Hurricane leaves six dead in Cuba as power blackout eases

Havana (AFP) – Hurricane Oscar left six people dead after hitting Cuba over the weekend during a major power blackout, authorities said Monday, as electricity was restored to most of the capital.

Havana is plunged into darkness after Cuba's power grid breaks down © YAMIL LAGE / AFP

The lights went out for the Communist-run country's 10 million people on Friday after the collapse of the nation's largest power plant crippled the whole grid.

By Monday afternoon, nearly 90 percent of customers in Havana -- home to some two million people -- had power again, the capital's electricity company said in a report published by state-run news portal Cubadebate.

"Of course I'm happy!" Olga Gomez, a 59-year-old housewife in Havana, said after the lights came back on.

"I have an elderly senile mother of 85 and an autistic son. It's very difficult when there's no power," she told AFP.


Many residents outside Havana, however, remained without electricity, according to the authorities.

Cuba was still bathed in darkness on Sunday when Hurricane Oscar made landfall in the eastern part of the country as a Category 1 storm, causing several deaths and damage.

"Regrettably, according to preliminary information, six lives have been lost," President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a televised remarks.

The storm caused severe damage in the eastern province of Guantanamo, he said.

Oscar weakened into a tropical storm as it moved inland but was still expected to bring "significant, life-threatening flash flooding along with mudslides," the US National Hurricane Center warned.

Roofs and the walls of houses were damaged, and electricity poles and trees felled, state television reported.

'Feel like crying'

With concerns of instability rising in a country already battling sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and water, Diaz-Canel warned Sunday that his government would not tolerate attempts to "disturb public order."

A Cuban walks next to a floating power plant in Havana's harbor on October 21, 2024 © YAMIL LAGE / AFP

In July 2021, blackouts sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public anger, with thousands of Cubans taking to the street and chanting slogans including "Freedom!" and "We are hungry."

Residents voiced frustration at the latest power outage, which crippled businesses and caused food in fridges to go bad.

"I feel like crying, like screaming. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do," said Kenia Sierra, a housewife.

Dozens of people took to the streets over the weekend in one neighborhood, banging pots and pans and shouting "Turn on the lights."
Decrepit infrastructure

Cubans chat at night on a street during a nationwide blackout in Havana © Adalberto ROQUE / AFP

The power grid failed in a chain reaction Friday due to the unexpected shutdown of the biggest of the island's eight decrepit coal-fired power plants, according to the head of electricity supply at the energy ministry, Lazaro Guerra.

Power was briefly restored Sunday to a few hundred thousand inhabitants before the grid failed again, according to the national electric utility UNE.

Authorities have suspended classes and business activities until Wednesday, with only hospitals and essential services remaining operational.

Cuba generates only a third of the electricity it needs, so to bolster the grid it has leased seven floating power plants from Turkish companies and also added many small diesel-powered generators.

The country's main power plant was due to be reconnected to the national grid on Monday.

Diaz-Canel blamed the situation on Cuba's difficulties in acquiring fuel for its power plants, which he attributed to the tightening, during Donald Trump's presidency, of a six-decade-long US trade embargo.

But the island is in the throes of a broader economic malaise --- the worst economic crisis, according to experts, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which heavily subsidized Cuba.

"Cubans are tired of so much... There's no life here, (people) can't take it anymore," said Serguei Castillo, a 68-year-old bricklayer.

© 2024 AFP

Amnesty says migrant workers exploited at Carrefour Saudi stores

Paris (AFP) – Rights group Amnesty International published Monday a report that accused the Saudi Arabian franchise of French supermarket giant Carrefour of exploiting migrant workers.

Carrefour's franchisee in the Middle East, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), manages nearly 500 Carrefour stores in 30 countries © Pascal GUYOT / AFP/File

Carrefour told AFP that an internal probe had not confirmed most allegations but was planning on conducting an external review.

Amnesty said it found migrant workers for Carrefour's Saudi Arabian franchisee were deceived by recruitment agents, forced to work excessive hours, denied days off, cheated of their earnings and made to live in squalid accommodations.

"Workers thought they were opening the door to a better life but instead many were subjected to appalling exploitation and abuse," said Marta Schaaf, who heads up Amnesty International’s corporate accountability programme.

"Carrefour’s inaction meant it failed to prevent this suffering, which for some contracted workers likely amounts to forced labour including human trafficking," she added.

Amnesty based its report on interviews with 17 people recruited from India, Nepal and Pakistan to work in Carrefour stores in Saudi Arabia, which have been operated by the French retailer's Middle East franchisee Majid Al Futtaim (MAF).

Amnesty said Carrefour has responsibility to ensure labour abuses do not occur throughout its operations, including in franchises, and called on it and MAF to remedy the situation and "ensure that workers in their operations are never harmed again."

Carrefour said that it had discussions with Amnesty earlier this year on labour conditions in Saudi Arabia and that it had asked MAF to investigate.

"These preliminary investigations did not confirm the elements signalled by Amnesty's alert but did reveal other problems: housing, training and accounting of work hours for which corrective actions were taken," Carrefour told AFP on Friday.

It added that it had appointed an outside expert to review the human rights situation and the assessment methodology was being determined.

Saudi Arabia's human resources ministry said on Monday that the government had a zero-tolerance policy for worker abuse.

"Any form of labour abuse or exploitation is unacceptable, and allegations of this nature are comprehensively investigated by the relevant authorities," the ministry said in a written statement in response to questions from AFP.

The ministry also said it works closely with the governments of migrant workers’ home countries to combat abusive recruitment practices.

The statement did not specifically address Amnesty's allegations against Carrefour.

Dubai-based MAF manages nearly 500 Carrefour stores in 30 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, with Saudi Arabia its second largest market behind the United Arab Emirates.

The company earned a net profit of around $735 million last year on revenues of $9.4 billion.

© 2024 AFP

Major crypto, diamond fraud trial opens in France

Nancy (France) (AFP) – A trial opened in a French conference centre on Monday, with more than 20 defendants accused of defrauding 1,300 individuals with fake cryptocurrency and diamond investment schemes, as well as swindling top football clubs.

Investors thought they were buying into real diamonds © ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP

Some 28 million euros ($30 million) were allegedly stolen in the case, dubbed "red card" because of the dozen football clubs among the plaintiffs.

Some 850 of the victims are represented at the trial which had to be moved to the conference centre in the eastern French city of Nancy because there were too many for a traditional court. Hearings are set to last four weeks.

The defendants, between 28 and 73, are accused of running websites offering fraudulent investment opportunities in diamonds or cryptocurrencies between 2016 and 2018.

One person handed over 400,000 euros believing they were investing in diamonds and what was advertised as a "diamond savings plan".


Some investors lost big chunks of their savings or even contracted loans to invest, attracted by a promise of large annual returns, said Colman, a law firm representing around 100 plaintiffs.

"We believe this trial marks a strong signal in the fight against international financial fraud," the firm said in a statement.

The accused opened 199 bank accounts in 19 countries to receive and transfer funds, according to investigators. Some 2.8 million euros were recovered and could be used to compensate victims.

A side business for the alleged fraudsters was swindling money out of French football clubs.

Individuals based in the southern city of Marseille and in Israel pretended to be agents acting on behalf of professional players. They said the players had changed their banking details and salaries should be sent to the new accounts.

Around 10 top clubs were targeted, with Sochaux, Angers and Toulouse falling for the scam and handing over around 60,000 euros.

The 22 defendants -- including three who are still at large and are being tried in absentia -- have varying degrees of implication in the fraud, prosecutors said.

About 12 are charged with "criminal conspiracy", notably for allowing their names to be used to open bank accounts through which funds were channelled across Europe and to Israel.

Others are accused of "fraud committed in a gang", most of them for building fake websites or ordering fake diamonds.

© 2024 AFP

GOOD NEWS

Catholic bishops 'resigned to defeat' — and spending millions less on election: report

Alex Henderson, AlterNet
October 21, 2024 

Pope Francis with U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 (Creative Commons)

When the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion a national right with the historic Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, the most vehement outcry didn't come from white evangelical Protestants — it came from Catholics. White evangelicals, as religious studies professor Randall Balmer has noted, didn't make abortion a high priority until the late 1970s — their big issue in 1973 was segregation, which they vigorously defended.

The late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., in fact, was an outspoken defender of Jim Crow laws for many years. And his Moral Majority didn't have a lot to say about abortion before the Religious Right emerged at the end of the decade.

In 2024, abortion remains a sensitive subject among Catholics. The U.S. Supreme Court, now dominated by far-right Catholics, overturned Roe with its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Yet some devout Catholics, including President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have been scathing critics of that decision and passionately defended reproductive rights.

In a Religion News Service/National Public Radio article, journalists Jack Jenkins and Rosemary Westwood report that this election year, Catholic bishops are spending millions of dollars less fighting abortion than they spent in the past.

According to Jenkins and Westwood, ten states have abortion-related ballot measures in 2024. But Catholic bishops are spending money to fight them in only three of those states — an indication that they are "resigned to defeat" on this key issue.

"There are ten states with abortion measures on the ballot in 2024 — almost all of them seeking to protect abortion rights," the reporters explain. "That's four abortion measures more than in 2022, the first election after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the question of abortion to the states. Yet an NPR and RNS review of financial disclosures found that Catholic groups are contributing far less this year — if they're spending money at all…. In fact, if you add up the donations from bishops in all 10 states, it amounts to just over $1 million."

Jenkins and Westwood add, "That's less than a third of the $3.68 million that a single Kansas archdiocese spent in 2022."

Jamie Morris, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, told RNS and NPR, "We have not seen sort of those big money sums coming in yet."

According to Morris, anti-abortion Catholics have a "realistic view that up to this point, we have not been very successful as a pro-life community on these ballot initiatives."

Jenkins and Westwood report, "Most of the money Catholic bishops have spent this election has been in Florida, where they have donated nearly $1 million to groups fighting Amendment 4, making them one of the largest donors in that state. But so far, there is only evidence in public filings that dioceses have contributed in two of the other nine states: Colorado, where they've spent $50,000, and Missouri, where they've spent $30,006. The Missouri Catholic conference and its five dioceses — including the region surrounding St. Louis, where roughly 20 percent of the population is Catholic, according to the local archdiocese — have each donated $5001 to Missouri Stands With Women, which is opposing the ballot measure."

Catholic bishops are spending millions less to fight abortion this election

(RNS and NPR) — Ten states have abortion on the ballot this year, yet Catholic bishops have contributed money in only three of them — and significantly less than they donated to anti-abortion initiatives in 2022.

FILE - Anti-abortion supporters stand outside at the Arizona capitol, May 1, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

Jack Jenkins and Rosemary Westwood
October 20, 2024

(RNS and NPR) — Every Monday morning, Ashley Wilson makes a cup of coffee, opens her laptop and loads Florida’s campaign finance tracking website. As the spokesperson for abortion-rights group Catholics for Choice, she likes to keep an eye on donations to combat Amendment 4 — a ballot initiative that, if passed, would enshrine abortion rights in the state.

And every week, like clockwork, Wilson finds organizations tied to the Catholic hierarchy, long one of the loudest opponents of abortion rights, among the largest sources of donations dedicated to defeating Amendment 4.

“The most challenging part is the bishops are an incredibly well funded, well organized and powerful political machine,” Wilson said. “They are literally set up for success.”

But buried in the donation data are indications that Catholic bishops, at least when it comes to this year’s abortion fights, may be resigned to defeat. There are 10 states with abortion measures on the ballot in 2024 — almost all of them seeking to protect abortion rights. That’s four abortion measures more than in 2022, the first election after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the question of abortion to the states. Yet an NPR and RNS review of financial disclosures found that Catholic groups are contributing far less this year — if they’re spending money at all.

“We have not seen sort of those big money sums coming in yet,” Jamie Morris, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, said in an interview.

In fact, if you add up the donations from bishops in all 10 states, it amounts to just over $1 million. That’s less than a third of the $3.68 million that a single Kansas archdiocese spent in 2022. But the Kansas bishops lost — voters rejected the measure that would have altered the state constitution to remove the right to an abortion. Bishops lost in Ohio, too, where they contributed $1.7 million to a political action committee set up to fight an abortion rights ballot measure, which ultimately passed. In all six states that had abortion ballot measures in 2022, voters sided with abortion rights.

Attendees opposed to Issue 1 pray during a “rosary rally” on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023, in Norwood, Ohio. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Issue 1 supporters cheer as they watch election results come in, Nov. 7, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio. Voters approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion.(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Anti-abortion activists in 2024, Morris said, are operating with a “realistic view that up to this point, we have not been very successful as a pro-life community on these ballot initiatives.”

Most of the money Catholic bishops have spent this election has been in Florida, where they have donated nearly $1 million to groups fighting Amendment 4, making them one of the largest donors in that state. But so far, there is only evidence in public filings that dioceses have contributed in two of the other nine states: Colorado, where they’ve spent $50,000, and Missouri, where they’ve spent $30,006. The Missouri Catholic conference and its five dioceses — including the region surrounding St. Louis, where roughly 20% of the population is Catholic, according to the local archdiocese — have each donated $5,001 to Missouri Stands With Women, which is opposing the ballot measure.

In Arizona, where the race is expected to be tighter, bishops do not appear to have contributed any money to the anti-abortion PAC It Goes Too Far campaign, according to data from the secretary of state.

NPR and RNS also could not find evidence that bishops have spent any money this year on broader campaigns against abortion-related ballot initiatives in Montana, Nevada, Maryland, New York and South Dakota, nor have they spent money in Nebraska, where there are two competing abortion-related measures on the ballot.

 Anti-abortion protesters gather for a news conference after Arizona abortion-rights supporters delivered more than 800,000 petition signatures to the state Capitol to get abortion rights on the November general election ballot, July 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

The trend is even more dramatic when anti-abortion groups are compared with their opponents: In Florida, organized efforts to prevent a right to abortion have collectively raised around $9 million this year, whereas supporters of abortion rights have raised more than $90 million.

Catholic leaders and their allies said there is still time left for big influxes of cash, and noted the discrepancy could be explained by many extenuating factors. Jenny Kraska, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, where a measure enshrining abortion rights is widely expected to pass, argued the sheer number of ballot initiatives this year could mean Catholic leaders are being more selective with where they spend their money.

The nation’s Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting at the Marriott Waterfront hotel in Baltimore on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Tiffany Stanley)

“Being realistic, when you look at what’s happened in other states that I think would be categorized as much more obviously red than Maryland … I think there also has to be the right allocation of resources,” Kraska said.

Wilson of Catholics for Choice also pointed out that many of the measures were only cleared by judges to appear on the ballot recently, making it difficult to muster campaigns on short notice.

Not that Catholic bishops and state Catholic conferences have given up. Many are allocating resources toward quieter, more targeted methods to convince voters — and worshippers in their own pews — to embrace their cause.

Prelates in several states fought against putting abortion initiatives on the ballot in the first place, and Catholic leaders in Nevada produced a video criticizing the state’s abortion initiative that has been shown in all Archdiocese of Las Vegas parishes. In Nebraska, the state’s Catholic conference has organized a website that includes downloadable prayer cards calling on God to “move the hearts and minds of all Nebraskans to vote against Initiative 439.”

A supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, argues about abortion rights with supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, protesting alongside an event kicking off a national “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour” by the Harris-Walz campaign, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Boynton Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In Florida, local activists such as Maureen Shilkunas, who works for the Diocese of St. Augustine, are giving talks about Amendment 4 in churches, colleges and even garden parties. She wears a pin with footprints that symbolize a 10-week-old in utero, and uses it as a conversation starter wherever she goes.

“People say, ‘Oh my gosh, what is that?’ Then I ask them, ‘Have you heard about Amendment 4?'” Shilkunas said.

Archbishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas said he is also trying to coordinate a multifaith coalition to defeat the abortion measure in his state, appealing to evangelical Protestants and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to form “a more expansive approach to the legislation.”


Archbishop George Leo Thomas. (Photo courtesy Archdiocese of Las Vegas)

“I’m pretty good at street fighting, so I have absolutely no problem whatsoever taking on complicated issues, but I just feel that it’s so important to have allies and partners in order to actually win the battle,” Thomas said.

What’s more, Catholic groups have backed last-minute legal efforts to remove the measures from the ballot, at least two of which involved the Thomas More Society, a Catholic legal group. Last month, the Missouri Catholic Conference sent out an action alert to supporters urging them to pray the rosary and fast in support of the Thomas More Society’s legal case against the measure as it went before the state Supreme Court. That case, as well as a similar effort supported by the Thomas More Society in Nebraska, failed.

But even as they strive to defeat the ballot initiatives, the messaging of anti-abortion Catholics this year focuses less on broad-based Catholic opposition to abortion and more on the specifics of each initiative. Instead of railing against abortion as a “moral evil” — the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church — Catholic leaders in multiple states have been more apt to label local abortion rights legislation as “deceptive,” “vague” or “extreme.”

“Catholics, we would oppose it in any case, because we would oppose any expansion of abortion ‘wrongs’ — or abortion rights, as some people might frame them,” Miami Archbishop Thomas Gerard Wenski said in an interview. “But there is enough for pro-choice people to oppose here as well.”

Morris, of the Missouri Catholic Conference, acknowledged that for the “purposes of messaging,” his group is trying to reach Catholics who are not “completely with us 100% on the issue of abortion” by arguing that the state’s ballot initiative is a threat to the “safety of women.”

Polls have long shown broad support among Catholics for abortion rights, with 61% of Catholic respondents in a 2023 Pew survey saying they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Dissent has even come from nuns: In 2022, two Catholic women religious defied bishops on the issue in Kansas, publishing a letter saying efforts to pass an abortion ban there would allow politicians to “impose religious beliefs on all Kansans.”

Archbishop Thomas of Vegas recognizes the uphill battle he and his brother bishops face this year, saying his own approach — building a multifaith coalition — “may or may not work,” but no matter what, “we’ll sure go down fighting.”

Rosemary Westwood is with NPR member station WWNO and Jack Jenkins with RNS.

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and RNS. Listen to the radio version of the story.

US infant mortality spiked after right to abortion overturned: study

Washington (AFP) – US infant mortality surged in the months following the Supreme Court decision to overturn the national right to abortion, driven by a rise in the number of babies with birth defects, a study said Monday.

Abortion rights activists protest against the Supreme Court abortion rights ruling, in New York on July 9, 2022 © Yuki IWAMURA / AFP/File

The findings highlight the consequences of restricting abortion access across much of the country, according to the authors of the paper in JAMA Pediatrics.

They also align with previous research published earlier this year, which focused specifically on Texas, a state that implemented a six-week abortion ban in 2021.

Restoring abortion protections dismantled by a Supreme Court shaped during Donald Trump's presidency has emerged as a cornerstone in Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign for the November 5 election.

Researchers Maria Gallo and Parvati Singh of The Ohio State University analyzed a national database of birth outcomes, examining historical trends and comparing them to data from the 18 months following the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling.


Birth outcomes in large populations such as the entire US are generally stable except for predictable seasonal peaks and valleys which they accounted for in their analysis, the authors said.

"We found that in the months after the Dobbs decision, infant mortality in the United States was higher than that we would have expected," Gallo, a professor at the university's division of epidemiology, told AFP.

In three months -- October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023 -- the rates of infant mortality were about seven percent higher than typical, leading to an average of 247 more infant deaths in each of those months.

The majority of the increase was attributed to congenital anomalies. These include things like heart defects, neural tube defects, chromosomal abnormalities, and other organ system malformations.

"These are cases in which before Dobbs, people would have been able to have an abortion rather than have to continue the pregnancy and go through the experience of having an infant die," Gallo added.

The period since the Dobbs decision has been marked by rapid changes in state-level abortion laws.

At present, 21 states either ban terminating pregnancies or restrict the procedure to gestational limits of 18 weeks or fewer.

Abortion is on the ballot in 10 states when voters go to the polls for the presidential and congressional elections, with activists hoping to secure new legal protections for the procedure.

Next, the researchers hope to establish whether the infant mortality rise was seen in all states or whether it was concentrated most among those with state policies or laws that restrict access to abortion.

"There's a broader human toll to consider, including mental health consequences of being denied abortion care or being forced to carry a fetus with a fatal genetic abnormality to term," added co-author Singh, in a statement.

© 2024 AFP

WNBA players union opts out of deal, now set to end in 2025

New York (AFP) – The Women's NBA players union said on Monday it has voted to opt out of its current collective bargaining agreement, sparking talks for a new deal before the 2025 season ends.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, at center front presenting the championship trophy to the New York Liberty, will now enter talks on a new collective bargaining deal after the players union opted out of their current deal, which lasts through the 2025 season © Sarah Stier / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

A day after the New York Liberty won the 2024 WNBA title, the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) made the expected move after a season that saw record attendance, sponsorship, television viewership and revenues.

That includes a new 11-year, $200 million rights deal with NBC, Disney and Amazon Prime.

The agreement, which had been set to run through the 2027 campaign, now concludes at the end of October 2025 and sets the stage for talks on how to distribute the huge influx of money among players and teams.

"The players made the decision to opt out of the last CBA to realign the business and save the league from its own limitations," said WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson.


The union, which had until November 1 to opt out of the deal, made the announcement with a video on social media that started with "It's business" and concluded with "We're out."

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement she looks forward to talks with the union.

"With the historic 2024 WNBA season now in the books, we look forward to working together with the players and the WNBPA on a new CBA that is fair for all and lays the foundation for growth and success for years to come," she said.

© 2024 AFP

AMERIKA

'Keeping me up at night': Researcher terrified by findings of his own political survey

Alex Henderson, AlterNet
October 21, 2024

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump raise MAGA hats, on the day Trump returns for a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against him, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution recently teamed up to conduct a "2024 American Values Survey” — and what they found has researchers terrified.

One of the questions asked how GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump should respond if he loses the 2024 election to Vice President Kamala Harris — and 19 percent said Trump should refuse to accept the election results in that scenario.

Axios reported, "The growing number of Republicans willing to shun democratic norms — and possibly embrace violence — comes as Trump continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him and is saying the 2024 election is already rigged. The survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution is the latest sign of how Trump's grievances and conspiracy theories have reshaped his party — and whipped up its most disaffected, far-right elements."

Contreras noted that PRI and Brookings found that "nearly 3 in 10 Republicans believe that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country, compared with 16 percent of independents and 8 percent of Democrats."

The Axios reporter also points out that "Americans who most trust conservative news outlets are the most likely to support political violence."

PRRI President Robert P. Jones discussed the survey results with Axios — and finds them extremely troubling.

Jones told Axios, "I've been doing this for 20 years, and these answers.... are keeping me up at night. It's all pretty dark and worrisome."

READ MORE: Trump's closing argument: full-throated fascism

Read Axios' full article at this link and find the PRRI/Brookings survey results

'Unhinged': Defense writer urges military to draw up action plan in case Trump elected

Brad Reed
October 21, 2024 

Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead.

Bradley Peniston, the executive editor of the military defense publication Defense One, has written an editorial warning of former President Donald Trump's ambitions to potentially use the American military on the country's own citizens.

Peniston begins by citing Trump's recent declaration that he could use the military to take care of what he described as "the enemy within" the country that includes politicians such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Although Trump has a long history of threatening to use the power of the state to prosecute his enemies, Peniston argues that the decision to invoke the specter of using the military is a "radical" escalation.

"By suggesting that domestic political rivals pose an existential threat akin to foreign enemies, he sets up his case for military action," he writes. "It’s a well-worn tactic of authoritarians, whose language Trump apes and whose policies he admires, right down to his stated desire to become a dictator."

And the Defense One editor also believes that Trump's ambitions to use the military domestically would face far fewer obstacles in a second term, especially after the Supreme Court ruled that a president is exempt from criminal prosecution for acts taken in his official capacity as commander-in-chief.

"One former acting vice chief of the National Guard said it would be easy for a president to turn Guard units into his 'personal police force,'" writes Peniston. "Randy Manner, a retired Army two-star, told CNN recently that if Trump found one state governor to go along, he could authorize funds to 'use the National Guard almost in any way that he wants. ... Most Americans don’t know how very easy it would be for an unhinged president to use the military against our own citizens.'"

To this end, he hopes the military is already considering how it will respond if Trump tries to order forces to attack demonstrators.

"What happens if he does give the order? The U.S. military, which spends the vast majority of its time contemplating and preparing for contingencies, should prepare for this one as well," he writes.

A new ‘race science’ network is linked to a history of eugenics that never left academia

The Conversation
October 21, 2024 

DNA (Shutterstock)

The Guardian and anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate have revealed the existence of a new network of far-right intellectuals and activists in an undercover investigation. Called the Human Diversity Foundation (HDF), this group advocates scientific racism and eugenics. Although it presents itself as having a scientific purpose, some of its figureheads have political ambitions in Germany and elsewhere.

Research shows these kinds of groups are nothing new and are linked to eugenics groups that have been active since the second world war. Defending the scientific legitimacy of eugenics, these organisations worked to keep a discredited intellectual tradition alive.

Although it has been debunked by decades of research evidence, eugenics once enjoyed a reputation as a credible science since it emerged in the late 19th century.

First coined by Francis Galton, a prominent Victorian statistician and evolutionary theorist, the term eugenics refers to the study of what Galton considered favorable and unfavorable genetic patterns within the population. Galton believed that the principles of evolutionary theory could be applied to the human species and used to intervene in its genetic fitness.

Galton and other early eugenicists advocated policies that would ensure that groups they believed held “desirable” traits, such as high intelligence, creative ability, or productivity, could reproduce in greater numbers than groups with less favourable genetics. Some even believed that “undesirable” groups should be prevented from reproducing, through forced sterilisation or abortion.

Ruling elites used eugenics to justify brutal treatment of disabled people, ethnic minorities, colonial populations, and LGBTQ+ people.

In the 1930s these ideas came to form the bedrock of Nazi race doctrine. Eugenics was a key component of Nazism and shaped both formal fascist ideology and how the Nazi regime treated its victims.

Before the second world war, many researchers regarded eugenics as a legitimate science. But in the aftermath of the war came a shift in attitudes, and scientists and society came to view eugenics as scientifically false and morally objectionable.

Instead of disappearing from academia, however, eugenics merely retreated into the margins. Racial research became the focus of a handful of groups intent on keeping the eugenics tradition alive.

Though they operated on the fringes of academia, these groups received financial support from private donors. The most prominent of these donors was the Pioneer Fund, a charity established in 1937 to support race science and white supremacy in the US and elsewhere.

These groups were close-knit. United by a shared sense of exclusion from the academic mainstream, the people involved were prolific writers and together generated a large body of work. They inflated their own citation counts by frequently referencing each other’s work and, in this way, established the impression of scientific rigour.

Pseudoscientific journals

Seeking to salvage the reputation of eugenics as a legitimate science, these groups tended to cluster around journals and periodicals.

Chief among these was Mankind Quarterly, established in 1961 by a group called the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE). Some decades later ownership of the journal was transferred to the Ulster Institute for Social Research, a eugenicist think tank founded and directed by Richard Lynn. Lynn is widely considered the intellectual figurehead of 21st-century eugenics.

The Mankind Quarterly quickly became known as a bastion of scientific racism. It published work by notorious pseudoscientists, neo-fascists, and such controversial political figures as former British MP Enoch Powell, remembered for appealing to racial hatred in his speeches.

Other similar journals emerged in the following decades. In France, Nouvelle École (“New School”) was established in 1967 by a white nationalist group. In Germany, Neue Anthropologie (“New Anthropology”) was first published in 1973.

These publications were part of the same networks. Their editors received funding from the same sources, including the Pioneer Fund, they published translations of each other’s articles, and their editorial boards overlapped.

Eugenics today

Reported to have developed out of the Pioneer Fund and to have taken ownership of Mankind Quarterly, the HDF is the successor to earlier groups like the IAAEE and the Ulster Institute.

Today, the eugenics movement is experiencing a period of uncertainty following the death of Richard Lynn in July 2023. When he died, Lynn was the director of the Pioneer Fund and the editor-in-chief of Mankind Quarterly. Organizations like HDF, led by people who have worked closely with Lynn, are trying to fill that void.

Whether the HDF will survive public scrutiny remains to be seen. But the broader networks from which it emerged are arguably stronger than at any previous moment in post-war history, facilitated by the rise of the far right and online extremism. All of which means it has never been more important to remember the tradition’s history.


Lars Cornelissen, Academic Editor, Independent Social Research Foundation

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

Trump sued over comments about notorious "Central Park Five,"  New York case

Agence France-Presse
October 21, 2024 

The "Central Park Five," five men who were falsely convicted of rape in a notorious 1989 New York case, launched a defamation lawsuit Monday against former US president Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, accuses the Republican White House candidate of making "false and defamatory" comments during the September 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.

The five Black and Hispanic men -- Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise -- were teenagers when they were convicted of the rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park.

They were eventually exonerated and their convictions were vacated in 2002. They received $41 million in a 2014 settlement with New York City.

Trump, during the presidential debate, "falsely stated that Plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime," the lawsuit said. "These statements are demonstrably false.

"Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing."

The lawsuit also recalled that Trump, 11 days after the Central Park attack, published a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers calling to "bring back the death penalty."

Trump made comments about the "Central Park Five" after Harris mentioned the ad during the debate.

"A lot of people including Mayor Bloomberg agreed with me on the Central Park Five," Trump said, apparently confusing former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg with former New York mayor Ed Koch, who was the mayor at the time.


"They admitted -– they said, they pled guilty," Trump said. "And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately.

"And if they pled guilty –- then they pled we're not guilty."

The "Central Park Five" are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.

Joni Mitchell hits Donald Trump with expletive-laden attack

ANOTHER EXPAT CANADIAN FOR HARRIS

Julia Conley, Common Dreams
October 21, 2024 

Joni Mitchell (AFP)

With 17 days to go until Election Day in the United States, folk music icon Joni Mitchell told 17,000 people assembled at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles how she feels about the Republican presidential candidate.

"F--- Donald Trump," said the singer and songwriter at her three-hour concert on Saturday night.

Mitchell drew applause with the remark, which followed her performance of "Dog Eat Dog," a 1985 song she hadn't performed publicly since the year it was released.

The political song includes the lyrics, "The whitewashed hawks peddle hate and call it love," "Where the wealth's displayed / thieves and sycophants parade," and the refrain, "Holy hope in the hands of / snakebite evangelists and racketeers / and big wig financiers."


To the latter line, Mitchell ad-libbed the words, "Like Donald Trump!"

Mitchell called on audience members to ensure they vote in the election. Early voting has started in California and a number of other states including Arizona, Illinois, and Minnesota.


"This is an important one," Mitchell said. "I wish I could vote—I'm Canadian."

She then made a reference to Trump's yearslong attacks on immigrants, whom he has long accused of being disproportionately likely to commit crimes—a claim that is not supported by facts—and has said he would subject to mass deportation if he wins the election.

"I'm one of those lousy immigrants," Mitchell said, prompting laughter from the audience.

Mitchell has weighed in on political issues since launching her music career in the 1960s. She has written songs protesting wars including the Vietnam War, environmental destruction, and attacks on women's rights and autonomy.