As Georgia presses on with ‘Russia-style’ laws, its citizens describe a country on the brink


A demonstrator gestures trying to stop riot police during an opposition protest against “the Russian law” near the Parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Thousands of people rallied in Georgia for weeks against the foreign influence bill. Critics compared it to similar legislation Russia uses to stifle dissent, and they worried it would jeopardize Georgia’s prospects of joining the European Union. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)Read More

Police officers detain a protestor during a demonstration outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 16, 2024, to protest against “the Russian law” similar to a law that Russia uses to stigmatize independent news media and organizations seen as being at odds with the Kremlin. Thousands of people rallied in Georgia for weeks against the foreign influence bill. Critics compared it to similar legislation Russia uses to stifle dissent, and they worried it would jeopardize Georgia’s prospects of joining the European Union. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)

Top presidential candidate Mikhail Saakashvili, left, smiles while listening to the preliminary election results as his wife Sandra Roelofs applauds him in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi Sunday, Jan. 4, 2004. A pro-Western reformist, Saakashvili was president in 2004-13 and was renowned for his energetic efforts against Georgia’s endemic corruption, but Georgians became increasingly uneasy with what they saw as his authoritarian inclinations and his sometimes-mercurial behavior. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

Bodyguards escort Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, center, to shelter under a threat of Russian air attack in Gori, Georgia, Monday, Aug. 11, 2008. A pro-Western reformist, Saakashvili was president in 2004-13 and was renowned for his energetic efforts against Georgia’s endemic corruption, but Georgians became increasingly uneasy with what they saw as his authoritarian inclinations and his sometimes-mercurial behavior. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

BY JOANNA KOZLOWSKA
, July 20, 2024

Eka Gigauri is used to harsh words from officials about the anti-corruption work she does in Georgia. But seeing her face on posters, accusing her of being an agent of foreign influence, a traitor and a spy, rattled her.

Gigauri, who leads one of Georgia’s main anti-corruption campaign groups, says she and many others have been targeted in connection with a new law, pushed through parliament by the government.

The “foreign influence” law requires media, civil society groups and nonprofit organizations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. It also subjects them to intense state scrutiny and imposes steep fines for noncompliance.

The government argues the law is needed to curb harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million. Many journalists and activists say its true goal is to stigmatize them and restrict debate before an election scheduled for October. It could also threaten Georgia’s bid to join the European Union.
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This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series covering threats to democracy in Europe.


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The law resembles similar legislation in Russia, where it has been used to crack down on opposition supporters, independent media and human rights activists. Georgian Dream, the country’s ruling party, got the legislation through on its second attempt.

In 2012, after years of turbulence, Georgian Dream came to power. The party was set up by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia’s prime minister. He has stayed out of public view since 2013.

Georgian Dream promised to restore civil rights and “reset” relations with Moscow. It also vowed to pursue EU membership and ties with the U.S., reassuring those Georgians who looked to the West to protect them from their overbearing northern neighbor.

In August 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.

In 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Georgia formally applied to join the EU. Support for EU membership was already high, but after the invasion, polls showed about 74% of Georgians were in favor.

A demonstrator holds a EU flag during an opposition protest against the foreign influence bill at the Parliamentary building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov, File)

Many in Georgia, with its long history of domination by Moscow, supported Ukraine as it battled the Russian invasion. But the Georgian government abstained from joining sanctions against Russia, barred dozens of Kremlin critics from entering the country, and accused the West of trying to drag Tbilisi into open conflict with Moscow.

Almost exactly a year later, Georgian Dream first put the “foreign influence” bill before parliament. Weeks of demonstrations followed, where police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters.

The EU made clear that the bill, if passed, would damage Georgia’s membership prospects. In March 2023, the draft legislation was withdrawn. In December, the EU offered Georgia official candidate status, despite concerns about the rule of law.

In April 2024, Georgian Dream brought the bill back to parliament and the protesters returned to the streets. Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zourabichvili used her veto, but parliament overrode her with a simple majority, and the bill became law.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, right, and Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, left, leave a podium after celebration of the Independence Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 26, 2024. (Irakli Gedenidze/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Rights advocates cast the law as an existential threat.

“By labeling independent groups and media as serving foreign interests, they (Georgia’s leadership) intend to marginalize and stifle critical voices in the country that are fundamental for any functioning democracy,” said Hugh Williamson from the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

The day after the bill was enacted, Georgian Dream introduced proposals to ban media depictions of same-sex relations and any public gatherings endorsing them.

Tamar Jakeli, the head of prominent LGBTQ+ rights group Tbilisi Pride, argues that both initiatives are part of a broader strategy by the ruling party to divide society.

“The West, the opposition, LGBT people, and civil society — we are all, together, demonized as spreading LGBT propaganda, trying to impose a Western lifestyle, erase Georgian traditions,” said Jakeli, who has moved homes because of safety reasons and carries pepper spray when out.

Like the “foreign influence” bill, the proposed anti-LGBTQ+ provisions mirror Russian legislation. Rumors have swirled for months that Georgian Dream may be acting in coordination with the Kremlin — something the party vehemently denies.

Georgian far right parties and their supporters hold a banner that reads: “No to LGBT darkness”, as they gather in front of the Parliament building during a rally against Pride Week in Tbilisi, Georgia, on July 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov, File)

“The evidence for Russia being the power behind Ivanishvili — and Georgian Dream — is, at this stage, circumstantial. But it is nevertheless compelling,” James Nixey, Russia and Eurasia director at the London-based think tank Chatham House, wrote in an analysis in May.

Georgia’s pro-government media sound a steady drumbeat of fear, warning of the West’s supposed attempts to destabilize Tbilisi and stoke conflict with Moscow.

In a speech on April 29 that baffled Tbilisi’s EU partners, Ivanishvili charged that a “global party of war” is secretly channeling funds into Georgia through nonprofits, to topple the government and turn Georgians into “cannon fodder” in a war with Russia.

Maka Bochorishvili, a Georgian Dream lawmaker who heads the parliamentary EU integration committee, told The Associated Press that the “foreign influence” law aims to ensure transparency.

She argued, without providing evidence, that some nonprofits back “nonconstitutional ways of change of government in Georgia,” and that as the election looms, some have started to resemble political parties.

Most organizations targeted by the new law aren’t prominent or influential. Major groups like Gigauri’s Transparency International will face the same level of scrutiny as small news outlets.

Police officers detain a protestor during a demonstration outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on April 16, 2024, to protest against “the Russian law” similar to a law that Russia uses to stigmatize independent news media and organizations seen as being at odds with the Kremlin. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze, File)

None of the journalists and campaigners who spoke to the AP said their organizations would voluntarily join the “foreign influence” register. Gigauri called the decision “a matter of dignity.”

“First of all, we are citizens and patriots of this country,” she said.

But the law means officials can register their publications and organizations anyway. It also allows Georgia’s justice ministry to conduct detailed audits, potentially seizing laptops and other equipment for months at a time.

Nino Bakradze, whose investigative publication iFact.ge has for years tracked secretive offshore companies, corruption and the impact on Georgians of major foreign investment projects, says this would essentially halt their operations.

Seizing the equipment also means authorities could access sensitive data on the organizations’ staff, sources, whistleblowers and those who approach them for assistance. In a country where far-right groups still attack Pride marches, this is especially worrying for LGBTQ+ rights groups like Jakeli’s, many of which have received foreign grants.

Tbilisi’s modernization in recent decades, and its increasingly active citizenry, appeared to signal that democracy can succeed in post-Soviet states, threatening the Kremlin and other regional autocrats.

In October, Georgia faces its next big test: a parliamentary election. Zaza Bibilashvili, an analyst with the Chavchavadze Center, a civil society group, said there was little hope for a meaningful vote if the “foreign influence” law is applied.

Like others, he described an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Opposition figures have suffered extensive injuries they blame on beatings from police or pro-government thugs. Gia Japaridze, a university lecturer and brother of a top opposition politician, told the AP that his assailants freely admitted he had been targeted because of his criticism of the “foreign influence” law.

“Right now, we still have a civil society that’s trying to survive. In October, we’ll probably have none of that. People will have been arrested (or) expelled,” Bibilashvili argued.

In Tbilisi, the protests against the foreign influence law have grown less frequent as campaigners shift their attention to the upcoming election. But many still draw comfort from the spirit of the rallies that drew Georgians of all ages and backgrounds.

“I’ve never seen Georgian society so united,” said Giorgi Kikonishvili, an LGBTQ+ activist and club promoter in Tbilisi.

“Right now, things are devastating, but at the same time, it’s a very beautiful thing to watch,” he said.

Miss Kansas called out her abuser in public. Her campaign against domestic violence is going viral

 July 21, 2024

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A newly posted video of Miss Kansas calling out her domestic violence abuser from the stage the night she was crowned is whipping up a maelstrom of support on social media.

Alexis Smith, who works overnight shifts as a cardiothoracic intensive care nurse in Wichita, was crowned Miss Kansas on June 8, but posted the video of her on-stage comments just this past week on the platform now known as X. Her comments are resonating with thousands in part because she called out her own abuser from the stage while she said the perpetrator was sitting in the audience.

The video Smith posted July 16 has been viewed more than 60,000 times and generated a rash of news stories.

“My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships,” Smith said during the interview portion of the pageant last month. “Matter of fact, some of you in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today. But that’s not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representingas the next Miss Kansas.”

Smith just recently started her reign and began raising concerns about the issue in interviews and social media posts. Her bold pageant statement against domestic abuse and her courage to speak out is being praised online by dozens of people as her video gets shared again and again.

The beauty queen cares deeply about domestic violence issues because not only was she a victim, but so were many of the other women in her family, she has said.

“My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she said in an interview with Wichita television station KSN. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019. It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.”

Smith said she even moved to Texas for a couple years after she escaped the relationship. She returned to Wichita to study nursing at Newman University.

FREE PAUL WATSON!

Anti-whaling campaigner arrested in Greenland and police say he may be extradited to Japan


 Paul Watson, then founder and President of the animal rights and environmental Sea Shepherd Conservation, attends a demonstration against the Costa Rican government near Germany’s President residence during a visit of Costa Rica’s president in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Greenland police said they arrested Watson on Sunday, July 21, 2024, on an international arrest warrant issued by Japan. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)

July 21, 2024

BERLIN (AP) — Greenland police said they arrested a veteran environmental activist and anti-whaling campaigner on Sunday on an international arrest warrant issued by Japan.

Paul Watson was arrested when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a police statement said. He will be brought before a district court with a request to detain him pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan, the statement said.

The Captain Paul Watson Foundation said that more than a dozen police boarded the vessel and led Watson away in handcuffs when it stopped to refuel. The foundation said the ship, along with 25 volunteer crew members, was en route to the North Pacific on a mission to intercept a new Japanese whaling ship.

“The arrest is believed to be related to a former Red Notice issued for Captain Watson’s previous anti-whaling interventions in the Antarctic region,” the foundation said in an emailed statement.

“We implore the Danish government to release Captain Watson and not entertain this politically-motivated request,” Locky MacLean, a foundation director, said in the statement.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Watson, a 73-year-old Canadian-American citizen, is a former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society whose direct action tactics, including high-seas confrontations with whaling vessels, has drawn support from A-list celebrities and featured in the reality television series “Whale Wars.”

However, it has also brought him into confrontation with authorities. He was detained in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant, but skipped bail after learning that he was also sought for extradition by Japan, which has accused him of endangering whalers’ lives during operations in the Antarctic Ocean. He has since lived in countries including France and the United States.

Watson, who left Sea Shepherd in 2022 to establish his own organization, was also a leading member of Greenpeace, but left in 1977 amid disagreements over his aggressive tactics.

According to his foundation, Watson’s current ship, the M/Y John Paul DeJoria, was due to sail through the Northwest Passage to the North Pacific to confront a newly built Japanese factory whaling ship, “a murderous enemy devoid of compassion and empathy hell bent on destroying the most intelligent self-aware sentient beings in the sea.”

With AI, jets and police squadrons, Paris is securing the Olympics — and worrying critics


Soldiers stationed in Paris for the Olympic Games took part in a close combat training session on Friday in the wake of a string of knife attacks targeting security forces deployed in the French capital.
(AP video shot by Alexander Turnbull)


BY JOHN LEICESTER
July 21, 2024

PARIS (AP) — A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that France’s capital would be “ the safest place in the world " when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris’ streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show.

France’s vast police and military operation is in large part because the July 26-Aug. 11 Games face unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Rather than build an Olympic park with venues grouped together outside of the city center, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million inhabitants, with others dotted around suburbs that house millions more. Putting temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice to stage a river-borne opening ceremony stretching for kilometers (miles) along the Seine, makes safeguarding them more complex.

Olympic organizers also have cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and Games critics are worried about Paris’ use of AI-equipped surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.


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Paris, in short, has a lot riding on keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. Here’s how it aims to do it.

The security operation, by the numbers

A Games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II, from which soldiers should be able to reach any of the city’s Olympic venues within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols aboard vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France since gunmen and suicide bombers acting in the names of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group repeatedly struck Paris in 2015. They don’t have police powers of arrest but can tackle attackers and restrain them until police arrive. For visitors from countries where armed street patrols aren’t the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles might be jarring, just as it was initially for people in France.

“At the beginning, it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, making a detour,” said Gen. Éric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terror military force, called Sentinelle.

“Now, it’s in the landscape,” he said.

Rafale fighter jets, airspace-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters, and equipment to disable drones will police Paris skies, which will be closed during the opening ceremony by a no-fly zone extending for 150 kilometers (93 miles) around the capital. Cameras twinned with artificial intelligence software — authorized by a law that expands the state’s surveillance powers for the Games — will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or crowd surges,

France is also getting help from more than 40 countries that, together, have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Trump assassination attempt highlights Olympic risks

Attacks by lone individuals are major concern, a risk driven home most recently to French officials by the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Some involved in the Olympic security operation were stunned that the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle got within range of the former U.S. president.

“No one can guarantee that there won’t be mistakes. There, however, it was quite glaring,” said Gen. Philippe Pourqué, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp in southeast Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinelle force.

In France, in the last 13 months alone, men acting alone have carried out knife attacks that targeted tourists in Paris, and children in a park in an Alpine town, among others. A man who stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school in northern France in October had been under surveillance by French security services for suspected Islamic radicalization.

Soldiers demonstrate operational technics for close combat in a training class at a military camp set up for the Paris Olympic games Friday, July 19, 2024, Vincennes, just outside Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

With long and bitter experience of deadly extremist attacks, France has armed itself with a dense network of police units, intelligence services and investigators who specialize in fighting terrorism, and suspects in terrorism cases can be held longer for questioning.

Hundreds of thousands of background checks have scrutinized Olympic ticket-holders, workers and others involved in the Games and applicants for passes to enter Paris’ most tightly controlled security zone, along the Seine’s banks. The checks blocked more than 3,900 people from attending, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.

“We’re particularly attentive to Russian and Belorussian citizens,” Darmanin added, although he stopped short of linking exclusions to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role as an ally of Moscow.

Darmanin said 155 people considered to be “very dangerous” potential terror threats are also being kept away from the opening ceremony and the Games, with police searching their homes for weapons and computers in some cases.

A security officer watches people taken photographs in front of the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris, France. 

(AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

He said intelligence services haven’t identified any proven terror plots against the Games “but we are being extremely attentive.”

Critics fear intrusive Olympic security will stay after the Games

Campaigners for digital rights worry that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could erode privacy and other freedoms, and zero in on people without fixed homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces.

Saccage 2024, a group that has campaigned for months against the Paris Games, took aim at the scope of the Olympic security, describing it as a “repressive arsenal” in a statement to The Associated Press.

“And this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic occurrence in host countries,” it said. “Is it reasonable to offer one month of ‘festivities’ to the most well-off tourists at the cost of a long-term securitization legacy for all residents of the city and the country?”

Vatican’s Pius XII archives shed light on another contentious chapter: The Legion of Christ scandal


Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to late father Marcial Maciel, founder of Christ’s Legionaries, during a special audience the pontiff granted to about four thousand participants of the Regnum Christi movement, at the Vatican, on Nov. 30, 2004. The recently-opened archives of Pope Pius XII have shed new light on claims the World War II-era pope didn’t speak out about the Holocaust. But they’re also providing details about another contentious chapter in Vatican history: the scandal over the founder of the Legionaries of Christ. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri, File)

Undated file photo of Pope Pius XII. The recently-opened archives of Pope Pius XII have shed new light on claims the World War II-era pope didn’t speak out about the Holocaust. But they’re also providing details about another contentious chapter in Vatican history: the scandal over the founder of the Legionaries of Christ. (AP Photo, File)

BY NICOLE WINFIELD
 July 21, 2024

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The recently opened archives of Pope Pius XII have shed new light on claims the World War II-era pope didn’t speak out about the Holocaust. But they’re also providing details about another contentious chapter in Vatican history: the scandal over the founder of the Legionaries of Christ.

Entire books have already been written about the copious documentation that arrived in the Holy See in the 1940s and 1950s proving its officials had evidence of the Rev. Marcial Maciel’s dubious morals, drug use, financial recklessness and sexual abuse of his young seminarians.

Yet it took the Holy See more than a half-century to sanction Maciel, and even more for it to acknowledge he was a religious fraud and con artist who molested his seminarians, fathered three children and built a secretive, cult-like religious order to hide his double life.

The newly opened archives of the Pius papacy, which spanned 1939-1958, are adding some new details to what has been in the public domain, since they include previously unavailable documentation from the Vatican secretariat of state.

They confirm that Pius’ Vatican was cracking down on Maciel in 1956 and was poised to take even tougher measures against him — including removing him from priestly ministry altogether — but that Pius’ 1958 death enabled Maciel’s supporters to take advantage of the leadership vacuum to save his name and order.

Until now, the biggest stash of publicly available documentation about Maciel had come from the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious, which oversaw the Legion after its founding in 1941 in Mexico.

In 2012, some of Maciel’s Mexican victims put online 200-plus documents spanning the 1940s-2002 that they had obtained from someone with access to the Congregation for Religious archive. These documents, also in the book “La Voluntad De No Saber” (The Will to Not Know) detailed the evidence the Vatican had of Maciel’s depravities, but also how decades of bishops, cardinals and popes turned a blind eye and believed instead the glowing reports that also arrived in Rome.

Now the new documents from the Vatican’s central governing office are fleshing out that history, providing more details about who in the Vatican helped Maciel evade sanction, believing the claims against him to be slander, and who sought to take a tougher line.

One new document, being published in Sunday’s Corriere della Sera cultural supplement La Lettura, contains the original draft of an Oct. 1, 1956, memo by the No. 3 in the Vatican’s office for religious orders.

On that day, Maciel arrived in Rome after he had been suspended by the Vatican as Legion superior and ordered to go into detox to kick a morphine addiction.

According to the memo, the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious wanted an additional measure imposed on Maciel: that he be barred from having contact with young seminarians or risk being suspended from priestly ministry altogether, meaning he couldn’t celebrate Mass publicly, hear confessions or celebrate any other sacraments as a priest.

The author of the note, the Rev. Giovanni Battista Scapinelli, wrote that if Maciel came to the congregation “I will order him to get treated, to abandon any contact with his students until the congregation says otherwise. And if he doesn’t show up, in two days, a pre-emptive order should be given to Maciel: Either you go get treated or you will remain suspended a divinis.”

The draft is significant because it shows that by 1956, at least some in the Vatican took seriously the reports that had reached Rome that Maciel was molesting his young seminarians and wanted to protect them — and wanted to punish Maciel with one of the church’s harshest penalties for his crimes. It would take 50 years though, until 2006, for the Vatican to finally condemn Maciel to a comparatively light sentence of a “lifetime of penance and prayer” for sodomizing his young recruits.

A subsequent draft of the Oct. 1, 1956, memo was published in 2012 by the Mexican victims. It showed that Scapinelli had scratched out his original order for Maciel to refrain from having contact with his seminarians and merely ordered Maciel to get medical treatment for the drug addiction. It contains another page and a half of handwritten notes, as if Scapinelli rewrote it following consultation with others.

The secretariat of state archives contain what appears to be a final, typewritten version of the memo, dated Oct. 2, 1956 which omits any reference to Maciel being prohibited from contact with youngsters and speaks only of him getting medical help, with no further threats of ministerial suspension. A few weeks later, the Vatican appointed outside clerics to do a more thorough investigation onsite.

All versions of the Oct. 1, 1956 memo make clear that Maciel had a great protector in the Vatican in the form of Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, the No. 2 in the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Other documents say the Congregation for Religious “couldn’t proceed further against F. Maciel because of recommendations and interventions by high-ranking personalities.”

Scapinelli suggests that Pius was fully versed in the Maciel affair and had endorsed his removal as the Legion’s superior, writing that Maciel had been temporarily removed “for reasons known to the Holy Father.”

Indeed, in September of that year the Congregation for Religious handed over a file of “abundant documentation” for Pius to read, with a cover letter recalling that the Congregation had never wanted to recognize the Legion as a pontifically approved religious order because of its “serious” concerns about Maciel.

Pius died two years later, on Oct. 9, 1958. In the chaos of a new papacy, a change in leadership in the Congregation for Religious and interventions by Maciel’s supporters, Maciel was reinstalled as superior of the Legion in early 1959. The Legion was recognized as a pontifical religious order a few years later.

Maciel died in 2008. A year later the Legion admitted to some of his crimes, and a year after that the Vatican took the Legion over and imposed a process of reform and “purification.”

Most of the attention on the 2020 opening of the Pius archives has focused on what he and his advisors did or didn’t do to save Jewish lives during the war.

A Lebanese photojournalist, wounded in Israeli strike, carries Olympic torch to honor journalists

Press agency photographer Christina Assi arrives for the Olympic torch relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Vincennes, outside Paris, France. Assi was struck by a tank shell on Oct. 13, 2023 while reporting clashes between the Israeli army and armed groups in southern Lebanon. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Press agency photographer Christina Assi, right, holds the Olympic torch with. Nicolas Payeur, left, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Vincennes, outside Paris, France. Assi was struck by a tank shell on Oct. 13, 2023 while reporting clashes between the Israeli army and armed groups in southern Lebanon. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Press agency photographer Christina Assi, left, holds the Olympic torch with. Tinam Pung, right, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Vincennes, outside Paris, France. Assi was struck by a tank shell on Oct. 13, 2023 while reporting clashes between the Israeli army and armed groups in southern Lebanon. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

BY LUJAIN JO AND KAREEM CHEHAYEB
 July 21, 2024

VINCENNES, France (AP) — A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon carried Sunday the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.

The torch relay, which started in May, is part of celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Games opening ceremony on July 26.

Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse, was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13 2023 while reporting on fire exchange along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Assi was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated.

AFP videographer Dylan Collins, also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Assi’s wheelchair as she carried the torch across the suburb of Vincennes Sunday. Their colleagues from the press agency and hundreds of spectators cheered them on.

“I wish Issam was here to see this. And I wish what happened today was not because we were struck by two rockets,” Assi told The Associated Press, struggling to hold back her tears. “I wish I could have honored journalists this way while walking and in my best health.”

AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera accused Israel of targeting their journalists who maintained they were positioned far from where the clashes with vehicles clearly marked as press, while international human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said the attack was a deliberate attack on civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.

“This is a chance to continue talking about justice, and the targeted attack on Oct. 13 that needs to be investigated as a war crime,” said Collins.

The Israeli military at the time said that the incident was under review, maintaining that it didn’t target journalists.

While holding the torch, Assi said participating in the relay “is to send a message that journalists should be protected and be able to work without fearing that they could die at any moment.”

In late November 2023, Rabih al-Maamari and Farah Omar of the pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen were also killed in an apparent Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon while covering the conflict.

Assi doesn’t believe there will be retribution for the events of that fateful October day but hopes her participation in the Olympic torch relay can bring attention to the importance of protecting journalists. “For me, justice comes the day I can stand up again, hold my camera, and get back to work,” she said.

The watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists, in a preliminary count, said at least 108 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the majority in the Gaza Strip.

The war was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ sudden attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 250 others. Israel says Hamas is still holding about 120 hostages — about a third of them thought to be dead. Israel retaliated with an offensive that has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Hezbollah militants have traded near-daily strikes with the Israeli military along their border over the past nine months.

—

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

WWIII
South Korea's Yoon says alliance with U.S. is now 'nuclear-based'

By Thomas Maresca


South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (C) said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that the U.S.-South Korea alliance has been upgraded to a "nuclear-based" one in the wake of new joint guidelines. Photo by Yonhap

SEOUL, July 16 (UPI) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that the alliance with the United States has been raised to a "nuclear-based" one capable of warding off threats from North Korea in the wake of new joint deterrence guidelines.

Last week, Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the nuclear deterrence guidelines on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

"The South Korea-U.S. alliance has been firmly upgraded to a nuclear-based alliance in name and reality," Yoon said during a cabinet meeting.

"Whether in wartime or peacetime, U.S. nuclear assets are specially assigned to missions on the Korean Peninsula," he said. "Now we have established a posture that can respond quickly and effectively to any kind of North Korean nuclear threat."

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Washington has worked to reassure Seoul that its nuclear umbrella will be sufficient to protect South Korea. The allies have held expanded joint military drills and simulated "table-top" exercises while U.S. assets such as aircraft carriers, a B-52 nuclear bomber and a nuclear ballistic missile submarine are regularly deployed to the peninsula.

The new guidelines follow up on last year's creation of a joint Nuclear Consultative Group to bolster bilateral planning and responses to North Korean aggression.

Over the weekend, North Korea condemned the adoption of the guidelines, calling it a "reckless provocative act" that is the "root cause of endangering the regional security."

"We seriously warn the hostile states not to commit such provocative acts causing instability anymore," a Defense Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by official media.

"If they ignore this warning, they will have to pay an unimaginably harsh price for it," the spokesman said.

South Korea's military responded Sunday by calling the North's statement "self-contradictory" and warned that any attempt to use nuclear weapons would bring about the end of its regime.

"If there had been no nuclear threat from North Korea in the first place, the South Korea-U.S. joint guidelines would not have been necessary," Seoul's Defense Ministry said in a message sent to reporters.

"If North Korea attempts to use nuclear weapons, the overwhelming response of the South Korea-U.S. alliance will bring about the end of the North Korean regime," it said.

Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill barring schools from outing LGBTQ students to parents

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday protecting LGBTQ youth from being outed to their parents by schools. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

July 16 (UPI) -- Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation making California the first U.S. state to prohibit schools from outing transgender students to their parents.

The Democratic governor signed Assembly Bill 1955, better known as the SAFETY Act, Monday, according to a statement from his office, after the legislation passed through the state's Congress last month.

Under the bill, California school districts are barred from disclosing information concerning any student's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to any other person, including the student's family, without their consent.

It also prevents retaliation against teachers who support their students' rights.

State Assemblymember Chris Ward, a Democrat, introduced the bill in May, stating it was in response to school districts passing policies forcing teachers to notify parents if their children identify as transgender. He said these policies put those students at risk.

"Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety and dignity of transgender, nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California," Ward said in a statement.

"While some school districts have adopted policies to forcibly out students, the SAFETY Act ensures that discussions about gender identity remain a private matter within the family."

According to Ward's office, more than a dozen school boards last year either proposed or implement policies requiring teachers to inform parents if their children identified as transgender or asked to be called by a different name or pronouns.

A 2023 report by the Human Rights Campaign concerning youth transgender and gender-identity stated that nearly 60% of LGBTQ+ youth reported a least one negative or rejecting experience by parents and family, with 45% stating they were made to feel bad by their parents of family for being LGBTQ+.

Meanwhile, The Trevor Project's 2023 national survey on the mental health of LGBTQ youth found that 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, with transgender, nonbinary and people of color reporting higher rates than their peers.

It also said fewer than 40% found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming.

While proponents of the bill argued that it protects LGBTQ students and was potentially life saving, opponents said it undermines parental rights.

The conservative Center for American Liberty legal organization lambasted the legislation Monday as "an outrageous attempt to keep parents in the dark" while reiterating the conspiracy theory that schools were indoctrinating children in "radical gender ideology."

"In school districts across California, parents fought back against parental secrecy policies by running for school boards and passing policies that ensure parents are informed about their kids' education and wellbeing," Harmeet Dhillon, the founder and CEO of the Center for American Liberty, said in a statement.

"It's crucial that we uphold local voices and the integrity of the democratic process in shaping the education of our children."

On the other side of the political spectrum, LGBTQ and transgender advocates welcomed Monday's signing.

"This essential legislation safeguards against policies that forcibly out students, offers vital resources for families, and protects educators who foster inclusive environments," Trans Family Support Services Executive Director Kathie Moehlig said in a statement.

"By preventing undue interventions in personal family matters, the SAFETY Act ensures private and consensual discussions between students and their parents. This bill is a crucial step toward making all California students feel safe and supported at school."

Oregon governor declares state of emergency over wildfire threat

By Darryl Coote

The Cow Vally Fire, which ignited Thursday about 9 miles east of Ironside, Ore., has consumed more than 132,500 acres, officials said. Photo courtesy of Oregon State Fire Marshal/Release

July 16 (UPI) -- Gov. Tina Kotek has declared a state of emergency over the threat caused by wildfires burning tens of thousands of acres throughout Oregon.

At least eight wildfires were burning in the northwestern state early Tuesday, according to state fire officials.

The largest is the Cow Vally Fire, which ignited Thursday about 9 miles east of Ironside, Ore.

It has consumed more than 132,500 acres with officials stating it was only 5% contained.

"Firefighters are working around the clock to suppress the Cow Valley Fire," fire officials said in a statement.

Though its cause was under investigation, officials believe it was caused by humans.

Kotek on Friday invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act over the Cow Valley Fire, and on Monday she declared a State of Emergency, retroactive to Saturday and that will run until Oct. 1, the end of the fire season in the fall.

"Wildfires are active across Oregon and are growing at a concerning pace. Hot and windy conditions this weekend, including forecasted lightning in some areas, are threatening even larger wildfires," she said Monday in a statement.

"Throughout the summer, it will inevitably get hotter and drier, presenting an even greater risk of catastrophic wildfires. The best way to limit wildfire impacts on our communities, natural areas and first responders is to be aware of the conditions and prevent wildfires from starting."


Her office said the declaration was made after determining Oregon was in critical fire danger, threatening life, safety and property due to extreme high temperatures.

Out-of-state firefighters and equipment have been brought into the state to aid in the response, the Oregon State Fire Marshal and the Oregon Department of Forestry said in a statement.

Seventy-one resources are being sent to Oregon from Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, as well as the western Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Ukon and Northwest Territories.

Japan's Supreme Court ruling hits Unification Church donations

By Michael Marshall


Han Hak-Ja, wife of late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon dedicate flower for late Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon during the commemorating 6th anniversary of the ascension of Rev. Sun Myung Moon before the Blessing Ceremony of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, South Korea, on August 27, 2018. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

July 16 (UPI) -- Two years after the assassination of former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, the legal fallout from his shooting continues.

Tetsuma Yamagami, indicted for Abe's murder, has claimed he acted because Abe had supported some activities of the Unification Church of Japan to which his now deceased mother had donated large sums of money, leaving her family in poverty.

Last week, Japan's Supreme Court reversed a Tokyo High Court ruling in another case about donations to the Unification Church of Japan, now officially known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The case was brought by the family of a woman who had also donated more than $618,000 to the Unification Church of Japan between 2005 and 2010. The family is seeking a refund and damages from the church of $402,000.

The lower court dismissed the suit on the basis of a document signed by the woman in November 2015 declaring she made the donation of her own free will and would never seek a refund.

The woman was 86 years old at the time. Around six months later she was diagnosed with dementia and died in 2021.

The Supreme Court ruled that the lower court erred in relying solely on the document. It directed the court to examine the circumstances in which the document was signed including the woman's age, mental state, and whether she was under psychological pressure from the church.

If the lower court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, it is likely to trigger a number of similar cases.

A separate lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court is seeking to remove the Unification Church of Japan's religious status for its aggressive fundraising practices. A victory for the government would end the church's tax exempt status.

Report: LGBTQ+ protections improved greatly under Biden compared to Trump


Thousands of "All Black Lives Matter" demonstrators march to West Hollywood to denounce racial injustice and support LGBTQ rights in the summer of 2020. The Human Rights Campaign on Friday released a report that detailed the "stark contrast" in federal LGBTQ+ protections under President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

July 19 (UPI) -- The Human Rights Campaign on Friday released a report that detailed the "stark contrast" in federal LGBTQ+ protections under President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The report details the effects both presidents had on federal agencies during their presidencies and how those decisions affected LGBTQ+ people.

For example, agencies under Trump lifted many regulations that affirmed legal protections for LGBTQ+ people and stopped accepting civil rights complaints based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Comparatively, under the Biden administration, many agencies worked to uphold the Supreme Court's ruling that LGBTQ+ people are protected from discrimination under the same rules that prohibit discrimination based on sex.

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"The analysis makes clear what we have seen across the country," Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. "Actions have consequences. Time and again, the Trump administration ushered in policies and positions that did damage to LGBTQ+ lives.

"Meanwhile, in their first term, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken steps to make our lives better. Federal agencies take actions that impact nearly every aspect of our lives. And Americans deserve a government that steps up to defend freedom and equality for all."

The report also analyzed federal policies around data collection, promoting inclusive policies and providing services and resources to LGBTQ+ people.

Agencies under Trump worked to stop data collection on LGBTQ+ people, which the HRC said is vital to ensuring housing providers, schools, employers and other entities are complying with civil-rights laws.

The Biden administration, however, tasked agencies with renewing questions relevant to LGBTQ+ people on surveys and forms and to begin researching ways to better include them in federal data collection.

Trump's administrative appointees eliminated existing references to LGBTQ+ people in their agencies' nondiscrimination policies and also failed to fill positions meant to advocate for LGBTQ+ equity.

Biden's appointees then worked to restore references to LGBTQ+ people in nondiscrimination policies and filled several government positions intended to advocate for them.

The report noted areas the Biden administration could have done better and expressed hope that a second Biden term would continue to bolster LGBTQ+ protections.

While agencies under the Biden administration reopened access to many government-funded programs that excluded LGBTQ+ people under the Trump administration, certain federal resources, such as access to HIV prevention medication and gender-affirming care for transgender veterans, remain out of reach.

"As we approach this inflection point in our history, it is critical that voters understand the vastly different ways in which a second Biden or Trump Administration could affect the lives and well-being of LGBTQ+ people," the report stated.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Sandra Hemme freed after 43-year murder conviction overturned

 Sandra Hemme walks out of prison in Chillicothe, Mo., after 43 years. Photo courtesy of the Hemme legal team

July 20 (UPI) -- Sandra Hemme walked away from a Missouri prison and into the welcoming embrace of her family members Friday evening after serving 43 years for a 1980 murder she didn't commit.

Hemme, 64, was released at about 5:50 p.m. CDT from the Chillicothe Correctional Center, which is about 90 miles east of Kansas City, Mo.

Attorney Sean O'Brien escorted Hemme from the prison and to members of her family gathered outside the prison.

Hemme's time is prison was the longest that a wrongfully convicted woman has served in the United States, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

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"We are grateful that Ms. Hemme is now, finally, reunited with her family after 43 years," Hemme's legal team, which included the Innocence Project, said. "She has spent more than four decades wrongfully incarcerated for a crime she had nothing to do with. Tonight, she is surrounded by her loved ones, where she should have been all along. We will continue to fight until her name is cleared.

Hemme, a young mentally ill woman, was under the effects of strong prescription drugs when law enforcement investigators questioned her several times about the murder of Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Mo.

Many have since concluded a former police officer who died many years ago likely murdered Jeschke.

"Police exploited her mental illness and coerced her into making false statements while she was sedated and being treated with antipsychotic medication," the Innocence Project told media.

Her conviction was based on the false statements coerced by St. Joseph Police Department investigators who ignored evidence pointing to St. Joseph Police officer Michael Holman, who died in 2015, the Innocence Project said.

No witnesses connected Hemme to the victim, murder or the crime scene, and Hemme had no motive to murder Jeschke, according to the Innocence Project.

The organization said only evidence against her were the false statements that police extracted from Hemme while she "was being treated at the state psychiatric hospital and forcibly given medication literally designed to overpower her will."

Officials at the Innocence Project said the St. Joseph Police Department "hid evidence implicating one of their own."

Evidence showed officer Holman used Jeschke's credit card a day after her murder, his truck was parked her home during the time she was murdered and investigators found her earrings at Holman's home.

Livingston County Presiding Judge Ryan Horsman overturned the conviction against Hemme, which the Missouri Supreme Court later upheld.


"It would be difficult to imagine that the state could prove Ms. Hemme's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based on the weight of the evidence now available that ties Holman to this victim and crime and excludes Ms. Hemme," Horsman said in his ruling overturning Hemme's conviction.

Disneyland union workers vote 'yes' to authorize strike


The last strike to hit Disneyland was in 1984 and lasted 22 days. File Photo by Brendan McDemid/EPA

July 20 (UPI) -- Unions representing over 14,000 Disneyland workers said late Friday that members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike for higher wages and better working conditions.

The unions reported a 99% membership vote The vote comes two days after more than 1,000 Disneyland cast members and supporters staged a protest of unfair labor practices in front of the park's entrance.

"Disney has resorted to unlawful tactics instead of treating the bargaining process with the respect and seriousness it deserves," the Disney Workers Rising Bargaining Committee said in a statement. "We make Disneyland the place for family vacations, birthdays, celebrations ... and the magic you find across the resort."

Friday's vote does not guarantee a strike will occur immediately, rather the authorization permits a strike to occur at any time. Both sides in the meantime could reach a deal to avert a potential walkout.

The Disney workers committee said it is still committed to negotiations on Monday and Tuesday.

The unions represent custodians, ride operators, store clerks and candymakers at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney and the Disney hotels.

Many employees have said Disney's wages do not cover the high cost of living in southern California, and some minimum-wage workers have said they live in their cars while working for the entertainment giant.

The unions in announcing the strike authorization said 64% of workers are spending more than half of their monthly paychecks on rent.

Union members began negotiations with the company on April 24 and have been calling for higher wages, a fair attendance policy, seniority increases and more robust park safety.

Employees on June 10 announced they had filed unfair labor practices against the company.

The charges, which involve more than 675 workers, are being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board.

The workers committee accused Disney of "intimidating, surveilling and unlawfully disciplining members, harming our negotiations and our ability to get the contract we deserve."

The contract for Disneyland cast members expired on June 16, and the contract for cast members at Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney expires Sept. 30.

The last strike at Disneyland was in September 1984 when 2,000 workers staged a 22-day walkout.

Disney said it offers wages starting at $19.90 per hour with a "robust" benefits package.

The minimum wage in California is $16 per hour

Science explains mind-altering effects of 'magic' mushrooms

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

JULY 18, 2024 


"Magic" mushrooms achieve their psychedelic effects by temporarily scrambling a brain network involved in introspective thinking like daydreaming and remembering, a new study reports. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

"Magic" mushrooms achieve their psychedelic effects by temporarily scrambling a brain network involved in introspective thinking like daydreaming and remembering, a new study reports.

Brain scans of people who took psilocybin -- the psychedelic drug in 'shrooms -- revealed that the substance causes profound and widespread temporary changes to the brain's default mode network.

These findings provide an explanation for psilocybin's mind-bending effects, and could lay the groundwork for better understanding how the drug might be used to treat mental health conditions like depression, researchers said.

"There's a massive effect initially, and when it's gone, a pinpoint effect remains," said co-senior study author Dr. Nico Dosenbach, a professor of neurology with the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "That's exactly what you'd want to see for a potential medicine."

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"You wouldn't want people's brain networks to be obliterated for days, but you also wouldn't want everything to snap back to the way it was immediately," Dosenbach added in a university news release. "You want an effect that lasts long enough to make a difference."

Psilocybin showed promise as a treatment for depression in the 1950s and 1960s, but research into its potential flagged after the federal government deemed the substance an illegal drug in the late '60s, researchers explained in background notes.

However, research efforts have revived in recent years as psilocybin has been decriminalized in states like Oregon and Colorado.

"These days, we know a lot about the psychological effects and the molecular/cellular effects of psilocybin," said lead researcher Dr. Joshua Siegel, an instructor in psychiatry with the Washington University School of Medicine. "But we don't know much about what happens at the level that connects the two -- the level of functional brain networks."

To learn more, researchers recruited a handful of people to take either psilocybin or generic Ritalin -- a stimulant used to treat ADHD -- under controlled circumstances.

The team then used MRI brain scans before, during and after to track the drugs' effects on the participants' brains.

They found that psilocybin caused the brain's default mode network to desynchronize. The default mode network is a set of interconnected brain regions that all become active when the brain isn't working on anything in particular.

The default mode network re-established itself after the immediate effects of the drug wore off, but small differences persisted for weeks, researchers found.

No such changes were observed in those who took Ritalin, researchers said.

"The idea is that you're taking this system that's fundamental to the brain's ability to think about the self in relation to the world, and you're totally desynchronizing it temporarily," Siegel said. "In the short term, this creates a psychedelic experience. The longer-term consequence is that it makes the brain more flexible and potentially more able to come into a healthier state."

Each person's functional brain network tends to be as distinctive as a fingerprint, but psilocybin distorted those networks so thoroughly that people couldn't be identified through their scans until the drug wore off, the researchers noted.

"The brains of people on psilocybin look more similar to each other than to their untripping selves," Dosenbach said. "Their individuality is temporarily wiped out. This verifies, at a neuroscientific level, what people say about losing their sense of self during a trip."

The magnitude of the changes to the functional brain networks also tracked with the intensity each person reported from their individual psilocybin trips, researchers added.

However, the researchers emphasized that the findings should not be read as a reason to self-medicate with magic mushrooms.

Psilocybin is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for depression or any other condition, and more research is needed to understand its effects, the team said.


The new study was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

More information

The University of California-Berkeley has more about psilocybin's potential therapeutic value.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

New: Busy soundscapes of seagrass meadows and the animals that live there revealed

The Conversation
July 17, 2024 

Seagrass Meadow (Jordi Regas/University of Barcelona/AFP/Getty)

Seagrass, a marine plant that flowers underwater, has lots of environmental benefits – from storing carbon to preventing coastal erosion. This 3D habitat is often a haven for wildlife but, with so many seagrass restoration projects now happening globally, success can be hard to quantify.

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to Isabel Key, a marine ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, about her work recording the soundscape of Scottish seagrass meadows to uncover more about the creatures living within them. She also explains how this is the first step in the development of a seagrass sound library and potentially even artificial intelligence tools that could help us better understand the sounds of the sea.

Recording soundscapes in seagrass is a useful tool because it allows researchers like Key to listen in and detect creatures that can’t be seen. Perhaps they’re camouflaged, hiding or nocturnal. It’s also a cheap and easy method that causes minimal disturbance.

After she collects audio clips recorded in seagrass meadows off the shores of Scotland, Key analyses her recordings using “acoustic indices”. “These are measures of the complexity of the soundscape,” she explains. “That includes animal sounds but also waves, boat noise and chinking mooring chains.”

Key also assesses phonic richness by listening to one-minute-long clips:
Looking at the spectrogram – a visual depiction of these sounds – I can count how many different types of animal sounds are present. That’s time-consuming but gives a great insight.

She’s noticing a characteristic seagrass soundscape with certain sounds occurring more commonly in seagrass than in sandy habitats. “Fish make low-pitched grunting, burping or purring noises. Crabs make higher-pitched metallic sort of scraping sounds,” she says.


A shore crab perches on the audiomoth used to record underwater sound. Isabel Key, CC BY-NC-ND

As well as hearing sounds from marine animals, the waves and human activity, she’s been hearing a rather more surprising sound coming from the seagrass itself as well.

Once a more comprehensive sound library can be built, machine learning could be used to hear how seagrass meadows, and other marine habitats, are faring, both in Scotland and in oceans around the globe.

Listen to the full interview with Issy Key, and to some of her seagrass sound recordings, on The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Disclosure statement: Isabel Key receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and NatureScot.

A transcript of this episode is available on Apple Podcasts.

Recordings in this episode courtesy of Isabel Key. A recording of an Atlantic cod from Hawkins and Rasmussen (1978) and Hawkins and Picciulin (2019) from fishsounds.net.

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor.

You can find us on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s free daily email here.

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here.

Anna Turns, Senior Environment Editor, The Conversation and Gemma Ware, Head of Audio, The Conversation


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

Why the stinky durian really is the ‘king of all fruits’

The Conversation
July 21, 2024 

Photo by Dagny Reese on Unsplash

There’s little else in the food world that brings about as much social turbulence as the durian. This so-called “king of all fruits” is considered a delicacy across its native Southeast Asia, where durian season is currently in full swing.

Global interest in the pungent food has also grown considerably in recent years. But despite this, the durian continues to be loathed as much as it is lauded. What’s behind its polarising nature?

Loved and loathed in equal measure

The international market for durians grew 400% last year. This is mainly due to China, where demand has expanded 12-fold since 2017. 

Durians for sale at a store in Shenzhen, China. Shutterstock

And although heavy rain and heatwaves have resulted in lower yields, the projected growth for 2024 looks promising.

But not everyone is a devotee. The durian often becomes a prickly topic in my conversations with friends in Southeast Asia – with family members clashing over its loud presence in the kitchen.

Durian is even banned in various hotels and public spaces across Southeast Asian countries. In 2018, a load of durian delayed the departure of an Indonesian flight after travellers insisted the stinky cargo be removed.

 

Due to their smell, durians may be banned in some shared spaces. Shutterstock

The fruit’s taste and smell are notoriously difficult to pinpoint. One article touting its benefits describes its odour as a rousing medley of “sulfur, sewage, fruit, honey, and roasted and rotting onions”.
Cultural and historical perspectives

Regardless of its divisive qualities, the durian has a central role in Southeast Asian cuisine and cultures. For centuries, Indigenous peoples across the region have sustainably grown diverse species of the fruit.

At Borobudur, a ninth-century Buddhist temple in Java, Indonesia, relief panels depict durian as a symbol of abundance

. 

A 2016 celebration of the durian harvest at a village in central Java, Indonesia. Shutterstock

In Malaysia, it’s common to find courtyards full of durian trees in people’s homes. These trees are cherished, as they provide generations of family members with food, medicine and shelter.

The durian also features in creation stories. In one myth from the Philippines, it’s said that a cave-dwelling recluse named Impit Purok concocted a special fruit to help an elderly king attract a bride. But when the king failed to invite him to the wedding party, the furious hermit cursed his creation with a potent stench.

In the West, the durian was first recorded and observed in the early 15th century by Italian merchant and explorer Niccolò de’ Conti. De’ Conti acknowledged the fruit’s esteem throughout the Malay archipelago, but considered its odour nauseating.

 

Workers in Malaysia preparing durian for export. Shutterstock

Early Western illustrations of the fruit can be found in Dutch spy and cartographer Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s book Itinerario (1596). The author remarks that the durian smells like rotten onions when first opened, but that with time one can acquire a taste for it.

Another scientific account comes from the 1741 book Ambonese Herbal, by German botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius. Rumphius identified the fruit’s tough outer skin as the source of its pungency, noting how the people of Indonesia’s Ambon Island had a habit of disposing of the noxious rinds on the shoreline.
A fruit of contradictions

In Southeast Asian film and literature, the durian exerts a powerful yet contradictory effect on the senses. Director Fruit Chan’s film Durian Durian (2000) homes in on these polarising tendencies.

Set in Hong Kong, the film traces the transformation of the characters’ attitudes towards the durian. While the fruit incites revulsion at first, it eventually becomes an object of affection among the family portrayed in the film

. 

Durian Durian follows the story of a young girl named Fan (Mak Wai-Fan) and her sex worker neighbour, Yan (Qin Hailu), in Hong Kong. IMDB

This acceptance of the durian doubles as an analogy, reflecting the family’s acceptance of one of the main characters’ life as a sex worker.

In contrast, the Singaporean film Wet Season (2019) by Anthony Chen highlights various traditional views of the fruit. For example, the illicit affair between a teacher and her student calls attention to a persistent belief in the durian’s ability to arouse sexual desire and boost fertility (although any aphrodisiac benefits remain scientifically unproven).

A number of literary works also probe the durian’s cultural complexity. Singaporean poet Hsien Min Toh’s poem, Durians, opens by referring to the fruit’s “unmistakeable waft: like garbage and onions and liquid petroleum gas all mixed in one”.

At the same time it frames the durian tree as a canny being, as it never allows falling fruit to harm the vulnerable humans spreading its seeds on the ground below. 

Durian trees are a common sight in Malaysia. Shutterstock

US poet Sally Wen Mao attends to the enigma in her poem Hurling A Durian. She notes how on one hand the fruit nurtures desire, while on the other it purges memory like a poison. Mesmerised by its perplexing allure, the poet inhales its penetrating scent and strokes its rind until her fingers bleed.

The future and conservation

Although 30 species of durian are known to science (and more continue to be identified), only one species, Durio zibethinus, dominates the global market. Unfortunately, the growing demand for this one type is causing harm by displacing native forests, flora and even Indigenous communities.

In Indonesian Borneo, or Kalimantan, oil palm plantations threaten durian diversity by leaving less room for diverse species of durian to be cultivated. This imperils the cultural practices and beliefs linked to the durian tree.

It also impacts all the other animals that rely on the fruit. Elephants, orangutans and many other endangered fauna relish the durian, while bats and other pollinators help sustain its diversity. As such, effective conservation efforts must engage meaningfully with local people and species.

Perhaps, if past depictions of the durian helped shape its reputation, then new depictions could help conserve this king among fruits.

 

Durian is sold on the streets across several countries in South-East Asia. Shutterstock

John Charles Ryan, Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University

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