LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Oklahoma governor wages war on PBS station after claiming it is indoctrinating children with LGBTQ content

Story by Oliver Darcy • CNN - Yesterday 

America’s most-watched PBS station is on the verge of going dark.

The Republican governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, recently vetoed a bill that would have renewed the license and provided millions in funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the statewide PBS network that reaches more than 650,000 viewers a week. Stitt took issue with what he alleged was LGBTQ-inclusive programming on the station, claiming to Fox News that it amounted to the “indoctrination and over-sexualization of our children.”

“It doesn’t line up with Oklahoma values,” Stitt told the right-wing network this week in an interview about the decision.

The move from Stitt to attack the home of family friendly programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” and “Mister Rogers” is representative of a new and quickly expanding front in the culture wars. Republicans, most prominently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have over the last year laced into Disney, claiming the intentionally inoffensive brand is really a “creepy” company engaged in “grooming” children with radical gender ideology. That strain of attack is now spreading to PBS.

A spokesperson for the public broadcaster defended its programming, saying it provides “curriculum-based content that for generations has educated and inspired children in Oklahoma and across the country.”

“The threat to funding puts Oklahoma families at risk of losing access to the local free content they trust to help kids reach their full potential. The fundamental goal of PBS KIDS remains supporting children as they learn and grow through programming they have come to know and love. Now is not the time to take that away from any child,” the spokesperson said.

While rhetoric from politicians can often be empty and merely aimed at exciting supporters, the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from the GOP is leading in recent months to real actionable consequences. Cheered on by the most powerful entities in right-wing media, politicians like Stitt and DeSantis are moving to use the power of the state to punish organizations for their inclusivity.

While the Oklahoma station receives $6.3 million in funding from donors and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $2.9 million comes from the state government. If Stitt’s veto is not overridden by the state legislature, it would send the station into uncharted territory and could prompt painful decisions to be made.

Not only is OETA the home of educational children’s programming, but it also plays an important civic role. It produces and airs the “Oklahoma News Report,” the only state news program that reaches every county in Oklahoma. And, crucially, it is the broadcast network that state authorities rely on to disseminate emergency alerts to the public, including for severe weather, a frequent and dangerous occurrence in the Tornado Alley state. In just the last year alone, the network has transmitted more than 200 emergency alerts.

State Sen. Carri Hicks, a Democrat who represents Oklahoma City, blasted Stitt’s decision, saying she is “deeply disappointed that the governor has decided to politicize an institution that is so meaningful to generations of Oklahomans.”

“I grew up in a rural community where we did not have access to cable or satellite television, but I did have high-quality educational content on PBS,” Hicks said in a statement. “Because of OETA, I spent my afternoons after school practicing math and reading. Our governor wants to rob our children of that programming and opportunity to learn just so that he can score some political points. It is truly a shame and a disservice to the people of Oklahoma.”

Bob Spinks, a board member and past president of the Friends of OETA non-profit, also spoke out against the governor’s move.

“Since we are Oklahoma’s only statewide television broadcasting system, serving all citizens in the 77 counties in our state, the loss of OETA will leave an enormous gap in providing educational programming, public safety support, and civic engagement for the hundreds of thousands who depend on us weekly,” Spinks told CNN.

“I am not sure of how it will develop if the veto isn’t overridden,” Spinks candidly said. “Clearly, there could be an effect on emergency alert capability.”

“But since we’ve never faced this before,” Spinks added, “we just don’t know.”

- CNN’s Jon Passantino contributed to this report

Energized opposition and poor economy could spell defeat for Turkey's long-time leader

Story by Briar Stewart •  CBC-Yesterday 

At the front of an opposition rally in the Turkish industrial city of Bursa on May 11, a group of women lined up behind metal fencing waving flags and chanting about the cost of potatoes and onions.

"Erdogan's got to go!" they shouted.

The rally, which attracted thousands of people, was held just days before Turkey votes in what is being called a pivotal election that could end Recep Tayyip's Erdogan's 20 years in power and usher in a new political era.

The rising cost of an onion, a kitchen staple, has become a symbol of Turkey's rampant inflation and a fixture in political advertisements for opposition leader Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu.

A 74-year-old former civil servant, Kiliçdaroğlu is leading a six-party alliance that has united in an effort to defeat Erdogan in the presidential election, which takes place May 14. (A parliamentary vote to elect the 600 deputies for Turkey's Grand National Assembly will take place at the same time.)


Eighteen-year-old Serif Cetinkaya, centre, is voting for the first time in Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. He was in the front row of a rally for Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.© Briar Stewart/CBC

"We need to change our country — right now, it is very bad," said Serif Cetinkaya, 18, one of the estimated five million young people who will be voting for the first time in the presidential election.

"It will be a historical election for Turkish citizens," said Seren Sevin Korkmaz, executive director of the Istanbul Political Research Institute. "It's not just electing a presidential candidate or political party, but it is a selection for Turkey's future."

A tight race

The latest polls sugges Kiliçdaroğlu has a narrow lead over Erdogan, which may have widened after another opposition candidate with sparse support dropped out of the race this week.

There remains a real possibility that neither presidential candidate will get over the 50 per cent threshold needed for victory, thereby forcing a second round of voting, which would take place on May 28.

Turkish society is polarized between the two political camps and that's played out under a heavy police presence at massive, high-energy rallies held daily throughout the political campaign.

Erdogan, 69, is a populist with fiercely loyal supporters, but he and his conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) are facing criticism at home and abroad.



A woman working on Recep Tayyip Erdogan's re-election campaign hands out pamphlets in Istanbul, where the president is holding his final political rallies of the campaign.© Briar Stewart/CBC

He is accused of mismanaging the economy and driving up inflation, while eroding the country's institutions by squeezing the central bank and exerting control over a wide swath of the media.

The election also comes three months after a devastating earthquake in southeast Turkey killed 50,000 people and displaced more than three million. In the wake of the disaster, Erdogan's government was criticized for not sending out search teams fast enough.

Korkmaz says that after Erdogan was first elected in 2003, he was praised for the country's economic growth and an infrastructure boom. He also strengthened international relations, mainly with the European Union, and solidified Turkey's position as a regional power at the intersection of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In 2005, Erdogan started accession talks with the EU, but as the years progressed, they came to a standstill, due to what EU officials call a "negative trend" in Turkey when it comes to the rule of law and fundamental rights. The European Commission accused the country of "democratic backsliding."

Korkmaz says in recent years, Erdogan has turned the country into an autocracy, particularly after an attempted coup in 2016 that left more than 250 people dead. There has been a crackdown on dissent — opposition politicians and activists have faced arrest and jail time, and supposedly independent institutions like the judiciary have been weakened in an effort to prop up Erdogan's power.



Seren Sevin Korkmaz, the executive director of an Istanbul-based think-tank, frames Turkey's presidential election as a choice between democracy and autocracy.

© Briar Stewart/CBC

In 2017, Turkey's population narrowly approved a transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, the result of a referendum in which European observers believe millions of votes may have been manipulated.

The following year, Erdogan was re-elected and sworn in as president.

Centralizing power was an initial political advantage for Erdogan, but Korkmaz says it has since become a weakness, because people blame Erdogan directly for the "fragile economy and unbalanced foreign policy."

Rampant inflation

Erdogan, who has promised that interest rates will keep dropping as long as he is in power, has put pressure on the central bank to adopt what many economists call an unorthodox policy to fight soaring inflation. Between 2019 and 2021, Erdogan's government sacked three central bank governors, which hurt Turkey's financial credibility and weakened its currency, the lira. Inflation peaked last fall at 85 per cent.

Official inflation now stands at 44 per cent. As a point of comparison, in the U.K. it is just over 10 per cent.

At a small market in Bursa on Thursday, shoppers surveyed fruits and vegetables that lined wooden tables — and the price tags attached. A few who spoke to CBC News said they can no longer afford to buy the usual groceries, and that the cost of living overall has jumped dramatically.


Turkey's economic crisis is one of the major factors for voters. The country has been grappling with rampant inflation.© Briar Stewart/CBC

"[The government] does not think about us. They're thinking about filling their [bank accounts]," said Aytekin Sasmaz. He showed CBC a plastic bag of onions, which he said would have previously cost the equivalent of 25¢ Cdn, and now costs around $2.50.

"I think that on May 14, the system and the government will change," Sasmaz said.

The man who could defeat Erdogan

At a political rally in this city of three million later that afternoon, Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu made an outline of a heart with his hands, mirroring many in the crowd who were making the same symbol.

"Spring will come to Turkey," he shouted into a microphone. "We are going to change a totalitarian regime through democracy."



Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, gestures during a rally in Bursa, Turkey, on May 11.

© Murad Sezer/Reuters

Among other things, Kiliçdaroğlu promised that he would eliminate the polarization in this country of 85 million, and that people would live freely and "tweet without fear."

His campaign has revolved around the idea of rebuilding democracy, but he has also pledged to send the more than three million Syrian refugees staying in Turkey back home, adding they are free to return as "tourists."

In an interview with Reuters, Kiliçdaroğlu said he wanted to strike a balance when it comes to foreign relations with Russia, which he has accused of meddling in Turkey's election. Moscow has denied this.

Kiliçdaroğlu said unlike Erdogan's government, he would actively consult with the country's foreign ministry and fully support the expansion of NATO. Turkey has stalled Sweden's NATO bid as it tries to pressure the Nordic country to extradite alleged militants that Turkey suspects of being linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is considered a terror group by the EU, U.S. and U.K.

While Turkey's close relations with Russia have sparked some friction among the NATO alliance, Erdogan has also been praised by the UN for helping broker a deal to facilitate grain shipments out of Ukraine's Black Sea ports amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

The president's base

Many of Erdogan's supporters view him as irreplaceable. At a massive, frenetic rally in Istanbul on Friday, people crowded the streets because there wasn't enough room for the president's thousands of fans near the mosque where the event was taking place.

"We love him so much," said Dilara Emec, 20. She and her boyfriend, Omer Furkan, admit the economy is bad, but are adamant it's not a reason to vote Erdogan out.

"You can find bread, you can find onions or potatoes, but you can't find a country like this, a leader like him," said Furkan.



Omer Furkan, 22, and Dilara Emec, 20, stand outside an Erdogan rally on May 12. The couple told CBC News they can't imagine the current president being defeated, but if he is, they plan to keep supporting him

.© Corinne Seminoff/CBC

Erdogan attended the rally after helping to open a newly built mosque. Throughout the campaign, he has defended his economic policies while railing against LGBTQ people and an opposition he says sides with terrorists. Erdogan insists he is ready to protect the country the way he did after the attempted coup in 2016.

A day earlier, protesters threw stones at the mayor of Istanbul, an opposition candidate who was campaigning in a city that's traditionally been loyal to Erdogan's party.

"We have to get rid of this polarization," said Ertim Orkun, president of the Istanbul-based organization Vote and Beyond. His team has recruited about 65,000 volunteers to monitor roughly 200,000 polling stations in Turkey. Part of their training includes how to diffuse heated arguments.

"We try to prepare [workers] psychologically … 'be the person who's calm, who's cool. Just try to neutralize the room.'"

Orkun expects tension and even anger after the ballots are counted this weekend, but dismisses fears over protests turning violent. He doesn't buy into all the talk about the historic nature of this election.

"Every time we have an election, we keep saying the same thing: 'This is the most important election ever.'"

Turkish opposition accuses Russia of election interference days before vote

Story by Ruth Michaelson and Deniz Barış Narlı in Istanbul • Yesterday

The Guardian

Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

Turkey’s leading opposition candidate has accused Russia of election interference days before the country’s most consequential vote in a generation.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s party (CHP), the chief rival to the incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accused Russia of concocting deepfake videos and false material, seemingly a reference to an allegedly fake sex tape of candidate Muharrem İnce, released a day before he dropped out of the race.

“If you want the continuation of our friendship after 15 May, get your hands off the Turkish state,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, adding: “We are still in favour of cooperation and friendship.”

Turkish voters will go to the polls on 14 May to cast their ballots for both the president and parliament. Re-electing Erdoğan would provide a mandate for him to further concentrate power around his office, crack down on opponents, and use his position of influence on the world stage to harden his control at home.

Current polling suggests a tight vote in the presidential election, where one candidate must secure more than 51% to win outright, or the race will go to a runoff two weeks later.

Related: The Guardian view on Turkey’s election: an end to Erdoğan’s authoritarianism? | Editorial

Erdoğan, who previously lashed out at the US ambassador Jeff Flake for publicly meeting with Kılıçdaroğlu, has declared that “Turkey will give a message to the west with this election.” His interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, went even further, describing the vote on 14 May as “a political coup attempt by the west”.

The six-party opposition coalition led by Kılıçdaroğlu has campaigned on the promise of reform, and the dismantling of a sprawling system of control that Erdoğan has spent two decades building. Under Erdoğan’s leadership, Turkey transformed into a presidential system supported by a vast patronage network loyal to his Justice and Development party (AKP), rebuffing an attempted military coup in 2016 and often branding his opponents enemies of the state. Erdoğan has also increased Turkey’s footprint overseas and reshaped its economy in his image, overseeing vast infrastructure projects and development but also an economic crisis in which the Turkish lira has halved in value in the past year alone.


An image of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on the side of a bus in Istanbul in the lead up to Sunday’s election. 

Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Related video: Turkey election candidate drops out, putting Erdogan at risk (WION)

Duration 2:59  View on Watch

“As we get closer to the vote, I feel excited but also responsible for the fate of 85 million people across Turkey,” said Canan Kaftancıoğlu, a leading member of the CHP, currently weathering a ban from politics after a court charged her with insulting Erdoğan. Despite the ban, Kaftancıoğlu has continued to work, aiding Kılıçdaroğlu in his fight for the presidency by overseeing efforts to ensure a fair election.

“I believe this election will set an example, not just for Turkey but for the whole world. For the first time, an authoritarian regime will be taken out by democracy,” she said. “If we succeed, it will set an example for other countries struggling for their own democracies.”

The possibility of a one-round race with potentially a victor as early as Sunday increased slightly after İnce dropped out, leaving only the small margin of votes held by the ultranationalist Sinan Oğan of the Victory party to spoil the chances of either candidate reaching the threshold for a runoff.

In the parliamentary elections, polls also suggest Erdoğan’s coalition could lose its governing majority, but the opposition must win a majority in parliament and the presidency to ensure they achieve their primary aim of returning Turkey to parliamentary democracy.

“We do not trust the supreme election council, but we took every precaution,” Kılıçdaroğlu said during a recent interview, describing how the CHP and their partners in opposition assign poll watchers to every ballot box, and will conduct a parallel count on election day to ensure a fair vote. “Despite it all, we will win,” he said.

For the opposition, their continued survival as well as democracy itself are on the ballot; Erdoğan’s coalition partner, Devlet Bahçeli, recently declared the opposition could receive “life sentences or bullets in their bodies”. The campaign trail has been pockmarked with violence towards opposition figures with a bullet being thrown inside the CHP’s local offices in one town, a day after a group through stones at supporters and the campaign bus of the leading opposition figure and Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

“This is the election that determines whether Erdoğan is considered an elected president with autocratic tendencies who then lost and left power, where the story is one of the resilience of Turkish democracy. Or, is it an election in which after everything he’s done, with Osman Kavala[a philanthropist] in prison, with Selahattin Demirtaş [a Kurdish political leader] in prison, with dozens of journalists arrested, where Erdoğan wins again and comes back to do this for another five years,” said Nate Schenkkan of Freedom House.

The vote for president is expected to be close, where even a difference of a few percentage points could affect which candidate can claim the vote was fair and provides a clear mandate or whether it goes to a runoff two weeks later. This outcome is expected to depend in part on Kurdish voters, including the sizeable portion now backing Kılıçdaroğlu after the largely Kurdish leftwing Peoples’ Democratic party opted not to field a presidential candidate, and its jailed leader Demirtaş backed Kılıçdaroğlu.

The result will also hinge heavily on votes cast within the 11 Turkish provinces deeply affected by twin powerful earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people, levelled infrastructure and displaced millions.

The government resisted efforts to allow those registered to vote within the earthquake zone to vote elsewhere, forcing those wishing to cast their ballots to return to areas destroyed by the earthquake on election day.

“This is a big problem, and we honestly have no idea what will happen,” said Nuran Yilmaz, deputy head of the CHP in the coastal town of Antalya whose family in the southernmost province of Hatay was displaced by the earthquake and will be forced to return there to vote. “Our party is working on it, but we will be forced to pay to travel to Hatay. My entire family, my sister and my brother will go to Hatay and pay their own way, just to vote.”

Amid concerns about the fairness of the upcoming vote, Schenkkan said this was distinct from whether the election should be considered free. “I think fairness is not up for debate any more, given Erdoğan’s disproportionate use of state media, his control of mainstream broadcast and print media, the censorship of social media, the imprisonment of Demirtaş, there’s a whole slew of ways in which this election is not fair,” he said.

“But freeness is debatable, for one it’s not really free as the HDP is not really free to compete, there’s imprisonment of its most prominent leaders and many of its members and the overall atmosphere of retribution against that party affects the freedom of choice most voters have. Freedom at the ballot box is governed by the election authority, so the voting could be run freely but they could still change the rules at the end.”

Turkey elections: why Europe is watching closely

Story by By Andrew Gray •REUTERS -  Yesterday

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan arrives for a meeting with EU Council President Charles Michel in Brussels© Thomson Reuters

By Andrew Gray

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey's elections on Sunday are a key moment not just for the country itself but also for its European neighbours.

With President Tayyip Erdogan facing his toughest electoral test in two decades, European Union and NATO members are watching to see whether change comes to a country that affects them on issues ranging from security to migration and energy.

Relations between Erdogan and the EU have become highly strained in recent years, as the 27-member bloc cooled on the idea of Ankara becoming a member and condemned crackdowns on human rights, judicial independence and media freedom.

Leading members of NATO, to which Turkey belongs, have expressed alarm at Erdogan's close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and concern that Turkey is being used to circumvent sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Erdogan's challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has pledged more freedom at home and foreign policies hewing closer to the West.

Whatever the outcome, Turkey's European neighbours will use the election and its aftermath to assess their relationship with Ankara and the degree to which it can be reset.

Here are some key issues that European countries will be watching, according to officials, diplomats and analysts:

ELECTION CONDUCT

EU officials have been careful not to express a preference for a candidate. But they have made clear they will be looking out for vote-rigging, violence or other election interference.

"It is important that the process itself is clean and free," said Sergey Lagodinsky, a German member of the European Parliament who co-chairs a group of EU and Turkish lawmakers.

Peter Stano, a spokesman for the EU's diplomatic service, said the bloc expected the vote to be "transparent and inclusive" and in line with democratic standards Turkey has committed to.

A worst-case scenario for both Turkey and the EU would be a contested result - perhaps after a second round - leading the incumbent to launch a crackdown on protests, said Dimitar Bechev, the author of a book on Turkey under Erdogan.

SWEDEN AND NATO

"Five more years of Erdogan means five more years of Turkey being with one weak foot in NATO and one strong foot with Russia," said Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank.

Erdogan has vexed other NATO members by buying a Russian S-400 missile defence system and contributing little to NATO's reinforcement of its eastern flank.

An early test of whether the election winner wants to mend NATO ties will be whether he stops blocking Swedish membership. Erdogan has demanded Stockholm extradite Kurdish militants but Swedish courts have blocked some expulsions.

Analysts and diplomats expect Kilicdaroglu would end the block on Sweden joining NATO, prompting Hungary - the only other holdout - to follow suit. That could let Sweden join in time for a NATO summit in Lithuania in July.

Some analysts and diplomats say Erdogan might also lift his objections after the elections but others are unconvinced.

RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA

Although Erdogan has tried to strike a balance between Moscow and the West, his political relationship with Putin and Turkey's economic ties to Russia are a source of EU frustration. That will likely continue if Erdogan wins another term.

If Kilicdaroglu triumphs, European officials would likely be content with a gradual shift away from Moscow, recognising that Turkey is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and its economy depends on Russia to a significant extent.

"With Russia, a new government will be treading very carefully," Bechev said.

However, Kilicdaroglu showed this week he was willing to criticise Russia, publicly accusing Moscow of responsibility for fake material on social media ahead of Sunday's ballot.

RULE OF LAW, CYPRUS

If Kilicdaroglu and his coalition wins, the EU will be keen to see if they keep promises to release Erdogan critics from jail, in line with European Court of Human Rights rulings, and generally improve rule-of-law standards.

"You’re going to have a wait-and-see attitude from the EU," said Pierini.

If there is a crackdown on graft, European companies may be ready to make big investments in Turkey once again, perhaps with backing from the EU and its member governments, he said.

Efforts to expand an EU-Turkey customs union to include more goods and grant Turks visa-free EU travel could also be revived.

But neither would be easy - not least because of the divided island of Cyprus. Its internationally recognised government, composed of Greek Cypriots, is an EU member, while the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state is recognised only by Ankara.

"This is of course the big stumbling block in our relations," said European Parliament member Lagodinsky.

However, EU officials see little sign that Kilicdaroglu would change much on Cyprus.

"The big game changer for EU-Turkey relations would be Cyprus. Here the candidates' agenda, however, does not seem fundamentally different," said a senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Cyprus is one of many factors that make a revival of EU membership negotiations unlikely, officials and analysts say. EU leaders designated Turkey as a candidate to join the bloc in 2004 but the talks ground to a halt years ago.

"There are many other ways to strengthen the relationship, build confidence. There is already a lot of European money that has made its way to Turkey," said a European diplomat. "I don't know anyone in Europe who wants to revive EU membership talks."

(Reporting by Andrew Gray, John Irish and Gabriela Baczynska)

Explainer-What you need to know about Thailand's election

Story by By Chayut Setboonsarng and Martin Petty • REUTERS 

YESTERDAY 

Pheu Thai's supporters attend a campaign event for the upcoming general election in Bangkok© Thomson Reuters

By Chayut Setboonsarng and Martin Petty

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand holds an election on May 14 after nearly a decade of a government led or backed by its royalist military after a coup in 2014.

Below is a rundown of what to expect.

WHAT'S BEING DECIDED?

Roughly 52 million of Thailand's 65 million population are eligible to cast votes for members of a new 500-seat house of representatives for the next four years.

Voters have two ballots, one for a local constituency representative and the other for their preferred party on a national level. There are 400 seats for winning constituency candidates and 100 party seats allocated on a proportional representation basis.

HOW WILL A LEADER BE CHOSEN?

Parties winning more than 25 seats can nominate their prime ministerial candidate, although it is likely parties will strike deals between them to back certain candidates.

Those candidates will be put to a vote, likely in August, of the bicameral legislature comprised of a newly elected 500-seat lower house and a 250-seat Senate comprised of members appointed by the military following its 2014 coup.

To become prime minister, the winning candidate must have the votes of more than half of the combined houses, or 375 members.

Related video: Mahidol University's Punchada on Thai Elections 

(Bloomberg)   Duration 4:40   View on Watch

WHO ARE THE MAIN CONTENDERS?

The election will be the latest bout in a long-running battle between parties backed by a conservative establishment with connections to the military and key institutions, and a progressive, pro-business opposition with a track record of wooing working class voters and winning every election in the past two decades.

Pheu Thai, a party controlled by the billionaire Shinawatra family, has a big lead in opinion polls as it did in previous elections, followed by another opposition party, Move Forward, which is seeking to mobilise youth voters.

They will go up against two parties led by former army chiefs involved in coups, incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha of the newly formed United Thai Nation party, and his mentor Prawit Wongsuwan, of the ruling Palang Pracharat party.

Both parties draw backing from the urban middle classes and are regarded as representing the interests of Thailand's nexus of old money aristocrats and military elites who have long influenced politics.

An important contender is Bhumjaithai, a regional heavyweight whose seats could be crucial in determining who forms a government. The party's stature has grown with its successful push to make Thailand Asia's first country to legalise the sale of cannabis.

WHEN WILL THE RESULTS BE KNOWN?

Voting ends at 5 p.m (1000 GMT) local time on Sunday and the election commission says unofficial results should be released that same evening. It aims to certify 95% of the votes or 475 of the 500 seats, within 60 days, or by July 13.

The commission and an alliance of media organisations are expected to provide updates on the vote count in the hours after polling stations close.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT?

It might be weeks, possibly several months, before Thailand gets an idea of what it's next government will look like, depending on the outcome of the election.

An outright majority or even a landslide may not be enough to form a government and alliances with other parties will most likely be required.

Thailand's constitution was re-drafted by the military in 2017 in what many experts say was an attempt to neuter the power of parties that win elections. It prescribed an appointed Senate, of which the majority of members have sided in votes with the ruling, military-backed parties.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

Thai voters could drive out pro-military party in pivotal vote Sunday

Story by Salimah Shivji •  CBC - TODAY

The cheers from the crowd were irrepressible at a large Pheu Thai Party rally in Chiang Mai in the final days of Thailand's general election campaign, just as polls widely indicate the largest opposition party's candidate for prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, is poised to potentially unseat the incumbent former army chief.

It would be a triumphant return for the country's most famous political family, after Paetongtarn's exiled father Thaksin was ousted from power in a coup d'etat in 2006.

His various political parties have won the most seats in every Thai election since 2001, but those wins were either quashed by the military establishment aligned with the monarchy or the parties were dissolved.

But with voting day approaching on Sunday, this election is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation battle to oust Thailand's pro-military government and bring democratic reforms to a country that's endured nearly a decade of military rule, following another coup in 2014.


Supporters of the Pheu Thai Party wave banners and listen to candidate speeches in Chiang Mai, ahead of the general election on May 14.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

A second, more progressive pro-democratic party, Move Forward, is also surging in the polls, galvanizing young Thai voters with calls for an overhaul of the country's political structure and military dominance, even going so far as to propose a rethink of the sweeping power of Thailand's monarchy, a once-taboo topic.

The Pheu Thai party has been more evasive in its stance on curtailing the monarchy, preferring to focus on the push for democracy, but it still commands large crowds at rallies, and is a widely popular choice among rural and working-class voters.

"We will together bring back democracy," Shinawatra has told campaign rally after campaign rally.

"Vote for Pheu Thai in a landslide," she exhorted the crowd at another rally, before the 36-year old gave birth to a baby boy on May 1 and briefly halted her campaigning duties.



Pheu Thai's prime ministerial candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, gestures as she attends a major rally event ahead of the upcoming election in Bangkok on Friday.© Jorge Silva/REUTERS

Why a landslide matters

At the rally on Wednesday before Election Day in Chiang Mai, the Pheu Thai Party's historic heartland where its rural base is located, the enthusiasm for the Shinawatra political dynasty was unwavering.

"I love Thaksin," 55-year old Nikom Mahawong said with a big grin, showing off the red t-shirt he was wearing, with Paetongtarn Shinawatra's face on it.

"I think she will be a good leader. She will bring Thailand to a better place," he said.

Other supporters were also keen to see Shinawatra take power.

"I've always had faith in the Pheu Thai Party," said Wichapat Siraksa, 43. "I want them to push Thailand forward," she added. "I want Pheu Thai to win by a landslide."



Nikom Mahawong, a big Thaksin Shinawatra fan, attends a Pheu Thai Party rally in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in the week leading up to what observers are calling the most pivotal Thai election in a generation.© Salimah Shivji/CBC

Complex election rules in the country, implemented after the coup, mean the pro-democratic parties would need a sweeping landslide win to overcome the system that's skewed in favour of pro-military candidates.

Related video: Thailand election: Leading parties, personalities, key issues (WION)

Duration 1:54  View on Watch

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Reuters Who are the main contenders in Thailand's election?

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TaiwanPlus  Thailand General Elections May See End to Junta Rule - TaiwanPlus News

3:17

The junta appointed 250 senators who, along with Parliament's lower house, vote on who becomes prime minister. They're expected to overwhelmingly support pro-military candidates, as they did in the last election in 2019, which voting watchdog groups described as "heavily tilted" to benefit the military junta.

Calls for structural reform

It's system that infuriates the young voters flocking to a Move Forward event in Bangkok on May 9, to promote marriage equality and gay rights.

While some spoke of concerns about election rigging, others were more optimistic about the prospect of democratic reforms coming to Thailand.

"The Move Forward party, it's a new party and it brings our hope back," said 18-year old Supanid Phumithanes, who will be voting for the first time on Sunday.

"This time I want to see the real people who want to do something better for Thailand…. A whole new government," she added.

Her friend, Patita Wattananupong, 19 and also a first-time voter, nodded vehemently in agreement, saying that a few years ago, she had little hope that change would come to her country but that her "hope now is greater and greater."

In 2020, after an earlier incarnation of the Move Forward Party was dissolved, pro-democracy protests erupted, with tens of thousands of young people taking to the streets to demand change. The government crushed the movement, responding with mass arrests before the demonstrations fizzled as the pandemic raged.



Thailand's government clamped down on the youth-led anti-government protests in 2020 with mass arrests, although some demonstrations continued into the following year, like this one in Bangkok on March 24, 2021. The Constitutional Court eventually ruled that demands for reform of the Thai monarchy were unconstitutional and ordered an end to all movements.

© Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images

Pinda Puropakanonda, 32, told CBC News that Thai "society is broken." She said people have now "woken up from the narrative that they've been told all their lives, how they should respect the monarchy."

The incumbent prime minister, Prayuth Chan-o-cha, a former army chief who led the 2014 military coup, directly addressed the surge of support for structural reform at a campaign rally two days ahead of Sunday's vote.

"We do not want change that will overturn the country," Chan-o-cha said. "Do you know what kind of damage it would do? We cannot suddenly change all at once because we don't know what lies on the side."

There is still support for the conservative military establishment, particularly among the older generation.

"I love Prayuth's party. They love the king and love the nation," Muay Sae-Ue, 77, told CBC News moments after she warmly greeted the local conservative candidate outside her fresh egg stall in Bangkok's old town.

She feels that the younger generation doesn't like the King and that "will bring our country down."


Muay Sae-Ue, 77, has been running her fresh egg stall in Bangkok since she was a child. She is a supporter of incumbent prime minister and former army chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha, because he loves 'the king and the nation.'

© Salimah Shivji/CBC
'That's enough'

For political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak, the "rise and red-hot momentum" of Move Forward is a game-changer that's made this election more consequential than ever.

Pongsudhirak thinks the war over which party can be more populist is over, and the new political battleground that demands attention is deep, structural reform of Thailand's institutions: the military stranglehold on power, the judiciary's role in maintaining the status quo, and the dominant monarchy.

"The democratic process in Thailand has always been crooked, suppressed, subverted. And now some people are saying that that's enough," said the professor of politics and international relations at Chulalongkorn University.


Political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak rates this election as unlike any other Thailand has seen because of the progressive parties forcing issues like reforms to the monarchy's power to the fore.

© Salimah Shivji/CBC

The big question is what will happen after the vote: whether the pro-democratic parties will be able to form government if they win big, or whether the military establishment will move against them.

"I think a military coup would be the last resort," Pongsudhirak said, because it would be difficult to rationalize and explain to the rest of the world.

"Short of a coup itself, we've seen party dissolution, so they might go there again," he speculated. But if that happens, "you can bet that the [young supporters] will rise up and you'll see them in the streets," Pongsudhirak added.

"If [the military establishment] is hunkering down for another fight … then we'll see more tension and confrontation, as we've seen over the last two decades."

A tumultuous two decades in Thailand's politics
Story by Reuters • Yesterday 

Move Forward Party supporters show the three-finger salute during an upcoming election campaign event in Bangkok

© Thomson Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand has seen two coups, three prime ministers brought down by court rulings, intermittent violence and crippling colour-coded street demonstrations during two decades of political instability.

Below are key events leading up to Sunday's election.

2001 - Billionaire telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra is elected prime minister on a populist platform. He is hugely popular, widely regarded as a mould-breaking premier who oversaw economic growth, prioritised the rural poor and courted foreign investors with plans for modernisation.

2005 - Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party wins another election in a landslide, the first Thai party to win re-election.

2006 - Allegations of Thaksin's corruption, cronyism, neptotism and abuse of power take hold, worsened by the tax-free sale of his family's Shin Corporation to Singapore state investor Temasek for 73 billion baht ($2.16 billion). His enemies orchestrate massive demonstrations against him, donning yellow shirts, the colour of the monarchy, and accusing him of disloyalty to the king. Thaksin denies wrongdoing.

The royalist military ousts Thaksin while he is in New York and he takes temporary refuge in Britain. Thai Rak Thai is dissolved for violating election law and Thaksin and party executives are banned from politics for five years.

2007 - Thai Rak Thai is re-launched as the People Power Party (PPP) and wins an election. Former Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej becomes prime minister.

2008 - Thaksin returns to Thailand in February. Samak is disqualified as premier for appearing in a TV cooking show and Thaksin's brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, takes over as prime minister.

Yellow Shirts seize Bangkok's two international airports for 10 days and the blockade ends when a court dissolves PPP for electoral fraud. The Pheu Thai Party is created in its place.

A new coalition government is formed with the opposition Democrat Party at the helm. Thaksin leaves Thailand into self-imposed exile before a court convicts him of a conflict of interest and sentences him to two years in prison.

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2009 - A "red shirt" movement of Thaksin's mostly rural supporters hold weeks of rallies in Bangkok against the Democrat-led government, calling it unelected and illegitimate.

Red shirts storm an international summit in the seaside town of Pattaya, forcing leaders of China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries to flee. In Bangkok, rioting and arson ensues after confrontations between demonstrators and the military.

2010 - Red shirt protests resume and demonstrators set up camp in Bangkok's commercial heart for 10 weeks, paralysing business. Army efforts to disperse the protests turn deadly on several occasions, with more than 90 people killed, mostly protesters, the worst political violence in nearly two decades.

2011 - Pheu Thai wins an election in a landslide. Thaksin's popular but politically inexperience sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, becomes prime minister.

2013 - Anti-government protests resume in Bangkok after Yingluck's government introduces an amnesty bill that could have led to Thaksin’s return. The bill fails but the protests go on for months. Yingluck calls a snap election.

2014 - Elections are held but invalidated due to disruption. Protests intensify, the seat of government is breached but Yingluck's government stands firm. Martial law is declared to prevent bloodshed.

Yingluck steps down after a court finds her guilty of abuse of power. The military calls a meeting between the government and protesters to chart a way out of the crisis, during which army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha announces the talks have failed and the military is taking power in a coup.

2016 - King Bhumibol Adulyadej dies after a 70-year reign. He is succeeded by his son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

2017 - Yingluck flees Thailand ahead of a verdict against her over her government's rice subsidy scheme and jail term of five years. A military-drafted constitution is approved in a referendum.

2019 - Elections are held, Prayuth's army-backed Palang Pracharat party wins fewer seats than Pheu Thai but forms the government, with Pheu Thai in opposition. Prayuth is elected prime minister in a vote by the lower house and the junta-appointed Senate. Opposition parties say the process was rigged, which Prayuth denies.

2020 - A court dissolves the opposition Future Forward Party. Its billionaire founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit is banned from politics. Student-led protests begin and for the first time demand reform of the monarchy.

2021 - Protests die down as COVID-19 restrictions intensify. Legal cases against protest leaders mount.

2023 - Prayuth calls an election for May 14. Thaksin's daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is named a Pheu Thai candidate for prime minister.

Just a few days away from the election, Thaksin says he is seeking to end his 17 years in exiled and return.

(Compiled by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)

New Butterfly Named After Lord of the Rings Villain 

One butterfly to rule them all? 

Scientists introduce the world to Saurona

Story by Washington Post • Wednesday

The discovery is part of a 10-year study of the Euptychiina group of butterflies.

Scientists have named a new group of butterflies with dark eye-shaped patterns on their orange wings after Sauron, the omnipresent evil lord in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels – what the Natural History Museum in London called an “homage to an eye-conic villain.”

An international research group has identified two species of butterflies in the newly named Saurona genus – Saurona triangula and Saurona aurigera – and believe that more exist. The discovery is part of a 10-year study of the Euptychiina group of butterflies. The findings were published in the journal Systematic Entomology.

Researchers hope the eye-catching name conjuring the supreme persecutor of Middle-earth will generate more interest in butterfly conservation.

Blanca Huertas, a researcher involved in the project, named the butterflies. Huertas, a senior curator of butterflies at the Natural History Museum in London, said she was inspired by the eye-like patterns on their wings. But she also drew parallels between the battle to preserve species on the verge of extinction and the story of Lord of the Rings – one of good defeating evil against every odd. The world, she said, needs an “army” of people to “get involved in getting worried about nature.”

The Saurona group of butterflies comes from the Amazon rainforest, a refuge for an incredible diversity of natural species that is under pressure from deforestation, drought and fires tied to climate change and human activity, including cattle ranching.

They are part of the Euptychiina, a sub-tribe found largely in Central and South America and is “widely regarded as one of the most taxonomically challenging groups among all butterflies” because their small, brown appearance makes them difficult to distinguish from one another, according to the researchers. Some of the Euptychiina species are threatened with extinction.

But the researchers were able to use DNA sequencing technology to identify and classify species within the Euptychiina by their genetics and not just their appearance, according to the Natural History Museum in London.

“Even then, studying the whole of the Euptychiina took over a decade as the team assessed more than 400 different species” as part of the museum’s collections of over 5.5 million butterfly specimens, the museum said.

The scale and scope of the research has at times felt to Huertas like her very own Eye of Sauron. She began studying the butterflies 15 years ago for her doctoral thesis and “knew there was a different group,” but she didn’t have the time to complete the research and publish it until recently, she said. “Ten years dealing with this study is a lot of strain looking at me like Sauron.”

Some butterfly species are “threatened with extinction,” she said. If butterflies disappear, birds will no longer be able to feed on caterpillars, and so on, affecting entire food chains, “so, missing those tiny species that nobody cares about can cause actually a really big impact.” A stronger response from governments and international organizations is needed, she said.

“Ultimately, a bunch of scientists . . . can’t change the world,” she said. “If you put an attractive name, you get the attention of people and someone might read it and say, ‘Okay, well, this is an interesting story, tell me more.'”

Naming animal species after pop-culture characters is not unusual. In fact, a dung beetle, a frog and a dinosaur have already been named after Sauron, according to the Natural History Museum in London.

Astronomers at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have also named a galaxy – NGC 4151, which is made up of a supermassive black hole and surrounded by gas – the “Eye of Sauron.”

Scientists Discovered a 7,000-Year-Old Road Buried Under the Sea

Story by Tim Newcomb • Wednesday

Researchers from the University of Zadar discovered an ancient stone road buried under sea mud off the coast of Croatia.© HowardOates - Getty Images

Researchers from the University of Zadar discovered an ancient stone road buried under sea mud off the coast of Croatia.

Radiocarbon dating of some of the wood used in the road construction pegs its date of creation to 4,900 B.C.

Additional archeological inspection unearthed axes and Neolithic artifacts.

When researchers started investigating a sunken settlement off the coast of Korčula Island near mainland Croatia, little did they know that they would soon unearth a surprise ancient stone road buried under a layer of sea mud.

Researchers from the University of Zadar in Croatia discovered the road—roughly 13 feet wide and made of stone plates—after scraping mud off the underwater find, according to a translated Facebook post from the university.

The team says the road once connected Korčula Island to an artificially made island settlement called Soline, which is now nearly 16 feet below the water’s level. Researchers believe this was all an active site roughly 7,000 years ago.

Using radiocarbon dating, the team tested wood preserved in the road, and were able to date the thoroughfare and connected settlement to 4,900 BC. Researchers describe the structure of the road as “carefully stacked stone plates” that run about 13 feet in width.

As a team—which includes researchers from local museums and diving centers—continues to investigate the area, members are unearthing evidence of more than just the one Neolithic settlement off the popular Korčula Island.

Along with the road, researchers have started noticing “strange structures” in the area, and have discovered another settlement nearly identical to Soline in Gradina Bay. Further digging unearthed various artifacts, including blades and a stone axe.

The Miami Herald reports that the Hvar people, one of the original groups of inhabitants of the island, were living in the area during the creation of earthenware, and showed additional ingenuity by crafting a stone road to an artificial island.

Korčula Island has long been known to house settlements dating back to the Neolithic period. The continued investigation of the waters off the island, however, opens a new understanding of how settlements on and near the island may have connected differing groups of people.

Aliens may be listening in on our cellphone calls, new research finds

Story by Chris Knight • Thursday

An artist's impression of a planet orbiting Barnard's Star, six light years from Earth.

© Provided by National Post

It’s not quite “E.T. phone home,” but aliens in nearby star systems might be listening in on our cellphone calls, according to new research from the University of Manchester.

Scientists have long hypothesized that radio signals from Earth might be detectable as they spread out through the galaxy at the speed of light. In fact, SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) turns that idea around, scanning the cosmos for radio waves that might be generated by aliens.

To date, SETI has produced no conclusive findings. The flip side was considered in a 1978 study that looked at radio signal leakage from TV broadcast towers. But in the decades since, the rise of cable and internet has reduced the strength of through-the-air TV signals, while cellphone towers have sprouted up like steel mushrooms across the planet.

Michael Garrett is the inaugural Sir Bernard Lovell chair of Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, and the director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. His new study , published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, creates a model of radio leakage from cellphone towers, using crowd-sourced data and other publicly available information.

His research concludes that radio signal leakage from Earth’s cellphone networks is in the neighbourhood of 3.5 GW. A GigaWatt is a billion Watts, so picture the power output of 350 million LED bulbs, or about 1,000 industrial wind turbines.

Garrett notes that what cellphone towers lack in broadcast strength, they make up for in their ubiquity.

“I’ve heard many colleagues suggest that the Earth has become increasingly radio quiet in recent years — a claim that I always contested,” he said in a statement . “Although it’s true we have fewer powerful TV and radio transmitters today, the proliferation of mobile communication systems around the world is profound. While each system represents relatively low radio powers individually, the integrated spectrum of billions of these devices is substantial.”
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Reached in a taxi — and of course on a cellphone — Garrett told the National Post that there exists a small but definite threat of discovery by a hostile alien race, but also that there isn’t much to be done to mitigate that risk.

“You might hope that they are sufficiently developed not only in technology but in ethics and morals that they wouldn’t represent a threat, but you never know,” he said. “We should try to appreciate what that means. There is a certain risk, although I think it’s probably a small risk.”

As to putting a damper on our signals: “You could stop using radio waves as a form of communication, and try to have everything going via fibre and underground cables,” he said. “But that’s not very useful.” The benefit of cellphone technology is “you can use it no matter where you are.”

While the study notes that even the next generation of radio telescopes on Earth are not quite sensitive enough to detect a signal of this strength, our own technology continues to improve – as does the strength of our radio signal leakage.

“Current estimates suggest we will have more than one hundred thousand satellites in low Earth orbit and beyond before the end of the decade,” it says. “The Earth is already anomalously bright in the radio part of the spectrum; if the trend continues, we could become readily detectable by any advanced civilization with the right technology.”

Garrett said his paper didn’t even begin to consider the influence of wifi. “You can get your wifi in your garden,” he noted, which means its signal is out of your house and into the cosmos. “And once we have these constellations of satellites providing wifi from low-Earth orbit, we’ll be surrounded, smothered by that radio leakage, or you could call it radio pollution.”

The research looked at the signal that might be picked up by an alien civilization around one of several nearby stars, including Alpha Centauri, HD95735, and Barnard’s Star, the latter of significance because it is known to have a potentially habitable planet.

Not only could a signal be detected from there, the report says. “We note that by analyzing the flux variation of our planet as a function of time, it should be possible for an extraterrestrial civilization to generate a simple model of our planet that reproduces regions that are dominated by land, vegetation, and oceans/ice.”

And, in a kind of cosmic coincidence, the paper notes that “mobile towers transmit at frequencies within or close to L-band, a major band for radio astronomy that includes the ‘water hole.’” This term was coined in 1971 by scientist Barney Oliver, who noted that certain radio frequencies are relatively quiet and thus might be used by extraterrestrials for communications.

SETI researchers already scan the water hole frequency for signals. Any aliens doing likewise, with sensitive enough detectors, are likely to pick up our own signals in that band. Whether they call back remains to be seen.

Meteorite that struck New Jersey home may be a fragment of Halley's Comet

Story by Chris Knight • Thursday

Damage to the floor of a New Jersey home can be seen behind the meteorite that caused it.© Provided by National Post

A house in New Jersey has been struck by a meteorite that might have come from Halley’s Comet, according to scientists who investigated the incident.

No one was hurt when the space rock crashed through the roof of a home in Hopewell Township, N.J., on Monday. Homeowner Suzy Kop told CBS News that she found a hole in the ceiling of her father’s bedroom, and explained that the meteorite then ricocheted off the floor and took a divot out of the ceiling before coming to rest.

“I did touch the thing because I just thought it was a random rock,” she told CBS News. “And it was warm!”

Meteorite strikes causing property damage are extremely rare. In October of 2021 a woman in Golden, B.C., was woken up when a meteorite crashed through her roof directly over where she was sleeping. The Peekskill meteorite of 1992 took out a 1980 Chevy Malibu, and in 1938 a meteorite struck a Pontiac in rural Illinois.

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, said the metallic black rock, measuring about 10 by 15 cm and weighing about 1.8 kg, could be four to five billion years old.

Speculation is that the meteorite may have been part of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower, visible from about April 19 to May 28 each year, with peak activity around May 5. The annual event comprises particles that were ejected from Halley’s Comet in 390 BC.

The comet itself is now about as far from us as it gets, and will reach apehelion – its farthest distance from the sun – on Dec. 9, before starting its long trek back to the inner solar system. Halley was last visible to the naked eye in 1986, and its next close pass will be in 2061. Until then, one New Jersey family has a possible memento.

'Nothing girls can't do:' Ontario's 1st female licensed plumber marks 50 years in the trade

Story by Rebecca Zandbergen • Thursday

Debbie Johnston, Ontario's first licensed female plumber, kept this cutout of a local newspaper article that was written about her in 1974.© Submitted by Debbie Johnston

Deborah Johnston — or Debbie as she prefers to be called — remembers the day in the early 1970s when she was working in the office of her dad's plumbing business in Ingersoll, Ont., and a provincial official walked in.

He wanted to know if anyone was interested in becoming a plumbing apprentice.

"I told him there was nobody there except my dad and me," recalled Johnston, 69. "And he said, 'Well, how about you?'"

When he returned a couple of days later, Johnston signed up to become an apprentice, and by 1977 had become Ontario's first female licensed plumber.

Now retired, Johnston remembers her early days on the job and is encouraging other women to consider a career in the skilled trades.

"I was a good service plumber," said Johnston, who used her maiden name, Davies, on her plumbing licence.

Although she was the only woman in her courses at Fanshawe College, Johnston said she was always treated with respect.

"The guys were very helpful. I was terrible at welding, so they helped me, and when they needed help with writing or spelling, then I'd help them with that, or their math. So it was like a two-way street."

She got the same support out in the community.

"A lot of them knew me because of my dad. Everybody that I talked to in Ingersoll during those years said nothing but good things.

"The only time I ran into any kind of a negative comment was when I got to London for my first course at Fanshawe," said Johnston. "The London Free Press came and did a story on me when I was in Fanshawe in 1974, and they asked other people in the industry their opinion. There was one person who said, 'Oh, that'll be the girl who thinks she can be a plumber.'"

Labour shortage

With Ontario facing a generational labour shortage as many skilled tradespeople approach retirement age, there's a push to get more young people and women to enter the trades.

According to its April report, Build Force Canada projects Ontario will lose 18 per cent of its 2022 construction workforce in the next decade and will need to find 119,000 new workers during that time.

Later this month, Fanshawe College, in partnership with CWB Welding Foundation, will be offering a fully funded welding program for women and women-identifying individuals. Thirteen other institutions across Canada also offer the program.

Last month, the Ford government unveiled a mandatory technological education credit for high school students and is allowing young people to begin apprenticeships full time starting in Grade 11.

Encouraging women's interest in the trades has to begin in high school, said Johnston.

"It needs to start early so that they can know that this type of work is available to them," she said. "There is absolutely nothing out there in any kind of trade, not just plumbing, that girls can't do."

Getting women to join the trades is a longstanding conversation, said Katherine Jacobs, director of research at the Ontario Construction Secretariat (OCS).

"I feel a little more optimistic these days that it's a little more realistic," said Jacobs. "There's been a bit of a changeover in the industry. All the baby boomers are starting to retire and I'm hopeful that this new generation of workers, they've been raised differently, they perceive things differently — it'll be more of a welcoming environment."

According to the OCS, just two per cent of unionized tradespeople are women.

Despite Johnston's positive experience, women face a lot of challenges on the job, and as a result many leave the field even if they were brave enough to get into it, Jacobs said.

For starters, women tradespeople wanting to start a family may have concerns about getting paid maternity leave. But a number of trades unions are now offering leave programs for both men and women.

"I see some of the industry talking about some of these broader challenges that has impacted women staying in the trades," said Jacobs.

Johnston has her own advice for women wanting to enter the field. "Do your work, Do it as well as you can. Keep going, and try your best."

2 more gray whales have washed ashore near San Francisco, raising concerns over strandings

Story by Laura Studley • CNN - Yesterday 

A gray whale that set a record for time spent in San Francisco Bay has died after being found at Point Reyes National Seashore, according to a news release from the Marine Mammal Center.

The whale, who had been spotted in the bay for at least 75 days, a record for its species, died as did another whale that washed ashore last weekend at Agate Beach, about 13 miles from Point Reyes, the release said.

“To respond to two known gray whales on consecutive days, including one that our team has been actively monitoring for months in San Francisco Bay, is challenging and concerning to say the least,” Pádraig Duignan, director of pathology at The Marine Mammal Center, said in a release. “As sentinels for ocean health, gray whales face several human-caused threats including vessel strikes.”

A team of 11 scientists conducted a necropsy on the 39-foot record-breaking whale and determined it died from malnutrition and multiple suspected vessel strikes, according to the center.

The whale had a scar in the middle of its back that occurred in February, the same month it was first observed. The necropsy found multiple rib and spinal fractures with attempted healing beneath the scar. The whale also had skull fractures, muscle damage and a hemorrhage, all injuries consistent with a severe injury caused by whiplash from a motor vehicle, according to the release.

The second whale’s cause of death is unknown. Measured at 37 feet and deemed healthy, the whale had no signs of trauma, according to the release.

This year, four gray whales have been found dead in the bay, the first occurring in March, according to data collected by the Marine Mammal Center.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared an Unusual Mortality Event as a result of increased gray whale strandings and deaths since January 2019.

There have been an estimated 314 whale strandings from 2019 to 2023 in the US so far, according to data from the NOAA. Data from 2022 also shows that gray whale migration has dropped 38%, which includes approximately 16,650 whales. The last population assessment in 2015 and 2016 estimated 26,960 whales, according to the NOAA.