WSJ: McDonald's to close offices briefly ahead of layoffs


This photo shows a logo of a McDonald's restaurant in Havertown, Pa., on April 26, 2022. A report says McDonald’s has closed its U.S. offices for a few days as the company prepares to inform employees about layoffs.

Mon, April 3, 2023 

NEW YORK (AP) — A report says McDonald’s has closed its U.S. offices for a few days as the company prepares to inform employees about layoffs.

The Wall Street Journal cited an internal email from the Chicago-based fast-food giant saying U.S. corporate staff and some employees overseas should work from home while the company notifies people of their job status.

McDonald’s did not immediately reply to emailed requests for comment. The report said McDonald’s would inform its employees this week about staffing decisions that are part of a wide restructuring of the company announced earlier.

Though the U.S. labor market remains strong, layoffs have been mounting, mainly in the technology sector, where many companies over-hired after a pandemic boom. IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Facebook parent Meta, Twitter and DoorDash have all announced layoffs in recent months.

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve have forecast the unemployment rate may rise to 4.6% by the end of this year, a sizable increase historically associated with recessions.

McDonald's has more than 150,000 employees in corporate roles. About 70% of those employees are based outside the United States.

RECORD PROFITS CAN'T FIND WORKERS

The company reported its global sales rose nearly 11% in 2022, while sales in the U.S. climbed almost 6%. Total restaurant margins rose 5%. In its latest annual report, it cited difficulties in adequately staffing some of its outlets.

In January, McDonald's said its “Accelerating the Arches” program would focus on “deliveries, Drive Thru, digital and development.”

“We’re performing at a high level, but we can do even better," CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a Jan. 6 letter to employees. He said the company was divided into silos and that the approach was “outdated and self-limiting."

As the company reshapes its strategy, he said, “we will evaluate roles and staffing levels in parts of the organization and there will be difficult discussions and decisions ahead.”

Scientists Fear ‘Catastrophic’ COVID Combination With Another Virus

David Axe
Sun, April 2, 2023 

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly contagious but the current dominant strains are not very lethal. Its much rarer cousin in the betacoronavirus family of pathogens, MERS-CoV, is highly lethal but not very contagious. Now imagine a blend of the two—a respiratory virus with the most dangerous qualities of both. Contagious and lethal.

It’s a real risk, according to a new study from China. And it’s a strong argument for a new, more widely effective vaccine.

Different viruses from the closely related families can combine through a process called “recombination” and produce hybrids called “recombinants.” This recombination requires the viruses to share an infection mechanism. For the first time, a team of scientists in China has identified the mechanism by which SARS and MERS could combine—by entering human cells via colocated receptors. Basically, the cells’ entry points for external molecules.

If a single person ever catches SARS and MERS at the same time through neighboring receptors and the two viruses combine, we could have a whole new pandemic on our hands—one that could be far worse than the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The recombination risk is one driver of a global effort to develop new vaccines that could prevent, or reduce the severity of, infection by a variety of SARS viruses, MERS, and any hybrid of them. A universal vaccine for a whole family of viruses.

Good news: Universal vaccines are in development. Bad news: They’re still a long way from large-scale human trials—and an even longer way from regulatory approval and widespread availability. Years, perhaps.

A team led by Qiao Wang, a virologist at the Shanghai Institute of Infectious Disease and Biosecurity, part of Fudan University in Shanghai, highlighted the SARS-MERS recombination risk in a peer-reviewed study that first appeared in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy on March 15.

SARS-CoV-2 tends to favor a receptor called ACE2, while MERS-CoV tends to favor the DPP4 receptor, Wang and their coauthors explained. Our cells tend to have one or the other, not both. In the very unlikely chance someone catches both SARS and MERS at the same time, the viruses should stay safely in their separate cells.

But Wang and company identified a few cell types, in the lungs and intestines, that have both ACE2 and DPP4 receptors, thus “providing an opportunity for coinfection by both SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV.” Wang and a teammate did not respond to a request for comment.

This hypothetical coinfection—SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV mixing and mutating in the same cells—“may result in the emergence of recombined [betacoronavirus],” Wang and their coauthors wrote. Call it “SARS-CoV-3” or “MERS-CoV-2.”

Either way, this new virus “may bear high SARS-CoV-2-like transmissibility along with a high MERS-CoV-like case-fatality rate, which would have catastrophic repercussions,” Wang and their teammates wrote.

Did AI Just Help Us Discover a Universal COVID Vaccine?

How bad could it be? The most contagious forms of SARS-CoV-2, the XBB subvariants—a.k.a., “Kraken”—is by far the most transmissible respiratory virus anyone has ever observed. It’s not for no reason that XBB subvariants quickly outcompeted rival subvariants in order to become globally dominant in just a few weeks early this year.

But Kraken is less severe—that is, less likely to kill—than earlier forms of SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines and natural immunity help a lot, but there are also signs that the novel-coronavirus is slowly evolving toward higher transmissibility but lower severity. At its worst in 2021, COVID killed nearly 5 percent of infected persons in the worst-hit countries such as Peru and Mexico. Today, the global fatality rate is around 0.9 percent.

MERS, by contrast, spreads much more slowly. It mostly affects camels. When it infects people, it’s usually when those people are in close contact with the animals. Human-to-human transmission is extremely rare. “Only a few such transmissions have been found among family members living in the same household,” the World Health Organization noted.

In 27 small outbreaks since 2012, fewer than 900 people have died of MERS. Compare that to the 6.9 million people who have died of SARS-CoV-2 since late 2019. The problem, with MERS, is that those 900 or so deaths represent a third of infections. That is to say, MERS is at least six times more lethal, on a case-by-case basis, than SARS was at its worst.

So if a SARS-MERS recombinant inherited the former’s transmissibility and the latter’s lethality, it could quickly kill millions. That’s why Wang and their coauthors are, in their own words, “calling for the development of pan-CoV vaccine.”

Don’t panic. Epidemiologists who weren’t involved in Wang and company’s study didn’t necessarily agree with the Chinese authors’ sense of possible imminent doom. “The lifecycle of a virus is delicate and recombination between different viruses is typically uncommon,” Lihong Liu, a Columbia University COVID researcher, told The Daily Beast. “We have not seen any recombination between SARS-CoV-2 and MERS during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the millions of SARS-CoV-2 infections worldwide. Therefore, it is expected that such an event is unlikely to occur in the future.”

Michael Letko, a Washington State University virologist, told The Daily Beast that Wang’s team is actually half-right. Yes, there’s huge risk from a possible recombinant. But not necessarily a SARS-MERS recombinant. It’s more likely the novel-coronavirus will recombine with a Russian bat virus called Khosta-2, Letko said.

Khosta-2 is even more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 than MERS is, Letko pointed out. Not only is Khosta-2 fond of the same ACE2 receptor that the novel coronavirus prefers, the two viruses also replicate roughly the same way. “The machinery the viruses use to copy their genetic material can get confused, leading to mixing and matching of the genomes,” Letko said of SARS-CoV-2 and Khosta-2. That raises the recombination risk.
Prevention plan

JANUARY 2020 CHINA RELEASED THIS GENETIC CODE FOR COVID

But exactly which cousin virus might combine with SARS-CoV-2 is beside the point. Barton Haynes, an immunologist with Duke’s Human Vaccine Institute, told The Daily Beast. There are dozens of betacoronaviruses. We should develop a vaccine that works against all of them. “If a vaccine could do all this, then one would also likely be able to protect against any … recombinant virus, as well,” Haynes said. SARS-MERS. SARS-Khosta-2. MERS-Khosta-2. Whatever.

There are around two dozen pan-coronavirus vaccine projects underway all over the world. Haynes and his colleagues at Duke have been working on one since 2020—and it could be among the first to produce a deployable vaccine. Animal testing and small-scale human trials are already underway. But if history is any guide, it could be years before the Duke vaccine or any other pan-CoV jab is ready for widespread deployment.

The wait is worth it, Haynes said. “The current goal of pan-coronavirus vaccines that are currently being tested in monkeys and humans is to make vaccines that both prevent infection by any new COVID variant that might arise, to make vaccines that will prevent any new CoV-2-like CoV outbreak that may arise from bats or other animals as well to protect against any MERS-like virus that may arise.”

That should cover all the bases, at least when it comes to betacoronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and Khosta-2. If our luck holds and we dodge a dangerous SARS recombinant for a few more years, we just might have a universal vaccine—Duke’s or another—that could prevent mass death in the event that hybrid finally appears.

Of course, that “universal” vaccine wouldn’t be truly universal. It wouldn’t save us from RSV, monkeypox, polio or—perhaps most worryingly—bird flu. For those viruses, we need totally different jabs.

Erdogan says Putin may visit Turkey in April for power plant inauguration

WHY IS TURKEY STILL IN NATO; US AIR BASES

Russian President Putin meets with his Turkish counterpart Erdogan in Moscow

Wed, March 29, 2023 

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may visit Turkey on April 27 for the inauguration of the country's first nuclear power reactor built by Russia's state nuclear energy company Rosatom.

"Maybe there is a possibility that Mr Putin will come on April 27, or we may connect to the inauguration ceremony online and we will take the first step in Akkuyu," Erdogan said in televised comments on private broadcaster ATV.

Turkey will load the first nuclear fuel into the first power unit of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and officially grant it nuclear facility status on April 27, Erdogan said in an earlier announcement on Wednesday.

The Kremlin on Monday denied Turkish reports that Putin was planning to visit Turkey.


The Kremlin said on Saturday that Putin and Erdogan discussed during a phone call the successful implementation of joint strategic projects in the energy sector, including the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

The $20 billion, 4,800 megawatt (MW) project to build four reactors in the Mediterranean town of Akkuyu will allow Turkey to join the small club of nations with civil nuclear energy.

Turkey previously announced plans to launch the first reactor at Akkuyu in 2023.

Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, prompting outrage from the Kremlin. But Turkey is not a party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Tom Perry and Stephen Coates)

Opinion

Native Graduates Have the Right to Wear Eagle Feathers, Tribal Regalia

Chuck Hoskin Jr
Sun, April 2, 2023 

(Photo/Courtesy)

Guest Opinion. Education has always been sacred to the Cherokee people. Investing in education was one of the first and highest priorities for Cherokee Nation after the Trail of Tears. Despite the extreme hardships of that time, we quickly established schools in our new land. Within a few years, we had built the first primary schools and institutes of higher education on our reservation.

Our strong commitment to education continues today. Each year, we make substantial donations to school districts in and near our reservation, including a record $7.8 million this year, from tribal car tag revenue. We provide thousands of scholarships to Cherokee students pursuing higher education, and we invest millions in other forms of education like Career Tech and job training.

We do this because, like many Native American nations and people, educating our children is one of our highest values. When Native students complete an educational milestone, like graduating from high school or college, their families often want to celebrate and honor that achievement with a special symbol.

Every year American Indian high school students across Oklahoma, including many Cherokees, are gifted traditional regalia to be worn at graduation ceremonies. Tribal regalia, including items like eagle feathers, jewelry, beaded caps, stoles, moccasins or other symbols, are protected expressions of our cultural and religious beliefs.

For example, an eagle feather symbolizes trust, honor, strength, wisdom, power and freedom. It is a deeply revered object, especially when gifted to mark a significant personal achievement. This can be for leadership or academic accomplishment, as a sign of maturity, and to signify an important educational journey.

These traditions are safeguarded under the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act. Most schools understand and respect the cultural and legal rights of Native students. Unfortunately, we still see incidents of schools in Oklahoma refusing to allow them.

Cherokee Nation firmly stands behind the rights of Native American students to wear tribal regalia and items of religious or cultural significance during graduation ceremonies. Public schools in Oklahoma must create a safe and inclusive environment where Native American students can freely express their cultural identity without fear of discrimination or punishment. We are proud of our youth, and Cherokees must have the spiritual freedom to show who they are at this important point in their lives.

Cherokee Nation is committed to vigorously defending the rights of Cherokee students, and we call upon all public schools in Oklahoma to clearly state that tribal regalia is allowed for Native American students during graduation ceremonies.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

In this, we stand united with other tribes in Oklahoma. The Inter-Tribal Council, representing the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole Nations, passed a resolution calling on public school districts to protect students’ right to wear regalia or other culturally significant items during graduation ceremonies.

Receiving an eagle feather or other tribal regalia for a graduation ceremony can be as significant as earning the diploma itself. These practices honor the graduate and their family, community and tribe. We appreciate the work by our public school districts to ensure that these events are conducted in a safe and respectful manner.

Chuck Hoskin, Jr. is the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.

The Catholic Church Should Admit Its Sins

Opinion. Thursday was a historic news day for Native Americans.

Levi Rickert

NATIVE NEWS ONLINE
Sun, April 2, 2023

A protester holds a sign as Pope Francis takes part in a public event in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Friday, July 29, 2022, during his papal visit across Canada. (Dustin Patar/The Canadian Press via AP)


While most of the country — perhaps the world — was focused on news about the first-ever indictment of a former President of the United States, many in Indian Country were more concerned with a statement from an obscure, academic-sounding department of the Vatican.

The joint statement of the Dicasteries for Culture and Education and for Promoting Integral Human Development on the “Doctrine of Discovery” came early Thursday in Michigan. The statement was historic because it repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery, which for almost 500 years provided the basis for Europeans nations to justify and legitimize their taking of Indigenous lands throughout the world, including in the Americas, Africa, and Australia.

Scholars have argued that the doctrine originated in a series of papal bulls—or decrees—that granted permission to colonial powers such as Spain and Portugal to seize lands in the “New World” — providing the people living on the lands were not Christians.

Thursday’s statement cites three papal bulls: the Bulls Dum Diversas (1452), Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Caetera (1493). The latter decreed in 1493, one year after Columbus first arrived in what are now known as the Americas.

The historic statement was welcomed news until you got past the headline and began to read the 9-point statement. Upon examination, the statement lacks real teeth in that the Vatican fails to accept accountability and admit its sins for a doctrine set forth in the name of Christianity or, more specifically, the Catholic Church.

Some Native American friends who are well-versed on the topic compared the repudiation to Pope Francis’ apology last year in Canada for the horrific deeds committed against innocent Indigenous students in residential schools. In that apology, Francis blamed individuals versus the Catholic Church. Similarly, Thursday’s statement denied that doctrine was never fully sanctioned by the Church.

“In what could have been a groundbreaking and historic repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the Vatican instead released a series of political statements that sought to rewrite history, shield the Catholic Church from legal liability and shift the blame for the Doctrine of Discovery to governmental and colonial powers,” Mark Charles, author of Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, said to Native News Online.

Two-thirds into the document, the sixth point reads: “The ‘doctrine of discovery’ is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Historical research clearly demonstrates that the papal documents in question, written in a specific historical period and linked to political questions, have never been considered expressions of the Catholic faith.”

While the Catholic Church still chooses to deny their sins, the truth is that governments around the world have long justified their taking of the Indigenous lands because of the doctrine’s Christian authorship.

The government of the United States was heavily influenced by the doctrine in 1823, when the U.S. Supreme Court used it as the basis for its ruling that Indigenous people had only the rights of occupancy, not ownership, over lands on which they dwelled. This made way for non-Natives to seize Native lands across the country and commit acts of genocide that led to the near annihilation of our ancestors.

As recently as 2005, the Doctrine of Discovery was used by the Supreme Court to justify limiting the expansion of the Oneida Nation in the Sherrill v. Oneida Nation of New York case when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited it in the majority opinion she crafted. The Court, she wrote, must prevent “the Tribe from rekindling the embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold.”

It’s unfortunate that Justice Ginsburg failed to recognize that the Doctrine of Discovery was created to extinguish our sovereignty — and millions of our ancestors. Even today, we still live with the consequences of those decrees written a half-millennia ago. But I’m also reminded that the embers of some fires can burn for months or even years.

I am grateful to the Creator that some of our ancestors survived so that we are still here as tribal nations, in spite of the sins of the Catholic Church.

Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.

About the Author: "Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net."

Tribal leaders in Wisconsin applaud Vatican’s repudiation of 'Doctrine of Discovery': ‘It’s good to hear that recognition, however late it is’

Frank Vaisvilas, Green Bay Press-Gazette
Mon, April 3, 2023 

Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada, on July 26, 2022. The Vatican on Thursday, March 30, 2023, responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today.More

GREEN BAY - After more than half a millennium, the Catholic Church finally repudiated its Doctrine of Discovery, which civil rights advocates say gave Europeans the belief they had the moral license to steal land from Indigenous people.

“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s good to hear that recognition, however late it is,” said Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens, vice chairman of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. “The Doctrine was the basis for the dispossession of Indigenous lands.”

FILE - Oneida Nation Vice Chairman Brandon Yellowbird-Stevens is shown in this file photo.

The Doctrine was a series of papal bulls from the Middle Ages from the Vatican that essentially permitted Christian European nations to subjugate and spread forced Christianity on Indigenous people in the Americas and Africa, as well as steal their lands.

The Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine on March 30, responding to demands from Indigenous groups.

“The Doctrine has become the foundation of people’s understanding relative to North America and its original inhabitants,” said the Rev. Kerri Parker, executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “The settlers had a sense of understanding that their mission was for God and king. That understanding has become part of our psyche. It’s ingrained in our laws and was part of the idea of Manifest Destiny. It’s not just history, but still happening today.”

Experts say the Doctrine was incorporated into some U.S. laws that allowed the government to take Indigenous lands.

“While the Vatican’s decision to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery is the right one, it downplays the Church’s role and accountability for the harm it has caused to Native peoples,” said Deborah Park, CEO of the Minneapolis-based National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. “It does not change the fact that the Church’s views gave permission to colonizers to take Native lands and assimilate Native peoples. This doctrine imposed itself into U.S. policies and played a crucial role in justifying the genocide of Native peoples. It gave colonizers the ‘go ahead’ to steal land and kill Native children and destroy families.”

Indigenous advocates believe church leaders in the past had used the Doctrine to justify forcefully assimilating Indigenous children in the infamous boarding schools of history. Several of these boarding schools had been located in Wisconsin.

Boarding schools in Wisconsin: 'People need to know what happened': Wisconsin tribes, families welcome federal scrutiny of Indian boarding school system

"We demand more transparency (from the Catholic Church), including access to Indian boarding school documents, which they have refused to provide. We demand that the Church returns lands to the Tribal Nations in which it operated Indian boarding schools,” Park said. “We demand that the Church supports the Truth and Healing Bill, which would establish a federal commission and conduct a full inquiry into the assimilative policies of U.S. Indian boarding schools.”

Deborah Haaland, the first Native American woman to lead the Department of the Interior, announced the Federal Board School Initiative in 2021, which includes a comprehensive review of the horrific legacy of federal boarding school policies.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland celebrate the announcement of the expansion of areas of three national monuments at the White House on October 8, 2021. The Biden administration restored the areas of two Utah parks with lands held sacred by several Native American tribes, Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts of the New England coast, after former President Donald Trump opened them to mining, drilling and development during his time in office.

"We are aware of the complicated history of the residential schools, and the Catholic Church’s involvement in running these schools in the United States,” read a previous statement from the Diocese of Green Bay. “We remain committed to understanding our history of involvement with Native American communities in the Diocese of Green Bay as we work towards a place of healing for all."

Justine Lodl, spokesperson for the Diocese, said the March 30 formal announcement from the Vatican speaks for itself and they have nothing further to add.

The Diocese of Green Bay is headquartered at 1825 Riverside Drive in Allouez, Wis.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, released a statement saying that there were times in history when church leaders failed to fully oppose the destructive and immoral actions of the competing colonial powers against Indigenous people.

“As a Church, it is important for us to fully understand how our words have been used and misused to justify acts that would be abhorrent to Jesus Christ,” he wrote. “We hope for more dialogue among Indigenous and Catholic scholars to promote greater and wider understanding of this difficult history.”

Local church leaders say more needs to be done.

“The Vatican's statement is a long-needed recognition of the tragic and devastating consequences that the Doctrine of Discovery has had on Indigenous peoples around the world,” said the Rev. Peter Bakken, justice and witness coordinator for the Wisconsin Council of Churches. “But as Christian churches we must do much more to take full responsibility for our active role in the dispossession, oppression and genocide of Native peoples. We have to take costly, meaningful action to repair the damage that has been done, actively pursue justice for Native communities, and join them in working for the well-being of all people and for the health of our common home.”

The Wisconsin Council of Churches includes 34 member churches.

Yellowbird-Stevens said the repudiation of the Doctrine may help some people understand history better as tribal leaders do today. And that history is a major factor in tribal responses today.

He said, “I think it’s a beginning of a better understanding of the tribes’ position reacquiring our original homeland.”

Dig deeper:

Indigenous exhibits: Exhibits in this Wisconsin city on Native American boarding schools and violence against Indigenous women are leaving some in tears

Boarding school survivors: 'They never broke my spirit': Survivors of Indian schools on Menominee Reservation demand Catholic church to acknowledge abuse

Landcestry: Wisconsin’s story doesn't start with Jean Nicolet. A brief history of forced relocation and 'landcestry.'

Frank Vaisvilas is a Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact him at fvaisvilas@gannett.com or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank.You can directly support his work with a tax-deductible donation online at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA or by check made out to The GroundTruth Project with subject line Report for America Green Bay Press Gazette Campaign. Address: The GroundTruth Project, Lockbox Services, 9450 SW Gemini Drive, PMB 46837, Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wisconsin tribes applaud Vatican repudiation of Doctrine of Discovery

AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal 'giant of a nation' Yunupingu dies aged 74

Tiffanie Turnbull - BBC News, Sydney
Mon, April 3, 2023 

One of Australia's most influential Aboriginal leaders Yunupingu has died after a long illness in the Northern Territory, aged 74.

Yunupingu was a trailblazer in the fight for land rights and the constitutional recognition of Indigenous people in Australia.

The Gumatj clan leader was named Australian of the Year in 1978.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led tributes to him, saying he had been a great leader and statesman.

Note to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: Yunupingu's last name and image are used here in accordance with the wishes of his family.

"Yunupingu walked in two worlds within authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole - together," Mr Albanese wrote on Twitter.

"He now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow in this one."

Yunupingu rose to prominence in the land rights movement in the 1960s, and was part of the first Australian legal case which tested the native title rights of First Nations people.

Over the next 50 years Yunupingu went on to advise successive governments and was also celebrated as a singer, artist and promoter of Indigenous culture.

He helped set up the Northern Land Council, which represents traditional owners in the Northern Territory's Top End, and also helped create the Yothu Yindi Foundation, which is one of the peak advocacy bodies for Aboriginal Australians.

He received an Order of Australia medal for his services to the Aboriginal community in 1985.

In recent years he advocated for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people through the Voice to Parliament, on which a national referendum will take place later this year.

His daughter, Binmila Yunupingu, said her father's death was a profound loss.

"Yunupingu lived his entire life on his land, surrounded by the sound of bilma (clapsticks), yidaki (didgeridoo) and the manikay (sacred song) and dhulang (sacred designs) of our people. He was born on our land… and he died on our land secure in the knowledge that his life's work was secure," she said.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation described Yunupingu as "a giant of the nation".

"He was first and foremost a leader of his people, whose welfare was his most pressing concern and responsibility," a spokesperson said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Tom Housden.

‘A great Australian’: Anthony Albanese leads tributes to Yunupingu
Lorena Allam Indigenous affairs editor
Sun, 2 April 2023 


The Yolŋu elder and Indigenous leader Yunupingu, who died on Monday, has been remembered as one of the “greatest of Australians” and a fierce leader.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said: “Yunupingu walked in two worlds with authority, power and grace, and he worked to make them whole – together …

“He was a leader, a statesman, a great Yolngu man and a great Australian. He now walks in another place, but he has left such great footsteps for us to follow in this one.”

Albanese said he would speak to Yunupingu’s family about potentially holding a state funeral.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, also both paid tribute to the Gumatj leader, with Wong describing him as an “extraordinary leader and powerful advocate”.



In a joint statement, the minister for Indigenous Australians and the two Indigenous Northern Territory Labor senators, Marion Scrymgour and Malarndirri McCarthy, simply said: “Australia has lost a giant.”

“His gifts to us as a nation was a life of truth-telling and a passionate belief in his people and in Australia, and we as a nation can gift to him a successful referendum later this year,” they said.

“In his final months Yunupingu reminded us: “the future is our responsibility”, and that we all have a responsibility to show leadership on: reconciliation, recognition, and the referendum.”

Yunupingu’s daughter, Binmila Yunupiŋu, issued a statement behalf of the family, saying their loss was “profound”.

Related: Yunupingu, Yolŋu leader and campaigner for Indigenous rights, dies aged 74

“We are hurting, but we honour him and remember with love everything he has done for us.

“We remember him for his fierce leadership, and total strength for Yolŋu and for Aboriginal people throughout Australia. He lived by our laws always.”

The Gumatj Corporation, which he helped establish, said Yunupingu held a vision of self-determination for Yolŋu people.

“He believed that Yolŋu people, like all of us, were economic beings,” said the corporation’s chair, Djawa Yunupingu. “He saw welfare as poison for his people. His view was that welfare anchored his people to a future without independence and to a life controlled by government.”

The powerful Northern Land Council, representing hundreds of traditional owner groups across the top end of the Northern Territory – said it would close its offices on Monday out of respect.

Yunupingu was chairman of the NLC for more than 24 years, and fought many hard political battles over land rights claims against hostile governments.

“He was in the frontline of the fight for land rights,” said the NLC chair, Dr Samuel Bush-Blanasi.

“Those days were tough. But he was tougher. Governments and everyone opposed us all the way. He took the fight to the streets, to Canberra and to the High Court many times.

“Lots of people today don’t remember what it was like. But we do, and we will never forget.”

The Central Land Council said it is flying the Aboriginal flag at half-mast outside its offices in Alice Springs.

“Mr Yunupingu devoted his life to fighting for our land rights and our right to determine our own affairs,” Central Land Council chair Matthew Palmer said.

“Later this year we have an opportunity to right this wrong and take a significant step towards Mr Yunupingu’s vision. Let’s honour him by not wasting this once-in-a lifetime chance,” Palmer said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said Yunupingu “helped Indigenous Australians in negotiations with mining companies. And he was deeply respected by all sides of politics and all the prime ministers with whom he engaged.”

Opposition spokesman on Indigenous Australians, Julia Leeser described Yunupingu as “one of the great Indigenous leaders modern Australia has produced”.

“Yunupingu was a great moral voice to our country.

“He was a man of strength, conviction and determination,” Leeser said.

The image and naming protocol used in this article have been approved by the Yunupingu family

Australia PM Albanese boosted by historic by-election win

Becoming the first government in more than 100 years to take a district off the opposition outside a national vote.


Anthony Albanese, Australia's Prime Minister

Sun, April 2, 2023 
By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday he would not "get carried away" after his Labor party defied the odds to snatch a seat from the opposition at a by-election, a 100-year first, even as voters battled higher living costs.

Labor's Mary Doyle won the weekend by-election for the lower house federal seat of Aston in Melbourne's eastern suburbs with a swing of more than 6%, in a blow to the conservative Liberal-National opposition coalition in one of its traditional strongholds in Victoria state.

Albanese said the government's focus on making a practical difference in people's lives resonated with voters, who understood the spike in living costs was because of global supply chain problems linked to Russia's war in Ukraine.

But despite calling the election result "a historic win", Albanese said his government would remain grounded.

"This was a significant victory ... but we don't get carried away with this," Albanese told ABC Radio in an interview.

The last time the opposition lost a by-election to a government candidate was in 1920, in the Western Australia state goldfields electorate of Kalgoorlie.

The by-election in Aston was triggered after former Liberal minister Alan Tudge, who won with a slim 2.8% margin in the 2022 general election, quit politics due to personal reasons.

Albanese, who is set to finish a year in power next month, has enjoyed high approval ratings since becoming prime minister. A newspoll published by the Australian newspaper on Monday showed him stretching his lead to 58% as the preferred leader, eclipsing opposition leader Peter Dutton's 26% support.

The survey of 1,500 voters also showed Labor extending its lead on a two-party preferred basis to 55%, against the opposition's 45%.

The by-election win comes a week after Labor returned to power in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state. The win means the party now governs at state and federal levels across Australia's mainland, leaving island state Tasmania as the conservative outlier.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Jamie Freed)

Australia’s Government Strengthens Grip With By-Election Win



Ben Westcott
Sat, April 1, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won a historic victory at a by-election in the state of Victoria, becoming the first government in more than 100 years to take a district off the opposition outside a national vote.

The ruling Labor party’s candidate, Mary Doyle, was set to win the district of Aston in eastern Melbourne, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp. projections. The victory bolsters Albanese’s parliamentary majority and confirms his government’s popularity after 10 months in office amid rising interest rates and inflation.

Following the Aston win, Albanese’s government holds 78 districts in the 151-member House of Representatives. The result comes a week after Labor won an election in New South Wales, the most populous state, meaning the center-left now controls all seven state and territory governments on Australia’s mainland. Only the southern island state of Tasmania has a center-right government.

A by-election is a vote to fill a vacancy caused by the departure of a lawmaker outside a general election, with Saturday’s ballot triggered by former minister Alan Tudge’s resignation from parliament. No government has won a seat off an opposition party at a by-election since 1920, and ahead of the vote it was expected that the center-right Liberal Party would narrowly retain the district.

The loss is likely to spark questions about the performance of Liberal Party leader and former Defence Minister Peter Dutton after less than one year in the role. Dutton has generally stuck to the script of an opposition leader, regularly rejecting government policies, including increased action on climate change.

Dutton, speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, said he took responsibility for the election loss and would be analyzing the result. But he still had the support of his party, he said.

“We have a particular problem in Victoria, there’s no question about that,” he said. “I think there are issues in relation to policy and personnel, issues in relation to our campaigning techniques.”

The party would not be rushing to announce any policy changes, Dutton said.

“In recent years the Liberal Party has allowed itself to be defined by our opponents and I think it’s time for us to stand up for what we believe in, whether it’s trendy or not,” he said.

Finland shifts right, ousts Prime Minister Sanna Marin from office

Justin Klawans, Staff writer
Sun, April 2, 2023 

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Finland headed to the polls on Sunday and ousted Prime Minister Sanna Marin from office in the country's parliamentary elections, denying her a second term as the head of government, The Associated Press reported.

Marin was looking to win re-election by keeping her liberal Social Democrats party in power. However, with 97.7 percent of the votes tallied, it was the conservative National Coalition party emerging victorious with 20.7 percent, AP reported. In second place was the far-right, nationalist Finns party with 20.1 percent, with the Social Democrats garnering 19.9 percent.

The head of the National Coalition, Petteri Orpo, claimed victory, stating, "We got the biggest mandate." Marin conceded the election soon after.

The loss is a stunning fall from grace for Marin, a 37-year-old who is among the youngest world leaders. She was a well-liked but polarizing figure in Finland, with the country's Helsingin Sanomat newspaper publishing a December opinion poll that found 64 percent of respondents approved of her premiership. However, while a large portion of Finland saw Marin "as a strong leader who skillfully navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and the country's NATO membership process, others say her partying scandals and youthful behavior make her unfit for office," France24 reported.

The election was neck-and-neck right up until the last vote was counted. A final poll cited by The Guardian, with a two percent margin of error, had the National Coalition at 19.8 percent, the Finns at 19.5, and the Social Democrats at 18.7.

However, even with the conservative victory, Reuters noted that "the election is likely to be followed by lengthy coalition talks."

The National Coalition will now help lead Finland through its first years as a NATO member, and with its victory symbolizing a drastic shift to the right in the liberal Nordic country.

Meet Vogue’s 106-year-old cover model: Indigenous Filipino tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od

Ines Shin
Fri, March 31, 2023 

Vogue Philippines recently unveiled the cover of their April 2023 beauty issue featuring Apo Whang-Od, an Indigenous tattoo artist who has made history as the oldest person to ever be showcased on a Vogue cover.

Whang-Od, a 106-year-old woman, is renowned as the last and oldest “mambabatok,” which is a traditional Kalinga tattooist who uses the hand-tapping technique called “batok.” Traditionally, only male members of the Butbut tribe practiced this technique, but Whang-Od became the first woman to do so at the age of 15 under her father’s guidance.

Vogue Philippines has praised Whang-Od, who also goes by Maria Oggay, for her tireless efforts to preserve the tradition at a time when Western beauty standards threatened to erase the tattoo technique. With the arrival of American Catholic missionaries in Kalinga, tattooed women from the village were forced to cover up their tattoos, which were seen as shameful.

More from NextShark: Meet Camryn Bynum, the NFL star proudly repping his Filipino heritage

During her career, Whang-Od has tattooed thousands of international visitors who traveled great distances to be tattooed using only a bamboo stick, a pomelo tree thorn, water and coal.

As the craft is traditionally only passed through bloodlines and Whang-Od has no children, she made the decision to teach the technique to her grandnieces, Grace Palicas and Elyang Wigan.

This significant choice ensured that her legacy would be carried on by a woman.

Palicas and her cousin Elyang are the tattooists who greet and ink the hundreds of visitors who come to their village each day. After her apprentices finish the tattoos, Whang-Od marks them with her signature three dots representing herself and her apprentices.

Although Whang-Od is the last “mambabatok” of her generation, she is “not afraid that the tradition will end” because she is preparing the next generation of tattoo masters.

The editor-in-chief of Vogue Philippines, Bea Valdes, revealed that Whang-Od was selected as the cover model through a unanimous vote because the publication’s staff agreed that “she represented our ideals of what is beautiful about our Filipino culture.”

"We believe that the concept of beauty needs to evolve, and include diverse and inclusive faces and forms. What we hope to speak about is the beauty of humanity," Valdes added.

ULTRA RIGHT WING ZIONIST BROWN SHIRTS 

Israel approves 'national guard' sought by far-right security minister

Arab politicians have denounced the national guard as a 'militia' for Itamar Ben-Gvir, while some say new force could be used to crack down on protests against the government

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks to the media ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting in the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, 19 March 2023 (AFP)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 2 April 2023 

Israel authorised on Sunday the setting up of a national guard under far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has said it would focus on Arab unrest, while political rivals accused him of setting up a sectarian "militia".

The previous government had begun moves to set up an auxiliary police force to tackle internal political violence following pro-Palestinian protests in mixed Jewish-Arab areas during the Gaza Strip war of May 2021. That government fell before the force was finalised.

The exact powers of the new national guard will be discussed by a committee comprised of all Israeli security agencies, which will submit recommendations within 90 days, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear who would have direct authority over the national guard.

Israel's police chief, Inspector-General Yaakov Shabtai, has expressed misgivings about the new force in a letter to Ben-Gvir, local media reported.

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Ben-Gvir, a hardline Jewish settler from the occupied West Bank with past convictions for support for terrorism and incitement against Arabs - who make up 21 per cent of Israel's population - rose in politics partly due to the 2021 unrest.

Having moderated some of his positions, he wields an expanded law-and-order portfolio in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist governing coalition.

'Militia'

Ben-Gvir has described the planned national guard in media interviews as an update of the previous government's initiative. Discussing its planned deployments, he named only Arab communities hit by riots or crime, in Israel as well as along the boundaries with the Palestinian West Bank.

"It will deal with this exclusively. The police does not deal exclusively with this. It's busy with a thousand and one things," he told Army Radio.

Arab politicians have denounced the national guard as a "militia" for Ben-Gvir. Other opposition figures have accused Ben-Gvir of wanting a new force to crack down on nationwide demonstrations against the government's judicial overhaul plan.

How Ben Gvir's 'private militia' threatens Palestinians and Israel's security

Read More »

"Why does the State of Israel - which has an army, police, military intelligence, the Shin Bet, Mossad, National Security Council, Prisons Service, riot police, a SWAT team - need another national guard?" Arab lawmaker Ayman Odeh wrote on Twitter.

Government funding will enable an initial intake of 1,850 personnel for the new force, Ben-Gvir said, adding that these could be seconded police officers and volunteers, including from the Arab sector.

He said that the national guard would take months to get off the ground and that he was trying to fill police posts in parallel.

Israeli police chief Shabtai questioned the need for the national guard and warned that any separation of it from the police hierarchy "could prove most costly and even harm the security of the citizenry", according to the Ynet news site.

Confirming the existence of the letter, Ben-Gvir said he would meet Shabtai on Monday and was open to the possibility of putting the national guard under the command authority of the police "if they're serious and really want it".
Netanyahu in weak position

The plan was part of a deal between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, who had threatened to resign after the prime minister paused a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary following weeks of mass protests that brought the country to a stand-still on Monday.

Ben-Gvir agreed to the delay in return for allowing the creation of a national guard loyal to his ministry.

'Clearly, Netanyahu’s political standing is extremely weak. His polling numbers are at historic lows, and his own party is extremely resentful of him'

- Yonatan Touval, analyst

"Clearly, Netanyahu’s political standing is extremely weak," said Yonatan Touval, an analyst at the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies (Mitvim), following the decision on the national guard.

"His polling numbers are at historic lows, and his own party is extremely resentful of him," added Touval speaking to Middle East Eye.

Ben-Gvir has long supported the creation of a national guard and wants to "have a paramilitary force directly under his command that he can deploy in mixed Arab-Israeli towns inside Israel," said Touval.

"It goes without saying that the force would focus on enforcing law and order on Arab residents whenever tensions and violence erupt," he added.

Ben-Gvir has already told police to crack down harder on anti-government protests that have rocked the country since January.

'Anti-Palestinian agenda'

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has said: "We already saw what happened when Ben-Gvir wanted to suppress the protests; now one can only imagine what will happen when he has his own militias."

Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the occupied territories are also likely to fear the move, since it could likely be used against them.

"Giving a private militia to Kahanist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is a convicted criminal, is likely to occasion a new low for Palestinian human security across the occupied Palestinian Territories," said Robert Andrews, the public relations officer at the human rights NGO the EuroPal Forum.

Netanyahu has taken Israel to the abyss. What is his exit strategy?

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Rabbi Meir Kahane was an Israeli-American who led a far-right group that gave rise to Kahanism, an extremist religious Zionist worldview premised on Jewish supremacy.

Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party has in the past espoused Kahanist ideology and is an important coalition member in Netanyahu's ruling coalition.

"The decision to award the fascistic Ben-Gvir with a private militia will undoubtedly serve to embolden his clear anti-Palestinian agenda," Andrews told MEE.

In the last few months, Ben-Gvir has already introduced a series of draconian measures against Palestinians.

In February, Israel's parliament passed the first stage of a bill, introduced by the Jewish Power Party, to stop funding non-essential medical treatment for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Since joining Netanyahu's government late last year, the security minister has vowed to crack down on the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, whom he claims are being treated too well.

'Legal challenges'

Ben-Gvir has also ordered the closure of Palestinian prisoner-run bakeries in Israeli prisons and that detainees only be given four minutes to shower.

"With a private militia now under his absolute control, it is already clear - as per his statements thus far - that Ben-Gvir will use the group to further legitimise settler violence against Palestinian communities under the guise of ‘protecting law and order'," said Andrews.

"The Hilltop Youth, [an extremist religious-nationalist settler group], already routinely terrorise and attack Palestinian civilians and property with impunity," he added.

"One can expect Ben-Gvir’s militia to continue the acts of violence and terrorism against Palestinians, albeit while wearing uniforms and officially part of the state’s apparatus."

Despite such fears, Touval said that the decision to form the national guard is likely to be fought in the courts and Ben-Gvir’s control over it is still far from assured.

"The establishment of such a force is likely to meet legal challenges, especially if, as the latest plan states, the national guard is to be separate and independent of the police and subject directly to the Ministry of National Security and its minister, Ben-Gvir himself," said Touval.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Promised to Give a Racist Security Minister His Own Government Militia

Lloyd Green
Wed, March 29, 2023 

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters

Last November, the far-right neo-Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir helped deliver Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory. Once a fringe fixture of Israel’s radical right, he is now the country’s minister of public security. Unlike the late Meir Kahane, his hero, Ben-Gvir walks the corridors of power. Like Kahane, however, he finds himself at the eye of a continuous political storm.

On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, placed a temporary hold on his bid to degrade the country’s judiciary. To garner Ben-Gvir’s support, Netanyahu made a jarring concession that left critics seething and Ben-Gvir grinning—he would hand control of the National Guard (presently a unit of the Border Patrol) over to the ministry of national security, which is currently run by Ben-Gvir (the Border Patrol would then be subsumed into the reconstituted National Guard).

If Bibi’s Attacks on Democracy Continue, Biden Should Consider Withholding Aid to Israel

That’s a ton of clout for any one person, particularly Ben-Gvir, who decades earlier was declared by Israel’s military as unfit to serve.

In the end, Netanyahu may fail to honor his pledge. Funds might not be allocated. The government might fall. For the moment, however, the prospect of Ben-Gvir at the helm of a state-backed militia sets plenty of nerves on edge.

“It could be very dangerous,” a senior police official told Ha’aretz.

Earlier this week as throngs protested outside the Knesset, the unnamed official pondered whether “the minister would have sent companies from the National Guard to deal with the protesters, it looks bad.” (For the record, Kobi Shabtai, the police commissioner, opposes Ben-Gvir’s bid.)

Ben-Gvir said the Guard would be focused on “extortion in areas with criminal organizations and ‘mixed’ cities,” which The Jerusalem Post said is “a clear implication of focusing on Israeli-Arab crime,” adding, “National guard members would be issued guns and be considered combat police.”

Combat police under the control of a racist security minister, patrolling Arab neighborhoods. What could go wrong?

The specifics of his proposal have yet to be laid out, let alone finalized. But the events of the past few days have stoked fear that a National Guard in Ben-Gvir’s hands would serve as a cross between a personal praetorian and a band of bully-boys.

Remember when Donald Trump told the neofascist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”? Well, they ended up being the primary instigators of violence at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

For all of his talk of law and order, Ben-Gvir also has fans among “La Familia,” a right-wing booster club of Jerusalem’s Beitar soccer team. The group also brings its share of menace and law breaking.

“Ben-Gvir’s militias from La Familia are going wild right now on the streets of Jerusalem. Looking for Arabs to beat up,” Merav Michaeli, the leader of the opposition Labor Party tweeted. Part of the group then beat an Arab cab driver. “There are eggs, there are knives, there are weapons. We are on our way to Jerusalem,” one hooligan bragged on video.

“This is the man that Netanyahu promised to set up for him his own militia with regular salaries at the expense of the state,” she added.

Israelis Are Trying to Save a Democracy That Never Existed

In a letter addressed to Yoav Gallant, the supposedly fired defense minister, Merav Cohen, a member of the opposition Yesh Atid party, urged that he classify La Familia as a terror group. (For the moment, Gallant still appears on the job.)

As Israel approaches its 75th anniversary, it’s worth recalling when David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, made clear that the state would alone possess the monopoly on armed violence.

At the outset, the nascent government worked with Menachem Begin—leader of the Irgun Underground, a right-wing paramilitary group that committed numerous deadly bombings in Israel’s infancy—to integrate his troops into the newly formed Israel Defense Forces. In June 1948, Begin inked a formal agreement, but things did not proceed smoothly.

Armed confrontation between the Irgun and the Palmach (an elite force attached to the Haganah, the official pre-state underground) followed in what would become known as the Altalena Affair, an attempt by the Irgun to smuggle weapons. A sunk ship, standoff, deaths, and arrests followed. In September 1948, Begin disbanded the Irgun.

For decades, he then led the parliamentary opposition. Rule of law and democracy mattered. (Begin became prime minister in 1978).

But it wasn’t just the right-wing engaging in violence.

In November 1948, Ben-Gurion ordered the Palmach to be dismantled. Its alumni, “Palmachniks,” included Yitzhak Rabin, a future Labor prime minister, and Yigal Allon, a foreign minister and an interim prime minister.

Current relations between the U.S. grind loudly. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that Netanyahu would not be at the White House anytime soon. The president also stressed that Israel’s favored status is directly tied to its commitment to democracy.

This Is Israel’s Most Dire Week Since the Yom Kippur War

An alarmed Netanyahu pushed back at 1am local time, saying in a series of tweets: “I have known President Biden for over 40 years, and I appreciate his longstanding commitment to Israel. The alliance between Israel and the United States is unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us…Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.”

Ben-Gvir, for his part, was thoroughly unimpressed. “Israel is an independent country and no longer a star on the U.S. flag,” he remarked.

The Daily Beast.