‘Glorifying violence’: Serbian protesters blame mass shootings on shock reality TV shows

Issued on: 10/05/2023 - 

A demonstrator holds a poster reading "I don't want my child to be born in a country of violence" in Belgrade on May 8, 2023. © Andrej Isakovic, AFP

Text by: Sébastian SEIBT

A massive protest in Belgrade on Monday expressed anger at the role of reality TV programmes in creating a culture of violence seen as a factor in the two mass shootings that plunged Serbia into mourning last week.

The two mass shootings in a space of a week in Serbia were a shockingly rare occurrence, even if Serbia has Europe’s highest rate of firearms possession.

With 19 people killed, including children in a nursery school, the shootings prompted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s vow to “disarm” the country.

But for many of the demonstrators on the streets of Belgrade on May 8, sections of the media share a significant part of the blame for last week’s tragedies.

“There were many calls for the heads of the media regulatory body to resign, as well as calls for the media to stop promoting violence,” said Aleksandra Krstic, an expert on the Serbian media at Belgrade University who took part in the demonstration.

This anger at the violence relayed on television screens is reminiscent of the endless frustration at the violence on TV and in video games blamed for many of the mass shootings in the US.

“These tragic events come out of a social context in which the media increasingly glorifies violence,” said Nebojsa Vladisavljevic, an expert on authoritarianism at Belgrade University.

Over the past decade, an alternative media reality has risen to the fore in Serbia, characterised by “rampant hate speech against any political opposition to the government, alongside the promotion of violent content”, Vladisavljevic continued.

‘More and more violent’

He singled out reality TV shows, which have become ratings machines dominating Serbian broadcasting. Zadruga on Pink TV and Parovi on Happy TV have pushed the genre’s boundaries, taking trash TV so far that they make the likes of Big Brother look like broadcasts of philosophical discussions.

The French public got a taste of this in 2016, when the Serbo-French dual citizen Zelko recounted how he managed to escape six months of hell in Serbian reality TV. As a contestant on Parovi, Zelko was regularly beaten and humiliated by the other contestants. Then the production team refused to let him go, placing him in solitary confinement.

In 2019, another former Parovi contestant, Andelina Nikolic, told Serbia media how she had self-harmed and swallowed detergent in a desperate effort to leave the Parovi set – even if this escape attempt sent her straight to hospital. But the producers just filmed the whole episode, forced her to vomit, and put her in isolation.

These are hardly isolated cases in Serbian reality TV. “These shows promote violence on various levels,” Vladisavljevic said. “They show it on screen; they invite convicted criminals to participate; and they talk about violence as if it were completely normal.”

In 2015, a Bosnian NGO launched a petition against the Serbian reality TV show Farma, accusing it of inciting ethnic violence just two decades after the Yugoslav Wars tore the Balkans apart.

Nevertheless, Vladisavljevic lamented, vociferous criticism of Serbian reality TV has changed nothing – in actual fact, “the programmes have become more and more violent”.

It is no co-incidence that these reality shows have only increased in popularity since Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party came to power in 2012. Analysts see Serbian reality TV as almost part of a political vicion of media manipulation inspired by the regimes of authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Media ‘essential to maintaining power’

By making violence acceptable to viewers, these vicious shows allow the state media to increase hate speech against opposition figures without causing much of a stir.

“You’ve got to realise that Vojislav Seselj, the former Serbian deputy prime minister accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has become a regular on TV and uses it as a platform for very violent speeches,” Vladisavljevic said.

“These reality shows are part of a system where violence is omnipresent at all levels,” Krstic said. Contestants fights each other and these fights become “the talk of the tabloids controlled by people with ties to the governments, and then they are made into clips relayed on social media where young people – who are too young to watch the programmes on TV – are able to watch these violent extracts over and over again”, she continued.

This media culture could be seen as a factor in last week’s shootings because it has “created a generation of young people whose heroes are criminals featuring in reality TV shows, which lends a certain legitimacy to the use of violence”, Krstic said.

She expressed hope that last week’s tragedies will open people’s eyes to the dangers of this dynamic – and that Monday’s demonstrations will put pressure on the government and the media to make changes.

“We’re asking for the head of the media regulator to resign, because this organisation is supposed to deal with the broadcasting of violent content but has actually done nothing about it,” Krstic said.

There is a decent prospect that Vucic will “react” in response to the protests, Vladisavljevic added, because the president “knows that large gatherings like this create risks for the government”.

The “huge protests against [then Serbian leader] Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s played a role in the end of his reign”, Vladisavljevic continued. “The education minister resigned on Sunday and others could follow.”

Yet Vladisavljevic concluded that Vucic is unlikely to make any substantial changes to Serbia’s media landscape because the media are “essential to maintaining power” in an “authoritarian regime like his”.

In the meantime, public anger has not gone away, with further protests planned for next Friday to try and push the government to make more concessions.

This article was translated from the original in French.

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What does the Wagner Group mean for erupting conflicts like Sudan?

DW
Issued on: 10/05/2023 

06:40

Guests on the France 24 Debate, Raphael Parens, Dominique Trinquand, and Thierry Vircoulon, share views on how crucial the revenue stream provided by Wagner is for Russia, where their recruits from places like Russian prisons go, and what it all means for erupting conflicts like in Sudan, a country with plentiful gold mines.

Climate maths 'doesn't add up' without carbon capture: COP28 chief

by Hashem OSSEIRAN

COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber urged a greater focus on carbon capture technologies.

The Emirati oil chief leading this year's UN climate talks said Wednesday the world must get "serious" about new emission-capturing technology, rather than focussing only on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.

Sultan Al Jaber said renewables such as solar and wind "cannot be the only answer", especially in the steel, cement and aluminium industries, where emissions are particularly hard to reduce.

While major oil producers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are touting carbon capture and storage as a remedy for global warming, some experts caution that the nascent technology is unproven and expensive, and should not replace efforts to phase out hydrocarbons.

"Renewable energies are not and cannot be the only answer," argued Al Jaber, who is simultaneously the head of state oil giant ADNOC and the country's climate envoy.

"If we are serious about curbing industrial emissions, we need to get serious about carbon capture technologies," he told the United Arab Emirates' Climate Tech event in Abu Dhabi.

"In any realistic scenario that gets us to net zero... carbon capture technology will have a role to play. Without it, the math just doesn't add up.

"We need to phase out emissions," added Al Jaber, reiterating his position that crude remains indispensable to the global economy and crucial to financing the energy transition.

Globe showing temperature anomalies recorded in April 2023.

COP battleground issue

The debate between carbon capture and reduced fossil fuel use is shaping as a key battleground at COP28, beginning in November in Dubai, the UAE's commercial hub.

Earlier this year, the UN's climate expert panel (IPCC) said the world risks crossing the key 1.5-degree Celsius global warming threshold in about a decade, urging a drastic reduction in planet-heating emissions.

One of the fastest transformations will need to be in energy, the report said, with solar and wind power already expanding dramatically.

Major economies are taking key steps, with the European Union banning sales of new fossil fuel cars from 2035 and planning to nearly double renewable energy production by 2030.

But greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure will still push the world beyond 1.5C unless the costly and emerging carbon capture and storage technologies are utilised, the IPCC said.

A photo taken in Finland on May 3, 2023, shows ice chunks drifting in the Bothnia Gulf near the shore at the beginning of the spring.

"Cost remains a barrier," said Al Jaber, president-designate of COP28.

He said policymakers must provide incentives to companies to commercialise technological solutions, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) and direct air capture (DAC).

CCS syphons off CO2 pollution from energy production and heavy industry and stores it underground, thus preventing it from entering the atmosphere.

By contrast, direct air capture -– still in its infancy—removes CO2 directly from ambient air, which makes it a "negative emissions" technology.


'Distraction we can't afford'

Some environmentalists are sceptical about the focus on carbon capture, with Rex Weyler from Greenpeace last year labelling it a "scam".

"Carbon offset technologies are a distraction that we cannot afford," Julien reissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA, told AFP on Wednesday.

Worsening droughts have hit Iraq and over the past four years prompted Iraqi authorities to drastically limit areas under cultivation.

A Pakistan town damaged by flash floods of the river Swat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan was lashed by unprecedented monsoon rains in the summer of 2022 that put a third of the country underwater.

'Renewable energies are not and cannot be the only answer,' argued Al Jaber, who is simultaneously the head of state oil giant ADNOC and the country's climate envoy.

"They have yet to be commercially viable and are not proven at scale despite years of development and billions of dollars of investment."

Worldwide, there are about 35 commercial facilities applying carbon capture, utilisation and storage to industrial processes, fuel transformation and power generation, with a total annual capture capacity of almost 45 million tonnes of CO2, according to the International Energy Agency.

Current global CO2 emissions from all sources are about 40 billion tonnes.

Novel DAC technologies only account for a tiny fraction—about 0.1 percent—of worldwide carbon dioxide removal, the first global assessment of CO2 removal said in January.

More than 99 percent of extraction is done through "conventional" techniques such as restoring and expanding CO2-absorbing forests and wetlands, according to the State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report.

The report stated that capping global warming at liveable levels will be impossible without massively scaling up the extraction of planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

© 2023 AFP


Explore furtherClimate talks see push for global renewable energy target

 Australian bushfires may have helped trigger La Nina

AFP
Issued on: 10/05/2023 - 

The research found the Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020 pumped out emissions on a scale similar to major volcanic eruptions © PETER PARKS / AFP

Sydney (AFP) – Australia's "Black Summer" bushfire catastrophe coughed up so much smoke it may have fuelled the global onset of La Nina in 2020, according to new research published Thursday.

The report, in peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, said the bushfires were "exceptional" in their severity -- pumping out emissions on a scale similar to major volcanic eruptions.

It suggested this led to the formation of vast banks of cloud over the southeastern Pacific Ocean, which soaked up radiation from the sun and led to the cooling of surface water temperatures.

These disruptions could have helped trigger the start of an unusually long La Nina weather pattern, the researchers found.

The "Black Summer" bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing swathes of forest, killing millions of animals, and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.

A rare "triple-dip" La Nina shaped global weather patterns between September 2020 and March 2023, whipping up a series of devastating tropical cyclones while exacerbating droughts in other parts of the planet.

Researchers John Fasullo and Nan Rosenbloom, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States, used modelling to demonstrate how emissions from the bushfires could shift weather patterns.

Bushfire smoke is laden with particles that act as "condensation nuclei", which attract water molecules in the atmosphere, seeding the formation of clouds.
Atmospheric impact

This blanket of cloud could cause "widespread surface cooling" in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the modelling showed, which is one of the key ingredients for the start of La Nina.

"The results here suggest a potential connection between this emergence of cool conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the climate response to the Australian wildfire emissions," the paper stated.

Australian climate scientist Tom Mortlock said the bushfires caused clouds to form in a part of the Pacific that plays a crucial role in global climate regulation.

"The southeast corner of the Pacific is a really sensitive and important area for what goes on with El Nino and La Nina," he told AFP.

"Often we see the first signs of an El Nino or La Nina forming in that part of the ocean."

Pete Strutton, from the Australian Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, said it demonstrated the sheer scale of the bushfires.

"We've got an event that happened on the land in southeast Australia, which is having an impact on the atmosphere," he told AFP.

A separate team of British researchers last year found that the "Black Summer" bushfires spewed millions of tonnes of emissions into the atmosphere, likely aggravating the Antarctic ozone hole.

Global weather patterns oscillate between cooling La Nina and warming El Nino cycles -- with neutral conditions in between.

 Cake toss and heckling at VW shareholders’ meeting 

Human rights groups and climate activists disrupted Volkswagen’s shareholders’ meeting and at times sparked riots. Representatives of a group shouted during the CEO’s speech Oliver Blume slogans and held up banners. A poster read: “End Uyghur forced labor at VW”.

A person tried to throw a cake at the supervisory board member Wolfgang Porsche, who was celebrating his 80th birthday on Wednesday, during the annual general meeting. The cousin of the company patriarch Ferdinand Piech, who died in 2019, is the head of the supervisory board of the family holding Porsche SE, which holds the majority in Volkswagen.

The demonstrators were led by employees of a security service from the hall in Berlin’s City-Cube, where the shareholders’ meeting took place. Chairman of the Board Hans Dieter Poetsch asked the protesters several times to refrain from disruption. He was initially shocked when the cake was thrown at Porsche, but then continued his introductory speech at the beginning of the general meeting, outwardly unimpressed. CEO Oliver Blume, who faced the shareholders at the general meeting, did not respond to the demonstrators’ demands either.

“Last Generation” and “Scientist Rebellion”

In a statement, the carmaker reacted angrily to the massive disruption to its annual general meeting. Peaceful protests are a democratic means of freedom of expression. The damage to someone else’s property and the interference with the rights of others as well as the possible risk to the health of those involved are in contradiction to this. At the same time, Volkswagen renewed its willingness to engage in constructive dialogue with its critics. Wolfsburg shareholders’ meetings have repeatedly been the target of protests in recent years. The disturbances were rarely as severe as this time.

There were also protests in front of the City Cube. The police prevented the attempt by representatives of the group “Scientist Rebellion” to stick themselves on the square in front of the venue in Berlin’s Westend. In a leaflet, the initiative accused the Wolfsburg-based group of selling “too many cars”. The emissions of the climate poison CO2 by the transport sector have reached a threatening level. VW could make a positive contribution to the traffic turnaround by switching production to trains and rail infrastructure. Representatives of the “Last Generation” group, which is known for numerous sticking actions on the streets, blocked traffic to the place of the shareholders’ meeting.

Representatives of the Uyghur minority in China also protested there. The action, organized by the World Uyghur Congress, displayed banners accusing the Chinese government of human rights abuses. The umbrella organization of critical shareholders has taken up the issue and submitted a motion against the discharge of the VW board. Volkswagen operates a plant in the Chinese Uighur province of Xinjiang, which has been accused of crimes against humanity. The group has repeatedly stated that it is not involved in human rights violations.

Blume, who replaced Herbert Diess at the top of the group last September, explained his strategy for the next few years to the shareholders. Because of the protests, however, the statements took a back seat. Criticism from shareholder representatives focused, among other things, on the low valuation of Volkswagen on the stock exchange and Blume’s dual role as head of the listed sports car manufacturer Porsche AG.

Activists, investors call out Volkswagen on China record

Victoria Waldersee and Jan Schwartz
Wed, May 10, 2023 


Human rights activists interrupt VW shareholder meeting

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Investors demand independent audit on Xinjiang plant

*

Shareholders raise concerns over competition from BYD, Tesla

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Chief Executive Blume defends China strategy


BERLIN, May 10 (Reuters) - Activists lashed out at Volkswagen at a shareholder meeting on Wednesday over the carmaker's controversial plant in Xinjiang, reflecting similar investor concerns over claims of human rights abuses in the region.

Investors also reiterated their longstanding critique of Oliver Blume's dual role as head of both Volkswagen and Porsche , and the low valuation of Volkswagen stock, which has been in freefall for the past two years with no respite from the listing of Porsche last September.

Chief Executive Oliver Blume acknowledged the fast pace of China's electrification, and outlined Volkswagen's strategy to hold on to its position as market leader - tailoring products to Chinese tastes and building local partnerships.

He did not mention the company's Xinjiang plant in China, a joint venture with SAIC Motor, which has become a sore point for human rights activists as well as some shareholders, including top-20 investors Deka Investment and Union Investment.

Both urged the carmaker to require of SAIC that it conducts an external independent audit of the plant in Xinjiang, where rights groups have documented human rights abuses, including mass internment camps which China denies.

"Volkswagen must be certain that its supply chains are clean," said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka.

About ten activists, including one topless woman with 'Dirty Money' painted on her back, interrupted executives' speeches, shouting that the carmaker's vehicles were built with forced labour and waving banners that read: 'End Uyghur Forced Labour'.

One threw a cake at Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche SE, but missed, with crumbs flying in the direction of Volkswagen supervisory board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch who was speaking at the podium.

All activists were rapidly escorted out by security staff.

"A constructive dialogue is important. And a general meeting offers a good opportunity for this. With the exception of a few people, everyone follows the designated guidelines," a Volkswagen spokesperson said.

Haiyuer Kuerban, a Uyghur activist and representative of non-government organisation World Uyghur Congress, is due to speak in the name of the Dachverband Kritische Aktionaere (Umbrella Organisation for Critical Shareholders).

Volkswagen's China chief visited the plant in Xinjiang earlier this year and said he saw no evidence of forced labour.

Yet, rights groups have said heavy pressure from the state makes it difficult to trust that employees can speak openly, and pointed to reports in Chinese media that the carmaker's suppliers across China source from the Xinjiang region.

Activists from the 'Last Generation' climate group also glued themselves to roads leading to the location of the shareholder meeting in Berlin and protested outside the entrance.

Shareholders flagged rising competition from Chinese EV competitors in China, with BYD outselling Volkswagen as the top passenger car brand earlier this year.

Chinese EV makers, as well as Tesla, threaten not only to weigh on Volkswagen's market share in China but also in Europe, the shareholders warned, asking for clarity on how Volkswagen will defend its position. (Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Jan Schwartz; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Topless protester briefly disrupts VW annual meeting

Volkswagen’s annual shareholder meeting has been briefly disrupted by protests over the company’s factory in China’s Xinjiang province

AP


Climate activists are taken out of the venue of the annual shareholders' meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Climate activists hold a protest banner outside the annual shareholders' meeting of the Volkswagen AG in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. Slogan reads: 'Shareholders' for more Climate Crises, Labour Camps, Emissions Scandals'.
Britta Pedersen - foreign subscriber, DPA

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen's annual shareholder meeting was briefly disrupted Wednesday by protests over the company's factory in China's Xinjiang province, with a shouting, topless activist interrupting the speech by CEO Oliver Blume before she was hustled away by security personnel.

Additionally a cake-like object was thrown during a speech by board chairman Hans-Dieter Poetsch, apparently in the direction of board member Wolfgang Porsche, who represents his family's shareholding in the company, the dpa agency reported.

Photos showed a white, gooey substance resembling pastry stuck to the front of the podium behind which Porsche was sitting.

Volkswagen has said that it has found no evidence of human rights violations at its plant in China's western Xinjiang region. The Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur population in the region, including forced labor in detention camps. The U.S. State Department has described China's actions in the region as genocide.

Police also stopped an attempt by climate protesters to glue themselves to the ground on the square outside the meeting.

The shareholder meeting in Berlin resumed after a brief intermission.

Volkswagen Defends China Record At Turbulent Shareholder Meeting

BY REUTERS
MAY 10, 2023

Volkswagen AG Annual Shareholders Meeting

BERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen defended its record in China and its decision to jointly own a plant in the Xinjiang region after activists and investors lashed out at the carmaker at a volatile annual general shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

About ten activists, including one topless woman with ‘Dirty Money’ painted on her back, interrupted executives’ speeches, shouting that the carmaker’s vehicles were built with forced labour and waving banners that read: ‘End Uyghur Forced Labour’.

The United Nations said last year that China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. Rights groups have documented abuses including mass forced labour in detention camps which China has denied.

Investors called on Volkswagen to request its joint venture partner SAIC seeks an independent external audit of the Xinjiang plant. “Volkswagen must be certain that its supply chains are clean,” said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka, a top-20 Volkswagen shareholder.

China chief Ralf Brandstaetter said: “We do not see any evidence of human rights abuses at the plant,” adding that the carmaker was not able to implement an audit without agreement from SAIC.

Brandstaetter visited the plant earlier this year and said on Wednesday: “I have no reason to doubt my impressions or the information available to me.”

Still, activists including Haiyuer Kuerban of the World Uyhur Congress highlighted the reports of mass internment camps and links between Volkswagen suppliers and companies with a presence there, as well as the difficulty for locals to speak openly given the state’s restrictions on free speech.

Investors also raised fears that Volkswagen was falling behind in China’s increasingly competitive electric vehicle market, with BYD outselling Volkswagen as the top passenger car brand earlier this year.

Chief Executive Oliver Blume acknowledged the fast pace of China’s electrification, and outlined Volkswagen’s strategy to hold on to its position as market leader – tailoring products to Chinese tastes and building local partnerships.

CEO DEFENDS DUAL ROLE

Some investors reiterated their longstanding criticism of Oliver Blume’s dual role as head of both Volkswagen and Porsche, and the low valuation of Volkswagen stock, which has been in freefall for the past two years with no respite since the listing of Porsche last September.

Blume said he saw “high added value” in running both companies. The chief executive also said the carmaker had a clear plan to increase its capital market valuation which will be presented at a capital markets day in June.

Meanwhile, activists from the ‘Last Generation’ climate group glued themselves to roads leading to the location of the shareholder meeting in Berlin on Wednesday and protested outside the entrance.

One activist, whose affiliation was unclear, threw a cake at Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche SE, sending bits flying in the direction of Volkswagen supervisory board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch as he was speaking at the podium.

All of the activists were rapidly escorted out of the meeting by security staff.

“A constructive dialogue is important. And a general meeting offers a good opportunity for this. With the exception of a few people, everyone follows the designated guidelines,” a Volkswagen spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Jan Schwartz; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Elaine Hardcastle)

Germany proposes rules to ease legal changes of gender

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER

AP

today

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is illuminated in rainbow colors, Sunday, June 26, 2022. The German government on Tuesday presented a proposal for a law that will make it easier for transgender people to legally change their name and gender, ending decades-old rules that require them to get expert assessments and a court’s authorization.

(Annette Riedl/dpa via AP, File)

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Tuesday presented a proposal for a law that will make it easier for people to legally change their name and gender, ending decades-old rules that require them to get expert assessments and a court’s authorization.

Under the planned “self-determination law,” adults would be able to change their first name and legal gender at registry offices without further formalities.

“We have taken another big step forward with the self-determination act and with it also in the protection against discrimination and the rights of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people,” Germany’s minister for families, Lisa Paus, said.

“This way we can give back some of the dignity to those who have been deprived of it for decades,” she added.

The existing “transsexual law,” which took effect in 1981, currently requires individuals to obtain assessments from two experts — such as physicians — whose training and experience make them “sufficiently familiar with the particular problems of transsexualism” and then a court decision to change the gender on official documents.

Over the years, Germany’s top court has struck down other provisions that required transgender people to get divorced and sterilized, and to undergo gender-transition surgery.

“Transgender people have been affected by discrimination and undignified treatment for far too long — we will finally put this condition behind us,” said Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, who presented the proposal together with the family minister.

The new government proposal declares that for children under the age of 14, legal guardians have to submit the declaration of change, while teenagers aged 14 and older should be able to submit the declaration of change themselves — but it should include the support of their custodians.

Germany’s government isn’t the only one trying to make gender changes easier in Europe.

Spain passed a law earlier this year that allows people over 16 years of age to change their legally registered gender without any medical supervision.

Minors between 12-13 years old need a judge’s authorization to change, while those between 14 and 16 must be accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.

On Tuesday, Spain’s Constitutional Court said it will consider a legal challenge lodged by the far-right Vox party against the new law.

In Scotland, First Minister Humza Yousaf said last month he will challenge the British government over its decision to block a law that makes it easier for people to change their gender on official documents.

The passage of Scotland’s bill in December was hailed by transgender rights activists but vetoed by the British government, which argued it could undermine U.K.-wide equality legislation that guarantees women and girls access to single-sex spaces such as changing rooms and shelters.

The bill would allow people aged 16 or older in Scotland to change the gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. It would also speed up legal recognition of the change from two years to three months for adults and to six months for people aged 16 and 17.

Trans minors protected from parents under Washington law

By ED KOMENDA

yesterday

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs bills at the Washington State Capitol, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in Olympia, Wash. One of those bills was Senate Bill 5599, which was designed to protect young people seeking reproductive health services or gender-affirming care.

 (AP Photo/Ed Komenda)

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Minors seeking gender-affirming care in Washington will be protected from the intervention of estranged parents under a measure Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law Tuesday.

The new law is part of a wave of legislation this year in Democratic-led states intended to give refuge amid a conservative movement in which lawmakers in other states have attacked transgender rights and limited or banned gender-affirming care for minors.

Licensed shelters and host homes in Washington had generally been required to notify parents within 72 hours when a minor came into their care. Under the new law, facilities can instead contact the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, which could then attempt to reunify the family if feasible. Youths will also be allowed to stay at host homes — private, volunteer homes that temporarily house young people without parental permission.

“With this bill, Washington leads the way by taking a more compassionate, developmentally appropriate, and reasoned approach to support these youth as they access gender-affirming treatment and reproductive health care services,” Inslee said shortly before signing the measure.

More than a half-dozen states, from New Jersey to Vermont to Colorado, have passed or are considering similar bills or executive orders around transgender health care, civil rights and other legal protections. In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in March signed a bill outlawing discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation for the first time in her state.

Oregon lawmakers are expected to pass a bill that would further expand insurance coverage for gender-affirming care to include things like facial hair removal and Adam’s apple reduction surgery, procedures currently considered cosmetic by insurers but seen as critical to the mental health of transitioning women.

Shield protections have been enacted this year in Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and New Mexico. California, Massachusetts and Connecticut passed their own measures last year, largely barring authorities from complying with subpoenas, arrest warrants or extradition requests from states that have banned gender-affirming treatments.

Protections in blue states are being baked into law as Republican-led states take steps to bar access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors, which for people under 18 typically involves puberty blockers or other hormone treatments. Restrictions have gone into effect in eight states this year — including conservative Utah and South Dakota — and are slated to in at least nine more by next year.

Those who oppose gender-affirming care raise fears about the long-term effects treatments have on teens, argue research is limited and focus particularly on irreversible procedures such as genital surgery or mastectomies.

Yet those operations are rarely performed on minors. Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy or voice coaching long before medical intervention. Puberty blockers, anti-androgens that block the effects of testosterone, and hormone treatments are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations, including the American Medical Association.

In Washington, local Republican lawmakers have spent weeks railing against the legislation signed into law Tuesday. Senate GOP leader John Braun said in March that it would drive “a wedge between vulnerable kids and their parents.” Online, some users have twisted the content of the measure to suggest it will see the state ripping children from their homes.

But those claims misrepresented the legislation, which is intended to keep estranged young people housed, according to experts and the lawmaker sponsoring the bill. The bill does not address custody and would not result in the state taking children away from their homes and parents.

The Washington legislation requires the state Department of Children, Youth and Families to make a “good faith attempt” to notify parents after they are contacted by shelters or host homes and offer services designed to “resolve the conflict and accomplish a reunification of the family,” according to the bill text. Family reunification efforts would be pursued when possible, according to Washington state Sen. Marko Liias, a Democrat who was the bill’s primary sponsor.

“The law is going to have a positive impact for youth around the state who need housing and stability at a really difficult moment,” Liias said.

Spanish Civil Guard raid illegal wells amid drought

By JENNIFER O'MAHONY

AP

yesterday

 A pond is filled with water from the Arteson river and used by local olive farmers in the southern town of Quesada, Andalusia, a rural community in the heartland of Spain's olive country, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022. Spain's Civil Guard said Friday, May 5, 2023, it had arrested 26 people in raids on illegal wells in the Andalusia region, as part of a widening crackdown on unauthorized water use amid a prolonged drought. Spain's central government is urging increasingly strict rules on water use in Andalusia, the world's most important region for olive oil production and a key source of fruits and vegetables for the European export market. 

(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Civil Guard said Tuesday it had arrested 26 people in raids on illegal wells in the Andalusia region, as part of a widening crackdown on unauthorized water use amid a prolonged drought.

The Civil Guard’s environmental crimes division said it had identified 250 infractions by fruit farmers including illegal wells and boreholes in the Axarquia area, east of the coastal city of Malaga. It estimated the damage to public water infrastructure at 10 million euros ($10.95 million).

Spain’s central government is urging increasingly strict rules on water use in Andalusia, the world’s most important region for olive oil production and a key source of fruits and vegetables for the European export market.

Record-breaking April temperatures in Andalusia have coupled with a chronic lack of rainfall. Water reservoirs in the Guadalquivir river basin, which runs through the territory, are only about a quarter full, at 27.95%, even before summer has begun. Farmers in the region have had their water allowance for irrigation cut by up to 90% in some cases.

The situation in the vast agricultural heartland and in northeastern Catalonia means that Spain’s total water reserves nationally have dipped to 48.9%.

April was also Spain’s driest ever. Currently, 27% of Spanish territory is in either the drought “emergency” or “alert” category. Farmers across the Western Mediterranean have warned that crop failures are likely.

Water resources in Spain have meanwhile become increasingly politicized ahead of May 28 local elections. The left-wing central government has criticized Andalusia’s right-wing regional administration for attempting to declare an amnesty for illegal wells around the region’s Doñana wetlands, in contravention of European Union law.

Meanwhile, the far-right in Spain has used social media to perpetrate disinformation about a government official falsely ordering reservoirs to be emptied.

Half of US West out of drought, but not fully recovered

By BRITTANY PETERSON

AP

yesterday

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 A bathtub ring shows where the water mark on Lake Mead once was along the boarder of Nevada and Arizona, March 6, 2023, near Boulder City, Nev. Nearly half of the U.S. West has emerged from drought, but intense water challenges persist, scientists said Tuesday, May 9. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

DENVER (AP) — Nearly half of the U.S. West has emerged from drought this spring, but the welcome wet conditions haven’t entirely replenished the region, scientists said Tuesday.

Hydrologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said deep snowpack across much of the West will bring short-term relief, but the equally deep “bathtub rings” at Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs are a reminder of the long road to bringing supply and demand in balance.

This winter brought bountiful and persistent snow from the Sierra Nevada to the Rocky Mountains, stranding residents in their homes while setting accumulation records and pulling a large swath of the region out of drought. The quantity of precipitation is impressive, but the fact that snow stuck around this late in the season is perhaps more rare, said Joseph Casola, NOAA’s western regional climate services director.


“With climate warming, the odds for such a long-lived anomaly of cold over a large area like the West — the odds for that just go down and down,” Casola said.

A continued slow melt helps reduce danger of flooding and delays the onset of the worst wildfire danger in the region. Meanwhile, all that rain and snow means California can provide 100% of the water requested by cities and farms for the first time in years, and is flooding farmland with surplus runoff to replenish precious groundwater.

The big question is how much relief this winter’s snow will bring to the Colorado River, which has been depleted by climate change, rising demand and overuse.

A May 1 forecast by the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said up to 11 million acre-feet of water, or 172% of average, could flow into Lake Powell, a massive reservoir that stores Colorado River water for Arizona, Nevada, California, Mexico and dozens of tribes. That amount could be less depending on how much water the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spreads among upstream reservoirs.

According to the Bureau’s 24-month operating plan, Lake Powell could rise to around 3,590 feet by mid-summer, up 60 feet from its current state. That’s a level that hasn’t been seen since 2020.

The robust winter takes some pressure off the system and gives states a bit more room to reach an agreement on how to implement water cuts, said Jennifer Pitt of the National Audubon Society, who is working to restore rivers throughout the basin.

As Lake Powell and Lake Mead hit record low levels last summer, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation told states they would need to cut their water use by 15% to 30%. Those cuts are still being negotiated, while federal officials consider holding back more water at the major dams.

“If everybody plays a part in solving the problem and we don’t place the problem entirely on any one user or one sector or one geography, then by spreading the pain, maybe it hurts a little less all the way around,” Pitt said. ___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Court: EPA must regulate perchlorate, contaminant in water

A maximum contaminant level has not been set, while a guidance value of 6 ppb has been suggested by Health Canada. 

AP

yesterday

A sign is posted outside a water well indicates perchlorate contamination at a site in Rialto, Calif. 

 (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate perchlorate, reversing a Trump-era rollback on a drinking water contaminant linked to brain damage in infants.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled unanimously in an appeal brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council last year after the EPA, under the Biden administration, stood by the rollback. Two judges wrote that the EPA had no authority to withdraw from a 2011 determination that perchlorate should be regulated.

Circuit Judge Florence Pan, in a concurring opinion, went further. She called the EPA’s decision not to regulate perchlorate “arbitrary” and “capricious” and rejected the agency’s assertion that perchlorate was occurring at lower levels than previously thought. That assertion relied on a ”biased dataset that was selectively updated,” wrote Pan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden last year

The EPA announced in 2020 it wouldn’t regulate perchlorate. The agency said the decision was based on the “best available peer-reviewed science.” It was one of several rollbacks or eliminations of public health or environmental protections under the Trump administration — many later overturned by courts or undone following reviews by the Biden administration.

The perchlorate decision was among those that Biden ordered reviewed at the start of his term. But the EPA stood by it last year, with Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox saying the agency was “applying the right tools to support public health protections.”

That prompted the NRDC’s appeal. Erik D. Olson, NRDC’s senior strategic director for health, called Tuesday’s ruling “about time.”

“The court ruled that EPA must regulate perchlorate-contaminated drinking water because the agency had found that it poses a health risk to millions of Americans,” Olson said. “After more than a decade of delay and litigation, EPA now must issue a drinking water standard for this widespread and dangerous contaminant.

An EPA spokesman said the agency was reviewing the decision. The American Chemistry Council, an intervenor on behalf of the EPA, declined immediate comment. Western Growers, another intervenor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Perchlorate has been used in the U.S. for decades, particularly by the military and defense industries. It’s commonly found in munitions, fireworks, matches and signal flares. Perchlorate from runoff contaminates the drinking water of as many as 16 million Americans, the Obama administration said in 2011 when it announced EPA would for the first time set maximum limits.

Exposure to the compound can damage the development of fetuses and children and cause measurable drops in IQ in newborns, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in 2019, when it called for stringent federal limits. Perchlorate damages human development by disrupting thyroid gland functioning.

In its 2020 review, the EPA said state-level regulations and cleanup activities at contaminated sites had lowered the health risks posed by the compound. But the NRDC argued that not all states had set safe limits, and perchlorate was one of the most problematic chemicals in drinking water.

___

Associated Press writer Suman Naishadham contributed.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

$3.4M fine proposed over 2021 California oil pipeline leak

AP
today

 Workers in protective suits clean the contaminated beach in Corona Del Mar after an oil spill in Newport Beach, Calif., Oct. 7, 2021. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is proposing a nearly $3.4 million fine for Amplify Energy Corp over the oil pipeline spill that fouled Southern California beaches.

(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An energy company should be fined nearly $3.4 million for safety violations involving a 2021 oil pipeline spill that fouled Southern California beaches, a federal regulator said.

Amplify Energy Corp. ignored 83 alarms indicating the offshore pipeline had leaked and failed to notify federal authorities or shut down the pipeline to San Pedro Bay until 17 hours after the first alarms, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in a letter proposing the fine that was sent April 6 to the company’s president.

An email to the Houston-based firm seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned Tuesday.

The pipeline carries oil to shore from platforms in San Pedro Bay, near the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.

The October 2021 spill of 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and sent blobs of crude ashore, primarily affecting the cities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. It further shuttered beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened area wetlands.

Amplify Energy said the spill was linked to damage from two ships it accused of dragging anchors and striking the pipeline during a January 2021 storm. It reached an $85 million settlement with the vessel companies.

Southern California fishermen, tourism companies and property owners sued Amplify and the shipping vessels seeking compensation for their losses. Amplify agreed to pay $50 million and the vessel companies agreed to pay $45 million to settle those lawsuits.

Amplify also reached a plea deal with federal authorities for negligently discharging crude.

The company announced last month that it received approval from federal regulatory agencies to restart the pipeline.

 

This still image from video taken Oct. 4, 2021, and provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows an underwater pipeline that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of oil off the coast of Orange County, Calif.

 The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is proposing a nearly $3.4 million fine for Amplify Energy Corp over the oil pipeline spill that fouled Southern California beaches. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)

WAY BACK IN TIME MACHINE

James Webb Telescope unveils complex rings around young star

By Patrick Hilsman

Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have discovered multiple debris rings within a previously discovered ring around the young star Fomalhaut. Photo Courtesy of NASA

May 9 (UPI) -- Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed multiple debris rings surrounding a young star.

The James Webb Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, which is designed to capture very long wavelengths of light, found three nested belts surrounding the Fomalhaut star, out to a distance of up to 14 billion miles, NASA said Monday.

Observations by NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite first discovered Fomalhuat's dust ring, the first asteroid belt seen outside of our solar system in 1983 with Webb, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array capturing more detailed images of the outside of the belt.

The latest infrared imagery revealed its inner belts for the first time.

"I would describe Fomalhaut as the archetype of debris disks found elsewhere in our galaxy because it has components similar to those we have in our own planetary system" said study lead author Andras Gaspar of the University of Arizona. "By looking at the patterns in these rings, we can actually start to make a little sketch of what a planetary system ought to look like -- If we could actually take a deep enough picture to see the suspected plants."

Researchers believe the belts are partially shaped by the gravitational pull of planets that cannot yet be observed. The James Webb Space Telescope was able to observe the inner belts around the star by observing infrared light.

"I think it's not a very big leap to say there's probably a really interesting planetary system around the star," said team member Schuyler Wolff.