Women's Solidarity Through Witchcraft

The concept of the ‘witch’ draws from the European Wicca traditions. Wicca is a Neo-pagan religion that was introduced to the world in a codified form in 1945 by former British civil servant Gerald Gardner.

Witches through the ages Shutterstock


Outlook Web Desk
UPDATED: 13 APR 2022 

We have all grown up with images of the scraggly witch on a broomstick in a pointy witch’s hat. Or the Indian witch or ‘dayan’ with bulging eyes, reversed foot and knotted unruly hair. The myth of witches has existed in India ever since time immemorial. Be it the ‘chudail’ or ‘Pichal Pairi’ of North India, Pishachini or Petni of West Bengal, or simply ‘Dayan’, the idea of the witch in either a demonic form or in the form of an evil priestess has been popularised in countless folk tales, films and pulp fiction horror stories. But much of the representation of witches in Indian films and literature is largely inaccurate. This is due to reasons — one is the misunderstanding of witches and witchcraft, and the second is patriarchy. Nevertheless, witches have usually been the demon of choice when it came to feminists representing themselves through the horror metaphor.

The concept of the ‘witch’ draws from the European Wicca traditions. Wicca is a Neo-pagan religion that was introduced to the world in a codified form in 1945 by former British civil servant Gerald Gardner. However, its origins can be traced to pre-Christian times. It encompasses various denominations and sects that are based on witchcraft and the duo theistic worship of the Supreme Gods and God. The religion is characterised by various rituals and was the first to formally acknowledge the pagan community of witches (men and women) that existed and practised for ‘Witchcraft’. While the community represented more than just witches, later representation in pop culture associating Wicca with cauldron swilling pagan witches further solidified the idea of Wiccan witches. Many followers of Wicca claim to believe in “magic” as a science. As performative magician and occultist Alistair Crowley had put it, magic is “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will”.

The Witch’s Tale: Women In Indian Horror Films


In 1968, a manifesto by a women's group called WITCH read, "Witches have always been women who dared to be: groovy, courageous, aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist, explorative, curious, independent, sexually liberated, revolutionary...You are a witch by being female, untamed, angry, joyous and immortal". Thus witches have been a socio-political statement for women as much as a horror staple.

There is a thriving Wiccan witch community in India. The country’s first noted openly Wiccan witch was Ipsita Ray Chakravarty, daughter of a diplomat who grew up in Canada. According to interviews, she felt her first supernatural experience at the age of 10. In the late 80s, Chakravarty started speaking about the ancient tradition of witchcraft in India and has often spoken sternly against the representation of witches in Indian films as monstrous ‘dayans’.

The Wiccan tradition is what gives us the witch on a broomstick with a pointy hat trope. Today, many women in India claim Ito follow witchcraft. A thriving community of Wiccan witches on social media exists in which women not only talk about their experiences with witchcraft but also sell ‘magical’ items like totems, spells, incantations, even wands. The Harry Potter series of books also brought a new perspective on witches for urban Indian audiences who came face to face with anthropomorphised teen witches and wizards.

Nevertheless, the myth of the ‘Daayan’, the desi and monstrous version of the witch has remained popular in Indian horror films. Recent retellings o the witch’s tale have seen writers and directors experiment with themes of sexual violence and patriarchy to subvert the horror plots creating ‘daayans’ out of victims of patriarchy.

But the witch’s influence in Indian films and literature goes further back than just fiction or folk tales. In India, witchcraft is deeply rooted in Vedic Hindu religion. Witchcraft - or tantra Sadhna, is a pre-Vedic tradition part of the Tantra sect of Hinduism. Its followers, called Tantriks and Tantrikas, as often associated with witchcraft. While the men have been termed ‘sadhu’ or ascetic, however, women have often been dubbed as ‘witches’.

In fact, Daakinis and tantrikas were among the original healers before organised religion. According to Anubhuti Dalal, a practising Tantrik, daakinis have the ability to use magic, concoct potions and use their knowledge of herbs and poisons to heal people of both physical, and mental and metaphysical afflictions. They could make women stay young forever and make men fall in love. They could fix a broken heart or heal an infected body. This kind of manifestation of women’s power to manipulate energy has been recorded across the world including in Europe where a community of pagan witches have long existed under the Wiccan tradition. Witch societies are today studied through a feminist lens in that they have historically provided a safe space for women that organised religion could not provide.

In that way, the Indian Tantrik tradition has been similar to Wicca in providing a safe space and sisterhood to women within the community. Witches or practitioners of witchcraft often have their own language and ways of communication.

“A village daakini, before anything, is a friend of the persecuted women. She was supposed to be the custodian of women’s rights at a time when women had no representation. She could punish men for their wrong-doings, set things right for the woman at her household and empower them with justice,” adds Dalal. Dakinis, like Wiccan witches, are also known to be great doctors. Researchers of Wiccan witch rituals found that the ‘spells’ and recipes used by witches often use scary code names for herbs and plants. Newt’s eyes and dogs’ tongue - the famous ingredients used by Macbeth’s witches, for instance, actually refer to mustard seeds and the highly toxic plant houdstounge.

The Modern Witch Trials era in the West during which scores of women were burnt at the stake across England and other Anglo-Saxon countries vilified witches as sorceresses worshipping the Horned God. Later, Gardern's reiteration of Wicca brought forth evidence of the worship of the Mother Goddess - representing life and fertility - thus helping pagan witches destigmatise their image and move away from the Shakespearean representation of evil witches to a more free-spirited, pagan witch who used magic for good rather than evil.

Both Dalal and Wiccan witches like Ipsita have objected to the representation of witches in India. The skewed narratives of women in Indian (as well as Western) horror films and literature is an expression of the internalised cultural beliefs, mythology and pop culture. But today, women writers and filmmakers have tried to take over the genre and write stories that depict the witch not as a monster but as an avenger and vigilante. The change in tonality can be seen as a reflection of the growing empowerment of women and acknowledgement of culture and mythology as important building blocks of gender roles.

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INDIA
'Angrez Chudail' And 'Nakalchi Bhoot': The Ghosts Of Shimla Live On

The former British capital, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh is home to many legends and lore of ghosts of former Imperialists haunting the streets of the hill town to this day,

The Ghosts of Shimla Babli Thakur


Ashwani Sharma
UPDATED: 13 APR 2022

Just as he parked his car on a narrow, lonely, forested road leading to Shimla’s leading boarding school, Ankur Chauhan, 28, felt a hand grip his collar from behind, even as he knew there was no one else sitting back .

“I remember the touch on my shoulder. It was a human hand, a real one. But who was it in my car? I knew there was no one else except me in the vehicle. For moments, I swear, I was numb and shivering down my legs in shock. I shouted out loud – who is in there, come out, come out!” Chauhan recalls as he narrates his horrifying encounter with a “ghost” some years back.

It had been around 11.30 pm and the night was dark. He had joyfully taken his US-returnee former schoolmate Piyush on an evening drive for a quick drink in the car - a school time nostalgia from Shimla streets and secluded meeting corners, where they used to invite their girlfriends away from everyone’s eyes.

While in the boarding school, where he and Piyush studied, Ankur had heard dozens of tales about ‘english ghosts’—the spirit of white men and women - former imperialists, haunting old Shimla schools, most of which were set up by the British.

One most frequently talked about ghost story was about an ‘english ghost’ often visiting the chemistry lab of the school, and another of a another headless man—a Prince visiting another school to offer flowers to girls. Several such scary tales of haunted Shimla buildings of colonial era have persisted in the former colonial city for decades.

But, for Ankur, an alumni of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) and now an entrepreneur in the health care sector, this was the 'supernatural' encounter. That's when he realised that the "dark world of phantoms" is very much here.

This is what Rudyard Kipling wrote about them in “My Own True Ghost Story" about the many spirits wandering around hills of Shimla, Mussoorie and Murree.

“Nearly every other station owns a ghost. There are said to be two at Simla, not counting the woman , who blows the bellows at Syree dak-bungalow on the Old Road," Kipling wrote about sundry ghosts who allegedly still haunt the erstwhile summer capital.

Veteran writer Ruskin Bond also brought-out horrifying tales of native Ghosts in his book “Ghost Stories from the Raj”--- recently adapted for a digital series titled Parchayee.

In 2005, Minakshi Chaudhry, Shimla’s own young author and former journalist, went on exploring some of the haunted settings of Shimla hills and brought out two books –a collection of 35 popular tales based on direct personal experiences of people, authentic folklores and her own spine–chilling adventures with the spirits in Shimla. Ruskin Bond wrote a foreword for her first book which became a best seller in the town.

“Whether ghosts exist or not, I can’t say. Yet, after visiting myriad 'haunted' places—even during the night, and listening to real stories of people as part of my research, I can say there is usually some iota of reality behind native folktales or legends. There is, however, no archived evidence of documentation on it,” Minakshi admits.

But ghosts, she observes, are not all bad. They have their own problems and seem to represent an aspect of human struggle that is as relevant in life as in death. With Shimla remaining under the British till 1948, the town's colonial hangover is still potent and many find it natural to believe that the spirits of the former rulers may still be wandering the streets of their former 'summer capital'. But, none of these ghosts or supernatural spirits in the living memory of Shimla residents has been known to harm anyone. What makes them scary is the fact that they were real people who once lived and walked these very streets, unlike characters of myths from fiction.

Speaking about her book, Meenakshi says, “There are enduring stories about unrequited love and the idea of spectral romance - like the story about a young girl who died in an accident, leaving her romance unfulfilled. Or the one about the ghost of Viceregal Lodge - a Prince who haunted a local school with a red rose, looking for his lady love. Then there were stories of the Angrez Churail (English witch) - a woman on a rickshaw (a common site in Shimla during colonial days) and a Nakalchi bhoot (copycat ghost) -- always trying to imitate human actions. Every story I write is an ode to the city's nostalgia and the authentic folk tales of these hills.”

While ghosts have not troubled her, Meenakshi however, has often had unpleasant experiences with humans in her quest for the macabre. Her search for untold tales of horror and the unknown have often led her to people who were either unwilling to share the anecdotes or embarrassed to admit they had seen a ghost on their property for fear of ostracisation.

“I faced a lot of public ire and unexpected angry reactions from the families and occupants of some of the private spaces believed to be frequented by ghosts. One of the families I went to interview set their ferocious dogs on me. Employees at a central government-owned British era heritage building detained me for hours till they checked my credentials with Shimla’s Deputy Commissioner, under whom my husband (an IAS officer) had worked as they mistook me for a spy talking about ghosts” she narrates.

While Kipling in his book had admitted that no native ghost has yet been authentically reported to have frightened an Englishman, both local and Desi ghosts are popular in Himachali folktales.

“There are, in this land, ghosts who take the form of fat, cold, pobby corpses, and hide in trees near the roadside till a traveler passes…They wander along the pathways at dusk, or hide in the crops near a village, and call seductively. Their feet are turned backwards that all sober men may recognize them," one of the descriptions go.

In her horror stories, Minakshi Chaudhry talks about haunted houses, schools, rivulets, cemeteries and fascinating mountains with snowy peaks and pine-covered valleys. It seems that though the British left the country after Independence, left their ghost behind.

Shimla–born retired IPS officer Balbir Thakur also recollects his two encounters with a supernatural spirit—‘Bansheera’ when his late father and former DySP was posted at Junga—a sub-urban town and headquarter of the Central Striking Reserve Force (CSRF) police battalion .

“I was returning home after watching two back-to-back films at Shimla’s Rivoli and Regal cinemas – both don't exist anymore now. It was almost nearing midnight when I reached Down-Kothi—a haunted site, little short of Junga. I had heard several local accounts from a few cops who used to frequently travel between Shimla and Junga," he recounts .

That night, Thakur spotted a tall, faceless man walking next to him. Initially, he thought it was a native, or some battalion personnel returning to the CSRF HQ from Shimla. The next moment, however, the man mysteriously disappeared, almost as if he was gobbled up by the darkness. Within seconds,it reemerged and started suspiciously walking towards him.

“Startled, I screamed, 'who are you? What the hell are you doing out here?' After this I ran almost at bullet's speed towards home, shivering and sweating. The moment I stepped inside my house, I fell unconscious to the floor. My mother who later called a local ghost-buster or some oracle and relieved me of evil spirit,” Thakur recalls.

Another most talked about haunted place in Shimla is “Chudail Baudi”, a wayside place between Chotta Shimla and St.Bedes’ college Nav Bahar on Shimla's Carter Road. Locals claim that any car or vehicle that crosses this space is automatically slowed down and an old woman with her feet turned backwards stops the cars to ask for a lift. If ignored, the woman leaps into the car anyway.

“We had heard such stories, but not any first-hand account has been reported so so far during the past three-decades of my being in Shimla” says a fruit seller at Chhota Shimla.

A few years ago, the Himachal Pradesh government rolled out a plan to compile all spooky tales of the town, based on folklore and personal experiences of the locals. The book was intended to compile these haunted attractions of the heritage town for attracting tourists. The plan never took off.

Yet the tourists visiting Shimla do pick up Meenakshi Chaudhry and Ruskin Bond books on ghost stories from a leading bookshops and the tales of the 'English ghosts' of Shimla live on.

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New Orleans Mamas Normalized Breastfeeding During Mardi Gras Season


Carmen Green

MADAMENOIR
Tue, April 12, 2022

Breastfeeding
Source: Photo by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz / Pexel

The City of New Orleans rejoiced when Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced that Mardi Gras was on for 2022. The annual Carnival celebration was passed over in 2021, due the COVID-19 outbreak that sacrificed so many lives. The appropriate public health measure put in place required cancellation of gatherings statewide. This year was refreshing, but one of the best parts was a focus on breastfeeding. Several mamas were breastfeeding in the parade crowds. The temperature swung and the breasts hung, signaling a cultural shift. The moment also proved birthing people in New Orleans are not scared of social stigma, ogling eyes or negative comments. —And though New Orleans is pretty much the most progressive city in the state of Louisiana, it’s rare to see people breastfeeding at parades.

RELATED CONTENT: BLACK BREASTFEEDING WEEK: So Many Women Like Me, Who Want To Be Able To Breastfeed But Can’t

The cultural shift towards public breastfeeding is a strategic win on behalf of advocacy from organizations like Healthy Start and the network of Baby Cafe’s. Impact from waves of collaborative federal and philanthropic funding partnerships have included the Institute for Women Ethnic Studies, National Birth Equity Collaborative and the city-wide Maternal & Child Health Coalition. The past 3-5 years of funding still doesn’t touch the decade of work Sista Midwife Productions and Birthmark Doula Collective has invested into changing the landscape for mamas in the city through programming, community building, holding mamas and catching babies.

Laissez les bon lait rouler—Let the good milk roll!

The joy that comes from bearing witness to the progress of the painstaking work from the birthing community to undo generations of harm and misinformation that convinced Black women that breastfeeding is not for us. The organizations mentioned may not have legacy funding and are working hard to sustain staff while doing this culture-shifting work. Funding cycles take these leaders on a ride chasing the dragon—or rather chasing the float—of fleeting resources. Some prefer to be unbothered and unattached to these temporary waves of funding. The movement of breastfeeding in New Orleans has been led by birth workers and organizations but most importantly, the mamas in the community are creating the experience they want.

Regardless if the shift has come from community-led funding or sheer feminine will, the results are visible. Shout out to new mamas in 2022.

“This is my baby’s first Mardi Gras!” left many mamas lips, while holding 18-month-old toddlers. “Happy Mardi Gras Baby!”

RELATED CONTENT: BLACK BREASTFEEDING WEEK: Black Women Have Been Doing It For The Culture Since Day One

Black Maternal Health Week runs April 11-April 17. Register for National Birth Equity Coalition’s rundown of events and workshops at birthequity.org/BMHW22.

Black Maternal Health Week

Source: Courtesy of NBEC / NBEC

ANTI-ABORTION IS CLASS WAR

The pandemic baby bust never happened — millions of women couldn't get birth control or an abortion

Jason Lalljee
April 14, 2022

doble-d/Getty Images


A large decline in births is typical of recessions and public health crises, but there wasn't one during COVID-19.

That's because Trump-era policies and reduced healthcare access meant people couldn't get birth control or abortions.

Low-income and minority women are seeing their access reduced the most.

There was less of a baby bust than expected because of COVID-19 — but that doesn't reflect changing family planning dynamics in the United States.

Instead, it's indicative of shrinking access to abortions and birth control across the country, especially for low-income women.

That's according to a recent paper published by the National Bureau for Economic Research, which found that the 2020 COVID-19 recession was much different than earlier recessions, in that the number of babies born barely changed. The Brookings Institute predicted in 2020 that the pandemic would likely lead to a large, lasting baby bust, projecting 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births in 2021. In reality, there were only 60,000 fewer babies born because of the pandemic.

The NBER researchers found that because access to contraception and abortion fell in 2020 as reproductive health centers temporarily closed or reduced their capacity, low-income women are especially experiencing a "large increase in unplanned births."

That's as the pandemic has made having children less financially feasible for struggling households. During 2020, poverty increased across the US, and a third of American women said they wanted to delay pregnancy or have fewer children because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a 2020 Guttmacher Institute survey of 2,000 people. Minority, low-income, and queer women were especially likely to say their family planning goals had changed.

Revisions that former President Donald Trump made to Title X, the country's only national, federally funded family planning program, also limited the number of abortions low-income women had during the pandemic, the researchers said. And the surge of new abortion restrictions across mostly Republican-led states over the last few months may make reproductive healthcare access even more difficult over the next few years.

"In short, at the same time changes in the economy reduced the demand for children, the supply of contraceptives and access to abortion fell and likely moderated the baby bust," the researchers wrote.

Trump-era policies kept people from accessing abortions

Many episodes throughout US history show that pregnancies and birth rates fall in response to financial uncertainty and economic downturns, the researchers wrote. Citing the Guttmacher Institute survey, they say that it shouldn't have been any different during COVID, when people planned to put the brakes on having kids.

Birth rates also tend to drop during public health crises, like during the Spanish Flu. The pandemic's economic turmoil fused with a health one, which led experts to believe that the impact on births would be even greater.

That was evidenced as recently as the Great Recession less than two decades ago. In 2012, the number of babies born dropped 9% compared to 2007, accounting for about 400,000 fewer births that year.

But it was harder for women to access reproductive services during the pandemic, especially low-income and minority women. Part of the reason was logistical: health care centers canceled or limited appointments in accordance with social distancing guidelines, and patients chose to limit in-person interactions.

But part of the reason is that women receiving subsidized health care through the Title X Public Health Care Service Act saw restricted access to reproductive services. The Trump Administration changed national guidelines in 2019, pulling funding for providers who referred patients to abortion providers, and requiring that recipients of federal funds physically separate sites that provide non-abortion reproductive health services from those that provide abortions.

The Title X changes under Trump led more than 1,000 health care centers in 34 states to withdraw from Title X funding — sites that had served more than 1.5 million patients in the year before the rule took effect, according to the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

And near-total abortion bans that have been introduced in 30 states this year are all but assured to take the choice to have children out of the hands of many more people.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Africa’s Most Controversial Oil Pipeline Is Hanging In The Balance


Editor OilPrice.com
Thu, April 14, 2022

After years in the works, the fight over the East Africa oil pipeline continues. Environmentalists and local communities have long been battling against the proposed construction of a major pipeline running from Uganda to Tanzania. But oil majors working in the region believe it could dramatically enhance the region’s export routes, making it possible for landlocked Uganda to transport its crude more easily. But the pipeline continues to face major hurdles, with doubts over whether it will ever be finished.

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is expected to be the world’s longest electrically heated oil pipeline, measuring 1440km and running from western Uganda to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC) originally expected to invest $3.5 billion in the EACOP, working with operators in the two countries - the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC). If completed, the pipeline could transport as much as 1 billion bpd of crude across the countries.

In late March, things were looking promising for Total as construction appeared imminent. The signing of a $10 billion final investment decision made its construction that much more likely. British energy firm Tullow Oil first discovered recoverable oil in Uganda in the Lake Albert basin in 2006 and TotalEnergies purchased Tullow’s stake in the region in 2020 but was unable to find suitable funding for the EACOP project until now.

However, there is significant opposition from locals, with 260 community groups across Uganda, Tanzania, and neighboring countries drawing awareness to the situation globally with the campaign #StopEACOP. Public protests, legal action, and media attention have helped delay the works for the last two years.

People are mainly concerned about the environmental impact of building such large-scale oil infrastructure. In early April, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated that we can’t afford to build more fossil fuel infrastructure, drawing attention to major project proposals such as the EACOP. Estimates suggest that the pipeline could produce as much as 36 million tonnes of CO2 every year, around seven times Uganda’s annual emissions.

The more imminent impact of the pipeline is the displacement of up to 1,400 households, with inadequate compensation being offered. In addition, the destruction of wildlife habitats across the two countries seems inevitable, with the pipeline running through several major areas of endangered wildlife.

As Total continues with plans to go ahead with the pipeline, it has a limited window of time in which the world will accept this kind of major fossil fuel project. With oil demand still high and sanctions on Russia highlighting our dependence on the black gold, even now, Total may be able to gain enough support to see the project through. But as several oil majors and governments introduce ambitious climate targets for the end of the decade, this window is growing ever smaller.

The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2020 demonstrates the sentiment felt by governments in approaching long-term oil and gas projects, with mounting public pressure to make the shift away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives within the decade.

And the EACOP is hitting more hurdles, as insurers refuse to cover the pipeline, giving the negative long-term impact on the environment as the main reason. Multinational insurance firm, Munich Re, refused to insure it due to its potential harm to the climate. And, this week, major oil and gas insurer Allianz said it would not insure the pipeline, stating “Allianz is not providing direct insurance to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, as it neither meets our climate ambition nor falls within our ESG risk profile.”

Zurich, Axa, SCOR, Swiss Re, and Hannover Re have all also refused to insure the project, following pressure from the “StopEacop” alliance. The alliance also targeted several banks to encourage them to refuse to fund the project, including HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays, and BNP Paribas. Omar Elmawi, StopEacop campaign coordinator said “It is now official, 7 out of the 15 (re)insurers we have approached have concluded that Eacop is a huge risk for them to underwrite.”

But, despite hurdles, Uganda is largely in favor of the pipeline, as it could help further develop its oil industry and have a positive spillover effect on the national economy. Politicians have made grand promises about what the construction of the EACOP would mean for the country. With Uganda and Tanzania sharing a 30 percent stake in the pipeline, it would see some revenue coming back into the two countries. It could also lead to significant job creation.

Despite notable opposition, TotalEnergies continues to push for the construction of the EACOP, following two years of planning and fundraising. While several community groups and international organizations are opposed to the construction of new large-scale fossil fuel infrastructure, the government of Uganda sees great potential for the development of the industry to support the national economy. However, Total will have to gain approval and insurance fast if it hopes to see the EACOP development come to fruition.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Brokers using this controversial practice are ‘skimming rent, getting rich’: Michael Lewis

Max Zahn with Andy Serwer
Thu, April 14, 2022, 10:53 AM

Shares of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) have plummeted nearly 35% so far this year, taking a 5% tumble last Friday alone after Goldman Sachs issued a Sell rating and raised concerns about soft user growth.

The company's revenue prospects could dim further if the Securities and Exchange Commission banned the controversial practice of payment for order flow, David Trainer, the CEO of investment research firm New Constructs, told Forbes.

High-profile proponents of regulating the practice abound, including best-selling author Michael Lewis.

In a new interview, Lewis said the SEC should make a "big change" on payment for order flow. Lewis, whose landmark 2014 book "Flash Boys" drew attention to the lucrative use of high frequency trading on Wall Street, said that brokers who use payment for order flow are "skimming rent" and "getting rich."

When accepting payment for order flow, brokers accept smaller price improvement for trades in exchange for higher payments from the market makers that fulfill the trades — a practice that can amount to a small surcharge for traders, effectively nullifying the commission-free trading promised by some brokers.

"It's really true that it's cheaper to trade in the stock market now than it was a long time ago, when you paid a broker a ridiculous commission to execute your trade," Lewis says.

To be sure, Robinhood is hardly the only broker that accepts payment for order flow. E-Trade, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab (SCHW) are among those that deploy the practice.

"But it's also really true that those pennies are unnecessary, and that when you add them up across the whole market, it is billions of dollars, and you have people getting rich in this way," he adds. "These are examples of success to the rest of society, when really what they're just doing is skimming rent."

Last May, SEC Chair Gary Gensler hinted at potential new rules that would apply to Robinhood, market maker Citadel Securities, and others. In turn, Gensler told Baron's three months later that a ban on payment for order flow was "on the table."

Gensler reiterated his openness to a ban on payment for order flow in remarks to Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung in October.

The logo of Robinhood Markets, Inc. is seen at a pop-up event on Wall Street after the company's IPO in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

"Do they have the political will to shut it down?" Lewis asks. "The last two administrations — this one and the last one — have been poking around at this trying to figure out what you do about payment for order flow."

Payment for order flow revenue for the top four brokerage firms — TD Ameritrade, Robinhood, E-Trade and Charles Schwab — nearly tripled in 2020, jumping from $892 million to nearly $2.5 billion, according to Data from Alphacution previously cited by Yahoo Finance.

"I don't think anybody really has any illusions about exactly about what's going on," Lewis says.

Declassified government data reveals an interstellar object that exploded over Earth


By Joshua Hawkins

BGR
April 13th, 2022 


Back in 2014, a fireball exploded in the skies over Papua New Guinea. At the time, scientists believed that the object was a small meteorite measuring around 1.5 feet across. It slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere at more than 130,000 mph (roughly 210,000 km/h). Because the object’s speed exceeded the average velocity of meteors found within our solar system, a group of scientists conducted a study on the object in 2019. They found that it was most likely the first interstellar object we had identified.

However, the group never published their paper in a peer-reviewed journal. Instead, it has been available in the preprint database arXiv since its publishing. The reasoning behind this delay is because the data needed to verify the study’s position The team argued that the meteor’s speed, as well as the trajectory that it traveled, proved that it had originated somewhere beyond our solar system.

Unfortunately, the scientists never had the paper reviewed by peers. That’s because the U.S. government considered the data needed to verify the claims classified. At least, until now.

On April 6, 2022, Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, the commander of the USSC, shared a memo on Twitter. The memo says that the analysis by the scientists in 2019 was “sufficiently accurate to confirm an interstellar trajectory.” That makes it the first interstellar object that we’ve identified to date.

It’s a huge step forward, and the confirmation retroactively makes the 2014 meteor even more important than it might have already been. In fact, it currently predates what we believed to be the first interstellar object, a comet named ‘Oumuamua. In fact, it predates it by almost three years.

Of course, there’s no telling what other kinds of interstellar objects are out there that we have yet to find. We still have a lot of space to explore, even inside our own solar system. As such, we could find other interstellar objects waiting to be discovered.

Of course, this isn’t the only interstellar object we have discovered so far. As noted above, scientists previously discovered ‘Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object moving far too fast to have originated inside of our solar system. Unlike the meteor, though, ‘Oumuamua was spotted far from Earth. And, NASA says it is already speeding away from our solar system.

Scientists believe ‘Oumuamua is a comet because of how quickly it is moving, as well as how much it continued to accelerate on its own. However, because it is so far away from Earth, and moving outside of our solar system, it’s impossible to know for sure.

Still, knowing that there are interstellar objects entering our solar system from beyond the edges of space as we know it is both terrifying and exhilarating. As scientists continue to explore space and search for alien life, there’s no telling what we’ll find as our spacecraft branch out into the more unknown parts of our universe.

Fearing civil war amnesia, activists fight to preserve Beirut port silos

A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion reacts during a protest in Beirut

Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion hold pictures during a protest near Beirut port




FILE PHOTO: Aftermath of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area



A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion holds a picture during a protest in Beirut



FILE PHOTO: Site of Tuesday's blast, at Beirut's port area

By Timour Azhari
April 13, 2022

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Families of victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast are pressuring Lebanon's government to keep its silos as a memorial, arguing the move would be a powerful acknowledgement of suffering in a country still struggling to come to terms with years of war and strife.

Ghassan Hasrouty worked at the towering white grain silos for nearly four decades - even through Lebanon's 15-year civil war, when he would tell his wife he felt protected by the thick walls of the storage facility.

"He used to tell my mum, 'I'm scared for you (at home), not for me because there is nothing, no shrapnel, that can harm the silos... nothing can bring them down," Hasrouty's daughter Tatiana recalled.

On August 4, 2020, Ghassan was working late when a massive chemical blast at the port ended his life and those of at least 215 others, and cleaved off part of the cylindrical towers.

As Lebanon marks the 47th anniversary of the start of the war on Wednesday, Ghassan's daughter and other relatives of those killed in the blast are fighting government plans to demolish the disembowelled silos.

Lebanese officials say the ruined silos should make way for new ones, the proposed move gaining momentum amid projections of global grains shortages due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

But activists and bereaved families say the columns, which stand like a great tombstone at Beirut's northern entrance, should stay as a monument - at least until an investigation into the blast can serve justice in a country accustomed to moving on from violence without accountability.

"In Lebanon we got used to the fact that something happens, and then they bring us something bigger and more intense than that, and we forget," Hasrouty said.

"They (politicians) work so that we wake up every day with new fears and new worries, and that's why I say they (the silos) should remain, because maybe people pass by them and recall: 'people really died here'".

'LIVING WITNESS TO THEIR CRIMES'

The probe into the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, has faced pushback from a political system installed at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, when an amnesty was issued for warlords who gained government seats.

The war left some 100,000 dead and 17,000 are still missing - but is left out of school curricula and Beirut's most damaged areas were rebuilt with no public monuments. Historians say that has led to a collective amnesia about the war - something the families of blast victims are desperate to avoid.

"We all grew up with the civil war and remember how the rockets would fly above our heads. The Lebanese people forgot it because it was erased, because, simply, they reconstructed everything," Rima Zahed, whose brother Amin died in the blast, told Reuters.

Zahed has since helped organise protests in support of the investigation and of the silos' preservation. "Now we need the silos as the living witness to their crimes," she told Reuters.

Lebanon's government says it has other priorities.

'COLD HEART, COLD MIND'

Culture Minister Mohamed Mortada told Reuters the Cabinet had decided to demolish the silos and rebuild new ones based on a "purely economic assessment" of Lebanon's food security needs.

Lebanon needs more wheat storage to cope with global grains shortages resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine, from where Lebanon imports most of its wheat, officials say.

Mortada said the building could not be renovated for technical and sanitary reasons, so it had to be destroyed.

While the minister has put the silos on a list of heritage buildings, he noted the protected status could be removed if an alternative is found.

"What satisfies the families of victims or does not satisfy the families of victims, despite its importance, is not what's asked of the culture minister. What's asked of the culture minister is to approach it with a cold heart and cold mind. Is it tied to history or not?" he said.

Urban activist Soha Mneimneh said the move to destroy the silos amounted to "the erasure of a crime scene."

An engineers syndicate of which she is a member has commissioned a report on the silos to study the feasibility of renovating them. Mneimneh said they should be reinforced "so they stay in peoples' collective memory, so it is not repeated."

For Tatiana Hasrouty, the silos evoke painful memories - but are also a symbol of strength.

"I think now after he died there, the silos, some standing and some destroyed, symbolize for our family that (despite) everything that happened to us and all the sadness we have experienced, our family is still standing, steadfast, as if nothing can shake it."

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Maya Gebeily, William Maclean)

Want to know why India has been soft on Russia? Take a look at its military, diplomatic and energy ties

Sumit Ganguly, 

Distinguished Professor of Political Science 

and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, 

Indiana University

April 14, 2022,
THE CONVERSATION

A close relationship based on strategic needs.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

As global democracies lined up to condemn the actions of Russia in Ukraine, one country was less forthcoming in its criticism – and it was the largest democracy of them all: India.

Throughout the ongoing crisis, the government in India has carefully avoided taking an unequivocal position. It has abstained on every United Nations resolution dealing with the matter and refused to join the international community in economic measures against Moscow, prompting a warning from the U.S. over potentially circumventing sanctions. Even statements from India condemning the reported mass killing of Ukrainian civilians stopped short of apportioning blame on any party, instead calling for an impartial investigation.

As a scholar of Indian foreign and security policy, I know that understanding India’s stance on the war in Ukraine is complex. In considerable part, India’s decision to avoid taking a clear-cut position stems from a dependence on Russia on a host of issues – diplomatic, military and energy-related.

Moscow as strategic partner

This stance is not entirely new. On a range of fraught global issues, India has long avoided adopting a firm position based on its status as a nonaligned state – one of a number of countries that is not formally allied to any power bloc.

From a strategic standpoint today, decision-makers in New Delhi believe that they can ill afford to alienate Russia because they count on Moscow to veto any adverse United Nations Security Council resolution on the fraught question of the disputed region of Kashmir. Since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, and the region continues to be a source of tension.

Harking back to the days of the Soviet Union, India has relied on Russia’s veto at the U.N. to protect itself from any adverse statement on Kashmir. For example, during the East Pakistani crisis of 1971 – which led to the creation of Bangladesh – the Soviets protected India from censure at the U.N., vetoing a resolution demanding the withdrawal of troops from the disputed region.

In all, the Soviets and Russia have used their veto power six times to protect India. India has not had to rely on Russia for a veto since the end of the Cold War. But with tension over Kashmir still high amid sporadic fighting, New Delhi will want to ensure that Moscow is on its side should it come before the Security Council again.

In large part, India’s close relationship with Russia stems from Cold War allegiances. India drifted into the Soviet orbit mostly as a counter to America’s strategic alliance with Pakistan, India’s subcontinental adversary.

India is also hopeful of Russian support – or at least neutrality – in its long-standing border dispute with the People’s Republic of China. India and China share a border of more than 2,000 miles (near 3,500 km), the location of which has been contested for 80 years, including during a war in 1962 that failed to settle the matter.

Above all, India does not want Russia to side with China should there be further clashes in the Himalayas, especially since the border dispute has again come to the fore since 2020, with significant skirmishes between the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Russia as supplier of weapons

India is also acutely dependent on Russia for a range of weaponry. In fact, 60% to 70% of India’s conventional arsenal is of either Soviet or Russian origin.

Over the past decade, New Delhi has sought to significantly diversify its weapons acquisitions. To that end, it has purchased more than US$20 billion worth of military equipment from the U.S. over the past decade or so. Nevertheless, it is still in no position to walk away from Russia as far as weapons sales are concerned.

To compound matters, Russia and India have developed close military manufacturing ties. For nearly two decades, the two countries have co-produced the highly versatile BrahMos missile, which can be fired from ships, aircraft or land.

India recently received its first export order for the missile, from the Philippines. This defense link with Russia could be severed only at considerable financial and strategic cost to India.

Also, Russia, unlike any Western country including the United States, has been willing to share certain forms of weapons technology with India. For example, Russia has leased an Akula-class nuclear submarine to India. No other country has been willing to offer India equivalent weaponry, in part over concerns that the technology will be shared with Russia.

In any case, Russia is able to provide India with high-technology weaponry at prices significantly lower than any Western supplier. Not surprisingly, despite significant American opposition, India chose to acquire the Russian S-400 missile defense battery.

Energy reliance

It isn’t just India’s defense industry that is reliant on Moscow. India’s energy sector is also inextricably tied to Russia.

Since the George W. Bush administration ended India’s status as a nuclear pariah – a designation it had held for testing nuclear weapons outside the ambit of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – India has developed a civilian nuclear program.

Although the sector remains relatively small in terms of total energy production, it is growing – and Russia has emerged as a key partner. After the U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement of 2008 allowed India to participate in normal civilian nuclear commerce, Russia quickly signed an agreement to build six nuclear reactors in the country.

Neither the U.S. nor any other Western country has proved willing to invest in India’s civilian nuclear energy sector because of a rather restrictive nuclear liability law, which holds that the manufacturer of the plant or any of its components would be liable in the event of an accident.

But since the Russian government has said it will assume the necessary liability in the event of a nuclear accident, it has been able to enter the nuclear power sector in India. Western governments, however, are unwilling to provide such guarantees to their commercial companies.

Away from nuclear power, India also has invested in Russian oil and gas fields. India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Commission, for example, has long been involved in the extraction of fossil fuels off Sakhalin Island, a Russian island in the Pacific Ocean. And given that India imports close to 85% of its crude oil requirements from abroad – albeit only a small fraction from Russia – it is hardly in a position to shut off the Russian spigot.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently noted that India’s “relationship with Russia has developed over decades at a time when the United States was not able to be a partner to India” and suggested that Washington was prepared now to be that partner. But given the diplomatic, military and energy considerations, it is difficult to see India deviating from its balancing act over Russia any time soon.


This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University.

Read more:

Ukraine war: while most Americans express outrage, Putin’s spell continues to hang over Republicans

Sumit Ganguly has received funding from the US Department of State.

This tiny carnivore could be the key to tracking nearly a dozen declining Maine species


Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Apr. 12—If you want to learn about the health of wild animals in the forests of Maine, pay attention to what's going on with the American marten.

Research at the University of Maine led by Alessio Mortelliti, an associate professor in UMaine's department of wildlife, fisheries and conservation biology, found that studying marten can tell scientists a great deal about 11 other mammals living in the state.

It showed that the marten could serve as an effective "umbrella monitoring species" for other species living in the same or nearby habitat, including fishers, snowshoe hares, red squirrels and black bears, because tracking martens will automatically detect declines in these other species.

"This is great news for conservation and management agencies as they show that by focusing the efforts on one species, the marten, they will automatically be able to detect declines for many other species," Mortelliti said.

Funding for the American marten study, which is in its fifth year, was provided by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit.

However, the marten here in Maine may require more detailed study as disruptions to forests and climate change threaten their existence.

One of the primary benefits achieved by the study, which was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, is that the habitats of so many different mammals overlap and can be studied simultaneously. UMaine researchers gathered the data by using camera traps to capture more than 800,000 images of 27 different mammals over a span of four years.

The animals were photographed automatically when they triggered infrared sensors on the cameras.

"This could lead to huge savings, which is not a small thing in a world where conservation resources are so limited," Mortelliti said of the ability to monitor multiple species by using the camera traps.

Researchers have focused their monitoring protocols during the winter, when interactions with protected species such as the Canada lynx are more likely.

Mortelliti and his team are paying particular attention to how martens and fishers have adapted to increased harvesting of Maine forest habitats. Their efforts compared factors such as latitude, snow depth, level of forest disturbances and the numbers of marten and fisher reported by fur trappers.

According to results published in the journal Ecosphere, the researchers discovered that marten actually are not being disturbed by sharing the landscape with their larger cousin, the fisher.

"Instead, marten are choosing areas with the least forest disturbance, regardless of fisher presence," said Bryn Evans, recently graduated Ph.D. student and co-author of the study.

"Climate change is also likely to impact marten more intensely than fisher. It's critical to have a watchful eye over the coming years, so declines in the marten population can be identified quickly."