Daily Archives: August 14, 2021

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LIVERMORE, Calif.This year, at the gates of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, commemoration of the solemn 76th anniversaries of the U.S. nuclear devastation of two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during World War II linked together two existential threats all humanity faces today: the escalating development of new, ever-more lethal nuclear weapons and the rapidly accelerating consequences of climate change.

The theme of the hybrid in-person and virtual gathering Nuclear Weapons & Climate Change: Shine a Light, Stop the Hate, Lower the Heat highlighted the paths to avert disaster as well as the rapidly intensifying threats.

Opening the program, Marylia Kelley, executive director of the Livermore-based Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Tri-Valley CAREs), told participants that President Biden, in his first budget request to Congress, is proposing to fully fund the continued development of all the new warheads former president Donald Trump had included in his Nuclear Posture Review.

With more than 85% of its Department of Energy funding earmarked for nuclear weapons activities, Kelley said, Livermore Lab one of two locations designing every new nuclear warhead and bomb in the U.S. stockpile plays a central role in enabling todays arms race.

Kelley listed five new weapons the lab is developing:

Overall, she said, as we as a country debate funding for human needs and infrastructure, we are poised to spend $2 trillion on new warheads, bomb plants to build them, and delivery systems to use them over the next 30 years.

Meanwhile, over many years, Livermore Lab has released over a million curies of radiation into the atmosphere from its main facility and its experimental explosive test Site 300, and both lab employees and children in the Livermore area have experienced high levels of cancers and other radiation-linked illnesses.

Kelley urged all participants to join in effective actions to change the future including pressing their members of Congress to slash funding for nuclear weapons, joining protests at nuclear weapons sites, and other creative nonviolent actions to put a stop to the U.S. governments role in developing and producing nuclear weapons.

The Reverend Nobuaki Hanaoka, a retired Bay Area Methodist minister who as an infant was living with his family near Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, described the horrific impact of the weapons used to devastate the two Japanese cities.

Though his family did not experience the violent shock waves and enormous fireball that incinerated the city, his mother and sister both died of leukemia and his brother died of premature aging associated with radiation exposure.

A quarter of a million people died as a result of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hanaoka said, but todays nuclear bombs are designed to kill billions and to cause a nuclear winter around the globe.

Though in 2017 the United Nations General Assembly passed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the treaty entered into force in January, the nine nations that already have nuclear weapons, including the U.S., Russia, and China, have so far ignored the treaty and are maintaining their nuclear programs.

Hanaoka has written to President Biden, urging him to convene a conference of the nine nations to start discussing the dismantling of all nuclear weapons.

John Burroughs, senior analyst with the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, discussed the treaty in the context of legal documents dating back to the United Nations Charter that have found the threat or use of nuclear weapons violates international law.

Though the U.S. and the other nuclear-armed countries didnt participate in negotiating the TPNW, and the U.S., UK, France, Russia, and China have jointly declared their opposition, Burroughs called the treaty a strong and visible declaration of the illegality for all states of the threat and use of nuclear weapons.

But, he said, while the document sets out a general framework for the global elimination of nuclear arms, it lacks the specificity, targets and timelines set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change. It is imperative to create an effective process for global nuclear disarmament paralleling that for climate protection. And it is imperative to actually accomplish, in both the nuclear and climate spheres, the safeguarding of the earth and civilization for future generations.

In a gripping account linking the two crises, Marcina Langrine and Benetick Kabua Maddison of the Marshallese Educational Initiative described the devastation of their ancestral Marshall Islands home by radiation from 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted on the archipelagos Bikini and Enewetak Atolls between 1946 and 1958, including the massive Castle Bravo test in 1954, with disastrous health and economic consequences that continue today.

Maddison described how the radioactive debris left behind on Enewetak Atoll, where most U.S. nuclear tests took place, was concentrated under the Runit Dome, a huge structure created in the 1970s by U.S. military personnel sent to clean up the immense accumulation of nuclear waste. Instead, he said, they pushed the waste into the dome and covered it with an 18-inch cap of concrete.

Now, with radiation leaking from the dome and sea levels rising because of climate change, the Runit Dome could be sunk into the ocean, further impacting an already devastated environment.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Japan, Maddison said. We share a history that is horrific for our people. It is urgent that we continue to educate the world about the impact of nuclear weapons and why we shouldnt have these weapons in the 21st century and beyond.

Founding member of the Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance Tsukuru Fors extended those concerns to the issue of nuclear power, citing the 2011 earthquake-triggered disaster at Japans Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and noting that area residents had been told lies both before and after the disaster by capitalism and government who were desperate to keep the system at all costs.

Fors also cited the profound environmental damage suffered by San Franciscos Bay View-Hunters Point neighborhood after the area suffered radioactive contamination from the Navys nuclear defense laboratory and its facilities to clean ships exposed during nuclear weapons tests in the years after World War II.

Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped speed the end of the Vietnam War, compared the positions taken by todays nuclear-armed countries with those taken by the commanders of the ocean liner Titanic as the ship faced doom from icebergs more than a century ago.

We as a species are on the Titanic, he said. And what is at stake is not just mutual destruction, lets say, of the U.S. and Russia horrific as that would be but the annihilation of most of the species, a totally wicked gamble.

Citing the Poor Peoples Campaigns Jubilee Platform program to end poverty, dismantle the military economy, and address the climate crisis, California PPC co-chair Nell Myhand called for cutting military spending by at least $350 billion. She reminded rally participants that in late May, U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee, D-Calif. and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., introduced the PPC-inspired Third Reconstruction Resolution to Fully Address Poverty from the Bottom Up, demanding an end to the forever wars, repealing existing authorizations for use of military force, and restoring Congress war powers including those over limited uses of force like air and drone strikes.

Jackie Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal Foundation, called on all participants, in-person and virtual, to tell their representatives in Congress to cancel replacement of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and instead, spend those funds on human needs and the environment, and to press Congress to embrace the Ban treaty and work for a verifiable agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. She urged support for the Third Reconstruction Resolution, calling it a historic omnibus vision to center the needs of the poor with moral laws and policies, including abolishing nuclear weapons and embracing a bold climate agenda.

Also presenting were Bay Area singer/songwriter Betsy Rose; composer/song leader Benjamin Mertz; soprano saxophone soloist Francis Wong; and MCs Patricia St. Onge and Wilson Riles Jr.

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On Hiroshima, Nagasaki anniversaries, activists demand abolition of nuclear weapons - People's World

A choir of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) sing "Never Again." Hiroshima-Nagasaki 2012. Credit: The Official CTBTO Photostream. Accessed via Wikimedia Commons.

As in past years, speakers at this years peace memorial ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered atomic bomb victims and pledged to work for world peace. One difference this year and last, however, was that the ceremonies took place amidst the coronavirus global pandemic, including a surge in the delta variant that amplified fear and concern this year. Even in a pandemic, individuals in Hiroshima and Nagasaki labor to remind the world that nuclear weapons remain an existential threat to humanity.

Education is a powerful tool for making progress toward a nuclear-weapon-free world. To this end, I am organizing the Critical Issues Foruma disarmament and nonproliferation education program for high school students in the United States, Russia, and Japanat the Middlebury Institute in Monterey. By fostering an appreciation for different cultural perspectives on complex international security issues, this program empowers students to grow into individuals who can contribute to international peace, security, disarmament, and other social justice work.

In one Critical Issues Forum online event this year, we invited a hibakushaatomic bomb survivorfrom Nagasaki to reboot memories in an effort to promote empathy and understanding. In another event, members of the Youth Champions for Disarmamenta program of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairsshared experiences and ideas for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

Youth from diverse backgrounds bring unique perspectives for shaping an inclusive, collaborative dialogue on global challenges. As the total elimination of nuclear weapons may not be achievable in our lifetime, cross-generational opportunities to learn from courageous hibakushas are essential. Youth also need opportunities to hone critical thinking skills necessary to engage in dialogues aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons. Young people have great potential to act as key change agents.

As the average age of hibakushas is now 84, the need to convey to youth the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapon use is urgent. Approximately 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 people in Nagasaki were killed by the atomic bombings, according to the cities records. Any nuclear disarmament discourse must include an understanding of what happened under the mushroom clouds in these two cities 76 years ago.

The basis of peace is for people to understand the pain of others, said Katsuji Yoshida, a now-deceased hibakusha. Through empathy, people can understand the suffering of atomic bomb survivors and victims. They can also see the inhuman nature of nuclear weapons.

True goodbyes arent being unable to meet again; they are when their existence is forgotten, said two sixth-grade representatives of the Childrens Peace Assembly at this years Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on August 9. We cannot forget those who became victims on that day, ever. We cannot allow our tragic past to be repeated. What we want is peace, not just in Japan, but in every country of the world.

Current public awareness of nuclear threats is awfully low. As long as nuclear weapons exist, they may be used, either accidentally or intentionally. The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination, UN Secretary General Antnio Guterres stated in his message to the ceremony.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted humanitys interdependence. If world citizens want to succeed in tackling multiple existential threats, including nuclear weapons, all citizens, especially youth, must engage. Youth hold potential to accelerate disarmament efforts.

At the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony, held three days after the Hiroshima ceremony, 92-year-old Nobuko Oka read the Commitment to Peace, becoming the oldest atomic bomb survivor to do so. While each individual hibakushas voice may be small, she said, their collective powerful cries for nuclear abolition have moved the world. Citing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that entered into force in January, she declared that younger generations have now inherited the task of advancing efforts for a nuclear-weapon-free world. Yet she is determined to reach out to people who have little knowledge of the atomic bombing as well as young people for as long as she is alive.

In the near future, the voices of hibakushas will sadly no longer be with us. I have been privileged to listen to many atomic bomb survivor testimonials in native Japanese. Their cries bequeath the pursuit of a nuclear-weapon-free world to the next generation. But the work of preserving their memories and commitment to nuclear-weapon elimination belongs to everyone.

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As atomic bomb survivors age, they're motivating the next generation on disarmament - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Opposition parties have highlighted examples where Nicola Sturgeons party has failed to meet pledges in its plan for the first 100 days of government such as setting up an inquiry into Covid-19, the lack of an NHS Recovery Plan and vaccinating all adults.

However, the Scottish Government has branded such criticism as nonsensical, arguing the 100 days began when Ms Sturgeon was elected First Minister by MSPs on May 18.

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This would see the 100 days end on August 25, the government claims, not on August 14, which is 100 days since the election.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was no sign the SNP had begun to focus on recovery and claimed the government was defined by delays, broken promises, and a gulf between their spin and their action.

He said: In the final days of the campaign they put forward a weak imitation of Scottish Labours message, vowing to work in the national interest but in just 100 days they have broken promises on everything from tackling Covid to rebuilding our NHS to delivering green jobs.

"The failure to set up a public inquiry into Covid-19 is a particularly shocking dereliction of duty. We shouldnt be waiting for Boris Johnson, we should be desperate to learn the lessons of the last year and a half not hiding from them.

As each day passes, their arrogance grows and they continue to lose touch with communities across Scotland as they abandon the pledges they were elected on just months ago.

Stephen Kerr, the Scottish Conservatives chief whip, said voters were tired of hearing the same old excuses, adding the SNP failed to deliver on the issues that matter and that promises from the party had simply failed to materialise.

He said: Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers promised to make Covid recovery their priority, but they have taken their eye off the ball once again. We know they have already put a push for a divisive indyref2 at the top of their conference agenda.

Championing independence once again is a dereliction of duty from the SNP Government as Scotland aims to accelerate its recovery from the pandemic.

No matter how they try and spin it, this is another series of SNP broken promises that are letting people down all over again.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leadership hopeful and health spokesperson, Alex Cole-Hamilton, demanded an apology from the SNP to healthcare workers due to the failure to produce an NHS recovery plan.

He said: Both the public and opposition parties recognise that this is a substantial piece of work to undertake, but it is also important that we know that the health secretary is committed to driving progress on their behalf.

An apology would demonstrate that the health secretary recognises that his government have not yet fulfilled this promise and avoid him getting off on the wrong foot with patients and staff.

Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the deputy first minister and Covid-19 recovery secretary John Swinney labelled the claims nonsensical.

He said: The opposition attacks are ridiculous. We have always been clear that our plans were to be implemented 100 days from forming the new government not from the date of the election, which would be nonsensical, given that at that time there were not even MSPs to vote in the new government to carry out its programme.

The SNP was returned office because people across Scotland know they can depend on this government to deliver, in contrast to the constant carping from Labour, the Tories and Lib Dems.

"We are immensely proud of what we are delivering, including a pay rise for our hard-working NHS staff, the abolition of dental charges for 18-25-year-olds, and completing the transformational expansion of free childcare across Scotland.

We are continuing to work to our timetable to implement the remaining commitments, including the NHS recovery plan.

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'100 days of SNP failure', claim opposition as criticism branded 'nonsensical' - The Scotsman

Usually when Im talking to Jaida Grey Eagle, our photojournalist and a Report for America corps member, its because I need her to photograph a source for a story or resize a photo for our website at the last minute.

Our readers see another side to this scene: photographs of protesters, Olympic champions, changemakers, and more. After working with her for a year, I can confidently say that Jaida isnt your typical photojournalist.

In fact, most of her work is informed by her fine arts photography background. And vice versa, her work for Sahan Journal has led her to pursue other interestingand bigprojects.

If youve driven past Hennepin Ave and Sixth Street in Minneapolis recently, you may have noticed a large billboard with five people dancing against a black background:

Gayatri Narayanan: Gayatri is a dancer with the Ananya Dance Theatre and organizer. She is committed to serving abolition and anti-caste movements.

Atquetzali Quiroz: Atquetzali was born and raised in Saint Paul, Mni Sota (Minnesota), homeland of the Dakota and Ojibwe peoples. She is a co-founder of Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, a traditional Mexica dance group.

Malgaren Mekonen: Malgaren is an Oromo dancer. Jaida met Malgaren while reporting on a meal program that serves mostly Oromo, Somali, and Hmong children.

Nina Rose Berglund: Nina is a jingle dress dancer, Indigenous youth leader, public speaker, and climate activist. Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Nina believes in utilizing traditional values and methods to solve urgent world problems.

Lue Finisher Thao: Lue, also known as Bboy Finisher, is a professional dancer who teaches, travels and competes around the United States. In 2017, Lue founded Cypher Side Dance School and Studio. He is currently a member of Optimistic Crew.

One thing they have in commonbesides danceis their connection to Jaida. Jaida, who is Oglala Lakota, has known Atquetzali and Nina since they were teenagers. She met Gayatri through mutual friends, and Malgaren and Lue through her work at Sahan Journal.

I feel like in my role as a photojournalist that I should try to take up as much space as possible for the communities I cover, Jaida told me. I go between this world of being a fine arts photographer and photojournalist, and this was the perfect way I could tie those two together.

As part of the Its the People project, the Hennepin Theatre Trust put out a call for projects that answer the question: Whose stories belong here? As one of the selected photographers, Jaida got to feature her work on a billboard.

Hennepin Avenue is historically this theater avenue. It houses most of the theaters in the Twin Cities, Jaida said. Theres always stories being told here. But growing up, those stories Id seen were always The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carolvery white, eurocentric stories.

Jaida has been building relationships with people of different cultural and professional backgrounds for more than just this last year. Through those relationships, shes been able to tell stories in a more accurate and sensitive way. Jaidas coverage for Sahan Journal, as well as her other projects, have changed the way Ive looked at my own storytelling abilities.

For example, while reporting at protests and community events for the last year, Jaida noticed a pattern that I had mostly missed. Dancers have always shown up.

Rarely has there been a time where I had been covering an event where there hasnt been some form of dance, Jaida said. Its so representative of community. Being an Indigenous woman, one of our strongest representations of community coming together is powwows, and thats all centered around dance.

Im not sure if its typical for an immigration and politics reporter like myself to drive past a billboard and think, My coworker made that. But thats the sort of photojournalist Jaida is. When we go to assignments together, shes always telling me about her (multiple) other projects. Early on in our time working together, I asked her how shes able to find the time. She simply told me that if shes passionate about something, shell make time for it.

Im still trying to figure out what being a photojournalist means, and Im also kind of making it up for myself too, Jaida said. I dont think I fit into that traditional role of what a photojournalist is supposed to be. Im just doing what I find my passion in.

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If youve noticed the big billboard at Hennepin and Sixth Street, you should get to know Jaida Grey Eagle - Sahan Journal

Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy

and Recent articles on Capital Star, State Senator Dan Laughlin, R-Erie) and Pat Browne, R-Lehighs legislation will increase the proposed change to Pennsylvanias minimum wage to $ 10 per hour under the bill. Was scrutinized for.

Most notably, the bill will link future wage increases to inflation. I agree with the overall tone of the article and its stance of raising the minimum wage, but it omits an important aspect: ending wage preemption.

Most lawmakers believe this is the solution to a long-standing problem, but research shows that linking rising wages to inflation does not really solve the bigger problem at hand. in fact, Since 1968, the federal minimum wage has been in step with worker productivityThe inflation-adjusted minimum wage is about $ 24 per hour. Thats far from $ 7.25 and even $ 10.

Dean Baker, Senior Economist at the Center for Economic Policy Research, by 2025 Increased productivity will actually bring the minimum wage closer to $ 30 per how.NS.

and Local wagesI am encouraging municipalities to set their own minimum wages, but I believe that the abolition of wage preemption will allow municipalities and their members to work together to determine the prestigious wages they have lived in. We know.

Already, we see the Pennsylvania labor market trying to modify the purchasing power of the minimum wage and offer higher wages to people.

If we raise wages without ending preemption, we are in the unfortunate position of getting stuck. No one refuses to raise wages, but ending preemption allows the labor market and employers to adjust in a higher way to the needs of the community. State-wide wages do not. Living costs in Pennsylvania vary greatly, and it makes no difference if you live in a big city for $ 10 an hour.

Here at Wage Local, its time for Pennsylvania to look to the future and stop tying up cities and municipalities, so the bill to change the minimum wage is working to eliminate wage preemption.

Jennifer Rafanan Kennedy is the Managing Director of Pennsylvania United, an advocacy group based in western Pennsylvania.

Source link Pa.Dont neglect wages in the fight to raise the minimum wage | Opinion

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Pa.Don't neglect wages in the fight to raise the minimum wage | Opinion - Pennsylvanianewstoday.com

Condemnation of quotas for women, vilification of a short-haired Olympic gold medallist, and calls to abolish the gender ministry itself: a backlash against feminism is on the rise in South Korea -- with even presidential candidates joining in.

While South Korea is the world's 12th-largest economy and a leading technological power, it remains a male-dominated society with a poor record on women's rights.

That has been challenged in recent years, with young women fighting to legalise abortion and organising a widespread #MeToo and anti-spycam movement that led to the largest women's rights demonstrations in Korean history.

Anti-feminists are demanding that short-haired Olympic champion An San hand back her medals Photo: AFP / ADEK BERRY

At their most militant some campaigners have vowed to never marry, have children, or even have sex with men, while others have gone viral smashing up their make-up products on video in protest against the country's demanding beauty standards.

Now a fierce reaction is spreading online.

Women shave their heads at a protest against spycam crime Photo: AFP / Jung Hawon

Members of anti-feminist groups, often right-wing, have even bullied triple Olympic champion An San during the Tokyo Games for having short hair, and demanded she hand back her medals and apologise.

One such group's YouTube channel has drawn more than 300,000 subscribers since its foundation in February, and their online campaigns can be ferocious.

They have extracted apologies from companies -- and even a government ministry -- for using images of pinching fingers in advertising, which they claim "extreme, misandrist feminists" use as a symbol for small penises.

And leading mainstream conservative politicians -- including two presidential contenders -- have seized on the wider anti-feminist sentiment with pledges to abolish the gender ministry.

Conservative politician Lee Jun-seok has been compared to Donald Trump Photo: POOL / KIM Min-Hee

Critics accuse the department of "deepening" the country's social tensions, with young men claiming equality policies fail to address issues that affect men.

They say it is especially unreasonable that only South Korean men have to perform near two-year compulsory military service, delaying their career starts in a highly competitive society, while women are exempt.

Lawmaker Ha Tae-keung, who is seeking presidential nomination by the conservative opposition People's Power Party (PPP), says the ministry is obsolete and told AFP that it needed to be disbanded to reduce the "enormous social cost caused by conflict over gender issues".

In an earlier television appearance, he told broadcaster MBC: "It's like a zombie -- the ministry's still around although it's already dead, and that's why it's only creating adverse effects."

South Korea has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries Photo: AFP / Jung Yeon-je

Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies professor at University of Notre Dame in the US, said: "What we are seeing now is a very powerful backlash to all of the progress that feminist movements in Korea have made in the past few years."

Lee Jun-seok, the PPP's 36-year-old leader, has established himself as one of the most popular politicians among the country's young men.

South Korean women have protested against spycam and revenge porn crimes Photo: AFP / Ed JONES

He has repeatedly said he is against gender quotas and "radical feminism", and that the gender equality and family ministry needs to be scrapped.

Lee, who has been compared by some to former US president Donald Trump for his at times divisive rhetoric, insists the country's young women no longer face discrimination in education, nor in the early career job market.

"Through novels and movies women in their 20s and 30s have developed an unfounded victim mentality that they are being discriminated against," Lee told the Korea Economic Daily.

Jinsook Kim, a University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral fellow, said politicians were exploiting the resentments of frustrated men to try to secure their votes.

Nowadays, she added, "some of these men see themselves as victims of feminism", for example because of affirmative action.

The reaction comes against a backdrop of stuttering economic growth, rising inequality and soaring housing prices leaving many Koreans despairing of ever buying a home of their own.

Oh Jae-ho of Gyeonggi Research Institute pointed out that female participation in the workforce -- and hence competition -- had risen over recent decades while military service remained men-only.

"Young men feel that they are being unfairly asked to compensate for the sexist privileges enjoyed by men in the older generation."

Those privileges are longstanding: the South has the highest gender wage gap in the OECD club of developed countries, while women do 2.6 times as much unpaid domestic work as men. Only 5.2 percent of Korean conglomerates' board members are female.

The country has also witnessed a disturbing rise in spycam and revenge porn crimes.

But women's activist Ahn So-jung said that politicians were "denying institutional discrimination exists against women".

"And they are dismissing women who voice concerns about women's rights as a source of gender conflict," she added.

Founded in 2001, the gender ministry has played a role in the abolition of the South's discriminatory hoju system, which saw children registered exclusively under the patriarchal line.

It has also set up an agency to help single mothers collect child support, and implemented programmes for working mothers and immigrant wives.

Minister Chung Young-ai pleaded for it to continue: "The improvement of women's rights so far has been possible because our ministry existed."

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Anti-feminism Backlash On The Rise In South Korea - International Business Times