Canada gymnasts sue sport's governing bodies over alleged abuses

A Canadian gymnast performs on the beam during the London 2012 Olympic Games (AFP/EMMANUEL DUNAND) 

Wed, May 11, 2022

A group of gynmasts filed a claim Wednesday against Gymnastics Canada and the federation's provincial counterparts for having tolerated a climate of abuse and mistreatment for decades.

"This action arises from the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of gymnasts in Canada while they were under the care and control of the provincial gymnastics organisation in their jurisdiction and Gymnastics Canada," says a copy of the legal filing obtained by AFP.

"Globally, the sport of gymnastics has come under scrutiny for its culture of cruelty," the plaintiffs' lawyers wrote, alleging that "a culture of control" and "abusive behaviour have led to the creation of an environment where abuse and mistreatment of athletes are commonplace."

The lawsuit was filed at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the westernmost Canadian province where lead plaintiff and former gymnast Amelia Cline resides.

Having abandoned competition as a teenager, Cline said she is taking legal action to "hold these institutions accountable" for abuses in the sport.

In an interview with AFP, Cline described "lingering long term effects... from that mistreatment," including chronic physical and psychological pains.

The lawsuit names the national gymnastics federation as well as the federations of six of Canada's 10 provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

The suit comes just over a month after a group of more than 70 gymnasts, many of whom are no longer in the sport, published an open letter to denounce a "toxic culture and abusive practices that persist within Canadian gymnastics."

The letter, which has now garnered more than 400 signatures, calls on the federal government to order an independent investigation after the Gymnasts For Change campaign group said they have "gotten nowhere" pushing Gymnastics Canada to conduct an internal probe and address their concerns.

"All disciplines, rhythmic, acro, artistic gymnastics, tumbling and trampoline, they all are, to some extent, impacted by this culture... and dominance that coaches have evolved over the decades," the group's spokeswoman Kim Shore said.

"The system of accountability has to change," she added.

gen/amc/sw

REST IN POWER

Al Jazeera's Shireen Abu Akleh: pioneering Palestinian reporter


Palestinians hold posters displaying veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, in the West Bank city of Hebron 

(AFP/HAZEM BADER)

Wed, May 11, 2022, AFP

Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed Wednesday while covering clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was among Arab media's most prominent figures and widely hailed for her bravery and professionalism.

In the hours after her death, young Palestinians described Abu Akleh, 51, as an inspiration, especially to women, many of whom were motivated to pursue journalism because of her.

"She never tired," Al Jazeera senior international correspondent Hoda Abdel-Hamid told AFP by phone from Ukraine. "She was always there whenever anything happened... She wanted to be there, to tell the story, constantly," she added.

In an interview shortly before her death, Abu Akleh, who was also a US citizen, described herself as a "product of Jerusalem," with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shaping much of her life.

She was born in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem to a Palestinian Christian family. Her mother was born in west Jerusalem, before the creation of Israel in 1948, and her father was from Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

She graduated from university the year the Oslo peace accords were signed and then joined the nascent Voice of Palestine radio, before switching to Al Jazeera in 1997, where she went on to become an iconic personality in Arab media.

In a sign of her importance to Palestinian audiences, flowers were placed on the side of the road by West Bank residents as the vehicle carrying her body moved towards Nablus, where an autopsy was scheduled before her burial in Jerusalem.

This handout picture obtained from a former colleague of Shireen Abu Akleh shows her reporting for the Doha-based news channel Al Jazeera from Jerusalem on July 22, 2017 (AFP/-)

- Breaking gender roles -

Journalist Muhammad Daraghmeh, a close friend who teaches at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said Abu Akleh was "one of the strongest journalists in the Arab world".

Her prominence grew through her coverage of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, from 2000 to 2005.

Senior Al Jazeera journalist Dima Khatib tweeted that Abu Akleh was "one of the first Arab women war correspondents in the late 1990s when the traditional role of women was to present from the television studio".

"Shireen was a pioneer in a generation that broke stereotypical gender roles in TV journalism."

Al Jazeera, the Palestinian Authority and witnesses said she was shot by Israeli forces while covering an Israeli army raid in Jenin.

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it was "likely" that she was killed by indiscriminate gunfire from Palestinian militants.

Abdel-Hamid said: "We need investigation and accountability, not just investigations that lead nowhere."

People mourn Al Jazeera journalist killed during Israel West Bank raid 

(AFP/Jaafar ASHTIYEH)

In a recent interview, Abu Akleh said she was often afraid while reporting but made sure to avoid unnecessary risk.

"I don't throw myself at death," she told an outlet in the West Bank city of Nablus. "I search for a safe place to stand and how to protect my crew before worrying about the footage."

Last year, Abu Akleh wrote in the publication This Week in Palestine that Jenin, the place where she died, was not just "one ephemeral story in my career or even in my personal life".

"It is the city that can raise my morale and help me fly. It embodies the Palestinian spirit that sometimes trembles and falls but, beyond all expectations, rises to pursue its flights and dreams."

bur-yz/bs/fz/dv

Al Jazeera reporter killed: 'Independent investigation' is necessary, says Reporters Without Borders

Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American who was among the network's most prominent figures, was shot dead Wednesday as she covered an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank. Pauline Ades-Mevel, Reporters Without Borders's spokeperson, says that an "independent investigation is necessary to avoid impunity".

Al Jazeera pays tearful tribute to journalist killed in Israeli raid

Shireen Abu Akleh, 51, was shot dead as she covered an Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank - -
by Tim Witcher

May 11, 2022 — Doha (AFP)

Al Jazeera's newsdesk told Shireen Abu Akleh they would keep a spot for her "at the top of the hour" after she said in an email she was going to cover an Israeli operation in the Palestinian town of Jenin.

"But she never turned up," said Mohamed Moawad, the Arabic channel's head of output, fighting back tears as he told of the final contacts with the veteran journalist on a typically risky mission.

"The last communication was 20 minutes before this heinous crime happened," Moawad told AFP shortly after staff held their own broadcast tribute to the 51-year-old.

"She sent an email that said 'Hi, there is an Israeli intervention in Jenin and I am heading there now. I am almost there. I will send you details'."

Instead of her live report from the raid, Al Jazeera staff were shaken to see social media images indicating she had been shot.

Moawad said another journalist soon sent a message informing them she had died three kilometres (nearly two miles) from the edge of Jenin in the West Bank.


She had been with four other journalists, all wearing blue press vests and helmets, according to the Al Jazeera chief.

The Qatari state-owned channel said Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, had been killed "in cold blood" and demanded Israeli forces be held accountable.

Israel said it was investigating the death but denied Abu Akleh had been deliberately hit. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said it was "likely" Palestinian gunfire had hit her.

- 'Extremely brave' -

"We consider this something intentional because the bullet hit exactly the area below her ear where there is no cover," said Moawad, who added that "reckless" comments had been made in Israel about the killing.

Al Jazeera journalists shed tears during the minute when its broadcasts were silenced as a tribute to the journalist who joined the channel shortly after it opened in 1996.

Many who had worked with Abu Akleh embraced in the newsroom, clutching portraits of the journalist and sheets stating "Journalism is not a crime", as images showing the latest violence in the Palestinian territories flashed up on their work screens.

Abu Akleh -- the second journalist hired by Al Jazeera in the Palestinian territories -- became the 12th journalist from the channel to be killed on duty since it started broadcasting.


"She was everywhere where there was a story. She has been everywhere to give voice to the voiceless," said Moawad.

"There are so many videos showing Shireen getting attacked by Israeli forces, getting attacked by bullets and other stuff."

Abu Akleh had never complained about her own safety though, he added.

"She was always there covering the story without any kind of fear. We never assigned Shireen to do a story, she was just there. She showed up."

Hoda Abdel-Hamid, a senior correspondent at Al Jazeera, said Abu Akleh was "extremely brave".

"But she was also a very experienced journalist, she was not one to take stupid risks for the hell of it," she told AFP from her mission in Ukraine.

"I am pretty sure that today she was in a safe place, in a place that was for journalists and she was clearly marked.

"She wouldn't be jumping in the crossfire just for the hell of it. She wouldn't do that."

Shireen Abu Aqla: Palestinians’ 'voice and face' to the Arab world

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH - 
© (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Jerusalem Post

For many Palestinians, Shireen Abu Aqla, the veteran Al-Jazeera reporter who was killed during an IDF operation in Jenin on Wednesday morning, was more than a journalist.

For the past two decades, Abu Aqla, a resident of east Jerusalem, became known as one of the main voices and faces of the Palestinians in the popular Qatari-owned TV network.

She was one of the few Palestinian female journalists who reported from the field, especially in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Some of her colleagues described her as the “Palestinian war correspondent.”

“She was a fearless reporter,” said one of her colleagues. “She never hesitated to go to places where clashes were taking place. She loved her work.”

Many of her colleagues appreciated her courage for reporting from the scenes of clashes between Israeli policemen and soldiers. They also described her as one of the most professional female journalists.


© Provided by The Jerusalem Post

Joint LIst MKs Ayman Odeh, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ofer Cassif visit the family of killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022.

 (credit: JOINT LIST SPOKESPERSON'S OFFICE)

Abu Aqla, 51, reported extensively on the situation in the city, including the violence that erupted at the Aqsa Mosque compound, the Old City’s Damascus Gate and the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

She also reported on the situation in the West Bank with a focus on clashes between IDF soldiers and Palestinians. She often appeared on Al-Jazeera wearing a helmet and a vest with a “press” sign.

When she was once asked about the dangers she faces while covering the violence, Abu Aqla replied: “Death was always a short distance away. During the difficult moments, I overcame the fear. I chose journalism to be close to the human being. It’s probably not easy for me to change the reality, but at least I was able to communicate that voice to the world.”

Abu Aqla rose to stardom during the Second Intifada, which erupted in 2000. Her reporting on the daily violence turned her into one of the most popular reporters in the eyes of Al-Jazeera’s millions of viewers in the Arab world.

She was also known for her criticism of Israel. In one of her recent tweets, she wrote: “No Arab will be able to ignore the Palestinian issue, no matter how much Israel tries to marginalize this issue.”

Abu Aqla, whose family is originally from Bethlehem, was raised in east Jerusalem, where she went to the Rosary Sisters’ School.

After completing her studies in journalism in Jordan, she returned to the city, where she initially worked for the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). She was later hired by the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio station and Monte Carlo radio’s Arab news department. In 1997, she began working for Al-Jazeera’s newly established bureau in Jerusalem.

Read more on the death of journalist Shireen Abu Aqla in Jenin:
Journalist killed in Jenin, investigation opened by IDF
Who killed Shireen Abu Akleh, IDF soldiers or Palestinians?
Israeli leaders react to the death of the journalist
Arab world condemns Israel over death of Al Jazeera journalist
Who was Shireen Abu Aqla?

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/shireen-abu-akleh-outrage-grows-over-al.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/palestinians-honour-slain-journalist.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/al-jazeera-reporter-killed-during.html

THIRD WORLD USA
High inflation leaves food banks struggling to meet needs

By THALIA BEATY and GLENN GAMBOA

Sgt. Kevin Fowler organizes food at a food bank distribution by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, in Cleveland. Food banks across America say these economic conditions are pushing demand for their support higher, at a time when their labor and delivery costs are climbing and donations are decreasing. 

The problem has grown to the point that President Joe Biden called for a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September, the first since 1969

(AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

Kendall Nunamaker and her family of five in Kennewick, Washington, faced impossible math this month: How to pay for gas, groceries and the mortgage with inflation driving up prices?

Like many other working families, the Nunamakers are grappling with the 8.3% inflation in the consumer price index in April announced Wednesday — slowing slightly from the March figure which was the largest year-over-year increase since 1981, according to the Labor Department. The national average gas price reached a record high Wednesday of $4.40 a gallon. And global food prices are climbing after shortages caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine and other supply chain problems.

Food banks across America say those economic conditions are intensifying demand for their support at a time when their labor and distribution costs are climbing and donations are slowing. The problem has grown to the point where last week President Joe Biden called for a Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September, the first since 1969.

For many families like the Nunamakers, food insecurity became a painful surprise.

“There’s no reason us as a couple and a family should be struggling so hard,” Nunamaker said. “We make decent money.”

She works three days a week at a home décor store for $15.25 an hour; her husband, Nick, works a full-time union job as a paratransit driver at $27 an hour. Though they receive some money from a state nutrition program for young children that their two youngest qualify for, they still spent $360 on groceries last week.

Because of inflated prices, those groceries didn’t go far enough to feed everyone. And the family still lacked money to pay other household bills, leaving Nunamaker wondering how she would stretch their next paychecks to cover those bills and their mortgage this month.

In the past, to bridge the gap, the family sold off possessions like VR headsets and firearms.

“At some point,” Nunamaker said, “we’re not going to have anything because we would have sold everything.”

So Nunamaker and her husband visited two local food banks for the first time last week.

The pandemic forced roughly 60 million Americans to seek help for food insecurity, according to Feeding America. At the end of 2021, as hiring boomed, demand for food banks returned to regular levels. But the relief was short-lived.

“In the last few months, with this increase in inflationary pressures, we’re seeing 95% of our 200 member food banks saying that they have seen either leveling or an increase in need,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America.

In the area along the Columbia River where Nunamaker lives, the number of clients seeking food aid at a church pantry jumped 40% between December and March, according to Eric Williams, director of community partnerships at Second Harvest, an organization that works to supply local pantries with food.

He said his organization must make more happen with less because its suppliers are subject to the same cost increases. The price that Second Harvest pays for obtaining donated produce has risen from about 6 cents a pound a year ago to about 10 or 11 cents a pound now, Williams said.

Some of Feeding America’s food pantry partners have closed because of dwindling donations and higher costs for receiving and delivering food. Others have less food on their shelves even though they have higher demand.

“Our network emphasizes access and equity,” Babineaux-Fontenot said. “So we are working extra hard to reach people who have the deepest food insecurity rates. Well, how far out can we go when gas prices are high? We have data that shows that race and place are significant indicators of whether or not you will be food insecure and how deeply you will be food insecure.”

Because of inflation and a reduction in aid, a food bank that serves three counties in Ohio — also called Second Harvest — is facing a drop in the amount of food it’s able to provide.

“Compared to last year at this time, we’re about 50% down in what we have received in the past in federal food donations and then about 20% down from food drives in our collection of food at the grocery stores,” Executive Director Tyra Jackson said. “All of that combined is truly having an impact on our budget because we’re needing to purchase more food outright.”

The struggles of families are heightened by the fact that government benefits that were increased during the pandemic like food stamps or unemployment insurance have stopped or will end shortly.

“Our work is always important,” Babineaux-Fontenot said. “It’s increasingly important when we have all of these headwinds.”

Williams, of Spokane, extended gratitude to the donors and volunteers that keep his organization running, some of whom worked more than 100 shifts last year. He said it can be difficult to witness first hand the scale of the food insecurity in his community when helping with distributions at a mobile food bank.

“You see the need and you just go, ‘Oh God, oh my God,’ ” Williams said. “But then as you hand somebody a box of food and they drive off: ‘Yeah, we were able to help,’ which is heart-wrenching on one hand and heartwarming on the other.”

Because it upsets her so much, Nunamaker said, she hasn’t discussed her family’s struggles with her three children, age 2, 4 and 7, or her network of friends and relatives. She said the food banks helped her family last week.

“People should know that just because you have to go to a food bank or you have to seek assistance, that doesn’t make you any less of a parent or a person,” she said. “Because everybody needs help sometimes.”

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

CAPITALI$M IS ADDICTION

US overdose deaths hit record 107,000 last year, CDC says

By MIKE STOBBE

 Deb Walker visits the grave of her daughter, Brooke Goodwin, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chester, Vt. Goodwin, 23, died in March of 2021 of a fatal overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that is making its way into the illicit drug supply. According to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting another tragic record in the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another tragic record in the nation’s escalating overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Wednesday.

The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every 5 minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before. The CDC reviews death certificates and then makes an estimate to account for delayed and incomplete reporting.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called the latest numbers “truly staggering.”

The White House issued a statement calling the accelerating pace of overdose deaths “unacceptable” and promoting its recently announced national drug control strategy. It calls for measures like connecting more people to treatment, disrupting drug trafficking and expanding access to the overdose-reversing medication naloxone.

U.S. overdose deaths have risen most years for more than two decades. The increase began in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — most recently — illicit fentanyl.

Last year, overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, up 23% from the year before. There also was a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine and a 34% increase in deaths involving meth and other stimulants.

Overdose deaths are often attributed to more than one drug. Some people take multiple drugs and inexpensive fentanyl has been increasingly cut into other drugs, often without the buyers’ knowledge, officials say.

“The net effect is that we have many more people, including those who use drugs occasionally and even adolescents, exposed to these potent substances that can cause someone to overdose even with a relatively small exposure,” Volkow said in a statement.

Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem as lockdowns and other restrictions isolated those with drug addictions and made treatment harder to get.

Overdose death trends are geographically uneven. Alaska saw a 75% increase in 2021 — the largest jump of any state. In Hawaii, overdose deaths fell by 2%.

Sri Lanka leader vows to shed powers, appoint prime minister

By KRISHAN FRANCIS

1 of 13

Sri Lankan army soldiers patrol during curfew in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Sri Lanka's defense ministry ordered security forces on Tuesday to shoot anyone causing injury to people or property to contain widespread arson and mob violence targeting government supporters. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president on Wednesday promised to appoint a new prime minister, empower the Parliament and abolish the all-powerful executive presidential system as reforms to stabilize the country engulfed in a political crisis and violence triggered by the worst economic crises in memory.

In a televised address, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that he without partisanship condemns attacks on peaceful protesters by mobs who came to support his brother and former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned Monday.

“I am taking steps to appoint within this week a new prime minister who has the trust of a majority in Parliament, who can win over the confidence of the people and a new Cabinet to control the current situation, to stop the country from falling into anarchy and to continue the government’s functions that are at a standstill,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

“I will make way for the new prime minister to present a new program of work and implement it.”

Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he will also give away much of his powers to Parliament and when some normalcy returns, take steps to abolish the country’s powerful executive presidential system.

The president’s speech came as authorities deployed armored vehicles and troops in the streets of the capital Wednesday, two days after pro-government mobs attacked peaceful protesters, triggering a wave of violence across the country.

Security forces have been ordered to shoot those deemed to be participating in the violence, as sporadic acts of arson and vandalism continued despite a strict nationwide curfew that began Monday evening.

A Sri Lankan family watches the wreckage of buses burnt in clashes in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Sri Lanka's defense ministry ordered security forces on Tuesday to shoot anyone causing injury to people or property to contain widespread arson and mob violence targeting government supporters. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Anti-government protesters have been demanding the resignations of President Rajapaksa and his brother, over a debt crisis that has nearly bankrupted Sri Lanka and left its people facing severe shortages of fuel, food and other essentials. In the past few days, nine people have died and more than 200 have been injured in violent attacks in which mobs set fire to buildings and vehicles.

Armored trucks with soldiers riding on top rolled into some areas of Colombo. Defying the curfew, some protesters regrouped opposite the president’s office to continue demonstrations that began over a month ago. Police announced over loudspeakers that it is illegal to stay in public places during the curfew.

Videos posted on social media showed lines of military trucks moving out of the capital, along with soldiers riding on motorbikes and setting up checkpoints across the country amid fears that a political vacuum could pave the way for a military takeover.

The Defense Ministry’s top official, Kamal Gunaratne, denied speculation of a military takeover at a news conference held with the country’s army and navy chiefs.

“None of our officers has a desire to take over the government. It has never happened in our country, and it is not easy to do it here,” Gunaratne said. President Rajapaksa is a former top army officer and remains the country’s official defense minister.

Gunaratne said the army will return to its barracks once the security situation normalizes.

The U.S. State Department expressed concern over the military deployment, with spokesman Ned Price saying it was “closely monitoring” the situation.

The prime minister’s departure has created an administrative vacuum with no Cabinet, which dissolved automatically with his resignation.

Navy commander Nishantha Ulugetenne said the former prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is being protected at a naval base in Trincomalee on the northeastern coast.

After Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned, he and his family were evacuated from his official residence through thousands of protesters trying to break into the heavily guarded colonial-era building.

The Indian Embassy denied social media speculation that “certain political persons and their families have fled to India,” and also rejected speculation that India was sending troops to Sri Lanka.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs affirmed its support for Sri Lanka on Tuesday, saying it had extended $3.5 billion to help overcome the economic crisis and had sent essential items such as food and medicine.

On Monday, supporters gathered at the prime minister’s official residence to urge Mahinda Rajapaksa to stay in office. After the meeting, mobs backing the government beat peaceful protesters who had camped out near the prime minister’s residence and president’s office demanding their resignations, as police watched and did little to stop them. Across the country, angry citizens responded by attacking government supporters and ruling party politicians.

Nine people including a ruling party lawmaker and two police officers were killed and 219 were injured in the violence, the defense ministry said. In addition, 104 buildings and 60 vehicles were burned.

Pro-government mobs were chased, beaten and stripped. Homes of government supporters were attacked, and some businesses were set on fire.

The European Union called on the authorities to initiate an investigation into the events and hold accountable those who instigated and carried out the violence.

Sri Lanka is nearing bankruptcy and has suspended payments on $7 billion in foreign loans due this year out of $25 billion due by 2026. Its total foreign debt is $51 billion.

The Central Bank on Wednesday urged the president and Parliament to quickly restore political stability, warning the economy faces a threat of further collapse within days.

“Even for us to make progress on debt restructuring, we need a stable kind of a government. A Cabinet, a Parliament, a prime minister, a finance minister are all needed,” Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

“Without that kind of an administration, it is very difficult for us make any progress.”

GRUMPY OLD MAN
‘Succession’ star glues hand to Starbucks counter in protest

FILE - Actor James Cromwell arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Cromwell glued his hand to a midtown Manhattan Starbucks counter to protest the coffee chain’s extra charge for plant-based milk, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — Actor and activist James Cromwell has gone from “Succession’s” Uncle Ewan to real-life supergluin’ — pasting his hand to a midtown Manhattan Starbucks counter on Tuesday to protest the coffee chain’s extra charge for plant-based milk.

The 82-year-old Oscar nominee, known for “Babe: Pig in the City” and “L.A. Confidential,” channeled his role as the crotchety, anti-capitalist brother of a billionaire media mogul for the protest organized by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Cromwell sat on the Starbucks counter wearing a “Free the Animals” T-shirt and read a statement denouncing the surcharge for vegan milk alternatives.

“When will you stop raking in huge profits while customers, animals and the environment suffer?” he demanded as fellow activists streamed the protest on Facebook.

Cromwell glued his hand to the counter, then later used a knife to scrape it off. Police said there were no arrests.

Starbucks outlets in the United States charge 50 cents to a dollar more drinks made with plant-based milks.

“Customers can customize any beverage on the menu with a non-dairy milk, including soymilk, coconutmilk, almondmilk, and oatmilk for an additional cost (similar to other beverage customizations such as an additional espresso shot or syrup),” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement. “Pricing varies market by market.”

The spokesperson said Starbucks respects customers’ right to voice their opinions “so long as it does not disrupt our store operations.”

Cromwell, nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the farmer in “Babe,” is a veteran protester who was charged with trespassing in 2017 for interrupting an orca show at SeaWorld in San Diego.

Wenders making a film about fancy public restrooms in Japan

By YURI KAGEYAMA

1 of 7

Filmmaker Wim Wenders, left, and actor Koji Yakusho pose together during a press gathering for The Tokyo Toilet art project in Tokyo, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Wenders is making a film about beatified Japanese toilets that will have what the German director calls “social meaning” about people in modern cities. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

TOKYO (AP) — Wim Wenders is making a film about high-end public toilets in Japan that will have what the renowned German director calls “social meaning” about people in modern cities.

“My first reaction was, I must admit: What? Toilets? Chotto mattene,” he said Wednesday, using the Japanese expression for “wait a minute”.

But then he began to see what the story could be about.

“For me, they turned from toilets into restrooms. That’s a very nice word in English, the restroom. When I saw these places the next couple of days, I realized they were restrooms in the true sense of the word,” Wenders told reporters in Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district, where the dozen public restrooms are located.

The facilities were designed by leading architects including Kengo Kuma and Tadao Ando, with the idea that a pleasant public restroom could counter the common expectation it had to be filthy, filled with graffiti or associated with crime.

Wenders, the Oscar-nominated director of “Wings of Desire” and “Buena Vista Social Club,” said when he saw the Shibuya bathrooms, he was moved.

“This is a truly precious place,” Wenders said.

 A man uses a transparent toilet that has turned opaque, right, after the door was locked at Haru-no-Owaga Community Park in Tokyo on Aug. 27, 2020. 

And so his film’s hero will be a sanitation worker who cleans the toilets, seeing his job as a craft and a service for the people. Details of the script are still being worked out.

A worker cleans inside the public restroom which was designed by architect Tadao Ando in Tokyo, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. 

Koji Yakusho, known for playing the Japanese everyman in works like “Shall We Dance” and “Babel,” said he accepted the role as soon as it was offered because he wanted to work with Wenders.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be a beautiful story. And I feel a story that has the toilet as the setting, with the person who works there and the people who use it, will help lead to an understanding of Japan,” said Yakusho.

The Tokyo Toilet project was initially conceived to impress foreign visitors expected for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, before the coronavirus pandemic forced the events to take place without spectators in the stands.

The public restroom designed by Ando is round with frames for the exterior walls, to allow air to circulate. In real life it gets cleaned without water to avoid mold or decay by men in blue jumpsuits by Japanese fashion designer Nigo.

The project, including Wenders’ film, has the backing of Fast Retailing, the company behind the Uniqlo clothing chain, and The Nippon Foundation, which carries out humanitarian projects using revenue from boat racing.

Wenders said his film, despite its humble setting, will explore a profound concept.

“I almost think it’s a utopian idea because the toilet is a place where everybody is the same. There is no rich or poor, old or young. Everyone is part of humanity,” he said.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Review: Charting country music paths in ‘Her Country’

By MAE ANDERSON

This image released by Henry Holt shows cover art for "Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be" by Marissa R. Moss.

 (Henry Holt via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — “Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be,” by Marissa R. Moss (Henry Holt & Co.)

Women have always played a major part of country music, from the Carter Family to Dolly Parton, but in recent years you’d be hard pressed to hear that on country music radio. In “Her Country,” Marissa R. Moss chronicles how three singers – Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton — found ways to circumvent the traditional Nashville Music Row country music industry path and its “good ol’ boy” mentality to chart successful paths of their own.

In the 1990s, women country music stars seemed to dominate the airwaves: Shania Twain, Faith Hill, the Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) were mainstream stars. But after the Chicks were essentially blacklisted in 2003 for criticizing George W. Bush, a chill for women settled over the industry. Even today, women are rarely played back-to-back on country radio, and make up less than 20% of airtime.

But as Morris shows, the women in “Her Country,” have managed to produce some of the most creative, inclusive and successful country music of the moment despite obstacles. Musgraves, Morris and Guyton all started out in Texas as talented singers from a young age, each eventually making their way to Nashville to try to make it in country music.

Musgraves strove for inclusiveness, both in her lyrics, and by making sure her co-writers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally took the stage when she won the Country Music Awards Song of the Year Award in 2014 for “Follow Your Arrow.” It was the first time two openly gay people stood on the CMA stage for an award.

Morris found success by self-releasing her songs and then working with Spotify to launch them in 2015. Her songs were a hit on the platform and left labels scrambling to sign her. Next, she became a crossover success with the worldwide pop hit “The Middle,” with producer Zedd and musical duo Grey in 2018. She joined the country music supergroup The Highwomen in 2019.

And Guyton overcame years of discrimination as a Black woman singer in the country music business to receive a Grammy nomination in 2020 for her song “Black Like Me,” – the first Black female solo artist to get a Grammy nomination in a country music category.

“I realize that not only am I walking through these doors as a Black woman, I need to hold the door open for many other Black, brown, LGBTQIA+ artists that have the same dreams,” she said backstage.

Cardinal, pop star bailed in latest Hong Kong security arrests


Wed, May 11, 2022


A Catholic cardinal critical of Beijing was released on bail by Hong Kong authorities, local media reported late Wednesday, as his arrest under the city's national security law prompted US demands that he be freed.

Retired cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, was seen in media footage waving to reporters as he left a police station in the city hours after his arrest, but he did not give a statement.

He was released shortly before the White House issued a statement demanding he be freed "immediately", and as the Vatican voiced "concern" at his arrest and said it was following the situation "very closely".

Canadian Cantonese pop singer Denise Ho, who was also among a group of veteran democracy advocates arrested under the law, was similarly released on bail, local media said.

Those arrested were all trustees of a now-disbanded fund that helped finance demonstrators detained during massive democracy protests that swept Hong Kong three years ago.

Police said in a statement on Wednesday that two men and two women, aged between 45 and 90, had been detained for conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.

They will all be granted bail but their travel documents will be confiscated, police added.

Zen is a former bishop of Hong Kong and one of the most senior Catholic clerics in the Chinese business hub.

He has been critical of the Vatican's decision to reach a compromise with China over the appointment of bishops on the mainland and an advocate of Hong Kong's democracy movement.

Ho is a popular local vocalist and an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights.

The other people arrested were veteran barrister Margaret Ng and prominent cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung.

Police said those arrested were trustees of the "612 Humanitarian Relief Fund", which helped arrested protesters pay their legal and medical bills.

Those arrested were suspected of endangering national security because they allegedly asked foreign nations or overseas organisations to impose sanctions on Hong Kong, police said.

On Tuesday, scholar Hui became the first among the group to be arrested as he tried to leave via the airport to take up an academic post in Europe.

- 'Collusion' -

The offence of "foreign collusion" was introduced in a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in response to the democracy protests.

The security law has crushed dissent in the once outspoken business hub and can carry up to life in jail.

One of the group's trustee, democracy activist Cyd Ho, has already been jailed for unauthorised assembly in a separate case.

The fund disbanded last year after the city's national security police demanded it hand over operational details including information about its donors and beneficiaries.

In its Wednesday statement, police said it was also seeking to charge the trustees and an additional person for failing to properly register the group in accordance with law.

Shortly before the fund closed in October, Hong Kong's Lingnan University said its contract with Hui had ended but declined to state a reason on privacy grounds.

Academics who played prominent roles in Hong Kong's now decimated democracy movement have often found themselves dropped by universities and are struggling to find work.

A social commentator and prolific author, Hui taught for more than two decades at Lingnan University and was credited by former student leader Nathan Law with inspiring his political career.

bur-hol/st

Reports: Hong Kong arrests Roman Catholic cardinal, others


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FILE - Hong Kong's outspoken cardinal Joseph Zen, center, and other religious protesters hold placards with "Respects religious freedom" written on them during a demonstration outside the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong, Wednesday, July 11, 2012. Reports say a Roman Catholic cardinal and three others have been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger Chinese national security. U.K.-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch said Cardinal Joseph Zen, lawyer Margaret Ng, singer Denise Ho and scholar Hui Po-keung were detained Wednesday, , May 11, 2022, by Hong Kong's National Security Police. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)


HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities arrested a Roman Catholic cardinal, a singer and at least two others on Wednesday on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger China’s national security, reports said.

Cardinal Joseph Zen, singer-actress Denise Ho, lawyer Margaret Ng and scholar Hui Po-keung were detained by Hong Kong’s National Security Police, the U.K.-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch said.

The arrests were apparently related to their roles as trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, which provided legal aid to people who took part in 2019 pro-democracy protests that were quashed by security forces, the group said. The fund closed in 2021, it said.

Scores of pro-democracy activists have been arrested under a sweeping National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020 following the demonstrations. The city’s independent media have been gutted and its legislature reorganized to pack it with Beijing loyalists.

Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, is a fierce critic of China and has been blistering in his condemnation of the Vatican’s 2018 agreement with Beijing over bishop nominations, which he has said was a sellout of underground Christians in China.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the Holy See “learned with concern the news of the arrest of Cardinal Zen and is following the evolution of the situation with extreme attention.”

Ho also has been outspoken in her advocacy of civil and political rights. Her manager, Jelly Cheng, confirmed Ho’s arrest but said she had no other information.

Hui was arrested at Hong Kong’s international airport as he sought to leave the city, Hong Kong Watch said.

“Today’s arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” said the group’s chief executive, Benedict Rogers.

“We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists,” Rogers said.

The White House also called on China and Hong Kong authorities to cease targeting Hong Kong advocates and immediately release Zen and others who were “unjustly detained and charged,” deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

Several leading Kong Kong activists have fled to Taiwan, Britain or elsewhere, while thousands of other Hong Kongers have chosen to leave the city, raising concerns about the economic future of the Asian financial center of 7.4 million.

The arrests follow the selection on Sunday of Hong Kong’s new leader, John Lee, a hard-line former security chief who ran unopposed in a process controlled by Beijing.

The European Union and foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. — condemned the election as fundamentally undemocratic and a betrayal of the “one country, two systems” principle under which Hong Kong was supposed to retain its own political, legal and economic system for 50 years after the end of British colonial rule.

Hong Kong’s government and police had no immediate comment on the reported arrests.

Maya Wang, Human Rights Watch’s China senior researcher, said she understood a fifth person, former Legislative Council member Cyd Ho Sau-lan, had also been arrested.

Arresting Zen for his peaceful activities “has to be a shocking new low for Hong Kong, illustrating the city’s free fall in human rights in the past two years,” Wang said in a statement.

PREMATURE BIRTHS ARE COSTLY HEALTHCARE
The tiniest babies: Shifting the boundary of life earlier
By LAURA UNGAR

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Curtis Means kisses his mother, Michelle Butler at their home in Eutaw, Ala., on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Butler was just over halfway through her pregnancy when her water broke and contractions wracked her body. She couldn’t escape a terrifying truth: Her twins were coming much too soon. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)


BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Michelle Butler was just over halfway through her pregnancy when her water broke and contractions wracked her body. She couldn’t escape a terrifying truth: Her twins were coming much too soon.

Dr. Brian Sims entered the delivery room and gently explained that babies born so early likely won’t live. He told Butler he could keep them comfortable as they died.

But she pleaded through tears: “Give my twins a chance to survive.”

And he did.

Until recently, trying to save babies born this early would have been futile. Butler was in the fifth month of her pregnancy, one day past 21 weeks gestation. That’s seven weeks earlier than what doctors once considered “the lower limit of viability,” the earliest an infant could possibly survive outside the womb. But over the last half century, medical science has slowly shifted that boundary downward.

And that’s made viability — a word many associate with the abortion debate — key to decisions about desperately wanted babies at the very edge of life.

Growing numbers of extremely premature infants are getting life-saving treatment and surviving. A pivotal study in the Journal of the American Medical Association this year, which looked at nearly 11,000 such births in a neonatal research network that is part of the National Institutes of Health, found that 30% of babies born at 22 weeks, 56% born at 23 weeks and 71% born at 24 weeks lived at least until they were healthy enough to be sent home home if doctors tried to save them.

Those gains happened gradually and quietly as the notion of viability got a lot more attention in the abortion arena. Viability is mentioned 36 times in the initial draft of the leaked majority opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court that would strike down Roe v. Wade. The decades-old abortion ruling says the Constitution protects a woman’s right to an abortion before viability, a standard Mississippi argues is arbitrary.

But viability has nothing to do with the vast majority of abortions; more than 99% of abortions occur at or before 21 weeks, according to federal statistics. So although viability is central to abortion law, the crux of the argument around the procedure comes down to disagreement about whether and in which cases someone should have the choice to terminate a pregnancy.

Meanwhile, viability is a growing real concern for those who care for premature babies as science keeps moving the line lower and lower.

And in this realm, too, it’s ethically fraught.

Beyond the risk of death, babies at “borderline viability” are highly susceptible to disabilities such as cerebral palsy, cognitive impairments, blindness and severe lung problems. Often, parents and doctors face a heartbreaking question they must answer together: How do they decide what to do?

“There’s a lot of things we can do, a lot of interventions,” said Dr. Barbara Warner, a newborn medicine expert at Washington University medical school in St. Louis. “Should we do them?”

In the case of Butler’s twins, the answer was yes. Curtis and C’Asya Means came into the world on July 5, 2020, at the University of Alabama hospital, each weighing less than a pound and small enough to fit in an adult’s hand.

Their divergent paths reflected both sides of extreme prematurity.

C’Asya lived just one day. Butler keeps her ashes in a tiny pink-and-silver urn.

Curtis became the earliest surviving “micropreemie” in the world – teething, trying solid foods and tooling around the house in his walker.

‘A SLOW EVOLUTION’

Each year in the U.S, about 380,000 babies are born prematurely, or earlier than 37 weeks of a typical 40-week pregnancy. About 19,000 arrive before the third trimester.

Babies born so soon faced bleak prospects until the latter half of the 20th century. That’s when incubator technology evolved, neonatology became a specialty and two medications began to be widely used: steroids during pregnancy to speed up fetal lung development, and synthetic “surfactant” given to babies to keep their airways open.

“I don’t think I could point to a single new technology or new medication or approach that has been the driver of keeping infants alive at these really low limits of gestation,” said Dr. Elizabeth Foglia, a neonatologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It’s just a slow evolution” that cascaded into “a sea change.”

For many years, the “edge of viability” remained around 24 weeks, she said. During her pediatric residency from 2006-2009, “those were the patients that were sort of the earliest we would intervene and the patients we were most worried about.”

Nicholas Hall’s twins, Graham and Reece, were born at 25 weeks in 2006. Graham spent his 45-day life connected to a breathing tube, getting nutrients through an intravenous drip. “He could never rest,” said the Bloomington, Indiana, dad, who with his now ex-wife started a nonprofit to support parents called Graham’s Foundation.

Reece survived. But she spent 119 days in the NICU, needed emergency surgery for a buildup of fluid in her brain, and came home on oxygen. She still has a hearing problem called auditory processing disorder.

Complications remain common even as three decades of research show a progressive increase in survival rates for babies born at 22 to 25 weeks. Care for these babies also remains intense.

Even today, up to a year in the hospital isn’t unusual for micropreemies, and costs can run into the millions of dollars. Most of these infants spend time on ventilators, are warmed in isolettes and get fluids and nutrition through tubes. Their skin, as delicate as a burn victim’s, needs meticulous care.

Hospitals have differing practices on when to provide this sort of care to the very youngest micropreemies, which leads to varying survival rates. One survey found that about six in 10 U.S. hospitals actively treated 22-week babies in 2019, up from 26% in 2007. The data doesn’t include the few surviving babies born during the 21st week of pregnancy.

“If you’re an institution that’s fully committed to resuscitation at 22 weeks, then studies show pretty clearly that just by virtue of offering the full spectrum of intensive care, you are going to be more likely to have babies who survive,” Foglia said.

TINY FIGHTER

Sims, a neonatologist who is also a pediatrics professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said it would have been “perfectly reasonable” not to try to save Butler’s twins. In such cases, whether to resuscitate or continue lifesaving care is a shared decision between parents and the medical team.

“But even when we don’t try anything, a baby that’s trying to live will show you that. You’ll see that the baby’s trying to take a breath,” Sims said. “We support the babies that give us those signs.”

As soon as Curtis and C’Asya arrived, Sims gave each a little bit of oxygen. Curtis’ heart rate quickly rose. His smaller sister didn’t respond as well. Other medical measures for the twins, such as ventilators and surfactant, couldn’t compensate for her immature lungs.

“They told me it was up to me to make the call” about withdrawing treatment, Butler said. “I actually was praying silently to myself. God came to me and told me, ‘If you give me C’Asya, I’ll give you Curtis.’”

Butler cradled her daughter for hours after she died. It was the first time she held her.

Curtis stayed in the NICU for nine more months. Butler made the 90-minute trek from her home in rural Eutaw to Birmingham several times a week. She read books to Curtis and often held him inside her shirt so his skin touched hers.

Curtis went home tethered to oxygen. Butler, a single mom with two older kids, made sure the levels didn’t drop, gave him medicines five times a day and regularly set his feeding pump to dispense the right amount of food into a tube in his stomach.

More than a year later, Curtis is down to one medication for high blood pressure and two inhalers. He can be unhooked from oxygen for an hour a day. At 22 months old and around 20 pounds, he’s an active toddler who crawls, pulls himself up and plays with his older sister and brother.

When Butler woke him one morning, he fussed and fumbled with the feeding tube that still provides much of his nutrition.

But soon he was scooting his walker around the kitchen and curiously opening cabinets as Butler scrambled eggs, one of a growing number of soft and pureed foods he can now ingest.

“Wanna eat-eat?” she coaxed, offering a tiny bit of egg.

He eagerly popped it in his mouth, then smiled and grabbed a much bigger helping from her plate.

BITTERSWEET PROGRESS

In the future, doctors expect more micropreemies like Curtis to survive.

One reason? Saving them will become more accepted and common. Last year, the influential American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists updated its recommendations to say steroids before birth may be considered if resuscitation is planned at 22 weeks. Previously, the measure was not recommended for babies that young.

And down the road, scientists are working on lifesaving equipment tailored to smaller bodies and an artificial womb they hope could someday grow a fetus outside of a person.

Such advances are sure to deepen ethical dilemmas.

“There always will be a limit of viability. Where that limit is may change over time as technology evolves and our ability to care for less and less mature babies evolves,” Foglia said. But wherever that limit is, “survival may be possible but not guaranteed. And survival without disability is certainly not guaranteed.”

Hall said doctors shouldn’t keep trying to move the viability line down until they can truly reduce the long-term medical problems associated with extremely premature babies born today.

Cori Laemmle of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who gave birth to twin boys in 2020 at 22 weeks, said decisions about whether to treat such infants should consider the individual circumstances and be guided by a question: “Are the interventions going to do more harm than good?”

Washington University’s Warner said everyone needs to think about how the babies might suffer.

This was why Laemmle and her husband decided to let one of her twins go — he was crashing with a collapsed lung. The other twin responded well to treatment. He’s now getting speech and physical therapy and hitting the usual milestones in all areas but speech.

Doctors are hopeful that Curtis Means – he has his father’s last name – will also continue to thrive. Dr. Brett Turner, his pulmonologist, now sees him every two or three months to manage his ongoing lung disease.

“As he grows … those visits will slowly all be able to be spaced out,” Turner said. “Hopefully, he’ll require fewer and fewer doctors to care for him.”

At home, his 35-year-old mother spends less time tending to Curtis’ medical needs and more time just hanging out with him.

One afternoon, she pulled Curtis out of his walker and into her arms. He grabbed at her face. She kissed his hand. She pulled down his Winnie-the-Pooh shirt, and they touched palms in a high five.

Butler, who is studying to be a cosmetologist, envisions Curtis going to school in a few years and becoming a doctor someday.

But as he grows, she always wants him to remember the twin who will never see such a future.

“Anytime he has a party, it’s going to be about her too,” with both names on the cakes, Butler said. “I mention her name every day for him, to let him know he was a twin and ‘your twin is your angel.’ And when he gets bigger, I’m going to get him a necklace where he can keep her ashes with him.”

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