It didn’t seem unreasonable, given that the nearby cities of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Richmond had done exactly that in recent months. What Jonick, an organizer with the climate organization 350 Bay Area, and others backing the move wanted the city to do was push state lawmakers to support SB 332. The legislation would explore alternatives to investor-owned utilities and introduce safety and equity measures to improve service. “We’re not being prescriptive and saying what exactly a not-for-profit system would look like,” she said. 

Yet this proved to be too much for the City Council, even if dozens of residents spoke out against the utility — which employs more than 8,000 people in Oakland — during a tense council meeting last week. The legislation, which also would have urged regulators to link utility executive compensation to power reliability and grid safety, was pulled from the agenda by a procedural maneuver. “It seems like a number of the council members have not had an opportunity to meet with both sides,” said Kevin Jenkins, the council president.

It was the latest setback in a nationwide campaign to replace investor-owned utilities with publicly owned operations. Advocates argue such a move would lead to cheaper, more reliable power and greater say for residents in how electricity is generated. Despite some victories here and there — Winter Park, Florida, and Jefferson County, Washington, have flipped the switch, and some nonprofit utilities, like California’s Sacramento Municipal Utility District, are many decades old — they’re fighting an uphill battle. Voters in Maine rejected switching to public power in 2023, an effort to do so in San Diego stalled amid skepticism from city leaders, and the city council in Ann Arbor, Michigan voted down a feasibility study proposal five months ago.

Those hoping to see Oakland join the fight come from the climate and environmental justice world. People of color comprise about 70 percent of the population, and almost 14 percent of the city’s 438,000 people live at or below the federal poverty line, leaving them burdened by utility debt. Critics of the utility, known locally at PG&E, also say the for-profit model disincentivizes maintenance and upgrades. That lack of upkeep contributed to faulty equipment sparking at least 31 fires, which killed 113 people, between 2017 and 2022.

Oakland council member Carol Fife sponsored the measure in support of Senate Bill 332, the Investor-Owned Utilities Accountability Act. Beyond calling for a feasibility study, the legislation caps rate hikes, prevents disconnections for vulnerable customers, and mandates periodic equipment audits and replacement. California’s utility bills are the second-priciest in the nation, and Fife said people in her district have experienced six rate hikes and frequent cutoffs in the past year — even as PG&E’s CEO earned $17 million.

“When I’m hearing that one ZIP code in my district in West Oakland has double-digit shutoffs for energy costs, I get concerned,” Fife said. “There are several neighborhoods in Oakland where at least 10 percent of the population has had their power cut off and remains without access to power.”

Critics say public power doesn’t necessarily mean cleaner power: Nebraska, the only state served entirely by a public utility, gets most of its electricity from coal. They also argue that the process of transforming a large utility system into a nonprofit would be time-intensive and expensive, and that they could cost electrical workers their jobs. But those weren’t the primary concerns constituents brought to Fife in voicing their reservations: She said Oaklanders were afraid that PG&E grant funding to local nonprofits would be cut off. 

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The company, which provides power to about 16 million people throughout California, is Oakland’s second-largest employer, and it recently spent $900 million relocating to Oakland. The utility also is a big philanthropic player — it provided nearly 1,000 grants throughout the state totaling $36 million last year, and spent $3.5 million on Oakland nonprofits in particular.  Fife said nonprofit leaders she’s known for “two, three decades” said they supported her resolution but feared losing funding over it. (None of them spoke at the July 15 council meeting.) 

“The lobbyists for PG&E were telling people that I specifically was trying to push PG&E out of Oakland, that I would be responsible for a lack of charitable giving to nonprofits in my district and in the city,” she said. 

A PG&E representative, in an emailed statement, said the company “did not, and would not, suggest that we would pull our charitable support.” 

“We stand ready to continue to listen to the concerns of City Council members and citizens, and we look forward to continuing to work with city officials on tangible efforts to advance energy equity, climate resilience, and public safety.” 

The company representative did not comment on SB 332, but the company made the its thoughts clear during a Senate hearing in May: “SB 332 proposes sweeping changes without fully accounting for existing regulatory safeguards or the operational complexities of transforming the state’s energy infrastructure,” a PG&E lobbyist told lawmakers. 

PG&E’s response speaks to the vehemence with which investor-owned utilities fight to maintain their hold over energy. When advocates of public power in Maine managed to get a referendum on the ballot, the state’s two dominant utilities spent more than $40 million to oppose it, outspending its advocates 34 to 1 and handily defeating the measure.

Even if Oakland’s resolution is out of play for now, the city’s public-power advocates aren’t done. As SB 332 continues moving through the legislature, “We’re also building this movement from the ground up,” Jonick said. That might look like more community workshops, or more city council resolutions. Above all, it’ll look like neighbors talking to each other. “No matter what, we’re going to be pushing to build community understanding that another way is possible, and we can fight the utility monopolies’ hold on us.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The national fight for public power comes to Oakland on Jul 24, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Sophie Hurwitz.

The shift to post-industrialism was associated with the rise of a powerful new set of capitalist elites and new corporate centers of production, finance, and communication. In the 21st century, Silicon Valley became the symbol of the new post-industrial high-tech world. It would become the showcase of the new high-tech companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, which were becoming the first trillion-dollar companies, led by tycoons such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel, all fabulously wealthy members of the Big Tech power elite. Silicon Valley introduced itself as a modern miracle, bringing unprecedented new productivity and prosperity that would benefit both owners and workers, and contribute to the betterment of the general population with magical new products such as the personal computer, the iPhone, and the new internet-based world of online culture and communication on social media. This new world revolutionized the economic and social spheres, while also having major uses and implications for politics and the military. Because billions of people globally now have iPhones or personal computers, with access to the new online universe of the internet and social media, Silicon Valley seemed to open up not only a transformative new economy for entrepreneurs and knowledge workers but a transformed, newly connected world of online social communication and relationships.

This is not entirely an illusion. The online world does open up new social connections and political connections, with social media being a powerful new tool for the younger generation to build new friendships, communities, and politics. But Silicon Valley’s fantastic new array of electronic communications and online connections may also prove to be a gateway to weak social relations and ultimately the end of strong face-to-face social relationships, as well as democracy itself. We face a sociocidal transformation fueled by high tech, with Silicon Valley also proffering its own politics of authoritarianism. Sociocide is the process by which human connection is largely severed, and individuals are only concerned for themselves. A sociocidal society is one in which solidarity is nonexistent and meaningful human relationships are destroyed.

Several sociocidal forces emerge directly from the economic restructuring created by huge Big Tech firms, especially the “Magnificent Seven,” whose individual worth now reaches into the trillions:  Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), and Tesla. One is the interest of these corporate high-tech elites, much like their corporate counterparts in other spheres, in eroding the face-to-face workplace and social ties that can challenge their power. In the workplace, that translates into the intensified attack on secure employment, unionism, and a collective physical workplace. The intent is to weaken the social relations of workers in the workplace – and more broadly, to subvert the solidarity and face-to-face connections of people throughout society that can challenge authoritarianism in both work and politics.

Focusing first on the workplace, the Magnificent Seven play a special role here by creating and developing the technology – including the personal computer, iPhone, internet apps, AI, robots, and social media — that allows corporate elites to create a precariat of dispersed and contingent workers, increasingly separated from each other, while also replacing millions of workers and transferring their jobs to robots and other AI inventions.

The most rapid replacement of workers by robots and AI is in high-skill jobs. Matt Sigelman, president of the Human Resources Institute, summarized his Institute’s widely circulated report on AI, saying, “There’s no question the workers who will be most impacted are those with college degrees, and those are the people who always thought they were safe.” He indicates that: “Companies in finance, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, have some of the highest percentages of their payrolls likely to be disrupted by generative A.I. Not far behind are tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Meta.”

Tech workers, talented and highly trained, are developing the tools allowing their companies to eliminate many of their own jobs. Meanwhile, employers are also using robots to replace low-skill workers. The sociocidal tech impulse of Silicon Valley, as in other sectors, is embraced because of its profit-saving capacity. And the fastest way to increase profit is to reduce wages, usually by weakening relations among employees or busting unions.

The Magnificent Seven have used their overwhelming economic power to directly undermine unions, the most effective form of worker social relations and organization. In January 2024, Elon Musk, now legendary for his anti-union and broader right-wing views, filed a lawsuit in federal courts to declare unconstitutional the National Labor Relations Board, which protects and regulates workers’ right to organize. In August 2024, just before his re-election, Trump joked with Musk about firing workers, complimenting Musk during a two-hour conversation on X for firing Tesla workers who wanted to strike. “They go on strike,” Trump said to Musk, “and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone.’” Trump then added, “You’re the Greatest!” The UAW filed labor charges against both Trump and Musk for the unfair labor practices that the two had celebrated; Musk’s Tesla had clashed with union activists for years, and the NLRB in 2021 had found that the non-union Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union organizer.

One of Musk’s Magnificent Seven compatriots, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, quickly joined in Trump and Musk’s union-busting party, filing a copycat suit to make the NLRB and unions unconstitutional. Here, we see the world’s two richest men, leaders of the High-Tech Robber Barons, exploiting economic size to reap the fruit of their technology’s economic power. They are seeking a revolutionary breakdown of workplace social relations, moving from the sociopathy of the first Gilded Age to the sociocide of today’s Gilded Age.

The Magnificent Seven’s power undercuts workplace social relations and fiercely attacks union solidarity in the name of free-spirited libertarianism running rampant in Silicon Valley. The broader corporate success in drastically weakening unions is key to sociocide in the entire US labor force and has been achieved not only by the anti-union fervor of corporations since the New Deal but also by the zeal of the Republican Party from Reagan through Trump to make the destruction of labor solidarity and unions a top political priority.

_________________________________________

The above is an excerpt from Charles Derber’s most recent book, Bonfire: American Sociocide, Broken Relations, and the Quest for Democracy.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Charles Derber.

While public attention has been focused on the domestic fast-track consenting process for infrastructure and mining, Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour has been pushing through another fast-track process — this time for foreign investment in New Zealand.

But it has had almost no public scrutiny.

If the Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill becomes law, it could have far-reaching consequences. Public submissions on the bill close tomorrow.

• READ MORE: Other NZ foreign investment reports

A product of the ACT-National coalition agreement, the bill commits to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 “to limit ministerial decision making to national security concerns and make such decision making more timely”.

There are valid concerns that piecemeal reforms to the current act have made it complex and unwieldy. But the new bill is equally convoluted and would significantly reduce effective scrutiny of foreign investments — especially in forestry.

A three-step test
Step one of a three-step process set out in the bill gives the regulator — the Overseas Investment Office which sits within Land Information NZ — 15 days to decide whether a proposed investment would be a risk to New Zealand’s “national interest”.

If they don’t perceive a risk, or that initial assessment is not completed in time, the application is automatically approved.

Transactions involving fisheries quotas and various land categories, or any other applications the regulator identifies, would require a “national interest” assessment under stage two.

These would be assessed against a “ministerial letter” that sets out the government’s general policy and preferred approach to conducting the assessment, including any conditions on approvals.

Other mandatory factors to be considered in the second stage include the act’s new “purpose” to increase economic opportunity through “timely consent” of less sensitive investments. The new test would allow scrutiny of the character and capability of the investor to be omitted altogether.

If the regulator considers the national interest test is not met, or the transaction is “contrary to the national interest”, the minister of finance then makes a decision based on their assessment of those factors.

Inadequate regulatory process
Seymour has blamed the current screening regime for low volumes of foreign investment. But Treasury’s 2024 regulatory impact statement on the proposed changes to international investment screening acknowledges many other factors that influence investor decisions.

Moreover, the Treasury statement acknowledges public views that foreign investment rules should “manage a wide range of risks” and “that there is inherent non-economic value in retaining domestic ownership of certain assets”.

Treasury officials also recognised a range of other public concerns, including profits going offshore, loss of jobs, and foreign control of iconic businesses.

The regulatory impact statement did not cover these factors because it was required to consider only the coalition commitment. The Treasury panel reported “notable limitations” on the bill’s quality assurance process.

A fuller review was “infeasible” because it could not be completed in the time required, and would be broader than necessary to meet the coalition commitment to amend the act in the prescribed way.

The requirement to implement the bill in this parliamentary term meant the options officials could consider, even within the scope of the coalition agreement, were further limited.

Time constraints meant “users and key stakeholders have not been consulted”, according to the Treasury statement. Environmental and other risks would have to be managed through other regulations.

There is no reference to te Tiriti o Waitangi or mana whenua engagement.

No ‘benefit to NZ’ test
While the bill largely retains a version of the current screening regime for residential and farm land, it removes existing forestry activities from that definition (but not new forestry on non-forest land). It also removes extraction of water for bottling, or other bulk extraction for human consumption, from special vetting.

Where sensitive land (such as islands, coastal areas, conservation and wahi tapu land) is not residential or farm land, it would be removed from special screening rules currently applied for land.

Repeal of the “special forestry test” — which in practice has seen most applications approved, albeit with conditions — means most forestry investments could be fast-tracked.

There would no longer be a need to consider investors’ track records or apply a “benefit to New Zealand” test. Regulators may or may not be empowered to impose conditions such as replanting or cleaning up slash.

The official documents don’t explain the rationale for this. But it looks like a win for Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, and was perhaps the price of NZ First’s support.

It has potentially serious implications for forestry communities affected by climate-related disasters, however. Further weakening scrutiny and investment conditions risks intensifying the already devastating impacts of international forestry companies. Taxpayers and ratepayers pick up the costs while the companies can minimise their taxes and send profits offshore.

Locked in forever?
Finally, these changes could be locked in through New Zealand’s free trade agreements. Several such agreements say New Zealand’s investment regime cannot become more restrictive than the 2005 act and its regulations.

A “ratchet clause” would lock in any further liberalisation through this bill, from which there is no going back.

However, another annex in those free trade agreements could be interpreted as allowing some flexibility to alter the screening rules and criteria in the future. None of the official documents address this crucial question.

As an academic expert in this area I am uncertain about the risk.

But the lack of clarity underlines the problems exemplified in this bill. It is another example of coalition agreements bypassing democratic scrutiny and informed decision making. More public debate and broad analysis is needed on the bill and its implications.

Dr Jane Kelsey is emeritus professor of law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The letter notes the persistence of serious issues in Greece, including surveillance, threats, harassment, physical attacks, and murders of journalists. It also cites government pressure on editorial and media independence, including Greece’s public broadcaster, as well as legal threats, such as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and criminal defamation.

The organizations asked national authorities to provide, in writing, an overview of the steps being considered to address the concerns, and to establish a national action plan.

Read the full letter here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

News18 Bihar aired the video on July 6, with anchors highlighting the incident and identifying the flag as Pakistan’s national flag. Remarking that the Pakistani flag drew inspiration from the Islamic flag, News18 clarified that the video had not been independently verified by the channel. The location of the incident, was, however, identified as Pairamatihana village in Sono block of Jamui district in Bihar.

During the bulletin, the anchors described the act as potentially problematic and turned to an on-ground reporter for an update. The reporter stated that a formal complaint had been lodged, and police had initiated an investigation. Authorities were currently reviewing the footage, and efforts were underway to identify the individual seen waving the flag, he further reported, adding, once the person was identified, appropriate legal action would be taken.

It is worth noting that News18 Bihar has since deleted both the video and the corresponding post on X. One can watch the relevant part of the bulletin below. An archived version of the X post by the media outlet can be seen here.

Dainik Bhaskar, on July 7, published a report on this in which the headline described the flag as an Islamic flag, but the photo caption and the story itself said it was a Pakistani flag. The story stated that on the evening of Sunday, July 6, during a Muharram procession in Sono, a man was seen waving a flag of Pakistan while being seated over the sound system. The report further claimed that Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Kumar acknowledged that the flag had not been noticed by officers at the time. However, he assured that efforts were underway to identify the individual, and appropriate legal action would be taken.

Bhaskar also made a voice-over video report on this which is embedded in the above-mentioned article. At the 5-second mark, the reporter can be heard saying, “Ek yuvak Pakistani Jhandda lehrate huye dikh rahe hai” (A young man is seen waving a Pakistani flag). Again, at the 20-second mark in the video, the reporter alleges the flag in question was the Pakistani national flag. Watch it here:

Right-wing propaganda website OpIndia published an article detailing instances of violence reported during several Muharram processions in Bihar. The article referenced the incident and claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved in Jamui. Although police were present at the location, they did not take any action, the article added.

Fact Check

Upon closer examination of the video, it becomes evident that the flag held by the man is an Islamic flag, not the national flag of Pakistan. The flag in question appears black in colour, featuring a crescent and a star, common Islamic symbols. In contrast, Pakistan’s national flag is bright green with a white vertical stripe towards the mast, also bearing a white crescent and a star.

A visual comparison has been done below for clarity.

Alt News reached out to the Sono police station-in-charge Dharmendra Singh, who clarified that the flag seen in the viral video was not the national flag of Pakistan, but an Islamic flag. He further stated that no formal complaint or FIR had been registered in connection with the incident. Singh also noted that the authenticity of the video’s location — whether it was indeed filmed in Sono — was still under investigation.

To sum up, the flag waved by a man at a Muharram procession reportedly in Bihar’s Jamui was not Pakistan’s national flag; it was the Islamic flag. Several media outlets and propaganda website OpIndia misreported the incident and falsely claimed that the Pakistani national flag had been waved.

The post Media misreport: Islamic flag waved at Muharram rally falsely described as Pakistani national flag appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on July 05, 2025. It is shared here with permission.

As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing what they said were faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood’s high death toll.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.

“The camp was completely destroyed,” Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.

Although the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a broad flood watch for the area, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd—noting that the NWS predicted 3-6 inches of rain for the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches for the Hill Country—told reporters during a press conference earlier Friday that “the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.”

“Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service,” Kidd reiterated. “You all got it; you’re all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw.”

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm “dumped more rain than what was forecasted” into two forks of the Guadalupe River.

Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: “We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever.”

Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump’s mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.

This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for “dismantling” NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.

Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts’ deadly consequences.

“People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information,” Huffman said. “Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives.”

Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that “crucial data gathering systems are at risk.”

“Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded,” he added, “and it is a public service no state can replace.”

On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.

As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:

It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.

Furthermore, as MeidasNews editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski noted Saturday, “rural areas hit hardest by catastrophic storms are the same areas now in danger of losing their hospitals after Trump’s Medicaid cuts just passed” as part of the budget reconciliation package.

At least one congressional Republican is ready to take action in the face of increasing extreme weather events. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—who once attributed California wildfires to Jewish-controlled space lasers—announced Saturday that she is “introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.”

“It will be a felony offense,” she explained. “We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is not considering recruiting personnel from across the Pacific as talk continues of Australia doing so for its Defence Force (ADF).

In response to a question from The Australian at the National Press Club in Canberra about Australia’s plans to potentially recruit from the Pacific Islands into the ADF, Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said he “would like to see it happen”.

“Whether Australia does it or not depends on your own policies. We will not push it.”

• READ MORE: Other Pacific defence policy reports

RNZ Pacific asked the NZDF under the Official Information Act (OIA) for all correspondence sent and received regarding any discussion on recruiting from the Pacific, along with other related questions.

The OIA request was declined as the information did not exist.

“Defence Recruiting has not and is not considering deliberate recruiting action from across the Pacific,” the response from the NZDF said.

Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James said citizenship needed to be a prerequisite to Pacific recruitment.

Australian citizen
“Even a New Zealander serving in the Australian military has to become an Australian citizen,” James said.

“They can start off being an Australian resident, but they’ve got to be on the path to citizenship.

”They’ve got to be capable of getting permanent residency in Australia and citizenship.

“And then you’ve got to tackle the moral problem — it’s pretty hard to ask foreigners to fight for your country when your own people won’t do it.”

James said he thought people might be “jumping at hairs” at Rabuka’s comments.

Unlike Samoa’s acting prime minister, who has voiced concern over a brain drain, both Papua New Guinea and Fiji have made it clear they have people to spare.

Ross Thompson, a managing director at People In, the largest approved employer in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme, said if the recruitment drive does go ahead, PNG nationals would return home with a wider skill set.

‘Brain gain, not drain’
“This would be a brain gain, rather than be a drain on PNG.”

He’s spoken with people in PNG who welcome the proposal.

”PNG, its population is over 10 million . . . We’re proposing from PNG around 1000 could be recruited every year.”

Minister Rabuka joked Fiji could plug Australia’s personnel hole on its own.

“If it’s open [to recruiting Fijians] . . . [we will offer] the whole lot . . . 5000,” he said, while noting that Fiji was able to easily fill its quota under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

“The villages are emptying out into the cities. What we would like to do is to reduce those who are ending up in settlements in the cities and not working, giving way to crime and becoming first victims to the sale of drugs and AIDS and HIV from frequently used or commonly used needles.”

Thompson was also a captain in the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers of the British Army and said he was proud to have served alongside Fijians.

Honour serving
“I had the honour to serve with a number of Fijians while deployed overseas; they’re fantastic soldiers.

“This is something that’s been going on since the Second World War and it’s a big part of the British Army.”

From a recruitment perspective, he said PNG and Fiji would be a good starting point before extending to any other Pacific nations.

”PNG has a strong history with the Australian Defence Force. There’s a number of programmes that are currently ongoing, on shared military exercises, there’s PNG officers that are serving in the ADF now, or on secondment to the ADF.

“So I think those two countries are definitely good to look up from a pilot perspective.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Catholic Church has strongly warned against Papua New Guinea’s political rhetoric and push to declare the nation a Christian country, saying such a move threatens constitutional freedoms and risks dangerous implications for the country’s future.

Speaking before the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communication on Tuesday at Rapopo during the ongoing Regional Parliamentary Inquiry into the Standard and Integrity of Journalism in Papua New Guinea, Archbishop Rochus Tatamai of the Rabaul Archdiocese delivered a firm but thoughtful reflection on the issue, voicing the Catholic Church’s opposition to the notion of a legally enshrined Christian nation.

“When talking about freedom of media and PNG, a Christian country, we must be clear,” said Archbishop Tatamai. “The claim that PNG is a Christian country is not supported by law.

• READ MORE: Other PNG national religion reports

“The Catholic Church disagrees with this. It conflicts with our Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.”

The archbishop’s remarks were part of a broader presentation on the influence of evolving technology on church authority, but he took the opportunity to confront what he called one of the major topics in PNG today.

He raised concerns about the legal, social, and theological implications of attempting to legislate Christianity into state law, stating that politicians were not theologians and risked entering spiritual territory without the understanding to handle it responsibly.

“If we declare PNG a Christian nation,” he asked, “whose version of Christianity are we referring to? We’re not all the same.”

Legal obligation
He warned of a future where attending church could become a legal obligation, not a matter of faith.

“If PNG is supposedly a Christian nation, police could walk into your village and tell you: it’s not just a sin to skip church on Sunday, it’s illegal and get you arrested.’ That’s how dangerous this path could be.”

Archbishop Tatamai also referenced the Chief Justice, who had recently stated that if PNG were truly a Christian nation, then principles like honesty would become enforceable laws: “You should not steal. And if you do, you’re not only sinning you’re breaking the law.”

But the archbishop warned that such a conflation of morality and legality opens up deep conflicts.

“History has shown us the dangers of blurring the line between church and state. Blood has been spilled over this in other parts of the world. Are we ready for that?”

He stressed that the founding fathers of PNG had been wise to embed freedom of religion and conscience into the Constitution, ensuring that the state remained neutral in matters of faith.

“Now, we risk undoing their vision by imposing a national religion,” he said.

Challenged Parliament
The archbishop also challenged Parliament and national leaders to think beyond symbolism.

“Yes, Parliament can pass declarations. Yes, politicians can make the numbers. But have they truly thought through the implications and applications of these decisions?”

He concluded his presentation with a sharp warning against hypocrisy and selective morality under a Christian state:

“You cannot use Christianity as a legal framework and continue with corruption. You cannot justify wrongdoing and expect forgiveness simply because now, in a confessional state, sin becomes crime and crime must have consequences.”

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Three journalists told CPJ that investigative reporting on major economic events, a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s financial transparency, has nearly disappeared amid government pressure and the departure of major outlets. 

The sharp decline in press freedom, the journalists said, is a direct result of the National Security Law. This law, enacted on June 30, 2020, was imposed directly by Beijing, bypassing Hong Kong’s local legislature, and included offenses for secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign forces, with penalties ranging from a three years to life imprisonment.  

In the five years since it was enacted, authorities have shut down media outlets and arrested several journalists, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of one of Hong Kong’s largest newspapers, the pro-democracy Apple Daily. Several major international news organizations have either relocated or downsized their operations in Hong Kong, leading to a decline in reporting on the city and its financial hub.

“Hong Kong’s economic boom happened because journalists could work without interference,” said a veteran reporter with 11 years’ experience in television, newspapers, and digital platforms in Hong Kong, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

While markets still function, at least three media professionals told CPJ that the erosion of press freedom — often overlooked — is a key factor behind Hong Kong’s fading financial appeal to market participants. One reporter described the media as “paralyzed.” 

Another hastily passed security law enacted in March 2024 in Hong Kong further deepened fears that it would be used to suppress press freedom and prosecute journalists.

“There has never been an international financial center in history that operates with restrictions on information,” Simon Lee, an economic commentator and former assistant CEO of Next Digital Group, the parent company of Apple Daily, told CPJ.

Hong Kong long served as a base for reporting on China’s economy and power structures, said a former financial journalist on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns.

“Most Hong Kong-listed companies come from the mainland [China]. Foreign media used Hong Kong to observe China’s economic operations or wealth transfers,” the former financial journalist told CPJ. “Now the risks feel similar to reporting from inside China.”

Crackdowns, shutdowns, and an exodus of major media

Since the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020, at least eight media outlets have shut. These included Apple Daily, news and lifestyle magazine Next Magazine, both published by Lai’s Next Digital group, and the online outlet Stand News, after they were raided by authorities.

At least four other media organizations — Post852, DB channel, Citizen News, and FactWire — ceased operations voluntarily, citing concerns over the deteriorating political environment.

Reporting was also criminalized in several cases, with journalists prosecuted for “inciting subversion” or “colluding with foreign forces.”  

China had the world’s highest number of imprisoned journalists in CPJ’s latest prison census — 50 in total, including eight in Hong Kong.

The New York Times moved part of its newsroom to Seoul in 2020. In March 2024, Radio Free Asia closed its Hong Kong office, and in May, The Wall Street Journal relocated its Asia headquarters to Singapore.

 “With fewer foreign correspondents based in the city, there’s simply less reporting on Hong Kong,” the former financial journalist told CPJ. “As a result, the city’s economy may receive less objective attention on the global stage.”

The former financial journalist said that one of the biggest losses after the security law was the disappearance of Apple Daily. Unlike most local media, which focused on routine market updates, Apple Daily connected business to politics and mapped interest networks — an increasingly rare practice.

Next Digital, through Apple Daily, built a reputation for investigative financial reporting. A former staff member told the BBC that the company once spent over 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) tracing dozens of property owners to uncover a developer’s hidden ties with a bank.

“From a financial news perspective, one of our biggest problems is losing Apple Daily,” the former financial journalist told CPJ.

Local business reporting also fades away

As Hong Kong’s financial hub reputation comes under question, stories on high unemployment rates, struggling small businesses, and store closures are increasingly out of sight.

“One direct effect is feeling increasingly unable to grasp what’s happening in the city; important information no longer seems easy to access,” Lee said. “Previously, competition among professional outlets encouraged source sharing and helped maintain a power balance. Now, one-way government-controlled information faces little resistance.”

Lee told CPJ that changes in Hong Kong’s media landscape are particularly evident in major financial events, pointing to the coverage of the 2024 sale of Li Ka-shing’s port assets, in which local outlets failed to question the deal’s structure, rationale, or political implications.

“Beijing called it a national security matter, and the other side of the story disappeared,” Lee told CPJ. “Many focus on the judicial system when discussing fairness, but true fairness also depends on the free flow of information … Without information freedom, public oversight fades, and the market’s system of checks and balances collapses.”

Lee also cited the case of Alvin Chau, a casino tycoon in Macao who was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years for illegal gambling. While foreign media uncovered his alleged links to oil smuggling operations to North Korea, local media offered little follow-up.

“These investigations and reports simply no longer exist,” Lee said.

Sources can’t speak freely

Two journalists told CPJ they have noticed increasing reluctance from interviewees. 

During previous years of the Annual Budget Speech, Hong Kong’s yearly announcement of its public spending and economic plans, the media would host analysis shows with economists debating government spending and policies. 

“We would ask about the fiscal surplus, support for the poor, and whether measures were targeted,” the veteran reporter told CPJ, adding that now, “only one professor is willing to speak openly.”

Lee told CPJ that the atmosphere of “not being allowed to criticize” the broader structure or government policy has also extended to the reporting on how financial markets operate.

Market participants should be free to take either optimistic or pessimistic views of the economic outlook, Lee told CPJ, adding that today in Hong Kong, it is discouraged to express pessimism, and even silently shifting toward defensive investment strategies or risk-averse behavior may be interpreted as making a political statement.

“It’s hard for any place with such high information costs to remain a global financial hub,” Lee said. “Because even pulling back on investment can send a signal. If investors are accused of intentionally dragging down the market just because they try to hedge or take a cautious view, they may decide it’s safer to avoid the market altogether.”

In response to CPJ’s request for comment, a Hong Kong government spokesperson referred CPJ to a statement that said the security law has enabled the city to “make a major transition from chaos to order” and “the business environment has continuously improved,” while press freedom is protected under the law.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ's Asia-Pacific program staff.

Coined by Congressman John Lewis, “Good Trouble” is the action of coming together to take peaceful, non-violent action to challenge injustice and create meaningful change. Led by the Transformative Justice Coalition, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Black Voters Matter, and more, movement leaders are inviting folks across the country to “Make Good Trouble” on July 17 by hosting an event in their community.

Organizers hope to build on the momentum from the historic “No Kings” mass mobilization on June 14, the largest demonstration to take place in Trump’s second term with over 2,100 events spanning across all 50 states. We will take to the streets, courthouses and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights and dignity for all.

The Trump administration’s recent escalating authoritarian actions, attacks on DEI initiatives and voting rights and dismantling of government agencies have raised alarm bells for democracy advocates, and that’s why we’re mobilizing:

• President Trump escalated immigration raids in Los Angeles, where reports showed immigrants being detained and deported without access to family or lawyers. Trump then ordered the National Guard and Marines to the city, leading to mass arrests—including peaceful protestors like SEIU California President David Huerta.
• The Trump administration attempted to weaponize the Justice Department through an indictment of Representative LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), who was simply conducting an Congressional oversight visit of an ICE detention center.
  • When Senator Alex Padilla (CA) asked a question at a Department of Homeland Security press conference, FBI agents tackled, handcuffed and pushed him to the ground.
  • Trump’s ICE detained NYC Comptroller Brad Lander for asking to see a warrant at immigration court.
• From House Republicans’ so-called “SAVE Act,” which would disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, to Donald Trump’s attempted anti-voter Executive Order and attacks on the DOJ’s Voting Rights division, the Trump administration and his allies in Congress are determined to put up hurdles for millions of eligible Americans to cast their ballots.

This isn’t the government our founders envisioned, nor the democracy generations of Americans have fought to realize. As the Trump administration continues violating civil liberties and attacking fundamental freedoms, pro-democracy groups are staying vigilant. The power lies with the American people to unify and “Make Good Trouble.”

Good Trouble Lives On is led by Transformative Justice Coalition, Black Voters Matter, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, Mi Familia Acción and more.

For more information on Good Trouble Lives On, please visit https://goodtroubleliveson.org/.

MEDIA CONTACT: For media inquiries, please email media@goodtroubleliveson.org.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Trump brusquely responded, “I don’t care what she said. I think they are very close to having one.”

This is just another instance of the rudeness, arrogance, and imbecility of Trump. First, Trump chose Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence.

Second, the assessment of Iran having a nuclear weapon program or not is not Gabbard’s assessment. It is, as she testified, on the “Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community”: “the collective assessment of the 18 U.S. intelligence elements making up the U.S. Intelligence Community and draws on intelligence collection, information available to the IC from open-source and the private sector, and the expertise of our analysts.”

During the 25 March threat assessment, Gabbard testified:

The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

Third, since Gabbard, the messenger, was belittled by Trump as “wrong,” then the U.S. Intelligence Community must likewise be held by Trump to be wrong. People are then left with Trump’s uncertainty, revealed by his “I think…,” as to Iran working on developing nuclear weapons. That begs the question of whether Americans want to see their sons and daughters go to war based on what Trump thinks over the assessment of 18 intelligence agencies?

Nonetheless, Gabbard has tried to regain Trump’s good graces by, like Trump, discrediting the media. She posted on X.com:

However, if one watches the linked source above, it corroborates that the media, in this case, accurately reflected the intelligence community’s assessment as related by Gabbard. Thus, Gabbard’s X post makes her come across as sycophantic. Not a good look for a politician or non-politician.

If the ins and outs of politics is Gabbard’s bag — and it certainly seems to be — then she is in a tough spot. She already was forced, more-or-less, to leave the Democratic Party. And besides the Republican Party, there is no other major party to join in the United States,

Part 2: Nonetheless, Tulsi Gabbard still has her supporters in some independent media circles.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Kim Petersen.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said Tuesday that since the promulgation of the National Security Law in 2020, 332 individuals have been arrested. That was an increase of six arrests since Secretary for Security Chris Tang stated on June 1 that 326 people had been arrested under the law, with 165 convictions.

When local media asked about the new arrests, the Security Bureau said detailed breakdowns of arrest figures are “classified information related to safeguarding national security in the HKSAR and thus will not be made public.” HKSAR stands for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Political commentator Sampson Wong said that in the past the Hong Kong government rarely used national security as a reason to withhold information, and now the public’s basic right to know was being damaged.

“At this point, reporters can still detect some of these arrests, but how long will that last? In the future, will people be arrested without anyone knowing?” Wong asked.

“Anything could be labelled a breach of confidentiality. If this continues, the truth will be completely under the control of national security authorities,” he said.

(Louise Delmotte/AP)

The National Security Law was adopted after massive pro-democracy protests in 2019 as Beijing tightened controls over Hong Kong, which had enjoyed greater civic freedoms than mainland China and greater government transparency, including by police. China maintains the 2020 law was required to maintain order.

Last month, the Hong Kong government bypassed Legislative Council procedures and unilaterally enacted two new subsidiary laws under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which significantly expanded the powers of Beijing’s office overseeing national security in the city.

Under the measures, it is prohibited to disclose or film the office’s operations; civil servants must cooperate with and support national security operations; and any act that obstructs national security officers from performing their duties is criminalized.

While it remains unclear which six arrests happened in the past two weeks, on June 2, the National Security Department arrested one man and four women for allegedly conspiring to commit terrorist activities. The suspects had reportedly used phones, emails, and messaging apps to send messages threatening to bomb central government offices and a sports park, while also promoting pro-independence messages for Taiwan and Hong Kong.

On June 6, prominent democracy advocate Joshua Wong, who is already serving a four-year-and-eight-month sentence for subversion, was formally arrested on an additional charge of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.”

Last week, authorities also launched a national security investigation into six unnamed persons on suspicion of “colluding with a foreign country.” But the Security Bureau clarified that no arrests had been made as yet related to that probe.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Cantonese.

• Appeals court hears Trump vs Newsom challenge to National Guard in Los Angeles
• Union workers arrested while protesting SF budget cuts at Board of Supervisors meeting
• CA Senate committee takes up bill to ban toxic PFAS chemicals in firefighters’ equipment
• NYC democratic mayoral candidate arrested by at immigration court
• Prominent Spanish-language journalist turned over to ICE after arrest covering No Kings protests in Atlanta area
• 60 killed, 280 injured while seeking food aid at aid distribution sites in Gaza

The post Appeals court hears Trump vs Newsom challenge to National Guard in LA; CA lawmakers consider bill banning toxic chemicals in firefighters’ equipment – June 17, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

“DRC authorities should have never detained Willy-Albert Kande or questioned Marcelin Mwananteba, Don Kubutana, and Laurent Ngala, and must end their efforts to intimidate the press over coverage of matters of public interest,” said CPJ’s Africa Regional Director Angela Quintal.

Local media reported that stadium manager Dadou Ethambe lodged a complaint against RTNC after the state-run outlet’s June 8 broadcast of the complex littered with trash and Kande raised concerns on air about the stadium’s conditions ahead of hosting a 2026 World Cup qualifying match. 

Police officers summoned and detained Kande and Mwananteba at a Kinshasa station on June 9 and questioned them about their reporting before releasing Mwananteba the same day and transferring Kande to the office of the National Cyberdefense Council (CNC), an intelligence service of the presidency, according to media reports and an RTNC journalist with knowledge of the case who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity.

According to those sources, Kande was accused of denigrating the stadium in a way that promoted Kamalondo Stadium in the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi, which is owned by Tout Puissant Mazembe, the local football team managed by opposition politician Moïse Katumbi.

On Thursday, June 11, authorities additionally arrested RTNC cameraperson Kubutana and reporter Ngala, who filmed the conditions at the stadium and took them to the CNC offices, according to the same RTNC journalist and a post on X by a local reporter. Kande, Ngala, and Kubutana were released later that day evening following the intervention of minister of sports and leisure Didier Budimbu Ntubuanga and the chief of staff for the minister of communication and media, Nicolas Liyanza.

CPJ’s calls to Budimbu and Ethambe received no responses. A WhatsApp message to Ethambe also went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Trump politicizing and weaponizing the National Guard makes us all less safe and less free. His threat to deploy the Marines into the streets of an American city is an illegal and authoritarian escalation.

“Trump’s threats have nothing to do with keeping people safe—it’s about political theater. He’s scapegoating immigrants to distract from the GOP’s real agenda: ripping health care away from millions to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-rich.

“We will not be intimidated. Progressives are standing up to this administration, including by conducting lawful oversight at ICE detention centers in Los Angeles and across the country. We stand with Angelenos, and we stand with immigrant families everywhere. The President must return command of the National Guard to Governor Newsom.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

“This is not law and order—it’s tyranny,” said Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese. “When power is concentrated in the hands of a corrupt few, and dissent is met with armed repression, democracy itself is under siege. We must call this what it is: a threat to the republic.”

Our Revolution stands with the people of Los Angeles and with communities nationwide who are rising up for justice and democracy. We urge every elected official, candidate, and organization that claims to defend democracy to speak out and act decisively against this authoritarian power grab.

In response to the Administration’s dangerous deployment of armed forces against civilians, Our Revolution is urging its 8 million+ members to demand Congress act now to stop this authoritarian power grab—circulating a petition calling on lawmakers to block the military escalation.

The line between military and civilian government is one of the most critical protections in a functioning democracy. Trump’s use of armed troops against U.S. communities is a blatant abuse of power. Congress must act.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on June 8, 2025. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.

U.S. President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Los Angeles over the weekend, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened to call in the marines.

The protests kicked off on Friday in opposition to ICE raids of retail establishments around Los Angeles. During Friday’s protests David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West, was injured and then arrested while observing a raid. His arrest sparked further protests, which carried over into Saturday in response to apparent ICE activity in the nearby city of Paramount.

“The Trump administration’s baseless deployment of the National Guard is plainly retaliation against California, a stronghold for immigrant communities, and is akin to a declaration of war on all Californians,” Victor Leung, chief legal and advocacy officer at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement.

“They yell ‘invasion’ at the border—but this is the real one: Trump is seizing control of California’s National Guard and forcing 2,000 troops into our streets.”

Saturday’s most dramatic protest occurred outside a Home Depot in Paramount following rumors of an ICE raid there. However, Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons told the Los Angeles Times that the ICE agents may instead have been staging at a nearby Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office. There were also rumors of an ICE raid on a meatpacking plant that never occurred.

“We don’t know what was happening, or what their target was. To think that there would be no heightening of fear and no consequences from the community doesn’t sound like good preparation to me,” Lemons said. “Above all, there is no communication and things are done on a whim. And that creates chaos and fear.”

According to the LA Times, the Home Depot protests began peacefully until officers lobbed flash-bang grenades and pepper balls at the crowd, after which some individuals responded by throwing rocks and other objects at the ICE cars, and one person drove their vehicle toward the ICE agents.

“Many of the protesters did not appear to engage in these tactics,” the LA Times reported.

In another incident, Lindsay Toczylowski, the chief executive of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, wrote on social media that ICE agents threw a tear-gas canister at two of the center’s female attorneys after they asked the agents if they could see a warrant and observe their activities.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said that over a dozen people were arrested on Saturday for interfering with the work of immigration agents.

The first member of the Trump administration to mention sending in the National Guard was White House border czar Tom Homan, who told Fox News, “We’re gonna bring National Guard in tonight and we’re gonna continue doing our job. This is about enforcing the law.”

Trump then signed a memo Saturday night calling members of the California National Guard into federal service to protect ICE and other government officials.

“To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States,” the memo reads in part.

“The only threat to safety today is the masked goon squads that the administration has deployed to terrorize the communities of Los Angeles County.”

Instead of using the Insurrection Act, as some had speculated he might, Trump federalized the guard members under the president’s Title 10 authority, which allows the president to place the National Guard under federal control given certain conditions, but does not allow those troops to carry out domestic law enforcement activities, which invoking the Insurrection Act would enable.

“On its face, then, the memorandum federalizes 2,000 California National Guard troops for the sole purpose of protecting the relevant DHS personnel against attacks,” Georgetown University Law Center professor Steve Vladeck explained in a blog post Saturday. “That’s a significant (and, in my view, unnecessary) escalation of events in a context in which no local or state authorities have requested such federal assistance. But by itself, this is not the mass deployment of troops into U.S. cities that had been rumored for some time.”

Indeed, several state leaders spoke out against the deployment.

“The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media Saturday. “That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need.”

“The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery,” he continued, referring to the devastating wildfires that swept the city early this year. “This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) posted on social media that he “couldn’t agree more.”

“Using the National Guard this way is a completely inappropriate and misguided mission,” Padilla said. “The Trump administration is just sowing more chaos and division in our communities.”

Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.) added, “They yell ‘invasion’ at the border—but this is the real one: Trump is seizing control of California’s National Guard and forcing 2,000 troops into our streets.”

While the National Guard’s mission is currently limited, Vladeck argued that there were three reasons to be “deeply concerned” about the development. First, troops could still respond to real or perceived threats with violence, escalating the situation; second, escalation may be the desired outcome from the Trump administration, and used as a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act after all; and third, this could depress the morale of both National Guard members and the civilians they engage with while degrading the relationships between federal, local, and state authorities.

“There is something deeply pernicious about invoking any of these authorities except in circumstances in which their necessity is a matter of consensus beyond the president’s political supporters,” Vladeck wrote. “The law may well allow President Trump to do what he did Saturday night. But just because something is legal does not mean that it is wise—for the present or future of our Republic.”

Leung of the ACLU criticized both the ICE raids and the decision to deploy the Guard.

“Workers in our garment districts or day laborers seeking work outside of Home Depot do not undermine public safety,” Leung said. “They are our fathers and mothers and neighbors going about their day and making ends meet. Rather, the only threat to safety today is the masked goon squads that the administration has deployed to terrorize the communities of Los Angeles County.”

He continued: “There is no rational reason to deploy the National Guard on Angelenos, who are rightfully outraged by the federal government’s attack on our communities and justly exercising their First Amendment right to protest the violent separation of our families. We intend to file suit and hold this administration accountable and to protect our communities from further attacks.”

National political leaders also spoke out Sunday morning.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on social media that it was “important to remember that Trump isn’t trying to heal or keep the peace. He is looking to inflame and divide. His movement doesn’t believe in democracy or protest—and if they get a chance to end the rule of law they will take it. None of this is on the level.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) posted that the entire incident was “Trump’s authoritarianism in real time.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth threatened further escalation Saturday night when he tweeted that “if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized—they are on high alert.”

Newsom responded: “The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens. This is deranged behavior.”

“This is an abuse of power and what dictators do. It’s unnecessary and not needed.”

Hegseth then doubled down on the threat Sunday morning, replying on social media that it was “deranged” to allow “your city to burn and law enforcement to be attacked.”

“The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” he posted.

Journalist Ryan Grim noted that it was an “ominous development” for the secretary of defense to be commenting on immigration policy or local law enforcement at all.

Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) said of Trump and Hegseth’s escalations: “This is an abuse of power and what dictators do. It’s unnecessary and not needed.”

Writing on his Truth Social platform early Sunday, Trump praised the National Guard for their work in Los Angeles. Yet local and state leaders pointed out that the Guard had not yet arrived in the city by the time the post was made.

As of Sunday morning, the National Guard had arrived in downtown Los Angeles and Paramount, ABC 7 reported.

In the midst of the uproar over Trump’s actions, labor groups continued to decry the ICE raids and call for the release of Huerta.

National Nurses United wrote on Friday: “With these raids, the government is sowing intense fear for personal safety among our immigrant and migrant community. Nurses and other union workers oppose this, and are standing up in solidarity with fellow immigrant workers. We refuse to be silent, and people like David Huerta are bravely putting their own bodies on the line to bear witness to what ICE is doing. It’s appalling that ICE injured and detained him while he was exercising his First Amendment rights. We demand his immediate release.”

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond said in a statement Saturday:

The nearly 15 million working people of the AFL-CIO and our affiliated unions demand the immediate release of California Federation of Labor Unions Vice President and SEIU California and SEIU-USWW President David Huerta. As the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has unnecessarily targeted our hard-working immigrant brothers and sisters, David was exercising his constitutional rights and conducting legal observation of ICE activity in his community. He was doing what he has always done, and what we do in unions: putting solidarity into practice and defending our fellow workers. In response, ICE agents violently arrested him, physically injuring David in the process, and are continuing to detain him—a violation of David’s civil liberties and the freedoms this country holds dear. The labor movement stands with David, and we will continue to demand justice for our union brother until he is released.

The unrest in Los Angeles may continue as Barragán told CNN on Sunday she had been informed that ICE would be present in LA for a month. She argued that the National Guard deployment would only inflame the conflict.

“We haven’t asked for the help. We don’t need the help. This is [President Trump] escalating it, causing tensions to rise. It’s only going to make things worse in a situation where people are already angry over immigration enforcement.”

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Olivia Rosane.

As protests against ICE raids spread across the city, President Trump has deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles, the first time in decades that a president has deployed the National Guard without a governor’s request. Trump’s border “czar” Tom Homan threatened to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, while Newsom says he plans to sue. “This is absolutely unprecedented. It’s extremely dangerous,” says legal expert Elizabeth Goitein. “It’s going to escalate tensions rather than deescalating them.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

In Los Angeles, mass street protests have broken out in response to immigration raids. Local police and Border Patrol are cracking down on protesters, while the Trump administration has called in the California National Guard. “They shot thousands of rounds of tear gas, flashbang grenades, all kinds of repressive instruments,” says Ron Gochez, community organizer with Union del Barrio who helped organize some of the protests. He notes many of the protests have also been successful at turning back immigration agents, preventing ICE arrests and detention. “If we organize ourselves, if we resist, we can defend our communities from ICE terror, from the Border Patrol or from any federal agency that wishes to separate our families.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Three staffers from Papua New Guinea’s peak anti-corruption body are embroiled in a standoff that has brought into question the integrity of the organisation.

Police Commissioner David Manning has confirmed that he received a formal complaint.

Commissioner Manning said that initial inquiries were underway to inform the “sensitive investigation board’s” consideration of the referral.

• READ MORE: Other ICAC reports

That board itself is controversial, having been set up as a halfway point to decide if an investigation into a subject should proceed through the usual justice process.

Manning indicated if the board determined a criminal offence had occurred, the matter would be assigned to the National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate for independent investigation.

Local news media reported PNG Prime Minister James Marape was being kept informed of the developments.

Marape has issued a statement acknowledging the internal tensions within ICAC and reaffirming his government’s commitment to the institution.

Long-standing goal
The establishment of ICAC in Papua New Guinea has been a long-standing national aspiration, dating back to 1984. The enabling legislation for ICAC was passed on 20 November 2020, bringing the body into legal existence.

Marape said it was a proud moment of his leadership having achieved this in just 18 months after he took office in May 2019.

The appointments process for ICAC officials was described as rigorous and internationally supervised, making the current internal disputes disheartening for many.

Marape has reacted strongly to the crisis, expressing disappointment over the allegations and differences between the three ICAC leaders. He affirmed his government’s “unwavering commitment” to ICAC.

These developments have significant implications for Papua New Guinea, particularly concerning its international commitments related to combating financial crime.

PNG has been working to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) framework, with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) closely monitoring its progress.

Crucial for fighting corruption
An effective and credible ICAC is crucial for demonstrating the country’s commitment to fighting corruption, a key component of a robust AML/CTF regime.

Furthermore, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) often includes governance and anti-corruption measures as part of its conditionalities for financial assistance and programme support.

Any perception of instability or compromised integrity within ICAC could hinder Papua New Guinea’s efforts to meet these international requirements, potentially affecting its financial standing and access to crucial development funds.

The current situation lays bare the urgent need for swift and decisive action to restore confidence in ICAC and ensure it can effectively fulfill its mandate.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

On the evening of May 31, Hércules, who also worked as a taxi driver, was shot and killed by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle while driving his taxi in the western department of Copán, according to news reports and the Honduran Journalists Association (CPH). The 50-year-old journalist, originally from Santa Ana, El Salvador, died at the scene.

Hércules, who reported on organized crime for the local television outlet ATN a Todo Noticias, had been enrolled in Honduras’ National Protection System for Journalists, which has provided protection measures like police escort, relocation, and risk assessments since 2023, according to local news outlet Proceso Digital. He had previously received threats and, in November 2023, was abducted by two armed men, beaten, and left in a remote area. 

Despite being placed under state protection after this, the government did not assign Hércules bodyguards. 

“The killing of Javier Hércules tragically illustrates the failure of Honduras’ journalist protection mechanism, as well as the severe risks faced by reporters covering organized crime,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “Authorities must urgently determine whether he was targeted for his journalism, and act decisively to break an ongoing cycle of impunity.”

Hércules’ daughter, Karina, told La Prensa that the family was unaware of any recent threats.

Angelica Cárcamo, director of the Central American Network of Journalists, told CPJ that the organization believes he was targeted because of his reporting. 

CPJ sent a message to the Honduran Security Secretariat but did not receive a response.

Honduras remains one of the most dangerous countries in the region for journalists. CPJ has documented numerous cases of threats, harassment, criminalization, and killings of members of the press, many of which remain unsolved. A report submitted by CPJ and partners to the United Nations in April as part of the Honduras Universal Periodic Review recommended the strengthening of regulations in the country’s Protection Law.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

The Great Firewall Report (GFW Report) highlights how the central Chinese province of Henan has adopted its own provincial firewall which is less sophisticated and robust than the central government’s but more volatile and aggressive, blocking significantly more websites than the national-level censorship system.

Local sources told Radio Free Asia that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level may reflect uncertainty about instructions from higher authorities, leading to “excessive blocking” to avoid blame for failing to carry out their duties.

GFW Report is a censorship monitoring platform, primarily focused on China. During one experiment its researchers ran between Dec. 26, 2023 and March 31, 2025, they found that the Henan Firewall blocked 4.2 million domains, about six times that of the 741,542 at the national level.

Since 2023, netizens in Henan had reported a rise in the number of websites that were inaccessible in the region but accessible elsewhere in China, the study found.

“This localized censorship suggests a departure from China’s centralized censorship apparatus, enabling local authorities to exert a greater degree of control within their respective regions,” researchers Mingshi Wu at GFW, Ali Zohaib and Amir Houmansadr at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Zakir Durumeric at Stanford University, and Eric Wustrow at the University of Colorado Boulder wrote in the GFW Report published in May, “A Wall Behind A Wall: Emerging Regional Censorship in China.”

But the phenomenon extends beyond Henan, sources inside China told RFA.

Local governments in neighboring Hebei, another central Chinese province, as well as those in Tibet and Xinjiang have been operating similar censorship systems as the one reported in Henan for at least four years, Zhao Yuan, a network engineer based in Hebei, said.

“In the past, we could access overseas websites that were not blocked by the national firewall,” Zhao said. “Now, even virtual private networks (VPNs) in Henan and Hubei don’t work.”

While the national-level firewall, known as the Great Firewall, targets more news and media sites, in line with China’s long-standing policy of censoring politically sensitive information, the provincial-level firewall systems, like the one in Henan, blocks domains focusing on topics like the economy, technology, and business, GFW Report researchers found.

The Chinese Communist Party has, in recent years, emphasized a multi-pronged approach to censorship, including the management of all types of propaganda at the domestic and international level through a framework known as “territorial management” and implementation of “digital stability maintenance” measures, such as policing of sensitive content online on dates deemed politically sensitive by the government.

“Local governments have taken the initiative to establish local blocking systems, indicating that the top leaders are increasingly vigilant about the flow of information,” Wei Sicong, a Beijing-based political observer, said.

(Andy Wong/AP)

‘Turning off the whole world’

Researchers at GFW found that the Henan firewall monitors and blocks traffic leaving and entering the province, as opposed to the national-level censorship system that is focused on traffic entering and exiting the country.

Other sources in the region told RFA that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level suggest lack of clear legal know-how about how to enforce instructions from higher-ups.

“Officials would rather block more and more than take responsibility. So the result you see is ‘turning off the whole world’,” network engineer Zhang Jianan said.

GFW Report researchers said their analysis showed no regional censorship in other areas they studied, such as Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.

In Henan and Hebei, however, local residents told RFA that even the websites of some foreign universities are inaccessible, as a result of which they turn to VPNs and other circumvention tools to bypass government censorship and surveillance.

“Some classmates can connect in Beijing and Shanghai, but we can’t in Zhengzhou and can only rely on circumvention software,” Zhang, a student at Henan’s Zhengzhou University, said.

Hebei-based network engineer Zhao said, “The censorship is getting stricter and stricter. We can’t even connect to some foreign university websites.”

RFA found that as early as December 2023, a university in Henan province sought to purchase a “public opinion monitoring system,” specifically aimed at international students, students and dissidents, and had conducted an open bidding process.

Henan University of Science and Technology had laid out a 2024-2025 budget of 120,000 yuan (or US$16,657) for the public opinion monitoring service system to provide 24/7 real-time monitoring, early warning analysis and crisis response of public opinion information on the entire network, covering news websites and social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, the university’s website showed.

When RFA contacted the university, a teacher confirmed they are using an old monitoring system and that they have now started a bidding process for a new one.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang and Tenzin Pema for RFA.

The Great Firewall Report (GFW Report) highlights how the central Chinese province of Henan has adopted its own provincial firewall which is less sophisticated and robust than the central government’s but more volatile and aggressive, blocking significantly more websites than the national-level censorship system.

Local sources told Radio Free Asia that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level may reflect uncertainty about instructions from higher authorities, leading to “excessive blocking” to avoid blame for failing to carry out their duties.

GFW Report is a censorship monitoring platform, primarily focused on China. During one experiment its researchers ran between Dec. 26, 2023 and March 31, 2025, they found that the Henan Firewall blocked 4.2 million domains, about six times that of the 741,542 at the national level.

Since 2023, netizens in Henan had reported a rise in the number of websites that were inaccessible in the region but accessible elsewhere in China, the study found.

“This localized censorship suggests a departure from China’s centralized censorship apparatus, enabling local authorities to exert a greater degree of control within their respective regions,” researchers Mingshi Wu at GFW, Ali Zohaib and Amir Houmansadr at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Zakir Durumeric at Stanford University, and Eric Wustrow at the University of Colorado Boulder wrote in the GFW Report published in May, “A Wall Behind A Wall: Emerging Regional Censorship in China.”

But the phenomenon extends beyond Henan, sources inside China told RFA.

Local governments in neighboring Hebei, another central Chinese province, as well as those in Tibet and Xinjiang have been operating similar censorship systems as the one reported in Henan for at least four years, Zhao Yuan, a network engineer based in Hebei, said.

“In the past, we could access overseas websites that were not blocked by the national firewall,” Zhao said. “Now, even virtual private networks (VPNs) in Henan and Hubei don’t work.”

While the national-level firewall, known as the Great Firewall, targets more news and media sites, in line with China’s long-standing policy of censoring politically sensitive information, the provincial-level firewall systems, like the one in Henan, blocks domains focusing on topics like the economy, technology, and business, GFW Report researchers found.

The Chinese Communist Party has, in recent years, emphasized a multi-pronged approach to censorship, including the management of all types of propaganda at the domestic and international level through a framework known as “territorial management” and implementation of “digital stability maintenance” measures, such as policing of sensitive content online on dates deemed politically sensitive by the government.

“Local governments have taken the initiative to establish local blocking systems, indicating that the top leaders are increasingly vigilant about the flow of information,” Wei Sicong, a Beijing-based political observer, said.

(Andy Wong/AP)

‘Turning off the whole world’

Researchers at GFW found that the Henan firewall monitors and blocks traffic leaving and entering the province, as opposed to the national-level censorship system that is focused on traffic entering and exiting the country.

Other sources in the region told RFA that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level suggest lack of clear legal know-how about how to enforce instructions from higher-ups.

“Officials would rather block more and more than take responsibility. So the result you see is ‘turning off the whole world’,” network engineer Zhang Jianan said.

GFW Report researchers said their analysis showed no regional censorship in other areas they studied, such as Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.

In Henan and Hebei, however, local residents told RFA that even the websites of some foreign universities are inaccessible, as a result of which they turn to VPNs and other circumvention tools to bypass government censorship and surveillance.

“Some classmates can connect in Beijing and Shanghai, but we can’t in Zhengzhou and can only rely on circumvention software,” Zhang, a student at Henan’s Zhengzhou University, said.

Hebei-based network engineer Zhao said, “The censorship is getting stricter and stricter. We can’t even connect to some foreign university websites.”

RFA found that as early as December 2023, a university in Henan province sought to purchase a “public opinion monitoring system,” specifically aimed at international students, students and dissidents, and had conducted an open bidding process.

Henan University of Science and Technology had laid out a 2024-2025 budget of 120,000 yuan (or US$16,657) for the public opinion monitoring service system to provide 24/7 real-time monitoring, early warning analysis and crisis response of public opinion information on the entire network, covering news websites and social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, the university’s website showed.

When RFA contacted the university, a teacher confirmed they are using an old monitoring system and that they have now started a bidding process for a new one.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang and Tenzin Pema for RFA.

“Following Kloop’s forced shutdown last year, the arrest of eight current and former Kloop staffers and incitement charges against journalists Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Joomart Duulatov is a grave escalation of Kyrgyz authorities’ vendetta against Kloop for its critical coverage of government corruption,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “All press members swept up in these targeted raids must be released without delay.”

Between Wednesday and Friday, officers with Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS) raided Kloop’s offices and the homes of journalists and staffers in the capital of Bishkek and the southern city of Osh, seizing electronic devices, before taking them to SCNS offices for questioning, according to multiple reports.

Kloop founder Rinat Tuhvatshin called the arrests “abductions,” stating that the SCNS conducted searches and questioned the journalists without lawyers present and did not allow them to make any phone calls. 

In a May 30 statement, the SCNS accused Kloop of continuing to work despite the liquidation of its legal entity and said its “illegal work” was “aimed at provoking public discontent … for the subsequent organization of mass unrest.”

With Aleksandrov and Duulatov, an unnamed Kloop accountant detained Friday also remained in SCNS custody. If found guilty on the incitement charges, Aleksandrov and Duulatov could face up to eight years in prison.

A local partner in the global investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Kloop regularly reports on alleged corruption and abuses by government officials. The outlet’s website has been blocked in Kyrgyzstan since 2023.

The charges against Aleksandrov and Duulatov echo those brought last year against 11 current and former staffers of investigative outlet Temirov Live. 

CPJ’s email to SCNS for comment did not immediately receive a reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Papua New Guinea’s state broadcaster NBC wants shortwave radio reintroduced to achieve the government’s goal of 100 percent broadcast coverage by 2030.

Last week, the broadcaster hosted a workshop on the reintroduction of shortwave radio transmission, bringing together key government agencies and other stakeholders.

NBC had previously a shortwave signal, but due to poor maintenance and other factors, the system failed.

• READ MORE: Other PNG media reports

Its managing director Kora Nou spoke with RNZ Pacific about the merits of a return to shortwave.

Kora Nou: We had shortwave at NBC about 20 or so years ago, and it reached almost the length and breadth of the country.

So fast forward 20, we are going to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Our network has a lot more room for improvement at the moment, that’s why there’s the thinking to revisit shortwave again after all this time.

Don Wiseman: It’s a pretty cheap medium, as we here at RNZ Pacific know, but not too many people are involved with shortwave anymore. In terms of the anniversary in September, you’re not going to have things up and running by then, are you?

KN: It’s still early days. We haven’t fully committed, but we are actively pursuing it to see the viability of it.

We’ve visited one or two manufacturers that are still doing it. We’ve seen some that are still on, still been manufactured, and also issues surrounding receivers. So there’s still hard thinking behind it.

We still have to do our homework as well. So still early days and we’ve got the minister who’s asked us to explore this and then give him the pros and cons of it.

DW: Who would you get backing from? You’d need backing from international donors, wouldn’t you?

KN: We will put a business case into it, and then see where we go from there, including where the funding comes from — from government or we talk to our development partners.

There’s a lot of thinking and work still involved before we get there, but we’ve been asked to fast track the advice that we can give to government.

DW: How important do you think it is for everyone in the country to be able to hear the national broadcaster?

KN: It’s important, not only being the national broadcaster, but [with] the service it provides to our people.

We’ve got FM, which is good with good quality sound. But the question is, how many does it reach? It’s pretty critical in terms of broadcasting services to our people, and 50 years on, where are we? It’s that kind of consideration.

I think the bigger contention is to reintroduce software transmission. But how does it compare or how can we enhance it through the improved technology that we have nowadays as well? That’s where we are right now.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

“DRC authorities must swiftly, thoroughly, and transparently investigate journalist Samy Kambere Malikidogo’s shooting and hold the officer responsible to account,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Durban. “Journalists covering events of public interest, such as public demonstrations, must be protected by law enforcement, not targeted.”

Kambere, a reporter with the privately owned broadcaster Kibali FM, was shot in his right arm on May 23 by an officer with the Congolese National Police (PNC), according to the journalist, who spoke with CPJ, and a press release from the local press freedom organization L’Observatoire de la Liberté de la Presse en Afrique (OLPA).

Kambere told CPJ that he was wearing a clearly distinguishable press badge around his neck when police shot him as he reported on the protests against increased insecurity, including the May 22 killing of a store owner by unidentified armed men. Kambere received medical treatment at a local health clinic following the attack and was released. 

A local police commander known as Major Dakota told CPJ by phone that he was on medical leave but had been informed that the shooting was under investigation.

CPJ has previously documented attacks on journalists covering insecurity protests in the DRC.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Funding for New Zealand’s Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) is set to be reduced by almost $36 million in Budget 2025.

This follows a cut of nearly $26 million in the 2024 budget.

As part of these budgetary savings, the Tauola Business Fund will be closed. But, $6.3 million a year will remain to support Pacific economic and business development through the Pacific Business Trust and Pacific Business Village.

• READ MORE: Budget 2025 at a glance: The big changes, winners and losers
• Govt should defuse NZ’s social timebomb – but won’t
• Budget 2025: Pasifika community braces for impact

The Budget cuts also affect the Tupu Aotearoa programme, which supports Pacific people in finding employment and training, alongside the Ministry of Social Development’s employment initiatives.

While $5.25 million a year will still fund the programme, a total of $22 million a year has been cut over the last four years.

The ministry will save almost $1 million by returning funding allocated for the Dawn Raids reconciliation programme from 2027/28 onwards.

There are two years of limited funding left to complete the ministry Dawn Raids programmes, which support the Crown’s reconciliation efforts.

Funding for Pasifika Wardens
Despite these reductions, a new initiative providing funding for Pasifika Wardens will introduce $1 million of new spending over the next four years.

The initiative will improve services to Pacific communities through capacity building, volunteer training, transportation, and enhanced administrative support.

Funding for the National Fale Malae has ceased, as only $2.7 million of the allocated $10 million has been spent since funding was granted in Budget 2020.

The remaining $6.6 million will be reprioritised over the next two years to address other priorities within the Arts, Culture and Heritage portfolio, including the National Music Centre.

Foreign Affairs funding for the International Development Cooperation (IDC) projects, particularly focussed on the Pacific, is also affected. The IDC received an $800 million commitment in 2021 from the Labour government.

The funding was time-limited, leading to a $200 million annual fiscal cliff starting in January 2026.

Budget 2025 aims to mitigate this impact by providing ongoing, baselined funding of $100 million a year to cover half of the shortfall. An additional $5 million will address a $10 million annual shortfall in departmental funding.

Support for IDC projects
The new funding will support IDC projects, emphasising the Pacific region without being exclusively aimed at climate finance objectives. Overall, $367.5 million will be allocated to the IDC over four years.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the Budget addressed a prominent fiscal cliff, especially concerning climate finance.

“The Budget addresses this, at least in part, through ongoing, baselined funding of $100 million a year, focused on the Pacific,” she said in her Budget speech.

“Members will not be surprised to know that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has made a case for more funding, and this will be looked at in future Budgets.”

More funding has been allocated for new homework and tutoring services for learners in Years nine and 10 at schools with at least 50 percent Pacific students to meet the requirements for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

About 50 schools across New Zealand are expected to benefit from the initiative, which will receive nearly $7 million over the next four years, having been reprioritised from funding for the Pacific Education Programme.

As a result, funding will be stopped for three programmes aimed at supporting Tu’u Mālohi, Pacific Reading Together and Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities.

Republished from Pacific Media Network News with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Most of these press freedom violations were connected to coverage of national security issues, including the protracted conflict between the government and the militant group Al-Shabaab.

Since Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared a “total war” on the Al-Shabaab following his 2022 election, the government has attempted to censor media coverage of the militant group’s “extremism ideology.” Amid a deteriorating security situation, with Al-Shabaab’s recent bombing near a presidential convoy and attacks  on strategic government positions, authorities have stepped up efforts to control public discourse.

On March 6, Information Minister Daud Aweis Jama said there was a ban on publishing “statements or news” that could threaten national security or “misuse or fabricate information, whether directly or indirectly.” Press freedom and human rights groups interpreted these broad directives, which echoed an October 2022 statement by the administration, as censorship.  

“The government is really trying to control the narrative, to shape discussions around how it is handling the security situation in the country,” said Abdullahi Hassan, a conflict researcher covering Sudan and Somalia at rights group Amnesty International. “The repression against the media and the attacks on journalists that you are seeing are aimed at silencing government critics and are directly related to those efforts to shape the narrative”

Since March 15, CPJ has documented the following violations in the Somali capital Mogadishu, based on media reports, research by local rights groups the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), and interviews with affected journalists:

● On March 15, National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) officers raided the home of RTN Somali TV reporter Bahjo Abdullahi Salad and arrested her. Authorities held her for about four hours in connection to a now-deleted TikTok video, in which she commented on the failure to clear rubbish in a Mogadishu district.

●  On March 18, police raided the offices of the Risaala Media Corporation after the station aired footage of the site of the bomb attack on the presidential convoy and briefly detained five journalists. Officers briefly held at least 17 other journalists covering the attack as well.

●  On March 26, police raided the family home of online journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul, after he published a series of interviews critical of NISA and covered Al-Shabaab actions. Mohamed Ibrahim, who also works as the information and human rights secretary at SJS, was not home at the time but went into hiding for about three weeks. He told CPJ he was continuing to keep a low profile due to safety concerns.

● On March 28, police officers briefly detained three Himilo TV journalists — Abdirazak Haji Sidow, Anisa Abdiaziz Hussein, and Abdullahi Abdulqadir Ahmed — as well as two journalists from the privately owned news outlet Mustaqbal Media — Abdirizak Abdullahi Adan and Abdirahman Barre Hussein —  while they were covering a protest against sexual violence.

● On April 1, police raided the offices of Five Somali TV and arrested journalists Mohamed Roraye, Ahmed Mohamud, Mohamed Abdi Afgooye, Dahir Dayah, following a report alleging the disappearance of police officers. The journalists were released later that day.

● On April 28, police arrested Risaala TV journalists Abuukar Mohamed Keynaan and Abdirashid Adow Ibrahim while they were covering a mortar attack, accusing them of exaggerating the Al-Shabaab’s actions. They were released unconditionally the same day.

● On April 29, security agents shot at and briefly detained Shabelle Media Network journalists Shukri Aabi Abdi and Najib Farah Mohamed as well as Hiiraanweyn TV correspondent Hussein Osman Makaraan and Saab TV’s Deeq Moalim Jiinow while they were interviewing displaced people. The journalists were not injured.

● On May 5, at around 1 a.m., NISA agents raided the home and media studio of journalist Mohamed Omar Baakaay, who runs a news channel on YouTube,while he was away, the journalist told CPJ. The officers beat and arrested Baakaay’s 17-year-old brother and MM Somali TV’s Bashir Ali Shire, who was also staying there.Authorities released them later that day, without providing reason for the arrest, said Baakaay.

Information minister Daud Aweis and police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also emailed NISA, the Somali presidency, and the information ministry for comment, but did not immediately receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

A group of New Zealand academics at Otago University have drawn up a “Declaration on Palestine” against genocide, apartheid and scholasticide of Palestinians by Israel that has illegally occupied their indigenous lands for more than seven decades.

The document, which had already drawn more than 300 signatures from staff, students and alumni by the weekend, will be formally adopted at a congress of the Otago Staff for Justice in Palestine (OSJP) group on Thursday.

“At a time when our universities, our public institutions and our political leaders are silent in the face of the daily horrors we are shown from illegally-occupied Palestine, this declaration is an act of solidarity with our Palestinian whānau,” declared Professor Richard Jackson from Te Ao O Rongomaraeroa — The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

• READ MORE: How Israel’s war on Gaza is destroying Palestinian education
• Gaza: An expression of conscience
• Other Gaza scholasticide reports

“It expresses the brutal truth of what is currently taking place in Palestine, as well as our commitment to international law and human rights, and our social responsibilities as academics.

“We hope the declaration will be an inspiration to others and a call to action at a moment when the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is accelerating at an alarming rate.”

Scholars and students at the university had expressed concern that they did not want to be teaching or learning about the Palestinian genocide in future courses on the history of the Palestinian people, Professor Jackson said.

Nor did they want to feel ashamed when they were asked what they did while the genocide was taking place.

‘Collective moral courage’
“Signing up to the declaration represents an act of individual and collective moral courage, and a public commitment to working to end the genocide.”

In an interview with the Otago Daily Times published at the weekend, Professor Jackson said boycotting academic ties with Israel was among the measures included in a declaration.

The declaration commits its signatories to an academic boycott as part of the wider Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign “until such time as Palestinians enjoy freedom from genocide, apartheid and scholasticide”, they had national self-determination and full and complete enjoyment of human rights, as codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The declaration says that given the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled there is a “plausible” case that Israel has been committing genocide, and that all states that are signatory to the Genocide Convention must take all necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide, the signatories commit themselves to an academic boycott.

BDS is a campaign, begun in 2005, to promote economic, social and cultural boycotts of the Israeli government, Israeli companies and companies that support Israel, in an effort to end the occupation of Palestinian territories and win equal rights for Palestinian citizens within Israel.

It draws inspiration from South African anti-apartheid campaigns and the United States civil rights movement.

The full text of the declaration:

The Otago Declaration on the Situation in Palestine

We, the staff, students and graduates, being members of the University of Otago, make the following declaration.

We fully and completely recognise that:
– The Palestinian people have a right under international law to national self-determination;
– The Palestinians have the right to security and the full enjoyment of all human and social rights as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

And furthermore that:
– Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian nation, according to experts, official bodies, international lawyers and human rights organisations;
– Israel operates a system of apartheid in the territories it controls, and denies the full expression and enjoyment of human rights to Palestinians, according to international courts, human rights organisations, legal and academic experts;
– Israel is committing scholasticide, thereby denying Palestinians their right to education;

We recognise that:
– Given the International Court of Justice has ruled that there is a plausible case that Israel has been committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, that all states that are signatory to the Genocide Convention, which includes Aotearoa New Zealand, have a responsibility to take all necessary measures to prevent acts of genocide;

We also acknowledge that as members of a public institution with educational responsibilities:
– We hold a legal and ethical responsibility to act as critic and conscience of society, both individually as members of the University and collectively as a social institution;
– We have a responsibility to follow international law and norms and to act in an ethical manner in our personal and professional endeavours;
– We hold an ethical responsibility to act in solidarity with oppressed and disadvantaged people, including those who struggle against settler colonial regimes or discriminatory apartheid systems and the harmful long-term effects of colonisation;
– We owe a responsibility to fellow educators who are victimised by apartheid and scholasticide;

Therefore, we, the under-signed, do solemnly commit ourselves to:
– Uphold the practices, standards and ethics of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in terms of investment and procurement as called for by Palestinian civil society and international legal bodies; until such time as Palestinians enjoy freedom from genocide, apartheid and scholasticide, national self-determination and full and complete enjoyment of human rights, as codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
– Adopt as part of the BDS campaign an Academic Boycott, as called for by Palestinian civil society and international legal bodies; until such time as Palestinians enjoy freedom from genocide, apartheid and scholasticide, national self-determination and full and complete enjoyment of human rights, as codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• The Otago Declaration congress meeting will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 12 noon at the Museum Lawn, Dunedin.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Australia’s plan to recruit from Papua New Guinea for its Defence Force raises “major ethical concerns”, according to the Australia Defence Association, while another expert thinks it is broadly a good idea.

The two nations are set to begin negotiating a new defence treaty that is expected to see Papua New Guineans join the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James believes “it’s an idiot idea” if there is no pathway to citizenship for Papua New Guineans who serve in the ADF

• READ MORE: Other defence pact reports

“You can’t expect other people to defend your country if you’re not willing to do it and until this scheme actually addresses this in any detail, we’re not going to know whether it’s an idiot idea or it’s something that might be workable in the long run.”

However, an expert associate at the Australian National University’s National Security College, Jennifer Parker, believes it is a good idea.

“Australia having a closer relationship with Papua New Guinea through that cross pollination of people going and working in each other’s defence forces, that’s incredibly positive.”

Parker said recruiting from the Pacific has been an ongoing conversation, but the exact nature of what the recruitment might look like is unknown, including whether there is a pathway to citizenship or if there would be a separate PNG unit within the ADF.

Extreme scenario
When asked whether it was ethical for people from PNG to fight Australia’s wars, Parker said that would be an extreme scenario.

“We’re not talking about conscripting people from other countries or anything like that. We’re talking about offering the opportunity for people, if they choose to join,” she said.

“There are many defence forces around the world where people choose, people who are born in other countries, choose to join.”

However, James disagrees.

“Whether they’re volunteers or whether they’re conscripted, you’re still expecting foreigners to defend your society and with no link to that society.”

Both Parker and James brought up concerns surrounding brain drain.

James said in Timor-Leste, in the early 2000s, many New Zealanders in the army infantry who were serving alongside Australia joined the Australian Army, attracted by the higher pay, which was not in the interest of New Zealand or Australia in the long run.

Care needed
“You’ve got to be real careful that you don’t ruin the Papua New Guinea Defence Force by making it too easy for Papua New Guineans to serve in the Australian Defence Force.”

Parker said the policy needed to be crafted very clearly in conjunction with Papua New Guinea to make sure it strengthened the two nations relationship, not undermined it.

Australia aims to grow the number of ADF uniformed personnel to 80,000 by 2040. However, it is not on track to meet that target.

Parker said she did not think Australia was trying to fill the shortfall.

“There are a couple of challenges in the recruitment issues for the Australian Defence Force.

“But I don’t think the scoping of recruiting people from Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, if it indeed goes ahead, is about addressing recruitment for the Australian Defence Force.

“I think it’s about increasing closer security ties between Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, and Australia.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“Impunity in crimes against journalists must not become the norm. Peruvian authorities must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into Raúl Celis López’s killing,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “He is the second journalist to be murdered in Peru this year after the January shooting of Gastón Medina in Ica. These attacks underscore the Peruvian state’s systemic failure to protect journalists and ensure they can freely and safely carry out their work without fear violence.”

Two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fired on Celis, 70, as he arrived on a moto taxi to the Radio Karibeña news station around 5:20 a.m., according to the independent radio station and the National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP). Célis’ driver told reporters the gunmen fired three times and one of the bullets struck the journalist in the head. 

The ANP demanded a swift investigation into the killing of Celis, who it said had been the target of “constant threats” due to his morning news program’s aggressive reporting on government corruption, organized crime, and security problems in and around Iquitos, located on the Amazon River.

Celis’ son, Ramiro said his father was “never afraid to say what he thought” in a Facebook post addressing his death.

The office of Peru’s human rights ombudsman denounced the lack of security guarantees for journalists in Peru and also noted that the Celis’ killing occurred less than four months after TV journalist Gastón Medina was shot dead.

In a statement, Peru’s Interior Ministry said it was investigating the Celis killing, had launched an operation to capture those responsible, and vowed that it would “not permit impunity for this crime.” 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

A group of Indigenous people who were evicted from their ancestral village in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in south India 40 years ago have returned to their former homes.

It’s believed to be the first time Indigenous people in India have asserted their rights in this way, and returned en masse to their homes after being evicted from a Protected Area.

Forest department officials warn the Jenu Kuruba against re-occupying their homes inside Nagarhole National Park. The Indigenous people castigated them for delaying recognition of their forest rights, and went ahead anyway. ©Survival International

More than 50 Jenu Kuruba families took part in the long-planned operation, and have started building houses using their traditional materials and techniques. The Jenu Kuruba say they decided to return because their sacred spirits, who still dwell in the old village location, became angry at being abandoned when the community was forced from the forest in the 1980s.

Forest department officials, backed up by police, warned the Jenu Kuruba against re-occupying their homes, but the Indigenous people castigated them for delaying the recognition of their forest rights for years, and went ahead anyway. Today around 130 police officers and forest guards were on the scene, and prevented journalists from accessing the area.

Shivu, a young Jenu Kuruba leader, said today: “Historical injustice continues to happen over us by denying our rights on our lands, forests and access to sacred spaces. Tiger conservation is a scheme of the forest department and various wildlife NGO’s to grab indigenous lands by forcefully moving us out, but opening the very same lands in the pretext of tourism to make money

We have to today returned to our home lands and forests. we will remain here. Our sacred sprits are with us.”

Jenu Kuruba families begin to construct a house for their ancestors, as they rebuild their old village inside Nagarhole National Park. ©Sartaz Ali Barkat/ Survival

In a statement the Jenu Kuruba of Nagarhole said: “Enough is Enough. We can’t part from our lands anymore. We want our children and youth to live a life that our ancestors once lived. Tigers, elephants, peacocks, wild boar, wild dogs are our deities. We have been worshipping them as our ancestral spirits since generations. This deliberate attempt to separate us from our lands, forests and sacred spaces will not be tolerated. We resist the current conservation model based on the false idea that forests, wildlife and humans cannot coexist.”

For decades it has been official policy in India, as in many other countries around the world, to evict Indigenous people whose lands are turned into Protected Areas, a practice known as Fortress Conservation.

An estimated 20,000 Jenu Kuruba people have been illegally evicted from Nagarhole. Another 6,000 resisted, and have managed to stay in the park.

The Jenu Kuruba’s belief system centers around their connection to the forest, its wildlife, and their gods – including the tigers who live there – but forest guards harass, threaten, and even shoot members of the tribe.

Jenu Kuruba people are experts in their environment. They gather medicine, honey, fruits, vegetables, tubers, and the thatch and bamboo needed to build their houses.

Famed for their honey collecting skills – Jenu Kuruba means “honey collectors” – they are guided from birth to death by the philosophy “Nanga Kadu Ajjayya… Nanga Kadina Jenu Ajjayya – Our forests are sacred… The honey from our forest is sacred.”

Those beliefs underpin the tribe’s careful management of their environment and have ensured tiger survival. Indeed, the healthy tiger population found in their forest is what drove the Indian government to turn the area into a Tiger Reserve. It has one of the highest concentrations of tigers in all of India.

Caroline Pearce, Director of Survival International, said today: “The Jenu Kuruba people’s re-occupation of their ancestral land is an inspirational act of repossession. They’re reclaiming what was theirs, in defiance of a hugely powerful conservation and tourism industry that has enriched itself at their expense.

“If the Indian government really cares about tiger conservation, it will not only allow the Jenu Kuruba people to return, but encourage them to do so – because the science is clear that tigers thrive alongside the Indigenous people whose forests they live in.”

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Survival International.

The BnF’s colonial bias was denounced, particularly in its cultural programming and in its collaborations with Israeli institutions.

To this day, as the genocide perpetrated by the colonial State of Israel continues, neither the BnF nor the ministry has responded.

Source: ParisLuttes, April 27, 2025

Translation and notes between brackets: Alain Marshal

The National Library of France (BnF), a leading institution, plays a major role in preserving and transmitting global cultural heritage, not only within France but also abroad, and has stood out for its remarkable actions in defense of humanity’s shared legacy.

However, its silence regarding the systematic destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage — especially since October 7, 2023, and in particular the destruction of libraries, schools, and universities in Gaza — raises serious questions. The Israeli army, in the context of a war that international bodies have deemed genocidal, has systematically targeted Palestinian cultural infrastructure, reducing to rubble treasures of knowledge and memory. Among the most shocking examples is the destruction of Gaza’s public and university library, in front of which an Israeli soldier was photographed posing amid the flames — a widely shared image that sparked global outrage.

This methodical destruction of Gaza’s heritage is a culturicide happening before our very eyes: an attempt to erase the identity and history of a people by annihilating its remnants, archives, and cultural legacy.

A methodical process since 1948

Since the founding of the State of Israel and the forced exodus of the Palestinian population, Israel has systematically worked to erase both the material and immaterial traces of Palestinian identity: demolishing homes and entire villages; wiping out places of memory and cultural heritage such as mosques, churches, libraries, and archives; restricting access to historical sites [notably the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam], etc. — a strategy aimed at depersonalizing and marginalizing Palestinians, both geographically and culturally.

Following the Nakba of 1948, tens of thousands of books and manuscripts were looted from Palestinian homes by soldiers, closely followed by teams of librarians who catalogued them as the property of the National Library of Israel. [After the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel intensified its cultural repression: imposing systematic censorship, banning books and keywords such as “Palestine” or “return,” and isolating Palestinian artists in a cultural ghetto designed to stifle their creativity and identity.

In 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Israel looted and confiscated the library and archives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, including the collections of the Palestine Research Center and the Palestinian Film Archive. During the Second Intifada, which began in 2000, libraries and archives were targeted, and numerous Palestinian cultural institutions were destroyed or severely damaged. In 2001, Israel seized the collections of the Orient House, a leading Palestinian cultural and political center, and shut it down. On February 9, 2025, Israeli police raided the international Palestinian bookstore Educational Bookshop, a cornerstone of cultural life in occupied East Jerusalem, seizing books and arresting its owners. [1] These examples are but a few grains in an endless string, bearing witness to decades of relentless efforts to methodically erase all traces of Palestinian identity.]

Since October 7, 2023, this destruction project has escalated into a campaign of total annihilation. Israeli bombings — which are the most intense in modern history relative to the size and population density of Gaza — have led to the destruction of countless monuments, museums, libraries, and educational and cultural institutions in Gaza. These acts have been documented in reports such as that by LAP (Librarians and Archivists with Palestine) and the mapping project Gaza, Bombed Heritage and Virtual Museum. UNESCO has recorded Israel’s destruction of around 100 heritage, historical, archaeological, and cultural sites [along with the deaths of many individuals working to preserve and transmit heritage], who — like doctors and hospitals — have been deliberately targeted by the Israeli army.

This indiscriminate targeting of Palestinian educational and cultural infrastructure — despite Israel being a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict — is part of a strategy of uprooting, denying, and appropriating the Indigenous Palestinian identity. It is all the more urgent, therefore, that French and international cultural institutions take a clear stand against these acts of systematic destruction.

Double Standards

Despite the extreme urgency of the situation, the BnF has adopted a posture of withdrawal with regard to Palestine, invoking a supposed “obligation of neutrality.”

In a message dated April 29, 2024, BnF management stated: “Management has been made aware of the presence on TAD’s platforms of stickers whose form and content are explicitly violent and have shocked several of our colleagues, referring to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The institution would like to remind everyone that, under Article L121–2 of the French Civil Service Code, all civil servants are bound by an obligation of neutrality in the exercise of their duties. Any breach of this rule is subject to disciplinary action. We thank all staff for respecting this binding rule, which ensures the neutrality and serenity of our collective working environment.”

This injunction to silence stands in stark contrast to the explicit and substantial commitment it has shown to Ukraine, where the BnF not only took a public stance but also mobilized its resources, network, and collections. Following the Russian invasion in February 2022, the BnF expressed its solidarity with the Ukrainian people through numerous actions, including aid to Ukrainian libraries and their staff. [2] These initiatives reflect the BnF’s active engagement in support of Ukraine, in sharp contrast to its deafening silence on the situation in Gaza. The BnF’s “obligation of neutrality” thus appears to be selectively applied.

This disparity raises serious questions about the consistency of the BnF’s commitment to the protection of global cultural heritage, exposing it to accusations of blatant double standards. All the more so as, despite Israel’s repeated violations of international conventions and UN resolutions, documented over decades, the BnF has not hesitated to showcase this state [through numerous collaborative, promotional, and partnership initiatives] [3].

[Even after October 7, this bias persisted — promoting the Israeli perspective while erasing the destruction of Palestinian heritage. Whereas an entry for the “October 7 Massacre” was created in the BnF’s general catalog, no such entry exists for the genocide or culturicide committed in Gaza. And on November 26, 2024, the BnF hosted a program on the history and present-day destruction of books and libraries, mentioning recent examples (Ukraine, Timbuktu, Iraq) without a single word about the methodical destruction of libraries in Gaza, despite the extensive documentation available.

All this is especially troubling coming from the BnF, which suspended all institutional collaboration with Russian state institutions following the invasion of Ukraine. One can only wonder whether, behind its proclaimed “neutrality,” there is in fact an alignment with the geopolitical choices of France and the West more broadly — unwavering allies of Israel — and the regrettable remnants of a colonial legacy that relegates Indigenous cultures and/or Europe’s responsibility for their destruction to the background.]

The Bias of a Colonial Legacy

“Palestine,” wrote Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour, “poses a problem of conscience for the West. With the former British and French empires responsible for the division of the territory, finding a solution to the Palestinian question would require a complete revision of European colonial history.”

In its exhibition Le monde pour horizon (“The World as Horizon”), the BnF announced in a press release its intent to address the issue of destruction linked to French colonial conquests, promising a presentation of its collections illustrating the colonization of Africa, particularly Algeria. Some media outlets even hailed it as “an effort to distance itself from France’s heavy colonial history.” Yet this announcement has led to nothing: no such presentation has materialized — an absence all the more regrettable given that the Ministry of Culture has made cultural rapprochement between France and Algeria one of the priorities of the 2022–2027 presidential term. And yet the immeasurable devastation caused by French colonization, especially in Algeria, is well documented. From the earliest days of the conquest, Algerian libraries — both private and public — were devastated; their books and manuscripts either destroyed or looted. A significant portion of this looted heritage was donated to the National Library of France.

This dissonance was once again evident during the study day Détruire le livre? (“Destroy the Book?”), held on November 26, 2024, which claimed to explore the history and contemporary reality of book and library destruction in times of war. Yet again, the devastation wrought by Western imperialism — whether through French colonial conquests or, more recently, the destruction carried out by Israel — was completely ignored.

As the Brooklyn Museum Workers in Support of Palestine recently declared, “We also recognize the dissonance between the way cultural institutions historicize past justice movements and their failure to fully engage with movements of the present.”

Conclusion

As an institution entrusted with the preservation of universal heritage, the BnF cannot afford to ignore such a crime against culture and history. Its silence stands in flagrant contradiction to the values it claims to embody, calls into question the universality of its commitment, and contributes to erasing this genocide from the historical record. We condemn the passivity — if not complicity— of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in the face of this campaign of plunder and destruction, which undermines the very principles of preservation and transmission of knowledge and memory, which constitute its core mission.

Given the gravity of the situation and what has been set forth, we call upon the BnF to:

– publicly denounce this grave assault on world heritage, of which the destruction of the Edward Said Public Library is but one of the war crimes committed against Gaza and its inhabitants over the past fifteen months;
— suspend its 2010 framework agreement with the National Library of Israel (BNI) and cease all cooperation with Israeli state institutions, particularly regarding the development of joint research and development programs in information processing, computerization, and digitization; the organization of conferences and seminars; and the mounting of exhibitions;
— [take action, within its means, to safeguard and restore Palestinian historical and cultural memory.]

Endnotes [not part of the original letter]

[1] The titles included works by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and Banksy, as well as other books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, student revolts, and art, including a children’s coloring book entitled From the River to the Sea by South African illustrator Nathi Ngubane. Source: https://www.972mag.com/educational-bookshop-east-jerusalem-raid-arrests/

[2] Notably:

1. Participation, in March 2022, in an initiative to send 15 tons of packaging and preservation materials to Ukrainian museums to protect their collections from conflict-related risks;
2. A public statement by Laurence Engel, president of the BnF, on May 4, 2022, expressing solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people, strongly condemning Russian aggression, announcing the suspension of all cooperation with Russian institutions, and urging Russian national libraries that are members of the CENL (Conference of European National Libraries) to withdraw from it;
3. The creation of a dedicated section on the BnF’s official website gathering information on cultural events in support of Ukraine, as well as a selection of online and reading-room resources related to Ukraine and the ongoing conflict;
4. Screenings of Ukrainian films and the organization of conferences and roundtables;
5. Solidarity initiatives such as a special concert in support of Ukraine, with proceeds used to purchase and ship conservation materials to safeguard Ukrainian heritage;
6. Active participation in the European Commission’s expert subgroup on safeguarding cultural heritage in Ukraine;
7. Collection by the BnF’s “Recueils” team of all ephemeral printed material — brochures, flyers, posters, leaflets — related to the war in Ukraine, to preserve fragile and important records of the conflict;
8. Compilation of a collective bibliography entitled Ukraine in the Collections of the BnF, a collaborative effort by all departments aimed at showcasing Ukrainian heritage;
9. Enrichment of the collections of the National Center for Children’s Literature (CNLJ) with new titles to provide an overview of Ukrainian children’s literature;
10. Hosting Ukrainian librarians in the framework of the “Courants du Monde” program in 2024 and supporting the creation and development of a Ukrainian digital library. Etc., etc.

[3] Notably:

1. Since 2010, the BnF has participated in the Rachel network, launched in 2008 by the National Library of Israel, to disseminate Hebrew manuscripts worldwide;
2. Since 2016, the BnF and the National Library of Israel (BNI) have collaborated to digitize 1,400 Hebrew manuscripts (totaling 560,000 pages), now available on Gallica;
3. In 2021, a few months after “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” which left hundreds dead and thousands wounded in Gaza, the exhibition Living in Israel showcased the country’s architecture, urban planning, and lifestyles, while another exhibition was devoted to the film The Last Day of Yitzhak Rabin by Israeli director Amos Gitai;
4. In 2022, the conference French Studies in Israel focused on the development of knowledge about France as an academic field within Israeli universities, highlighting the cultural and educational ties between the two countries;
5. In 2010, during a BnF exhibition entitled Qumran: The Secret of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the site of Qumran was identified as being in Israel, whereas it is in fact located in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory under occupation. See the Letter from Elizabeth Picard to Mr. Laurent Héricher, scientific director of the Qumran exhibition at the National Library of France. Etc., etc.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Alain Marshal.

Then, just about three weeks after the contract lapsed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of which the NWS is a subagency, shared an update: The automated translation services would be back up and running as of Monday, April 28. 

The agency’s back and forth turned April into a monthlong test case: How well would communities around the U.S. fare without adequate information during extreme weather events?

In the span of a single week, belts of Louisiana were battered by flash flooding, while severe storms brought deadly hail and heavy rain to parts of Oklahoma and Texas and a succession of destructive tornadoes touched down in nine states. Alarms flashed across screens and blared on radios warning people to get to safety. Many of those messages, however, were issued only in English. 

One thing that’s certain is that the increasing frequency and strength, due to climate change, of these events will make life harder for people everywhere. NOAA’s decision sparked an uproar across the country, as advocates and policymakers spoke out against the Trump administration — and the millions of people it put at undue risk.

Monica Bozeman, who leads the National Weather Service’s automated language translations, told Grist that the agency’s contract with Lilt has been renewed for another year. A week after NOAA’s update, however, that restoration is still underway. “We are in the process of standing back up the last few translation sites,” said Bozeman. 

The agency confirmed that Lilt’s software will, once again, generate translations for 30 of its regional weather forecast offices throughout the nation, in addition to the National Hurricane Center. The Lilt models automatically translate urgent updates and warnings from the NWS, which are then posted on websites like weather.gov and hurricanes.gov, and voiced over NOAA’s weather radio. The agency is still “working to restart AI translations,” said Bozeman, to populate those websites and broadcasts. 

“The NWS is committed to enhancing the accessibility of vital, life-saving weather information by making urgent weather alerts available to the public in multiple languages,” said Bozeman. “Utilizing artificial intelligence allows us to keep up with this level of demand.” 

When asked about the NWS shuttering radio translations in the southern region, as previously first reported by Grist, Bozeman said the agency is “working to turn on that capability for the NOAA Weather Radio to broadcast the translated information coming from Lilt AI translations at the affected sites.” 

Neither Bozeman nor a national NOAA spokesperson addressed Grist’s requests for further information.

For instance, the agency has remained tight-lipped about why translation services were suspended in the first place, and has not clarified why it moved to reinstate the contract. They also did not provide a timeline on when to expect all stalled translations to be restored to their former capacity or address whether the ongoing workforce cuts have impeded their progress. Representatives from Lilt did not respond to a request for comment for this article.  

Analysts say the reasons for the initial decision may be linked to what they see as the administration’s “act first, ask questions later” approach to policy. Public response is also likely to have helped propel the weather agency’s sudden backtrack.

“What I’m noticing with this administration is a huge trend where certain pressures really work on them when it comes to walking back the things that they’re doing,” said Priya Pandey, a policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy. Those include economic levers, as seen with tariffs, she noted, as well as the court of public opinion. “Republican Congress members that have some of these weather centers in their districts were putting pressure on the administration to look into this, and look into the impacts of the rollbacks on NOAA.”

The New York Times reported that, as of May 2, about 10 percent of the weather service’s total staff have been terminated or accepted buyout offers. Now, it appears that more turbulence is in store for the agency: President Trump’s budget proposal includes significant cuts to NOAA’s budget and the dismantling of its research arm. Five former NWS leaders wrote in a letter, dated Friday, that they feared the cuts would lead to understaffing in weather forecast offices and “needless loss of life.”

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With the exceptions of New York and Hawaiʻi, which mandate their own statewide emergency translation services, few other states have adopted similar comprehensive models enforcing multilingual information accessibility in the event of a disaster. 

Pandey thinks that could very well now change, as the federal government’s anti-immigrant approach could prompt some states to adopt their own inclusive emergency management policies, while also ramping up the need for community-led efforts. 

The executive order that Trump signed in March that designated English as the country’s official language and rescinded a Clinton-era mandate for federally funded agencies and entities to provide language aid to non-English speakers, said Pandey, “doesn’t prohibit people from translating things outright.” 

Still, she noted, the order does make what used to be a prerequisite entirely voluntary, and provides government institutions such as the NWS or NOAA, in addition to state and county-level emergency management operations, the ability to “outright ignore providing translations.”

In the days following the initial announcement from the NWS, the Nebraska Commission on Latino-Americans doubled down on their commitment to provide translated extreme weather alerts to residents statewide. Executive Director María Arriaga told Grist the “pivotal” decision exposed how vulnerable non-English-speaking communities become “when translation infrastructure disappears overnight,” and pushed the commission into action.

They’ve since accelerated conversations with state agencies to develop the framework for a multilingual emergency information plan, initially serving Spanish speakers, with the goal to also support K’iche’, Arabic, and Vietnamese-speaking residents.

“While we are not a weather agency, we step in as a connector, disseminating accurate and timely information where we see that essential communication is missing or inaccessible,” said Arriaga. “Language should never be a barrier when lives are at stake.” 

Kate Yoder contributed reporting to this story. 

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The National Weather Service is once again translating life-saving alerts. What happened? on May 6, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Ayurella Horn-Muller.

Fadl Al-Mawla was a well-known local journalist who may have been deliberately killed by the RSF as the group routinely targets prominent media and political figures when seizing new areas, a journalist familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

“We are shocked by the killing of Hassan Fadl Al-Mawla, a dedicated journalist who gave his life to report from the ground in Sudan’s civil war,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Those responsible for Al-Mawla’s death must be held to account and journalists must be respected as they document this brutal conflict.”

Fadl Al-Mawla was a presenter at West Kordofan Radio, and a correspondent for the state-owned Sudan National Radio Corporation and independent Beladi 96.6 FM,according to the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate and the journalist who spoke to CPJ.

The journalists’ union condemned Fadl Al-Mawla’s killing as “a grave violation against journalists who continue to serve their communities amid the dangers of war,” and praised Fadl Al-Mawla’s professionalism and dedication to public service journalism.

Fadl Al-Mawla and eight other journalists have been killed since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF in April 2023. 

CPJ’s email to the RSF seeking comment on Fadl Al-Mawla’s death did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Fadl Al-Mawla was a well-known local journalist who may have been deliberately killed by the RSF as the group routinely targets prominent media and political figures when seizing new areas, a journalist familiar with the case told CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

“We are shocked by the killing of Hassan Fadl Al-Mawla, a dedicated journalist who gave his life to report from the ground in Sudan’s civil war,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Those responsible for Al-Mawla’s death must be held to account and journalists must be respected as they document this brutal conflict.”

Fadl Al-Mawla was a presenter at West Kordofan Radio, and a correspondent for the state-owned Sudan National Radio Corporation and independent Beladi 96.6 FM,according to the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate and the journalist who spoke to CPJ.

The journalists’ union condemned Fadl Al-Mawla’s killing as “a grave violation against journalists who continue to serve their communities amid the dangers of war,” and praised Fadl Al-Mawla’s professionalism and dedication to public service journalism.

Fadl Al-Mawla and eight other journalists have been killed since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF in April 2023. 

CPJ’s email to the RSF seeking comment on Fadl Al-Mawla’s death did not receive a response.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

ProPublica announced on Thursday that Gus Garcia-Roberts has been hired as a national reporter.

Garcia-Roberts comes to ProPublica from The Washington Post, where he published investigations into the overdose death of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs; the sexual abuse allegations against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer and Major League Baseball’s secretive system in examining domestic abuse and sexual assault; and how the NFL has failed in hiring Black coaches, part of a series that won the Associated Press Sports Editors top prize for projects and the Online Journalism Awards’ prize for excellence in sports reporting.

Before joining the Post, Garcia-Roberts worked on investigative teams at Newsday, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. At Newsday, he was a part of the team whose series on hidden police misconduct was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for public service. He is the author of “Jimmy the King: Murder, Vice, and the Reign of a Dirty Cop” and the co-author of “Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era.”

“We are so thrilled to welcome Gus and his enviable reporting and writing chops to ProPublica and excited to turn ProPublica’s lens on the world of sports,” said managing editor Tracy Weber. “Stay tuned.”

“I’m beyond excited to be joining ProPublica, an institution whose mission and work I’ve admired for years,” said Garcia-Roberts. He starts next week.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.

Thousands of senior hospital doctors and specialists walked off the job today for an unprecedented 24-hour strike in protest over stalled contract negotiations and thousands of other health workers protested across Aotearoa New Zealand against the coalition government’s cutbacks to the public health service Te Whatu Ora.

In spite of the disruptive bad weather across the country, protesters were out in force expressing their concerns over a national health service in crisis.

Among speakers criticising the government’s management of public health at a rally at the entrance to The Domain, near Auckland Hospital, many warned that the cutbacks were a prelude to “creeping privatisation”.

• READ MORE: Wellington doctors defend nationwide strike action over recruitment

“Health cuts hurt services, the patients who rely on them, and the workers who deliver them,” said health worker Jason Brooke.

“Under this coalition government we’ve seen departments restructured, roles disestablished, change proposals enacted, and hiring freezes implemented.

“Make no mistake. This is austerity. This is managed decline.

“The coalition can talk all they like about spending more on healthcare, the reality for ‘those-of-us-on-the-ground’ is that we know that money is not being spent where it’s needed.”

Placards said “Fight back together for the workers”, “Proud to be union”, “We’re fighting back for workers rights”, and one poster declared: “Don’t bite the hand that wipes your bum — safe staffing now”.

Palestine supporters also carried a May Day message of solidarity from Palestinian Confederation of Trade Unions.

• Photographs: David Robie/Asia Pacific Report    Other photos, videos here
  

Fighting back for NZ's public health system

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This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

NNU members have long supported efforts to achieve guaranteed health care for every person in the United States, through a single-payer system that provides health care based on patient needs, not industry profits. The legislation comes at a critical time when vital lifesaving health care programs, like Medicaid and Veterans Health Administration benefits, are at risk of being completely gutted.

“Nurses are fighting for a future in which our patients’ health is put first always and that’s why we are proud to continue our support for Medicare for All,” said Nancy Hagans, RN and NNU president. “When we guarantee health care for all, corporations and billionaires will no longer be able to deny anyone the care that they need. In the richest country on earth, nobody should have to be forced to choose between taking their medications and putting food on the table. Yet countless families are pushed to the breaking point while greedy corporations charge astronomical, ludicrous fees for care that is every patient’s right to receive.”

The Medicare for All Act builds upon and expands Medicare to provide comprehensive benefits – primary care, vision, dental, prescription drugs, mental health services, home and community-based care, and more – to every person. In addition to allowing patients to have the freedom to choose the doctors, hospitals, and other providers they wish to see without worrying about whether a provider is in-network, the bill would also allow the health care system to negotiate drug prices and reduce exorbitant administrative waste.

Currently, 85 million people in America are either uninsured or underinsured, a number that stands to grow exponentially if Congressional lawmakers choose to gut, rather than defend and strengthen, the country’s public health infrastructure.

“The goal of the current administration and their billionaire buddies is to pile on endless cuts and attacks so that we become too demoralized and overwhelmed to move forward,” said Bonnie Castillo, RN and executive director of NNU. “Registered nurses and our allies don’t step back but step up, during pandemics, climate emergencies, and authoritarian regimes. We won’t let them threaten public services like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security or try to eliminate federal workers’ protected union rights. As patient advocates, it is our duty to fight for a system that prioritizes people over profits. So even on our hardest days, we won’t stop fighting for Medicare for All.”

“The American people understand, as I do, that health care is a human right, not a privilege and that we must end the international embarrassment of the United States being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all of its citizens,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “It is not acceptable to me, nor to the American people, that over 85 million people today are either uninsured or underinsured. Today, there are millions of people who would like to go to a doctor but cannot afford to do so. This is an outrage. In America, your health and your longevity should not be dependent on your wealth. Health care is a human right that all Americans, regardless of income, are entitled to and they deserve the best health care that our country can provide.”

“It is a travesty when 85 million people are uninsured or underinsured and millions more are drowning in medical debt in the richest nation on Earth,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) . “We don’t suffer from scarcity in America, we suffer from greed. That’s most clear in our broken healthcare system, which is why we need Medicare for All. People deserve and want comprehensive health care that covers mental health, long-term care, reproductive care, dental, vision and hearing, all without copays, private insurance premiums, sky high deductibles or other hidden fees. Health care is a human right, that is exactly why it’s time to pass Medicare for All.”

“Every American has the right to health care, period. If you’re sick, you should be able to go to the doctor without being worried about the cost of treatment or prescription medicine. Too many families must decide between putting food on the table and getting medical care that they desperately need,”said Representative Debbie Dingell (MI-06). “A health care system that ties coverage to employment will always leave patients vulnerable. It’s flat-out wrong and Medicare for All would put a stop to it. We’ve been fighting this fight since the 1940s, when my father-in-law helped author the first universal health care bill. It’s time to get this done.”

For more information on the Medicare for All Act, please refer to NNU’s fact sheet.

In addition to the Medicare for All Act, NNU members are advocating for the following federal legislation:

• NURSE STAFFING STANDARDS FOR HOSPITAL PATIENT SAFETY AND QUALITY CARE ACT, sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky: There are no federal mandates regulating the number of patients a registered nurse can care for at one time in U.S. hospitals. As a result, registered nurses (RNs) are consistently required to care for more patients than is safe, compromising patient care and negatively impacting patient outcomes. These dangerous conditions are causing thousands of RNs to leave the hospital bedside. This legislation would improve patient care and increase nurse retention by setting mandated, minimum RN-to-patient staffing ratios.
• THE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION FOR HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SERVICE WORKERS ACT, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Joe Courtney: Violence against nurses and other health care workers in hospitals and other health care facilities is a growing epidemic across the United States. Nurses report being punched, kicked, bitten, beaten, choked, and assaulted on the job — and some have faced stabbings and shootings. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the hazard of workplace violence, with nurses reporting an increase in violent incidents on the job since the beginning of the pandemic. The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act would mandate OSHA to promulgate a standard that would require all covered employers to develop and implement prevention plans to reduce workplace violence incidents. The Workplace Violence Prevention bill passed the House of Representatives in both the 116th and 117th Congress with significant bipartisan support.
• THE RICHARD L. TRUMKA PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE (PRO) ACT, sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Bobby Scott: A union gives workers the ability to act together to advocate for safe working conditions, to improve their wages and benefits, and to protect their workplace rights through collective bargaining and concerted activity. For registered nurses, union advocacy and representation allows us to focus on what we do best: caring for our patients. Attacks on unions and the right to unionize have hurt efforts to improve the lives of working families. Current labor law does far too little to protect and allow workers to exercise our right to join a union. The PRO Act is an important step to protect workers’ rights to organize a union and to stop employers’ attacks so that every worker can organize without fear of retaliation. The PRO Act passed the House of Representatives in the 116th and 117th Congress with bipartisan support.
• THE VA EMPLOYEE FAIRNESS ACT, sponsored by Rep. Mark Takano: Section 7422 of Title 38 of the U.S. Code limits the collective bargaining rights of certain Veterans Affairs (VA) clinical professionals, including registered nurses. This section restricts the ability of registered nurses to speak out about poor working conditions and to resolve disputes with management. As a result, the quality of patient care can deteriorate and problems in VA facilities can go unaddressed. The VA Employee Fairness Act would improve patient care in VA hospitals by expanding the collective bargaining rights of registered nurses and other clinicians employed by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The VA Employee Fairness Act passed the House of Representatives in December 2022 with bipartisan support.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia – Public Domain

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act is under attack. It’s not the first time. The rationale for these attacks has remained the same for the last 50 years: Section 106 compliance is slow, expensive, and unpredictable; it hinders economic growth and kills jobs. All of this comes easy to its detractors; none of it is true.

Section 106 requires federal agencies to assess the effects of their actions that involve lands they administer, permits they provide, and licenses they grant on historic, archaeological, and cultural properties listed in or eligible to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and, to the extent possible, minimize harmful effects to these significant places. The rules governing Section 106 have been in place since 1974. The path toward compliance is well-worn and easy to follow. So why the attacks?

Who Cares?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the fight over Section 106, let’s start with three broader questions: Do Americans care about preserving their history? Do Americans want historic places protected and preserved? Do Americans want taxpayer money spent on historic preservation? The best answers to these questions come from polls taken over the last 25 years (Ipsos 2018, 2023; Ramos and Duganne 2000; Shannon 2014). Consistently, between 80 percent and 90 percent of respondents state that archaeological sites and historic buildings are important to them. In the latest poll (Ipsos 2023), 64 percent responded that archaeological site preservation should be a priority of the federal government, with 77 percent replying that there should be laws to protect archaeological sites and only 5 percent desiring no laws. Most respondents want federal funding for the protection of sites to increase and 80 percent want more land associated with archaeological sites to be set aside and preserved.

It’s one thing to answer a poll, it’s another to act on those beliefs. “So, what do Americans do on their vacations and how do they spend their money?” For many, the answer is visiting archaeological and historic sites. For example, since it opened in 1908, Mesa Verde National Park has hosted about 37 million visitors, with an average of more than 500,000 annually for the last 60 years. Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1934 and has been visited by more than 136 million visitors, with an average attendance for the last 65 years cresting more than 1 million annually.

Perhaps surprising to some, one of the most visited National Historic Parks (NHP) is the San Antonio Missions, which since 1983 has preserved four of the five Spanish Missions near San Antonio (the fifth, the Alamo, is the best known and most visited but is not part of the park and not included in the visitation numbers). The San Antonio Missions NHP has been visited by more than 42 million people, easily exceeding an average of 1 million visitors a year since its inception.

But it’s not just the most famous parks that receive visitors. In my home state of Arizona, there are 19 national parks (NP), monuments, historic sites, and memorials administered by the National Park Service (NPS) (Table 1). Of these, 11 are national monuments, historic sites, or memorials (collectively, termed “NM” below) focused around archaeological or historic sites. In 2024, more than 1.6 million people visited these 11 NMs (NPS 2025), spending about $167 million and accounting for about 1,650 jobs (Flyr and Koontz 2024). In all, the archaeological and historical NMs account for about 20 percent of all NPS visitation in Arizona and more than 10 percent of the money spent and jobs created at NPS units in the state.

One of the parks in Arizona is the Grand Canyon, which by itself accounts for more than half of all visits, money, and jobs to Arizona NPS units. If we exclude the Grand Canyon National Park, then archaeological and historical NMs are responsible for about 45 percent of all visitations, money, and jobs at NPs and NMs in Arizona. Some may scoff at the size of the numbers, but it’s important to remember that many archaeological and historic NMs are in rural parts of the state, where the dollars generated and the jobs created at these units are extremely important to local businesses and communities. Also, some of the archaeological and historical NMs are hard to get to (for example, you need to hike a 3-mile loop to get in and out of Fort Bowie).

No matter how difficult, Americans keep coming. With their money and their time, Americans overwhelmingly declare that they enjoy visiting and learning about the past at archaeological and historical sites. They come alone, with their families, their friends, their schools, and their churches. They are awed by what Americans have done and are inspired to dream about things they might do.

Back to Section 106

Section 106 seeks to balance the interests of project proponents and land developers with protecting the historic fabric of this country. Those who contend that Section 106 is an impediment to development tend to be those with an economic interest. They provide anecdotal evidence of particular projects in which Section 106 compliance was maddeningly slow and outrageously expensive. They never, however, analyze Section 106 actions in a systematic and comprehensive manner, since such an evaluation shows a very different story.

Table 2 is derived from a report on the cumulative impact of the Historic Preservation Fund for the period 2001-2021, commissioned by the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (PlaceEconomics 2023:22). It shows that for the first two decades of the 21st century, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in 59 jurisdictions made about 4.3 million decisions related to Section 106 undertakings. Nearly 80 percent of these decisions were findings that either no historic properties were found in the project area or that those that did exist were not sufficiently significant to warrant any action. In short, about 3.4 million projects brought before SHPOs were dealt with quickly and cheaply, with the project proponent or developer free to proceed in less than 30 days (often in less than a week). In addition, many federal agencies, in partnership with SHPOs and other consulting parties, have made agreements that exclude a vast number of small-scale projects from Section 106 reviews, which have minimal potential to adversely affect the National Register listed or eligible properties. These Section 106 agreements are effective tools that streamline and expedite a wide range of development projects.

About 900,000 projects were found to include a significant property and/or have an adverse effect on such a property. Most of these were altered, redesigned, or withdrawn so that the historic property or properties were not harmed and the proponent was free to proceed or move on to another project without having spent lots of money or wasted considerable time. Of the millions of Section 106 undertakings, less than 0.5% resulted in an agreement document among the SHPO, federal agency, affected Native American tribes, project proponent, local jurisdictions and communities, and other interested public groups on how to resolve the project’s harmful effects on significant historic properties. In 21 years, less than 20,000 agreement documents were signed in the 59 SHPO jurisdictions, or less than 20 per year in the entire country. What do these 20 projects have in common? They contained properties of historical and cultural value to our nation, local communities, Native American tribes, and descendants. The Section 106 agreement documents protected the values embedded in those places while allowing development to proceed.

Safeguard or Obstruction

There are two views of Section 106. Many in the development community view it as a regulation that inhibits economic progress. They argue that the Section 106 process is used by opponents to stymie or kill projects, particularly large and controversial ones. In contrast, local and descendant communities maintain that Section 106 provides them with one of the few means by which they have any say in development decisions. Even with Section 106, however, these groups maintain that the playing field is unequal, with development holding the stronger hand.

Each view has some truth to it, and each overstates the harm that regulations cause them. I have been involved with more than 1,000 Section 106 projects in the last 50 years. The vast majority were uncontested and noncontroversial. The results documented the past, protected significant places, and expedited economic development. There were also a handful of controversial projects, in which passions became inflamed, the proponents and opponents talked past each other, and the agreement reached was in name only, with both sides feeling that they had been shorted.

Critics of Section 106 point to these controversial projects as evidence that the regulation doesn’t work, that it neither protects significant places nor allows the country to build needed infrastructure or improve property. Yet this view is wrong on the facts and mistaken in where it places the blame. Section 106 is a procedural law that does not establish a required outcome. The federal agency with jurisdiction over a project has the final decision, which in almost every case is to allow the project to proceed.

As a country, we want economic development that betters our lives and strengthens our communities. Development that offers a brighter future must be grounded in our shared past. Killing Section 106 would do nothing to further our aspiration to balance economic development with historic preservation. It would not even speed up development. Instead, it would ensure that historic preservationists, who otherwise welcome the opportunity to work with developers, would become entrenched opponents. Heritage strikes at the heart of a community’s ethos, so few land battles stir more passion. Section 106 negotiations can be intense, irate, and irreconcilable, but they take place within a structure designed to make sure everyone is heard and all viewpoints considered. With it, even the most controversial projects move forward. Without it, battle lines form at development sites with no one emerging unscathed.

Let me be clear, development projects proceed not in spite of but because of Section 106. Without the Section 106 regulations, local and descendant communities would have no voice to ensure that development is in keeping with their values and their past. Their only recourse would be to sue. Litigation would be everything critics say about Section 106 and then some—excruciatingly slow, extremely expensive, and unpredictable.

We Can Still Do Big Things

In 1999, Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI), the cultural resource management consulting firm my wife and I founded, was awarded a five-year contract to provide historic preservation services on the U.S. Air Force portion of the Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR). Located in the region of Southwest Arizona known as the Papaguería, the main military mission of the BMGR is to train fighter pilots. At the time when we were awarded the contract, the commanding officer took me aside and quietly, but firmly, said, “You’re free to do all the research and studies you want as long as the fighters continue to fly. The day that archaeology stops one flight will be your last day on the BMGR.”

Today, SRI continues to provide CRM services on the BMGR. In more than 25 years, not a plane has been grounded; not a flight has been aborted; not a mission has been altered because of archaeology. Hundreds of thousands of acres have been inventoried, thousands of archaeological sites have been recorded, hundreds of test excavations have been conducted, and several large-scale excavations have been completed. Native Americans from multiple tribes have joined archaeologists and the U.S. Air Force personnel on scores of site tours. Tribes have inventoried the BMGR for traditional properties and sacred sites, and with almost no exception, these areas have been avoided by military training. More than a bookshelf of technical reports have been written and thousands of artifacts cleaned, analyzed, and stored. Articles, books, and lectures for professional and non-professional audiences have been written or presented.

There are those on the right and the left who argue that we can’t do big things in this country. That Section 106 is choking off growth. But thousands of fighter pilots, many of whom went off to war to defend this country, were trained without interruption, while below, archaeologists and Native Americans worked together to document thousands of years of human occupation of the Papaguería.

There are those who will grant that the process works but still argue that the archaeology and history of places like the Papaguería are not critical to the history of the United States. The BMGR lies in one of the hottest, driest deserts in the United States. Who in their right mind would live here? And, really, who cares?

One hot summer day, in exasperation, I asked these very same questions. Accompanying me in the field that day was Joe Joaquin, an elder of the Tohono O’odham Nation as well as a Marine veteran of Korea and Vietnam. Joe looked around and then, with a wry grin, looked at me, “Who wouldn’t want to live here?” And then more seriously he went on, “These mountains hold our stories, the valleys [are] our ancestral sites, as O’odham people, we are put on this earth to take care of them, and without them we lose who we are. You have the skills and knowledge to find these places, which we don’t have. What you do is important.”

Joe has long since passed away, though his words still reverberate in me. Training fighter pilots is paramount to the defense of this country. But we can do that and still honor an obligation to the first people of the land. The path to doing so is clear. It’s called Section 106.

References

– Flyr, M., and Koontz, L. (2024). “2023 National Park Visitor Spending Effects: Economic Contributions to Local Communities, States, and the Nation.” Science Report NPS/SR-2024/174. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.

– Ipsos (2018). “American Perceptions of Archaeology.” Report commissioned by the Society for American Archaeology.

– Ipsos (2023). “American Perception of Archaeology.” Report commissioned by the Society for American Archaeology.

– National Park Service (NPS) (2025). NPS Stats (National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics).

– PlaceEconomics (2023). “The Cumulative Impact of the Historic Preservation Fund.” Report commissioned by the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.

– Ramos, Maria, and Duganne, David (2000). “Exploring Public Perceptions and Attitudes about Archaeology.” Report prepared by Harris Interactive for a coalition of professional societies and federal agencies.

– Shannon, Sandra (2014). “A Survey of the Public: Preferences for Old and New Buildings, Attitudes about Historic Preservation, and Preservation-Related Engagement.” MA thesis, School of Architecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

This article was produced by Human Bridges.

The post In Defense of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jeffrey H. Altschul.

“Kyrgyz authorities continue a deplorable pattern of shuttering news outlets on illegitimate grounds that their ‘negative’ reporting could spark unrest,” said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia Senior Researcher Anna Brakha. “In a democratic society, critical news coverage is not a grounds to shutter media. Kyrgyz authorities must allow Aprel TV to operate freely.”

According to the prosecutors’ filing, reviewed by CPJ, authorities seek to close down Aprel TV by revoking its broadcast license and terminating its social media operations on the basis of an investigation by Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security.

The filing alleges that the outlet’s critical reporting portrays the authorities “in an unfavorable light” and “undermines the authority of the government,” which “could subsequently be aggravated [by] other social or global triggers and provoke calls for mass unrest with the aim of a subsequent seizure of power.”

In a statement, Aprel TV rejected the accusations, saying it is the function of journalism to focus on “sensitive issues of public concern,” in the same way “state media constantly report on government successes.”

Aprel TV has around 700,000 subscribers across its social media accounts and broadcasts via Next TV, which reports say is owned by an opposition politician. In 2019, authorities seized Aprel TV’s assets and its reporters have since been harassed by law enforcement officials.

The channel, whose flagship news show is highly critical of the government and often adopts an irreverent tone, was previously owned by former Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev but the outlet said in its statement that it is no longer affiliated with any politicians or political forces.

Following current President Sadyr Japarov’s ascent to power in 2020, Kyrgyz authorities have launched an unprecedented assault on the country’s previously vibrant media, shuttering leading outlets and jailing journalists often on the grounds that their critical reporting could lead to social unrest.

CPJ’s emails to the office of the prosecutor general and the State Committee for National Security for comment but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Sage grouse. Photo: Richard Prodgers.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection filed a federal lawsuit this month to stop a proposed pipeline corridor that would cut through six roadless areas in a National Forest in Idaho. The area is habitat for imperiled species like the greater sage grouse, grizzly bears, lynx, and wolverine, and the pipeline would result in a permanent 20-mile road across otherwise roadless public lands.  The new permanent pipeline corridor could be used for additional pipelines in the future, and will undoubtedly increase illegal ATV use in the region.

The Forest Service authorized a special use permit in March to clear-cut a 50-foot wide, 18.2-mile-long corridor through six National Forest Inventoried Roadless Areas for construction of a private company’s pipeline from Montpelier, Idaho to Afton, Wyoming. The decision allows a 50-foot right-of-way that will be clearcut during construction, and a permanent 20-foot right-of-way to maintain the pipeline. In addition to the pipeline itself and the utility corridor, there will also be above-ground facilitiessuch as valves and staging areas.  But since the project violates a number of federal laws, the Alliance and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection have filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service to stop construction of the pipeline.

This pipeline would create a road through designated roadless areas, further fragments security habitat for deer and elk, and further degrades already impacted habitat for the threatened Canada lynx.

This is the second time the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Yellowstone to Uintas have sued to stop this pipeline. We filed our first lawsuit in April of 2020 and two years later the Forest Service tucked its tail and ran, pulling their decision without even waiting for a final court order. But now they’re trying again, and the simple truth is that the pipeline corridor will actually be a permanent road through National Forest lands despite the fact that these public lands have been classified and protected as federal Inventoried Roadless Areas.

That means motorized vehicles will be allowed to permanently use this corridor to maintain and inspect the pipeline. Which will cause permanent vegetation removal, increased sight-lines for poaching, increased noxious weed introductions, and abundant new opportunities for illegal motor vehicle use in these currently roadless areas.

The basis for our lawsuit is that the Forest Service failed to disclose and demonstrate compliance with its own Forest Plan requirements for sage grouse. The agency also failed to analyze the cumulative effects on sage grouse as required.

In this case, the Forest Service also failed to demonstrate that the new pipeline corridor is in the public interest; is compatible and consistent with other Forest resources; that there is no reasonable alternative or accommodation on National Forest lands; that it is impractical to use existing right-of-ways; and that the rationale for approving the new pipeline corridor is not solely to lower costs for the energy company. This violates the Forest Plan, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Forest Service Manual, the National Forest Management Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act.  National Forests were designated for the benefit of all Americans, not to maximize the profits of the oil and gas industry. Instead of needlessly destroying this rare habitat for endangered species on publicly-owned lands, the private company should use existing right-of-ways or private lands.

We will never stop fighting to protect our wild public lands but we need your help. Please donate today so we can keep fighting.

The post Lawsuit Filed Against Permanent Pipeline Corridor in National Forest in Idaho appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Mike Garrity.

Photograph Source: Sean Spicer – Public Domain

On 27 March 2025, President Donald Trump did one of his favorite things: he issued an Executive Order (EO). He is drawn to issue these proclamations because doing so reinforces his sense of “self-importance, control and perceived superiority, which, in turn, are features of [his] narcissistic personality.”

Past Trump EOs have resulted in real time destruction such as depriving millions of people of their livelihood, damage to the environment, destruction of parts of the national health grid, etc. All of those proclamations ate away at the American quality of life, while allegedly preparing the nation for revival of past greatness. How such national masochism is supposed to make the USA “great again” is a mystery only Donald Trump seems capable of unraveling. Nonetheless, while these past EOs constituted an official blitzkrieg on the present, they lacked that special Orwellian commitment to bending future generations to the will of our present empowered narcissist.

However, now we have the 27 March EO. Why is it different?

Entitled, “Restoring Truth and sanity to American History” this EO seeks to assure control of future American perceptions by putting a stop to any reexamination of the nation’s aging batch of “justification myths”.* Hence, quoting this most recent EO: “Section 1. Purpose and Policy.  Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.” My italics.

It is fascinating to witness Donald Trump’s ability to project onto his opponents pretty much what he himself is doing or intends to do. For instance, he is asserting that revision (based on historical evidence) of an idealized, self-glorifying U.S. history is creating a “distorted  narrative.” When, in his opinion, someone else is allegedly “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative” it is a monstrous fault, maybe even a crime. When Trump himself does this same thing, it is heroically redemptive.

What is going on here?

First of all, we should realize that it is quite possible to propagandize a population into believing that a foundation myth or justifications myths are historically factual. It is done by taking as nearly total control of a national narrative as is possible. The Chinese have done this, the Russians did it for nearly a hundred years, believing Christian, Muslims, Hindus have done this relative to their religions. Jews of the Zionist persuasion have done it when it comes to Israel. Finally, a large subset of Americans has bought into their nation’s idealized myths as fact. Yet, now we find that, in the case of the USA, there has been substantial slippage. Where did that come from?

It has been much more than a decade that a large number of historians of U.S. history have been examining America’s various justification myths. This effort has been largely motivated by taking seriously the experience of America’s non-white minorities and colonized people. As a result, such claims as the USA represents to the world an “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness” has been called into question. We are thus presented with the choice: (1) To take seriously the work of hundreds of historians over decades exploring such subjects of American history as slavery; a persistent post-Civil War practice of deep-seeded racial bigotry resulting in segregation and persecution; the destruction of the American Indians; the imperial adventures of the 19th and 20th centuries, and so on. (2) Or, accept Trump’s claim, made in his March EO, of America’s “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty …” as a statement of “objective fact.” Both positions cannot be simultaneously true.

It is option (1) representing an effort to introduce the stories of those long excluded from American history that Trump finds “sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” Putting the cart before the horse, he charges that the result of “the widespread effort to rewrite history also deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame. It seems to me that this is the equivalent of accusing the little fellow who proclaimed “the emperor has no clothes” of pornography.

There is no doubt about it, Donald Trump and those pushing this message have taken a stand that belief in a simplistic, ethically skewed idealization of national history is the only acceptable foundation of patriotism. No doubt millions of patriots in hundreds of other countries take the same stand. But Trump seems to want to go further suggesting that to challenge the myth is itself undermining truth. That might sound like a contradiction based on denial and confusion—but it is obviously a confusion President Trump has taken to heart.

Looking beyond the Tapestry

Why would Trump and his supporters, including some very well educated people: (1) insist that myth is really “objective truth.” (2) That a second look at the historical record will only distort the truth. Specifically, (3) why characterize that second look as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or an otherwise irredeemably flawed”? This is what is being said in recent attacks on the Smithsonian Institution, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, and American Women’s History Museum. Again, quoting from the 27 March  EO:

“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.  This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, an exhibit representing that “societies including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement” …. The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture.”  The forthcoming Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum plans on celebrating the exploits of male athletes participating in women’s sports.”

The Trump administration attack on the Smithsonian and other federal institutions is a good example of Confirmation Bias—the habit of selecting what evidence supports your point of view and ignoring or dismissing all the rest. In our case this use of confirmation bias facilitates turning the Smithsonian and other institutions into shrines—like so many Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields.

Such an effort implies real fear of a balanced view. More specifically, what these attacks suggest is that Trump and his backers are seriously afraid of the “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive” facts that happen to be truthful parts of American history. They refuse to countenance any program of revision based on evidence. Why? Perhaps because these facts represent aspects of history that are incompatible with the claim that we can “MAGA” our way to recovering alleged past glory. As such, historical revision is seen not just as an attack on the national image, but what Trump imagines to be the collective ego of the white America. Denial is the only alternative.

The Fact of Prevailing Ignorance 

It is hard to believe that any broadly educated American would believe Trump’s doublespeak—and, indeed, maybe most such people would not. But one must realize just how few folks are broadly educated, and how the majority of even college graduates are narrowly educated because their schooling has been compartmentalized into occupational specialties. That means that unless they have taken it upon themselves to supplement their education with broad reading, your typical engineer, accountant, businessperson, as well as carpenter, plumber, electrician, etc. will know no more about the historical background of current events than he or she reads in the newspaper. And, newspapers are not well known for presenting objective truth or, for that matter, even paying for fact-checkers.

You can carry this theme of compartmentalization further. A society like the U.S. has always been and remains racially segregated. That means the subset of the white population that voted for and continues to support Trump has no sociological context for understanding why charges of  “institutional racism” or the notions of “woke culture” would make sense to socially aware African Americans. Nor can they historically understand the essential role of immigrants in the history and economy of the U.S.  Existing in what essentially has long been a self-imposed ethnic ghetto, these white Americans have been easily manipulated. This, in turn, has allowed the present government to summarily shut down every federally funded Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program in the country.

The Tale’s Present Consequences

First, the broad attack on DEI, followed up by the near erasure of public recognition of historical events such as the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, the deletion of photographic records of the contributions of American Indians during World War II, and others constitutes no less than a denial that non-white Americans have any role in the nation’s history except as well-treated supplicants.

Second, once you publicly assert such a mythologized version of your own history as the unassailable, you will be forced to continuously lie to support it. In other words, once you set foot down that path you will be forced to increasingly rely on official censorship and propaganda to maintain the unreal image. Simultaneously, you must claim that any attempt at revision using evidence based research is itself an attempt at distortion. This is a complicated maneuver, even for someone as devious as Trump, and can only be maintained through denial and sustained ignorance.

Third, there is no nation on the planet whose actual history is beyond sin and guilt. The only way you can create that image is by turning history into a fairy tale. Strangely, as far as one can tell, President Trump constantly seeks to present his own history/biography in just this fashion. Now he seeks to do the same with the United States—perhaps as part of a narcissistic process to make the country conform to the notion that,  history is just what President Trump says it is. And, if you contest that claim, you must be some sort of traitor. 

* Justification myths are like foundation myths which, usually growing up around a few actual events, set in place a self-glorifying narrative to explain the nation’s founding, and then, periodically, enhance the narrative with compatible myths justifying subsequent national actions.

The post National History By Executive Order appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Lawrence Davidson.

COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

The first demonstration I ever went on was at the age of 12, against the Vietnam War.

The first formal history lesson I received was a few months later when I commenced high school. That day the old history master, Mr Griffiths, chalked what I later learnt was a quote from Hegel:

“The only lesson we learn from history is that we do not learn the lessons of history.” It’s about time we changed that.

• READ MORE: ‘I sent them a good boy and they made him a murderer’ — The My Lai massacre

Painful though it is, let’s have the courage to remember what they desperately try to make us forget.

Cultural amnesia and learning the lessons of history
Memorialising events is a popular pastime with politicians, journalists and old soldiers.

Nothing wrong with that. Honouring sacrifice, preserving collective memory and encouraging reconciliation are all valid. Recalling the liberation of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on 30 April 1975 is important.

What is criminal, however, is that we failed to learn the vital lessons that the US defeat in Vietnam should have taught us all. Sadly much was forgotten and the succeeding half century has witnessed a carnival of slaughter perpetrated by the Western world on hapless South Americans, Africans, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, and many more.

It’s time to remember.

Memory shapes national identity
As scholars say: Memory shapes national identity. If your cultural products — books, movies, songs, curricula and the like — fail to embed an appreciation of the war crimes, racism, and imperial culpability for events like the Vietnam War, then, as we have proven, it can all be done again. How many recognise today that Vietnam was an American imperial war in Asia, that “fighting communism” was a pretext that lost all credibility, partly thanks to television and especially thanks to heroic journalists like John Pilger and Seymour Hersh?

Just as in Gaza today, the truth and the crimes could not be hidden anymore.

If a culture doesn’t face up to its past crimes — say the treatment of the Aborigines by settler Australia, of Māori by settler New Zealand, of Palestinians by the Zionist state since 1948, or the various genocides perpetrated by the US government on the indigenous peoples of what became the 50 states, then it leads ultimately to moral decay and repetition.

Lest we forget. Forget what?
Is there a collective memory in the West that the Americans and their allies raped thousands of Vietnamese women, killed hundreds of thousands of children, were involved in countless large scale war crimes, summary executions and other depravities in order to impose their will on a people in their own country?

Why has there been no collective responsibility for the death of over two million Vietnamese? Why no reparations for America’s vast use of chemical weapons on Vietnam, some provided by New Zealand?

Vietnam Veterans Against War released a report “50 years of struggle” in 2017 which included this commendable statement: “To VVAW and its supporters, the veterans had a continuing duty to report what they had witnessed”. This included the frequency of “beatings, rapes, cutting body parts, violent torture during interrogations and cutting off heads”.

The US spends billions projecting itself as morally superior but people who followed events at the time, including brilliant journalists like Pilger, knew something beyond sordid was happening within the US military.

The importance of remembering the My Lai Massacre
While cultural memes like “Me Love You Long Time” played to an exoticised and sexualised image of Vietnamese women — popular in American-centric movies like Full Metal Jacket, Green Beret, Rambo, Apocalypse Now, as was the image of the Vietnamese as sadistic torturers, there has been a long-term attempt to expunge from memory the true story of American depravity.

All, or virtually all, armies rape their victims. The US Army is no exception — despite rhetorically jockeying with the Israelis for the title of “the world’s most moral army”. The most famous such incident of the Vietnam War was the My Lai Massacre of 16 March 1968 in which about 500 civilians were subjected to hours of rapes, mutilation and eventual murder by soldiers of the US 20th Infantry Regiment.

Rape victims ranged from girls of 10 years through to old women. The US soldiers even took a lunch break before recommencing their crimes.

The official commission of inquiry, culminating in the Peers Report found that an extensive network of officers had taken part in a cover-up of what were large-scale war crimes. Only one soldier, Lieutenant Calley, was ever sentenced to jail but within days he was, on the orders of the US President, transferred to a casually-enforced three and half years of house arrest. By this act, the United States of America continued a pattern of providing impunity for grave war crimes. That pattern continues to this day.

The failure of the US Army to fully pursue the criminals will be an eternal stain on the US Army whose soldiers went on to commit countless rapes, hundreds of thousands of murders and other crimes across the globe in the succeeding five decades. If you resile from these facts, you simply haven’t read enough official information.

Thank goodness for journalists, particularly Seymour Hersh, who broke rank and exposed the truth of what happened at My Lai.

Senator John McCain’s “sacrifice” and the crimes that went unpunished
Thousands of Viet Cong died in US custody, many from torture, many by summary execution but the Western cultural image of Vietnam focuses on the cruelty of the North Vietnamese toward “victims” like terror-bomber John McCain.

The future US presidential candidate was on his 23rd bombing mission, part of a campaign of “War by Tantrum” in the words of a New York Times writer, when he was shot down over Hanoi.

Also emblematic of this state-inflicted terrorism was the CIA’s Phoenix Programme, eventually shut down after public outrage and hearings by the US Congress into its misdeeds. According to US journalist Douglas Valentine, author of several books on the CIA, including The Phoenix Program:

“Central to Phoenix is the fact that it targeted civilians, not soldiers”.

Common practices, Valentine says, quoting US witnesses and official papers, included:

“Rape, gang rape, rape using eels, snakes, or hard objects, and rape followed by murder; electrical shock (“the Bell Telephone Hour”) rendered by attaching wires to the genitals or other sensitive parts of the body, like the tongue; “the water treatment”; “the airplane,” in which a prisoner’s arms were tied behind the back and the rope looped over a hook on the ceiling, suspending the prisoner in midair.”

No US serviceman, CIA agent or other official was held to account for these crimes.

Tiger Force — part of the US 327th Infantry — gained a grisly reputation for indiscriminately mowing down civilians, mutilations (cutting off of ears which were retained as souvenirs was common practice, according to sworn statements by participants). All this was supposed to be kept secret but was leaked in 2003.

“Their crimes were uncountable, their madness beyond imagination — so much so that for almost four decades, the story of Tiger Force was covered up under orders that stretched all the way to the White House,” journalists Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss reported.

Their crimes, secretly documented by the US military, included beheading a baby to intimidate villagers into providing information — interesting given how much mileage the US and Israel made of fake stories about beheaded babies on 7 October 2023. The US went to great lengths to hide these ugly truths — and no one ever faced real consequences.

Helicopter gunships and soldiers at checkpoints gunned down thousands of Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, much as US forces did at checkpoints in Iraq, according to leaked US documents following the illegal invasion of that country.

The worst cowards and criminals were not the rapists and murderers themselves but the high-ranking politicians and military leaders who tried desperately to cover up these and hundreds of other incidents. As Lieutenant Calley himself said of My Lai: “It’s not an isolated incident.”

Here we are 50 years later in the midst of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, with the US fuelling war and bombing people across the globe. Isn’t it time we stopped supporting this madness?

Eugene Doyle is a community organiser and activist in Wellington, New Zealand. He received an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian award in 2023 for community service. His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam War. This article was first published at his public policy website Solidarity and is republished here with permission.

• Next article: The fall of Saigon 1975: Part two: Quiet mutiny: the US army falls apart.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Trump administration has issued a new executive order opening up vast swathes of protected ocean to commercial exploitation, including areas within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

It allows commercial fishing in areas long considered off-limits due to their ecological significance — despite overwhelming scientific consensus that marine sanctuaries are essential for rebuilding fish stocks and maintaining ocean health.

These actions threaten some of the most sensitive and pristine marine ecosystems in the world.

• READ MORE: Other President Trump executive order reports

Condeming the announcement, Greenpeace USA project lead on ocean sanctuaries Arlo Hemphill said: “Opening the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing puts one of the most pristine ocean ecosystems on the planet at risk.

“Almost 90 percent of global marine fish stocks are fully exploited or overfished. The few places in the world ocean set aside as large, fully protected ocean sanctuaries serve as ‘fish banks’, allowing fish populations to recover, while protecting the habitats in which they thrive.

“President Bush and President Obama had the foresight to protect the natural resources of the Pacific for future generations, and Greenpeace USA condemns the actions of President Trump today to reverse that progress.”

President Trump signs executive order on Pacific fisheries     Video: Hawai’i News Now

Slashed jobs at NOAA
A second executive order calls for deregulation of America’s fisheries under the guise of boosting seafood production.

Greenpeace USA oceans campaign director John Hocevar said: “If President Trump wants to increase US fisheries production and stabilise seafood markets, deregulation will have the opposite effect.

“Meanwhile, the Trump administration has already slashed jobs at NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] and is threatening to dismantle the agency responsible for providing the science that makes management of US fisheries possible.”

“Trump’s executive order on fishing could set the world back by decades, undoing all the progress that has been made to end overfishing and rebuild fish stocks and America’s fisheries.

“While there is far too little attention to bycatch and habitat destruction, NOAA’s record of fisheries management has made the US a world leader.

“Trump seems ready to throw that out the window with all the care of a toddler tossing his toys out of the crib.”

‘Slap in face to science’
Hawai’i News Now reports that a delegation from American Samoa, where the economy is dependent on fishing, had been lobbying the president for the change and joined him in the Oval Office for the signing.

Environmental groups are alarmed.

“Trump right here is giving a gift to the industrial fishing fleets. It’s a slap in the face to science,” said Maxx Phillips, an attorney for the Centre for Biological Diversity.

“To the ocean, to the generations of Pacific Islanders who fought long and hard to protect these sacred waters.”

Republished from Greenpeace USA with additional reporting by Hawai’i News Now.

The executive orders, announced on April 17, 2025, are detailed here:

• Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Unleashes American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

“The Venezuelan government’s crackdown on the press has persisted for months, intensifying following the July 28 disputed reelection of President Nicolás Maduro,” said CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “Public scrutiny is a crucial component of democratic accountability and a free press, and Nakary Mena Ramos and Gianni González must be freed without condition.”

A criminal court on April 10 ordered Mena, a reporter with the independent news site Impacto Venezuela, to remain in detention at a women’s prison on the outskirts of the capital city of Caracas on preliminary charges of “hate crimes” and “publishing fake news,” according to the National Press Workers Union (SNTP).  

Impacto Venezuela posted that Mena, 28, and González, who is being held at El Rodeo II prison near Caracas, were denied access to private lawyers but assigned public defenders.

A pro-government journalist criticized Mena’s report on rising crime in Caracas – a sensitive issue for the government –a day before she and González went missing on April 8 near a public square in downtown Caracas. Minister Diosdado Cabello has also criticized the report, calling it “a campaign to instill fear in people.” 

Impacto Venezuela defended Mena’s report as based on interviews with average citizens and supported with government information.

The arrests of Mena and González come amid a sharp rise in oppression against Venezuelan journalists by Maduro’s authoritarian government, which has created a heightened environment of fear, stigmatization, and criminalization of independent voices. 

CPJ’s calls to the attorney general’s office in Caracas did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“The Venezuelan government’s crackdown on the press has persisted for months, intensifying following the July 28 disputed reelection of President Nicolás Maduro,” said CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, Cristina Zahar, in São Paulo. “Public scrutiny is a crucial component of democratic accountability and a free press, and Nakary Mena Ramos and Gianni González must be freed without condition.”

A criminal court on April 10 ordered Mena, a reporter with the independent news site Impacto Venezuela, to remain in detention at a women’s prison on the outskirts of the capital city of Caracas on preliminary charges of “hate crimes” and “publishing fake news,” according to the National Press Workers Union (SNTP).  

Impacto Venezuela posted that Mena, 28, and González, who is being held at El Rodeo II prison near Caracas, were denied access to private lawyers but assigned public defenders.

A pro-government journalist criticized Mena’s report on rising crime in Caracas – a sensitive issue for the government –a day before she and González went missing on April 8 near a public square in downtown Caracas. Minister Diosdado Cabello has also criticized the report, calling it “a campaign to instill fear in people.” 

Impacto Venezuela defended Mena’s report as based on interviews with average citizens and supported with government information.

The arrests of Mena and González come amid a sharp rise in oppression against Venezuelan journalists by Maduro’s authoritarian government, which has created a heightened environment of fear, stigmatization, and criminalization of independent voices. 

CPJ’s calls to the attorney general’s office in Caracas did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

For those unfamiliar with Blakeley, she’s a prominent economist, writer, and journalist known for her sharp critiques of late capitalism. Alongside her economic commentary, she’s released music, travelled through Central America, moved to Cornwall, and taken up surfing. Her latest book, Vulture Capitalism, is now a bestseller.

What caught my eye recently was a post in which she noted that 50 years ago, young men worried about inflation eating into their wages would have joined a union.

‘Today,’ she said, ‘they put all their savings in crypto and vote for tax cuts in case they become billionaires.’ She added that communities once formed to tackle such issues collectively were systematically dismantled by both major UK political parties. In another interview, she argues Thatcher turned everyone from citizens into consumers. The result? Many young people feel they must face economic challenges alone.

Of course, there’s another possibility: maybe young people simply aren’t ‘joiners’ anymore. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re disengaged. A perhaps surprising recent survey by the University of Glasgow’s John Smith Centre (JSC) found that nearly two-thirds of young people (63%) are optimistic about their future, and almost three-quarters (72%) describe themselves as ‘rather or very happy.’ Youth-led protests around the world—such as in Turkey—offer further signs of active engagement. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Still, Blakeley may be right: young people should be more concerned about economic inequality. Financial independence is becoming harder to achieve thanks to high rents, rising council tax, energy bills, and a generally unaffordable cost of living. Post-COVID, there’s also been an uptick in benefit reliance—lifesaving for many, but for a small minority, perhaps demotivating.

The JSC also reports that young men in the UK tend to lean more right-wing than young women. While most young people identify as politically centrist, parties like Reform UK are courting younger male voters, including those drawn to controversial figures like Andrew Tate. In contrast, Blakeley urges young people to take ownership of their political future—pushing for structural reforms like public ownership, stronger labour protections, and wealth redistribution. In theory, these would benefit young workers and union members alike. In practice, however, such policies are often sidelined.

Youth Officer Hollie Gregg as part of the CWU Northern Ireland Telecoms Branch focuses on engaging and representing young workers within the Union. She said recently in Belfast: ‘Young people are more likely to be employed in lower job classifications so more likely to be on lower incomes. Young people are more likely to be victims of sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment. They are often not taken seriously and their voices silenced and their concerns brushed aside. As a trade union movement it is imperative that we are not part of the problem.’

Meanwhile, union membership continues to decline. Between 2010 and 2023, overall membership fell by 4.2%. Some specifics:

+ GMB: -5.23%
+ CWU: -14.46%
+ Unite: -20.76%
+ UNISON saw only a marginal increase of 0.12%.

Unions claim to support young workers—advocating for better pay, safer conditions, and fair treatment. Yet insecure contracts and low wages remain widespread. Many unions campaign against zero-hour contracts and for a higher minimum wage, but these battles are far from won. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has pushed for a real living wage and argued against age-based pay discrimination. Yet even today, many young workers are still vulnerable to unfair treatment, unsafe workplaces, and even wage theft.

To their credit, unions such as Unite, GMB, and USDAW have fought against unpaid internships and exploitative gig economy jobs. But with leadership in many unions ageing fast, critics argue some senior figures are clinging to six-figure salaries rather than fostering the next generation.

Still, unions offer more than protest. If a young worker is dismissed unfairly, harassed, or underpaid, unions can provide legal representation and support. Many also run workshops, apprenticeships, and mentoring schemes aimed at building careers—not just defending them.

So why aren’t more young people joining? The TUC’s Young Workers Forum offers training and campaigns for fair pay and workers’ rights. Campaigns like HeartUnions and Why Join a Union? aim to raise awareness. But outreach is still uneven. Young workers are online, on campuses, and in gig jobs—unions must meet them there.

Leadership opportunities also matter. Training in activism is common. Training in leadership? Less so. If unions want young people to stay involved, they’ll need to create space at the top.

Some unions already have active youth arms:

+ Unite supports apprentices, trains youth leaders, and fights exploitative contracts.
+ GMB Young Workers campaigns for wage transparency and an end to zero-hour deals.
+ USDAW runs the Stand Up for Young Workers campaign.
+ CWU features high-profile young spokespeople like Chloe Koffman.
+ BFAWU has led fast-food strikes for better pay.
+ UCU defends early-career academics from job insecurity.

Blakeley believes the issue runs deeper than union strategy: she says young people lack a ‘materialist education’—an understanding of political economy and labour history. She herself joined a union while working at Morrisons and continues to champion their potential.

Now, with a Labour government in power after 14 years of Conservative rule, unions may be approaching a moment of renewed relevance. But will young workers see them as a genuine path to economic security—or as a relic of the past?

In the end, it’s not just about protesting unfairness. It’s about building power. And that starts with the decision to join.

The post Letter from London: Blessed Are the Young, for They Shall Inherit the National Debt appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bach.

On March 7, Chooma was attacked by ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) supporters while covering a charity event in the southern town of Mazabuka, with police arresting four suspects in connection with the attack, according to a police statement, reviewed by CPJ, and Wave FM Zambia.  

On March 23, Chooma was arrested and detained overnight on charges of “assault occasioning actual bodily harm” after a suspect in his attack lodged a separate complaint against him, the journalist said. Chooma told CPJ that he denied the allegations, which carry a penalty of up to five years in prison.

“The sequence of events suggests that the criminal case against Hope Chooma is an attempt to silence a journalist who spoke out about being assaulted while going about his duties as a reporter,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Muthoki Mumo in Nairobi. “Authorities should desist from further victimizing Chooma and ensure a credible investigation into the attack on journalists by ruling party supporters is completed.”

A medical report, reviewed by CPJ, noted that Chooma sustained a cut to his neck and shoulder pain. Halobatold CPJ the assailants warned him that they could do anything to him because “[they] are the government.”  

“It’s strange a cadre is claiming to have been assaulted when the correct position is that they were the aggressors,” Luckson Hamooya, president of the Mazabuka Press Club, told CPJ.

CPJ has previously documented UPND members and supporters raiding media houses and assaulting journalists. 

CPJ’s calls to UPND and government spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa and police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga went unanswered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second term began, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, joined Trump in taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting her efforts in this regularly updated report.

Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more here.

This article was first published on March 14, 2025.

March 14, 2025 | Investigation opened into media leaks from U.S. spy agencies

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March 14, 2025 | Investigation opened into media leaks from U.S. spy agencies

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, announced on March 14, 2025, that the Trump administration will aggressively investigate the source of leaks from U.S. intelligence agencies to members of the media.

In posts on the social platform X, Gabbard cited recent reports by HuffPost, The Washington Post, NBC News and The Record as examples of such “politically motivated leaks.” She added that the leaks “undermine our national security and the trust of the American people, and will not be tolerated.”

The New York Times reported that, while Gabbard promised action against the leakers and not the newsrooms that publish it, it signals an effort to chill national security reporting.

“Leak investigations threaten the free flow of information that the public needs to hold the government accountable, especially in the national security context,” Bruce Brown, the president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times. “This is true from administration to administration.”

Back to Top

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/04/03/tulsi-gabbard-targets-press-leakers-as-national-intelligence-director/feed/ 0 523538 https://grist.org/politics/trump-takes-aim-at-the-people-who-protect-national-parks-from-climate-change/ https://grist.org/politics/trump-takes-aim-at-the-people-who-protect-national-parks-from-climate-change/#respond Wed, 02 Apr 2025 08:15:00 +0000 https://grist.org/?p=662077 Reporting for this story was supported by the Climate Equity Reporting Project at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and is part of a project on how the Trump administration’s funding cuts are affecting Californians.

The last few months have been a tumultuous time for National Park Service employees. After President Donald Trump took office, the federal agency laid off roughly 1,000 employees in a purge dubbed the Valentine’s Day massacre. Then, after two judges ruled that the layoffs were unlawful, they were rehired. Now, as the Department of Government Efficiency begins executing an official and much larger plan to slash the federal workforce, many employees are anxiously awaiting the next round of cuts. The White House has reportedly directed the agency to reduce its workforce by as much as 30 percent in the coming months. 

Despite the agency’s murky future, some changes are clear: As the days get warmer, the numbers of visitors to the parks will begin to tick up. As spring gives way to summer, the Western landscape will begin to dry out, and the risk of drought and wildfires will also increase. The stakes for the climate — and for the parks in the face of climate-fueled disasters — couldn’t be higher.

“Cities and places that are more developed are more resistant to changes in climate, but in these wild areas, we can see more warning signs, more indicators if the patterns start changing dramatically,” said one National Park Service employee. “With all of these positions lost, there will be no one on watch anymore.”

The employee, who works at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, was among those laid off in February and rehired. He returned to work on Saturday and requested anonymity to speak freely without fear of reprisal. The February layoffs targeted probationary employees who had been hired or promoted within the last year. 

National parks are on the frontlines of climate change. Temperatures in the parks have increased at double the rate of the country as a whole in part due to the fact that they are located in extreme environments, including at high elevations and in especially arid places. Many parks are now drying out faster than they ever have, resulting in larger wildfires, while others are facing unprecedented flooding. In Sequoia National Park, for instance, the giant sequoia trees, which have evolved with fires, have been unable to withstand the wildfires of recent years and are dying at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, parts of the park had to be closed in 2023 because severe flooding washed away roadways.  

Grist spoke with five former and current park employees about the role staff play in protecting the parks and the climate implications of the Trump administration’s policies for the National Park Service. Aside from the interpreters and rangers who work directly with the public, the agency employs biologists, hydrologists, geologists, and conservation managers who track, study, and actively protect the ecosystems they work with. Crews also remove invasive species in an effort to preserve native species and make the landscape less flammable. Some employees are also working to move species at risk of extinction due to climate change, such as the Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert, to other parts of the park in a process called managed relocation. Many of the staff who study burn areas and the impacts of fire on native species also serve as a secondary fire-fighting force when needed. If the agency’s workforce is reduced dramatically, it’s unclear how much of this work can continue, they said.

“Most of those positions have the least protections to begin with, so they’re the first ones on the chopping block,” the Sequoia and Kings Canyon employee said. 

In addition to potential staff losses, a portion of the funding from two landmark federal laws — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — remains frozen, further jeopardizing the agency’s work. A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to questions about the firings or frozen funding. 

The National Park Service has been working to prepare for a warming world. It has had an ecosystem inventory and monitoring program in place since 1998 and a climate change response program since 2010. In recent years, it invested in building out both programs to detect and respond to the rapid changes in ecosystems and the growing number of disasters taking place in the parks. It also trained thousands of rangers, educated the public about the impacts of climate change on the parks, and adopted a national framework to help park staff decide which ecosystems to prioritize saving. In 2023, the agency developed a plan to electrify park vehicle fleets and buildings to reduce the parks’ overall greenhouse gas emissions.  

The Biden Administration provided funding for a number of these initiatives through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Congress passed in 2022 and 2021, respectively. The agency used the funding for landscape restoration, invasive species removal, and integrating Indigenous knowledge with scientific research and restoration work. Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act alone directed $700 million toward hiring more staff and better preparing the parks’ natural, cultural, and historic resources to withstand a changing climate. Since the parks also serve as carbon sinks by storing planet-warming gases in soil, wetlands, and forests, thirty five parks received funding to restore grasslands and the seedbanks that support them. But as funding for such initiatives remains frozen and the potential for mass layoffs looms large, the future of these projects is now uncertain. 

Terri Thomas, a retired natural resources manager who worked in Crater Lake, Yosemite, and Everglades National Parks, said she is particularly concerned about the potential impact of weakening the inventory and monitoring program, which collects scientific information about how a park’s native plants, animals, and birds are evolving.

“Parks are increasingly considering measures such as managed relocation to protect at-risk species by moving them beyond their historical range to locations with more favorable biotic or climatic conditions,” said Thomas. “Without the staff and their scientific and institutional knowledge, these actions may not occur, and species could be lost.”

The agency’s restoration work, some of which is dependent on federal funding, is also on the chopping block. In 2016, Yosemite National Park’s Ackerson Meadow, a 400-acre parcel of formerly privately-owned land, was gifted to the National Park Service. The park and several conservation nonprofits are working to restore the land, which is home to multiple endangered plants and animals, a large meadow, and a vast network of wetlands.

“It’s an ongoing process of improving the hydrology and function of a meadow system, and one of the benefits is carbon sequestration,” said Jesse Chakrin, executive director of The Fund for People in Parks and a former park ranger. “Not only does it provide clean water, but the peat and the soils there are incredible carbon sinks.”

The number of visitors to the national parks has been increasing steadily since the pandemic and reached a new record of nearly 34 million people last year. But a recent internal park memo forbade employees from publicizing the number, in part because public awareness of this growth might spur more concern about the cuts to staff and funding. In years past, Chakrin, said that kind of bump would have likely resulted in more resources for the agency. Now, he said, “we’re in a totally new arena of operations at this point, and [parks are] trying to meet this increased demand with potentially a lot less staff down the road.”

The agency will be allowed to hire 5,000 seasonal employees this summer, but Chakrin and others worry about the lack of institutional knowledge moving forward. “It’s a real problem when you don’t have continuity of leadership because these [climate resiliency] projects require effort and dedication over long periods of time. The damage being done under this administration will have an impact for decades.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump takes aim at the people who protect national parks from climate change on Apr 2, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Twilight Greenaway.

]]> https://grist.org/politics/trump-takes-aim-at-the-people-who-protect-national-parks-from-climate-change/feed/ 0 523149 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/30/introducing-archivegate-trumps-dangerous-attack-on-the-national-archives/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/30/introducing-archivegate-trumps-dangerous-attack-on-the-national-archives/#respond Sun, 30 Mar 2025 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=eae96207c34c3d8ecb234eafd6e9b867 If you thought SignalGate was bad, wait until you hear about ArchiveGate. Trump illegally fired the National Archivist—the first president in U.S. history to do so since the position was established in the 1930s. This wasn’t just about a change in leadership; it was revenge on the Archivist’s office alerting the DOJ about Trump’s stolen classified documents, which were stored around Mar-a-Lago, a known hub for foreign spies. 

But it gets worse. Marco Rubio, who is currently the Trump/Putin lackey Secretary of State, is also serving as the acting National Archivist. This unprecedented conflict of interest raises serious concerns. Rubio is juggling three major roles—Secretary of State, head of USAID, and now, National Archivist. This gives him the power to greenlight the destruction of government records, including his own, without any checks and balances.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) plays a vital role in maintaining the integrity of our political system, overseeing the administration of the Electoral College, preserving government records, and ensuring transparency. Now, with Rubio in control, we face the potential destruction of key documents and rewriting of history that could threaten our democracy. It’s another avenue for Trump to lead a coup to stay in power, like his failed “fake electors” scheme to try to overturn the 2020 election. 

As one listener points out in her commentary, edited for clarity, shared in a recent Gaslit Nation salon, we must stay vigilant of these corrupt moves. ArchiveGate is part of a broader plan to hold on to power. But remember, the people are the ultimate force. Together, we can stop this. 

 

Want to enjoy Gaslit Nation ad-free? Join our community of listeners for bonus shows, ad-free episodes, exclusive Q&A sessions, our group chat, invites to live events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit!

 

Show Notes:

 

Reject Hypernormalization: Gaslit Nation Launches New Project, Survey https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/survey-reject-hypernormalization

 

Trump’s firing of the U.S. government archivist is far worse than it might seem: The National Archives and Records Administration does more than just preserve documents: It’s the scaffolding of the American political system. https://www.fastcompany.com/91277620/trump-firing-national-archivist-colleen-shogan

 

House Dems cite ‘fundamental conflict’ of Rubio’s acting appointments atop USAID and National Archives: Lawmakers’ concerns stem from a March 11 memo instructing USAID employees to prepare for mass destruction of agency records. https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/03/house-dems-cite-fundamental-conflict-rubios-acting-appointments-atop-usaid-and-national-archives/404013/

 

The ‘fake electors’ and their role in the 2020 election, explained https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/20/fake-electors-charges-trump-2020-election/

 

This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/30/introducing-archivegate-trumps-dangerous-attack-on-the-national-archives/feed/ 0 522572 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/26/marjorie-taylor-green-leads-doge-subcommittee-calls-to-defund-npr-pbs-democrats-blast-cuts-to-national-institutes-for-health-march-26-2025/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/26/marjorie-taylor-green-leads-doge-subcommittee-calls-to-defund-npr-pbs-democrats-blast-cuts-to-national-institutes-for-health-march-26-2025/#respond Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=71970f2eaa1374f8fea3b9191bcb34a1 Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• First republican joins dems calling for investigation of Yemen war plan group chat security breach
• DOGE committee hearing calls for defunding NPR, PBS, as dems urge “save Elmo”
• Democrats hold forum to oppose cuts to National Institutes for Health
• Uber, Lyft drivers lawsuit claims wage theft, settlement negotiations to begin Monday
• Musk’s closure of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service could worsen and prolong labor strikes and lockouts

The post Marjorie Taylor Green leads DOGE subcommittee calls to defund NPR, PBS; Democrats blast cuts to National Institutes for Health – March 26, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/26/marjorie-taylor-green-leads-doge-subcommittee-calls-to-defund-npr-pbs-democrats-blast-cuts-to-national-institutes-for-health-march-26-2025/feed/ 0 521762 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/20/ethically-challenged-commerce-sec-lutnick-tells-national-tv-audience-to-buy-tesla-stock-as-his-family-business-apparently-holds-840m-in-tesla/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/20/ethically-challenged-commerce-sec-lutnick-tells-national-tv-audience-to-buy-tesla-stock-as-his-family-business-apparently-holds-840m-in-tesla/#respond Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:39:37 +0000 https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/ethically-challenged-commerce-sec-lutnick-tells-national-tv-audience-to-buy-tesla-stock-as-his-family-business-apparently-holds-840m-in-tesla During a March 19 national television appearance, billionaire Trump Commerce Secretary and “close” Elon Musk associate, Howard Lutnick, urged the public to “buy Tesla” stock -- a glaring ethics violation in light of government watchdog Accountable.US’ new analysis finding that Lutnick’s family-run financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald reported holding nearly $840 million in Tesla Inc. in its most recent holdings report. Conveniently, Lutnick’s appeal to would-be average investors came on the same day Cantor Fitzgerald analysts upgraded Tesla to a “buy” rating.

“This is what abuse of power for personal and family gain looks like,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “When the billionaire Commerce Secretary used the Trump administration bully pulpit to try to rocket Tesla stock value, he conveniently forgot to mention his family business empire holds nearly $840 million in the company. While Secretary Lutnick is busy making TV appearances in a government capacity to potentially enrich his family business and his close ally Elon Musk, the rollercoaster Trump tariff policies he helped orchestrate are doing little to lower costs for working people – in fact quite the opposite.”

Accountable.US has previously documented billions of dollars of interests Cantor Fitzgerald is involved in that could directly benefit from his role as Commerce Secretary. While Lutnick has claimed he would divest from his business empire upon becoming Commerce Secretary, nearly two dozen of his associates have stated that his “grip on his various businesses is bolted tight” and “his knot of conflicts is unlikely to loosen easily.” After his confirmation, Lutnick then gave “control” of his businesses to his two 20-something-year-old sons.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/20/ethically-challenged-commerce-sec-lutnick-tells-national-tv-audience-to-buy-tesla-stock-as-his-family-business-apparently-holds-840m-in-tesla/feed/ 0 520451 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/18/a-national-asbestos-exposure-registry-of-veterans-could-combat-misdiagnosis-in-mesothelioma-cases-nationwide/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/18/a-national-asbestos-exposure-registry-of-veterans-could-combat-misdiagnosis-in-mesothelioma-cases-nationwide/#respond Tue, 18 Mar 2025 05:55:02 +0000 https://www.counterpunch.org/?p=357715 In 1922, the U.S. Navy identified the naturally occurring asbestos mineral as the most efficient and cost-effective insulation, gaskets, and shipbuilding material. During World War II, asbestos was critical to the U.S. military, especially the Navy and the Air Force. Shipping and shipbuilding were essential, and parts of military aircraft and incendiary bombs also contained asbestos. Even as demand More

The post A National Asbestos-Exposure Registry of Veterans Could Combat Misdiagnosis in Mesothelioma Cases Nationwide​​​​​ appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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Asbestos fibers. Photograph Source: Aram Dulyan (User:Aramgutang) – Public Domain

In 1922, the U.S. Navy identified the naturally occurring asbestos mineral as the most efficient and cost-effective insulation, gaskets, and shipbuilding material. During World War II, asbestos was critical to the U.S. military, especially the Navy and the Air Force. Shipping and shipbuilding were essential, and parts of military aircraft and incendiary bombs also contained asbestos.

Even as demand exceeded supply, in 1942, a presidential order banned the use of asbestos for non-military purposes until 1945. The application of asbestos-based material by the military and most U.S. industries continued to increase until the 1970s, when its carcinogenic nature came to light. The use of asbestos started to be regulated but was not banned.

The extensive application of asbestos by the U.S. armed forces led to asbestos-caused conditions, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer, among veterans who were exposed to asbestos dust during their service years. As asbestos-related malignant illnesses can take between 20 and 50 years to start showing symptoms, the number of asbestos-caused deaths in the U.S. has been increasing in the past decades, and veterans are disproportionately affected. This is well illustrated by medical reports, which show that about one-third of mesothelioma patients are veterans.

Mesothelioma is a deadly and aggressive cancer that is exclusively caused by asbestos exposure. Timely and appropriate diagnoses are the only option to find suitable treatment, alleviate symptoms, and prolong life expectancy when it comes to conditions caused by asbestos contamination. Unfortunately, the misdiagnosis of asbestos illnesses, especially mesothelioma, is far too common in the U.S. According to a medical study, about 14 to 50 percent of mesothelioma diagnoses are incorrect.

The problem could be alleviated by having a national database enlisting military members with known and suspected asbestos exposure during their service years. Such a database would be an excellent tool for veterans’ referrals to regular and specialized medical check-ups. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) need to consider setting up such a registry.

Early Detection Is Crucial

Mesothelioma and asbestosis are exclusively caused by asbestos exposure when people inhale airborne asbestos fibers. The microscopic mineral particles attack the lungs and the membranes around them in the first place, causing permanent damage and, eventually, cancer. While asbestosis is a type of pulmonary fibrosis, the scarring of lung tissues, mesothelioma is a cancer that develops in the membrane around the lungs, abdomen, heart, or reproductive organs. Mesothelioma poses a significant challenge to the medical community.

It is hard to diagnose because its initial symptoms resemble more common lung diseases. Moreover, it progresses rapidly after the first symptoms appear, which happen at a later stage of the cancer. Medical studies show that exposure to all types of asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer, the second most common cancer in the U.S. Similar to mesothelioma, its symptoms do not appear before the cancer is already at an advanced stage. However, if it is detected early, it can be treated successfully.

The VA urges veterans to get tested for asbestos-related diseases, especially mesothelioma. However, a more systematic approach is needed because many veterans might not even be aware that their health is deteriorating due to exposure, which happened decades ago. Based on a national asbestos-exposure registry, veterans could be regularly reminded and called for specialized health check-ups, such as chest X-rays, CT scans, and pulmonary function (breathing) tests to reveal any damage caused by inhaled asbestos particles.

The number of U.S. veterans has been declining and continues to do so. For example, in 1980, about 18 percent of the adult population were veterans, but by 2022, their proportion was only 6 percent. The decline in the number of veterans is primarily due to the overall veteran population aging, and many passing away. Illnesses, such as respiratory conditions and cancers, contribute to this process.

Asbestos Takes Many Veteran Lives in All U.S. States

While the number of asbestos-caused deaths has been increasing nationwide, some states are affected more than others. California is among the top three states with the largest veteran population in the U.S., with over 1.48 million veterans in 2023. California also has the most military installations in the country, with the Navy having a strong presence in the coastal state.

Considering the military’s decades-long extensive use of toxic asbestos, it is not surprising that California had 27,080 asbestos-caused deaths between 1999 and 2017, which is the most in the country. Many of these people whose lives were taken by asbestos-related illnesses were veterans.

California used to mine and produce large amounts of asbestos, which was then used at its military bases. For instance, the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, located northeast of San Francisco, was the first Navy base on the West Coast. During WWII, it was one of the busiest naval shipyards in the world. Over 500 naval vessels were constructed, and thousands were overhauled at the Mare Island yard while it operated. Los Angeles County had the most asbestos-related deaths between 1999 and 2017 (around 4,979 victims). The County was home to Long Beach Naval Shipyard (1943-1997), an important site for maintaining U.S. Navy surface ships.

As of 2023, Texas had the highest veteran population in the country, with more than 1.5 million. Between 1999 and 2017, Texas was also among the top three states with the most asbestos-related deaths, with 15,348 individuals. Currently, the state is home to 15 active military installations, some of which are among the largest military facilities in the U.S. Approximately half of the Navy’s strike pilots are trained in Texas at Naval Air Station Kingsville and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.

Veterans Should Know About Existing VA Support

The military, as well as manufacturers, were aware of the hazards posed by asbestos years before its use started to be regulated and still exposed millions of veterans to its danger. Policymakers and some manufacturers have been trying to compensate for the harm caused by setting up asbestos trust funds and VA disability benefits and health care for veterans diagnosed with asbestos-linked conditions.

The disability compensation application process with the VA has been more straightforward since 2022 when Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson’s Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act (PACT Act) was passed. Asbestos and asbestos illnesses have been added to the list of presumptive conditions, and more than 1.4 million veterans have been approved for benefits nationwide thanks to the Act.

Having a national asbestos-exposure registry to rely on would significantly improve not only the diagnostic outcomes, but also more veterans could receive the well-earned benefits. Having a disability, especially at an older age, is an enormous burden, not only mentally and physically, but financially, too. Veterans should claim what is rightfully theirs and offered by the VA and the trust funds. Our veterans who sacrificed so much for our country deserve all the effort and support they can get.

This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

The post A National Asbestos-Exposure Registry of Veterans Could Combat Misdiagnosis in Mesothelioma Cases Nationwide​​​​​ appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jonathan Sharp.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/18/a-national-asbestos-exposure-registry-of-veterans-could-combat-misdiagnosis-in-mesothelioma-cases-nationwide/feed/ 0 519713 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/inter-american-court-of-human-rights-condemns-ecuador-for-violating-rights-of-tagaeri-taromenane-people-living-in-voluntary-isolation-in-yasuni-national-park/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/inter-american-court-of-human-rights-condemns-ecuador-for-violating-rights-of-tagaeri-taromenane-people-living-in-voluntary-isolation-in-yasuni-national-park/#respond Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:36:42 +0000 https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/inter-american-court-of-human-rights-condemns-ecuador-for-violating-rights-of-tagaeri-taromenane-people-living-in-voluntary-isolation-in-yasuni-national-park The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) released a judgment declaring Ecuador’s international responsibility for violating the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation.

The Court determined that the Ecuadorian government failed in its duty to guarantee the principle of no contact of these peoples, allowing illegal incursions into their territory by third parties. Likewise, the creation of the Tagaeri Taromenane Intangible Zone (ZITT) was implemented without due diligence, facilitating extractive activities in the Yasuní National Park without applying the precautionary principle. In addition, the government failed to adopt adequate measures to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples from violence by external actors.

The ruling establishes that Ecuador violated, among others, the rights to life, personal integrity, and collective property of the Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation by failing to prevent the episodes of violence that occurred in 2003, 2006, and 2013, in which members of the Tagaeri and Taromenane were killed. The government is also responsible for the forced separation of two Indigenous girls after the 2013 massacre, which affected their cultural identity and fundamental rights.

The court decision comes after voters in a 2023 national referendum opted to keep the 846 million barrels of crude permanently in the ground underneath part of Yasuní National Park. The country’s Constitutional Court gave President Daniel Noboa’s administration one year to decommission drilling – closing 247 wells, dismantling infrastructure, and remediating and restoring the region. But to date, only four wells have been closed, exacerbating the existential threat to the Tagaeri-Taromenane.

The IACHR gave Ecuador one year to implement its binding decision, which will have a major impact on the next president and future of oil extraction in the country. The ruling also opens the door to further restrictions on drilling in other areas inside Yasuní, or future oil concessions if the ZITT is expanded. Ecuador will hold run-off elections on April 13, 2025 between incumbent right-wing president Noboa and Luisa González, the hand-picked candidate of former leftist president Rafael Correa. Both administrations seek to expand oil activities in the country’s Amazon region, despite opposition from local Indigenous peoples.

Concerning the popular referendum, the court ordered the Ecuadorian government to adopt “legislative, administrative and any other measures to effectively implement the decision taken in the popular consultation of August 20, 2023 to keep the crude of Block 43 indefinitely under the subsoil.” It also ordered the government to guarantee the application of the precautionary principle in any extractive activity in the region.

The Court also ordered 20 measures of reparations, restitution, and guarantees of non-repetition, including the obligation to investigate the massacres of 2003 and 2006, determine government responsibilities for the violation of the rights of the girls contacted and forcibly separated, train its officials in the rights of peoples living in voluntary isolation, establish effective judicial mechanisms for the protection of their territories, the obligation of the government to present a report on the improvement of the current monitoring measures of the ZITT, the creation of a technical commission for the evaluation of the ZITT to guarantee the protection of the peoples living in voluntary isolation, and that a public act of recognition of responsibility be carried out. This commission should include the participation of independent experts, representatives of Indigenous organizations, and civil society, as well as guaranteeing government funding for its adequate functioning.

The ruling marks a milestone in the defense of peoples living in voluntary isolation throughout the region and demands that Ecuador move from abandonment to immediate action for their effective protection. There are no more excuses: the government must guarantee their right to exist, free from violence and exploitation.

“This judgment of the Inter-American Court is the result of many years of struggle and is a guarantee of the rights to territory for peoples in isolation, so that they can live without the threat of oil, mining, and other threats. This is a milestone for all Indigenous peoples living in isolation in the region and throughout the world. It is a precedent of the struggle of years and the Waorani are united. We are celebrating this victory and condemning the government for violating the rights of the people,” Juan Bay, President of the Waorani Nationality of Ecuador (NAWE), underscored.

“This judgment is historic in several ways. It is the first time that the IACHR Court has issued a ruling regarding peoples living in voluntary isolation and ratifies the standards of protection and respect for the principle of no contact, precaution, and intangibility of their territories located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. On the other hand, it creates a historical precedent on the need to cease oil exploitation to protect the PIAV, since the court orders compliance with the popular consultation of Yasuní that has been pending since August 2023. This is an emblematic example of climate and social justice for the world,” emphasized Nathaly Yépez Pulles, Ecuador Legal Advisor at Amazon Watch.

Kevin Koenig, Climate, Energy, and Extractive Industry Director at Amazon Watch, explains that this ruling has implications for the United States as well: “This decision makes it crystal clear: anyone consuming and or importing crude from Ecuador is complicit in the violation of the rights of isolated Indigenous peoples and undermining the will of Ecuadorian voters, the country’s Constitutional Court, and now the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. California is addicted to Amazon crude, and the first step is admitting it has a problem.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/inter-american-court-of-human-rights-condemns-ecuador-for-violating-rights-of-tagaeri-taromenane-people-living-in-voluntary-isolation-in-yasuni-national-park/feed/ 0 519166 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/curious-how-trumps-cost-cutting-could-affect-your-national-park-visit-you-might-not-get-a-straight-answer/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/curious-how-trumps-cost-cutting-could-affect-your-national-park-visit-you-might-not-get-a-straight-answer/#respond Fri, 14 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000 https://www.propublica.org/article/national-parks-staff-cuts-talking-points by Anjeanette Damon

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

If you ask a National Park Service ranger how the Trump administration’s cost cutting will affect your next park visit, you might get talking points instead of a straight answer.

A series of emails sent late last month to front-line staff at parks across the country provided rangers with instructions on how to describe the highly publicized staff cuts. Park leaders further instructed staff to avoid the word “fired” and not blame closures on staffing levels.

On Feb. 14, at least 1,000 park service employees were terminated as part of broad reductions to the federal workforce by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. As a result, visitor centers have reduced hours, tours of popular attractions have been canceled, lines have spiraled, bathrooms may go uncleaned, habitat restoration has ceased and water has gone unchecked for toxic algae.

Meanwhile, rangers have been ordered to describe these cuts — or “attrition” and “workforce management actions,” according to the talking points — as “prioritizing fiscal responsibility” and “staffing to meet the evolving needs of our visitors.” They also should tell visitors the parks will continue to ensure “memorable and meaningful experiences for all.”

If asked about limited offerings, one park’s rangers were instructed to say “we are not able to address park or program-level impacts at this time.”

The guidance mirrors other measures instituted by the Trump administration to dictate how federal employees communicate with the public. This month, employees at the National Cancer Institute were told they needed approval for any communication dealing with 23 “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” issues, including peanut allergies and autism. Agencies across the federal government have begun compiling lists of words to avoid because they could conflict with Trump’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, The New York Times has reported.

The guidance handed down to park employees puts rangers in a particularly difficult position, said Emily Douce, deputy vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy organization for the parks. Rangers pride themselves on knowledge of their parks and their responsibility to accurately educate the public about the habitats, wildlife and geology of those special places.

“They shouldn’t be muzzled to not talk about the impacts of what these cuts mean,” Douce said. “If they are asked, they should be truthful on how federal dollars are being used or taken away.”

An NPS spokesperson said in an emailed statement that any assertion that park staff are being “silenced is flat-out wrong” and that talking points are a “basic tool” to “ensure consistent communication with the public.”

“The National Park Service is fully committed to responsible stewardship of our public lands and enhancing visitor experiences — we will not be distracted by sensationalized attacks designed to undermine that mission,” the statement said.

The spokesperson also criticized park staff who spoke with a ProPublica reporter. “Millions of hardworking Americans deal with workplace challenges every day without resorting to politically motivated leaks,” the spokesperson said.

One park ranger, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the talking points prevent rangers from telling the public the truth. Some employees have delivered the statements in an exaggerated “monotone” to convey to visitors they are toeing the company line but there’s more to the story, the ranger said.

“We have a duty to tell the public what’s going on,” the ranger said. “If that’s saying, ‘We just don’t have the staff to stay open and that’s what these firings are doing,’ I think the people have a right to know. Every person we lose hurts.”

In the immediate aftermath of the firings, parks quickly closed visitor centers, ended tours and altered other services. Some parks were clear on social media that the staffing cuts had resulted in the closures. But recently parks have been more vague in discussing the impact and not offered explanations for particular closures.

The administration has reinstated about 50 NPS employees and announced it will proceed with the hiring of seasonal employees, a workforce that is essential to park operations during the busy summer season. The hiring process, however, has been delayed, which may lead to operation disruptions. And more cuts are likely coming. The Hill recently reported that the administration is considering a 30% payroll reduction for the NPS.

The cuts come as the parks are seeing increases in visitation, which hit a record in 2024 for the first time since 2016. Although the new data was released on the park service’s website last week, the administration didn’t publicize that milestone with a news release as it has in the past. The terminations also come amid staffing shortages across the service.

Aviva O’Neil, executive director of the Great Basin National Park Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports a small park in a remote corner of Nevada, bristled at the idea put forth in the talking points that parks can continue to provide the same level of “memorable experiences” with the cuts. When the park lost five of its 26 permanent employees in February, it was forced to close tours of a signature attraction, Lehman Caves. To help restore services, the foundation raised the money to temporarily hire the terminated workers.

“How do they do their day-to-day operations when they don’t have the staff?” she said.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/14/curious-how-trumps-cost-cutting-could-affect-your-national-park-visit-you-might-not-get-a-straight-answer/feed/ 0 519021 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 05:55:09 +0000 https://www.counterpunch.org/?p=357239 The Serengeti ecosystem is regarded as one of our planet’s greatest natural treasures, where one can witness “the largest remaining unaltered animal migration in the world,” according to UNESCO. Kenya’s share of the Serengeti plains includes the Maasai Mara National Reserve (583 square miles) and the Greater Mara, a wildlife and human-inhabited area of about 2,500 square More

The post How Tourism Could Actually Help African Wildlife in One of Kenya’s Important National Reserves appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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Photograph Source: Swanepoel at English Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0

The Serengeti ecosystem is regarded as one of our planet’s greatest natural treasures, where one can witness “the largest remaining unaltered animal migration in the world,” according to UNESCO.

Kenya’s share of the Serengeti plains includes the Maasai Mara National Reserve (583 square miles) and the Greater Mara, a wildlife and human-inhabited area of about 2,500 square miles. The Mara seamlessly joins with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park (around 5,700 square miles), which is surrounded by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and several other reserves, including the Maswa Game Reserve, the Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, and the Loliondo Game Control Area.

Tourism has long been seen as a way to protect this ecosystem by providing income for development. But now, tourism has joined a growing list of issues threatening the area, which include agriculture, development such as housing and roads, poaching, invasive species, water security, and human-wildlife conflict. The travel industry needs to take stock and determine its next steps to ensure a sustainable model that helps protect the ecosystem and wildlife.

The Mara: A Case Study in Overtourism

After independence in 1963, Kenya saw the slow but steady beginnings of its tourism industry. Media reports gush about African wildlife and safari lodges hosting celebrity guests. The Swahili word safaribecame synonymous with adventure. The Oscar-winning 1985 film Out of Africa helped superchargean influx of tourists, and Kenyan tourism was firmly on its way.

Unfortunately, tourism in Kenya, especially at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, has followed a familiar scenario: It began with a few intrepid travelers, the word got out, and mass tourism arrived, often corrupting the experience that attracted people in the first place.

“Kenya earned about… $1.8 billion from tourism in 2022. It’s pivotal to the economy, contributing 10.4 percent to the national GDP and accounting for 5.5 percent of formal employment,” stated a 2024 article by Joseph O. Ogutu, a Kenyan senior wildlife researcher and statistician at the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Without thought of guardrails or limits, the Mara has become overgrown with lodges and camps, some of which have been built without legal permits. By the 1980s, the reserve suffered from corruption and mismanagement, benefitting a few politically connected elites. In her 1999 book Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Martha Honey, co-founder and director emeritus of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), called the Mara “Kenya’s poster child for tourism overdevelopment.”

The impacts on wildlife have been devastating. Joseph O. Ogutu wrote in a 2024 article for the Conversation that Kenya lost nearly 70 percent of its wildlife between 1977 and 2013. The Mara has been hard hit: Giraffe populations declined 95 percent, warthogs 80 percent, and hartebeest populations saw a 76 percent decline between 1989 and 2003, stated a Guardian article. These numbers, based on a study by the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), blamed the “explosion in human settlement around [the] reserve” for the dwindling populations of the wildlife living on the reserve.

These facts have made no difference to the Mara’s popularity, which is still regularly listed as the ultimate wildlife safari destination. This is even though the number of wildebeest migrating from Tanzania into the reserve has dropped by 75 percent, from a million in the 1970s to fewer than 250,000, according to a 2021 article.

The growing human and livestock population has compressed wildlife into a smaller range, where they compete with cattle for food and graze within the reserve. Robert Buitenwerf, an assistant professor of biology at Aarhus University in Denmark, noted that while some species can coexist with cattle, larger animals such as elephants and buffalo require vast amounts of food and typically steer clear of areas previously grazed by cattle.

In some areas, fences have been built to protect cattle from predators, disastrously curtailing wildlife movement. To counter this, Maasai have been encouraged to set aside land as wildlife conservancies for tourism. In some cases, this has worked, though the income often does not trickle down to everyone in the community.

Tourism shares the blame for the Mara’s wildlife decline. Maasai Mara National Reserve and the nearby conservancies are estimated to have more than 150 camps and lodges. By contrast, the Serengeti, ten times the size of Maasai Mara, has only four lodges and five camps. Overcrowding, overbuilding, poor tourism practices, and a lack of regulation enforcement have all contributed to stress on the Mara’s wildlife, particularly regarding reproduction.

The Maasai Mara is famous for being a critical habitat for cheetahs, but their populations are threatened. These big, graceful cats face significant challenges, including habitat loss and dwindling prey populations caused by human activities. Additionally, they are threatened by human-wildlife conflicts and the illegal wildlife trade. As of 2025, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies cheetahs as “vulnerable,” meaning they are at risk of extinction in the wild.

In 2018, Femke Broekhuis, who was then the senior research associate at the University of Oxford, wrote an article for Quartz stating that tourism affects cheetahs’ reproductive success, the number of cubs they rear, and their ability to hunt. She argued that there was a need to limit tourist numbers to prevent cheetahs from becoming endangered.

According to the World Bank, “lodges built near watering holes compete for prime habitat. In these areas, excessive construction of tourist lodges combined with [the] withdrawal of water from the Mara River for upstream irrigation has reduced wildebeest densities, with concomitant impacts on predator abundance and tourist satisfaction.”

Simon Espley, head of Africa Geographic, a travel and conservation company, told the New York Times in 2023 that he watched in alarm as 60 vehicles stood on both sides of the Mara River during a wildebeest crossing. There was a “crazy, chaotic rush as hundreds of tons of steel lunged forward with screaming engines… It was surreal and sickening as we all converged on only a few hundred meters of riverbank, jostled for position, and somehow avoided collisions.”

Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park

As capitalist Kenya was busy developing its tourism, Tanzania was on a different path. Tanzania’s experiment with “Ujamaa” (African socialism) viewed tourism as cultural pollution and shunned private investment. Tourists were tolerated, though not warmly welcomed. Over time, all that changed. Key players in Tanzania realized what a tremendous economic asset tourism could be, and the race to attract travelers began. In 2024, Tanzania and Kenya announced the hugely ambitious goal of attracting 5 million tourists each in the next few years.

Tourism companies are actively marketing wildebeest river crossings, which has resulted in many vehicles scrambling for space. These vehicles interfere with migrating animals and cause them to divert to less suitable crossing areas.

According to a report received by the nonprofit Serengeti Watch, a vehicle “jockeying for position at a crowded wildebeest crossing” hit a young zebra. Meanwhile, a traveler narrated another horrific incident. “We were driving along beside a herd when we realized that a wildebeest mother was dropping her baby, so we stopped to watch the birth. Then, our driver informed the other vans in the area, and they came racing up to where we were. And because of that approach, the female dropped the newborn baby and ran off with the rest of the herd … She never came back, so I presume the baby was taken by a lion or something.”

YouTube videos show cheetahs near or even entering safari vehicles. Human interactions with wildlife are harmful, as they can cause injuries, fragment wildlife populations, and make animals accustomed to human interaction, making them more vulnerable to hunting. Photos of trophy hunters with their victims usually elicit such outrage, and now, anger is spreading to tourists wanting to get close to animals in the search for the perfect photo opportunity.

A Perfect Storm of Threats

Tourism’s impacts do not operate in isolation; many other stressors exist in the ecosystem. Tanzania’s population is on track to more than double by mid-century, from 69 million people in 2024 to 92 million in 2035 to 130 million in 2050. Studies have shown that increasing external human pressure is causing wildlife to be spatially compressed into the core of the ecosystem, affecting grass cover, soils, beneficial natural fires, and increasing the impacts of climate change.

Moreover, heavy water use for irrigating crops threatens water supplies from rivers and freestanding water, as well as the ability of grasslands to support large herds of herbivores and animals’ regular seasonal movements.

Other threats exist, too. Invasive plants, like devil weed, displace native species and affect wildlife nutrition. Wildlife lodges sometimes bring in ornamental plants that are not native to the areas for their gardens.

“According to… research, scientists have found that a number of invasive alien plant species initially introduced as ornamental plants at tourism facilities are now spreading rapidly throughout the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, posing a major threat to wildlife, including the annual wildebeest and zebra migration as well as a range of other plant and animal species,” stated an article by the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), an intergovernmental organization, in 2017.

Roads also fragment the ecosystem, and poaching has changed from individuals supplementing the family diet to organized gangs, the byproduct of legalized bushmeat markets.

Safaris of Shame Displacing Maasai

An often-declared aim of tourism is to benefit local communities, which in turn help preserve their ecosystems and wildlife. In the Mara, some local Maasai communities have developed conservancies, which are private land devoted to wildlife and tourism. This has helped. But the benefits have not trickled down to everyone.

“Our study in Kenya’s Mara ecosystem reveals that land-rich older men reap the biggest rewards, often at the expense of women, young people, and the landless poor,” stated the article by Ogutu in the Conversation.

It’s different in Tanzania, where the state owns all the land. Tourism generates jobs and income that haven’t reached local communities around the Serengeti. Despite bearing the brunt of human-wildlife conflict, these communities are seen as obstacles to tourism development. The Maasai are being evicted from lands they’ve occupied for hundreds of years.

The Maasai have lost 1,500 square kilometers of grazing land in Loliondo, a migration corridor near the Serengeti National Park in Kenya. The government turned this into a game reserve, resulting in violence between the Maasai and the police. The area is now being used as a hunting block by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, who regularly fly into their own airstrip, shoot wildlife, and fly out. This is done under the banner of “tourism.”

A more significant conflict is emerging in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). Created in 1959, when Maasai agreed to vacate Serengeti National Park, its population has grown exponentially. In 1966, the Maasai population in NCA numbered around 8,700. By 2017, that number had grown to about 93,000. By 2027, it’s estimated to be 161,000 and will likely continue to rise upward.

Livestock has grown at a similar pace, though numbers vary with drought. Given the threats of climate change, frequent drought, and land degradation, this trajectory is considered unsustainable for both people and wildlife.

The Tanzanian government believes the Maasai threaten tourism and is systematically pressuring them off their land through cuts in health, education, and other social services. The government is offering government-built housing near the coast, a plan many believe won’t work. In January 2024, the Oakland Institute, which has reported widely on the issue, released a public alert warning that mass evictions may be on the horizon.

International press coverage has been extensive, from the New York Times to the Guardian to Amnesty International. The media has widely defended Maasai rights and often blamed “fortress conservation.” Tourism is frequently viewed as being on the wrong side of this issue. In 2024, the European Union canceled conservation funding for Tanzania due to Maasai abuses.

Tanzania Tourism Evolving

The original safari tourism model was rooted in the desire for an authentic wilderness experience. Though industry reports say a new generation of travelers still seek authenticity, Serengeti accommodations are evolving toward luxury. Developers insist on infinity and plunge pools, golf carts, and new roads. Just outside the park, in the path of migrating animals, developers built a golf course that will open in June 2025.

In December 2023, a tennis court was built near the Serengeti for a luxury tennis safari. A hot spring in Ruaha National Park, “confirmed” by a team of experts to reverse aging, will be marketed as medical tourism.

Opened in May 2024, Milele is the newest and most luxurious villa in Singita’s exclusive 350,000-acre Grumeti Reserve, a private concession on the northwestern border of Serengeti National Park. Perched atop Sasakwa Hill, the villa is part of Singita’s collection, which includes three lodges and four private villas. Milele commands a premium price, with peak-season rates reaching $36,400 per night.

Marriott is expanding its presence in Africa’s luxury travel market by partnering with the Lazizi Group of Companies to develop the Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp, and the JW Marriott Mount Kenya Rhino Reserve Safari Camp. Scheduled to open in early 2026, the JW Marriott camp will offer a premier safari experience in the heart of the Solio Game Reserve. Set within a 45,000-acre wildlife sanctuary and the 19,000-acre Solio Ranch Conservancy, it will provide guests with an intimate connection to nature. It will be located within one of the world’s most successful rhino conservation programs. What will happen to the rhinos when the tourists come?

An expert experienced in environmental impact studies in the region has reported anonymously to Serengeti Watch that established protocols and standards for construction are being ignored, and studies can even be bought. Decisions are being made without proper consideration of conservation priorities, instead focusing on making profits.

There is some recognition in Tanzania that the northern circuit (Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti) might soon be overwhelmed. The World Bank approved $150 million in 2017 to develop a southern circuit that includes Ruaha and Mikumi National Parks, Nyerere National Park (formerly the Selous), and the more remote Katavi National Park.

However, then allegations of gross human rights violations surfaced, including mass evictions and violence against local people. After an investigation, the World Bank suspended financing for the project in April 2024.

“At that time of suspension, 88 percent of the total $150 million commitment (equivalent to $125 million) had already been disbursed. The project was subsequently closed in November 2024,” statedthe World Bank.

Tourism Will Happen No Matter What: Travel Companies Can Shape a Sustainable Future

Tourism needs to become firmly aligned with conservation and community development. The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem has entered a critical phase, and decisions made now will shape its future. Climate change is altering weather patterns, which impacts wildlife migration and vegetation.

Human population growth, leading to more settlements and agricultural development, has increased pressure on land use around ecosystems. Overtourism is causing excessive tourism that affects wildlife behavior and disrupts local communities. Poaching, or illegal hunting, poses a significant threat to vulnerable species.

These threats cannot be ignored, and travel companies need to play a key role to prevent further damage to the ecosystem and the local communities in this region. Responsible travel companies are critical in protecting this vital ecosystem. They can:

• Uphold best practices of responsible and sustainable tourism.
• Support the rights and livelihoods of local communities.
• Educate travelers and the public.
• Encourage travelers to support conservation and community programs.
• Monitor the ecosystem and report issues for collective action.
• Ensure local operators and guides maintain high standards.
• Advocate collectively for responsible tourism policies.

Travel companies can nurture partner relationships with organizations to identify local needs and help carry out projects that benefit people and wildlife. They can also involve their customers by informing them about environmental challenges facing the communities living in their travel destinations.

Travel companies can solicit their customers for voluntary donations when paying for their trips to help offset their environmental impact and support local conservation and wildlife protection groups.

Author’s note: The International Galápagos Tour Operators Association, which I founded, is just one example demonstrating that the voluntary donation model can be successful. Travelers are willing to donate to a worthy cause—especially if it helps offset their travel impact.

The post How Tourism Could Actually Help African Wildlife in One of Kenya’s Important National Reserves appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Blanton.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves/feed/ 0 518626 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves-2/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves-2/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 05:55:09 +0000 https://www.counterpunch.org/?p=357239 The Serengeti ecosystem is regarded as one of our planet’s greatest natural treasures, where one can witness “the largest remaining unaltered animal migration in the world,” according to UNESCO. Kenya’s share of the Serengeti plains includes the Maasai Mara National Reserve (583 square miles) and the Greater Mara, a wildlife and human-inhabited area of about 2,500 square More

The post How Tourism Could Actually Help African Wildlife in One of Kenya’s Important National Reserves appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

]]>

Photograph Source: Swanepoel at English Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0

The Serengeti ecosystem is regarded as one of our planet’s greatest natural treasures, where one can witness “the largest remaining unaltered animal migration in the world,” according to UNESCO.

Kenya’s share of the Serengeti plains includes the Maasai Mara National Reserve (583 square miles) and the Greater Mara, a wildlife and human-inhabited area of about 2,500 square miles. The Mara seamlessly joins with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park (around 5,700 square miles), which is surrounded by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and several other reserves, including the Maswa Game Reserve, the Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, and the Loliondo Game Control Area.

Tourism has long been seen as a way to protect this ecosystem by providing income for development. But now, tourism has joined a growing list of issues threatening the area, which include agriculture, development such as housing and roads, poaching, invasive species, water security, and human-wildlife conflict. The travel industry needs to take stock and determine its next steps to ensure a sustainable model that helps protect the ecosystem and wildlife.

The Mara: A Case Study in Overtourism

After independence in 1963, Kenya saw the slow but steady beginnings of its tourism industry. Media reports gush about African wildlife and safari lodges hosting celebrity guests. The Swahili word safaribecame synonymous with adventure. The Oscar-winning 1985 film Out of Africa helped superchargean influx of tourists, and Kenyan tourism was firmly on its way.

Unfortunately, tourism in Kenya, especially at the Maasai Mara National Reserve, has followed a familiar scenario: It began with a few intrepid travelers, the word got out, and mass tourism arrived, often corrupting the experience that attracted people in the first place.

“Kenya earned about… $1.8 billion from tourism in 2022. It’s pivotal to the economy, contributing 10.4 percent to the national GDP and accounting for 5.5 percent of formal employment,” stated a 2024 article by Joseph O. Ogutu, a Kenyan senior wildlife researcher and statistician at the University of Hohenheim in Germany.

Without thought of guardrails or limits, the Mara has become overgrown with lodges and camps, some of which have been built without legal permits. By the 1980s, the reserve suffered from corruption and mismanagement, benefitting a few politically connected elites. In her 1999 book Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Martha Honey, co-founder and director emeritus of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), called the Mara “Kenya’s poster child for tourism overdevelopment.”

The impacts on wildlife have been devastating. Joseph O. Ogutu wrote in a 2024 article for the Conversation that Kenya lost nearly 70 percent of its wildlife between 1977 and 2013. The Mara has been hard hit: Giraffe populations declined 95 percent, warthogs 80 percent, and hartebeest populations saw a 76 percent decline between 1989 and 2003, stated a Guardian article. These numbers, based on a study by the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), blamed the “explosion in human settlement around [the] reserve” for the dwindling populations of the wildlife living on the reserve.

These facts have made no difference to the Mara’s popularity, which is still regularly listed as the ultimate wildlife safari destination. This is even though the number of wildebeest migrating from Tanzania into the reserve has dropped by 75 percent, from a million in the 1970s to fewer than 250,000, according to a 2021 article.

The growing human and livestock population has compressed wildlife into a smaller range, where they compete with cattle for food and graze within the reserve. Robert Buitenwerf, an assistant professor of biology at Aarhus University in Denmark, noted that while some species can coexist with cattle, larger animals such as elephants and buffalo require vast amounts of food and typically steer clear of areas previously grazed by cattle.

In some areas, fences have been built to protect cattle from predators, disastrously curtailing wildlife movement. To counter this, Maasai have been encouraged to set aside land as wildlife conservancies for tourism. In some cases, this has worked, though the income often does not trickle down to everyone in the community.

Tourism shares the blame for the Mara’s wildlife decline. Maasai Mara National Reserve and the nearby conservancies are estimated to have more than 150 camps and lodges. By contrast, the Serengeti, ten times the size of Maasai Mara, has only four lodges and five camps. Overcrowding, overbuilding, poor tourism practices, and a lack of regulation enforcement have all contributed to stress on the Mara’s wildlife, particularly regarding reproduction.

The Maasai Mara is famous for being a critical habitat for cheetahs, but their populations are threatened. These big, graceful cats face significant challenges, including habitat loss and dwindling prey populations caused by human activities. Additionally, they are threatened by human-wildlife conflicts and the illegal wildlife trade. As of 2025, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species classifies cheetahs as “vulnerable,” meaning they are at risk of extinction in the wild.

In 2018, Femke Broekhuis, who was then the senior research associate at the University of Oxford, wrote an article for Quartz stating that tourism affects cheetahs’ reproductive success, the number of cubs they rear, and their ability to hunt. She argued that there was a need to limit tourist numbers to prevent cheetahs from becoming endangered.

According to the World Bank, “lodges built near watering holes compete for prime habitat. In these areas, excessive construction of tourist lodges combined with [the] withdrawal of water from the Mara River for upstream irrigation has reduced wildebeest densities, with concomitant impacts on predator abundance and tourist satisfaction.”

Simon Espley, head of Africa Geographic, a travel and conservation company, told the New York Times in 2023 that he watched in alarm as 60 vehicles stood on both sides of the Mara River during a wildebeest crossing. There was a “crazy, chaotic rush as hundreds of tons of steel lunged forward with screaming engines… It was surreal and sickening as we all converged on only a few hundred meters of riverbank, jostled for position, and somehow avoided collisions.”

Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park

As capitalist Kenya was busy developing its tourism, Tanzania was on a different path. Tanzania’s experiment with “Ujamaa” (African socialism) viewed tourism as cultural pollution and shunned private investment. Tourists were tolerated, though not warmly welcomed. Over time, all that changed. Key players in Tanzania realized what a tremendous economic asset tourism could be, and the race to attract travelers began. In 2024, Tanzania and Kenya announced the hugely ambitious goal of attracting 5 million tourists each in the next few years.

Tourism companies are actively marketing wildebeest river crossings, which has resulted in many vehicles scrambling for space. These vehicles interfere with migrating animals and cause them to divert to less suitable crossing areas.

According to a report received by the nonprofit Serengeti Watch, a vehicle “jockeying for position at a crowded wildebeest crossing” hit a young zebra. Meanwhile, a traveler narrated another horrific incident. “We were driving along beside a herd when we realized that a wildebeest mother was dropping her baby, so we stopped to watch the birth. Then, our driver informed the other vans in the area, and they came racing up to where we were. And because of that approach, the female dropped the newborn baby and ran off with the rest of the herd … She never came back, so I presume the baby was taken by a lion or something.”

YouTube videos show cheetahs near or even entering safari vehicles. Human interactions with wildlife are harmful, as they can cause injuries, fragment wildlife populations, and make animals accustomed to human interaction, making them more vulnerable to hunting. Photos of trophy hunters with their victims usually elicit such outrage, and now, anger is spreading to tourists wanting to get close to animals in the search for the perfect photo opportunity.

A Perfect Storm of Threats

Tourism’s impacts do not operate in isolation; many other stressors exist in the ecosystem. Tanzania’s population is on track to more than double by mid-century, from 69 million people in 2024 to 92 million in 2035 to 130 million in 2050. Studies have shown that increasing external human pressure is causing wildlife to be spatially compressed into the core of the ecosystem, affecting grass cover, soils, beneficial natural fires, and increasing the impacts of climate change.

Moreover, heavy water use for irrigating crops threatens water supplies from rivers and freestanding water, as well as the ability of grasslands to support large herds of herbivores and animals’ regular seasonal movements.

Other threats exist, too. Invasive plants, like devil weed, displace native species and affect wildlife nutrition. Wildlife lodges sometimes bring in ornamental plants that are not native to the areas for their gardens.

“According to… research, scientists have found that a number of invasive alien plant species initially introduced as ornamental plants at tourism facilities are now spreading rapidly throughout the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, posing a major threat to wildlife, including the annual wildebeest and zebra migration as well as a range of other plant and animal species,” stated an article by the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), an intergovernmental organization, in 2017.

Roads also fragment the ecosystem, and poaching has changed from individuals supplementing the family diet to organized gangs, the byproduct of legalized bushmeat markets.

Safaris of Shame Displacing Maasai

An often-declared aim of tourism is to benefit local communities, which in turn help preserve their ecosystems and wildlife. In the Mara, some local Maasai communities have developed conservancies, which are private land devoted to wildlife and tourism. This has helped. But the benefits have not trickled down to everyone.

“Our study in Kenya’s Mara ecosystem reveals that land-rich older men reap the biggest rewards, often at the expense of women, young people, and the landless poor,” stated the article by Ogutu in the Conversation.

It’s different in Tanzania, where the state owns all the land. Tourism generates jobs and income that haven’t reached local communities around the Serengeti. Despite bearing the brunt of human-wildlife conflict, these communities are seen as obstacles to tourism development. The Maasai are being evicted from lands they’ve occupied for hundreds of years.

The Maasai have lost 1,500 square kilometers of grazing land in Loliondo, a migration corridor near the Serengeti National Park in Kenya. The government turned this into a game reserve, resulting in violence between the Maasai and the police. The area is now being used as a hunting block by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, who regularly fly into their own airstrip, shoot wildlife, and fly out. This is done under the banner of “tourism.”

A more significant conflict is emerging in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). Created in 1959, when Maasai agreed to vacate Serengeti National Park, its population has grown exponentially. In 1966, the Maasai population in NCA numbered around 8,700. By 2017, that number had grown to about 93,000. By 2027, it’s estimated to be 161,000 and will likely continue to rise upward.

Livestock has grown at a similar pace, though numbers vary with drought. Given the threats of climate change, frequent drought, and land degradation, this trajectory is considered unsustainable for both people and wildlife.

The Tanzanian government believes the Maasai threaten tourism and is systematically pressuring them off their land through cuts in health, education, and other social services. The government is offering government-built housing near the coast, a plan many believe won’t work. In January 2024, the Oakland Institute, which has reported widely on the issue, released a public alert warning that mass evictions may be on the horizon.

International press coverage has been extensive, from the New York Times to the Guardian to Amnesty International. The media has widely defended Maasai rights and often blamed “fortress conservation.” Tourism is frequently viewed as being on the wrong side of this issue. In 2024, the European Union canceled conservation funding for Tanzania due to Maasai abuses.

Tanzania Tourism Evolving

The original safari tourism model was rooted in the desire for an authentic wilderness experience. Though industry reports say a new generation of travelers still seek authenticity, Serengeti accommodations are evolving toward luxury. Developers insist on infinity and plunge pools, golf carts, and new roads. Just outside the park, in the path of migrating animals, developers built a golf course that will open in June 2025.

In December 2023, a tennis court was built near the Serengeti for a luxury tennis safari. A hot spring in Ruaha National Park, “confirmed” by a team of experts to reverse aging, will be marketed as medical tourism.

Opened in May 2024, Milele is the newest and most luxurious villa in Singita’s exclusive 350,000-acre Grumeti Reserve, a private concession on the northwestern border of Serengeti National Park. Perched atop Sasakwa Hill, the villa is part of Singita’s collection, which includes three lodges and four private villas. Milele commands a premium price, with peak-season rates reaching $36,400 per night.

Marriott is expanding its presence in Africa’s luxury travel market by partnering with the Lazizi Group of Companies to develop the Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp, and the JW Marriott Mount Kenya Rhino Reserve Safari Camp. Scheduled to open in early 2026, the JW Marriott camp will offer a premier safari experience in the heart of the Solio Game Reserve. Set within a 45,000-acre wildlife sanctuary and the 19,000-acre Solio Ranch Conservancy, it will provide guests with an intimate connection to nature. It will be located within one of the world’s most successful rhino conservation programs. What will happen to the rhinos when the tourists come?

An expert experienced in environmental impact studies in the region has reported anonymously to Serengeti Watch that established protocols and standards for construction are being ignored, and studies can even be bought. Decisions are being made without proper consideration of conservation priorities, instead focusing on making profits.

There is some recognition in Tanzania that the northern circuit (Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro, and Serengeti) might soon be overwhelmed. The World Bank approved $150 million in 2017 to develop a southern circuit that includes Ruaha and Mikumi National Parks, Nyerere National Park (formerly the Selous), and the more remote Katavi National Park.

However, then allegations of gross human rights violations surfaced, including mass evictions and violence against local people. After an investigation, the World Bank suspended financing for the project in April 2024.

“At that time of suspension, 88 percent of the total $150 million commitment (equivalent to $125 million) had already been disbursed. The project was subsequently closed in November 2024,” statedthe World Bank.

Tourism Will Happen No Matter What: Travel Companies Can Shape a Sustainable Future

Tourism needs to become firmly aligned with conservation and community development. The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem has entered a critical phase, and decisions made now will shape its future. Climate change is altering weather patterns, which impacts wildlife migration and vegetation.

Human population growth, leading to more settlements and agricultural development, has increased pressure on land use around ecosystems. Overtourism is causing excessive tourism that affects wildlife behavior and disrupts local communities. Poaching, or illegal hunting, poses a significant threat to vulnerable species.

These threats cannot be ignored, and travel companies need to play a key role to prevent further damage to the ecosystem and the local communities in this region. Responsible travel companies are critical in protecting this vital ecosystem. They can:

• Uphold best practices of responsible and sustainable tourism.
• Support the rights and livelihoods of local communities.
• Educate travelers and the public.
• Encourage travelers to support conservation and community programs.
• Monitor the ecosystem and report issues for collective action.
• Ensure local operators and guides maintain high standards.
• Advocate collectively for responsible tourism policies.

Travel companies can nurture partner relationships with organizations to identify local needs and help carry out projects that benefit people and wildlife. They can also involve their customers by informing them about environmental challenges facing the communities living in their travel destinations.

Travel companies can solicit their customers for voluntary donations when paying for their trips to help offset their environmental impact and support local conservation and wildlife protection groups.

Author’s note: The International Galápagos Tour Operators Association, which I founded, is just one example demonstrating that the voluntary donation model can be successful. Travelers are willing to donate to a worthy cause—especially if it helps offset their travel impact.

The post How Tourism Could Actually Help African Wildlife in One of Kenya’s Important National Reserves appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by David Blanton.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/how-tourism-could-actually-help-african-wildlife-in-one-of-kenyas-important-national-reserves-2/feed/ 0 518627 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/is-this-the-end-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/is-this-the-end-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/#respond Thu, 13 Mar 2025 04:29:17 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=dd638b289396ad24135e1a399faa8816
This content originally appeared on The Grayzone and was authored by The Grayzone.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/13/is-this-the-end-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/feed/ 0 518564 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa-china/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa-china/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:58:30 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=998d7182d9f3c7bf699b99fcba202f6b
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa-china/feed/ 0 518522 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:24:30 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=0dc9b03b78f923991b86643e648f1a9e
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/12/chinas-top-5-takeaways-from-the-national-peoples-congress-radio-free-asia-rfa/feed/ 0 518493 https://rfa.org/english/china/2025/03/11/china-npc-economic-growth-fiscal-stimulus-tariffs-taiwan/ https://rfa.org/english/china/2025/03/11/china-npc-economic-growth-fiscal-stimulus-tariffs-taiwan/#respond Tue, 11 Mar 2025 18:48:03 +0000 https://rfa.org/english/china/2025/03/11/china-npc-economic-growth-fiscal-stimulus-tariffs-taiwan/ China’s 10-day National People Congress ended in Beijing on Tuesday amid sweeping promises from the country’s leaders to boost economic growth, support AI and to take control over democratic Taiwan.

Delegates also shed light on Beijing’s intentions for Tibet and revealed for the first time that U.S. sanctions on companies in Xinjiang using Uyghur forced labor are hurting business.

Here are five takeaways:

China aims to spur consumer spending amid looming trade war with US

In his March 5 work report, Premier Li Qiang pledged to boost domestic consumption as the driving force for economic growth, which he set at 5% for the coming year -- a target experts say is highly questionable and likely concocted for political reasons.

For years, exports have driven China’s growth. But leaders have tried to shift the focus to consumer spending after three years of COVID-19 restrictions and a slew of U.S. tariffs prompted manufacturers to move away from China and spooked foreign investors. And now President Donald Trump has imposed additional tariffs on Chinese exports to America.

To shore up the economy, the government plans to boost fiscal spending by 1.2 trillion yuan (US$165 billion) to 29.7 trillion yuan (US$4.16 billion), Li said -- but gave few details of how that money would be spent.

He also pledged to implement “an appropriately accommodative monetary policy” in the coming year.

“The impact of this National People’s Congress on the Chinese people is that their economy is now moving from strength to weakness, and this weakness will be long term,” social economist Ji Rong told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

(Pedro Pardo/AFP)

One proposal discussed by delegates to the 10-day National People’s Congress in Beijing was shortening the working week to four-and-a-half days to give people more leisure time.

The government will also further cut the personal income tax rate in a bid to boost purchasing power among middle- and low-earners.

An economic commentator who gave only the surname Hong for fear of reprisals said changes to the working week could prove effective, but that Li’s work report contained few other practical measures.

AI and high-tech seen as key sources of growth

Li Qiang also vowed to “unleash the creativity of the digital economy,” particularly through the use of AI.

“We will support the extensive application of large-scale AI models and vigorously develop new-generation intelligent terminals and smart manufacturing equipment, including intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, AI-enabled phones and computers, and intelligent robots,” he told delegates.

(Wang Zhao/AFP)

Li was speaking weeks after China’s launched its DeepSeek AI model, in what some called a “Sputnik moment” for the country.

Li also promised increased funding for AI, biomanufacturing, quantum technology and 6G, without giving further details.

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But experts said China will continue to be hampered by U.S. export and high-tech bans, including for cutting-edge semiconductors.

China’s increasingly powerful AI surveillance systems use facial recognition and combine data streams to create sophisticated “city brains” that can track events in real time, and are increasingly being exported around the world, according to a recent report.

The technology is also raising concerns about its use to treat patients by medical professionals, as well as to aid cheating in competitions (in Chinese).

Tibetan officials vow to expand ideological education and Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibet Autonomous Region delegation vowed to strengthen efforts to fight “separatism” and prioritize “long-term stability” by expanding ideological education, as well as accelerate the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism, which they said was key to “changing the face of Tibet.”

The delegates emphasized their commitment to ideological education guided by the “Three Consciousnesses,” a phrase used in Chinese propaganda to refer to national -- or Han Chinese -- consciousness, civic duties and the rule of law.

(Greg Baker/AFP)

“I believe this kind of education is highly effective,” said Karma Tseten, deputy head of the delegation and Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR. “Despite its value, it is constantly smeared and disrupted by the Dalai Lama and his group. But we will not be swayed.”

The rhetoric was a clear sign, experts said, that Beijing intends to continue to impose its repressive policies in Tibet under the guise of maintaining stability and combating separatism.

“Regardless of what policies China implements in Tibet, their stated goal of ‘maintaining stability’ fundamentally reveals that Tibetans do not trust the Chinese government,” Dawa Tsering, director at the Tibet Policy Institute, told Radio Free Asia.

Delegates said at a media briefing on Thursday that more than 90 percent of community leaders in Tibet now had basic knowledge of Mandarin.

They also emphasized that they will continue to focus on promoting in Tibet what China calls the “four major events” -– border security, environment, stability and economic and social development.

Top official from Uyghur region admits US sanctions are hurting businesses

During the congress, the Chinese government acknowledged for the first time that U.S. sanctions over the use of Uyghur forced labor have affected more than 100 companies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region, or XUAR, proving that international sanctions do have bite.

Ma Xingrui, the XUAR party secretary, told delegates that “the United States, relying on fabricated evidence, has imposed sanctions on Xinjiang businesses based on allegations of genocide and forced labor, affected more than 144 companies,“ according to the China Daily.

Sanctions “over accusations of ‘forced labor’ have become one of the biggest challenges in the region’s development,” Ma said during a panel discussion Friday at the NPC, according to the report.

While Ma didn’t elaborate on which companies were affected, this marks the first time the region’s highest party official admitted the sanctions were hurting businesses.

The United States and nearly a dozen Western parliaments have accused China of committing genocide and crimes against humanity against the 13 million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples living in Xinjiang.

In 2021, the U.S. government has passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans U.S. companies from doing business with Chinese businesses judged to be using Uyghur forced labor. Since then, some 144 companies have been blacklisted.

These sanctions are undermining the economic development of Xinjiang, which is a chief way that Beijing “wants to extend the legitimacy of its rule,” said Raymond Kuo, a China expert at Rand Corporation, a Washington think tank.

“Ultimately, the economic benefits that come from [Beijing’s] rule are going to be the key thing to increase the legitimacy of its rule as well as win over the population,” he said. “Western sanctions inhibit that.”

The sanctions are “particularly politically important for Xinjiang,” Kuo added. “They’re clearly having some impact, right?”

China to boost military spending by 7.2%

China is increasing its 2025 defense budget by 7.2% to US$246 billion amid growing rivalry with the United States and tensions over Taiwan, marking the fourth consecutive year of more than 7% growth in defense spending.

Li said Beijing would continue to “resolutely oppose separatist activities” in democratic Taiwan, as well as what he termed “external interference.”

China has ramped up military activities around Taiwan, conducting frequent air and naval incursions into the island’s air defense identification zone and staging large-scale drills near its waters. Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory and insists on eventual unification, by force if necessary.

(Pedro Pardo/AFP)

Yet Li also vowed a soft power charm offensive to push for what Beijing calls “peaceful unification.”

“We will improve institutions and policies for promoting economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait and advance integrated cross-Strait development,” he said. “We will firmly advance the cause of China’s unification.”

Military expert Pang Xinhua said China’s neighbors in the region are also worried about escalating military tensions.

“As China increases its military activities in the South China Sea, East China Sea and other regions, neighboring countries may worry about rising regional tensions leading to an escalating arms race,” Pang told RFA Mandarin.

“That could in turn lead to an escalation of the situation in the Taiwan Strait, as China’s continued strengthening of its military capabilities is interpreted as pressure on Taiwan,” he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin, Yitong Wu and Ha Syut for RFA Cantonese.

]]> https://rfa.org/english/china/2025/03/11/china-npc-economic-growth-fiscal-stimulus-tariffs-taiwan/feed/ 0 518134 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/10/national-cancer-institute-employees-cant-publish-information-on-these-topics-without-special-approval/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/10/national-cancer-institute-employees-cant-publish-information-on-these-topics-without-special-approval/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:45:00 +0000 https://www.propublica.org/article/national-cancer-institute-flagged-topics-vaccines-autism-rfk-jr by Annie Waldman and Lisa Song

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Employees at the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, received internal guidance last week to flag manuscripts, presentations or other communications for scrutiny if they addressed “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics. Among the 23 hot-button issues, according to internal records reviewed by ProPublica: vaccines, fluoride, peanut allergies, autism.

While it’s not uncommon for the cancer institute to outline a couple of administration priorities, the scope and scale of the list is unprecedented and highly unusual, said six employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. All materials must be reviewed by an institute “clearance team,” according to the records, and could be examined by officials at the NIH or its umbrella agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Staffers and experts worried that the directive would delay or halt the publication of research. “This is micromanagement at the highest level,” said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

The list touches on the personal priorities of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has repeatedly promoted medical conspiracy theories and false claims. He has advanced the idea that rising rates of autism are linked to vaccines, a claim that has been debunked by hundreds of scientific studies. He has also suggested that aluminum in vaccines is responsible for childhood allergies (his son reportedly is severely allergic to peanuts). And he has claimed that water fluoridation — which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called “one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century” — is an “industrial waste.”

In confirmation hearings in January, Kennedy said that he was not “anti-vaccine,” and that as secretary, he would not discourage people from getting immunized for measles or polio, but he dodged questions about the link between autism and vaccines.

Another term on the list, “cancer moonshot,” refers to a program launched by President Barack Obama in 2016. It was a priority of the Biden administration, which intended for the program to cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least half and prevent more than 4 million deaths.

The list is “an unusual mix of words that are tied to activities that this administration has been at war with — like equity, but also words that they purport to be in favor of doing something about, like ultraprocessed food,” Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, said in an email.

A directive on topics requiring prepublication review at the National Cancer Institute was said to be circulated by the agency’s communications team. (Obtained by ProPublica)

The guidance states that staffers “do not need to share content describing the routine conduct of science if it will not get major media attention, is not controversial or sensitive, and does not touch on an administration priority.”

A longtime senior employee at the institute said that the directive was circulated by the institute’s communications team, and the content was not discussed at the leadership level. It is not clear in which exact office the directive originated. The NCI, NIH and HHS did not respond to ProPublica’s emailed questions. (The existence of the list was first revealed in social media posts on Friday.)

Health and research experts told ProPublica they feared the chilling effect of the new guidance. Not only might it lead to a lengthier and more complex clearance process, it may also cause researchers to censor their work out of fear or deference to the administration’s priorities.

“This is real interference in the scientific process,” said Linda Birnbaum, a former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences who served as a federal scientist for four decades. The list, she said, “just seems like Big Brother intimidation.”

During the first two months of Donald Trump’s second presidency, his administration has slashed funding for research institutions and stalled the NIH’s grant application process.

Kennedy has suggested that hundreds of NIH staffers should be fired and said that the institute should deprioritize infectious diseases like COVID-19 and shift its focus to chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity.

Obesity is on the NCI’s new list, as are infectious diseases including COVID-19, bird flu and measles.

The “focus on bird flu and covid is concerning,” Woodruff wrote, because “not being transparent with the public about infectious diseases will not stop them or make them go away and could make them worse.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Annie Waldman and Lisa Song.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/10/national-cancer-institute-employees-cant-publish-information-on-these-topics-without-special-approval/feed/ 0 517854 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/07/tiktok-ban-a-blow-to-national-security-or-freedom-of-speech/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/07/tiktok-ban-a-blow-to-national-security-or-freedom-of-speech/#respond Fri, 07 Mar 2025 06:53:54 +0000 https://www.counterpunch.org/?p=356609 The recent U.S. ban on TikTok, followed by a dramatic 75-day enforcement pause, has reignited the debate over national security, tech regulation, and the very definition of free speech in the digital age. While policymakers have argued the ban is necessary to curb foreign influence and protect user data, recent reporting suggests this was a More

The post TikTok Ban: A Blow to National Security or Freedom of Speech? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

]]>

Photo by Solen Feyissa

The recent U.S. ban on TikTok, followed by a dramatic 75-day enforcement pause, has reignited the debate over national security, tech regulation, and the very definition of free speech in the digital age. While policymakers have argued the ban is necessary to curb foreign influence and protect user data, recent reporting suggests this was a veiled attempt to control online discourse.

Since the pandemic, TikTok has become more than just a social media platform — it’s a cultural force, a news aggregator, and an organizing tool for political movements. The app’s unique algorithm surfaces diverse voices that might otherwise struggle for mainstream visibility. It’s hard to take seriously. Lawmakers’ concerns over data privacy and national security. If there really was a national security threat, then why did so many candidates who supported the ban use the platform to campaign in last year’s election? In passing the ban, they argued ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, could be forced to hand over American user data to the Chinese government. But if we’re playing the data privacy game, why isn’t Congress coming after Meta or Google with the same intensity? These companies collect just as much — if not more — data. This selective outrage looks less like consumer protection and more like a geopolitical chess match, with TikTok caught in the middle.

Beyond data security, the ban raises alarm bells for the precedent it sets regarding online speech. If a government can wipe out a platform overnight under the guise of security concerns, what’s next? What stops future administrations from putting on the chopping block any other digital platforms that challenge the status quo? Moreover, the impact of this ban extends beyond legal and political realms — it reshapes the digital economy. TikTok has been a vital tool for small businesses and independent creators to reach audiences without the heavy advertising costs associated with traditional media. The ban forces these creators to migrate to alternative platforms, most of which are owned by U.S. corporations like Meta, reinforcing monopolistic control over the digital landscape. If the concern is data security, let’s see a crackdown on all platforms that collect user data, not just the one that threatens Silicon Valley’s monopoly.

Supporters of the ban argue that the U.S. government has the right to regulate platforms that pose a potential national security threat. However, effective regulation should focus on transparency and accountability rather than outright prohibition. If the concern is truly about data privacy, lawmakers should push for stricter data protection laws that apply universally, rather than singling out one company. A more balanced approach would involve enforcing stricter oversight, requiring TikTok to localize data storage. Lawmakers should demand transparency and ensure that user information remains beyond the reach of foreign governments. The TikTok ban is bigger than one app — it’s about who controls the narrative. It highlights the growing tension between governments and global tech platforms while also exposing the fragility of online free speech. If we are to defend democratic values, we must recognize that protecting digital expression is as safeguarded as national security. Censorship — even when wrapped in the language of protection — sets a precedent that threatens the very freedoms it claims to uphold.

The post TikTok Ban: A Blow to National Security or Freedom of Speech? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Tetiana Rak.

Vanuatu has celebrated the reconstruction of the national council of chiefs meeting house, called the Malvatumauri nakamal, destroyed by fire two years ago.

Dozens of chiefs from across the country — and also Kanaky New Caledonia — joined the ceremony in the capital Port Vila on Wednesday, March 5, during the Chiefs Day national public holiday alongside the president, prime minister and general public.

Traditional dances, kastom ceremonies, and speeches highlighted the building’s cultural significance, reinforcing its role as a place for conflict resolution, discussions on governance, and the preservation of oral traditions.

After independence in 1980, the chiefs decided a symbol representing unity for all of Vanuatu’s peoples and customs be built in Port Vila. The nakamal was officially opened in 1990.

Ahead of the ceremony, Prime Minister Jotham Napat emphasised all are welcome at the meeting house, in the heart of the capital.

“Nakamal does not separate the people, nakamal has a place for everyone,” Napat said.

President of the Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs Paul Robert Ravun used the occasion to call for greater parliamentary consultation with customary leaders.

‘Right time to speak’
“For 44 years we have been silent, but now, in this moment, I believe it is the right time to speak,” Ravun said.

“Any bill that is to be passed through Parliament must first pass through the father’s house, the father must agree and have the final say before it can proceed,” he said, referring to the council of chiefs.

The nakamal took two years to rebuild using locally sourced materials, including natangura palm for the thatched roof and hardwood for the framework, after it was destroyed by fire in early 2023.

Volunteers including chiefs, community members, and apprentices eager to learn ancestral building techniques all contributed to its construction and it survived December’s 7.3 magnitude earthquake intact.

Vanuatu’s government and international donors France, Australia, New Zealand, and China provided financial and logistical support for its reconstruction, costing about 20 million vatu (US$160,000).

Republished with permission from BenarNews.

• Images by the VBTC

The Malvatumauri nakamal

1 of 10

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The new Universities Australia (UA) definition of antisemitism, endorsed last month for adoption by 39 Australian universities, is an ugly attempt to quash the pro-Palestine solidarity movement on campuses and to silence academics, university workers and students who critique Israel and Zionism.

While the Scott Morrison Coalition government first proposed tightening the definition, and a recent joint Labor-Coalition parliamentary committee recommended the same, it is yet another example of the Labor government’s overreach.

It seeks to mould discussion in universities to one that suits its pro-US and pro-Zionist imperialist agenda, while shielding Israel from accountability.

• READ MORE: Jewish Council slams Australian universities’ ‘dangerous, politicised’ antisemitism definition
• With words they try to jail us — US universities are not citadels of freedom
• Australian universities agree to antisemitism definition that bans calling for Israel’s elimination
• Other university freedom of speech reports

So far, the UA definition has been widely condemned.

Nasser Mashni, of Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, has slammed it as “McCarthyism reborn”.

The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) has criticised it as “dangerous, politicised and unworkable”. The NSW Council of Civil Liberties said it poses “serious risks to freedom of expression and academic freedom”.

The UA definition comes in the context of a war against Palestinian activism on campuses.

The false claim that antisemitism is “rampant” across universities has been weaponised to subdue the Palestinian solidarity movement within higher education and, particularly, to snuff out any repeat of the student-led Gaza solidarity encampments, which sprung up on campuses across the country last year.

Some students and staff who have been protesting against the genocide since October 2023 have come under attack by university managements.

Some students have been threatened with suspension and many universities are giving themselves, through new policies, more powers to liaise with police and surveil students and staff.

Palestinian, Arab and Muslim academics, as well as other anti-racist scholars, have been silenced and disciplined, or face legal action on false counts of antisemitism, merely for criticising Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine.

Randa Abdel-Fattah, for example, has become the target of a Zionist smear campaign that has successfully managed to strip her of Australian Research Council funding.

Intensify repression
The UA definition will further intensify the ongoing repression of people’s rights on campuses to discuss racism, apartheid and occupation in historic Palestine.

By its own admission, UA acknowledges that its definition is informed by the antisemitism taskforces at Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University and New York University, which have meted out draconian and violent repression of pro-Palestine activism.

The catalyst for the new definition was the February 12 report tabled by Labor MP Josh Burns on antisemitism on Australian campuses. That urged universities to adopt a definition of antisemitism that “closely aligns” with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition.

It should be noted that the controversial IHRA definition has been opposed by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) for its serious challenge to academic freedom.

As many leading academics and university workers, including Jewish academics, have repeatedly stressed, criticism of Israel and criticism of Zionism is not antisemitic.

UA’s definition is arguably more detrimental to freedom of speech and pro-Palestine activism and scholarship than the IHRA definition.

In the vague IHRA definition, a number of examples of antisemitism are given that conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, but not the main text itself.

By contrast, the new UA definition overtly equates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism and claims Zionist ideology is a component part of Jewish identity.

The definition states that “criticism of Israel can be anti-Semitic . . . when it calls for the elimination of the State of Israel”.

Dangerously, anyone advocating for a single bi-national democratic state in historic Palestine will be labelled antisemitic under this new definition.

Anyone who justifiably questions the right of the ethnonationalist, apartheid and genocidal state of Israel to exist will be accused of antisemitism.

Sweeping claims
The UA definition also makes the sweeping claim that “for most, but not all Jewish Australians, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity”.

But, as the JCA points out, Zionism is a national political ideology and is not a core part of Jewish identity historically or today, since many Jews do not support Zionism. The JCA warns that the UA definition “risks fomenting harmful stereotypes that all Jewish people think in a certain way”.

Moreover, JCA said, Jewish identities are already “a rightly protected category under all racial discrimination laws, whereas political ideologies such as Zionism and support for Israel are not”.

Like other aspects of politics, political ideologies, such as Zionism, and political stances, such as support for Israel, should be able to be discussed critically.

According to the UA definition, criticism of Israel can be antisemitic “when it holds Jewish individuals or communities responsible for Israel’s actions”.

While it would be wrong for any individual or community, because they are Jewish, to be held responsible for Israel’s actions, it is a fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former  minister Yoav Gallant for Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But under the UA definition, since Netanyahu and Gallant are Jewish, would holding them responsible be considered antisemitic?

Is the ICC antisemitic? According to Israel it is.

The implication of the definition for universities, which teach law and jurisprudence, is that international law should not be applied to the Israeli state, because it is antisemitic to do so.

The UA’s definition is vague enough to have a chilling effect on any academic who wants to teach about genocide, apartheid and settler-colonialism. It states that “criticism of Israel can be antisemitic when it is grounded in harmful tropes, stereotypes or assumptions”.

What these are is not defined.

Anti-racism challenge
Within the academy, there is a strong tradition of anti-racism and decolonial scholarship, particularly the concept of settler colonialism, which, by definition, calls into question the very notion of “statehood”.

With this new definition of antisemitism, will academics be prevented from teaching students the works of Chelsea Watego, Patrick Wolfe or Edward Said?

The definition will have serious and damaging repercussions for decolonial scholars and severely impinges the rights of scholars, in particular First Nations scholars and students, to critique empire and colonisation.

UA is the “peak body” for higher education in Australia, and represents and lobbies for capitalist class interests in higher education.

It is therefore not surprising that it has developed this particular definition, given its strong bilateral relations with Israeli higher education, including signing a 2013 memorandum of understanding with Association of University Heads, Israel.

It should be noted that the NTEU National Council last October called on UA to withdraw from this as part of its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution.

All university students and staff committed to anti-racism, academic freedom and freedom of speech should join the campaign against the UA definition.

Local NTEU branches and student groups are discussing and passing motions rejecting the new definition and NTEU for Palestine has called a National Day of Action for March 26 with that as one of its key demands.

We will not be silenced on Palestine.

Jonathan Strauss and Markela Panegyres are members of the National Tertiary Education Union and the Socialist Alliance. Republished from Green Left with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Churches in the Cook Islands are pushing for the country to be declared a Christian nation following the discovery of a mosque in Rarotonga.

The Religious Organisation Special Select Committee has heard submissions on Rarotonga and plan to visit the outer islands.

It was initiated by the Cook Islands Christian Church, which has proposed a constitutional amendment to recognise the Cook Islands as a Christian nation, “with the protection and promotion of the Christian faith as the basis for the laws and governance of the country”.

Cook Islands opposition leader Tina Browne said the proposal was in conflict with Article 64 of the Constitution which allows for freedom of religion.

“At the moment, it’s definitely unconstitutional and I am a lawyer, so I think like one too,” Browne said, who is also part of the select committee.

Late last year, a mosque was discovered on Rarotonga.

Select committee chair Tingika Elikana said it was the catalyst for the proposal.

Signatory to human rights conventions
He said the country was a signatory to several human rights conventions and declaring the Cook Islands a Christian nation could go against them.

“Some of the questions by the committee is the impact such an amendment or provision in our constitution [would have] in terms of us being parties to most of these international human rights treaties and conventions.”

Elikana said the committee had received lots of submissions both in support and against the declaration.

Cook Islands Christian Movement interim secretary William Framhein is backing it.

“We believe that the country should be declared a Christian country and if anyone else belongs to another religion they’re free to practise their own religion but it doesn’t give them a right to establish a church in the country,” he said.

Tatiana Kautai, a Muslim Cook Islander living in Rarotonga said the country was already considered a Christian nation by most.

However, she was worried that if the proposal became law it could have practical implications on everyone who was not a Christian.

“People have a right to practise their religion freely, especially people who are just going about their day to day, working, supporting their families, not causing any harm, not trying to make any trouble.

Marginalising people ‘unfair’
“To marginalise those people just seems unfair, and not right.”

Framhein said he also wanted to see the Cook Islands reverse its 2023 decision which legalised same sex relations. He said this was a “Western concept”, acceptable elsewhere in the world but not in the Cook Islands.

Tatryana Utanga, president of rainbow organisation Te Tiare Association, said it was not clear what the Christian nation submission was trying to achieve.

However, she is worried that it would sideline minority groups.

“Should this impeach or encroach on the work that we’ve been doing already, it would be a complete reverse in the wrong direction.

“We’d be taking steps backwards in our advocacy to achieve love and acceptance and equality in the Cook Islands.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

After the Peruvian Attorney General’s office ordered the search of the home of Interior Minister Juan José Santiváñez, who is under investigation for abuse of power, Boluarte in a speech Monday accused what she called “the bad press” of working in cahoots with the Attorney General’s office to carry out a coup against her government.

Boluarte singled out the independent TV investigative news program Cuarto Poder, which often reports on alleged corruption inside her administration, including a recent episode alleging that Santiváñez had demanded bribes. Boluarte said Cuarto Poder “has not stopped harassing me” since the first day of her presidency. She then complained that such “false news” was replicated and rebroadcast by other media outlets.

“Peruvian President Dina Boluarte must retract her outrageous accusations of coup plotting by the media and instead promote an atmosphere in which journalists can work freely and without fear of reprisal,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America coordinator based in Sao Paulo. “Public officials in Peru must be willing to tolerate press criticism and must refrain from making false accusations against independent news outlets.”

Boluarte’s statements were also rejected by the Lima-based Institute for Press and Society as well as the National Association of Journalists of Peru, which described them as the president’s most grave accusations against the media since she took office in December 2022.

Boluarte, whose job approval in a November poll stood at 3%, and her governing team have faced increased scrutiny in the Peruvian press since she came under investigation by the Attorney General’s office last year for alleged illicit enrichment sparked by her wearing of luxury Rolex watches in public.

CPJ’s text messages to the presidential press office seeking comment were not answered.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

In an article published in the ideological party journal Qiushi on Monday -- two days before the congress opens -- Xi warned of the “many risks and hidden dangers” facing China’s economy, before alluding to the threats of further U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

“At present, the adverse effects of changes in the external environment have deepened, and our country’s economy still faces many difficulties and challenges,” Xi wrote in the piece.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports in retaliation for what he said was Beijing’s refusal to stop the outflow of precursors for the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Beijing then introduced a 15% retaliatory tariff on certain U.S. energy exports to China. Last week, Trump warned he would ramp that rate up a further 10% on March 4. As a presidential candidate last year, Trump vowed tariffs of “more than” 60% on Chinese imports.

(Reuters)

Beijing is now “studying and formulating countermeasures” in the event that those tariffs go ahead, the party-backed Global Times newspaper cited an anonymous source as saying on Monday.

“The countermeasures will likely include both tariffs and a series of non-tariff measures, and U.S. agricultural and food products will most likely be listed,” the paper quoted the source as saying.

China’s economic troubles

While they mull countermeasures, though, officials in Beijing have maintained they would prefer to forget about tariffs altogether.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press briefing on Monday that there are “no winners” in a tariff war.

“The U.S. attempt to politicize and weaponize trade and economic issues, levy tariff hikes on Chinese imports under the pretext of fentanyl and create blocks to its normal trade, investment and economic cooperation with China will only harm its own economic interests and international credibility,” Lin said.

China is ready to engage in “dialogue and consultation on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” Lin added.

“In the meanwhile, we will take all measures necessary to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests,” he said.

(Jim Waton/AFP)

The pending trade war comes at a time of economic stress in China.

Since the start of the U.S.-China trade war under the first Trump administration, Xi has appealed for restructuring to replace exports with domestic consumption as the main driver of growth.

But three years of zero-COVID restrictions and a slew of U.S. tariffs and restrictions has prompted many manufacturers to relocate away from China and spooked foreign investors.

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Meanwhile, widespread unemployment and a burst real estate bubble has made life much harder for ordinary Chinese.

Those concerns were reiterated in Xi’s article, which pulled heavily from China’s Central Economic Work Conference in December.

“We must face up to difficulties, strengthen our confidence and strive to transform positive factors from all aspects into development results,” Xi wrote, adding that expanded domestic demand isn’t just a quick fix but “a strategic move.”

Growth figures questioned

Struggling Chinese exporters told RFA Mandarin that the new tariffs proposed by Trump will further harm their businesses.

The head of an electronics factory in Shenzhen who gave only the surname Ge for fear of reprisals said that the value of her company’s exports to the United States has been slashed in half since last October, and that tariffs will make things worse.

“Some taxes are paid by U.S. importers, which pushes up prices,” she said. “U.S. importers usually pass on the costs of tariffs to consumers, making our goods more expensive.”

Ge has cut the number of employees from 17 to just seven, while the sales team has been slashed from 10 to four.

“Chinese exports may lose market share to competitors in Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries as U.S. importers look for other suppliers,” she said.

(Go Nakamura/Reuters)

Political commentator Willy Lam told RFA Mandarin there is still hope that Trump won’t carry out his threat to impose tariffs above 60%.

“The 10% increase in tariffs ... is still lower than the rates Trump mentioned in 2024 of 60% or more,” Lam said. “In general, Trump’s attitude towards Xi Jinping is milder than expected.”

Analysts expect growth to be set around the 5% mark during this week’s congress, and there has also been speculation about the possibility of renewed economic stimulus packages.

“The general public in China is short of money,” Lam said. “Most importantly, they lack confidence in the government right now.”

U.S.-based economic commentator Qin Weiping cited falling marriage rates and birth rates as an indicator of low economic confidence, as young people increasingly struggle to make ends meet.

“People have no confidence in the economy, or in the future,” he said. “So demand for residential property is naturally weaker.... It will be hard to fix the real estate problem because this is a vicious cycle.”

The government should consider hiring more graduates as civil servants, Qin suggested, citing the 12.22 million who graduated in 2025 alone, swelling the ranks of the young unemployed.

(Elizabeth Frants/Reuters)

Xie Tian, ​​a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina, said China’s growth figures were questionable in any case, alleging the numbers were fudged for political reasons.

“No-one believes it -- whether they say it’s 5% or 15% -- because that’s basically impossible,” Xie said. “If the economic growth rate was 5%, their unemployment rate wouldn’t be that high.”

But others noted a growing conundrum in China’s recent efforts to stimulate domestic growth without relying on traditional exports.

Qin, the economic commentator, noted Chinese officials appeared increasingly focussed in their official documents on achieving growth through artificial intelligence, which necessitates fewer workers.

Only further investment in labor-intensive industries would solve China’s problem of dampened domestic demand, he said, by putting more spending money into the pockets of China’s consumers.

“Give them a level playing field and allow the economy to get on the right track ... which will gradually solve the problem of unemployment,” he said. “People need to feel that business is good, money is easy to make, and that life is getting better and better.”

“It’s that simple.”

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Alex Willemyns.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Xi Zian, Qian Lang and Lucie Lo for RFA Mandarin.

Content warning: This story discusses rape and violence.

Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested nine more men in connection with the rape and murder of a Port Moresby woman.

The arrests, announced by Police Commissioner David Manning, follow a two-week investigation supported by forensic experts from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Margaret Gabriel, 32, was abducted from her home at Port Moresby’s Watermark Estate by more than 20 armed men. She was was later raped and murdered.

• READ MORE: Papua New Guinea: A Jiwaka woman’s journey to ending violence in her community
• Prime Minister Marape discusses women’s issues with UN Women
• Advocate calls for stronger laws to prevent sorcery related violence in PNG
• Other PNG gender-based violence reports

The attack sparked nationwide outrage, with calls for stronger protections for women and faster justice in gender-based violence cases.

Commissioner Manning confirmed the suspects were apprehended on February 27 and subjected to DNA and fingerprint testing.

“DNA evidence and fingerprints are conclusive forensic evidence and afford irrefutable evidence to ensure convictions in a court of law,” he said.

The nine men join three others already in custody, though police have not clarified their specific roles in the crime.

Forensic analysis
AFP forensic specialists from Canberra assisted PNG’s Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) in analysing evidence.

Manning praised the collaboration, saying it underscored the integration of these advanced investigative techniques into PNG’s investigations is strengthening the cases put before the court.

Gender-based violence remains pervasive in PNG, with a 2023 UN report noting that more than two-thirds of women experience physical or sexual abuse in their lifetimes.

Limited forensic resources and slow judicial processes have historically hampered prosecutions.

Police increasingly rely on international partnerships, including a longstanding forensics programme with Australia, to address these gaps.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Content warning: This story discusses rape and violence.

Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested nine more men in connection with the rape and murder of a Port Moresby woman.

The arrests, announced by Police Commissioner David Manning, follow a two-week investigation supported by forensic experts from the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Margaret Gabriel, 32, was abducted from her home at Port Moresby’s Watermark Estate by more than 20 armed men. She was was later raped and murdered.

• READ MORE: Papua New Guinea: A Jiwaka woman’s journey to ending violence in her community
• Prime Minister Marape discusses women’s issues with UN Women
• Advocate calls for stronger laws to prevent sorcery related violence in PNG
• Other PNG gender-based violence reports

The attack sparked nationwide outrage, with calls for stronger protections for women and faster justice in gender-based violence cases.

Commissioner Manning confirmed the suspects were apprehended on February 27 and subjected to DNA and fingerprint testing.

“DNA evidence and fingerprints are conclusive forensic evidence and afford irrefutable evidence to ensure convictions in a court of law,” he said.

The nine men join three others already in custody, though police have not clarified their specific roles in the crime.

Forensic analysis
AFP forensic specialists from Canberra assisted PNG’s Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) in analysing evidence.

Manning praised the collaboration, saying it underscored the integration of these advanced investigative techniques into PNG’s investigations is strengthening the cases put before the court.

Gender-based violence remains pervasive in PNG, with a 2023 UN report noting that more than two-thirds of women experience physical or sexual abuse in their lifetimes.

Limited forensic resources and slow judicial processes have historically hampered prosecutions.

Police increasingly rely on international partnerships, including a longstanding forensics programme with Australia, to address these gaps.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Trump administration’s decision to eliminate more than 90 percent of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding means “nothing’s safe right now,” a regional political analyst says.

President Donald Trump’s government has said it is slashing about US$60 billion in overall US development and humanitarian assistance around the world to further its America First policy.

Last September, the former Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that Washington had “listened carefully” to Pacific Island nations and was making efforts to boost its diplomatic footprint in the region.

• READ MORE: Other USAID funding cuts reports

Campbell had announced that the US contributed US$25 million to the Pacific-owned and led Pacific Resilience Facility — a fund endorsed by leaders to make it easier for Forum members to access climate financing for adaptation, disaster preparedness and early disaster response projects.

However, Trump’s move has been said to have implications for the Pacific, which is one of the most aid-dependent regions in the world.

Research fellow at the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre Dr Terence Wood told RNZ Pacific Waves that, in the Pacific, the biggest impacts of the aid cut are likley to be felt by the three island nations in a Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the US.

He said that while the compact “is safe” for three COFA states – Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Palau – “these are unprecedented times”.

“It would be unprecedented if the US just tore them up. But then again, the United States is showing very little regard for agreements that it has entered into in the past, so I would say that nothing’s safe right now.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Dr Terence Wood speaking to RNZ Pacific Waves.   Video: RNZ Pacific

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

The Papua New Guinea government wants to have everyone on their National Identity (NID) card system by the country’s 50th anniversary on 16 September 2025.

While the government has been struggling to set up the NID programme for more than 10 years, in January the Prime Minister, James Marape, announced they aimed to have 100 percent of Papua New Guineans signed up by September 16.

However, an academic with the University of PNG, working in conjunction with the Australian National University, Andrew Anton Mako, said there was no chance the government could achieve this goal.

• READ MORE: Other PNG identity card reports

Anton Mako spoke with RNZ Pacific senior journalist Don Wiseman:

ANDREW ANTON MAKO: The NID programme was established in November 2014, so it’s 10 years now. I wouldn’t know the mechanics of the delay, why it has taken this long for the project to not deliver on the outcomes, but I can say a lot of money has been invested into the programme.

By the end of this year, the national government would have spent about 500 million kina (over NZ$211 million). That’s a lot of money to be spent on a particular project, and then it would have only registered about 30 to 40 percent of the total population. So there’s a serious issue there. The project has failed to deliver.

DON WISEMAN: Come back to that in a moment. But why does the government think that a national ID card is so important?

AAM: It’s got some usefulness to achieve. If it was well established and well implemented, it would address a number of issues. For example, on doing business and a form of identity that will help people to do business, to apply for jobs in Papua New Guinea or elsewhere, and all that. I believe it has got merit towards it, but I think just that it has not been implemented properly.

DW: Does the population like the idea?

AAM: I think generally when it started, people were on board. But when it got delayed, you see a lot of people venting frustration on the NID Facebook page. I think [it’s] popularity has actually fallen over the years.

DW: It’s money that could go into a whole lot of other, perhaps, more important things?

AAM: Exactly, there’s pressing issues for the country, in terms of law and order, health and education. Those important sectors have actually fallen over the years. So that 500 million kina would have been better spent.

DW: So now the government wants the entire country within this system by September 16, and they’re not going to get anywhere near it. They must have realised they wouldn’t get anywhere near it when the Prime Minister made that statement. Surely?

AAM: It’s not possible. The numbers do not add up. They’ve spent more than 460 million kina over the last 10 years or so, and they’ve only registered 36 percent of the total — 3.3 million people. And then of the 3.3 million people, they’ve only issued an ID card to about 30 to 40 perCent of them . . .

DW: 30 to 40 percent of those who have already signed up. So it’s what, 10 percent of the country?

AAM: That’s right, about 1.2 million people have been issued an ID card, including a duplicate card. It is not possible to register the entire country, the rest of the country, in just six, seven or eight months.

DW: It’s not the first time that the government has come out with what is effectively like a wish list without fully backing it, financially?

AAM: That’s right. The ambitions that the government and the Prime Minister, their intentions are good, but there is no effective strategy how to get there.

The resources that are needed to be allocated. It’s just not possible to realise the the end results. For example, the Prime Minister and his government promised that by this year, we would stop importing rice. That was a promise that was made in 2019, so the thing is that the government has not clearly laid out a plan as to how the country will realise that outcome by this year.

If you are going to promise something, then you have to deliver on it. You have to deliver on the ambitions. Then you have to set up a proper game plan and proper indicators and things like this.

I think that’s the issue, that you have promised something [and] you must deliver. But you must chart out a proper pathway to deliver that.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

AP provides essential reporting that is published by thousands of outlets across the United States and around the world, helping to keep millions informed on matters of national and international importance. U.S. newspapers, radio stations, and television broadcasters rely heavily on the AP’s copy to deliver news to local communities. Barring AP effectively removes these media outlets’ ability to deliver the news to the groups they serve. 

Limiting AP’s access to media pool events because of the news agency’s editorial and style decisions stifles freedom of speech and violates the First Amendment. News organizations should be allowed to make editorial decisions without fear of retaliation from government officials. 

We ask that the administration honor its commitment to freedom of expression, as outlined in President Donald Trump’s executive order, by restoring AP’s access to White House events and ensuring the administration upholds a nonpartisan defense of a free press. 

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This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Maata Wharehoka (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kuia. 1950-2025

Maata Wharehoka has been described as the Parihaka Matriarch, Parihaka leader and arts advocate, “champion of Kahu Whakatere Tupapaku, the tikanga Māori practices, expert in marae arts, raranga (weaving) and karanga”, renowned weaver who revived traditional Māori methods of death and burial, “driving force behind Parihaka’s focus to be a self-sufficient community”, Kaitiaki (or guardian) of Te Niho marae for nearly 30 years.

And I want to add Peace Advocate and Activist. She was 74.

At Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, the National Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPCS) at Otago University, Ōtepoti Dunedin, we were fortunate that Maata brought her knowledge and her exceptional presence to help us learn some of the lessons from Parihaka about peaceful resistance, non-violent communication, conflict resolution, consultation, hospitality, humility and mana.

• READ MORE: Parihaka matriarch Maata Wharehoka dies at age 74

One of her first talks was entitled “Why do I wear feathers in my hair and scribbles on my face?” and she explained to us the significance of the raukura or albatross feathers that signify peace to the people of Parihaka.

She used the moko (tattoos) on her mouth, chin and from her ears to her cheeks to teach us the importance of listening first, before you speak.

Maata taught us the use of the beat of the poi to signify the sound of the horses hooves when the pacifist settlement at Parihaka was invaded by the British militia in 1881.

The poi and waiata have served as a “hidden-in-plain-sight” performative image by the people of Parihaka that represents consistent resistance to the oppression.

Maata had been shocked when she first came to the peace centre that we were only able to sing (badly) what she called a “nursery school” waiata. So she gifted a unique waiata to NCPACS to help with our transition to being a more bicultural centre, now named Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa.

Maukaroko ki te whenua,
Whakaaro pai ki te tangata katoa
Arohanui ki te aoraki
Koa, koa, koa ki te aoraki,
Pono, whakapono
Ki te ao nei
Ko rongo, no rongo, na rongo
Me rongo, me rongo, me rongo

Translation:
Peace to the land
Be thoughtful to all
Great love to the universe
Joy, joy, joy to the universe
Truth, truth to the world
It is Rongo, from Rongo, by Rongo
Peace, peace, peace.

Maata also hosted a number of students from TAOR/NCPACS at Parihaka for both PhD fieldwork and practicum experience, building a link between them and Parihaka that extends to the next generation.

She named her expertise “deathing and birthing” as she taught Māori traditions of preparation for dying and for welcoming the new born. One of the students learnt from Maata about the process where the person who is dying is closely involved in the preparations, including the weaving of the waka kahutere (coffin) from harakeke (flax) for a natural burial.

Maata herself was very much part of the preparations for her own death and would have advised and assisted those who wove her waka kahutere with much love and expertise.

For me, Maata became one of my very best friends. Her generosity, sense of humour, high energy and kindness quite overwhelmed me. We also became close through working and writing together, with Kelli Te Maihāroa (from Waitaha — the South Island iwi with a long peace history) and Maui Solomon (who upholds the Moriori peace tradition).

We collaborated on a series of articles and chapters, and our joint work was presented both locally and at international conferences.

On my many visits to Parihaka I was also warmly welcomed by the Wharehoka family and was able to meet Maata’s mokopuna, all growing up with Māori as their first language and steeped in Māori knowledge and tikanga.

Maata is an irreplaceable person, a true wahine toa, exuberant, outgoing, funny, clever, fiece, talented, indomitable. Maata, we will miss you terribly, but will continue to be guided by your wisdom and ongoing presence in our hearts and our lives.

In the words of Kelli Te Maihāroa “She was an amazing wahine toa, who loved sharing her gifts with the world. Moe Mai Rā e te māreikura o Te Niho Parihaka.’

Dr Heather Devere is chair of Asia Pacific Media Network and former director of research of Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa.

Publications:
Kelli Te Maihāroa, Heather Devere, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2022). Exploring Indigenous Peace Traditions Collaboratively. In Te Maihāroa, Ligaliga and Devere (Eds). Decolonising Peace and Conflict Studies through Indigenous Research. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2020). Concepts of Friendship and Decolonising Cross-Cultural Peace Research in Aotearoa New Zealand. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies, 6(1), 53-87 doi:10.5518/AMITY/31.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2019). Tides of Endurance: Indigenous Peace Traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand. Ab-Original: Journal of Indigenous Studies and First National and First Peoples, 3(1), 24-47.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maata Wharehoka and Maui Solomon (2017). Regeneration of Indigenous Peace Traditions in Aotearoa New Zealand. In Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihaora and John Synott (eds.), Peacebuilding and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Experiences and Strategies for the 21st Century. Cham, Springer.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Asia Pacific.

Maata Wharehoka (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kuia. 1950-2025

Maata Wharehoka has been described as the Parihaka Matriarch, Parihaka leader and arts advocate, “champion of Kahu Whakatere Tupapaku, the tikanga Māori practices, expert in marae arts, raranga (weaving) and karanga”, renowned weaver who revived traditional Māori methods of death and burial, “driving force behind Parihaka’s focus to be a self-sufficient community”, Kaitiaki (or guardian) of Te Niho marae for nearly 30 years.

And I want to add Peace Advocate and Activist. She was 74.

At Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, the National Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPCS) at Otago University, Ōtepoti Dunedin, we were fortunate that Maata brought her knowledge and her exceptional presence to help us learn some of the lessons from Parihaka about peaceful resistance, non-violent communication, conflict resolution, consultation, hospitality, humility and mana.

• READ MORE: Parihaka matriarch Maata Wharehoka dies at age 74

One of her first talks was entitled “Why do I wear feathers in my hair and scribbles on my face?” and she explained to us the significance of the raukura or albatross feathers that signify peace to the people of Parihaka.

She used the moko (tattoos) on her mouth, chin and from her ears to her cheeks to teach us the importance of listening first, before you speak.

Maata taught us the use of the beat of the poi to signify the sound of the horses hooves when the pacifist settlement at Parihaka was invaded by the British militia in 1881.

The poi and waiata have served as a “hidden-in-plain-sight” performative image by the people of Parihaka that represents consistent resistance to the oppression.

Maata had been shocked when she first came to the peace centre that we were only able to sing (badly) what she called a “nursery school” waiata. So she gifted a unique waiata to NCPACS to help with our transition to being a more bicultural centre, now named Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa.

Maukaroko ki te whenua,
Whakaaro pai ki te tangata katoa
Arohanui ki te aoraki
Koa, koa, koa ki te aoraki,
Pono, whakapono
Ki te ao nei
Ko rongo, no rongo, na rongo
Me rongo, me rongo, me rongo

Translation:
Peace to the land
Be thoughtful to all
Great love to the universe
Joy, joy, joy to the universe
Truth, truth to the world
It is Rongo, from Rongo, by Rongo
Peace, peace, peace.

Maata also hosted a number of students from TAOR/NCPACS at Parihaka for both PhD fieldwork and practicum experience, building a link between them and Parihaka that extends to the next generation.

She named her expertise “deathing and birthing” as she taught Māori traditions of preparation for dying and for welcoming the new born. One of the students learnt from Maata about the process where the person who is dying is closely involved in the preparations, including the weaving of the waka kahutere (coffin) from harakeke (flax) for a natural burial.

Maata herself was very much part of the preparations for her own death and would have advised and assisted those who wove her waka kahutere with much love and expertise.

For me, Maata became one of my very best friends. Her generosity, sense of humour, high energy and kindness quite overwhelmed me. We also became close through working and writing together, with Kelli Te Maihāroa (from Waitaha — the South Island iwi with a long peace history) and Maui Solomon (who upholds the Moriori peace tradition).

We collaborated on a series of articles and chapters, and our joint work was presented both locally and at international conferences.

On my many visits to Parihaka I was also warmly welcomed by the Wharehoka family and was able to meet Maata’s mokopuna, all growing up with Māori as their first language and steeped in Māori knowledge and tikanga.

Maata is an irreplaceable person, a true wahine toa, exuberant, outgoing, funny, clever, fiece, talented, indomitable. Maata, we will miss you terribly, but will continue to be guided by your wisdom and ongoing presence in our hearts and our lives.

In the words of Kelli Te Maihāroa “She was an amazing wahine toa, who loved sharing her gifts with the world. Moe Mai Rā e te māreikura o Te Niho Parihaka.’

Dr Heather Devere is chair of Asia Pacific Media Network and former director of research of Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa.

Publications:
Kelli Te Maihāroa, Heather Devere, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2022). Exploring Indigenous Peace Traditions Collaboratively. In Te Maihāroa, Ligaliga and Devere (Eds). Decolonising Peace and Conflict Studies through Indigenous Research. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2020). Concepts of Friendship and Decolonising Cross-Cultural Peace Research in Aotearoa New Zealand. AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies, 6(1), 53-87 doi:10.5518/AMITY/31.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maui Solomon and Maata Wharehoka (2019). Tides of Endurance: Indigenous Peace Traditions of Aotearoa New Zealand. Ab-Original: Journal of Indigenous Studies and First National and First Peoples, 3(1), 24-47.

Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihāroa, Maata Wharehoka and Maui Solomon (2017). Regeneration of Indigenous Peace Traditions in Aotearoa New Zealand. In Heather Devere, Kelli Te Maihaora and John Synott (eds.), Peacebuilding and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Experiences and Strategies for the 21st Century. Cham, Springer.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Asia Pacific.

“The attack on Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo is yet another expression of the sense of impunity for those who intimidate and threaten journalists in Cameroon,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Cameroonian authorities must investigate and hold accountable the assailants and ensure a safe working environment for journalists.”

Abena, a regional correspondent for privately owned Equinoxe TV, and Ndongo, a camera operator, were attacked when they went to investigate an agricultural facility owned by Samuel Tony Obam Bikoué, a controversial figure praised by President Paul Biya three days earlier for helping to create “an agricultural industry,” but whose involvement in the banana plantation sector has been criticized by a local prefect.

The journalists were attacked when they entered the facility, according to a statement from the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon and Abena, who told CPJ that one of the attackers asked him why he wanted to harm Bikoué’s business rather than investigating other officials’ interests.

Abena said that the assailants, some armed with clubs, snatched Ndongo’s camera, confiscated the two journalists’ phones, and forced them to sit on the ground while making lynching and death threats, according to Abena, who told CPJ that he had identified himself as a journalist and presented his press card.  

“One of the attackers said he knew me before he said they were going to kill us,” Abena said.  

The two journalists were released after a local official intervened, but Abena said that his computer was damaged and one of the attackers took the memory card from Ndongo’s damaged camera.  

CPJ’s calls and messages to Bikoué and Denis Omgba Bomba, director of the media observatory at Cameroon’s Ministry of Communication, went unanswered

CPJ has documented several physical attacks and acts of intimidation against journalists in recent months in Cameroon, ahead of the country’s elections later this year.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Hui’s assets--funds totaling more than US$300,000--were frozen by court order on Feb. 17 after an application by the city’s Department of Justice, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hui had transferred this amount to his wife and mother prior to leaving the country in 2020, while he was out on bail.

The move comes amid an ongoing crackdown by Beijing on public dissent in Hong Kong under two security laws.

The statement said Hui had committed “numerous heinous crimes,” including “conspiring with foreign politicians in 2020 to forge documents and deceive the court with false information in order to obtain the court’s permission to leave Hong Kong while he was on bail,” and added that he had “jumped bail and absconded overseas.”

But Hui is also accused of committing offenses “endangering national security” overseas, the statement said, adding that he stands accused of “inciting secession” and “inciting subversion of state power,” as well as “colluding with foreign or external forces to endanger national security.”

Hui said the confiscation order was “absurd and a blatant violation of my human rights,” and a form of political retaliation amid the crackdown.

According to the government, Hui had transferred nearly $2.5 million Hong Kong dollars (US$321,500) in personal assets as gifts to his mother and wife before he skipped bail.

Under Hong Kong law, if a defendant benefits from committing an offense endangering national security and makes a gift at any time from six years before the date of prosecution onwards, the property held by the recipient of the gift may be regarded as the defendant’s property and confiscated, the spokesman said.

Laws against dissent

Since Beijing imposed the two national security laws banning public opposition and dissent in the city and blamed “hostile foreign forces” for the resulting protests, hundreds of thousands have voted with their feet amid plummeting human rights rankings, shrinking press freedom and widespread government propaganda in schools.

Some fled to the United Kingdom on the British National Overseas, or BNO, visa program. Others have made their homes anew in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany.

Many are continuing their activism and lobbying activists, yet they struggle with exile in some way, worrying about loved ones back home while facing threats to their personal safety from supporters of Beijing overseas

Hong Kong’s leaders have vowed to pursue activists in exile for life.

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Hui said in a post to his Facebook page that the money he had given to his mother and wife had been intended as living expenses in his absence.

“That works out at 10,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$1,286) a month over the six years since I left Hong Kong,” Hui said. “Some people might not even think that’s very much.”

“The people of Hong Kong can see all too clearly what is happening, and they’ll be sure to take their money overseas.”

He told RFA Mandarin in a later interview: “Luckily, my parents sold their home in Hong Kong a few years ago and transferred the proceeds elsewhere.”

‘No Money left in Hong Kong is safe.’

He said the authorities had already frozen his bank accounts in Hong Kong after he fled the city amid a crackdown on dissent and political opposition.

“What they confiscated on this occasion was our only asset left in Hong Kong,” he said. “This has shown us that our concerns were reasonable.”

“A regime that violates human rights will do anything, and no money left in Hong Kong is safe,” Hui said.