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11 March 22
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Reality is a shock but it does make things more real. American military strategy goes out the window: how do you strategize against a schizoid dictator with an enormous nuclear arsenal and a compliant elite? Rationalism is only an observation. The stone-faced Putin has invaded an independent nation, firing rockets at a nuclear reactor, women and children in Kyiv weeping as they board a train for Poland, looking at husbands and fathers they may never see again, thanks to the small man at the end of the forty-foot table who says he is conducting an anti-Nazi mission, a naked lie as naked as the belief that COVID is a hoax or Trump won the election.
The hero of the moment is Volodymyr Zelensky, the Jewish comic who is now the guerilla president of Ukraine, and as long as he keeps dancing and making video speeches to his people, Ukraine survives, and when a Russian kill squad finds him, Ukraine becomes a Soviet republic again.
Our country has no Zelensky, alas. Our clown was Trump, who now is exposed as a Putin stooge who tried to kill off NATO to fulfill Putin’s great wish and enable him to reassemble Stalin’s empire. I know a nice man who asks, “Why do you hate Trump?” and who blames it all on Obama and now Biden. There are a hundred million nice people like him. Trump sold a bill of goods to the heartland and I pity that convoy of a thousand truckers in Baltimore, furious at the government about vaccine requirements even as the plague recedes, a protest without a purpose, just pure anger on eighteen wheels.
Putin sits in his palace, holding the power to destroy European civilization, and what did civilization ever do for him? Nothing, obviously. His man Trump recedes into his gilded cave, waiting for the next reel. He has a lot riding on the November election and it may not be helpful for Republicans to be seen supporting Putin while tanks roll through Ukrainian cities and rockets destroy apartment buildings and tiny children in ICUs are wrapped in blankets and moved to safety. This war is in our computers and phones and on TV, if we have eyes and care to look, and it is a reality that makes the Florida Orange and Chinless Mitch and Caribbean Ted Cruz disappear.
I pray for my fellow Democrats to put a damper on their righteous narcissism and rediscover some seriousness about freedom and love of country. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said she liked the part of Biden’s speech about Ukraine but I wish she’d come right out and confess that she loves this country. What’s so hard about that? Some dreadful political hacks go around with flag pins on their lapels but that’s no excuse for cynicism. It was abysmally stupid of her to pose for fashion pictures in Vanity Fair but I’ve forgiven her. Time for her to shape up now.
My generation was badly affected by the antiwar movement of the Sixties and the purity of the counterculture of dulcimers and organic granola and we got too good for our own good and lost touch with our people. I am just an old evangelical unable to say obscene words with authority, but I do believe Ukraine can beat the Russian Army. Trump and Putin are from another solar system. One is a madman in Moscow and the other is rearranging his hair. God preserve the heroic comedian. A great deal is riding on this. Joe and I are old men. Who will be our Zelensky?
Russian airstrikes early Friday hit the city of Dnipro, a major industrial hub and Ukraine's fourth-largest city in a strategic position on the Dnieper River. (photo: Reuters)
ALSO SEE: 'They Were Shooting Civilians': Ukraine Refugees Saw Abuses
Russian forces appeared to be moving toward a new ground offensive against Kyiv, while widening their aerial campaign against Ukraine’s cities to the west.
Moscow’s troops have struggled to make progress against fierce resistance in more than two weeks of war. But their assault has left civilians trapped and bombarded in worsening conditions, creating a humanitarian crisis that has horrified much of the world.
President Joe Biden called for an end to normal trade relations with Moscow, a move that allows the West to raise tariffs on Russian products as it seeks to isolate and punish Moscow for the invasion of its democratic neighbor.
Russian forces appeared to be moving toward a new offensive against Kyiv, according to satellite images and Western officials, while widening their aerial campaign against Ukraine's cities.
Russian troops had edged closer to the east of the capital on Thursday and could be just 10 miles from the city center, a senior U.S. defense official said. Britain’s defense ministry also warned early Friday that Moscow was likely seeking to “reset and re-posture its forces for renewed offensive activity” over the coming days, which it said would likely “include operations against the capital Kyiv.”
Analysts have been monitoring a mileslong military convoy threatening the capital that appeared stalled. But Maxar, a commercial satellite firm, said the column had now "largely dispersed and redeployed," sparking fears it may be maneuvering to encircle or attack the capital.
Russian forces have met fierce Ukrainian resistance in the areas surrounding the city, so it remains to be seen whether a fresh push there would be successful.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed optimism, saying that he believed his country had reached “a strategic turning point" in its defensive war. “We are already moving toward our goal, toward our victory,” he said in a speech posted to Telegram early Friday, without providing specifics.
"Ukrainians are proud people who always defend their land and will not give the occupier a single piece of land," Zelenskyy added.
Meanwhile, Moscow appeared to expand its offensive farther west, with airstrikes hitting the central city of Dnipro and airports in two western cities early Friday.
Ukraine's state emergency service said there were at least three airstrikes in the Novokodatskyi district of Dnipro early Friday morning, hitting near a kindergarten school, an apartment building and a two-story shoe factory. At least one person was killed, it said.
Russian strikes also targeted airports in Ivano-Frankiivsk and Lutsk, marking a further expansion of the conflict to the west. Local officials said four people were killed after strikes hit a military airfield in Lutsk.
NBC News has not verified the number of people killed, and Russia has consistently denied targeting civilians.
As Russia makes limited progress and takes on growing losses, the Kremlin moved to bolster its forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin greenlit a plan to bring thousands of fighters from the Middle East to join Russian troops.
Speaking at a security council meeting, Putin said he believed those who want to fight alongside Russian forces should be allowed to, Reuters reported. His defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said there were as many as 16,000 "volunteers" ready to join the fight.
Russia appeared to be intensifying its attacks on major cities in Ukraine even as it faced growing global condemnation and fueled a growing humanitarian crisis.
Ukraine continued its efforts to evacuate residents from hard-hit areas, with Zelenskyy saying as many as 100,000 civilians had been brought to safety over the past two days.
Moscow was accused of war crimes in the wake of the deadly airstrike on a hospital in Mariupol, where officials warned a “humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding amid failed attempts to get residents out and aid into the southern port city.
The city of around 400,000 people has been cut off from access to heat, electricity and water for at least a week during freezing temperatures. It has held out even as fears grow for the fate of its residents.
Moscow said Friday that Russian-backed separatists had captured nearby Volnovakha, a small city in the Donetsk region that has also been encircled and bombarded. NBC News has not confirmed this development and Ukrainian officials have not commented.
After talks in Turkey between the two countries' top diplomats appeared to make little progress, there was little hope for a swift end to the conflict or the worsening humanitarian situation.
The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine reached 2.5 million Friday, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Nearly 2 million more have been displaced within Ukraine, leaving their homes and often their families behind to escape the fighting.
The U.N. human rights office said it had documented 549 civilian deaths and 957 injuries from the war, adding that the toll and “general human suffering” were rising. The tally, which ran through midnight Wednesday, was likely a severe undercount.
In recent days the West has voiced growing alarm that civilians could face the prospect of a chemical or biological attack from Russia.
Zelenskyy dismissed Moscow's efforts to accuse Ukraine of planning a false-flag attack, which the U.S. and its allies have called out in recent days as a potential cover for Russia's own plans to do so.
In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said Russia's claims were concerning. He warned Moscow that "if you do something of the sort against us," it should expect to face a swift response from the international community.
The U.N. Security Council was set to meet Friday morning at Russia’s request to discuss the issue.
With Russia showing no signs of stepping back from its military offensive, Washington and Europe sought to deliver a fresh financial blow to Moscow.
Biden announced Friday that the U.S. and its allies from the G7 will take steps to deny the "most favored nation" status designation to Russia, putting an end to normal trade relations and paving the way for higher tariffs. The European Union said it planned to do the same.
Biden said the U.S. will also ban imports of additional Russian goods including seafood, vodka and diamonds and will join its allies in cutting off Moscow's ability to seek financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“Putin’s war in Ukraine will never be a victory,” Biden said. “We will not let autocrats and would-be emperors dictate the direction of the world."
The move would come just days after the U.S. banned imports of Russian oil and gas and as the West adds to an ever-growing list of sanctions targeting Russia's most powerful and wealthy.
The U.S. also warned Russia against seizing the assets of any companies that have joined the exodus of international business from the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, arrived in Romania’s capital for the next leg of a trip to reassure European allies after completing a visit to Poland.
Speaking ahead of talks in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally, Putin remained defiant.
The Russian leader said he was convinced his country would "overcome these difficulties."
"Of course, there are problems connected to recent events," he said in televised remarks. "There have always been attempts to curtail our development and they are happening now, obviously on a larger scale."
However, he also suggested that there had been "some positive shifts" in talks with Ukraine, saying he would share more details with his Belarusian counterpart.
His comments came as Russia restricted access to Instagram, launched a criminal case against its parent company, Meta Platforms, and moved to designate it an "extremist organization."
The move came after a policy change allowing users to call for violence against Russian soldiers within the context of the war.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was the latest crackdown on free speech in the country since Putin launched his invasion, leaving Russia isolated both economically and culturally.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack, speaks during a business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2021. One part of the panel's probe focuses on money and the day's events. (photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty)
The latest peek into questions around the money that might have helped fuel the attack arrived with the Republican National Committee suing to thwart a subpoena from the committee.
The filing reveals that the Democratic-led panel quietly subpoenaed an RNC vendor, San Francisco-based Salesforce, last month.
After the suit became public, the committee quickly defended the effort, saying it was looking into a new push led by former President Donald Trump asking for donations after he lost his 2020 bid for reelection.
"Ever since Watergate, one of the central adages in ... congressional investigations of presidential wrongdoing has been follow the money," said Norm Eisen, a former House lawyer in Trump's first impeachment case. "The 1/6 committee investigation has been sweeping in all of its dimensions, and this is no exception."
The committee's Feb. 23 subpoena of Salesforce emphasized its interest in the company's hosting of Trump emails asking for new donations that included false claims of election fraud.
It's part of a central question the panel hopes to answer: Did Trump find new ways to keep the money coming in after his loss by shifting from a presidential campaign to a "Stop the Steal" effort?
"I think the level of grift that was involved with the Trump campaign and people close to the former president, how the January 6 efforts were for many of them, this is what they were doing to make money," said California Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of the Jan. 6 panel. "We are looking into that."
The committee's investigators are broken down into highly skilled teams with core areas of focus, including one that's on the money.
Aguilar says each team has been making "significant progress," with regular presentations to the full committee on its findings. Each has been charged with devising a strategy for depositions and hearings.
"The committee has not tipped its hand of everything they have," Eisen said. "They dedicated significant resources to the money trails. And I'm certain that in the hearings and in the final report, there's going to be much more evidence revealed."
This spring, the committee hopes to hold its first hearings illustrating the findings so far and issue an interim report by the summer with a final report this fall.
Questions of crimes committed
While it investigates, the panel is also documenting possible crimes.
Although it has no criminal jurisdiction, the committee can issue criminal referrals to the Justice Department, as it has done in cases of some witnesses who have refused to cooperate.
Last week, the committee detailed possible crimes Trump might have committed related to Jan. 6 in a recent court filing involving attorney John Eastman, who was advising Trump's Stop the Steal efforts.
Eastman is also fighting another subpoena in a case in which the panel raised potential crimes that could tie into the financial probe as well: a conspiracy to defraud and common law fraud.
Eisen argues following the money is one of the classic ways of establishing the parameters of a broad conspiracy.
"These are questions, they're allegations, they're not yet determined," Eisen notes. However, some examples of these questions are "were false representations made in order to fleece people of their funds? Was it wire fraud? Was it money laundering?"
The Eastman court filing could become a part of a much larger path forward if the committee potentially issues criminal referrals against Trump by the conclusion of its probe.
But it's a complex matter.
Among the challenges: the committee will have to prove intent behind the efforts. And such a criminal referral could be laced with political landmines, putting pressure on the Justice Department's independent and impartial role.
Panel members have conceded there are pros and cons.
"Certainly, I think a referral from Congress gets the attention of the Department of Justice," said California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, another committee member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who was the lead House manager in Trump's first impeachment. "At the same time, the Congress has to be careful not to play into any narrative that a prosecution — if the Justice Department were to bring one — is politically motivated in any way."
That political concern, Schiff argues, can be addressed through the panel's methodical approach to the probe, while not criminal in nature. That can be accomplished by focusing on finding all the facts and remaining objective along the way, Schiff said.
More Jan. 6 money trails
In the coming days, the committee could unearth another rash of financial details with information from a newly subpoenaed witness.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée, is due to turn over documents to the panel Friday and testify next week. Last year, ProPublica reported Guilfoyle bragged in text messages that she helped raise $3 million for the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse, where she was one of the speakers.
It's a reminder that more than a year later, it's still not clear how much money was funneled to the Jan. 6 rally or events that preceded it, and who got paid along the way.
The panel has also shared in letters to certain subpoenaed witnesses that it's trying to track down appearance fees for that rally — that is, whether any of the speakers collected payment that day.
"If funds were raised for the Jan. 6 event by an organized group, then there might be an opportunity for us to know who it was and what was paid," said Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House select committee.
The committee has also quietly sought banking records, including in the case of Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman who sued to keep his financial institution from complying with a subpoena.
"There's no doubt that there is a very big moneymaking operation component to this story," said Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, another committee member who was the lead manager of the House team in Trump's second impeachment.
Anna Massoglia, an editorial and investigations manager for the nonpartisan, nonprofit group OpenSecrets, is also trying to track the money trail.
Massoglia says a combination of dark money groups, nonprofits and super PACs funded the rally before the attack, but not necessarily the insurrection. She says the committee will be key to filling in the many of the blanks that remain.
"There's those unknowns of the groups on social media that didn't have as much of an official role," she said. "But there is a lot of unknown about even these groups that are listed. There's a lot of money that is still unaccounted for."
OpenSecrets has identified at least nine groups that may have contributed to funding the rally, including Stop the Steal, Women for American First, Tea Party Patriots and Turning Point Action. Massoglia says tax returns due later this year could also shed more light on those who may have funneled or made money connected to that day.
OpenSecrets has also identified these groups with financial ties to the so-called "March to Save America":
- Rule of Law Defense Fund - a 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliated with the 527 Republican Attorneys General Association
- Black Conservatives Fund - a hybrid PAC
- Moms for America - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Peaceably Gather - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by First Liberty Institute
- Phyllis Schlafly Eagles - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
Raskin says the financial story behind the attack remains a critical chapter to the overall story the committee hopes to tell the public later this year.
"There are powerful indications that have surfaced and every day that passes we get more testimony shedding light on what exactly was taking place," Raskin said. "We should not discount the financial motive and imperative in the events leading up to Jan. 6."
Workers are calling for the National Labor Relations Board to ban captive audience meetings and make organizing easier. (photo: Getty)
Workers are calling for the National Labor Relations Board to ban captive audience meetings and make organizing easier
Their efforts could transform how unions organize workers in the US, especially amid opposition from employers.
Max Capasso, who has worked as a barista at Great Lakes Coffee in Detroit for six months, is one of about 20 workers at the coffee chain currently on strike, demanding their employer recognize their union and collectively bargain with workers.
In January, Capasso said, nine baristas at the Midtown location in Detroit tested positive for Covid-19, and management insisted the remaining workers, despite having been exposed, still come into work. The company denies that workers were asked to come into work sick.
Capasso and others had been communicating with each other about working conditions and low pay, but the Covid-19 issue prompted them to sign a joint letter requesting that management provide hazard pay and not demand workers return to work without being cleared of the virus.
In response, the store location was shut down indefinitely, which incited the union organizing effort with Unite Here Local 24. Twenty out of 24 workers have signed union authorization cards and have been on strike since 16 February to demand recognition.
“We clearly have a vast majority, we’ve clearly proven that we are dedicated to this strike and we are dedicated to this union and getting a contract, and they have refused to acknowledge it,” said Capasso. “We are seeking a higher authority to force their hand and come sit at the table with us.”
During the third week of the strike, workers filed unfair labor practice charges against Great Lakes Coffee with the NLRB, requesting the board reinstate the Joy Silk doctrine, a policy which stipulates an employer must recognize and bargain collectively with a union unless they have a “good faith doubt” of majority support for the union.
Great Lakes Coffee did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the filing.
This would make it easier for workers to form unions as they would not have to hold ballot elections to do so, and under Joy Silk, employers would be forced to bargain collectively with the union if found to have broken labor law during a union election process.
The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed support for expanding union organizing rights, most recently during the State of the Union address. During the speech, Biden said that “when a majority of workers want to form a union they shouldn’t be stopped,” which was reaffirming support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which passed the House last year but has yet to receive a Senate vote.
Biden’s new appointees to the NLRB, including the general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, have called for several types of cases for regional offices to bring to the NLRB general counsel office, outlining the office’s priorities, including consideration of requesting the NLRB reinstate Joy Silk, which was abandoned by the NLRB around 1970.
“Given the many years that we have had since Joy Silk was abandoned, we’ve seen over those years, decade upon decade, employers abuse their power at the workplace where they intimidate employees’ efforts to unionize,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a professor of law and employment law at Cornell University. “Bringing Joy Silk back would be a doctrine that more fully respects workers’ rights to unionize.”
Lieberwitz said banning captive audience meetings will probably be more difficult, given employer opposition in citing first amendment rights. But there could be other ways for the board to address the coercive nature of captive audience meetings, such as granting unions equal access and time with workers.
“Now is a chance with a new board and this very creative general counsel to really take actions to engage in review and rethinking about how to make the NLRB work the way it was supposed to,” said Lieberwitz.
Workers trying to unionize at Amazon in New York and Starbucks workers in Alabama have filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB to push for the board to ban captive audience meetings held by employers to discourage unionization efforts, a policy that is also included in the Pro Act.
“They’re definitely inherently coercive and we feel absolutely disgusted by Amazon’s union-busting tactics,” said Brett Daniels, an Amazon worker and organizer at JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York. “They need to end and should be banned.”
Daniels said that workers are regularly forced to attend captive audience meetings held by Amazon throughout their work week.
Under the Trump administration, the NLRB fought to overturn state laws that prohibited or limited employers’ use of captive audience meetings during union campaigns, claiming bans limit the free speech of employers.
“There are no first amendment rights there, people are forced to go there. The unions have no way to respond to it and they lie to them,” said Seth Goldstein, a pro bono attorney for the Amazon Labor Union. “Captive audience meetings are inherently coercive and the board has to take action.”
Amazon is publicly and aggressively opposing unionization in their warehouses, with a rerun election currently being held in Alabama after the initial results in 2021 were overturned due to Amazon’s conduct during the election. Amazon is pushing workers to vote no in the NLRB elections that the board ordered after a majority of workers expressed interest in unionization through union authorization cards.
Amazon and Starbucks have rejected criticisms of captive audience meetings, dubbing them “regular informational meetings” or “listening sessions”.
Oregon has a ban on captive audience meetings and Connecticut is currently debating legislation that would grant employees the right to leave these meetings, which business groups strongly oppose.
Family members mourn before the cremation of a loved one who died of Covid-19 on the outskirts of Bengaluru, India, on May 13. (photo: Samuel Rajkumar/Reuters)
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Aid - With Biden Already Behind on Vaccine Donations
In 2020 and 2021, 18 million more people died worldwide than would have otherwise been expected, new research shows.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, analyzed data from 74 countries and 266 states and territories between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021. The scientists calculated excess deaths, a measure of how many more people died than would be expected had the pandemic not occurred. That means the estimate accounts both for people killed by Covid directly — confirmed and undiagnosed cases — as well as those whose deaths may be indirectly attributed to the pandemic.
Examples in the latter category include people with serious medical conditions who were unable to seek timely care because hospitals were overburdened, people who died by suicide, and those who died due to a lack of access to essential services.
“The difference between excess mortality and reported COVID-19 deaths might be a function of underdiagnosis due to insufficient testing, reporting challenges, or higher than expected mortality from other diseases,” the study said.
Haidong Wang, an associate professor at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the study's lead author, said the findings offer a clearer picture of the pandemic's wrath.
“We know that because of the severity of the pandemic, its impact on mortality is beyond the number of people who died from Covid-19 directly,” he said. “Excess mortality is more accurate in describing the true impact.”
Wang's team collated mortality data from various global databases and government offices for the two years studied, as well as for up to 11 years prior. The team then used that data to create predictive models for places where no statistics were available. It compared those results to calculations of expected deaths without a pandemic, which it modeled based on historical trends.
In the end, excess deaths were estimated at 18.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2021 — a number that does not include the full effect of the omicron wave. As of that same day, the study says, the world's official Covid death toll stood at 5.94 million.
Some of that discrepancy, the authors noted, is because reporting systems generally do not list Covid as a person's cause of death without a positive test result, which means many areas that lack testing capacity tend to underreport.
Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, said India in particular has not kept accurate tallies of Covid deaths, part of a “long-standing problem” that preceded the pandemic.
“Culturally, when a death occurs in a rural area, particularly Hindus and smaller Muslim populations dispose of the body quickly by cremating or burying out in a field,” he said. “There is no way the government can keep track … The dead bodies are disposed of by the village in the backyard.”
Jha, who was not involved in the new study, published research in January that focused on Covid's impact in India. His work suggested that as many as 3.4 million Covid deaths were unaccounted for there during India’s first and second infection waves.
Similarly, the new study showed that India had the world's highest total of excess deaths: about 4.1 million. The country's official toll stands at 515,000. Russia and the United States, meanwhile, each had about 1.1 million excess deaths, the report said. Russia has reported nearly 351,000 Covid deaths, while the U.S. has reported more than 968,000. A study in October found that Black, Latino and Native American people in the U.S. disproportionately died of Covid in 2020.
The regions of the world with the most excess deaths, according to the new study, were South Asia, with 5.3 million, followed by North Africa and the Middle East, which each had about 1.7 million. Eastern Europe had 1.4 million excess deaths, the research found.
Wang noted, however, that global lockdowns did reduce deaths from some causes, an effect also reflected in his excess mortality numbers. For example, he said, car fatalities dropped because fewer people were driving, and flu deaths declined with more people staying home.
Gabriel Boric, Chile's new president, has been sworn into office. (photo: Martin Bernetti/Getty)
Progressive former student leader hopes to transform a country still living in the shadow of the Pinochet dictatorship
“Know that we are going to do our best to rise to the challenges we face as a country,” he said as he received the presidential sash at a ceremony in the port city of ValparaÃso.
A month on from his 36th birthday, Boric was flanked by several of the student leaders who served alongside him through two terms in congress and are now joining his cabinet.
“This is the best generation of young politicians Chile has had in 50 years,” says Luis Maira, 81, a former minister who was a mentor for the new president. “Without a shadow of a doubt, Boric is leading us into a new chapter of Chilean history.”
Chile was rocked by months of unrest in 2019 over inequality, corruption and inadequate social welfare. Many of the protesters’ demands echoed those which Boric and his contemporaries had pushed in a student movement which demanded that Chile be rebuilt with the concerns of its people at the core.
It is a vision that Boric has vowed to achieve as president – although a divided congress will probably hamper progress.
In the background, representatives from every corner of Chile are drafting a new constitution to replace Gen Augusto Pinochet’s 1980 charter. The new constitution will be put to a referendum later this year.
The new government will also have to negotiate heightened tensions between the state and indigenous Mapuche in the south, and a migration crisis in the north.
Boric makes a point of insisting that history does not begin with his generation, but there is no denying their impact on politics.
“He always wanted to know where those who held power came from and what they had done before,” said Maira.
In the winter of 2011, Boric and his contemporaries paralysed Santiago with their movement demanding free, high-quality education for all, catapulting them into the national consciousness.
A year later, Boric took the reins at the University of Chile’s student union in the centre of the capital, where bright swirls of colour now adorn a building once occupied by Pinochet’s feared secret police.
“He always had something about him, and when he put himself forward for congress I joked that he might become president,” remembered Sonia Moreno, 59, who has worked at the union for more than a decade.
As she flicked through pictures of her and a long-haired Boric on her phone, she recalled how he pushed her to finish her schooling and even helped raise money for an operation on her arm.
“I have so much faith in him because he’s a warrior – he does what he says. He has a strong character and he’s determined,” she said.
In 2013, Boric was elected to Chile’s congress representing Magallanes, Chile’s southernmost region, vowing to change Chile from the bottom up.
Those around him paint a picture of a voracious reader and patient negotiator, determined to collect opinions, bridge political divisions and build majorities.
Boric has repeatedly said that as part of his ambition to decentralise Chile, he hopes to leave the presidency with less power than when he inherited it.
He has also been careful to signpost the changing of the times with his early choices.
Boric reiterated his backing for Chile’s constitutional process the morning after the election, and last month announced a female-majority cabinet – a symbol of the feminist Chile he is looking to build.
He will live downtown in Barrio Yungay, where eclectic rows of low-rise homes and graffitied facades line cobbled streets – a far cry from the outgoing president, the billionaire Sebastián Piñera, who has a large house in Santiago’s affluent north-eastern suburbs.
The home Boric has chosen sits between streets named Freedom and Hope.
“If Boric is able to oversee the transition from one constitution to another, and from one generation to the next, then I would consider that a success,” said Maira.
“If he can do that, then the effects will be felt across Latin America, as he could be remembered as the leader of a new era in a region that has rarely found consensus.”
Students working on the experimental tanks at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. (photo: Andrea Grottoli)
New research, in which scientists spent 22 months studying several types of corals in Hawaii, suggests that several species could weather climate change better than thought.
New research, in which scientists spent 22 months studying several types of corals in Hawaii, suggests that several species, absent other stressors, could survive even if the world warms up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit on average. That temperature mark is the goal for limiting warming that was set by world leaders in the Paris Agreement.
“We’re finding a shred of hope there will be some survivors” if the world warms to Paris levels, said Rowan McLachlan, a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State University and study author.
The new study, which was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, is unprecedented for its length of observation and for providing an environment as realistic as possible for the corals to live, the authors said.
In recent years, reports from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about corals have made for dismal and distressing reading. A 2018 report projected more than 99 percent of the world’s corals would be lost if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees F and that 70 to 90 percent were expected to be lost with 2.7 degrees F of average warming.
“We do find something that’s a bit different than other people have found,” said Andréa Grottoli, an author of the study and a professor in the Earth sciences department at Ohio State University. “Our conditions were more realistic. Maybe there is more resilience out there. It certainly opens up the window to test that more thoroughly.”
To study how corals would react to climate effects over time, researchers designed 40 tanks for coral next to a reef on Coconut Island in Hawaii. The tanks came with all the amenities of a typical reef home, including sand, rubble, fish and crustaceans.
“Having all of those elements in the tank, we’re mimicking the natural environment,” McLachlan said.
Researchers used a hammer and chisel to harmlessly remove tiny pieces of coral from reefs at several sites near Oahu and installed that coral into the tank.
Pumps channeled seawater into the 70-liter tanks to generate a flow and mimic the natural movement of water.
To account for future global warming in some tanks, seawater was heated or treated to be more acidic before it entered the containers.
A quarter of the tanks — the control group — received no treatment, another quarter had temperatures heightened and a third quarter saw acidity raised. Researchers pumped heated seawater that was also more acidic into the remaining 10 tanks.
Anything extra — such as other coral varieties, debris or coral algae — that the pumps sucked into the pipes in addition to seawater was allowed to stay.
“Each tank is its own ecosystem,” McLachlan said.
After 22 months, the scientists took stock of how the corals in each tank were faring.
“In the control tanks, we saw very little mortality,” McLachlan said. “We saw very high growth rate of the coral — growth rates that mimicked what we saw on the reef.”
The similarity in growth suggests that conditions within the tanks were similar to the reality of the nearby reef.
In the tank with hotter and more acidic waters, about half the corals died. Their prospects depended on their species.
Montipora capitata, known as a rice coral, coped poorly. Its survivors were oozing organic carbon, which is a sign of stress.
“They were struggling,” McLachlan said, adding that they might have been sensitive to a lack of zooplankton in the tanks.
The survivors of two species of Porites, which have finger-like features and are known to be a resilient coral, fared well and were growing.
“Not only were they coping, they were thriving,” McLachlan said. “That’s a really shocking result.”
Losing about half of coral cover would have major consequences for Hawaiian reef ecosystems, but it’s still a heartening prospect.
“That’s going to have large consequences for the functioning of reefs and the services reefs provide,” McLachlan said. “In light of what we know about what corals are in for in the future, it’s actually quite hopeful.”
The results have limitations. The study provided results for three major reef-building species in Hawaiian waters, and its findings might not be applicable elsewhere. The study does not analyze the impacts of local stressors like pollution, overfishing, freshwater inundation and disease — key issues that can affect coral absent climate change.
Mary Hagedorn, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, who was not involved in the research, said the paper makes a strong argument that these Hawaiian corals will be able to survive future ocean conditions from a physiological standpoint.
“But getting there is really the process,” Hagedorn said, adding that it was difficult to predict how corals would react when other environmental problems are layered on top of warming and acidification.
“What will the next 100 years really bring us, in terms of the auxiliary, cascading events?” she said.
More research is needed. Previous studies of corals have been shorter, often just a month in duration.
In part because of its duration, “we feel like our study may be a more realistic interpretation about how corals will do in the future and survive and physiologically acclimatize,” Grottoli said.
Steve Coles, a marine biologist in Hawaii who has continued to study and publish about corals since his retirement, said he was impressed with the quality of the research.
“To keep an experiment going for 22 months, nearly three years, is astounding to me,” Coles said. “That’s unique. I don’t think that’s ever been attempted before.”
Cole published a paper in 2018 that documented other types of corals adapting to climate change.
The results of these studies “are definitely running against the grain,” Coles said. “We’re finding corals are more resilient than we thought they’d be.”
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