A new study suggests children near oil and gas wells are 5-7 times more likely to develop lymphoma.

After dozens of childhood cancer cases surfaced in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 2019, state health officials embarked on a multi-study project to determine whether the region’s boom in oil and gas extraction might be to blame. This week, the results of that work are in: Epidemiologists at the University of Pittsburgh, which was contracted to do the research, found evidence that minors living close to fracking sites are over 5 times more likely to develop a rare type of childhood cancer. They also found a greatly increased risk of asthma attacks and lowered birth weights.

The eight counties that make up Southwestern Pennsylvania comprise one of the nation’s most important fossil fuel-producing regions. Much of the state’s natural gas is buried thousands of feet beneath the earth, under sheets of fine-grained rock known as shale. These once-inaccessible fuel reserves were unlocked in the early 2000s with the widespread adoption of fracking, a method of fuel extraction that involves injecting huge volumes of water and other chemicals underground to shatter bedrock and free up oil and gas reserves. The number of fracking wells has increased more than tenfold over the last two decades, and Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in the number of wells it contains.

While previous research has identified numerous chemicals used in fracking as capable of causing cancer — among them formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, benzene, and ethylene oxide — the science that actually links fracking directly to adverse public health outcomes is still coming into view. This week’s studies helped to fill this gap by using existing medical records from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The authors analyzed cancer incidence data from 2010 through 2019, which included 498 total cases in children born and diagnosed in the eight-county study area. Of the four types of cancer analyzed, they found significant evidence that children living within five miles of an active oil and gas well were 5 to 7 times more likely to develop lymphoma. They did not find evidence that the other three childhood cancers — leukemia, brain tumors, and bone cancers — were associated with proximity to oil and gas development.

However, James Fabisiak, an author on all three studies that were released this week, said that doesn’t mean a connection to those cancers can be ruled out. A separate state-wide study from Yale University last year found a link between fracking and a subtype of leukemia in children aged 2 to 7.

“In any scientific study like this, you always have some uncertainty about the negative result,” Fabisiak told Grist. “If I had more patients, if I had more sample size, might I find a statistically significant difference?”

The researchers wanted to understand how each phase of the fracking process affects the health of nearby residents. Before workers start injecting fluid into the earth, they often have to clear sites, build roads, and drill deep crevices in the ground. The subsequent fracking phase of the process is typically short, lasting only about three to five days, while the production phase, when fuel is actually extracted from the ground, takes much longer — from a few weeks to decades.

The studies analyzed records of more than 46,000 patients, aged 5 through 90, over the past two years, and found that people with asthma are 4 to 5 times more likely to have an asthma attack if they live near a fracking well during production. The researchers also connected this phase of the fracking process to lower birth weights. On average, babies born to people living near oil wells during the production process were 1 ounce smaller at birth. (The researchers noted that such a difference does not usually pose a significant health risk.)

Fabisiak said that he found the findings of the asthma study to be most troubling, given how widespread the condition is — more than 25 million Americans have asthma.

“I have a son who grew up with asthma, and I know the burden of what that particular disease has on an individual in a family,” he said.

The studies were not able to identify what particular hazard connected with fracking caused the adverse health effects that they observed in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but it builds on research documenting the relationship between fossil fuel development and asthma and birth defects in other parts of the world. It’s well-known that flaring, a practice that involves burning off unwanted gas, can generate substantial air pollution, and that the chemicals used in fracking, if not properly extracted and disposed of, can leak into the soil and groundwater, exposing nearby residents for prolonged periods. Fabisiak said that drawing a direct link between those hazards and poor health outcomes should be the work of future studies.

A slew of Antioch and Pittsburg officers were arrested following an FBI probe into civil rights violations and investigation tampering.

Nine officers across two police departments in East Bay, Calif. were arrested by FBI agents Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. Of those officers were the slimy Antioch cops exposed for calling Black people gorillas, n-words and all types of degrading insults in their texts.

Over 100 FBI agents were deployed to arrest current and former officers from the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments, according to KRON4 News. The 30-page federal indictment accuses the group of crimes including college degree benefit fraud and violating the civil rights of civilians. As if the APD isn’t in enough hell upon the state and federal probes into their employees’ bigoted banter, two of them were accused of slinging anabolic steroids. They were also accused of trying to destroy the evidence. Another APD cop, Morteza Amiri, was accused of excessive force for deploying his K-9 on 28 people and then saving images of the bloody dog bites in his camera roll.

At this point, what haven’t they been accused of?

cw: graphic violence

Eric Rombough, Devon Wenger and Mortez Amiri have been accused of conspiring to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate” residents in Antioch, a city of roughly 114,000 people located 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, according to a 30-page indictment filed in federal court in California’s Northern District.

In a 2020 text, Wenger told Amiri that they needed to “go 3 nights in a row dog bite!!!” Amiri emphasized the message, according to the indictment, and Wenger replied with a homophobic slur about a senior officer, saying they should give the lieutenant “something to stress out about lol.”

In another text that year, Amiri sent Wenger eight graphic images of people with dog bites and described the work week as “very eventful,” according to the indictment.

Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who was a target of the racist police messages, issued a statement in response to the arrest calling it a “dark day” for the city.

“People trusted to uphold the law allegedly breached that trust and were arrested by the FBI. Today’s actions are the beginning of the end of a long and arduous process. Today’s arrests are demonstrative of the issues that have plagued the Antioch Police Department for decades,” he said.

Simultaneously, the Contra Costa DA’s office, FBI and California Attorney General’s Office are investigating the officers involved. Over the past 2 two years of the probes, nearly half the Antioch Police Department was accused of something. More arrests could be on the way.

Replace the word stop with keep whenever applicable

The future is here, robots are out here parking our cars, cleaning our floors, and now delivery food and groceries to communities across America. But if we’re to succeed in this new robot-run world, we need to learn to live with our autonomous friends, and not keep robbing the little delivery robots.

Because that’s what’s happening in some communities that have started rolling out delivery robots to carry out grocery runs and drop off takeout orders. According to Autoweek, businesses in Los Angeles and Greenville, NC, have reported thefts from their delivery bots.

The LA delivery robots operate across West Hollywood and were built by a company called Serve Robotics. So far, operators in the area have reported the theft of goods from these robots, such as food. As Autoweek reports:

Early on delivery robot developers have tried to allay commercial customers’ concerns over the potential for theft from robots, showcasing locked compartments and plenty of surveillance tech on the robots themselves, in addition to loud sirens. After a honeymoon period of sorts early on in the pandemic where robots were generally left alone, this is no longer the case, and sirens aren’t stopping acts of theft and vandalism in all cases.

The robberies aren’t limited to California, and reports have also emerged of vandalism affecting GrubHub robots operating on the East Carolina University campus in Greenville, NC. There, robots have been found flipped upside down and have even been discovered in a creek.

In order to protect the bots, they are equipped with all manner of surveillance tech. But actually prosecuting people for stealing from these machines is proving much trickier than it is for people who shoplift from a physical store.

Despite the crimes falling under the same legislation for theft and vandalism, Autoweek reports that the low priority for police forces investigating such incidents means prosecution for these crimes remains unlikely.

Still, while the spate of robberies appears to be spreading, robot operators across the country say their little worker bots are still managing to hit a 99.9% delivery completion rate.

He was only arrested after multiple officers showed up to the scene.

Public urination is never a good idea, but arresting an innocent child for doing something like that is maybe taking the law a little too seriously. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to a 10 year old in Mississippi, Fox Memphis reports.

On August 10th, Latonya Eason stopped by an attorney’s office in Senatobia, MS for some legal advice. Her two children, a daughter and her 10 year old son Quantavious, waited in the car while she was in the office. At some point, Quantavious needed to use the restroom, so he got out of the car and went to pee behind it. At the same time, a Senatobia Police officer just happened to be passing by and caught the kid peeing behind the car.

But it was no biggie; Latonya said the officer was just going to give them a warning: “I was like son, why did you do that? He said, ‘Mom, my sister said they don’t have a bathroom there.’ I was like you knew better, you should have come and asked me if they had a restroom. [The officer] was like you handled it like a mom. He can get back in the car,” she said to Fox Memphis. It wasn’t a big deal — until other officers became involved.

Eason said several other officers showed up, including a lieutenant who said that Quantavious had to be arrested and taken to jail for peeing. Eason admits her son shouldn’t have peed, but she says arresting him over it was doing too much.

“No, him urinating in the parking lot was not right, but at the same time I handled it like a parent, and for one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car, it was okay, and to have the other pull up and take him to jail? Like no. I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a ten year old kid?” she said.

Quantavious said he was scared and started shaking when the officers took him to jail. Once there, they held him in a cell, charged him with “child in need of services” and then released him to his mother.

keep reading : https://jalopnik.com/police-arrested-10-year-old-peeing-behind-his-moms-car-1850752223

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has a reckless plan for achieving U.S. global dominance: giving away other countries’ territory.

Ramaswamy is already under fire for his objectively terrible plan to let China invade Taiwan after 2028 if he were elected. Now, the presidential hopeful thinks that Russia should be allowed to keep the parts of Ukraine it currently occupies.

“Our goal should not be for Putin to lose. Our goal should be for America to win,” Ramaswamy told CNN Thursday night.

Ramaswamy said that U.S. involvement in Ukraine is strengthening the Russia–China military alliance—and the only way to break that alliance and bring Russia around to the American side is to give Vladimir Putin what he wants.

“I would freeze the current lines of control, and that would leave parts of the Donbas region with Russia,” Ramaswamy explained. “I would also further make a commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. But there are even greater wins that I will get for the United States.”

Ramaswamy seems to be under multiple false impressions with this diplomatic plan, the first being that the United States has the authority to simply give away parts of another sovereign nation. He also appears to believe that if he visits Moscow, he can single-handedly buddy up to Putin enough to convince the Russian leader to drop a highly advantageous military alliance.

And as anchor Jim Acosta rightly pointed out, Putin is unlikely to stop with Ukraine. He wasn’t satisfied with annexing Crimea in 2014 and now wants all of Ukraine. If he is allowed to keep parts of Ukraine, it’s possible that he’ll try to invade somewhere else such as Poland, a NATO member—which would require military intervention from the rest of the members.

This plan is just as bad as Ramaswamy’s strategy for Taiwan. Earlier this week, Ramaswamy proposed letting China take over Taiwan after 2028, which he believes is when the U.S. would build up its own supply of semiconductors. Taiwan produces about 60 percent of the global supply of semiconductors, which are microchips crucial to making all electronic devices.

Ramaswamy said he intends to dramatically up the firepower around Taiwan during his first term, to make clear to Beijing that they should “not mess” with the island until the U.S. has semiconductor independence. After that, China can do whatever it wants. It did not seem to occur to him that China would likely interpret these moves as acts of aggression and respond in kind. Nor does he seem to realize that it’s highly unlikely China would listen to his proposed arrangement.

But despite his only campaign points being battling “wokeness,” taking away rights, and, apparently, allowing authoritarian governments to do whatever they want, Ramaswamy is somehow rising in the polls.

A year after the far-right Mises Caucus took over the Libertarian Party, its membership and financial numbers are down. Some state parties, including New Mexico, Virginia and Massachusetts, have splintered or disaffiliated from the national party. Leaked documents Hatewatch obtained show the Libertarian National Committee is squabbling and worried that their takeover is “turning into a disaster.”

Members of the national Libertarian Party (LP) leadership board for months have squabbled and aired concerns about the LP’s challenges under the leadership of the far-right Mises Caucus (MC), according to a cache of leaked documents Hatewatch obtained.

The leak contains hundreds of pages of text messages, group chats and confidential memos between members of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC). Hatewatch received the leak from John Hudak, a libertarian critic of the MC.

Members of the LNC, which steers the national party, have acknowledged the leak in publicly available communications.

The leak appears to come from Miguel Duque, an MC-affiliated LNC representative from Washington state. In a document titled, “START HERE The Takeover has failed by Miguel and Anna Johnson Duque,” Duque’s wife appears to detail their reasons for leaking the documents. Metadata suggests the Duques created the document on Aug. 13. The departure of Lainie Huston, the former interim executive director of the LP, who announced she was leaving her position on July 31 after internal conflicts, appears to have motivated the couple in part. The documents include memos, Discord group chats and text messages between the Duques and LNC members.

The Duques blamed the LNC’s failures on a “lack of vision, which leads back to” LNC chair Angela McArdle. Miguel Duque is still on the LNC, and the documents suggest he and his wife are concerned with staffing issues and a slow response to challenges the LP has faced over fundraising and membership. The Duques claimed these challenges are made worse by the LNC’s inability to obtain “functional data” through software “tools.” The documents detail concerns about CiviCRM, a nonprofit donor fundraising software and internal conflicts between LNC members.

The MC won control of the LP’s national governing body at its national convention held in Reno, Nevada, in 2022. McArdle won the position of chair of the LNC with over 69% of the vote that year. MC candidates won two-thirds of LNC positions at the convention. MC members considered the victory a “takeover” and called it the “Reno Reset.”

“We believe the massive opportunity of the Takeover / Reno Reset has thus far been utterly squandered, that this Party is being severely injured by the avoidable mistakes by leadership outlined here,” the Duque’s document states.

McArdle and others lauded their victory as a turn from what they viewed as left-wing management by the LP’s former LNC. The new leaders stripped the LP’s platform of its pro-abortion rights plank and began posting pro-secession rhetoric. They also stripped the platform of its plank that condemned bigotry as “irrational and repugnant.”

After Hatewatch published an article about the MC’s far-right rhetoric and ties, members of the newly formed LNC attempted to pass a resolution condemning the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “irrational and repugnant.” The resolution failed.

When asked for comment, Miguel Duque responded that he condemns the SPLC “as irrational and repugnant,” referencing the failed resolution. However, in a text message to McArdle contained in the leak, Anna Johnson Duque said she was “secretly thrilled” the resolution failed due to internal LNC politics.

McArdle and others thought the turn to far-right rhetoric and the MC’s management would appeal to Libertarians, who McArdle believed were “far more right leaning” than the MC. McArdle said during a debate for the position of LNC chair that the MC would “make this [party] functional and not embarrassing for you.”

The leaked documents show McArdle has waning confidence in the Reno Reset. “The takeover is turning into a disaster,” McArdle said in a confidential memo from May that the leak contains. “Members have asked me what we are doing. We spend lots of time in executive session, dealing with lawsuits and personnel issues,” she wrote in the memo, titled “LNC Dysfunction - Is There A Realistic Path Forward?”

The memo does not explicitly state the nature of the lawsuits. The LNC has filed one lawsuit against the eight Michigan Libertarian candidates over their use of the LP trademark after a leadership dispute in that state. The candidates ran separately from the LP.

The LP has further lost state affiliates. New Mexico and Virginia both disaffiliated, though the LP organized new parties in both states. Massachusetts has two Libertarian parties: One controlled by the MC and another that splintered over concerns about the MC’s far-right rhetoric. Pennsylvania has the Keystone Party, which libertarians formed after they saw the LP as “veering too hard to the right.”

McArdle also aired concerns over the LP’s finances. Publicly available monthly reports that LNC officials prepare have showed that membership and financials have taken a sustained a steady fall since the MC took over. According to the June 2023 membership report, the LP’s “sustaining members” – those who have donated at least $25 in the 12 preceding months, according to the LP’s bylaws – have dropped to slightly over 14,000. This was a 6.5% drop from the preceding month, and a drop of nearly 3,000 since Dec. 2022.

“In the face of financial challenges, we have lost the purpose and vision of what we set out to do and are thrashing around like a drowning person. It is very hard to save someone who is thrashing about,” McArdle wrote in the document.

McArdle echoed the Duques and said the LP’s staff say their “main fundraising tool and data are a disaster.”

When asked for comment about the leak and her remarks in the memo, McArdle said: “We’re in an excellent place right now, we’re going to kick ass in 2024, and prove wrong the depraved vultures who pay attention to this sort of gossip.”

The Duques wrote, “Fundraising and membership are down for various reasons, and the data is so wrecked that it’s very difficult to objectively pinpoint the real reasons or the severity.”

Hatewatch asked Holly Ward, the former chair of the Virginia Libertarian Party that disaffiliated, what she believed to be the reason for the drop in funds and members.

After seeing portions of the leaked material, Ward told Hatewatch it “is clear that even the Mises Caucus knows that what they set out to accomplish has failed, as any movement built on hatred and division is destined to fail.”

She concluded: “They have, for a time, been able to lie to their supporters about this fact, but their internal conversations make clear they are no longer able to lie to themselves.”

Stonewall was a riot — but in some cities, Pride officials have banned “political” groups and welcomed cops. Now activists are organizing radical Pride marches to show that Pride is a protest, not just a party.

In 2016, Toronto was preparing for its annual Pride march. For the first time, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, would attend alongside the thousands in the parade, with Black Lives Matter (BLM) as guests of honor. But BLM was angry, after years of seeing Blockorama — the only Pride month event for black queers — moved further from the march, even as police were welcomed at the parade. Objecting to their presence, BLM blocked the march for thirty minutes.

This cop involvement especially mattered because Toronto Pride had first begun in 1981 as a protest against a police raid on four bathhouses in the city. That February, officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers had arrested over two hundred fifty gay men in “Operation Soap.” Black activists who participated in that first Pride were back in 2016 and were joined by both younger protesters and indigenous drummers in bringing the march to a halt. Faced with the protests, Toronto Pride’s executive director, Mathieu Chantelois, signed off on BLM’s demand not to allow the police to return in future — but then backtracked, claiming he had only done so to get the march moving again. After widespread criticism, Chantelois resigned; next time around, the police float was noticeably absent.

Toronto is hardly the only city where police have joined Pride. In a similar action in Britain last year, activists from Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSM) broke through the barriers at London’s Pride march to stage a die-in. Holding funeral bouquets and draped in pink veils, they held up the march for twenty-three minutes — one minute for each person that had died in police custody since 2020 — to protest metropolitan police officers joining the parade.

One participant in the protest, Ink, explains, “I watched friends cheer on the police at London Pride, despite understanding their role in oppressing queer people. In the wake of Black Lives Matter, the presence of police at pride became especially unconscionable and we felt it was important to reclaim Pride as a space hostile to the presence of the state and its violence.”

Criticisms of mainstream Pride, made by queer participants like Ink who would prefer to see it returned to its roots in protest, have been bubbling under the surface for years. In 2001, Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist who cofounded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries alongside fellow Stonewall riots veteran Marsha P. Johnson, called modern Pride “a big smokescreen.” Baulking at how corporations use Pride to present themselves as virtuous — what we now call pinkwashing — she mourned a modern Pride that only believes in the “almighty dollar,” stating “this is no longer my Pride.”

Gay rights have progressed, but activists still debate assimilation versus liberation — whether queer people should adapt to the norms and values of wider society or else change society to one that doesn’t privilege certain queer identities. Indeed, as Pride events have become mainstream, so too have certain versions of fitting in. Equality for some LGBTQ people means the freedom to marry, adopt kids, or even to get a well-paying job at an arms company with the same rights and protections as a straight colleague. That is lauded as progress whilst queers who can’t — or don’t want to — obey such norms continue to be marginalized.

Corporations and the state use diversity and inclusivity in this way to wash themselves clean. At this year’s Pride in Washington DC, arms industry giant Lockheed Martin drove a sponsored float through the city, much to the disgust of socialists and queer activists. This year in London, big oil was the target of protests as activists picketed the annual LGBTQ awards sponsored by BP, Shell, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Santander, Amazon, and Nestlé. Days later, this July 1, five activists from Just Stop Oil were arrested after jumping in front of BP’s float and halting London’s Pride parade, reminding onlookers that there will be no pride on a dead planet.

In recent years, Reclaim Pride groups sharing these criticisms of contemporary Pride celebrations have sprung up from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Oslo, Norway, and New York City. Some groups have tried to reclaim Pride by protesting, as BLM and LGSM have. Others have chosen opt out and create their own celebrations that stay true to Pride’s roots in a riot against police violence.

In 2019, as preparations were underway for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, activists in New York City organized an opposing Queer Liberation March instead. The official parade ran for twelve hours because there were so many corporate floats, notes Paul Nocera from New York’s Reclaim Pride Coalition. He told Jacobin how activists had become disillusioned with Pride — and the way acceptable queerness was policed by letting in some people and shutting out others: “The barricades don’t just contain people, they set up an entertainment dynamic where the people on one side are the audience and the people on the inside are the entertainment. This is a march, we’re not the entertainment,” he explains. “It really gives so much control over the message, the method, the anger. All the aspects of what we’re trying to do in our march get squashed . . . the cops want to have a march that doesn’t mean anything, that doesn’t make any complaints.”

For activists in New York, it was important to have a protest with radical politics to mark the anniversary. Each year since, they have held one on the same day as New York’s official Pride parade. Sometimes — Nocera told me — he gets disillusioned and exhausted, “It’s really tough because we do this every year and I don’t see anything changing — so what the hell are we marching for? But I was reminded that this is the moment when the community gathers together and link arms. Whether were faced outward and yelling and screaming or faced inward and having a teary eye, it’s still the gathering of the community, and that’s hugely important,” says Nocera. “To not have a march, to not have any radical gathering of people and spirits, that would be a huge loss.”

Over in England, Sheffield Radical Pride (SRP) took things a step further and organized the city’s only Pride march this year, scheduled for July 22 to coincide with Tramlines music festival when tens of thousands descended on the city. In 2018, the previous organizers declared the event was a march of “celebration, not protest.” They banned political groups from taking part and demanded banners and placards be inspected for approval to avoid causing offense. This sparked outrage from many in the queer community, who criticized Pride Sheffield for conveniently forgetting the previous fifty years of history. Since the pandemic, Sheffield has struggled to organize a Pride and 2023 marks the third year the council has not funded one.

Over winter, a group of young, largely transgender activists started conversations about how their organizing could reach the wider city and decided they should step in and organize this year’s event. They want to turn Pride back into a street movement they hope those at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 could be proud of. A month before the march, SRP announced cops and corporations were banned. “It’s exciting and it’s fun . . . I’m glad that we have the opportunity to make Sheffield’s only Pride one that is genuinely radical and one that is free of corporations and cops,” says Alex, one of the organizers.

This year, the theme for the Queer Liberation March in New York was “Trans + Queer; Forever Here!” Nocera says trans people have been at the forefront of organizing the march for years, but they felt in 2023 trans liberation needed special attention. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is currently tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States, and a large number of those attack trans people in various ways such as limiting their access to health care and preventing social transition or education about trans people in schools. Some have already passed laws attempting to limit drag performances and prevent cross-dressing. In New York, where trans people led the Stonewall riots, Nocera says the focus of this year’s march has given a sense of “continuing the legacy of Stonewall which is protest, resistance and resilience as a community.”

Organizers of Sheffield’s trans-led march have also seen the recent attacks on the trans and queer community from both far-right street mobilization and the UK government. One of the recent attacks from the British state came from the Tories’ so-called equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch. In April, she announced plans to change the legal definition of “sex,” which could see the trans community lose vital rights and protections.

For the trans community, pride has to be a protest — because pretending they can safely celebrate their identity simply isn’t an option. Across the UK, grassroots Trans Pride marches have appeared, with the largest held annually in London. Another of their organizers, Matt, tells me that the vitriol targeted at trans people is the first step to revoking everyone’s rights: “This pushback and backlash against trans rights is a gateway to repealing more equalities and targeting more minorities. It’s being done by some people in the name of feminism and women’s rights but really, these people are partnering with fascists.” He adds, “Rights aren’t this permanent thing once you’ve achieved them — they can also go away.”

In making Sheffield Pride a protest, Matt and Alex hope honest conversations can be had about queer liberation and the challenges it faces: “We’re not putting on this façade about how everyone’s super-accepting and how some company is going to sell you products and hire you and therefore homophobia is over,” says Matt. “We’re not going to radicalize everyone who comes. But we can tell people how it is for queer people now and we can’t be silenced through threats over funding or permissions.”

As groups like Sheffield Radical Pride and the Reclaim Pride Coalition continue organizing marches, we can hope Pride is slowly returning to something Sylvia Rivera might recognize — and be proud of.

US. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday said her country’s government should declassify documents related to its role in the violent 1973 overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, nearly five decades ago.

“It’s very important to frame the history of what happened here in Chile with Pinochet’s dictatorship. And also to acknowledge and reflect on the role of the United States in those events,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a video conversation with Camila Vallejo, a spokesperson for the Chilean government.

“The transparency of the United States could present an opportunity for a new phase in our relationship between the United States and Chile,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who led a congressional delegation to Chile and other Latin American nations — an effort sponsored by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The Nixon administration was closely involved in efforts to prevent Allende, a democratic socialist, from assuming power in 1970 and in the subsequent overthrow of the Chilean government on September 11, 1973. The CIA has acknowledged that it “actively supported” the viciously repressive military junta led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who was later arrested and indicted for human rights violations.

While some U.S. documents related to the Chile coup have been declassified, Ocasio-Cortez has called for the declassification of “all information” at the State Department, the CIA, and the Pentagon detailing U.S. involvement in the coup.

In July, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an amendment to the annual U.S. military policy bill that would have aimed to declassify the documents, but the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee blocked the amendment from receiving a vote.

“It’s time for the U.S. to acknowledge its history of contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America,” the New York Democrat said at the time. “To reset this relationship, we must take full, public responsibility for our historical role — and demonstrate with our present actions that we will not support human rights abuses.”

Ocasio-Cortez and fellow lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), are now set to travel to Colombia.

In a statement earlier this week, Casar noted that “U.S. foreign policy has too often contributed to instability in Latin America: we should be protecting democracy rather than supporting coups, and we should be creating peace and prosperity across the Western Hemisphere rather than replaying the Cold War.”

“Now is the time to talk about our history, jointly fight the climate crisis, and invest in lasting peace,” said Casar.

Human bones from the Early Neolithic period discovered in Spain's Sierra de Atapuerca cave system's Galera del Slex cave have been studied again by researchers at the Universidad de Alcala.

The team describes their examination of the site, fossils, and context of the remains in an article titled "Early Neolithic human remains from Galera del Slex in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain" that was published in Quaternary Science Reviews. This investigation was done to piece together the history of the people who were discovered there.

For thousands of years, people have used the Galera del Slex cave. Numerous human and animal remains, 53 panels of engravings and red and black cave paintings, dozens of fire hearth ruins, and pieces of ceramic vessels may all be found in the cave.

The cave entrance was sealed just as the Bronze Age was coming to an end, creating a time capsule that survived until its discovery in 1972. Over time, a more nuanced image began to emerge, but at first the objects and remains were all assumed to date from the Bronze Age.

In the decades following discovery, 2,700 human remains were gathered from various cave regions. In addition, several hearths, the remains of torches that were placed in strategic locations, more than 6,000 ceramic fragments (at least 336 containers), tools, flint, an axe that had been polished, and 341 animal bones, mostly rabbits, were also discovered.

The remains of five people were found in the cave's two deep chasms, Sima A and Sima B.

Sima B

Three people are found in Sima B's vertical shaft, and the positioning and surroundings of the remains imply intentional placement. One person (I-1) is discovered to have all of the skeleton remains present, showing that it was thrown into the chasm just after passing away.

The others could have been moved from another area to the shaft because they are not as complete. The authors note that using the pictures of the original excavation to rebuild this location presents significant challenges.

Sima A

From the depths of Sima A, two people and six pottery vessels that were later dated to the Early Neolithic were found. The two people were initially thought to be a tragic pair of Bronze Age cave explorers who became disoriented and fell into the 15-meter-deep crevice of the Sima A features. Neolithic ceramics, on the other hand, point to an older, deliberate placement. According to the authors, this intention is consistent with the custom of 5,000–6,000 years ago, when pottery vessels were frequently left as funerary offerings in Neolithic cemeteries.

According to forensic analysis, one of the people (I-5) was a female who was 13 years old when she passed away. Her full and assembled remains were discovered resting against the far wall of the chasm floor, close to the six porcelain urns.

The other bones (I-4) were of an adult guy who was found face down and without the lower half of his skeleton, indicating that he may have been a more unfortunate explorer than the others.

Three of the remains—one from the young girl (I-5) of Sima A and two from Sima B—have undergone radiocarbon dating, which dates them to the latter half of the 6th millennium BCE, or more than 7,000 years ago, making them some of the oldest Neolithic human remains ever discovered in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. It is by more than 1,000 years the oldest Neolithic funeral site in the instance of the 13-year-old girl.

It's interesting to note that individual I-4 of the Sima A funeral site is significantly more modern, dating to just over 4,000 years old. This is consistent with the first excavation interpretation of a Bronze Age spelunker who ran into some terrible luck.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2023-08-year-old-girl-iberian-cave-early.html

China is the world’s biggest manufacturer of renewable energy equipment and is making plans for how to dispose of it once it stops working

China, the world’s biggest renewable equipment manufacturer, will set up a recycling system for ageing wind turbines and solar panels as it tries to tackle the growing volumes of waste generated by the industry, the state planner said.

China has ramped up its wind and solar manufacturing capabilities in a bid to decarbonise its economy and ease its dependence on coal, and it is now on track to meet its goal to bring total wind and solar capacity to 1,200 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, up from 758 GW at the end of last year.

But as older projects are replaced and decommissioned, waste volumes are set to soar, with large amounts of capacity already approaching retirement age, posing big environmental risks.

To cope with the challenge, China will draw up new industrial standards and rules detailing the proper ways to decommission, dismantle and recycle wind and solar facilities, the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Wednesday.

The state planning agency said that China would have a “basically mature” full-process recycling system for wind turbines and solar panels by the end of the decade.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels have a lifespan of around 25 years, and many of China’s projects are already showing significant signs of wear and tear, China’s official Science and Technology Daily newspaper said in June.

The paper cited experts as saying that China would need to recycle 1.5 million metric tons of PV modules by 2030, rising to around 20 million tons in 2050.

The problem of waste from the renewable energy sector has become a growing global concern. Total waste from solar projects alone could reach 212 million tons a year by 2050, according to one scenario drawn up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) last year.

Despite Beijing’s sponge city project, the capital was overwhelmed by recent floods with dozens dying and a new “sponge airport” shut down

Recent devastating floods in Beijing have put China’s drive to create “sponge cities” which can handle extreme rain to the test.

Since 2013, China has been trying to make cities like Beijing more flood-proof by replacing roads, pavements and rooftops with natural materials like soil that soak up water and by giving more space to water bodies like lakes to absorb stormwater.

But despite these measures, massive amounts of rainfall in recent weeks caused floods which killed at least 33 people, destroyed tens of thousands of homes and shut down the Chinese capital’s second busiest airport.

Experts told Climate Home the flooding shows the limited progress China has made on its plan to invest $1 trillion into sponge cities by 2030 – with the city still largely concrete. Sponge airport overwhelmed

Even new infrastructure, build with the sponge city concept in mind, could not cope with the rains.

Daxing airport opened a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic. Its builders described it as a “sponge airport” as it was equipped with plants on its roof, a huge wetland and an artificial lake the size of over 1,000 Olympic swimming pools.

Despite these measures, the runways flooded on July 30 and it had to cancel over 50 flights.

Waters diverted

The government tried to collect the rain in 155 reservoirs in the Hai River Basin, but the measure proved ineffective in controlling the deluge.

About 50 years ago, the basin –a natural sponge–was locked with embankments and reservoirs to manage the water flow.

In recent years though, these structures have made flooding worse as climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall. These structures lead to overflow, collapse and the authorities have blown them up to ease flooding.

Reuters reported that flood waters locked in reservoirs were diverted to low-lying populated land in Zhuozhuo, a small city around 80km from Beijing, to flush out the stormwater from the country’s national capital.

Residents of Zhuozhou were angry at the government’s response, Reuters reported. The government reacted by shutting down criticism on social media. More work needed

Experts argued that these problems show that, rather than abandoning the sponge city project, China and Beijing need to double down and make them better.

Kongjian Yu is the founder of Turenscape, a company involved in the project. He said that just “maybe 1% or 10%” of the city has been converted to a sponge city.

The government’s target is 20% by 2030. “We have a long way to go,” he said.

Yu added that sponge cities are worth doing not just because they control floods but for managing droughts and refilling groundwater supplies too.

Tony Wong, professor of sustainable development at Monash University, said that progress was always going to be slow as “it takes a long time and a lot of money” to convert a city like Beijing, with lots of people and concrete buildings crammed into a small area, into a sponge city.

More work is needed, says Wong, because Beijing and many other cities lack effective urban planning, and there is no provision for a safe channeling of extreme floodwater.

“What the city needs is the inclusion of green corridors, just like Singapore – another high-density city- has done to transport excess stormwater into low-lying areas to prevent loss of lives and property.”

If China pulls this off it could become an example for many developing countries with high-density cities struggling to control urban flooding, added Wong.

Here’s a summer story you never knew you needed: an 1895 article by Eugene Debs waxing poetic about bicycles, which he said would “liberate millions” and bring “the enrapturing panorama of nature” to all.

The mission of the bicycle is greatly underrated. Human ingenuity, in evolving the bicycle, has given man a mighty boon. It is to play a great part in the world’s affairs. It is to liberate millions from the thralldom of foul atmosphere, squalid and filthy apartments, and all the multiplicity of debauching and demoralizing conditions that make the lives of workingmen and women in manufacturing and commercial centers a continuous curse. It is to be an important factor in depopulating cities and building up the country.

It will be a mighty leveler upward and downward. The bicycle will attack the fabulous value of city real estate, distribute population, lower rent, close up the tenement den, and extinguish the sweatshop hell. It will free the inhabitants of cities from the fetid odors their overcrowded conditions generate and pour a perpetual flood of fresh air upon the race. As a matter of course working people will have them and the man who trudges to his daily toil will be an object for a relief commission.

The limits of an interview will admit only the merest glimpse of the possibilities of the bicycle. The great health-giving advantages of fresh air and exercise, will by the fiat of the bicycle, be the heritage of the race. The bicycle, not the medical profession, will triumph over disease. The wheel is on the trail of Consumption and will overtake and vanquish the remorseless destroyer. Men and women and children will all ride the bicycle and the enrapturing panorama of nature will no longer be forbidden glories to most of the race.

Of course, the bicycle is yet in embryo. The wheel of the future will revolve to suit man’s fancy and the variety, design, and capacity will be practically without limit. And when monopoly and special privilege are abolished, the bicycle may be purchased for a song and will be within the reach of all. The world will yet revolve on wheels.

Better late than never, and landlords get paid as a treat as they always do, but obiously can't build housing that's only for the USSR we only build $2000 a month luxury high rise apartments in places where the median income is less than $2000 a month

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New York plans to use $25 million in state funds to rent temporary homes for up to 1,250 asylum-seeking families who opt to leave New York City's crowded shelters.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers approved funding for voluntary relocations in the state budget adopted in May. It was part of a $1 billion allocation for housing and services for tens of thousands of asylum seekers who have been bused to New York City from the southern border over the last year.

So far, 17 families have volunteered to move into state-rented homes, Gov. Hochul's office announced Saturday. State officials told the USA TODAY Network on Monday that the program will cover rent for up to a year while helping families with school enrollment, health care and other needs to settle into their new communities. The total funding amounts to $20,000 per family if 1,250 families indeed volunteer.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ny-spend-25m-state-funds-091548844.html

International Chess Federation, FIDE, has released new guidelines targeting transgender players. The guidelines would strip trans men's titles, and potentially bar trans women from playing.

In recent months, the discussion surrounding transgender participation in sports has intensified. Several sports organizations have ruled that transgender women cannot participate in their competitions. This trend has expanded beyond traditional sports like swimming, touching even disc golf and billiards, based on perceived “advantages” of transgender athletes. The reaction to trans people in competition has grown to include non-sporting contests like beauty pageants and Jeopardy! after seeing transgender success. Now, FIDE, the world’s foremost international chess organization, has introduced guidelines that would revoke titles from transgender men and bar many transgender women from competing, asserting that trans women "have no right to participate.”

The regulations, reported online by French transgender FIDE master, Yosha Iglesias, spell out a list of policy changes that apply to transgender competition in chess. Among the policy changes:

Transgender men must relinquish their women-category titles after transitioning.

Transgender women can keep their previous titles.

Transgender women have “no right to compete” in the women’s division.

Transgender women will be “evaluated” by the FIDE Council on if they will be allowed to compete in a process that may take up to 2 years.

FIDE can mark transgender players as “transgender” in their files.

Gender changes must be “comply with the player’s national laws” and may include birth certificate documents (despite many nations refusing to change transgender birth certificates)

See the main page on transgender participation from the organization:

The unveiling of these regulations drew widespread ridicule, with numerous individuals challenging the notion that transgender women possess a “natural advantage” in chess. According to the chess news site Chessbase, the women’s category in chess exists to encourage increased participation among women, not because women inherently perform at a lower level in the game. Thus, the typical arguments against transgender women competing don't hold water, as it's implausible to claim that transgender women have an unfair advantage.

This isn't the first instance of scrutiny regarding transgender participation in non-physical competitions. In 2022, transgender Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider set the record as the highest-winning woman in Jeopardy history. Following her success, several anti-trans voices online claimed she unfairly took the title from “real women,” suggesting that transgender women possess an inherent advantage in trivia over cisgender women.

The regulations are harmful and discriminatory towards transgender individuals. The logic behind revoking titles from transgender men transitioning from the women’s category is not explained anywhere in the document. Additionally, these rules would delay transgender women from competing for up to two years while their gender is examined, and could even prohibit them indefinitely. Given that the usual "unfair advantage" argument doesn't logically apply in this context, these regulations appear to unfairly target transgender individuals while sidestepping even the usual arguments against trans competition.

The enforcement of these policies remains unclear. Iglesias took to Twitter, asking, "Am I woman enough?" She listed the FIDE council members, sharing photos that depict the majority as older cisgender men, adding, "these people will decide." The documents don't specify how decisions regarding a transgender member's participation will be made. Until further clarity, transgender international chess players face uncertainty about their continued involvement in the sport.

Tasmania has become the first jurisdiction to ban the Nazi salute, with penalties of up to three months' jail on the cards for first-time offenders.

The laws, which also prohibit the display of Nazi symbols, have passed the state's upper house and are expected to come into effect later in 2023.

"We strongly condemn any display of hate in our community," Attorney-General Elise Archer said on Wednesday.

"This (law change) is the first of its kind in Australia and will contribute to the creation of a safer and more inclusive Tasmania."

The federal government is moving to ban Nazi symbols, with a proposal introduced to parliament in June. But it doesn't cover the salute.

Victoria is among several states to have banned Nazi symbols and has flagged plans to also outlaw the salute.

A Victorian government spokesperson said legislation was being finalised and more would be revealed soon.

"These actions incite hatred towards Jewish people and other minority groups, and it won't be tolerated in Victoria,'' the spokesperson said.

Under the law changes in Tasmania, it is an offence to perform a Nazi gesture if a person knows, or ought to know, it is a Nazi gesture.

There is a defence if a person proves the gesture was reasonable and performed in good faith for a genuine academic, artistic, religious, scientific, cultural, educational, legal or law enforcement purpose.

First offenders face a $3900 fine or three months' jail, with maximum penalties doubling for further offences within six months.

Ms Archer said the law change acknowledged the importance of the swastika to the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religious communities.

"(It) clearly states that the display of a swastika in this context is not an offence," she said.

"The bill also acknowledges other legitimate public purposes for display, including other religious, cultural, academic and educational purposes."

Ms Archer said police would undergo education and training on the new offences, including for the cultural significance of the swastika.

By Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's cabinet passed a contentious bill on Wednesday to legalize recreational marijuana use and cultivation, one of the most liberal cannabis laws in Europe that could potentially provide further momentum for a similar worldwide trend.

The legislation, which still has to pass parliament, would allow adults to possess up to 25 grams (0.88 oz) of the drug, grow a maximum of three plants, or acquire weed as associates of non-profit cannabis clubs.

The centre-left government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes the law will curb the black market, protect consumers against contaminated marijuana and reduce drug-related crime.

A key pillar of the plan, which removes the taboo around cannabis use, is also a campaign to raise awareness about the risks, which should ultimately curb consumption, said Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, of Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD).

Such a campaign would not gain the same level of attention if it were introduced without a change in the law, he said.

"With the current procedures we could not seriously protect children and young people, the topic has been made a taboo," Lauterbach told a news conference in Berlin to present the law.

"We have rising, problematic consumption, we couldn't simply allow this to go on," he said. "So this is an important turning point in our drug policy."

The number of adults in Germany aged between 18 and 25 years old that consumed cannabis at least once nearly doubled in 2021 from the previous decade to 25%, according to the health ministry.

Young adults are considered more vulnerable to the health risks of cannabis. The new legislation will limit the amount of cannabis young adults can buy to 30 grams a month, compared to 50 grams for older adults.

CRITICISM FROM BOTH SIDES

Opposition to the legislation is fierce, with conservative policymakers in particular warning that it will encourage marijuana use and that the new legislation will create even more work for authorities.

"This law will be linked to a complete loss of control," Armin Schuster, conservative interior minister for the state of Saxony, told media group RND.

A U.N. narcotics watchdog said in March moves by governments to legalize the recreational use of marijuana have led to increased consumption and cannabis-related health problems.

Lauterbach said Germany had learned from other countries' mistakes, however.

Scholz's government had already watered down original plans to allow the widespread sale of cannabis in licensed shops after consultations with Brussels.

Instead, it said would launch a pilot project for a small number of licensed shops in some regions to test the effects of a commercial supply chain of recreational cannabis over five years. For that, it will need to present separate legislation in a second phase.

Similar such projects already exist or are planned in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Many countries in Europe have already legalised cannabis for limited medicinal purposes, including Germany since 2017. Others have decriminalized its general use.

Malta became the first European country to allow limited cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use in late 2021. Germany would become the first major European country to do so.

The legislation presented on Wednesday includes strict rules for growing weed - cannabis clubs of up to 500 associates must have burglar-proof doors and windows, with greenhouses fenced off. Associates will not be allowed to smoke weed at the clubs or in the vicinity of schools, nurseries, playgrounds or sports grounds.

Germany's hemp association said the rules were "unrealistic" and the black market could only truly be fought with the introduction of cannabis sales in shops.

The parliamentary drug policy spokesperson of junior coalition partner the Free Democrats, Kristine Luetke, accused Lauterbach of continuing a "prohibition policy" and creating a "bureaucratic monster".

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Bernadette Baum)

Miners wearing safety equipment walk through an underground tunnel at the South Deep gold mine, operated by Gold Fields Ltd., in Westonaria, South Africa, on Thursday, March 9, 2017. South Deep is the world''s largest gold deposit after Grasberg in Indonesia, makes up 60 percent of the company''s reserves and the miner says it''s capable of producing for 70 years. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

The Catholic Church says it is shepherding a class-action lawsuit through the courts against mining companies in South Africa on behalf of coal miners with lung disease.

The Southern African Bishops Conference said on Wednesday that lawyers filed papers with South Africa’s High Court on Tuesday.

“Very often ex-mine workers are no longer members of trade unions and, therefore, lack the means and capacity to seek legal recourse from large companies which are responsible for their lung diseases,” Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin said.

“It is thus incumbent on the church to give assistance where it can, … so that they can access compensation that is legally due to them.”

The miners are represented by Richard Spoors, a lawyer who has won compensation in similar cases before.

Filed on behalf of 17 former and current mine workers, the case targets mining giant BHP, its spin-off South32 and South Africa’s Seriti, Dasantha Pillay, a lawyer with Spoors’s firm, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

It seeks recourse for all miners who worked for these companies since 1965 and contracted lung disease as well as dependents of workers who died from coal dust-induced illness.

The firms did not immediately reply to AFP’s request for comment.

The church said it initiated and facilitated the case after it was approached by mine workers for assistance.

Coal is a bedrock of South Africa’s economy, employing almost 100,000 people and accounting for 80 percent of electricity production. The industry is concentrated in the eastern region of Mpumalanga, which environmental campaigners Greenpeace said has some of the dirtiest air in the world.

The class action accuses the companies of failing to provide their workers with adequate training, equipment and a safe working environment despite knowing the risks to coal miners.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that if elected he'd accept China seizing Taiwan once the US secures its own supply of semiconductors.

Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ramaswamy said that if he becomes president he would ensure that the US is no longer reliant on Taiwan for its supply of semiconductors, a crucial component in the manufacturing of goods including smartphones and electric cars.

Taiwan dominates the manufacturing of semiconductors, producing about 60% of the world's supply.

Ramaswamy also said that if the US could show it was serious about "semiconductor independence," or securing its own production of the technology, it would deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.

"The truth of the matter is there are two reasons why China wants to annex Taiwan," he said. "One is to squat on the semiconductor supply chain so they can exert leverage over the United States of America. That's not happening on my watch. I'd take a firm position on that."

"But the second reason why is that they have unfinished nationalistic business dating back to their civil war in 1949," he added. "And if that's the sole basis for Xi Jinping going after Taiwan after we have semiconductor independence, then you know what? I am not going to send our sons and daughters to die over that conflict. And that's consistent with my position on Ukraine as well."

Ramaswamy said that he's been very clear that China's President Xi Jinping should not mess with Taiwan until after the US has achieved semiconductor independence, "until the end of my first term when I will lead us there," he said.

"And after that, our commitments to Taiwan, our commitments to be willing to go to military conflict, will change after that, because that's rationally in our self-interest," he added. "That is honest. That is true, and that is credible."

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when the nationalist faction in the Chinese civil war fled to the island and claimed independence from the mainland's Communist government. In recent years tensions between China and Taiwan have intensified, with Xi saying "reunification" with Taiwan must be fulfilled, and hinting that China may use force to bring it about.

The US has long maintained a position of "strategic ambiguity" regarding Taiwan, refusing to clearly state whether it would defend Taiwan if attacked. But last year, President Joe Biden said that the US would commit military force to defending Taiwan, though the White House attempted to downplay the suggestion.

Ramaswamy is among GOP candidates campaigning to reduce US involvement abroad, calling for the US to cut off support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday said Travis King, the U.S. soldier who crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into the country last month, has admitted that he "illegally intruded" due to "inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army," state agency KCNA reported.

The report also claimed that King expressed a willingness to seek refuge in the DPRK or in a third country.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said it could not verify the alleged comments made by 23-year-old Private 2nd Class Travis King carried by the KCNA report but that Washington remained focused on his safe return.

"We remain focused on his safe return. The department's priority is to bring Private King home, and that we are working through all available channels to achieve that outcome," a Pentagon spokesperson said.

also

https://bnonews.com/index.php/2023/08/north-korea-says-u-s-soldier-travis-king-wants-to-stay-blames-racism/

The PCV has claimed that the judicial ruling is part of a scheme orchestrated by the leadership of the PSUV to take over the party’s credentials.

Mexico City, Mexico, August 15, 2023 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) firmly rejected a recent ruling by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) that appointed a new ad-hoc board to lead the party.

In a video message posted Monday, PCV Secretary General Oscar Figuera shared the declaration issued by the V Plenum of the Central Committee of the party in light of the court’s decision, arguing that it constitutes an “illegal” intervention in the internal affairs of the organization.

“This sentence by the Constitutional Chamber is an illegal and incorrect sentence,” said Figuera.

In its statement, the Central Committee maintains that the seven people appointed to the board of directors are not PCV members and therefore cannot occupy leadership posts in the party, making their appointment by the court an “usurpation” of the collective’s credentials.

The TSJ responded favorably a complaint by a self-styled “movement” that calls itself “Patriotic PCV” and claims its goal is to “rescue” the organization. The newly appointed ad hoc board will be led by Táchira politician Henry Parra.

This movement held what the PCV deemed a “fake congress” in May, where a new leadership was elected. This was viewed as the first step in a broader plan to demand possession of the PCV’s legal and electoral credentials.

The PCV has claimed that the scheme is being orchestrated by the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), pointing the finger in particular at ranking Chavista figure Diosdado Cabello, who has frequently criticized the PCV and its recent political stances.

The court ruling comes as the PSUV prepares for the constitutionally mandated 2024 presidential elections. The Venezuelan Communist Party participated for many years in the PSUV-led Great Patriotic Pole that submitted unified lists in electoral contests, having supported Nicolás Maduro in both of his presidential victories.

However, the party eventually broke with the ruling socialists over policy differences and fielded independent candidates under the so-called Popular Revolutionary Alternative in the 2020 and 2021 electoral contests. However, its results were underwhelming.

With the Maduro government adopting liberal policies in an attempt to kickstart the economy while under heavy US sanctions, the Venezuelan communists have grown increasingly critical, deeming the measures as “anti-worker” and favoring capital.

In contrast, the Venezuelan communists have been criticized for appearances in right-wing, foreign-funded media and accused of building common ground with the country’s traditional opposition.

In its Monday declaration, the PCV reiterated its criticisms of the PSUV and its leadership, condemning the “neoliberal policies” of the Maduro government while simultaneously criticizing the country’s right-wing opposition.

Venezuelan human right organization Surgentes, which has accompanied the Bolivarian process from a working-class perspective, issued its own statement criticizing the court’s ruling, alleging that it constituted a violation of the political rights of party members and the Venezuelan population as a whole.

“Since 2021 there has been evidence of a state-driven libel operation against the PCV, which passed off people from outside the party as grassroots militants who question the leadership,” read the statement from Surgentes.

High-profile Chavista commentator Luigino Bracci likewise criticized the latest developments, calling the TSJ decision “a distraction” and “absurd.”

For his part, Figuera said that the party would continue to pursue its legal options inside Venezuela as well as international actions.

“We are preparing new actions in the legal field but also promoting national and international solidarity,” said Figuera.

Numerous communist parties and other left organizations from throughout the world have already expressed their solidarity with the Communist Party of Venezuela.

The court’s ruling coincided with an event organized by the PCV to commemorate the 86th anniversary of the first national conference of the Communist Party of Venezuela and 100 years since the birth of notable party leader Alberto Lovera. A number of renowned figures from the Venezuelan left attended the event to express solidarity.

At the event, Figuera reminded attendees of the sharp differences the PCV had with former President Hugo Chávez in 2007 after the party refused to dissolve itself and join the PSUV but nonetheless maintained a comradely relationship.