The Weekly Lift - April 20, 2023

The Editor's Page:

Dear Readers

How far will the "culture war" in the United States go? No day passes without a politician making outrageous comments or accusations about the trans community, criticizing drag queens reading books to children or even performing for adults, or denouncing Sam Smith, a non-binary artist's performance as "satanic." Last week, the market value of Bud Light's parent company, a popular beer brand in the United States, decreased by $5 billion after it launched an advertising campaign featuring a transwoman and influencer, Dylan Mulvaney. The witchhunt is relentless. The word "woke" has become the new Scarlet Letter.

Beyond the outrageous nature of the baseless claims these culture warriors make when explaining why drag queens and drag shows can subvert children's minds, they assert that the government, regulators, and policymakers must intervene to protect the welfare of children.

They use the same logic to regulate women's reproductive rights and feel more empowered after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. Some of these political decisions have sent many communities in the United States back decades regarding women's health and, in some instances, deepened socio-economic inequalities for minority women. Ironically, many of the states that have implemented the most stringent abortion laws are also the ones that rank worst in terms of economic and social development, education, and access to healthcare, all contributing factors to teenage pregnancies.

These observations underscore that none of the rhetoric about these cultural issues is supported by sound public policy. The populist and political discourse reigns, and the poorest families and individuals, primarily minorities and youth, are left to pick up the pieces.

The most dystopian aspect of this culture war is the paradox between the desire to regulate and restrict women's bodies, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and trans people's access to the healthcare they need while staunchly invoking individual rights, personal freedoms, and the Second Amendment when dealing with gun control. A recent survey found that most Americans have had direct exposure to gun violence. There have been more mass shootings than days in 2023, and more children die from guns than any other method. For culture warriors, the immorality and senselessness of these deaths do not register in the same values system used to attack drag queens or trans people.

Florida is leading the charge, perhaps because Governor DeSantis sees it as the perfect strategy for elevating his profile among Republican voters and positioning himself as the front contender in the 2024 presidential election. However, other states that are less in the public spotlight have pursued quiet but equally dangerous paths, leaving certain targeted minorities frightened and exposed. In these states, beyond the populist headlines and the political agendas, the lives of ordinary citizens can be changed forever, caught in the fantastical world that has come to define the United States' political system.

Spain has recently granted teenagers the right to change their gender identity without medical review. The fight continues worldwide to improve women's and minority rights (see the article below about Japan). Meanwhile, the United States is sinking into the most embarrassing culture war vortex yet. Ru Paul, the celebrity drag performer, famously said, "We are all born naked; the rest is drag." I am raising a Bud Light to that.

Curated Articles*

This week's selection of headlines and articles:

Ukraine War: Brazil’s Lula Meets Xi In China As They Seek Path To Peace in Ukraine

The New Yor Times (US) reports that "President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil met in Beijing on Friday with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and the two leaders declared in a joint statement that negotiation was “the only viable way out of the crisis in Ukraine.”

In the statement, they avoided the words “invasion” or “war” and offered few specifics about how to bring Russia or Ukraine to the table after more than a year of war. At the same time, Mr. Lula called on Friday for China’s territorial integrity to be respected with regards to Taiwan, a similar stance to the one President Emmanuel Macron of France took last weekend after he?met with Mr. Xi in China.

The joint statement underscored the delicate lines that China and Brazil have tried to chart on the war in Ukraine: Each has refused to take an explicit side, has called for peace talks and has preserved business ties with Russia. Beijing, in particular, has?aligned itself with Moscow?in countering American influence abroad and what Mr. Xi calls a U.S. campaign to prevent China’s rise.

The careful positioning by Mr. Xi and Mr. Lula stands against the backdrop of Beijing’s?worsening relations?with Washington on a range of issues, and as China wages a diplomatic campaign to raise its stature — and diminish that of the United States — in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

American and some European officials and have been critical of China’s 12-point outline of issues that should be considered in a peace agreement, because China has not suggested that Russian forces must withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territory as part of any deal.

There have been?no known peace talks?between Moscow and Kyiv in the past 12 months, and each side has ruled out a cease-fire based on the current battlefield conditions. On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia?signed?a law that is set to create a system for electronic draft notices, and to?make it more difficult to avoid a draft.

In contrast to its lack of details about Ukraine, Brazil and China’s joint statement was direct about the territorial integrity of China, which was defined to include Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy over which mainland China claims sovereignty. “The Chinese side expressed great appreciation in this regard,” the relevant passage of the statement concluded.

Although the United States and Europe have urged many countries to support Ukraine, when it comes to Taiwan Mr. Lula does not face the same pressure that Mr. Macron does to align France with its allies. After his statements about the island unsettled American and E.U. officials, Mr. Macron walked them back and said France supports the status quo.

Mr. Lula’s official visit to Beijing began on Friday in Tiananmen Square, in the heart of Beijing, where Chinese state media showed him side by side with Mr. Xi in front of the Great Hall of the People, as Chinese soldiers marched past them with fixed bayonets.

Moving inside the Great Hall on Friday afternoon, Mr. Lula said he wanted the relationship between the two countries to “transcend trade,” according to?a release?from Mr. Lula’s leftist party, the Workers’ Party. “No one is going to prohibit Brazil from improving its relationship with China,” he said.

Mr. Lula traveled to Shanghai and then Beijing this week with powerful incentives to accommodate China’s interests. In recent weeks, the Brazilian leader has suggested that China should be part of a global effort to bring about peace talks, arguing that countries not directly involved in the conflict are better positioned to mediate the negotiations. “Brazil as a country is more and more in line with the Chinese narrative,” said Moritz Rudolf, a specialist in China’s foreign policy at Yale Law School.

China has not condemned Russia’s invasion, and Mr. Xi remains closely aligned with Mr. Putin, visiting Moscow last month. Chinese officials?say that Beijing is not on Moscow’s side?in the war, and that they will not send weapons for Russia to use in Ukraine, but Chinese state media has?parroted Kremlin claims?blaming NATO for starting the conflict.

China has meanwhile continued high-level meetings with Russian officials, beyond Mr. Xi’s trip to Moscow. Its Ministry of National Defense announced on Friday that the country’s defense minister, Li Shangfu, would travel to Moscow on Sunday for a four-day trip.

Brazil has criticized Russia’s invasion in carefully worded statements, but its position is complicated by?its reliance?on Russia for about a quarter of its fertilizer imports, which are crucial to Brazil’s enormous agriculture industry. Mr. Lula has also suggested that Ukraine’s president and NATO?share some blame?for the war, and he has?resisted calls to send weapons?to Ukraine.

Recently leaked Pentagon documents suggest that Ukraine is increasingly desperate for arms to hold back Russian troops, and in particular needs?the kind of air defenses?that Brazil can supply. European nations have moved to send more advanced weapons — the German government on Thursday approved a Polish request to export five MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. But with?Western stockpiles?diminished, Ukraine and its allies have put pressure on some nations that have avoided getting involved to send help.

Colombia and Argentina, which like Brazil are led by leftists, have?refused to send weapons?to Ukraine, with their leaders arguing that they will not take sides in the war.

But some of the leaked U.S. intelligence documents indicate that Ecuador’s right-wing government in recent months considered sending Soviet-designed MI-17 helicopters to Ukraine, a move supported by the United States.

Ecuador would have been the first Latin American country to send weapons to Ukraine, according to the documents. It was not clear from the documents whether Ecuador followed through. The potential transfer was first reported by Ecuadorean media?in January.

Ecuador’s foreign ministry on Thursday denied any negotiations with Ukraine, saying in a statement that a “donation of military goods and supplies is not mentioned in the Ecuadorean legislation, so an operation of these characteristics would be impossible.”

Mr. Lula introduced the idea of a peace group formed by such countries, and recently told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that he would discuss the idea with Mr. Xi, making Mr. Lula the latest in a string of leaders offering a vision for possible negotiations.

Brazil is Russia’s largest buyer of fertilizer, purchasing roughly $1.9 billion in chemicals from Russia in 2019, though Russia’s fertilizer industry is still dwarfed by its oil and gas exports. Although its energy business with Europe has dwindled under Western sanctions, Russia has increased its trade on this front with nations including?China and India, which has made up for shortfalls in Russia’s energy business.

Mr. Lula’s visit to China is part of an effort to repair relations that had suffered under Brazil’s previous president, Jair Bolsonaro. Bringing Mr. Xi his thoughts on a potential path to peace for Ukraine has put Brazil back into the geopolitical conversation after Mr. Bolsonaro’s contentious and isolationist administration left office."

Peacebuilding: In Colombia, FARC Dissent "Ready" To Negotiate Peace

Le Monde (France) reports that "this is a form of commitment to peace. The FARC dissent guerrilla said it was?"ready"?on Sunday, April 16, during a large public gathering in southern Colombia, to start peace negotiations with the Colombian government in a month, starting on May 16.

"We announce to the world that our delegates at the dialogue table with the government are ready for May 16,"?said a spokesperson for the FARC Central Staff (EMC-FARC), the main dissent of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which had refused to sign the historic 2016 peace agreement between the government and the Marxist guerrillas.

The EMC-FARC?"hopes that the official installation of the negotiating table can take place",?according to this?"political declaration"?read in the gallery during this unprecedented?"popular"?gathering organized in the heart of the guerrilla territory, in the savannah of the San Vicente del Caguan region, in the Caqueta department.

The number one of dissent, "Ivan Mordisco" (literally "Ivan the bite"), accompanied by his staff, was present, in front of several thousand people, the vast majority of whom are peasants, members of social organizations and sympathizers of the rebellion. Under his command, dissidents, who consider themselves the real heirs of the FARC - for a long time the most powerful Marxist guerrilla in Latin America - have federated several other dissent fronts operating in various regions of Colombia in recent months. They are estimated at nearly 3,000 men and operate mainly in the Amazon, on the Pacific coast and on the Venezuelan border.

With this declaration, FARC dissidents are thus responding to the negotiation proposal by the left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, elected in the summer of 2022, which aims to restore?"total peace"?in the country, after more than half a century of internal conflict and where many armed groups continue to crack down."

International Relations: Saudi Arabia Mends Ties With Syria As Part of Regional Diplomatic Spree

The Washington Post reports that "Saudi Arabia abruptly announced this week it was moving to reestablish relations with Syria, the latest effort by the gulf kingdom to patch up long-simmering regional rivalries during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia, notorious for painstakingly slow diplomacy, has made remarkable strides in past weeks — restoring?relations?with Iran, its longtime foe, and fast-tracking peace negotiations in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and its allies have fought a long, grinding war against Houthi militants backed by Tehran.

Rumors of a Saudi rapprochement with Syria have been circulating since 2018, when the?United Arab Emirates and Bahrain restored ties with Damascus. Yet there appeared to be little concrete progress until this week, when Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad touched down in Jiddah. It was the first visit to the kingdom by a top Syrian diplomat since Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations in 2012, after President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on popular protests set off a decade-long civil war.

In a joint statement Wednesday, Mekdad and his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, said they would work toward reopening embassies and resuming flights between the two countries. On Friday, Saudi Arabia brought together foreign ministers from across the Middle East to discuss Syria’s return to the Arab League.

Saudi Arabia’s breakneck diplomatic push could reshape regional dynamics, analysts say, at a time of uncertainty about the future of U.S. engagement. After years of costly military entanglements and proxy conflicts, the kingdom appears to be seeking stability abroad as it focuses on reforms at home.

“I think the lesson [for Saudis] now is maybe actually it’s better if we just focus on diplomacy; we don’t need to demonstrate strength through military intervention,” said Andrew Leber, an assistant professor at Tulane University and expert on Saudi politics. Social changes and high-profile economic ventures seem to be a more effective way of gaining the international prestige Riyadh craves, he added.

That Saudi Arabia would be spearheading efforts to return Syria to the Arab fold would have once seemed unthinkable. For years, the kingdom was among the main suppliers of arms to rebel groups that fought to overthrow the government in Damascus. In 2015, then-Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said if a political process failed to remove Assad, Riyadh would continue to support the opposition “in order to remove him by force.”

But 12 years into the war, Assad has maintained his grip on power in Syria — thanks in large part to military support from Russia and Iran, as well as economic aid from Iran and China. The United Nations estimates the conflict has killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced more than 6 million to flee the country, and left nearly 7 million internally displaced — many in the country’s northwest, which is still controlled by a patchwork of rebel groups.

Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have felt the war’s spillover most acutely — the three countries are home to the largest numbers of Syrian refugees. According to the?United Nations?in 2021, more than 80 percent of registered Syrian refugees, about 5.5 million, live in neighboring countries, including Iraq and Egypt.

The fallout from Syria’s conflict is far-reaching and enduring. Arab countries must grapple with the long-term status of refugees, many of whom fear returning home, where they could face arrest or forced conscription. The Islamic State is still active in parts of Syria that are beyond the government’s control. And Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states remain wary about Iran’s influence in Syria, which provides Tehran a much-needed land corridor connecting it with allies in Iraq and Lebanon.

Iran has been crippled by Western sanctions and rocked by months of anti-government protests. It also faces growing diplomatic isolation over its decision to?provide weapons to Russia?for its war in Ukraine. The Saudi view, Leber said, is that “Iran is weakened internally, so it’s time to lock in some sort of concessions from them on these regional conflicts so Saudi Arabia can move on with more important things like its economic development plans and Vision 2030” — an ambitious package aimed at modernizing the kingdom, the brainchild of its young de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Less than a week after the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers met in Beijing to finalize the normalization deal, a Saudi delegation arrived in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, to negotiate an end to its involvement in a conflict that has dragged on for eight years and led to one of the world’s?worst humanitarian crises.

Originally, the talks were aimed at extending a September truce, said Nasr al-Din Amer, an official for the Houthi rebel group that has fought the Saudi-led coalition. “But now the purpose of the visit is to finalize a peace deal with the Saudis mediated by the Omanis,” he said.

The deals with Syria, Iran and the Houthis are “being presented at home as the smart move, the wise move,” Leber said. There is also a realization, he added, that the Biden administration has “very little appetite for engaging in new conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Analysts say the perceived waning of the United States’ interest in the Middle East plays a significant role in these reconciliation deals.

“The Americans have been touting this idea of a strategic pivot away from the region in order to compete with China,” said Mohammed Alyahya, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center. At the same time, he continued, the Chinese, who brokered the deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran, seem to view the region as a new venue for great-power competition with Washington.

The deal with Iran does not mean the Saudis suddenly trust their longtime adversaries, Alyahya said. “But absent a United States strategy in the region, people are trying to just find a workable modus vivendi.”

“The enmity between the Iranian axis and the gulf stems in large part from a perception that the gulf is an essential pillar for the U.S. security order in the region,” Alyahya said. “If there is no longer a commitment to that order by America, then it follows that a significant source of that enmity disappears.”

The U.S. administration’s absence on the Syria issue is “irritating everybody in the Arab world,” said James Jeffrey, a retired ambassador who was the State Department’s special representative to Syria from 2018 to 2020. The lack of clear policy from the Americans has left Arab countries feeling “impotent,” he added.

During Jeffrey’s tenure, there were efforts at coordination between Washington and Arab states to set up a process for rapprochement with Syria, provided Assad made reforms. “We called this step-by-step,” he said. But Assad refused to change, betting that he could wait out his adversaries. His gamble appears to have paid off.

Not all countries in the region are ready to welcome Syria back to the fold, including Qatar, another longtime supporter of Syrian rebel groups: “We had reasons to support the suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League, and the reasons still exist,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said in a television interview Thursday.

But Salman has signaled he intends to invite Assad to the next Arab League meeting in May. Regardless of regional differences, Leber said, Saudi Arabia “will be trying to present itself and demonstrate that we’re able to pull the region together.”

Sustainability: The Argentine Factory That Creates Footwear With Tires: ‘Our Shoes Are Garbage’

El Pais (Spain) reports that "Argentina?is home to 15 million motor vehicles, according to statistics from 2021. Each one has tires that must be replaced for safety and regulatory reasons. This inevitable process produces between 130,000 and 150,000 tons of waste per year, according to data from the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI).

Despite existing bills about environmental responsibility, producers are not required by the government to recycle the material, which can take more than 600 years to decompose. In most cases, recycling initiatives and effective solutions continue to come from civil society organizations and private companies.

“Our shoes are trash,” says the advertisement for Xinca, a company in the province of Mendoza which three friends created in 2013. The business produces footwear made from recycled tires. “In Argentina, a lot is discarded and little is recycled. After their primary use, there is no telling what we should do with the tires.

In Africa, they usually make sandals by cutting the tire directly, but the aesthetic was bad. We wanted to break with that paradigm by demonstrating that a quality product can be made with garbage,” said Alejandro Margor, co-founder of the company with Nazareno El Hom and Ezequiel Gatti.

Obtaining the raw material for manufacturing is an easy task. Any Argentine tire shop discards hundreds of tires per week. Xinca works with a recycling plant that receives trucks that want to discard the tire material, made up of natural rubber, synthetic rubber (a plastic polymer), metal and other materials.

“Only between 5% and 7% of the tires are recycled. But we know that making the shoes is only part of the job. If you can’t sell it, the intention to recycle is useless. That’s why we design simple, timeless, unisex pairs. We also wanted to break with another paradigm: that of expensive sustainable products,” added Margor.

A pair of shoes from an international brand costs 20,000 pesos (about $92) in the country. Meanwhile, the cheapest model of the “eco shoes” — as Xinca calls them — goes for only 6,000 ($28).

Ten years after its founding, the company produces between 1,000 and 1,500 pairs of shoes per month. They are sold in Argentina via a dozen stores in different cities and the company’s website. “In Argentina, the rules change all the time, and it is?difficult to see into the future. In other countries, the ecosystem is easier, as is access to investment.

Another difficulty is reaching consumers who are encouraged to choose products that are made with trash. People understood that with purchases they can generate a positive change,” Margor said.

The company not only creates products with less environmental burden, made with recycled tires and fabrics. It also has a social impact in its region: 90% of the production is carried out in workshops of the San Felipe Mendoza prison. “We wanted to work with people who have not had the luck or the opportunities that we had access to.

Beyond giving them a job, we saw the possibility of helping to build habits. It was a great challenge to produce from a prison and a good part of the company’s profitability returns in machinery and investment. We pay them for their work the same — or perhaps a little more — than what is established for shoe workers in Argentina,” he said.

Ana María Alfaro attests to the transformative power of work. She was imprisoned for 14 years in a Mendoza jail. Four years ago, she regained her freedom and was hired by Xinca. “In prison I participated in many workshops in which I learned to be careful and to do things well. Today I can make a living doing handcrafts.

From my own experience, I know that for the men of San Felipe it means a great benefit. Tomorrow, when they are released, they can continue producing and get into a work routine,” said Alfaro, who oversees quality control of the products that arrive from the prison.

The company’s efforts and other initiatives are valuable but are still insufficient to address the quantity of tire waste. The local organization Fundación Ambiente y Medio warns that most tires end up in open or collected dumps, which encourages the proliferation of rodents and dengue-vector mosquitoes. They are also often burned for disposal, which generates toxic gases that contain sulfur, carbon dioxide, chlorinated compounds and other chemicals that harm human health and the environment.

“It is imperative to develop and approve an extended producer responsibility law, in order to hold accountable those who make the products. In this case, the tire industry should have to bear the cost of logistics and delivery to the treatment plants that exist today in the country,” said Luciana Dorigo, executive director of the foundation.

90% of tire material is recyclable, but institution emphasizes that the percentage of reuse in Argentina is very low. “We know that the main tire recycling plant in the country only manages to work with 10% of the 150,000 tons of tires discarded annually,” Dorigo added.

Tire design hasn’t changed much over the decades, and its production continues to have major environmental consequences. Its material can be reused in playgrounds, sports fields and construction equipment. Or in a pair of sneakers. Worn-out tires shouldn’t be the end of the road."

Gender Rights: Japan Moves Toward Approving Abortion Pill In Major Shift

Japan Times (Japan) reports that "Japan is moving closer to approving an abortion pill for the first time, a step that could offer women more options amid calls for progress in gender equality, with a secondary panel at the health ministry expected to make a decision as early as March.

In January, an initial advisory panel at the health ministry?approved the production and sale of the drug, Mefeego. It still needs approval from a separate panel at the ministry as it collects public comments online until Tuesday, with the final decision to be made by the health minister.

Abortion pills have been used overseas for about 30 years, and more than 70 countries have made them available — France first approved them in 1988. Linepharma, a U.K. drug manufacturer, filed for approval of the Mefeego pill pack in December 2021.

Currently, surgery is the only option available to terminate a pregnancy in Japan.Two types of surgical abortions are allowed to be performed in the early stages of pregnancy — the dilation and curettage method, which involves the scraping of the uterus with metal equipment, and vacuum aspiration, which involves the contents of the uterus being vacuumed out with a tube. In 2020, 145,340 women underwent abortions, according to the health ministry.

The abortion pill packs consist of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, and must be taken orally within the first nine weeks of pregnancy, a total of 63 days. Mifepristone blocks the effects of the female hormone progesterone, which plays a role in maintaining a pregnancy. Misoprostol, meanwhile, causes the uterus to contract, expelling the contents of the uterus from the body, preventing the pregnancy from continuing.

Clinical trials have shown that there is a 93.3% chance of a successful abortion within 24 hours, with some risks and side-effects involving bleeding, abdominal pain and vomiting, but most were reported to be mild or moderate.

Surgical abortion procedures in Japan cost ￥100,000 to ￥200,000 (around $730 to $1,500), while the average wholesale price of abortion pills worldwide is estimated to be ￥780 to ￥1,400.

However, even if the drug is approved, Mefeego would not be covered by Japan’s national health insurance and would need to be taken under medical supervision at a hospital.

In January, the health ministry explained that women taking the pill would need to be hospitalized or have at least two visits, with both doses taken at a medical institution.

Requiring hospitalization would mean medical costs for Mefeego may become higher than getting a surgical abortion, prompting some to question whether the development will actually expand options for women.

Citizens groups like Professional Women’s Coalition for Sexuality and Health, an organization including medical professionals, researchers, and social workers, and Safe Abortion Japan Project, a volunteer group of obstetricians and gynecologists, have submitted official requests to the health ministry to reduce fees for the abortion pill — with the latter involving 68,000 online signatures — both citing accessibility issues due to cost.

Japan's Maternal Health Act, which requires consent from the spouse for an abortion, has been seen as another factor hindering women from making their own choices. According to the health ministry, this regulation will also apply to abortion pills once they are approved. As is the case for surgical abortions, the only exceptions would be if the spouse is not known or cannot express an intention.

Although the health ministry has said the partner's consent is unnecessary for unmarried women or women impregnated through rape, many doctors still require a man's consent out of fear over any legal repercussions, even if it is not required by law.

While approval for the abortion pill may signal progress for women's reproductive rights, discussions over pricing, hospitalization and consent are still being debated among the public as factors that affect access to the drug."

*Please note that certain headlines and articles may have been modified or summarized to fit the newsletter's format.

If you have come across a positive headline or article in the last two weeks or are interested in contributing to future original content,?please contact me directly on LinkedIn.