Month: February 2023

Hundreds of Afghan refugees facing extreme delays in the approval of U.S. visas protested in Pakistan’s capital Sunday, as an American program to help relocate at-risk Afghans fleeing Taliban rule stalls.

The U.S. government’s Priority 1 and Priority 2, known as P1 and P2 refugee programs were meant to fast-track visas for at-risk Afghans including journalists and rights activists after the Taliban takeover in their homeland. Those eligible must have worked for the U.S. government, a U.S.-based media organization or nongovernmental organization in Afghanistan and must be referred by the U.S.-based employer.

Applicants have been waiting in Pakistan for more than one and a half years for U.S. officials to process their visa applications. The delay in approving visas and resettlement has left Afghan applicants in a highly vulnerable position as they contend with economic hardship and lack of access to health, education and other services in Pakistan.

Mohammad Baqir Ahmadi, who said he’d helped to organize the protest outside of Pakistan’s National Press Club in Islamabad, said many of the Afghans present were facing problems in extending visas to wait out the application process in Pakistan.

Protesters said that applicants had yet to receive the preliminary interview necessary to begin the visa application process.

“We, the holders of P1/P2 cases, your allies, and colleagues, played significant roles toward expansion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. We are currently asking for your support and companionship in the bad days of life,” read one banner held by Afghan demonstrators.

Hesamuddin, an Afghan who is waiting on the processing of his P2 case, said authorities should evacuate Afghan P1 and P2 applicants to a country where the necessary resettlement support centers (RSC) are open and able to conduct interviews. “They must evacuate us to another country where RSCs are functioning and can process there,” he said.

Under U.S. rules, applicants must first relocate to a third country for their cases to be processed, where it initially can take up to 14 to 18 months and cases are processed through the resettlement support centers.

The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew. Many Afghans sought to leave in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

But they have progressively imposed more restrictions, particularly on women. They have banned women and girls from schooling beyond the sixth grade, barred them from most jobs and demanded they cover their faces when outside.
…

U.S. intelligence shows that China’s President Xi Jinping has instructed his country’s military to “be ready by 2027″ to invade Taiwan though he may be currently harboring doubts about his ability to do so given Russia’s experience in its war with Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns said.

Burns, in a television interview that aired Sunday, stressed that the United States must take “very seriously” Xi’s desire to ultimately control Taiwan even if military conflict is not inevitable.

“We do know, as has been made public, that President Xi has instructed the PLA, the Chinese military leadership, to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean that he’s decided to invade in 2027 or any other year as well,” Burns told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I think our judgment at least is that President Xi and his military leadership have doubts today about whether they could accomplish that invasion,” he said.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war that ended with the Communist Party in control of the mainland. The self-governing island acts like a sovereign nation yet is not recognized by the United Nations or any major country. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter formally recognized the government in Beijing and cut nation-to-nation ties with Taiwan. In response, Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act, creating a benchmark for a continuing relationship.

Taiwan has received numerous displays of official American support for the island democracy in the face of growing shows of force by Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory. President Joe Biden has said that American forces would defend Taiwan if China tried to invade. The White House says U.S. policy has not changed in making clear that Washington wants to see Taiwan’s status resolved peacefully. It is silent as to whether U.S. forces might be sent in response to a Chinese attack.

In Sunday’s interview, Burns said the support from the U.S. and European allies for Ukraine following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of that country may be acting as a potential deterrent to Chinese officials for now but said the risks of a possible attack on Taiwan will only grow stronger.

“I think, as they’ve looked at Putin’s experience in Ukraine, that’s probably reinforced some of those doubts,” Burns said. “So, all I would say is that I think the risks of, you know, a potential use of force probably grow the further into this decade you get and beyond it, into the following decade as well.

“So that’s something obviously, that we watch very, very carefully,” he said.
…

Last year, the top winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards all corresponded exactly with the Academy Awards winners. Will Sunday’s SAGs offer the same preview?

The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will begin at 8 p.m. EST Sunday and be streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page. After the awards, presented by the film and television acting guild SAG-AFRTA, lost their broadcast home at TNT/TBS, Netflix signed on to stream the ceremony. Though future editions will be streamed live directly on Netflix, this year’s show, at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, will be on the streaming service’s YouTube page and its social media channels.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” come in with a co-leading five nominations. Each film is up for the Guild’s top award, best ensemble, along with “Babylon,” “The Fabelmans” and “Women Talking.”

The SAG Awards are considered one of the most reliable Oscar bellwethers. Actors make up the biggest percentage of the film academy, so their choices have the largest sway. Last year, “CODA” triumphed at SAG before winning best picture at the Oscars, while Ariana DeBose, Will Smith, Jessica Chastain and Troy Kotsur all won both a SAG Award and an Academy Award.

With both supporting categories seemingly sown up by Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) and Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Sunday’s SAG Award could offer the most clarity in the lead acting awards.

Best actress could go to either Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) or Cate Blanchett (“Tár”). While Andrea Riseborough’s much-debated campaign led to an Academy Awards nomination, some of the most notable Oscar snubs are up for best actress. Though nominated by the actors’ guild, Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola Davis (“The Woman King”) were overlooked by the academy, prompting some to decry racial bias in Hollywood. Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) is also nominated.

In the best actor category, Austin Butler (“Elvis”), Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) all are considered contenders with a realistic shot of winning. The Guild also nominated Adam Sandler (“Hustle”) and Bill Nighy (“Living”).

On the TV side, nominated for best ensemble in a drama series are: “Better Call Saul,” “The Crown,” “Ozark,” “Severance” and “The White Lotus.” Up for best comedy series ensemble are the casts of “Abbott Elementary,” “Barry,” “The Bear,” “Hacks” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

Presenters on Sunday include Zendaya (who scored her first SAG nomination for her leading performance in “Euphoria,” Aubrey Plaza, Jenna Ortega, Adam Scott, Chastain and Jeff Bridges. Sally Field is to receive the SAG lifetime achievement award, an honor to be presented to her by Andrew Garfield.
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Angela Bassett won entertainer of the year at Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards on a night that also saw her take home an acting trophy for the television series “9-1-1.”

The Bassett-led Marvel superhero sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” won best motion picture at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on BET from Pasadena, California.

Viola Davis won outstanding actress for the action epic “The Woman King,” a project she championed and starred in. Will Smith won for the slavery drama “Emancipation,” his first release since last year’s Academy Awards, where he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage before winning his first best actor trophy.

“I never want to not be brave enough as a woman, as a Black woman, as an artist,” Davis said, referencing a quote from her character in the film, which she called her magnum opus. “I thank everyone who was involved with ‘The Woman King’ because that was just nothing but high-octane bravery.”

“Abbott Elementary” won for outstanding comedy series. Creator and series star Quinta Brunson invited her costars onstage and praised shows like “black-ish” for paving the way for her series.

The 54 NAACP Image Awards were presented Saturday in Pasadena, California, with Queen Latifah hosting. Serena Williams received the Jackie Robinson Sports award, which recognizes individuals in sports for high achievement in athletics along with their pursuit of social justice, civil rights and community involvement.
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 A powerful winter storm that swept down the West Coast with flooding and frigid temperatures shifted its focus to southern California on Saturday, swelling rivers to dangerous levels and dropping snow in even low-lying areas around Los Angeles.

The National Weather Service said it was one of the strongest storms to ever hit southwest California and even as the volume of wind and rain dropped, it continued to have significant impact including snowfall down to elevations as low as 1,000 feet (305 meters). Hills around suburban Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, were blanketed in white, and snow also surprised inland suburbs to the east.

Rare blizzard warnings for the mountains and widespread flood watches were ending late in the day as the storm tapered off in the region. Forecasters said there would be a one-day respite before the next storm arrives on Monday.

After days of fierce winds, toppled trees and downed wires, more than 120,000 California utility customers remained without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. And Interstate 5, the West Coast’s major north-south highway, remained closed due to heavy snow and ice in Tejon Pass through the mountains north of Los Angeles.

Multiday precipitation totals as of Saturday morning included a staggering 81 inches (205 centimeters) of snow at the Mountain High resort in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles and up to 64 inches (160 centimeters) farther east at Snow Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Rainfall totals as of late Saturday morning were equally stunning, including nearly 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) at Los Angeles County’s Cogswell Dam and nearly 10.5 inches (26.6 cm) in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.

“Quite a remarkable storm the last few days with historic amounts of precip and snow down to elevations that rarely see snow,” the LA-area weather office wrote.

The Los Angeles River and other waterways that normally flow at a trickle or are dry most of the year were raging with runoff Saturday. The Los Angeles Fire Department used a helicopter to rescue four homeless people who were stranded in the river’s major flood control basin. Two were taken to a hospital with hypothermia, said spokesperson Brian Humphrey.

In the Valencia area of north Los Angeles County, the roiling Santa Clara River carried away three motorhomes early Saturday after carving into an embankment where an RV park is located. No one was hurt, KCAL-TV reported, but one resident described the scene as devastating.

The storm, fueled by low pressure rotating off the coast, did not depart quietly. Lightning strikes shut down LA County beaches and scattered bursts of snow, showers and thunderstorms persisted.

Derek Maiden, 57, who lives in a tent in LA’s Echo Park neighborhood, collected cans in the rain to take to a recycling center. He said this winter has been wetter than usual. “It’s miserable when you’re outside in the elements,” he said.

Meanwhile, people farther east were struggling to deal with the fallout from storms earlier this week.

More than 350,000 customers were without power in Michigan as of early Saturday afternoon, according to reports from the two main utilities in the state, DTE and Consumers Energy. Both said they hope to have the lights back on for most of their customers by Sunday night.

Brian Wheeler, a spokesman for Consumers Energy, said half an inch (1.27 centimeters) of ice weighed down some power lines — equivalent to the weight of a baby grand piano.

“People are not just angry but struggling,” said Em Perry, environmental justice director for Michigan United, a group that advocates for economic and racial justice. “People are huddling under blankets for warmth.”

She said the group will demand that utilities reimburse residents for the cost to purchase generators or replace spoiled groceries.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Allison Rinker was using a borrowed generator to keep her 150-year-old house warm Saturday after two nights in the cold and dark.

“We were all surviving, but spirits were low on the second day,” she said. “As soon as the heat came back and we were able to have one or two lights running, it was like a complete flip in attitude.”

After driving to a relative’s home to store food, Rinker, 27, compared the destruction of trees to tornado damage.

“The ice that was falling off the trees as it was melting was hitting our windshield so hard, I was afraid it was going to crack,” she said. “There’s just tree limbs everywhere, half of the trees just falling down. The destruction is insane.”

Back in California, the Weather Prediction Center of the National Weather Service forecast heavy snow over the Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada through the weekend.

The low-pressure system was also expected to bring widespread rain and snow in southern Nevada by Saturday afternoon and across northwest Arizona Saturday night and Sunday morning, the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said.

An avalanche warning was issued for the Sierra Nevada backcountry around Lake Tahoe, which straddles the California-Nevada border. Nearly 2 feet (61 cm) of new snow had fallen by Friday and up to another 5 feet (1.5 meters) was expected when another storm moves in with the potential for gale-force winds and high-intensity flurries Sunday, the weather service said.

In Arizona, the heaviest snow was expected late Saturday through midday Sunday, with up to a foot of new snow possible in Flagstaff, forecasters said.

Weekend snow also was forecast for parts of the upper Midwest to the Northeast, with pockets of freezing rain over some areas of the central Appalachians. The storm was expected to reach the central high Plains by Sunday evening.

At least three people have died in the coast-to-coast storms. A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming into contact with a downed power line, while in Rochester, Minnesota, a pedestrian died after being hit by a city-operated snowplow. Authorities in Portland, Oregon, said a person died of hypothermia.

Much of Portland was shut down with icy roads after the city’s second-heaviest snowfall on record this week: nearly 11 inches (28 centimeters). While the city saw sunny skies and temperatures approaching 40 degrees Saturday afternoon, the reprieve — and thaw — was short-lived. More snow was expected overnight and Sunday.
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The creator of the Dilbert comic strip faced a backlash of cancellations Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”

Various media publishers across the U.S. denounced the comments by Dilbert creator Scott Adams as racist, hateful and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work.

Andrews McMeel Syndication, which distributes Dilbert, did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment. But Adams defended himself on social media against those who he said “hate me and are canceling me.”

Dilbert is a long-running comic that pokes fun at office-place culture.

The backlash began following an episode this past week of the YouTube show, Real Coffee with Scott Adams. Among other topics, Adams referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.”

Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of Black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure.

The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase was popularized in 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the discussion forum 4chan but then began being used by some white supremacists.

Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.”

“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” Adams said on his Wednesday show.

In another episode of his online show Saturday, Adams said he had been making a point that “everyone should be treated as an individual” without discrimination.

“But you should also avoid any group that doesn’t respect you, even if there are people within the group who are fine,” Adams said.

The Los Angeles Times cited Adams’ “racist comments” while announcing Saturday that Dilbert will be discontinued Monday in most editions and that its final run in the Sunday comics — which are printed in advance — will be March 12.

The San Antonio Express-News, which is part of Hearst Newspapers, said Saturday that it will drop the Dilbert comic strip, effective Monday, “because of hateful and discriminatory public comments by its creator.”

The USA Today Network tweeted Friday that it also will stop publishing Dilbert “due to recent discriminatory comments by its creator.”

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and other publications that are part of Advance Local media also announced that they are dropping Dilbert.

“This is a decision based on the principles of this news organization and the community we serve,” wrote Chris Quinn, editor of The Plain Dealer. “We are not a home for those who espouse racism. We certainly do not want to provide them with financial support.”

Christopher Kelly, vice president of content for NJ Advance Media, wrote that the news organization believes in “the free and fair exchange of ideas.”

“But when those ideas cross into hate speech, a line must be drawn,” Kelly wrote.
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When Miya Iwataki and other Japanese Americans fought in the 1980s for the U.S. government to apologize to the families it imprisoned during World War II, Black politicians and civil rights leaders were integral to the movement. 

Thirty-five years after they won that apology — and survivors of prison camps received $20,000 each — those advocates are now demanding atonement for Black Americans whose ancestors were enslaved. From California to Washington, D.C., activists are joining revived reparations movements and pushing for formal government compensation for the lasting harm of slavery’s legacy on subsequent generations, from access to housing and education to voting rights and employment. 

Advocating for reparations is “the right thing to do,” said Iwataki, a resident of South Pasadena, California who is in her 70s. She cited cross-cultural solidarity that has built up over decades. 

Black lawmakers such as the late California congressmen Mervyn Dymally and Ron Dellums played critical roles in winning the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which formalized the government’s apology and redress payments. 

Last Sunday marked the 81st anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing an executive order that allowed the government to force an estimated 125,000 people — two-thirds of them U.S. citizens — from their homes and businesses, and incarcerate them in desolate, barbed-wire camps throughout the west. 

“We want to help other communities win reparations, because it was so important to us,” Iwataki said. 

After stalling for decades at the federal level, reparations for slavery has received new interest amid a national reckoning over the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. Amid nationwide protests that year, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation that established a first-in-the-nation task force to address the topic of slave reparations. 

Other cities and counties have since followed, including Boston, St. Louis, and San Francisco, where an advisory committee issued a draft recommendation last year proposing a lump-sum payment of $5 million apiece for eligible individuals. 

In December, the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition, alongside more than 70 other Japanese American and Asian American organizations, submitted a letter calling on the Biden administration to establish a presidential commission. 

Japanese American activists in California are studying the landmark report issued by California’s task force — and plan to reach out to college students, churches and other community groups to raise awareness about why Black reparations is needed — and how it intersects with their own struggle. 

Reparations critics say that monetary compensation and other forms of atonement are not necessary when no one alive today was enslaved or a slave owner, overlooking the inequities today impacting later generations of Black Americans. 

Retired teacher Kathy Masaoka of Los Angeles, who testified in 1981 for Japanese American redress and in 2021 in favor of federal reparations legislation, says they are just beginning to educate their own community about Black history and anti-Black prejudice. 

She said that starting conversations in her community is “undoing a lot of ideas that people have” about American history and the case for reparations, said Masaoka, 74. 

San Francisco attorney Don Tamaki, who is Japanese, is the only person appointed to California’s nine-member task force who is not Black. 

At meetings, he shared how critical it was for organizers to arrange for former detainees to tell their stories to national media outlets. Redress advocates had to make hard decisions though, such as agreeing to legislation that denied reparations to an estimated 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese descent who were also incarcerated. 

There is no equivalence to the experiences of the Japanese American and Black American communities, Tamaki said, but there are similar lessons, such as the need for a massive public education campaign. 

Only 30% of U.S. adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center in 2021 supported reparations for slavery, 77% of whom were Black Americans. Support among Latinos and Asians was 39% and 33%, respectively, and white Americans had the lowest rate of support, at 18%. 

Some advocates said that the idea of reparations for the World War II incarceration camps was once considered outlandish. But many young, third-generation Japanese Americans were inspired to mobilize from civil rights and ethnic pride movements, including the Black Panther Party and the Brown Berets, who promoted Chicano rights. 

Some advocates were outraged by — and threatened to boycott — hearings set up by a 1980 federal commission on Japanese internment, called it a delaying tactic. But the testimonies that came out of public hearings the following year served as a turning point. 

For the first time, many survivors shared stories that even their families didn’t know, educating not only the younger generation but the broader American public. 

“There was not a dry eye in the house at those hearings,” said Iwataki, who worked with the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations to arrange transportation to the hearings, as well as meals and translators, for former detainees. 

Many young Japanese Americans went from frustration with their grandparents and parents for not fighting back to understanding how vulnerable they were, said Ron Wakabayashi, who was then national director of the Japanese American Citizens League. The average age of second-generation Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in the camps was only 18, he said. 

“Probably the more important thing that we got out of that was the generational healing, and the restoration of our identity,” said Wakabayashi, 78. 

The commission found no military necessity for the camps, saying the detentions stemmed broadly from “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership,” according to a report issued in 1983. 

President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing living survivors with a formal apology and $20,000 each for the “grave injustice” done to them. It would cost the U.S. government about $1.6 billion. 

Throughout the process, activists said, the Congressional Black Caucus remained a steadfast supporter of reparations. Then-Representative Dymally authored a reparations bill in 1982, and later provided his staff and office support so that advocates could lobby other members of Congress. 

Another California congressman, Representative Dellums, delivered a searing speech on the House floor of being a 6-year-old boy watching as his best friend, a Japanese American boy of the same age, was taken away to the camps. 

A year after Reagan signed Japanese reparations into law, the late Congressman John Conyers introduced a bill to consider slavery reparations, named after the promise of 40 acres and a mule that the U.S. initially made to freed slaves. The bill has gone nowhere. 

Dreisen Heath, an advocate for Black reparations, plans to travel from her home in the Washington, D.C. area to California in coming months to join artist and writer traci kato-kiriyama, whose parents were incarcerated as children, in leading workshops and educational forums.

They hope to engage young Japanese American and Black American students in the current movement.

“Nothing ever worthwhile in this country has ever happened without intergenerational, multiracial [coalition] building,” said Heath. “I see the Japanese American community, and by extension the Asian American community, indispensable to realizing reparations for Black people.” 
…

It was a Saturday of learning for U.S. first lady Jill Biden in Kenya.

She praised young adults for learning about safe sex and dating practices, attended a meeting of women who created their own banking system and chatted with local entrepreneurs who have been helped by a program that connects tractor owners and farmers.

All three programs aim to help women and young people take control of their lives so they can support themselves and their families. Biden has been highlighting U.S.-backed efforts to empower these groups during a five-day, two-country visit to Africa this week.

“These are issues that really all people need to talk about and yet, somehow, they don’t, and the consequences of not talking about it are so dire,” Biden told dozens of young people after talking with them about safe sex, condom use and birth control at the Shujaaz Konnect Festival, a local youth empowerment event. “So, I love seeing the young people here.”

At a tent where young people were having networking-like conversations, they showed her a questionnaire they use to spur discussion. The first question: “What would you say if I told you I had a condom in my pocket right now?”

Biden laughed. “And this is the first time they’re meeting?” she asked.

A Shujaaz representative said such blunt propositions help teenagers and young adults overcome shyness, saying that it’s sometimes easier to ask strangers these types of questions.

“I’m surprised you don’t start with like, ‘What’s your biggest achievement?’ rather than, ‘I have a condom in my pocket,’” the first lady said.

The festival is a collaboration with MTV Staying Alive Foundation, which works with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to help teach young Kenyans how to avoid becoming infected with HIV, which causes AIDS.

Biden, who is on the fourth day of her five-day trip to Namibia and Kenya, has spent the week promoting HIV/AIDS education programs and initiatives that teach woman and young people skills they need to find jobs or start businesses.

Her visit is part of a commitment by President Joe Biden to deepen U.S. engagement with the nations of Africa, many of which feel overlooked by the United States. Part of that effort is also about countering China’s influence on the continent that Beijing has achieved through increased trade and spending on roads and other public works projects.

Biden was scheduled to cap her visit by traveling Sunday to an area near Kenya’s border with Tanzania to raise awareness about a severe drought that is endangering lives and livelihoods.

Earlier Saturday, the first lady went to a government community center in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, to attend a meeting of women small-business owners who participate in the Joyful Women program. Founded in 2009 by Rachel Ruto, Kenya’s first lady, the program promotes women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion.

Participants create “table banking” groups, pooling their resources so they can lend each other money they cannot get from traditional banks. Some of the women have used the loans to start businesses. One woman said she opened a day care center.

“It’s pretty ingenious that women found a way to support other women, to lift them up and to increase economic prosperity for families, right?” said Biden, who visited a different empowerment program on a 2010 stop at Kibera.

“I’ve always taught my own daughter and my granddaughter the importance of being financially independent and, so now, here, you’ve found a way to do your own banking system, which is pretty incredible,” Biden said. Her granddaughter, Naomi, 29, sat nearby.

Before taking her seat at the table, Biden was wrapped from the waist down in an apron-like cloth known as a leso or kanga that women wear in the home.

At a separate event, Biden chatted with local entrepreneurs, small farmers and others who have been helped by Hello Tractor, which connects tractor owners and farmers who need the machinery.

The first lady also laid a wreath at the August 7th Memorial Park to honor those who were killed the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. More than 200 people were killed, including 12 Americans. More than 4,500 people were wounded. 
…

In its latest ambitious roadmap to tackle climate change, California relies on capturing carbon out of the air and storing it deep underground on a scale that’s not yet been seen in the United States.

The plan — advanced by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration — comes just as the Biden administration has boosted incentives for carbon capture projects to spur more development nationwide. Ratcheting up 20 years of climate efforts, Newsom last year signed a law requiring California to remove as much carbon from the air as it emits by 2045 — one of the world’s fastest timelines for achieving so-called carbon neutrality. He directed the powerful California Air Resources Board to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and build massive amounts of carbon dioxide capture and storage.

To achieve its climate goals, California must rapidly transform an economy that’s larger than most nations’, but opposition to carbon capture from environmental groups and concerns about how to safely transport the gas may delay progress — practical and political obstacles the Democratic-led Legislature must now navigate.

Last year, the California state legislature passed a law that says no carbon dioxide may flow through new pipelines until the federal government finishes writing stronger safety regulations, a process that could take years. As a potential backup, the law directed the California Natural Resources Agency to write its own pipeline standards for lawmakers to consider, a report now more than three weeks overdue.

While there are other ways to transport carbon dioxide gas besides pipelines, such as trucks or ships, pipelines are considered key to making carbon capture happen at the level California envisions. Newsom said the state must capture 100 million metric tons of carbon each year by 2045 — about a quarter of what the state now emits annually.

“We do not expect to see (carbon capture and storage) happen at a large scale unless we are able to address that pipeline issue,” said Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change and research at the air board.

State Sen. Anna Caballero, who authored the carbon capture legislation, said the state’s goal will be to create a safety framework that’s even more robust than what the federal government will develop.

Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act increased federal funding for carbon capture, boosting payouts from $50 to $85 per ton for capturing carbon dioxide from industrial plants and storing it underground.

Without clarity on the state’s pipeline plans, the state is putting itself at a “competitive disadvantage” when it comes to attracting projects, said Sam Brown, a former attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency and partner at law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth.

The geology for storing carbon dioxide gas is rare, but California has it in parts of the Central Valley, a vast expanse of agricultural land running down the center of the state.

Oil and gas company California Resources Corp. is developing a project there to create hydrogen. It plans to capture carbon from that hydrogen facility and the natural gas plant that powers it. The carbon dioxide would then be stored in an old oil field. That doesn’t require special pipeline approval because it’s all happening within the company’s property.

But the company also wants to store emissions from other industries like manufacturing and transportation. Transporting that would rely on pipelines that can’t be built yet.

“These are parts of the economy that have to be decarbonized,” said Chris Gould, the company’s executive vice president and chief sustainability officer. “It makes economic sense to do it.”

Safety concerns increased in 2020 after a pipeline in Mississippi ruptured in a landslide, releasing a heavier-than-air plume of carbon dioxide that displaced oxygen near the ground. Forty-five people were treated at a hospital, and several lost consciousness. There are thousands of miles of carbon dioxide pipelines operating across the country and industry proponents call the event an anomaly. But the Mississippi rupture prompted federal regulators to explore tightening the existing rules for carbon pipelines.

Lupe Martinez, who lives in California’s Kern County, worries about what will happen as developers target the region for carbon storage.

He used to spray fields with pesticides without protective equipment. On windy days, he’d be soaked in chemicals. Martinez, who watched some of his fellow workers later fight cancer, says he was lied to about safety then and doesn’t believe promises that carbon capture is safe now.

“They treat us like guinea pigs,” said Martinez, a longtime labor activist.

The oil and gas industry’s emissions are a main cause of climate change and in the past the industry undermined sound evidence that greenhouse gases are deeply disturbing the climate. Now carbon capture — unproven as a major climate solution — will help the industry keep polluting places that are already heavily polluted, environmentalists argue. Instead of shutting down fossil fuel plants, carbon capture will increase their profits and extend their life, said Catherine Garoupa, executive director of the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition.

But advocates of carbon capture say it’s essential for Kern County oil and gas companies to find new ways to make money and keep people employed as California moves away from fossil fuels, an industry that is the “very fabric” of the region’s identity, said Lorelei Oviatt, director of Kern County Planning and Natural Resources.

Without a new revenue source like carbon capture, “Kern County will be the next Gary, Indiana,” she said, referring to the rust belt’s years-ago collapse.

There are currently no active carbon capture projects in California. To demonstrate the technology is viable and people can get permits for it, it’s essential to build the first projects, said George Peridas, director of carbon management partnerships at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

Peridas said one area with potential to store carbon dioxide is the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a vast estuary on the western edge of the Central Valley that’s a vital source of drinking water and an ecologically sensitive home to hundreds of species.
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Since its debut in 1971, an anti-pollution ad showing a man in Native American attire shedding a single tear at the sight of smokestacks and litter taking over a once unblemished landscape has become an indelible piece of TV pop culture.

It’s been referenced over the decades since on shows such as “The Simpsons” and “South Park” and in internet memes. But now a Native American advocacy group that was given the rights to the long-parodied public service announcement is retiring it, saying it has always been inappropriate.

The ad made the late actor Iron Eyes Cody, with his buckskins and long braids, a recognizable face in households nationwide. But to many Native Americans, the public service announcement has been a painful reminder of the enduring stereotypes they face.

The nonprofit that originally commissioned the advertisement, Keep America Beautiful, had long been considering how to retire the ad and announced this week that it’s doing so by transferring ownership of the rights to the National Congress of American Indians.

“Keep America Beautiful wanted to be careful and deliberate about how we transitioned this iconic advertisement/public service announcement to appropriate owners,” Noah Ullman, a spokesperson for the nonprofit, said via e-mail. “We spoke to several Indigenous peoples’ organizations and were pleased to identify the National Congress of American Indians as a potential caretaker.”

NCAI plans to end the use of the ad and watch for any unauthorized use.

“NCAI is proud to assume the role of monitoring the use of this advertisement and ensure it is only used for historical context; this advertisement was inappropriate then and remains inappropriate today,” said NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright Jr. “NCAI looks forward to putting this advertisement to bed for good.”

When it premiered in the 1970s, the ad was a sensation. It led to Iron Eyes Cody filming three follow-up PSAs. He spent more than 25 years making public appearances and visits to schools on behalf of the anti-litter campaign, according to an Associated Press obituary.

From there, Cody, who was Italian American but claimed to have Cherokee heritage through his father, was typecast as a stock Native American character, appearing in more than 80 films. Most of the time, his character was simply “Indian,” “Indian Chief” or “Indian Joe.”

Dr. Jennifer J. Folsom, a journalism and media communication professor at Colorado State University and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, remembers watching the public service announcement as a child.

“At that point, every single person who showed up with braids and buckskins, on TV or anywhere in the movies, I glommed on to that because it was such a rare thing to see,” said Folsom, whose areas of study include Native American pop culture. “I did see how people littered, and I did see how the creeks and the rivers were getting polluted.”

But as she grew up, Folsom noticed how media devoted little coverage to Native American environmental activists.

“I think it has done damage to public perception and support for actual Native people doing things to protect the land and protect the environment,” Folsom said.

She applauded Keep America Beautiful’s decision as an “appropriate move.” It will mean a trusted group can help control the narrative the ad has promoted for more than 50 years, she said.

The ad’s power has arguably faded as Native and Indigenous youths come of age with a greater consciousness about stereotypes and cultural appropriation. TikTok has plenty of examples of Native people parodying or doing a takedown of the advertisement, Folsom said.

Robert “Tree” Cody, the adopted son of Iron Eyes Cody, said the advertisement had “good intent and good heart” at its core.

“It was one of the top 100 commercials,” said Robert Cody, an enrolled member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona.

And it reminded him of time spent with his father, said Cody, who lives at Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico.

“I remember a lot, even when he went on a movie set to finish his movies and stuff,” Cody said. “I remember going out to Universal (Studios), Disney, places like that.”

His wife, Rachel Kee-Cody, can’t help but feel somewhat sad that an ad that means so much to their family will be shelved. But she is resigned to the decision.

“You know, times are changing as well. You keep going no matter how much it changes,” she said. “Disappointment. … It’ll pass.”
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The finance ministers of the Group of 20 countries wrapped up a two-day meeting Saturday in India without issuing a joint statement after China and Russia objected to references that other members wanted to make on Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

With no consensus, India, which holds the G-20 presidency this year, said in what is called a “chair’s summary” that “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.”

Stating that it is essential to uphold international law, the summary said that “the use of or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. The peaceful resolution of conflicts, efforts to address crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue are vital. Today’s era must not be of war.”

The declaration noted that references to the war were “agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China.”

Disagreements surface

The meeting that began Friday in India’s southern city of Bengaluru, coincided with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The strong differences that emerged were similar to disagreements that have marred several such gatherings since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

At a G-20 summit held in Bali in November of last year, leaders had bridged their differences by issuing a statement that said that “most members strongly condemned the war.”

However, at the meeting of finance ministers held in India, China did not want the word “war” mentioned in the joint statement, even as the United States and several Western countries insisted on a strong condemnation of the Russian aggression.

India’s Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth told a news conference the Chinese and Russian representatives did not want to sign up to the wording on Ukraine because “their mandate is to deal with economic and financial issues.”

“On the other hand, all the other 18 countries felt that the war has implications for the global economy,” he said.

German finance minister Christian Lindner said that China’s refusal to join the declaration was regrettable. Reuters quoted U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen telling the news agency that it was “absolutely necessary” for any statement to condemn Russia.

The summary issued by India also underlined other divisions among member countries on the war in Ukraine, saying there were “different assessments of the situation and sanctions.”

At the G-20 meeting, countries such as the U.S., France and Britain said they are announcing stronger sanctions against Moscow as they emphasized the need to isolate Russia for its invasion.

India, on the other hand, which has decades-old ties with Russia, has not joined the economic sanctions imposed on Russia and continues to maintain strong trade ties with Moscow.

“We are looking at India’s interests and importing oil from Russia,” India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, told reporters at the end of the meeting.

Global economic risks persist, says summary

The G-20, which represents the world’s largest economies, was created after the Asian financial crisis in 1999, and it is seen as a forum that focuses on how to manage global economic crises.

The summary document issued by India said the global economic outlook had “modestly improved,” although overall growth remains “slow” and risks persist, including elevated inflation, a resurgence of the pandemic, and high debt in many poorer nations.

The discussions also focused on easing the debt burden of nations — such as Sri Lanka — that are reeling under the impact of higher food and oil prices, and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion.
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Voice of America placed two journalists in its Russian-language service on leave Friday following complaints over their prior employment at Kremlin-backed groups.  
 

Staff at the agency flagged concerns to managers in November shortly after the two journalists — Harry Knyagnitsky and Daria Davydova — were hired.   

The letter, signed by 15 of the Russian service’s 92 journalists, said that in their previous employment, Knyagnitsky and Davydova had promoted pro-Kremlin narratives on Ukraine. 

After Ukrainian media reported on the internal criticism this week, more than 20 journalists who are part of the Ukraine Media Movement coalition on Thursday called for Knyagnitsky to be dismissed.  

Some of those to sign the Media Movement letter work for VOA affiliates.

When asked Thursday about the hiring decisions and whether action would be taken, VOA public relations did not respond directly, saying that for decades the network “has hired experienced journalists from repressive societies, including Russia.”   

Voice of America regularly hires foreign journalists who have language fluency skills and regional knowledge to produce credible, authoritative journalism in more than 40 languages. The agency says all of its journalists’ work is subject to editorial review before publication.

“All VOA journalists work under editorial supervision and guidance that ensures that all of their work adheres to the highest journalism standards and our Charter. The work of Ms. Davydova and Mr. Knyagnitsky, like that of other VOA journalists, goes through the news agency’s rigorous editing process.”  

In a follow-up request for comment when details of the employees being put on leave were reported in the U.S. media, VOA public relations wrote in an email late Friday, “VOA can confirm that the two Russian language service journalists were placed on leave with pay as VOA reviews the issues involved. This action is standard practice, and as part of VOA’s internal review, both journalists will be interviewed.”  

Knyagnitsky and Davydova were hired in October 2022 and had been vetted as part of the security process that all VOA staff undergo.    

In the open call from the Ukraine Media Movement, the coalition reviewed previous reporting and flagged several instances where Knyagnitsky pushed pro-Kremlin narratives, including on the Donbas region and Crimea while working for NTV.  

“During his time at NTV, Knyagnitsky seems to have managed to support all Russia’s propaganda narratives,” the open letter read.   

The once independent broadcaster, which was known for pushing boundaries in Russia’s tightly controlled media scene, was taken over in 2001 by the state-run Gazprom energy company.

Knyagnitsky left NTV in 2017 and moved to the U.S. where he worked for another Russian-backed broadcaster, RTV1. He left that station when Russia invaded Ukraine.  

Knyagnitsky and Davydova did not respond to emails Saturday requesting comments before publication.  

In a comment to The Washington Post, Knyagnitsky denied he is a propagandist and said he had left RTV1 when management tried to control coverage of the Russian invasion.  

After VOA staff raised concerns on the hirings on November 29, VOA’s senior management held a meeting in December with the Russian division and the VOA standard’s editor, to discuss concerns.  

After that meeting, VOA said one of the signatories removed their name from the letter.   

At two staff meetings held since, no one in the Russian service raised the issue, according to VOA.

When hiring, newsrooms have a responsibility to prioritize integrity and journalism skills, analysts say.    

“Every case should be judged on its own, every journalist on their own work. VOA, like any media organization, has a responsibility to hire journalists who work with integrity, who have strong reporting skills, and who are committed to reporting the truth,” said Ann Cooper, professor emerita, Columbia Journalism School.    

“Did VOA managers look at the journalist’s prior and more recent work, and are they comfortable that the reporting the journalist is doing for VOA meets their standards? That’s what matters here,” said Cooper, an experienced foreign journalist who was NPR’s first Moscow bureau chief.   

VOA journalists, including its Russia division have produced hundreds of hours of programming to dispel Moscow disinformation and propaganda about the war.

“VOA Russian is committed to continue delivering factual news and comprehensive reporting to its audience,” VOA Public Relations said in a statement.   

Vetting questions   

VOA’s hiring process was called into question previously over the investigations into Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg, who had worked in VOA’s Persian service.    

Sieg was removed from her position in 2020, after a USAGM investigation found she had falsified credentials and abused public funds.    

In February 2021, after a change in USAGM leadership following the election of President Joe Biden, a new investigation exonerated Sieg.   

In December 2022, Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a letter to USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett requesting documents and information about the decision to retain Sieg.  

The letter said, “To our dissatisfaction, the responses that USAGM provided [earlier] were inadequate and failed to take account of [the] various inconsistencies regarding Sieg’s alleged credentials.”  
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