DECRIMINALIZE POT!

Federal agency quashes Georgia's plan to let pharmacies sell medical marijuana

Associated Press Finance
Sun, December 17, 2023

Medical marijuana prescription vials are filled at a medical marijuana dispensary in Venice, Calif. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Nov. 27, 2023, warned pharmacies in Georgia to not dispense medical marijuana products despite state permission to become the first pharmacies nationwide to do so.

 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal drug officials are warning Georgia to shelve its plans to be the first state to allow pharmacies to dispense medical marijuana products.

News outlets report that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Nov. 27 warned pharmacies that dispensing medical marijuana violates federal law.

The Georgia Board of Pharmacy began accepting applications to dispense the products in October. Licenses have already been issued to 23 Georgia independent pharmacies, the board said.

The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, which oversees Georgia's fledgling medical marijuana industry, said it can't override the federal directive, even though pharmacies are allowed to dispense the products under state law.

Andrew Turnage, the commission's executive director, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the state would love to see pharmacists be allowed to continue providing consultations for medical cannabis products as they do with other medication.

In a memo to pharmacies, the DEA said none of them can lawfully possess, handle or dispense marijuana or related products containing more than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol — the psychoactive chemical known as THC that gives users a high.

Georgia lets patients with medical needs buy medical marijuana products with up to 5% THC. Marijuana sold for recreational use typically has a higher level.

The DEA said it considers products derived from the cannabis plant with a THC content above 0.3% to be marijuana, making it illegal under federal drug law.

Georgia has allowed patients with certain illnesses and physician approval to possess and consume low-THC medical cannabis products since 2015. But until April, there was no legal way for them to buy the product in Georgia.

Nationwide, 24 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another 23 allow some form of medical cannabis.

The recent DEA notice was published online by the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which generally opposes marijuana legalization.

Ira Katz of Little Five Points Pharmacy in Atlanta told WXIA-TV that he thought pharmacies like his should able to dispense the products in the same way marijuana dispensaries do.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me that people can go to a dispensary and not to a pharmacy,” he said. “We would be buying it from the same growers.”

Mahlon Davidson, interim CEO of the Georgia Pharmacy Association, said he doubted independent pharmacists would risk imperiling their businesses by flouting the DEA.

“The current conflict between state and federal law puts Georgia’s pharmacies in a difficult position,” the Georgia Pharmacy Association wrote in a letter to pharmacists, adding that the association is “putting forth the maximum effort to help provide timely information and assist in navigating this issue.”

Those who oppose rapid legalization of marijuana said the DEA's stance will protect consumers and allow time for more research.

Michael Mumper, the executive director of the nonprofit Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy, said consumers trust that drugs dispensed from pharmacies are fully tested, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and federally legal. Mumper said that’s not the case with medical marijuana.

But the federal stance could change if a recent proposal to loosen restrictions on marijuana goes through. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in August proposed taking marijuana off the banned list of Schedule I substances and reclassifying it as a lower-risk Schedule III drug.

The S&P 500 is trading 8% higher than before the Fed started hiking interest rates. Why that's surprising - but perhaps it shouldn't be.

Theron Mohamed
Fri, December 15, 2023

The S&P 500 is trading 8% higher today than it was before the Fed started hiking rates last spring.

That's surprising as higher rates hit earnings and economic growth, and make stocks less appealing.

Investors may be betting inflation is over, a recession has been avoided, and rates are coming down.

The S&P 500 is trading 8% higher today than before the Federal Reserve began its flurry of interest-rate hikes last spring. That's surprising for a bunch of reasons — but perhaps it shouldn't be.

The benchmark US stock index closed at 4,720 points on Thursday, compared to 4,358 points on March 16 last year, the day before the Fed began its latest hiking cycle. The US central bank went on to raise its benchmark rate from nearly zero to upwards of 5.25% — a 22-year high — in the space of just over 16 months. It has held rates steady since July.

The Fed hiked in response to a historic spike in inflation. Annualized price growth hit a 40-year high of over 9% last summer, far outpacing the central bank's 2% target. Higher rates encourage saving over spending and make borrowing more expensive, which tends to temper overall demand in the economy and slow the pace of price increases.

The rate hikes work in part by squeezing consumers, forcing them to allocate more of their monthly incomes toward the bigger payments due on their credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and other debts. American households have also faced soaring food, fuel, and rent costs, which have stretched their budgets even more.

Between inflation in living expenses and higher debt costs, consumers have been left with less disposable income to spend on goods and services produced by companies, hurting sales. Corporations have also seen their costs and interest payments jump, pinching their profit margins.

A company's shares are generally valued at a multiple to its future earnings, meaning if investors expect its profits to grow less quickly or even shrink, its stock price should come down. Stocks also become relatively less appealing to investors when rates rise, as the returns from safe assets like savings accounts and government bonds increase.

Stocks are valued based on their future cash flows, so if investors see companies struggling to raise prices to protect their profit margins from inflation, and spending more to cover their debt costs each month, they'll reduce their cash-flow forecasts and assign a lower value to their shares today.

Moreover, hiking interest rates can slow the economy so much that it enters a prolonged downturn or recession. Consumers tend to pull back on spending and investors flee to safety when they fear economic pain, providing another reason why stocks tend to suffer when rates increase.

Between elevated inflation, a rapid-fire series of rate hikes, and the increased risk of a recession, there are clear pressures on stocks today. On the other hand, inflation has cooled to below 4% in recent months, the US economy grew strongly in the third quarter, and the Fed signaled this week that it expects to cut rates three times next year. The stock market prices in future expectations, and may reflect investors' optimism that prices are under control, a recession will be avoided, and rates will come down soon.

Ben Inker, the co-head of asset allocation at elite investor Jeremy Grantham's GMO, recently offered two more reasons why stocks are worth more today than a couple years ago. Inflation has boosted the fair value of stocks, because companies produce the goods and services that have climbed in price, he said. The US economy has also grown, and companies tend to grow alongside the wider economy, raising the fair value of stocks once again, he said.

It may be jarring to see the S&P 500 trading 8% higher today, when rates are over 5%, than its level when rates were almost zero. Investors may simply believe the worst of the economic pain is over, and the future is so bright for stocks that they're worth more today.

Federal Reserve on cusp of what some thought impossible: Defeating inflation without steep recession

CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
Fri, December 15, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the most painful inflation Americans had experienced since 1981, when “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “The Jeffersons” were topping the TV charts. Yet the Federal Reserve now seems on the verge of defeating it — and without the surge in unemployment and the deep recession that many economists had predicted would accompany it.

Inflation has been falling more or less steadily since peaking in June of last year at 9.1%. And when the Fed's preferred inflation gauge for November is reported next week, it's likely to show that in the past six months, annual inflation actually dipped just below the Fed's target of 2%, economists at UBS estimate.

The cost of goods — such as used cars, furniture and appliances — has fallen for six straight months. Compared with a year ago, goods prices are unchanged, held down by improved global supply chains.

Housing and rental costs, a major driver of inflation, are growing more slowly. Wage growth has cooled, too, though it still tops inflation. Milder wage growth tends to ease pressure on restaurants, hotels and other employers to increase their prices to cover their labor costs.

“I think it’s really good to see the progress that we’re making,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference Wednesday after the Fed's latest policy meeting. “If you look at the ... six-month measures, you see very low numbers.”

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, estimated that inflation will drop to 2.1% by the end of next year.

There will likely be bumps on the road toward getting inflation fully under control, officials have said. Powell insisted that “no one is declaring victory.” And he reiterated that the central bank wants to see further evidence of falling inflation before it would feel confident that it is sustainably headed back to the 2% target.

A news report shows the Federal Reserve's rate decision as Specialist Meric Greenbaum works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Nov. 1, 2023. Confidence is growing among Federal Reserve officials and many economists that high interest rates and healed supply chains will soon defeat inflation.

 (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) 

Yet many economists, normally a cautious lot, are now willing to declare that inflation is nearly back under control after two-plus years in which it imposed hardships on millions of American households.

"It appears that inflation has returned to 2%,” said Tim Duy, chief economist at SGH Macroeconomics. “The Fed looks like it has won that battle.”

Prices spikes are also moderating overseas, with both the Bank of England and European Central Bank keeping their benchmark interest rates unchanged this week. Though inflation is still at 4.6% in the United Kingdom, it has fallen to 2.4% in the 20 countries that use the euro currency.

With inflation cooling, Powell said the 19 officials on the Fed's policy setting committee had discussed the prospects for rate cuts at this week's meeting. The officials also projected that the Fed will cut its key interest rate three times next year.

That stance marked a drastic shift from the rate-hiking campaign the Fed began in March 2022. Beginning then, the central bank raised its benchmark rate 11 times, from near zero to roughly 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years, to try to slow borrowing, spending and inflation. The result was much higher costs for mortgages, auto loans, business borrowing and other forms of credit.

Powell's suddenly more optimistic words, and the Fed's rate-cut projections, sent stock market indexes soaring this week. Wall Street traders now foresee a roughly 80% likelihood that the first rate cut will occur when the Fed meets in March, and they are forecasting a total of six cuts in 2024.

On Friday, John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a top lieutenant of Powell's, sought to pour some cold water on those expectations. Speaking on CNBC, Williams said it was “premature to be even thinking" about whether to cut rates in March. But he also mentioned that his forecast was for inflation to move down “sustainably” to 2%.

The week's events represented a departure from just two weeks ago, when Powell had said it was “premature” to say whether the Fed had raised its key rate high enough to fully conquer high inflation. On Wednesday, he suggested that the Fed was almost certainly done with rate increases.

Recent data appeared to have helped shift Powell's thinking. On Wednesday, a measure of wholesale prices came in lower than economists had expected. Some of those figures are used to compile the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, which, as a result, is expected to show much lower inflation numbers next week.

Powell said some Fed officials had even updated their economic projections on Wednesday, not long before they were issued, in light of the lower-than-expected wholesale price report.

"The speed at which inflation has fallen has been like an earthquake at the Fed," Duy wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.

And yet in the meantime, the economy keeps growing, defying widespread fears from a year ago that 2023 would bring a recession, a consequence of the much higher borrowing rates the Fed engineered. A report on retail sales Thursday showed that consumers grew their spending last month, likely encouraged by increased discounting that will also lower inflation. Such trends are supporting the growing belief that the economy will achieve an elusive “soft landing,” in which inflation is defeated without an accompanying recession.

“We think the Fed cannot believe its luck: We are back to ‘immaculate disinflation,’ ” Krishna Guha, an economic analyst at investment bank Evercore ISI, wrote in a client note.

Economists credit the Fed's rapid rate hikes for contributing to inflation's decline. In addition, a recovery in global supply chains and a jump in the number of Americans — and recent immigrants — searching for jobs have helped cool the pace of wage growth.

Jon Steinsson, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said that by aggressively raising their key interest rate in about 15 months — the fastest such pace in four decades — Fed officials kept Americans' inflation expectations largely in check. Expectations can become self-fulfilling: If people expect higher inflation, they often take actions, such as demanding higher wages, that can send prices higher still.

“They played a crucial role,” Steinsson said.

Still, a continued decline in inflation isn't guaranteed. One wild card is rental prices. Real-time measures of new apartment leases show those costs rising much more slowly than they did a year ago. It takes time for that data to flow into the government's figures. In fact, excluding what the government calls “shelter” costs — rents, the cost of homeownership and hotel prices — inflation rose just 1.4% last month from a year earlier.

But Kathy Bostjancic, an economist at Nationwide, said she worries that a shortage of available homes could raise housing costs in the coming years, potentially keeping inflation elevated.

The Fed's rate hikes, Bostjancic said, could actually prolong the shortage. Today's higher mortgage rates may limit home construction while also discouraging current homeowners from selling. Both trends would keep a lid on the supply of homes and keep prices elevated.

Yet Fed officials appear confident in their forecasts that inflation is steadily slowing. In September, 14 of 19 Fed policymakers had said there were risks that inflation could rise faster than they expected. This month, only eight said so.

“Their projections have mostly gone down, and they think the probability that there will be some flare-up of inflation is lower,” said Preston Mui, senior economist at Employ America, an advocacy group.

RED CAPITALI$M

Standard Chartered to offer China's rich more foreign investment choices via its global network as home markets wilt

South China Morning Post
Sun, December 17, 2023 

Standard Chartered, one of Hong Kong's three currency-issuing banks, plans to strengthen its role as an international service provider in mainland China, tapping its wealthy clients' rising appetite for assets around the globe.

The emerging market-focused lender said it would facilitate Chinese capital to access markets in the Middle East and Africa amid China's consolidated economic tie-ups with the countries in those regions.

"We are considering expanding our international banking services [in China], riding piggyback on Standard Chartered's global network, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, to cater to clients' demand," said Richard Li Feng, deputy CEO of the bank's China business..

He would not elaborate on details of the expansion plan, but said mainland clients keen on diversifying their wealth abroad would benefit from the bank's new growth strategy in 2024.

Richard Li Feng, deputy CEO of Standard Chartered China and General Manager of Personal, Private and SME Banking. Photo: Handout alt=Richard Li Feng, deputy CEO of Standard Chartered China and General Manager of Personal, Private and SME Banking. Photo: Handout>

Technically, mainland businesses and individuals are not able to deposit their money in a bank account offshore or invest directly in equities and bonds abroad.

They can opt for investment schemes such as qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) and qualified domestic limited partner (QDLP), to allocate assets to markets outside the mainland.

These schemes, under a quota system, allow institutions to raise capital from mainland investors before converting their funds into foreign currencies for buying overseas-listed bonds and equities.

"As an international institution, we found that Chinese people still have a strong desire for allocating assets around the world," Li said. "We will create a global investment platform for the Chinese clients."

He added that increasing the QDII and QDLP quotas would be needed to better serve the high-net-worth residents.

A weak Chinese yuan, a swooning stock market and a property debacle have prompted mainland investors to buy overseas assets as they seek to hedge against domestic market risks.

Economic ties between China and the Middle East are growing with the increase in the number of investment deals following Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia last December.

An HSBC report released in August, estimates there is an untapped trade potential of US$178 billion between China and the Middle East and North Africa region from now until 2027.

Foreign banks like Citibank and Standard Chartered are still small players in mainland China, but most of them focus on private banking businesses which seek to help the rich manage their wealth.

China has about 400 million middle-income residents and Premier Li Qiang touted the country's consumer vigour as a key growth driver for the global economy when he urged foreigners to invest while giving a speech at the China International Import Expo on November 5.

In February 2022, Standard Chartered said it would spend an additional US$300 million by 2024 to reinforce its mainland businesses, which included spending on its planned expansion of its retail branch network and on the digitalisation of its operations.

Last month, Jerry Zhang, CEO of Standard Chartered China operations, said the country's economy is on a solid footing, bolstering its confidence to invest more in the country.

"Foreign banks, with their presence around the major markets in the world, will have better chances of expanding their wealth management businesses in China now that many of the riches are avoiding domestic properties and stocks," said Ding Haifeng, a consultant at Shanghai financial advisory firm Integrity. "What they need to do is bring in a diverse portfolio of investment products to lure as many investors with different levels of risk appetite."

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

LUXURY COMMODITY FETISHISM

India's Modi says new diamond bourse in Gujarat to create 150,000 jobs

Sun, December 17, 2023 

A delegate listens while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks on-screen during the inaugural session of InFinity Forum 2.0, at GIFT City, in Gandhinagar


By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Surat diamond bourse will create 150,000 new jobs and become a "one-stop shop" for artisans and businessmen, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he inaugurated the new bourse in Gujarat.

Surat, in Gujarat state, where Modi originally hails from, cuts and polishes 90% of world's rough diamonds and the bourse will support its ambition to become the world's diamond capital.

Constructed over 6.6 million square feet, the bourse is touted as the world's largest office building, surpassing the Pentagon which has an area of 6.5 million square feet.

Once it starts operating facilities such as international banking, safe vaults and a jewellery mall, further jobs would be created, Modi said during the inauguration event.

The inauguration comes as Surat's diamond industry is battling a slowdown in global demand for polished diamonds. India's April-October polished diamond exports fell 29% to $10 billion.

Modi said that while Surat's diamond's industry had a leading position in diamond jewellery exports, silver cut diamonds and lab-grown diamonds, India's share of global gems-jewellery exports was just 3.5%.

Surat could help increase India's share of gems-jewellery exports to "double-digits", Modi said.

He added that he would continue to support the sector with a range of incentives and by declaring it a focus area for export promotion.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; editing by Christina Fincher)

India's love of homegrown single malts shakes up Pernod, Diageo

Sat, December 16, 2023 




Workers prepare to pack whisky bottles inside Piccadily Distilleries in Indri

By Arpan Chaturvedi, Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra

INDRI, India (Reuters) - Oak casks, once used to store bourbon and wine, are stacking up in a distillery near New Delhi, filled with ageing whisky as workers churn out almost 10,000 bottles a day of Indian single malt Indri, recently named the world's best whisky.

Sugarcane and mustard fields, not peat bogs, ring the distillery, where the two-year-old Indian brand's owner Piccadily is ramping up production and building a three-hole golf course to lure connoisseurs and tipplers in the whisky-loving nation.

As India comes into its own as a maker, not just consumer, of whisky, its single malts are reshaping the country's $33 billion spirits market.

Established global brands such as Glenlivet, made by France's Pernod Ricard, and Talisker by Britain's Diageo fight for shelf space with local rivals Indri, Amrut and Radico Khaitan's Rampur.

Unlike many Asian countries where beer dominates alcohol sales, India is predominantly a whisky-drinking nation. Global awards, increased affluence and a mass of drinkers trying new brands while cooped up during COVID-19 have rocked India's whisky landscape, industry executives and analysts say.

Aditya Prakash Rao for years drank foreign brands but now increasingly buys Indian malts for himself and for gifts during festive seasons.

Indian whisky gives Rao a sense of national pride - and goes well with Indian food - the lawyer said. "Nothing beats Indian malts in pairing with our kind of food, which is spicy. I love it."

Indri's $421 Diwali Collector's Edition won "Best in Show" at the Whiskies of the World Awards blind tasting in San Francisco in August, beating Scottish and U.S. rivals.

In response to the drink-India trend, global brands that have focussed on single malts aged in Scotland are looking to Indian whiskies to tap the boom in one of the world's biggest whisky markets.

With Bollywood stars and Indian music, Pernod on Wednesday uncorked its first made-in-India single malt, the $48 Longitude 77, with plans to expand sales to Dubai and then the rest of the world.

"We are extremely bullish about this category. It has seen unprecedented growth," said Kartik Mohindra, Pernod India's chief marketing officer.

'CATEGORY OF THE FUTURE'

Diageo, Pernod's larger rival, last year launched its first Indian single malt, Godawan - named after a large, endangered Indian bird - that sells in five foreign markets, including the United States.

"We seem to be moving from whisky in India to Indian whisky - within India and globally," said Vikram Damodaran, Diageo's India chief innovation officer.

Pernod's Glenlivet, long India's top-selling single malt, grew 39% by volume last year but was dethroned by Amrut, which spiked 183%, Euromonitor data shows.

Indian single malts soared 144% in 2021-22, beating the 32% growth in Scotch, data from IWSR Drinks Market Analysis shows. For the period until 2027, it predicts, consumption of Indian malts is set to grow 13% a year compared to Scotch at 8%.

Indri maker Piccadily Distilleries hopes to expand capacity by 66% to 20,000 litres (5,300 gallons) a day by 2025, reaching beyond the 18 foreign markets that make up 30% of its sales, said founder Siddhartha Sharma.

It plans to double the number of casks to 100,000 at the sprawling distillery in a farm belt 160 km (100 miles) north of India's capital.

The local brands are not cheap: Indri starts at $37 a bottle, Amrut $42 and Rampur $66 in shops near New Delhi. In comparison, Pernod's Glenlivet retails from $40 to $118, depending on age.

At the Longitude 77 launch, Pernod served CEOs, diplomats, celebrity chefs and other invited guests the new single malt and cocktails made with it, combined with local ingredients like Kashmiri saffron and Alphonso mangoes.

Radico expects Rampur sales to double each year and will focus more on expanding the domestic market, as foreign sales contribute 75% of its business, said Sanjeev Banga, president of international business.

The biggest endorsement of the category, he said, "is that you have both Diageo and Pernod coming up with an Indian single malt."

"Otherwise, they were only talking about their mainstream foreign brands," Banga said. "They realise this is a category of the future."

(This story has been refiled to change ‘a’ into ‘the’ in paragraph 8, and to remove the extraneous 'last year' in paragraph 14)

(Reporting by Arpan Chatruvedi and Aditi Shah in Indri, Haryana and Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by William Mallard)

India's opposition parties protest against Adani's Mumbai slum overhaul plan

Sat, December 16, 2023

People shout slogans as they wear banners during a protest against the redevelopment of Dharavi by the Adani Group in Mumbai

By Dhwani Pandya

MUMBAI (Reuters) -Thousands of protesters led by opposition parties marched towards billionaire Gautam Adani's offices in Mumbai on Saturday to voice their opposition to his conglomerate's $614 million redevelopment plans for one of Asia's largest slums in the city.

Protesters carried flags and banners with slogans such as "Remove Adani Save Dharavi" from the slum to Adani's premises in the central business district of India's financial capital.

"We are not against development, but the way the Dharavi redevelopment is planned it will only benefit Adani and not the slum residents," Baburao Mane, leader of Save Dharavi Committee (Dharavi Bachao Andolan), said.

The protest comes amid growing political opposition to the state government - ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and allies - for giving undue favours to Adani firms in allotting and executing the slum overhaul contract.

A rival bidder - a Dubai-based consortium - has mounted a legal challenge alleging the Maharashtra government improperly cancelled an original 2018 tender for the slum redevelopment and favoured Adani in giving the new contract.

The Dharavi project was awarded to the Adani Group through a fair, open and internationally competitive bidding process, the conglomerate said in statement late on Saturday evening. The state government has denied any wrongdoing and says the contract was awarded as per laws and policies.

Protesters have demanded that both eligible and non-eligible residents of the slum be housed inside the redeveloped area and be given bigger homes of 500 square feet, instead of the promised 300-350 sq ft. Some protesters also want the government to take over the slum overhaul instead of private developers like Adani.

The Maharashtra state government in July approved Adani Group's bid to overhaul Dharavi, which is known for producing leather goods, following years of failed attempts.

The slum, about three-quarters the size of New York's Central Park, featured in Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning 2008 movie "Slumdog Millionaire", and has open sewers and shared toilets. It is located close to Mumbai's international airport and high-rise office blocks housing foreign companies - making a stark contrast to India's development boom.

(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya; Editing by David Holmes and Tom Hogue)

When Greenland was green: Ancient soil from beneath a mile of ice offers warnings for the future

Paul Bierman, University of Vermont 

Tammy Rittenour, Utah State University
Sun, December 17, 2023 

Water and sediment pour off the melting margin of the Greenland ice sheet. Jason Edwards/Photodisc via Getty Images

About 400,000 years ago, large parts of Greenland were ice-free. Scrubby tundra basked in the Sun’s rays on the island’s northwest highlands. Evidence suggests that a forest of spruce trees, buzzing with insects, covered the southern part of Greenland. Global sea level was much higher then, between 20 and 40 feet above today’s levels. Around the world, land that today is home to hundreds of millions of people was under water.

Scientists have known for awhile that the Greenland ice sheet had mostly disappeared at some point in the past million years, but not precisely when.

In a new study in the journal Science, we determined the date, using frozen soil extracted during the Cold War from beneath a nearly mile-thick section of the Greenland ice sheet.



The timing – about 416,000 years ago, with largely ice-free conditions lasting for as much as 14,000 years – is important. At that time, Earth and its early humans were going through one of the longest interglacial periods since ice sheets first covered the high latitudes 2.5 million years ago.

The length, magnitude and effects of that natural warming can help us understand the Earth that modern humans are now creating for the future.

A world preserved under the ice

In July 1966, American scientists and U.S. Army engineers completed a six-year effort to drill through the Greenland ice sheet. The drilling took place at Camp Century, one of the military’s most unusual bases – it was nuclear powered and made up of a series of tunnels dug into the Greenland ice sheet.

The drill site in northwest Greenland was 138 miles from the coast and underlain by 4,560 feet of ice. Once they reached the bottom of the ice, the team kept drilling 12 more feet into the frozen, rocky soil below.

George Linkletter, working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, examines a piece of ice core in the science trench at Camp Century. The base was shut down in 1967. U.S. Army Photograph

In 1969, geophysicist Willi Dansgaard’s analysis of the ice core from Camp Century revealed for the first time the details of how Earth’s climate had changed dramatically over the last 125,000 years. Extended cold glacial periods when the ice expanded quickly gave way to warm interglacial periods when the ice melted and sea level rose, flooding coastal areas around the world.

For nearly 30 years, scientists paid little attention to the 12 feet of frozen soil from Camp Century. One study analyzed the pebbles to understand the bedrock beneath the ice sheet. Another suggested intriguingly that the frozen soil preserved evidence of a time warmer than today. But with no way to date the material, few people paid attention to these studies. By the 1990s, the frozen soil core had vanished.

Several years ago, our Danish colleagues found the lost soil buried deep in a Copenhagen freezer, and we formed an international team to analyze this unique frozen climate archive.

In the uppermost sample, we found perfectly preserved fossil plants – proof positive that the land far below Camp Century had been ice-free some time in the past – but when?

Exquisitely preserved fossils of more than 400,000-year-old moss, on the left, and a sedge seed on the right, found in the soil core from beneath the Greenland ice sheet, help tell the story of what lived there when the ice was gone. Halley Mastro/University of Vermont

Dating ancient rock, twigs and dirt

Using samples cut from the center of the sediment core and prepared and analyzed in the dark so that the material retained an accurate memory of its last exposure to sunlight, we now know that the ice sheet covering northwest Greenland – nearly a mile thick today – vanished during the extended natural warm period known to climate scientists as MIS 11, between 424,000 and 374,000 years ago.

The uppermost sample of the Camp Century sub-ice sediment core tells a story of vanished ice and tundra life in Greenland 416,000 years ago. Andrew Christ/University of Vermont

To determine more precisely when the ice sheet melted away, one of us, Tammy Rittenour, used a technique known as luminescence dating.

Over time, minerals accumulate energy as radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, and potassium decay and release radiation. The longer the sediment is buried, the more radiation accumulates as trapped electrons.

In the lab, specialized instruments measure tiny bits of energy, released as light from those minerals. That signal can be used to calculate how long the grains were buried, since the last exposure to sunlight would have released the trapped energy.




Paul Bierman’s laboratory at the University of Vermont dated the sample’s last time near the surface in a different way, using rare radioactive isotopes of aluminum and beryllium.

These isotopes form when cosmic rays, originating far from our solar system, slam into the rocks on Earth. Each isotope has a different half-life, meaning it decays at a different rate when buried.

By measuring both isotopes in the same sample, glacial geologist Drew Christ was able to determine that melting ice had exposed the sediment at the land surface for less than 14,000 years.

Ice sheet models run by Benjamin Keisling, now incorporating our new knowledge that Camp Century was ice-free 416,000 years ago, show that Greenland’s ice sheet must have shrunk significantly then.

At minimum, the edge of the ice retreated tens to hundreds of miles around much of the island during that period. Water from that melting ice raised global sea level at least 5 feet and perhaps as much as 20 feet compared to today.

Warnings for the future

The ancient frozen soil from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet warns of trouble ahead.

During the MIS 11 interglacial, Earth was warm and ice sheets were restricted to the high latitudes, a lot like today. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere remained between 265 and 280 parts per million for about 30,000 years. MIS 11 lasted longer than most interglacials because of the impact of the shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun on solar radiation reaching the Arctic. Over these 30 millennia, that level of carbon dioxide triggered enough warming to melt much of the Greenland’s ice.

Today, our atmosphere contains 1.5 times more carbon dioxide than it did at MIS 11, around 420 parts per million, a concentration that has risen each year. Carbon dioxide traps heat, warming the planet. Too much of it in the atmosphere raises the global temperature, as the world is seeing now.

Over the past decade, as greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise, humans experienced the eight warmest years on record. July 2023 saw the hottest week on record, based on preliminary data. Such heat melts ice sheets, and the loss of ice further warms the planet as dark rock soaks up sunlight that bright white ice and snow once reflected.

At midnight in July, meltwater pours over the Greenland ice sheet in a meandering channel. Paul Bierman

Even if everyone stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would remain elevated for thousands to tens of thousands of years. That’s because it takes a long time for carbon dioxide to move into soils, plants, the ocean and rocks. We are creating conditions conducive to a very long period of warmth, just like MIS 11.

Unless people dramatically lower the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, evidence we found of Greenland’s past suggests a largely ice-free future for the island.

Everything we can do to reduce carbon emissions and sequester carbon that is already in the atmosphere will increase the chances that more of Greenland’s ice survives.

The alternative is a world that could look a lot like MIS 11 – or even more extreme: a warm Earth, shrinking ice sheets, rising sea level, and waves rolling over Miami, Mumbai, India and Venice, Italy.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

It was written by: Paul Bierman, University of Vermont and Tammy Rittenour, Utah State University.

Read more:

Meltwater is infiltrating Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its structure

Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland’s ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change

What’s going on with the Greenland ice sheet? It’s losing ice faster than forecast and now irreversibly committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise

Paul Bierman receives funding from the US National Science Foundation.

Tammy Rittenour receives funding from the US National Science Foundation..

Christians supporting anti-trans bill don't speak for me, my church or my faith | Opinion

Story by Alice Connor • 2d

There are some loud Christian voices supporting House Bill 68, which would restrict gender-affirming medical care for trans youth. We should not be passing bills in the secular world based on people’s faith, but since it’s been brought up, I have a thing or two to say about it as a called and ordained minister in the church of God.

The voices supporting this bill do not represent me nor the entirety of the Christian faith. Indeed, there are hundreds of thousands of the Christian faithful who are gay and trans, who love gay and trans people, and who are horrified by bills and theologies like this. The loud Christian voices do not speak for me. They do not speak for my parishioners or my family or my neighborhood. They do not even speak for the majority of − conservative − Christians.

There’s a recent Fox News poll where 86% of respondents said it’s a problem that families with transgender children are targets of political attacks. Americans are not in favor of these anti-trans laws.

Furthermore, trans people are statistically significantly more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. I would love for young women not to live in fear of men attacking them. And I would love for us to blame the appropriate parties here, not give in to scare tactics.

Related video: Program works with pastors to bring LGBTQ inclusion to church

 (Scripps News)

The stained glass windows, The Divine is depicted in androgynous

Duration 4:25

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Dailymotion'We are not a threat to people'

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Daily Mail  Torvaianica church opens doors to transgender community

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The message and life of Jesus of Nazareth was one of radical inclusion of those the people around him thought were unacceptable. From my faith and from the faith of thousands and thousands of other people, trans people are made in the image and likeness of God exactly as they are. That is, they are made in the image and likeness of God as trans people.

That first story of creation in our Bibles, it’s beautiful − a love letter to the wild beauty of the natural world and our place in it. It comes from the wonder early peoples had as they looked around them − could this be? Who made this? God, they said. God made this and called it all good. And it was so. "Male and female God created them," says the book of Genesis, and that makes sense, right? We typically see male and female. But, scripture is so much more rich than the surface level. Scripture is poetr

There’s a way of writing in Hebrew called a merism where two extremes are named to then include everything in between. In Isaiah, God says, "I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe," which means God has a hand in the good and the bad and everything in between. God, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, is vast, transcendent, contains all things. God contains all genders, male, female and everything in between. And God created humans in the image and likeness of God, male and female and everything in between.

A parishioner of mine many years ago used to say "God don’t make no mistakes." My trans friends realizing who they truly are is not God having made a mistake or them misunderstanding what God did in making them. The fact that they are trans is how they were made − fearfully and wonderfully made.

I was overjoyed the day my kid came out to me because of the trust and safety they felt with me to share that part of their life. I am proud to be their mom. I am also terrified to be their mom. When will they be assaulted or insulted because someone can’t tell what gender they are? Will they cut their own beautiful skin to relieve the pain because they can’t see past the alienation and disgust thrown at them by their peers and by their government?

A couple months ago, a trans friend told me about a 12-year-old girl in Mississippi. She had committed suicide because her family and peers were so cruel to her about being trans. She couldn’t envision things getting better. Twelve years old. I said to this friend, "I couldn’t have imagined at 12 how to even go about committing suicide, much less being so filled with despair that was the only option."

He said quietly, "My first attempt was at 9."

This is the result of bills like HB 68. At CPAC in March, Michael Knowles said "transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely." This is the future that Rep. Gary Click and so many others want. But this is not the future that God wants. This bill is the kind of thing the God of the Bible would send prophets about. And maybe he has. The God of the Bible who so many of us worship is a God of liberation, a God of the marginalized, not of the powerful.

Our trans youth are not threats to be eliminated, they are miracles to be celebrated. HB 68 is not of God, is not representative of the whole of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and will not work to protect anyone. Please do not pass it out of committee.

The Rev. Alice Connor is Assistant Rector of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Anderson Township.

Alice Connor© David N Martin/ © MKphotography

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Christians supporting anti-trans bill don't speak for me, my church or my faith | Opinion

After a Trans Girl Won an Irish Dance Contest, Thousands Signed a Petition of Support

James Factora
Fri, December 15, 2023

Sonja Filitz/Getty Images

Over 3,600 people and counting have signed a petition in support of trans practitioners of Irish dance, in response to right-wing anti-trans backlash directed at a trans teen dancer.

In November, a trans girl placed first at a regional competition in the division for girls 14 and younger, qualifying her for the Irish Dancing World Championships. (A press release provided to Them states that the dancer, her family, and her school have requested that her name not appear in media, since she is a minor.) Right-wing outlets such as The Daily Signal, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire pounced on the story, claiming that the dancer’s win was proof that she possessed “physical advantages,” and that it was unfair for her to compete against cis girls.

Last week, a group calling themselves Concerned Irish Dance Teachers Adjudicators Parents and Dancers circulated a petition urging separate categories for trans and cis participants in the name of “fairness.” The following day, Irish dancer Gabrielle Siegel started a counter petition in support of trans Irish dancers, which has garnered 3,597 signatures at the time of publication.

“As soon as I saw the backlash to this dancer's win, I knew we had to find a way to organize our support,” Siegel told Them via email. “That response represents a minority of people within the world of Irish dance, and I was afraid that the organizing bodies of Irish dance would believe that this backlash represented the will of the community.” She noted that as an LGBTQ+ dancer herself, Irish dance has provided a safe space for her “and for so many people,” and that it is “crucial that we keep it that way.”

Siegel started the petition after a friend, a fellow Irish dancer who fought to compete in the men’s category years ago, recommended writing an open letter to show her support for trans Irish dancers. With her friend’s help, Siegel drafted and posted the petition, to which she said the response has been “incredible.” “We have gotten signatures from many world champions, teachers, adjudicators, and prominent figures in Irish dance, along with countless dancers and supporters across the community who have come together and said, unequivocally, Irish dance is for everyone,” she said.

Addressed to An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG), the governing body for competitive Irish dance, the petition voices “unequivocal support for transgender dancers and for these dancers to continue competing as their true selves in the category that best aligns with their gender identity.”

“We recognize the right of transgender dancers to succeed in our sport, and celebrate their wins without exception,” the petition reads. It also rejects the idea that trans girls might have an inherent upper hand, writing that “success in Irish dance is, and has always been, a multi-factorial result upon which no assigned birth sex can confer a biological advantage.”

Siegel says that trans dancers have competed in several regions for some years now, a point that was echoed by a statement from the Southern Regional director of IDTANA. In the statement, posted to Facebook, Regional Director P.J. McCafferty wrote that trans dancers competing in the categories that correspond to their gender identities “is an established CLRG precedent” that “has been done before.” McCafferty added that trans dancers have previously competed in the IDTANA regional qualifier competitions, including in the Southern Region.

CLRG has yet to respond to either petition publicly. On November 21, the IDTANA Southern Region Facebook page posted a statement acknowledging the “great deal of upset” regarding trans participation. P.J. McCafferty, the regional director of IDTANA, maintained that trans dancers participating in the category that corresponds to their gender identity “is an established CLRG precedent.”

“I am writing this post to remind everyone that we teach all the dancers,” McCafferty wrote. “We advocate for every one of our dancers. We do our very best to be fair to everyone.”

In a Baffling Move, Trans Women Are Now Banned From Women’s Chess Competitions

The International Chess Federation didn’t offer any reasoning for the new rules.

The controversy comes at a time when a number of global sports governing bodies have enacted policies limiting trans participation. Earlier this year, the governing bodies for pro cycling and track and field effectively barred trans women from elite competition. Even the international board for competitive chess enacted such a rule in August, despite the fact that chess is not a physically competitive activity.

Originally Appeared on them.

This image shows dancers in the girls' 12-13 competition at the World Irish Dancing Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

The day after the first petition was launched, Gabrielle Siegel, an adult Irish dancer who says she has been competing in Irish dancing for 10 years, launched a counterpetition titled "Support Transgender Irish Dancers."

The petition consists of an open letter to CLRG, praising the organization for its position of admitting trans dancers. The petition has around 3,600 signatures.

"We recognize that the decision to enact this policy was an informed one, made with the endorsement of the teaching community, in alignment with up-to-date scientific research," the petition reads, in part.

"We thank the Southern Region and CLRG for standing strong in the face of ill-informed transphobic backlash against this well-established precedent."

"We look forward to a future where dancers not only continue to compete in the category that aligns with their gender identity but are celebrated universally by all members of their community. Trans dancers have the right to compete. Trans dancers have the right to succeed."

One signee, Dylan Wenz, wrote in support of the petition.

"I am a trans dancer and I deserve to have a place in my sport that does not misrepresent my identity," Wenz wrote. "Trans dancers have been in this sport for years, but it only becomes controversial when one of us wins? Not fair."

Leonard Bernstein And I Loved The Same Man. Here's What Bradley Cooper's 'Maestro' Doesn't Show.

Peter Napolitano
Sat, December 16, 2023 

Leonard Bernstein makes notations to a musical score in 1955.

Leonard Bernstein makes notations to a musical score in 1955.

On a Sunday in November 1986, I was getting ready to visit Tommy, my dear friend and sometimes lover. He was in the final stages of AIDS-related lymphoma and about to leave New York City for good, and he wanted to see me one last time.

The phone rang. It was him.

“Hey, Peter,” he said. “Listen, I just found out that someone else is coming over today around the same time. I hope that’s OK.”

“Well, I could come later if you ...”

“No! I want you to be here, especially after he leaves. Peter ... it’s Lenny!”

Lenny was Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor and composer of “West Side Story.” Tommy was Thomas Cothran, his former lover, close friend and collaborator, who was entrusted to supervise and edit the composition and initial performances of “Mass,” Bernstein’s oratorio.

Since I became aware of “Maestro,” the Bernstein biopic directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, which is currently in theaters before it premieres Wednesday on Netflix, I’ve thought about Lenny and Tommy — and the day Bernstein and I both said goodbye to him — more than I have in almost 40 years. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I think of little else.

From its promotion and reviews (mostly raves), I knew “Maestro”primarily focused on the decadeslong relationship between Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre, his wife and the mother of his three children, and that Tommy would be portrayed by Gideon Glick. Since the story is primarily told chronologically, beginning in the 1940s, and Tommy didn’t meet Lenny until the ’70s, the movie is more than half over when he’s introduced to Lenny at a party in the Bernstein home.

From left: Gideon Glick, who plays Tommy Cothran in

From left: Gideon Glick, who plays Tommy Cothran in "Maestro"; Carey Mulligan, who plays Felicia Montealegre; and Bradley Cooper, who plays Bernstein, pose in New York on Nov. 27.

Within a minute or two after this first meeting, Felicia, portrayed by Carey Mulligan, is shown discovering the two men kissing in a hallway. I know this didn’t happen. According to Tommy (and verified by Humphrey Burton in his 1994 biography of Bernstein), they first met at a party in a mutual friend’s home in San Francisco, where Tommy was the musical director of a local classical radio station. Lenny was in California without Felicia, working on a revival of “Candide.” Tommy and Lenny became lovers during that visit and remained so for the next seven years. However, in the film, the role Tommy played in the Bernstein marriage is seen entirely from Felicia’s point of view, and much of what transpired is left out. Here’s what else is missing, as I remember Tommy telling me.

During the creation of ”Mass,” which premiered in 1971, and for five years afterward, Tommy was a most welcome, constant presence in the daily lives of the entire Bernstein family, and he got along well with everyone, including Felicia. He and Lenny worked on many projects together, keeping their sexual relations secret. Eventually, Felicia did discover them being “intimate.” Tommy never told me exactly what happened, but he did say that after Felicia learned about their relationship, she gave Lenny an ultimatum: He had to choose between her and Tommy. Lenny chose Tommy. In 1976, the Bernsteins separated.

Although the details were kept secret from the press and general public, Lenny and Tommy lived and traveled together openly, creating a scandal in the classical music and theater communities of the time. None of this is in the film. When Felicia was diagnosed with cancer in 1977, Lenny left Tommy, reconciled with his wife, and cared for her until her death. Lenny and Tommy did not become lovers again, but remained close friends and confidants. By 1986, Tommy was diagnosed with AIDS. Lenny was now losing Tommy, too. And so was I.

As I made my way down to Greenwich Village that cold November afternoon to say goodbye, I thought about the warm day in May a year and a half earlier when I first met Tommy.

I had recently been diagnosed with HIV, which at the time was a death sentence. Tommy was sitting on a bench on the pier off Christopher Street, gazing at the Hudson River. He was very thin, as was his sandy brown hair, and his Irish good looks were marred by the beginnings of facial wasting — even then a telltale sign of HIV. The sight of him saddened and frightened me.

Suddenly, with a big smile on his face, he started to wave. Did I know him? No, he was waving past me at a small boat going by with a bunch of nearly naked young men crowded aboard. I laughed. He looked at me and called me over.

Bernstein and Montealegre, his wife, are pictured in 1959.

Bernstein and Montealegre, his wife, are pictured in 1959.

We talked while sharing the joint he was smoking. Despite his apparent illness, there was a vitality — a smart sparkle to everything he said and did — that captivated me. He seemed to like me too, and as the afternoon waned into evening, he invited me to his home, a studio walk-up apartment at 94 Christopher St., between David’s Pot Belly, a popular hamburger joint, and the even more popular Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop. His place was all bricks and books, and had a big brass bed. There was a kitchen with a bathtub and a small bathroom next to it.

We smoked another joint. We had sex, but aside from that, what I remember the most from that day and those first months together was the joy of finding someone who knew what I was going through — who was living it too — but refused to dwell on it or even talk about it. Instead, we discussed books and plays and music and tennis. (He was obsessed with Martina Navratilova.)

So positive was Tommy’s attitude that one day he proudly told me that he had joined the gym around the corner. Although it was primarily patronized by massive bodybuilders, Tommy wasn’t fazed. His gaunt face glowed as he told me how fascinating it was to work out with them. (“Everything about them is so round.”)

When I arrived at Tommy’s that Sunday, my amusing memories yielded to the task at hand. I found myself becoming jealous and annoyed with Bernstein. I did not want to share this last visit with anyone, least of all a living legend who had played a far more important role in Tommy’s life than I did!

Tommy was propped up in bed, a fur cap on his bare head and a fur blanket enveloping his emaciated body. Greeting me with a big grin, he reminded me of a Russian soldier in a marionette version of “The Nutcracker” I once saw as a child. He introduced me to his home care attendant, who made me a cup of tea and then spent most of the time I was there reading in the bathroom.

Tommy looked tired, but that old sparkle was there. He told me how generous Bernstein had been during his long illness, paying the rent for his apartment and his medical expenses. A few weeks before, Tommy had asked him for a final favor: He wanted to be taken to Tibet to die. I was stunned, but I understood why. Tommy had traveled the world with Lenny, and Tibet was the place that made the greatest impression on him. He wanted to go back there with the love of his life to transition in peace. Lenny had promised him that he would try his best to grant his wish, and today Tommy would find out if it was going to happen.

Bernstein is shown in a recording studio in New York in 1974.

Bernstein is shown in a recording studio in New York in 1974.

When Lenny arrived, he wasn’t alone. His musical assistant at the time was with him. At first, I thought this was insensitive — bringing a young man along who was doing the same job your dying lover once had. Then I realized that, like Tommy, perhaps Lenny, too, needed a close friend to give him support on this sad occasion.

Lenny, who was wearing his trademark black cape and carrying his walking stick, seemed much older than when I had briefly met him the first time, after a concert that Tommy and I attended the year before. He shook my hand and then went to the bed and gently kissed Tommy on the forehead. He sat on the opposite side of the bed from me so that Tommy was close to both of us. Lenny’s assistant remained discreetly in the background.

The three of us chatted a bit, but I don’t remember much of the conversation. All I recall is the way Tommy and Lenny looked at each other and touched each other with love and sadness, but also with humor and rueful acceptance. Watching them, I was ashamed of my resentment toward sharing this moment with Lenny. I realized that I was the intruder and was relieved when they asked me and Lenny’s assistant to go downstairs for a while. On our way out, I heard a deep sob. I’m not sure whose it was.

When we returned, Lenny was in the bathroom. I didn’t need Tommy to tell me what the answer was about Tibet. He shrugged and held up his hands in a “what can you do?” gesture. I took his hand. The toilet flushed. I released Tommy’s hand, but he put it back.

As Lenny entered the room, I could see that he had been crying. He wiped his face with a handkerchief. He saw me and looked surprised, as if he had forgotten I was there. Then he held out his hand and took mine.

“Goodbye. Thanks for looking after him.”

He put on his cape, picked up his stick, then went to the other side of the bed, took Tommy’s free hand, held it, kissed him again on the lips, whispered something to him, and, with his assistant by his side, departed.

Bernstein appears at a press conference in Paris in June of 1986, the same year that the author spoke with him in Tommy's apartment.

Bernstein appears at a press conference in Paris in June of 1986, the same year that the author spoke with him in Tommy's apartment.

I stayed with Tommy for a while longer, but he was totally exhausted, both emotionally and physically. I kissed him, told him I loved him, said goodbye and left.

Tommy died four months later. To my knowledge, Lenny never saw him again. Neither did I.

I learned more about the real Leonard Bernstein in one afternoon in that grubby Christopher Street walk-up than from all the books I’ve read and all of the stories I’ve heard — even the ones Tommy told me — and certainly more than I learned from seeing “Maestro.” There was none of the flamboyance, artistic temperament and self-absorbed ego so associated with him. All I saw that afternoon was kindness, tenderness, heartbreaking sadness and the undeniable evidence of a deep, complex and lasting love.

Anyone could see that Tommy and Lenny’s relationship was not a casual one defined solely by sexual attraction and activity — or inherently inferior to the commitment and permanence of a straight relationship. Yet, that’s exactly how LGBTQ couples were commonly perceived before Stonewall, AIDS and marriage equality. They still are, as evidenced by today’s growing anti-LGBTQ movement, which reduces all gay relationships to strictly sexual ones. Unfortunately, I fear that “Maestro” may unintentionally contribute to that stereotype.

Although the film is beautifully crafted with outstanding performances and appears to be a front-runner in the upcoming awards season, I find it a bit baffling that the screenplay gives such short shrift to all of Bernstein’s relationships with the men in his life, including Tommy and others he was romantically linked to, like David Oppenheim and Aaron Copland. None of these men has a scene alone with Bernstein in the film. They seem almost interchangeable, and the superficiality of their depictions robs the movie of the complexity and contemporary relevance that a more evenly focused treatment could have provided.

I’m sure the love story of Lenny and Felicia was a true and beautiful one — and obviously well worth telling — but so was the one between Lenny and Tommy. To show and tell only one while reducing the other to brief hints and flashes is exactly what the closeted world of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s was like for so many gay and bisexual men. In today’s world, these can and should be told together. Each one enriches the other. I think Lenny, Tommy and, yes, even Felicia would have wanted it that way.

Writer/lyricist/director Peter Napolitano’s work has been published/produced by The New York Times (“Modern Love”), Dell Publishing, The York Theatre, The Glines, Theater for the New City, and Urban Stages. He is currently a recipient of a Guaranteed Income for Artists grant from Creatives Rebuild New York.

New York's Metropolitan Museum will return stolen ancient sculptures to Cambodia and Thailand

MAYSOON KHAN
Fri, December 15, 2023 





This March 2007 photo shows a bronze sculpture titled "Standing Shiva" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The sculpture is one of 16 pieces of artwork that the museum said it will return to Cambodia and Thailand that federal prosecutors say were tied to an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquities trafficking network out of Southeast Asia.

 (Metropolitan Museum of Art via AP)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art said Friday that it will return more than a dozen pieces of ancient artwork to Cambodia and Thailand after they were tied to an art dealer and collector accused of running a huge antiquities trafficking network out of Southeast Asia.

This most recent repatriation of artwork comes as many museums in the U.S. and Europe reckon with collections that contain objects looted from Asia, Africa and other places during centuries of colonialism or in times of upheaval.

Fourteen Khmer sculptures will be returned to Cambodia and two will be returned to Thailand, according to the Manhattan museum.


The repatriation of the ancient pieces was linked to well-known art dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for allegedly orchestrating a multiyear scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market. Latchford, who died the following year, had denied any involvement in smuggling.

The museum initially cooperated with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations on the return of 13 sculptures tied to Latchford before determining there were three more that should be repatriated.

“As demonstrated with today’s announcement, pieces linked to the investigation of Douglas Latchford continue to reveal themselves," HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan said in a statement Friday. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art has not only recognized the significance of these 13 Khmer artifacts, which were shamelessly stolen, but has also volunteered to return them, as part of their ongoing cooperation, to their rightful owners: the People of Cambodia.”

This isn’t the first time the museum has repatriated art linked to Latchford. In 2013, it returned two objects to Cambodia.

The Latchford family also had a load of centuries-old Cambodian jewelry in their possession that they later returned to Cambodia. In February, 77 pieces of jewelry made of gold and other precious metal pieces, including items such as crowns, necklaces and earrings were returned to their homeland. Other stone and bronze artifacts were returned in September 2021.

The latest works being returned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art were made between the ninth and 14th centuries in the Angkorian period and reflect the Hindu and Buddhist religious systems prominent during that time, according to the museum.

Angkor in the ninth to the 15th centuries was a powerful kingdom in the area of present-day Cambodia. Tourists can see relics of that past at the Angkor Wat temple complex in the country's northwest.

Among the pieces being returned include a bronze sculpture called “The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease” made some time between the late 10th century and early 11th century. Another piece of art, made of stone in the seventh century and named “Head of Buddha" will also be returned. Those pieces are part of 10 that can still be viewed in the museum's galleries while arrangements are being made for their return.

There is no specific timeline for when the pieces will be returned, the museum said.

Research efforts have already been underway by the museum to examine the ownership history of its objects, focusing on the provenance of Nazi-looted artwork that changed hands in Germany-occupied Europe.

Another focus of the museum's research includes ancient art and cultural property — specifically how the objects were discovered and subsequently changed hands.

___

Khan 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art to return stolen sculptures to Cambodia, Thailand

Ehren Wynder
Fri, December 15, 2023 

People wait in line for the Metropolitan Museum of Art to open to guests in New York City in May. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI


Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art said Friday it plans to return 14 sculptures to Cambodia and two to Thailand after it discovered the artifacts were stolen.

The Met said it will effectively remove all Khmer works associated with dealer Douglas Latchford, who was indicted in 2019 for illegally smuggling antiques.

Max Hollein, the museum's director and CEO, said the Met has worked with Cambodia and the U.S. Attorney's Office for years to resolve questions regarding the stolen works of art.

"New information that arose from this process made it clear that we should initiate the return of this group of sculptures," he said.

The works being repatriated were made between the ninth and 14th centuries and reflect the prevailing Buddhist and Hindu culture of the period, according to the Met. Among them include a bronze sculpture "The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease" made around the 10th and 11th centuries and a stone "Head of Buddha" from the 7th century.

The museum said a selection of the works will remain on display while it makes arrangements to return them to their countries of origin.

Latchford allegedly had a long history of artifact smuggling, first gaining the attention of U.S. Law enforcement in 2011 with the appearance of a 500-pound sculpture from Kho Ker in a Sotheby's auction catalogue. The Met also returned two other Cambodian objects linked to the dealer in 2013. Latchford died in 2020 without being convicted.

The theft of Cambodian cultural artifacts began century ago under French colonialism, and looting became a global business in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

'Soul of our ancestors': US to return stolen Cambodian treasures

AFP
Fri, December 15, 2023 

'They are dated back to Angkorian era,' said Cambodian culture ministry spokesperson Hab Touch (TANG CHHIN Sothy)


A prestigious US museum will hand back more than a dozen valuable antiquities to Cambodia, a prosecutor said on Friday, after they were plundered and illegally trafficked into the institution's collection.

They were originally stolen by prolific antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford who in 2019 was charged with operating a major network that stole treasures from Southeast Asia.

A priceless 10th century goddess sandstone statute and a larger-than-life Buddha head from the 7th century are among the items being returned.

Prosecutors said 13 Khmer antiquities were being returned, but the Met Museum, where they were displayed, said separately 14 sculptures would be returned to Cambodia, and two to Thailand.

"The Met has voluntarily agreed to return the antiquities, and they are in the process of being turned over," said the office of Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Latchford was charged with "orchestrating a multi-year scheme to sell looted Cambodian antiquities on the international art market," the office said.

The indictment was later dismissed due to Latchford's death.

"Following (Latchford's) indictment, the Met proactively reached out to (prosecutors) and to Cambodian officials, and through this cooperative partnership, the Museum received new information about the sculptures that made it clear that the works should be transferred," the Met said.

"A number of the sculptures -- including the bronze masterpiece the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Seated in Royal Ease (late 10th-early 11th century), and the monumental stone Head of Buddha (7th century) -- will remain on view in the museum's galleries for South Asian art while arrangements are made for their return to their countries of origin."

- New York trafficking hub -

The Met recently announced it would take steps to better respect cultural property including a review of its inventory.

"They are very important items, that's why we are demanding them back. They are all our ancient artifacts. They are dated back to Angkorian era," Cambodian culture ministry spokesperson Hab Touch told AFP ahead of Friday's announcement.

"They are very good items, ancient items that are the soul of our ancestors."

The works to be returned were stolen at the end of the 20th century, during the wars in Cambodia in the 1970s and during its 1990s reopening to the outside world.

Thousands of statues and sculptures were trafficked internationally over decades from Cambodia to antique dealers in Bangkok, Thailand, before being illegally exported to collectors, businessmen and museums in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Over the past two years, more than 1,000 pieces worth $225 million have been returned to more than 20 countries, including Cambodia, China, India, Egypt, Greece and Italy, officials say.

New York is a trafficking hub, and several antiquities have been seized since 2021 from museums including the respected Met, and from wealthy private collectors in Manhattan.

New York's Met museum returns Southeast Asian artifacts tied to looting
Reuters
Fri, December 15, 2023 at 1:15 PM MST·2 min read




FILE PHOTO: People stand outside The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

(Reuters) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City said on Friday that it would return 14 sculptures to Cambodia and two to Thailand that were associated with an art dealer who was charged with trafficking looted antiquities in 2019.

The return of the sculptures to their countries of origin would empty the Met's collection of art associated with Douglas Latchford, a dealer charged with smuggling looted artifacts from Southeast Asia, the museum said.

The U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York indicted Latchford for supplying major auction houses, art dealers and museums with looted antiquities and falsifying documentation about where he obtained the art. Latchford died at his home in Bangkok in 2020, the New York Times reported.

"The Met has been diligently working with Cambodia and the U.S. Attorney's Office for years to resolve questions regarding these works of art, and new information that arose from this process made it clear that we should initiate the return of this group of sculptures," Max Hollein, the Met's director and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The art being repatriated was produced between the 9th and 14th centuries in the Angkorian period, and reflects Hindu and Buddhist religious influences, the museum said.

Important Cambodian archeological sites from the ancient Khmer empire were targeted by looters during the country's extended period of civil unrest, from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s. Artifacts entered the international art market through an organized looting network and smuggling process that Latchford used to obtain his art, the U.S. Attorney's office said in its indictment.

The repatriation of the artwork follows the Met's pledge to review the works in its collection with an eye towards cultural property and the museum's past collecting practices, the museum statement said.

U.S. authorities have spent more than a decade working on locating artefacts looted from Cambodia and have made previous returns from various sources.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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