WET MARKET

Fire at Thailand's famous Chatuchak Weekend Market kills hundreds of caged animals

Associated Press
Tue, June 11, 2024 

Thai rescuer carries a survived chicken from a fire at the Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Hundreds of caged animals died Tuesday after the fire struck Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the most famous markets in Thailand’s capital. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)


BANGKOK (AP) — Hundreds of caged animals died Tuesday after a fire struck Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the most famous markets in Thailand’s capital.

The fire was reported early in the morning and quickly swept across more than 100 shops in the market's pet section, according to the Bangkok government.

Officials said it took them about an hour to bring the fire under control. There are no reports of human casualties, but Thai media reports suggested that the fire killed several hundred animals, including puppies, fish, snakes, birds and rabbits, kept in cages and locked inside the shops.


The cause of the fire is being investigated, said Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who visited the scene after the fire was put out. Officials could be seen at the site in the morning, inspecting the charred shops or breaking metal gates to bring out animals that survived the fire.

Officials said they are still working on estimating the cost of damage, and that affected shop owners could register for compensation.

The sprawling weekend market is a major tourist draw, bringing in shoppers from all over the world to browse its hundreds of shops and stalls for items ranging from food and drink to clothing, furniture, plants, books and pets.

Wildlife organizations have often accused some vendors of involvement in the trafficking of rare and endangered species, such as turtles, tortoises and birds

Crisis-ridden Haiti turns a page, officially welcomes new transitional government

Jacqueline Charles
Wed, June 12, 2024

Haiti welcomed a new government on Wednesday, completing the final step in a new political transition that many are hoping will bring a reprieve to the country’s ongoing gang-fueled crisis and pave the way for long-overdue general elections.

A new cabinet of ministers was presented by newly selected Prime Minister Garry Conille at a ceremony. Conille this week finalized his government after days of negotiations with members of the transitional presidential council. Conille, 58, a former regional director with UNICEF, the United Nations child welfare agency, managed to reduce the cabinet from 18 ministers to 14 by combining some ministries.

Like former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was forced to resign by the United States to pave the way for a transition amid gang attacks that erupted on Feb. 29, Conille will keep for himself the portfolio of interior minister. In Haiti, the interior ministry is responsible for issuing passports and staging elections.

Most of the members of Conille’s new cabinet are unknowns or relative newcomers to Haitian politics. Most of their names, however, were put forward by the sectors represented on the nine-member presidential council, where seven members have voting rights and two serve as observers. Still, there are some notable names among them. They include Carlos Hercule, the new minister of justice; Dominique Dupuy, the minister of foreign affairs and Haitians Living Abroad, and Ketleen Florestal, the minister of finance and planning.

Hercule, a lawyer, formerly headed the Port-au-Prince bar association. In his role he will need to rebuild the justice system that today is wrestling with the escape of more than 4,000 inmates after armed groups raided the country’s two largest prisons in early March. There is also the thorny issue of the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. More than 50 people, including the president’s widow, have been indicted and Hercule will face pressure to continue to pursue the case.

The justice ministry has also been intimately involved in the negotiations with the government of Kenya over the deployment of the Multinational Security Support mission to help the country’s beleaguered police take on powerful gangs.


Dominique Dupuy, Haiti’s former ambassador to UNESCO, has been named Haiti’s foreign minister.

Dupuy was Haiti’s ambassador to UNESCO and had been previously named as one of the seven members of the presidential council by a political party coalition led by former prime minister and foreign minister Claude Joseph. She resigned, citing threats to her life. She will be charged with not only overseeing Haiti’s foreign policy but cleaning up a ministry saddled with corruption allegations in some of its foreign embassies.

A Columbia University graduate, Florestal is an economist who began her career as a law intern and briefly served as chief of staff in Haiti’s justice ministry in the early 1990s. She replaces finance minister Michel Patrick Boisvert, who served as interim prime minister after Henry’s resignation Florestal has worked on the Haiti portfolio at the three leading international lending institutions including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Florestal holds a master’s degree from Columbia University in economic policy management and a master’s from Johns Hopkins University in applied economics.

The new government faces a host of challenges, from restarting the economy to addressing the ongoing violence.

Armed violence that escalated nearly four months ago has brought Haiti to the brink of both economic and humanitarian collapse. The most recent numbers from the United Nations show that there’s been a 60% increase in the number of people displaced between March and June, from 360,000 to nearly 580,000.

On Wednesday, a court in Kenya postponed for two weeks a hearing on a new lawsuit against the government’s efforts to deploy police officers to Haiti. Days earlier three Haitian police officers were killed after armed gang members set a trap, leading to their ambush in the Delmas neighborhood of the capital.

In March, the Caribbean Community, along with the U.S. and other nations, brokered a deal with Haitian political and civic leaders that led to the formation of a nine-member presidential council. Last month, after wading through more that five dozen applications, the council selected Conille, a former U.N. development expert who briefly served as prime minister between 2011 and 2012 , as the new prime minister.

Over the weekend, Conille needed medical care after experiencing breathing problems. He was discharged from a hospital after spending the night. Though he immediately addressed the population in a video about his ordeal, Conille has yet to provide specifics about his priorities or how he intends on governing Haiti.

Training effort aims to give 180,000 Ukrainians skills for rebuilding

AKA CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

DPA
Tue, June 11, 2024 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shake hands at the end of their joint press conference during the International Ukraine Reconstruction conference in Berlin. Kay Nietfeld/dpa


A group of international partners, including Germany, announced the launch of a worker training programme for Ukraine aimed at preparing young people with skills to help rebuild the country.

The initiative plans to train 180,000 people in skills needed for Ukraine's reconstruction, according to German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, who announced the initiative on Tuesday at an international conference on Ukrainian recovery in Berlin.

Germany will be joined by a number of other countries as well as international organizations and business groups in the effort, which will be backed by €700 million ($750 million) in funding, Schulze said.


"In this way, we are providing Ukraine with important support in times of war and during reconstruction. No matter how often Russia destroys power lines, hospitals or buildings, the Ukrainians will have the knowledge and skills to rebuild them," Schulze said on Tuesday.

The programme is expected to run for three years and is primarily aimed at young people, the internally displaced and women.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, arrive for a joint press conference during the International Ukraine Reconstruction conference in Berlin. Britta Pedersen/dpa

Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, speaks at a press conference at the Ukraine Conference. The international reconstruction conference for Ukraine will take place in Berlin on June 11 and 12. Britta Pedersen/dpa

German populist lawmakers stage boycott of Zelensky speech in Berlin

DPA
Tue, June 11, 2024 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech at the German Parliament (Bundestag). Zelensky is in Berlin for the International Ukraine Reconstruction conference in Berlin. Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa


Most German lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the upstart populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) boycotted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's speech on Tuesday to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.

Only four of the AfD's 77 lawmakers turned up in the Bundestag chamber in Berlin ahead of Zelensky's speech after party leaders told them not to attend. None of the 10 members of the BSW showed up, either.

Leaders from mainstream German political parties expressed disgust with both the AfD and the BSW for the stunt.

Both the AfD and BSW have vehemently opposed military aid for Ukraine. A number of AfD members in particular have expressed support for Russia and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We refuse to listen to a speaker in a camouflage suit," the AfD's co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said. "The government should not give him a stage for reconstruction begging. The citizens are paying more than enough for military aid, EU aid and welfare benefits for Ukrainian" refugees.

The AfD leaders claimed that what Ukraine needs is a peace president who is willing to negotiate.

The BSW, which broke away from the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) party and has been campaigning on a platform combining left-wing economic policy with some hard-right stances, also denounced Zelensky.

"Unfortunately, President Zelensky is currently helping to promote a highly dangerous spiral of escalation and is accepting the risk of a nuclear conflict with devastating consequences for the whole of Europe," the party claimed in a statement. "He should therefore not be honoured with a special event in the German Bundestag."

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech at the German Parliament (Bundestag). Zelensky is in Berlin for the International Ukraine Reconstruction conference in Berlin. Hannes Albert/dpa

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech at the German Parliament (Bundestag). Zelensky is in Berlin for the International Ukraine Reconstruction conference in Berlin. Hannes Albert/dpa


German far-right, far-left MPs boycott Zelensky speech on Russia

Sebastien ASH and Isabelle LE PAGE
Tue, June 11, 2024 a

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz both stressed the need for more air defence help for Kyiv (JOHN MACDOUGALL)

German far-right and left-wing nationalist lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday, who earlier had warned that pro-Russian rhetoric posed a growing danger to EU nations.

Zelensky's speech came at the start of a diplomatic whirlwind tour to shore up support for Kyiv's battle against Russia.

In an illustration of the increasing headwind Kyiv faces to obtain backing, MPs from Germany's far-right AfD and far-left BSW parties boycotted Zelensky's address to parliament.

Both parties made huge gains in Sunday's European elections, with the AfD scoring higher than all three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, while the BSW, a newcomer which campaigned against weapon deliveries to Ukraine, took just over six percent.

Zelensky cautioned that the parties' stance posed a threat that stretched beyond Ukraine.

"It seems to me that the most important thing is that people did not choose pro-Russian populist rhetoric. But radical pro-Russian rhetoric is dangerous for your countries," Zelensky warned, speaking at a press conference before his parliament address.

The co-leaders of the AfD said they "refused to listen to a speaker wearing camouflage fatigues".

"Ukraine does not need a war president now, it needs a peace president who is ready to negotiate," said Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, adding that AfD MPs had therefore decided to leave their seats empty at the Bundestag on Tuesday.

Not only in Germany but across the EU, the far-right's gains have triggered fears over the future of Western backing for Ukraine.

- 'No dictated peace' -

Ahead of a peace conference for Ukraine in Switzerland, to which Russia is not invited, parties like the AfD are pushing the message that the West's current strategy to arm Ukraine will not bring an end to hostilities.

But Scholz, speaking at a Ukraine reconstruction conference in Berlin, vowed not to let up support for Kyiv.

He urged allies to rush air defence systems to Ukraine to help the country fend off Russia's missiles, and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be allowed to win the war.

"There will be no military victory and no dictated peace," Scholz said, adding that Putin must "end his brutal campaign and withdraw his troops."

Zelensky also pleaded for help.

"Russia's greatest strategic advantage over Ukraine is superiority in the sky. It is missile and bomb terror that helps Russian troops advance on the ground," Zelensky said, adding that "air defence is the answer".

Germany has contributed three Patriot air defence systems to Kyiv, while Zelensky said a total of seven Patriots are needed for Ukraine to shield its urban centres from the storm of Russian missiles.

Later Tuesday Zelensky visited a military training area in Sanitz, northern Germany, where Ukrainian troops are trained on the Patriot systems, along with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.

Pistorius promised Ukraine a further 100 Patriot missiles, as well as additional sniper rifles, anti-tank weapons and drones.

- Air attacks -

After almost a year of stalemate, Ukraine has been forced to abandon dozens of frontline settlements this spring, with Russian troops holding a significant advantage in manpower and resources.

Russia on Tuesday said it had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine: Timkovka in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Miasozharivka, calling it by its Russian name of Artemovka, in the eastern Lugansk region.

Ukrainian prosecutors in the industrial region, which the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in late 2022, meanwhile said five people had been wounded in an overnight Russian strike on the frontline town of Kostyantynivka.

With the war at a critical juncture, Zelensky is ramping up a diplomatic offensive for support.

After Berlin, Zelensky will head to the G7 summit in southern Italy, which will be attended by leaders including US President Joe Biden.

G7 leaders hope to agree a deal on using the profits from the interest on 300 billion euros ($325 billion) of frozen Russian central bank assets to help Kyiv.

- Swiss peace summit -

After the G7 meeting, Zelensky will head to Switzerland for the peace summit from Saturday, to be attended by representatives from some 90 countries and international organisations.

Organised at Ukraine's request, the summit's outcome remains uncertain, though Switzerland is hoping to secure a joint final declaration.

However Biden is skipping the summit, with Vice President Kamala Harris instead attending, in a blow to Zelensky who had pushed for the US president to participate.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said it would not participate in any negotiations if Kyiv does not accept Moscow's annexation of the approximately 20 percent of Ukrainian territory Russia currently occupies.

Moscow's key ally China will also be absent from the conference.

bur-hmn-sr/

Uber to cooperate with taxi companies across Germany for first time

DPA
Tue, June 11, 2024

The Uber logo can be seen at the headquarters of the ride service provider. Andrej Sokolow/dpa

The transport service provider Uber is opening its app to all taxi companies throughout Germany, whereas until now, it was only possible to book journeys with Uber in 16 German cities.

Taxi drivers and car-hire companies will now be able to use Uber nationwide. This would allow companies to tap into additional sources of revenue without monthly membership fees or long-term contracts and significantly increase their capacity utilization and turnover, the company explained.

Uber already changed its global strategy months ago. Originally, Uber primarily brokered the services of competitors to taxis. The company is now also trying to attract taxi drivers to its platform. In cities such as Berlin and Munich, taxis can already be booked via the US-founded company's app.

According to Uber, around 20% of all taxis in the capital are already working with the platform. Across Germany, there are more than 4,000 taxi drivers.

Christoph Weigler, head of Uber Germany, said that by opening the app to all taxi drivers across Germany, Uber was emphasizing its interest in being a partner to the taxi industry in Germany.

"Taxis can also benefit from digitalization, active advertising for customers and the high demand on our platform," the company said. The digital booking of services has become the standard. "With the Uber app, we offer the technological solution and provide taxi drivers with additional orders simply and transparently."

The German Taxi and Rental Car Association is sceptical about working with Uber. Cooperation can only be considered between serious business partners and "there are considerable doubts about Uber," Michael Oppermann, managing director of the association, said in an interview with broadcaster RTL/ntv.

Why voters fall out of love with liberation movements

MOST OF THEM STARTED 60 YEARS AGO

Danai Nesta Kupemba - BBC News
Wed, June 12, 2024 

The ANC under Nelson Mandela achieved its aim of ending white-minority rule in South Africa in 1994 [Getty Images]


Africa’s oldest liberation movement is in trouble and may be going the way of similar groups across the continent.

The African National Congress (ANC) - founded in South Africa more than a century ago - has lost its majority in parliament for the first time in 30 years, although it remains by far the country's most popular party.

No longer, it seems, were large numbers of voters reflexively willing to give the party of Nelson Mandela their support because it had led the struggle against the racist apartheid system.

This mirrors the decline of other parties that battled colonial rule and made it to power, which have subsequently fallen prey to corruption, cronyism and a disgruntled population hungry for change.

Some of those liberation movements which remain in power in southern Africa are accused of only doing so by stealing elections.

“It is inevitable that people will start to want change,” said founder of Africa Mundi David Soler Crespo, who has written about the “slow death of liberation movements”.

“It’s impossible for the same party to be democratically elected for 100 years.”

However, they have managed to impose a strong grip, not only on the apparatus of power, but also on the psyche of the nation.

As the successful movements transitioned from the bush to the office, they touted themselves as the only ones that could lead.

They ingrained the movement into the DNA of the country, making it difficult to separate the party from the state.

In Namibia, the phrase “Swapo is the nation, and the nation is Swapo” used during its struggle against apartheid South African rule, remains potent.

Zambia's founding father Kenneth Kaunda hosted Nelson Mandela in 1990, just weeks after the ANC leader was freed, before losing elections the following year [AFP]

Looking across the region, civil servants and government appointees, especially in the security forces and state-controlled media were often former guerrilla fighters, who may have put loyalty to the party before the nation.

"There is no line between state and party. It’s more than a party, it's a system,” said Mr Crespo.

And the legacy of liberation is deeply embedded in the region's culture, with stories of struggle shared across family dinner tables and national media continually reminding citizens of their hard-won freedom.

Liberation songs and war cries are sung in high schools, even at sports matches.

For citizens to move away from the liberation party is a big psychological wrench. But over time it does happen.

“People are no longer influenced by history when they vote,” Namibian social scientist Ndumba Kamwanyah told the BBC, reflecting on the declining support for Swapo, which has been in power since 1990.

Many of the parties espoused socialist ideologies, but these have often fallen by the wayside over time and people have questioned whether citizens are benefitting equally.

One of the first independence movements in southern Africa to feel this disdain for history was Zambia’s United National Independence Party (Unip), which came into power in 1964 as British rule ended.

Throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s it governed the country as the sole legal party, with founding father Kenneth Kaunda at the helm. But discontent grew and in 1990 there were deadly protests in the capital, Lusaka, and a coup attempt.

The following year, the first multi-party elections for more than two decades saw President Kaunda lose out to Frederick Chiluba. Unip, once all-powerful, has now all but disappeared.

Liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe remain in power but have all experienced a decline in support and vote share in general elections.

The history of the liberation struggle in Namibia and elsewhere has a powerful hold on the population [AFP]

In Namibia, 2019 marked a watershed for Swapo as it lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

In the presidential election, Hage Geingob also suffered a sobering decline in popularity as his share of the vote dropped from 87% in 2014 to 56%.

The following year, Swapo suffered historic losses in regional and local elections.

Prof Kamwanyah, who campaigned for the party more than 30 years ago, says he maintains a deep respect for what the liberation government achieved in the past, but he is disappointed with the present reality.

"What the party is doing doesn't reflect the core original values of why people died for this country,” the Namibian academic said.

Namibia will hold its general election in November and there is some speculation that it could suffer the same fate as the ANC.

“I think Swapo will win, but they will not get a majority,” Prof Kamwanyah said.

Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe, a 26-year-old Namibian activist, says there has been a generational shift.

“Our generation's values don’t align with the government,” she told the BBC.

Ms Nthengwe has been at the forefront of many social movements in the country.

Young people value sexual and gender equality, she says, along with jobs and better healthcare.

"All the youth want is change, change, and more change."

The popularity of the parties once led by Robert Mugabe (L) in Zimbabwe, Nelson Mandela (C) in South Africa and Sam Nujoma (R) in Namibia have all declined [AFP]

But whereas Namibia, along with South Africa, are seen as relatively open democracies, the governing parties in Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique have been accused of shutting down dissent in order to maintain their hold on power.

Election rigging, suppressing opposition parties and voter intimidation have been among their alleged tactics.

Adriano Nuvunga, chairperson of the Southern Defenders Observer Mission, has witnessed elections in Mozambique for the last two decades.

“All of the elections I’ve observed since 1999 were fraudulent,” said Mr Nuvunga.

He says he also saw voter intimidation and ballot tampering.

In Zimbabwe in 2008 Amnesty International documented unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment of opposition supporters between the first round and second round of the presidential vote. In fact most of Zimbabwe's elections have been marred by allegations of tampering or intimidation of the opposition, although this is always denied by the ruling party, Zanu-PF.

Following the 2022 elections in Angola, thousands of people took to the streets to protest against alleged electoral fraud.

The longer the liberation movements have stayed in power, the more they are accused of corruption and cronyism and not governing in the interests of the people.

Chris Hani, the late South African anti-apartheid hero, foresaw this when he said: “What I fear is that the liberators emerge as elitists who drive around in Mercedes Benzes and use the resources of this country to live in palaces and gather riches.”

But one former Zimbabwean liberation fighter, who asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC that many of the movements had not had enough time to come to grips with the world order.

He pointed out that Europe endured authoritarian monarchies ruling for centuries and they have had time to learn and adapt.

“Liberation governments are still playing catch-up in a world that wasn’t designed for them,” he said.

Overthrowing colonial and white-minority rule was hard, but governing has brought other challenges.

Leading a revolutionary movement requires a single-mindedness and strict loyalty, while running a country needs greater flexibility, collaboration and the ability to balance the interests of different sections of the population.

Some movements have fallen short on this. And they may not have much time left.

But Mr Crespo maintains that if these parties reclaim the ideals that brought them into government, listen to the youth and find themselves again, they may be able to hold on a little longer.

OVERLOOKED SCOTUS STORY

U$  Supreme Court, siding with Starbucks, makes it harder for NLRB to win court orders in labor disputes


Supreme Court Police officers stand on duty outside of the Supreme Court building on Thursday, June 13, 2024, in Washington. 

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Updated Thu, Jun 13, 2024, 11:17 AM MDT2 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for the federal government to win court orders when it suspects a company of interfering in unionization campaigns in a case that stemmed from a labor dispute with Starbucks.

The justices tightened the standards for when a federal court should issue an order to protect the jobs of workers during a union organizing campaign.

The court unanimously rejected a rule that some courts had applied to orders sought by the National Labor Relations Board in favor of a higher threshold, sought by Starbucks, that must be met in most other fights over court orders, or injunctions.

The NLRB had argued that the National Labor Relations Act, the law that governs the agency, has for more than 75 years allowed courts to grant temporary injunctions if they find requests “just and proper.” The agency said the law doesn’t require it to prove other factors and was intended to limit the role of the courts.

Following the decision, Starbucks said, “Consistent federal standards are important in ensuring that employees know their rights and consistent labor practices are upheld no matter where in the country they work and live.”

But Lynne Fox, president of the union representing the workers, said Starbucks should have dropped the case as part of its more conciliatory attitude toward union organizaing efforts. “Working people have so few tools to protect and defend themselves when their employers break the law. That makes today’s ruling by the Supreme Court particularly egregious," said Fox, president of Workers United.

The case began in February 2022, when Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store. The NLRB obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire the workers while the case wound its way through the agency’s administrative proceedings. Such proceedings can take up to two years.

A district court judge agreed with the NLRB and issued a temporary injunction ordering Starbucks to rehire the workers in August 2022. After the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, Starbucks appealed to the Supreme Court.

Five of the seven workers are still employed at the Memphis store, while the other two remain involved with the organizing effort, according to Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks workers. The Memphis store voted to unionize in June 2022.

As as the case proceeded, animosity between Workers United and Starbucks began to fade. The two sides announced in February that they would restart talks with the aim of reaching contract agreements this year, and they held their first bargaining session in nearly a year in late April.

Workers at 437 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021, according to the NLRB, but none of those stores has secured a labor agreement with Starbucks.

Starbucks said it's pursuing its goal reaching ratified contracts for those stores this year.

 

The Real Lesson of the SCOTUS Tapes

Matt Ford
Wed, June 12, 2024 


June is traditionally the last month of the Supreme Court’s annual term, and every year brings with it a flurry of major rulings on the most consequential cases of the day. This year, however, just as much attention is being paid to the justices’ extracurricular activities.

The latest episode in this saga comes from twin reports, by documentary filmmaker and activist Lauren Windsor and Rolling Stone magazine. Windsor surreptitiously recorded two of the court’s members, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, at a recent Supreme Court Historical Society dinner. The society is one of the few events where members of the public can interact with the justices, albeit only through donating at least a few hundred dollars to the charity.

In the recordings, Windsor asked the two justices about their views on religious liberty, political polarization, and the court’s role in it all. Alito and Roberts gave answers that were uncharacteristically blunt, especially in the latter’s case. They represent a rare unguarded window into the justices’ thinking—for probably the last time.

To start with, the edited recordings do not reveal anything particularly dramatic. In her conversation with Alito, Windsor pressed him on the state of polarization in the country. “One side or the other is going to win,” he replied. “There can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.”

Windsor continued to press her point. “I think that the solution really is like winning the moral argument,” she went on to say. “Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness.” Alito’s reply was supportive: “I agree with you.”

Rolling Stone, which exclusively published Windsor’s recordings, put an explosive title on the encounter: “Justice Alito Caught on Tape Discussing How Battle for America ‘Can’t Be Compromised.’” A casual reader might get the impression from that headline that Alito was secretly laying out culture-war battle plans to an ideological sympathizer at a private gala. In context, however, his comments seem more descriptive about the state of the country than prescriptive about what should be done about it.

In a later portion of the recording that was posted online by Windsor, Alito also expressly disclaims a role in the culture wars. When asked by Windsor how to “bridge that gap” between the two sides, Alito replied, “I wish I knew. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s something we can do,” referring to the court. After Windsor asked him more directly, he replied, “We have a very defined role, and we need to do what we’re supposed to do. But this is a bigger problem. This is way above us. I wish I knew the answer.”

Make no mistake that Alito is a culture warrior. He is not particularly quiet about his views. You can read his 2020 speech to the Federalist Society, where he aired a series of grievances against the court’s critics and ideological foes, mostly centered around religious liberty. Or his remarks two years later on religious liberty at a University of Notre Dame event in Rome, where he lamented the increasingly secular turn in Western countries.

“The problem that looms is not just indifference to religion, it’s not just ignorance about religion, there’s also growing hostility to religion, or at least the traditional religious beliefs that are contrary to the new moral code that is ascendant in some sectors,” he said in his 2022 speech in Rome. “The challenge for those who want to protect religious liberty in the United States, Europe, and other similar places is to convince people who are not religious that religious liberty is worth special protection.”

The more interesting portion of the recordings, at least to me, came from Windsor’s interactions with Roberts. The chief justice is a somewhat enigmatic figure, even by Supreme Court standards. He hasn’t written a book and infrequently gives speeches. When he speaks, it is only to the most anodyne of audiences, like law schools and non-ideological legal organizations, and only about the most neutral of subjects. He almost never writes concurring or dissenting opinions of his own. I can’t remember the last on-record interview that he gave to a news outlet that wasn’t C-SPAN.

So when someone gets Roberts to speak extemporaneously about the court’s work and place in society, it stands out. Windsor’s questions for the chief justice hit upon similar themes to her questions for Alito, perhaps in anticipation of the side-by-side contrast. “It’s a very tumultuous time in the country, and I’m just curious, like from your perspective on the court, how do we start to repair the polarization?” she asked. Roberts immediately challenged the premise of her question.

“You know, the first thing I think is to tell me when the non-tumultuous time has been here,” he replied. “I mean, you’re looking at the court, what the court was doing in the 1960s, what the court was doing during the New Deal, what the court was doing, you know, after Dred Scott and all this. It’s kind of a regular thing. People think it’s so different and special. It’s been pretty tumultuous for a long time.” He referenced how split the country was during the Vietnam War.

Roberts’s claim that this era is more or less normal when it comes to American political stability explains a lot about his approach to Trump v. Anderson, the disqualification clause case that the court decided earlier this term. While I don’t doubt that Roberts abhorred January 6 itself, if he also sees it as just the latest chapter in the long American history of political violence, it may explain why he apparently thought the cure of disqualification was excessive for the disease of insurrection.

Another intriguing moment came when Windsor brought up religious liberty. “I believe that the Founders were godly, were Christians, and I think that we live in a Christian nation, and that our Supreme Court should be guiding us in that path,” she began, before Roberts interjected. “I don’t know if that’s true,” he replied. “I don’t know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say maybe not, and it’s not our job to do that. It’s our job to decide the cases as best we can.”

The Roberts court is renowned for its friendliness to religious freedom claims. A study by legal scholars two years ago found that the court was substantially more likely to side with religious organizations than under Roberts’s immediate three predecessors. In those cases, the study reported, the court sided with such plaintiffs a whopping 83 percent of the time.

Roberts himself has been a semi-consistent vote alongside the rest of the court’s conservatives in those cases. His comments shed new light on why and when he might diverge from them. For many on the American right, America’s identity as a Christian nation is self-evident. When Alito speaks about religious freedom in his speeches, he does not disclaim it for other faiths. But it is also clear that he has one particular denomination in mind.

We’ve seen hints of this divide in some of the court’s opinions, as well. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Roberts sided with state public health officials on multiple occasions on whether they could restrict the size of religious gatherings to reduce the virus’s spread. Those decisions drew furious dissents from Alito and the other conservative justices, who lamented that churches were being treated like other public gathering places.

In the 2021 case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the court unanimously sided with a Catholic foster-care agency that declined to work with same-sex couples on religious freedom grounds. Roberts wrote the majority opinion where he held that the city’s restrictions unfairly targeted religious beliefs. Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch again parted ways in a pointed concurring opinion. They argued that the court should have gone further and reversed a major precedent that limits free exercise clause claims against otherwise neutral laws and policies that affect religious practices.


The dissent characterized its frustration in almost personal terms. “After receiving more than 2,500 pages of briefing and after more than a half-year of post-argument cogitation, the Court has emitted a wisp of a decision that leaves religious liberty in a confused and vulnerable state,” Alito wrote, referring to Roberts’s majority opinion. “Those who count on this Court to stand up for the First Amendment have every right to be disappointed—as am I.”

This divide is also reflected in how Roberts disclaimed a culture-war approach to the court’s work. “You don’t think there’s like a role for the court in, like, guiding us toward a more moral path?” Windsor asked. “No, I think the role of the court is deciding the cases,” Roberts immediately replied. “Would you want me to be in charge of guiding us toward a more moral path? That’s for the people we elect. That’s not for lawyers.” Though Alito made a similar disclaimer, Roberts’s version is more emphatic and lacks the tinge of regret in his colleague’s answer.

When we speak about Supreme Court justices, we often describe them with the labels of “conservative” and “liberal.” These terms are generally useful but can often smooth over crucial differences within each camp. Roberts and Alito illustrated, via these off-the-cuff remarks, how subtle differences in perspective can lead to substantial differences in outcomes.

Given how these recordings were gathered and published, I wouldn’t hold out hope for similarly unguarded moments from the justices in the future.

Germany bans local Salafist Muslim group with large internet reach

DPA
Wed, June 12, 2024 at 5:12 AM MDT·2 min read

Police officers stand in front of a mosque during a raid. German police and prosecutors carried out raids on a Muslim organization on Wednesday morning, searching properties in both Berlin and the central German city of Braunschweig. dpa

Authorities in Germany have moved to ban a Muslim association based in the central city of Braunschweig, accusing the group of spreading extremist views.

Police also launched several raids aimed at the Braunschweig-based German-Speaking Muslim Association (DMG) on Wednesday morning, which sources told dpa also included searches of two apartments in Berlin.

The Interior Ministry in the state of Lower Saxony, which includes Braunschweig, moved to prohibit the DMG, claiming it conflicts with Germany's constitutional democratic order.


"We do not tolerate associations in which supposed non-believers, women and Jews, as well as our social order as a whole, are regularly devalued and followers called upon to fight them," said Lower Saxony's interior minister, Daniela Behrens. "The ban on the DMG is a hard blow against the Salafist scene in Lower Saxony and beyond."

Behrens said that no arrests were made in the raids, but that assets belonging to the DMG were confiscated.

A report from Lower Saxony's domestic intelligence agency in June 2023 alleged that the Braunschweig-based DMG had become a nationwide meeting point for Salafist preachers, and had significantly expanded its online presence with content on YouTube, TikTok, Spotify and Telegram.

"Every week, the appearances of these nationally known Salafist preachers are also made accessible to a large number of viewers via the various online channels of the DMG Braunschweig," the state's Interior Ministry said in a statement at the time.

According to the ministry, the DMG Braunschweig's YouTube channel alone had around 70,000 subscribers as of May 2023.

"The risk of self-radicalization is and remains high, especially in light of the digital possibilities for information and communication," the ministry said at the time.

The group's website includes postings for numerous opportunities aimed at children and young people. These include Koran camps, children's camps, youth conferences and study circles.

It’s so hot in India, an insurer is helping thousands of women buy food


CNN Business· Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Diksha Madhok, CNN
Wed, Jun 12, 2024

A one-of-its-kind insurance policy has started making payouts to tens of thousands of women across India to help them cope with the impact of extreme heat.

Fifty thousand women in 22 districts across the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat received a $5 payments as temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last month in several parts of the country.

“This is the first time that insurance payouts and a direct cash assistance program have been combined to supplement the income of women when it’s dangerously hot,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, CEO of Climate Resilience for All, a not-for-profit organization that designed the insurance in partnership with India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union with nearly three million members.

From small farmers to casual laborers, many SEWA members depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and that makes them particularly vulnerable to climate change. Indian women working in agriculture typically earn about 300 rupees ($3.60) per day.

Outdoor work in such extreme heat can lead to chronic rashes, dizziness, burns, infections, and miscarriage, according to Climate Resilience for All. Such high temperatures can also destroy crops or merchandise, which can have a debilitating impact on household debt for low-income families.

The insurance is underwritten by Swiss Re and provided locally by ICICI Lombard.

More than 46,000 women were given additional insurance payments, with some receiving up to $19.80 each. Overall payments across the program amounted to over $340,000, Climate Resilience for All said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The money from the program has allowed me to pay for my medical expenses and to buy food for my family,” said Arunaben Makwana, one of the beneficiaries, said in the statement.

The insurance plan is currently offered to members of SEWA, who work across India’s vast informal sector. According to McLeod, the program may be rolled out to more communities across South Asia, as well as east and west Africa in the coming year.
Toiling under the burning sun

Such insurance initiatives may become critical worldwide as policymakers grapple with a much hotter planet.

India has endured a scorching summer — with a part of the capital of Delhi recording the country’s highest-ever temperature of 49.9 degrees Celsius (121.8 Fahrenheit) last month.

Rising mercury levels in the country risks reversing progress on poverty alleviation, health and economic growth, experts say.

India is “expected to lose about 5.8% of daily working hours due to heat stress in 2030,” said a United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) report in April.

“The problem is most severe for outdoor workers, particularly those employed in agriculture and construction, but also relevant for indoor factory workers,” it added.

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Israel Aerospace Industries union reaches agreement with government


Defense News· EMMANUEL DUNA

Tzally Greenberg
Wed, Jun 12, 2024, 

JERUSALEM — The Israel Aerospace Industries workers’ union has reached an agreement with the government’s Finance Ministry where so-called salary anomalies previously provided to company employees will be recognized as special retroactive grants, according to the union.

IAI’s labor dispute came to light in early May after the ministry demanded the return of funds received by the company’s employees over multiple years without governmental approval, contrary to what is customary in state-owned firms. The disagreement put the supply of the Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany under threat.

IAI is expected to distribute about a third of its $320 million profits from 2023 as bonuses to its approximately 15,000 employees. Half of IAI’s profits are to go to the state as a dividend.

“The apparent outline described will allow a time frame to try and regulate the alleged salary anomalies, while at the same time allowing salary promotions of employees,” Yair Katz, chairman of the workers’ union, told Defense News. “The new agreement should be signed in about three weeks. And with the signing of it, it will be possible to definitively state that the labor dispute threat has been removed from the table.”

Despite the previous threat of business disruption, IAI’s management supported its employees and form a united front with the union in its discussions with the ministry, claiming the funds were intended to retain its workers.

Defense News has contacted IAI and the ministry for comment.