Summer means suffering: how workers survive intense Gulf heat

MANY DON'T

Mohamad Ali Harissi with Gulf correspondents
Sat, June 25, 2022


Like millions of other migrant labourers in the Gulf, one of the world's hottest and driest regions, construction worker B. Sajay does not welcome summer.

"We work in very high temperatures, this is the nature of our work. And yes, we suffer from severe heat," the Indian national told AFP in Muscat, the capital of Oman.

Although summer has only just begun, temperatures have already topped 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of the desert region, which is bearing the brunt of climate change.

Summer means suffering for anyone working outside, along with risks of dehydration, heat stroke and heart failure, and Gulf countries have banned working outside in the hottest hours of the day.

"The only thing that relieves us is the period of rest... in the middle of the day," said Sajay, who has been working on building sites for six years.

Last year, a World Health Organization report found the risk of death doubling or tripling on extremely hot days in Kuwait, with a disproportionate effect on non-Kuwaiti men, who make up the bulk of outdoor workers.

Workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are ubiquitous in the oil-rich Gulf countries, providing cheap labour and filling the jobs shunned by citizens in favour of high-paying government positions.

The imported labourers typically work on construction sites or collect rubbish, sweep the roads or deliver food.

- Unbearable even in the shade -

Between June and August, the oil-producing Gulf countries -- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman -- ban working outside for about four hours starting from noon.

Workers return to their dormitories or nestle in any shade they can find. But increasingly, it's unbearable even in the shade.

On the first day of summer on Tuesday, temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius in many places, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which recorded in May the hottest temperature of the month worldwide, 53.2 degrees Celsius (128.8 Fahrenheit).

"The last 10 years have been the hottest seen in Kuwait," said Kuwaiti meteorologist Issa Ramadan, adding: "Summer in Kuwait now extends to September, and sometimes to parts of October."

In Muscat, workers paving a road with asphalt covered their heads with colourful scarves and hats, while others found shade under date palms in the middle of a two-way street. Passersby held umbrellas to protect themselves from the scorching sun.

"In order to complete the eight-hour shift as early as possible, sometimes I start working from six in the morning, stop during the rest period, and then do two more hours," said Muhammad Mukarram, a Bangladeshi construction worker.

The region-wide problem has long drawn concern. Human rights groups have urged Qatar, host of this year's World Cup, to investigate workers' deaths connected to "heat distress".

There are no reliable figures on the deaths of migrant workers in Gulf countries, which do not release statistics and have regularly contested estimates released by NGOs and the media.

A recent study by the Vital Signs Partnership, a group of human rights organisations mainly from Asian countries, said that "as many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and southeast Asia die in the Gulf every year".

The March 2022 report said that more than half of the cases were recorded as "natural causes" or "cardiac arrest".

- Deadly heat -

In 2020, a study published in the journal Science Advances found that the Gulf has the hottest and most humid weather anywhere on Earth.

Scientists have calculated that even with shade and unlimited drinking water, a healthy adult will die if "wet-bulb" temperatures -- which take into account factors such as humidity, wind speed and cloud cover -- exceed 35 Celsius for six hours.

The study showed that there have only ever been 14 occasions on land when the measure exceeded 35C, all in the past two decades and eight of them in the Gulf.

Another study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that "within this century, parts of the... Gulf region could be hit with unprecedented events of deadly heat as a result of climate change".

"If we do not change course, these temperatures will keep rising over the years, reaching a level where outdoor human activities in the Gulf, such as the hajj pilgrimage, would be nearly impossible in summer," Julien Jreissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA, told AFP.

Saudi Arabia is preparing to welcome one million pilgrims next month to perform the annual Muslim rituals.

"The only solution is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels which are the main driver of climate change and transition gradually but quickly towards renewable energy," said Jreissati.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have pledged to reach net zero domestic carbon emissions in the coming decades, while expanding oil production.

bur/th-dm/kir

Inflation a thorn in the side of Bulgaria rose oil makers

Diana SIMEONOVA
Sat, June 25, 2022,


Business is not a bed of roses for Bulgaria's rose oil makers these days.

Made from Damask roses grown in the aptly named Rose Valley, the oil is a vital ingredient in the perfumes made by the world's top luxury brands such as Christian Dior, Estee Lauder and Chanel.

But a heatwave has slashed this year's harvest of rose petals, labour is hard to find and the global surge in energy prices has increased costs for a product so precious that it is dubbed "liquid gold".

This year's oil will be "considerably more expensive," Plamen Stankovski, a partner at rose oil producer and exporter Bulattars, told AFP in his distillery near Pavel Banya, in Bulgaria's famed Rose Valley.

Production costs for one kilogram of rose oil stood at around 6,000 euros ($6,300) in 2021, but they have surged by as much as 40 percent this year.

The price of petals alone doubled since last year, according to producers.

This means that a 4.5-kilo glass jar filled with the thick, golden-yellow oil could sell for more than 45,000 euros this year.

Bulgaria is the world's top rose oil maker along with Turkey and the distilleries to make the precious substance run on natural gas, diesel and fuel oil -- commodities whose prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

"The price of fuel has gone up two or even three times," Stankovski said.

- 'Not all roses' -

Small amounts of rose oil are used in almost every high-quality perfume -- not for its aroma, but because its fixative qualities help blend other ingredients and prolong the scent on the skin.

ALCHEMY

To produce it, huge amounts of petals are boiled in massive metal vats. The vapours are then distilled to separate the oil in a process nearly unchanged since the days of the Ottoman empire in the 17th century.

On his family's rose fields near Pavel Banya, Dimitar Dimitrov laments that a chronic labour shortage has plagued the sector for years.

"Picking is the most expensive as it is done solely by hand. If you don't pick the open roses today, tomorrow they're gone," said the 40-year-old, who plucked petals with his father and brother-in-law.

Fertiliser, fuel, ploughing and pruning have all become more expensive, he said.

With petal prices almost doubling, he said he hoped "this will cover at least our production costs so we don't end up in the red".

To make things worse, a heatwave scorched rose buds before they could open, slashing yields and reducing the picking season by half.

The flowers that survived excrete less oil. To extract one kilo of rose oil, 4,000 kilograms of petals are now needed, 15 percent more than usual.

"We are worried by the increased cost of our production," said exporter Filip Lissicharov, CEO of the Enio Bonchev Production company in the nearby village of Tarnichane.

"The picture is not all roses," he added.

More fuel is now needed to sustain production, which is interrupted by irregular petal deliveries, but the industry association's calls for fuel subsidies have thus far gone unanswered by the government.

Rose oil production is expected to drop below its usual annual haul of 2.5 tonnes.
- Certified as 'pure' -

Nearly 100 percent of the oil produced in Bulgaria is exported to places such as France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Lissicharov is anxious about how the market will react to higher prices.

"There's interest (from buyers)," he said. "But whether this interest will turn into deals depends on the price."

To prevent counterfeit products from entering the market, the oil is certified by a few designated labs, such as the state Bulgarska Rosa Laboratory in Sofia.

The product leaves the lab in hermetically-sealed aluminium flasks with a label that guarantees "100-percent pure and natural genuine Bulgarian rose oil".

Cutting corners, Stankovski said, is not an option: "Regardless of our troubles, we will preserve the high quality of the rose oil."

ds/deh/lth

In treat for stargazers, five planets moving into rare alignment

In a year of spectacular astronomical events, five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — are aligning with a crescent moon. Here's the how and the why.



A rare treat for stargazers in June 2022: Five planets align with a waning crescent moon

Over the past few months, our solar system has offered us a number of visual treats. Earlier in June, we had a strawberry supermoon. And in April, four planets aligned — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — almost perfectly and were visible to the naked eye.

Now, in this final stretch of June, five of our closest planetary neighbors are aligned in perfect order of the solar system.

And not only that, but it has been possible to see them in the morning sky without a telescope, and for a short while they were accompanied by a waning crescent moon.

You can still see them for a few days.

A rare five-planet alignment

The last time these planets aligned like this was almost 20 years ago, in 2004, and it won't happen again until 2040.

It's rare because the planets all have different orbits of the sun.

Mercury, as the closest planet to the sun, orbits our star in the shortest time at just 88 days. Mercury is followed by Venus, which takes about 225 days. Next in line is Earth, which takes an average of 365 days and Mars takes 687 days. Then there's a big jump: Jupiter takes 12 years and Saturn takes 29 years to orbit the sun.

So, they are all orbiting at different speeds. And they rotate at different speeds and their orbits have slightly different shapes as well. All that makes it hard to get them lined up at the same time.

Even rarer are eight-planet alignments. Some research suggests eight-planet alignments happen roughly every 170 years, but that depends on your definition of a "perfect alignment" and some of it hasn't happened for 1,000 years.
How and when can I see the five planets align?

It's a very early morning call, pre-dawn in fact, but astronomers say you won't regret it.

Stargazers in the northern hemisphere should look to the horizon from east to southeast. You should be able to see the planets without a telescope or binoculars as they will be exceptionally bright to the eye.

If you do have a telescope or binoculars, you may even be able to see Uranus between Venus and our Moon.

In April, a four-planet parade was seen vertically in the southern hemisphere and in more of a diagonal or horizontal alignment in the northern hemisphere

Break up of a planetary constellation

This five-planet alignment is part of the same process we saw in April and is one of the moments when this special constellation starts to break up.

Over the coming months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and Venus will start to appear more and more spread out across the morning sky, says NASA on its What's Up blog. Come September, Venus and Saturn "will make their exits as morning objects," it says.
April also saw a planetary 'collision'

Some called it a collision, but what happened in April is known as a "conjunction."

A conjunction is when two planets or a planet and a star appear to be very close to one another when we look at them from the ground up.

And in April, it appeared as though Venus and Jupiter had got so close that they might even collide. But it was just an optical illusion.

In reality, when planets are in conjunction, they remain many millions of kilometers (miles) apart, but their orbits appear to bring them closer together. And, that's a magical thing to observe.

Edited by: Sonia Phalnikar

WHY WE FLY BY PLANETS, MOONS AND ASTEROIDS

Spacefaring double-act

Flybys? Nothing new. But two flybys of the same planet a day apart? That's special. In a first for space, two probes flew by Venus in August — BepiColombo, headed for Mercury, and Solar Orbiter on its way to the sun. They wouldn't make it to their goals without flybys and gravity assists. Sadly, these two didn't snap each other. They were 575,000 kilometers (357,000 miles) apart!

12345678

MONOCULTURALISM (FRENCH OR ENGLISH)
Quebec's premier rejects multiculturalism as province celebrates Fête nationale
CBC/Radio-Canada - Yesterday 

© Rowan Kennedy/CBCMaram Makhlouf, a Grade 6 student in Montreal, disagrees with Premier François Legault’s assertion that multiculturalism is a threat to the French language.

Maram Makhlouf, a Grade 6 student, moved to Quebec from Tunisia about three years ago and on Thursday she was in a Montreal park with her family celebrating the province's national holiday, or Fête nationale.

She said the day is "really important to me even if I am not from here."

But she doesn't agree with Premier François Legault's assertion earlier in the day that multiculturalism is a threat to the French language and that "we need to fight against multiculturalism, but not because we are against others."

Makhlouf attended school in French while in Tunisia and, she explained, she has been mastering the language while here in Quebec. It's a language that is easy enough for new immigrants to learn, she said.

"I think it's really important to live with different languages. I speak English. I speak French, and I think that helps me a lot in my life," said.

Legault said Quebec is a small nation that speaks French and "we should be proud of that."

Rather than multiculturalism, he said he prefers "interculturalism" as new immigrants are expected to integrate and adapt to Quebec culture. He said the French language is the cornerstone of that integration.

"It's important that we don't put all cultures on the same level; that's why we oppose multiculturalism," Legault said.


Legault said Quebec's position is at odds with the federal government's approach, which pushes for multiculturalism.

The comments came a day after his French language minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, addressed the prestigious l'Academie francaise in Paris.

He described Canadian multiculturalism as a barrier to Quebec's efforts to become a distinct nation.

Some Quebecers believe Legault is stirring up this debate in an election year as a way to attract the separatist vote.

"Trashing multiculturalism in francophone Quebec is a political winner, at least for Legault, especially when he focuses on francophone voters who live outside of Montreal," said Daniel Béland, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

"For the most part, it's not risky for him politically to do that."

Legault's comments come on the heels of his own rejection of systemic racism in Quebec, and controversial legislation his government has passed like Bill 21, which prohibits many public sector employees from wearing religious symbols such as a hijab at work.

His rejection of multiculturalism in this context may stir even more worry and confusion in some groups, but for many Quebec separatists, multiculturalism is "kind of a dirty word. They think it's not compatible with their vision of the Quebec nation," said Béland.

Béland said there's a long history of defiance toward multiculturalism, which became federal policy in the early 1970s under Pierre Trudeau. Many separatists thought it was part of a plot to marginalize francophones within Canada, he said.

Melissa Claisse, spokesperson for the Welcome Collective, a group that advocates for newcomers, said she was shocked to hear Legault's comments.

She said Legault's assertion that not all cultures are on the same level was "very offensive," especially to those who come from all over the world and identify as Quebecers.

"I haven't met any refugee claimants who don't want to learn French," she said. "I think the vast majority of them, of course, want to speak the language of the place in which they are going to settle."

IN ENGLISH CANADA THE FORCES OF MONOCULTURALISM ARE ANTI CATHOLIC, ANTI FRENCH, ANTI IMMIGRANT, WHITE REACTIONARIES USUALLY WITH ENGLISH AS THEIR ONLY LANGUAGE.

IN QUEBEC IT IS PRO CATHOLIC PRO FRENCH ISOLATIONISTS  AUTHORITARIANS WITH FRENCH AS THEIR MOTHER TONGUE

AS MUCH AS THEY HATE MULTICULTURALISM BOTH HATE BILIGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM EVEN MORE

Six First Nations chiefs call for end to New Brunswick commission on systemic racism
Yesterday 

© Provided by The Canadian PressSix First Nations chiefs call for end to

 New Brunswick commission on systemic racism

FREDERICTON — The six chiefs of New Brunswick's Wolastoqey Nation are calling on Premier Blaine Higgs to scrap his commission on systemic racism.

In a statement issued Friday morning, the Mi'kmaq chiefs said the premier will be wasting time and money if he allows the commission to continue because it lacks independence.

"Provincial government departments and institutions were built to racially discriminate against the Indigenous people of this province," wrote Chief Ross Perley of the Tobique First Nation.

"There seems to be no will from the Higgs government to acknowledge it or fix it."

The call to scuttle the commission comes amid a dispute over a draft interim report, which was shelved in April when the Higgs government raised concerns that the commissioner had not met with many government departments to learn of work that was underway.

The Mi'kmaq chiefs decided to release the draft report on Monday.

Written by commissioner Manju Varma, the draft report recommends the creation of a Indigenous-led public inquiry into systemic racism in the province.

That's something the chiefs have been demanding for the past two years


In a statement released Monday, the chiefs said they would no longer work with the commission because the government was interfering with its work.

As for Varma, she issued a statement saying the report released by the chiefs was a preliminary draft. She said she is working on a final report that will be released this fall.

But controversy flared again on Tuesday when a senior policy advisor resigned, saying he was worried that the commission was losing its independence.

Robert Tay-Burroughs posted his resignation letter on social media on Tuesday, saying he has been troubled "by the false pretenses" under which the office was doing its work.

"The limits placed by external forces on what we can and cannot say ... has compromised our already fragile independence," he wrote.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn later said she had no idea what Tay-Burroughs was talking about. She said no one in the government told Varma to shelve her report.

On Friday, Chief Patricia Bernard of the Madawaska First Nation said the commission "has been corrupted by government interference."

"Worse than that, his minister is now offering to spend more money on employees after a key staffer quit. Higgs doesn't know when to stop digging."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 24, 2022.

Kevin Bissett, The Canadian Press

HEDGING THEIR BETS

AT&T, Walmart, Citi, and other megacorporations bankrolled a wave of state abortion bans

ngaudiano@insider.com 

(Nicole Gaudiano,Tanya Dua,Kimberly Leonard,Andrea Michelson,Sindhu Sundar,Rebecca Ungarino,Angela Wang)

 - Yesterday 

Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/Insider

Walmart, Exxon, and Citigroup each gave about $300,000 to politicians backing abortion bans.
AT&T is the biggest corporate backer, giving politicians behind abortion "trigger laws" more than $1 million.

Major corporations far outspent anti-abortion groups in bankrolling these politicians in 13 states.

This story is part of an investigative series from Insider examining the demise of abortion rights in so-called "trigger law" states. It was originally published on May 12, 43 days before the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that abortion is no longer a constitutionally protected right. Read all the stories from "The First 13" here.

The last time you filled up at Exxon, grabbed paper towels at Walmart, or paid your AT&T bill, your dollars may have been used to fund an expected wave of state abortion bans.

An Insider investigation found that contributions from dozens of well-known corporations or their affiliated PACs played a decisive role in bankrolling the lawmakers behind 13 state "trigger laws," written to take effect immediately if the landmark Roe v. Wade decision is overturned.

The state legislators and governors responsible for these laws, passed between 2005 and 2022, are overwhelmingly Republican, and they relied heavily on Republican parties and political action committees for campaign contributions. But they were also backed by companies that are part of your daily life, such as AT&T, Comcast Corp., CVS Caremark, Citigroup, Walmart, Anheuser-Busch, Exxon Mobil, and UPS, which each gave more than $190,000 to the effort — in some cases, far more.

Some of these familiar brands have been endorsed by celebrities who are women's-rights advocates, including the feminist icons Serena Williams and Rosario Dawson, who have each served as paid spokespeople for AT&T. AT&T gave more than $1 million to politicians behind the bills in all 13 trigger-law states.

The singer John Legend, who teamed up with Walgreens on a campaign for COVID-19-vaccine awareness, once suggested Hollywood should boycott Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and other states that pass restrictive abortion laws.

"I don't know if it definitely will work, but I know that money talks," Legend said in 2019. Walgreens gave more than $96,000 to backers of the bills in seven states.

Some of the companies are known as conservative political donors, such as the free-market-focused Koch Industries and its subsidiaries, whose owner bankrolled the effort to pack the courts with conservatives, the tax-services and technology firm Ryan LLC, and Clay Cooley GMC Investments, whose principals have spoken out against abortion rights. Other companies' contribution decisions may have had nothing to do with abortion. But their contributions still played a significant role in sustaining the legislative sponsors of abortion trigger laws and the governors who signed them into law.

"I confidently — in large part — assume the intent wasn't to enable an extremist social agenda across many issues," said Jen Stark, the senior director of corporate strategy at the Tara Health Foundation, which funds reproductive and maternal health. "But at the same time, women and other communities have now become the collateral damage of companies not minding who they were propping up."

Trigger laws have been enacted in Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. The laws impose statewide abortion bans, with narrow exemptions, if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, which has been expected since Politico published a leaked draft of the conservative majority's opinion on the matter.

Insider used FollowTheMoney.org data, based on state and federal election filings, to examine all political donations to 444 state lawmakers who sponsored or cosponsored the laws and the 13 governors who signed them. The analysis covered donations for the election cycle immediately before the passage of each law, as well as all subsequent cycles.

The analysis found that corporate contributions to these politicians eclipsed those from anti-abortion organizations.

The Texas Alliance for Life, Idaho Chooses Life, and other anti-abortion groups gave about $60,000 combined to those legislative sponsors and governors. More than 170 companies gave more than that.

The telecom giant AT&T donated nearly $1.2 million, the Insider analysis found — more than any other company. The Friedkin Group, a consortium of companies that includes one of the largest independent Toyota distributors, was next, with contributions totaling more than $1.05 million.

AT&T and Pfizer were the only two companies that backed politicians behind trigger laws in all 13 states.

Empowerment of women, an AT&T 'core value'

Many of the corporate contributions stand in sharp contrast to each company's public stance when it comes to gender equity and women's empowerment. Take AT&T, which celebrated Women's Equality Day last year "to reflect on the many challenges women in our society still face to achieve equity." In its 2020 diversity, equity, and inclusion report, CEO John Stankey called "gender equity and the empowerment of women" one of AT&T's "core values."

An AT&T spokeswoman said the company was focused on broadband and workforce-related policies and that the company's PACs had contributed more to politicians "who voted to enact laws protecting abortion access in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court" than to those who voted to restrict it.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has touted the financial-services firm's efforts to achieve gender equity in the male-dominated industry, saying she's "very optimistic" about that goal. Following passage of Texas' ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, the bank offered to cover travel costs for US employees who must travel out of state to receive an abortion. But Insider found that Citi had donated about $285,000 to state legislators who sponsored trigger laws in four states and to governors who signed them into law in five states.

AT&T, Citigroup, and other companies bear responsibility for the politicians they support, Michelle Kuppersmith, the executive director of Campaign for Accountability, said.

"When AT&T gives money to a politician who then signs a trigger law, maybe AT&T did not intend for that to happen, but that politician is only able to perpetuate their power because of AT&T and other corporations' support," she told Insider.

Other findings show contributions that appear to work against corporations' stated values or, in some cases, against their own business interests.

Amazon and Microsoft have staked out leadership roles in responding to the expected reversal of Roe v. Wade, pledging publicly to assist employees with travel expenses so they can access abortions if needed. Yet each company shows up in Insider's analysis. Amazon and Microsoft have donated $205,900 and $95,500, respectively, to lawmakers behind state bans.

Likewise, many top US law firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright, Adams and Reese, Locke Lord, Hunton Andrews Kurth, and Vinson & Elkins LLP, have developed women's career-advancement initiatives and diversity programs — yet they or their associated political action committees were each among the companies that donated more than $100,000 to politicians behind trigger laws.

Contributors in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, including hospitals, drug companies, pharmacies, and medical associations, contributed $14.6 million to politicians behind trigger laws that could lead to criminal penalties for abortion providers in most trigger-law states. Among those contributors are companies that have marketed birth control — Pfizer, which gave about $341,000, and Merck, which gave about $205,000 and spun off its contraceptive portfolio last year — that is often dispensed through clinics that offer abortions. Pfizer also markets Cytotec, a drug used in medication abortions.

Major corporate players in low-wage industries already struggling with recruitment and retention show up as influential donors in Insider's analysis. These companies may face significant new disruption and turnover as employees in trigger-law states grapple with unplanned pregnancies. Walmart, a major employer in trigger-law states, is also one of the largest contributors, donating nearly $315,000 to trigger-law backers. McDonald's and the fast-food corporation Yum Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, are dominant trigger-state employers that gave lesser amounts.
'By no means a blanket endorsement'

The findings raise questions about corporate responsibility as companies face increased scrutiny for their role in politics. After the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, major corporations halted contributions to the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. More recently, Disney CEO Bob Chapek criticized state legislation restricting instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools, and he announced the company would halt donations to state political campaigns there. The move provoked sharp backlash, with the Florida Legislature stripping Disney of its special tax status in April.

Half of US voters in a Morning Consult and Politico survey conducted after Politico broke the news of the Supreme Court's plans to strike down Roe said companies should speak out on abortion access. Only one-third of those surveyed disagreed.


Corporate America and law firms need to be "far more sophisticated," said Michele Goodwin, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.

"They have to do a more thorough job of unpacking what the candidates they support are actually up to," Goodwin added. "They can't just say they're writing checks for a candidate based on a single issue."

Publicists for the celebrities Williams, Dawson, and Legend did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

Very few companies responded. Those that did said they contributed to members of both political parties.

"Past political contributions are by no means a blanket endorsement of an individual's position on every issue, nor are they an indication of where we'll direct our future support," Mike DeAngelis, the executive director of corporate communications for CVS Health, said.

Companies have long rationalized that giving to politicians in both political parties gives them more access, said Shelley Alpern, the director of corporate engagement at Rhia Ventures, an investor in reproductive-health companies. But the risks of corporate giving are increasing with the polarization of politics, she said, and the discernment and oversight these contributions require have not kept pace.

In an effort to tweak the tax code, for example, companies end up contributing to politicians promoting an agenda that often conflicts with the company's organizational values, making them look like they're hypocrites, indifferent, or simply not paying attention, she said.

"If you're going to spend the money on a really delicious pizza with all the meat toppings," she said, "you're getting all the cholesterol and heart attack that you paid for as well."

'Sophisticated donors know'

Since Politico published the leaked draft of the Supreme Court majority opinion, many politicians have released statements reaffirming their anti-abortion bona fides — including those responsible for state trigger laws.

"I have advocated for the reversal of Roe v. Wade all my political career," Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas who signed his state's trigger law in 2019, tweeted. "The leak from someone within the court is reprehensible and should lead to an investigation but I do hope the court returns authority to the states."

Where lawmakers stand on abortion isn't typically a secret. In many cases, it's a central part of their brand and shouldn't be a surprise to their donors.

In states with trigger laws, a Republican candidate or officeholder "who isn't 100% pro-life is the equivalent of a pro-life Democrat in the Northeast or West Coast," Nick Maddux, a vice president at Axiom Strategies who has consulted for GOP candidates across the country, said.

"They don't exist or are being actively primaried," he wrote in an email. "Candidates and officeholders in those states are not hiding how pro-life they are. Sophisticated donors know exactly who they are supporting and what they stand for."

Alpern, who works with investors to advocate for stronger corporate reproductive- and maternal-healthcare policies, agreed that it would be "disingenuous" for donors to feign ignorance on this issue.

"Do they know that they're giving to the most extreme sponsors of these bills?" she asked. "It certainly is easy information to find."

Corrections: An earlier version of this story relied on an inaccurate list of trigger-law sponsors in Tennessee. The contribution totals have been updated to reflect the correct list of legislators. This article also included Merck in a list of pharmaceutical companies that market birth-control drugs. Merck spun off its contraceptive portfolio into a new company last year.

NYC Library board reverses removal of Pride displays for children following outrage

Yesterday 

A New York library system has reversed its decision to remove all Pride displays and Pride-related books from display in children's sections. The initial move generated controversy amid a nationwide wave of legislative efforts to remove LGBTQ books and content from schools and libraries.

The Smithtown Library on Long Island had said it would remove the displays and books after the library board voted 4-2 to approve the motion. The board hosted an emergency meeting late Thursday following backlash, and decided to reverse the decision and issue an apology.

"The majority of the board recognizes that our earlier decision was made without the time, care and due diligence that a decision of this type deserves and that it was the wrong decision," the board said in a statement. "Moving forward, we will commit our collective energies toward ensuring that we get the advice and guidance needed from our library administrators, staff, outside experts, legal counsel and, most importantly, from Smithtown residents before we make important decisions regarding our library."


© The Washington Post via Getty Images, FILEChildren books that are fighting for survival at public schools because of their LGBTQ content are displayed at the annual Pride Town Hall at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Md., May 21, 2022.

The move came as the nation grapples with ongoing legislative efforts to remove LGBTQ books from libraries and schools or ban LGBTQ content in some classrooms.

Republicans have introduced more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills and at least 9 states have passed one into law.

The initial decision from the board would have kept Pride month displays in teen and adult areas of the library. Books on the LGBTQ communities would still have been "part of the library's children's collection and can be checked out by anyone wishing to do so."

The board's decision was quickly condemned by the likes of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York Library Association.

"For many LGBTQ+ youth, libraries are the only safe, affirmative, and welcoming space during these formative years of their personal development," the NYLA said in a statement. "Libraries, for our LGBTQ+ youth, are the first place where they see themselves for exactly who they are without retribution."

The statement added, "The removal of Pride displays and all related materials on display further perpetuates the cycle of shame and silence of our LGBTQ+ youth."

Hochul used the news to reaffirm her support of LGBTQ residents in the state.

"To LGBTQ+ New Yorkers: We stand with you, we support you, & you are welcome here," Hochul said in a post on Twitter.

Smithtown Library representatives did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

ATHEIST HAS CIVIL MARRIAGE
Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ Gets Married To Liza Mundy

Shakiel Mahjouri - Thursday

The newlyweds wrote their own vows for the ceremony. Robert Picardo, who portrayed the Doctor on "Star Trek", served as the officiant for the wedding. Nye, 66, embedded blue stones belonging to his father in his cufflinks. Mundy, 61, wore a jewelled belt with her sleeveless gown.

Mundy and Nye first connected over email. Nye reached out to Mundy after she mentioned his cryptanalyst mother Jacqueline Jenkins-Nye in her book Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II.

ANGRY MISOGYNIST WHITE POWER GUY

Former Canadian Nationalist Party leader guilty of assaulting 2 women in Regina

Dayne Patterson - Yesterday

© Nationalist.ca

Travis Patron, the former leader of the defunct Canadian Nationalist Party, has been convicted of two counts of assault causing bodily harm.

The former leader of the defunct Canadian Nationalist Party has been found guilty of assaulting two women in Regina in November 2019.

A 12-person jury found Travis Patron guilty of two counts of assault causing bodily harm at the Regina's Court of Queen's Bench on Thursday after four days of trial.

Patron was originally charged with aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and breach of probation after police said they were called to Victoria Avenue in the early morning hours on Nov. 2.

In an interview with CBC News on Friday, Crown prosecutor Ryan Snyder described the nearly week-long trial.

The case

Snyder said the women, Allison Tokarz and Amanda Ruschiensky, were enjoying a night out when they met Patron at a Regina bar.

When the night ended, they were outside of a condo building when Patron asked them whether they would like a ride home. When they declined "he ended up getting upset and he struck … Ruschiensky outside and then he struck her again inside," Snyder said.

When Tokarz followed Ruschiensky inside, she was knocked down and fractured her wrist. Ruschiensky was later diagnosed with a concussion and missed almost three months of work.

"[Ruschiensky] suffered for quite some time with her vision and headaches and the like, struggling with bright light," Snyder said. "It had a significant emotional impact on her as well."

Snyder says Patron tried to plead no contest early in the trial believing that he hadn't injured the women.

Patron didn't call any witnesses or provide evidence in his defence, Snyder said, and made the "ludicrous" claim to the jury that he wasn't given an opportunity to cross-examine the complainants, only cross-examining the third witness, a Regina Police Service constable.

When Patron was asked by Justice Beverly Klatt whether he wanted to cross-examine the complainants, he declined to answer, Snyder said.

Patron also claimed the charges were malicious prosecution, which Snyder called "unfounded."

Both of those claims, Snyder said, were subject to a jury correction.

It took the jury about 90 minutes to come to a decision — longer than Synder thought it would take.

Patron is set to be sentenced on July 20.

He had also been charged with wilful promotion of hate after an allegedly anti-Semetic video was posted on YouTube. That case remains in the courts.

The Canadian Nationalist Party, which Patron founded and led into the 2019 federal election, folded at the end of March 2022.

Urban farm in the middle of Calgary industrial area celebrates milestone

Helen Pike -CBC

Instead of a red ribbon cutting, Highfield Farm celebrated the opening of its greenhouse by cutting a garland crafted from greenery and weeds.

Thanks to a $227,000 grant from the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF), this farm can extend its growing season and begin its bigger mission: building community.

The project is a partnership between the farmers, the City of Calgary and the Compost Council of Canada.

"For us, the ability to grow year-round, extend our outdoor season, and have a safe indoor space for us to gather as a community and for education is absolutely invaluable," said farm operations manager Heather Ramshaw.


© Helen Pike/CBC

Highfield Farm operations manager Heather Ramshaw said opening the greenhouse is an important step in their mission.

Highfield Farm took over more than 15 acres of land in one of Calgary's industrial areas back in 2019. The land is nestled between 11 Street S.E. and the Deerfoot right-of-way. Years ago, Ramshaw said it was used as a farmer's market, but sat vacant.

"The weeds took over," she said, laughing.

The first task was regenerating the land — ensuring the soil could be productive and healthy after years of invasive overgrowth and illegal dumping. Then, last year Ramshaw said they got productive, planting seeds, growing and harvesting 2,000 pounds of food.

"It's really quite a remarkable thing knowing that a Calgary Food Bank will receive produce from this marvellous building that other organizations will as well," said Compost Council of Canada Executive Director Susan Antler.

Half of the greenhouse will serve as a community space, and the remainder will be turned into a year-round growing site. The team at Highfield is dreaming up different ways to grow.

"We'll have some permanent beds along the edges, some movable beds," Ramshaw said. "We'd like to see some aquaponics in here, maybe some hydroponics, maybe some aeroponics."

Once the beds are built Ramshaw hopes to raise the farm's growth potential to 6,000 pounds this season and to grow more than 10,000 pounds of produce next season.

When Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra was first elected in 2010, he and other council members worked on the Calgary Eats! Action Plan, approving the document in 2012.

The food action plan aimed to make healthy food accessible to all. Much of the plan played out by reducing red tape, and in this case connecting underutilized land to the people who could make it thrive.

Carra said these are the types of projects he envisioned at that time.

But much of the ideas planted a decade later are still slow to grow, he said.

"Nothing moves fast enough, right?" Carra said.

"I wish we could snap our fingers and some of the empty office towers downtown were vertical farms … It'll happen, I just wish it happened faster. But, you know, right now it's exciting to see these green shoots emerging."