Teaching About Race is Good, States Need to Stop Banning It

by Ian Wright

 August 23, 2024
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Cover art for the book Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race (First Conversations).

In this back to school season, millions of American students are returning to classrooms where the wrong course, lesson, or textbook can lead to deep trouble. Why? Because for the last several years, conservative activists and lawmakers have been waging a crusade against “critical race theory,” or CRT.

Critical race theory is an academic concept acknowledging that racism isn’t simply the result of individual prejudice but is also embedded in our institutions through laws, regulations, and rules.

As school districts have emphasized, it’s a higher education concept rarely taught in K-12 schools. But cynical activists have used CRT as a catch-all term to target a broad range of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives — and seemingly any discussion about race and racism in the classroom.

Since January 2021, 44 states have “introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism,” according to Education Weekly. And as of this writing, UCLA has identified 807anti-CRT “bills, resolutions, executive orders, opinion letters, statements, and other measures” since September 2020.

Critics claim — falsely — that CRT teaches that all white people are oppressors, while Black people are simply oppressed victims. Many opponents claim it teaches white students to “hate their own race,” or to feel guilty about events that happened before they were born.

In reality, CRT gives students of every race the tools to understand how our institutions treat people of different races unequally — and how we can make those systems fairer. That’s learning students of every race would be better off with.

But instead, this barrage of draconian legislation is having a chilling effect on speech in the classroom.

In 2022, Florida passed the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” which prohibits teaching that could lead to a student feeling “discomfort” because of their race, sex, or nationality. But the law’s vague language makes it difficult for educators to determine what they can or cannot teach, ultimately restricting classroom instruction. In my home state of Texas, SB3 similarly restricts these classroom discussions.

Running afoul of these laws can get teachers and school administrators in trouble. As a result of this hostile environment, the RAND Corporation found that two-thirds of K-12 school teachers have decided “to limit instruction about political and social issues in the classroom.”

Notably, this self-censorship extends beyond states with such policies: 55 percent of teachers without state or local restrictions on CRT have still decided to limit classroom discussions of race and history.

As a student, I find this distressing.

My high school history classes gave me a much richer understanding of race in our history, especially the discussions we had at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests. And in college, I’ve gotten to learn about racial inequalities in everything from housing and real estate to health care, politics, education, and immigration policy.

As a person of color, I can’t imagine where I’d be without this understanding. Neither white students nor students of color will benefit from laws designed to censor their understanding of history, critical thinking, and open dialogue in the classroom.

The fight against CRT is a fight against the principles of education that encourage us to question, learn, and grow. Rather than shielding students from uncomfortable truths, which they can certainly handle, we should seek to equip them with the knowledge to navigate the world, think critically about our history and institutions, and push for a more inclusive country.

Ian Wright is a Henry A. Wallace Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and a student at Rice University from Dallas, Texas.

Israeli intel chief warns Netanyahu of 'Jewish terror' amid settler attacks

Head of Shin Bet insisted that the violence should be recognised as a coordinated campaign aimed at dominating a minority, with attackers now openly using lethal weapons.


Bar sounded the alarm that the Israeli military is neither trained nor equipped to manage the expanding scope of this Jewish terror. / Photo: AA

Israel's internal security service chief has sounded the alarm to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about his extremist political allies, labelling the escalating iilegal settler violence in the occupied West Bank as "Jewish terror" and placing the blame squarely on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and his henchmen, according to a report by Israeli TV Channel 12.

In a no-holds-barred letter delivered on Thursday, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar pointed to the alarming surge in attacks by the setters, like the recent assault on the Palestinian village of Jit, as evidence that the situation is spiralling out of control, putting Israel on the brink of disaster.

Bar's message, according to the Jerusalem Post, was clear: Ben-Gvir and other members of the coalition are not just complicit but are actively stoking the flames.

He cited Ben-Gvir's provocative visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound, referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews, which defied government policy and encouraged mass violations of the status quo, as a glaring example of this reckless behavior.

He rejected the term "nationalistic crimes" for the current settler violence in the West Bank, insisting it must be called what it is — Jewish terror.

This is no longer about isolated acts of violence but a concerted campaign to impose domination over a minority, with the attackers now brazenly using lethal weapons, Bar reportedly said.

The extremists, who once operated in the shadows, are now emboldened by the expectation that their coalition allies will shield them from any real consequences, even providing financial support, the letter states.

This unchecked violence, Bar warned, is tearing apart Israel's social fabric and jeopardising international support, even from Israel's staunchest allies.

He also sounded the alarm that the Israeli military is neither trained nor equipped to manage the expanding scope of this Jewish terror.

Ben-Gvir responded furiously, demanding Bar's dismissal during an Israeli cabinet meeting on Thursday night, accusing him of October 7 security failures, and attacking his letter.


1,270 attacks on Palestinians in West Bank

A disciple of the extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, Ben-Gvir was ushered into the Israeli parliament three years ago after a deal brokered by Netanyahu with religious extremists.

Since then Ben-Gvir has gone from being a fringe settler boss, Palestine-hating, far-right provocateur to holding a key position in the Israeli regime.

Most recently he distributed weapons to Zionist settlers in areas of the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have faced almost daily onslaught from Israeli troops and settlers.

Israeli troops and Zionist settlers have killed nearly 680 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October last year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it has recorded some 1,270 attacks by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians over the past 10 months, "causing deaths and injuries and damage to property."

Israel plans colony on UNESCO heritage site, as land theft surges

Tamara Nassar  

ELECTRONIC INTIFADA

Rights and Accountability

23 August 2024

Palestinians inspect damage wrought by Jewish settlers on the village of Jit in the occupied West Bank, on 16 August 2024.

 Mohammed NasserAPA images

When a group of more than 100 Jewish pogromists, masked and armed with pistols and automatic rifles, killed a Palestinian, injured others and burned homes in the Palestinian town of Jit in the northern occupied West Bank last week, the Israeli government swiftly condemned them.

“It is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding settlement community and the entire settlement and the name and status of Israel in the world,” Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reportedly called for the arrest and trial of “those responsible for any offense.”

Indeed, a grand total of four settlers were arrested.

The settlers shot at Palestinian villagers, threw stones at their homes and set fire to their vehicles and homes, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported.

Settlers shot 23-year-old Rashid Mahmoud al-Sadeh in the chest, killing him instantly.

An hour into the settler assault, Israeli forces joined the attack, violently dispersing Palestinians and “hindering them from extinguishing the fires engulfing their homes and vehicles.”

The Israeli forces “fired live bullets and tear gas canisters into the air and took no action to halt the settlers’ rampage.” Instead, they made sure settlers securely withdrew from the village.

Israeli occupation forces sealed the entrances to the village, blocking ambulances and first responders.

“This crime is part of a broader range of violence fueled by the ongoing incitement campaign by Israeli ministers,” PCHR said.

“Such attacks are propelled by the institutionalized impunity for settler violence amid unabated support from Israel’s top political and military echelons.”
The settlers are the state

But the Israeli government claims that a handful of settlers are bad apples in an otherwise “law-abiding settlement” barrel, is an attempt to distract from who the settlers actually serve, and to whitewash the settlement project as a whole.

The settlers are the foot soldiers of the Israeli colonizer state and as the recent attack on Jit illustrates, they work hard in glove with the army.

The surge in settler violence since 7 October is not caused by a minority of rogue actors, as sanctions imposed by the US and some European states would have people believe.

The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other allies of Israel who have constantly supported its actions in Gaza announced sanctions on a small number of Israeli settlers in recent months.

This is an apparent attempt to divert attention from their complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, while falsely convey the impression that settler violence is caused by a few bad apples. The sanctions, if at all serious, should be against Israel and its leaders, not a few individuals.

Settlers are essential to Israel’s policy of settler-colonization, which is inherently violent, and is accelerating as all eyes have been on Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

“Setter violence is inseparable from Israel’s broader policy to establish full sovereignty over the West Bank and continuing its plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians,” PCHR said.

What Herzog, the Israeli president, calls the “law-abiding settlement community” is a reference only to Israeli law – which is barely enforced on the settlers anyway.

In reality, Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Syria’s Golan Heights are illegal under international law and are considered a war crime.

In building settlements, Israel perpetuates human rights violations against the occupied Palestinian population, including home demolitions, forced displacement and theft of land.
Settlement on UNESCO site

Meanwhile, the Israeli government is advancing plans to construct Jewish-only settlements on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Battir, designated in 2014 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

UNESCO’s designation aimed to protect Battir’s unique, ancient agricultural landscape and culture from Israel’s plans to build its separation wall through it.

“The Battir cultural landscape encompasses ancient terraces, archaeological sites, rock-cut tombs, agricultural towers, and most importantly an intact water system, represented by a collection pool [and] channels,” UNESCO states. “The integrity of this traditional water system is guaranteed by the families of Battir, who depend on it.”

The world cultural body adds that “the water distribution system used by the families of Battir is a testament to an ancient egalitarian distribution system” that dates back to antiquity.

This month, the Civil Administration – the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation – unveiled a “blue line” map around Battir land, designating it for construction of the so-called Nahal Heletz settlement.The “blue line” represents land the Israeli government purports is “state land,” and thus open for it to steal and colonize. Much of the land is private land held and cared for by Battir families for generations – as is the case with land all across the West Bank that Israel is colonizing.



Israel’s pseudo-legal maneuvers are a charade of legal process to prettify its outright theft of Palestinian land at gunpoint.

It aims “to legitimize the settlement enterprise,” settlement watchdog Peace Now states.

But Palestinians have no meaningful way to defend their rights through Israel’s court system, in which many of the judges are themselves settlers.

The occupation initially allocated 30 acres for the construction of the settlement. The new “blue line” seizes 150 acres more as “state land” and another 130 acres for potential future development, according to Peace Now – all within the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“The new settlement at Nahal Heletz will create an isolated enclave deep within Palestinian territory,” the group added. But it is undoubtedly only intended as a starting point for future expansion.

Nahal Heletz is one of five settlements approved by the Israeli cabinet in June, four of which had been outposts – a term Israel uses for small new colonies erected by settlers ostensibly in violation even of Israeli regulations.

“The pace of declarations of blue line boundaries and state land is unprecedented,” Peace Now says.

Bezalel Smotrich, the ultra-far-right Israeli finance minister, and Netanyahu “are relentlessly advancing de facto annexation, blatantly disregarding the UNESCO Convention to which Israel is a signatory,” Peace Now says.
Facts on the ground

Asked last week about the planned settlement in Battir, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that “every single one of these new settlements would impede Palestinian economic development and freedom of movement.”

Notably, Patel made no reference to Israel’s settlements violating international law.

When probed about whether US opposition to settlements would stop them from getting built, Patel brushed off settlement expansion as “unilateral Israeli actions” and suggested no US action to stop them.

“You’ve opposed hundreds of settlement announcements, and they are all then built. So what’s the point of repeatedly saying you oppose them?” BBC correspondent Tom Bateman asked.

“It is important for us to make clear our perspective and our point of view,” Patel responded.

This succinctly captures the process, which begins with supposedly “extremist” settlers stealing Palestinian land and culminates in facts on the ground that the United States is more than willing to tolerate.

The Israeli government allows and assists the settlers to establish outposts and then officially recognizes them.

Once recognized as official settlements by the Israeli government, the US responds with empty rhetoric about settlement expansion hindering the moribund “two-state solution.”

Settlers carried out at least 1,270 attacks against Palestinians since 7 October, according to UN monitoring group OCHA.

These include attacks resulting in injuries to Palestinians as well as property damage.

Israeli settlers threaten Palestinians at gunpoint, vandalize their property, hamper their access to water, ruin their trees, damage their vehicles, steal their belongings and intimidate and physically attack them.

This violence is planned and calculated to terrorize Palestinians from farming or accessing their land, so the settlers can take it, the Israeli state can recognize the theft, and the United States can then urge Palestinians to “compromise” by giving the land up in a future “peace” deal.

From 7 October 2023 to mid-August this year, Israel had demolished, confiscated or forced the demolition of over 1,400 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank, more than a third of them inhabited buildings.

That is double the number of demolitions compared with the same period before 7 October.

These demolitions have driven about 3,200 Palestinians out of their homes, 1,400 of them children.

Tamara Nassar's blog

WAIT, WHAT?!

"Ban on political parties is a democratic process," - Georgian prime minister

• JAMnews

• Tbilisi 23.08.2024

Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze stated that the ban on political parties is a “democratic process.”

He explained that when there are “all legal grounds,” this is what should happen in a democratic state. Kobakhidze claimed that political parties are being banned “one by one” in Ukraine and Moldova, and that the European Union views this positively.

In Ukraine and Moldova, only political parties linked to Russia have been banned.

What Irakli Kobakhidze said

“The Saakashvili regime is not the Georgian state. Therefore, we are talking about a trial of the Saakashvili regime, and this process in no way threatens our national interests, which should be clear to everyone.

As for banning an illegitimate, unconstitutional political party, this is a normal democratic procedure. When all legal grounds are present, this is how it should be in a democratic state.

You also know that political parties are being banned one by one in Ukraine and Moldova, and this has received very positive assessments, including from the European Union.

It is a democratic process when a political party creates problems for the national interests of the state, when a party is essentially unconstitutional and undemocratic. Of course, banning such a party is the state’s duty to its country and democratic system,” said Kobakhidze.

"Georgian Dream got hysterical" – Experts assess ruling party's statement

Georgian experts believe that Georgian Dream’s statement is populism and hypocrisy. According to them, the ruling team needs this only for pre-election publicity, and they won’t even remember it afterward

On August 20, the political council of “Georgian Dream” issued a statement emphasizing the need for a constitutional majority and listing several reasons for it.

The statement from “Georgian Dream” mentioned that immediately after securing a constitutional majority, it would initiate a “legal process” that would result in the “National Movement” and all its “satellite and successor parties” being declared unconstitutional.

Poll shows 85% of Britons view nation as deeply divided amid rising concern over extremism

In the wake of recent unrest, 84% of respondents are concerned about the safety of people living in communities affected by riots

Aysu Biçer |23.08.2024 -


LONDON

An Ipsos poll on Thursday revealed a deepening sense of division in British society as public concern over extremism and the state of the nation continues to rise.

The poll, conducted between Aug. 9-12 in the aftermath of recent riots and unrest, highlights the public's anxiety about various pressing issues, including extremism, the economy and public services.

According to the poll, 85% of Britons believe that society is more divided than ever -- sentiment that has remained consistently high since 2021.

This figure marks a four-point increase since March, underscoring the growing sense of societal fracture.

Concerns about extremism have also intensified. The poll shows that 74% of respondents are worried about the rise of religious extremism in Britain, a significant nine-point increase since March.

Similarly, 73% express concern about the growth of right-wing extremism and 59% about left-wing extremism, both of which have seen notable increases of nine and seven points, respectively.

These numbers reflect a heightened public awareness of the dangers posed by extreme ideologies across the political spectrum.

Safety concerns following riots

In the wake of the recent unrest, 84% of respondents are concerned about the safety of people living in communities affected by the riots. The violence has brought to the forefront fears about public safety and the well-being of local communities.

The poll also reveals a mixed public response to the handling of the riots by political leaders and social media companies. While the police have received broad support, with 59% of respondents saying they have done a good job, political leaders have faced more criticism.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's response to the unrest has been met with a split opinion: 39% approve of his handling of the situation, while 29% disapprove.

In contrast, only 13% believe former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did a good job, with 41% expressing criticism. Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, another prominent political figure, received approval from 21% of respondents, but nearly half (48%) disapproved of his response.

Social media companies, however, have been overwhelmingly criticized for their role in the riots, with 60% of Britons believing they have done a poor job in responding to the unrest.

The UK has seen a surge in charges as authorities respond to the violent riots, which were fueled by false online claims that the suspect in the fatal stabbing of three children in the English seaside town of Southport on July 29 was a Muslim asylum seeker. The identification of the attacker as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents, has done little to deter the far-right mobs.

Prime Minister Starmer has vowed swift justice for those involved, and the National Police Chiefs' Council anticipates that arrests and charges will continue to rise as investigations proceed.

On Aug. 7, three men became the first individuals to be jailed for their involvement in the Southport and Liverpool riots. Prosecutors have warned that these cases represent only "the tip of the iceberg" as the crackdown on rioters continues.

GEMOLOGY

The biggest diamond in over a century is found in Botswana — a whopping 2,492 carats

August 23, 2024
The Associated Press

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi holds the 2,492-carat diamond that was unearthed at one of its mines and will be put on show, on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Gaborone.AP/AP

GABORONE, Botswana — The largest diamond found in more than a century has been unearthed at a mine in Botswana, and the country's president showed off the fist-sized stone to the world at a viewing ceremony Thursday.

The Botswana government says the huge 2,492-carat diamond is the second-biggest ever discovered in a mine. It's the biggest diamond found since 1905.

The as-yet-unnamed diamond was presented to the world at the office of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi. It weighs approximately half a kilogram and Masisi was one of the first to get to hold it.

“It is overwhelming,” Masisi said. "I am lucky to have seen it in my time.” He gasped and said “wow" before calling senior government officials over to take a closer look.
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Officials said it was too early to value the stone or decide how it would be sold. Another smaller diamond from the same mine in Botswana was sold for $63 million in 2016, a record for a rough gem.

“This is history in the making,” said Naseem Lahri, Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that found the diamond. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”

Lucara said in a statement Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in central Botswana. Lucara said it was a "high-quality" stone and was found intact. It was located using X-ray technology designed to find large, high-value diamonds.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara President and CEO William Lamb said in a statement.

The weight would make it the largest diamond found in 119 years and the second-largest ever dug out of a mine after the Cullinan Diamond that was discovered in South Africa in 1905. The famous Cullinan was 3,106 carats and was cut into gems, some of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.

A bigger, less pure black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found above ground and was believed to have been part of a meteorite.

Botswana, a country of 2.6 million people in southern Africa, is the second-biggest producer of natural diamonds behind Russia and has unearthed all of the world's biggest stones in recent years. The Karowe Mine has produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.

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Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was bought by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.

The 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana's Karowe Mine, was bought by a British jeweler for $53 million in 2017. Another diamond from Karowe, The Constellation, was sold for the record $63 million.

Diamonds are formed when carbon atoms are squeezed together under high pressure deep underground. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old and some of them more than 3 billion years old.

Twin waterspouts appear near Palm Beach amid storm warning

The National Weather Service issued a marine warning for local waters, with 46 mph wind gusts forecast.

Thursday 22 August 2024 

THE BAYESIAN Yacht Sinking: Climate Change Created Perfect Storm for Waterspouts

While the exact cause of the deadly sinking of the Bayesian superyacht remains unknown, dangerous waterspouts were spotted in the area. Scientists say they may become far more common.


Photograph: koto_feja/Getty Images

The waterspout blamed for the deadly sinking of a luxury superyacht carrying the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch in Italy has been called a freak “black swan” event. But scientists believe this kind of marine tornado is becoming more common with global warming.

While the cause of the sinking of the Bayesian hasn’t officially been determined, weather conditions and witness reports from Sicily, where the yacht was anchored off the coast, have led experts to suspect a waterspout, a whirling column of air and water mist. The key factor for waterspout formation is warm water—and the past year has seen the ocean surface heat up to record-breaking temperatures, in part due to climate change.

“If this rate of warming is going to be continuing in the future, it’s very possible these phenomena will be common and not rare,” says Michalis Sioutas, a meteorology PhD who studies waterspouts in Greece and is a board member of the Hellenic Meteorological Society. “It’s very possible to talk about waterspouts or even tornadoes and extreme storms becoming common.”

The 180-foot Bayesian sank in a matter of minutes after being caught in a sudden storm with strong winds and intense lightning at around 4 am on Monday. Fifteen people who had been aboard were rescued, and one person was found dead. Six people are missing, including British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who was recently cleared of fraud charges over the sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard. On Wednesday, the bodies of five people were recovered from the sunken ship but have yet to be identified.

Fishermen saw a waterspout near the yacht shortly before it sank, and a nearby schooner was tossed about by what its captain, Karsten Borner, called a “hurricane gust,” which he believes capsized the Bayesian. Experts have said the conditions were ripe for a waterspout.

This extreme weather phenomenon occurs when warm, moist air rises rapidly over water, spinning as winds change direction at different heights. The result is a long, bending funnel of spray between the water and the clouds, tapering off as it rises as much as 10,000 feet into the heavens.

It comes in two flavors. The more vanilla kind is a fair weather waterspout, which forms in relatively calm and even sunny conditions, often under a billowy cumulus cloud. It happens more often in places like the Great Lakes and the Florida Keys, reaches wind speeds of 50 miles per hour, and usually breaks up before it can cause significant damage.

Then there are severe waterspouts, essentially tornadoes over water, which “are another beast” entirely, according to Wade Szilagyi, a retired forecaster at the Meteorological Service of Canada who now directs the International Center for Waterspout Research. These tornadic waterspouts can move from land to water, or vice versa, and twist at 125 miles per hour or more. They’ve been known to throw debris, rip apart buildings, and overturn boats.

A waterspout documented by Sioutas in Methoni, Greece, in 2004 picked up a boat and sent it sailing through the air, striking and killing a 10-year-old boy. Last year, a sudden storm and waterspout with winds of over 40 miles per hour overturned a tourist boat carrying off-duty intelligence agents on Italy’s Lake Maggiore, killing four. Sioutas says waterspouts can even generate “massive water displacements similar to tsunamis,” citing the gigantic waves that struck the coast of the Greek island of Samos during a 2004 cyclone, tossing boulders like toys.

Tornadic waterspouts spring up only in stormy weather with strong winds, lightning, and sometimes hail, and are the product of two main ingredients: wind shear and rising, unstable air. The process begins when masses of cold and warm air collide. This brings together winds from different directions that start to spin around each other, creating vortices. If a thunderstorm also converges in the area, it can provide the instability, sucking warm air up into itself at dizzying speeds. Over water, it starts carrying moisture up as well. Szilagyi compares the waterspout’s development to a twirling figure skater.

“You can think of the skater, if she just spins around normally, that’s like the little vortex that’s already started,” he says. “But if she brings her arms in, then that’s like the column of that unstable warm air, pulling, stretching that vortex upward. She starts to spin faster.”

Waterspouts have been known and feared since ancient times. In the 1550s in Malta, a waterspout plowed through the harbor of Valletta, reportedly destroying an armada of warships and killing hundreds of people. It’s even thought that old stories of fish or frogs raining down on land may be the product of waterspouts sweeping the creatures up into the clouds.

Now global warming may be supercharging the phenomenon. The International Panel on Climate Change has not found a definite link—there hasn’t been much research into how climate change may be affecting waterspouts—but experts say that the conditions for waterspouts to form are happening more often. A 2022 study of 234 waterspouts in the Spanish Mediterranean over the past three decades found that they were more likely to break out when the sea surface was warmer, especially above 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit). And water temperatures are now at unprecedented levels.

Last year was the warmest on record for the ocean. The heat content of the upper 6,500 feet of the seas was the highest ever seen. The seas broke temperature records every single day between May 2023 and May 2024. Marine heat waves struck areas from Antarctica to the Mediterranean.

“Warmer oceans have more energy and more humidity to transfer to the atmosphere, the most important fuels for storms,” says Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society. “The contrast of warm sea and colder air that flows over energizes vertical winds that could result in downbursts or waterspouts.” (A downburst is a powerful cascade of wind and rain from a thundercloud.)

That perfect storm of waterspout conditions hit Italy around the time the Bayesian sank. In recent days, a mass of high-level cold air has swept down from the Alps and over the country’s western coast, meeting the exceptionally warm air just above the sea surface. Four days before the Bayesian went down, sea surface temperatures were the hottest ever recorded across the Mediterranean Sea, with a daily median of 28.71 degrees Celsius. The ocean near where the Bayesian was anchored has reached almost 30 degrees Celsius this week, four degrees higher than the 20-year summer average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Cold and warm air clashed. Winds started spinning, and overheated water provided the ingredient of instability needed for a waterspout outbreak. As a result, a total of 28 waterspouts were documented off the western coast of Italy from August 17 to August 20, according to the International Center for Waterspout Research.

The total number of waterspouts reported has been increasing in recent years, although a major factor has been that more people are able to capture them with phone cameras and post them on social media, Szilagyi says. But he says that warming waters and a longer waterspout season due to climate change are also contributing. In particular, he believes the number of severe waterspouts are on the rise.

“With the increased water temperatures, that’s probably resulting in more frequent tornadic waterspouts,” Szilagyi says. “There’s no scientific evidence yet that they’re getting even stronger. It’s just that they’re becoming more frequent.”

Warming sea waters are also expected to boost other extreme weather events like Mediterranean hurricanes, or “medicanes,” one of which contributed to the flash flood that killed thousands of people in Libya last year.

In this brave new world, countries need to improve early-warning systems and invest more in research to forecast and observe trends in waterspouts, scientists say. “We have to prepared for more dangerous waterspouts possibly in the future,” Sioutas says. “Significantly warmer waters contribute very significantly to the creation of waterspouts, especially the violent ones.”

Updated 8-22-2024 1:15 pm BST: A previous version of the story stated that the ship’s mast had snapped; this detail has been removed as damage to the mast has not been confirmed.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

Shein reveals child labour cases at suppliers

João da Silva
Business reporter

Shein has been tightening its supplier policies ahead of a potential stock market listing

Chinese fast fashion giant Shein says it found two cases of child labour in its supply chain last year as it tightens scrutiny of the companies that make the clothes it sells.

The firm says it temporarily suspended orders from the suppliers involved and did not resume business with them until they had stepped up efforts to tackle the issue.

The revelation in Shein's 2023 sustainability report comes as it is understood to be planning to sell shares on the stock market.

The company has been criticised for the conditions faced by workers at factories in its supply chain.

"Both cases were resolved swiftly, with remediation steps including terminating contracts with underage employees, ensuring the payment of any outstanding wages, arranging medical checkups and facilitating repatriation to parents/legal guardians as needed," Shein said.

"Following appropriate remediation, the contract manufacturers were permitted to resume business."

Shein said it has now tightened its supplier policies. Under the new rules, any child labour or forced labour violations have become grounds for immediate termination of contracts.

The firm said the two cases were uncovered during the first nine months of 2023 and none were found in the last quarter of the year.

It comes as the company lays the groundwork for a potential sale of shares on the stock market.

The BBC understands that Shein filed initial documents for a London listing earlier this year.

In June, Marco Rubio, a leading Republican on the US Senate Intelligence Committee, and an ally of Donald Trump, wrote to then-UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt warning him about "grave ethics concerns" and Shein’s "deep ties to the People’s Republic of China".

“Slave labour, sweat shops, and trade tricks are the dirty secrets behind Shein’s success,” Mr Rubio wrote in his letter to Mr Hunt.

At the time, a spokesperson for the company said: "Shein has a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour and we are committed to respecting human rights. We take visibility across our entire supply chain seriously and we require our contract manufacturers to only source cotton from approved regions."

That was just weeks after a report released by Swiss advocacy group Public Eye said excessive overtime was still common for many workers in Shein's supply chain.

In response to the report, Shein told the BBC it was "working hard" to address the matters raised by Public Eye and had made "significant progress on enhancing conditions".

 

South Korean hotel fire that killed 7 was likely made

 worse by the lack of sprinklers, officials say

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 23, 2024




A firefighter searches for missing people after a fire broke at a hotel in Bucheon, South Korea, on Aug. 22. (Newsis via AP)


SEOUL--A fire that killed seven people in a South Korean hotel was possibly made worse by the lack of sprinklers, fire officials said Friday, as they investigated the cause of the blaze.

At least 12 people were being treated for injuries related to the fire that broke out Thursday evening at the nine-story property in the city of Bucheon, just west of the capital, Seoul.

Officials say the fire didn’t spread broadly after starting in an unoccupied room on the 8th floor. But with the room was unprotected by sprinklers and toxic smoke quickly filled the upper floors. Most of the victims were found in the rooms and hallways of the eighth and ninth floors.

Lee Sang-don, an official with the Bucheon Fire Station, said the hotel, which was built in 2003, wasn’t mandated to have a sprinkler system. While South Korea began requiring sprinklers on all buildings with more than six floors starting in 2017, the requirement wasn’t retroactively applied to most older buildings, except for some medical facilities and nursing homes.

“When we got there, (the floors) were already filled with smoke, which was also pouring out of the windows,” Lee said in a briefing. He said that the fire started in Room 810, which was unoccupied after a guest complained of smelling something burning and requested a room change to the hotel’s management.

A government team of fire officials, forensic experts and police started an on-site inspection Friday to investigate the cause of the blaze. Cho Seon-ho, chief of the Gyeonggi provincial fire services, reportedly said in a briefing to Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min at the scene that the fire was most likely caused by electrical problems.