"There Are Girls Worried About Staying Alive": This Woman Shaved Her Head Following The Death Of Mahsa Amini, And She's Not Alone


Tue, September 27, 2022

Women across the world are cutting their hair in protest after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died while in custody of the morality police in Tehran.

Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP via Getty Images
In Iran, where women are expected to completely cover their hair and wear loose-fitting clothing for modesty, Mahsa was arrested for having an "improper hijab" and wearing tight pants, BuzzFeed News reported. Following her death, authorities claimed she had a heart attack and fell into a coma, but Mahsa's family says she had no preexisting health issues and that her body was bruised when they saw it.

Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP via Getty Images
Many reject authorities' official account of Mahsa's death. So, fueled by rage and a lack of faith in the government's honesty, protesters have begun spreading awareness of the movement online, including Su — otherwise known as Drag0n Mistress — who uses she/they pronouns.

@drag0nmistress

Cutting my hair for women everywhere♬ original sound - Su

In a video viewed over 2.6 million times, Su introduces themself with a shakey voice while clutching clippers between their hands. Then, they explain the reality protesters have endured since Mahsa's death — 76 people have been killed by Iranian security, and an internet blackout surges on, making it hard for those outside the country to know what's going on. "They're all protesting the death of Mahsa," Su says in the video. "I'm tired that this is something happening in 2022. ... These women are just human beings. There are girls our age who are in their early 20s who are worried about staying alive."

TikTok: @drag0nmistress / Via tiktok.com
"Supporting [the people of] Iran right now is supporting all women — it's being against abuse," Su concluded while raising the clippers to her head and cutting. "These men and women right now are risking their lives so other women can be safe, and alive, and have basic rights. To not be beaten and murdered. Listen to what's happening."

TikTok: @drag0nmistress / Via tiktok.com
To learn more about the significance of cutting their hair, BuzzFeed reached out to Su, who explained they feel connected to the people of Iran after growing up in a household with an abusive family member who largely kept them from the outside world. "It was extremely sexist," Su remembered. "[The family member insinuated] being a woman would never amount to anything."

To help remove her sister and mother from the household, Su wrote a letter to the abusive family member on their behalf, requesting that they move from their birthplace and home in Bangladesh to India to seek better education. She succeeded in this, but misogyny followed.

"The discrimination I faced in both Bangladesh and India [for] being a girl was very difficult and it was constantly brought up," Su said. "It was very obvious that that was something I'd have to deal with for the rest of my life."
"As I think about my grief and the things I've experienced in my life, I think, 'Wow, I escaped.' I was able to use my words and connections to escape and get out of those situations, [but] there are still people suffering to make it one more day. For them, it doesn't end. For them it just keeps going," Su said.

TikTok: @drag0nmistress / Via tiktok.com
"Watching how people who look kind of like me get together — the men, the women — out in the streets dying just to make it safer for the generation that comes after them. Their daughters, their sisters, their moms. It's a big thing," Su said. "And it feels awkward and strange and awful to sit here on the other side of the world, alive and not having that constant threat on me while they're struggling."

So, to take part in the protests happening in Italy...

Stefano Mazzola / Getty Images

...Canada...

Anadolu Agency / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

...Greece...

Milos Bicanski / Getty Images

...Turkey...

Yasin Akgul / AFP via Getty Images

...Germany...

Sean Gallup / Getty Images

...New York City...

Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images

...and more, Su decided to cut her hair. "[Hair] is a big part of us — it's growing out of us. If we are soil, it's almost like [hair] is our roots," she said. "[Cutting my hair] brought up so much because even in this moment, I'm cutting my hair in a bathroom while women are trying to cut their hair with dull scissors. It was just so heavy. But for me, it was just complete grief of knowing that my roots aren't OK. Me, I'm not OK because people that look like me or sound like me, or human beings in general, are dying."

"How do I show solidarity?" she considered before shaving. "How do I get people to listen to this? How do I get people to talk about this more?"

"For me, it was letting go of a part of myself. It was showing that I was grieving over all these deaths and everything that's going on," they said. "I feel like some things are hard to communicate through language, and I wanted a way to communicate the gravity and depth of what was happening and bring attention by doing this."

Nurphoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Now that people are listening, Su hopes action is taken. "I have this desperate, deep belief that if we can stand with this right now, if we can stand with the people of Iran...and make a point that 'Hey, this isn't OK. We can't treat human beings like this. Every human deserves to be protected by their government, they deserve to feel safe in their homes and wear what they want and choose their right to what they want to have faith in.' Then we could make a difference and have a domino effect where maybe other countries will start being afraid of treating their people like this."

"Bad people get away with doing bad things when no one is watching. But if we are all watching together — if we are all paying attention to this — then that's more reasons for those same people to be afraid and not get away with it."

Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images
To help those impacted, you can donate to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

And if you'd like to keep up with Su, you can follow them on TikTok and Instagram.

‘Holy Spider’ Star Zar Amir Ebrahimi Was Banned From Iranian Cinema and Sentenced to Prison. Now She’s a Lead Actress Oscar Contender

Clayton Davis
Tue, September 27, 2022 


Zar Amir Ebrahimi (also known as Zahra) should be basking in the glow of her best actress win at Cannes for “Holy Spider.” Instead, she’s in a reflective mood when she sits down with Variety for a Zoom interview, recounting the tumultuous 16 years that culminated with earning a prominent role in one of the best-reviewed movies of 2022.

But before the red carpets and splashy premieres, this Iranian actress’s career was derailed and her personal life was upended following the release of a sex tape. As punishment, she faced possible stoning and lashing in her native country. Despite all that she endured, Ebrahimi has persevered and Hollywood is taking notice.

Ironically, Ebrahimi was never supposed to appear in “Holy Spider.”

She signed on to be the casting director for director Ali Abbasi as he put together the ensemble for “Holy Spider,” which tells the true story of Saeed Hanaei, nicknamed the “Spider Killer,” who targeted sex workers in 2000 and 2001, believing he was cleansing the city of moral corruption. Ebrahimi met with nearly 500 people for three years to fill out the cast. This included acclaimed theater actor Mehdi Bajestani, who plays the psychologically disturbed Saeed, and debut performer Arash Ashtiani as local news reporter Sharifi, who receives calls from the killer on the whereabouts of his newest victim. However, Abbasi was struggling to find the right person to play Rahimi, a female journalist who descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate the murders. At various points, Ebrahimi, who acted in soap operas in her country before being pressured to flee, expressed interest to Abbasi in playing the role. But he would dismiss her suggestion, telling her, “You are too soft. This journalist, I see, is not you.”

Eventually, they found a promising Iranian actress, but a few days before shooting in Jordan was set to begin she dropped out of the project, fearing the movie was going to be too controversial. Iran has a bustling film business (Asghar Farhadi has won two international feature Oscars for the country in recent years). However, it also has strict censorship, ones that prevented “Holy Spider” from filming in Iran due to the country’s rules, among them, that women cannot be depicted without headscarves.

“It looks at the dark side of the soul,” Abbasi says of “Holy Spider,” which was announced as the international feature submission for Denmark for this year’s Academy Awards.

The director was also interested in exploring the social conditions and reactions that allowed Saeed to justify his killing spree by using religion. The repressive society explored in “Holy Spider” was all too familiar to Ebrahimi, who fled Iran in 2006 after becoming the center of media attention for appearing in a sex tape. It was an intimate encounter between two consenting adults that was filmed privately in 2004. Then two years later, a friend called Ebrahimi to tell her a video was circulating online, and that the woman it showed appeared to be her.

Participating in an explicit sex tape is a serious crime under Iranian law. Ebrahimi denied her involvement at the time to the authorities and local media. “I had to deny; otherwise, they were going to put me in prison or even worse,” she says.

Iranian authorities accused her of leaking the tape herself to get “more famous,” something she says she did not do. However, having now left Iran, for the first time, Ebrahimi admits that she is the woman in the video. And according to Ebrahimi, the authorities eventually found the man who leaked the tape, an actor in Iran she declines to name. That man was sentenced to six years in prison after the police discovered an extensive archive on his computer of images, videos and conversations with girls asking them for nude pictures. However, three months into his sentence, he was released, gaining even more notoriety than before. Iranian citizens even raised funds for him after his cancer diagnosis and sent him to Germany to receive special treatment.

“I think the people even appreciated what he did,” Ebrahimi says, tearfully. “They let him work. They let him get out of prison. I faced lashes.”

On the day Ebrahimi’s court trial for participating in the sex tape was set to start, a second case against the actress was opened. Police and officials began interrogating former colleagues and friends of Ebrahimi, asking for photos showing her in any sexualized setting or even simply touching another man. As part of that investigation, the prosecutors planned to present five men who would testify that they had premarital relations with Ebrahimi. Before they appeared in court, Ebrahimi fled Iran and never returned. The government found her guilty in absentia and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison, 99 lashes with a leather strap, and banned from appearing in Iranian films and television. In response to the scandal, a bill by the Parliament of Iran was passed soon after, making the production of sexually explicit media, even for private consumption, an offense punishable by death.

“Holy Spider”

Following its Cannes debut, Utopia bought U.S. distribution rights to “Holy Spider” and screened the suspense thriller at several festivals, including Telluride and Toronto. Ebrahimi says she’s savoring the experience after the long struggle she has endured and she’s hoping that her ordeal can inspire others.

“We have a cultural problem in Iran,” she says. “If I have a message for any girl or boy, around the world or in Iran – speak, speak, we need to speak.”

What are tactical nuclear weapons? An international security expert explains and assesses what they mean for the war in Ukraine

Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, Professor of International Relations, 

USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

THE CONVERSATION
Wed, September 28, 2022 

This Russian short-range cruise missile, the Iskander-K, can carry nuclear warheads for several hundred miles. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service photo via AP

Tactical nuclear weapons have burst onto the international stage as Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing battlefield losses in eastern Ukraine, has threatened that Russia will “make use of all weapon systems available to us” if Russia’s territorial integrity is threatened. Putin has characterized the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against the West, which he said wants to weaken, divide and destroy Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden criticized Putin’s overt nuclear threats against Europe. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg downplayed the threat, saying Putin “knows very well that a nuclear war should never be fought and cannot be won.” This is not the first time Putin has invoked nuclear weapons in an attempt to deter NATO.

I am an international security scholar who has worked on and researched nuclear restraint, nonproliferation and costly signaling theory applied to international relations for two decades. Russia’s large arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, which are not governed by international treaties, and Putin’s doctrine of threatening their use have raised tensions, but tactical nuclear weapons are not simply another type of battlefield weapon.

Tactical by the numbers

Tactical nuclear weapons, sometimes called battlefield or nonstrategic nuclear weapons, were designed to be used on the battlefield – for example, to counter overwhelming conventional forces like large formations of infantry and armor. They are smaller than strategic nuclear weapons like the warheads carried on intercontinental ballistic missiles.

While experts disagree about precise definitions of tactical nuclear weapons, lower explosive yields, measured in kilotons, and shorter-range delivery vehicles are commonly identified characteristics. Tactical nuclear weapons vary in yields from fractions of 1 kiloton to about 50 kilotons, compared with strategic nuclear weapons, which have yields that range from about 100 kilotons to over a megaton, though much more powerful warheads were developed during the Cold War.

For reference, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons, so some tactical nuclear weapons are capable of causing widespread destruction. The largest conventional bomb, the Mother of All Bombs or MOAB, that the U.S. has dropped has a 0.011-kiloton yield.

Delivery systems for tactical nuclear weapons also tend to have shorter ranges, typically under 310 miles (500 kilometers) compared with strategic nuclear weapons, which are typically designed to cross continents.

Because low-yield nuclear weapons’ explosive force is not much greater than that of increasingly powerful conventional weapons, the U.S. military has reduced its reliance on them. Most of its remaining stockpile, about 150 B61 gravity bombs, is deployed in Europe. The U.K. and France have completely eliminated their tactical stockpiles. Pakistan, China, India, Israel and North Korea all have several types of tactical nuclear weaponry.

Russia has retained more tactical nuclear weapons, estimated to be around 2,000, and relied more heavily on them in its nuclear strategy than the U.S. has, mostly due to Russia’s less advanced conventional weaponry and capabilities.

Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons can be deployed by ships, planes and ground forces. Most are deployed on air-to-surface missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, gravity bombs and depth charges delivered by medium-range and tactical bombers, or naval anti-ship and anti-submarine torpedoes. These missiles are mostly held in reserve in central depots in Russia.

Russia has updated its delivery systems to be able to carry either nuclear or conventional bombs. There is heightened concern over these dual capability delivery systems because Russia has used many of these short-range missile systems, particularly the Iskander-M, to bombard Ukraine.

Tactical nuclear weapons are substantially more destructive than their conventional counterparts even at the same explosive energy. Nuclear explosions are more powerful by factors of 10 million to 100 million than chemical explosions, and leave deadly radiation fallout that would contaminate air, soil, water and food supplies, similar to the disastrous Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986. The interactive simulation site NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein depicts the multiple effects of nuclear explosions at various yields.

Can any nuke be tactical?

Unlike strategic nuclear weapons, tactical weapons are not focused on mutually assured destruction through overwhelming retaliation or nuclear umbrella deterrence to protect allies. While tactical nuclear weapons have not been included in arms control agreements, medium-range weapons were included in the now-defunct Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (1987-2018), which reduced nuclear weapons in Europe.

Both the U.S. and Russia reduced their total nuclear arsenals from about 19,000 and 35,000 respectively at the end of the Cold War to about 3,700 and 4,480 as of January 2022. Russia’s reluctance to negotiate over its nonstrategic nuclear weapons has stymied further nuclear arms control efforts.

The fundamental question is whether tactical nuclear weapons are more “useable” and therefore could potentially trigger a full-scale nuclear war. Their development was part of an effort to overcome concerns that because large-scale nuclear attacks were widely seen as unthinkable, strategic nuclear weapons were losing their value as a deterrent to war between the superpowers. The nuclear powers would be more likely to use tactical nuclear weapons, in theory, and so the weapons would bolster a nation’s nuclear deterrence.

Yet, any use of tactical nuclear weapons would invoke defensive nuclear strategies. In fact, then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis notably stated in 2018: “I do not think there is any such thing as a tactical nuclear weapon. Any nuclear weapon use any time is a strategic game changer.”

The U.S. has criticized Russia’s nuclear strategy of escalate to de-escalate, in which tactical nuclear weapons could be used to deter a widening of the war to include NATO.

While there is disagreement among experts, Russian and U.S. nuclear strategies focus on deterrence, and so involve large-scale retaliatory nuclear attacks in the face of any first-nuclear weapon use. This means that Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons as a deterrent to conventional war is threatening an action that would, under nuclear warfare doctrine, invite a retaliatory nuclear strike if aimed at the U.S. or NATO.

Nukes and Ukraine

I believe Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine would not achieve any military goal. It would contaminate the territory that Russia claims as part of its historic empire and possibly drift into Russia itself. It would increase the likelihood of direct NATO intervention and destroy Russia’s image in the world.

Putin aims to deter Ukraine’s continued successes in regaining territory by preemptively annexing regions in the east of the country after holding staged referendums. He could then declare that Russia would use nuclear weapons to defend the new territory as though the existence of the Russian state were threatened. But I believe this claim stretches Russia’s nuclear strategy beyond belief.

Putin has explicitly claimed that his threat to use tactical nuclear weapons is not a bluff precisely because, from a strategic standpoint, using them is not credible. In other words, under any reasonable strategy, using the weapons is unthinkable and so threatening their use is by definition a bluff.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Nina Srinivasan Rathbun, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The Conversation has a variety of fascinating free newsletters.

Read more:

Would Putin use nuclear weapons? An arms control expert explains what has and hasn’t changed since the invasion of Ukraine

Russia is sparking new nuclear threats – understanding nonproliferation history helps place this in context

 

Hurricane Ian packs 'catastrophic' storm 

surge threat made worse by climate change

David Knowles

·Senior Editor

Tue, September 27, 2022 

Hurricane Ian is forecast to make landfall Wednesday along Florida's southwest coast, bringing with it a potentially “catastrophic” 12-foot storm surge made worse by rising sea levels due to climate change.

The National Hurricane Center posted a forecast on Tuesday that showed that a stretch of coastline south of Tampa Bay down to Bonita Bay could see between 8 and 12 feet of storm surge as Ian makes its way on land.

“In some areas there will be catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a Tuesday news conference. “When you have 5 to 10 feet of storm surge, that is not something you want to be a part of.”

Strengthening to a Category 3 storm on Tuesday, Ian was expected to intensify by day’s end into a monster Category 4 storm as it churned northeast toward Florida’s flat, low-lying coast. The storm could weaken slightly Wednesday evening before making landfall, but the storm surge it generates will remain a serious threat due to rising sea levels.

Making things worse are climate change and Ian overlapping with a semiannual king tide.

Sea levels around Florida have risen on average 8 inches since 1950, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with the bulk of that rise coming in recent years as increasing global temperatures have sped up the melting of the polar ice caps. Due to a variety of factors, sea level rise does not happen uniformly, and the ocean has risen in St. Petersburg, which sits on Tampa Bay, by 9 inches, according to NOAA.

All that additional water will make a dangerous situation even more so.

“Life-threatening storm surge looks increasingly likely along much of the Florida west coast where a storm surge warning is en effect, with the highest risk for Fort Myers to the Tampa region,” the National Hurricane Center said in an 11 a.m. advisory issued Tuesday. “Residents in these areas should listen to advice given by local officials and follow evacuation orders if made for your area.”

Mandatory evacuation orders have gone up in the nine counties: Charlotte, Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota.

Storm surge is not the only threat from Ian, which is also expected to pack winds exceeding 110 miles per hour when it makes landfall. It could drop as much as 24 inches of rain on sections of the west coast.

While recent studies have found that climate change makes hurricanes wetter and causes them to intensify more quickly, for years scientists have warned that Florida, the flattest state in the U.S., faces extreme risks due to climate change.

Fort Myers, the second-fastest-growing county in the U.S., sits at an elevation of just 10 feet above sea level. Forecasts show that South Florida can count on another 11 inches of sea level rise by 2040 as polar ice melt continues apace due to rising temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Over that same span of time, warming waters will continue to energize hurricanes at a faster rate than previously observed.

Tucker Carlson's Latest Bizarre Conspiracy Theory: Hurricanes

Ben Blanchet

Wed, September 28, 2022 

Tucker Carlson shared his skepticism about hurricanes on Tuesday as Hurricane Ian is expected to make its way toward Florida this week.

The Fox News host teased an upcoming segment about Hurricane Ian by implying hurricanes are a “scam.”

Ian, which knocked out power to Cuba and reportedly has up to 130 mph winds, is expected to hit Florida’s west coast late Wednesday.

Carlson claimed people are “kind of onto the scam” of hurricanes prior to the segment on Ian.

“So, you hate to hype hurricanes, because it’s just a staple of TV and everyone’s kind of onto the scam,” Carlson said.

“But there’s a legitimately large hurricane barreling toward the Gulf Coast of Florida tonight.”

You can watch a clip of his remarks below.

Carlson isn’t the first conservative host to question hurricanes.

Late radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed in 2016 that hurricanes were “in the interest of the left” to call for action on climate change but, like Carlson, admitted at the time that there was a serious storm on the way to Florida: Hurricane Matthew.

Limbaugh also claimed in 2017 that media outlets used hurricanes to boost the sales of water and batteries.

Carlson’s hurricane remarks weren’t lost on Twitter users, with one person joking that “big weather” is staging hurricanes.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...

‘Organized crime against children.’ Top Missouri lawmaker asks feds to shut down Agape


Jill Toyoshiba/jtoyoshiba@kcstar.com

Laura Bauer, Judy L. Thomas
Mon, September 26, 2022 

The speaker of the Missouri House has asked the U.S. Attorney to “act immediately” to shut down Agape Boarding School, saying it has been engaged in “organized crime against children.”

Speaker Rob Vescovo, a Republican, wrote U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore of the Western District of Missouri last week insisting that federal intervention may be the only way to protect the students at the school now.

In his letter, Vescovo praised the efforts of Attorney General Eric Schmitt and state lawmakers but said local authorities in Cedar County — including Judge David Munton, who has delayed the case in recent days — have made closing the school seem like an “an unobtainable goal.”

“The efforts of the legislature, the state, and the news media helped to shine some light on this dark web of deception that has covered up the physical and even sexual abuse of young people (at) Agape Boarding School,” Vescovo wrote in the letter dated Sept. 21, the day of the last hearing in Cedar County on the attorney general’s efforts to close the school.


“However, as we have continued to seek justice in this case, it has become apparent that this problem is more far-reaching and contains more deeply-rooted corruption than we are able to address solely at the state level,” the speaker said.

Vescovo blasted Cedar County prosecuting attorney Ty Gaither as “one more in a long line of local officials who have either turned a blind eye to, or helped to cover up, the criminal actions of the staff at Agape.”

Gaither did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney said as a matter of policy, “we don’t comment on investigations, or even confirm or deny the existence of investigations, until charges are publicly filed.”

Agape’s attorney, John Schultz, called Vescovo’s letter, which the Missouri Independent first obtained, defamatory.

“The reckless assertions in that letter are 100% false, as proven by the Attorney General’s lack of evidence in the injunction lawsuit,” Schultz told The Star on Monday.

Since Sept. 7, the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Social Services have tried to shut down the embattled southwest Missouri school. That day, they filed a motion for “injunctive relief” saying the safety of students inside the school was in jeopardy. DSS officials had learned that a current staffer had just been placed on the Central Registry for child abuse and neglect, and state law doesn’t allow anyone with a substantiated report to work at a residential facility.

Within hours, Munton signed an order calling for the immediate closure of Agape.

But the next morning, as the AG’s Office and DSS were prepared to execute the order, Munton put it on hold, saying he wanted to confirm that the staffer was still at the school near Stockton. Munton sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to the school to find out, and Clemensen told McCrary that he had fired that staffer on Sept. 7 and the worker no longer lived on the school’s property.

Two hearings have been held since then and the AG’s office has had testimony prepared and recent students ready to take the stand to describe the abuse that boys at the school have endured. Munton refused to let those students testify and delayed action at both hearings.

Workers with the state’s Children’s Division have been at the school since Sept. 8 monitoring the students, which Munton ordered and has continued.

Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, said the school should have been shut down weeks ago and the fact that it hasn’t “spits in the face of all laws that protect children.”

“I fully believe that DSS and the AG’s office have proven that there is a significant pattern of abuse ... that there is imminent harm to the children of this facility,” said Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, who co-sponsored the legislation in 2021 that has been the impetus for state officials to ask the school to be shut down. “I believe that both the AG’s Office and DSS are working within the law that we crafted to try to keep children safe.

“And now the judicial system — everyone from law enforcement, from the local sheriff’s office, to the local prosecutor, to now this judge — are the impediments to keeping these kids safe. … At this point, it’s, I believe, evidence of corruption. It’s a conspiracy now.”

In his letter, Vescovo mentioned a recent federal investigation where a minor was transported across state lines to Agape against his will. He was transported by a “company that employs Cedar County Sheriff’s deputies.

“The ties that law enforcement officers have to the school have made it clear the best interests of these young people are not a priority,” Vescovo wrote, “while keeping this hub for children trafficking open for business clearly is.”

The Star has investigated the close ties between the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office and Agape, which include a former deputy who is the son-in-law of the school’s founder and also worked at the school for years.

The AG’s Office filed a motion Friday afternoon seeking a delay in a hearing scheduled for Monday morning. The judge granted that delay.

The reason for the delay was new information that the Department of Social Services received regarding Agape’s plan to disband the boarding school and open multiple group homes on the property under the name Stone of Help. A state worker, who was inside the school based on a court order allowing Children’s Division employees to be stationed at Agape to monitor students, learned the information on Thursday after a conversation with school director Bryan Clemensen.

“Agape’s director reported that the program is changing away from a boarding school-type facility,” the AG’s motion said. “Starting Tuesday, September 27, 2022, the boys will be in five group homes on the property with an intention of nine boys per home.”

The two staffers — Jennifer and Jason Derksen — filed the paperwork with the Missouri Secretary of State on Sept. 15 describing their new nonprofit, Stone of Help, as a “Home for Troubled Youth.” The address for Stone of Help and the Derksens is on the Agape property and next to the current unlicensed boarding school.

“The State will not allow Agape to escape accountability or continue to present an immediate health and safety concern to children through corporate shell games,” the AG’s motion said, “while employing the same people and methods that originally led the State to bring this action to protect children.”

The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report from Jefferson City.

Trump Saw Staffers of Color at White House, Assumed They Were Waiters, Book Says

Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis
Tue, September 27, 2022 

donald-trump-haberman-obama-story-1.jpg TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-CABINET - Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

It was January of 2017, and a newly inaugurated President Donald Trump held a reception at the White House to meet with top congressional leaders. Hors d’oeuvres were on the menu. And the new president turned to a row of racially diverse Democratic staffers and asked them to retrieve the canapes, according to a new book.

“Why don’t you get” the food, Trump told staffers for Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and others, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book, Confidence Man.

Then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus rushed to correct Trump’s remark, telling the then-president that he’d just addressed top congressional aides before going to find the actual White House waitstaff.

Trump’s remark to the staffers is just one example of Trump’s casual racism detailed in pages of Confidence Man reviewed by Rolling Stone. For example, later in that same meeting, Trump told Schumer and Pelosi that ballots cast by “illegals” were the only reason he’d lost the 2016 popular vote to Hillary Clinon, Haberman reports. After an awkward silence, Pelsoi interjected: “I don’t believe so, Mr. President.”

The book describes Trump’s relationship with Kara Young, a model he dated for multiple years who had a Black mother and a white father. Soon after meeting Young’s parents, Trump joked that she had inherited her beauty from her mother and her intelligence “from her dad, the white side.” Trump laughed at his own joke. Young didn’t, and, according to the book, voiced her displeasure.

Young in a 2017 interview detailed another incident in which Trump expressed surprise that Serena and Venus Williams drew a racially diverse crowd to the U.S. Open, as he was operating under the belief that Black people were uninterested in tennis. (The U.S. Open finals are typically played at Arthur Ashe stadium, named for one of tennis’ many high-profile Black players.)

Through Young, Trump connected with Black celebrities such as Sean Combs and Russell Simmons, relationships he’d later cite when disputing accusations of racism.

Despite employing the “I have Black friends” defense, Trump — who was the chief cheerleader of the Obama birther conspiracy, who launched his presidential campaign by claiming Mexico was sending immigrants who were “bringing crime” and who were “rapists,” who said a crowd of white power protesters rioting in Charlottesville included “very fine people,” and whose presidency ushered in a renaissance of overt white nationalism in mainstream American political life — still left some people unconvinced.

Indeed, Trump’s history of racist remarks and actions left some to conclude that even his vague statements cloaked bigotry. During his time in office, Trump would periodically tell visitors to his White House workspace that he had a “secret bathroom,” saying that he’d had the lavatory completely redone, according to the book.

Trump was lying, staff said at the time, saying that only the toilet seats had been changed, as per the custom in presidential transitions. During one of the times he claimed to have renovated Trump made a remark emphasizing his desire for the changes: ”You understand what I’m talking about.”

The guest, Haberman writes, “interpreted [the remark] to mean Trump did not want to use the same bathroom as his Black predecessor.”

MIGRANT WORKERS RIGHTS

Caravan pressures Gavin Newsom to extend unemployment benefits to undocumented Californians


Laura S. Diaz

FRESNO BEE
Tue, September 27, 2022 

With hundreds of bills awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto or approval, dozens of undocumented immigrant workers and allies are crossing the state in a two-day vehicle caravan to pressure him to sign legislation that would extend unemployment benefits to all Californians regardless of immigration status.

The caravan was slated to begin Tuesday in Ontario and make stops in Pasadena, Oxnard and Fresno, then continue to San Francisco on Wednesday.

Participants are hopeful the two-day effort will bring the needs of California’s undocumented workers back to the forefront and lead Newsom to create the Excluded Workers Pilot Program. If the program is approved and funded, undocumented and unemployed workers could qualify for $300 a week for up to 20 weeks between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2024.

Undocumented people form 1.1 million of the state’s 17.1 million workers – approximately 1 in 16 workers – according to a March report from the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. Undocumented workers collectively contribute $3.7 billion in state and local tax revenues, UC Merced reported.

These workers are ineligible for unemployment benefits because of their immigration status, said Sarait Martinez, executive director of Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, or the Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities.

“It is time to end the exclusion of workers because of their immigration status when they continue to provide for the economy,” Martinez said.
Undocumented workers lack many safety net benefits

Rosa Hernández is among those who would benefit from the proposed pilot program.

Hernández, an undocumented farmworker living in Madera, has been unemployed since the COVID-19 pandemic started. She and her husband, who is also undocumented, moved to California in 1999 from the town of Juxtlahuaca in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. They have six children, all born in California.

“I’ve always worked in the fields since I moved here,” Hernández said in Spanish.

A new pilot program would guarantee unemployment funds to undocumented individuals who become unemployed due to a layoff, furlough, reduced wages, or reduced hours.

“Unfortunately when the pandemic started, doors closed on us because babysitters didn’t want to take care of kids since they were afraid of getting sick, so my husband was the only one that could work and I had to stay home,” she added.

Hernández said the family has struggled to get by on one paycheck. They don’t have good insurance and don’t qualify for state financial assistance like stimulus checks.

She’s managed to pay her rent — moving with six kids and leaving her home behind wasn’t an option — but still owes $700 to someone who loaned her money for bills.

Hernández said she hasn’t returned to work because she has a daughter that just entered kindergarten and there were no openings for field or packinghouse jobs when she recently applied.

Hernández is unable to participate in the caravan, due to a lack of childcare, but says the pilot program would be very helpful for her family and others.

“Truthfully, as undocumented workers, we have very little help and cannot claim anything because we’re not eligible,” Hernández said.

“But we’re here and we’re not leaving,” she added. “Our only option is to continue fighting and surviving, because returning to our home countries is not an option. Things are worse there.”

In 2019, 37% of undocumented workers were paid less than $25,000 and 35% earned between $25,000 and $50,000, UC Merced researchers reported.

“In a state with one of the nation’s highest costs of living, such wages are not enough for families to subsist on,” they said.

Will California extend unemployment benefits to immigrants?

Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella, proposed the pilot benefits program through Assembly Bill 2847.

There weren’t funds allocated for the program in this legislative cycle’s budget, according to Sasha Feldstein, director of economic justice policy at the California Immigrant Policy Center. By signing the bill and creating the program, Newsom would open the path for the program to be funded next year, Feldstein said.

An investment of $597 million would provide enough wage replacement for most undocumented Californians for a year, according to a UC Merced report cited by the state’s Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement.

As of now, unemployment benefits are distributed by the state’s Employment Development Department. People are only eligible for those if they are legally allowed to work in the country and were fully or partially unemployed due to a layoff, furlough, reduced wages, or reduced hours, The Bee previously reported.

The pilot program is separate from the state agency and would guarantee unemployment benefits to undocumented people who become unemployed for the same reasons.

Feldstein said undocumented workers will remain highly vulnerable, unless they have access to a safety net.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not the first crisis to hit California, and it won’t be the last,” she said. “Instead of having to scramble every time disaster hits, we should be investing in our collective future now to ensure that no one is excluded.”

If Newsom signs the bill, California would be the third state to approve such legislation. There is bipartisan support for the measure and no identified opposition, according to legislative analyses.

“California has always been a leader for immigrant rights, but this is one area where we’re actually behind a couple of other states,” Feldstein said, referring to similar legislation approved in New York and Colorado.

If the governor doesn’t sign the bill this week, Martinez of Centro Binacional said the SafetyNet4All coalition — which includes more than 100 partnered organizations supporting the bill — won’t give up.

“We’re still going to continue to advocate to make it a program next year,” she said.

Yellen warns inaction on climate could cause economic crisis


Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks at Cypress Creek Renewables solar field in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Yellen warned of the economic calamity that could come if climate change were not immediately addressed with government intervention

. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
Tue, September 27, 2022 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday of economic calamity if climate change is not addressed with immediate government intervention.

Joined by local business owners and prominent Democrats in North Carolina, Yellen said the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters could create devastating short-term supply reductions of everyday goods that could cause prices to skyrocket.

Supply chain disruptions like those experienced on a global scale during the COVID-19 pandemic could soon become commonplace, she said during a visit to Cypress Creek Renewables' solar farm in Chapel Hill.

“Here in North Carolina, you remember well the devastating toll of Hurricane Florence. That disaster killed 22 Americans. It led to $24 billion in damage and left a million North Carolinians without power," Yellen said.

As North Carolina is gearing up for several tight races in November, Yellen pitched the benefits of Democrats’ new climate, health and tax law, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, that will spend $375 billion over the next decade on climate-related investments.

Combined with last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law, the investments total more than $430 billion. The money will be spent on everything from providing tax credits to purchasers of qualifying electric vehicles to constructing clean-manufacturing facilities.

Yellen said spending will be particularly impactful in “non-coastal communities that have suffered from disinvestment."

Some North Carolinians who lost their homes in Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 are still waiting on repairs or permanent housing accommodations, due in large part to supply and labor shortages brought on by the pandemic, according to the state's disaster recovery agency.

Other policies championed by President Joe Biden — including the CHIPS Act, which invests $52 billion in the domestic semiconductor industry — have focused on shoring up essential resources to reduce dependency on global manufacturers.

Yellen is the third Cabinet member to visit North Carolina in September alone, following visits from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan in Warrenton last weekend and Vice President Kamala Harris in Durham on Sept. 1.

Yellen’s visit is part of a monthlong national tour highlighting new legislation.

The Republican National Committee called Yellen’s trip to North Carolina “ironic,” accusing her of touting so-called solutions to economic problems that she and the Biden administration created, said spokeswoman Taylor Mazock.

Yellen, for her part, said the “persistent, frequent shocks” caused by climate change will put greater strains on the national budget if unaddressed. “State and local governments may increasingly be forced to devote scarce resources to disaster mitigation, potentially at the expense of investments in areas like education and worker training," she said.

Six weeks out from the midterm elections, Biden has been showering attention on the Southern swing state, where a tight U.S. Senate race could shift the power balance in the narrowly divided chamber.

The White House hosted more than 50 North Carolina leaders for a forum last week on how Biden's policies could benefit working class communities in the Tar Heel state.

And with abortion access in the spotlight, Democrats are funneling resources into North Carolina's state legislative campaigns to prevent Republicans from gaining the few seats they need to nullify the Democratic governor's veto on more stringent restrictions.

Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis criticized the Biden administration Tuesday for its “reckless” spending policies that he said have been “a disaster for North Carolina families” and the economy.

“President Biden’s answer to all of our problems has been to spend more money we don’t have on far-left priorities like green energy welfare, which will only make inflation even worse for North Carolinians,” Tillis said.

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Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed from Washington.

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Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter @H_Schoenbaum.

Biden administration invests $2.8 billion in ‘climate smart’ farming



Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech

THE HILL
Tue, September 27, 2022

Story at a glance

The U.S Department of Agriculture has selected 70 ‘climate smart’ agricultural projects to take part in its $2.8 billion pilot program.

The pilot program, Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, aims to help make the agricultural sector more sustainable by implementing ‘climate smart’ practices like improving soil quality or changing manure management styles.

The second pool of recipients will be announced later this year.

As the climate crisis continues, the Biden administration is investing more than $2 billion to help the country’s agricultural sector become more sustainable.

The U.S Department of Agriculture announced this week that its $2.8 billion pilot program, Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, has selected its first pool of recipients—70 agricultural projects that promote “climate smart” farming practices.

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations defines climate smart agriculture as an approach to “transform agri-food systems toward green and climate resilient practices.”

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Those practices include conservation tillage and cover cropping, which involves planting some form of flora for the sole purpose of absorbing water to either mitigate soil erosion or to protect seedings.

Other forms include actions like carbon capture and swapping out the use of wet cow manure—the creation of which accounts for a large amount of a farm’s greenhouse gas emissions—for dry manure like composting.

In 2020, methane made up 11 percent of the United States’ total greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The largest source of methane came from petroleum and natural gas, at 32 percent, followed by livestock at 27 percent, landfills, and manure management, according to EPA data.

The second pool of selected projects will be announced later this year, the USDA said in a statement.

“The USDA is delivering on our promise to build and expand these market opportunities for American agriculture and be global leaders in climate-smart agricultural production,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

“There is strong and growing interest in the private sector and among consumers for food that is grown in a climate-friendly way. This effort will increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally, build wealth that stays in rural communities and support a diverse range of producers and operation types.”

The pilot program aims to incentivize farmers to produce commodities created via climate smart practices. The selected projects will run between one and five years and have funding ranges from $5 million to $100 million.

Projects selected to receive money from the second funding pool will “emphasize the enrollment of small and/or underserved producers, and/or monitoring, reporting, and verification activities developed at minority-serving institutions.”

Ancient anchor found at bottom of North Sea

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF - Yesterday 

An ancient anchor, now thought to be from the Roman or late Iron Age, first discovered in the North Sea in 2018, has recently been dated and determined to be an extremely rare find.


Equinor© (photo credit: REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo)

The anchor was uncovered as part of a marine bed survey by ScottishPower Renewables before construction of its offshore wind farm, East Anglia ONE, which is approximately 40 kilometers off the coast of Suffolk. The company commissioned Maritime Archaeology Ltd, in conjunction with Mary Rose Archaeological Services, to handle conservation efforts.

“We believe this find could be the oldest and one of the largest surviving examples, giving us hard evidence of the incredible amount of activity that must have been going on in the waters in Roman times, but that we know relatively little about."Brandon Mason, Maritime Archaeology Ltd.

“Everything points to this being a Roman anchor of almost 2,000 years old, which is an incredibly rare piece of history," explained Brandon Mason from Maritime Archaeology Ltd. "If this date is confirmed, it would be hard to overstate its significance – we only know about three pre-Viking anchors from northern European waters outside the Mediterranean region – and only two actually survived."

Evidence of Roman maritime activity

Related video: Anchor discovered during offshore wind farm work may date from Roman times

Duration 1:41 View on Watch

The anchor could provide tangible evidence of ancient Roman seafaring and trading in the southern North Sea off the coast of England. Scientists are still working to confirm its age, although there are several physical features that strongly suggest the anchor comes from the Imperial Roman Period.

“We believe this find could be the oldest and one of the largest surviving examples, giving us hard evidence of the incredible amount of activity that must have been going on in the waters in Roman times, but that we know relatively little about," said Mason. "It’s an absolute privilege to bring the anchor to the surface and to share its story with people not just across the East of England, but around the world."

Once scientific analysis is completed, and researchers have completed their imaging and dating processes, the relic will go on display permanently at the Colchester + Ipswich Museums.

“The anchor will only be available for our visitors to get a first peek on Tuesday 27 September, before it is taken away for key conservation work ahead of returning permanently to our collection in 2025,” according to Councilor Carole Jones, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Ipswich Museums.

“I look forward to seeing it on permanent display once the conservation work and analysis has been completed," Mason said, "and thank ScottishPower Renewables for taking the time to find and preserve such an important piece of history while developing its wind farm.”

Fact check: False claim that Biden's executive order requires surrendering human rights, ties to transhumanism

Sudiksha Kochi, USA TODAY
Tue, September 27, 2022 at 5:11 PM·4 min read


The claim: Biden’s executive order declares that Americans must surrender human rights

On Sept. 12, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to invest in biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation to advance health, climate and other matters. But some online claim the order is linked to something more nefarious.

"The plan is no longer secret. Biden's Sept. 12, 2022 Executive Order declares that Americans must surrender all human rights that stand in the way of transhumanism," reads an Instagram post shared Sept. 18.

The post also claims that clinical trial safety standards and informed consent will be eradicated and that the executive order is implementing crimes against humanity "in order to achieve the societal goals of the new world order."

The post generated over 350 likes in less than a week.

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But the claim is baseless.

Global health and human rights experts told USA TODAY the executive order does not eradicate human rights in any way or even relate to the transhumanism movement. The claim is tied to the baseless new world order conspiracy theory, which USA TODAY has previously debunked.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the White House Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022.
Biden's executive order won't eliminate human rights

The claim is "totally off and not true," Samantha Reposa, a White House spokesperson, told USA TODAY in an email.

There is nothing in Biden's executive order that weakens existing human rights protections in any way, Arthur Applbaum, a professor of democratic values at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, told USA TODAY in an email.

“The second sentence of the order says, ‘Central to this policy and its outcomes are principles of equity, ethics, safety, and security,’ and this is not mere happy talk,” Applbaum said. “The executive order attends to these considerations throughout.”

The order also says Biden's administration "must ensure that uses of biotechnology and biomanufacturing are ethical and responsible; are centered on a foundation of equity and public good…and are consistent with respect for human rights.”

Fact check: Biden's executive order will evaluate concept of a digital currency, not launch it

Transhumanism, which the post invokes, refers to the idea of using permanently integrated technology to increase human perception, emotions or intelligence. Biden's order has nothing to do with this concept, Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, told USA TODAY in an email. He noted the post's claims about human trials are also baseless – participants still have a right to informed consent and there remain strong safety standards in clinical trials, Gostin said.

The new world order conspiracy theory claims that a cabal of elites are working to implement a government structure that would enslave the global populace and eliminate freedoms, according to the Middleburg Institute of International Studies. USA TODAY has debunked the conspiracy theory’s claims before.

The post also ties this conspiracy theory to crimes against humanity, which is defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as a “systematic attack directed against any civilian population,” according to the United Nations. The order references nothing of the sort.
Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Biden’s executive order declares that Americans must surrender human rights. The executive order says that central to its objectives are the principles of safety and equity, and that Biden's administration must ensure that uses of biotechnology are consistent with respecting human rights. As experts confirm, the order has nothing to do with limiting human rights – related to transhumanism or anything else.
Our fact-check sources:

Samantha Reposa, Sept. 23, Email exchange with USA TODAY


Arthur Applbaum, Sept. 23, Email exchange with USA TODAY


Lawrence Gostin, Sept. 23-Sept. 25, Email exchange with USA TODAY


The White House, Sept. 12, Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy


Britannica, accessed Sept. 26, transhumanism


USA TODAY, March 25, Fact check: Biden's 'new world order' reference tied to Ukraine, not conspiracy theory


Middleburg Institute of International Studies at Monterey, May 30, The New World Order: The Historical Origins of a Dangerous Modern Conspiracy Theory


United Nations, accessed Sept. 26, Crimes Against Humanity

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim Biden's executive order limits human rights