fuel.

Silman, who was a member of Bennett’s party before defecting to Netanyahu’s Likud party last year, signaled on Sunday that she may yet change her stance.

Silman voted against the Cabinet decision to repeal the plastic tax, saying that after studying the issue in recent weeks, she has come to understand the “enormous” environmental cost of disposable plastics. She said the government should find an alternative way to reduce plastic consumption before doing away with the tax.

But she said the original tax was a mistake and should not have been done in a way that “arouses antagonism toward a particular population.”

 

Tourist enrages crowd by climbing stairway to gods at Mayan temple, officials say



Irene Wright
Mon, January 30, 2023 

A Polish tourist was hit in the head with a stick and yelled at after walking up the steps of the Mayan pyramid in Chichén Itzá, according to the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia of Mexico.

The pyramid, an archaeological and historical site, has been closed to climbing since 2008, but that didn’t stop the man from crossing into the restricted area and walking up the stairs of the pyramid on Jan. 28.

In a video circulating on social media, the man can be seen being led down the steps of the Temple of Kukulcán, the Mayan pyramid, by site officials. When he reaches the ground, he is met by an angry crowd.

Other local and international tourists can be heard yelling obscenities and voicing their anger toward the tourist in the video.

The tourist is then approached from behind by a shirtless man holding a large stick while being led away from the temple.

The shirtless man swings the stick, hitting the back of the man’s head. The site officials then attempt to lead the tourist through the crowd where he continued to be berated.



The Mexico Daily Post reported that the man had accessed the area “to take pictures and share them on social networks.”

The man was arrested by the Municipal Police of Tinum and held for 12 hours before being released with a fine, José Arturo Chab Cárdenas, head of the INAH Yucatan Center, said in a statement according to Aristegui Noticias.

Chab Cárdenas said the man was a visitor from Poland and that he had been fined 5,000 pesos, the equivalent of around $266.

His arrest comes just two months after another tourist went viral for walking up the steps despite yells from onlookers. The woman climbed the temple on Nov. 20 and when she came back down, people threw food and water at her and pulled her hair.

The Temple of Kukulcán was built by the Mayans for the feathered serpent god Kukulcán between 800 and 900 A.D., according to Atlas Obscura. The temple helped the Mayans to track the summer and winter equinoxes, when the Mayans said Kukulcán would return to commune with his worshippers and bring good health and healthy crops.

“Tourists must respect the security measures of the INAH in the archaeological zone to preserve the cultural heritage of Mexico, take care of other visitors and enjoy that Mayan legacy,” Chab Cárdenas said to the Mexico Daily Post.

U.S. solar prices still soaring as projects stalled

Mon, January 30, 2023 

Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. solar energy contract prices have soared by a third over the past year as project developers have struggled to get imported panels, according to a report published late on Monday.

But wind energy prices fell a little in recent months, thanks to major new federal subsidies.

Fourth-quarter prices on solar contracts, known as power purchase agreements (PPAs), were up 33.3% on a year before and 8.2% on the previous quarter, according to a quarterly index by LevelTen Energy that tracks renewable energy deals.

The supply chain constraints have dampened the benefits for solar developers of President Joe Biden's landmark climate change law, which late last year extended tax credits for renewable energy projects.

The Inflation Reduction Act's incentives have breathed life into the U.S. wind industry. Wind PPA prices were 1.9% lower in the fourth quarter than in the third - their first decline since early 2021.

The spike in solar prices resulted from the seizure by U.S. customs officials of hundreds of shipments of solar energy components at U.S. ports since June. A law went into effect at that time banning imports from China's Xinjiang region.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act presumes that all goods from Xinjiang are made with forced labor. It permits imports only if producers prove otherwise by showing sourcing documentation of equipment back to the raw material.

"Those delays and access to that equipment is introducing significant amounts of uncertainty on timelines, and therefore PPA prices are going up to cover that risk," LevelTen Senior Director of Developer Services Gia Clark said in an interview.

Clark added, however, that demand was still strong for solar projects and that prices might stabilize in the second half of 2023. (Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Bradley Perrett)

MOHAWK

Sharing Our Stories: TV and Radio / Tká:ra’s tánon’ waterennótha’

Mon, January 30, 2023 

When I came into the world in 1957, Kahnawake had already gone through a lot of changes compared to my mom’s time. Back then, everybody spoke Mohawk. In my grandmother’s time, almost everybody spoke 3 languages. Everybody in my grandparents’ time all spoke Mohawk. It was odd if anybody didn’t speak it. The peddlers who would come to the reserve, they learned the language, enough to buy and sell or trade. So it didn’t take long - in less than 100 years - we almost lost it.

As a little boy growing up, even though both my parents were fluent speakers, they didn’t teach us, because the prevailing attitude was you don’t need Mohawk to get an education and job. I guess because of TV, radio, telephone, and electricity coming into the community, and all of that hype, in the early 30s and 40s, it impacted how we communicated with one another, and English began to prevail.

It’s interesting. My mother had 12 siblings. One half, they’re all fluent speakers, and one half, they’re not speakers. When I asked, they said that’s what it was. It seems that when they ended up getting electricity, then the radio came in and then the TV, so that was kind of the thing that started where the language went in decline. Then because of the experience of them going through school, and Mohawk language is not a priority. It just wasn’t. And at times forbidden to be spoken. At that time Kahnawake was a so-called christian community.

*

Sha’kenákerate’ kí:ken kèn:tho tsi ionhontsá:te 1957 shiiohserò:ten’, é:so ó:nen teiotteniónkwen Kahnawà:ke tsi ní:ioht ne ake’nisténha shontaiakotehiahróntie’. Tho shikahá:wi, tsi’k ónhka ionhrónkha’ Kanien’kéha. Tsi ní:ioht tsi iakotenhniseraténionhkwe’ ne akhsothkénha thóha akwé:kon áhsen nihatiwennakéhne’. Ionkhsothokón:ha ken’ shithotiién:ha akwé:kon Kanien’kéha rontá:tiskwe’. Tsi niká:ien rontkè:rons aontahòn:ne’ tsi kanonhstá:ton, wahontewennaweientéhta’ne’, ia’tekaié:ri ne nahitihní:non’ tánon’ ahontenhní:non’ tóka’ ni’ tahontá:ton’. Iah teiorihweshà:’on - ká:ron 100 niiohserá:ke seréka aionkwatewennahtón:ni.

Shikeksà:’a shontonkwatehiahróntie’, tehnitsá:ron iontièn:’a sá:ne ieniwennaieríhahkwe’, iah teionkhirihonnién:ni, ase’kén é:so rá:ti tho nihoti’nikonhro’ténhne’ tsi iah tha’teiotonhontsóhon Kanien’kéha ahsà:ronke’ ahsatéweienste’ nok aiesaio’tenhseraién:ta’ne’. Khé:re tsi eh nontà:we’ tsi tká:ra’s, waterennótha’, iontewennata’áhstha’, nok ken’tonhkarà:ken onkwanakerahserá:kon taiotike’tohtonhátiehkwe’. É:so rá:ti nè:’e tahoti’nikonhratihéntho’ 1930 shiiohseratátie’ tánon’ shiiotahsawátiene’ 1940 shiiohseratátie’, wa’tkaté:ni’ tsi na’teiakwátere tsi ní:tsi teiakwahtháhrha’ , tánon’ Tiohrhèn:sha tontáhsawen’ aontkwé:ni’ aonsaiakwatá:ti’.

Tio’nikonhratihénthoht. Ake’nisténha 12 iako’kenhshén:tahkwe’. Sha’tekanenhrí:hen akwé:kon iehatiwennaié:ri, nok ne ronátia’ke iah tehontá:ti. Sha’keri’wanón:ton’, wahonnì:ron’ nek ki’ tho ní:ioht. Á:ienhre’k shahotiién:ta’ne’ ne ken’tonhkwarà:ken tánon’ waterennótha’ sok ki’ tká:ra’s ó:ni’ taiotikè:tohte’, tho ki’ nón: ní:tsi tiotáhsawe aontewennáhton’. Sok tsi thonaterihwaiensta’nónhne’, iah teiorihowá:nen ne Kanien’kéha owén:na. Iah ki’k tho té:ioht. Tánon’ sewatié:rens watiawén:re aiontá:ti’. Tho shikahá:wi ratina’tónhkhwahkwe’ Kahnawà:ke tsi Tehatiiahsóntha’ tsi nikanakerahserò:ten’

Story told by: Kevin Ka'nahsóhon Deer, Written by: Marcus Bankuti - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Translation by: Sahawisó:ko’ Arquette, Photos: Courtesy Kanien'keháka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center archive, The Eastern Door

NWT
Dehcho negotiations resume in Hay River after eight-year stall

Mon, January 30, 2023 

For the first time since 2015, main table negotiations between Dehcho First Nations leaders, the N.W.T. government and Canada have resumed in Hay River.

While the parties made efforts to resume talks in the intervening years, the discussion had not moved forward until now. Representatives of all three are reviewing a proposed Dehcho First Nations self-government plan.

Talks stalled in 2015 over land and resources. Dehcho members recently voted to temporarily set that issue aside in order to make headway on self-government.

Negotiators have focused on creating an agreement-in-principle that would outline the jurisdiction of local and regional Dehcho governments, and include agreements on governance, housing and education.

The Dehcho First Nations held virtual town halls over the past six months to plan its negotiation strategy with members and listen to feedback.

The Dehcho land use plan has been in development since 2001. The plan includes zoning for traditional land use areas, oil and gas, mining, agriculture, commercial timber harvest, tourism camps and even a potential special infrastructure corridor that could include pipelines.

Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said he expected some aspects of that land use plan to arise in discussions. He is planning to visit all Dehcho communities in advance of the summer 2023 Dehcho Annual Assembly, where a final vote will determine if this land use plan is the one they will bring to the negotiating table.

"Over the last few years, the assembly got together and made a number of smaller decisions on how they wanted to move forward, but the big-ticket item – lands and resources – has just sat there," said Norwegian.

He says while formal negotiations may have stalled, on the ground, conflicts over ownership have continued.

"The encroachment – people just slowly slipping into the cracks and government slowly moving in with their legislations and grabbing land, turning leased lands into titled properties without our consent – you see that in all the communities," said Norwegian.

"And of course, the only way that you're really going to deal with these kinds of things is to get back to the table and start talking lands and resources."

Cabin Radio approached the GNWT's Department of Lands and Department of Environment and Natural Resources for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.

In the latest negotiations, Dehcho First Nations representatives are seeking recognition from federal and territorial governments that Dehcho community governments are municipal governments and, as such, have jurisdiction over services such as land use, justice and housing.

Norwegian says that while it's natural for parties to jockey for position and greater authority at the negotiating table, he's hopeful that the past few years have established that collaboration is possible.

"To take a real reconciliatory kind of approach to this, we need to talk about balance and we need to talk about shared stewardship. We need to talk about joint decision-making, because we're already doing that in the Dehcho," said Norwegian, citing the development of the Edéhzhíe protected area, privately funded conservation in the Northwest Territories and an agreement over management of the Nahanni National Park Reserve as examples.

"This whole model of shared stewardship and leadership is something that already exists and is working well," he said. "Here's an opportunity for us to take an old shoe, put it on again and start making some tracks."

While neither Norwegian nor the territorial government were able to provide an update on how the latest negotiations are going, one N.W.T. department appears to share Norwegian's optimism.

"The GNWT is pleased that the Dehcho First Nations are re-entering negotiations for a land claim and self-government agreement," said Todd Sasaki of the N.W.T.'s Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. "We are committed to working with the Dehcho and Canada to conclude an agreement that provides clarity and mutually benefits all parties."

The federal government confirmed its participation in negotiations in Hay River but declined to comment for this report.

Caitrin Pilkington, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cabin Radio

Scenes outside pharmacies could foreshadow next phase in U.S. abortion battle

CBC, Mon, January 30, 2023 

Scenes like this one, outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in May 2022, could start happening outside pharmacies in the U.S. this week, as chains begin selling abortion pills. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images - image credit)

We're about to witness a tangible example of what the coming generation of abortion battles might look like in a post-Roe v. Wade United States.

The scene: Local drugstores.

In the coming days and weeks, anti-abortion activists are set to protest across the U.S. outside dozens of pharmacies whose chains intend to sell abortion pills.

It's their attempt to recreate the familiar decades-long demonstration scenes outside abortion clinics, updated to a new target.

Different groups plan to stand outside, hold signs, chant and inform customers that their pharmacy will be distributing abortion medication.

A tandem of new realities explains this unusual protest setting: As red states race to prohibit abortion following a Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade — a 1973 decision that enshrined the right to an abortion — pills have become the leading method of terminating pregnancies in the U.S.

And these pills, available online, shipped by mail and soon to be sold in participating pharmacies in pro-choice states, threaten to surmount these new restrictive walls.

'Roe was the pre-season to the real fight'

Hence the muted sense of celebration this year at the annual anti-abortion march in Washington, D.C., the first since abortion restrictions took effect in two dozen states.

Participants described their battle as only just beginning.

"Roe was the pre-season to the real fight," activist Caroline Smith said in an interview at the annual March for Life rally on Jan. 22.

"Some people were like, 'Do we even need to march [this year], like, what's the point?' It is really, really important to still have this because we have to show people the fight is still going."

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Smith works with an anti-abortion group whose members have been charged in Michigan and Washington with blocking clinics, including one confrontation where a nurse stumbled and sprained her ankle.

That latter case led to police seizing fetuses from the fridge of one group member, held as part of a purported plan to ensure burials for 115 fetuses.

Now anti-abortion activists are setting their sights on pharmacies.

The fight for Smith's group, Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, increasingly, involves the pills mifepristone and misoprostol.


Why are pharmacies next?

Those products have become the leading source of abortions in the U.S., officially overtaking surgical abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration is now moving to simplify distribution of the pills: In states where abortion is legal, it's letting retail pharmacies carry the pills, and in other states, it's instructed the postal service not to halt shipments.

The anti-abortion movement, meanwhile, is suing the federal government to block the pills nationally, while also pushing states to ban online prescriptions.

A sustained pressure campaign is envisioned against major national pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens that have agreed to distribute the pills. It includes a boycott drive — and awkward scenes on sidewalks.

Demonstrations are planned in several cities on Feb. 4, at Walgreens' headquarters in suburban Chicago on Feb. 14 and at more pharmacies on March 4.

"If I was a manager of a CVS, I wouldn't want us [standing] outside," said Smith, who lives in Washington and will protest there. "That's the social pressure and the tension, and it has to continue until that happens."

In Smith's view, her movement faces the real threat that after investing decades in shutting clinics one by one, hundreds of pharmacies are sprouting up in their place to offer abortion pills.

Alex Panetta/CBC

Biden administration: 'We are fighting back'

At a mournful event on Jan. 22 for the 50th anniversary of the now-defunct Roe v. Wade decision, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris announced a new presidential order instructing federal agencies to seek additional ways to make the pills accessible.

Harris referred to the human impact of anti-abortion laws — like the 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was sexually assaulted and had to go to another state to get an abortion, leading to death threats against the provider.

Or the Texas woman who nearly died of sepsis because she was having a miscarriage and was refused in her first three attempts to get an emergency abortion.

Or the 14-year-old girl in Arizona with severe arthritis and osteoporosis who struggled to get critical treatment because her pills can cause pregnancy loss; her pharmacy feared being prosecuted.

Harris referred to new state anti-abortion laws as being designed by extremists. "Today we are fighting back," she said, as she announced Joe Biden's presidential order.

An irony of the pharmacy protests is that one of the groups involved, Smith's, would actually agree with progressive Democrats on some topics.

Allen G. Breed/The Associated Press

Her Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising describes itself as left-leaning; its members use the language of the left — they refer to an abortion "industrial complex" and to "Big Pharma" as preying on "pregnant people."

Sonja Morin, a graphic designer who works for that group and other anti-abortion organizations, said she'll be protesting near Boston.

She said protest tactics will need to adjust to some of the evident differences between a giant pharmacy outlet and an abortion clinic.

"It's obviously going to be trickier," Morin said.

Alex Panetta/CBC

"You're not going to be going up to someone and saying, 'Hey, are you picking a medication abortion today for your prescription?' Like, you don't do that," she said.

"We'll have signage, we'll have different things that say very blatantly, 'Keep abortion out of our pharmacies.'"

Major chains say they want to participate

Morin said her goal is to start conversations as a way to inform passersby of recent developments: On Jan. 3, the Biden administration announced that abortion pills, previously distributed by medical providers and by some organizations online, would be available in popular retail pharmacies at the prescription counter.

Several major chains have said they'll apply to participate in the plan — albeit only in states where it's allowed by authorities.

Morin's colleague in the anti-abortion movement, Melanie Salazar, lives in Texas, a state where pharmacies won't dispense the pills.

Alex Panetta/CBC

Yet she'll be protesting, too, because some of the same pharmacy chains observing the laws in her anti-abortion state will still be selling those pills in other states.

People living in no-abortion states could get prescriptions filled in participating stores in other states; they can also order from overseas, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recommended against doing this.

"We need to stand in unity," Salazar said. "We must protect life in all circumstances. And this includes speaking out and boycotting your local big pharmacy."

RNC Passes Resolution to 'Go on Offense' on Abortion

Susan Rinkunas
Mon, January 30, 2023 

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, speaks during the Republican National Committee winter meeting in Dana Point, California, US, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023.

On Friday, Ronna Romney McDaniel won her fourth term as chair of the Republican National Committee, and one of her first orders of business was to pass a resolution pledging that the party would get even more aggressive on abortion. The RNC resolution urges Republicans to “go on offense” on abortion in the 2024 election cycle and calls for state and federal lawmakers to “pass the strongest pro-life legislation possible,” such as bans on abortion at about six weeks, when embryonic cardiac activity can first be detected on an ultrasound.

Republicans had been playing the blame game on abortion following the disastrous midterm elections in which the party vastly underperformed in the House and lost a Senate seat, and the pro-choice position won in all five states that had abortion ballot measures.

The midterms created a bit of a schism among conservatives, with groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America claiming Republican candidates lost because they didn’t talk enough about wanting to ban abortion nationwide. SBA Pro-Life is the same group that threatened candidates for not publicly supporting a federal 15-week abortion ban, introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Meanwhile, President Donald Trump—the man who nominated three of the Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade—argued that losing candidates were too extreme on abortion. (He’s right, but it’s deeply ironic for him to suggest closing the Pandora’s Box he himself opened.) Even Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) called out her party for pursuing multiple anti-abortion votes in their first week controlling the House.

And now it appears the party is going to pursue a deeply unpopular nationwide abortion ban. Unsurprisingly, SBA Pro-Life America loves the new RNC resolution. The group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement that it “sends a bold message to GOP candidates, campaigns and consultants that in order to win in 2024 they must stay on offense by drawing a strong contrast and exposing Democratic extremism.”

She even doubled down on the idea that Republicans lost because they weren’t explicit enough about their anti-abortion stances, adding that, “in 2022, too many GOP candidates used the ‘Ostrich Strategy’ in which they put their heads in the sand, pretended the issue of abortion didn’t exist, and let Democrats spend hundreds of millions of dollars distorting their pro-life positions and defining them as extremists.” I’d argue that supporting total abortion bans is the real extreme position, Marge!

Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, said in a statement, “When will they learn?”

We certainly hope Republicans’ dedication to criminalizing miscarriage and abortion turns off a bunch of voters, but it’s going to be an anxiety-riddled two years waiting to find out.

Jezebel