YouTube on Wednesday will begin testing a new age-verification system in the U.S. that relies on artificial intelligence to differentiate between adults and minors, based on the kinds of videos that they have been watching.
The tests initially will only affect a sliver of YouTube’s audience in the U.S., but it will likely become more pervasive if the system works as well at guessing viewers’ ages as it does in other parts of the world. The system will only work when viewers are logged into their accounts, and it will make its age assessments regardless of the birth date a user might have entered upon signing up.
If the system flags a logged-in viewer as being under 18, YouTube will impose the normal controls and restrictions that the site already uses as a way to prevent minors from watching videos and engaging in other behavior deemed inappropriate for that age.
The safeguards include reminders to take a break from the screen, privacy warnings and restrictions on video recommendations. YouTube, which has been owned by Google for nearly 20 years, also doesn’t show ads tailored to individual tastes if a viewer is under 18.
If the system has inaccurately called out a viewer as a minor, the mistake can be corrected by showing YouTube a government-issued identification card, a credit card or a selfie.
“YouTube was one of the first platforms to offer experiences designed specifically for young people, and we’re proud to again be at the forefront of introducing technology that allows us to deliver safety protections while preserving teen privacy,” James Beser, the video service’s director of product management, wrote in a blog post about the age-verification system.
People still will be able to watch YouTube videos without logging into an account, but viewing that way triggers an automatic block on some content without proof of age.
The political pressure has been building on websites to do a better job of verifying ages to shield children from inappropriate content since late June when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Texas law aimed at preventing minors from watching pornography online.
While some services, such as YouTube, have been stepping up their efforts to verify users’ ages, others have contended that the responsibility should primarily fall upon the two main smartphone app stores run by Apple and Google — a position that those two technology powerhouses have resisted.
Some digital rights groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy & Technology, have raised concerns that age verification could infringe on personal privacy and violate First Amendment protections on free speech.
Frequent gang attacks in Haiti’s capital city, Port-Au-Prince have forced this family to flee its home. Credit: UNICEF/Ralph Tedy Erol
by Oritro Karim (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 02 (IPS) – Due to worsening political instability, escalating gang violence, and a lack of basic services, Haiti is in the midst of one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world. According to a 2024 ACAPS report, gangs have seized 85 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, resulting in over 700,000 displaced persons.
Many of the displaced Haitians have sought refuge in Haiti’s neighbouring nation, the Dominican Republic. In early October, the Dominican Republic announced an expulsion order, forcing the return of thousands of Haitian migrants back to their conflict-steeped homes. With hostilities reaching a new peak as of October, humanitarian organizations fear that the death toll in Haiti could increase exponentially.
“The security situation remains extremely fragile, with renewed peaks of acute violence. Haitians continue to suffer across the country as criminal gang activities escalate and expand beyond Port-au-Prince, spreading terror and fear, overwhelming the national security apparatus,” said María Isabel Salvador, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) in a United Nations (UN) press release.
Extensive gang occupation in Haiti’s commercial hotspots have endangered the lives of thousands of civilians. “The situation in Haiti is very critical, especially in the capital. Many neighborhoods are completely under the control of gangs, which use brutal violence,” said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Haiti Ulrika Richardson. According to a BINUH spokesperson, “in the absence of state representatives, gangs increasingly claim roles typically assigned to the police and judiciary while imposing their own rules”.
A recent UN Security Council report estimates that Haitian gangs have accumulated approximately 5,500 members, with around half of them being child recruits. “The dire situation in Haiti makes children more vulnerable to recruitment by gangs. A lack of access to education, employment and basic necessities creates a situation where joining gangs is seen as the only viable means of survival,” said a spokesperson for the Security Council.
Catherine Russell, designated Principal Advocate on Haiti for the Inter-Agency Standing Committee and Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that in addition to being used as foot soldiers, child recruits are also used as informants, cooks, and sex slaves.
A recent press release from the UN shows that between July and September, there were over 1,200 civilian casualties as a result of armed gang violence, with these attacks being concentrated in Port-Au-Prince and the Artibonite region. Over 170 kidnappings for ransom have been documented as well.
Sexual violence committed by gangs against women and girls remains prevalent in Haiti. “Gang rape is used as a weapon and the bodies of women and girls are battlefields,” said Rosy Auguste Ducéna, Programme Manager, Haiti’s National Human Rights Defence Network.
On October 26, the Viv Ansanm gang coalition stormed the streets of the Solino neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince, setting fire to several homes. Gangs have attacked surrounding provinces as well, leading to over 10,000 displacements in one week.
On October 2, the Dominican Republic announced that it would begin expelling about 10,000 Haitian refugees per week. In the first three weeks of October, around 28,000 Haitians were expelled from the Dominican Republic and returned to Haiti. “We came here looking for a better life and work. But now we’re back to living in fear,” said Wilner Davail, a Haitian migrant who resided in the Dominican Republic.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), rampant gang violence and economic shocks have resulted in a major food crisis in Haiti. Over 5 million Haitians, nearly half of the population, are in dire need of food assistance, facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity. An estimated 2 million people struggle with emergency levels of hunger.
Access to basic services for millions of Haitians is still seriously compromised. According to a report by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), only 24 percent of hospitals in Haiti are functional, with most civilians being unable to afford medical care. UNICEF adds that over 900 schools were closed as a result of security concerns, affecting over 1 million children.
In an effort to stabilize conditions and reduce gang activity in Haiti, Kenya and the United States launched a contingent mission. Approximately 400 members of a Kenyan-led multinational police force arrived in Port-Au-Prince. However, due to significant underfunding and being outnumbered by gang members, this mission has been largely unsuccessful. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), only 85 million dollars of the required 600 million dollar goal has been raised thus far.
“We have a window of success that is evident from the operations that have been carried out already. When resources are made available, there will be demonstrable progress of the mission,” said Kenyan President William Ruto.
The UN had requested 674 million dollars for a humanitarian response plan that focuses on protection efforts and the distribution of essential services to affected communities. The UN Trust Fund for the Multinational Security Support has received 67 million dollars, which is inadequate in providing basic protection services on a nationwide scale. The UN urges further donor contributions as conditions continue to grow more dire.
BOSTON — An abortion rights group is asking a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit against them and Gov. Maura Healey by anti-abortion groups in response to a state-funded campaign targeting pregnancy ‘crisis’ center operators.
In a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday, lawyers for the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation argue that the plaintiffs “lack standing” to file the lawsuit and blasted the legal challenge as an attempt to “silence” their advocacy work.
“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, this case is not about any wrongful deprivation of the First Amendment or other constitutional rights …” lawyers for the foundation wrote in a court filing. “Instead, it is a blatant attempt to enlist this court’s assistance in its effort to silence Reproductive Equity Now Foundation and its president Rebecca Hart Holder, by enjoining them from exercising their constitutional rights.”
The lawsuit, filed in August by the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center on behalf of Your Options Medical Center and others, alleges that the state and Equity Now violated their constitutional rights with a “campaign of harassment, suppression, and threats” against the Revere-based facility and other pregnancy centers.
At issue is a taxpayer-funded education campaign by the state Department of Health warning the public to avoid pregnancy crisis centers, which have emerged as the latest battleground in abortion access following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning federal protections.
The $1 million campaign, which began earlier this year, has blanketed social media platforms, billboards and radio, with ads emblazoned on MBTA buses, trains and depots.
The plaintiffs allege the campaign has forced them “to operate in a culture of fear and harassment” and that they continue to face “unprecedented investigations, including unnecessary subpoenas,” despite a prior state investigation clearing the operators of any wrongdoing.
But lawyers for Holder and Equity Now argue in court filings that the public education campaign hasn’t deprived the pregnancy centers of their free speech rights or interfered with their operations.
“To be clear, the public has not been prevented from seeking out and receiving YOM’s services, and YOM has not been prevented from expressing its viewpoints or fulfilling its mission consistent with those viewpoints,” they wrote.
The plaintiffs “utterly failed to allege facts that plausibly demonstrate this is one of those rare instances in which the conduct of private parties constitutes state action,” they added.
Hart-Holder calls the lawsuit “an attempt to silence our organization and prevent us from exercising our First Amendment protected right to free speech.”
“We will not be intimidated by this lawsuit, and we will always fight for New England patients and their ability to access the reproductive health care that is right for them,” she said in a statement.
Pregnancy crisis centers have emerged as the latest battleground in abortion access following the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning federal protections.
The centers, which advertise free services and counseling for women struggling with unplanned pregnancies, have proliferated in the wake of the high court’s decision overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
But Healey and women’s reproductive rights groups claim the facilities are funded by anti-abortion groups with the intention of blocking women from getting abortions.
In June, the state Department of Public Health partnered with the advocacy groups on a new campaign to educate the public about the “dangers and potential harm” of anti-abortion centers that advocates say are providing misleading information to women.
The $1 million taxpayer-funded public campaign features ads on social media platforms, billboards, radio and transit warning women about the pregnancy crisis centers.
Some communities have moved to limit or ban the centers amid complaints that they are using deceptive advertising and providing misinformation.
But anti-abortion groups say the centers are providing options to women other than abortions and being unfairly targeted by a “smear campaign” by proponents of the procedure.
The Pregnancy Care Alliance of Massachusetts said the network of pregnancy care centers in the state “provides millions of dollars in no-cost support and care for thousands of women annually who face planned and unplanned pregnancies.”
The alliance has accused Healey and other state leaders of “furthering their extreme abortion agenda by using a taxpayer-funded campaign to discredit our centers.”
“Our pregnancy resource centers are paying close attention to the case and look forward to learning the outcome, since a decision will directly impact our service to women and communities across the state,” the alliance said in a statement.
The conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which has helped former President Donald Trump fight his legal battles, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. It argues that the campaign targeting pregnancy centers is part of a strategy to “silence the anti-abortion movement.”
Healey, who is being represented by the Attorney General’s office, hasn’t formally responded to the lawsuit’s claims but was granted an extension this week to file her response until Dec. 13, according to federal court filings.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is the largest aid agency in the Gaza Strip where it provides emergency and other assistance to vulnerable Palestinians. Credit: UNRWA
Opinion by James E. Jennings (atlanta, usa)
Inter Press Service
ATLANTA, USA, Oct 31 (IPS) – The most solemn and terrifying words ever uttered are those inscribed over the gateway to Hell in Dante’s Inferno: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!” Hope is essential for human survival both as individuals and as nations.
Surveying the history of the seemingly endless series of wars and counter-wars between Israel and its foes in Gaza and Lebanon from 1948 until now—a period of 76 years—it seems that all hope for peace has been lost. Palestinians, Lebanese, the people of Gaza—and yes, the Israelis too—are all residents of this inferno, the endless Hell of war.
If you pay close attention to the weak, mealy-mouthed utterances of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken—the emissary of the equally weak President Joe Biden—you’ll understand that the Middle East region and therefore the world is rapidly approaching the Ninth Circle of Hell.
Both of them utter meaningless phrases that reveal their lack of understanding at best, or at worst their vicious, inhumane complicity.
Now, the latest, and possibly most obscene, third act in this modern Greek tragedy was played out October 28 in Israel’s Knesset. Nearly 100 of the 120 members of that wise and honorable body voted to cut the lifeline for millions of Palestinians who depend on the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for health care and education.
Credit: UNRWA
Besides irrationally imposing new cruelties—rubbing salt in the wounds of an entire population of innocent people—the Knesset’s decision constitutes cultural genocide, an essential factor underlying the supreme international crime of Genocide as defined by the United Nations.
UNRWA’s registry constitutes the primary link millions of 1948 War refugees and their descendants have to their lost properties. Destroying that link erases an entire people from history. It obliterates Israel’s “Crime of the Century,” which is the theft of the nation of Palestine.
Is this the hand of friendship, the “Light to the Nations” Israel’s founder Ben Gurion promised in 1948? Review the numbers: there are still 1.2 million registered Palestinian refugees dependent on food aid in 68 camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza. UNRWA services in Gaza alone include 140 health care centers and 700 schools educating 300,000 students.
Is there hope in this darkened scenario? Actually, there is. Sun Tzu’s long-ago Chinese classic, The Art of War, records the following sardonic, understated observation: “There is no example of a long war benefitting anybody.”
Which means that at some point people will have to come to their senses, or else generations will pass away before their descendants, with new issues to deal with, will wonder what the fuss was all about.
But that’s in the future—perhaps the distant future. What about now? Is there any hope? Surprisingly, yes, there is.
In an interview on al-Jazeera television on October 25, 2024, after more than a year of the most devastating and genocidal war on Palestine’s civilian population, leading Palestinian politician and spokesman Mustafa Barghouti, expressed optimism.
He said that the single positive development during the longest and most destructive war against Palestine in its history is the continuing determination of the Palestinian people to remain on their land and to resist efforts to expunge their national identity, as is their right.
In Arabic it is called Sumud, “steadfastness,” loosely translated as “Staying power.” Hope survives. Where there’s life, there’s hope.
James E. Jennings is President of Conscience International, an international aid organization that has responded to wars in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Gaza since 1991.
Delegates from the Forum of Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development and the Asian Population and Development Association met in Cairo to discuss support for people with disabilities and the elderly. Credit: APDA
by Hisham Allam (cairo)
Inter Press Service
CAIRO, Oct 24 (IPS) – In a significant move to address the challenges faced by people with disabilities and the elderly, six Egyptian parliamentary committees met in Cairo on October 12 to discuss national strategies and legislative efforts.
The Forum of Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development and the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Government of Japan, organized the meeting with the focus of aligning Egypt’s policies with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Roughly 1.2 million people with disabilities currently receive state assistance, while Egypt’s elderly population continues to grow. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), 10.64 percent of Egyptians have a disability, and the elderly population reached 9.3 million in 2024, representing 8.8 percent of the total population—4.6 million men (8.5 percent) and 4.7 million women (9.2 percent). The parliamentary committees convened to enhance support for these vulnerable groups.
Dr. Abdelhadi Al-Qasabi, Chairman of the Committee on Social Solidarity, Family, and People with Disabilities, emphasized recent legislative developments. He pointed out that Egypt has passed important legislation, such as the Elderly Care Law in 2024 and the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2018, to safeguard these vulnerable groups. He underlined that these laws show the state’s adherence to the Egyptian Constitution, which upholds everyone’s right to a dignified life free from discrimination.
“Egypt has made significant strides by adopting policies and laws that protect and empower people with disabilities and the elderly,” stated Al-Qasabi. “We aim to ensure they are not only recipients of support but contributors to the nation’s progress.”
The “Karama” program of the Egyptian government, which offers financial aid to those with impairments, was the focus of the gathering. Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity, Dr. Maya Morsy, noted that the program, which has an annual budget of about 10 billion Egyptian pounds, currently serves 1.2 million people with 1.3 million integrated services cards distributed to make access to social services and healthcare easier.
“We are committed to ensuring that people with disabilities receive their integrated services cards within 30 days, enhancing their access to vital resources.”
Morsy emphasized the Elderly Care Law, which assures those over 65 have better access to social, economic, and healthcare services. “We aim to create an environment where the elderly can live independently, free from abuse or exploitation, while continuing to contribute to society,” she told the audience.
Dr. Hala Youssef, UNFPA Advisor, emphasized the need for international cooperation in meeting the SDGs and ensuring that no one falls behind.
Discussion at a conference under the auspices of the Forum of Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development and the Asian Population and Development Association discussed the empowerment of people with disabilities and the elderly. Credit: APDA
“Parliamentarians play a strategic role in creating a legislative framework that addresses the needs of the most vulnerable,” Youssef added. “Innovation and technology can be powerful tools for inclusion, providing people with disabilities access to education, employment, and social participation on an equal footing.”
Youssef went on to emphasize disturbing global figures, stating that 46 percent of seniors over 60 have some type of handicap and that persons with disabilities were among the hardest struck during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Children with disabilities are four times more likely to experience violence than their peers, while adults with disabilities face higher risks of abuse and exploitation,” Youssef said, urging a stronger commitment to protecting their rights.
Dr. Sami Hashim, head of the Committee on Education and Scientific Research, stressed the integration of individuals with disabilities in the educational system. He emphasized that, especially in the age of artificial intelligence, education must be adaptable, inclusive, and forward-thinking.
“Our education system must not only teach knowledge but prepare individuals for success in an increasingly technological world,” said Hashim. “This is particularly important for students with disabilities, who should have access to the tools and opportunities that will allow them to thrive.”
The forum emphasized the critical need for national and international collaboration to build inclusive, egalitarian communities, given that 80% of the one billion persons with disabilities worldwide live in developing nations and that the number of older people in need of assistance is rising.
AVIGNON, France — They are, on the face of it, the most ordinary of men. Yet they’re all on trial charged with rape. Fathers, grandfathers, husbands, workers and retirees — 50 in all — accused of taking turns on the drugged and inert body of Gisèle Pelicot while her husband recorded the horror for his swelling private video library.
Among the nearly two dozen defendants who testified during the trial’s first seven weeks was Ahmed T. — French defendants’ full last names are generally withheld until conviction. The married plumber with three kids and five grandchildren said he wasn’t particularly alarmed that Pelicot wasn’t moving when he visited her and her now-ex-husband’s house in the small Provence town of Mazan in 2019.
It reminded him of porn he had watched featuring women who “pretend to be asleep and don’t react,” he said.
Like him, many other defendants told the court that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife, and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a kinky fantasy. Dominique Pelicot denied this, telling the court his co-defendants knew exactly what the situation was.
Céline Piques, a spokesperson of the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism! said she’s convinced that many of the men on trial were inspired or perverted by porn, including videos found on popular websites. Although some sites have started cracking down on search terms such as “unconscious,” hundreds of videos of men having sex with seemingly passed out women can be found online, she said.
Piques was particularly struck by the testimony of a tech expert at the trial who had found the search terms “asleep porn” on Dominique Pelicot’s computer.
Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported rapes. But experts say most rapes go unreported due to a lack of tangible evidence: About 80% of women don’t press charges, and 80% of the ones who do see their case dropped before it is investigated.
In stark contrast, the trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants has been unique in its scope, nature and openness to the public at the victim’s insistence.
After a store security guard caught Pelicot shooting video up unsuspecting women’s skirts in 2020, police searched his home and found thousands of pornographic photos and videos on his phone, laptop and USB stick. Dominique Pelicot later said he had recorded and stored the sexual encounters of each of his guests, and neatly organized them in separate files.
Among those he had over was Mahdi D., who testified that when he left home on the night of Oct. 5, 2018, he didn’t intend to rape anyone.
“I thought she was asleep,” the 36-year-old transportation worker told the panel of five judges, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, who has attended nearly every day of the trial and has become a hero to many sexual abuse victims for insisting that it be public.
“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But there in the room, it was you.”
Like a few of the other men accused of raping Pelicot between 2011 and 2020, Mahdi D. acknowledged almost all of the facts presented against him. And he expressed remorse, telling the judges, “She is a victim. We can’t imagine what she went through. She was destroyed.”
But he wouldn’t call it rape, even if admitting that it was might get him a lighter sentence. That led prosecutors to ask the court to screen the graphic videos of Mahdi D.’s visit to the Pelicot home.
In June, authorities took down the chatroom where they say Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants met. Since the trial started on Sept. 2, it has resonated far beyond the Avignon courtroom’s walls, sparking protests in French cities big and small and inspiring a steady flow of opinion pieces and open letters penned by journalists, philosophers and activists.
It has also drawn curious visitors to the city in southeastern France, such as Florence Nack, her husband and 23-year-old daughter, who made the trip from Switzerland to witness the “historical trial.”
Nack, who noted that she, too, was a victim of sexual violence, said she was disturbed by the testimony of 43-year-old trucker Cyprien C., a defendant who spoke that day in court.
Asked by the head judge, Roger Arata, whether he recognized the facts, Cyprien C. answered that he “did not contest the sexual act.”
“And the rape?” Arata pressed. The defendant stood silently before eventually responding, “I can’t answer.”
Arata then began to describe what was on the videos implicating him. They are only shown as a last resource and on a case-by-case basis. But for many in the courtroom, such detailed descriptions can last several minutes and be just as heavy as watching them. Gisèle Pelicot, who is in her early 70s, has chosen to remain in the courtroom while the videos are shown. Unable to watch, she usually closes her eyes, stares at the floor, or buries her face in her hands.
Experts and groups working to combat sexual violence say the defendants’ unwillingness or inability to admit to rape speaks loudly to taboos and stereotypes that persist in French society.
For Magali Lafourcade, a judge and general secretary of the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights who isn’t involved in the trial, popular culture has given people the wrong idea about what rapists look like and how they operate.
“It’s the idea of a hooded man with a knife whom you don’t know and is waiting for you in a place that is not a private place,” she said, noting that this “is miles away from the sociological, criminological reality of rape.”
Two-thirds of rapes take place at private homes, and in a vast majority of cases, victims know their rapists, Lafourcade said.
It can be difficult at times to reconcile the facts with the personalities of the accused — described by loved ones as loving, generous and considerate companions, brothers and fathers.
Cyril B.’s tearful older sister told the court: “It’s my brother, I love him. He’s not a mean person.” His partner described him as “kind, his heart on his sleeve and full of attention.” She insisted that he isn’t “macho” and that he had never forced her to do anything sexually that she wasn’t comfortable with.
Although Lafourcade does not believe “all men are rapists,” as some have concluded the trial shows, she said that unlike the #MeToo accusations that have ensnared French celebrities, the Pelicot case “makes us understand that in fact rapists could be everyone.”
“For once, they’re not monsters — they’re not serial killers on the margin of society. They are men who resemble those we love,” she said. “In this sense, there is something revolutionary.”
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X and owner of X who’s gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for the White House, has already committed at least $70 million to help the former president. Now he’s pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution.
The giveaway is raising questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, the state’s former attorney general, expressed concern about the plan on Sunday.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
A closer look at what’s going on:
Musk promised on Saturday that he would give away $1 million a day, until the Nov. 5 election, for people signing his PAC’s petition supporting the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment, with its right “to keep and bear arms.” He awarded a check during an event Saturday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to a man identified as John Dreher. A message left with a number listed for Dreher was not returned Sunday. Musk gave out another check Sunday.
Musk’s America PAC has launched a tour of Pennsylvania, a critical election battleground. He’s aiming to register voters in support of Trump, whom Musk has endorsed. The PAC is also pushing to persuade voters in other key states. It’s not the first offer of cash the organization has made. Musk has posted on X, the platform he purchased as Twitter before renaming it, that he would offer people $47 — and then $100 — for referring others to register and signing the petition.
Trump, who was campaigning Sunday in Pennsylvania, was asked about Musk’s giveaway, and said, “I haven’t followed that.” Trump said he “speaks to Elon a lot. He’s a friend of mine” and called him great for the country.
Some election law experts are raising red flags about the giveaway. Brendan Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer, said the latest iteration of Musk’s giveaway approaches a legal boundary. That’s because the PAC is requiring registration as a prerequisite to become eligible for the $1 million check. “There would be few doubts about the legality if every Pennsylvania-based petition signer were eligible, but conditioning the payments on registration arguably violates the law,” Fischer said in an email.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA Law School political science professor, went further. He pointed to a law that prohibits paying people for registering to vote or for voting. “If all he was doing was paying people to sign the petition, that might be a waste of money. But there’s nothing illegal about it,” Hasen said in a telephone interview. “The problem is that the only people eligible to participate in this giveaway are the people who are registered to vote. And that makes it illegal.”
Michael Kang, an election law professor at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, said the context of the giveaway so close to Election Day makes it harder to make the case that the effort is anything but a incentivizing people to register to vote.
“It’s not quite the same as paying someone to vote, but you’re getting close enough that we worry about its legality,” Kang said.
A message seeking comment was left with the PAC on Sunday, as was a request for comment from the Justice Department.
Typically coordination between campaigns and so-called super PACs had been forbidden. But a recent opinion by the Federal Election Commissioner, which regulates federal campaigns, permitted candidates and these groups to work together in certain cases, including getting out the vote efforts.
Community remembers Marcelo Perez as outspoken champion of Indigenous, labour rights in Mexican state of Chiapas.
A priest known for his activism in defence of Indigenous and labour rights in Mexico has been killed after leaving church services, local authorities said.
Catholic priest Marcelo Perez was returning home from church on Sunday when two men on a motorcycle pulled alongside his vehicle and shot him, prosecutors in the southern state of Chiapas said.
“Father Marcelo has been a symbol of resistance and has stood alongside the communities of Chiapas for decades, defending the dignity and rights of the people and working toward true peace,” the Jesuits, Perez’s religious order, said in a statement.
The killing comes amid a period of heightened violence in the southern state, which recorded about 500 murders between January and August this year.
Along with the rights of Indigenous people and farmworkers, the Jesuits said Perez was also a vocal critic of organised criminal groups.
“This region doesn’t just suffer from murders, but also forced recruitment (into criminal groups), kidnappings, threats and ransacking of its natural resources,” the religious order said.
Mexican human rights activists and environmental defenders have long condemned violent harassment and intimidation by criminal groups and state security forces.
Perez was himself a member of the Tzotzil Indigenous peoples and had served the community in Chiapas for two decades, developing a reputation as someone who could help settle disputes, especially over land.
“We will collaborate with all the authorities so his death doesn’t go unpunished and those guilty face the courts,” Chipas Governor Rutilio Escandon said in a social media post, calling the assassination “cowardly”.
But in Mexico, accountability for murder is the exception rather than the rule, with about 95 percent of all homicides going unsolved.
Rights activists and Indigenous land defenders face high levels of violence and intimidation in Mexico.
A 2023 Amnesty International report found that those groups face high levels of criminalisation and persecution as part of a “broader strategy of disincentivizing and dismantling advocacy for land, territorial and environmental rights”.
The rights group also said Mexico “ranks among the countries with the highest number of murders of environmental defenders”.
On Sunday, the United Nations human rights office in Mexico said “several national and international organizations had publicly warned about the growing number of threats, attacks and acts of criminalization against” Perez, the priest.
It said those threats “have intensified in recent years due to his tireless work in favor of justice and the rights of Indigenous peoples”.
Without investing in social development and crisis response, vulnerable communities are more susceptible to the impacts and stressors put on by multiple crises. Credit: UN Women_Ryan Brown
by Naureen Hossain (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) – Social development in a global context shows the risk of trending downwards and not recovering if countries do not minimize the long-term impacts of multiple crises and work towards building up their resilience. As much as this will require national political will, it will also need global cooperation for it to be possible.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) launched the 2024 edition of the World Social Report on October 17. Titled ‘Social Development in Times of Converging Crises: A Call for Global Action’, the report discusses the effects of multiple crises and shocks on countries’ social development and their capacity to handle those shocks through social protections or lack thereof. It posits that while there has been an upward trajectory in development and economic growth in some parts of the world after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, many developing countries are still struggling to reach their development goals or to reduce the rate of extreme poverty to even pre-pandemic levels.
Overlapping crises, especially those caused by extreme weather, may increase in frequency and intensity. The shocks from these crises will be, or are, felt across the world rather than contained to one country or region as a result of the networks that connect across countries and systems. The DESA report cites the example of global warming and the prediction that every region will experience changes in their national climate systems. The increasing risk of extreme weather such as hurricanes and prolonged droughts will not only impact countries directly affected, but this also poses a threat to agricultural production and food security.
Yang Wenyan (right), Chief of Global Dialogue for Social Development Branch of the Division for Inclusive Social Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and Shantanu Mukherjee, Director of Economic Analysis and Policy Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), brief reporters on the launch of “World Social Report 2024: Social Development in Times of Converging Crises: A Call for Global Action.” Credit: Loey-Felipe/UN Photo
The report shows that although there is a better understanding of the impacts of these crises, preparedness has not yet caught up. Information on early warning and preventative systems is not consistently made available or is otherwise unclear on how effective they are.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries bolstered their social protections; however, gaps remain, which undermine social development in times of crisis. As the report reveals, only 47 percent of the world’s population has access to at least one social protection benefit, meaning nearly half the world’s population of 8.1 billion do not access social protections. The disparity continues as the report indicates that in higher-income countries, 85 percent of the population is covered, while in lower-income countries, it is only 13 percent. Factoring in gender, a new report from UN-Women revealed that 2 billion women and girls globally do not have access to social protections.
Continued crises and shocks to social development disproportionately affect vulnerable communities as they face increased risks of poverty, food insecurity, wealth inequality and education loss, which are only exacerbated with the limited reach or lack of access to social protections.
One area in which this is evident is in unemployment rates, which have only increased over time. The employment gap increased from 20 percent in 2018 to 21 percent in 2023. In 2022, the poorest half of the global population owned only 2 percent of the world’s health. These are indicators of the increase in existing income and wealth inequalities, especially in developing countries with pre-existing high levels of inequality.
For countries to build resilience is now more critical than ever, which the report argues can be achieved more fully through international cooperation. Otherwise, actions taken at the national level will be limited.
“I think in most countries, governments’ priorities are actually to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. It’s just that in order to do so, they need to achieve a particular level of growth,” said Shantanu Mukherjee, Director of Economic Policy and Analysis, UN DESA. “So often it becomes a question of which is going to come first. What we’re seeing in this report is that this is too narrow-minded of a view. That you can invest in people in order to get higher growth in the future because you’re improving resilience. You’re improving their capacity to actually contribute in the future.”
The report concludes with recommendations that countries could adopt to reinvigorate national actions for social development, such as expanding and strengthening social protections and accelerating work towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Global cooperation can be strengthened through establishing cross-country collaborative solutions and a knowledge base for risk governance.
Making improvements towards global financing is also one of the proposed recommendations from the report. Easing debt restrictions on developing countries, for instance, would ensure the flow of money, especially they spend far more on paying off their debts than paying towards social development. According to Mukherjee, this has been achieved before, and there are conversations among major creditors to take measures to ease debt restrictions.
However, in the present day, not only are the challenges more complex, now more parties are involved. In addition to countries and financing institutions such as the World Bank and international development banks, the private sector can also be involved as countries can raise funds on the international market, which need to be paid back, he said.
“Now you can imagine that when there are a lot of people who have lent money, no one wants to be the first person to say, ‘Okay, I’ll take… I’ll withdraw my claim for a little bit until things get better’, because then everybody else will say, “Country X is taking a little bit of time; why don’t you repay us because country X is standing back?”. So these coordination mechanisms and good kinds of agreements were set up, and I think they need to be revitalized,” said Mukherjee.
The report and its recommendations come in the wake of the Summit of the Future and the ratification of the Pact for the Future, where member states made the commitment to take concrete measures towards development and preparedness for current and future generations, thinking beyond the 2030 Agenda. Upcoming global meetings such as the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, scheduled for June-July 2025 in Spain, and the the Second World Summit of Social Development, scheduled for November 2025 in Qatar, will be critical opportunities for the international community to reach consensus on different areas of social policy.
“Growing insecurity together with high inequality and persistent social exclusion are eroding the social fabric and thus the ability of countries and of the international community to act collectively towards common goals, including achieving the SDGs to address climate challenges,” said Wenyan Yang, Chief, Global Dialogue for Social Development Branch, UN DESA.
“So the Second World Summit for Social Development is an opportunity to build new global consensus on social policies and actions to create momentum for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and to fulfill the promises that we made to people in 1995.”
Deodat Maharaj, Managing Director of the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries
Opinion by Deodat Maharaj (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18 (IPS) – Last month, world leaders gathered at the time of the UN General Assembly in New York and agreed on a pioneering Pact for the Future. This global accord has implications across a broad range of issues that affect every country. It offers much hope for the poorest and most vulnerable countries on the planet, known as Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
The world’s 45 LDCs are home to a billion people who face systemic underdevelopment marked by poverty, inadequate health systems, poor infrastructure and limited access to education and technology.
While some progress has been made during the last decade, less than a fifth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track to be met. For example, only around 60% of children in least developed countries complete primary school despite improving literacy rates across the globe. Healthcare disparities are also stark, with maternal mortality rates averaging 430 deaths per 100,000 live births in low-income countries compared to 13 per 100,000 in wealthier nations.
The Pact for the Future, along with its two annexes, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations, offers an inclusive roadmap aimed at accelerating progress towards the SDGs. By also leveraging advancements in science, technology and innovation, the framework seeks to dislodge decades of stagnation and inequality.
The Pact for the Future outlines several key commitments: On digital cooperation, the Global Digital Compact presents targeted actions for a safer, more inclusive, more equitable digital world by closing the digital divide and expanding inclusion in the digital economy.
On sustainable development and financing for development, the Pact reaffirms the 2030 Agenda and places the eradication of poverty at the centre of efforts to achieve it. Amongst the proposed actions, it pledges to close the SDG financing gap and strengthen efforts to address climate change, which is disproportionately impacting LDCs.
On financial reform, the Pact seeks an overhaul of global financial systems, including by granting developing countries a greater voice in decision-making. It seeks to mobilize additional financing for the SDGs and generally making finance more readily available. The Pact also addresses the unsustainable debt burdens of many LDCs.
This novel Pact for the Future has the potential to give a push to the development agenda across the developing world, but especially so in LDCs. However, for success, there are some prerequisites. Firstly, there is the matter of financing. It is good to see the welcome emphasis on boosting financing for developing countries and making it more accessible. With finance, the possibilities are unlimited. Without finance, progress will once more be stymied. Therefore, the international community must match words with action.
Secondly, the role of business as an essential partner is key. A government-centric approach on its own cannot and will not work. More specifically, there must be attention to the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises sector, which accounts for the majority of businesses and generates the bulk of employment in most developing countries. Systematic support for digitalisation, innovation and the application of technology to this sector will create jobs and opportunities whilst boosting inclusive growth.
Thirdly, multilateralism is vital. The Pact for the Future has enormous potential, with the power to materially shift the dial for least-developed countries. However, it will require international cooperation, sustained political will and strong accountability mechanisms. If realised, this bold initiative could become the catalyst for new technological investments that can help shape an equally bold future for the world’s poorest.
At its core, the UN’s Pact for the Future is a blueprint for renewed cooperation in a fragmented world and offers much hope. There may not be another such opportunity. Let us seize the moment.
Note: Deodat Maharaj is the Managing Director of the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries and can be contacted at: [email protected]
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 16 (IPS) – The next round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, a major undertaking for health partners, began on October 14, as continuous attacks and strains whittle down the healthcare and humanitarian systems.
This Monday, October 14 marked the start of the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. This follows the relatively successful first round of vaccinations, which ran from September 1-12 and ended up immunizing over 559,161 children aged ten years or younger. The second round of vaccinations will provide an estimated 591,700 children with a crucial second dose of the nOPV2 vaccine.
The United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have urged Israeli authorities for a humanitarian pause, allowing for immunization efforts to run smoothly. However, continued attacks in the Gaza Strip have threatened to impede relief efforts and have put the lives of aid workers in danger.
“We cannot vaccinate children under a sky full of bombs. All parties to the conflict must respect the agreed-upon humanitarian pauses to allow the roll-out of this campaign”, said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
On Monday, the UN reported airstrikes on a school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat and a hospital courtyard in Deir Al-Balah, the latter of which set multiple tents on fire. Images and video footage shared by UNRWA showed aid personnel searching through rubble for survivors, as well as retrieving charred bodies from tents. Approximately 20 people were killed in this attack and vaccination efforts at the school were halted.
“We miraculously survived, the fire caught everywhere, even the tent where we were sleeping burnt. This is just one of many incidents that we’ve had overnight in the Gaza Strip. These are people that are just sheltering. They’re just trying to find somewhere to sleep trying to find some safety in the Gaza strip where there absolutely is none”, said Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for UNRWA.
Repeated evacuation orders issued by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have also put a strain on vaccination efforts. Muhannad Hadi, the UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, confirmed that over 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabaliya camp due to evacuation orders on October 7, 9, and 12.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), the most difficult areas to vaccinate are the northern regions of Gaza, where food deliveries have been halted since October 1. Additionally, further blockages have occurred in southern Gaza, in which all checkpoints leading north have halted the delivery of essential resources.
Despite these numerous access challenges, the second round of polio vaccinations is off to a promising start. In a statement by UNRWA, it was confirmed that roughly 93,000 children under ten years old have been immunized so far. Approximately 43 percent of children who have been reached received the second dose of nOPV2, along with a vitamin A dose in order to maximize overall immunity. Much like the first round of this campaign, the second round will consist of three phases, targeting the northern, southern, and central regions of Gaza. Each phase is set to consist of three days and an additional catch-up day.
Approximately 1,000 aid workers have been mobilized to assist in vaccination efforts and educational services. Additionally, assessments are being conducted by the UN to determine the scale of needs following Monday’s attacks on the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Tents, bedding, clothing, children’s supplies, hygiene kits, and food are urgently needed.
WFP distributed the last of their food supplies in the north, where the hunger crisis has escalated significantly in the past two weeks. Canned food, high energy biscuits, and nutritional supplements have been distributed to displacement camps, bakeries, medical facilities, and kitchens. It is unknown how long these resources will last as restrictions on aid continue to tighten in northern Gaza.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The social media platform X began returning to Brazil on Wednesday, after remaining inaccessible for more than a month due to a clash between its owner, Elon Musk, and a justice on the country’s highest court.
Internet service providers began restoring access to the platform after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized lifting X’s suspension on Tuesday.
“TWITTER IS ALIVE,” Lucas dos Santos Consoli, known as luscas on X, wrote on the platform to his more than 7 million followers.
“I’m happy that the platform decided to follow the laws of Brazil and finally adapted, after all I’ve been using the app for almost 15 years so I can’t deny that I was missing it,” the 31-year-old told The Associated Press.
De Moraes ordered the shutdown of X on Aug. 30 after a monthslong dispute with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Musk had disparaged de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, although his rulings, including X’s nationwide suspension, were repeatedly upheld by his peers.
Musk’s company ultimately complied with all of de Moraes’ demands. They included blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines and naming a legal representative. Failure to do the latter had triggered the suspension.
“This sends a message to the world that the richest person on the planet is subject to local laws and constitutions,” said David Nemer, who specializes in the anthropology of technology at the University of Virginia. It could set a precedent as to how other countries that are clashing with Musk — such as Australia — could move forward, as it shows Musk is not unbeatable, he added.
Brazil — a highly online country of 213 million people — is one of X’s biggest markets, with estimates of its user base ranging from 20 million to 40 million.
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the company said in a statement posted on its Global Government Affairs account. “Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.”
Julia Bahri, an 18-year-old law student, said she was delighted with X’s return. She said that losing access to the platform had led to “one of the most desperate feelings I’ve experienced for a while,” adding that she had felt lost with regards to news.
Bahri said she uses X to express herself, whereas Instagram and Snapchat are mostly for posting photos.
The Aug. 30 ban came two days after the company said it was removing all its remaining staff in Brazil. X said de Moraes had threatened to arrest its legal representative in the country, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, if the company did not comply with orders to block accounts.
Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a local legal representative to receive notifications of court decisions and swiftly take any requisite action — particularly, in X’s case, the takedown of accounts.
Sleeping Giants Brazil, a platform for activism that seeks to combat fake news and hate speech, said the resumption of X’s activities in Brazil marked “a significant victory for Brazilian democracy.”
“It is crucial to remain steadfast against efforts to weaken democratic state authority, institutions and values,” it said in a statement.
In a statement to the AP, Bluesky reported that it now has 10.6 million users and continues to see strong growth in Brazil. Bluesky has appointed a legal representative in the South American country.
“Never get back with your eX,” Paul Frazee, a developer at Bluesky, wrote on the platform on Tuesday.
X is returning to Brazil weaker than it was before the ban, said Nemer, noting that X is now worth less than a fifth than when Musk bought Twitter. The platform has lost a lot of users, especially in Brazil, he said.
Brazil was not the first country to ban X — but such a drastic step has generally been limited to authoritarian regimes. The platform and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest.
X’s dustup with Brazil has some parallels to the company’s dealings with the Indian government three years ago, back when it was still called Twitter and before Musk purchased it for $44 billion. In 2021, India threatened to arrest employees of Twitter (as well as Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp), for not complying with the government’s requests to take down posts related to farmers’ protests that rocked the country.
Musk’s decision to reverse course in Brazil after publicly criticizing de Moraes isn’t surprising, said Matteo Ceurvels, research firm Emarketer’s analyst for Latin America and Spain.
“The move was pragmatic, likely driven by the economic consequences of losing access to millions of users in its third-largest market worldwide, along with the millions of dollars in associated advertising revenue,” Ceurvels said.
“Although X may not be a top priority for most advertisers in Brazil, the platform needs them more than they need it,” he said.
Opinion by Danielle Nierenberg (baltimore, maryland usa)
Inter Press Service
BALTIMORE, Maryland USA, Oct 14 (IPS) – World Food Day 2024
World Food Day seems like it should be a time to celebrate. A day to eat delicious meals and enjoy the rich traditions and cultures of food around the globe.
But it’s difficult to celebrate when conflict, the climate crisis, and our biodiversity loss crisis leave at least 733 million people hungry around the world. Dr. Evan Fraser from the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph calls these cascading crises. And the results are dire.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in 2023, one in 11 people worldwide faced hunger last year. And one in five people in Africa experience hunger.
If current trends continue, more than 582 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030, with half of these folks living on the continent of Africa, according to FAO and four additional United Agencies. That’s less than 6 years away, which means we have a lot of work to do.
Fortunately, we already know what works. The theme of this year’s World Food Day is Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future. Everyone deserves healthy, nutrient rich, safe, and delicious food.
And the United Nations says, “A greater diversity of nutritious foods should be available in our fields, in our markets, and on our tables, for the benefit of all.” I would add that we also need a diversity of people, practices and thought to help feed the world.
This year the prestigious World Food Prize will be awarded to the Special Envoy for Food Security, Dr. Cary Fowler, and agricultural scientist Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin. These two individuals, according to the World Food Prize Foundation, are being awarded for “their extraordinary leadership in preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop biodiversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats to global food security.”
And Dr. Fowler is working to encourage farmers and governments to grow “opportunity crops” like cowpea, millet, sorghum, and other ancient and resilient foods. These crops have often been overlooked in favor of maize, rice, and other so-called staples, but they have, again, the opportunity to solve a multitude of problems. They build soil health and if storage and processing can improve in places like sub-Saharan Africa, they can be profitable.
Another solution—and it should be obvious—is empowering women and girls. We are systematically underutilizing at least 50 percent of the world’s population. Equal rights for women are not only an ethical and moral imperative, but can help solve the hunger crisis.
According to FAO, if women had the same access to resources as men—education, access to credit and financial services, extension, and respect—they could lift as many as 100 million people out of hunger. And equal rights are good for the economy. And according to Betty Chinyamunyamu of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi, “gender integration makes good business sense.”
In addition, women are often growing the foods that are actually nutritious—including those opportunity crops, but also fruits and vegetables that contribute to agrobiodiversity. “Women’s empowerment has a positive impact on agricultural production, food security, diets and child nutrition,” states FAO’s Status of Women in Agrifood Systems. Making sure that women are empowered in all aspects of their lives just makes common sense.
Moreover, farmers—small, medium, and large—literally need a seat at the table, from in person input at international dialogues like COP29, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, to co-creating technologies with scientists and entrepreneurs that will actually solve the problems that farmers are experiencing in fields and ranches.
Good Nature Agro in Zambia, for example, is developing with farmers ways to prevent post-harvest losses and more sustainably manage their farmland. And the organization Global Alliance of Latinos in Agriculture aims to create a world where farmers and ranchers thrive globally—and they plan to bring hundreds of producers to COP30 in Belem, Brazil next year.
This World Food Day (October 16), the Arrell Food Institute is bringing together agri-food leaders and experts dive into solutions like diversity, empowering women, and putting farmers in the drivers’ seat to create a more safe and sustainable global food system. A food system that works for everyone.
Hopefully, in the not-so-distant future, World Food Day will actually be a day to celebrate.
Danielle Nierenberg is President and Founder, Food Tank, which describes itself as a global community that inspires, motivates, and activates positive transformation in how we produce and consume food.
Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo waws today awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Credit: Niklas Elmehed/Nobel Prize
by IPS Correspondent (united nations)
Inter Press Service
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11 (IPS) – The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres congratulated grassroots Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo on being awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
“The atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as the hibakusha, are selfless, soul-bearing witnesses of the horrific human cost of nuclear weapons,” he said in a statement.
“While their numbers grow smaller each year, the relentless work and resilience of the hibakusha are the backbone of the global nuclear disarmament movement.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2024 Peace Prize for “its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
The committee said the global movement arose in response to the atom bomb attacks of August 1945.
“The testimony of the Hibakusha—the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—is unique in this larger context. These historical witnesses have helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons. The Hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”
It singled out Nihon Hidankyo, who reportedly cried following the announcement and other representatives of the Hibakusha to have contributed greatly to the establishment of the “nuclear taboo.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee acknowledged one encouraging fact: “No nuclear weapon has been used in war in nearly 80 years.”
The award comes as the world prepares to mark 80 years since two American atomic bombs killed an estimated 120 000 inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A comparable number died of burn and radiation injuries in the months and years that followed.
“Today’s nuclear weapons have far greater destructive power. They can kill millions and would impact the climate catastrophically. A nuclear war could destroy our civilization,” the committee said.
“The fates of those who survived the infernos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were long concealed and neglected. In 1956, local Hibakusha associations along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. This name was shortened in Japanese to Nihon Hidankyo. It would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan.”
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 fulfills Alfred Nobel’s desire to recognize efforts of the greatest benefit to humankind.
Guterres said he would “never forget my many meetings with them over the years. Their haunting living testimony reminds the world that the nuclear threat is not confined to history books. Nuclear weapons remain a clear and present danger to humanity, once again appearing in the daily rhetoric of international relations.”
He said the only way to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them altogether.
The iconic Chinese fishing nets along the Kerala coast offer a picturesque scene that draws tourists from around the world. However, the fishworkers that have used them for centuries livelihoods are in peril. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Opinion by Aishwarya Bajpai (kochi, india)
Inter Press Service
KOCHI, India, Oct 10 (IPS) – Fishworkers are often invisible in discussions about climate change, yet they are at the heart of food security, feeding millions while struggling to feed their own families. Their fight for survival is not just about tradition or livelihood—it’s about justice. Shouldn’t their futures be at the forefront of climate justice debates?Every morning before dawn, fishworkers along the shores of Kochi, Kerala, head out to sea, casting their nets in the shadow of the iconic Cheenavala—the Chinese fishing nets that have become a symbol of their community. I witnessed this time-honored tradition, once a reliable means of survival, now a daily gamble, a fight against unpredictable seas and shrinking fish populations.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable they are; despite being classified as essential workers, they were left without the protections they needed.
And now, as climate change tightens its grip, these fishworkers find themselves on the front lines of a new crisis. Rising sea temperatures, erratic weather, and depleting fish stocks have pushed them further into despair, forcing them to navigate a future as uncertain as the waters they depend on.
Martin, a fishworker from Kochi, Kerala, who smiled and invited me on his boat, has been fishing for over 25 years, reflecting on the mounting hardships. After a while explaining to me about the huge boat and the process of fishing, he said, “In these difficult times, when the government should be supporting us after generations of families have relied on fishing, we are left with nothing and are desperate for help. We purchase our tools and equipment for fishing, yet there’s no assistance from the government for education or healthcare.”
Fishworkers face uncertain future due to climate change and a lack of support from government. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Martin continued, “Five to six people work on a boat, and money has to be given to the owner as well. We have started to rely on tourism now, where we invite tourists, especially foreigners, onto our boats (private property) to explain our craft and fishing process, for which we sometimes get compensated. Some are generous, and some are not! This used to be the only way of earning in the rough season (Monsoon Fishing Ban), but now, after the climate change, this has become the only source of income for us.”
Kochi, once known as Cochin, was a major global trading hub. It drew merchants from Arabia and China in the 1400s, and later the Portuguese established Cochin as their protectorate, making it the first capital of Portuguese India in 1530.
Today, the city’s rich architectural heritage, along with the iconic Cheenavala (Chinese fishing nets), are major tourist attractions. Fishermen here use these Chinese fishing nets as a traditional method of fishing.
Believed to have been introduced by the Chinese explorer Zheng He from the court of Kublai Khan, these iconic nets became a part of Kochi’s landscape between 1350 and 1450 AD. The technique, which is quite impressive to witness, involves large, shore-based nets that are suspended in the air by bamboo/teakwood supports and lowered into the water to catch fish without the need to venture out to sea. The entire structure is counterbalanced by heavy stones, making it an eco-friendly practice that preserves marine life and vegetation, relying solely on natural materials without harmful gadgets.
Once a vital tool for sustaining the livelihoods of Kochi’s fishworkers, the traditional Cheenavala fishing nets have now become a symbol of a deepening crisis. Climate change, particularly the warming of the Arabian Sea, has drastically reduced fish populations.
Ironically, the government profits from promoting this iconic symbol even as the seafood industry faces closures, with four export-oriented fish processing units shutting down in Kerela in recent months due to the shortage of fish. This stark contrast highlights the growing disconnect between tradition and survival in the face of climate change.
The walls of Kerala are adorned with graffiti advocating for fishworkers and marine biodiversity. In Kochi, a mural reads, “Save the largest fish on Earth,” calling attention to the need for conservation. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Despite the Chinese fishing nets being a major tourist attraction, the government has shown little or no interest in preserving them. The process started in 2014 when a Chinese delegation, led by Hao Jia, a senior official of the Chinese embassy in India, met with Kochi’s then-mayor, Tony Chammany, to help renovate the nets and proposed constructing a pavement along Fort Kochi beach.
KJ Sohan, former mayor of Kochi and president of the Chinese Fishing Net Owners’ Association, expressed his support for the Chinese initiative to preserve the traditional fishing nets. He emphasized that such large nets, rooted in ancient techniques, are unique to this region. However, he also highlighted the significant governmental neglect of these nets. Insurance companies refuse to cover them, and they need to be replaced twice a year, which incurs substantial costs.
The Tourism Department later instructed the Kerala Industrial and Technology Consultancy Organisation (KITCO) to refurbish 11 of these nets and allotted 2.4 crore rupees (24 million), along with teakwood and Malabar for the repairs.
The authorities had initially refused to release funds directly, requiring the owners to start the refurbishment first, with promises of staggered payments. It has recently come to light that the boat owners, many of whom took out high-interest loans to begin the renovation, are now in financial distress as they have yet to receive the promised government funds, despite completing the work over a year ago.
A Chinese fishing net on the coast of Kochi, Kerala (India). Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS
Many took out loans and installed new coconut timber stumps, but even after nearly finishing the work, they are still waiting for the funds. This has left the fishworkers in debt while authorities cite GST-related issues for the delay. The owners argue they are exempt from the tax.
Fishworkers, both men and women, are often invisible in discussions about climate change, yet they are at the heart of food security, feeding millions while struggling to feed their own families. Their fight for survival is not just about tradition or livelihood—it’s about justice. If the government continues to turn a blind eye, Kerala’s fishworkers may have no choice but to seek support elsewhere, from international bodies, non-governmental organizations, or global climate finance mechanisms. Their struggles must be recognized, and their voices amplified in the push for climate justice.
Kerala’s fishworkers are not just battling the seas—they are fighting for their future. Without immediate action and meaningful support, we risk losing not only their livelihoods but an entire way of life. If the government cannot rise to the occasion, the world must step in to ensure that these communities do not slip into obscurity.
SAO PAULO — The Brazilian Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday authorized the restoration of social media platform X´s service in Brazil, over a month after its nationwide shutdown, according to a court document that was made public.
Elon Musk’s X was blocked on Aug. 30 in the highly online country of 213 million people — and one of X’s biggest markets, with estimates of its user base ranging from 20 to 40 million. De Moraes ordered the shutdown after a monthslong dispute with Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Musk had disparaged de Moraes, calling him an authoritarian and a censor, even though his rulings, including X’s suspension, were repeatedly upheld by his peers.
Despite Musk’s public bravado, X ultimately complied with all of de Moraes’ demands. They included blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines and naming a legal representative in the country. Failure to do the latter had triggered the suspension.
“The resumption of (X)’s activities on national territory was conditioned, solely, on full compliance with Brazilian laws and absolute observance of the Judiciary’s decisions, out of respect for national sovereignty,” de Moraes said in the court document.
“X is proud to return to Brazil,” the company said in a statement posted on its Global Government Affairs account. “Giving tens of millions of Brazilians access to our indispensable platform was paramount throughout this entire process. We will continue to defend freedom of speech, within the boundaries of the law, everywhere we operate.”
Just two days before the ban, on Aug. 28, X said it was removing all its remaining staff in Brazil “effective immediately,” saying de Moraes had threatened with arrest its legal representative in the country, Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição, if X did not comply with orders to block accounts.
Brazilian law requires foreign companies to have a local legal representative to receive notifications of court decisions and swiftly take any requisite action — particularly, in X’s case, the takedown of accounts. Conceição was first named X’s legal representative in April and resigned four months later. The company named her to the same job on Sept. 20, according to the public filing with the Sao Paulo commercial registry.
In an apparent effort to shield Conceição from potential violations by X — and risking arrest — a clause has been written into Conceição’s new representation agreement that she must follow Brazilian law and court decisions, and that any legal responsibility she assumes on X’s behalf requires prior instruction from the company in writing, according to the company’s filing.
Conceição works for BR4Business, a business services firm. Its two-page website provides no insight into its operations or staff. “Something great is on its way,” the top of the site’s main page reads in English. Its other page is an extensive privacy policy.
At three of its listed Sao Paulo offices, receptionists told the AP that the company’s offices are empty and employees work remotely. Neither Conceição nor BR4Business returned multiple phone calls and emails from the AP.
There is nothing illegal or suspect about using a company like BR4Business for legal representation, but it shows that X is doing the bare minimum to operate in the country, said Fabio de Sa e Silva, a lawyer and associate professor of International and Brazilian Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
“It doesn’t demonstrate an intention to truly engage with the country. Take Meta, for example, and Google. They have an office, a government relations department, precisely to interact with public authorities and discuss Brazil’s regulatory policies concerning their businesses,” Silva added.
Indeed, it is rare for an established, influential company such as X to have only a legal representative, said Carlos Affonso Souza, a lawyer and director of the Institute for Technology and Society, a Rio-based think tank. And that could be problematic going forward.
“The concern now is what comes next and how X, once back in operation, will manage to meet the demands of the market and local authorities without creating new tensions,” he said.
Some of Brazilian X’s users have migrated to other platforms, such as Meta’s Threads and, primarily, Bluesky. It’s unclear how many of them will return to X. In a statement to the AP, Bluesky reported that it now has 10.6 million users and continues to see strong growth in Brazil. Bluesky has appointed a legal representative in the South American country.
Brazil was not the first country to ban X — far from it — but such a drastic step has generally been limited to authoritarian regimes. The platform and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest.
X’s dustup with Brazil has some parallels to the company’s dealings with the Indian government three years ago, back when it was still called Twitter and before Musk purchased it for $44 billion. In 2021, India threatened to arrest employees of Twitter (as well as Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp), for not complying with the government’s requests to take down posts related to farmers’ protests that rocked the country.
Musk’s decision to reverse course in Brazil after publicly criticizing de Moraes isn’t surprising, said Matteo Ceurvels, research firm Emarketer’s analyst for Latin America and Spain.
“The move was pragmatic, likely driven by the economic consequences of losing access to millions of users in its third-largest market worldwide, along with the millions of dollars in associated advertising revenue,” Ceurvels said. “Although X may not be a top priority for most advertisers in Brazil, the platform needs them more than they need it.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California tenants who held Section 8 housing vouchers were refused rental contracts by more than 200 landlords, including major real estate firms, according to an undercover investigation that found widespread discrimination in the state.
The investigative nonprofit Housing Rights Initiative announced Tuesday that it has filed complaints with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging landlords violated a state law against denying leases to renters who pay with vouchers. It seeks penalties against 203 companies and individuals.
The nonprofit is also pushing for more state funding to adequately enforce the law, which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2019.
“This historic filing serves as an opportunity for the Governor and his housing enforcement agency to enforce the very bill he signed into law and hold violators accountable,” the Housing Rights Initiative said in a statement.
Newsom’s office referred comment on the filing to the state Civil Rights Department. Rishi Khalsa, a department spokesperson, said the agency is “deeply committed to using the tools at its disposal to combat discrimination in housing.” The department has reached more than 200 settlements related to similar discrimination in recent years, Khalsa said.
“We always welcome additional support to strengthen enforcement of civil rights and we continue to work with a range of partners in those efforts,” he said in an email Tuesday.
The goal of the Section 8 program, named for a component of the federal Housing Act, is to keep rental properties affordable and prevent homelessness, which has reached crisis levels in California. Under the program, which has a long waiting list, tenants typically pay about 30% of their income on rent, with the voucher covering the rest.
Over the course of a year, undercover investigators posing as prospective tenants reached out via text messages to landlords, property managers and real estate agents to determine compliance with California’s fair housing laws. The investigation found voucher holders were explicitly discriminated against 44% of the time in San Francisco. Voucher denials took place in 53% of cases in Oakland, 58% in San Jose, and 70% in Los Angeles.
In one text message exchange, an agent with EXP Realty, a national brokerage firm, tells an investigator posing as a prospective tenant that utilities are included in the monthly rate for a rental unit. When informed that the tenant has a Section 8 voucher, the agent responds, “I don’t work with that program,” according to the investigation.
In another exchange, a broker with Sotheby’s International Realty replies to an investigator posing as a hopeful renter, “Oh sorry, owner not accepting Section 8.”
Representatives for EXP and Sotheby’s didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to emails seeking comment on the claims.
Kate Liggett, program director of Housing Rights Initiative, estimates the filing represents just a fraction of discrimination against Section 8 tenants in California.
“By exposing this widespread and harmful practice, we call on the State to provide agencies like the California Civil Rights Department with the resources they need to eradicate voucher discrimination once and for all,” Liggett said in a statement.
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate court is reviewing a civil rights lawsuit alleging a south Louisiana parish engaged in racist land-use policies to place polluting industries in majority-Black communities.
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments on Monday for a lawsuit filed by community groups claiming St. James Parish “intentionally discriminated against Black residents” by encouraging industrial facilities to be built in areas with predominantly Black populations “while explicitly sparing White residents from the risk of environmental harm.”
The groups, Inclusive Louisiana, Rise St. James and Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, seek a halt to future industrial development in the parish. They say they have suffered health impacts from pollution, diminished property values and violations of religious liberty as a result of the parish’s land use system.
The plaintiffs say that 20 of the 24 industrial facilities were in two sections of the parish with majority-Black populations when they filed the complaint in March 2023.
The parish is located along a heavily industrialized stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, known as the Chemical Corridor, often referred to by environmental groups as “Cancer Alley” because of the high levels of suspected cancer-causing pollution emitted there.
The lawsuit comes as the federal government has taken steps during the Biden administration to address the legacy of environmental racism. Federal officials have written stricter environmental protections and committed tens of billions of dollars in funding.
“The decisions made in this courtroom will resonate far beyond our borders, impacting frontline communities nationwide who are yearning for acknowledgment and accountability,” said Shamell Lavigne, a St. James Parish resident and a leader with Rise St. James, a local environmental justice organization. “We are advocating for our future and the wellbeing of our children.”
In November 2023, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana had dismissed the lawsuit against St. James Parish largely on procedural grounds, ruling the plaintiffs had filed their lawsuit too late. But he added, “this Court cannot say that their claims lack a basis in fact or rely on a meritless legal theory.”
Barbier had accepted the parish’s argument that the lawsuit hinged on its 2014 land-use plan, which generally shielded white neighborhoods from industrial development and left majority-Black neighborhoods, schools and churches without the same protections. The plan also described largely Black sections of the parish as “future industrial” sites, a classification described by the plaintiffs as a form of “racial cleansing.”
Regardless, the plaintiffs had missed the legal window to sue the parish by not filing their lawsuit within one year after the land-use plan was formalized, as required by statute of limitations laws, the judge had ruled.
During the appeals hearing, Fifth Circuit Court Judge Catharina Haynes said that the argument raised by the parish “basically makes it sound like if you didn’t sue within a year, well, heck, you can be discriminated against in a bunch of different ways for the rest of eternity.”
Carroll Devillier, Jr., a lawyer representing the parish, responded that residents had already had the opportunity to challenge the 2014 land use plan when it was being formulated. He also said the plaintiffs “have nothing” to prove they suffered from harms from discrimination in the year before they filed their lawsuit in March 2023.
Haynes also observed that parish officials, including those representing majority Black areas, had voted to support the 2014 land-use plan. “Why would you vote to discriminate against yourself?” she asked.
Pamela Spees, a lawyer for the Center of Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs, said the land-use plan could be approved by government officials but still reinforce discrimination.
After the hearing, Spees said that the approval of the land use plan had to be understood in the context of ongoing structural racism.
At its core, the lawsuit alleges civil rights violations under the 13th and 14th amendments, stating the land-use system in the parish allowing for industrial buildout primarily in majority-Black communities remains shaped by the history of slavery, white supremacy and Jim Crow laws and governance.
The parish’s 2014 land use plan is just one piece of evidence among many revealing persistent and ongoing discrimination by the parish, Spees said.
As evidence of more recent alleged discrimination, the lawsuit highlights the parish’s decision in August 2022 to impose a moratorium on large solar complexes after a proposed 3,900-acre (1,580-hectare) solar project upset residents of the mostly white neighborhood of Vacherie, who expressed concerns about lowering property values and debris from storms. The parish did not take up a request for a moratorium on heavy industrial expansion raised by the plaintiffs, the lawsuit states.
The parish’s lawyer, Devillier, Jr., told judges the solar moratorium had applied to the entire parish and that the plaintiffs’ request for a moratorium on industrial expansion, which initially came in the form of a letter sent by the plaintiffs in 2019, was “never formally considered” by the parish.
The lawsuit also argues the parish failed to identify and protect the likely hundreds of burial sites of enslaved people by allowing industrial facilities to build on and limit access to the areas, preventing the descendants of slaves from memorializing the sites. The federal judge tossed out that part of the lawsuit, noting the sites were on private property not owned by the parish.
Lawyers for St. James Parish have said the lawsuit employed overreaching claims and “inflammatory rhetoric.” Victor J. Franckiewicz, who has served as special counsel to St. James Parish for land-use matters since 2013, declined to comment after the hearing. St. James Parish did not respond to a request for comment.
“How can a judge rule a statute of limitations on clean air, clean water and clean soil? There should be none,” said Gail LeBoeuf, 72, a life-long St. James resident and a plaintiff in the case who co-founded Inclusive Louisiana.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for certain cancer deaths. Both majority Black sections of the parish are ranked as having a high risk of cancer from toxic pollutants according to an EPA screening tool based on emissions reported by nearby facilities, the complaint noted.
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Jack Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Gang members attacked a small town in central Haiti early Thursday, killing more than 20 people, including children, according to a human rights group.
Another 50 people were injured as the Gran Grif gang burned homes and cars in the town of Pont-Sondé, said Bertide Harace, spokeswoman for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.
“A lot of people ran and left the area,” she told Radio Kiskeya.
A video posted on social media shows a group of people fleeing through the brush, with one woman who was out of breath saying, “Nowhere to go. Nowhere to go.” In another video, dozens of people start running through a street after hearing rumors that the gang was approaching.
Harace and others criticized police in the nearby coastal city of Saint-Marc, saying they did not mobilize to help people being attacked in Pont-Sondé.
Venson François, a government prosecutor based in Saint-Marc, called the attack a “massacre” in an interview with Radio Caraïbes.
Dozens of people crowded around a hospital in Saint-Marc where the injured were taken, with one man telling reporters that local authorities are not doing enough to protect people.
The attack in Pont-Sondé was blamed on the Gran Grif gang. It operates in the central Artibonite region, and experts have described it as one of Haiti’s cruelest gangs. It has gained control of more territory since 2022 under the leadership of Luckson Elan, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department last month.
In January 2023, the Gran Grif gang was accused of attacking a police station in Liancourt, located near Pont-Sondé, and killing at least six officers. Violence unleashed by the gang also forced the closure of a hospital in February 2023 that serves more than 700,000 people.
Former Haitian legislator Prophane Victor, who represented the Artibonite department, began arming young men who eventually formed the Gran Grif gang to secure his election and control over the area, according to a U.N. report. The U.S. also sanctioned Victor last month.
The gang has about 100 members and has been accused of crimes including murder, rape, robberies and kidnappings, according to the report.
While most of the gang violence is concentrated in the capital of Port-au-Prince, it has spread in recent years to the Artibonite region, where much of Haiti’s food is produced.
LOS ANGELES – As the world gets a little warmer and we settle into the Spring season, the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is proud to announce the return of our Youth Baseball and Softball Leagues for the Spring 2023 season.
BASEBALL & SOFTBALL ARE BACK!
Sign up for our Spring Sports Leagues, Coming to an LA County Parks Near You!
Baseball season is right around the corner, now’s the perfect time to sign up your young athletes for our Youth Baseball Leagues! Our Baseball Leagues will provide an emphasis on learning fundamentals of Baseball, skill development, sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun. League will run for 10 weeks and consist of one weekday practice and one game every Saturday. Game score and league standing will be kept. Rules will be enforced. Registration fee will include uniform, award, and umpire. Qualifying teams will advance and participate in the playoffs.
Girl’s Softball League will provide an emphasis on learning fundamentals of Softball, skill development, sportsmanship, teamwork, and fun. League will run for 10 weeks and consist of one weekday practice and one game every Saturday. Game score and league standing will be kept. Softball rules will be enforced. Registration fee will include uniform, award, and umpire. Qualifying teams will be advance and participate in the playoffs.
Divisions & Dates
D3 – D6: April 15 – June 12
AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING PARKS DIVISIONS 3 – 6
NORTH AGENCY
George Lane Park: 5520 W. Avenue, L-8, Quartz Hill, 93534 | (661) 722 7780
Through an exciting partnership with the Dodgers Foundation, Dodgers Dreamteam (formerly Dodgers RBI) brings the sport of Baseball and Softball at a lower price! The goal of DDT is to provide an inclusive, barrier-free sports-based youth development program for communities that have historically been left out of consideration.
Divisions & Dates:
April 15 – June 12
Divisions 3 – 6
AVAILABLE AT THE FOLLOWING PARKS
EAST AGENCY
Belvedere Park: 4914 E. Cesar Chavez Ave. Los Angeles, 90022 | (323) 260 2342
Obregon Park: 4021 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90063 | (323) 260 2344
