The best childcare in the world? Maybe so, but new parents in Iceland are holding out for better

Even in forward-thinking Reykjavik, finding a preschool place for the youngest infants is tough. Parents explain why

Sarah Marsh in Reykjavik

The Guardian
@sloumarsh

Thu 18 May 2023

In a bright, bunting-filled community hall in central Reykjavik, Eggert Arason bounces his 17-month-old son, Mosi, on his lap as they sing the Icelandic version of Row Your Boat, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. It’s mid-morning on a Thursday, and Arason is not the only dad who is off work to attend the council-funded playgroup. Half the room of 30 people are fathers – not unusual in a country considered to have one of the best childcare policies in the world.

As well as six months’ leave for both parents at 80% of pay – with six weeks extra to share between them – childcare is heavily subsidised by the government. Yet parents and policymakers are pushing for more.

Iceland spends 1.7% of its gross domestic product on early-childhood education and care – more than double that of most other countries. That leaves Icelandic families spending only around 5% of their income on childcare. An average full-time, eight-hour-a-day preschool place, including meals, costs about £200 a month. In 2020, 96% of Icelandic children between the ages of three and five were enrolled in early childhood education programmes, compared with 83% on average across OECD countries.

Eggert Arason, 29, and his son Mosi. 

Photograph: Jon Clements

Despite this, parents at the Thursday playgroup, run by an organisation called Memmm, are pushing for more change. Arason, 29, is a student, but took the first six months of Mosi’s life off to spend time as a family. Since then, the family has struggled to find a preschool place. They applied to 10 providers before finding somewhere. It’s a familiar picture to families across the country.

A growing issue has been a lack of childcare for children between 12 months and two. Both “day-mothers” (childminders) and preschools are in short supply. Covid led to a rise in births, and Iceland saw 16.5% more births than normal in the second quarter of 2021, making that year the fourth highest for number of births in Icelandic history. It comes amid staffing issues as preschools struggle to keep staff because pay does not always match demand.

Also at the Memmm playgroup is Ragnhildur Thorlacius, 44, and she too has struggled to get a preschool place. She is working part-time until her 16-month-old daughter, Svala, starts preschool. “We have got a place now, but it’s quite far away so we have to rent a car to get there,” she says.

María Ösp, one of the organisers of the Memmm playgroup, 

singing with her daughter on her lap. 

Photograph: Jon Clements


The issue prompted a group of parents to protest at Reykjavik city council hall in March. The Reykjavik area accounts for some 60% of Iceland’s 372,000 population. For the past 15 years, around 1,000 children throughout Iceland have been without preschools or daycare every year.

Parents in Iceland tend to have flexible employers, who keep their jobs open if they need time to find a preschool. However, this is unpaid and some new parents lean on family or other support rather than missing work.

In her city hall office, the Reykjavik city council member Sabine Leskopf, who is on the preschools committee, says: “We are aiming for a 0% gender pay gap. What the equal leave policy means is that, if an employer has a male and female applicant, both equally qualified, then a decision about who to hire won’t be made based on gender. The employer does not think, ‘Oh, I will not pick the woman as she may be on maternity leave soon.’”

The main problem is a “lagging” behind in repairing old school buildings, says Leskopf. After the financial crisis in 2008, these buildings were not preserved and no new buildings were built.

Sabine Leskopf, a member of the Reykjavik city council, says there is a shortage of qualified early-years teachers.

 Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Guardian

There is also a shortage of qualified early-years teachers. “You train at university for five years to become a preschool teacher, and that is a long time for the comparatively low wages you get,” Leskopf says.
I saw a massive change in how I was feeling and developing as a father, but I also saw a change in my wifeBjörn Baldursson, on his six months of patenrity leave

This is despite the fact that the average pre-primary teacher’s salary among those between 25 and 64 is one of the highest (per hour of net teaching time) among OECD and partner countries.

Some are now calling for total leave for parents to be extended from 12 to 18 months so that they can cope with the lack of preschool places. Some also want the cap of 600,000 Icelandic kronur (£3,500) a month before taxes on the amount people can receive while on leave to be increased as the cost of living rises.

In a Reykjavik cafe, with her nine-month-old daughter and partner in tow, Freyja Steingrímsdóttir says the government need to create more places or extend leave. She works for BSRB, a federation of public worker unions in Iceland, so has a particular understanding of the current issues in childcare provision.

Freyja Steingrímsdóttir and her family. 

Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Guardian

“What needs to happen is legislature that guarantees a child a place from the age of one – just as every six-year-old gets a place in elementary school. That would then require the state to give enough funding to the municipalities to be able to offer the right number of places.”


“Probably the next step will be the parental leave payments – it’s only 80%, and the cap hasn’t been changed in years.”

It has only been two years since Iceland made major changes around paternity leave. In 2021, the period men could take went from four to six months. The move has largely been assessed as a success. Academics from the University of Iceland, Ásdís Arnalds and Guðný Eydal, say studies show parents are dividing the care of their children more equally. Surveys show a downward trend of mothers taking most of the responsibility. About 80% of men take paternity leave.


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According to a recent academic paper, parents who had a child immediately after the fathers’ quota was introduced were considerably less likely to divorce than parents who had a child just before the law was implemented.

Men have spoken of the huge benefits of spending more time with their children. Björn Baldursson says he believes it helped his wife, who experienced postnatal depression with their first child. The 30-year-old air-traffic controller took little time off when his son was born but took six months with his daughter. “I saw a massive change in how I was feeling and developing as a father, but I also saw a change in my wife. I have been looking into it, and it lowers risk of postpartum depression if your partner is active.”

Dagný Pind, a legal adviser at the BSRB, says the next step is “to ensure that all children have access to good, affordable childcare after 12 months”.
In a negotiating round in May, the BSRB asked to reduce working hours for preschool staff each week, “and we managed that”. Pind adds: “The other [campaign] was to tackle the problem of pay inequality through re-evaluating work in female-dominated occupations. That work is ongoing.”

When asked whether they have the best childcare system in the world – often the perception of outsiders – many Icelandic parents say they are unsure. Perhaps it is a marker of how far they have come that they aren’t willing to accept anything less.

Mishandled baggage rate almost doubled globally in 2022 as airlines scrambled after Covid

New statistics lay bare the extent of the disruption during the ‘summer of lost luggage’

Elias Visontay 

Transport and urban affairs reporter

The Guardian

Thu 18 May 2023 

It was the year of “the summer of lost luggage”, in which travellers across the world told stories of disappearing bags as the aviation industry struggled to keep up with rebounding demand.

Now, newly collated statistics show the extent of the disruption: the rate of mishandled baggage almost doubled globally in 2022, with 26m pieces of luggage delayed, lost or damaged.

That mishandled luggage rate soared to 7.6 bags per 1,000 passengers in 2022, up from 4.35 in 2021 and 5.6 in 2019, according to the aviation data company SITA’s annual insights report.

For international flights, the mishandling rate was 19.3 bags per 1,000 passengers, more than eight times higher than the rate of 2.4 for domestic flights.


‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts

This was largely because flight transfers were more likely on international journeys, SITA’s chief executive, David Lavorel, said. Errors during flight transfers were the largest contributor to mishandled baggage in 2022, accounting for 42% of affected luggage.

Lavorel described the rise in mishandled baggage as an “exponential increase”.

“The swift comeback took the industry by surprise,” he said. This left ground handlers scrambling to navigate the surge in traffic with reduced staff, he said.

There were 3.42 billion air passengers in 2022, up from 2.28 billion in 2021 but still down from the pre-pandemic peak of 4.54 billion in 2019.

Nicole Hogg, a baggage expert with SITA, said a less favourable consequence of the return of air travel was the emergence of “baggage mountains”.

“The sudden influx of travellers caught the industry off guard, resulting in global issues and significant disruptions from Europe to Australia and the Americas.”

Mishandling rates were considerably worse for airlines operating in Europe, with a rate of 15.7 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, compared with 6.35 in North America and 3.04 in the Asia-Pacific region.

Larger airports that had passengers transferring through them experienced “the most severe repercussions”, she said, which had a flow-on effect at smaller airports attempting to return baggage to owners at their destinations.


Hogg noted the sector’s workforce, which had been decimated by Covid border restrictions and forced many workers into new industries, was still hampered by labour shortages and inexperienced workers fresh to aviation.

These workforce issues also caused cancellations, delays and long security queues at airports in 2022, and continued to threaten the industry’s post-pandemic recovery, Hogg said.


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The surge in mishandled baggage to 7.6 per 1,000 passengers – although still an improvement on 2007’s rate of 18.88 – means the industry has lost significant ground on the progress it made over the previous decade in improving luggage handling through technological advances and automation, the SITA report said.

A mishandled piece of baggage is one that is reported as delayed, damaged, stolen or lost, with the global rate taking into account all claims made with airline or ground-handling companies on behalf of passengers.

Of the 26m mishandled bags in 2022, 80% were delayed, an increase of 9% on the previous year. Damaged bags accounted for 13% of mishandled bags, while 7% were lost or stolen.

Iron age roundhouse rises from the ashes on shores of Scottish loch

Volunteers are helping to build a replica crannog on Loch Tay after an earlier model burned down two years ago

The Scottish Crannog Centre’s replica roundhouse, which burned down in 2021, is to be replaced with a new one on the opposite side of Loch Tay 

Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

The Guardian

Thu 18 May 2023

On the shores of Loch Tay, slices of dark turf are piled high alongside bundles of pale reeds. Over the month of May, local volunteers will turn these raw materials into a replica iron age roundhouse, in what will mark a rising from the ashes for one of Scotland’s best-loved living history museums.


‘Devastating’ fire destroys recreated iron age dwelling on Loch Tay

In June 2021, the Scottish Crannog Centre suffered a devastating blow when its replica roundhouse burned down in just six minutes. The cause of the blaze has not been ascertained, though police have ruled out anything suspicious.

An outpouring of support followed, both locally and nationally, with £50,000 donated within a fortnight, a testament to the appeal of this unique open-air museum, which offers visitors the chance to take part in iron age crafts, such as weaving and pottery, as well as continuing the serious archaeological work of local crannog excavation.

Now, with a grant of £2.3m from the Scottish government, the centre is rebuilding on a new site directly across the loch, on land transferred from the forestry commission.

Crannogs, which were common across Scotland and Ireland, are houses built on stilts over water, usually with a bridge connecting them to the shore. The first crannogs in Scotland were built on lochs and firths in the early iron age, about 2,500 years ago.

The remains of the crannog after it was destroyed by a fire. 

Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian


Looking out across the water from the new site at Dalerb, assistant director Rachel Backshall picks out four submerged crannogs visible from this vantage point. “They existed in different forms up to the 17th century, and there are 17 on Loch Tay alone,” she says. “We are surrounded by the archaeology we’re talking about.”

The museum celebrates crannogs not only for the skills and technologies required to build and maintain them but also for the way they hold information about the past: as underwater sites, they often reveal unprecedented levels of preservation, providing a rare glimpse of prehistoric life.

The plan is now is for volunteers to finish building a land-based roundhouse over the summer and for construction of a new crannog, over water, to begin in the winter.

As with the original museum, which remains open, the new site will include a replica iron age village with demonstration shelters for cookery, metalworking, weaving and woodcraft, as well as eco-friendly modular buildings for a new cafe, museum and shop.

Inside the crannog before it was destroyed. 

Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

The centre is aiming for its new incarnation to become Scotland’s most sustainable museum, in terms not just of carbon count, but of craft, skills and sustainability of materials.

“Everything we’re doing now is directly inspired by what people did 2,500 years ago,” says Rich Hiden, another assistant director. “It might seem that we’re doing something cutting edge to be super sustainable but the practice and skills are all bedded in what the crannog people did. They were living in a way we can learn from today.”

Sustainability and access may be familiar heritage sector buzzwords, but a visit to the centre underlines how creatively embedded this museum is in its wider community.

Refugee integration groups, members of Perthshire Women’s Aid and local schools will be visiting to assist with the community build. “People are building themselves into a shared heritage,” says Backshall.


York and Shetland sites join UK bids for Unesco world heritage status

The centre also offers one-to-one mentoring for young people struggling with mainstream education, and welcomes a wide range of volunteers for its diverse audience. Archaeology graduate Rebecca Davies, 50, made the 12-hour drive from her home in north Wiltshire to help out after reading about the fire. She is now starting her first paid job as a heritage interpreter over the summer season. She explains that she was 35 when she was diagnosed with autism: “Museums can help because they are full of quirky people anyway.”

In the museum, curator Amy Stewart is sorting through boxes of unsourced pottery fragments from a nearby crannog site. “The contents of the museum have been really under-studied so we love to have students with a particular interest coming in,” she says.

She lays out a few fragments where the fingerprints of the iron age folk who sculpted them are still visible. Because skin oils do not affect even ancient pottery such as this, visitors are encouraged to place their contemporary fingers in the prehistoric prints.

“It’s a very different way of thinking about leaving your mark on history. Everyone can make their mark, not just kings and queens.”

Tens of thousands protest against planned Israeli judicial overhaul

Story by Reuters • Yesterday, May 20, 2023

Protests against Israel's judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv© Thomson Reuters

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Israelis joined protests across the country, now entering their 20th week, on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contested plans to tighten controls on the Supreme Court.


An aerial view shows protesters taking part in a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government's judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv© Thomson Reuters

The planned overhaul, which would give the government control over naming judges to the Supreme Court and let parliament override many rulings, was paused after opponents organised some of the biggest street protests ever seen in Israel.

The government accuses activist judges of increasingly usurping the role of parliament, and says the overhaul is needed to restore balance between the judiciary and elected politicians.

Critics say it will remove vital checks and balances underpinning a democratic state and hand unchecked power to the government.


An aerial view shows women dressed as handmaidens from "The Handmaid's Tale" during a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government's judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv© Thomson Reuters

A sea of blue and white Israeli flags, which have become a symbol of the protests, coated a central highway in Tel Aviv. Protestors chanted, "Israel is almost a dictatorship," as a banner reading "stop them" was held up by the crowd.

"It scares me that we are still a few hours away at any given moment from turning from a democracy to a dictatorship," Sagi Mizrahi, a 40-year-old computer programmer told Reuters in Tel Aviv. "I'm here because of the judicial system and the laws that are still sitting on the table, it's just scary."


Protests against Israel's judicial overhaul in Tel Aviv© Thomson Reuters

Protests garnered lower attendance last Saturday as a truce between Israel and the militant Islamic Jihad group officially came into effect, ending a five-day escalation which was the worst episode of cross-border fire since a 10-day war in 2021. Protests seemed to have been invigorated with Hebrew media estimating some 90,000-100,000 in attendance.



An aerial view shows protesters taking part in a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government's judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv© Thomson Reuters

The police force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Gradually, myself my kids and my grandkids are losing the hope to live here in a democratic state and to have a normal life like every person deserves," Hava Golan, 65 year-old biology professor said.

(Reporting by Emily Rose, Editing by Louise Heavens)

Israelis back out in force against judiciary overhaul

Duration 1:04

View on Watch

ReutersIsraelis back out in force against judiciary overhaul

1:04

The Associated PressThousands at Gaza rally mourn Islamic Jihad members

1:31

The Canadian PressIsraeli nationalists taunt Palestinians during march

0:57

New York State looks to undo stigma placed on former cannabis convicts with licenses

May 20, 2023

In this Jan. 24, 2023, file photo, owner Roland Conner makes the first marijuana purchase from his son Darius at the opening of Smacked LLC, the first New York cannabis dispensary owned by a justice impacted individual in New York

.© STAR MAX/IPx via AP

Trailblazers in NY cannabis market represent equity in a budding industry
Duration 9:25  View on Watch

When Roland Conner was a teenager in the 1990s, he was imprisoned on a marijuana-related charge.

Conner told ABC News that he struggled with the stigma of that criminal record for a long time, but recently his past has helped him and his family in a major way. In January, Conner opened Smacked! Village in Manhattan and became the first Black-owned legal cannabis store in New York City.

"It was surreal because a lot of the time you try to hide your past, especially when it's negative," he told ABC News Live.


Roland Conner, the owner of Smacked! Village, speaks with ABC News' Mona Kosar Abdi.

© ABC News

Conner's story is one that New York officials, cannabis reform and criminal justice reform activists said can be replicated across the country to help the generations of Black Americans whose lives were marked by previous marijuana laws.MORE: Biden announces pardons for thousands convicted of federal marijuana possession

"We've been talking about the opportunity to take what was a tool of systemic racism in some ways being implemented in communities like New York and use it now as a tool for reparative and restorative justice and further opportunity for those communities," Dasheeda Dawson, the founding director of Cannabis NYC, the city office that oversees legal cannabis businesses, told ABC News.

Last spring, a year after New York State legalized recreational marijuana, New York City Mayor Eric Adams created the Cannabis Equity Program. The program helps New Yorkers who were negatively affected by the state's previous drug laws obtain a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries license, or a "CAURD."

At least 30% of the applicants applying for the license must have had a "justice-involved" history related to a previous marijuana arrest and shown entrepreneurial experience, according to state rules.



Dasheeda Dawson, the founding director of Cannabis NYC.

© ABC News

Dawson noted that the "justice-involved" criteria include applicants who had family members who were arrested on previous marijuana-related charges.

"CAURD is really intended to focus on those who have been directly impacted," she said.

Conner, who operates Smash! with his family, said his store has helped him grow closer with his son.MORE: Video Inside unregulated cannabis edibles and growing calls for change

"This means something to a lot of men who look like me and those who don't even look like me," he said. "Because a lot of times we lose our kids…They [are] like balloons, they get caught in the wind and they're gone."



Arana Hankin-Biggers, president and co-founder of Union Square Travel Agency, speaks with ABC News' Mona Kosar Abdi.

© ABC News

Dawson said customers buy cannabis products for recreational purposes and to treat health issues such as chronic pain.

Arana Hankin-Biggers, the president and co-founder of the cannabis dispensary Union Square Travel Agency, partnered with the nonprofit agency the DOE Fund, which works to help formerly incarcerated New Yorkers learn new skills and get back on their feet, for her CAURD application.

Hankin-Biggers told ABC News that it was just to set up this partnership, where half of the proceeds from the store go to the DOE Fund's projects.

"There are still over 40,000 in prison, primarily Black men on cannabis charges," she told ABC News. "There are instances and stories of individuals who had a dime bag and who were arrested and sent to jail for seven years."



Customers buy cannabis products at Smacked! Village.

© ABC News

Twenty-two states have legalized recreational marijuana and 13 of those states have implemented social equity programs. Dawson said other states purposely excluded entrepreneurs with previous drug-related records.MORE: New study shows benefits of cannabis on cancer-related pain

"By virtue of the fact that we are prioritizing that group, we are setting a standard not just in the United States, but globally. And that's where I think New York can really be a pioneer," she said.

Conner said he was grateful for the opportunity to come back from his past and to help others in the community.

"I made a lot of mistakes now, you know, but being able to correct those mistakes and move forward and be here right now and know the inadequacies is not there… I'm strong," he said. "I feel powerful."

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

New York Christian university fires two staff for including pronouns in emails – reports

Story by Victoria Bekiempis

The Guardian

 • May 20, 2023

Photograph: Stephen Maturen/AFP/Getty Images

© Provided by 

ANew York Christian university terminated two employees for putting pronouns in their respective email signatures, these former workers allege, according to reports.

Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot, who were residence hall directors at Houghton University, said that administrators told them to take the words “she/her” and “he/him” off of their email signatures.

Related: Wellesley College students vote to admit trans men and non-binary people

The university, Zelaya and Wilmot alleged, claimed their inclusion of pronouns violated a new school policy, the New York Times reported. Zelaya and Wilmot refused to remove their pronouns and were fired, several weeks before the semester’s conclusion.

Their firing comes as Houghton University has taken actions that are increasingly in line with religious conservatism at better known Christian colleges such as Liberty University in Virginia and Hillsdale College in Michigan, the Times wrote. These colleges often draw Republican-leaning students, some of whom ascribe to the party’s invocation of Christianity to enact anti-LGBTQ+ measures.

Houghton University shuttered a multicultural student center approximately two years ago. The school no longer recognizes a student LGBTQ+ group as the club refused to push more conservative discourse on gender and sex, the Times reported.

“I think it boils down to: they want to be trans-exclusive and they want to communicate that to potential students and the parents of potential students,” Wilmot reportedly said of his firing.

Neither Zelaya nor Wilmot identify as transgender. They said that their reasons for including pronouns in email signatures was due to their gender-neutral names – which has led to them being misgendered in written correspondence – as well as personal ethics.

“There’s the professional piece to it, and the practical piece, and there’s also an inclusive piece, and I think that’s the piece this institution doesn’t want,” Wilmot told the Times.

A spokesperson for Houghton University said the school “has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures”.

“Over the past years, we’ve required anything extraneous be removed from email signatures, including Scripture quotes,” the spokesperson also told the Times.

Some Houghton graduates have criticised the decision. About 600 signed an online letter this spring protesting Zelaya and Wilmot’s firings.

“Our overall concern is that these recent changes demonstrate a concerning pattern of failure on the part of the current administration to respect that faithful and active Christians reasonably hold a range of theological and ethical views,” the letter stated.

HORSE RACING KILLS

Baffert's National Treasure wins Preakness, hours after one of his horses euthanized

BALTIMORE (AP) — Bob Baffert’s National Treasure won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, ending Mage’s Triple Crown bid in the trainer’s return from a suspension — and just hours after another of his three-year-old horses was euthanized on the track.

Baffert headed to the winner’s circle on the same day that his colt Havnameltdown went down with a fatal left leg injury in an undercard race. Baffert said he and his team were in shock.

“Winning this,” Baffert said, choking back tears after National Treasure's win, “losing that horse earlier really hurts. It’s been a very emotional day.”

The fatality was another dark moment for a sport already reeling from the deaths of seven horses at Churchill Downs in a 10-day span leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

Derby winner Mage finished third in the Preakness after going off as the 7-5 favourite. His defeat means there will not be a Triple Crown winner for a fifth consecutive year.

National Treasure, the 5-2 second choice, held off hard-charging Blazing Sevens down the stretch to win the 1 3/16-mile, $1.65 million race by a head.

Jockey John Velazquez won the Preakness for the first time.

Baffert had a roller-coaster day in his return to Pimlico Race Course from a suspension that kept him from entering a horse in the Preakness last year. The thrill of victories by National Treasure in the Preakness and Arabian Lion in an earlier stakes race contrasted with the agony of Havnameltdown’s death.

Related video: First Mission scratched from Preakness, Bob Baffert returns to Pimlico (WMAR Baltimore, MD)   Duration 2:48   View on Watch

Horse trained by Bob Baffert euthanized after injury at Pimlico

1:28

 LouisvilleBob Baffert Horse put down

0:40

Horse safety a high priority at this year's Preakness

2:12

“It’s sickening,” Baffert said. “We are so careful with all these horses, and it still happens. It is something that is disheartening. I feel so bad for that horse, and I just hope that (jockey Luis Saez) is OK.”

Saez was conscious and transported to a local hospital for treatment. A team of veterinarians determined Havnameltdown’s left front leg injury to be inoperable.

Black barriers were propped up on the dirt track while the horse was put down. All the while, 2Pac’s “California Love” blared from the infield speakers at what is intended as an annual daylong celebration of thoroughbred racing.

By evening, Baffert was celebrated for winning the Preakness for a record eighth time, breaking a tie with 19th-century trainer R. Wyndham Walden. In 2018, Baffert matched Walden with seven wins at the Baltimore race with Justify, who went on to become the sport’s 13th Triple Crown winner — and Baffert’s second, after American Pharoah ended a lengthy drought for the sport in 2015.

This was Baffert’s first Preakness in two years because of a ban stemming from 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit’s failed drug test that led to a disqualification in that race. Medina Spirit was Baffert’s most recent Preakness horse, finishing third.

Baffert didn’t arrive in Baltimore until Thursday this week, seeking to keep a lower profile than usual given the questions that have dogged him and clouded his reputation. A Hall of Famer and a longtime face of horse racing, Baffert sought to move past his suspension when asked Friday.

“We just keep on moving forward,” he said. “We have other horses to worry about. A lot of it is noise, so you keep the noise out and continue working.”

While horse racing deaths in the U.S. are at their lowest level since they began being tracked in 2009, adding another at the track hosting a Triple Crown race will only intensify the internal and external scrutiny of the industry. Those inside it have said they accept the realities of on-track deaths of horses while also acknowledging more work needs to be done to prevent as many as possible.

In that vein, new national medication and doping rules are set to go into effect on Monday. The federally mandated Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which already regulated racetrack safety and other measures, will oversee drug testing requirements for horses that should standardize the sport nationwide for the first time.

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press

Eighth Horse Dies in Past 3 Weeks at Churchill Downs, Home of Kentucky Derby

Story by Marissa G. Muller • May 15, 2023

Another horse was euthanized at Churchill Downs in the wake of the Kentucky Derby

Michael Reaves/Getty© Provided by People

Eight horses have now died at Churchill Downs over the past three weeks, with the most recent death after a race on Sunday.

Rio Moon, a 3-year-old horse, was euthanized after the sixth race on Sunday. According to the notes in the Equibase chart, Rio Moon "suffered a catastrophic injury to his left foreleg a few strides after the wire," as the Associated Press reports.

The loss of Rio Moon comes in the wake of the death of seven horses at Churchill Downs, in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby and the aftermath. Wild on Ice and Take Charge Briana were both euthanized after suffering "musculoskeletal injuries from which they could not recover."

Parents Pride and Chasing Artie died suddenly on May 2. The two horses' trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was later suspended indefinitely.

Related:Four Horses Die at Churchill Downs in Days Leading Up to Kentucky Derby

Code of Kings died on April 29 before a race after flipping and breaking his neck.

Related video: Horseracing marks 50 years since Secretariat's Triple Crown win (WBAL TV Baltimore)
Duration 0:55 View n Watch

Chloe's Dream and Freezing Point, were injured on the day of the Kentucky Derby and subsequently euthanized. During Race 2, Chloe's Dream sustained a right knee fracture at the top of the first turn, and during Race 8, Freezing Point sustained a biaxial sesamoid fracture.

After the deaths of the horses, the racetrack and home of the Kentucky Derby issued a statement and maintained that it will "fully and actively work with the Kentucky Horseracing Commission (KHRC) and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) to thoroughly investigate each incident to determine, to the degree possible, any underlying health or environmental causes and apply those learnings to continue to improve the safety of this sport."

Related:Seven Horses Died at Churchill Downs in the Lead-Up to the 2023 Kentucky Derby

"While each incident reported has been unique, it is important to note that there has been no discernable pattern detected in the injuries sustained," Churchill Downs said in its May 6 statement. "Our track surfaces are closely monitored by industry experts to ensure their integrity. Each horse that participates in racing at Churchill Downs must undergo multiple, comprehensive veterinarian exams and observations to ensure their fitness to race."

After the seventh horse died at Churchill Downs, Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, called the deaths "unacceptable" in a statement to PEOPLE, adding that the "deaths of so many young horses surrounding the Kentucky Derby this year underscores the urgent need for reform to protect the lives of horses, including the immediate and full implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act which has been held hostage by some horsemen obstructing the anti-doping provisions."

According to World Animal Protection, an animal welfare nonprofit, the deaths result from the racing industry prioritizing "profit over animals."

"The deaths of Parents Pride, Chasing Artie, Wild on Ice, Code of Kings, Chloe's Dream, Freezing Point, and Take Charge Briana prove it's time to address the ethical implications of this so-called 'sport,'" World Animal Protection executive director Lindsay Oliver said in a statement to PEOPLE. "How many more horses have to die before action is taken?"

Technology a valuable tool in the fight against food insecurity
Story by Adriana Diaz • May 20, 2023

0520-wn-diaz1.jpg© CBS News

Detroit — At the Sharing Table in Detroit, Michigan, food is put out for anyone in need.

"You can see who's hungry, you can see it in their eyes," said Bonnie Askew, a regular attendee.

"Times are hard," she adds. "People don't have a decent meal."

Some of the food at the Sharing Table comes from Chad Techner, with Metro Food Rescue. Techner drives a truck around Detroit collecting food that is about to be thrown out and delivering it to local food banks — part of the more than 33 million Americans lacking stable food at home, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It is a stunning fact of life in America.

Trucks, technology a valuable tool in the fight against food insecurity
Duration 2:23  View on Watch

"It's unconscionable to me that, like, we waste 40% of the food in this country," Techner said. "Well, one in four kids don't have enough food to eat. I have four young kids. It's a statistic that really gets home."

Techner's team filled a truck at Bimbo Bakeries USA, maker of Thomas' English muffins, with food just past the best buy date.

"If we wouldn't get it to a food bank, we would have to throw it out so it would completely go to waste," said Matt Zuidema with Bimbo Bakeries.

Each year, nearly 120 billion pounds of food goes uneaten in the U.S., worth about $408 billion, according to numbers from the nonprofit group Feeding America.

"There's more than enough for everyone to eat," Techner said. "We just don't get it to the right place at the right time."

But technology is helping curb waste, linking people with affordable meals. Apps like Too Good To Go lets users buy a bag of items from restaurants and stores at a deep discount, before it is thrown out.

"There's a bit of randomness to it," said 28-year-old Kevin Suggs, a resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. "But when you're paying $3, $4 or $5 a pickup, it's always, you know, net [return on investment]."

In Detroit, Askew said that Americans need to understand that there is a need.

"If you don't see it, the hunger, go look for it," Askew said. "It's out there. Donate your leftovers. Buy a couple extra boxes of this or that. Find a pantry and donate."

'Listen to us': LGBTQ activists seek help, prudence in raising human rights abroad

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday, May 19, 2023


OTTAWA — LGBTQ activists say Canada should ramp up its help in the fight against an organized movement to clamp down on sexual and gender minorities in Africa, while being cautious about when to raise issues in public.

"We are being bullied into silence," said Alex Kofi Donkor, the founder of LGBT+ Rights Ghana, on a visit to Ottawa.

"We always have a strategy and I hope you always listen to us."

Ghana has outlawed homosexual acts since British rule, including under an existing criminal offence of "unnatural carnal knowledge." Human Rights Watch says LGBTQ people in the country face a climate of fear and violence.

Donkor, 33, has tried to change that reality by starting a blog years ago to document human rights issues.

Eventually, the medical researcher launched an organization to inform media, preachers and politicians about LGBTQ issues. The group opened a physical office in January 2021, which police raided a month later and ordered closed.

By August 2021, the country's parliament was debating a bill that would ban gender-affirming care and jail people for up to a decade for purportedly promoting LGBTQ activities.

And yet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made no mention of the bill in the public portion of his meeting with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo two weeks ago on the sidelines of King Charles's coronation in London.

That was the right move, Donkor said.

"There are times where we need that outward speaking and there are times where we don't."

Comments from foreign leaders can lend weight to the narrative that the West is trying to impose LBGTQ issues on Africa.

In March, Ghana's presidential palace was lit up in the colours of the Ghana and U.S. flags to mark Vice-President Kamala Harris's visit.

The lights resembled a rainbow, causing outcry from conservatives who claimed the U.S. was trying to push its agenda.

Then at a joint press conference with Akufo-Addo, Harris was asked to comment on the bill by an American journalist, and called it a "human rights issue."

Donkor said he was already fielding interview requests about the projected rainbow lights, and the Harris exchange created more pushback.

"It caused another wave, like 'Oh, let's hurry up and pass the bill. How dare Harris come and tell us who we are? We are Africans, who have values blah, blah, blah.' And then we have to come and defend that."

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Donkor spoke at an event in Ottawa this week about how countries with feminist foreign policies should address sexual orientation and gender identity.

The panellists noted that in reality, some anti-LGBTQ groups are getting Western funding.

A report by the left-leaning Political Research Associates think tank found Evangelical groups in the U.S. are funding anti-gay organizations across Africa, and an investigation by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change that tracked U.S. aid dollars funding anti-gay campaigns in Uganda.

Damjan Denkovski of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy in Berlin said Russian laws against "homosexual propaganda" are being replicated in other countries, and that Moscow derails United Nations investigations into human rights in various countries by claiming that the West is imposing on local values.

"We cannot allow fundamental human rights and dignity to be a sideshow to geopolitics in this way."

Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, said that means activists and governments need to step up.

"We are dealing with a well resourced, well co-ordinated transnational movement against the rights of 2SLGBTQ people, women, and all other oppressed folks, and it's going to require that level of co-ordination and funding to respond to it," she told the panel.

Owusu-Akyeeah's parents immigrated from Ghana and she said the crackdown in that country impacts the diaspora abroad.

"It impacts how our parents here and how our elders here view queer and trans rights, even though they live in Canada," she said in an interview.

Owusu-Akyeeah said she's often in touch with LGBTQ activists and Canada's diplomats in Ghana, and uses her past experience as a Global Affairs Canada analyst to suggest ways to advance rights.

"It's not necessarily positioning ourselves as knowing what's best, but it's listening to the people directly impacted and having their suggestions, recommendations inform what decisions we make," she said.

Still, Donkor said a political and cultural calculation needs to be made by world leaders in deciding whether to raise these issues while visiting other countries.

Last November, Trudeau took it upon himself to denounce Uganda's "appalling and abhorrent" legislation that prescribes a death penalty for having sex while being HIV positive, and life imprisonment for homosexual acts.

And on Friday, Trudeau called out the Italian government during a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

Meloni's far-right-led government has moved to limit recognition of parental rights to the biological parent in families with same-sex parents. "Obviously, Canada is concerned about some of the (positions) that Italy is taking in terms of LGBT rights," Trudeau told Meloni at the start of the meeting.

As for Donkor, he's returning Saturday to Ghana despite death threats and physical attacks that would likely give him a shot at a refugee claim in Canada. He has hope his country can embrace its past as a matriarchal society that welcomed diversity.

He said colonial churches imposed a gender binary, but there are still rural communities with people who "integrate between two genders, and are revered within the society."

Donkor similarly blames colonial policies for the political instability that has produced coups and poverty, which he said is what drives many to a hard line form of Christianity espoused by U.S. missionaries in the 1980s.

The end result, he said, is a society where doctors read out Bible passages to transgender people who visit a hospital for a stomach illness, and nurses who refuse to treat gay people for fear of going to hell.

Donkor said Canadians can help, but only if they let Ghanaians take the lead.

"We have the answers because we are the ones who are facing it," he said.

"We will tell you what to say, and what will work."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2023.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Chinese authorities slap comedy firm with $2 million fine after military joke

Story by By Casey Hall • May 19,2023

A person walks past a show venue of stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Culture Media Co that has closed its business, in Beijing© Thomson Reuters


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Wednesday slapped one of the country's best-known comedy companies with a 14.7 million yuan ($2.13 million) penalty, accusing it of "harming society" after a military joke made by one of its comedians drew strong public criticism.

The Beijing arm of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism Bureau said it would fine Shanghai Xiaoguo Culture Media Co 13.35 million yuan and confiscate 1.35 million yuan in "illegal gains" from the firm after finding that a recent show by Li Haoshi, who performs under the name House, had breached rules.


A person walks past a show venue of stand-up comedy company Xiaoguo Culture Media Co that has closed its business with a notice of show cancellation, in Beijing© Thomson Reuters

The incident has strongly divided the Chinese public over what sort of jokes are inappropriate as performances such as stand-up comedy become increasingly popular and also highlighted the limits of appropriate content in China where authorities say it must promote core socialist values.


The entrance of a show venue of stand-up comedy company Danliren Culture Media is pictured in Beijing© Thomson Reuters

Li went viral on Chinese social media earlier this week after an audience member posted online a description of a joke he had made at a live stand-up set in Beijing on May 13, describing it as demeaning to China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

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In the joke, Li recounted seeing two stray dogs he had adopted chase a squirrel and said it had reminded him of the phrase "have a good work style, be able to fight and win battles", a slogan Chinese President Xi Jinping used in 2013 to praise the PLA's work ethic.

"We will never allow any company or individual use the Chinese capital as a stage to wantonly slander the glorious image of the PLA," the cultural bureau said, adding that Xiaoguo Culture would be barred from staging any future shows in Beijing.

In response to the fine, Xiaoguo Culture blamed the incident on "major loopholes in management" and said it had terminated Li's contract.

Reuters could not immediately reach Li for comment and Weibo appears to have banned him from posting to his account there.

Founded in Shanghai in 2015, Xiaoguo Culture's popularity has grown in sync with China's embrace of stand-up comedy and had known for raising the profile of hundreds of local comedians.

The firm and its artists have fallen foul of authorities before. In July 2021, the company was fined 200,000 yuan for publishing advertisements that featured a comedian endorsing a lingerie brand with comments said to objectify women.

(This story has been refiled to add a dropped word in the headline and fix a typo in paragraph 1)

($1 = 6.9121 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Casey Hall; Editing by Michael Perry)