Fight for LGBTIQ rights in Namibia goes on after landmark court ruling

A historic ruling in Namibia has recognised same-sex marriages formalised abroad. But it has sparked a backlash

Sharon Kavhu
30 June 2023,

The first gay pride parade in Namibia, the Swakopmund Gay Pride, June 2016

| Getty Images

Just before the start of Pride Month, the Namibian supreme court ruled its government must recognise the union of same-sex marriages performed abroad, even though they remain illegal under domestic laws. The historic ruling made Namibia only the second African country after South Africa to recognise same-sex marriage.

The judgment came as a relief to the country’s LGBTIQ community, particularly Namibians and their foreign spouses who had been denied residency permits under the country’s Immigration Control Act. The law as it was left many same-sex couples with only two options: either leave Namibia to live together or live in different countries. Foreign-born spouses who chose to live in Namibia were at risk of deportation.

Carli Schickerling, a lawyer representing the two same-sex couples involved in the six-year case, said Namibia’s LGBTIQ community had been waiting for a ruling like this for the better part of a decade. A backlash to the court's decision proves there is still a long way to go in the battle for equality but, for the community, it's a sign of progress. Persistence has paid off.

“I think as an attorney, you dream about being involved in a matter that changes our law or its interpretation, something groundbreaking,” Schickerling said. “This was it for me and I feel immensely proud of the outcome. We were ecstatic.”

News of the court ruling came unexpectedly for Shereleen Januarie-Nicholas, a Namibian who was forced to live abroad after marrying her partner. It has brought hope that she and her spouse will finally be able to return to Namibia and be treated like a normal couple.

She never imagined the day would come, always having known as she grew up in Namibia that her sexual preferences were different from the rest of her family members and nobody would understand how she felt. She also knew she could not express herself because society discriminated against people like her.

Things took a positive turn when she moved to South Africa in 2009. Januarie-Nicholas was able to express herself and her sexual preferences and in 2020, eight months after she met the love of her life, Claudette, they decided to marry.

It is part of African culture for people to gather and celebrate marriages as achievements, but only one member of Januarie-Nicholas’s family attended her wedding. This was apparently because of Covid travel restrictions, but she believes the reality was very different.

“Some did not even want to acknowledge that I was getting married to a woman,” she said. “It became a conversation that I was influenced by South Africans, not that I was always this way. I would have loved to have another wedding in Namibia but due to the law at the time that was impossible.”

Januarie-Nicholas felt “overwhelmed by emotion” when news of the ruling broke. She recalls being elated and ringing another LGBTIQ Namibian friend who, like her, lived abroad.

“It made me realise how we are basically refugees in South Africa because we could never be ourselves and be safe in Namibia,” she added.

The court decision reminded her of how far Namibia’s LGBTIQ community had come. Until then, Januarie-Nicholas says, people like her had to be “subtle”, displays of public affection were “a big no no” and she “had to hide who I am”. “We all just kept quiet,” she added.

Though Januarie-Nicholas had always wanted to move back to Namibia after finishing her studies – and to show her South African wife the beauty of her home country – thoughts of the discrimination there had kept her away.

For one of the couple’s involved in the case, also of Namibian and South African nationality, it has been a long road. Namibian Hendrik Potgieter married South African Daniel Digashu in South Africa in 2015. The couple have gone to court several times in their long, lonely battle for equal rights, which Digashu admits came at a cost – financially, emotionally and physically.

He said the supreme court ruling overwhelmed him and had they been fighting alone, without the community, he would not have made it this far.

“The litigation journey was a lonely one, initially. But we made some beautiful friends and connections along the way, from litigation and support by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre who saved us a great deal, to the Civil Society Organisations here in Namibia with whom we found such great sense of community,” he said.

Just like Schickerling, Digashu believes the ruling opens doors for Namibia’s LGBTIQ community “to raise their issues and get the rights they so deserve”.

The ruling has also changed the vibe of this year’s Pride Month, said Wendelinus Hamutenya, an activist who was the first Mr Gay Namibia in 2012 and one of the first Africans to compete in the Mr Gay World Competition.

He described it as an historic, exciting and transformative moment, as well as a surprising one given sodomy is still criminalised under Roman-Dutch common law, discrimination of LGBTIQ people is legal and same-sex marriages of Namibians are not recognised by the courts.

“I was not expecting such a ruling in our land of the brave,” he said. “We inherited the sodomy provision under the common law when we gained independence from South Africa in 1990, and this law still criminalises LGBT people, criminalises sexual activity between males.”

Even as the LGBTIQ community celebrates the milestone, Hamutenya says it is time to think beyond it. Namibia’s constitution remains rigidly set against same-sex relationships, for instance, and there are many legislative hurdles to equal rights.

The situation will remain unchanged until parliament repeals these laws or the court rules them to be unconstitutional.

There was hope in 2019, when the Law Reform and Development Commission of Namibia identified the criminalisation of sodomy and of ‘unnatural sexual offences’ to be obsolete laws.

The ruling was something of a triumph for activists, who had sought funding and advocacy from non-profits and civil society groups to prepare a report for Namibia’s justice minister asking for repeal. But parliament rejected the motion, and now, following the latest supreme court ruling, prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has revealed plans to strengthen anti-gay legislation after the Coalition of Christian Churches demanded that same-sex marriages be outlawed in Namibia.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila’s SWAPO party put out a statement saying it “strongly condemns and repudiates all kinds of immoral and indecent acts” and “other associated acts that are either inconsistent with Namibian laws or against public policy”.

SWAPO said it was instructing its government “to enforce all laws in force that are aimed at preventing and combating such acts”.

Aid restrictions by Myanmar junta may be war crimes: UN

The junta has denied targeting civilians and says its operations are against “terrorists” who seek to destabilise Myanmar. PHOTO: AFP

UPDATED
JUN 30, 2023

GENEVA - The Myanmar military rulers’ restrictions on life-saving aid are growing and may amount to war crimes such as degrading treatment, starvation and collective punishment, said a United Nations (UN) human rights report on Friday.

The report by the UN rights chief said the military has established an “all encompassing system of control” since a February 2021 coup, adding that urgent steps are needed to meet people’s fundamental needs and rights.

Soldiers have targeted medical facilities, burned food stores, destroyed water wells and even killed three displaced people for trying to return to their village and grow food, it said.

Up to 40 aid workers have been killed in the country since the coup, some of whom were deliberately targeted, it said.

“In the context of armed conflicts, the intentional obstruction or denial of humanitarian assistance may constitute war crimes such as wilful killing, torture and other degrading treatment, starvation and collective punishment.”

A spokesman for Myanmar’s military could not immediately be reached for comment. The junta has denied targeting civilians and says its operations are against “terrorists” who seek to destabilise the country.

Overall, the UN report said that at least 3,452 people had died at the hands of the military and its affiliates, and 21,807 individuals had been arrested since the military takeover through to April 2023, citing “credible sources”.

“Aid providers are consistently exposed to risks of arrest, harassment or other mistreatment, or even death,” UN human rights spokesman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing.

Around 17 million people in the country, or about a third of the population, are in need of assistance, the UN says.

The UN humanitarian office says agencies still lack approvals to directly provide assistance to those impacted by Cyclone Mocha, which hit parts of the country in May.

Mr James Rodehaver, head of the Myanmar team, said at the same briefing: “They’re (the military leaders) trying to sell a climate of fear in order to dissuade the vast majority of civilians from providing any form of support either to the armed groups, or to basically scare them into supporting or at least accepting the military as the rulers of the country.” REUTERS

Titanic submarine billionaires get massive global rescue effort; refugees left to drown

PEOPLES WORLD

June 30, 2023 

BY PHYLLIS BENNIS

This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on June 14, 2023, shows scores of people on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. The saga of a lost submersible that had gone into the depths of the ocean to see the Titanic wreckage rippled across the national and global conversation. But a far bigger disaster days earlier, the wrecking of the ship with migrants, didn't become a moment-by-moment worldwide focus in anywhere near the same way. | Hellenic Coast Guard via AP

Recent weeks saw two terrible tragedies at sea.

In one, five explorers died when the Titan submersible imploded in the North Atlantic. In the other, over 600 refugees—most of them women and children—drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their fishing trawler sank.

Both voyages ended in a heartbreaking loss of life. But there were vast differences between the two tragedies in media attention and government response, highlighting just how unequal our world has become.

On board the Titan were two billionaires and one of their sons, along with a CEO and research director of companies tied to undersea adventure tourism. They were headed for the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank 111 years ago.

When the Titan lost contact with its mother ship less than two hours after descent began, calls for assistance immediately went out. Help came quickly from the U.S. and Canadian coast guards and navies, along with support from France and offers from other countries.

Sonar-equipped planes, undersea diving equipment, trained divers, and search ships of every variety steamed to the area. Meanwhile, breathless coverage of the tragedy stayed on the front pages around the world as TV news counted down the hours of oxygen left in the small craft.

The rescue cost is unknown, but initial estimates are in the area of $100 million—a cost that will be footed by taxpayers.

Compare this to the story of the Adriana, which sank off the coast of Greece just two days after the Titan went down. The Adriana was thought to be carrying over 700 people, of whom just 104 survived. No women or children were among the survivors.

The limited news coverage of the Adriana included nothing like the up-close-and-personal human stories of the lives and dreams of the five men aboard the Titan. Except for a few, we don’t even know their names.

They were desperate migrants, many of them refugees, from countries wracked by war, poverty, climate disasters, and human rights violations—including Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Pakistan, and Egypt. They were sailing from Libya in a decrepit fishing boat, hoping to make it to Europe alive.

The Greek coast guard quickly realized the ship was in trouble, but didn’t try to rescue the desperate passengers on the deck. Greek authorities made claims—vehemently disputed by ship captains nearby, migrant advocates, and the passengers themselves—that the ship had turned down offers of assistance.

The ship had been in distress almost two days before it sank, but help didn’t come until it was too late. How many might have been rescued with one-tenth the resources that were rushed to save the five billionaires and millionaires on the Titan?

Europe’s racist approach to migration starts and ends with preventing African, Asian, and Arab migrants from entering European territory. But it’s not just a European problem.

Indeed, the continent’s policies on migrants bear a tragic—indeed criminal—similarity to our own in the United States. As thousands of desperate refugees and migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean, thousands more from Central America, the Caribbean, and beyond have died trying to cross the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border.

How many might have been saved if immigration policy were grounded in keeping migrants safe, rather than keeping them out?

The rescue effort mounted for those lost on the Titan shows what’s possible when those in danger are treated like they matter. U.S. officials should work just as hard to rescue poor and endangered migrants as they do the billionaires—their lives matter just as much.

CONTRIBUTOR

Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Activists call on Biden to stop Forest Service from logging ancient woodlands

Enviornmentalists believe the Forest Service is unwilling to change its pro-logging approach

Abe Asher

Activists are increasingly frustrated with President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to exert pressure on the US Forest Service to slow or stop the logging of old-growth forests, HuffPost reported on Thursday.

On Earth Day last year, Mr Biden signed an executive order aimed at protecting and restoring old-growth forests — ordering the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to inventory all the old-growth and mature forests on federal land and design policy and “institutionalise climate-smart management and conservation strategies.”

In the executive order, Mr Biden clearly laid out the environmental and spiritual importance of preserving the country’s mature and old-growth forests.

“Strengthening America’s forests, which are home to cherished expanses of mature and old-growth forests on Federal lands, is critical to the health, prosperity, and resilience of our communities — particularly in light of the threat of catastrophic wildfires,” Mr Biden wrote. “Forests provide clean air and water, sustain the plant and animal life fundamental to combating the global climate and biodiversity crises, and hold special importance to Tribal Nations.”

But according to a number of environmental organisations, progress on the objectives laid out in the executive order has been unacceptably slow — especially considering the extent of the climate crisis.

According to HuffPost, the Forest Service is a particular issue. The agency was created more than a century ago in large part to ensure that the country met its timber production targets, but now, in the current moment, environmentalists believe the agency should be serving an entirely different purpose.

Thus far, despite the executive order, it’s reportedly been unwilling to change — and the Biden administration has been unwilling to push it.

“We are trying desperately to make sure the White House stays involved,” Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild told HuffPost. “I think if this gets delegated down in a time where it’s perfectly reasonable the administration has its focus on a lot of other things, we’ll see the Forest Service either run out the clock on it or come up with something that says, ‘Logging is the answer. What was the question?’”

If logging remains the Forest Service’s primary aim, the consequences for the few old-growth forests that remain intact in the US could be devastating in the long term.


HuffPost reported that the inventory of old-growth and mature forests performed in accordance with the Biden executive order found that there are only 32.7 million acres of old-growth forest and 80.1 million acres of mature forest in the country. Before Europeans arrived to colonise what is now the United States, there were a billion acres of forest on the land.

King Charles just lost 500 million pounds. The reason will shock you

ByMallika Soni

Jun 29, 2023

The official royal spending increased by 5 per cent during the last financial year reaching £107.5 million.

The Crown Estate lost half a billion pounds on its London property portfolio as the value of retail space crashed, The Telegraph reported. This implies that value of properties in London owned by King Charles' public estate fell by 6.5 per cent to £7.2 billion which implies a reduction of £500 million in the last year alone. The footfall remained below pre-pandemic levels, annual report released by the King’s estate showed as it was published alongside the Sovereign Grant report on royal finances and the Duchy of Cornwall’s report.

The King was impacted by the soaring inflation in the UK as official royal spending increased by 5 per cent during the last financial year reaching £107.5 million. The income of the estate decreased by 1 per cent to £9.8 million- half of pre-pandemic levels. However, the Sovereign Grant remains at £86.3 million.

A palace spokesman said that cutbacks had been made “across the board”, as per the report.

But the overall value of The Crown Estate swelled to £15.8 billion as investments at sea and rural land increased. Net revenue profit was at record levels – £443 million – as a result of lease agreements.

Dan Labbad, chief executive of the Crown Estate, said “a further year of uncertainty and volatility” led to significant variations in the financial returns.

The revenue was a result of “the groundbreaking work we have undertaken over the past two decades, working in partnership across many sectors, to create a world-leading offshore wind market”, he said, adding, “We are now focussed on how we continue to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader, including supporting other technologies, the supply chain, skills and jobs, all of which are vital to a net zero and energy secure future."

 

Relatively few Asian Americans say they’re well-informed about Asian history in the U.S.

BY JENN HATFIELD

President Joe Biden signs a bill at the White House on June 13, 2022, establishing a commission to study the potential creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Just over a year ago, President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill that created a commission to study whether a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture should be established in Washington, D.C. As the commission begins its work, only about one-in-four Asian Americans (24%) consider themselves extremely or very informed about the history of Asian people in the United States, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

How we did this

Just 5% of Asian Americans say they are extremely informed on this topic, and 19% say they are very informed. Half say they are somewhat informed, and another 24% say they are a little (18%) or not at all (6%) informed.

Knowledge of U.S. Asian history is relatively consistent across the United States’ six largest Asian origin groups. Between 22% and 25% of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese Americans say they are well-informed about Asian history in the U.S.

Knowledge of this topic is also consistent across education levels: Asian Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree are about as likely as those without a college degree to be well-informed about U.S. Asian history.

On the other hand, some differences in knowledge emerge based on Asian Americans’ place of birth and citizenship, which sometimes overlap but are not the same.

Asian Americans who were born in the U.S. are slightly more likely than those who were born in other countries to be well-informed about U.S. Asian history (28% vs. 23%). And among Asian American immigrants, naturalized U.S. citizens are about twice as likely as non-citizens to be well-informed about it (26% vs. 13%).

Where Asian Americans learn about U.S. Asian history

The survey also asked Asian Americans who said they are at least a little informed about U.S. Asian history whether they have learned about it from five sources: family and friends, K-12 schools, college or university, media, and the internet.

Majorities of Asian Americans say they have learned about U.S. Asian history informally – from the internet (82%), media (75%), and family and friends (63%). In contrast, fewer than four-in-ten have learned about it through formal education, including college or university (37%) and K-12 schools (33%).

Among Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean and Vietnamese Americans, the internet and media are the most common ways of learning about U.S. Asian history. (The sample size for Japanese Americans on this question was too small to analyze separately.)

Chinese and Filipino Americans are especially likely to have learned about U.S. Asian history from the media, while Vietnamese Americans are especially likely to have learned about it from the internet or from family and friends.

While all of these origin groups are less likely to have learned about U.S. Asian history from formal education than from other sources, Indian Americans are particularly unlikely to get their information this way. Only 22% of Indian Americans say they learned about U.S. Asian history in elementary, middle or high school.

Asian Americans with a college degree or more education also tend to learn about U.S. Asian history from different sources than Asian Americans with less education. The internet and media are the most popular sources of information on U.S. Asian history for both groups, but Asian Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree are slightly more likely to have learned from these sources.

Some 84% of Asian Americans with a college degree or more have learned about U.S. Asian history from the internet, and 77% have learned about it from the media, compared with smaller shares of Asian Americans with less education (79% and 73%, respectively). In contrast, Asian Americans with some college education or less are more likely than their counterparts with college degrees to have learned about U.S. Asian history from family and friends and from K-12 schools.

Asian Americans who were born in the U.S. are more likely than those born outside the U.S. to have learned about U.S. Asian history from each of the five sources asked about in the survey. The difference is largest for K-12 schools: 53% of U.S.-born Asian Americans say they have learned about U.S. Asian history there, compared with 26% of foreign-born Asian Americans.

Somewhat different patterns appear for Asian American immigrants based on citizenship. Those who are naturalized U.S. citizens are more likely than non-citizens to have learned about U.S. Asian history from family and friends, K-12 education, and higher education. But they are about as likely as non-citizens to have learned about it from the internet and the media.

Note: Here are the questions used for the analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

East Timor's independence hero Xanana Gusmao returns to power as prime minister

East Timor's independence hero Xanana Gusmao 

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Former East Timor independence fighter Xanana Gusmao was sworn in on Saturday as prime minister of Asia’s youngest country after his party won the parliamentary election in May.

Crowd cheered as the former guerrilla leader traveled by motorcade to the presidential palace in Dili, the capital, where he and his members of Cabinet were sworn into office by President Jose Ramos-Horta, his fellow independence fighter during Indonesia's occupation.

The new government is a coalition between Gusmao’s National Congress of the Reconstruction of East Timor, known as CNRT, and the Democratic Party.

Gusmao, 77, became the nation’s first president between 2002 and 2007, and served as prime minister between 2007 and 2015.

In the May election, his party won 41% of the vote to capture 31 out of 65 seats in the National Parliament. That is just short of the 33 needed for an outright majority, and Gusmao agreed to form a government with the Democratic Party, which won six seats.

The election result indicated deep dissatisfaction with the previous government, led by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, known as Fretilin.

Gusmao faces an uphill battle in tackling economic challenges as nearly 42% of the country’s estimated 1.5 million people live below the poverty line. The U.N. estimates for every 1,000 babies born in the country, 42 die before their fifth birthday because of malnutrition.

Gusmao vowed to reduce poverty through his government’s strategic development plan and reiterated the importance of national reconciliation and unity to achieve the development goals.

“I promise to carry out the tasks that the people have entrusted to me and to bring prosperity to the Timorese people through government programs,” Gusmao said at the swearing-in ceremony.

He pledged to provide opportunities for local governments to design their own development programs, including those to improve health services for mothers and children.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s envoy, Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan were among those who attended the inauguration.

The country has a significant young population — 65% are below 30. It is also among the world’s most impoverished. More than two decades after receiving formal independence in 2002, there is a lack of basic infrastructure including a reliable electricity supply and paved roads in rural areas.

“He has a charisma and rich experience as a leader,” a Dili resident, Joao Agustino Sarmento, said of Gusmao. “But we want to see him make more significant changes with his new government to overcome poverty and unemployment that still face our country.”

East Timor’s transition to a democracy has been rocky, with leaders battling massive poverty, unemployment and corruption. The economy is reliant on dwindling offshore oil revenues.

____

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Gantry Meilana, The Associated Press

THE INQUISITION BY ANY OTHER NAME
Pope appoints bishop from his Argentine homeland to lead powerful Vatican doctrinal watchdog office

Pope appoints bishop from his Argentine homeland to lead powerful Vatican doctrinal watchdog office© Provided by The Canadian Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday chose a bishop who is a trusted theological advisor from his Argentine homeland for one of the Vatican’s most powerful positions — head of the watchdog office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy.

Monsignor Victor Manuel Fernández, now serving as archbishop of La Plata, Argentina, is tapped to head the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The new doctrinal prefect, or chief, has been nicknamed the “pope’s theologian,″ since he is widely believed to have helped author some of Francis’ most important documents.

The office enforces orthodoxy of church teaching and disciplines theologians deemed to have strayed from Catholic doctrine in their lectures or publications. But the office has taken on considerably more importance in recent decades to rank-and-file faithful as the stain of pedophile priests spread across the globe. Among the department's duties are evaluating and processing sex abuse allegations against clergy.

Fernández is widely believed to have been a key author behind some of Francis’ most consequential documents, notably “God is Love,” a 2016 exhortation that opened the door to letting divorced Catholics who remarry in civil ceremonies to receive Communion. Catholic teaching holds that marriage is a sacrament, and that remarried Catholics must live together as brother and sister and abstain from sex as a condition for receiving Communion.

That prospect — long sought by divorced and remarried Catholics who lament being cut off from the Eucharist — would anger conservative hierarchy and rank-and-file faithful if it were to be codified in teaching some day.

The new chief replaces retiring Cardinal Luis Ladaria, a Jesuit like Francis who took over in 2017, after the pontiff abruptly removed conservative German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller after a single term as the doctrinal watchdog. Mueller had been appointed to that post by Pope Benedict XVI, a darling of church conservatives.

Fernández, 60, will take up his post in mid-September, the Vatican announcement of his appointment said.

He is a prolific author and biblical expert who has long had support of Francis, who before becoming pontiff in 2013, was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. Fernández has made clear that while archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio supported his nomination as rector of the Catholic University of Argentina after critics raised concerns about some of his doctrinal positions.

Frances D'emilio And Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

First aircraft on another world reestablishes contact with earth

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was captured by the Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z on April 16, not long after the rotorcraft’s 50th flight. The helicopter would soon fall silent for 63 days due hilly terrain that interrupted communications between the rover and aircraft.© (photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

After over two months of radio silence, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has reestablished contact with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the space agency announced on Friday.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter arrived on the red planet together with the Mars Perseverance rover, which was launched in July 2020 and landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021.

The radio dropout was not unexpected, however, as it occurred as the result of a planned flight by the helicopter. The aircraft took off for a 363 meter and 139 second long flight, landing behind a hill.

Nonetheless, "this has been the longest we've gone without hearing from Ingenuity so far in the mission," Joshua Anderson, Ingenuity team lead at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told AFP. "Ingenuity is designed to take care of itself when communication gaps like this occur, but we all still had a sense of relief finally hearing back."

The Mars Perseverance rover, which is used as a radio relay station between the helicopter and earth, crested the hill to finally reestablish visual and radio connection.


NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen in shadow in an image captured by its navigation camera during the rotorcraft’s 52nd flight on April 26. This image was finally received after Perseverance and Ingenuity were out of communication for 63 days. (credit: NASA/JPL)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostNASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen in shadow in an image captured by its navigation camera during the rotorcraft’s 52nd flight on April 26. This image was finally received after Perseverance and Ingenuity were out of communication for 63 days. 

(credit: NASA/JPL)

Looking for signs of life

“The portion of Jezero Crater the rover and helicopter are currently exploring has a lot of rugged terrain, which makes communications dropouts more likely,” said JPL’s Josh Anderson. “The team’s goal is to keep Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, which occasionally involves temporarily pushing beyond communication limits. We’re excited to be back in communications range with Ingenuity and receive confirmation of Flight 52.”

The helicopter is used as an aerial scout to help the rover search for signs of life on Mars. The mission is especially looking for ancient microbial life, possibly billions of years old, from a time when Mars was wetter and warmer than it is today.

This was flight number 52 for the helicopter, which has proven its worth for much longer than NASA anticipated. The helicopter originally was slated for a 30-day mission to prove the feasibility of its technology in five test flights.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made history with its first flight, which was the first powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021.

Baby food brands contain 'concerning' levels of heavy metals. Homemade may not be better.

Story by Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY • 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration campus in Silver Spring, Md., is photographed on Oct. 14, 2015.© Andrew Harnik, AP

Heavy metal levels in baby food products appear to be getting lower, but the presence of metals like lead, arsenic and cadmium in various foods continues to be "concerning," according to a study published Tuesday.

Fourteen baby food products were tested by Consumer Reports as a follow-up to the nonprofit consumer organization’s 2018 study. The report found heavy metal levels appeared to be declining in products, but "worrisome levels" were still detected in certain foods, especially rice, sweet potatoes, and snack foods.

But it’s not just ready-made baby foods that contain heavy metals like lead. A 2022 study found similar levels of heavy metals in homemade baby food, too, especially those made from foods like rice and sweet potatoes.

Consumption of heavy metals has been shown to increase the risk of developmental and health problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics has found that even small amounts of lead affect behavior, IQ scores and academic achievement.

"It's hard to get a low lead" level in certain foods, said Mark Corkins, division chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. "To be honest, there's nothing that's going to be completely free of any contamination."

Which baby foods contain heavy metals?

Products with rice and sweet potatoes tended to pose the biggest risk, according to Consumer Reports' study, meaning rice-based puffs were among some of the worst offenders. (At least one baby food brand, Beech-Nut, has stopped manufacturing rice products altogether due to "inconsistencies in arsenic levels.")

Other research has also found heavy metals in baby food products. A 2021 congressional report from the House Oversight Committee found high levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium among products sold by various brands, including Gerber, Beech-Nut, Earth's Best Organics maker Hain Celestial and Happy Family Organics maker Nurture Inc.

“Internal company standards permit dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals, and documents revealed that the manufacturers have often sold foods that exceeded those levels,” the report said.

Is it normal to have heavy metals in baby food?

For parents looking to avoid foods with heavy metals, the solution isn’t as easy as avoiding ready-made products.

A 2022 study from Healthy Babies, Bright Futures ‒ an alliance of nonprofits, scientists and donors ‒ tested 288 foods and found no evidence that homemade baby food has lower heavy metal levels than store-bought brands. Ninety-four percent of both baby foods and homemade and family brands were contaminated with at least one toxic heavy metal.

That’s because certain crops like rice and sweet potatoes absorb metals more easily as they grow. Some of the metals are naturally occurring in the soil, while others are added from various forms of pollution.

According to the Healthy Babies, Bright Futures study:
Rice cakes and crisped rice cereal are heavily contaminated with arsenic.
Some fresh carrots and sweet potatoes had high levels of lead, arsenic and cadmium.
The most heavily contaminated foods consumed by babies include rice cakes, crisped rice cereal, rice-based puffs, brown rice, rice-based teething biscuits and rusks, white rice, raisins, non-rice teething crackers, granola bar with raisins and oat-ring cereal.

What are baby food companies saying?

The Consumer Reports study tested products from Want-Want (which makes Baby Mum-Mum products), Beech-Nut, Gerber and Earth’s Best.

A statement from Beech-Nut noted that its sweet potato product tested by Consumer Reports this year showed an 84% reduction in lead from previous testing conducted in 2017, and its products are “well below the current draft guidance action levels as proposed by FDA.”

"We feel very confident that the improvements that we put in place, the continuous improvements that we're working on, the testing program that we've created, is helping reduce these levels," Beech-Nut's Vice President of Quality and Technical Services, Jason Jacobs, told USA TODAY. "We're continuing to work towards lowering these levels over time using best practices and continuous improvement methodologies."

He also noted that studies have shown that certain nutrients in foods may actually reduce lead absorption, meaning the body may not necessarily absorb all of the heavy metals detected in foods.

A statement from Gerber said the industry is making progress toward minimizing heavy metals, and emphasized that the metals are not added during production but are drawn in by plants from the soil.

“We believe the best way to address this issue is to focus on continuous improvement with our suppliers and growers to minimize levels further over time,” the statement said. “Throughout our 90-year history, we’ve implemented safety and quality standards that are among the strictest in the world—and we are committed to continuing to uphold those standards.”

Both companies said they tests raw ingredients and finished products. The other companies in the report did not respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY.

Which baby foods are less contaminated by heavy metals?

The Healthy Babies, Bright Futures study found the least contaminated foods consumed by babies include bananas, grits, baby food brand meats, butternut squash, lamb, apples, pork, eggs, oranges and watermelon.

What can parents do?

Risk comes from repeated exposure over long periods of time, which means parents should feed their children a variety of foods.

"By mixing them up, you get different amounts of different nutrients, but you (also) get different amounts of the different heavy metals," Corkin said. "By having variety in your diet, you're going to have less exposure to all of them."

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit environmental health organization, also suggests swapping out rice cereal – which is often contaminated with arsenic – with alternative sources of fiber like pureed greens and vegetables.

What is the FDA doing?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year proposed maximum limits for the amount of lead in baby foods.

A statement from the FDA said it is reviewing comments on its proposed action levels for lead, which are expected to be finalized next year. The agency also expects to issue draft guidance on action levels for arsenic and cadmium next year.

Some public health advocates argue that the FDA needs to do more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no safe level of lead for children, and “even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to negatively affect a child’s intelligence, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement.”

“There’s so much at stake,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the EWG. “The FDA isn't setting the bar high enough to change how we source the ingredients that are ultimately contributing to the toxic metals in baby food.” Consumer Reports recommends the FDA set a goal of no measurable amounts of cadmium, lead, or inorganic arsenic in children’s food.

A statement from the FDA said it knows "there is more work to do," but warned that lowering heavy metal levels in food will take time. The agency said setting action levels to zero for nonorganic arsenic, lead, and cadmium would be "short-sighted" and could result in food shortages.

"We understand that there is a sense of urgency for many people for whom environmental contaminants in their food supply is a new concept. However, it is critically important for the health of children that they continue to have access to age-appropriate nutrient-dense foods," the statement said. "Our goal continues to be ensuring access to foods that provide essential nutrients, while lowering levels of contaminants to as close to zero as possible."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Baby food brands contain 'concerning' levels of heavy metals. Homemade may not be better.