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Tag: demographic groups

  • Silicon Valley Bank collapse renews calls to address disparities impacting entrepreneurs of color | CNN Business

    Silicon Valley Bank collapse renews calls to address disparities impacting entrepreneurs of color | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    When customers at Silicon Valley Bank rushed to withdraw billions of dollars last month, venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton stepped in to help some of the founders of color who panicked about losing access to payroll funds.

    As a Black woman with nearly 10 years of business experience, Hamilton knew the options for those startup founders were limited.

    SVB had a reputation for servicing people from underrepresented communities like hers. Its failure has reignited concerns from industry experts about lending discrimination in the banking industry and the resulting disparities in capital for people of color.

    Hamilton, the 43-year-old founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, said that when it comes to entrepreneurs of color, “we’re already in the smaller house. We already have the rickety door and the thinner walls. And so, when a tornado comes by, we’re going to get hit harder.”

    Established in 1983, the midsize California tech lender was America’s 16th largest bank at the end of 2022 before it collapsed on March 10. SVB provided banking services to nearly half of all venture-backed technology and life-sciences companies in the United States.

    Hamilton, industry experts and other investors told CNN the bank was committed to fostering a community of minority entrepreneurs and provided them with both social and financial capital.

    SVB regularly sponsored conferences and networking events for minority entrepreneurs, said Hamilton, and it was well known for funding the annual State of Black Venture Report spearheaded by BLK VC, a nonprofit organization that connects and empowers Black investors.

    “When other banks were saying no, SVB would say yes,” said Joynicole Martinez, a 25-year entrepreneur and chief advancement and innovation officer for Rising Tide Capital, a nonprofit organization founded in 2004 to connect entrepreneurs with investors and mentors.

    Martinez is also an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council, an invitation-only organization for business and career coaches. She said SVB was an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs of color and offered their clients discounted tech tools and research funding.

    Minority business owners have long faced challenges accessing capital due to discriminatory lending practices, experts say. Data from the Small Business Credit Survey, a collaboration of all 12 Federal Reserve banks, shows disparities on denial rates for bank and nonbank loans.

    In 2021, about 16% of Black-led companies acquired the total amount of business financing they sought from banks, compared to 35% of White-owned companies, the survey shows.

    “We know there’s historic, systemic, and just blatant racism that’s inherent in lending and banking. We have to start there and not tip-toe around it,” Martinez told CNN.

    Asya Bradley is an immigrant founder of multiple tech companies like Kinley, a financial services business aiming to help Black Americans build generational wealth. Following SVB’s collapse, Bradley said she joined a WhatsApp group of more than 1,000 immigrant business founders. Members of the group quickly mobilized to support one another, she said.

    Immigrant founders often don’t have Social Security numbers nor permanent addresses in the United States, Bradley said, and it was crucial to brainstorm different ways to find funding in a system that doesn’t recognize them.

    “The community was really special because a lot of these folks then were sharing different things that they had done to achieve success in terms of getting accounts in different places. They also were able to share different regional banks that have stood up and been like, ‘Hey, if you have accounts at SVB, we can help you guys,’” Bradley said.

    Many women, people of color and immigrants opt for community or regional banks like SVB, Bradley says, because they are often rejected from the “top four banks” — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank.

    In her case, Bradley said her gender might have been an issue when she could only open a business account at one of the “top four banks” when her brother co-signed for her.

    “The top four don’t want our business. The top four are rejecting us consistently. The top four do not give us the service that we deserve. And that’s why we’ve gone to community banks and regional banks such as SVB,” Bradley said.

    None of the top four banks provided a comment to CNN. The Financial Services Forum, an organization representing the eight largest financial institutions in the United States has said the banks have committed millions of dollars since 2020 to address economic and racial inequality.

    Last week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNN’s Poppy Harlow that his bank has 30% of its branches in lower-income neighborhoods as part of a $30 billion commitment to Black and Brown communities across the country.

    Wells Fargo specifically pointed to its 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion report, which discusses the bank’s recent initiatives to reach underserved communities.

    The bank partnered last year with the Black Economic Alliance to initiate the Black Entrepreneur Fund — a $50 million seed, startup, and early-stage capital fund for businesses founded or led by Black and African American entrepreneurs. And since May 2021, Wells Fargo has invested in 13 Minority Depository Institutions, fulfilling its $50 million pledge to support Black-owned banks.

    Black-owned banks work to close the lending gap and foster economic empowerment in these traditionally excluded communities, but their numbers have been dwindling over the years, and they have far fewer assets at their disposal than the top banks.

    OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the United States, manages a little over $650 million in assets. By comparison, JPMorgan Chase manages $3.7 trillion in assets.

    Because of these disparities, entrepreneurs also seek funding from venture capitalists. In the early 2010s, Hamilton intended to start her own tech company — but as she searched for investors, she saw that White men control nearly all venture capital dollars. That experience led her to establish Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in new companies led by underrepresented founders.

    “I said, ‘Well, instead of trying to raise money for one company, let me try to raise for a venture fund that will invest in underrepresented — and now we call them underestimated — founders who are women, people of color, and LGBTQ specifically,’ because I am all three,” Hamilton told CNN.

    Since then, Backstage Capital has amassed a portfolio of nearly 150 different companies and has made over 120 diversity investments, according to data from Crunchbase.

    But Bradley, who is also an ‘angel investor’ of minority-owned businesses, said she remains “really hopeful” that community banks, regional banks and fintechs “will all stand up and say, ‘Hey, we are not going to let the good work of SVB go to waste.’”

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  • Colombian women’s rights activist attacked with acid | CNN

    Colombian women’s rights activist attacked with acid | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Colombian police are investigating an acid attack perpetrated against a human rights activist, Lilia Patricia Cardozo, in the country’s northwestern Boyaca region, according to the city’s council.

    Cardozo is the director of a womens’ rights NGO called Plataforma Feminista Boyacense (Boyacense Feminist Platform), which works to end domestic abuse, gender violence and discrimination, including rescuing victims from the hands of abusers.

    On Monday, an unknown attacker threw a chemical substance at Cardozo while she was walking in a park. Cardozo, who is still under medical observation, suffered injuries in the left part of her face, the spokesperson for the NGO wrote on Facebook.

    The San Rafael de Tunja University Hospital said the chemical substance thrown at Cardozo affected 4% of her body, including her face, and her chest.

    Cardozo has been a target of death threats since 2022, which led the country’s National Protection Unit to approve a safety protocol to protect her last September.

    But the Boyacense Feminist Platform has accused Tunja’s local authorities of leaving Cardozo exposed by activating the safety protocol too slowly.

    Tunja’s Mayor, Alejandro Funeme, said the protocol was implemented late on February 14, due to the lack of funds.

    Local police are investigating the incident and working to identify the attacker, who faces a charges of femicide.

    Women and human rights defenders are particularly at risk in Colombia. In 2022, 614 cases of femicide were reported, according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office.

    Since 2016, more than 500 human rights activists have been killed in the country, making it one of the deadliest countries for human rights defenders worldwide, according to Human Rights Watch.

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  • UN tells Afghan staff to stay home after Taliban bans women from working with the organization | CNN

    UN tells Afghan staff to stay home after Taliban bans women from working with the organization | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The United Nations has instructed all of its personnel in Afghanistan to stay away from its offices in the country, after the Taliban banned Afghan women from working with the organization.

    “UN national personnel – women and men – have been instructed not to report to UN offices, with only limited and calibrated exceptions made for critical tasks,” the organization said in a statement.

    It comes after Afghan men working for the UN in Kabul stayed home last week in solidarity with their female colleagues.

    The UN said the Taliban’s move was an extension of a previous ban, enforced last December, that prohibited Afghan women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations.

    The organization said the ban is “the latest in a series of discriminatory measures implemented by the Taliban de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan.”

    It will continue to “assess the scope, parameters and consequences of the ban, and pause activities where impeded,” the statement said, adding that the “matter will be under constant review.”

    Several female UN staff in the country had already experienced restrictions on their movements since the Taliban seized power in 2021, including harassment and detention.

    Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Special Representative, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, called the Taliban’s decision an “unparalleled violation of human rights” last week.

    “The lives of Afghanistan women are at stake,” he said, adding, “It is not possible to reach women without women.”

    The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, is engaging with the Taliban at the highest level to “seek an immediate reversal of the order,” the UN said last week.

    “In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization just because they are women. This decision represents an assault against women, the fundamental principles of the UN, and on international law,” Otunbayeva said.

    Other figures within the organization also condemned the move, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling it “utterly despicable.”

    After the Taliban banned female aid workers in December, at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups temporarily suspended their operations in Afghanistan – diminishing the already scarce resources available to a country in dire need of them.

    The Taliban’s return to power preceded a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsening issues that had long plagued the country. After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding – crippling an economy heavily dependent on overseas aid.

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  • Man accused of stabbing imam at New Jersey mosque pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge | CNN

    Man accused of stabbing imam at New Jersey mosque pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The 32-year-old man accused of stabbing an imam at a mosque Sunday in New Jersey pleaded not guilty to an attempted murder charge in court Monday afternoon.

    Serif Zorba was arrested for allegedly stabbing Imam Sayed Elnakib of the Omar Mosque in Paterson. Elnakib, who is in stable condition, was stabbed during the first prayer of the day around 5:30 a.m. while the congregation was kneeling, mosque spokesperson Abdul Hamdan told CNN.

    Surveillance video of the incident shows a group of worshippers at the mosque positioned in five long rows. As they knelt down in prayer, a person wearing a hoodie in the third row moved to the front of the room, stepping over other worshippers, and then thrust his right hand into the back of the kneeling imam, the video shows.

    The congregation then rose together, and the assailant tried to push through the crowd and flee out of the back of the mosque, the video shows.

    Zorba was charged with first-degree attempted murder, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, according to a news release from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

    Zorba, a native of Istanbul, also pleaded not guilty to the unlawful weapon possession charges. His plea was entered Monday by a public defender on Zorba’s behalf.

    The suspect appeared in court before Paterson Municipal Court Judge Vincenzo Stampone wearing an orange jumpsuit, with his long hair mostly covering his face. Zorba communicated with court officials through a Turkish translator.

    When Stampone asked Zorba about his current address, Zorba indicated that he lived in Paterson but did not offer a proper address.

    Zorba is being held on pretrial detention. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

    The prosecutor’s office said they could not provide any further details on Zorba’s possible motive, citing the ongoing investigation.

    The maximum sentence for his alleged crimes is around 26 years, according to the release.

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  • Opinion: The way to respect starts with raising your voice | CNN

    Opinion: The way to respect starts with raising your voice | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Roxanne Jones, a founding editor of ESPN The Magazine and former vice president at ESPN, has been a producer, reporter and editor at the New York Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Jones is co-author of “Say it Loud: An Illustrated History of the Black Athlete.” She talks politics, sports and culture weekly on Philadelphia’s 900AM WURD. The views expressed here are solely hers. Read more opinion on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    “Use your voice.” That’s what Mom always said to do when I was confronted by an injustice or a bully, as was often the case for me growing up.

    No easy lesson, especially for a scrapper like me who was used to righting all my worldly wrongs with my fists.

    But then, you grow older, the bullies get bigger, and more stealthy at systemically devaluing your humanity. You discover that the injustices are entrenched in society — whether they come from teachers, coaches, the police or a political system that exploits communities like yours.

    You get two choices: Give up and stay angry at the world or find the power in your voice to fight for what’s right.

    That lesson played out last week as two big news stories unfolded, both involving voices confronting power and the question of race in America.

    In Tennessee last week, three Democratic lawmakers used the power of their voices to protest for gun reforms after a shooting at a Nashville Christian school left six dead — three 9-year-olds and three adults. Citing rules against breaking House decorum, the legislators of the majority-Republican body shockingly voted to expel only the two Black politicians — Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, both in their 20s. The third lawmaker, Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a 60-year-old White woman, was not expelled.

    These are democratically elected voices who dared to challenge the status quo and were immediately shut down by the most draconian of measures. Two were kicked out of the legislature, one saved by only one vote.

    Asked after the vote why she was not expelled, Johnson called it like she — and many others — saw it:

    “It might have to do with the color of my skin,” she said.

    Jones and Pearson have both vowed to continue to lift their voices against gun violence and lead the fight for swift action on substantive gun reform in their state. And Johnson, for her part, is asking for the community to stand by Jones and help to get him back in the House.

    Then of course, there was the dust-up between 20-year-old LSU women’s basketball champion Angel Reese and first lady Jill Biden about a White House visit.

    Reese initially had refused to visit the White House — a 150-year-old tradition that began with President Andrew Johnson — after she (and many others) felt insulted by the suggestion from the first lady (who attended the final in person) to invite the losing team, Iowa, as well “because they played such a good game.”

    Reese spoke up for her own dignity and sparked a necessary conversation about the pervasive racial bias in both politics and sports media. The LSU star quickly found herself in the middle of a media storm about race in sports: LSU is a majority-Black squad. Iowa, which lost the championship, is a largely White team led by basketball phenom Clark.

    After LSU defeated Iowa, controversy erupted over how Clark and Reese — both athletes at the top of their game who bring the swagger and trash talk to the court — earned very different treatment from media and fans. The idea floated by Biden — to invite the losing team too — was rightly interpreted in most corners of the sports universe, and by many Black women across the country as a staggering insult to the joy of victory LSU, led by Reese, had duly earned.

    Even after the first lady’s press secretary attempted to clarify that only LSU would be invited, Reese held her ground, telling two podcast hosts, “I don’t accept the apology because you said what you said. … You can’t go back on certain things that you say. … They can have that spotlight. We’ll go to the Obamas. We’ll go see Michelle. We’ll see Barack.”

    Not surprisingly, Reese, who never had her school’s support for her plan to skip out on the White House visit, was on ESPN on Friday morning using her powerful voice this time to de-escalate the White House controversy.

    Reese, dubbed the “Bayou Barbie,” was uncharacteristically somber as she announced her about-face on the visit.

    “I’m a team player,” Reese said. “I’m going to do what’s best for the team, and I’m the captain. I know the team would love it.”

    Reese’s reasons for wanting to skip out on the White House visit resonated with many in the Black community, who also felt Biden’s idea was disrespectful to Reese. However, her critics were also vocal, and at times toxic. They objected loudly to her tone with the first lady.

    So, no doubt many people believe that Reese’s gesture of concession for her team was the right move. But that shouldn’t be the end of the story.

    That’s because nothing about what prompted Reese to speak out has been addressed. She tried to speak an authentic truth about how she and her teammates were treated, a truth that resonated with so many Black women whose feelings, experiences and priorities have been marginalized again and again.

    And typically, those with power do what they do best — ignored her voice and her concerns. What matters is why Reese recoiled at the suggestion to include the runners-up. What matters is why she instead wanted to go to what she perceived to be a safer space and visit the Obamas.

    Addressing her concerns would have meant acknowledging and validating her truth and engaging in a dialogue with a specific demographic, young Black women, about what matters to them.

    My mother’s advice is a difficult path to follow, no matter your age. As the expelled representatives Jones and Pearson found last week, along with Reese, speaking truth to power often comes at a high price, especially if you are Black. How many times will we as a nation accept the status quo when those in power try to silence young voices, specifically Black or brown Americans who try to practice my mother’s sage advice and use their voice?

    Too many Americans are hard-pressed, for instance, to see how their lives have improved when Democrats hold political power in this country. They are frustrated by the lack of progress they see on issues ranging from voting rights and police reform to school safety, gun reform, even the much talked about slavery reparations President Joe Biden spoke about while campaigning.

    Pearson and Jones are continuing to speak. And no matter how Reese plays it — whether she visits the White House or not — she’s already won just by raising her voice to demand the respect she deserves.

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  • America funded nationwide child care during WWII. Here’s how Biden is trying to revive that effort | CNN Politics

    America funded nationwide child care during WWII. Here’s how Biden is trying to revive that effort | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    During World War II, the federal government spent more than $1 billion in today’s dollars to help provide affordable child care for mothers who entered the workforce in droves to support the war effort.

    Child care centers in more than 635 communities across the country received funds. Many stayed open late and on weekends to match workers’ factory schedules.

    The World War II-era child care program was the first and only federally administered child care for all families, regardless of their income – a qualifying factor for many of today’s federal child care subsidies.

    But the federal funding abruptly expired when the war ended, and now, roughly 80 years later, many American families struggle to find affordable, high-quality child care that meets their needs. The private market simply does not provide adequate child care options.

    President Joe Biden, who could not get his universal pre-K proposal through Congress, is now taking a different, more limited approach. He’s requiring companies applying for certain federal grants meant to boost domestic manufacturing of semiconductor chips to also have a plan to provide access to affordable child care for their workers.

    The policy is designed to make sure workers as well as companies benefit from this federal investment, said Betsey Stevenson, a professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan who previously served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama.

    “Another way to think about it is that we really need government involved in child care,” she said.

    As men went overseas to fight in World War II and the federal government’s “Rosie the Riveter” campaign encouraged women to join the workforce, it became clear that child care was sorely needed.

    The money came from the National Defense Housing Act of 1940, more widely known as the Lanham Act, which was meant to fund infrastructure projects deemed critical to the war effort. The Federal Works Agency decided in 1942 that child care services fell in that category.

    The FWA allowed the funds to be used for the construction and maintenance of child care facilities, to train and pay teachers, and to provide meals for communities that were directly involved in the war effort. The child care money was disbursed to centers in nearly every state.

    Parents typically had to chip in, paying less than $1 a day for the child care services.

    “It’s quite remarkable. The country essentially stood up an entire child care program in a matter of months,” said Chris Herbst, an associate professor at Arizona State University who published a study in 2013 on the Lanham Act child care program.

    Herbst found that mothers’ paid work increased substantially following the child care subsidies. He also found that those mothers were more likely to be working 20 years later.

    The program had a long-term impact on the children, too, whom Herbst found to be more likely to achieve higher levels of education and to be employed in the future, and less likely to receive other kinds of government aid throughout their lives.

    Currently, the federal government subsidizes child care for low-income families through programs like the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start programs.

    But many families still struggle to afford child care, and those that can afford it have trouble finding it. After the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a huge blow to the child care sector, the federal government provided funds to help keep child care centers operating. But long-lasting, sweeping reform has repeatedly failed to pass Congress.

    Last year, lawmakers passed the CHIPS and Science Act, which invests more than $200 billion over five years to help the US bring back semiconductor chip manufacturing from places like China. The law is not specifically about child care, but now the Commerce Department is requiring some companies to also provide access to child care in order to be eligible for the money.

    The CHIPS law creates incentives for companies to build, expand and modernize US facilities and equipment and is already spurring private investment. Wolfspeed, a North Carolina semiconductor manufacturer that Biden visited late last month, announced a $5 billion investment to build a facility, expecting to create 1,800 jobs there.

    In February, the Biden administration added the child care provision. Companies seeking certain grants over $150 million must also submit a plan to provide their facility and construction workers with access to affordable, high-quality child care, according to the government’s guidance.

    “The first thing I thought was that this was ‘Lanham Part Two,’” said Kathryn Edwards, an adjunct economist at the RAND Corporation.

    “We want to make sure we have workers for this critical industry, so we are going to have child care,” she said.

    Like the Lanham Act, the child care program is supported by a law primarily focused on industrial policy. But the CHIPS law is putting the onus on the employer to provide the service, rather than deliver funding directly to local child care centers.

    “Here’s the truth: CHIPS won’t be successful unless we expand the labor force. We can’t do that without affordable child care,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo tweeted in February.

    Herbst believes it could be a few years before workers see how the child care requirement plays out and how each employer decides to structure the benefit. They may choose to provide child care on-site or offer employees child care vouchers.

    “The administration has, I think, a commitment to child care. I think the question is whether this is the best way to manifest that commitment,” Herbst said.

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  • Northern Ireland’s ‘peace babies’ say sectarianism lives on, thwarting progress | CNN

    Northern Ireland’s ‘peace babies’ say sectarianism lives on, thwarting progress | CNN

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    Belfast
    CNN
     — 

    Cori Conlon grew up thinking Protestants were “the bad guys.”

    They went to different schools, played different sports, had different flags, and sang different songs. She said she was oblivious to the complexities of Northern Irish politics, but knew only one thing: to stay away from the Protestant children living at the bottom of the street.

    Raised in a predominantly Catholic area in west Belfast, she spoke Irish, sang Irish ballads and attended Irish Catholic school. Her routine was punctuated by “peace walls,” the towering metal barricades built during the conflict that separate communities into Catholic and Protestant. .

    Her views were shaped by the folklore of her family, tales that her “Great Granny Kitty” would tell of the violence between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists, or the British Army, known as the Troubles, that racked daily life for 30 years and left more than 3,600 people dead.

    In 1971, her grandparents provided a safe-haven to neighbors after the British army shot and killed 10 people in their district, a series of incidents known as the Ballymurphy massacre, she said. That and other stories left their mark on her.

    She didn’t meet a Protestant until she was 11.

    Conlon is one of Northern Ireland’s “peace babies,” those born after the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1997, ending decades of violence and raising hopes of a brighter future for the next generation. But 25 years on, young people like Conlon are still exposed to the trauma of the Troubles, as clashes over identity and constitutional issues continue to dictate political discourse.

    The anniversary of the agreement comes as the power-sharing system of government it created, designed to end decades of violence, is failing. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) collapsed the government in protest against the Brexit settlement, which it says drives a wedge between Northern Ireland and Britain. Meanwhile, Sinn Fein, a political party dedicated to Irish reunification, is now the most popular across the island of Ireland.

    Caught in the middle of this constitutional tug of war are young people, whose minds are preoccupied with pressing social issues: a largely segregated education and housing system, poor health care and high levels of poverty. CNN spoke with three “peace babies” living in Belfast, who dream of living in a future free from sectarianism, and say that political discord is stifling their futures.

    “I grew up in a segregated society, in my own community. I went to an Irish primary school and an Irish Catholic secondary school. I thought Protestants were the bad guys – because that’s what you were told – through history, parents and the murals you see in your area,” Conlon, 22, an Irish-language campaigner who works in theater, told CNN.

    But Cori’s perception of Protestants began to change when she joined a cross-community performing arts project, learning to act and sing with young people from the other side of Belfast.

    “If it wasn’t for the Rainbow Factory, I wouldn’t have met a Protestant until I was an adult. Now as an adult, because of the Rainbow Factory, I have a lot of friends from all communities, but still anytime I go to east Belfast my parents are traumatized,” she said. “The older generations have not healed, and that’s why it keeps getting passed on to the younger generation.”

    Like many others in her generation, Conlon emigrated from Northern Ireland, moving away to study drama in England. But unlike the 88% of young people who never return home – she moved back to Belfast.

    Now, she works for YouthAction Northern Ireland, teaching theater to children from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds at the Rainbow Factory, the same performing arts school that she said opened her eyes to the fissures within Northern Ireland’s society. An advocate for better peace and reconciliation, she is adamant that another generation is not condemned to the same fate of sectarianism.

    Joel Keys, a 21-year-old loyalist activist from east Belfast, lives on the other side of the peace walls, where many curbs are still painted in the colors of the British Union Jack flag – red, white and blue – to mark out unionist territory.

    Many of the loyalist murals in the area were painted by his father. One pays homage to the east Belfast Protestant Boys Flute Band, who march through the streets of the city every year on July 12, celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when King William of Orange secured a victory over the deposed Catholic monarch James II – leading to the discrimination of Irish Catholics for centuries. The streets are lined with murals showing men wearing balaclavas pointing guns, with the words: “if you are attacked, defend yourself.”

    “There were no Catholics in my area or school. For most of my life, I thought, we are the good guys – and all of them Catholics were evil, scary and wanted to kill us,” Keys told CNN. “But it’s not that young loyalists are running around with a hatred of Catholics in their hearts.”

    These divisions are reinforced throughout society. Across Northern Ireland, 93% of children go to a school that is segregated by religion, per a UNESCO report from Ulster University in 2021. And more than 90% of social housing estates remain segregated into single identity communities, with that number rising to 94% in Belfast, according to 2016 figures from the Housing Executive.

    Joel Keys:

    In 2021, unionists held rallies and marches to protest the Northern Ireland protocol – recently rebranded as the “Windsor Framework – part of the Brexit deal that saw the United Kingdom leave the European Union, leading to a customs border in the Irish Sea in order to avoid having one across the island of Ireland. Loyalists’ anger boiled over and spilled into the streets. Adults cheered on children as they threw petrol bombs at police. Eight people were arrested for rioting, including Keys.

    The teenage supermarket worker-turned aspiring politician was released from jail after his arrest, and shortly after was invited to appear before the Northern Ireland affairs committee to discuss loyalist anger. He stunned members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, known as Stormont, and faced media backlash, after claiming that sometimes violence is “the only tool you have left.”

    But he has since spoken out against the renewed loyalist violence in his area, saying those who have accused him of supporting it misunderstood him.

    “The Northern Ireland Protocol is interesting because I think loyalism has a point – and I think there’s a legitimate argument to be made that a customs border between Northern Ireland and Britain – similar to the way a border across the island, is wrong. But is it the case that these are the issues that people in my community are discussing? No. If you went out and did a survey and asked people in loyalist areas what is the Protocol – I’d be willing to bet that over half of them wouldn’t be able to tell you – there’s more important issues,” Keys told CNN.

    More than anything, Keys is furious at how the current political impasse has left the people of east Belfast in poverty, adding that leaders of the Democratic Unionist parties need to understand that the new generation want better jobs and education, not the same tired sectarian politics pitting orange (Protestant) against green (Catholic).

    “People in my community, they’re not lazy or stupid – so why are they stuck in the position they’re in? Why are they struggling to find employment? Why are some of them struggling to find a house?” Keys queried. “Because our schools have failed, and our political system is failing. But instead of addressing these problems, people are still in war mode. The Good Friday Agreement may have taken away the bombs and the bullets, but all this means is that we’re now at war with our words instead.”

    In 2012, there were loyalist riots when the number of days that the Union flag flies over Belfast City Hall was limited from 365 days a year to 18 — the minimum required for UK government buildings. Protesters, angered over what they saw as an attack on British culture, threw petrol bombs, bricks and stones at police, burning the offices of political parties that voted for the decision.

    “I remember running down to Belfast city center with my friends to riot. I picked up a bin and threw it. I looked across the street and saw a woman looking at me, an ordinary person going about their day. She was so appalled at what was going on – and I remember thinking, what am I doing?” Andrew Clarke, a 27-year-old Protestant from east Belfast, told CNN.

    Andrew Clarke studies history at Queen's University Belfast.

    Clarke said that his identity at the time was firmly rooted in unionism, born out of his childhood and nurtured in a Protestant state school.

    But at 16, after the 2012 riots he said his view of the issues facing his generation shifted dramatically when he changed schools from a Protestant state school to an integrated college. The move opened his eyes to other, more pressing issues, which he says he feels aren’t represented adequately by politicians today.

    “I was a supporter of LGBT rights and abortion access for women, but the DUP opposed that. Growing up in a loyalist area, I’ve seen how loyalist communities are controlled by unionist politicians who don’t care about them – who use the constitutional question to ignore social issues, where social deprivation is tolerated because politics is seen as green and orange,” Clarke said, adding that he now aligns more with Irish Republicanism.

    “There is a cost-of-living crisis, homelessness crisis and Belfast is the suicide capital of western Europe. There is nothing here for young people – so they flee abroad.”

    In 2022, after the latest round of rioting subsided, the Democratic Unionist Party collapsed the power-sharing deal designed to stop the bloody conflict, in protest over the Northern Ireland protocol. It is the fifth time since the Good Friday Agreement was signed that sectarian politics has left the Northern Irish people without a government.

    Without a body to allocate funding, Youth Action Northern Ireland, which runs the Rainbow Factory, may be forced to close some of their cross-community projects, one less opportunity for Catholic and Protestant children to meet, according to Conlon.

    Northern Ireland has the highest levels of child poverty per head of population in the UK, with 100,000 born into poverty, according to the Joseph Rowntree foundation. And, last week, Northern Ireland’s Department of Education announced that they were scrapping Holiday Hunger, a free school meal program, and a school counseling scheme due to budget cuts.

    “Youth organizations are crying out for government support. There’s funding there that can’t be given out – because there’s no government – and these youth services are going to close. Young people rely on it so much. I honestly can’t even begin to imagine the impact this will have on their lives,” Conlon said.

    “It feels like all these issues are more important than sectarian politics – but it feels like if we don’t address sectarianism – then we can’t deal with these issues.”

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  • ‘I cried when I saw my mom’: Ukrainian children on return to Kyiv after time in Russian hands | CNN

    ‘I cried when I saw my mom’: Ukrainian children on return to Kyiv after time in Russian hands | CNN

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    Kyiv
    CNN
     — 

    A group of 31 Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families months after they were taken from their homes and moved to Russian-occupied territories.

    A CNN team on the ground in Kyiv watched as the last of the children climbed off a bus on Saturday to embrace waiting family members, many unable to hold back the tears as months of separation came to an end.

    “We went to the summer camp for two weeks but we got stuck there for six months,” one of the homecoming teenagers, Bogdan, 13, said as he hugged his mother. “I cried when I saw my mom from the bus. I’m very happy to be back.”

    Bogdan’s mother, Iryna, 51, said she had received very little information about her son in the six months they were apart.

    “There was no phone connection. I was very worried. I didn’t know anything, whether he was being abused, what was happening to him. … My hands are still shaking,” she said.

    The reunions were coordinated by the humanitarian organization Save Ukraine. The group says it has now completed five missions bringing home Ukrainian children it says were forcibly deported by Russia.

    The children – pulling suitcases and bags of belongings, with some clutching stuffed animals – accompanied by family members, had crossed the border by foot a day earlier and were met by volunteers before being put on the bus to the Ukrainian capital.

    “It is thanks to our joint and coordinated work that we once again experience these incredible emotions when, after a long separation, children run across their native land into the arms of their families. When you see tears of joy on the faces of young Ukrainians, you realize that it is not all in vain,” Save Ukraine founder Mykola Kuleba said in a press conference earlier Saturday.

    Kuleba said tragedy had struck during the latest rescue mission: One of the women traveling with the party – a grandmother – passed away during the journey. The woman had been due to pick up two children on the mission, but because of her death, the pair were not permitted to travel back to Ukraine.

    The founder earlier said the mission comprised a group of 13 mothers, who left Ukraine a little over a week ago, many of them granted power of attorney which allowed them to collect other parents’ children in addition to their own.

    The group crossed into Poland before traveling through Belarus, Russia and finally entering Russian-occupied Crimea, where they were reunited with 24 of the children.

    The other seven children were collected in Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod, all inside Russia, she said.

    Allegations of widespread forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia form the basis of war crimes charges brought against Russian President Vladimir Putin and a senior official, Maria Lvova-Belova, by the International Criminal Court last month.

    A report released in February detailed allegations of an expansive network of dozens of camps where kids underwent “political reeducation,” including Russia-centric academic, cultural and, in some cases, military education.

    Ukraine’s head of the Office of the President recently estimated the total number of children forcibly removed from their homes is at least 20,000. Kyiv has said thousands of cases are already under investigation.

    Russia has denied it is doing anything illegal, claiming it is bringing Ukrainian children to safety.

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  • Opinion: Expulsion of the ‘Tennessee Three’ is a chilling echo of Jim Crow | CNN

    Opinion: Expulsion of the ‘Tennessee Three’ is a chilling echo of Jim Crow | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Jemar Tisby, a professor of history at Simmons College of Kentucky, is the author of the books “The Color of Compromise” and “How to Fight Racism.” He writes frequently at JemarTisby.Substack.com. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.



    CNN
     — 

    I teach African American history at Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically Black college (HBCU) in Louisville. This week, we’ve been studying the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim Crow period of US history.

    In the late 19th century, White, Southern Democrats (then the party of White supremacy and segregation) dubbed themselves the “Redeemers,” a group whose goal was to “save” the South from Northern carpetbaggers and newly freed Black people.

    The so-called Redeemers took over state legislatures with the primary goals of disenfranchising Black voters, barring Black people from holding political office, and establishing a politics that would render the White power structure impervious to disruption.

    When Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives voted this week to expel two Black members — Justin Jones and Justin Pearson — they revealed their resemblance to the anti-democratic, authoritarian Redeemers of more than a century ago.

    In 1868, White legislators in Georgia voted to expel the 33 Black men elected to state government.

    Henry McNeal Turner, a well-known leader in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination, was one of the men expelled from his position by the Georgia politicians.

    In remarks during the proceedings, he stated, “[White legislators] question my right to a seat in this body, to represent the people whose legal votes elected me. This objection, sir, is an unheard of monopoly of power. No analogy can be found for it, except it be the case of a man who should go into my house, take possession of my wife and children and then tell me to walk out.”

    Even though the Black lawmakers were soon reinstated, the actions of the White lawmakers in Georgia were just a foretaste of the political machinations to come.

    In 1890, the state of Mississippi called for a new convention to rewrite the state’s constitution. It had already adopted a new and relatively progressive constitution after the Civil War, but with the onset of Redemption, White lawmakers took control of the state government and began dismantling the rights Black people had only recently gained.

    In the newer version of the constitution that was later ratified, White Mississippi lawmakers installed measures to prevent Black people from voting. But because of the Reconstruction amendments to the US Constitution that guaranteed equal protection under the law and the right of Black men to vote, White Redeemers had to find new ways to repress Black people without making laws explicitly about race.

    So they used policies such as the poll tax, which most Black people could not afford to pay. They instituted the “understanding clause” — a selectively applied measure where potential voters had to interpret a passage from the state constitution to the satisfaction of a White registrar.

    The “grandfather clause” stipulated that a person’s grandfather had to be eligible to vote in order for their descendants to exercise the franchise. Of course, this excluded most Black people whose grandparents had been enslaved and thus, ineligible to vote.

    By the early 1900s, nearly all the former Confederate states had followed Mississippi’s example.

    In class, my students listened with stunned incredulity as they learned about the cruel and ruthless politics of the Redeemers. Unfortunately, the historical parallels to present-day events are too obvious to ignore.

    The actions of Republicans in the Tennessee legislature resemble the attempts of White Southern Redeemers to take back the South at the end of the 19th century.

    These new Redeemers are using their power as a tool of intimidation. What other conclusion can be drawn from the inappropriate and disproportionate response to a decorum infraction?

    Expulsion is the most severe consequence the legislature can enact against another member of that body. Since the Civil War, only three other members of the Tennessee state legislature have been expelled — and for much more serious offenses.

    The new Redeemers are not confined to one state, either.

    Attempts to strip local officials in the city of Jackson — where more than 80% of the population is Black — of their authority to monitor the city’s water system, police force and courts are underway in Mississippi.

    In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE Act” into law, which was intended to prevent teachings or mandatory workplace activities that suggest a person is privileged or oppressed based necessarily on their race, color, sex or national origin. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida,” DeSantis said.

    And, of course, the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021 by supporters of former President Donald Trump was the most egregious example of how far right-wing factions are willing to go to subvert the political process.

    The era of Redemption cemented decades of Jim Crow segregation. More than 4,000 “racial terror” lynchings occurred throughout that period, the Equal Justice Initiative has documented.

    Substantial change only came with the onset of the Civil Rights movement. Years of nonviolent direct action protest, constant lobbying in state and political governments and the martyrdom of many activists including Martin Luther King, Jr., finally interrupted traditions of segregation and White supremacy.

    It could be that a similar movement is necessary to disempower the Redeemers of today.

    When all the standard means of change — namely the democratic process itself — have been co-opted and subverted by authoritarians, then the people are only left with protest.

    If the goal of the Tennessee GOP was to intimidate people into acquiescence with their expulsion of Pearson and Jones, their tactic backfired in a spectacular way.

    Far from instilling fear, their expulsions and their stirring words in response have raised them to national prominence.

    Instead of dissuading Tennesseans from their calls for gun control, Republican legislators seem to have energized the people and motivated them to resist even more vigorously.

    With the rise of social media and other digital forms of information sharing, movements can be mobilized in moments.

    Although there were constant attempts throughout the years, it took decades for people to mount the resistance necessary to topple Jim Crow. In today’s environment, action might occur more swiftly.

    Those words, redemption and redeemer, are significant.

    This is Holy Week in the Christian religion. Events such as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday culminate in the observance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. These liturgies commemorate the redemption — Jesus paying the price for humanity’s sin.

    In many Christian traditions, redemption is a sacred theological principle that undergirds the hope of salvation. It is likely that many of the Tennessee Republican lawmakers will attend church this Sunday to celebrate the redemption that Easter heralds.

    Easter provides the perfect opportunity for these lawmakers to ponder the true meaning of redemption and which redeemer they are following.

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  • Iran installs cameras to identify women breaking dress code | CNN

    Iran installs cameras to identify women breaking dress code | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Iranian authorities are to use cameras in public places to identify women who violate the country’s hijab law, state media reported.

    Women in Iran risk arrest for not covering their hair. Many have been defying the mandatory dress code as part of the widespread protests that followed the death of a young woman in custody for allegedly violating hijab rules.

    Authorities, though, show no sign of backing down on the issue.

    “In an innovative measure and in order to prevent tension and conflicts in implementing the hijab law, Iranian police will use smart cameras in public places to identify people who break the norms,” the state-aligned Tasnim news agency quoted police as saying.

    After the women have been identified, they would be sent warning messages which detail the specific time and place they had “violated” the law, according to Tasnim.

    “In the context of preserving values, protecting family privacy and maintaining the mental health and peace of mind of the community, any kind of individual or collective behavior against the law, will not be tolerated,” Tasnim reported.

    A viral video earlier this month showed a man throwing yogurt on two women for not wearing the hijab.

    Both were later arrested for breaking Iran’s dress code.

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  • Japan was already grappling with isolation and loneliness. The pandemic made it worse | CNN

    Japan was already grappling with isolation and loneliness. The pandemic made it worse | CNN

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    Tokyo
    CNN
     — 

    Across Japan, nearly 1.5 million people have withdrawn from society, leading reclusive lives largely confined within the walls of their home, according to a new government survey.

    These are Japan’s hikikomori, or shut-ins, defined by the government as people who have been isolated for at least six months. Some only go out to buy groceries or for occasional activities, while others don’t even leave their bedrooms.

    The phrase was coined as early as the 1980s, and authorities have expressed increasing concern about the issue for the past decade – but Covid-19 has made things worse, according to a survey conducted last November by the government’s Children and Families Agency.

    The nationwide survey found that among 12,249 respondents, roughly 2% of people aged 15 to 64 identified as hikikomori, with a slight increase among those aged 15 to 39. With that percentage applied to Japan’s total population, there are an estimated 1.46 million social recluses in the country, according to a spokesperson from the agency.

    Common reasons cited for social isolation were pregnancy, job loss, illness, retirement and having poor interpersonal relationships – but a top reason was Covid-19, with more than a fifth of respondents citing the pandemic as a significant factor in their reclusive lifestyle.

    No further details were given about the impact of Covid-19 on respondents.

    Japan, like many countries in East Asia, maintained stringent pandemic restrictions well into 2022 even as other places embraced “living with Covid.” It only reopened its borders to overseas visitors last October, ending one of the world’s strictest border controls, more than two years after the pandemic began.

    But the toll of the last few years continues to be deeply felt.

    “Due to Covid-19, opportunities for contact with other people have decreased,” said a separate paper published February in Japan’s National Diet Library.

    It added that the pandemic could have worsened existing social problems like loneliness, isolation and financial hardship, pointing to a rise in reported suicides, and child and domestic abuse.

    Experts have previously told CNN that hikikomori is often thought to stem from psychological issues such as depression and anxiety, though societal factors play a role too, such as Japan’s patriarchal norms and demanding work culture.

    But hikikomori had been around long before the pandemic, tied to Japan’s other looming problem: its population crisis.

    Japan’s population has been in steady decline since its economic boom of the 1980s, with the fertility rate and annual number of births falling to new record lows several years in a row.

    All the while, the elderly population is swelling as people age out of the workforce and into retirement, spelling trouble for an already stagnant economy. Things are so dire the prime minister warned this year that the country was “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions.”

    For families with hikikomori members, this poses a double challenge, dubbed the “8050 problem” – referring to social recluses in their 50s who rely on parents in their 80s.

    Authorities have cited other factors, too, like the rising number of single adults as the appeal of dating and marriage wane, and weakening real-life ties as people move their communities online.

    In 2018, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare established a hikikomori regional support body to help those impacted by the phenomenon.

    “We believe that it is important to restore ties with society while providing detailed support for those who have withdrawn by attending to their individual situations,” said Takumi Nemoto, then-head of the ministry, in 2019.

    He added that local and national authorities had launched various services such as consultations and home visits to those affected by hikikomori, housing support for middle-aged and older people, and other community outreach efforts for “households that have difficulty reporting an SOS on their own.”

    But these efforts were dwarfed by the challenges brought during the pandemic, prompting the government to carry out nationwide surveys on loneliness starting 2021, and to release a more intensive plan of countermeasures in December 2022.

    Some measures include pushing public awareness and suicide prevention campaigns through social media; assigning more school counselors and social workers; and continuing a 24/7 phone consultation service for those with “weak social ties.”

    There are also programs geared toward single-parent households such as meal plans for their children, housing loans, and planning services for those going through divorce.

    Though the pandemic may have caused greater loneliness in society, it may also have simply shed light on long-existing problems that usually go overlooked, said the government in the plan.

    “As the number of single-person households and elderly single-person households is expected to increase in the future, there is concern that the problem of loneliness and isolation will become more serious,” it said.

    “Therefore, even if the spread of Covid-19 is brought under control in the future, it will be necessary for the government to … deal with the problems of loneliness and isolation inherent in Japanese society.”

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  • Maryland AG report into Archdiocese of Baltimore alleges 156 Catholic clergy members and others abused more than 600 children | CNN

    Maryland AG report into Archdiocese of Baltimore alleges 156 Catholic clergy members and others abused more than 600 children | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A report from Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown released Wednesday alleges 156 Catholic clergy members and others abused at least 600 children over the course of more than six decades.

    “From the 1940s through 2002, over a hundred priests and other Archdiocese personnel engaged in horrific and repeated abuse of the most vulnerable children in their communities while Archdiocese leadership looked the other way,” the report reads. “Time and again, members of the Church’s hierarchy resolutely refused to acknowledge allegations of child sexual abuse for as long as possible.”

    The report lists descriptions of graphic sexual and physical abuse allegations: It includes stories of how some alleged abusers provided victims with alcohol and drugs and describes in vivid detail how they coerced and forced victims to perform sexual acts.

    The report’s list of abusers includes clergy members, seminarians, deacons, teachers and other employees of the Archdiocese.

    Forty-three priests who “served in some capacity or resided within the Archdiocese of Baltimore” committed sexual abuse in locations outside Maryland, the report alleged. Of these 43 priests, 40 of them allegedly committed sexual abuse in only one other location, while the other three allegedly committed sexual abuse in two other locations outside Maryland, the report says.

    The investigation began in 2018 and has since received “hundreds of thousands of documents,” including treatment reports, personnel records, transfer reports and policies and procedures.

    The Maryland Attorney General’s Office said more than 300 people contacted the office after it opened an email address and telephone hotline for people to report information about clergy abuse, and investigators interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.

    “Today certainly in Maryland is a day of reckoning and a day of accounting,” Brown said during a news conference Wednesday.

    Brown said he met with survivors and advocates Wednesday morning to hear their stories.

    “While each of those stories is unique, together, they reveal themes and behaviors typical of adults who abuse children, and those who enable that abuse by concealing it,” Brown said. “What was consistent throughout the stories was the absolute authority and power these abusive priests and the church leadership held over survivors, their families and their communities.”

    Most of the abusers listed in the report are dead and no longer subject to prosecution, the attorney general said.

    “While it may be too late for the survivors to see criminal justice served, we hope that exposing the Archdiocese’s transgressions to the fullest extent possible will bring some measure of accountability and perhaps encourage others to come forward,” Brown said.

    Some victims waited to report their claims of abuse until later in life, according to the report. Because Maryland recognizes a statute of limitations defense in civil cases, “victims have no recourse if they are over the age of 38,” the report reads.

    Some victims did not come forward until their parents had died to “spare them the pain of knowing about the abuse,” the report reads, while others never intended to tell but were persuaded to come forward with the help of others. Others repressed their memories and recollections of abuse emerged only many years later, according to the report.

    The Archbishop of Baltimore apologized on behalf of the Archdiocese after allegations of abuse surfaced in the report.

    “To all survivors, I offer my most earnest apology on behalf of the Archdiocese and pledge my continued solidarity and support for your healing. We hear you. We believe you and your courageous voices have made a difference,” Archbishop William E. Lori wrote in a statement Wednesday.

    “The report details a reprehensible time in the history of this Archdiocese,” Lori added, and wrote it “will not be covered up, ignored or forgotten.”

    The Archdiocese began making “radical changes” in the 1990s to “end this scourge,” Lori wrote. Instances of abuse have fallen every year and every decade since cases of abuse peaked during the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote, saying, “The Archdiocese is not the same organization it was.”

    “Make no mistake, however: today’s strong record of protection and transparency does not excuse past failings that have led to the lasting spiritual, psychological and emotional harm victim-survivors have endured,” the Archbishop’s statement reads.

    The Archdiocese of Baltimore has paid $13.2 million to 303 victims of abuse since the 1980s, according to the Archdiocese’s office.

    The payments include money for both counseling and settlements, the Archdiocese’s executive director of communications, Christian Kendzierski, said in an email to CNN.

    The report contains “a full accounting” of abuse in the Archdiocese and “details of repeated tortuous, terrorizing, depraved abuse.” It lists and details 156 abusers “determined to have been the subject of credible allegations of abuse.”

    More than 600 children are known to have been abused by those 156 people, the report reads, but “the number is likely far higher.”

    The report reveals the names of all but 10 of the 156 alleged abusers listed in the report.

    Brown said those 10 names were obtained through the grand jury process and could not be disclosed without permission or a court order.

    “I should emphasize that because they’re redacted today doesn’t mean they will always be redacted,” Brown said.

    The report does not constitute criminal indictment, according to the attorney general.

    The report recommends that Maryland amend the statute of limitations for civil actions involving child sex abuse.

    “Our judicial system should provide a means for victims who have suffered these harms to seek damages from the people and institutions responsible for them,” the report reads.

    Maryland’s Senate passed a bill in March that would repeal the state’s civil statute of limitations in certain civil actions relating to child sexual abuse. The bill is working its way through the House.

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  • Four children killed in ax attack at day care center in southern Brazil | CNN

    Four children killed in ax attack at day care center in southern Brazil | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Four children have been killed and four more injured in an ax attack at a day care center in the southern Brazilian city of Blumenau.

    Those killed – three boys and a girl – were between the ages of 5 and 7, local police say.

    Jorginho Mello, the governor of the state of Santa Catarina, said on Twitter that a male suspect has been arrested.

    A police officer told CNN Brazil that the suspect, age 25, is understood to have jumped over a wall into the playground of the Cantinho Bom Pastor day care center, before attacking the children.

    He fled after teachers came to the children’s defense, and later turned himself into police, according to the official.

    Mello expressed his solidarity with the victims.

    “May God comfort the hearts of all families in this time of deep sorrow,” he said.

    President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also gave his condolences.

    “There is no greater pain than that of a family that loses its children or grandchildren, even more so in an act of violence against innocent and defenseless children,” Lula wrote on Twitter.

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  • The Fed could easily drive Black unemployment much higher than the overall jobless rate | CNN Business

    The Fed could easily drive Black unemployment much higher than the overall jobless rate | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Millions of jobs could be on the chopping block this year, as the Federal Reserve continues its rate-hiking campaign to tame inflation. But the effects of that action likely won’t reverberate evenly across the economy.

    The Fed has seen some success: Inflation has cooled for eighth consecutive months, according to the February Consumer Price Index. The Producer Price Index shows a dramatic drop in wholesale prices in February. And the Fed’s favored inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, has also started to moderate.

    But the job market has proved to be a formidable force, humming steadily in the face of climbing rates meant to slow its growth. After adding more than half a million jobs in January, the US economy then added 311,000 jobs in February, with an unemployment rate of 3.6% — just above a half-century low — according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    However, the jobless rate isn’t expected to be that low for long.

    At its most recent policy-making meeting, the Fed released projections for the year ahead that showed unemployment could jump to 4.5%, representing another 1.5 million job losses, by the end of the year.

    While that’s a small improvement from the central bank’s previous 4.6% jobless rate estimate, economists say it’s possible the unemployment rate could rise above the Fed’s expectations. Moreover, they say that historically disadvantaged groups could be disproportionately affected by the central bank’s stringent monetary policy.

    While some groups often sidelined in the job market have seen benefits from this hot job market — women have seen a faster pace of job gains than men in recent months, for example — others, including Black women and Latino men, have seen slower recoveries in jobless rates since the onset of the Covid pandemic.

    Recession fears gained traction last month when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent markets wobbling, raising concerns about the economy’s ability to handle more stress. Goldman Sachs revised its estimate of the United States entering a recession over the next 12 months to a 35% chance, up from its estimate of a 25% chance before the banking sector turmoil.

    That’s of particular concern to certain demographic groups: Jobless rates for Black and Hispanic Americans often increase by more than those of their White counterparts during recessions, said Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher focusing on demographics and social trends at the Pew Research Center.

    History makes that discrepancy clear.

    A Pew Research Center report comparing two recessions in recent decades shows how Black and Hispanic Americans experience disproportionate effects on their jobless rates during periods of economic downturn. From the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009, during the Great Recession, the unemployment rate rose 6.5 percentage points for Black Americans. The Hispanic unemployment rate climbed 6.3 percentage points. For White workers, it increased 4 percentage points.

    And from the first quarter of 1990 to the first quarter of 1991, the unemployment rate climbed 1.4 percentage points for Black Americans and 2.1 percentage points for Hispanic Americans. The White unemployment rate rose 1.3 percentage points.

    Economists say it’s hard to guess the trajectory of the unemployment rate this year, noting it could very well exceed the Fed’s estimate.

    “There’s just tons of momentum, and once you slow the economy enough to get the unemployment rate moving up, it’s very hard to sort of turn that cruise ship back around,” said Josh Bivens, research director and chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

    As such, the Fed’s tightening efforts could easily drive the Black unemployment rate much higher than the overall jobless rate, said William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist to the AFL-CIO.

    “If the Fed continues to use unemployment as its measure of labor force slack, and thinks they want a 4.5% unemployment rate — to make that happen, the Fed would have to induce net job loss in the labor market,” Spriggs told CNN in an email. “If we go through two months of negative job growth, all bets are off. The Black unemployment rate will easily get to 9% in that scenario.”

    One other likely consequence of growing unemployment is slowing wage growth, Bivens said.

    Like rising unemployment, stunted wage growth tends to hit marginalized groups harder. A 2021 Economic Policy Institute report shows that a 1 percentage point increase in overall unemployment correlates with about 0.5% slower wage growth for White median hourly wages. Wage growth falls by roughly 0.8% for Black median hourly wages.

    “A lot of people have this idea that in a recession, if unemployment rises by a couple of percentage points, as long as you’re not one of those unlucky people to lose the job, you’ve dodged the bullet,” Bivens said. “And that’s not true at all.”

    Still, a robust labor market isn’t a permanent solution to bridging employment disparities, even if the Fed does keep rates lower, says Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution.

    The job market’s recent strength is unsustainable, she said. The US economy needs about 75,000 net job gains a month to keep stable and is currently adding about 350,000 net job gains a month on average, according to Edelberg.

    “[The Fed is] right to be confident that one of the things that’s going to have to happen to get inflation back down to a normal, stable level is to get job growth to a normal, sustainable level,” Edelberg said. “But if the Fed’s actions resulted in a slower labor market, then inflation stayed high — that would be a disaster.”

    The March jobs report from the Department of Labor, due to be released Friday at 8:30 a.m., is expected to show the US economy gained 240,000 positions last month. ADP’s private-sector payroll report, generally seen by investors as a proxy for the trajectory of Friday’s number, fell short of expectations, with just 145,000 jobs added. Economists had expected private hiring would rise by 200,000 positions last month.

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  • Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

    Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during Ramadan prayers early Wednesday, arresting hundreds of Palestinians and sparking retaliatory rocket fire from militants in Gaza.

    Footage shared on social media showed Israeli officers striking screaming people with batons inside the darkened building. Eyewitnesses told CNN that police had smashed doors and windows to enter the mosque and deployed stun grenades and rubber bullets once inside. Video shared by Israeli police show forces holding riot shields up as fireworks were launched back at them, ricocheting off the walls.

    Israeli police said in a statement that its forces entered al-Aqsa after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators (had) barricaded themselves” inside.

    “When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” according to the statement.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem said at least 12 people were injured during clashes in and around the mosque, and at least three of the injured were transferred to hospital, some with injuries from rubber bullets.

    The Red Crescent added that at one point its ambulances were targeted by police and were prevented from reaching the injured.

    The incident drew condemnation from across the Arab and Muslim world. Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli police actions “in the strongest terms,” and called on Israel to immediately remove its forces from the mosque. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the “storming” of the mosque by police, saying it had caused “numerous injuries among worshipers and devotees” and was “in violation of all international laws and customs.”

    Police said they arrested and removed more than 350 people in the mosque, and that one Israeli police officer was wounded in the leg by stones.

    Images shared on social media showed dozens of detained people lying facedown on the floor of the mosque with their legs and arms bound behind their backs, and others with their hands tied being led into a vehicle.

    Al-Aqsa has seen hundreds of thousands of worshipers offer prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year. Jews are set to celebrate Passover on Wednesday evening.

    Over the last two weeks, there have been calls by Jewish extremist groups to slaughter goats at the mosque compound as part of an ancient Passover holiday ritual that is no longer practiced by most Jews. A greater number of Muslim worshipers stayed in the mosque after calls came to prevent those attempts.

    Last week, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli police at the entrance of the compound. Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of 26-year-old Muhammad Al-Osaibi.

    The mosque compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

    The compound reopened for prayers shortly after.

    In a statement Wednesday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the actions of the Israeli police, saying: “What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshipers.”

    “Israel does not want to learn from history, that al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians and for all Arabs and Muslims, and that storming it sparked a revolution against the occupation,” Shtayyeh added.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that nine rockets were fired from Gaza Strip toward Israel after the incident in Jerusalem.

    “Following the previous report regarding the sirens which sounded in Sderot, five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” said the IDF. “Four of them were intercepted by the aerial defense array.”

    The IDF also said four additional rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel but landed in open space.

    “Following the additional sirens that sounded in the surroundings of the Gaza Strip, four rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip that landed in open areas. No interceptors were launched according to protocol,” the IDF added.

    Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, said in a statement that “the current Israeli occupation’s crimes at the al-Aqsa mosque are unprecedented violations that will not pass.”

    Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck weapons manufacturing and storage sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas.

    “This strike was carried out in response to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory earlier,” it said in a statement.

    Last year was the deadliest for both Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and for Israelis in nearly two decades, CNN analysis of official statistics on both sides showed.

    And this year has seen a violent beginning, too. At least 90 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics. In addition to suspected militants being targeted by Israeli forces, the dead include Palestinians killing, wounding or attempting to kill Israeli civilians, people clashing with Israeli security and bystanders, CNN records show.

    In the same period, at least 15 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, CNN records show – 14 civilians and a police officer who was hit by friendly fire after being stabbed by a Palestinian teenager while inspecting bus passengers.

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  • Iranian women arrested for not wearing hijab after yogurt thrown on them | CNN

    Iranian women arrested for not wearing hijab after yogurt thrown on them | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two women in Iran were arrested after a man threw yogurt on them for not wearing the hijab at a store in the northeastern city of Shandiz, according to a video and report published by the Mizan News Agency, the state-run media for Iran’s judiciary.

    Video of Thursday’s incident shows a man approaching one of the women who is unveiled and speaking to her before proceeding to grab a tub of yogurt from the store and throwing it, hitting both women in the head.

    Iranian women risk arrest for not covering their hair. Many have been defying the mandatory dress code as part of protests that followed the death of a young woman in custody who allegedly violated hijab rules.

    The video appears to show a male staff member removing the suspect from the store. CNN is not able to verify what was said immediately before the confrontation.

    The two women were arrested after being issued an arrest warrant for failing to wear the hijab in public, according to Mizan News Agency. The incident is under investigation, and the male suspect has been arrested for a disturbance of order, Iranian officials said.

    On Saturday the Iranian authorities repeated their stance that wearing the hijab was compulsory,

    “The important matter is that today we have a legal mandate,” said Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, according to Reuters. “The legal mandate makes it mandatory for everyone to follow the law.”

    “If there are people who say that they do not share this belief of ours (the mandatory hijab), then this is a place for scientific and cultural centers as well as schools to discuss this and convince them,” Raisi added.

    Iran’s Ministry of Interior said that the “hijab is an unquestionable religious necessity,” according to a tweet from the agency on Saturday.

    Iranians have taken to the streets nationwide in protest for several months against Iran’s mandatory hijab law, and political and social issues across the country, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September.

    Women have burned their headscarves and cut their hair, with some schoolgirls removing their headscarves in classrooms.

    Those arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations have faced various forms of abuse and torture, including electric shocks, controlled drowning, rape and mock executions.

    School students who protested faced being detained and taken to mental health institutions.

    Some protestors have even been sentenced to death and executed.

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  • Fetterman to return to Senate week of April 17 | CNN Politics

    Fetterman to return to Senate week of April 17 | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Sen. John Fetterman, who checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last month for treatment for clinical depression, will return to the Senate during the week of April 17, according to a person familiar with his plans.

    The Pennsylvania Democrat has made progress throughout his treatment, the source said, adding that his stay has been this long because doctors have tried to ensure his medication was effective.

    Fetterman is one of three senators who have been sidelined for months due to injuries and ailments. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, who suffered a concussion and broken rib after falling earlier this month, is expected to return to the Senate in mid-April as well, while Sen. Dianne Feinstein, an 89-year-old California Democrat, has been recovering from home this month after being hospitalized for shingles. It is not yet known when Feinstein will return.

    Fetterman, the 53-year-old freshman who helped cement Democrats’ 51-49 Senate majority last fall, suffered a stroke last year during the days ahead of the primary. And when he returned to the campaign trail, Fetterman often struggled to communicate with lingering auditory processing issues, relying on assistance through devices with closed captioning in order to properly have conversations and answer questions.

    The same auditory processing issues impacted him in his early days in the Senate. And when he struggled with substantial weight loss and a loss of appetite in recent weeks, he was diagnosed with clinical depression, later checking himself into Walter Reed for treatment.

    Politico first reported Fetterman’s plans to return to the Senate April 17.

    CNN earlier reported that Fetterman was expected to soon leave the hospital due to progress with his treatment.

    The source, who has spent ample time with Fetterman since he checked in on February 16, said the senator’s physician recently informed him that he will be “as good or better than his best days post-stroke,” referring to the near-fatal stroke he suffered last May.

    “He’s doing extremely well,” the source said.

    Fetterman’s stay at Walter Reed has lasted this long because the doctors have been trying to get his “medication balance exactly right,” the source said. For instance, doctors learned that his blood pressure medication was too high, which they believed contributed to his dizziness when he checked into George Washington University Hospital last month. A few days after that hospital visit, Fetterman was diagnosed with clinical depression, an illness many stroke survivors have struggled with.

    The goal, the source said, has been to take full advantage of his care at Walter Reed to help with other major impacts from his stroke. For instance, neuropsychiatric doctors have helped with the auditory processing issues he’s struggled with in the aftermath of the stroke.

    While Fetterman hasn’t left Walter Reed since checking himself in, he hasn’t been confined to his room. There are trails, restaurants like Wendy’s and other parts of the facility that he spends time in, the source said.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Children and teens are more likely to die by guns than anything else | CNN

    Children and teens are more likely to die by guns than anything else | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020.

    Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States. In no other comparable country are firearms within the top four causes of mortality among children, according to a KFF analysis.

    The shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday, marks the 16th shooting this year in grades K-12 and the deadliest since the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last year, according to a CNN analysis of school shooting data. Six people — three children and three adults — were killed.

    There have been 130 mass shootings so far in 2023, the highest number of shootings recorded at this point in any year since at least 2013, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive.

    Child and teen mortality overall surged during the Covid-19 pandemic — driven not by Covid-19 deaths but by fatal injuries, according to a new study in JAMA. Firearms accounted for nearly half of the increase in mortality in 2020.

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  • Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits | CNN

    Ghana’s president softens country’s stance on draconian anti-LGBTQ bill as Kamala Harris visits | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that “substantial elements” of a draconian anti-LGBTQ bill being considered by its parliament “have been modified” after an intervention by his government.

    Akufo-Addo made the disclosure Monday at a joint press conference with US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who’s on a tour of the West African country.

    He pointed out that the proposed legislation, framed in the guise of “family values” – which seeks to introduce some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws on the African continent – was not legislation introduced by his government but a private members’ bill. The bill was first introduced in parliament in August 2021.

    “The bill is going through the parliament. The attorney general has found it necessary to speak to the committee (the constitutional and legal committee of parliament) about it regarding the constitutionality … of several of its provisions. The parliament is dealing with it. At the end of the process, I will come in,” the Ghanaian leader said.

    After parliamentary deliberations, a final bill will be sent to the president for assent.

    “My understanding … is that substantial elements of the bill have already been modified as a result of the intervention of the attorney general,” Akufo-Addo said.

    In suggesting that the bill may end up being watered down in the amendment process, Akufo-Addo added that he was convinced the parliament will consider the sensitivity of the bill to human rights issues as well as the feelings of the Ghanaian population “and come out with a responsible response.”

    However, one of the parliamentarians who introduced the bill, Samuel Nartey George, insists that the proposed law remains “rigid and tough.”

    “The bill has not been substantially changed. The bill remains as tough and as rigid as it was,” George told local media in a televised interview.

    He added: “When the bill is laid before the House (of parliament), you will realize that the focus of the bill which has to do with voiding (gay) marriages, preventing them from adopting or fostering children, the clampdown on platforms and media houses that are going to do promotion and advocacy or push those materials still remain enforced.”

    George also implied that restrictions against “expressions, be it lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender are all still there. “So when he (Akufo-Addo) says the bill has been watered down, he doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

    The proposed aw would see LGBTQ Ghanaians face jail time, or be forced into so-called “conversion therapy” – a widely discredited practice debunked by much of the international medical and psychiatric communities.

    Under the bill, advocates of the LGBTQ community would face up to a decade in prison; public displays of same-sex affection or cross-dressing could lead to a fine or jail time, and certain types of medical support would be made illegal.

    The new law would also make the distribution of material deemed pro-LGBTQ by news organizations or websites illegal. It calls on Ghanaians to report those they suspect of being from the LGBTQ community.

    Harris, the US vice-president, said at the press conference she felt very strongly about supporting the freedom and equality of the LGBTQ community.

    “This is an issue that we consider to be a human rights issue, and that will not change,” she said.

    Ghana’s information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, also told CNN on Tuesday that the outcome of the parliamentary debate on the bill may differ from its original provisions.

    “The bill is now in an enactment process. What will come out in enactment when 275 members get on the floor and start dealing with it clause by clause and voting clause by clause, may end up being different from what was proposed. You propose a bill and parliament … can tweak it and make it harsher or less harsh … it is in the hands of parliament now,” Nkrumah said.

    The minister also insisted however that the Ghanaian government was not under pressure to relax existing legislation on homosexuality.

    “We are not pressured in any way to focus on things that are not essentially within our main priorities. Our priority number one is getting the Ghanaian economy on track and that’s what we’re focused on.”

    “This conversation is not part of our mainstream conversation here in Ghana,” he added.

    Old sodomy laws dating back to 1960 remain on the statute books in Ghana but they are rarely enforced.

    Activist Danny Bediako, who runs the NGO Rightify Ghana, told CNN that living in Ghana would become tougher for the LGBTQ community if the bill passes in parliament.

    “It’s going to make it difficult for the (LGBTQ) community to exist. They are just trying to erase the community through this bill, so it will definitely lead to an increase in attacks,” said Bediako, who added that his organization had documented 27 cases of violent attacks targeted toward the LGBTQ community in the country this year.

    “There have been different types of cases, but the most dominant one is the activities of violent groups and they are widespread. So if this bill is passed, these activities are going to continue and it’s only going to also get worse.”

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  • Using artificial intelligence and archival news articles, this teen found that Black homicide victims were less humanized in news coverage | CNN

    Using artificial intelligence and archival news articles, this teen found that Black homicide victims were less humanized in news coverage | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Using artificial intelligence and archival news articles, a teenager in Northern Virginia created a program to measure media biases – and in researching older news articles, she found that Black homicide victims were less likely to be humanized in news coverage.

    Emily Ocasio, an 18-year-old from Falls Church, Virginia, created an AI program that analyzed FBI homicide records between 1976 and 1984 and their corresponding coverage published in The Boston Globe to determine whether victims were presented in a humanizing or impersonal way.

    After analyzing 5,042 entries, the results showed that Black men under the age of 18 were 30% less likely to receive humanizing coverage than their White counterparts, Ocasio told CNN. Black women were 23% less likely to be humanized in news stories, Ocasio added.

    A news article was considered humanizing when it mentioned additional information about the victim and presented them “as a person, not just a statistic,” Ocasio said in her project presentation.

    Her findings have not been reviewed by the larger scientific community, but she told CNN she hopes to expand her research and get it published in a scientific journal.

    Ocasio’s project earned her second place in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search on March 14 as well as a $175,000 scholarship.

    Every year about 1,900 high school students from across the country participate in the competition, which started in 1942 and seeks to serve as a platform for young scientists to share original research.

    Ocasio was among 40 finalists from more than 2,000 applications, according to Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science and executive publisher of Science News, two of the competition’s sponsors.

    “By using AI to document these biases, Emily shows that it can be safely used to help society answer complex social science questions,” her biography on the Society for Science website says.

    Ocasio said she has always been interested in social justice and science and saw this project as an opportunity to combine them. “Without the research, and without the statistics, you have no ability of understanding that entire communities are being left behind,” she said.

    Ocasio analyzed The Boston Globe’s news coverage because the newspaper had digital copies of its articles for the ’70s to ‘80s time period she focused on for her project, she said. CNN has reached out to the Boston Globe for comment.

    Despite her findings, Ocasio believes science can’t explain everything: “You can never run an experiment in a lab that tells you about how racism works in society.”

    Ocasio, who has Puerto Rican heritage, said her own experiences helped shape her perspective of different races and cultures, and drew her to researching racism and inequalities. She wants to replicate her research to analyze other news outlets as well, she said.

    The talent search’s first-place winner, Neel Moudgal, told CNN the research done by the teenagers across the US is essential to helping solve some of society’s greatest challenges.

    Neel Moudgal won first place in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.

    “I firmly believe that science is going to be the solution to a lot of our problems,” Moudgal said. His prize-winning project was a computer model that predicts the structure of RNA molecules to help develop tests and drugs for diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and viral infections.

    Ajmera said seeing such projects from high school students gives her “an enormous hope for the future.”

    “We’re looking for the future scientific leaders of this country,” she said.

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