Just keep swimming: SoCal study shows sharks, humans can share ocean peacefully

By STEFANIE DAZIO

June 6, 2023


LOS ANGELES (AP) — You’re gonna need a bigger ... drone.

That’s right, “Jaws” fans. Researchers at California State University, Long Beach-based Shark Lab used drones to study juvenile white sharks along the Southern California coastline and how close they swim to humans in the water.

Turns out, it’s pretty close. Almost within the bite radius.

Still, it’s safe. There were no reported shark bites in any of the 26 beaches surveyed between January 2019 and March 2021, according to the Shark Lab.

The juvenile white sharks mostly grouped together in two locations — in southern Santa Barbara County and central San Diego County — the researchers discovered through roughly 1,500 drone flights over the two years. Adult white sharks are generally solitary animals.

In those two spots, the juvenile sharks swam near humans on 97% of the days surveyed, the researchers wrote in a paper published Friday. The sharks often swam within 50 yards (45.72 meters) of the wave breaks — closest to surfers and stand-up paddle boarders.

“Most of the time water users didn’t even know the sharks were there, but we could easily see them from the air,” said Patrick Rex, a Cal State Long Beach graduate student who led the study.

The researchers confirmed that surfers, swimmers and sharks can coexist peacefully but “we never expected to see so many encounters every day with no incidents” of bites, said Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor and the Shark Lab’s director.

“It’s not just about sharks, it’s about people,” Lowe said. “This study may change people’s perception of the risk sharks pose to people that share the ocean with them.”

So just keep swimming.

Spain registers hottest spring temperatures on record


 A woman holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun during a hot sunny day in Madrid, Spain, on. Spain registered its hottest spring on record this year, and its second driest ever, the state meteorological agency said Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)

MADRID (AP) — Spain registered its hottest spring on record this year, and its second driest ever, the state meteorological agency said Wednesday.

Rubén Del Campo, spokesman for the Aemet weather agency, said the latest data showed a continuation of the extremely high temperatures the country suffered in 2022, which was the hottest year ever recorded in Spain.

The spring heat was accompanied by a scarcity of rain that will exacerbate Spain’s long-term drought, despite some rainfall over the last month. Spain’s Ecological Transition Ministry reported Tuesday that the country’s reservoirs are at 47.4% of their capacity, consolidating a downward trend.

Del Campo noted knock-on effects for the Mediterranean country’s ecosystem. “Surface water temperatures recorded in 2022 were the highest since at least 1940,” he told a press conference, warning that the phenomenon endangered marine life and its ability to reproduce.

The situation inland was also made much more precarious. “These high temperatures have repercussions on both human health and ecosystems in terms of increased likelihood of forest fires,” the spokesman added.

Del Campo also issued predictions for the summer ahead, which he said would likely be “extremely hot,” though with a probability of some rainstorms. The Aemet spokesman said it was not clear that the El Niño weather phenomenon would contribute to the expected high temperatures in Spain. El Niño is a cyclical warming of the world’s oceans and weather, which is forecast to return later this year.

The Spanish government announced 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) worth of drought response measures last month, including funding for urban water reuse and further aid for struggling farmers.

Spain is Europe’s leading producer and exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables. The country requested emergency funds from the European Union in April given the dire prognosis for this year’s crops.

Virginia regulators advance Youngkin plan to leave climate initiative he calls ineffective

By SARAH RANKIN

June 6, 2023

Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Arlington, speaks at a rally Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Richmond, Va., ahead of the State Air Pollution Control Board's vote on withdrawing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (Charlotte Rene Woods/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia regulators voted on Wednesday to advance Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plan to withdraw from a multistate carbon cap-and-trade program.

Virginia spent years under Democratic administrations moving toward participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which environmental advocates say is a proven tool to help reduce pollution and address climate change. But that has been thrown into reverse since Youngkin, a Republican who says the program has functioned as a tax on electricity users with no environmental benefit, took office in January 2022.

Wednesday’s final 4-3 vote by the state Air Pollution Control Board advanced the governor’s proposal over a key hurdle in the administrative process, though his plan is ultimately expected to face a legal challenge.

“Today’s commonsense decision by the Air Board to repeal RGGI protects Virginians from the failed program that is not only a regressive tax on families and businesses across the Commonwealth, but also does nothing to reduce pollution,” Youngkin said in a statement after the vote.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is an effort by 12 mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to reduce power plants’ carbon emissions. Participating states require plants of a certain generating capacity to purchase allowances to emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, which scientists say is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extreme weather.

In Virginia, most proceeds from the sale of allowances — which have reached nearly $590 million so far — are divvied up between efforts to assist localities affected by recurrent flooding and sea-level rise, and a state-administered account to support energy efficiency programs for low-income individuals.

Youngkin, who acknowledges the threat of climate change and has pledged to address sea-level rise, says his concerns with RGGI (pronounced “Reggie”) center on the state’s electric utility policy and the 2020 law that made the state a full participant in the program.

The law included language that said the costs of allowances purchased through the initiative would be deemed environmental compliance costs that may be recovered from ratepayers of monopoly utilities Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power.

“The imposition of the RGGI ‘carbon tax’ fails to offer any incentive to change behavior. Current law allows power generators, such (as) Dominion Energy, to pass on all their costs, essentially bearing no cost for the carbon credits,” a 2022 administration report said.

Nate Benforado, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, pushed back on that argument, noting that others required to comply are independent power producers that are regulated differently and account for about 30% of Virginia’s power sector emissions.

In public comment on the proposal, the SELC said Virginia’s emission levels were stagnant in the decade before the state joined RGGI, followed by a “clear shift” in reductions in the years since.

“Virginia’s annual total CO2 emissions from power plants declined by about 5.5 million tons/year — from about 32.8 million tons in 2020 to about 27.3 million tons in 2022 — a total decrease of 16.8% over just two years,” the group said, citing data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Some RGGI critics question whether that’s due to participation in the program or other factors.

About 1,900 commenters weighed in through an online portal to oppose the governor’s proposal during the most recent period for public comment, compared with approximately 600 in favor.

Among those supporting a repeal was Dominion, which serves around 2.7 million customers in Virginia. The utility wrote that RGGI participation does not further the goal of carbon reduction but “instead imparts unnecessary additional costs on Virginia customers with no evidence of incremental benefits.”

To date, Dominion has incurred about $490 million in compliance costs and has recovered about $267 million from customers, spokesman Aaron Ruby said.

Appalachian Power spokeswoman Teresa Hamilton Hall said the company has incurred $742,000 in costs since 2021, most of which regulators said the company could recover from users.

“Compliance with RGGI adds to customer costs,” she said.

In addition to their opposition to rescinding the program, RGGI advocates have argued that the way Youngkin’s administration has sought to leave it — through administrative action after legislative attempts were defeated — is unlawful.

“We fully expect robust and ultimately successful legal challenges to ensue by any number of parties who will be harmed by this action,” said Walton Shepherd, Virginia policy director and senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Wednesday’s vote advances the proposal to an executive review period, after which it is expected to be published in the Virginia Register and could then be subject to legal challenge.

US Army Corps revokes permit for Minnesota mine, cites threat to downstream tribe’s water standards


A former iron ore processing plant near Hoyt Lakes, Minn., that would become part of a proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine, is pictured on Feb. 10, 2016. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, June 6, 2023, it has revoked a crucial federal permit for the proposed NewRange Copper Nickel mine, previously known as PolyMet, in northeastern Minnesota, saying the permit did not comply with the water quality standards set by a sovereign downstream tribe. 

(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday it has revoked a crucial federal permit for the proposed NewRange Copper Nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, a project popularly known as PolyMet, saying the permit did not comply with the water quality standards set by a sovereign downstream tribe.

The Corps said in a statement that it revoked the Clean Water Act permit, which it had previously suspended, “because the permit does not ensure compliance with water quality requirements of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.” The tribe’s reservation, on the St. Louis River, is downstream from the mine and processing plant site near Babbitt and Hoyt Lakes.

“This is a huge victory,” said Paula Maccabee, an attorney for WaterLegacy, one of the environmental groups that have been fighting the proposed mine in court and in the regulatory process for several years. “It’s a victory for tribal sovereignty, it’s a victory for science, it’s a victory for the law. Although PolyMet has suffered other setbacks, this is by far the most consequential victory for human health, water quality and tribal sovereignty.”


The closed LTV Steel taconite plant sits idle near Hoyt Lakes, Minn., Feb. 10, 2016. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday, June 6, 2023, it has revoked a crucial federal permit for the proposed NewRange Copper Nickel mine, previously known as PolyMet, in northeastern Minnesota, saying the permit did not comply with the water quality standards set by a sovereign downstream tribe. 

(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

The Corps said NewRange Copper Nickel is free to submit a new permit application with modifications to the project to make it comply with the tribe’s water quality requirements. But Maccabee said the Corps’ decision memo makes it clear that it would be difficult for the company to successfully address all the issues raised by the tribe and the Environmental Protection Agency.

NewRange said it’s considering its options as it digests the decision and decides on its response. Some other key permits also remain tied up by legal challenges.

“The Corps’ decision is one that requires careful review, determined action, and further engagement with regulators and all key stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.

PolyMet Mining and Teck Resources finalized a 50-50 joint venture in February that renamed the project NewRange Copper Nickel. They hope to complete the copper-nickel mine that PolyMet had been developing for several years, and to eventually build a separate mine next door in an even larger ore body that Canada-based Teck controls. PolyMet Mining’s largest shareholder is Swiss-based minerals and mining giant Glencore.

The Corps initially awarded PolyMet the Clean Water Act permit in 2019. At the time, Corps officials said the project complied with all applicable federal laws and regulations.

But it suspended the permit in 2021 at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency so that the EPA, in response to a court ruling, could study the effects downstream on both the Band’s reservation and the Wisconsin waters of the St. Louis River, which forms a part of the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The Corps then held a public hearing in May of 2022 on whether the permit should be reissued, revoked or modified.

Tribal officials told federal officials then that the mine would violate its water quality regulations, which are stricter than the state’s, particularly for mercury and some other pollutants. The tribe said its higher standards are needed to protect the fish and wild rice that are important parts of its members’ diets and culture. The EPA agreed, and recommended that the Corps not reinstate the permit.

In Tuesday’s announcement, the Corps said it was obligated to revoke the suspended permit given the absence of sufficient conditions in the existing permit “to ensure compliance with the applicable downstream water quality requirements of the Band” under the Clean Water Act.

“This is a milestone determination and further proof that under law and science, this kind of mining does not belong in an area where there’s so much water,” said Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.

NewRange reiterated that it believes the mine can produce copper, nickel and platinum-group metals needed for the clean energy economy in a responsible and sustainable manner, while creating jobs for northeastern Minnesota. The company said it has shown that its project, through its proposed water treatment and management processes, would result in net reductions of sulfate and mercury levels in the St. Louis River system.

Republican U.S. Rep. Peter Stauber, who represents the area, slammed the decision, saying it will make the U.S. more reliant on China for critical metals.

“The Biden Administration continues their assault on northern Minnesota and our way of life,” Stauber said in a statement. “We are on the cusp of delivering for the world and our country an ethically and responsibly sourced supply of these greatly needed critical minerals for our everyday life.”

Inside Russia’s penal colonies: A look at life for political prisoners caught in Putin’s crackdowns

By DASHA LITVINOVA

June 3, 2023

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FILE In this file photo made from video provided by the Moscow City Court on Feb. 3, 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny makes a heart gesture standing in a cage during a hearing to a motion from the Russian prison service to convert the suspended sentence of Navalny from the 2014 criminal conviction into a real prison term in the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia. Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest foe, has become Russia's most famous political prisoner. He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. 

(Moscow City Court via AP, File)

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Alexei Navalny turns 47 on Sunday, he’ll wake up in a bare concrete cell with hardly any natural light.

He won’t be able to see or talk to any of his loved ones. Phone calls and visits are banned for those in “punishment isolation” cells, a 2-by-3-meter (6 1/2-by-10-foot) space. Guards usually blast patriotic songs and speeches by President Vladimir Putin at him.

“Guess who is the champion of listening to Putin’s speeches? Who listens to them for hours and falls asleep to them?” Navalny said recently in a typically sardonic social media post via his attorneys from Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.

He is serving a nine-year term due to end in 2030 on charges widely seen as trumped up, and is facing another trial on new charges that could keep him locked up for another two decades. Rallies have been called for Sunday in Russia to support him.

Navalny has become Russia’s most famous political prisoner — and not just because of his prominence as Putin’s fiercest political foe, his poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin, and his being the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.

He has chronicled his arbitrary placement in isolation, where he has spent almost six months. He’s on a meager prison diet, restricted on how much time he can spend writing letters and forced at times to live with a cellmate with poor personal hygiene, making life even more miserable.

Most of the attention goes to Navalny and other high-profile figures like Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced last month to 25 years on treason charges. But there’s a growing number of less-famous prisoners who are serving time in similarly harsh conditions.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, counted 558 political prisoners in the country as of April — more than three times the figure than in 2018, when it listed 183.

The Soviet Union’s far-flung gulag system of prison camps provided inmate labor to develop industries such as mining and logging. While conditions vary among modern-day penal colonies, Russian law still permits prisoners to work on jobs like sewing uniforms for soldiers.

In a 2021 report, the U.S. State Department said conditions in Russian prisons and detention centers “were often harsh and life threatening. Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities.”

Andrei Pivovarov, an opposition figure sentenced last year to four years in prison, has been in isolation at Penal Colony No. 7 in northern Russia’s Karelia region since January and is likely to stay there the rest of this year, said his partner, Tatyana Usmanova. The institution is notorious for its harsh conditions and reports of torture.

The 41-year-old former head of the pro-democracy group Open Russia spends his days alone in a small cell in a “strict detention” unit, and is not allowed any calls or visits from anyone but his lawyers, Usmanova told The Associated Press. He can get one book from the prison library, can write letters for several hours a day and is permitted 90 minutes outdoors, she said.

Other inmates are prohibited from making eye contact with Pivovarov in the corridors, contributing to his “maximum isolation,” she said.

“It wasn’t enough to sentence him to a real prison term. They are also trying to ruin his life there,” Usmanova added.

Pivovarov was pulled off a Warsaw-bound flight just before takeoff from St. Petersburg in May 2021 and taken to the southern city of Krasnodar. Authorities accused him of engaging with an “undesirable” organization -– a crime since 2015.

Several days before his arrest, Open Russia had disbanded after getting the “undesirable” label.

After his trial in Krasnodar, the St. Petersburg native was convicted and sentenced in July, when Russia’s war in Ukraine and Putin’s sweeping crackdown on dissent were in full swing.

He told AP in a letter from Krasnodar in December that authorities moved him there “to hide me farther away” from his hometown and Moscow. That interview was one of the last Pivovarov was able to give, describing prison life there as “boring and depressing,” with his only diversion being an hour-long walk in a small yard. “Lucky” inmates with cash in their accounts can shop at a prison store once a week for 10 minutes but otherwise must stay in their cells, he wrote.

Letters from supporters lift his spirits, he said. Many people wrote that they used to be uninterested in Russian politics, according to Pivovarov, and “only now are starting to see clearly.”

Now, any letters take weeks to arrive, Usmanova said.

Conditions are easier for some less-famous political prisoners like Alexei Gorinov, a former member of a Moscow municipal council. He was was convicted of “spreading false information” about the army in July over antiwar remarks he made at a council session.

Criticism of the invasion was criminalized a few months earlier, and Gorinov, 61, became the first Russian sent to prison for it, receiving seven years.

He is housed in barracks with about 50 others in his unit at Penal Colony No. 2 in the Vladimir region, Gorinov said in written answers passed to AP in March.

The long sentence for a low-profile activist shocked many, and Gorinov said “authorities needed an example they could showcase to others (of) an ordinary person, rather than a public figure.”

Inmates in his unit can watch TV, and play chess, backgammon or table tennis. There’s a small kitchen to brew tea or coffee between meals, and they can have food from personal supplies.

But Gorinov said prison officials still carry out “enhanced control” of the unit, and he and two other inmates get special checks every two hours, since they’ve been labeled “prone to escape.”

There is little medical help, he said.

“Right now, I’m not feeling all that well, as I can’t recover from bronchitis,” he said, adding that he needed treatment for pneumonia last winter at another prison’s hospital ward, because at Penal Colony No. 2, the most they can do is “break a fever.”

Also suffering health problems is artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko, who is detained amid her ongoing trial following her April 2022 arrest in St. Petersburg, also on charges of spreading false information about the army. Her crime was replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans in protest.

Skochilenko has a congenital heart defect and celiac disease, requiring a gluten-free diet. She gets food parcels weekly, but there is a weight limit, and the 32-year-old can’t eat “half the things they give her there,” said her partner, Sophia Subbotina.

There’s a stark difference between detention facilities for women and men, and Skochilenko has it easier in some ways than male prisoners, Subbotina said.

“Oddly enough, the staff are mostly nice. Mostly they are women, they are quite friendly, they will give helpful tips and they have a very good attitude toward Sasha,” Subbotina told AP by phone.

“Often they support Sasha, they tell her: ‘You will definitely get out of here soon, this is so unfair here.’ They know about our relationship and they are fine with it. They’re very humane,” she said.

There’s no political propaganda in the jail and dance music blares from a radio. Cooking shows play on TV. Skochilenko “wouldn’t watch them in normal life, but in jail, it’s a distraction,” Subbotina said.

She recently arranged for an outside cardiologist to examine Skochilneko and since March has been allowed to visit her twice a month.

Subbotina gets emotional when she recalled their first visit.

“It is a complex and weird feeling when you’ve been living with a person. Sasha and I have been together for over six years — waking up with them, falling asleep with them — then not being able to see them for a year,” she said. “I was nervous when I went to visit her. I didn’t know what I would say to Sasha, but in the end, it went really well.”

Still, Subbotina said a year behind bars has been hard on Skochilenko. The trial is moving slowly, unlike usually swift proceedings for high-profile political activists, with guilty verdicts almost a certainty.

Skochilenko faces up to 10 years if convicted.

LGBTQ2 RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Book Review: Elliot Page’s timely debut memoir ‘Pageboy’ is powerful, humanizing

By DONNA EDWARDS

yesterday


This cover image released by Flatiron Books shows "Pageboy" by Elliot Page. (Flatiron Books via AP)

“Pageboy” by Elliot Page (Flatiron Books)

Look, I admire Elliot Page as much as the next LGBTQ+ person and was swooning just as hard over this incredible cover and the mystery around the hush-hush book with the super-private advanced copies. In the end, it didn’t live up to the hype.

But it’s better that it doesn’t, because it humanizes the larger-than-life subject.

“Pageboy,” the highly anticipated debut memoir from trans actor, director and producer Elliot Page, begins by warning that the book follows a nonlinear narrative “because queerness is intrinsically nonlinear.” The story flits from memory to memory, following a thread that crisscrosses his life in all its comedy and tragedy and mundanity. There are awkward teen parties, wild surprise car-chase stunts and kids kicking the soccer ball around the yard.

Page reads as a normal guy telling a meandering story that often dips into intimate, raw and powerful anecdotes.

Growing up splitting his time between divorced parents, Page describes a childhood that amounts to death by a thousand cuts. These come from bullies at school, toxic family dynamics, a stalker, and a reoccurring lack of support and understanding.

The bad is presented alongside the good. A tense emotional scene with his father is interrupted by a flashback to a family outing at the same spot, climbing up to see a spectacular view, then getting a scoop of Moon Mist. And he includes the background you need — look no further than the next line to find that Moon Mist is a Nova Scotia-specific ice cream flavor.

That’s just one of numerous instances in which Page drops tidbits of fascinating knowledge, niche cultural insights and little-known historical background.

If you’re looking for a tell-all, know that Page respects people in their own journeys and leaves many of his former lovers and hookups unnamed. At the same time, he reveals intimate details about his relationship with people like actor Kate Mara, whose name appears in the acknowledgements among a list of friends Page reached out to while writing the book.

Page candidly describes time after time when people mistreated him, a long string of awful vignettes. Sexual assault is outlined clinically, slurs and verbal abuse repeated verbatim.

But the same candid verbiage applies to happy times, too, like when he first tastes fresh, homegrown produce at the Lost Valley while learning to live sustainably.

On the whole, reading “Pageboy” is like listening to a friend.

And by the time you reach the end, when Page thanks people for their support, it’s impossible to miss the truth in his words: “I wouldn’t be typing this right now if it weren’t for you and your care.”

Between the timely release of “Pageboy” at the start of Pride Month and the growing onslaught of legislation targeting trans rights, now is an excellent time to read this humanizing and well-written memoir.

In ‘The Blue Caftan,’ Moroccan film director tackles LGBTQ+ love and celebrates embroidery craft

By MARIAM FAM

June 7, 2023

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Director Maryam Touzani stands for a portrait during the 76th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Monday, May 22, 2023. In her latest film, “The Blue Caftan,” Touzani, from Morocco, delicately weaves intricate, overlapping tales of love, both traditional and largely taboo for many in her country and its region as she tells the story of a woman and her secretly gay husband who together run a shop making caftans. The marriage grows more complicated when the couple hires a male apprentice. 

(AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

As Mina gets increasingly sick, her body withering away, her husband dotes on her: He washes her hair, helps her change, brings the sweetness of a fruit to her lips. But underneath the genuinely tender moments shared by this on-screen Moroccan couple simmers a longing — of a forbidden kind.

In her latest film, “The Blue Caftan,” Moroccan director Maryam Touzani delicately weaves intricate, overlapping tales of love, both traditional and largely taboo for many in her country and its region as she tells the story of a woman and her secretly gay husband who together run a shop making caftans. The marriage grows more complicated when the couple hires a male apprentice.

Wading into socially sensitive subjects is not unfamiliar terrain for Touzani who has won accolades at international film festivals and, just recently, was a jury member at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “The Blue Caftan,” which had been shortlisted in the international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards, is scheduled for release Wednesday in Morocco, where gay sex is illegal.

“I’m really hoping that it would be able to trigger a debate about the LGBT community and its place …, things that we don’t generally talk about because they are sensitive subjects,” Touzani told The Associated Press. “For a healthy society, it’s important to be able to talk about everything.”

Some disagree.

In Rabat, 27-year-old Laila Sahraoui argued some topics are best left behind closed doors.

“Moroccans … worry that their kids could imitate such ideas,” she said, adding that she wouldn’t watch the film. “Because of our Islam, we don’t like such things in Morocco. … It’s absolutely not appropriate for our society.”

But Touzani, 42, said others shared with her how important it was to portray characters like Halim, the husband.

“Morocco is a very complex country where there are very different points of view coexisting,” she said. “It’s about being able to just push certain boundaries and just to question certain things. ... That’s what art can help us do as well, cinema especially.”

Filmmaker Nabil Ayouch, Touzani’s husband who co-wrote “The Blue Caftan” with her and is its main producer, said he is curious about moviegoers’ reactions, but feels confident.

“There’s a younger and younger audience and they want to see new type of movies, new type of cinemas in the Arab world,” he said. “The more conservative audience will probably not be very pleased.”

Part of art’s role, Ayouch said, is to disturb, to stir debate.

While he welcomes the recognition their movies garner abroad, he said it’s important for films like “The Blue Caftan” also to be experienced by audiences at home and in the Arab world.

For those having to “live their sexuality secretly,” he said, “films like this one can give them some courage to face who they are more publicly.”

In “The Blue Caftan,” Mina, the wife, has a sense of humor and a feisty side that she uses to protect her husband, who considers her his “rock.” She’s an observant Muslim; viewers repeatedly watch her pray.

Halim is a man torn. He has a gentle soul and takes pride in his craft — correcting a customer on a fabric’s exact shade of blue — while catering to shoppers in a changing world, with little patience for the time he takes to embroider by hand. He loves his wife, even as he slips into a cabin at a public bathhouse for secret sexual encounters with men.

Sexual tension builds up between him and the male apprentice, Youssef. As Mina’s health falters, Youssef increasingly helps the couple and a love triangle of sorts ensues.

Ultimately, Touzani said, it’s a movie about “love in its many forms.”

That includes love for the traditional craft of caftan embroidery, with sensual scenes of fabrics and stitches.

“One of the things I wanted to show in this film is the beauty of certain traditions,” she said. “There are other traditions that … need to be questioned,” she added, citing scenes when Halim challenges some burial rituals.

In one scene, Halim asks for Mina’s forgiveness, telling her that all his life he has tried in vain to get rid of “this thing.” She tells him she’s proud to have been his wife, then rests her head on his shoulder.

Being a woman of faith didn’t stop Mina from understanding her husband, Touzani said.

“We have the tendency of saying, ‘Well, if you are religious, then you cannot be this or you cannot be that.’ I believe that we can be many things at the same time because we are such complex beings.”

Smail, a Moroccan LGBTQ rights activist who identifies as nonbinary, saw the movie abroad and said it showed that “love is for everyone.” Asking to be identified by first name only due to the sensitivity of the topic, Smail added: “When we advocate for more personal freedoms in Morocco, we hear that the people won’t accept that ... but through Mina’s example, we have a glimmer of hope because Mina is one of the people.”

Ahmed Benchemsi, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, said that while the number of those prosecuted for gay sex in Morocco “is relatively low” and the topic of homosexuality is less of a taboo there than it used to be, “the law is still there and it hangs over the heads of everybody.”

Online, before the Morocco release of “The Blue Caftan,” some praised Touzani’s work as powerful and moving; others accused her of courting the West and catering to its sensibilities over issues more relevant to Moroccans.

“I don’t make cinema to please anybody,” Touzani said. “I just want to be as truthful as possible to my characters and to the stories I want to tell.”

Touzani’s feature-film directing debut, “Adam,” tells the story of two women whose lives intersect when one takes in the other, an unmarried stranger who’s looking for a place to stay until she gives birth after getting pregnant. She talks about plans to give away her baby to shield him from the stigma that would otherwise mar his future.

It was inspired by Touzani’s parents hosting a woman who showed up at their doorstep under similar circumstances. When Touzani was pregnant with her son, she felt “the violence” that the woman endured in having to relinquish her baby because “socially she couldn’t do otherwise.”

Broaching topics “unspoken of in Arab and Islamic societies” is one common thread between “Adam” and “The Blue Caftan,” said film critic Cherqui Ameur.

“We hope to have fewer taboos in our society through discussing all issues,” he said.

In 2015, “Much Loved,” a movie directed and written by Ayouch, in which Touzani worked in various capacities, was barred from release in the country. Authorities at the time charged that the movie, portraying female sex workers, was offensive to Moroccan women and values. The movie, excerpts from which appeared online, sparked uproar; it was defended by some on freedom of expression and human-interest grounds and criticized by others who said its language was crude and scenes too explicit.

Born in Tangier to a Moroccan father and Moroccan-Spanish mother, Touzani, an avid reader, studied journalism in London but eventually turned to filmmaking.

She said she gravitates toward telling stories of people on the margins. On the screen, she wants to give them the voice they may not have and the possibilities that may not exist in real life.

“These are the people that inspire me, that touch me, that haunt me,” Touzani said. “These are the people that really make their way inside my heart and stay there naturally without me looking for it.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Protesters brawl as Southern California school district decides whether to recognize Pride Month

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Conservative groups and LGBTQ+ rights supporters protest as police try to maintain order outside the Glendale Unified School District offices in Glendale, Calif., Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Several hundred people gathered in the parking lot of the district headquarters, split between those who support or oppose teaching about exposing youngsters to LGBTQ+ issues in schools. 

(Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register via AP)

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) — Protesters briefly scuffled and punches flew Tuesday as a Southern California school district decided whether to recognize June as Pride month.

Several hundred people gathered in the parking lot of the Glendale Unified School District headquarters, split between those who support or oppose exposing youngsters to LGBTQ+ issues in schools.

Some opponents wore T-shirts emblazoned with: “Leave our kids alone.”

It was the same slogan used by some demonstrators last Friday outside Saticoy Elementary School in Los Angeles to protest a planned Pride assembly.

As in Glendale, police officers had to separate groups of protesters and counterprotesters who came to blows.

Across the nation, Pride month celebrations are kicking off amid rising backlash in some places against LGBTQ+ rights. Community parade organizers, school districts and even professional sports terms have faced protests for flying rainbow flags and honoring drag performers. While some Republican-led states are limiting classroom conversations about gender and sexuality and banning gender-affirming care, some Democratic cities and states are seeking to expand LGBTQ+ rights and to honor the community’s contributions.

In Glendale, police quickly moved in to stop clashes, separated the two groups and cleared the parking lot. Police said they arrested two people on suspicion of obstructing officers and one person for unlawful use of pepper spray. TV reports also showed a man being taken away after lying down in the street and refusing to move.

No injuries were reported.

Inside the packed meeting room, the school board late Tuesday night approved, for the fifth year in a row, a resolution designating June as LGBTQ+ Pride month.

However, most of those who addressed the school board discussed broader issues of how sex and gender are handled under district policy, with supporters arguing that LGBTQ+ children need to feel safe and included in classrooms while opponents contended that schools are usurping parental authority and pushing unnecessary and even harmful views on gender.

In an earlier statement, the district said “intentional and harmful disinformation has been circulating about what is being taught” and said it follows state law and education policies.

Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District school board unanimously voted to recognize Pride Month. The resolution also encouraged all schools in the nation’s second-largest district to incorporate lessons on the LGBTQ+ community into the curriculum and affirmed a “commitment to creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environment for all LGBTQ+ students, families, and staff members.”

Ruling on Tennessee’s anti-drag law leaves questions about enforcement, next steps

By ADRIAN SAINZ and KIMBERLEE KRUESI

June 6, 2023

 Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry speaks during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to anti-drag bills in the Tennessee legislature, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn. A federal judge says Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional. In a 70-page ruling handed down late Friday night, June 2, 2023, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker wrote that the law was both “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad” and encouraged “discriminatory enforcement.”

 (John Amis/AP Images for Human Rights Campaign via AP, File)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — As LGBTQ+ advocates celebrate a federal judge’s ruling declaring Tennessee’s so-called anti-drag show law unconstitutional, questions remain over whether the law will be enforced after the court declared that the decision only applied to the state’s most populous county.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that the first-in-the-nation law was “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad,” and encouraged “discriminatory enforcement.”

The ruling came just as many Pride events were scheduled across the heavily conservative state, including events where drag performers were expected to appear publicly and many of which were designated for all ages.

Yet even after Friday’s ruling, questions remain about how prosecutors will respond. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that the law remains in effect outside of Shelby County, which encompasses Memphis. However, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy told reporters Tuesday that he believes district attorneys won’t enforce a law that a federal judge says violates the First Amendment.

“We are reviewing the order and expect to appeal at the appropriate time,” Skrmetti said.


Drag artist Cya Inhale, center, visits with guests during the Franklin Pride TN festival, Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Franklin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Wren uses a fan to keep cool during the Franklin Pride TN festival, Saturday, June 3, 2023, in Franklin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

The lawsuit seeking to overturn the legislation was spearheaded by a Memphis-based LGBTQ+ theater group, Friends of George, which argued that the law would negatively affect them because they produce “drag-centric performances, comedy sketches, and plays” with no age restrictions.

Initially, the complaint listed Mulroy, Republican Gov. Bill Lee and Skrmetti as defendants. The plaintiffs later agreed to dismiss the governor and the attorney general as defendants, — although Skrmetti continued to represent Mulroy.

Because Mulroy’s authority only applies within Shelby County, Parker’s ruling applied solely to that jurisdiction.

Mulroy told reporters Tuesday that the Trump-appointed judge was clear the statute violated the First Amendment.

“Therefore, I think it is unlikely, or should be unlikely, that other DAs around the state will enforce it,” he said. “And then, if they do attempt to enforce it, I think the defendant will have a very strong First Amendment defense.”

Mulroy, a Democrat, added that he was “probably never been happier to lose a lawsuit.”

“I’ve always thought that the drag show bill was a solution in search of a problem and that by chilling free expression and making the LGBT community feel targeted has done more harm than good,” he said.

Gov. Lee has refused to weigh in on whether district attorneys should continue enforcing the law. Instead, the Republican said he would defer to Skrmetti about enforcement.

Lee added that he had not spoken to the attorney general about Parker’s ruling and that he “no plans to” because “it’s in the judicial branch.”

“That bill was created to protect children for the state. I’ll continue to do that whenever we can,” Lee said.

Tennessee’s Republican-dominated Legislature advanced the anti-drag law earlier this year, with several GOP members pointing to drag performances in their hometowns as reasons why it was necessary to restrict such performances from taking place in public or where children could view them.

Notably the actual word “drag” doesn’t appear in the statute. Instead lawmakers changed the state’s definition of adult cabaret to mean “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” Furthermore, “male or female impersonators” were classified as a form of adult cabaret, akin to strippers or topless dancers.

The law banned adult cabaret performances from public property or anywhere minors might be present. Performers who broke the law risked being charged with a misdemeanor or a felony for a repeat offense.

While LGBTQ+ rights advocates praised the ruling, Republican lawmakers quickly urged Skrmetti to appeal the decision. So far, he hasn’t.

The drag law marks the second major proposal targeting LGBTQ+ people passed by Tennessee lawmakers this year. Lee also signed into law GOP-backed legislation banning most gender-affirming care for minors, which is being challenged in court.

___

Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

Lead, rodents, put tenants at risk, Rhode Island says in lawsuit against major landlord SLUMLORD

June 6, 2023

U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha, front left, responds to questions from reporters outside federal court, in Providence, R.I. A major Rhode Island landlord whose tenants have long complained about lead hazards, rodent infestations and other problems was sued Tuesday, June 6, 2023 by the state attorney general, Peter Neronha, who said conditions at many of the properties put renters' health and safety at risk. 

(AP Photo/Steven Senne, file)



PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — At least five children have developed lead poisoning since 2019 while living in apartments owned by a major Rhode Island landlord, the state attorney general said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Pioneer Investments LLC, and its president, Anurag Sureka, have failed to comply with state rental, lead hazard, and consumer protection laws, putting their tenants’ health and safety at risk, Attorney General Peter Neronha said in the complaint filed in Providence County Superior Court.

Pioneer Investments, which owns and operates more than 175 residential rental units across the state, routinely ignores lead hazard laws, landlord-tenant laws, housing code regulations, and regularly engages in unfair and deceptive trade practices, Neronha said.

Tenants in sworn affidavits have also complained of rodent infestations, deterioration of the building structure, cracking walls and broken windows, and intermittent loss of water and heat, the suit said.

“Today’s action signals that enough is enough when it comes to the alleged misconduct of a major landlord who is placing the health and safety of Rhode Islanders at risk. Let’s cut right to it — as alleged, profits are being placed over basic human dignity and that cannot stand,” Neronha said in a statement.

A listed phone number for Pioneer was not in service. When reached at his office, Pioneer’s attorney Samuel Joseph Grossack said he was still reading the lawsuit and did not have an immediate comment.

The five children who developed lead poisoning since 2019 while living in Pioneer properties are among 11 who have detectable levels of lead in their blood, according to the state Department of Health.

The suit seeks a court order requiring Pioneer to remediate all lead hazards at its properties, end its unlawful and dangerous housing practices, and the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee and report on Pioneer’s compliance.

Reclaim RI, a volunteer social and economic justice organization, last year organized Pioneer’s tenants and has held rallies at some properties to highlight the poor conditions.

“Tenants, suffering from atrocious conditions amid skyrocketing rents, organized together and fought back,” Reclaim RI tenant organizer Shana Crandell said in a statement. “Today is a great victory for Pioneer tenants, and for all poor and working-class tenants across Rhode Island.”

Cyber gang threatens to release data stolen from BBC, British Airways, Walgreens


British Airways is one of dozens of British, American and Canadian companies and organizations hit by a major cyber attack and told by the perpetrators to make contact within 7 days or face having the personal data of their employees dumped online. File photo by Molly Riley/UPI | License Photo


June 7 (UPI) -- Russian hackers who stole the payroll data of more than 100,000 employees of major British, American and Canadian companies and organizations threatened Wednesday to dump the data onto to the internet unless the firms make contact to negotiate.

In a message posted on the so-called dark web, The Clop group said hack victims -- which include the BBC, British Airways, Are Lingus and Walgreens Boots Alliance -- must email them before June 14 or face having their data published online.

"This is announcement to educate companies who use Progress MOVEit product that chance is that we download a lot of your data as part of exceptional exploit," the post said, according to the BBC,

The group was able to harvest personal information ranging from names and addresses to social security numbers and bank details by hacking MOVEit, widely used business software made by Massachussets-based Progress that shifts files around company systems.

Britain and Ireland's largest payroll services provider, Zellis, confirmed that data has been stolen from eight unnamed organizations it works with but that what was taken varied across the different clients. It said that it had taken immediate action by disconnecting the server that utilizes the third-party MOVEit software and bringing in an outside security incident response team for forensic analysis and ongoing monitoring.

"All Zellis-owned software is unaffected and there are no associated incidents or compromises to any other part of our IT estate. We employ robust security processes across all of our services and they all continue to run as normal," the company said.

Walgreens Boots Alliance said a "global data vulnerability, which affected a third-party software used by one of our payroll providers, included some of our team members' personal details.

"Our provider assured us that immediate steps were taken to disable the server, and as a priority we have made our team members aware," the company said.

British Airways, which employs 34,000 people in Britain alone, said it had notified staff whose information had been compromised and was providing them with "support and advice."

"We have notified those colleagues whose personal information has been compromised to provide support and advice," a spokesman said.

In an email to its 22,000 staff, the BBC said data stolen included staff ID numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and national insurance numbers.

Britain's data protection and privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office, has been alerted of the incident by both Zellis and British Ariways.

Other organizations targeted included the University of Rochester in upstate New York and the Government of Nova Scotia although Clop claimed in its post that national and local government data or from public services such as police had been deleted.

"Do not worry, we erased your data you do not need to contact us. We have no interest to expose such information."

Last week, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an alert instructing firms using MOVEit to download a security patch from Progress to prevent further breaches.

In 2021, a joint operation between Ukraine, the United States and South Korea broke up a Clop gang in Ukraine that they said had extorted victims around the world to the tune of $500 million.

RIP
Wrestling star 'Iron Sheik' dead at 81, remembered for colorful roles in ring


Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, known for his stage persona The Iron Sheikh, died Wednesday at age 81. Photo Courtesy of Iron Sheik/Twitter

June 7 (UPI) -- Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, better known to professional wrestling fans by his stage persona "The Iron Sheik," died Wednesday at age 81.

"It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of The Iron Sheik ... It was not just his in-ring prowess that defined him. The Iron Sheik was a beloved figure who was known for his humor, his larger-than-life personality, and his ability to connect with fans on a personal level," read a statement posted to Vaziri's Twitter.

"In the realm of family, love, and friendship, The Iron Sheik's bond with his nephews, Page and Jian Magen was unparalleled. They recognized the significance of their uncle's legacy and worked tirelessly to ensure that his impact would never be forgotten," the statement continued.

Vaziri was born in Damghan, Iran, where he competed in wrestling and served as a bodyguard for Iran's last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, before immigrating to the United States in the 1960s.

His in-ring persona would see him portraying comical anti-American positions, taking the antagonistic role known as a "heel" in wrestling. He would frequently express distain, real or feigned, against fellow wrestler Hulk Hogan.

During heightened tension between Iran and the United States in the '80s, Vaziri would taunt his opponents by saying "Iran Number one" and singing the Iranian national anthem.

During the Gulf War, Vaziri took on the persona of pro-Saddam Col. Mustafa.

After the end of his wrestling career, Vaziri became a fixture on the Howard Stern Show and other New York talk radio shows.

In later years Vaziri brought his colorful persona to Twitter with often vulgar, yet light-hearted, comments.

Heathrow Airport workers plan strikes on nearly every summer weekend


London's Heathrow Airport is facing a summer of travel chaos after 2,000 security workers announced 31 days of weekend strikes starting June 24. Passengers of U.S. carriers American, United and Delta are among those who could be affected. File Photo by Vickie Flores/EPA-EF

June 7 (UPI) -- Passengers using London's Heathrow Airport are facing a summer of travel chaos after 2,000 unionized security staff voted to expand strike action in an ongoing dispute over pay.

The "major escalation" of the industrial action, according to the Unite union, means the operations of two of the airport's five terminals could be impacted virtually every weekend from June to August.

The disruption, which so far has been limited to British Airways' within its own dedicated terminal, Terminal 5, could now also hit Terminal 3 used by United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Qatar after workers there joined the strike.

The 31 days of strikes, starting Saturday, June 24 and running through the end-of-summer Bank Holiday weekend 24-27 August, coincide with the school holidays in Britain. The first two weekends of July are the only weekends when no industrial action will be taking place.

A 10.1% pay offer has been rejected with the union arguing it is insufficient to compensate for pay levels below that of workers at other London airports and that have fallen by almost a quarter in real terms since 2017.

"Unite is putting Heathrow on notice that strike action at the airport will continue until it makes a fair pay offer to its workers," said Unite general secretary Sharon Graham. "This is an incredibly wealthy company, which this summer is anticipating bumper profits and an executive pay bonanza. It's also expected to pay out huge dividends to shareholders, yet its workers can barely make ends meet and are paid far less than workers at other airports."

Heathrow, which disputes Unite's claims regarding pay, pointed to the fact that during the pandemic when air travel ground to a virtual standstill it made no layoffs of frontline staff, unlike the majority of organizations.

The airport said that it had managed the Terminal 5 strikes during the Easter and May half-term holiday getaways, in a way that had averted significant disruption.

"Unite has already tried and failed to disrupt the airport with unnecessary strikes on some of our busiest days and we continue to build our plans to protect journeys during any future action," said an airport spokesman.

"Passengers can rest assured that we will do everything we can to minimize strike disruption so they can enjoy their hard-earned summer holidays."