Ukrainian journalists fight another kind of war - against graft
Thu, March 9, 2023
By Dan Peleschuk
KYIV, March 9 (Reuters) - Ukrainian reporter Serhii Andrushko believes his country's struggle for freedom also includes another kind of war - against high-level corruption - which experts think could have more success now as Kyiv strives for European Union membership.
Last month, the Radio Liberty correspondent confronted candidates on camera vying to become Kyiv's next top anti-corruption official about their personal finances and political ties.
That might seem less urgent when soldiers are dying every day, but part of Ukraine's battle includes shedding any perceived similarities to Russia. "Particularly its attitude to corruption," Andrushko said.
According to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine ranked slightly better than Russia but still well below the global average.
So reporters like Andrushko say they are working to keep their rulers honest, a job some experts and media insiders said could have more impact now that Kyiv is under pressure to prove it can clean up its act as it seeks membership in the European Union.
They said a major political shake-up seen earlier this year, when more than a dozen officials were dismissed amid a flurry of critical domestic press coverage, could be a taste of things to come if Ukraine's investigative journalists continue.
Their focus also shows civil society is embracing its role as a government watchdog even as the war grinds on.
"Media are becoming more influential because they're appealing to the more acute sense of justice among citizens," said researcher Petro Burkovskyy, of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation think-tank.
They will need to choose stories wisely and back up their reporting, he added, since being sloppy or overly critical can invite public scepticism or even accusations of being unpatriotic.
Many journalists are also turning their attention to uncovering Russian war crimes and assets in Ukraine.
KEEPING WATCH
Before the war, critical reporting on illicit or scandalous behaviour had been a fixture in Ukraine, where a robust free press means reporters spotlight everything from opulent homes to luxurious trips abroad that are unaffordable on official salaries.
They lurk outside pricey properties, filming officials entering and exiting, or snap images of them driving flashy cars. Video investigations are often sleekly produced, set to dramatic music and narrated in an acerbic tone.
Now the stakes are higher, said investigative reporter Mykhailo Tkach, as many Ukrainians donate their own money to keep soldiers equipped as they fight Russia's invasion, and want to know it is spent properly.
The EU has also made eradicating graft a key condition for membership, which most here believe is a lifeline to a brighter future. Ukraine wants candidacy negotiations to begin this year.
Reporting by Tkach, a journalist for online outlet Ukrayinska Pravda, on a top official's Spanish vacation during the war played a role in the dismissals in January, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged to continue if more graft was uncovered.
A separate report by a peer alleging the defence ministry was overpaying to feed its troops helped crystallize the immediate dangers of corruption and led to a ministry shake-up.
A more recent Tkach investigation probed the purchase of a luxury apartment, among other assets, by a brother of one of Zelenskiy's advisers allegedly at a bargain-basement price.
PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP
Such reports play a key role in Ukraine's fledgling anti-corruption system, created after the 2014 Maidan revolution toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Oleksandr Novikov, head of the National Agency for Corruption Prevention (NACP), a state body that monitors officials' lifestyles, said the information media uncover can help build legal cases against officials suspected of graft.
"We consider Ukrainian journalism, especially investigative reporting, to be like another anti-corruption institution," he told Reuters during a recent interview in his Kyiv office.
Watchdogs believe cleaning up corruption will be a long game, while media advocate Oksana Romaniuk said journalists must vet their stories on graft extra carefully to help retain public confidence.
A recent survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) showed that trust in mass media grew from 32% to 57% over the past year. But that's far below the 96% and 84% who trust the military and Zelenskiy respectively.
Romaniuk, director of the Institute of Mass Information, an NGO in Kyiv, said Ukrainian journalists' role as anti-corruption activists will become increasingly important as Kyiv maps out a more transparent future.
"Our plan is definitely to preserve democracy, because we see what happens when there isn't any." (Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Friday, March 10, 2023
Fauci says Redfield’s testimony of COVID call was ‘unequivocally incorrect’
Jared Gans
Thu, March 9, 2023
Anthony Fauci, who led much of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said testimony from former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield that he was excluded from a conference call about the possible origins of the virus was “unequivocally incorrect.”
Fauci told Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto in an interview on Thursday that he was not involved in deciding who would be involved in a call he took with a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the “possibility” that the virus was “engineered.”
“He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he’s saying that I excluded him,” he said. “I had nothing to do with who would be on that call.”
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made his comments in response to testimony that Redfield gave on Wednesday before a House select subcommittee investigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans serving on the committee focused much of their attention on the theory that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in Wuhan, China, causing the pandemic to start.
Redfield said he believes this theory “based on the biology of the virus itself” more so than the theory that the virus naturally spread from an animal to humans.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the subcommittee, asked Redfield about a meeting that Jeremy Farrar, the director of the British charity Wellcome Trust, organized of 11 top scientists from five time zones, including Fauci, to discuss the pandemic in February 2020.
She said Fauci responded to an invitation he received for it that he wanted to “keep this group really tight” and keep the discussion “in total confidence.”
Redfield testified that he had multiple conservations in January 2020 with Fauci, Farrar and Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, about scientists needing to explore both hypotheses.
Malliotakis asked Redfield why he was “excluded” from the call Farrar organized, and Redfield responded that he was told that they “wanted a single narrative” and he had a different point of view about the origins of the pandemic.
Fauci told Cavuto that he believes “it is unfortunate” that Redfield made “that absolutely incorrect statement” in a public setting. He said he did not add or remove anyone’s name from the list of who would be included in the call.
Fauci said half of the people who were present on the call believed the origin of the pandemic might have been a lab leak, making his rationale of why he thought he was excluded “invalid.”
“He’s a good guy — I’ve known him for years. I’m just really a little bit disturbed about why he said that, which was completely untrue,” he said, referring to Redfield.
The Hill
Trump’s CDC director says Fauci shut down debate on Covid’s origin
Ng Han Guan/AP Photo
Carmen Paun
Wed, March 8, 2023
Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins.
The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and then I obviously had a different point of view,” Redfield told representatives.
Redfield said Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and Collins left him out because Redfield suspected the coronavirus had leaked from the Chinese lab.
Fauci, who was not at the hearing, dismissed Redfield’s accusation as “completely untrue.”
“No one excluded anyone,” he told POLITICO after the hearing.
“And the idea of saying that he was not wanted there because he had a different opinion … there were several people on the call who had the opinion that it might have been an engineered virus,” said Fauci, who retired from his government post at the end of last year.
Collins, who is now a science adviser to President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he shares Fauci’s view that the virus likely came from nature, but that a lab leak was possible.
Redfield thought the highly infectious nature of the virus distinguished it from other coronaviruses and made it unlikely to have evolved naturally, he told representatives.
Fauci and others said it most likely came from a natural spillover from animals, as was the case with other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, Redfield said.
The former CDC director said he later found out he was excluded from a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call with Fauci and Jeremy Farrar, a U.K. scientist who at the time led the Wellcome Trust, and other conversations that resulted in the publication of an article in Nature in March 2020 dismissing the possibility of the virus originating in a lab. Farrar is now the World Health Organization’s top scientist.
Fauci told POLITICO he was not involved in the drafting of the article.
But Republican representatives at the hearing accused Fauci of having orchestrated it to deflect attention from U.S. funding research at the Wuhan lab.
“I think Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They got caught supercharging viruses in an unsecured Chinese lab,” said James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Fauci has repeatedly denied that the NIH financed so-called gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. That research aims to make viruses either more lethal or more transmissible or both to find ways to combat them.
Some Democratic representatives at the hearing warned that accusing Fauci of ill motives would further erode trust in government health officials, threatening public health.
“I want the facts, but I hope and say to my colleagues on the other side: We cannot go down a dangerous path by pushing unfounded conspiracies about Dr. Fauci and other long-serving career public health officials,” said Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).
Jared Gans
Thu, March 9, 2023
Anthony Fauci, who led much of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said testimony from former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield that he was excluded from a conference call about the possible origins of the virus was “unequivocally incorrect.”
Fauci told Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto in an interview on Thursday that he was not involved in deciding who would be involved in a call he took with a group of evolutionary virologists to discuss the “possibility” that the virus was “engineered.”
“He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he’s saying that I excluded him,” he said. “I had nothing to do with who would be on that call.”
Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made his comments in response to testimony that Redfield gave on Wednesday before a House select subcommittee investigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Republicans serving on the committee focused much of their attention on the theory that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in Wuhan, China, causing the pandemic to start.
Redfield said he believes this theory “based on the biology of the virus itself” more so than the theory that the virus naturally spread from an animal to humans.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the subcommittee, asked Redfield about a meeting that Jeremy Farrar, the director of the British charity Wellcome Trust, organized of 11 top scientists from five time zones, including Fauci, to discuss the pandemic in February 2020.
She said Fauci responded to an invitation he received for it that he wanted to “keep this group really tight” and keep the discussion “in total confidence.”
Redfield testified that he had multiple conservations in January 2020 with Fauci, Farrar and Tedros Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, about scientists needing to explore both hypotheses.
Malliotakis asked Redfield why he was “excluded” from the call Farrar organized, and Redfield responded that he was told that they “wanted a single narrative” and he had a different point of view about the origins of the pandemic.
Fauci told Cavuto that he believes “it is unfortunate” that Redfield made “that absolutely incorrect statement” in a public setting. He said he did not add or remove anyone’s name from the list of who would be included in the call.
Fauci said half of the people who were present on the call believed the origin of the pandemic might have been a lab leak, making his rationale of why he thought he was excluded “invalid.”
“He’s a good guy — I’ve known him for years. I’m just really a little bit disturbed about why he said that, which was completely untrue,” he said, referring to Redfield.
The Hill
Trump’s CDC director says Fauci shut down debate on Covid’s origin
Ng Han Guan/AP Photo
Carmen Paun
Wed, March 8, 2023
Trump administration CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional committee Wednesday that his former colleague, Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins froze him out of discussions on Covid-19’s origins.
The accusation came during a politically charged hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and stoked Republican claims that Fauci in early 2020 promoted the view that an infected animal spread the virus to humans to divert attention from research the U.S. sponsored at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“It was told to me that they wanted a single narrative and then I obviously had a different point of view,” Redfield told representatives.
Redfield said Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and Collins left him out because Redfield suspected the coronavirus had leaked from the Chinese lab.
Fauci, who was not at the hearing, dismissed Redfield’s accusation as “completely untrue.”
“No one excluded anyone,” he told POLITICO after the hearing.
“And the idea of saying that he was not wanted there because he had a different opinion … there were several people on the call who had the opinion that it might have been an engineered virus,” said Fauci, who retired from his government post at the end of last year.
Collins, who is now a science adviser to President Joe Biden, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has previously said he shares Fauci’s view that the virus likely came from nature, but that a lab leak was possible.
Redfield thought the highly infectious nature of the virus distinguished it from other coronaviruses and made it unlikely to have evolved naturally, he told representatives.
Fauci and others said it most likely came from a natural spillover from animals, as was the case with other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, Redfield said.
The former CDC director said he later found out he was excluded from a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call with Fauci and Jeremy Farrar, a U.K. scientist who at the time led the Wellcome Trust, and other conversations that resulted in the publication of an article in Nature in March 2020 dismissing the possibility of the virus originating in a lab. Farrar is now the World Health Organization’s top scientist.
Fauci told POLITICO he was not involved in the drafting of the article.
But Republican representatives at the hearing accused Fauci of having orchestrated it to deflect attention from U.S. funding research at the Wuhan lab.
“I think Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They got caught supercharging viruses in an unsecured Chinese lab,” said James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Fauci has repeatedly denied that the NIH financed so-called gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. That research aims to make viruses either more lethal or more transmissible or both to find ways to combat them.
Some Democratic representatives at the hearing warned that accusing Fauci of ill motives would further erode trust in government health officials, threatening public health.
“I want the facts, but I hope and say to my colleagues on the other side: We cannot go down a dangerous path by pushing unfounded conspiracies about Dr. Fauci and other long-serving career public health officials,” said Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).
Ukrainians who fled war face end of temporary US sanctuary
Ukrainian refugees play with frisbees as they wait in front of a gymnasium Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. As many as 20,000 Ukrainians who were granted permission to remain in the United States for one year after fleeing the early fighting in their native country are facing their humanitarian parole expiring, according to advocates. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
JULIE WATSON
Thu, March 9, 2023
SAN DIEGO (AP) — When U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border stamped the Ukrainian passports of Mariia and her daughter last April and gave them permission to stay for a year, she figured she would return home within months.
Now with that year almost up and the war that caused them to flee still raging, their permission to stay in the U.S. — known as humanitarian parole — is set to expire April 23.
“The word `worry’ doesn’t capture what I’m feeling,” said Mariia, who spoke through an interpreter and asked that only her first name be used over concerns that speaking publicly would hurt their immigration case. “This is something that frightens me, mainly because of my daughter and my daughter’s future.”
The 46-year-old woman and her daughter, now 13, are among 20,000 Ukrainians in a similar situation, according to resettlement agencies. Most arrived to the United States at its southern border after fleeing to Mexico, where it was easier and faster to get a visa to enter the country in the first months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mariia's parole is tied to her work permit, enabling her to earn a living as a nanny, and makes her eligible for food stamps and other public assistance. Her husband flew to the U.S. to join them in July and received humanitarian parole for two years.
The Biden administration has said it is working on a fix but so far has issued no official guidance on what Ukrainians should do, according to advocates helping the Ukrainians. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
Jewish Federations of North America, which provided support for the agency that helped Mariia’s family get settled, is among the organizations that have written to the Biden administration to quickly renew humanitarian parole for Ukrainians.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said people are scrambling to figure out what to do. One option would be to apply for asylum, but a war doesn't necessarily qualify someone for that.
"Even short-term solutions like individual parole extensions are unclear since there’s no uniform guidance, which leads to delays and confusion,” she said.
Some Ukrainians have considered returning to the U.S. border crossings where they entered to ask for an extension, but that leaves the decision up to the port director, O’Mara Vignarajah said. It can also be expensive to travel and requires time off work, advocates said.
Some have been told by officials to write across the top of the government's parole form “Re-Parole," since there is no option to check for an extension, according to advocates.
“It highlights how ad hoc the process is,” O’Mara Vignarajah said. “These requests often go unanswered or are transferred to different agencies, and because there is no clear process in how to handle them, sometimes they are simply denied.”
The government turned to humanitarian parole as a quick fix to deal with the fallout from the many world crises that have occurred as the U.S. refugee system that was dismantled by the previous administration was being built back up. Now numerous groups are facing their permission to remain in the United States expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.
“Humanitarian parole was never meant to be over relied on at the expense of refugee resettlement or asylum protections," said Meredith Owen of Church World Service.
Liliia Lukianchuk, a Ukrainian mother of four, has applied for asylum with the help of Lutheran Social Services, but she and her husband have not gotten an answer. Their parole expires April 16, and it is tied to her husband’s mechanic job in Jacksonville, Florida, where they live. She fears that if they're sent back, her 17-year-old son will end up on the front lines as a solider.
“Of course, I’m worried because the worst-case scenario would be to be returned to Ukraine, but I have to be strong for my family,” she said through an interpreter.
Mariia and her daughter arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after trying to settle in four different countries. The lines at Poland's border were too long. In Hungary, they could find a hotel room for only one night at a time and were told by locals that the government was not in favor of hosting Ukrainians. They went on to Belgium, where many Ukrainians were arriving, but the local school had no room for her daughter. Then in Spain, they were told it would be difficult to find work and an apartment. That's when Mariia decided to go to the United States and was told Mexico was the best way.
Jewish Family Services of Greenwich helped her find a job, enroll her daughter in school and get settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Mariia said only recently did she and her daughter start feeling hopeful about rebuilding their lives.
“To be honest, the first five months, my eyes to that were closed. My primary goal was to just make sure my child was OK, to calm her down and reassure her that she was safe,” she said.
Tania Priatka of Jewish Family Services said Mariia's family is working with a lawyer who has advised them to wait for guidance from the government. If that doesn't happen soon, they plan to go to the nearest airport and ask Customs and Border Protection officials there for help.
For now, Mariia tries to stay hopeful, but struggles when her daughter asks what will happen.
“I feel lost. I feel hopeless." Mariia said, her voice shaking as she grew emotional. "As a mother, I should be able to give my child an answer that she will be well and that she will be safe.”
GOP Virginia Governor Stumbles As Trans Student Confronts Him On Live TV
Ben Blanchet
Fri, March 10, 2023
A transgender high school student’s question for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who has rolled back protections for trans students during his administration, got a dodge for the ages in return at a CNN town hall event on Thursday night.
The student, who goes by Niko, noted how they’re a transgender man and pressed Youngkin on his anti-trans policies including those limiting trans students’ participation in athletics and their usage of bathrooms.
“Do you think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” asked Niko.
Youngkin refrained from providing a yes or no answer and instead touted his belief in strong parent-children relationships.
“I believe first, when parents are engaged with their children, you can make good decisions together...I also think there are lots of students involved in this decision,” Youngkin said.
He then went on to call for extra bathrooms in school including gender-neutral facilities “so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with.”
His policy on sports, the governor added, is clear and non-controversial as he dropped a brief summary of his policy and implied it’d conflict with progress made for “women in sports” otherwise.
“Again, I think these are very difficult discussions and I am very, very glad to see you and your dad here together,” said Youngkin as CNN’s cameras showed the two appearing to be disappointed by the response.
The 56-year-old Republican gave the GOP hope when the party lost control of the White House and the Senate in 2021. His defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe marked only the second time a Democrat has lost a race for governor in the Virginia in the past 20 years, and the first since 2009. Although he declined to comment on a potential 2024 presidential run during Thursday’s town hall, his high-profile victory has some questioning if he will make a bid for the White House.
The longtime private equity executive tailored his campaign around hot-button issues like critical race theory, vaccine mandates, and transphobia in an effort to bait and drum up fear among the state’s moderate suburban voters.
Last September, the ACLU of Virginia responded to the reversal of school protections for transgender students. “We are appalled by the Youngkin administration’s overhaul of key protections for transgender students in public schools,” the group wrote on Twitter. “LGBTQ+ students already experience much higher self-harm & suicide rates because of the discrimination they face. This will only make matters worse.”
Ben Blanchet
Fri, March 10, 2023
A transgender high school student’s question for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who has rolled back protections for trans students during his administration, got a dodge for the ages in return at a CNN town hall event on Thursday night.
The student, who goes by Niko, noted how they’re a transgender man and pressed Youngkin on his anti-trans policies including those limiting trans students’ participation in athletics and their usage of bathrooms.
“Do you think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” asked Niko.
Youngkin refrained from providing a yes or no answer and instead touted his belief in strong parent-children relationships.
“I believe first, when parents are engaged with their children, you can make good decisions together...I also think there are lots of students involved in this decision,” Youngkin said.
He then went on to call for extra bathrooms in school including gender-neutral facilities “so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with.”
His policy on sports, the governor added, is clear and non-controversial as he dropped a brief summary of his policy and implied it’d conflict with progress made for “women in sports” otherwise.
“Again, I think these are very difficult discussions and I am very, very glad to see you and your dad here together,” said Youngkin as CNN’s cameras showed the two appearing to be disappointed by the response.
Youngkin, in response to questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper, later emphasized the role of parents in a child’s life and said the topic offered counselors, teachers and parents an opportunity to come together to deal with a difficult issue.
Twitter users noted Niko’s “dubious expression” and criticized Youngkin for his response.
Glenn Youngkin Defends Anti-Trans Legislation, Says Schools Just Need ‘Gender Neutral’ Bathrooms
Charisma Madarang
Thu, March 9, 2023
Glenn Youngkin Campaign Holds Election Night Event - Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered a shallow solution to the state’s divided stance on public education and transgender policies during CNN’s town hall on Thursday. The Republican governor, whose administration’s guidelines ban transgender students from using bathrooms and competing in sports teams that do not match their gender assigned at birth, attempted to minimize the controversial new policies.
As Youngkin fielded questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper, parents, and educators, a 17-year-old student who identified as a transgender man asked, “Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” The governor circled around the question, and instead insisted that school’s needed “extra bathrooms” and “gender neutral” bathrooms, before arguing that “biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls.”
Youngkin, whose issued guidelines that require students to file legal documents in order to be called by different pronouns, has received backlash from transgender and equal rights advocates who argue that his recent policies limit the rights and protections of transgender children at school.
Charisma Madarang
Thu, March 9, 2023
Glenn Youngkin Campaign Holds Election Night Event - Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered a shallow solution to the state’s divided stance on public education and transgender policies during CNN’s town hall on Thursday. The Republican governor, whose administration’s guidelines ban transgender students from using bathrooms and competing in sports teams that do not match their gender assigned at birth, attempted to minimize the controversial new policies.
As Youngkin fielded questions from CNN’s Jake Tapper, parents, and educators, a 17-year-old student who identified as a transgender man asked, “Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?” The governor circled around the question, and instead insisted that school’s needed “extra bathrooms” and “gender neutral” bathrooms, before arguing that “biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls.”
Youngkin, whose issued guidelines that require students to file legal documents in order to be called by different pronouns, has received backlash from transgender and equal rights advocates who argue that his recent policies limit the rights and protections of transgender children at school.
The 56-year-old Republican gave the GOP hope when the party lost control of the White House and the Senate in 2021. His defeat of Democrat Terry McAuliffe marked only the second time a Democrat has lost a race for governor in the Virginia in the past 20 years, and the first since 2009. Although he declined to comment on a potential 2024 presidential run during Thursday’s town hall, his high-profile victory has some questioning if he will make a bid for the White House.
The longtime private equity executive tailored his campaign around hot-button issues like critical race theory, vaccine mandates, and transphobia in an effort to bait and drum up fear among the state’s moderate suburban voters.
Last September, the ACLU of Virginia responded to the reversal of school protections for transgender students. “We are appalled by the Youngkin administration’s overhaul of key protections for transgender students in public schools,” the group wrote on Twitter. “LGBTQ+ students already experience much higher self-harm & suicide rates because of the discrimination they face. This will only make matters worse.”
Yellen defends request for $29 billion increase in IRS enforcement funds
U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Joe Biden's fiscal year 2024 Budget Request in Washington
Fri, March 10, 2023
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday defended a Biden administration budget request for an additional $29.1 billion in IRS enforcement funds as Republicans in Congress pressed her to explain how $80 billion funds approved last year would be spent.
The budget proposal aimed at boosting tax enforcement and collections comes on top of a fiscal 2024 appropriations request of $14.1 billion, marking an increase of $1.8 billion, or 15% over the 2023 IRS budget.
The additional IRS funding requests contained in President Joe Biden's budget plan announced on Thursday drew the ire of Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, where Yellen testified on Friday. The budget includes hefty tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations to bring down deficits over the coming decade.
"You already got $80 billion for the IRS. Now you want $43.2 billion more, all without explaining what will be done with the first $80 billion," said Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, adding the two budget requests.
"The American people, they deserve to know how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent and the impact that a supercharged IRS will have on them," the Missouri Republican added.
Yellen said she would unveil "in the coming weeks" a promised spending plan for the $80 billion in IRS investments approved last year as part of the climate and healthcare-focused Inflation Reduction Act.
The additional $29.1 billion in long-term enforcement investments would add two more years to the $80 billion program for 2032 and 2033, according to the budget. The Treasury estimates that this would produce an additional $105 billion in net revenue from collections during those two years.
Republicans fear that the IRS will hire an "army" of 87,000 agents and harass small business owners with onerous audits, claims denied by Yellen.
She repeated her vow not to use the IRS investment funds, aimed at rebuilding the IRS' audit capabilities after more than a decade of budget cuts under past Republican-controlled Congresses, to increase audit rates for Americans and small businesses earning less than $400,000.
Yellen also said that the "vast majority" of hiring at the agency from the $80 billion would go towards replacing retiring employees over the next decade.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
U.S. House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Joe Biden's fiscal year 2024 Budget Request in Washington
Fri, March 10, 2023
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday defended a Biden administration budget request for an additional $29.1 billion in IRS enforcement funds as Republicans in Congress pressed her to explain how $80 billion funds approved last year would be spent.
The budget proposal aimed at boosting tax enforcement and collections comes on top of a fiscal 2024 appropriations request of $14.1 billion, marking an increase of $1.8 billion, or 15% over the 2023 IRS budget.
The additional IRS funding requests contained in President Joe Biden's budget plan announced on Thursday drew the ire of Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, where Yellen testified on Friday. The budget includes hefty tax increases on wealthy Americans and corporations to bring down deficits over the coming decade.
"You already got $80 billion for the IRS. Now you want $43.2 billion more, all without explaining what will be done with the first $80 billion," said Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, adding the two budget requests.
"The American people, they deserve to know how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent and the impact that a supercharged IRS will have on them," the Missouri Republican added.
Yellen said she would unveil "in the coming weeks" a promised spending plan for the $80 billion in IRS investments approved last year as part of the climate and healthcare-focused Inflation Reduction Act.
The additional $29.1 billion in long-term enforcement investments would add two more years to the $80 billion program for 2032 and 2033, according to the budget. The Treasury estimates that this would produce an additional $105 billion in net revenue from collections during those two years.
Republicans fear that the IRS will hire an "army" of 87,000 agents and harass small business owners with onerous audits, claims denied by Yellen.
She repeated her vow not to use the IRS investment funds, aimed at rebuilding the IRS' audit capabilities after more than a decade of budget cuts under past Republican-controlled Congresses, to increase audit rates for Americans and small businesses earning less than $400,000.
Yellen also said that the "vast majority" of hiring at the agency from the $80 billion would go towards replacing retiring employees over the next decade.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
IRS nominee Daniel Werfel confirmed by Senate vote
Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FATIMA HUSSEIN
Thu, March 9, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Daniel Werfel to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday by a vote of 54-42.
Werfel, who pledged before senators not to expand tax audits on businesses and households making less than $400,000 per year, will serve a five-year term as leader of the federal tax collection agency.
The approval came after the Senate agreed a day earlier to move to a final vote on Werfel’s nomination, with six Republicans breaking party ranks to back him and a lone Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, voting against him.
“While Daniel Werfel is supremely qualified to serve as the IRS Commissioner, I have zero faith he will be given the autonomy to perform the job in accordance with the law and for that reason, I cannot support his nomination,” Manchin said in a statement.
President Joe Biden nominated Werfel to steer the IRS as it receives nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years through the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in August along party lines.
Previously a private consultant who led Boston Consulting Group’s global public sector practice, Werfel faced rounds of questions before the Senate Finance Committee in February on how he would spend the agency’s new infusion of money.
He drew praise for being willing to leave a private consulting job to take on the top job at the troubled agency.
Werfel will have to navigate controversy surrounding the new funding, as critics have distorted how the new law would affect the IRS and taxes for the middle class. About $46 billion was allocated for enforcing tax laws and the rest for taxpayer services, operations support and updated business systems.
Republicans have suggested without evidence that the agency would use the new money to hire an army of tax agents with weapons.
IRS officials say the new money is already being put to use — announcing Wednesday that the agency has expanded its digital scanning capabilities. The agency has scanned more than 120,000 paper forms related to unemployment taxes, a twenty-fold increase compared with all of 2022.
“This expansion of scanning is another milestone for the IRS as we work to transform the agency,” acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said in an emailed statement.
Taking note of the potential impact of the funding, Werfel said during his confirmation hearing that “Americans rightfully expect a more modern and high-performing IRS.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, praised Werfel's ability to receive support from Republicans for the top IRS role.
“For Mr. Werfel to get bipartisan support to lead the IRS at a time when a lot of Republicans would happily mothball the entire agency is a testament to his fairness, his ability to work with both sides and his undeniable qualification for this role," Wyden said.
Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
FATIMA HUSSEIN
Thu, March 9, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Daniel Werfel to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday by a vote of 54-42.
Werfel, who pledged before senators not to expand tax audits on businesses and households making less than $400,000 per year, will serve a five-year term as leader of the federal tax collection agency.
The approval came after the Senate agreed a day earlier to move to a final vote on Werfel’s nomination, with six Republicans breaking party ranks to back him and a lone Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, voting against him.
“While Daniel Werfel is supremely qualified to serve as the IRS Commissioner, I have zero faith he will be given the autonomy to perform the job in accordance with the law and for that reason, I cannot support his nomination,” Manchin said in a statement.
President Joe Biden nominated Werfel to steer the IRS as it receives nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years through the Inflation Reduction Act, which Congress passed in August along party lines.
Previously a private consultant who led Boston Consulting Group’s global public sector practice, Werfel faced rounds of questions before the Senate Finance Committee in February on how he would spend the agency’s new infusion of money.
He drew praise for being willing to leave a private consulting job to take on the top job at the troubled agency.
Werfel will have to navigate controversy surrounding the new funding, as critics have distorted how the new law would affect the IRS and taxes for the middle class. About $46 billion was allocated for enforcing tax laws and the rest for taxpayer services, operations support and updated business systems.
Republicans have suggested without evidence that the agency would use the new money to hire an army of tax agents with weapons.
IRS officials say the new money is already being put to use — announcing Wednesday that the agency has expanded its digital scanning capabilities. The agency has scanned more than 120,000 paper forms related to unemployment taxes, a twenty-fold increase compared with all of 2022.
“This expansion of scanning is another milestone for the IRS as we work to transform the agency,” acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said in an emailed statement.
Taking note of the potential impact of the funding, Werfel said during his confirmation hearing that “Americans rightfully expect a more modern and high-performing IRS.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, praised Werfel's ability to receive support from Republicans for the top IRS role.
“For Mr. Werfel to get bipartisan support to lead the IRS at a time when a lot of Republicans would happily mothball the entire agency is a testament to his fairness, his ability to work with both sides and his undeniable qualification for this role," Wyden said.
Another reason to avoid rodents: NYC's rats found infected with virus that causes COVID
These cities across the US are the top rat havens, according to Orkin pest control
Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
Fri, March 10, 2023
There are supposedly as many rats as people in New York City (hold the jokes, please) and some of them carry variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study published this week.
It's not entirely clear how the rats contracted SARS-CoV-2 or whether they pose a particular danger to human health.
But theoretically, the fact that they can catch the virus from people means they can pass it back, according to researchers. This would be a particular concern if, say, they incubated a highly contagious vaccine-resistant variant.
Other animals have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus from people, including deer, otters, ferrets, hamsters, gorillas, cats, dogs, lions and tigers. Millions of farm-raised mink were killed early in the pandemic to prevent them from infecting people.
There's no evidence that any of these sparked an outbreak in people, but the possibility for transmission is there, particularly among animals that come in close contact with people.
Urban wildlife "is a reservoir from which we can anticipate further infection of humans," said W. Ian Lipkin, a researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "It's going to be going in both directions."
COVID ORIGIN: Lab leak theory deserves further investigation, Congress hears
NEXT-GEN VACCINES: With over 500 coronaviruses, experts say we must act now
What this study found
After rats in Hong Kong and Belgium were suspected of carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus, federal researchers teamed up with several academics to study Norway rats, which make up most of the wild rat populations in New York City.
Between Sept. 13 and Nov. 16, 2021, when the delta variant was circulating among New York's human residents, researchers collected 79 rats from three sites in Brooklyn.
Fifteen of the rats, about 19%, showed evidence of infection with SARS-CoV-2, according to the study, published Thursday in mBio. Two of those were infected at the time of study, though they didn't show any obvious symptoms, according to Xiu-Feng "Henry" Wan, a pathogen expert at the University of Missouri, who helped lead the study.
Researchers then took Sprague Dawley rats and infected them in the lab with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, showing they could be infected by the alpha, delta and omicron variants. Those variants also mutated, possibly to make it easier for the virus to replicate, Wan said via email.
It's not clear whether the virus continues to circulate among New York City rats or is now being passed among rats rather than from human to animal.
"Our sampling was limited," said co-author Dr. Thomas DeLiberto, assistant director for the National Wildlife Research Center, noting that they have funding for another round of testing. "Further study is needed to address these critical questions."
Rodents and disease
This isn't the first time rodents in New York have been shown to harbor pathogens.
In 2015, city rats were shown to be carrying fleas that could theoretically become infected with and transmit the plague. (An outbreak of bubonic plague carried by such fleas killed one-third of Europeans in 1347. Now, plague is treated with antibiotics.)
And in 2018, mice living in New York apartment building basements were found to carry disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bugs and never-before-seen viruses.
Lipkin, who was involved in both earlier studies but not the new one, said he's not at all surprised city rats would be infected with SARS-CoV-2.
But there's no evidence that any human illnesses can be blamed on the rodents, he said. "When we did our studies of rats and mice in NYC, we were unable to say more than that both carried antibiotic resistant strains of human bacterial pathogens."
Lipkin said he's more concerned about mice than rats because they come into closer contact with people, living in apartment building walls often scurrying into inhabited spaces. "We have a more intimate relationship with mice," he said.
Study: An experimental COVID treatment could be a promising alternative to Paxlovid
How did the rats get SARS-CoV-2?
It's not clear how the rats became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Public health officials have said the virus is unlikely to be transmitted among people outdoors except in tightly packed crowds and that keeping a safe distance indoors helps prevent infection.
Presumably, people with COVID-19 didn't get within 6 feet of a rat indoors.
The study suggests they didn't catch it from sewage.
"No evidence has shown that SARS-CoV-2 viruses in sewage water are infectious," the study says, "suggesting that sewage rats may have been exposed to the virus through airborne transmission, e.g., overlapping living spaces with humans or indirect transmission from unknown fomites, e.g., contaminated human food waste."
People aren't known to pass the virus through food and Lipkin said the precise route is unknowable.
The U.S. government is running research projects to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus behaves in animals, how it moves between animals and people and "what we and our public health partners can do to interrupt the chain of transmission," DeLiberto said.
Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.
Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York City rats found infected with COVID virus, study finds
These cities across the US are the top rat havens, according to Orkin pest control
Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
Fri, March 10, 2023
There are supposedly as many rats as people in New York City (hold the jokes, please) and some of them carry variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study published this week.
It's not entirely clear how the rats contracted SARS-CoV-2 or whether they pose a particular danger to human health.
But theoretically, the fact that they can catch the virus from people means they can pass it back, according to researchers. This would be a particular concern if, say, they incubated a highly contagious vaccine-resistant variant.
Other animals have contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus from people, including deer, otters, ferrets, hamsters, gorillas, cats, dogs, lions and tigers. Millions of farm-raised mink were killed early in the pandemic to prevent them from infecting people.
There's no evidence that any of these sparked an outbreak in people, but the possibility for transmission is there, particularly among animals that come in close contact with people.
Urban wildlife "is a reservoir from which we can anticipate further infection of humans," said W. Ian Lipkin, a researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "It's going to be going in both directions."
COVID ORIGIN: Lab leak theory deserves further investigation, Congress hears
NEXT-GEN VACCINES: With over 500 coronaviruses, experts say we must act now
What this study found
After rats in Hong Kong and Belgium were suspected of carrying the SARS-CoV-2 virus, federal researchers teamed up with several academics to study Norway rats, which make up most of the wild rat populations in New York City.
Between Sept. 13 and Nov. 16, 2021, when the delta variant was circulating among New York's human residents, researchers collected 79 rats from three sites in Brooklyn.
Fifteen of the rats, about 19%, showed evidence of infection with SARS-CoV-2, according to the study, published Thursday in mBio. Two of those were infected at the time of study, though they didn't show any obvious symptoms, according to Xiu-Feng "Henry" Wan, a pathogen expert at the University of Missouri, who helped lead the study.
Researchers then took Sprague Dawley rats and infected them in the lab with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, showing they could be infected by the alpha, delta and omicron variants. Those variants also mutated, possibly to make it easier for the virus to replicate, Wan said via email.
It's not clear whether the virus continues to circulate among New York City rats or is now being passed among rats rather than from human to animal.
"Our sampling was limited," said co-author Dr. Thomas DeLiberto, assistant director for the National Wildlife Research Center, noting that they have funding for another round of testing. "Further study is needed to address these critical questions."
Rodents and disease
This isn't the first time rodents in New York have been shown to harbor pathogens.
In 2015, city rats were shown to be carrying fleas that could theoretically become infected with and transmit the plague. (An outbreak of bubonic plague carried by such fleas killed one-third of Europeans in 1347. Now, plague is treated with antibiotics.)
And in 2018, mice living in New York apartment building basements were found to carry disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bugs and never-before-seen viruses.
Lipkin, who was involved in both earlier studies but not the new one, said he's not at all surprised city rats would be infected with SARS-CoV-2.
But there's no evidence that any human illnesses can be blamed on the rodents, he said. "When we did our studies of rats and mice in NYC, we were unable to say more than that both carried antibiotic resistant strains of human bacterial pathogens."
Lipkin said he's more concerned about mice than rats because they come into closer contact with people, living in apartment building walls often scurrying into inhabited spaces. "We have a more intimate relationship with mice," he said.
Study: An experimental COVID treatment could be a promising alternative to Paxlovid
How did the rats get SARS-CoV-2?
It's not clear how the rats became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Public health officials have said the virus is unlikely to be transmitted among people outdoors except in tightly packed crowds and that keeping a safe distance indoors helps prevent infection.
Presumably, people with COVID-19 didn't get within 6 feet of a rat indoors.
The study suggests they didn't catch it from sewage.
"No evidence has shown that SARS-CoV-2 viruses in sewage water are infectious," the study says, "suggesting that sewage rats may have been exposed to the virus through airborne transmission, e.g., overlapping living spaces with humans or indirect transmission from unknown fomites, e.g., contaminated human food waste."
People aren't known to pass the virus through food and Lipkin said the precise route is unknowable.
The U.S. government is running research projects to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus behaves in animals, how it moves between animals and people and "what we and our public health partners can do to interrupt the chain of transmission," DeLiberto said.
Contact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.
Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York City rats found infected with COVID virus, study finds
Why too many young men love Andrew Tate – and why we need to understand that, not dismiss it
Sasha Mistlin
Thu, 9 March 2023
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
I have a teenage cousin who loves Andrew Tate. This became an issue recently when he posted one of his videos in the family WhatsApp group and I was dispatched by my mum to “have a chat” with him. I think I was supposed to tell him off, but to be honest – I understand why he is drawn to Tate. My cousin is a good kid who’s working hard to better himself, just as I was at his age.
On the surface, Tate preaches hard work, determination and “no excuses”: values my cousin probably sees as parallel to the philosophy of our Nigerian immigrant family. “He’s funny,” my cousin said, when I asked him why he watches Tate’s videos. “And his view of success is very binary – either you want it or you don’t.”
Tate’s views may appeal to teenagers, but he is currently detained, awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking. He denies all allegations, and has pledged $100m (£85m) to start a charity in his will for men faced with false accusations.
Tate was banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being raped. He has also said he would not allow his partner to go on a girls’ holiday because: “it’s disrespectful”. The 36-year-old’s predilection for young women may be the creepiest facet of his persona; he says he mainly dates 19-year-olds because he can: “make an imprint” on them. When I asked my cousin if he thought Tate was a misogynist, he replied he “wasn’t sure” – even though Tate describes himself as one .
My cousin is far from the only young man enthralled by him. Videos tagged #AndrewTate on TikTok have been viewed more than 12.7bn times. This matters. I’m 25 and other than sport and Love Island, I haven’t watched television in a decade. If you are my age or younger, Tate’s videos are as mainstream as the six o’clock news. Tate may have styled himself as a cult preacher, but he is anything but fringe.
Imagine you are a young man and your first time encountering Tate is not in a newspaper article like this, but rather a YouTube video titled “FIX YOUR MIND – Motivational Speech”. In the video, Tate dishes out harsh truths about money, success and endeavour. It is easy to see how it could inspire someone feeling powerless or confused about their place in the world: “You’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt,” he says. “If you’re 5ft 2in you need to become strong, and rich, and charismatic. If you’re 6ft 4in, you need to become rich, strong, well-connected. It’s the same game.” It is this messaging – the subtler, motivational stuff – that has given him such a following. If Tateism has a message, it’s about male emancipation.
While the technology that delivers Tate’s views might be new, much of his persona is a throwback to older ideas of masculinity. Tate is TikTok’s Tony Montana: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” Women appear in the background of his videos wearing very little and saying even less. There are fast cars being driven irresponsibly. We like to think the lads’ mags that peddled all this in the 90s and 00s went out of business because the world became a more enlightened place; but they went out of business because the audience went online.
The difference with Tate is that the women are not solely there for titillation. They are both direct objects of his misogyny, and their behaviour is used by Tate as justification for that misogyny. Comparing gender roles to chess, he says: “The king moves one square at a time and the queen can just zip across the board. So you’re partying in Miami – you see all these chicks on a boat. For the man to get on that boat, he has to move one square at a time: he has to get a good job, he has to get his credit right, he has to go through all this shit, stage by stage … a chick, what does she need? Lip fillers? Boom. Zip. That’s the difference between the king and the queen.”
Reprehensible it may be, but Tate’s baseless misogyny and “me-first, get-yours” narcissism is alluring to young men at a time when mainstream culture is telling them to check their privilege for reasons they don’t fully understand.
I hope it’s not too late for my cousin and that his flirtation with Tate’s toxic message is just a phase – a part of growing up that I worry is inevitable these days. That’s why a new framework for online safety is needed, one that recognises that the harmful content comes looking for you now via your social media algorithm and the “bad” looks just the same as the “good” on a TikTok feed.
We can’t afford to be English about this sort of thing. My friends and I didn’t get any proper education about sex, consent or relationships until we were 13, by which time we had learned it all from internet porn and lads’ mags. Teachers and parents have to be proactive about telling boys what mutually respectful sex is before they’re exposed to something else all together.
My cousin’s had a tough time recently, riven with personal and professional insecurity, amped up by a pandemic and a recession. In that context, I understand Tate’s appeal – an alternative lifestyle guru, saying get yours, before someone else takes it.
What makes me saddest is that it’s taken someone like Tate to bring us together. Sometimes all young men need is each other. Unfortunately, I was too busy “getting mine” to have a few chats with my cousin about what, and who, he was getting into.
Sasha Mistlin is a commissioning editor on Guardian Saturday
Sasha Mistlin
Thu, 9 March 2023
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
I have a teenage cousin who loves Andrew Tate. This became an issue recently when he posted one of his videos in the family WhatsApp group and I was dispatched by my mum to “have a chat” with him. I think I was supposed to tell him off, but to be honest – I understand why he is drawn to Tate. My cousin is a good kid who’s working hard to better himself, just as I was at his age.
On the surface, Tate preaches hard work, determination and “no excuses”: values my cousin probably sees as parallel to the philosophy of our Nigerian immigrant family. “He’s funny,” my cousin said, when I asked him why he watches Tate’s videos. “And his view of success is very binary – either you want it or you don’t.”
Tate’s views may appeal to teenagers, but he is currently detained, awaiting trial for rape and human trafficking. He denies all allegations, and has pledged $100m (£85m) to start a charity in his will for men faced with false accusations.
Tate was banned from Twitter for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being raped. He has also said he would not allow his partner to go on a girls’ holiday because: “it’s disrespectful”. The 36-year-old’s predilection for young women may be the creepiest facet of his persona; he says he mainly dates 19-year-olds because he can: “make an imprint” on them. When I asked my cousin if he thought Tate was a misogynist, he replied he “wasn’t sure” – even though Tate describes himself as one .
My cousin is far from the only young man enthralled by him. Videos tagged #AndrewTate on TikTok have been viewed more than 12.7bn times. This matters. I’m 25 and other than sport and Love Island, I haven’t watched television in a decade. If you are my age or younger, Tate’s videos are as mainstream as the six o’clock news. Tate may have styled himself as a cult preacher, but he is anything but fringe.
Imagine you are a young man and your first time encountering Tate is not in a newspaper article like this, but rather a YouTube video titled “FIX YOUR MIND – Motivational Speech”. In the video, Tate dishes out harsh truths about money, success and endeavour. It is easy to see how it could inspire someone feeling powerless or confused about their place in the world: “You’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt,” he says. “If you’re 5ft 2in you need to become strong, and rich, and charismatic. If you’re 6ft 4in, you need to become rich, strong, well-connected. It’s the same game.” It is this messaging – the subtler, motivational stuff – that has given him such a following. If Tateism has a message, it’s about male emancipation.
While the technology that delivers Tate’s views might be new, much of his persona is a throwback to older ideas of masculinity. Tate is TikTok’s Tony Montana: “First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman.” Women appear in the background of his videos wearing very little and saying even less. There are fast cars being driven irresponsibly. We like to think the lads’ mags that peddled all this in the 90s and 00s went out of business because the world became a more enlightened place; but they went out of business because the audience went online.
The difference with Tate is that the women are not solely there for titillation. They are both direct objects of his misogyny, and their behaviour is used by Tate as justification for that misogyny. Comparing gender roles to chess, he says: “The king moves one square at a time and the queen can just zip across the board. So you’re partying in Miami – you see all these chicks on a boat. For the man to get on that boat, he has to move one square at a time: he has to get a good job, he has to get his credit right, he has to go through all this shit, stage by stage … a chick, what does she need? Lip fillers? Boom. Zip. That’s the difference between the king and the queen.”
Reprehensible it may be, but Tate’s baseless misogyny and “me-first, get-yours” narcissism is alluring to young men at a time when mainstream culture is telling them to check their privilege for reasons they don’t fully understand.
I hope it’s not too late for my cousin and that his flirtation with Tate’s toxic message is just a phase – a part of growing up that I worry is inevitable these days. That’s why a new framework for online safety is needed, one that recognises that the harmful content comes looking for you now via your social media algorithm and the “bad” looks just the same as the “good” on a TikTok feed.
We can’t afford to be English about this sort of thing. My friends and I didn’t get any proper education about sex, consent or relationships until we were 13, by which time we had learned it all from internet porn and lads’ mags. Teachers and parents have to be proactive about telling boys what mutually respectful sex is before they’re exposed to something else all together.
My cousin’s had a tough time recently, riven with personal and professional insecurity, amped up by a pandemic and a recession. In that context, I understand Tate’s appeal – an alternative lifestyle guru, saying get yours, before someone else takes it.
What makes me saddest is that it’s taken someone like Tate to bring us together. Sometimes all young men need is each other. Unfortunately, I was too busy “getting mine” to have a few chats with my cousin about what, and who, he was getting into.
Sasha Mistlin is a commissioning editor on Guardian Saturday
UK to import high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork in trade deals
Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu, 9 March 2023
Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Post-Brexit trade deals with Canada and Mexico will include imports of high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork, the Guardian can reveal.
There are fears there could be a Conservative party revolt, with the former environment secretary George Eustice raising concerns over low welfare standards for pigs in Canada, and an influential group of Tory MPs and peers gearing up to oppose the deals.
The deals also go against the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which wrote to the farming minister, Mark Spencer, after he refused to rule out Mexican beef imports. The committee said the UK’s carbon targets could be “compromised by a decision to allow the importation of meat with a higher carbon footprint than our own”.
In Canada there are more than 7,400 pig farms, and animal charities in the country say pigs there face castration, ear notching, tail docking and teeth trimming. Sows are kept for long periods in stalls that do not give them room to turn around, a practice banned in the UK. Pigs are also often left to live on cold, damp, slatted floors with no room for comfortable bedding or straw, the campaigners say.
Those involved in the deal have consulted Eustice, who previously criticised the Australia trade deal, in the hope he will not make similar remarks.
He said: “I am hearing that the volumes on beef are low, and that in return they have also got some dairy access which makes it a more reciprocal and balanced agreement. So looks like [the business and trade secretary] Kemi [Badenoch] has taken a tougher line than her predecessors. Pork could be more contentious, mainly because of lower welfare standards in Canada, but we will see.”
Tory MPs in the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) are likely to raise concerns in parliament.
The group, which includes the former environment secretary Theresa Villiers and the MPs Dominic Raab, Henry Smith and the foreign minister and peer Zac Goldsmith, has opposed the trade deals.
Lorraine Platt, a campaigner who is co-founder of CAWF, said: “We are concerned by the prospect of a trade deal involving the importation of meat from Canada and Mexico. Many low-welfare practices such as the use of barren battery cages, sow stalls and hormone-fed beef are still used in Canada.
“Meanwhile Mexico’s animal welfare laws are considerably lower than our own – with little to no specific safeguards for the rearing of pigs, cattle or chickens. We urge the government to send a strong message abroad and stand firm in commitments not to compromise our animal welfare standards in future trade deals.”
Animal welfare charities have raised concerns, including over hormone-fed meat. James West, a senior policy manager at Compassion in World Farming, said: “The majority of Mexican pigs are raised in intensive conditions and the use of sow stalls, which have been illegal in the UK since 1999, are permitted.
“Furthermore, ractopamine, a growth promoter used in pigs that is banned in the UK, is also allowed in Mexico. Similarly, Canada, which permits the use of hormones in farming, has previously expressed its objection to the UK’s ban on hormone-fed beef.”
Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, warned it would not accept any further imports of beef after trade deals with Australia and New Zealand were accused of undercutting livestock farmers.
She said: “From Mexico our lines are pretty tough on this having given away so much on beef to Australia and New Zealand. We want the government to take a very, very firm line on further imports of beef.
“Environmental impacts are why beef was a sensitive sector, both in New Zealand and in Australia, and now in Mexico. And we want them now to really show that they are keeping their promises of not undermining farmers and trade deals. We don’t want to see further imports of beef.”
A government spokesperson said: “Negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are ongoing. The government has always been clear that we will not compromise the UK’s high food safety and animal welfare standards in trade negotiations. Our accession to CPTPP will be on terms that are right for UK companies, consumers and farmers.”
Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu, 9 March 2023
Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Post-Brexit trade deals with Canada and Mexico will include imports of high-carbon beef and low-welfare pork, the Guardian can reveal.
There are fears there could be a Conservative party revolt, with the former environment secretary George Eustice raising concerns over low welfare standards for pigs in Canada, and an influential group of Tory MPs and peers gearing up to oppose the deals.
The deals also go against the advice of the Climate Change Committee, which wrote to the farming minister, Mark Spencer, after he refused to rule out Mexican beef imports. The committee said the UK’s carbon targets could be “compromised by a decision to allow the importation of meat with a higher carbon footprint than our own”.
In Canada there are more than 7,400 pig farms, and animal charities in the country say pigs there face castration, ear notching, tail docking and teeth trimming. Sows are kept for long periods in stalls that do not give them room to turn around, a practice banned in the UK. Pigs are also often left to live on cold, damp, slatted floors with no room for comfortable bedding or straw, the campaigners say.
Those involved in the deal have consulted Eustice, who previously criticised the Australia trade deal, in the hope he will not make similar remarks.
He said: “I am hearing that the volumes on beef are low, and that in return they have also got some dairy access which makes it a more reciprocal and balanced agreement. So looks like [the business and trade secretary] Kemi [Badenoch] has taken a tougher line than her predecessors. Pork could be more contentious, mainly because of lower welfare standards in Canada, but we will see.”
Tory MPs in the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) are likely to raise concerns in parliament.
The group, which includes the former environment secretary Theresa Villiers and the MPs Dominic Raab, Henry Smith and the foreign minister and peer Zac Goldsmith, has opposed the trade deals.
Lorraine Platt, a campaigner who is co-founder of CAWF, said: “We are concerned by the prospect of a trade deal involving the importation of meat from Canada and Mexico. Many low-welfare practices such as the use of barren battery cages, sow stalls and hormone-fed beef are still used in Canada.
“Meanwhile Mexico’s animal welfare laws are considerably lower than our own – with little to no specific safeguards for the rearing of pigs, cattle or chickens. We urge the government to send a strong message abroad and stand firm in commitments not to compromise our animal welfare standards in future trade deals.”
Animal welfare charities have raised concerns, including over hormone-fed meat. James West, a senior policy manager at Compassion in World Farming, said: “The majority of Mexican pigs are raised in intensive conditions and the use of sow stalls, which have been illegal in the UK since 1999, are permitted.
“Furthermore, ractopamine, a growth promoter used in pigs that is banned in the UK, is also allowed in Mexico. Similarly, Canada, which permits the use of hormones in farming, has previously expressed its objection to the UK’s ban on hormone-fed beef.”
Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, warned it would not accept any further imports of beef after trade deals with Australia and New Zealand were accused of undercutting livestock farmers.
She said: “From Mexico our lines are pretty tough on this having given away so much on beef to Australia and New Zealand. We want the government to take a very, very firm line on further imports of beef.
“Environmental impacts are why beef was a sensitive sector, both in New Zealand and in Australia, and now in Mexico. And we want them now to really show that they are keeping their promises of not undermining farmers and trade deals. We don’t want to see further imports of beef.”
A government spokesperson said: “Negotiations on the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership are ongoing. The government has always been clear that we will not compromise the UK’s high food safety and animal welfare standards in trade negotiations. Our accession to CPTPP will be on terms that are right for UK companies, consumers and farmers.”
Spain's powerful feminist movement split over trans and rape laws
Laura Llach
Thu, 9 March 2023
Just half an hour separated the start of two big feminist rallies which took place in Madrid this week. On one side, the 8M Commission. On the other, the Madrid Feminist Movement.
This was the second consecutive year that the protests for International Women's Day had split, but this time round the divisions were deeper.
The strength of the Spanish feminist movement has been weakened by internal wrangling.
Myriam RodrÃguez, a journalist from Madrid, had been debating with her friends which rally the would go to: last year she chose to boycott both of them.
“I didn't go to any of them because I had a feeling of sadness and pain due to the lack of understanding shown by certain feminist groups", she told Euronews, adding that she was not the only one among her group of friends who made this decision.
This year, RodrÃguez did attend, and decided to march with the largest crowd, the one brought together by the 8M Commission -- which has organised the event since 1977 -- supporting new trans rights legislation and against the reform of the rape law.
Their march gathered 17,000 protesters, according to the government delegation, while other years the number rose to 120,000.
“I think it is the one that advocates plurality in feminism without trying to stand out as the only voice", RodrÃguez explains.
The Spanish ministers also joined the main rally, which supported the political stance of Unidas Podemos, the minority party in the government coalition with the Socialist Party.
Members of the opposition, attended the alternative demonstration, along with 10,000 people.
Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero, center, Spain's Secretary of State for equality and against gender violence Angela Rodriguez, right, and other members of Podemos.
Why is there a divide?
The marches in Spain for International Women's Day reached its peak as a global reference in 2018, when a successfully organised nationwide strike consolidated its position amongst Europe's most feminist countries.
But ever since, divisions have emerged in the movement over two new pieces of legislation: the ‘transgender law’ and the so-called ‘only yes means yes’.
Is Spain's new rape law reducing jail sentences of sex offenders?
Finland passes new, progressive trans rights laws on gender recognition
As Spain advances trans rights, Sweden backtracks on gender-affirming treatments for teens
The debate over the new 'transgender law'
Two years ago, a group of women left the commission and decided to organise their own demonstration on Women's Day", Arantxa López, spokesperson for the 8M Commission, told Euronews.
Arguing the new 'transgender law' would mean an “erasure of women”, the Madrid Feminist Movement decided to split from the general 8M Commission.
While López and her organisation support the law and gender self-determination, which allows a person to change their name and gender on their identity papers by means of a simple administrative declaration, Madrid's Feminist Movement is strongly against it.
"The transgender law allows any man to identify himself as a woman and use spaces reserved for women. Safe spaces such as changing rooms and bathrooms," says Sonia Gómez, spokesperson for Confluence Feminist Movement, one of the associations inside the new organisation.
"Self-determination is the only case where a person says they feel one way and the law listens to them; in what other scenario can someone change their legal situation with just a simple declaration? Any rapist can self-determine and go to women's prison, as has just happened in Scotland”, adds Gomez.
To try to avoid this from happening, the transgender law establishes that the crime will be judged on the basis of the person's legal sex at the time it was committed.
However, Gómez says that when they tried to discuss their disagreements, there was no room for dialogue, which is why they decided to leave the movement.
For López and the 8M Commission this discourse should not be valid. "This was one of our red lines, we are not going to accept any hate speech against transgender people, nor are we going to question the rights of any person in general," she says.
"There is no framework in which to debate, because you cannot debate against hate speech. Everything that has been generated around the transgender law is based on hoaxes, it is a trivialisation of the process. I know first-hand how difficult it is," López adds.
However, this is year the division has run deeper due to another law which was aimed at protecting women by increasing years in jail for rape convictions, but has caused the contrary.
Protesters attend an International Women's Day demonstration in Madrid, Wednesday, March 8
What is the controversy with the new rape law?
Since last autumn the feminist movement has become even more polarised, after the Spanish Congress passed the "only yes means yes" reform. It was the Ministry of Equality's flagship piece of legislation.
This new law was made to give more importance to the role of consent. In order to do this, it merged the meaning of ‘assault’ and ‘abuse’ into the same offence. They ended up establishing the maximum limit for assaults with the minimum for abuse.
What was meant to be stricter than the previous code in place, instead has resulted in reduced jail sentences for 721 sex offenders and 74 have been released from prison since its signing last October 2022, according to data published by the General Council of the Judiciary.
This is why, this year, the march led by the Madrid Feminist Movement carried banners asking for the resignation of Irene Montero, Spain's Minister of Equality.
For Gómez, who represents the Madrid Feminist Movement, the laws “are not well made" and are fragmenting the movement in Spain. “This law in particular has some good points, but in general it is not well done and jurists have already warned that it would get sexual offenders out of jail".
Many voices have called for a change in the law, however the 8M Commission, organiser of the historical march, doesn't believe in its reform.
Podemos and the Ministry of Equality also defend its original text and have voted against a reform promoted by its partner in government, the Socialist Party. This week the law was passed in Congress.
"We believe that the Ministry of Equality has not passed any law that helps women and the minister, Irene Montero, does not want to hear organisations that do not agree 100% with her proposals", says Gómez.
“They believe they are the owners of feminism and they don't listen to anyone else," she adds.
The division is more complex than being in support or against the transgender law or Montero's policies. These are only the tipping factors that have caused the divided image of feminism and, even though the split movement is still a minority, their voice is growing stronger.
Laura Llach
Thu, 9 March 2023
Just half an hour separated the start of two big feminist rallies which took place in Madrid this week. On one side, the 8M Commission. On the other, the Madrid Feminist Movement.
This was the second consecutive year that the protests for International Women's Day had split, but this time round the divisions were deeper.
The strength of the Spanish feminist movement has been weakened by internal wrangling.
Myriam RodrÃguez, a journalist from Madrid, had been debating with her friends which rally the would go to: last year she chose to boycott both of them.
“I didn't go to any of them because I had a feeling of sadness and pain due to the lack of understanding shown by certain feminist groups", she told Euronews, adding that she was not the only one among her group of friends who made this decision.
This year, RodrÃguez did attend, and decided to march with the largest crowd, the one brought together by the 8M Commission -- which has organised the event since 1977 -- supporting new trans rights legislation and against the reform of the rape law.
Their march gathered 17,000 protesters, according to the government delegation, while other years the number rose to 120,000.
“I think it is the one that advocates plurality in feminism without trying to stand out as the only voice", RodrÃguez explains.
The Spanish ministers also joined the main rally, which supported the political stance of Unidas Podemos, the minority party in the government coalition with the Socialist Party.
Members of the opposition, attended the alternative demonstration, along with 10,000 people.
Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero, center, Spain's Secretary of State for equality and against gender violence Angela Rodriguez, right, and other members of Podemos.
- Bernat Armangue/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.
Why is there a divide?
The marches in Spain for International Women's Day reached its peak as a global reference in 2018, when a successfully organised nationwide strike consolidated its position amongst Europe's most feminist countries.
But ever since, divisions have emerged in the movement over two new pieces of legislation: the ‘transgender law’ and the so-called ‘only yes means yes’.
Is Spain's new rape law reducing jail sentences of sex offenders?
Finland passes new, progressive trans rights laws on gender recognition
As Spain advances trans rights, Sweden backtracks on gender-affirming treatments for teens
The debate over the new 'transgender law'
Two years ago, a group of women left the commission and decided to organise their own demonstration on Women's Day", Arantxa López, spokesperson for the 8M Commission, told Euronews.
Arguing the new 'transgender law' would mean an “erasure of women”, the Madrid Feminist Movement decided to split from the general 8M Commission.
While López and her organisation support the law and gender self-determination, which allows a person to change their name and gender on their identity papers by means of a simple administrative declaration, Madrid's Feminist Movement is strongly against it.
"The transgender law allows any man to identify himself as a woman and use spaces reserved for women. Safe spaces such as changing rooms and bathrooms," says Sonia Gómez, spokesperson for Confluence Feminist Movement, one of the associations inside the new organisation.
"Self-determination is the only case where a person says they feel one way and the law listens to them; in what other scenario can someone change their legal situation with just a simple declaration? Any rapist can self-determine and go to women's prison, as has just happened in Scotland”, adds Gomez.
To try to avoid this from happening, the transgender law establishes that the crime will be judged on the basis of the person's legal sex at the time it was committed.
However, Gómez says that when they tried to discuss their disagreements, there was no room for dialogue, which is why they decided to leave the movement.
For López and the 8M Commission this discourse should not be valid. "This was one of our red lines, we are not going to accept any hate speech against transgender people, nor are we going to question the rights of any person in general," she says.
"There is no framework in which to debate, because you cannot debate against hate speech. Everything that has been generated around the transgender law is based on hoaxes, it is a trivialisation of the process. I know first-hand how difficult it is," López adds.
However, this is year the division has run deeper due to another law which was aimed at protecting women by increasing years in jail for rape convictions, but has caused the contrary.
Protesters attend an International Women's Day demonstration in Madrid, Wednesday, March 8
- Bernat Armangue/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.
What is the controversy with the new rape law?
Since last autumn the feminist movement has become even more polarised, after the Spanish Congress passed the "only yes means yes" reform. It was the Ministry of Equality's flagship piece of legislation.
This new law was made to give more importance to the role of consent. In order to do this, it merged the meaning of ‘assault’ and ‘abuse’ into the same offence. They ended up establishing the maximum limit for assaults with the minimum for abuse.
What was meant to be stricter than the previous code in place, instead has resulted in reduced jail sentences for 721 sex offenders and 74 have been released from prison since its signing last October 2022, according to data published by the General Council of the Judiciary.
This is why, this year, the march led by the Madrid Feminist Movement carried banners asking for the resignation of Irene Montero, Spain's Minister of Equality.
For Gómez, who represents the Madrid Feminist Movement, the laws “are not well made" and are fragmenting the movement in Spain. “This law in particular has some good points, but in general it is not well done and jurists have already warned that it would get sexual offenders out of jail".
Many voices have called for a change in the law, however the 8M Commission, organiser of the historical march, doesn't believe in its reform.
Podemos and the Ministry of Equality also defend its original text and have voted against a reform promoted by its partner in government, the Socialist Party. This week the law was passed in Congress.
"We believe that the Ministry of Equality has not passed any law that helps women and the minister, Irene Montero, does not want to hear organisations that do not agree 100% with her proposals", says Gómez.
“They believe they are the owners of feminism and they don't listen to anyone else," she adds.
The division is more complex than being in support or against the transgender law or Montero's policies. These are only the tipping factors that have caused the divided image of feminism and, even though the split movement is still a minority, their voice is growing stronger.
UK
Nicola Sturgeon
5th First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party
No-one who has concern for their fellow human beings should back the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week outlined plans to prevent anyone who comes to the UK through illegal means from staying in the country.
The move was immediately denounced by politicians within and outside the UK, with the UN’s refugee agency claiming it amounts to an effective “asylum ban”.
On Thursday, outgoing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon weighed into the controversy, saying the Scottish Government would “never support” such a Bill.
During First Minister’s Questions, she said: “Let’s be clear – the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill sets out a clear intention to remove the right to seek refugee protection in the United Kingdom, it is utterly shameful and immoral.
“All of us, without exception, should be appalled that the Home Secretary should introduce such a Bill, a Bill that she knows doesn’t comply with the Human Rights Act, a Bill which adds to the damage already inflicted on the UK’s reputation as a place of refuge, the UK’s credibility with international partners and the ability to meet responsibilities under the refugee convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It is a Bill that this Government does not support, will never support, and nobody who has any concern for our fellow human beings should ever support such an appalling piece of draft legislation.”
The First Minister also hit out at the opposition, adding: “I can still remember a day when Labour would have opposed it tooth and nail in principle and not in the mealy-mouthed way that it has been doing.”
No-one with concern for fellow humans should back migration Bill – Sturgeon
Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
Thu, 9 March 2023
Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
Thu, 9 March 2023
Nicola Sturgeon
5th First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party
No-one who has concern for their fellow human beings should back the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week outlined plans to prevent anyone who comes to the UK through illegal means from staying in the country.
The move was immediately denounced by politicians within and outside the UK, with the UN’s refugee agency claiming it amounts to an effective “asylum ban”.
On Thursday, outgoing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon weighed into the controversy, saying the Scottish Government would “never support” such a Bill.
During First Minister’s Questions, she said: “Let’s be clear – the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill sets out a clear intention to remove the right to seek refugee protection in the United Kingdom, it is utterly shameful and immoral.
“All of us, without exception, should be appalled that the Home Secretary should introduce such a Bill, a Bill that she knows doesn’t comply with the Human Rights Act, a Bill which adds to the damage already inflicted on the UK’s reputation as a place of refuge, the UK’s credibility with international partners and the ability to meet responsibilities under the refugee convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
“It is a Bill that this Government does not support, will never support, and nobody who has any concern for our fellow human beings should ever support such an appalling piece of draft legislation.”
The First Minister also hit out at the opposition, adding: “I can still remember a day when Labour would have opposed it tooth and nail in principle and not in the mealy-mouthed way that it has been doing.”
Why are migrants in small boats a heated issue in the UK?
Suella Braverman
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, second center, speaks with members of the Home Office contracted staff, while looking at a lifevest and rubber dinghy, during a visit to a Home Office joint control room in Dover, Kent, England, Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, second center, speaks with members of the Home Office contracted staff, while looking at a lifevest and rubber dinghy, during a visit to a Home Office joint control room in Dover, Kent, England, Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)
JILL LAWLESS
Wed, March 8, 2023
LONDON (AP) — The message to asylum-seekers from British Home Secretary Suella Braverman was stark. “If you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed.”
The government hopes that decisive — and divisive — measure will stop tens of thousands of migrants reaching Britain in boats across the English Channel.
Behind the tough talk, however, lie a host of legal, practical and ethical questions. Condemned by rights groups and queried by legal experts, the Illegal Migration Bill is the latest in a long line of British government efforts to control unauthorized migration.
IS THIS A NEW PROBLEM?
The issue is neither new nor unique to the U.K. War, famine, poverty and political repression have put millions on the move around the globe. Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than European nations including Italy, Germany and France — nine per 100,000 people in 2021, compared to a European Union average of 16 per 100,000.
But for decades, thousands of migrants have traveled to northern France each year in hopes of reaching the U.K. Many are drawn by family ties, the English language or the belief it’s easy to find work in the U.K.
After the Eurotunnel connecting France and England under the Channel opened in 1994, refugees and migrants congregated in Calais, the nearest French city, in hopes of stowing away on vehicles heading to Britain. They gathered in crowded makeshift camps, including a sprawling, violent settlement dubbed “The Jungle.”
Neither repeated sweeps to shut down the camps nor increased security patrols stopped the flow of people.
WHY ARE PEOPLE NOW CROSSING BY BOAT?
When the COVID-19 pandemic all but halted rail, air and ship travel and disrupted freight transport in 2020, people-smugglers began to put migrants into inflatable dinghies and other small boats. In 2018, only 300 people reached Britain that way. The number rose to 8,500 in 2020, 28,000 in 2021 and 45,000 in 2022.
Dozens have died in the frigid channel, including 27 people in a single sinking in November 2021.
The new arrivals are much more visible than those arriving by air or as truck stowaways. Groups of migrants arrive almost daily on beaches or in lifeboats along England’s southern coast, sending the asylum issue up the news and political agenda.
WHO IS IN THE BOATS?
The British government says many of those making the journey are economic migrants rather than refugees, and points to an upswing last year in arrivals from Albania, a European country that the U.K. considers safe.
The other main countries of origin last year were Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Of those whose applications have been processed, a large majority were granted asylum in the U.K.
HOW HAS THE U.K. GOVERNMENT RESPONDED?
Britain’s Conservative Party, in power since 2010, has brought in a series of measures aimed at deterring the channel crossings.
The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt smuggling gangs — all of which have had only a limited impact.
Last year Britain announced a deal with Rwanda to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be heard and, if successful, they would stay. The policy was condemned by human rights groups an is mired in legal challenges. No one has yet been sent to Rwanda.
The 2022 Nationality and Borders Act barred people from claiming asylum in Britain if they had passed through a safe country such as France. But in practice it has made little difference, since people fleeing war and persecution can’t be sent home, and no countries — other than Rwanda and Albania — have agreed to take deportees.
This week Britain unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill, its toughest measure yet, which calls for people arriving by unauthorized routes to be detained, deported to their homeland or “a safe third country” and banned from ever reentering the U.K.
WILL IT WORK?
The United Nations refugee agency says the bill amounts to an “asylum ban” and is a clear breach of the U.N. refugee convention. The U.K. government acknowledges the bill may break Britain’s international human rights commitments, and says it expects legal challenges.
Sunder Katwala, head of the identity and immigration think-tank British Future, said in a blog post that “the pledge to detain and remove all people who cross the Channel has no prospect of being honored in the next two years.” He said that apart from legal issues, the government “doesn’t have enough detention places; and it cannot deport everyone when it doesn’t have agreements with other countries to do so safely.”
The British government says the country’s asylum system has been “overwhelmed” by the small-boat arrivals. But critics blame a bureaucratic and cumbersome asylum system, exacerbated by the pandemic, that has amassed a backlog of 160,000 applications.
Brexit has also played a role: it has made it harder for Britain to send migrants to other European countries and has cut off U.K. access to some EU-wide information databases.
The government has vowed to push the bill into law, saying the British public wants to see tough action. “Stopping the boats is not just my priority, it is the people’s priority,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday.
Evidence suggests the public’s view is mixed. A desire to control immigration was a huge factor behind the U.K.’s 2016 vote to pull out of the European Union. But overall immigration rose, rather than fell, after Brexit, hitting a record high of more than 500,000 in the year to June 2022. Britain also took in a record number of refugees last year, including 160,000 from Ukraine and 150,000 from Hong Kong.
At the same time, polls suggest immigration is no longer a top issue for many voters. Jonathan Portes, senior fellow at the think-tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, said there has been a “sustained shift towards more positive attitudes towards migration” since Brexit.
As for asylum-seekers, he said Britons want the country to be “relatively generous towards genuine refugees. But how that is defined is highly contested.” ___
Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
JILL LAWLESS
Wed, March 8, 2023
LONDON (AP) — The message to asylum-seekers from British Home Secretary Suella Braverman was stark. “If you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed.”
The government hopes that decisive — and divisive — measure will stop tens of thousands of migrants reaching Britain in boats across the English Channel.
Behind the tough talk, however, lie a host of legal, practical and ethical questions. Condemned by rights groups and queried by legal experts, the Illegal Migration Bill is the latest in a long line of British government efforts to control unauthorized migration.
IS THIS A NEW PROBLEM?
The issue is neither new nor unique to the U.K. War, famine, poverty and political repression have put millions on the move around the globe. Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than European nations including Italy, Germany and France — nine per 100,000 people in 2021, compared to a European Union average of 16 per 100,000.
But for decades, thousands of migrants have traveled to northern France each year in hopes of reaching the U.K. Many are drawn by family ties, the English language or the belief it’s easy to find work in the U.K.
After the Eurotunnel connecting France and England under the Channel opened in 1994, refugees and migrants congregated in Calais, the nearest French city, in hopes of stowing away on vehicles heading to Britain. They gathered in crowded makeshift camps, including a sprawling, violent settlement dubbed “The Jungle.”
Neither repeated sweeps to shut down the camps nor increased security patrols stopped the flow of people.
WHY ARE PEOPLE NOW CROSSING BY BOAT?
When the COVID-19 pandemic all but halted rail, air and ship travel and disrupted freight transport in 2020, people-smugglers began to put migrants into inflatable dinghies and other small boats. In 2018, only 300 people reached Britain that way. The number rose to 8,500 in 2020, 28,000 in 2021 and 45,000 in 2022.
Dozens have died in the frigid channel, including 27 people in a single sinking in November 2021.
The new arrivals are much more visible than those arriving by air or as truck stowaways. Groups of migrants arrive almost daily on beaches or in lifeboats along England’s southern coast, sending the asylum issue up the news and political agenda.
WHO IS IN THE BOATS?
The British government says many of those making the journey are economic migrants rather than refugees, and points to an upswing last year in arrivals from Albania, a European country that the U.K. considers safe.
The other main countries of origin last year were Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Of those whose applications have been processed, a large majority were granted asylum in the U.K.
HOW HAS THE U.K. GOVERNMENT RESPONDED?
Britain’s Conservative Party, in power since 2010, has brought in a series of measures aimed at deterring the channel crossings.
The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt smuggling gangs — all of which have had only a limited impact.
Last year Britain announced a deal with Rwanda to send migrants arriving by boat on a one-way trip to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be heard and, if successful, they would stay. The policy was condemned by human rights groups an is mired in legal challenges. No one has yet been sent to Rwanda.
The 2022 Nationality and Borders Act barred people from claiming asylum in Britain if they had passed through a safe country such as France. But in practice it has made little difference, since people fleeing war and persecution can’t be sent home, and no countries — other than Rwanda and Albania — have agreed to take deportees.
This week Britain unveiled the Illegal Migration Bill, its toughest measure yet, which calls for people arriving by unauthorized routes to be detained, deported to their homeland or “a safe third country” and banned from ever reentering the U.K.
WILL IT WORK?
The United Nations refugee agency says the bill amounts to an “asylum ban” and is a clear breach of the U.N. refugee convention. The U.K. government acknowledges the bill may break Britain’s international human rights commitments, and says it expects legal challenges.
Sunder Katwala, head of the identity and immigration think-tank British Future, said in a blog post that “the pledge to detain and remove all people who cross the Channel has no prospect of being honored in the next two years.” He said that apart from legal issues, the government “doesn’t have enough detention places; and it cannot deport everyone when it doesn’t have agreements with other countries to do so safely.”
The British government says the country’s asylum system has been “overwhelmed” by the small-boat arrivals. But critics blame a bureaucratic and cumbersome asylum system, exacerbated by the pandemic, that has amassed a backlog of 160,000 applications.
Brexit has also played a role: it has made it harder for Britain to send migrants to other European countries and has cut off U.K. access to some EU-wide information databases.
The government has vowed to push the bill into law, saying the British public wants to see tough action. “Stopping the boats is not just my priority, it is the people’s priority,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday.
Evidence suggests the public’s view is mixed. A desire to control immigration was a huge factor behind the U.K.’s 2016 vote to pull out of the European Union. But overall immigration rose, rather than fell, after Brexit, hitting a record high of more than 500,000 in the year to June 2022. Britain also took in a record number of refugees last year, including 160,000 from Ukraine and 150,000 from Hong Kong.
At the same time, polls suggest immigration is no longer a top issue for many voters. Jonathan Portes, senior fellow at the think-tank U.K. in a Changing Europe, said there has been a “sustained shift towards more positive attitudes towards migration” since Brexit.
As for asylum-seekers, he said Britons want the country to be “relatively generous towards genuine refugees. But how that is defined is highly contested.” ___
Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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