CANADA US BORDER
Northern border immigrant death highlights crossing spike


This Feb. 10, 2020 photo shows the headquarters of the U.S. Border Patrol's Swanton Sector in Swanton, Vt. Law enforcement officials say a Mexican immigrant who just entered the United States illegally from Canada collapsed and later died after being confronted by Border Patrol agents on a remote section of the U.S.-Canadian border in northern Vermont. 

(AP Photo/Wilson Ring, File)

WILSON RING
Thu, February 23, 2023

The death of a Mexican man who had just entered the United States from Canada illegally is highlighting the spike in illegal crossings along the border between Quebec and parts of New England, officials say.

The number of illegal border crossers is tiny compared with those entering the country illegally from Mexico, but the death of the man who entered Vermont from Quebec late Sunday marked the area’s first death in recent memory of someone who crossed into the U.S. illegally. His entry took place in an area near Derby Line about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Montreal.

There have been fatalities of people seeking to cross on the Canadian side of the border. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is responsible for border security in Canada, report their agents have mounted a number of search and rescue operations this winter in the region of people intending to cross into the United States from Canada.

Border officials on both sides of the line have been warning about the dangers to the crossers and those who could be sent to rescue them.


Last year, a family of four Indian nationals died of exposure in Manitoba near its border with Minnesota and North Dakota. In December, a 44-year-old Haitian citizen who had been trying to enter the United States illegally from Canada was found dead in a wooded area near St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, not far from Champlain, New York, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of Montreal. In April 2019, a Dominican man also died in Canada not far from Champlain.

“As we progress deeper into winter and continue to address the ongoing pace of illicit cross-border traffic, the level of concern for the lives and welfare of our Border Patrol Agents and those we are encountering — particularly vulnerable populations — continues to climb,” the Border Patrol's Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said in a news release this month before the death of the immigrant in Vermont.

RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Tasha Adams said agents were involved in at least three search and rescue operations in January, including one the weekend of Jan. 28, when the family of a person seeking to cross into the United States called Canadian authorities from the U.S. to report they had lost contact with him in an area just north of the border.

Rescuers later found the man in the Mansonville, Quebec, a short distance west of Derby Line, after tracking him for about 90 minutes through deep snow. He was conscious but suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.

“These are situations that place our officers at risk because of the weather and terrain they trek through to locate these individuals in distress," Adams said in an email.

Statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that agents in the sector that includes New Hampshire, Vermont and parts of upstate New York apprehended 1,513 illegal border crossers between Oct. 1, 2022 through Jan. 31, 2023, up from 160 in the same period the year before. But the total number apprehended along the entire northern border this fiscal year, 2,227, is a small fraction of those apprehended along the U.S.-Mexican border during that same period, 762,383.

Nevertheless, federal court documents filed in some of the northern border crossing cases in Vermont describe people who legally enter Canada where they pay people to take them to the border. Once they cross into the U.S., they then meet with someone else who takes them deeper into the country.

In the Feb. 19 case that led to the Mexican man's death, court records say Border Patrol agents were notified just before 11 p.m. after a surveillance camera detected possible illegal border crossers in the town of Holland, about 2 miles (3.25 kilometers) east of Derby Line.

Responding agents spotted three men standing by the side of the road about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from the border. Two ran back toward Canada while the third collapsed. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. No cause of death has been released, but the Vermont State Police say the death is not considered suspicious.

At around the same time and a short distance away, Border Patrol agents stopped a car with Connecticut license plates and arrested the passenger and charged her with human smuggling. The woman told agents she had been paid $600 to pick up people she did not know at a hotel, which she could not name.

Agents also apprehended one of the men they say fled back toward Canada when spotted by agents at the side of the road.

THE GREAT REPLACEMENT BEGINS

Israel's outpost approvals boost settlers, deepen conflict


1 / 13
A view of the West Bank Jewish outpost of Givat Harel, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. Israel's new ultranationalist government declared last week that it would legalize 10 unauthorized outposts in the occupied West Bank. The rare move intensified the country's defiance of international pressure and opened an aggressive new front of Israeli expansion into the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

 (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

ISABEL DEBRE
Fri, February 24, 2023 

GIVAT HAREL, West Bank (AP) — One day in the fall of 1998, Shivi Drori, a young farmer fresh out of the Israeli army, brought three trailers to a rugged hilltop deep in the occupied West Bank and began to plant raspberries.

It was an unauthorized settlement in the heart of territory claimed by the Palestinians, but Drori, now 49, said he considered himself to be “in a way, working with the government.”

Today, more than 90 Jewish families live in what has become the thriving village of Givat Harel — full of concrete homes with breathtaking views, a crowded nursery and an award-winning vineyard.

Just down the road is Turmus Aya, a Palestinian village that lost part of its land to the nearby Shilo settlement two decades ago. One of the villagers, Amal Abu Awad, 58, has watched her world shrink since the settlers arrived.

She said settlers prevented her late husband from reaching his grazing land and periodically uprooted her olive trees. Last week, masked vandals attacked her house, armed with clubs and knives, shouting insults as they smashed windows and broke her solar panels.

Her seven sons now take turns perching on the roof overnight, watching out for vigilantes.

“This was our land long before they thought to claim it,” she said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government announced last week it would legalize Givat Harel, along with nine other unauthorized West Bank outposts, boosting settlers' morale and strengthening their hold on the land.

Drori’s village, on a ridge between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus, is part of an extensive network of 150 outposts now home to some 20,000 settlers, according to anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now. The outposts appeared over the past three decades, many built at least partially on private Palestinian land, Peace Now says.

While the outposts were established without formal government authorization, they often received tacit government support or even public funding. Over 20% of the outposts, like Givat Harel, have been retroactively legalized, and more are in the pipeline.

Anti-settlement groups and experts describe a steady government effort to entrench Israeli rule over the West Bank and grab more occupied land that Palestinians seek for a future state. Strings of strategically located outposts have changed the landscape of the territory — threatening to make a future Palestinian state little more than a shriveled constellation of disconnected enclaves.

“We see this as a very big move toward annexation,” said Ziv Stahl, director of Israeli rights group Yesh Din. “Cementing the existence of these places blocks any hope for Palestinians to ever get their land back.”

On Monday, days after the government’s outpost approvals triggered widespread condemnation, Netanyahu declared a six-month freeze in recognizing new outposts — part of a U.S.-brokered agreement to avert a diplomatic crisis at the United Nations.

As a result, the U.N. Security Council approved a watered-down statement opposing Israel’s expansion of settlements, derailing a legally binding resolution that would have demanded a halt to Israeli settlement activity.

But Netanyahu made no public commitment to halt settlement construction. On Thursday, his government granted approval for over 7,000 new homes in Jewish settlements across the West Bank. Some of those homes, settlement opponents said, are located in four outposts that remain unauthorized.

Netanyahu's freeze “is meaningless,” said Lior Amihai from Peace Now.

Settlement critics describe a wink-and-nod policy toward outposts traced back to efforts by successive governments to deflect international pressure. Most of the world considers all Israeli settlements — home to some 700,000 people in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem — as a violation of international law.

In 1996, Israel pledged it would not establish new settlements as part of peace-making efforts with the Palestinians, but said it would need to keep building in existing ones to accommodate natural growth.

Since then, successive governments have made a distinction between authorized settlements and “illegal” outposts, such as Dori's Givat Harel.

Like many others, Givat Harel straddles both public and private land — including agricultural land belonging to the Palestinian villages of Sinjil and Qaryout, according to Dror Etkes, an anti-settlement activist who follows Israeli land policy in the West Bank.

From the outpost, both villages, along with other Palestinian towns, can be seen nestled in the undulating hills.

Drori dismissed claims of Palestinian ownership, saying the hilltop had long been vacant.

“We were fulfilling government desires, just in a weird way,” he said, speaking at the settlement’s vineyard, which exports some 100,000 bottles a year of locally produced Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and marquee blends named “Dancing Hills.”

"It’s always hush-hush," he said.

Givat Harel popped up during the first outpost building boom in the 1990s. Encouraged by Ariel Sharon, Israel's foreign minister in 1998 who famously exhorted settlers to “run and grab" Palestinian hilltops, Drori arrived at the scenic ridge.

Sharon even gifted Givat Harel its first water tankers, Drori said. The Ministry of Construction poured money into new houses. The local settler council installed electric towers, paved roads and piped water to the homes. In a sign of legitimacy, Israeli soldiers guarded the front gate.

Neighboring Palestinians, who could only obtain power from solar panels and routinely faced home demolitions because they lacked building permits in the Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank, warily eyed the outpost’s fresh paint and irrigated gardens.

Drori says he's a pioneer willing to live in a hostile land promised by God. As for the Palestinians, he said, “If you want to stay here, you have to get used to the Israeli government.”

A 2005 government report revealed widespread collusion among officials to illicitly divert state funds to unauthorized outposts. Its author, Talia Sasson, called for the immediate removal of outposts on private Palestinian land. Yet no action was taken against more than 100 outposts she identified.

Over the years, the United States and other Israeli allies decried settlements as an obstacle to peace. To avoid international censure, Israel repeatedly promised to dismantle the rogue outposts — but only two major ones were evacuated. Others were strategically registered as new neighborhoods of established settlements.

Now, settlers find their closest allies at the highest government levels. On Thursday, Netanyahu’s new coalition officially granted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader, authority over settlement construction.

Drori said Smotrich, a long-time friend, prayed and celebrated at Givat Harel the night of the recognition decision.

“Things will really change here for the good,” Drori said, describing his dreams to build an elementary school and expand the synagogue.

Smotrich and other far-right ministers plan to spend billions expanding and investing in settlements. Rights groups warn this will deepen the conflict with the Palestinians and lead to more bloodshed.

Down an unpaved dirt road in Turmus Aya, Abu Awad fixed her eyes on the hilltop overlooking her home. Last month settlers tried to set fire to a nearby house, burning the car in the driveway. Then last week came the attack on her home.

Police said they arrested two suspects over the arson attack. Palestinians, who are prosecuted in military courts with an extremely high conviction rate, have long complained about impunity enjoyed by settlers, who are charged, if at all, in civil ones.

“They cut the electricity so it was pitch black,” Abu Awad said. “In the dark, they could do whatever they wanted.”

___

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Sam McNeil in Turmus Aya, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Israeli pro-settler minister formally gains West Bank powers


Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem

Thu, February 23, 2023
By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A far-right Israeli cabinet minister formally gained responsibilities over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank on Thursday that he said included bringing their legal status closer to that of communities within Israel.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wields a supervisory role for settlers in the Defence Ministry as part of his coalition deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prompting increased U.S. focus on Israel's West Bank policies.

A 14-point statement issued by Smotrich after he agreed on a division of roles with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant included the assertion that "legislation on all (settlement) civilian matters will be brought into line with Israeli law".

Asked to elaborate, a Smotrich spokesperson said: "Equal application of relevant laws - on labour, the environment, et cetera - that are legislated in Lesser Israel."

"Lesser Israel" is a term used by ultranationalists like Smotrich - himself a settler - who seek annexation of the West Bank, a biblical and strategic area captured in a 1967 war.

"All settlement is illegal and any attempt by Israel to legalise or annex these settlements is rejected and is a violation of international resolutions," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The United States has reiterated its decades-old calls for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and called for restraint after a surge in violence in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want as the core of a future state.

Washington has also urged Israel not to expand settlements, which most world powers deem illegal.

Smotrich said he would now also have "total responsibility" over zoning, surveys and sales of West Bank lands for settlers, who number around a half-million among 3.1 million Palestinians.

Confirming the Smotrich-Gallant agreement, Netanyahu said it was pursuant to the coalition deals.

Netanyahu said in 2019 that he would annex West Bank settlements - alarming the West and prompting the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to forge ties with Israel a year later in exchange for the prime minister shelving the territorial plan.

The platform of Smotrich's Religious Zionism party calls for advancing West Bank settlement in the face of "a complex U.S. administration" by focusing dialogue on "the extent of sovereignty Israel will assert and the scale of construction and retroactive authorisation (of unsanctioned settler outposts)".

If formal annexation is not possible due to U.S. opposition, it adds, "de facto assertion of sovereignty should be pursued".

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie and Mark Potter)

Israel approves over 7,000 settlement homes, groups say







Horses walk in a farm belonging to a Palestinian family, in front of Har Homa, an Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem that Israel considers a neighborhood of its capital, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

JOSEF FEDERMAN
Thu, February 23, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s far-right government has granted approval for over 7,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, settlement backers and opponents said Thursday. The move defies growing international opposition to construction in the occupied territory.

The announcement came just days after the U.N. Security Council passed a statement strongly criticizing Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands claimed by the Palestinians. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, blocked what would have been an even tougher legally binding resolution, with diplomats saying they had received Israeli assurances of refraining from unilateral acts for six months.

The new approvals took place during a two-day meeting that ended Thursday and appeared to contradict those claims. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Israeli settlement construction, saying it undermines hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians, but taken no action to stop it.

Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group that attended the meeting, said a planning committee granted approvals for some 7,100 new housing units across the West Bank.

The group said the committee scheduled a meeting next month to discuss plans to develop a strategic area east of Jerusalem known as E1. The U.S. in the past has blocked the project, which would largely bisect the West Bank and which critics say would make it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Lior Amihai, the group's incoming director, said some 5,200 housing units were in the early stages of planning, while the remainder were approved for near-term construction. He also said construction was approved in four unauthorized outposts.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had pledged not to legalize any more wildcat outposts. He made the promise after retroactively legalizing 10 existing outposts earlier this month.

The Israeli government is “spitting on the face of the U.S., only a few days after announcing that they committed to them that there would be no advancement of settlements in the near future,” said Peace Now.



The United States criticized the decision. “We view the expansion of settlements as an obstacle to peace that undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution,” said a National Security Council Statement. But it gave no indication that the U.S. was prepared to act.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, appealed to the United States to intervene. “The American side is required to stop this violation, which will not lead to any peace or stability in the region,” he said.

The planned construction is likely to add to the already heightened tensions following an Israeli military raid that killed 10 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday.

The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate. Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future independent state.

Netanyahu’s new coalition, which took office in late December, is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand settler leader, on Thursday was officially granted Cabinet-level authority over settlement policies.



Smotrich had promised earlier this month a major settlement push. His office declined to comment Thursday, but settler representatives, who also attended the planning meeting, celebrated what they said were new approvals.

Yossi Dagan, a settler leader in the northern West Bank, welcomed the retroactive approval of 118 homes in “Nofei Nehemia,” an outpost in the northern West Bank, after a 20-year struggle. “Great news for Samaria, for settlement and for the entire nation of Israel,” he said, using the biblical name for the region.

Shlomo Neeman, chairman of the Yesha settler’s council, declared the approvals “a tremendous boost.” Neeman is also mayor of the “Gush Etzion” settlement bloc near Jerusalem, where settlers said hundreds of new homes were approved.

The decision marks one of the largest approvals of settlement construction in years. In comparison, some 8,000 units were approved in the previous two years, according to Peace Now.

“It's very big,” said Amihai.

___

AP correspondent Zeke Miller contributed reporting from Washington.

UK

Costs Continue To Rise For Hinkley Point Nuclear Megaproject

Editor OilPrice.com
Wed, February 22, 2023 

For close to a decade, Great Britain’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power project has served as the go-to punching bag for anti-nuclear activists. Sure enough, the gift that keeps giving has furnished still another reason to be chary of big nuclear projects.

Background for those not in the know. The current Hinkley Point nuclear project was the brainchild of British energy planners in the early 2000s. Their goal was to build another big nuclear plant at an existing site. Several actually. French state-controlled EDF took on the task with big British energy supplier Centrica as a minority owner. But Centrica soon backed out due to the escalating costs. EDF brought in a Chinese state company as a replacement partner. The UK government signed an agreement guaranteeing that the unit would collect a generous price for power generated (an insanely high price according to one critic at the time). In 2016, the project commenced with an estimated cost of £16-17 billion. Oilprice readers will not be surprised that these costs kept rising. In February 2023, EDF estimated that the final cost would be close to £33 billion ($40 billion), a 100% increase versus the initial estimated cost to completion. The Chinese partner may not agree to further investments beyond those initially agreed to so EDF could be exposed to even higher costs. With the completion date set for 2027, should we expect more increases?

The news stories cite inflation as a primary reason for the cost increases. But the UK’s construction price index rose 40% between 2016 and 2023, while the estimated cost of the nuclear plant almost doubled. One distinguished economist noted that the plant would have cost far less if the government had financed it, but that is another matter.

Hinkley Point is really a colossal miscalculation of risk management. Start with this statistic. The Hinkley Point project investment to date equals roughly one-fifth of the enterprise value of EDF. There are 56 other nuclear plants in EDF’s portfolio. One of the lessons learned by most US utilities after the Three Mile Island accident was that big nuclear plants and relatively small electric utilities are not a good match. In technical terms, the single asset concentration risk is too high. One might argue that EDF is big enough to take the chance, but that is clearly not so.

Then there is the matter of whether the British government worked out its aims and the risks of the various solutions. Why did the UK need this nuclear project? To protect against the insecurity of foreign energy supplies? Wind turbines, solar and domestic natural gas would do that. Or was it the main goal of policy makers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? In this at least they may prove successful but there are much cheaper alternatives. Consider as an alternative weatherproofing all those damp and cold council houses which were designed to be drafty due to earlier pandemics and worries about gas safety. That would have saved a lot of energy and reduced the need for the project. Or was this another legacy project of the Tories’ whose main desire was to protect Britain from the labor militancy of British coal miners whose last bitter, year long strike ended in 1985? From what we can tell, the UK government simply wanted a new nuclear power generating station period—more likely for national prestige—and not a discussion of alternatives, or the risks incurred by builders, or the financial consequences imposed on consumers by this decision.

This brings us to our final point. Hinkley Point C is a classic giant project, a category of construction brilliantly analyzed by British analysts in the 1980s. It is a huge effort that will take years to complete, requires a guess at market demand years from the date of inception, and once complete and in service will have a big impact on the market all at once when completed. In addition, this project involves many different owners and contractors, domestic and international, plus multiple national governments and requires the owner/builder to finance a project whose failure might have disastrous financial consequences for it. In other words, the project entails taking not only many risks but big ones. So why didn’t they consider alternatives first before plunging in?

The latest Hinkley Point nuclear cost re-estimate just underlines the need to find alternatives to large gigawatt-scale nuclear stations. They all have similar characteristics to Hinkley Point C. And consider that EDF is one of the most experienced nuclear companies, operators, and builder, so the problem does not lie with them alone. Relatively unique, giant construction projects are almost always difficult to complete on time and within budget. (This is even true for big hydroelectric projects.) That’s the main message. And one more reason to consider small modular reactors as well as exhibit proper skepticism when making cost comparisons. Cost estimates don’t seem too reliable there either. But with a small plant, the errors should be manageable relative to the size of the builder or to the market,

Years ago, a legendary power engineer explained that large-scale electric power generating plants are always the right choice for utilities as long as one can accurately predict their costs, duration of construction, and condition of the market at the time of completion. Unfortunately, there is always an energy expert or government official who thinks this time is different and learns the hard way—as Hinkley Point C’s seemingly never-ending saga demonstrates.

By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com

Japanese Americans won redress, fight for Black reparations










Kathy Masaoka poses with her daughter, Mayumi, and her grandson, Yuma, outside her home in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023.

 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

JANIE HAR
Thu, February 23, 2023 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Miya Iwataki and other Japanese Americans fought in the 1980s for the U.S. government to apologize to the families it imprisoned during World War II, Black politicians and civil rights leaders were integral to the movement.

Thirty-five years after they won that apology — and survivors of prison camps received $20,000 each— those advocates are now demanding atonement for Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved. From California to Washington, D.C., activists are joining revived reparations movements and pushing for formal government compensation for the lasting harm of slavery's legacy on subsequent generations, from access to housing and education to voting rights and employment.

Advocating for reparations is “the right thing to do,” said Iwataki, a resident of South Pasadena, California who is in her 70s. She cited cross-cultural solidarity that has built up over decades.

Black lawmakers such as the late California congressmen Mervyn Dymally and Ron Dellums played critical roles in winning the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which formalized the government's apology and redress payments.

Last Sunday marked the 81st anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing an executive order that allowed the government to force an estimated 125,000 people — two-thirds of them U.S. citizens — from their homes and businesses, and incarcerate them in desolate, barbed-wire camps throughout the west.

“We want to help other communities win reparations, because it was so important to us," Iwataki said.

After stalling for decades at the federal level, reparations for slavery has received new interest amid a national reckoning over the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. Amid nationwide protests that year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that established a first-in-the-nation task force to address the topic of slave reparations.

Other cities and counties have since followed, including Boston, St. Louis, and San Francisco, where an advisory committee issued a draft recommendation last year proposing a lump-sum payment of $5 million apiece for eligible individuals.

In December, the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition, alongside more than 70 other Japanese American and Asian American organizations, submitted a letter calling on the Biden administration to establish a presidential commission.

Japanese American activists in California are studying the landmark report issued by California's task force — and plan to reach out to college students, churches and other community groups to raise awareness about why Black reparations is needed — and how it intersects with their own struggle.

Reparations critics say that monetary compensation and other forms of atonement are not necessary when no one alive today was enslaved or a slave owner, overlooking the inequities today impacting later generations of Black Americans.

Retired teacher Kathy Masaoka of Los Angeles, who testified in 1981 for Japanese American redress and in 2021 in favor of federal reparations legislation, says they are just beginning to educate their own community about Black history and anti-Black prejudice.

She said that starting conversations in her community is “undoing a lot of ideas that people have” about American history and the case for reparations, said Masaoka, 74.

San Francisco attorney Don Tamaki, who is Japanese, is the only person appointed to California’s nine-member task force who is not Black.

At meetings, he shared how critical it was for organizers to arrange for former detainees to tell their stories to national media outlets. Redress advocates had to make hard decisions though, such as agreeing to legislation that denied reparations to an estimated 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese descent who were also incarcerated.

There is no equivalence to the experiences of the Japanese American and Black American communities, Tamaki said, but there are similar lessons, such as the need for a massive public education campaign.

Only 30% of U.S. adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2021 supported reparations for slavery, 77% of whom were Black Americans. Support among Latinos and Asians was 39% and 33%, respectively, and white Americans had the lowest rate of support, at 18%.

Some advocates said that the idea of reparations for the World War II incarceration camps was once considered outlandish. But many young, third-generation Japanese Americans were inspired to mobilize from civil rights and ethnic pride movements, including the Black Panther Party and the Brown Berets, who promoted Chicano rights.

Some advocates were outraged by — and threatened to boycott — hearings set up by a 1980 federal commission on Japanese internment, called it a delaying tactic. But the testimonies that came out of public hearings the following year served as a turning point.

For the first time, many survivors shared stories that even their families didn’t know, educating not only the younger generation but the broader American public.

“There was not a dry eye in the house at those hearings,” said Iwataki, who worked with the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations to arrange transportation to the hearings, as well as meals and translators, for former detainees.

Many young Japanese Americans went from frustration with their grandparents and parents for not fighting back to understanding how vulnerable they were, said Ron Wakabayashi, who was then national director of the Japanese American Citizens League. The average age of second-generation Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in the camps was only 18, he said.

“Probably the more important thing that we got out of that was the generational healing, and the restoration of our identity,” said Wakabayashi, 78.

The commission found no military necessity for the camps, saying the detentions stemmed broadly from “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership,” according to a report issued in 1983.

President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing living survivors with a formal apology and $20,000 each for the “grave injustice” done to them. It would cost the U.S. government about $1.6 billion.

Throughout the process, activists said, the Congressional Black Caucus remained a steadfast supporter of reparations. Then-Rep. Dymally authored a reparations bill in 1982 and later, provided his staff and office support so that advocates could lobby other members of Congress.

Another California congressman, Rep. Dellums, delivered a searing speech on the House floor of being a 6-year-old boy watching as his best friend, a Japanese American boy of the same age, was taken away to the camps.

A year after Reagan signed Japanese reparations into law, the late Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to consider slavery reparations, named after the promise of 40 acres and a mule that the U.S. initially made to freed slaves. The bill has gone nowhere.

Dreisen Heath, an advocate for Black reparations, plans to travel from her home in the Washington, D.C. area to California in coming months to join artist and writer traci kato-kiriyama, whose parents were incarcerated as children, in leading workshops and educational forums.

They hope to engage young Japanese American and Black American students in the current movement.

“Nothing ever worthwhile in this country has ever happened without intergenerational, multiracial (coalition) building,” said Heath. “I see the Japanese American community, and by extension the Asian American community, indispensable to realizing reparations for Black people.”

Experts predicted a wheat shortage after Russia invaded Ukraine. Why didn't it happen?



Michelle Cheng
Thu, February 23, 2023 

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, experts at various outlets warned shipments of wheat could be cut off, which could spur shortages of the grain. The shortages would then lead to higher prices for pantry staples, from flour to pasta to bread. Together, Russia and Ukraine export more than a quarter of the world’s wheat.

Most wheat is imported by countries with limited production capabilities, and the largest growth markets for wheat imports are North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

But the prediction of a global wheat shortage did not come to full fruition. Ukraine harvested 20 million tons of wheat last year, which was about 25% below the average level. The decline in wheat exports from Ukraine was balanced out by an increase in production elsewhere, said Monika Tothova, an economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The total wheat production in 2022 increased globally due to higher exports from countries like Canada and Russia, which had a few years of above-average production.

In addition, wheat shipments made their way out of Ukraine. Under the July agreement, the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea allowed the shipments of commercial food exports from three Ukrainian ports. The United Nations (UN) estimates that the parties’ decision in November to extend the agreement contributed to a 2.8% drop in global wheat prices. Negotiations will start this week on extending the agreement.
How the invasion of Ukraine led to fears of a global wheat shortage

When the war broke out, it wasn’t clear how wheat shipments would reach the growth markets, said Tothova. So wheat prices skyrocketed, which creates problems for countries that depend on imports. (In fact, wheat prices were rising even before the war due to pandemic-related supply chain snags and extreme weather.) To date, wheat prices have dropped from their highs but remain elevated. “Globally you do not have shortages, it doesn’t mean, however, that there are no problems on a country level,” she said.

datawrapper-chart-8s04Z

Several of the wheat import-dependent countries, including Congo, Ethiopia, and Sudan, face a hunger crisis. Some countries also have certain economic problems, including experiencing high energy prices (though prices are falling) or having spent a lot of resources on the covid-19 pandemic, said Tothova. At the end of last year, the US dollar strengthened, boosting the cost to these countries of commodities denominated in dollars. These were all factors affecting how much wheat the countries could afford to import, she said.

This year could be a different story. While Ukrainian farmers was able to plant the wheat before last year’s harvest, they don’t have all their usual resources, she said.
How will wheat production fare in the ongoing war?

For one, Ukrainian farmers didn’t have much liquidity, constraining how much farmers spent on inputs, such as fertilizer, said Tothova.

With the lands still contaminated with mines, and rail lines and roads in rough shape, production will still be well below average. The planting of winter wheat for the harvest in July 2023 was 40% below the 2022 level, according to estimates by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Still, wheat producers in Ukraine have gained confidence they will be able to export their product, said Tim Luginsland, Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute sector manager, in an email. “So they will plant as much as they can.” He added this may be the year the US can increase its wheat exports if the US experiences normal precipitation.
The Russia-Ukraine war’s effect on global food insecurity

The war is one of the many factors contributing to worsening global food insecurity. East Africa, for instance, continues to experience years-long droughts in addition to political instability. Prior to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the number of undernourished in 2022 was 733.9 million people, according to FAO estimates. Based on new baseline projections in an environment of higher prices, that number increased by about 10 million, Tothova said. “The international prices, on average, for a number of reasons, including the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, are making the situation worse,” she said.

“The world is functioning in this very interconnected manner,” she said, pointing to how the war contributed to higher energy prices, which drove up prices globally, which impacted interest rates. But, when it comes to agriculture, the biggest unknown tends to be weather, particularly, as weather events have become more extreme.

Quartz

WAR? WHAT WAR?

Indian PM Modi urges G20 to focus on unsustainable debt


Thu, February 23, 2023 

MUMBAI (Reuters) -The financial viability of many countries is being threatened by unsustainable debt, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, as he called for the Group of 20 (G20) to focus on the world's most vulnerable citizens.

Trust in international financial institutions has eroded, partly because the lenders had been slow to reform themselves, Modi said in a video message at the beginning of a two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors.

"Food and energy security have become major concerns across the world. Even the financial viability of many countries is threatened by unsustainable debt levels," Modi said.

The meeting at a hill resort on the outskirts of the tech hub of Bengaluru is the first major event of India's G20 presidency and coincided with the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Modi alluded to.

"We are also witnessing rising geo-political tensions in different parts of the world. There are disruptions in global supply chains. Many societies are suffering due to rising prices," Modi said in his address to delegates.

India's presidency of the bloc comes as neighbouring South Asian countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been seeking bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict.

Reuters reported last week that India is drafting a proposal for G20 countries to help debtor nations by asking lenders, including China, the world's largest sovereign creditor, to take a large haircut, or accept losses, on loans.

(Reporting by Swati Bhat and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by Sudipto Ganguly, Robert Birsel)

Modi urges G20 finance leaders to focus on 'most vulnerable'


 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses media on the opening day of the Parliament's budget session, in New Delhi, India, Jan. 31, 2023. Policymakers of the Group of 20 leading economies should focus on helping the world's most vulnerable people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday, Feb. 24, 2023 as top-level financial talks kicked off in the Indian technology hub of Bengaluru.

 (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File) 


SIBI ARASU
Thu, February 23, 2023 

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Policymakers of the Group of 20 leading economies should focus on helping the world's most vulnerable people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday as top-level financial talks kicked off in the Indian technology hub of Bengaluru.

“You represent the leadership of global finance and economy at a time when the world is facing serious economic difficulties," Modi said in a video address to the finance ministers, central bank governors and other leaders attending the meetings, which wrap up Saturday.

“It is up to you, the custodians of the leading economies and market systems ... to bring back stability, confidence and growth to the global economy," he said.

As countries deal with slew of challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic, including unsustainable debt, conflict, inflation and eroding trust in international financial institutions, Modi said, “I urge you to focus on the most vulnerable people in the world."

The meetings in Bengaluru are due to touch on a wide range of issues including digital currencies and payments, reform of institutions like the World Bank, climate change and financial inclusion.

Multiple meetings between various leaders were also scheduled, including talks between U.S. and British officials and meetings of India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, with her counterparts from France and Brazil.

As is usually the case, broader issues such as the war in Ukraine are overshadowing the talks.

On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed she would push for stronger sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and better enforcement of restrictions meant to hinder Moscow's war effort.

The G-20 meetings offer a chance for leaders to consider how to coordinate their policies: many central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve have been raising interest rates sharply to try to rein in decades-high inflation brought on by various factors including the war and rebounding demand for travel, goods and services following the COVID-19 pandemic.

With increases in income lagging far behind, rising costs for food, housing, fuel and fertilizer impose huge burdens, especially on the poor and in developing nations, where debt burdens have surged both at the national and household levels.

As the G-20 host this year, India is taking the opportunity to showcase its ascent as an economic power.

Modi suggested the gathering could “draw hope from the vibrant Indian economy," which is forecast to grow at a more than 6% annual pace this year, making it one of the fastest growing in the world. He also pointed to the country’s digital payments technology as a model to be emulated.

North Korean media blames U.S., allies for Ukraine war ahead of invasion anniversary


Aftermath of a Russian military strike in Stepnohirsk

Thu, February 23, 2023
By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean state media marked the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine by blaming the crisis on NATO and calling America's involvement a "trail to self-destruction."

In a commentary carried by state news agency KCNA on Thursday on the eve of the Feb. 24 anniversary, international affairs critic Kim Yoo-chul said the conflict in Ukraine is the "inevitable product of coercion and hegemony" by the United States and its allies.

The Ukraine war, the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War Two, has displaced millions, left Ukrainian cities, towns and villages in ruins and disrupted the global economy.

North Korea has forged closed ties to Russia since the war began, publicly supporting Moscow in statements as well as at the United Nations.

"If Ukraine had not blindly taken part in the U.S. policy of anti-Russian confrontation, if it had abandoned the dirty demons of the United States and promoted reconciliation and unity with its neighbours, the situation would not have reached the point where it is as bad as it is now," Kim wrote.

"The current situation in Ukraine once again proves that there can be no peace in the world at any time unless the United States' policy of force, tyranny, and greedy aggression... is ended."

The Kremlin says it regards NATO, which could soon expand to include Sweden and Finland, as an existential threat to Russia.

The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia, which both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied.

GOOD FOR HER

Transgender disc golf athlete sues after being told she cannot compete in California event


Professional Disc Golf Association

Sam Stanton
Thu, February 23, 2023 at 11:11 AM MST·3 min read

A leading transgender disc golf athlete is suing the Professional Disc Golf Association, alleging that the group is preventing her from participating in a Stockton competition in May and seeking an injunction to prevent the group from doing business in California “as long as it continues to violate the rights of Plaintiff and other transgender women.”

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Sacramento federal court on behalf of disc golf athlete Natalie Ryan, says the new policy violates California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act against discrimination and has caused her to suffer “shame, humiliation, mental suffering, shock, embarrassment, intimidation” and other injuries.

At issue is a new policy adopted by the disc golf association and co-defendant Disc Golf Pro Tour that the lawsuit says requires any transgender woman “to have undergone gender-affirming treatment before the age of 12 years-old in order to compete in the female professional open divisions of its elite events.”

Ryan, a Virginia woman who has competed as a woman since March 2019 and is currently the 9th-ranked player on the disc golf tour, says in the lawsuit that she was notified in a Feb. 7 email that she was ineligible to compete.

“Plaintiff has felt like a female since birth and in January of 2018 had gender-affirming surgery,” according to the lawsuit, filed by Laguna Beach attorney Brian Sciacca. “Plaintiff is recognized under California law as a woman.”

The new policy was adopted in November after Ryan had competed as a woman in 60 PDGA-sanctioned events, the lawsuit says. The disc golf’s player information page for Ryan says she has 21 career wins and has earned $41,662 in prizes.

The disc golf association, headquartered in Appling, Georgia, declined to comment Thursday on pending litigation.

But the lawsuit likely did not come as a surprise.

Ryan launched a Gofundme effort in December aiming to raise $20,000 to help her with legal costs for her lawsuit and, as of Thursday, the account had raised $12,795.

Competition by transgender athletes has sparked protests and petition drives nationwide by groups insisting some athletes have an unfair advantage, and the issue has spilled over into political campaigns.

Disc golf essentially is played like golf using a Frisbee or other plastic flying disc aimed at a target such as a metal basket. 

There are at least five courses in the Sacramento area.

Ryan wrote on her Gofundme page that her success stems from the fact that “I have always been and will always remain an incredibly dedicated athlete.”

“I have participated in sports since I was 7, and I played disc golf for five years at the time of writing this; if I had an advantage in this sport, my stats and my play would be better,” Ryan wrote. “The reality is that I’m not all that great, but I’m good enough to win and that alone scared people into believing I was some monster.

“Some of my fellow competitors decided they wouldn’t work on their games and improve themselves but instead tear me down because my game was complete.”

Pope nationalizes Vatican assets, property in new reform


Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) 

Thu, February 23, 2023

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has essentially nationalized all assets and property owned by Vatican departments and affiliated institutions, declaring them to be sovereign patrimony owned by the Holy See and not any individual or office.

The action outlined in a new law published Thursday marks Francis' latest initiative to centralize Vatican assets so they can be managed properly, following years of mismanagement that led to huge losses and, prosecutors allege, criminal wrongdoing.

Francis previously stripped the Vatican’s secretariat of state of its 600 billion-euro ($635 billion) portfolio and ordered the assets transferred to the Vatican’s patrimony office following a scandal involving a 350 million-euro investment in a London property.

Vatican prosecutors have charged 10 people, including a cardinal, of defrauding the Holy See of tens of millions of euros through the London venture.

The new law makes clear that the Holy See owns any asset, security or property owned or acquired by a Vatican office or affiliated institution. This “ecclesiastic public property” is “entrusted” to individual departments to use but is destined for the universal needs of the church to fulfill its mission, the law states.

In previous stages of Francis’ financial reforms, the Vatican ordered all Vatican offices to submit to standardized annual budgeting and accounting measures. Individual offices, or congregations, were allowed to operate in financial silos before then.

The pope also centralized and overhauled the Vatican's investment strategy to ban speculative investments and to prioritize prudent investing in industries that promote the common good.

ICYMI

Why are fossil fuels bad for the environment? 

Here's what they are and how they impact our environment.



Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY
Thu, February 23, 2023 

Over two-thirds of American adults believe the U.S. should be taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050, a 2022 Pew Research study found.

The United States is operating on a 10-year timeline to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 50-52%. By 2035, the Biden administration’s goal is to create a power sector free of carbon pollution and to reach net zero emissions before or by 2050.

Carbon neutrality means balancing carbon dioxide by releasing no more into the atmosphere than is removed. Net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible.

Here’s why the world is moving away from fossil fuels:

Why are fossil fuels bad?

When fossil fuels are burned to produce energy for electricity, heat and transportation, they release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere.

This increased heat causes the surface temperature of the Earth to rise, which gives way to extreme weather, biodiversity loss, worsened health and rising sea levels, to give a few examples.

Nearly three-fourths of human-caused emissions over the past two decades came from burning fossil fuels, the Department of Energy reports.

Burning fossil fuels also emits harmful pollutants like sulfur dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides and soot, which can cause health problems like asthma, bronchitis and lung cancer.

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What are fossil fuels?

Fossil fuels are extracted from decomposed plant and animal matter. This fossilized material turns into coal, oil and natural gas. According to National Geographic, coal is found in sedimentary rock deposits, oil comes from a solid material between layers of sedimentary rock and natural gas is found in pockets above oil deposits.

These fossil fuels contain carbon and hydrogen and, when burned, release energy that is used to light up the world with electricity, heat homes and businesses, fuel industrial processes and power vehicles.

Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource because they formed during the Prehistoric Period.   THIS IS QUESTIONABLE SEE ABIOTIC OIL

Why do we still use fossil fuel?

Fossil fuels produce cheap and reliable energy. They supply about 80% of the world’s energy, the Environmental Energy Study Institute reports. Almost half of the U.S.’ energy-related CO2 emissions come from oil, with 36% coming from natural gas and another 19% from coal.

Fossil fuels came into widespread use in the industrial era, and not having to rely on burning biomass for energy allowed for innovation. Oil became the most popular energy source because it was efficient in powering the transportation industry. Fossil fuels have a greater energy density, which means a smaller volume of them are needed to get the job done, the Brookings Institution reports.

Fossil fuels are known for their reliability because they're not dependent on certain weather conditions to be burned. They’ve been heavily subsidized by the government because of how ingrained they are in global energy practices, so they remain at a low cost, according to SolarReviews.

What would happen if we stopped using fossil fuels?

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels stays in the atmosphere for anywhere between 300 to 1,000 years.

Moving away from the fossil fuel industry would mean shifting to renewable energy like solar, wind, ocean and geothermal energy, as well as hydropower. Renewable energy comes from natural sources and is constantly replenished.

Still, ending the use of fossil fuels use will not remove the CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions already in our atmosphere.

Carbon removal was introduced as one method to combat this – it's a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in trees, plants, soil, rocks or the ocean. According to the World Resource Institute, using a combination of natural strategies and high-tech strategies "would provide the most cumulative carbon removal at the lowest risk." This could be tree restoration, soil management, direct air capture, mineralization, ocean-based carbon removal, enhanced root crops or bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.

"Even with rapid investment in emission reductions, the United States could need to remove about 2 gigatons of CO2 per year by midcentury to reach net-zero — that's about 30% of U.S. 2019 greenhouse gas emissions," WRI writes.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why is fossil fuel bad? What it is and how it impacts our environment.