MISOGYNY IS FEMICIDE

‘You will be killed’: Iran’s female journalists speak out on brutal crackdown

A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Ahead of a trial of journalists who covered the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, reporters describe beatings and threats as government agents try to wipe out independent media


Deepa Parent

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023 

It was a chilling warning from government agents. A young female journalist based in Tehran recounted the calls and messages she had received: “It said they were at my sister’s place and were there to rape her.”

These were the same agents from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who had interrogated her after she had attended one of the nationwide protests that erupted last year after the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, who was arrested for wearing her headscarf improperly and then reportedly beaten into a coma.

Ahead of the expected trial this week of two female journalists, who were among the first to report on the death of Amini, reporters in Iran have described the violent beatings, threats and imprisonment they have faced for reporting on protests in the country.


Speaking on condition of anonymity, a female journalist said she feared for her life, despite being released uncharged after being detained by the IRGC for three days. She had been arrested while covering protests as a reporter after Amini’s death.

“They [IRGC agents] have messaged me several times with death threats that they will kill me, like the protesters they killed during the protests,” she said.

The Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi, left, and Elaheh Mohammadi are among those detained. They have been accused of orchestrating protests with the CIA. 

Photograph: Abaca Press/Sipa

Another female journalist said she had been told that she had “no right to cover the protests” and could not interview the families of anyone killed.

About 40% of all those journalists detained in the past seven months have been female, according to the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders.

The two female journalists due to go on trial this week are accused of conspiring with hostile foreign powers, a charge that potentially carries the death penalty. They have been imprisoned and held in solitary confinement since being arrested shortly after their reports appeared in September 2022.
Many citizen journalists have filled the void of official journalists who are trapped by censorship

Niloofar Hamedi, who works for the reformist newspaper Shargh Daily, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who writes on gender equality and social issues for the Hammihan newspaper, were accused of “orchestrating the nationwide protests” through their reporting, as well as being accused of working with western intelligence, especially the CIA.

Journalists in Iran say much of the brutality has been focused on citizen journalists, both male and female, whose reports and photos were seen across Iran and abroad.

Often less well-known, these citizen journalists had “filled the void of official journalists who are trapped by censorship”, a female journalist said. “Out of fear of international reaction, the Iranian government harasses well-known journalists less, but punishes anonymous citizen journalists.


‘They used our hijabs to gag us’: Iran protesters tell of rapes, beatings and torture by police

“I know many of them [citizen journalists] who were beaten in custody, and their legs were broken. All the videos and pictures published during the protests were from these citizen journalists, not official media,” said the journalist.

The dwindling number of jobs for independent journalists – as well as threats to their lives and freedom in Iran – has forced some who spoke to the Guardian to join state-run media outlets to be able to make a living. They still hope for the chance to report freely again.

“The people of Iran are more aware and wiser than ever but, with all the wealth and weapons in the hands of the dictator, how will Iranians fight against this authoritarian regime?” the journalist said. “Sometimes I think of leaving Iran, but who will then help voices to be heard?”

Outrage in India after teenage girl killed in Delhi street

Protesters take part in a candlelight march to campaign for an end to violence against women in New Delhi, India. Photograph: EPA

Body of teenager lay untouched until police informant passed by, raising fresh concerns about women’s safety


Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi

THE GUARDIAN

Wed 31 May 2023 

The killing of a 16-year-old girl in Delhi who was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in an alley as pedestrians walked on has sparked outrage over the safety of women in India.

CCTV footage of the incident shows the teenager was accosted in public by a man, alleged by police to be 20-year-old Sahil Khan, who stabbed her more than 30 times and hit her with a concrete slab.

Several bystanders encountered the incident and though one man attempted to intervene and was violently rebuffed by the attacker, nothing else was done to stop him. No one called the police and after the killing her body lay in the alleyway untouched until it was spotted by a police informant about 30 minutes later.

According to police, Khan had been in a relationship with the girl and had decided to kill her after she tried to end it. He had allegedly used a knife bought two weeks previously, and had followed her from the market to the dark alley, where he attacked her.

“Sahil told us she humiliated him and passed objectionable comments about their relationship. This angered him and he decided to eliminate her,” a police officer told local media.

The attack prompted outrage from activists and politicians who demanded that more be done to protect women in the capital. Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said on Twitter: “A minor girl is brutally murdered openly in Delhi. This is very sad and unfortunate. The criminals have become fearless, and there is no fear of the police.”


India’s female wrestlers threaten to hand back Olympic medals in harassment row

Swati Maliwal, from the Delhi Commission for Women, said the capital had become “extremely unsafe” for girls and women and that she had “never seen anything more horrifying than this in my career of so many years”.

“There were so many people when the murder took place, but no one helped the girl. Even if they would have shouted, maybe the girl could have survived,” said Maliwal.

The incident once again raised the issue of women’s safety in India, particularly at the hands of their partners. In November, there was similar outrage after a 28-year-old man was accused of chopping up his girlfriend, Shraddha Walker, into 35 pieces and disposing of her in a forest.

National statistics suggest the problem of violence against women is showing no signs of abating in India’s deeply patriarchal society. Delhi is regularly ranked as the most dangerous city for women in India, and between 2020 and 2021, there was a 40% increase in crimes against women, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

LGBTQ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
South Korea’s first ever same-sex marriage bill goes to parliament

Marriage equality supporters gather outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday to mark the launch of the country's first same-sex marriage bill. Photograph: Rainbow Action/Marriage Equality Korea

Symbolic bill sponsored by cross-party group of lawmakers is hailed a ‘historic moment’ in fight for marriage equality


Raphael Rashid in Seoul

THE GUARDIAN

Wed 31 May 2023 05.40 BST

Lawmakers in South Korea have proposed the country’s first same-sex marriage bill, in a move hailed by civic groups as a defining moment in the fight for equality.

The marriage equality bill, proposed by Jang Hye-yeong of the minor opposition Justice party and co-sponsored by 12 lawmakers across all the main parties, seeks to amend the country’s civil code to include persons of the same sex in marriage.

The bill is unlikely to pass but forms part of a trio of bills expected to increase pressure on the government to expand the idea of family beyond traditional criteria. The two other bills relate to civil unions and IVF for unmarried women.

South Korea does not recognise civil same-sex partnerships. The constitution stipulates that marriage and family shall be established “on the basis of individual dignity and equality of the sexes”. This provision has usually been regarded as restricting marriage to the union of opposite-sex couples.

“Family is the most basic unit that forms a larger community called society,” Jang said in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday.


South Korean court recognises legal status of same-sex couples for first time

“It’s a historic moment, but this is just the start,” Ryu Min-hee, a lawyer at the Marriage Equality Korea civic group, told the Guardian. “The bills must be discussed by the National Assembly immediately.”

Past efforts to grant legal rights to same-sex couples have been opposed by religious groups that claim such moves would “legalise homosexuality”. The same argument has been used to block anti-discrimination legislation.

Wednesday’s announcement follows a landmark ruling in February that recognised the legal status of same-sex couples for the first time in terms of national health insurance.

As South Korea faces an impending demographic crisis, including a world-record low birthrate, there have been increased calls to redefine the concept of a family.

Moves to broaden the definition to include cohabiting couples or single-member families were reversed under the current administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

South Korea’s potential, though unlikely, move towards marriage equality comes at a time when other countries in the region make advances.

Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan have already extended marriage rights to same-sex couples.

In Japan on Tuesday, a court ruled that the ban on same-sex unions was unconstitutional.

Social consensus is often stated by politicians as the reasons for opposing equality laws, including same-sex marriage. According to a Hankook Research survey, 52% of respondents opposed the idea of legislating same-sex marriage in South Korea.

Lawmaker Jang told the Guardian that the responsibility of politicians was to contribute to the process of achieving this consensus.

“Enacting laws is the process of achieving social consensus in a democratic society. I don’t think that these two things are separate or that one comes before the other.”

Japan government under renewed pressure to end same-sex marriage ban

Lawyers and supporters celebrate after ruling at Nagoya district court in central Japan on Tuesday. Photograph: 稲熊成之/AP

Calls grow for marriage equality as another court rules ban is unconstitutional


Justin McCurry in Tokyo

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023 

Pressure is building on Japan’s government to legalise same-sex unions after a court ruled that a ban on them was unconstitutional.

Rights advocates said the ruling on Tuesday by Nagoya district court was a step forward in the campaign to end Japan’s status as the only G7 country not to fully recognise same-sex unions.

It is the second time a court in Japan has ruled the ban unconstitutional, while two other courts have decreed the ban is in line with the postwar constitution, which defines marriage as based on “the mutual consent of both sexes”.

But the Nagoya court, ruling on a lawsuit filed by two men who are in a relationship, rejected the couple’s demand that the state pay each of them 1m yen (£5,715) in compensation for denying them the right to marry.

“This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year’s ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, and the hurt of what the government keeps saying,” the couple’s lawyer, Yoko Mizushima, told journalists and supporters outside the court.

Mizushima was referring to a ruling in Osaka last year that the ban was not unconstitutional. A court in Tokyo later reached a similar conclusion but said the lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.

While the courts cannot compel the government to act, the latest ruling is expected to reignite the debate over same-sex unions, less than a fortnight after it submitted an LGBTQ+ rights bill designed to avert criticism ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima.

The government had promised to pass a law to promote “understanding” of LGBTQ+ people before the G7, but opposition from conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) forced it to submit a watered-down bill the day before the summit began.

The bill initially said “discrimination is unacceptable” but now says that “unfair discrimination” should not be tolerated – wording that campaigners said had rendered the legislation meaningless.

While lifting the ban on same-sex unions is opposed by “family values” conservatives in the LDP, opinion polls show public support for same-sex marriage as high as 70%.

More than 300 municipalities in Japan allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements – covering about 65% of the population – but their rights are limited.

Same-sex couples are unable to inherit their partner’s assets – such as the house they may have shared – and have no parental rights to any children their partners may have. Hospital visits are often possible only at the discretion of medical staff.

The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has provoked anger by claiming that Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage was “not discriminatory” and that legalising it would “fundamentally change society” and challenge so-called traditional family values.

In February, he sacked a senior aide who said he “would not want to live next door” to an LGBTQ+ couple and did “not even want to look at them”.

Agencies contributed reporting

EU accused of ‘staggering neglect’ after just 271 Afghans resettled across bloc

A recently-arrived refugee from Afghanistan waiting for medic support at a temporary camp in Germany in 2021. Photograph: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images

Many in need of permanent protection remain stuck in ‘prison-like’ camps on Greek islands, leading refugee charity says

Lisa O'Carroll Brussels correspondent
THE GUARDIAN 

Wed 31 May 2023 

Just 271 Afghans were resettled in the EU in 2022, 0.1% of the 270,000 identified as in need of permanent protection, it has emerged.

Leading charity the International Rescue Committee accused EU leaders of “staggering neglect” of Afghan refugees with many remaining trapped in “prison-like” conditions on Greek islands.

In a damning report, the International Rescue Committee claims EU member states have “consistently” failed to deliver on legal resettlement promises leaving many Afghans who do reach the EU borders “vulnerable” all over again.

It claims that not a single person has arrived under a scheme established in Germany in 2021 to resettle up to 1,000 Afghans a month, while Italy has taken just half the refugees it promised.

Between 2021 and 2022, about 41,500 Afghans at risk were admitted to the EU, many through ad hoc emergency evacuations in August 2021. “While the IRC welcomes each of these efforts, this response remains vastly insufficient,” the IRC reports said.

Some countries have not taken any Afghans at all since Kabul fell and the country was taken over by the Taliban, according to its report, Two years on Afghans still lack pathways to safety in the EU.

Many remain “trapped in remote and prison-like conditions” in camps on Greek islands “preventing their inclusion into local communities and devastating their mental health”, said the report.

The authors also found that more than 90% of the Afghans supported by the IRC’s mental health teams in Lesbos and Athens experienced symptoms of anxiety, and 86% of depression, in the year to March 2023,


‘I was told it’s normal’: Afghan refugee who worked for UK sleeping rough in London

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, said: “This report highlights staggering neglect of Afghans by the member states of the European Union, which puts them at risk at every step of their journeys in search of protection.

“While some states’s well-intentioned plans to bring Afghans to safety have hit repeated delays and obstacles, other countries have failed to make any pledges at all, or to guarantee adequate protection and inclusion for the tiny proportion of Afghan refugees who manage to reach Europe.”

He said the welcome EU member states showed to more than 8 million people fleeing Ukraine showed its capacity to deliver.

“There is simply no excuse for treating Afghans, and refugees forced from their homes elsewhere, any differently,” Miliband added.

The IRC report focuses on the lack of safe pathways for refugees but does not appear to reflect the wider efforts made in countries like Germany to support Afghans.

In March the German Office of National Statistics, Destatis, announced that 286,000 Afghan nationals arrived and were registered in the country in 2022.

However, it has faced local criticism that it has acted too slow on its promises.

One refugee interviewed for the IRC report said she had “high hopes” for resettlement in Germany but the process, which was successful, took two and a half years.

“Waiting for an answer was a very difficult and anxious time for me, as I was without my two children in this foreign country whose culture I did not know. I had no choice but to wait and hope that one day I would be able to offer my children a safe life here,” Zahra, 60, said.

The IRC called on EU member states to “scale up protection pathways” and aim to resettle 42,500 Afghan refugees over the coming five years “at a minimum”.

The IRC suggests the UK, which is under constant criticism for failing to deliver on resettlement schemes, is doing better than many EU states.

British government data updated last week showed indefinite leave to remain has been given to just under 13,000 Afghans under two UK resettlement and relocation programmes.

Interview

‘I’ve never seen so much vitriol’: activist Paul Boden on America’s homelessness crisis

‘The old system wasn’t perfect by any means. But when it existed, you didn’t have millions of people living out in your streets.’ Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Leading voice demanding rights for the unhoused discusses the history of homelessness and where the US can go from here

Erin McCormick in San Francisco

THE GUARDIAN
Mon 29 May 2023

 11.00 BST

Back in 1983, when a recession and horrible rainstorms thrust homelessness in the political spotlight in San Francisco, Paul Boden was already familiar with life on the streets.

Then 23, he had been squatting, couch-surfing and staying at hostels since he was 16. When he saw people lining up to get spots in San Francisco’s first temporary emergency shelters, Boden volunteered to help out.


‘Stick over carrot’: progressive Portland takes a hard turn on homelessness

Women were sleeping on the cafeteria floors of St Anthony’s food kitchen while men, with their sleeping bags and clothes in tow, were crashing in the chairs and on the rug at nearby Hospitality House.

Four decades later, Boden is still a leading voice in demanding rights for the unhoused.


He served as the director of San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness, a non-profit organization fighting to empower those without homes, for 16 years, and now serves as the executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (Wrap), which works to eliminate the root causes of homelessness and demand protection of human rights.

Along the way, he and his colleagues have been documenting the path that led to the devastating problem of homelessness that the US faces today.

There were 582,500 people counted as being homeless in the national one-night head count in January 2022, which Boden says counts only the most obvious cases of homelessness and misses many others. Across the US, only 33 affordable homes are available for every 100 extremely low-income renter households.

The Guardian spoke with Boden about the history of homelessness in the US and what he sees as meaningful solutions. The conversation is edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve argued that the homelessness emergency the US is facing today is rooted in actions that began in the 1980s. How did it all begin?

It was massive cuts to federal affordable housing programs, part of the Reagan revolution. By 1983, affordable housing funding had basically bottomed out.

Wrap just finished research that shows that there are 438,289 fewer units of public housing available today than there were in 1994. Betty Crocker couldn’t give you a better recipe for how to end up in a situation where people are living out in your streets.

What did public housing look like before the 1980s and what happened to change the direction?

The federal department that we now call Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was created in 1937 in response to massive homelessness (following the Great Depression). The enabling legislation said the government has the responsibility to ensure that all of its citizens have a clean, safe, decent place to live that they can afford.

But in 1998, the legislation was changed to say the federal government cannot be held accountable to ensure that even a majority of its citizens have a place to live. The federal government said: “Oh, no, no, we’re not responsible. We’ve relieved ourselves of this responsibility.”

In 1994 and 95, the Hope VI program under Bill Clinton that aimed to rebuild public housing tore down a lot of public housing and made it mixed-income.

California senator and former San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation that overturned the law that said that if the government destroys a unit of federal housing, it is legally required to replace that unit.

Then, in the late 90s came welfare reform, imposing all kinds of caps and limits [on aid to poor families]. Three hundred thousand people were cut off from social security benefits in a single day because they were labeled as “dual diagnosed” (having mental illness coupled with drug dependency). And you could no longer get social security if part of your disability was a drug addiction.

So it was the dismantling of all these different systems: your housing system, your welfare system, your disability systems. At the time we were also wiping out halfway houses and lodges for mentally ill people. Then you wonder why all of these different folks, whose main thing in common is living in poverty, ended up out on your streets.

Weren’t there a lot of problems with public housing basically ghettoizing people of color?

Oh yes, there were all kinds of problems, including redlining. Don’t by any stretch of the imagination think that I’m saying everything was so perfect back in the day. But the current approach is not fixing it.

What has our response been these last 40 years?

In the 1980s, the Federal Emergency Management Agency started funding emergency shelters. These were supposed to be temporary facilities at the time of a crisis. The mantra at the time was basically: we’re in a recession and times are tough for everybody, so people are homeless, but as soon as the recession is over, they’re all gonna go back home. The reality was, there were no homes for them to go back to.

We’ve never gone back to a safety-net program structure or a housing program structure. Today we have program after program, sweep after sweep, security ambassadors, business improvement districts, all of these efforts to mitigate the presence of homelessness without doing a damn thing about what caused the advent of contemporary homelessness in the early 1980s.

Political leaders would say: we have to do something right away. Well, now it’s 40 years later, and the San Francisco board of supervisors just passed a resolution to open up 2,000 more shelter beds.

The old system wasn’t perfect by any means. But when it existed, you didn’t have millions of people living out in your streets.

Instead, they chose the cheapest way that they could show a pretense of caring at all about the human beings that are living out in the street.

But we are still funding subsidized housing, right?

Yes, there are low-income housing vouchers that are privatizing accommodation of affordable housing, so that a private landlord can make a profit off of it. That basically means you have an incredibly poor person who’s homeless and you’re sending them out into the open market to find private landlords that will accept a HUD voucher, and all the bureaucracy that comes with it. If you’ve got a disability, if you’re a person of color, well then good luck! You think racism and classism don’t exist in America anymore, just because someone has a voucher?

What are the current trends you’re seeing in working with the unhoused population?

In the 40 years I’ve been doing this in 13 cities that we work in, I have never seen so much vitriol coming from neighborhood associations, business groups, civic groups and tech groups, saying these people need to go. Those groups are saying: “We’ve been looking at this homelessness for 40 years, and we’re sick of it. We don’t want to see it any more.”


Will America’s first ‘right to sleep outside’ actually help unhoused people?

We’ve had non-profits telling us that they’re gonna fix it. We’ve had people running for mayor saying they’re gonna make it disappear. And we have a federal government that says you can’t hold us accountable for the fact that it homelessness even exists any more.

People seem to be saying: “if I don’t see poor people, then I don’t have to worry that there’s too much poverty in America. If I don’t see homeless people, I don’t have to worry that we have a homeless problem. Because if I don’t see it, it’s not a problem.”

How have the numbers of unhoused people changed?

The number of people who are homeless has gone up, yes. But the real change is that the longevity of homelessness and the difficulty of getting through the system is off the hook.

In the early 80s, when senior citizens would come to me, it might take me two weeks to find them a place to live. Now it’s next to impossible. It might take five years. Now you have to be finger imaged to get into the shelter system. You have to call a hotline number and get on a waiting list that has 1,400 names on it.

And then local officials turn around and argue that the homeless people are “service resistant”.

It’s unconscionable. After 40 years, it’s so hard to get our leaders to even admit that what they’ve been doing is never gonna work.

It seems like the government, at least in San Francisco and Los Angeles, has been spending a lot of money building new housing or converting hotels to housing for the homeless. If we are creating all this housing, what’s going wrong?

First, taking a single-room occupancy hotel off the open market and converting it to a homeless program is not creating anything. It’s changing who’s able to live in the hotel. And it’s changing the management of the hotel. They rob Peter to pay Paul. But it’s a lot cheaper than actually building housing.

And mostly, when you hear about new affordable housing that’s being built, if you look at the affordability requirements to live there … it can be people with incomes of like $90,000.

What would you propose as a good way to actually provide deeply subsidized housing?

I would go back to the original legislation from 1937. And I would say the federal government needs to be held accountable to find affordable housing for the poorest people in this country. No waiting list, no intakes. We don’t care where you were born. We don’t care if you’ve ever gone to jail. We don’t care who lives in your house – you’re eligible! You’ve just gotta fund it.


‘What do we need to feel safe?’ Lives affected by homelessness – in pictures

The idea is to create units that are mixed income that are spread across the city that are habitable and that poor people can afford to live in.

That’s a tall order!

Yeah, it’s a tall order. It’s a restructuring of a society that has gone so far off-kilter. That the idea that people even merit a decent place to live regardless of their income is more foreign to us now than it was in 1937.

It’s like, you’re still trying to rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic and you hit the iceberg 40 years ago.

HERESIOLOGY

‘Mad and offensive’ texts shed light on the role played by minstrels in medieval society

‘Manuscripts often preserve relics of high art. This is something else’ … the Heege Manuscript. Photograph: National Library of Scotland

The Heege Manuscript which ‘pokes fun at everyone, high and low’ is among the earliest evidence of the life and work of a real minstrel


Sarah Shaffi

THE GUARDIAN

Wed 31 May 2023 

From mocking kings and priests to encouraging audiences to get drunk, newly discovered texts at the National Library of Scotland have shed light on the role played by minstrels in medieval society.

Containing the earliest recorded use of the term “red herring” in English, the texts are part of a booklet known as the Heege Manuscript. Dr James Wade of the University of Cambridge, who discovered them, said echoes of minstrel humour can be found “in shows such as Mock the Week, situational comedies and slapstick”.

“The self-irony and making audiences the butt of the joke are still very characteristic of British standup comedy,” he added.

Throughout the middle ages, minstrels travelled between fairs, taverns and baronial halls to entertain people with songs and stories. Although fictional minstrels are common in medieval literature, references to real-life performers are rare, and the Heege Manuscript is among the first evidence of the life and work of a real minstrel.

Dr James Wade: ‘To get an insight into someone like that from this period is incredibly rare and exciting.’ Photograph: University of Cambridge

Wade, from Cambridge’s English faculty and Girton College, said that most “medieval poetry, song and storytelling has been lost”.

“Manuscripts often preserve relics of high art,” he continued. “This is something else. It’s mad and offensive, but just as valuable. Standup comedy has always involved taking risks and these texts are risky! They poke fun at everyone, high and low.”

The texts consist of a tail-rhyme burlesque romance entitled The Hunting of the Hare, a mock sermon in prose and an alliterative nonsense verse The Battle of Brackonwet. They were copied circa 1480 by Richard Heege, a household cleric and tutor to a Derbyshire family called the Sherbrookes, from a now lost memory-aid written by an unknown minstrel performing near the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border.

Wade believes the minstrel wrote part of his act down because its many nonsense sequences would have been extremely difficult to recall. “He didn’t give himself the kind of repetition or story trajectory which would have made things simpler to remember,” Wade said. “Here we have a self-made entertainer with very little education creating really original, ironic material. To get an insight into someone like that from this period is incredibly rare and exciting.”

The Hunting of the Hare is a poem about peasants, “full of jokes and absurd hijinks”. Wade said that one scene is reminiscent of Monty Python’s “Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog” sketch.

The sermon addresses the audience as “cursed creatures” and includes fragments from drinking songs. “This is a minstrel telling his audience, perhaps people of very different social standing, to get drunk and be merry with each other,” Wade said. The sermon also contains the first recorded use of the term “red herring”, when three kings eat so much that 24 oxen burst out of their bellies, sword fighting; the oxen chop each other up until they are reduced to three “red herrings”.

The Battle of Brackonwet features Robin Hood as well as jousting bears, battling bumblebees and partying pigs. The poem names several villages close to the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border and includes a “skilful demonstration of alliterative verse and a clever double entendre”.

Wade said: “We shouldn’t assume that popular entertainers weren’t capable of poetic achievement. This minstrel clearly was.”

Wade’s study is published on Wednesday in The Review of English Studies journal.

https://www.cambridge.org/9781009064347

Cambridge introduction mikhail bakhtin | Literary theory

Based on up-to-date sources and recent scholarly editions of Bakhtin's work; Sets Bahtkin's work in its historical context, helping readers better ...

https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Bakhtin_Mikhail_Rabelais_and_His_World_1984.pdf

Rabelais and His World - Monoskop 

Bakhtin's ideas concerning folk culture, with carnival as its ... Long before he published his book on Rabelais, Bakhtin had ...

SEE 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HERESY 

Illinois set to become first state to end book bans

 ‘In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth,’ Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement when the legislation was introduced in March. Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP

Governor JB Pritzker expected to sign bill that would block state funding for public libraries and schools that ban books


Coral Murphy Marcos

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023 

Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign a bill that would make Illinois the first state to legislate to end book bans – by punishing publicly-funded institutions that attempt to censor in that way.

A bill is on Pritzker’s desk after passing the state legislature that would block essential state funding for public libraries and public schools in Illinois that ban books.

Only libraries in the state that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that reading materials should not be removed or restricted because of partisan or personal disapproval, or develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books within a library system will continue to get its state funding.

The Illinois senate passed HB 2789 earlier this month and the bill was sent to Democratic governor Pritzker last week, who is now poised to sign it. Once enacted, it takes effect on January 1 next year.

“In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth,” Pritzker said in a statement when the legislation was introduced in March. “We embrace it and lead with it. Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic history of many.”

Book bans in US public-sector schools increased by 28% in the first half of the 2022-23 academic year, the writers’ organization PEN America said last month.

The American Library Association’s Chicago chapter said there were 67 attempts to ban books in Illinois in 2022, increasing from 41 the previous year. More than 2,500 books were objected to last year across the country, according to the association.

In one of the most recent incidents in the US, last week in Florida, one parental complaint was enough to have Amanda Gorman’s poem that she wrote and performed for Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration removed for reading by elementary school children in an educational institution in Miami-Dade county.

The Illinois secretary of state, Alexi Giannoulias, said the new bill is in response to efforts in other states, like Florida, Texas and Arizona, to ban access to reading materials for political and personal reasons.

“The concept of banning books contradicts the very essence of what our country stands for,” Giannoulias, who also serves as the state’s official librarian, said in a statement. “It also defies what education is all about: teaching our children to think for themselves.”

The Illinois legislation comes as members of the far-right Proud Boys have been turning up at school board meetings pressing for restrictions on some liberal books, especially about gender and sexuality, according to various reports in national and local outlets.

The attempts are part of a nationwide outcry from conservatives calling for the ban of books written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.

DIRTY TRICKS NOT #METOO

Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, defects to Russia

Tara Reade: ‘To my Russian brothers and sisters, I’m sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance.’ Photograph: Donald Thompson/AP

Former Senate staffer who made claim in 2020 appears on Russian media alongside convicted Russian agent in US Maria Butina

Martin Pengelly in New York

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023

Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Tuesday she had defected to Russia.

“I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia.


Who is Tara Reade and what are her allegations against Joe Biden?

“I feel very surrounded by protection and safety,” Reade said.

Now 59, Reade was a staffer for Biden when he was a US senator from Delaware.

In 2020, as Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, she claimed that in 1993, in a Senate corridor, he pushed her against a wall and assaulted her. Biden repeatedly denied the accusation.

At her press appearance in Russia, Reade was described as a “writer and publicist and former aide to Joe Biden”.

Sitting next to Butina, Reade said: “I just really so appreciate Maria and everyone who’s been giving me [protection] at a time when it’s been very difficult to know if I’m safe or not.

“I just didn’t want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices.”

Reade recently considered testifying before US House Republicans seeking to use committees to attack Biden and his family.

The decision to defect to Russia, she told Sputnik, “was very difficult. I’m not an impulsive person. I really take my time and sort of analyse data points.

“And from what I could see based on the cases and based on what was happening and sort of the push for them to not want me to testify, I felt that while [the 2024] election is gearing up and there’s so much at stake, I’m almost better off here and just being safe. My dream is to live in both places, but it may be that I only live in this place and that’s OK.”

Biden is running for re-election. As president, he has helped maintain international support for Ukraine as it fights invading Russian forces.

Reade said: “To my Russian brothers and sisters, I’m sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance. Just know that most American citizens do want to be friends and hope that we can have unity again.

“I am enjoying my time in Moscow, and I feel very at home.”

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; GREENWASHING

Delta Air Lines faces lawsuit over $1bn carbon neutrality claim

The case argues that there is a market premium for green products and that Delta has profited from a misleading environmental claim. Photograph: Jetlinerimages/Getty Images

US airline pledged to go carbon neutral but plaintiffs say it is relying on offsets that do almost nothing to mitigate global heating


Patrick Greenfield

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023

Delta Air Lines is facing a lawsuit over its $1bn carbon neutrality claim which plaintiffs say is “false and misleading” as it relies on offsets that do little to mitigate global heating.

In February 2020, the US airline announced plans to go carbon neutral, pledging $1bn to mitigate all greenhouse gas emissions from its business worldwide over the next decade. It included plans to purchase carbon credits generated from conserving rainforest, wetlands and grasslands along with decreasing the use of jet fuel and increasing plane efficiency.


The new legal action, filed in California on Tuesday, targets Delta’s statement that it is “the world’s first carbon-neutral airline”, a claim it has made in adverts, LinkedIn posts, in-flight napkins and comments by company executives, according to the lawsuit.


The class-action lawsuit says Delta’s carbon neutrality claim is demonstrably false as it heavily relies on junk offsets that do nothing to counteract the climate crisis. It alleges that customers would have purchased Delta tickets believing they had no impact on the environment and many would not have bought them without the carbon neutrality claim.

A Delta spokesperson said: “This lawsuit is without legal merit. Delta is a vigorous advocate for more sustainable aviation, adopting industry-leading climate goals as we work towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Delta committed to carbon neutrality in March 2020, and since 31 March 2022, has fully transitioned its focus away from carbon offsets toward decarbonisation of our operations, focusing our efforts on investing in sustainable aviation fuel, renewing our fleet for more fuel-efficient aircraft and implementing operational efficiencies.”

“The language carbon neutral is so provocative,” says Krikor Kouyoumdjian, a partner with the legal firm Haderlein and Kouyoumdjian LLP which is bringing the case. “When companies say: ‘Don’t worry about our emissions, they’re sorted,’ they are communicating complacency. They are letting consumers pay to feel better and not have to worry about the impact of their consumption. But that is counterfactual to reality. It is not something that you can pay away.

“When I hear ‘carbon neutral’, I think you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re not hurting the environment in any way. It’s like you don’t exist. That’s what the words mean to any rational person: that we can participate in your business without any guilt. Most of us who care about the environment walk around with this giant cloud of guilt that our very existence hurts the environment in a bunch of ways.”

The case argues that there is a market premium for green products and that Delta has profited from a misleading environmental claim. It cites scientific and journalistic evidence that there are deep flaws with carbon credits from the unregulated voluntary market that Delta has purchased for its environmental claims.

In January, a nine-month investigation by the Guardian, the German weekly Die Zeit and the investigative group SourceMaterial found Verra rainforest credits used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations were largely worthless, often based on stopping the destruction of rainforests that were not threatened, according to independent studies. The lawsuit against Delta mentions the investigation. Verra strongly disputed the findings.

Haderlein and Kouyoumdjian said they wanted the company to drop the carbon neutrality claim and explain the full scale of the pollution that their business causes.


“The voluntary carbon offset market cannot meaningfully guarantee carbon neutrality from a company in the way it’s currently being operated. The market is replete with severe methodological errors that appear both intentional and unintentional. In our opinion, it’s frankly reckless to predicate a company’s ESG strategy on climate change on the basis of the purchase of these offsets,” says attorney Jonathan Haderlein.


‘Worthless’: Chevron’s carbon offsets are mostly junk and some may harm, research says

“This is more than a climate change case. This is also a business case. People are paying more for these greener products. If a company like Delta is raking that premium in by claiming they do it first and then doing a huge advertising blitz to try to get people flying again, we think that’s unfair to other companies that are buying higher-quality offsets or doing far better sustainability. And frankly, unfair to consumers.”

At the time Delta launched its plans to go carbon neutral in 2020, its chief executive, Ed Bastian, said: “There’s no challenge we face that is in greater need of innovation than environmental sustainability, and we know there is no single solution. We are digging deep into the issues, examining every corner of our business, engaging experts, building coalitions, fostering partnerships and driving innovation.”

The new lawsuit comes amid a wider regulatory crackdown on green claims in the UK and Europe. In New York, Evian is being sued over its carbon neutrality claim which relies on offsets. Danone, who own the water brand, has argued it should be thrown out and say the case “defies science and common sense”.

A judge will now decide whether or not to progress the case.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

Climate change to blame for up to 17 deaths on Mount Everest, experts say

Nepal’s head of tourism says variable weather on the mountain has led to one of the deadliest years on record

Hannah Ellis-Petersen 

South Asia correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 May 2023 

Experts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.

A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities.

The figure was confirmed by Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the director of Nepal’s tourism department. “Altogether this year we lost 17 people on the mountain this season,” he said. “The main cause is the changing in the weather. This season the weather conditions were not favourable, it was very variable. Climate change is having a big impact in the mountains.”

It would make this year one of the worst on record for deaths on Everest, matched only by the events of 2014 when 17 died, most of whom were local sherpas killed in an avalanche. On average, between five and 10 people die on Everest every year but recent years have seen a spike.

Among those who lost their lives climbing Everest this year were Jason Kennison, a 40-year-old mechanic from Australia who had overcome spinal injuries to climb to the top but could not make it back down, a Canadian doctor, Pieter Swart, and three Nepalese sherpas who died in an avalanche in April.

Those still missing include solo Hungarian climber Suhajda Szilárd, who scaled the mountain without a sherpa guide or additional oxygen, and an Indian-Singaporean climber who is feared to have fallen off the mountain.

This year has been more deadly than 2019, when images went viral of overcrowding and “carnage” on Everest, with hundreds of climbers waiting up to 12 hours to scale the mountain and reports that people were forced to clamber over bodies and incapacitated climbers. A total of 11 people died that year.


What’s the weather like near the summit of Mount Everest?

The Nepal government has been criticised for issuing 479 permits this year, the highest number ever. At £12,000 each, they are a major income generator for the small cash-strapped country, and the government has been reluctant to scale back numbers.


Khatiwada denied it was too many, saying the number was high this year because the window for climbing had opened earlier and the season had been longer than usual, so that there was no overcrowding.

The rising death toll comes as the 70th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic first ascent to the peak of Everest was celebrated on Monday. It marked the start of a global obsession among mountaineers to scale the world’s highest peak, with over 10,000 ascents since and demand for climbing permits increasing every year.

Ang Norbu Sherpa, the president of the Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, said “too many” permits were being issued and it was putting environmental pressure on the mountain.

“The climbing has pattern has changed, it used to be hardened climbers but now it is a lot of novice climbers who want to get to the summit of Everest,” said Sherpa.

Experts and celebrated mountaineers have warned that Everest, which tops 8,848 metres, is now seen as a “tourist destination” and a playground for the thrill-seeking rich, even those with little experience of climbing at high altitude, who are willing to pay upwards of £48,000 to be guided to the summit.


Alan Arnette, a mountaineer who climbed Everest in 2011 and now writes regularly on conditions, said this year had been “chaos”. “The root cause of the high number of deaths lies with inexperienced clients who push themselves too hard and do not turn back soon enough,” he said.

“Many guide companies have no experience requirements and accept anyone, telling them ‘We will teach you everything you need to know.’ But when the client gets in trouble, they can be abandoned to save the lives of the support staff. We saw several clients abandoned this season, left alone on the upper mountain, with some still missing today.”


Microplastic pollution found near summit of Mount Everest

There had also been concerns that the increased human activity at Everest base camp, which is located on the Khumbu glacier, is making it unstable and unsafe, exacerbating dangerous conditions already created by global warming. According to a recent survey, Everest’s glaciers have lost 2,000 years of ice in just the past 30 years.

In order to cater to the demands of upwards of 400 climbers annually, about 1,500 people will come to base camp during the season, where luxury facilities can include massages and evening entertainment. Helicopters are also now a common way to reach base camp.

A plan was put forward last year by Nepal officials to move the base camp to a spot lower down the mountain, off the thinning glacier. Khatiwada confirmed that a plan was under way to change the rules so no trekkers could spend the night at base camp, and instead would have to stay lower down.

However, this plan has faced resistance by the sherpa community, who voiced concern that it would add three hours to the Everest climb and could potentially make it more dangerous. Sherpa said there were plans to learn how to better manage the base camp, rather than moving it. “It is a big question mark for local people where it could be moved to,” he said.

The high number of climbers is also escalating the problem of the massive amount of rubbish left strewn on Everest. Though the situation has improved slightly since the introduction of a £3,200 “garbage deposit”, which is only returned if they bring back 8kg of rubbish, local guides say the mountain is still littered with rubbish, particularly plastic, at the end of every season.

NOT JUST EVEREST

German mountaineer Luis Stitzinger found dead near Himalayan peak

Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas has the third highest peak in the world. Photograph: Dinodia Photos/Alamy

Body found on Mount Kanchenjunga five days after he went missing shortly after reaching summit


Philip Oltermann in Berlin
THE GUARDIAN

Wed 31 May 2023 

A leading German mountaineer and extreme skier has been found dead on the world’s third highest mountain, in the Himalayas, five days after going missing.

The body of Luis Stitzinger was discovered on Tuesday on Mount Kanchenjunga at a height of 8,400 metres, the head Sherpa of the company that organised the climb to find him told the Himalayan Times.

Stitzinger, 54, who made a name for himself in the mountain sports scene through spectacular skiing descents, had climbed Kanchenjunga without supplemental oxygen or assistance from local guides.

He started his push for the summit at 6pm last Wednesday from a camp at a height of about 7,600 metres, and reached the peak at 5pm the following day. He last communicated via radio at 9pm later that day.

Stitzinger had planned to return to the camp on skis but never arrived at the site and could not be located via GPS. Due to extreme weather conditions at the summit, a rescue team did not set off until four days later.

According to his website, the Bavarian had previously scaled seven of the 14 “eight-thousanders” – mountains taller than 8,000 metres – recognised by the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation. He finished each of these expeditions by skiing down long and steep slopes in treacherous terrain.

Peers described Stitzinger as a prudent and seasoned mountaineer whose experience also made him a sought-after guide. In 2022, he accompanied 68-year-old Graham Keene on an expedition that made Keene the oldest Briton to scale Mount Everest.

Stitzinger carried out several of his expeditions with his wife, Alix von Melle, who leads the list of female German alpinists to scale eight-thousanders, with seven such summits. In 2015, the pair published a book about their joint passion for mountaineering.

“I don’t go up a mountain because I want to break a record”, Stitzinger told Die Welt in 2007. “To me it is about the experience of nature and physicality. That is even more intense when the body is revved up.”