Walking Into The Alliance Den
June 27, 2022
Some Good News
- New Colombian president pledges to protect rainforest (AP)
- Mass same-sex wedding in Mexico challenges discrimination (ABC)
“You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.” – Hillary Clinton
A Step Backwards
All mammals reproduce through the process wherein a sperm fertilizes an egg. Humans can become pregnant and bear children from puberty to menopause – the average woman’s reproductive years are between ages 12 and 51. In 2020 America, there were over 64.5 million women just between the ages of 15 and 44. The latest Pew Research poll shows a 61% majority of all U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But arguably, for many on the so-called “pro-life” side of the abortion debate, humans are no different from other mammals – they believe life begins at fertilization, and a woman has no more say over whether she must internally “incubate” a fertilized egg than a rabbit would.
On Friday, five individuals on America’s highest court made a unilateral decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and its half-century-old constitutional guarantee to safe and legal abortion. 26 states are certain to now outright ban the procedure; 13 of those have laws that automatically took effect. Roe’s reversal was widely celebrated by anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates, but multitudes of others took to the streets to protest now that millions will be forced to carry that fertilized egg for nine months – no matter how it became planted inside their bodies, or what severe health, financial, and emotional consequences it could have, especially for people in marginalized communities.
On Sunday, Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said SCOTUS has “burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had.” In an exclusive interview on ABC, Warren said: “They just took the last of [their legitimacy] and set a torch to it.” To revive confidence in the court and unblock the conservative super-majority, she said the number of justices needs to be increased. Warren said she was also “deeply concerned” about Justice Clarence Thomas’ additional statements calling for SCOTUS to reject its past rulings on contraception and gay marriage. Warren urged people to vote “like a laser on the election in November” for lawmakers who will codify Roe. “We [need to] get two more senators on the Democratic side … willing to protect access to abortion and get rid of the filibuster so that we can pass it.” (Healthline, March of Dimes, Pew Research, Guttmacher Institute, ABC News)
The Heat Is On
- Heat records have hit on every continent in the Northern Hemisphere in this blistering hot month of June. The latest country to swelter is Japan, where on Saturday the mercury soared to 104.4 degrees (40.2 Celsius) in Isesaki, a city of more than 200,000 people about 50 miles northwest of Tokyo. It marked Japan’s hottest temperature ever recorded during the month of June and is another clear sign of the sweeping effects of human-caused climate change.
- Alaska also set a new record for the number of acres being burned in June. The abnormally warm and dry weather – intensified by human-caused climate change – helped ignite more than 300 wildfires in recent weeks that have already burned over a million acres, forcing Indigenous people from their homes, compromising air quality, and stretching firefighting resources thin. More than 100 fires are still burning, including the East Fork Fire, which has charred over 165,000 acres and now ranks as the state’s fifth-largest tundra fire on record. (WaPo, $)
Walking Into The Alliance Den
- Spain is hosting the NATO summit taking place in Madrid Tuesday through Thursday this week. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sure to dominate the talks, but the host country and other member nations are also pushing the Western alliance to consider how China’s expansion and mercenaries aligned with Russia are spreading both Beijing and Moscow’s influence to African countries to the south of Spain.
- NATO’s most important working document after the 1949 treaty itself is the Strategic Concept, a security assessment updated roughly every decade to reset the West’s security agenda. The last version approved in Lisbon in 2010 stated the risk of a conventional war on NATO territory was “low.”
- Now in 2022, the view looks very different from alliance headquarters in Brussels. As Russia brought their war close to NATO’s eastern borders, the alliance has worked to provide Ukraine with more powerful weapons and to avoid the very real risk of getting involved in the fighting. But Spain and other member nations like Britain, France, and Italy agree that the alliance must continue widening its global view, with a particular focus “to the South.” (AP News)
Additional World News
- Shireen Abu Aqleh killed by ‘seemingly well-aimed’ Israeli bullet, UN says (Guardian)
- Children as young as 13 among 22 killed in South African tavern incident (CNN)
- Norway mass shooting leaves 2 dead, several injured prior LGBTQ Pride parade (NBC)
- At least 18 migrants die in surge to cross Moroccan border fence into Spain’s Melilla (NPR)
- Taliban call for unfreezing of bank funds after deadly earthquake (Al Jazeera)
- US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom form Pacific group (Reuters)
- Russia to supply nuclear-capable missiles to Belarus (CNN)
A Monumental Moment
- Shortly after SCOTUS announced it was overturning Roe v. Wade, another momentous occasion was marked by a crowd gathered outside Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. Ground was being broken for what is the future Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, the first LGBTQ+ visitor center in the U.S. park system.
- The Center will be located next to the Stonewall Inn, and serve to celebrate and advance the legacy of the uprising in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 – riots that became what we know today as LGBTQ+ Pride. Back then, police were accustomed to harassing patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a New York City gay bar.
- But that night when police conducted a raid, instead of accepting the harassment, patrons decided to fight back. Transgender, gay, lesbian, and other members of the queer community, especially people of color, stood together against police violence in a protest that lasted for days. The Stonewall riot set the precedent and marked the beginning of the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights. (Vogue, History)
Arson In Colorado
- Life Choices website says it is a “Christ-centered ministry” that offers free services related to pregnancy and sexual health, information on reversing the effects of abortion pills, and post-abortion support for shame, guilt, anxiety, and depression. In Saturday’s early morning hours, the day after SCOTUS announced it was overturning Roe v. Wade, the Christian pregnancy center in Longmont, Colorado was set on fire.
- Life Choices’ building suffered heavy burns and smoke damage. Its front door had been broken and the front of the building spray-painted with the words “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you.” Written on the concrete porch was “bans off our bodies.” Police are investigating the incident as arson; they’re asking people living in the area to check their home surveillance video and forward any relevant video to police. (AP News)
Additional USA News
- Decades Ago, Alito Laid Out Methodical Strategy to Eventually Overrule Roe (NYT, $)
- Army Guard troops risk dismissal as vaccine deadline looms (AP)
- Stormclouds at home dampen Biden’s return to Europe (Politico)
- GOP lawmaker calls Roe ruling ‘victory for white life’ as Trump rally cheers (WaPo, $)
- Guns in paradise: Ruling could undo strict Hawaii carry law (AP)
- Mandatory evacuation orders for Union Fire in Jurupa Valley upgraded to warning (CBS)
- Iran and US ready to restart talks on nuclear deal (Guardian)
Not-So-Happy Hour
- In Japanese workplaces, “nomikai” is common. They’re after-work drinking parties used to foster close employee relationships. Even after a night of drinking, workers are still expected to show up the next morning. They’re also expected not to lose vital, sensitive work products.
- One Japanese man in Amagasaki, a small industrial city in the Hyogo prefecture, must not have read the nomikai small print. He works for Biprogy Inc., and last Tuesday, he transferred the personal data of every one of the 460,000 residents of Amagasaki – including addresses, bank account details, and which households receive public assistance – to a USB drive. He then put the drive in a bag and went out to dinner with three of his colleagues.
- Yuji Takeuchi, president of the company’s Kansai branch, gave details of what happened next at a news conference on Friday. Takeuchi said the man “was in possession of his bag when he left the restaurant,” but then he “fell asleep on the street.” He woke up at 3 a.m. and went home before calling work six hours later to inform them he was taking the day off. But he neglected to mention he’d lost his bag with the USB in it. That afternoon, the man reported the missing drive to his manager. Amazingly, the man lucked out and was able to retrieve his bag with the help of his cellphone company. However, it’s unclear if he was lucky enough to keep his job at Biprogy Inc. (NBC News)
Additional Reads
- NASA to Launch Capstone, a 55-Pound CubeSat to the Moon (NYT, $)
- Legal clashes await US companies covering workers’ abortion costs (Reuters)
- Amazon’s Alexa could soon mimic voice of dead relatives (AP)
- PM Hasina opens Bangladesh’s longest bridge over River Padma (Al Jazeera)
- World’s biggest bacterium found in Caribbean mangrove swamp (AP)
- The world’s top liveable cities are in Europe — but one North American country scores big (CNN)