SCOTLAND

Union warns strike will close schools in John Swinney’s constituency

Katrine Bussey, PA Scotland Political Editor
Tue, October 8, 2024 

Union leaders have announced strike action that could close schools across Scottish First Minister John Swinney’s local area for two weeks.

Unison said it has given notice to Perth and Kinross Council for strike action by members in schools and early years centres.

The union, which is the largest local government trade union in Scotland, hopes targeting the action in Mr Swinney’s constituency will “bring home to him the importance of finding a fair settlement” to the council pay dispute.

It comes after the union voted against the latest pay offer from local government umbrella body Cosla, which will see staff receive an increase of either 67p an hour or 3.6%, whichever is higher.

Council leaders in Scotland have already voted to impose the deal despite Unison’s opposition, saying that two other unions – GMB and Unite – have accepted it.

However, Unison said that its members are angry that the pay deal they have been offered lags behind that of other public services – with nurses and other NHS staff being given a 5.5% wage hike.

The strike action could see schools and early years centres in Perth and Kinross closed for two weeks from October 21.

The union said however that with the action taking place immediately after the October holiday, schools could be closed to youngsters for four weeks in total.

Stuart Hope, Unison’s Perth and Kinross branch secretary, urged the First Minister to talk to union members on the picket line “to hear how undervalued council staff in his constituency feel”.

Unison urged First Minister John Swinney to speak to members on the picket line to ‘hear how undervalued council staff in his constituency feel’ (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Mr Hope said: “Taking action like this is the last thing school and early years staff want to do.

“Employees are taking this first stand on behalf of all local government workers because they’ve seen a decade of pay cuts and they see other sectors being offered deals of greater value.”

He added: “A fair pay deal should have been in place from  April 1 but six months later it’s still not been agreed.

“Instead, the employer has imposed a wage rise rejected by a majority of the workers Unison represents. Yet again local government staff are being forced to strike to simply get fair pay.

“The Scottish Government needs to understand that council staff need more than platitudes. Ministers must tackle the severe decline in local government funding and start to value councils and their dedicated workforce as they do other areas of public services.”

But Finance and Local Government Secretary Shona Robison said: “While this government respects workers’ rights, no-one’s interests will be served by industrial action which will disrupt children and young people attending schools and nurseries in Perth and Kinross.

“The pay offer is better than that made to local government workers in the rest of the UK and will see the lowest-paid workers, including Unison members, receive a 5.63% pay increase.

“I hope that Unison members recognise the strength of this offer which has already been accepted by GMB and Unite.”

Meanwhile Cosla resources spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, said council leaders had agreed to implement the “strong” pay offer “in order to ensure all staff can receive their pay uplift and backpay without further delay”.
Ms Hagmann added: “The offer is worth 4.27% across the workforce and is aligned to the pay award for teaching staff, which has been agreed with the teachers’ panel and all other pay bargaining groups. ”

She insisted the pay rise “offers a fair, above inflation and strong settlement for all our employees” adding: “It is at the absolute limit of affordability in the extremely challenging financial – there is no further funding available to increase the value of the offer.”

She added: “We are aware that communities will be concerned about the detrimental impact industrial action would have, particularly for our children and young people.

“Industrial action is in nobody’s interests, and we urge Unison to reconsider the strong offer, which was accepted by both GMB and Unite. “

UK Government pledges £22bn for carbon capture to boost growth and cut emissions

Emily Beament, PA
Fri, October 4, 2024

The Government has pledged nearly £22 billion funding to develop projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production.

It is hoped the funding for two “carbon capture clusters” in Merseyside and Teesside, promised over the next 25 years, will create and support thousands of jobs, draw in private investment and help the UK meet climate goals.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer claimed the move was “reigniting our industrial heartlands by investing in the industry of the future”, as he made the announcement with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is a technology which captures the emissions from burning fuels for energy or from industrial processes such as cement production, and uses or transports them for storage permanently underground – for example, in disused oil fields under the sea.


It is seen by the likes of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Climate Change Committee as a key element in meeting targets to cut the greenhouse gases driving dangerous climate change.

It is also a key component in “blue” hydrogen, made from natural gas with the carbon emissions captured and stored to make it “low-carbon”, which can then be used as clean energy in power plants or industrial processes, although environmentalists warn blue hydrogen still requires a reliance on fossil fuels.

While it has long been championed as part of the solution – with Energy and Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband first announcing plans to develop carbon capture projects for power plants in 2009 during the last Labour government – and it uses well-tested technology, little progress has been made on it in the UK.

Funding of up to £21.7 billion over 25 years focuses on subsidies to three projects in Teesside and Merseyside, once they start capturing carbon from hydrogen, gas power, and energy from waste, to support the development of the clusters, including the infrastructure to transport and store carbon.

(PA Graphics)

The funding will also support the two transport and storage networks which will carry the carbon captured to deep geological storage in Liverpool Bay and the North Sea.

The Government said the move would give industry confidence to invest in the UK, attracting £8 billion of private investment, directly creating 4,000 jobs and supporting 50,000 in the long term.

It will also help remove 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, officials said, with the first carbon dioxide being stored from 2028.

It aims to pave the way for the first large scale hydrogen production plant in the UK and helping the oil and gas industry transition to clean energy with a workforce that has transferable skills.

Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband kickstarted the scheme with the last Labour government in 2009 (Peter Byrne/PA)

The move has been welcomed by businesses involved in developing the two carbon capture clusters, which are focused on capture and storage of emissions from industrial, hydrogen and energy production.

Independent advisers the Climate Change Committee also welcomed the move, saying the commitment to the necessary technology was “very reassuring”. However, Greenpeace criticised the support for hydrogen from gas as putting the country at risk of “locking ourselves into second-rate solutions”.

Sir Keir said: “For the past 14 years, business has been second-guessing a dysfunctional government – which has set us back and caused an economic slump.

“Today’s announcement will give industry the certainty it needs – committing to 25 years of funding in this ground-breaking technology – to help deliver jobs, kickstart growth, and repair this country once and for all.”

Mr Miliband said: “By securing this investment, we pave the way for securing the clean energy revolution that will rebuild Britain’s industrial heartlands.

“I was proud to kickstart the industry in 2009, and I am even prouder today to turn it into reality.

“This funding is a testament to the power of an active Government working in partnership with businesses to deliver good jobs for our communities.”

And Ms Reeves, said: “This game-changing technology will bring 4,000 good jobs and billions of private investment into communities across Merseyside and Teesside, igniting growth in these industrial heartlands and powering up the rest of the country. ”

Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK described CCUS as a “tool in our armoury of technologies which we need to decarbonise parts of energy that we currently can’t do with clean electricity, such as major industrial processes”.

She said development of CCUS for industrial processes would unlock investment and help areas with a “proud history of engineering and industry pioneer the technologies of the future in the UK”.

And James Richardson, acting chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, said: “It’s fantastic to see funding coming through for these big projects.

“We can’t hit the country’s targets without CCUS so this commitment to it is very reassuring.

“It will no doubt provide comfort to investors and business about the direction of travel for the country.

And he said: “We know these projects will provide good, reliable jobs in communities that need them.

“It is important that prosperity for these parts of the country is built into a clean energy future.”

But Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, said £22 billion “is a lot of money to spend on something that is going to extend the life of planet-heating oil and gas production”.

While he acknowledged it was vital the Government commitment to industrial investment and job creation while tackling the climate crisis, “it needs to be the right sort of industries”.

“Carbon capture may be needed for hard to abate sectors, such as cement production; however, hydrogen derived from gas is not low-carbon and there is a risk of locking ourselves into second-rate solutions, especially as the oil industry could easily hoover up most of the money to continue business as usual.”

He called for the bulk of the money to be invested in creating new jobs in sectors such as offshore wind or rolling out a nationwide home insulation programme to cut bills.

The Tories accused Mr Miliband of overseeing a “mass deindustrialisation pathway”.

Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Exceptional local leaders like Ben Houchen have worked on this for years and it’s thanks to the Conservatives that funding was already announced for these projects in the Spring of 2023.

“But whilst this is undoubtedly good news for Carbon Capture jobs, this will not make up for the mass deindustrialisation pathway that Ed Miliband’s costly net zero and energy policies are leading us to, with the devastating impact of his zealotry on jobs already seen in steel-making, refineries and in the North Sea.”

UK Government faces criticism for £22 billion spend on carbon capture projects

Rhiannon James and Will Durrant, PA Political Staff
Mon, October 7, 2024

The Government has been criticised for spending billions on carbon capture and storage projects while it continues with its plans to means-test the winter fuel allowance.

Reform UK’s Richard Tice argued that millions of pensioners will view the decision to spend £22 billion on renewable energy as “absolutely extraordinary”.

Meanwhile, Tory former minister Andrew Murrison said the Chancellor’s decision to “magic” up money to fund the projects is surprising due to her recent focus on financial “black holes”.

Reform UK MP Richard Tice (Lucy North/PA)


This comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the plans to develop projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production at a glassmaking factory in Cheshire last week, alongside Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves.

On Monday, Mr Miliband told the Commons the use of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology signifies a “new era” of Britain’s “energy journey”.

CCUS captures the emissions from burning fuels for energy or from industrial processes such as cement production, and uses or transports them for storage permanently underground – for example, in disused oil fields under the sea.

It is seen by the likes of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Climate Change Committee as a key element in meeting targets to cut the greenhouse gases driving climate change.

In a statement on the projects, Mr Miliband said: “This Government is determined that as we begin the next stage of Britain’s energy journey, we create a new generation of good jobs in our industrial heartlands.

“That is why on Friday we began a new era, as Government and industry agreed the deals that will launch Britain’s carbon capture industry. This has been a long time coming.”


Tory former minister Andrew Murrison (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Mr Murrison, MP for South West Wiltshire, said: “Given the Chancellor’s rhetoric about black holes, it’s perhaps a little surprising that the Government has managed to magic £22 billion for this, but I wish the Secretary of State well in his plan, I hope it works.

“Can I ask whether he shares my concerns that in doing this we’re going to reduce the drive to decarbonise industries? Just like the use of waste incinerators has reduced the imperative to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste.”

Mr Miliband replied: “This is a long-term investment in the future of the country and I think the Chancellor is farsighted in seeing the importance of it.

“On the second part of his question, there are hard to obey industries that are just going to find it very hard without carbon capture to enter a decarbonised world, and we’ve got to protect those industries for the future.”

Mr Tice, who represents Boston and Skegness, said: “Ten million pensioners will find it absolutely extraordinary that this Government has managed to find over £20 billion, when they can’t find £1 billion to fund the winter fuel allowance. £20 billion, Secretary of State, in what you’ve admitted today is a risky technology.”

He added: “This is almost £1,000 per household Secretary of State, will this sum of taxpayers money, will it be added to general taxation when taxes are already at record highs or will it be added to our energy bills that you’ve promised will be brought down?”

Mr Miliband responded: “Here we have the party that claims to be the party of working people opposing jobs for working people right across the country, it says all you need to know about (Mr Tice).

“Outside of this House he pretends to be in favour of good industrial jobs for Britain, in this House he opposes them.”

SNP brands UK Government ‘clueless’ over carbon capture decision

Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor
Fri, October 4, 2024 

The SNP has accused the UK Government of being “clueless” for favouring two carbon capture projects in England over one in Scotland.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans for two “carbon capture clusters” in Merseyside and Teesside, which will be developed over the next 25 years at a cost of almost £22 billion.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is a technology which captures the emissions from burning fuels for energy or from industrial processes such as cement production, and uses or transports them for storage permanently underground – for example, in disused oil fields under the sea.

But a proposed facility in St Fergus, near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, has again been overlooked.


The Acorn project was given reserve status after being passed over for funding in 2021 by the previous UK government.

Attacking the latest decision – announced by Sir Keir, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband on Friday – SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: “This really isn’t that hard – if you want economic growth, if you want to create jobs, if you want to develop a domestic supply chain, and if you want to hit net zero, then you invest in the Acorn project.

“For years we’ve been waiting for the Tories to back this project and despite offering ‘change’, the Labour Government have followed the same path by prioritising projects in the North of England, offering the Scottish cluster no certainty at all.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, left, made the announcement alongside Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves (Darren Staples/PA)

“We’ve seen with Grangemouth what happens when you don’t invest in the energy transition and, at this point, Labour look desperate to repeat those mistakes with their absurd tax changes and failure to invest in CCUS here in the north east.

“We know that Ed Miliband and the Labour Party have lofty ambitions for net zero but their clumsy and clueless approach to the north east indicates that they have no idea how to actually deliver on their aims.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens described CCUS as “a costly and unproven technology”, adding it is no substitute for increased investment in renewables.

Co-leader Lorna Slater said: “The billions of pounds that Keir Starmer is pouring into CCUS would be much better spent on cutting people’s electricity bills, investing in green skills and proven industries and boosting energy efficiency and public transport.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “Scotland is at the forefront of the drive towards net zero and clean energy, with Great British Energy’s headquarters to be located in Aberdeen.

“Our historic funding is just the first step in developing a self-sustaining market for carbon capture, usage and storage.

“Acorn has already received over £40 million for development and it is our firm ambition to proceed with the projects in the Track-2 club

Opinion

Donald Trump’s Increasingly Apocalyptic Campaign

Bruce Maiman
Tue, October 8, 2024 

Julia Demaree Nikhinson via Associated Press

Last month, I wondered if Donald Trump had jumped the shark.

“Jump the Shark,” you may recall, is an idiom referring to that moment when a TV show, brand or project has peaked and then gradually declines toward irrelevance.

Turns out, it may be worse than that.


As the 2024 election has drawn closer, Donald Trump’s rhetoric has increasingly darkened, amplifying insults, threats and false claims in his campaign speeches. At his rallies, he has called for using police violence as a tool to deter crime, repeatedly attacked Kamala Harris’ mental fitness, and promised to arrest political foes. His tone has become more apocalyptic, framing the election as a battle between good and evil, fearmongering about the future of America, and predictions of WWIII breaking out if his opponent prevails.

Donald Trump hasn’t “jumped the shark.” He has mutated into something demonic, desecrating all that is good, noble and decent solely to satisfy his own emotional needs.

It’s the type of tailspin one goes through when confronted by their worst fear, which, in Trump’s case, is losing. Losing is a reality he is incapable of accepting. It doesn’t matter that the race remains a dead heat in the states that matter. His language evokes the desperation of someone willing to say or do anything to stem the tide of some perceived slide into an abyss.

With this comes a delusion among voters that helps buoy Trump’s campaign prospects. Presidential candidates make big promises. But presidents are not kings. They can’t keep those promises without the help of Congress any more than they can control the economic forces that determine the price of eggs or a gallon of gas. Yet, presidents get blamed for higher grocery prices even though they’re hardly a president’s fault. And voters buy into those campaign promises only to blame presidents later when the promises go unfulfilled despite Congress being the reason why. How can voters not do that math, given that Congress consistently has historically low approval ratings?

It’s not worth engaging the MAGA faithful who gorge themselves on fake controversies and ginned-up rage, but there are plenty of smart conservative and independent voters who remain undecided while seemingly oblivious to the bigger picture. If Trump wins, pursues his promises, gives his Project 2025 puppet masters what they want, and Republicans win both houses of Congress (entirely possible), the last thing Americans will be worrying about is their grocery bill.

What strikes me as odd, what is so damned frustrating, is how tepidly the media covers Trump’s endless string of deranged tirades. I don’t know if it’s a misguided obsession with impartiality, a fear of being accused of bias, or just having become desensitized to where the continuous flow of extreme comments is a new normal.

We get “Donald Trump Sharpened His Criticism of Kamala Harris on Border Security,” instead of “Trump Seemed Unstable and Made Several Bizarre Remarks During a Campaign Speech.”

Or try “Trump Says ‘People Have To Remain Calm’ Amid Coronavirus Outbreak,” rather than “Trump Visits CDC During Pandemic, Asks About Fox News’s Ratings, Insults Washington Governor, Boasts About Trying To Extort Ukraine Into Digging Up Dirt On Joe Biden.”

Does this CNN account that Trump “accepted rules for September 10 debate” really reflect how Trump accepted them on his social media account? I can assure you: It does not.

This sanitizing of Trump’s ravings makes even his most incendiary comments seem lucid and levelheaded for the vast majority of Americans who have neither the time nor inclination to watch his rally rants live.

Historically, Trump has reacted to setbacks or threats to his power and ego by doubling down on combative and inflammatory language. However, if the polls remain tied (a negative to him), if he doesn’t get the attention he craves (Harris getting so much more since her entry into the race), he may feel even more cornered, leading to further unhinged ramblings and abstract warnings of societal destruction.

Yet, some voters remain reticent. Recently on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect,” New York Times conservative columnist Bret Stephens waxed on with a familiar critique: Kamala Harris’ failure to address specific policy questions she needs to answer to earn his vote.

Bollocks.

Yes, policy matters, but that sounds more like an excuse than a reason not to vote for a Democrat. Perhaps Mr. Stephens will approve of Harris’ recent media blitz, packed with appearances on “60 Minutes,” “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show,” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Or maybe Stephens needs to be hit over the head with a ball peen hammer.

“She’s running against Trump,” MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle told Stephens in that same HBO episode. “We have two choices. And so there are some things you might not know her answer to [from Harris], and in 2024, unlike 2016 for a lot of the American people, we know exactly what Trump will do, who he is, and the kind of threat he is to democracy.”

Ironically, Trump’s continuing free-fall into madness can only inflame passions among his most devoted followers, making the campaign even less about policy and more about existential threats. If Trump slips further in the polls, we could see this trend intensify, with fewer discussions of policy and more calls to destroy alleged enemies of the state.

Trump, of course, responded to Maher’s program in typically venomous fashion, calling Ruhle a “dumb as a rock bimbo,” Stephens a “Trump-hating loser,” and in a steaming pile of irony, accused Maher of “sloppy and tired” attacks.

Such reactions to criticism — and they are always the same reactions — should tell undecided voters and insipid ditherers like Stephens everything they need to know about this election. It is an election entirely about character. That is the issue.

Or are vacillating voters and those who have decided not to vote comfortable having someone so childish and poisonous in the White House?

We should reframe the question for the vacillators and the indifferent: Given the kinds of things he says, the type of person he is, the type of person you readily concede that he is, would you say you are just like Donald Trump? Does Donald Trump represent the type of person you are?

Your answer will tell you why you have to vote. And for whom.

Michael Moore - who correctly called the 2016 election result - says ‘Trump is toast’

Josh Marcus
Mon, October 7, 2024

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who correctly predicted the result of the 2016 election when few others did, believes Donald Trump’s chances of a comeback win in 2024 are “toast.”

“The vast majority of the country, the normal people, have seen enough and want the clown car to disappear into the MAGA vortex somewhere between reality and Orlando,” Moore argued in a Substack essay on Friday. “The swift and explosive momentum for Kamala Harris is unlike anything that’s been seen in decades.”

Moore, a liberal director known for films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Fahrenheit 11/9, a 2018 documentary about Trump’s victory, predicted Harris would carry the Electoral College 270 to 268.

Director Michael Moore argues Harris campaign’s momentum is ‘unlike anything that’s been seen in decades’

The projection has Harris picking up most of the traditional battleground states in this election, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.

The filmmaker said this analysis was based on “an aggregate of top polls” as well as “the basic conclusions I’ve come to by simply being around my fellow Americans who are shopping at Costco, having fun making TikToks and eating once a week at Chili’s.”

However, Moore also warned that a Trump defeat is anything but assured.

“We do know that Trump has a stellar streak of pulling off the impossible — and those who have written him off have more than once lived to see the day where they must eat humble pie,” Moore continued. “It is never wise to do a victory dance on the two-yard line when Trump is your opponent.”

According to The Independent’s poll tracker, Harris has a projected lead of roughly three percent over Trump, though many election forecasters refrain from making direct Electoral College predictions given the variety of toss-up states in play.

Though Harris leads of is tied with Trump in all the major battleground states, Trump is still polling higher on some key issues this cycle, including the economy and immigration.

Moore, for his part, argues the Harris campaign can lock in its projected advantage by encouraging the millions of Americans who sat out the last presidential election to vote.

“The nonvoters are the second largest political “party” in the U.S.!” the director wrote on his blog. “All we need is just a few thousand of them to show up — just this once — to make a difference.”

Opinion - America needs a working-class White House

Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb, opinion contributor

Tue, October 8, 2024 

Our first and only Black president went to Harvard; if he had gone anywhere else, he may not have been elected. Similarly, if he had chosen a running mate who wasn’t a career politician — a highly visible, white male politician at that — he may not have won.

But that was then. Now, in the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket, we’ve got a prosecutor and a football coach with nary a sprig of Ivy between them, running against two White men who attended the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale Law School, respectively.

The accession of Harris and Walz to the nomination represents an opportunity for us to imagine a White House that could reflect the least of us.

“Far too long, our nation has encouraged only one path to success: a four-year college degree,” Harris told attendees at a recent rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “Our nation needs to the recognize the value of other paths, additional paths, such as apprenticeships and professional programs.”

Harris’s personal choices reflect this common-sense wisdom of education as a tool to open the doors of opportunity, rather than as an exclusive invitation to access.

I find this both refreshing and potentially transformative. As a law professor, I have chosen to teach at schools that promise the opportunity of an education to students from the middle and working classes. My students are bright, engaging and hard-working. Many of them are first-generation college students and will be the first in their families to earn a law degree.

Although they sit in classrooms and are taught a curriculum that does not vary significantly from any other U.S. law school, they will be overlooked for summer internships at blue-chip law firms, jobs at prominent national public interest organizations, and the most coveted federal judicial clerkships, simply because the classrooms where they sit are not located in a law school that is Ivy or Ivy-adjacent.

Their chance of clerking for a Supreme Court justice is almost non-existent, as our justices seek clerkship candidates with Ivy League degrees. They see these types of degrees as proxies for excellence, indices of belonging to the group that gets to make the decisions for all of us, without including the least of us.

A president from a middle-class background who keeps the concerns of middle- and working-class people in the public conversation could change all of this.

Who might such a president appoint to the Supreme Court, and who might that new justice appoint as a clerk? Breaking this class barrier in a Supreme Court appointment could have widespread implications for a nation struggling with questions of identity — fundamentally what America should look like and what it means to be an American.

What might it mean to have a president who attended a Historically Black University as an undergraduate and law school at a state university? What might this signal to those of us who have achieved more than our parents and grandparents could have imagined, but who have been met with a ceiling from which creeps Ivy — invasive, toxic, choking out our voices, smothering our dreams, weaving a wall to block us from full participation in public life,  even as its verdant green and hardiness promises new beginnings and access to power and influence?

Almost half of the Black Cabinet members to serve under a U.S. president, one-third of the politicians in the Congressional Black Caucus, and two of the three Black justices ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court have attended an Ivy League or other elite school for either an undergraduate, graduate, professional degree, or all three. Their work at these institutions bolsters the notion that Black people are only capable of leadership and public visibility at the highest levels of government when they have matriculated through the halls of White, elite power.

Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended Historically Black Colleges and Universities and state colleges and universities for one or more degrees. Their presence but lesser national visibility creates the perception that even though their constituents believed them to be enough, they are somehow less educated, less worthy when educated at schools that sheltered Black people in emancipation and beyond and that remain standing strong even through the blitzkriegs of the culture war.

Part of the excitement of the possibility of a Harris presidency comes from the fact that, even if she is not “just like us,” she is more like us than any other minoritized presidential candidate in recent history.  Her presence signals to us that people educated at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and state colleges and universities might have a place as leaders and decision-makers at the highest levels of American government.

Harris’s choice of running mate, a plain-spoken Minnesotan, former high school teacher and football coach, doubles down on that premise.

A successful Harris-Waltz ticket may not be the perfect solution to the problems that plague our nation, but it might just be the perfect pairing for this moment. A middle- or working-class White House means that America’s perception of itself as an inclusive nation made stronger by our differences is finally catching up to its reality, earnestly attempting to hold its disparate pieces together.

Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb is a professor of law at the University of Illinois Chicago and a Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. T

The Hill.

‘Queer Eye’ Star Jonathan Van Ness Reacts to Being ‘Vilified’ in Trump Ad

Eboni Boykin-Patterson
Mon, October 7, 2024


Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/MAGA PAC

Queer Eye co-host Jonathan Van Ness had the “surreal” experience of seeing themself in a TV spot attacking Kamala Harris and “they/them” pronouns in support of Donald Trump on Monday—and they’re pretty “upset” about it.

“I saw myself in a Trump TV ad today and it’s surreal,” Van Ness wrote in a statement posted to their Instagram, adding that it was “kind of iconic, but mostly very unsettling.” Van Ness, who came out as nonbinary in 2019, is featured in a clip from the PAC ad where they’re chatting with VP Harris alongside another clip of Harris talking with drag queen Pattie Gonia. As the clips play, the narrator says, “Crazy liberal Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” The Trump campaign did not return The Daily Beast's request for comment.

“In this commercial, Trump vilified immigrants, trans people, and queer people generally,” Van Ness also wrote to Instagram. “Don’t think that these white nationalist Christian politicians aren’t a threat to you and vote like it.” Van Ness goes on to express support for Harris in the impending election.

“As a non-binary person, whenever I’m presented with a binary choice, I’m immediately leery. But in this election, it’s really about moving forward” and “trying to trust each other again,” they continued, versus “going backwards to a time where women needed their husband to open a checking account and where segregation was also a matter of ‘states rights.’”

Van Ness went on to call Trump an “authoritarian dictator who has absolute immunity from the Supreme Court” and encouraged their followers to “choose hope over fear.” The host and podcaster has been a vocal supporter of Harris since the VP sat down with the creators and cast of the Queer Eye series at the White House during Pride Month to speak about “progress” for the LGBTQ+ community.

After Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris over the summer, Van Ness expressed their support for her campaign, writing to Facebook, “I believe Vice President Harris will be President Harris! She has what it takes to lead an America that is safe, prosperous, and equitable for all!”

Scientists Say They’ve Traced Back the Voices Heard by People With Schizophrenia

Noor Al-Sibai
Mon, October 7, 2024 

Scientists believe they've discovered where the "voices" heard by some people with schizophrenia emanate from using brainwave mapping.

As detailed in a new study published in the journal PLOS Biology and conducted by researchers at New York University's Shanghai campus, the way people experience auditory hallucinations may not be that different from the way humans hear external sounds.

Scientists have long suggested that people with schizophrenia and other disorders hear voices that are not there because their brains have trouble distinguishing between their own inner thought processes and external voices, which to them makes it seem like someone unseen is speaking to them.

Because these voices are processed like any other sound in the brains of people who experience auditory hallucinations, the team at NYU Shanghai's Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science decided to put electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors on people with schizophrenia  — 20 participants who hear voices and 20 who don't — to see what was different about their brains.

As the researchers discovered, it appeared that the brains of those who experience audio hallucinations failed to fire off the "corollary discharge" signal, which silences our inner monologues and prepares our bodies to hear sounds coming out of our own mouths.

While they prepared to say a syllable aloud, per the scientists' instructions, the hallucinating group not only didn't turn off their inner monologues, so to speak, but also had what seemed to be a hyperactive response to what's known as "efference copy," a brain signal that instructs the motor functions associated with vocalizing.

"Imprecise activation function of efference copy," the researchers wrote, "results in the varied enhancement and sensitization of auditory cortex."

Translation: audio hallucinations activate the sound-processing part of the brain while also impairing some of the motor functions associated with speaking. As a result, there seems to be a breakdown in the way people who have auditory hallucinations process their own thoughts which ultimately leads them to externalize them as outside sounds or voices.

"People who suffer from auditory hallucinations can 'hear' sounds without external stimuli," the team explained in a statement. "Impaired functional connections between motor and auditory systems in the brain mediate the loss of ability to distinguish fancy from reality."

As the researchers note in their paper, discovering where in the brain these signals take place may help improve schizophrenia therapies. This could be great news given that the main treatment for schizophrenia involves talk therapy meant to help people with the disorder deal with their symptoms. [is that worse?]

More on mental health: Novo Nordisk's New Weight Loss Drug Shows Ominous Psychiatric Side Effects

Overview of Julian Jaynes’s Theory of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind

In January of 1977 Princeton University psychologist Julian Jaynes (1920–1997) put forth a bold new theory of the origin of consciousness and a previous mentality known as the bicameral mind in the controversial but critically acclaimed book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Jaynes was far ahead of his time, and his theory remains as relevant and influential today as when it was first published.

Jaynes asserts that consciousness did not arise far back in human evolution but is a learned process based on metaphorical language. Prior to the development of consciousness, Jaynes argues humans operated under a previous mentality he called the bicameral (‘two-chambered’) mind. In the place of an internal dialogue, bicameral people experienced auditory hallucinations directing their actions, similar to the command hallucinations experienced by many people who hear voices today. These hallucinations were interpreted as the voices of chiefs, rulers, or the gods.

Overview of Julian Jaynes's Theory of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind - Julian Jaynes Society

US looks to resurrect more nuclear reactors, White House adviser says

YOU RESURRECT THE DEAD

YOU REVIVE THE LIVING

Valerie Volcovici
Mon, October 7, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: The Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant is pictured from Royalton


By Valerie Volcovici

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Biden administration is working on plans to bring additional decommissioned nuclear power reactors back online to help meet soaring demand for emissions-free electricity, White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said on Monday.

Two such projects are already underway, including the planned recommissioning of Holtec's Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and the potential restart of a unit at Constellation Energy's Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, near the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history.

Asked if additional shuttered plants could be restarted, Zaidi said: "We're working on it in a very concrete way. There are two that I can think of."


He declined to identify the power plants or provide further details about the effort.

Speaking at the Reuters Sustainability conference in New York, Zaidi said repowering existing dormant nuclear plants was part of a three-pronged strategy of President Joe Biden's administration to bring more nuclear power online to fight climate change and boost production.

The other two prongs include development of small modular reactors (SMRs) for certain applications, and continuing development of next generation, advanced nuclear reactors.

Biden has called for a tripling of U.S. nuclear power capacity to fuel energy demand that is accelerating in part due to expansion of power hungry technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Last week, the Biden administration said it closed a $1.52 billion loan to resurrect the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which would take two years to re-open.

Constellation and Microsoft, meanwhile, signed a power deal last month to help resurrect a unit of the Pennsylvania plant, which Constellation hopes will also receive government support.

Zaidi told the conference that the U.S. Navy on Monday had requested information to build SMRs on a half dozen bases. "SMR is a technology that is not a decades-away play. It's one that companies in the United States are looking to deploy in this decade," he said.

Zaidi also addressed the woes that have beset a separate Biden clean energy goal, to bring 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity online by the end of the decade.

The administration shelved offshore wind lease sales this year in both Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico due to low demand from companies, as high costs, equipment issues and supply chain challenges hit other projects.

Zaidi said at least half of the 30GW goal is already under construction and that some of the early snags provide helpful learning for future projects.

"I am pretty optimistic about the next of wave of projects where we will have a domestic supply chain and hopefully better cost to capital relative to what projects are facing right now," he said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

ATTACKS ON THE GHETTO NOT THE GATED COMMUNITIES

Over 6,000 people in Haiti leave their homes after gang attack killed dozens

PIERRE-RICHARD LUXAMA and ELÉONORE HUGHES
Sun 6 October 2024 



Haiti Displacement
People displaced by armed attacks receive food from a nongovernmental organization in Saint-Marc, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

SAINT-MARC, Haiti (AP) — Nearly 6,300 people have fled their homes in the aftermath of an attack in central Haiti by heavily armed gang members that killed at least 70 people, according to the U.N.’s migration agency.

Nearly 90% of the displaced are staying with relatives in host families, while 12% have found refuge in other sites including a school, the International Organization for Migration said in a report last week.

The attack in Pont-Sondé happened in the early hours of Thursday morning, and many left in the middle of the night.


Gang members “came in shooting and breaking into the houses to steal and burn. I just had time to grab my children and run in the dark,” said 60-year-old Sonise Mirano on Sunday, who was camping with hundreds of people in a park in the nearby coastal city of Saint-Marc.

Bodies lay strewn on the streets of Pont-Sondé following the attack in the Artibonite region, many of them killed by a shot to the head, Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite, told Magik 9 radio station on Friday.

Initial estimates put the number of those killed at 20 people, but activists and government officials discovered more bodies as they accessed areas of the town. Among the victims was a young mother, her newborn baby and a midwife, Herace said.

Prime Minister Garry Conille vowed that the perpetrators would face the full force of the law in comments in Saint-Marc on Friday.

“It is necessary to arrest them, bring them to justice, and put them in prison. They need to pay for what they have done, and the victims need to receive restitution,” he said.

The U.N. Human Rights Office of the Commissioner said in a statement that it was “horrified by Thursday’s gang attacks.”

The European Union also condemned the violence in a statement on Friday, which it said marked “yet another escalation in the extreme violence these criminal groups are inflicting on the Haitian people.”

Haiti’s government deployed an elite police unit based in the capital of Port-au-Prince to Pont-Sondé following the attack and sent medical supplies to help the area’s lone, and overwhelmed, hospital.

Police will remain in the area for as long as it takes to guarantee safety, Conille said, adding that he didn’t know whether it would take a day or a month. He also appealed to the population, saying “the police cannot do it alone.”

Gang violence across Artibonite, which produces much of Haiti’s food, has increased in recent years. Since that uptick, Thursday’s attack is one of the biggest massacres.

Similar ones have taken place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, 80% of which is controlled by gangs, and they typically are linked to turf wars, with gang members targeting civilians in areas controlled by rivals. Many neighborhoods are not safe, and people affected by the violence have not been able to return home, even if their houses have not been destroyed.

More than 700,000 people — more than half of whom are children — are now internally displaced across Haiti, according to the International Organization for Migration in an Oct. 2 statement. That was an increase of 22% since June.

Port-au-Prince hosts a quarter of the country’s displaced, often residing in overcrowded sites, with little to no access to basic services, the agency said.

Those forced to flee their homes are mostly being accommodated by families, who have reported significant difficulties, including food shortages, overwhelmed healthcare facilities, and a lack of essential supplies on local markets, according to the agency.

___

Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.


Haiti PM goes abroad for security support after gang massacre

HE FLED

Updated Sun 6 October 2024


STORY: :: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille embarked on a trip to the United Arab Emirates and Kenya this weekend to seek security assistance, in the aftermath of one of the deadliest gang attacks the country has seen in recent years.

Gran Grif gang members stormed through the western Artibonite town of Pont-Sonde on Thursday, killing at least 70 people, including children, and forcing over 6,000 residents to flee.

:: Saint-Marc, Haiti

Before his trip, Conille visited attack victims at a nearby hospital, where he said his government would allocate resources to bolster security in Pont-Sonde.

The massacre caused widespread shock in a country that has grown accustomed to outbreaks of violence with little police presence.

"The gangs control the area, they destroyed it," says local resident Roseline. "They shoot so many people, it hurt us a lot.”

While in the UAE, Conille said he will discuss with his counterpart on how to find regular flows of police to help Haiti's national police combat security.

He will then depart the UAE for Nairobi, Kenya.

:: October 5, 2024

“One of the aims of this trip is to go to Kenya to talk to President (William) Ruto about speeding up the deployment of Kenyan troops as quickly as possible to continue supporting the national police force.”

:: September 30, 2024

Last week, the U.N. Security Council authorized another year of international security force to help Haitian police fight gangs.

The mission has so far made little progress.

Promised international support still lags and nearby nations have deported migrants back home.

Only about 400 – mostly Kenyan – police officers are on the ground.

Thursday’s attack is the latest sign of a worsening conflict in Haiti, where armed gangs control most of Port-au-Prince and are expanding to nearby regions.


'They're all dead': Haitians mourn loved ones after massacre

Updated Mon 7 October 2024 

STORY: These isplaced Haitians are awaiting food handouts after being driven from their homes by gang violence.

Members of the Gran Grif gang stormed through their town of Pont-Sonde last week, killing at least 70 people and forcing over 6,000 residents to flee with few belongings.

Many of them came to the nearby city of Saint-Marc.

“I lost many many relatives,” says this woman displaced by the gang attack. “Nieces, cousins, aunts, uncles, they’re all dead. They were buried without a funeral.”

The massacre on Thursday was one of the deadliest gang attacks the Caribbean nation has seen in recent years.

The Saint Nicolas Hospital in Saint-Marc treated some of the victims.

One of them is Tcharlith Charles, who says he narrowly escaped death.

"As the gang member approached me, he didn’t point the barrel at me, the gun was facing the ground. I believe in God, I prayed as he tried to fire, it didn’t work."

Gran Grif gang leader Luckson Elan took responsibility for the massacre, saying it was in retaliation for civilians remaining passive while police and vigilante groups killed his soldiers.

Haitian gangs outgun and outnumber the national police force.

And they’ve grown in power as the government has weakened.

Promised international support still lags and nearby nations have deported migrants back to the country.

On Monday, the head of a rotating presidency that is running the country said he would not ratify the handover to the man in line to take over from him, citing unresolved corruption accusations against three other council members.

The break creates fresh uncertainty in the aftermath of the massacre.

The council was formed to replace the government of former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was forced to step down amid gang conflicts that have killed thousands and forced over 700,000 people from their homes




UN extends Kenyan policing mission in Haiti in futile attempt to tackle gangs

Amalendu Misra, Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University
Tue 8 October 2024

Haiti is being choked to death by its 200 or so violent criminal gangs. The latest figures to be released by the UN suggest that more than 3,600 people have been killed in the country since January, including over 100 children, while more than 500,000 Haitians have been displaced.

The situation prompted the country’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, to resign in April. And, two months later, a Kenyan-led policing mission tasked with establishing order was deployed to the Caribbean nation. But the operation has so far struggled to rein in the gangs.

So, the UN security council unanimously adopted a resolution on September 30 to extend the mandate of the mission for another year. There was consensus that the law-and-order situation in Haiti is still deteriorating by the day.

The move to extend the mission is, in my opinion, hollow and fails to address the real challenges on the ground. It doesn’t tackle the rampant arms trafficking that is fuelling the violence in Haiti, nor does it secure the funding that will allow the mission to operate effectively.

Read more: How Haiti became a failed state

Haiti has no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities. Yet the country’s gangs are brutalising the masses with all sorts of sophisticated small arms, including sniper rifles, pump-action shotguns and automatic weapons of every kind.

All of these weapons originate outside of the island, primarily from the US, but also from neighbouring Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Experts say lax firearm laws in the US states of Arizona, Florida and Georgia have created a sophisticated arms peddling racket into Haiti.

There is no exact number for how many trafficked firearms are currently in Haiti. But Haiti’s disarmament commission estimated in 2020 that there could be as many as 500,000 small arms in Haiti illegally – a number that is now likely to be even higher. This figure dwarfs the 38,000 registered firearms in the country.

The effectiveness of the Kenyan operation is also being undermined by gross resource limitations. While the mission was approved by the UN security council, it is not a UN operation and relies on voluntary financial contributions. It was originally promised US$600 million (£458 million) by UN member nations, but it has received only a fraction of that fund.

According to Human Rights Watch, the mission has so far received a mere US$85 million in contributions through a trust fund set up by the UN. Haiti’s former colonial master, France, and several other G7 countries have not been so forthcoming.

Inadequate funding has hindered the procurement of advanced weaponry, delayed the payment of police officers’ salaries and has prevented the deployment of more forces on the ground.

Just 400 Kenyan officers and two dozen policemen from Jamaica have arrived in Haiti so far. This is significantly less than the 2,500 officers pledged initially by various countries including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados.

This financial woe has had a negative impact not only on the morale of Kenyan police officers, but it has also made Haitians despondent. Haitians are increasingly expressing impatience and disappointment with the Kenyan force in the media and online.

Some critics have accused the officers of being “tourists”, and have pointed out that the gangs have tightened their grip on large swathes of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, since the mission began.

The pessimism within Haiti was eloquently highlighted by the country’s interim prime minister, Garry Conille, on September 25. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet in New York, he confessed: “We are nowhere near winning this, and the simple reality is that we won’t without your help.”
Advantage gangs

Finding the Kenyan-led operation a mere irritant, and not a worthy adversary, the gangs have only stepped up the ante. According to a spokesperson for Volker Türk, the UN’s human rights chief, the country’s armed gangs are now doing “everything they can” to maintain control. This has included using sexual assault to instil fear on local populations and expand their influence.

Some UN member nations, such as the US and Ecuador, have requested that a formal UN peacekeeping mission takes place. And, despite previous peacekeeping operations in the country being marred in controversy, Haiti has asked the UN to consider turning the current operation into a peacekeeping mission.

Read more: Haiti: first Kenyan police arrive to help tackle gang violence – but the prospects for success are slim

This mission, which would probably include a larger contingent of troops, should not face the same financial constraints as the current operation. It would have greater visibility on the ground, and more fire power and authority to tackle the gangs.

Past evidence also demonstrates that UN peackeeping missions significantly reduce civilian casualties, shorten conflicts and help make peace agreements stick.

However, the recent push for a peacekeeping mission was thwarted because of opposition by China and Russia, two of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN security council.

Beijing and Moscow have consistently argued that political conditions in Haiti are “not conducive” to a new UN peacekeeping operation. They have maintained that the current operation “should reach its full operational capacity before discussing such a transformation”.

Meanwhile, the gangs continue tightening their vice-like grip on the country, with accounts emerging of rampant sexual violence against civilians, the closure of humanitarian corridors, the extension of their territorial control and – of course – even more killings.

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

Amalendu Misra is a recipient of Nuffield Foundation and British Academy research grants.