Longtime environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday he will run for president as an independent and drop his Democratic primary bid, adding a wrinkle to a 2024 race heading toward a likely rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy, a member of one of the most famous Democratic families in politics, was running a long-shot primary bid and has better favorability ratings among Republicans than Democrats. It’s unclear whether GOP support would translate to a general election when Kennedy would also be running against Trump. Allies of both Biden and Trump have at times questioned whether Kennedy would be a spoiler against their candidate.

Biden’s allies so far have dismissed Kennedy’s primary campaign as unserious. Asked for comment on his potential independent run, a Democratic National Committee spokesman responded with an eye roll emoji.

Awaiting Kennedy’s remarks Monday, hundreds of supporters gathered at Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, an apt location for the launch. Campaign signs teased a potential new slogan: “Declare your independence.”

Among Kennedy’s fans in the crowd were several voters who said they don’t identify as Democratic or Republican and view Kennedy as a truth teller and a breath of fresh air.

“He tells it how it is,” said Julia Hill, a 23-year-old student from New Jersey. “He doesn’t sound like a politician.”

Other supporters, such as Brent Snyder, a disabled veteran from south Philadelphia, said they had voted for Trump in the past but were looking for a change.

“The last couple years I’ve been noticing the Republican Party’s been going a way I didn’t like,” Snyder said. “Not that I agree with everything that’s happening to Trump, but I think right now he has more baggage than his country needs. The division right now is just terrible. We need someone to bring both sides together to make us work.”

Monday’s announcement comes less than a week after the progressive activist Cornel West abandoned his Green Party bid in favor of an independent White House run. Meanwhile, the centrist group No Labels is actively securing ballot access for a yet-to-be-named candidate.

Kennedy has spent weeks accusing the DNC of “rigging” the party’s primary against him and threatening that he might need to consider alternatives.

In campaign emails and videos, he blasted the DNC’s decision not to host debates between Biden and other candidates and railed against the committee’s plan to give South Carolina rather than Iowa or New Hampshire the leadoff spot on the primary calendar this election cycle.

“If they jam me, I’m going to look at every option,” he said in September at a New Hampshire barbecue held by Republican former Sen. Scott Brown.

Far-right and anti-vaccine influencers close to Kennedy also have sent strong signals on social media suggesting he should or will leave the Democratic Party. Last month, Joseph Mercola, an influential anti-vaccine doctor who is allied with Kennedy, ran a poll on X, formerly known as Twitter, asking if Kennedy should quit the party.

While Kennedy has long identified as a Democrat and frequently invokes his late father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle President John F. Kennedy on the campaign trail, he has built close relationships with far-right figures in recent years. He appeared on a channel run by the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and headlined a stop on the ReAwaken America Tour, the Christian nationalist road show put together by Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Polls show far more Republicans than Democrats have a favorable opinion of Kennedy. He also has gained support from some far-right conservatives for his fringe views, including his vocal distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, which studies have shown are safe and effective against severe disease and death.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
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Monday in the United States is celebrated as both Columbus Day and as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

When the Spanish-financed Italian explorer Christopher Columbus made contact with native inhabitants of the Caribbean in 1492, there were more than 500 languages spoken across the Americas. In the land that became the United States, the remaining number of such languages has dwindled to about 100. Most now have only a handful of speakers. 

Alex Fire Thunder’s two young boys are a thriving exception as their ethnic Lakota language again has thousands of aspiring speakers. 

“I want them to have a strong sense of their Lakota identity. Language is everything. It’s something that nobody can take away from them,” says Fire Thunder, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and deputy director of the Lakȟól’iyapi kiŋ nawéčižiŋ (Lakota Language Consortium). 

Fire Thunder is optimistic his sons, Odowan, 3, and Iyoyanpa, 2, will have others besides themselves to converse in Lakota when they grow up. 

“There are immersion schools. There are other second-language learners learning the language and teaching their children,” Fire Thunder, who has been among those formally teaching Lakota in schools, tells VOA.  

That was not the case for decades.  

“My mom is a speaker, but she did not transmit the language to my siblings and I,” he says. 

For generations, Native American children in North America were sent to boarding schools where they were immersed in American culture and punished for speaking their own languages. 

Teaching and learning these Indigenous languages in the 21st century are a challenge because there are scant resources and opportunities remaining. 

“If you want to learn Spanish, there are a number of countries you can go to where all you’re going to hear is Spanish and you’re going to be expected to speak Spanish, as well,” Fire Thunder says. 

For Lakota learners there are limited options. Some elders converse in Lakota at the post office or senior centers. 

“The elders that do speak are, at this point and time, all bilingual so there is no situation where you absolutely have to use Lakota,” Fire Thunder explains. “That’s something you’re not going to find if you go to Spain or Mexico.”

Lakota is part of the Sioux language group and primarily heard in the Dakotas. A unique aspect of the language is the use of kinship terms, considered an essential to Lakota cultural expression, and many of the terms do not have precise English equivalents.

“There are only about 10 to 15 languages left in the U.S. that have any viable chances in terms of moving forward beyond the next 50 years,” according to Wilhelm Meya, chairman of The Language Conservancy. 

When languages lose their last fluent speakers, it can also mean the demise of their Indigenous songs and prayers.  

“The average speaker is about 75. Children for the most part are not learning the language,” Meya tells VOA. “So, there’s a lot to do in order to try to get these languages back on their feet.”

Meya’s organization is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, protecting and promoting endangered languages. It currently partners with 52 Indigenous communities. One successful project has been the creation of the New Lakota Dictionary, considered the most expansive Native American dictionary. 

Hundreds of Indigenous linguists, educators and scholars are to gather this week in Bloomington, Indiana, to share knowledge and inspire language revitalization efforts.

“For the elders and the speakers, they want to pass on the language, and they want to do so with hope they’re going to leave a legacy for generations going forward,” Meya says.
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Monday is Colombus Day in the United States.  It is also a day that many people now celebrate as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1937, in honor of Christopher Columbus’ so-called discovery of America.

Many people, especially Native Americans, have taken offense at the notion that Columbus discovered the Americas when there were already established and thriving peoples and civilizations on the North and South American continents.

“Columbus Day is not just a holiday,” says Leo Killsback a professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University, “it represents the violent history of colonization in the Western Hemisphere” which includes slavery and the forced Christianity conversions of native peoples.

Indigenous Peoples Day is not yet a federal holiday, but President Joe Biden’s administration has officially recognized the day since 2021.  Some U.S. states already recognize Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day, while others continue to celebrate Columbus.

There is a push to have the federal holiday on the second Monday in October renamed as Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day, and an act was reintroduced into Congress last week.

Some scholars believe that an Indigenous Peoples Day provides for a more realistic view of Native Americans and white settlers’ treatment of them.

 
…

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday he has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel after the attack by Hamas that has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides. Americans were reported to be among those killed and missing.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, and its approximately 5,000 sailors and deck of warplanes will be accompanied by cruisers and destroyers in a show of force that is meant to be ready to respond to anything, from possibly interdicting additional weapons from reaching Hamas and conducting surveillance.

The large deployment, which also includes a host of ships and warplanes, underscores the concern that the United States has in trying to deter the conflict from growing. But the Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and gave the green light for “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.

Preliminary reports indicate that at least four American citizens were killed in the attacks and an additional seven were missing and unaccounted for, according to a U.S. official. The numbers were in flux and could change as a fuller accounting is compiled, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss initial reports received by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Most, if not all, of those reported dead or missing are dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, the official said.

Along with the Ford the U.S. is sending the cruiser USS Normandy, destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt and the U.S. is augmenting Air Force F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region.

“The U.S. maintains ready forces globally to further reinforce this deterrence posture if required,” Austin said in a statement.

In addition, the Biden administration “will be rapidly providing the Israel Defense Forces with additional equipment and resources, including munitions. The first security assistance will begin moving today and arriving in the coming days,” Austin said.

The Norfolk, Virginia-based carrier strike group( was already in the Mediterranean. Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea. The carrier is in its first full deployment.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a telephone call Sunday, discussed “the taking of hostages by Hamas terrorists, including entire families, the elderly, and young children,” according to a White House statement describing their conversation. Biden stressed that all countries “must stand united in the face of such brutal atrocities.”

The president updated Netanyahu on U.S. diplomatic efforts and said additional assistance for Israeli forces was on the way, with more to come in the days ahead, the White House said.

They also discussed ways “to ensure that no enemies of Israel believe they can or should seek advantage from the current situation.”
…

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy “the beauty of the morning on the beach,” he recalled. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church.”

Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals, harming “innocent human beings,” in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

As Dulak rejects being part of a religious flock, he has plenty of company. He is a “none” — no, not that kind of nun. The kind that checks “none” when pollsters ask “What’s your religion?”

The decades-long rise of the nones — a diverse, hard-to-summarize group — is one of the most talked about phenomena in U.S. religion. The nones are reshaping America’s religious landscape as we know it.

In U.S. religion today, “the most important story without a shadow of a doubt is the unbelievable rise in the share of Americans who are nonreligious,” said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University and author of “The Nones,” a book on the phenomenon.

The nones account for a large portion of Americans, as shown by the 30% of U.S. adults who claim no religious affiliation in a survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Other major surveys say the nones have been steadily increasing for as long as three decades.

So who are they?

They’re the atheists, the agnostics, the “nothing in particular.” Many are “spiritual but not religious,” and some are neither or both. They span class, gender, age, race and ethnicity.

While the nones’ diversity splinters them into myriad subgroups, most of them have this in common:

They. Really. Don’t. Like. Organized. Religion.

Nor its leaders. Nor its politics and social stances. That’s according to a large majority of nones in the AP-NORC survey.

But they’re not just a statistic. They’re real people with unique relationships to belief and nonbelief, and the meaning of life.

They’re secular homeschoolers in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, Pittsburghers working to overcome addiction. They’re a mandolin maker in a small Missouri River town, a former evangelical disillusioned with that particular strain of American Christianity. They’re college students who found their childhood churches unpersuasive or unwelcoming.

Church “was not very good for me,” said Emma Komoroski, a University of Missouri freshman who left her childhood Catholic religion in her mid-teens. “I’m a lesbian. So that was kind of like, oh, I didn’t really fit, and people don’t like me.”

The nones also are people like Alric Jones, who cite bad experiences with organized religion that ranged from the intolerant churches of his hometown to the ministry that kept soliciting money from his devout late wife — even after Jones lost his job and income after an injury.

“If it was such a Christian organization, and she was unable to send money, they should have come to us and said, ‘Is there something we can do to help you?'” said Jones, 71, of central Michigan. “They kept sending us letters saying, ‘Why aren’t you sending us money?'”

Jones does believe in God and in treating others equally. “That’s my spirituality if you want to call it that.”

About 1 in 6 U.S. adults, including Jones and Dulak, is a “nothing in particular.” There are as many of them as atheists and agnostics combined (7% each).

Many embrace a range of spiritual beliefs — from God, prayer and heaven to karma, reincarnation, astrology or energy in crystals.

“They are definitely not as turned off to religion as atheists and agnostics are,” Burge said. “They practice their own type of spirituality, many of them.”

Dulak still draws inspiration from nature, and from making mandolins in the workshop next to his home.

“It feels spiritually good,” Dulak said. “It’s not a religion.”

Burge said the nones are rising as the Christian population declines, particularly the “mainline” or moderate to liberal Protestants.

The statistics show the nones are well-represented in every age group, but especially among young adults. About four in 10 of those under 30 are nones — nearly as many as say they’re Christians.

The trend was evident in interviews on the University of Missouri campus. Several students said they didn’t identify with a religion.

Mia Vogel said she likes “the foundations of a lot of religions — just love everybody, accept everybody.” But she considers herself more spiritual.

“I’m pretty into astrology. I’ve got my crystals charging up in my window right now,” she said. “Honestly, I’ll bet half of it is a total placebo. But I just like the idea that things in life can be explained by greater forces.”

One movement that exemplifies the “spiritual but not religious” ethos is the Twelve Step sobriety program, pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and adopted by other recovery groups. Participants turn to a “power greater than ourselves” — the God of each person’s own understanding — but they don’t share any creed.

“If you look at the religions, they have been wracked by scandals, it doesn’t matter the denomination,” said the Rev. Jay Geisler, an Episcopal priest who is spiritual adviser at the Pittsburgh Recovery Center, an addiction treatment site.

In contrast, “there’s actually a spiritual revival in the basement of many of the churches,” where recovery groups often meet, he said.

“Nobody’s fighting in those rooms, they’re not saying, ‘You’re wrong about God,'” Geisler said. The focus is on “how your life is changed.”

Scholars worry that, as people pull away from congregations and other social groups, they are losing sources of communal support.

But nones said in interviews they were happy to leave religion behind, particularly in toxic situations, and find community elsewhere.

Marjorie Logman, 75, of Aurora, Illinois, now finds community among other residents in her multigenerational apartment complex, and in her advocacy for nursing home residents. She doesn’t miss the evangelical circles she was long active in.

“The farther away I get, the freer I feel,” she said.
…

A dose of patience may come in handy at the pharmacy counter this fall.

Drug and staffing shortages haven’t gone away. Stores are starting their busiest time of year as customers look for help with colds and the flu. And this fall, pharmacists are dealing with a new vaccine and the start of insurance coverage for COVID-19 shots.

Some drugstores have addressed their challenges by adding employees at busy hours. But experts say many pharmacies, particularly the big chains, still don’t have enough workers behind the counter.

Chris Adkins said he left his job as a pharmacist with a major drugstore chain a couple years ago because of the stress. Aside from filling and checking prescriptions, Adkins routinely answered the phone, ran the register and stocked pharmacy shelves.

“I just didn’t have time for the patients,” he said. “I am OK working hard and working long hours, but I just felt like I was not doing a good job as a pharmacist.”

In recent years, drugstores have struggled to fill open pharmacist and pharmacy technician positions, even as many have raised pay and dangled signing bonuses.

Larger drugstore chains often operate stores with only one pharmacist on duty per shift, said Richard Dang, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California. That kind of thin staffing can make it hard to recruit employees.

“I think that many pharmacists in the profession are hesitant to work for a company where they don’t feel supported,” said Dang, a former president of the California Pharmacists Association.

Customers have noticed.

John Staed, of Pelham, Alabama, said a CVS pharmacist gave him the wrong prescription about a decade ago: the pills were a different color than usual. He worries the chances for another mistake could increase as pharmacists take on more work.

“These pharmacists always look stressed,” he said.

A CVS spokeswoman said the company is focused on addressing concerns raised by its pharmacists and has taken several actions, including “providing additional pharmacy resources” in markets that need support. She declined to say how many pharmacists or technicians the company has hired.

Former Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer said in late June that the company had added more than 1,000 pharmacists in the second quarter, but was running into a shortage of job candidates. Walgreens is adding processing centers around the country to ease some of the prescription workload for its stores.

Brewer, who left in late August, also said the company was limiting hours at 1,100 pharmacies, or about 12% of its U.S. locations. That was down from 1,600 earlier this year, but a company executive has said it doesn’t expect to return all pharmacies to normal operating hours by year’s end.

Labor strife and staffing shortages in health care are not isolated to drugstores, as the recent Kaiser Permanente strike shows.

But drugstores have some additional challenges in the fall. Many customers come to them for vaccines for COVID-19, flu and pneumonia. Plus, federal officials have approved a new shot for people ages 60 and older for a virus called RSV.

All told, CVS touts in a pharmacy counter brochure that the company can offer more than 15 vaccines to customers.

Ongoing drug shortages also have kept pharmacy workers on the phone more.

Jonathan Marquess said one of his drugstores fielded 100 questions one day last fall about the antibiotic amoxicillin and the attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder treatment Adderall, two drugs in short supply.

Marquess runs several independent pharmacies in Georgia and serves on the National Community Pharmacists Association board. He has done a few things to help his stores adapt to the extra workload, he said, including training all employees to answer basic questions about vaccines.

Marquess also adds extra staff when he knows they will have an influx of customers, like when a nearby company sends its employees over for vaccines.

“We learned from our experiences,” he said. “Training your entire staff is very, very important.”

Pharmacists say customers aren’t powerless and can help things run smoothly.

People should bring all their insurance cards to vaccine appointments, especially since insurance coverage is new for the COVID-19 shots, Marquess said.

Dang said customers should avoid showing up right after pharmacies reopen from a lunch break or just before they close, times when pharmacists and technicians are especially busy.

Making appointments for vaccines gives pharmacy workers a better sense for their workload. Calling several days in advance for a prescription refill also helps, said Jen Cocohoba, a pharmacy professor at University of California San Francisco.

“That tiny piece of control can help, because there’s so many things you cannot predict when you’re inside the community pharmacy,” Cocohoba said.
…

The U.S. condemnation of the Hamas terror attack on Israel is being backed by pledges to make sure the Israeli military has what it needs to repel the assault and defend its people.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a phone call Saturday with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised “his ironclad support” for the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, according to a Pentagon readout.

“Our commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself remains unwavering,” Austin said in a separate statement. “Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces and relationships with U.S. allies across the Middle East, likewise said it was in contact with its Israeli counterpart and was “closely tracking the situation surrounding the appalling terrorist attack.”

What shape the U.S. support will take, though, is unclear.

The U.S. maintains a weapons and ammunition stockpile in Israel and has made its contents available to Israel on at least two occasions.

In 2006, the U.S. granted Israel access to precision guided munitions during its war with Hezbollah. And in 2014, the U.S. gave Israel access to tank rounds and other ammunition to support operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. officials have declined to say, however, whether using the stockpile will be an option this time around.

“We will continue close consultations with the IDF regarding any requests for support they may have,” according to a U.S. military official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the talks. “Our focus remains on consulting with Israel and ensuring they have the support they need as a result of this abhorrent terrorist attack by Hamas.”

There also are concerns about the stockpile itself. The U.S. pulled 300,000 artillery shells from the stockpile late last year and early this year to give to Ukraine.

And the types of armaments and equipment in the stockpile may not be of immediate use in pushing back Hamas fighters.

“My initial impression is that the things that Israel needs most right now are not in there,” said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“There have been concerns about what’s actually in that stockpile, whether it’s well maintained, whether it’s the right weapons and equipment, and how frequently we practice drying that equipment out,” he noted.

In addition, the U.S. maintains some military personnel in Israel, and U.S. forces periodically conduct exercises with Israeli troops — most recently this past July.

The U.S. military official said all U.S. personnel “are safe and accounted for,” without elaborating on how many are currently in the country.
…

A delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer arrived in China on Saturday in the first congressional visit to the country since 2019.

The trip comes amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries and as Chinese and U.S. officials try to lay the groundwork for a possible meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November.

The delegation of six senators — three Democrats and three Republicans — landed in Shanghai on a U.S. government jet on an overcast and windy afternoon. The Republicans were led by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, the senior member of his party on the Senate Finance Committee.

Asked about his expectations for the visit, Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said he hoped it would be productive.

A series of high-ranking Biden administration officials have met their Chinese counterparts in Beijing in recent months, but no other U.S lawmakers have made the trip since China lifted its COVID-19 restrictions in December 2022.

China, in a statement earlier this week, said it hoped the visit would “contribute to a more objective understanding of China in the U.S. Congress.”

In a reminder of the tensions between the two countries, China’s commerce ministry said Saturday that new U.S. restrictions placed on 42 Chinese companies were “a typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying.”

The U.S. Commerce Department added the Chinese companies and seven others to its entity list on Friday. It said the companies supplied “U.S.-origin” semiconductors that Russia uses for missile guidance systems and drones in the war against Ukraine. American companies cannot export to organizations on the entity list without obtaining a special license.

Schumer’s office said the visit would focus on the need for reciprocity from China for U.S. business in trade and on maintaining American leadership in advanced technologies for national security. He also hoped to discuss human rights, fentanyl production and China’s role in the international community, as well as areas for potential cooperation.

A smooth visit could help pave the way for a Biden-Xi summit during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting of leaders in San Francisco next month. The senators hope to meet Xi in Beijing during their visit.

A Chinese international relations expert said that Schumer’s visit is a sign of improvement in China-U.S. relations.

“If the talks proceed well, there is the possibility that President Xi will meet Schumer,” said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. “If their meeting is realized, the chances for a Xi-Biden meeting will become greater.”

The White House has been in touch with Schumer and supports the delegation’s visit to the region, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after the trip was announced. The senators will go to South Korea and Japan after their stop in China.
…

Whales, dolphins and seals living in U.S. waters face major threats from warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels and decreasing sea ice volumes associated with climate change, according to a first-of-its-kind assessment.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration examined more than 100 stocks of American marine mammal species and found more than 70% of those stocks are vulnerable to threats, such as loss of habitat and food, due to the consequences of warming waters. The impacts also include loss of dissolved oxygen and changes to ocean chemistry.

The scientists found large whales such as humpbacks and North Atlantic right whales were among the most vulnerable to climate change, and that other toothed whales and dolphins were also at high risk.

The study, published last month in the journal PLOS ONE, is evidence that the way the U.S. manages whales and dolphins needs to adapt in the era of climate change, advocates for marine mammals said.

The news is bleak, but the assessment also is the first to look solely at marine mammal stocks managed by the U.S. and the results can help inform federal ocean managers about how to safeguard the vulnerable animals, said Matthew Lettrich, a biologist and lead author of the study.

“As the climate’s changing, we’re seeing some of the effects already, and some of our marine mammal populations are more vulnerable to those changes than others,” Lettrich said. “Based on this study, we see a good proportion are highly and very highly vulnerable.”

The researchers studied marine mammals living in the western North Atlantic ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The animals are managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the arm of the federal government responsible for stewardship and protection of marine resources.

The scientists looked at the animals’ degree of exposure to climate change and sensitivity and capacity to adapt to it. They found 72% of the stocks were highly or very highly vulnerable to climate change, with a little less than half falling in the “very high” category.

The warming ocean primarily harms marine mammals by altering their ability to find food and reduces their amount of suitable habitat, the study said.

However, the scientists said changes to ocean temperature and chemistry also can change sound transmission. That can affect the sonar-like echolocation marine mammals such as dolphins use to communicate and hunt. Climate change “must be considered to adequately manage species,” the study states.

The NOAA study is significant because it’s the first to look broadly at U.S. marine mammals and attempt to predict their resiliency to climate change, said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a biologist with Massachusetts-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation who was not involved in the study.

The whales will benefit from the study if the information is used to implement laws protecting them, Asmutis-Silvia said.

“The U.S. is one of the most data-rich countries when it comes to marine mammals, and those data should be driving what are arguably some of the world’s strongest laws to protect marine mammals,” she said. “However, data are meaningless without the political will to implement management measures.”

The impact of climate change on whales around the world has grown as a subject of scientific inquiry in recent years. Many studies about whales and climate change look only at a single species or a narrower geographic area, said Laura Ganley, a research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

But the way climate change affects the giant animals is global in nature, so the broader approach is helpful, she said.

Many scientists have said the vanishing right whale that lives off New England in the summer is made more vulnerable by changes to its food availability caused by warming waters. But climate change also clearly affects less-studied species, Ganley said.

“This isn’t just impacting North Atlantic right whales or bottlenose dolphins. This is impacting most stocks in the United States, and not just the ones in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Maine,” said Ganley, who was not involved in the study.

Climate change also could affect the distribution and behavior of marine mammals, the study states.

Whales such as the right whale, which travels north every year from the waters off Georgia and Florida, migrate hundreds of miles annually to breed and feed. Many also migrate across international boundaries, which could require new kinds of cooperation between countries. That is true of seals with large populations in the U.S. and Canada, such as the gray seal, the study says.

The federal government has tried numerous methods in recent years to try to protect declining whale species, including implementing new restrictions on commercial fishing and new vessel speed restrictions. Whales are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships, and scientists have said both threats are made more severe by warming waters because ocean changes cause whales to move outside of protected zones.

Safeguarding whales during the era of climate change will require ocean managers to plan for a future in which whale habitats are potentially less suitable due to the warming waters, said Gib Brogan, campaign manager with environmental group Oceana.

“This study provides guidance on how managers could prioritize species that are most vulnerable to climate effects and give these species the attention that they need,” Brogan said. “If we are going to preserve biodiversity, including marine mammals, ocean managers need to explicitly account for current and future changes in the ocean as they consider ways to conserve marine life.”
…

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday used September’s job figures — showing the economy added 336,000 new jobs and unemployment remained steady at 3.8% — to tout his “Bidenomics” plan and chastise congressional Republicans.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday also showed that wage growth remained steady, with average hourly earnings up 4.2% over the last 12 months.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Biden said that job growth was “from the middle out, and the bottom up, not the top down,” and that the unemployment rate was below 4% for 20 consecutive months, the longest stretch in 50 years.

“And inflation is coming down at the same time,” he said. “It’s down 60 percent since last summer. Core inflation was just 2.2 percent over the past three months.  And now we have the lowest inflation of any major economy in the world.”  

Despite the improving economic numbers, recent opinion polls show that a majority of Americans do not believe that Biden is doing a good job at steering the U.S. economy.

Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of the president’s handling of the economy, according to an August poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Progress seen jeopardized

The Democratic president said the country’s economic progress was put in jeopardy last week when demands for drastic spending cuts by House Republicans almost shut down the federal government.

He said the cuts Republicans were seeking would have reduced funding for small business and manufacturers.

Biden said, “I am sick and tired of Republicans saying they want to cut the deficit when all they want to do is cut taxes for the very wealthy and for big corporations.” He said that is not what the economy needs right now.

Republicans say that large government spending cuts are needed to shrink the federal deficit, which was more than $1.5 trillion in fiscal year 2023.

The president called on House Republicans not to put the country back in crisis mode. He said members of Congress have less than 40 days to fund the government and avoid a shutdown to protect the economic gains the nation has made. He added, “It’s time to stop fooling around. House Republicans, it’s time to do your job.”

The Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution on September 30 to fund the government for another 45 days, giving lawmakers more time to agree on funding legislation for the next fiscal year.

However, following that agreement, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who worked with Democrats to pass the continuing resolution, was voted out of his job as House speaker, opposed by a contingent of hard-right conservatives as well as Democrats.

Biden was asked if he could work with outspoken conservative Representative Jim Jordan if he were elected speaker. Jordan has been endorsed for the job by former President Donald Trump.

Biden said he would try to work with whoever is chosen as speaker. “Some people, I imagine, would be easier to work with than others, but I’ll try to work with them.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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The United Auto Workers union said Friday it will not expand its strikes against Detroit’s three automakers after General Motors made a breakthrough concession on unionizing electric vehicle battery plants. 

Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a video appearance that additional plants could be added to the strikes later. 

The announcement of the pause in expanding the strikes came shortly after GM agreed to bring electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW’s national contract, essentially assuring that they will be unionized. 

Fain, wearing a T-shirt that said “Eat the Rich” in bold letters, said GM’s move will change the future of the union and the auto industry. He said GM made the change after the union threatened to strike at a plant in Arlington, Texas, that makes highly profitable large SUVs. 

“Today, under the threat of a major financial hit, they leapfrogged the pack in terms of a just transition” from combustion engines to electric vehicles, he said. “Our strike is working, but we’re not there yet.” 

In addition to large general pay raises, cost of living pay, restoration of pensions for new hires and other items, the union wanted to represent 10 battery factories proposed by the companies. 

The companies have said the plants, mostly joint ventures with South Korean battery makers, had to be bargained separately. 

Friday’s change means the four U.S. GM battery plants would now be covered under the union’s master agreement and GM would bargain with the union “which I think is a monumental development,” said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.  He said the details of GM’s offer, made in writing, will have to be scrutinized. 

“GM went far beyond and gave them this,” Masters said. “And I think GM is thinking they may get something in return for this on the economic items.” 

GM, Ford and Stellantis declined immediate comment on Fain’s announcement. 

Shares of all three automakers rose after Fain’s announcement in apparent anticipation that deals might be near. GM’s shares ended Friday up almost 2%, Stellantis added 3% and Ford rose just under 1%. 

The automakers have resisted bringing battery plants into the national UAW contracts, contending the union can’t represent workers who haven’t been hired yet. They also say joint venture partners must be involved in the talks. 

They also fear that big union contracts could drive up the prices of their electric vehicles, making them more expensive than Tesla and other nonunion competitors. 

For the past two weeks the union has expanded strikes that began on September 15 when the UAW targeted one assembly plant from each of the three automakers. That spread to 38 parts-distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis, maker of Jeeps and Ram pickups. Ford was spared from that expansion because talks with the union were progressing then. 

Last week the union added a GM crossover SUV plant in Lansing, Michigan, and a Ford SUV factory in Chicago but spared Stellantis from additional strikes due to progress in talks. 

Automakers have long said they are willing to give raises, but they fear that a costly contract will make their vehicles more expensive than those built at nonunion U.S. plants run by foreign corporations. 

The union insists that labor expenses are only 4% to 5% of the cost of a vehicle, and that the companies are making billions in profits and can afford big raises. 

The union had structured its walkouts so the companies can keep making big pickup trucks and SUVs, their top-selling and most profitable vehicles. Previously it shut down assembly plants in Missouri, Ohio and Michigan that make midsize pickups, commercial vans and midsize SUVs, which aren’t as profitable as larger vehicles. 

In the past, the union picked one company as a potential strike target and reached a contract agreement with that company to be the pattern for the others. 

But this year, Fain introduced a novel strategy of targeting a limited number of facilities at all three automakers. About 25,000, or about 17%, of the union’s 146,000 workers at the three automakers are now on strike. 
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It’s been more than 20 years since “Spy Kids” made its way to movie theaters around the world. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez has rebooted the franchise to attract a new generation. VOA’s Veronica Villafañe spoke with the director and has more in this report.
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