New Haiti PM named but powerful gangs demand seat at the table


Little-known former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire appointed as 90,000 flee capital in a month

WHO APPOINTED THESE GUYS TO GOVERN

Staff and agencies in Port-au-Prince

Tue 30 Apr 2024

THE GUARDIAN

Haiti’s newly installed transitional council has chosen a little-known former sports minister as the country’s prime minister, as it presses forward in its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid raging violence.

Fritz Bélizaire replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, the former minister of economy and finance who was the interim prime minister. His appointment appeared to come as a surprise to some members of the council, with some confessing that they did not know him.

The nine-member transitional council, seven of whom have voting rights, was choosing a new prime minister and cabinet in an effort to help quell gang violence that is choking the capital, Port-au-Prince, and beyond.


New Haiti government sworn in during secret ceremony

But leaders of the powerful armed factions are clamoring for political influence and amnesties and have threatened violence if their demands are not met.

In an interview with CNN published on Monday, Vitel’homme Innocent, who heads the Kraze Barye gang and is accused of orchestrating the 2021 kidnapping of US missionaries, called for the council to listen to the gangs and find a resolution to the crisis “as soon as possible”.

Kraze Barye forms part of a loose coalition of gangs known as Viv Ansanm, or “Live Together”, who now control most of Port-au-Prince.

Viv Ansanm’s leader, a former police officer named Jimmy Cherizier who is known as “Barbeque”, warned of consequences if the gangs were ignored, in a message shared to social media over the weekend.

“Viv Ansanm is ready to talk. It’s either we are all at the table, or the table gets destroyed with all of us,” he said.

More than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in the span of one month, and overall more than 360,000 people have been left homeless in recent years as gunmen raze communities in rival territories.

The announcement of Bélizaire as prime minister came as a surprise. A murmur rose through the attendees as it was announced that four council members with voting powers had selected Bélizaire as prime minister.

Asked if he supported Bélizaire, Leslie Voltaire, one of the voting council members, said: “I don’t know him.”

Bélizaire served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011.

After the brief announcement, which was made nearly two hours after the event was supposed to start, the council went behind closed doors again to talk about their choices for cabinet. Voltaire, however, said he did not expect the council to announce cabinet selections on Tuesday.

The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections some time before it disbands, which must be by February 2026.

Haitians remain divided over whether they believe a transitional government can help calm a troubled country whose capital has been under siege since gangs launched coordinated attacks that began on 29 February.

Gunmen have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that has remained closed since early March and broken into Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The country’s biggest seaport also remains largely paralyzed by gang violence.

The council is expected to support the UN-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force to help fight gangs, although it is unclear when that might happen.

Former prime minister Ariel Henry was on an official trip to the east African country when the coordinated gang attacks began, and he remains locked out of Haiti. He submitted his resignation last week.

Stop children using smartphones until they are 13, says French report


Children should be banned from most social media until 18 amid attempts to ‘monetise’ them, says Macron-commissioned study


Angelique Chrisafis

in Paris

Tue 30 Apr 2024 

THE GUARDIAN

Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat until they are 18, according to a report by experts commissioned by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president had asked scientists and experts to suggest screen use guidelines for children with a view to France taking unprecedented steps on limiting their exposure. It was unclear how the government might now proceed after the report’s publication. Macron said in January: “There might be bans, there might be restrictions.”

The hard-hitting report said children needed to be protected from the tech industry’s profit-driven “strategy of capturing children’s attention, using all forms of cognitive bias to shut children away on their screens, control them, re-engage them and monetise them”.

Children were becoming “merchandise” in this new tech market, the report said, adding: “We want [the industry] to know we’ve seen what they’re doing and we won’t let them get away with it.”

A three-month study by scientists and experts led by a neurologist, Servane Mouton, and Amine Benyamina, the head of the psychiatry and addiction service at Paul-Brousse hospital, said children under three should have no exposure to screens – television included – and no child should have a phone before the age of 11.

Any phone given to a child aged between 11 and 13 should be a handset without access to the internet, it said, setting the minimum age at which they should be allowed a smartphone connected to the internet at 13.


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The report said a 15-year-old should be able to access only what it called “ethical” social media, such as Mastodon. Conventional, mass-marketed, profit-driven social media such as TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat should not be available to teenagers until they reached 18, it found. Teenagers should also receive better education on the science behind the need to get enough sleep.

The report made equally stringent recommendations for the very young, saying phones and screens should be limited as much as possible on maternity wards to help parents bond with their babies. Phone use should also be addressed among childminders, it said.


For children up to the age of six, screens of all kinds should be “strongly limited” and only very rarely used for education content when sitting with an adult. Screens should be totally banned from nursery schools for children under six. In primary schools, children should not be given individual tablets or digital devices to work on, unless it was for a specific disability.

The report also suggested banning connected toys, except those used as audio for storytelling.

“Before the age of six, no child needs a screen in order to develop,” Mouton said. “In fact, screens can stop them developing properly at this age.”

The scientists said they did not want to chide parents, who themselves were “victims of a powerful tech industry”. They said parents should instead be helped to avoid what they called “techno-ference” – when parents constantly checking their own phones interfered with their ability concentrate on talking to, eating with or playing with their children.

This was harming young people’s emotional development, the report said. It included adults scrolling on their phones while feeding young children, or homes where a television was constantly on in the background.

Scientists said parents were not to blame and more should be done in society as a whole, such as allowing adults to properly disconnect from work out of hours, limiting screens in public places, introducing screen-free restaurants and cafes, or parents putting their phones in a box when they got home from work.

The scientists said “parental controls” should not be seen as a sufficient means of protecting children. Rather, they were an ineffective distraction, peddled by the tech industry “to get itself off the hook” for creating algorithms, particularly within social media, designed to addict and monetise children.

Benyamina said: “Tech is and will remain a fantastic tool, but it has to act in people’s service, not people being reduced to serving a product.”

He said screens had negative effects on children “in terms of their eyesight, their metabolism … their intelligence, concentration and cognitive processes”.

He said addictions to screens were not to the product itself but to content. He said: “Algorithms that re-engage and stimulate the pleasure system and are built to avoid you losing interest in the content have a type of addictive dynamic.”

He said people should be vigilant on social media if they noticed that content was re-engaging them. “If you decided you wanted to look at one or two videos and you were on it all evening, you need to question it.”

DECRIMINALIZE POT

Biden administration plans to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug


Drug Enforcement Administration seeking to downgrade cannabis from top category to Schedule III, but still short of legalization


Associated Press

Tue 30 Apr 2024 

The US Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the Associated Press has learned, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

The DEA’s proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.


The agency’s move, confirmed to the AP on Tuesday by five people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regulatory review, clears the last significant regulatory hurdle before the agency’s biggest policy change in more than 50 years can take effect.


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Once OMB signs off, the DEA will take public comment on the plan to move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD. It moves pot to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids, following a recommendation from the federal health and human services department. After the public comment period and a review by an administrative judge, the agency would eventually publish the final rule.

It comes after Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.

“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities,” Biden said in December. “Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

The election year announcement could help the Democratic US president boost flagging support, particularly among younger voters.

Biden and a bipartisan and growing number of lawmakers have been pushing for the DEA decision as marijuana has become increasingly decriminalized and accepted, particularly by younger people. A Gallup poll last fall found 70% of adults support legalization, up from roughly 30% in 2000.

The DEA did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Schedule III drugs are still governed by rules and regulations, with threat of federal criminal prosecution for breaches.

‘Incredible’ news for bears and wild horses as US shifts preservation plans


National Park Service will reintroduce bears to Washington’s North Cascades and won’t remove horses from North Dakota park


Richard Luscombe

Tue 30 Apr 2024 
THE GUARDIAN

Wildlife advocates are celebrating “incredible” news for the preservation of threatened bears, and a herd of historically significant wild horses, in separate north-western and upper midwestern national parks.

In North Dakota, the National Parks Service (NPS) has dropped a plan that would have seen about 200 wild horses, descended from those belonging to Native American tribes who fought the 1876 Great Sioux war, rounded up and removed from Theodore Roosevelt national park.



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The scheme would have stripped the park of a cultural “emblem” of the future 26th US president’s time as a cattle rancher and hunter in the Dakota territory in the late 19th century, said the Republican North Dakota senator John Hoeven, who helped secure their preservation.

Meanwhile, in Washington, NPS has partnered with US Fish and Wildlife on a plan to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades ecosystem. The threatened species has not been seen in the area for more than a quarter-century.

Between three and seven bears will be released into the park each year in the groundbreaking project that could last up to a decade, with an ultimate aim of building back a healthy population of about 200 bears within six to 10 decades.

“Our national parks are spectacular places that people expect to be set aside for wildlife, they expect wildlife to be there,” said Graham Taylor, north-west program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).

“It’s why we have multiple wilderness areas in the North Cascades, it’s why we have big pristine national parks. They are supposed to be managed to protect their resources in perpetuity, and grizzly bears, all wildlife, are a resource of the parks.

“For one generation to have wildlife, and the next generation not, is not how they’re supposed to be managed, so this really is the park service following their mission by protecting and trying to restore lost resources.”

The dropping of the NPS plan to eliminate wild horses from the North Dakota park, and reverting to a pre-existing management plan for a “healthy herd”, follows a significant public backlash to its 2022 “livestock review”.

The animals, directly descended from those ridden by Sioux chiefs in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, had “the potential to damage fences used for wildlife management, trample or overgraze vegetation used by native wildlife species, contribute to erosion and soil-related impacts … and compete for food and water resources”, an environmental assessment found.

Hoeven, and North Dakota’s Republican governor, Doug Burgum, became powerful allies to the preservation campaign, with the senator adding a funding provision to the 2024 interior and environment budget bill signed by Joe Biden.

“These wild horses are emblematic of President Theodore Roosevelt’s time in North Dakota, a formative experience that shaped his presidency and lasting legacy,” Hoeven said in a statement.

“Given the broad public support for maintaining the wild horses, as well as the measure we passed through Congress, this is the right call by NPS.”

Similar positive public sentiment helped drive the approval of the plan for grizzly bears in Washington, campaigners say. The proposal was first floated in 1996, the last time there was evidence of the species in the 790 sq miles national park, dropped by the administration of Donald Trump, and revived when Biden took office in 2021.

“This is incredible news,” said Kathleen Callaghy, north-west representative for Defenders of Wildlife’s species conservation and coexistence department.

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“The North Cascades is one of the most incredibly intact wild lands in the US and the grizzly bear is last major mammal missing from that ecosystem, so we’d be restoring something to almost as close as we can make it to how it used to be, barring our presence.”

She said human encounters with the bears, however, were unlikely.

“It’s natural to be worried about an apex predator living potentially near humans, but people mostly misunderstand how incredibly large the North Cascades is, and how much of that land is not settled,” she said.

“We’ve seen in Montana and other areas, in Yellowstone, that bears can coexist perfectly well with humans as long as everyone is taking sensible precautions like removing garbage and carrying bear spray during hikes.

“But three to seven bears per year over all those square miles, your chances of being a hiker and encountering one are not very high.”

Native American tribes also helped push the process forward. Scott Schuyler, policy representative for the Upper Skagit tribe, said its members “celebrate this decision for the great bear, the environment, and everyone who desires a return to a healthy Indigenous ecosystem.

“We urge the agencies to move forward and put paws on the ground so the recovery may begin,” he said.

Taylor, of the NPCA, said the reintroduction process would face challenges. “Things happen, there’s no guarantee. Wildlife restoration and rewilding are tough, and there are still humans out there and other hazards,” he said.

“So identifying some good bears to bring is part of it. We don’t want bears that have any history of conflict, we’re not taking other regions’ conflict bears and moving them here. We want well-behaved, young and mostly female bears that will drive the population and tend not to migrate very far.”

Books

More than a quarter of readers of YA are over the age of 28 research shows

Report commissioned by HarperCollins shows that uptake in YA fiction in older readers is due to behavioural changes described as ‘emerging adulthood’ or delaying ‘adult’ life


Lucy Knight

Tue 30 Apr 2024

THE GUARDIAN

Young adult fiction such as The Hunger Games, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and the Heartstopper graphic novels might be aimed at teenagers – but new research has shown that more than a quarter of readers of YA in the UK are over the age of 28.

Research commissioned by publisher HarperCollins, in collaboration with Nielsen Book, the UK book industry’s data provider, suggests that a growing number of adult readers have been reading YA fiction since 2019. According to the report, 74% of YA readers were adults, and 28% were over the age of 28. The research suggests this is due to behavioural changes described as “emerging adulthood”: young people growing up more slowly and delaying “adult” life. The feelings of instability and “in-betweenness” this can cause has led to young adults seeking solace in young adult fiction – and for some these books remain a source of comfort as they grow older.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez. Photograph: Oneworld


YA is “just another genre to enjoy” for 34-year-old video games producer and author Amy Jones. “I know there’s an idea of YA as being ‘fluffy’ or not as worthy to read as adult fiction, but I disagree – while there are, like there are in any genre, examples of badly written or poorly plotted YA, there are also total masterpieces – Fangirl, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, The Hate U Give, A Wrinkle in Time, these are all books that tackle deeply important issues such as identity, growing up, racism, family and grief, and are beautifully written,” she said.

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber. Photograph: Electric Monkey

Katherine Webber Tsang, author of the bestselling Twin Crowns YA fantasy series, along with her co-writer (and sister-in-law) Catherine Doyle, said she has both adult and teenage fans. “I like to say that the Twin Crowns series is for everyone aged 13 and up,” she said. “At a recent signing, a mother and her teen daughter said they both love reading the Twin Crowns books and that the series had brought them closer, which was so lovely to hear!”

According to HarperCollins’ report, the association between reading for pleasure and wellbeing is reflected in the growing popularity of young adult books, “with readers of all ages increasingly turning to YA as a source of comfort, nostalgia and self-care”.

Literary travel blogger Julia Mitchell said reading has “frequently given [her] the strength to keep on going when life is difficult.


“Young adult literature helps with this in particular”, added the 29-year-old. “I find these stories easy to immerse myself in and there’s much to learn, even though the characters are younger than me.”

Jones thinks there are two reasons why YA could be classed as “self-care”. The first is that it is “often more accessible than a lot of adult fiction due to being written specifically for slightly younger readers, so reading for pleasure when you’re tired or stressed becomes less taxing.” The second is that “YA books are often heavily plot-driven, so as a form of escapism they’re perfect”.

The research also showed that 29% of 14- to 25-year-olds “strongly think of themselves as a reader”, with many of these young people choosing to build an identity around books online, on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Of the young people surveyed who answered “very true” to the statement “I think of myself as a reader” 40% described themselves as “very happy”. In contrast, 21% of those who did not think of themselves as readers described themselves as “very happy”.

Alison David, consumer insight director at HarperCollins, said the research “suggests wellbeing comes from more than the act of reading (relaxation, escapism, the content itself). The psychology of being a reader is enormously powerful.”skip past newsletter promotion

Katherine Webber Tsang. Photograph: Ellie Kurttz/HarperCollins

Webber Tsang said she has noticed that it has become more “cool” for young people to call themselves a reader. “I think the fact that readers have so many opportunities to connect with each other online, and to attend events where they can meet each other and also the authors, means that they are more likely to feel proud of being a reader,” she said.

Although most of the young people surveyed said they recognised and experienced the benefits of reading, the research showed that only 16% of 14-25s read daily or nearly every day for pleasure. Boys between the ages of 14 and 17 were more likely to be disengaged from reading, with 38% saying they rarely or never read for pleasure. Over half of both boys (55%) and girls (63%) said they had too much schoolwork to read books for fun.

Cally Poplak, managing director of HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore, noted that while it is “really encouraging” to see that young people have a positive attitude towards books, “the vast majority of young people are not reading every day.

“How do we tackle this contradiction that today’s young people, who are already being referred to as the ‘anxious generation’ know reading is good for them, but still aren’t picking up books?” she added.

Could Vienna’s approach to affordable housing work in California?


Housing costs and homelessness are on the rise in California. In the Austrian capital, people of all income levels live in subsidised housing – and more is being built

THAT'S SOCIALISM


Kirsty Lang in Vienna
Tue 30 Apr 2024 

THE GUARDIAN

Imagine a beautiful city where a centrally located two-bedroom apartment can cost you as little as $600 a month. For many US policymakers, it’s a pipe dream. And yet in Vienna, it’s a reality.

In the past two years, at least four delegations of housing experts and political leaders from California have visited the Austrian capital, hoping to unlock the secrets of why Vienna regularly comes top in surveys of the world’s most livable cities.


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They’re struck by the absence of homeless encampments, and marvel at the sheer scale of the subsidised housing developments which include shared amenities such swimming pools, gyms, workshops, communal gardens and spacious roof terraces.

And they wonder how they can bring some of it home to a region gripped by an unaffordability crisis that lands long-term residents out of state or on the streets.


Last year, California counted more than 180,000 people living on the streets, a 40% rise in five years. Housing costs in the state are now double what they are in the rest of the US. Average monthly payments for a newly purchased mid-tier home are more than $5,500 a month and wages have not kept pace with rising rents. “You now need to earn $200,000 a year to have a comfortable middle-class life in California,” said Jennifer LeSar of the Global Policy Leadership Academy, which organises the trips to Vienna.

The foundation of Vienna’s success is a housing policy that ensures all people live in dignified circumstances at affordable rents in homes they can keep for their lifetime and even pass on to their children. It’s not just for the poorest but the middle class as well. Sixty per cent of people in Vienna live in subsidised housing, compared with just 5% of Californians.

“This is incredible. The US sucks man. Why can’t we do this?” said Ruben Mendoza, a young activist from Uplift San Bernardino, shaking his head in disbelief as he was shown around a mixed housing development near the city centre with communal facilities and affordable rents. Mendoza said one of the reasons he became a housing advocate was because he feared never being able to own a home in the community he grew up in. Like most Californians, he spends more than 50% of his disposable household income on rent. In Vienna, residents on average spend 27% of their income on housing.


There are some obvious differences. Vienna is densely built, with the majority of residents living in relatively small apartments within easy distance of the city centre. Most Viennese are renters, and use the well-connected public transport system to move around. Most Californians live in owner-occupied single-family homes in the suburbs. Public transportation systems are underfunded, and most residents use their car to travel.
Unfortunately, in my city, some people think finding room for cars is more important than building homes for peopleGleam Davis, a Santa Monica councilmember

But the biggest difference is how much new affordable housing is going up in Vienna. “Just look at all the cranes,” said Adam Briones from California’s Community Builders, a research and advocacy organization working to close the racial wealth gap through housing. The city of Vienna builds about 6,000-7,000 new units of subsidised housing every year as it tries to keep up with rising demand. “They’re just building more housing than us. It’s not rocket science,” said Corey Smith of San Francisco’s Housing Action Coalition.

Vienna is the fastest-growing capital in Europe. Half of its residents were either born outside Austria or have parents who were, so city planners are constantly anticipating future demand. Until the 1990s, this once grand imperial capital was in the doldrums, stuck out on the edge of western Europe. It was once the centre of the Habsburg empire and the cultural and intellectual capital of Europe. Two world wars, fascism and the brutal destruction of the city’s once-vibrant Jewish population put an end to that. The artists and the intellectuals had left. It was an ageing city, full of ghosts and the remnants of a fallen empire.

Two historic shifts at the end of the last millennium changed Vienna’s fortunes. Communism collapsed in 1989, the iron curtain came down and Austria joined the European Union six years after that. Young people from across central and southern Europe moved to Vienna, attracted by the wide availability of housing, its relative affordability, job opportunities and its position at the centre of a new enlarged European Union. Since then, its population has grown by 25%. Today 2 million people live there, and their number is growing year on year.

Nimbyism was a recurring topic during the week-long visit, with the Californians complaining that often when new developments are planned, small groups of residents try to block them through the courts, which makes the construction process slower and more expensive. Gleam Davis, a Santa Monica city councillor and former mayor, said that when her city tried to build affordable housing on parking lots, residents protested. “Unfortunately, in my city, some people think finding room for cars is more important than building homes for people.” Even within her own city council, there is strong opposition to building more housing, she said. “Some of my colleagues think we can police ourselves out of this or build our share of affordable housing in the desert and move those people out there.”

Vienna has a more top-down approach to tackling nimbyism. As the delegation toured Seestadt Aspern, a new town built on a former military airfield outside Vienna, the urban planner Kurt Hoftstetter explained that they had held up to 20 meetings in the nearby villages before they began construction. “We did this to inform residents of our plans and ask them how we could make it more acceptable to them. But we did not ask their permission.”


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Vienna’s affordable housing system is supported by a 1% tax on all salaries which provides a permanent funding stream for new construction. This goes back 100 years to the end of the first world war, when the city was overflowing with refugees and homeless people. The Habsburg empire had collapsed, and Vienna became a city state with its own tax-raising ability inside the new federal Republic of Austria. “Red Vienna”, as it was known in the 1920s, has been a social democrat bastion within a largely conservative, Catholic country ever since (apart from 12 years under fascist rule) and providing permanently affordable housing became part of its DNA.

The housing tax currently generates about $250m annually and the city gets a further $200m in rental income and loan repayments. Since the 1990s, most new developments are built by limited-profit housing associations, which benefit from 1% government loans. They also benefit from building on land sold to them by Vienna’s landbank (Wohnfonds Wien), a quasi-governmental body that buys up land to build new neighbourhoods with a mix of private and subsidised housing.

Inspired by the Vienna model, Los Angeles launched its own landbank in 2022 aimed at setting aside city land for affordable housing construction. And the city passed a new measure increasing property taxes on homes over $5m. The hope is that this “mansion tax” will create a permanent funding stream for affordable housing. “A lot of people who worked on that measure visited Vienna,” says Jackson Loop from the Southern Californian Association of Nonprofit Housing. “But we’re getting push-back from the real estate lobby who are trying to overturn the tax increase in the courts, so it’s in a legal limbo right now.”
The mayor likes to say that you cannot tell if a person is rich or poor in Vienna from their addressChristian Shantl

Property taxes, both residential and corporate, are comparatively low in California, said Loop. That’s because of proposition 13, he explained – a provision that passed back in the late 1970s and limited taxes to 1% of a property’s value, including for large landowning corporations such as Disney.

Another key difference is the way Vienna chooses to spend its annual housing budget. Most of it goes into subsidising construction, whereas in the US it mostly goes to directly subsidising residents through vouchers and housing benefit schemes. In other words, Vienna focuses on supply whereas the US focuses on demand. “I’d love someone to do a calculation of how much the US is spending on housing vouchers nationwide and see whether some of this money could be transferred into building new homes instead,” said Davis, the Santa Monica city councilmember.


One of the biggest cohorts in the delegation was from San Diego, where the number of unhoused residents has risen significantly in recent years. San Diego has seen dramatic increases in home and rent prices, making the county increasingly unaffordable for longtime residents. The median home sale price for an existing single-family home in the county clocked in at $980,000 in February, according to the local NBC affiliate, up from $925,000 the previous month and $878,000 one year ago.

“There’s about 10,000 people living on our streets” says Elyse Lowe, director of development services. “We have families living in their cars, tented communities, and open drug use. This is impacting businesses downtown. People don’t want to see that. We also have many people living from paycheck to paycheck which means they are at high risk of homelessness.”

Inspired by what she has learnt in Vienna, Lowe wants to start a discussion in San Diego about “re-evaluating” city land. “I’ve never heard anyone ask the question: is the small municipal airfield in the city centre that only serves small planes the best use of our land when we are trying to put people first?” she said.

Heidi Vonblum, San Diego’s planning director, said her biggest takeaway was the cleanliness and sense of stability in a city like Vienna. “Lack of affordable housing isn’t just an individual problem, it’s a problem for the whole community,” she observed. “What I notice here is that housing is seen as a means of providing social stability for lower-income communities, and it is very family-orientated. All their policies start from a base of how we best support children and families?”


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All the visitors were surprised by how the subsidised housing has been dispersed throughout the city. “The mayor likes to say that you cannot tell if a person is rich or poor in Vienna from their address,” says Christian Shantl from the Vienna housing department. He said the city focused on creating mixed-income neighbourhoods with all the necessary services for the poorest as well as middle-class families. They’re particularly keen on helping young people, so those between 18 and 30 still living with their parents can get on the housing list.

The last four California delegations were brought to Vienna by the Global Policy Leadership Academy (GPLA), which aims to educate leaders who want to tackle deep-rooted societal problems. Its CEO, LeSar, said she wanted “to get a conversation going back home about building affordable homes on a large scale”.

“I think that is happening,” she added. “We had two legislators from California who came here in the first delegation and they’re now sponsoring bills.”

Helmi Hisserich, a former GPLA executive who is now director of housing for Portland, Oregon, has accompanied all four delegations and says participants often get emotional. “We have had delegates weeping when they see what is on offer in Vienna. It tends to be the younger ones, the under 40s who can only dream of getting on the housing ladder in California.”

Beatriz Stambuk-Torres, a young GPLA researcher and city planner who moved to Vienna a year ago, told the group how she used to spend over 50% of her income on rent while living in Irvine, California. Now she has a nice apartment near Vienna’s city centre and spends 25% of her salary on rent and doesn’t need a car. “I had a good job and a master’s from one of our best universities, but I couldn’t save because of housing costs and my student loans. When I had a medical bill, I had to borrow from friends and family. I did everything right and I still was struggling to make ends meet.” As she spoke about doing “everything right” her voice cracked, and her eyes filled with tears. Discussing housing policy can be dry and technical but the impact on people’s lives is profound.

Developed countries accused of bowing to lobbyists at plastic pollution talks

Campaigners say last-minute compromise plays into the hands of petrostates and industry influences


Sandra Laville

Environment correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Tue 30 Apr 2024


Campaigners are blaming developed countries for capitulating at the last minute to pressure from fossil fuel and industry lobbyists, and slowing progress towards the first global treaty to cut plastic waste.

Delegates concluded talks in Ottawa, Canada, late on Monday, with no agreement on a proposal for global reductions in the $712bn (£610bn) plastic production industry by 2040 to address twin issues of plastic waste and huge carbon emissions.

They agreed to hold more discussions before the last summit on the treaty in Busan, South Korea, in November.

But two years on from a historic agreement in Nairobi to forge a global treaty to cut plastic waste, delegates said countries were just wasting time. A proposal from Peru and Rwanda to address for the first time the scale of plastic production in order cut waste was supported by 29 countries including Australia, Denmark, Nigeria, Portugal, the Netherlands and Nigeria, who signed a declaration, “the Bridge to Busan”, calling on all delegates to ensure plastic production was addressed.

The UK and US did not support the proposal to cut plastic production.

Juliet Kabera, the director general of the Rwanda environment management authority, said: “Rwanda’s vision for the treaty is to achieve sustainable production of plastics. We need a global target based on science to measure our collective actions.”

But as talks headed into the night on Monday, there was no agreement on putting plastic production at the centre of the treaty.

David Azoulay, the director of environmental health at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), said while a handful of countries had taken a stand to keep ambitious proposals alive, most countries accepted a compromise at the last minute that played into the hands of petrostates and industry influences.

“From the beginning of negotiations, we have known that we need to cut plastic production to adopt a treaty that lives up to the promise envisioned … two years ago,” he said. “In Ottawa, we saw many countries rightly assert that it is important for the treaty to address production of primary plastic polymers.

“But when the time came to go beyond issuing empty declarations and fight for work to support the development of an effective intersessional programme, we saw the same developed member states who claim to be leading the world towards a world free from plastic pollution, abandon all pretence as soon as the biggest polluters look sideways at them.”

The US was singled out for criticism for blocking talks on cutting plastic production.

“The United States needs to stop pretending to be a leader and own the failure it has created here,” said Carroll Muffett, the president of CIEL. “When the world’s biggest exporter of oil and gas, and one of the biggest architects of the plastic expansion, says that it will ignore plastic production at the expense of the health, rights and lives of its own people, the world listens.”

He said that despite signalling at the G7 summit this month that it would commit to reduce plastic production, in Ottawa the US failed to follow through on its promises.skip past newsletter promotion

The failure to pursue ambitious cuts to plastic production came after a record number of fossil fuel and petrochemical lobbyists attended the summit in Canada.

Graham Forbes, Greenpeace’s head of delegation to the global plastics treaty negotiations, said: “The world is burning and member states are wasting time and opportunity. We saw some progress, aided by the continued efforts of states such as Rwanda, Peru, and the signatories of the Bridge to Busan declaration in pushing to reduce plastic production.

“However, compromises were made on the outcome which disregarded plastic production cuts, further distancing us from reaching a treaty that science requires and justice demands.”

Rich Gower, a senior economist at the NGO Tearfund, said: “An ambitious and effective treaty is still possible, but negotiations are on a knife-edge: time is short and strong opposition remains from the petrochemicals industry and states connected with it, even as their products pile up on street corners and in watercourses around the world.”

Representatives of the petrochemical industry said they were committed to a global treaty to cut plastic waste. But they pushed back on reductions in plastic production, an industry worth $712bn in 2023.

Chris Jahn, the council secretary of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), speaking on behalf of the industry group Global Partners for Plastics Circularity, said: “Our industry is fully committed to a legally binding agreement all countries can join that ends plastic pollution without eliminating the massive societal benefits plastics provide for a healthier and more sustainable world. We will continue to support governments’ efforts by bringing forth science-based and constructive solutions that leverage the innovations and technical expertise of our industry.”


Countries consider pact to reduce plastic production by 40% in 15 years

Motion sets out worldwide target in alignment with Paris agreement to limit global heating to 1.5C


Sandra Laville 

Environment correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Mon 29 Apr 2024 

Countries are for the first time considering restrictions on the global production of plastic – to reduce it by 40% in 15 years – in an attempt to protect human health and the environment.

As the world attempts to make a treaty to cut plastic waste at UN talks in Ottawa, Canada, two countries have put forward the first concrete proposal to limit production to reduce its harmful effects including the huge carbon emissions from producing it.

The motion submitted by Rwanda and Peru sets out a global reduction target, ambitiously termed a “north star”, to cut the production of primary plastic polymers across the world by 40% by 2040, from a 2025 baseline.


World must come together to tackle plastic pollution, says chair of UN talks

It says: “The effectiveness of both supply and demand-side measures will be assessed, in whole or in part, on their success in reducing the production of primary plastic polymers to sustainable levels.”

The proposal calls for the consideration of mandatory reporting by countries of statistical data on production, imports and exports of primary plastic polymers.

A global plastic reduction target would be similar to the legally binding Paris agreement to pursue efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, Rwanda and Peru said.

“The target should align with our objectives for a safe circular economy for plastics by closing the circularity gap between production and consumption,” the countries said.

“It should also align with our objective in the Paris agreement to limit warming to 1.5C. To this end, one such global reduction target could be a 40% reduction by 2040 against a 2025 baseline.”

Global plastic production soared from 2m tonnes in 1950 to 348m tonnes in 2017. The plastic production industry is expected to double in capacity by 2040.

About 11m tonnes of plastic leaches into the ocean each year, and by 2040 the scale of this marine plastic waste pollution is likely to triple.

Plastic production is a significant driver of climate breakdown, as most plastic is made from fossil fuels. A study by scientists at the US-based Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has estimated that by 2050 plastic production could account for 21-31% of the world’s carbon emission budget required to limit global heating to 1.5C.skip past newsletter promotion


A 2021 analysis by Beyond Plastics found that the US plastics industry will be a bigger contributor to the climate crisis than coal-fired power in the country by 2030.

Countries agreed at UN talks in 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, that a treaty to cut plastic waste must address the full life cycle of plastic. They promised to forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024.

The Ottawa talks, which are due to finish on Monday, aim to get 175 countries to agree the draft text of the treaty.

Graham Forbes, the global plastic projects leader at Greenpeace USA, who was at the Ottawa talks, said: “This is not an ambitious enough target for Greenpeace but it is an important first step to an agreement to limit global plastic production. You cannot solve the pollution crisis unless you constrain, reduce and restrict plastic production.”

Big oil privately acknowledged efforts to downplay climate crisis, joint committee investigation finds


Internal documents revealed by committee show companies lobbied against climate laws they publicly claimed to support


Dharna Noor

Tue 30 Apr 2024 

Big oil has privately acknowledged its efforts to downplay the dangers of burning fossil fuels, US Democrats have found.


How to spot five of the fossil fuel industry’s biggest disinformation tactics

Major fossil-fuel firms have also pledged support for international climate efforts, but internally admit these efforts are incompatible with their own climate plans. And they have lobbied against climate laws and regulations they have publicly claimed to support, documents newly revealed by the committee show.

The tranche of subpoenaed communications were unveiled on Tuesday morning by Democrats on the House oversight committee before a Wednesday hearing.

“For decades, the fossil-fuel industry has known about the economic and climate harms of its products but has deceived the American public to keep collecting more than $600bn each year in subsidies while raking in record-breaking profits,” said Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who chairs the committee.

The documents are part of an investigation launched in 2021 by the House committee on oversight and accountability, which disbanded when Republicans took control of the chamber in 2022.

“The evidence uncovered by oversight committee Democrats shows that big oil has run campaigns to confuse and mislead the public,” said Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the committee. “Today’s joint report demonstrates that big oil continues to conceal the facts about their business model and obscure the actual dangers of fossil fuels.”

The documents, summarized in a committee report, come from big oil firms Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron, as well the lobbying organizations the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Chamber of Commerce. They date back to 30 November 2015 – just weeks before the signing of the Paris climate accord.

Most previous public documents illustrating big oil’s climate deception are from the 1960s and 1970s, said Geoffrey Supran, a University of Miami associate professor who studies fossil-fuel industry messaging and will testify at Wednesday’s hearing.

“This is our best post-Paris agreement look at these companies’ ongoing duplicity,” he said.

The new revelations build on 2015 reporting from Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times, which found that Exxon was for decades aware of the dangers of the climate crisis, yet hid that from the public.

At the time, Exxon publicly rejected the journalists’ findings outright, calling them “inaccurate and deliberately misleading.” And when questioned by the House oversight committee in 2021, Exxon chief executive Darren Woods said he did “not agree that there was an inconsistency” between what Exxon told the public and what Exxon scientists were warning privately.

But in internal communications, Exxon confirmed the validity of the reporting. In a December 2015 email about a potential public response to the investigative reporting, Exxon communications advisor Pamela Kevelson admitted the company did not “dispute much of what these stories report”.

Discussing a draft opinion piece the following year, Exxon again confirmed the reporters’ findings. “It’s true that Inside Climate News originally accused us of working against science but ultimately modified their accusation to working against policies meant to stop climate change,” Alan Jeffers, then a spokesperson for Exxon, wrote in a 2016 email to Kevelson. “I’m OK either way, since they were both true at one time or another.”

View image in fullscreen

The South Belridge oil field near McKittrick, California. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

In recent years, big oil has largely stopped explicitly denying that climate change is real and human-caused, instead shifting to a more sophisticated strategy of “deception, disinformation, and doublespeak”, the report says.

“What’s the Shakespeare line about a ‘rose by any other name?’ This is climate denial by any other name,” said Supran. “It’s more subtle, and it’s more insidious, but it’s the same thing actually.”

Though big oil firms have made showy climate pledges and voiced support for the Paris climate agreement, their internal communications call the validity of those statements into question, the report says.

In a 2019 memo to the CEO, for instance, an Exxon official suggested removing reference to the Paris accord from a document because referencing it “could create a potential commitment to advocate on the Paris agreement goals”.

And in February 2020, BP announced plans to become a net zero emissions company by 2050 or sooner and to “help the world get to net zero”. Private emails sent months before, however, indicate that company top brass may have doubted that goal was achievable.

“Personally, I think it goes a bit too far to state or imply support for net zero by 2050, because that would require policy likely to put some existing assets at risk, and we haven’t discussed that internally,” BP’s global sustainability and climate policy lead said in a June 2019 email discussing how to respond to a Guardian request for comment.

In the same email, the policy lead said it was important for BP to “stand by our public support for the Paris goals and the achievement of net zero” – something it has done consistently. But other internal communications sent the same year demonstrate a lack of support among BP leadership for emissions cuts aligned with the Paris agreement’s targets.

“Just wanted you to be aware as reducing emissions by half in 2035 sounds pretty out there!” BP’s vice-president of strategic planning said in email to colleagues. Such a reduction would be consistent with Paris agreement targets.skip past newsletter promotion

In an emailed comment, BP head of communications JP Fielder said the company “committed to transitioning from an international oil company to an integrated energy company”.

Shell, meanwhile, pledged in 2016 to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But in 2018, a the company’s external relations manager expressed doubt that the goal was achievable, suggesting it might take until 2060 or 2070, the report says. And in a 2020 internal presentation about approved messaging on net zero emissions, Shell instructed lobbyists and employees not to “suggest” that net zero is a “Shell target”.

To preserve their business models, fossil-fuel companies have also sought to portray gas as a climate-friendly fuel. But they have internally acknowledged that its use is not compatible with international climate goals.

A March 2018 draft presentation from BP that is marked “Confidential”, for instance, focuses on the “challenge” facing the company as journalists increasingly report that natural gas is a planet-heating fossil fuel, the report says. The presentation describes a forthcoming BP communications campaign to “advance and protect the role of gas – and BP – in the energy transition”.

A key aspect of the company’s campaign strategy, the presentation says, is to “harness excitement” about renewable energy by saying gas provides a good backup for wind and solar power, despite the climate risks associated with the fuel.

The document recommends the company fund white papers from Princeton University and Imperial College which spotlight the “role of gas as a friend to renewables”. It’s one of several emails showing that oil companies “establish funded partnerships with academic institutions to enhance their credibility”, the report says.

The company also privately acknowledged the climate risks of gas usage, as shown in in comments on a draft outline for a 2017 speech by BP’s then chief executive Robert Dudley. “You don’t say anything about concerns about … the idea that, once built, gas locks in future emissions above a level consistent with 2 degrees, at least without [carbon capture],” a comment reads.

Companies also claimed to support certain climate policies while lobbying against them behind the scenes, the report says.

When the Trump administration said in 2019 it would roll back an Obama-era regulation on methane emissions, for instance, BP and other oil companies publicly opposed the move, yet API, the biggest US oil lobbying group, backed the proposal. And in a 2019 email regarding the EPA’s legal plan to enact the rollback, a BP executive said the proposal was “aligned with our thinking”.

Shell, meanwhile, has long publicly supported a carbon tax, but documents show it fought such a policy in Washington state. In a 2018 email about the proposal, a company media manager explained that the company wished to maintain its “status as a global champion for a carbon price” and appear “neutral” on the policy, but said that “was made complicated” when the Seattle Times asked Shell about its membership in the Western States Petroleum Association, which lobbied against the bill.

The newly revealed documents also show that the companies refused to comply with the congressional investigation. “Several thousand documents that the companies produced were substantially redacted to obscure clearly relevant and potentially critical information, or they were just withheld outright,” Raskin said in a video detailing the findings.

The new documents come as big oil faces an increasing number of lawsuits for allegedly lying about the dangers of using fossil fuels. Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, which has supported the litigation, said the revelations could “provide new material evidence for the cases” and “push them along”.

Lawsuits filed by Chicago, Pennsylvania’s Bucks county, Puerto Rico and the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe have cited the House oversight committee’s previous subpoenaed documents as evidence of their claims.

“This is the most important thing that Congress is doing right now on climate change,” Wiles said.

In an emailed statement about the report, API spokesperson Andrea Woods said: “At a time of persistent inflation and geopolitical instability, our nation needs more American energy – including more oil and natural gas – and less unfounded election-year rhetoric.”

The Guardian view on the women of Iran: still resisting repression

The regime wants to crush resistance. But those it rules continue to push back against its brutality

Editorial
Tue 30 Apr 2024

The protests that exploded across Iran following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in September 2022 were a turning point. The young Iranian-Kurdish woman had been detained by the “morality police” for “improper hijab”. Not only did young women take to the streets and cast off their scarves in fury, but parents and grandparents came too. The protests were strikingly socially diverse. Critically, men joined the cries of “woman, life, freedom”. The regime reacted with predictable fury, killing hundreds and arresting thousands. It succeeded in suppressing the demonstrations. But many women refused to return to obeying the strict dress code.

It was inevitable that the Iranian leadership would strike back. Its quarrel is not only with women’s liberties, but with the precedent set for defiance. It is determined to crush opposition as it crushed the street protests, with a court sentencing a popular rapper to death – not for violence but simply dissent. Toomaj Salehi, courageous in supporting the nationwide protests in 2022, was found guilty of “corruption on Earth”. He had previously been sentenced to six years over his role, before being freed by a court citing a technicality.

The authorities were already trying to redraw the boundaries. Harsh “hijab and chastity” legislation is on its way. Authorities have used traffic camera footage to fine women driving bareheaded or in hats, confiscate their cars or sentence them to morality classes or flogging. Others have been denied access to public transport or banks by officials accusing them of flouting the dress rules. Businesses have been closed for not enforcing the law for employees or customers.

But with international attention focused on the conflict in Gaza and its widening regional repercussions, pressure has suddenly intensified. A brutal new enforcement campaign of the hijab rules was launched on the same day that Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, in retaliation for its strike on an Iranian facility in Damascus.

The white vans of the morality police are out in force once more. Videos show women and girls being dragged from the streets, and detainees report being beaten and abused. Fresh details of the case of Nika Shakarami, reportedly sexually assaulted and killed by men working for the security forces in 2022, provide further evidence of their brutality. Her family said last week that her sister Aida had just been arrested for breaching the dress code.

Supporters of the jailed Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi said she had sent a message from prison urging Iranians to protest against what she described as a “war against women”. States rely on terror when they lack legitimacy. But it appears that at least some parts of the regime worry that hijab enforcement is inflaming the public mood. In several of the videos of women being detained, crowds of bystanders can be seen protesting.

Iranians know that they are facing ruthless and intransigent rulers. Some women who had given up the hijab, or interpreted dress rules much more loosely, have begun to cover themselves again. But the battle over the dress code represents the fundamental contradiction between a corrupt, brutal and ageing hardline regime and the young people it controls, who long for social and political freedoms as well as desperately needing a brighter economic future. Though the cries on the streets of “woman, life, freedom” have been stifled, their echoes will continue to be heard.

Why hasn’t the US called for an investigation into mass graves in Gaza?

Nothing screams ‘covering up war crimes’ like insisting that there should absolutely not be an independent investigation

Opinion
THE GUARDIAN

Arwa Mahdawi
Tue 30 Apr 2024 

Did you know that the Palestinians are the very first people in the world to ethnically cleanse and mass murder themselves? I know it sounds weird, but – as American and Israeli politicians keep reminding us – these are “savages” that we are talking about here. Normal rules don’t apply, you’ve got to follow the Palestine Rules.

The Palestine Rules dictate you do the following: ignore every international agency if that agency says anything remotely critical about Israel. Certainly don’t listen to international aid agencies like Oxfam when they argue that the government of Israel is “deliberately blocking and/or undermining the international humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”. Nope, the fact that babies in Gaza are dying of malnutrition is all their fault. The fact that children in Gaza are starving at the fastest rate the world has ever known is nothing to do with Israel, it’s the fault of those pesky Palestinians.

The fact that there are an unprecedented number of child amputees in Gaza is the Palestinians’ fault. Let’s be very clear here: if every single Palestinian had fled the land they were born in back in 1948, when Israel was founded, if they’d just completely renounced their Palestinian identity, none of the horrors currently unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank would be happening. Can’t argue with that logic, can you?

You know what’s also the Palestinians’ fault? Those mass graves that have recently been discovered at the ruins of hospitals in Gaza. “Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands … tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, last week.

It shouldn’t be remotely controversial to say that when you discover evidence suggesting gross violations of international law have occurred, then there should be an immediate independent investigation. And yet, the Palestine Rules have kicked in once again: Israel has said they didn’t do anything wrong – arguing that it’s all “fake news” and saying the Palestinians dug their own graves. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has said it trusts Israel to look into its own affairs.

While US officials have called for Israel to “thoroughly and transparently” investigate reports of mass graves they have refused to call for an independent investigation. Why, one has to wonder, the reluctance to investigate? If it’s really all “fake news” then Israel and the US should welcome a proper investigation. Nothing screams “covering up war crimes” like insisting that there should absolutely not be an independent investigation.

I was supposed to write this column a couple of days ago but every time I sat down at my desk and tried to write about the horrors in Gaza, I felt physically sick and had to stop. How can anyone be OK with our tax dollars funding this, I keep asking myself? How can anyone be OK with the fact that innocent children are suffering unimaginable horrors and Americans are helping to pay for it? How can anyone be OK with the fact that Gaza has basically been rendered uninhabitable? How can any journalist be OK with the fact that nearly 75% of journalists killed in 2023 died in Israel’s war on Gaza?

The answer to those questions is and always has been: Palestinians simply don’t count. They certainly didn’t seem to count to the attendees of the glitzy White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday. The annual event has long been criticized for making the press look too chummy with the politicians they are supposed to be holding to account and Saturday’s event certainly seemed to reinforce that idea. In the middle of what many people argue is a US-funded genocide in Gaza – one in which Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed zero empathy for Palestinians – comedian Colin Jost stood up and told the room what a decent guy the president is.

“[My grandfather] voted for you,” Jost told Biden. “And the reason that he voted for you is because you’re a decent man. My grandpa voted for decency, and decency is why we’re all here tonight. Decency is how we’re able to be here tonight. Decency is how we’re able to make jokes about each other, and one of us doesn’t go to prison after – we go to the Newsmax after-party.”

A child is killed on average every 10 minutes in Gaza. By the time that Jost had finished his speech, finished waxing lyrical about decency, there were a couple more dead kids killed by Biden administration bombs. By the time they’d finished their little after-party, another dozen kids would be dead. This, people like Jost want us to think, is what decency looks like. And he’s not the only one: American elites are obsessed with toxic notions of decency and civility. All of which tends to be code for: keep quiet and accept the status quo. We must reject this idea. There is nothing more indecent than staying silent in the face of injustice.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist