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makkir0ll · 25 days

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setting the past (part one/ prologue)

ukai x reader.

wc: 837

synopsis: you coach a volleyball team, one of the best in the country known for having mostly recruited players. you take pride in the fact that you have led your team to win a national championship title. And with the news of the rising team karasuno, your interest is piqued, mainly because that was your old school. you had known that they were nicknamed the "fallen crows" and such, so hearing about their fast improvement you decide you want to see it for yourself. you call up the school and takeda picks up. you organize a practice match for later that week.

but what you don't realize is that their coach is your highschool ex.

a/n: woohoo finally finished part one of idk how many. i haven't written since my wattpad days and i have so many good ideas for this fic so i hope y'all enjoy this. i just need to like collect my thoughts and put them in order because thinking about the plot my brain goes like 100 mph but then when i actually have to write it, suddenly im illiterate.

anyways enjoy this!!

Once practice concluded, and the clatter of equipment being stowed away subsided, the Karasuno boys formed a line in front of Ukai and Takeda, anticipating any last-minute announcements before dispersing.

".. and make sure you're eating well and getting enough rest. That's all I have to say for today," Ukai stated firmly, his arms crossed as he surveyed the team.

Takeda cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the eager players. "Yes, indeed. I know this is short notice, but the coach from Kozue Highschool reached out for a practice match later this week, and I accepted."

"HUH?" The boys chorused in a mix of surprise and excitement. A practice match against the reigning national champions was unexpected, to say the least.

"Didn't they win nationals last year?" Daichi questioned, his brows furrowing with intrigue.

"Did they? I'm not sure but you know more than I do." Takeda replies with a smile. "But apparently, their coach is an alumna of Karasuno," He glances at Ukai. "Y/N, I believe? Do you know her? She might be from the same graduating class as you"

Ukai's reaction to your name didn't escape notice. He knew exactly who you were—the pride of Japan's under-19 women's team and, to add a twist, his high school sweetheart.

"Yeah, I know her," Ukai replied, turning to the players. "That means this won't be an easy match. Not only because Kozue is a national champion, but also because Y/N is coaching them. She was- is one of the best womens volleyball player. So think expect nothing less from her team. Be prepared to face some formidable opponents."

"WOW! A NATIONAL CHAMPION TEAM! I CAN'T WAIT TO PLAY WITH THEM!" Hinata exclaimed, his excitement palpable. "I won't lose to them!"

"Yeah, me neither," Ukai thought to himself, his expression unreadable.

After practice, as the Karasuno third years made their way home, Suga couldn't help but bring up the tension surrounding Ukai and you.

"So, Y/N is definitely Coach's ex, right?" Suga prodded, casting a knowing glance at his companions.

"Oh, absolutely," they agreed. They continued to discuss the possibilities as they walked home.

Ah, the history between you and Ukai. It was a tale of high school romance, filled with shared lunches, mutual support at games, and stolen moments in the clubroom. But graduation day shattered those dreams, as Ukai chose to explore college life, leaving you heartbroken and struggling to move on.

But some wounds never truly heal. Ukai remained a lingering presence in your thoughts, the memory of him etched into your heart as your first love, your first heartbreak.

Little did you know the storm brewing ahead as you prepared for the practice match against your alma mater, Karasuno Highschool.

The bus ride back to Miyagi was quiet, your team fast asleep behind you. As the bus slowed to a halt, you felt a surge of excitement—the familiarity of your hometown, the anticipation of facing your old school.

Karasuno High. The memories flooded back as you recognized the school's facade. Your stomach churned with excitement and nerves as you led your team off the bus.

"...twelve, thirteen, fourteen, yep! That's everyone," you counted, gently tapping your players as they stumbled out of the bus, still half-asleep.

"Why are we playing at a school two hours away again?" Haru, your team captain, yawned.

"Because, one, I used to go here back in the day, and two, I heard they're really good now. I'm excited to see what they look like. It'll be good practice," you explained, walking into the school towards the old gym where you spent multiple late nights after practice. you hear the familiar sound of volleyballs hitting the ground grow louder the more you walk toward the ajar door.

But what you didn't anticipate was a volleyball hurtling towards your face. Instinctively, you raised your arms, but it never struck you. A familiar figure stood beside you, his presence startling.

Ukai Keishin.

You were at a loss for words. It couldn't be him. Yet, there he was, saving you from a potential injury.

"Hinata, you can't be receiving like that!" Ukai's voice cut through the air, snapping you back to reality. His eyes met yours, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still.

"What are you doing here?" you managed to ask, your tone sharp, eyes narrowed.

"What does it look like, Y/N?" he retorted with a teasing smirk. "Same reason you're here, I suppose."

You couldn't believe your luck—running into your high school ex at a crucial moment. Hoping to avoid any further interaction, you turned away and made your way to your team.

"Thank you for having us here," you bowed to the Karasuno team, your voice steady despite the turmoil within. As you started stretching with your team, your mind raced, your gaze occasionally drifting to Ukai. Your usual composure faltered, and your team couldn't help but notice.

This practice was shaping up to be far more challenging than you had hoped.

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capybaracorn · 2 months

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(The Hague, February 26, 2024) – The Israeli government has failed to comply with at least one measure in the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in South Africa’s genocide case, Human Rights Watch said today. Citing warnings about “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza, the court ordered Israel on January 26, 2024, to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid,” and to report back on its compliance to the specific measures “within one month.”

One month later, however, Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid, acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. Fewer trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been permitted to reach northern Gaza in the several weeks since the ruling than in the weeks preceding it, according to United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli government has simply ignored the court’s ruling, and in some ways even intensified its repression, including further blocking lifesaving aid.”

Other countries should use all forms of leverage, including sanctions and embargoes, to press the Israeli government to comply with the court’s binding orders in the genocide case, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch found in December 2023 that Israeli authorities are using starvation as a weapon of war. Pursuant a policy set out by Israeli officials and carried out by Israeli forces, the Israeli authorities are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival.

Israeli authorities have kept its supply of electricity for Gaza shut off since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks. After initially cutting the entire supply of water that Israel provides to Gaza via three pipelines, Israel resumed piping on two of its three lines. However, due to the cuts and widespread destruction to water infrastructure amid unrelenting Israeli air and ground operations, only one of those lines remained operational at only 47 percent capacity as of February 20. Officials at the Gaza Coastal Municipalities Water Utility told Human Rights Watch on February 20 that Israeli authorities have obstructed efforts to repair the water infrastructure.

According to data published by OCHA and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid, and medicine dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the ICJ ruling: 93 trucks between January 27 and February 21, 2024, compared to 147 trucks between January 1 and 26, and only 57 between February 9 and 21. A survey of impediments to the entry of aid faced by 24 humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza between January 26 and February 15 pointed to a lack of transparency around how aid trucks can enter Gaza, delays and denials at Israeli crossings and inspection points, and concerns about safety of trucks.

By comparison, an average of 500 trucks of food and goods entered Gaza each day before the escalation in hostilities in October, during which time 1.2 million people in Gaza were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity, and 80 percent of Gaza’s population were reliant on humanitarian aid amid Israel's more than 16-year-long unlawful closure. High-ranking Israeli officials have articulated a policy to deprive civilians of food, water, and fuel, as Human Rights Watch has documented. The Israeli government spokesperson said more recently that there are “no limits” to aid entering Gaza, outside of security. Some Israeli officials blame the UN for distribution delays and accuse Hamas of diverting aid or Gaza police for failing to secure convoys.

The Israeli government cannot shift blame to evade responsibility, Human Rights Watch said. As the occupying power, Israel is obliged to provide for the welfare of the occupied population and ensure that the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s population are met. The Israeli human rights group Gisha challenged the Israeli government’s claims that it is not obstructing entry or distribution of aid and also found that it is not complying with the ICJ order.

Israeli authorities have also obstructed the aid that enters Gaza from reaching areas in the north. The survey of humanitarian organizations found that “almost no aid is distributed beyond Rafah,” Gaza’s southernmost governorate. On February 20, the World Food Programme paused deliveries of lifesaving food to the north, citing lack of safety and security. Israeli forces struck a food convoy on February 5, the UN said and CNN documented.

Between February 1 and 15, Israeli authorities only facilitated 2 of 21 planned missions to deliver fuel to the north of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza and none of the 16 planned fuel delivery or assessment missions to water and wastewater pumping stations in the north. Fewer than 20 percent of planned missions to deliver fuel and undertake assessments north of Wadi Gaza have been facilitated between January 1 and February 15, as compared with 86 percent of missions planned between October and December, according to OCHA.

“Israel’s ground forces are able to reach all parts of Gaza, so Israeli authorities clearly have the capacity to ensure that aid reaches all of Gaza,” Shakir said.

Since the ICJ order, Israeli authorities have also apparently destroyed the offices of at least two humanitarian organizations in Gaza and taken steps to undermine the work of UNRWA, the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, which more than half of other humanitarian organizations rely on to facilitate their operations. The head of UNWRA, Philippe Lazarini, said in a February 22 letter to the UN General Assembly president that the agency has reached a “breaking point” due to multiple government suspensions of funding and Israel’s campaign to shut the agency down.

Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on February 13 that he had blocked a US-funded flour shipment to Gaza, because it was going to UNRWA. Israel has alleged that at least 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees participated in the October 7 attacks, which the UN is investigating.

In late December, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multi-partner initiative that regularly publishes information on the scale and severity of food insecurity and malnutrition globally, concluded that over 90 percent of Gaza’s population is at crisis level of acute food insecurity or worse. The IPC said that virtually all Palestinians in Gaza are skipping meals every day while many adults go hungry so children can eat, and that the population faced famine if current conditions persisted. “This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” the group said.

On February 19, The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that 90 percent of children under age 2 and 95 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women face “severe food poverty.” On February 22, Save the Children said families in Gaza “are forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive,” noting that “all 1.1 million children in Gaza [are] facing starvation.”

In response to a request by South Africa for additional provisional measures following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order for Israeli authorities to explore a possible plan to evacuate Rafah ahead of a ground incursion, the ICJ said that the “perilous situation demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures” throughout Gaza – but not new measures – and highlighted Israel’s duty to ensure “the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Beyond enabling the provision of basic services and aid, the measures in the ICJ’s binding order require Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide. The ICJ issued these measures “to protect the rights claimed by South Africa that the Court has found to be plausible,” including “the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide.” Although South Africa asked the court in its oral arguments during January hearings on the provisional measures to make any report it ordered public, the court did not indicate that it has done so.

Between January 26 and February 23, more than 3,400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry compiled by OCHA.

South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide is distinct from the proceedings on the legal consequences of Israel’s 57-year-occupation, which began at the ICJ on February 19.

“Israel’s blatant disregard for the World Court’s order poses a direct challenge to the rules-based international order,” Shakir said. “Failure to ensure Israel’s compliance puts the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk and threatens to undermine the institutions charged with ensuring respect for international law and the system that ensures civilian protection worldwide.”

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transmutationisms · 2 months

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I'm curious if you've come across any examples of what you would consider effective communication or collective organizing around Covid? I know of a few groups who I think are doing good work to get people access to masks and rapid tests, making connections to broader issues such as lack of sick leave, barriers to healthcare etc, but they're also relying on things like questionable wastewater data extrapolation to make their points. I don't really know what to do about the latter issue, since we've just had access to all data taken away from us by the government. (I know it's not an effective tool for collective action, but tbh I also struggle with the idea that all alarmism is bad, because I am high risk and I am scared!)

well 1st of all to be clear, i think wastewater data are valuable and i do look at them. what i don't do is make wildly overconfident guesses from those data about exactly how many people are infected, how many sick people are standing in any given room, how many people will eventually qualify for a long covid dx, etc. i think wastewater data are a rough proxy but still an important one, and generally more useful at the local level (where they can be cross-referenced with factors like vaccine uptake, circulating variants, and municipal public health policy) than at national or regional levels (where the necessary amount of aggregation makes it difficult to tease out much useful information about any one town or city).

2nd, i don't know what country you live in but i do look in on CDC's covid dashboard, which includes data on hospitalisations, emergency department visits, deaths, vaccine uptake, test positivity rates, &c. if this is applicable to you i strongly encourage always reading the footnotes as these statistics vary in accuracy (in particular, test positivity rate is very unreliable at this point). i consider a lot of these numbers useful primarily as indicators of comparative risk: eg, i assume hospitalisation numbers have been inaccurate lowballs for the entirety of the pandemic; however, it is still useful imo to see whether that number is trending in a particular direction, and how it compares over time. again, local results are sometimes more helpful as well. i also glance in on the census bureau's household pulse survey results, which come out numerous times throughout the year and include questions about duration of covid symptoms, ability to function, and vaccine uptake. these numbers skew in the opposite direction to many of CDC's, because the phrasing of the covid questions is intended to be broad, and does not attempt to distinguish between the sort of long covid that entails a 6 or 12 month recovery period, vs the sort of long covid that turns out to be me/cfs or other chronic long-term post-viral complications. again, i still think these numbers are useful for viewing trends over time; no data will ever be completely 100% without flaw, and i'm not holding out for that. what does frustrate me, though, is people (with any and all ideological axes to grind!) interpreting any of these numbers as though they are in fact perfect flawless representations of reality, with no further caveats or critical analysis needed. that's what i'm pushing back on, whether it comes from the "pulse survey says long covid prevalence is decreasing, so fuck it!" crowd or the "biobot says last week was a micro-surge so we're all going to die!" crowd.

as far as local orgs or groups doing actual action, like distributing masks or vaccine clinics, i don't put so much stock in what they say on instagram or whatever because frankly i think it matters very little. the masks and vaccines and air filters and so forth are useful in themselves; that work is valuable. if someone's positioning themselves primarily as a communicator then yes, i'm going to scrutinise their communication methods more. if it's an action org i'm honestly less concerned, unless there is egregiously unreliable information being propagated or they're communicating in the sort of stigmatising manner that many peak Posters have adopted (people who got sick are stupid / immoral / deserve it, etc).

i'd also just like to make it clear that like... i live with someone who is at high risk, i accordingly treat my own covid precautions as though i am also at high risk, and i wouldn't want covid regardless... like, please understand that when i talk about this i'm not coming at it from a perspective of someone who's unaware of the need for caution! my concern is, again, that caution and risk discussion are not synonymous with "making frightened guesses and asserting them with 100% confidence" or "selectively attributing truth to data because they agree with me, regardless of the actual methodology and any problems therein". i understand that when people are behaving recklessly and being encouraged to do so by state and medical authorities, it is tempting to look at that situation and think that communicating the seriousness of the virus is worth risking a little bit of inaccuracy if it protects people. however, i do not think that strategy actually pays off in the long or short term as far as changing people's behaviour (if it did, wouldn't it have by now?) and i think it is playing with fire to encourage this manner of interpreting and disseminating scientific information as though it is a kind of ideological buffet requiring no further verification or investigation beyond a cherry-picked deference to the stated objectivity and ideals of The Scientific Method.

#covid

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beardedmrbean · 5 months

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A Texas-led bill that would mandate AM radio capability in car manufacturing was blocked from passing in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, requested a unanimous consent decision on his AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. The legislation was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who said the mandate on private companies would be an overstep of congressional power.

For months, Cruz has pushed for vehicle manufacturers to retain AM radio in new car models to protect emergency communication channels and diverse content. He partnered with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in May to introduce the legislation, which had broad bipartisan support in the Senate.

A corresponding bill was introduced in the House and has 191 cosponsors, including two Democrats and 12 Republicans from Texas.

AM radio is “enormously important to millions of Texans,” Cruz told The Texas Tribune in October. He noted the platform is essential for diverse talk radio — especially for conservative voices.

“I think silencing those voices is enormously harmful to both free speech but also to a robust democratic process,” Cruz said.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Cruz pointed to conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck, who all found audiences on AM radio.

“AM radio is a haven for people to speak, even if their views are disfavored by the political ruling class,” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “Rush Limbaugh would not exist without AM radio. The views of my friend, [Rand Paul] the Senator from Kentucky, would be heard by many fewer people without AM radio.”

AM radio in rural Texas and other southern states is also a platform for religious, local news and sports programming. Local stations will also run chain or network programming with more well-known commentators, according to Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Some rural communities are dependent on getting local interest information from a single radio station or single newspaper, Cross said.

“If you allow the manufacturers to not put AM on cars, then you're killing off an essential part of the media landscape of the United States,” Cross said.

Supporters of the bill also point to AM radio’s importance as a means to protect emergency communication channels. A fall 2022 Nielsen survey showed AM radio reaches over 80 million Americans monthly.

“During times of disaster, AM radio is consistently the most resilient form of communication,” Cruz said.

AM radio is used as an alert system by federal, state and local agencies to communicate in times of disaster when other forms of communication fail, like during a power outage.

Cruz said he was confident that the legislation would pass overwhelmingly if brought to the floor for a vote, but since it was blocked on Tuesday it now awaits scheduling by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The congressional pressure already provoked change in the industry. Days after the bills were introduced in May, the CEO of Ford announced that the company would keep AM radio in 2024 models.

Car companies started cutting AM radio capacity to simplify manufacturing and because of assumptions that American consumers don’t find AM radio necessary, according to Oscar Rodriguez, the president of the Texas Association of Broadcasters. Companies also can make revenue from car owners’ subscription-only radio services.

“It became very clear very quickly to the automakers that this is a highly valued service that's extraordinarily important,” Rodriguez said. “It's not just an entertainment service. It is an emergency communications service.”

AM station signals cover 90% of the American population, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, and are able to continue operations during power outages.

But a number of national trade associations have defended manufacturers’ right to exclude AM capacity, arguing that FM radio, internet access and text emergency alerts can replace the loss of AM radio.

“This is giving preference to a technology that is facing fierce competition,” said India Herdman, manager of policy affairs for the Consumer Technology Association.

A FEMA strategic plan pointed out that Americans are “moving away” from radio and broadcast television as primary sources of news and information, one reason for emergency managers to prioritize alerts to smartphones and other methods.

Herdman said that a mandate for AM radio contradicts previous congressional action authorizing federal funding for updated emergency communications.

“What are we spending those appropriated dollars for if we're just going to go back to using century-old technology?” Herdman said.

But in a state like Texas, with a significant rural population, proponents of AM broadcasting argue the access is key.

Cooper Little, executive director of the Independent Cattlemen’s Association, said Texans in the agricultural sector rely on AM radio for reports on livestock and markets, as well as severe weather alerts.

“Things happen at a moment's notice,” Little said. “In areas where there's not necessarily cell service, that's how you spread the word.”

#nunyas news #i'm with ted here #100% right

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zvaigzdelasas · 4 months

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Since Indonesia’s bloody anti-communist purge in the 1960s, politics in the archipelago nation have largely been dominated by centre-right forces. But a newly formed leftist party believes it can garner enough popular support to start changing that.

At a press conference in Jakarta on January 3, Indonesia’s Labour Party (Partai Buruh) chief Said Iqbal said his party’s electability was on the rise in the lead-up to the February 14 general election.

Said, who is also president of Indonesia’s Trade Unions Confederation, cited a recent survey by pollster Risetindo Barometer as evidence for his claim.

“An independent survey was conducted in 18 cities involving 1,200 respondents, and found 67.8 per cent of workers or 3,390,000 voters, both unionised and non-unionised, planned to vote for the PB,” he said. Said pointed out that the figure would correspond to 2.3 per cent of Indonesia’s total number of eligible voters. “This means we only have 1.7 per cent to go before crossing the 4 per cent parliamentary threshold to make it into the House of Representatives (DPR).”[...]

“PB [could] be the first centre-left party to accomplish this feat. Its success in qualifying for the election was in itself remarkable, given that another centre-left party, Prima, didn’t,” [...]

In 2020, President Joko Widodo signed the Omnibus Law aimed at easing business by cutting red tape. But unions and labour activists branded the legislation as a major setback for labour rights and protections. Some controversial clauses include reductions in the size of severance pay and paid leave. Activists also claim the law provides employers with new loopholes to deny workers permanent work status and other benefits.[...]

“Our party has decided not to back any of the three presidential candidates because our condition for support was a signed political contract spelling out the respective candidate’s commitment to revise the Omnibus Law,” he said.

None of the candidates agreed to do so, he said[...]

uruddin said his party’s strategy revolved around “real issues affecting people’s livelihoods” which have been neglected by the more established parties, citing the government-managed universal healthcare system (BPJS) as an example.

“While the BPJS seeks to cover the healthcare of all Indonesians, in reality around 20 per cent of the population is unable to access it, largely because they can’t afford the monthly dues,” he said.

Nuruddin said that at the city level in Surabaya, he had started lobbying officials to provide subsidies for poor residents – including itinerant construction workers, vagabonds and small traders – so that they could be covered under the scheme.

He said the PB had instigated a new mechanism in Indonesia’s electoral process known as “constituent recall”, under which voters could demand the removal of their representative if he or she were deemed to be in serious breach of voter aspirations.

9 Jan 24

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workersolidarity · 2 months

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[ 📹 Children of Gaza protest the extreme hunger and famine they are experiencing, chanting slogans saying, "We have been under brutal siege for 135 days. No food, no water, no medicine!"]

[ 📸 An infographic published by the Quds News Network detailing that food aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip have been reduced by more than a third.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚨

ISRAELI ENTITY REFUSING TO COMPLY WITH ICJ DECISION, FOOD AID TO GAZA DROPS BY A THIRD

In a report issued by Human Rights Watch, the rights organization says that, in the month since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its ruling, the Israeli entity has refused to comply with the decision, continuing its genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinian enclave.

Back on January 26th, 2024, the ICJ issued a ruling where, citing "catastrophic conditions" in the Gaza Strip, the ICJ ordered Israeli authorities to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid,” and to report back to the Court with evidence of its compliance to the ordered measures “within one month.”

Now, one month following the ICJ ruling, the Israeli occupation continues to "obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid," all while committing "acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes and include the use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war."

Human Rights Watch says that "fewer trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been permitted to reach northern Gaza" in the month after the ICJ ruling, over the weeks preceeding it, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Human Rights Watch emphasized that "other countries should use all forms of leverage, including sanctions and embargoes to press the Israeli government to comply with the Court's binding orders in the genocide case."

Human Rights Watch previously found in December of 2023 that the Israeli authorities were "using starvation as a weapon of war" as part of a policy "set out by Israeli officials and carried out by Israeli forces" to deliberately block the delivery of food, water and fuel, "willfully impeding humanitarian assistance."

According to data published by OCHA and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), the average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid supplies and medicine "dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the ICJ decision, with 93 humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza between January 27th and February 21st, 2024, compared with 147 trucks between January 1st and January 26th, 2024, and only 57 trucks between February 9th and February 21st, 2024.

A survey of "impediments to the entry of aid" faced by the 24 humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip between January 26th and February 15th, 2024 "pointed to a lack of transparency around how aid trucks can enter Gaza, delays and denials at Israeli crossings and inspection points, and concerns about safety of trucks."

By comparison, Human Rights Watch says that an average of 500 trucks filled with food and goods entered Gaza each day prior to the escalation of hostilities beginning on October 7th, 2023, during which time 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza were estimated to to be "facing acute food insecurity," with 80% of Gaza's population reliant on humanitarian aid under Israel's 16-years-long blockade of the Palestinian enclave, which Human Rights Watch calls "unlawful."

"High-ranking Israeli officials have articulated a policy to deprive civilians of food, water, and fuel, as Human Rights Watch has documented," the rights organization said.

The Israeli authorities, for their part, blame the UN for "distribution delays," and accuse Hamas of "diverting aid" and the Gaza police for "failing to secure aid convoys."

"The Israeli government cannot shift blame to evade responsibility," Human Rights Watch said in its report.

"Israel is obliged to provide for the welfare of the occupied population and ensure that the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s population are met. The Israeli human rights group Gisha challenged the Israeli government’s claims that it is not obstructing entry or distribution of aid and also found that it is not complying with the ICJ order."

Human Rights Watch also accuses Israel of destroying the offices of at least two humanitarian organizations and have undermined the work of UNRWA, the largest such aid organization currently operating in the Gaza Strip, with the organization's chief, Phillippe Lazzarini, stating in a letter on February 22nd that the aid organization has reached the "breaking point" due to suspensions of funding after accusations by Israel that a handful of its personnel were involved peripherally in the October 7th attacks on illegal Israeli settlements.

The report also blames Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, for blocking aid shipments, including a shipment of Flour from the United States, because "it was going to UNRWA," based on the accusations that 12 of the Agency's 30'000 employees might have participated, directly or indirectly, in the October 7th attacks, which the United Nations is currently investigating.

According to the report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multiparty initiative, concluded that "over 90% of Gaza's population is at a crises level of acute food insecurity or worse," with the IPC emphasizing that "virtually all Palestinians in Gaza" are regularly skipping meals as a result of near famine conditions in the enclave, while adults commonly go without eating entirely in order for their children to eat.

“This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” the group is quoted as saying.

Furthermore, on February 19th, a study published by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that over 90% of children under the age of 2, and 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women are facing "severe food poverty," while on February 22nd, the organization Save the Children said Gaza's Palestinian families are "forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive." The organization also added that, "all 1.1 million children in Gaza [are] facing starvation."

The ICJ's ruling orders Israel to "protect the rights claimed by South Africa that the Court has found to be plausible," including "the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide," and although South Africa asked the Court to provide "provisional measures" to make any report it ordered public, the court has not yet done so.

However, since the Court's ruling, in the period from January 26th to February 23rd, the Israeli occupation has slaughtered more than 3'400 Palestinians, according to figures from Gaza's Ministry of Health and compiled by OCHA.

According to Human Rights Watch, "South Africa's case against Israel for genocide is distinct from the proceedings on the legal consequences of Israel's 57-year occupation, which began at the ICJ on February 19th."

According to Human Rights Watch's Israel and Palestine director, Shakir Omar, "Israel’s blatant disregard for the World Court’s order poses a direct challenge to the rules-based international order."

“Failure to ensure Israel’s compliance puts the lives of millions of Palestinians at risk and threatens to undermine the institutions charged with ensuring respect for international law and the system that ensures civilian protection worldwide," the director added.

#source

#videosource

#infographicsource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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tomorrowusa · 13 days

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Bad news for Republicans: violent crime is down across most of the US.

Donald Trump and far right media want people to believe there is a massive crime wave sparked by hordes of bloodthirsty migrants charging in waves across the southern border. In fact, the spike in crime which began with Trump's botched response to the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

To hear the latest version of Donald Trump’s “American carnage” narrative of a country lost without him, you would think law-abiding citizens are cowering in their homes or stockpiling weapons to deal with a massive crime wave that’s due to illegal border crossings caused by various nations emptying their prisons and by leftist “Soros-funded” prosecutors gleefully opening our own penitentiaries. The idea of an ongoing crime wave is incorporated into all sorts of MAGA rhetoric, including claims that prosecutors pursuing cases against Trump in New York, Atlanta, Florida, and Washington, D.C., should instead be frantically trying and jailing predators who are cavorting on the streets. The alleged threat of murderous “animals” who entered the country illegally has been crystalized by Republican agitprop about the tragic death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was murdered while jogging, allegedly by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant. But graphic, horrifying anecdotal evidence does not an actual crime wave make. And the more we learn about what’s actually happening in our major cities, the clearer it is that the surge in violent crime that did occur during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to subside. The COVID crime surge largely ended in 2022. Then the incidence of murder and other violent crimes dropped significantly in 2023, according to preliminary federal data, as CNN recently reported:

Fact check: Trump falsely claims US crime stats are only going up. Most went down last year, including massive drop in murder

To the degree that migrants are involved in criminal activity can now be attributed to Trump's blockage of border security legislation in the House by his spineless minions on Capitol Hill.

Bipartisan border deal hits legislative wall as Republicans say they will block bill

Republicans are now officially the owners of border chaos – not the solution to it.

Back to the featured article...

[W]hen a long upward trend in crime during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s — a true crime wave — finally came to an end, then dramatically reversed. The current numbers are beginning to show that we’re more than likely in a long period of stable (and, by past standards, relatively low) crime rates that were briefly interrupted by the many dislocations the pandemic caused in American life (and police effectiveness). So the myth of a deadly threat to Americans stemming from liberal policies on the border and in the justice system is mostly just that. Perceptions of public safety, of course, aren’t always in line with objective reality, and violent crime is horrifying even if it’s not as prevalent as law-and-order demagogues suggest. An October 2023 Gallup survey that coincided with growing evidence of dropping crime rates showed 77 percent of Americans agreed there was “more crime” in the country than in the previous year.

Spectacular crime stories are always going to grab headlines. If it bleeds, it leads has been one of the mainstays of American journalism for centuries. You'll never see a headline in the NY Post like Murder Rate Plummets!.

One thing that is often overlooked is that the "long upward trend in crime during the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s" mentioned in the article came to an end in the 1990s during the Clinton administration.

For ideological reasons, Democrats have been too restrained about publicizing their own law and order successes. As with the 1990s, another drop in crime is taking place under a Democratic administration – despite GOP attempts to exploit individual incidents of crime.

Donald Trump himself is a "one man crime wave".

youtube

#dropping crime rates #law and order #crime #murder rate #donald trump #american carnage #trump border chaos #trump covid-19 spike in crime #trump administration's botched response to covid-19 #trump is a one man crime wave #republicans #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who #Youtube

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world-of-wales · 6 months

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THE PRINCE DIARIES ♚

8 NOVEMBER 2023 || SINGAPORE VISIT : DAY IV (1/3) - TREETOP WALK, MACRITCHIE NATURE RESERVE

The Prince of Wales was accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance - Lawrence Wong for a TreeTop Walk at the MacRitchie Nature Reserve on his Day Four in Singapore.

During their visit, they crossed the free-standing suspension bridge which connects the two highest points on their walking route, Bukit Peirce and Bukit Kalang in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

William also met and spoke to the NPark Rangers and NPark Youth Stewards for Nature during his visit. The National Parks Board’s (NParks) Youth Stewards for Nature programme was lqunched in 2021 and is aimed at mentoring young volunteers aged 18 to 25 to carry out nature-related projects such as species population surveys and designing therapeutic gardens.

During the walk, the Prince of Wales also met Dr Isabelle Lackman - a finalist in the 2022 Earthshot Prize. She co-founded Hutan, a research organisation based in Borneo that studies and monitors the region’s biodiversity, from wild orang utan and elephant research to hornbill and frog surveys.

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gumjrop · 4 months

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The Weather

All areas of the country are now at High or Very High levels of COVID Transmission.

According to the new CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) dashboard, all regions are experiencing increased COVID wastewater levels, with the Midwest being the highest. Nationally, wastewater levels are “very high.” Driven by the JN.1 variant, we are currently seeing the second highest wastewater levels since BA.1, the first Omicron wave in January 2022.

We continue to stress the importance of mitigating the spread of COVID, especially during this time of increasing transmission. Please continue to wear a high quality respirator mask (such as an N95) in indoor settings of any capacity, and postpone crowded events. In addition, make sure to take appropriate precautions when meeting with others.

Wins

Amidst this new surge, many hospitals – some responding to staffing shortages, and some responding to public pressure – have reinstated mask mandates. We celebrate the work of organizers across the country including those at Care Not COVID Chicagoland, COVID Safe Maryland, COVID Advocacy NY, and MaskBlocs around the country who organized a call-in to hospitals last week to demand they reinstate – and make permanent – masking policies. A coalition protest by Sacramento Jewish Voices for Peace, Sunrise Movement Sacramento, International Jewish Anti-Zionist network, Bay Area JVP, & Youth 4 Palestine Sac organized a fully masked (N95!) and tested (2 days in a row!) pro-Palestine protest at the CA State Capitol in Sacramento last week. ACTUP’s New York chapter has voted to require and provide KN95 masks at all upcoming meetings and actions “due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recent surge, as well as to increase safety from surveillance at protests.” Solidarity means we protect each other, and these organizers are showing us the way!

Variants

JN.1, a BA.2.86 descendent, is rising to prominence quickly in the United States. Nowcast estimates predict that by 1/6/2024, JN.1 will account for 61.6% of circulating variants. According to preliminary non-peer reviewed data, the newest (XBB.1.5) booster helps to protect against the JN.1 variant. Conversely, older vaccines did not offer significant protection against JN.1. It is important to receive the updated booster, especially since uptake is currently low–according to a poll conducted by Gallup, only 29% of 6,000 participants surveyed received the updated vaccine as of December 7, 2023. This is in stark contrast to flu vaccine rates, polled at 49%. This is likely due to an imbalance in public health messaging–while efforts were poured into advertising the flu vaccine, not as much emphasis was placed on receiving the updated booster.

Hospitalizations

Weekly COVID hospitalizations continue to trend upward, now at 34,798 for the week ending December 30, 2023. The numbers for currently hospitalized patients with COVID are also increasing, currently at 25,430. In terms of regional trends, the Northeast and Midwest are seeing higher rates of hospitalization. When reviewing these numbers we must also remember that patients who are already admitted for other reasons and are suffering from nosocomial, or hospital-acquired infections, are not accounted for in this data.

Hospitals are overwhelmed. Healthcare workers are demanding support from administrators. Read this account of ER nurses at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx who say that the hospital executives are refusing to open up vacant areas of the hospital to accommodate the surge in patients – leaving the ER dangerously overcrowded and forcing patients into hallway beds.

Long COVID

A new cross-sectional study published in Nature Communications found that Long COVID patients with post-exertional malaise (PEM) exhibit skeletal muscle changes that are exacerbated by exercise. PEM patients are also found to have unique pathophysiological changes, such as amyloid-containing deposits in muscle tissue. These findings contribute to mounting evidence that COVID infection can significantly damage the body, and more research is necessary in order to fully understand manifestations of Long COVID. If readers are curious, summarized findings can be found in this X (Twitter) thread, penned by one of the authors. Long COVID research is important. This is why it is essential that all Long COVID research centers adhere to the strictest infection prevention protocols. Read this account of a person disabled by Long COVID who dropped out of a study because the study personnel refused to mask. We saw this same phenomenon last spring at Stanford during a study of Paxlovid’s impact on Long COVID rates.

Take Action

This week Jewish Currents put out a report on The Epidemiological War on Gaza, which amplified WHO’s January 2nd announcement that “there are currently 424,639 [reported] cases of infectious disease in Gaza,” an area with only 2 million residents total. With the ongoing destruction of hospitals and deprivation of food and water and environmental pollution from continued bombardment, the occupying forces have ensured the conditions for continued deaths even in times of ceasefire. Call your representatives and join a protest this week to demand a ceasefire and the reconstruction of Palestinian medical infrastructure towards fair health access for all peoples! Let us support Massachusetts General Brigham Long COVID patients by telling the hospital to 1) meet all patient accessibility requests including wearing N95 respirators upon request and 2) make universal masking their new standard of care. They can be contacted through their contact form, or by calling 1-800-856-1983. Rashida Tlaib sent out an email blast informing constituents of the current surge. The message included acknowledgment of COVID’s airborne nature, recommendation to wear a well-fitting mask, a link to access free tests through USPS, and information on updated vaccines and COVID transmission. Let’s contact Congresswoman Tlaib and thank her for this invaluable action!

Future Weather Reports

Starting next week, we will begin to publish the Weather Report on a bi-weekly basis. This will allow our team to focus on crafting action campaigns to push for a comprehensive public health approach to the pandemic, including mask mandates, paid sick leave policies, testing access, Long COVID research, next generation vaccines, indoor air quality regulations, and more. We hope to see you in our expanded actions to end the COVID pandemic soon to come!

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mariacallous · 1 day

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Media freedom and pluralism in many EU countries stands “perilously close” to breaking point, and in some cases must be almost fully resuscitated, according to the “2024 Media Freedom Report” from the Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe.

Based on data and input from 37 member and partner organisations in 19 countries, Liberties’ report covers three primary areas: media freedom and pluralism, safety and protection of journalists, and freedom of expression and information.

It said that trends observed in last year’s report – heavy media ownership concentration, insufficient ownership transparency rules, threats to the independence and finances of public service media, widespread instances of threats, intimidation and violence against journalists, and restrictions on freedom of expression and access to information – continued in 2023.

Given the pattern that where the rule of law is eroding, so too is media freedom, it is unsurprising that Central and Eastern European member states figure highly in the report.

Media ownership concentration is high in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. In Greece, Hungary and Romania, political spending on media advertising is high and disproportionately funnelled to government-friendly media. Public service broadcasters remain under government control in Hungary, are expected to soon come under government control in Slovakia, and are in a state of uncertainty in Poland. Levels of public trust in media remain low, declining in Hungary and Slovakia, and reaching an all-time low in Czechia.

Journalists in Croatia, Greece and Italy faced physical attacks in 2023, in addition to threats and intimidation. In Hungary and Slovakia, the abuse and threats against journalists came from elected politicians. And in Romania police failed to properly investigate attacks on journalists, while in Bulgaria police officers themselves attacked journalists.

The use of Pegasus and Predator spyware continued to be a problem in the EU, notably in Greece, Poland and Hungary where journalists were the targets of such surveillance.

Liberties’ report joins a long list of such reports over the past few years that have raised concerns about the declining state of the media in the bloc, especially in countries where populist parties, both on the left and right, have entered parliament and even government.

This has brought a reaction from the EU, which over the last year has introduced new pieces of legislation designed to better protect journalists.

In 2024, the final link in the chain to bring the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) into being came when the European Parliament approved it, making it law across the bloc. The EMFA creates a new oversight body and introduces new measurements and criteria for media freedom and pluralism across member states.

Despite its compromises, the act creates a legal basis for improving media freedom. “Much will depend on national governments and authorities, but the act means cases can now be brought before a European court that will rule on what media independence, surveillance of journalists and so on really mean,” Eva Simon, senior advocacy officer at Liberties, told the Guardian.

The EU also adopted last year the Anti-SLAPP Directive, which is designed to provide journalists and NGOs with much-needed protection from abusive cross-border lawsuits intended solely to silence or intimidate them. Such strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are frequently used against journalists in Croatia and Greece, Liberties noted in the report.

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stuffnonsenseandotherthings · 2 months

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Love in the Big City Part 3 - Notes from a Reader (2)

Note 2: Enter Kylie

In part 3 of Love in the Big City Young finally introduces us to a character who, up until this point, we weren't aware had been present since the very first sentence: Kylie.

Kylie has been with Young since his military service, Kylie was with Young throughout his university years with Jae Hee, throughout his mothers 2 bouts of illness, throughout his relationship with Hyung, for five full years of his life.

And yet it is only now, in Part 3, that Young speaks her name.

And my question is why now?

Note 2.25: Perceptions of HIV in Korean Society

I touched briefly on the stigma and misinformation surrounding HIV in Korean society in this post here but I cannot stress enough how deep rooted those beliefs are:

"According to the 2015 national survey conducted by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) regarding HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs, the words most frequently associated with AIDS include “incurable disease” and “death” (25.3%), followed by “fear,” “horror,” and “danger” (11.5%)."

("Factors Influencing Young Korean Men’s Knowledge and Stigmatizing Attitudes about HIV Infection", Shim and Kim)

People living with HIV in Korean society face being tested for HIV without their consent (most Korean companies require their employees undergo annual health screenings), their medical information being shared without their knowledge (the illegality of the data breach is not always a barrier), medical professionals refusing to perform procedures, losing their jobs or being denied job opportunities, and being cut off from their family and friends should they choose to disclose their diagnosis due to poor understanding of what HIV is and how it is transmitted.

In addition to the social stigma, it's also important to understand that many people living with HIV in Korea struggle with poor self-perception and internalised stigma. A study conducted in 2017 found that:

"75% of all respondents felt self-blame due to their HIV status at least once in the past 12 months. 64.4% stated having feelings of guilt, and 59.6% reported having low self-esteem. 26.9 % also agreed with the statement “I had the feeling I should be punished”. [...] Only 13.5% stated that they experienced no negative feelings in connection with their HIV status in the past 12 months."

("Unknown Lives: Initial Findings from the People Living with HIV Stigma Index in South Korea 2016-2017")

Surrounded by so much stigma and misinformation as they are, it is unsurprising that disclosure rates amongst Koreans are lower than in many other countries ("Predictors Associated With HIV Status Non-Disclosure in Korea", Kim and Woo) and that many chose not to share their diagnosis with any one but especially those closest to them (and especially ).

Note 2.5: Young and Kylie

Young's experience with Kylie closely maps on to the experiences of Korean PLHIV (People Living with HIV) discussed above.

Firstly, he is diagnosed with Kylie after being tested for it without his consent (p. 135) and lives with the fear of a repeat scenario, especially in relation to how such an infringement on his person would affect his ability to get a job (pp. 163-164 and again p. 176). In addition to this, he is exposed first hand (and quite possibly partook in prior to his own diagnosis) the social stigma that accompanies a known HIV diagnosis:

"When I drank with them, some guy rumoured to be poz passed by, our resident clown Eun-Jung would say, 'Everyone cover your glasses,' and we'd all burst out laughing." (p. 157)

(On a side note, in a study I can frustratingly no longer find it was observed that HIV stigma was not much lower amongst the queer community in Korea than it was in any other cross section of society and this passage feels like a nod to how the lack of easily accessible information and long held misinformation has effectively barred queer Koreans with HIV from finding support amongst their own community.)

Finally, as blasé and as care-free as Young tries to sound about his diagnosis, there are definitely signs that he, like so many others, suffers with feelings of guilt, self-blame, and the belief that "[he] should be punished". Kylie is the reason he expects Gyu-Ho to walk away from him as soon as he discloses his diagnosis, Kylie is the reason he tells Gyu-Ho to sleep around in Japan and subsequently accepts things when he believes Gyu-Ho is continuing to do so once back in Korea, "Kylie is [his] burden to bare and [his] alone" (p. 166) even when Gyu-Ho is the one who willingly "potion[s] out [his] pills and water every morning" (p. 178) and obviously has no qualms about helping Young manage his illness.

Kylie is the reason Young lets Gyu-Ho go:

"Kylie.

I had wanted too much. I'd already been given so much in the past three years. When you try to have too much, you're bound to stumble at some point." (p. 176).

Note 2.75: Why Now?

Young's experience with Kylie is the mirror of many Korean PLHIV and this includes his reluctance to disclose his diagnosis to anyone. He doesn't tell his mother, he doesn't tell Hyung, he doesn't tell the T-aras, and he doesn't tell Jae Hee.

It's only natural that he wouldn't tell us, the reader, either.

It's none of our business.

This is his most closely guarded secret, his most vulnerable point, the spectre that looms over his life and threatens to take everything away if he puts a foot wrong or lets slip to the wrong person.

The only person in the story he shares Kylie's existence with (beyond his doctors) is Gyu-Ho and it is because Gyu-Ho knew and stayed and embraced him that we know.

So why now?

Because up until Gyu-Ho, Young probably didn't feel able to talk about Kylie to anyone, in anyway. Gyu-Ho's acceptance of his diagnosis and his refusal to let it scare him away changed that; it created a space in which Kylie could be talked about, not without fear (certainly not) but with the knowledge that he wouldn't be abandoned or judged or rejected, that he would be sympathised with and loved and supported.

"Because whatever it was or wasn't, you were you."

#litbc book club #litbc part 3 #i need to stop writing these before bed time I lose the plot half way through

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labourmarketanalysis · 4 months

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Wage Inequality and Labour Market

By Sraddha R

In this blog post, we'll look at three compelling studies that shed light on wage disparities in Europe and India, as well as the critical role of labour market institutions. Take a seat, and let's get started!

INTRODUCTION

The labour market serves as a barometer for trends in employment, economic well-being, and the broader societal challenges posed by wage inequality. Our investigation begins with an acknowledgement of the modern global economy's profound impact on globalisation, technological advancements, and evolving work structures. These seismic shifts reshape industries, redefine skill requirements, and, as a result, affect wage structures. Wage inequality, which reflects the unequal distribution of earnings across gender, ethnicity, education, and occupation, is at the heart of this complex issue.

Study 1: The Structure of the Labour Market and Wage Inequality in European Countries

This study focuses on France, Germany, and Italy, meticulously analysing changes in wage inequality from 2005 to 2013. The findings show distinct patterns, such as a decrease in wage inequality in Germany, a decrease in France with explicit job polarisation structures, and a significant increase in Italy. Using a decomposition approach, the study considers variables such as gender, marital status, health, experience, education, contract type, economic status, and job categories.

The study emphasises the role of national labor-market protections, historical policy spending, and broader socioeconomic and political factors in shaping wage inequality trends. Tailored policy recommendations are emerging, urging France and Germany to implement policies that promote women's participation and improve job-related careers. In contrast, Italy faces challenges such as a lack of a legal minimum wage and political instability, necessitating specific policy responses.

Study 2: Recent Trends in India's Wealth Inequality

Using data from the Annual Income and Expenditure Surveys, this paper investigates wealth inequality in India using decomposition analyses. The study differentiates contributions from within and between group components, identifying sources of wealth concentration and drawing parallels between wealth and consumption inequality trends.

According to the study, increasing wealth concentration in India is linked to neoliberal growth, emphasising the failure to address employment and earnings disparities. While the study provides valuable insights, it is suggested that a more explicit discussion of policy implications and interventions be included. A complex policy framework is required to guide future research and inform effective policy decisions.

Wage Inequality and Low Pay: The Role of Labour Market Institutions, Study 3

The impact of labour market institutions on low-wage employment in OECD countries is investigated in this study. It seeks to comprehend the impact of trade unions, collective bargaining, and wage regulations on wage distribution, particularly in low-wage industries. The study distinguishes between different wage distribution segments, recognising variations in the analysis through the use of bivariate correlations and incorporating various control variables such as minimum wages and unemployment benefits.

According to the study's findings, labour market institutions account for more than 60% of cross-country differences in low pay. According to the study, strong unions protect against low pay, whereas centralised bargaining systems effectively limit wage disparities at the top. Minimum wages and welfare systems have varying effects across wage distribution segments. Governments, according to the study, can address rising earnings disparities and low-wage employment by supporting effective labor market institutions.

Comparative Evaluation

Our comparative analysis reveals the distinct perspectives provided by each study, shedding light on various dimensions and dynamics in different countries. The in-depth examination of economic inequality ranges from changes in wage inequality in European countries to wealth dynamics in India and the impact of labour market institutions on low-wage employment in OECD countries.

Conclusion

Taken together, the studies emphasise the interconnectedness of factors influencing income distribution and the importance of nuanced, context-specific policy decisions. The journey has shed light on labour market dynamics and economic outcomes, emphasising the complexities of addressing wage inequality in our pursuit of an equitable future where the benefits of economic growth are shared by all.

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 16 days

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By: Bernard Lane

Published: Apr 14, 2024

Nine of the 15 gender clinics in a landmark international survey for the Cass review have admitted they do not routinely collect outcome data on their young patients.

This survey, together with a new evaluation of treatment guidelines for gender dysphoria, gives unprecedented insights into the workings of gender clinics around the world offering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.

In the 2022-23 survey, six clinics said they “routinely collected some outcome data”: one of these clinics gave no further detail; one noted the number of patients discontinuing treatment; another used measures of quality of life; two were taking part in cohort studies; and the sixth clinic repeated some baseline assessments. Nine clinics acknowledged “not routinely collecting outcome data.”

The report of the survey results1, published by researchers from the University of York earlier this month, identified clinics by country, not name. Of the clinics that took part, Australia and the Netherlands were prominent with five and four clinics respectively.

Poor data collection was central to the controversy over the London-based Tavistock youth gender clinic.

The Cass review had planned to run a data-linkage study—with help from adult gender clinics—to learn the outcomes of the Tavistock’s 9,000-odd former patients.

The missing long-term data would allow clinicians, young patients and parents to make informed decisions about treatment. The review said it was to be the largest study of its kind in the world.

However, six of the seven adult clinics refused to co-operate. One stated reason was that “the study outcomes focus on adverse health events, for which the clinics do not feel primarily responsible.”

Another adult clinic said, “The unintended outcome of the study is likely to be a high-profile national report that will be misinterpreted, misrepresented or actively used to harm patients and disrupt the work of practitioners across the gender dysphoria pathway.”

On April 12, however, The Times newspaper reported that the uncooperative adult clinics had “bowed to pressure to share [the] missing data”.

Mostly medical

In the York University international survey, ordered by the Cass review, all 15 youth gender clinics said they used a multi-disciplinary team, but researchers concluded there was a “paucity” of psychosocial therapy interventions such as psychotherapy or cognitive behaviour therapy. Five clinics did not offer any of these non-medical interventions in-house.

All gender clinics told researchers that “genital reconstructive surgery”—the creation of a pseudo vagina, for example—was “accessible only from age 18.” The youngest age for “masculinising chest surgery” (a double mastectomy) was reported as 16. In fact, there are documented cases in Australia of 15-year-olds approved for transgender mastectomy. Genital surgery is legally available to minors2 in Australia and practised in America.

“Only five clinics reported routine discussion of fertility3 preferences, and only two discussed sexuality4. Finland was the only country to report routinely assessing for history of trauma5,” the final Cass report says in its commentary on the survey.

In separate studies for the Cass review, three independent reviewers evaluated the quality of 21 guidelines for treatment of gender dysphoria in minors.

Included were international guidelines (from the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH); documents from North America (for example, the 2018 policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics); from Europe (the guideline of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists, for example, and Denmark’s); as well as guidelines from the Asia-Pacific and Africa.

“WPATH has been highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York appraisal process to lack developmental rigour,” the Cass report says.

The York researchers chart patterns of “circular” cross-referencing between guidelines to create a misleading impression of consensus in favour of the medicalised “gender-affirming” treatment approach.

“The guideline appraisal raises serious questions about the reliability of current guidelines. Most guidelines have not followed the international standards for [rigorous and independent] guideline development. Few guidelines are informed by a systematic review of empirical evidence [the gold standard for assessing the evidence supporting a health intervention] and there is a lack of transparency about how recommendations were developed,” the Cass report says.

“Healthcare services and professionals should take into account the variable quality of published guidelines to support the management of children and young people experiencing gender dysphoria. The lack of independence in many national and regional guidelines, and the limited evidence-based underpinning current guidelines, should be considered when utilising these for practice.”

The Cass report says it is “imperative” that gender clinic staff be “cognisant of the limitations in relation to the evidence base and fully understand the knowns and the unknowns.”

[ Chart: Number of youth gender clinic referrals over time by country. Source: Cass report ]

Bum steer

Staff at the Tavistock clinic misled patients and parents, or failed to correct their misconceptions, according to a new report from the Multi-Professional Review Group (MPRG) given oversight of treatment decisions from 2021.

These shortcomings of clinicians included playing down the extent of the unknowns of hormonal treatment; not explaining that puberty blockers are being used unlicensed and off-label; not challenging the reassuring but false parallel with the licensed use of puberty blockers for precocious (premature) puberty; not discussing the possibility that blockers will pause or slow psychosexual development; and not sharing figures showing the vast majority of children started on puberty blockers will go on to cross-sex hormones supposed to be taken lifelong.

The MPRG was also troubled by clinical documents showing misunderstanding of “the outcome of physical treatments” on the part of patients and parents.

In the York University study of treatment guidelines for gender dysphoria, only two were recommended for use by all three reviewers. These were recent, more cautious policies from Finland and Sweden. Both followed independent systematic reviews showing the evidence base for hormonal and surgical treatment of minors to be very weak and uncertain. Like the Cass review itself, the 2020 Finnish and 2022 Swedish guidelines recognise that puberty blockers are experimental and should not be routine treatment.

Although all the guidelines in the study agreed on the need for a multidisciplinary team to treat gender-distressed minors, the “most striking problem” shown by analysis of these documents was “the lack of any consensus6 on the purpose of the assessment process”, the Cass report says.

“Some guidelines were focused on diagnosis, some on… eligibility for hormones, some on psychosocial assessment, and some on readiness for medical interventions7.

“Only the Swedish and [the 2022] WPATH 8th version guidelines contain detail on the assessment process8. Both recommend that the duration, structure and content of the assessment be varied according to age, complexity and gender development.

“Very few guidelines recommend formal measures/clinical tools to assess gender dysphoria, and a separate analysis demonstrated that the formal measures that exist are poorly validated.”

Nor was there any consensus on “when psychological or hormonal interventions should be offered and on what basis.”

A survey of staff at the Tavistock clinic, undertaken as part of the Cass review, found specialists divided on whether or not “assessment should seek to make a differential diagnosis, ruling out other potential [non-gender9] causes of the child or young person’s distress.”

Arguing for an ambitious research program well beyond a possible clinical trial of puberty blockers, the Cass report says the field of youth gender dysphoria is one of “remarkably weak evidence” where health professionals are “afraid to openly discuss their views” because of vilification and bullying.

“Although some think the clinical approach should be based on a social justice model, the NHS works in an evidence-based way,” the report says.

“The gaps in the evidence base regarding all aspects of gender care for children and young people have been highlighted, from epidemiology through to assessment, diagnosis10 and intervention. It is troubling that so little is known about this cohort and their outcomes.

“Based on a single Dutch study, which suggested that puberty blockers may improve psychological wellbeing for a narrowly defined group of children with gender incongruence [or dysphoria], the practice spread at pace to other countries.

“Some practitioners abandoned normal clinical approaches to holistic assessment, which has meant that this group of [gender-distressed] young people have been exceptionalised compared to other young people with similarly complex presentations.”

[ Chart: Age and sex on referral to the Tavistock clinic from 2018-2022. Source: Cass report ]

Who to trust?

The Cass report says the missing evidence “makes it difficult to provide adequate information on which a young person and their family can make an informed choice.”

“A trusted source of information is needed on all aspects of medical care, but in particular it is important to defuse/manage expectations that have been built up by claims about the efficacy of puberty blockers.

“The option to provide masculinising or feminising hormones from the age of 16 is available, but the [Cass] review would recommend an extremely cautious clinical approach and a strong clinical rationale for providing hormones before the age of 18. This would keep options open during this important developmental window, allowing time for management of any co-occurring [non-gender] conditions11, building of resilience, and fertility preservation, if required.”

The review stresses that “consent is more than just capacity and competence. It requires clinicians to ensure that the proposed intervention is clinically indicated as they have a duty to offer appropriate treatment. It also requires the patient to be provided with appropriate and sufficient information about the risks, benefits and expected outcomes of the treatment.”

“Assessing whether a hormone pathway is indicated is challenging. A formal diagnosis of gender dysphoria is frequently cited as a prerequisite for accessing hormone treatment. However, it is not reliably predictive of whether that young person will have long-standing gender incongruence in the future, or whether medical intervention will be the best option for them.”

Advocates for the gender-affirming approach assert that detransition and treatment regret are vanishingly rare, whereas suicide risk for those denied medical intervention is claimed to be very high.

The Cass report says: “It has been suggested that hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in this population, but the evidence found did not support this conclusion.”

“The percentage of people treated with hormones who subsequently detransition remains unknown due to the lack of long-term follow-up studies, although there is suggestion that numbers are increasing.”

The report cites three reasons why the true extent of detransition is unlikely to be clear for some time—patients who decide medicalisation was a mistake may not wish to return to their former clinic to announce this fact; there is a post-treatment honeymoon period and clinicians suggest it may take 5-10 years before a decision to detransition; and the surge in patient numbers only began within the last decade.

Faced with uncertainty and a lack of good evidence, those with responsibility—from health ministers and hospital managers down to gender clinicians—rely on treatment guidelines supposed to advise on clinical practice according to the “best-available” evidence and expert opinion.

In the York University guideline analysis, the 21 documents were rated on six domains, the key two being the rigour of their development and their editorial independence.

“[Rigour] includes systematically searching the evidence, being clear about the link between recommendations and supporting evidence, and ensuring that health benefits, side effects and risks have been considered in formulating the recommendations,” the Cass report says.

Only the Finnish and Swedish guidelines scored above 50 per cent for rigour. Only these two documents, the Cass report says, link “the lack of robust evidence about medical treatments to a recommendation that treatments should be provided under a research framework or within a research clinic. They are also the only guidelines that have been informed by an ethical review conducted as part of the guideline development.”

“Most of the guidelines described insufficient evidence about the risks and benefits of medical treatment in adolescents, particularly in relation to long-term outcomes. Despite this, many then went on to cite this same evidence to recommend medical treatments,” the report says.

“Alternatively, they referred to other guidelines that recommend medical treatments as their basis for making the same recommendations. Early versions of two international guidelines, the Endocrine Society 2009 and WPATH 7th version guidelines, influenced nearly all the other guidelines.

“These two guidelines are also closely interlinked, with WPATH adopting Endocrine Society recommendations, and acting as a co-sponsor and providing input to drafts of the Endocrine Society guideline. The WPATH 8th version cited many of the other national and regional guidelines to support some of its recommendations, despite these guidelines having been considerably influenced by the WPATH 7th version.

“The circularity of this approach may explain why there has been an apparent consensus on key areas of practice despite the evidence being poor.”

Sometimes these gender-affirming guidelines seek to buttress a strong evidence claim with a citation to a study that is weak or involves a different patient group.

The Cass report notes that, “The WPATH 8th version’s narrative on gender-affirming medical treatment for adolescents does not reference its own systematic review [of the evidence], but instead states: ‘Despite the slowly growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of early medical intervention, the number of studies is still low, and there are few outcome studies that follow youth into adulthood. Therefore, a systematic review regarding outcomes of treatment in adolescents is not possible’.”

Despite WPATH insisting such an evidence review is not possible, this is precisely what health authorities and experts have undertaken since 2019 in several jurisdictions—Finland, Sweden, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Florida, Germany, and University of York research commissioned by the Cass review.

Yet in the 8th and current version of its guideline, WPATH makes the confident statement that, “There is strong evidence demonstrating the benefits in quality of life and well-being of gender-affirming treatments, including endocrine and surgical procedures… Gender-affirming interventions are based on decades of clinical experience and research; therefore, they are not considered experimental, cosmetic, or for the mere convenience of a patient. They are safe and effective at reducing gender incongruence and gender dysphoria”.

But WPATH “overstates the strength of the evidence” for its treatment recommendations, the Cass report says.

1 In the survey, there was one clinic each from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Northern Ireland, Norway and Spain. The response rate was 38 per cent.

2 In Australia there is no good public data on trans surgery for minors.

3 Early puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones are expected to sterilise young people and may also impair future sexual function.

4 Some sizeable proportion of gender clinic patients might grow up in healthy bodies and accept their same-sex attraction were it not for trans medicalisation, according to testimony from detransitioners, clinicians’ reports and data.

5 Trauma from a history of sexual abuse, for example, or exposure to domestic violence is thought to be among the many possible underlying causes of what presents as gender dysphoria. The Multi-Professional Review Group (MPRG), given oversight of Tavistock treatment decisions from 2021-23, was troubled by the lack of curiosity by the clinic’s staff about the effect of a child’s “physical or mental illness within the family, abusive or addictive environments, bereavement, cultural or religious background, etc.”

6 Critics of the “gender-affirming” treatment approach say it is not mainstream medicine because the “trans child” in effect self-diagnoses while clinicians avoid differential diagnosis and attribute mental health disorders and other pre-existing issues to a “transphobic” society.

7 “In most cases [at the Tavistock clinic] children and parents were asking to progress on to puberty blockers from the very first appointment”, according to the MPRG.

8 In the MPRG’s opinion, the patient notes from the Tavistock “rarely provide a structured history or physical assessment, however the submissions to the MPRG suggest that the children have a wide range of childhood, familial and congenital conditions.”

9 Once referred to the Tavistock, patients typically were no longer seen by child and adolescent mental health services.

10 According to the MPRG, gender dysphoria in the diagnostic manual DSM-5 “has a low threshold based on overlapping criteria, and is likely to create false positives. Young people who do not go on to have an enduring cross-sex gender identity may have met the criteria in childhood. And early to mid-childhood social transition may be influential in maintaining adherence to the criteria. Sex role and gender expression stereotyping is present within the diagnostic criteria—preferred toys, clothes, etc—not reflecting that many toys, games and activities [today] are less exclusively gendered than in previous decades.”

11 The MPRG said it was “notable that until the child and family’s first appointment at [the Tavistock] they have received little, if any, support from health, social care, or education professionals. Most children and parents have felt isolated and desperate for support and have therefore turned for information to the media and online resources, with many accessing LGBTQ+ and [gender dysphoria] support groups or private providers which appear to be mainly ‘affirmative’ in nature, and children and families have moved forward with social transition. This history/journey is rarely examined closely by [Tavistock clinicians] for signs of difficulty [or] regret.”

Critics have described "gender affirming care" - that is, sex-trait modification - as "medical experimentation." This is incorrect. In a medical experiment, you actually collect data and monitor the participants in the experiment. They don't do that. They're cowboys violating all medical ethics - "first, do no harm" - for ideology, money or both.

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 25 days

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New SpaceTime out Friday....

SpaceTime 20240405 Series 27 Episode 42

Claims water persisted in Mars' Gale crater for longer than previously thought

Scientists have found signs that water was abundant in Mars' Gale crater long after the planet was thought to have become dry and inhospitable.

The Sun’s spectacular double solar flare

The Sun has become increasingly active over the past week with an almost continuous display of solar flare activity including a spectacular double solar flare event described as the most powerful eruption since 2017.

Is Aurora real after all

There are persistent reports that the Pentagon has developed and is now testing a successor to the famous A-12 -- SR-71 Blackbird --the world’s fastest jet.

April Skywatch

Our nearest neighbouring star system Alpha Centauri -- the iconic constellation Southern Cross -- and the annual Lyrids meteor shower are among the highlights of the April night skies on SkyWatch.

SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.

The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com

SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/

SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary

SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary

SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary

SpaceTime -- A brief history

SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States. The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science. SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research. The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network. Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor. Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. Later, Gary became part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and was one of its first presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually. However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage. Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently. StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016. Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #esa #astrophysics #spacetimewithstuartgary #starstuff #spacetime

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