CARRYING TOXIC DANGEROUS GOODS

50-car train derailment causes big fire, evacuations in Ohio





In this photo provided by Melissa Smith, a train fire is seen from her farm in East Palestine, Ohio, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order in the Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, covering the area in billows of smoke lit orange by the flames below. (Melissa Smith via AP)

Sat, February 4, 2023 

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A freight train derailment in Ohio near the Pennsylvania state line left a mangled and charred mass of boxcars and flames Saturday as authorities launched a federal investigation and monitored air quality from the various hazardous chemicals in the train.

About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine at about 9 p.m. EST Friday as a train was carrying a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said Saturday. There was no immediate information about what caused the derailment. No injuries or damage to structures were reported.

“The post-derailment fire spanned about the length of the derailed train cars,” Michael Graham, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Saturday evening. “The fire has since reduced in intensity, but remains active and the two main tracks are still blocked.”

Norfolk Southern said 20 of the more than 100 cars were classified as carrying hazardous materials — defined as cargo that could pose any kind of danger “including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.” Graham said 14 cars carrying vinyl chloride were involved in the derailment “and have been exposed to fire,” and at least one “is intermittently releasing the contents of the car through a pressure release device as designed.”

“At this time we are working to verify which hazardous materials cars, if any, have been breached,” he said. The Environmental Protection Agency and Norfolk Southern were continuing to monitor air quality, and investigators would begin their on-scene work “once the scene is safe and secure,” he said.

Vinyl chloride, used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin used in a variety of plastic products, is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute. Federal officials said they were also concerned about other possibly hazardous materials.

Mayor Trent Conaway, who earlier declared a state of emergency citing the “train derailment with hazardous materials,” said air quality monitors throughout a one-mile zone ordered evacuated had shown no dangerous readings.

Fire Chief Keith Drabick said officials were most concerned about the vinyl chloride and referenced one car containing that chemical but said safety features on that car were still functioning. Emergency crews would keep their distance until Norfolk Southern officials told them it was safe to approach, Drabick said.

“When they say it’s time to go in and put the fire out, my guys will go in and put the fire out,” he said. He said there were also other chemicals in the cars and officials would seek a list from Norfolk Southern and federal authorities.

Graham said the safety board’s team would concentrate on gathering “perishable” information about the derailment of the train, which had 141 load cars, nine empty cars and three locomotives. State police had aerial footage and the locomotives had forward-facing image recorders as well as data recorders that could provide such information as train speed, throttle position and brake applications, he said. Train crew and other witnesses would also be interviewed, Graham said.

Firefighters were pulled from the immediate area and unmanned streams were used to protect some areas including businesses that might also have contained materials of concern, officials said. Freezing temperatures in the single digits complicated the response as trucks pumping water froze, Conaway said.

East Palestine officials said 68 agencies from three states and a number of counties responded to the derailment, which happened about 51 miles (82 kilometers) northwest of Pittsburgh and within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the tip of West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle.

Conaway said surveillance from the air showed “an entanglement of cars" with fires still burning and heavy smoke continuing to billow from the scene as officials tried to determine what was in each car from the labels outside. The evacuation order and shelter-in-place warnings would remain in effect until further notice, officials said.

Village officials warned residents that they might hear explosions due to the fire. They said drinking water was safe despite discoloration due to the volume being pumped the fight the blaze. Some runoff had been detected in streams but rail officials were working to stem that and prevent it from going downstream, officials said.

Officials repeatedly urged people not to come to the scene, saying they were endangering not only themselves but emergency responders.

The evacuation area covered 1,500 to 2,000 of the town's 4,800 to 4,900 residents, but it was unknown how many were actually affected, Conaway said. A high school and community center were opened, and the few dozen residents sheltering at the high school included Ann McAnlis, who said a neighbor had texted her about the crash.

“She took a picture of the glow in the sky from the front porch,” McAnlis told WFMJ-TV. “That’s when I knew how substantial this was.”

Norfolk Southern opened an assistance center in the village to take information from affected residents and also said it was "supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross and their temporary community shelters through a $25,000 donation.

Elizabeth Parker Sherry said her 19-year-old son was heading to Walmart to pick up a new TV in time for the Super Bowl when he called her outside to see the flames and black smoke billowing toward their home. She said she messaged her mother to get out of her home next to the tracks, but all three of them and her daughter then had to leave her own home as crews went door-to-door to tell people to leave the evacuation zone.

DESANTIS FLORIDA ANTI TRANS LAWS
Will high school athletes have to disclose their menstrual history? Where it stands now


sports@bradenton.com

Jeff Kleinman
Sat, February 4, 2023 

Disclosing the menstrual history of Florida high school students may be required soon. It is now optional.

Here’s where things stand right now:

A meeting on the issue

▪ The Florida High School Athletic Association will discuss its proposal to require the disclosure of athletes’ menstrual history. The 16 board members will meet Feb. 26-27 in Gainesville.

What is the status right now?

▪ The athletic association’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee met in January and adopted a new form that would make questions about menstruation mandatory rather than the way it is now: optional.

▪ The advisory board can change its recommendation.

▪ The athletic association board can accept or reject the advisory committee’s final positions.

What would the form say?

▪ If approved, a required form would ask students if they’ve had a menstrual cycle, and if so, at what age they had their first period, their most recent and “how many periods ... in the past 12 months.”

The pros?

▪ Dr. Thresia Gambon, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says menstrual history can help doctors evaluate a student-athlete’s health, but that information should be kept confidential between the student and the provider.

The cons?

▪ Maxx Fenning, president of PRISM, a South Florida nonprofit organization that provides sexual health information to LGBTQ+ youth, says the proposal is an effort to stigmatize and exclude transgender people in sports.

‘Invasion of privacy’: Some Florida athletes leery of being made to reveal menstrual cycles

Clara-Sophia Daly
Sun, February 5, 2023 

In the athletic trainer’s office at Miami Senior High are green Gatorade jugs, water bottles, anatomical posters, two massage tables — and years of private medical records of male and female high school athletes, stacked on a rack, stored in dusty, dog-eared cardboard crates labeled “bankers box.”

Included in what is collected and stored is information on female athletes’ menstrual cycles, from a series of “optional” questions on the Florida High School Athletic Association’s athletic physical form.

At least they have been optional questions until now.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools forms and FHSAA records from students at Miami Senior High School are stored inside the office of the athletic trainer at the school on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, in Miami, Fla.

Last month, FHSAA’s sports advisory committee proposed making the formerly optional questions on menstrual cycles mandatory. Refusing to answer could conceivably jeopardize the ability to participate in sports.


READ MORE: Florida athletes may soon be required to submit their menstrual history to schools

The proposal involves adapting a form devised by the American Academy of Pediatrics and used in some other states. But with a critical difference: That form would have the detailed medical information stay in the custody of a student’s physician, while the proposal before the FHSAA would entrust this information, including menstrual cycles, to the schools.

Several female athletes interviewed by the Miami Herald were leery of the policy, wondering why schools need to collect and store such information. “I think it is kind of disturbing and an invasion of privacy,” said Ruby Robbins, a 16-year-old Miami Beach High volleyball player in her junior year who is also manager of the boys’ team.

The proposal, which is to be considered by the full FHSAA board Feb 27-28, has ignited a political furor at a time when the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade has moved women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy to the center of the political and cultural debate.

States like Florida have either clamped down on abortion access or are threatening to do so and some have indicated they want to seek ways to prevent pregnant women from traveling to other states for abortion services — without explaining how that can be accomplished without accessing women’s private medical histories. Could details on menstrual cycles, or the lack of one, normally the province of a patient and her doctor, be misused or weaponized? Who has access to the information?

The Miami Palmetto Senior High School Lady Panthers huddle before the start of their basketball game against the Miami Senior High School Lady Stings at Miami Senior High School on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023.

The optional questions on the current forms — typically filled out partly by a physician, partly by the athlete — have been asked for years, eliciting little notice. The section in question is labeled FEMALES ONLY on the existing questionnaire, although Mathias Costa, Miami Senior High athletic trainer, said boys have on occasion filled it out as a joke.

As he spoke, coaches and others sifted in and out of the room where the boxes and filing cabinets of private information are stored, stacked nearly to the ceiling. When the room is not in use, the door is locked.

Numerous efforts by the Miami Herald to reach the FHSAA for comment have been unsuccessful.

READ MORE: Here is what Florida female high school athletes may be required to report about their periods.

Friday after school at Miami Beach High, prompted by a Herald reporter, a softball player spoke to one of her teammates about the proposed new requirements. “I don’t think it’s their place to know what happens to me,” the softball player said.

“Why do they want to do it?” asked her friend.

“Because they’re transphobic,” the softball player responded.

“Oh, they could’ve just said that,” her friend said.

The Herald collected the names of all students interviewed for this article but in the case of teenagers is only publishing those whose parents agreed to their child’s name being published.
The culture war

LGBTQ rights advocates have indeed suggested the change is meant to fortify bans on transgender athletes participating in female events. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose eagerness to wade into culture war issues has cemented his conservative bona fides heading into the next presidential election cycle, has already signed legislation banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports at the high school and college level.

READ MORE: Ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s scholastic sports is now Florida’s law

Infuriated by the victory of a transgender woman athlete in the NCAA 500-yard women’s freestyle swimming championship, DeSantis last year issued a proclamation declaring the runner-up, an athlete assigned female at birth from Sarasota, the “rightful winner” and accusing the NCAA of trying to “destroy” women’s sports. The proclamation carried no legal weight.

One way the old form differs from the new, yet-to-be-formally-adopted form is it asks students their “sex assigned at birth.” The old form just asks their sex.

The part of the form that deals with menstrual cycles and until now had been optional.

DeSantis doesn’t appoint FHSAA board members. It is a private, nonprofit organization empowered to govern the state’s interscholastic sports. But his handpicked education commissioner is involved in shaping its board. Members, ranging from athletic directors to superintendents and school board members, come from private and public schools, joined by citizen representatives, including former Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward.

The board consists of 14 men and two women, according to FHSAA’s website.

READ MORE: FHSAA board has final say on requiring athletes to submit menstrual history. How is group chosen?

Female athletes interviewed by the Herald wondered if the target of the policy change is transgender athletes, why are they the ones who have to divulge things they consider nobody else’s business?

Mallory McDonald, a Miami Beach High softball player who said she heard about the proposed change because her grandmother often sends her articles about things going on in the state, said: “Nobody should know if I’m on my period unless I tell them.”

Actually, the policy does not require ongoing tracking but only an assessment at the time of the physical, using a form that asks various health-related questions and is intended to show that there are no medical reasons a student cannot participate in athletics.

Carlos Parra, an ob-gyn who is in his last year of residency at New York University, said he can understand why knowing an athlete’s weight or height would be important, but that the questions related to female menstruation history seem more appropriate for a complete gynecological exam than a sports physical.

Although he is not an athlete and has not worked closely with high school athletics, he said he is not sure how information related to female menstruation would be medically important for school officials to know.

One doctor told the Palm Beach Post, which published an investigation of the proposed change, that irregular periods can be a signal of low bone density, which could place an athlete at greater risk of injury.
‘Makes me uncomfortable’

Sol Guerra is a high school soccer player from Miami Beach High and manages the softball team her friends, including McDonald, play on. She also rows outside of school. Guerra said she doesn’t even like to discuss such private matters with her mom. “It’s something I like to keep to myself,” she said.

Guerra said she knows having her period is nothing to be ashamed of, but at the same time, she would feel embarrassed if someone was to find out the schedule of her cycle.

Just having it with the school and knowing that anyone who wants to look can know when she starts and ends “makes me uncomfortable,” she said.

Her mother, Maria Smith, said she would stand behind her daughter’s choice to not disclose such personal information. “I will still do what my daughter thinks is comfortable regardless,” she said. “I think it’s ridiculous because it is an invasion of privacy,” she added.

Natasha Poulopoulos, a South Florida pediatric psychologist, said that forcing athletes to share information “related to their reproductive health, about intimate details about their bodies, could potentially be shaming. It could lead to feeling a sense of personal violation.”

“It’s sending the message that they don’t have a voice and they don’t have a choice. And that’s very detrimental to adolescent mental health,” she said.

Tara Llorente, an 18-year-old basketball player at Palmetto High, said that if given valid reasons why she had to fill out the information, she’d presumably understand it.

Miami Senior High School Athletic Trainer Mathias Costa.

Mathias Costa has been the head athletic trainer at Miami Senior High for the past 20 years. He is in charge of filing the forms that are filled out by student athletes, their parents, and their doctors. After seven years, Costa destroys the records, sometimes having students who volunteer their time shred the papers for him. He said on occasion coaches have asked to access the information but that such requests have been denied. The information is meant for training staff and medical personnel only.

Costa said a couple times in his career he has given the forms to the school principal when it was formally requested in a lawsuit and that he has mailed the form or dropped it off with athletic trainers at other high schools when an athlete transfers schools and the form is requested.
‘Not a big deal’

Sam Baumgarten is the girls basketball coach at Miami Senior High.

Baumgarten said he is less concerned about how forms are filled out and more concerned about basketball. But he did say he said he does not believe his athletes should be mandated to answer questions about menstruation.

Despite being uncomfortable with the questions, Miami Senior High School athlete Yuvia Rodriguez, 15, still filled out the form. The flag football player remembers sitting at the kitchen table and wondering why they were asking something so personal, but filling it out anyway.

“At the end of the day it’s just a menstrual cycle. It’s not a big deal,” she said.

Miami Senior High School freshman Yuvia Rodriguez, 15. Rodriguez is on the flag football team at her school.

Lisa Del Solar, who is on Miami Beach Senior High’s dance team the Sirens, is currently preparing to perform Beyonce’s song “Bigger” at an upcoming Black History Month pep rally. She also said she doesn’t see a reason for schools to require athletes to divulge this information.

“It’s an invasion of privacy and unnecessary,” Del Solar said.

Ruby Robbins, the Miami Beach High volleyball player, heard about the proposed requirements through a Miami Herald Instagram post her mother sent her and said she responded to her mom: “Girl, wtf that’s crazy!”

NOMINATE SOMEONE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR SCHOOLS
‘It shouldn’t matter’

Cheerleading is not an official sport at Miami Beach High, although many consider it the equivalent because of the strenuous athleticism and acrobatics involved, including throwing squad members in the air and catching them. One cheerleader said she disagrees with the proposed requirement: “Why does it even matter? It shouldn’t matter!”

One of her friends told the Herald: “Sports are supposed to be available for everyone… It’s personal, it’s not something I would feel comfortable sharing.”

A 15-year-old freshman at Miami Beach who plays on the boys’ basketball team said of the proposed policy. “Hearing it is weird, I don’t know why they even ask that question. It just feels unnecessary.”

Miami Senior High School sophomore Amor Rodriguez, 15, is photographed outside of her school’s gym on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. She’s on the flag football team.

Amor Rodriguez, a flag football player at Miami Senior High, first thought the questions could be a way for coaches to excuse female athletes from participation if they’re not feeling well, something she did not think would be a bad idea. But Rodriguez said that the question, in her estimation, should remain optional.

“If someone would be uncomfortable to put that on a form, I do not think it should be mandatory,” she said.

Lax security practices ‘going on for years’ at US Supreme Court before leak: report



Jared Gans
Sat, February 4, 2023

Lax security measures have been “going on for years” at the Supreme Court, dating back to well before the May leak of the court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, CNN reported Saturday.

Sources familiar with the court’s operations, including former employees, told CNN that the practices have included justices using personal email accounts to share sensitive information instead of secure servers and employees using printers that did not create logs and being able to print sensitive documents outside of the court without any tracking.

Multiple sources told CNN that the practices could have put the court’s security at risk, allowed for the leak last year and limited the court’s investigation to find who was responsible.

“This has been going on for years,” a former court employee said.

One source said justices continued to use private emails partly because they did not move quickly to adopt new technology and court employees did not want to confront them about taking additional security precautions, according to CNN.

The report comes after the court said last month that it was not able to determine who was responsible for leaking the Dobbs draft about a month before the final opinion was publicly released. It concluded the leak was likely not caused by a hack, but the court’s marshal, tasked with finding the source of the leak, could not confirm the culprit despite an extensive investigation.

The court declined to comment to CNN on its report.

Three former court employees told CNN that security surrounding the handling of “burn bags,” which are security bags that contain documents that are meant to be destroyed by fire or shredding, was loose.

One source told the outlet some employees would staple a bag shut when it was set to transfer the documents, but others would be filled to the top and just left near a desk or outside a chamber in the hallway.

Meanwhile, employees with virtual private network access could print out documents from any computer, a former court employee told CNN.

The court’s marshal made seven recommendations for the court to take to avoid another leak, such as limiting access to draft opinions and strengthening training for employees.

 The Hill.

Supreme Court justices used personal email for work-related communications, and 'burn bags' with sensitive documents were left in hallways before Roe draft opinion leak: report

John L. Dorman
Sat, February 4, 2023 

The US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Several Supreme Court justices used their personal emails for work-related communications, per CNN.

Some printers didn't use security logs, while "burn bags" were also left unattended, per the report.

After the leak of the Roe draft opinion, the court's security measures have faced intense scrutiny.

Several Supreme Court justices utilized their personal email accounts for work-related communications in lieu of secure servers that were set up to protect such information — well before the Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade was leaked to the media last year — according to CNN.

Multiple individuals with knowledge of the court's operations told the network of longstanding internal practices that could have threatened its security, contributed to the leak of the draft opinion, and prevented the court from determining who disclosed the Roe document to the public.

In a stunning revelation, the individuals told CNN that Supreme Court employees utilized printers that didn't produce logs, while "burn bags" — which were used to hold documents that would eventually be destroyed — were left unattended in hallways.

"This has been going on for years," a former court employee told the network.

According to the report, the email issue persisted because several justices were slow in shifting to the new technology — and some staffers were anxious about approaching the jurists to take the added security measures, according to one individual who spoke with CNN.

A former court employee told CNN that the justices were "not masters of information security protocol."

In its final report probing the Dobbs draft leak, the court in a statement called the action a "grave assault" on the court's legitimacy, with the Marshal of the Court seeking to craft a strategy to avoid such a scenario moving forward.

The added revelations come as the Supreme Court has hit a major crossroads. It has become a body dominated by right-leaning jurists — with a 6-3 conservative tilt — and in recent years has made several rulings that have not only been unpopular among the general public but have contributed to a sharp decline in confidence of the court among Americans.

The justices have by and large sought to defend the integrity of the court, especially in the aftermath of the overturn of Roe v. Wade last June — which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights.

But the leak of the draft decision has raised even more questions about the court's handling of key internal matters.

The final report last month stated that "it is not possible to determine the identity of any individual who may have disclosed the document or how the draft opinion ended up with Politico."

And Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley in the report remarked that the "court's current method of destroying court sensitive documents has vulnerabilities that should be addressed."

However, according to three former employees who spoke with CNN, there were no standard protocols for handling the "burn bags," which hold sensitive documents that are subsequently destroyed.

Per a source with knowledge of the court's security measures, employees can utilize the burn bags which are then taken to the Supreme Court building's basement and then picked up by a shredding company.

While some burn bags were stapled shut, some were just filled to the top and left near desks to be picked up, while others were left unattended in the hallway outside of the chambers, per the CNN report.

The source also told CNN that it would not have been hard for an individual with a clearance to non-public areas of the court to get a hold of sensitive materials.

ASEAN vows to conclude pact with China on disputed territory


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Indonesia ASEAN

From left to right; Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir, Philippine's Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Thailand's Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith, Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affair Erywan Yusof, Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, East Timor's Foreign Minister Adaljiza Magno and ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn pose for a group photo during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers retreat in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

NINIEK KARMINI
Sat, February 4, 2023 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers vowed to finalize negotiations with China over a proposed pact aimed at preventing conflicts in the disputed South China Sea in their annual retreat on Saturday in Indonesia’s capital.

In the final session of their two-day meeting, the ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also agreed to unite in their approach to implement a five-step agreement made in 2021 between ASEAN leaders and Myanmar’s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, that seeks to end that country’s worsening crisis.

China and the ASEAN member states, which include four rival claimants to territories in the South China Sea, have been holding sporadic talks for years on a “code of conduct,” a set of regional norms and rules aimed at preventing a clash the disputed waters.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said that Indonesia, this year’s ASEAN chair, is ready to host more rounds of negotiations over the proposed pact, the first of which will be held in March. She said ASEAN members are committed to concluding the discussions “as soon as possible."

“Members are also committed to promote implementation of a declaration of conduct,” Marsudi added.

Marsudi did not elaborate, but in the past, China has accused Washington of meddling in what it calls an Asian dispute. The U.S. has deployed ships and jets to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight. It has often raised alarm over China’s assertive actions, including its construction of islands where it has placed weapons including surface-to-air missiles.

Sidharto Suryodipuro, head of ASEAN Cooperation at Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta that ASEAN member states will push negotiations this year and explore new approaches.

“All of us agreed that it has to be an effective implementable in accordance with international law, and the code of conduct must fulfill this criteria,” Suryodipuro said. “It’s an exploratory stage. We don’t know what shape it will take, but as you know negotiation is a key process that is something we intend to intensify.”

China has come under intense criticism for its militarization of the strategic waterway but says it has the right to build on its territories and defend them at all costs.

Vietnam, one of the four ASEAN claimant states, has been vocal in expressing concerns over China’s transformation of seven disputed reefs into man-made islands, including three with runways, which now resemble small cities armed with weapons systems.

ASEAN members Cambodia and Laos, both Chinese allies, have opposed the use of strong language against Beijing in the disputes.

Indonesia is not among the governments challenging China’s claim to virtually the entire South China Sea but expressed opposition after China claimed part of Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone in the northern region of the Natuna Islands.

The edge of the exclusive economic zone overlaps with Beijing’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” demarking its claims in the South China Sea.

On the Myanmar issue, Marsudi told a news conference Saturday that ASEAN foreign ministers reiterated the urgent need for Myanmar's military junta to implement the five-point consensus, saying it is “very important for ASEAN.”

On Friday, the ministers urged Myanmar’s military rulers to reduce violence and allow unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to pave the way for a national dialogue aimed at ending the crisis.

Myanmar is also an ASEAN member, but its foreign minister was excluded from Friday’s annual ministers’ retreat because of his country’s failure to implement the five-step consensus.

Marsudi said the ministers agreed that an inclusive national dialogue “is key to finding a peaceful resolution to the situation in Myanmar,” and that reducing violence and providing humanitarian assistance are “paramount for building trust and confidence.”

She said the lack of progress in Myanmar “tests our credibility” as a group, and that ASEAN’s efforts toward peace would be coordinated with those of other countries and the United Nations.

Myanmar’s military leader promised in the five-point agreement to allow a special ASEAN envoy to meet with jailed ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others to foster a dialogue aimed at easing the crisis, set off by the military’s seizure of power two years ago.

But Myanmar refused to let an ASEAN envoy meet with Suu Kyi last year, resulting in Min Aung Hlaing’s exclusion from an ASEAN summit last November.

"The public should expect that Indonesia could provide fresh air for finding a political solution to the worsening conflict in Myanmar,” said Dinna Prapto Raharja, an international relations analyst from Synergy Policies, an independent think tank.

“The fragmentation of power in Myanmar is worse and so managing the violence has become more complex,” she said.

___

Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan contributed to this report.

North Korea Is Becoming A Big Problem For China’s Geopolitical Ambitions

Editor OilPrice.com
Sat, February 4, 2023


The existential North Korean nuclear and missile threats negatively impact the Asia-Pacific security environment for the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia. In response, these countries have taken countermeasures to defend themselves against the growing danger from North Korea. As a result, North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities indirectly worsen China’s “security dilemma” by spurring the U.S. and its allies to devote greater resources to maintaining a strong security presence in Northeast Asia. This situation is illustrated by Beijing’s consistent criticism of Seoul for allowing the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system in South Korea since 2017. Although South Korea has sought to reassure China that the system is aimed at counteracting the threat from North Korea, Beijing has maintained that the presence of the U.S. THAAD in Korea “clearly undermines China’s strategic security interests” (PRC Ministry Foreign Affairs [FMPRC], August 10, 2022).

Although China has been accused of not putting enough effort into the denuclearization process, achieving success in eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula would serve China’s security interests in several ways, including by removing a powerful justification for the U.S. and China’s neighbors to devote resources to regional security. In part due to North Korea’s growing missile capabilities, South Korea, Japan and Australia have all recent strengthened their respective missile development programs. In 2021, the United States also lifted the restrictions it had imposed on South Korea limiting the range and payload of its ballistic missiles. According to previous South Korea president Moon Jae, this has removed “security shackles”—allowing South Korea to regain its missile autonomy (Korea Herald, May 22, 2021).

New Approaches in Japan, South Korea

In 2022, with new leadership under President Yoon Suk Yeol, Seoul has supported steps to expand and “normalize” THAAD operations in South Korea, making technical upgrades and allowing an additional eight acres of land to house the system (South China Morning Post, August 12, 2022). The PRC has criticized the move for contravening the “three noes,” which had become an operating principle for China-South Korea relations advanced by previous President Moon Jae-in: no further THAAD deployments; no joining U.S.-led missile defense networks; and no participation in a trilateral military alliance with the U.S. and Japan (Korea Herald, July 28, 2022). The Moon administration had previously used the Three Noes to reassure China, which helped stabilize relations in late 2017, following a diplomatic fracas triggered by China’s economic retaliation against South Korea following the initial deployment of the U.S. THAAD earlier that year to counter the threat from North Korea (China Brief, March 31, 2017).


Not only has South Korea changed its approach to security of late, but Japan has also moved to augment its military might. In November 2022, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, along with its junior coalition partner, Komeito, reached a consensus that Japan should seek to acquire counter-strike capabilities in order to address the rapidly worsening regional security environment (Kyodo News, December 2, 2022). While China’s military modernization has played a key role in this deteriorating regional security environment, so too have North Korea’s nuclear development and activities. In fact, a real possibility exists that Tokyo will even purchase Raytheon-made Tomahawk cruise missiles (The Defense Post, November 30, 2022). Australia, too, has sought to focus on developing its cruise missile capabilities (Australian Defense Magazine, September 29, 2022).

Would China Change Course?

Recent developments concerning North Korea pose both traditional and non-traditional security challenges to China. While North Korea’s recalcitrance leaves China with neighbors strengthening their militaries, the continuing North Korean nuclear crisis presents other challenges as well. The most pressing issue is that as North Korea’s economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions, imposed for its nuclear and ballistic missile development activities, a growing number of people will seek to flee north to China in search of a better life. Again, dealing with a nuclear North Korea that has aggressive and unpredictable tendencies is a concern for China as its largest trading partner and main economic supporter.

Amidst these concerns, China could seek to play a more active and central role in promoting denuclearization of the Korean peninsula (Permanent Mission of the PRC to the UN, June 8, 2022). This is because, at this moment, only China and Russia are close enough to North Korea to have leverage with Pyongyang concerning the nuclear conundrum. The new leadership in South Korea is at loggerheads with Pyongyang, as opposed to the previous Moon government, which had a more cordial relationship with Kim Jong Un.

Hence, China has both the motivation and the ability to take a leading role in inspiring a change of course by North Korea. Also, China has an incentive to ensure that the sanctions on North Korea imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) are slowly lifted so that the North Korean economy does not implode further, which would have spillover effects on China (Xinhua, May 12, 2022).

China’s role in the North Korean nuclear crisis has become more prominent as Pyongyang has called off the self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles it had observed since late 2017 and has resumed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests (Yonhap News Agency, November 18, 2022). China’s role in the nuclear issue has also gained more prominence as doubts are cast on Beijing’s intentions to ensure a nuclear weapons-free North Korea that would result in a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) on the Korean peninsula. Some observers believe that North Korea will conduct a seventh nuclear weapons test this year, which would be its first since 2017 (CTBO, September 3, 2017).

For China, the first North Korean nuclear test in over half a decade could mean efforts by the U.S. to strengthen extended nuclear deterrence to protect its allies, Japan and South Korea (Huanqiu, November 22, 2022). In December 2022, Anthony Carullo, director of plans and policy at the U.S. Strategic Command, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to South Korea regarding its extended deterrence that comprises both conventional and nuclear capabilities (VOV World, December 6, 2022).

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also reaffirmed this commitment stating that “[w]e are working within our alliances, with both the Republic of Korea and Japan, to develop an effective mix of tangible measures to this end and specific practical steps to take to strengthen the extended deterrence commitment” (The Korea Times, December 1, 2022). This implies a strengthened nuclear environment in China’s immediate neighborhood that Beijing would have to deal with.

These developments are not positive signs for Taiwan’s own security, especially as Taiwan faces territorial disputes both in East China and South China Seas. While Senkaku/Diaoyu Island disputes remains an issue in the East China Sea, Taiwan claims sovereignty over all the islands in the South China Sea. In recent years, Taiwan has strengthened its military capabilities, including cruise missiles as well as holding live artillery drills. Hence, any military developments in the region will have a domino effect on Taiwan (India Today, August 9, 2022).

Conclusion

All these developments add to not just military pressures but also diplomatic pressures on China. Hence, China should play a more positive role in the North Korean denuclearization process by acting as a mediator.

Some of the steps that could be adopted are:

Educate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the advantages of sanctions being removed.


Make the case to North Korea on the technological advantages of being a Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member.


Persuade Pyongyang to return to its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and missile testing; also convince South Korea not to engage in any military drills to provoke tensions. This two-way process can instill confidence in both Korean counterparts.

These measures could be discussed and analyzed by China, which could sketch out the impact these measures would have on North Korea and the Korean peninsula over the long run. The intersection of strategic competition between China and the U.S. and its allies and North Korea’s growing nuclear capabilities underscores that Pyongyang’s pursuit of its nuclear ambitions has security implications that reverberate not just on the Korean peninsula, but globally as well.

By Jamestown.org

India Opposition Attacks Modi on Silence Over Adani Allegations


Abhijit Roy Chowdhury and Debjit Chakraborty
Sun, February 5, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- India’s main opposition party ramped up the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on the Adani turmoil and planned a nationwide protest on Monday to highlight the risk to small investors.

“What action has been taken, if ever, to investigate the serious allegations made over the years against the Adani Group?” Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress party, said in a statement. “Is there any hope of a fair and impartial investigation under you?,” he said, referring to Modi.

India’s opposition parties are trying to corner Modi after an explosive report by US-based short seller Hindenburg Research accused Adani’s companies of fraud to inflate revenue and stock prices. The tumult has become a national issue, with lawmakers disrupting parliament to demand answers as Adani’s interests often intertwine with the nation’s growth plans. The market value of the group has almost halved since Hindenburg’s allegations, which have been repeatedly denied by the conglomerate.

The Congress party said that the “serious” allegations faced by billionaire Adani’s empire questions the “quality and sincerity” of investigations that Modi has pledged to fight corruption. The party has planned protests on Monday to highlight the risks to investors because of the exposure of state-owned institutions in Adani’s businesses and draw attention to the tycoon’s close links with Modi.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday that Indian regulators “will do their job” in dealing with the allegations against the Adani Group and the recent market turmoil won’t impact the nation’s economic fundamentals.

The party will protest in front of the offices of Life Insurance Corporation and State Bank of India, general secretary K. C. Venugopal said in a statement. “The government can’t jeopardize the hard earned money of the people of India to profit the crony friends of the prime minister.”

LIC is an investor in five Adani companies, with stakes ranging from 1% to 9%. Its investments total 364.75 billion rupees ($4.5 billion) in Adani Group companies, the insurer said earlier in a statement.

--With assistance from Subhadip Sircar.

Adani’s Crisis Points to the Big Risk in India’s Net Zero Plan




Stephen Stapczynski, Rajesh Kumar Singh and Rakesh Sharma
Sun, February 5, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- The crisis facing billionaire Gautam Adani has revealed a potential pitfall in India’s ambitious plan to reduce emissions: its reliance on the country’s most affluent and powerful private citizens.

Led by Adani’s $70 billion pledged investment in green energy infrastructure, India’s tycoons have so far committed to spend far more than the government on the energy transition. Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Mukesh Ambani and JSW Group’s Sajjan Jindal, along with energy giants like Tata Group, have also rushed to champion the shift to a cleaner future.

But Hindenburg Research’s allegations about companies linked to Adani Group have raised doubt on the firm’s future, including its massive green energy investment. It’s also created problems for Adani Green, the group’s renewable energy arm. The storm engulfing Asia’s now second-richest man also threatens to spread to the other conglomerates; Hindenburg Research has raised questions about the country’s corporate governance.

Read more: Adani’s $108 Billion Crisis Shakes Investors’ Faith in India

Because Adani group is a dominant player in India’s clean energy industries, the pace of investment might slow, said Ashiwni Swain, fellow at New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research. “We cannot bank on two or three companies to reach our goals. We need a populated sector,” he said. “There are other players and many more will join to take the journey forward.”

India’s national climate blueprint sets 2070 as a goal for net zero emissions, 10 years after China and two decades behind Europe. India will continue to expand its coal power fleet to alleviate energy shortages, prompting the government last month to defend its use of fossil fuels while in the same breath vowing to to remain committed to decarbonization.

To meet its goal, India requires investment of $160 billion annually through 2030, roughly triple today’s levels, according to the International Energy Agency. Foreign direct investment, while growing, remains a fraction of current commitments. Adani’s rapid downfall may undermine investor confidence in India more broadly, threatening to curb capital flows into the nation for green financing.

The gap highlights the government’s dependence on its private sector to hit its green goals. While private capital will be needed to fight climate change all over the world, the sheer size of India’s challenges makes it more reliant on its richest citizens and most sprawling companies.

Executives have so far been happy to oblige, as the prize is a top-spot in the lucrative industries of tomorrow. Adani and Reliance’s Ambani are vying to become the single biggest investor in India’s green sector, with the billionaires constantly one-upping each other with fresh announcement of giant manufacturing plants and some of the world’s largest projects.

Adani has often aligned his businesses with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development goals and is characterizing Hindenburg Research’s charges of fraud as an attack against his home country. At the same time, Power Minister Raj Kumar Singh told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday that there are more than a dozen large firms that can push India’s agenda forward.

Adani, who made his billions on the back of his coal empire, positioned himself as one of the leading advocate for new and experimental green technology. He is planning enormous solar and wind manufacturing centers across the country, and developing a supply chain for the world’s cheapest green hydrogen aimed at positioning India as an exporter of the clean fuel.

But some environmental advocates point out that Adani and his company were never that green to begin with. Adani doubled down on coal production last year as Modi promised to bring reliable electricity to more Indians amid a global fuel supply crunch. The group’s mining operations account for at least 3% of global CO2 emissions from coal, according to SumOfUs, an activist group that runs campaigns intended to apply pressure to powerful corporations.

“India is lot more than Adani. Their role in India’s energy transition is disputable,” said Assaad Razzouk, chief executive officer of Singapore-based renewable firm Gurin Energy. “It is very dangerous to confuse the energy transition in India with one group’s perspective or market power.”

India plans to decrease the share of fossil fuels in the nation’s electricity mix to 50% by 2030, down from more than 57% today. India still relies heavily on coal for power generation, with demand for the dirtiest fossil fuel expected to inch higher through 2025, and critics say the government needs to do more to limit global warming.

The most immediate near-term consequence of the current Adani rout is that it will be more difficult for the billionaire to raise money to fuel its green expansion. There’s also an open question about the debt at Adani Green Energy Ltd., the unit that is developing renewable projects. The debt-to-capital ratio for the firm soared to 95.3% in the previous fiscal year ended March, according to Bloomberg calculations. It has since declined to 88.5% but remains higher than its peers.

Adani Green has the highest funding risk of the group companies due to its weak balance sheet, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts, adding that the firm has $1.25 billion worth of bonds due next year. “Adani Green Energy’s cash as of September cannot cover short-term debt maturities,” the analysts said.

“Will this damage Adani? Categorically. It should have already,” said Tim Buckley, the director of the Sydney-based Climate Energy Finance think tank and a long-time observer of the billionaire. “You’ll find a lot of Western capital will now avoid the Adani group. It is going to put Adani’s ability to access global western capital, and in particular green capital and ESG capital,” at risk.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

FRIED CHICKEN & WATERMELON

School food vendor apologizes — again — for 'inexcusable' Black History Month menu



Doha Madani
Sun, February 5, 2023

A vendor that provides food service to schools apologized for the "unintentional insensitivity" of its Black History Month menu, echoing similar apologies it has made for more than a decade amid backlash over racially insensitive menus.

Students at Nyack Middle School in New York were served chicken and waffles with a choice of watermelon for dessert on the first day of Black History Month on Wednesday, according to WABC-TV. The school's administration and its food vendor, Aramark, apologized after students and parents pointed out the racial stereotypes the menu reinforced.

Aramark said in a statement to NBC News on Sunday that the situation "never should have happened" and apologized for what it called an "inexcusable mistake."

"We have apologized for our mistake, are working to determine how it happened and make sure it never happens again," the statement said. "Our team at that school should have been more thoughtful in its service."

David Johnson, principal of Nyack Middle School, did not immediately return a request for comment to NBC News on Sunday. He did state in a letter to parents that the school was unaware of the menu, WABC reported.

"The vendor has agreed to plan future menu offerings to align with our values and our longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion," the letter said. "We are extremely disappointed by this regrettable situation and apologize to the entire Nyack community for the cultural insensitivity displayed by our food service provider.”

Aramark has been behind similar menus on past holidays commemorating Black people that sparked controversy at two universities going back more than a decade. In 2011, Aramark served chicken and waffles on Martin Luther King Day at the University of California, Irvine.

It said at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times, that the company would conduct cultural sensitivity training for all managers and chefs.

Students at New York University demanded the school cut its ties with Aramark after its Black History Month menu in 2018 included barbecue ribs, cornbread, collard greens, Kool-Aid and watermelon-flavored water, according to The New York Times.

Aramark said at the time that two employees had planned that menu independently without consulting school advisory or cultural groups, which was a violation of company policy, and had been terminated.

An editorial published in the school's newspaper, Washington Square News, called the "racial stereotyping" by Aramark on college campuses "unacceptable."

"Although Aramark has made wide public apologies, it should be judged on its actions," the editorial said. "Serving racially stereotyped food during Black History Month is another clear indicator that Aramark’s values as a company are misaligned."

NYU sought to cut its ties with Aramark in 2019 and searched for other vendors, according to the Washington Square News, after students protested against the company's practices. The university's dining services are now partnered with Chartwells, according to its website.

Associating certain foods with Black culture derives historically from how these foods were once used as symbols in popular media to depict Black people as poor and uncultured following the abolition of slavery.

In the 1915 silent film “The Birth of a Nation,” fried chicken was used as part of the film's derogatory depictions of Black people. White actors wearing blackface were seen eating fried chicken and tossing bones around the buildings of Congress.

And watermelon has been linked to poverty for centuries. The Atlantic reported in 2014 that as early as 1801, a British officer stationed in Egypt called it a “poor Arab’s feast.”

But these racial stereotypes became more widespread in the U.S. after emancipation, when caricatures of freed slaves sought to paint Black people as ignorant and mindless, according to the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michigan.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Ban on marijuana users owning guns is unconstitutional, U.S. judge rules



Sat, February 4, 2023 
By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump in Oklahoma City, on Friday dismissed an indictment against a man charged in August with violating that ban, saying it infringed his right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

Wyrick said that while the government can protect the public from dangerous people possessing guns, it could not argue Jared Harrison's "mere status as a user of marijuana justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm."


He said using marijuana was "not in and of itself a violent, forceful, or threatening act," and noted that Oklahoma is one of a number of states where the drug, still illegal under federal law, can be legally bought for medical uses.

"The mere use of marijuana carries none of the characteristics that the Nation's history and tradition of firearms regulation supports," Wyrick wrote.

Laura Deskin, a public defender representing Harrison, said the ruling was a "step in the right direction for a large number of Americans who deserve the right to bear arms and protect their homes just like any other American." She called marijuana the most commonly used drug illegal at the federal level.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to request for comment but is likely to appeal.

The decision marked the latest instance of a court declaring a gun regulation unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority in June ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person's right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.

That ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, announced a new test for assessing firearms laws, saying restrictions must be "consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."

On Thursday, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited that decision in declaring unconstitutional a federal law barring people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Judge: Banning guns for marijuana users unconstitutional

 On Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that a federal law prohibiting people who use marijuana from owning firearms is unconstitutional, the latest challenge to firearms regulations after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority set new standards for reviewing the nation’s gun laws. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Sun, February 5, 2023 

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge in Oklahoma has ruled that a federal law prohibiting people who use marijuana from owning firearms is unconstitutional, the latest challenge to firearms regulations after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority set new standards for reviewing the nation’s gun laws.

Lawyers for Jared Michael Harrison had argued that their client's Second Amendment right to bear arms was being violated by a federal law that makes it illegal for “unlawful users or addicts of controlled substances” to possess firearms.

Harrison had been charged after being arrested by police in Lawton, Oklahoma, in May 2022 following a traffic stop. During a search of his car, police found a loaded revolver as well as marijuana. Harrison told police he had been on his way to work at a medical marijuana dispensary, but that he did not have a state-issued medical-marijuana card.

His lawyers had argued the portion of federal firearms law focused on drug users or addicts was not consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, echoing what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled last year in a case known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. That case set new standards for interpreting the Second Amendment.

Federal prosecutors had argued that the portion of the law focused on drug users is “consistent with a longstanding historical tradition in America of disarming presumptively risky persons, namely, felons, the mentally ill, and the intoxicated.”

U.S. District Judge Patrick Wyrick in Oklahoma City agreed with Harrison’s lawyers, ruling on Friday that federal prosecutors’ arguments that Harrison’s status as a marijuana user “justifies stripping him of his fundamental right to possess a firearm ... is not a constitutionally permissible means of disarming Harrison.”

“But the mere use of marijuana carries none of the characteristics that the Nation’s history and tradition of firearms regulation supports,” said Wyrick, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. In his ruling, Wyrick highlighted that under Oklahoma law, marijuana can be bought legally at more than 2,000 store fronts in the state.

Attorneys for Harrison, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, which was prosecuting the case, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Sunday.

The ruling came a day after a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Thursday ruled that the government can’t stop people who have domestic violence restraining orders against them from owning guns. The panel referenced the Bruen decision in its ruling. Two of the three judges on the panel are Trump appointees.

The Justice Department has said it will seek further review of the appeals court’s decision.

In September, a federal judge in Midland, Texas, ruled that a firearms law that bans those under felony indictment from buying guns is unconstitutional. In that case, U.S. District Judge David Counts, also a Trump appointee, also echoed the Supreme Court’s language in the Bruen case, saying there was “little evidence” the ban related to being under indictment “aligns with this Nation’s historical tradition.”

FACT FOCUS: Egg shortage breeds chicken-feed conspiracies


 Red Star chickens roost in their coop, Jan. 10, 2023, at Historic Wagner Farm in Glenview, Ill. Amid soaring egg prices, social media users are claiming that common chicken feed products are preventing their own hens from laying eggs. 

(AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

JOSH KELETY
Sun, February 5, 2023 at 5:19 PM MST·5 min read

Social media users claim to have found a new culprit for sky-high egg prices: chicken feed.

The theory gained steam on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter in recent weeks, with some users reporting that their hens stopped laying eggs and speculating that common chicken feed products were the cause. Some went a step further to suggest that feed producers had intentionally made their products deficient to stop backyard egg production, forcing people to buy eggs at inflated prices.

“One of the largest egg producers in the country cut a deal with one of the largest feed producers in the country to change their feed formula so it no longer contains enough protein and minerals for your chickens to produce eggs,” one Facebook user wrote in a post shared more than 2,000 times. “They are now price gouging eggs to make bank.”

But poultry experts say there’s no evidence for such claims. Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Chicken feed companies have altered their products to stop backyard hens from laying eggs and drive up demand for commercial eggs.

THE FACTS: U.S. egg prices in grocery stores more than doubled over the past year due to an outbreak of bird flu, combined with increasing labor and supply costs.

Some backyard chicken owners may have separately found their chickens underperforming, but experts say the issues are unrelated. While feed quality can affect hens’ egg-laying abilities, state agricultural officials told The Associated Press they have not heard of any widespread issues with feed affecting egg production, and several major feed suppliers say they haven’t changed their formulas.

Experts say there are far more mundane explanations for the poultry’s meager production.

“Is there a broad conspiracy? No, there’s not a broad conspiracy,” said Todd Applegate, a professor in poultry science at the University of Georgia. “Beyond feed, there are a lot, probably even more so, things from the management and from the bird’s environment that creates different things that would cause her to either go out of production or lower her production.”

More than 43 million of the 58 million birds slaughtered over the past year to control the bird flu virus have been egg-laying chickens, The Associated Press has reported.

“Because of high path avian influenza, we’ve had to depopulate millions of laying hens. And when you take that many chickens out of production, there’s fewer eggs,” said Ken Anderson, a poultry industry specialist at North Carolina State University. “And when there’s fewer eggs, the price goes up.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and a farmer-led advocacy group have called for an investigation into potential egg price-gouging by producers. But there is no evidence that altered chicken feed is driving steep egg prices.

Agricultural officials in multiple states, including North Carolina and Georgia, told the AP they have received no reports of widespread problems.

“Our members have not really heard any exact reports of any correlation between the feed and egg production,” said Austin Therrell, executive director of the Association of American Feed Control Officials, a group of local, state and federal agencies responsible for regulating animal feeds.

Therrell noted, however, that officials have fielded questions from people who saw feed-related claims on social media.

Other factors could explain the individual reports of low backyard egg yields, experts say. Limited daylight hours in the winter can reduce or stop hens’ egg production, as can cold weather, said Applegate. Improperly stored feed can become compromised and affect egg production, too.

“Backyard flock producers don’t necessarily follow lighting programs to support peak egg production,” Anderson said. “A lot of backyard flock people utilize natural daylight.”

Many social media users claimed that specific feed products, such as those offered by Purina Animal Nutrition and Tractor Supply, a chain of farm supplies stores, were at fault. Some said their hens started laying again after they switched feeds or made their own. But the companies deny that their products are to blame.

“We confirm there have not been formulation changes to Purina poultry feed products,” Brooke Dillon, a spokesperson for Land O’Lakes, the parent company of Purina Animal Nutrition, wrote in an email. Similarly, Mary Winn Pilkington, a spokesperson for Tractor Supply, said that its suppliers confirmed there has been “no change to the nutritional profile” of their feed products.

Feed products have been recalled in the past for improper nutrition, according to Adam Fahrenholz, an associate professor of feed milling at North Carolina State University. But while feed nutrition issues, like insufficient protein, can reduce egg production, he found no merit in online claims of a massive conspiracy.

“I don’t find it plausible from the standpoint of an intentional, large scale, you know, planned event at all,” Fahrenholz added.

The conspiracy that feed companies are deliberately trying to sabotage backyard egg supplies found an audience thanks to a broader distrust of government officials and experts, said Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo who focuses on misinformation. It’s common for people to look for scapegoats during periods of social anxiety, he said. The claims join other recent conspiracies alleging a coordinated effort to undermine the nation’s food supply.

“The official narrative is kind of reminding us that we are sometimes vulnerable to the randomness of nature,” Ophir said.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

Protesters gather in downtown Indianapolis to call for defunding police

Cheryl V. Jackson, Indianapolis Star
Sat, February 4, 2023 

Dozens of protesters took to Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis Saturday afternoon to call attention to police brutality and promote defunding police departments.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation - Indianapolis called for justice in killings of Tyre Nichols, Herman Whitfield III and others across the country.

Nichols died after allegedly being beaten by Memphis, Tennessee, police officers on Jan. 6, 2023, during a traffic stop.

Rosetta Walker, 10, was among the speakers during the protest against police brutality organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation -- Indianapolis at Monument Circle on Feb. 4, 2023.

Herman Whitfield III died after an encounter with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on April 25, 2022, when he was electrocuted at his parents’ home. Before the encounter, Whitfield's father reportedly told officers his son was "having a psychosis" and needed an ambulance.

“We want to see indictments. We want to see convictions,” said Noah Leininger with the organization. “We think nothing less than a conviction in that case is a modicum of justice.”

“If we're not out here and this falls out of public consciousness, then it’s going another year until the next person gets murdered by police,” Leininger said. “We need justice for all of these people now. It still keeps happening.”

“We’re not satisfied until there’s a conviction and these people are in jail,” Leininger said. “Even with people in Indiana, cops caught brutalizing people during the downtown protests in 2020; they still haven’t faced trial. Their trial is still waiting until this summer.”

He, like most of the half-dozen speakers, called police culture anti-Black and anti-working class.

“The culture has to be reformed by reforming who is in power,” Leininger said. “Right now, police departments across the country lack community oversight, lack community supervision and they can do whatever they want and get away with it because they protect the people who have the property.”

“Only when the police are controlled by the working class instead of the police oppressing the working class will we start to see a police culture that is actually protective of the people instead of the property of the wealthiest in our country.”

Stephen Lane, an organizer with the Indianapolis Liberation Center, said he preferred to have policing left to communities.

“We've been protesting this for decades...our families have been protesting this for decades since the '60s, since before the ‘60s. When will things ever get better? When will things ever change?” he said. “They killed Herman Winfield III right here in Indianapolis. They killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis. They're killing other people in California. It seems like in every state there's the issue with the police. And we're told it can be reformed; it can be made better. Where are the results?”

Saturday’s event was part of a series of demonstrations across the state.

One of the youngest in attendance grabbed the microphone to call for police to be less quick to pull on citizens.

“Everyone deserves a chance, even if they’ve done something wrong,” said 10 -year-old Rosetta Walker, with an impromptu follow up to her mother’s presentation. “I have learned that even if they do something wrong, a single word like ‘I’m sorry,’ it will change everything. They're just so busy pow, pow, pow, bang, bang, bang; shooting everyone.”

U.S. Justice Dept. to review Memphis police after Tyre Nichols' killing


Family members of Tyre Nichols hold a news conference in Memphis

Sun, February 5, 2023 
By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will participate in a review of the Memphis Police Department after the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man fatally beaten by officers in the Tennessee city last month, according to city officials.

The review was disclosed in a bulletin by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. The bulletin said the Justice Department as well as the International Association of Chiefs of Police would take part in an "independent, external review" requested by the city to assess the Memphis Police Department's special units and use-of-force policies.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Memphis police on Friday fired a sixth officer involved in the death of Nichols. Five other officers, all Black, were previously fired and charged with second-degree murder. The sixth officer to be fired is white.

Nichols repeatedly cried, "Mom! Mom!" as the five Memphis police officers charged with the Black motorist's murder pummeled him with kicks, punches and baton blows after a Jan. 7 traffic stop, video released by the city showed.

He was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days after the confrontation in the city where he lived with his mother and stepfather and worked at FedEx.

His death has further fueled an ongoing national debate in the United States about race and police brutality.

The Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services will take part in the review, the city said.

The mother of Nichols, RowVaughn Wells, and his stepfather, Rodney Wells, are due to attend President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday in Washington.

Nichols' funeral, held in a Memphis church on Wednesday, was attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and relatives of other Black people killed by police in U.S. cities.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

In Tyre Nichols' neighborhood, Black residents fear police





GARY FIELDS
Sat, February 4, 2023


MEMPHIS (AP) — In a terrible way, the death of Tyre Nichols brings vindication to members of the Black community in Memphis who live in constant fear of the police.

Often, before, people didn't believe them when told how bad it is.

The fatal beating of Nichols, 29, by five police officers tells the story many residents know by heart: that any encounter, including traffic stops, can be deadly if you're Black.

Examples abound of Black residents, primarily young men, targeted by police. Some are in official reports. Anyone you talk to has a story. Even casual discussions in a coffee shop net multiple examples.

A homeowner who called the police because a young man who had been shot was on his front porch. The responding officers ignored the gunshot victim and entered the caller’s home. The caller was slammed to the ground and a chemical agent used on him as he was subdued. The officers then lied about the circumstances, but there was video.

A woman who lives in a “safe” northeast Memphis neighborhood yet says her 18-year-old son was hogtied and pepper-sprayed by police several years ago –- while she was with him. He became agitated after police arrived on the scene while he picked up his child from a girlfriend, triggering a mental health crisis, she said.

In police sweeps, unmarked cars roll into neighborhoods and armed plainclothes officers jump out, rushing traffic violators and issuing commands. The result is a community in fear, where people text, call and use social media to caution each other to stay inside or avoid the area when police operations are underway.

“There’s one type of law enforcement that keeps people safe, and then there’s a type of law enforcement that keeps people in check,” said Joshua Adams, 29, who grew up in south Memphis' Whitehaven, home to Elvis Presley’s Graceland Mansion, now a mostly Black neighborhood.

If you are in the wrong neighborhood “it really doesn’t matter whether you’re part of the violence or not,” said Adams. “I’m less likely to be shot in a gang conflict than I am to be shot by police.”

Chase Madkins was about a block from his mother’s Evergreen neighborhood home just east of downtown Memphis dropping off his 12-year-old nephew when the blue lights of an unmarked police car flashed behind him.

Within seconds the officer ordered him out of the car and told him he made an illegal turn, and his license plate was not properly displayed because it was bent at the corner.

Madkins said the officer, dressed in tactical gear with his face covered and no visible identification, refused to give his badge number, unless he consented to a weapon search of the car.

Madkins, 34, consented, but called an activist friend to get to the scene.

“I had to remind myself, `Chase, this is how people get murdered, in a traffic stop,’” he said. To this day he does not know who the officer was.

The random stops are meant to terrorize, said Hunter Demster, organizer for Decarcerate Memphis. He's the one Madkins called when he was stopped in November.

“They go into these poor Black communities and they do mass pullover operations, terrifying everybody in that community,” Demster said. Some people might think the officers are looking for murderers or people accused of heinous crimes, or have stacks of warrants for violent criminals, he said, but “that is not the case.”

People want more police, Demster said, but “what they’re really trying to say is we want more detectives looking for violent criminals.”

Marcus Hopson, 54, a longtime resident and barber in the neighborhood, said the sweeps remind him of how in the early 1990s New York focused on nuisance crimes and zero tolerance and that morphed into stop-and-frisk.

“It didn’t work then. It’s not going to work now,” said Hopson, who now splits time with a home in Mississippi. “You are terrorizing the neighborhoods.”

Black residents make up about 63% of the city’s population of 628,000. In many ways it is two cities: One is Beale Street and blues, barbecue and Elvis. The other is a spiritual center because of what happened here decades ago. There’s the Mason Temple where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous and prophetic speech proclaiming that Black people would eventually reach a world of equality. And there is the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, less than 2 miles away, where an assassin’s bullet killed King the next day and changed the future of Black life.

This undated photo provided by Ryan Wilson shows Tyre Nichols, who had a passion for skateboarding and was described by friends as joyful and lovable. Nichols was fatally beaten by police during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tenn., on Jan. 7, 2023. (Courtesy of Ryan Wilson)


What that left here is complicated, especially when it comes to policing and crime. In 2021, the year the SCORPION unit – a specialty squad that all five officers were part of -- was set up, homicides hit a record, breaking one set in 2020, the previous year. Homicides dropped in 2022 but high-profile cases kept crime in the news. Most of the victims those years were young Black men. In the cases where arrests have been made, the suspects were overwhelmingly Black.

“There are more officers in Black communities here because unfortunately we’ve seen a spike in crime in our communities,” said Memphis NAACP President Van Turner.

But adding police without addressing the underlying issues, including poverty, won’t help, he said.

“You have not resolved the systemic issues which create the crime in the first place," Turner said.

The data also shows a disparity between the city's population and who police target with force: Black men and women accounted for anywhere from 79% of use of force situations to 88%. The data doesn't show how many of those people were being sought on a warrant for violent crimes.

The Memphis police chief has called Nichols’ death “heinous, reckless and inhumane.” The five officers, all of whom were Black, accused of beating him were all charged with second-degree murder, and other officers and fire department employees on scene also have been fired or disciplined and could be charged. The SCORPION unit has been disbanded. The chief has ordered a review of all the special units.

Some people in the community are willing to give the police chief a chance to reform the department.

Marcus Taylor, 48, who owns a janitorial business and lives in south Memphis, urged officers in the precincts to come into their communities and network, “talk to store owners, go to barbershops, come to basketball games, and do it regularly. Get to know the people you are supposed to be protecting.”

“Come out without the lights flashing,” he said. “You’re out here to protect and serve, not beat up and whip. Everybody is not that hardened criminal.”

Madkins, who was among hundreds of people attending Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday, said he wants to be hopeful. He heard the words of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered a eulogy: “I don’t know when. I don’t know how. But we won’t stop until we hold you accountable and change this system,” Sharpton said.

“I felt affirmed. I felt seen and heard in my own struggle,” Madkins said.

The vindication, if you can call it that, comes too late for Tyre Nichols.

At the place where he was fatally beaten grows an unofficial symbol of violence and tragedy –- a makeshift memorial with balloons and stuffed animals. It is around the corner from his mother’s home.

Nowhere seems safe for Black young men and boys.

When they start walking around the neighborhoods alone, or first start to drive, parents universally caution them on what to do when they encounter cops.

“This has to change,” said Erica Brown, 47, who described officers hogtying and pepper-spraying her son while she was with him. The memories of that day in 2014 kept her from watching all the video of Nichols being beaten. “Not just here in Memphis, but it needs to change nationwide.”

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News researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York. Also contributing were journalists Claudia Lauer from Philadelphia, and Adrian Sainz and Allen Breed from Memphis.