German lawmakers mull creating first citizen assembly

yesterday

Lawmaker attend a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, in the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Germany's three governing parties back the idea of appointing consultative bodies made up of members of the public selected through a lottery system who would discuss specific topics and provide non-binding feedback to legislators. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — German lawmakers considered Wednesday whether to create the country’s first “citizen assembly’” to advise parliament on the issue of food and nutrition.

Germany’s three governing parties back the idea of appointing consultative bodies made up of members of the public selected through a lottery system who would discuss specific topics and provide nonbinding feedback to legislators. But opposition parties have rejected the idea, warning that such citizen assemblies risk undermining the primacy of parliament in Germany’s political system.

Baerbel Bas, the speaker of the lower house, or Bundestag, said that she views such bodies as a “bridge between citizens and politicians that can provide a fresh perspective and create new confidence in established institutions.”

“Everyone should be able to have a say,” Bas told daily Passauer Neue Presse. “We want to better reflect the diversity in our society.”

Environmental activists from the group Last Generation have campaigned for the creation of a citizen assembly to address issues surrounding climate change. However, the group argues that proposals drawn up by such a body should at the very least result in bills that lawmakers would then vote on.

Similar efforts to create citizen assemblies have taken place in other European countries such as Spain, Finland, Austria, Britain and Ireland.

Mining company wins approval for drilling in Wisconsin


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A mining company has gotten conditional approval to begin exploratory drilling for copper and gold in northern Wisconsin, but state regulators say it must still meet additional requirements before the work can begin.

Canadian company GreenLight Metals, doing business as Green Light Wisconsin, wants to conduct exploratory drilling at a 40-acre site owned by the U.S. Forest Service about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Medford in Taylor County. The deposit is believed to contain 4 million tons (3.6 metric tons) of mostly copper and gold.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources last week authorized the company’s plans to drill up to eight holes impacting less than an acre of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin Public Radio reported Wednesday.

Mining company Aquila Resources last conducted drilling of the deposit in 2012, which was first explored in the early 1990s.

Green Light has said it expects work to be conducted in phases and last about 10 weeks. Once work commences, the company must comply with detailed conditions for wetlands and waterways, erosion control and endangered resources at the site. It must also document its work.

Metals like gold and copper that occur in sulfide ore bodies have not been mined in Wisconsin since the Flambeau mine shut down in 1997. Concerns over pollution related to that mine led to the state’s sulfide mining moratorium that was repealed in 2017 under a law passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

In global rush to regulate AI, Europe set to be trailblazer

By KELVIN CHAN

May 9, 2023

The OpenAI logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen displaying output from ChatGPT, on March 21, 2023, in Boston. European lawmakers have rushed to add language on general artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT as they put the finishing touches on the Western world's first AI rules. 

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

LONDON (AP) — The breathtaking development of artificial intelligence has dazzled users by composing music, creating images and writing essays, while also raising fears about its implications. Even European Union officials working on groundbreaking rules to govern the emerging technology were caught off guard by AI’s rapid rise.

The 27-nation bloc proposed the Western world’s first AI rules two years ago, focusing on reining in risky but narrowly focused applications. General purpose AI systems like chatbots were barely mentioned. Lawmakers working on the AI Act considered whether to include them but weren’t sure how, or even if it was necessary.

“Then ChatGPT kind of boom, exploded,” said Dragos Tudorache, a Romanian member of the European Parliament co-leading the measure. “If there was still some that doubted as to whether we need something at all, I think the doubt was quickly vanished.”

The release of ChatGPT last year captured the world’s attention because of its ability to generate human-like responses based on what it has learned from scanning vast amounts of online materials. With concerns emerging, European lawmakers moved swiftly in recent weeks to add language on general AI systems as they put the finishing touches on the legislation.

The EU’s AI Act could become the de facto global standard for artificial intelligence, with companies and organizations potentially deciding that the sheer size of the bloc’s single market would make it easier to comply than develop different products for different regions.

“Europe is the first regional bloc to significantly attempt to regulate AI, which is a huge challenge considering the wide range of systems that the broad term ‘AI’ can cover,” said Sarah Chander, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi.

Authorities worldwide are scrambling to figure out how to control the rapidly evolving technology to ensure that it improves people’s lives without threatening their rights or safety. Regulators are concerned about new ethical and societal risks posed by ChatGPT and other general purpose AI systems, which could transform daily life, from jobs and education to copyright and privacy.

The White House recently brought in the heads of tech companies working on AI including Microsoft, Google and ChatGPT creator OpenAI to discuss the risks, while the Federal Trade Commission has warned that it wouldn’t hesitate to crack down.

China has issued draft regulations mandating security assessments for any products using generative AI systems like ChatGPT. Britain’s competition watchdog has opened a review of the AI market, while Italy briefly banned ChatGPT over a privacy breach.

The EU’s sweeping regulations — covering any provider of AI services or products — are expected to be approved by a European Parliament committee Thursday, then head into negotiations between the 27 member countries, Parliament and the EU’s executive Commission.

European rules influencing the rest of the world — the so-called Brussels effect — previously played out after the EU tightened data privacy and mandated common phone-charging cables, though such efforts have been criticized for stifling innovation.

Attitudes could be different this time. Tech leaders including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have called for a six-month pause to consider the risks.

Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist known as the “Godfather of AI,” and fellow AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio voiced their concerns last week about unchecked AI development.

Tudorache said such warnings show the EU’s move to start drawing up AI rules in 2021 was “the right call.”

Google, which responded to ChatGPT with its own Bard chatbot and is rolling out AI tools, declined to comment. The company has told the EU that “AI is too important not to regulate.”

Microsoft, a backer of OpenAI, did not respond to a request for comment. It has welcomed the EU effort as an important step “toward making trustworthy AI the norm in Europe and around the world.”

Mira Murati, chief technology officer at OpenAI, said in an interview last month that she believed governments should be involved in regulating AI technology.

But asked if some of OpenAI’s tools should be classified as posing a higher risk, in the context of proposed European rules, she said it’s “very nuanced.”

“It kind of depends where you apply the technology,” she said, citing as an example a “very high-risk medical use case or legal use case” versus an accounting or advertising application.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans stops in Brussels and other European cities this month in a world tour to talk about the technology with users and developers.

Recently added provisions to the EU’s AI Act would require “foundation” AI models to disclose copyright material used to train the systems, according to a recent partial draft of the legislation obtained by The Associated Press.

Foundation models, also known as large language models, are a subcategory of general purpose AI that includes systems like ChatGPT. Their algorithms are trained on vast pools of online information, like blog posts, digital books, scientific articles and pop songs.

“You have to make a significant effort to document the copyrighted material that you use in the training of the algorithm,” paving the way for artists, writers and other content creators to seek redress, Tudorache said.

Officials drawing up AI regulations have to balance risks that the technology poses with the transformative benefits that it promises.

Big tech companies developing AI systems and European national ministries looking to deploy them “are seeking to limit the reach of regulators,” while civil society groups are pushing for more accountability, said EDRi’s Chander.

“We want more information as to how these systems are developed — the levels of environmental and economic resources put into them — but also how and where these systems are used so we can effectively challenge them,” she said.

Under the EU’s risk-based approach, AI uses that threaten people’s safety or rights face strict controls.

Remote facial recognition is expected to be banned. So are government “social scoring” systems that judge people based on their behavior. Indiscriminate “scraping” of photos from the internet used for biometric matching and facial recognition is also a no-no.

Predictive policing and emotion recognition technology, aside from therapeutic or medical uses, are also out.

Violations could result in fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue.

Even after getting final approval, expected by the end of the year or early 2024 at the latest, the AI Act won’t take immediate effect. There will be a grace period for companies and organizations to figure out how to adopt the new rules.

It’s possible that industry will push for more time by arguing that the AI Act’s final version goes farther than the original proposal, said Frederico Oliveira Da Silva, senior legal officer at European consumer group BEUC.

They could argue that “instead of one and a half to two years, we need two to three,” he said.

He noted that ChatGPT only launched six months ago, and it has already thrown up a host of problems and benefits in that time.

If the AI Act doesn’t fully take effect for years, “what will happen in these four years?” Da Silva said. “That’s really our concern, and that’s why we’re asking authorities to be on top of it, just to really focus on this technology.”

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AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed.

DESPITE BEING UNIONIZED

Teachers earn $67K on average. Is push for raises too late?

By MARC LEVY

May 8, 2023

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William Penn School District Superintendent Eric Becoats, center, speaks with prospective applicants during a teachers job fair at the high school's cafeteria in Lansdowne, Pa., Wednesday, May 3, 2023. As schools across the country struggle to find teachers to hire, more governors are pushing for pay increases and bonuses for the beleaguered profession. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As schools across the country struggle to find teachers to hire, more governors are pushing for pay increases, bonuses and other perks for the beleaguered profession — with some vowing to beat out other states competing for educators.

Already in 2023, governors in Georgia and Arkansas have pushed through teacher pay increases. Ahead of Monday’s start of national Teacher Appreciation Week, others — both Republican and Democratic — have proposed doing the same to attract and retain educators.

More than half of the states’ governors over the past year — 26 so far — have proposed boosting teacher compensation, according to groups that track it. The nonprofit Teacher Salary Project said it is the most it has seen in nearly two decades of tracking.

Learning Support Teacher Susannah Campbell speaks with prospective applicants during William Penn School District's teachers job fair. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“Today we have governors left and right from every political party and then some who are addressing this issue because they have to,” said founder and CEO Ninivé Caligari. “We’ve never seen what we are seeing right now. Never.”

In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little is aiming to raise the state’s average starting salary into the nation’s top 10. In Delaware, Gov. John Carney said competition for teachers is more intense than ever and a pay increase is necessary to “win the competition with surrounding states.”

It’s not clear how far pay raises will go toward relieving the shortages, though, and some teachers say it is too little, too late to fix problems that are years in the making.

Blame for teacher shortages has fallen on underfunding after the Great Recession, tight labor markets, lackluster enrollments in colleges and programs that train teachers and teacher burnout inflamed by the travails of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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There has been no mass exodus, but data from some states that track teacher turnover has shown rising numbers of teachers leaving the profession over the past couple years.

Shortages are most extreme in certain areas, including the poorest or most rural districts, researchers say. Districts also report particular difficulties in hiring for in-demand subjects like special education, math and science.

Meanwhile, teacher salaries have fallen further and further behind those of their college-educated peers in other fields, as teachers report growing workloads, shrinking autonomy and increasingly hostile school environments.

Magan Daniel, who at 33 just left her central Alabama school district, was not persuaded to stay by pay raises as Alabama’s governor vows to make teacher salaries the highest in the Southeast. It would take big increases to match neighboring Georgia, where the average teacher salary is $62,200, according to the National Education Association.

Fixing teachers’ deteriorating work culture and growing workloads would be a more powerful incentive than a pay raise, she said.

World literature teacher Ann Marie Willoughby speaks with students at Penn Wood High School. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

She recalled, for instance, her principal asking her to make copies and lesson plans last fall while she was on unpaid maternity leave. Difficulty getting substitutes puts pressure on teachers who need time off for emergencies, she said, and spending nights and weekends on paperwork siphoned the joy out of teaching.

“I would not go back just for a higher salary,” Daniel said.

In Oklahoma, Joshua Morgan, 46, left his rural district a year ago because after 18 years he was still earning under $47,000. Oklahoma’s governor is talking about awarding performance bonuses, but Morgan said he would only go back to teaching for substantially more money — like $65,000 a year.

The national average public school teacher salary in 2021-22 increased 2% from the previous year to $66,745, according to the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union. Inflation peaked around 9% at the time.

For new recruits, the math of paying for a college education is grim: The national average beginning teacher salary was $42,845 in 2021-22, according to the NEA. Teachers do often qualify for public service loan forgiveness, which forgives their student debt after they’ve made 10 years of monthly payments.

Besides fewer teachers getting certified, the “teacher pay penalty” — the gap between teacher salaries and their college-educated peers in other professions — is growing.

Art ceramics teacher Jason Sorvari speaks with students at Penn Wood High School. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

It reached a record 23.5% in 2021, with teachers earning an average 76.5 cents for every dollar earned by other college-educated professionals, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

It has been widening for decades, researchers say. For men, it is 35% and for women it is 17% — reflecting the gender pay gap seen across the U.S. economy.

For Rachaele Otto and other Louisiana teachers, the prospect of a $3,000 salary increase proposed by the governor might be appreciated. But at roughly $200 a month after taxes, it’s not enough to keep a teacher who feels burned out or demoralized, Otto said.

“I know there are teachers willing to take pay cuts to leave the profession,” said Otto, 38, a science teacher in a rural Louisiana district. “If you double the salary, maybe that would change their thinking.”

Sylvia Allegretto, a senior economist who studies teacher compensation for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, called salary promises by governors one-time “Band-Aids” that barely keep up with inflation.

“You’re kind of chipping away at the margins,” Allegretto said. “You’re not fixing the problem, generally.”

For governors, raising teacher pay may be good politics, but raising it across the board may have little long-term impact. Getting better data on where the shortages are and then targeting raises — or bigger raises — to those areas will help more, researchers say.

Research shows a pay raise will have at least some effect on retaining teachers, said Ed Fuller, a Penn State associate professor who studies teacher quality and turnover. What is difficult to research, Fuller said, is the effect a raise has on a college student’s decision to enter a teacher preparation program — and take on debt.

Some districts haven’t waited for governors and legislatures to act.

Kentucky’s biggest school district, Jefferson County in Louisville, gave a 4% raise last year and the board approved another raise of 5% to start this coming July. It also started giving an annual $8,000 stipend to teachers who work with higher-need students.

Superintendent Marty Pollio wants the district to be the highest paying in Kentucky, calling the teacher shortage “a real crisis and a growing crisis.”

In Pennsylvania, the William Penn School District is offering signing bonuses for long-term subs and holding its first-ever teachers job fair.

Facility and prospective applicants gather at William Penn School District's teachers job fair. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Superintendent Eric Becoats said a teacher told him they can move to neighboring districts and make $10,000 more — something the relatively small and poor district cannot compete with right now.

Some teachers also tell him they will retire or leave the profession if they can.

Morgan said a major change in salary is required to overcome a major change in how teachers now view a profession where they once expected to stay until they retired.

“That’s not how the world works anymore,” Morgan said. “I’m seeing more educators, especially the younger ones, coming in and saying, ‘I’m not willing to put up with this.’”

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Brooke Schultz, a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, contributed to this report. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Data reporter Sharon Lurye also contributed from New Orleans.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter

HE WON'T HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE 
Why Biden is wary of using the 14th Amendment to address the debt limit crisis

By ZEKE MILLER and JOSH BOAK

- President Joe Biden speaks on the debt limit during an event at SUNY Westchester Community College, May 10, 2023, in Valhalla, N.Y. Biden and his administration have been searching for ways to act unilaterally to avoid an economic “calamity” if Congress can’t reach agreement to allow more borrowing. 

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File )

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the fight with Congress over raising the government’s debt limit is such a dire threat, why doesn’t President Joe Biden just raise the borrowing ceiling himself? It’s theoretically possible, but he’s skeptical.

The administration has been searching for possible ways to allow the U.S. to keep borrowing if Congress can’t come to an agreemen t. One potential option Biden and his advisers have been looking at: Would he have the power to go around lawmakers by relying on the Constitution’s 14th Amendment in a last-ditch move to avert default?

Maybe. Biden hasn’t ruled it out, but he sees it as a problematic, untested legal theory to ensure the country can meet its financial obligations. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department says the U.S. may not be able to borrow the money it needs to pay its bills and bondholders as soon as June 1 without congressional action — and that failure could kick the country into a painful recession.

With the White House and Republican legislators at loggerheads over whether Congress should simply allow the government to incur more debt to allow the country to pay its bills — as Biden wants — or insist on pairing it with deep spending cuts — as demanded by the GOP — it’s no surprise that the president might be looking at emergency alternatives.

WHAT DOES THE 14th AMENDMENT SAY?

The amendment, ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, is better known for its provisions addressing citizenship and equal protection under the law. It has been used by the Supreme Court to mandate racial integration in schools in Brown v. Board of Education and same-sex marriage recognition in Obergefell v. Hodges.

It also includes this clause, which some legal scholars see as relevant to today’s showdown: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

Default, they argue, is therefore unconstitutional and Biden would have a duty to effectively nullify the debt limit if Congress won’t raise it, so that the validity of the country’s debt isn’t questioned.

WHY IS IT BEING TALKED ABOUT NOW?

Congress establishes the limit on borrowing, and it’s up to Congress to adjust it. But the president faces pressure to act on his own because some leading Republicans are seeing default, a likely result before long, as an acceptable bargaining tool. That has stoked concerns within the White House that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy might be unable to deliver votes for an agreement to lift the debt limit or could be ousted from his position for even attempting to doing so.

Those concerns were underscored Wednesday night during a CNN town hall with former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in 2024. “If they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default,” Trump said.

The former president said he believes Democrats will “absolutely cave” and a default will be avoided. But he said a default is preferable to allowing the federal government to keep spending money like “drunken sailors.”

WHAT DOES BIDEN SAY?

Biden has said his administration is studying the idea of invoking the 14th Amendment. He said he’s skeptical that it is a viable option but the “one thing I’m ruling out is default.”

“The problem is it would have to be litigated,” he said of the constitutional reasoning on Tuesday. If the matter got tied up in court, the government could default anyway.

If and when the current impasse is resolved, he says, he is thinking about looking into whether the 14th Amendment route could be a solution to avert similar showdowns in the future.

“When we get by this, I’m thinking about taking a look at -- months down the road -- to see whether -- what the court would say about whether or not it does work,” Biden says.

His Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, has been more blunt, saying it could provoke a “constitutional crisis.”

HAS THIS BEEN STUDIED BEFORE?

Yes. During past debt limit showdowns, including talks in 2011 between then-President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, White House and Department of Justice lawyers also flirted with using the 14th Amendment as an emergency solution. They were deeply skeptical that it was a viable alternative to Congress raising the debt limit, and it was never invoked.

As more women forgo the hijab, Iran’s government pushes back

By NASSER KARIMI and JON GAMBRELL

yesterday

AND SHE IS SMOKING
A woman sits in the alfresco dining area of a cafe at Tajrish commercial district without wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 29, 2023. 

More women are choosing not to wear the mandatory headscarf, or the hijab, publicly in Iran. Such open defiance of the law follows months of protests over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country's morality police, for wearing her hijab too loosely.

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Billboards across Iran’s capital proclaim that women should wear their mandatory headscarves to honor their mothers. But perhaps for the first time since the chaotic days following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, more women — both young and old — choose not to do so.

Such open defiance comes after months of protests over the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police, for wearing her hijab too loosely. While the demonstrations appear to have cooled, the choice by some women not to cover their hair in public poses a new challenge to the country’s theocracy. The women’s pushback also lays bare schisms in Iran that had been veiled for decades.

Authorities have made legal threats and closed down some businesses serving women not wearing the hijab. Police and volunteers issue verbal warnings in subways, airports and other public places. Text messages have targeted drivers who had women without head covering in their vehicles.

 

A woman walks around Tajrish commercial district without wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 29, 2023. 

  

A woman walks around Tajrish commercial district without wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 29, 2023. 

Women talk as they walk around Tajrish commercial district without wearing their mandatory Islamic headscarf in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 29, 2023.

However, analysts in Iran warn that the government could reignite dissent if it pushes too hard. The protests erupted at a difficult time for the Islamic Republic, currently struggling with economic woes brought on by its standoff with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Some women said they’ve had enough — no matter the consequence. They say they are fighting for more freedom in Iran and a better future for their daughters.

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Some suggested the growing numbers of women joining their ranks might make it harder for the authorities to push back.

“Do they want to close down all businesses?” said Shervin, a 23-year-old student whose short, choppy hair swayed in the wind on a recent day in Tehran. “If I go to a police station, will they shut it down too?”

Still, they worry about risk. The women interviewed only provided their first names, for fear of repercussions.

Vida, 29, said a decision by her and two of her friends to no longer cover their hair in public is about more than headscarves.

“This is a message for the government, leave us alone,” she said.

A woman talks on her cellphone as she walks around Tajrish commercial district without wearing the mandatory Islamic headscarf in northern Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 29, 2023.

Iran and neighboring Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are the only countries where the hijab remains mandatory for women. Before protests erupted in September, it was rare to see women without headscarves, though some occasionally let their hijab fall to their shoulders. Today, it’s routine in some areas of Tehran to see women without headscarves.

For observant Muslim women, the head covering is a sign of piety before God and modesty in front of men outside their families. In Iran, the hijab — and the all-encompassing black chador worn by some — has long been a political symbol as well.

Iran’s ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1936 banned the hijab as part of his efforts to mirror the West. The ban ended five years later when his son, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, took over. Still, many middle and upper-class Iranian women chose not to wear the hijab.

By the 1979 Islamic Revolution, some of the women who helped overthrow the shah embraced the chador, a cloak that covers the body from head to toe, except for the face. Images of armed women encompassed in black cloth became a familiar sight for Americans during the U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis later that year. But other women protested a decision by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordering the hijab to be worn in public. In 1983, it became the law, enforced with penalties including fines and two months in prison.

Forty years later, women in central and northern Tehran can be seen daily without headscarves. While at first Iran’s government avoided a direct confrontation over the issue, it has increasingly flexed the powers of the state in recent weeks in an attempt to curb the practice .

In early April, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that “removing hijab is not Islamically or politically permissible.”

Khamenei claimed women refusing to wear the hijab are being manipulated. “They are unaware of who is behind this policy of removing and fighting hijab,” Khamenei said. “The enemy’s spies and the enemy’s spy agencies are pursuing this matter. If they know about this, they will definitely not take part in this.”

Hard-line media began publishing details of “immoral” situations in shopping malls, showing women without the hijab. On April 25, authorities closed the 23-story Opal shopping mall in northern Tehran for several days after women with their hair showing were seen spending time together with men in a bowling alley.

“It is a collective punishment,” said Nodding Kasra, a 32-year-old salesman at a clothing shop in the mall. “They closed a mall with hundreds of workers over some customers’ hair?”

Police have shut down over 2,000 businesses across the country over admitting women not wearing the hijab, including shops, restaurants and even pharmacies, according to the reformist newspaper Shargh.

“This is a lose-lose game for businesses. If they warn (women) about not wearing the hijab as per the authorities’ orders, people will boycott them,” said Mohsen Jalalpour, a former deputy head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce. “If they refuse to comply, the government will close them down.”

Bijan Ashtari, who writes on Iranian politics, warned that business owners who had remained silent during the Mahsa Amini-inspired protests could now rise up.

Meanwhile, government offices no longer provide services to women not covering their hair, after some had in recent months. The head of the country’s track and field federation, Hashem Siami, resigned this weekend after some participants in an all-women half-marathon in the city of Shiraz competed without the hijab.

There are signs the crackdown could escalate.

Some clerics have urged deploying soldiers, as well as the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, to enforce the hijab law. The Guard on Monday reportedly seized an Iranian fishing boat for carrying women not wearing the hijab near Hormuz Island, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Police also say that surveillance cameras with “artificial intelligence” will find women not wearing their head covering. A slick video shared by Iranian media suggested that surveillance footage would be matched against ID photographs, though it’s unclear if such a system is currently operational .

“The fight over the hijab will remain center stage unless the government reaches an understanding with world powers over the nuclear deal and sanctions relief,” said Tehran-based political analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi.

But diplomacy has been stalled and anti-government protests could widen, he said. The hijab “will be the main issue and the fight will not be about scarves only.”

Sorayya, 33, said she is already fighting for a broader goal by going without the headscarf.

“I don’t want my daughter to be under the same ideologic pressures that I and my generation lived through,” she said, while dropping off her 7-year-old daughter at a primary school in central Tehran. “This is for a better future for my daughter.”

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Stunning mosaic of baby star clusters created from 1 million telescope shots

This image provided by European Southern Observatory shows the L1688 region in the Ophiuchus constellation. Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of stellar nurseries hiding in our galactic backyard. The montage, published Thursday, May 11, 2023, reveals five vast star-forming regions less than 1,500 light-years away. 

(European Southern Observatory/Meingast via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of baby star clusters hiding in our galactic backyard.

The montage, published Thursday, reveals five vast stellar nurseries less than 1,500 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

To come up with their atlas, scientists pieced together more than 1 million images taken over five years by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observatory’s infrared survey telescope was able to peer through clouds of dust and discern infant stars.

“We can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before,” University of Vienna’s Stefan Meingast, the lead author, said in a statement.

The observations, conducted from 2017 to 2022, will help researchers better understand how stars evolve from dust, Meingast said.

The findings, appearing in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, complement observations by the European Space Agency’s star-mapping Gaia spacecraft, orbiting nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away.

Gaia focuses on optical light, missing most of the objects obscured by cosmic dust, the researchers said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The US has approved $42 billion in loan forgiveness for public service workers.

By ADRIANA MORGA and CORA LEWIS

yesterday

 In this June 27, 2020, file photo, Saltillo High School seniors make their way to the football field as the sun begins to set for their graduation ceremony in Saltillo, Miss. Federal parent PLUS loans have become a last resort for many lower-income families paying for a kid’s college education. Today, parent PLUS loan debt totals $108.5 billion among 3.7 million borrowers, and the average borrower owes more than $29,000. (Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP, File)

The U.S. has approved more than $42 billion in federal student loan debt forgiveness for more than 615,000 borrowers in the past 18 months as part of a program aimed at getting more people to work in public service jobs, the U.S. Department of Education said this week.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is open to teachers, librarians, nurses, public interest lawyers, military members and other public workers. It cancels a borrower’s remaining student debt after 10 years of public interest work, or 120 monthly payments.

The program is separate from President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, which would wipe away or reduce loans for millions of borrowers regardless of what field they work in. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether that plan can go ahead.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, known as PSLF, was launched in 2007, but stringent rules meant that more than 90% of applicants were rejected, the Department of Education said in 2019.

In October 2021, the government temporarily relaxed the requirements, making it easier for people to apply and be approved. Those relaxed requirements ended in October 2022. However, borrowers who want to increase their payment count have another opportunity to do so. They can apply for the one-time account adjustment until the end of the year.

Through the one-time account adjustment, borrowers with direct loans through the William D. Ford program will have similar benefits to those that were available under the limited PSLF waiver. Borrowers who do not have direct loans can consolidate and receive PSLF credit for prior payments as part of this adjustment, as long as they submit a consolidation application by the end of 2023.

One of the people who benefited from the PSLF waiver was Beth Bourdon, an assistant public defender in Orlando, Florida.

Bourdon had about $57,000 of student loans forgiven in February 2022. Previously, because her loans had been acquired through the Family Federal Education Loan Program, Bourdon didn’t qualify for relief. But when the waiver took effect in October 2021, she successfully applied.

“I kept checking and re-checking the site, and one day I went and the balance was zero,” Bourdon said. “Two days later I got the official letter.”

With the exception of one two-year period, Bourdon has worked in public interest law since 2005. She said she made payments of about $417 every month from June 2008 to October 2021, when she consolidated her loans and applied for PSLF.

“Public defenders, we don’t get paid a lot,” she said. “When people’s student loans hit, they’re faced with a really hard decision. Can I remain doing this job I love or will I have to go to a civil firm to try to make money? The PSLF helps try to retain talented people who would otherwise go somewhere else.”

Bourdon said the cancellation gives her “breathing room.”

She added that she personally talked about 10 people she knows through the process of applying for forgiveness via the waiver, and that several have already received cancellation.

“It’s so great — knowing how relieved I was, for my friends to have that kind of relief too,” she said.

Starting July 1 of this year, the Education Department will implement changes designed to make the PSLF application process easier. Some of the changes were previously included in the waiver.

'A game of chance': Migrants battle glitchy app at US border

Paula RAMON
Thu, 11 May 2023

From Friday would-be migrants must register their details and upload a photograph on CBP One

The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States' southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.

For immigration managers, a sleek, computerised way to manage the wave of people expected to arrive when Covid-era rules lapse must have been tempting.

But for poor, exhausted people whose phones don't work, or who have no access to wifi or electricity, it's just another almost-impossible hurdle.

"It's amazing that an app practically decides our lives and our future," Jeremy de Pablos, a 21-year-old Venezuelan who has camped out in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez for weeks, told AFP.

De Pablos, who has dark skin, said the hardest part of using the CBP One app was the facial recognition -- an issue that many migrants with darker complexions have pointed to.

"It's like a game of chance. It recognizes who it wants to."

President Joe Biden's administration launched the Custom and Border Protection app in January, as it eyed a way to manage the expected chaos when Title 42 expires overnight Thursday into Friday.

The measure was imposed under Donald Trump, with a stated purpose of keeping those infected with Covid-19 out of the country, allowing border guards to refuse entry to anyone.

In practice it has been a quick and easy way to avoid accepting asylum claims.

But with the ending of the Covid emergency, Title 42 is finished, replaced instead with regular migration policies that the Biden administration says will offer pathways to legitimate asylum seekers, and harsh penalties to those who do not follow the rules.

- Old, outdated phones -

From Friday would-be migrants must register their name, date of birth, details of their travel documents, and upload a photograph on CBP One. The app can also log their location and their device details.

But old, outdated phones make the process hard.

It's harder still for those whose phones were broken or stolen on the long trek north.

Antonio Sanchez Ventura lives on the streets of Ciudad Juarez with nothing, eating only what he can scrounge.

His sole focus now is to raise the money to buy a phone and download the app.

"It is the dream of every human being to cross to the United States to help our relatives," he said.

- 'A nightmare' -

Ciudad Juarez is a tangle of tents and desperation, where people who have made impossible journeys scrape by on hope and charity.

Those who have phones search for exposed wires from street lights to charge them, and save every penny they have to buy credit to access the internet.

But the challenge does not end there.

"Look, it's stuck," said Ronald Huerta, a Venezuelan who on Wednesday couldn't get past the application's language settings.

A few meters away, Ana Paola, a 14-year-old Venezuelan, cried disconsolately because the application had been updated and all the information for her family had been deleted.

"I'm tired! I can't take it anymore!" the teenager shouted as she repeatedly clicked "Submit" to recreate the family's profiles -- receiving an "Error 500" message every time.

"It's been a nightmare, it's been a torment. This application has caused us emotional, psychological damage," said her father, Juan Pavon.

As Title 42 enters its final few hours, some migrants debate just sneaking across the border, hoping to avoid detection long enough to reach some kind of safety.

For some, the strategy works.

"I waited and waited and waited, but I got fed up, there was no way to get an appointment," said Luis Quintana, a Venezuelan who climbed through a hole in the wall at El Paso after three months on the streets of Ciudad Juarez.

For Raul Pinto, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, the app's many problems add another layer of unnecessary despair.

"It's frustrating that this important process is left at the mercy of technology that can often be glitchy and that is not going to be accessible by everyone," he told AFP.

The government said this week it would be rolling out updates to the app and increasing the number of appointments available in a bid to ease the logjam.

Pinto was hopeful that things would get better, but said there were many aspects of the process that were beyond fixing.

"We are very disappointed that there's not an alternative way for people to access this very important and potentially life saving process," he said.

What is Title 42 and how has US used it to curb migration?

By REBECCA SANTANA

May 9, 2023

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Migrants cross a barbed-wire barrier into the United States from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, May 9, 2023. The U.S. is preparing for the Thursday, May 11th end of the Title 42 policy, linked to the coronavirus pandemic that allowed it to quickly expel many migrants seeking asylum. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years.

The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health.

The end of Title 42′s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants.

A look at what Title 42 is and why it matters:

HOW DID Title 42 START?

In March 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order limiting migration, saying it was necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Schools and businesses were closing their doors and hospitals were filling with patients. President Donald Trump was looking for ways to curtail immigration — his signature political issue.
The order authorized Customs and Border Protection to immediately remove migrants, including people seeking asylum. The order said areas where migrants were held often weren’t designed to quarantine people or for social distancing.

RELATED COVERAGE

– Biden: US-Mexico border will be 'chaotic for a while'
– Migrants flow north to US border ahead of policy changes

The Biden administration initially continued the policy. While many Democrats pushed President Joe Biden to overturn it, some — especially in border states — have advocated keeping it, saying the U.S. is unprepared for an increase in asylum-seekers.

Title 42 has been used more than 2.8 million times to expel migrants since its implementation. However, children traveling alone were exempt. Also, it has been unevenly enforced by nationality, partly because it’s harder to expel people to some countries, including Venezuela and Cuba.

WHY IS Title 42 ENDING?

The Biden administration announced in January that it was ending the national emergencies linked to the pandemic. That also spelled the end of using Title 42 to deal with immigration. Thursday is the last day Title 42 is expected to be used.

This isn’t the first time its use has come close to expiring. The CDC announced in April 2022 that the rule was no longer needed because vaccines and treatments were more widespread. Republican-leaning states sued to keep it in place.

While it seems likely that Title 42 will go away this week, last-minute legal maneuverings that keep it in place are always possible.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Starting Friday, asylum-seekers will be interviewed by immigration officers. Those who are found to have a “credible fear” of being persecuted in their home countries can stay in the U.S. until a final determination is made.

That can take years. While some people are detained while their asylum process plays out, the vast majority are freed into the United States with notices to appear in immigration court or report to immigration authorities.

One key concern is that migrants might feel they have a greater chance now to get asylum in the U.S. so more will attempt to enter and overwhelm authorities’ ability to care for and process them. That could take U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents away from other responsibilities such as looking for smugglers and facilitating the billions of dollars of trade that crosses the southern border.

Already some locations along the U.S.-Mexico border are seeing greater numbers of migrants. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said on Twitter on Monday that his agents had stopped about 8,800 migrants a day over a three-day period. That was up from about 5,200 a day in March and at a clip to smash the December tally, the highest month on record.

Others have argued that no one really knows how many people will try to enter the U.S. They note that people expelled under Title 42 face no consequences, so some have tried to enter repeatedly.

An asylum-seeker carries his baby past U.S. Border Patrol agents as they wait between the double fence along the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, May 8, 2023, in San Diego. The migrants wait between the fences to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

DOES THE U.S. HAVE A PLAN?

The U.S. says yes. Critics say no.

The federal government has said that it has spent more than a year getting ready. It expects more migrants will be coming initially.

The Biden administration’s strategy has hinged on providing more legal pathways for migrants to get to the U.S. without coming directly to the border. That includes setting up centers in foreign countries where migrants can apply to emigrate as well as a humanitarian parole process already in place with 30,000 slots a month for people from four countries to come to the U.S.

The U.S. is expanding appointments available through an app called CBP One, which allows migrants to schedule a time to present themselves at a border crossing to request permission to enter.

There also are consequences. The U.S. is proposing a rule that would generally deny asylum to migrants who first travel through another country. It also wants to quickly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border and deport those deemed not qualified, and deny reentry for five years for those who are deported.

Republicans have lambasted the administration, saying the U.S. isn’t doing enough to secure the border.

On Monday, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called on the White House to deliver more funds for border communities as well as a satisfactory plan to deal with any increase in migrants. Hobbs is a Democrat, like the president.

Civil rights groups have other concerns. They have compared the severe limits on migrants who come through a third country to actions taken by Trump. They also said the plan to process asylum claims quickly at the border is not fair to migrants who have just arrived from a long, perilous journey.

___

Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal.

 Chile's Far Right Re-emerges After Presidential Defeat

Santiago, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th May, 2023 ) :

Chile's far right may have received a bloody nose in a deeply divisive presidential race in 2021, but elections Sunday for a body that will rewrite the country's dictatorship-era constitution have shown it to be an enduring force.

Led by conservative lawyer Jose Antonio Kast, an apologist for deceased military dictator Augusto Pinochet, Chile's Republican Party took 23 of 51 seats on the council that will design a new framework for the country's future.

The outcome of Sunday's vote does not alter the balance of power in the Chilean parliament, where the far right is a minority.

But it does give the Republican Party Kast founded in 2019 overwhelming sway in drafting the document that will shape Chile's new identity.

"The most likely is that something very similar to the 1980 (constitution) will come" from the drafting process, said Claudia Heiss of the University of Chile.

This would, in effect, maintain the status quo in the South American country which had appeared to be on a leftward trajectory ever since anti-government protests broke out in 2019 against deep social inequality.

The protests led to a referendum in 2020 in which 80 percent voted for replacing the Pinochet-era constitution.

In May 2021, Chileans elected a majority left-leaning body to write a new constitution, and that December chose millennial leftist Gabriel Boric as president over Kast.

Then the tide seemed to turn: Last year, more than 61 percent of voters rejected the constitutional draft that would have made Chile one of the most progressive countries in Latin America.

It would have allowed for elective abortion and expanded Indigenous rights -- all elements of Boric's leftist reform agenda.

And on Sunday, voters opted for a majority of Republican Party members on the drafting body.

Chile: major blow to president as far right triumphs in key constitution vote


‘Earthquake in Chilean politics’ as ultra-conservative Republican party wins 22 of 50 seats on body to rewrite Pinochet-era document


Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Mon 8 May 2023 

Chile’s far right has won an emphatic victory in a vote to select the committee that will rewrite its dictatorship-era constitution, after José Antonio Kast’s Republican party secured 22 of its 50 seats in a major blow to the progressive president Gabriel Boric.

Boric beat Kast, an ultra-conservative lawyer often compared to Brazil’s former leader Jair Bolsonaro, in the 2021 presidential election.

But on Sunday night it was Kast who was celebrating after 35% of voters backed Republicanos, the extreme-right party he founded in 2019.

“This is an earthquake in Chilean politics,” the Chilean journalist Rocío Montes wrote in El País, noting how Chile’s left had secured only 17 places on the council, meaning it would be unable to veto rightwing changes. Another rightwing coalition won 11 seats.

Kast celebrated Sunday’s result as “a new start” for his South American country.

“Today, Chileans have defeated listlessness, apathy and indifference,” he said, claiming voters had sent a “loud and clear message” about the conservative direction they wanted Chile to take.

Moves to rewrite Chile’s Pinochet-era constitution began in 2020, when nearly 80% of citizens voted to revamp the charter following huge street protests and unrest the previous year. However, a progressive new draft was rejected by a clear majority last September, forcing politicians to return to the drawing board and for a new constitutional council to be elected.

Political scientist Robert Funk said Sunday’s results meant the next draft of Chile’s constitution was likely to be more rightwing.

He said: “It’s pretty bad news … Right now, it looks like we are going to have, in the best-case scenario very few changes to what we already have now and, in the worst-case scenario, actually a shift to the right.

“The Republicans could try to prohibit abortion in the constitution, for example. So we could actually end up with a constitution which on values issues is even more conservative than what we have now.”

If that happened, it was possible Chile’s left would boycott or actively campaign against the new draft and that voters might again reject it, as they did last year.

“That’s what worries me more than anything else because that just means a continuation of uncertainty and tension and polarization,” Funk said.

Kast’s victory cements his status as the dominant figure on Chile’s right, and is the latest reminder of the populist far right’s continued appeal across South America, despite Bolsonaro’s defeat in Brazil’s presidential election last October.

A far-right radical billed as “Paraguay’s Bolsonaro” came third in that country’s recent presidential election, with 23% of the vote. Paraguayo “Payo” Cubas was arrested on Friday after claiming, without evidence, that the election had been rigged.

In crisis-stricken Argentina, the far-right libertarian Javier Milei looks set to play a prominent role in October’s presidential election. Earlier this year, Milei and Bolsonaro vowed to fight together to prevent Latin America becoming “the Soviet Union” and for their supposedly shared values of “God, homeland, family and freedom”.