UK
Minimum Service Levels are an attack on human rights
Trade union rights are human rights. On the International Day of Human Rights today (10), we look at the government’s latest attack on these freedoms.
PCS
10 December 2023
In the king’s speech on 7 November 2023, the government promised to rush through laws which would effectively criminalise strike action for thousands of our Home Office members, including border security staff and an unknown number of workers in the Passport Office.
Even though the UK already has the most restrictive trade union laws in Western Europe, The Minimum Service Levels Act would limit the impact of a strike by forcing workers to maintain a level of service through the use of minimum service levels (MSLs).
The proposed laws say that when workers lawfully vote to strike in certain sectors, including health, education, transport and border security, they could be forced to attend work – and sacked if they do not comply.
These anti-strike laws are an authoritarian crackdown on the human right to take industrial action, which is protected under UK and international law. The potential breaches of the UK’s international legal obligations include: Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 3 of Convention 87 (Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Article 6(4) of the European Social Charter 1961.
For example, when the Minimum Services Bill was first brought before parliament, the Joint Committee on Human Rights found several potential interferences with Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
These included the requirement for trade unions to take “reasonable steps” to ensure their members comply with a work notice issued by an employer as well as the exposure of any striking worker to the risk of dismissal.
Trade union rights are human rights
Trade unionists have always been at the forefront of the modern struggle for human rights. The right to form and join trade unions, to collectively bargain and to strike are universal human rights – protected in domestic and international law.
Throughout history, trade unionists have been targeted by governments for their commitment to these rights. These abuses have ranged from restrictive legislation like minimum service levels all the way to the violent repression and even murder of trade unionists who dare fight for justice and fairness.
For example, Colombia is the world’s most violent country for trade unionists. A study by the country’s ENS trade union organisation found that more than 3,200 were murdered from 1971 to 2018. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, 13 trade unionists alone were killed in the country between April 2021 and March 2022.
That is where international solidarity comes in. When trade union and human rights are at stake overseas, PCS defends these rights. When workers cannot organise in defence of their interests, our fundamental human rights are violated.
That is why we give our support to trade unions and worker movements everywhere struggling against oppression, from Palestine to Ukraine.
Attack on our members’ human rights
Closer to home, our right to strike is under attack.
If the government gets its way, they will have the power to implement minimum service levels by Christmas.
As our Home Group vice-president points out, our members would have been prevented from taking strike action and winning significant concessions on pay in addition to a cost-of-living payment if these laws were in place in 2023.
That is why PCS is working with other unions and the TUC to stand together against this vindictive attempt to stop workers from winning strikes following 18 months of large-scale industrial unrest.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
What does a world where Israel can do no wrong in the international political arena look like?
Aditya Chakrabortty wrote an article in the Guardian last week that is well worth reading. It was on student protests on Gaza in Luton and the absurd reaction of the school in question. But let me pull out one quotation because I think it very true (I have edited it to remove his multiple arguments):
Well, sometimes the biggest favour a journalist can do their readers is to step outside, hold up a palm and report back that, yes, it really is raining. So in that spirit let me make … [a] simple observation. Th[at] is that for many people under 25 – whether brown or black or white – the daily pulverisation of Gaza is the totemic international issue of their time, just as the Iraq war was 20 years ago or apartheid in South Africa was for me as a kid.
I think Aditya is right, but that very few people get this as yet.
I know how significant apartheid in South Africa was in my own political development at a great many levels.
Iraq showed up the fact that the West's superpowers could be very wrong, and changed perceptions forever.
And so it is with Gaza. The daily imposition of unwarranted death on innocent people will leave the perception of Israel changed for good, and that will have long term political implications, whatever side anyone takes on this issue.
Gig work is getting less profitable
The gig economy is booming in the US, but many workers have found it challenging to make decent money.
Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto
Nearly 100 million Americans could be working in the gig economy by 2027.
While it provides a flexible way to make money, experts say it's risky to rely on it.
Inconsistent pay and unpredictable algorithms can disappoint some workers.
Americans are flocking to the gig economy for extra cash — but it's not working out for all of them.
While it's unclear how many people work as delivery drivers, babysitters, resellers, freelance writers, or one of many other gig jobs, experts told Business Insider that the number is growing — and that there's no sign of it slowing down.
While these workers are likely happy to have extra income in their bank accounts, the gig economy might not be the solution to people's finances that some think it is. That's because gig work can come with unpredictable pay that's at the mercy of customer demand, worker supply, and secretive company algorithms.
The gig economy is a roughly $1 trillion industry in the US, according to research published earlier this year by Robert Peterson, the John T. Stuart III Centennial Chair in Business Administration at The University of Texas at Austin, and John Fleming, who wrote the book "Ultimate Gig: Flexibility, Freedom & Rewards." It's expected to grow between 16% and 17% each year, four times faster than the traditional economy, their research shows. By 2027, the research projects nearly 100 million Americans — roughly 40% of the adult population — will participate full-time or part-time in the gig economy.
The delivery app Shipt released a delivery challenge featured on Roblox's popular "Driving Empire."
It felt like gamified gig work, with the mindset of a "Fast & Furious" driver racing against the clock.
But the game also serves as an interesting parallel for recent debates around the gig-work economy.
Back-to-school shopping is just around the corner — that means sharpened pencils, fresh rubber erasures, pristine notebooks, and loose-leaf paper.
It can be an arduous task for parents and their kids. But the delivery company Shipt has a game with Roblox that the company says will exchange the stress of back-to-school shopping for a simulated experience parents and their kids can enjoy.
In the game, which is featured as a challenge on Roblox's popular racing game, "Driving Empire," gig work is gamified. Players race against the clock to deliver school-supplies orders to customers — essentially playing the role of a Shipt delivery worker.
The game may have been designed for family-friendly fun, but I couldn't help but think about the debates circling the gig-work economy. Things are heated between apps and workers over how they should be paid and between workers and customers over how much they should tip.
"The purpose of Shipt's new Driving Empire game is to create a unique digital experience that builds modern-day connectivity for millennial parents and their families on the global Roblox platform," a Shipt spokesperson said.
Shipt did not answer questions regarding its gig workers.
The delivery app, owned by Target, partnered with game developer Voldex to create the game, which is available through Friday, alongside deals on school supplies, snacks, and household items that run through Labor Day.
The game from Shipt follows in the footsteps of other retailers that have been tapping into metaverse marketing through Roblox, a gaming platform that has a largely child-age audience. Home Depot, Walmart, and Chipotle have all released gaming experiences on Roblox, where players could make Chipotle burritos or use Home Depot supplies to build birdhouses.See more
"The economy has changed so much in that people used to drive for Uber for nine hours so they could have $100 so they can go to the bar this weekend with their friend," Charles Rosenblatt, president of fintech company PayQuicker, which helps facilitate payments to gig workers, told Business Insider. "Now, I'm going to drive because my electricity bill went up and I don't have the money to pay my bills anymore and need to supplement my income in a separate way."
Related video: AI should make the US economy stronger, create more jobs: Brad Jacobs (Fox Business) Duration 3:58 View on Watch
Business Insider spoke with experts about the state of the US gig economy, where it's heading, and what people should know before diving in.
Benefits of gig work
Across all demographics, gig workers are looking to have greater flexibility, diversify their income stream, meet new people, and explore interests in their free time. But many who have replaced their office jobs with various gig jobs haven't quite figured out how to make it work for them. Many have gone into gig work thinking they can make ends meet by working one or two gigs, but have struggled to make enough to pay bills or plan for the future.
Among gig workers, 60% work multiple gigs — 23% work three or more — spending around four to eight hours per week on a job, according to the research. Additionally, less than 10% of gig workers make over $2,000 a month.
"The great majority of people are looking at how better to leverage their time," Fleming told BI, referring to gig workers.
'The house always wins'
Some gig workers don't realize how little they're earning, Alexandrea Ravenelle, assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, told Business Insider. That's because it can be difficult for gig workers, particularly ride-hailing and delivery drivers, to calculate their true profits.
When Ravenelle speaks with students who work as gig drivers, she said they typically don't realize how little they take home once expenses like gas, depreciation, maintenance, and insurance are tallied up. Vehicle expenses can amount to between $4 to $8 per hour, gig drivers previously told Business Insider, compared to hourly pay from as low as $9 to $12 an hour to as high as $23 to $28 an hour.
"I end up pointing out that they would quite frankly be better off getting a job at McDonald's," Ravenelle said.
In addition to uncertain pay, gig workers can face fluctuating customer demand and competition, along with tweaks to platform algorithms that can change the rules of the game. It's why gig workers should be careful of growing too reliant on any single platform, experts told Business Insider.
"When it comes to the gig economy, the house always wins," Ravenelle said. "You might think that you're making plenty of money, but at some point, you'll have something that goes wrong. You will get deactivated from that platform, you'll move down in the queue, or you'll get impacted by a change to the algorithm."
About 43% of gig workers surveyed by Peterson and Fleming said that less than 10% of their annual household income came from gig work.
Workers also need to be more strategic about seeking out opportunities, particularly those that offer upward mobility or better pay and bonuses, as opposed to just settling on one or two gig jobs, Rosenblatt said. This could entail taking up gig work at a traditional company — Fleming estimates over 50% of traditional companies are engaging gig workers.
Peterson told BI as the gig economy grows, it becomes increasingly unclear who will train these workers. For example, many companies won't invest the time and resources into training a worker who will only work for eight hours a week and colleges don't frequently inform students on how to best navigate gig work, Fleming said.
Peterson said he anticipates more companies adopting internal talent platforms to get employees to bid on jobs to make extra money, instead of having to train and keep track of outside employees. This potentially could lower the number of gig employees working in more traditional sectors.
Still, such shifts in the gig economy could push workers more into building their own brands or products, Rosenblatt said.
Where gig work is heading
The experts Business Insider spoke to said that they expect increasingly more people to work three to five gigs that touch on their passions. For example, people don't need to work 40 hours a week for a ride-hailing company when they can devote 10 hours to that and reserve the other 30 for writing, photography, or real estate.
"Part of that is the income piece, but part of that is people basically curating their life," Rosenblatt said. "It's a lot easier for someone to go and do 10 extra work hours driving for Uber or DoorDash or selling Tupperware than going to your boss and asking them for a 20% raise so you can feed your family."
What's more, people are increasingly looking to gig work for instant pay gratification, Rosenblatt said. About 83% of gig workers surveyed stated that when looking for new gigs, it's important to be paid immediately for performance, the report found.
Rosenblatt anticipates affiliate sales and other influencer-type work that can be done from home will grow over the next few years, coupled with a pivot away from gig jobs like delivery driving that require extra expenses like vehicle upkeep. He also expects an increase in direct selling, whether it's for coffee or CBD.
"I don't see gig work disappearing," Ravanelle said. "I see it continuing to grow, and I think that we are going to need to really rethink our strategy as a society in terms of ensuring that workers have economic stability and then have access to benefits if their only income is coming from 1099 work."
Nearly 100 million Americans could be working in the gig economy by 2027.
While it provides a flexible way to make money, experts say it's risky to rely on it.
Inconsistent pay and unpredictable algorithms can disappoint some workers.
Americans are flocking to the gig economy for extra cash — but it's not working out for all of them.
While it's unclear how many people work as delivery drivers, babysitters, resellers, freelance writers, or one of many other gig jobs, experts told Business Insider that the number is growing — and that there's no sign of it slowing down.
While these workers are likely happy to have extra income in their bank accounts, the gig economy might not be the solution to people's finances that some think it is. That's because gig work can come with unpredictable pay that's at the mercy of customer demand, worker supply, and secretive company algorithms.
The gig economy is a roughly $1 trillion industry in the US, according to research published earlier this year by Robert Peterson, the John T. Stuart III Centennial Chair in Business Administration at The University of Texas at Austin, and John Fleming, who wrote the book "Ultimate Gig: Flexibility, Freedom & Rewards." It's expected to grow between 16% and 17% each year, four times faster than the traditional economy, their research shows. By 2027, the research projects nearly 100 million Americans — roughly 40% of the adult population — will participate full-time or part-time in the gig economy.
The delivery app Shipt released a delivery challenge featured on Roblox's popular "Driving Empire."
It felt like gamified gig work, with the mindset of a "Fast & Furious" driver racing against the clock.
But the game also serves as an interesting parallel for recent debates around the gig-work economy.
Back-to-school shopping is just around the corner — that means sharpened pencils, fresh rubber erasures, pristine notebooks, and loose-leaf paper.
It can be an arduous task for parents and their kids. But the delivery company Shipt has a game with Roblox that the company says will exchange the stress of back-to-school shopping for a simulated experience parents and their kids can enjoy.
In the game, which is featured as a challenge on Roblox's popular racing game, "Driving Empire," gig work is gamified. Players race against the clock to deliver school-supplies orders to customers — essentially playing the role of a Shipt delivery worker.
The game may have been designed for family-friendly fun, but I couldn't help but think about the debates circling the gig-work economy. Things are heated between apps and workers over how they should be paid and between workers and customers over how much they should tip.
"The purpose of Shipt's new Driving Empire game is to create a unique digital experience that builds modern-day connectivity for millennial parents and their families on the global Roblox platform," a Shipt spokesperson said.
Shipt did not answer questions regarding its gig workers.
The delivery app, owned by Target, partnered with game developer Voldex to create the game, which is available through Friday, alongside deals on school supplies, snacks, and household items that run through Labor Day.
The game from Shipt follows in the footsteps of other retailers that have been tapping into metaverse marketing through Roblox, a gaming platform that has a largely child-age audience. Home Depot, Walmart, and Chipotle have all released gaming experiences on Roblox, where players could make Chipotle burritos or use Home Depot supplies to build birdhouses.See more
"The economy has changed so much in that people used to drive for Uber for nine hours so they could have $100 so they can go to the bar this weekend with their friend," Charles Rosenblatt, president of fintech company PayQuicker, which helps facilitate payments to gig workers, told Business Insider. "Now, I'm going to drive because my electricity bill went up and I don't have the money to pay my bills anymore and need to supplement my income in a separate way."
Related video: AI should make the US economy stronger, create more jobs: Brad Jacobs (Fox Business) Duration 3:58 View on Watch
Business Insider spoke with experts about the state of the US gig economy, where it's heading, and what people should know before diving in.
Benefits of gig work
Across all demographics, gig workers are looking to have greater flexibility, diversify their income stream, meet new people, and explore interests in their free time. But many who have replaced their office jobs with various gig jobs haven't quite figured out how to make it work for them. Many have gone into gig work thinking they can make ends meet by working one or two gigs, but have struggled to make enough to pay bills or plan for the future.
Among gig workers, 60% work multiple gigs — 23% work three or more — spending around four to eight hours per week on a job, according to the research. Additionally, less than 10% of gig workers make over $2,000 a month.
"The great majority of people are looking at how better to leverage their time," Fleming told BI, referring to gig workers.
'The house always wins'
Some gig workers don't realize how little they're earning, Alexandrea Ravenelle, assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, told Business Insider. That's because it can be difficult for gig workers, particularly ride-hailing and delivery drivers, to calculate their true profits.
When Ravenelle speaks with students who work as gig drivers, she said they typically don't realize how little they take home once expenses like gas, depreciation, maintenance, and insurance are tallied up. Vehicle expenses can amount to between $4 to $8 per hour, gig drivers previously told Business Insider, compared to hourly pay from as low as $9 to $12 an hour to as high as $23 to $28 an hour.
"I end up pointing out that they would quite frankly be better off getting a job at McDonald's," Ravenelle said.
In addition to uncertain pay, gig workers can face fluctuating customer demand and competition, along with tweaks to platform algorithms that can change the rules of the game. It's why gig workers should be careful of growing too reliant on any single platform, experts told Business Insider.
"When it comes to the gig economy, the house always wins," Ravenelle said. "You might think that you're making plenty of money, but at some point, you'll have something that goes wrong. You will get deactivated from that platform, you'll move down in the queue, or you'll get impacted by a change to the algorithm."
About 43% of gig workers surveyed by Peterson and Fleming said that less than 10% of their annual household income came from gig work.
Workers also need to be more strategic about seeking out opportunities, particularly those that offer upward mobility or better pay and bonuses, as opposed to just settling on one or two gig jobs, Rosenblatt said. This could entail taking up gig work at a traditional company — Fleming estimates over 50% of traditional companies are engaging gig workers.
Peterson told BI as the gig economy grows, it becomes increasingly unclear who will train these workers. For example, many companies won't invest the time and resources into training a worker who will only work for eight hours a week and colleges don't frequently inform students on how to best navigate gig work, Fleming said.
Peterson said he anticipates more companies adopting internal talent platforms to get employees to bid on jobs to make extra money, instead of having to train and keep track of outside employees. This potentially could lower the number of gig employees working in more traditional sectors.
Still, such shifts in the gig economy could push workers more into building their own brands or products, Rosenblatt said.
Where gig work is heading
The experts Business Insider spoke to said that they expect increasingly more people to work three to five gigs that touch on their passions. For example, people don't need to work 40 hours a week for a ride-hailing company when they can devote 10 hours to that and reserve the other 30 for writing, photography, or real estate.
"Part of that is the income piece, but part of that is people basically curating their life," Rosenblatt said. "It's a lot easier for someone to go and do 10 extra work hours driving for Uber or DoorDash or selling Tupperware than going to your boss and asking them for a 20% raise so you can feed your family."
What's more, people are increasingly looking to gig work for instant pay gratification, Rosenblatt said. About 83% of gig workers surveyed stated that when looking for new gigs, it's important to be paid immediately for performance, the report found.
Rosenblatt anticipates affiliate sales and other influencer-type work that can be done from home will grow over the next few years, coupled with a pivot away from gig jobs like delivery driving that require extra expenses like vehicle upkeep. He also expects an increase in direct selling, whether it's for coffee or CBD.
"I don't see gig work disappearing," Ravanelle said. "I see it continuing to grow, and I think that we are going to need to really rethink our strategy as a society in terms of ensuring that workers have economic stability and then have access to benefits if their only income is coming from 1099 work."
RIP
Norman Lear, producer of TV's 'All in the Family' and influential liberal advocate, has died at 101
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Norman Lear, the writer, director and producer who revolutionized prime time television with "All in the Family," “The Jeffersons” and “Maude,” propelling political and social turmoil into the once-insulated world of TV sitcoms, has died. He was 101.
Lear died Tuesday night in his sleep, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said Lara Bergthold, a spokesperson for his family.
A liberal activist with an eye for mainstream entertainment, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His shows helped define prime time comedy in the 1970s, launched the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made middle-aged superstars of Carroll O'Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx.
Lear “took television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people,” the late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of television’s early “golden age,” once said.
“All in the Family” was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear's childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints as blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O'Connor, clashed with liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archie’s befuddled but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers' daughter, Gloria, who defended her husband in arguments with Archie.
By the end of 1971, “All In the Family” was atop the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases. He called his son-in-law “Meathead” and his wife “Dingbat,” and would snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair. It was the centerpiece of the Bunkers' rowhouse in Queens, and eventually went on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Hits continued for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin, including “Maude” and “The Jeffersons,” both spinoffs from “All in the Family,” with the same winning combination of one-liners and social conflict. In a 1972 two-part episode of “Maude,” the title character (played by Arthur) became the first on television to have an abortion, drawing a surge of protests along with high ratings. And when a close friend of Archie's turned out to be gay, Nixon privately fumed to White House aides that the show “glorified” same-sex relationships.
“Controversy suggests people are thinking about something. But there’d better be laughing first and foremost or it’s a dog,” Lear said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press.
Lear and Yorkin also created “Good Times,” about a working class Black family in Chicago; “Sanford & Son,” a showcase for Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and “One Day at a Time,” starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows.
All along, he was an active donor to Democratic candidates and founded the nonprofit liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in 1980, he said, because people such as evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were “abusing religion.”
"I started to say, ‘This is not my America. You don’t mix politics and religion this way,’” Lear said in a 1992 interview with Commonweal magazine.
The nonprofit's president, Svante Myrick, said “we are heartbroken” by Lear's death. “We extend our deepest sympathies to Norman’s wife Lyn and their entire family, and to the many people who, like us, loved Norman.”
With his wry smile and impish boat hat, the youthful Lear created television well into his 90s, rebooting “One Day at a Time” for Netflix in 2017 and exploring income inequality for the documentary series “America Divided” in 2016. Documentarians featured him in 2016's “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” and 2017's “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” a look at active nonagenarians such as Lear and Rob Reiner’s father, Carl Reiner.
Lear’s business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful. By 1986, Lear was on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. He didn’t make the cut the next year after a $112 million divorce settlement for his second wife, Frances. They had been married 29 years and had two daughters.
He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis, in 1987 and the couple had three children.
Lear was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 27, 1922, to Herman Lear, a securities broker who served time in prison for selling fake bonds, and Jeanette, a homemaker who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Like a sitcom, his family life was full of quirks and grudges, “a group of people living at the ends of their nerves and the tops of their lungs,” he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
Lear began writing in the early 1950s on shows including “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. In 1959, he and Yorkin founded Tandem Productions, which produced films including “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Start the Revolution Without Me” and “Divorce American Style.” Lear also directed the 1971 satire “Cold Turkey,” starring Dick Van Dyke about a small town that takes on a tobacco company’s offer of $25 million to quit smoking for 30 days.
In his later years, Lear joined with Warren Buffett and James E. Burke to establish The Business Enterprise Trust, honoring businesses that take a long-term view of their effect on the country. He also founded the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, exploring entertainment, commerce and society and also spent time at his home in Vermont. In 2014, he published the memoir “Even This I Get to Experience.”
___
Longtime AP Television Writer Lynn Elber retired from The Associated Press in 2022. Contributors include Alicia Rancilio in Detroit and Hillel Italie in New York.
Lynn Elber, The Associated Press
Lear died Tuesday night in his sleep, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said Lara Bergthold, a spokesperson for his family.
A liberal activist with an eye for mainstream entertainment, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His shows helped define prime time comedy in the 1970s, launched the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made middle-aged superstars of Carroll O'Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx.
Lear “took television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people,” the late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of television’s early “golden age,” once said.
“All in the Family” was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear's childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints as blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O'Connor, clashed with liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archie’s befuddled but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers' daughter, Gloria, who defended her husband in arguments with Archie.
By the end of 1971, “All In the Family” was atop the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases. He called his son-in-law “Meathead” and his wife “Dingbat,” and would snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair. It was the centerpiece of the Bunkers' rowhouse in Queens, and eventually went on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Hits continued for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin, including “Maude” and “The Jeffersons,” both spinoffs from “All in the Family,” with the same winning combination of one-liners and social conflict. In a 1972 two-part episode of “Maude,” the title character (played by Arthur) became the first on television to have an abortion, drawing a surge of protests along with high ratings. And when a close friend of Archie's turned out to be gay, Nixon privately fumed to White House aides that the show “glorified” same-sex relationships.
“Controversy suggests people are thinking about something. But there’d better be laughing first and foremost or it’s a dog,” Lear said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press.
Lear and Yorkin also created “Good Times,” about a working class Black family in Chicago; “Sanford & Son,” a showcase for Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and “One Day at a Time,” starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows.
All along, he was an active donor to Democratic candidates and founded the nonprofit liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in 1980, he said, because people such as evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were “abusing religion.”
"I started to say, ‘This is not my America. You don’t mix politics and religion this way,’” Lear said in a 1992 interview with Commonweal magazine.
The nonprofit's president, Svante Myrick, said “we are heartbroken” by Lear's death. “We extend our deepest sympathies to Norman’s wife Lyn and their entire family, and to the many people who, like us, loved Norman.”
With his wry smile and impish boat hat, the youthful Lear created television well into his 90s, rebooting “One Day at a Time” for Netflix in 2017 and exploring income inequality for the documentary series “America Divided” in 2016. Documentarians featured him in 2016's “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” and 2017's “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” a look at active nonagenarians such as Lear and Rob Reiner’s father, Carl Reiner.
Lear’s business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful. By 1986, Lear was on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. He didn’t make the cut the next year after a $112 million divorce settlement for his second wife, Frances. They had been married 29 years and had two daughters.
He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis, in 1987 and the couple had three children.
Lear was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 27, 1922, to Herman Lear, a securities broker who served time in prison for selling fake bonds, and Jeanette, a homemaker who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Like a sitcom, his family life was full of quirks and grudges, “a group of people living at the ends of their nerves and the tops of their lungs,” he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
Lear began writing in the early 1950s on shows including “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. In 1959, he and Yorkin founded Tandem Productions, which produced films including “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Start the Revolution Without Me” and “Divorce American Style.” Lear also directed the 1971 satire “Cold Turkey,” starring Dick Van Dyke about a small town that takes on a tobacco company’s offer of $25 million to quit smoking for 30 days.
In his later years, Lear joined with Warren Buffett and James E. Burke to establish The Business Enterprise Trust, honoring businesses that take a long-term view of their effect on the country. He also founded the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, exploring entertainment, commerce and society and also spent time at his home in Vermont. In 2014, he published the memoir “Even This I Get to Experience.”
___
Longtime AP Television Writer Lynn Elber retired from The Associated Press in 2022. Contributors include Alicia Rancilio in Detroit and Hillel Italie in New York.
Lynn Elber, The Associated Press
Opinion: Madonna’s ‘Celebration Tour’ is her most radical LGBTQ statement in decades
Opinion by Mary Gabriel • CNN
As Madonna brings “The Celebration Tour” to New York from Europe for the start of a 52-date North American journey next week, she leaves behind a trail of headlines as long as an asteroid’s tail. There are stories about her remarkable recovery from a life-threatening illness; stories about her fans’ delight that she has finally given them what they have clamored for — a greatest hits tour. And, of course, countless stories dedicated to her wardrobe, her appearance and her personal life.
Largely missing, however, in all that coverage, is a mention of the tour’s political and social significance: “Celebration” is Madonna’s most radical concert statement in support of the LGBTQ community since her paradigm-shifting “Blond Ambition Tour” in 1990, and perhaps her most radical stage performance ever.
At a time when LGBTQ rights are under threat globally, and as US groups supporting those rights issue unprecedented alerts warning of rising assaults, both legislative and physical, Madonna has produced a concert that not only embraces and reassures the gay and trans community, but introduces audiences to the world as she sees it. And it is a remarkable place indeed; a moving, pulsating spectrum of humanity in all its glorious otherness.
Madonna’s show, emceed by Bob the Drag Queen, can only be described as post-gender. The designations “man” and “woman” are irrelevant. The usual markers that indicate male and female are either eliminated or exchanged. Women have shaved heads, men have long hair; women wear trousers, men dresses; both perform topless and yet there is nothing prurient about seeing a woman’s breasts — no more so than a man’s. In the world that Madonna envisions, a person isn’t either/or, they are whatever they want to be. They are themselves; legislators be damned.
“The show is one big statement for freedom and learning to love yourself for who you are and to not give up the fight in being yourself and thus having no fear,” Kimberly van Pinxteren, the webmaster of the fan site MadonnaUnderground, told me. She has seen nine Madonna tours, for a total of 83 shows, and considers “Celebration” to be the artist’s most powerful affirmation of LGBTQ rights in decades.
Every Madonna concert since 1990 has included LGBTQ elements and tributes, some more direct than others. In 2012, for example, during her “MDNA” tour’s stop in St. Petersburg, Russia, she challenged that city’s ban on “gay propaganda,” which she called “a ridiculous atrocity” on her Facebook page, by delivering a defense of gay rights from the stage and distributing rainbow posters emblazoned with the words “No Fear” to concertgoers. (Dozens of concertgoers were arrested and she was sued for more than $10 million by activist groups for “moral damages,” among other perceived transgressions. The lawsuit was dismissed later on.) But only twice in Madonna’s long career has queer and trans culture been the central focus of her show.
Madonna performing during the "Blond Ambition World Tour" in 1990.
As Madonna brings “The Celebration Tour” to New York from Europe for the start of a 52-date North American journey next week, she leaves behind a trail of headlines as long as an asteroid’s tail. There are stories about her remarkable recovery from a life-threatening illness; stories about her fans’ delight that she has finally given them what they have clamored for — a greatest hits tour. And, of course, countless stories dedicated to her wardrobe, her appearance and her personal life.
Largely missing, however, in all that coverage, is a mention of the tour’s political and social significance: “Celebration” is Madonna’s most radical concert statement in support of the LGBTQ community since her paradigm-shifting “Blond Ambition Tour” in 1990, and perhaps her most radical stage performance ever.
At a time when LGBTQ rights are under threat globally, and as US groups supporting those rights issue unprecedented alerts warning of rising assaults, both legislative and physical, Madonna has produced a concert that not only embraces and reassures the gay and trans community, but introduces audiences to the world as she sees it. And it is a remarkable place indeed; a moving, pulsating spectrum of humanity in all its glorious otherness.
Madonna’s show, emceed by Bob the Drag Queen, can only be described as post-gender. The designations “man” and “woman” are irrelevant. The usual markers that indicate male and female are either eliminated or exchanged. Women have shaved heads, men have long hair; women wear trousers, men dresses; both perform topless and yet there is nothing prurient about seeing a woman’s breasts — no more so than a man’s. In the world that Madonna envisions, a person isn’t either/or, they are whatever they want to be. They are themselves; legislators be damned.
“The show is one big statement for freedom and learning to love yourself for who you are and to not give up the fight in being yourself and thus having no fear,” Kimberly van Pinxteren, the webmaster of the fan site MadonnaUnderground, told me. She has seen nine Madonna tours, for a total of 83 shows, and considers “Celebration” to be the artist’s most powerful affirmation of LGBTQ rights in decades.
Every Madonna concert since 1990 has included LGBTQ elements and tributes, some more direct than others. In 2012, for example, during her “MDNA” tour’s stop in St. Petersburg, Russia, she challenged that city’s ban on “gay propaganda,” which she called “a ridiculous atrocity” on her Facebook page, by delivering a defense of gay rights from the stage and distributing rainbow posters emblazoned with the words “No Fear” to concertgoers. (Dozens of concertgoers were arrested and she was sued for more than $10 million by activist groups for “moral damages,” among other perceived transgressions. The lawsuit was dismissed later on.) But only twice in Madonna’s long career has queer and trans culture been the central focus of her show.
Madonna performing during the "Blond Ambition World Tour" in 1990.
- Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images© Provided by CNN
The first was in 1990. Madonna’s “Blond Ambition tour” occurred at a time when gay men were dying by the tens of thousands from AIDS. Rather than receive help or comfort, they were largely shunned and shamed. The undercurrent of homophobia that permeated society prior to AIDS began to be expressed openly, and cruelly. When gay men were mentioned in the press, the narrative was about death and the subtext of much of the commentary was that they deserved it. “Blond Ambition” helped change the story.
On stage with Madonna were seven male dancers, only one of whom was heterosexual and three of whom, though she didn’t know it at the time, were HIV positive. The tale she and they told through music and dance was one of life and joy. Her dancers were beautiful, powerful, funny, sexy young men who inspired audiences as much as she did. In fact, they became celebrities as the tour traversed the globe. And when it was over, gay men everywhere could see themselves in those dancers and feel empowered. Many heterosexuals saw gay men differently, too.
Not everyone was convinced. Pope John Paul II called the tour “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity.” But the conversation had begun, fear dissipated, closet doors opened. “Madonna 100% helped change the narrative,” Brad Mayer of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ civil rights group in the United States, told me. “She saw the beauty of people in our community and their contributions. And, so yeah, Blond Ambition was huge.”
Matthew Rettenmund, a writer who has seen every Madonna concert except her first, called the “Blond Ambition” message “very subversive” and a direct response to the times.
Now, decades later, the times called for another such message. In response, Madonna mounted “Celebration,” her second concert with LGBTQ rights at its core.
In its 40 years in operation, the HRC has only issued one emergency declaration and that was this past June. State legislatures at that point had passed a record 76 anti-LGBTQ bills out of the 525 that were introduced in 41 states in the first six months of 2023. From “don’t say gay” laws to book and bathroom bans, those most impacted by the measures, according to HRC, were children. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that around one third of high school aged transgender youth live in states that prevent them from playing sports and HRC Foundation data determined that around one third of transgender youth aged 13-17 live in states that ban their much-needed medical care.
Madonna's "Celebration Tour," which features four decades of her hits, started last October in London and is her most radical concert statement in support of the LGBTQ community since her paradigm-shifting “Blond Ambition Tour” in 1990. - Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation/Getty Images© Provided by CNN
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group, issued a similar series of red alerts this year, most recently last month about violence against the community and its allies. “We’ve seen anti-LGBTQ lies and disinformation spewing from the mouths of politicians, served up to millions on social media, and inciting violence everywhere from elementary schools and libraries, to places of worship, to school board meetings, to places of business,” wrote GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis.
Internationally, where over 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ laws on the books, the threat is no less widespread.
“Madonna’s tour is coming at a time of this ongoing state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans and it really provides a lot of critical context,” HRC press secretary Cullen N. Peele told me. “This fight is very much far from over. Culture has moved on in so many incredible ways, but there are political forces who cannot tolerate that and they’re pulling up the emergency brake and they are trying so hard to turn back the clock.”
Pop culture can change minds in ways academics, pundits, or politicians can’t by “showing” rather than “telling,” and showing is what Madonna does best.
The dance clubs she emerged from in early 1980s New York were palaces of inclusion and freedom; everyone and everything was allowed. It was a loving environment and a repudiation of an increasingly repressive world outside those walls. That vibe is at the core of Madonna’s “Celebration” show. She hasn’t simply resurrected her life story to showcase her greatest hits, she has resurrected an era so audiences in need of hope can find courage.
The arc of a Madonna concert always travels from darkness to light, and this tour is no exception. Singing “Live To Tell” near the start of the show, Madonna is surrounded by massive photographs of the people she loved and lost to AIDS, followed by increasingly small photos representing some of the hundreds of thousands of people in the US — and tens of millions of people globally — who have died of the disease. The performance is a remembrance, tribute, and acknowledgement that the HIV-AIDS plague continues because, according to US government statistics, people aged 13-34 account for 58% of new AIDS cases in 2021.
Her concert’s storyline proceeds from that dark moment as her 24 dancers try to find a way to continue. Using religious imagery, they hang as martyrs on an altar during “Like A Prayer.” They return as boxers in a ring prepared to fight during “Papa Don’t Preach,” and as a pile of writhing flesh in nude body stockings during “Justify My Love.” In that case, they are people who dare to show their love despite the backlash. After Madonna’s next song, “Vogue” — her iconic early statement on gay and trans culture — she is arrested. Asking, “What did we do? We were just having some fun,” Madonna is roughed up and taken away.
Like Madonna herself, the LGBTQ community she showcases is only strengthened by adversity. The words “No Fear” appear as body paint on a dancer’s naked torso and in video messages on huge screens. Pride flags proliferate. As the show unfolds, the performance becomes bolder, more explicit. Sexual, social, racial and ethnic boundaries don’t just dissolve, they don’t exist. The result is pure carnival, pure fun, mad joy.
By the end, the audience is immersed in Madonna’s world as it once was after “Blond Ambition.” It’s a world where personal freedom is limitless, if it’s allowed to be. And that, according to the Madonna doctrine, is a good thing. Forty years into her career, her advice remains what it has always been: have courage and by all means, express yourself.
Editor’s Note: Mary Gabriel is the author of “Madonna: A Rebel Life.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own.
Mary Gabriel - Mike Habermann© Provided by CNN
The first was in 1990. Madonna’s “Blond Ambition tour” occurred at a time when gay men were dying by the tens of thousands from AIDS. Rather than receive help or comfort, they were largely shunned and shamed. The undercurrent of homophobia that permeated society prior to AIDS began to be expressed openly, and cruelly. When gay men were mentioned in the press, the narrative was about death and the subtext of much of the commentary was that they deserved it. “Blond Ambition” helped change the story.
On stage with Madonna were seven male dancers, only one of whom was heterosexual and three of whom, though she didn’t know it at the time, were HIV positive. The tale she and they told through music and dance was one of life and joy. Her dancers were beautiful, powerful, funny, sexy young men who inspired audiences as much as she did. In fact, they became celebrities as the tour traversed the globe. And when it was over, gay men everywhere could see themselves in those dancers and feel empowered. Many heterosexuals saw gay men differently, too.
Not everyone was convinced. Pope John Paul II called the tour “one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity.” But the conversation had begun, fear dissipated, closet doors opened. “Madonna 100% helped change the narrative,” Brad Mayer of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBTQ civil rights group in the United States, told me. “She saw the beauty of people in our community and their contributions. And, so yeah, Blond Ambition was huge.”
Matthew Rettenmund, a writer who has seen every Madonna concert except her first, called the “Blond Ambition” message “very subversive” and a direct response to the times.
Now, decades later, the times called for another such message. In response, Madonna mounted “Celebration,” her second concert with LGBTQ rights at its core.
In its 40 years in operation, the HRC has only issued one emergency declaration and that was this past June. State legislatures at that point had passed a record 76 anti-LGBTQ bills out of the 525 that were introduced in 41 states in the first six months of 2023. From “don’t say gay” laws to book and bathroom bans, those most impacted by the measures, according to HRC, were children. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that around one third of high school aged transgender youth live in states that prevent them from playing sports and HRC Foundation data determined that around one third of transgender youth aged 13-17 live in states that ban their much-needed medical care.
Madonna's "Celebration Tour," which features four decades of her hits, started last October in London and is her most radical concert statement in support of the LGBTQ community since her paradigm-shifting “Blond Ambition Tour” in 1990. - Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation/Getty Images© Provided by CNN
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy group, issued a similar series of red alerts this year, most recently last month about violence against the community and its allies. “We’ve seen anti-LGBTQ lies and disinformation spewing from the mouths of politicians, served up to millions on social media, and inciting violence everywhere from elementary schools and libraries, to places of worship, to school board meetings, to places of business,” wrote GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis.
Internationally, where over 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ laws on the books, the threat is no less widespread.
“Madonna’s tour is coming at a time of this ongoing state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans and it really provides a lot of critical context,” HRC press secretary Cullen N. Peele told me. “This fight is very much far from over. Culture has moved on in so many incredible ways, but there are political forces who cannot tolerate that and they’re pulling up the emergency brake and they are trying so hard to turn back the clock.”
Pop culture can change minds in ways academics, pundits, or politicians can’t by “showing” rather than “telling,” and showing is what Madonna does best.
The dance clubs she emerged from in early 1980s New York were palaces of inclusion and freedom; everyone and everything was allowed. It was a loving environment and a repudiation of an increasingly repressive world outside those walls. That vibe is at the core of Madonna’s “Celebration” show. She hasn’t simply resurrected her life story to showcase her greatest hits, she has resurrected an era so audiences in need of hope can find courage.
The arc of a Madonna concert always travels from darkness to light, and this tour is no exception. Singing “Live To Tell” near the start of the show, Madonna is surrounded by massive photographs of the people she loved and lost to AIDS, followed by increasingly small photos representing some of the hundreds of thousands of people in the US — and tens of millions of people globally — who have died of the disease. The performance is a remembrance, tribute, and acknowledgement that the HIV-AIDS plague continues because, according to US government statistics, people aged 13-34 account for 58% of new AIDS cases in 2021.
Her concert’s storyline proceeds from that dark moment as her 24 dancers try to find a way to continue. Using religious imagery, they hang as martyrs on an altar during “Like A Prayer.” They return as boxers in a ring prepared to fight during “Papa Don’t Preach,” and as a pile of writhing flesh in nude body stockings during “Justify My Love.” In that case, they are people who dare to show their love despite the backlash. After Madonna’s next song, “Vogue” — her iconic early statement on gay and trans culture — she is arrested. Asking, “What did we do? We were just having some fun,” Madonna is roughed up and taken away.
Like Madonna herself, the LGBTQ community she showcases is only strengthened by adversity. The words “No Fear” appear as body paint on a dancer’s naked torso and in video messages on huge screens. Pride flags proliferate. As the show unfolds, the performance becomes bolder, more explicit. Sexual, social, racial and ethnic boundaries don’t just dissolve, they don’t exist. The result is pure carnival, pure fun, mad joy.
By the end, the audience is immersed in Madonna’s world as it once was after “Blond Ambition.” It’s a world where personal freedom is limitless, if it’s allowed to be. And that, according to the Madonna doctrine, is a good thing. Forty years into her career, her advice remains what it has always been: have courage and by all means, express yourself.
Editor’s Note: Mary Gabriel is the author of “Madonna: A Rebel Life.” The views expressed in this commentary are her own.
Mary Gabriel - Mike Habermann© Provided by CNN
A gigantic new ICBM will take US nuclear missiles out of the Cold War-era but add 21st-century risks
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. (AP) — The control stations for America’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles have a sort of 1980s retro look, with computing panels in sea foam green, bad lighting and chunky control switches, including a critical one that says “launch.”
Those underground capsules are about to be demolished and the missile silos they control will be completely overhauled. A new nuclear missile is coming, a gigantic ICBM called the Sentinel. It's the largest cultural shift in the land leg of the Air Force's nuclear missile mission in 60 years.
But there are questions as to whether some of the Cold War-era aspects of the Minuteman missiles that the Sentinel will replace should be changed.
Making the silo-launched missile more modern, with complex software and 21st-century connectivity across a vast network, may also mean it's more vulnerable. The Sentinel will need to be well protected from cyberattacks, while its technology will have to cope with frigid winter temperatures in the Western states where the silos are located.
The $96 billion Sentinel overhaul involves 450 silos across five states, their control centers, three nuclear missile bases and several other testing facilities. The project is so ambitious it has raised questions as to whether the Air Force can get it all done at once.
An overhaul is needed.
The silos lose power. Their 60-year old massive mechanical parts break down often. Air Force crews guard them using helicopters that can be traced back to the Vietnam War. Commanders hope the modernization of the Sentinel, and of the trucks, gear and living quarters, will help attract and retain young technology-minded service members who are now asked each day to find ways to keep a very old system running.
Nuclear modernization was delayed for years because the United States deferred spending on new missiles, bombers and submarines in order to support the post 9/11 wars overseas. Now everything is getting modernized at once. The Sentinel work is one leg of a larger, nuclear weapons enterprise-wide $750 billion overhaul that is replacing almost every component of U.S. nuclear defenses, including new stealth bombers, submarines and ICBMs in the country's largest nuclear weapons program since the Manhattan Project
For the Sentinel, silo work could be underway by lead contractor Northrop Grumman as soon as 2025. That is 80 years after the U.S. last used nuclear weapons in war, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, which killed an estimated 100,000 in an instant and likely tens of thousands more over time.
For the Pentagon, there are expectations the modern Sentinel will meet threats from rapidly evolving Chinese and Russian missile systems. The Sentinel is expected to stay in service through 2075, so designers are taking an approach that will make it easier to upgrade with new technologies in the coming years. But that's not without risk.
“Sentinel is a software-intensive program with a compressed schedule,” the Government Accountability Office reported this summer. “Software development is a high risk due to its scale and complexity and unique requirements of the nuclear deterrence mission.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has acknowledged the challenges the program is facing.
“It’s been a long time since we did an ICBM,” Kendall said in November at a Center for New American Security event in Washington. It's “the biggest thing, in some ways, that the Air Force has ever taken on.”
“Sentinel, I think quite honestly, is struggling a little bit,” he said.
NEW CONNECTIONS
By far, the biggest cultural shift the Sentinel will bring is the connectivity for all those who secure, maintain, operate and support the system. The overhaul touches almost everything, even including new equipment for military chefs who cook for the missile teams. The changes could improve efficiency and quality of life on the bases but may also create vulnerabilities that the analog Minuteman missiles have never faced.
Since the first silo-based Minuteman went on alert at Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base on Oct. 27, 1962 — the day Cuba shot down a U-2 spy plane at the height of the Cuban missile crisis — the missile has “talked” to its operators through thousands of miles of hard-wiring in cables buried underground.
Those Hardened Intersite Cable Systems, or HICS, cables carry messages back and forth from the missile to the missileer, who receives those messages through a relatively new part of the capsule — a firing control console called REACT, for Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting, that was installed in the mid-1990s.
It’s a closed communication loop, and a very secure one that brings its own headaches. Any time the Air Force wants to test one of the missiles, it literally has to dig up the cables and splice them, to isolate that test missile’s wiring from the rest. Over decades of testing, there are now hundreds of splices in those critical loops.
But it’s also one of the Minuteman's best features. You would need a shovel — and a lot more — to try to hack the system. Even when missile crews update targeting codes, it is a mechanical, manual process.
Minuteman is “a very cyber-resilient platform,” said Col. Charles Clegg, the Sentinel system program manager.
Clegg said cybersecurity for the software-driven Sentinel has been a top focus of the program, one that has all of their attention.
“Like Minuteman, Sentinel will still operate within a closed network. However, to provide defense in depth, we will have additional security measures at the boundary and inside the network, enabling our weapon system to operate effectively in a cyber-contested environment,” Clegg said.
FRIGID FIELDS
Those who maintain the Minuteman III have tried over the years to bring in new technology to make maintenance more efficient, but they have found that sometimes the old manual way of tracking things — sometimes literally with a binder and pen — is better, especially in frigid temperatures.
Nuclear missile fields are located in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Those missiles need maintenance even in the winter, and crews spend hours outside in sub-zero field conditions,
“An iPad won’t survive a Montana winter" at the launch sites, where maintenance crews have worked outdoors in temperatures of minus 20 degrees or even minus 40 degrees, said Chief Master Sgt. Virgil Castro, the 741st missile maintenance squadron's senior enlisted leader.
Also, when maintenance crews at Malmstrom tested some radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology — think of how seaports track items inside cargo containers — it created security vulnerabilities.
“Today, everything is connected to the internet of things. And you might have a back door in there you don’t even know” said Lt. Col. Todd Yehle, the 741st maintenance squadron commander. “With the old analog systems, you’re not hacking those systems.”
What it means is that even though technology could automate the whole operations process, one critical aspect of missile launch will remain the same. If the day comes that another nuclear weapon must be fired, it will still be teams of missileers validating the orders and activating a launch.
“It’s the human in the loop,” said Col. Johnny Galbert, commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren. “I think what it comes down to is we want to rely on our airmen, our young officers out there, to make that decision, to be able to interpret what higher headquarters is telling them or directing them to do.” ___
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Tara Copp, The Associated Press
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. (AP) — The control stations for America’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles have a sort of 1980s retro look, with computing panels in sea foam green, bad lighting and chunky control switches, including a critical one that says “launch.”
Those underground capsules are about to be demolished and the missile silos they control will be completely overhauled. A new nuclear missile is coming, a gigantic ICBM called the Sentinel. It's the largest cultural shift in the land leg of the Air Force's nuclear missile mission in 60 years.
But there are questions as to whether some of the Cold War-era aspects of the Minuteman missiles that the Sentinel will replace should be changed.
Making the silo-launched missile more modern, with complex software and 21st-century connectivity across a vast network, may also mean it's more vulnerable. The Sentinel will need to be well protected from cyberattacks, while its technology will have to cope with frigid winter temperatures in the Western states where the silos are located.
The $96 billion Sentinel overhaul involves 450 silos across five states, their control centers, three nuclear missile bases and several other testing facilities. The project is so ambitious it has raised questions as to whether the Air Force can get it all done at once.
An overhaul is needed.
The silos lose power. Their 60-year old massive mechanical parts break down often. Air Force crews guard them using helicopters that can be traced back to the Vietnam War. Commanders hope the modernization of the Sentinel, and of the trucks, gear and living quarters, will help attract and retain young technology-minded service members who are now asked each day to find ways to keep a very old system running.
Nuclear modernization was delayed for years because the United States deferred spending on new missiles, bombers and submarines in order to support the post 9/11 wars overseas. Now everything is getting modernized at once. The Sentinel work is one leg of a larger, nuclear weapons enterprise-wide $750 billion overhaul that is replacing almost every component of U.S. nuclear defenses, including new stealth bombers, submarines and ICBMs in the country's largest nuclear weapons program since the Manhattan Project
For the Sentinel, silo work could be underway by lead contractor Northrop Grumman as soon as 2025. That is 80 years after the U.S. last used nuclear weapons in war, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, which killed an estimated 100,000 in an instant and likely tens of thousands more over time.
For the Pentagon, there are expectations the modern Sentinel will meet threats from rapidly evolving Chinese and Russian missile systems. The Sentinel is expected to stay in service through 2075, so designers are taking an approach that will make it easier to upgrade with new technologies in the coming years. But that's not without risk.
“Sentinel is a software-intensive program with a compressed schedule,” the Government Accountability Office reported this summer. “Software development is a high risk due to its scale and complexity and unique requirements of the nuclear deterrence mission.”
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has acknowledged the challenges the program is facing.
“It’s been a long time since we did an ICBM,” Kendall said in November at a Center for New American Security event in Washington. It's “the biggest thing, in some ways, that the Air Force has ever taken on.”
“Sentinel, I think quite honestly, is struggling a little bit,” he said.
NEW CONNECTIONS
By far, the biggest cultural shift the Sentinel will bring is the connectivity for all those who secure, maintain, operate and support the system. The overhaul touches almost everything, even including new equipment for military chefs who cook for the missile teams. The changes could improve efficiency and quality of life on the bases but may also create vulnerabilities that the analog Minuteman missiles have never faced.
Since the first silo-based Minuteman went on alert at Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base on Oct. 27, 1962 — the day Cuba shot down a U-2 spy plane at the height of the Cuban missile crisis — the missile has “talked” to its operators through thousands of miles of hard-wiring in cables buried underground.
Those Hardened Intersite Cable Systems, or HICS, cables carry messages back and forth from the missile to the missileer, who receives those messages through a relatively new part of the capsule — a firing control console called REACT, for Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting, that was installed in the mid-1990s.
It’s a closed communication loop, and a very secure one that brings its own headaches. Any time the Air Force wants to test one of the missiles, it literally has to dig up the cables and splice them, to isolate that test missile’s wiring from the rest. Over decades of testing, there are now hundreds of splices in those critical loops.
But it’s also one of the Minuteman's best features. You would need a shovel — and a lot more — to try to hack the system. Even when missile crews update targeting codes, it is a mechanical, manual process.
Minuteman is “a very cyber-resilient platform,” said Col. Charles Clegg, the Sentinel system program manager.
Clegg said cybersecurity for the software-driven Sentinel has been a top focus of the program, one that has all of their attention.
“Like Minuteman, Sentinel will still operate within a closed network. However, to provide defense in depth, we will have additional security measures at the boundary and inside the network, enabling our weapon system to operate effectively in a cyber-contested environment,” Clegg said.
FRIGID FIELDS
Those who maintain the Minuteman III have tried over the years to bring in new technology to make maintenance more efficient, but they have found that sometimes the old manual way of tracking things — sometimes literally with a binder and pen — is better, especially in frigid temperatures.
Nuclear missile fields are located in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming. Those missiles need maintenance even in the winter, and crews spend hours outside in sub-zero field conditions,
“An iPad won’t survive a Montana winter" at the launch sites, where maintenance crews have worked outdoors in temperatures of minus 20 degrees or even minus 40 degrees, said Chief Master Sgt. Virgil Castro, the 741st missile maintenance squadron's senior enlisted leader.
Also, when maintenance crews at Malmstrom tested some radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology — think of how seaports track items inside cargo containers — it created security vulnerabilities.
“Today, everything is connected to the internet of things. And you might have a back door in there you don’t even know” said Lt. Col. Todd Yehle, the 741st maintenance squadron commander. “With the old analog systems, you’re not hacking those systems.”
What it means is that even though technology could automate the whole operations process, one critical aspect of missile launch will remain the same. If the day comes that another nuclear weapon must be fired, it will still be teams of missileers validating the orders and activating a launch.
“It’s the human in the loop,” said Col. Johnny Galbert, commander of the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren. “I think what it comes down to is we want to rely on our airmen, our young officers out there, to make that decision, to be able to interpret what higher headquarters is telling them or directing them to do.” ___
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Tara Copp, The Associated Press
Mideast ministers met with Joly, Trudeau in Ottawa to discuss Israel-Hamas war
© Provided by The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — A group of foreign ministers from the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Turkey met Saturday in Ottawa with Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.
The quietly planned meeting focused on ways countries could help efforts to secure peace for Palestinians and Israelis, after Hamas militants launched a deadly rampage in Israel on Oct. 7.
Joly hosted the delegation, which calls itself the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit. The group normally includes Jordan, though Joly's office says that country needed to send its foreign minister on other business.
The group is not a joint peace project with Israel, and says its leaders aim to speak on behalf of Arab and Muslim people following Israel's bombardment of Gaza in responseto the Hamas attack.
Trudeau joined the meeting in Ottawa towards its conclusion. His public itinerary for Saturday had originally said only that he was holding private meetings in the National Capital Region. His itinerary was updated to note his presence at the summit with Joly after the fact. The media was not provided with the location of the meeting.
The meeting marked the first visit to Canada by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister since a diplomatic chill over human rights issues in 2018, when Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Ottawa and expelled Canada's envoy.
Joly's office said the ministers discussed political pathways to a comprehensive and lasting peace, with an emphasis on "self-determination, human rights, and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike."
The ministers also discussed the need to allow much more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
The delegation visited Ottawa after travelling to Washington, with the group having met withthe five members of the UN Security Council and the European Union presidency holder, Spain.
The group of ministers had previously visited the capitals of China, France, Russia, Britain and the U.S., as well as Spain.
Trudeau has said that Israel has a right to defend itself, while arguing that acts such as the "killing of women, of children, of babies" in Gaza undermines the possibility of a two-state solution, where Israel and a Palestinian country could live peacefully beside each other.
That would follow a 1993 plan known as the Oslo Accord that was endorsed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank but not Gaza. Hamas has not supported the accord.
The Canadian government says Hamas must release its hostages and that all foreigners must be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip, though Global Affairs Canada has stopped publishing the number of Canadians it believes are still in the besieged territory.
Approximately1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed during Hamas's attack and 240 people were taken hostage. It's believed that militants are still holding more than 130 people, including one Canadian woman.
Israel and Hamas negotiated the release of 110 hostages taken from Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong truce. Both sides blame each other for the resumption of hostilities.
Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400, including combatants.
The ministerial committee that visited Canada has stressed the need for an immediate stop to "military escalation" in Gaza, and to propel the political process forward with the goal of lasting peace.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza is at "a breaking point," with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse.
Guterres used a rare power this week to call for a ceasefire, in a move the U.S. vetoed at the Security Council. Israel has argued an immediate ceasefire would only help Hamas prepare for more violent attacks, and says its priority is to remove the group's capacity to inflict mass violence against Israelis.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Israeli warplanes were striking parts of the Gaza Strip that include some of the dwindling bits of land Israeli officials told Palestinians to evacuate to, in the south of the territory. That has left Palestinians huddling on a narrow patch of barren coastline.
Joly has said that negotiations between Israel and Hamas are needed to end the conflict, though Canada has not followed some European countries in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognized body that speaks for Palestinians, including in negotiations aimed at a two-state solution. The group controls the West Bank but was driven out of Gaza by Hamas when it seized power in 2007.
Canada has no relations with Hamas, which it has deemed a terrorist organization since 2002, and so it cannot negotiate with the group.
In May, Canada and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore ambassadors in each other's capitals, after a 2018 spat sparked by Canada’s loud condemnation of the kingdom's human-rights record.
That year, Canada called on Saudi Arabia to release its detained women's rights and democracy activists. Riyadh responded by pulling its ambassador and freezing new trade with Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2023.
— With files from The Associated Press
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — A group of foreign ministers from the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Turkey met Saturday in Ottawa with Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss the Israel-Hamas war.
The quietly planned meeting focused on ways countries could help efforts to secure peace for Palestinians and Israelis, after Hamas militants launched a deadly rampage in Israel on Oct. 7.
Joly hosted the delegation, which calls itself the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit. The group normally includes Jordan, though Joly's office says that country needed to send its foreign minister on other business.
The group is not a joint peace project with Israel, and says its leaders aim to speak on behalf of Arab and Muslim people following Israel's bombardment of Gaza in responseto the Hamas attack.
Trudeau joined the meeting in Ottawa towards its conclusion. His public itinerary for Saturday had originally said only that he was holding private meetings in the National Capital Region. His itinerary was updated to note his presence at the summit with Joly after the fact. The media was not provided with the location of the meeting.
The meeting marked the first visit to Canada by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister since a diplomatic chill over human rights issues in 2018, when Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Ottawa and expelled Canada's envoy.
Joly's office said the ministers discussed political pathways to a comprehensive and lasting peace, with an emphasis on "self-determination, human rights, and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike."
The ministers also discussed the need to allow much more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
The delegation visited Ottawa after travelling to Washington, with the group having met withthe five members of the UN Security Council and the European Union presidency holder, Spain.
The group of ministers had previously visited the capitals of China, France, Russia, Britain and the U.S., as well as Spain.
Trudeau has said that Israel has a right to defend itself, while arguing that acts such as the "killing of women, of children, of babies" in Gaza undermines the possibility of a two-state solution, where Israel and a Palestinian country could live peacefully beside each other.
That would follow a 1993 plan known as the Oslo Accord that was endorsed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank but not Gaza. Hamas has not supported the accord.
The Canadian government says Hamas must release its hostages and that all foreigners must be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip, though Global Affairs Canada has stopped publishing the number of Canadians it believes are still in the besieged territory.
Approximately1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed during Hamas's attack and 240 people were taken hostage. It's believed that militants are still holding more than 130 people, including one Canadian woman.
Israel and Hamas negotiated the release of 110 hostages taken from Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong truce. Both sides blame each other for the resumption of hostilities.
Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400, including combatants.
The ministerial committee that visited Canada has stressed the need for an immediate stop to "military escalation" in Gaza, and to propel the political process forward with the goal of lasting peace.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza is at "a breaking point," with the humanitarian support system at risk of total collapse.
Guterres used a rare power this week to call for a ceasefire, in a move the U.S. vetoed at the Security Council. Israel has argued an immediate ceasefire would only help Hamas prepare for more violent attacks, and says its priority is to remove the group's capacity to inflict mass violence against Israelis.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Israeli warplanes were striking parts of the Gaza Strip that include some of the dwindling bits of land Israeli officials told Palestinians to evacuate to, in the south of the territory. That has left Palestinians huddling on a narrow patch of barren coastline.
Joly has said that negotiations between Israel and Hamas are needed to end the conflict, though Canada has not followed some European countries in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognized body that speaks for Palestinians, including in negotiations aimed at a two-state solution. The group controls the West Bank but was driven out of Gaza by Hamas when it seized power in 2007.
Canada has no relations with Hamas, which it has deemed a terrorist organization since 2002, and so it cannot negotiate with the group.
In May, Canada and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore ambassadors in each other's capitals, after a 2018 spat sparked by Canada’s loud condemnation of the kingdom's human-rights record.
That year, Canada called on Saudi Arabia to release its detained women's rights and democracy activists. Riyadh responded by pulling its ambassador and freezing new trade with Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2023.
— With files from The Associated Press
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza
BEIRUT (AP) — A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team said he has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, has volunteered with medical teams in multiple conflicts in Gaza, beginning as a medical student in the late 1980s during the the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Abu Sitta crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Oct. 9, two days after the war began and remained in the besieged enclave for 43 days, working mainly in the al-Ahli and Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza.
The war was triggered by a deadly Hamas-led incursion on Oct. 7 into southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel has launched a punishing air and ground campaign that has killed more than 17,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Abu Sitta told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut on Saturday that the intensity of other conflicts he experienced and the war in Gaza is like “the difference between a flood and a tsunami.” Apart from the staggering numbers of killed and injured, he said, the health system itself has been targeted and destroyed in Gaza.
“The worst thing was initially the running out of morphine and proper strong analgesics and then later on running out of anesthetic medication, which meant that you would have to do painful procedures with no anesthetic,” Abu Sitta said.
He said that when he returned to the UK, he was asked by the war crimes unit at the Metropolitan Police to give evidence in a possible war crimes investigation, and did so.
The police had issued a call for people returning from Israel or the Palestinian territories who “have witnessed or been a victim of terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity” to come forward.
Abu Sitta said much of his testimony related to attacks on health facilities.
He was working in al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza on Oct. 17 when a deadly blast struck the hospital’s courtyard, which had become a shelter for displaced people, killing hundreds. Israeli authorities, along with U.S. and French intelligence agencies, have said the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Hamas maintained that it was an Israeli strike. Abu Sitta said many of the injuries he saw were more consistent with damage caused by an Israeli Hellfire missile which he said “disintegrates into shards of metal that cause amputations."
The international group Human Rights Watch said the fragmentation pattern around the impact crater lacked the pattern typical of the Hellfire missile or others used by Israel.
Abu Sitta said while in Gaza he also treated patients who had burn wounds consistent with white phosphorus shelling, which he had also seen during the 2009 war.
Phosphorus shells cause a “chemical burn that ... bursts into the deep structures of the body rather than a thermal burn, which starts at the outside and (covers a) much larger surface area,” he said.
Human rights groups have alleged that Israeli forces have dropped shells containing white phosphorus on densely populated residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Israel maintains it uses the incendiaries only as a smokescreen and not to target civilians.
Abu Sitta, who rotated between al-Ahli and Shifa hospital, had left Shifa when Israeli forces encircled the hospital, eventually storming it in search of what they described as a Hamas command center. Israeli officials released visuals of an underground tunnel and rooms that they said were used by Hamas, but have not provided further evidence.
Abu Sitta, like other medical workers in the hospital, denied the allegations.
He said he had complete access to Shifa and there “was never, ever even any military presence.” He said policemen whose job was to control the crowds in front of the emergency department only carried truncheons.
The physician said he hopes the UK war crimes investigation will lead to prosecutions, locally or internationally.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said after a visit to the West Bank and Israel last week that a probe by the court into possible crimes by both Hamas militants and Israeli forces is a priority for his office.
___
Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Abby Sewell, The Associated Press
Every phone call is a goodbye, says Vancouver resident with family in Gaza
Omar Mansour says every phone call with his family in the Gaza Strip might be the last.
So during those few minutes when he is able to talk to his parents, brother and sisters, the Vancouver resident makes sure he tells them he loves them.
"I ask them how they are. But it's mostly goodbyes, you know? Mostly goodbyes, and I love you," he said.
"And I thank them for what they've done for me. Because it might be the last call, the last time I hear their voice."
Five of his cousins were killed by Israeli snipers over the past week when they went to look for food and water, he said.
"That's only the family I got to know about. I lost touch with most of my 60 cousins after the war began."
Israel pounded areas of the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which enables a United Nations chief to highlight threats he sees to international peace and security, and warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe'' in Gaza.
But United States Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and "only plant the seeds for the next war.''
cbc.ca
So during those few minutes when he is able to talk to his parents, brother and sisters, the Vancouver resident makes sure he tells them he loves them.
"I ask them how they are. But it's mostly goodbyes, you know? Mostly goodbyes, and I love you," he said.
"And I thank them for what they've done for me. Because it might be the last call, the last time I hear their voice."
Five of his cousins were killed by Israeli snipers over the past week when they went to look for food and water, he said.
"That's only the family I got to know about. I lost touch with most of my 60 cousins after the war began."
Israel pounded areas of the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which enables a United Nations chief to highlight threats he sees to international peace and security, and warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe'' in Gaza.
But United States Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and "only plant the seeds for the next war.''
cbc.ca
About 350 people of roughly 600 with Canadian ties have now left Gaza
2:11
Displaced Gaza Family Has Tearful Reunion As Ceasefire Continues
0:41
cbc.ca
2:11
Displaced Gaza Family Has Tearful Reunion As Ceasefire Continues
0:41
cbc.ca
Getting Canadians out of Gaza into Egypt 'a complex situation,' ambassador says
4:37
The war was triggered by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza killed about 1,200, most of them civilians, and took about 240 people hostage.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400 over the past two months, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70 per cent of the dead were women and children.
Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt are effectively sealed, leaving 2.3 million Palestinians with no option other than to seek refuge within the territory 40 kilometres long and some 11 kilometres wide.
Mansour said his family has been sheltering in a school run by the United Nations close to Gaza City. The small building is packed with people where they share the floor, which he said has become their world.
But the family is afraid the school might be bombed any time, he said.
"All families are surviving day by day."
During a weeklong ceasefire the family walked to their home in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, said Mansour, a permanent resident who arrived in Canada in 2014.
His 23-year-old brother, Firas Omar, described to Mansour the scenes they saw as they navigated piles of stones that were once homes, hospitals, schools and shops. They saw mothers looking for children under mortar, snaking queues for water and food, and a stench of dead bodies filled their noses, he said.
Mansour's family's home is now rubble, he said. Members of the family used their hands to dig through the ruins and found a few documents that they had stored in a lockbox, and a few cans of food that had survived the bombing.
"A can of tuna, a few cans of beans and some corn," he said. "My mom and dad are in a starvation mode."
His family got a chance to shower for the first time since Oct. 7 during the ceasefire, he said. But there's no water to wash their clothes and they have no idea when they can shower next, he added.
"There's no water to drink."
Since the ceasefire ended on Dec. 1, and bombing resumed, the family has been eating a few spoonfuls of the canned food and trying to make it last as long as possible, he said.
"It's not going to last much longer," he said. "Firas is scared to go out too much to look for food because there are snipers everywhere."
One of his sisters, Ruba, and her kids are in "starvation mode" in southern Gaza, he said.
One of his other sisters, Dina, who has a four-month-old boy, is with Mansour's parents, seeking refuge in the school.
"The baby cries from hunger all the time."
His mother, Sanaa Omar, who is in her 60s and needs medication, hasn't seen a doctor since the war began, he said.
"She's tired. She is exhausted. Drained by this whole tension," he said. "So she just wants to be out of this whole situation. And she just wants to have some peace."
When asked where his family finds the resilience to go on, Mansour said: "What choice do they have? None of them have a choice."
-- With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2023.
Hina Alam, The Canadian Press
4:37
The war was triggered by Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza killed about 1,200, most of them civilians, and took about 240 people hostage.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400 over the past two months, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70 per cent of the dead were women and children.
Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt are effectively sealed, leaving 2.3 million Palestinians with no option other than to seek refuge within the territory 40 kilometres long and some 11 kilometres wide.
Mansour said his family has been sheltering in a school run by the United Nations close to Gaza City. The small building is packed with people where they share the floor, which he said has become their world.
But the family is afraid the school might be bombed any time, he said.
"All families are surviving day by day."
During a weeklong ceasefire the family walked to their home in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, said Mansour, a permanent resident who arrived in Canada in 2014.
His 23-year-old brother, Firas Omar, described to Mansour the scenes they saw as they navigated piles of stones that were once homes, hospitals, schools and shops. They saw mothers looking for children under mortar, snaking queues for water and food, and a stench of dead bodies filled their noses, he said.
Mansour's family's home is now rubble, he said. Members of the family used their hands to dig through the ruins and found a few documents that they had stored in a lockbox, and a few cans of food that had survived the bombing.
"A can of tuna, a few cans of beans and some corn," he said. "My mom and dad are in a starvation mode."
His family got a chance to shower for the first time since Oct. 7 during the ceasefire, he said. But there's no water to wash their clothes and they have no idea when they can shower next, he added.
"There's no water to drink."
Since the ceasefire ended on Dec. 1, and bombing resumed, the family has been eating a few spoonfuls of the canned food and trying to make it last as long as possible, he said.
"It's not going to last much longer," he said. "Firas is scared to go out too much to look for food because there are snipers everywhere."
One of his sisters, Ruba, and her kids are in "starvation mode" in southern Gaza, he said.
One of his other sisters, Dina, who has a four-month-old boy, is with Mansour's parents, seeking refuge in the school.
"The baby cries from hunger all the time."
His mother, Sanaa Omar, who is in her 60s and needs medication, hasn't seen a doctor since the war began, he said.
"She's tired. She is exhausted. Drained by this whole tension," he said. "So she just wants to be out of this whole situation. And she just wants to have some peace."
When asked where his family finds the resilience to go on, Mansour said: "What choice do they have? None of them have a choice."
-- With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2023.
Hina Alam, The Canadian Press
Turkey's Erdogan accuses the West of 'barbarism' and Islamophobia in the war in Gaza
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.
“Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,” Erdogan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“All the values relating to humanity are being murdered in Gaza. In the face of such brutality, international institutions and human rights organizations are not taking any concrete steps to prevent such violations," the Turkish leader said.
The human rights declaration, proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, enshrines a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.
Referring to Friday's U.S. veto of a United Nations resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, Erdogan said a fairer world was possible “but not with America because the USA stands with Israel. … From now on, humanity won’t think the USA supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Turkey’s human rights record during Erdogan’s two decades in power has come under frequent criticism over the targeting of government critics and political opponents, the undermining of judicial independence and the weakening of democratic institutions
Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on preventing and violence against women and has failed to implement European Court of Human Rights judgments.
On Saturday, the president defined Islamophobia and xenophobia, which he said “engulf Western societies like poison ivy,” as the greatest threats to human rights.
He told the cheering audience that the only value “the West holds on to is its barbarism. We have seen this example of the West’s barbarism in all those unfortunate events that they either supported or perpetrated.”
Erdogan cited the 2019 attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a gunman killed 51 people, as an Islamophobic attack that was “legitimized” and “even encouraged” by the West.
“According to their understanding, non-Westerners don’t have the right to enjoy those universal human rights … they overlook Islamophobic attacks and they show the twisted perception and mentality of the West,” he said.
In October, Erdogan told a massive protest crowd in Istanbul that his government was preparing to declare Israel a “war criminal” due to its actions in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government said in response that it would reassess its diplomatic relations with Turkey.
The Associated Press
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a speech on human rights Saturday to accuse the West of “barbarism” for its stance on the Israel-Hamas war and what he alleged was its toleration of Islamophobia.
“Israel has carried out atrocities and massacres that will shame the whole of humanity,” Erdogan told a packed hall in Istanbul the day before the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“All the values relating to humanity are being murdered in Gaza. In the face of such brutality, international institutions and human rights organizations are not taking any concrete steps to prevent such violations," the Turkish leader said.
The human rights declaration, proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948, enshrines a standard for human rights and freedoms for all people.
Referring to Friday's U.S. veto of a United Nations resolution calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza, Erdogan said a fairer world was possible “but not with America because the USA stands with Israel. … From now on, humanity won’t think the USA supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Turkey’s human rights record during Erdogan’s two decades in power has come under frequent criticism over the targeting of government critics and political opponents, the undermining of judicial independence and the weakening of democratic institutions
Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention on preventing and violence against women and has failed to implement European Court of Human Rights judgments.
On Saturday, the president defined Islamophobia and xenophobia, which he said “engulf Western societies like poison ivy,” as the greatest threats to human rights.
He told the cheering audience that the only value “the West holds on to is its barbarism. We have seen this example of the West’s barbarism in all those unfortunate events that they either supported or perpetrated.”
Erdogan cited the 2019 attack on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a gunman killed 51 people, as an Islamophobic attack that was “legitimized” and “even encouraged” by the West.
“According to their understanding, non-Westerners don’t have the right to enjoy those universal human rights … they overlook Islamophobic attacks and they show the twisted perception and mentality of the West,” he said.
In October, Erdogan told a massive protest crowd in Istanbul that his government was preparing to declare Israel a “war criminal” due to its actions in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government said in response that it would reassess its diplomatic relations with Turkey.
The Associated Press
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