Opinion

Voices: Why are Russell Brand’s accusers only talking about it now? I’ll tell you why.

Jessica Taylor
Mon, 18 September 2023

“Why are they only talking about this now?” “Why didn’t they report it to the police?” “Did they bring it upon themselves?” “Are they doing it for the money?” “Is this all just a plan to take down another successful man?”

It doesn’t matter whether it’s the president of the United States, a stand-up comedian or someone’s brother-in-law – when women speak out about alleged male violence, we hear the same, predictable responses.

Even before the allegations of sexual assault and rape had been shared by The Sunday Times, thousands took to social media to criticise the women as liars, attention seekers, fame-hungry, mentally ill... even plants from the government.

Anything but telling the truth.

And don’t be fooled, this isn’t just an army of men taking to Twitter/X with their unbridled misogyny. Women were happily among them. For a perfect recent example, look at what happened online to Amber Heard.

Research shows us that men have been victim-blaming women for decades. The numbers have stayed pretty stable. What’s shocking to me is that data shows that women who victim-blame other women continues to rise, year on year. Some studies even show that women are inclined to do it more than men. What’s happened to the sisterhood?

Take a look at Twitter/X and you’ll see a range of excuses: from, “I had sex with him, and he was really nice” to “he is clearly being targeted by Rupert Murdoch” – and everything in between. Many point to the fact that there has been no official police investigation as yet.

But as a psychologist who specialises in the blaming of women, I know there are no countries, communities, societies, or religions in the world that consistently stand by victims of sexual abuse and violence. There are also no places in the world where a woman will not be accused of lying about rape or assault.

Yet sexual violence is one of the most common forms of crime – with women and girls overwhelmingly more likely to be subjected to sexual harassment, assault and rape. Who is targeting them? Men.

”Not all men!” is the most predictable response when we present the cold, hard data – which, like it or not, shows it is a lot of men. And far from being shadowy strangers, rapists are most commonly fathers, brothers, partners, exes, friends, colleagues – and perhaps even our favourite celebrities.

When we ask why so many women never report being raped to the police, we need to look at the confidence women have lost in our police forces. Can anyone blame women for not turning to a force that harboured offenders like Wayne Couzens and David Carrick? Or one which has led to rape prosecutions falling to an all-time low?

Women and girls are socialised to blame themselves for what men do to them from an early age, so when they are abused or assaulted, the first thing they do is blame themselves. And that suits society perfectly.

Women and girls are also bombarded with victim-blaming, rape myths and victim-prejudice messages their whole lives (“she was drunk”, “she was wearing a short skirt”, “she was flirting with him”); so when they’re abused or assaulted, they measure themselves against all of that. They then ask themselves: “Is anyone even going to believe me? Am I a good enough victim? Am I going to be scrutinised?”

Many women conclude that they are so likely to be blamed, accused of lying or scrutinised that they can’t bear the thought (and gruelling physical process) of reporting or pressing charges. Many women and girls simply choose to try to move on with their lives, knowing they will never get justice.

One study in 2016 found that teenage girls who withdrew from rape cases actually had better psychological outcomes than the girls who went through with them – even when the perpetrator was found guilty and sentenced to prison.

The process itself is so adversarial that one woman once said to me: “There is a reason it is called the criminal justice system, and not the victim justice system.”

If women feel like this about reporting an older man sexually abusing them, or their ex forcing them to have sex – then how do you think they feel when their alleged perpetrator is a much-loved celebrity with a few million quid spare to shut them up with a defamation case?

Having worked in the criminal justice system myself, managing these types of cases, I have no time for people on social media thinking they have the ultimate “gotcha” by asking, “If this really happened, why didn’t they report to the police?”

Here’s just one possible answer: Because it can be a terrifying, intrusive process which often results in no further action – just further trauma. Of course, we would always encourage women to report it and not to let their attacker get away with it. But we can’t ignore the fact that so many women say that reporting and giving evidence about sexual violence was worse than the sexual violence itself.

Simply put: most people don’t report any crimes, let alone sexual violence.

And isn’t it interesting that the same people asking why they didn’t report it are the ones claiming they must be lying? It’s almost as if those things are connected....

Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)

Russell Brand: In Plain Sight review – so many red flags ignored for so long

Jack Seale

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 17 September 2023


The modern news cycle is brutally quick. On Thursday and Friday, the 90-minute special episode of Channel 4’s investigative documentary strand, Dispatches, which was to air on Saturday night, was trending on social media because of the mystery around it: Channel 4 had declined to offer any information about what it contained. But by the time it did air, we knew exactly what it contained.

The programme is a collaboration between Dispatches and the Sunday Times and, as happens often when a TV show and a newspaper mount a joint investigation, the newspaper went public first. With the online print version published a few hours before broadcast, many viewers found themselves in the unusual position of watching a documentary having already read its key allegations.

Related: Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse

Those allegations are that the comedian turned political commentator and wellness guru, Russell Brand, has a history of abusive interactions with women. One woman alleges he raped her. Another says he seriously sexually assaulted her at the end of a relationship that began when she was 16 and he was 31. A third claims physical abuse and sexual assault.

As well as the allegations being known, by the time of broadcast Brand’s denial was also out there. On Friday night, Brand outed himself as the target of the investigation, releasing a video made for his millions of social media followers. He talked of “some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute”. Insisting that “the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual”, he speculated about “coordinated media attacks” with “another agenda at play”. This garnered him support from thousands of his existing followers, and new allies with an interest in self-identifying as brave media disruptors: several GB News presenters posted on social media appearing to take his side.

So with its allegations and the alleged perpetrator’s denial already known about, and even the culture-war battle lines around it already drawn, what currency does Russell Brand: In Plain Sight have? Plenty. As well as organising deeply harrowing testimony into a cogent narrative, the Dispatches film places the women’s claims into a wider context within the industry and our culture as a whole, pinpointing a collective culpability that resonates well beyond whatever one man might have done.

The allegations themselves are disturbing enough. Being able to see and hear the words spoken, even by anonymised interviewees filmed in silhouette or, in one case, replaced by an actor, lends every awful detail alleged a piercing immediacy.

Surrounding the interviews are the words of Brand himself, on stage, TV and radio. Even in the best-case scenario for Brand – the one in which all these specific, independent accusations turn out to be false – we view him as a sleazy, sexist creep because he has told us.

“Don’t be afraid of your own sexuality,” we see him tell a guest on his chatshow, in a clip dug up by Dispatches. “Do be a bit afraid of mine though.” During an interview on Conan O’Brien’s US talkshow, Brand told the host: “You don’t wanna be around when the laughter stops.” One old standup routine, joking about enjoying “them blowjobs where mascara runs a little bit”, spookily echos the exact words of one of the programme’s allegations.

The title In Plain Sight has been carefully chosen. Dispatches has found further evidence of Brand not hiding his misogyny, drawn from the same stint as a Radio 2 presenter that led to his biggest previous controversy in 2008, when he was fired for broadcasting crass voicemails he’d left for the actor Andrew Sachs. In retrospect, it is amazing Brand lasted as long as he did: Dispatches plays the audio of him making demeaning sexual remarks about his show’s female newsreader, and conducting an interview with a celebrity guest where he joked about sending his (named) female assistant to visit the star, stripped naked. The interviewee in question: Jimmy Savile.

Speaking to Dispatches, former BBC One controller Lorraine Heggessey boggles in retrospect at Brand’s broadcasts: “A predator, live on air on Radio 2.” Previous entertainment-industry exposes have largely concentrated on the 1970s and 80s; passing off the grim sexism of the late 00s as a distant bygone era is more difficult.

The warning about not ignoring red flags, and not indulging toxic behaviour to prioritise talent or fame, is a strong one, with acute relevance to a comedy world still riddled with misogyny: the only performer willing to be interviewed about the problem for Dispatches is Daniel Sloss, who is already known for including serious oratory about male violence in his standup routines. Why work still needs to be done – Brand is not the only comedian whose alleged behaviour is often described as an “open secret” in the industry – is summed up by a female Dispatches contributor, musing on women who might have embarked on a comedy career, met Russell Brand, then sought other employment. “Culturally, what are we missing?”

Russell Brand: In Plain Sight is available on Channel 4 now.

SEE LIVE BLOG

Russell Brand - latest: YouTube suspends comedian from making money (yahoo.com)

   

  

 

China welcomes Cambodian, Venezuelan, Zambian leaders as it forges deeper ties with Global South

KEN MORITSUGU

Updated Fri, September 15, 2023 

BEIJING (AP) — China and Zambia upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership on Friday, the latest move by America's chief global rival to forge deeper ties with the Global South.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Zambian counterpart announced the agreement shortly after Xi had exchanged cordial words with another visitor, the new prime minister of Cambodia. The flurry of diplomatic activity came just two days after Venezuela's president met Xi and the two elevated their countries' ties to an “all-weather” partnership.

The trio of leaders from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America speak to China’s growing role in those parts of the world and China's ambitions to be a global leader. Facing growing pressure from the U.S. and its partners, which fear China's rise could disrupt the existing international order, the world's second largest economy is trying to project itself as a powerful nation standing up for the interests of the Global South.

The collective rise of developing countries has become “an irreversible trend of the times,” Xi told Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Hichilema responded: "We appreciate your role in positively altering the global order so that the Global South can take our rightful place in the league of nations.”

The “all-weather” partnership Xi concluded this week with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is an even closer relationship than Zambia's. It's one that China has granted to only a handful nations and signals they will maintain close relations no matter what changes occur in the international situation.

“China aspires to shape a system that aligns with its interests and recognizes its status as a great power,” said Edward Chan, a China studies fellow at Australian National University. “Achieving this goal requires enhancing its ability to influence global discourse, which can be accomplished through garnering more international support.”

Last month, the five BRICS member countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — agreed to invite Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia to join next year in what would become an 11-nation bloc.

China also named a new ambassador to Afghanistan this week, to much fanfare from a Taliban government seeking international recognition.

In much of the developing world, Chinese state banks have financed roads and other infrastructure projects under its Belt and Road Initiative, and Chinese companies have built factories, mines, hotels and casinos.

China has in turn won access to natural resources and diplomatic support from many Global South countries on contentious votes at the U.N. and from Cambodia in China’s territorial disputes with other Southeast Asian nations in the South China Sea.

Development loans from China and others have saddled some countries, including Zambia, with extremely high debt levels, sometimes sparking debt crises that can stymie economic development. More than 40% of Cambodia’s $10 billion in foreign debt is owed to Chinese institutions.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet made China his first official foreign visit after succeeding his father, Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for 40 years and cultivated his country's close relationship with China.

Xi told Hun Manet that his father had made historic contributions to bilateral ties. Hun Manet said he would further develop the friendship between their countries.

The U.S. had shown disapproval of Hun Sen’s undemocratic moves and is uneasy over the expansion of a Cambodian naval facility with Chinese assistance. Hun Sen consistently denied that Cambodia had granted China the right to set up its own military base at Ream Naval Base.

After his meetings in Beijing, Hun Manet plans to join other Southeast Asian leaders this weekend in southern China at the 20th ASEAN-China Expo, which promotes cooperation in trade, investment and tourism.

China's diplomacy has changed dramatically under Xi, said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

“China has a near-term goal and also a long-term goal,” he said. “The long term goal will be the number one in the world. But the near-term goal is to be the leader of the Global South.”

___

Associated Press researcher Wanqing Chen contributed to this report.

Venezuela may put an astronaut on a Chinese moon mission

Andrew Jones
Mon, September 18, 2023

Illustration of a number of buildings and rovers on the moon.

The first Venezuelan man or woman could land on the moon on a Chinese spacecraft, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said last week.

Maduro met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Sept. 13, during a state visit that saw the two countries sign a host of agreements to extend cooperation, covering areas such as oil, trade, mining, finance and space.

The visit included Zhang Kejian, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), and Gabriela Jimenez, Venezuela's Vice President and Minister of Science and Technology, signing a space cooperation framework agreement, which was witnessed by the two presidents.

Maduro said on social media that Venezuelan astronauts could soon train in China and later go to the moon.

"Where we're heading is for the moon, to a splendid era for China and Venezuela," AFP reported Maduro as saying on social media.

China's space endeavors have expanded greatly in scope over the past decade. The country became only the third to successfully soft-land on the moon in 2013, and has since landed on the lunar far side, put a rover on Mars and constructed a modular space station, named Tiangong, in low Earth orbit.

Beijing is now looking to build an alliance of countries to explore and potentially exploit the moon, parallel and counter to the United States-led Artemis program and Artemis Accords.

Venezuela became the first outside nation to join the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) project, which was jointly announced by China and Russia in 2021.

Any Venezuelan excursion to the moon may be some way off, however. First, China has not reciprocated the explicit astronaut announcement. Pakistan officials had claimed that its astronauts would fly to Tiangong in 2022, but such a mission has yet to materialize.

A report from the Washington Post also notes that Venezuela is already billions of dollars in debt to China, which is likely to severely impact how much Venezuela would be able to contribute to the China-led ILRS, as well as dampen enthusiasm for further Chinese lending. Venezuela also faces severe economic crises.

The notion of foreign astronauts flying on Chinese spacecraft has grounding, however. China has not sent any foreign astronauts to its space station, but this is likely to change in the future.

China has previously stated that it is looking to train international astronauts at its China Astronaut Research and Training Center in Beijing.

China wants to put a pair of its astronauts on the moon before 2030. The ILRS is to be constructed across the early 2030s. This timeline means, however, that it will be some time before Chinese spacecraft carry international astronauts to the moon.

'WOKE'

World leaders warn goals to fight hunger, poverty, climate change in peril

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 

Mon, September 18, 2023 


Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York

By Daphne Psaledakis

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - World leaders meeting at the United Nations on Monday warned of the peril the world faces unless it acts with urgency to rescue a set of 2030 development goals to wipe out hunger and extreme poverty and to battle climate change.

Their declaration, adopted by consensus at a summit before the annual U.N. General Assembly, embraces a 2015 "to-do" list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals that also include water, energy, reducing inequality and achieving gender equality.

"The achievement of the SDGs is in peril," the declaration reads. "We are alarmed that the progress on most of the SDGs is either moving much too slowly or has regressed below the 2015 baseline."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit of leaders that only 15% of the targets are on track and that many are going in reverse.

Earlier this month, Guterres called on G20 leaders to ensure a stimulus of at least $500 billion per year towards meeting the goals. He called on countries to act now.

The leaders are meeting in the shadow of geopolitical tensions - largely fueled by the war in Ukraine - as Russia and China vie with the United States and Europe to win over developing countries, where achieving the Sustainable Development Goals are key.

"Instead of leaving no one behind, we risk leaving the SDGs behind ... the SDGs need a global rescue plan," Guterres told the summit.

The U.N. said this month that there are 745 million more moderately to severely hungry people in the world today than in 2015, and the world is far off track in its efforts to meet the ambitious United Nations goal to end hunger by 2030.

The cost of meeting global targets rose 25% to $176 trillion during the year that ended in September 2022, with performance on several measures reversing, a report said last year.

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Howard Goller)

Centuries after Native American remains were dug up, a new law returns them for reburial in Illinois

“Those human remains were never treated as human beings...,”

JOHN O'CONNOR and MELISSA PEREZ WINDER
Sun, September 17, 2023 




In this image taken from video, Brooke Morgan, curator of anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, sits her desk at the museum in Springfield, Ill, on Aug. 18, 2023. Illinois officials and Native Americans whose ancestors called the state home hope a new state law will speed the recovery and reburial of ancestors' remains unearthed over the past two centuries. Morgan said the law ensures the return of remains to the land on which they were intended to rest.

 (AP Photo/Melissa Winder)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — For centuries, Europeans carving up the prairie to suit their own idea of settlement dug up the graves of Native Americans as they conquered lands and pushed tribes to the West.

Now, Native Americans whose ancestors' remains ended up held for study in sterile, nondescript boxes on shelves in educational facilities or displayed in cultural locales hope a new Illinois law will speed their recovery for proper reburial in their homeland.

“I always have a bit of unease because I know if I’m going to a university or to a museum ... that chances are pretty high that we’ve got some ancestors sitting in a basement or in a closet somewhere,” said Raphael Wahwassuck, tribal preservation officer for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Mayetta, Kansas. “I hope that this (law) will help ease those concerns, knowing that we are working on correcting that and taking care of our ancestors to put them in a good resting place.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed The Human Remains Protection Act last month, which updates a rudimentary 1989 state statute. It also complements a federal law adopted a year later, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It requires the return of human remains and funerary, sacred and cultural objects unearthed in the past 200 years by plows and bulldozers, by archeologists, or by profiteering marauders to the associated tribe.

Key to the measure is first-time authority for tribes to rebury recovered remains in Illinois, which they much prefer to relocating them to states to which the U.S. government forced their relocation nearly two centuries ago.

The Illinois State Museum, which holds remains from about 7,000 individuals, is prepared to reunify 1,100 of them with their tribes, according to Brooke Morgan, the museum's curator of anthropology. Overall, institutions in Illinois can identify nearly 13,000 individuals that must be repatriated.

What the soil produced often ended up in scholarly institutions across the state, from Chicago's Field Museum to Southern Illinois University, as well as the state museum.

Illinois is the nation's fifth-largest repository of human remains, according to the National Park Service, which administers the repatriation program. And large numbers of remains recovered from Illinois are held by institutions in other states. Nationally, the remains of nearly 209,000 individuals have been reported to the federal government and must be surrendered to descendants.

Information about past cultures and lives lived gleaned from anthropologists' study of the remains is not without merit, Morgan said, but research must be “ethically informed.”

“While there’s a lot that can be learned, it’s not it’s not without consequences or outcomes that could be damaging to modern communities,” Morgan said.

The law also toughens monetary penalties, including required restitution, for disturbing human remains and items buried with them or for displays — something the Illinois State Museum did at Dickson Mounds in Lewistown, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, before disbanding the feature in 1992.

While repatriation in Illinois during the federal law’s first three decades has been sluggish, at best, in 2020, the late Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the museum’s director, pushed her staff to gauge interest with Native American tribes in repatriating the Dickson Mounds holdings.

Now, the museum is on the cusp of returning the remains of 1,100 individuals from Dickson Mounds to 10 tribes whose ancestors were laid to rest there, Morgan said. The process has wrought stronger relationships with affected tribes, which could could prove critical as the new state law requires consultation — meaningful dialog among holding institutions and tribes about handling and transferring remains — rather than simple notification.

“It can be emotionally taxing. It can be really traumatic to learn about how their ancestors have been studied or how they’ve been housed or how they’ve been cared for or not cared for,” Morgan said.

What scholars now call a period of ethnic cleansing began with President Andrew Jackson's signature on the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It forced indigenous people to move west of the Mississippi River, clearing the eastern United States for white settlers, particularly for expansive cotton cultivation in the south.

Prior to the new law, “repatriation” meant turning remains over to tribes who had little choice but to take them back to the states to which they were forcibly removed.

“The tribes that I talked to — one, specifically, the Cherokee of Oklahoma — said, that is like recreating the Trail of Tears,” said the legislation's sponsor, Rep. Mark Walker, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. He was referring to the 1838-39 westward death march which claimed the lives of 4,000 Cherokee.

Walker said the Cherokee told him, “'Our ancestors were buried where our ancestors wanted to be buried. And now you've dug up their bones and you're going to bring them to where we were forced to go.”

Walker said negotiators have compiled a list of 30 potential sites for burial. Tribes will ultimately choose which sites will be used.

Matthew Bussler, tribal historic preservation officer for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi in Dowagiac, Michigan, said the practice and ceremony of final rites differs by tribe. Generally, he said, it is critical to see that ancestors are returned “to the womb of Mother Earth” not only so they may continue their journey in the hereafter, but to “redeem all of the pain and the suffering” of their tribe, especially their descendants.

There are costs associated with repatriation, of course, for the tribes as well as the state. The law provides money for travel and other expenses the tribes incur. The account is partially funded by fines for desecrating burial grounds, including for the first time, restitution to cover collecting, cleaning and reburying remains illegally taken, just as other remains before them had been for centuries.

“Those human remains were never treated as human beings...,” Bussler said. “Those who had been deceased for hundreds of years who are just being found, or your grandmother who just passed away — we need to treat them all with utmost respect.”

Hundreds of flying taxis to be made in Ohio, home of the Wright brothers and astronaut legends

JULIE CARR SMYTH
Updated Mon, September 18, 2023 







In this 2022 photo provided by Joby Aviation is Joby’s pre-production prototype aircraft at the company’s flight test facility in Marina, Calif. The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon manufacture cutting-edge electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. An agreement announced Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, between the state and Joby Aviation Inc. will bring air taxi production to a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport by 2025. 

(Eric Adams/Joby Aviation via AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon be manufacturing cutting-edge electric planes that take off and land vertically, under an agreement announced Monday between the state and Joby Aviation Inc.

“When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.”

Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below.

Joby's decision to locate its first scaled manufacturing facility at a 140-acre (57-hectar) site at Dayton International Airport delivers on two decades of groundwork laid by the state’s leaders, Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. Importantly, the site is near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratories.

“For a hundred years, the Dayton area has been a leader in aviation innovation,” Husted said. “But capturing a large-scale manufacturer of aircraft has always eluded the local economy there. With this announcement, that aspiration has been realized.”

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, lived and worked in Dayton. In 1910, they opened the first U.S. airplane factory there. To connect the historical dots, Joby's formal announcement Monday took place at Orville Wright's home, Hawthorn Hill, and concluded with a ceremonial flypast of a replica of the Wright Model B Flyer.

Joby’s production aircraft is designed to transport a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) per hour, with a maximum range of 100 miles (160.93 kilometers). Its quiet noise profile is barely audible against the backdrop of most cities, the company said. The plan is to place them in aerial ridesharing networks beginning in 2025.

The efforts of the Santa Cruz, California-based company are supported by partnerships with Toyota, Delta Air Lines, Intel and Uber. Joby is a 14-year-old company that went public in 2021 and became the first eVTOL firm to receive U.S. Air Force airworthiness certification.

The $500 million project is supported by up to $325 million in incentives from the state of Ohio, its JobsOhio economic development office and local government. With the funds, Joby plans to build an Ohio facility capable of delivering up to 500 aircraft a year and creating 2,000 jobs. The U.S. Department of Energy has invited Joby to apply for a loan to support development of the facility as a clean energy project.

Joby CEO JoeBen Bevirt told the AP that the company chose Ohio after an extensive and competitive search. Its financial package wasn't the largest, but the chance to bring the operation to the birthplace of aviation — with a workforce experienced in the field — sealed the deal, he said.

“Ohio is the No. 1 state when it comes to supplying parts for Boeing and Airbus," Bevirt said. "Ohio is No. 3 in the nation on manufacturing jobs — and that depth of manufacturing prowess, that workforce, is critical to us as we look to build this manufacturing facility.

JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef noted that its dedication to aviation has carried the Dayton area through serious economic challenges. That included the loss of tens of thousands of auto and auto parts manufacturing jobs in the early 2000s and the loss of ATM maker NCR Corp.'s headquarters to an Atlanta suburb in 2009.

“This marries that heritage and legacy of innovation in aviation with our nuts and bolts of manufacturing," Nauseef said. “It really marries those two together, and that’s never been married together before — not in this town. For a community the size of Dayton and Springfield, (whose people) take great pride, (and) have had rough, rough decades, it's a wonderful project.”

Bevirt said operations and hiring will begin immediately from existing buildings near the development site, contingent upon clearing the standard legal and regulatory hurdles. The site is large enough to eventually accommodate 2 square feet (18.58 hectars) of manufacturing space.

Construction on the manufacturing facility is expected to begin in 2024, with production to begin in 2025.

Toyota, a long-term investor, worked with Joby in 2019 to design and to successfully launch its pilot production line in Marina, California. The automaker will continue to advise Joby as it prepares for scaled production of its commercial passenger air taxi, the company said.

The announcement comes as a bipartisan group of Ohio's congressional representatives has recently stepped up efforts — following an earlier appeal by DeWine — to lure the U.S. Air Force’s new U.S. Space Command headquarters or Space Force units to Ohio. There, too, state leaders cite the aerospace legacy of the Wrights, as well as Ohio-born astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.

Joby Aviation to build air taxi production plant in Ohio

Valerie Insinna
Mon, September 18, 2023 

A Joby Aviation Air Taxi is seen outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of their listing in Manhattan, New York City

By Valerie Insinna

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Electric aircraft maker Joby Aviation will invest up to $500 million to build a new facility in Dayton, Ohio, where it will mass produce air taxis, it said on Monday.

The 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport is set to be the first serial production location for the company, as opposed to the prototypes built at its pilot production line in California.

Joby founder JoeBen Bevirt told Reuters that the company is "driving vigorously" to win Federal Aviation Administration certification for its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft so that it can begin commercial passenger service in 2025.

Joby intends to begin hiring "immediately" to stand up manufacturing of aircraft components at existing buildings at the Dayton site, Bevirt said. Construction of the new production facility will begin in 2024, with operations to start in 2025.

Bevirt declined to comment on initial production rates and how much funding would be immediately allocated to construct the Dayton facility. The state of Ohio and several political organizations have offered up to $325 million in incentives and benefits to develop the Dayton site, Joby said.

Eventually, the site could accommodate manufacturing facilities that take up more space than the Pentagon, support 2,000 jobs and the production of 500 aircraft per year, Joby said.

Unlike eVTOL competitors like Archer Aviation and Beta Technologies, which intend to sell aircraft directly to airlines and logistics companies, Joby's business model more closely resembles rideshare apps, where customers can request a ride on an air taxi owned and operated by the company.

While Joby has been flying full-scale aircraft since 2017, it unveiled its first production-representative prototype in June, which can fit four passengers and a pilot.

Bevirt said the company is "ramping up the testing team aggressively" to conduct the thousands of tests and evaluations necessary to attain FAA certification.

(Reporting by Valerie Insinna; editing by Timothy Gardner)

‘Today is a historic day;’ Flying taxi company announces 2,000 jobs in Dayton region

WHIO Staff
Mon, September 18, 2023 


An electric aircraft company is announcing that it will create 2,000 jobs and build about a half-billion-dollar manufacturing facility in the Dayton region.

Joby Aviation says it will bring an electric air taxi manufacturing facility to Dayton International Airport that will build, test, and fly all-electric, vertical take-off, and landing (eVTOL) air taxis for commercial passenger operations, Governor Mike DeWine’s office announced in a statement this morning.

Construction on the facility is expected to start next year and come online in 2025. Joby plans to produce as many as 500 aircraft per year.

News Center 7 will be at the formal announcement this morning at 10 a.m. and have updates throughout the day, including a live report on News Center 7 beginning at 5 p.m.

“Today is a historic day in Dayton, Ohio,” Jeff Hoagland, President and CEO of Dayton Development Coalition said in a one-on-one interview with News Center 7. “It is something that we’ve been working on for quite a while. But it’s something that we’re extremely proud of here in Dayton with it being the home of aviation in the first evolution of flight with the Wright brothers. And today, you know, with the third evolution, the flight with these electric, vertical, takeoff, and landing vehicles.”

He added both the city and state are getting back to its manufacturing roots. This includes Sierra Nevada Corporation building an MRO facility at Dayton International Airport.

Hoagland said Joby is following that trend.

“They’ve worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory with the Lifecycle Management Center and with others,” he told News Center 7. “What we’re seeing is the proximity matters to companies working with Wright Patterson Air Force Base and for this community to have access to this many jobs and great paying jobs and in an industry that I think young kids, middle-aged people, and others will really want to be a part of is it’s so exciting to not just today but for the future.”

Hoagland stated there will be all kinds of jobs created with this investment by Joby.

“The 2,000 jobs will be a combination of manufacturing jobs, engineering jobs,” he said. “The community will have access to it. But our goal is to attract other people from other states, to come to Dayton, Ohio, to be a part of something historic.”

Hoagland told News Center 7 that Ohio continues to win from an economic standpoint.

“We’ve seen the announcements like Intel Honda, Sierra Nevada Corporation and so many more,” he said. “But, you know, for our Dayton community to see these manufacturing companies coming back to Dayton, Ohio and opening now a manufacturing facility around aviation. It is going to get the attention of other companies throughout the world not just in the United States. But this is going to attract other companies for sure.”

Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted also spoke with News Center 7 about what this means for the Dayton region.

“The Dayton area has won the biggest Ohio economic development project of 2023,” he said. “Dayton has been the history of aviation and now, it’s going to be the future of aviation. Dayton has always had a lot of aviation invade innovation, but we’ve never captured a large-scale manufacturing company, manufacturing aircraft, and then all the jobs and supply chain that comes with it.”

Husted told News Center 7 it has been a strategy over the last 20 years of trying to build up Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

“We now are a leader in technology in the Dayton area. In this space, we have a testing facility at the Springfield airport where these types of electric and more automated type of aircraft systems are being tested,” he explained. “And because of all of that expertise that we have, we have gotten the competition to win.”

Joby looked at states across the country and picked Dayton, Ohio.

Husted also explained to News Center 7 how this electric aircraft would work.

“It’s kind of like an electric personal aircraft it will hold up to four people and has a range of 100 miles,” he said. “These aircraft are really the future of aviation transportation, and they could have gone anywhere. But because of what we’ve done over time in the state of Ohio, in the Dayton area; they picked Dayton as the best place in the country to do this.”

>>RELATED: First Look: “Flying car” arrives in Springfield

Husted also talked about the economic impact on the Dayton region.

“This is both a huge economic win in the number of jobs and the supply chain that comes with it,” he said. “But at reputation only, and psychologically, this is huge because it’s the first manufacturing facility of its kind to manufacture these next-generation aircraft in Dayton is going to be the home of it. And that from a reputation and motivation, from an economic point of view is just amazing. This will be a global story. And Dayton will be at the heart of it.”

Husted said the Dayton area’s pride in its aviation heritage made a difference in Joby coming to the region.

“There was in my mind, as I pitched to them, no better place in the world to do something like this than Dayton,” he said. “They ultimately agreed. Now, we’re going to see a major investment and a full-blown aircraft manufacturing facility operational in the Dayton area.”

“Ohio’s legacy in aviation leadership begins with the Wright Brothers and continues now with Joby Aviation, as they launch a new era in advanced aviation manufacturing and aerial mobility in Dayton,” said Governor DeWine in a statement Monday. “The aircraft that will roll off Joby Ohio’s production lines will redefine urban transportation and contribute to a transformational change in the way people and goods travel. We welcome Joby and celebrate the new chapter of air mobility history that will be made here in Ohio, the Heart of Aviation and Aerospace.”

The company said it will use existing nearby buildings for operations and the company’s new payroll is expected to surpass $140 million.

“Ohio has a long, rich history in aviation, and we’re proud to bring the next chapter of that story to life in the place where it all started,” said JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO Joby Aviation. “As one of the top states in the country for aviation manufacturing and innovation, Ohio will play an important role in the future of our industry, and we’re looking forward to growing our team here.

“We’re grateful to Governor DeWine, Lt. Governor Husted, Senator Brown, Senator Vance, Representative Turner, and the team at JobsOhio for continuing to grow Ohio’s leadership in aviation and ensuring the U.S. continues to lead the way in delivering quiet, emissions-free flight.”

Joby Aviation’s Ohio investment is expected to significantly impact economic growth in both Ohio and across the country.

The new facility will likely draw other advanced air mobility opportunities in Ohio that could lead to an over statewide economic impact of $13 billion and create 15,000 new jobs in the state by 2045.

Lydia Mihalik, director for the Ohio Department of Development, called today’s announcements “big news for the Miami Valley and will be transformative for the people and families in the region.”

“Joby Aviation’s investment in Ohio will bring thousands of good paying jobs to the area,” she said. “When residents look to the sky, they’ll not only see the revolutionary aircraft technology made in their own backyard but also the limitless possibilities and opportunities that exist right here in Ohio.”




































Photo credit to Joby Aviation website

UK LIKE U$A

Wind industry on hold after auction flop spooks developers

Matt Oliver
Sun, September 17, 2023

The Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm

Offshore wind farm developers are delaying non-essential work on UK projects after a government renewables auction flopped, with industry sources warning they may be forced to wait until after the next election to get schemes moving again.

At least two major companies are pausing or slowing investment to the minimum pace necessary to keep projects alive, with one describing the current position as a “holding pattern”.

The slowdown comes after confidence was knocked by the disastrous fifth auction round for renewable energy subsidies earlier this month.

No bids were received by offshore wind developers due to what companies said were unrealistically low prices.

Afterwards, wind farm manufacturers said they held positive discussions with Claire Coutinho, the new Energy Security Secretary, but were left bewildered days later by a meeting with Graham Stuart, the Net Zero Minister, who appeared to play down the auction results.

His comments during a meeting on Tuesday left some attendees unsure whether the Government was committed to addressing the issues in next year’s auction, multiple sources said.

Wind farm bosses were unsure if Britain remained committed to finding solutions after a meet with Net Zero Minister Graham Stuart - Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

The cloud of uncertainty has spooked developers, who warned there was now little chance the UK will reach its target of 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

One executive said: “The target is a joke now. Ministers just haven’t got it. They don’t realise how fundamentally serious the situation is.”

Another executive said they believed ministers had grasped the scale of the problem but were failing to reassure the sector about how they would approach next year’s auction.

“Given the recent results, we need the Government to be putting its arms around the industry,” the executive said.

“But I don’t think anyone is feeling the love right now. It’s bewildering.”

A third source said some developers were now “sitting it out and waiting for the election”.

Polls suggest Labour, which has vowed to turbocharge investment in green energy, is on course to win.

Executives said the results from the latest renewables auction were “completely predictable” but that ministers had refused to budge due to a belief the industry was “crying wolf”.

One director added: “At the moment we are keeping things where they are until we see where the policy landscape ends up.

“Their net zero targets are completely at risk and that should shock them. The question is, why hasn’t it?”

The Government’s bid to reach 50 gigawatts of capacity will be significantly harder following the disappointing renewables auction round.

Only 14 gigawatts are currently operational, another 7 gigawatts are under construction while a further 6 gigawatts have been granted subsidies but are not guaranteed to be built.

Industry sources say that there are only four more of the annual auction rounds left to secure the remaining 23 gigawatts needed.

This also assumes all of the projects with subsidies already will proceed to development.

However, rising prices and supply chain delays have thrown that assumption into doubt.

Swedish giant Vattenfall announced in July it had been forced to halt work on its 1.4 gigawatt Boreas wind farm, off the coast of Norfolk, due to a 40pc jump in costs.

Danish company Ørsted is also expected to make a final investment decision on its 2.8 gigawatt Hornsea 3 project by the end of this year.

The failure to secure any offshore wind projects in last month’s auction is likely to exacerbate supply chain problems, executives said, because it will create a gap in the UK’s pipeline of work and make suppliers more likely to commit to projects elsewhere.

“If developers aren’t bringing forward projects, they’re not buying turbines, they’re not buying blades, they’re not buying all the other pieces of kit that go into an offshore wind farm, and that’s a problem for suppliers, who have to commit investment to factories,” a source said.

A Department for Energy and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Our latest renewables auction was a success, delivering a record number of clean energy projects and generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of two million homes. The next auction is scheduled to open in only six months’ time, minimising the risk of any delay to deployment of offshore wind.

“We remain fully committed to delivering 50GW of offshore wind capacity, including up to 5GW of floating wind, by 2030 – building on our status as a world leader in the technology with the four largest operational wind farms in the world on UK shores.”

DESANTISLAND

Florida’s cruel immigration law resulting in real-life consequences for all of us | Opinion

Joel Tooley
Mon, September 18, 2023 

Alie Skowronski/askowronski@miamiherald.com


Without notice, three warning lights popped up on the dashboard of my almost 10-year-old vehicle. Given that my vehicle has reached about 150,000 miles, there are going to be a few issues that require more than a driveway mechanic.

I called the local Chevy service center to set up a diagnostic assessment. The receptionist told me, “Because of our worker shortage, the earliest I can get you on the schedule is in 50 days.”

A week earlier, I was in Orlando for meetings and needed to check into a hotel. I purposely waited for a late check-in; many times, the 3 p m check-in time includes a longer line of weary travelers with arms full of bags, with their luggage and cranky children dragged in tow. I could hear the well-trained desk clerk reciting to each guest, “Thank you so much for your patience. Because of our worker shortage, our housekeeping staff is working really hard to make sure each room is cleaned perfectly for you and each of our guests.”

The National Immigration Forum submitted an insightful analysis last year. Legal analyst Arturo Castellano writes, “The United States is facing an acute labor shortage. While the root cause of the problem is multifactorial, America’s lowest net international migration (NIM) levels in decades have accelerated the workforce deficit.”


The analysis cites various factors at play; what is not highlighted is the impact of harmful legislation implemented at statewide levels. As a Florida resident, there are times when I harbor the notion that there is an intentional contest between governors to demonstrate who can be the cruelest to immigrants and implode economic stability. If there is such a race, Florida’s governor is certainly in the lead.

Far-right politicians’ posturing is having a prolonged impact on real people in real places. It’s more than a delayed hotel check-in or needing to wait for more than a month to get into a mechanic. I recently attended a faith event for Evangelical pastors in Winter Garden where one pastor who leads a congregation made up primarily of agricultural workers in Polk County shared a significant concern: “Ninety percent of my congregation left the state of Florida before Governor DeSantis’ law (SB1718) went into effect on July 1.”

Another pastor from Tampa shared that several families in their Spanish-speaking congregation had also left Florida. The Evangelical pastors, Catholic leaders and other faith representatives to whom I’ve spoken on the Space Coast and Gulf Coast, and in Tallahassee and the Greater Orlando area all say the same thing.

I am worried, and I am not alone. Multiple news organizations are addressing this growing crisis. “Even a lot of Republican business owners are worried and complaining about this law because they view it as unnecessary and disruptive,” former Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo told NPR from the recent National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference in Miami.

Voters across Florida, accustomed to not giving much credence to immigration issues need to adjust their attention; what happens to our neighbor impacts all of us.

Joel Tooley is a pastor in Melbourne, Florida and the director of Mosaic Compassion, a non-profit that serves immigrant communities. He is also a consultant for the National Immigration Forum and the Evangelical Immigration Table.

DESANTISLAND

Susana Matta Valdivieso on the Parkland Shooting, Abuse, and Anti-Immigrant Laws in Florida

Yacob Reyes
Mon, September 18, 2023


Her rapist is in a cell at the Okeechobee Correctional Institution, but some nights, she swears she can see him in the dark. She can almost hear the sound of his knife on her door frame. She can feel his hand on her mouth.

Susana Matta Valdivieso doesn't often talk about her past. Few of her neighbors at the RV park know much about her.

They don't know she hid in a dark classroom as a gunman claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. They don't know that, six months later, she sat in a cold, antiseptic rape center, and that she's not a US citizen.

Susana doesn't strike up conversations and is rarely outside her trailer long enough for someone else to. She is only 22, but her eyes are ringed with dark circles, making her look exhausted.

She's had to put her trauma into words more times than she can stomach.

Susana first told her story to police officers, then to the Department of Children and Families, and finally to a judge. She told them how her cousin — a US citizen and a ranking member of the Marine Corps — adopted her. She told them how he used to linger at her bedroom door while she changed, how he climbed into her bed at night while his wife and children slept, and how, for two years, he raped her and said if she told anyone, he'd have her deported.

Five years have passed since her rapist's arrest. Susana had tried to live a simple and quiet life on the rural outskirts of Tampa. But when the sun begins to dim and her Murphy bed comes down, she can't sleep. "I feel like I'm waiting for him," Susana tells Teen Vogue.

She is one of 119,414 immigrants who, since 2018, have applied for legal protection under the Violence Against Women Act, according to recent data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Stories like Susana's are not just about the individual men who entrap them, but the system. Her family's survival in the US relied on favors — an out-of-state driver's license from one friend, an apartment leased under another.

Darian Mattos

To live here without authorization from the federal government is to live with "overlapping forms of legal, financial, and social hardship," as Asad L. Asad, assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University, put it in a recent article for Inquest.

Susana's mother saw ángeles in those who extended a hand. For every angel, though, Susana knows there's a demon — those without empathy who see opportunity, who exploit women with the promise of citizenship or the threat of deportation.

Renata Bozzetto, the deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, tells Teen Vogue that the true prevalence of sexual assault within immigrant communities is unclear: “We only know the number of women fortunate enough to escape these situations.”

Most sexual assaults are not reported to the police, and the likelihood of a victim contacting law enforcement is much lower in immigrant communities. Legal experts, such as A.J. Hernández Anderson, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project, say laws like Florida's SB 1718 further dissuade undocumented victims from reporting crimes.

The new law makes it harder for undocumented immigrants to live and work in the state. It punishes companies that hire them and requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask whether a patient is undocumented.

"It's the perfect recipe for abuse," Susana says of Florida's tilt toward aggressive immigration reform. "The question should be, ‘Who do I need to call to report this?’ But the question [will become], ‘What is going to happen to me after I report this?’"

One Republican lawmaker in Florida has said SB 1718 is "supposed to scare" undocumented immigrants; another said it demonizes them. Bozzetto and Hernández Anderson say these comments enable abusers.


Darian Mattos

"That any one US citizen could hold that much power over another person simply because she is fearful of deportation should be an example to us all, especially those in power," says Asad.

Susana knew she had to leave Florida when she read that law. She sat on her coil-spring mattress in late May and called her mother. "I can't do this without the family, Mom," she said. The better life they dreamed about, the white picket fences, wouldn't happen for them — at least not in Florida.

Yet her mother, who worked over 40 hours a week cleaning houses their own family couldn't afford, maintained hope. She tried to instill that optimism in Susana.

"Things are bad," Susana said. "We have to leave."

She remembered a time, years ago, when her mother had told her the same thing. Susana was only six years old then, too young to completely grasp the harshness of their circumstances in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Her father had planned to leave alone for the US. He'd find work, save money, and, eventually, come home. But her mother couldn't bring herself to accept that. She saw the bond Susana shared with him. "We leave together or not at all," her mother decided. They boarded a plane to Tampa in 2007.

Susana's parents, who obtained their undergraduate degrees in Colombia, took whatever work they could find: Her father peddled shaved ice; her mother cleaned houses.

They warned Susana that if she got into trouble or revealed too much about where they came from, the US government could separate them. Her mother remembers, during those first few years, whenever she or her husband came home late, they'd find Susana crying — worried something had happened to them, that she would end up alone.

Susana learned English at school. But in her thrift store outfits and well-worn Skechers, she understood America in ways her parents couldn't. Even as a child, she seemed aware of how her family craved luxuries that would never be theirs.

She once asked her parents for a Nintendo DS. Her father and mother hadn't even bought a car yet. Still, they worked extra shifts to afford it. Months passed, and her mother noticed that Susana hadn't used the console. When she asked her daughter why, she answered softly, "I can't play — I don't have games." Her mother didn't realize she had to buy them separately, and Susana didn't tell her because she knew they couldn't afford it.

By ninth grade, Susana recognized the challenges her undocumented status posed for her future. She couldn't get a learner's permit. She couldn't get an after-school job. She couldn't afford college.

She signed up for her high school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps after realizing the military could provide her with citizenship and the financial support needed to pursue higher education.

It was on Christmas Eve in 2015 when Susana's cousin, a captain in the Marine Corps, first heard about her plan to join the armed forces. She says he walked up to her that night and asked her why.

Her cousin explained that if someone adopted her, they could petition for her citizenship; he offered to do so a few days later. Susana thought his offer seemed too good to be true. Ultimately, it was.

Susana's parents remember how hard it was to let her go with him. Her father tells Teen Vogue he felt guilty for not being able to provide his daughter with the opportunities she deserved. "You feel frustrated, you feel incapable, you feel bad because you can't give your child what they need," he says, speaking Spanish. “Every kid wants to be stable.”


Susana on her way to elementary school

Susana, however, didn't find the stability she needed under her cousin's care. She encountered pain at every turn.

On February 14, 2018, when she was 17 and in 11th grade at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a former student armed with a semiautomatic rifle stepped out of an Uber and walked toward his unsuspecting peers and faculty.

Susana didn't know the school well enough to run out of it. She sat on the vinyl floor of her classroom in a floral dress. She remembers that, for a brief moment, she hoped to die, to escape the hell at home.

Seventeen people were killed that Valentine's Day. Susana, like countless others, knew it could have been prevented. She knew that it should have been prevented. So, she protested. She joined the burgeoning March for Our Lives movement.

“I needed that first step of speaking out,” Susana tells Teen Vogue, "of feeling empowered and emboldened to push me to do that in other areas of my life."

"We love Florida," she says. "But Florida doesn't love us."

She became a reliable source for reporters in Tampa looking to put a local face to a shooting that had roused the nation. Susana's name, in print or onscreen, became synonymous with tragedy.

Five years later, on July 28 of this year, Susana hitched up her trailer and left Florida for good. Her mother and father wouldn't go with her. They had worked for 16 years to obtain a fraction of the amenities that drove them to the US and feared losing it all.

How can a family that fought harder than most to stay together, that traveled hundreds of miles to find a comfortable life together, that longed for one another in every moment of separation — how is it that after all they sacrificed, they wind up apart?

Susana's answer is simple: "We love Florida," she says. "But Florida doesn't love us."

She spent her last night in Tampa at her parents' house. Her father tried to make her laugh. Her mother cried. Susana can't remember how long the three of them stood on the porch.

Her mother and father said a prayer for her and watched Susana's black pickup truck inch down the street toward the setting sun.

It was early afternoon when Susana arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She parked the truck at a nondescript campground, stepped out, and for a moment let the warmth of the desert wash over her.

She unfolded a beach chair and sat beneath her trailer's awning. She peeled a small, dimpled orange her father had given her. She took a bite. Hogar, dulce hogar: home, sweet home.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

Want more Teen Vogue immigration coverage?

The School Shooting That History Forgot


I Was Kidnapped After Coming to the U.S. Seeking Asylum


Ronald Reagan Sucked, Actually


The White Supremacist ‘Great Replacement Theory’ Has Deep Roots


There Is No Such Thing As a ‘Model’ Refugee