Stunning mosaic of baby star clusters created from 1 million telescope shots

This image provided by European Southern Observatory shows the L1688 region in the Ophiuchus constellation. Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of stellar nurseries hiding in our galactic backyard. The montage, published Thursday, May 11, 2023, reveals five vast star-forming regions less than 1,500 light-years away. 

(European Southern Observatory/Meingast via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of baby star clusters hiding in our galactic backyard.

The montage, published Thursday, reveals five vast stellar nurseries less than 1,500 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

To come up with their atlas, scientists pieced together more than 1 million images taken over five years by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observatory’s infrared survey telescope was able to peer through clouds of dust and discern infant stars.

“We can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before,” University of Vienna’s Stefan Meingast, the lead author, said in a statement.

The observations, conducted from 2017 to 2022, will help researchers better understand how stars evolve from dust, Meingast said.

The findings, appearing in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, complement observations by the European Space Agency’s star-mapping Gaia spacecraft, orbiting nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away.

Gaia focuses on optical light, missing most of the objects obscured by cosmic dust, the researchers said.

___

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

The US has approved $42 billion in loan forgiveness for public service workers.

By ADRIANA MORGA and CORA LEWIS

yesterday

 In this June 27, 2020, file photo, Saltillo High School seniors make their way to the football field as the sun begins to set for their graduation ceremony in Saltillo, Miss. Federal parent PLUS loans have become a last resort for many lower-income families paying for a kid’s college education. Today, parent PLUS loan debt totals $108.5 billion among 3.7 million borrowers, and the average borrower owes more than $29,000. (Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP, File)

The U.S. has approved more than $42 billion in federal student loan debt forgiveness for more than 615,000 borrowers in the past 18 months as part of a program aimed at getting more people to work in public service jobs, the U.S. Department of Education said this week.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is open to teachers, librarians, nurses, public interest lawyers, military members and other public workers. It cancels a borrower’s remaining student debt after 10 years of public interest work, or 120 monthly payments.

The program is separate from President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, which would wipe away or reduce loans for millions of borrowers regardless of what field they work in. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether that plan can go ahead.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, known as PSLF, was launched in 2007, but stringent rules meant that more than 90% of applicants were rejected, the Department of Education said in 2019.

In October 2021, the government temporarily relaxed the requirements, making it easier for people to apply and be approved. Those relaxed requirements ended in October 2022. However, borrowers who want to increase their payment count have another opportunity to do so. They can apply for the one-time account adjustment until the end of the year.

Through the one-time account adjustment, borrowers with direct loans through the William D. Ford program will have similar benefits to those that were available under the limited PSLF waiver. Borrowers who do not have direct loans can consolidate and receive PSLF credit for prior payments as part of this adjustment, as long as they submit a consolidation application by the end of 2023.

One of the people who benefited from the PSLF waiver was Beth Bourdon, an assistant public defender in Orlando, Florida.

Bourdon had about $57,000 of student loans forgiven in February 2022. Previously, because her loans had been acquired through the Family Federal Education Loan Program, Bourdon didn’t qualify for relief. But when the waiver took effect in October 2021, she successfully applied.

“I kept checking and re-checking the site, and one day I went and the balance was zero,” Bourdon said. “Two days later I got the official letter.”

With the exception of one two-year period, Bourdon has worked in public interest law since 2005. She said she made payments of about $417 every month from June 2008 to October 2021, when she consolidated her loans and applied for PSLF.

“Public defenders, we don’t get paid a lot,” she said. “When people’s student loans hit, they’re faced with a really hard decision. Can I remain doing this job I love or will I have to go to a civil firm to try to make money? The PSLF helps try to retain talented people who would otherwise go somewhere else.”

Bourdon said the cancellation gives her “breathing room.”

She added that she personally talked about 10 people she knows through the process of applying for forgiveness via the waiver, and that several have already received cancellation.

“It’s so great — knowing how relieved I was, for my friends to have that kind of relief too,” she said.

Starting July 1 of this year, the Education Department will implement changes designed to make the PSLF application process easier. Some of the changes were previously included in the waiver.

'A game of chance': Migrants battle glitchy app at US border

Paula RAMON
Thu, 11 May 2023

From Friday would-be migrants must register their details and upload a photograph on CBP One

The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States' southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.

For immigration managers, a sleek, computerised way to manage the wave of people expected to arrive when Covid-era rules lapse must have been tempting.

But for poor, exhausted people whose phones don't work, or who have no access to wifi or electricity, it's just another almost-impossible hurdle.

"It's amazing that an app practically decides our lives and our future," Jeremy de Pablos, a 21-year-old Venezuelan who has camped out in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez for weeks, told AFP.

De Pablos, who has dark skin, said the hardest part of using the CBP One app was the facial recognition -- an issue that many migrants with darker complexions have pointed to.

"It's like a game of chance. It recognizes who it wants to."

President Joe Biden's administration launched the Custom and Border Protection app in January, as it eyed a way to manage the expected chaos when Title 42 expires overnight Thursday into Friday.

The measure was imposed under Donald Trump, with a stated purpose of keeping those infected with Covid-19 out of the country, allowing border guards to refuse entry to anyone.

In practice it has been a quick and easy way to avoid accepting asylum claims.

But with the ending of the Covid emergency, Title 42 is finished, replaced instead with regular migration policies that the Biden administration says will offer pathways to legitimate asylum seekers, and harsh penalties to those who do not follow the rules.

- Old, outdated phones -

From Friday would-be migrants must register their name, date of birth, details of their travel documents, and upload a photograph on CBP One. The app can also log their location and their device details.

But old, outdated phones make the process hard.

It's harder still for those whose phones were broken or stolen on the long trek north.

Antonio Sanchez Ventura lives on the streets of Ciudad Juarez with nothing, eating only what he can scrounge.

His sole focus now is to raise the money to buy a phone and download the app.

"It is the dream of every human being to cross to the United States to help our relatives," he said.

- 'A nightmare' -

Ciudad Juarez is a tangle of tents and desperation, where people who have made impossible journeys scrape by on hope and charity.

Those who have phones search for exposed wires from street lights to charge them, and save every penny they have to buy credit to access the internet.

But the challenge does not end there.

"Look, it's stuck," said Ronald Huerta, a Venezuelan who on Wednesday couldn't get past the application's language settings.

A few meters away, Ana Paola, a 14-year-old Venezuelan, cried disconsolately because the application had been updated and all the information for her family had been deleted.

"I'm tired! I can't take it anymore!" the teenager shouted as she repeatedly clicked "Submit" to recreate the family's profiles -- receiving an "Error 500" message every time.

"It's been a nightmare, it's been a torment. This application has caused us emotional, psychological damage," said her father, Juan Pavon.

As Title 42 enters its final few hours, some migrants debate just sneaking across the border, hoping to avoid detection long enough to reach some kind of safety.

For some, the strategy works.

"I waited and waited and waited, but I got fed up, there was no way to get an appointment," said Luis Quintana, a Venezuelan who climbed through a hole in the wall at El Paso after three months on the streets of Ciudad Juarez.

For Raul Pinto, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, the app's many problems add another layer of unnecessary despair.

"It's frustrating that this important process is left at the mercy of technology that can often be glitchy and that is not going to be accessible by everyone," he told AFP.

The government said this week it would be rolling out updates to the app and increasing the number of appointments available in a bid to ease the logjam.

Pinto was hopeful that things would get better, but said there were many aspects of the process that were beyond fixing.

"We are very disappointed that there's not an alternative way for people to access this very important and potentially life saving process," he said.

What is Title 42 and how has US used it to curb migration?

By REBECCA SANTANA

May 9, 2023

1 of 12
Migrants cross a barbed-wire barrier into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, May 9, 2023. The U.S. is preparing for the Thursday, May 11th end of the Title 42 policy, linked to the coronavirus pandemic that allowed it to quickly expel many migrants seeking asylum. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years.

The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health.

The end of Title 42′s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants.

A look at what Title 42 is and why it matters:

HOW DID Title 42 START?

In March 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order limiting migration, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Schools and businesses were closing their doors and hospitals were filling with patients. President Donald Trump was looking for ways to curtail immigration — his signature political issue.
The order authorized Customs and Border Protection to immediately remove migrants, including people seeking asylum. The order said areas where migrants were held often weren’t designed to quarantine people or for social distancing.

RELATED COVERAGE

– Biden: US-Mexico border will be 'chaotic for a while'
– Migrants flow north to US border ahead of policy changes

The Biden administration initially continued the policy. While many Democrats pushed President Joe Biden to overturn it, some — especially in border states — have advocated keeping it, saying the U.S. is unprepared for an increase in asylum-seekers.

Title 42 has been used more than 2.8 million times to expel migrants since its implementation. However, children traveling alone were exempt. Also, it has been unevenly enforced by nationality, partly because it’s harder to expel people to some countries, including Venezuela and Cuba.

WHY IS Title 42 ENDING?

The Biden administration announced in January that it was ending the national emergencies linked to the pandemic. That also spelled the end of using Title 42 to deal with immigration. Thursday is the last day Title 42 is expected to be used.

This isn’t the first time its use has come close to expiring. The CDC announced in April 2022 that the rule was no longer needed because vaccines and treatments were more widespread. Republican-leaning states sued to keep it in place.

While it seems likely that Title 42 will go away this week, last-minute legal maneuverings that keep it in place are always possible.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Starting Friday, asylum-seekers will be interviewed by immigration officers. Those who are found to have a “credible fear” of being persecuted in their home countries can stay in the U.S. until a final determination is made.

That can take years. While some people are detained while their asylum process plays out, the vast majority are freed into the United States with notices to appear in immigration court or report to immigration authorities.

One key concern is that migrants might feel they have a greater chance now to get asylum in the U.S. so more will attempt to enter and overwhelm authorities’ ability to care for and process them. That could take U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents away from other responsibilities such as looking for smugglers and facilitating the billions of dollars of trade that crosses the southern border.

Already some locations along the U.S.-Mexico border are seeing greater numbers of migrants. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on Twitter on Monday that his agents had stopped about 8,800 migrants a day over a three-day period. That was up from about 5,200 a day in March and at a clip to smash the December tally, the highest month on record.

Others have argued that no one really knows how many people will try to enter the U.S. They note that people expelled under Title 42 face no consequences, so some have tried to enter repeatedly.

An asylum-seeker carries his baby past U.S. Border Patrol agents as they wait between the double fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, May 8, 2023, in San Diego. The migrants wait between the fences to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

DOES THE U.S. HAVE A PLAN?

The U.S. says yes. Critics say no.

The federal government has said that it has spent more than a year getting ready. It expects more migrants will be coming initially.

The Biden administration’s strategy has hinged on providing more legal pathways for migrants to get to the U.S. without coming directly to the border. That includes setting up centers in foreign countries where migrants can apply to emigrate as well as a humanitarian parole process already in place with 30,000 slots a month for people from four countries to come to the U.S.

The U.S. is expanding appointments available through an app called CBP One, which allows migrants to schedule a time to present themselves at a border crossing to request permission to enter.

There also are consequences. The U.S. is proposing a rule that would generally deny asylum to migrants who first travel through another country. It also wants to quickly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border and deport those deemed not qualified, and deny reentry for five years for those who are deported.

Republicans have lambasted the administration, saying the U.S. isn’t doing enough to secure the border.

On Monday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called on the White House to deliver more funds for border communities as well as a satisfactory plan to deal with any increase in migrants. Hobbs is a Democrat, like the president.

Civil rights groups have other concerns. They have compared the severe limits on migrants who come through a third country to actions taken by Trump. They also said the plan to process asylum claims quickly at the border is not fair to migrants who have just arrived from a long, perilous journey.

___

Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal.

 Chile's Far Right Re-emerges After Presidential Defeat

Santiago, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th May, 2023 ) :

Chile's far right may have received a bloody nose in a deeply divisive presidential race in 2021, but elections Sunday for a body that will rewrite the country's dictatorship-era constitution have shown it to be an enduring force.

Led by conservative lawyer Jose Antonio Kast, an apologist for deceased military dictator Augusto Pinochet, Chile's Republican Party took 23 of 51 seats on the council that will design a new framework for the country's future.

The outcome of Sunday's vote does not alter the balance of power in the Chilean parliament, where the far right is a minority.

But it does give the Republican Party Kast founded in 2019 overwhelming sway in drafting the document that will shape Chile's new identity.

"The most likely is that something very similar to the 1980 (constitution) will come" from the drafting process, said Claudia Heiss of the University of Chile.

This would, in effect, maintain the status quo in the South American country which had appeared to be on a leftward trajectory ever since anti-government protests broke out in 2019 against deep social inequality.

The protests led to a referendum in 2020 in which 80 percent voted for replacing the Pinochet-era constitution.

In May 2021, Chileans elected a majority left-leaning body to write a new constitution, and that December chose millennial leftist Gabriel Boric as president over Kast.

Then the tide seemed to turn: Last year, more than 61 percent of voters rejected the constitutional draft that would have made Chile one of the most progressive countries in Latin America.

It would have allowed for elective abortion and expanded Indigenous rights -- all elements of Boric's leftist reform agenda.

And on Sunday, voters opted for a majority of Republican Party members on the drafting body.

Chile: major blow to president as far right triumphs in key constitution vote


‘Earthquake in Chilean politics’ as ultra-conservative Republican party wins 22 of 50 seats on body to rewrite Pinochet-era document


Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Mon 8 May 2023 

Chile’s far right has won an emphatic victory in a vote to select the committee that will rewrite its dictatorship-era constitution, after José Antonio Kast’s Republican party secured 22 of its 50 seats in a major blow to the progressive president Gabriel Boric.

Boric beat Kast, an ultra-conservative lawyer often compared to Brazil’s former leader Jair Bolsonaro, in the 2021 presidential election.

But on Sunday night it was Kast who was celebrating after 35% of voters backed Republicanos, the extreme-right party he founded in 2019.

“This is an earthquake in Chilean politics,” the Chilean journalist Rocío Montes wrote in El País, noting how Chile’s left had secured only 17 places on the council, meaning it would be unable to veto rightwing changes. Another rightwing coalition won 11 seats.

Kast celebrated Sunday’s result as “a new start” for his South American country.

“Today, Chileans have defeated listlessness, apathy and indifference,” he said, claiming voters had sent a “loud and clear message” about the conservative direction they wanted Chile to take.

Moves to rewrite Chile’s Pinochet-era constitution began in 2020, when nearly 80% of citizens voted to revamp the charter following huge street protests and unrest the previous year. However, a progressive new draft was rejected by a clear majority last September, forcing politicians to return to the drawing board and for a new constitutional council to be elected.

Political scientist Robert Funk said Sunday’s results meant the next draft of Chile’s constitution was likely to be more rightwing.

He said: “It’s pretty bad news … Right now, it looks like we are going to have, in the best-case scenario very few changes to what we already have now and, in the worst-case scenario, actually a shift to the right.

“The Republicans could try to prohibit abortion in the constitution, for example. So we could actually end up with a constitution which on values issues is even more conservative than what we have now.”

If that happened, it was possible Chile’s left would boycott or actively campaign against the new draft and that voters might again reject it, as they did last year.

“That’s what worries me more than anything else because that just means a continuation of uncertainty and tension and polarization,” Funk said.

Kast’s victory cements his status as the dominant figure on Chile’s right, and is the latest reminder of the populist far right’s continued appeal across South America, despite Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil’s presidential election last October.

A far-right radical billed as “Paraguay’s Bolsonaro” came third in that country’s recent presidential election, with 23% of the vote. Paraguayo “Payo” Cubas was arrested on Friday after claiming, without evidence, that the election had been rigged.

In crisis-stricken Argentina, the far-right libertarian Javier Milei looks set to play a prominent role in October’s presidential election. Earlier this year, Milei and Bolsonaro vowed to fight together to prevent Latin America becoming “the Soviet Union” and for their supposedly shared values of “God, homeland, family and freedom”.

A Primal Forest Encircled By Ecuador Port Faces Ruination

By Carlos SANMANIEGO

May 11, 2023

Aerial view of the Cerro Blanco hill, a tropical dry forest on the edge of GuayaquilMarcos PIN

With photos by Marcos PIN

A hilly forest that is a bastion of exceptional flora and fauna next to Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, is now threatened by mining, urbanization and deforestation.

Cerro Blanco -- white hill in English -- is a vast tropical dry forest that has been gradually devoured by the port city of three million people.


In the last 15 years, Cerro Blanco has become an "island locked up and encircled by the city," Eliana Molineros, who created a foundation to protect wild animals, told AFP

The forest's fragile and rich ecosystem has been declared in danger by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The forest of 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres) is home to hundreds of bird species, around 60 mammal species, including jaguars -- the largest felines on the continent -- and dozens of endemic plants.

Only about 10 percent of the world's original tropical dry forests remain.

Cerro Blanco and its virgin forest is one of the few remaining such environments in Latin America.

Aerial view of a limestone quarry in the Cerro Blanco tropical dry forest

Marcos PIN

But it is also a mining area that provides the primary material for cement, and from where the hill gets its name due to the color of the limestone.

There are 36 quarries, including 10 government-run sites, that devour the forest's vegetation.

Those quarries are supposedly authorized by the national agency that controls mining, but locals complain that some of them are illegal.

Some abandoned illegal mines stick out like scars on the landscape.

On Saturday, dozens of local inhabitants of an area that was deforested for mining protested against the proliferation of mines, shouting "Quarries out!" and "Protect Guayaquil's lungs from depredation."

Four local associations demanded the creation of a protected area that would ban mining and other extraction activities in Cerro Blanco.

With white butterflies fluttering overhead, biologist Paul Cun stopped in front of a 40-meter (130 feet) tall fig tree.

"We are standing in the best preserved tropical dry forest in Ecuador," said Cun, who has been volunteering in the forest since 1998.

With his boots sinking into the mud, Cun recounted stories about being bitten by snakes or having howler monkeys throw fruit at him.

Among the more than 250 species of birds that nest here is the snail kite, a rare bird of prey whose song sounds like a burst of laughter.

The large pijio trees that are typical to this area harbor the Guayaquil parrot, the emblem of the city but whose numbers have dwindled to just 60 birds living in the wild, according to experts.

Tourists flock to the Cerro Blanco forest to take pictures of unique wildlife

Marcos PIN

There is an abundance of mushrooms, some purple and sticky, others black that emerge from the ground like a claw and are known locally as the "hand of death."

All around, trees as tall as high-rise buildings disperse the sun's rays.

On the southern part of the hill, lots with about 30 upper middle-class homes are carved out of the forest.

To the north there are the "Mount Sinai" and "City of God" slums, the poorest parts of a city marked by huge wealth disparity and that has become a hotbed of violence related to drug trafficking.

The slums are the most dangerous neighborhoods on the Cerro Blanco.

The forest's two unarmed rangers are helpless in the face of arsonists and squatters who flock to the forest looking to make their fortune.

Before it was turned into a private reserve, Cerro Blanco was exploited by a major landowner in the 1950s.

In 1989, the state expropriated the forest and sold it to Swiss building materials company, Holcim.

In order to respect its environmental commitments, Holcim turned 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) into a protected forest.

The Probosque Foundation, to which Cun belongs, has been tasked with managing the protected reserve.

Locals have complained about illegal mining in the Cerro Blanco reserve, despite authorities insisting all 36 mines there are authorized

Marcos PIN

These days, tourists and hikers trek along the forest trails looking for unique fauna to photograph.

In 2022, around 13,000 people, 15 percent of whom were foreigners, visited the forest, according to Probosque.

Yet the foundation's head of tourism, Romina Escudero, is angry at the lack of support from the local government.

"The only thing they've done is put up a road sign with the forest's name," said Escudero.

Despite the air being sucked out of the city's green lungs, visitors continue to marvel at the wildlife within.

"We saw a giant cat," enthused Saul Vivero, a mountain biker who spotted a jaguarundi, a wild feline slightly larger than a domestic cat and known for its long tail.

© Agence France-Presse

AMERIKA

Why moms are 'leading the charge' and asking for gun reform this Mother's Day

"If you need something done, you ask a mom."

Maressa Brown

Wed, May 10, 2023 

Emily Amick of Emily In Your Phone and For Facts Sake is pushing for gun reform with the #PhoneCallsNotFlowers Mother's Day campaign. (Image: Getty; Senn & Sons Instagram; illustration by Aisha Yousaf for Yahoo)

It’s the time of year when anyone who has or loves a mom might be contemplating buying a bouquet, a box of chocolates or maybe a spa gift card. But a buzzy social media campaign is urging people to instead observe Mother’s Day by making their voice heard on one of the greatest issues affecting moms in the U.S.: gun violence. The #PhoneCallsNotFlowers campaign is the first from For Facts Sake (FFS), a new nonprofit founded by Emily Amick, a lawyer, journalist, former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the creator behind the popular political Instagram account Emily In Your Phone.

In their kickoff post shared on May 2, For Facts Sake points out that firearms are now the leading cause of death among kids and teens across the U.S. and encourages moms to ask the people who love them to “give the gift of action" by calling their reps to "support background checks on all gun sales." Specifically, the campaign encourages people to ask their representatives in the Senate and House to co-sponsor and push for the passage of the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2023 (S. 494, H.R. 715), which would prohibit a gun transfer “between private parties unless a licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check.” It’s legislative action that For Facts Sake notes 87% of Americans are in support of, according to a Fox News poll.

To make it easy for people to take action, the FFS post features a to-do list that urges followers to get the phone numbers for their three federal reps (congressperson and two senators), make calls using a simple script and then share a screenshot of their call log on their Instagram account.

Of the inspiration for the push, Amick tells Yahoo Life that many of her followers are, like her, women in their 30s. “A lot of them are moms of young kids,” she explains, adding that she hears from them a lot on this subject. “They want to do more about gun violence, and they want to do it for their kids. So part of the campaign is moms saying, ‘Hey, all of you people who love us, we need you to stand up with us.’ This is a campaign about a mom speaking out and everyone who loves moms stepping up and saying, ‘We're with you. We're going to make our calls.’”

Given the epidemic of mass shootings — including the one at an Allen, Texas mall last week — Amick says “people are fed up with thoughts and prayers, and they are fed up with feeling like politicians care more about special interests than they do about the people who vote for them.”

And every day, she hears from moms who are losing sleep over the threat of a shooting, particularly at their child’s school. “I hear it every day, like, ‘My kids just came home. They had a drill, they're crying. I'm so scared,’” says Amick. “It should not be like this.”

The heartening twist: The For Facts Sake founder says she’s seeing “more and more public square conversations about this issue” and people with reps who are “traditionally against gun reform being willing to speak out and contact their reps.” “That's what we're going to need to see happen,” says Amick. “And we need more of those people making sure to communicate that this is an issue that they're going to make their vote depend on.”

Amick sees moms, in particular, as capable of getting that message across.

“If you need something done, you ask a mom, and this is something that we need to get done for the safety of America — for our kids, but for communities in general,” she notes. “Moms are leading the charge, and the rest of us are here to back them up.”

While Amick doesn’t have exact data to reflect how the campaign is going so far, she says she is hearing from followers who’ve reported back about their own calls or the fact that their spouse or parents have called their reps, in many cases, for the first time.

“I'm seeing so many people post about it — especially people who don't traditionally post about politics on their social media, which is incredible,” she says. “I just got a DM from someone who said they've been talking to their mom about this issue for the past year, and she finally made the call today.”

To anyone who might be getting involved in a campaign like this for the first time or be hesitant to speak out, Amick says, “Your voice has value, and you might not think that people are listening to you, but your loved ones, your friends, your family — you have influence over them, and your voice has meaning.”

A delicate succession in the Arctic Council after Russia sidelined

Pierre-Henry DESHAYES
Thu, May 11, 2023 

In the past two decades, the Arctic has lost a third of its winter sea ice

The Arctic Council, a model for cooperation between former Cold War foes, on Thursday saw a delicate handover of chairmanship, with the sidelining of Russia, its largest member.

After two years of Russia at the helm, Norway took over the reins of the intergovernmental forum, which was considered exemplary until the invasion of Ukraine led seven of the eight members -- the United States, Canada and the five Nordic countries -- to suspend their meetings with Moscow.

For the actual handover, the Western foreign ministers declined an invitation from their Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to visit Siberia.

In contrast to earlier transfers, the formal handover took place online at a senior official level on Thursday.

"It is vital that the Arctic Council maintains its role as the most important multilateral forum for addressing issues relating to the Arctic," Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in a statement.

In a joint declaration issued by the Council's members, the Scandinavian country offered to host a meeting of the group in 2025. The format of the gathering was not specified, in particular regarding Russia's participation.

On Wednesday, Huitfeldt told AFP in an email that maintaining the regional forum would be the "main objective" of the Norwegian chairmanship.

She acknowledged however that Oslo had "no illusions that this would be easy", given current international tensions.

Experts believe sidelining Russia weakens the body, where the nations have been able to address issues of common interest -- from environmental protection to sustainable development and indigenous populations in the Arctic region, which is warming four times faster than the planet as a whole.

Since its creation in 1996, the Council has become the main forum for cooperation in the region.

The Arctic's importance has increased with the accelerated retreat of the ice sheet. This opens up maritime routes and economic opportunities in oil, gas, minerals and fishing, but it threatens the fragile ecosystem, vulnerable indigenous populations and the Earth's climate.

Apart from some tensions during Donald Trump's tenure in the White House, relations within the forum have generally been smooth, in part because thorny issues such as security are not in its remit.

As a result, the Council has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in the past.

- Two Arctics? -

After suspending cooperation with Moscow in early March 2022, the seven other member nations (the A7) agreed to continue work that does not involve Russia's participation.

However, this only represents about a third of the Council's 130-odd projects, according to Dwayne Ryan Menezes of the think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

"Can regional governance be truly meaningful and effective at a circumpolar level if an Arctic state as large as Russia were not at the table?" Menezes said.

"Or will the Arctic split into rival spheres of influence, potentially also with competing forums for regional cooperation and governance –- one involving the A7 and the other led by Russia and involving non-Arctic actors such as China?" he continued.

Isolated from the West, Moscow is increasingly focusing on ties to other powers -- primarily China but also emerging nations such as Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa.

In April, Moscow and Beijing signed a memorandum of cooperation for their coastguards in the Arctic.

Rasmus Gjedsso Bertelsen, a professor of Nordic studies at the Norwegian University of Tromso, said he was "critical of this Western policy of boycotting, which does not change anything on the battlefield in Ukraine but reduces our insight into the way Russians think".

An Arctic Council cut in half "is of course much less valuable", the Danish academic told AFP.

"It is very easy for the West to work together because we have a lot of common interests. But we should not neglect the Russian half, which is the most interesting and important with the Northeast Sea Passage and all its natural resources," he argued.

phy/po/jj/iwd

OBTF Cascade: The military unit where the Russian elite get to ‘play war’ in Ukraine

Louise NORDSTROM
Thu, 11 May 2023 

© FRANCE 24 screengrab/OBTFCascade/Telegram

Want to boast that you fought for the homeland, but without risking your life? Welcome to OBTF Cascade, the Russian military unit that allows career politicians and their military-aged sons to play war in Ukraine – at a safe and comfortable distance from the blood being spilled on the front line.

“Fiery hearts. Nerves of steel.” Such are the characteristics of troops belonging to OBTF Cascade – at least according to the unit’s Telegram channel, which is filled with aerial videos of Russian drone bombings accompanied by heavy metal music and portrait pictures of its well-groomed and well-equipped “fighters”.

"Fiery hearts. Nerves of steel. The will to win over Nazism. OBTF Cascade."

 © FRANCE 24 screengrab/OBTF Cascade/Telegram

“When the Motherland called, the cadets took up arms without hesitation and stood up to defend their native land,” one of the photo captions reads, adding that the brave young men in the pictures previously studied at Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and had promising futures as investigators.

But according to Jeff Hawn, a non-resident fellow at the Washington DC-based think-tank New Lines Institute and an expert on the Russian military, Cascade fighters might not be as daring and courageous as they make themselves out to be.

“The unit has never, as far as anyone can tell, been within 50 miles (80 kilometres) of combat,” he said.

Fulfilling their ‘patriotic duty’

Cascade is a secretive reconnaissance group that shares the same name as a Russian special forces unit – a deliberate move according to Hawn. It was reportedly founded in October last year by Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia’s ruling United Russia party and a former MP in the State Duma.

Hawn said the unit was created in response to President Vladimir Putin’s decision to declare a “partial mobilisation”, in which 300,000 Russian reservists would be called up and sent to the war in Ukraine. By creating the elite Cascade unit, which is believed to consist of around a hundred members, the Kremlin could show that no one – not even the country’s politicians – were too important to be exempt from military duty.

“[Cascade] was part of a broader effort to show that members of parliament and their families are also actively fighting in the war, or doing their patriotic duty,” Hawn said, noting that several lawmakers and high-profile Russians, including Sablin’s own son, have so far served in the Cascade unit.

According to French newspaper Le Figaro, the group, which is based in the illegally annexed Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, is equipped and funded by the Russian defence ministry.

As much as the group tries to advertise itself as a real combat group, however, critics say it is everything but that.

“This is a ‘cronies detachment’ that includes deputies and their children who want to mark themselves as having been in the war but don’t feel like going to the front line,” the Daily Telegraph cited the influential Russian blog channel VKCh-OGPU as stating in a recent article on the group.

The newspaper pointed to photographs showing Cascade fighters preparing drones and “studying computer monitors from comfortable bunkers”.

The “dangers” Cascade members expose themselves to are virtually non-existent, Hawn added, noting that their contribution to the war effort amounts to little more than photo ops serving Kremlin propaganda purposes.

“They participate for less than a month, take photos, post them, then go home,” Hawn explained. “The MPs and their boys don’t actually do anything.”

Meanwhile, “Russian soldiers are dying in their hundreds in the mud of Bakhmut,” he said.
Join Cascade, up your election chances

In an opinion piece published by American think-tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Russian journalist Andrey Pertsev explained that the war in Ukraine and the title “veteran” has become a “career elevator” for Russian politicians.

“The most cunning careerists, therefore, will appropriate the label of ‘veteran’, earning it through visits to the front lasting only long enough for a photo op,” he wrote, noting that Russian regional elections are now only months away, and trips to Ukraine are therefore in full swing.

One of those who temporarily ditched his administrative duties to “fight” for his homeland by joining Cascade is State Duma member Oleg Golikov. According to Le Figaro, he recently served two three-month contracts with the unit, proudly declaring that: “I’m on the frontline to defend our homeland.”

Whether or not they have taken part in actual combat, politicians who enrolled “have fully embraced the label of combatant, a bet that appears to have paid off”, said Pertsev.

He added: “These days, Putin speaks constantly of the valour of those fighting the war.”

 "The fighters of the OBTF Cascade look to the future with confidence. After all they are absolutely confident in the victory of fascism in the Donbas." The unit's Telegram channel is peppered with portait pictures of its fighters. As you can see in the series of photographs above, they all have the same backdrop. 

© FRANCE 24 screengrab/ OBTF Cascade/ Telegram