First non-binary actors win Tony Awards 

BY LAUREN SFORZA - 06/12/23 
THE HILL

Associated Press images

Broadway performs Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first openly nonbinary actors to win Tony Awards on Sunday evening.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts,” Newell said in their acceptance speech for best featured actor in a musical. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

Newell won for their performance as Lulu in the musical “Shucked,” a comedy that hit the stage in March.

Ghee later won the award for best leading actor in “Some Like it Hot,” a musical that is based on the famous 1959 film. ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ author Elizabeth Gilbert pulling latest book over ‘enormous’ pushback to Russian settingTonys presenter mocks DeSantis: ‘The current grand wizard’ of Florida

Composer Toby Marlow of “Six” became the first nonbinary person to receive a Tony Award last year.

Like other award shows, the Tonys uses gendered categories for best actor and best actress awards, so nominees who identity as nonbinary must choose which category that they want to be nominated in. “& Juliet” performer Justin David Sullivan withdrew their consideration for an award due to this requirement, saying in a statement to Deadline that the award structure does “not hold space for people like me.”

“Because I was told I had no other option but to choose between one of the two gendered categories in which I would be eligible,” Sullivan said in a statement. “I felt that I had no choice but to abstain from being considered for a nomination this season.”

Tonys presenter mocks DeSantis: ‘The current grand wizard’ of Florida

BY JUDY KURTZ - 06/12/23 

THE HILL

A Broadway actor is slamming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), calling him the “current grand wizard” of the Sunshine State, while appearing at the Tony Awards.

Denée Benton took to the stage Sunday at the 76th annual awards ceremony, which honors productions in New York City’s famed theater district.

“Earlier tonight, [Carnegie Mellon University] and the Tony Awards presented the 2023 Excellence in Theater Education Award,” Benton, the star of Broadway’s “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” told the crowd at the ceremony, broadcasted by CBS.

“And while I am certain that the current grand wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor — of my home state of Florida will be changing …” Benton said, before pausing with a laugh as the audience burst into applause at the Ku Klux Klan-inspired slur aimed at DeSantis, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

“I’m sure that he’ll be changing the name of this following town immediately,” Benton continued with a grin as she recognized the education award’s winner, a teacher in Plantation, Fla.

A spokesman from the governor’s office didn’t immediately return ITK’s request for comment about Benton’s remark.

Although the Tony-nominated performer didn’t cite the motivation behind the slight, the NAACP has issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida over policies seen as anti-Black.

“Anybody that has been following what’s been happening in Florida understands that it’s essentially become a hostile territory for Black people in the state,” Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter, said last month.

DeSantis faced criticism earlier this year after his administration rejected an Advanced Placement African American studies course from being taught in Florida schools. DeSantis’s administration said the course’s content was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law” and “significantly [lacked] educational value.”

“We want education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said in January about the move.

It’s not the first time an entertainer has made headlines with a political attack from the Tonys stage.

In 2018, Robert De Niro received a standing ovation after repeatedly declaring “f— Trump,” in a criticism of the then-president.

Broadway actress Denée Benton takes aim at DeSantis, calls him 'Grand Wizard' of Florida

ByPrapti Upadhayay
Jun 12, 2023 

Broadway actress Denée Benton sparks controversy at Tony Awards, compares Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a KKK leader in onstage speech.

Sunday night's Tony Awards took an unexpected turn when Denée Benton, a prominent Broadway actress, compared Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to a Ku Klux Klan leader during her onstage presentation. As she presented the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, Benton, a Florida native, made the controversial remark that sparked outrage and applause from the left-leaning crowd.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an event held by the Never Back Down PAC in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, June 10, 2023.

 (Nathan J. Fish/The Oklahoman via AP)(AP)

Benton, known for her roles in hit Broadway shows like "Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812" and "Hamilton," used the moment to deliver a political attack on DeSantis, drawing attention to his controversial policies and actions. Her comments were made without the assistance of a script, as the Tony Awards proceeded amid an ongoing writers' strike.

While introducing the award winner, Benton took a jab at the Republican governor, saying, "And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor — of my home state of Florida… I'm sure that he will be changing the name of the following town immediately." The mention of Plantation, Florida, prompted cheers and applause from the audience.

DeSantis, who recently announced his presidential bid, has not yet responded to Benton's remarks on his social media channels. His tenure as governor has been marked by controversy and opposition, particularly from civil rights advocates. In 2019, he signed the highly criticized "Don't Say Gay" bill, and he retaliated against Walt Disney Co. when the company expressed criticism by eliminating a special tax district around Walt Disney World.

The NAACP previously issued a travel advisory for Florida, citing concerns about DeSantis's policies and their impact on marginalized communities. The advisory claimed that the state is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. It accused Florida of devaluing their contributions and challenges.
Also Read | Florida Governor DeSantis declares war on 'woke' culture - Says, 'woke goes to die' in my state

This is not the first time the Tony Awards have become a platform for personal political attacks. In 2018, Robert De Niro famously yelled "F--- Trump!" during his onstage appearance, receiving thunderous applause.

DeSantis has consistently waded into the culture wars, particularly regarding education and parental rights. He recently signed SB 266, which restricts state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public universities and grants more authority to university presidents over hiring practices. The bill aligns with his fight against what he perceives as "woke" influences in education.

With his presidential campaign underway, DeSantis has pledged to continue his battle against the so-called "war on woke." As for Benton, her Tony Awards remarks have undoubtedly added fuel to the fiery political discourse surrounding DeSantis and his policies, further highlighting the deep divisions within the country.

ALIENATION

AI researchers face higher risk of loneliness, insomnia and drinking: research

Chatbots are getting better at talking — but that hasn’t saved the workers developing them from an epidemic of loneliness.

BY SAUL ELBEIN - 06/12/23 

THE HILL

According to research published Monday by the American Psychological Association, artificial intelligence researchers are risking their mental and emotional health and are more likely to suffer from insomnia and to drink more after work.

“Humans are social animals, and isolating work with AI systems may have damaging spillover effects into employees’ personal lives,” lead author Pok Man Tang said in a statement.

The study — which surveyed workers across industries and in four countries — examines the impacts on workers of an ongoing “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” spawned by AI.

The study’s relatively small sample size— based on surveys of about 800 office workers around the world — makes its findings suggestive rather than conclusive.

But it suggests early warning signs in the industries that use AI — as well as tactics that managers can use to mitigate them.

The researchers wrote that AI-dependent workers have increasingly found themselves in a very different social environment from which humans are adapted.

“Across millennia, people evolved internal systems to gauge the quality of relationships with others. These systems have remained effective in a workplace that, just as in primitive tribal communities, prioritized social interactions with coworkers,” the authors wrote in the paper.

But now, they argue, “the advent of digital, asocial AI systems” is forcing people into ersatz social relationships with robot helpers.

That is causing “a shift toward more of an ‘asocial system,’ wherein people may feel socially disconnected at work,” the authors added.

Such changes are already impacting tech workers in the U.S. and Malaysia, biomedical researchers from Taiwan and real estate consultants in Indonesia.


In the study, workers surveyed by Tang’s team were assigned to keep working with AI-related technologies or take a three-week break from using them — while they and their families reported the impacts.

The more frequently employees interacted with AI, the more likely they were to respond in both “adaptive” and “maladaptive” ways, Tang explained to The Hill.

Working with AI triggered “a stronger need to socially connect with other human coworkers,” researchers found. Workers who used AI were also more likely to go out of their way to offer help to other workers — likely because they were lonely and needed social contact, the researchers hypothesized.

But the uptick in loneliness that led AI workers to be more helpful came alongside a rise in other problematic behavior.

“The same experience that led to greater levels of helping also led to greater levels of alcohol consumption and insomnia after work (which might jeopardize employees’ mental well-being and result in a negative spiral),” the scientists wrote.

One solution is for managers “to try and combat the potential for employees to be lonely,” they wrote.

For instance, managers should be wary about having too much “density” of AI systems in the office — too high of a ratio of AI harms the ability of employees to “maintain desirable levels of social interactions with others as well.”

The populist path for Democrats has to be that of Bernie Sanders, not RFK Jr.

BY JUAN WILLIAMS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/12/23 
THE HILL


AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Call me crazy, but have you noticed there is one politician who reliably stirs up Democrats?

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said no to a third run for president in April. But he keeps igniting flames of love among the Democrats’ activist base.

Sanders is older than Biden, but he still excites liberals when he says out loud that bullying and threats from House Republicans forced a debt ceiling deal upon President Biden.

Ever passionate, Sanders stood up to vote against the debt ceiling deal. He argued that Biden should not have negotiated under pressure from extremists among the House Republicans.

Sanders also speaks as a fearless populist in condemning former President Trump.

He describes Trump and other Republicans running for president as demagogues seeking “to undermine American democracy,” by taking away a woman’s right to have an abortion while ignoring “gun violence, or racism, sexism, or homophobia.”

Sanders’s priority is preventing Trump’s brand of angry, racially divisive rightwing politics from returning to the White House.

“So, I’m in to do what I can to see [Biden] is reelected,” he told the Associated Press.

His decision to stand by Biden is now the model for the nation’s strongest liberal voices in Congress, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who served as co-chair of Sanders’s presidential campaign in 2020.

But even as he passes on the presidential race, Sanders remains the highest-profile flamethrower pulling Biden to the left.

In March, polls showed him running second for the Democratic presidential nomination, behind President Biden. He led every other Democrat, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

Sanders is especially popular among young Democrats. That is a sharp contrast with President Biden. A recent NPR/ Marist poll showed voters between the ages of 18 and 29 giving Biden an anemic 44 percent approval rating.

But those young voters are part of the 93 percent of Democrats who agree with Sanders on backing Biden in case Republicans nominate Trump, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC polling.

Sanders’s decision to stand by Biden has opened the door to fringe candidates getting into the Democratic presidential primary to challenge Biden.

A recent CNN poll found that while 60 percent of Democrats support Biden for the nomination, close to 30 percent are open to an insurgent candidate. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an opponent of vaccinations, gets support from 20 percent of Democrats, and Marianne Williamson, a wellness author, gets 8 percent of the party’s support.

Kennedy is getting a boost from his well-known last name and from frequent appearances on conservative media delighted to start a fight to damage Biden among Democrats.

Kennedy’s message has elements of Sanders’s furious critique of corporate greed. But unlike Sanders, Kennedy also feeds far-right delight with conspiracy theories.

“Democrats would be foolish to mock or belittle RFK Jr.,” Michael Ceraso, a former Sanders aide, told The Hill last week. “Every time we make fun of those who hold fringe positions, we lose. The Democratic Party acting smug never works…Take RFK seriously. As Bernie did in 2016, RFK has the potential to activate fringe anger if we mock them.”

The greatest impact of Kennedy’s candidacy will not by on the 2024 race, but on the direction of the Democratic Party beyond the Biden presidency.

As Matt Lewis wrote in the Daily Beast, “The sort of conspiratorial populism that Kennedy embraces is on the rise in America. That’s where the energy is… Trump has already taken over the GOP. What happens if the Democratic Party also falls to the siren call of the populist zeitgeist?”

Sanders is at the other end of populism from Trump and his imitators in the Republican party.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), currently running second to Trump in polls, is campaigning as a Trump-like figure, looking for a fight with liberals, academics, the media and corporations.

“The easiest way to prove one’s tribal loyalty in 2020s America is by theatrically hating the other tribe,” the editor in chief of Christianity Today, Russell Moore, told The New York Times last week in describing DeSantis’s approach to the GOP primary race.

The future of American politics for both Republicans and Democrats now looks to be heading toward an embrace of populist messages. But Sanders got there first. As an independent who calls himself a “Democratic Socialist,” he stands apart from today’s two-party structure. He is still making waves in the Senate by lashing out at corporate bosses in hearings.Trump is right that America is in mortal danger. He’s dead wrong about the cause.Why Florida’s anti-trans bathroom bill is so dangerous

And his brand of populism includes punching back at deranged and dangerous conspiracy theories.

For that reason, Sanders is to be celebrated as the other old guy keeping Democrats on the road to 2024 victory.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Reddit says protesting communities crashed the site

Major subreddits are protesting against Reddit's plan to charge third-party apps.

Although the website resumed functioning almost two hours after early reports of an outage, a coalition of Reddit moderators and users continue to engage in a standoff with the company on Monday and Tuesday. Greg Doherty / Variety via Getty Images file

June 12, 2023, 
By Khadijah Khogeer

The popular online forum Reddit experienced outages hours after thousands of Reddit communities launched a protest against its policy to charge third-party apps for data access.

“A significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues, and we’ve been working on resolving the anticipated issue,” Reddit said in a statement to NBC News.

During an outage Monday morning, the website’s front page showed empty Reddit posts with the message: “Something went wrong. Just don’t panic.” Users were unable to load posts on it until the platform resumed working again.

The #RedditBlackout hashtag started trending on Twitter after the blackout began, with more than 4,238 tweets associated with the term as of Monday. Reddit was trending with more than 112,000 searches on the social media platform. Twitter users as early as 9 a.m. noticed that Reddit was experiencing technical issues. One user’s tweet about the Reddit outage received more than 80,000 views within an hour. “Nice to see even Reddit itself getting in on the Reddit Blackout today,” the user wrote.

Although the website resumed functioning almost two hours after the early reports of an outage, a coalition of Reddit moderators and users continue to engage in a standoff with the company Monday and Tuesday.

More than 7,808 unique subreddits planned to participate in the blackout starting Monday, with the largest being r/funny, a community with more than 40 million users, according to an index by r/ModCoor. Around 7,260 subreddits are private as of Monday afternoon, according to a real-time stream of the protest on Twitch.

Reddit communities are going dark in response to the company’s intent to charge third-party developers to access its application programming interface (API). Reddit announced it would update its API terms in April.

The third-party app Apollo said it intends to shut June 30, after its creator, Christian Selig, said in a Reddit post that new terms would cost him “over $20 million per year.” He said Reddit would charge developers $12,000 for 50 million API requests.

Reddit’s API pricing changes follow a similar move by Twitter in March to start charging developers for access to its API. The social media platform said it would scrap free access to Twitter API in February.

Parts of Reddit ‘going dark’ in protest of developer fees

BY REBECCA KLAR - 

THE HILL  06/12/23 

Communities on the online message board Reddit are “going dark” to protest new fees the site is charging third-party developers.

Some sections of the site are being set to private for 48 hours as part of the protest, which started Monday, meaning some of the largest communities on Reddit won’t be publicly viewable during the protest.

The protest came after third-party developers that use Reddit said they would be shutting down over new fees to Reddit’s API, or application programming interface. For example, the creator of the Reddit app Apollo, which aims to help users navigate the platform faster, said it will shut down at the end of June because Reddit’s changes have “unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue.”

Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said the platform is in contact with a “number of communities to clarify any confusion around our Data API Terms.”

“Expansive access to data has impact and costs involved; we spend multi-millions of dollars on hosting fees and Reddit needs to be fairly paid to continue supporting high-usage third-party apps. Our pricing is based on usage levels that we measure to be comparable to our own costs,” Rathschmidt wrote in an email summarizing what was shared with the community of developers.

He added that the “vast majority of API users” won’t have to pay for access, and not all third-party app usage requires paid access.

In response to the protest, Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman hosted an “AMA,” or “ask me anything,” session on the site recently and told users, “We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private. We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging.”

The protest also limited access to the entirety of Reddit.

According to DownDetector, Reddit outages peaked around 10:30 a.m. and the platform appeared to be running again within an hour.

Rathschmidt said in response to the outages that “a significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues, and we’ve been working on resolving the anticipated issue.”

Boris Johnson resignation makes Labour election win more likely | UK politics | New Statesman

A decade after Rana Plaza’s collapse, factories are safer but women garment workers face new threats

This Q&A was republished from a Fuller Project newsletter 

(Photo by Mamunur Rashid/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

Rana Plaza, an industrial high-rise building on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, collapsed 10 years ago today. The building housed several garment factories manufacturing clothes for brands like Mango and Benetton. Over 1,100 workers were killed, most of them young women. It remains the deadliest industrial disaster of the 21st century.

A number of initiatives sprang up in the aftermath of the collapse intended to support garment workers. But 10 years on, Nazma Akter, one of Bangladesh’s most prominent labor organizers, says the outlook is still bleak for the women who make the world’s clothes — they might not be dying in collapsing or burning factories, but they’re malnourished and being pushed out of the industry by automation.

We spoke to Akter, a former child worker in the garment industry, about the legacy of Rana Plaza. The interview has been translated from Bangla and edited for length and clarity.

It’s been 10 years since Rana Plaza collapsed. What’s changed for garment workers since?

Nothing. Some safety improvements. I don’t see anything else.

You can’t be serious?

Look, when Rana Plaza collapsed our factories were very unsafe. In the mid-2000s there was another factory that had collapsed and killed dozens. Then there was a series of fire disasters. The most famous one is the Tazreen factory fire [in 2012, killing at least 117 people]. It was awful what we saw among the victims there, the charred flesh, it was horrifying.

Now, the legacy is that factories are safer. Workers aren’t staring death in the face like they used to. So we can say this is a gain.

And the number of unions being formed shot up as well. But their ability to advocate for workers hasn’t improved. Only a small number of garment workers are represented by unions, and many are created by garment factory owners themselves and are in their pockets.

After Rana Plaza, there was some hope that unions would give workers a voice. Instead, the number of unions is high in quantity but low in quality.

What does that mean for workers?

I’m mad because we get wages below the poverty level, our workers are going hungry, and brands are not paying anything close to what they should be paying.

Many, many of our workers are malnourished. Rice is 70 taka per kg ($0.70) — they get $75 a month. How much does 30 kg of rice cost to feed a family for a month? A chicken is $2.50, tilapia fish is $2. What will people eat? Eggs are more expensive too.

Our workers have their backs against the wall, they’re afraid to buy anything. They can’t afford to keep their kids in daycare centers, so they send them to stay with relatives in their home village — but then they have to send money back to the village. So are garment workers going to have to go without clothes in order to make ends meet?

So while there was a focus on safety after Rana Plaza, there was no real pressure to do anything about wages. Why do you think this was overlooked?

Brands come to us for cheap labor. When you think of a person as cheap labor, as a cheap person, in that space you’re not going to give them dignity, or respect.

So fair wages, fair prices, these things aren’t happening. Brands say they want this and that, but don’t give the money for it.

Our manufacturers’ hands are also tied because they have to be cheap. Our laws are work-friendly, not worker-friendly. The way global capital works is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and the brands are the ones who are most responsible.

Even for Rana Plaza victims, there’s been no compensation according to international standards for loss and damage, lost income, harm to family. All they got was a trust fund — the amount is such that even if thousands died garment factory owners wouldn’t feel anything. The workers didn’t get what was owed to them due to their rights as a worker, they just got some charity.

Despite the exploitation and safety issues, a lot has also been written about how the garment industry has also empowered women in the workplace in Bangladesh.

I started working in the garment industry when I was 12. My family was a big one. My father was a day laborer and my mother was a garment worker. The money they got wasn’t enough to run our family, so I had to start working.

When I was 14 or 15, a factory burned down and we organized a strike. I lost my job and was blacklisted, and people around me used to call me a bad woman with a bad character. People told me to speak softly since I’m a woman, my relatives would say I should stay quiet and try to earn money. But whatever people said, I tried to move forward, not backward. Now I’ve helped create many unions in factories where women are taking leadership roles.

Today, people talk about sewing machine operators getting promoted to line supervisors, things like that. But it’s nothing like what we’d like to see. There’s women in leadership, but the numbers are very low. Abuse and harassment has gone up after the pandemic, with all the mental health issues that arose during that time.

What does the future look like for women in the industry?

Because of automation, women now make up less than 60% of the workforce. That’s compared to 80%, 90% before. Now that machines do the work, the factories don’t need the low-skill labor that women used to do.

People think of automation as a man’s job. This is going to be a big challenge, to train women on this work. Women built the industry, but they’re not going to benefit from its future.

These are young women we’re talking about. And the way the industry works, it’s ok if these young women get destroyed as long as they output the work.

Maher Sattar

April 24, 2023

OTTAWA

Moms force kids to stomp on rainbow flags in horrifying protest against their LGBTQ+ classmates

"Right on, boys!" one old man cheered the kids.

By Greg Owen 

Monday, June 12, 2023

Photo: Screenshot Twitter

Protests against “gender ideology” in Canada’s capital city Friday brought far-right conservative Christians and Muslims together to attack Ottawa’s local school board for supporting LGBTQ+ students.

The unusual alliance was met by an equal or greater number of counter-protesters defending the rights of LGBTQ+ kids and denouncing “transphobic, fascist ideology.”

Nazi protestors wave swastika & Ron DeSantis flags outside Disney World

“This is the 2023 Republican Party,” wrote gun violence activist Shannon Watts.

A new directive by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board inspired the demonstration, organized by notorious far-right Canadian provocateur Chris Elston, aka Billboard Chris.


The all-staff notice advised the use of they/them pronouns for students until their preferred pronouns were expressed.

Video from the demonstration shows Muslim women and others encouraging young children to stomp and dance on progress Pride flags strewn on the ground and clapping with joy.

The clip shows an older white man holding a large Canadian flag leaning down to shake one kid’s hand in solidarity.

“Right on, boys!” he declares, beaming.



Shouts of “Leave our kids alone!” were heard up and down the street where the protest took place, home to two high schools and a primary school.

“This is going to horrify Justin Trudeau,” posted Keean Bexte, with the far-right media site The Counter Signal. “All of these proponents of childhood mastectomies and penectomies are officially on notice. The minority communities that have propped up your governments have finally had enough.”

It is very rare for transmasculine teens to get mastectomies before the age of 18 and genital surgery is not performed on trans minors.

Police announced they made five arrests at the demonstration, without providing details. Scattered acts of violence were reported.

While a heat wave, fires, and smoke have enveloped the region since the beginning of June, Bexte laid recent high absentee rates at Ottawa schools at the feet of the school board and their nonbinary naming advisory, claiming parents were pulling their kids out in “silent protest” of Pride Month.

Hundreds showed up to counter the right-wing alliance.

The counter-protest “fills my heart,” said Emily Quail, an organizer and mom of a child at one of the nearby schools.

“The only way to correctly counter fascism is by showing up like this on the street and telling them we outnumber them,” she told The Canadian Press.

“We will not let them spread their transphobic, fascist ideology anywhere, here or anywhere else, and that starts with community strength and that’s what I’m really proud to see today.”

The Ottawa area school board condemned Elston for planning the protest in front of schools.

“It really raises doubts about a group that, I think it goes without saying, but it’s a group that is literally targeting children,” said Alex Silas, a school district official.

In 2020, Elston, a Vancouver insurance agent, paid for a billboard declaring, “I ❤️ JK Rowling”, and then wore the message on a sandwich board at protests after it was denounced as “hateful expression” and taken down.

BE STLL MY BEATING HEART
House lawmakers back plans for biggest military pay raise in 22 years
By Leo Shane III
Jun 12,2023

Both House lawmakers and the White House have voiced support for a 5.2% pay raise for military members in 2024. 

(Elise Amendola/AP)

Service members would see their biggest pay raise in 22 years starting in January under budget plans unveiled by a key House committee on Monday.

The move — a 5.2% raise for 2024 — would mean boosts of more than $1,500 for most junior enlisted troops next year and thousands more for higher ranks. Combined with the 2023 pay raise that went into effect five months ago, troops could see a nearly 10% increase in basic pay over a two-year span, and even more financial gains after re-enlistment bonuses and housing stipend increases are factored in.

The plans for a 5.2% pay raise for troops next year are included in the first draft from Republican leaders of the House Armed Services Committee’s annual defense authorization bill, a massive budget policy measure that contains hundreds of spending guidelines and operational changes for the military. President Joe Biden also recommended a 5.2% raise in his budget proposal earlier this year, showing bipartisan support for the proposal.

Troops could see monthly bonuses, better housing pay under House plan

A draft version of the annual defense authorization bill calls for more financial support for younger troops.

By Leo Shane III and Karen Jowers

While the measure still has numerous legislative hurdles before it becomes law, including this proposed 5.2% pay raise in the initial drafts offers a strong signal that GOP lawmakers will back that mark as a baseline for troops pay. The mark matches federal estimates for keeping military pay on pace with the raise in civilian wages in recent years.

Over the last 20 years, lawmakers have either matched or exceeded the administration’s requests on military pay boosts. Congress has passed the legislation for the last 62 consecutive years.

For an enlisted military member ranked E-4 with three years in service, the 5.2% pay raise would mean about $1,700 more next year in take-home pay compared to their 2023 paychecks. For senior enlisted and junior officers, the hike equals about $3,000 more. For an O-4 with 12 years of service, it’s more than $5,400 in extra pay in 2024.

And junior officers could see even more money in their paychecks under the House plan. The defense authorization draft bill also calls for creation of a monthly bonus for troops rank E-6 and below to counter the effects of inflation. Specifics of how much that extra pay could be have not yet been finalized.

The measure also includes provisions to loosen rules regarding eligibility for the Basic Needs Allowance — a stipend aimed at military families earning at or just above the poverty line — and provide more generous housing stipends in regions where rent prices have risen.

RELATED

Your 2023 Military Times Pay and Benefits Guide
Service members should know how their pay and benefits have changed in 2023, whether its for health care, retirement, education, housing or something else.
By Karen Jowers, Leo Shane III and Meghann Myers

The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to unveil its draft of the annual authorization bill next week. If they also back the 5.2% pay raise mark, the issue is unlikely to be a sticking point in the months of negotiations ahead to reconcile the two chambers’ separate bill drafts.

However, actually providing the money for Defense Department officials to spend falls to the congressional appropriations committees, who have not yet released details of their plans for fiscal 2024 defense spending. The separate committees have generally agreed on the paycheck hikes in the past, and consulted on appropriate spending levels before any one committee commits publicly to a pay raise.

TURKIYE

Acquittal of HDP members overturned

The acquittal of HDP politicians who were accused of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" has been overturned following an appeal.

ANF
BURSA
Monday, 12 Jun 2023, 

The final hearing of the lawsuit against 7 people, including Peoples' Democratic Party’s (HDP) former Bursa Provincial Co-Chair Aynur Yılmaz and journalist Emrah Çaçan, was held at the Bursa 8th High Criminal Court on January 19, 2021. The seven people on trial were accused of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization".

HDP member Davut Toktaş was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison, and Resul Baykara to 1 year and 6 months, and the execution of the sentence was delayed. Five people, including Yılmaz and Çaçan, were acquitted.

While the prosecutor appealed against the acquittal, Bursa Regional Court of Justice overturned the acquittal, claiming that the defendants "carried pictures or signs of the organization (meaning the PKK), chanted slogans, wore uniforms with signs or pictures of the organization". With their acquittal overturned, the 5 defendants will appear before a judge again. The first hearing will be held on June 14.

Hundreds of tribal members, mostly Navajo, living on Phoenix streets amid fake sober home crackdown


Related video: Navajo Nation sees decline in Native Americans seeking help after Medicaid fraud scheme (ABC15 Phoenix, AZ)   Duration 1:21  View on Watch


PHOENIX (AP) — Navajo law enforcement teams made contact with several hundred Native Americans from various tribes who are living on the streets in the metro Phoenix area, after the state cracked down on Medicaid fraud and suspended unlicensed sober living homes, Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch said Monday.

Teams that included Navajo police officers reported making contact with more than 270 Native Americans, the majority of them Navajo, Branch said.

Many tribal members accepted offers to stay in motel rooms or other temporary housing for a few days before moving to legitimate facilities, while others agreed to return home to their reservations, Branch said. The teams worked with local police agencies and Community Bridges, Inc., a nonprofit that provides services for people with addictions.

“Unfortunately, many of our relatives when they came out of these facilities didn't have cell phones,” Branch said, adding that Navajo police officers allowed the people they found to use their own cell phones to call their families.

While the Navajo law enforcement teams have returned to the reservation for now, the tribe will maintain its presence in Phoenix through an operations center.

In response to Arizona's announcement last month it was cutting off Medicaid funding to more than 100 unlicensed and fraudulent sober living homes, most of them in metro Phoenix, the Navajo Nation launched its Operation Rainbow Bridge. The targeted homes are closing, leaving many people who had sought professional help to overcome their addictions with nowhere to live.

The Operation Rainbow Bridge toolbox includes a Facebook page and a TikTok account now under construction. There’s also a 211 hotline that the tribe is advertising among its members that allows those affected to find a place to stay and get the services they need.

Navajo officials say that in some cases, people who ended up in the homes were picked up in unmarked vans and driven to the Phoenix area from faraway places on the sprawling Navajo Nation that stretches across northern Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Utah. It's unclear who paid to transport the people to homes.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which oversees the state’s Medicaid programs, had been paying out money for addiction and other mental health services that state officials say the homes billed for, but never delivered, under the American Indian Health Program.

State officials believe the fake homes have defrauded Arizona out of hundreds of millions of its share of federal Medicaid dollars. Arizona authorities so far have seized $75 million and have issued 45 indictments in the investigation that also includes the FBI and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.

Arizona officials have said hundreds of fake sober living homes are believed to be currently operating in the Phoenix area and other parts of the state.

Anita Snow, The Associated Press