Sweden splashes out to save its unluckiest warship


By AFP
Published June 8, 2024

Ill-fated: the 17th-century Swedish warship Vasa in Stockholm - Copyright South Korean Defence Ministry/AFP/File Handout
Nioucha ZAKAVATI

Sweden is embarking on a colossal four-year project to safeguard a nearly 400-year-old warship that is the centrepiece of its famous Vasa Museum.

The ship, one of Stockholm’s main tourist attractions, sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and remained at the bottom of the sea until it was salvaged in 1961.

“We want Vasa to be preserved for the future,” project manager Peter Rydebjork told AFP.

Despite the long delicate recovery operation, the ship “started to deteriorate faster” once it emerged from the sea after three centuries, he said.

In one of the most embarrassing naval calamities ever, the Vasa capsized only 15 minutes into its maiden voyage because of a design flaw, costing the lives of several dozen crew members.

– Stopping the movement –

After being protected by mud and the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea for three centuries, preserving it while on display at one of Stockholm’s most popular museums has proved more complicated.

The wood has contracted over the years, and the ship is being compressed due to gravity. It is also tilting slightly to port.

“We have to stop the movement,” Rydebjork said.

Work on building a new support structure began in April to replace the fragile current one.

The first phase of the project, dubbed “Stotta Vasa” (Support Vasa), is to stabilise the wreck.

Then comes the creation of a structure to support its weight and finally the ship will be righted.

– Steel skeleton –

By 2028 — if all goes well — the hull will be supported both externally and internally and the current 17 external struts will be replaced by 27 steel cradles with fixings under the keel.

Because the Vasa currently has difficulty supporting its own weight, a type of steel skeleton will be installed inside the ship.

Rydebjork said it has taken more than a decade of research to prepare for the ambitious project — which is expected to cost upwards of 200 million kronor ($19 million).

“It’s a really interesting job,” Rydebjork added.

Despite its age, the ill-fated vessel is still well-preserved, with 98 percent of the original parts intact.

Polish tourist Lukasz Szyszka told AFP that the ship was in great condition and worth seeing, despite it being “freezing inside” the museum.

Its main hall is kept at a temperature of between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius (between 64 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit) with a humidity level of 55 percent to slow the deterioration.

The 43-year-old shopkeeper said work on the wreck was needed, saying it was also part of Polish history.

Swedish king Gustav II Adolf (1611-1632), who commissioned the Vasa, wanted to use it so he could to control Poland’s ports on the Baltic.

RIP
Reporters Without Borders head dies of cancer aged 53


By AFP

June 8, 2024

Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based press freedom group, has died aged 53 - Copyright AFP/File Thomas SAMSON

Christophe Deloire, head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based press freedom group, died on Saturday aged 53, the organisation said.

Deloire died as a result of cancer, Reporters Without Borders said in a statement to AFP.

A former newspaper and television reporter, he had been at the helm of the media watchdog since 2012, transforming RSF “into a global champion for the defence of journalism,” the statement said.

“Journalism was his life’s struggle, which he waged with unshakeable conviction,” said Reporters Without Borders, which is widely known by its French initials RSF.

The activist group, launched in 1985 in the southern French town of Montpellier by four journalists, has become a thorn in the side of autocratic and despotic regimes around the world which would prefer to muzzle the media.

The group has had no fear of angering powerful figures, labelling leaders such as Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “predators” of press freedom.

It has repeatedly condemned press freedom restrictions in Russia since Putin launched the war against Ukraine in 2022.

The group also launched a package of satellite news channels catering to Russia, much of it produced by exiled Russian journalists.

Volcano rumblings prompt air traffic alert in Guatemala


By AFP
June 9, 2024

View of the Fuego Volcano, as seen from Alotenango, Guatemala, on May 5, 2023 - Copyright AFP Maria Panorma KONTOU

One of the most active volcanoes in Central America spewed gas and ash on Sunday, prompting Guatemalan authorities to warn air traffic and tourists to take extra precautions.

The volcano named Fuego — located 35 kilometers (22 miles) from capital Guatemala City — saw “weak and moderate explosions occurring at a rate of four to seven per hour,” said the Institute of Volcanology (Insivumeh).

It added in a statement that the explosions generated columns of gas and ash up to 4,800 meters (15,700 feet) above sea level.

The government agency recommended air traffic at altitudes below 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) to “take precautions” within 30 kilometers (19 miles) of Fuego and the nearby Santiaguito volcano.

It also alerted tourism agencies to the dangers of activities such as climbing close to Fuego and other volcanoes.

Insivumeh said some “fine ash” had fallen in towns to the east and northeast of the volcano, while some homes felt vibrations due to the rumblings.

The 3,760-meter (12,335-foot) Fuego erupts every four to five years on average.

In 2018, an eruption sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes, killing 215 people and leaving a similar number missing.

WORKERS CAPITAL

UK

How the NHS pensions works: Is superiority in-built against the private sector?

The NHS pension is a defined benefit (DB) set-up. With this kind of pension,  an employee’s membership guarantees them a fixed amount of money each month until their death.

By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
PublishedJune 9, 2024


File photo: British nurses demonstrated in London for higher pay. - © AFP

Concerns with pay levels within the UK National Health Service (NHS) continue to grow with this past January marking the longest strike period in NHS history: a stretch of six consecutive days. The British Medical Association (BMA) are justifiably calling for a 35 percent pay rise for doctors, with NHS workers admitting they are struggling on their current salary.

With these concerns about take-home pay front of mind, some employees have opted to move into a private pension. Is this a wise decision or does it put savings at risk?

Tellingly, 25,000 of those choosing to leave the scheme are under 30 and over 10 percent of those earning less than £20,000 per year opted out. Recent statistics revealed over 66,000 NHS staff left the scheme between April and July, double the amount compared to the same period last year. Of those, 23,000 nurses felt they simply couldn’t afford to pay into the scheme.

Given that the regular monthly payments do guarantee a payout when it comes to retirement. Therefore, the decision to opt-out should not be taken lightly.

NHS Pension Management Service provider BW Medical’s Julie Mudditt outlines why the public sector pension schemes remain superior and why the NHS scheme, in particular, matters.

Mudditt states that the NHS pension scheme has over 3.4 million members and pays out £12 billion every year.The fact the NHS pension scheme is backed by the government means your pension is guaranteed. Unlike private pensions, the NHS pension is not invested in various avenues but is protected and will last you for the entirety of your retirement.

Mudditt adds that the government backing gives recipients of the NHS pension far more security than those investing in a private pension. As long as you contribute, you are guaranteed a pension when you choose to retire.

The contributions payable within the NHS pension scheme can be thought of as less of an investment in a fluctuating market and more as a membership scheme that pays towards assured financial stability for your future.

The NHS pension is a defined benefit (DB) set-up. With this kind of pension, Mudditt outlines, an employee’s membership guarantees them a fixed amount of money each month until their death.

Furthermore, says Mudditt, the pension will not run out and the amount of money you receive each month is based not on the state of your investments but on the length of your service and your yearly salary.

Continuous membership of the scheme also offers benefits to a member’s family, Mudditt observes, and dependents in the event of a person’s death.

Mudditt concludes: “If your salary allows, investing in the NHS pension scheme’s monthly payments offers you peace of mind that your retirement will be comfortable. The guarantee of a considerable pension throughout your retirement offers you both financial security and a degree of mental wellness. Although the mechanics of the scheme can be complex, it truly is one of the best ways to ensure you receive the reward you deserve for your time spent helping and healing people during your career within the NHS.”

She ends with: “Before you make any key decisions regarding your pension, speak to the NHS Business Services Authority. The BW Medical team would also always recommend seeking advice from a regulated financial adviser – that’s an individual working within financial services, rather than an accountant.”

Note: This article is not intended to provide financial advice, its aim is to present the advantages of the public sector scheme.

Why are tobacco firms targeting the poor?

By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Published June 7, 2024

Australia is about to introduce a raft of new restrictions on vaping - Copyright AFP Raul ARBOLEDA

Researchers have found that flavour restrictions affect tobacco buyers differently, depending on the socioeconomic status of the user. This differential suggests that tobacco firms are reaping greater profits by targetting those in lower socioeconomic groups. Consequently, the health impacts upon the working class are greater.

Restricting menthol flavour in cigarettes while making nicotine replacement therapy, such as a skin patch that can help ease withdrawal, more available and affordable has the potential to reduce socioeconomic disparities in tobacco use. This requires regulation in order to push tobacco companies to remove flavourings in their addictive products.

E-cigarette user blowing a cloud of aerosol (vapor). The activity is known as cloud-chasing. Image: micadew from US – Smoke Screen, CC 3.0

That was one of the key findings in a study published in an academic paper featured in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. The illuminating study is titled “Selective Reduction of Socioeconomic Disparities in the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace: Effects of Cigarette and E-cigarette Flavor Restrictions.”

The study marks a new use of existing data, drawn from the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC’s Addiction Recovery Research Center.

For the study, the researchers analysed data from their Experimental Tobacco Marketplace to look beyond broad effects of tax and regulatory policies for the journal’s special issue on the health equity effects of restricting flavoured nicotine.

© Denis Charlet, AFP

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking also accounts for more than 30 percent of the difference in life expectancy among socioeconomic groups, according to the study’s lead author, Assistant Professor Roberta Freitas-Lemos.

The tobacco industry has seemingly more heavily marketed flavoured tobacco products, such as menthol cigarettes, in communities with lower household incomes and educational attainment. This policy is contributing to increased adverse health outcomes in these communities and is creating a disparity in health outcomes based on social class.

Other factors leading to working class people being more likely to smoke are: reduced access to affordable smoking cessation, social factors such as greater tobacco use and reduced support for quitting among friends, and greater exposure to stress and adversity

Freitas-Lemos said the team saw an opportunity to use the marketplace to extend the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s work in addressing equity and inclusion in health research

.

Vaping has become a new battleground between tobacco lobbyists and anti-smoking campaigners – Copyright AFP/File JOEL SAGET

Freitas-Lemos adds: “We realized we could use an existing data set, split the sample in two based on socioeconomic status, and compare how policies implemented affected purchase behaviours of different groups,” she said.

Furthermore, the academic states: “The study has shown us that flavour restrictions may decrease tobacco-related disease and death rates.”

The research also points to the need to evaluate tobacco restrictions in a broader context, as cigarette substitution is highly dependent on what other products are available.

The hidden catalyst behind the rise of the radical right in Europe’s depopulating regions

Roxanne Cooper
June 9, 2024 
THE CONVERSATION

Photo by Joshua Kettle on Unsplash

Earlier this spring, the European Parliament voted to overhaul its immigration policy to more evenly distribute responsibility among member states for managing the arrival of migrants and asylum-seekers.

Lurking in the details of the agreement, however, are provisions allowing for payments to third countries to block the entry of asylum-seekers to Europe – and, more ominously, preliminary plans for mass deportations.

Clearly, the EU’s dominant parties hear the footsteps of the anti-immigrant, populist right-wing parties, which are expected to make significant inroads in the EU Parliament elections June 6-9, 2024, and seek to reduce their appeal with stricter limits to those permitted to settle in Europe.

The idea of recapturing voters by appearing tough on immigration is attractive to established parties, but, as scholars of comparative politics and political behavior, we believe that this strategy won’t return many votes.
Younger voters leaving the countryside

While it is commonly held that the electoral success of far-right parties is due to a backlash against newcomers, all this focus on immigration obscures another potent force behind this trend: emigration, or the movement of people out of a region or country.

In a recently published study, our research team found a relationship between out-migration from counties and an increase in votes for populist radical right parties in 28 European countries during the mid-2010s.
People gather to protest the far-right Alternative for Germany party and right-wing extremism in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on Jan. 20, 2024. The sign reads ‘Never again 1933,’ a reference to the year the Nazis came to power. AP Photo/Michael Probst

Out-migration follows a familiar trend across the globe. As countries transition to postindustrial economies, younger generations leave the countryside and small towns for larger metropolitan areas seeking better educational and career opportunities. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in Spain, which has lost 28% of its rural population in the past 50 years. Facing similar declines, Italy recently resorted to paying people to move to its emptying villages.

Counties across the United States are also witnessing precipitous population loss due to a combination of low fertility and out-migration.

But while many people are aware of the economic ramifications this population flight creates, its impact on voters has been explored far less.

Rise of Sweden’s radical right

The case of Sweden illustrates how out-migration can benefit radical right populists. From 2000 to 2020, the country’s immigrant population increased from 11% to nearly 20%. During this time, over half of all Swedish municipalities experienced population decline as people moved to the country’s major cities of Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg.

Long dominated by centrist and center-left politics, Sweden is also witnessing a remarkable partisan shift.

The country’s oldest and largest party, the Social Democratic Party, has seen a gradual decline in popularity. Meanwhile, the populist, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, once considered a fringe group with a fascist past, have made significant gains and now hold a fifth of the seats in the national Parliament.

As a result, the country is now governed by a center-right minority coalition that depends on the support of the radical right populists.

While immigration is a key political issue for the Sweden Democrats, our research found growing support for the party in areas relatively unaffected by immigration. In fact, looking at elections over two decades, we found that it was in municipalities that lost population that the radical right was able to score big gains.

What’s more, local immigration was much less of a factor behind this success compared with local out-migration. Tracking five election cycles, we found a persistent gain of half a percentage point in vote share for the Sweden Democrats for every 1% loss in local population – a significant pace over the long term.

Political leanings in depopulating regions

Two key forces explain these dynamics. First, as many studies have shown, the people who move from the periphery to urban areas are more likely to lean left. With their departure, the remaining pool of voters naturally contains a greater proportion of conservatives than before. But composition of the electorate is only part of the story.

People walk past election posters for the Swedish Social Democrats ahead of European elections in Stockholm on May 20, 2024.

Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

The political leanings of voters in depopulating regions also changed, from center-left to populist right. Here, emigration played a key role. As communities lose more and more of their working-age population, they experience a decline in public services – due both to dwindling numbers and a shrinking tax base. As a result, schools and hospitals are shuttered, public transportation is cut and local businesses close.

Along with these quality-of-life declines, living in a place that so many people choose to leave generates a sense of status loss among those who stay. Our interviews with Social Democratic Party leaders revealed how local mayors felt they had to contend with a “collective depression.”

One mayor noted: “We like it here. But then someone comes from the outside and says that you’re a failure if you live here … so we are struggling against the public perception of what constitutes a successful individual. We constantly have to work on the psychology of the municipality’s inhabitants.”

Meanwhile, disillusionment with established parties provides fertile ground for radical right parties to exploit.

Quality-of-life declines

While centrist politicians may feel compelled to adopt anti-immigrant stances in response, copying the rhetoric of radical right parties risks alienating their base.

Further, we believe cracking down on immigration is likely to prove an ineffective political strategy in the long run. The Sweden Democrats’ success in depopulating regions is in part a protest against the political establishment.

But once in office, and without clear solutions to the local economic and quality-of-life declines that emigration has set in motion, party officials will likely face the same voter discontent fueling their current success.

Ironically, the forces that have increased the appeal of the far right’s anti-immigrant ideologies – falling birth rates, labor shortages and a lack of new businesses and services – are most feasibly addressed by increasing immigration.

By following the right’s lead to tighten borders, parties closer to the center may condemn industrialized nations to a political doom loop.

Instead, centrist parties may find it pays more dividends to focus attention on addressing the root causes of population decline and restoring public services in peripheral areas.

There are some examples of this already happening. During recent years, Swedish governments have introduced and gradually expanded a national support system for local commercial services, such as grocery stores, in vulnerable and remote locations. In 2021, Spain announced a US$11.9 billion plan aimed at addressing the lack of 5G telephone connectivity and technologically smart cities in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development is putting over $100 billion toward efforts to support rural areas in its 2021-2027 budget.

Such moves may counter a somewhat paradoxical trend that has seen fiercely anti-immigrant parties gaining ground in places least affected by immigration.

Either way, as parties in Europe and the U.S. prepare for crucial elections this year, understanding the complex interplay of demographic shifts and political dynamics is critical. As is acknowledging that emigration, often overshadowed by immigration rhetoric, is a key factor shaping the rise of the radical right.

Rafaela Dancygier, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University and David Laitin, James T. Watkins IV and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

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

Op-Ed: Right-wing parties in the European Parliament — Gift for Russia and poison for EU

By Paul Wallis
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Published June 9, 2024

If the far-right makes inroads, the main question is whether the European Parliament's centre-right will partner with it on at least some issues — © AFP/File MARTIN BERNETTI

Nearly 80 years after the end of World War 2, the stench is happening again. The not-very mysterious simultaneous rise of the right in both the US and Europe looks odd.

These are typically “aren’t we great” nationalist groups, with no real credentials in government or anything else. They usually don’t have much history. The just “sprang up”, like MAGA,

These groups do have a lot in common. Their various criminal matters and incidents regularly show up monotonously on the news. In Germany, the pattern would be drearily familiar to anyone from the mid-20th century.

All these supposedly disparate groups sing from the same old hate hymns and prejudices. They all target people for ethnicity, religion, or any other excuse. They polarize every issue. They disunite.

There is not and never has been any such thing as a right-wing ideology. It’s about grabbing power by any means possible. That’s what Mein Kampf is actually about in practical terms. You’ll note that Hitler didn’t refer to it much himself when in power.

Appeal to stupidity and you’re bound to appeal to somebody. All idiots speak the same language. If you have a populist idiot appealing to other idiots, just pretend to be a news network.

The right-wing groups have maybe far too much in common:

They all started to get globally noisy around 2016. Trump and Brexit happened in that year.

They have more or less the same outdated national and international views.

They’re invariably anti-immigrant.

They’re anti-globalization.

They’re anti-foreign by definition.

They’re therefore anti-Europe by definition. Not too many dots to join there.

They have the same prejudices and hatreds as peasants from the Middle Ages.

They typically appeal to a non-existent patriotic provincial past. The good old days under Soviet rule, and similar fictionalized tales are standard,

Their propaganda is all disinformation, not a fact in sight, and if there is a fact, they spin it into fiction.

This methodology is standard. It’s basic Goebbels with a tinge of McCarthyism when for US consumption.

When in power, they’re disastrous without exception. These “governments” fail on a routine basis. If you think the Nazis and Fascists were “inept”, they’re worse. They’re also utterly incompetent. They’ve already effectively destroyed the UK with the ridiculous, economically and socially illiterate Brexit. (Do Brexiteers have educations? According to whom?)

If they did the same things in the wider EU, it’d be catastrophic. One of the most advanced social and economic entities to ever exist is being systematically sabotaged.

Europe, one of the world’s most popular war zones for the last few thousand years, should know so much better. When not at war with itself, Europe is very like the EU. It’s like a Chamber of Commerce meeting with attached neuroses.

Member nations have their sovereignty and clear rights within the EU. They get funding from the EU. Citizens can travel freely. Companies in the EU can do business without all the red tape.

Now, in context with “the rise of the right”, compare Brexit as standard right-wing anti-EU dogma. The sovereignty case against the EU was completely false and misleading. Britain is now paying an incredibly high price for apathy and ignorance. It’ll take decades to recover.

Basic rule – Disinformation leads to disasters. Sound slightly familiar?

Nobody believed anything as incontrovertibly stupid as Brexit could possibly happen, and it did. Even a watered-down version of Brexit applied to much smaller economies would be just as bad or worse.

From that perspective – Who benefits from EU dysfunction far more than anyone else? Specifically, Russia.

One area in which the West has never really outclassed Russia since the days of Bismarck is diplomacy. When Bismarck was told the Russian ambassador had committed suicide, Bismarck commented, “I wonder what his motive was”, meaning he was wondering what was the ambassador trying to achieve.

The EU woke up and united after the invasion of Ukraine. A common threat can do that. The EU has been a serious herniation of Russia’s bullying since 2022.

So, if you’re Russia, what do you do about that? You weaken the EU, and by default, with a bit of luck, NATO. All you need to do is grow a crop of weaklings in the various European states and disrupt policy by obstruction or simply changing the policies.

Just add some money to the mix and watch the fun. Right-wingers don’t ask questions about why they’re doing things. It’s a form of political slapstick.

It makes perfect sense to use proxies, however unhygienic they may be. It’s not directly confrontational. It’s also a lot cheaper and safer than going to war with NATO.

…And if, perchance, you have to have some infantile fool making noises in the US distracting US foreign policy from an easy kill, so much the better. There is something incredibly unlikely about so many US politicians being so pro-Russia.

The terrible flaw with this whole scenario is that Russia is losing. History is moving on, with or without Russia in its current form. The wellspring of all this new zealotry will as usual dry up when the money runs out.

The longer-term looks far worse. Whoever or whatever comes after Putin will have different objectives and priorities. The shelf life of these pseudo-nationalist groups can’t be very long. It’s a classic “everybody loses” scenario.

If Europe wants to go back to 1945, literally back to the rubble, this is how. Maybe not, eh?

____

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

Database reveals 'staggering' $6.6 million in gifts to US Supreme Court Justices

Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
June 9, 2024 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett (screengrab)

U.S. Supreme Court justices have received millions of dollars in gifts over the past two decades—with far-right Justice Clarence Thomas being the main beneficiary of this largesse, according to a detailed analysis published Thursday.

The advocacy group Fix the Court published a database listing 546 total gifts valued at over $4.7 million given to 18 current and former justices mostly between 2004 and 2023, as identified by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The database also lists "likely" gifts received by the justices and their estimated values, bringing the grand total to 672 gifts valued at nearly $6.6 million.

The database was published a day before the justices are expected to release their financial disclosure reports.

"Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they've received over the years," Fix the Court executive director Gabe Roth said in a statement Thursday.

Thomas led the pack with 193 FTC-identified gifts collectively valued at over $4 million. Of these, he listed only 27 in financial disclosure reports.

According to Fix the Court, Thomas' gifts consisted mainly of free trips to Bohemian Grove—a secretive, men-only retreat in Northern California—and Topridge, the private lakeside resort in upstate New York owned by billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.

By dollar amount, the late Justice Antonin Scalia came in a distant second with 67 gifts worth over $210,000 combined, while Justice Samuel Alito took 16 gifts valued collectively at just over $170,000. At the low end of the database, Justice Brett Kavanaugh received a single gift worth $100, while former Justice David Souter was also given one gift with a value of $349.

According to the analysis:

The tally includes the amount of principal and interest—$253,686—we believe Tony Welters forgave in 2008 for the luxury RV he gifted to Thomas the decade before. FTC's numbers include the tuition gifts, $144,400 across six years, Thomas received for his grandnephew... It captures the value of Thomas' yacht trips to Russia, the Greek Isles, and Indonesia, as well as some new information on the Thomas flights Tony Novelly paid for and the Scalia and Alito fishing trips Robin Arkley paid for that's included in the congressional record. The value of the gifts Scalia received on his ill-fated trip to Marfa, Texas, in 2016 are also included.

"Public servants who make four times the median local salary, and who can make millions writing books on any topic they like, can afford to pay for their own vacations, vehicles, hunting excursions, and club memberships," said Roth, "to say nothing of the influence the gift-givers are buying with their 'generosity.'"

"The ethics crisis at the court won't begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules," he added.

Thomas' gifts from billionaire Republican donors—and his refusal to report them—have fueled calls for his recusal from some cases and even resignation.

Following intense public pressure, the Supreme Court last November announced it had formally adopted a code of conduct that was promptly slammed as a "toothless PR stunt" by the watchdog Revolving Door Project and others.

"The ethics crisis at the court won't begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules."

"Headline after headline about Supreme Court justices accepting lavish vacations and eye-poppingly expensive gifts is bound to erode trust in the court," U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said on social media Wednesday. "We need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act and enforce a real code of ethics."

Fix the Court and other groups also support the Supreme Court Ethics and Investigations Act, which was introduced earlier this week by Congressman Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and would create a Supreme Court Office of Investigative Counsel tasked with investigating ethical improprieties and reporting them to Congress.
Reacting to the new analysis, the pro-democracy group Stand Up America said, "The Supreme Court's gifts shouldn't be a secret—Congress must pass a binding code of ethics now."

Chinese robot developers hope for road out of 'uncanny valley'

Agence France-Presse
June 7, 2024 

An exhibitor shakes hands with a humanoid robot at the 2024 China Humanoid Robot Developers Conference in Shanghai (STR)

A disembodied woman's head mugged and grimaced, aping the facial expressions of a user on a nearby laptop as visitors to the China Humanoid Robot Developer Conference watched in fascinated unease.

The wide, slightly frantic eyes left no doubt the technology was firmly in "uncanny valley" territory but the field is nonetheless attracting increasing attention in China, both from investors and the government.

Outside the conference meeting rooms on Thursday, around 30 companies displayed bionic hands, flickering faces and bipedal robots that stomped around the room, steadying themselves when demonstrators knocked them off balance.

"I feel the humanoid robot industry is booming... These displays are no longer just concepts. Many of them are already physical and interactive," visitor Jiang Yunfei told AFP.

A crowd gathered at a demonstration for Fourier Intelligence, which has started mass production of its GR-1 bipedal robot in what it says is a world first.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Fourier's leaders on an inspection tour in Shanghai in December, a sign of the growing importance the central government has assigned to emerging technologies such as robotics.

Fourier's founder told the South China Morning Post that Xi had asked whether it was possible to talk to the bipedal robot and get it to perform basic tasks.

Beijing is not the only interested party.

"These will be widely in use in two or three years," an optimistic investor told AFP, gesticulating at a similar robot manufactured by a different company.

He said he expected them to be mainly used to take care of the elderly, a function some see as vital as China's huge population ages and care options dwindle.

At the disembodied head booth, the team said their ultimate goal was to make impersonal robots such as the GR-1 seem more human.

"We hope that they can enter the household service industry," said Zhu Yongtong, a member of the Shanghai DROID ROBOT team.

Another company's attempt at humanization was to equip robots with visors that projected video-generated eyes.

"As a parent, you can implant your own digital doppelganger image into this robot to make a presentation, which will allow this robot to have a friendlier human-robot dialogue with your child," Ennio Zhang, marketing and sales director of GravityXR, told AFP.

The mood at this week's conference was optimistic, with sights set firmly on the future.

"I think China's humanoid robots have developed to a very cutting-edge position and can compete with other manufacturers in the world," said a 27-year-old visitor surnamed Wang.

"Now a lot of robots still look 'clumsy', they still look like robots, but once we collect a lot more data... the robot will become more and more humanoid," said Jiang.

A shocking 79% of female scientists have negative experiences during polar field work

The Conversation
June 6, 2024 

Arctic penguin (Shutterstock)

Every day, women are working on frontier science in Earth’s unforgiving polar environments. Our study, published today in PLOS Climate, investigated what their experiences are actually like.

Fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctica is a critical part of the scientific research that’s addressing the unprecedented challenges of global climate change. It ranges from day trips to living onboard research ships in the Arctic and Southern Oceans, to spending months at research bases in the polar regions.

Women play a critical role in just about all of it. They take on fieldwork roles from research assistant to team leader. However, our survey found women overwhelmingly report negative experiences during polar fieldwork.

Conditions need to change – institutions and fieldwork leaders have a responsibility to consider women’s needs. They also must increase accountability for problematic behaviour.

What did our survey find?

From September to November 2023, we surveyed women undertaking fieldwork in polar regions.

We received over 300 responses from around the world. The survey group, aged 18–70+, captured a range of ethnicities, life experiences and career stages.

Alarmingly, we found 79% of respondents had negative experiences while doing fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctica. These were driven by difficult team dynamics, lack of accountability for bullying or harassment, challenges with communication and sexism.

Reprehensible conditions were reported by up to a quarter of respondents, including sexual harassment, psychosocial harm, violence, racism and homophobia.

Inherent to polar field work is close-quarter living. Only a third of respondents reported having access to personal space during fieldwork. This can be difficult at the best of times, and particularly when coupled with bullying or harassment.

Combined with poor leadership, it’s a recipe for ruin. Imagine being stuck for days, weeks or months with a toxic team culture and nowhere to turn.


It’s clear why one of the most pervasive negative experiences reported was problematic field team dynamics.



Polar fieldwork inevitably involves extreme environmental conditions and managing interpersonal dynamics among the team. Rebecca Duncan

Women don’t want to appear ‘problematic’

Women caught in these circumstances frequently feel they can’t speak up. They don’t trust their report will be confidential, or don’t have access to reliable reporting structures.

Even when such structures exist, inherent cultural issues often prevent women from speaking out. Women, particularly early in their career, are concerned about being seen as “problematic” and having their opportunities limited.


Women who do report harassment often find there’s a lack of accountability and consequences for the wrongdoer, or they’re “let off the hook due to personal connections” and unbalanced power dynamics. Worse still, some women report further bullying as a result of speaking up.

Unsurprisingly, those we surveyed reported sexism as a prevalent and deeply negative experience. While huge headway has been made since the days of polar research being dominated by white men, a lingering of male dominance prevails.

Many women report an inequity of gender roles. Women are commonly assigned an unequal load of cooking and cleaning, and constrained to more lab-based roles than their male counterparts.

Women also describe an under-expectation of their physical strength or that “male colleagues need less experience to be taken more seriously”. On a personal note, I have had scientific equipment taken from me in the field and told “this is not women’s work”.

Anecdotally, this gender bias translates into women not being offered opportunities due to concerns ranging from being “too emotional”, to their family life (or future family) getting in the way.


The author posing with ice core drilling equipment. Stuart Thomson

Even in field teams where sexism is intentionally addressed, gender bias prevails in other, less obvious ways. During fieldwork, women have difficulty managing menstruation due to lack of privacy, weather and scarcity of toilet breaks.

Some women don’t go into the field at all because of this reason, missing out on valuable learning and work opportunities.

Additionally, most equipment – such as one-piece snowsuits or frostbite face coverings – is not designed with women’s bodies in mind. This puts women at unequal risk of cold injuries.

How can we support women in polar fieldwork?

Our research identified that very few polar fieldwork expeditions had a clear code of conduct or harassment reporting structure. It is absolutely critical we fix this at an institutional level so women can safely speak up.

A good starting point is the draft code of conduct from the Association of Early Career Polar Scientists.

Prior to departure, institutions must provide mandatory training on team dynamics and equity, diversity and inclusion, particularly for people in leadership. Everyone involved should foster proactive, flexible and empathetic environments where women can advocate for themselves and others.

We found that despite negative experiences, most women wanted to continue doing polar research. It is addictive, exciting and often deeply rewarding work, necessary to understand the rapid environmental changes affecting our planet.

The stereotypical qualities of women – such as being accommodating, patient and nurturing – can be critical to thriving in extreme environments. Women belong in the Arctic and Antarctica, and all field sciences for that matter. They commonly bring a unique perspective to scientific tasks, and being a woman should never be identified as a weakness.

Rebecca Duncan, PhD Candidate in Polar Marine Ecology and Climate Change, University of Technology Sydney

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

Scientists and Indigenous leaders team up to conserve seals

The Conversation
June 7, 2024

Swimming Seal(AFP/File / KAZUHIRO NOGI)

Five hundred years ago, in a mountain-rimmed ocean fjord in southeast Alaska, Tlingit hunters armed with bone-tipped harpoons eased their canoes through chunks of floating ice, stalking seals near Sít Tlein (Hubbard) glacier. They must have glanced nervously up at the glacier’s looming, fractured face, aware that cascades of ice could thunder down and imperil the boats – and their lives. As they drew near, they would have asked the seals to give themselves as food for the people and talked to the spirit of Sít Tlein to release the animals from his care.

Tlingit elders in the Alaska Native village of Yakutat today describe their ancestors’ daring pursuit of harbor seals, or “tsaa,” and the people’s respect for the spirits of the mountains, glaciers, ocean and animals of their subarctic world.

Long ago, they say, migrating clans of the Eyak, Ahtna and Tlingit tribes settled Yakutat fjord as the glacier retreated, shifting their hunting camps over time to stay close to the ice floe rookery where the animals give birth each spring. Clan leaders managed the hunt to avoid premature harvesting, overhunting or waste, reflecting Indigenous values of respect and balance between people and nature.

Now, Yakutat’s 300 Tlingit residents continue this way of life in modern form, harvesting more than 100 different fish, birds, sea mammals, land game and plants for subsistence use. Harbor seals are the most important, their rich meat and blubber prepared using traditional recipes and eaten at everyday meals and memorial potlatch feasts.



Through a mix of teaching and lived experience, ecological knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next. George and Judith Ramos at Disenchantment Bay, 2011. © Smithsonian Institution

Yet the community faces a crisis: The dramatic decline of the Gulf of Alaska seal population due to commercial hunting in the mid-20th century and the failure of the animals to recover because of warming ocean waters. To protect the seals and their way of life, residents are turning to traditional ecological knowledge and ancestral conservation practices.

We are an Arctic archaeologist who studies human interactions with the marine ecosystem and a Tlingit tribal historian of the Yakutat Kwáashk’i Kwáan clan. We are two of the leaders of a project that examined the historical roots of the situation.

Our collaborative research, which brought together archaeologists, environmental scientists, Tlingit elders and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, has been published as the book “Laaxaayík, Near the Glacier: Indigenous History and Ecology at Yakutat Fiord, Alaska.” In it, we detail an Indigenous people’s changing way of life and evolving relationship to their glacial environment over the past 1,000 years. To do so, we combined Indigenous knowledge of history and ecology with scientific methods and data.

Ancestral sealing

According to oral tradition, the village of Tlákw.aan (“old town”) was built on an island in Yakutat fjord by the Ginex Kwáan, an Ahtna clan from the Copper River that migrated across the mountains, intermarried with the Eyak and traded ceremonial copper shields for land in their new territory. They subsisted on the fjord’s abundant resources and hunted at the seal rookery near the retreating glacier, then located a few miles to the north.

Today Tlákw.aan is a cluster of clan house foundations in a quiet forest clearing, and our excavations there in 2014 were aimed at learning more about the lives of the inhabitants and their use of seals before Western contact.

Radiocarbon dating shows that Tlákw.aan was built around 1450 A.D., aligning oral accounts with geologists’ reconstruction of the glacier’s position at that time. Artifacts confirm the Ahtna and Eyak identities of the inhabitants. Sealing items found at the site include harpoon points, stone oil lamps, skin scrapers and copper flensing knives. Harbor seal bones are common, with over half from young animals taken at the rookery.

The site reflects aboriginal conditions – an abundant seal population, reliance on seals for meat, oil and skins, and sustainable hunting at the glacial rookery.

Impact of commercial sealing

The U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 disrupted traditional sealing at Yakutat. To meet rising global demand for seal skins and oil, the Alaska Commercial Company supplied Alaska Native communities with rifles and recruited them to kill harbor seals by the thousands.

Yakutat was a principal hunting ground for the new industry from about 1870 to 1915, and each spring the entire community would move from their main winter village to hunting camps near the glacier. Men shot seals and women prepared the skins, smoked the meat and rendered blubber into oil. In the fall, the men paddled seagoing canoes, laden with seal products for trade, to the Alaska Commercial Company’s post in Prince William Sound.




An 1899 photo of a section of the Ḵeik’uliyáa sealing camp. 

Edward Curtis, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (P10970)

We compared historical data and elders’ accounts of this era with archaeological evidence from Keik’uliyáa, the largest camp. The scale of the enterprise is evident in photographs taken in 1899 that show long rows of canvas tents, smokehouses, seal skins drying on frames, beached hunting canoes and women flensing piles of seal carcasses. Inside rock outlines of the tents, we found glass beads, rifle cartridges, nails, glass containers and other trade goods reflecting the community’s changing culture and its incorporation into the capitalist market system.




A 2013 archaeological dig at the 19th-century Ḵeik’uliyáa sealing campsite uncovered glass trade beads, rifle cartridges, metal utensils, ceramics and toys. © Smithsonian Institution

Commercial hunting overtaxed the seals’ capacity to reproduce, leading to a population crash in the 1920s. This cycle repeated in the 1960s when world prices for skins jumped and hundreds of thousands of harbor seals were taken in the Gulf of Alaska by Alaska Native hunters, exceeding the sustainable yield. The seal population declined by 80%–90%.


Although commercial sealing ended in 1972 with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the seals have never recovered. The days when the ice floes were “black with seals,” as Yakutat elder George Ramos Sr. remembered, are over, perhaps forever. Ocean warming driven by global climate change and an unfavorable cycle of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have reduced fish that are important in the seals’ diet, clouding prospects for their comeback.



Ronnie Converse, Yakutat’s ‘seal chef,’ holds a piece of seal meat and blubber that will be thinly sliced, salted and smoked to make bacon in May 2014. © Smithsonian Institution

Caring for seals and the community

In response, Yakutat Natives have changed their diet and greatly reduced hunting, taking 345 seals in 2015 – about one per person – compared with 640 in 1996. Very little hunting is now done at the ice floe rookery, allowing the seals to raise their pups undisturbed.

The community cooperates with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Alaska Native Harbor Seal Commission to monitor and co-manage the herd, contributing their Indigenous expertise in seal behavior and ecology. They have also been active in efforts to protect the seal rookery from disturbance by cruise ships.

The Yakutat people are recommitting to ancestral principles of responsible care and spiritual regard for seals, seeking to ensure the species’ survival and continuation of the life-sustaining Indigenous tradition of sealing.

Aron L. Crowell, Arctic Archaeologist, Smithsonian Institution and Judith Dax̱ootsú Ramos, Assistant Professor of Northwest Coast Arts, University of Alaska Southeast

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