Thursday, April 18, 2024

‘We’re a dead ship’: Hundreds of cargo ships lost propulsion in U.S. waters in recent years (Washington Post) Less than two weeks after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed by an out-of-control cargo ship, another huge container ship passed beneath a busy bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and then suddenly decelerated in a narrow artery of one of the nation’s largest ports. “We’re a dead ship,” said a voice over the maritime radio a short time later, invoking an industry term that often refers to a ship that is unable to move on it own. Three tug boats helped shepherd the APL Qingdao—a vessel more than 1,100 feet long and flying under the flag of Malta—from where it lost propulsion near the Bayonne Bridge to a safe location. The April 5 incident is one of hundreds in which massive cargo ships lost propulsion, many near bridges and ports, according to a Washington Post analysis of Coast Guard records. The findings indicate that the kind of failure that preceded the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse—the 984-foot Dali is believed to have lost the ability to propel itself forward as it suffered a more widespread power outage—was far from a one-off among the increasingly large cargo ships that routinely sail close to critical infrastructure.

They criticized Israel. This Twitter account upended their lives. (Washington Post) Dani Marzouca was in bed trying to sleep when the phone started buzzing. An organization dedicated to publicly rebuking critics of Israel had posted on X a clip of Marzouca declaring that “radical solidarity with Palestine means … not apologizing for Hamas.” The 20-second clip, from an Instagram live stream, rapidly garnered more than 1 million views. Soon, the group, StopAntisemitism, was calling Marzouca a “Hamas terrorist supporter” and tagging their employer, the branding firm Terakeet of Syracuse, N.Y. Hundreds of people commented on X, LinkedIn and email, including one who asked: “Do you really have antisemites like this working for you, @Terakeet?” Within a day, Marzouca was fired. Marzouca, 32, is one of nearly three dozen people who have been fired or suspended from their jobs after being featured by StopAntisemitism, according to the group’s X feed, part of a wave of digital activism related to the Israel-Gaza war. Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel responded by attacking Gaza, groups have poured resources into identifying people with opposing political beliefs, sometimes deploying aggressive publicity campaigns that have resulted in profound real-world consequences.

US reimposes oil sanctions on Venezuela as hope for a fair presidential election fades (AP) The Biden administration on Wednesday reimposed crushing oil sanctions on Venezuela, admonishing President Nicolás Maduro’s attempts to consolidate his rule just six months after the U.S. eased restrictions in a bid to support now fading hopes for a democratic opening in the OPEC nation. A senior U.S. official, discussing the decision with reporters, said any U.S. company investing in Venezuela would have 45 days to wind down operations to avoid adding uncertainty to global energy markets. Wednesday’s actions essentially return U.S. policy to what it was prior to the agreement hammered out in the Caribbean island of Barbados, making it illegal for U.S. companies to do business with state-run oil producer Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., better known as PDVSA, without a specific license from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Ecuador rations electricity as drought persists in the northern Andes (AP) Ecuador on Tuesday began to ration electricity in the country’s main cities as a drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern depletes reservoirs and limits output at hydroelectric plants that produce about 75% of the nation’s power. The power cuts were announced on Monday night by the ministry of energy. “We urge Ecuadorians to cut their electricity consumption in this critical week,” the statement read. “And consider that each kilowatt and each drop of water that are not consumed will help us face this reality.” The power cuts in Ecuador come days after dry weather forced Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá to ration water as its reservoirs reached record lows, threatening local supplies of tap water.

U.K. votes on ‘smoke-free generation,’ but conservatives fear ‘nanny state’ (Washington Post) Britain is poised to launch a world-leading project to create a “smoke-free generation” by effectively banning the sale of cigarettes to anyone born in 2009 or after. The legislation would raise the legal smoking age each year so that the prohibition would follow the generation indefinitely. Vaping, however, would not be affected and instead would be subject to other restrictions. Smoking itself would not be subject to fines. Older smokers would be allowed to continue to buy tobacco until they quit—or die. Sunak, who does not drink alcohol or smoke, and who is reported to fast one day a week, argues that saving lives is the conservative thing to do. Leading figures in his party have expressed their opposition, arguing that if people want to smoke, it’s not the government’s job to stop them. Sunak’s predecessor, Liz Truss, has dubbed the bill the ill-considered work of a “nanny state.”

Ukraine’s Vulnerabilities (NYT) Ukraine’s top military commander has issued a bleak assessment of the army’s positions on the eastern front, saying they have “worsened significantly in recent days.” Russian forces were pushing hard to exploit their growing advantage in manpower and ammunition to break through Ukrainian lines, the commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, said in a statement over the weekend. At the same time, Ukraine’s energy ministry told millions of civilians to charge their power banks, get their generators out of storage and “be ready for any scenario” as Ukrainian power plants are damaged or destroyed in devastating Russian airstrikes. With few critical military supplies flowing into Ukraine from the United States for months, commanders are being forced to make difficult choices over where to deploy limited resources as the toll on civilians grows daily.

Solomon Islands: The Pacific election being closely watched by China and the West (BBC) National elections Wednesday in the tiny Solomon Islands are being watched by world powers. With 420,000 voters deciding who will hold 50 national seats, the election in the small Pacific nation is being closely followed by China and the United States, five years after the Solomon Islands switched political alliances from Taiwan to China, with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogava signing a security pact with Beijing. Western concerns over the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the Pacific region prompted the U.S. to try to improve diplomatic relations with the island nation.

Iran president warns of ‘massive’ response if Israel launches ‘tiniest invasion’ (AP/Forbes) Iran’s president has warned that the “tiniest invasion” by Israel would bring a “massive and harsh” response, as the region braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran’s attack over the weekend. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told reporters in Jerusalem: “It's clear the Israelis are making a decision to act…We hope they do so in a way that does as little to escalate this as possible.” Israeli officials have also made it clear that a response was necessary, with IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari saying: “We cannot stand still from this kind of aggression,” and allow Iran to get away “scot-free.”

Israeli tanks push back into northern Gaza, warplanes hit Rafah (Reuters) Israeli tanks pushed back into parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday which they had left weeks ago, while warplanes conducted air strikes on Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge in the south of the territory, killing and wounding several people, medics and residents said. Tanks advanced into Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and surrounded some schools where displaced families have taken refuge. Beit Hanoun, home to 60,000 people, was one of the first areas targeted by Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last October. Heavy bombardment turned most of Beit Hanoun, once known as ‘the basket of fruit’ because of its orchards, into a ghost town comprising piles of rubble. Many families who had returned to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in recent weeks after Israeli forces withdrew, began moving out again on Tuesday because of the new raid, residents said.

A storm dumps record rain across the desert nation of UAE and floods the Dubai airport (AP) The desert nation of the United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Wednesday from the heaviest rain ever recorded there after a deluge flooded out Dubai International Airport, disrupting travel through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel. The state-run WAM news agency called the rain Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949.” That’s before the discovery of crude oil in this energy-rich nation then part of a British protectorate known as the Trucial States. Rain also fell in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, the rains were acute across the UAE. By the end of Tuesday, more than 142 millimeters (5.59 inches) of rainfall had soaked Dubai over 24 hours. An average year sees 94.7 millimeters (3.73 inches) of rain at Dubai International Airport. Some stranded passengers reported “living on duty-free.”

UN envoy lashes out at Libya’s feuding parties and their foreign backers (AP) The U.N. envoy for Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, lashed out at the country’s feuding parties and their foreign backers at a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday and then confirmed he had submitted his resignation. The former Senegalese minister and U.N. diplomat, who has held the job for 18 months, said he had done his best to get the five key political actors in Libya to resolve contested issues over electoral laws and form a unified government to lead the country to long-delayed elections. But Bathily said his attempts “were met with stubborn resistance, unreasonable expectations and indifference to the interests of the Libyan people.” And he warned that these entrenched positions, reinforced by “a divided regional and global landscape,” may push Libya and the region to further instability and insecurity.

The Cloud Under the Sea (The Verge) The world’s emails, TikToks, classified memos, bank transfers, satellite surveillance, and FaceTime calls travel on cables that are about as thin as a garden hose. There are about 800,000 miles of these skinny tubes crisscrossing the Earth’s oceans, representing nearly 600 different systems, according to the industry tracking organization TeleGeography. The cables are buried near shore, but for the vast majority of their length, they just sit amid the gray ooze and alien creatures of the ocean floor, the hair-thin strands of glass at their center glowing with lasers encoding the world’s data. If, hypothetically, all these cables were to simultaneously break, modern civilization would cease to function. The financial system would immediately freeze. Currency trading would stop; stock exchanges would close. Banks and governments would be unable to move funds between countries because the Swift and US interbank systems both rely on submarine cables to settle over $10 trillion in transactions each day. In large swaths of the world, people would discover their credit cards no longer worked and ATMs would dispense no cash. As US Federal Reserve staff director Steve Malphrus said at a 2009 cable security conference, “When communications networks go down, the financial services sector does not grind to a halt. It snaps to a halt.”

Languages (Economist) Of the world’s 7,000-odd languages, almost half are expected to disappear by the end of the 21st century. Two culprits are usually considered responsible for this decline. The first is colonialism: when great powers conquered countries, they imposed their language in government and schools and relegated local ones (or banned them outright). The second is capitalism. As countries grow and industrialise, people move to cities for work. They increasingly find themselves speaking the bigger language used in the workplace rather than the smaller one used at home.

Thought of the Day

“My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.”—George Eliot

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Covid pandemic made poorest countries even worse off, World Bank warns (Guardian) According to research by the World Bank “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” also applies to countries—and Covid-19 has made the problem even worse. In a report released in concert with the bank’s bi-annual meeting, the financial institution found that, over the past five years, income per capita in half of the world’s 75 poorest countries rose more slowly than incomes in developed countries, indicating a growing wealth disparity between rich and poor nations. The data also shows that one-third of the countries eligible for the bank’s International Development Association (IDA) loans were poorer than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic. “These countries now account for 90% of all people facing hunger or malnutrition,” the Bank said. “Half of these countries are either in debt distress or at high risk of it. Still, except for the World Bank Group and other multilateral development donors, foreign lenders—private as well as government creditors—have been backing away from them.”

Stamps and U.S. mail decline (NPR) The cost of a Forever U.S. postage stamp will rise from 68 cents to 73 cents in July, following a price hike just this past January and the sixth increase since January 2021. Still, could be worse: Comparing the U.S. to 30 other peer countries, there are just four countries with cheaper stamps than the United States, and the 26 percent increase from June 2018 to June 2023 is half the average stamp price increase of 55 percent of those countries. One driver of the price hikes for first-class mail is declining volume, with the number of mailed items down 68 percent since 2007.

Wave of pro-Palestinian protests closes bridges, major roads across U.S. (Washington Post) Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roads, highways and bridges across the country on Monday, snarling traffic and sparking arrests from coast to coast in what some activists declared to be a coordinated day of economic blockade to push leaders for a cease-fire in Gaza. The disruption appeared to span the country over several hours. Protesters in San Francisco parked vehicles on the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping traffic in both directions for four hours Monday morning, while hundreds of demonstrators blocked a highway in nearby Oakland, some by chaining themselves to drums of cement, California Highway Patrol representatives told The Washington Post. In New York, dozens of protesters stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and held demonstrations on Wall Street, according to ABC7. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations were also reported in Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami and San Antonio.

Venezuelans living abroad want to vote for president this year but can’t (AP) Giovanny Tovar left Venezuela five years ago in search of a job after his country came undone under the watch of President Nicolás Maduro. He now sells empanadas and tequeños in the streets of Peru’s capital, where he pushes around a small cart outfitted with a deep fryer. Tovar wants nothing more than to vote Maduro out of office. He sees an opportunity for change in July’s highly anticipated presidential election but he won’t be able to cast a vote. Neither will millions of other Venezuelan emigrants because of costly and time-consuming government prerequisites that are nowhere to be found in Venezuela’s election laws. More than half of the estimated 7.7 million Venezuelans who have left their homeland during the complex crisis that has marked Maduro’s 11-year presidency are estimated to be registered to vote in Venezuela. Analysts and emigrants assert people who left Venezuela during the crisis would almost certainly vote against Maduro if given the chance.

In Ukraine’s West, Draft Dodgers Run, and Swim, to Avoid the War (NYT) The roiling water can be treacherous, the banks are steep and slick with mud, and the riverbed is covered in jagged, hidden boulders. Yet Ukrainian border guards often find their quarry—men seeking to escape the military draft—swimming in these hazardous conditions, trying to cross the Tysa River where it forms the border with Romania. That thousands of Ukrainian men have chosen to risk the swim rather than face the dangers as soldiers on the eastern front highlights the challenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky as he seeks to mobilize new troops after more than two years of bruising, bloody trench warfare with Russia. “We cannot judge these people,” Lieutenant Tonkoshtan said. “But if all men leave, who will defend Ukraine?”

Sydney’s second knife attack in days being investigated as terrorist act (Washington Post) The stabbing of a Sydney bishop during a live-streamed church service is being investigated as a potential act of terrorism, police said Tuesday. A 16-year-old boy is in custody after police were called to an Assyrian church in suburban Sydney on Monday evening. They found a 53-year-old man with lacerations to his head. Another man, 39, suffered lacerations and a shoulder wound after he tried to intervene, police said. The boy had been restrained inside the building by members of the public. Christ the Good Shepherd Church said in a statement Tuesday that the attacker approached Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the lectern as he was delivering a sermon at about 7:05 p.m. local time. The attacker lunged at the bishop with a concealed knife, delivering blows to his head and body. Parish priest Isaac Royel was also injured in the attack, the church said. The attack was captured on a live stream of the service on its Facebook page and on YouTube.

The Philippine president says he won’t give US access to more local military bases (AP) The Philippine president said Monday his administration has no plan to give the United States access to more Philippine military bases and stressed that the American military’s presence in several camps and sites so far was sparked by China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in 2022, allowed American forces and weapons access to four additional Philippine military bases, bringing to nine the number of sites where U.S. troops can rotate indefinitely under a 2014 agreement. Marcos’ decision last year alarmed China because two of the new sites were located just across from Taiwan and southern China. Beijing accused the Philippines of providing American forces with staging grounds, which could be used to undermine its security.

Israel’s War Leaders Don’t Trust One Another (WSJ) Six months into the conflict against Hamas, the Israeli public is deeply divided about how to win the war in the Gaza Strip. So, too, are the three top officials in the war cabinet meant to foster unity in that effort. Long-simmering grudges and arguments over how best to fight Hamas have soured relations between Israel’s wartime decision makers—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the former head of the Israeli military, Benny Gantz. The three men are at odds over the biggest decisions they need to make: how to launch a decisive military push, free Israel’s hostages and govern the postwar strip. Now, they also must make one of the biggest decisions the country has ever faced: how to respond to Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory. Their power struggle could affect whether the Gaza conflict spirals into a bigger regional fight with Iran that transforms the Middle East’s geopolitical order and shapes Israel’s relations with the U.S. for decades. “The lack of trust between these three people is so clear and so significant,” said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli general and national security adviser.

Retaliation for retaliation (Washington Post) After the retaliation, comes the retaliation. Israeli officials Monday said they would respond to the astonishing assault carried out two days prior by Iran that saw hundreds of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones launched from Iranian territory toward targets in the Jewish state. The Iranian barrage was successfully fended off by Israeli air defenses, backed by the United States and a number of the regional partners and allies. Nearly all of the Iranian launches were intercepted before they reached Israel. They inflicted no casualties. For Tehran, the attack was a response to an Israeli operation that killed seven senior Iranian officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at an Iranian compound in Damascus, Syria. For Israel, the Iranian response demands its own reprisal. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, said Monday that “the launch of so many missiles and drones to Israeli territory will be answered with a retaliation.” What that would look like was unclear at the time of writing, though a new Israeli attack seemed in the cards. Iran and Israel have been locked for years in a tacit shadow war, punctuated by airstrikes, assassinations and acts of sabotage. But the current round of escalation has sharpened the prospect of open war between the two Middle East powers.

Ordinary Iranians Don’t Want a War With Israel (The Atlantic) You don’t need to be an expert on Iran to know some facts about Iranians in this moment: First, most are sick of the Islamic Republic and its octogenarian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in charge since 1989, and whose rule has brought Iran economic ruin, international isolation, and now the threat of a war. You need only look at the majority of Iranians who have boycotted the past two nationwide elections, this year and in 2021, or the hundreds killed in the anti-regime protests of recent years to know that this government doesn’t represent Iranians. Second, the people of Iran have no desire to experience a war with Israel. Despite decades of indoctrination in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment by their government, Iranians harbor very little hostility toward Israel. In the past few months, many Arab capitals have seen mass demonstrations against Israel, but no such popular event has taken place in Iran. In fact, in the early stages of the Israel-Hamas war that broke out in October, many Iranians risked their lives by publicly opposing the anti-Israel campaign of the regime. Third, Iranians have a recent memory of how terrible war can be. I was born in Tehran in 1988, in the final throes of the brutal eight-year conflict that began when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and continued for way too long because of the Iranian regime’s ideological crusade. The people of Iran know that their main enemy is at home, and that war will bring them only more repression and hardship.

Critics call out plastics industry over “fraud of plastic recycling” (CBS News) an Dell is a former chemical engineer who has spent years telling an inconvenient truth about plastics. “So many people, they see the recyclable label, and they put it in the recycle bin,” she said. “But the vast majority of plastics are not recycled.” About 48 million tons of plastic waste is generated in the U.S. each year; only 5 to 6 percent of it is actually recycled, according to the Department of Energy. The rest ends up in landfills or is burned. Dell founded a non-profit, The Last Beach Cleanup, to fight plastic pollution. Inside her garage in Southern California is all sorts of plastic with those little arrows on it that make us think they can be recycled. But, she said, “You’re being lied to.” Davis Allen, an investigative researcher with the Center for Climate Integrity, said the industry didn’t need for recycling to work: “They needed people to believe that it was working,” he said. “The plastics industry understands that selling recycling sells plastic, and they’ll say pretty much whatever they need to say to continue doing that. That’s how they make money.”

Thought of the Day

“The most important person is the one you are with in this moment.”—Leo Tolstoy

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Are Americans feeling like they get enough sleep? (AP) If you’re feeling—YAWN—sleepy or tired while you read this and wish you could get some more shut-eye, you’re not alone. A majority of Americans say they would feel better if they could have more sleep, according to a new poll. But in the U.S., the ethos of grinding and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps is ubiquitous, both in the country’s beginnings and our current environment of always-on technology and work hours. And getting enough sleep can seem like a dream. The Gallup poll, released Monday, found 57% of Americans say they would feel better if they could get more sleep, while only 42% say they are getting as much sleep as they need. That’s a first in Gallup polling since 2001; in 2013, when Americans were last asked, it was just about the reverse—56% saying they got the needed sleep and 43% saying they didn’t.

Trump’s New York jury selection a challenge in a city of strong opinions (Reuters) When prospective New York City jurors gather for Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial on Monday, it may be tough to find ones who don’t have an opinion about the brash businessman-turned-politician who began building his real estate empire in Manhattan decades ago. They will be questioned by lawyers for the Republican presidential candidate and the state of New York seeking to uncover biases and possible political agendas before impaneling 12 jurors to hear what could be the only criminal case Trump faces before the November U.S. election. “There is almost nobody in New York who doesn’t have an opinion about Donald Trump,” said trial lawyer Paul Applebaum, who is not involved in the case. “A lot of people think he’s either Satan incarnate or the second coming of Jesus.”

Wolves (Les Echos/France) For the past 30 years, the number of wolves has steadily increased in France — great news for biodiversity but not for farmers. Eradicated from the country around 1930, wolves started returning to France in the early 1990s, arriving from Italy. The number of individuals has almost doubled in the past five years to reach 1,104, according to the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB). Wolf attacks have officially caused the death of just over 12,000 farm animals each year. Behind the issue of cohabitating with wolves lie fractures tearing contemporary European societies apart. A standoff is forming between two words that ignore each other geographically and sociologically and accuse each other of bad faith. Claude Font, general secretary of the National Sheep Federation, says that there are “two worlds that can’t agree with each other”: one, made up of “those who have to live alongside predators”; and the other composed of “those who dream of wolves and biodiversity while they go back home comfortably in the evening."

Far Right’s Ties to Russia Sow Rising Alarm in Germany (NYT) To enter a secret session of Germany’s Parliament, lawmakers must lock their phones and leave them outside. Inside, they are not even allowed to take notes. Yet to many politicians, these precautions against espionage now feel like something of a farce. Because seated alongside them in those classified meetings are members of the Alternative for Germany, the far-right party known by its German abbreviation, AfD. In the past few months alone, a leading AfD politician was accused of taking money from pro-Kremlin strategists. One of the party’s parliamentary aides was exposed as having links to a Russian intelligence operative. And some of its state lawmakers flew to Moscow to observe Russia’s stage-managed elections. “To know with certainty that sitting there, while these sensitive issues are discussed, are lawmakers with proven connections to Moscow—it doesn’t just make me uncomfortable. It worries me,” said Erhard Grundl, a Green party member of the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. The AfD called such comments “baseless.”

Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries deepen tensions with U.S. (Washington Post) When Vice President Harris met privately with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in February, she told the Ukrainian leader something he didn’t want to hear: Refrain from attacking Russian oil refineries, a tactic U.S. officials believed would raise global energy prices and invite more aggressive Russian retaliation inside Ukraine. The request, according to officials familiar with the matter, irritated Zelensky and his top aides, who view Kyiv’s string of drone strikes on Russian energy facilities as a rare bright spot in a grinding war with a bigger and better equipped foe. Zelensky brushed off the recommendation. Instead of acquiescing to the U.S. requests, Ukraine doubled down on the strategy, striking a range of Russian facilities, including an April 2 attack on Russia’s third-largest refinery 800 miles from the front. The incidents have exacerbated tensions in a strained relationship with the U.S. The long-range Ukrainian strikes, which have hit more than a dozen refineries since January and disrupted at least 10 percent of Russian oil refinery capacity, come as President Biden ramps up his reelection campaign and global oil prices reach a six-month high.

In Modi’s India, opponents and journalists feel the squeeze ahead of election (AP) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are increasingly wielding strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents and critics of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party ahead of the nationwide elections that begin this week. A decade into power, and on the cusp of securing five more years, the Modi government is reversing India’s decadeslong commitment to multiparty democracy and secularism. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has brought corruption charges against many officials from its main rival, the Congress Party, but few convictions. Dozens of politicians from other opposition parties are under investigation or in jail. And just last month, Modi’s government froze the Congress party’s bank accounts for what it said was non-payment of taxes. Peaceful protests have been crushed with force. A once free and diverse press is threatened. Violence is on the rise against the Muslim minority. And the country’s judiciary increasingly aligns with the executive branch.

A new equation (Washington Post) With its first-ever direct military attack on Israel, Iran crossed old red lines and created a precedent in its decades-long shadow war with the Jewish state. Iran “decided to create a new equation,” said the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, in an interview with state-run television Sunday. “From now on, if Israel attacks Iranian interests, figures and citizens anywhere, we will retaliate from Iran.” As a show of force, the attack was unprecedented in scope, but analysts said it was also carefully choreographed—giving Israel and its allies time to prepare, and providing the Israeli government a possible off-ramp amid fears of a widening war. The assault was designed with the knowledge that Israel’s “multi-layer systems would prevent most of the weapons from reaching a target,” said Sima Shine, head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “That outcome made space for Netanyahu and senior leaders to strike a more measured tone than they could if one of the missiles had taken out an apartment building or barracks.”       Tehran has consistently signaled it has no desire for a head-on conflict. However, after an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic compound in Damascus killed two Iranian generals this month, the country felt compelled to respond. Over the past few months, Israel has stepped up its strikes on Iranian interests across the region. The attack in Damascus was especially provocative because of its target—a diplomatic compound, traditionally exempted from hostilities—and because it killed two senior generals in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. There was a sense that “Iran’s passivity had encouraged Israel to push the envelope too far,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director for the International Crisis Group. Vaez said Iran’s rulers were under increasing pressure to respond to Israel directly.

Iran attack on Israel adds to airline troubles in Middle East (Reuters) Global airlines faced disruptions to flights on Monday after Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel further narrowed options for planes navigating between Europe and Asia. Iran’s attack on Israel by more than 300 missiles and drones, which were mostly shot down by Israel’s U.S.-backed missile defence system, caused chaos in the aviation industry. At least a dozen airlines have had to cancel or reroute flights over the last two days, including Qantas, Germany’s Lufthansa, United Airlines and Air India. This was the biggest single disruption to air travel since the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, according to Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP, which monitors airspace and airports.

Gazans trying to return to their homes in the north say Israeli troops fired on them. (NYT) As thousands of displaced Palestinians tried to return to their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday, Israeli troops fired at the crowd, forcing people to turn back in panic, according to an emergency worker and two people who tried to make the journey. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that five people were killed and 23 wounded by Israeli gunfire and artillery in the incident on Al-Rashid Street south of Gaza City as a crowd of Gazans headed north to their homes. For months, the Israeli military has barred Palestinians who have been displaced by the war in Gaza from returning to their homes in northern Gaza. It has become a sticking point in negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Sudan marks grim anniversary of civil war in shadow of other conflicts (Washington Post) Exactly a year ago, Sudan’s ruinous collapse began. Tensions between two powerful rival factions that had already carved out fiefdoms in the country—the Sudanese Armed Forces, headed by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—exploded into open war. Airstrikes hit civilian centers; militiamen and vigilantes set up checkpoints and looted neighborhoods. The capital, Khartoum, transformed into a sprawling battlefield. The conflict flared elsewhere in the African nation of close to 50 million people, including the already war-ravaged region of Darfur. Twelve months on, the humanitarian situation in Sudan is astonishingly grim. The country is the site of the world’s largest displacement crisis, with more than a fifth of its population forced out of their homes by the civil war, as well as earlier rounds of conflict. Nearly a third of the population is acutely food insecure, according to U.N. data. Some 19 million children are out of school; an estimated 3 million Sudanese children are malnourished. Yet the wars in Ukraine and Gaza—exacerbated furthermore by the recent escalation between Israel and Iran—have put Sudan’s tragedy in the shade.

Russian soldiers arrive in Niger as relationship with U.S. deteriorates (Washington Post) Russian military personnel arrived in Niger this week, according to Nigerien state television, less than one month after the military junta announced that it was ending military agreements with the United States. The arrival of the Russian men in military fatigues marked the first concrete step in a new security arrangement between Russia and Niger. State television identified them as “Russian military instructors,” and said they would be providing training and equipment to the Nigerien military.

Thought of the Day

“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”—Willa Cather

Monday, April 15, 2024

As Trial Looms, Trump Plays to a Jury of Millions (NYT) The first criminal trial of Donald J. Trump will begin on Monday, and the 45th president thinks he can win—no matter what the jury decides. Mr. Trump will aim to spin any outcome to his benefit and, if convicted, to become the first felon to win the White House. Manhattan prosecutors, who have accused Mr. Trump of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal, hold advantages that include a list of insider witnesses and a jury pool drawn from one of the country’s most liberal counties. Mr. Trump and some aides and lawyers privately concede that a jury is unlikely to outright acquit him, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. So Mr. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, is seeking to write his own reality, telling a story that he believes could pave his return to the White House. He has framed his failed efforts to delay the case as evidence he cannot receive a fair trial, casting himself as a political martyr under attack from the prosecution and the judge.

Far fewer young Americans now want to study in China (AP) Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he sees interest among fellow scholars wane even after China reopened. Common concerns, he said, include restrictions on academic freedom and the risk of being stranded in China. These days, only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of close to 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at U.S. schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see as diminishing economic opportunities and strained relations between Washington and Beijing.

In a Global Cycling Capital, Riders Fear Becoming Crime Victims (NYT) Bicycles are an essential part of the Colombian identity—ubiquitous, cheaper and, in some urban communities, often a faster way to get around. No Colombian city embodies riding on two wheels more than the capital, Bogotá, where the metropolitan area of nearly 11 million inhabitants has no subway system and some of the world’s worst traffic jams. The city has over 1.1 million bicycles, according to officials, and records nearly 900,000 bicycle trips per day. On Sundays and holidays, more than 80 miles of major streets are shut down, a tradition that regularly draws two million people at a time. But a number of robberies and assaults of cyclists this year have left many riders in Bogotá on edge. A recent news report estimated that a bicycle was stolen in the capital every 42 minutes and small gangs of thieves have targeted cyclists. “The insecurity for cyclists is at a maximum high,” said Yim Ángel, a founder of the Bicycle Collective, an advocacy group. “We’re scared.”

‘We’re like Noah’s ark’ says animal shelter in flooded Russian city (Reuters) The roaring sound of water pumps filled the deserted streets of the flood-stricken Russian city of Orenburg on Friday as people heeded official warnings to escape. The city of 550,000, about 1,200 km (750 miles) east of Moscow, is grappling with a historic deluge after Europe’s third-longest river, the Ural, burst its banks. Swiftly melting snow has already forced more than 120,000 people to evacuate in Russia’s Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan. It is the worst flooding seen in the areas in nearly a century. The Ural River, which cuts through Orenburg, rose to 11.43 metres (37.5 ft) on Friday, up from 10.87 metres (35.5 ft) a day earlier. Drone footage showed much of the city has turned into a vast lake, dotted with the roofs of houses—at least 12,000 of which have been flooded—peeking up above the brown water. A local animal shelter found itself hosting over 350 animals, a mix of strays and family pets dropped off by owners fleeing for dry ground. “We’re like Noah’s Ark,” shelter director Yulia Babenko told Reuters, rows of animal cages holding cats behind her.

Drones are crowding Ukraine’s skies, largely paralyzing battlefield (Washington Post) So many drones patrol the skies over Ukraine’s front lines—hunting for any signs of movement—that Ukrainian and Russian troops have little ability to move on the battlefield without being spotted, and blown up. Instead, on missions, they rush from one foxhole to another, hoping the pilots manning the enemy drones overhead are not skilled enough to find them inside. Expert drone operators, their abilities honed on the front, can stalk just a single foot soldier to their death, diving after them into hideouts and trenches.

China Had a ‘Special Place’ in Modi’s Heart. Now It’s a Thorn in His Side. (NYT) Narendra Modi once looked up to China. As a business-friendly Indian state leader, he traveled there repeatedly to attract investment and see how his country could learn from its neighbor’s economic transformation. China, he said, has a “special place in my heart.” Chinese officials cheered on his march to national power as that of “a political star.” But not long after Mr. Modi became prime minister in 2014, China made clear that the relationship would not be so easy. Just as he was celebrating his 63rd birthday by hosting China’s leader, Xi Jinping—even sitting on a swing with him at a riverside park—hundreds of Chinese troops were intruding on India’s territory in the Himalayas, igniting a weekslong standoff. A decade later, ties between the world’s two most populous nations are almost completely broken. Continued border incursions flared into a ferocious clash in 2020 that threatened to lead to all-out war. Mr. Modi, a strongman who controls every lever of power in India and has expanded its relations with many other countries, appears uncharacteristically powerless in the face of the rupture with China.

Water guns are in full blast to mark Thai New Year (AP) It’s water festival time in Thailand where many are marking the country’s traditional New Year, splashing each other with colorful water guns and buckets in an often raucous celebration that draws thousands of people, even as this year the Southeast Asian nation marks record-high temperatures causing concern. The festival, known as Songkran in Thailand, is a three-day shindig that starts Saturday and informally extends for a whole week, allowing people to travel for family celebrations. The holiday is also celebrated under different names in neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which like Thailand have populations that are predominantly Theravada Buddhist. Songkran is immensely popular—predicted this year to attract more than 500,000 foreign tourists and generate more than 24 billion baht ($655 million) in revenue, according to the state tourism agency. Past Thai governments have been reluctant to call for dialing down the fun even during crises such as droughts and the pandemic.

Israel Conflict Spreads To 16 Nations (The Intercept) The regional war in the Middle East now involves at least 16 different countries and includes the first strikes from Iranian territory on Israel, but the United States continues to insist that there is no broader war, hiding the extent of American military involvement. And yet in response to Iran’s drone and missile attacks Saturday, the U.S. flew aircraft and launched air defense missiles from at least eight countries, while Iran and its proxies fired weapons from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The news media has been complicit in its portrayal of the regional war as nonexistent. “Biden Seeks to Head Off Escalation After Israel’s Successful Defense,” the New York Times blared, ignoring that the conflict had already spread. While the world has been focused on—and the Pentagon has been stressing—the comings and goings of aircraft carriers and fighter jets to serve as a “deterrent” against Iran, the U.S. has quietly built a network of air defenses to fight its regional war. “At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.” As part of that network, Army long-range Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense surface-to-air missile batteries have been deployed in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and at the secretive Site 512 base in Israel. These assets—plus American aircraft based in Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia—are knitted together in order to communicate and cooperate with each other to provide a dome over Israel (and its own regional bases). The United Kingdom is also intimately tied into the regional war network.

With French under fire, Mali uses AI to bring local language to students (Washington Post) As Mali’s relationship with French—the language of its former colonial ruler, France—has grown more fraught, an effort to use AI to create children’s books in Bambara and other local languages is gaining momentum. With political tensions high between the two countries, Mali’s military government last year replaced French as the country’s “official” language, instead elevating Bambara and 12 other native languages, though French will still be used in government settings and public schools. The vast majority of Africa’s roughly 1,000 languages are not represented on websites, which big generative AI platforms like ChatGPT crawl to help train themselves. But RobotsMali, a start-up, has used artificial intelligence to create more than 140 books in Bambara since last year, said an official in Mali’s Education Ministry.

Breaking from routine with a mini sabbatical (AP) If you daydream about getting a break from stress, you might picture a restful week of vacation or a long weekend away. But some people opt for something bigger, finding ways to take longer or more varied time away from the routine. Mini sabbaticals. Adult gap years. Or just gap months. The extended breaks range from quitting a job to taking a leave to just working remotely somewhere new to experience a different lifestyle. It’s about stepping out of the expected and recharging. That’s not entirely new, of course, but the pandemic’s upheaval of work life caused more people to question whether they really wanted to work the way they had. Barry Kluczyk, a public relations professional who lives in suburban Detroit, had long wanted to spend more time in Seattle. But it wasn’t until COVID pushed him to fully remote work that he felt able to spend a month there, along with his wife and daughter. “I wish we could have done it sooner,” he said.

Thought of the Day

“Anytime you stop striving to get better, you’re bound to get worse.”—Pat Riley

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Canada at risk of another catastrophic wildfire season, government warns (CBS News) Canadian officials on Wednesday warned the country could face another catastrophic wildfire season after last year’s historic fires. There were warmer-than-normal temperatures and widespread drought conditions across Canada this winter, officials disclosed. Weather outlooks indicate that Canada can expect higher-than-normal temperatures this spring and summer as well, setting the stage for wildfires. “With the heat and dryness across the country, we can expect that the wildfire season will start sooner and end later, and potentially be more explosive,” Canada Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan said at a press conference. Canada’s wildfire season typically runs from May through October. The country is home to about 9% of the world’s forests.

Suicide on the rise for young Americans (BBC) Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 35, and it’s on a steady rise across generations. In 2000, 30,000 people died of suicide. In 2022, 50,000 did. My colleague Will Vernon visited North Carolina State University in Raleigh, which experienced 10 student suicides over the past two academic years. NC State has invested in counselling and is helping students to recognise signs of mental struggle among their classmates. “But there may be no warning signs”, said assistant vice-chancellor Justine Hollingshead. “Individuals don’t tell their family or friends, they don’t reach out to resources and they make that decision.” It’s also hard to tell exactly what’s behind that overarching trend. There are, however, many hypotheses. The Covid pandemic harmed “young people in terms of acquiring the social skills and tools that they need,” said Dr Christine Crawford, a psychiatrist. Josue Melendez, a suicide helpline operator, said many of his younger callers mentioned financial pressures as well.

Many say Biden and Trump did more harm than good, but for different reasons, AP-NORC poll shows (AP) There’s a reason why President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are spending so much time attacking each other—people don’t think either man has much to brag about when it comes to his own record. Americans generally think that while they were in the White House, both did more harm than good on key issues. But the two candidates have different weak spots. For Biden, it’s widespread unhappiness on two issues: the economy and immigration. Trump, meanwhile, faces an electorate where substantial shares think he harmed the country on a range of issues. A new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that more than half of U.S. adults think Biden’s presidency has hurt the country on cost of living and immigration, while nearly half think Trump’s presidency hurt the country on voting rights and election security, relations with foreign countries, abortion laws and climate change.

Russia Kazakhstan floods: High water levels swamp Orenburg houses (BBC) Floods in the Russian city of Orenburg have raised water levels to two metres above critical, leaving just the roofs of some houses showing. Levels in Orenburg are likely to peak on Friday, but floods are expected to spread through neighbouring regions over the coming days and weeks. Kazakhstan has also been badly affected, with 100,000 people evacuated from their homes in the last week. The flooding is being described as the worst to hit the region in 80 years. Last week, several rivers—including the Ural, Europe’s third-largest—burst their banks.

War or No War, Ukrainians Aren’t Giving Up Their Coffee (NYT) When Russian tanks first rolled into Ukraine more than two years ago, Artem Vradii was sure his business was bound to suffer. “Who would think about coffee in this situation?” thought Mr. Vradii, the co-founder of a Kyiv coffee roastery named Mad Heads. But over the next few days after the invasion began, he started receiving messages from Ukrainian soldiers. One asked for bags of ground coffee because he could not stand the energy drinks supplied by the army. Another simply requested beans: He had taken his own grinder to the front. The soldiers’ requests are just one facet of a little-known cornerstone of the Ukrainian lifestyle today: its vibrant coffee culture. Over the past decade, coffee shops have proliferated across Ukraine, in cities large and small. That is particularly true in Kyiv, the capital, where small coffee kiosks staffed by trained baristas serving tasty mochas for less than $2 have become a fixture of the streetscape.

174 people stranded in the air are rescued, almost a day after a fatal cable car accident in Turkey (AP) The last of 174 people stranded in cable cars high above a mountain in southern Turkey were brought to safety Saturday, nearly 23 hours after one pod hit a pole and burst open, killing one person and injuring seven when they plummeted to the rocks below. A total of 607 search and rescue personnel and 10 helicopters were involved, including teams from Turkey’s emergency response agency, AFAD, the Coast Guard, firefighting teams and mountain rescue teams from different parts of Turkey, officials said. Helicopters with night-vision capabilities had continued rescuing people throughout the night.

Christians Concerned by Rising Religious Nationalism in Nepal (Christianity Today) More than 15 years after Nepal officially became a secular democracy, the former Hindu monarchy may have a religious extremism problem, incited and aggravated by its closest neighbor. In an “alarming” development, Indian Hindutva ideology and politics have begun to spread throughout the country, as local experts and journalists report. This proliferation has resulted in a recent spate of attacks and restrictions on Christians reported within the country of 30 million. “The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in Nepal is rapidly growing. Aiming to protect Hinduism, they degrade Christianity and badmouth us through social media and other sources,” said Kiran Thapa, who was arrested last month for praying for people in Kathmandu.

Myanmar Rebels Take Key Trading Town, but Counteroffensive Looms (NYT) Resistance forces seeking to oust Myanmar’s military regime captured a key trade town on the Thai border this week, one of their most significant gains since the junta seized power in a coup more than three years ago. But thousands of residents were fleeing on Friday as the regime’s troops prepared to mount a counteroffensive. The town, Myawaddy, which is now held by rebels belonging to the Karen ethnic group, is a hub for imports and exports, with $1 billion in trade last year. Its fall comes as resistance forces have seized dozens of towns and military outposts in recent months in border regions near China and Bangladesh. Rebel groups have also launched drones that hit the capital, Naypyidaw, and military bases when top junta generals were visiting. “A major border trade hub that serves as Myanmar’s gateway to mainland Southeast Asia has fallen to the resistance,” said Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with the Jane’s group of military publications. “This is huge.”

First European citizen jailed under HK security law (BBC) Joseph John, who holds a Hong Kong residency and is also known as Wong Kin-chung, was sentenced to five years in jail for “incitement to secession” after posting pro-independence and anti-China content on social media. Since its enactment in 2020, the controversial China-imposed National Security Law in Hong Kong has seen 174 people charged with national security crimes.

Stabbing in Sydney shopping center (AP) A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said. The suspect stabbed nine people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs, before a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. Six of the victims and the suspect died, he said.

Israel hails 'success' in blocking Iran's unprecedented attack (AP) Israel on Sunday hailed its successful air defenses in the face of an unprecedented attack by Iran, saying it and its allies thwarted 99% of the more than 300 drones and missiles launched toward its territory. But regional tensions remain high, amid fears of further escalation in the event of a possible Israeli counter-strike. U.S. President Joe Biden said he would convene a meeting of the Group of Seven advanced democracies on Sunday “to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack.” The language indicated that the Biden administration does not want Iran’s assault to spiral into a broader military conflict. Iran launched the attack in response to a strike widely blamed on Israel on an Iranian consular building in Syria earlier this month which killed two Iranian generals. Israel said Iran launched 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles early Sunday. The two foes have for years been engaged in a shadow war marked by incidents like the Damascus strike. But Sunday’s assault, which set off air raid sirens across Israel, was the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity.

West Bank sees some of its worst violence since war in Gaza began (AP) The Israeli-occupied West Bank saw some of its worst violence Saturday since the war in nearby Gaza began, as Israel’s army said the body of a missing Israeli teen was found after he was killed in a “terrorist attack” and witnesses said Israeli settlers attacked a number of communities. The Israeli military said dozens of people, Palestinians and Israelis, were injured in confrontations in several locations Saturday, with shots fired and rocks thrown. The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Palestinian Jehad Abu Alia was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on al-Mughayyir village, Palestinian health officials said. Dozens of Israeli settlers returned to the village’s outskirts on Saturday, burning 12 homes and several cars. In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to around 15 homes and 10 farms, the head of the local village council, Slieman Dawabsheh, told The Associated Press, saying he had been there. “The army came but unfortunately, the army were protecting the settlers,” he said, asserting that it fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians trying to confront and expel them.

A Crumbling Metro Reveals Failed Promise of China’s Billions in Africa (Bloomberg) Almost a decade ago, the light-rail system in Ethiopia’s bustling capital of Addis Ababa was hailed as a revolutionary solution to the city’s transportation woes. Envisioned as a project that would redefine urban transport, the system promised to sweep up to 60,000 passengers per hour along its tracks. Today it sits as a daily reminder of the broken promises of China-funded infrastructure investments that swept Africa in recent years. Frequent breakdowns, inadequate maintenance funding and operational constraints mean barely one-third of its 41 trains are operational, ferrying 55,000 passengers a day, a fraction of initial projections.

Trash Your Anger: Study Shows Discarding Written Rage Cools Tempers (Guardian) A study from the University of Nagoya shows that writing and discarding angry thoughts can alleviate feelings of anger. During the experiment by Nobuyuki Kawai, participants noted a decrease in anger after throwing away their written negative feedback. Keeping the written thoughts, in contrast, did not result in a reduction of anger, highlighting the importance of discarding them. Historical and contemporary anecdotes support the study’s findings, suggesting the act of destroying written anger can serve as a coping strategy. The findings, offering a simple anger management technique, were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Thought of the Day

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”—Jesus, Mark 8:36

Saturday, April 13, 2024

More than half of foreign-born people in US live in just 4 states and half are naturalized citizens (AP) More than half of the foreign-born population in the United States lives in just four states—California, Texas, Florida and New York—and their numbers grew older and more educated over the past dozen years, according to a new report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2022, the foreign-born population was estimated to be 46.2 million people, or almost 14% of the U.S. population. In California, New Jersey, New York and Florida, foreign-born individuals comprised more than 20% of each state’s population. They constituted 1.8% of West Virginia’s population, the smallest rate in the U.S. Half of the foreign-born residents in the U.S. were from Latin America, although their composition has shifted in the past dozen years, with those from Mexico dropping by about 1 million people and those from South America and Central America increasing by 2.1 million people.

One of the world’s highest cities starts rationing water for 9 million people (CNN) There’s a new meme being shared widely this week across social media accounts in Colombia’s capital Bogotá, as the city grapples with a water crisis. It’s an image of C. Montgomery Burns, the supervillain from the animated series “The Simpsons,” showing up at the door with a bunch of red roses and a heart-shaped chocolate box. Smiling, he says: “I saw your turn of water rationing is different from mine.” The meme reflects a sense of dark humor among some Bogotànos following the city authority’s announcement Monday that residents would have to ration water as drought, fueled by El Niño, pushes reservoirs toward record lows. The rationing came into effect Thursday morning. Bogotá and dozens of surrounding towns have been divided into nine different zones with domestic running water cut off for 24 hours in each zone on a rotation that will reset every 10 days. The measures will affect approximately 9 million people.

EU, Britain and Spain to hold more talks on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar (AP) British and Spanish foreign ministers will meet Friday with a top European Commission official for another round of negotiations over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain’s exit from the European Union. Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Talks on a deal to ensure people and goods can keep flowing over the Gibraltar-Spain border have made halting progress during 18 rounds of negotiations. In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain’s southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants. Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock, as it is popularly referred to in English, have had their ups and down over the centuries.

Furious European farmers (Washington Post) The farmers standing with their arms crossed outside a sheep barn in rural Brittany were absolutely furious. For a visiting centrist politician, that made for an earful. For Europe’s far right, it has provided an opening. In recent months, angry agricultural workers have rolled their tractors into Paris and other cities across Europe, blocking roads, spraying manure and setting things on fire. Farmers are mad about high costs and low prices, about the prospect of free trade deals, about the constraints of climate regulations, about what they say is a failure of political elites to understand what it means to grow wheat or raise sheep. Their revolt is reshaping European policy—officials who previously promised to put the environment first and lead the world in a green transition have scrambled to walk back some of their own rules. And the farmer uprising may foretell a sharp right shift. The European far right is skillfully seizing the moment, promising an agricultural overhaul and a chance to stick it to the city slickers.

Ukrainian amputees returning to the front to resist Russian advance (Reuters) Ukrainian commander Odin’s lower leg was blown off in a mine explosion last year. Now he’s back in the trenches. Mango, a 28-year-old tank gunner, saw his hand shredded by shrapnel two years ago during fighting in Mariupol before he was captured by the Russians. He too has returned to the front, as logistics chief for a battalion in the Azov Brigade, which held out for months in defence of the southern city. The two soldiers are among thousands of Ukrainian troops who have lost limbs since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in early 2022. While the Kyiv government declined to share data on casualties, which it deems sensitive, Pryncyp, a leading human rights organisation representing military personnel, put the number of amputees from the war at between 20,000 and 50,000. Reuters interviewed 20 military amputees for this article, seven of whom had returned to the army or intended to do so. For many of those able to do so, the desire to support their beleaguered comrades on the battlefield remains strong.

Millions in Myanmar face economic ‘free fall’ due to war, U.N. finds (Washington Post) The civil war now engulfing Myanmar is driving the population into an acute economic crisis, with the middle class shrinking dramatically and poverty spreading widely, according to a report issued Thursday by the United Nations Development Program. U.N. researchers found that the middle class is now half the size it was three years ago and, faced with rising inflation, households are being forced to slash spending on food. Nearly half the population lives under the national poverty line of 76 cents a day. “This was a country that was on a very positive trajectory,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said in an interview from New York. Now, Myanmar’s economy is “imploding” and there are no indications this will stop without intervention, he added.

Japan draws closer to the U.S. (Washington Post) In a landmark address to Congress, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hailed the United States as an “indispensable” nation. And he voiced sympathy for Americans “who feel the loneliness and exhaustion of being the country that has upheld the international order almost single-handedly” over the past decades. But, Kishida stressed, Japan was ready to share the United States’ burden, and he signaled throughout how Japan was shaking off decades of official pacifism in favor of a more robust security role in Asia. The United States and Japan hammered out dozens of new agreements on defense cooperation. The countries’ militaries will forge a new joint command structure that will better enable them to counter the putative threat posed by China, especially to the self-ruling island of Taiwan. And they will, together with Australia, develop a new Pacific-based air missile defense network. “This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established,” said Biden following meetings at the White House on Wednesday.

20 years later, Abu Ghraib detainees get their day in US court (AP) Twenty years ago this month, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were released, shocking the world. Now, three survivors of Abu Ghraib will finally get their day in U.S. court against the military contractor they hold responsible for their mistreatment. The trial will be the first time that Abu Ghraib survivors are able to bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury, said Baher Azmy, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs. The defendant in the civil suit, CACI, supplied the interrogators who worked at the prison. The plaintiffs seek to hold CACI responsible for setting the conditions that resulted in the torture they endured. There is little dispute that the abuse was horrific. The photos released in 2004 showed naked prisoners stacked into pyramids or dragged by leashes. Some photos had a soldier smiling and giving a thumbs up while posing next to a corpse, or detainees being threatened with dogs, or hooded and attached to electrical wires.

U.S. Sends a Top General to Israel Amid Fears of Iranian Strikes (NYT) The United States dispatched its top military commander for the Middle East to Israel on Thursday, after President Biden stated that, despite recent friction, American support for Israel “is ironclad” in the event of an attack by Iran. Iran’s leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for an April 1 strike in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders. Israel has put its military on alert, and Mr. Biden said on Wednesday that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the American commander, will coordinate with Israel on what is widely expected to be imminent retaliatory action by Iran.

Crutches and chocolate croissants: Gaza aid items Israel has rejected (Washington Post) Israel is under growing pressure to ramp up aid to Gaza. In recent days, Israeli authorities say, they have increased the number of food and aid trucks entering the enclave. But relief workers say aid access remains as complicated as ever. In the six months since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have denied or restricted access to items ranging from lifesaving medical supplies to toys to chocolate croissants. Here are some items aid groups said Israeli authorities have blocked from entering Gaza at least once since Oct. 7: anesthetics, animal feed, chocolate croissants, nail clippers, sleeping bags with zippers, stone fruits, surgical tools, toys in wooden boxes, ultrasound equipment, ventilators, water filters and pumps. “I think it’s unprecedented,” Shaina Low, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Palestinian territories, said of the Israeli restrictions. “It’s just nothing that aid agencies have ever had to deal with.”

Sudan’s war began a year ago. Children are among its most fragile survivors (AP) The war in Sudan began a year ago. Here in a remote camp for tens of thousands of people who have fled into neighboring Chad, the anniversary is marked by near starvation. Assadig Abubaker Salih is a 42-year old mother of six. The family survived the hot, dusty journey from their home to this sprawling camp of wind-whipped blue tents stretching in rows toward the horizon. “We are in a very bad situation. We have suffered since we left our country. My husband died,” she said. “There is nothing here. We need the essentials. We don’t even have sugar.” Close to 9 million people have fled their homes, according to the United Nations, and more than 1 million have left the country. Thousands have been killed in a conflict overshadowed by the ones in Gaza and Ukraine. The U.N. says it has asked for $2.7 billion in funding to respond to humanitarian needs but has received $155 million—or 6%. An estimated 3 million Sudanese children are malnourished. About 19 million children are out of school. A quarter of Sudan’s hospitals are no longer functioning.

Some Americans are getting second passports, citing risk of instability (CNBC) Wealthy U.S. families are increasingly applying for second citizenships and national residences as a way to hedge their financial risk, according to a leading law firm. The wealthy are building these “passport portfolios”—collections of second, and even third or fourth, citizenships—in case they need to flee their home country. Henley & Partners, a law firm that specializes in high-net-worth citizenships, said Americans now outnumber every other nationality when it comes to securing alternative residences or added citizenships. According to Henley, the top destinations for supplemental passports among Americans are Portugal, Malta, Greece and Italy. An alternative passport makes travel easier for Americans venturing to parts of the world that are less friendly to the U.S. “For American, British, and Israeli citizens suddenly unsure of their welcome abroad, supplementary passports provide vital flexibility,” according to a Henley report. “With rising global instability, holding citizenship in another country, particularly one that is considered more neutral or politically benign, now provides a valuable back-up or alternative option.

Thought of the Day

“The virtue of man ought to be measured, not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his everyday conduct.”—Blaise Pascal

Friday, April 12, 2024

Study finds voters skeptical about fairness of elections. Many favor a strong, undemocratic leader (AP) Voters in 19 countries, including in three of the world’s largest democracies, are widely skeptical about whether their political elections are free and fair, and many favor a strong, undemocratic leader, according to a study released Thursday. The report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA, concluded that “democratic institutions are falling short of people’s expectations.” The 35-member organization promotes democracy worldwide. In 17 countries, fewer than half of the people are satisfied with their governments, International IDEA found. The survey included three of the largest democracies—Brazil, India and the United States. In eight countries, “more people have favorable views of ‘a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with parliament or elections,’” the institute said, adding that India and Tanzania stand out as countries “with relatively high levels of support for a ‘strong leader.’”

China allegedly interfered with Canada’s elections (Washington Post) The conclusions in the top-secret intelligence briefing were stark: China “clandestinely and deceptively” interfered in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 federal elections, seeking to support candidates favorable to Beijing’s strategic interests. The activity was aimed at discouraging Canadians, particularly Chinese Canadians, from voting for the Conservative Party, which it viewed as having an anti-Beijing platform, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service reported in the February 2023 briefing. China got the outcome it wanted in 2021—the reelection of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a minority government—but intelligence and national security officials have said there is no evidence that Beijing’s efforts had an impact on the result of either of the last two federal elections. CSIS prepared the document for the prime minister’s office after Canadian news outlets reported last year on allegations China sought to interfere in the elections. Now those claims are at the center of a public inquiry in Ottawa.

San Francisco MTA (Ars Technica) The very cradle of technological innovation in the United States, the San Francisco Bay Area that encompasses Silicon Valley, runs on floppy disks, and will continue to do so for quite some time (until 2029 or 2030). The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority runs on 5.25-inch floppy disks, which a few decades ago was deeply impressive and made it the bleeding edge of transportation software management in the world. Now it just makes it a bit of a dinosaur.

Higher gas and rents keep US inflation elevated, likely delaying Fed rate cuts (AP) Consumer inflation remained persistently high last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items, the government said Wednesday in a report that will likely give pause to the Federal Reserve as it considers how often—or even whether—to cut interest rates this year. Prices outside the volatile food and energy categories rose 0.4% from February to March, the same accelerated pace as in the previous month. Measured from a year earlier, these core prices are up 3.8%, unchanged from the year-over-year rise in February. The March figures, the third straight month of inflation readings well above the Fed’s 2% target, provide concerning evidence that inflation is stuck at an elevated level.

Desperate young Guatemalans try to reach the US even after horrific deaths of migrating relatives (AP) Every night for nearly two years, Glendy Aracely Ramírez has prayed by the altar in her parents’ mud-brick bedroom where, under a large crucifix, is a picture of her sister Blanca. The 23-year-old died alongside 50 other migrants in a smuggler’s tractor-trailer in Texas. “I ask God for my family’s health and that I might get to the United States one day. My mom asks God that she won’t have to see another accident,” said Glendy, 17, who has already packed a small backpack for her own journey from the family’s home 8,900 feet (2,700 meters) up in Guatemala’s highlands. Tens of thousands of youths from this region would rather take deadly risks—even repeatedly—than stay behind where they see no future. Blanca’s fatal journey was her third attempt to reach the U.S.

American Drones Failed to Turn the Tide in Ukraine (WSJ) The Silicon Valley company Skydio sent hundreds of its best drones to Ukraine to help fight the Russians. Things didn’t go well. Skydio’s drones flew off course and were lost, victims of Russia’s electronic warfare. The company has since gone back to the drawing board to build a new fleet. Most small drones from U.S. startups have failed to perform in combat, dashing companies’ hopes that a badge of being battle-tested would bring the startups sales and attention. It is also bad news for the Pentagon, which needs a reliable supply of thousands of small, unmanned aircraft. Made-in-America drones tend to be expensive, glitchy and hard to repair, said drone company executives, Ukrainians on the front lines, Ukrainian government officials and former U.S. defense officials. Absent solutions from the West, Ukraine has turned to cheaper Chinese products to fill its drone arsenal.

Kyiv’s conscription efforts (Foreign Policy) Ukraine passed a mobilization law on Thursday to replenish the nation’s troops. It requires all draft-eligible men to carry documents that show they are registered with the military. To try to prevent public backlash, the policy offers financial incentives for soldiers, including a bonus for front-line troops and death benefits for victims’ families, as well as new penalties on men who try to evade enlistment. The law’s timing aims to provide a reprieve for some of Ukraine’s exhausted and depleted troops as Russia continues its attacks.

The losing battle against Greece’s tumbling birthrate (Reuters) Army sergeant Christos Giannakidis was planning to have a second child when Greece’s debt crisis exploded last decade, straining his finances and erasing hope of extending the family. One son is expensive enough, he says. Most afternoons he drives 13-year-old Nicholas 50 km (31 miles) to play soccer with the few other children scattered across the region. If Nicholas needs a paediatrician, it is even further. As much of Europe struggles with tumbling birthrates that experts say threaten long-term economic wellbeing, Greece is a stark example of how hard it will be to reverse the trend. In 2022, it recorded the lowest number of births in 92 years, according to most recent data, driven by the debt crisis that led to years of austerity, emigration, and changed attitudes among the young. Preliminary unofficial data indicate another drop in 2023. Greece’s fertility rate is one of the lowest in Europe: some villages have not recorded a single birth in years.

Nuclear deal in tatters, Iran edges close to weapons capability (Washington Post) For the past 15 years, the most important clues about Iran’s nuclear program have lain deep underground, in a factory built inside a mountain on the edge of Iran’s Great Salt Desert. The facility, known as Fordow, is the heavily protected inner sanctum of Iran’s nuclear complex and a frequent destination for international inspectors whose visits are meant to ensure against any secret effort by Iran to make nuclear bombs. The inspectors’ latest trek, in February, yielded the usual matrices of readings and measurements, couched in the clinical language of a U.N. nuclear watchdog report. But within the document’s dry prose were indications of alarming change. In factory chambers that had ceased making enriched uranium under a 2015 nuclear accord, the inspectors now witnessed frenzied activity: newly installed equipment, producing enriched uranium at ever faster speeds, and an expansion underway that could soon double the plant’s output. More worryingly, Fordow was scaling up production of a more dangerous form of nuclear fuel—a kind of highly enriched uranium, just shy of weapons grade. Iranian officials in charge of the plant, meanwhile, had begun talking openly about achieving “deterrence,” suggesting that Tehran now had everything it needed to build a bomb if it chose.

He Wanted to Serve His Community in Gaza. He Paid With His Life. (NYT) Saifeddin Abutaha, an aid worker for World Central Kitchen, was on his way home to see his mother when an Israeli missile struck the car he was driving in a humanitarian convoy last week. Mr. Abutaha, 25, doted on his parents, and he texted them frequently while out delivering aid across the Gaza Strip, which is on the brink of famine after six months of war. The killing of seven World Central Kitchen employees in the Israeli attack has drawn international outrage, especially from the countries from which six of them hailed: Britain, Poland, Australia, Canada and the United States. Mr. Abutaha, a Palestinian from Gaza, also perished in the attack. His death highlighted the grim fact that most of the more than 200 aid workers who have been killed since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began have been Palestinian, according to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He called last week for an independent investigation into each of their deaths, which have drawn less attention than the killing of foreign aid workers.

Few Signs of Progress on Aid to Gaza After Israeli Pledges (NYT) There has been no apparent work done yet on increasing aid to Gaza by opening an additional border crossing from Israel and accepting shipments at a nearby Israeli port, but Israel said on Wednesday that both changes remain in the works. Facing international condemnation after an Israeli airstrike killed seven workers for an international aid group, Israel said last week that it would reopen the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza for aid delivery. But satellite imagery taken on Tuesday showed that the road leading to Erez on the Gaza side was blocked by rubble from a destroyed building, a crater and other damage that was also visible in images from last week and last month. The United Nations says that a man-made famine is looming in Gaza, and many experts say that conditions in northern Gaza—which has mostly been cut off from aid deliveries since early in the war—already meet the criteria for a famine to be declared there. In that part of the territory, a few hundred thousand people are surviving on an average of 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam, an aid group.

End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity (Guardian) It was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency. Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is expected to reach just a mile and a half by 2030. At least one contractor has begun dismissing workers. The project, which had been slated to cost $1.5tn (£1.2tn), was pitched as a reinvention of urban design. However, it has long attracted scepticism and criticism, not least after the reported execution of several members of the Howeitat tribe who had protested over plans to construct on their ancestral lands. Then there were reports of Prince Mohammed’s changing vision for the project, budget overspends and an ever-changing roster of key staff, with some who have worked on the project describing it as “untethered from reality”.

Thought of the Day

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”—Denis Waitley

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Canada Wants to Regulate Online Content. Critics Say It Goes Too Far. (NYT) Canada has waded into the contentious issue of regulating online content with a sweeping proposal that would force technology companies to restrict and remove harmful material, especially posts involving children, that appears on their platforms. While the intent to better monitor online content has drawn widespread support, the bill has faced intense backlash over its attempt to regulate hate speech. Critics say the proposal crosses the line into censorship.

Michigan school shooter’s parents sentenced to 10 years in prison for not stopping a ‘runaway train’ (AP) The first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison Tuesday as a Michigan judge lamented missed opportunities that could have prevented their teenage son from possessing a gun and killing four students in 2021. “These convictions are not about poor parenting,” Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews said. “These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.” The hearing in a crowded, tense courtroom was the climax of an extraordinary effort to make others besides the 15-year-old attacker criminally responsible for a school shooting.

Biden says Netanyahu’s approach to the war is a mistake (AP) U.S. President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza a mistake and called for his government to flood Gaza with aid, ramping up pressure on Israel to reach a cease-fire and widening a rift between the two staunch allies that has worsened as the war has dragged on. Biden has been an outspoken supporter of Israel’s war against Hamas since the militant group launched a deadly assault on Oct. 7. But in recent weeks his patience with Netanyahu has appeared to be waning and his administration has taken a more stern line with Israel, rattling the countries’ decades-old alliance and deepening Israel’s international isolation over the war.

Medical care and supplies are scarce as gang violence chokes Haiti’s capital (AP) Fresh gunfire erupted Tuesday in downtown Port-au-Prince, forcing aid workers to halt urgently needed care for thousands of Haitians. Weeks of gang violence have forced some 18 hospitals to stop working and caused a shortage of medical supplies as Haiti’s biggest seaport and main international airport remain closed, warned aid workers with The Alliance for International Medical Action, a Senegal-based humanitarian organization. “The situation is really challenging and affects our movement on a daily basis,” said Antoine Maillard, the organization’s medical coordinator based in Port-au-Prince. The gang violence has driven about 17,000 people in the capital from their homes. Many are crammed into abandoned schools and other buildings where they often share a single toilet.

Colombia’s powerful former president set to become first to stand trial (Washington Post) Former president Álvaro Uribe, one of the most powerful leaders in Colombian history, is set to become the country’s first president to face a criminal trial, on charges of procedural fraud and bribery. Uribe, who served as Colombia’s president from 2002 to 2010, was once a wildly popular leader and U.S. ally whose iron-fist approach was credited with helping turn the tide of the longest-running civil conflict in the hemisphere. But for more than a decade, the former president has been enmeshed in a witness-tampering scandal in the country’s judicial system.

Ireland’s Youngest Ever Leader (NYT) Simon Harris was three years into a university degree when he dropped out in 2008. A job had come up as a parliamentary assistant to an Irish senator, and Mr. Harris, an ambitious 20-year-old from a coastal town in County Wicklow, south of Dublin, saw “an opportunity to try and make a difference,” he later told Hot Press, a Dublin-based magazine. He never looked back. On Tuesday afternoon, at 37, he became the Republic of Ireland’s youngest ever head of government, the culmination of a swift political rise to a post he has long aspired to. “He’s always been hungry for this role,” said David Farrell, a professor of politics at University College Dublin, noting that although Mr. Harris was young, he was not lacking in political experience. “His career has been short, but it’s been meteoric.”

Swiss press say ‘absurd’ European climate ruling could harm democracy (Reuters) Influential newspapers in Switzerland on Wednesday criticised a climate change ruling against the Swiss government by Europe’s top human rights court, saying it risked undermining democracy. Tuesday’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favour of over 2,000 Swiss women who said Switzerland had not done enough to combat climate change is expected to embolden more people to bring climate cases against governments. Describing the ruling as “activist jurisprudence” that could pave the way for “all kinds of claims”, the center-right Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper said the elderly plaintiffs were ultimately pawns of environmental lobbies that used the court to circumvent democratic debate.

Tens of thousands evacuated in Russia, Kazakhstan amid worst floods in decades (AFP) Historic floods in Russia and Kazakhstan have forced tens of thousands from their homes. Fast-melting snow and ice has caused rivers that cross the two countries' border regions to surge, leading to the evacuation of more than 100,000 people. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry declared an emergency in the Orenburg region along the border, but citizens are still desperate and “calling for Putin’s help,” local media outlets report.

Ukraine races to fix and shield its power plants after Russian onslaught (Reuters) Russia began a second major assault on Ukraine’s energy system last month, devastating at least eight power plants and several dozen substations. Kyiv says Russia used more than 150 missiles and 240 attack drones in a single week from March 22—cutting off electricity, heating and even running water to 2 million Ukrainians, according to a parliamentary estimate. The intensity of the attacks, which have also targeted solar and hydro-electric power facilities, forced Kyiv to import power and sparked fears about the resilience of an energy system that was hobbled by a Russian air campaign in the war’s first winter. Russia has said the energy system is a legitimate military target and described last month’s attacks as “revenge strikes” to punish Ukraine for attacking Russian border regions.

Russia and China Double Down on Defying U.S. (WSJ) Russia and China have pledged to deepen their growing alliance and shared opposition to what they describe as the U.S.’s attempts to dominate the world order, with Moscow again seeking to boost trade with Beijing as it looks for new ways to bypass the Western sanctions imposed for its war on Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday after the U.S. increased the volume of warnings that China should step back from helping the Russians pursue the war against their smaller neighbor. The meeting, which followed separate talks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also came against a backdrop of a growing tussle for influence in the global south between the West on one hand, and China and Russia and their partners on the other. Lavrov criticized what he called the West’s proclivity for falling in behind Washington, and the U.S.’s attempts to get the rest of the world to follow the same line. “There is no place for dictatorship, hegemony, neocolonial and colonial practices, which are now being applied by the United States and all the rest of the collective West unquestioningly submitting to the will of Washington,” Lavrov said.

China's Xi says nobody can stop ‘family reunion’ with Taiwan (Reuters) Chinese President Xi Jinping told former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday that outside inference could not stop the “family reunion” between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and that there are no issues that cannot be discussed. Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, no serving Taiwanese leader has visited China. Ma, president from 2008 to 2016, last year became the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China, and is now on his second trip to the country, at a time of simmering military tension across the strait. Meeting Ma in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, where foreign leaders normally hold talks with top Chinese officials, Xi said that people on both sides of the strait are Chinese. “External interference cannot stop the historical trend of reunion of the country and family,” Xi said, in comments reported by Taiwanese media.

Ankara’s pressure campaign (Foreign Policy) Turkey restricted exports to Israel on Tuesday, saying Ankara will only lift its curbs on trade once Israel and Hamas secure a cease-fire in Gaza and “the unhindered flow of sufficient humanitarian aid” is allowed to enter the enclave. The announcement impacts 54 product categories, including iron, steel, fertilizer, and aviation fuel. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the decision was made in response to Israel denying Turkey’s request late Monday to airdrop aid into Gaza. Ankara plans to maintain commercial ties with Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately condemned Turkey’s actions, accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “once again sacrificing the economic interests of the people of Turkey for his support of Hamas.” Israel ordered its Foreign Ministry on Tuesday to prepare an “extensive list” of Turkish products to ban, and it said it would ask the United States and other allies to stop investing in Turkey and prevent imports from the country.

Israel threatens to strike Iran directly if Iran launches attack from its territory (AP) Israel’s foreign minister threatened Wednesday that its country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel, as tensions between the rival powers flare following the killings of Iranian generals in a blast at the Iranian consulate in Syria. The remarks came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated early Wednesday a promise to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month. Tehran holds Israel responsible for the strike that leveled the building, killing 12 people. Israel has not acknowledged its involvement, though it has been bracing for an Iranian response to the attack, a significant escalation in their long-running shadow war.

Glasses Improve Income, Not Just Eyesight (NYT) If you’re 50 or older and reading this article, chances are you are wearing a pair of inexpensive reading glasses to correct your presbyopia, the age-related decline in vision that makes it progressively more difficult to see fine print and tiny objects. Eventually, everyone gets the condition. But for nearly a billion people in the developing world, reading glasses are a luxury that many cannot afford. According to the World Health Organization, the lack of access to corrective eyewear inhibits learning among young students, increases the likelihood of traffic accidents and forces millions of middle-age factory workers and farmers to leave the work force too early. Uncorrected presbyopia, not surprisingly, makes it harder for breadwinners to support their families. That’s the conclusion of a new study which found that garment workers, artisans and tailors in Bangladesh who were provided with free reading glasses experienced a 33 percent increase in income compared to those who were not given glasses.

Thought of the Day

“You’ve got to think about ‘big things’ while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”—Alvin Toffler

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

The rich world faces nightmare budget deficits (Economist) A decade ago finance ministries were gripped by austerity fever. Governments were doing all they could to cut budget deficits, even with unemployment high and economic growth weak. Today things are very different. Across the West, governments are spending a lot more than they are taking in. No government is more profligate than America’s. This year the world’s largest economy is projected to run a budget deficit (where spending exceeds taxation) of more than 7% of GDP—a level unheard of outside recession and wartime. But it is not the only spendthrift country. Estonia and Finland, two normally parsimonious northern European countries, are running large budget deficits. Last year Italy’s deficit was as wide as in 2010-11, following the global financial crisis of 2007-09, and France’s grew to 5.5% of GDP, well above forecasts. How long can the firehose [of spending] keep blasting? Talk of fiscal consolidation has recently become louder. The Italian government believes it will soon be reprimanded by the EU for its stance. In Britain the opposition Labour Party, which hopes to take power before long, promises fiscal rectitude. The French government talks about cuts to health spending and unemployment benefits. America is the outlier. In the world’s leading economy, the conversation still has not turned. Ahead of the election, Donald Trump and Mr Biden promise tax cuts for millions of voters. But fiscal logic is remorseless. Whether they like it or not, the era of free-spending politicians will have to come to an end.

Skip the Traffic: Commuters Turn to Ferries to Get Around (NYT) As remote work reshapes the way people live and travel around cities, Americans are taking to the waterways not only as part of their commute but also as part of their daily lives. Some coastal cities are seeing ferry ridership bounce back after a decline during the pandemic, and growing interest in water transit is spurring both new types of ferry services and waterfront development. The ferry boom comes as municipal governments are trying to address a variety of social, economic and environmental challenges, and as some of the country’s largest cities look to water transport to ease traffic, connect communities and meet housing and commercial development goals.

Insurers Are Spying on Your Home From the Sky (WSJ) Nearly every building in the country is being photographed, often without the owner’s knowledge. Companies are deploying drones, manned airplanes and high-altitude balloons to take images of properties. No place is shielded: The industry-funded Geospatial Insurance Consortium has an airplane imagery program it says covers 99% of the U.S. population. The array of photos is being sorted by computer models to spy out underwriting no-nos, such as damaged roof shingles, yard debris, overhanging tree branches and undeclared swimming pools or trampolines. The red-flagged images are providing insurers with ammunition for nonrenewal notices nationwide.

Teen Girls Confront an Epidemic of Deepfake Nudes in Schools (NYT) Westfield Public Schools held a regular board meeting in late March at the local high school. But it was not business as usual for Dorota Mani. In October, some 10th-grade girls at Westfield High School—including Ms. Mani’s 14-year-old daughter, Francesca—alerted administrators that boys in their class had used artificial intelligence software to fabricate sexually explicit images of them and were circulating the faked pictures. Five months later, the Manis and other families say, the district has done little to publicly address the doctored images or update school policies to hinder exploitative A.I. use. In a statement, the school district said it had opened an “immediate investigation” upon learning about the incident, had immediately notified and consulted with the police, and had provided group counseling to the sophomore class. “All school districts are grappling with the challenges and impact of artificial intelligence and other technology available to students at any time and anywhere,” Raymond González, the superintendent of Westfield Public Schools, said in the statement.

House Republicans are heading for the exits (Washington Post) House Majority Leader Steve Scalise thought he had a good argument for Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.). The Wisconsin Republican had announced he was going to leave Congress, one of 21 Republicans who have said they are headed for the exits this year. But three Republicans who had previously announced their intention to leave had reconsidered and were now going to stay. Scalise (R-La.) wanted to emphasize that momentum to Gallagher, hoping the young rising star might reconsider. The sell hasn’t worked yet. Gallagher, 40, is set to retire earlier than previously expected, leaving the House with just a one-vote majority when he departs April 19. The tumultuous year has reaffirmed for most that they made the right call to leave, that because the House has become more partisan, it is now more difficult to pass legislation that makes an impact than when many were first elected.

Protesters in southern Mexico set state government building afire and torch a dozen vehicles (AP) Protesters in southern Mexico set the state government building afire Monday and torched at least a dozen cars in the parking lot. The protests occurred in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo, the capital of the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. The protesters are demanding answers in the case of 43 students at a rural teachers college who disappeared in 2014. Another student from that college was killed in a confrontation with police in March. Images of the protests showed at least a dozen vehicles engulfed in fire and flames shooting out of the windows of the state office building, which is near the main highway leading from Mexico City to Acapulco. The building, which houses the governor’s office, was ransacked.

Haiti police recover hijacked cargo ship in rare victory after 5-hour shootout with gangs (AP) Haiti’s National Police agency says that it has recovered a hijacked cargo ship laden with rice following a gunbattle with gangs that lasted more than five hours. Two police officers were injured and an undetermined number of gang members were killed in the shootout that occurred Saturday off the coast of the capital, Port-au-Prince, authorities said in a statement. It was a rare victory for an underfunded police department that has struggled to quell gang violence following a spate of attacks that began Feb. 29.

Ecuadorians wanted an action man. President Noboa has fulfilled that role—embassy raid included (AP) While world leaders have expressed shock and bewilderment over Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s decision to raid Mexico’s embassy last Friday, the extraordinarily unusual move—and Noboa’s relative silence about it—is unlikely to hurt him with his constituents. In fact, it’s exactly the sort of no-holds-barred crimefighting they expect and voted for. Ecuadorians were looking for their action man last election, fed up with widespread corruption and the robberies, kidnappings, extortions and murders fueled by the growing presence of international drug cartels. Noboa, often sporting bulletproof vests, sunglasses and leather jackets as well as the occasional smart-casual white T-shirt, so far seems to be fulfilling that role. If stopping lawbreakers in their tracks means breaching an embassy, then so be it, Ecuadorians interviewed over the weekend told The Associated Press.

Russia and Ukraine trade blame over Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant drone strike (Guardian) On Sunday, multiple drones attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the drones detonated at three locations around the plant, but only caused “superficial scorching,” not structural damage. Both Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for carrying out the strikes, but it’s unclear who actually attacked the plant. “Attempts by the Ukrainian armed forces to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant continue,” said the Russian forces currently in control of the plant. “A kamikaze drone was shot down over the plant. It fell on the roof of unit 6.” On the other hand, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military said that Russia had conducted a false-flag attack on the facility “with drones, pretending that the threat to the plant and nuclear safety is incoming from Ukraine.” Either way, the IAEA says the shenanigans need to stop. “Such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident and must cease immediately,” said the director general of the agency.

Indonesia expects biggest-ever Eid homecoming (AP) Millions of Indonesians are packing bus and train stations, airports and highways as they head to hometowns to celebrate Thursday’s Eid al-Fitr festival with family. The Transportation Ministry expects the largest movement of people in Indonesia’s history. The agency is projecting the number of travelers heading home could reach 193 million, or nearly 72% of the population—up from 124 million, or 46%, last year. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. And every year, there is a vast exodus of people from urban centers across the vast archipelago to more rural hometowns to celebrate the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The homecoming tradition is known as “mudik.”

Gazans return to Khan Younis after Israel pull-out (BBC) Palestinians are returning to Khan Younis after Israel’s military announced on Sunday it was reducing its soldier numbers in the southern Gaza Strip. As Gazans make their way to a city largely destroyed by six months of war, many are finding rubble where their homes were. “We came to check our house. We didn’t find anything,” resident Asad Abu Ghalwa said. “You build a home corner by corner, stone by stone,” said another man who came back to Khan Younis. “And in the end, with a press of a button, it is reduced to rubble.” Still, this return gives hope to some displaced Palestinians like Muhammad al-Mughrabi, who used to live further north in Gaza City. “I dream daily of returning to my hometown,” he told Rushdi Abualouf. For now, Mr al-Mughrabi is in Rafah, with more than a million Palestinians.

Overcrowded ferry capsizes off Mozambique’s coast, leaving at least 98 dead, media reports say (AP) A makeshift ferry overcrowded with residents reportedly fleeing a feared cholera outbreak capsized off Mozambique’s northern coast, killing at least 98 people including children, local media said Monday. The ferry with an estimated 130 people aboard capsized Sunday after it departed the southeastern African nation’s coast for the nearby Island of Mozambique and at least 11 people were hospitalized, state-run Radio Mozambique quoted island administrator Silvério Nauaito as saying.

Large Scientific Review Confirms the Benefits of Physical Touch (NYT) A hug, a handshake, a therapeutic massage. A newborn lying on a mother’s bare chest. Physical touch can buoy well-being and lessen pain, depression and anxiety, according to a large new analysis of published research released on Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. Researchers from Germany and the Netherlands systematically reviewed years of research on touch, strokes, hugs and rubs. They also combined data from 137 studies, which included nearly 13,000 adults, children and infants. Each study compared individuals who had been physically touched in some way over the course of an experiment—or had touched an object like a fuzzy stuffed toy—to similar individuals who had not. Positive effects were particularly noticeable in premature babies, who “massively improve” with skin-to-skin contact, said Frédéric Michon, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and one of the study’s authors.