‘Unbearable’: Lorry drivers and environment pay price of air pollution at Bulgaria-Romania border

By Cristian GherasimPublished on 26/11/2023 -

Hours-long border queues are taking a climate toll in Bulgaria and Romania. Could entry into the Schengen Area help?

Pollution is on the rise as lorries queue for kilometres on both sides of the crossing between Romania and Bulgaria.

People in Giurgiu, a border town in southern Romania have for years felt that the air they breathe is no longer as clean as it used to be. It gets worse nearest to the checkpoint with Bulgaria where hundreds of lorries wait for hours to be inspected and allowed passage.

Romania and Bulgaria have been EU member states since 2007. Their campaign to become part of the Schengen Zone - an area that allows people and goods to travel freely between member countries without going through border controls - however, is ongoing.

Being admitted into Schengen would slash border waiting times, congestion and emissions from running engines.

For tourists going on vacation, long queues are an inconvenience. But for drivers of heavy duty vehicles that transit EU borders on a daily basis, the economic and health impact is huge.
Slow-moving traffic makes air ‘unbearable’ at Bulgaria and Romania’s borders

“The seven kilometre bypass stretching from Giurgiu in Romania to the border with Bulgaria is packed day and night with hundreds of lorries,” Bogdan Priceputu, born and raised in Giurgiu, tells Euronews Green.

“Not only is the air dirtiest in that vicinity but the field nearby gets littered with garbage as drivers wait by the side of the road for hours, without amenities and sanitation facilities, to cross the border into Bulgaria.”

Until recently, Bogdan’s father worked as a customs officer on the Romanian side of the border. “I know that several times a day the air got unbearable due to the slow moving traffic,” he says.


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This English city is banning gas stoves in new homes. Here’s why

Things are not much better on the Bulgarian side of the border. For years the border town of Ruse has been trying to curb its air pollution problem but to no avail. People have taken to the streets to protest against the issue and it has even become a topic of debate in the European Parliament.

The river Danube acts as the border between Romania and Bulgaria. Bogdan explains that when he gets on his boat and goes out on the river he can sometimes see smog plumes gliding across the nearby canal. “I don’t know if it’s from the traffic, but the increasing number of lorries waiting nearby at the border sure doesn’t help.”

Lorry drivers don’t have it any easier.

“A couple of weeks ago I ended up waiting for over 24 hours to cross the border from Bulgaria into Romania,” a Romanian lorry driver tells Euronews Green. “Of course it was unbearable, of course there’s pollution. I am driving a chiller lorry and the engine needs to be running almost all of the time otherwise the shipment goes bad.”

What are the health risks of traffic pollution in Bulgaria and Romania?

According to Eurostat southeastern Europe has some of the EU's most polluted cities. Bulgaria and Romania have the first and third highest values of fine particulate matter - also known as PM2.5 - in the entire European Union.

This is only set to worsen as winter descends: studies show levels of the larger PM 10 rise as temperatures drop in Bulgaria, fuelled by transport, industry and domestic heating.

Pollutants such as particulate matter suspended in the air are particularly worrisome as they reduce people’s life expectancy, aggravating many chronic and acute respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, according to the European Environment Agency.

Excess traffic emissions put border communities at risk of pollution-related health problems.
Can the Balkans steer away from fossil fuels? Albania and Romania are banking on it

“Air pollution is one of the leading causes for pulmonary cancer,” oncologist Roxana Macarie, tells Euronews Green. “It also increases the risk of breast, liver and pancreatic cancer in all age groups.”

Roxana practises medicine in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, but travels frequently to the border city of Giurgiu where some of her relatives live.

“Traffic has increased significantly over the past years. There are hundreds of lorries waiting each day around the city, some with their engines running, to cross into Bulgaria. That can’t be good for air quality in the area,” she says.

PM 2.5 can also have long-term impacts on children’s lung function and development. This can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, including asthma, which affects nine per cent of young people in Europe.

The environmental toll of keeping Romania and Bulgaria outside the Schengen area is adding up.
What’s keeping Bulgaria and Romania out of the Schengen area?

Both Bulgaria and Romania met the necessary criteria to join the passport-free zone over a decade ago.

They have received backing from the European Commission and the European Parliament. But the final green light has to come from the Council of the European Union.

They need approval from all 27 EU countries but still face opposition from Austria and the Netherlands.

Austria’s resistance stems from a broader dissatisfaction with Schengen and flows of migrants that cross into the EU. The Netherlands has signalled it might approve Bulgaria's bid if a series of conditions on judicial reform and anti-corruption fight is met.

A new vote is slated to be held next month.
What is the environmental impact of border crossing delays?

In a statement calling for Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen ascension by the end of 2023, the European Parliament highlights the environmental and health burden of delaying the decision.

MEPs say that queues faced at two countries’ border crossings can last from a few hours to even days. This translates into 46,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted each year, according to recent analysis by accounting organisation KPMG.

The added pollution inflicts “irreparable damages” on the environment and will have health repercussions for drivers, customs agents and people living near border crossings, the statement continues.

The European Parliament believes that limiting border crossings and obstructing the free flow of goods between EU member states do not align with the bloc’s climate neutrality goal, which aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Already, the years of delays have led to half a million tonnes of excess CO2 emissions, according to KPMG. This is the equivalent of over 600 GWh of electricity produced from climate-wrecking coal sources, or enough to power 60,000 homes for a year.

 

'Life threatening': An immigrant in Dublin recalls her night of terror during far-right riots

By Simran Kathuria

Published on 25/11/2023 - 

Journalism student Simran Kathuria from India had to shelter with friends for 14 hours as they were too afraid to venture out on the streets amid violent protests.

Being an immigrant in Ireland was a perilous experience on Thursday night as the city of Dublin was set ablaze by men in black masks.

Anti-immigrant protestors gathered in mass numbers in the heart of Dublin City causing havoc, and it became a nightmare for residents and non-natives alike.

Shops were looted, stores vandalised, police vehicles attacked and burned, public transport ruined to ashes, hotel rooms and immigrant settlements set on fire - all in the span of one evening.

On this one night, being an immigrant in Dublin felt life threatening.

The rampage swept across the Irish capital - and the scenes of destruction were shared widely on social media, too.

Many people hurried home early, while many got stuck, like me, with a group of friends. We were stuck for 14 hours.

Standing at a bustling shopping district near the riot zone we ran to the first safe spot, a nearby friend’s house, and took shelter for the night.

The roads had been blocked, barricades were in place, a police helicopter was hovering in the sky and riot police were standing with batons and shields as we rushed to safety.

We were hardly a kilometre away from the unrest and feared attacks after hearing countless police sirens.

Social media kept us abreast of the situation outside. Twitter was flooded with hashtags of 'Enough is Enough', 'Ireland is Full', 'Dublin riots', and 'Far-Right'. Supporters of both sides, left and right, started their war of words online.

“Come out people, take Dublin, fight for your country”, tweeted one Irish citizen. Meanwhile, another wrote: “It’s disgusting and I honestly, don’t think it was really about anti-immigration, but those thugs were just looking for an excuse to steal, harm, and cause damage”.

Irish Police patrol central Dublin, Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, police maintained a large presence following a night of protests and violence on Thursday.

The reason for the riots was said to be anger over the Irish government’s immigration policies.

According to angry protestors, Ireland has opened its doors to foreign nationals with no checks and restrictions. This has, they say, made the country unsafe.

Ireland is traditionally known for its warmth and hospitality to foreigners.

Dublin is a vibrant city accounting for 17% of non-Irish citizens from at least ten different nationalities. The city typically embraces multiculturalism and diversity and you can often hear foreign languages being spoken on the street.

The changing demographics in recent years have attracted immigrants from all across the globe - pushing Ireland’s economy.

But after the incidents from Thursday night, foreigners willing to settle in Ireland and make a living may well now have an additional safety factor to consider. 

Twenty-six year old Simran Kathuria is originally from New Delhi, India. She moved to Ireland in 2022 to complete a masters degree in journalism, and now works in Ireland as a freelance writer.

EU
Airspace closures, staff shortages and ageing tech: What’s behind 2023’s air traffic disruption?


By Angela Symons

Published on 26/11/2023


2023 has been a disruptive year for air traffic control in Europe. Why is this, and will it continue into 2024?

We all appreciate the pilots who fly us safely to our destination. Some of us even clap for them on landing - much to the chagrin of fellow travellers.

But what about the hidden heroes guiding our safe path through the skies?

Air traffic control officers do the difficult job of keeping planes from crashing. Yet most of us had never even heard of them until they sparked travel chaos by going on strike this year.

When you know what it takes to become an officer, and the high stakes nature of their job, it’s easier to understand their demands for good working conditions and pay.

So what exactly is air traffic control, how do you get a career in it, and why has it been linked to so much travel disruption over the past year?

To find out what’s really behind Europe’s air traffic control problems and what it will take to fix them, Euronews Travel spoke to industry bodies, union members and the European Commission.

Staff shortages drove much of this year’s airport disruption and strike action.

The pandemic is partly to blame. The financial strain, health restrictions, low air traffic and uncertainty it caused put training for many air traffic controllers on hold. Being able to manage lots of overlapping planes is a key part of the job - and that takes practise.

“Adequate on-the-job training was only possible again when traffic levels had increased sufficiently to create a challenging practice environment,” explains Johnny Pring, the manager of Europe policy and advocacy at CANSO (the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation), a representative body of air traffic control providers.

It takes at least 2.5 years to train an air traffic control officer (ATCO).
France implements new law to limit disruptions during air traffic control strikes
France is cancelling more than 16,000 flights in 2024 due to air traffic control upgrades

Every controller goes through basic training, followed by specialised training in a specific expertise, such as Tower Control, Approach Surveillance or Area Control Surveillance. They must then progress to field training at the airfield they will eventually control.

Finally, they will complete on-the-job training with an ATCO who is qualified to provide it. At airports where traffic has seasonal peaks, simulators are used for training during less busy periods to help maintain competence.

As every airport varies in density and complexity, and part of the training is location specific, air traffic controllers cannot be easily transferred between different airports.

At Maastricht Airport’s Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) in the Netherlands - one of the most complex and busiest in Europe - the training takes approximately three years, according to Eurocontrol, an international organisation that works to achieve safe and efficient air traffic management across Europe.

Strict regulations govern the whole process and mean that most parts of the training can only be led by qualified ATCs. This means there is limited capacity for training, and staff shortages squeeze this even further.
What is air traffic control, anyway?

Air traffic control helps aircraft to move safely and efficiently through the sky.

Controllers are in constant contact with pilots, giving them information and advice to make sure they take off and land safely and on time. They give the pilots permission to take off, approve the route they’ll take, and ensure that aircraft are kept a safe distance apart in the skies, tracking their progress as they go.

In the UK, aircraft in the airways system are handled by NATS (National Air Traffic Services) and overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Eurocontrol oversees air traffic management across the European Union.

Various Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) - the employers of controllers - provide individual air traffic control at airports, which is specialised to each location. Controllers hand over to one another as an aircraft travels between different jurisdictions.

National Air Traffic Services personnel giving a demonstration in the operations room at National Air Traffic Services in Swanwick southern England, May 2017.

Andrew Matthews/PA File via AP

What’s behind the ATC strikes and why are some more disruptive than others?

From strikes to technical failures, it’s been a turbulent year for Europe’s air traffic controllers.

In spring, French air traffic controllers (ATCs) began a strike in solidarity against pension reforms. Then in September, London’s Gatwick Airport was forced to limit flights after its already depleted ATC team was struck with COVID-19.

At the time, easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren blamed understaffing for the disruption, telling a British newspaper that the way the service is structured, run and regulated is in need of modernisation.

The problems show no sign of abating. Just last weekend, passengers at London’s Heathrow Airport faced delays and cancellations due to ATC staff shortages and strong winds. On the same day in France, ATC staff staged a walkout that lasted until Tuesday and led to further disruption for travellers.

Why are air traffic controllers going on strike?

Firstly, the cost of living crisis has led workers in various sectors to strike over pay. Many ATC strikes have been called to demand wages that are in line with inflation.

Unions have also called for improved working conditions and support for providing a safe and efficient service for transport users - especially in light of persistent staff shortages.

Most recently, French ATCs have walked out over new legislation requiring them to register their intent to strike at least 48 hours in advance.

Tuesday’s action in France marked the 65th day of strikes by air traffic controllers since the start of the year.

French strikes are particularly disruptive as they also affect ‘overflights’ using French airspace.

“Countries have different approaches to how ATC strikes are regulated,” explains CANSO’s Pring.

“In certain countries (Italy, Greece and Spain), overflights are protected and the strikes only affect domestic traffic; in others, all flights are affected. This regulation is a matter for national governments.”

How is the pandemic still affecting Europe’s air traffic controllers?

The pandemic is beginning to feel like a distant memory. Flights in Europe are back to over 94 per cent of 2019 levels and tourism is booming. But for air traffic controllers, its legacy lives on.

ANSPs manage air traffic on behalf of companies or countries, and collect fees from airspace users. With flights grounded during COVID-19, their revenue plummeted. This forced many of them to make cost savings, such as cutting staff.

ANSPs operating under the Single European Sky (SES) - an EU initiative that seeks to improve their performance - are faced with further cost pressures. The SES sets targets for safety, environment, capacity and cost-efficiency.

While its 2023 assessment shows that Europe’s ANSPs met their cost-efficiency targets, it highlights that “for some Member States, achieving this was a result of not adequately investing in their post-pandemic capacity” - with knock-on effects for capacity targets. It is possible that this was a conscious choice to help cut costs in line with targets.

However, this is not the aim of the legislation.

Why are ANSPs so heavily regulated?

As IATA - the trade association for the world's airlines - explains, “Airports and air navigation services providers (ANSPs) are, for the most part, natural monopolies.” This means strong regulation is needed to ensure they do not raise their prices arbitrarily. It also aims to ensure they improve their services and maintain efficiency.

“In effect, the aim of the Single European Sky framework is to encourage monopolies to make the necessary investments with a view to being able to provide sufficient capacity and meet their performance targets,” explains Deborah Almerge Rückert, press officer for Transport and Mobility at the European Commission.

“Such investments could include training and hiring of staff, upgrading to newer systems, rollout of new technologies, radars and so on.”

All stakeholders, including ANSPs, airlines and professional staff organisations, are consulted when setting the performance targets, she adds, with differing views being taken into account.

In the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulates air traffic control. It has recently approved a hike in prices to enable the provider to recover the costs lost during COVID-19. This will see the average cost of UK air traffic services rise by around £0.43 (€0.49) to around £2.08 (€2.39) per passenger per flight by 2027.

With air traffic now increasing, ANSPs are under pressure to hire more staff. However, since they are prevented from making a profit under rules established by the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), more work doesn’t mean higher profits.

An easyJet plane bound for Munich, takes off at Tegel Airport 

in Berlin, Germany, January 2018.Jens Kalaene/dpa via AP

Why do ANSPs struggle with recruitment?

ANSPs have found it difficult to recruit new ATCOs - a challenge being faced by the whole aviation industry, according to Pring. This partly stems from air traffic control being a very niche industry that lacks access to top talent.

As most ANSPs are civil service organisations, their staff have certain job security rights and tend to work until retirement - which is capped at age 60 in many European countries due to the high-pressure nature of the roles.

As the demand for air traffic control really took off in the 1980s, many of the industry's experts are now coming to the end of their careers.

“Looking ahead, many ANSPs will have to address a retirement wave over the next decade,” adds Pring, which could worsen the situation significantly if action isn’t taken soon.

Currently, slow or non-replacement of ATCOs after retirement is common practice due to budget limitations.

How has the war in Ukraine impacted air traffic control?

Still reeling from the pandemic, ANSPs were hit with a new unknown: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“[This] has led to unprecedented [air] traffic volatility across Europe,” says Pring.

As a result ANSPs face uncertainty in long and short term planning. They have also encountered fresh challenges, as ATCs have to adapt to new traffic flows due to airspace closures resulting from the war.

The route extensions resulting from the closure of Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian airspace to European traffic have also pushed ANSPs off course in meeting their Single European Sky environmental targets.
Air traffic delays fell in 2023

All this is not to say that the safety of air travel has been compromised in any way. As Pring notes, “Throughout the pandemic and the recovery, the ATM [air traffic management] industry continued to deliver safe and efficient flight operations.”

He even points to some operational successes in summer 2023. Air traffic flow management delays per flight fell by 18 per cent from 2.7 minutes per flight to 2.3 minutes, compared to 2022, excluding weather factors.

During NATO’s major military air exercise carried out over Germany in June, ANSPs successfully managed to keep travellers flying with fewer disruptions than expected. Only 12,474 flights were directly delayed out of a total 293,928, or 4 per cent of all flights.

So how can ANSPs build on this positive momentum?

How can Europe fix its air traffic control problems?

Lundgren may have been on the money when he said that the way air traffic control is structured, run and regulated is in need of modernisation.

“Dealing with the forecast increase in air traffic and the increasingly complex traffic mix will require investment in technology - increased digitalisation or automation - and people,” says Pring. “So this is a major focus for European ANSPs.”

In France, improvements are already in the pipeline. The country has scheduled a major overhaul of its air traffic control system in 2024, with thousands of flights to be cut while it is installed.

The EU’s Single European Sky targets also have a role to play.

“In setting the targets for the coming years, it is crucial to strike the right balance between cost efficiency (which determines what ANSPs can charge their airline customers) and capacity and environment,” says Pring.

“Only in this way will ANSPs have sufficient financial means to invest in the necessary resources - staff and infrastructure - to service their customers.”

This is not the only role the European Commission plays in helping with reforms.

“The Commission is working with Member States to reform ATCO training, which is unnecessarily long and complex,” says Almerge Rückert.

It also aims to improve network management and system resilience by “allowing ATCO mobility across borders and/or cross-border service provision to fill capacity gaps,” she adds.

Such reforms to the Single European Sky would not only help to make service provision more efficient, flexible and scalable, but “should also help reduce flight cancellations in the event of strikes.”

Euronews Travel reached out to French union SNCTA, Belgium’s Union Syndicale Bruxelles (USB), and the UK’s GATCO and Prospect but did not hear back.

Precarious finances: 38% of Europeans no longer eat three meals a day

By Sudesh Baniya

Published on 26/11/2023 -More than half of Europeans say their budget has tightened over the past three years, according to a recent study.

Rising prices have pushed almost one-third of Europeans into a "precarious" financial situation, a recent survey has found. 

The second European Barometer on Poverty and Precariousness examined Europeans' ability to make purchases and found that it has declined over the past three years, forcing a majority of them skip meals and resort to making difficult financial choices. 

Of the 10,000 surveyed by Ipsos for French Secours Populaire, 29% said their financial situation was "precarious" and any unexpected expense would make their balance tip. 

• Real food inflation in Europe: Which countries are hit the hardest?

Nearly one in two Europeans think that they face a high risk of falling into a precarious situation in the next few months, succumbing to rising prices and relatively stagnant pay. The 2021 at-risk-of-poverty rate for the total population of the EU stood at 17%, as per Eurostat.

Only 15% said they were confident and did not feel the need to pay attention to their everyday expenses. 

Difficult finances force complicated choices

A vast majority of Europeans have already had to compromise on their choices due to difficult financial conditions, according to the survey results. 

Rampant inflation in almost every sector forced these "complicated choices," which include skipping a meal despite being hungry. Almost one in three Europeans said they have skipped a meal when hungry – with Greece and Moldova having particularly high numbers.

Other compromises include not turning heaters on, borrowing money and not treating a health problem in the face of the rising costs.

A survey conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in June found 5.7 million low-income households in the UK lacking enough money for food, which it called a "horrendous new normal".

• Nearly 1 in 12 Italians live in ‘absolute poverty’ due to higher inflation, report finds
• ECB: Eurozone inflation could pick up, growth will remain weak

From only being able to buy food which is discounted to turning to food banks run by large associations to feed themselves, rising food prices have had varied – yet sizable – effects on food habits, according to the survey.

Of the people surveyed, 38% say they are no longer able to have three meals a day on a regular basis, while only 42% said they have never skipped their breakfast, lunch, and dinner due to financial constraints. 

The severity of the situation was reflected in a number of parents' answers with some saying they have had to limit their own eating to provide for their children. 

21% of the parents surveyed said they have experience at least one instance of "not eating enough" in order to feed their offspring. 

Majority worried about coping with inflation

Although rising inflation figures have, in fact, started to stall, increased food and ingredient prices have not yet fallen, hence the continued, diminished ability to buy produce. 

Europe’s inflation figures tripled in 2022, marking the highest growth rate of all time on the back of towering consumer prices for housing, water, gas, and other charges - which increased by 18% in a year.

Not only did many Europeans say their financial condition was extremely difficult, but also admitted that they were at the knife edge when it came to dealing with inflation.

Over half of those questioned, across most countries, said they were worried about coping with inflation, fearing an increase in food, energy, and miscellaneous expenses.

According to the study, 62% worry about soaring food prices, while unexpected expenses and gas prices worry 59% of the surveyed population.

TRANSGENDER
How Nazi Germany Persecuted Transgender People

IMAGES: ERIC SCHWAB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES; ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES

New research shows how transgender Germans suffered under Hitler's regime.

LAURIE MARHOEFER
NOVEMBER 25 2023 10:00 AM EST

In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case.

It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship on trans people during this period.

The court took expert statements from historians before issuing an opinion that essentially acknowledges that trans people were victimized by the Nazi regime.

This is an important case. It was the first time a court acknowledged the possibility that trans people were persecuted in Nazi Germany. It was followed a few months later by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, formally releasing a statement recognizing trans and cisgender queer people as victims of fascism.

Up until the past few years, there had been little research on trans people under the Nazi regime. Historians like myself are now uncovering more cases, like that of Toni Simon.
Being trans during the Weimar Republic

In 1933, the year that Hitler took power, the police in Essen, Germany, revoked Toni Simon’s permit to dress as a woman in public. Simon, who was in her mid-40s, had been living as a woman for many years

The Weimar Republic, the more tolerant democratic government that existed before Hitler, recognized the rights of trans people, though in a begrudging, limited way. Under the republic, police granted trans people permits like the one Simon had.

In the 1930s, transgender people were called “transvestites,” which is rarely a preferred term for trans people today, but at the time approximated what’s now meant by “transgender.” The police permits were called “transvestite certificates,” and they exempted a person from the laws against cross-dressing. Under the Republic, trans people could also change their names legally, though they had to pick from a short, preapproved list.

In Berlin, transgender people published several magazines and had a political club. Some glamorous trans women worked at the internationally famous Eldorado cabaret. The sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who ran Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Science, advocated for the rights of transgender people.

The rise of Nazi Germany destroyed this relatively open environment. The Nazis shut down the magazines, the Eldorado and Hirschfeld’s institute. Most people who held “transvestite certificates,” as Toni Simon did, had them revoked or watched helplessly as police refused to honor them.

That was just the beginning of the trouble.


Nazi banners hang in the windows of the former Eldorado nightclub. 

Landesarchiv Berlin/U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum


‘Draconian measures’ against trans people

In Nazi Germany, transgender people were not used as a political wedge issue in the way they are today. There was little public discussion of trans people.

What the Nazis did say about them, however, was chilling.

The author of a 1938 book on “the problem of transvestitism” wrote that before Hitler was in power, there was not much that could be done about transgender people, but that now, in Nazi Germany, they could be put in concentration camps or subjected to forced castration. That was good, he believed, because the “asocial mindset” of trans people and their supposedly frequent “criminal activity … justifies draconian measures by the state.”

Toni Simon was a brave person. I first came across her police file when I was researching trans people at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Essen police knew Simon as the sassy proprietor of an underground club where LGBTQ people gathered. In the mid 1930s, she was hauled into court for criticizing the Nazi regime. By then, the Gestapo had had enough of her. Simon was a danger to youth, a Gestapo officer wrote. A concentration camp was “absolutely necessary.”

I am not certain what happened to Simon. Her file ends abruptly, with the Gestapo planning her arrest. But there are no actual arrest papers. Hopefully, she evaded the police.

Other trans women did not escape. At the Hamburg State Archive, I read about H. Bode, who often went out in public dressed as a woman and dated men. Under the Weimar Republic, she held a transvestite certificate. Nazi police went after her for “cross-dressing” and for having sex with men. They considered her male, so her relationships were homosexual and illegal. They sent her to the concentration camp Buchenwald, where she was murdered.

Liddy Bacroff of Hamburg also had a transvestite pass under the Republic. She made her living selling sex to male clients. After 1933, the police went after her. They wrote that she was “fundamentally a transvestite” and a “morals criminal of the worst sort.” She too was sent to a camp, Mauthausen, and murdered.
Trans Germans previously misgendered

For a long time, the public didn’t know the stories of trans people in Nazi Germany.

Earlier histories tended to misgender trans women, which was odd: When you read the records of their police interrogations, they are often remarkably clear about their gender identity, even though they were not helping their cases at all by doing so.

Bacroff, for example, told the police, “My sense of my sex is fully and completely that of a woman.”

There was also confusion caused by a few cases that, by chance, came to light first. In these cases, police acted less violently. For example, there is a well-known case from Berlin where police renewed a trans man’s “transvestite certificate” after he spent some months in a concentration camp. Historians initially took this case to be representative. Now that we have a lot more cases, we can see that it is an outlier. Police normally revoked the certificates.

A through line to today

Today, right-wing attacks against trans people in the U.S. are intensifying.

Though the American Academy of Pediatrics and every major medical association approves gender-affirming health care for trans kids, Republican politicians have banned it in 19 states, with even more moving to prohibit it.

Gender-affirming medicine is now over 100 years old – and it has roots in Weimar Germany. It had never before been legally restricted in the U.S. Yet Missouri has essentially banned it for adults, and other states are trying to restrict adult care. A host of other anti-trans bills are moving through state legislatures.

I find it fitting, then, that “A Transparent Musical” recently premiered in Los Angeles. In it, fabulously dressed trans Berliners sing and dance in defiance of Nazi thugs.

It’s a reminder that attacks on trans people are nothing new – and that many of them are straight out of the Nazi playbook.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story noted that the author’s testimony was submitted to a German court. While the testimony was submitted to a lawyer arguing in the court case, that lawyer did not ultimately submit it to the court. In addition, the story was edited in the third paragraph to more accurately reflect the decision of the German court.

Laurie Marhoefer is a professor of history at the University of Washington.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Protection of Children on Social Media Platforms

  Nov 17,2023 |

By Kyaw Thein Lwin

 

In Today’s digital world, screen-based media de­vices and social media usage have become integral parts of children’s everyday lives. Chil­dren under the age of 18 use social media platforms such as Meta (Facebook), Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube through screen-based media devices and the daily screen time rates of social me­dia have increased significantly among children.

 

How does social media affect children?

Social media can have both positive and negative effects on children. On the one hand, it func­tions as a digital space for sociali­zation, providing children with op­portunities to connect with friends and family members, facilitating communication and connectivity. Besides this, it also serves as a platform for children to learn new ideas and information through ed­ucational resources, and it allows them to express their ideas and talents through posts, videos, and other forms of content creation.

 

On the other hand, children have limited life experience, which may pose challenges in dis­cerning what is good and bad, and their lack of experience can also have a negative effect on them. Some of these effects include Cy­berbullying, Online enticement, Sextortion, Identity theft and Screen addiction, and more.

 

What is happening regarding children’s use of social me­dia?

The 2022 survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre re­veals that 46 per cent of children aged 13 to 17 have been bullied or harassed online, and Facebook was identified as the source of cyberbullying for 75 per cent of online harassment victims in the United States in 2021. Cyberbul­lying has a significant impact on children’s emotional well-being and can also affect their academic performance.

 

An estimated 500,000 online predators are active each day. They contact children through social media platforms and gam­ing websites, coercing them into producing self-generated child abuse images. Children aged 12 to 15 are at risk of being victimized through grooming or manipula­tion by adults they meet online, and 82 per cent of online pred­atory incidents occur through communication on social media platforms.

 

The social media platform has become a commercial land­scape, with 77 per cent of small businesses using it to connect with their customers, and the market is expected to reach a value of $207 billion in 2023. Con­sequently, children now have the ability to order products with a simple click without consulting their parents. This raises con­cerns about the authenticity and legitimacy of the advertised items.

 

Do we need a law to regulate children’s use of social media platforms?

All major social media plat­forms have implemented their own self-regulatory measures to govern the content and user  be­haviour on their own platforms, including community guidelines, advertising standards, violation detection, age restrictions, pri­vacy settings, reporting abuse (such as nudity, hate speech and threats) and taking appropriate actions. Nevertheless, the ques­tion remains: Can these self-reg­ulatory measures effectively pro­tect children on their platforms?

 

On 4 October 2021, the whis­tleblower Frances Haugen, who had worked as a product manag­er at tech companies, including Facebook, testified before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Trans­port. She revealed that although social media platforms imple­ment self-regulatory measures, there are several weaknesses and criticisms associated with these efforts.

 

According to the findings re­port of the UK Parliament’s Sci­ence and Technology Committee, which was released on 31 Janu­ary 2019, social media companies should have a formal legal duty of care to their users under the age of 18. The existing patchwork of regulations is seen as inadequate and insufficient in creating a safe online environment for children. The report also recommends the government enact new legislation to establish a statutory code of practice for social media compa­nies, thereby providing consistent guidelines for content reporting practices and moderation mech­anisms.

 

What specific provisions are included in the new social media laws?

On 23 March 2023, the gov­ernor of Utah signed two new bills, HB152 and SB311, to pro­tect children from using social media platforms. Under HB152, social media companies are obli­gated to verify the age of a Utah resident who seeks to maintain or open a social media account. Additionally, they are required to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian before allowing a Utah resident under the age of 18 to maintain or open an account. The bill also prohibits social me­dia companies from allowing a Utah resident to open an account if that person does not meet age requirements under state or fed­eral law. Furthermore, it imposes specific obligations on certain so­cial media companies regarding accounts held by Utah children. These obligations include pro­hibiting direct messaging with certain accounts, excluding the children’s account from search results, refraining from display­ing advertising, abstaining from collecting, sharing, or using per­sonal information from the ac­count (with certain exceptions), avoiding the targeting or sug­gestion of ads, accounts, or con­tent, and imposing limitations on access hours, which can be overridden by parental or guard­ian direction. In addition, the bill requires social media companies to restrict Utah children’s ac­count access between the hours of 10:30 pm and 6:30 am, and it re­quires these companies to grant parents or guardians access to the content and interactions of accounts held by Utah residents under the age of 18.

 

Under HB311, the bill pro­hibits a social media company from using a design or feature that causes a minor to have an addiction to the company’s social media platform. Moreover, the bill authorizes a private right of action to collect attorney fees and damages from a social media company for harm incurred by a minor’s use of the company’s social media platform.

 

On 12 April 2023, the gover­nor of Arkansas signed the Social Media Safety Act (SB396). The bill is similar to Utah’s HB152 and imposes certain require­ments on social media compa­nies operating within the state. The bill states that social media companies shall not permit Ar­kansan users who are minors to be account holders on a social media company’s social media platform unless the minor has the express consent of a parent or legal guardian. Additionally, the companies are required to implement age verification for the use of social media.

 

Conclusion

The self-regulatory meas­ures implemented by social me­dia companies are insufficient to fully safeguard children. It is crucial for us to comprehend the benefits and risks associ­ated with online opportunities for children. Therefore, the au­thor suggests that social media companies, policymakers and parents need to collaborate to protect our children from the negative effects of social media.

 

Reference:

(1) SB311 Social Media Regula­tion Amendments, Utah State Legislature

(2) The Social Media Safety Act (Senate Bill 396),

(3) Online Predators, Child Crime Prevention & Safety Centre