Farms with natural landscape features provide sanctuary for some Costa Rica rainforest birds


This photo provided by researchers shows a royal flycatcher bird in Las Cruces Biological Station in Coto Brus, Costa Rica in March 2018. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

This photo provided by researchers in September 2023 shows a diversified farm in Finca, Coto Brus, Costa Rica. The landscape integrates multiple crop types, including coffee plants in dark green, and natural vegetation, enhancing its suitability for wildlife. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Gretchen C. Daily via AP)

In this photo provided by researchers, a bare-throated tiger heron (Tigrisoma mexicanum) guards its nest in a tree at the edge of a rice farm in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, in June 2017. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

This photo provided by researchers shows a coffee farm in Las Brisas, Coto Brus, Costa Rica, where mist nets are used to capture and tag birds as a part of a part of a study to understand the long-term effects of alternative farming practices on wildlife populations. 

This photo provided by researchers shows a white-tipped sicklebill (Eutoxeres aquila) in San Vito, Costa Rica, in February 2018. Though a forest specialist, this bird often ventures into diversified farms in search of specific flower species that match the shape of its bill.
This photo provided by researchers shows a white-winged tanager (Piranga leucoptera) at Las Cruces Biological Station in Coto Brus, Costa Rica, in June 2017. This forest bird has seen population increases in forest habitats. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This photo provided by researchers in September 2023 shows the lush canopy of the Las Cruces Forest Reserve in Coto Brus, Costa Rica, where part of a study was conducted. In the background are the Golfo Dulce and the Osa Peninsula, including Corcovado National Park. Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica, published on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

 PHOTOS: J. Nicholas Hendershot via AP

BY CHRISTINA LARSON
 September 4, 2023

Small farms with natural landscape features such as shade trees, hedgerows and tracts of intact forest provide a refuge for some tropical bird populations, according to an 18-year study in Costa Rica.

For almost two decades, ornithologist James Zook has been collecting detailed records on nearly 430 tropical bird species found on small farms, plantations and undisturbed forests in the country.

While birds thrive the most in undisturbed rainforests, Zook said some species usually found in forests can establish populations in “diversified farms” that partially mimic a natural forest environment.

“How you farm matters,” said Nicholas Hendershot, a Stanford University ecologist and co-author of the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

OTHER NEWS

Biden talks immigration and trade with Costa Rican President Chaves at the White House

President Joe Biden to host Costa Rica President Chaves at the White House

New ferry linking El Salvador and Costa Rica aims to cut shipping times, avoid border problems

“In these diversified farms, you see growth over the long term in bird species with specialized needs,” such as safe and shady nooks to build nests and a variety of food sources, Hendershot said.

That trend was “in stark contrast to what we saw in intensive agriculture,” or monocrop pineapple and banana plantations, he said.

The findings may seem intuitive, but Natalia Ocampo-Penuela, a University of California, Santa Cruz conservation ecologist not involved in the study, said it’s extremely rare to have detailed long-term data from tropical regions to show that varied farming landscapes can sustain some forest bird populations.

“With 18 years of data, you can show the species is persisting in that area, not simply passing by,” she said.

Three-quarters of the 305 species found in diversified farms showed stable or growing populations over the time of study. These include the collared aracari, a small toucan-like bird, with a yellow chest and enormous beak, as well as several members of the manakin family — small brightly colored forest birds known for elaborate courtship dances.

“It’s a huge contribution to have documented that some birds aren’t just going there, but staying there and populations are growing,” said Ruth Bennett, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, who was not involved in the research.

Still, such habitat sanctuaries don’t offset overall population losses from the conversion of primary forests to plantations, the authors stressed. “A pineapple plantation is like a ‘bird desert’ here,” said Zook.

Increasingly, scientists say conserving species will require paying attention to landscapes with a human footprint — not just untouched areas.

“Modern conservation has to happen not only inside the fences of protected areas, but within agricultural areas and even urban areas, where there’s potential habitat for at least some species,” said the University of California’s Ocampo-Penuela.
___

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.

SpaceX can’t launch its giant rocket again until fixes are made, FAA says

SpaceX’s Starship turns after its launch from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Thursday, April 20, 2023. The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its accident investigation into SpaceX’s failed debut of its Starship mega rocket. The FAA said Friday, Sept. 8, that multiple problems led to the launch explosion on April 20 over the Gulf of Mexico, off the South Texas coast.

 (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

 September 8, 2023

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX must take a series of steps before it can launch its mega rocket again after its debut ended in an explosion, federal regulators said Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it closed its investigation into SpaceX’s failed debut of Starship, the world’s biggest rocket. The agency is requiring SpaceX to take 63 corrective actions and to apply for a modified FAA license before launching again.

FAA official said multiple problems led to the April launch explosion, which sent pieces of concrete and metal hurtling for thousands of feet (meters) and created a plume of pulverized concrete that spread for miles (kilometers) around.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in the accident’s aftermath that he improved the 394-foot (120-meter) rocket and strengthened the launch pad. A new Starship is on the redesigned pad, awaiting liftoff. It will fly empty, as before.

During the initial test flight, the rocketship had to be destroyed after it tumbled out of control shortly after liftoff from Boca Chica Beach. The wreckage crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX said fuel leaks during ascent caused fires to erupt at the tail of the rocket, severing connection with the main flight computer and leading to a loss of control.

That flight “provided numerous lessons learned,” the company said in a statement.

NASA wants to use Starship to land astronauts back on the moon in another few years. Musk’s ultimate goal is to build a fleet of Starships to carry people and supplies to Mars.
___

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.

NIMBY

Southern Swiss region rejects a plan to fast-track big solar parks on Alpine mountainsides

 Workers assemble floating barges with solar panels on the ‘Lac des Toules’, an alpine reservoir lake, in Bourg-Saint-Pierre, Switzerland, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. Voters in a southern Swiss region cast their ballots Sunday, Sept. 10 2023, to decide whether to allow large solar parks on their sun-baked Alpine mountainsides as part of the federal government’s push to develop renewable energies. 

(Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP, File)

September 10, 2023

GENEVA (AP) — Voters in a southern Swiss region on Sunday rejected a plan to allow large solar parks on their sun-baked Alpine mountainsides as part of the federal government’s push to develop renewable energy sources.

The referendum in the Valais canton centered on economic and environmental interests at a time of high and rising concerns about climate change. The canton wrote on its official website that 53.94% voted against the proposal. Turnout was 35.72%.

The vote was a noteworthy test of public opinion. “Not-in-my-backyard”-style opposition to the plan over a presumed blight on bucolic Swiss mountain vistas had made for some unusual political allies in the Alpine country

The rejection doesn’t torpedo solar parks entirely if the private sector wants to develop them. But the “no” did set back the region, seen as one of the sunniest and most apt for solar parks in Switzerland, against others like central Bern Oberland or eastern Graubünden vying for generous federal funding for such projects. At stake is up to 60% of financing for big solar parks.

Proponents had said Switzerland benefits from hydropower — its main source of energy — mostly in the summer, and high-altitude solar parks situated above the typical cloud cover would provide a steady, renewable-energy alternative in the winter, when the country needs to import electricity. They said that federal funding would have sped up development of solar power.

Opposition to the plan had seen some environmental groups align with Switzerland’s conservative populist party. They had said solar parks would be an industrial eyesore on pristine Swiss mountains and argued that outfitting more buildings and homes in towns and cities — closer to where the energy would be used — is preferable.

“Through its giant dams, Valais has already given a large share of its electricity to the country,” the local chapter of the Swiss People’s Party said on its website. “Adding another environmental degradation to this first one is unacceptable.”

“Ransacking our Alps for the benefit of greedy foreign operators and their no-less-greedy local affiliates can only be an evil enterprise and be to our detriment,” it added.

Valais lawmakers and officials had been urging a “yes” vote on the proposal, which asked voters to agree to a decree — which the regional council passed 87-41 in February — authorizing construction of big solar parks that can produce 10 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year.

The federal energy department estimates that about 40 to 50 proposals for large solar parks have been made across the country.

Overall, Swiss federal authorities have set a target of 2 billion GWh in new solar energy under legislation promoting development of solar energy, adopted in September 2022. Some areas, like nature reserves, are excluded from possible development.

With concerns about climate change and their much-vaunted glaciers in mind, Swiss lawmakers have also already approved a plan that requires Switzerland to achieve “net-zero” emissions by 2050. It also set aside more than 3 billion Swiss francs (about $3.4 billion) to help wean companies and homeowners off fossil fuels.

The IRS plans to crack down on 1,600 millionaires to collect millions of dollars in back taxes


Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Feb. 15, 2023, in Washington. The IRS announced Friday, Sept. 8, that it is launching a new effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes. 

(AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)


BY FATIMA HUSSEIN
 September 8, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS announced on Friday it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes.

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of artificial intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on their taxes.

“If you pay your taxes on time it should be particularly frustrating when you see that wealthy filers are not,” Werfel told reporters in a call previewing the announcement. He said 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new “compliance efforts.

Werfel said a massive hiring effort and AI research tools developed by IRS employees and contractors are playing a big role in identifying wealthy tax dodgers. The agency is making an effort to showcase positive results from its burst of new funding under President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration as Republicans in Congress look to claw back some of that money.

“New tools are helping us see patterns and trends that we could not see before, and as a result, we have higher confidence on where to look and find where large partnerships are shielding income,” he said.

In July, IRS leadership said it collected $38 million in delinquent taxes from more than 175 high-income taxpayers in the span of a few months. Now, the agency will scale up that effort, Werfel said.

“The IRS will have dozens of revenue officers focused on these high-end collection cases in fiscal year 2024,” he said.

A team of academic economists and IRS researchers in 2021 found that the top 1% of U.S. income earners fail to report more than 20% of their earnings to the IRS.



The newly announced tax collection effort will begin as soon as October. “We have more hiring to do,” Werfel said. “It’s going to be a very busy fall for us.”

Grover Norquist, who heads the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS’ plan to pursue high wealth individuals does not preclude the IRS from eventually pursuing middle-income Americans for audits down the road.

“This power and these resources allow them to go after anyone they want,” he said. “The next step is to go after anyone they wish to target for political purposes.”

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the IRS’ new plan is a “big deal” that “represents a fresh approach to taking on sophisticated tax cheats.”

“This action goes to the heart of Democrats’ effort to ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share,” he said in a statement.

David Williams, at the right-leaning, nonprofit Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said “every business and every person should pay their taxes — full stop.” However, “I just hope this isn’t used as a justification to hire thousands of new agents,” that would audit Americans en masse, he said.

The federal tax collector gained the enhanced ability to identify tax delinquents with resources provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August of 2022. The agency was in line for an $80 billion infusion under the law, but that money is vulnerable to potential cutbacks by Congress.

House Republicans built a $1.4 billion reduction to the IRS into the debt ceiling and budget cuts package passed by Congress this summer. The White House said the debt deal also has a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert that money to other non-defense programs.

With the threat of a government shutdown looming in a dispute over spending levels, there is the potential for additional cuts to the agency.

Vatican orders investigation into Catholic clerics linked to abuse, Swiss Bishops' Conference says

JAMEY KEATEN and KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Sep. 10, 2023

Swiss Bishop Joseph Bonnemain is pictured during a press conference in Chur, Switzerland, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. The Vatican has ordered an investigation into high-ranking Catholic clerics in Switzerland in connection with sexual abuse, the Swiss Bishops' Conference said on Sunday. According to the bishops' conference, the Vatican received a letter with the allegations in May and subsequently appointed Swiss Bishop Joseph Bonnemain to head a preliminary investigation in June. 

Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)Gian Ehrenzeller/AP

BERLIN (AP) — The Vatican has ordered an investigation into high-ranking Catholic clerics in Switzerland in connection with sexual abuse, the Swiss Bishops' Conference said on Sunday.

The group said in a statement that there were allegations against several active and retired bishops as well as other clergy for their handling of abuse cases.

Specifically, they are accused of covering up abuse cases. There are also accusations that some committed sexual assaults themselves in the past.

“There are accusations against some of them of having committed sexual assaults themselves in the past,” it said.

According to the bishops' conference, the Vatican received a letter with the allegations in May and subsequently appointed Swiss Bishop Joseph Bonnemain to head a preliminary investigation in June.

Bonnemain has a history of investigating sexual assaults around the church, the statement said.

Father Nicolas Betticher, a priest at the Bruder Klaus church in the Swiss capital Bern, confirmed to The Associated Press that he had written the letter, which first came to light earlier Sunday in report by the newspaper Blick.


The letter, which Blick said it had obtained, accuses six bishops of having covered up cases of abuse. Beyond that, a bishop and three priests are accused of sexually molesting teenagers, the paper reported.

In a phone interview, Betticher told the AP he was motivated by a call from Pope Francis himself for members of the clergy to “announce” any signs of sexual abuse or cover-up that they may have come across, and by years of hand-wringing about sexual abuses cases that thwarted efforts at justice and the truth by victims and their families.

He suggested that the Catholic church had professed to make an important reckoning and efforts to strengthen canon law about cases of sexual abuse and harassment in recent years, but mistakes were continuing.

“Twenty years ago, we did not have a sufficient legal basis and therefore we made a lot of mistakes,” Betticher said. “Now, I see that for 10 years, we have continued to make mistakes and today, there is a kind of will to hide certain things, or not to be precise, and not to go through with the checks (of allegations of sexual abuse).”

“Today, we can no longer afford to simply say, ‘Ah yes, I know, but I didn’t do it quite right, but we’ll do better next time.’ That’s over,” Betticher added. “It completely discredits the Church. And that’s what disturbs me, because at the core, people tell us: ‘We don’t want to come anymore, we’re leaving the church.’ And that, for me, is unacceptable.”

Several of the clerics named in the Blick article rejected Betticher's accusations that they had not reacted properly to abuse allegations, the paper wrote.

The bishops’ conference said in its statement that in addition to internal church investigations into the accusations, it had also notified the relevant Swiss public prosecutor’s offices “of the cases mentioned in the letter.”

The new allegations come just days before the presentation of a report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Switzerland. The pilot study was commissioned by the bishops’ conference and conducted by the University of Zurich. It will be presented on Tuesday.

—-

Keaten reported from Lyon, France.

Islamist factions in a troubled Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon say they will honor a cease-fire

Photos  13

BY FADI TAWIL AND KAREEM CHEHAYEB
 September 11, 2023


SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Islamist factions in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp said Sunday they will abide by a cease-fire after three days of clashes killed at least five people and left hundreds of families displaced.

Fighting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Islamist groups has rocked southern Lebanon’s Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp since Friday. Fatah and other factions in the camp had intended to crack down on suspects accused of killing one of their military generals in late July.

Besides the five killed, 52 others were wounded, Dr. Riad Abu Al-Einen, who heads the Al-Hamshari Hospital in Sidon that has received the casualties, told The Associated Press. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, however stated that four people were killed and 60 others wounded.


The Lebanese military said in a statement that five soldiers were wounded after three shells landed in army checkpoints surrounding the camp. One of the soldiers is in critical condition.

OTHER NEWS

Cease-fire declared after days of intense fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp

Clashes resume in largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, killing 3 and wounding 10

“The army command repeats its warning to the concerned parties in the camp about the consequences of exposing military members and positions to danger, and affirms that the army will take appropriate measures in response,” the statement said.

Ein el-Hilweh, home to some 55,000 people according to the United Nations, is notorious for its lawlessness and violence is not uncommon in the camp. It was established in 1948 to house Palestinians who were displaced when Israel was established.

Lebanese officials, security agencies and the U.N. have urged the warring factions to agree on a cease-fire. The interim chief of Lebanon’s General Security agency Elias al-Baysari said that he will attend a Monday meeting between Palestinian factions and urge the factions to reach a resolution.

The clashing factions in the camp said in a statement published Sunday by Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency that they planned to abide by a cease-fire.

UNRWA said hundreds of families displaced from the camp have taken shelter in nearby mosques, schools and the Sidon municipality building. The U.N. agency and local organizations are setting up additional shelters after Lebanon’s prime minister and interior minister shut down an initiative by the municipality, the Lebanese Red Cross, and local community groups to set up a few dozen tents for families.

Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics set up stations at the camp’s entrance to treat the wounded and provided food packages to displaced families.

Among the wounded was Sabine Al-Ahmad, 16, who fled the camp with her family. She was being treated for shrapnel wounds. “We were running away and a shell exploded over us,” she told the AP.

Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, said armed groups are still occupying the agency’s schools in the camp. “UNRWA calls on all parties and those with influence over them to stop the violence,” Klaus said in a statement.

Several days of street battles in the Ein el-Hilweh camp between Fatah and members of the extremist Jund al-Sham group erupted earlier this summer that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded, and ended after an uneasy truce was put in place on Aug. 3. Those street battles forced hundreds to flee their homes.

However, clashes were widely expected to resume as the Islamist groups never handed over those accused of killing the Fatah general to the Lebanese judiciary, as demanded by a committee of Palestinian factions last month.

Lebanon is home to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Many live in the 12 refugee camps that are scattered around the small Mediterranean country.
___

Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

American researcher has been rescued from deep Turkish cave more than a week after he fell ill

American researcher Mark Dickey has been pulled out from Morca cave in southern Turkey after more than a week of being seriously ill.

Videos 2  Photos  9

 September 11, 2023

TASELI PLATEAU, Turkey (AP) — Rescuers pulled an American researcher out of a Turkish cave early Tuesday, more than a week after he became seriously ill 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) below its entrance, officials said.

Teams from across Europe had rushed to Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to aid Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old experienced caver who became seriously ill on Sept. 2 with stomach bleeding. He was on an expedition to map the cave, which is the country’s third deepest.

Dickey was t oo frail to climb out himself, so rescuers carried him with the help of a stretcher, making frequent stops at temporary camps set up along the way before he finally reached the surface early Tuesday.

“Mark Dickey is out of the Morca cave,” said a statement from the Speleological Federation of Turkey. It said that Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave at 12:37 a.m. local time Tuesday, or 9:37 p.m. GMT Monday.

OTHER NEWS

What to know about the successful rescue of a US researcher who was trapped in a deep Turkish cave

Rescue begins of ailing US researcher stuck 3,000 feet inside a Turkish cave, Turkish officials say

“He is fine and is being tended to by emergency medical workers in the encampment above,” the statement said.

Lying on a stretcher surrounded by reporters following his rescue , Dickey described the ordeal as a “crazy, crazy adventure.”

“It is amazing to be above ground again,” he said, thanking the Turkish government for saving his life with its rapid response. He also thanked the international caving community, Turkish cavers and Hungarian Cave Rescue, among others.

The American was first treated inside the cave by a Hungarian doctor who went down the cave on Sept. 3. Doctors and rescuers then took turns caring for him. The cause of Dickey’s illness was not clear.

On Tuesday, Dickey said that in the cave he had started to throw up large quantities of blood.

“My consciousness started to get harder to hold on to, and I reached the point where I thought ‘I’m not going to live,’” he told reporters.

The biggest challenges for the rescuers getting him out of the cave were the steep vertical sections and navigating through mud and water at low temperatures in the horizontal sections. There was also the psychological toll of staying inside a dark, damp cave for extended periods of time.

Around 190 experts from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey took part in the rescue, including doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers. Teams comprised of a doctor and three to four other rescuers took turns staying by his side at all times.

The rescue began on Saturday after doctors, who administered IV fluids and blood, determined that Dickey could make the arduous ascent.

Before the evacuation could begin, rescuers first had to widen some of the cave’s narrow passages, install ropes to pull him up vertical shafts on a stretcher and set up temporary camps along the way.

Dickey, who is from Croton-on-Hudson, New York, is a well-known cave researcher and a cave rescuer himself who had participated in many international expeditions.

He and several other people on the expedition were mapping the 1,276-meter (4,186-foot) deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association. Dickey became ill on Sept. 2, but it took until the next morning to notify people above ground.

Turkish authorities made a video message available that showed Dickey standing and moving around on Thursday. While alert and talking, he said he was not “healed on the inside” and needed a lot of help to get out of the cave.

After his rescue, the head of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, Okay Memis, told a news conference that the health of Dickey was “very good.”

The European Cave Rescue Association said many cave rescuers remained in the cave to remove rope and rescue equipment used during the operation.

The association expressed its “huge gratitude to the many cave rescuers from seven different countries who contributed to the success of this cave rescue operation.”

“The fact that our son, Mark Dickey, has been moved out of Morca Cave in stable condition is indescribably relieving and fills us with incredible joy,” Mark’s parents. Debbie and Andy Dickey, said in a statement.

Puerto Rico’s public schools clamor for air conditioning to get relief from record-breaking heat

A school maintenance worker wears sun protection at the Escuela Elemental Santiago Iglesias Pantín school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. Students and teachers are holding class in public schools across Puerto Rico that lack air conditioning amid record heat this year.
Students stand outside during their recess at the Escuela Elemental Santiago Iglesias Pantín school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. Students and teachers are holding class in public schools across Puerto Rico that lack air conditioning amid record heat this year. 

Students watch their teachers protest that their school is too hot at the Escuela Elemental Santiago Iglesias Pantín school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. Students and teachers are holding class in public schools across Puerto Rico that lack air conditioning amid record heat this year.

 (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo)

BY DÁNICA COTO
 September 8, 2023

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Public school teacher Ángel Muñiz grabbed a thermometer and thrust it into the camera as someone recorded him inside his classroom this week.

“It is about 99 degrees (37 C),” he said in a video posted on social media as seven fans whirred noisily around him.

It wasn’t even noon yet, and an advisory that day warned of a heat index of up to 111 F (43.8 C).

Students and teachers are sweltering in public schools across Puerto Rico that lack air conditioning and are demanding government action as the U.S. Caribbean territory struggles to respond to climate change effects while it bakes under record heat this year.


Puerto Rico board submits third plan in attempt to restructure power company debt of $10 billion

Last month was the hottest August on the island since record-keeping began. Puerto Rico broke the record of the daily maximum temperature six times and the highest minimum eight times, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan.

It also was the hottest August worldwide, with 2023 the second hottest year on record so far.

Heat advisories for Puerto Rico became the norm this summer, with the island reporting a record 47 nights with temperatures above 80 F (26 C).

“Records are being broken almost every day,” said Odalys Martínez, National Weather Service forecaster.

Public schools with no air conditioning or whose cooling systems are inoperable due to power outages blamed on a hurricane-battered electric grid are seeking relief, but it’s unlikely they’ll find it soon.

Last month, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi quietly vetoed a bill that called for air conditioning systems for public schools. The move outraged many, with some calling the situation inhumane as students organized protests.

“It’s irresponsible, because this is an emergency. It’s a matter of public health,” said Yasim Sarkis, a social worker at an elementary school that often lacks electricity and whose son attends a public high school with no air conditioning.

Her school installed air conditioners in April for its 165 students and some 40 employees, but they have yet to be turned on.

“There’s not enough current,” Sarkis said.

In addition, a power outage last week that has yet to be fixed forced her school to start releasing students at 11:30 a.m. since it has no generator. The electrical problems began after Hurricane Maria pummeled the island in 2017 and razed the power grid that crews only recently started to rebuild.

Pierluisi didn’t provide a written explanation of why he vetoed the bill. His spokeswoman, Sheila Angleró, told The Associated Press that any project with a “significant fiscal impact” requires an analysis from the legislature’s budget office, a requirement for an island emerging from the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy in history.

“The projects can make all the sense, but without this, they cannot be signed,” she said.

Air conditioning is considered a necessity by many on this tropical island of 3.2 million people, with government offices, businesses and homes running cooling systems round-the-clock, especially in the summer.

But air conditioning remains rare at public schools, which depend on fans and trade winds that blow through windows with metal shutters.

“Our classrooms have turned into saunas, and the Department of Education has dragged its feet in responding to the situation,” said Edwin Morales, vice president of the island’s Federation of Teachers.

It’s unknown how many public schools lack air conditioning or have air conditioners that don’t work because of electrical problems. The island’s education department, an oft-criticized bureaucratic behemoth that oversees one of the largest school districts in a U.S. jurisdiction with more than 259,000 students and more than 850 schools, said it’s trying to gather that data.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s Association of Teachers said that of 2,500 teachers surveyed so far, more than 83% said they don’t have air conditioning in their classroom. More than 50% of public schools also have reported a heat-related emergency.

“This is alarming,” said Raúl González, the association’s vice president, adding that they’ve received reports of teachers and students fainting from the heat.

On Friday, the education department canceled classes island-wide in a rush to find solutions to the relentless heat after distributing 21,000 fans the day before. It also has proposed allowing students to wear Bermuda shorts, adding more fruits and liquids to the school menu and modifying schedules, among other things.

The proposals have angered many, including Ángel Matos García, majority spokesman for Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives.

“It is a shame that with a purchase order of $33 million for the replacement and installation of air conditioners, the department only thinks of installing water fountains, giving Friday off and buying fans,” he said.

A spokesman for the department didn’t return a message seeking comment.

In the meantime, students are fanning themselves with notebooks, teachers are fundraising money for more classroom fans and courses such as cooking and cosmetology have been affected, because the intense heat prevents the use of certain equipment.

Sarkis’ son, 17, has taken to hiking up his school uniform pants and skipping swim training because the heat is intense and he feels too weak.

“He comes home with big headaches,” she said.

His school is closing two hours earlier than usual to avoid exposing students to excess heat, but Sarkis said she doesn’t mind the abbreviated courses as long as her son’s health is protected.

She urged the governor to approve the bill that legislators first filed in October 2021 and vowed to amend and submit again.

“Approve it and then figure out where you’ll get the money from. Because there is money,” Sarkis said. “This is not going to stop. Global warming is real.”
___

Cuba arrests 17 for allegedly helping recruit some of its citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine

Marilin Vinent holds up a photo of her son Dannys Castillo dressed in military fatigues in an Aug. 22 message from her son that reads in Spanish “I’m already entangled” during an interview at her home in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Vinent said that her son and other Cubans traveled at the end of July to Russia after being promised work in a construction job, but that he was one of the Cubans recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine. 

Marilin Vinent holds a photo of her son Dannys Castillo with other Cubans in Russia, sent in a message from her son during an interview at her home in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Vinent said that her son and other Cubans traveled at the end of July to Russia after being promised work in a construction job, but that he was one of the Cubans recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine. 

(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

BY CRISTIANA MESQUITA AND MILEXSY DURÁN
September 8, 2023

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with what they described as a network to recruit Cuban nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

The head of criminal investigations for Cuba’s Interior Ministry, César Rodríguez, said late Thursday on state media that at least three of the 17 arrested are part of recruitment efforts inside the island country.

He did not identify the alleged members of the network but said they had previous criminal records. Some families started speaking up about the case on Friday, and at least one mother said that her son was promised a job in construction in Russia.


Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the government had detected a network operating from Russia to recruit Cuban citizens living both in Russia and in Cuba to fight in Ukraine. It said authorities were working “to neutralize and dismantle” the network but gave no details.

OTHER NEWS

Cuban boy castaway Elián González becomes a lawmaker

Cuban entrepreneurs get business training from the US, and hope that Biden lifts sanctions

“Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said in a news release.

Cuba and Russia are political allies and Cubans do not require a visa to travel to Russia. Many go there to study or to work.

In May 2023, a newspaper in the Russian region of Ryazan, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Moscow, reported from a military enlistment office there that “several citizens of the Cuba Republic” signed up to join the army. The Ryazanskiye Vedomosti newspaper quoted some Cubans as saying they were there to help Russia “complete tasks in the special military operation zone.” It also said “some of them in the future would like to become Russian citizens.”

In Havana, prosecutor José Luis Reyes told state TV that suspects are being investigated for crimes, including being a mercenary or recruiting mercenaries, and could face sentences of up to 30 years or life in prison, or even the death penalty

Marilin Vinent, 60, said Friday that her son Dannys Castillo, 27, is one of the Cubans recruited in Russia.

At her home in Havana, she said her son and other Cubans traveled at the end of July to Russia after being promised work in a construction job. “They were all deceived,” she said.

Vinent showed reporters photos of her son in her cellphone, including some of him dressed in military fatigues.

She said that her son told her he had accepted the offer to go to Russia because he wanted to economically help the family, as the island is suffering an economic crisis, with people facing shortages of some products.

“I don’t know if my son is alive. We don’t know anything,” she said. “What I would like is to talk to him.”

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it’s aware of the reports. “We are deeply concerned that young Cubans may have been deceived and recruited to fight for Russia in its brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and we continue to monitor this situation closely,” it said.

Russian law allows foreign nationals to enlist in its army, after signing a contract with the Defense Ministry.

Since September 2022, foreigners who have served in the Russian army for at least one year are allowed to apply for Russian citizenship in a simplified procedure, without obtaining a residency permit first.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said earlier in September that the city was setting up “infrastructure to assist the Russian Defense Ministry in facilitating the enlistment of foreign nationals” in the capital’s main government office for migrants.

Last month, Russian media reported cases of authorities refusing to accept citizenship applications from Tajik nationals until they sign a contract with the Defense Ministry and enlist in the army. And in an online statement last week, the British Defense Ministry said there are “at least six million migrants from Central Asia in Russia, which the Kremlin likely sees as potential recruits.”

The ministry said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that “exploiting foreign nationals allows the Kremlin to acquire additional personnel for its war effort in the face of mounting casualties.”

It also noted that there have been online adds seeking recruits for the Russian army in Armenia and Kazakhstan.
___

Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

War in Ukraine: A Cuban father's hell after two sons illegally recruited by Russian forces

Issued on: 12/09/2023 - 

El cubano Pedro Roberto Gamuza, padre de dos jóvenes reclutados para luchar con el ejército ruso en la guerra de Ucrania, en Santa Clara, Cuba, el 11 de septiembre de 2023 © ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP

Video by:Gaëlle FONSECA

The war in Ukraine has hit very close to home for Pedro Roberto Camuza, a 59-year-old Cuban: One of his sons has gone to fight there for Russia and another is detained in Havana, charged with being a mercenary. The father declares that he knows nothing about his sons' situations, but he is determined t

Controversial South African political figure and Zulu minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi dies at 95


 Controversial South African politician and traditional minister of South Africa’s large Zulu ethnic group, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, in traditional dress March 26, 2009. Buthelezi has died at the age of 95, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.. 

(AP Photo/File)Photos

BY MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
 September 9, 2023

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Controversial South African politician and traditional minister of the Zulu ethnic group Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has died at the age of 95, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Saturday.

Buthelezi founded the Inkatha Freedom Party, the third largest political party in South Africa when the country transitioned from the racist apartheid system to a democratic one in 1994.

He was admitted to hospital in July following a failed medical procedure to ease his back pain, his family said at the time.
“Prince Buthelezi, who served as the democratic South Africa’s first Minister of Home Affairs, passed away in the early hours of today, Saturday, 9 September 2023, just two weeks after the celebration of his 95th birthday,” Ramaphosa said in a statement on Saturday.

According to Ramaphosa, arrangements for his mourning and funeral will be announced after consultations with the Zulu royal family.

“Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has been an outstanding leader in the political and cultural life of our nation, including the ebbs and flows of our liberation struggle, the transition which secured our freedom in 1994 and our democratic dispensation,” said Ramaphosa.

Buthelezi was part of the late Nelson Mandela’s first cabinet when the latter became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.

Mandela appointed him as a minister of home affairs, a position he continued to hold in the second administration of former president Thabo Mbeki.

His legacy has remained a contested one due to the role he played during South Africa’s apartheid era, including heading the administrative region of Zululand, a part of the “homelands” regions that were the cornerstone of the apartheid government’s policy of separate development.

His party was also blamed for the pre-election violence that engulfed the country and the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal before the country’s historic 1994 elections.

Now known as KwaZulu-Natal province, the region was one of the 10 “homelands” created by the white-minority government meant to group Black South Africans according to their ethnicity in the country’s mostly rural areas.

These were meant to keep the apartheid system intact by installing so-called “puppet leaders” leading to Buthelezi being labeled a sell-out by liberation movements like the ruling African National Congress at the time.

A former member of the ANC Youth League, in 1975 he formed what was later to be known as the Inkatha Freedom Party, an outfit founded on an ideology of Zulu nationalism which he initially aligned to the African National Congress but later got involved in violent clashes with ANC supporters in the 1980s and early 1990s.

The violence that erupted between Inkatha and the ANC in the 1980s and early 1990s remains one of the bloodiest in South African history and a dent in Buthelezi’s political career. Many were killed in the clashes which took place in the then Zululand and later spread to areas including the Transvaal, now the Gauteng province.

These culminated in what got to be known as the Shell House Massacre in 1994.

Nineteen IFP supporters were shot and killed by ANC security guards after nearly 20,000 of them marched to Shell House in Johannesburg, which was then the headquarters of the ANC, banned in 1990.

They were opposing the upcoming elections and accused the ANC of undermining Zulu leaders and chiefs.

In the early 1990s, leaders of the apartheid government admitted to funding the Inkatha Freedom Party as they sought to destabilize the struggle against apartheid and what was increasingly looking like a road to the end of white minority rule

Buthelezi opposed apartheid but his stance on controversial issues regarding the oppressive system put him at odds with ANC leaders.

This included his opposition to international sanctions against apartheid and his support for free markets at a time when most liberation movements were largely socialist and African nationalists.

His leadership of the Zululand administration was considered a betrayal to Black South Africans as the “homelands” system was an integral part of the apartheid machinery.

With the growth and significance of his IFP party, Buthelezi wanted his party to play a bigger role during the negotiations for a peaceful transition to democracy, but he withdrew from the negotiations and threatened to boycott the historic 1994 elections after his proposals, including the autonomy of the Zululand region, were rejected.

However, he agreed to participate in the elections about a week before they were held, winning 10% of the national vote and forming part of Mandela’s coalition government which also included the National Party.

He remained a lawmaker in South Africa’s Parliament from 1994 until his death and the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party until he was replaced at its national conference in 2019.

Throughout his political career, Buthelezi remained deeply involved in the affairs of the Zulu nation, serving as a traditional prime minister and advisor to the late King Goodwill Zwelithini and his successor, his son King Misuzulu KaZwelithini.

In 2022, he oversaw the installation of Misuzulu as the new king of the Zulu nation amid fierce, internal disputes within the Zulu royal family about who was the rightful heir to the throne.

During his last days, it had become apparent that the two had fallen out, with a sickly Buthelezi questioning the new king.

Buthelezi turned 95 last month.