Backlash as USC cancels valedictorian’s speech over support for Palestine
Ramon Antonio Vargas and Abené Clayton
Tue, 16 April 2024
University of Southern California in Los Angeles.Photograph: Chon Kit Leong/Alamy
The University of Southern California is facing intense backlash for the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student at the commencement ceremony in May, a decision which the student has criticized as being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.
In a missive to the USC community, the university’s provost, Andrew Guzman, wrote that the Los Angeles university took the unprecedented step of canceling Asna Tabassum’s planned speech because the “alarming tenor” of reactions to her selection as valedictorian – along with “the intensity of feelings” surrounding Israel’s ongoing military strikes in Gaza – had created “substantial risks relating to security”.
Guzman’s statement did not refer to Tabassum by name, or specify what about her speech, background or political views had raised concerns. Nor did it detail any particular threats.
The decision has been met with outrage from online commenters and the Council of American Islamic Relations (Cair) the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, who, in a statement said Tabassum described herself as “shocked … and profoundly disappointed” after being informed on Monday that she would be barred from addressing her fellow graduates at their 10 May commencement.
“The university is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice,” Tabassum said in the statement.
Cair dismissed USC’s decision as “cowardly” and called on the university to reverse course – but Guzman maintained that “there was no free-speech entitlement to speak at a commencement”.
“While this is disappointing, tradition must give way to safety,” Guzman continued. “The issue here is how best to maintain campus security and safety, period.”
Since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel killed more than 1,100 mostly civilians as well as captured hostages, and the resulting assault on Gaza has killed more than 30,000 civilians – mostly women and children – while pushing the territory toward famine, US campuses have been roiled with debate over growing support for Palestine as well as dueling accusations of rising Islamophobia and antisemitism.
It was amid that climate that a USC committee selected Tabassum out of about 100 students with perfect, or nearly perfect, grade-point averages who applied to be valedictorian for a spring graduation ceremony honoring more than 19,000 graduates before an anticipated 65,000 spectators, according to Guzman.
NBC News described Tabassum as a first-generation south Asian American Muslim from Chino Hills – a city east of Los Angeles – in her fourth year as a biomedical engineering student. She has also been pursuing a minor in resistance to genocide.
At the top of Tabassum’s Instagram account, a link directs users to a slideshow encouraging readers “to learn about what’s happening in Palestine and how to help”. The presentation also advocates for “one Palestinian state”, saying that “would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolishment of the state of Israel”.
Although Tabassum told NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate that she posted the link five years earlier and did not author the slideshow, pro-Israel and Jewish groups objected to USC’s selection of her as valedictorian based on her social media activity.
In the Monday statement, USC said that their commencement ceremonies draw a crowd of more that 65,000 people which is a challenge for the public safety department on campus to handle. The university also cited heated demonstrations that have taken place at other schools as a part of their reasoning.
“The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement,” the statement read. “We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.”
A February protest against an event organized by Jewish students at the University of California, Berkeley, resulted in police evacuating the speaker – who was from Israel – as well as the attendees at the gathering after demonstrators broke through the doors.
USC’s public safety reasoning did not sit well with Jody David Armour, a law professor at the university who specializes in race issues and legal decision-making.
“So at USC cops decide what speech is allowed?” Armour posted on X.
Tabassum said she also was told USC possessed the ability “to take appropriate safety measures for my valedictory speech” but opted not to because a tougher security posture was “not what the university wants to present as an image.’”
Instead, Tabassum said USC was “caving to fear and rewarding hatred”, which she said was being directed by “anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian voices” targeting her “because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all”.
Among those who claimed to have taken offense to Tabassum’s selection as valedictorian was the group Trojans for Israel, which said it “strongly supports the right to free expression – including informed criticism of the Israeli government”.
“However,” a statement from the group said, “rhetoric that denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination or calls for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world must be denounced as antisemitic bigotry.”
The group added: “All … eligible valedictory candidates have valuable work ethic and accomplishments, but the university chose a candidate who publicly propagates antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric as the most esteemed representative of the class of 2024.”
Guzman’s message to the USC community said “social media presence” was not part of the criteria that the university used to evaluate its valedictorian candidates.
The leader of Cair’s Los Angeles chapter, Hussam Ayloush, on Monday said criticism of Tabassum had been “dishonest and defamatory … [and] nothing more than thinly veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism which have been weaponized against college students across the country who speak up for human rights – and for Palestinian humanity”.
Ayloush also said: “USC cannot hide its cowardly decision behind a disingenuous concern for security.”
In her statement, Tabassum said her undergraduate minor studies in genocide resistance had shown her the danger of allowing “cries for equality and human dignity” to be deliberately conflated with “expressions of hatred”.
“Due to widespread fear, I was hoping to use my commencement speech to inspire my classmates with a message of hope,” she wrote.
Reuters contributed to this report
In Tajikistan, climate migrants flee threat of fatal landslides
Bruno KALOUAZ
Tue, 16 April 2024
Many retirees in Tajikistan look after their grandchildren, whose parents have left to earn money in Russia (-)
Peeling onions in her new home, Yodgoroy Makhmaliyeva recalled the terrifying moment four years ago when a landslide buried her family home in mountainous Tajikistan.
Heavy snow and rain, she said, sent a deluge of rocks, water and mud crashing into the house in the Central Asian country estimated to be among the most vulnerable to effects of climate change.
"We had lived in fear until the day the mountain collapsed and destroyed our house," the 61-year-old said, wearing a shimmering headscarf.
Makhmaliyeva and her husband Jamoliddin had feared a torrent of earth would destroy their home, and are now among thousands of Tajiks displaced by a growing number of natural disasters.
Authorities in the ex-Soviet country of around 10 million believe hundreds of thousands live in regions threatened by mudslides, landslides, avalanches, floods and earthquakes.
They have made relocating people to safety a priority -- a daunting task for one of the world's poorest countries.
The Makhmaliyevs were rehoused in a new village in the Khuroson district, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of the capital Dushanbe.
Rows of modest homes built for "ecological migrants" lined a road surrounded by fields, with mountain peaks dotting the horizon.
- 'Did not know where we will live' -
Makhmaliyev recounted that the couple's old home had already survived several mudslides before it was levelled in early 2020.
"We spent a week digging out everything that was covered in dirt while we lived in a tent," the retired music teacher said.
"We didn't know where we were going to live," his wife Makhmaliyeva added.
One year later the couple were allotted their home in the village designated for people threatened by natural disasters.
Tajikistan says it relocated 45,000 people between 2000 and 2017, and that tens of thousands of others are waiting their turn.
The issue is pressing. Authorities say 557 emergency situations linked to natural disasters in last year alone killed 51 people.
- 'Huge material damage' -
The couple said the village where they look after six grandchildren is comfortable. Their own children are working in Russia like millions of other Tajiks.
Sitting on a bench embracing four small children, Makhmaliyev thanked President Emomali Rakhmon, who has ruled the tightly-controlled country since 1992, for the new family home.
Rakhmon has repeatedly underlined the huge financial and material damage his country suffers each year due to natural disasters.
He has even urged the population to stockpile food because of how vulnerable the country is to the negative effects of climate change.
A large portrait of the 71-year-old leader was plastered on the entrance of the village.
- 'Houses for future displaced' -
In a field across the road from the Makhmaliyevs, construction was ongoing to house new arrivals.
"It's houses for future displaced people," Murotbek Murodov, a uniformed officer with the emergency situations ministry, told AFP.
He said 67 new residential buildings were being built after a "natural disaster" hit another village.
"Approximately 900 village residents were evacuated," he said, adding those displaced were due to be rehoused in Khuroson.
"The aim is to put all residents in risk zones to safer places," he added.
- 'Thousands of danger zones' -
Murodov said there were more than 1,000 "dangerous zones" in the country that people needed to be removed from.
A United Nations report on climate change published this year said Tajikistan is the "most exposed" of all Central Asian countries.
The World Bank, meanwhile, has said that "natural catastrophes are a serious threat to economic stability" in the country, estimating that they caused more than $1.8 billion in damage between 1992 and 2019.
In the safety of his new home, Makhmaliyev ploughed a small garden as workers nearby laid foundations for new houses that would soon house Tajikistan's newest climate migrants.
bk-oc/jbr/yad/smw
Sweden votes on controversial gender reassignment law
NEWS WIRES
Tue, 16 April 2024
Sweden was the first country to introduce legal gender reassignment in 1972, but a proposal to lower the minimum age from 18 to 16 to be voted on by parliament Wednesday has sparked controversy.
The debate has also weakened conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's standing, after he admitted to caving into pressure from party members on the issue.
Beyond lowering the age, the proposals also aim to make it simpler for a person to change their legal gender.
"The process today is very long, it can take up to seven years to change your legal gender in Sweden," Peter Sidlund Ponkala, president of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL), told AFP.
Under the proposal, two new laws would replace the current legislation: one regulating surgical procedures to change gender, and one regulating the administrative procedure to change legal gender in the official register.
If parliament adopts the bill as expected on Wednesday, people will be able to change their legal gender starting at the age of 16, though those under 18 will need the approval of their parents, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare.
A diagnosis of "gender dysphoria" -- where a person may experience distress as a result of a mismatch between their biological sex and the gender they identify as -- will no longer be required.
Surgical procedures to transition would, like now, be allowed from the age of 18, but would no longer require the Board of Health and Welfare's approval.
The removal of ovaries or testes would however only be allowed from the age of 23, unchanged from today.
Security Council to vote Thursday on Palestinian state UN membership
AFP
Tue, 16 April 2024
The Palestinians -- who have had observer status at the United Nations since 2012 -- have lobbied for years to gain full membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood (ANGELA WEISS)
The United Nations Security Council will vote Thursday on the Palestinians' application to become a full UN member state, several diplomatic sources have told AFP.
Amid Israel's military offensive in Gaza, the Palestinians in early April revived a membership application first made to the world body in 2011, though the veto-wielding United States has repeatedly expressed opposition to the proposal.
The General Assembly can admit a new member state with a two-thirds majority vote, but only after the Security Council gives its recommendation.
Regional bloc the Arab Group issued a statement Tuesday affirming its "unwavering support" for the Palestinians' application.
"Membership in the United Nations is a crucial step in the right direction towards a just and lasting resolution of the Palestinian question in line with international law and relevant UN resolutions," the statement said.
Algeria, a non-permanent Security Council member, has drafted the resolution that "recommends" to the General Assembly "the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations."
The vote on Thursday will coincide with a Security Council meeting scheduled several weeks ago to discuss the situation in Gaza, which ministers from several Arab countries are expected to attend.
The Palestinians -- who have had observer status at the United Nations since 2012 -- have lobbied for years to gain full membership.
"We are seeking admission. That is our natural and legal right," Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said in April.
According to the Palestinian side, 137 of the 193 UN member states already recognize a Palestinian state, raising hope that their request would be supported in the General Assembly.
But the Palestinian push for UN membership faces a major hurdle, as the United States -- Israel's closest ally -- could use its veto power to block the Security Council recommendation.
"We call on all members of the Security Council to vote in favor of the draft resolution... At the very least, we implore Council members not to obstruct this critical initiative," the Arab Group said Tuesday.
The United States has voiced its opposition to full Palestinian membership, saying it backed statehood but only after negotiations with Israel, while pointing to US laws that would require cuts to UN funding if such a move took place without a bilateral agreement.
"That is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties, something we are pursuing at this time, and not at the United Nations," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in April.
Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan has strongly opposed the Palestinian membership bid, saying in mid-April the considerations were "already a victory for genocidal terror."
"The Security Council is deliberating granting the perpetrators and supporters of October 7 full membership status in the UN," Erdan said.
Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 33,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Cost of fire-ant outbreak in Australia could be much higher than ‘flawed’ earlier prediction, data shows
Daisy Dumas
Tue, 16 April 2024
Red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta). Data shows the invasive species will cost Australians more than $22bn by the 2040s if left to run rampant.
The cost of a widespread fire ant outbreak may be far higher than predicted in “flawed” government modelling provided to ministers in the fight against the highly invasive species, new research suggests.
The Australia Institute data, released on Wednesday, found that red imported fire ants will cost Australians more than $22bn by the 2040s if left to run rampant, with the benefits of achieving eradication estimated to be three to nine times greater than the $3bn needed to achieve that eradication.
The findings are in contrast to a 2021 Biosecurity Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries-commissioned report that indicated the cost benefits of eradicating the fire ants were generally positive but in some scenarios “quite poor” and even loss-making.
Related: ‘Wildly toxic’ poison used on fire ants is killing native Australian animals, experts warn Senate inquiry
The highly invasive insect is believed to have entered Australia in the 1990s and was discovered at Brisbane port in 2001. It has spread across more than 700,000 hectares in south-east Queensland and outbreaks were recently detected in northern New South Wales.
The policy thinktank found the government-commissioned analysis, entitled Assessing the Impacts of the Red Imported Fire Ant, was unusual in that it was limited to a 15-year timeframe when most fire ant economics modelling is conducted over 20 to 30 years. It also ignored the $2.5bn a year in damage that fire ants will cause beyond 2035, the authors said.
“The key flaw is that it only looks at costs over 15 years,” the research director of the Australia Institute, Rod Campbell, said.
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By changing the timeframe to 20 years and keeping all other parameters the same, the case for funding fire ant eradication efforts went from “marginal” to “compelling” because costs rise rapidly as the pest becomes more established.
“If you just extend their analysis for another five years you start capturing some of those benefits or avoided costs, then suddenly the economic case for investing in fire ant eradication goes from kind of marginal to absolutely compelling,” he said.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program spans state, territory and federal governments and has been allocated $593m federal and state funding from 2023 to 2027.
This is well below the $200m to $300m a year over 10 years that is necessary to “avert, by 2032, predicted annual impact and control costs of $2bn, and up to 140,000 medical consultations”, as recommended in a separate strategic review.
Dr Minh Ngoc Le, post doctoral fellow at the Australia Institute, said that “eradicating fire ants is not only one of the best environmental policies governments could pursue, but also one of the best economic policies”.
The Biosecurity Queensland report stated that the 15-year timeframe was chosen “even though only a small proportion of total potential infestation would occur in this time period, so as to maintain relevance for current decision makers and budget allocations.”
A spokesperson from the National Fire Ant Eradication Program said it “has been very clear that the costs of living with fire ants far outweigh the cost of eradication.”
Related: Fire ants detected south of Byron Bay after gardener raises alarm
“This position has been informed by multiple independent cost benefit studies over the past decade,” the spokesperson said.
The report was not made public until almost two years after it was completed. It was provided to ministers and senior federal agriculture department officials when fire ants breached containment in 2023, said the Invasive Species Council advocacy manager, Reece Pianta.
He said the revised modelling “paints an even more dire picture and should prompt further fire ant action”.
“We’ve been calling for greater transparency including early public disclosure of reports like this to ensure governments are making the best decisions about fire ants. It raises questions about how invasive species are modelled, particularly around the impacts on our natural environment,” he said.
“Governments have never invested enough to deal with fire ants in Australia – modelling which has underevaluated the fire ant threat has contributed to that.”
The Senate inquiry’s report into the national response to fire ants is due to be released on Thursday, a month after the conclusion of three days of hearings in which the Senate committee, led by Nationals senator Matt Canavan, heard the National Fire Ant Eradication Program was an “absolute shambles” and lacked transparency.
Queen bumblebees surprise scientists by surviving underwater
Linda GIVETASH
Tue, 16 April 2024
Researchers said more studies need to be done on whether other bumblebee species have a similiar trait (Damien MEYER)
Bumblebees can surprisingly withstand days underwater, according to a study published Wednesday, suggesting they could withstand increased floods brought on by climate change that threaten their winter hibernation burrows.
The survival of these pollinators that are crucial to ecosystems is "encouraging" amid worrying global trends of their declining populations, the study's lead author Sabrina Rondeau told AFP.
With global warming prompting more frequent and extreme floods in regions around the world, it poses "an unpredictable challenge for soil-dwelling species, particularly bees nesting or overwintering underground", co-author Nigel Raine of the University of Guelph said in a statement.
Rondeau said she first discovered queen bumblebees could withstand drowning by accident.
She had been studying the effect of pesticide residues in soil on queen bumblebees that burrow underground for the winter when water accidentally entered the tubes housing a few of the bees.
"I freaked out," said Rondeau, who had been conducting the experiment for her doctoral studies. "It was only a small proportion... so it was not that big of a deal, but I didn't want to lose those bees."
To her "shock", she said, they survived.
"I've been studying bumblebees for a very long time. I've talked about it to a lot of people and no one knew that this was a possibility," she said.
She launched another experiment to better understand what happened.
Researchers placed 143 hibernating queen bumblebees in tubes -- some with no water as a comparative group, some floating in water and some fully submerged using a plunger for a period ranging from eight hours to seven days, according to the study published in the journal Biology Letters.
Remarkably, 81 percent of the hibernating queens that were submerged not only survived seven days, but once returned to dry conditions remained alive eight weeks later.
The long-term impact on the bees' health and the effects it could have on a colony still needs further research, Rondeau noted.
The common eastern bumblebees used in the study are found in North America and are particularly hardy, not showing the same degree of population declines as other bee species, she said.
"So we are also wondering whether this resistance to flooding can be part of why they're doing so well," said Rondeau, now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa.
The study would have to be replicated on other species of bumblebees to determine how common the trait is.
"But it's encouraging to know that at least (flooding) is not another big threat that we have to consider," she said.
giv/nmc/rlp
Bumblebee species able to survive underwater for up to a week
Nicola Davis Science correspondent
The Guardian
Tue, 16 April 2024
A common eastern bumblebee in flight with pollen sacs. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy
Bumblebees might be at home in town and country but now researchers have found at least one species that is even more adaptable: it can survive underwater.
Scientists have revealed queens of the common eastern bumblebee, a species widespread in eastern North America, can withstand submersion for up to a week when hibernating.
With bumblebee queens known to burrow into soil to hibernate, the researchers say the phenomenon could help them survive flooding in the wild.
The team said its next priority was to explore whether the results hold for other species of bumblebee.
“We know that about a third of all bumblebee species are in decline currently [but] it’s not the case with [the common eastern bumblebee],” said Dr Sabrina Rondeau of the University of Guelph in Canada, adding the team was keen to learn whether flood tolerance could play a role in their resilience.
Rondeau and her co-author, Prof Nigel Raine, first made their discovery when a mishap in the laboratory led to water getting into containers in which hibernating queen bees were kept.
“After that, of course, curiosity led the way to conducting a full experiment with a lot of repetitions,” said Rondeau.
Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the scientists describe how they took 143 unmated, hibernating queens of the common eastern bumblebee and placed each in its own plastic tube containing damp topsoil. The tubes were then fitted with perforated lids and kept in a dark refrigerated unit for a week.
After checking the bees were still alive, the researchers kept 17 tubes as controls and added cold water to the remaining 126. While the queen was allowed to float on top of the water in half of these tubes, it was pushed under the water by a plunger in the others.
For both conditions, a third of the tubes were each left for eight hours, a third for 24 hours and a third for seven days, simulating different flooding conditions. The team subsequently transferred the bees to new tubes and monitored their survival.
The results reveal survival rates were similar regardless of the duration and conditions the queens had been subjected to – indeed 88% of the controls, and 81% of the queens that were submerged for a week, were still alive at eight weeks. However, queens with a higher weight had a greater chance of survival.
The researchers say the findings are unusual given most insects overwintering as adults – including many ground beetles – cannot cope with being submerged in water and must leave floodplains to survive.
While Rondeau said it was likely queens of other bumblebee species were also flood tolerant, ground nesting bees – which include some species of bumblebee – could still be affected by flooding as their larvae may not survive.
Among future areas of research, the team said it would be interesting to explore the mechanisms that underpin the queens’ resilience to flooding – with their low oxygen requirements during hibernation among possible important factors.
Prof Dave Goulson, a bee expert from the University of Sussex who was not involved in the work, said bee enthusiasts had long speculated that increased winter rain amid the climate crisis could drown many queen bumblebees as they hibernate underground.
“Amazingly, this new research shows that hibernating queen bumblebees are entirely unaffected by being held under water for up to one week,” he said. “This seems to be one small aspect of climate change that we need not worry about.”
Kharkiv at risk of becoming ‘second Aleppo’ without US aid, mayor says
Dan Sabbagh in KharkivThe Guardian
Tue, 16 April 2024
The site of a recent Russian bombing at an unused shopping mall which killed seven people.Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian
Kharkiv is at risk of becoming “a second Aleppo” unless US politicians vote for fresh military aid to help Ukraine obtain the air defences needed to prevent long-range Russian attacks, the city’s mayor has warned.
Ihor Terekhov said Russia had switched tactics to try to destroy the city’s power supply and terrorise its 1.3 million residents by firing into residential areas, with people experiencing unscheduled power cuts for hours at a time.
The mayor of Ukraine’s second city said the $60bn US military aid package, currently stalled in Congress, was of “critical importance for us” and urged the west to refocus on the two-year-old war.
“We need that support to prevent Kharkiv being a second Aleppo,” Terekhov said, referring to the Syrian city heavily bombed by Russian and Syrian government forces at the height of the country’s civil war a decade ago.
On 22 March, Russian attacks destroyed a power station on the eastern edge of the city as well all its substations; a week later officials acknowledged a second plant, 30 miles south-east of the city, had been eliminated in the same attack.
Power in the city, about 30 miles from the Russian border, was interrupted after another bombing raid this week, causing the metro to be halted briefly. Residents said there was usually a few hours’ supply a day in the city centre, although in the outskirts the situation was said to be better.Interactive
Children are educated either online or in underground schools, for their own safety. The water supply remains on, but Terekhov said there were concerns the Russian military may switch to targeting gas distribution, after storage facilities in the west were attacked last week.
Ukrainian leaders have begun asking western nations to donate Patriot air defence systems, requests for help that were thrown into sharper relief by the US and UK military support for Israel over the weekend when it neutralised an air attack from Iran.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the allies’ defensive action “demonstrated how truly effective unity in defending against terror can be when it is based on sufficient political will” – before making a comparison to Ukraine.
Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Russia “sound identical to those over the Middle East”, he said. “The impact of ballistic missiles, if they are not intercepted, is the same everywhere.”
Related: Deadly, cheap and widespread: how Iran-supplied drones are changing the nature of warfare
The Ukrainian leader concluded: “European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles.”
Seven people were killed in Kharkiv when two rockets struck near an unused shopping mall on the ring road north of the city shortly after midnight on 6 April, leaving behind 4-metre-deep craters and military debris near a residential area.
Nina Mykhailivna, 72, who lives nearby, said the shock from the strike “lifted her bed in the air” and was followed by about 90 minutes of secondary explosions, the most serious she had experienced during the war.
Few residents have left the city since Russia increased its bombing campaign around the turn of the year, and Kharkiv remains a lively metropolis with busy restaurants and cafes, and some businesses thriving despite the threat.
Oleksii Yevsiukov, 39, and Viktoriia Varenikova, 30, run the Avex clothing factory in a residential district and have installed $20,000 worth of solar panels on the roof since the start of the conflict. The additions provide enough electricity to power the sewing machines for the 10 employees working below in the Soviet-era building, which is undergoing a total refurbishment.
“We anticipated there might be power cuts from energy infrastructure attacks this winter,” Yevsiukov said. “We looked at solutions and decided a diesel generator was not suitable, expensive and not very eco friendly, so we ordered the solar panels last year.”
A newly installed power bank stores enough electricity for two days’ use if the panels are unable to generate it, and a geothermal pump keeps the building warm, avoiding the need for gas. As such, the factory is self-sufficient, which could become necessary as the owners anticipate at least two more years of war.
Their company makes women’s swim and fitness wear for branded companies in Ukraine, and, the couple say, sales have grown even though the goods might be considered luxuries during wartime. With the factory refurbishment nearly complete, Yevsiukov said they planned to roughly double the workforce.
Soon after the war began, Varenikova found out she was pregnant. Their son Max is now one, and she expresses the hope that war might be over by the time he is ready for school. “I want him to go to a normal school, not an underground school, not a school in the metro, not an online school.”
However, not everybody is so optimistic. One of the firm’s employees, Liubov, said she was planning to leave her home in Kharkiv and move to central Ukraine for at least a month to provide a calmer environment for her two daughters, who can continue to take classes remotely.
Russian bombing had become “much more frequent, much more often”, Liubov said. The comprehensive attack on 22 March was “very, very scary and loud” and “attacks could come at daytime or night-time, in any part of the city”.
Liubov did not want to be photographed or give a surname, reflecting perhaps a concern about not wanting to be identified as someone leaving the city. “We’ve had to get used to everything, I wish we didn’t have to. We have power banks, we have storage of food, but we want this to be over soon. We simply want to live.”
Japan to allow divorced parents to share custody of children
Justin McCurry in OsakaThe Guardian
Tue, 16 April 2024
Japan’s lower house has passed a bill allowing divorced parents to share custody of a child. It is expected to be passed by the upper house by the end of June.Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Divorced couples in Japan will for the first time be able to negotiate joint custody of their children after parliament voted this week for changes to laws permitting only sole custody.
Under Japan’s civil code, couples must decide which parent will take custody of their children when their marriage ends – a requirement that critics say causes children psychological harm and prevents the “left-behind” parent from playing a fuller role in their upbringing.
The legal change, sponsored by the Liberal Democratic party and its junior coalition partner Komeito, and supported by two main opposition parties, will bring Japan – the only G7 member that does not legally recognise joint custody – into line with many other countries.
Related: ‘Ruining my career’: calls grow for Japan to change law on married surnames
Supporters of the existing arrangements have voiced concern that joint custody could expose children to danger in cases where child abuse has been cited as a reason for divorce, while women who have been subjected to domestic violence would be forced to maintain ties with their abuser.
In response, the bill’s sponsors have said custody will continue to be granted to one parent if the other is suspected of abuse.
After the powerful lower house passed the bill on Tuesday, the legislation will go before the upper house, where it is expected to be passed before the current parliamentary session ends on 23 June, the Kyodo news agency said.
“Even after divorce, it is important for both mothers and fathers to remain appropriately involved in, and responsible for, bringing up their children,” the justice minister, Ryuji Koizumi, told parliament last month, according to Nikkei Asia.
The legislation – the first change to custody laws for more than seven decades – could go into effect from 2026, Kyodo said, adding that it would also be applied retroactively to couples who had already divorced.
The sole custody system has drawn criticism from divorced parents, including foreign nationals who struggle to maintain relationships with their children if their former partner takes them back to Japan, sometimes denying their former spouse any parental contact.
The change reflects the changing nature of families in Japan, which continues to resist calls to allow married couples to use separate surnames – a move conservative lawmakers see as an attack on traditional values.
About 200,000 children are affected by divorce every year – double the number 50 years ago, despite the plummeting birth rate. A 2021 government survey found that one in three children with divorced parents said they eventually lost contact with the non-custodial parent.
If parents are unable to agree on custody arrangements, family courts will have the power to decide based on the child’s interests, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.
Jobs and rights on young voters' minds for India polls
AFP
Tue, 16 April 2024
Around 130 million young adults aged 18 to 22 will be newly eligible to vote in India's national elections (Pawan SHARMA)
Around 130 million young adults aged 18 to 22 will be newly eligible to vote in India's national elections when polls open Friday -- more people than the entire population of Mexico.
AFP asked four first-time voters who were too young to vote in the 2019 elections about who they would support and the issues that mattered to them:
- The student -
Mumbai university student Abhishek Dhotre, 22, said he was unhappy with "the communal discord that is seen all throughout India" as a result of the government's muscular Hindu nationalism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has brought India's majority Hindu faith to the forefront of political life.
That has left Muslims and other minorities anxious about their futures in the nominally secular country.
Still, with India's economy growing at a breakneck pace, overtaking former colonial ruler Britain as the world's fifth-largest in 2022, Dhotre wants Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win again.
"With the flow of development, infrastructure and everything that's going on, I would prefer the current government to stay," he told AFP.
- The software developer -
Thrishalini Dwaraknath, 20, epitomises India's economic changes -- she is about to move from Tamil Nadu to the tech hub of Bengaluru, both of them in the south, to work as a software developer.
"I'm excited to be part of the Indian democracy and voicing my opinion for the first time," she told AFP. "And I'm glad that my voice matters."
She praised Modi's government for its achievements in office but said it needed to do more to help millions of unemployed young Indians find work.
India's annual GDP growth hit 8.4 percent in the December quarter, but the International Labour Organization estimated that 29 percent of the country's young university graduates were unemployed in 2022.
"Addressing the skill gap between students and the job market is key," Dwaraknath said.
- The farmer -
One first-time voter who will definitely not be backing the BJP is Gurpartap Singh, 22, a wheat farmer from the northern state of Punjab.
Farmers in Punjab were the backbone of a yearlong protest in 2021 against the Modi government's efforts to bring market reforms into India's agricultural sector.
The reforms were later shelved, marking a rare political defeat for the prime minister, but farmers say their demands have still not been met.
"So many farmers died in the protest," Singh said. "They have not got justice."
Farmers are a significant voting bloc in India -- hundreds of millions of people make their living from the land.
"The government that thinks about the farmers, youth -- that is the government that should come to power," Singh said, adding that the BJP had failed that test.
- The transgender woman -
India's 1.4 billion people encompass a vast range of backgrounds including a transgender community estimated to be several million people strong.
The Hindu faith has many references to a "third gender", and a 2014 Supreme Court ruling said people could be legally recognised as such.
They nonetheless face entrenched stigma and discrimination, and Salma, a transgender Muslim woman from the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, said she did not expect that to change under another BJP government.
"All the time this government has stayed in power, they have done nothing good for us," said Salma, who declined to say who she would vote for.
"We should get equal rights."
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Welsh farmers contributing to fighting climate change
Elizabeth Birt
Tue, 16 April 2024
Emily Jones has spoken of her family's workings on the farm (Image: Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC))
Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) is reminding the public of the importance of livestock ahead of Earth Day.
The HCC highlights the essential role livestock farming plays in caring for the environment, emphasising that production systems differ significantly worldwide.
Rachael Madeley-Davies, HCC’s head of sustainability and future policy said: "Welsh livestock farmers know that if you look after the environment, the environment will look after you."
She continued: "For centuries, they have played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining beautifully rural landscapes that we know and love.
"Their sustainable management has helped to establish a rural environment abundant in wildlife and visitor-friendly due to a network of pathways maintained by farmers."
This message comes at a time when agriculture's impact on climate change is under intense debate.
HCC points out the considerable variations in different farming systems’ environmental impact worldwide, noting that Wales is particularly suited for rearing cattle and sheep.
Ms Madeley-Davies added: "The Welsh Way of farming has a very different story to tell compared with some of the intensive and industrial systems found in other parts of the world.
"With high standards of animal husbandry and grassland management, our family-run farms have helped preserve our unique landscape for generations and will continue to do so for generations to come."
Most of Welsh farmland (80 per cent) is not suitable for growing crops, making cattle and sheep rearing the most efficient use of marginal land for food production.
Unlike other regions where water resources are drained, or vast amounts of land are used for feed, Welsh sheep and cattle are reared predominantly on grass and rainwater.
Farmers in Wales manage grasslands that capture carbon from the atmosphere, thereby contributing positively to climate change mitigation.
This uses a blend of traditional practices and new innovations.
For example, Emily Jones and her parents use expertise inherited over generations to produce Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef at their centuries-old Garnwen Farm, located about seven miles from Tregaron and 17 miles from Aberystwyth.
Discussing their farming system, Emily said: "We make every effort to go back to the old times – to older farming traditions.
"We’re also looking ahead and doing our bit to help the environment, such as increasing the amount of carbon capture and farming in harmony with nature."
She explained that the farm is introducing herbal leys, planting clover, chicory, and plantain, which have natural uses and will help improve soil health and productivity, reducing their carbon emissions.
Emily concluded by saying: "This has been a relatively new thing for us here at Garnwen, but we are aware of the impact of climate change and determined to be part of the solution in producing quality food in the most environmentally friendly way possible."
