Water We Waiting For?
October 18, 2021
The Good News
- ‘This is the future’: Black Senate candidates crush fundraising expectations (Politico)
- Rock star Randy Bachman’s treasured Gretsch guitar was stolen 45 years ago. An internet sleuth helped find it (CNN)
“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.” — Merce Cunningham
Large-Scale Kidnapping In Haiti
17 members from an Ohio-based organization called Christian Aid Ministries were kidnapped by a gang in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after leaving an orphanage on Saturday. Five children are among the group of 16 Americans and one Canadian traveling by vehicle to another location north of the capital. One of the abductees posted a call for help in a WhatsApp group as the kidnapping was occurring. “Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver. Pray pray pray. We don’t know where they are taking us,” the message said.
Haiti has been in political upheaval for years, and security has broken down as the country’s politics disintegrated following the ouster of President Jovenel Moise two years ago. Kidnappings of rich and poor alike are common, surging this year, with gangs becoming more comfortable committing crimes outside the territories they control. Since the still-unsolved assassination of Moise in July, the number of kidnappings has risen 300%. The violent gangs that control roughly half of the capital city of Port-au-Prince operate at will, hijacking public buses to kidnap children on their way to school or taking pastors in the middle of delivering their sermons. Parts of the city are so dangerous many residents have fled, leaving once bustling streets nearly abandoned. Gangs have kidnapped even poor street vendors, and few pedestrians venture out even during the day.
But even in a country accustomed to widespread lawlessness, Saturday’s abduction of such a large group of Americans shocked officials for its brazenness. It came just a day after the U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to extend its mission in Haiti until July 2022. Many Haitians have called for the U.S. to send troops to stabilize the situation, but so far the Biden administration has been reluctant to commit to boots on the ground. Last month, the president came under fire from some Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates for his decision to send too many Haitians, who had amassed on the southern U.S. border seeking asylum, back to the unsafe, unstable island.
Over the weekend, a State Department spokesman said that the U.S. does not know the current location of the kidnapped missionaries, but that “officials are working around the clock to secure the release of Americans.” (CNN, NYT, WaPo)
Water We Waiting For?
- Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered a triple meltdown in 2011 following a destructive earthquake and tsunami. A massive amount of treated but still radioactive wastewater was pumped up and continues to be stored in about 1,000 tanks, which will reach full capacity in late 2022. Contaminated cooling water has leaked from the damaged reactors since the disaster.
- In April, government officials and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, announced plans to release the water into the Pacific Ocean over a span of decades, starting in spring 2023. The plan is opposed by fishermen, residents, and Japan’s neighbors, including China and South Korea.
- Officials have said disposal of the water is indispensable for the plant’s cleanup, and that release into the ocean is the most realistic option. On Sunday, after a tour of the facility, Japan’s new prime minister Fumio Kishida said the wastewater disposal cannot be delayed and that his government will do its utmost to address concerns that the water disposal will hurt local fishing and other industries. (AP News)
Deadly Flooding In India
- At least 25 people have died and dozens more are missing after torrential rains swept through villages and flooded roads in the southern coastal state of Kerala, India. Many residents were cut off when rains intensified late Friday night, swelling rivers and causing flash floods.
- On Saturday, television reports showed people wading through chest-high waters to rescue passengers from a bus that was nearly submerged. Heavy downpours continued through the weekend, triggering massive landslides. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences and said authorities were working to help those affected by the deluge. During the 2018 monsoon season, nearly 500 people were killed in Kerala when it was ravaged by the worst floods to hit the state in almost a century. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- More flee as Canary Island eruption continues, creates ‘lava tsunami’ (NBC)
- Russian daily Covid-19 deaths hit record high but lawmakers rule out lockdown (CNN)
- Sudan protesters call for military coup as political crisis deepens (CNN)
- New Zealand dispenses record number of jabs at ‘Vaxathon’ (AP)
- Uyghurs in Afghanistan fear China will push the Taliban to deport them (NPR)
- Father of suspect in UK lawmaker’s slaying is ‘traumatized’ (AP)
- South Korea Reconsiders a Rite of Manhood: The Draft (NYT, $)
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Alternative Facts Of Life
- Southlake, Texas is 30 miles northwest of Dallas. It is America’s richest city, and 80% white. This summer, Southlake’s Carroll Independent School District (CISD) found itself embroiled in a supercharged debate over how the wealthy, mostly homogeneous suburban school system handles issues of race, identity, and student discipline. Conservative parents packed school board meetings to oppose a plan proposing new rules and lessons that would put more emphasis on race, diversity, and inclusion.
- Republican legislators had passed a new law, HB 3979, requiring teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. After a parent complained that a fourth grade teacher had an anti-racism book in her classroom library, the school board voted to reprimand the teacher and the CISD superintendent ordered training sessions for teachers on books they can have in their classroom libraries.
- At a training session last Friday, a top administrator told teachers to “remember the concepts of 3979.” If they have a book about the Holocaust, for example, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective. “How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response. “Believe me,” the administrator said. “That’s come up.” (24/7 Wall Street, NBC News)
Demand Of The House
- On Sunday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg predicted that supply chain issues facing the U.S. will continue into 2022. He stressed the best way to help alleviate those problems would be for Congress to pass President Biden’s infrastructure proposal.
- “Look, part of what’s happening isn’t just the supply side, it’s the demand side. Demand is off the charts,” Buttigieg added. He also noted that “there are $17 billion in the President’s infrastructure plan for ports alone and we need to deal with these long-term issues that have made us vulnerable to these kinds of bottlenecks.”
- Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill has passed the Senate but is stalled in the House. The legislation includes money for roads, bridges, and public transportation, and would also provide funds to reduce congestion and emissions near ports and airports. (CNN)
Additional USA News
- Biden: “Being a cop today is one hell of a lot harder than it’s ever been” (Axios)
- Former President Bill Clinton released from hospital (CNN)
- The murder trial of Ahmaud Arbery is set to begin in Brunswick, Georgia. (NPR)
- Dems find their anti-Rubio warrior in Val Demings (Politico)
- Covid and critical race theory: Sleepy school board races are waking up (NBC)
- Joe Manchin reportedly opposes key Biden climate program (NPR)
- Kinzinger goes to bat for Biden over Jan. 6 committee comments (Politico)
The Ghost Of Ancient Tablets Past
- Dr. Irving Finkel is the curator of the Middle Eastern Department at the British Museum, and the world’s leading authority on cuneiform, a system of writing used in the ancient Middle East. Finkel says a 3,500 year old Babylonian clay tablet, left in the museum’s dark vaults and forgotten since its acquisition in the 1800s, had been incorrectly deciphered. The ever-inquisitive Finkel resurrected the table and discovered a faint drawing that had been overlooked. He’s certain it’s the drawing of a ghost, only discernible at an angle when viewed from above and under light.
- He describes the drawing as a lonely bearded spirit being led into the afterlife and eternal bliss by a lover. “It’s obviously a male ghost and he’s miserable. You can imagine a tall, thin, bearded ghost hanging around the house did get on people’s nerves. The final analysis was that what this ghost needed was a lover.” Finkel explained it’s part of an exorcist’s guide to getting rid of unwanted ghosts by addressing the particular malaise that brought them back to the world of the living — in this case, needing a companion. He’s shown walking with his arms outstretched and his wrists tied with rope held by a female, while an accompanying text details a ritual that would dispatch them happily to the underworld.
- The text has extensive instructions for dealing with a ghost that “seizes hold of a person and pursues him and cannot be loosed.” There’s a warning at the end: “Do Not Look Behind You.” Finkel thinks the tablet, small enough to fit in one hand, was part of a library of magic in the house of an exorcist or in a temple. He calls it an “absolutely spectacular object from antiquity” that brings us closer to our ancestors. “All the weaknesses and characteristics that make the human race so fascinating, assuredly were there in spades 3,500 years ago.” The ghost joins us just in time for Halloween, and Finkel features the discovery in his upcoming book: The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies. Considering supply chain issues, best reserve your copy now. (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- New Findings Suggest Venus Never Had Oceans, Conditions Needed for Life (SciTechDaily)
- How the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Helped Make Your Smartphone’s Screen Possible (WSJ)
- Revealed: more than 120,000 US sites feared to handle harmful PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals (Guardian)
- Despite a Punishing Drought, San Diego Has Water. It Wasn’t Easy. (NYT, $)
- How a Stunning Lagoon in Spain Turned Into ‘Green Soup’ (NYT, $)
- Very Little Is Keeping Doctors From Using Racist Health Formulas (Wired)
- Elizabeth Diller Is Retelling Edmund DeWaal’s Story — and Her Own (NYT, $)