Unfolding Ethics Scandal at Washington Post Raises Questios About Its Future

“Executives in charge of news in the public interest should not be suppressing news,” says Chris Lehmann of The Nation.

By

 

Amy Goodman , 

DEMOCRACYNOW!

Published

July 1, 2024

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We look at the unfolding ethics scandal at The Washington Post that has rocked one of the nation’s leading news outlets and raised questions about its future. The controversy centers on CEO and publisher Will Lewis, who has reportedly pressured journalists inside and outside the newsroom not to run unflattering stories about him. His efforts to reshape the newsroom in the face of steep financial losses have also alarmed staff, and British editor Robert Winnett, Lewis’s pick for a top editorial role, withdrew amid concern over his history of using fraudulently obtained information in newspaper articles. Lewis is also implicated in the long-running U.K. phone hacking scandal. Both Lewis and Winnett are veterans of conservative British papers owned by Rupert Murdoch, and The Guardian recently revealed that Lewis advised then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on how to cover his tracks amid public outrage over violations of COVID precautions at the height of the pandemic. “At the most basic level of how journalism should operate, executives in charge of news in the public interest should not be suppressing news. It’s a pretty simple bar, and Will Lewis has failed to clear it,” says Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show with media news and the unfolding ethics scandal at The Washington Post that’s rocked the paper’s newsroom and raised questions about the future of one of the leading U.S. news outlets.

A British editor who was tapped for a top position at The Washington Post will no longer take that post as outcry continues to mount over a plan to shake up the Post’s newsroom. The editor, Robert Winnett, will now stay at The Daily Telegraph in Britain instead of coming to The Washington Post. The decision comes days after it was revealed that Winnett had a history of using fraudulently obtained phone and company records in newspaper articles.

The Post’s chief executive, Will Lewis, is also coming under scrutiny over his record. Both Lewis and Winnett are veterans of British papers owned by Rupert Murdoch. The Guardian also recently revealed Lewis advised then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top officials to, quote, “clean up” their phones amidst public uproar over government violations of COVID-19 safety precautions, in what became known as “Partygate” in the U.K. Will Lewis has also been accused of trying to suppress stories about his connection to the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper in Britain. The owner of The Washington Post, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has supported Lewis.

For more, we’re joined by Chris Lehmann, D.C. bureau chief for The Nation, where his recent piece is headlined “How the Publisher of The Washington Post Allegedly Helped Cover Up a Scandal.”

Chris, welcome back to Democracy Now! It was great having you on Friday responding to the debate between Trump and Biden, and we’re going to ask you to talk a little more about the fallout from the weekend. But first, lay out what’s happening at The Washington Post.

CHRIS LEHMANN: Well, it’s not good, Amy. Will Lewis is basically the successor to Katharine Graham, the famed publisher who stood up to the Nixon administration in the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandals. And Lewis is sort of playing the part of a Nixon apparatchik in this Boris Johnson scandal. He went to great lengths to tell Johnson aides not to disclose sensitive communications, after a public investigation was launched in the Partygate scandal.

And as you noted, this is on top of the whole phone-hacking scandal. There’s actually been another report in The New York Times, since I wrote my piece for The Nation, in which investigators for Scotland Yard detailed to the phone-hacking case say that Lewis did not disclose what turned out to be millions of sensitive emails, as he claimed initially to have done.

So, you have, you know, the leading executive for one of the nation’s great newspapers in this position of covering up both for Boris Johnson, when he was running a political consultancy, and covering up for himself. And at the most basic level of how journalism should operate, executives in charge of news in the public interest should not be suppressing news. It’s a pretty simple bar, and Will Lewis has failed to clear it, clearly.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the relationship between Winnett and Will Lewis, with Will Lewis saying he’s so sorry to lose —

CHRIS LEHMANN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — his colleague as a result of the outcry? But the two of them — I guess you could say Murdochians from Britain, people who work for Rupert Murdoch — worked together and are being investigated together.

CHRIS LEHMANN: That’s right. Basically, Winnett was a protégé of Will Lewis at the Telegraph, and they worked together on these stories involving what’s called a blagger, which is someone hired on contract to misrepresent himself to obtain information that will be embarrassing to various institutions and figures. And what’s sort of — you know, this is typical of the British tabloid press. The information they sought was kind of banal and not of any great public interest. You know, there was reporting on a Manchester United ownership spat and then a story about rich Britains who were lining up to buy a luxury Mercedes vehicle. And, you know, under British law, you can use sort of sketchy means of obtaining information if it serves a public interest. It’s very, very difficult to see how any of these stories met that standard. So, you know, you have this kind of squalid tabloid culture that produces titillating clicks. And that appears to be what Jeff Bezos wanted at The Washington Post. And, boy, is he getting a full dose of it.

AMY GOODMAN: And before we pivot to the debate, Chris, I wanted to ask you about the level of outcry in The Washington Post newsroom, having people like the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Maraniss and others actually —

CHRIS LEHMANN: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: — speaking out and writing articles. Some of the best coverage of the debacle —

CHRIS LEHMANN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — at The Washington Post is The Washington Post.

CHRIS LEHMANN: Yes, and that was to the credit of Sally Buzbee. You know, one of these episodes involved Lewis reportedly strong-arming Sally Buzbee to not cover a new development in the civil suit involving the phone-hacking scandal, and she went ahead and did it anyway and resigned shortly afterwards. Lewis denies having done that, but, you know, David Folkenflik, an NPR reporter, has written that he tried the same tactic with him when Folkenflik was considering doing an article about Will Lewis. And Lewis basically said, “I’ll give you an exclusive, so long as you don’t write about this phone-hacking business.”

So, again, suppressing information is bad for journalism. It’s sad that we live in an age where this, you know, has to be reiterated. And that is why people like David Maraniss and a lot of other people at the Post are really distressed, and a lot of talented reporters are, you know, reportedly eyeing the exits. And, you know, it’s a sad — I came to Washington originally to work for The Washington Post, and a big reason was Katharine Graham’s ownership. You know, it was a family-owned newspaper that stood up to the state. That is what journalism should be. Now we have a Washington Post that’s owned by an absentee billionaire who just apparently likes the Rupert Murdoch business model and has been pushing it in that direction. It’s really a sad and scandalous set of developments.

COUNTRIES NOT COLONIES

Democratic Congresswoman blasts Republican colleague John James for treating South Africa as a ‘colony’

US Democratic Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove. 

(Photo: Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

By Peter Fabricius

DAILY MAVERICK (SA)
01 Jul 2024 
Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove says Republican legislation demanding a review of US-SA relations is ‘counterproductive and condescending’.


AUS Democratic Party Congresswoman has blasted Republican Congressman John James for treating South Africa as a “colony” in tabling legislation that would require the Biden administration to conduct a thorough review of US relations with SA.

The House of Representatives passed the legislation last month as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act which must be adopted as it authorises the gigantic US defence budget.


US Republican Congressman John James. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

James’ amendment would require the Biden administration to report to Congress on US defence relations with SA and SA’s defence relations with Russia, China and Iran, and whether these are undermining US national security and foreign policy interests.

The amendment passed the full House by a vote of 272 for and 144 against. Sixty-three Democrats voted for the amendments and 143 against. The amendment would still have to be adopted by the Senate to become law.

Read more in Daily Maverick: US House of Representatives legislates for a review of America-South Africa relations

Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from California, blasted James’ amendment as “strange and counterproductive and condescending.

“And this is exactly what African countries accuse us of doing,” she told the House during the debate on the amendment.

“They say, why do you wag your finger at us and tell us what we can’t do? But then you don’t do that to any other country.

“And they are right. They’re not colonies; they are countries, independent. And this tired approach is what they are asking us to stop doing.

“We would not do this to any country in Europe or Asia.

“So why are we doing this to an African country, especially South Africa, a democratic country that just held free and fair elections, and one of the most strategic partners that we have on the continent?

“So we need to show up, and we need to show up in a different kind of way. And this amendment is not how we should show up for Africa. It is counterproductive, and it is not the way that we should be engaging with our African partners; our democratic African partners on the continent.

“The best way to counteract Russia and China is to show up with a different approach that is dignified, that is respectful, that recognises that these countries are independent so that they see that we are serious and that we are using all of the tools in our toolbox – diplomatic, defence and development – not finger-wagging.”
‘Determine their own future’

She acknowledged that “South Africa has taken a number of policy stances I do not agree with and don’t believe are helpful to advancing further peace and prosperity, including an all-too-forgiving stance on Russia.”

But she said if America’s goal was “to achieve an open and cooperative partnership with South Africa that advances both our countries’ interests, this amendment will not accomplish that”.

“South Africa is a key partner of the United States and has been critical to driving innovation and investment on the continent of Africa.”

Kamlager-Dove noted that in 2022, the Biden administration had adopted a US strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa, “noting it is impossible to meet today’s defining challenges without African contributions in leadership.

“Underpinning that strategy is the concept that the United States can offer positive choices to Africans, for instance, as they determine their own future.

“In other words, we have the opportunity and responsibility to present options to our African partners that they can judge to be worthwhile and in their best interest.

“We don’t get to impose our ideas, and we should be making a compelling case for why it makes sense to partner with the United States and work together to achieve shared interests.

“Any past disagreements with South Africa are reasons for us to double down through diplomacy to find productive pathways for US-South Africa cooperation.”
Duplicate reviews

She said James’ amendment also unnecessarily duplicated an annual review already laid out in law under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Agoa gives eligible African countries like SA preferential access to the US market.

Kamlager-Dove noted that SA already received an automatic yearly Agoa review that took into consideration any activities that undermined US national security or foreign policy interests.

“This review is a requirement for any country to be deemed eligible to participate in Agoa,” she said.

Kamlager-Dove said it seemed as though the core purpose of James’ amendment was to undermine SA’s Agoa eligibility. Instead, Republicans should be trying to reauthorise Agoa.

The amendment was also badly timed as the new South African government formed after the elections needed time to set its course, she said.

The legislation which James tabled was one of several measures which the US Congress – mainly Republicans – has introduced recently in reaction to the perception that South Africa is no longer non-aligned as it claims to be, but is harming US interests by favouring its enemies, Russia, China and Iran in its foreign policies. DM

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How divorce is boosting gender equality in Sweden – new study

THE CONVERSATION
Published: June 28, 2024

Single mothers are one of the most vulnerable groups in societies around the world. In Sweden, the number of women with these care responsibilities has nearly halved over the past two decades. What has caused this change? Are we seeing a dramatic reversal in the global trend of increasing separations and divorce?

No, union dissolutions in Sweden are still among the highest in the world. What we are witnessing is a change in the logistics of break-ups. Sweden not only holds a leading role in the rate of divorces, it is also world-leading when it comes to splitting child custody 50:50. Almost half of children with separated parents now split their time equally between the two households.

In our new study, published in the journal Social Forces, we wanted to find out to what extent this remarkable change in living arrangements has changed the gender division of care work within the ex-couple.

We hypothesised that the effect of such union dissolution may lead to more gender equality than when children went to live only with their mothers.


Ultimately, 50:50 residence requires fathers to take full care responsibility for the child half of the time — something few partnered fathers do. So it could push parents into a more egalitarian division of care work.

As a measure of care work, we examined one of the most stubborn inequalities between women and men in high-income countries today: taking leave from paid work to care for a child. We used administrative register data covering the entire population of Sweden — with measurements of leave-taking of each child’s mother and father both before and after divorce.

Our results show that, in Sweden, divorce has led to an increase in fathers’ share of days off work for care. We conclude that whereas divorces have for decades been slowing the gender revolution in Sweden — with mothers traditionally shouldering all the responsibility — they are now accelerating it.
World leaders?

We are not trying to argue that divorce is a good thing. We believe instead that divorces help expose the joint household as a highly gendered environment.

Opposite-sex couples in Sweden, and more broadly across the world, tend to fall into a manager-helper dynamics, in which the mother takes on the full administrative and mental workload and only delegates specific tasks for the father to fulfil. This is a dynamic that over time seems inevitable and impossible to break.

But 50:50 living arrangements turn this kind of dynamic on its head. Because it is no longer possible to take on these heavily gendered roles – the mother cannot plan her ex’s household and the father cannot wait for it to happen — 50:50 living arrangements seem to show the way to a more gender-equal division of labour in general.

The lesson is that men can and do look after children on their own. If Swedish men can do it, other men’s inability cannot possibly be inevitable. Swedish men are not of a different biological make-up than other men, so it seems like cultural stereotypes are ultimately to blame.

The increases in divorce could change attitudes on a deeper level over time. The more we see men looking after their children, the more normal it will appear. Bosses might stop scoffing at fathers who take time off to stay home with their kids, and mothers may find it easier to trust their partners to take on more childcare and housework.

The Swedish experience may tell where other countries are headed. That said, Sweden is ahead in many ways. For example, thanks to a generous set of family policies, Swedish fathers now take three months off work as parental leave to stay home with their babies while the mother returns to work – giving a crucial opportunity to bond and grow their confidence when it comes to childcare.

Women in Sweden go back to work while men stay home with the baby. 

Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

In several family-related changes — including a rise in divorce and fathers being more involved in childcare — Sweden has been the forerunner in trends later observed throughout Europe and North America.

Residency with the father following divorce seems to be another such development. Although other countries cannot observe the same reversal in the overall effect of divorce on care work just yet, couples practicing 50:50 living arrangements in those countries might have already begun to experience a more gender-equal division of care work following the separation.

And this is good news, not only for women who suddenly proclaim that “for the first time ever … ex-husbands are doing their fair share” but also for men who no longer have to deal with the pain associated with the feeling of losing their children after a separation.

Author

Helen Eriksson
Researcher of Sociology, Stockholm University
Disclosure statement
Helen Eriksson receives funding from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte) (grant numbers 2019-00082 and 2021-01161).
Partners

Hong Kong museum celebrates life of architect I.M. Pei

Agence France-Presse
June 28, 2024 

Sandi Pei, son of renowned Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, poses in front of a photo of his father at a new exhibit at Hong Kong's M+ museum (Peter PARKS/AFP)

More than 30 years after I.M. Pei reshaped Hong Kong's skyline with a jagged tower of steel and glass, the Chinese-American architect is once again the talk of the town as a museum celebrates his life and legacy.

From the controversial Louvre Pyramid in Paris to the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, Pei created world landmarks that blended modernity with history, often using stark structures and sharp lines.

His work earned the 1983 Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's Nobel. Of his nearly 50 designs in the United States and abroad, more than half won major awards.

"He had a unique career... having been able to work with world leaders and do buildings of significance," his son Sandi Pei told AFP.

"The projects that he did are of a consequence, a scale and a reputation that is very difficult to match."

Pei, who died in 2019 at age 102, is the focus of a retrospective at Hong Kong's M+ museum that opens Saturday after seven years of preparation.

The exhibit features over 400 objects, from original drawings and photographs to architectural models and Pei's trademark round glasses.

Pei became a household name in the United States after being commissioned for the John F. Kennedy Library in 1964, with the president's widow reportedly won over by Pei's charisma.

His star rose even further when French president Francois Mitterrand in 1981 tapped Pei for the Grand Louvre project, with his design for a giant glass pyramid infuriating Parisians at first.


"My father was very charming," said Sandi, also an architect. "He always said you don't pick your projects, you pick your clients -- but not everybody can pick Francois Mitterrand or Jacqueline Kennedy."

- 'Community' via architecture -

Born in southern China in 1917, banker's son Ieoh Ming Pei spent his childhood in Hong Kong before moving to the United States in his late teens to study architecture.

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, Pei began his career working for a real estate developer.

Pei's cross-cultural heritage had been an asset, bringing Chinese elements of "family, community and landscape" to the West -- paired with a love for early modernist art and sculpture, according to Sandi.

His early urban housing projects honed his method, emphasizing each location's "time, place and purpose" over ostentatious style.


"One of the things that I did learn from my father is you just don't come with an idea and plop it onto the site," Sandi said. "The design comes from within."

In the 1980s, Sandi worked with his father on the Bank of China Tower, a design made up of four triangular shafts with a blade-like silhouette -- which continues to stand out amid Hong Kong's forest of high-rises.

Pei is also admired in China. He set up a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study the craft in the United States, on the condition they return home to design and build.


Chinese architects today can still draw lessons from Pei's thoughtful, analytical approach, said Sandi, adding that the country holds great potential.

But construction often moves forward at breakneck pace and "China needs to slow down, be more careful and deliberate," he told AFP.

"They will find that the buildings (that are) better built will last longer, serve their communities better and will not be so wasteful of resources."


Despite being larger-than-life monuments, Pei's works are about harmony between a community and its environment, Sandi said -- an aspect highlighted in the Hong Kong show.

"That's why his buildings will continue to survive and be appreciated, because I think people enjoy being within them, because he enjoyed the opportunity to bring community together through his architecture."

HOW DO WE FREE ABORTION?

A protester shouts at a counterdemonstration against an anti-abortion march in San Francisco, US, on the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade in 2013. That ruling has since been repealed, stripping the constitutional right to abortion. STEPHEN LAM/REUTERS

17 June 2024

Bethany Rielly

Bethany Rielly learns how feminist movements are organizing to put abortion back in the hands of the people – and keep it there.


In a narrow street deep in Barcelona’s Raval district is a building with an inconspicuous oval hole in its facade. Above the wooden door is the faint lettering ‘Casa d’Infants Orfes’ (House of Orphaned Infants). From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, women would place their newborn babies in the wooden hatch and rotate it, allowing the anonymous and safe delivery of the child to the orphanage. This small window into the past is emblematic of a time when the social stigma of having an illegitimate child and extreme poverty forced many women to abandon their child in the dead of night. Today in the US, conservatives are promoting a modern-day equivalent: the ‘baby box’.

An insulated pull-out drawer installed at police and fire stations, these boxes allow desperate women to give up their babies anonymously without fear of prosecution. Introduced in the 1990s to prevent the most extreme cases of child abandonment, the religious Right are now pushing to expand these ‘safe haven’ laws as an alternative to abortion.

In the two years since the US Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion by quashing the 1973 Roe v Wade judgment, severe restrictions have been enacted in 41 states. Of those states, 14 now have total abortion bans.

This disturbing trajectory has sparked a global reckoning. It demands we interrogate the state of abortion rights globally to reveal how abortion is far from being universally accessible, safe and free from stigma – even in countries where it’s been legal for decades. Take Japan, where doctors ask for proof of spousal consent, or Britain, which requires authorization from two doctors. Why is abortion, defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a ‘simple and common healthcare procedure’, wrapped up in so much red tape?
BAD LAWS

Many of the regulations on legal abortion today do not make sense – on legal or public health grounds alike. Instead, they are a ‘reflection of stigma or how we treat abortion exceptionally in law’, explains Hazal Atay, a researcher on gender at Sciences Po Paris. ‘You wouldn't find any other healthcare service in a criminal or a penal code.’ Today abortion remains a ‘fragile right’ because even in countries where it’s legalized, it’s still treated as a crime with exceptions, she explains.

Atay speaks to me over Zoom from her home in Paris, where feminists have just celebrated a huge win after law-makers enshrined abortion rights in the French Constitution. While the move was undoubtedly a milestone, France is still not a safe haven for abortion. In fact, research shows that many French citizens travel abroad to seek care due to laws on gestational time limits: France’s legal limit on abortion is 14 weeks.

Silvia De Zordo, a researcher at the University of Barcelona, has studied this phenomenon. Her research found that between 2017 and 2018, over 3,800 women travelled from European countries where abortion is legal on demand or on broad grounds to Britain and the Netherlands, which permit abortions beyond the first trimester. There are many reasons why people might need abortions in the second trimester – defined as between 13 and 26 weeks of gestation – De Zordo tells me. Many don’t know they are pregnant until after the limit due to a lack of pregnancy symptoms, irregular periods or a wrong assessment by a doctor. These limits are harmful and delay care, she says. Aside from the financial and psychological toll of going abroad for the procedure – which disproportionately impacts low-income people – six per cent of survey respondents tried to end their pregnancy by hitting their abdomens or using medications not typically used for abortions to induce a miscarriage.

‘Gestational age limits are not evidence-based in any possible way, other-wise there would be the same limits everywhere,’ De Zordo says. ‘The reason that they [vary is] the result of a political compromise between different political forces in each country when abortion was legalized there.’

In 2022, the WHO issued new guidelines calling for ‘medically unnecessary policy barriers’ like criminalization, mandatory waiting times, consent from partners or family members and time limits to be removed, warning such barriers put women and girls at greater risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatization and health complications.

To date, Canada is the only country to have fully stripped abortion from its criminal code. The harm of criminalizing abortion came to the fore in Britain in 2022 when a mother was jailed for taking abortion pills beyond the legal limit. She was charged under a law dating back to 1861, sparking national outrage and prompting a landmark vote in Parliament to decriminalize abortion earlier this year. In Britain and around the world, many current abortion laws and policies are ‘not fit-for-purpose’ and when it comes to freeing abortion, law reform is only half the battle.




A woman plays the cello amid riot police at a demonstration for safe and legal abortion in Mexico City, on 28 September 2023. Earlier that month Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized the procedure. RAQUEL CUNYA/ REUTERS

REVOLUTIONARY PILLS

Many abortion advocates also call for demedicalizing abortion to some degree, arguing that the medical profession itself has contributed to barriers and stigma. Abortion pills make this call a possibility. The drugs misoprostol and mifepristone have largely replaced ‘back-alley’ abortions, and the growth of medication abortion has been linked to a global reduction in annual deaths from unsafe abortion, from an estimated 115,000 to 204,000 women three decades ago to around 39,000 today.

This has forced researchers to rethink the relationship between safety and in-clinic care. Today WHO guidelines state that people who follow the protocol can safely and effectively self-manage their own abortions with pills, also known as medication abortions, for up to 12 weeks outside a clinic.

This is the preferred method for many, allowing them to avoid travel costs, taking time off work and finding child care.

Activists like Kinga Jelińska, of the Polish group Abortion Dream Team, have asked why medication that is proven to be safer than paracetamol isn't available over the counter at pharmacies.

‘It’s like we have a super-fast broadband but we’re still using telegrams,’ she said in a recent webinar.

Some formal steps towards demedicalization are being taken through tele-medicine. Countries like France, the US and Britain rolled out telemedicine during the pandemic, removing the requirement for patients to attend an in-person appointment to receive abortion pills. Instead, the pills are posted to them to take at home. This model is built on the pioneering work of feminist activist groups like Women on Web, which for 20 years has been sending abortion pills to people with unwanted pregnancies in countries where abortions are restricted. ‘Women on Web were the first to say “if it’s just a pill, why not allow direct access to it?”’ says Atay, who also works with the organization.

When abortion pills came on the market in the 1980s, countries were quick to restrict them because ‘[doctors] were so scared they’d normalize abortion’, explains Atay. ‘The requirement was absurd, that you have to take the pill in front of a medical practitioner, but it is just a pill and the doctor is not doing anything. In many countries abortion is not a right given to women and pregnant people, it’s a right given to medical doctors.’

‘In many countries abortion is not a right given to women and pregnant people, it’s a right given to medical doctors.’

Abortion pills that can be safely administered outside a medical setting puts abortion back in the hands of the people and allows them to circumvent bans. Advocates stress however, that the option of self-managed abortion should not negate the responsibility of states and healthcare services to provide abortion care, nor should it replace calls for decriminalization. Clinics are a vital part of a system that ensures pregnant people are able to access the type of abortion method that is right for them and to treat complications, which are rare but can happen.

‘It’s not an either/or question,’ Atay explains. ‘It’s a spectrum, and it’s a matter of adjusting it for the abortion-seekers themselves and not the medical profession. We want it to be healthcare that’s accessible for all.’

UNHOLY ALLIANCES

With headlines dominated by the abortion wars ahead of the US elections, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming global trend has been towards liberalizing abortion. Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries – including Benin, South Africa, Argentina and Colombia – have brought down legal barriers. Only four – Nicaragua, El Salvador, Poland and the United States – have bucked this trend. But this trajectory of liberalization is happening at the same time as the emergence and rapid growth of a sinister counterforce: the anti-gender movement.


This patriarchal, homophobic and transphobic conspiracy theory partly originated within the Catholic Church. It came about as a backlash to 1990s UN conferences on women’s rights in Cairo and Beijing that instilled a wider recognition that reproductive rights are human rights. The anti-gender movement today brings together a bizarre array of characters, including the Vatican, far-right politicians, European aristocrats and Russian oligarchs, who are all united by the belief that ‘gender ideology’ threatens the only true and moral way to live: as a patriarchal and nuclear family unit.

‘It’s not a real ideology or theory, it’s something made up which is used to describe everything they don’t like,’ explains Neil Datta, the founder of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, and an expert on the global anti-gender movement.

It’s a highly organized and well-funded international movement that has been ‘dynamized’ by the overturning of Roe v Wade to target not just abortion but also trans rights, gay marriage, feminism and sex education. ‘What happened in the US was the result of a 30-year strategy by the US Christian Right to infiltrate the justice system, showing the rest of the anti-rights ecosystem what strategies can work in their own countries,’ explains Datta. The movement’s influence is growing thanks to generous financing in part by the wealthy US Christian Right. According to Datta’s research over $700 million was given to ‘anti-gender’ campaigns in Europe from 2009 to 2018.

Today the movement is buoyed by around $150-160 million a year compared to $20 million in 2009. The epicentre of the movement is also shifting, he says, from civil society to far-right political parties such as Poland’s PiS, Spain’s Vox and the AfD of Germany, which are gaining popularity and entering the mainstream.


An anti-abortion demonstrator puts pieces of dolls into a storage container after harassing women entering a family planning clinic in Michigan , US, on 5 November 2022. EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/ REUTERS


In Europe, these perceived threats to ‘traditional values and the family’ feed into the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which is the idea that native white populations are being ‘replaced’ by migration. ‘Some are motivated to attack abortion not in defence of life,’ Datta explains. ‘What they care about is that abortion means one less person of the desired background or race, and so in countries that are experiencing the very real challenge of demographic decline, abortion is seen as a national threat to their identity and preservation.’ This marriage of anti-abortion and anti-immigration thinking is epitomised in Hungary’s hard-right president Victor Orban, who has pursued stricter abortion rules at the same time as violent policies against migrants and refugees.
A HUMAN RIGHT

Resisting these threats to bodily autonomy today requires looking at abortion through the lens of reproductive justice, which sees abortion as a human right and challenges the idea of it simply as a matter of choice – something that has shaped abortion advocacy since the 1970s.

As US abortion activist Renee Bracey Sherman explains: ‘There could be no laws on abortion, but if you can’t afford one… what choice do you really have? And vice versa, if you want to continue a pregnancy but can't afford to take on another child, you don't have the choice either.’ The central pillars of reproductive justice, a phrase and framework coined by African American feminists Loretta Ross and Rickie Solinger, are bodily autonomy, the rights to have or not have children, and the ability to raise children free from state sanctioned violence in safe and sustainable communities. This framework embeds the fight for abortion rights into the wider struggle against racist and patriarchal systems of oppression.

A greater awareness of the human rights framework would also help counter the misuse of rights arguments by the opposition, Ross notes.

‘When people are claiming that they are fighting for the human rights of people who aren’t even here yet and violating the human rights of people who are here, they’re gaslighting you. When we read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it says very specifically, all humans are born equal in rights and dignity… it was the logical recognition that you have to be here to claim the damn rights.’

‘When we read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it says very specifically, all humans are born equal in rights and dignity… it was the logical recognition that you have to be here to claim the damn rights.’

BEYOND LEGAL CHANGE

Progress to date on abortion rights has been achieved largely through grassroots feminist movements, including those that that help people get abortions irrespective of the law and provide emotional support through the feminist practice of accompaniment. These strategies provide ways for people to continue accessing safer abortions in countries where the procedure is heavily restricted.

Feminist researchers argue that these groups are not just plugging the gap, but are also offering an alternative model and vision of care that centres the pregnant person and their needs.8 In doing so they are shifting the very idea of abortion from something that is medicalized and individualized to a process that is collective and centred on empathy and care. ‘In Latin America, the entire care infrastructure has been provided by friends, family and these networks of providers and activists,’ says Sandra Rodríguez, a Peruvian anthropologist whose research focuses on self-managed abortion. ‘There’s a lot the Global North can learn about this way of organizing.’ Indeed, today we see abortion activists in Mexico sending pills into the US and building networks of volunteers in Texas to help women access abortions.

As the rollback of abortion rights in some countries has reinvigorated anti-rights groups, so too has it dynamized feminist movements worldwide. This has helped moved the conversation on in ways that incorporate the diverse experiences of people who have abortions and the linked struggles with other justice and liberation movements, as well as tackling pervasive stigma.

‘Over the last few years, we’re being more radical around how we talk about abortion,’ says Camila Ochoa Mendoza, an abortion doula and reproductive justice activist. ‘You see activists in court hearings sharing the instructions for using [abortion] pills. We are unapologetic and taking up space rather than being on defence mode. It’s making people who have had abortions so much more seen.’

For Ochoa Mendoza, this is a vital part of the journey towards freeing abortion. On her podcast, Abortion, with Love, she challenges depictions of abortions as inherently traumatic and sad, and instead highlights the normality and many positive outcomes of abortion. ‘If we start with the basis that abortion is a human right, that abortion is an inherently good thing, how much further can we bring this conversation?’



WOMEN HELP WOMEN
An international activist-led organisation working on access to and support for self-managed abortion through different organizations

WOMEN ON WEB
A service providing safe access to abortion pills by mail to over 200 countries

IF WHEN HOW
A movement of lawyers providing support for reproduction-related criminal defense

WE TESTIFY
Elevates the voices and expertise of abortion storytellers

CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
A global organisation to protect reproductive rights as fundamental human rights in law

REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE: AN INTRODUCTION BY LORETTA J. ROSS AND RICKIE SOLINGER
An intersectional analysis of race, class, and gender politics

THE ABORTION DIARY
Provides a healing space for people to tell their abortion stories

ABORTION, WITH LOVE
A home for vital conversations about the complexities of abortion and reproductive justice

THE A-FILES
Unpacks the hidden history of abortion



This article is from the May-June 2024 issue
ABORTION: WHY IS YOUR BODY STILL A BATTLEGROUND?
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Thermal power plant brought down by controlled explosion in China

AUSTRALIA

Minister blasts power plant advice after explosion

Story by Savannah Meacham • 4d • 

A power plant's operators misled the Queensland government about maintenance after a catastrophic explosion, the energy minister says.

Mick de Brenni claimed he received incorrect advice from state-owned operator CS Energy following the 2021 Callide Power Station incident that left almost half a million customers without power.

The opposition led calls for Mr de Brenni to be sacked after a damning draft report into the explosion was released this week.


Mick de Brenni has defended the comments he gave to parliament. 

(Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)© Provided by AAP

The minister briefly took time out of planned leave to address the media on Thursday, taking aim at former CS Energy CEO Andrew Bills and chairman Jim Soorley.

"What we've seen from the report is that the advice the CEO and the chair gave me was incorrect," Mr de Brenni told reporters.

"They guaranteed that all of the statutory and other maintenance required had been done.

"I'm not happy about that."

The 2021 "catastrophic missile event" occurred after a planned upgrade left the plant without a battery source.

Mr de Brenni said he received assurances about maintenance from CS Energy before telling parliament a day after the explosion that all systems at the plant were up to scratch.

"We can guarantee that all of the maintenance work that is required to be done on all of our power stations has been done," he told parliament in 2021.

But a draft report by forensic engineer Sean Brady released on Tuesday proved otherwise.

It blamed CS Energy for failing to maintain the systems and implement effective upgrades to prevent the turbine missile event from occurring.

The report also found cost-cutting measures and ineffective safety programs contributed to the incident.

Mr de Brenni defended his 2021 comments, saying it was common practice to rely on expert and government-owned corporation advice.

He said he was misled in this instance.

After Mr Bills and Mr Soorley resigned in 2023, Mr de Brenni said a new team had been installed at the plant to ensure the incident would not occur again.

"I was quite comfortable with their decision to depart and did not ask them to stay on any longer," he said.

"I'm confident in the new board to ensure that the plan that we have put in place to restore the power station and address the matters that Dr Brady raises."

The government's plan includes appointing new advisors to the CS Energy board and launching a review into the business structure.

Mr de Brenni dismissed opposition calls for him to stand down.

"Queenslanders know that I have their best interests at heart, and I'll work hard every single day to deliver for them," he said.

Premier Steven Miles on Wednesday said Mr de Brenni was the best person to implement a government plan to fix CS Energy's "cultural issues".

The station's Callide C3 generator has been back online since April.

The remaining turbine - Callide C4 - will make a staged return to service on June 30, before returning to full capacity on July 31.

 

Ukraine’s Crowdfunded Satellite Aided Attacks on 1,500 Russian Targets: Intel

JOE SABALLA   JUNE 28, 2024

A surveillance satellite procured through a Ukrainian crowdfunding campaign has so far aided attacks on more than 1,500 Russian targets, Kyiv’s military intelligence service (HUR) has revealed.

The space asset, developed by Finnish microsatellite manufacturer ICEYE Ltd., has reportedly captured 4,173 images of Russian military facilities over the past year.

These include 370 airfields, 238 air defense and radio technical intelligence positions, 153 oil depots and fuel warehouses, and 17 naval bases.

The satellite was also able to take high-resolution imagery of 147 facilities that produce and store missiles, ammunition, and aviation weapons used by the Russian military.

According to HUR, 38 percent of these satellite images were used to prepare for Ukrainian attacks and helped cost Moscow “billions of dollars.”

Since the invasion began in February 2022, Russia has lost more than 500,000 soldiers, 8,000 tanks, 15,000 armored vehicles, and 871 air defense systems, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Monitoring Russian Movements

The satellite was purchased for the Ukrainian military in mid-2022 using $20 million initially raised for purchasing Bayraktar drones.

The deal covered the transfer of capabilities to the Ukrainian government since the space asset was already in orbit.

Kyiv did not have its own satellite before the invasion began, therefore it relied heavily on space intelligence provided by allies during the first months of the war.

Now, the ICEYE satellite allows Ukraine to track deployment points of Russia’s troops and closely monitor their military-industrial complex and logistics.

Furthermore, the crowdfunded asset helps identify the type of detected hostile combat aircraft, ships, and air defense systems.

“This makes it possible to trace the dynamics of Russia’s movements with its personnel, to reveal its military intentions in order to disrupt them,” the HUR said.

 Просто космос ― результати використання «народного супутника» ICEYE

Новий рівень якості та оперативності отримання розвідувальних даних став можливим завдяки @CharityPrytula і пожертвам українців на «народний байрактар».

 https://t.co/4zS5dgcvkO pic.twitter.com/8NyYpLVCme

— Defence intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) June 26, 2024

People Power

The ICEYE satellite is not the first military asset bought using crowdfunding campaigns.

In July 2022, the Ukrainian military was reported building an “Army of Drones” using donations from foreign allies.

Ukrainian volunteers also started an international crowdsourcing campaign in 2023 to provide their military with a fleet of FV101 Scorpion armored reconnaissance vehicles.

Even NATO allies such as Lithuania collected financial donations to buy Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones for Kyiv’s forces.

Anglo American battles underground fire at Australian coal mine

Reuters | June 30, 2024 | 

Workers at Grosvenor mine (Credit: Anglo American)

Anglo American said on Sunday it was battling an underground fire at its Grosvenor metallurgical coal mine in Australia’s Queensland state after a blaze ignited there on Saturday.


The mine site is in the coal mining town of Moranbah, located approximately 1,000 km (621 miles) north of state capital Brisbane. It is the same mine where an explosion in May 2020 critically injured five workers.

“We are continuing to manage a combustion event underground at Grosvenor Mine, following a localized ignition at the longwall on Saturday,” Anglo American said on Facebook on Sunday.

“Our priority is to safely extinguish the underground fire, which emergency response teams are managing from the surface.”

The site was closed, with only essential emergency services team members in attendance, it said in an earlier Facebook post.

Anglo American said work had started to temporarily seal the mine from the surface, which was a “critical step” in stopping smoke from the fire impacting residents in the town of 9,425 people.

“Due to the highly complex and evolving nature of this event, this will take time as we need to ensure the safety of all emergency teams undertaking this work,” the company said.

All mine workers were safely evacuated after the fire ignited.

A spokesperson for Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said the agency was not at the incident, which was being handled by the mine.

Queensland Mines Minister Scott Stewart said there would be a “full and thorough investigation” into the fire, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Sunday.

The Grosvenor mine produced 2.797 million tons of metallurgical coal in 2023, making up 17% of Anglo American’s coal output, according to its annual report. The company is the world’s third largest exporter of metallurgical coal.

At the mine, the company uses the longwall mining method, a method used to extract long panels of coal in a single slice.

(By Sam McKeith; Editing by Sonali Paul)

Russian diamond producer Alrosa buys big gold deposit from Polyus

Reuters | July 1, 2024

Udachny, Alrosa’s biggest diamond mine near city of Udachny, Yakutia.

 (Reference image by Alrosa).

Russian diamond producer Alrosa has bought a gold deposit in Russia’s Far East from miner Polyus the two companies, both under Western sanctions, said on Monday.


For Alrosa, the world’s biggest diamond producer, the move marks a deeper push into gold which it said would fit with the rest of its business and strengthen it financially while not significantly changing its strategy.

“The development of the gold deposit will provide an additional synergistic effect for Alrosa’s business and will help increase its financial stability in the long term,” Alrosa boss Pavel Marinychev said in a statement.

Alrosa plans to invest 24 billion roubles ($276 million) initially to develop the Degdekan deposit, it said, and estimated annual gold production at full capacity from 2030 of 3.3 tons.

Alrosa has mined gold as a sideline to its diamond business for years and the unit which is buying the licence is currently producing about 180 kg of gold a year.

Polyus said it was selling the Degdekan deposit in order to optimise its exploration portfolio as it prepares to begin development of the vast Sukhoi Log gold deposit in Siberia.

The two companies did not disclose the value of the deal. Akhmed Aliev, an analyst at Moscow-based investment company BKS, estimated the purchase price at $50-100 million, or up to a quarter of Alrosa’s free cashflow.

Once production is up and running, he estimated the boost to Alrosa’s EBITDA at about 10%, based on current gold prices.

Polyus had held the licence to develop Degdekan, in the Magadan region of Russia’s Far East, since 2005. Alrosa said it aims to develop the site until 2046.

“Alrosa’s strategy does not change in any way and continues to concentrate on the diamond business. At the same time, we always consider the possibility of participating in projects where we can use our competencies in mining,” a company representative told Reuters.

The attractiveness of the Degdekan deposit was partly based on its proximity to transport and energy infrastructure, the representative said.

For 2023, Alrosa reported net profit of 85.18 billion roubles ($925 million), down 15.2% from the previous year.

As part of sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, Group of Seven leaders agreed in December to ban non-industrial diamonds from Russia by January, and Russian diamonds sold by third countries from March. The European Union added Alrosa to its sanctions list in January.

(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by David Holmes)