ABORTION IS LEGAL IN USA

Woman faces murder charge in Texas after 'self-induced abortion,' prompting outrage from reproductive rights advocates

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
Sat, April 9, 2022

Reproductive rights advocates are voicing their outrage after a woman in Texas was arrested and charged with murder for what law enforcement called "the death of an individual by self-induced abortion."

The Starr County Sheriff's Office in southern Texas arrested Lizelle Herrera, 26, on Thursday. It is unclear whether Herrera is accused of having a self-induced abortion or if she helped someone else get an abortion.

"Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion," sheriff's Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Delgado did not say under which law Herrera has been charged. Herrera remains at Starr County jail on a $500,000 bond, according to the jail's roster.

The sheriff's department and the Starr County District Attorney's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment from USA TODAY.

A handful of protesters gathered outside the jail Saturday morning to demand Herrera be released.

Rockie Gonzalez, founder of Frontera Fund, the nonprofit abortion access fund that organized the protest, called the arrest "inhumane," adding in a Saturday statement that "criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent."

"We stand in solidarity with you Lizelle, if you are reading this, and we will not stand down until you are free," Gonzalez said.

Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, said in a statement to USA TODAY that she stands in solidarity with Herrera and is outraged by her arrest.

"No one should be punished for pregnancy outcomes, especially in a state that has made abortion access impossible to obtain," she said. "Make no mistake that these laws and harsh restrictions are meant to ensure that Black and brown bodies continue to be controlled by misogynistic, racist, and classist systems of oppression."

The case comes several months after Texas Senate Bill 8 was enacted in September 2021, banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. The law, however, does not target pregnant people themselves for prosecution and instead is enforceable by private parties who may sue abortion providers who "aid and abet" women seeking abortions.

Five states — Arizona, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Delaware and Nevada — have laws that criminalize self-managed abortions, according to February 2021 statement from If/When/How, a national network of lawyers advocating for reproductive rights. Texas does not have such a law.

However, "Even in states that have no such laws, politically-motivated police and prosecutors have tried to misuse other criminal laws to target people who self-manage abortion," the statement said.

LATEST NEWS: Idaho Supreme Court temporarily blocks new ban on abortions after six weeks

Gonzalez from La Frontera told Texas Public Radio that "it definitely is" the first such case that she has seen in the Rio Grande Valley.

But a report from If/When/How said the organization found 18 arrests of people nationwide who ended their own pregnancies or of those who supported them.

"One thing is consistent through all of these cases: when a prosecutor wants to punish someone, they will find a way to do it," the report said, adding that in many cases, the charges were based on antiquated laws or laws that were meant to protect pregnant people in the wake of high-profile, violent attacks against pregnant women.

While courts have typically sided with people facing charges related to self-induced abortions, there are about 40 types of laws prosecutors "may wield against people who end their own pregnancies and those who help them," according to the If/When/How report.

In 2015, a murder charge was dropped against a 23-year-old Georgia woman who was accused of taking abortion pills to end a pregnancy. Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards dismissed the charge on the grounds that "criminal prosecution of a pregnant woman for her own actions against her unborn child does not seem permitted," the Washington Post reported.

The same year, an Indiana woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of feticide and child neglect for taking abortion-inducing drugs. A state appeals court later overturned both convictions, finding that Indiana's feticide law wasn’t meant to be used to prosecute women for their own abortions.

Years before, Chinese American woman in Indiana was charged with murder and attempted feticide in 2011 after a failed suicide attempt resulted in a miscarriage. Those charges were dropped in 2013.

These types of arrests disproportionately target low-income women and women of color, according to another If/When/How report.

"These women are the ones most likely to have factors — such as a lack of money, childcare, transportation, or legal immigrant status, or a mistrust of the medical system — that push or pull them toward self-induced abortion," the report said.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Woman faces murder charge over 'self-induced abortion': Texas official

Texas DA moves to dismiss charges in self-induced abortion case


Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez said Sunday he is moving to dismiss charges of murder laid against a 26-year-old woman in connection to an abortion. Photo Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo


April 10 (UPI) -- Days after a 26-year-old woman was arrested in the state of Texas in connection to a "self-performed abortion," a county district attorney announced he is moving to dismiss the case.

Gocha Allen Ramirez, the district attorney for Starr County, located near the border with Mexico, said in a statement that his office on Monday will file a motion to dismiss the allegations against the woman, stating she "cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her."

Much is unknown about the charge that was filed against the resident of Texas, a state that has imposed sweeping restrictions to access to the medical procedure though they do not permit for the pregnant person whom an abortion is performed to be charged with murder.

In September, the state enacted a controversial law that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy by arming the public with the ability to sue medical practitioners who perform the medical procedure for thousands of dollars in civil court, while exempting the pregnant person from consequences.

That same month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that makes it a felony for a person to provide abortion-inducing drugs to a woman after 49 days into their pregnancy. The law explicitly states "a pregnant woman on whom a drug-induced abortion is attempted, induced or performed ... is not criminally liable for the violation."

The woman was arrested and charged late last week by the Starr County Sheriff's Office after it was informed by a local hospital she intentionally caused "the death of an individual by self-induced abortion."

Frontera Fund, an abortion fund for the Rio Grande Valley, said the woman had been released on bail Sunday and had secured legal counsel.

Her arrest sparked protests outside of the Starr County Jail over the weekend, according to the fund, which said the abortion in question occurred in January.

"It should not have taken national attention for these charges to be dismissed," the fund said in a statement on Sunday.

Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, tweeted that the case looks like prosecutors just "forgot" the murder statute exempts pregnant woman who terminate their pregnancy from its scope.

"One one hand it would be a relief if this was just an overreaction by a misinformed local prosecutor vs. something more coordinated," he said. "On the other, it's a sobering reminder of both the power of prosecutors and the unavailability in TX of legal abortions after six weeks of pregnancy."

The district attorney said in his statement that the Starr County Sheriff's Office was doing its job by investigating the local hospital's report and that "[t]o ignore the incident would have been a dereliction of duty."

He added, however, that while the woman will no longer be facing charges, "it is clear to me that the events leading up to this indictment have taken a toll" on the woman.

"It is my hope that with the dismissal of this case it is made clear that [the woman] did not commit a criminal act under the laws of the State of Texas," he said.

National Advocates for Pregnant Women celebrated the dropping of the indictment via Twitter, calling it a "lawless and inhumane case."

"We are so grateful to the TX organizers who made this happen," it said. "Unfortunately, cases like this are happening with increasing regularity. We are here to ensure that no one faces criminalization because of pregnancy."

Veteran Hong Kong journalist arrested for 'sedition'
Posted : 2022-04-11

A Hong Kong national security police officer, left, and a worker carry boxes of evidence from the offices of Stand News in Hong Kong, in this Dec. 29, 2021, file photo. A veteran Hong Kong journalist was arrested by national security police on Monday for allegedly conspiring to publish "seditious materials," a police source and local media said. 

AFP-Yonhap

A veteran Hong Kong journalist was arrested by national security police on Monday for allegedly conspiring to publish "seditious materials," a police source and local media said.

The arrest is the latest blow against the local press in Hong Kong which has seen its media freedom rating plummet as Beijing cracks down on dissent.

Allan Au, a 54-year-old reporter and journalism lecturer, was arrested in a dawn raid by Hong Kong's national security police unit, multiple local media outlets reported.

A senior police source confirmed Au's arrest to AFP on a charge of "conspiracy to publish seditious materials."

Police have yet to release an official statement. Au was a former columnist for Stand News, an online news platform that was shuttered last December after authorities froze the company's assets using a national security law.

Two other senior employees of Stand News have already been charged with sedition.

National security charges have also been brought against jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai and six former senior executives of Apple Daily.

Once Hong Kong's most popular tabloid, Apple Daily collapsed last year when its newsroom was raided and assets were frozen under the security law.

Soon after Stand News was shut down, Au began to write "good morning" each day on his Facebook to confirm his safety.

One of the city's most experienced local columnists, he was a Knight fellow at Stanford University in 2005 and earned a doctorate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In 2017 Au published a book about censorship in Hong Kong entitled "Freedom Under 20 Shades of Shadow."

Au spent more than a decade working for RTHK, Hong Kong's government broadcaster, running a current affairs show.

But he was axed last year after the authorities declared a shake-up that began transforming the once editorially independent broadcaster into something more resembling Chinese state media.

National security offence

First penned by colonial ruler Britain in 1938, sedition was long criticized as an anti-free speech law, including by many of the pro-Beijing local newspapers now praising its use.

By the time of the 1997 handover, it had not been used for decades but remained on the books.

It was dusted off by police and prosecutors in the wake of massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Over the last two years sedition has been wielded against journalists, unionists, activists, a former pop star and ordinary citizens.

Sedition is currently separate from the sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020.

But the courts treat it as a national security offence, which means that bail is often denied for those charged.

Next month Hong Kong is expected to get a new Beijing-anointed leader, former security chief John Lee who oversaw the police response to the 2019 democracy protests and subsequent crackdown.

Asked on Monday whether Au's arrest would worsen press freedom, Lee declined to comment, saying that all investigations should be carried out independently. (AFP)

Indian sari weavers toil to keep tradition alive



In a dim room near the banks of India's Ganges river, arms glide over a creaking loom as another silken fibre is guided into place with the rhythmic clack of a wooden beam 


Demand for Banarasi saris, already limited to a select Indian clientele able to justify spending at a premium, has also suffered in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic


The fortunes of India's textile trade -- historically a cottage industry -- have long been subject to sudden and devastating upheavals from abroad (AFP/Money SHARMA)

Varanasi's hand-weavers have cultivated a reputation for excellence over centuries, specializing in intricate patterns, floral designs, and golden brocades

PHOTOS  (AFP/Money SHARMA)

Abhaya SRIVASTAVA
Sun, April 10, 2022

In a dim room near the banks of India's Ganges river, arms glide over a creaking loom as another silken fibre is guided into place with the rhythmic clack of a wooden beam.

Mohammad Sirajuddin's cramped studio is typical of Varanasi's dwindling community of artisans painstakingly working by hand to produce silk saris, uniquely cherished among their wearers as the epitome of traditional Indian sartorial style.

The city he calls home is revered among devout Hindus, who believe that cremation on the banks of its sacred waterway offers the chance to escape the infinite cycle of death and rebirth.

But Sirajuddin's own reflections on mortality are centred on his craft, with competition from more cost-efficient mechanised alternatives and cheap imports from China leaving his livelihood hanging by a thread


"If you walk around this whole neighbourhood, you'll see that this is the only house with a handloom," the 65-year-old tells AFP.

"Even this will be here only as long as I am alive. After that, nobody in this house will continue."

Varanasi's hand-weavers have cultivated a reputation for excellence over centuries, specialising in intricate patterns, floral designs and radiant golden brocades.

The Banarasi saris -- so-called in reference to the city's ancient name -- they produce are widely sought after by Indian brides and are often passed on from one generation to the next as family heirlooms.

The elegant garments fetch handsome prices -- Sirajuddin's current work will go on sale for 30,000 rupees ($390) -- but the cost of inputs and cuts taken by middlemen leave little left for weavers.

"Compared to the hard work that goes into making the sari, the profit is negligible," Sirajuddin says.

His neighbours have all switched to electric looms for their garments, which lack the subtleties of hand-woven textiles and sell for just a third of the price but take a fraction of the time to finish.

- 'Thriving industries got killed' -

The fortunes of India's textile trade -- historically a cottage industry -- have long been subject to sudden and devastating upheavals from abroad.

Its delicate fabrics were prized by the 18th century European elite but British colonisation and England's industrial-era factories flooded India with much cheaper textiles, decimating the market for hand-woven garments.

Decades of socialist-inspired central planning after independence bought some reprieve by shielding local handicrafts from the international market.


But economic reforms in the early 1990s opened the country up to cheap goods just as the country's northern neighbour was establishing itself as the globalised world's workshop.

"Chinese yarn and fabric came in everywhere," said author and former politician Jaya Jaitly, who has written a book on Varanasi's woven textiles, adding that sari factories there had for years been emulating the city's unique patterns and detail.

"All of these thriving industries got killed... through Chinese competition, and their ability to produce huge quantities at very low prices."

- 'Tradition to be proud of' -

Jaitly said local weavers needed urgent protection from government to preserve a wealth of artisanal traditions that otherwise risked disappearing.

"We have the largest number of varieties of handloom, techniques, skills... more than anywhere else in the world," she said.

"I think that's truly a tradition to be proud of."

Demand for Banarasi saris, already limited to a select Indian clientele able to justify spending at a premium, has also suffered in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The virus threat may have receded in India, but job losses and a big dent to the economy have taken their toll.

"The weavers are suffering a lot. They are not getting the right price for their products, payments are also coming late," said local sari merchant Mohammad Shahid, his store empty but for sales assistants stacking silk garments on the shelves.

Shahid was nonetheless hopeful that well-heeled and discerning customers would return.

"Those who know the value of handloom will continue to buy and cherish our saris. The handlooms can dwindle but they will never go away," Shahid, 33, told AFP.

abh/gle/lto

SEE

https://archive.org/details/Perlman_Plunder

NOT BEING DEPORTED 

Embracing Ukrainians At The US-Mexico Border

By Paula RAMON
04/10/22 

Oleksii Yeromin stands at the gate on the US-Mexico border and calls to Ukrainian migrants crossing into America after fleeing the war in their home country, then wraps them in a hug on the other side.

"Come here, come, you see this line? Here there's the last checkpoint to go through and you will be in the United States," he said in English.

Wearing a hat and carrying a blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, the 43-year-old is the first face that many Ukrainians see as they cross into the United States.

He has even marked that final step for them, tracing the letters "USA" on the ground in red tape.

"Ukraine welcomed me, now Ukraine needed me here,"says Yeromin, who is originally from Uzbekistan and emigrated several years ago to Ukraine, where he married and had two daughters.

Five years ago he decided to go to Chicago to seek a better future. This week he was reunited with his wife and daughters at the US-Mexico border. They, too, had fled the war.

Family is everything, he said. "Any money, any house, anything's doesn't matter. It's zero." He is red-eyed -- likely from the exhaustion of not having slept more than four hours a night for days now.

Oleksii Yeromin, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, hugs a refugee as they cross the San Ysidro PedWest port of entry along the US-Mexico border between Tijuana, Baja California, and the US on April 8, 2022 in San Ysidro, California 

Photo: AFP / Patrick T. FALLON

Even after welcoming his family, the painter by trade decided to stay at the gate.

"This is minimum. They travel long, they need a hug," he said.

His eldest daughter, Katarina, 13, does not speak English, but she helps out at the care center that has been set up as part of a massive volunteer operation.

"I'm very happy because I met my dad and also for helping here," says Katarina with the help of Gisele, her new friend and interpreter.

Soon, she is handing a phone battery to a young man and offering lollipops to a little girl.

"I'm very excited. I'm privileged, lucky. I needed to give back," adds the teenager with a shy smile.

"You made it, you're here. Come here, come here," says Yeromin a few meters away, while giving out more hugs.

A massive US-Mexican effort to welcome Ukrainian refugees



Volunteers with signs welcome Ukrainian refugees as they arrive at the Tijuana, Mexico airport on their way to the US

Anastasia Chorna, 15, holds a stuffed shark while waiting in a converted sports center in Tijuana, Mexico; she and her mother had fled the war in Ukraine, but her father had to remain behind

Volunteers Liza Melnichuk (C) and Maria Melnichuk, 26-year-old twins, wait at an arrival area at the Tijuana airport to welcome arriving Ukrainian refugees

Three-year-old Anna Kuts sleeps on a suitcase after arriving with her family at the Tijuana, Mexico airport, where an army of volunteers is helping Ukrainian refugees near the end of their long voyage to the United States

Nadiya Ruyhynska (R) hugs her daughter Christina after crossing into the US from Tijuana, Mexico at the end of a long journey from Ukraine; she was one of thousands of Ukrainians entering the US from Tijuana 

PHOTOS (AFP/Patrick T. FALLON)

Paula RAMON
Sun, 10 April 2022

Nadiya Ruyhynska had almost never left Ukraine, though her daughter lives in the US city of Seattle.

But with the war looming in her hometown of Lviv, the 55-year-old former nurse set off on the long journey to the Mexican city of Tijuana, where a massive operation is helping thousands of Ukrainian refugees cross the border to resettle in the United States.

Most arrive with mixed emotions.

"I am 50-50," said the former nurse as she stepped onto American soil.

"I have happiness" at the prospect of being reunited with her pregnant daughter Christina, who has a young son, but also sadness at having left her own mother behind, she said.

Like Ruyhynska, hundreds of Ukrainians have reached the border town of Tijuana in hopes of crossing onto US soil -- encouraged by a promise from Washington that it is prepared to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians who have fled the war.

Pavel Savastyanov, a Russian-born volunteer helping at a support center for Ukrainians in San Ysidro, California, just across the border from Tijuana, said every flight to the area is bringing more.

- 'The first step' -

The operation begins at Tijuana International Airport. The first thing passengers see when they pass through the arrival gate is a blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag next to signs in Cyrillic reading "Welcome" and "Help."

In a small office there, volunteers record the new arrivals' names on a list -- already bearing more than 2,300 names -- for eventual transportation to the border.

"This is the first step," said Sergio, a 36-year-old Ukrainian volunteer who declined to give his last name. He and his cousin had traveled 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Sacramento, the California capital, to help the arriving refugees.

One area in the airport is marked off with yellow tape. A sign in English and Spanish reads: "Ukrainian refugees only."

There is food and drinks, and a play corner set aside for children with crayons and coloring books.

From there, the refugees are taken to one of four housing centers that volunteers, with governmental and church support, quickly set up in this city that has long drawn thousands of Latin Americans hoping to reach the United States.

- 'My dad had to stay' -

"My dad had to stay behind," said 15-year-old Ukrainian Anastasia Chorna, choking back tears.

Sitting in a chair in the Benito Juarez sports complex, Tijuana's largest refugee center for Ukrainians, she hugged the enormous stuffed gray shark she had brought when she and her mother left home.

"It's literally the only thing I could bring," she said.

Her father, who is 41, remains in Kyiv. "I feel bad because I wanted him to be here, with these volunteers, where everything is so peaceful," Anastasia said, struggling to express herself in a language not her own.

She and her mother had passed through four countries on the long way to Mexico, where getting a visa for entry is comparatively easier for Ukrainians than to the United States.

Some men did flee Ukraine, in violation of a martial-law decree requiring all those aged 18 to 60 to stay and fight or face conscription.

"I know I committed a crime, but I didn't want to fight," said a 25-year-old engineer, who refused to give his name.

He had left Ukraine with his partner, whom he married the day war broke out, and was now waiting for his number to be called for a bus to the US border.

"I've never picked up a gun... I couldn't kill someone or watch them die. I couldn't," he said, crestfallen, in broken English.

For those who speak no English, an enormous network of volunteers is there to help.

- Growing numbers -

Twins Maria and Liza Melnichuk had emigrated with their family from Ukraine 20 years ago.

When the sisters, now 26, heard about the influx of refugees, they jumped into their car to drive the 540 miles to Tijuana to join an active rotation of volunteers working round-the-clock. As Ukrainian-speakers, they knew they could help.

"We're glad to see the people arrive," said Liza, who was able to welcome her cousins who had fled Bucha, the Ukrainian town now synonymous with charges of extreme brutality under Russian occupation.

Her sister Maria said the numbers of arrivals have been steadily growing. "On Wednesday we received some 300 people, and already today (Friday) there must have been 700."

A coordinated effort between Mexican and US authorities made the so-called Ped West entrance at the border exclusively available for the arrivals.

Buses transport hundreds of people a day to a line where they are received by Mexican officials before crossing on foot to the US side.

Once on Californian soil, the tears flow -- of joy and of sadness.

"I don't think there are words to describe what has happened, and how hard it has been," said Christina Ruyhynska after a long, emotional hug with her mother -- their first in three years.

The two women, wiping away tears, spoke briefly in Ukrainian.

Then in English, Christina turned to her mother and asked, "Are you ready to go home?"

pr/dl/bbk/sw/dw

France's political pillars teeter after presidential debacle


Joseph Schmid
Sun, 10 April 2022


Republicans candidate Valerie Pecresse failed to woo back voters who from Emmanuel Macron or the far right of Marine Le Pen (AFP/Alain JOCARD)


The party appears unable to find a national heavyweight since Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential defeat in 2012 (AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA)


The Republicans will also have to contend with Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe (AFP/Sameer Al-DOUMY)



Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo scored just barely two percent according to projections

 (AFP/Thomas COEX)

With humiliating eliminations from France's presidential vote on Sunday, the historic rightwing Republicans party joins the Socialists in facing a moment of truth -- rebuild a viable political project or risk consignment to the history books.

Republicans candidate Valerie Pecresse finished in fifth place according to projections after failing to woo back voters who turned to centrist upstart Emmanuel Macron or the far right of Marine Le Pen, who both advanced to the April 24 run-off.

The blow was all the more devastating as the Republicans party traces its roots to Charles de Gaulle, the revered World War II Resistance hero who built the foundations of the all-powerful French presidency.


"I had to fight a battle on two fronts, between the president's party and the extremes that joined forces to divide and beat the republican right," Pecresse said after her defeat.

"This result is obviously a personal and collective disappointment."

- Changing political landscape -

With parliament elections looming in June, Republicans must now rethink their strategy and craft a conservative message in tune with voters expectations -- and perhaps even drop their opposition to joining with far-right forces that have steadily gained traction in France.

"They've been in the opposition for 10 years now -- that should have been enough time to have a programme and some strong candidates," said Dominique Reynie of the Fondapol think-tank in Paris.

The party still has control of the Senate and of municipal councils across France, but its leaders appear unable to find a national heavyweight since Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential defeat in 2012.

"We're seeing a recomposition of French political life, with this new polarity between centrists and the far right," said Gaspard Estrada, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris.

"The traditional governing parties, the Socialists and Republicans, together got less than 10 percent of the votes -- that speaks volumes about France's political evolution," he said.

Macron will be prevented from seeking re-election in 2027 under French term limits. His upstart centrist party has produced no obvious successors, meaning the jockeying has already begun to take his place.

Le Pen has said this is her last presidential campaign, but her strong showing makes it likely she will remain a powerful force to be reckoned with.

The Republicans will also have to contend with Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe, whose popularity on the right has soared since taking over as mayor of Le Havre.

He has formed his own party, Horizons, and is widely expected to try to recruit more from Macron's Republic on the Move party -- a vehicle that has failed to establish any on-the-ground presence in city halls or regional councils.

- Socialists adrift -

The challenge is even more daunting for the leftwing Socialists, whose candidate Anne Hidalgo scored just barely two percent according to projections -- below the five-percent threshold required to have campaign expenses reimbursed by the state.

"In 2017 we saw the Socialist party explode, and in this vote we're probably going to see the explosion of the Republicans," Remi Lefebvre, a political scientist at the University of Lille told the Grand Continent political journal.

The party's ranks have dwindled for decades as France's political landscape shifted to the right. More recently, leftwing voters backed Macron or embraced the revolutionary rhetoric of Jean-Luc Melenchon -- who far outpaced the Socialists with a projected score of around 21 percent.

"The left has never been able to recover the working classes...," said Reynie. "Instead of reinventing itself the party stuck with the bureaucratic middle classes and civil servants -- It's not necessarily bad, but it's not enough."

Yet neither Melenchon nor the Greens nor the Communist candidates -- all of whom trounced Hidalgo on Sunday -- have shown any interest in an alliance.

"Tonight I make a solemn call for leftwing and environmental forces, on social forces, on citizens ready to commit to build together a pact for social and environmental justice for the parliament elections," Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said Sunday.

If the Socialists again lose parliament seats in June -- they currently have just 25 -- state funding for their party will fall even more, putting them in dire financial straits just years after selling their iconic Paris headquarters.

"They tried to present themselves as a social-ecological party... but without clearly laying out an original doctrine," said Frederic Sawicki, a political scientist at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

"If this very bad score for the presidency is followed by a debacle in the parliament elections, the party's survival in its current form will be in question," he said.

js/sjw/jj

Wealthy Russians and oligarchs are reportedly buying as many as 4 apartments at once in Turkey in attempts to earn 'golden passports'


Hannah Towey
Fri, April 8, 2022


Wealthy Russians are buying as many as 4 apartments at a time in Turkey, the WSJ reported.


Foreigners who buy real estate worth $250,000 can earn Turkish citizenship in just three months.


Turkey's foreign minister previously said oligarchs are welcome to legally invest in the country.

Wealthy Russians, "some of them oligarchs," are buying as many as 4 apartments in Turkey at once in order to qualify for citizenship there, the CEO of Istanbul based real-estate company Golden Sign told The Wall Street Journal.

Gül Gül, the Golden Sign CEO, previously told Reuters that her company sells seven to eight units to Russians "every day," and said they often pay in cash or "bring gold."

At the time, she told Reuters that her clients are wealthy Russians, but not oligarchs. However, she later told the Journal that "some" are. Golden Sign did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Like many countries, Turkey has an investment-for-citizenship program, commonly referred to as a "golden passport" or "golden visa." Turkey's program grants citizenship to foreign investors who purchase real estate worth at least $250,000 and commit to keeping it for a minimum of three years.



Investors — including wealthy Russians looking to escape sanctions — can then earn a Turkish passport in as little as three months, one of the quickest turn around times in Europe.

Russian investment in Turkey has grown so much since the invasion of Ukraine that Gaul's Russian clients now outnumber her previous customer base, she told the Journal.

In addition to apartments, Turkey has proven a popular spot for the superyachts of oligarchs like Roman Abramovich. While the country denounced the war on Ukraine, it chose not to sanction Russia, thus creating a physical and financial safe haven for oligarchs and their assets.

During the last week of March, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Russian oligarchs are welcome in the country, as long as they follow international law.

"We implement UN-approved sanctions, so if any Russian citizens want to visit Turkey, of course, they can visit Turkey. Now Russians are coming to visit Turkey, that's no problem," he told CNBC.

When pushed on whether sanctioned oligarchs can do business in the country, Cavusoglu added: "If you mean that these oligarchs can do any business in Turkey, then of course if it is legal and it is not against international law, I will consider."

IMMORTALITY STUDIES

Scientists rejuvenated the skin of a 53-year-old woman to that of a 23-year-old's in a groundbreaking experiment



Allana Akhtar
Fri, April 8, 2022

Scientists in Cambridge rejuvenated a 53-year-old woman's skin cells to look and behave like a 23-year-old's.MJTH/Shutterstock

Babraham Institute in Cambridge announced on Thursday researchers had successfully rejuvenated skin cells.

Scientists reprogrammed adult skin cells to look and behave 30 years younger than the original.

The technique cannot be taken to a clinic yet because previous studies have found it may increase the risk for cancer.

A team in the Babraham Institute in Cambridge has successfully rejuvenated a 53-year-old woman's skin cells to look and behave like a 23-year-old's, the research center announced on Thursday.

The team had initially set out to create embryonic stem cells, which can divide into any type of cell in the body, using adult cells. Nobel Award winner Shinya Yamanaka, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan, first turned "normal" cells that have a specific function into stem cells back in 2006.

The BBC reported German molecular biologist Wolf Reik, postdoctoral student Diljeet Gill, and a team at Babraham Institute built upon Yamanaka's work. Yamanaka grew stem cells by exposing adult cells to four molecules for about 50 days — a unique method he named iPS. Reik and Gill's team exposed skin cells to the same molecules for only 13 days, then let them grow under natural conditions.

By studying collagen production in the cells, the researchers found age-related changes on skin cells were removed and they temporarily lost their identity. After growing under normal conditions for a period of time, researchers found the cells began behaving like skin cells again.

The team then measured age-related biological changes in the reprogrammed cells, and found the cells matched the profile of those 30 years younger to reference data sets, Gill said in a release.

"I remember the day I got the results back and I didn't quite believe that some of the cells were 30 years younger than they were supposed to be," Gill told BBC. "It was a very exciting day."

The research was done in a lab, and Reik told the BBC the team cannot take the technique to a clinic because the technique used to rejuvenate the cells has the potential to increase the risk of cancer, likely due to creating lasting genetic changes within cells.

But the biologist said the method of rejuvenating cells could help speed up healing time in burn victims, and may eventually extend human life.

"Eventually, we may be able to identify genes that rejuvenate without reprogramming, and specifically target those to reduce the effects of aging," Reik said in a press release.

The researchers published their findings in the journal eLife on April 8.

SHOULD BE THE LAW EVERYWHERE
Spain bans harassment of women entering abortion clinics

Fri, April 8, 2022

MADRID (AP) — Spain is awaiting the publication in coming days of a new law banning the intimidation or harassment of women entering abortion clinics.

The law comes into force when it is published in the Government Gazette, possibly next week, after the Spanish Senate on Wednesday endorsed a law passed earlier by parliament.

The Senate gave its blessing by 154 to 105 votes for changes to the penal code in Spain, where abortions are available for free in the public health service through the 14th week of pregnancy.

The legal changes mean that anyone harassing a woman going into an abortion clinic will be committing a crime that can be punished with up to one year in prison.

Spain’s government, led by the center-left Socialist government, proposed the law last year and lawmakers approved it in September.

In the Senate, as in parliament, the changes were opposed by right-of-center political groupings.

They argued that the alterations flew in the face of the constitutional right to free speech and the right to assemble.

Anti-abortion groups said their gatherings outside abortion clinics were organized to pray and offer help to the women.

The national Association of Accredited Clinics for Pregnancy Termination says that more than 100 cases of harassment are reported outside clinics each year.

Ocasio-Cortez gets official to admit USPS leaders don't care about sending truck work to anti-union state

Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at South By Southwest 2019 in Austin, Texas, nrkbeta

Jessica Corbett 
Common Dreams 

April 06, 2022

While much of the criticism of a U.S. Postal Service deal with Oshkosh Defense for a new fleet has focused on the fact that most vehicles will be gas-guzzling versus electric, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday got a USPS official to admit the agency isn't concerned the Wisconsin-based firm plans to build the trucks in notoriously anti-union South Carolina.

Near the end of a U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing, the New York Democrat questioned Victoria Stephen, executive director of the Postal Service's Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) Program, about whether the USPS considered Oshkosh's unionized workforce in Wisconsin and when the agency knew about the company's location decision.

After noting that the nearly $3 billion contract, first announced in early 2021, will include an initial order of 50,000 NGDVs—only 10,000 of which will be electric vehicles (EVs)—Ocasio-Cortez asked about whether Oshkosh's unionized workforce in Wisconsin "was an important consideration" or regarded as a "favorable element" in the decision-making process—particularly given President Joe Biden's support for union labor.

"The solicitation from the Postal Service requires domestic production only. It does not require particular locations or workforce," Stephen explained. A unionized workforce "is not a contract requirement... It was not considered in the decision."


After entering some reports into the record, Ocasio-Cortez asked Stephen about Oshkosh's decision to complete production in South Carolina rather than Wisconsin, a revelation that came after the company won the contract.

"The Postal Service was made aware of that decision shortly before the public announcement and it is a decision that's at the discretion of the supplier," Stephen said.

Ocasio-Cortez then asked, "Are you aware that Oshkosh Defense might be trying to circumvent its long-standing contract with the United Auto Workers workforce in Wisconsin by essentially building a brand-new facility after the contract was awarded in a vacant warehouse in South Carolina?"

The USPS official said that "I have no awareness of that but I would encourage you to have that conversation with Oshkosh."

Highlighting that "after the ink was dry, it looks like they're opening up a scab facility in South Carolina with no prior history of producing vehicles in that facility," Oscaio-Cortez asked Stephen if the Postal Service "is troubled by this timeline at all."

Stephen appeared to challenge the facts as the congresswoman laid them out—but offered no details or clarifications—then confirmed that the USPS is not concerned with the timeline of the company's South Carolina decision.


In a tweet about the exchange Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez took aim at embattled Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, declaring that "he needs to go."


When the USPS announced the contract last year, it said that "Oshkosh Defense is evaluating which of their several U.S. manufacturing locations is best suited to potentially increase the production rate of the NGDV."

Oshkosh Corporation executive vice president and Oshkosh Defense president John Bryant then revealed in June that the company planned to create about 1,000 new jobs in South Carolina, saying that "we're proud to bring this historic undertaking to Spartanburg County."


"South Carolina has a skilled workforce and a proven history in advanced automotive manufacturing—it's the perfect place to produce the NGDV," he said. "More importantly, we know the people of the Upstate take pride in their work and their community. What we build together here will reach every home in the country."

The Guardian reported in February that Oshkosh "chose to use a large, empty, former Rite Aid warehouse in Spartanburg. The company said it was eager to have a 'turnkey' plant where it could quickly begin production to help meet its goal of delivering the first vehicles in 2023."

The newspaper detailed outrage over the decision among Wisconsinites:
"We are extremely disappointed in Oshkosh Defense's decision to accept the money from the U.S. Postal Service and then turn around and send their production to a different state," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO union federation. "This is just another slap in the face to Wisconsin workers. People are very outraged about it. It doesn't fit into President Biden's vision to have high-road manufacturing."

Many Oshkosh Defense workers are wearing buttons to work, saying, "We Can Build This." These workers, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), say they're dismayed that the company—unionized since 1938—plans to do postal vehicle production in one of the nation's most anti-union states. UAW Local 578 in Oshkosh has collected over 1,500 signatures urging the company to rescind its South Carolina decision, and Wisconsin's unions are planning a big rally in February to further pressure Oshkosh Defense.

"When we were notified the company won the contract, we were all excited—that's another contract under our belt, more work for us to do," said Thomas Bowman, a welder at Oshkosh Defense. "But when we were told it wasn't being built here, we were all asking, why not? We know we can build it. We got the workers. We got the tooling. It can be done here."

During that February rally, UAW Local 578 president Bob Lynk told a local television station that "it's a fight for our life right now. I do believe contracts are meant to be amended."

In a lengthy statement responding to the rally, Oshkosh signaled it won't reconsider the move, saying that "we evaluated sites in multiple states, including Wisconsin, for production of the NGDV. The Spartanburg, South Carolina facility ranked highest in meeting the requirements of the NGDV program and gives us the best ability to meet the needs of the USPS."

Meanwhile, in Congress, some Democrats are pushing for even broader changes. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) last month introduced the Green Postal Service Fleet Act, which would block the Oshkosh contract by requiring that at least 75% of new USPS vehicles are electric or otherwise emissions-free.

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Pelosi fumed that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal were competing for 'queen bee' of the left, a new book says

Grace Panetta
Fri, April 8, 2022

Reps.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and joined Pramila Jayapal of Washington on Capitol Hill, April 07, 2022.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images


Pelosi privately blamed progressives for nearly costing Democrats the House in 2020, a book says.


Pelosi said some had "alienated Asian and Hispanic immigrants with loose talk of socialism."


Pelosi later said Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Jayapal were competing to be "queen bee" of the left.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately blamed progressives for nearly costing Democrats the House majority in 2020 and later fumed that Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were competing for "queen bee" of the left, according to a forthcoming book.

New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns pull back the curtain on Pelosi's internal frustrations in their forthcoming book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," due for release on May 3. Punchbowl News reported on some excerpts of the book's reporting on Friday morning.

Democrats were expected to maintain and possibly even expand their majority in the US House of Representatives in 2020 given President Donald Trump's unpopularity.

Instead, they lost a dozen House seats on net, nearly losing their majority in the chamber. Some of the districts Democrats lost in places like South Florida and Southern California included high concentrations of Latino and Asian immigrants, a warning sign for Democrats' electoral prospects.

"In a few strictly confidential conversations she pointed a finger leftward," the authors wrote. "Pelosi told one senior lawmaker that Democrats had alienated Asian and Hispanic immigrants with loose talk of socialism. In some of the same communities, the Italian Catholic speaker said, Democrats had not been careful enough about the way they spoke about abortion among new Americans who were devout people of faith."

House Democrats played their fair share of the blame game after the 2020 elections, including on sometimes-tense and emotional calls.

On one such call shortly after election day, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, castigated the phrase "defund the police," the Washington Post reported at the time, saying, "If we are classifying Tuesday as a success . . . we will get fucking torn apart in 2022."

Democrats secured a trifecta of government in January 2021, but their troubles didn't end there.

In the fall of 2021, congressional Democrats tried to pass both components of President Joe Biden's economic agenda in a bipartisan infrastructure bill focusing on roads, bridges, green energy, and transportation, and a much pricier economic spending package including childcare, social programs, and climate spending that known as the Build Back Better agenda that Senate Democrats would pass along party lines.

But moving both measures at the same time proved to be an immense challenge, with progressives withholding their support for the infrastructure package in protest of what they saw as a lack of commitment to Build Back Better from centrists.

Pelosi, who famously only brings bills to the floor when she knows she has the votes to pass them, had to cancel two planned votes for the infrastructure bill on September 30 and again on October 29.

The speaker told a colleague that Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Ocasio-Cortez "were vying to be the 'queen bee' of the left, but that their reward might be serving in the House minority after the next election," according to the book.

Despite the holdups and intra-party squabbling, Pelosi got the necessary votes to pass the bipartisan infrastructure law on November 5, with 13 Republicans voting in favor of the legislation. But she was still miffed at top progressives, who she blamed for at least temporarily derailing the bill's passage.

Jayapal has served as a mentor and source of guidance to members of the progressive "Squad", including Ocasio-Cortez, Politico reported in 2019, with the two congresswomen sharing a box of tomato soup on Ocasio-Cortez's Instagram live.

A representative for Jayapal declined to comment. Ocasio-Cortez's office did not return Insider's request for comment.

The legislation once-dubbed Build Back Better, meanwhile, has stalled out in the Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in December 2021 that he could not support the measure as proposed at the time. Key Democrats are in talks to revive an economic reconciliation bill of some form, but it's unclear whether all 50 Senate Democrats, including Manchin, will be to agree on a measure to pass before the 2022 midterms.