Fury as national health check of England’s waters faces six year wait

Rachel Salvidge and Leana Hosea
Sat, 19 August 2023 



Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

A nationwide annual health check of England’s water bodies which used to take place annually, will now take six years to complete, prompting anger from campaigners and politicians, as public alarm grows over the state of the nation’s rivers and coasts.

The assessments, undertaken by the Environment Agency, look at the ecological and chemical condition of rivers, lakes, groundwater, and transitional and coastal waters, and are required under the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

In 2019, the last time the full assessments took place, just 14% of rivers were in good ecological health and none met standards for good chemical health. Before 2016 the tests were done annually, but the government has now opted not to deliver a complete update until 2025, the latest permissible under the WFD.

Clean water advocates accused the government of trying to hide the data.

Rivers activist Feargal Sharkey said: “The future of England’s rivers has been sacrificed in a cynical act of self preservation by the very same failed government agency set up to protect them.”

The Green party peer Natalie Bennett said the government “clearly recognised the huge public anger about the parlous state of our waterways, but instead of taking action to clean them up, it is instead trying to hide the data”.

She added that the “stench of pollution, the choking of our waters with sewage, plastics and farm runoff is evident to all”, and that the Green party wanted to see a return to more frequent publication of the river health statistics. “Democracy demands transparency, and that’s one more thing this government is not delivering.”

The Guardian and Watershed Investigations, working with the Wildlife Trusts, found that partial results – about 21% of the total assessments delivered in 2019 (20,424 compared with 94,952) – were published this month but not flagged in the usual places on the Environment Agency or Defra’s website. No chemical assessments have been made, fewer ecological tests have been taken, and no canals, coasts, transitional waters or aquifers have been tested.

The incomplete dataset makes it difficult to ascertain an accurate nationwide picture of improvement or deterioration against the previous assessments.

Although the reduction in testing frequency is in line with WFD guidelines, it has disappointed campaigners.

Ali Morse, water policy manager at the Wildlife Trusts, said having “up-to-date data on the state of our waters is crucial to help us target action to protect and restore them.

“Waters are predicted to remain polluted until 2063 because of long-lasting chemicals found at every site checked, but that doesn’t mean we should now stop looking – we need to take action to tackle the pollutants that we can do something about, to monitor to make sure that those aren’t getting worse, and to identify any newly emerging chemicals so that we can put measures in place to prevent their further release.”

Morse said the new data that exists shows that the pressures facing water bodies are not going away. “The combination of issues like abstraction and pollution from farms, sewage works and urban areas, mean that few rivers are healthy. In one of the worst affected areas, the Thames river basin, 95% of the sites with new data don’t meet ‘good’ status, and the figures are similar for the Severn and Anglian river basins too.”

The Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesperson, Tim Farron, commented: “This is yet more evidence of a shocking lack of transparency about the health of our rivers. The government is letting profiteering water companies get away with sewage leaks, while toxic chemicals are finding their way into our rivers. We have no idea just how much pollution is in our rivers and on our beaches. The Liberal Democrats have repeatedly called for the Conservatives to take action, yet instead of doing so they seem to be trying to hide the problem.”

Under the WFD, all water bodies were meant to meet ‘good’ status by 2015. The deadline has been extended to 2027 but it has been known for some time that England’s rivers would miss the extended target date. In 2017, former Environment Agency chair Sir James Bevan told a government select committee that it would not be possible to meet the 2027 date.

Bevan has called for an overhaul of the way the WFD assessments are made, saying it should be less stringent so that more rivers could be given a clean bill of health. He argued that the “one-out-all-out rule”, under which if a water body fails on just one of a number of elements, the whole river fails, masks any improvements that may have been achieved across other parameters.

In the meantime, Defra has set itself a less well defined new target of getting rivers back to close to their natural state as soon as is practicable.

A spokesperson for Defra said the Environment Agency was legally obliged to publish a full set of data for every water body in England every six years. “The last full set was in 2019, with the next in 2025. However, to help with our work, and that of our partners, in the interim we have recently published a limited dataset that was collected between 2019 and 2021.

“We have deliberately targeted most of our sampling at water bodies with suspected problems so that we can get the evidence for investment (for example, from water companies and partners) where it is most needed. We haven’t included chemical or groundwater status which means not all water bodies have been updated.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “It is completely untrue to suggest that the water body data required to be published has been delayed.

“The Environment Agency have just this month published another set of sampling results under the water framework directive - going further than legal requirements. This sampling was focussed at water bodies with suspected problems so that the government and the EA can get the evidence for investment where it is most needed.

“We are delivering our plan for water, with tighter regulation, tougher enforcement and more investment to improve water bodies across the country.”

WHITE SUPREMACY INJUSTICE

Mother convicted of killing malnourished baby by giving him cow’s milk could have life sentence commuted

Mother convicted in her baby’s 2005 malnutrition death pleads for second chance

Andrea Cavallier
Fri, 18 August 2023 

A mother who was convicted of murder after giving cow’s milk to her malnourished infant son while fleeing from Hurricane Katrina could have her life sentence commuted.

The Louisiana Board of Pardon and Parole has recommended release for 43-year-old Tiffany Woods who has been behind bars for the past 17 years for second-degree murder in the November 2005 malnutrition death of her five-month-old baby, Emmanuel.

The decision of whether or not she’ll be released is now up to Governor John Bel Edwards.

At a hearing on Monday, Ms Woods pleaded for her release in front of the board from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in Baker, where Warden Kristen Thomas said she was a “low-risk, low-need” inmate.

“At that stage of my life I was a young mother who was trying to take care of her children the best she could. And I made some terrible decisions,” Ms Woods told the board, wiping her eyes.

“But the woman who sits before you today, I’m not that same person.”

Ms Woods, who was just 25 years old at the time, and her children were living in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in 2005. Just three weeks earlier, her son Emmanuel was released from the ICU after being born prematurely and with a condition that increases the risk of sudden death.

Tiffany Woods told the board she was no longer ‘that same person’ who was convicted (Louisiana Board of Pardon and Parole)

The family fled to Shreveport, Louisiana where they stayed in several different accommodations including a sports arena and a motel before moving into a rental house.

Ms Woods had been feeding the baby with formula until they ran out of food vouchers, she told the board. That’s when she decided to feed him cow’s milk.

“The formula he was taking, he wasn’t swallowing. He was always throwing it up, and then we ran out of WIC (food) vouchers, so I decided to switch it … I switched it to organic milk. I thought he was doing better, but he wasn’t thriving,” Ms Woods said to the parole board.

Emmanuel’s condition continued to get worse and he died in November 2005.

Both Ms Woods and her husband were indicted for murder, and during the trial, the prosecution argued that even though Woods claimed she ran out of vouchers, there was food and beer in the fridge after the baby’s death, according to The Associated Press.

Tiffany Woods’ son Nie’John Woods appeared at her hearing via Zoom and asked the Louisiana pardon board to grant her clemency (Louisiana Board of Pardon and Parole)

Louisiana law allows murder convictions in accidental deaths resulting from a set of felonies that includes cruelty to juveniles. Also, unlike most states, Louisiana murder convictions carry a mandatory life prison sentence with no chance at parole for adults.

Both of Emmanuel’s parents lost their appeals. The boy’s father, Emmanuel Scott, who is now 36, is also serving life in prison. He hasn’t applied for clemency.

Ms Wood’s other children, who are now grown, were present for the board meeting earlier this week including Troy Woods who spoke in support of his mother and Nie’John Woods, who appeared via video from Alaska, where he serves in the US Air Force.

He told The Messenger that the Louisiana pardon board's recommendation to release her could finally allow the family to heal after her arrest and conviction ripped it apart.

“There were many difficulties growing up without her, moving from home to home as a child — with people who were not always caring or loving," he said.

The board voted unanimously that Ms Woods should be granted her freedom. But that decision ultimately comes down to Governor John Bel Edwards.

“I want to thank him for the consideration. For the first time in a very long time we have hope, which is a huge deal for myself and my siblings,” Nie’John added.

Last year, the state board issued 105 recommendations for clemency, and Edwards granted 35 pardons and commuted sentences for 51 other people.

The freedom to show your breasts: Why does Spanish singer Amaral's gesture matter?

Lucia Riera Bosqued
Fri, 18 August 2023 


"No one can take away the dignity of our nakedness, the dignity of our fragility, of our strength," said Eva Amaral before removing part of her dress, leaving her breasts exposed.

Her performance at Sonorama Ribera 2023 marked the 25-year celebration of a musical career in the Burgos town of Aranda de Duero, thrilling the audience with songs from her new album and legendary tunes from her career.

It was "one of the most beautiful moments in the history of the band", said the Spanish artist, partly due to this gesture that has once again reignited the issue of machismo present in many spheres of society.

"Because there are too many of us and they won't be able to pass over the life we want to inherit, where I'm not afraid to say what I think", she continued, reciting the lyrics of one of her most recognisable songs: 'Revolución' ('Pájaros en la cabeza', 2005 - " Porque somos demasiadas y no podrán pasar por encima de la vida que queremos heredar, donde no tenga miedo a decir lo que pienso ").

Even today, women's bodies still make people uncomfortable. They are censored and objectified, which is why many artists choose to use them as a weapon of protest.

The singer Rocío Saiz has been engaged in this struggle for more than a decade and is "fed up with receiving threats and insults" through social networks.

"There is a very serious problem in this society," laments Saiz. "They have always resented the things we do. That we have jobs, that we think for ourselves, that we vote... And now it bothers them that we do whatever we want on stage.”

"They don't let us be, they want to control us."

For Rocío, for Rigoberta...

As well as a feminist vindication, Amaral's topless performance was an act of solidarity with fellow artists Rocío Saiz, Rigoberta Bandini and Zahara at a time when these artists are in the spotlight.

"This is for Rocío, for Rigoberta, for Zahara, for Miren, for Bebe, for all of us", said Amaral before removing the top of her dress.

"From a privileged position that doesn't need any kind of marketing, Amaral has empathised with the compañeras who are fighting below", celebrates Saiz, aware of the risk that artists face because of their activism. She says that it has even earned her some hostility from members of her family.

Her concert during the LGTBI Pride festivities in Murcia was censored. When she took off her t-shirt, revealing her chest - something she has been doing for ten years now - the police stopped the performance and forced her to get dressed.

But the worst censorship, she says, is unseen kind.

"There are many female colleagues who have taken a stand and have been penalised. Your name is on the list and you are directly discarded".

As for Rigoberta Bandini, she usually shows her breasts on stage when she performs the song 'Ay mamá' - her entry for Benidorm Fest 2022. It is a clear feminist plea which honours motherhood and breastfeeding, and even if she didn't manage to take it to Eurovision, the song became a hit.

The song features the following lyrics: "I don't know why our tits are so scary. Without them there would be no humanity and there would be no beauty. “ (“ No sé por qué dan tanto miedo nuestras tetas / Sin ellas no habría humanidad ni habría belleza... ”)

Time has proven her right, evidenced by the wave of criticism and sexist comments that artists suffer every time they show their bodies.

Singer Zahara was criticised by a conservative sector of society for the cover of her album 'Puta' (2021), in which she appears dressed as the Virgin Mary. She was accused of religious offence and the poster for her concert in Toledo was censored after a petition by the ultra-right-wing Vox party.

However, her image was a denunciation "of how we are expected to be perfect, of the pressure we feel to be mothers, of how we are expected to be saints, and of every time we have been called a whore", Zahara explained during her performance.
The body as a political weapon

The video of Amaral, which has been shared and commented on countless times, has reopened the debate on the need in the 21st century for a feminism that shows itself and acts.

Some reactions explain why.

Although it was applauded by Spanish social and political figures such as the Minister for Equality Irene Montero and the Vice-President of the Government and Minister for Employment Yolanda Díaz, Amaral’s show also sparked controversy, with hundreds of sexist comments flooding the social networks.

Rocío Saiz sees a radical involution of the rights of minorities in Spain and a growing hatred of women, racially profiled people, people who challenge heteronormative standards, and immigrants...

"I think that 21st century men are afraid of losing privileges, of women leaving home, of certain behaviours no longer being allowed", says the singer and activist. That's why "their response is violence and fear".

For Saiz, it is about "an ideological struggle of the patriarchy", one that must be fought with the following weapons: the body, words, books, ideas and education.

"Whoever thinks that the message is someone only taking off their shirt and showing their tits has not understood anything", she says. "What we are trying to say is that we are not allowed to be masters of our bodies.”

"I do what I want with my body because men do what they want with their bodies.”

‘I don’t know why our boobs are so frightening’: why musicians in Spain are going topless as a radical gesture

Julia Webster Ayuso
Updated Fri, 18 August 2023 at 4:35 am GMT-6·4-min read





In the middle of her performance at the Sonorama festival in the northern Spanish town of Aranda de Duero on Saturday, Eva Amaral was about to lead her band Amaral into her song Revolución when she took off her red sequin top and threw it on the floor.

“This is for Rocío, for Rigoberta, for Zahara, for Miren, for Bebe, for all of us,” she said, listing the names of fellow artists before uncovering her breasts. “Because no one can take away the dignity of our nakedness. The dignity of our fragility, of our strength. Because there are too many of us.” In a concert marking the Spanish band’s 25-year career, going topless was a way of defending women’s dignity and freedom to go nude, and “a very important moment”, Amaral later told El País.

But it was also a show of solidarity with a growing number of Spanish artists who are resorting to nudity to defend women’s rights, and have been censored or attacked as a result.

In June, police stopped a concert by the singer Rocío Saiz during Pride in Murcia after she took off her top to perform her song Como yo te Amo, something the singer says she has done during performances for over 10 years. The local police have since apologised and opened an inquiry into the incident, adding that a police officer acted “incorrectly”.

Last year, Rigoberta Bandini’s hugely popular ode to motherhood Ay Mamá became a kind of feminist anthem in Spain, thanks to lyrics such as “I don’t know why our boobs are so frightening” and “sticking out a breast, Delacroix style”. The singer drew both applause and criticism for showing her breasts on stage while performing the song – and was later accused of censorship when actual breasts were noticeably absent from the song’s music video.

Amaral also made a reference to the singer Bebe, who in 2011 was ridiculed for displaying one of her breasts in a concert in Logroño, and to Zahara, a singer whose poster for a new album was censored in Toledo two years ago, after Catholic groups had described it as an offence to the Virgin Mary.

Feminist politicians quickly applauded Amaral’s gesture, including deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz, who thanked her for “representing all the women in the country” and for “defending rights that today are threatened”. Equality minister Irene Montero retweeted a picture of Amaral with the words “for the dignity of our fragility, of our strength”.

For Nuria Varela, who was involved in the creation of the country’s first Equality Ministry in 2008 and is the author of several books including Feminism for Beginners, Amaral’s gesture echoed a feeling of “being fed up”.

“Since 2018 there has been a very clear demand for women’s rights and it has experienced a significant setback in recent years,” said Varela. “There is a sense that we are going back to things that we thought we had overcome.”

Two years ago, the far-right Vox party led efforts to remove a mural in Madrid celebrating an array of women from Nina Simone to Frida Kahlo, which it said contained a “political message”.

That going topless is overtly political in Spain can partly be explained by the country’s history. Varela says that it wasn’t until the transition to democracy in the 70s and 80s that female nudity became an act of rebellion and sexual liberation in a strict Catholic system. “Amaral’s message is that we have worked hard for our freedoms and we are tired of having to reconquer them every 10 minutes,” she said. “It seems like our bodies still don’t belong to us, despite so much fighting. So women’s bodies continue to be a battleground.”

The feminist group Femen, known for organising topless protests, was a more integral part of the Spanish feminist movement than in other European countries, Varela argued. “[It] is not only recognised but respected.”

‘An integral part of the Spanish feminist movement … Femen activists protest in front of the Electoral Commission in Madrid. 

Photograph: Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

Women’s right to go topless in public seems to be under threat even at the beach and swimming pools, where it has been widely accepted for decades. Though Spain continues to be the country where the highest number of women choose to sunbathe with their tops off, a study by the French pollster Ifop found that the practice is declining, with younger women leading the trend. Half of those who choose to cover up said that the main reason was a “fear of sexual aggression”.

Earlier this week, the regional government of Catalonia put out a statement to local authorities in which it said that women must be allowed to go topless in municipal swimming pools.

Though the right to go topless is enshrined in a 2020 law, some public swimming pools have prohibited the practice, leading to several complaints of discrimination.

But in a letter from the Department of Equality and Feminism, local authorities were told that stopping women from going topless “excludes part of the population and violates the free choice of each person with regard to their body”.

Any town hall found to have breached the norm could receive a fine of up to €500,000.

Opinion

England’s women are outshining men on the football pitch – and in the commentary box too

Simon O'Hagan
Sat, 19 August 2023 


I think it’s safe to say that tomorrow’s World Cup final will be the biggest moment in the professional lives of the 11 Englishwomen taking the field against Spain in Sydney.

But there is another Englishwoman who will be central to the occasion of whom that is surely also true: the BBC commentator Robyn Cowen. And her presence should equally be a cause for celebration.

Cowen has been a Match of the Day commentator since 2018, but it was during last year’s women’s Euros that she really came to prominence. Her “Dream makers. Record breakers. Game changers” pronouncement when England won the final instantly entered the annals of sports commentary.

Now Cowen gets to commentate on an even bigger match, and it’s a moment to consider the state of football commentary and why she outshines so many of her counterparts (still nearly all male).

Football commentary is a fine art. Every commentator has their own style, and we won’t all like the same voices. But I think we can agree that there are a few basics to be adhered to.

It seems obvious that first and foremost a football commentator needs to pay attention to what is happening on the pitch, but increasingly – Cowen excepted – this is not the case.

A disease is rife in commentary boxes: the disease of digression. Whole passages of play will unfold while the commentator is talking about other things.

There are two main reasons for this tendency. First, a commentator is now nearly always sharing airtime with a pundit. The two need to interact. More and more, those interactions turn into meandering chitchat. Meanwhile, somewhere in the distance, a football match is taking place.

Balancing commentary with pundit input is tricky, but Cowen, who had former England international Rachel Brown-Finnis alongside her for the Australia-England semi-final earlier this week, always has that balance under control. She doesn’t indulge herself in the way that I heard one (male) commentator do during the tournament when he started quoting his mother-in-law.

The second reason for the digression disease is commentators’ obsession with statistics – the more meaningless the better, it often seems.

A glaring example occurred on the first Match of the Day of the new Premier League season last Saturday. The match was Everton v Fulham. As it kicked off, the commentator thought it worth telling us that the two teams had met twice before on the opening day of a top-flight season, in 1963 and 1966. Does that mean anything? Does anyone care? And while all this was being regurgitated, Everton nearly scored.

The absence of discrimination between what is a valid statistic and what is an irrelevant one is a feature of modern football commentary, but it is not a fault you will find in Cowen’s work. Dare I wonder whether the disappearance down obscure statistical byways is a peculiarly male thing?

Cowen is also mercifully free of the sermonising that has come to characterise a lot of football commentary. Commentating on this week’s other semi-final – Spain v Sweden – Jonathan Pearce was so concerned with comparing the tournament unfavourably to the previous Women’s World Cup (“It might be just my mind playing tricks on me … but I seem to think we had more gripping games more often in France 2019”) that he was almost caught out by a Spanish goal.

This is not how Robyn Cowen goes about things. Her commentary on Australia-England was as superbly focused as the performance of the England players.

It shouldn’t be too much to ask that a commentator concentrates on the game, reads the action, contextualises, anticipates moves, processes in an instant what is happening and finds the right words to describe it. Yet not many commentators are actually able, or inclined, to do this.

Cowen is a shining exception, and to be in her hands is to have the viewing experience immeasurably enhanced. Noticing what you notice (and more), she is another example of how the women’s game has improved on the men’s, the latter still riven with a level of gamesmanship that the former comes nowhere near.

Cowen provides all the emotion you require, too. Her simple “Oh, wow!” after Ella Toone had smashed the ball into the top corner to give England the lead against Australia perfectly encapsulated what we were all feeling.

In 1966, when England’s men won the World Cup, Kenneth Wolstenholme got the chance to say: “Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over. It is now! It’s four!” and pass into legend. Whether events land in Cowen’s lap in the same way tomorrow, we will have to wait and see. But at least we can be sure that she’ll be ready for them.

Simon O’Hagan is an editor and writer

UK
Labour opens huge lead over Tories among women voters


Toby Helm, Political Editor
Sat, 19 August 2023 

Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Labour has opened up a huge lead over the Tories among women voters, many of whom are turning to Keir Starmer’s party because they feel financially insecure after 13 years of Conservative rule, a new report says today.

The analysis by Labour Together, a thinktank whose report is based on extensive polling and academic analysis, finds that the financial worries of huge numbers of women voters – particularly those aged under 50 – are persuading many to back Labour and reject the Conservatives.

According to a poll of more than 5,000 people by YouGov, Labour now has a 28-point lead over the Tories among women, compared with a 21-point advantage among men.

The survey found that 60% of women voters who describe themselves as “very worried” about their finances now say they would vote Labour – six times more than would vote Conservative. The only group where the Tories retain a lead is those with no financial worries at all.

The figures represent a remarkable advance for Labour, and a turnaround in public perceptions after decades in which the Conservatives were viewed by most voters as the best stewards of the nation’s finances.

Rosie Campbell, the director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College, London, who co-authored the report, What Women Want, said that while Labour still had much to do to retain its “vast” lead among women voters up to and into a general election, “concerns about household finances, the NHS and other public services underlie women under 50s’ shift to Labour”.

The findings suggest that Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves’s adherence to rigid financial discipline is paying dividends among the very voters the party has identified as crucial targets at the next election.

Earlier this year, Labour Together highlighted “Stevenage Woman” – characterised as disillusioned with politics and worried about household finances and the state of public services – as the key to the next election.

In almost every general election between 1945 and 2015, more women than men voted for the Conservatives, contributing to their dominance and hold on power for long periods.

Interactive

New Labour’s landslide victories under Tony Blair saw Labour win many more votes than the Tories among both women and men. However, in 1997, Labour was still winning more of its votes from men. Following the 2005 and 2010 elections, where the percentage of men and women voting Labour nearly equalised, David Cameron reopened the gender gap in 2015, with women representing 55% of all Tory voters.

The report says that it was not until 2017 that the Conservatives started to win more of their votes from men than women, and vice versa for Labour – a trend that has been consolidated in the latest polling. Polling over recent years by Opinium for the Observer bears out the trend.

Robert Ford, professor of politics at Manchester University, said: “The growing gender gap likely reflects differences in the social circumstances and values of men and women.

“Women are more exposed to the effects of inflation and public sector cuts – they are more likely to be in part-time and low-paid work; to work in public sector services affected by wage squeezes and strikes; and to bear the burden of care responsibilities and thus face pressure from NHS waiting lists and the crisis in social care.”

Ford added that there were signs that Tory attempts to switch attention away from the economy on to “culture wars” and “woke” issues cut little ice with most women voters.

“Women are less likely to respond to ‘culture war’ issues and campaigns such as ‘stop the boats’ as these identity and cultural battles simply matter less to them. So it is harder for the Conservatives to shift the agenda away from economic insecurities.”

Josh Simons, director of Labour Together, added: “The cost-of-living crisis, health, education. These are the real policy issues that touch peopleʼs lives and decide elections – not the culture wars the Tories are desperately trying to stir up.”

Labour Together’s polling shows that Starmer’s party has vast leads on the very issues that women prioritise, such as health (42 points), social care (41 points) and education (27 points).

The authors sound a note of caution for Labour, however, pointing out that nearly a quarter of women voters have not made up their minds how they will vote, some five million of the total.

Protestors block streets in southern Russia over electricity and water failures


James Kilner
Sat, 19 August 2023 

People gather at the accident scene following the fire at a fuel station in Makhachkala in the Russian region of Dagestan - Kazbek Basayev/Reuters

Protesters angered by a lack of electricity and running water have blocked streets in the capital of Dagestan in southern Russia.

Sergei Melikov, the Kremlin-installed governor of Dagestan, promised protesters in Makhachkala that he would try to fix the problems but also warned that riot police would clear the streets unless they go home.

“Such ‘forms of dialogue’ will only add to our problems,” he said. “In future, they will be suppressed according to the norms of the law.”


Eyewitnesses have said that thousands of ordinary people in Dagestan have joined the protests over unreliable water and electricity supplies. The authorities have blamed a surge in demand and accidents for failed services.

The protests in Dagestan, which began earlier this week, will likely concern the Kremlin, which increasingly views the remote Muslim-majority region on the shore of the Caspian Sea as unruly.

Analysts have said that the protests are remarkable as anti-authority demonstrations in Russia are now so rare.

The accident scene after the fire and blasts at a fuel station in Makhachkala - Kazbek Basayev/Reuters

The Kremlin has clamped down on any dissent since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year but, last September, mothers of Dagestani men mobilised into the Russian army were one of the only groups across the country to raise any major protests.

Earlier this week, at least 35 people were killed in an explosion at a petrol station in Makhachkala, triggering more protests.

Protests in Dagestan are also embarrassing for Vladimir Putin, who used a walk-about at the end of June in Derbent, a couple of hours’ drive south of Makhachkala, to demonstrate that he was still popular across the country despite a rebellion by his Wagner mercenaries.

The protests in Dagestan come days after a petrol station explosion in the region killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others.

They also come at a time of increased economic and social strain in Russia.

The Russian economy has started to worsen significantly as sanctions bite, the value of the rouble has plummeted, which pushes up inflation, and shortages of diesel and petrol have been reported by farmers and drive

Opinion

I have long rejected claims that Israel is an apartheid state. Now I believe that is where it is heading

Benjamin Pogrund
Sat, 19 August 2023

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Israel 2023, South Africa 1948. I’ve lived through it before: power grabbing, fascism and racism – the destruction of democracy. Israel is going where South Africa was 75 years ago. It’s like watching the replay of a horror movie.

In 1948, as a teenager in Cape Town, I followed the results of the 26 May election on a giant board on a newspaper building. The winner-takes-all electoral system produced distorted results: the Afrikaner Nationalist party, with its smaller partner, won 79 parliamentary seats against 74 for the United party and its smaller partner.

But the Nats, as they were called, in fact won only 37.7% of the vote against the opposition’s 49.2%. Although the opposition received more votes, the Nats said they had a majority and could do what they wanted.

In the Israel of 2023, I’m reliving some of these same experiences. Our proportional election system can distort results as well: last November, Likud, with its smaller partners, won 64 seats against 56 for the opposition. In fact, the rightwing bloc won by only 0.6% of the vote. The 0.6% government says it represents the will of the majority and can do whatever it wants. South Africa enjoyed democracy – that is, among the whites who made up 20% of the population. Black people had no right to vote; only some so-called Coloureds and Asian South Africans could vote. Those who were not white suffered heavy racial discrimination in every part of their lives.

In Israel, Arabs, who form about 21% of the population, can vote. But they suffer discrimination: Muslims and Christians are not drafted, and those who do not do army service lose out on benefits. The Jewish National Fund owns about 13% of Israel’s land and bars non-Jews – that is, Arabs – from owning or renting it. The coalition promises to deepen the discrimination. It has already threatened to withdraw millions of shekels meant for upgrading poor Arab living conditions.

In South Africa, the Nationalist victory meant apartheid, which intensified and institutionalised the existing discrimination against people of colour.

‘In South Africa, those who were not white suffered heavy racial discrimination in every part of their lives.’ Police and demonstrators clash in Cape Town, October 1976.

 Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

In 2001, I joined Israel’s government delegation to the world conference against racism in Durban. The government of Ariel Sharon invited me because of my expertise after a quarter-century as a journalist in South Africa; my specialty was reporting on apartheid close up.

At the conference, I was disturbed and angered by the multitude of lies and exaggerations about Israel. During the years since, I have argued with all my might against the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state – in lectures, newspaper articles, on TV and in a book.

However, the accusation is becoming fact. First, the nation-state law elevates Jews above fellow citizens who are Arab – Muslim, Druze, Bedouin and Christian. Every day sees government ministers and their allies venting racism and following up with discriminatory actions. There is no mercy even for the Druze, who, like Jews, have been conscripted into the military since 1956.

Second, Israel can no longer claim security as the reason for our behaviour in the West Bank and the siege of Gaza. After 56 years, our occupation can no longer be explained as temporary, pending a solution to the conflict with Palestinians. We are heading toward annexation, with calls to double the population of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, which currently stands at around 500,000.

The army is fully complicit in the illegal seizure of land and the creation of settlement outposts. The government misuses many millions of shekels for settlers. It abuses its own laws. Settlers kill Palestinians and destroy houses and cars. The courts seldom intervene. Soldiers stand by and watch.

We deny Palestinians any hope of freedom or normal lives. We believe our own propaganda that a few million people will meekly accept perpetual inferiority and oppression. The government is driving Israel deeper and deeper into inhuman, cruel behaviour beyond any defence. I don’t have to be religious to know that this is a shameful betrayal of Jewish morality and history.

‘The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tells foreign TV that the changes in the judicial review are small and the opposition is silly to oppose them.’ 

Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

In South Africa, nice words were used for destructive laws. Imposing apartheid on universities to restrict black access was done by 1959’s Extension of University Education Act. Tightening the “pass” – the document that was the basic means of control over black people – was done by the Abolition of Passes (Coordination of Documents) Act.

In Israel, “judicial reform” is used to describe the destruction of democracy, starting with ending judicial review of the executive and Knesset. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, tells foreign TV that the changes are small and the opposition is silly. He does not explain why, then, he and his partners have been ruthlessly determined to ram it through, despite colossal opposition.

In South Africa, removing the vote from Coloured and Asian citizens set off mass protests, led by second world war veterans. The highest court, the appellate division, struck down the vote law as unconstitutional. The Nationalists used their majority in parliament to set up a high court of parliament, which overruled the appellate division. Coloured and Asian citizens lost the right to vote.

Opposition to apartheid grew. The Nats, with their majority in parliament, enacted the Suppression of Communism Act, giving the justice minister the authority to issue arbitrary decrees severely curtailing personal freedoms. Punishments included house arrest and being forbidden to be with more than one other person, and prohibition on public speaking or writing. Offenders could get up to five years in jail. Communists were the first target, followed by liberals – even fervent anti-communists – and anyone who opposed apartheid, peacefully or violently. Then came 30-day detention without trial, which grew to three months, then six months – and finally detention without end.

Many thousands were “banned”, detained without trial and sentenced to lengthy imprisonment. Army and police repeatedly went into segregated black townships and killed and brutalised people.

In Israel, about 1,200 West Bank Palestinians are reported to be imprisoned without trial. The defence minister signs the orders for security reasons, to deal with terrorism. The army constantly raids West Bank towns, wreaking havoc and detaining more suspects. Tragedies continue.

Under the guise of fighting crime in the Arab community, the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wants a law to give the police the power to jail Israelis without charge or trial – a policy already practised in the West Bank. He wants an expensive “national guard” under his control.

In South Africa, a secret Afrikaner organisation, the Broederbond (band of brothers), pulled the strings behind the scenes. It approved every job of significance: school headteachers, police, senior prison and army officers and civil service members. Its partner was the Dutch Reformed Church, described as “the Nationalist party at prayer”. Calvinist and conservative, its priests declared that the Bible was literally true, that it justified apartheid and Afrikaners were the chosen people, whose mission was to save “white civilisation”.

The Nats applied “Christian national education” to schools. Radio and television were tightly controlled. Movies and theatre were censored. Thousands of books were banned as “undesirable, objectionable or obscene”. Marriage across colour lines was prohibited. The entire country was divided so that people of different races lived in their own areas; whites took the most and the best. Millions of people of colour were forced out of their homes.

‘In Israel, about 1,200 West Bank Palestinians are reported to be imprisoned without trial.’ Palestinians take part in a protest in solidarity with prisoners held in Israeli jails, Nablus, West Bank, 15 August 2023.

 Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

In Israel, the ultra-Orthodox have joined forces with Likud and religious nationalists to secure unlimited money for their separate schools, to keep their children out of the army and to impose their religious dictates on the entire country. They control Jewish marriage and divorce, and allow only Orthodox marriages. Their reach is only spreading.

In South Africa, international opposition to apartheid was rejected. The country became the “polecat of the world”. United Nations condemnations and boycotts and business disinvestment were dismissed. The economy sank. Finally, ruined, it could no longer support apartheid and this was a major reason for whites being forced to give up their power and privileges in 1994.

In Israel, the results of the coalition’s assault on the judiciary, and its promises of much more to come, are well reported. The disastrous effects on the economy are already emerging. The United States gives Israel $3.8bn-plus military aid every year and defends us against attacks, whether justified or not, in international forums. We depend on the US for survival, but we are losing support in Congress. Coalition leaders couldn’t care less.

The education ministry’s director general has quit in protest at the judicial overhaul. Judges are denigrated. The coalition wants the attorney general fired. The lawyers’ association is being defanged. Stringent control is under way for the media. Shabbat observance is coerced. Culture and women’s rights are coming under restrictive control. Bedouin are evicted en masse. Protesters are called traitors.

We are at the mercy of fascists and racists (both carefully chosen words) who cannot, and will not, stop.

I write about South Africa and Israel because I know both of them, 53 years in one and nearly 26 years in the other. Neither is unique. The same pattern of rightwing repression has happened in our time in Hungary and Poland, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and earlier in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

I did not want to write this article. It was torn out of me, addressed to Israelis because the rightwing government is taking the country into institutionalised discrimination and racism. This is apartheid. South Africa under apartheid was straightforward: white v black. Israel is complex. The 21% Arab minority has the vote. Everyone pays the same national insurance and enjoys the same benefits – medical and social welfare. In hospital, I, a Jew, share a room with Arabs and we are cared for by the same Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses. Everything is open: beaches, park benches, movies, theatres, restaurants. The apartheid label is correct, but caution and thought are needed about comparisons.

In Israel, I am now witnessing the apartheid with which I grew up. Israel is giving a gift to its enemies in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and its allies, especially in South Africa, where denial of Israel’s existence is intense among many black people, in trade unions and communist and Muslim circles. BDS activists will continue to make their claims, out of ignorance and/or malevolence, spreading lies about Israel. They have long distorted what is already bad into grotesqueness, but will now claim vindication. Israel is giving them truth.

Benjamin Pogrund was deputy editor of the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg, closed down because of its stand against apartheid. He has lived in Jerusalem since 1997 and was founder director of Yakar’s Center for Social Concern

The original version of this article was published in the English-language version of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz

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Rail whistleblowers fired for voicing safety concerns despite efforts to end practice of retaliation

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Hours before a Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio and erupted in fire in February, a judge ruled a former railroad employee could proceed with a lawsuit claiming he had been harassed for years by managers who said he reported too many flaws in rail cars he inspected and had his job changed after reporting an injury.

Richard Singleton’s case against Norfolk Southern was settled for an undisclosed amount after the judge said he had enough evidence to go to trial over whether he was disciplined for reporting safety violations that slowed trains passing through a Macon, Georgia, railyard.

The settlement provided relief for Singleton, but does little for residents near East Palestine, Ohio, who worry about possible health effects from the accident's toxic blaze. That derailment and others since inspired nationwide fears about railroad safety.

Lawyers and unions representing rail workers say there is an industry-wide pattern of retaliation against workers like Singleton who report safety violations or injuries. They contend workers often run afoul of managers who don’t want to jeopardize their bonuses, and retaliation discourages other workers from speaking up.

Rail safety has been in the spotlight since the Feb. 3 Ohio derailment, with Congress and regulators proposing reforms. But little has changed, apart from railroads promising to install 1,000 more trackside detectors to spot mechanical problems and reevaluate their responses to alerts from those devices.

“Since Wall Street took them over, railroads have put productivity ahead of safety,” lawyer Nick Thompson argued earlier this year on behalf of a fired engineer. He pointed to recent derailments in Ohio and Raymond, Minnesota. “People are being killed, towns are being evacuated, rivers are being poisoned, all in the name of profit.”

The railroads are working to eliminate such practices with policies prohibiting retaliation and myriad ways for workers fearful of retribution to report safety concerns, either directly to a manager or anonymously through an internal hotline.

Statistics from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration show the number of single-year whistleblower complaints filed against big railroads declined from the 218 reported in 2018 to 96 last year.

“I have zero tolerance for retaliation. And I’ve made that very clear. And in fact, the culture that we’re creating at Norfolk Southern is one of transparency and one in which people are encouraged to raise their hand and say they’ve got an issue,” CEO Alan Shaw said.

Other major railroads, including BNSF, Union Pacific, CPKC, Canadian National and CSX, echoed that sentiment in statements and said they encourage employees to report safety concerns.

Whistleblower cases represent a small fraction of the workforce numbering more than 100,000 nationwide. But even a handful of cases can instill fear among employees and have a chilling effect on safety reporting.

Long before Mike Ratigan was fired from CSX in New York last year after refusing to help circumvent federal safety standards or ignore railcar flaws, he said he saw other workers sanctioned. Those disciplinary cases became a “deer head” for managers: a trophy that sent a clear message.

“It says, if we can do it to him, we can do it to you,” Ratigan said.

OSHA says 793 whistleblower complaints were filed between 2018 and the end of July, with Norfolk Southern leading all railroads with 257. Union Pacific and CSX weren't far behind with nearly 200 complaints apiece, while another 113 were reported at BNSF. The numbers are much smaller at the Canadian railroads partly because much of their operations are north of the border.

More than half of the complaints were dismissed after OSHA reviews. But that doesn’t tell the full story because some dismissed cases become federal lawsuits that can lead to multimillion-dollar judgments against railroads. OSHA's decisions also can be appealed, with 87 cases settled before OSHA decided if they had merit.

The Associated Press reviewed dozens of whistleblower cases and found a similar pattern. When they weren’t bound by confidential settlement agreements, former railroad workers discussed how managers didn't want them to report too many safety violations because they would slow trains. Some ex-employees prevailed in court, but they all faced tough battles against massive companies with billions of dollars in annual profits and armies of lawyers.

Mike Elliott was fired in 2011 after he went to the Federal Railroad Administration with safety concerns other workers reported to him in his capacity as Washington state's top safety official with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union. The FRA responded with a special inspection that found 357 defects, angering his BNSF bosses.

One of his managers confronted Elliott in the parking lot and jumped on the hood of his car, claiming Elliott punched him and tried to run him down. Elliott said he was acquitted of those allegations in a criminal case, but ultimately was fired.

That started a yearslong court fight that included countless motions and a six-day trial before a jury awarded him $1.25 million and approved $500,000 in legal fees. After an appeal to the 9th Circuit, the railroad finally paid him in 2018.

“It’s a never-ending battle. They have the best lawyers. They have the best lobbyists and they have a lot of lobbyists. They have a lot of money, and you’re up against it.” Elliott said.

Dale Gourneau had a reputation as a “tenacious safety advocate” who may have written more “bad order” tags listing defects on railcars than anyone else in the Mandan, North Dakota, railyard where he worked for 18 years.

Gourneau pressed his managers to stop blocking employees from applying for corporate BNSF bonuses for finding broken railcar wheels. Not long after, he was written up for failing to properly stop his ATV before crossing the tracks in 2019. He was fired a few months later after the company alleged he violated the same rule a second time, even though he claimed to have followed the common practice of stopping several feet short of the tracks to avoid another set of tracks.

An administrative law judge ruled this spring that the discipline Gourneau received was merely pretext his managers conjured to fire him. The judge ordered BNSF to reinstate Gourneau and pay him $578,659 in back pay and penalties.

BNSF is appealing and declined to comment on specific cases.

For rail car inspector John Fulk, the situation got so bad that in 2011 he shot himself in the head in the parking lot of his workplace at a North Carolina Norfolk Southern railyard. His widow successfully argued in court that after being berated by managers for flagging too many cars for repairs, Fulk killed himself rather than face a disciplinary hearing and possible firing on trumped-up charges of trying to sabotage a train’s braking system.

Fulk’s case was allowed to move forward because he started the complaint process with regulators before his death. FRA investigators found numerous rule violations and his former coworkers told them Fulk had repeatedly been targeted by managers. But court documents say none of them would sign witness statements because they feared retribution. Norfolk Southern settled in 2015.

“Because of his adherence to FRA regulations, Mr. Fulk was subjected to abusive intimidation, disciplinary threats, and job threats by Norfolk Southern management,” U.S. District Judge William Osteen wrote. “Although he reported these acts and omissions, Norfolk Southern never took action to stop such treatment.”

Josh Funk, The Ass

HUMAN RIGHTS VS STATE RIGHTS

US appeals court blocks Idaho's transgender student athlete ban

Nate Raymond
Thu, August 17, 2023 

A person holds up a flag during rally to protest the Trump administration's reported transgender proposal to narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth in New York


By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday refused to allow Idaho to enforce a first-in-the-nation ban on transgender women and girls from participating in female sports leagues, saying the measure likely was unconstitutional.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel delivered a victory to LGBTQ rights advocates by upholding an injunction blocking Idaho's Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, the first of many such laws to be enacted by Republican-led states.

"This is an important victory for common sense, equality, and the rights of transgender youth under the law," said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which pursued the court challenge.

The Idaho measure, which Republican Governor Brad Little signed into law in March 2020, bars transgender women and girls of all ages from participating in female sports teams at public schools in the state, from primary school through college.

Twenty-two other states have adopted similar laws governing sports, most recently in North Carolina, according to the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which had argued in favor of reviving Idaho's law.

"When our laws ignore biological reality and allow males to compete in women’s sports, women are harmed and denied athletic opportunities," ADF attorney Christiana Kiefer said in a statement.

U.S. Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, acknowledged those arguments but said a lower-court judge did not abuse his discretion in finding that the categorical ban likely violates transgender students' equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

That argument was pursued by the ACLU's client, Lindsay Hecox, a transgender athlete who sought to join the women’s track team at Boise State University.

Wardlaw said the law also discriminates against all Idaho female student athletes on the basis of sex by subjecting only them and not male athletes to the "invasive" sex dispute verification process.

The Biden administration's Department of Education in April proposed a rule change that would prohibit schools from enacting outright bans on transgender athletes from teams that are consistent with their gender identities while offering flexibility on exceptions for the highest levels of competition.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Matthew Lewis)

Wild boar 'invasion': Another Italian city faces a particularly porcine problem

Euronews
Tue, 15 August 2023 

Wild boar 'invasion': Another Italian city faces a particularly porcine problem


A pack of wild boars was spotted making the rounds of several homes inthe southern region of Calabria, Italy's news agency ANSA reported.

That makes Catanzaro the latest city to face a particularly porcine problem.

The wild boars - around 20 in total - kept to the outskirts of the city and didn't actually go inside any buildings, although they were seen circling homes built next to the open countryside.


The city's environment councillor Giorgio Arcuri called on the region's authorities for "appropriate measures to stem this phenomenon" - which are likely to involve the culling of the animals.

For some time now, Italy has had a problem with wild boars taking over its towns and cities in what local media and Italy's nationwide farm group Coldiretti dubbed a "full-scale invasion."

Last year, wild boars were said to have taken over Rome, where they were filmed in clips shared on social media and international television getting close to people, eating food leftovers near trash bins, and overall looking seemingly unbothered by the busy, crowded streets of Italy's capital.

Wild boars are ravaging Rome, here’s how locals are fighting back

Authorities have raised concerns over the soaring numbers of wild boars in Italian cities, mentioning the risk of the animals spreading swine flu or attacking residents. But their firm approach to the problem - killing the boars - has divided society.

In December last year, Giorgia Meloni's government ordered a cull of the wild boars in Rome that was strongly contested by animal rights activists, allowing hunters to use bows and arrows to kill the boars and eat them. Hunting for the animals was exceptionally permitted even in areas where hunting is normally forbidden, like urban and protected areas.

The decision was condemned by politicians in the opposition, who accused Meloni of taking the chance to cosy up to the gun and hunting lobbies.

A similarly tough position has been taken by many local leaders, including Catanzaro's mayor Nicola Fiorita, who last month ordered the culling of 30 wild boars roaming into a park in the city.