Month: October 2022

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Russian forces continued striking cities throughout Ukraine. What impact has the Black Sea Grain Deal had, and what’s at risk now that Russia says it’s temporarily suspending participation? How one woman in Sumy has taken it upon herself to help the war’s orphaned dogs.

Search online for the little town of Shishmaref and you’ll see homes perilously close to the ocean, and headlines that warn this Native community in western Alaska is on the verge of disappearing.

Climate change is partially to blame for the rising seas, flooding, erosion and loss of protective ice and land that are threatening this Inupiat village of about 600 people just a few miles from the Arctic Circle.

But the dire situation is only part of the story.

The people of Shishmaref are resourceful and resilient, said Rich Stasenko, who arrived in Shishmaref to teach in the ’70s and never left. “I don’t see victims here.”

Yes, residents have voted twice to relocate. But they haven’t moved. There’s not enough money to fund the relocation. And perhaps, most importantly, there are no places like Shishmaref. Elsewhere they would be far from prime spots for subsistence hunting, fishing and berry picking that make up most of their nutrition. They would be dispersed from their close-knit community that takes pride in its traditions, and celebrates milestones at their homes, local school and one of the world’s northernmost Lutheran churches.

But it’s too burdensome to only dwell on the climate crisis, said the Rev. Aaron Silco, who is co-pastor of the Shishmaref Lutheran Church with his wife, Anna. “There’s still life happening.”

On a recent Sunday, they celebrated Mass with about two dozen parishioners. The Rev. Anna Silco asked the children in the group to gather on the steps of the altar and gave them mustard seeds to explain the parable about keeping faith despite challenges. “A mustard seed can grow into a huge tree,” she told them. “My faith can be as small as a mustard seed and that will be enough.”

Ardith Weyiouanna and two of her grandchildren reflected on how they relate to Shishmaref.

“It’s hard to see myself living elsewhere,” said Weyiouanna, whose family first came to Shishmaref with a dogsled team in 1958.

“My home means my way of life, carried down to me by my ancestors – living off the land, the ocean, the air… And it’s important to teach it to my children, to my grandchildren … so they can continue the life that we’ve known in our time and before our time,” she said.

That traditional lifestyle is vulnerable to climate change effects. In Alaska, the average temperature has increased 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius) since 1992, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Arctic had been warming twice as fast as the globe, but now has jumped three times faster in some seasons, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.

Shishmaref sits on the small island of Sarichef. Only about half of it is habitable, but hundreds of feet of shore have been lost in past decades. A warmer climate also melts faster a protective layer of ice during the fall, making it more susceptible to storms. In 1997, about 30 feet of the north shore was eroded after a storm, prompting the relocation of 14 homes, according to an Alaska Department of Commerce report. Five more homes were moved in 2002.

Today, Shishmaref is one of dozens of Alaska Native villages that face significant environmental threats, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report published in May that says climate change “is expected to exacerbate” these threats.

“I’m scared we will have to move eventually,” said Lloyd Kiyutelluk, president of the local tribal council. “I don’t want it to be declared an emergency. But the way things are … we’re getting storms that we’ve never seen before.”

Ahead of a powerful storm in September, officials warned that some places in Alaska could see the worst flooding in 50 years. In Shishmaref, the storm wiped out a road leading to the garbage dump and sewage lagoon, creating a health hazard for a town that lacks running water. Molly Snell said she prayed for a miracle that would save her village from being forced to evacuate.

“The right storm with the right wind could take out our whole island,” said Snell, 35, the general manager of the Shishmaref Native Corporation.

“For someone to say that climate change is not real kind of hurts a little bit because we’re seeing it firsthand,” she said.

On a recent day, she prepared dinner for the 31st birthday of her partner, Tyler Weyiouanna, who had just returned from a hunting trip. Their meal included turkey, a cake decorated with a photo of him and the last bear he had hunted, and akutuq, an ice cream-like dish traditionally made by Alaska Indigenous cultures from berries, seal oil and the fat of caribou and other animals.

Other hunters also returned home that day with a catch of spotted seals that were laid outside ready to be skinned and cured, a traditional weekslong process that is usually carried out by women. The fur of a polar bear dried in a rack next to the town’s airstrip.

Residents drive snow machines and all-terrain vehicles, but there are no other vehicles on the sandy roads.

“This is not a community that is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and industrialization to the extent that we know Western Europe and North America have been,” said Elizabeth Marino, an anthropologist and author of “Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground: An Ethnography of Climate Change in Shishmaref, Alaska.” She described it as climate injustice, and some believe this injustice has claimed lives.

Ask John Kokeok about climate change effects and he’ll tell you that he started paying attention after a personal tragedy. His brother Norman, a skilled hunter, knew the ice and trails well. Yet during a hunting trip in 2007, his snow machine fell through ice that melted earlier than usual and died.

John blames climate change and he has been retelling his story ever since in hopes of warning younger generations and finding solutions to protect Shishmaref. He voted to relocate the community to safer ground. But he also wants to protect their traditions. Only a forced evacuation could make him leave now.

“I’m sure there’s everybody else on the coastline. But this is home.”

 

One of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles has hosted festivities marking the annual Dia de Los Muertos or Day of the Dead, a Mexican tradition meant to honor the memory of loved ones. Organizers say this year’s event, which comes ahead of commemorations this week, was the biggest of its kind in the United States. Genia Dulot visited the cemetery for the lively event and files this report.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in his fight to prevent a U.S. House of Representatives committee from gaining access to his tax returns for reasons he claims are politically motivated.

Trump filed an emergency request to put on hold a lower court ruling against the Republican former president that upheld the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee’s request for the tax materials as a justified part of its legislative work while his attorneys prepare an appeal.

“If allowed to stand, it will undermine the separation of powers and render the office of the Presidency vulnerable to invasive information demands from political opponents in the legislative branch,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, referring to the division of authority among the three branches of the U.S. government.

The fight has lingered since 2019 when the committee sued Trump to force disclosure of the tax returns. Trump was the first president in four decades years not to release his tax returns as he aimed to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his company, the Trump Organization.

The committee in its request invoked a federal law that empowers the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to request any person’s tax returns from the IRS.

House Democrats have said they need Trump’s tax returns to see if the IRS is properly auditing presidential returns and to assess whether new legislation is needed. Trump’s lawyers have called that explanation “pretextual” and “disingenuous,” saying the real aim is to unearth politically damaging information about Trump, who is considering another run for the presidency in 2024.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sided with Congress in December 2021 and threw out the case, finding that the committee holds broad authority over a former president’s tax returns.

In August, the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled against Trump, concluding that “every president takes office knowing that he will be subject to the same laws as all other citizens upon leaving office.” The appeals court refused a rehearing on Oct. 27.

China passed legislation on Sunday aimed at giving women more protection against gender discrimination and sexual harassment, days after the bill was submitted to the country’s top legislature after a third revision and extensive public input.

The legislation comes as activists have expressed concern about increasing government rhetoric on the value of traditional women’s roles, and what some see as setbacks for women’s rights and more restrictive attitudes towards abortion.

It’s not yet clear to what extent those more conservative attitudes will be reflected in the new law. No details on the legislation beyond its adoption were immediately available.

It is the first time in nearly 30 years that the law on women’s protection was changed. Titled “Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Law,” the bill was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Thursday. The NPC announced the legislation had passed on its website.

Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Thursday. The NPC announced the legislation had passed on its website.

Tens of thousands of people had sent in suggestions for what wanted to see in the legislation, the NPC said on its website.

Official news agency Xinhua said on Thursday that the legislation “strengthens the protection of the rights and interests of disadvantaged groups such as poor women, elderly women, and disabled women.”

According to Xinhua, employers will be held to account if women’s labor and social security rights and interests are violated, while obstructing the rescue of trafficked and kidnapped women will be specified as an offence.

The responsibility of local authorities to rescue trafficked and abducted women will also be set out, Xinhua said.

Images posted online early this year of a woman in chains caused outrage and stirred debate about the handling of human trafficking, particularly in rural areas where the issue has been documented for years.

 

The International Labor Organization warns multiple economic and political crises, largely triggered by the war in Ukraine and economic disruption in China, are threatening the recovery of the global labor market.  

The ILO Monitor on the World of Work published Monday finds worsening labor market conditions are affecting both employment creation and the quality of jobs. 

The report says multiple overlapping crises — including the highest inflation rates for a decade, tighter monetary policies, and increasing debt burdens — are sapping consumer and business confidence. It says signs of global labor recovery seen early this year have withered away. 

The ILO estimates the number of hours worked globally in the third quarter of this year was 1.5 percent below pre-pandemic levels. This is equivalent to a loss of 40 million full-time jobs. 

ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo says this downward trend is largely driven by the economic disruption in China and the fallout from the war in Ukraine. 

“For China, what essentially we are saying is the disruption caused namely by quite very strict measures taken in reference to the management of the COVID-19 situation … also the global tightening of the fiscal monetary measures and the impact that could have on the domestic consumption,” Houngbo said. 

In addition to the terrible humanitarian cost, the report notes the war in Ukraine is having a negative impact on the country’s economy and labor market. The ILO estimates 2.4 million Ukrainians have lost their jobs this year because of the conflict. 

Houngbo says the impact of the war is being felt globally in rising food and fuel prices, increased food insecurity and poverty. He says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is affecting and disrupting the labor markets and economies of neighboring countries. 

“For example, in Tajikistan, the World Bank is projecting a 40 percent fall in migrant workers’ remittances. And in Kyrgyzstan, a 33 percent decline. This trend will easily shift into political and social destabilization,” Houngbo said. 

Authors of the report express concern that most of the job growth that exists is concentrated in the informal sector. This, they say, is jeopardizing the positive trend that has been made in the last 15 years toward formalizing employment. 

They say progress in narrowing the gender gap in employment also is at risk and the economic gap between developed and developing countries is widening. 

 

At a time when newsrooms globally are under economic and other pressures, an American media initiative is helping some of them by finding staff to cover underrepresented communities.

Report for the World places early- and mid-career journalists in newsrooms around the world to help them expand in-depth coverage of specialized beats. This year, the organization found jobs for 30 reporters in newsrooms in eight countries. It also provides training, according to its global director, Preethi Nallu.

“Independent media across the world are facing a combination of pressures including state repression, collapsing revenue models, rampant dis- and misinformation, and direct attacks against journalists,” said Nallu. She tells VOA this is the time to invest in local, public-interest media amid what she calls “this global crisis for journalism.”

The partnerships allow for collaboration. “They can exchange information, learn from each other about what is working and why it is working, and connect the dots between global trends and local knowledge,” Nallu said.

Recruiting reporters familiar with a region’s language and culture has another advantage. It “fills the gaps that we see when foreign correspondents cover stories over short spans, without context-specific knowledge or consistency,” said Nallu.

For The News Minute, a women-led, digital news platform focused on coverage in India’s five southern states, specialized knowledge and diversity were key to selecting reporters.

Through Report for the World, the newsroom has been able to hire journalists to cover caste, gender, and civil liberties issues.

Its co-founder and editor-in-chief, Dhanya Rajendran, told VOA it was essential that they find someone “from a marginalized community” for the caste beat.

“To put it very simply, caste is what divides Indian society,” said Rajendran, referring to the centuries-old system in which members of society are segregated and discriminated against based on birth and profession.

Their new reporter, Bhavani Etikala, an applicant from “one of the most oppressed communities,” will be able to use her experience to offer a nuanced perspective, Rajendran said.

Similarly, a former lawyer and movie commentator, Sukanya Shaji, will help the outlet approach gender coverage from fresh angles.

“Many times, covering gender just gets reduced to covering violence or just gets reduced to covering discrimination,” said Rajendran. “We sometimes don’t understand the nuances, we don’t look at the commentary in society itself and how law can intervene and help, or where the law is not stepping in effectively.”

Sometimes, the partnership allows journalists within an organization to specialize.

Prajwal Bhat has worked for The News Minute for five years, but when he heard the website was able to expand with a beat solely on civil liberties, rights he believes are eroding in India, he knew he had to apply.

“I’ve interviewed so many journalists, activists, and students who have been accused under the sedition law for saying or doing something – I mean just for protesting, just raising their voice, just for calling the crime in action…So many of our individual freedoms are under threat in this way,” Bhat told VOA.

Rajendran says that in India, media organizations that have questioned or been critical of the government are harassed online or face litigation and lengthy income tax audits as a means of pressure.

Right group Reporters Without Border ranks India 150 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 has the best media environment. India declined eight spots in 2022.

India’s information ministry has previously dismissed concerns over the media environment, saying, “The government does not agree to the conclusions drawn” by Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the list.

Media and education

Elsewhere, government pressure is an issue Hungary’s independent media are keenly aware of.

From false news laws directed at critical news outlets, pro-government owners buying large stakes in publishing companies, uneven allocation of state advertising revenue and refusal to renew licenses, independent journalism has become difficult.

It’s a situation that has resulted in a “shrinking space for independent media in Hungary,” said Tamás Bodoky, editor-in-chief for Atlatszo, a nonprofit news site that focuses on investigative reporting.

“In Hungary, the mainstream media is basically captured by the state. The state is exercising control through ownership or through financing a lot of media outlets in Hungary, and these outlets do not do any kind of watchdog or critical journalism and they do not exercise any control over the state wrongdoing,” Bodoky told VOA.

The Hungarian embassy in Washington did not respond to a VOA email message requesting comment.

In a speech to the U.S. Conservative Political Action Conference, held in Budapest in May, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán alleged bias in news coverage, saying, “The problem is that the Western media is adjusted to the leftist viewpoint.”

With help from Report for the World, the news website Atlatszo plans to expand coverage of education. It is an area that, because it is state-owned, does not get the attention it deserves, says Bodoky.

“The state is under-financing public education,” Bodoky said. “So the rich people or well-off people start private schools and take their children to private schools and also they go studying abroad, when meanwhile the general population gets a very low-level education and the teachers are very much underpaid.”

Orban nationalized local schools in 2010, in a move that critics say resulted in a curriculum containing ideological bias, the Agence France-Presse reported.

Although Atlatszo has previously reported on education, support from Report for the World meant it could hire a full-time beat reporter– Zita Szopkó. Bodoky hopes she will help expand coverage to more rural areas.

Rajendran of The News Minute also believes in-depth, dedicated coverage of underreported areas and specialized topics is essential.

“When a news organization wants a cause to be highlighted, or a news organization believes that whether it’s feminism or gender or caste is of utmost importance to them, they have to do sustained coverage,” Rajendran told VOA. “It has to be deeper, which is what I hope these reporters will do.”

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we’ll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.