# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Germany's highest court has sided with young activists in a landmark climate case, ruling on Thursday that some aspects of the country's climate protection legislation are unconstitutional because they place too much of a burden for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on younger generations.

The Constitutional Court is giving the government until the end of next year to set clearer targets for reducing greenhouse emissions starting in 2031, calling the current provisions "incompatible with fundamental rights" because they lack specificity and "irreversibly offload major emission reduction burdens" onto the next decade and beyond.

"These future obligations to reduce emissions have an impact on practically every type of freedom because virtually all aspects of human life still involve the emission of greenhouse gases and are thus potentially threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030," the court said in a statement. "Therefore, the legislator should have taken precautionary steps to mitigate these major burdens in order to safeguard the freedom guaranteed by fundamental rights."

The case was brought by nine climate activists - "some of whom are still very young," as the court noted - with the backing of environmental organizations, all of whom are celebrating the verdict as a historic win.

At issue is Germany's 2019 Climate Change Act, which requires the country to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55% - relative to 1990 levels - by 2030. It sets upper limits for emissions in various sectors in that period but does not provide specific targets in line with its longer-term goal of reaching greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050.

The plaintiffs filed four complaints arguing, in part, that by not setting specific-enough targets for the following years, the act violated their fundamental right to a humane future. The court agreed.

"The statutory provisions on adjusting the reduction pathway for greenhouse gas emissions from 2031 onwards are not sufficient to ensure that the necessary transition to climate neutrality is achieved in time," it said.

The court did, however, reject some of the plaintiffs' other arguments, saying for example it could not prove that the government had violated its constitutional duty to protect them from the risks of climate change.

The judges also addressed the balance of freedoms and burdens in the country's effort to fight climate change. At some point in the future, they said, "even serious losses of freedom may be deemed proportionate and justified under constitutional law in order to prevent climate change."

"One generation must not be allowed to consume large portions of the CO2 budget while bearing a relatively minor share of the reduction effort if this would involve leaving subsequent generations with a drastic reduction burden and expose their lives to comprehensive losses of freedom," they wrote.

Germany's government has until the end of December 2022 to enact legislation specifying clearer reduction targets for the period after 2030.

Officials reacted swiftly to the decision Thursday. Peter Altmaier, the minister for energy and economic affairs, described it as "big and significant," according to The Guardian, while Annalena Baerbock - the Green party's candidate for chancellor - called it historic.

Olaf Scholz, the finance minister, said he would begin work immediately on the amendments, in partnership with the environment ministry. And Svenja Schulze, the minister for the environment, wrote in a series of tweets that she will present new climate proposals this summer.

Those involved in the case are celebrating the court's ruling and the mandate it has established as a result, according to a joint release from several environmental organizations.

Roda Verheyen, a lawyer representing the young activists, praised the judges for recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis and interpreting climate protection as a human right.

One of the complainants, Sophie Backsen, has said her family members are already experiencing the consequences of climate change on their home island of Pellworm, where rising sea levels threaten their farm and their community. She celebrated the verdict as a success for young people already affected by climate change and said it is motivating her to keep fighting.

Action must be taken to protect the climate now, not in 10 years, she said.

Those remarks were echoed by Luisa Neubauer, a fellow plaintiff and one of Germany's most prominent climate activists, who described climate change as not "nice to have" but rather a basic right.

"Young people's 'fundamental rights to a human future' are threatened by climate inaction, according to today's court ruling," she wrote in a tweet. "This can change so much, not just for us here in Germany but for activists worldwide."

Activists in other countries have attempted to fight climate change through the legal system, but few have been victorious.

In a groundbreaking 2015 case, an environmental advocacy group in the Netherlands filed a class-action lawsuit arguing the government was failing to protect its citizens and asked a judge to order officials to cut carbon emissions. The case worked its way up to the Dutch Supreme Court, which ruled in 2019 that the government must cut emissions at least 25% from 1990 levels by the following year. And in February, a Paris court ruled that France did not take enough action to fight climate change, siding with four nongovernmental organizations and holding the French state responsible for failing to meet its goals of reducing greenhouse gases.

A long-running legal effort to make such a case in the U.S. has so far been unsuccessful.

The lawsuit, referred to as the "kids' climate case," was filed in 2015 on behalf of a group of children and teenagers, and alleges that the U.S. government has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property by continuing to use and promote fossil fuels while knowing they destabilize the climate and endanger future generations.

It's moved through the federal courts in the years since then. A federal appeals court declined to hear the case again in February, and the plaintiffs' attorneys have vowed to take it to the Supreme Court.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
German Court Orders Revisions To Climate Law, Citing 'Major Burdens' On Youth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Germany's highest court has sided with young activists in a landmark climate case, ruling on Thursday that some aspects of the country's climate protection legislation are unconstitutional because they place too much of a burden for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on younger generations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hong Kong has passed a new immigration law that includes powers to stop people entering or leaving the city, raising fears of Chinese mainland-style "exit bans" in the international business hub.

The legislation sailed through a legislature now devoid of opposition, as Beijing has quashed dissent and sought to make the semi-autonomous city more like the authoritarian mainland after huge and often violent democracy protests.

Activists, lawyers and some business figures have sounded the alarm over provisions in the bill, including one allowing the city's immigration chief to bar people from boarding planes to and from the city. No court order is required and there is no recourse to appeal. The city's bar association (HKBA) said the bill's wording gave "apparently unfettered power" to the immigration director.

Labour activists and legal critics said the legislature had ignored concerns about the law's broad wording, and they feared exit bans could now be used in Hong Kong. "When they have this power, absolute power, you don't know who they will use it on," said one barrister, Chow Hang-tung, from the pro-democracy Hong Kong Alliance.

Hong Kong's government said the immigration bill was needed to address a backlog of non-refoulement claims and to screen migrants travelling illegally before they left for the city. The security bureau said the bill would only apply to flights into Hong Kong.

However, the wording of the bill does not limit the government's powers to those arriving in the territory or to immigrants, and legal experts say it could also be used against people trying to leave Hong Kong.

"Exit bans" are often used in mainland China against activists who challenge the authorities, and have also affected business figures. One example is Richard O'Halloran, an Irish national who has been prevented from leaving Shanghai for two years because of a legal dispute involving the Chinese owner of the Dublin-based company he works for.

Under Beijing's direction, Hong Kong's government has become more authoritarian since the 2019 protests. Faith in official assurances that the city is not becoming like the mainland has been rattled by the recent crackdown.

Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong last year, arguing it was needed for a return to stability and would not affect freedoms. But its broad wording and subsequent application has criminalised much dissent and radically transformed a once politically pluralistic city. Many of Hong Kong's prominent pro-democracy figures have been arrested, detained or have fled overseas.

The city's formerly raucous legislature has been cleared of pro-democracy opponents, who resigned en masse late last year after three of their colleagues were disqualified for their political views. Since then, the government has fast-tracked a number of laws with limited scrutiny and dissent in the legislature.

Wednesday's immigration bill received 39 votes in favour and two against. It was passed shortly after lawmakers approved a budget in record time, with just one dissenting vote.

Beijing has also announced a new plan - nicknamed "patriots rule Hong Kong" - to vet anyone standing for office and reduce the number of directly elected seats in the legislature to a small minority.

Critics of the immigration bill say it will make it easier to detain and deport refugees. Hong Kong approves only about 1% of refugee claims, one of the lowest rates in the world, and there is a huge backlog. Refugees are not able to work while their applications are being processed and live in often miserable conditions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hong Kong passes law that can stop people leaving

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hong Kong has passed a new immigration law that includes powers to stop people entering or leaving the city, raising fears of Chinese mainland-style "exit bans" in the international business hub. The legislation sailed through a legislature now devoid of opposition, as Beijing has quashed dissent and sought to make the semi-autonomous city more like the authoritarian mainland after huge and often violent democracy protests.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
JERUSALEM - In what it calls its most comprehensive report to date on Israel's treatment of Palestinians, Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Israel of committing "crimes against humanity"and said the U.S. and the international community have "turned a blind eye." It advocated an international commission of inquiry and sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against "officials and entities credibly implicated."

The group's 213-page report, titled "A Threshold Crossed," accuses Israel for the first time of "apartheid and persecution," as defined by international conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It claims the Israeli government perpetuates structural oppression to "maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians" in both Israel and the Palestinian territories, where today both groups of people are about equal in size.

In a statement, Israel's Foreign Ministry called the report a "propaganda pamphlet," accusing Human Rights Watch of a long-standing anti-Israel agenda. The report, it said, has "no connection to facts or reality on the ground. The fictional claims that HRW concocted are both preposterous and false."

While Tuesday's report does not contain new revelations about Israel's actions, it synthesizes previous studies into a reframing of the situation and reflects a shift in how human rights advocates are addressing the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict: moving from a focus on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip to questioning Israel's commitment to democracy and civil rights even within its own borders.

Human Rights Watch's Omar Shakir, the report's chief author, says he does not expect immediate international action on its findings but hopes for a "recognition of the crime."

"The international community's approach has been misguided," Shakir tells NPR. "There is a need for a reorientation to the reality of systematic oppression of Palestinians wherever they live."

Shakir, a U.S. citizen, was deported from Israel in 2019 under a law that bans foreigners who publicly advocate boycotts and sanctions of the country.

Israel's Foreign Ministry did not respond to the report's specific accusations and said Human Rights Watch did not share the report in advance with Israeli officials. The organization said it sought answers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year and sent him a summary of the report last week but received no reply.

In the past, Israelis have defended against the charge of apartheid by noting that Israel has given some local control to Palestinian areas and has offered more autonomy - though the offers were far short of what Palestinian leaders say they need for an independent state.

The Palestinian president's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, called the report "a powerful testament to the struggle of the people of Palestine under Israel's belligerent military occupation and its colonial and oppressive policies."

Israeli advocates of Palestinian rights welcomed the report. They, too, have recently embraced the apartheid accusation, once taboo among progressive Israelis because of the comparison to apartheid South Africa, security concerns and characteristics of Israel's democracy, which allows Palestinian citizens of Israel to have representation in parliament.

In the U.S., some Democratic members of Congress have recently called for conditioning or restricting U.S. military assistance to Israel - the largest cumulative recipient of such aid since World War II - to ensure that U.S. funds are not used to undergird Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

That's in contrast to the approach of the Biden administration, which, in a departure from previous U.S. administrations, has ranked the Israeli-Palestinian issue low on its foreign policy priority list.

Human Rights Watch says that while Israel has legitimate security concerns, those concerns do not justify its actions in denying Palestinian building permits in many areas, revoking Palestinian residency rights and expropriating privately owned Palestinian land. It says other Israeli policies "use security as a pretext to advance demographic objectives" of prioritizing Israeli Jews over Palestinians, most severely in the West Bank and Gaza.

The report says the U.S. has "largely failed" to hold Israel to account for human rights violations against Palestinians. European nations and other countries, it says, have overprioritized a long-stalled peace process to end Israel's military occupation of Palestinian territory and create a Palestinian state.

"This approach, which overlooks the deeply entrenched nature of Israeli discrimination and repression of Palestinians there, minimizes serious human rights abuses by treating them as temporary symptoms of the occupation that the 'peace process' will soon cure," the report says.

"The international community has for too long explained away and turned a blind eye to the increasingly transparent reality on the ground," the report concludes. "Every day a person is born in Gaza into an open-air prison, in the West Bank without civil rights, in Israel with an inferior status by law, and in neighboring countries effectively condemned to lifelong refugee status, like their parents and grandparents before them, solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Israel Accused Of 'Apartheid' Crimes By Human Rights Watch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a new report, the rights group accuses Israel of "apartheid and persecution" crimes against Palestinians. Israel's Foreign Ministry said the report's claims are "preposterous and false."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
subscribe to Short Wave podcast

In the next several days, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans across the economy to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030.

The Biden administration's goal is to speed the process to avoid a climate tipping point that scientists warn is quickly approaching. If global warming continues at its current pace, rising seas and heavy rain will flood cities around the world, wildfires and hurricanes will become even more destructive, and many more plant and animal species will go extinct.

But reducing emissions, even sharply, will not immediately fix the problems up in Earth's atmosphere. It took decades for greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat, and it will take centuries for those gases to dissipate once humans decide to stop pumping them into the air.

"When you emit carbon dioxide, the climate stays altered for a long time," says Solomon Hsiang, a climate scientist who is the co-director at the Climate Impact Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. "And so we kind of have to deal with that baggage no matter what."

Everyone alive will still need to adapt to a warming climate. Today's adults will be dealing with climate-driven extreme weather for decades to come. But if countries transform their economies to cut heat-trapping emissions sharply, today's kindergartners could inherit a safer world when they reach middle age.

"It's kind of like you're driving a giant train that's very heavy. You slam on the brakes. The train keeps going for a while," Hsiang explains. "There's some amount of heating that we would continue to experience," even with dramatic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. It will take decades for forests, oceans and other natural systems to soak up all the excess greenhouse gases that have accumulated in the atmosphere.
Why greenhouse gases persist
The major greenhouse gases emitted by cars, trucks, factories, power plants and farms are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The gases make their way up into the upper part of the atmosphere and hang out there, trapping heat and causing global warming.

The good news is that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide don't live forever in the atmosphere. Eventually, they break down or are absorbed by plants, oceans, soil and rocks on Earth's surface.

But humans have been generating such enormous emissions that new greenhouse gases arrive in the atmosphere a lot more quickly than old emissions break down or are absorbed. That's why gases have been accumulating in the atmosphere extremely quickly, especially in the last 50 years.

Different greenhouse gases take different amounts of time to break down or be absorbed. Nitrous oxide lingers in the atmosphere for about 100 years. Carbon dioxide can persist for hundreds or even thousands of years.

"If we got rid of all emissions tomorrow, carbon dioxide would come down very, very slowly," says James Butler, director of global monitoring at the Earth System Research Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It would take thousands of years to come out."

Then there's methane, the shape-shifter of greenhouse gases. Methane only accounts for a small portion of the greenhouse gases emitted each year. But once it's in the atmosphere, methane is extremely good at trapping heat from the sun, which makes it far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.

Luckily, methane breaks down relatively quickly. If humans stopped emitting greenhouse gases, it would only take about 100 years for the excess methane in the atmosphere to dissipate, Butler says.

Here's the problem: When methane breaks down, it can turn into carbon dioxide. Both gases have a carbon at their center: Methane has hydrogen atoms attached, and carbon dioxide has oxygen atoms attached. As methane breaks down, the hydrogen atoms get replaced by oxygen from the air. One greenhouse gas is replaced with another.
Living with heat
The White House plan's goal is to reduce fossil fuel use to slow down the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases and the projected rate of the Earth's warming. Electricity would come from renewable sources such as wind and solar, cars and trucks would run on electricity, and factories would capture their emissions before they get into the atmosphere. Trains and buses would be more efficient and ubiquitous. New buildings would require less energy to heat and cool.

Economists already see signs that the economy is beginning to shift to the next generation of cleaner, cheaper energy. The price of wind and solar energy has plummeted, and energy-efficient vehicles are increasingly popular.

But because greenhouse gases persist for so long in the atmosphere, scientists warn that reducing emissions will not be enough to protect everyone. Many people will also need help adapting to a hotter Earth.

"Imagine you're driving a train and you're heading right for a cliff," Hsiang says. If you hit the brakes too late, some of the cars will go over the edge.

The train is humanity. The cliff represents deadly heat waves, wildfires, floods and droughts. So far, the U.S. has been tapping the brakes. Now, the U.S. is pledging to press down more firmly and try to stop the train before the whole thing goes over the edge.

But the cliff is looming, Hsiang says. "If we don't slow things down quickly enough, there are large regions of the world, many different people, who will be heavily impacted by the changes that continue to unfold over the next century."

Those most at risk include poor people, people who farm, people who work outdoors and people who live in places that are already dangerously hot or prone to flooding. "Those are the people who get sent off the cliff," Hsiang says.

The Biden administration has acknowledged that reducing U.S. emissions isn't a complete response to climate change. The proposed infrastructure bill would include money to help American towns and cities avoid damage and health impacts from storms, fires and heat waves.

And other countries are also looking to the U.S. for help with adaptation. As a newly reinstated signatory to the Paris climate agreement, the U.S. is back on the hook for $2 billion that the Obama administration pledged to the Green Climate Fund.

The fund exists to help pay for climate-related projects in poorer countries that are already suffering the effects of global warming, including adaptation projects such as building sea walls and transitioning to drought-resistant crops.

Earlier this year, White House climate envoy John Kerry said the U.S. will "make good" on the Obama-era pledge but hasn't said whether it will increase contributions in the future given that it has emitted more cumulative greenhouse gases than any other country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
subscribe to Short Wave podcast In the next several days, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans across the economy to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030. The Biden administration's goal is to speed the process to avoid a climate tipping point that scientists warn is quickly approaching.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The San Francisco Board of Education will ultimately keep the names of dozens of public schools in a case of high-stakes second thoughts.

The board had moved to forge ahead with a controversial plan to change the names of 44 schools that honor figures linked to historical racism or oppression. But on Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to suspend the effort when it approved a resolution saying it "wishes to avoid the distraction and wasteful expenditure of public funds in frivolous litigation."

The reversal was met with relief and enthusiasm by disparate critics united in their opposition to the project. Conservatives characterized the effort as cancel culture run amok, while liberals decried the woefully poor research conducted by the blue-ribbon panel that led to the lengthy list of school names to be changed.

For instance, President Abraham Lincoln, whose legacy is defined by the emancipation of Black slaves, was included on the list because of a decision to allow the execution of 38 Santee Sioux who were found guilty of raping and murdering white settlers. But, critics say, the panel did not take into account that the state of Minnesota would have executed 300 Santee Sioux had Lincoln not intervened on their behalf and commuted their sentences, sparing all but the 38 who were hanged.

Also, SFist reported, "the board committee mistakenly assumed that Alamo Elementary School was named for the Texas battle and not for the Spanish word for 'poplar tree'; and they cited incorrect history about Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere trying to steal land from the Penobscot people of Maine - the 1779 Penobscot Expedition he took part in was actually an unsuccessful battle with the British who had landed in Penobscot territory and 'captured' it a month earlier."

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has for months rebuked the board for prioritizing the project amid the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

"What I cannot understand is why the School Board is advancing a plan to have all these schools renamed by April, when there isn't a plan to have our kids back in the classroom by then," Breed said in a January statement.

"Our students are suffering, and we should be talking about getting them in classrooms, getting them mental health support, and getting them the resources they need in this challenging time."

Other critics, including attorney Paul Scott who filed a lawsuit against the district on behalf of the Abraham Lincoln High School of SFUSD Alumni Association, say the board failed to involve the community in the process.

"This approach of basically suggesting that they have the corner on morality and dictating to everyone else, from the top down ... that is not an acceptable approach," Scott told NBC News.

Board President Gabriela López noted the complaints in February, saying the process began in 2018 and predated the pandemic.

"I acknowledge and take responsibility that mistakes were made in the renaming process," she said in a statement.

López added that the board would pursue a "more deliberative process moving forward, which includes engaging historians at nearby universities to help." She also noted the renaming committee had been indefinitely suspended. She said the school board would devote its energy to getting students back to in-person learning.

Elementary school students are expected to begin returning this month. The board passed a resolution Tuesday committing to full-time, in-person class for all K-12 students at the start of next school year in August.

It will not revisit the renaming until that happens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
San Francisco School Board Rescinds Controversial School Renaming Plan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The San Francisco Board of Education will ultimately keep the names of dozens of public schools in a case of high-stakes second thoughts. The board had moved to forge ahead with a controversial plan to change the names of 44 schools that honor figures linked to historical racism or oppression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For months, Iran has slowly been violating terms of a 2015 deal designed to limit its nuclear program. It has been accumulating enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear reactors or, potentially, nuclear weapons. It's been ramping up its research and development.

But until recently, there was one thing Iran didn't touch: the nuclear inspections conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Iran tends to stay away from pestering the IAEA," says Dina Esfandiary of the International Crisis Group.

That is now changing. Almost three years after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposed harsh sanctions, Iran has begun limiting access to the nuclear inspectors who keep watch over its program.

While the IAEA has found a temporary workaround, it appears that its nuclear inspectors may soon lose access to sites and cameras that it was given under the agreement.

During the U.S. presidential campaign, Joe Biden signaled willingness to rejoin the deal, but so far, his administration and the Iranians have been unable to agree on how the U.S. would reenter the agreement. Unless a political agreement can be brokered to at least provide some sanctions relief, key data may be lost by the end of May.

"Time is not on our side," says Corey Hinderstein, the vice president for fuel cycle strategies at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an arms control think tank.

The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and other nations was designed to drastically scale back Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. A key provision of the agreement was that Iran would provide access to international inspectors, so that they could keep meticulous tabs on everything the program was up to. IAEA inspectors fanned out across the entire nation, monitoring not just Iran's nuclear facilities, but its R&D and even the mines where it extracts natural uranium. The agreement also allowed for the extensive use of technology, including security cameras and remote devices that allowed inspectors to tell precisely at what levels Iran was enriching uranium, even when they weren't in the building.

The result was reams of data then feed into reports about what exactly Iran is up to. The expanded access provided to the inspectors is a cornerstone of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. "If there isn't the strengthened monitoring and verification in Iran, there is no JCPOA," says Hinderstein.

Although China, Russia, the EU and several other nations remain in the deal with Iran, it has been under strain since the U.S. pulled out in 2018. President Donald Trump called the deal "horrible," saying it did not go far enough to limit Iran's nuclear program and completely failed to address other bad behavior. His administration applied harsh sanctions against key Iranian economic sectors such as oil and banking, and effectively blocked other partners in the deal from providing relief on their own.

For a while Iran did nothing, but then it startedto slowly ratchet up its nuclear infrastructure: It began to enrich more uranium, added more "centrifuges" - the machines that do the job - and ramped up its R&D. Each step the nation has taken thus far has been relatively easy to reverse, analysts say,should sanctions relief start to come through.

Then a top nuclear scientist was assassinated in November. In response, the nation's conservative parliament passed a law saying some inspections must cease until the promised sanctions relief arrives.

"That was basically Iran's parliament's way of trying to regain control of the entire process because they were getting fed up," Esfandiary says.

In late February, IAEA Director GeneralRafael Grossi raced to Tehran to try to find a solution. Upon his return, he announced that the agency had reached an agreement "after what was a very very intensive consultation, negotiation with our Iranian counterparts."

The exact nature of the agreement between Iran and the IAEA, the Vienna-based atomic watchdog, remains confidential. But Hinderstein says the goal was to preserve data. Take, for example, those cameras that monitor warehouses and workshops: "The information would be stored in the camera, or at the location, but nobody would look at those images," Hinderstein says.

Normally the IAEA would see this kind of information quickly. But now, if you think of Iran's nuclear program as a book, "What this is is basically tearing out the pages, but putting them in a sealed envelope off to the side," she says.

The data will be held for up to three months. If by then, Iran has received some economic benefits, it would be restored but without a political agreement, it will be dumped.

And that would be a big problem says Ellie Geranmayeh, of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Because particularly to the European parties to the deal, all that data inspectors have collected on Iran's program have been extremely valuable.

"I think that the inspection verification aspect of the deal has been the main reason why, for example, European countries in this agreement have stuck by the deal," she says. "The fact that you had Grossi taking that trip to Tehran in the middle of a pandemic should be an indicator of how serious the issue was for them to resolve."

Based on the data collected from the IAEA thus far, it appears that today Iran is far closer to having a nuclear weapons capability, should it choose to pursue one, than it was before the Trump administration left the deal.

Inspectors have also seen no evidence so far that Iran is actively trying to get a nuke. But if the U.S. and Iran can't revive the deal, and the cameras are shut off for good, Hinderstein says, it will become much harder to tell what Iran is really up to.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
With Iranian Nuclear Deal In Limbo, Some Worry Inspectors Will Lose Access For Good

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For months, Iran has slowly been violating terms of a 2015 deal designed to limit its nuclear program. It has been accumulating enriched uranium, which can be used for nuclear reactors or, potentially, nuclear weapons. It's been ramping up its research and development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A small face poked its nose through the bars of a metal cage, curious about the two women who've entered the room at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center outside of Fort Collins.

Captive breeding manager Robyn Bortner opened the cage door.

"This is mama," Bortner said. "Normally if this was a black-footed ferret we could not do anything like we're doing now, which is handling her. It's very different for us to work with ferrets that don't want to bite you."

The friendly, domestic ferret she's holding is a surrogate mom to the first cloned endangered species native to North America, which stayed hidden in the nest box.

To get the baby black-footed ferret out of hiding, U.S. Fish and Wildlife veterinarian Della Garelle used a small handling cage and placed her on the scale. She weighs in at 816 grams.

Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife
This is Elizabeth Ann. She's a clone of a black-footed ferret who lived more than 30 years ago.

"Very good weight for a female black-footed ferret," Bortner said. "She has all the usual characteristics of her species which are the classic black feat, a black tip tail. And she's got her black mask."

Elizabeth Ann might look like all the other black-footed ferrets at the center, but she is unique. She's the clone of a ferret who died in the 1980s.

"It's pretty inspiring that people 30 years ago saved those tissues, in case this could happen someday. So dreams do come true," Garelle said.

The bigger dream is to get the black-footed ferret off the endangered species list, Garelle said. To help save this little mammal - one of the most endangered animals in North America - found in Colorado and several other states, scientists brought Elizabeth Ann into the world.

Biotechnology nonprofit Revive & Restore collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring this clone to life.

"Elizabeth Ann stands to bring in this huge boost of diversity for the species," said Ben Novak, the nonprofit's lead scientist. "Today every black-footed ferret is related to each other, somewhere between a sibling and a first cousin."

What black-footed ferrets need to survive

The black-footed ferret was once thought to be extinct. In the early 1980s, a ranch dog in Wyoming dropped a carcass off on its owner's porch. Biologists tracked down where it came from, and eventually captured the last group of wild black-footed ferrets. Only seven of those passed down their DNA.

Today, there are just 500 ferrets in the wild.

"Elizabeth Ann was cloned from the tissue of a ferret named Willa. She actually has no living descendants," Novak said. "By cloning her, Elizabeth Ann is actually a potential eighth founder for this population."

Habitat loss, disease and the decimation of prairie dog populations - a black-footed ferret's primary source of food - drove these animals close to extinction. Novak believes Elizabeth Ann embodies a paradigm shift for conservation efforts.

"We're being proactive. A lot of times in conservation, we are reacting to a crisis that's urgent in the moment," Novak said. "So we cloned Elizabeth Ann to bring in new genetic diversity and get ahead of those problems so that hopefully they'll never happen."

Wild black-footed ferrets need human intervention to stay healthy, like vaccines and insecticides to control flea populations that spread disease. Increased genetic diversity from Elizabeth Ann could help protect these animals from some of these issues.

Novak said the group is looking at different "genetic rescue solutions to all of the real threats that face this species, so that one day it has a likelihood of being independent on the landscape and fully recovered, no longer needing the help of humans to survive."

Elizabeth Ann the black-footed ferret clone, veterinarian Della Garelle and CPR News reporter Michael Elizabeth Sakas catch up on a Zoom call.

From skin biopsy to ferret clone

Revive & Restore is still working on what Novak calls its moonshot projects, like bringing back the woolly mammoth. A project like that could take decades. In the meantime, their new technology could work on other conservation challenges faster.

"We are at the dawn I believe, not at a culmination of our understanding about how these kinds of samples can be used," said Oliver Ryder, the director of conservation genetics at San Diego Zoo Global.

Ryder was the one who asked for the samples of Willa in the 1980s from the veterinarian who was working with those captured black-footed ferrets.

"I told him how important I thought it might be, to get a small skin biopsy and that we could grow cells from," Ryder said. "I went home, and then later some samples arrived in the lab."

Ryder said he didn't know those samples would one day result in a clone. For more than 30 years, the black-footed ferret cells were kept at the Frozen Zoo in San Diego, a collection of cryopreserved animal tissue samples. Last year they were turned into embryos by the commercial cloning company ViaGen Pets in New York, where they were implanted into the domestic ferret.

What animal is making this noise? pic.twitter.com/wLa1tCe7vO
- CPR News (@CPRNews) March 2, 2021
(Hint: that's a black-footed ferret you're hearing!)
Ryder thinks Elizabeth Ann's birth demonstrates how cloning could help prevent extinctions. He'd like to see more samples collected and banked, even if animals aren't endangered since one day they could be amid threats like climate change.

"The combination of these technologies can really provide a basis for ensuring that we have wildlife populations in the future," Ryder said.

Elizabeth Ann will live at the conservation center, along with her identical-cloned sisters who are on the way. There are hopes of cloning a male ferret who died around the same time as Willa, who could "make the optimal husband for Elizabeth Ann," Novak said.

"If everything goes really well, we could end up seeing some children or grandchildren of Elizabeth actually going into the wild and bringing that genetic boost to the ferrets across the great Plains," Novak said.

Courtesy Jared Martin/USFWS

A ferret pokes their head up in one of the cages inside the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center, in Fort Collins, Colo.

You Care.

You are one of the CPR readers who wants to know what is really going on these days. We can help you keep up - The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado. Sign up here and we will see you in the morning!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
This Baby Black-Footed Ferret Clone From Colorado Is Hoping To Save Her Species

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A small face poked its nose through the bars of a metal cage, curious about the two women who've entered the room at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center outside of Fort Collins. Captive breeding manager Robyn Bortner opened the cage door. "This is mama," Bortner said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This month's military coup in Myanmar has made an already dire situation for Rohingya refugees even worse, say human rights activists. Now, prospects are even more unlikely for hundreds of thousands to return to Myanmar from sprawling camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

"The coup is obviously good for no one," says Matthew Smith, cofounder of the human rights advocacy group Fortify Rights. "But for the Rohingya, the risk is heightened. This is the military regime responsible for the atrocities over many, many years."

Most recently, in 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border into Bangladesh as the result of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign launched by the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw. The military said it was responding to coordinated attacks on Myanmar security forces by Rohingya extremists. It later faced allegations of genocide in a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Following the Feb. 1 military coup, the fate of the approximately 600,000 Rohingya who still live in Myanmar and any possible plans for repatriating those outside the country lie in the military's hands, activists say.

"They have the plan to destroy us," Ro Khin Maung, executive director of the Rohingya Youth Association in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, told reporters on Monday. "Now they are leading our country."

The military's actions, Maung said, have led to past Rohingya exoduses. And a 1982 law it enacted denies the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority, the right to hold citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar - even if their families have lived there for generations.
"They will torture us even more"
The repatriation process has started and stopped many times over the years, but in the days following the coup, Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, now Myanmar's leader, vowed that it will move forward and promised to "protect" the Rohingya.

Bangladeshi officials - who recently began shifting some Rohingya to a remote island described by human rights activists as "the Rohingya Alcatraz" - expressed hope that repatriation processes would "continue in right earnest."

But it is difficult to see a way for the Rohingya to return to Myanmar safely, says Smith.

"If there was even a shred of hope for a safe, voluntary and dignified return, it's completely gone now. Though there was not much to work with to begin with," he says.

While few Rohingya refugees were keen to go back to Myanmar before the coup, many are even more fearful of doing so now.

"Even if they try to repatriate us, we will not agree to go back under the current situation," Nurual Amin, a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, told the Associated Press. "If they take us back to that regime, they will torture us even more."

Laurel Miller, director of the International Crisis Group's Asia program, tells NPR via email: "Even if the military leadership suggested it would move forward on repatriation as a way of burnishing its image, it's unlikely that Rohingya would be willing to return in a context in which the repression by the military overall is going up, not down."

The coup puts the Rohingya in a difficult position, says Wai Wai Nu, a human rights activist and former political prisoner who is Rohingya. While the Rohingya would rather see a democratically elected leader in place, no government has adequately addressed their needs, she explains.

"I do not think military dictatorship is the solution," she says. But "the Aung San Suu Kyi government was not easy to work with [and] did not do anything to protect the Rohingya."
"We had a lot of hopes"
Civilian rule under Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy proved disappointing to the Rohingya, says Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya social justice activist based in Canada.

"Initially, we had a lot of hopes when the NLD won their first term" in 2015, she says. "But as the time goes by, we realized that the civilian government was never going to work with us."

After the Tatmadaw's crackdown on the Rohingya in 2017, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stayed infamously silent - even in the face of international pressure. She went on to defend the military against accusations of genocidal crimes, including murder and gang rape, at the International Court of Justice in 2019.

During the Hague hearing, Suu Kyi admitted the military had used "disproportionate force" in 2017, but insisted the world had an "incomplete and misleading picture" of the Rohingya situation.

Even though working with Suu Kyi's government on issues such as repatriation was not easy, the situation is now "even worse" with the military in charge, Wai Wai Nu says, and has put Rohingya in an "extremely concerning and dangerous" situation. The "international community should put on every pressure they can" for Myanmar to face its "fundamental problems" and heal its political and ethnic crises, she says.

On Wednesday, President Biden announced U.S. sanctions targeting the coup leaders, their business interests and their close family. Some, including Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, were already subject to sanctions for the military's treatment of the Rohingya.

"We'll freeze U.S. assets that benefit the Burmese government, while maintaining support for health care, civil society groups and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly," Biden said.

The president also called for Suu Kyi's release. Although the U.S. has made clear that humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya will continue, Biden did not mention the Rohingya in his remarks - something Yasmin Ullah says was "truly a missed opportunity to help emphasize the importance of acknowledging Rohingya as part of Myanmar."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Myanmar's Coup Means For The Rohingya

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This month's military coup in Myanmar has made an already dire situation for Rohingya refugees even worse, say human rights activists. Now, prospects are even more unlikely for hundreds of thousands to return to Myanmar from sprawling camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3C, beating the previous record by 0.8C.

The reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent's peninsula, beats Antarctica's previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.

A tweet from Argentina's meteorological agency on Friday revealed the record. The station's data goes back to 1961.

#Antártida | Nuevo récord de temperaturas 🌡️

Este mediodía la Base #Esperanza registró un nuevo récord histórico (desde 1961) de temperatura, con 18,3°C. Con este valor se supera el récord anterior de 17,5°C del 24 en marzo de 2015. Y no fue el único récord... pic.twitter.com/rhKsPFytCb
- SMN Argentina (@SMN_Argentina) February 6, 2020

Antarctica's peninsula - the area that points towards South America - is one of the fastest warming places on earth, heating by almost 3C over the past 50 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Almost all the region's glaciers are melting.

The Esperanza reading breaks the record for the Antarctic continent. The record for the Antarctic region - that is, everywhere south of 60 degrees latitude - is 19.8C, taken on Signy Island in January 1982.

Prof James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University of Wellington, was a member of an ad-hoc World Meteorological Organization committee that has verified previous records in Antarctica.

He told Guardian Australia it was likely the committee would be reconvened to check the new Esperanza record.

He said: "Of course the record does need to be checked, but pending those checks, it's a perfectly valid record and that [temperature] station is well maintained."

"The reading is impressive as it's only five years since the previous record was set and this is almost one degree centigrade higher. It's a sign of the warming that has been happening there that's much faster than the global average.

"To have a new record set that quickly is surprising but who knows how long that will last? Possibly not that long at all."

He said the temperature record at Esperanza was one of the longest-running on the whole continent.

Renwick said higher temperatures in the region tended to coincide with strong northwesterly winds moving down mountain slopes - a feature of the weather patterns around Esperanza in recent days.

He said there were complex weather patterns in the area, but the Esperanza reading was likely a combination of natural variability and background warming caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

He said: "The reason the peninsula is warming faster than other places is a combination of natural variations and warming signals."

Prof Nerilie Abram, a climate scientist at the Australian National University, has carried out research at James Ross Island at the northern tip of the peninsula.

"It's an area that's warming very quickly," she said, adding it can occasionally be warm enough to wear a T-shirt.

Previous research from 2012 found the current rate of warming in the region was almost unprecedented over the past 2000 years.

Abram said: "Even small increases in warming can lead to large increases in the energy you have for melting the ice. The consequences are the collapse of the ice shelves along the peninsula."

Meltwater can work its way through cracks in ice shelves, she said. Because ice shelves already float on the ocean, their collapse does not directly contribute to rising sea levels.

But Abram said the shelves acted as plugs, helping to keep the ice sheets behind them stable. Melting of ice sheets does contribute to rising sea levels because they are attached to land.

Dr Steve Rintoul, a leading oceanographer and Antarctic expert at CSIRO, said: "This is a record from only a single station, but it is in the context of what's happening elsewhere and is more evidence that as the planet warms we get more warm records and fewer cold records."

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica - and anywhere on Earth - was at the Russian Vostok station, when temperatures dropped to -89.2C on 21 July 1983.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Antarctica logs hottest temperature on record with a reading of 18.3C

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3C, beating the previous record by 0.8C. The reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent's peninsula, beats Antarctica's previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An array of plastic crunched underfoot as Mattie Mae Larson walked down Kamilo Beach. Toothbrushes, a plastic broom, a leaking bottle, the back of a TV.

Larson used to come to this remote stretch of Hawaiian sand as a child to climb 10ft-high mountains of debris, searching for treasures.

"As kids, we called it plastic beach," she recalls. But today she's back with a different mission.

Kamilo Beach, located on the south-eastern tip of Hawaii's Big Island, has been dubbed one of the most plastic-polluted spots on the planet. On a bright day last summer, Larson and fellow members of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund (HWF), a team of conservation volunteers, collected 1,400lb of it.

Hawaii has long evoked images of a remote Pacific paradise, a land of pristine beaches and extraordinary biodiversity. But its unique location has forced the islands to reckon with an unwelcome guest: plastic debris washing up in vast quantities, sullying its waters and threatening its marine life. A 2019 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that Hawaiian fish begin eating plastic particles just days after being born.

For Larson and other activists, Kamilo Beach has become ground zero of the crisis.

Along Kamilo Beach, plastic is ever present. Photograph: Liz Barney/The Guardian

Hawaii sits at the center of swirling ocean currents, just east of the Great Pacific garbage patch. As a result, its shoreline catches plastic from all over the world, some of it decades old. Just a few weeks prior, Larson found a vintage Sea and Ski tanning lotion bottle, most likely from the 1950s.

On Kamilo Beach, plastic pollution accumulated unchecked for decades due to inaccessibility. The very first cleanup here was organized after the group's founder, Bill Gilmartin, witnessed the birth of a rare Hawaiian monk seal pup on the massive pilesof plastic. In 2003, he led a team in removing more than 50 tons of marine debris over three days.

Regular cleanups have prevented the return of 10ft tall piles of plastic, but daily debris continues to trickle in, with no end in sight. HWF estimates that between 15 and 20 tons of debris wash up here annually, and that 96% of it is plastic. The group has so far removed 283 tons of plastic debris from the shores of Hawai'i island, and a significant portion has been from this location alone.

Larson and her team divide into two groups. Each participant is tasked with collecting a specific type of plastic, which will be categorized and recorded.

Along the wide beach, plastic is ever present. The waves crashing on jagged black lava rocks glisten with blue, pink and white flecks of microplastic. The soft white sand is speckled with a variety of household items - a plastic spoon, the end of a broom, the sole of a shoe, half a dustpan. Many items are covered in barnacles and algae acquired from unknown years of ocean travel.

In many ways, Larson's shifting relationship with plastic mirrors that of wider society - once hailed as a wonder-material, plastic is now a reviled pollutant found on every corner of the planet and deep inside our bodies. "Literally, plastic was so cool when I was growing up in the 90s," Larson says. "You had to have slap bracelets and banana clips in order not to be teased at school."

"It's crazy to look back on that perspective," she says. "I remember having one of these moments in a college geology class where everything flashes in front of your face and I realized, oh my God, that's not right, that's my plastic, and fish are eating that. "

awaii's remarkable wildlife has been particularly hard hit. Across the islands, marine wildlife agents continue to find humpback whales ensnared in abandoned fishing nets and turtles hooked on plastic bags, while fishermen routinely haul in catches of fish with plastic-filled bodies.

Longtime residents describe a transformation of their homeland from pure to plastic-riddled. Roger Bialas, who has been spearfishing around Oahu for over 30 years, says the waters "used to be crystal clear".

"It was like swimming in an aquarium. Every color of fish you could think of." Now he sees a lot of "food wrappers, shopping bags", as well as fishing lines.

"Sometimes after being in the ocean, back on land, my skin feels dirty," he adds.

Ocean trash and debris floating off Hawaii. Photograph: Bryce Groark/Alamy

Reef fish, commonly eaten by local fishermen, are often the most likely to consume plastic particles, but the contamination doesn't stop there. Many of those reef fish are eaten by larger fish, such as tuna, which absorb the plastics into their fatty tissues. In a culture that celebrates fresh fish and raw dishes such as poke, many fear for the health repercussions.

Ted Clark is a spearfisher and glass sculptor who shares his catch with family, neighbors, and others in need of food. He lives on the east side of Oahu, and has seen the plastic trash increase over the last decade.

"I hate cutting out plastic from fish," he says, explaining that fish do not know the difference between plastic and food, especially when they're in a feeding frenzy.

At a 400-year-old fishpond in Kāne'ohe Bay on Oahu - one of many built by ancient Hawaiians that allowed saltwater in through the porous rocks, while keeping fish from escaping - plastic trash collects on the high watermark along its rock walls, according to Rosalyn "Roz" Ku'uleimomi Rubio Dias Concepcion.

"I've definitely seen an increase in plastic washing up on shore since I've started, and I would have to say in the last three to four years it's become more of an issue," she says.

Concepcion described the plastic debris that floats around and into the Waikalua Loko fishpond as "a constant thing". Crates, bottles, straws and nets, she said, also wash into the fishpond during the "extreme high tides". She says they've found fish in the pond and surrounding bay eating algae that grows off the floating plastic. "They are digesting the very fine, fine microparticles. Then you find it's in their stomach."

Mattie Mae Larson of the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, collects plastic from Kamilo Beach. Photograph: Liz Barney/The Guardian

awaii's efforts to push back on rampant plastics consumption have been among the boldest in the country. In 2015, it became the first state in the US to ban plastic bags at grocery stores. Earlier this year, Maui and the Big Island banned polystyrene containers. And Honolulu, the state's capital, in December passed one of the most restrictive plastic bans in the US, prohibiting all single-use plastic food containers, including straws and utensils, as well as Styrofoam.

Steven Colbert, the department chair of the marine science program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, describes the bans as positive steps, saying the state needs to reduce its dependence on these materials as well as figure out ways to prevent them from getting into the environment.

Here's the thing about the chemistry of plastic, it will never go away

Megan Lamson

"A lot of those Styrofoam containers were being used to take your plate lunch down to go to the beach to eat it," says Colbert. "And then they weren't being disposed of properly and that Styrofoam was getting into our oceans."

Data collected by the HWF has been used in support of legislation to reduce plastic use.

"Here's the thing about the chemistry of plastic, it will never go away," says Megan Lamson, a scientist and cleanup volunteer with HWF. "When your bathtub is overflowing, you have to turn off the water before you start baling."

Her words ring truer here than on the mainland US - when you're surrounded by thousands of miles of blue Pacific, making plastic "go away" is a challenge. The state's landfills are reaching capacity, forcing the local counties to look for alternatives.

As a result of market volatility in the wake of China's new limits on plastic imports, Hawaii county officials announced in October that they would no longer accept plastic recycling, diverting thousands of tons of additional waste to landfill. Kauai county, meanwhile, has also begun landfilling once-recyclable plastics, while on Oahu, most trash is now being incinerated.

Hawaii's efforts to push back on rampant plastics consumption have been among the boldest in the country. Liz Barney/The Guardian

"We are in a literal state of emergency when it comes to our municipal waste," says Lamson.

Most experts agree that without big changes in the way corporations produce and consumers use plastics, places like Hawaii will continue to bear the brunt of the planet's dependency.

In the meantime, volunteers continue to fight the rising tide, piece by piece.

Back at Kamilo, a group of Canadian engineers prepared to test the Hoola One, a vacuum-like machine that collects sand and separates the microplastics. These tiny fragments, formed when plastic breaks down, are the greatest challenge during beach cleanups.

The group glanced nervously at each other, admitting they were not expecting such rough roads. The machine sits on the back of a trailer with small tires not equipped for off-roading on jagged lava rock. But the group remained hopeful.

A few days later, they report back. The machine removed 230lb of microplastics in just a few days.

It's only a start, and there's a long way to go. But the crew doesn't plan on giving up. "If we can clean up Kamilo," says Samuel Duval, a Hoola One engineer, "we can clean up anywhere in the world."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Welcome to Hawaii's 'plastic beach', one of the world's dirtiest places

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An array of plastic crunched underfoot as Mattie Mae Larson walked down Kamilo Beach. Toothbrushes, a plastic broom, a leaking bottle, the back of a TV. Larson used to come to this remote stretch of Hawaiian sand as a child to climb 10ft-high mountains of debris, searching for treasures.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Yellowstone National Park, United States

# data[].attributes.headline
Yellowstone National Park, United States

# data[].attributes.subject
Yellowstone National Park, United States

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.yellowstone.org/wolf-project/?gclid=CjwKCAjw_o-HBhAsEiwANqYhp9167rdTttmOd1h7ZtpiAn1ziY3JwCZ19Y4bcBZGcwx39PYII8DeGxoCersQAvD_BwE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Around the world, people are struggling for access to drinking water. All Things Considered is examining the forces at play in separating the haves from the have-nots - from natural disasters to crumbling infrastructure and corruption.

In Korangi, a slum neighborhood of Karachi, a sprawling port city of some 16 million people in Pakistan, there's no running water.

So how do people get the water they need to drink, to cook, to wash up and to clean their homes?

Residents have to call men like Mohammad Zubair, a driver who belongs to a group of water handlers known as the "water tanker mafia." For a price, drivers will deliver clean water, which is pricey, or polluted water, which is cheaper.

Zubair's tankers can't reach into the narrow alleyways deep in Karachi's slums. So residents order water by donkey cart or motorcycle, or they pay to fill up their plastic jerrycans at "water stations" - large drums of water set up alongside little grocery shops.

Fetching water at these stations is a duty that has to be done several times a day - so it's often left to children like Shabina.

She shrugs when asked about her age, but says she's in preschool. She fills her two jerrycans, about 10 gallons in all. They are placed in a wheelbarrow and her playmates help her push it home.

The situation wasn't always like this.

Residents like Raja Akhtar say that years ago, they used to have running water.

But about a decade ago, residents say the mafias began siphoning off water from government pipes running through private land - and their supply dried up.

The reason for water tapping is obvious. "It's a lucrative business," says Sanaa Baxamoosa, general manager at Hisaar Foundation, a Karachi-based nonprofit that works on water, food and job security.

The mafia sells it at different prices based on the water's quality. The government's water is considered the cleanest, so it fetches the highest price, about $150 for a month's supply.

Akhtar can't afford that - it's more than his monthly salary as a security guard. So he buys cheaper brackish water from a different supplier. Men like Zubair specialize in selling polluted water to Karachi's poorest residents. This water often comes from wells dug near a dam on the outskirts of Karachi. Residents say if they don't boil it immediately, it starts to stink. It also costs Akhtar about $20 a month.

The business largely exists because Karachi's water supply barely covers half of the city's needs. According to Ghulam Qadir, the chief engineer of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the city receives 450 million gallons a day from the Indus River and a nearby dam - but requires 1,200 million gallons. "We are suffering from water scarcity, and that's why the tanker mafia is active," says Qadir.

He estimates that about a third of the municipal water supply is lost or siphoned off.

The situation in Karachi reflects a broader water crisis across Pakistan. Inefficient agriculture, dwindling aquifers, an increasingly dry environment, rapid demographic growth and heavy pollution are diminishing both the quantity and quality of water for residents. And this means that Karachi's water problems, and its attendant crime of water theft, may become a problem in other parts of Pakistan.

In a grubby café in Karachi, Saghir Ahmed, a water tanker driver, explains how the mafias work. He says that he and other drivers routinely pay off officials from Karachi's water board, the police and the "landlords" - men who own the land where the government pipes are punctured, and who build valves to allow the drivers to pump the water. Those valves, used to steal government water, are called "illegal hydrants."

"The water board, police and landlord - these three - they benefit, they take the money," he says.

Karachi's water crisis got so bad that about a year ago a judicial commission was formed to investigate it.

Soon thereafter, the water board shut down many of the illegal hydrants. Qadir, the chief engineer at the Karachi water board, said they also lodged more than 300 complaints with the police against suspected water thieves. It's unclear, however, how many illegal hydrants remain.

And then, says Baxamoosa, the activist, the Karachi water board tried to entice the mafias to work legally.

"They've kind of partnered with them. They're using these tankers now as their distributors," she says.

Two water officials spoke to us on condition of anonymity - they were not allowed to speak to media - and confirmed this. They said tanker mafia drivers could fill up from legitimate government water sources, but on one condition: They would have to distribute about half the water at cheaper, government rates to residents in designated areas where there are no pipes, or where the water infrastructure has collapsed. They are free to sell the rest at commercial rates to whomever they wanted.

Basically, the tanker drivers now sell nearly half of the city's supply of water.

Despite those reforms, Karachi's water problem isn't solved.

Because the water tanker drivers can sell about half of the government water at commercial rates, it's still unaffordable for many of Karachi's residents. And the taps that run into the slums? They are still dry, likely as a result of ongoing drought and infrastructure damage, says Qadir.

So residents like the Akhtars must buy water from the local water stations that dot the slum.

At the Akhtar household, Raja's wife, Imtiyaz, showed us where she boiled their water, hoping that would kill whatever made the water so smelly. Then she made everybody tea.

She gestures to her neighbor, Shabana Khalid, 28, who dropped in for a visit. Her son constantly has diarrhea, one of the leading causes of child mortality in Pakistan, according to UNICEF. The cause of much of Pakistan's diarrhea: bacteria in the polluted water that residents drink.

Akhtar says she has terrible stomach pain. She and her husband aren't sure if it's the dirty water they buy because they can't afford so-called "clean" water.

Whatever the cause, she can't afford decent medical care because their spare money is spent on water. Her husband says it's a vicious cycle that will only be broken once they have piped water.

"Our lives would be much easier," he says. "We would no longer face this problem."
Junaid Ahmed, freelance reporter in Karachi, contributed to this story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
For Karachi's Water Mafia, Stolen H2O Is A 'Lucrative Business'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Around the world, people are struggling for access to drinking water. All Things Considered is examining the forces at play in separating the haves from the have-nots - from natural disasters to crumbling infrastructure and corruption. In Korangi, a slum neighborhood of Karachi, a sprawling port city of some 16 million people in Pakistan, there's no running water.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
WHY DO YOU GIVE? | Picture This Festival 2018 | USA Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HUEVOS ECOLÓGICOS | Picture This Festival 2018 | Spain Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TUBELIGHT | Grand Prize Winner | Picture This Festival 2018 | India Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SAYANG KALIMANTAN | Picture This Festival 2018 | Singapore Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
MR. GARBAGE | Picture This Festival 2018 | Malaysia Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FLYING HOME | Picture This Festival 2018 | Mexico Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
THE CONDUCTOR | Picture This Festival 2018 | UK Finalist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ATLANTIS REAL ESTATE | Picture This Festival 2018 | Germany Finalist