Colorado cattle industry sues over wolf reintroduction on the cusp of the animals' release

STOP GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS

FOR FREE!!

JESSE BEDAYN
Updated Tue, December 12, 2023 


Gray Wolves-Colorado
In February 2021, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff tranquilized and placed a GPS collar on male gray wolf 2101 after it had been spotted in north-central Colorado traveling with the female gray wolf 1084 from Wyoming’s Snake River Pack. 

(Eric Odell/Colorado Parks and Wildlife via AP)

DENVER (AP) — Just weeks before the deadline for Colorado to reintroduce gray wolves under a voter-approved initiative, representatives of the cattle industry association are suing state and federal agencies in the hopes of delaying the predators' release.

The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association and Colorado Cattlemen’s Association say in the lawsuit filed Monday that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services failed to adequately review the effects of reintroducing up to 50 wolves over the next several years.

The carnivores' planned release in Colorado, voted for in a 2020 ballot measure, has already stirred controversy and sharpened divides between rural and urban residents. City dwellers largely voted to reintroduce the apex predators into the rural areas where prey can include livestock that help drive local economies.

Erin Karney, executive vice-president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said they will also be requesting a temporary restraining order to halt the impending release, which will happen in the coming weeks once the wolves are caught in Oregon.

“A lot of our concerns that we brought up through the wolf management plan hearings were not adequately addressed,” Karney said. “Our members are putting our foot down and saying we can’t rush these processes. We need to take time.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services did perform an environmental review in part on what is called the 10(j) rule, which would permit the killing of wolves in Colorado under certain scenarios — particularly in the defense of livestock — even though the animals are protected as endangered species.

Still, the lawsuit alleges that the review doesn't satisfy federal environmental law and failed to grasp the consequences of wolf reintroduction.

“Impacts of wolf reintroduction... need to be properly reviewed to avoid unintended negative consequences to the natural environment, wildlife, and people of the impacted communities," said Andy Spann, a fifth-generation rancher and president of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, in a statement.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services spokesperson Joe Szuszwalak declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Travis Duncan said the agency is reviewing the lawsuit and also declined to comment.

An analysis of state and federal data by The Associated Press found that, in 2022, gray wolves attacked domesticated animals hundreds of times across 10 states in the contiguous U.S., including Colorado.

Data showed that attacks killed or injured at least 425 cattle and calves, 313 sheep and lambs, 40 dogs, 10 chickens, five horses and four goats.

While those losses can be devastating to individual ranchers or pet owners, the industry-wide impact is minimal. The number of cattle killed or injured in the documented cases equals 0.002% of herds in the affected states, according to a comparison of depredation data with state livestock inventories.

Ranchers can be reimbursed by the state for confirmed wolf kills, but they say merely financial compensation doesn't assuage the problem of empty-handed customers and the work of installing wolf deterrents.

Gray wolves were exterminated across most of the U.S. by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns. They received endangered-species protections in 1975, when there were about 1,000 left, in northern Minnesota.

Since then, there has been no turning back for other states where gray wolves have become reestablished.

An estimated 7,500 wolves in about 1,400 packs now roam parts of the contiguous U.S.

___

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Rancher groups sue to delay Colorado wolf reintroduction

On Monday, two rancher associations sued in an attempt to delay the release of gray wolves in Colorado.

US wildlife managers capture wandering Mexican wolf, attempt dating game ahead of breeding season

SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Tue, December 12, 2023 



Wandering Wolf
In this Feb. 9, 2023, image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the female Mexican gray wolf F2754 in a capture box at the agency's wolf management facility at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. Federal biologists confirmed Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, that the wolf has traveled beyond the boundaries of the Mexican gray wolf recovery area for the second time and has been located west of Jemez Springs, New Mexico.

 (Aislinn Maestas/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A match made in the wilds of New Mexico?

An endangered Mexican wolf captured last weekend after wandering hundreds of miles from Arizona to New Mexico is now being readied for a dating game of sorts as part of federal reintroduction efforts.

But only time will tell whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can succeed in finding a suitable mate for the female wolf numbered F2754. The newly captured wolf will be offered a choice among two brothers that are also housed at the federal government's wolf management facility in central New Mexico.

“We wanted to bring her in earlier so that she has a longer chance to bond with a mate and then hopefully successfully breed,” said agency spokeswoman Aislinn Maestas. “We’re going to be observing her and waiting to see. Hopefully, she does show interest in one or the other.”

It could be late February or early March before biologists know if their efforts are successful.

It has been 25 years since Mexican gray wolves were first reintroduced into the Southwestern U.S. Through captive breeding and targeted releases, wildlife managers have been able to build up the population of what is the rarest subspecies of gray wolf in North America.

Despite fits and starts, the numbers have trended upward, with last year marking the most Mexican gray wolves documented in Arizona and New Mexico since the start of the program.

Federal and state wildlife managers had been tracking the lone female wolf for months, waiting for an opportunity to capture her again. Her journey began in the mountains of southeastern Arizona and crossed the dusty high desert of central New Mexico before reaching the edge of Valles Caldera National Preserve.

She spent weeks moving between the preserve and the San Pedro Mountains. After showing no signs of returning to the wolf recovery area, officials decided to capture her before the start of the breeding season.

Their opportunity came Saturday near the rural community of Coyote, New Mexico. A helicopter crew working with the New Mexico Game and Fish Department shot her with a tranquilizer dart and then readied her for the trip south to the Sevilleta Wolf Management Facility.

It was about the well-being of the wolf, said Brady McGee, the Mexican wolf recovery coordinator.

“Dispersal events like this are often in search of a mate. As there are no other known wolves in the area, she was unlikely to be successful and risked being mistaken for a coyote and shot,” he said in a statement.

Officials said the goal is that the match-making efforts net pups in the spring and more wolves can be released to boost the wild population.

The recovery area spanning Arizona and New Mexico is currently home to more than 240 of the endangered predators. There also is a small population in Mexico.

Environmentalists had pushed federal managers to let the solo female wolf be, pointing out that previous efforts to relocate her were unsuccessful following her first attempt to head northward last winter. They also pointed out that the wolf’s movements were evidence that the recovery boundaries are insufficient to meet the needs of the expanding population.

“I think what we can say is that we know wolves are driven towards dispersing as a way towards mating with non-related wolves. In the case of Mexican wolves, those unrelated mates are increasingly hard to come by because of the level of inbreeding in the population and the narrow band of Arizona and New Mexico where wolves are allowed to be,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project.

Ranchers in New Mexico and Arizona have long complained that wolves are responsible for dozens of livestock deaths every year and remain concerned about any expansion of the wolves’ range. Rural residents in Colorado are joining them as officials plan to release gray wolves there in the coming weeks.

Colorado ranching groups sue state, federal agencies to delay wolf reintroduction

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Two Colorado ranching organizations have filed a complaint against state and federal agencies requesting the reintroduction of wolves into the state be delayed.

The lawsuit filed Monday by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association comes just weeks before state officials were to release up to 10 gray wolves under a 2020 state law. The suit names the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife as defendants, according to a Tuesday news release from the CCA, which represents more than 6,000 producers and landowners.

The two organizations believe Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not conducting a thorough environmental impact statement and that reintroduction should be delayed until that process is complete.

Both organizations have opposed wolf introduction since voters narrowly passed the ballot initiative to begin reintroducing wolves by the end of 2023. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is in the process of capturing wolves in northeast Oregon to serve as initial release animals.

The complaint is the first legal action taken since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 10(j) rule under the Endangered Species Act went into effect in Colorado on Dec. 8. The rule designates gray wolves in Colorado as experimental and provides state officials and livestock producers more management flexibility of wolves, including the killing wolves in situations where wolves are caught in the act of killing livestock or where chronic depredation is occurring.

Colorado to release gray wolves: Here's when, where and why.
Controversial release plan has divided communities

The plan to release the wolves has divided urban and rural communities.

Many ranchers and farmers noted the risks wolves could pose to humans and livestock. The state's wolf reintroduction plan was largely supported by urban residents and supporters of the plan say wolves are a natural part of the ecosystem in the West.

State officials said they hope that the gradual release of the wolves captured from Oregon would eventually create self-sustaining packs of 150 to 200 animals. In the 1940s, the wolf population in Colorado was nearly eradicated and now the state is only home to a small number of wild wolves.
Will this legal action delay the release of wolves in Colorado?

The key element to Monday's complaint is whether the ruling judge will allow for the continuation of wolf reintroduction into Colorado while the complaint is being ruled on. The legal process to determine a ruling regarding the complaint can take several years.

Andy Spann, a fifth-generation rancher from Gunnison and president of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, said in the release that the organizations' concerns during the nearly three-year process to create a state wolf recovery plan were not adequately addressed.

"Impacts of wolf reintroduction, as would any other action of this magnitude, need to be properly reviewed to avoid unintended negative consequences to the natural environment, wildlife, and people of the impacted communities," he said.

Michael Saul, Rockies and Plains Program Director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a news release the organization will work to see wolf reintroduction efforts continue. Defenders was one of several wildlife advocacy organizations to speak out against the lawsuit.

"Defenders is sorely disappointed by this transparent, 11th-hour attempt to delay efforts to bring wolves and their ecological benefits back to Colorado," he said. "Coloradans voted, the state worked extensively with ranchers and conservationists alike to prepare, and the lawful path forward is clear. Defenders stands poised to respond to ensure this last-minute maneuver will not thwart the historic return of the wolf."

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Colorado was under pressure to get environmental impact statement completed

Colorado paid the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $1 million to complete the environmental impact statement. The state faced time constraints to get the statement completed in time for the 10(j) rule to go into effect before wolves were reintroduced.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis previously praised the expedience in which the statement process was concluded, about half the time it normally takes.

"This demonstrates a sincere and effective commitment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to accomplish this task on a very accelerated timeline," Davis said in a previous release. "National Environmental Policy Act work typically takes two to three years and it was accomplished in a little over a year-and-a-half."

Contributing: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado ranching groups file lawsuit to delay wolf reintroduction

Miles Blumhardt, USA TODAY NETWORK
Tue, December 12, 2023

Colorado cattle industry sues over reintroduction of gray wolves
Tara Suter
Tue, December 12, 2023 



The Colorado cattle industry is suing over the reintroduction of gray wolves into the Centennial State.

The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association (GCSA) are taking legal action against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) “regarding the pending release of gray wolves in Colorado,” according to a blog post on the lawsuit from the CCA and GCSA, filed a couple of weeks before the wolves’ reintroduction as a result of a voter-approved initiative.

“The decision to pursue legal action comes after extensive discussion and consultation with CCA and GCSA members, who are deeply committed to the prosperity of Colorado’s agricultural industry and the well-being of their livestock,” reads the Monday blog post on the lawsuit from the CCA and GCSA.

“Both organizations, CCA and GCSA, have opposed wolf introduction since it was a proposed ballot initiative and were involved in every step of the process,” the blog post continues. “CCA and GCSA actively participated in developing the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission’s Wolf Management Plan as members expressed detailed oral and written concerns regarding the scope of impacts associated with the potential release.”

Voters in Colorado approved a ballot measure in 2020 to allow the reintroduction of the carnivores. Despite the measure’s success, there has been contention around the wolves’ return to the Mountain West state, with those living in cities mostly voting in favor of doing so despite the issue not affecting them as much as those living in rural areas.

“We regard this path of litigation not out of a desire for conflict, but rather as a testament to our unwavering commitment to supporting Colorado’s agriculture community and producers of the western slope,” Robert Farnam, CCA president, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the FWS told The Hill the agency is not able to comment “due to the nature of ongoing litigation.” CPW said in an emailed statement that it is also reviewing the lawsuit.

The Associated Press contributed.

Updated: 3:30 p.m.

Wandering Mexican gray wolf captured in New Mexico — for second time. ‘Frustrating’

Brooke Baitinger
Tue, December 12, 2023 


An endangered Mexican gray wolf known for wandering across the southern U.S. was captured after she roamed where wildlife officials wish she wouldn’t — for the second time.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish used a helicopter to find and capture female wolf 2754 — known as Asha among conservationists — in hopes of breeding her, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release on Dec. 11.

In January, Asha ventured away from the pack she was born into and outside the agency’s Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area north of Interstate 40, wandering 500 miles north into the southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, McClatchy News previously reported.

Officials captured her later that month near Taos and held her at the agency’s Sevilleta wolf management zone outside Socorro, where officials tried — and failed — to breed her, McClatchy News reported. When Asha didn’t breed with the male selected for her, officials released her in June back into the Arizona wilderness where she was born in 2021.

Just as she’d done in January, Asha left the agency’s wolf management zone in late October, officials said.

This time, she “spent several weeks moving between the San Pedro Mountains and the Valles Caldera National Preserve” and showed “no signs of returning” to the management area, officials said.

So wildlife officials decided to capture Asha before breeding season started, and they managed to do exactly that Dec. 9, officials said.

“Our decision to capture F2754 was made out of concern for her safety and wellbeing,” Brady McGee said in the release. McGee is the agency’s Mexican wolf recovery coordinator.

“Dispersal events like this are often in search of a mate. As there are no other known wolves in the area, she was unlikely to be successful, and risked being mistaken for a coyote and shot.”

Officials paired her with a “carefully selected mate” and hope she’ll breed in captivity this time, the release said.

“The best outcome for her is to be released back into the wild, where she and her offspring can contribute to Mexican wolf recovery,” McGee said.

Wolf conservationists said Asha’s second capture disappointed them.

“Asha’s capture is a frustrating, but not permanent pause in her journey,” the Wolf Conservation Center said on Facebook. “Despite physical and political barriers, she’s continued to show the nation that her home exists north of I-40, not in captivity or in the arbitrary confines of the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area. When we finally stop trying to control wolves, we’ll realize that ‘recovery’ is much easier to achieve.”

Several people said in the comments section they were praying for Asha’s safety.

“No animal will ever see or feel arbitrary borders because in their free spirits the world is their playground,” someone said.

Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit group dedicated to wildlife conservation, believes the attempt to breed Asha will limit her movement once she’s released back into the wild with pups, the group told McClatchy News in an emailed statement.

“This wolf posed no threat to anyone,” said Bryan Bird, the organization’s Southwest program director. “She should be allowed to roam, to seek her own destiny. Wolves will naturally repopulate their historic range and we should be facilitating that instinct and preparing the way with facts and common-sense activities.”

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Amid outcry over Gaza tactics, videos of soldiers acting maliciously create new headache for Israel

MELANIE LIDMAN
Tue, December 12, 2023 






This image made from an undated video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows Israel soldier rummaging through private homes in Gaza. Several viral videos of Israeli soldiers behaving inappropriately in Gaza have emerged in recent days, creating a headache for the Israeli military as it faces an international outcry over its tactics and the rising civilian death toll in its war against Hamas. (X via AP)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli soldiers rummaging through private homes in Gaza. Forces destroying plastic figurines in a toy store, or trying to burn food and water supplies in the back of an abandoned truck. Troops with their arms slung around each other, chanting racist slogans as they dance in a circle.

Several viral videos and photos of Israeli soldiers behaving in a derogatory manner in Gaza have emerged in recent days, creating a headache for the Israeli military as it faces an international outcry over its tactics and the rising civilian death toll in its punishing war against Hamas.

The Israeli army has pledged to take disciplinary action in what it says are a handful of isolated cases.


Such videos are not a new or unique phenomenon. Over the years, Israeli soldiers — and members of the U.S. and other militaries — have been caught on camera acting inappropriately or maliciously in conflict zones.

But critics say the new videos, largely shrugged off in Israel, reflect a national mood that is highly supportive of the war in Gaza, with little empathy for the plight of Gaza's civilians.

“The dehumanization from the top is very much sinking down to the soldiers,” said Dror Sadot, a spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which has long documented Israeli abuses against Palestinians.

Israel has been embroiled in fierce combat in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants raided southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages.

More than 18,400 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory.

The videos seem to have been uploaded by soldiers themselves during their time in Gaza.

In one, soldiers ride bicycles through rubble. In another, a soldier has moved Muslim prayer rugs into a bathroom. In another, a soldier films boxes of lingerie found in a Gaza home. Yet another shows a soldier trying to set fire to food and water supplies that are scarce in Gaza.

In a photo, an Israeli soldier sits in front of a room under the graffiti “Khan Younis Rabbinical Court.” Israeli forces have battled Hamas militants in and around the southern city, where the military opened a new line of attack last week.

In another photo, a soldier poses next to words spray-painted in red on a pink building that read, “instead of erasing graffiti, let’s erase Gaza.”

A video posted by conservative Israeli media personality Yinon Magal on X, formerly Twitter, shows dozens of soldiers dancing in a circle, apparently in Gaza, and singing a song that includes the words, “Gaza we have come to conquer. … We know our slogan – there are no people who are uninvolved.” The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian death toll, saying the group operates in crowded neighborhoods and uses residents as human shields.

The video, which Magal took from Facebook, has been viewed almost 200,000 times on his account and widely shared on other accounts.

Magal said he did not know the soldiers involved. But the AP has verified backgrounds, uniforms and language heard in the videos and found them to be consistent with independent reporting.

Magal said the video struck a chord among Israelis because of the popular tune and because Israelis need to see pictures of a strong military. It is based on the fight song of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, whose hard-core fans have a history of racist chants against Arabs and rowdy behavior.

“These are my fighters, they’re fighting against brutal murderers, and after what they did to us, I don’t have to defend myself to anyone,” Magal told The Associated Press.

He condemned some of the other videos that have surfaced, including the ransacking of the toy store, apparently in the northern area of Jebaliya, in which a soldier smashes toys and decapitates a plastic figurine, as destruction that is unnecessary for Israel’s security objectives.

On Sunday, the Israeli military's spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, condemned some of the actions seen in the recent videos. "In any event that does not align with IDF values, command and disciplinary steps will be taken,” he said.

The videos emerged just days after leaked photos and video of detained Palestinians in Gaza, stripped to their underwear, in some cases blindfolded and handcuffed, also drew international attention. The army says it did not release those images, but Hagari said this week that soldiers have undressed Palestinian detainees to ensure they are not wearing explosive vests.

Osama Hamdan, a top Hamas official, aired the video of the soldier in the toy shop at a news conference in Beirut. He called the footage “disgusting.”

Hamas has come under heavy criticism for releasing a series of videos of Israeli hostages, clearly under duress. Hamas militants also wore bodycams during their Oct. 7 rampage, capturing violent images of deadly attacks on families in their homes and revelers at a dance party.

Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian Cabinet minister and peace negotiator, said he can’t remember a time when each side was so unwilling to consider the pain of the other.

“Previously, there are people that are interested in seeing from the two perspectives,” said Khatib, who teaches international relations at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank. “Now, each side is closed to its own narrative, its own information, rules, and perspective.”

Eran Halperin, a professor with Hebrew University's psychology department who studies communal emotional responses to conflict, said that in previous wars between Israel and Hamas, there may have been more condemnation of these types of photos and videos from within Israeli society.

But he said the Oct. 7 attack, which exposed deep weaknesses and failures by the army, caused trauma and humiliation for Israelis in a way that hasn't happened before.

“When people feel they were humiliated, hurting the source of this humiliation doesn’t feel as morally problematic,” Halperin said. “When people feel like their individual and collective existence is under threat, they don’t have the mental capacity to empathize or apply the moral rulings when thinking about the enemy.”

___

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

'I feel trapped': Scores of underage Rohingya girls forced into abusive marriages in Malaysia

Malaysia Rohingya Child Brides
Rohingya child bride, B, age 14, sits on a bed in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Oct. 4, 2023. B came to Malaysia in 2023 to marry an older man. Her husband wants her to get pregnant, but she says she doesn't feel ready. "I still feel like a girl." Deteriorating conditions in Myanmar and in neighboring Bangladesh’s refugee camps are driving scores of underage Rohingya girls to Malaysia for arranged marriages with Rohingya men who frequently abuse them, The Associated Press found in interviews with 12 young Rohingya brides who have arrived in Malaysia since 2022. The youngest was 13. (AP Photo/Victoria Milko)

KRISTEN GELINEAU
Updated Wed, December 13, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — In a bedroom in Malaysia that has become a prison, the 14-year-old girl wipes away tears as she sits cross-legged on the concrete floor. It is here, she says, where her 35-year-old husband rapes her nearly every night.

Last year, the Rohingya girl sacrificed herself to save her family, embarking on a terrifying journey from her homeland of Myanmar to a country she had never seen, to marry a man she had never met.

It wasn’t her choice. But her family, she says, was impoverished, hungry and terrified of Myanmar’s military, which attacked the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017. In desperation, a neighbor found a man in Malaysia who would pay the 18,000 ringgit ($3,800) fee for the girl’s passage and — after she married him — send money to her family for food.

And so, the teenager — identified along with all the girls in this story by her first initial to protect her from retaliation — hugged her parents goodbye. Then M climbed into a trafficker’s car packed with children.

Deteriorating conditions in Myanmar and in neighboring Bangladesh’s refugee camps are driving scores of underage Rohingya girls to Malaysia for arranged marriages with Rohingya men who frequently abuse them, The Associated Press found in interviews with 12 young Rohingya brides who have arrived in Malaysia since 2022. The youngest was 13.

All the girls interviewed by the AP said their controlling husbands rarely let them outside. Several said they were beaten and raped during the journey to Malaysia, and five said they were abused by their husbands. Half the girls are pregnant or have babies, despite most saying they were not prepared for motherhood.

“This was my only way out,” says 16-year-old F, who in 2017 watched as Myanmar’s soldiers burned her house and killed her aunt. “I wasn’t ready to be married, but I didn’t have a choice.”

These unwanted marriages are the latest atrocity bestowed upon Rohingya girls: from childhoods marred by violence to attacks where security forces systematically raped them to years of hunger in Bangladesh’s squalid refugee camps.

Global apathy toward the Rohingya crisis and strict migration policies have left these girls with almost no options. The military that attacked the Rohingya overthrew Myanmar’s government in 2021, making any return home a life-threatening proposition. Bangladesh has refused to grant citizenship or working rights to the million stateless Rohingya languishing in its camps. And no country is offering large-scale resettlement opportunities.

And so the Rohingya are increasingly fleeing — and those who are fleeing are increasingly female. During the 2015 Andaman Sea boat crisis, in which thousands of Rohingya refugees were stranded at sea, the vast majority of passengers were men. This year, more than 60% of the Rohingya who have survived the Andaman crossing have been women and children, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.

In Bangladesh, Save the Children says child marriage is one of the agency’s most reported worries among camp residents.

“We are seeing a rise in cases of child trafficking,” says Shaheen Chughtai, Save the Children’s Regional Advocacy and Campaigns Director for Asia. “Girls are more vulnerable to this, and often this is linked to being married off in different territories.”

Accurate statistics on how many Rohingya child brides live in Malaysia don’t exist. But local advocates who work with the girls say they have seen a spike in arrivals over the past two years.

“There are really a lot of Rohingyas coming in to get married,” says Nasha Nik, executive director of the Rohingya Women Development Network, which has worked with hundreds of child brides in recent years.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations’ refugee convention, so the girls — who enter the country without permission — are less likely to report their assaults to authorities. Doing so could put them at risk of being thrown into one of Malaysia’s detention centers, which have long been plagued by reports of abuse.

Malaysia’s government did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.

M didn’t even know her future husband’s name when she climbed into the trafficker’s car alongside several other girls headed to Malaysia for marriage.

For a week, they traveled through Myanmar and Thailand. After crossing into Malaysia, they stopped at a house. Four of the trafficker’s friends arrived and each selected a girl.

The man who chose M — who looked to be around 50 — drove her to another house. When they got inside, she says, he raped her.

In the morning, he locked her in the bedroom and left her there all day with no water or food. The next night, he returned and raped her again. She was terrified he would kill her.

M was then handed over to another man who drove her to her fiancé’s apartment.

She didn’t dare tell her fiancé she’d been raped, because then he would reject her.

Her fiancé insisted they get married that day. In agony and bleeding from the rapes, M told her husband she had her period, so he wouldn’t touch her.

A Rohingya women’s advocate, who confirmed M’s account to the AP, heard about the situation and brought M to the hospital for treatment.

When M returned to her husband, she learned he was already married with two children. She had no power to object to the situation, or to the beatings, cruel taunts and rapes she regularly endures. She said nothing about the abuse to her parents, lest her husband stop sending them 300 ringgit ($64) a month.

She sits now in her bedroom, her thin frame cloaked in teddy bear pajamas. Dangling from the ceiling is a rope designed to hold a hammock for any babies her husband forces her to bear.

She once dreamed of going to school and becoming a teacher or a doctor. But she has stopped thinking of her future. For now, she just tries to survive her present.

“I want to go back home, but I can’t,” she says. “I feel trapped.”

Palestinian poll shows a rise in Hamas support and close to 90% wanting US-backed Abbas to resign

KARIN LAUB
Updated Wed, December 13, 2023 

Palestinians look for survivors of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. A wartime opinion poll among Palestinians shows a rise in support for Hamas, even in the devastated Gaza Strip. The survey published Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023 also reflected an overwhelming rejection of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, with nearly 90% saying he must resign. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A wartime opinion poll among Palestinians published Wednesday shows a rise in support for Hamas, which appears to have ticked up even in the devastated Gaza Strip, and an overwhelming rejection of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, with nearly 90% saying he must resign.

The findings by a Palestinian pollster signal more difficulties ahead for the Biden administration's postwar vision for Gaza and raise questions about Israel's stated goal of ending Hamas' military and governing capabilities.

Washington has called for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, currently led by Abbas, to eventually assume control of Gaza and run both territories as a precursor to statehood. U.S. officials have said the PA must be revitalized, without letting on whether this would mean leadership changes.

The PA administers pockets of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has governed Gaza until a takeover by Hamas militants in 2007. The Palestinians have not held elections since 2006 when Hamas won a parliamentary majority.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in Israel's history, has soundly rejected any role for the PA in Gaza and insists Israel must retain open-ended security control there.

Arab allies of the U.S. have said they’ll only get involved in post-war reconstruction if there’s a credible push toward a two-state solution, which is unlikely under the Netanyahu government dominated by opponents of Palestinian statehood.

With survey results indicating a further erosion of the PA’s legitimacy, at a time when there's no apparent path toward restarting credible negotiations on Palestinian statehood, the default for postwar Gaza is an open-ended Israeli occupation, pollster Khalil Shikaki said.

“Israel is stuck in Gaza,” Shikaki told The Associated Press ahead of the publication of the survey's results by his Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, or PSR. "Maybe the next (Israeli) government will decide that Netanyahu is not right in putting all these conditions, and they might decide to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza. But the default for the future, for Israel and Gaza, is that Israel is in full reoccupation of Gaza.”

The survey was conducted from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2 among 1,231 people in the West Bank and Gaza and had an error margin of 4 percentage points. In Gaza, poll workers conducted 481 in-person interviews during a weeklong cease-fire that ended Dec. 1.

Shikaki, who runs regular polls, said the error margin was one percentage point higher than usual because of disruptions caused by the mass displacement of residents during the Israel-Hamas war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled fierce fighting in northern Gaza, and poll workers only conducted interviews in central and southern Gaza, including among displaced people, because they could not reach the north during the cease-fire.

The survey provided insights about Palestinian views of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other Gaza militants in southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians. More than 18,400 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed in a sustained bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza during Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas, now in its third month.

Shikaki said that Gaza residents are more critical of Hamas than those in the West Bank, that support for Hamas typically spikes during periods of armed conflict before leveling out, and that even now most Palestinians do not back the militant group.

Despite the devastation, 57% of respondents in Gaza and 82% in the West Bank believe Hamas was correct in launching the October attack, the poll indicated. A large majority believed Hamas' claims that it acted to defend a major Islamic shrine in Jerusalem against Jewish extremists and win the release of Palestinian prisoners. Only 10% said they believed Hamas has committed war crimes, with a large majority saying they did not see videos showing the militants committing atrocities.

The videos, along with extensive eyewitness testimony and reporting by The Associated Press and others, show that hundreds of civilians in southern Israel, including women and children, were abducted or gunned down inside their own homes. There have also been accounts of widespread sexual violence.

But while Israeli media coverage has focused intensely on the attack in the weeks since, Palestinian outlets have been fixated on the war in Gaza and the suffering of civilians there.

Shikaki said the most popular politician remains Marwan Barghouti, a prominent figure in Abbas' Fatah movement who is serving multiple life terms in an Israeli prison for his alleged role in several deadly attacks during the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago. In a two-way presidential race, Ismail Haniyeh, the exiled political leader of Hamas, would trounce Abbas while in a three-way race, Barghouti would be ahead just slightly, the pollster said.

Overall, 88% want Abbas to resign, up by 10 percentage points from three months ago. In the West Bank, 92% called for the resignation of the octogenarian who has presided over an administration widely seen as corrupt, autocratic and ineffective.

At the same time, 44% in the West Bank said they supported Hamas, up from just 12% in September. In Gaza, the militants enjoyed 42% support, up slightly from 38% three months ago.

Shikaki said support for the PA declined further, with nearly 60% now saying it should be dissolved. In the West Bank, Abbas' continued security coordination with Israel's military against Hamas, his bitter political rival, is widely unpopular.

Netanyahu has attacked Abbas for years, alleging he was enabling anti-Israeli incitement in the West Bank, while at the same time permitting regular Qatari support payments to Gaza that strengthened Hamas. Critics of Netanyahu's overall approach say it was aimed at preventing negotiations on Palestinian statehood.

The poll also signaled widespread frustration with the international community, particularly the United States, key European countries and even the United Nations, which has pushed for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.

“The level of anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism is huge among Palestinians because of the positions they have taken regarding international humanitarian law and what is happening in Gaza,” Shikaki said.

US agency will not reinstate $900 million subsidy for SpaceX Starlink unit

David Shepardson
Tue, December 12, 2023 

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk attends the VivaTech conference in Paris


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday reaffirmed its 2022 decision to deny SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies.

The FCC said the decision impacting Elon Musk's space company was based on Starlink's failure to meet basic program requirements and that Starlink could not demonstrate it could deliver promised service after SpaceX had challeged the 2022 decision.

"The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said.

The FCC cited among its reasons SpaceX's failure to successfully launch its Starship rocket, saying "the uncertain nature of Starship's future launches could impact Starlink's ability to meet" its obligations.

The FCC had rescined the funding in August 2022 based on speed-tset data after Starlink had agreed to provide high-speed Internet service to 642,000 rural homes and businesses in 35 states.

SpaceX said it was "deeply disappointed and perplexed" by the FCC decision, adding Starlink "is demonstrably one of the best options - likely the best option" to accomplish the goals of the rural internet program.

The two Republican commissioners on the five-member FCC dissented from the decision saying the FCC was improperly holding SpaceX to 2025 targets three years early and suggesting the Biden administration's anger toward Musk was to blame.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the commission was joining "the growing list of administrative agencies that are taking action against Elon Musk’s businesses" and said the decision "certainly fits the Biden Administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment."

Musk said in a post on X the FCC decision "doesn’t make sense. Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale! They should arguably dissolve the program and return funds to taxpayers, but definitely not send it (to) those who aren’t getting the job done."

Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, who noted Starlink had about two million subscribers in September 2023, added: "SpaceX continues to put more satellites into orbit every month, which should translate to even faster and more reliable service."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Stephen Coates)

Elon Musk goes after Biden Administration following $900 million SpaceX loss
Musk doesn't agree with the FCC's recent decision.

Ian Krietzberg

THE STREET
Dec 13, 2023

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 12 reaffirmed its 2022 decision to reject SpaceX's application for nearly $900 million in broadband subsidies.

Following SpaceX's challenge of the initial decision, the FCC said in a statement that Elon Musk's space company failed to "meet basic program requirements" in its bid to receive funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.

The program is meant to expand broadband access in rural areas.


The critical differences between Elon Musk's first and second Starship flight

The FCC said that, after passing an initial application stage, SpaceX later failed to demonstrate to the agency that it "could deliver the promised service." The agency said in its statement that funding the request would "not be the best use of limited" resources.

“The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner on the FCC, wrote in a dissenting opinion that the FCC's decision "cannot be explained by any objective application of law, facts or policy," suggesting instead that it is actually the result of what he called the Biden Administration's "pattern of regulatory harassment" of Musk.

Carr said that the agency was unfairly holding SpaceX to 2025 service expectations, rather than assessing if the company's Starlink service would be capable of meeting those expectations by 2025.

The decision, Carr said, will leave rural communities "stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide."

Musk, agreeing with Carr's statement, said that the decision "doesn't make sense."

Starlink, he said, is the only service that is actively "solving rural broadband at scale."


Why Elon Musk's SpaceX is a major driver for the space industry

"What actually happened is that the companies that lobbied for this massive earmark (not us) thought they would win, but instead were outperformed by Starlink, so now they’re changing the rules to prevent SpaceX from competing," Musk said.

The billionaire added that the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund ought to be dissolved and the funds returned to the taxpayers.

In September, Musk, responding to a Wall Street Journal editorial that questioned whether the Biden Administration had "it in" for him, said: "Sure seems that way."



SpaceX completed its second test flight of Starship in November.
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/Getty Images

SpaceX alone, as of April 2023, has received more than $15.3 billion in government awards since 2003, according to The Information.

SpaceX's Starlink service earned the company $1.4 billion in revenue in 2022, a significant increase from the $222 million it earned the year before.

The company expects to earn $15 billion in revenue in 2024, with Starlink alone responsible for a $10 billion share.

But even as Musk works to expand the internet service, which boasts a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites, its growth has been tainted by concerns over the geopolitical role the satellite arm has granted him.

Investors, meanwhile, remain excited about the many revenue opportunities associated with Starlink, with some expecting to see a Starlink spinoff and IPO sooner, rather than later.


Elon Musk has even bigger plans for SpaceX next year



BY IAN KRIETZBERG
is a breaking/trending news writer for The Street with a focus on artificial intelligence and the markets. He covers AI companies, safety and ethics extensively. As an offshoot of his tech beat, Ian also covers Elon Musk and his many companies, namely SpaceX and Tesla.

SETUP BY REPUBLICANS

Harvard board backs university president amid anti-Semitism criticism

Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, along with the presidents of other universities, failed to explicitly say that the calls for genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying and harassment on campus.

Harvard University President Claudine Gay during a House Education and The Workforce Committee hearing titled "Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism" on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Reuters file photo)

Reuters
Washington,

UPDATED: Dec 12, 2023 

Posted By: Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam

Harvard University's governing board declared its support for the Ivy League school's president on Tuesday, a day after meeting to weigh the public backlash following remarks she made at last week's congressional hearing on antisemitism.

The Harvard Corporation, the university's governing body, in a statement said it had reaffirmed its support for Harvard President Claudine Gay's continued leadership.

"Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing," the 11-member board wrote.

Its decision was first reported by the Harvard Crimson. A representative for Harvard on Monday did not respond to a request for comment on the board's reported meeting.

Some donors, alumni and members of Congress called for Gay to resign, as her fellow Ivy League president at University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, did over the weekend. But many faculty and other alumni have rushed to defend Gay and asked the governing body to do the same.

A House of Representatives hearing last week increased public outcry over how US colleges are handling campus protests since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Three university presidents declined to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer when asked if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate school codes of conduct regarding bullying and harassment.

Gay, Magill and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told lawmakers context was important and they had to take free speech into consideration. Gay later apologised for her remarks in an interview with Harvard's student newspaper.

"At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated," the Corporation wrote in its statement supporting Gay.

US university leaders have taken heat from both Jewish communities, which have said they are tolerating antisemitism, and Pro-Palestinian groups, which have accused schools of being neutral or antagonistic towards their cause.

Harvard President Claudine Gay To Stay In Office

Anna Esaki-Smith
Dec 12, 2023


Harvard President Claudine Gay will stay in office with the support of the university’s highest governing body, according to a statement made by the Harvard Corporation after the group met on Monday.

“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today affirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” the statement read. “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.”


Harvard President Claudine Gay has come under fire after her testimony during a congressional 

Gay faced tremendous backlash after her testimony before a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing last week regarding antisemitism on college campuses. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT also testified, and all three leaders faced calls to resign as they appeared to dodge questions about whether students should be disciplined if they call for the genocide of Jews.

After their testimony, more than 70 members of Congress demanded that the university leaders be removed, citing dissatisfaction with their performance. The White House condemned the university presidents after their testimony as well.

Penn President Elizabeth Magill resigned Saturday. Earlier, she had drawn intense criticism from donors and students after allowing a controversial Palestinian writers conference to be held on campus in September.

The executive committee of the MIT Corporation — the school’s governing board — declared their “full and unreserved support” for MIT President Sally Kornbluth in a statement last week.

In their statement, the Harvard Corporation voiced similar support for Gay as well.

“In this tumultuous and difficult time, we unanimously stand in support of President Gay,” the statement read. “At Harvard, we champion open discourse and academic freedom, and we are united in our strong belief that calls for violence against our students and disruptions of the classroom experience will not be tolerated.”

Protests have engulfed university campuses since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied campus buildings at Cornell University. In early November, Cornell had cancelled a day of classes due to “extraordinary stress” after an engineering student was arrested on a federal criminal complaint for making online threats to Jewish students.

Columbia University also closed its campus for a day due to a wave of protests shortly after the Hamas attack. More recently, there were protests on campus after the school suspended 2 pro-Palestinian groups.

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My book for high schoolers, Make College Your Superpower: It's Not Where You Go, It's What You Know, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in April

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Police arrest 41 students at Brown University following a sit-in protest, the 2nd in over a month

Stepheny Price

FAUX NEWS
Tue, December 12, 2023 

Officers arrested 41 students on Monday following a demonstration at Brown University as students staged a sit-in and called for a cease-fire in Gaza, according to the Brown Daily Herald.

Providence Police Department and Brown Department of Public Safety officers arrested and booked all 41 students from Brown Divest Coalition who occupied University Hall on Tuesday afternoon and demanded the school divest from weapons manufacturers amid the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Herald.

"The disruption to secure buildings is not acceptable, and the University is prepared to escalate the level of criminal charges for future incidents of students occupying secure buildings," University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in a statement to The Herald.

The arrests come just one month after twenty members of Jews for Ceasefire Now were charged with trespassing after staging a sit-in at University Hall, calling for divestment and a ceasefire, according to the Herald.

Sayles Hall and Campus, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

"Given that this is the second prominent incident in recent weeks of students trespassing in a secure, non-residential building after operating hours, the University fully expects to recommend more significant criminal misdemeanor charges for any future incidents after the Dec. 11 sit-in," Clark said.

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SUSPENDS STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE CHAPTER

People hold up signs and protest following a vigil held on the grounds of Brown University, after three students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded in Vermont, at the school's main green in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. November 27, 2023.

Clark added that arresting students is not an action that the school takes lightly.

"It’s essential to highlight that arresting students is not an action that Brown takes lightly, and it’s not something the University ever wants to do," Clark wrote, adding that the University issued repeated warnings to ensure "that the students fully understood that they would not be allowed to remain in the building after normal operating hours for security reasons, and that they could face disciplinary action for violating policies, as well as arrest."

Israel-Hamas war tensions roil campuses; Brown protesters are arrested, Haverford building occupied

MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Wed, December 13, 2023 


Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Sally Kornbluth speaks during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in Washington. The university presidents called before last week’s congressional hearing on antisemitism had more in common than strife on their campuses: The leaders of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT were all women who were relatively new in their positions. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Dozens of student protesters at Brown University were arrested, and a weeklong sit-in at Haverford College ended Wednesday under threat of disciplinary action as U.S. college campuses continue to be roiled by tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Brown's police department charged 41 students with trespass when they refused to leave the University Hall administrative building after business hours on Monday, according to officials at the Ivy League school in Providence, Rhode Island.

Earlier that day, protesters had met with Brown President Christina H. Paxson and demanded that Brown divest “its endowment from Israeli military occupation," the school said in a statement on the arrests. Students were photographed and fingerprinted at the administration building before their release Monday night. Other students waited outside to cheer them on.

It was the second round of arrests at Brown in a little over a month as college administrators around the country try to reconcile the rights of students to protest with the schools' imperative to maintain order.

Twenty students protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza were arrested for trespass on Nov. 8, although Brown dropped the charges on Nov. 27, two days after a Palestinian student at Brown, Hisham Awartani, and two other Palestinian college students were shot in Burlington, Vermont.

Brown said Wednesday that while protest is “a necessary and acceptable means of expression on campus,” students may not “interfere with the normal functions of the University." The school warned of even more severe consequences if students fail to heed restrictions on the time, place and manner of protests.

“The disruption to secure buildings is not acceptable, and the University is prepared to escalate the level of criminal charges for future incidents of students occupying secure buildings,” Brown said.

At Haverford, outside Philadelphia, student activists began their sit-in on Dec. 6 and occupied Founders Hall, which houses administrative offices. They are demanding that college President Wendy Raymond publicly call for a cease-fire in Gaza, which Israel invaded after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

Hundreds of students participated over the last week, taking deliveries of food and setting up study spaces. Professors even dropped in to teach, according to student organizers.

The college asserted that the protesters were hindering fellow students, staff and faculty, and told the sit-in organizers Tuesday night that “they must discontinue actions that impede student learning and the functions of the College, which include the sit-in inside Founders Hall,” Raymond and the college dean said in a campus message Wednesday morning.

Student organizers told The Associated Press that college officials threatened to haul protesters before a disciplinary panel if they didn’t leave the hall. About 50 students defied the warning and slept in the building overnight before protesters held one last rally Wednesday morning and delivered letters to Raymond before disbanding.

The threat of discipline played a role in the decision to end the sit-in, according to Julian Kennedy, a 21-year-old junior and organizer with Haverford Students for Peace. But he said organizers also concluded that the sit-in would not compel Haverford to meet the group's demands.

“At this point, we just see that this college as an institution is broken and has lost its values,” said Kennedy, accusing Haverford of betraying its Quaker pacifist roots.

Ellie Baron, a 20-year-old junior and protest organizer, said the group will pressure Haverford in other ways.

“Just because the sit-in is over, doesn't mean our efforts are over. We are extraordinarily upset our president refuses to call for a cease-fire," Baron said.

A Palestinian American student at Haverford, Kinnan Abdalhamid, was also among the three Palestinian college students who were shot over Thanksgiving break in Vermont. The suspected gunman was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. Officials are investigating whether the shooting, which seriously injured one of the other students, was a hate crime.

Abdalhamid, who took part in Wednesday's rally, said in a statement that "our presence here is a powerful message that we will not stay silent, we will not be passive observers.”

The arrests and sit-in came amid continuing fallout over the testimony given by leaders of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT at a congressional hearing on antisemitism last week. The presidents drew fire for carefully worded responses to a line of questioning from New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate the schools’ rules. Penn’s president resigned over the weekend while, at Harvard, the governing board declared its support for the school's embattled president.

Alabama is going to use gas to execute someone, but corrections officials warned it could hurt other people in the room

Paul Squire
Tue, December 12, 2023 


Alabama is planning to execute a man using nitrogen gas.


But the untested execution method may be dangerous.


State officials warned the inmate's spiritual advisor that a mishap could put others in danger.

Alabama plans to be the first US state to use nitrogen gas to execute a prisoner.

But the untested method of execution could be dangerous to those nearby, specifically the man's spiritual advisor, who would be in the room when he's killed, according to the exclusive report by NPR.

Kenneth Smith is due to be killed using nitrogen hypoxia in January, over a year since Alabama tried to execute him by lethal injection.

That attempt failed when corrections workers tried to stick the needles into his veins, but couldn't do it; the botched execution left him strapped to a gurney for hours, according to legal papers filed by Smith.

"They didn't even have anybody that could run a line on Kenny," Smith's spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, told NPR's Chiara Eisner, referring to the botched procedure. "And we're supposed to trust these people with nitrogen? They could kill all of us."

NPR reported that the Alabama Department of Corrections made Hood sign an acknowledgment form that said the method could create a "small area of risk" if the tube carrying the odorless, colorless, deadly gas to a mask on Smith's face were to detach.

"Additionally, overpressure could result in a small area of nitrogen gas that displaces the oxygen in the area around the condemned inmate's face and/or head," the document states, according to NPR. Alabama corrections officials had Hood agree to keep at least 3 feet away from Smith during his execution.

Hood told NPR he won't be able to perform Christian last rites on Smith because he won't be able to get close enough to touch him.

Smith is on death row after being convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire killing, according to AL.com. Smith and another man beat Elizabeth Sennett to death in a staged home invasion after her husband, Pastor Charles Sennett, paid them, the Alabama outlet reported.

Charles Sennett killed himself before he was charged, AL.com reported.

Smith admitted to his role in Elizabeth Sennett's death and the jury recommended life in prison, according to AL.com. The judge in the case overruled their suggestion and sentenced him to death, AL.com reported.

The Supreme Court previously declined to block his execution.