Saturday, June 04, 2022

Zelenskyy shuts down Newsmax interviewer who tried to get him to say there would be no war if Trump were president

Sinéad Baker
Wed, June 1, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Emin Sansar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A Newsmax host asked Zelenskyy if Russia's invasion may have been prevented with Trump as president.

Zelenskyy said it was not important which party was in power in the US.

He told the host, Rob Schmitt, "I am sorry if I'll be saying something that you don't like."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shut down a Newsmax interviewer who prompted him to say that there would be no war in Ukraine if former President Donald Trump were still the US president.

Zelenskyy was interviewed by Rob Schmitt, a Newsmax anchor, in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, on Tuesday about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Schmitt asked Zelenskyy: "Do you think that different American leadership, do you think that different Western leadership, may have prevented this aggression?

"There are many Americans that believe that if somebody like Donald Trump was still in the White House that this invasion would not have happened. What is your position?"



Zelenskyy responded by saying that he was grateful for the help given by US President Joe Biden, and that the most important thing for Ukraine is support from the American public, regardless of which party is in power.

Zelenskyy said: "Well, I believe what's the most important is the assistance from the people of the United States. They are paying the taxes, and the money being allocated to support Ukraine comes from the taxes, and it's all of that humanitarian, financial, military support to Ukraine. So I am grateful to the current president of the United States as well as to those in the political parties that support us."

"I am sorry if I'll be saying something that you don't like, but for us as the country in war, it doesn't matter whether it's Democrats or Republicans. It's the people of the United States that support us," he said.

Zelenskyy later added: "I don't know what would happen if the president, if Donald Trump would be the president of the United States for this situation, so I cannot predict what would happen."

Zelenskyy said that it was important that US institutions such as Congress work the same regardless of who is in power, to keep "the values of the United States."

Newsmax is a right-wing outlet known for its support of Trump.

Trump has previously said that him being in power would have prevented Russia from invading.

He said in a statement on February 24, the day Russia invaded, "If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened!"

Trump and Zelenskyy have a significant political backstory, and the question of US support led to Trump's first impeachment.

Congress impeached Trump over a 2019 phone call with Zelenskyy when he urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden, his political rival, and his son Hunter Biden seemingly in exchange for military aid.
Charles Booker wears noose in ad blasting Rand Paul for delaying 2020 antilynching bill

Morgan Watkins, Louisville Courier Journal
Wed, June 1, 2022

Former Democratic state Rep. Charles Booker, left, is looking to take the place of Republican Rand Paul in the U.S. Senate.

Editor's note: This story references graphic imagery that could be offensive or disturbing to some readers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker stands with a noose around his neck in a new campaign ad criticizing his opponent, Republican incumbent Rand Paul, for holding up legislation in 2020 that would have made lynching a federal hate crime in America.

The certain-to-be-controversial ad, which Booker's campaign released Wednesday morning, includes a content warning for "strong imagery."

It does not mention that Paul went on to co-sponsor a new (and bipartisan) version of that legislation. The Senate unanimously voted this March to pass the updated Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which is now law.


"The pain of our past persists to this day," Booker says in a voiceover as his ad begins, showing a historic lynching photo and a noose hanging from the limb of a tree. "In Kentucky, like many states throughout the South, lynching was a tool of terror. It was used to kill hopes for freedom.

"It was used to kill my ancestors," Booker says as he appears onscreen, standing next to a tree with a noose looped around his neck.

"Now, in a historic victory for our commonwealth, I have become the first Black Kentuckian to receive the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate."


In a controversial new political ad, Charles Booker calls out incumbent U.S. Sen. Rand Paul for his stands on lynching legislation and civil rights.

"My opponent?" he says as an image of Paul appears. "The very person who compared expanded health care to slavery. The person who said he would have opposed the Civil Rights Act. The person who singlehandedly blocked an antilynching act from being federal law."

"The choice couldn't be clearer," Booker continues over the resounding creak of a rope, shown in close-up, before he appears onscreen with his hands gripping the noose. "Do we move forward together? Or do we let politicians like Rand Paul forever hold us back and drive us apart?

"In November, we will choose healing," he says as he lifts the noose from around his neck. "We will choose Kentucky."

Jake Cox, a spokesman for Paul's campaign, addressed Booker's ad and the senator's handling of recent antilynching bills in a statement Wednesday afternoon, saying:

"Dr. Paul worked diligently to strengthen the language of this legislation and is a cosponsor of the bill that now ensures that federal law will define lynching as the absolutely heinous crime that it is. Any attempt to state otherwise is a desperate misrepresentation of the facts."

Booker's campaign manager, Bianca Keaton, told The Courier Journal Wednesday the decision to run the controversial imagery in this video was a "difficult choice."

"It took months to get to the point of actually being like: 'Is this how we're going to handle this?'" said Keaton, who added that she gasped when they drove to the location where they filmed the ad, and she saw the noose hanging there — something she'd never before seen.

"And the thing that I would share with you generally about the subject of lynching in this country is: It's ugly. You know, people don't want to see it."

Keaton said there are "so many other ways in which terror is invoked on Black communities." She pointed to last month's mass shooting in Buffalo, where a white man who has been linked to white supremacist hatred and apparently espoused a racist conspiracy theory is charged with killing 10 people and injuring three more individuals, nearly all of them Black.

"Republicans will talk about race using dog whistles," she said.

"We're going to do it on a bullhorn."

What Rand Paul said about the Civil Rights Act

In his new ad, Booker referenced a handful of controversial comments Paul previously has made.

Booker's statement that Paul said he would've opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is an apparent reference to a controversy dating back to a 2010 interview Paul did with The Courier Journal's editorial board, during which the future senator was asked if he would have voted for that landmark law outlawing segregation in public places and business establishments and prohibiting employment discrimination.

In that interview, Paul praised the Civil Rights Act's prohibition against discrimination in public domains but indicated he disliked the idea of telling private business owners what they can and can't do with their establishments, citing concerns about freedom.

"I abhor racism. I think it's a bad business decision to ever exclude anybody from your restaurant, but at the same time I do believe in private ownership," said Paul, who went on to be elected to the Senate for the first time later that year. "But I think there should be absolutely no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding, and that's most of what the Civil Rights Act was about, to my mind."

Paul's comment on the Civil Rights Act was highly controversial, and he later went on to repeatedly stress that he supports this historic law.

"And the thing that I would share with you generally about the subject of lynching in this country is: It's ugly. You know, people don't want to see it."

Keaton said there are "so many other ways in which terror is invoked on Black communities." She pointed to last month's mass shooting in Buffalo, where a white man who has been linked to white supremacist hatred and apparently espoused a racist conspiracy theory is charged with killing 10 people and injuring three more individuals, nearly all of them Black.

"Republicans will talk about race using dog whistles," she said.

"We're going to do it on a bullhorn."

What Rand Paul said about comparing 'expanded health care to slavery'

In the new campaign ad, Booker also blasts Paul for comparing "expanded health care to slavery."

That's an apparent reference to something Paul, an ophthalmologist, said during a 2011 Senate hearing opposing the expansion of health care under former President Barack Obama.

"With regard to the idea whether or not you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. I am a physician. You have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery," he said at the time.

"You are going to enslave not only me but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants, the nurses."

Keaton indicated this is just one example of how Paul's behavior as a senator shows "the unseriousness" with which he approaches policy, and particularly policy specific to race.

50 complaints, no action: Why Kentucky medical board won't police Rand Paul's COVID claims
What happened with Rand Paul and recent antilynching legislation

The main bill Booker's ad focuses on, as well as the updated version of it that Paul supported earlier this year, is named in honor of Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 and whose horrific death catalyzed the civil rights movement.

The primary aim of this legislation was to list lynching — a form of violence white people have used throughout American history to brutalize, murder and terrorize Black people in Kentucky and across the country — as a federal hate crime after Congress had failed for more than a century to pass antilynching bills.

Paul placed a hold on the original Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2020 and later sought unanimous consent from the Senate for an amended version of the bill that he indicated would ensure it didn't apply to crimes that resulted in relatively minor injuries like bruises and cuts.

Rand Paul: The Emmett Till Antilynching act was worth taking the time to get it right

He received intense criticism for pumping the brakes on that bill two years ago, including from the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

At the time, Paul said lynching is "a tool of terror that claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 Americans between 1881 and 1968" and defended his stance on the bill, saying: "I seek to amend this legislation, not because I take it or I take lynching lightly, but because I take it seriously — and this legislation does not."

Paul's amendment was blocked, and the original bill didn't advance in the Senate either.

Paul introduced his own proposal, the Marie Thompson Antilynching Act, last year. That legislation, named after a Kentucky woman lynched by a mob in 1904, did not advance in Congress either.

This year, he co-sponsored a new version of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act that Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., introduced.

He told The Courier Journal he negotiated with Cory Booker on a compromise that addressed his concerns, and he supported the legislation that has since become law.
Reaction to Charles Booker's new ad

Keaton said Wednesday morning the response to the ad so far was "overwhelmingly positive," although they understand some folks will find it uncomfortable to watch.

University of Louisville political science professor Dewey Clayton said he thought the ad was "outlandish," although he noted sometimes politicians like to have that shock element to draw in viewers.

"An ad like that will clearly gain attention, but I think it paints Sen. Paul in a slightly unfair sort of position," Clayton said.

Some people may see this ad as outlandish, but he expects many will see Booker is "really just trying to make a point."

As for where Booker's campaign goes from here, Keaton said: "This ad is a piece of a much broader story that we will have to tell."

Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal's chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Rand Paul challenger Charles Booker wears noose in Senate campaign ad
One family's photo album includes images of a vacation, a wedding anniversary and the lynching of a Black man in Texas


Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Professor of History, Sam Houston State University
Mon, May 30, 2022

In this photo from Aug. 20, 1922, Gene Kemp and Mary 'Teddie' Kemp, at left,
 are seen with two friends. Jeffrey L. Littlejohn

As a historian and director of the Lynching in Texas project, which has documented more than 600 racial terror lynchings, I receive regular emails from journalists, scholars and activists who want to discuss the history of racial violence.

My conversations with reporters and historians did not prepare me for one of the emails I received last winter. The writer, a Chicago memorabilia dealer, offered to mail me a photo album that included a picture from a Texas lynching.

I responded that I would appreciate the opportunity to review the album and to help identify the victim.

About a week later, I opened the envelope and found five photos, a small cartoon and a key labeled “Teddie’s pictures.”

Each of the photographs was numbered.

The first was a 6-by-5-inch image of what appeared to be burning wood. It proved difficult to decipher. But the description clarified matters.


In this May 27, 1922 photograph, the charred remains of Jesse Thomas are barely visible. Jeff Littlejohn

It read: “Burning of negro in front of old City Hall, Waco, Texas.”

Revealing history lessons

I immediately set out to identify the victim and to discover the story behind “Teddie’s pictures.”

As I did so, I realized that what I was doing would be controversial, if not illegal, had I been a K-12 teacher in Texas.

In fact, I was engaging in the very kind of historical analysis that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican legislators in Texas want to ban from public schools.

In 2021, for example, Texas Republicans enacted Senate Bill 3 to prohibit K-12 educators from teaching that “slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from … the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.”

In other words, this official state interpretation holds that slavery, racism and racism’s deadly manifestation, lynching, did not serve as systemic forces that shaped Texas history but were instead aberrations without any fundamental meaning for Texans – or even beyond the state.


Scene of the burnings of Johnny Cornish, Mose Jones and Snap Curry in Kirvin, Texas, on May 6, 1922. Jeff Littlejohn

Teddie’s photo album, which also included pictures of Teddie and her husband doing normal, everyday things like riding donkeys and going to wedding anniversary dinners, presented a direct challenge to this interpretation.
Racist mob terror

Indeed, my research soon revealed that the pictures belonged to Mary “Teddie” Kemp, a white woman from Pennsylvania who moved with her husband, Gene Kemp, to Waco, Texas, in 1922.

This date proved crucial, because it meant that the victim in Teddie’s photo album could not be Jesse Washington, the 17-year-old mentally handicapped young man who was lynched in the infamous “Waco Horror” of 1916.

In that lynching, historian Patricia Bernstein writes, Washington was “beaten, stabbed, mutilated, hanged and burned to death on the Waco town square, before an audience of 10-15,000 screaming, cheering spectators.”

In fact, the dates on the other photos in Teddie’s album made it likely that this picture showed the burning of Jesse Thomas, a 23-year-old Black man.

Thomas was wrongly accused of murdering W. Harrell Bolton and assaulting his female companion, Margaret Hays, near Waco on May 25, 1922.

When Hays identified Thomas as her likely assailant, a relative named Sam Harris shot and killed Thomas.

A white mob then dragged his body to City Hall and burned it before a crowd of several thousand people.

White supremacy in Texas


The identification of Jesse Thomas as the victim in Teddie’s photo album only led to more questions.

Why would an educated white woman from Pennsylvania include a picture of a Black lynching victim in a personal photo album?


In this Sept. 26, 1921, photograph, Mary ‘Teddie’ Kemp and her husband, Gene, are riding on donkeys at Seven Falls and South Cheyenne Cañon, Colo. Jeffrey Littlejohn

Why would she take her photos out of chronological sequence and place the lynching picture as the first photo in the album?

The answers to these questions reveal a great deal about Texas just 100 years ago.

In my view, the album exposes the priority that Anglo Texans – even new arrivals to the state – placed on white supremacy and Black subjugation.

Teddie likely pasted the picture of Jesse Thomas’ burning body at the beginning of her album because it featured an electrifying, adrenaline-charged event that viscerally illustrated the nature of her new Texas home.


An image of Mary Kemp’s handwritten descriptions of her photographs. Jeff Littlejohn

Indeed, as historian William Carrigan has shown, white supremacy and racial violence served as core elements of the state’s identity.

Together, they established the written and unwritten rules governing the social order – who could vote, who could marry whom, who could attend events – and the ultimate punishment for transgressing the rules.

Lynchings, like the one depicted in Teddie’s photo album, present a direct challenge to the whitewashed view of Texas history that Abbott and his Republican colleagues prefer.
Unspeakable violence

Lynchings occurred regularly in Texas – with 16 in 1922 alone – and served as the most extreme and violent embodiment of white supremacy in the state during the Jim Crow period.

When Black and Hispanic Texans dared to challenge white authority or to claim for themselves the rights of U.S. citizens, they faced violence on a scale rarely seen in other parts of the country.


In this image of a May 6, 1922, newspaper, a photo caption reads ‘Where three Negroes were burned at stake’ in Kirvin, Texas. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers

In May 1922, for example, white Texans carried out in one month at least 10 lynchings, more lynchings than in any other state but Georgia for the entire year.

Eight of the Texas victims killed in 1922 were burned at the stake in a form of torture that most people today associate with the so-called Dark Ages.

But these horrific acts happened in modern Texas, just a few generations ago. And white people caught the events on film and put the photos in their own family albums.

One hundred years ago, the lynching of Black men and women in Texas was not an aberration. It proved the rule. You could say white supremacist rule.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Jeffrey L. Littlejohn, Sam Houston State University.

Read more:
One Man Can Break Open the World’s Most Powerful Pedo Ring

Barbie Latza Nadeau
Tue, May 31, 2022,

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

ROME—If there is one open secret in the eternal city, it is that the allegations of clerical sex abuse in Italy have always been swept away, into the shadows of the Vatican.

The last three popes have had mixed reviews on their handling of the global scandal. When the worst of the abuse was coming to light, Pope John Paul II was too infirm and impotent to do anything about it. His successor Pope Benedict XVI was demonstrably blind to the problems coming in from the global church, and was implicated in the coverup in Germany. Pope Francis has done more than both of his predecessors in terms of reconciling the pain. But none of these leaders of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics have done enough or what the victims want, which is that clerical child sex abusers are treated like secular ones: that they go straight to jail.

The idea that rampant abuse that has been exposed in the United States, Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere is also happening under the popes’ noses in Italy for decades has been something previous pontiffs have successfully kept a lid on. But an increasing drum beat from Italian sex abuse victims has sent a shockwave that has finally reached the Holy See. And the new head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, has just promised to break Italy’s so-far hidden sex abuse history wide open by implying that the seat of the Roman Catholic Church is directly involved in covering up the crimes in its host country. He says he will investigate what has until now been no-go territory, guarded by church insiders who were in some ways as powerful, influential, and dangerous as the mafia.


If Zuppi makes good on his laundry list of promises—including having academics aid in researching complaints that might have been buried in the Vatican archives, looking at ignored police reports, and listening to the until-now-stifled accusations of Italian victims—the Vatican will patrol its own backyard effectively for the first time since its special city state status was signed off by Benito Mussolini.. Any investigation of any regional Catholic church ends up on the pope’s desk in Vatican City. And Zuppi has promised not to hold back. “No coverup, no resistance from the bishops. We will take the beating we have to take and also our responsibility,” Zuppi said as he accepted the papal appointment. “We owe it to the victims; their pain is the priority. And we owe it to the Holy Mother Church.”

Zuppi said that on Nov. 18, the Vatican will publish its analysis of all the complaints of clerical sex abuse in Italy—something that has never been attempted given the Catholic Church’s mafia-style influence across the country. Every city in Italy has a patron saint, bank holidays are primarily holy days, and priests play God in almost every single community. Survivors say reports of abuse have always been snuffed out and “taken care of” by shuttling the predator elsewhere or, as is often the case, straight to Vatican City for a little penance.

Has the Catholic Church Been Covering Up Its Biggest Pedophile Priest Problem?

Francesco Zanardi, a vocal survivor from the northern Italian town of Savona, started publishing accounts of abuse in a newsletter sent out widely from his support group Rete L’Abuso, or Abuse Network. His social media has gone viral with his hashtag #ItalyChurchToo which, in its one year of existence, has pulled back the curtain on grotesque accounts at the hands of influential church members in this hyper-religious country. He says he hopes that Zuppi’s investigation will truly do what it promises, and that the usual “interference“ by the Italian Catholic hierarchy over the Italian judicial system won’t make it impossible. He told The Daily Beast that the very fact that crucifixes hang by law in all Italian courtrooms is more about “omerta” than faith. He says they are there as “a threat and reminder that the Church is more powerful than even God.”

Zuppi’s predecessor, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti was pressured by many in secular society to heed the calls of Zanardi’s growing influence to launch an internal investigation of the magnitude of Pennsylvania’s in 2018 that found more than 300 predator priests and 1,000 victims in that state alone.

When Zuppi made the announcement at his swearing-in over the weekend, the 223 Italian bishops were told that they would play a very big role in self-policing, which has not been a particular strength among any of the Catholic hierarchy. Italy currently does not have “listening centers” or safe lines to call to report abuse in 30 percent of the country, which is 90 percent Catholic.

The first phase of the report will focus on the years between 2000 and 2021, a period when predator priests were finally put in check in other countries by increased involvement from the secular judicial system. But in Italy those years could prove horrific since no one was investigating reports. It remains to be seen how bad the abuse allegations are from the decades before.

Zuppi did say that the “Italian path” would differ from countries that recently blew the lid on their sex abuse scandals, including Germany, France, and Spain. In Italy, he said the plan would not be merely “lip service” or a “false acknowledgement” of the problem. “The investigation will be a serious, real thing that leaves no room for controversy,” he said, nodding to France’s report that is still being debated among the French Catholic hierarchy. “We don’t want to argue, we don’t want to sidetrack. The report does not serve as a sedative, but to do things seriously.”

The reason Zuppi said he would focus on the previous 21 years first is because it is more relevant. “With regard to the past 20 years, it has to do with us, it involves us directly. It feels much more serious to us, it hurts much more,” he said. “1945 was 80 years ago. I believe that judging something from 80 years ago by today’s criteria, something that was judged by other criteria at the time, creates difficulties of evaluation.”

Zanardi, who says he knows of 1,600 cases from before 2000, says instead that the time limit was discriminatory and it could make the problem seem smaller than it is. Zuppi has asked Zanardi for a meeting. “We would be very happy to meet with you,” he told Zanardi, who attended his first press conference and asked the incoming cardinal about reparations. “If you have a case, tell us. I don’t know if you’ve already done so, I’m speaking only for myself... Then there’s the State, you go to the police. Surely it will be very useful to make a report.”

For years, these accusations have been buried to protect the Vatican and its popes from embarrassment. The task to untangle such a deep web of sinister secrecy is daunting.

Read more at The Daily Beast.


Why the Children of Immigrants Are the Ones Getting Ahead in America


Ran Abramitzky and Leah Bouston
TIME
Wed, June 1, 2022,

Miami Beach, Florida, Lincoln Road Pedestrian Mall high angle view of city

Miami has one of the highest percentage of immigrants in the U.S. A view of Miami Beach, Lincoln Road Credit - Jeffrey Greenberg-UCG/Universal Images Group

In April 2020, the New York Times ran a special feature called “I Am the Portrait of Downward Mobility.” “It used to be a given that each American generation would do better than the last,” the piece began, “but social mobility has been slowing over time.”

In paging through the profiles, we couldn’t help noticing one group of Americans who defies this trend: the children of immigrants. Sonya Poe was born in a suburb of Dallas, Texas to parents who immigrated from Mexico. “My dad worked for a hotel,” Sonya recalled. “Their goal for us was always: Go to school, go to college, so that you can get a job that doesn’t require you to work late at night, so that you can choose what you get to do and take care of your family. We’re fortunate to be able to do that.”

The dream that propels many immigrants to America’s shores is the possibility of offering a better future for their children. Using millions of records of immigrant families from 1880 to 1940 and then again from 1980 to today, we find that the in past and still today children of immigrants surpass their parents and move up the economic ladder. If this is the American Dream, then immigrants achieve it—big time.

One pattern that is particularly striking in the data is that the children of immigrants raised in households earning below the median income make substantial progress by the time they reach adulthood, both for the Ellis Island generation a century ago and for immigrants today. The children of first-generation immigrants growing up close to the bottom of the income distribution (say, at the 25th percentile) are more likely to reach the middle of the income distribution than are children of similarly poor U.S.-born parents.

What’s more, no matter which country their parents came from, children of immigrants are more likely than the children of the U.S.-born to surpass their parents’ incomes when they are adults. This pattern holds both in the past and today, despite major changes in U.S. immigration policy over the past century, from a regime of nearly open borders for European immigrants in 1900 to one of substantial restrictions in recent decades. Children of immigrants from Mexico and the Dominican Republic today are just as likely to move up from their parents’ circumstances as were children of poor Swedes and Finns a hundred years ago.

Not only does upward mobility define the horizons of people’s lives, but it also has implications for the economy as a whole. Even immigrants who come to the U.S. with few resources or skills bring an asset that is hugely beneficial to the U.S. economy: their children. The rapid success of immigrants’ children more than pays for the debts of their parents.

To conduct our analysis, we needed data that links children to parents. For the historical data, we used historical census records to link sons living in their childhood homes to census data collected 30 years later when these young men had jobs of their own.

Think of us like curious grandchildren searching branches of their family tree online, but a million times over. We started by digging through websites like Ancestry.com that allow the public to search for their relatives. From here, we developed methods to automate these searches so we could follow millions of immigrants and their children in the records.

Our modern data is based on federal income tax records instead. The tax records allow researchers to link children to their parents as tax dependents, and then observe these children in the tax data as adults.

When we compiled this data, what do we see?


The first striking takeaway is that, as a group, children of immigrants achieve more upward mobility than the children of U.S.-born fathers. We focus on the children of white U.S.-born fathers because the children of Black fathers tend to have lower rates of upward mobility. So, the mobility advantage that we observe for the children of immigrants would be even larger if we compared this group to the full population.

The second notable takeaway is that even children of parents from very poor countries like Nigeria and Laos outperform the children of the U.S.-born raised in similar households. The children of immigrants from Central American countries—countries like Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua that are often demonized for contributing to the “crisis” at the southern border—move up faster than the children of the U.S.-born, landing in the middle of the pack (right next to children of immigrants from Canada).

Our third finding is that the mobility advantage of the children of immigrants is just as strong today as it was in the past. What’s more, some of the immigrant groups that politicians accused long ago of having little to contribute to the economy—the Irish, Italians, and Portuguese—actually achieved the highest rates of upward mobility. For the past, we are only able to study sons because we cannot link daughters who change their name at marriage. But in the modern data we can see that this pattern applies to daughters as well.

Today, we might not be that surprised to learn that the children of past European immigrants succeeded. We are used to seeing the descendants of poor European immigrants rise to become members of the business and cultural elite. Many prominent leaders, including politicians like President Biden, regularly emphasize pride in their Irish or Italian heritage. But, at the time, these groups were considered the poorest of the poor. In their flight from famine, Irish immigrants are not too dissimilar from immigrants who flee hurricanes, earthquakes, and violent uprisings today.

We often hear concerns about how poor immigrants will fare and whether their children will get trapped in low-paying jobs or dependent on government support. But our data sleuthing should lay these fears to rest. The children of immigrants do typically make it in America. And it most often takes them only one generation to rise up from poverty.

One question that arises with our work is: what about children who arrive without papers? Undocumented children face more barriers to mobility than other children of immigrants. Fortunately, this group is relatively small even in recent years: only 1.5 million (or five percent) of the 32 million children of immigrant parents are undocumented today. Indeed, this number is small because many children of undocumented immigrants are born in the U.S. and thus are granted citizenship at birth.

The children in our data from countries like Mexico and El Salvador are those whose parents benefited from an earlier legalization effort in the mid-1980s. They are doing remarkably well now, and we believe that their counterparts today have this potential, as well. Children who arrive in the U.S. without papers face barriers to mobility—and not because they put in any less effort, but because they encounter obstacles all along their path. With a stroke of a pen, politicians can make that happen but, so far, this legislation has remained out of reach.

What enables the children of immigrants to escape poor circumstances and move up the economic ladder? The answer we hear most often is that immigrants have a better work ethic than the US-born and that immigrant parents put more emphasis on education.

We agree that the special features of immigrant families could be part of the story (although it’s hard to tell in our data). Yet when we crunched the numbers we found something surprising: immigrants tend to move to those locations in the U.S. that offer the best opportunities for upward mobility for their kids, whereas the U.S.-born are more rooted in place.

Generations of social science research has confirmed that where children grow up influences their opportunities in life. We find that immigrant parents are more likely than U.S.-born parents to settle in these high-opportunity areas, which are flush with good jobs and offer better prospects for mobility in the next generation. As striking proof that geography matters, we see that children of immigrants out-earn other children in a broad national comparison, but they do not earn more than other children who grew up in the same area. In terms of economic fortunes, the grown children of immigrants look similar to the children of U.S.-born parents who were raised down the block, or in the same town. This pattern implies that the primary difference between immigrant families and the families of the U.S.-born is in where they choose to live.

One implication of our findings is that it is very likely that U.S.-born families would have achieved the same success had they moved to such high-opportunity places themselves. In fact, we find that the children of U.S.-born parents who moved from one state to another have higher upward mobility than those who stayed put: their level of upward mobility is closer to (but not quite as high as) that of the children of immigrants who moved from abroad. So, you might ask: why don’t US-born families move out of a region when job opportunities dwindle?


Ironically, J.D. Vance (who is now running for Senate in Ohio on an anti-immigration platform) poses this question in his bestseller Hillbilly Elegy,aboutgrowing up in Middletown, Ohio, only 45 minutes from the border with Kentucky, the state where his family had lived for generations. For Vance, moving up the ladder meant moving out of his childhood community, a step that many Americans are unwilling to take. He went on to enlist in the Marines, and then to Ohio State and Yale Law School—“Though we sing the praises of social mobility,” he writes, “it has its downsides. The term necessarily implies a sort of movement—to a theoretically better life, yes, but also away from something.”

Vance is hitting on the cost of attaining upward mobility for children of U.S.-born parents. Many of the children of U.S.-born parents grow up in areas where their families settled long before, so economic mobility for them is often coupled with the costs of leaving home. By contrast, immigrants already took the step of leaving home to move to America, so they may be more willing to go wherever it takes within the country to find opportunity. In other words, U.S.-born families are more rooted in place, while immigrant families are more footloose—and this willingness to move toward opportunity seems to make all the difference.

Adapted from Abramitzky and Boustan’s new book Streets of Gold: America’s Untold Story of Immigrant Success
NOT A WORD ABOUT GANGS
World Bank, Haitians putting challenged nation on a more prosperous and resilient path | Opinion


Delot Jean/AP

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo
Mon, May 30, 2022

There’s a well-known Haitian proverb, Se lè ou nan bezwen, ou konn ki moun ki zanmi ou. It means a true friend will always be ready to support you in the most difficult times.

Haitians have suffered terrible misfortunes in recent years, and enormous challenges remain, but there are many good reasons for hope — and I’m grateful for the recent opportunity to travel to Haiti and pledge the World Bank’s continued support to the country’s resilient recovery.

This was the message I carried during my recent visit, my first since becoming the World Bank’s vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean. During my trip, I was struck by how much can be achieved even in the most daunting circumstances.

The 2021 earthquake is a case in point. Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake, with a huge humanitarian and economic toll. Since then, the World Bank has been working with the government of Haiti in three key areas to ensure a prompt and targeted response.

First, within two weeks, by leveraging remote imaging and techniques, we identified, analyzed and prepared a Global Rapid Damage Estimation Report highlighting the main recovery needs. In addition, and together with the United Nations and European Union, we produced a Post Disaster Needs Assessments that estimated the earthquake caused approximately $2 billion in damage and losses, or rather 11 percent of Haiti’s 2019-2020 GDP.

Second, we helped Haiti mobilize the necessary resources for action. We leveraged an additional $200 million for the earthquake response and are working with donors and partners to provide a total of $2 billion over the next three years. This contribution puts us on track to provide record funding to Haiti this fiscal year, close to $500 million in total, far more than originally allocated.

Third, we now are putting all of our energy into the recovery effort’s implementation. This includes ensuring that necessary funding arrives as quickly as possible, and to the right places. Together with the government, we are focusing over the next year on this single, hugely important program.

We recognize past concerns — particularly regarding the 2010 earthquake — that the international community, at times, promises more than it can deliver. We are firmly committed to ensure that, even under current difficult circumstances, we find swift, pragmatic solutions to delivering assistance to those that most need it, including the most vulnerable and in the most remote areas.

Haiti‘s recovery, regrettably, is challenged by two on-the-ground realities.

First, the recovery is within the context of deteriorating security. Even more than the uncertain political scenario, restoring security is of the utmost importance for the World Bank’s program in Haiti to be effective. Strong collaboration among our development partners — including the United Nations, the United States, and Canada — will be needed.

Second, the country continues to struggle with the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As in other Caribbean countries, unemployment, poverty and inequality rose in 2020 and 2021 as a result of lockdowns and containment measures. To help bring Haiti out of the pandemic’s shadow and to reduce the 60% of the Haitian population that is vaccine hesitant, there are ongoing efforts to raise its vaccination rate, the lowest in the region.

Despite these challenges, I remain hopeful about Haiti’s future. The resilience that Haitians have shown when confronted with chronic fragility and recurrent shocks has been inspiring. Haiti has a vibrant civil society, a dynamic young population and a prosperous diaspora that retains close links with its home country — remittances remain a key pillar of economic support.

In fact, the response to the 2021 earthquake shows just how much Haiti has advanced in what nevertheless has been a turbulent decade since the catastrophic earthquake of 2010.

I was particularly heartened to see and learn about the new temporary bridge outside Jeremie being built in record time next to the one damaged in last year’s earthquake. Clearly, much has been learned from previous experiences about how best to confront the aftermath of natural disasters.

Investments in strengthening disaster risk management and civil protection also have had an impact, especially considering that the disaster struck in profoundly complex political circumstances, scarcely one month after the tragic assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

This can be added to a host of other improvements in recent years: the management of health-related shocks; in education; infrastructure, including roads, water and renewable energy; and local governance, especially in the area of public finance.

Together, we must continue working to address recent and long-standing challenges to eliminate poverty and drive prosperity in Haiti.

Even so, out of every crisis comes opportunity. The situation today could be an inflection point. Taken together, Haitians’ resilience, as well as progress in the areas mentioned and in other spheres — including how the international community can contribute to Haiti’s development — can make an invaluable contribution to setting the country on a new, more prosperous path.

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo is the World Bank Vice President for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region.
Sanctioned Russian oligarch's megayacht hides in a UAE creek



This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Motor Yacht A, belonging to Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko, moored in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, May 12, 2022. In the dusty, northern-most sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates, Motor Yacht A, one of the world's largest yachts, sits in the quiet port — so far avoiding the fate of other luxury vessels linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

ISABEL DEBRE and JON GAMBRELL
Wed, June 1, 2022, 12:09 AM·5 min read

RAS AL-KHAIMAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In the dusty, northern-most sheikhdom of the United Arab Emirates, where laborers cycle by rustic tea shops, one of the world's largest yachts sits in a quiet port — so far avoiding the fate of other luxury vessels linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

The display of lavish wealth is startling in one of the UAE's poorest emirates, a 90-minute drive from the illuminated high-rises of Dubai. But the 118-meter (387-foot) Motor Yacht A's presence in a Ras al-Khaimah creek also shows the UAE's neutrality during Russia's war on Ukraine as the Gulf country remains a magnet for Russian money and its oil-rich capital sees Moscow as a crucial OPEC partner.

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, the seven sheikhdoms of the Emirates have offered a refuge for Russians, both those despairing of their country’s future as well as the mega-wealthy concerned about Western sanctions.

While much of the world has piled sanctions on Russian institutions and allies of President Vladimir Putin, the Emirates has not. It also avoids overt criticism of the war, which government readouts still refer to as the “Ukraine crisis.”

The Motor Yacht A belongs to Andrey Melnichenko, an oligarch worth some $23.5 billion, according to Forbes. He once ran the fertilizer producer Eurochem and SUEK, one the the world’s largest coal companies.



The European Union in March included Melnichenko in a mass list of sanctions on business leaders and others described as close to Putin. The EU sanctions noted he attended a Feb. 24 meeting Putin held the day of the invasion.

“The fact that he was invited to attend this meeting shows that he is a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine,” the EU said at the time.

Melnichenko resigned from the corporate positions he held in the two major firms, according to statements from the companies. However, he has criticized Western sanctions and denied being close to Putin.

Melnichenko could not be reached for comment through his advisers.

Already, authorities in Italy have seized one of his ships — the $600 million Sailing Yacht A. France, Spain and Britain as well have sought to target superyachts tied to Russian oligarchs as part of a wider global effort to put pressure on Putin and those close to him.

But the $300 million Motor Yacht A so far appears untouched. It flew an Emirati flag on Tuesday when Associated Press journalists observed the ship. Two crew members milled around the deck.

The boat’s last recorded position on March 10 put it off the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, just over 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) from Ras al-Khaimah. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show the vessel in Ras al-Khaimah’s creek beginning March 17, a week later.

The Financial Times first reported on the ship’s presence in the UAE.

Authorities in Ras al-Khaimah did not respond to a request for comment on the yacht’s presence. The UAE's Foreign Ministry did not answer questions about the ship, but said in a statement to the AP that it takes “its role in protecting the integrity of the global financial system extremely seriously.”

But so far, the UAE has taken no such public action targeting Russia. The country abstained on a U.N. Security Council vote in February condemning Russia’s invasion, angering Washington.

The neutral response may stem from “the financial gain we’re seeing in Dubai in terms of new tourist arrivals, and Russian efforts to move assets and buy property,” said Karen Young, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

The flow of Russian money — both legitimate and shady — is now an open secret in Dubai, where lavish hotels and beaches increasingly bustle with Russian speakers. State-run radio hosts cheerily describe a massive influx.

The UAE became one of the few remaining flight corridors out of Moscow. The Emirati government offered three-month multiple-entry visas upon arrival to all Russians, allowing major companies to easily transfer their employees from Moscow to Dubai. The private jet terminal at Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central has seen a 400% spike in traffic, the airport's CEO recently told the AP.

Real estate agents have reported a surge of interest from Russians seeking to buy property in Dubai, particularly in the skyscrapers of Dubai Marina and villas on the Palm Jumeirah.

For those who want to move to the UAE, buying high-end property also helps secure a visa.

“Business is booming right now,” said Thiago Caldas, CEO of the Dubai-based property firm Modern Living, which now accepts cryptocurrency to facilitate sales with new Russian clients. “They have a normal life and don’t face restrictions.”

Caldas said inquiries from Russian clients in Dubai have multiplied by over 10 since the war, forcing his firm to hire three Russian-speaking agents to deal with the deluge.

With sanctions on Russian banks and businesses thwarting many citizens’ access to foreign capital, Russians are increasingly trying to bypass bank transfers through digital currencies in Dubai, said two cryptocurrency traders in the city, where they're able to liquidate large sums of cash.

“It’s a safe haven. … The inflow from Russian accounts skyrocketed 300% days after the war in Ukraine began,” said a Russian crypto trader in Dubai, who spoke like the other on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala state investment company remains among the most active sovereign wealth funds in Russia, along with those of China and Qatar, according to calculations by Javier Capapé of IE University in Spain for the AP.

But pressure is growing. Late on Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi posted a strongly worded video message in solidarity with Ukraine featuring local ambassadors from the world's leading democracies as Russia's foreign minister visits the region.

“We are united against Russia's unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal aggression,” said Ernst Peter Fischer, Germany's ambassador to the UAE.

___

Follow Isabel DeBre and Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/isabeldebre and www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
Mexico's Cemex to fully operate UK cement plant on alternative fuel


A cement plant of Mexican cement maker CEMEX is pictured in Monterrey

Mon, May 30, 2022

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's Cemex, one of the largest concrete producers globally, said Monday it would fully operate a cement plant in the United Kingdom on a type of alternative fuel, as the company looks to greatly reduce its carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The plant in Rugby, in England's West Midlands region, is Cemex's first to fully operate on "Climafuel," a mix of paper, cardboard, wood, carpet, textiles and plastics, the company said. BIOFUEL THAT IS NOT POLLUTION FREE

Cemex Chief Executive Fernando Gonzalez said in a statement that the plant's conversion served "as the model for the rest of our regions."

Concrete producers have been pressured by regulators and investors to lower CO2 emissions in recent years. Cement, key to producing concrete, contributes around 8% of CO2 emissions globally, according to estimates.

Cemex did not give a time frame for the plant's transition to alternative fuels, with the regional head saying in a statement the company "eventually (expected) to phase out" fossil fuels completely at the Rugby facility.

The company said the move was part of its strategy to produce net-zero CO2 concrete by 2050.
Giant Deep Ocean Turbine Trial Offers Hope of Endless Green Power



Erica Yokoyama
Mon, May 30, 2022, 7:07 PM·6 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun.

For more than a decade, Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. has been developing a subsea turbine that harnesses the energy in deep ocean currents and converts it into a steady and reliable source of electricity. The giant machine resembles an airplane, with two counter-rotating turbine fans in place of jets, and a central ‘fuselage’ housing a buoyancy adjustment system. Called Kairyu, the 330-ton prototype is designed to be anchored to the sea floor at a depth of 30-50 meters (100-160 feet).

In commercial production, the plan is to site the turbines in the Kuroshio Current, one of the world’s strongest, which runs along Japan’s eastern coast, and transmit the power via seabed cables.

“Ocean currents have an advantage in terms of their accessibility in Japan,” said Ken Takagi, a professor of ocean technology policy at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. “Wind power is more geographically suited to Europe, which is exposed to predominant westerly winds and is located at higher latitudes.” Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) estimates the Kuroshio Current could potentially generate as much as 200 gigawatts — about 60% of Japan’s present generating capacity.

Like other nations, the lion’s share of investment in renewables has gone into wind and solar, especially after the Fukushima nuclear disaster curbed that nation’s appetite for atomic energy. Japan is already the world’s third largest generator of solar power and is investing heavily in offshore wind, but harnessing ocean currents could provide the reliable baseline power needed to reduce the need for energy storage or fossil fuels.

The advantage of ocean currents is their stability. They flow with little fluctuation in speed and direction, giving them a capacity factor — a measure of how often the system is generating — of 50-70%, compared with around 29% for onshore wind and 15% for solar.

In February, IHI completed a 3 ½ year-long demonstration study of the technology with NEDO. Its team tested the system in the waters around the Tokara Islands in southwestern Japan by hanging Kairyu from a vessel and sending power back to the ship. It first drove the ship to artificially generate a current, and then suspended the turbines in the Kuroshio.

The tests proved the prototype could generate the expected 100 kilowatts of stable power and the company now plans to scale up to a full 2 megawatt system that could be in commercial operation in the 2030s or later.

Like other advanced maritime nations, Japan is exploring various ways of harnessing energy from the sea, including tidal and wave power and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), which exploits the difference in temperature between the surface and the deep ocean. Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. has invested in UK-based Bombora Wave Power to explore the potential for the technology in Japan and Europe. The company is also promoting OTEC and began operating a 100 kW demonstration facility in Okinawa in April, according to Yasuo Suzuki, general manager of the corporate marketing division. Kyushu Electric’s renewable unit Kyuden Mirai Energy begins a 650 million yen ($5.1 million) feasibility test this year to produce 1 MW of tidal power around the Goto Islands in the East China Sea. The government this month also proposed changes to offshore wind auctions that could speed up development.

Among marine-energy technologies, the one advancing fastest towards cost-effectiveness is tidal stream, where “the technology has advanced quite a long way and it definitely works,” said Angus McCrone, a former BloombergNEF chief editor and marine energy analyst. Scotland-based Orbital Marine Power is one of several companies constructing tidal systems around Orkney, location of the European Marine Energy Centre. Others include SIMEC Atlantis Energy’s MeyGen array and California-based Aquantis, founded by US wind pioneer James Dehlsen, which reportedly plans to start testing a tidal system there next year.

While tidal flows don’t run 24 hours, they tend to be stronger than deep ocean currents. The Kuroshio current flows at 1 to 1.5 meters per second, compared with 3 meters per second for some tidal systems. “The biggest issue for ocean current turbines is whether they could produce a device that would generate power economically out of currents that are not particularly strong,” said McCrone.

Ocean Energy Systems, an intergovernmental collaboration established by the International Energy Agency, sees the potential to deploy more than 300 gigawatts of ocean energy globally by 2050.

But the potential for ocean energy is location dependent, taking into account the strength of currents, access to grids or markets, maintenance costs, shipping, marine life and other factors. In Japan, wave energy is moderate and unstable through the year, while areas with strong tidal currents tend to have heavy shipping traffic, Takagi said. And OTEC is better suited to tropical regions where the temperature gradient is bigger. One of the advantages of the deep ocean current is it doesn’t restrict navigation of ships, IHI said.

Still, the Japanese company has a long way to go. Compared with onshore facilities, it’s much more complicated to install a system underwater. “Unlike Europe, which has a long history of the North Sea Oil exploration, Japan has had little experience with offshore construction,” said Takagi. There are major engineering challenges to build a system robust enough to withstand the hostile conditions of a deep ocean current and to reduce maintenance costs.

“Japan isn’t blessed with a lot of alternative energy sources,” he said. “People may say that this is just a dream, but we need to try everything to achieve zero carbon.”

With the cost of wind and solar power and battery storage declining, IHI will also need to demonstrate that overall project costs for ocean current power are competitive. IHI aims to generate power at 20 yen per kilowatt-hour from large-scale deployment. That compares with about 17 yen for solar in the country and about 12-16 yen for offshore wind. IHI also said it conducted an environmental assessment before it launched the project and will use the test results to examine any impact on the marine environment and fishing industry.

If successful at scale, deep ocean currents could add a vital part in providing green baseline power in the global effort to phase out fossil fuels. IHI’s work could help Japan’s engineering take a leading role with government support, said McCrone.

IHI has to make a convincing argument that “Japan could benefit from being a technology leader in this area,” he said.
Electric vehicles not the only way to meet CO2 targets, Italy car lobby says


An electric car is plugged in at a charging point for electric vehicles in Rome

Tue, May 31, 2022

MILAN (Reuters) - Electric vehicles are not the only effective route to reducing carbon emissions produced by the car industry, the head of Italy's automotive lobby said on Tuesday.

Other technologies could help to decarbonise the industry, meeting the same targets on emissions while preserving know-how and jobs in Italy, said Paolo Scudieri, the chairman of automotive industry association ANFIA.

"I refer to the tangible contribution that biofuels and synthetic fuels, as well as hydrogen, can provide," Scudieri said opening ANFIA's public assembly, adding the Italian automotive industry was already making huge investments on hydrogen.

Biofuels and synthetic fuels, referred to as e-fuels, are being developed to allow modified versions of combustion engines to continue to be used rather than a wholesale switch to battery electric vehicles (BEV).

Scudieri said that exclusively focusing on BEV technology, currently dominated by Asian producers, would put some 73,000 jobs at risk in Italy in coming years, which would not be compensated by about 6,000 new jobs expected to be created by electric mobility.

He added around 450 car parts maker in Italy, out of a total of 2,200, risk going out of business as they have not yet started to shift production towards electric technology.

The European Commission has proposed a 100% cut in CO2 emissions by 2035 for the industry. The target, which is part of a bigger package of climate change policies launched last year, would make it impossible to sell new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the 27-country bloc.

The European parliament will hold a debate next week on a number of climate policies, including a plan to effectively ban combustion engine cars by 2035.

Scudieri said there was not a prevailing position among different political groups within the European parliament.

"Every single vote will count and my wish is that our MEPs will vote also having the country's interests in mind," he said.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Keith Weir)