USA TODAY | Automation saved this American manufacturer USA TODAY Marlin Steel in Baltimore, Maryland, was able to stay in business by automating its processes to stay competitive when many other manufacturing jobs went overseas. Video by Jasper Colt, USA TODAY ... |
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Australia is considering whether to adopt modern slavery legislation, similar to that found in the (United Kingdom) (UK) and California . Modern slavery has been identified as including slavery,
forced labour and wage exploitation, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, human trafficking, forced marriage and other slavery-like exploitation occurring today.
A current federal parliamentary Committee inquiry into the matter has received strong interest from a broad group including retailers, financial institutions, governments, not-for-profit organisations, universities, law firms, individuals and other interested parties. Supply chain transparency is a key area of focus for the inquiry, including requirements for relevant parties to report that their global supply chains are free of slavery and human trafficking.
Prior inquiries on modern slavery
This is not the first time Australia has contemplated modern slavery, as the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade undertook an inquiry on the subject in 2012/13. On that occasion, the Committees terms of reference were slavery, slavery like conditions and people trafficking, with a focus on Australia efforts to address people trafficking, ways to encourage international action on the matter, and international best practices. That Committee issued its report Trading Lives: Modern Day Human Trafficking in 2013.
UK Modern Slavery Act 2015
The UK introduced the Modern Slavery Act of 2015, which is generally considered to be a ground-breaking and comprehensive development in this area (and is endorsed in many submissions to the current Australian inquiry). Although many parts of the UKs Modern Slavery Act involved a combination of existing separate criminal legislation for offences including human trafficking and slavery, the Act introduced a new requirement requiring certain companies to publish an annual statement of the steps taken to eliminate the risks of modern slavery within their business and supply chains.
Scope of new Australian inquiry
The enactment of the UK legislation appears to have influenced the Australian Attorney-General, who has asked the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade to conduct an inquiry in the establishment of an Australian version, having regard to the findings of the Committee in 2012/13.
This new Australian inquiry will consider a broader range of issues compared to the earlier inquiry, including:
The inquiry will also consider which provisions in the UK legislation have proven effective in addressing modern slavery, whether similar or improved measures should be introduced in Australia, and whether Australia should have its own Modern Slavery Act. To date, the Committee has received 185 submissions. A hearing was held in Canberra on 30 May 2017 attended by Kevin Hyland, the United Kingdom Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, with further hearings to follow.
Supply chain transparency
Elements of the UK legislation the Committee is focusing on for adopting in Australia include the UK requirement for businesses and organisations to report on how they ensure their global supply chains are free of slavery and human trafficking.
The UK legislation requires certain commercial organisations to publish an annual statement which either provides information on:
The statement must be published on the organisations website, or where an organisation does not have a website, provided in writing upon request. The provision targets larger corporations based in the UK as set forth in the definition of commercial organization.
The format and content of the statement is not mandated but the legislation makes suggestions for content such as, among other things, the organisational structure, business and supply chains, the policies relating to slavery and human trafficking, risks and steps taken to manage the risk for slavery and trafficking.
The statement must be approved by the Board of Directors and signed by a Director. There is no strict timeline to publish the statement but the guidance published with the legislation recommends that the statement is published as soon as reasonably practicable after a companys year end, and ideally within 6 months.
Interestingly, there is no financial sanction imposed on a company for failing to publish a statement. However, some organisations may be concerned about negative publicity if they fail to publish, and there is currently some lobbying in the UK to introduce stricter sanctions in order to drive compliance. We will be closely watching and monitoring these developments as they are applicable to many types of supply chains.
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Published Jul 4, 2017 at 8:00 am (Updated Jul 4, 2017 at 7:48 am)
The video of police officer Jeronimo Yanez shooting Philando Castile as Castile calmly reached for his licence is just one more piece of evidence for how American laws work to oppress the powerless
By now, most have seen the jarring dash cam video of police officer Jeronimo Yanez shooting Philando Castile as Castile calmly reached for his licence. Just as shocking, a jury acquitted Yanez. The verdict, in the eyes of many, was just one more piece of evidence for how American laws work to protect the powerful and oppress the powerless.
But while the American legal system can be seen as largely constructed to maintain the status quo, it has also served as an agent of change to expand rights even in the years before the Constitution was ratified. Activists, even slaves, have used the courts to weaponise American ideals and escape oppression.
Before debates about the Constitution began, states grappled with how to adapt the lofty ideals promised by the Declaration of Independence to the reality of slavery. The first was Massachusetts. Its 1780 Constitution marked Revolutionary Americas first attempt to create new legal and political arrangements that gave individual citizens rights in the newly liberated nation.
Yet in Massachusetts, as in every other American colony, the constitutional promise that all men are born free and equal did not hold true for African-American slaves. The application of the law exposed the imbalance between the powerful and the powerless, the included and excluded.
Two Massachusetts slaves highlighted this contradiction. Sheffields Elizabeth Bett Freeman heard the Massachusetts Constitution read aloud, and the next day approached prominent local lawyer Theodore Sedgwick, asking: I heard that paper read yesterday, that says all men are created equal, and that every man has a right to freedom. Im not a dumb critter; wont the law give me my freedom?
Sedgwick took Freemans case.
In May 1781, the same month that Betts case was heard in Great Barringtons County Court, a Worcester slave, Quock Walker, sued his former master, Nathaniel Jennison, for battery. Walker, likewise believing he had a legal right to freedom, had run away from Jennison and gone to work at the neighbouring Caldwell farm, where the abolitionist brothers John and Seth Caldwell helped Walker to find a lawyer and take his case to Worcester County Court.
The county courts decided in both Freemans and Walkers favour. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the states highest legal authority, was tasked with enforcing the states foundational laws and applying its promised rights and freedoms to all residents. Freeman, Walker and their allies pressed the court to decide whether the Constitutions laws and rights pertained to slaves, hoping to change the conversation to include, rather than exclude, this Massachusetts community.
It worked. The Supreme Court Chief Justice, William Cushing, explained that the 1780 Constitution and the new nations ideals rendered slavery illegal because a different idea had taken hold when the Constitution declared all men are born free and equal. As a result, he could conclude only that slavery was inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution.
Within a decade, pressured by both the court decisions and their communities, Massachusetts slave owners voluntarily freed their slaves, often by changing the arrangements to those of wage labour. The 1790 federal census listed no slaves in Massachusetts, making it the first state comprehensively to abolish slavery.
Abolition in Massachusetts happened because Freeman and Walker took the states and the countrys founding laws and precepts at their word. In highlighting the contradiction between concepts of equality and rights, and the circumstances of slavery, they found powerful allies who helped to bring their cases to the states most powerful legal bodies, forcing collective decisions that would reverberate across the state.
Protection of the powerful is written into the law of the land, but so too are avenues to use ideas of freedom and equality to change communal conversations and legal practices. And it is this tradition that has begotten constitutional victories expanding rights and freedoms to increasingly greater number of Americans over the past two centuries.
A San Francisco-born Chinese-American cook worked with attorneys and community organisations to win the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v Wong Kim Ark, which made clear that the 14th Amendments promise of birthright citizenship should apply to all Americans.
When that promised citizenship was still not extended to Native Americans, Yakama performer Nipo Strongheart and other native activists gathered tens of thousands of signatures on petitions, allied with the Indian Rights Association, and pressured Congress to pass the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act.
And it was individual African-American parents in Topeka pursuing educational opportunities for their children who worked with NAACP lawyers and their allies to win Brown v Board of Education in 1954.
The landmark Supreme Court decision demonstrated that all Americans were included equally in the public education system, began the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation and launched the Civil Rights Movement. Those parents, like Strongheart, Wong, and Freeman and Walker before them, used ideas to create a more just society, providing hints as to how todays activists can best work to achieve progress.
Ben Railton, professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University, is the author of four books, numerous online articles and a daily blog of public American studies scholarship
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MUMBAI: Abolition of octroi could result in saving of more than Rs 2,000 crore and cut down freight time for trucks and commercial vehicles by at least 25%.
As many as 22 states have abolished their check posts since July 1 with the advent of GST. Tax rate on transport services has been increased to 5% from 4.5%, which will be borne by the buyer or seller of the goods whoever is availing the freight services; the latter can then lower final tax liability by claiming input credit.
Also, a GST notification exempting registration of some of the associated entities would save transporters from a lot of paper work.
On an average we spent three hours waiting at the check posts and there was a lot of harassment. In addition, if there are any minor issues with the documents, there was delay of another 3 to 4 hours. And irrespective of whether the documents are in order or not, there was always some bribe to be paid to officials, Said Anil Vijan of G Shantilal Transport Company who operates a fleet of 80 trucks in the southern states.
According to him, covering the distance from Mumbai to Bengaluru, along with loading/unloading of cargo, should not take more than 18 to 20 hours, but all trucks had to wait for 6-10 hours extra at two check posts on the route.
Surjeet Singh Chawla of Chawla Road Lines who operates a fleet of 35 trucks on Mumbai-Kolkata route had to deal with five check posts. We expect to save one day now.
Excerpt from:
Octroi abolition may save Rs 2000 crore, cut freight time after GST rollout - Economic Times
Are tablets an asset in the classroom or a distraction? Photograph: Getty Images/Hero Images
From interactive whiteboards that aid language learning to virtual reality headsets that demonstrate Newtons laws of motion, technology has the potential to yield strong results in the classroom. And yet the benefits are far from universal. Some teachers struggle to get the most out of expensive gadgetry, meaning schools risk investing thousands of pounds in hi-tech apparatus that fails to deliver, as reported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2015.
Meanwhile, school technology budgets are falling. The average ICT budget for 2017-18 is forecast to be 13,800 for a primary school, a 4% decline year on year, and 58,230 for secondaries, a 7% fall, according to the British Educational Suppliers Association (Besa).
So how should schools prioritise to ensure this money is spent on the most useful technology?
To discuss the way ahead, the Guardian held a panel debate, sponsored by technology provider Brother, called Technology: Money Saver or Money Waster? A panel of four experts in the field discussed the issue with an audience of educationists, teachers and technology specialists.
Weve gone through 10 years of device fetishism, said panellist Donald Clark, founder of technology in education company PlanB Learning. He said schools had been investing in tablets for their pupils, despite evidence indicating that they are poor teaching tools.
You have to look from a pedagogic and learning point of view, he added. Research shows that when children write on tablets they have a high error rate. It slows kids down, they resort to a truncated style and it is a disaster in terms of literacy also, you cant code. He said tablets should be seen as a consumer device rather than an aid for learning.
However, a member of the audience, art teacher Gill Jenkins, said she had successfully used tablets for an art project with year 10 pupils and they were really engaged in it.
Success depended on the context in which technology was used, said panel member John Galloway, an advisory teacher who used technology with children with special educational needs. If the iPad was used for the wrong activities such as writing or coding it would give poor results, he said. Used in the right way, however, it could be a powerful teaching tool. One of biggest barriers to technology adoption is teachers being given the time to be trained to use it, he added. Research published by Besa in January revealed that about 60% of teachers had made training in technology one of their key aims for this year.
Galloway added that some technology may not have worked originally but may yet become commonplace. Virtual learning environments (VLEs), for example, failed to take off in the UK when they were introduced 10 years ago but may have been ahead of their time, and Google Classroom has now picked up the baton.
Michael Mann, an educationist at the innovation lab at Nesta (formerly the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) a charity that promotes innovation believed educational technology was struggling to fulfil its potential. To address this, Nesta was giving grants to companies to measure the impact of classroom technology, and looking at ways to help teachers test out technology in their classrooms.
One of biggest barriers to technology adoption is teachers being given the time to be trained
Mann advocated small-scale trials of technology before making big investments. Do small-scale testing with a teacher passionate about it and they can show other teachers where it is relevant and where it isnt, he said. If they find out it doesnt work which is often the case a costly rollout can be avoided.
Naureen Khalid, a school governor and co-founder of @UkGovChat, a Twitter forum for school governors, said governors are demanding rigorous evidence before splashing out on new technology. Schools are poor and funding isnt going to get any better. We are custodians of public money and as a governor I cant commit to doing a trial and then writing it off.
The panel was split over whether teachers should be the arbiters of technology investment in schools. Clark argued against this, saying schools should rely on in-depth research into the educational effectiveness of the technology. If teachers tested out technology in their lessons, they risked wasting valuable teaching time and using pupils as guinea pigs. But others pointed out that much teaching was risky and experimental, with uncertain results, and technology was no different although more expensive if it failed. Furthermore, research reports may be paid for by the technology companies involved, making them far from independent.
From the audience, technology writer Terry Freedman doubted that research reports into classroom technology were much use for teachers, as they were often long, difficult to read and inconclusive.
Ultimately, anecdotal evidence is really good, he said. Teachers trying something in the classroom should ask what problem they are trying to solve, highlight the good bits and offer a five-minute evaluation.
Mann said Nesta was piloting an online funding platform called Rocket Fund, where teachers could pitch ideas relating to the use of technology in the classroom and connect with corporate and community donors. This was also helping to spread experiences and ideas among schools.
He pointed to online learning initiatives such as Third Space Learning which connected primary school pupils with tutors in India and Sri Lanka to provide lower-cost online tutoring as one scheme that had worked well.
The panel discussed whether a centralised procurement approach whereby an overall body collected evidence on the educational benefits of different devices could help streamline the process. But concerns were expressed that some teachers might struggle to trust technology recommended by another teacher and would insist on trying it out themselves.
Control groups, where the results of a class using specific technology were compared to those of a class without the technology, were also discussed. But Galloway thought this would be a messy approach as much depended on the teacher, their relationship with the class and the engagement levels of the students involved.
And what of virtual reality? Clark pointed out that VR headsets could be effective in teaching Newtons laws of motion and demonstrating weightlessness, while Galloway said VR had huge potential for children with special needs: a child in a wheelchair could experience the top of St Pauls Cathedral or the bottom of a mineshaft; a child with autism could take a virtual trip around the British Museum to prepare them for the real thing.
Galloway also pointed to eye-gaze technology, which helped people control computers through their eye movements, as a technology with useful applications. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence was touted as a powerful technology for transforming the classroom, with applications in marking and exams.
The panel agreed that teachers could benefit from taking part in ResearchED meetings. The body, which was founded by two teachers, brings together teachers, researchers and policymakers to share information on technology teaching tools.
From the audience, Ahrani Logan, co-founder of Peapodicity, an educational technology studio specialising in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects, said tech startups could run evaluations of classroom technology, since they excelled in analytics.
Sandra Crapper, education adviser at Onefourseven, an educational advisory service providing professional development to primary schools, said teachers could learn about technology from pupils. Our job is to analyse where it might lead them in a positive and productive way, she said. The panel suggested that teachers could make use of the smartphones most children brought into classrooms, although there were problems of security and behaviour associated with this.
As schools face yet more budget cuts, governors and heads will have to make some stark choices but technology is certain to play a part in the classroom of the future. And while there was much debate on how decisions should be made, it seems that finding ways for teachers to share information about what works will be key.
Kate Hodge (chair) Head of content strategy at Jaywing Content and former Guardian Teacher Network editor
Michael Mann Senior programme manager, education team, innovation lab, Nesta
John Galloway Advisory teacher for ICT/SEN and inclusion
Donald Clark Founder, PlanB Learning
Naureen Khalid School governor and co-founder of @UKGovChat
Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach, like us on Facebook, and join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources and the latest articles direct to your inbox
Looking for a teaching job? Or perhaps you need to recruit school staff? Take a look at Guardian Jobs, the education specialist
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Is technology delivering in schools? Our panel debates - The Guardian
July 4, 2017 Associate Prof. Barry Zink with (left to right) Devin Wesenberg, Alex Hojem and Rachel Bennett. Credit: University of Denver
New research from a team of DU physicists has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.
In the quest to make computers faster and more efficient, researchers have been exploring the field of spintronicsshorthand for spin electronicsin hopes of controlling the natural spin of the electron to the benefit of electronic devices. The discovery, made by Professor Barry Zink and his colleagues, opens a new era for experimental and theoretical studies of spin transport, a method of harnessing that natural magnetization, or spin, of electrons.
"Our approach requires a fundamentally different way of thinking about the nature of how spin moves through a material," Zink says.
Computers currently rely on electrons to process information, moving data through tiny, nano-sized wires. These electrons generate heat, however, as they travel through the wires. This heat, along with other factors, limits computer speed.
Past research has successfully demonstrated spin transport using crystalline, or ordered, materials as magnetic insulators. In Zink's new study, recently published in Nature Physics, the team was able to demonstrate spin transport through a synthetic material that is notably amorphous, or non-ordered, both magnetically and structurally.
The discovery is significant because manufacturing this amorphous synthetic material, known as yttrium iron garnet, is easier than growing the silicon crystals currently used in computer processors.
"The existing materials known to have this type of spin transport are difficult to produce," Zink says. "Our material is very easy to produce, simple to work with and potentially more cost-effective."
Dean Andrei Kutateladze of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics emphasizes the significance of the team's findings.
"This spectacular result from the Zink research group amply illustrates the vibrant research environment in the division, where teacher-scholars create new knowledge working hand-in-hand with students," he says. "It also underscores the critical importance of support for fundamental research. Just as basic research in Bell Labs in the '50s and '60s paved the way for smartphones and other wonders of the current technological revolution, physicists such as Dr. Zink are building platforms for the next great technological leap."
The research team includes Davor Balzar, chair of DU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, graduate students Devin Wesenberg and Rachel Bennett, newly minted doctorate holder Alex Hojem and colleagues at Colorado State University. The scientists carried out their research using custom-designed micromachined thermal isolation platforms in DU's physics laboratories. The team's next step is to undertake more testing and verification.
"We're looking to see if we can reproduce this in different types of amorphous materials, as not a lot is known about such materials," Zink says. "Twenty years from now, they could be an important part of how computers work."
A core mission of DU's Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is to offer students unprecedented access to research opportunities. By working alongside distinguished faculty mentors in state-of-the-art facilities, undergraduates and graduates are able to apply their newfound knowledge to research that changes lives and challenges ideas.
Explore further: Spinning electrons open the door to future hybrid electronics
More information: Devin Wesenberg et al. Long-distance spin transport in a disordered magnetic insulator, Nature Physics (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nphys4175
A discovery of how to control and transfer spinning electrons paves the way for novel hybrid devices that could outperform existing semiconductor electronics. In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers at ...
An electron carries electrical charge and spin that gives rise to a magnetic moment and can therefore interact with external magnetic fields. Conventional electronics are based on the charge of the electron. The emerging ...
Modern computer technology is based on the transport of electric charge in semiconductors. But this technology's potential will be reaching its limits in the near future, since the components deployed cannot be miniaturized ...
Computers process and transfer data through electrical currents passing through tiny circuits and wires. As these currents meet with resistance, they create heat that can undermine the efficiency and even the safety of these ...
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have made a discovery that could lay the foundation for quantum superconducting devices. Their breakthrough solves one the main ...
It doesn't happen often that a young scientist makes a significant and unexpected discovery, but postdoctoral researcher Stephen Wu of the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory just did exactly that. What ...
By gently prodding a swirling cloud of supercooled lithium atoms with a pair of lasers, and observing the atoms' response, researchers at Swinburne have developed a new way to probe the properties of quantum materials.
New research from a team of DU physicists has the potential to serve as the foundation for next-generation computer technology.
Researchers at the University of Southampton have cast doubt over established explanations for certain behaviours in pulsars - highly magnetised rotating neutron stars, formed from the remains of supernovae.
Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have designed a new nano material that can reflect or transmit light on demand with temperature control, opening the door to technology that protects astronauts in space ...
A new technique allows researchers to characterize nuclear material that was in a location even after the nuclear material has been removed a finding that has significant implications for nuclear nonproliferation and ...
Researchers at the University of Melbourne have demonstrated a way to detect nuclear spins in molecules non-invasively, providing a new tool for biotechnology and materials science.
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On July 7, G20 leaders will gather in Hamburg for their annual meeting. One likely outcome: another clash over climate change between the host government, Germany, and United States president Donald Trump.
As the Chinese did last year, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel has prioritised climate on the G20 agenda, just when the US administration is rolling back many environmental policies.
President Trump has announced that he wants his country to leave the Paris agreement, saying that the international accord is unfair to the US.
The question of what is fair in climate politics is hugely important.
Trumps definition of fairness America First is probably not mutually acceptable to most other nations. But countries will hesitate to scale up their ambitions unless they are convinced that others are doing their fair share.
To address this question, we have put together our third annual stocktake on their progress in a report coordinated by the global consortium Climate Transparency that determines how far the G20 has come in shifting from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy.
The report, compiled with 13 partners from 11 countries, draws on a wide spectrum of published information in four main areas (emissions, policy performance, finance and decarbonisation) and presents it concisely, enabling comparison between these 20 countries as they shift from dirty brown economies to clean green ones.
Issei Kato/Reuters
The G20 is crucial to international action on climate change. Together, member states account for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and, in 2014, accounted for about 82% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.
All member countries signed on to the 2015 Paris agreement, with its long-term temperature goals of keeping global warming to below 2C, ideally limiting it 1.5C..
The G20 have also proven to be a nimble policy forum, where soft policy making can happen. And there is less concern than in the past that the group would seek to replace the multilateral process.
This means these governments must lead the way in decarbonising their economies and building a low-carbon future.
According to the Climate Transparency report, the G20 countries are using their energy more efficiently, and using cleaner energy sources. Their economies have also grown, proving that economic growth can be decoupled from greenhouse gas emissions.
So we are beginning to see a transition from brown to green. But the report also reveals that the transition is too slow; it does not go deep enough to meet the Paris Agreements goals.
In half of the G20 countries, greenhouse gas emissions per capita are no longer rising. A notable exception is Japan, where emissions per person are ticking upward.
Canada has the highest energy use per capita, followed by Saudi Arabia, Australia and the US.
India, Indonesia and South Africa all have low energy use per capita (Indias per capita rate is one-eighth that of Canada). Poverty in these countries can only be addressed if people have access to more energy.
Today, renewable energy is increasingly the cheapest option. Still, we found that many G20 countries are meeting their increasing energy needs with coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels.
According to the Climate Action Tracker, which monitors progress toward the Paris agreements temperature goals, coal should be phased out globally by 2050 at the latest.
Between 2013 and 2014, the G20 countries public finance institutions - including national and international development banks, majority state-owned banks and export credit agencies - spent an average of almost US$88 billion a year on coal, oil and gas.
Yet many of the G20 countries are now looking at phasing out coal, including Canada, France and the UK, which have all established a plan to do so.
Author provided
Germany, Italy and Mexico, too, are considering reducing their use of coal or have taken significant action to do so. India and China continue to be highly dependent on coal but have recently closed and scaled back plans for a number of coal plants.
Countries at the bottom of the rankings are Japan, Indonesia and Turkey, all of which have substantial coal-plant construction plans, and Australia.
Despite their repeated commitment to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, the G20 countries are still heavily subsidising fossil fuels. In 2014, together, the G20 provided a total of over US$230 billion in subsidies to coal, oil and gas.
Japan and China provided, respectively, about $US19 billion and $US17 billion a year in public finance for fossil fuels between 2013 and 2014.
There is good news, though: renewable energy is on the rise. The G20 countries are already home to 98% of all installed wind power capacity in the world, 97% of solar power and 93% of electric vehicles.
In most G20 countries, renewables are a growing segment of the electricity supply, except in Russia, where absolute renewable energy consumption has decreased by 20% since 2009. China, the Republic of Korea and the UK have all seen strong growth.
Generally, the G20 countries are attractive for renewable energy investment, especially China, France, Germany and the UK although the UK has now abandoned its policy support for renewables.
Solar
National experts asked by Germanwatch, a Climate Transparency partner, generally agree that their respective G20 country is doing quite well on the international stage (with the exception of the US) but lack progress in ambitious targets and policy implementation.
China, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Mexico and South Africa are ranked the highest for climate action. Countries with the lowest climate policy performance are the US, Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Putting together this G20 stocktake has had its challenges. The choice of indicators involves value judgements, which often become only apparent once national experts begin discussing them.
Enabling the international comparisons necessary to measure progress on climate requires information that is accurate, verifiable and comparable. The underlying data comes from very diverse economies with different legal systems, different regulations and reporting methods.
International organisations, such as the International Energy Agency, have often done extensive and very careful work to develop comparable data sets but these may not always be consistent with data from in-country sources. Exploring these differences helps us to improve our understanding of the data and the underlying developments.
The existing reporting and review system of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the source of much of the data that makes these comparisons possible.
The real challenge the UNFCCC process faces in the next few years as it finalises the rule book for the Paris agreement is how to develop an enhanced transparency system that will be robust and detailed enough to provide the relevant information for its five-yearly assessment of global progress on addressing climate.
Even so, the UNFCCC is constrained by the extent to which countries are able to see beyond their narrow interests.
Independent assessments such as Climate Transparencys, which remains mindful of different perspectives but is not limited by national interests, can play a vital role in helping to increase the political pressure for effective climate action.
Niklas Hhne, Professor of Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases, Wageningen University; Andrew Marquard, Senior Researcher on energy and climate change, University of Cape Town, and William Wills, Research Coordinator, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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DEAR MISS MANNERS: What is the proper etiquette to join a conversation already in progress?
For example, at a social gathering, a couple of people are already having a conversation. Is it OK to approach the group and say hello, or do I approach the group and wait for them to acknowledge me?
When someone approaches my group conversation, I always acknowledge the person right away and share the topic we are discussing. Most of the time, I approach a group and say hello, but is this considered interrupting? A few times, I have walked up to a conversation and stood there and was never acknowledged. Very awkward. Help ... I dont want to be rude, but I love to talk too!
GENTLE READER: Inserting oneself into a conversation in progress, like cutting in for a dance, does have its own etiquette. The newcomer must wait for a lull in the conversation, acting in the interim as if what is being said is both interesting and, even without the preamble, intelligible.
The established group is required to assume the opposite, namely that the newcomer does not know what is being said, and is therefore entitled to a brief, explanatory aside. At the next natural break, introductions can be made all around. While a group holding a conversation in a social gathering should welcome newcomers, Miss Manners warns that such will not always be the case. It is therefore best to actually listen to what is being said, in case it is time to beat a hasty retreat.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: Is dancing to or parodying the national anthem disrespectful?
GENTLE READER: Yes. But isnt that why you thought of it?
Miss Manners cannot often count on the public to enforce proper behavior, except when it concerns slights to themselves. And perhaps that is just as well. But this would certainly bring it on, and it is not likely to be gentle.
She would advise you to go no further with this idea, which is as unwise as it is unfunny.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: My mother invited her family on a cruise, where we dined nightly in the main cabin. My 54-year-old sisters manners were a nightmare. My mother was visibly embarrassed in front of her new husband.
I suggested to my sister to follow the level of formality and cues from our mother. She said I was being judgmental. How do you help someone understand that manners matter?
GENTLE READER: Without justifying your sisters behavior, Miss Manners notes that 54 years is a long time to wait before attempting to correct a problem. At least your sister cannot accuse you of rushing to judgment.
Your mother will need to talk to her, admitting that she bears some responsibility for not speaking sooner. She must resist the temptation to justify her tardiness by blaming it on the newcomer (your new stepfather was appalled), as he was minding his own business.
More here:
Miss Manners: Gracefully joining an in-progress conversation - Daily Herald
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, leads a gathering at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles in memory of Charleena Lyles and other police shooting victims. Michael Radcliffe/NPR hide caption
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network, leads a gathering at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles in memory of Charleena Lyles and other police shooting victims.
It's been almost four years since Patrisse Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Those three words gained national attention for demonstrations against police brutality and grew into a movement.
But progress has been slow, admits Khan-Cullors, a Los Angeles-based activist who co-founded the Black Lives Matter Network.
"The local is where the work is. If we're looking at just the national, it's pretty devastating. But if you zoom into cities, to towns, to rural areas, people are fighting back and people are winning," she says, pointing to one example in Jackson, Miss., where voters recently elected a progressive new mayor in the Deep South.
Other Black Lives Matter activists around the country, who are part of a decentralized movement, are also focusing on local activism.
"We go to locations where people generally ... don't have to think about or don't want to think about white supremacy and patriarchy and how that's affecting black people," says Mike Bento, an organizer with New York's NYC Shut It Down, a group which considers itself part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Mike Bento (center), an organizer with NYC Shut It Down, leads a march in honor of a black transgender person who was recently killed in New York City. Hansi Lo Wang/NPR hide caption
Mike Bento (center), an organizer with NYC Shut It Down, leads a march in honor of a black transgender person who was recently killed in New York City.
The group started holding weekly demonstrations around New York City two years ago to honor mainly people who have died at the hands of police. On a recent Monday evening, about two dozen protesters gathered outside a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, where diners sipped wine at bistro tables on the sidewalk.
While a protester held up a sign saying "MX BOSTICK, REST IN POWER," Bento started a call-and-response describing the recent death of a black transgender person who was found unconscious on a sidewalk after being struck in the head in May. A suspect is now charged with manslaughter.
"We're here tonight because while you are dining, black trans people are dying," Bento shouted at the restaurant patrons.
Still, it's not all about protesting in the streets. Sometimes, Bento and other Black Lives Matter activists go underground and into New York's subways. They pay for people who would otherwise try to get on a train without paying, which could earn them a misdemeanor.
"This is all connected," Bento says. "This is all part of how we get a system of mass incarceration. And so we start with basic things that we can do to keep our brothers and sisters out of that system."
Other basic forms of activism include standing outside the courthouse to support people charged with low-level offenses and helping to serve dinner to homeless people.
In Washington, D.C., April Goggans, an organizer with Black Lives Matter DC, is holding meetings with other local activist groups to figure out how they can make communities facing high crime rates more self-sufficient.
Goggans says she's been following the recent police shooting of Charleena Lyles, a pregnant, black mother in Seattle, as well as the not-guilty verdicts for police officers involved in the deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Sylville Smith in Wisconsin. They've all reinforced her conclusion, she says, that any type of reform will not improve police departments.
"I don't even know that I would put my effort into charging and imprisoning individual police officers because it's just not gonna happen very much and that kind of justice, it's not a deterrent for other police officers," says Goggans, who says she is focused on getting rid of the current system of policing in the long term.
Khan-Cullors says she is also taking a long view when thinking about how the Black Lives Matter movement will tackle issues black people have been living with for decades.
"We are not new to police brutality. We are not new to police violence. We are not new to people dying inside jail cells and prisons," she says. "What is new is the visibility. What is new is that they become headlines."
Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement is harder. Michael Radcliffe/NPR hide caption
Khan-Cullors helped birth the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement is harder.
She says she's always been concerned about how the movement can sustain itself when social media is inundated with photos and videos of black people killed at the hands of police and victories for the movement seem hard to come by.
With the U.S. Supreme Court reinstating part of President Donald Trump's travel ban and Congress considering substantial cuts to Medicaid, she's worried that the current political environment is becoming even more overwhelming for activists.
"If you can't fight the state, and you can't fight for the things that you need, then you take it out on each other," says Khan-Cullors, who cautions that infighting could destroy the movement.
That's why gatherings like a recent candle-light vigil at The Underground Museum in Los Angeles for Lyles and other police shooting victims are important to Khan-Cullors, who wants to keep activists energized and encourage them to work together.
Starting campaigns to change laws and policy, she says, is the obvious work. But staying together as a movement, that's the hard stuff.
Shaheen Ainpour contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.; Michael Radcliffe contributed from Los Angeles.
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SEATTLE, WA - JUNE 28: From left, catcher Mike Zunino
Mariners Mid-Season Awards by Nick Lee
20 Most Interesting Seahawks: #17 Jermaine Kearse by Colby Patnode
Seattle is now 41-42, and 1 1/2 games out of the Wild Card race. The spots are currently occupied by the Yankees and Rays, just so you know who to root against.
Lets review this week in Mariners baseball.
The Mariners averaged 4.2 runs per game this week, a big step back from the averages of the last few weeks when they were around six. This week started badly with two grueling losses to the worst team in baseball, the Phillies. Seattle managed six runs in those two games. They were also shut out in Saturdays loss to the Angels when they managed a meager three hits.
Jean Segura seems to have come back into form. He hit .409 with a 1.071 OPS during these five games. He homered in Tuesdays 8-2 loss to Philadelphia.
ANAHEIM, CA JULY 02: Robinson Cano
Robinson Cano seems to be returning to Cano-form has he hit four home runs this week, tied for the most in that time. He also hit .350 with a 1.331 OPS. During the 10-0 win in Anaheim on Friday, Cano blasted two home runs. Ben Gamel was four-for-five with two runs and two RBI. He is currently the American League leader in hitting with a .336 average.
Kyle Seager has awoken from his slumber, hitting .300 in these five games with two home runs.
The Mariners struggled to take advantage of some key situations in their three losses. Danny Valencia struck out 8 times this week while hitting just .222. He did hit a monstrous home run in Wednesdays loss, however. Nelson Cruz has been nagged by injury and hit just .214 with one extra base hit.
Mitch Haniger has disappeared, amounting just two hits in 19 at-bats with six strikeouts.
ANAHEIM, CA JULY 02: James Paxton
Seattle posted a 3.20 ERA during the five games. James Paxton made two starts, allowing a total of four runs in 13 1/3 innings and 12 strikeouts. His batting average against was .143 in those two outings as he seems to be returning to his pre-DL form.
Felix Hernandez made his second start since coming off of the disabled list. He went six innings in Wednesdays loss to the Phillies. He allowed three runs and struck out five and was in line for the win before an Edwin Diaz meltdown in the ninth.
Sam Gaviglio continues to hold down the fort, going 6 1/3 innings in the shutout loss to the Angels on Saturday. He allowed three runs and made his fourth quality start.
Ariel Miranda once again proved reliable as he threw seven innings of shutout, two-hit ball in Fridays win. He leads all Mariners starters with seven quality starts.
The bullpen was less than stellar this week. Diaz blew a 4-3 lead in Wednesdays loss to Philly. He allowed six total runs and two homers in three appearance.Nick Vincent allowed two earned runs in two outings along with four hits, as hitters batted .571 against him. The bright spots in the pen were a steady James Pazos and the young Max Povse. Povse pitched two scoreless innings in his lone outing this week.
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA JULY 01: Shortstop Jean Segura
The Mariners committed two errors this week. They both just happened to come in the 8-2 breakdown against Philadelphia. Those errors by Mitch Haniger and Diaz cost the Ms four runs. They are now at +4 Defensive Runs Saved, sitting at 14th in baseball. The Ms also stole just two bases in three tries as Jarrod Dyson and Segura swiped bags. Seattle comes in at 9th in all of baseball with 50 steals.
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PARIS French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Tuesday that any talks with Britain over its future relationship with the European Union would come only after "orderly" talks over its exit from the bloc have been conducted.
"Conducting orderly negotiations over the United Kingdom's exit will be a pre-requisite for the future relationship's framework," Philippe told lawmakers.
The EU's negotiating guidelines prevent its chief negotiator Michel Barnier from opening any talks on the free trade agreement, which British Prime Minister Theresa May wants, until EU leaders decide "significant progress" has been made on a deal to settle key issues in the divorce.
(Reporting by Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
WASHINGTON During his presidential campaign, Republican Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "strong leader" with whom he would like to reset tense U.S.-Russian relations.
DOHA Qatar announced plans for a steep rise in Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) production capacity on Tuesday that suggested it was ready for a protracted dispute with Gulf neighbors, but Doha said it was doing all it could to reach agreement.
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French PM: progress in Brexit talks are pre-requisite to future EU-UK deals - Reuters
Anybody whos itched for a night out and a cathartic sweep on the dance floor, whether its to shake off the stress of work, get over a breakup, or just catch a DJ theyve been meaning to see live, can relate to Cakes Da Killas rallying cry at the end of Hedonism (Intro), the opening track of his debut studio album, Hedonism.
Lets take it to the clubs, he says, with the last word reverberating over and over in a looming echo. The sentiment keys up the rest of the album nicely, pulling the listener onto the dance floor and into the pounding bassline of the second track, Keep It Going, featuring fellow New York vocalist Calore.
A lot of my catalogue is made for club settings, says Cakes da Killa. I have a deep appreciation for underground clubs in New York and dance culture in general. I think lately there is a huge disconnect between the dance community and hip hop music, which to me is essential to the sound.
Originally from New Jersey, Cakes started rapping in high school, and released several mixtapes throughout college. As he found a fan base for his vibrant sound, he started touring and then began work on Hedonism. His music struck a chord precisely because its bridging a gap between club music and hip-hop, while blending in layers of queer dance signifiers and Jersey club beats. His invigorating, ultra-hard style of MCing adds a further layer of intrigue to the tracks.
My style has always been very fast-paced, he says. I think when you have your own flow, certain characteristics become standard, so my tempo is just something that comes naturally to me. A lot of my beats are fast because thats just what I gravitate to: beats where you can shake your ass and dance.
"The whole narrative needs to focus less on my sexuality and more on the music."
Much of Cakes reputation as a controversial or incendiary artist comes not from his beats, but from his identity as a gay man, and the queer narratives that feature heavily in his lyrics. This has led to media coverage and buzz that lumps Cakes together with other queer rappers of color, like Mykki Blanco and Le1f, under the 'gay rap' label. Cakes is enthusiastically part of the queer community of rappers thats currently thriving in New York and works regularly with other queer rappers (he recently finished an expansive DIY tour of the US with Mykki Blanco), but he believes the label serves to pigeonhole queer artists and oversimplify their output.
That label specifically can sometimes overshadow my talent, he says. Whether Im gay or straight, I like to think my music has been my main source of stability because of my hard work, not because of a buzz article. It makes all my hard work seem smaller then what it is, when me and my peers are really doing something revolutionary and fresh.
Cakes collaborated with several other queer artists on Hedonism, spitting lithely and lightening-fast over the clubby beats he shares with gender-bending icon Peaches on Up Out My Face, and on the aforementioned Keep It Going with Calore, a major member of the NYC queer club scene. But the album draws from a deep well of different influences, including 90s basement rap, R&B and the club music of Cakes native New Jersey.
The whole narrative needs to focus less on my sexuality and more on the music, he says. People find that complicated, though, because my sexuality is such a huge theme in my music. But that still shouldnt be the overall takeaway.
And theres no reason why he cant straddle multiple communities, serving as an inspiration and scene-builder for fellow queer artists, while also building a mainstream reputation as a club-focused musician with undeniable skills as an MC. As one of the first major international acts to play at ALL, a new Shanghai club by the management of now-defunct underground epicenter The Shelter, hes setting the tone for one of Shanghais most essential nightlife spaces. This matches well with the themes and tone of Hedonism, and all of Cakes varied influences seem to come together on the dance floor.
The club is a sort of safe haven, especially for alternative people, Cakes says. Just about anything can happen here; its like a paradise. Thats how the album starts. But the older I get, I realize its at 8am [after leaving the club] when reality, or in my case adulthood, makes me face the daylight until the next time.
July 7, 11pm. RMB100. ALL Club, see event listing.
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Music fans at Coachella in 2016. Data suggests that white people comprise 69.2% of the festival-going public. Photograph: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images for Coachella
The flashy multiculturalism of music festivals presents a seemingly harmonious alternative to the racial tensions that bristle in society at large. Now at blockbuster events like Coachella, Kendrick Lamar is able to weave tales of the black experience to massive audiences, and a new generation of stars with intersectional identities can capture the imagination of the crowd. But no cultural phenomenon can be divorced from the tectonic social processes underlying it.
In the heady optimism of the early Obama years which coincided with the stateside festival industrys sixfold attendance boom the phrase post-racial began to creep into the lexicon, and music festivals began promoting themselves as spaces where lofty ideals could be realized. On grassy fields and under big tops, differences of race, gender and sexual orientation are supposedly set aside in pursuit of a diverse, multicultural harmony-via-hedonism. In terms of race, this has proven to be a half-truth. On stage, Americas deep pedigree of black influence rings loud and clear, but look out over the crowd at most major music festivals, and more often than not youll see a sea of white faces.
The makeup of Americans aged 18-35, the prime festival demographic, is 58% white, 13% black, 5% asian, 20% hispanic, as of the 2010 census. Numbers drawn from Nielsen suggest that white people comprise 69.2% of the festival-going public, which in itself is not an overwhelming over-representation, but direct statistics from single festivals paint a different picture. Burning Man, not a music festival per se, but still a preeminent entity in festival culture, released figures in 2014 listing their attendees as 87% white. In a 2013 poll on the festivals website, Coachella-goers were only 4.9% black.
Music publicist Michelle Kambasha detailed her experiences as a black woman attending predominantly white festivals in the UK. When Im asked: Why are you at this [insert any indie band] show? and I explain that its because I do their press, I know what theyre really asking is: Why dont you do press for someone black, because youre black?, she wrote in 2016. It is as if my race inherently makes me underqualified. In her piece she mentioned Britt Julious, the music writer and Guardian contributor who created Blackfork an annual headcount of black people she sees at Pitchfork festival in her hometown of Chicago. After attending this years Coachella festival, Teen Vogue journalist Jessica Andrews wrote about what she dubbed Coachellappropriation ie white attendees borrowing style from other groups (bindis, dashikis and braiding their hair). Black hairstyles are not lewks to try when you want to feel edgy, only to discard them once youre bored and ready to retreat back to your privileged bubble, she wrote.
On stage, music festival line ups are far more diverse than they were even a decade ago. But that shift has brought with it new problems. The past few years in particular has seen most mainstream festivals swing their booking heavily to include hip-hop and R&B. The Coachella lineup in 2007 gave no hip-hop acts top billing although further down the order acts such as Ghostface Killah and Pharoah Monche could be found. A decade later, five of 20 bill-toppers were hip-hop, and if Beyonce had not dropped out, two of the three headlining acts would have been black. The trend continues at electronic music festivals such as HARD Summer. In 2012, its urban elements were limited to Albanian American chef turned rapper Action Bronson, Canadian electronica producer Lunice and funk veteran Bootsy Collins out of more than 50 acts. This years edition features Snoop Dogg, Rae Sremmurd and Migos as headliners topping a bill thats hip-hop heavy.
But the inclusion of certain manifestations of hip-hop at festivals where audiences are majority white doesnt sit well with everyone. Its awful for me, says Matthew Morgan, founder of the globetrotting Afropunk festival. Participating in an audience, particularly with rap lyrics, when you have a majority white crowd using the n-word, its a very uncomfortable environment. This awkward appropriation of other cultures rankles many artists who perform at the very same festivals. Underground house and techno DJ Seth Troxler suggests the fault is shared between the artists, the audience and the festivals themselves. The imagery and music that a lot of these rappers are putting out focuses on the negative aspects of ethnicity, he says. It attracts a culturally ignorant crowd.
If you pulled back the curtain of the music industry, people would be shocked
To Morgan, its a case of opportunism and greed. These promoters predominantly dont care, because theyre selling tickets, he says. For Troxler its business as usual for an industry thats rarely been interested in ethics. I dont think, at any point, most people in the music industry are concerned about the welfare of the music they choose to promote or the implications of their decisions, he says. You have this weird cultural system in place where for a black person to be successful, its like indentured servitude.
In music, just like sports, black people are allowed to participate on the front-end, but we have no say in the back-end, adds Morgan. If you pulled back the curtain of the music industry, people would be shocked. When booking Afropunk, I work with hundreds of agents, and only two of them are black.
Therein lies the reason for the glaring dissonance between the intent and effect of the festival industrys push for diversity: those in executive positions, from the record label to the management to the promoters to the corporate sponsors, are usually caucasian.
A positive trend counteracting this is niche festivals that are driven by cultural production more than profit. Festivals like Tyler the Creators Camp Flog Gnaw in Los Angeles and Nyansapo in Paris approach Afro-centric intersectionality in a similarly progressive fashion, because theyre made with input from black and minority individuals behind the scenes as well as on stage and in the audience.
Afropunk has editions in New York, London, Paris, Atlanta, and Johannesburg, and features a predominantly black lineup that intersects hip-hop, punk, blues, soul, pop, queer and dance culture. Putting a black audience in front of black artists is cathartic, says Morgan. Its absolutely imperative that we participate in feeling good about serving a community with music that is created from our community.
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The kids are all white: can US festivals live up to their 'post-racial' promise? - The Guardian
ANALYSIS: Measures for smartphone use and online conduct bring the junta into line with Chinese internet control
Proposals passed by the NRSA call for mandatory fingerprinting and face-scans for every owner of a mobile phone. (Pinterest.com/facial-recognition)
The junta's chief reform body has voted almost unanimously for a complicated set of stringent restrictions including mandatory fingerprint and face scanning even to buy time to use a mobile phone.
The National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) passed the 84-page set of proposed new rules for online conduct on Monday by a vote of 144-to-1.
If adopted by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and its appointed National Legislative Assembly (NLA), smartphone and internet users are in for some major changes.
The NRSA measures impose stringent restrictions on internet usage, intended in part to identify the posters of all content on services such as Facebook and YouTube.
The package of wide-ranging measures would place Thai censorship and online restrictions even closer to those of nations such as China and Iran, which try to tightly control citizens' access to information.
The proposal passed Monday suggests initial steps including requiring that all cellphone numbers be registered with not only users' 13-digit citizen identification numbers - as is already the case - or (for foreigners) passport details, but also their biometric fingerprints and facial recognition data.
Other measures to be taken later include the establishment of a central social media watch centre to look for content considered inappropriate by the government.
The reforms also mandate an upgrade to technology used for intercepting internet communications. The government already has several offices engaged in monitoring online activity and also encourages members of the public to report material considered offensive.
The major target of the authorities is lese majeste offences, but since seizing power in 2014, the ruling junta has in practice also criminalised political dissent and criticism of its actions. Charges under the Computer Crime Act and other, specific coup-related measures, have resulted in long prison sentences in cases that do not involved lese majeste.
The new proposals are part of the government's 20-year "National Strategy" plan to retain influence after elections are held. The regime has suggested that polls may be held next year, but has never set an election date.
The expanded censorship proposals follow earlier NRSA plans to set up an appointed council to regulate print and online media. It would require journalists to be licensed or risk prison.
Media organisations urged its rejection, saying its definition of who needs a licence is too broad and it restricts freedom of expression.
The junta's planning emulates efforts at social discipline in China, although with important differences.
In China, authorities have also pressed enforcement of real-name registration for internet and cellphone users over the past several years with varying degrees of success. Operators of Chinese social networking platforms have acknowledged that requirements for real-name registration have not always been fully implemented because they can be onerous and were likely to hurt their ability to draw more users.
But China at least has its own social media networks, and bans Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other such networks popular in Thailand.
In major Chinese cities, though, as in Thailand it has become harder to obtain cellphone numbers without registering one's ID, and with the proliferation of smartphones in China, many social media accounts are now linked to mobile phone numbers.
Such requirements are arguably more easily imposed on Chinese internet companies, which have long complied with requests that they carry out censorship on the internet in return for the right to compete in a large and lucrative market.
Chinese social media platforms employ thousands of people to scrub posts off their sites if they are been deemed to violate censorship demands.
In Thailand, the regime has depended on self-censorship by internet providers.
The number of Thais employed finding and listing websites, pages and post for censorship is not known, but such operations are known to be operated by the government, at least two police divisions, the army and navy and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
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In the same week that the state Legislature sent a bill to Gov. Roy Cooper to restore and preserve free speech on the states public university campuses, East Carolina University received a top rating for protecting free speech on its campus.
Officials said ECU has earned a green light rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education after changing four campus policies to meet First Amendment standards. FIRE also helped state legislative leaders craft HB 527, which requires the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to adopt a uniform speech policy for all campuses in the UNC system.The bill is intended to prevent universities and campus groups from policies and actions that deter free speech.
In a year surrounded by controversy over free expression and speech on college campuses including ECU the FIRE group and HB 527 are being lauded and scrutinized because of its support from conservative backers, including several organizations supported by the Koch Brothers.
After ECUs Craig Malmrose, a professor in the School of Art and Design, asked the university to revise its yellow light speech codes, administrators at the 29,000-student university revised four policies in accordance with FIREs recommendations, Laura Beltz, a policy reform official with FIRE, told The Daily Reflector. Beltz came to ECU and worked on policy reform with Steve Serck, associate university attorney.
Four ECU speech policies had earned FIREs yellow light designations due to ambiguous wording that led to free speech restrictions, Beltz said. Two were related to facilities where speech was more restricted, and another was related to computer use policy. The final objection related to the universitys written creed, which made students pledge specific behaviors of civility and common courtesy, Beltz said.
Weve seen those civility requirements used before to police protected speech, so we required a revision to make them more aspirational, rather than mandatory, Beltz said.
The challenges to campus speech have shifted over the years, Beltz said.
We began in the 1990s to deal with the censorship actions of university administrations, but we now see a lot of problems stemming from students calling for censorship, Beltz said. There are a lot of students on the left calling for censorship of views on the right, and it can be disheartening for us. Of course, we want to protect students right to free speech, and when other students are calling for that right to be taken away, it can be frustrating.
FIRE tracks what it calls disinvitations on college campuses, actions taken by students or student-led groups to prevent appearances by speakers with whose views they strongly disagree. In March, a group of ECU students protested the campus appearance of controversial conservative commentator Tomi Lahren.
On the other end of the protest spectrum,19 members of the ECU band rested on a knee during the anthem at the opening of Saturdays game with the University of Central Florida. Chancellor Cecil Staton issued a release shortly after the protest that supported the students right to free expression. The protest and Statons reaction produced outrage from fans who threatened to pull their support from the university.
Beltz thinks much of the confrontation over speech results from the new world of social media, in which something said on a campus that a few students once found offensive now can instantly become viral and draw worldwide calls for censorship.
Virginia Hardy, ECU Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, issued a statement following the changes that led to the new green light designation.
At ECU we are committed to free speech and freedom of expression on our campus, said Hardy. We want our students, faculty, staff and guests to feel comfortable exercising their rights and exploring their ideas. Allowing the opportunity for freedom of expression and civil discourse around differing views has always been, and continues to be, a mainstay of institutions of higher learning.
ECU joins Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and the campuses at Charlotte, Chapel Hill and Greensboro as universities in the state with FIREs green light designation and 32 other colleges and universities that earn a green light rating because their written policies do not imperil student and faculty expression, according to FIREs Spotlight database.
House Bill 527, written by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, also directs the Board of Governors to form a Committee on Free Expression. That body would enforce the speech policy across all UNC campuses. The bill is headed to Gov. Roy Coopers desk for his signature.
The bill is a solution in search of a problem, but free speech always should be a priority for public universities, Sarah Gillooly, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, told the Carolina Journal last week.
In the rare circumstances where there is an issue with the stifling of free speech on campus, appropriate remedies exist and are working, Gillooly said.
Contact Michael Abramowitz at mabramowitz@reflector.comor 252-329-9507.
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ECU changes policies to bolster free speech - Daily Reflector - Greenville Daily Reflector
Now it is time for lovers of free speech to strike back, a blog post on MILOs site reads. Since Milos book comes out on July 4th, it is the perfect week to hold a free speech rally outside of Simon & Schuster headquarters in New York City. Milo will deliver a speech to the crowd, and it will be a giant spectacle like every MILO event.
The post encourages attendees to bring signs with suggested slogans like All Viewpoints Matter, America Needs Dangerous Books, The Worst Part of Censorship is#$@*&^#@*, and Simon & Schuster: Politics Before Free Speech.
The rally will take place on Friday, June 7, at 10:30 AM on 6th Avenue between 48th and 49th streets in Manhattan, which is situated right outside of the Simon & Schuster offices.
Liberals have spent the last few decades learning how to shut up conservatives they consider dangerous, MILO said in a statement to Breitbart News. I experienced it firsthand at universities that tried to weasel out of letting me speak using red tape, and those that stood idly by while masked criminals sent innocent people to the hospital.
This way of thinking extends beyond campus, infecting the media and related industries including book publishing. Simon & Schuster caved to pressure from whiny leftists to cancel my book. They thought that would shut me up I guess they really dont know anything about me! he added.
When I came up with the idea of holding a free speech rally, I knew holding it outside of Simon & Schuster was the only option. They tried unsuccessfully to shut me up, but my book DANGEROUS has now been released into the hands of more than 100,000 people. Its the perfect time for me with some help from thousands of fans to show Simon & Schuster that free speech always wins, he concluded.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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This article originally appeared on The Conversation.
Around the country, state lawmakers have been talking aboutand legislatingways intended to protect free speech on college campuses.
The Wisconsin State Assembly, for example, recentlypassed a campus speech billthat would require public colleges and universities to punish students who disrupt campus speakers. The legislation is now heading to the State Senate for consideration.
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As a higher education law researcher and campus free speech supporter, I view some requirements in these new campus speech laws as positively reinforcing legal protections for student free speech. However, I believe language in several pending state bills,including the punitive legislation proposed in Wisconsin, does more to impede free speech than protect it.
College students at the University California San Diego demonstrate against President Donald Trump's current immigration orders in La Jolla, California. REUTERS/Mike Blake
Free Speech Zones
In an effort to keep campuses safe and avoid disruption, some universities have restricted student speech and expressive activitysuch as handing out leaflets or gathering signatures for petitionsto special speech zones.
These free speech zones have been subject tocriticism and legal challenges. In one illustrative case, a federal court invalidated aUniversity of Cincinnati policythat limited student demonstrations, picketing and rallies to one small portion of campus.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has not ruled definitively on the legality of designated student speech zones. Consequently, legal battles over their constitutionality continue, as shown bypending litigationinvolving a Los Angeles community college student who claims he was allowed to distribute copies of the U.S. Constitution only in a designated campus speech zone.
Some states have recently enacted laws that prohibit public colleges and universities from enforcing such free speech zones against students. At least seven states have passed anti-speech zone laws:Virginia, Missouri, Arizona,Colorado,Tennessee,UtahandKentucky.
Public institutions in these states may impose reasonable rules to avoid disruption, but officials cannot relegate student free speech and expression to only small or remote areas on campus. Instead, they must permit free speech in most open campus locations, such as courtyards and sidewalks.
Along with the pending legislation in Wisconsin, which also wouldban speech zones,North Carolina,Michigan,TexasandLouisianaare considering similar legislation.
Striking down these free speech zones seems a sensible way to promote student free speech: In my opinion, institutions shouldnt seek to restrict students First Amendment speech rights to strict borders on campus.
Punishing Protesters
If the Wisconsin bill passes in its current form, the state would do more than ban designated free speech zones. It would also become the first state requiring institutions to punish student protesters. The North Carolina House of Representatives has passed a similarbill, now under review in the State Senate, but this legislation seems to leave institutions morediscretionover dealing with students disrupting speakers than the Wisconsin legislation.
Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is No. 13 on Right Wing News's list of the "20 Hottest Conservative Women in New Media." (Mark Mainz / Getty Images)
Much of the push for campus speech bills has come from lawmakers who believe that college campuses arehostile to conservative speakers. They point to incidents such as those involvingAnn CoulterandMilo Yiannopoulosat the University of California at Berkeley as indicative of an overall resistance to conservative speakers on campus.
Provisions in campus speech bills, including ones mandating penalties for students who disrupt speakers, can largely betracedtomodel legislationfrom the Goldwater Institute, based in Phoenix, Arizona. The group aims to correct what it views as a left-leaning bias in American higher education regarding campus free speech.
In my view, forcing colleges to take punitive action against all disruptive protesters is troublesome. Such a requirement would mean that institutions would be faced with devising overly cumbersome rules for when punishment should or should not occur. But what counts as a punishment-worthy disruption?
A more problematic outcome would be if free speech werechilled. Students might understandably refrain from speech and expressive activity based on fear of punishment, particularly if the rules around such punishment are necessarily vague and difficult to understand.
Based on such concerns, theFoundation for Individual Rights in Educationan influential group that promotes, among other things, student free speech in higher educationhascome out against this particular requirementin the Wisconsin bill. The American Civil Liberties Union has alsoexpressed concernover the similar provision under consideration in North Carolina.
Moving Forward
The Wisconsin bill isdescribed by supportersas intended to protect the right of campus speakers to be heard. However, it seeks to accomplish this goal in a way that undermines student free speech of all types.
Hopefully, lawmakers in Wisconsin and in other states considering legislation will stick to workable measures that actually promoteas opposed to hindercampus free speech.
Neal H. Hutchens is Professor of Higher Education, University of Mississippi.
Link:
New Legislation Could End Free Speech on College Campuses - Newsweek
This Fourth of July, many solemnly salute out nations independence, but for 91 years, satire and parody have ruled the Ancient and Horribles Parade in Chepachet.
Even the parades name is a spoof on the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, the nations oldest chartered military organization. Parade floats take aim at local and national politics, with costumes and flashy signs.
Last year, the Parade sparked controversy when a local landscaping company included the Confederate Flag on its float. But parade chair Mike DeGrange says the event is a celebration of free speech.
Its a good side. Its a bad side. Its all sides of freedom of speech. DeGrange said.
Just what issues the floats will take on this year are a mystery until the day of the parade.
Controversy aside, DeGrange says the parade faces shrinking numbers of sponsorships and volunteers.
Hopefully well be getting more volunteers and more donations. And if we do that, I hope it continues the way it is keeps on going for a very long time, DeGrange said.
Link:
Freedom Of Speech Reigns At The Ancient And Horribles Parade - Rhode Island Public Radio
I long for the days of perspective. When a wise voice could step to the fore with a calm, reasoned approach; when common sense prevailed and a settling demeanor won the day.
That's what I kept thinking recently after reading what later turned out to be yet another politically-charged, wildly inaccurate story in one of our nation's leading newspapers. It was opinion masquerading as straight news, only giving fodder to the term Fake News which is so prevalent today.
Richland Source managing editor Larry Phillips
The topics span from politics to news to religion to pollution to sports to the weather and beyond. There are polarizing, extreme opinions in all of them. You think LeBron James is great? Obviously you are spitting at Michael Jordan, or vice-versa, right?
Too often I've blamed social media for this distressing landscape where so many run to their echo chamber. Others of my generation have blamed the younger generation, following an incredibly consistent and equally ignorant tradition that dates to the dawn of time.
Unfortunately, we're all wrong.
Perspective has rarely been part of the equation in the United States since the Founding Fathers put pen strokes to the Constitution, and well before that.
As a history minor in college, I've often found comfort and answers to today's questions in yesterday's newspapers, magazines, TV shows, movies and books. The older I get the less patient I become with those who repeat mistakes we've seen so many times in history.
But the truth is knee-jerk evaluations and stubborn, wrong-headed thinking are simply the residue of freedom of speech. Thank goodness it's a right, one we all enjoy. Yet there's a price for it.
I especially enjoy the way writer Aaron Sorkin put it during his 1995 movie The American President.
"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad 'cause it's gonna put up a fight," said Michael Douglas in his portrayal of fictional president Andrew Shepard. "It's gonna say 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that what you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours."
It has always been this way. Perspective has too often been locked in a closet with time the only key.
You think politics are nasty today? At least Trump and Hillary didn't pull pistols on each other. Yes, we've had national political rivals do exactly that.
The hottest Broadway musical of the day is Hamilton, based on the life and times of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. Spoiler Alert, Hamilton's incredible political career ended far too early. He died on July 12, 1804 at age 47 (or 49 depending on your preferred source) after a political feud led to a rash pistol duel with would-be vice president Aaron Burr.
Unfortunately, that's not an outlier. Ever heard of the Civil War?
Ah, those were the days, when slavery was clearly wrong. Everyone can agree with that, right?
Hardly.
Contrary to popular opinion today, Abraham Lincoln was not beloved in his lifetime. His critics were everywhere. Much of the press despised him, and teed off at the slightest provocation. Sound familiar?
When Lincoln, a Republican, delivered his landmark speech at Gettysburg, it was immediately ripped by the Chicago Times, a Democratic, pro-slavery newspaper with ties to the president's former political rival Stephen A. Douglas. The Chicago Times reporter covering Lincoln's Gettysburg Address filed this masterpiece of a sentence, which has long lived in journalism infamy:
"The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flab, dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the president of the United States."
How would you like to have your byline attached to that review of what is generally considered one of, if not the greatest speech in U.S. history? That's a 154-year-old embarrassment, and the count will continue as long as students are taught those eloquent words.
My father worked as a barber and owned a bar among other business interests. He had a standing rule in all of his establishments. Never discuss politics or religion. You're not going to change anyone's mind. You're only going to make someone mad. You will lose customers.
He wasn't trying to convert anyone. He had no political interest. He simply wanted his business to succeed.
We can't operate that way in the media. We shouldn't if we're going to hold our public officials responsible for our tax money and trust.
However, there's a difference between being a watchdog and being an instigator. I sigh at our lack of perspective in identifying that difference today. I see far too many examples of our refusal to learn the lessons of past failures from our country's brief, glorious, tumultuous history.
But the truth is we've had few examples of perspective through the years.
It's not the fault of social media, or the Baby Boomers or Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, or the Millennials. It's not the I-Phone or text messaging, radio, TV, newspapers, chat rooms or the internet.
It's all of us. This is the price we pay for freedom of speech. It's a love-hate relationship. Long may it live.
But it will be a lot easier to live with if we can find room for that elusive element of perspective that has evaded us for far too long.
Go here to see the original:
From Lincoln to LeBron, freedom of speech defeats perspective - Richland Source
With the help of ADF, many pastors continue to pursue the freedom of speech the government has denied them.
The Free Speech Fairness Act was introduced in Congress to correct the problem that began in 1954 with passage of the so-called Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates at the expense of losing their tax-exempt status.
Alliance Defending Freedomhas been trying to overturn that for nearly ten years. ADF attorney Erik Stanley tells OneNewsNow it began when 33 pastors preached Pulpit Freedom Sunday sermons in 2008.
"Those sermons talked about the candidates that were running for office at the time in light of Scripture," he explains. "They made recommendations about those candidates to the congregation. They recorded their sermons and sent them to the IRS. Now, since that time, over 4,000 unique pastors have participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday."
The idea was to provoke the IRS into taking action and pursuing the case in federal court so that the Johnson Amendment would ultimately be overturned. But none of the pastors has been investigated or punished.
"The problem is the Johnson Amendment is still on the books," Stanley says. "The IRS still believes that it has the ability to regulate the pastor's sermon from the pulpit, and the pastors of America are kind of left in a legal limbo. This is where the Free Speech Fairness Act comes in."
If passed and signed into law, the measure would restore freedom of speech that everyone else enjoys, a freedom backed by the U.S. Constitution.
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